#there could be MORE VRISKAS. god knows with how much mindfang fucked around
Photo
troll breeding/the extended zodiac is so funny because it implies theres a Non-Zero chance that you could just randomly come across somebody with the exact same sign as you at some point with the same ancestor as the dominant dna. your identical genetic doppelganger from the grub slurry could be living on the planet at the same time as you.
anyway wouldnt it be fucked up if you went to the 7/11 and a stranger who looked exactly like you was there.
#homestuck#homestuck art#karkat homestuck#karkat vantas#imagine if theres just other true signs trolls just. hanging out having nothing to do with this plot.#there could be MORE VRISKAS. god knows with how much mindfang fucked around
921 notes
·
View notes
Text
I'm gonna start this off by being self aware. Vriscourse in 2024 is so funny and kind of silly in a way so take as little or as much of this as you want.
I think I should lead in with Vriska is divisive on purpose. Her entire story is rife with places where you can either hate her, love her, or find shades of grey. I love Vriska as a character, but I want to be perfectly clear. Vriska Serket is NOT a good person, but imo very few people are. Narratively speaking Vriska grows up on a hostile planet where she's forced to kill for her Lusus. She also has the influence of Mindfang's journal to contend with. Vriska never knows who she is, she's always living in someone else's shadow and constantly hating it. Yet at the same time she's trying to live her life by some grand formula. Let's take Tavros for example. By virtue of Karkat and the descriptions we get of Alternia we see the word pity used several times when describing Flushed feelings. Can we take it with a grain of salt and assume that Karkat a known romance over enjoyer is being an unreliable narrator? Sure, we can. That said I think that wording is relevant here. In Vriska's head she feels bad for this guy and thinks that she's the only one who can fix him. On top of that you add in that her hero was flush with a powerful bronzeblood and you've put massive blinders on yourself. She becomes so self absorbed with this idea that she ends up going way too far in her efforts to bring him around and pushes heavily past his consent and boundaries. (Looking at that kiss scene). Even after his death she says maybe 2-3 things about ahh man maybe I shouldn't say bad things about that guy anymore or am I bad for killing (another) friend. She's young but I think the lack of remorse is something that matters here when looking at her in adulthood which is what we're really trying to get to here. As for the previous murder it's barely even touched. There's an air of well Aradia killed me back so we're all good. Even though she ascended to God tier and initially Aradia was just a ghost who had to deal with it while Sollux had to cope with the fact that physically it was his body that killed his matesprit. General other beats are the arrogance, easy to anger, and lack of empathy. Which we actually get to see some development on those from pre retcon Vriska! More on that here in a second.
Holy shit Gil, you're rambling so God Damn much why do we care? I don't know, don't ask me, but here's why all that foundation matters. If we're thinking about the theoretical for any Homestuck character as a whole I feel like we have to consider who they are in adulthood. Tons of discussion and debate all circles around "well they were kids!" Okay, well lets talk about what they could be as adults. So with everything we've already brought up about Vriska, how does she act in her 20s? Personally I think she struggles post game. She has no mental purpose for a while and she's in a place where she doesn't have to fight just to live so that means tons of time to sit around and think. We've seen from pre retcon Vriska that when the stress is off she does actually consider what she's done to a degree. Do I think she thinks about Tavros or Alternian sins all that much? No. I think she doesn't like her younger self (like most people) and does what she can to avoid being like that anymore. That comes with painfully slow growth and still a lot of bridges in need of mending. Those same traits of being self centered and needing attention are there but they're a little more tempered. She can at least listen now and has the emotional intelligence to realize when she's hurt someone and actually care about that.
In summary: Vriska is a complicated and flawed character and saying that she did nothing wrong but also saying she did everything wrong are both incorrect. There is nothing defensible about her acts (She fucked up bad) but we can understand why she may have done them without condoning them. As an adult she is still kind of an asshole but she's not to that same level and she gets to grow into a somewhat reasonable adult that is still a dick at times. Also if you got this far then enjoy my shameless Vrisrose propaganda. They get in fights all the time and want to beat the shit out of each other nonstop. Both of them suck and it's so funny.
#homestuck#vriska serket#Text post#Terra rambles#Look I just rambled on because both sides of this suck and there's an easy enough middle ground#And one that feels way more plausible to me
7 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Seeing as I don’t have a job right now (one week furlough), I managed to get a lot of writing for Saffron and Sage done today. Now I feel good! Time to ruin that with a Homestuck 2 Liveblog! Last time: Jade kidnapped “Yiffy”, much to Jane’s distress! No time for that, though, as we’re back with the Candyland Kids.
HARRY: vrissy, i know this is a stressful predicament but i think that's going too far.
HARRY: my dad believes in us.
HARRY: and if he thinks there's something we can do, then there has to be a way!
Kind of interesting that Harry holds his dad’s opinion in such high esteem, considering that his dad has been AWOL pretty much his whole life.
TAVROS: Uncle john isn't to blame for this,,,
HARRY: yeah, no shit tav.
HARRY: this whole situation is because of YOUR insane hitlermom.
How the hell does Harry Anderson know who Hitler is? When did that conversation come up? This is a completely different universe!
TAVROS: Is less sincere,,, than it is,,, an attempt to weaponize something difficult for me,
TAVROS: In order that you can win an argument,,, with harry anderson,,,,,
VRISKA: GRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
VRISKA: WILL YOU ALL JUST
VRISKA: SHUT!!!!!!!!
