#hs analysis

[vampzzz64]

These 2 panels stand out to me a lot not just because they are stylistically cool but because of the meaning in every detail of them. The violet and jade fighting for dominance in the background mirroring the way Kanaya and Eridan are fighting. Kanaya in black and Eridan in white, partly to represent his aspect of hope and having the villain in white which is generally a “heroic color”. Then the background turning black as he kills her representing the kind of finality in this blow. Both of them are now silhouetted in their blood colors. Could be interpreted as a larger commentary on how highbloods treat those loser than them on the hemospectrum, lowbloods don’t even get the dignity of a more sure (?) decision they are killed with no hesitation and no remorse. The white cutting through the darkness. The blood splatter. Kanaya’s hands going up in shock as she is killed whereas Eridan doesn’t move at all. It’s all insane. I’m insane about this webcomic.

#homestuck #hs analysis #this is my first time analyzing panels in hs!!! #it was very fun #i hope my train of thought kind of makes sense #i just think they’re really good panels that communicate a lot #i might do more of these #kanaya maryam #eridan ampora #homestuck kanaya #homestuck eridan #my txt!!

[disguisedcheezed]

I made a relationship chart from the standpoint of dirkjohn and how insanely funny it is, but fucked up for everyone involved.

(I forgot to add that Ultimate Dirk also lead John to his death in hs^2. head in hands)

#rose projects her lesbianism through her mind's eye #homestuck #dirkjohn #johndirk #dirk strider #john egbert #dave strider #karkat vantas #jade harley #jake english #jane crocker #rose lalonde #roxy lalonde #vriska serket #terezi pyrope #vrisrezi #davekat #hs analysis #homestuck analysis #yeah #hs meta #mine #im still crying over this becaise i made this in an hour and im seeing mistakes you cant #<- edit sept: bitch you forgor #oh no i remembered actually. its that rose was just a suggestion to be married to. not a love interest lol #500plus

[quadrantbot]

Jake and Dirkjake and other mildly related tangents. (Additional paragraph on alpha kid romance, because I guess that was necessary to me.)

Heads up this post is not positive about Dirkjake like, at all. I'm not saying you can't like it or do anything with it, I am just sharing my own personal opinion and analysis on it. And Jake in general. (I'm not going to tag with Dirkjake because that's a dick move, but I'm not going to intentionally avoid saying it in NON tag text either. Scroll on if you don't like Dirkjake hate. Okay? Cool.) 

Jake is one of those characters that fandom wise, is super mischaracterized. This includes the mischaracterizations in postcanon as well, which also at least to some degree includes Pesterquest. It's confusing to me for several reasons why so many major changes were made to Jake outside of the main comic, but considering how most of the fans do not seem to take him seriously and the writing team for the dubiously canon content seem to lump his existence purely in with Dirk, it's a little understandable.

Jake isn't really too complicated of a character when it comes to likes, dislikes, motivations and issues. Jake likes his movies, the IDEA of adventure, and he loves blue ladies. He doesn't really care for romance at any major point in the story, especially considering his entire friend group had feelings for him, and when it comes down to actual adventures, actual conflict, he's freaked out. Jake has a great deal of care for his friends, even despite the weird romance shit occuring in the group, and his main issue when it comes to that friend group is a lack of communication from everyone involved. Jake "wants" to be important, Jake "wants" to be a hero, Jake "wants" to be a brave adventurer, but these "wants" don't ever appear to reflect in his actions, even so far as contradicting them, leading to conflict between his supposed wants, and what he actually seems to go for. Jake is often seen as a "himbo" by the fandom, but even that is not really all that accurate. Jake isn't stupid. Jake does have some issues when it comes to reading the room, but even when he DOESN'T, it's usually picked up whenever he's in a weird situation that he doesn't want to be in, which can be seen in his conversation with Jane about her romantic feelings for him, or the proposed lack thereof. Should be pages 4587-4593, but I'll screenshot the notable parts I'll be referencing and put them below. 

