#and of course eridan:

[wahhzo]

infant and innocent / baby, both arms cradle you now

[heartmender]

Does vriska have any role in backstage? Asking for a friend

The friend is me i like vriska

the black rom tension helps with the acting

[velvetcnidarian-gems]

Was gonna add the cape and scarf but i kinda like it more without

[dividedsingularity]

It's exceedingly rare now, but sometimes I still doodle other Homestuck characters.

[tmos-time]

tfw the merman you've been befriending for a week while you visit your best friend has the most dysphoric day of his life and all he can think about is ovens

[pogzhellopart]

EriKar dump fr fr

[mindfang-srevenge]

Homestuck Trolls and Which TMA Entity They're Most Aligned With: A List By Static, with the STRONG NOTATION that this is not a diss track, just a general summation of thoughts

Karkat— Extinction. He's the mutation that heralds the end of the world. He's the mutation that dooms the world. His existence inspires the fear of the end of society, and the question of how that society could rebuild.

Vriska— Web. A gimme. Spider8itch is gonna spider8itch. She's literally got manipulation powers that-- if she would use them correctly-- would constantly invoke the fear that her friends had no free will, and were just following her orders.

Aradia— End. She takes on the job of reaper for the entire universe, there's no way her very presence doesn't inspire at least the knowledge or vibes of death in her friends. She's the ferrywoman of this universe, and more than that, she's an archaeologist. She takes an active interest in the dead and the gone. This girl's unnerving, and I adore her for it.

Sollux— Desolation. A man who's had everything taken from him, and taken from him again, and taken from him again. First with Aradia's death at his hands, then when he's killed trying to get his friends into the game, then when he gets incinerated by Jack, then when he's blinded by Eridan, then when he gives it all up to propel the ship across the yard, then when he-- you get the point. Sollux continually inspires, rather than the fear of death, the fear of total and utter loss. It's probably something to do with the Doom aspect, y'know.

Terezi— Eye. She who knows all, she who 'sees' all. She's adept enough at this job to be able to trace both the past and the future, to understand exactly where things went wrong even if she doesn't have the power to fix it herself. Good at predicting outcomes. All of these are eye traits.

Gamzee— Stranger, both because of the circus aesthetic and because of the fear of the 'other' that he inspires. He walks like their friend, he looks like their friend, he even kind of sounds like their friend-- but is it really him? Are they supposed to trust him, especially after what he did? There's something wrong here, there's something wrong about him, and he's a Stranger aboard their ship.

Eridan— Slaughter. He's constantly fulfilling the trait of 'mindless violence', after all, whether he's killing landdwellers or shooting angels or even killing his friends. He shoots first and asks questions later. He's actively thinking about genocide at almost all times. This man is a menace.

Nepeta— Hunt, which feels a little obvious. She's the stalking purredator. She's constantly RP'ing as a creature that would like no better than to play a lovely little game of cat and mouse. If she got more screentime and/or things to fight, I'm sure we could see many more examples of this in-text.

Equius— Lonely. Nobody really seems to like this man? I mean, for obvious reasons- he's kind of a creep-- but he lurks on the edges of the friend group, moreso even than Gamzee or Eridan. If he didn't live immediately next door to Vriska I'm not sure anyone but Nepeta would know him. He probably speaks to his robots more than any other troll, and he doesn't seem to particularly want to speak to anyone but Nepeta? Every conversation is so stilted, so formal, almost as if he doesn't know how to talk to people even if he did want to.

Feferi— Vast. Look, as a seadweller, she's a little more connected to the depths than most-- but she also can't leave the depths, forcing Eridan to do her hunting for her. Her lifespan is implied to be near-endless, judging from )(IC's. She's trapped on all sides by endlessness.

Tavros— Buried. Much in the way that Feferi is trapped by an expanse both around her and within her, Tavros is trapped on the ground despite his wishes. He's buried at the back of his friend group, the butt of the jokes. He's also figuratively buried by his self-doubt, which feeds into his role as Page. I feel . . . incredibly bad for this man.

Kanaya— Corruption. It's the Fear most associated with the bringing of new life, which both as a jadeblood and the protector of the Mothergrub Egg, she's deeply in tune with. Her lusus is also a winged bug-thing (mothergrub, shut up). Kanaya herself is a parasite on the other trolls, because she's a rainbow drinker.