VRISKA: UP!!!!!!!!
A good example of why characters like John, Jade, Vriska, and sometimes Karkat are important in Homestuck or in stories generally. They actually do shit.
VRISKA: Neither you nor your friends have anything really important going on.
VRISKA: Your lives and your planet are a total 8ore!
VRISKA: 8ut somehow John loves you anyway.
VRISKA: Try and be fucking gr8ful for that every once in a while.
VRISKA: Not everyone is so lucky.
Vriska please do not be pining for middle-aged John Egbert. You have literally half a dozen semi-official love interests (John, Terezi, Eridan, Tavros, Meenah and Kanaya), please don’t pick the one old enough to be your dad. It was already weird enough when Adult John got hot and bothered by teen Roxy in the epilogues, to say nothing of you fucking a middle-aged homeless clown in a bush.
thespiansGlamor [TG] began pestering adamantGriftress [AG]
Oh, fuck you, Homestuck. It’s bad enough that Harry and Dave are both going to be referred to as “TG” in chatlogs, but now Vrissy and Vriska are both AG and have the same font color!
TG: i've allocated the strife specibus with the scissorkind abstratus?
TG: hm.
TG: using this weird vocab and stuff feels... well, weird.
TG: i'm not sure why, but it seems as though everything that's about to happen is that much more important now.
TG: or maybe it already was, but i just didn't understand just how important until this moment.
One issue with wearing your metaphor on your sleeve as much as Homestuck 2 does is that thematically important lines become really obvious.
I like how the triangle-shaped panel around Vriska escaping the crowd by simply walking into it is reminiscent of a magic 8-ball. That’s clever!
VRISKA: Your society... no, your whole planet... it deserves to 8urn str8 to MEGAhell, and I'm gonna 8e the one to fly it there!
VRISKA: I'm gonna shatter your paradise into pieces with my 8are hands and SHIT IN ITS GRAVE!!!!!!!!
VRISKA: HOW'S THAT FOR A FUCKING ST8MENT!
VRISKA: YOU GOT ALL THAT, JANE CROCKER?
VRISKA: DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT'S COMING FOR YOU????????
VRISKA: YOU'VE MESSED WITH
VRISKA: ********VRISKA********
VRISKA: ****FUUUUUUUUCKING****
VRISKA: ********SERK8T********
There’s some extreme Dungeons and Dragons energy here, where Vriska’s plan to escape a mob of reporters working for a totalitarian dictatorship run by literal gods is to simply walk outside and publicly declare her intent to destroy the world as punishment for its sins.
And yeah, this is how that plan usually works in DnD, too.
Man, the next page is a wall of text, whereas in old Homestuck this’d be an animation. I get “fair wages” and “small budget”, but is still feels weird to see a big Strife scene merely get described with boring-ass words.
Fearing gunfire, the few paparazzi who aren't currently getting their asses handed to them by the world's angriest traffic cone start to trip over each other, diving for cover.
The world’s angriest traffic cone.
Far away, in her lair, Jane Crocker grabs the two sides of her computer monitor with enough strength to snap it in two. She can't believe what she's watching. Behind her, from a shadowy corner of the room, there is an agitated growling noise and the rattle of chains.
Is that Yiffy? Is Yiffy an animal? Please tell me Yiffy is not a person that Jade named Yiffy.
....Actually, please tell me that Yiffy isn’t an animal Jade named Yiffy that is Jade’s child via sex with another animal that might be my breaking point.
Vriska alights on the ground, rakes her throat, quietly spits out a little wad of blue, and wipes her mouth unceremoniously. Tavros pats Harry Anderson tentatively on the arm. Vrissy tries to be badass and cough up something too but she doesn't really make it work.
Vrissy::Vriska Vriska::Mindfang
It’s weird that John’s sprite is the same even though he’s middle aged now, but I like that his God Tier outfit doesn’t fit any more. Isn’t it magical? Ahh, who cares.
JOHN: this old thing is pretty uncomfortable in a lot of ways.
JOHN: hm...
JOHN: when we get a moment, maybe the two of us could brainstorm a redesign?
JOHN: no pressure though.
HARRY: !!!
Oh, that’s why! That’s cute.
JADE: theres something i need to tell you
don’thavefuckedadogdon’thavefuckedadogdon’thavefuckedadog
JADE: john... i have a daughter
JADE: shes almost harry andersons age
JOHN: ...
JOHN: ...
JOHN: you have a daughter.
Named Yiffy?
ROSE: It was at this point that Jade came to me.
ROSE: I could understand her pain quite acutely, and so...
ROSE: I agreed to carry a child on her behalf.
KANAYA: .
ROSE: ... Without telling Kanaya.
Without-
Kanaya is your WIFE. You LIVE WITH HER. Even ignoring the question of why you’d keep 9 months of pregnancy from your wife, how? Kanaya would have been living with humans for years at that point and she’s literally in charge of reproduction don’t tell me she thought Rose just got fat for a while and then lost the weight really fast.
ROSE: I'm... not sure why I made that decision.
ROSE: I regret not telling Kanaya, of course.
ROSE: But I can't say that I regret going through with it.
ROSE: At the time, it didn't feel as though the deception was even all that prolonged. The whole affair was... short.
ROSE: Purely physical, and nothing more.
ROSE: John, there isn't a father.
ROSE: Jade and I are the sole parents of this child.
JOHN: oh.