Jake didn't really seem very convinced when Jane said she DIDN'T have feelings for him, but he just continued along with the conversation, expressing his relief because even if she was lying, he didn't really want to face that sort of thing head on. Jake then goes onto explain the weird shit with Dirk and doesn't exactly seem very interested in him either, but seeing as Jane supposedly has no interest in him, there's a weird sort of obligation going on where he feels he HAS to just let this happen, which doesn't really seem like the common fandom idea that he was like, head over heels for Dirk. There's a vague mention of jokes from "years ago" where they could like each other if Dirk was a girl, but seeing as these are 15 year olds, "years ago" is a pretty vague period of time AND teenagers will say shit like that all of the time! Mostly younger ones, yes, but I think a good portion of teenagers have joked about having feelings for/WOULD have feelings for someone if they were a gal or a guy. Nothing when it came to Jake's behavior was intentionaly shitty or leading Dirk on or anything, because Jake can't always be aware of literally everyone's feelings for him? 

On a vaguely related tangent, I used to be large on the "bi Jake" being canon thing, but just taking the bare minimum look into some of this just makes it seem like he's got no interest in men at all, and his interest in women appears to be from both a jealousy/almost gender envy standpoint (in the way he seems to WANT to be like them,) and a genuine attraction, especially when considering his blue ladies and more specifically, Aranea. (I do not like Aranea/Jake for the record, and if somehow you guys who enjoy that pairing (or any pairing with alpha trolls/anyone who isn't an alphatroll, I'm looking at you Meenkat, Vrismeen and other freaks,) have made it this far, PROSHITS GET OUT!! I am a normal consumer of darkfic not a FREAK!!) I think I can understand those who read Jake as not aromantic, just uninterested in romance with his current issues, but I also thoroughly enjoy reading Jake as arospec as someone who is both arospec AND someone with several arospec friends who like the reading just as much, Jake never seems to take a genuine interest in relationships with anyone, only considering one with Jane or Dirk because they're his friends, and if he's good friends with them, they MUST be good partner options for him. While it's true there can be a good basis on friendship, I don't think the two major Jake ""romance options"" are all that fit even with the basis of friendship, seeing as neither Jane nor Dirk communicate well, and Jake really doesn't either. 

The thing about the base alpha kids (excluding cherubs and any of Dirk's robots, whic includes Lil Hal, despite being a copy of his brain,) is that when it comes to the most prominent "proposed" canon pairings, Dirkjake, Janejake, Dirkroxy, it just seems they only exist because those four are each others only options romantically. Jane likes Jake, so Roxy feels like Dirk is the only option. Dirk, though unlabelled, only has a canon interest in men, so Jake appears to be the only option. Jane seems to like Jake to a degree, but I think that primarily stems from the fact that Jake is extremely kind and caring to all his friends, so she really does see him as HER only option as well. Again, I do think some of the base alpha kids pairings are alright, but that mostly relies on things AFTER the trickster mode section completely explodes all over everyone and the conflicts reach a boiling point. Dirk and Jane make up, and I do think there's something good that could be said about some form of moiraillegiance between the two, because even despite their issues with each other prior to the Dirkjake breakup, they still do care about each other. I also like Jakeroxy as a pairing option, though mostly in a queerplatonic sense, because when Roxy took a step back from any form of romantic interest in Jake because of Jane and later Dirk, Roxy is more capable of having some form of bond with Jake that wouldn't automatically feel like a necessarily romantic thing, and I think their shared caring for their friends and each other could make them closer. The thing about the base proposed pairings between the alpha kids is that, at least in the case of Dirkjake, it's overglorified by the fandom, even if there are ""nuanced"" readings of them. 

This isn't to say that you can't interpret the text however you want, but when it comes to the bare minimum in canon Dirkjake doesn't really work at all. Not as a fluffy pairing, and not as a strange, codependent teenage relationship where they're mutually obsessed with each other and tearing each other apart. Jake has no romantic interest in Dirk. Jake also has a completely reasonable extra reason why, even if he DID have feelings for Dirk, which, according to canon, he doesn't really, they still wouldn't be good together. I definitely understand the value in exploring negative relationships via fictional means, but when it comes to Dirkjake, their conflict isn't complicated, or nuanced, or even really that complex to understand. Dirk didn't know how to properly go through with his feelings for Jake, so he did fucked up shit, and Lil Hal did fucked up shit, and it very easily came crashing down on him. Even without every strange and fucked up thing Dirk and Lil Hal did towards Jake in order to express those feelings, the biggest point of conflict, the decapitated head kiss in front of the volcano, was definitely enough to state that there's nothing really all that great between them, and there's nothing to take from it that really requires or calls for an exploration of the fucked up side of their relationship, because every way I've seen that handled, it's just as full of mischaracterization as fluffy Dirkjake is. I can understand the excitement at "canon gay representation," but at the end of the day, all Dirkjake really is is a one sided relationship between Dirk and a guy who doesn't have any feelings for him outside of platonic ones, a guy who felt an obligation to be with Dirk just because Dirk was his friend. Could that be explored in an interesting and angsty way? Definitely, but that is a Dirkjake interpretation I've seen the least of, if any at all, and that's literally what's set up canonically! 