[terminallycapricioous]

look at this distinguished gentlemen :°)

[showerthoughtsofagoldengoose]

ik i havent gotten to him yet in my for real reading of homestuck but I am literally so obsessed with Eridan rn it's not even funny

[speakercrab]

tlt as homestuck characters

note: ive left out quite a few characters i didnt know how to assign. also theres not really any deep reasoning behind any of these.

gideon - dave

i mean. of course. the shades, the swords, the propensity for ass jokes. who else would it be.

harrow - rose

this one also feels obvious. i feel like harrow has a lot of roseisms in the way she speaks and shes just the right shade of dramatic. sorry about what this does to griddlehark.

palamades - jade

i think theyre a good match in smarts and wanting to help people! but obviously if they went toe to toe jade would wipe the floor with him

camilla - kanaya

camilla comes off as very no nonsense and then will drop an incredibly funny line out of nowhere. i also think she would love to cut a guy in half with a chainsaw.

ianthe - vriska

we all saw this one coming.

mercymorn - karkat

if you put the acid jail quote in caps it would be indistinguishable from any other karkat line.

nona - john

nona is the same kind of cheerful with the ability to be a little hater as john. i do think maybe you could interchange john and jade with nona and palamades but personally i like her as john better.

alecto - john again

i just think this one is funny

john - dirk

ok this feels mean to dirk i love that guy i promise. but also i think hes the only one who would make a none pizza joke.

[anachronistic-falsehood]

suddenly got violently reminded of gamzee makara 2day for some fucking reason. do u ever think about how he was fucking stuck under lord english's influence for so fucking long. and then in game over he had one single moment of lucidity and and immediately got painfully cut in half. bro was just a kid and he got CUT IN HALF!!!!! eridan too actually. yeah they were both assholes but jesus christ man. they didnt deserve 2 get fucking CUT IN HALF FOR IT. they did not deserve 2 get FUCKING BISECTED!!!

[void-bee]

Me spreading the good word of Theon/Eridan parallels…

[leori-the-unlearned]

the way digimon does conflict/drama between two characters who should be or are close: chef’s kiss <3

the way sonic idw handles creating conflict/drama between two characters who should be or are close: *wilting flower*

[prospitsdream]

i think sollux n eridan would love watchinh star trek together. science fiction nerds <333

[nintendont2502]

the ability to come up with any headcanon in the world and all they can think of is a woman being a controlling self obsessed asshole. which could mean nothing.

people will literally reinvent female characters in their mind just so they can hate them huh

[utopianparadoxist]

June Egbert, The Tao of Pranksterism, and Maid Roleplay

So we've got our first glimpse of June Egbert, shining like a star on the horizon, as of the latest upd8!

With the Warhammer of Zillyhoo at her side and the general harlequin energy of her silhouette, many are drawing comparisons to Trickster Mode, or to Nannasprite. Both of these, notably, are heavily linked to Jane.

And I'm interested in June's relationship to Jane's legacy as her ancestor, because this feels similar to ideas of classpect roleplay I've described for years. so I want to talk about it here and speculate a bit about what kind of worldview change a roleplay reading suggests might accompany June's gender transformation.

A quick bit of background for those who don't know what Class roleplay is-- It's basically the idea that a player of any class might end up roleplaying as a different class, to various degrees of success or failure, and that in Homestuck characters do so in particular when they are actively striving to live up to the legacy left by their Ancestors.

Vriska is the clearest example to argue. Early in her arc with Tavros she is actively trying to fit both him and herself into narrative roles left behind in Mindfang's journal, and in the process strives to make Tavros stronger much as Kanaya does for Eridan by giving him the wand, or Aranea herself later does to Jake.

The way she conceptualizes the endeavor emphasizes the verb "MAKE", a close synonym to the most commonly accepted Maid/Sylph verb, "Create". She kisses Tavros while wearing a fairy dress-the word Sylph originally referring to a kind of fairy. And of course she gets the dress from Kanaya, a Sylph herself.

And of course, her attempt to woo Tavros in this way is a disastrous failure. Later, when she tries to make Tavros kill her instead of kiss her--again evoking Mindfang and the Summoner's relationships--she again fails soundly, Tavros rejecting her mind suggestions and leaving her to bleed slowly to death by herself.

The reason Vriska is failing in these situations is at least partly that she is obsessively trying to be Mindfang instead of honestly coming to grip with who she really is as her own person. The way the narratives you build up in your head about who you WANT to be like distort your own self of self and lead to self-sabotage and toxic relationships is a running theme in Homestuck, and Roleplay mechanics helpfully signpost this on a mechanical Sburb Class level.

Later Aranea makes the exact same mistake as Vriska in emulating Mindfang, but fails at least partly because, as Vriska lays out, she just doesn't have enough experience doing "ruthless pirate shit"--in other words, behaving like a Thief.

But the Marquise herself poses an interesting possibility, because she seems to succeed at performing both the roles of the Thief and the Sylph. And Vriska attributes this to the fact that the Marquise is an adult, who learned to perform a role that didn't initially come naturally to her through a slow accumulation of experience.

In this way, Vriska suggests a way out of hard Classpect determinism. It *is* possible to act outside of your native Class, even to successfully incorporate the strengths and abilities of a different class entirely, but this is part of a nuanced and complicated process of personal growth and a gaining of increased complexity of perspective, experience and ability as you grow through life.

