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poorlydrawndirk · 7 months

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We're on air.

More precisely, I was on air when I recorded this, but the details are largely irrelevant. Because I don't really feel like covering fuckin' introductory quantum mechanics and telling you exactly how the influence of the Skaian universe, when applied at the quark level and taken alongside the probabilistic effect of quantum behavior, superposes via particle states and results in the formation of what you might refer to as "overlapping timelines". And that's already getting real abecedarian about this shit.

Yeah, sue me. Try boning up on basic physics while you're at it.

So. I'm sure you'd love to hear about how I managed to rig this sick as hell channel-cum-blog up and get it to straddle the space-time continuum like an antediluvian Olympic gymnast doing mad splits over baby's first toy pony, but that ain't the point of this little exercise. Posting what's effectively a vlog is enough of an onanistic venture without adding Skaian Principles For Dummies: Electric Boogaloo to the schedule.

Where was I?

(Rhetorical question. Don't answer, if it needed to be said.)

The name's Dirk.

Strider. Yeah, that Strider.

I'd be more worried about internet safety, but seeing as there are only up to two people alive around here no matter how far you pull my timeline back, and I'm one of 'em, it doesn't exactly compute. Face it, brosephine: you aren't getting to year 24xx post-hilarocaust, and you sure aren't getting past that. Wasn't shat out of a lab yet when you were committing identity theft and scamming doddering old ladies out of their sadsack pensions.

(If you manage to get pizza delivered out here, I'll tip extra.)

Besides, you already knew my name, didn't you?

Maybe your next question's going to be:

"Why are you calling this a vlog when it's obviously just a blog?"

Or maybe,

"Why is your URL poorlydrawndirk when it's totally malapropos?"

Buckle in, kids. Strap yourself into that convertible toddler-safe harness and keep your ass glued tight to all the prime polyester-lined foam, because this ride's about to pull into the station and vehicular standards are some passé 21st century horseshit.

The first thing you have to understand is that even peering upon the brink of these echelons of irony is a skill that you'll never grasp in your life. But that's fine. I'm around. And if it puts your mind at ease,

I'll be the one pulling the strings here.

(There's the tired callback. It's not wrong, but it's tired. Worn out enough for it to be begging you to take it out back behind the shed and put it out of its misery.)

(I'll leave it at that for now, because self-referencing is one thing, but if I get any more meta, I'll have to start narrating in twelve-point Times New Roman.)

Anyway, I'll be breaking it down, just this once. Magnanimous as hell, I know. I could wax poetic and in doing so obfuscate the actual meaning once more from obtuse minds, thereby adding another strata to irony so layered that it's settled past sedimentary and is ready to unearth some fossil formations, but let's be real. That shit would fly over your head so far it'd be trying to dial ground control at Houston.

Here we go.

Vlogs aren't cool; making one ironically is.

Putting in this much effort into making a multiversal vlog makes it cooler, ironically.

Putting in this much effort to make a multiversal vlog when the doomed timelines are all inherently fuckin' doomed, as the name implies, and therefore functionally useless to communicate with, makes it more ironic.

I have Heart powers and am able to achieve my ultimate self through my alpha timeline. Therefore, not only is this pimped-out vlog functionally useless, but I actually don't need it at all.

Which means this wasn't too hard to set up to begin with. Ironic, considering the complex presupposed conditions necessary for bridging that 'verse gap.

And despite framing this as a vlog, this is obviously a blog.

Even though it's just a blog, all these drawings I've made had you convinced that I really thought I was posting a vlog.

And in a way, I'm still making one. It ain't the traditional format, but the almost videographic mannerisms I've been laying on you more than compensate for the fact that the video part of "vlog" doesn't exist.

Except it does, for me.

And because it does, none of these pictures are drawn to begin with. They're all film stills. Screenshots, if you prefer.

Which makes the qualifier of "poorly drawn" untrue.

But it's also almost true, because you can call them poorly drawn by virtue of them not even being drawn. Ride that definition of "poorly" down the one-way rail and you're here, selfie central, population two, me and you.

Of course, that means we have to cover the quandary of truth itself. What constitutes the truth? Titillate that thought for a second.

If I consider the attached files to be selfies, but you consider them to be illustrations, which is it actually?

An analysis of the "truth" means that we have to start delineating how much of this is subjective, tying us in bed with the concept of knowledge. The Socratic take calls for dialectical conversation and inquiry via questioning; therefore, if I just bequeath my knowledge to you on a pretty little metaphorical platter, it won't mean fuckall. So we have to keep digging. Get your pickaxe ready, 'cause we ain't hitting any diamonds of wisdom any time soon.

In fact, maybe that ain't the right direction. Flip it turnways. We gotta climb a li'l higher for what we need.

Maybe we gotta head to the roof.

now. brought cal.

where making this HAPEN.

Haha.

Just fuckin' with you.

Welcome to my blog, dude.

Want water? Imagine I got you a nice, chilled glass.

Let's get this parasocial relationship pumping.

Questions? Concerns? Misguided pseudo-parental queries about whether or not it's safe for your pipsqueak to be exposed to a full dose of radically Stridered bullshit?

Cool.

Make it all three and drop it in the asks, yeah?

#Dirk Strider #Homestuck #Homestuck Fanart #Bro Strider #Ask Blog #((#No set timeline! primarily dirk but occasionally other splinters. yeah that includes scratch because why not. it sounds funny.#not a kinnie not a fictive! just a guy with a little bit of time and some bad ideas.#please note that it took dirk approximately five hours in the video to get ready. thank you.#yes the intro is one very lengthy quasi-shitpost. I was going to cover sincerity and the socratic dialogues even more #except it was already really long. lol. anyway I don't have 3 hours to write a more detailed explanation of all the layers of irony but #'trust me bro'#this is a regular askblog despite being named like one of the 'badlydrawn' ones.#im not gonna write long ass monologues at everything i just thought it'd be funny here #i'll spice up the actual blog layout later. for now - hope you enjoyed!#Also - runs not daily prob closer to weekly))

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bringcal · 9 months

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Opinions on Brobot ?

i was going on a gay rant about how attractive i think he is because hes one of my fave dirk splinters but i think you meant like thoughts and hcs and stuff. I think the metal pants are funny but I just like the thought of him actually having genuine pants more.

