day 60

shapes time

why vriska isn't bad

this is a late night discovery that I made while looking at the Hemospectrum wiki to see what blood color The Flash would be, when I saw something that opened my third eye. (this is long so I'm putting it under the cut, if you want to know why some people stan vriska, or if you stan vriska and want validation or a more in-depth explanation of why shes likable; read this)

okay so, I never understood why there were vriska stans, I always thought her excuses where stupid. bc it mostly was “I'm forced to do this because of the culture I was raised in”(my counterpoint was always, other trolls lived in the same society and they didn't go out of their way to kill anyone), and how she “regrets every harm she's done” (but in a way that pities herself rather than the victim), and I felt bad that she ended up being moirails with Terezi bc I thought Terezi deserves better. we all know that trolls have different physical characteristics depending on where there are on the blood spectrum: “Trolls lower on the hemospectrum are more likely to have psychic powers, but are more psychically susceptible as a result. On the other hand, trolls higher on the hemospectrum seem to be physically stronger. Some castes have further distinct physical differences.“ -from the wiki page about Hemospectrum. everything here is based of the wiki.

but reading more i found that the differences arent only physical: “Equius remarks that Gamzee has the highest blood possible for a landdweller and is as such more prone to violence and murder than the rest of them, and that he dreads to think what he would be without the pacifying influence of his moirail. This implies that trolls gradually become more violent the higher they are on the hemospectrum and is mostly in line with the twelve trolls followed in Hivebent. The only exception seems to be Feferi, who, despite being at the very top of the hemospectrum, displays no negative tendencies, although she might only be suppressing them by force of will, since she was screaming while attacking an imp here.”

the higher the trolls are the more violent they are, which everyone already kinda knew, but it's not because of the culture, its biological. “ On a possibly related note, Aradia starts displaying more violent behavior after entering her blue blood-fueled Soulbot. “ even Aradia started to be violent when she was powered by blue blood, which shows that the higher the blood color, the more aggressive the troll becomes, no matter what culture they were raised in. 

that leads me to my next point, “other trolls lived in the same society and they didn't go out of their way to kill anyone”. low bloods aren't aggressive in their nature, so they wouldnt want to go and kill random ppl unless its necessary. so we cant compare their actions to vriskas. but the trolls that are higher than her;  Equius, Gamzee, Eridan, and Feferi. still didn't do as much harm as her. which leads to the greatest point of all, explained by Equius: “ Equius remarks that Gamzee has the highest blood possible for a landdweller and is as such more prone to violence and murder than the rest of them, and that he dreads to think what he would be without the pacifying influence of his moirail.”

he implies that friendship holds high bloods back from harming others. Equius had Nepeta, who was a stronger moirail then any US marine, and Equius never harmed anyone. Gamzee had Karkat, and only killed when he was mind controlled by cal. Edrian and Feferi had each other, but Feferi also had other trolls in quadrants, such as Sollux, which was the only reason Edrian killed (bc he lost his moirail/crush).

Vriska didn't have moirail, she didn't have relationships that lasted or were healthy, and most were kissmesis or Auspisticism who were unbalanced or onesided. she didn't have anyone she cared for, anyone she was willing to change for. but we do see that she could have changed, could be more passive for her significant other (pale or red). where do we see that? 

that's right motherfuckers!!!!!!!! (this was pointed out to me by @minitayarts  @minitay666)

when vriska finally got someone who cares about her and she cares about them, she completely changed. this version of vriska is actually one of my favorite characters in the comic. she was finally happy, she learned peace ;-;.

the only thing a high blood needs, is a significent other, pale/red (don't know about kissmesis and the other one, haven't seen much evidence towards it helping). and virska got it in the end, when she forms scourge sisters with terezi.  she was toxic yea, but all highbloods are toxic, but they get help, they form healthy relationships. and so did she, terezi needed her as much as vriska needed her. without each other their life was hell. I thought vriska didn't deserve terezi, that terezi needed someone whos a good person to be friends with, that I forgot the raw power of friendship that this comic radiates. by becoming friends, vriska and terezi changed for the better, learning to love themselves and be happy.

