#and rose psychoanalysizes Dave about this

[leapdayowo]

Redraw :3

2023 • 2022 • 2020 • 2019

Up close of newest version and sketch:

I keep getting more ambitious with this piece, but it’s fun to add to it and see my style change :D

[pyrobot1cs]

Ugh I’m so sure there have been so so many posts about this already but the fact that Rose reads people and psychoanalyses them because she can never know how her mom is going to treat her or act like in the next moment, so she has to be constantly on guard mentally (parallel to how Dave has to constantly be on guard physically). IS SO AGGHHHGGHH IT MAKES ME SO SO SO SAD. And the only real time and interaction she gets with Mom is either through their passive aggressive psychological strifes or actual strifes. I’m going insane insane insane crazy insane sorry i mean neurodivergent.

[sweatertheman]

I don't know if I've said this before on here, but, at least from my current position in the story, Homestuck seems to be about the degradation of identity.

Characters loose traits, and they don't get new ones. John looses his childish goofy nonsense prankster streak, but doesn't get more mature to compensate. He's still a goofy airhead. He's just... less of himself. Jade loses her gnostic view of the world where everything works out in the end. It isn't replaced with anything, it just goes away. Rose loses her tendency to psychoanalyse others and see malice in others. It's just not part of her character anymore.

Characters have their individuality stripped, placed in a reality where there are infinite identical versions of themselves. Davesprite is chalked up to by John as just another Dave.

Characters are expected to comply with the game, and are made out to be in the wrong when they fight against it. Jadesprite is made out to be unreasonable for being sad when her afterlife is ripped away from her, when she is forced to be brought back to this after going to the place where all her friends are and she's happy. As bad as Vriska is, she's made out to be in the wrong for being mad that reality has deemed her irrelevant, leaving her to wander around the afterlife for god knows how long, being tormented by Andrew Hussie. Rose's plan to pry answers from the game is made out to be misguided, and is later seen complying with it, reading up on the rules.

Characters fuse together, becoming sprites, losing not only their selves, being fused with another, but also becoming tools of the game, literally parts of it more than they already were, possessing all the knowledge and being forced to only divulge it in cryptic nonsense, the will of the game subsuming their own.

John, who loses more of himself than anyone else, becoming a husk of the boy who started this quest, is painted as the good and wholesome leader. He's an airhead, but he is good and heroic, and he complies. He allows himself to be killed, willingly, in the name of serving the game. Identity as a subject is prevalent in a lot of places.

Aranea tells Terezi that they are defined by their limitations, that if they truly had free will, they would be perfectly generic. Like the completely punched card that produces a perfectly generic object.

Dirk splinters off into pieces of himself. Tavrisprite's personality is irreconcilable. Aradia gets so fed up with not having choice that she tries to short circuit the robot just to change something, and when she finally lets go, the robot explodes anyway.

The world of Homestuck is designed to beat the identity out of those who participate in it. Those who resist become antagonists, or are painted in an unreasonable light. All the characters slowly become less and less of themselves. They literally have to kill their Earth bodies to become Gods. Destroy their self to attain the power they need to succeed. Become mythologized as near faceless, personifying their class and aspect entirely.

And what's worse is that none of this is painted as wrong so far. This isn't like DELTARUNE, where the characters struggle against predestiny, and the people who most comply with the narrative are painted as emotionally unstable with no sense of self-worth. Nothing opposes this. The characters become husks of themselves, losing their defining traits, and not getting new ones, and no one opposes this. The game destroys planets, wipes out whole species, kills the loved ones of the participants, and no one blames the game. The game is everything, and its will is supreme. The Ultimate Prize is all that matters. Becoming Gods and restarting the cycle anew. The game will kill you and you will comply. It will decide whether or not you deserve to die based on its own morality. All this, and no one actively opposes this. No one who tries to defy the game succeeds. The game does the same things Doc Scratch does, but Doc Scratch is the Bad Guy who opposes the game. He and his boss must be stopped, but Sburb and Skaia and the eldritch gods must be saved.