I think brobot is like the complete worst idea dirk has ever had though. Giving a guy yet another thing in the wilderness to worry about when he already has 3238203 things hunting him was just a shitty idea all around and so unneeded, i mean even though brobot is not meant to kill jake, and he does actually protect him at one point from the beasts, I still think its a bad idea? Its still extra hypervigilence and massive inconvenience with the *slightest* bit more trust that you wont actually die to this thing. and I'm not sure the benefit of improving your fighting skills is worth the amount of extra stress worrying when you're going to get your ass beat. There are some good additions to brobot, he seems to understand when is is a Good time to fight and when it is way more dangerous if he started it at a specific moment, but on the other hand, being stalked that hard is a paranoid nightmare. sorry this was kinda just a rant on my thoughts on if brobot was a ok idea or not. but truely, flirting by making a boy more scared and annoyed in his daily routine is the dirk strider way

brobot is truely the worst idea but hottest man

#askies

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goeticgalaxy · 7 months

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(this was asked on @daily-joey-claire but i have too much to say about this to talk about it there)

i am so normal about this au btw so yeah

to your 1st question- since dæmons are like extensions of the soul, and byers/the lusii have like different places in the plot already, they’re pretty much the same. i think twins (like the soleils) would share a dæmon tho

ok! onto which dæmons everyone has!!!!!

BETA KIDS/TROLLS

since dæmons settling is used as analogous for growing up/sort of also puberty? june’s dæmon wouldn’t settle until dadbert dies. dave and jade’s both would already be settled when they start the game, and rose’s would settle once she started communing with the horrorterrors. also when it came to naming them, i wanted their dæmons to have like. normal names ig. since the beta kids are the normalist homestuck characters.

since there are fifty billion beta trolls ill speed through the thought processes i had. karkat’s dæmon settles last bc hes in a state of arrested development. like act 6 last. aradia doesn’t have a dæmon anymore bc she died before entering the game :( (ALSO IT IS NOT THANOS AS IN THE MARVEL CHARACTER) uhhh pretend kanaya’s dæmon says f, tavros is so newfoundland dæmon coded, gamzee is a badger bc they are really unassuming looking but are like a genuine threat, etc etc

oh also vriska is a hyena bc she is *so* hyena coded, id say more than she is spider coded. spiders are associated often with like. manipulation, and vriska just… isn’t that manipulative. she’s pretty straight-forward actually. it’s like that one post about orc stealth. she gets ppl to do what she wants bc she’s like genuinely physically stronger and also has mind control. mind control on its own doesn’t really count as manipulation. the only really spiderlike things about her are her thing with eights and her mom. sure she’s clever, but not in a manipulative way. really, she’s mostly an opportunist. hyenas often symbolize treachery, and in some arab folklore they can hypnotize humans. anyways hyena vriska truther.

ALPHA KIDS

jane has specifically an aesculapius snake, bc of their associations w/ healing. she hangs out on janes spoon/forkkind to mimic the rod of asclepius and also sort of the caduceus. she def settled last. idk what to say w/ jake, hes just very much a guy who’d have a spider monkey dæmon. dirk is a borzoi bc he is shaped like one (fig 1) and cain bc bro strider and also how he views his splinters and even the other alphas and auoohj yeah. anyways roxy is so lion. and his name is bc void is very much about creation and bc it’s parallel is light they both have such strong associations with knowledge!!!! they’re so!!!!

HIVESWAP

ok ok ok so ik in the post i said joey’s dæmon is nike but kore just fits her better i think esp bc of her mommy issues. uhh i think joey would be sort of upset that her dæmon is a brown bear and not like a swan or something, but she represents like joey’s defensive streak i think. also mommy issues. jude is an eagle bc of their associations with knowledge and also bc of the myth of prometheus (jude is sosososososososo prometheus coded btw) xefros is a sloth. i don’t need to say more. dammek is a tomcat, probably a tuxedo.

ANYWAYS I HOPE THIS ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION @opalescent-apples AND TY FOR ASKING IT!!!!!

bonus alphas and their dæmons:

#lumi's art #lumi answers #the remix #shelley coded #sketches #homestuck #hiveswap #his dark materials #dæmon au

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tomatograter · 3 years

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The Dirkjake Meta masterpost

Let’s clear the most frequently asked question right off the bat:

“Is Dirkjake abusive?” | “Is Dirkjake toxic?”

No. Dirk and Jake’s romantic relationship is based on mutual interest and a supportive friendship established years prior to the events of the main story. What a reader experiences over the course of Homestuck act 6 is how their insecurities boil to an all-time high once the Game is afoot, aggravating some of their worst habits - Like Dirk’s inability to communicate honestly without hiding behind one of his splinters (may they be metaphorical or literal), and Jake’s practiced avoidance in the face of confronting and potentially upsetting one of his friends about their shitty behavior - until it ultimately leads to a breakup. But an imperfect first date does not abuse make. They were both barely 16, under ridiculously stressful and hopeless circumstances (over 5 months trapped inside a dead session populated only by ruin and decay!), and Homestuck ends on a note of reconnection, both of them making the choice to remain close after the immediate danger has been dealt with. I mean, at the end of the credits sequence they’ve made up, are nonsensically playing ball together, and have elected to share a home in the consort kingdom, so I don’t think this is an exaggeration.

Does Rose’s alcoholism in the Game Over timeline mean that Rosekan is abusive/toxic because Rose was not sober enough to consent on a routinely basis and her frequent slurring and fraught grasp on reality canonically upset Kanaya to the point of pushing her to scream? No. They’re teens in an imperfect relationship that is new to both of them, and at the end of Homestuck, they’ve also gone through a more forceful do-over.

Does Jade, June & Dave(sprite)’s friendship turning sour during their 3 year space trip held in extreme isolation, coinciding with jade and davesprite’s breakup, which upsets their dynamic enough that june threatens to beat him with her golden hammer in the middle of a morbid tantrum about how everything sucks mean that they’re not friends anymore and their relationship is toxic now? No. For similar reasons as those cited above.

Hell, the possibility of ‘Davekat’ was deemed abusive when it was still a weird and janky rarepair competing with the other two big Dave and Karkat ships. At the time, both fandom favorites set them up with the series’ protagonist, and Davekat was the ugly duckling. There were arguments about how it was ‘inherently toxic’ because they traded barbs on a daily basis, went after the same troll girl, suplexed one another onto a hard table, and Karkat’s perpetual screaming was cited as an *undoubtedly* grave trigger for Dave’s PTSD, among other threaded squabbles marking them as ‘permanently incompatible’. Through the course of act 6, Dave and Karkat’s bond eventually deepens, and they also end up together. Sensing a pattern here.

