#I'm so bad at drawing trolls but I'm trying

[trolllsss]

[delicioustarong]

I'm planning on making a smoll animatic about my au :3

It was originally supposed to be a comic but I decided to just make snippets of content about it. It's more fun that way hehehehe

(hint: it's JD angst)

[chrisbesitos]

chris x fem¡younger reader ( like 1-2 years younger) he just babies her the whole time, and is very protective of her.

SWEET RELIEF.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀chris sturniolo × fem!reader.

warnings: fluff, nsfw, cursing, sickness, angst (a lit bit).

synopsis: Chris dates a girl who's two years younger than he. Chris is 21 and the reader is 19.

— Chris and Y/N relationship are public, but they keep private.

Chris never hide his relationship with Y/N, but they never made any hard launch in the social medias, because Chris didn't want his fans to being mean with her. Y/N is only 19, Chris knows how evil people on internet can be and he doesn't want his girlfriend to suffer with this.

But sometimes he can't stop this, but he can make her feel better with his love.

"Hey, gorgeous." Chris said, he found his girlfriend on their bed. He was out with his brothers, recording a video and Y/N stay home waiting for Chris, so they could sleep together.

"Hi, I couldn't sleep without you." She replied, Y/N looks a upset, Chris could notice. Y/N gave him a sad smile, he frow his eyebrows and sit in the corner of the bed. Chris extends his hand to Y/N, holding hers.

"What happened, baby?" He asked, Y/N low her eyes and let go Chris' hand. She rubbed her own arms, Y/N knows she couldn't hide from her boyfriend. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Why you with me?" Y/N looked at Chris, the boy frowned his eyebrows doesn't understanding why she were asking this.

While she was waiting for Chris, she spent time scrolling her 'for you' page on TikTok and saw some comments about her. People were saying she wasn't right for Chris, because he needs to stay with a woman of his age, calling her childish and annoying. Then, she couldn't stop thinking about this, maybe Chris really needs someone who's not two years younger.

"Why are you asking this, baby?" Chris asked, he sat by her side and pulled her to his lap. He let kisses all over her face, making her giggle because of his beard. "I'm with you, because I love you so much."

"And I love you too, but–" Chris cuts her off.

"Why are you asking this? You didn't answer me." Chris hugged her shoulders, Y/N lay her head on the crook of Chris' neck. She started to draw invisible circles on Chris' chest with her finger. "Y/N."

"I saw comments on TikTok saying that you should date a woman of your age." Y/N said sadly, Chris hugged her harder and kissed her forehead. "They said I'm childish and annoying and–"

"I don't want to hear these lies about you." Chris held Y/N's chin to make her look at him. "None of these people knows you as much as me and I don't fucking care about what they think about our relationship. You're my girlfriend, I want you and only you." He kissed her lips.

"I love you so much, you know this, right?" She smiled, Chris nods his head smiling too. "I just. . . I don't want to care about it, but sometimes I can't help it."

"I know, It's hard, baby, but these people are trolls who want to make you feel bad for being you." Chris pulled her to his chest, Y/N embrace his waist, laying her head on his chest. "Don't worry about it, I'm gonna make sure they'll know I'm not gonna tolerate these comments."

And he did. After Y/N fall asleep on Chris lap, he posted a note on his Instagram story. He wrote he would not tolerate mean comments about his girlfriend, because it's anyone business who he dates. He protects his girlfriend all coast, you can say he babies her all the time and protects from everything, but he didn't care and so Y/N.

— Y/N's mad at Chris, because he wants to protect her from everything.

"Stop babying me all the time!" Y/N said angry. She was getting ready to hang out with her friends, friends who Chris doesn't like, because he thinks they are a bad influence to Y/N.

"Well, you didn't seem to care until now." Chris rolled his eyes, he sat on his bed and crossed his arms on his chest. He was trying to stop Y/N from going to a party with them, but she was being stubborn. "Come on, baby."

"No! I want to go out tonight, they're my friends, Chris." She groans, hitting the sink with her hands. Even though she didn't care when Chris babies her, now he's acting like she's a kid. "It's just a party, Chris."

"Oh, these friends? You mean the guy who got arrested? You told me, don't remember?"

"Jeez, Chris. It was a misunderstanding." She got out of the bathroom. Y/N was wearing a tiny dress, make up and hair ready, Chris thinks she looked gorgeous, but he didn't trust in other guys. Chris got up and held Y/N's shoulders.

"You want to go out? We can go, but I don't trust these people."

"Chris, why don't you trust me? I can take care of myself, damn."

"Did I say that I do not trust you?" Y/N rolled her eyes. "Fine, I gave up. Go hang out with them, but don't call me when you get in trouble because of them."

Y/N groans angry, she got her purse and phone and stormed out of the room. Chris followed her until the door, he watched her walk to her friend car, he knows she will end up calling him, but if she wants to know by her own, he will let her do.

"Oh, how would you get into a party? You're not twenty-one yet, they would not let you in." He said sassy.

"Fuck you, Chris!"

He was right, he always is. Chris waits for Y/N call, because he knew she would call at some point. It was almost nine in when Y/N call, only an hour after she leaves. Chris answered quickly, even though he was mad with her, he still worried.

"I told you, didn't I?" Chris said.

"They left me here." She cried. "They got in the club without me after the security said I couldn't get in, they just said sorry and left me."

"I tried to warn you, Y/N. I told you they wouldn't let you in." Chris sighed, he got off the couch and catch the car keys. "Send me your location, I'll get you."

"I'm sorry, Chris." She sobs.

"I know, baby. Now, send me your location, okay? I'm gonna bring you home."

Y/N send Chris her location and he drive until her. She was sitting on the highway with tears on her face, Chris parked and opened the window, Y/N get in the car in silence. She sniffed, Y/N cleaned her tears and the mascara of her face, Chris tugged his hoodie off and gave to his girlfriend.

"Now you understand why I didn't want you to go out with them? They left like you were nothing."

"I know." She whispered, putting on his hoodie. "I'm sorry, I should've listened to you."

"Baby, when I do these things it's not because I don't trust you, it's because I don't trust them." Chris said, he started to drive back home. "I'm sorry if you don't like when I baby you, but it's because I love you."

"It's not this, I just feel like you were treating me like I'm a kid."

"I'm sorry, you know I didn't mean." He stopped at the red lights, Chris rubbed Y/N's tight. She held his hand and kissed the back. "I'm gonna try to not baby you too much."

"No, I like when you baby me." She crossed her arms on her chest, Chris giggled. "Just don't treat me like I'm a kid."

"I will not, not anymore." Chris smiled and gave a peck on her lips. "In 'n Out?"

"Please, I'm starving!"

— "You don't have to carry me everywhere, Chris!"

Chris loves to carry Y/N everywhere. They arrived home? Chris has to carry his girlfriend inside. Arrived in a hotel in the middle of the night during the tour? Chris carried Y/N until their room while she sleep. Bathroom in the middle of the night? Here he goes, carrying his girl to the bathroom and waiting for her, so he could carry her back to bed.

Y/N loves too, but she can walk, but Chris insists in carry her.

"No, no, no." Chris stopped Y/N, they were watching a movie in the living room. "Where are you going?"

"I didn't sleep too much last night, gonna have a nap."

"Then, let's have a nap." Chris turns off the TV, he gets up the couch and holds his girlfriend in a bridal style.

"You don't have to carry me everywhere, Chris!" Y/N giggled, holding Chris' neck. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, rubbing her nose there.

"But I can, so why not?"

Chris carried Y/N to their room, he lay her in the bed and covered with the blanket. Chris turns the lights off and lays by her side, Y/N hugged Chris' neck with her arm and embrace his waist with her leg.

"Just lay on me." He chuckled. Y/N yawn and climb Chris' body, he holds her and let her sleep on he.

— If he babies Y/N all the time, when she got sick it's even worse.

"100.4° F (38° C), damn." Chris said looking at the thermometer visor. Y/N was acting weird the whole day, Chris thought she was getting sick, but she insisted she were okay.

Until now. They got home after the day shopping, Y/N passed out in the bed for two hours until Chris comes to check on her. He knows she was sick, but for some stupid reason she was acting like not.

"It's not that bad." She complained.

"Oh, yeah. A higher fever is not that bad, Y/N." He said being sarcastic, she sighed. Chris helped her to sit, he tugged her hair from her face. "Open your mouth." Chris said holding a pill.

"I don't need this." She frowned her nose, but the look Chris gave to her made her open her mouth. Chris put the pill on her tongue and gave her water to swallow. "Thanks, baby."

"Rest and I'll make you a soup, okay?" He kissed her forehead.

"You don't know how to cook." She giggled laying down.

"I'll figure it out."

She was right, Chris doesn't know how to cook, so he had to ask Nick to do it. After the soup is ready, Chris put in a bowl to Y/N and goes to his room. She wasn't sleeping anymore, Y/N was watching TV with her body all covered by the blankets. Chris smiled at her while he closed the door.

"You cold?"

"A bit, probably because of the fever, but I'll feel better if you lay here with me."

"I bring you soup." He put the bowl in the nightstand and sat in the bed, Y/N sat too with Chris help.

"Who made it?" She jokes. Chris rolled his eyes getting the bowl back, Y/N tried to hold, but Chris didn't let her. "Why? You gonna feed me?"

"Of course I will." Chris said and Y/N didn't complain. The boy gave her a few spoons of the soup until she felt filled.

She fell asleep again on Chris' shoulder, feeling too tired to stay awake. Chris held her the hold night and the whole day after until she felt better.

— Always gentle with her while they are having sex.

"Tell me if you want me to stop, okay?" He said looking at his girlfriend laying down in bed, he was on top of her, ready to be inside of her. Y/N nodded. "Words, baby. I need words."

"Yes, I'll use our safe word." Y/N said breathing hard, she was needing Chris so hard. "Please, Chris. I need you."

"I'll be gentle with you."

"You always are."

Then, Y/N was moaning Chris' name loudly while he push his cook in Y/N's pussy. His slow movements, catching every reaction of his girlfriend. He keeps kissing her face and saying lovely words to her. Chris let her come as soon as she needed, because he didn't want his girlfriend to suffer. Her loud moan was music to his ears, he didn't take too much to come inside her.

— Aftercare always, everything to his girlfriend.

"Sure you okay? Did I take it too rough with you?" Chris asked, rubbing her tights with his nose, his beard tickling her sensitive skin.

"You're always gentle with me, baby." She smiled lazily, Chris nodded. He tugged his T-shirt from the floor and used it to clean her tights, giving pecks in her skin. She yawn.

"I'm gonna run us a bath, so we can sleep, okay?" He kissed her lips and then the forehead, she nodded.

Chris filled the bathtub and put all of Y/N bath products, he carried her until the bathroom and get in the water with her. Chris washed her hair and her body, giving kisses on her pretty skin, giving all the pleasure that she deserves.

Then, he carried Y/N back to the bed, Chris lay lazy by her side. She smiled at him, slowly closing her eyes. Chris held her waist and laid his head on her tits, slowly getting asleep too.

hope you like it <3

Tags: @lizzymacdonald06 @deliciousluminaryanchor @lushjunkie @sweetreliever @watercolorskyy

join my taglist!

[lune-redd]

Hello, it's Lelly.

As you may know, I have recently deactivated my Twitter account. A lot of people are speculating I left because I was being harassed for drawing my older depiction of Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls as chubby. However... that's not the direct reason I left. In fact, I didn't really see much of the comments of folks on there getting riled up about it as I muted the tweet the morning I saw that it blew up. I was only merely aware of it all by being told about it from friends, with there being some other users on the site making other really fuckin' stupid comments about my art.

This does however lead into why I actually left Twitter, and it's because of Twitter's overall toxic nature. Overtime, I've really gotten sick of how absolutely revolting Twitter has become to experience. The site is basically built around dunk culture and doom scrolling. You know that one tweet of someone making an example of Twitter's utter stupidity by using pancakes and waffles as an example?

