#he’s not even being nasty this time not intentionally anyway he’s just repressed as hell

[ickypuppi3]

steve being overly tactile with billy when they become friends. slinging an arm around billy’s shoulder’s while they’re watching a movie. putting his hands on billy’s waist to move past him. tucking billy’s hair behind his ear to look at his earring. slipping a finger through the loop of billy’s jeans to tug him closer. grabbing billy’s chin to tilt his head because oh, you have freckles..

steve telling himself that sure he touches billy a lot but. he’s always been a touchy guy. it doesn’t mean anything.

steve not accepting that he has a crush on billy and that’s the reason he can’t keep his hands to himself.

because obviously steve isn’t a queer.

as if.

billy being simultaneously overwhelmed with and loving all the attention. because it’s steve. steve pressing his face into billy’s neck when they’re high. pulling billy’s hand close to play with his ring. running his hand over billy’s stomach when they pass out in the same bed and he thinks billy’s still asleep. tracing circles around billy’s ankle as he listens to billy read.

because it’s steve. steve who billy’s had a thing for since he arrived in hawkins. steve who can’t like billy like that. steve who isn’t like billy. steve who likes girls.

steve who called byers a queer.

billy wondering if this is just what it’s like to have a friend. a best friend. if this is just what you do. because billy doesn’t know. wouldn’t know. no one’s ever gotten close enough. billy thinking it’s all in his head. that he’s twisting his and steve’s relationship. making it into something it’s not.

steve staring at billy’s lips and wondering what it’d be like to touch them. billy wondering if steve’s gonna break his heart without even trying.

[asha-mage]

Actually no it turns out I have more to say about this:

But Xue Yang and Luo Binghe are characters that are meant to intentionally challenge the reader’s preconceptions and notions. They are meant to be uncomfortable, sometimes distressing to read about, because their explorations of the visceral humanity behind ugly, often monstrous actions. And that discomfort creates an urge- an urge that many give into- to simplify and flatten those characters to better suit our preconceptions then challenge our preconceptions in response to them. It’s easier, less fraught, for Luo Binghe and Xue Yang to simply be monstrous villains then it is to deal with the reality MXTX is attempting to portray: that their messy sometimes broken human beings shaped by their trauma’s and environments. It’s especially galling because arguably the whole POINT of SVSSS is that their is no such thing as a ‘simple scum villain’ that you can blame for everything that goes wrong, and to think otherwise is a comforting fiction at base, and an excuse to dehumanize others at worst.

What set off this post was me reading a fic where that posited (non ironically) that Luo Binghe will eventually kill Shen Yuan out of jealous obsession and/or an inability to control him, which aside from ignoring the ending of the book and Luo Binghe’s character development, fundamentally misreads what Binghe wants out of their relationship in the first place: affection and validation. Post Abyss, Luo Binghe already has all of the control in their relationship and is VERY aware of it, but he is also aware that it dosen’t actually change anything, since he can not force Shen Qingqiu to love him or give him validation and affection: trying would be meaningless.

Post Abyss, Luo Binghe could, at any time kidnap Shen Qinggiu and drag him back to the Demon Realm to be his concubine, but he dosen’t. Instead he hatches a plan to win back Shen Qingqiu’s respect by taking over Huan Hua Palace and essentially jump up and down going ‘see! see! I’m a respectable righteous cultivator, you don’t need to hate me or be afraid of me anymore, I’ve overcome that nasty demon blood you hated so much and it’s okay if your mad at me still but I can fix it see? I’m not a monster see?’. The only times we ever see him exert force on Shen Qingqiu are when he is trying to actively help him (healing him of the sower infection with his blood parasites) or is when he is unaware it’s Shen Qingqiu at all (the Mushroom body, pre-reveal). Even when Luo Binghe takes Shen Qingqiu prisoner at the end of the Mushroom body arc, he expresses frustration and disgust with himself, and it’s only as a last resort to separate Shen Qingqiu from those he views as the source of all their problems: Cang Mountain. And notably it dose not work because Cang Mountain is not the source of what’s wrong between them. The only way for Luo Binghe to get what he wants (the time pre-Abyss in the bamboo hut where he was truly happy) is for Shen Qingqiu both of them to overcome their inner demons (Shen Qingqiu’s his repression, Luo Binghe his jealously) and work from a place of genuine trust. And like even then the ending leaves you with the idea that everything isn’t magically fixed by fucking it out on the mountain and destroying Xin Mo (though both HELP), and the book dosen’t imply it is: just that this it the start of their real relationship. Hell, SEVERAL of the SVSSS Extras are about how their having intimacy issues and need to work through them like adults.