Point being: Relationships in Homestuck are not an smooth-sailing affair, never have been, and through the many years of fandom many people have interpreted them in the worst possible ways, but that isn’t a guarantee of truth, just a matter of individual perception.

And now you may be thinking, okay, I’m willing to humor the thought DirkJake isn’t as bad as the 2013 discourse posts written by fellow teens with a limited POV on relationships vehemently claimed it was, but I still don’t see what’s the big deal. These characters don’t make a lot of sense in my brain, individually or together.

Well, what the hell! That’s a topic I’ve been trying to breach for nearly 2 years now. Babbling intro notwithstanding, what follows is a collected list of Dirkjake meta accumulated over the years.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. “Why does Dirk remain interested in Jake in Act 7 and even into the Epilogues?”

2. Dirkjake was never like Tavris (On Jake’s Pesterquest)

(If you’d like an in-depth look at Jake’s PQ route and its major inconsistencies, click here)

3. Dirkjake and Vrisrezi as Narrative Mirrors

4. What would you say is the core of Dirkjake?

5. The “S” in Spider-Girl is for Strider

6. Jake’s Narrative as a Gender-Non-Conforming Gay Man (I’m 100% serious and so is homestuck , actually)

(This also ties into how grandpa's & jake's marriages are flukes.)

7. Jake is a Gender Mimic

8. Did Dirk make up Jake’s romantic feelings?

9. On Jealousy: Jake Wants Dirk to Show His Feelings

10. Was it intentional for Homestuck to never show a Present Dirk/Present Jake log?

11. What’s your favorite bit of Dirkjake dialogue?

12. Okay, Dirkjake guy, What even makes you so interested in Dirkjake anyway? This doesn’t even sound like a real word anymore.

LOOSELY RELEVANT EXTRAS: Jane’s crush on Jake is nothing but comphet (or: Jane as a GNC lesbian), and Jake’s poor treatment as a sexual assault survivor in the homestuck universe. (CSA/SA Warning)

NEW: Dirkjake and the different versions of The Princess Bride (+ and some excerpts)

#meta #homestuck #dirkjake #dirk strider #jake english #long post #dirkjake analysis #dirkjake meta

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deer-hearted · 4 years

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does Jake miss Dirk much, as he is his ex AND his best friend, and apparently Jake now spends more time with Hal (and Dirk is with someone else... with a blue hoodie... heheh)?

the answer is - nah. they’re still friends and are still hanging around occasionally. Jake values Dirk’s advice a lot, he’ll always be there when Dirk needs him and, obviously, he’d give his life for him. but on a daily basis... he’s got enough splinters around to enjoy his time with them. (and, to be honest, it’s much more simple than try to people)

#homestuck #my art #jake english #lil hal #brain ghost dirk #dirkjake #jakehal #haljake #referenced dirkjohn #this was hard enough to do #it's my first time trying to draw three people together #i'm sure i messed up a bit somewhere #but this has so much domestic energy #they're rewatching old rumble in da pumpkin patch seasons

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jinruihokankeikaku · 4 years

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have you done an analysis on the Page of Hope? if not then can you, please? :3 also maybe in a small portion of it can you talk about how being a derse dreamer may affect them? thank you so very much if you're able to!!! 💙

Page of Hope!! Swweet!! Another canon classpect, and a preeeeeeeetty cool one, at that. (This is a full-length analysis of the Role, but there will 8e a section dedic8ed specifically to Derse Dreamers towwards the end.) Here’s Jake English’s canonical Mythological Role, the…

Title: Page of Hope

Title Breakdown: One who passively defends [invites to defend, equips others with, calls others to serve] Hope [raw positive energy, faith, belief/desire, positive emotion, delusion/illusion]

Role in the Session: The Page of Hope is the most powerful Role in the Game (barring the Lord or Muse of Hope, I guess, but by definition both of those classes can only appear in Void sessions, so…) (I guess that’s not entirely true, as you could have a session with a Lord or Muse of Space, and a Lord or Muse of Hope, that could win the Game but couldn’t scratch. I’m still putting the odds of success there at “Unlikely”, though.) (Anyways…)

No, really. This is all-but-canonical (if I weren’t in the middle of a reread right now I’d try to track down the exact page, but recall the conversation between Jake and Aranea prior to her “healing his mind”). My rationale behind this statement goes something like this “Hope is a font of raw metaphysical power bordering on the divine, with the potential to turn belief into reality, but it has a tendency to induce irrationality and uncritical belief in those bound to it. The Page is the Class with the most raw potential, but begins the Game almost completely incompetent, and takes a long while to grow into their Role, barring external intervention such as Aranea’s. Any Class-Aspect combination is greater than the sum of its parts, so it follows that the Page of Hope would have more raw potential than any other Mythological Role, and then some.”

How does this actually apply to the Game? Well…that’s where the issue becomes a bit more complicated. While the Page of Hope is technically more powerful than any other Role, they’re also more likely to be incompetent, confused, delusional, and otherwise unprepared to function effectively within their Role. Their Quest will involve the long, arduous process of concentrating their scattered, slim Hopes and dreams into a pattern of directed activity – the Page will have to confront unexpected circumstances and waves of self-doubt and skepticism without allowing their faith and their confidence to buckle under the pressure. The Page may well falter, or even fail outright, several times, but as long as their will to live remains intact, they should persevere through these challenges.

The Page’s relationship with their team will likely be complicated by the Page’s initial inadequacies, and (real or perceived) discouragement or disdain from their teammates could seriously hamper the Page’s development. It’s crucial that they have their team’s full support, especially early on, as without it they are far more likely to hesitate and lapse into a spiral of self-doubt, self-deprecation, and ultimately self-destruction. In the worst-case scenario, a team (or individual team member) that actively discourages or disparages the Page could cause the Page to fail their Quest outright and either die or stagnate and invert to a Thief of Rage – in either case, the team has then lost their most powerful asset and (in the case of inversion) gained a very powerful enemy indeed. A Page of Hope would be greatly aided by a Sylph of Time – the Sylph’s intervention, which might be seen as fatalistic or unnecessarily meddling by their other teammates, would probably be embraced wholeheartedly by the Page, who will need all the help they can get, especially when it comes to the notion of fate and “good” vs. “bad” endings, early on. A Page of Hope is powerful in their own right, but is especially strong as a support player to a combat-oriented Hero such as a Knight or a Prince, either of their own Aspect or of the similarly resilient and fatalistic Aspect of Doom.

