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.
jane crocker content where she’s allowed to be a little biting and snappy and judgy without anyone ever questioning whether or not she loves her friends and family beyond everything because she most certainly does. jane crocker content where she’s plus size and beautiful and dresses in a bizarre pastiche of suave debonair hard femme heiress and eyebrow raising pseudo-retro soft butch twee shit because when you’re a Crocker you can be a queen and a geek and pull off the best of both worlds. jane crocker content where there is no doubt that she will slap a bitch down if necessary with quick and brutal efficiency but also sit with you and marathon bad netflix shows and eat six gallons of ice cream while gossiping eagerly and shamelessly. jane crocker content where she’s an approachable everyperson with a smile like the sunrise but you say one wrong thing about her friends – maybe even something jane herself has said – and the sun sets instantly and the look she gives you makes your stomach drop down into satan’s wine cellar because you KNOW you just fucked up
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
Neon is used to illuminate – neon lights are bright and funky but also used to highlight important things? Could be a metaphor for Roxy showing everyone on her team the way (and also getting frustrated because it’s super obvious to her but they somehow don’t see it).
Helium is an easier one, I think. Inhaling helium makes your voice artificially high (and cheerful sounding and funny), but the effect wears off pretty fast. It’s only a facade of relentless cheerfulness, if you like.
Krypton is indeed an asphyxiant, but so are all of the noble gasses. Breathing them in displaces the oxygen in your lungs and you die, not because of a poison reacting chemically with your body, but because the ‘air’ you’re breathing can’t sustain you.
I wonder if this is related to the kids’ isolation, if they all feel suffocated by their own personalities and problems. Dirk’s world is the only one shown that requires gas masks, though, and the only one where a visitor is affected enough to need one, so it’s safe to assume that Dirk (at least in his own mind) has the biggest issues with his problems and feeling like he’s suffocating those around him.
Yeah, I’m inclined to agree with all of this. Wondering if anything else on Neon will pop up, but Helium definitely lines up with Jane’s behavior quite a lot as well. Wonder why I haven’t heard this stuff mentioned sooner, honestly?
After looking at a lot of the responses to it, and doing more research into the whole section of the comic, I’d like to make a small revision.
I am not saying that the actions she takes are somehow entirely removed from Jane’s persona, only that her being under the control of the AI absolves her of what would otherwise be damning guilt.
Jane is clearly not the type of person who would kill Rose out of jealousy, or enslave Jake in order to breed an “empire” of human children. And she definitely isn’t the type to tackle someone and attempt to kill them while sleeping.
The point of this preamble, and the original post was to explain that she isn’t acting of her own accord, because recently a frightening number of people have been ignoring that fact.
If, and only if, you understand that Jane is not fully responsible for these actions, please continue reading. If you refuse to admit that she wasn’t in control of herself, don’t bother looking at my posts.
This post is glorious and if this is the root of all this Jane discourse that sprung up today I am glad for it. I never parsed Jane’s tiaratop breaking that way and I’m not 100% sure I buy it in the sense that if Hussie was going for that he maybe didn’t establish it well enough…
…but one could also say that about Brain Ghost Dirk and I like this reading a lot so frankly I’m adopting it, Jane loves her friends and that love breaks tiaras fuckers thanks. In fact this reading dovetails really nicely with the Classpect stuff I wanted to talk about soon re: Jane, so I might be citing you on it if that’s alright.
Anyway Jane Crocker owns as does every Alpha, thanks
Certain sectors of the fandom ARE disproportionately mean to Jane, and there’s subsects devoted to hating on Dirk or even Jake, too. I would say Dirk probably gets it the worst, absolutely, which makes it kind of….yeah. What I don’t get is why people feel OBLIGATED to go to these extremes, like why does Jane have to be this perfect flawless buttercup who had her entire personality overwritten for you to be able to sympathize with mind control? Why does Dirk have to be Just As Bad as the AR for you to see how he sees himself in the AR and stresses out about the possibility that he COULD be?
Why does Dirk have to be An Abuser for his emotional repression and inability to reach out to be a problem (for himself as much as for his friends btw! Dirk’s problem isn’t holding his friends to too high a standard, it’s an INABILITY TO PARSE THEM AS DOING ANYTHING THAT HURTS HIM MEANINGFULLY WHILE HE DEMONIZES HIMSELF…)
Sorting these characters into capital letter Heroes and Villains is what the reductive, vaguely arbitrary game mechanic IN THE COMIC does. Is it really impossible for us to do better? Is it genuinely too much to ask for us to treat these characters like people instead of cartoons? I realize the question is silly to phrase that way but come the fuck on, everyone reading this knows Homestuck and knows what we’re here for.