"But Ro, what about postcanon?" There's a lot to be said about postcanon, and a variety of things that make any form of romantic feelings on Jake's end completely unbelievable to me. For starters, Ult Dirk is in control of postcanon, Alt Calliope is also, to some degree, but anything that may or may not ""confirm"" romantic feelings on Jake's end is being told to us by two unreliable narrators. But also, postcanon is stupid, existed to get Hussie out of debt, and overall was a piece of garbage that didn't do anything for canon whatsoever. So I don't consider it canon. At all. But if you do, the unreliable narrator argument above is for you. 

#jake english #homestuck #homestuck analysis #alpha kids #dirk strider #roxy lalonde #jane crocker #Jake english analysis #hs analysis #hs character analysis #Homestuck character analysis #Ro's Character Analysis Tag

[miniimoose]

Reading about classpects again becsuse idk I have brainworms and man.... Muse Of Hope would go so fucking hard. Can you imagine?

Ultimate passive class, designed to inspire others with their aspect.

Inspire your entire session with never ending and unbridled hope. Push through every obstacle that comes your way with the help of your teams Muse. No matter how horrible everything seems, how dark things are, how much you've lost, how insurmountable the odds... You have hope on your side and you cannot be beaten. You will get up again, because you have to. For your Muse.

#The idea of this classpect makes me want to make an oc #But I would need to make a whole session around them to get the idea across (?) #Maybe not idk I don't have it in me but the idea is sooooooo fun in my head #homestuck #classpect #homestuck analysis #HS analysis #hope aspect #godtier #HS godtier #homestuck godtier #Muse of hope

[biddyfox]

homestuck vs bob and george

Whenever i see a really long post analyzing homestucks metamodernity and weird themes I think to myself "What if people were analyzing Bob and George like this." Because Bob and George was doing ALL of the interesting shit Homestuck was more than ten years later (even the epilogues, down to them being mostly by ascended fans) but worse and with less fandom shit. They did the oil retcon thing (there was a period where early strips started slowly getting "whited out" to represent a plot-relevant time paradox.) They did the playing with game mechanics to tell a story (although these mechanics are borrowed from Mega Man and not invented whole-cloth.) it has the author playing a major role in the plot of the story (and even does a lot of weird interesting bullshit with that concept.) i think Bob and George even had a much more interesting relationship to its fandom a lot of the time. it's just like, a Mega Man parody webcomic written by a physics professor, and tonally somewhere between "fanmade TNG script" and "early Family Guy" instead of Homestuck's compelling YA meets chatlog teen drama. But like I like it better for that reason. It's denser and weirder and less polished and there's something in the authors commentary every four pages that's like "I think I was setting a later plot twist here but I forgot about it and did something else."

Of course I'm not pretending not to know the reason people find Homestuck more interesting than Bob and George. It's the nostalgia, the feeling of being part of a fandom, the years and years of tumblr history. That is the actual special part of Homestuck, not any of the well-trod ground it popularized for fandom Millennials. I would love to see people talk about that aspect of it and not any of the extremely basic hyperfiction and metanarrative techniques it turned into a teen sensation, like Beatlemania with the singer-songwriter. I would love to see people who enjoy analyzing Homestuck expand their horizons towards things that are less mythologized or overexposed (that's just me whining though, if Homestuck makes you happy then I have no problem with it.) It's just a really underrated part of internet history and I feel like everyone who likes homestuck should read it too. I know I read Bob and George before I even heard of homestuck and recognized a lot of the elements hs borrows from it.

Shoutouts to Dave Anez, too. Hope he's doing okay.