Opposite Role: The Thief of Rage, as mentioned above, is a powerful Role with a lot of potential to do harm, and could be particularly dangerous to the easily-manipulated Page of Hope. Defined as “one who steals skepticism, negative emotion, wanton destruction, or metanarrative disbelief”, the Thief could potentially empower the Page, clearing away many of the obstacles (in-game and psychological) set before them. However, in doing so, they’d also be clearing away many of the Page’s opportunities for introspection, and running the risk of (or deliberately encouraging) the Page’s completely embracing the darker sides of their Aspect, such as misguided faith or delusional suspension of disbelief. If they were to manipulate the newly-empowered Page to serve their ends (a trivially easy task for someone with the power to steal and exploit negative emotions), the two of them would be a nigh-unstoppable force with motivations that would almost certainly be less-than-pure.

God Tier Powers

Hope is the Culminative-Conclusive-Personal Aspect, and the Page is the Passive Defense/Service Class. This means that the powers an Ascended Page of Space might wield will concentrate the Page’s core beliefs into a unified and intensified force, in the way that a lens might concentrate a laser. These powers will largely be directed towards arming and/or armoring their allies with the results of their hope, turning beliefs that the Page once lacked confidence in into weapons capable of fortifying an army, concentrated in the hands of a very few players. Here are a few ideas as to how such forces could manifest…

Luminous Cavalcade: When the Page leads their allies in battle, those allies will be fortified on both a physical and metaphysical level – they’ll be exactly as effective as the Page believes them to be. Guided by and armed with the Page’s force of will, each member of the team will accomplish feats they’d previously have been incapable of, vastly increasing the strength with which they use their own Aspect. This would include things like Jake English’s “Hope Field”, which not only made a tiny splinter of Dirk’s consciousness fully real, but also allowed said splinter to wield powers Dirk Prime had not been previously seen to use.

Flower of the Dawn: The Page’s Hope blooms out around them, restoring Hope where it had once been lost, and calling on anyone and everyone near it to fulfill their Hope. Those touched by this field are, should the Page allow them to be, armed with Hope, wielding a portion of the Page’s own power as though it were their own to do any of the things a Hope-bound player might – conjure luminous destructive or creative energy, form constructs capable of effecting physical reality simply by imagining them, or even just finding the Hope within themselves to stay in the game and keep their head up.

Higher Calling: Those near the Page feel subtly, yet surely, called to serve the cause of Hope in much the way that the Page is. This isn’t exactly mind-control, and the calling doesn’t compel action from anyone, but simply awakens a seed of Hope within those who hear it, inviting them to believe whatever it is they believe with more surety and conviction than they otherwise might. It also doesn’t implant new beliefs where they otherwise wouldn’t be – it merely amplifies those beliefs, turning them into nigh-indestructible ideological shields and concrete courses of action as opposed to merely pleasant notions.

Personality: The Page of Hope is initially someone with many scattered Hopes and dreams, but little confidence or competence with which they might act on them. They’ll likely have a number of interests about which they’re passionate, and various firmly-held convictions, but they’ll find themselves stymied both in daily life and on the grander scale of the Game as their attempts to fulfill their Hopes and act upon their ideals fail one by one. The challenge set before them is for them to truly examine their beliefs, to hold each one up to the burning light of inquiry, to hold tight to those that emerge unscathed and to allow all others to fall away. Only once the Page has concentrated their Hopes into a unified, genuine, system of belief will they be able to unlock the vast potential within themselves.

DERSE DREAMERS: A Page of Hope who happens to be in Derse’s Lunar Sway will be more focused, but also more prone to spiraling into cynicism and despair. Their Quest, and their character arc in general, will lean towards pushing the limits of the Page’s belief – a relentless stress-test that will run the risk of shattering the Page, but from which they will emerge, should they emerge intact, tempered anew and with further magnified strength and conviction. In their personal relationships, the Derse-dreaming Page of Hope will be less naïve and a bit more focused on a few particularly strong beliefs.

Songs

The Only Hope for Me Is You by My Chemical Romance

Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional (havve I already used this one? Wwhatevvs im usin it again)

Lion’s Teeth by the Mountain Goats

Thanks for the ask, anon!! I hope you found my analysis entertainin and/or informativve!! I lovve Jake English as a character, so this one wwas a really fun analysis to wwrite (I may havve run just a 8it longer than I usually do.)

~ P L U R ~

#Hope #Page #Page of Hope #Homestuck #Jake English #Classpect #Classpect analysis #Class #Aspect #anon #ask

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ardenttheories · 4 years

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Dirk Route notes:

Very long, very rambly. I went on a fucking journey with this one. And... probably have to try and kick my ass back into gear about reading Homestuck^2.

- Why did the Reader have that flash of a failed end? That’s significantly more in depth than other death scenes have been, and in general this isn’t a power we’ve seen from the Reader beyond maybe the pie-scene and other scenes wherein someone else has influenced them. Have I missed something (as I’m still not caught up from Tavros onwards) or is this subtle Dirk influence at a time he’s not aware of his powers?

- Dirk potentially being excited at the first human touch he’s ever had hurts my heart, just a little

- Dirk disliking the sea because it’s a physical boundary to reflect the metaphysical boundary of his distance to human society is fucking SAD

- On that note, Dirk fucking loves theatrics and is almost too excited to have another friend, particularly one he can interact with. This poor by is so desperate for attention

- Again, Dirk can interpret when the dead end is coming up, and steers Reader away from it - which allows them to vividly imagine it. There has to be a union of powers occuring here, Dirk’s Heart with the Light bestowed upon the Reader?

- Reader can hold the Sord because of their disconnect from the narrative and their simplistic form and I think that’s beautiful. It also brings into question what will happen to reality if the Reader wields it for long enough.

- Update: What happens when Reader swings the Sord?

- DIRK LAUGHS, HAS DIMPLES AND FRECKLES. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. I REPEAT. THIS IS NOT A FUCKING DRILL!!

