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nintendont2502 · 1 year

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My homestuck brainrot is genuinely so intense I'm convinced I could connect any song to it at this point

So uh. Gonna try that with my almost 30 hour playlist and see how long it takes before I can't I think

Song #1 - Teenage Dirtbag

Okay wow I. Do Not remember adding this to my playlist but okay

Dave Strider. Definitely. Specifically his perception of himself as this tough, cool kid yk? That's literally all I have to say about it, it just fits the vibes

Song #2 - Discord

This actually works genuinely well for Rose wtf (specifically around the time she goes Grimdark after talking to Doc Scratch - the mention of "someone else [is] pulling at the strings" and how she "can't sit idly, no [she] can't move at all")

Song #3 - Alligator

Hmm. I'm thinking either John (either around the time of God tiering or maybe using his retcon powers?) Or maybe Terezi + a little sprinkling of Vrisrezi. Unsure but it works

Song #4 - Try

Again why is this in my playlist wtf

God I guess Jane + Roxy having crushes on Dirk and all the stupid relationship drama the Alpha kids had? Idk I don't want to listen to any more of this song it's so boring

Song #5 - Lemon Boy

Okay this feels like cheating - this is obviously Davekat

Song #6 - Brave As A Noun

Oo okay we're back to the good shit. Okay this is definitely Davesprite (specifically the way he tends to push away his friends/the fact that he's seen as the "depressed bird Dave")

Like. Come on just look at this shit - "But I've got an angry heart/filled with cancers and poppy tarts/if this is how you folks make art/it's fucking depressing" and "I'm afraid to leave the house/I'm as timid as a mouse/I'm afraid if I go out I'll outwear my welcome"

Song #7 - Chase That Feeling

God okay this was the first one I genuinely struggled with. I *guess* the fact that the song is about doing something you're passionate about despite people trying to stop you, and the kids/trolls are passionate about?? Living?? Not having the universe being destroyed by LE?? Also it has all the beta kids instruments there we go. It's incredibly weak but it's *something*

Song #8 - Bad Apple

Do you know how many Homestuck animations I've seen to this? *Everything* goes with Bad Apple

Song #9 - Redesign Your Logo

Doc Scratch? Yeah Doc Scratch I think. His manipulation of Alternia/Earth to ensure tje creation of Lord English ("DNA is crucial/we must understand it/in the human genome/we will find your logo" - the codes that created Doc Scratch + by extension Lord English?) Especially "We are here to help you/everythings connected/time is of the essence/we live in the future"

Also like. "Here we have a circle/smooth and inoffensive/this will be the basis/for your revolution" like come on

Song #10 - Rapunzel

Double digits let's goo 🎉

Anyway I struggled a bit with this at first but I think Davekat (specifically pitch Davekat).

"Couldn't leave her had to meet her/greet the girl of my dreams with a kiss on the hand/What up!" < Dave 100%

Song #11 - Warriors

The troll ancestors. This is way too obvious but do i care? No

Song #12 - Body

Trying so hard to think of something that isn't just that one really good troll animation but god does it work so well. Anyway the obvious stuff:

- eyes (terezi), face (gamzee), arms and legs (vriska + tavros), hands (nepeta), heart (feferi) etc

Song #13 - Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High

Unlucky 13? Maybe! All I can think of is Cronus is being desperate which. Does work

"Now its three in the mornin/and im tryin to change your mind/left you multiple missed calls/and to my message you replied"

Song #14 - God Forgot

God for a second I was terrified id have two Cronus songs in a row but thank God I remembered sollux exists 💀 specifically AraSol

"Before you came along it was God who already forgot me/cut off both my hands, changed the locks again, that's alright/a fuckin angel caught me/she pays all my rent, paints the walls and then sings all night"

Song #15 - God Is Dead

God do you know how long I've been waiting for a Smith Street Band song. Anyway as much as I hate the epilogues this is Ult!Dirk *and* also [S] Collide

God is dead and reality is fake - Lord English destroying dream bubbles/cracking Paradox Space

It's a hivemind nightmare of a dying race - the kids and the trolls are literally a dying race and this shit is definitely a nightmare

And there is no luck and there is no fate - Vriska leading the ghost army methinks

"And nobody cares about you and your pain/but that becomes freedom if you look at it that way" - I'm gonna be real I don't have anything for this part BUT

"I've always been more distressing than cool/I'm a blood nose on the first day of school/my own quiet life at the bottom of the pool/tragedy is comedy if you can get through it" Dirk or dave probably

"Come a long way from a neck in a noose/look me in the eye and call that an excuse/wasnt sure what to make tight or keep loose/was never a boy scout, so I fell straight through it" - Dirk going ultimate

Song #16 - The Sea Is Rising

Would it be cheating to say the Batterwitch flooding Earth B

Uh god idk "I don't want them to look back when the future is written/and know we killed ourselves with nuclear visions and stupid decisions/shit I'd rather an asteroid doomed for collision/than know the planet got fucked by the human condition/sing this tune with conviction" yk what fuck it this is about Alpha Dave now. (Also fun sburb reference with the meteor there ya go)