#homestuck #webcomics #bob and george #homestuck analysis #hs analysis #mega man

[tehstripe]

this sequence of pages in act 5 is so striking to me.

in acts 1-4, jade is a mysterious, all-knowing figure who knows about sburb and how it needs to go, and shes very systematic about logging and remembering important things through the little bands on her fingers. even though shes just some goofy little girl, shes smart!! she knows whats going on and knows what she has to do, and shes been studying the clouds to make sure that she and her friends are ready. because honestly, what else is she going to do with her time? she's alone on the island, and this is her destiny. she's going to make sure it happens.

here, we're finally seeing a bit of her friendly and put together self image start to fall apart as she just gives up on keeping track of things. she's grieving the loss of prospit, shes just had her first ever nightmare, AND she had to deal with an obnoxious teenage boy (karkat), and she's reached her breaking point. and she just. gives up. forget the reminders, forget the systems, they aren't serving her right now, so off they go.

plus, we get this tidbit a few pages later:

jade always knew she was going to die. she had seen herself, stuffed and perfectly preserved as a thirteen-year-old. she must have known that it was coming soon, but that didn't stop her from going through the plan to play the game with her friends. personally i think she thought it was worth it if she could at least see her friends, hopefully keep them safe, and have some fun times with them right before she had to die.

i wonder if theres a part of her unsettled by the fact that she's finally faced something she didn't already know was going to happen. she no longer has the comforting clouds of skaia to tell her what's going to happen - she's as clueless as everyone else. probably MORE clueless than some characters, like the trolls, who have a window into her future that she can't see.

jade's realized that she doesn't know all of the beats of this story anymore. she might just grow up now, and that means she has to go forth into the unknown.

#jade harley #homestuck #stripe hs reread 2024 #i hope this is coherent. i teach science not lit analysis.

[311ways]

WAIT so yall know this panel of eridan right.

ive seen a lot of ppl comparebit to grimdark, but aside from it being debunked by the Beast, theres also notable differences

grimdark style is characterized by a whispy black outline, while in the above panel, eridan's magic outline is noticably white

so. what else have we seen drawn in a black silhouette with a glowing white outline?

THE FUCKING ANGELS!!!!

BUT THERES MORE

the angels dont always look like that, in fact they only ever appear that way on lowaa

THE HOPE FIELD AROUND LOWAA OBSCURES THE ANGELS

BECAUSE. ERIDAN PERCIEVES THEM AS A THREAT. BECAUSE HIS BELIEF IN HIS WAYS PREVENTED HIM FROM SEEING THE SITUATION CLEARLY

AND. IN THE END. THAT STRICT BELIEF DELUDES HIM TO THE POINT OF KILLING HIS FRIENDS WITH HOPE MAGIC. BECAUSE TO HIM THEY WERE ALL ALREADY DEAD. BECAUSE. THEIR SITUATION WAS HOPELESS

AND THE. AND THE!!!!!

oh my god i am so abnormal abt this comic

#homestuck #text #eridan ampora #land of wrath and angels #homestuck angels #hs angels #does this count as classpect analysis

[meraki-sunset]

I was thinking of the cherub adults; do you think they'd have aspects too? Or because they're before a session they don't?

I mean, the trolls ancestors also have aspects and they were before a session, so they could also potentially have one?

To me, everyone has an aspect. Because aspects are the primordial components of the universe in Homestuck, so I think everyone is born tuned to one specific aspect, regardless of if they’re born inside the game or not, destined to play it or not.

The kids and trolls were meant to play it, they were created for it, but Calliope and Caliborn weren't and weren't supposed to play. Cherubs being a super powerful being of legend aside, they were simple mortals unconnected to Sburb, but they still played it, the game let them have a session and they had classpects. The strongest posible classpects no less.

Another good example are the extended zodiac signs. They tell us the aspect and lunar sway of random trolls, even tho they will never play the game. People are just born with an aspect

The only people I believe are born without a classpect are carapace, consorts and leprechauns, because they were created by the game itself to fulfill a role in it, so it would make no sense for the game mechanics to give them a player classpect.

They themselves are already a part of the universe creation.

The same way Players can’t use the Queen’s ring, because its purpose is to be used by a carapace

So yeah, They could be time and space, like with trolls and their descendants or they could have ony other aspects, but Calamity and Calmasis should have aspects, simply because they’re mortals, born inside a Sburb-created universe, in which everyone is tuned to an aspect. (According to the Skaianet files, Calamity was born on universe B1, the beta kids original universe, while Calmasis was born on C1 the EarthC universe)

#homestuck cosplay #hs #homestuck calamity #homestuck calmasis #homestuck analysis #homesruck classpect #homestuck cherubs

[hurlyburlytopsyturvy]

vrisrezi date!

