from the top, in a new post cause the last one got too long. @ao3sburbanite @revolutionaryduelist

Keep reading

Alright, I’m noticing some discrepancies between what I think and what you’re pointing to so maybe its worth clearing those up.

which is why i described dirk as a “prime contributing factor”. it wasnt solely his fault. but hes also not blameless, which, again, is what im getting at here.

Yeah but of course Dirk is a contributing factor, he’s one of four kids and they’re all pretty much inextricably contributing. I don’t know anyone who thinks Dirk is blameless–I just know people who think he got as much as he gave, and that the bad he gave is way overstated in proportion to the other Alphas.

an approach which dirk (at the beginning of his arc, as i specified in the op) explicitly agrees with, in his very first pesterlog!

It’s more complicated than that, and really I don’t know why you would assume what any characters say early on is the definitive statement on the feelings of any Homestuck character. Like. This is Homestuck. Come on.

Dirk tells JANE he agrees with that approach, rattles off a number of other reasons, and then says it’d be fucked up to stop Hal and that he owed it to Hal to let the program run as long as possible.

You could conceivably imagine Dirk growing out of the other shitty reasons he gave, but if he did, he would still feel obligated to let Hal have his way also. That’s a problem without an easy moral solution Dirk has access to, which is what he struggles with right up until he almost kills Hal.

Also by this point in the narrative Jane has also already talked to Jake, who explicitly points out that Dirk doesn’t like Hal, and wouldn’t like that Jane loves him.

and we can infer, based on what we know “jake should be more like jane” entails, that jane is/has been on the receiving end of the auto-responders mind games.

We can’t infer any such thing, because Dirk is clearly and demonstrably not in control of Hal in the first place. That’s the entire point of Hal. Even if he was, how would Hal messing with Jane’s head make her LESS skeptical? That doesn’t make any sense?

This besides the fact that Dirk is voicing an observation that he doesn’t act upon at all, he’s also voicing an observation that is…literally correct.

Jane’s ignorance and skepticism does great emotional damage to Roxy, who literally goes on at length about it directly to Dirk. Jake’s willful ignorance (which he frames around believing whatever is convenient to him) does enormous harm to both Jane AND PERSONALLY TO DIRK, including Jake making comments that make Dirk feel isolated and potentially judged for being GAY, not to mention romantically unreciprocated.

That’s serious shit to do to someone even if you’re only doing it because you’re a clueless 13 year old, and it shouldn’t be disregarded as part of Dirk’s character especially since…we have evidence that stuff bothered him.

you can chalk up the fact that we never see jane being played by the ar to bad writing (hussie admitted in one of his tumblr q&as that he struggles in writing jane, although those are now offline), or a deliberate choice – because jane says she likes the ar, shes not affected by it in the same way jake is, and so we would learn nothing important about her by seeing her reactions with it.

but i think your theory that dirk intended it specifically as a bodyguard for jake is flawed, too. because he made jane a bodyguard – lil seb – but lil seb didnt “stalk [her]” and “strike when [her] guard is down”.

As I pointed out up there I’m pretty sure I can chalk up Jane not being played by the AR to the fact that AR playing with Jane doesn’t make any sense at all, and AR’s mind games have nothing to do with Dirk’s thoughts or goals because he doesn’t control him anyway.

I don’t really see a reason to put anything on “bad writing” when there’s a perfectly coherent explanation that is backed up by later canon events sitting right here.

You’re missing my point with the Brobot, too.

1) It’s not that the Brobot wasn’t a fuckup. It was! But it was a mutual fuckup born of both Dirk and Jake’s mistakes, because…

2) The Brobot’s goal isn’t JUST to be a bodyguard, you’re right. It’s just also not to provide training, although it includes that function too.

The Brobot is more specific. Its purpose was to set Jake up with an adventure scenario, and Jake’s quest to hunt it down is framed at one repeatedly. Adventures prior to the point it was sent were something Jake always talked about loving but never actually did, because he was too scared of the monsters.

Dirk wasn’t trying to impose training on Jake–he was trying to help him live up to his fantasies of himself. The motivations there are significantly different.

Which again, doesn’t make it not a fuck up. It just turns out to be a relatively happy fuck up, because Jake actually likes the Brobot in the end anyway–so much so he internalizes the image of Dirk as a protector so strongly he believes in it above all else when the chips come down.