Homestuck is about a group of friends who have their lives taken away from them, and are turned into instruments of a higher power, losing everything that makes them who they are. And that's a good thing or at least not a bad thing, because they are cool and confident, and they're happier this way.

At least, that's how it seems from where I'm at. Last time I read it Jane and Jake wandered onto Derse while Dirk was in the middle of a revolution.

[4lph4kidz]

(I have no idea if this sent twice, my laptop did a weird in the middle of it. Apologies if so)

Man, I feel like I get gaslit about Dirk every day. My main take is that Dirk's Big Two Most Memorable Conversations are the AR and Dave ones in LOTAK, and if you're thinking about those two conversations in a vacuum and nothing else with Dirk yeah, you're probably gonna go AR=Dirk=Bro and Dirk admits it, therefore Dirk=Ult!Dirk, but like. lol

and that the comic ENDS on the dave convo, and dirk never gets meaningfully challenged on his beliefs. jake is also crying in the corner that he's the worst and can't be trusted in relationships ever and should probably just go live in the mountains like a hermit forever, do i believe him? are we taking these as accurate self assessments, really? but because that's the tone the comic ends on........ that does feel like the end of their "arcs", those realisations. and that's what you tend to remember if you aren't trying to psychoanalyse those brats.

dirk and his splinters are like... staring at yourself in funhouse mirrors. that's you in the mirror, but it's not an accurate reflection. you still have that giant zit on your face though. it's not that big, but you might want to do something about it.

my favourite kanaya is bewildered kanaya on her first date with drunk rose. she was so gentle....

i lost my original response to this one so i think we're even anon, lmao

basically - i do agree with you, broadly speaking, about what kind of impression those scenes might leave people with, but that's not what i came away with at all. like, i like dirk's ending because it IS one of the better conclusions we get in homestuck, even if i think he's being way too harsh on himself ('i was a completely toxic element in his life from day one' is just objectively not a true statement no matter where you fall on the dirk/jake faildating debacle) i still take his fears about his worse capabilities seriously and really like the way those conversations go, because i think dirk being self-critical is pretty important to his arc and growth, despite his overly negative perspective on himself.

maybe it's cause i don't think he goes unchallenged after all - dave's presence in the scene has a lot to do with why i think it's ultimately a positive thing? yes dirk's fears about being a bad person are actually validated when he finds out yeah turns out he really COULD be that bad, but the person who was hurt most by all that is still very firm about not seeing them as the same person after all, and not holding him responsible for any of it. dave is able to find comfort in dirk being there, and dirk feels that maybe him hurting and being bad for people isn't an inevitability after all.

that said he is still overestimating himself/feeling like he needs to take responsibility for things he really shouldn't, and i fear that difficulty in changing that mindset may be the prince of heart's curse, but still. it's something that gets explored in enough depth for me to be more than happy with it as it is.

this is not the case with jake, who is not even slightly challenged on the conclusions he comes to... it's a shame but homestuck just did not have time during its concluding arcs to take his character seriously and attempt to resolve everything going on with him (in a self aware way, the comic pokes fun at itself for dropping the ball with him) and essentially reverts to the same old tactics/routine in order to press forward, while internalising all that negative shit about himself. that IS pointless, unconstructive self-hatred which is not meaningfully challenged. i still maintain jade and jake getting to talk about stuff wouldn't have wrapped up EVERYTHING, but it would have have provided a good deal better resolution for BOTH characters imo.

anyway either jake gets his resolution offscreen during act 7/the credits, or he gets no resolution at all... which i think is the version i prefer, weirdly. he's a character who has a really hard time facing up to problems so i do like the idea that it is going to take him a long time to work through all that stuff. ideally it happens when he's not in a story that (even jokingly) hates him.

and kanayaaaa TT_TT she is very sweet and gentle but that scene still kinda upsets me tbh. she's such a loving, romantic character who is so earnest about trying to be there for people and to see that go wrong in a way she can't really do anything about is so sad to me

[wepreeshjohnegbert]

That Game Grumps ask just has me imagining John and his friends running a Game Grumps or Runaway Guys style YouTube channel.