↓ rewfewence ↓

#you best believe she’s been saying this shit for days straight to strictly piss vriska off #why did i immediately think of them when i saw the og pic? #brother i haven’t a clue #now - in the og image everyone is catlike in nature #therefore everyone is equal species-wise #thus - mirroring this - vriska must have taken terezi on a date to the equivalent of troll-Canada to put her down #how’s that for homestuck analysis? #huh? caste system? blinding sun? wtf u on about - ha ha crazy #homestuck #homestuck art #homestuck fanart #hs #hom3stuck #vriska serket #homestuck vriska #feferi peixes #homestuck feferi #terezi pyrope #homestuck terezi #vrisrezi

[myfriendsdontlikehomestuck]

Rose has such an interesting character with such a rich history that is far too frequently swept away in favor of making her the "smart therapist" character, despite that her entire arc was about NOT being that. Rose's story was about accepting that she didn't have to pretend to know everything and that people would still like her in her worst, most pathetic state.

Rose has such a complicated relationship with motherhood, and family in general. The only person to ever treat her like family were her friends since her mother was nearly always inebriated. Rose is attracted to someone who exudes motherly energy because it's what she lacked growing up. Rose needs a stable support system. Kanaya can give her that, to an extent. Of course, Rose's trauma cannot be completely undone by Kanaya, but she can help. And in return, Rose helps Kanaya through her feelings of failure and emotional exhaustion.

Rose has dealt with so much from a young age, and it's devastating to me to see her as nothing more than the "intelligent" one, even though Dirk is also characterized as very smart, but doesn't receive this same treatment from the fandom.

Rose's trauma pertaining to Doc Scratch, the Horrorterrors, and going Grimdark are also very interesting to me. As a child who just wanted to know how the game worked, Doc Scratched encouraged and pushed Rose to consult the Horrorterrors. All the while, he made some uncomfortable comments with sexual insinuation. Rose was practically groomed by Doc Scratch into thinking he was someone she could trust, before breaking that trust and forcing Rose to come face-to-face with some of the most horrible things she could ever know. Right after this, she found the body of her dead mother and watched one of her best friends die.

Doc Scratch pushed Rose to the edge and forced her to come to terms with things she wasn't ready for, which forced her into seeing the most traumatic things of her life and eventually, her own death.

Rose is one of the most interesting characters in Homestuck and is so tragically forgotten in favor of being a backup character to whatever misadventure Dave is getting up to.

#rose lalonde #kanaya maryam #rosemary #roses trauma #doc scratch #the horrorterrors #homestuck #hs #grimdark #trauma #character analysis #long post

[tipsygnostalgy]

"It was never that serious," said Rose Lalonde calmly. — a deranged rant on update rose + philosophy

now that rose has officially hopped onto the "nothing matters" track of things i'm inclined to believe faux-absurdism is a sleeping agent in the strilondian neuroticism paradigm moreso than a real plot point but yeah anyway i have mixed feelings

on one hand i can definitely see why people don't like her / think she's ooc. the classic process of "cause major change in a character" goes inciting incident -> development -> big blowout moment demonstrating the change (appropriated + bastardized from mr freytag himself), and in my personal opinion the comic jumped the gun on this one? we get the inciting incident (candy timeline's irrelevancy) and both irl timeline and character arcwise are plunged straight into the blowout with very little time in between. there's a tiny hint with the light symbol playing a role (more on this later) but for the most part it feels sudden and unjustified if you're insane about rose + understand sufficient epilogues metaphilosophy + and are coded specifically to like this type of shit you Get Exactly What's Going On and fucking dig it. if you don't, you think they've put her through a meat grinder and i can see both

on the OTHER. dear god i'm sucking on the sweet teats of knowledge and absurdism like a baby at the bath. her swapping her constant need of "why" to "why not" and both rose's constant struggle with Light mixing with the irrelevancy of candy and coalescing in one big idgaf war except.

except on the third hand it's worth mentioning that she's also half-assing absurdism so bad that it gets pathetic. her last line "I knew you would forgive me anyway" actually solidifies this arc as one big tantrum that they plan on developing into Not A Thing (hopefully) because she doesn't tell kanaya "I knew it wouldn't matter." the forgiveness is what she focuses on. the forgiveness matters. kanaya still matters to her whether this dumbass light player is consciously aware of this or not and i think ironically KANAYA knows this better than she does which is part of her saying she refuses to mediate this one. on a rosemary level this is jaw-dropping on a character level BOOOO