As for Jake complaining about the the Brobot, he does most of that in the context of arguing with Hal and wanting to hurry along his adventure. Notice how he admits to liking it and thinking it makes his life more exciting and adventure like when he’s speaking in confidence with Jane, and actually being honest.

The situations are parallel to Tavros and Vriska, because homestuck likes being self-refential and setting up parallels…more often than not to subvert them. There being some visual parallels–ESPECIALLY with flashes, which usually cheat to be more efficient to produce anyway–doesn’t mean there’s a 1:1 correlation between all the morals and power dynamics in a situation.

Like. Come the hell on. This:

Is not the same situation as this:

Forreal. Come on.

Force and Flow — Destroy and Create – optimisticDuelist – Medium

eromancer:

revolutionaryduelist:

Here’s the first of the Class essays, where we go over the most intense Active/Passive dichotomy, putting these Classes on the furthest ends of the spectrum.

The Key Verbs for these classes are Destroy and Create, covering
Princes and Bards & Maids and Sylphs, respectively.

Quick disclaimer so I don’t get anyone’s hope’s up: This essay doesn’t include much discussion of Jane Crocker! Not because she isn’t relevant, but because I actually ended up writing this entire series because I needed to lay out my thoughts on Maids so I could get around to writing my essay about her.

I’ll be linking to my Jane post at the end of this essay once it’s up, and this essay is pretty much required reading for it! So I think it’s worth checking out if you’re interested in her anyway.

As for the rest, I just hope you enjoy. The other two essays are already written, and I’ll be posting them over the next two weeks!

They are available in their entireties for my Patrons, so if you can spare me a buck a month you can get these early if you decide you like them enough. Higher reward tiers will let you invite friends to the Discord so they can read them too!

Feel free to @ me, reblog or send me an ask with your thoughts on these first two essays. There may be some things I can’t answer as they will be answered in later posts, but I might use those as inspiration for what teasers to release from sections of the next two essays over the course of the week.

You can also feel free to talk to me in the Hiveswap Discord where I moderate and cry about Homestuck. I’m very interested in seeing how my thoughts stand up to scrutiny, so don’t be shy!

[Youtube] [Patreon] [Hiveswap Discord]

[Active/Passive Masterpost] [Steal and Serve] [Know and Change]

Keep Rising.

How does this work in regards to the alpha trolls? From what we see, Kurloz is serving both Gamzee and Lord English, and Cronus is a Self-Serving prick?

Both Kurloz and Cronus are potrayed as ineffective fuck-ups. Most of the Alpha trolls are failed states for their Classes, and as I pointed out with Dirk for example who spends most of his session acting extremely Yin to both Hal’s will and Jake’s, an active class CAN end up acting Yin/Passive–it just isn’t super healthy for them, nor is it the most effective way they impact reality.

To talk about specifics I’d have to actually look at Cronus and Kurloz’s arcs, which…urgh. Maybe later. I’ve heard they’re interesting but I really need to work up the will to REALLY pore through all of Openbound again–I reference some Alpha trolls in this series but not all of them.

hey dude, so like i finished hs like a month or so ago, after reading it for like three months, and ive been looking at meta. and i like what you have, but its stuff that just been built upon so many times its like starting to read the third book of a series to start with, so basically my request if youd be willing is like where do i even go to start reading on meta?

Oh jeez, well first of all welcome and I’m glad you’re here with us B) Now– that is a good question!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-Pvay5y1y9WkvVZDwcyG1GRFA1jT-2Po?&ab_channel=TexTalks

I guess my biggest recommendation for the moment would be Tex Talks, who’s series on Homestuck is fascinating if still ongoing. All four of these videos were absolute game changers in understanding the story, and the project is ongoing but much more friendly to newcomers than my endgame meta on tumblr for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHGDUMS6httYTsmluGqLrhaaFJTmgCumW?&ab_channel=optimisticDuelist

At which point, I have to switch into shilling a little. Rambling about Dirkjake and meta on tumblr is actually a side project to me, and most of the meta I wrote over the last couple weeks was sorta just a small detour I was taking to rebuild my Tumblr platform somewhat. My MAIN project is Homestuck, Explained, a video series where I’m aiming to explain Homestuck to newcomers plot element by plot element, making sure each part of the story is given the thematic grounding and weight it deserves to keep each video saying something fresh and interesting.