I bring this up because I think this fits my point about how Twitter has this thing of assuming the absolute worst about the most insignificant things, even the most innocuous. The "Bubbles obesity" comments weren't the only stupid comments that came out of that post. I also got a quote retweet that I was "forcefully feminizing Buttercup", even though the whole fucking point of that drawing was to depict a usually tough character in an unusual situation for her. I have also gotten stupid comments on other drawings though, like the one where Mitch pushes Buttercup down for trying to look taller than she is and I got called a misogynist for it, though I'm pretty sure that one was bait (Twitter users have a tough time figuring out what is and isn't bait, it's dunk culture that I'm about to talk about really doesn't help this).

The site's dunk culture is also really fuckin' bad. Quote retweets are a disease, as unlike Tumblr's reblog comments, quote retweets count as a different post. Someone disagrees with you? Show your audience how stupid they are on your page! Hey, are you trying not to see the most abhorrent racist statement imaginable? Well TOO BAD FUCK YOU here's a le epic own giving them all the attention in the world even though one of the most common internet rules are DON'T FEED THE FUCKIN' TROLLS YOU IDIOT. Oh hey, are you trying to explain how you prefer a certain artistic choice over another in something you like? Well you're a deranged ungrateful whiny nitpicker, get owned!

I've seen so many of my friends be belittled for simply discussing their artistic preferences of things they're passionate about. I had a friend who said he prefers the original Crash Bandicoot design over his redesigned look in Crash 4, and had legitimate reasons for why he felt that way (even if he didn't really explain them clearly), and he got dunked for it which made me mad. I'm sick and tired of it all. The reaction to my art is only a mere example of the shit I despise about that site.

I had been planning on leaving Twitter for quite some time, as my follower count was growing nearer and nearer to 10K. I had planned on leaving after 10K followers because that amount was wayyyy too fuckin big for me to handle. I'm a young and growing lad, and I felt it wouldn't be good for my mental sanity to handle all that, so I dipped. The amount of attention I've been getting is simultaneously both wonderful and extremely overwhelming. Even the explosion of new followers and asks on here is quite the load! (Seriously, calm the fuck down y'all) I am very grateful for all the supportive asks I've gotten even though I won't be able to answer them all, thank you all so very much.

tl;dr I didn't leave Twitter because I was being harassed or anything, but rather because of the site's overall toxic and belittling environment.

Adios.

-Lelly

[ssavaart]

3...2...1... DEPRESSION!

Hi All!

Can we talk about how quickly we can become depressed when we try new things and they don't work out?

I have been doing short videos (vertical and under a minute) for almost 4 years now and I wanted to try and move to a long form format (horizontal and about 3-5 minutes) this year.

Yesterday, I made a video, that took me all day to make, about Drawing Eyes.

I tried to make it as clear as possible and I was very proud of it (I even referenced the Death Star too).

I posted it around dinner time and walked away.

I came back to the worst performing video of my life.

I have made over 1,000 videos and THIS was the worst performing video... EVER.

Not only was it performing so bad but YOUTUBE kept sending me NOTES on HOW BAD IT WAS!

WHY????

And instantly... I went into a depressive state.

"Why am I even doing this?"

"I'm the worst"

"I'm going to be making Shorts forever"

I'm 55. I've tried new things SO many times and failed at them SO many times.

I've been through this before and... survived.

But despite that.... I STILL get depressed when things don't go according to plan.

Is this an Autism thing? Is it an Artist thing?

Or is this a HUMAN thing?

I'm still trying to figure it out, my friends.

But needless to say... yesterday's "experiment" really took the wind out of my sails and I'm still recovering.

As always... I want to share the triumphs and tragedies of being an artist. I try to share moments like this so you know you are NOT alone.

Artists bare their soul to the world and it hurts when an algorithm or critics or trolls piss all over your work. Your soul.

I'm hoping that by talking about it... we can feel... not so alone in our journey.

At least that's the hope.

Sending Big Hugs from the Hobbit Hole. ♥♥♥

Scott

PS. It was SO BAD, apparently, I LOST viewers!

[thewertsearch]

Anonymous asked: i really love how all the ancestors have 8 letter titles which is so clearly just because our Primary Source on them is mindfang. like she absolutely did that on purpose. you know already that homestuck plays around with metanarrative and stuff, and i just love how many characters in homestuck we can learn about through the way they tell stories/serve as an author, either in small ways or large ways. like… vriska trying to Retroactively Make Herself More Important by Inserting Herself Into Various Important Moments is a way of trying to "be the author of her own story" right? but at the same time, she's largely trying to follow imitate mindfang, who she only knows about through the way SHE told stories, so she can't try to imitate what mindfang was really LIKE in life even if she wanted to, she can only imitate the way she AUTHORED that. and because vriska (unlike us) doesn't have the luxury of experiencing her own life as a story, i think thats part of what makes her so prone to Bad decisions, because things that seem The Most Dramatic in stories (like how mindfang wrote her own story down, likely embellishing for flair) aren't actually great decisions in real life.

Marquise

Orphaner

Summoner

Redglare

Sufferer

Expatri8 (Expatriate)

Looking at the Ancestors who've been namedropped so far, it really does feel like Mindfang deliberately twisted Zahhak's title into an eight-letter word. If she did have some sort of system, though, it seems to have fallen apart when naming the highbloods. Neither the Empress nor the Grand Highblood have any known eight-letter titles.

Edit, because I can't count: The Condesce does, in fact, have an eight-letter title. The Highblood, I believe, does not.

Also, that's such an interesting take on why Vriska's Like That. She's modelling herself off an embellished version of Mindfang - in other words, a completely fictional character.

And here she is, looking down on Tavros for trying to imitate Rufio. Glass houses, Vriska!

@manorinthewoods asked: On the subject of the Radio Troll… Communer, Conveyor, Observer, and on the names front, Hermitia or Voxcraft? Can't come up with any more, sorry. ~LOSS (10/9/24) Anonymous asked: The hostess is such a cool name :0 There's so many doc scratch parallels you could do with it. Well, like, anti-parallels. Perpendiculars? We'll workshop that one. You get what I mean

Right - in light of the eight-letter Ancestor titles, should the Hostess have a different name? It seems like more of a general trend than a hard rule. Maybe I'll come up with one later.

I am fond of the Reporter, but I'm not sure if I prefer it to the Hostess. I didn't even think about drawing parallels between her and Scratch, but that's an idea with real potential.

@ben-guy asked: Very exciting to finally see you reach the ancestor introductions! Fun fact: The English VA for Deku was once well known in the HS voice acting community if I'm remembering correctly. His most well known contributions are still spoilers as of me writing this, but I will say it involves the ancestors!

Wait, really? It's always wild when I hear about any real-life celebrities who are in any way involved in Homestuck. I'm still reeling about the fact that Zuko's voice actor is a fan.

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

How do you analyze so good I'm really impressed and honestly wonder if I can learn from you

It's a skill, so the good news is, you can practice and get better at it!

Read A Lot/Gain Context

Analysis often means making comparisons or drawing from external context - one of the best things you can do if you want to be better at analysis is to try to cram your head with as much knowledge as possible. The time period, culture of origin, and where the author slots into those are usually major influences on a work (in Homestuck's case, much of it is a direct commentary on the internet culture it emerged from, and missing that part of it can drastically influence how the story reads).

Also important are the works the author themselves are inspired by. You've likely heard some variation of "nothing is original." We're actually really lucky with Homestuck in that regard, as the work is highly referential, and you can glean a lot by looking at what it references (for example, if you watch Serendipity, one of Karkat's favorite movies, which is titledropped during the troll romance explanation, you will understand Karkat so much better). This applies to things like mythological allusions - you'll hardly know why it matters that Karkat is a Christ figure if you don't know what the general outline of the Christ story is, nor will you pick up on the Rapture elements of Gamzee's religion or the fact that Doc Scratch is The Devil, etc. The key to picking up a lot of symbolism is being aware that the symbols exist.

And last, it helps to read a lot of media and media analysis so you can get a better understanding of how media "works" - how tropes are used, what effect language has, what other entries into the genre/works with similar themes/etc. have already done to explore the same things as the piece being analyzed is doing - and what other people have already gleaned and interpreted. I've mentioned before that many people seem to find Homestuck's storytelling bizarre and unique when it's actually quite standard for postmodernism, the genre it belongs to. But you're not going to know that if you've never read anything postmodern, y'know? I also often prepare for long character essays by reading other peoples' character essays - sometimes people pick up on things I miss, and sometimes people have interpretations I vehemently disagree with; both of these help me to refine my take on the matter.

Try to Discard Biases/Meet the Work Where It Is

Many will carry into reading media an expectation of what they want to get out of it. For example, one generally goes into a standard hetero romance book expecting a female lead, a male love interest, romance (of course), and a happy ending for the happy couple. If the book fails to deliver these things, a reader will often walk away thinking it was a bad book, even if the story told instead is objectively good and interesting. We actually see this a lot with Wuthering Heights, which receives very polarizing reviews because people go into it expecting a gothic romance, when it's really more like a gossip Youtube video spilling the tea on some shitty rich people (and it's really good at being that).

There's nothing necessarily wrong with this when reading for pleasure and personal enjoyment, but it presents a problem when attempting to analyze something. There's a concept called the "Procrustean bed," named after a mythological bandit who used to stretch people or cut off their limbs to fit them to a bed, that describes "an arbitrary standard to which exact conformity is forced." Going into a media reading with expectations and biases often results in a very Procrustean reading - I'm sure we've all seen posts complaining about how fanfic often forces canon characters to fit certain archetypes while discarding their actual character traits, etc.

Therefore, when reading for analysis, it's generally a good idea to try and discard as much bias and expectation as possible (obviously, we are never fully free of bias, but the effort counts) - or, perhaps even better, to compartmentalize those biases for comparison while reading. For example, Hussie talks at length about what they INTENDED Homestuck to be, and, while reading, I like to keep Hussie's words to the side while I try to experience the comic fresh, seeing what choices were made in accordance with Hussie's intentions, or where I think Hussie may have fumbled the messaging. At the same time, I try to let the work stand on its own, set in its proper context.

I'd say this is the number-one problem in fandom analysis. For example, people hear from the fandom that Eridan is an incel or a nice guy, so they interpret everything he says and does to fit that belief, or ignore any contradictory evidence. Or they fall for the character's façade that's meant to be dismantled by the viewer. Some works are fairly shallow and accessible, wearing all their meaning on their sleeve (or are Not That Deep, if you prefer meme-talk), and problems arise when a work is, in fact, That Deep, because someone biased towards the former will discard evidence that a work is the latter. This isn't exclusive to HS - it's happened in basically all of my fandoms - which is a statement to how easy it is to fall into this way of thinking.

Even without knowing that Hussie had coming-of-age themes in mind, for example, characters will talk about being kids and growing up. Knowing that Hussie has explicitly said that that's one of HS's themes serves as extra evidence for that interpretation, but the work itself tells you what it's about - if you're willing to listen to it.

Even If the Curtains are Just Blue, That Still Means Something

This is the next biggest fandom stumbling block - thr insinuation that when things in a work are put into the work without more explicit symbolism, that that means they're a discardable detail. This one is more about making a mindset shift - details aren't discardable, even if they don't appear to have been made with the explicit intention to mean something. Everything kind of means something.

First of all, whether or not the curtains are Just Blue is often highly dependent on the work. For example, in something made in large quantities with little time, staff, and budget - say, for example, one of the entries into the MCU's TV shows - there likely isn't too much meaning behind a choice of blue curtains in a shot (although you'd be surprised how often choices in these constrained environments are still very deliberately made). In a work like Homestuck, however, so terribly dense with symbolism and allegory, chances are, the blue curtains DO hold some special meaning, even if it's not readily apparent.

However, even in cases where a choice is made arbitrarily, it still usually ends up revealing something about the work's creative process. Going back to our MCU example, perhaps the blue curtains were chosen because the shot is cool-toned and they fit the color grading. Perhaps they were chosen because the director really likes blue. Perhaps the shot was filmed at an actual location and the blue curtains were already there. Or, even, perhaps the blue curtains were just what they had on hand, and the show was made too quickly and cheaply to bother sourcing something that would fit the tone or lend extra meaning. These all, to varying degrees, say something about the work - maybe not anything so significant that it would come up in an analysis, but they still contribute to a greater understanding of what the work is, what it's trying to say, and how successful it is at saying it.