MAKE HER ABSURDIST! make her sit there and do things not for the sake of kanaya but literally only to do them. make her sit there and genuinely believe the only obligation in reality is to live it. dirk fails at being a true absurdist too he starts injecting meaning into life like there's motherfucking nothing and rose actually acknowledging there's zero meaning whatsoever but living anyway and in that process learning to love life (juxtaposes jake's adventurer) would juxtapose her to him but NOOOOOO she has to sit there and go Well there's no meaning to Life. It was Never that serious. Fuck you. but then refuse to kill herself (thereby proving camus right once again) then now what. now What. Ohhhh "nothing" matters cool then die. dirk's suicide was meaningful because he broke that formula okay he went There's no meaning to life? Ok. then immediately hung himself he DEVOURED that sequence he subverted absurdism back into existentialism which is cool but ROSE COULD PERPENDICULAR THAT!

#homestuck #rose lalonde #homestuck meta #homestuck analysis #dirk strider #hs

[disguisedcheezed]

it's so funny to me when people just believe that john is straight because he said "i'm not a homosexual" once because

1. you are believing the words of a 13 yr old who was 12 the day before.

2. people forget that he's 13 when he said that, and that he is not old enough for a proper romantic relationship.

3. john egbert doesn't think. in fact, he'd rather not AT ALL. like. EVER.

4. why would he think about ever liking a girl? can't he just say it out right if he does?

also, this part in a nutshell:

karkat: DO YOU WANNA BE IN A RELATIONSHI-

john: i am not a homosexual. 👍

5. god king of repression had you fooled FOOL.

and the most ironic part is that it's the same shit homophobic parents say like "yeah, but when you were 13 you said you liked girls soooo"

#homestuck #john egbert #homestuck analysis #hs analysis #hs meta #IT HAS BEEN 14 FUCKING YEARS #man :/ #there is literally no need to post about this only if homestuck fans could actually read #john egbert was queer this whole time? the horror! #literally what his gag was all about lmao #argument happened in twt about johns gender/sexuality instead of saying that hes just queer couldve just ended everything #LMAO #a twt qrt mentioned that this post was about defending my yaoi ship? which is literally not? theyr using it as a reason hate on me lol #i love john egbert so much its painful. dirk strider can die because he failed ME so idrc

[quadrantbot]

Hello! Just updated my introduction and made a new quadrant explanation post, so I'm putting this out into the fandom.

Hey! I am the quadrant guy. I like to answer questions about quadrants. My blog is full of my own explanations on them enough already, but as I love to talk about them, I'm looking for any quadrant questions I haven't answered in the past! If you are curious about anything quadrant, go ahead and send an ask!

#homestuck #homestuck quadrants #hs quadrants #homestuck shipping #hs shipping #homestuck analysis #homestuck information #Alternia #troll romance #hs analysis

[aroaceleovaldez]

I think one of the problems with the HoO characterizations is Rick kind of forgot to give half the cast hobbies and general interests, and maybe like people they know outside of their families and outside of camp, or if he did remember to it rarely gets brought up for most of them, or in the special case of Annabeth - she randomly develops a hobby in weaving for exactly one scene and then never again. Apparently she just knew how to do that, even though it is a skill she has literally never used before nor uses again.

The best examples I can give of this are comparing/contrasting the examples of when we do actually get this with the lack-thereof: Hazel and Frank are good examples. Hazel has hobbies and interests generally unrelated to all her demigod stuff (horses and art) and we see this repeatedly discussed and brought up. She also knows and interacts with people outside of the necessities of her quest/Camp Jupiter or her family - Sammy was her best friend at school and they hung out and stuff! Meanwhile, Frank, as far as we know, doesn’t know anybody outside of his family even though he presumably went to school before Camp Jupiter? His hobby is... archery? That’s the only thing he ever really shows interest in but at the same time it only rarely gets brought up except for him using a bow as his main weapon and the like two instances of noting that Frank had hoped he was an Apollo kid for a little bit. The closest other detail we get to Frank having any other kind of hobby/interest is him mentioning off-hand that he used to play Mythomagic.

Piper and Leo - We can presume that Piper knew Shel before moving to Oklahoma, because Piper used to visit her grandpa often and as far as we know that’s also where Shel lives. But we never see Piper ever mention knowing anyone else in her grandfather’s community. Heck, when she’s introduced we’re basically outright told that she doesn’t interact much at all with any of her classmates outside of necessity, and we don’t even have any confirmation that before Hera’s mind-meddling that she even acknowledged Leo’s existence. Also, Piper has like, exactly zero hobbies. We do not know what Piper does in her free time or what she likes (except vaguely that she has surfed before), only really what she dislikes. Leo at least does have some kind of excuse for not really knowing anybody, and an explicit explanation about why that is the case and how he feels about it. Leo also has a repeatedly referenced interest/hobby in mechanics that’s very core to his character.

