>>58152560In the manga Ruby is in some ways RSE Brendan's complete opposite, where Ruby's openly obsessed with cute Pokedolls/Pokemon/things in general. His unhinged reactions to cute shit are heavily emphasized, both before and after character development so it's not something he outgrows, as if he sees cute things like dress up dolls or babies. Which initially seems expected. Sure Ruby's supposed to be the contest fag anyway and him acting like a freak is just comic relief, it's just another quirk.
But after it turns out Ruby's very straight, in hindsight the main twist wasn't even "lol boy likes girly shit". The twist was how there's a clear throughline between his cute thing obsession, to his past trauma's link to "tarnished innocence", to his reverence for purity as a virtue, to his deranged attraction to Sapphire (whose retardation and emotional vulnerability makes her cute/pure, or at least she's meant to come off that way by the end of RS/E once she calms down a bit).
The difference being Ruby felt safer openly gushing over inanimate objects/nonverbal Pokemon, but when it came to a real human being with the capacity to reject him, out of fear Ruby repressed his feelings for Sapphire instead. Until his feelings burst out anyway and accidentally doomed the timeline then killed a bunch of people. Because simping makes him stupid. Basically Ruby's behavior towards Sapphire is just an extra mentally ill evolution of his behavior around cute Pokemon. A mix of both fawning (feminine) but also being fiercely protective of them (masculine)