- Dirk thinks he needs to “earn” the right to see his friends. That’s... just about the saddest thing I’ve ever read. He’s so mean to himself. He doesn’t think he’s actually worthy of seeing them without proving his worth first.

- Dirk being unable to stop the thought that the game’s in motion simply because he can’t handle the idea that everything that was planned has been tipped right the fuck up by Reader, and believing that he can still put things back on course, partly being linked to a possible suicide if he’d literally been unable to continue with the game or to visit his friends/get the promise he’d always been promised signals that he’s always had a very strong connection to narrative relevance and his own sense of importance within it. Lacking that importance, or that strict narrative to follow, ruins Dirk

- Dirk finally giving the Reader his trust, just. He’s so eager for friendship, huh? Scared to trust but pleased by the results.

- OH GOD FUCK ULTIMATE DIRK. First of all, how’s he found Dirk and the Reader? Is it through their connection, as Splinters? He mentioned trying to ignore it - this must be a universal part of him being the Ultimate Self. He’s connected to Dirk, perhaps living it, and... not pleased with what he sees. Which leads onto a second thought; how much does he hate seeing himself happy? Both instances of his arrows pointed to his smile - and his scribbles crossed out his face, his head. He doesn’t like seeing himself vulnerable, trusting, and willing to make friends.

- Well, there’s some interesting rammifications in the fact that Dirk speaks through a Dirklog. His narrative control only lets him communicate through a Homestuck-recognisable style? Why the fuck is he so buff.

- What the fuck do you mean he’s making a species from scratch? What the fuck have I missed in Homestuck^2?

- Ultimate Dirk still seeing people only as what their arcs define them as, their narrative role, rather than as actual people who exist outside of that concept... And, interestingly, implying that he can fix the entire timeline. Would he intend to go back in time and fix it, or remodel it as it is? Curious how he hasn’t attempted to fix it before - which, yeah, he said he was waiting for Reader to die, but why not before this point?

- Reader finally remembers Homestuck, and Dirk considers the Reader as enough of a friend that he’s concerned for them. This is not how I wanted this to go down, but I wonder if this will increase the power the Reader has over the narrative?

- The Reader refusing to stoop to Dirk’s level and instead remaining firm that he won’t wrench Dirk’s choice away from him... please. Reader oh my god make things right. With that said, young-Dirk is still being so caring to Reader. It shows... a lot about my theory on Princes, honestly; that friendship tends to be what they have least of, and that it’s what they need to change their toxic course. That seems to be the biggest divider between Dirk and Ultimate Dirk - although I will note the irony that Ultimate Dirk, being the Prince of Heart, is destroying his Self by refusing to allow Dirk happiness.

- “Your alliegence is not to the story, but to the people within it” <- a primary example of what Ultimate Dirk’s doing. He’s not connected to the people within the story anymore, just the story itself. He’s forsaking those people for the narrative they live within. Nurturing the text rather than the people he used to love.

- “... wanted to align every part of yourself to know it all, feel it all”. Fuck. Is that what Dirk thinks this is? No wonder he’s gone off the deep end and assumes this is the Ultimate form of himself, the purest sense. He’s completely fucking insane. Not so much in the traditional sense as in the fact that he’s so overwhelmed with his Self that he thinks he has it all figured out. Reader’s right. He can’t imagine existing on a path that isn’t Ultimate Dirk any longer, and I think is so far up his own ass about it that he doesn’t even begin to assume that anything outside of Ultimate Dirk is worth it. He sees that as his perfect self.

- The point on Dirk not needing to create more pain to control how much punishment he gets and what he deserves brings me back to the Meat Epilogue - Dirk positioning himself as the villain because he believes that’s what he should be. Reader’s trying so hard to encourage Dirk not to be that, to tell him he can have better, but Dirk’s self loathing is so severe he believes he deserves punishment. I would assume just for existing.

- “And you know how he loves -- though it’s fierce (to a definite fault), he does not do it easily” Fucking owch. That’s the Dirk we see in canon. The Dirk that couldn’t bear the thought that he’d hurt Roxy because he didn’t love her, the Dirk that adored her and saw her as their perfect leader, the Dirk who had something good to say about all of his friends, the Dirk who held Dave and talked him through his abuse with Bro. He loves a fucking lot, even if he doesn’t love freely.

- Ultimate Dirk pointing out that Dirk won’t be able to live a happy life because he’ll always wonder if it was the right choice is fucking me up. That boy can just never be happy, huh?

- OH GOD I KNOW THAT’S EARTH C. THAT’S THE TOWER DIRK OFFED HIMSELF ON IN CANDY. OH GOD NO.

- Oh my god he got Candy Dave, a Dave who just lost his Dirk, to come talk to Dave. That’s so fucking sad, what the fuck. On top of that, “Does Dirk even believe that others can, of their own violition, love him?” Yeah, probably not. He thinks he has to manipulate people into loving him - we see that for sure with Jake in Homestuck, during their main intro section - and even now, seeing Dave, he’s not sure he can just... chill out with him. Why is this route so fucking sad.

- Dave looking heartbroken when he says “it’s okay to not have all the answers”. You know he wishes he could’ve said that to Candy Dirk. But it’s interesting, too, how Dirk fixates on canon and that being the answer, and anything that’s not canon meaning he has NO answers - is that what Ultimate Dirk is so afraid of? Not knowing? It seems very likely that this lack of control and uncertainty of what he’s doing is why Dirk becomes suicidal.

- Forgot to mention this early, but also “The ends justifies the means”; you mean, Ultimate Dirk, the same way Bro justified beating the shit out of Dave and forcing him through daily abuse with the fact that it “had to happen” for him to survive the game? They’re... a lot more similar than I realised.

- Something to note, interestingly:

Ultimate Dirk has the Heart symbol. Dirk has the hat symbol. Candy Dave has the scratched record symbol and the Time symbol at once. There’s an implication here that there’s more unity in Candy Dave than in Dirk as a whole - that Dave has accepted the things he’s experienced both as a kid and as a retired hero. Which would make sense, considering this is the non-canonical Candy timeline, prior to him becoming a robot; one where he’s still relatively unimplemented. Ultimate Dirk is still trying to identify himself with the game, with relevance, while Dirk is just a kid, on that precipice of choice.

