#meenah is a very compelling character to discuss though for sure

[landoffreaksandfrogs]

thoughts on meenah? (maybe the other alpha trolls as a bonus?)

i. really. really like meenah. i think everything about her story is very interesting, especially given how shes. not a good person. she is a bully!

but shes also very nuanced and with the same complexities as her fellow thief, especially given her circumstances as an heiress and her own struggles with having friends.

she needs to be doing something, to have a direction. shes like a shark, she has to always be swimming forward.

its really no wonder that her counterpart thrived as alternias longest reigning and most successful empress, alternia is perfect for her sensibilities. its almost as if she was displaced. an alternian troll trapped in a beforan society.

but to get a little bit out of the in-universe scope...shes clearly Black-coded. i feel like thats a bit of a "no doi" but theres also a lot more like. to say about that.

obviously there are Black voices in the fandom that have said it better than me and if theyd like, they can share their thoughts, but meenahs Black-coding is also part of a broader issue with the racism present in homestuck.

shes aggressive, pushy, obsessed with material wealth, a lot of things that have connotations with negative Black women stereotypes.

i enjoy the character a great deal, i think shes easily the most well-written of the alpha troll bunch and she has an actual arc, but i can also acknowledge the negatives about her that impact real people.

i can get into my thoughts on the other alpha trolls another day, since this is already kind of a lengthy response, but i guess its just like. listen to Black homestuck fan voices. meenah is a character with a lot of in-universe and real life nuance that cant be easily summed up as good/bad, which invites interesting discussion around the character, yes, but also leads to kneejerk reactionary responses. god this turned into less a meenah essay and more just a general homestuck essay this is kind of a mess.