#meenah txt

[cronuslover555]

Guys, so today i vwent to the doctors and um. I havwe E8OLA i knowv, nice guys like me can nevwer vwin.

[thiefking]

something (killing game rp group with homestucks in it) infected me. tripp pants meenah real btw

(also dolphin bites, because of course)

[dorosen]

Do you think Rufioh or Horuss is more manipulative of the two?

Definitely Horuss, but Rufioh isn't necessarily exempt from that either. But in Rufioh's case, it's more like passive lying to keep things from getting messy. That is, until it gets out of hand and hurts someone. He's pretty bad at handling things the right way, but Horuss is probably worse at that. Though I can imagine him using Horuss' undying devotion to him to some advantage. He also tends to take the blame away from himself, but again, I wouldn't really say it's him being consciously manipulative.

In Horuss' case, he wasn't phased by Rufioh being taken, since he didn't consider their relationship to be anything more than an experiment at first. When talking to Meenah, it seems he admits that he was more embarrassed about being caught engaging romantically with someone so far down the hemospectrum than anything else. And even now, after epochs, he still treats it like it's an exciting little game. He considers Rufioh's affable malleability to be his best trait, and depending on how you interpret him not hearing Rufioh's entire speech about the state of their relationship, he's either a) extremely oblivious, or b) guilt-tripping and avoidant of his partner's feelings. Regardless, he's a lot to handle. While Horuss could easily be manipulated, he's also a bit manipulative himself, though a lot of it is more out of desperation than him being an asshole (which he still is ofc).

A lot of people seem to blame Rufioh for everything, and sure, he's a pretty tame douchebag, but you have to remember they were all so young when it went down. Also keep his perspective in mind: an angry indigo blood with both influence and strength that exceeds your own wants to keep seeing you. Sure, he liked Horuss, so it worked out (sort of), but imagine if he didn't. I don't believe Horuss is the forceful type, but it still wouldn't have been pretty. Truthfully i don't think Horuss would do anything extreme since he's not that type of person, but he'd probably do anything to keep Rufioh around, even if it actively made their relationship worse.

[sandwizard9]

why do the homestuck ladies gotta be so pretty!!!...

[gorillaxyz]

im bored

[sslimher]

[aph-estonia]

currently thinking about that one time i got kin-assigned meenah

[dihalect]

me, 5:48 am: hm. i wonder if the avatar firebenders could bend electricity

me, one google later: if azula atla read homestuck, she would be SO jealous of the psiioniics. she's among the best of the best of firebenders, and even she can only create or guide lightning — she can't control it. (she would also sympathize with vriska. obviously. that goes without saying.) yes, she would have an advantage because she can control all other aspects of fire. but at least privately, i think she'd focus on the aspects she can't master.

hang on. metal conducts electricity. wire. metalbending. might a metalbender and a firebender working together be able to control electricity? and yknow how lavabending is a thing? might there also be an undiscovered specialty of earthbenders who can control electrified or magnetic metal?

and on the topic of electronics. radio frequencies, including those used for basically all wireless electronics, are perturbations of the air. could a beyond-prodigious airbender — i'm talking leagues beyond where toph was for earthbending — control these?

and another thing! moving water can generate power. so can wind. so can steam. so can magma. another google has informed me that by the time of legend of korra, power is generated by lightning-bending. it is remarked in the show that the power plant is constantly looking for new workers, because this repeated lightning-bending is so physically taxing. it's also a relatively rare ability. why don't they take advantage of all of the other ways to generate power using more common abilities?? come on, sokka/varrick/mr. sato.

[swagstar]

POV davebot and karkat reunite and youre being pushed aside

[corpseofwires]

im still not over the fact that people completely overlooked that meenah and hic are... blackfish.... the whole joke is that theyre blackfishing... and everyone and their mother thought they were actually black coded.