JOHN: ...
JOHN: OH.
JOHN: oh i'm so sorry, i didn't th-
ROSE: That's quite alright John, although you might like to direct that apology more towards your sister.
ROSE: All I will say is that if you would like to take up the particulars with us,
ROSE: Some *other* time,
Actually, if John doesn’t know that Jade has a male dog’s genitals due to a fusion accident, I’d love to know what that all-caps OH means. What does he think happened, that Jade and Rose managed to have a baby?
JOHN: so... how did you hide the pregnancy?
ROSE: Oh, that was simple.
ROSE: Jade's genes being, as they are, part canine, the gestation period was substantially reduced.
OH NO
Yiffy is literally a furry, isn’t she? Moreso that Jade, she’s a full-on “Can be naked onscreen and it’s okay because she’s covered in fur” dog girl.
JOHN: i think i understand everything so f
VRISSY: WAIT!!!!!!!!
VRISSY: YOU MEAN TO TELL ME
VRISSY: NOT ONLY DO I H8VE A SISTER
VRISSY: 8UT YOU NAMED
VRISSY: YOUR ****SECRET CHILD****
VRISSY: ********YIFFY********????????
Vrissy makes an excellent point.
ROSE: We didn't call her Yiffy.
ROSE: That would be a quite ridiculous thing with which to burden a child.
ROSE: Her full name is Yiffany Longstocking Lalonde Harley.
Vrissy looks as though she is about to shit the belltower they are standing in, brick by brick.
ROSE: It was, in hindsight, a monumentally terrible decision acting as the final chapter in a long series of novels, each one full of progressively more terrible decisions than the last.
ROSE: But that is the name that we decided upon.
Oh, wait a second. Vriska changed Vriska Maryam-Lalonde to Vrissy, and changed Harry Anderson to just Harry. So obviously she’s going to rename Yiffy to literally anything else, then rename Tavros, and then we’ve got a new set of four kids as Vriska leaves to do something else. That’s what going to happen, right? Right? Please?
ROSE: You have to understand... this whole situation ended up playing out a bit like an ironic game of chicken between the two of us.
ROSE: Something that far outstripped anything that the Strider fraternity could have produced in their wildest, most jpegged creative wet dreams.
ROSE: But in the end that triumph of irony came back to bite us in the fucking ass, as irony is wont to do.
ROSE: There was absolutely no possibility of us casually letting you all know that, by the way, we had had a secret daughter named Yiffany Longstocking.
ROSE: At least, not right away.
ROSE: But carapacian change-of-name paperwork is so complex and circuitous that, eventually, keeping quiet forever just seemed like the more reasonable option.
This is, even for Homestuck, monumentally stupid. You named your daughter Yiffany Longstocking as a joke and then kept the child secret because you were embarrassed. You two are awful fucking parents. You are the worst parents in the entire series, and that includes Bro Strider and the spider that made Vriska feed it children.
And we’re literally at the point where the writing is bad and the joke is how bad the writing is. This isn’t enjoyable to read; you can’t make a bad B-movie My Immortal fanfic on purpose.
Even now, Yiffy is likely being held at spoonpoint
I feel like “Jade and Rose have a secret daughter named Yiffany Longstocking” can be a joke or it can be drama but maybe not both at the same time.
304 notes
·
View notes
Text
Who’s Going To Die In The Homestuck Epilogue Tomorrow?
Homestuck is finally ending for real now so, obviously, somebody is staring down the barrel of Hussie’s final Chekhov’s gun, except also for real now. After 10 years, the shed wall has more bullet holes than wood knots and the proverbial horse stands dutifully awaiting the next shot in a series of hundreds, but it might actually get put out of its misery forever this time, with John and Vriska - in my mind - the most obvious candidates for permadeath. I’ll briefly discuss the (de)merits of both outcomes - and how both could (maybe, hopefully, please?) be averted - under the cut.
For context, I’m assuming that John will meet Terezi and Vriska at the Green Sun/Black Hole before he goes gallivanting with them through time and space.
We’ve known John Egbert for 10 years and for all the characters and perspective switching we’ve done since 4/13/2009, he is our protagonist. Homestuck is a story about breaking free from fated suffering - the will of Lord English - and becoming an independent agent, so it should only make sense that the main character is an embodiment of that freedom: the Heir of Breath.
It’s for this reason that John dying forever at the end of it all - having survived the death of his dad, an omnicidal dog god, the reset of reality, misadventure in the bubbles, a solo retcon journey through Paradox Space, a fight with Caliborn and another on the horizon, killing the Condesce, and making it to Earth C - would be really bad narratively and philosophically! There are no merits! Let’s go over why it Just Won’t Happen.
1. As the quintessential bildungsroman character (a story requiring the survival of its protagonist to gain experience of the world, find their place in it, and mature with hope for the future) and audience surrogate, killing him in the final act would just be bad writing. It goes against the story’s holistic narrative and philosophical arc and totally undermines Act 7 thematically.
2. In a story about overcoming fated suffering, the depressed character with the most repressed trauma - who represents freedom and is working to help everyone escape that suffering - dying without coming to terms with sadness and reconciling with his friends and purpose to find happniness? It’s even worse writing. The only possible merit to his death is having to directly confront that trauma in a super sadstuck way; what stakes will it take for him to overcome his disaffected ennui, right? But killing him is a real shitty way of dealing with those problems. Dying with regret is just... super lame. It could be said many characters die with possible regret in HS but if a character doesn’t at some point get revived in one way or another and their death served a purpose, then, on word of God, they just weren’t that important.
