maybe. another way to look at it is that the genocide forces all remaining limebloods to think about their Blood quite intensely, above and beyond other trolls–not unlike Karkat
She’s definitely influenced by A. Claire (she outright says she wants to be just like her tons of times, after all), but hilariously enough that doesn’t actually help me figure out whether she’s getting Life or Light influence from her at the moment, for Reasons.
Shouldn’t a Mind player be better at donning temporary masks, where a
Heart player would have a more sincerely experienced alter ego/hidden
self?
This confused me for a long time, but I’d say that Heart players’ masks are more like legitimately distinct alternate personalities; personas, if you will. They’re able to compartmentalize different parts of themselves very well–as Dirk puts it, Striders only party “when it’s good and time to party”, so his work and fun personas are very distinct.
Mind players think a lot less about Who They’re Being and a lot more about what they’re thinking. They’re deducers and analysts. If we look to the Persona series for Heart, we might want to look at games like Phoenix Wright or 999 for Mind; affairs where a lot of the drama and tension comes from scrutinizing the logic of a sequence of events, or logic and reasons behind the stated motivations of characters.
wait why do we say the Red Miles are a Blood power? are we saying DD is Blood?
I wouldn’t say DD is Blood.
I’d say the Ring is. Blood is about relationships, collectives, social cohesion and the sacrifices individuals make in order to enable it–a group united under a common banner/ideal/way of living. The queen’s ring is a centralized symbol for the power of her rule over the people of Derse/Prospit.
Contrast it’s power against Breath, to boot. The Red Miles are fearsome because of their inescapability…
And Breath allows John to escape anything. One is a power of bondage, the other of freedom.
the Red Miles are a really good example of a more physically manifest Blood power. winning someone over through the power of relationships/bondage is a good idea, too, like with Clover in [S] Collide. theres lots of other ways i can imagine it manifesting but those are some neat canon ones!
Oh wait I forgot some stuff! In addition to my previous ask, how Dave needed Karkat to escape the prison that his mind can be also really hit home for me… in fact, there were a lot of aspects of that post that I deeply connected to, so once again, thank you so much for taking the time to write it!
Aw…thank you so much! That post meant a lot to me and was really cathartic to write so I am glad it resonated with you! :))
I dunno about “a lot of the fandom”, it seems to me like most of the fandom saw him that way (which I did too for a long time, and which I still see at somewhat true) but here’s some posts for reference on the issue:
I think fandom overcomplicates itself by focusing on fandom understanding tropes like “explicit endgame canon”, instead of just…looking at the members of a narrative as people, and taking in what a story shows us their lives are. Like, in [S] Credits, we can say Dirk and Jake’s regular, every day lives involve…
-Living together, where Jake will casually interrupt Dirk’s work to hold him close for pictures to loved ones. Building incredibly ambitious and time consuming engineering projects together, too, btw.
-Being comfortable enough with each other to have spar fights that Dirk can be cocky and arrogant in, when the last time we saw Dirk before then he was worried he was a completely toxic element in Jake’s. Which implies they worked that stuff out in the meantime!
-Wearing flower crowns together, implying they’ve worked together to overcome the toxic elements of masculinity that kept them apart in the first place.
Plus there’s still the looming masterpiece, Jake has a tantrum to save Dirk’s life where Dirk is described as Jake’s “prettyboy ninja stud”.
My answer is that I don’t think it matters very much whether you want to see them as close friends who are living together or romantic partners. They choose to share more of their intimate and private lives with each other than anyone else.
They are clearly invested in having A relationship, and given how explicitly horny both men
(and that’s what they are–the cast is 21 now, let’s not forget)
are in general and how deep their affections for each other run, I don’t even see what would separate their close friendship from a romance anyway.
homestucks narrative clearly wants us to consider that Dirk and Jake are still together and quite close by [s] credits. That’s canon enough for me. You’re going to have to specify your doubts if you want me to speak to them, because I honestly can’t really relate to the section of fandom doubtful about the “status” of their relationship anymore, whatever that means.
Those of you who remember being in the Homestuck fandom back in 2012 to 2013 will no doubt remember the old Tumblr post that went around claiming the four post-scratch kids were like the noble gases due to their supposed inability to form bonds with each other. All too often I’ve seen this ancient piece of fanon used to support the idea that the alpha kids are not as close a group of friends as the beta kids are, and that somehow this makes them less likeable or worth paying attention to as the Acts 1-5 faves the original Homestuck fans knew and loved.
However, I have a proposition for any still listening out here, one that could turn the concept of “alpha kids as noble gases” on its head. What if I told you that the initial premise was false, but the conclusion was true? Leaving aside the individual identifications of each kid with a particular gas, let us concern ourselves with the four as a group.
Flying through Storytelling 