#who doesn't know that maybe you shouldn't absorb bad traits that hurt people?

[terraco-07]

I'm gonna start this off by being self aware. Vriscourse in 2024 is so funny and kind of silly in a way so take as little or as much of this as you want. I think I should lead in with Vriska is divisive on purpose. Her entire story is rife with places where you can either hate her, love her, or find shades of grey. I love Vriska as a character, but I want to be perfectly clear. Vriska Serket is NOT a good person, but imo very few people are. Narratively speaking Vriska grows up on a hostile planet where she's forced to kill for her Lusus. She also has the influence of Mindfang's journal to contend with. Vriska never knows who she is, she's always living in someone else's shadow and constantly hating it. Yet at the same time she's trying to live her life by some grand formula. Let's take Tavros for example. By virtue of Karkat and the descriptions we get of Alternia we see the word pity used several times when describing Flushed feelings. Can we take it with a grain of salt and assume that Karkat a known romance over enjoyer is being an unreliable narrator? Sure, we can. That said I think that wording is relevant here. In Vriska's head she feels bad for this guy and thinks that she's the only one who can fix him. On top of that you add in that her hero was flush with a powerful bronzeblood and you've put massive blinders on yourself. She becomes so self absorbed with this idea that she ends up going way too far in her efforts to bring him around and pushes heavily past his consent and boundaries. (Looking at that kiss scene). Even after his death she says maybe 2-3 things about ahh man maybe I shouldn't say bad things about that guy anymore or am I bad for killing (another) friend. She's young but I think the lack of remorse is something that matters here when looking at her in adulthood which is what we're really trying to get to here. As for the previous murder it's barely even touched. There's an air of well Aradia killed me back so we're all good. Even though she ascended to God tier and initially Aradia was just a ghost who had to deal with it while Sollux had to cope with the fact that physically it was his body that killed his matesprit. General other beats are the arrogance, easy to anger, and lack of empathy. Which we actually get to see some development on those from pre retcon Vriska! More on that here in a second.

Holy shit Gil, you're rambling so God Damn much why do we care? I don't know, don't ask me, but here's why all that foundation matters. If we're thinking about the theoretical for any Homestuck character as a whole I feel like we have to consider who they are in adulthood. Tons of discussion and debate all circles around "well they were kids!" Okay, well lets talk about what they could be as adults. So with everything we've already brought up about Vriska, how does she act in her 20s? Personally I think she struggles post game. She has no mental purpose for a while and she's in a place where she doesn't have to fight just to live so that means tons of time to sit around and think. We've seen from pre retcon Vriska that when the stress is off she does actually consider what she's done to a degree. Do I think she thinks about Tavros or Alternian sins all that much? No. I think she doesn't like her younger self (like most people) and does what she can to avoid being like that anymore. That comes with painfully slow growth and still a lot of bridges in need of mending. Those same traits of being self centered and needing attention are there but they're a little more tempered. She can at least listen now and has the emotional intelligence to realize when she's hurt someone and actually care about that. In summary: Vriska is a complicated and flawed character and saying that she did nothing wrong but also saying she did everything wrong are both incorrect. There is nothing defensible about her acts (She fucked up bad) but we can understand why she may have done them without condoning them. As an adult she is still kind of an asshole but she's not to that same level and she gets to grow into a somewhat reasonable adult that is still a dick at times. Also if you got this far then enjoy my shameless Vrisrose propaganda. They get in fights all the time and want to beat the shit out of each other nonstop. Both of them suck and it's so funny.

[dradelcra]

Heeeey, look, I can mark an x on 'stuff people are going to say' off my bingo card.

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That's true, they don't have to do anything and also true that directing my complaints to more real life racist situations may be more beneficial but you're missing the point that maybe I just want to see more characters that look like either me or a friend or maybe a stranger who'd appreciate being seen, in game? Maybe don't use other people's cultures that has been historically messed with and exploited in media to cause a bad impression for generations and say you wanted to reach a wider audience when you make it seem like you really are actually just in it for the money that it can produce?

It being fictional doesn't matter if people use it as an excuse for those irl racist situations.

