So I’ve seen your mettas on a number of relationships and characters, but I was wondering if you felt any special type of way about John? Maybe about how he processes emotion and expresses himself?

I DO have thoughts about John but–like with Vriska and Terezi–I don’t think they’re going to fully consolidate into something I feel confident writing about in detail until the Epilogue hits. The three of them could go in too many different directions at the endpoint from my perspective, and I try pretty hard to avoid theorizing or speculating more than I absolutely have to. Trying to draw any conclusions about the three of them is trying to draw a conclusion about Homestuck as a whole, though, and I’m just not 100% EXACTLY what kind of story homestuck is ultimately going to be.

I have some guesses. That I generally don’t want to put in public willy nilly. For now I guess stay tuned and I’ll definitely post about John in detail as soon as I feel confident that I have a unique and interesting reading of him that I can make a compelling case for, at the very least.

can you examine Dirk and Jane’s relationship? because I fucking love their friendship and you have a cool mind so I wanna maybe know any fleshed out thoughts you might have.

allow me to answer in screencap form

Not here specifically, but only because I think it’s likely Dirk will show up in my Jane post which I’m…thinking is gonna be…the next thing I write? Possibly also the last thing for a while before I refocus on video editing and uh, you know. Making money from a job for a while. Capitalism 😦

The tl;dr shortform version is Jane and Dirk fucking love each other and are also deeply jealous of each other and are also deeply guilty about being jealous of each other. It’s a mess. I love them. Dirk probably looks at John and Jade and fucking keels over and dies just from how much he sees Jake and Jane in them and loves them for it probably.

yo, something jake-related i found: a gnostic account describing how angels born of Sophia and Dynamis (wisdom and power?) created a 1st heaven, whose angels then created a 2nd, whose angels then created a 3rd, and so on until the angels of the 365th heaven created the visible world. abraxas is called ruler (Archon) of all 365 heavens, and presumably therefore over all of their angels. wouldn’t that make him what homestuck would call “Lord of Angels”?

1) God I need to do more research into Gnostic stuff, the more I do the better it gets

2) This ties Jake’s hope powers into angels a lot harder which is fascinating and possibly explains why angels permeate Hope players so often beyond the general believing in them stuff

3) Why are you on anon? This is pretty awesome I wish I knew who you are cause this is exactly the level of nerdery I want from my homestuck friendships

Hey! I love love love what you write about Dirk, it really helps with finding his voice and understanding his character, and I’m glad someone’s doing the Good Work regarding Dirkjake. Do you think you could talk about Dirk and Bro sometime, and why they’re so different? You’re definitely one of the best HS analysts out there, and I’d love to read your thoughts on that.

This is a really nice message! I sort of already did write about this in Love, Faith and Fantasy–I think Dirk is fundamentally different because he loves his friends, defines himself by and strives to live up to Dave’s image, and is confronted with his own manipulative potential through the AR and is kind of terrified of becoming like that. If you haven’t read that one I don’t blame you cause it’s too fucking long and I’m currently in the process of editing and reuploading it.

I might write about Dirk more? But I’ve written about Dirk and Jake specifically a frankly overwhelming amount already, and I’d like to focus on fleshing out the roster of characters I’m writing about since my goal is really to talk about the entire story–Dirk and Jake are just a particular passion point for me. Probably the soonest I’ll revisit the subject is if Hiveswap brings any new information about Grandpa or Bro to light, which is something I’m kind of expecting frankly.

Hey, I saw your last post about Knights and Pages, and fitting them into the active/passive dynamic. I can’t say I’m persuaded, but it has good elements. Are you aware of the theory that Clover lost the fight against Karkat because of the curse from Sollux’s virus? Thought that might be helpful for explaining that event.

Yes, I’ve never put much stock in it. The bad luck motif of the virus is one Kanaya puts under heavy suspicion early on, and we know exactly what the virus does anyway: It’s the ~Ath logic loop that leads to Lord English entering the troll universe. As I consider Lord English responsible for the Alpha Timeline–and Lord English orchestrates pretty much all of the Sburb sessions and all of troll history through Doc Scratch, the Handmaid and the Condesce, I think that more than describes the parameters for “bringing misfortune to all Karkat would ever know.”

I don’t think it’s a generalized bad luck virus–I think it’s more specific than that. And the virus’ “bad luck” thing is never relevant anywhere else in the comic, so I find it hard to see why it would suddenly show up here, predominating over the way Karkat habitually resolves conflict no less. I’d need to be presented with evidence for the view that it’s the more logical conclusion, basically.

Have you ever given thought to just why it is that Dirk doesn’t really seem affected by trickster mode outside of appearance? Any theories? Thats one thing the really bugs me and I just can’t wrap my brain around why he would be such an exception

He’s a Heart player, basically. Just as he sees through into the Core of his friends’ identities, so too his fundamental Core is very hard to change in any meaningful way.

All of the Trickster kids’ actions reflect their inclinations and powersets as reflective of their Classpects (more on that some other time) so Dirk’s Heart nature shining through isn’t particularly unique. But maybe a more useful comparison to understanding it requires us to look at a different orange character with existential issues tied to his inherent, inescapable identity as Himself: Davesprite.

Davepeta lets on that the core of Davesprite’s issues were down to considering himself marginal, irrelevant, and unwanted. It had nothing really to do with his friends and everything to do with his experience of himself as inherently an Extra Dave, the same way Lil Hal felt. What saves him from this?