- ... What shit did Dirk have to deal with on his end? I need to check Homestuck^2

- The importance of Dirk making his own choice is incredible. The allowance to NOT regret it, to make his own “right” choice, and not to be forced to question what things should have been... holy shit. And what a fucking switch. We’re playing AS Dirk. We’re not making this choice for him, it really is just HIM doing it. I fucking love this. Narratively speaking, this is cool as fuck, and it says something awesome - that Dirk’s right choice is the Reader and Dave, not Ultimate Dirk, which leads to a bad end.

- Dirk’s innate need to know is, ultimately, what ruins him in the end. I find it endlessly fucking interesting that he doesn’t seem wholly into it, though - that he’s trying to convince himself as much as the Reader that it’s right.

- “It’s not about this being the real timeline or the fake one, the hard one or the easy one. It’s about it being his. If he wants it.” I will never stop being sad and elated at the same time over this single paragraph. Dirk finally accepting that he doesn’t need answers, grandeur, or a narrative. He just needs to accept his timeline, let himself live within it.

- Oh. Well that WAS a happy ending, until Ultimate Dirk CHOPPED THE FUCKING THING IN HALF TO REVEAL THE CODE.

- Ultimate Dirk slamming Reader into the Afterw@rd? Okay. Sure. Lets roll with it. Hi Aysha.

- Well. I need to process everything with the Director. Ultimately, it’s... just a lot to pick apart, even if it’s very blunt. She used the Reader because, knowing what’d happen, the Reader would’ve been too eager to avoid some things and force others to happen too quickly, would’ve been too awkward or weird to truly make friends - hence, lost memory. But why? I’m not quite sure about that. Doc Scratch had a reason for Friendsim - to put everyone in place for Hiveswap - but why Pesterquest? The Director mentions about things being... better? That Reader’s taken these kids universally destined to end up without happy endings, and given them a chance at a happy ending, but I really don’t know why.

- What the fuck does “they’re an artifact of the medium” mean? Where the hell did Dirk steal those muscles from?

- Ultimate Dirk, still so fixated on character arcs that he sees Eridan’s gender exploration as a “gender arc”, and not personal development on a more human level. It’s... actually a little worrying how impersonal he’s gotten. He’s not even really seeing any of the characters as people anymore.

- “Happy people don’t get stories told about them” ... he’s. Technically not wrong. Without conflict, there’s no story; there NEEDS to be something to overcome, some arc to follow, for a good, compelling story. But I’m not sure Dirk realises that they don’t need that. They don’t need a story arc because they can just exist and be, outside of the spotlight. They don’t need OUR focus. Even if we don’t see it, they can still exist - which brings an interesting point to the Epilogues, honestly. They were a sort of punishment for our own curiosity to see how the story ended, to see more - and really, that’s what Dirk thrives on. He needs the “and more” after, not the happy ending. He needs a story, needs to be seen.

- Ah. Ultimate Dirk trying to take over the narrative has me slightly fucked up, not gonna lie.

- Ah. So my original theories were right, and why shit never made sense even all the way back in Jade’s route. This IS the Alpha timeline, and the Reader has been doing a retcon the whole time, turning the Alpha into an outright Doomed timeline. Nothing makes sense or works because it can’t. Paradoxically, the Reader isn’t creating a new timeline - they’re changing the only one that “matters”. They’re actually changing Homestuck.

- “You would create a paradox so catastrophic it would literally tear the multiverse apart”. Well. At least we know what happens when the foundation universe is fucked up by an outside influence.

- You get the option to not betray your friends... and the game just closes. The only way to get an ending where you don’t ruin everything you’ve worked towards is one where you never see what happens next, where you don’t have to make that choice, where you just let everything go black. Fuck.

- Sidenote: The Director wins out against Ultimate Dirk because it isn’t his arc. It’s not his story, not his role, and he doesn’t have the same power over it. And, of course, the Director is the one writing it. She has the ultimate power.

- The Green Sun being able to tear at the narrative within Reader is... interesting, to say the least. And just that description of Reader... “The impossibility that is you, protagonist, reader, carrier of the story”. They really are just this weird little metanarrative entity that doesn’t have any right to exist, and maybe only makes the barest amount of sense to actually exist. But the Green Sun being the sum of all the narratives - the narrative itself?

- IS THIS ULTIMATE READER. DID THEY JUST MAKE THEMSELF ULTIMATE. WHAT THE FUCK.

- They did not. They just became a First Guardian and created a fucking Locked Timeline. What the hell are the rammifications of this in regards to Homestuck? Reader’s removed this timeline from the narrative itself, while also remaining within it - so maybe this means that everything’s... both stable and unstable, somehow impossibly allowed to exist at once? Homestuck, Pesterquest, Homestuck^2? I assume Pesterquest is now disconnected from the rest of the canonical universe - in order to stop everything from ceasing to exist entirely - because how else could it work? A universe that only exists once.

- The Reader made the single best timeline. One where the kids can just exist happily. I’m unsure if this is a good or bad thing - that yeah, there should be no consequences, since Reader is looking over them, but on the other hand... is this really the good ending we’re allowed? Will more be added to this, the good ending abruptly continued and the story resumed? There’s a lot of things unanswered - such as what’s going to happen with HIC, since there’s no game influence left to provide her with LE power - but do we want them answered when we know the Epilogues were our punishment for wanting answers? Will they be answered?

So the question becomes: Sequel, or no sequel? And what does the True Ending mean in the grand scheme of things?

#ardenttheories #long post//#pesterquest spoilers

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janerschaeffer · 3 years

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Michael Borowski Debuts Solo Piano Record "Peace Valley" Helping Find Light, Hope, and Peace

An album that the performer and composer says is meant to help people find light, hope, and peace through listening has hit the music stores. Peace Valley is a Michael Borowski debut solo, piano record release. Michael Borowski, a renowned and highly sought pianist, dedicates the song from bottom of his heart to all his fans and beyond. With each of the compositions being very personal, Michael says that it provides peace and light during the darkest of times and wants to extend the same to others.

"The album is meant to help people find light, hope, and peace through listening," says Michael.

The album is produced by Will Ackerman, Grammy-winning artist and producer, and Windham Hill Records founder.

In his remarks, Will Ackerman described Michael Borowski as a musician and composer whose heart gives all a view into the human soul. "It's a blessing to find a path in life which offers one pride and pleasure. I'm fortunate beyond measure to be able to make a living as a guitarist and music producer. Producing musicians who are brilliant players and remarkable composers is the grail we seek," says Will Ackerman describing PEACE VALLEY as an album that is as brilliant as it is profound.