3. It defies the narrative of fantastical escapism. At one of its many cores, Homestuck is a story about kids playing a crazy game about wish fulfillment: bringing the dead back to life, meeting their friends, having an adventure, and becoming super heroes. As the Heir of Breath, especially with the retcon powers, John is ALL ABOUT fantastical escapism. John dying for suffering, subverting escapism, is 100% counterintuitive thematically. Super unsatisfying conclusion to his arc.
4. People cite this scene with Scratch as evidence that John is going to have a permanent heroic death one day, but I would argue that the metaphysical way in which John would permanently be tying himself to the narrative to ‘maintain canonicity’ (whatever the FUCK that entails) would be a little bit more than a Just or Heroic thing. For me, this was more about Scratch acknowledging John as - though not infallible personally - a totally good guy. And note that reference to Vriska and her ‘Justness’ at the end there:
Instead, I imagine the whole situation, despite the seeming distinction between Meat and Candy, COULD go something a little more like this -
A story that is just meat - dense with exposition, action, violence, and tension (plotcentric) - is bad, and a story that is just candy - light with fluff, fanservice, frivolity, and comfort (charactercentric) - is bad. In isolation neither is of consequence to the reader, and reader investment is what this whole epilogue and the quest to avoid ‘dissipation’ is about. You need both to develop the other in a healthy and satisfying way, ultimately producing a well-developed set of characters. Homestuck is the best story of all time and it’s been meat and candy all the way, I don’t foresee that changing. For me, the ‘dual epilogue’ is a 1+1=3 situation. Typheus’ choice for John here was a practice for a metacosmic-scale third option regarding the meat/candy ‘binary’ he’s faced with now.
The whole story, John - though he represents freedom - has never made his own choice besides in this moment. He’s gone on quests for prophets, just like he’s doing now, and done whatever people told him or expected him to do. Becoming a free agent is the capstone of his character arc and what better way to realize that than assuming control of the narrative and Doing Whatever You Want For Real - the Ultimate Riddle (as many people theorize) which I imagine we’ll see more of soon being ‘do as you will.’
But let’s imagine that John does become in every way a martyr for the narrative itself in a Christ-like sacrifice befitting of the Easter Sunday I will probably be reading this upd8 on. How could he get out of it because, trust me, John Is Not Dying Forever:
Transcendence. We’ve descended and ascended, so what comes next?
Juju nonsense. The house or something else, who knows?
Denizen nonsense. I’ll get into this in a second.
A second John takes his place and we get ours back. ‘2 endings,’ right?
The Ultimate Self is gearing up to be important. It’s Jesus 101 people.
So I’m expecting Abraxas, Jake and possibly Karkat’s denizen, to make a significant appearance in the epilogue. The epilogue itself, as the rest of the story, is geared up (with it’s black and white symbolism) to basically revolve around the cherubs which I fully expect to get more lore on. As @revolutionaryduelist details in this video, Abraxas is “technically at the center of Paradox Space, as a deity that represents both everything in the multiverse that exists ever both physically and conceptually,and the very process which leads to the creation of those things.” Abraxas is, as the true god in enlightenment, the opposite of Yaldabaoth, the false god in ignorance: more relevant, truthful, and essential as a deity - representing the 3 pillars of canon. Yaldabaoth was Caliborn’s denizen, giving him the clock and juju he required to assume ultimate power in the first place. It makes sense that Abraxas would have a hand in his undoing. Abraxas also shares a connection with the cherubs physically and metaphorically, and considering the importance of the cherubs, I think it’s safe to assume this similarity will become relevant. In this way, Abraxas could Just Get Up To Some Nonsense to save John (who is related to Typheus, a potentially Christ-like figure within the denizen genealogy as John is to the story). Resurrection of Christ anybody? Our snakey parent who art above Paradox Space? As somebody connected to magic, it also makes sense that Abraxas could pull off the miracle of the century if needs be.
All in all, John’s not dying. So what about...
Vriska?
Vriska dying forever is almost ALL merits. This is NOT because I hate Vriska: she is one of the best characters ever written, has never done anything wrong, if she dies I will weep, and I NEED Vrisrezi to become Earth C endgame, but I can’t deny the narrative quality of a potential sacrifice.
Vriska has never had direct karmic comeuppance for anything she’s done besides Make Her Pay and getting killed by Terezi: all other forms of punishment for her actions were either problems with self-hatred or people she cares about suffering - there’s been little direct consequential action taken against her. Even when She’s 8ack with a second chance she gets to dominate and bully others and still be the leader. And look at what she did to Tavros. That was just mean (but will hopefully be relevant in the epilogue because I love GCATavros oops). Her character is also marred in the emulation of Mindfang, and being an inauthentic individual is a Great Crime in Paradox Space which you could say she has been punished for but we can always squeeze a few more drops out of the cloth. Key to understanding Vriska is knowing that she has little ill will. She said herself, she wants to be a hero. That’s why she’s obsessed with becoming the Most Important Person. She wants to save everyone. It just so happens this conflicts with her selfishness (coming in parts from Spidermom, Mindfang, and her caste) which sweeps people up as collateral damage. The important thing is that she feels really guilty about losing control to her ego/persona and hurting people.
And she turns to John for absolution. For freedom from her circumstance and misery.