I’m back to video editing on that now but I won’t be able to answer everything just yet. Still, people have found it helpful in understanding the early plot elements and a really nice explanatory community has sprung up around it.

The next two recs kinda depend on what you want to learn about with regards to Homestuck.

@sam-keeper hasn’t done much classpect stuff but her work takes a completely fresh and fascinating view of the canon. She woke me up to Homestuck’s gnostic influences and their deep implications, wrote about Homestuck’s history as a part of and effect on hypercomics as a medium, and her books on Homestuck’s ending themes and medium play (”A bodyless and timeless persona” and “A horizon of jostling curiosities” respectively) are nothing short of transcendent. She doesn’t tend to rely on Classpects stuff at all so her work pretty much stands on it’s own I think.

http://stormingtheivorytower.blogspot.com/2012/12/seer-of-light-ascend-why-homestuck-is.html

http://stormingtheivorytower.blogspot.com/2013/06/sa6a6i1-homestuck-vs-tech-demos-or-how.html

http://stormingtheivorytower.blogspot.com/2016/08/vriska-as-fight-club-fan-bodyless-and.html

If what you ARE interested in is Classpect stuff then Tex Talks is great, but another good place to get your foundations is probably Bladekindeyewear, too.

Disclaimer though: Inversion theory was jossed by WP to my memory, and even if it wasn’t I don’t really buy into it the way @bladekindeyewear posits it. Any time you read about a Seer becoming a Witch or something you should probably take it with a grain of salt, in my view. I also think he’s completely wrong about Knights/Pages, who he describes as the Active/Passive ‘Exploit’ Class. I think there’s much more canon backing for the idea that they are the Passive/Active ‘Serve’ class.

That said I fucking ADORE BKEW’s post on the Blood/Breath Aspect dichotomy, and he did some fantastic work on pinning down the Aspect Dichotomies in general. The physical symbols for each Aspect he points out in particular are absolutely stellar. His post on the Ultimate Riddle and “Do as you Wilt” were also great for understanding the story on a thematic level.

Anyway here’s his links:

http://bladekindeyewear.tumblr.com/post/36797950396/breath-blood-and-the-flow-of-reality

http://bladekindeyewear.tumblr.com/post/23881289939/aspect-duality-theory

http://bladekindeyewear.tumblr.com/post/32791870832/the-answer-to-the-ultimate-riddle

If I were to suggest you start anywhere I’d say probably the Tex Talks videos if only because they’re like been lovingly spoonfed mindfucks and you don’t even have to read. They’re all great though.

Those are the three people who pretty much laid the foundation for my own approach to Homestuck from a mechanical understanding standpoint (i’d also credit @what-the-fuck-is-homestuck‘s character analysis from, you know, a character analysis standpoint as being foundational to me.) So those are my BIG RECS.

But if you’re really interested and want even MORE…

I haven’t been able to keep up with every single Homestuck theorist out there, so I don’t know how useful they all are in understanding the canon, but @theworstpersonintheworld gave me the ‘Serve’ verb and I think he’s got some really good ideas, and while I haven’t read through all of @dahniwitchoflight ‘s writing I have found her writing on Denizens pretty interesting and compelling and her writing on Aspects and dualities seems pretty good and solid, too. And @blindrapture wrote some great stuff on Caliborn predicting the ending of Homestuck–and seemingly the audience’s reaction to it as well.

There’s also @analytic-chaoticism and @wakraya (who wrote a gr8 piece on Act 7) who seem to be the biggest names I’ve seen hazarding theories about Hiveswap, if you’re into that. I’m probably missing people because this is a big umbrella because Homestuck is fascinating and massive and we’ll never be done digging.

Sorry I made this so long btw.

Dirk tells his friends he cares

discoursekind:

Dirk calls himself “a heart player who was just a stone cold motherfucker” but Dirk is wrong. Not only is that not true about how he really feels, it isn’t even true about how he acts.

Dirk shows himself to be open when it comes to expressing his love and care for his friends. The dude is not cagey about his emotional attachment to them.