And this applies to things with much higher stakes. For example, Hussie being a white US citizen likely had an effect on the B1 kids being mostly US citizens, and there was discourse surrounding how, even though they were ostensibly aracial, references were made to Dave's pale skin. Do I think these were deliberate choices made to push some sort of US superiority; no, obviously not. But they still end up revealing things about the creation of the work - that Hussie had certain biases as a result of being who they were.

Your Brain is Designed to Recognize Patterns, So Put That to Use

So with "establish context" and "discard expectations" out of the way, we can start getting into the nitty-gritty of what should be jumping out at you when attempting to understand a work. One of the most prominent things that you should be looking for is PATTERNS.

Writing is a highly conscious effort, which draws from highly unconscious places. Naturally, whether these patterns are intentional or unintentional is dependent on the author (see again why reading up on a work's context is so important), but you can generally bet that anything that IS a pattern is something that holds significance.

For example, Karkat consistently shows that he's very distraught when any of his friends get hurt, that he misses his friends, even the murderous assholes, that he's willing to sit them down and intervene on their behalf, despite all his grandstanding to the contrary. We are supposed to notice that Karkat actually loves his friends, and that he's lying when he says he doesn't care about them.

Homestuck is very carefully and deliberately crafted; if something comes up more than once, it's a safe bet to assume that you're supposed to notice, or at least feel, it. Don't take my word for it:

Basically, [reusing elements is] about building an extremely dense interior vocabulary to tell a story with, and continue to build and expand that vocabulary by revisiting its components often, combining them, extending them and so on. A vocabulary can be (and usually is) simple, consisting of single words, but in this case it extends to entire sentences and paragraph structures and visual forms and even entire scenes like the one linked above. Sometimes the purpose for reiteration is clear, and sometimes there really is no purpose other than to hit a familiar note, and for me that's all that needs to happen for it to be worthwhile. Triggering recognition is a powerful tool for a storyteller to use. Recognition is a powerful experience for a reader. It promotes alertness, at the very least. And in a lot of cases here, I think it promotes levity (humor! this is mostly a work of comedy, remember.) Controlling a reader's recognition faculty is one way to manipulate the reader's reactions as desired to advance the creative agenda.

But this applies to less deliberately-crafted work, too; for example, if an author consistently writes women as shallow, cruel, and manipulative, then we can glean that the author probably has some sort of issue with women. Villains often being queer-coded suggests that the culture they come from has problems with the gays. Etc. etc.

This is how I reached my conclusion that Pale EriKar is heavily foreshadowed - the two are CONSTANTLY kind to each other, sharing secrets, providing emotional support, etc. etc. It's why that part of my Eridan essay is structured the way that it is - by showing you first how consistently the two interact in suspiciously pale-coded ways, the fact that a crab is shown in both Eridan's first appearance AND his appearance on the moirallegiance "hatched for each other" page becomes the cincher of a PATTERN of the two being set up to shoosh-pap each other.

A work will tell you about itself if you listen. If it tells you something over and over, then it's basically begging you to pay attention.

Contrast is Important, Too

Patterns are also significant when they're broken. For example, say a villain is constantly beating up the protagonist. Here's our pattern: the hero is physically weaker than the villain. In a straight fight, the hero will always lose.

And then, at the mid-season two-parter, the hero WINS. Since we've set up this long pattern of the hero always losing to this villain, the fact that this pattern was disrupted means that this moment is extremely important for the work. Let's say the hero wins using guile - in this case, we walk away with the message that the work is saying that insurmountable obstacles may have workarounds, and adaptability and flexibility are good, heroic traits. Now let's say the hero won using physical strength, after a whole season of training and practicing - in this case, we say that the work says hard work and effort are heroic, and will pay off in the end.

In Homestuck, as an example, we set up a long pattern of Vriska being an awful, manipulative bitch, and a fairly remorseless killer. And then, after killing Tavros, she talks to John and admits that she's freaking out because she feels really bad about it. This vulnerability is hinted at by some of her earlier actions/dialogue, which is itself a pattern to notice, but it's not really explicit until it's set up to be in direct contrast to the ultimate spider8itch move of killing Tavros. This contrast is intended to draw our attention, to point out something significant - hey, Vriska feels bad! She's a product of her terrible society and awful lusus! While it's shitty that she killed Tavros, she's also meant to be tragic and sympathetic herself!

Hussie even talks about how patterns and surprises are used in tandem:

Prior to Eridan's entrance into the room, and even during, the deaths were completely unguessable. After Feferi's death, Kanaya's becomes considerably more so, but still quite uncertain. After her death, all bets are off. Not only do all deaths thereafter become guessable, but in some cases, "predictable". That's because it was the line between a series of shocking events, and the establishment of an actual story pattern. The new pattern serves a purpose, as a sort of announcement that the story is shifting gears, that we're drifting into these mock-survival horror, mock-crime drama segments, driven by suspense more than usual. The suspense has more authority because of all the collateral of unpredictability built up over time, as well as all the typical stuff that helps like long term characterization. But now that the pattern is out in the open, following through with more deaths no longer qualifies as unpredictability. Just the opposite, it would now be playing into expectations, which as I said, can be important too. This gear we've switched to is the new normal, and any unpredictability to arise thereafter will necessarily be a departure from whatever current patterns would indicate.

Patterns are important because they tell you what baselines the work is setting - what's normal, what's standard, what this or that generally "means." Contrast is important because it means something has changed, or some significant point is being made. They work in tandem to provide the reader with points of focus in the story, things to keep in mind as they read, consciously or unconsciously.

Theme

I'm talking about this stuff in pretty broad and open terms because stories are so malleable, and so myriad, and can say so many things. There are stories where horrible cruelties are painted as good things - propoganda is the big one, but consider all the discourse around romance books that paint abusive/toxic relationships as ideal. There are stories where the protagonist is actually the villain, and their actions are not aspirational, and works where everyone sucks and nobody is aspirational, and works where everybody is essentially a good person, if sometimes misguided.

This is, again, why outside context is so important, and biases need to be left at the door. For example, generally speaking, one can assume that the protagonist of a children's cartoon is going to be an aspirational hero, or at least a conflicted character who must learn to do the right thing. However, there are even exceptions to this! Invader Zim, for example, features an outright villain protagonist - a proud servant of a fascist empire - and for a lower-stakes example, the Eds of Ed, Edd, n' Eddy are the neighborhood scammers, constantly causing problems for the other characters with their schemes.

Thus, how do we determine what any particular narrative's stance on a given topic is? It's a difficult question to answer because every narrative is different. If I say something like, "the things that bring the protagonists success in their goals are what the narrative says are good," then we run into the issue of villain/gray morality protagonists. To use moral terms like "hero" and "villain" instead runs into the problem of defining morality within a narrative in the first place. But you have to draw the line somewhere.

So that brings us to themes.

Now, as with a lot of artistic terms, "theme" isn't necessarily well-defined (this isn't helped by the way the word is used colloquially to mean things like aesthetic, moral of the story, or symbolism). Wikipedia says: "In contemporary literary studies, a theme is a central topic, subject, or message within a narrative," but this is still very broad and hard to work with, so I'll give it a shot.

A theme is what a work says, beyond the literal series of events. Sometimes a theme is obvious - the theme of Boy Who Cried Wolf is that if you become famous for lying, you won't be believed when you tell the truth. Sometimes a theme is one of many - for example, Disney's Cinderalla says that kindness and virtue will eventually be recognized and rewarded, and that cruelty is interlinked with ugliness. Sometimes a theme is unintentional - for example, how Disney's body of work tends to villainize queer-coded characters. Sometimes context and the passage of time changes the theme - for example, Snow White originally held a message of hope for wartime families that domestic normalcy would one day return, but is now seen as anti-feminist as it appears to insinuate that a woman's place is in the kitchen, and her happiness is in marriage to a man. And sometimes a theme is not something you agree with.

In any case, a theme is a meaning to be gleaned from the text, more broad and universally applicable than the text itself. After all, we humans have traditionally always used story to impart meaning; our oldest epic, The Epic of Gilgamesh, contains within it several themes, most famously that of accepting one's mortality. It's startling, really, how applicable the story is to this day, even if specific details have become obtuse or unsavory to a modern reader.

This is, again, why it's so important to engage with a text on its own terms, in its own context, with as little bias as possible. A story's themes are not necessarily apparent, and commonly implied rather than stated outright, and approaching the story with expectations can easily lead to a Procrustean twisting of the facts to fit those expectations. A theme should emerge to the analyzer out of the reading, not the other way around.

Identifying theme gets easier with practice, and largely comes down to identifying patterns within the narrative (alongside looking at context and symbolism, of course). What does the narrative consistently touch base on? Are there any references; is there any symbolism? What does the story deem "normal," "good," or "bad"? How are ideas developed, and why? Why did these events happen, and are those motivations echoed anywhere else?

Homestuck is very complex and tackles many topics at once, and explaining why it's a coming-of-age would basically require a whole second essay, so I'll use a simpler and more popular example (like I've been trying to do) - let's say, Shrek.

The most obvious theme of Shrek is that beauty does not equate goodness, that one mustn't judge a book by its cover. The opening sequence is LITERALLY Shrek ripping out pages of a fairy tale book to use as toilet paper, and the movie ends with Fiona finding that her happiest, truest self IS as an ugly ogre. Shrek's main character conflict is that people immediately judge him as cruel and evil because he's ugly, and the characters' lowest points occur because Fiona is similarly insecure about her ogre half, considering it unlovable.

But there's other stuff in there, too. For example, if you know that Dreamworks and Shrek were founded after a falling out with Disney, then the beautiful, sanitized city of Dulac, with its switchback queue and singing animatronics add to this theme of a direct refutation of traditional Disney fairytale values, mocking them as manufactured, inhuman, and even cruel in the way that they marginalize those who don't fit an ideal of beauty. Again we see the opening sequence - defacing a fairytale - as support for this, but also the way that Dulac is displacing fairytale creatures. There's a moment where Gepetto literally sells Pinocchio, which can easily be read as a commentary on the crass commercialization and exploitation of fairy tales Disney likes to do.

And then, of course, there are lesser, supplementary themes. Love being a powerful positive force is one - Donkey is able to rally Shrek after he truly reciprocates Dragon's love for him (which echoes the theme of not equating goodness with beauty, as Dragon is still big and scary), and it's true love's kiss that grants Fiona her happy ending.

And then there's stuff that's unintentional. There's all this work done about how beauty =/= goodness, but then they made the villain incredibly short, which is a traditionally unattractive physical feature. So, does that mean that ugly things can be beautiful unless that ugliness is specifically height?

Sometimes, authorial intent does not match up with result - but in those instances, I think the most is revealed about the author. Modern Disney products tend to be very cowardly about going anti-corporation and pro-weirdness, despite their usual feel-good tones and uplifting themes - and that says a lot about Disney, doesn't it. That's why I think it's still important to keep authorial intent in mind, if possible, even if they fumble what they say they've set out to do.

Obviously, Lord Fuckwad being short doesn't REALLY detract from the overall message - but it's still a weird hitch in the themes, which I think is interesting to talk about, so you can see where personal judgement and biases DO have to be applied. There are two options here, more or less - either one believes that Shrek is making an exception for short people, who are of the Devil, or one believes that the filmmakers did a bit of an oopsie. Barring an outright statement from the filmmakers, there's no way to know for sure.

We can say a work has very complex themes when it intentionally explores multiple ideas very deeply. We can say a work has shallow themes when it doesn't have much intentional meaning, and/or that meaning is explored very lightly. The labyrinthine storytelling of Homestuck, with its forays into mortality, morality, and growing up, chock full of symbolism and pastiche and allusions, is a work with complex themes - especially as compared to the average newspaper comic strip, although they ostensibly share a genre.

We can say a work has very unified themes when these themes serve to compliment each other - the refutation of Disney-esque values, and love as a positive driving force, compliment the main theme in Shrek of not judging books by their covers, of beauty not equating to goodness. Ugly things are worthy of love, and those who push standards of beauty are evil and suck.