EB: i guess i had no idea how different we really were.
EB: what i am hearing is seriously scaring the shit out of me!
AG: Yeah, I know. I wish we didn't have to 8e so different. I'm just trying to 8e honest with you, 8ecause like I said, I have nowhere else to go.
John is ignorant of her culture and her behaviour at large, and his kind, innocent disposition makes him the perfect person to tell her that she hasn’t done anything wrong, or - at least - can become a better person. That’s why his opinion matters so much to her when nobody else’s does.
And even knowing that she’s not a flawless person, she still doesn’t think that she deserved to die. She has never been truly absolved of her guilt, and turning to a stranger - and an alien, whom you manipulate even though NOT doing that is the WHOLE point - to do that for her is cheating in the same way Tricksterism was for the alpha kids.
That said, John does present a genuine avenue of character development and emotional vulnerability for the girl who would become (Vriska). (Vriska) became her own person free of Mindfang’s shadow, having overcome the trauma of her past and the need to be ‘the best,’ which is as close to well-adjusted as we could hope for Vriska to be. But this character arc - a form of redemption itself - ends with the death of (Vriska) with GO!Terezi as Paradox Space collapses around them in the most emotional and romantic moment in storytelling history. John’s effects have yet to take hold on post-retcon Vriska as they did on pre-retcon Vriska starting from the above interaction forward, as Vriska is still a 8ig 8itch. John has come to recognize this, and I’m sure it will come up at some point, perhaps inspiring some kind of change in our anti-heroine.
Sacrificing herself for canonicity - maintaining all relevance EVER in a mostly selfless but still kind of selfish act that represents a major step in a redemption she would never get to complete but may not fully deserve besides - is the perfect end for her personally and thematically. Vriska saving John would be wild after their entire relationship including but not limited to the pivotal moments of their ghosts meeting and him saving her life so she could once again experience relevance in the first place; she’d basically be repaying him: something she has never done willingly for totally selfless reasons in good faith and karma before. Wouldn’t that be the most bittersweet character growth to end on? John would FINALLY be a mechanism for her absolution. It was cheating when John didn’t know her. Now it’s been earned after their relationship has evolved so thoroughly and John sees her for what she is, presumably removing his ability to absolve her from the equation entirely. What a 180 that would be. Her arc would technically be incomplete as a character who never fully matured, but what a beautiful step in that journey to end on. It would also be a form of direct recompense to John, having manipulated him in the past as Scratch alluded to! The (Just) master becomes the (Heroic) student! What a great fuck you to Scratch that would be after he ruined her life and fucked up her personality (so would her surviving to become a better person outside of Scratch’s narrative but we’ll get into that).
Vriska has been primed to destroy the Green Sun for a loooooooong time.
Within the scope of the story before we were introduced to serious meta like ‘dissipation,’ destroying the Green Sun would have been the most significant thing a person could ever do. But there’s a reality beyond Paradox Space and a wider ‘canon’ that needs to be maintained both within and outside of the Green Sun’s influence. Vriska never truly got to cash in on the Green Sun imagery. What if she got a second chance to do so?
Assume in some way that the most significant object within Paradox Space and its resulting black hole eating all of reality - which, as Terezi showed us in the Credits (making it still canon) has something strange at its centre - plays a role in maintaining canonicity. I know, a bit of a gimme, right? Presumably,we’re going to explore the confrontation with Lord English as part of the ‘unloading’ of the house juju. If the mechanism for canonicity lies in all this green mess, we’re killing 2 birds with 1 stone! Her relationship with John serves its original purpose in a newly genuine context and the green sun foreshadowing would finally amount to something.
I think Vriska would be almost perfectly content to die like this. It fulfils her philosophy and places her in canonical lore as the most significant, undeniable hero. As Hussie discusses in the Viz book 4 author notes, one of the dynamics Homestuck revolves around is Vriska inserting herself into everything and the Scourge Sisters’ karmic cycle that arises from that, so wiping it all clean would be a fitting end.
That said, I don’t want Vriska to die forever, because I love her with all my heart and I would never want to do that to Terezi, and Earth C would be way more fun if Vriska got to fully develop as a character with friends outside of canonical restraints/pressures. Let her enjoy candy after a life of meat! (Vriska) got to enjoy candy with Meenah and Terezi after she gave up on meat. Vriska has never had true candy comparatively. All of her relationships and romantic leads have had undertones of contention and manipulation that it would be fantastic to be free of in a new world where she can leave the burdens of ‘importance’ behind. This happening, I feel, is one of (if not the best ways) Hussie can further the commentary on candy being just as important as meat: making someone who has prioritized meat her whole life happy with candy once she learns to let it into her life. Meat is NOT the only important thing, Vriska.
How could she escape dying forever if she wanted to sacrifice herself to save John from doing the same? Sounds pretty final. I can’t imagine the ultimate self is in her near future, she doesn’t have retcon powers, and unless she pulls a juju out of her ass (maybe auryn somehow???) then the only mechanism I can see working is denizen nonsense. Beyond this, we know Terezi would not be content to let Vriska be dead forever. I was thinking maybe, on Earth C once the dust has settled and canon is Gucci, the kids could use their god tier powers to recreate Vriska (Terezi/Dirk for memory and self, life from Jane, a body from Roxy/Jake/Jade etc.) but that might be a long shot. Who knows. But also resurrecting Vriska as a free person in a free world would be... really Cool. Like, wow... what a scene. Ultimately, I think both potentialities would be pretty rad and would make me weep like a baby. I’m open to anything here.