Nepeta, the Rogue of Heart. By stealing his identity for his benefit, Nepeta frees Davesprite from his own identity, allowing him to experience ego-death and achieve a state close to complete Enlightenment and allowing him to understand the true meaning of his existence as Davesprite in the first place. Davepeta also benefits the audience by cluing us into this information, and Jade (in ways we’ll get into when I write about Jade soon).

So yeah. Essentially, the aspect of Heart is innately linked to a person’s true, undiluted self–so it’s no surprise Dirk’s undiluted self is strong enough to destroy the effects of any corrupting influence.

What are your thoughts re: Dirk and Bro? Do you think it was purely Cal’s influence that created Bro, Dirk sans his friends’ influence mutating into Bro, or a combination of both?

I don’t think Cal had much to do with creating Bro. Lil Hal’s existential frustration and loneliness already leads him to doing some pretty horrible shit–and Dirk stresses out about it so much because he really does see that potential within himself. The trend with Cal as I see it is to influence and talk to Caliborn, Gamzee, and Bro, but it only really seems to show the former two reflections of their latter day selves as part of Lord English. It doesn’t coerce anyone.

I think it’s core to the narrative of Homestuck that Caliborn and Gamzee choose what they do, full stop. I think the same is true about Bro, and I don’t think a Bro who grew up in the world–and possibly even with Grandpa and Mom–would’ve taken much convincing, because he wouldn’t be able to have the same relationships with them that he did with his friends. This is especially true if what I suspect about Grandpa is also true for Bro, and he remembers his Alpha life, which I think is plausible given that he’s a Heart player.

But there is one other thing I think sets Dirk apart that matters at least as much as Dirk having had his friends to grow up with, as I alluded to towards the end of this last essay:

Bro didn’t grow up looking up to Dave. Dirk largely escapes his potential as Bro by destroying that potential in himself and living up to a different legacy–Dave’s legacy of Knighthood and service. That he succeeds so strongly that Grandpa remembers him across universes as a Knight implies this better than anything.

Dirk and Bro are inherently different people on such a wide degree that their mythological roles are fundamentally different. Bro is a Prince of Heart, albeit one who’s gone off the deep end and become deeply destructive. Dirk is a Prince of Heart who strives to act as a Knight, particularly in service to a Page of Hope who believes in him and gives him an outlet for that service in tandem. Hence their differences.

bless you a hundred times for these posts on jake! it is great to see essays expounding how badly he is underestimated in common opinion. i’m still not sure if he is as thoroughly selfish as you present him (isn’t selfishness supposed to be the trait of assholes?) or if pages are truly active, but on an unrelated tangent let me just point out that dirk’s and jake’s noble gases happen to be the only two capable of forming bonds to other elements. symbolic of something?

Let me answer your points in order of complexity:

1) Thank you! I’m so happy you’ve been enjoying it.

2) It might be symbolic, but then again, maybe not. I haven’t considered that too deeply, but my instinct is to lean on no–simply because it would imply Roxy and Jane can’t ultimately “form bonds”, and I think the Nobles Prophecy only really applies to these kids insofar as their struggles in the session. If only because by the end they’re all positioned to start forming real bonds, and no cosmic destiny of emotional unavailability could stand before the might of Karkat Vantas’ relationship counseling anyway. They’ll all be fine.

3) I think I’m going to break up this longest post into four or so sections, and I’ll probably expand the Knights/Pages section to include Karkat and Tavros as well. Hopefully pointing to evidence from other Players will make this reading more convincing. I was also given some additional tidbits on Dave that I think are fun.

4) I think viewing selfishness as an inherently negative trait is a little simplistic. It definitely can be, don’t get me wrong–but then again, being selfless to a fault only turns you into a doormat, too, doesn’t it? And being selfless is only as virtuous an act as the people and ideas you decide to serve–after all, Gamzee’s a Passive player, too.

The way I read the Active/Passive divide is essentially this: Active classes generally work based off their own motivations and understandings. They may accept information from a source such as a Seer–Jade certainly does from Rose, just as Jake accepts Roxy’s provided secret. But what they do with that information is something they’ll decide on on their own for the most part.

Passive classes are likelier to act at the behest of others, and to advance other’s wills. Dave and John both spent most of their sessions either following orders from troll girls or following orders from Rose (or in Dave’s case, Jade too). Rose herself got direction from Doc Scratch as well as the Horrorterrors.

In contrast, you could read Jade as somewhat selfish, as I’m going to lay the case for in my next essay. She has patience and care for others, but she’ll tell someone if they’re bugging her if she needs to be getting shit done. And she doesn’t really accept much direction from anyone unless it’s in service to the plan she herself set up, as with Kanaya.

Are Jane, Dirk and Jake overly selfish? Maybe, yeah. Homestuck and Sburb both stress the need to find balance above all else, and Jake’s narrative definitely requires him to become less self-absorbed. In fact, at least one person posited to me that reaching that balance is the core challenge of each side of the coin, which I think is at least plausible.

But that balance is going to be different for everybody, and different depending on each relationship and situation. Life is complicated. In the case of Jake and Dirk’s relationship, Jake’s selfishness is healthy in extremity simply because it’s what Dirk wants too, and he wants it as intensely. Hopefully filling this role in each other’s lives would allow them to be more considerate and selfless to the rest of their friends, too. See what I mean?