Similarly, we can say a work has unfocused or messy themes when the themes it includes - intentionally or not - contradict, distract, and/or detract from each other. Beauty has no correlation to goodness... unless you're short, in which case, you are closer to Hell and therefore of evil blood. To get a little controversial, this is actually why I didn't like Last Wish very much - there are approximately three separate storylines, with three separate thematic arcs, going on in the same movie, none of which particularly compliment each other - so the experience was very messy to me, story-wise, even though it was pretty and the wolf was hot. This is why we feel weird about Disney pushing anti-corporate messages, when they're a big corporate machine, or why it's easy to assume Homestuck was written poorly if you don't like Hussie - we want themes to be coherent, we want context to be unified with output.

Tone

Tone is somehow even harder to define than theme. It's like, the "vibe" of a work. For example, you generally don't expect something lighthearted to deal with the realistic, brutal tragedies of war. Maybe it'll touch on them in light, optimistic ways, but it isn't about to go All Quiet on the Western Front on the reader. By the same token, you don't expect fully happy endings out of the melodrama of opera, or frivolous slice of life from something grimdark.

Tone, too, is something people often wind up Procrusteanizing, which makes discussion difficult if two people disagree. If I read Homestuck as unwaveringly optimistic, with its downer ending the result of an author fumble, I'm pretty much going to irreconcileably disagree with somebody who reads Homestuck as though it's always been a kind of tragedy where things don't work out for the characters. Since it's even more difficult to define than theme, I'm not even really going to bother; I just felt like I had to bring it up because, despite its nebulosity, it's vital to how one reads and interprets a text. Sometimes I don't have a better answer for why I dislike a certain interpretation other than that it doesn't suit the work's tone. I generally try to avoid saying that, though, because it winds up smacking of subjective preference.

In summary... analysis is about keeping everything in mind all the time! But i swear, it gets easier the more you do it. Happy reading!

[wispforever]

Some thoughts on Itachi

So, I've seen a lot of comments circulating about my tags on this post, and I'm intrigued at the interest. I didn't expect it, as I see much more pigeonholing of Itachi's character than honest to god analysis. No hate- I'm no stranger to Kishimoto's writing. Some of his characters were unfortunately butchered or never given the chance to be developed properly, and Itachi is most certainly no exception. That said, I like to grant him a bit more nuance than I see on most blogs. I think people get a little wrapped up in the supposed "moral implications" of exploring how Itachi was also a victim of the system, as well as someone who victimized many people. But it's silly to equate character analysis and context consideration with condoning genocide.

I have a good laugh every once and a while at the metaphorical gymnastics people do in order to stay in the good graces of a bunch of internet trolls who are just Waiting for any opportunity to tell you you love murder and think it's delicious just because you made a post exploring a character's background. Media is grey; it's layered and wonderfully complex. There are many wrongs and rights in every story, and many wrongs and rights within those wrongs and rights. That's what I love about Naruto. Often times it's really too much like real life. Instead of people being black and white, right or wrong, bad or good- they're usually in a tough situation, trying their best and falling short, don't have all of the information, acting with good intentions or acting on what they believe will bring about a lesser evil, and then end up hurting others.

But it is much easier to assign blame and move on. A so-called bad person will always be the perfect scapegoat for issues bigger than them. In Itachi's case, the fascist government in the Leaf. It's easier to say Itachi could have just refused and decided not to be involved, than to recognize that like almost every other character in the narrative, he was under extreme duress, living in a military state. He was a child whose existence, along with all the other children and adults in the Leaf, was only valuable as long as he could serve as a tool for the war machine in the shinobi world's fucked up political system. And saying this is not the same as saying he was not capable of better decisions or that everything that he did thereafter or in general should not be read critically or subject to hypothetical consequences. It is the same as a saying his actions cannot be fully understood without complete context, and the themes of Naruto will never come through if every villain is just "evil" with no further nuance. And it would be boring too LOL

That said, I love to think about Itachi's situation back then. The ages in Naruto are a bit muddled, a little inconsistent, subject to change and interpretation, but Itachi was a child when he murdered everyone in the Uchiha compound. Most sources say he was 13. It should go without saying that someone so young isn't capable of the same decision-making or critical thinking as say, a 30-year-old, someone whose brain is finished developing and has much more experience on Earth.

Itachi's experience at this point in his life is informed by his age, and it's obviously informed by his childhood, as he has no other place from which to draw conclusions. Itachi grew up in a warring state. He saw people die and was subject to extreme violence in his formative years. To make matters worse, he was taught that war was inevitable and the only thing he could do to guard against it was kill others before they got the chance to kill him (threaten the village). Thusly, Itachi internalized at a very young age that what was in his power was to minimize damage (to himself, to his village, and to the world). What was not in his power was to stop this violence entirely (by adopting a critical mindset and going against fascist powers).

A part of this I think people often forget is that Itachi has absolutely nowhere to adopt this mindset FROM, as even though his father and the other members of the Uchiha clan seek equity in the Leaf, if they were to overthrow the Hokage and create a new system, it would still presumably center around the same ideals (minus, of course, the oppression of the Uchiha as a group). Fugaku is the head of the Uchiha clan at this time. As someone who imposed near impossible performance-related expectations on both of his sons, and withheld love and affection whenever they came up short (so often that it was at the cost of having any considerable emotional bond with either of them), there is absolutely no good reason to believe that Fugaku would reform the Leaf using a non-fascist ideology. And if he did, there is no good reason to believe that he would be some kind of visionary LMAO

This is important to remember because when it comes down to Itachi's decision to either kill everyone in the Uchiha compound and his family, or be part of the coup that would overthrow the Leaf, some people treat it as though it's a choice between fascism and non-fascism, which it most certainly is not. And if it was, Itachi, as a child who had grown up immersed in this ideology, would not be able to appreciate the difference. This context allows us to understand further what Itachi was really weighing in that moment. Accounting for his young age and limited worldview, the only valuable difference in this moment to Itachi was the amount of bloodshed that he would "allow" to happen. Essentially, he sees the options as follows:

Either give in to Danzo and kill everyone in the Uchiha compound, or facilitate a coup where the current government is (hopefully) overthrown and risk starting another war.

Here, Itachi pauses. He has known war. He knows how it affects children, adults, families, and whole nations. The peace he's living in currently is bought with blood, but it's the only peace he's ever known. The alternative is horrifying. And a war in this context, Itachi likely thinks, would be his fault, as he has now been put in the position to "prevent" it. Danzo and the whole shinobi system have groomed him into thinking so. Itachi, at age 13, cannot understand that there would be no war; it exists only as leverage for Danzo's argument at this point. His sensitivities are being played on.

Fugaku, though he is not the same as Danzo, offers about as much help as he does (that being none). Fugaku has no interest in avoiding war; if a war breaks out, it's justified because it will still mean his clan will no longer be living in oppression. This idea is valid, as fascist systems and discrimination can only cease to exist when we rise up against them; unfortunately, this most often calls for righteous violence, as the oppressive powers will not be moved with peaceful shows (not to mention they are willing to go to extreme lengths to avoid losing their hold on the people they have crushing power over, i.e. the Uchiha massacre). But Fugaku has no words to explain this to Itachi, who fears the worst and further fears being responsible for the worst. All he does is act as if it's a moral failing that his 13-year-old son is unwilling to stage a coup, which he believes could mark the abrupt end of a peace that's only just begun.

That said, let it be known that Itachi does appreciate this situation with SOME nuance, though it isn't of the kind that might have enabled him to see he was being manipulated. He at the very least understands that Danzo is a warmonger and oppresses those he fears (the Uchiha). He understands that the rights of his clan have been sorely disrespected, and that the issue needs correction. He understands the anger of his friends and family. This is why it takes him much deliberation before he can even come close to making a decision. He plays both sides right up until the end, listening to Danzo, as well as Fugaku and Shisui, paying attention to the current atmosphere in the Leaf as he tries to decide.

It is something he doesn't want to do. Here's where I get to the part I put in the tags of my drawing.

In this situation, it's almost worthless to write an analysis about Itachi's feelings at this time, his understanding of what was actually going on, his loyalty to his clan or his loyalty to the Leaf, because really, he could not grasp it. He was never prepared for this. He never knew he would be asked to make a decision he could only understand as "your family or the world?"

Itachi was put in a position that had no happy ending. There was no decision he could make that would not hurt. That could not result in a cataclysm that split him right down the middle. There was no version of this story that a 13-year-old could carry out thinking "I have done the right thing."

And that's the important part. Both sides asked him to make this decision, and so both sides are guilty of placing an immeasurable pressure on a child who should never have been put in such a position. Regardless of ideology, regardless of price, regardless of oppression or loyalty or devotion or any other thing- someone else should have made this decision for Itachi. Someone else should have been responsible. An adult, at the very least. Someone who COULD understand the implications of both options. Someone who COULD go forward and appreciate the evil of fascism and know that a coup was necessary. Itachi was never capable of such a thing. If he made the "wrong" decision, than every child who can't explain to you what a fascist government in a military state looks like and explain what the difference is between a hate crime and resisting a hateful power, is also wrong. Here is the nuance. These are things a 13-year-old in this universe cannot be expected to understand unless they are taught. And Itachi had no teacher. Quite the opposite. There were only forces pressing him from both sides, saying "choose."

Had his father done this for him, had Shisui been in this position, had any other adult Uchiha acting as a spy been put to this task, it would be a much different narrative. But of course, it had to be Itachi, who Danzo knew he could manipulate. It had to be a child, someone skilled enough to do the job, but inexperienced enough, afraid enough, to be willing to sacrifice everything they had to see the mission through. Someone you could whisper "greater good" to and have them hand over their well being on a plate. Someone who didn't understand they had the power and strength to destroy the system threatening them.

On a narrative level, Itachi exists to illustrate this point. How young people are systematically indoctrinated to serve a greater purpose, be it under a specific government, religion, or otherwise. We see it in real life fascism, in real life cults. There's no mistake. It isn't an accident that Itachi's story begins like this.

Which brings me to the rest of his life. The reason I drew the picture in the post referenced at the top. Itachi's character is a bit of a mystery the rest of the anime. Be that because of bad writing or an intentional omission, his motives, thoughts, and opinions are largely left ambiguous. However, there are still a few moments that interest me as far as the implications of his development.

When Itachi first comes back to the Leaf village, he faces Kakashi. On the one hand, this could simply be a narrative tool- the big bad meets the big good. He takes Kakashi out of commission! The first rogue shinobi we see who is able to defeat the pillar of the Leaf, the Copy Ninja, and without even breaking a sweat!

On the other hand, I find the brutality of Itachi's attack very intriguing. Again, it could be the tough guy act, but he's able to keep three jonin busy easily using standard genjutsu (with the help of Kisame). It wouldn't be a stretch to say that using the tsukuyomi is overkill, and at a considerable price, we learn later.

Why then would Itachi, who has been shown to have excellent battle intelligence, who is strategic to a fault, be willing to jeopardize his health among other things just to... scare the Leaf? Make sure Kakashi wouldn't be a nuisance in the future? Sure, the last one would make collecting Naruto less complicated, but they dispatched Kakashi easily enough, and surely Jiraiya, who Naruto was with at the time, would pose a bigger problem than Kakashi.

It doesn't make strategic sense, which makes me wonder if Itachi has a special animosity toward Kakashi. Being his superior in the ANBU before the Uchiha massacre, someone who was willing to conduct surveillance of the Uchiha compound without question, Kakashi could have become a symbol of the indifference of the Leaf for Itachi. He could very well have been a reminder of the inoperable position Itachi was put in when he was still a child, and Kakashi, of course, was an adult. Another adult who did nothing. Noticed nothing. Did not help Itachi.

And while I'm certain that Kakashi would have taken severe issue with the goings on in the Leaf at that time, judging by his reaction when he finds out the truth in Shippuden, Itachi knows him only by what he did then. Facilitated surveillance of the Uchiha compound, was a supportive superior, but nothing greater. A bystander whose compassion, while well meaning, was entirely unhelpful.

I don't think it's far fetched that Itachi fucking crucified Kakashi because he was so angry at what being in the Leaf did to him. At some point, as he got older, he realized how terrible it was. He realized there were people like him. Children who were "born killers". Pawns in the game of the shinobi powers.

After leaving the village, Itachi joins the Akatsuki, who are also seeking peace through war (another story). He is supposed to spy for them, but doesn't follow through in any enthusiastic way (that we're shown). He works alone for quite some time, or else with a group (briefly he was shown with Conan and Kakuzu). He is partners with Orochimaru before he's expelled from the Akatsuki. He is partners with one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He grows up and meets many people, sees lots of stories unfold. He learns that he isn't in a minority. Many shinobi are just like him.