In the end, we’ll see what happens tomorrow! I started Homestuck when I was 12 and its influence on me for the last 6 years as both a person and a creative is incomprehensible. I cannot imagine who I would be without it, and I don’t want to. Making analysis/theory posts and getting involved with community discussion has been one of the best things ever and I’m glad I could squeeze this one in before the end of everything. I’ll have plenty more to write about Homestuck and Hiveswap in the future, but it’s crazy to think this is the end of theorizing for Homestuck proper. Homestuck as a property has plenty more to give and I’ll be here with ideas for all of it :)
Thanks for reading!
#Homestuck#John Egbert#Vriska Serket#Homestuck Spoilers#Homestuck Epilogue#Epilogue#Abraxas#Homestuck theory#My theory#Me
25 notes
·
View notes
Text
Speaking of that tier list, I made a tier list, a personal ranking of the Homestuck characters. Nothing definitive or objective. Feel free to comment on it, or send me your own tier lists for me to judge.
I’m gonna put the rest below a “read more” just because, after writing it, I’m realizing it’s insanely long so I’m not gonna dump this monster of a text post without a nice little cut-off point. I encourage you to read more, but you don’t have to.
I’ll start from the bottom and go up.
For starters, I think the bottom tier is pretty much objective and inarguable.
F. This tier is reserved for characters I consider to be failures.
Personally, I feel like HIC is just not a very satisfying “main antagonist” for the trolls; I don’t specifically mean that she didn’t fullfil her role well, like other characters in this tier; it’s a good base for alternians to have a tyrannical ruler who was responsible for throwing their society into the fucked up mess it is. However, as for HIC herself, she feels very lacking. She’s greedy and merciless. That’s it. She’s merciless because she’s greedy. That’s about the extent of her depth.
The same goes for Meenah, they’re basically the same characters. She had some potential to grow with (Vriska), however, the fact that she simply decides to abandon (Vriska), while it does serve to show how HIC is inherently merciless, damns her to F-tier.
I’ll admit that I may have a negative bias to the troll-sprites, but they always felt like an insult to the people who were upset at the deaths of the trolls. The ones that aren’t effectively silent no longer represent their own characters, and just feel like a suppliment to the character they’re fused to; Erisol is a little funny, but is otherwise inneffectual. Fefeta seems like an intentional insult to the people upset by both Nepeta and Feferi’s deaths to just have her permanently mute for no reason. Davepeta never really felt too much like Nepeta, just a continuation of Davesprite’s story. ARquius, again, just felt like AR with some of Equius’ quirks.
Corrupt Jane and Corrupt Jade have no personalities and basically took away any character from the two characters who needed character development more than ANY of the humans. They have a few cool moments, but are ultimately fail to be proper characters.
I forget Dancestor Eridan’s name. I’m not crazy about the Dancestors, I don’t think many people are, but he’s one of the most noteless.
Eridan... I will admit, maybe I shouldn’t put him as low as he is. He’s not really a failure in terms of his literary goal; Eridan is a very good antagonist. He’s an angsty, alternian-equivalent neo-nazi ultra-angsty teen, and he sits in that role absolutely perfectly. On the other hand, as someone who loves Feferi as much as I do, it’s hard not to loathe him. I know, it’s a very biased reason to dislike him, and I mean no disrespect to those who do, but I would be remissed if I didn’t put him at the bottom. He really isn’t as bad as his placement would imply, I just have a personal vendetta.
Jake.
He’s just Jake.
Literally the only reason he exists is to fulfill the need to have Jade’s guardian be one of the Alpha kids. Beyond that, he’s basically just a robot who says old-timey words and we’re told is very attractive.
Dancestor Gamzee is down here for the same reason as Dancestor Eridan. Noteless, and related to a character I hate. Biased? Yes. But this isn’t an objective list.
E. This is for characters who annoy me personally, more or less.
Except for Tavrosprite. Tavrosprite is here because he’s a troll-sprite; however, he’s consistently funny, and is mostly used very sparingly. Also, Tavros gets more of a major role later on, so maybe it leaves less of a sting. I also really like Tavrisprite. They’re probably the best sprite. They get a really cool theme and are a funny joke character.
I didn’t give a shit about Dirk until the Epilogue. It says a lot when the Epilogue manages to make a character more interesting considering the Epilogue is the worst part of the comic. That being said, it takes him from “awkward angsty teen” to “evil omnipotent god-character”, so it’s not really much of an improvement. Most of the time, when Dirk comes up, it sends a signal to my head saying “oh god, here comes a long, drawn out, over-complicated spiel about ultimate selves and bullshit like that”.
Sollux had his moments early on; he was a much better character early on, but quickly became a weird, kinda depressing character? I dunno. In hindsight, maybe he should be in E. I think I just dislike him because he’s with Aradia and Feferi and I think they deserve better but that’s a dumb way to think so whatever. Give him like an E+.
Jadesprite. She cries a lot. There are some funny moments but ultimately, not crazy about her. She has none of the parts of Jade I liked and didn’t exactly serve to improve Jade in any way.
Lord English... too complicated. Why’s he got so many origins? I dunno. Caliborn added much more to him, but I’m gonna separate “Caliborn” and “Lord English” into two characters. On his own, Lord English is just kinda nothing. A big spooky boogeyman.