I’ve never heard of the Runaway Guys until now but I totally agree with you on them having a Game Grumps style channel!

Imagine Jade and Rose playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Jade is all cheery about it and Rose is just psychoanalysing the animals or something - or even the player! I mean they ARE the only human, right? Or even John playing a game that’s been based on a movie and Dave just being there taking the mick 

[artificialqueens]

Redbulls and Roses (Raja x Raven) - Ezra

AN: Heya, it’s Ezra! This is my first fic on here, so it might be shit, aha. I took the prompt about Raja and Raven filming FPR on Valentine’s Day, and then I just ruined it. Enjoy!

It not even the real valentine’s day, but Raven still feels like a total buzzkill next to Raja, who’s in a ‘rose petal’ inspired look. Like a buzzkill and underdressed. “Can i get a redbull, please? “ Rajas deep voice pulls Raven out of her thoughts. She raises a hand and smiles at one of the assistants: “Me too, please. “ Raja looks over at her friend, nervously crossing and uncrossing her legs: “So, do you have a valentine this year? “ Raven turns to the other queen, pursing her lips. They’re coated with a matte lipstick, a red one, for the occasion, and Raja just can’t stop staring at them. “No. Martin and I- well, it’s for good, apparently. “ Ravens voice cracks at the thought of her former soulmate. He’s the one who ended their long-term relationship. Raven had apparently been really ‘distant’ and ‘cold’, only caring about herself. “Must be rough. “ Raven looks up from her hands, meeting Rajas glare with with a small smile: “It doesn’t matter. He’s gotten into a new relationship and i couldn’t care less. “ Raja studies her friends painted face with curiosity in her eyes. The other one is switching between drinking her redbull and scratching the crimson polish off her fake nails. Raja empties her chilly can and cracks her knuckles: “Are you guys ready to start filming again? “ Raven nods and puts on a smile. She can’t hide her tired eyes.

“What game are we doing today? “ Their producer starts explaining the game, which includes pairing up other drag queens and competing to get the prettiest couple. Everyone in the basement of WOW can sense just how tense Raven is becoming. “Yeah, i’m just taking a five minute break before we do this. “ The ‘woman’ in the blonde wig gets up from her chair and walks away from the greenscreen. Raja gets up and follows her, suddenly in a hurry: “Dave? David, wait up. “ Raven looks over her shoulder and stops: “What’s up, Sutan? I honestly just need a break right now. “ The two friends sit down next to each other on the floor by the bathrooms: “What’s up, kiddo? “ Raven looks at Raja with an annoyed face and comments on the use of the nickname: “You really aren’t that old. There’s 5 years between us. Honestly. “ The indonesian queen smiles at her friend with a slight shrug. “It’s about Martin, isn’t it? “ Raven rolls her eyes at the others attempt to psychoanalyse her actions. “I know that it’s hard for you, David, but you need to move on. It happened over a year ago. “

“What do you want me to do, Sutan? I still fucking love him! “ Raven gets up from the floor, leaving the other queen under her. You’re supposed to love me, Raja thinks, pulling herself up and clutching on to the red sleeve of Ravens dress: “Why can’t you just get over him? What makes him so much better than everyone else? “ The two queens are both fuming with anger now, and frustrated screaming fills the empty hallway: “Why do you want him back, David? He fucking CHEATED on you! “ Raven turns her back, trying to walk away from her friend without any success: “Why do you care, Sutan? Why does it matter to you? “ Their eyes lock, and both of them see the misery in the others eyes. “Because I love you, David. I want to be with you, and I don’t want to see you this heartbroken. Okay? “ Raven blinks very, very slowly. She’s having a very hard time understanding her friend, but she nods anyways. “Okay. “ Raja’s shoulders fall down, her eyes filling with hope and tears: “That’s it? Just okay? “ Ravens steps away from her friend with a little bit of disgust smeared all over her cold face. “What do you want me to say, Sutan? I don’t love you. I never will love you. It’s not going to happen. I’ll see you back there when you pull yourself together. “ With those words Raven turns her back and walks away; leaving Raja to mourn her loss alone and drown her sorrows in redbull.