[pondsquatter]

there's lots of concepts/areas of the comic that got less popular in the fandom after 2013ish or so, particularly after post canon stuff started, which i've always been a little sad about bc as i have frequently lamented i miss how popular no sgrub aus were, but it is almost worth it when u remember how much people have also completely lost interest in the dancestors

[captainxandis]

Happy homestuck day fellow gays

[yoitscro]

If we’re going to keep acknowledging Cronus’ shoulder touch with Mituna as not gr8 then I demand an equal playing field through acknowledging Damara’s butt grope with Meenah.

[toytulini]

okay fuck it. its homestuck day and i havent seen a single one of my favs. shameful

[gorillaxyz]

Since its homestuck day... which characters do you like the most? 👀

SOLLUX CAPTOR hes always been my fav since i tried reading it the first time when i was like................. 10? i never got around to finishing it until i was 13 though HES MY FAV i love him so much hes SO funny

[clonerightsagenda]

TLC DVD commentary: Vriska’s arc, pt 2

I'm back at it responding to a request to discuss Vriska's arc in TLC. Since this is commentary on her story overall I won't dive too deep into any single scene, although I'll skim through them. Part of the reason we tag updates is for people to see them, but mostly I use the character indexing so I can reference specific scenes as needed. It has saved so much time.

As some general notes, as I said before, I'm skeptical of "redemptions" where someone says "yeah I regret what I did". Post-retcon Vriska pays lip service to that, but she doubles down on her abusive behavior, so I'm not convinced. I wanted to make sure TLC Vriska actually demonstrated growth and change. However, she has a tendency to take over the story. Luckily, the dreambubbles are a pretty good quarantine. You'll notice that although she gets the most updates out of Team Dreaming Dead, she doesn't really impact the story in any direct way. Sure, she delays/distracts Lord English, but we could've left that out and just had him show up as needed, and people would've accepted that as part of the narrative. So Vriska doesn't get to be the super relevant hero of the story the way she wants to be, but what she does get to do is grow up a little, even if she physically can't.

After Meenah and Aranea die, Vriska ends up enlisting with the ghost 'army', for lack of a better word. While before she was in charge of a bunch of dreamers that she used as 88, now *she* is 88 protecting them. Her situation has flipped upside down, including in that while at one point she was bossing Tavros around, he is now in a position of command. I had been planning for Tavros to show up leading the ghosts, and when it happened in canon, I was like oh hey, look at that. Then, after showing up the person who's treated him so horribly, Tavros is promptly subordinated by her again. I was rather miffed by this. In TLC, Tavros is calling the shots. That makes sense to me. The dream bubbles sap people's wills, and Breath players seem to be the best antidote. Vriska livens up after being merged with Tavros, and the treasure hunt loses steam after John bails. Tavros is the perfect person to keep the ghosts energized and focused. As I've acknowledged before, part of Vriska's abusive behavior comes from her conditioning by Alternia and her situation with her lusus, although that is not an excuse. Tavros was abused by her in turn... and when he is in a position of power, he doesn't misuse it. The cycle of passing pain along ends here.

Ok, looking at some scenes in depth... When Vriska is upset, she uses 8s for way more vowels, and right after Meenah and Aranea's death, they're all over the place. Meanwhile, Aradia is making heavy use of the Socratic method here, not passing judgment but asking leading questions to try to get Vriska to realize some things about herself. Aradia has been doing this for a while. She’s gotten good at gently guiding spirits in the right direction. 

VRISKA: They were 8mp8rt8nt t8 VRISKA: T8 the missi8n.

I've posted about this before, but a tricky thing w/ writing Homestuck is that the characters' voices are established through online communication, and we talk very differently in person than online. Online, we have a lot more opportunities to choose our words and convey an artificial persona. However, especially if you're doing a fic w/ someone else's characters, you don't want to deviate too much, because then it sounds wrong. It's a tough balance to strike. One addition I made to spoken word logs was people cutting themselves off, talking over themselves, or leaving sentences dangling. You can add some extra meanings there, or just indicate distress and uncertainty.

