cindersnows

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John: follow him!!!!

JOHN: dirk wait up!

You push yourself forwards with a blast of wind to catch up with Dirk, reaching out to grab him and stop him from heading off into nowhere, but he slaps your arm away.

DIRK: Don't fucking touch me.

The light of the burning denizen nearby glints off his glasses, and for a moment you can see his eyes underneath— eyebrows furrowed, flashing bright pink. Oops.

JOHN: sorry! sorry. JOHN: no need to get so angry dude. JOHN: look, if you're feeling bad because you just died. i get it! i've also had depression for a few years now. JOHN: it was a huge realisation. but i didn't figure it out until i wasn't alone anymore. JOHN: so you shouldn't be alone either! DIRK: Oh, spare me your spin, you tactless tabloid. JOHN: (huh?) DIRK: I'm nothing like you, John Egbert. And 'm definitely not depressed.. JOHN: but... you killed yourself?? that's like something people ONLY do if they have depression. DIRK: You wouldn't understand. JOHN: well obviously i won't if you keep acting all mad and weird instead of explaining what happened! JOHN: what's your deal dude?!?

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guys we win (same thing for dirkjohn)

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USERNAMES IN THE FRUITYRUMPUS WEBSITE THAT GIVE YOU UNIQUE "TAKEN" RESPONSES

TAVVY: It's not that i don't want to share,,, but, doing so seems more cruel,,,

GG: Please don't,,, my mom,,, she can't find out I'm online,

YIFFY: okay lets make a trade. your name for my name. deal?

YIFFANY: only if you let me write it on your forehead too.

HARRY: i guess it's a pretty common name, so i can't be too mad. haha.

TG: dude! i talk to my girlfriend with that account, and there's no room for a fourth in her quadrants.

VRISSY: Come on, I Just Picked That!

AG: Soooooooorry, 8ut if you're So O8sessed With Me, just look up my TrollTok already.

VRISKA: 8etter luck next time!

AG: Not a chance. >:::;)

SERKET: Taken!

JUNE: that's in my top three months! probably? actually, that is a really stupid thing to keep track of!

JOHN: i know it's a common name, but it's my name!

EB: hey, that's mine!

GT: i made that user name when i was like 10!

JADE: nuh uh!

GG: this is so weird.......

DAVE: two words: brand integrity

TG: nah

ROSE: I think not.

TT: Did you expect it to be that easy? Please.

ROXY: wat

TG: can u take the hint... TAKEN

LALONDE: if you want this name youre gonna need to put a ring on it babes

(all in epilogues narration font, a la ult dirk)

DIRK: You wish.

TT: Not in a million years.

STRIDER: Why do you want to be us so badly? Get your own shit together. The Strider style is not for sale.

JANE: No way, buster. (aw shucks)

GG: You're no sleuth...

EGBERT: Sorry, but family names belong to the family. Even the perfectly mediocre ones.

CROCKER: OBEY. SUBMIT. CONSUME.

JAKE: Who me?

GT: Trying to get a rise out of me buster?

HARLEY: Speech... impediment? Im afraid youve lost me.

LYLAC: o---*

GC: seriously...? fine, just take it all...

AA: ... !

TC: gø ahead and help yøurself to my credentials. just knøw i'll be keeping an eye øn yøu.

CC: zomg.

KARKAT: HELL NO.

CG: DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.

TEREZI: H3H3H3H3 NO

(right now i can't remem8er any of the other trolls handles, so ill edit when i have time)

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new upd8 was sooo goooodddd... a8solute 8om8 drop though (haha get it)

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uhhhhh... hopy shit

ok so: what i'm understanding of this upd8

this show is called the "FANON-TINUUM" a portmanteau of fanon and continuum, so it's about the ranges of fanon and stuff

it's hosted by nepeta, which checks! nepeta was the poster girl for "fandom behaviours" in hs proper (before calliope came in) with all her shipping and furry stuff. i do note that she's wearing ben stiller shades like dave has, which leads me into my next point

we're entirely out of the realm of canon!! at least in the place where crowbar is. the nepetas we see are all different fan interpretations of nepeta, rather than being the real thing (although what "the real things even means is up to interpretation). nepeta of hs proper is still dead, but now that we are out of canon, we are not bound to its rules.

and so nepeta is not dead, nepeta is not fefeta or davepeta, but because davepeta in particular influences nepeta's characterisation in the fandom so strongly, we get the "host" nepeta wearing dave shades and a suit, and acting with a demeanor that's more confident and stylish than the original nepeta.