Percy and Annabeth? Pre-HoO, they both have plenty of interests and know people outside their general circles! Percy knows kids at school. Annabeth’s general outer social circle is Camp Half-Blood, because she grew up there, but she clearly knows people at camp. She’s also super into architecture! And Percy does a ton of stuff in his free time - he skateboards! He plays basketball! He has two pets he takes care of (Blackjack and Mrs. O’Leary)! Post-HoO he’s on a swim team! But during HoO? Percy’s hobbies just kind of disappear, besides “oh yeah he uh. Does water stuff.” There’s no acknowledgement of like, “Yeah Percy sets up a little basketball hoop on the back of his door on the Argo 2 and shoots trash at it.” Literally anything! And yeah, Annabeth’s architecture interest is somewhat acknowledged, but also like, not really? We at least get some kind of “Yeah, in her spare time she’s usually on her laptop working on stuff” but we also barely get any instances of Annabeth thinking about her friends at camp except for like, Tartarus.

For Jason it at least kind of works because a.) he has amnesia and it’s implied he doesn’t really have close friends at Camp Jupiter besides Reyna, so it figures he only ever really references random other legionaries like, twice. and b.) there is also the heavily implication that Jason doesn’t have hobbies, because his entire life was so focused around his training at Camp Jupiter. This works less with Reyna, but she also kind of has an excuse for not knowing people besides like, her sister and Jason, given she ran away when she was young, Circe’s island was destroyed, and she could have only been at Camp Jupiter for like 3 years maximum at that point. And she’s not exactly the most social character. We also don’t get much indication of her hobbies, besides she also likes horses and it’s heavily implied she likes nature/gardens? Presumably, given we get like, one note of that in HoO, maybe two if you count her living on Circe’s island, and then like one more nod to that in TOA. And we only get her POV chapters in BoO anyways so again, she has some excuses. Coach Hedge also is incredibly bland besides maybe him having a hobby in sports, and... violence? Which definitely does not count. And him lacking any POV chapters doesn’t really help.

I think this is why Nico continually feels like such a strong character, simply because we know what he does in his spare time. We know he knows people outside of the camps (most of those people are gods or ghosts, but he at least knows people) and technically you could argue him knowing about Camp Jupiter between BoTL and TLO counts too. He even references his old neighbor at one point. Obviously, he’s very into Mythomagic, and that comes up a lot because it’s his special interest and is usually also relevant to their quests. He travels a lot, and apparently used to when he was younger as well. We also learn he used to have a special interest about pirates and that apparently may have played into his crush on Percy. Like, all that is so simple and minor but it makes such a difference for how Nico feels as a character. Most of Nico’s stuff though is established in the first series, which definitely helps because the first series was pretty good about giving characters hobbies and maybe some people they know - Annabeth, Percy, and Nico we’ve already covered, but also like, Grover knows other satyrs and is usually practicing music and also we know what foods he likes. Thalia is very into punk culture and music. We know she particularly likes Green Day. We know she knew the Hunters of Artemis before the events of TTC. Rachel's whole thing is that she’s super into art and she has a bunch of connections through her rich family, and she’s basically Percy’s only mortal friend. They have lives!

If you put a protagonist in a room and told them to occupy themselves, you should have an answer for what they do. They should be able to name one person outside their immediate social circle who they are generally friendly with or vaguely know, unless they have a specific reason for that to not be the case. HoO crew needs to occupy their time by themselves, no weaponry, for twenty minutes? Hazel could be drawing, Nico could be organizing his cards, Leo could be tinkering, Annabeth could be working on her laptop, Percy could be trying out little skateboard tricks. Jason, Piper, Frank, and Reyna? What would they be doing?