I don’t see why critical thinking magically short-circuits forever once we come to trying to untangle the web of hurt (AND LOVE!!! THE HURT MATTERS LESS THAN THE LOVE AND HOMESTUCK IS EXPLICIT ABOUT THIS) between these kids. It’s frustrating.
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 deeply disagree, the things Jane did and said to Jake were at least partially from a place of deep seated and yeah pretty dark entitlement, she still shows flashes of her own personality while under the influence of that headband and I think any reading that completely absolves Jane (or Jade) is reductive and kind of boring so I’ll stick with mine, you do you
(why would a completely unaffiliated AI give a shit about dave calling her hot, about being so jealous of Roxy’s bond with Rose that she literally attempts to murder Rose (and instead murders Roxy), about choosing Jake, specifically, to be her captive trophy husband (”you’re lucky you’re so hot”, that is not an AI speaking, that is Jane) and so and and so on and so on – but honestly, I REALLY am not here to argue about it, just – you’re not gonna change my mind)
It’s a little odd to me this is the bent people are taking since it reflects on Jane about as much as Grimbark Jane or what any of the characters do during Trickster mode in terms of holding her accountable or seeing her as “bad”, which is to say–not much.
It’s a general rule of thumb that you don’t have to think too much less of characters for what they do under mind control, so why ignore the interesting characterization Homestuck uses it to provide us with on some of the nicest and most emotionally reserved characters in the comic?
It’s honestly really cool+interesting how jane’s heteronormative entitlement was played as villainous and jake’s mutual attraction to dirk was played as heroic (literally in the form of crocker tier jane and brain ghost dirk) like god damn homestuck owns, I love homestuck, someone please inform the straights in hollywood that narratives like this are possible and also awesome
this just in: homestuck is good actually??? thanks
I’m excited to write about Jade but then I saw some posts so wrong about Jane that I want to write about her now but I can’t write about either yet because I have to focus on a graphic design project I need to get paid money for 😥 So both will have to wait for a couple days at least
For now, I’ll just say Jane shoved her feelings down her throat for 6 months for her friend’s sakes and her lack of ability to believe in the nature of their lives before that point had mostly to do with her lack of experience, not malice.
If you wanna start making sense of that ignorance a good place to start is the Book of Genesis and considering what the difference between the Fruit of Knowledge of Good And Evil and the Fruit of Life (which would allow humans to live forever) might be.
But the bottom line is: Jane’s great, and I love her, and she’ll be just fine.
For a given value of “intelligence”, anyway. I don’t hold that much truck with the concept in general–there are different kinds of intelligence that run the gamut of human skills, and reducing that to a single concept is reductive, to say the least.
However, it’s hard to deny that there are real cultural forces in our society that do treat intelligence as a monolithic descriptor of skill and worth, and it’s a cultural idea as pervasive in reality as it is in Jake’s character arc. For that reason alone, I’ll be using “intelligence” as a term referring to Jake’s awareness of and competence at identifying and solving problems throughout this sequence. The term as I am using it here is only relevant in the context of the themes and language Homestuck sets up.
Intelligence, competence, and awareness are key parts of Jake’s relationship with the people around him, and particularly with the way he is dehumanized, taken for granted, and abused.
In fact, almost every character Jake is close to in canon questions his intelligence at some point:
And this dynamic isn’t just present in the characters. It’s in the fandom as well. Fandom perception of Jake English often considers him comically unaware of his surroundings and reality, dense and slow or even straight up unable to pick up on ideas that come naturally to many of the other characters.
This is true across the board of opinions of his character: Some consider Jake a self-absorbed, thoughtless asshole, others still consider him a helpless victim who isn’t quite quick enough on the uptake to keep up with how he’s manipulated by others.
It’s hard for us–the fandom, I mean–to be sure of just how much Jake understood about how badly Lil Hal treated him (and by association, Dirk, in much of the fandom’s eyes). Or that Jane liked him. Among other things. It’s part of the general air of helplessness and incompetence that surrounds Pages, I guess, and air set up around Jake for quite a lot of his narrative:
(Note: This is Brain Ghost Dirk specifically questioning Jake’s intelligence. I hope you’ve got some good note taking pens, because this is going to be important later.)