Anyways, I have more thoughts on Binghe and Xue Yang parallels but this to say: reducing Binghe to a yandere stalker monster is both a disservice to his character and also super boring in comparison to the messy things you could explore about their relationship, send tumble take 2.

People like to intentionally misread Binghe's character in the same way they like to misread Xue Yang's send tumble.

[clonerightsagenda]

The arc review continues.

Someone had to do the Chris Pratt velociraptor meme. We were willing to take on that burden if no one else was.

Deciding to be honest and doing it are two different things. You’ll notice Jade mostly avoids her biggest victims during the Derse plaza sequence and first talks to her partner in crime.

Fun fact: Although I handled Roxy when she talks to betas, other logs between an alpha and a beta were drafted via msparp between me and Gill. This led to those logs being, on average, longer and more tangent-riddled. The worst offender is the Dave and Dirk convo. Often I sliced a lot out for the final version. We also often went off script on weird tangents (including me once threatening Gill while she was in the bathroom when she kept sending me metal gear memes). This log’s text file is referred to as jajane charades.txt because of one said tangent, which I will repost for your entertainment. This is the dvd commentary after all.

JANE: YOU SEE ]] JANE: WHEN A YOUNG LASS HITS YOUR AGE SHE STARTS GETTING... URGES ]] JANE: MY DAD TAUGHT ME THESE URGES MUST BE SUPPRESSED UNTIL MARRIAGE. ]] JADE: i have a cloning machine i am unstoppable ]] JADE: also jane sweetie we are going to have to talk about other orientations someday ]] JANE: I like men!! ]] JADE: yes but you see there is a whole broad world of orientations out there ]]] JADE: it is very simple ]] JADE: for example i am JADE: flails arms randomly ]] JADE: and john is JADE: crosses arms firmly over chest ]] JANE: Ohhhh. JADE: it is the all or nothing option] JADE: and the salad bar is calling your name ] JANE: And jake is... ]] JANE: Stares blankly into space. ]] JANE: Emits confused noises. ]] JADE: i dunno he had fake dates with dolls ] JADE: i have no word for that one] JADE: or gesture ] JANE: He did what? ]] JADE: lmao ] JADE: i suppose he had urges ] JANE: Well. ]] JANE: He is a strange, silly boy. ]] JADE: and a strange silly old man ] JANE: And the more things change the more they stay the same!! ]] JANE: Hoo hoo, and Dirk is quietly staring at Jake's rear end from the corner, while Roxy is rolling around on the floor laughing at everything, I guess. ]] JADE: dave: slightly different flailing motion ]] JADE: rose: waggles eyebrows at all women in the vicinity ]] JADE: ok i think this log is officially dead ] JANE: This is all bonus content ]] JANE: It must be seen I demand it ]] JADE: ok]

Ok now let’s get back on track

JADE: i dont know what it was like for anyone else JADE: but i guess for us that meant JADE: it was just?

Jane and Jade have no way of knowing that Aranea rigged the clock, poor things.

JANE: Of course, my death wasn't permanent after I died this time under similar circumstances. JANE: So perhaps we were victims of a Skaian clearance sale? JANE: Doomed timeline, everyone must go!

Tbh I feel like this would help explain some of the honestly sorta sketchy clock rulings. They’re already doomed, might as well keep ‘em down. That’s our justification about why Jane didn’t die in a similar situation in TLC. 

JADE: do you ever worry you dont feel the right way about your friends?

The core difference between John and Jade, at least in my interpretation, is that John represses a lot of things unconsciously, and Jade is doing it intentionally. Jade is fully aware of all her bitter, angry, or jealous impulses. She considers them all personal failings, and she tries to squash them. Unfortunately that just made them more nasty when they came out. I think if Jade hadn’t demonized every ‘bad’ aspect of herself so much, grimbark Jade wouldn’t have been so aggressive... she would have been more resigned and ‘guys if we just cooperate maybe fewer people will get hurt’ rather than ‘i’m gonna kick my brother in the gut’.

Speaking of kicking her brother in the gut, let's get to the first of those uncomfy conversations.

From Karkat's perspective, he got angry, sent some nasty messages to the humans for a few hours, and then cooled off. No real harm done. But from Jade's perspective, he bullied her for years of an already crummy childhood. Considering her typical attitude versus how hostile she is when he contacts her, he must've really gotten on her nerves. She had no real reason to kill him for a "demonstration". She did that out of vengeance, and now she has to admit it.

JOHN: i know you grew up alone for a while, and you let us see your house, but whenever we tried to ask questions you changed the subject. JOHN: what were we supposed to do? JOHN: i didn't want to pry! if you said it was fine, i thought it was. JOHN: and now you're mad because i didn't assume my sister was lying to me? JOHN: i guess i won't make that mistake again!!