Michael says it is a dream come true for Michael to be working with Will. His work as an artist and producer has influenced Michael's music from a very early age. He has even selected him as a producer for his next record.

Aside from music, Michael is a lover of life, family, and nature. He is a proud father, amateur beekeeper, and a strong advocate for finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Michael's mom, Cindy, who gave him the gift of the piano, passed away from the disease in 2018, after a 12-year struggle.

For more info about the availability of the album, visit www.michaelborowskimusic.com

About Michael Borowski

Michael Borowski was born in Souderton, Pennsylvania, to a highly decorated and respected piano teacher, Cindy Borowski-Burns. His piano journey started at the early age of 4, where he showed great interest in classic compositions. He draws inspiration and influence from great classical composers such as Beethoven, Debussy, Copeland, and Barber.

At the age of 10 years, Michael started composing own music and improvising it daily at the piano. He learned the full George Winston album "December" and performed it alongside his composition whenever he got a chance. He studied Music composition at Temple University, where he was in the same class with the likes of pianist Charles Abramovic and composer Maurice Wright. While here, he started playing in bands and became a highly sought-after Keyboard player, particularly in the Jam Band scene. He has toured nationally with various acts such as Manic Mule, Dirk Quinn Band, MiZ, and Philadelphia based Grateful Dead tribute band, Splintered Sunlight.

CONTACT INFO

Michael Borowski

Pianist/Composer

610.308.1965

http://www.michaelborowskimusic.com/

[email protected]

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dirk-strider-and-splinters-daily · 5 months

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DAY 78

#homestuck #dirk strider #dirk splinters daily #they each get ONE #sorry for the way too many tags #jake english #dave strider #jade harley #rose lalonde #kanaya maryam #roxy lalonde #calliope #dirkjake #davejade #rosemary #calliroxy

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utopianparadoxist · 7 years

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Jake English is the most intelligent character in Homestuck. And he hides it deliberately.

For a given value of “intelligence”, anyway. I don’t hold that much truck with the concept in general--there are different kinds of intelligence that run the gamut of human skills, and reducing that to a single concept is reductive, to say the least.

However, it’s hard to deny that there are real cultural forces in our society that do treat intelligence as a monolithic descriptor of skill and worth, and it’s a cultural idea as pervasive in reality as it is in Jake’s character arc. For that reason alone, I’ll be using “intelligence” as a term referring to Jake’s awareness of and competence at identifying and solving problems throughout this sequence. The term as I am using it here is only relevant in the context of the themes and language Homestuck sets up.

Intelligence, competence, and awareness are key parts of Jake’s relationship with the people around him, and particularly with the way he is dehumanized, taken for granted, and abused.

In fact, almost every character Jake is close to in canon questions his intelligence at some point:

And this dynamic isn’t just present in the characters. It’s in the fandom as well. Fandom perception of Jake English often considers him comically unaware of his surroundings and reality, dense and slow or even straight up unable to pick up on ideas that come naturally to many of the other characters. This is true across the board of opinions of his character: Some consider Jake a self-absorbed, thoughtless asshole, others still consider him a helpless victim who isn’t quite quick enough on the uptake to keep up with how he’s manipulated by others. It’s hard for us--the fandom, I mean--to be sure of just how much Jake understood about how badly Lil Hal treated him (and by association, Dirk, in much of the fandom’s eyes). Or that Jane liked him. Among other things. It’s part of the general air of helplessness and incompetence that surrounds Pages, I guess, and air set up around Jake for quite a lot of his narrative:

(Note: This is Brain Ghost Dirk specifically questioning Jake’s intelligence. I hope you’ve got some good note taking pens, because this is going to be important later.) It’s pretty much accepted that the degree and reach of Jake’s intelligence is, at the very least, a matter of debate. I am here to say that it is not. At all. And I can prove it. By allowing ourselves to doubt Jake’s intelligence, we--the fandom-- have performed the equivalent of deciding Dave’s cool guy act is the real deal.

We have fallen for Jake’s bluff. I’ll explain.

Plenty of people are aware that Knights, as a class, tend to act out personas that reflect ideas about how they think they should act. For Dave, that’s the stoic Cool Guy archetype, which he eventually grows out of:

For Karkat, it’s his ideas of being a Ruthless Big Shot Leader, which he also outgrows by the end:

And Latula has the thing about being a R4D SK4T3R G4M3G1RL!!! I don’t really think we need a quote to establish that--Dave and Karkat prove my point well enough, and this is pretty much common fandom knowledge. What I don’t think is common fandom knowledge is that Pages do the same thing, but for a different purpose. Pages and Knights both set up Personas that they project into the outside world. And both of them do it to control how other people perceive them. But for different reasons. Knights do it because they want to be perceived as capable, in control, and unflappable, basically. Karkat wants everyone to rely on his executive ability as a Leader. Dave wants to be admired and validated by his friends, or. Well. Anyone. In essence, Knights want to be relied on by others. Pages, on the other hand, develop this fabricated identity for themselves. At this point, I should mention I’ve come to agree with Tex Talk’s view that Knights are a passive class and Pages are an active one. Knights use their aspect to benefit others. Pages use it to benefit themselves.

Horrus develops a strangely blank persona, so conspicuously fake it is hard to tell if he even reacts to input--so it’s easy for him to just pretend he didn’t hear it when Rufioh tells him he wants to break up--again, I don’t really feel like going through all of Openbound to get all the screencaps and I don’t think they warrant that much space on this post. Tavros does the same thing, enveloping himself in his games and fantasy so much that he veers away from almost any responsibility in the session, and does only what he wants to...unless Vriska is stealing that ability from him. However, even through her abuse, Tavros manages through sheer presentation of his person to encourage the other trolls to help take care of him.

Specifically, by giving him increased mobility--mobility and freedom of movement being concepts closely related to Breath. It’s worth mentioning Tavros is able to inspire this care not just in Kanaya, but in Equius, who looks down upon lowbloods and whose culture would have encouraged him to KILL Tavros for his weakness rather than help him. But because of Vriska’s exploitative and cruel influence on him, I’m not sure to what extent he really lives up to his full potential. That said, he DOES manage to completely live out his own personal fantasy, coming to embody both his childhood image of Peter Pan...