Yes it's fictional but it's not meant to be a scapegoat on the fact that other people exist, in which people have admitted to doing. You can display racism, xenophobia, misogony, homophobia, etc etc in fictional scenarios too and the problem with that is that some people just don't know how to separate fiction from reality and think that their ideal world should be based on the characteristics of said fictional world.

My fellow human on this Earth, people naruto ran and broke into homes for a whole Pokemon Go craze and you think it being fictional means it won't cause a problem? I started drinking apple juice because it was a character I liked's favourite drink. Why are people spending thousands of dollars for fictional characters only to get their real life credit cards declined and real life people scammed of their money? Fiction has caused revolts and opened people's minds to new ideas?? There are so many fictional books banned because of what's in them!

So many dark-skinned cosplayers get bashed for cosplaying their favourite character (alot who happen to be light in skin tone) merely because they don't 'look like them' (which is IMPOSSIBLE anyways because we are built different from 3d and 2d animated characters) and call them ugly because of it.

I admit, i am a bit fixated on the idea of characters having different shades of skin colour representive of a people's culture and history but to be honest it gets a bit annoying when someone starts calling a character with dark skin ugly. Like it can't be helped, we don't have the colour adjusting module for character creation without it damaging skin cells and causing cancer. Straightening hair causes damage and unnecessary surgery because people have come to hate how they look is expensive. And some people really just don't understand how skin works, they need proper guidance.

People need to be introduced to the variety of the outside world anyways so they won't be surprised that not all, e.g, people from the middle east or India are light in skin tone and wear belly dancer outfits. Honestly baby steps so they won't get confused when they see a slightly darker skinned person of said regions in their headscarfs, turbans, Churidaars or Saree and it's variety of draping styles. It's like the question 'How are you white but from Africa?' or 'How are you black but from Japan?" Demographics and history, next question.

It really isn't a big deal since it's, as you said, fictional, they just need to pick a colour from the skin colour chart lower than what they are used to like seriously it doesn't affect personality or how cool the character is, there are only two black people in the game and ones from a civilation that got wiped out how tf does that look???

TIL: Fiction affects reality in certain instances as some people will literally use it as an excuse to be racist irl because not everyone has enough brain cells not to do that.

I am going to bite you for saying one of the predicted sentences.

The Sumeru character leaks (aside from Collei) have me both dissapointed but not surprised. Mihoyo/Hoyoverse is adhearing to the people who spend the most money on the game, thereby listening to their demands (and unfortunately racism is very prevalant among those spaces). I (along with many others) saw this issue coming from a mile away because all the scholars we had seen coming from Sumeru are white/very light skinned.

And it's believable that those defending the release of mostly pale people from Sumeru aren't conscious of their own colourism. 'Not everyone from the areas Sumeru is based on are black, I know, i'm from there/I am that!' Although that is true, one quick search shows that your demographics include quite ALOT of people with skin darker than what has been shown so far. This sounds like the minority discussion so many white dominated majority are willing to make fun of.

Have you not gone to a market or any other public area in your countries? You would be lying if you said there wasn't at least a few people that didn't consciously stay indoors to prevent their skin from tanning (Not that tanning is the only way for skin to be dark). Heck, there are so many white and asian people from their respected dominated countries with skin colour darker that what is shown. Where is their representation?

"Don't assume everyone will be like that just because of the characters released." It's not an assumption pulled from thin air, it's a noticeable, even obvious, trend.

"It's just a game, why should you care? Go play something else if you don't like it." If everyone did that when a issue got rough then there will eventually be no other option. Would you be alright if the situation like Xinyan in Liyue was reversed in Sumeru? If we're going based on minority then when Natlan comes there should only be one white person to make it fair. (Although that's already doubtful)

"Here come the justice warriors", "It's racist to assume that all of us are black", "I'm from there and I don't care, don't speak for us", "It's just a game why are you making such a big deal out of it?"

It must be nice to be so oblivious to how something so simple sparks the trigger of a cave-in. I literally saw someone edit the dendro archon leak in black face to 'adhere' to the request that 'white american justice warriors' want from the game. If it isn't such a big deal then why not add the variety? Because those same people who are making fun of those who complain will do the same.