as for how crowbar got there in the first place, i don't think it's simply a case of "nepeta set up this weird gameshow right next to candy's moon". my guess is that it's more metaphorical— the felt (and jack noir, rest in peace) are characters who were almost wholly irrelevant in hsbc, with people wondering if they were forgotten until the brief panel of them manning the moon laser. when they're so far out of the spotlight, what they're doing is anyone's guess, and so they barely exist within canon anymore.

this leaves them on the verge of becoming non-canon entirely if they decide to take any steps to escape their unhappy situation on the moon. and crowbar does that! in doing so, he effectively exits canon entirely, even the realm of dubious canon. he's non-essential, irrelevant, and now that his actions go against what the candy timeline requires of him, he is also untrue.

he's fanon now.

side-note: this is clearly not the first guest nepeta has had on the show. please envision your own little au blorbos on nepeta's show!! i know i am

anyways im going to go cry because i had a brief inkling of hope that the blue silhouette before nepeta was revealed was going to be june

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DID SHE JUST FUCKING TALK

Bonus Comic #38 Written and Drawn by floralmarsupial

To see more bonus material as it's released https://www.patreon.com/homestuck

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we've both changed a lot. i'm glad you're my friend

(she/he for dash, he/they/xe/void/meow for roxy)

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important stamp for anyones use

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(Disclaimer: I don't ship any of the sticks together. Any relationship I mention in this post is purely platonic)

Now that that's out of the way...

I think Purple and Orange's relationship is being slept on by the fandom

Purple is close with Green, I agree. Their experiences in the Note Block Universe has definitely solidified a relationship; they trust each other.

*kicks down door*

BUT YOU KNOW WHO REACHED OUT TO PURPLE TO FORGIVE HIM FIRST??

IT WAS ORANGE

HE GAVE PURPLE WHAT WAS PROBABLY HIS FIRST HUG IN MONTHS

*ahem*

I just think we should explore these two's relationship more, because Orange is the reason Purple became their friend in the first place. Sure, that led to Purple having connections to the CG and then using those connections to betray them...

But he gets better!

I could talk a lot more about Orange and how he always sees the best in people and does his best to reach out to them and forgive them. But I don't have anymore words so you get this :]

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the problem with mitsi (or as i like to call it. mitsogyny)

(context: this was written under a youtube video, which i'm sure most of us have at least seen pop up in our recommendeds, in response to many people taking criticism against the new episode. it has been edited a little to be more cohesive as a somewhat-essay)

ok, i wanted to write out a rant/essay/ramble/whatever sort of summarising the criticism against mitsi's plotline because a lot of the people here seem to be misunderstanding the fundamental issue that people have with it, including some of those people themselves.

first off, an analysis that i think tell both sides of the argument very well which i feel should be read before reading the essay: Mitsi: What Makes A Fridged Character (and why y'all are wrong about it) | an AvA essay by InksandPensblog. i will note: i don't care to discuss whether mitsi was fridged or not and that won't be of much importance in this post. the above link gives some insight into some of the fandom's criticism of mitsi and how she was "fridged", defining common tropes for examples. that's what's relevant to this post.

the main issue with mitsi, in my opinion, is less with the fact that mitsi's a girl and moreso the fact that she's one of the only female-coded character in the series, and that her character's main purpose was to further victim's own development. the other arguably female-coded character in the series is pink, who (like navy) only really exists to explain purple's motivations. i don't have much of an issue with that since they're not meant to be important or sympathised with at all. that's not their job in the story.

with mitsi, i've seen people point out that she has more character to her than just victim's love interest and supporter: she invents rocketcorp, she's smart, she's kind, innocent and helpful. narratively speaking, she shows other creations' relationships with their animators, parallels her innocence with victim's trauma, and introduces victim to the outernet (as most fans call the stick realm).

but most of this things imo are either stretches or invalid arguments. she's not really a 2/3-dimensional character in any way; her main character traits boil down to the fact that she likes to be in service of others with no nuance behind why she likes helping people. she hypes up victim for the villagers, she starts a company with him to share his talents with the world, and she helps him overcome his trauma from alan's torture. all of her main plot beats center around victim: and while technically the sticks are genderless and free to be interpreted however the viewer wants, alan and most of his team see all the main characters as male, and that subconciously affects how they're written. mitsi, the first major female-coded character, spends most of her storyline in service of victim, a character not written as female.

there's also the issue of her being victim's canonical love interest. i feel like this statement from alan is important to keep in mind (don't mind the sound effects and edits, this is the only isolated clip i can find at the moment). in particular:

"i just assume that [the ava/m characters] are just a bunch of bros]. i haven't thought of adding any female stick figures but i think it'd be good. i don't want to introduce any romance though, i don't want that to be a theme."

he seems to have changed his mind on that last part, which is fine, but the notable part for me is that he seems to associate female characters with romance from the getgo. before anyone misinterprets this, i'm not trying to call alan sexist or anything. but there's a common issue with women in stories being reduced to just a romantic partner for the male lead, and mitsi falls under this, with her entire character existing to serve victim. (not to mention people will make things about romance whether you like it or not. that's just basic fandom. search up grapeduo or chodark.) even her death is to put victim on the path of vengeance--- it doesn't need to happen to show the extent of tco and tdl's destruction, because that's already made pretty clear in ava s2 the flashback and the earlier scenes showing various characters escaping burning buildings. when you write a female-coded character whose only purpose is to serve a male character, you're contributing to sexist narratives.

a counter i see many people point out with the idea that she has no character is that she does have character traits, it's just that they're generic ones like "kind" and "innocent". the issue is that she has no flaws to counterpoint this; it's not that she didn't have enough screentime. in ava4 for example, we see tsc's flaws pretty clearly; they can be very mean when they want to, they're petty (albeit for a fair reason), they're a little impulsive. this is shown in 11 minutes (from the moment they come alive to the end of the video).

with mitsi meanwhile… she doesn't seem to have any flaws? she helps victim whenever she can. she's nice to all the villagers. her customers all like her and she's a great leader at rocket corp (to note, specifically as part of a pair with victim. they're a power couple, she's barely given credit for her work alone). she has 13 minutes of screentime, or 10 if you count from her waking up in the outernet. there's plenty of opportunities to show her having flaws; maybe she acts a little selfish during tdl and tco's attack, only wanting to help herself and agent smith, or maybe she overworks herself, or feels awkward at having too much attention (and that could also be why she redirects so much attention to victim, she's shy). you could argue that the episode needs to develop victim and agent smith too, but ava4 shows that's easy to do too: just a few seconds dedicated to showing rgyb fighting over who leaves first shows that they can be selfish and childish. it's very easy to insert a moment like that for mitsi.

it's a little disappointing when the first major female-coded character in ava is completely flawless, with no personality outside of being nice and helpful for others.

also, slightly unrelated, check out this quote from mitsi's plushie website: "her white featureless face seems to ooze mystery and feminine power all at the same time." her main character trait, as a woman, is being feminine. it's irritating as someone who's been raised a woman to see her reduced to just her gender. she feels more plastic than a person, like the concept of what a woman should be (perfect, kind, useful) and not an actual character/person.

i would expect more from the writing in the series seeing as it's not just an independent passion project anymore, and has multiple writers that all could've worked to flesh out mitsi, or at least get a sensitivity reader of sorts to point these issues out. it's extremely disappointing and i can understand why people were upset.

tldr: the problem isn't just that mitsi's a girl, or that she's nice or dating victim, it's that she's written in a misogynistic way.

[cindersnows]

new short dropped!!! in which vitsi is made undeniably canon, no room for interpretation, so sorry. and also mitsi is characterised as a silly overspending girl who doesn't realise when she's getting scammed. yay.

the problem with mitsi (or as i like to call it. mitsogyny)

(context: this was written under a youtube video, which i'm sure most of us have at least seen pop up in our recommendeds, in response to many people taking criticism against the new episode. it has been edited a little to be more cohesive as a somewhat-essay)

ok, i wanted to write out a rant/essay/ramble/whatever sort of summarising the criticism against mitsi's plotline because a lot of the people here seem to be misunderstanding the fundamental issue that people have with it, including some of those people themselves.

first off, an analysis that i think tell both sides of the argument very well which i feel should be read before reading the essay: Mitsi: What Makes A Fridged Character (and why y'all are wrong about it) | an AvA essay by InksandPensblog. i will note: i don't care to discuss whether mitsi was fridged or not and that won't be of much importance in this post. the above link gives some insight into some of the fandom's criticism of mitsi and how she was "fridged", defining common tropes for examples. that's what's relevant to this post.

the main issue with mitsi, in my opinion, is less with the fact that mitsi's a girl and moreso the fact that she's one of the only female-coded character in the series, and that her character's main purpose was to further victim's own development. the other arguably female-coded character in the series is pink, who (like navy) only really exists to explain purple's motivations. i don't have much of an issue with that since they're not meant to be important or sympathised with at all. that's not their job in the story.