Song #17 - Masterpiece Theatre III

This would actually work really well for a Five Giants style animation for Homestuck as a whole (focusing on the trolls, the beta kids, the alpha kids and the Cherubs or just showing major events)

Might actually look more into this later because listening to it rn god there's so much potential here

Song #18 - As The World Caves In

Dad Egbert + Mom Lalonde on the Battlefield. That's it that's the post

Song #19 - Bang Bang

Hmm DaveJade I think. Don't ship them personally but it works pretty well

"She was walkin around with a loaded shotgun/ready to fire me a hot one/it went bang bang bang straight through my heart/though I couldve walked away/just stood my ground and let her spray"

Song #20 - Le Seine

How the *fuck* is this at 20 songs already I thought I'd stop at like. 10

Anyway uh. Callieroxy. Don't know why but the vibes are so strong

Song #21 - Children of God

Fuck me I guess I'm still going

Anyway this just has tje vibes of playing Sburb. Like it fucking sucks, it's weird as hell and theres that underlying sense of anger at a universe that Does Not care about you yk

Song #22 - Basics in Behaviour

Please god there's no way I can make this Homestuck am I finally free

God fucking damn it nevermind

"This is how we live our lives searching for the answers inside of every page/and im here wondering if one day we'll finally be free from this cage/is it okay to have this feeling that maybe there is more to this game/however now, no time to question, so just behave" < that's just. That's just sburb. Specifically the way rose is trying to basically tear it apart for answers (and maybe doc scratch coming in for that last line)

Song #22 - Line Without A Hook

Sigh. Do I even need to say anything? Vrisrezi. AraSol. Line Without A Hook works for any fandom and I will *never* be free

Song #23 - Betterman

Epilogues Roxygen? "Cause you taught me so many things about myself and you know this is true/but now we are apart and it's all my fault cause you know I need to be alone/don't know myself, so how can I share me with you girl, or anyone?"

Could also add a sprinkling of June in there if you're feeling particularly trans

Song #24 - Make It Bun Dem

God I was convinced I was free.

"Killin the flows we're sicker than most/defating the foes we weather the most/never yet falter, never yet flop/never yet halt and never yet stop/keep up with God and never yet drop" < peak 2011 amv material (specifically pre-scratch, when the beta kids alcjemise all the cool shit and just kick ass on their planets yk)

Also maybe a rap dave would make I don't fjcking know anymore kts almost 2 am I started doing this *an hour* ago

Song #25 - Let Me Down Easy

God it's just. It's just Davesprite again. Specifically Davesprite after/while dating Jade on the battleship.

"You want someone who wants you for who you are/I want someone to try and let me down easy, easy tonight/easy, easy tonight/honey it's no secret that with matters of the heart/I'm reserved, I'm irrational, and rarely ever start/since the world's dark and often I humane"

Song #26 - Eleanor Rigby

John god tiering and/or retcon powers. Something big and flashy (maybe retcon powers to fit the "all the lonely people" line since him, Davesprite + Roxy are the only people from the preretcon timeline)

Song #27 - Still Alive

Lil Hal leaning into the robot thing as an ironic bit to piss off Dirk? Yeah probably - especially "I'm not even angry/I'm being so sincere right now/even though you broke my heart and killed me"

Song #28 - Tightrope

At this point I'm excited everytime I see an aussie rap song I get excited because it might mean this is finally ending, and everytime I'm disappointed by the depths of my brainrot

Anyway this is also Davejade "i play my demos one by one/smile if she likes it laugh if it sucks" - also the mention of "it's like I'm running with a blindfold" because haha get it she wears a blindfold in her entry god I'm so tired

Song #29 - Float On

This is just John I think. Like it ties into his aspect and how it provides freedom/independence which usually helps solve these major issues hes facing? So he can just "float on"

Song #30 - Rockefeller Street

Jesus fucking christ song 30?? Anyway this whole song is just Trickster Mode. "Everything is more than surreal" fuck dude it sure is

Song #31 - How To Save A Life

Epilogues Dirk + Dave. Specifically that part in Meat (?) After Dirk goes Ultimate and Dave talks about how he should have tried to talk to him or do anything to help him

"Lay down a list of what is wrong/the things you've told him all along/pray to God he hears you"

Song #32 - Little Talks

Hm AraJade or JadeRose I think. "I don't like walking around this old and empty house/so hold my hand I'll walk with you my dear"

Song #33 - Clown Prince

Thank God,,, thank fuckign God ***FINALLY***

There's literally no way I can make this Homestuck it's just fucking and drinking and honestly. Thank God.