It’s pretty much accepted that the degree and reach of Jake’s intelligence is, at the very least, a matter of debate. I am here to say that it is not. At all. And I can prove it. By allowing ourselves to doubt Jake’s intelligence, we–the fandom– have performed the equivalent of deciding Dave’s cool guy act is the real deal.
We have fallen for Jake’s bluff. I’ll explain.
Plenty of people are aware that Knights, as a class, tend to act out personas that reflect ideas about how they think they should act. For Dave, that’s the stoic Cool Guy archetype, which he eventually grows out of:
For Karkat, it’s his ideas of being a Ruthless Big Shot Leader, which he also outgrows by the end:
And Latula has the thing about being a R4D SK4T3R G4M3G1RL!!! I don’t really think we need a quote to establish that–Dave and Karkat prove my point well enough, and this is pretty much common fandom knowledge.
What I don’t think is common fandom knowledge is that Pages do the same thing, but for a different purpose. Pages and Knights both set up Personas that they project into the outside world. And both of them do it to control how other people perceive them. But for different reasons.
Knights do it because they want to be perceived as capable, in control, and unflappable, basically. Karkat wants everyone to rely on his executive ability as a Leader. Dave wants to be admired and validated by his friends, or. Well. Anyone. In essence, Knights want to be relied on by others.
Knights use their aspect to benefit others. Pages use it to benefit themselves.
Horrus develops a strangely blank persona, so conspicuously fake it is hard to tell if he even reacts to input–so it’s easy for him to just pretend he didn’t hear it when Rufioh tells him he wants to break up–again, I don’t really feel like going through all of Openbound to get all the screencaps and I don’t think they warrant that much space on this post.
Tavros does the same thing, enveloping himself in his games and fantasy so much that he veers away from almost any responsibility in the session, and does only what he wants to…unless Vriska is stealing that ability from him. However, even through her abuse, Tavros manages through sheer presentation of his person to encourage the other trolls to help take care of him.
Specifically, by giving him increased mobility–mobility and freedom of movement being concepts closely related to Breath. It’s worth mentioning Tavros is able to inspire this care not just in Kanaya, but in Equius, who looks down upon lowbloods and whose culture would have encouraged him to KILL Tavros for his weakness rather than help him.
But because of Vriska’s exploitative and cruel influence on him, I’m not sure to what extent he really lives up to his full potential. That said, he DOES manage to completely live out his own personal fantasy, coming to embody both his childhood image of Peter Pan…
BUT ALSO being the only one of the Alternian trolls to accomplish his original childhood goal: Becoming a Cavalreaper.
Get it? He’s literally cavalry.Ha ha. Is this kind of a fucked up victory? Maybe, yeah. But it’s fitting that the character obsessed with the Peter Pan fantasy of leading a troupe of “Lost Boys” never really grows up with the goals he sets for himself. Maybe it says something about Tavros, or about the nature of Ghosts–either way, it definitely seems intentional.
Anyway, the Ghosts are another essay for another time. Time to talk about the kid I actually want to talk about:
Jake English has a fabricated persona, too. For Horuss, it’s nothingness. For Tavros, it’s endless childhood and Peter Pan. But Jake’s persona is a contrast to Dirk’s (and Dave’s) Cool Guy persona. Personas that, for each of them, sit at the dead opposite end of the spectrum from who all three characters actually are.
And for Jake’s constructed persona is that of the Hot-Headed Hero.
And like Horrus and Tavros, Jake indulges this fantasy version of himself even when he actively knows it makes no sense to do so, simply because it’s the fantasy about his life he wants to live out.
But like Dave and Dirk’s presentation of themselves as cool guys unphased by anything, this persona is a complete lie.
And also intelligent, curious, and good at evaluating the potential consequences of his actions–traits he literally willfuly holds himself back from.
His Modus is by far the most complex of all the kids. He uses a Puzzle Modus that allows him to fit any amount of items he wants in it’s storage space…so long as he can successfully spatially fit every single object within a finite space.
And Jake captchalogues a LOT of shit. Meaning he has to keep all of this inventory and know how to spatially navigate it to fit everything he wants at all times. And he does this casually, as a part of his daily interactions with the world around him.