He’s more than willing to tell them how much he cares about them and wants to do things with them:

As well as give them praise, especially if they’re putting themselves down:

He’s also willing to be honest with his criticisms:

Sometimes he gives praise and criticism at the same time:

Dirk loves his friends, and he isn’t cold or distant about it. He tells them to their face by trying to encourage and support them with honest feedback, whether praise or criticism—after all, what value does praise have without honest critique?—and expressions of his affection and enthusiasm for them. This doesn’t always pan out but he really does try.

From what we can tell, there are very few things he’s actually cagey about with his friends. These seem to mostly be things that would would reveal that he was hurt or upset by something: emotions related to his own feelings rather than emotions related to himself.

He doesn’t let on to Roxy exactly why her comments about his sexuality/her flirting make him uncomfortable, he also hides how fucked up he is and how much he hates himself from them, and he avoids total honesty about how he feels about flirt-LARPING and the AR and his Bro frequently. None of those are that strange to hold back on. He also avoided directly confessing to Jake, which is presumably related to Jake’s “And years ago i used to joke around with him that we would probably be totally into each other if he was a girl” comment. Admitting a crush to a friend is particularly difficult when stigma around sexuality comes into play.

All of these are emotions where he’d have to risk exposing aspects of himself he isn’t ready to. Other than those and being from the future, he’s open, honest, and direct in his affections, praise, and criticisms. He is not cagey when it comes to what he feels about people.

After all, it’s DIRK who is the clingy, overbearing boyfriend.

Sure, he has the facial expressiveness of a teaspoon. But you can probably give a kid who grew up totally alone a break on that. Dirk makes up for it in sincere comments about how much he cares for his friends, all the time, to their faces and in conversations with other people. Dirk loves his friends and he tries to let them to know it.

So much for a stone cold motherfucker.

I do want to point out that Dirk saying “I just still think it’s impressive, that’s all” is technically Brain Ghost Dirk operating as Brain Ghost Dirk, since it’s a unique line and not technically part of the memory. I still think it’s a unique moment of Dirk’s Heart shining through the ghost to wake Jake up, I’m just pedantic as hell abount untangling Dirk’s direct agency from that of his splinters so I wanted to note it.

Anyway this post cured my dandruff and my depression and I’m going right back to bed now where I will sleep like a baby as a direct consequence of reading it. Dirk is the sweetest and kindest character in this comic and I’m alive. Time to go have sweet sweet dreams about Dirk being loved by his friends and reminded he’s appreciated and not awful.

jaystrifes:

Dipping my toe into the recent discourse/Dirkcourse here, sorta but not really. I mostly just wanted to say to @revolutionaryduelist that you’re honestly doing such great work here and thank you for it because it means a lot to me.

I know there are some people in the fandom who the find the revival of the Dirk discourse to be somewhat ridiculous – because yeah, Dirk is probably one of the most well-loved characters. Nonetheless, when it comes to dirkjake, Dirk is often made out to be a villain, and I think that’s why it’s important we continue talking about it. I’m not here to debate point by point because I don’t have the time right now, but for the most part my views are aligned with @revolutionaryduelist, who has made some incredible posts about this whole thing and carries the discussion civilly and coherently.

Speaking from a personal standpoint, Dirk is the character I relate to the most. I’ve always liked him, and I’ve always shipped dirkjake, regardless of what’s been said about it in the past. The fandom consensus was rather negative at the time I first read Homestuck, and I accepted the general opinion as truth – that Dirk was a Bad Person. It didn’t mean I would stop liking him, it just seemed to be a real facet of his character and added some to his complexity.

But really, there was never much complexity in it. It made Dirk out to be a sum of splintered parts – mostly AR and Bro – that were actually not the same as him. It focused only on Dirk’s “great potential for evil”. Bad Dirk was such a widely accepted idea that I believed it, and in turn read it as something about myself.

It’s important to distinguish between the way Dirk sees himself, the way he projects himself, and the way he actually is. We’re all familiar with what he projects, the whole coolguy à la Dave Strider thing, someone who is confident and in control at all times. And I think most people are at least somewhat familiar with what Dirk sees in himself, how he (like the fandom) largely believes that he is Bad, that he is toxic, that he destroys everything he touches. And this persona of his was built up to the extent that many people actually take it at face value and think that what Dirk believes about himself is what the reader should believe about him, too.