Vriska. That’s right, THE Vriska. My thoughts on Vriska are extremely complicated. There are hints at something more under the surface, but I feel like there was too long of a stint of her being a straight-up Mary Sue who kills everyone and is super cool and is never punished. I’ll talk about this more when we get to (Vriska). Moving on.
D. These are characters who have done nothing for me, or are otherwise just a step below “neutral”.
Dirkbot is kinda the only entertaining thing to Dirk as a character. Dirk is basically the “host” to the real star of the show in terms of Dirk’s characterization, Dirkbot. Lemme get some bonus shout-outs to Sawtooth and Squarewave. I really like And It Don’t Stop, a comic Hussie made long ago, which is what they were based on. I feel like if Dirk kept that aesthetic more, I’d like him more as a character.
Calliope... An interesting concept, I really like some concepts in relation to her, but as has been discussed, I feel like Hussie and the writers like to frame her as being perfect and they sort of refuse to dig deeper into what could make for a very interesting character.
Dualscar looks cool but otherwise doesn’t do much for me. I REALLY like the Ancestors besides HIC, so instead of being plopped down to F like the Dancestors, the “nothing” Ancestors get put in D.
Grandpa Harley is just kinda around, much like Jake.
Horrus... is kinda interesting. Kinda cute. I like him. And he’s related to a troll I really like, so he gets a boost.
Rufio is a joke character, but he’s a decent joke character, so he gets in D.
Mindfang and the Summoner are here for the same reason as Dualscar.
Mom Lalonde has EXTREMELY limited relevance, but her short time is decent. Now that I’m thinking about it, she doesn’t really deserve a D. Maybe a C-.
I’m gonna be really honest, Porrim gets to be in D because she’s pretty. That’s about all the reasoning there is.
C. This is my “neutral” point. Everyone here is the middle ground.
(Vriska) is the Vriska we see getting abandoned by Meenah in Act 6. She’s the Vriska who’s grown as a character, and experienced deep resentment for how awful she was, and then faced how horrible she was first-hand. I’m gonna be honest; I love (Vriska). Unfortunately, Hussie, being the horrid subhuman that he is, decides that after putting (Vriska) through the worst, and then getting abandoned by the only flushed interest she’s ever really had, we would never see her again. (Vriska) deserves to be in A, but Hussie cut her down to a C.
Aranea is interesting; aside from having an involved and reasonable part of the plot, she’s a very enjoyable character. Lord knows I can relate to somebody with a very special interest who adores to just ramble and ramble and ramble paragraph after paragraph about them, just like what I’m doing at this very moment.
Good dog. Best friend.
Lil’ Cal is a joke character who becomes a surprisingly pivotal character in what seems like a stupid way at first, but eventually makes genuine sense. An interesting character to think about. If you can even really call him a character?
Damara... well, I think she’s pretty. Also her dialogue is funny after you translate it. So she gets a +1 on Porrim.
Davesprite is funny. Dave’s funny, so a second Dave is also funny. He’s no all-star, but he’s alright, yeah.
The Desciple is cute and a good relation to Nepeta.
The Grand Highblood is extremely intimidating. I think he’s a really cool design for an intimidating, horrible warlord. That’s all.
John... is interesting. Funny and dopey, but as far as character development goes he really starts to slow down and become... kinda... weird. I’m not really sure how I feel about him, ultimately. So, C.
I really liked Jane, but then they turned her into a mindless bad guy with a tiara, and then they turned her into a mindless bad guy because capitalism.
I like Rosesprite. I think I like her considerably more than Davesprite, give her a C+. She’s definitely the best of the sprites; she represents Rose well, but also twists her personality in a new and interesting way by making her very peppy and really playing with that silly side of Rose that’s so rare.
Kankri... I’ll admit it, I think he’s kinda cute. He’s fussy. Whiny, sure, but I dunno.
Meulin is extremely cute, but her actual writing irks me. Not because it’s bad, it’s just... you know.
Doc Scratch was a fun antagonist for the time we had him. Certainly a lot more fun than any of the other antagonists (sans one), even if a lot of his writing hinged on being all-knowing.
Karkat and Sollux’s ancestors served good story roles so they get C. Obviously we don’t really know anything about their personalities, but they give you some stuff to think about.
Oh god this is way too long, I’m too tired to finish this shit. You can ask me about the rest of you’re curious, g’night.
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
characterization, filters, and characterization to be found in the lack of filters
Talking about Jane earlier got me thinking, you know, Jane is not at all the only character that uses this device to show off the less desirable traits lurking in the psyche of all these damaged teens. Like. So many characters have these lurking deep seated issues that stay hidden deep down because the characters are pretty good at projecting a less damaged and more together version of themselves.
If that sounds familiar it’s because it’s a fucking outrageously relatable quality and part of what makes the Homestuck characters RESONATE so much. Why they feel like they have all this dimension and depth that makes us grab on to them and never want to let go.
I’m just going to run through some examples here while I’m thinking about it. The first OBVIOUSLY since thinking about her is what got me going on this -- Jane. Crockertier Jane removing the layers of self-imposed filter on Jane’s festering insecurity, entitlement issues, jealousy and so on. I’ve already talked enough about that today.