The other kids on the ship must have learned at least some details of Jade's childhood. Again, it seems kinda unrealistic that they didn't ask *any* questions, but that's what I have to work with. John feels betrayed and frustrated that Jade is now punishing him for not magically knowing the things she tried to hide from him, which is an entirely fair reaction. Maybe he didn't pay as much attention as he could have, but she deliberately made it harder for him to notice, so they both have been contributing to damaging this relationship. Jade eventually admits that she fucked up. She felt they would like her more as the peppy, supportive friend, and maybe that’s true, but that has only made this revelation harder to swallow.

Karkat is bewildered in the background, because since Jade was pissed at him, she didn't care enough about his opinion to hide herself. Ironically, it's the people she doesn't respect who know her best.

KARKAT: SHE LITERALLY TOLD ME TO TELL HER WHEN I WENT TO HELL SO SHE COULD SET UP A REMINDER TO THROW A PARTY. KARKAT: THAT IS AN ACTUAL THING THAT HAPPENED.

That log is a riot.

There's an emphasis on everyone admitting that this happened and dealing with it rather than sweeping it under the rug. In canon, the implications of grimbark and crockertier kinda get glossed over, partly because it's unclear how much of their actions got retconned away. That suggests all that stuff is still festering. We wanted to make sure it gets talked about so it’s less likely Jade and Jane snap on their own later because they simply can’t take holding it in anymore.  

Jade and Jake! Another combo log that had to get sliced down quite a bit. This conversation is a lot more heavily tied to Jake's arc than Jade's so I won't spend a bunch of time on it.

JADE: i deserve some sort of update

I made some joke about this being @Andrew Hussie but considering the kinds of updates he finally gave the poor girl (get sexually harassed and stabbed! every girl’s dream) I take it back.

JADE: is the xenon inert?

If the girl's supposed to be a science genius I'm gonna bring chemistry into the story, ok? I HL’d in chem. I miss it a little. Plus, chemistry is directly relevant to the Alpha session. Noble gasses are inert and have trouble forming bonds without outside influence. It takes the addition of the Beta planets to create an octet of eight electrons around the Skaian nucleus, making a stable atom. Everyone hanging out on Jane’s planet probably got a chipmunk voice. The possibilities are endless. 

JADE: i think you have taken quite enough punches for the day JAKE: That one to the solar plexus really did smart... JADE: how about the villains take a turn for a change? JADE: that arrangement sounds good to me

In the future, Jake will get to punch himself as a villain. So best of both worlds, I guess.

Moving on to Davesprite... Jesus christ, this conversation. The one good thing I can say about it is it did generate this gem.

I used to test the text color code before we put it up on mspfa (these days I just say fuck it and we fix the errors when we see them). This effect doesn't happen on the mspfa page with the smaller text box, but I think it's a pretty good summary of the log as a whole. In fact I opened this log to look at it again, saw the wall of orange, and felt my heart quail within me. But this is an arc commentary which means I don't have to read it line by line if I don't want to. 

Anyway, this was a pain in the ass because Homestuck does not like to let people who are dating talk to each other, a phenomenon I tongue-in-cheek call the Homestuck relationship curse. Current couples almost never speak, unless it's part of a group conversation or they're breaking up. Go back and check if you don’t believe me. These two are even worse, because although Dave pre-split talks to Jade and Davesprite talks to Jadesprite, Davesprite-as-Davesprite never talks to Jade-as-Jade ever. Which makes it really fucking hard to write a whole thing about how stuff broke bad, let me tell you. I had about three sentences to go off of and so mostly relied on piecing best guesses together from general character analysis, which I won't go into in depth because no one asked for a DVD commentary for this scene in particular. This is another conversation that got overhauled once or twice - in earlier drafts Davesprite was a lot more passive, but I figured he's had a long day and is ready to snap back, and I needed him to because I was, after all, trying to call Jade on some of her shit too. This conversation essentially serves the same purpose as the one with John for Jade - she lets people know what's going on with her but is also faced with the fact that it's partly on her that she kept her mouth shut for so long.

The fact that he's lurking in the background of a bunch of panels is because I should never make idle comments around the artist. I made some joke about being afraid that your recently evil ex will just fuckin shoot you for talking shit and Gill took it upon herself to make that a reality. Same with John hiding behind a rock, or the entire existence of Janerezi in this household. I've learned to stop making jokes.

Then John fucks up with his power of mental association powers and teleports Jack Noir along with Jade to the green sun. Good job, John.

Jade's closure with her traveling companions mostly caps off the messiest part of her 'be honest with your friends' journey, although she still has Dave and Rose to talk to. The next bit is more focused on her working through the way she finds self-worth through being powerful rather than simply being, represented in her Green Sun quest. And that seems like a good place to break for a new post to ME.