TOA does actually answer that question for Jason, at least, because we learn that Jason makes tiny dioramas! That’s adorable! Why doesn’t he do that in HoO?! TOA also gives us more depth to Will Solace besides “He’s a medic and does medic things” with telling us that he’s into Star Wars. Like, that’s actually so much information to work with! Thank you! And then we also find out in TOA that Nico’s also kinda into art! We still don’t get anything new for Piper, Frank, or Reyna - besides again one more potential implication that Reyna thinks plants are Pretty Okay, and that nature is Mildly Alright. Like, not even “maybe she keeps a houseplant” territory, all we have is “if she had the option, she might be interested in visiting a flower garden.” But honestly TOA at least gives us something for most of the characters we see. Like at least one thing. Most of the rest of the writing is a mess but at least the characters are mildly interesting.

Anyways, give your characters hobbies, it’s good for them.

#pjo #riordanverse #hoo #heroes of olympus #analysis #long post // #long post #always forget which of those tags i use #congrats to Hazel for being the only protag introduced in HoO with a life #i just would like Piper to have a personality besides disliking things #anyways i think this whole situation is another consequence of Rick not being used to writing large main casts #but it's not impossible! you can totally have huge casts where each character feels like they have a life #i'd actually say HS is a really good example of that - each char is introduced with their personality and a hobby/interest #there's at least 20 major characters but we know the basic outline for ALL OF THEM #also again with this kind of thing - i talk a lot about how Jason's lack of character could absolutely be utilized in interesting ways #and it makes me really sad that we *don't get that!* because it *can* be SO COMPELLING! #a character having a lack of personality can *work* if you actually *do something with it* #HoO never acknowledges that Jason doesn't have. like. a *life.* which is why it doesn't work #if we got any kind of exploration at all into ''hey. jason doesnt have hobbies or interests outside of Being Roman'' #''and he doesnt really have friends besides the argo 2 crew. or even know who he is as a person and what he wants'' #like HEY THAT'S REALLY COMPELLING ACTUALLY! and would be *really* interesting to contrast with his ''perfect'' reputation! #but no. he's just kind of There.

[the-mei-chan]

the way dirk acts towards dave, at least in the original timeline, is so similar to the way he acts towards jake in the alpha timeline.

beta timeline dirk (hereon out referred to as bro for easiness) "trains" dave by sword fighting him often and ruthlessly. he believes that, if dave is strong, then dave will be happy because he can protect himself. bro believes that him and dave are similar, and that they base their satisfaction with themselves on 1. their strength and 2. their perceived masculinity.

in the second timeline, dirk (referred to as hal even though it isnt specifically hal its just easier to differentiate Dirk (ultimate) and dirk (became hal) ok) has a big fat crush on jake, obvi. so, because him and jake cant meet up in person, he builds and sends jake a robot - to train him. hal wants to help jake become strong and achieve his idea of masculinity because thats how he expresses his love.

however, bro took this over the top. someone who cannot express their love in a way other then jokes/violence/otherwise convoluted acts is not fit to raise a kid by himself. also, bro had done these things to dave from a very young age, no doubt fucking up his sense of when hes cared for or whatever blah blah blah daves sad .... anyway hals robot body is too difficult to beat for jake to truly learn anything from it. despite not really harming him, hals gift still had a less positive effect on jake than he would have liked.

both iterations of dirk see the training as nothing more than a simulation, because he is the opponent, and he is nothing but a vessel to carry out the blows to/from dave and jake, he sees himself as In Control. despite the fact the training has a very real effect on both of them, physically and mentally.

dave is fucked up about the guy who raised him fighting him with swords, and jake is messed up over seeing his boyfriend as an obstacle to overcome. so, dirks way of showing his loved ones he cares needs to be changed if he wants to help them, blah blah blah you can analyse the way other characters look at him to understand the way he acts and decipher the reasons he acts the way he does. i dont even like stridercest.

#homestuck #bro strider #dirk strider #jake english #dave strider #dirkjake #homestuck meta #homestuck analysis #dirk hs #jake hs #dave hs #dirk splinters #if ultimate dirk really loved rose then he would make her stronger by helping her train herself #not limit her to a robot body the way he did with his autoresponder aka the guy he hates #but yk maybe he just got character development off screen and i didnt realize (suspicious) #post

[neatoburrito12threeto]

An interesting thing about Vriska is that, despite her in-your-face personality, nearly all of her combat options are indirect and esoteric in the extreme. From Mind Control to Dice which conjure unpredictable effects to Luck Manipulation, she's almost entirely built around indirect options.

More indirect even then someone like Sollux, who's at least got a blasty ranged option, and one could even argue that even telekinesis is more direct then Vriska's abilities.

#homestuck #vriska serket #vriska #homestuck vriska #hs vriska #homestuck analysis #analysis