And then, as an adult, he is partnered with Kisame, who he finds excellent camaraderie with because of their similar backgrounds. We see in this relationship that he understands what happened to him and what he did enough to acknowledge that, while neither of them are monsters, as many people say, they are human. And humans make mistakes. Humans are complicated. Wrong and right and wrong and right. They understand each other, and Itachi understands more clearly what the world puts these children up to. What it forces shinobi to become. That it isn't all his fault, but he still did it. And so he is responsible. He appears to be able to live with that.

But when he returns to the Leaf, those feelings bubble up. He hates the Leaf. He hates that system. He hates what he did. Maybe he even hates being a shinobi, how his excellence was weaponized, how being an Uchiha doomed him and his clan. And for what?

Itachi is played as a character who is only sensible, only logical, only interested in practical things, has nothing to express. But the way he behaves toward Kakashi in that moment bares all his grief and anger. I just like to think about it. We have so few moments where we get to see Itachi genuinely. The fight with Kakashi, the Sasuke/Deidara fight, his thoughtful moments with Kisame. Just makes me wonder what could've been if Itachi's story had gone a little differently.

Anyway, if anyone would like me to expand on any points or has additional thoughts, feel free to hop in my ask box or leave a comment. Thanks for the interest, I love to talk.

[saturncoyote]

in your au does creek ever like... reconcile with poppy? or does he mostly hang out with garde and avoid pop village? and/or what are garde's feelings on the whole betrayal thing regarding creek's (presumably) old best friend being sold out... if he finds out about the details at some point? (sorry these might be loaded questions im just so curious. i love this little thing youve come up with!)

BROTHER it's the loaded questions that i'm looking foward to answering !

Garde has only existed in this world for about 30 days (and already generated approximately 47 drawings and counting but i digress) so i haven't had the change to tackle a LOT of the actual nitty gritty... so i might aswell share it here !

I'll just... put a read more here because i'm expecting this to get quite long

First things first, he DOES reconcile with Poppy.... but it takes a very long time and it's a messy process, if anything Poppy is the one troll that he hurt the most, he didn't only betray her trust as a friend but her entire village that she was trusted to protect, it's going to take a LOT for him to make up to her. Eventually Creek is able to prove that he's trying..... he's not perfect by any means of the word ! But he's trying... By volunteering to do community service (Mr Dinkles episode) and overall attempting to understand other's point of view, Poppy can't help but realise that holding onto that bitter memory isn't going to help anybody. She doesn't forgive him of course, their relationship is never going to be the same, but she does accept him, and they're both able to move on with that (i do like to think that the reason Queen Barb was so easily forgiven is because of their acceptance towards Creek) (fun fact Poppy even gives them her blessing during their queerplatonic wedding !)

Garde does find out about Creek's betrayal eventually (although not from Creek directly) and let's just say he has a hard time coming to terms with that. Of course their first reaction is to ignore it, like most of the problems they've been dealing with, why should Creek's past dictate his future anyway ? THEIR past doesn't dictate anything about THEM ! So why should it matter ??? But that excuse only starts getting harder to chew as time goes on. Garde has a lot of sympathy for Creek, as they find themselves in similar situations (although for different reasons), and he doesn't WANT him to leave, he's one of the very few trolls that's bothered to talk to him for so long even if it was out of desperation, he WANTS to understand why he did it, but he'll never truly understand, he's never been in a life-or-death situation before ! He's never had to pick between the lives of everyone he's ever known or himself ! And that only makes things so much more complicated. Once the rock starts rolling though, and they find themselves having to talk about their pasts, it all comes out so suddenly, like a waterfall that's been plugged for centuries, they realise that they DO see each other differently now, but it's not a bad thing, there's an amount of trust there that they've both never had for anybody else, and they find themselves getting closer for it.. It's not perfect, but some of the cracks have started to heal, and that's good enough for the moment.

[empressgeekt]

I'm curious now, if someone made a reaction fic with canon watching your stories (not me because I suck at those), how do you think they would react? Especially if Branch was still gray?

Oh I play out this fic plot in my head on almost a daily basis.

If I were to put, Grey Branch, Poppy, Viva the snackpack, and Brozone into a room to watch my aus, both fics would probably start the same. Shock on both sides (brozone to Branch's state, and The Snackpack to Branch's alter ego as Bitty B), but eventually they'd all settle and start watching. Though, Brozone would definitely not that Creek at first glance. Viva would cling to her sister and the Snackpack would welcome her, but they would be very confused when she starts acting paranoid about the bergens like Branch, and Creek would..be Creek...getting on her bad side. Bruce would have to step in explaining that Trauma doesn't work the way Creek is trying to simplify it (he read a lot of the vacationer's psychology books before his kids were born). Needless to say, by the time that everyone has sat down the room is tense.

For Burning Branches it's pretty clear that this is an alternate universe so, they kind of just sit back and enjoy.

The Snackpack would get to witness the abuse a tiny grey branch would get in the tree, while Brozone gets to see Branch follow in there footsteps and escaping on his own. Branch himself remembers a few of these events but doesn't remember leaving so he interested in seeing where he counterpart went. Practically everyone panics when they see the head injury on screen, Floyd even starts crying at the sight. Once the rock trolls get involved it draws a lot of surprise from the whole group. Floyd and JD aren't too surprised they've been around the block before, and have a basic gest of the other tribes. Bruce is in the same boat as a few Techno trolls have washed up on Vacay island. However none of them had seen rock trolls in person and their dulled nature are a little disturbing, considering what dulled means for Pop trolls. Clay and Viva are paying rapid attention to the rock trolls on screen, because considering the environment their people live in these guys know how to survive and protect themselves. The Snackpack has mixed reactions, Cooper wonders if theirs another tribe that looks like him, Poppy just wants to help these guys find happiness cause they are way to serious in her opinion, Creek calls them brutes (impressing no one), while the rest of the pack are either confused/fearful/curious. Branch is just awed, this troll, the rock king no less, on screen took his other version and saved him. Not only pull him from the water but take this trolling stranger into his home and raised on-screen Branch as his own. It's made veery clear that the pop and rock tribes do not get along, and yet this king was willing to risk his power and reputation to care for Char, King Peppy never kept Branch for more then two days until shipping him off to the next foster family. He even seemed mad on Char's behalf, something Branch had never thought anyone would do. The amnesia is something that hurts Brozone, learning that in one world there brother forgot about them. Branch is a little envious of Char, after all losing his memories was pretty starting a new life with a clean slate. Sure he watches Char struggle, but he also watches Char thrive, regaining his color, learning to love music again, making friends, having a family behind him, heck even getting Poppy for a love interest. Sure, it's an arranged marriage between the tribes, and makes the theater very awkward, but there's a clear connection between the two of them. By the end of the whole first movie all the snackpack (minus Creek) and Bruce are shipping Poppy/Char (Choppy? We should call them Choppy), and they get pissed when John Dory on screen interrupts their wedding.

For FOF, it's more of confusing reaction since this could still be their actual future.

Branch makes notes to look out for Keith, cause just in case there might be a trolling who's a little weird ending up in the foster system after losing his dad and he doesn't want that to happen. Kid seems sweet and not that judging. As the au goes on, Branch feels all sort of embarrassment, from them witnessing his panic attacks and how they called him cute for the more wholesome reactions when it comes to Keith. When the whole wolf incident comes on screen, Poppy ask Branch if he would really do that for the village, and everyone is shocked when he nods. Creek tries to say the the forest is over dramatizes in this and that the critters aren't that cruel in real life, Branch just rolls his eyes only to hear John Dory come to his defense, as a survivalist himself he had to deal with predators, and everything on screen is necessary. FOF Branch is a lot harsher on his brothers and the interactions on screen are a lot more charged. Branch isn't sure how he feels about this counterpart. There's a feeling of justice at watchin his brothers get what's coming to them, but it also hurts that he's hurting them. He doesn't hold the same anger that FOF feels. Smidge kind of wants to meet her FOF counterpart, someone who uses her strength to save others, she's down for it. And Asks Branch if he could set up something like that in there world or at least train her, to help him in the forest. Branch is confused by that. Creek completely denies that he would betray everyone, but strangely Branch doesn't believe him. FOF Branch's wounds are scary to think about for everyone but Branch forces himself not to react. Broppy makes once more everyone uncomfortable, Branch feeling awkward, Bruce teasing, Poppy blushing, Creek giving the grey troll the stick eye. It's harder to different Canon from AU with FOF since Char is less Branch like.

There's just so much that could happen that i can't fit it into one post, but if anyone wants to make one to these they have my full permission. Though that might want to wait until the final product is finished.

[bluiela]

I honestly get shocked when i see how much e/riels care about their reputation, like i'm sorry i ship gwynriel with all my heart but i see any fellow gwynriel spreading toxicity or being mean or trolling etc i will call them out,

And i wouldn't care if any other e/riel calls them out, i'd prolly side with the e/riel if i see any gwynriel bullying anyone,

But the posts and comments of e/riel saying it's one of us pretending or someone trying to make them look bad etc just shocks me so much

Like how can you see someone sending people death/rape threats or generally bullying and the conclusion you draw from that is they're trying to make you look bad? or trying to ruin your reputation?

How? I hope these people touch grass and get help

[vilevenom]

Howdy, folks! Sorry I haven't posted much in terms of fic the last couple of weeks, I've been having pretty bad writers block 💕

I finally got a smidge of inspiration, though, talking with @em-doods about her sweet BroZone parent OC's, and what it would be like if they managed to get back to their boys. If you don't know who Birch and Flora are, please check out these amazing posts over here, and here! There is also a very sweet sketch of them, if they were older over here. They're in the top right corner ❤️ This is short and sweet, and I hope y'all enjoy~ When Will I See You Again title inspo

The journey to find pop village had been arduous at best, but absolutely nothing in comparison to their slapdash escape from the Bergens twenty-five years prior. Battered and utterly terrified, Flora and Birch had barely managed to escape Chef's kitchen and flee from Bergen Town all together. The Bergens had given chase, making them lose their way and not stop running until they were well and truly lost, with no feasible possibility of finding their way back home.

Now, after two and a half decades, they'd gotten word through the grapevine that the pop trolls were inviting trolls of all genres to their new home, hidden in the forest. Birch had jumped at the news, and promptly began packing their belongings to start on the journey. He'd wanted to immediately try to find their way back to their boys, to get them all to out of the tree, once they'd stopped running. Unfortunately, it took years for them to even find their way back to the troll kingdoms, let alone figure out where the pop trolls had disappeared to once they'd found out the troll tree had been deserted. It had seemed hopeless. Until now.

With no other mode of transport available to them, and age slowing them down, it took weeks to travel by foot. But finally, after nearly two months of traversing the kingdoms, they could see brightly colored pods hanging from the trees in the distance, and hear the sound of upbeat music wafting through the forest.

"We're so close," Birch exclaimed, giddy glee blatant on his face. He began to bounce as he walked, the pans hanging off his pack jangling together at the movement. Flora couldn't help but giggle at her husband's exuberance, forever wearing his emotions on his sleeve.

Slowly, though, her laughter died away as they approached the village. Her heart squeezed in her chest as she stared up at the little houses tucked snuggly between the branches. Her babies would be so much older now. Their egg would be nearly 25. She wouldn't even know them to see them, outside of the vibrant shock of blue hair that had protruded from the top of their shell. She could still remember, in vivid detail, the look on John Dory's face as he clutched the egg in his arms and screamed for her as she was ripped away from him by clawed fingers. It tore her heart to shreds to think of that moment, knowing just how much must have wound up in John Dory's lap because of their disappearance and inability to return home. She wondered what kind of trolls her boys wound up becoming without their parents around.

"Hey," Birch's voice snapped Flora out of her ruminations, drawing her gaze down to his smiling eyes, "Stop thinking so much. I can hear it from over here."