I was a reader who fell for it, who believed in Bad Dirk, when I first read Homestuck. I already had self-loathing out the wazoo as it was, and I thought myself to be a much worse person than I actually was, or even am now. It’s something that lingers with me today. The fear that wearing this certain mask, projecting a version of myself that isn’t completely who I am inside, or even making ordinary mistakes, means that I am intentionally hurting the people around me. That I am manipulative, or abusive, and that others need to be kept safe from me.

And forgive me for projecting but I don’t think I’m wrong in saying that this is largely how Dirk felt about himself. The fandom accepted his own warped self-image without digging deeper for the evidence of who he actually is. Dirk is a flawed teenager, like the other alphas, but he’s someone who cares deeply about his friends and tries to hide his feelings beneath his exterior of sharp edges. His relationship with Jake was flawed too, but it wasn’t one between an abuser and a victim, it was one between two boys who hadn’t figured their shit out and grew up so isolated that they didn’t know how to resolve their issues and their feelings properly.

In summary, you don’t have to ship dirkjake, and you don’t have to like Dirk, and you don’t have to wholly agree with me. But please realize that there are big misconceptions within this fandom about relationships and characters, and that it’s important to correct those misconceptions and at least discuss disagreements because these things do reflect on impressionable kids coming into the fandom. It makes me happy to see that this topic is back on the table, and I appreciate all points of view and welcome feedback or discussion if you’d like to bring up a point with me. And once again, much of the real evidence supporting the claim, at least the opinion I’m drawing from, can be found on @revolutionaryduelist‘s blog. My goal here was only to provide reasoning and a personal opinion. Thanks for reading.

me awakening to the possibility i’ve actually changed peoples lives for the better with all this. i’m not even joking reading this actually brought me to tears.

My experience was a lot like yours in a way! I relate to Jake as much as Dirk and the general fanon opinion really messed me up back in those times. I’m so, so happy if I was able to change that for people the way it was changed for me, because that’s exactly why I wanted to write all this.

Idk, just. Today’s been really nice and people have been really nice to me. Thanks for taking the time to write all this and I hope you like the stuff I’ve got in store. I might have oooone more essay in me about Davekat but I’m really revving up my video editing back up and I am super excited to put Homestuck videos out again.

I’m always excited to talk about homestuck and i’m even more excited now that it seems like there really are plenty of people out there rn who want to have those conversations. This is all so great. You’re all awesome ;w;

wilwheaton:

rudeartheaux:

bettiefatal:

buckobarns:

This is the lucky clover cat. reblog this in 30 seconds & he will bring u good luck and fortune.

THIS ONE!!! THIS IS THE ONE THAT WORKS!!!!!

I reblogged him the day i started treatment and 1. GOT TO MY APPOINTMENT ON TIME 2. FOUND A FREE PARKING TICKET SOMEONE LEFT IN THE METER FOR ME AND 3. GOT FREE STARBUCKS AFTER MY APPOINTMENT!!!!!

I’m convinced bc I reblogged this on Friday, got hired at a job I had a million interviews for, went on a first date that went well, and got kissed a billion times so like hell ya to the luck cat

COME ON HAMILTON TICKETS LET’S DO THIS CLOVER CAT.

@jankystats I don’t wanna reblog that again because its too damn long honestly but here’s my response

I agree with you completely but you don’t seem to see where I’m coming from. I’ve opened essays by saying it wouldn’t matter to me if Dirk was abusive–there’s no moral prerogative here for me. You’re right, the best answer to the question is “so what?” but there’s no reason we can’t ask answer both questions.

This is especially true because while Dirkjake might be popular, it is by no means popular on the level of…say…Davekat, or Rosemary, and certainly not as it is canonically presented–you can’t just consider the volume of fanwork, because you have to consider how much of the fanwork is presented as shit like this.

Which, not dragging the artist, I like them–but it’s cruel and meanspirited, and not really the kind of thing I think people would take for granted in, say….Rosemary. Or Davekat. And it’s certainly not what I think this mlm narrative deserves.

I don’t resent people their personal interpretations of Dirk. I do resent the fact that Dirk, as he exists in the canon of Homestuck, is immensely underrepresented in fanon, and this goes for Jake as well.

If you don’t feel like my version of Dirk is closer to canon, well…I wrote all those essays about why I feel this way and I’ve couched them all with invitations for people to critique them on those terms. I want to have a conversation analyzing this, and I don’t think that conversation should stop at “Well We Just See The Alphas Differently” in a narrative as complex and interwoven as this one. There are details to build upon that are important.