VRISKA: Anything is better than n8thing. VRISKA: That's why I had t8 d8 something. VRISKA: It's this pl8ce. VRISKA: If you st8nd still for too long, you get stuck in the s8me stupid cycles of v8pid teen 8ullshit forever. VRISKA: T8lking and t8lking 8b8ut n8thing while the w8rld 8r8und y8u 8r8ks 8p8rt. VRISKA: I had to 8r8k out of that! VRISKA: I had to keep g8ing 8r VRISKA: Or I'd 8e really dead.

It's easy to forget with the existence of an afterlife and a life/death revolving door, but Vriska is a kid who died at thirteen, and recent events have driven that home for her. It's hard to think that your story is over, and life goes on without you, especially when you're young and tend to be more solipsistic. That's one of the drivers of her behavior. If she lets go and stops struggling, she has to admit she's dead, which is hard to bear.

Gill calls page 519 the 'put me in coach, I'm ready!' panel.

Anyway, Vriska joins up, primarily for vengeance. Most of that is offscreen, although we've got a bit in the Vriskagram flash. That flash exists entirely because we wanted at least some practice on getting something audiovisual up on mspfa, youtube, and tumblr before we did an actually important flash. It's near the top of my list for the Director's Cut to add in a lot more character dev for Team Dreaming Dead members (plus Sollux and Aradia who are team liminal or something.) Perhaps Gill will even put fewer OCs in the remake. (This shows me it's rather silly to act like her drawing everyone in Metal Gear outfits is some huge burden. She has always pulled this shit.) However, there is indication that Vriska has started taking her job a little more personally and is becoming invested in the safety of the dreamers. Progress.

Of course, Vriska is all about appearances and bravado, so she's not going to admit it. In her conversation with Eridan she claims to be one of the good guys but is rather dismissive about their ideals, and it's intentionally ambiguous how much she's sincere about. (As a writing sidenote, Vriska often refers to her fellow trolls by their last name, probably as a gesture of ironic distance. Later, I no longer have her do that. That could indicate character dev but is also a matter of practicality. If you're dealing with thousands of versions of one person, it's hard enough knowing who you mean when you use their first name, let alone their surname.)

We get more sincerity from her when she talks to John. That's usually who she's most likely to open up to, because John tends to be less judgmental, and Vriska gets defensive very quickly. With John, who sort of served as a morality guide earlier, she seeks absolution, eagerly saying she's changed her ways and it should all be fine now. Unfortunately, Vriska's attempts to push bad stuff under the rug crashes directly into John's attempts to push bad stuff under the rug and he has a mental breakdown. Afterward, although Vriska is taking some steps to improve herself, he suggests she clear the air with her former victims. Although she's reluctant, John has suggestion powers, probably linked to his aspect. Often, when he tells someone to do something, they end up doing it, especially if it's in line with their own inclinations or suppressed urges. (I think puppets aren't that cool. Why don't you fly away and never come back? Why can't space and time work the way I want it to?) At least he Breath-hexes Vriska in a constructive way.

VRISKA: I guess there's ONE person I'd like to clear the air with. VRISKA: I'll skip the 8r8kdown part though.

Me, lurking overhead with my .txt files open. No, Vriska, you are both going to scream and cry about it.

You'll notice that Vriska frequently adjusts her outfit and/or hairstyle. Again, this is part of her whole appearances routine. She's not quite sure what her new facade is going to be, so she keeps trying various ones out.

Sidenote for the bonus panel log

TAVROS: aND ARADIA SAID SOMEONE WAS ARRIVING SOON, wHO SHE WANTED TO TALK TO TAVROS: sO SHE’S WAITING FOR THEM VRISKA: Wonder who 8it the dust. VRISKA: Do you think it was someone we knew? TAVROS: iT COULD BE ANYONE,, fROM ANY TIME TAVROS: ,,yOU KNOW THERE’S A LAG, sOMETIMES

Aradia's lurking around to give Dave his peptalk. Gotta roll the carpet out for your fellow Time hero.

And we're up to the last Vriska, Terezi, and Kanaya conversation and her exit. I feel like that deserves its own separate post, which I will work on later.