with mitsi, i've seen people point out that she has more character to her than just victim's love interest and supporter: she invents rocketcorp, she's smart, she's kind, innocent and helpful. narratively speaking, she shows other creations' relationships with their animators, parallels her innocence with victim's trauma, and introduces victim to the outernet (as most fans call the stick realm).

but most of this things imo are either stretches or invalid arguments. she's not really a 2/3-dimensional character in any way; her main character traits boil down to the fact that she likes to be in service of others with no nuance behind why she likes helping people. she hypes up victim for the villagers, she starts a company with him to share his talents with the world, and she helps him overcome his trauma from alan's torture. all of her main plot beats center around victim: and while technically the sticks are genderless and free to be interpreted however the viewer wants, alan and most of his team see all the main characters as male, and that subconciously affects how they're written. mitsi, the first major female-coded character, spends most of her storyline in service of victim, a character not written as female.

there's also the issue of her being victim's canonical love interest. i feel like this statement from alan is important to keep in mind (don't mind the sound effects and edits, this is the only isolated clip i can find at the moment). in particular:

"i just assume that [the ava/m characters] are just a bunch of bros]. i haven't thought of adding any female stick figures but i think it'd be good. i don't want to introduce any romance though, i don't want that to be a theme."

he seems to have changed his mind on that last part, which is fine, but the notable part for me is that he seems to associate female characters with romance from the getgo. before anyone misinterprets this, i'm not trying to call alan sexist or anything. but there's a common issue with women in stories being reduced to just a romantic partner for the male lead, and mitsi falls under this, with her entire character existing to serve victim. (not to mention people will make things about romance whether you like it or not. that's just basic fandom. search up grapeduo or chodark.) even her death is to put victim on the path of vengeance--- it doesn't need to happen to show the extent of tco and tdl's destruction, because that's already made pretty clear in ava s2 the flashback and the earlier scenes showing various characters escaping burning buildings. when you write a female-coded character whose only purpose is to serve a male character, you're contributing to sexist narratives.

a counter i see many people point out with the idea that she has no character is that she does have character traits, it's just that they're generic ones like "kind" and "innocent". the issue is that she has no flaws to counterpoint this; it's not that she didn't have enough screentime. in ava4 for example, we see tsc's flaws pretty clearly; they can be very mean when they want to, they're petty (albeit for a fair reason), they're a little impulsive. this is shown in 11 minutes (from the moment they come alive to the end of the video).

with mitsi meanwhile… she doesn't seem to have any flaws? she helps victim whenever she can. she's nice to all the villagers. her customers all like her and she's a great leader at rocket corp (to note, specifically as part of a pair with victim. they're a power couple, she's barely given credit for her work alone). she has 13 minutes of screentime, or 10 if you count from her waking up in the outernet. there's plenty of opportunities to show her having flaws; maybe she acts a little selfish during tdl and tco's attack, only wanting to help herself and agent smith, or maybe she overworks herself, or feels awkward at having too much attention (and that could also be why she redirects so much attention to victim, she's shy). you could argue that the episode needs to develop victim and agent smith too, but ava4 shows that's easy to do too: just a few seconds dedicated to showing rgyb fighting over who leaves first shows that they can be selfish and childish. it's very easy to insert a moment like that for mitsi.

it's a little disappointing when the first major female-coded character in ava is completely flawless, with no personality outside of being nice and helpful for others.

also, slightly unrelated, check out this quote from mitsi's plushie website: "her white featureless face seems to ooze mystery and feminine power all at the same time." her main character trait, as a woman, is being feminine. it's irritating as someone who's been raised a woman to see her reduced to just her gender. she feels more plastic than a person, like the concept of what a woman should be (perfect, kind, useful) and not an actual character/person.

i would expect more from the writing in the series seeing as it's not just an independent passion project anymore, and has multiple writers that all could've worked to flesh out mitsi, or at least get a sensitivity reader of sorts to point these issues out. it's extremely disappointing and i can understand why people were upset.

tldr: the problem isn't just that mitsi's a girl, or that she's nice or dating victim, it's that she's written in a misogynistic way.

[cindersnows]

i hate vitsi i hate vitsi i hate vitsi I FUCKING HATE VITSI!!!

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HEAVEN SAYS.

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tell me your thoughts also

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tsc is not normal

reblogs > likes

purple

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(mostly) every detail compiled into a mini compilation. I didn't include anything in the original post because I have an attachment limit

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purple is not normal

reblogs > likes

tsc