"Sorry," she said with an embarrassed laugh, tugging absently at the shawl draped around her shoulders, "I just can't help thinking about how much our boys must have changed since we last saw them. How much they've grown without us. We didn't even get to name our egg, before-"

"Stop that," Birch stepped in front of Flora, forcing her to halt her steps, "Sure, they'll be different from when they were kids. That was bound to happen, with or without us. But, they'll still be our boys. I'm sure they all turned out to be amazing trolls. You need to give Rosiepuff a little bit of credit, here. I'm sure she raised them well. After all, look at how you turned out." He gently took her hands into his, giving them a light, reassuring squeeze.

"I know. I know, it's just…you know how my mom was with the boys, sometimes. And, what if…what if, during Trollstice-"

Again, Birch cut her off, shaking his head as he spoke. "You can't think like that. Our boys were resilient and smart. They knew how to keep themselves safe."

"But, the egg-"

"Johnny and Spruce were old enough, you know they would've taught the baby everything they knew to stay safe. Heck, they were looking after Clay and Floyd during Trollstice without us even needing to ask them for years. They're all fine. I know it. I know it, Flora. Have a little faith."

Flora sighed, a soft smile curling her lips at the hopeful expression on her husbands face. "You're right," she sighed, curling her fingers around Birch's hands to return his steadfast grip. "We won't know anything until we get to town and find them. I need to keep my head up!"

"That's my girl," Birch hummed with a grin, leaning up on his tip toes to press a kiss to Flora's cheek. "Now, c'mon! I can't wait to see this place! It looks massive in comparison to the tree! Do you think Peppy is still king? One of his daughters must have taken over by now, don't you think?"

Flora let her husbands gentle ramblings wash over her as they trekked on towards the village, trying her best not to come up with any more worst case scenarios about their children. Birch was right, she had to think more positively. Their boys were survivors, and they wouldn't have let anything happen to their youngest sibling.

Walking through the last barrier of scrub and tall grass into the village was a bit of a shock to the both of them, freezing them both in their tracks. The vibrancy of the colors, and cacophony of sound were so different from what the troll tree had been. While the tree had always been bright and music was nearly always heard, it was truly nothing in comparison to what they'd stepped into. There had always been an air of despair and hesitancy around the tree, making trolls more cautious in how loud they sang, or how brightly they colored their pods. But here, everyone was free to be as boisterous as they wanted, and it truly showed. There was so much life everywhere you looked. Flora felt overwhelmed, glancing down to her husband who was openly weeping as he took it in.

"Look at this place," he breathed, looking up at his wife with a grin, "Look at how they've flourished."

"It's amazing," Flora easily agreed, feeling tears of her own welling in her eyes. She took her husbands hand in hers as they began to venture into the village, her heart beating a sharp staccato in her chest, anticipation buzzing in her veins. Her eyes scanned the crowds of trolls as they walked, keeping an eye out for the shades of hair she had memorized since the day each of her children had hatched.

However, absolutely nothing would truly prepare her for the feeling of elation that bulldozed into her as she finally caught sight of teal hair she hadn't seen in twenty-five years. The goggles nestled into his hair sealed it for her - that was her boy. Her sweet little green bean, all grown up.

"John," she breathed, before letting go of Birch and running full tilt at her son, who was stood casually chatting with another troll in the middle of the market place.

~

Branch had nearly had to forcibly drag John to the market to do some shopping. As much as the eldest brother whined about wanting to spend more quality time with Branch and Floyd while he was living in pop village, shopping was not something he was overly keen on doing. The two had talked about it once, both commiserating that there were just too many trolls all over the place for it to be an enjoyable experience. But, they had come to an agreement to at least accompany each other when shopping was necessary, so they could complain about it the whole time without being judged by their respective partners.

Which is what they were doing, griping about the price of fazzlefruit, when a troll suddenly barreled into John Dory, clinging to him like her life depended on it.

"Woah there!" John grunted, startled into holding his arms out to the sides as the troll in question buried her face into his shoulder and began to weep, muttering 'my baby, oh my baby' over and over again into his jacket. "I, uhm…well, this is awkward," John chucked, glancing at Branch who looked like a swag stag caught in the headlights. "Right, uh…" Gently, he pried the crying woman's arms from around his ribs, slowly easing her away from him. "Look, I'm really sorry, but I think you've got the wrong troll," he murmured quietly, "I don't-" He paused, eyes wide as the woman lifted her head, his jaw going slack as he took her in.

"JD…?" Branch prompted quietly from behind him, though John barely registered his brother had even spoken.

"…Mom?" John whispered, barely able to believe what he was seeing, his vision blurring as tears welled in his eyes, "But…no. No, I saw you. I saw you get taken! How can you be here?!"

"Oh, Johnny," Flora gasped, wiping at her face before reaching out and tugging John into another embrace, "I'm so sorry, baby. I'm so, so sorry."

John returned her hug with fervor, clutching her close like she'd disappear if he let go. "Oh my glitter. I never thought I'd see you again! I can't believe it," he cried into his mouthers shoulder, "I can't-wait! Is dad with you? Did he-" he pulled away from his mother, but kept her shawl clutched in his fingers. He let out a shout as he spotted his father jogging towards them, tears running down his own face as he waved at them as he approached. "DAD!" He opened his arms as Birch reached them, the three quickly sinking to their knees as they cried and clung to one another.

They sat like that for a time, before Branch quite loudly cleared his throat and kicked at John's foot to get his attention.

"Oh! Oh, cupcakes," John reluctantly pulled himself away from his parents embrace, stumbling to his feet to grab at Branch and tug him forward, much to the blatant confusion of his baby brother. "Branch! These are our parents! Mom, Dad, this is Branch." Gently, he pushed Branch towards their parents, who stood from where they'd been kneeling on the ground, cheeks ruddy from their tears. "He hatched a month after Trollstice."

"Look at you!" Flora cooed, wiping at here eyes quickly before stepping forward, hands outstretched towards Branch's face. He cringed as she approached, fully expecting to have his cheeks squished, much like Clay had done when they'd reunited, only to be pleasantly surprised as she simply cupped his cheeks in the palms of her hands.

Branch let his shoulders slowly relax as she looked him over, frowning slightly as she began to cry again, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Hello, my sweet baby," she finally sighed after a long minute, a sad smile on her face, "I'm so sorry that we missed you."

Her gentle words seemingly broke something in Branch's chest as he heaved a sudden, ugly sob, surprised by the wave of emotions that crashed over him as she drew him into a tender hug. He let his arms wind around her as she rubbed at his back, openly weeping like he'd never done before as she murmured reassurances into his ear.

"I'm here now, sweetheart. Momma's here."

[icepoptroll]

hey sorry to send this to your main account but I'm really anxious and the other one has asks closed

What were the problematic Ricky requests? Not asking to be intrusive, I just sent a lot this batch and I might've accidentally sent something bad and if so I'm super sorry I did

Hi,

I was planning on logging off for the night but I caught this ask before I went to do that and I don’t want you to worry too much, so I will do my best to answer it.

I'm not really interested in publicly posting the asks in question. Nothing was like. Unforgiveably horrifically offensive. However some things came across as "I wonder if they'll do this or if they'll turn me down." I just added to my pinned post (which I suggested everyone to look at before asking) that I will draw reqs that appear to be in good faith and will turn down things that don't sit right with me. A couple of things came across as perhaps an attempt to test that. Maybe these asks were attempts at trolling. Some stuff just came across as asking for lots of stuff just to ask for it without giving me much of a premise to work with. Whether you sent them or not I don't know, they just seemed to have very little thought put into them and very little regard for what I'm trying to do here, and for the energy that I have to put into making these. To be blunt, I'm not an AI art generator that effortlessly spits out drawings in the blink of an eye. I'm a real person with genuine good intentions behind the Rickyverse project and real struggles I face outside of Tumblr. I know that I'm icepoptroll and I like to have fun and I'm known for being a bit of a goofball sometimes but I gotta be honest, I'm pretty caught off guard because the bulk of the requests I've gotten up until now were thoughtful and clearly in earnest.

To be clear, I'm not gonna rip anyone's head off over this, I just would like my Rickyverse askers to keep in mind that the more stuff you send in the smaller the window I have to keep requestd open, so please please please put some thought into your asks before you send them in, so that everyone in all timezones gets the opportunity to receive a Ricky from me

[valle-de-sombra-de-muerte]

Homestuck Reread: Act 5-2, Part 3/5 (p. 2236-2391)

Read the previous post here.

Apologies for the long delay in between posts. I initially wanted to have these reread posts be on a weekly schedule, but that just ain't happening now. The combination of work and fatigue from constant Homestuck exposure is starting to wear on me. So I'm just going to write them when I can find the time. Thanks to everyone who likes and reblogs these posts, I appreciate all of you.

I also went back and added cuts to all my past reread posts because I realize scrolling through these long ass walls of text/images when on my blog isn't an ideal browsing experience. Let's move right along.

Vriska really wants to make it seem like she'll be redeemed for all the bad she's done by reconciling with Aradia. In the meantime, she would very much prefer it if everyone else stopped talking about her terrible deeds. The only way she can think of to make them shut up for good is to do this performative gesture of goodwill. She's not trying to change as a person and atone for her actions: she just wants to rehabilitate her awful reputation.

Terezi's comment about Aradia is noteworthy because she's the only troll who seems to actually care about what happened to her. Everyone else kind of ignores Aradia, but Terezi expresses distress over how Aradia has "changed" since the incident.

From her earlier conversation with Sollux. Terezi will consistently remark how bothered she is that Aradia isn't the same person anymore. It's a shame how their fractured relationship isn't given that much attention outside of these throwaway lines. Like even after Aradia becomes God Tier and regains her love of life, she and Terezi could've bonded and repaired their friendship. Maybe they could've if Hussie wasn't so fixated on forcing this "doomed yuri" dynamic between Terezi and Vriska during the later stages of the comic. Aradia was part of the FLARP group with them too, so why sideline her?

I don't think many people talk about how Terezi was an active participant in helping Vriska kill all those trolls. I'm don't want to sound like I'm drifting into "Vriska Did Nothing Wrong" territory, but it's not like Vriska was wantonly killing people just for the hell of it. She was essentially forced to do it because if she wasn't feeding her lusus those trolls, she would've been eaten/gotten culled for having a dead custodian. Either way, she would've died if she wasn't killing others. A real "kill or be killed" situation.

What was Terezi's motive for helping out? To live out her dumb vigilante fantasy? For Vriska, securing victims for her lusus was a matter of life and death. But for Terezi, it was nothing more than a game. "Oh, but only the bad trolls would've been executed!" Bad according to whom? The Alternian law that sentences people to death for any arbitrary reason? Sure, okay Terezi.

Vriska does call her out on this, at least. But I wonder how many people actually take her words seriously. Too often I see this reductive reading that Vriska is always sinister and deceitful, and Terezi is positioned as her foil by being honest and noble. So by that logic, we as the audience must distrust Vriska and take Terezi's words at face value. That's laughable.

You know, maybe Terezi is a great manipulator after all. She successfully manipulated a good chunk of the fandom to perceive her as trustworthy and one of the moral backbones within the cast.

Terezi actually reaches out to Aradia, both to ask about Tavros's condition, and also to check in on Aradia herself. She repeatedly warns Aradia not to escalate the situation with Vriska, three times in fact. She really doesn't want her to suffer the same fate as Tavros.

I can't help but wonder how much of an involvement Scratch had in the Team Charge Debacle. Vriska draws a line between her friends and the trolls she sacrifices to her lusus. Her victims are a means to an end, but her friends hold sentimental importance to her. She seems hesitant on actually harming them, only giving in after Scratch insistently pushes her in that direction. Killing her friends definitely seems counterintuitive with maintaining a rivalry with Aradia and her long-term aims with Tavros, after all.

Vriska's whole fixation with Tavros is obviously based on what she read in Mindfang's journal. She projects herself onto her ancestor so hard and wants to be just like her. She named her FLARP character after her, models her in-game self as a ruthless pirate, and aspires to have the same romantic relationships as Mindfang once had. She forms a relationship with Eridan (Dualscar) and wishes to do the same with Tavros (The Summoner).

But Tavros is not the Summoner. While the latter was brave and inspirational, the former is cowardly and unambitious. He is not the troll Vriska wants to be her "future matesprit," so she seeks to mold him into someone who can meet her standards.

