There’s something I’ve been thinking: We once debated whether or not Grandpa Harley was living an awesome life or not – I said yes, you said no because you felt he was trying to fill the void of a reality without Dirk in it, his (in some sense literal) soul mate. But I feel like this throws A. Claire under the bus. Rather than being a guy whose a shitty person because Dirk isn’t in his life – maybe he’s just shitty because his wife died and he never got over it. He wouldn’t be the first. 1/2

2/3 I mean A. Claire affects the narrative indirectly, being The Dead Mom trope, but it really stands out to me the way we let our knowledge of the alpha universe affect our understanding of the Beta. A. Claire is one of the few human ‘things’ in Homestuck to have no counterpart in the Alpha timeline that we are aware Jake is aware of. Joey and Jude never drew breath on Alpha Earth. A. Claire and J&J fundamentally separate Jake English and Jake Harley into two utterly different individuals 2/3

¾ Which is why I still have to disagree that the Beta Guardians are de-facto the ‘incomplete’ versions of the Alpha kids, unable to ever reach their true potential – because where does that leave the life that Jake built with A. Claire? Even now Grandpa remains the outlier among the Guardians – from my standpoint I can’t but see him as a man who couldn’t handle the loss of his wife, for who his children were the most painful reminder. So he runs – again and again and again and again 3/4 

4/4 (Sorry this is all splintered like this, Asks suck). None of this condones him being a shitty parent, but it does change the context in which we can view JE and JH as mirrors. I’d love to know what JH was like as a husband to A – kind, carrying, attentive, devoted? Maybe he wasn’t, and your original argument stands – the absence of his alpha friends ultimately stunts him as a person. But maybe when A was still around this ceased to be true – but once she was gone, he fell apart again.

 

I mean, my main post was never that Jake was shitty because of a lack of Dirk specifically. Jake Harley struggles with the exact same issues that detonate all of Jake English’s relationships with his friends growing up. Toxic masculinity, heteronormative ideology, and most clearly, escapism and neglect of those he cares about because of fear of confrontation. 

It is through his relationship with all his friends–Dirk, Jane, Roxy, and others–that Jake manages to learn to get over those issues.
All we can say for sure about Jake Harley, then, is that he most definitely does not overcome his neglect and escapism habits by the end of his life the way English does. 

MAYBE he made progress with A. Claire on that front? It’s definitely not impossible. But we just don’t know, and in the meantime he continues hoarding behavior that suggests his alternate friends are very much still a part of his psyche. It’s also possible A. Claire was his partner in uncovering the secrets of Lord English and Sburb, given that she apparently painted Joey’s mural of a Green Star–in other words, the Green Sun–and was the original owner of the Cherub Key.  

I certainly agree that Jude and Joey are unique, though, and A. Claire won me over hard enough that I would be happy to know she was at least a genuine comfort to Jake if he was struggling. I honestly don’t know what their relationship was like either–but I’m very curious.