BUT ALSO being the only one of the Alternian trolls to accomplish his original childhood goal: Becoming a Cavalreaper.

Get it? He’s literally cavalry. Ha ha. Is this kind of a fucked up victory? Maybe, yeah. But it’s fitting that the character obsessed with the Peter Pan fantasy of leading a troupe of “Lost Boys” never really grows up with the goals he sets for himself. Maybe it says something about Tavros, or about the nature of Ghosts--either way, it definitely seems intentional. Anyway, the Ghosts are another essay for another time. Time to talk about the kid I actually want to talk about:

Jake English has a fabricated persona, too. For Horuss, it’s nothingness. For Tavros, it’s endless childhood and Peter Pan. But Jake’s persona is a contrast to Dirk’s (and Dave’s) Cool Guy persona. Personas that, for each of them, sit at the dead opposite end of the spectrum from who all three characters actually are.

And for Jake’s constructed persona is that of the Hot-Headed Hero.

And like Horrus and Tavros, Jake indulges this fantasy version of himself even when he actively knows it makes no sense to do so, simply because it’s the fantasy about his life he wants to live out.

But like Dave and Dirk’s presentation of themselves as cool guys unphased by anything, this persona is a complete lie. Jake is demonstrably extremely nerdy... He collects pointless minutiae about his favorite movies and comic books. He looks up to comic book heroines so much he wants to dress up like them. And also intelligent, curious, and good at evaluating the potential consequences of his actions--traits he literally willfuly holds himself back from.

His Modus is by far the most complex of all the kids. He uses a Puzzle Modus that allows him to fit any amount of items he wants in it’s storage space...so long as he can successfully spatially fit every single object within a finite space.

And Jake captchalogues a LOT of shit. Meaning he has to keep all of this inventory and know how to spatially navigate it to fit everything he wants at all times. And he does this casually, as a part of his daily interactions with the world around him. But perhaps more telling than that is how Brain Ghost Dirk describes his own creation:

Brain Ghost Dirk implies that he is a Dirk splinter, but specifically a Dirk splinter that exists entirely through the ideas Jake has about Dirk.

In other words, Jake knows and understands Dirk so well that he can pretty much perfectly remember his body, movements and mannerisms on command. Again, not even actively, it’s just kind of how Jake English rolls-thinking about Dirk all the time is the status quo.

And Brain Ghost Dirk claims to be Jake’s literal brain, talking back to him. Which means when Brain Ghost Dirk calls Jake out on something, he is forcibly communicating important information to Jake that Jake is actively choosing to ignore. It’s Jake talking to himself, not Dirk giving Jake information he doesn’t have by talking to him through Brain Ghost Dirk. We have reason to believe the Ghost about this, since Dirk never expresses having any awareness of Brain Ghost Dirk’s existence. So what important information does Jake willingly ignore? Well, earlier we saw him justify beating up a random alien girl even though a part of his brain knew she wasn’t actually Sea Hitler, and he kind of just wanted to play the part. But surely we can do better than that. How about everything about his friends’ feelings about him that makes him uncomfortable? Callmearcturus wrote this brilliant thesis outlining why she thinks Jake deliberately manipulated Jane into failing to confess to him, but I’m gonna run over it real quick to ground it in this context and sell you on the idea that this is, in fact, not a theory and explicit canon. Because we don’t need to guess at this by reverse-engineering Jake’s well-established feelings for Dirk. Roxy literally tells him Jane has these feelings before Jane herself does:

Jake recognizes what Roxy is saying, and guesses what she was alluding to on her own. Roxy doesn’t deny it by any measure, and when she asks Jake to drop the issue, Jake says he understands the dilemma this puts her in with Jane. To stress: He received this information in confidence and knows it for a fact. And he trusts the information he receives so much that he then ACTS on it. After talking to Roxy, Jake messages Jane himself, OPENING by mentioning Roxy told him Jane was going to be contacting him.

And then he himself broaches the subject of their romantic feelings for each other:

But when Jane outright asks him if he has something he wants to say to her, Jake expertly dodges the question, keeping his options open while putting the onus of taking the first step and revealing her feelings on Jane again.

And then, once he’s got her trying to answer...

He KEEPS asking her, interrupting her several times while she starts to try sorting out her thoughts. He puts Jane under a LOT of pressure here, which...considering Jake literally KNOWS the answer, is a pretty shitty thing to do! Even if Roxy hadn’t LITERALLY TOLD HIM mere minutes ago, Jane’s reactions here would have confirmed Jake’s suspicions beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt.

Unless, of course, one has a reputation for not thinking things through or being aware of their surroundings.

Once Jake has his answer, he doubles back, making sure to ask her AGAIN while she’s off balance....

And he then shuts her down when she tries to take the initiative on taking it back and being honest, quickly following up by IMMEDIATELY letting her know he’s relieved about this--signaling his disinterest BEFORE she has a chance to reveal she actually does have a stake in the matter.

He then uses his goofy, unaware, trusting persona to set up a status quo where Jane continually helps him by acting as a sounding board for all his thoughts about Dirk--essentially, putting Jane inside a gender-flipped version of the laughable stereotype of The Friend Zone.

But wait a minute. Jane is one thing. But if Jake is actually this smart, aware, and capable--then it kind of has ramifications across all of his character interactions. What else changes if we read Jake this way? I know I said my next post would be on Roxy, but, uh...yeah. This one kind of got away from me.

In our next entry, we’re going to talk about Why Jake does what he does, and Why he seems so genuinely confused about it later into his narrative. We’re also going to look at some of the other consequences his Jake’s approach to his friendships has for his friends.

We’ll also make a case for Why exactly Jake ultimately falls in love with Dirk Strider, how and when Jake demonstrates and acts on that love, and if I can manage to squeeze it in--maybe even uncover the way the Heart aspects’ two different themes of Souls and Romance/Shipping are conceptually connected.

And on that note, it’s worth pointing out that there’s one notable exception to the list of people fooled by Jake’s presented persona. One character who not only never talks Jake’s intelligence down...

But instead talks Jake’s intelligence UP when he talks badly about himself.

Dirk Strider.

See you again soon, everyone.

Until then, Keep Rising.

#Homestuck #Jake English #Dirk Strider #Pages #Knights #Dirkjake

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