She hates Tavros for not being the troll she's "supposed to" fall in love with. Scratch uses this hatred to convince her to kill him. She throws Tavros off a cliff, but when he ends up surviving she claims it was for his own good, that she was "toughening him up" and trying to help him be more like the Summoner. This is one of many instances of Vriska performing mental gymnastics in order to justify her actions, even if she doesn't sincerely believe her own explanations. She's trying to convince others, as well as herself, that she is always right.

Vriska is shitty and intensely messed up, but Scratch is much more insidious for using a broken child to do things she wouldn't do otherwise. Even though he is omniscient, he should not be treated as a reliable narrator since he does have his own ulterior motives.

Mhm. Such a waste of her amazing talents. Talents we have yet to witness firsthand. If Vriska really does brag to Terezi about using her magic cue ball to predict the future (and knowing just how obsessive and paranoid a person she is), it really doesn't take a genius to know that's exactly what she'll do when faced with a cryptic threat.

It's interesting that Terezi believes Vriska "went too far" only after killing Aradia. It's her death that spurs Terezi into murderous action, when before she simply wanted to talk to Vriska after what she did to Tavros. We can see who Terezi's favorite member of Team Charge is.

Even though Vriska admitted to Scratch that she didn't want to kill her friends, she puts up a front with Terezi and claims that she was simply eliminating their rivals like a good FLARPer should. And again, she really doesn't want Terezi to keep bringing this up. As long as she acts appropriately guilty, she believes that should be punishment enough for her crimes.

Vriska flips from expressing self-loathing to acting justified and deserving of praise in an instant. She's in a constant state of feigning the emotions that she thinks is most appropriate for any given situation. She'll exhaust every angle she can think of to try and get someone to respond in the way she wants.

Of course, Terezi doesn't back down because she is adamantly set on avenging Aradia no matter what Vriska says. Even though she says she's hoping Vriska can change her mind, she knows her well enough to know that won't happen. It's all part of the bit of framing her revenge plot as dispensing justice.

Vriska becomes increasingly paranoid and indignant when her plans fall apart. She can't accept the fact that all her efforts had been undermined by forces beyond her control, so she's convinced that Aradia had been planning to sabotage her in secret. It's more palatable to her if she's the victim of a worthy opponent's schemes, rather than admitting that her plans were doomed to fail from the very beginning.

I do relate to Vriska a bit when she says she's "not very good at acting like a friend." I hardly ever reach out to people I consider friends, even though I value their companionship a lot.

But in Vriska's specific case, she's so full of herself and doesn't realize how her actions impact others. Whenever someone is close to her (Aradia, Terezi, Kanaya), she takes them for granted and assumes they'll always be by her side no matter what she does. When she does find out they're angry with her, it comes as a surprise to her and she doesn't know what to do to mend that relationship. She's fully aware of what she did to Aradia and her friends, but she thinks she can rectify all of that just by offering an apology and a gift.

Perhaps, on some level, she really does want to go back to the "good old days," but she's too emotionally stunted to understand why her performative apologies don't work. No matter how cunning or charming she attempts to be, she truly does not know how to interact with others because she cannot be honesty. She's always putting on an act, never realizing that people see right through her insincerity and are rightfully put off by it.

If Aradia won't be Vriska's friend, Vriska tries a new angle and tries to re-ignite their "rivalry." And she's absolutely livid that Aradia does not put as much stock in this one-sided dynamic as she does. This reads as an unrequited pitch crush more than anything else in the comic. It's too bad Hussie never really gave that much of a shit about developing troll romance (especially the pitch and ashen quadrants), otherwise he might've done something more with this.

It's a little sad for Vriska, honestly. She can't have Aradia as a friend or even a rival. She's obviously obsessed with Aradia and sees her as a big fixture in her life, but Aradia doesn't view her as anything except a minor nuisance.

Equius initially wants to assert himself as superior to Aradia in accordance with their positions on the hemospectrum. But her overall indifference to his racism, her superior psychic powers, and her ability to manipulate his surroundings as his server player all give him pause. He quickly drops the domineering act and allows Aradia to "do whatever things" she wants (all while under the pretense of "ordering" her to do so, because he can't allow himself to drop his act for a moment).

Because Equius views Aradia as a filthy commoner, a member of their society's lowest social class, it sets his submissive fantasies alight when he realizes the true power she holds over him. The one thing that rivals Equius's love of highbrow culture and maintaining class order is his desire to twist and pervert those same institutions in the name of sexual gratification.

Equius, eternally obsessed with appearances, wants to keep the nature of this "vile" arrangement with Aradia a secret from the others. He is very repressed and feels deep shame for going against the class structure he fervently idealizes. He doesn't want this "degenerate" side of himself to be known, even though nobody else cares about the hemospectrum as passionately as he does and Aradia even points out that her status as the "secret leader" was already an established fact.

Equius acts as if it didn't occur to him that she'd be angry at him for trying to manipulate her emotions. Who would've thought lowbloods had feelings?

Fun fact: This page was actually the newest page when I first started reading Homestuck back in July 2010.

This whole sequence is about the full extent we get about how a pitch relationship would look like. Anger suddenly shifting into passion. What a stupid concept. Troll romance really is just the most unintuitive, markedly unromantic model for relationships and people eat that shit up anyway. I think it was Hussie's intent to design this system to be overly complicated, emotionally draining, and borderline abusive because trolls are supposed to be weird and misanthropic. Yet nobody really comments on this in the text other than a brief "this sure is weird!" before moving on.

Even the trolls themselves don't seem convinced that any of this is "normal." There's never a point where there's an attempt to develop the quadrant system to make it appear normalized in troll society. Instead we get shit like pale relationships that either are doomed to fail or come across as one-sided and dominated by a mentally unwell partner, and pitch relationships that are unfulfilling and end in one partner ditching the other after things get too dysfunctional.

I'll never cease to be amazed that people online will still claim they have real-life "quadrants" despite all this. What sort of brain poison did Hussie inject into this work that affects peoples' behavior like this? Where can I get some to put in my own writing?

Another instance of the early establishment of GamKar in this page. We haven't even reached the quadrants section yet, but we see them being placed in the same relationship category as Nepeta and Equius. Using context clues from the conversations we've seen thus far (both dynamics involve characters with polar opposite personalities having a dysfunctional yet close relationship that is described as "friendship") it's clear to see even at this point why they'd be lumped together.

One detail I like is Nepeta writing "oh nooooo" under the Vriskat panel. Does she think Vriska has feelings for Karkat, and would therefore see her a rival? I mean, considering the last log between them, she might be right to think so. And Nepeta is pretty good at detecting the sincerity behind peoples' words and actions, so... there might be something to that.

Speaking of Vriska and Karkat, let's proceed to the very next page...

In their previous log, we saw Vriska governing the conversation by acting smug and overconfident. Now the tables have turned and Karkat has the power to boss Vriska around. This is a rare occurrence in their dynamic, and Karkat seeks to relish it as much as possible.

But even though he was making a big display about mocking Vriska and acting superior, he does stop and show sympathy when she tells him about her dead lusus.

Karkat describing his hate potential as a "finely tuned instrument" is laughable because he treats everyone with the same amount of aggression and rudeness. Hell, Eridan mistakes his insults as pitch flirting at a later point. So it really seems that Karkat isn't too dissimilar from Vriska when it comes to hating up everyone.

Karkat acts like he wants nothing to do with Vriska, but here he is dumping a whole ton of information regarding her romantic aspirations. Although he frames most of this information in the form of dunking on Vriska and saying she's too immature mentally to handle a romantic relationship, it does come from a place of sincerity and seems to be an earnest attempt at helping her understand her own psyche. Karkat may be empathetic and willing to help others, but he's also tactless and blunt in his manner of speaking. He doesn't shy away from being brutally honest.

Even though Vriska acts uninterested in his ramblings, it's worth noting that she implements her romance scheme with Tavros soon after this. It's almost like she took some of this to heart and really did want to see if she could forge a matespritship with someone, to prove to Karkat that she isn't broken.

Vriska has just received a well overdue lesson in humility and a complete verbal thrashing regarding her entire mental state, but Karkat still offers her a chance for her ego to recover by telling her that he needs her powers for his plan to work. Vriska is surprised at first, but seizes the opportunity to resume being her arrogant self.

The Mobius Double Reacharound. Stupid shit. Hussie never makes good use of this "two team" dynamic because everyone seems to cotton onto the session's true nature pretty quickly. At no point does this supposed competition between them ever feel genuine. There's no real rivalry between the teams, there's no threat for what might happen when one team loses to the other, and there isn't a big climax when the mystery is revealed. It's all just pointless fluff.

I think it would've been neat if the Red Team was framed as these underdogs pitted against an insanely stacked Blue Team. Equius, Nepeta, and Feferi are physically strong; Aradia and Sollux are powerful psychic; and Eridan is an expert marksman. Aside from Vriska (and Tavros, despite not making good use of his powers), nobody on the Red Team has any noteworthy abilities. Karkat could've been aware that he was in charge of a band of misfits and undesirables and use that as motivation to be a stronger leader against a much more powerful opponent.

Have I mentioned already how much I hate the pacing for Act 5-1? At times I feel like I'm reading some idiot's abridged version of a better story that doesn't exist.

Dear, precious Kanaya... Let's try and set the record straight with you.

I think it's funny how Kanaya's intro lists topiary as one of her principal interests, yet this is never alluded to after this point. It's just a flimsy excuse for explaining why she uses a chainsaw as a weapon. And then it goes on to say that the chainsaw would be an ideal weapon to hunt the "broods of the undead" that stalk the planet during the day (another detail that is never relevant), but she never uses it for that purpose either. I don't understand why Hussie gave her this weapon when, in reality, she never uses it for either of its intended purposes. She really doesn't have much of a reason to own one at all!

No, her real passion is her interest in dark, romantic literature. She loves reading stories to indulge in her thrilling and illicit fantasies. Despite the fact that she could easily experience the kind of intrigue depicted in her stories just by going outside and fighting zombies (a task she even has the perfect tool for), Kanaya is much too cautious and afraid of danger to actually do anything aside from holing up in her hive, reading books, and decorating.

It's this trait, not her love of fashion, that has the most bearing on her character. Her risk-averse nature and love of forbidden danger is reflected in her relationships with Vriska and Rose. She admires their confidence and willingness to take risks, but also naively believes she can rein them in with her sensible and calm nature.

Also, can I take a moment to point out that this is yet another parallel between Kanaya and Tavros? Both of them use fiction as a means of escapism. Tavros reads fairy tales because he wants to be whisked away to an idyllic fantasy where he has no responsibilities and the government isn't trying to kill him. Kanaya reads dark fantasy romance because she wants to read about daring, dangerous lovers taking her on thrilling, erotic journeys all while remaining within the safety of her own hive.

But of course the difference is that Kanaya's taste in literature makes her erudite, cultured, and a perfect match for Rose. While for Tavros, it just makes him look juvenile and like a total sissy because Peter Pan is "gay." Totally not a match for Dave, the manliest and coolest character in the comic who totally doesn't have any insecurities to cover up...

Kanaya has a changing wardrobe just like Jade. But since Kanaya's big special interest is fashion, it makes sense that she'd be constantly changing clothes. Does Jade give a shit about fashion? It wasn't part of her laundry list of hobbies, so I say no.

We really needed more chats between these two. Feferi's excessive hyperactivity pairs well with Kanaya's deadpan responses.

Out of everyone, Feferi is the most excited for the world to end because it means she'll finally be free of the responsibilities saddled on her. She'll no longer be expected to inherit the throne and try to reverse the Condesce's cruel regime, she won't be perpetually bound to her hive in fear of assassins, she won't have to constantly keep Gl'bgolyb fed, and she won't have to be responsible for Eridan anymore. She truly believes the game will usher in a fresh start for everyone, herself included.

Eridan is an exhausting person to deal with. Even though Kanaya loves to tout herself as helpful, she really doesn't like Eridan at all. Eridan wants instant, tangible results that coincide with his grand delusions. These are not what he'll get from Kanaya's vague platitudes and take-it-slow mindset.

Even though Eridan is often socially unaware, he correctly infers Kanaya's true feelings for Vriska. Must be from all the romance talk he and Karkat indulge in.

Despite Kanaya's dislike of him, Eridan considers her a friend simply because she's one of the few trolls who will bother to talk with him. He's so desperate for attention that he'll just laugh off her passive aggressive insults as witty banter.

