#and that's taking into account that the iterations other people killed weren't even iterations he really spent much time with

[gaterrechinha]

"I do have some investment in his well-being" says Mickey, like he wouldn't try to murder Ann if he thought a 'Killing Michael' plan were to actually be put into motion.

[maybe-homestuck-now-or-something]

if I may pop in... this sparked a bit of interest and I have a take.

I think any evil version of any of the characters is equally interesting, but Dirk turning out to be the big bad villain more than anyone else smacks of some deeply essentialist thinking that I don't enjoy.

to explain what I mean here... once we start dealing with alternate timelines, it starts fucking with our idea of who a person is, and what defines their essential qualities. basically, for every choice you're ever going to make in life, you also have to live with the knowledge that the other option has an equally fully realized timeline of events that would feel just as real to that version of yourself. so if you go through life trying to make morally good decisions, the inverse of those decisions isn't nothing. and the worse version of yourself might even become relevant to the version that you are.

think about how this relates to Vriska and her decision to prototype Bec. think about how this relates to Terezi and her decision to kill Vriska. I think Aradia's nihilism actually stems from the same question: do you really have control over who you are? and if you do... doesn't polarizing your decisions more actually make a worse potential inversion in alternative versions of events?

thinking about Dirk in this context... I understand that Bro Strider existed, and was abusive to Dave, but that shouldn't taint Dirk's entire immortal soul across all iterations of himself. not more than any of the other characters, like, Mom Lalonde and Grandpa Harley weren't great either, they were just more willingly forgiven by the kids they raised. all of them had foreknowledge of SBURB, and none of them had a support system, and Bro had Cal, which accounts for why he's the worst of them. we can even see the pranking tradition in the Egbert household being an (admittedly crude and silly) attempt by Nana, to address that same foreknowledge.

it's really the fact that Dave calls Bro out, and the fact that Dirk suspects himself of being a bad person, that makes people lock on to the idea that he has more potential for evil than any of the rest of them. and what sucks the most about it is that it paints a picture of zero forgiveness. what I mean when I say "essentialist thinking" is that people assume that a black mark on a person's record defines their essential core qualities and marks them as potentially evil forever. they now are considered to need to work harder to maintain their good morality, and their transgressions follow them across all of time and potential, no matter how far removed these actions may be from their current self. there's no acknowledgment of the way alternative realities work, or what they mean in the context of moral actions or characterization. and when you add that to the fact that they're erasing all prior character development just for the sake of pivoting a character to fit these essentialist ideas, it's even more grating.

The mere concept of Ult-Dirk makes me so fucking pissed. Like, I don’t care for most aspects of the post-canon content, but mostly in a “damn yall really decided to do that huh” kind of way, where it’s just kind of sad and funny. But I can’t even find Ult-Dirk’s characterization funny for how shitty it is—which, to be fair, is likely a consequence of having extreme Dirk-liker syndrome.

Like I almost feel bad for not being as sincerely annoyed about the total recasting of Jane into Basically A Nazi, because that Also Sucks, but it’s so cartoonish and out-of-nowhere that it’s hard to even take seriously. Versus like. “Hey remember all that character development that we did? Remember the themes we explored about pre-destination and personal fate? Yeah we’re just gonna do a quick 180 on all that, catch ya on the flip side.”

Evil Dirk had potential until they made him into a strawman fr

also Candy Jane is so…… she just feels like a Trump allegory on god, she’s too cartoony