But more than resenting, I just want to present people with an alternative vision, and there’s no practical way for me to do that without…you know…speaking up about it and presenting a compelling case for why.

There’s a lot of logical and narrative fallacies built into the conception of Asshole Dirk because…this might shock you…that’s not the narrative the story was trying to tell. The fact that some people read him that way isn’t the problem! People have the prerogative to read any character any way they want for any reason.

But that’s not why people read Dirk this way, they read him this way because there was a profound and vicious fandom movement for that reading who’s aftershocks have still left an imprint on the fandom. Someone literally @’d me with a bunch of misconceptions based on that movement that I’ve already meticulously jossed today.

My vision of Dirk is not The Only Dirk, but I’ve yet to be presented with a single reason why it’s not canonical other than…fanon begets fanon, as you said. And as this is fanon that literally hurts the visibility of Dirk and Jake as cultural icons–and which I’d argue translates into a dimmer perception of Homestuck as a work and probably sales for What Pumpkin if I were to guess, too…I believe it’s a vision of Dirk worth contesting.

Not so no one is allowed to produce the Wrong Kinds Of Dirk. I don’t care about that. Make whatever Dirks you want. What I want is to show the fandom that other readings of Dirk are possible, and coherent, and justified, and worth celebrating as an empowering gay narrative, which a lot of people in this fandom have already mocked me for trying to do.

So it’s not like I’m off the mark about this cultural resistance to perceiving Dirk positively–it’s literally affecting people’s perception of me right now. I could show you posts if you want, though I’d rather not publically involve people criticizing me just for making posts about this stuff.

Maybe this gives you a better idea of where I’m coming from? If not, I’ll have to ask where you think I’m going wrong, cause I don’t see what I can do better here. I’m being as nice about this as I can be while being loud and firm in my views and willing to have them contested, which I have to be if I want people to listen.

vriskalesbian:

revolutionaryduelist:

vriskalesbian:

hey @revolutionaryduelist nice lesbophobia

Most of the people who share my sentiment on this issue are also lesbians or wlw mso no, it’s not inherent to their being lesbians. I don’t even think “you guys” are being assholes on purpose.

I think Dirkcourse is kind of innately vicious and people respond hyperaggressively to having it questioned, and that’s resulted in people literally calling me a geek and making fun of me for it, and many of those people have been wlw. I think that’s an issue when I, a queer mlm, is talking about an intensely personal mlm narrative.

I also think calling people geeks in response to talking about a canon we all love is just kind of innately childish and petty? You’ll notice I haven’t been doing it.

dude removing anything about this dirk discourse but when you called out people for making fun of you which, sure can be petty but w/e, using in your own words have responded to all this discourse with a level of seriousness and pa-agro thats honestly pretty damn wild. but you specifically named wlw for this. like, you didnt say followers of popular bloggers, or “anti-soft dirk fans” or some shit, you said you’re being victimized specifically by wlw. which isnt true at fucking all i can tell you, the wlw hivemind is not all poking fun at you for this and its not like every single person calling you “geeks” is a wlw.

i can get your passion about a narrative that resonates with you but you’ve been incredibly unreceptive to anything else people have been saying, and instead writing long exhausting essays about “the homophobia inherent in not liking soft dirk and thinking hes an asshole” (which i will NOT get into, you cannot PAY me to touch that shit or read another goddamn essay) and then accusing people who disagree with you of not listening. it’s exhausting trying to have a discussion with you or even watching others talk to you. so yeah, people are making fun of you- it’s too tiring to try to talk to someone who doesn’t listen.

Yeah, fair enough, that was poor wording on my part then. I’m not under the impression a wlw hivemind is out to get me here–again, most of the people I know sharing my frustration are wlw–but if I came off as though I was levying that accusation then I’m genuinely sorry about it. Thanks for letting me know.

That said, no one but swamp-wizard has actually talked to me about this stuff, and if he’s been finding my rhetorical approach exhausting he hasn’t let me know about it. I don’t do this on purpose. This is, as you say, something I’m passionate about–and it also happens to be one of the most complicated and tangled areas of the comic, so I don’t really HAVE another way to express this stuff easily than…putting into words. In order. Which leads to long essays.