Kanaya really wants to prove to everyone that she's helpful even though she's actually ineffective at best and bothersome at worst.

Far from being the sagacious mentor she wishes to be, Kanaya is really more like an overly cautious busybody who just wants everyone to take things as slow as she likes. Nobody takes her seriously because she has no power to enforce her will. All she can really do is stomp her foot and be passive aggressive if no one listens to her.

To the "Vriska Did Nothing Wrong" crowd, how on Earth do you justify this? "Say you're sorry for being a cripple" there's no excuse for that!

It's funny how Kanaya very slowly moves objects around because she doesn't know how to work the controls.

Kanaya constantly trying to worm herself as a positive influence in Vriska's life is motivated by her huge crush on her. She never actually acts on this crush in a proactive way. She really only talks with Vriska to "keep her out of trouble" but never admits to how she really feels. She sort of blindly thinks everything will work out for her, until she sees Vriska kiss Tavros. And then her response is to act cold and distant to her once they're on the meteor, much to Vriska's confusion.

Like Kanaya really had no business being that mad at her. It shows just how shallow Kanaya's true feelings for Vriska really were if she just ditches her as soon as it becomes clear that she won't get laid.

Can I get a "so true" for Vriska? All the planets are so insubstantial to the overall story that I couldn't be arsed to care about any of their "hidden lore." Most of them are only around for two or so panels before we move on. Medium cosmology continues to be superficial window dressing, what else is new? Let's continue.

Vriska getting agitated that Tavros won't easily roll over and do what she says. She has a plan in her head and won't stop until she sees it come to fruition.

This whole sequence is so twisted. It only really serves to show how badly broken Vriska is and how she doesn't know how to connect with others even when she earnestly tries. She only ends up causing more harm than good. No matter how crafty and elaborate she makes her schemes, she cannot force people to see her in a different light just by willing it into existence.

Anyway, this is pretty much the end of the stupid ass Tavros/Vriska romance plot. It feels good to finally flush that shit down the drain. This section of Act 5-1 is kind of a slog to get through since it has two of the worst romance plots of the whole story. I think the rest of the Act goes along much more smoothly, so I guess we'll see when I get to that (however long that takes).

[mrfancyfoot]

Healthy Reminder to Not Feed the Trolls.

I think especially younger fandom members and creators need to hear this because it's not advice that I see nearly as often anymore and part of that may be because my gen (Millennials) heard it a lot and often take it as Just Something You Know (though I think we also sometimes need the reminder). But we're older now and there are those younger than us that may not have the experience we do, especially if we just assume they know better (and younger and younger people are online now). It's part of Online Safety 101. I've linked to a couple resources near the bottom.

A troll is someone who shows up in a space and is purely there to upset someone and cause drama/chaos. All they're seeking is attention and the enjoyment they get from upsetting you. They do not care about facts, your feelings, or anything else you throw at them. They will argue in bad faith. They will commit the cardinal sin of Being Wrong on the Internet. They will accuse you of committing the cardinal sin of Being Wrong on the Internet. They will make fun of your favorite character, your art, your writing, you, your friends, your dog, any and everything. They will tell you that how you enjoy or interpret your favorite thing(s) is Wrong or Bad. They love to cause drama in and between groups. Peaceful coexistence is often what they want to disrupt.

Some spaces will unfortunately draw more trolls than others.

In this PSA, I'm not quite referring to the "trolling" term that is also used interchangeably to mean "joking" or "fooling around" with the intent to get a raise out of someone but not necessarily to upset them. Though that can easily lead to this.

Resist the Urge to Feed Them. ("Feed them" being "give them attention.")

Don't give them attention by responding to them or giving them any kind of space on your blog/page/whatever. That's what they want. That's what they live off of. They want the hate because it means they've gotten under your skin and in your head and that makes them happy. They may have an agenda, they may have no specific agenda.

This can be so hard because it's natural to feel the need to defend yourself, someone else, and/or the things you enjoy. It can feel good to correct or engage someone who comes at you swinging. But they often don't stop. They will keep leeching your time and energy, especially if you allow them to.

You lose nothing by not engaging them. They bring nothing of value.

Engaging them can bring drama and hurt in your spaces and this may not only affect you. This can tear apart fandom spaces, cause rifts in groups, and pit people against each other. And then you're all unhappy and you have these negative associations of interacting with something that previously brought you joy. It causes people to stop creating, to stop engaging with others in the fandom, and to even leave fandoms.

And that is the goal of many trolls.

If you feel the need to address something they've said publicly, do not link their post/message/blog/name/etc. You want to give them as little of the attention as possible - you're addressing the accusation/concern/subject/whatever specifically, not them. Don't even relate it back to them if you can prevent it.

Some very non-exhaustive examples of what can be trolling behaviors:

They leave nastygrams in your inbox/Ask box.

They leave negative comments or reblogs on your post.

They leave unsolicited "critique."

They'll tell you that how you interpret X is wrong.

"Your blorbo would never do that!"

"X should never be shipped with Y!"

Antis (the people or groups that don't agree with certain content and try to get others to stop making/sharing it [being anti-X doesn't make you a troll, but going into the space for X and telling those people that they're wrong for liking X is trolling/harassment])

Someone comes into your fandom niche and tells you all that You're Wrong

They may behave inappropriately or send inappropriate things

They don't always use provocative language - they may be very polite (all the easier to make you seem like the unreasonable one if they do get a rise out of you). Still trolling.

They'll do or say things to try to get support from others in order to turn it on you/someone or pit "sides" against each other

They may lie and/or try to spread rumors

"You/they made this with A.I!" is a common accusation towards artists/writers I'm seeing now that has absolutely been picked up by trolls and is unfortunately spreading (please always make sure that you are informed and don't jump on the hate wagon just because you see others doing so - do your own research and demand credible sources/proof [learn what "proof" is per context]). I've seen this kind of accusation disrupt artists' livelihoods just based on someone's say-so that others piled on with no credible claims.

It is okay to have differences.

People are allowed to be Wrong on the Internet, but that doesn't mean that they're owed a response or that you can't delete their comments. You can delete comments on your page just because you feel like it (though "I don't like it." or "This makes me feel uncomfortable." are perfectly fine, non-exhaustive reasons).

If you don't engage them, they will often simply go away. You're not fun if you don't give them attention. You're not going to change their behavior (please don't waste your time trying). Some may try harder to get you to notice or reply to them, but they generally won't stick around for long. They'll move on.

Curate your blog/social/fandom space. (You'll be so much happier and healthier for it.)

Do not engage them.

Block them.

Report them.

Delete their DMs, comments, etc.

Use the moderation tools that you have.

You are under no obligation to accept every 'friend' request, or allow everyone to 'follow' you or engage with you on social media or let into your Discord server or into your little fandom or Tumblr friend group, etc etc. If someone is causing drama, kick them out! Don't feel the need to keep giving them chances to behave, either. Don't be afraid to put your foot down and be firm.

If they pop their head back up (maybe even under a new name), block them again, report them again, delete their messages again. Do not engage. Move on. Dealing with trolls is often like playing whack-a-mole. Send them to the void with the spambots.

You will be happier not engaging them.

Honestly, the above works in similar scenarios, too (not just random strangers)!

Uncle Joe keeps ranting on your page and upsetting you and/or your friends? Delete his comments. Block/unfriend him. Don't feel obligated to keep troublesome family members involved on your social media. Or even in your life.

If the above is someone that you can't simply block (there are valid reasons), sites like Facebook allow you to make lists that you can use to control who sees which of your posts.

You may have to remind your friends, followers, or others in the fandom to not feed the trolls.

You are the moderator of your own spaces. If this is a public space or a private group space that you don't control, politely inform a moderator or someone who has the authority to deal with the troll (sometimes all you can do is hit a report button and/or block them).

Learn the moderation and safety tools that you do have for the platform/app you're using:

How to unfollow/unfriend someone

How to report and block someone

How to turn off read receipts for things like chats and emails

How to turn off online status

How to contact site staff

How to turn off reblogs/comments/etc

How to turn off anonymous/guest messages or comments

How to delete comments

How to moderate comments, etc, on your works (ex: AO3 has an option for all story comments to be approved before they're posted on your work)

How to privatize your profile

How to back up and delete your content

How to filter content

Thoroughly read through all settings (I recommend doing this periodically as settings frequently get updated or change)

Learn where and who you can turn to for help

Read the platform's FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), Rules, and Terms of Service (TOS)

Etc

And again, They will Argue in Bad Faith.

They may accuse you of not being fair, of not allowing them to participate, of leaving them out, of ignoring them, of not "liking" them, of being "mean" to them, of your silence "agreeing" with them or meaning they're "right." They may accuse you of being a bad person or condoning bad things IRL. They may accuse you of any number of wild things. They may say they're just "being the devil's advocate" or of defending their own fandom interests. They may call you names and insult you. They may say that they have private information about you that they'll leak/share or that they'll do X if you don't do Y - this is almost certainly a bluff, but this is part of why it's important to protect your private information and be careful about what you post online. They may say that something you've done is illegal and that they're going to report you to the police (again, very likely bluffing just to scare you). They may even say that they'll harm themselves. There's a lot of crossover between spammer/scammer and troll tactics (often they are one and the same).

That's what they do.

Don't take their words personally.

They just want to guilt you into allowing them to stay and continue causing drama.

It is okay to give people chances.

But you do not need to keep giving them chances.

In your spaces, you don't even need to give them a chance or an explanation.

I have become very liberal with how I deal with trolls. I block on sight in many cases. I don't give them ground to even start if it can be helped. But part of that is just due to experience - you gain the ability to recognise them pretty fast (a lot of it is simply pattern recognition), the difficult part is usually in how you choose to deal with them.

If someone is being particularly problematic, keep a paper trail (like screen shotting their messages with time stamps), but otherwise block+report is usually still the thing to do. If they are threatening harm to you, someone else, or themselves, report them (if you're a minor, tell a trusted adult). If you don't know what to do or you're scared, reach out to someone you trust for support. Trolling is a form of online bullying that can escalate to other forms of harrassment - a majority of the time, simply not engaging them helps prevent this, otherwise know that tools and resources are available for help. Just because it's "online" doesn't mean it isn't real or impactful or can't have "real life" consequences - there are agencies (like the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center) that you can file a report with or contact for help.

Have fun, be safe!

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

GOD the way you draw Eridan's capes is so good!!!! do you take inspiration from anything or does it just come to you in visions?

Thank you!!! I'm actually pretty interested in fashion (only on the level of a hobbyist, haha), so I do actually look at a lot of capes (#1 clothing fad we need to bring back imo). In the case of eridan's disgrub outfit, it's drawing inspiration from two main places: the first is that Eridan is specifically noted to model himself off great despots of history (so, going for an evil military vibe), and because in the roleplay, he's started leaning into his Prince of Hope stuff (so, going for kind of a regal/royalty kind of look). I also read like, an embarrassing amount of otome isekai manga/manwha, so i have a million be-caped prettyboys floating around my unconscious

longer explanation below:

And on top of these inspirations, the main consideration is, like, what I'm trying to convey with the character design, which I touched on above - Eridan deliberately dresses like Dualscar in canon

(Hence the rings, the cape, the striped pants)

The dweebishness of his outfit kind of overshadows the fact that, by troll standards, Eridan actually looks FUCKING TERRIFYING - it's outright noted in Gamzee's introduction that he shouldn't stay on the beach, as sea dwellers are outright dangerous

The first thing anyone's going to see when looking at Eridan, even from a distance, is going to be his massive violet cape in his sea dweller blood color

And on top of that, Eridan is literally an orphaner, like Dualscar.

By troll standards, Eridan is BAD FUCKING NEWS, like Karkat probably shit himself when Vriska added her new kismesis to the group chat (and when he brought along his moirail, the heir fucking apparent LOL). And he dresses like that on purpose - he pretty blatantly advertises that his appearance is something to run scared from. And also Dualscar and Eridan are pirates. So

The final outfit I landed on for the Disgrub combines these elements as best I can - military, pirate, prince, and supervillain. You can easily imagine more straps and gold decorations and embroidery and such if I weren't too lazy to draw it out.

So at least he can look scary before he opens his mouth.