Grimbark Jade! You notice Jade says what she’s thinking WAY more easily while she’s mind controlled, and she still sounds like herself -- she sounds kinda like she does when she’s owning Karkat repeatedly, doesn’t she? Because angry Jade has that same effect of pushing her nice girl filter aside and letting the angry witch (not a cutesy slur, her literal witch class) within fly free. Grimbark Jade tells us that behind that nice girl front Jade Harley actually thinks some pretty uncharitable thoughts sometimes, she just keeps a tight fucking lid on it because -- well, don’t most people? Relatable as fuck.
Jadesprite! Since we’re talking about Jade anyway. Jade likes to think she has everything together, that her visions from Skaia and her scientific prowess and the tools her Grandpa left her are more than enough to handle everything that comes her way, she’s independent, she’s capable, she’s certainly never LONELY oh no of course not certainly never CRUSHINGLY OVERWHELMED by the responsibility of her own existence nah those are weak feelings for weak girls who aren’t as awesome as Jade! And then -- Jadesprite. Why do you think Jade got SO ANGRY at Jadesprite? Because she was being confronted with something she knew deep down was a reflection of weaknesses in herself (totally normal ones that her later arc reinforced were a mistake to pretend weren’t there -- Loneliness and fear and regret are all tied in with Jade’s character progression and learning how to deal with those things is where I imagine her arc would have gone if Homstuck’s ending hadn’t been the literary equivalent of chopping off a limb and cauterizing the wound.) Jadesprite is Jade without the filter of implacable strength Jade imposes on herself to fuckin cope with living on a hell island with the stuffed corpse of her grandpa who she grew up thinking literally killed himself at BEST. god damn
Davesprite. Dave Strider with a slow long agonizing depressing arc wherein he realizes his coolkid persona won’t make anyone think of him as their best friend anymore, and in the absence of the security that persona afforded him when he was The Real Dave he has no idea what to do with himself. He’s lost, he feels aimless, untethered, incapable of being happy -- and yes, Davesprite is his own character, but you can still infer a lot from Dave’s character about him -- for instance, how he completely ties his self worth up in how useful he is to his friends or how worthwhile they find him and has no idea how to even BEGIN the hard journey of looking within for worth instead of relying eternally on changeable external sources. Davesprite is Dave not WITHOUT a filter but certainly with a VERY DIFFERENT one.
Homestuck does this with almost every single damn character on its roster at some point. Shows a version of them with a different or lesser or completely missing filter to highlight flaws and issues and internal struggles of all kinds.
Homestuck is a damn deep dive into an exercise about analyzing nature vs nurture and what we’re predisposed to do and what comes from within and what is put upon us by forces out of our control, and how that line is blurry and messy and everyone has the potential to be either the worst or best version of themselves. Even Caliborn was given a choice. Hussie-The-Character explained it to him at great painstaking length.
There are so many other examples. Jasprose is Rose without a filter, and the way Jasprose goes around gleefully calling every hot girl she sees hot and delighting smugly in knowing more than just about anyone else and lording over the information and playing smarter-than-thou games -- that tells us a LOT about Rose! A LOT about what sort of urges Rose tamps down on every day in an effort to just be fucking cool!
I bet you have things like this with yourself, right? Doesn’t everyone?
Tricksters! Look at how they act. They’re not themselves but there is plenty to glean from them. Jane immediately goes for Jake, the object of her desire, to pursue an exaggerated version of her idealized future. Trickster Jake is a passive fucking ragdoll who immediately acquiesces to everything everyone demands of him because their happiness becomes his happiness -- Jake hates confrontation, so Trickster Jake is just a fucking doormat. Roxy goes for Jake AND Dirk because divorced from the guilt she normally feels for harboring desire toward either one of them she knows exactly what she wants! ETC ETC. Of course they would never do any of this shit if they weren’t high as balls and incapable of understanding the meaning of the word “consequence.” That’s the point. Seeing what they do in this situation is an interesting window in!
Brain Ghost Dirk is a version of Jake (yes, of Jake, not Dirk) without a specific filter Jake runs his own personality through before he’s comfortable presenting it to others, and you’ll notice, it’s EXTREMELY biting and critical sometimes. Jake knows what he’s about. He just buries it most of the time because that’s easier than dealing with it.
I could seriously keep going.
Homestuck loves to show us what our favorites do and say and ARE when basic filters go out the window. Those filters that most of us employ to make other people believe we don’t all have intrusive thoughts or bad desires or just plain old weaknesses we’re ashamed of and want to keep hidding at costs -- or that we occasionally think things or think about doing things we would never ever ever do in real life are demolished or changed or temporarily suspended.
It’s brilliant tbh. It lets us see facets of characters that would normally never really get full spotlight reveals by their very nature, especially with protagonists.
Vriska vs (Vriska) -- (Vriska) is just Vriska with some more self awareness and more willingness to let down her self-imposed filter and actually examine the shit she wants and why because watching Aranea fuck the timeline over out of motivations eerily similar to her own hardcore shook her enough to develop in that direction. (which makes sense since HER original motivations are copying Mindfang who IS alt-aranea lmao I love Homestuck) (Vriska) is still Vriska, it’s just a very very different lens through which to view her character.
blah blah blah blah etc there are so many examples
anyway I love Homestuck and good character writing what up
#jane crocker#jade harley#dave strider#davesprite#jake english#alpha kids#etc etc i dont have the energy to tag everyone i talked about in this#homestuck#it's good#discourse#thoughts#op
2K notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
yellowjacketscentral
buzz buzz buzz!
pcriver
PCRIVER
bluerosety-blog
Blue's World
binxx98
april
dokani
dokani