Now lets bring this focus to John. John and Jane's mutual ancestorism is explicitly tied to their shared interest in jokes and pranks. Dirk likens this to Zen, or the Tao, meaning it reflects something about their fundamental relationship to the world and approach to dealing with it and its challenges.

John invokes this connection again as he carries out the retcon, the absolute height of his impact on the plot and narrative in og Homestuck, with the retcon being literally just being a series of pranks. They're also a series of pranks he has a lot of fun with!

Even while everyone is dead and everything is completely cosmically screwed, John is able to enjoy himself as he carries on and keeps striving to Make a better future. He indulges the Zen of pranksterism in this moment, using it as a way to cope with and transcend the horrors of Paradox Space.

He's also, on a mechanical level, roleplaying a Maid.

The Maid class, like the Sylph, is associated with healing and improbable ressurection. Aradia is able to transcend her own death and act in the world as a ghost even before she God Tiers through the use of her Time-coded ghost powers. Kanaya is lethally shot and revives inexplicably as an immortal Rainbow Drinker, the only character to be immortal without even being God Tier.

This is more true of Jane than anyone, who's Maid of Life powers allow her to Make Life for herself in such a way that even after being beheaded in what should inarguably be a Just death, Jane can overpower the conditional immortality of God Tiers completely and just walk and talk around as a decapitated body and her severed head. She is Making Life for her own benefit, and quite definitely no one elses.

Jane's other major power is to offer people free resurrections, like she does in Collide. And what does John's retcon accomplish? Give Vriska a free resurrection, effectively taking a more circuitous path to achieving the same end result that comes to a Maid naturally. It's for Vriska's benefit for sure though. John is still natively a passive Heir class, and this moment represents a blurring of the lines between the roles of Heir and Maid, a moment where John's impact is not narrowly defined by just one Sburb assigned Class but is shaped complexly by his unique context and nature as John Egbert.

That said, after the Retcon, something really interesting happens.

John stops pranking.

For the rest of Homestuck and through the Epilogues, we basically never see John indulging pranksterism again. At the same time, he eschews using his Retcon powers almost entirely, seeming almost scared of the responsibility and level of power they represent unless he's directly told to use them, like Rose does in Meat. This coincides with his prolonged period of aimless, directionless depression.

Who does this parallel?

Jane, who has similarly given up "frivolous" or "childish" concerns like pranksterism and jokes in favor of deeply serious matters like Pursuing The Presidency and Representing The Gods As Respectable People To Earth C. And like John, Jane is all the more miserable for it. What that might mean for either of her iteration's arcs is a topic for another day though, this ain't about her.

While his desire to kill Dirk is honestly misguided and ridiculous, this update's shift in John's psychology does point to a kind of positive progress in his psychology that takes him closer to the ideal of June he's glimpsed in his own future. He's Making Breath--direction, purpose, momentum-- for his own benefit, nobody else's.

Which is important to do, because right now all the work John needs to do is internal. The thing about John sometimes evoking his Maid heritage is that so far he hasn't been doing it consciously or consistently. He barely knows anything about who he is or what he wants, and so he's not in a position to be good to or try to help anybody.

It's a step closer to embracing Maid as an alternate/complementary identity, along with the gendered implications that the female-specific (so far) class implies.

A fully formed June Egbert will likely take this even further, realizing the potential of and fully embracing the possibility of Making Breath herself, for her own benefit, Breath in this case being simple fun. Frivolity. Jokes. Pranks! Detachment from the pain and suffering from the world by enjoying the fun that comes with existing, even in the midst of the chaos.

She will likely be a June who fully recognizes the reality that Life is a Game to be played and enjoyed--which is why the Game of Life board from Problem Sleuth shows up in the vision of June that John experiences while witnessing the Light of Vriska's ascension.

Hence the association with Nannasprite and the design's evocation of Harlequins. Harlequins and clowns are performers on the stage, and a June who recognizes that all of life is a stage would be in a position to be a playful and self-aware performer herself--even moreso if she becomes June by going through Helltier or ascending to Ultimate herself, thereby gaining the same metatextual knowledge Dirk, Al and Vriska possess.

And if such an ascension brings her back in touch with the power of Retcon, an Ultimate/Helltier June Egbert unafraid to use her power for whatever she wants would be the ultimate wildcard. She could issue free revives to all the dead trolls. She could bring back her Dad and Rose's Mom and Dirk's Alpha Bro.

Those are just random Maidy examples tied to resurrection I'm coming up with off the top of my head that could make her happy and/or severely emotionally fuck with Rosebot and Dirk, but really, she could and likely will do way more imaginative and interesting shit than that. She'd certainly prove a lethal danger to Dirk, which could likely put her in conflict with Rosebot, Vriska, Davebot, Jake and Roxy, none of whom seem likely to want to see Dirk dead.

She's a complete chaos element! And she's already here.

I can't wait to see what pranks she's gonna play.