But perhaps more telling than that is how Brain Ghost Dirk describes his own creation:
Brain Ghost Dirk implies that he is a Dirk splinter, but specifically a Dirk splinter that exists entirely through the ideas Jake has about Dirk.
In other words, Jake knows and understands Dirk so well that he can pretty much perfectly remember his body, movements and mannerisms on command. Again, not even actively, it’s just kind of how Jake English rolls-thinking about Dirk all the time is the status quo.
And Brain Ghost Dirk claims to be Jake’s literal brain, talking back to him.
Which means when Brain Ghost Dirk calls Jake out on something, he is forcibly communicating important information to Jake that Jake is actively choosing to ignore. It’s Jake talking to himself, not Dirk giving Jake information he doesn’t have by talking to him through Brain Ghost Dirk.
We have reason to believe the Ghost about this, since Dirk never expresses having any awareness of Brain Ghost Dirk’s existence.
So what important information does Jake willingly ignore? Well, earlier we saw him justify beating up a random alien girl even though a part of his brain knew she wasn’t actually Sea Hitler, and he kind of just wanted to play the part. But surely we can do better than that. How about everything about his friends’ feelings about him that makes him uncomfortable? Callmearcturus wrote this brilliant thesis outlining why she thinks Jake deliberately manipulated Jane into failing to confess to him, but I’m gonna run over it real quick to ground it in this context and sell you on the idea that this is, in fact, not a theory and explicit canon.
Because we don’t need to guess at this by reverse-engineering Jake’s well-established feelings for Dirk. Roxy literally tells him Jane has these feelings before Jane herself does:
Jake recognizes what Roxy is saying, and guesses what she was alluding to on her own. Roxy doesn’t deny it by any measure, and when she asks Jake to drop the issue, Jake says he understands the dilemma this puts her in with Jane.
To stress: He received this information in confidence and knows it for a fact. And he trusts the information he receives so much that he then ACTS on it. After talking to Roxy, Jake messages Jane himself, OPENING by mentioning Roxy told him Jane was going to be contacting him.
And then he himself broaches the subject of their romantic feelings for each other:
But when Jane outright asks him if he has something he wants to say to her, Jake expertly dodges the question, keeping his options open while putting the onus of taking the first step and revealing her feelings on Jane again.
And then, once he’s got her trying to answer…
He KEEPS asking her, interrupting her several times while she starts to try sorting out her thoughts. He puts Jane under a LOT of pressure here, which…considering Jake literally KNOWS the answer, is a pretty shitty thing to do! Even if Roxy hadn’t LITERALLY TOLD HIM mere minutes ago, Jane’s reactions here would have confirmed Jake’s suspicions beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt.
Unless, of course, one has a reputation for not thinking things through or being aware of their surroundings.
Once Jake has his answer, he doubles back, making sure to ask her AGAIN while she’s off balance….
And he then shuts her down when she tries to take the initiative on taking it back and being honest, quickly following up by IMMEDIATELY letting her know he’s relieved about this–signaling his disinterest BEFORE she has a chance to reveal she actually does have a stake in the matter.
He then uses his goofy, unaware, trusting persona to set up a status quo where Jane continually helps him by acting as a sounding board for all his thoughts about Dirk–essentially, putting Jane inside a gender-flipped version of the laughable stereotype of The Friend Zone.
But wait a minute. Jane is one thing. But if Jake is actually this smart, aware, and capable–then it kind of has ramifications across all of his character interactions. What else changes if we read Jake this way? I know I said my next post would be on Roxy, but, uh…yeah. This one kind of got away from me.
In our next entry, we’re going to talk about Why Jake does what he does, and Why he seems so genuinely confused about it later into his narrative. We’re also going to look at some of the other consequences his Jake’s approach to his friendships has for his friends.
We’ll also make a case for Why exactly Jake ultimately falls in love with Dirk Strider, how and when Jake demonstrates and acts on that love, and if I can manage to squeeze it in–maybe even uncover the way the Heart aspects’ two different themes of Souls and Romance/Shipping are conceptually connected.
And on that note, it’s worth pointing out that there’s one notable exception to the list of people fooled by Jake’s presented persona. One character who not only never talks Jake’s intelligence down…
But instead talks Jake’s intelligence UP when he talks badly about himself.
Flying through Storytelling 