Noelle Is Trans / Noelle's Antlers Debate (Deltarune)

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About

Noelle Is Trans Debate, also known as Noelle's Antlers Debate, refers to discourse and a viral debate about whether the character Noelle from the indie RPG game Deltarune is a trans woman. While disparate discussions about whether Noelle's antlers are indicative of her being canonically transgender have existed online, debates about the topic gained traction on Reddit in late November 2023.

Origin

The Deltarune character Noelle Holiday is a reindeer-like monster with long blonde hair and a pair of antlers on her head. She is a Lightner from Hometown and one of Kris's classmates (gameplay scenes shown below).

While discussions about whether Neoelle is trans were first ignited by people noting that female deer do not have antlers, her affection for Christmas makes many fans of the game presume that she was a reindeer and not a deer. Given that both male and female reindeer have horns, many fans continued to debate as to whether Noelle is trans by analyzing dialogue in Deltarune.

A November 3rd, 2021, post by X^[1] user @Hoofpeet discusses whether Noelle is lying about being a reindeer in order to deter suspicion about her horns. The post gathered over 500 likes in two years (seen below, left). A July 13th, 2023, post by X^[2] user @SPEAROFJUST1CE asserted that Noelle must be trans because female reindeer don't typically have antlers in the fall and because another character pointed out her antlers as being large (seen below, right).

Spread

Discussions and debates about Noelle being transgender continued onto Reddit in November 2023, notably kicked off by a November 21st fan art post by Redditor /u/contraband,^[3] which gathered over 2,000 likes in a week (seen below, left). The replies to the post noted the debate it had sparked with people defending the "Noelle is trans" theory as a valid "head-canon." On November 23rd, 2023, Redditor /u/HumanTheTree^[4] made a post joking about "Noelle is trans" debates, gathering over 2,000 likes in a week (seen below, right).

Redditor^[5] /u/tackyinbention then posted an infographic with the caption, "Can yall like, stop arguing now?" on November 24th, 2023, gathering over 2,000 upvotes in five days (seen below, left). On November 25th, Redditor^[6] /u/PJPants787 made a post joking about the Noelle debates, telling people that the character is a figment of their imagination and doesn't appear in the game. The post gathered over 2,000 likes in four days (seen below, right).