Tag: Anonymous

Hey! I’d love to see an analysis of the AR from you if you have the time – I’ve seen a few times that you attribute a lot of Dirk/Jake’s relationship problems to it (which is fair) but it would be good to hear your thoughts on AR and his relationship with Dirk, Jake, and the girls. For my part I do think AR was a jerk at several points in the story, but that Dirk and Jake in particular were needlessly dismissive of him. I imagine waking up in a computer is not a pleasant experience either.

Yeah, I sympathize with AR a lot, I don’t want to give off the impression that I don’t–it’s just Dirk and Jake are the ones most hurt by the current fandom standing. If I’m able to change that for the better someday I would definitely want to flesh out the nuances of the AR (i am feeling kind of hopeless about the possibility right now, i’m not gonna lie) but for right now I think there’s more than enough of people making the AR better than he is to go with making Dirk worse.

For instance, I don’t think Dirk and Jake were needlessly dismissive at all. AR earned his treatment through his treatment of Jake–which, by the way, is a large part of the reason Dirk was so frustrated and bothered by him. 

That said, the AR–I decided to start calling him Hal–Hal’s situation is kind of innately tragic, too. There’s a lot of pathos to read into his lot in life, and I think he earns his own sort of redemptive narrative victory though it’s a harsher one than Dirk, which makes sense because…Dirk tries really hard to be a better person and succeeds at it. I’ll definitely want to write about that someday. 

this is a thing that just struck me now, regarding Lands and their owners — you know how LOTAK’s krypton is sometimes said to symbolize dirk’s suffocating/toxic tendencies (since krypton is both narcotic and asphyxiant)? an argument can be made for the xenon on LOMAX symbolizing something about jake as well. xenon gas is actually a potent anaesthetic when inhaled, perhaps signifying jake’s thing for willfully feigning obliviousness as though he were drugged/sedated

FUCK yeah that’s really goddamn legit and now I want to know if Jane’s and Roxy’s are as on point too because my guess is: probably 

Helium builds up pressure in balloons until they fucking pop??? fits with Jane at least somewhat. Hit me up if you think of any more 

Do you think the – highly reactionary – responses to Jane and Roxy’s flaws being out of proportion with the much calmer responses to Jake and Dirk’s flaws is based in misogyny? Because looking through discourse, it seems that Jake stans in particular refuse to let anyone criticize the boys, whereas *especially* the Jane hate as of late has been centered on her “versus” Jake?

Like Loss said, I wouldn’t say Dirk’s treatment is anywhere near calm or even sane, frankly. Dirkcourse was such a torrent of hatred, moral superiority and frankly homophobic sentiment that it has still left Dirk’s characterization in fanon in ruins to this day. 

I’d say the same is true of the Alphas in general. If anyone escaped it’s probably Roxy, and people have swept a lot of the grosser shit she did under the rug as a result. Jake has “escaped” in that a lot of people chose to victimize him and strip him of any recognizable character traits in order to turn him into their blank slate Victim–whether it be Jane’s victim, or Dirk’s. 

If I were to put a core cause to all of it I wouldn’t really point to homophobia or misogyny though certainly both are factors–I would point to the fandom’s seeming inability to accept nuance or shades of grey in these characters, which is also something you see a lot in, say, people’s approach to Vriska. 

It’s boring, frankly. More than boring, it’s tragic. Homestuck deserves better, and the Alphas do too–because the Alpha’s story is one of flawed, flawed kids put in horrible, horrible situations and fucking up massively but figuring out how to love each other anyway. I’m not interested in pinning down any of the four–or even the AR–as the Innate Root of All The Evils of the Session. They’re all in love, they’re all lonely, they’re all hurt, and they all express those things differently.

I don’t see the need to play the game game with the Alphas–I just see the need to explore the nuances of their love and struggles and describe the nature of their happy conclusion. The Alphas are one of the most positive stories in all of Homestuck, in my honest opinion (even INCLUDING all the issues people levy at the ending), and I really hope someday the rest of the fandom can see it that way. If for no other reason than we’ll all be happier for it. 

I think a lot of people overlook the fact that Dirk owned and used a drawing tablet, whereas Dave(who is fanonically considered artistically-inclined way more often than Dirk) does not and even criticizes the very idea of using a tablet(that’s not to say SBaHJ isn’t high art, lol). And Dirk consumed media of all kinds, from childrens’ books to “terrible” movies. To him I think robotics might be a fun hobby, but not his greatest interest(something someone would ideally make a career out of).

yep. Dirk has exactly the relationship to robotics that he does to anime: it’s a fun side thing but not his main deal. That the fandom has to blow those way out of proportion is, again, telling about how it understands Dirk’s character 

Alright so I’ve found something in your video about Kernelsprites. You mention that only the first prototyping affects the hatched kernel(enemies and etc). But I disagree. Any prototyping occurring BEFORE entering the medium(ie: before the kernel hatches) will affect the game. You see this when the kernel hatches after John enters and gives its information to the towers on Derse and Prospit. But Rose’s sprite was prototyped twice before her entry – and both prototypings affected enemies.

Whoops, yeah I must’ve worded that poorly there. I’ll slip an annotation in clearing up that discrepancy–thank you for letting me know! 

I get why you’re using hyperbole in the Jake posts! I mean, many believe Jake must’ve suffered brain damage from fights with Brobot because people were comparing him at his most intentionally obtuse/stubborn to Grandpa Harley’s informed competence. I don’t think he’s necessarily the smartest character in the series, but much of Jake’s apparent incompetence comes from stubbornness, an emotional difficulty with asking for what he wants, and attempts to maintain a persona, not actual stupidity.

Pretty much! I don’t think he’s the smartest character or anything either–I clarified in my latest post– but notice how you used the word *believe* there?

Yeah. Jake uses plausible deniability to dodge confrontation any chance he gets, and he doesn’t really think ahead to how that affects his friends until it all blows up on him. this is all canonical–like, Brain Ghost Dirk *is* his brain, and on the quest crypt he literally says so himself. I sure do wish people would stop ignoring all of that to make him into their woobie victim child! You don’t need to turn a character into a perfect saint to respect and feel for their issues with abuse. All it does is make it a lot harder to discern what actually bothers them. 

I’d like to thank you, because I feel like you helped me get some of my thoughts about the comic in order. There were a lot of things I suspected about the narrative but could never really put into words. Perceived plot holes, but I always wondered if maybe they weren’t holes at all bc “what if I’m interpreting them wrong?” I’ve believed they weren’t holes for awhile now, but you explained it in a way I couldn’t. So now my own batshit thoughts make sense to me, thanks lol

I’m super hapy to hear it! That’s pretty much my aim with all of my projects relating to the comic, and an effect I only hope to ramp up as I write about lesser-appreciated characters and proceed on Homestuck Explained. Hope you’ll stick around for more.

I’d also be interested in knowing how and why I changed stuff for you, if only because–well. I like knowing where my ideas were convincing 🙂 It’s satisfying stuff. Regardless, thanks a ton for messaging me!