About

Trapsuki is a portmanteau of the word "trap" and the name Natsuki which refers to a fan theory that the Doki Doki Literature Club character Natsuki was born male, with some citing various androgynous characteristics as evidence.

This idea was later specifically addressed by DDLC team founder Dan Salvato saying "Canonically, all the characters except MC are biologically female.

Origin

The oldest known discussion is on the Steam Community forums on October 14th 2017,^[1] less than a month after the game's release on Steam. However, it is very likely that people elsewhere online had similar thoughts, do to such characters showing up occasionally in Japanese and Japanese inspired media. The Steam Community post links to an image of Natsuki [shown below] with her in game art labeled pointing out certain traits that some believe suggests that she was really male.

Spread

The idea of Natsuki being a trap is frequently brought up n the Doki Doki Literature Club Subreddit r/DDLC. The most highly voted images which bring up the subject, however, are generally posts making fun of the concept. On December 12th, 2017, Redditor Dawnsday posted a photoshop of Natsuki with an angry reaction face titled "tfw someone refers to Natsuki as 'Trapsuki'" to /r/DDLC^[6] (shown below, left). On January 2nd, 2018, Redditor Rocket-Bot submitted a Star Wars-themed image macro in which a Clone trooper replies "It's time for you to leave" after being told "Natsuki is a trap" to /r/DDLC^[5] (shown below, right).

Dan Salvato's Response

Dan Salvato, Doki Doki Literature Club team founder has stated that Natsuki, or any of the other cast members being traps was not his intention, and should not be considered canon.

On Twitter, when asked by Twitter user @hito_sugoi asked "can i just get a tweet of you saying "Natsuki is a trap" for waifu ruining purposes?" He responded with "No. The whole meme is just really disrespectful and I can't believe that it's gone on for this long. Please don't continue to be part of the problem." and said "I get tweets and emails almost daily from people asking me if Natsuki is male. Or a "trap.""^[3]

No. The whole meme is just really disrespectful and I can't believe that it's gone on for this long. Please don't continue to be part of the problem.

— Dan Salvato (@dansalvato) January 15, 2018

On Tuesday January 16th 2017, Dan Salvato commented on a screenshot of the above twitter engagement o the SubReddit r/DDLC. ^[4] In his comment he stated that while he did enjoy seeing different depictions of the characters, he did not like how there has been a "controversy is deliberately being stirred around one of the characters, and it's being constantly directed towards me. That means I'm personally involved – and from a personal standpoint, I don't agree with gender being used to deliberately stir controversy from nothing, and I think it would be nice if it stopped. That's pretty much the whole story."

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References