Everyone else OPENED in response to me broaching the subject by making fun of me, and only ramped up the intensity until you, just now. I’ve been trying my hardest to be genuine and earnest about this, and I am not trying to be an asshole but it is emotionally exhausting. So yeah I was a bit too snippy about one point and mislabeled the audience I’m perceiving as attacking me somewhat, not even over the Dirkcourse stuff but over personal writing I wrote for fun. So yeah, my bad on the terminology.

As for the rest, idk, not much else to say. This all just makes me feel sad and hopeless so I’m pretty much done engaging with you. Hopefully swamp is actually approaching this in good faith and is interested in talking about it!

I’d rather not talk to the rest of you at all if your response is simply “too much work, easier to make fun of you for being a furry.” This isn’t you guys being “good progressives”, either.

vriskalesbian:

hey @revolutionaryduelist nice lesbophobia

Most of the people who share my sentiment on this issue are also lesbians or wlw mso no, it’s not inherent to their being lesbians. I don’t even think “you guys” are being assholes on purpose.

I think Dirkcourse is kind of innately vicious and people respond hyperaggressively to having it questioned, and that’s resulted in people literally calling me a geek and making fun of me for it, and many of those people have been wlw. I think that’s an issue when I, a queer mlm, is talking about an intensely personal mlm narrative.

I also think calling people geeks in response to talking about a canon we all love is just kind of innately childish and petty? You’ll notice I haven’t been doing it.

oceanboydirk:

@revolutionaryduelist honestly if we put jake aside for a second and just talk about dirk, separately from being someone who fell in love with one of his best friends, dirk’s story is still an incredible narrative about what it’s like to be queer in a group of (perceived) straight people.*

he’s emotionally isolated. jane doesn’t know he’s queer because he’s never brought it up to her. he can’t talk to roxy because she’s in love with him. he tried to talk to jake and jake shut him down. i can’t tell you the number of times where i wanted to talk about queerness and didn’t because i knew the people around me weren’t receptive. the number of times where i wanted to talk about queerness in a group of straight people and they didn’t want to hear it. the times that i spoke anyway and felt the group become uncomfortable and want me to stop talking.

this is reflected in dirk’s physical isolation as well. he’s the loneliest person in the world. at least roxy had the carapacians, as shitty consolation as that may be. dirk has only ever had himself.

speaking of dirk only ever having himself — dirk can only rely on himself as a product of his physical isolation. i’ve often felt the exact same way — because i’m trans. that being different from everyone around me meant i could trust no one. that people would (and they do) always let me down or not be there in a way that i needed. you know what? this feeling that i’m the only one around to look out for myself has made me a) distant and guarded with people and b) feel desperate to be in control of my environment and of myself. i’m speaking from personal experience, obviously, but i’m by far not the only one.

“different from everyone else” now where have i heard dirk say that. oh, right. dirk thinks he’s toxic to the people around him. he thinks that his friends don’t understand his core issues (do straight and cis people ever truly understand? we can explain and they can be kind, they can sympathize, but i know i’ve never really made a cis person understand what it feels like to be me). dirk thinks he’s the poison element in his friendships. anyone remember being a teenager in a room full of people who were in some way vulnerable (discussing romance, changing clothes, etc.) and wondering if they would have let you be in the room if they knew what you’re really like? if they knew the truth about you, would they still like you? would they still trust you? would they be disgusted? would you lose everyone you ever loved if people knew what you truly are?

there’s probably more detail but these are the things that stick out the most strongly to me. sorry to get so personal with you guys, it’s just that dirk is very important to me, as someone who is, at times, a queer boy.

*note: obviously jake is not straight, but he pretends he is for some time. post-canon suggests jane is also queer. and, of course, roxy and calliope’s (and roxy and jane’s) story has always been very romantic. dirk is not actually in a group of straight people, but there was VERY likely a time when he thought he was.

Right like Dirk’s experience growing up is explicitly and intensely a queer boy’s growing up, Dirk likens himself to an evil creator God and thinks he’s intrinsically evil and worthless because that’s how being queer growing up surrounded by heteronormativity makes you feel lmao. I grew up that way.

The takeaway to his narrative isn’t “Yeah you’re kinda intrinsically shit but you can grow up to be only Kinda shit and have all your friends only Kinda hate you!” It’s so much more uplifting and powerful than that and that that’s getting ignored by most fanon just SUCKS.