vriska is a flawed person, who did a lot of bad things. she was born with natural aggression and temper, hating herself and acting like shes the best to hide it. she was angry that she was aggressive, blaming her biology. which a lot of people irl do or experience, being raised in a bad place/way and developing a temper, and not being able to control it later in life. or hating yourself and feeling you are a bad person, acting superior to hide it. and in general, being a flawed person in their youth. seeing vriska brings back that self-hatred, she reminds people of a worse version of themselves that everyone has. but she changed, she got help, she found friends and a place where she belongs. she proved she is more than her temper. she is a person. people who dislike vriska see her past acts as unforgivable. people who like her see hope in change.

this is a tribute to @starship-one , whos constant stanning of vriska made me look into why that would be.

this may not be accurate for every vriska stan, maybe u like her just bc shes a pirate. but if your a ‘vriska did nothing wrong’ stan then this is more for you. im not sure how accurate it is about why ppl like her, but it is quite accurate (if i do say so myself) about why vriska cant be blamed for her actions. its like comparing a feral cat to a house cat, saying that one is better then the other. even when the feral cat got adopted and became nicer, but still kept its feral tendencies. where was I going with this metaphor? anyways the post is already done, shoo, why are you still here.

do you have any fan trolls? trollsonas? do show

day 66

sssorta? i have a sburb au for my d&d characters, and i decided to make half of them trolls. i didnt bother changing their names to fit the typical homestuck naming conventions, but their backstories in this are necessarily pretty different than their og ones.

but that means yall dont need to have played d&d with me to understand what im talking about so! infodump under the cut

The main conceit of their adventure is that Victavyre and Davril (who originally were both played as eldritch knights for lost mines of phandilver/princes of the apocalypse at 2 separate tables) are the first two to enter the game, and their entries are Circumstantially Simultaneous. They both think they're playing a four-player session with their friends, but they end up on opposite sides of the same medium in the same way the hivebent trolls had a bifurcated session.

When Davril wakes up on Prospit, he encounters not only a sleeping Elis, but also Szelseis and Arastina. He thinks they are just weird reoccurring dream demons until he encounters Victavyre in the medium. They get their teams in touch with each other and gradually arrange to daisy-chain the two sessions together. Adventures ensue and all that.

Victavyre and Arastina (originally tieflings) are sisters in their og backstories, so in this au they are simply two grubs who were adopted by the same lusus (who i think is going to be some sort of two-headed creature, each head instinctively adopting a grub of its own).

Szelseis (originally a yuan-ti pureblood) has a giant snake lusus, and he HATES her. He keeps her around because he likes to start shit and it is useful to have a big snake around to eat your enemies when they come knocking. But he and his lusus have a very contentious and semi murderous relationship.

Hella (originally a water genasi) is a seadweller! no lusus shes just out in the ocean vibing and keeping it tight.

Davril (originally a halfling) is sort of bopped around various foster homes, and considers his most consistent family member to be his pet rat, Wink, who he eventually sprites and it is very cute but also Rat Enemies. Final boss is da giant rat who makes all OF da rules?? idk.

Esvele (originally a homebrew race similar to warforged, a human soul in a robot body) has kind of a combo of aradia and jades' robot situations? following the onset of a terminal illness, her mom (a talented scientist) built her a soulbot and she's been in there ever since. but robots don't die naturally so she ended up being passed down the line of guardianship from talented roboticist to talented roboticist throughout the 20th century, her chassis and power source being updated with whatever new technology as it came along. I like to think she eventually is able to do an aradia and come back god tiered somehow but idk, i sort of think its cool if she just stays a robot since thats how her og campaign went.

Asra (originally an aasimar) lives with her mom who is Very Important in her community (im thinking possibly the mayor of a small town) and asra has major gifted kid burnout about it.

Elis (ok hes not "originally" anything because i havent technically played him yet. hes a human wizard based on a random mini and set of dice i got in a blind bag last year and ive been trying to build him into something interesting ever since. im not even sure what kind of magic he DOES i just know hes some kind of wizard and im hoping developing his personality will inform what hes into. i mostly wanted an even number of humans and trolls for this and hes my most recent standby character ANYWAY) i dont have much for him hes just a lil guy. hes goth and eccentric and he likes wearing a lot of fucking layers.