It's 2 am. I started this an hour and a half ago as a funny haha. I didn't think I'd get further than 5 songs, but my commitment to tje bit won out over literally everything else

Thank you hilltop hoods

#33 songs #33 *fucking* songs #oh my GOD #ITS BEEN ALMOST 2 HOURS #why did i do this #i dont even think i want anyone reading this im just. im not spending two hours on this for nothing #if for some fucking reason you want to do this with your own playlist tag me btw itd be inchresting #sigh #im not even going to try and tag everyone in this #me.txt #nintendont2502 cringe comp

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whydontwebegin · 2 years

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day 5 - aus/tropes (DECAY)

it feels a little cheaty since i've been writing decay au for every prompt, but at the same time, i couldn't think of a good way to wedge a trope in, so i just rolled with it and wrote something i wanted to write anyways.

this time we get a confirmation on what, exactly, the pantheon is made up of! if this includes a supercomputer and a birdtroll that really likes cats, well, thats their business.

(im trying my best to speedrun catchup since im late on all of these prompts and davekat week is already over smh)

no tws that i can think of, but this is definitely on the angstier side

It wasn’t until six months following his recovery that they noticed.

Dave felt sick with guilt at the realization, the familiar, nauseating presence of what he had started referring to as the decay, for what it had done to him. For how it had frayed him brutally and worn him thin, and he shuddered to remember the pain of Dirk ripping it from his soul. He remembered how hollow he had felt in the weeks after as Dirk spent so much time stitching him back together, only taking breaks when Hal bodily dragged him away or Davepeta coaxed him back from the Resonance.

Dave had known he held the universe in his hands. He’d known since he sunk his power deep into Karkat’s veins, when he took Terezi’s hands and saw her fascination with the way his power danced across her skin, when he placed his hands on Kanaya’s shoulders under Rose’s watchful, worried eye. He had known and he had thought it was safe, regardless, or maybe he’d just been too exhausted to consider the alternative.

To consider…

But the evidence was in front of him, timelines beginning to fall in on themselves. It was nothing like the quiet fade of some doomed timelines or the violent break of others. It was…

Sad. It was cruel. It was taking root everywhere and Dave swallowed down the bile in his throat—such a violently mortal experience, it was almost funny considering what he was going to do.

He let the image blur before him and sank down, down, down. Deep into the vast sea of red, felt the clockwork in his bones, breathed in the very essence of time itself. He was distantly aware of his own power burning across his skin, the weight of his cape settling on his shoulders, the way the claws on his gauntlet gleamed in the light. (Gold reminded him of Prospit. It was funny, in a way, for a Dersite to wear it the way he did.)

But he just drifted deeper and deeper still, letting the Resonance take him as he closed his eyes to what felt like only the deepest of reds and the buzz of Karkat’s worry under his skin.

—

Dave gasped awake under Dirk’s hands and was hit with sensation. It was overwhelming after the days he had spent locked in the Resonance, and he could still feel the residual temporal energy all but vibrating inside of him. He’d overflowed. He knew that.

He was cold. Hungry. Tired. His head hurt and his mouth was dry and he almost felt ill. Coming back to mortal sensation was brutal, like this. Dave listed his priorities in his head as quickly as he could manage. Water, shower, sleep. Food could wait unless the hunger prevented him from passing out, which he somehow doubted—

He blinked at the realization that Dirk had been replaced with Karkat and a cold bottle of AJ and a pack of crackers were being pressed into his hands. He tore into it and only once the snack was gone and the bottle empty did Dave recognize Karkat’s hand rubbing his back and the worried chirp he was making and Dave cringed with guilt at making Karkat worry, he did. So he didn’t protest when Karkat picked him up, holding him close to his chest. He didn’t protest at the gentle way he was handled as Karkat helped him bathe or dried his hair or carried him to bed and brought him into a veritable fucking nest of blankets and pillows.

“I could feel them dying,” Dave said softly, breaking the silence and hating the way Karkat’s worried frown deepened. “It felt just like when the decay had me. It…it was awful, Karkat.”

Karkat worried his bottom lip between his teeth for a moment before curling in closer. For someone over seven feet tall and prone to banging his head on doorways in a mostly-human area, he looked so small like this. The sweater hid his musculature and the sleeves were long enough to hide his hands if he wanted and it made it so much easier to forget how he looked in his godly attire. It made it so easy to forget him when he was strong and untouchable, distant and so violently, obviously an immortal. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t rise from death at all, the mortals didn’t know that.

Only the pantheon knew who among them were only immortal in the senes that they didn’t age.

Karkat finally met his gaze again and Dave could see, could feel Karkat’s certainty, and knew he’d reached the same conclusion.

The Decay had corrupted Dave. Dave held nearly-exclusive sway over Time. Time had begun to fray.

The Decay had reached Time itself through Dave.

Dave choked on a broken sob and hid his face in his hands. Karkat pulled him close, tucking him under his chin, purring and shooshing him and gently running claws through Dave’s hair until he fell asleep.

Alone, in the silence and the darkness of their shared room, with Dave curled in his arms, Karkat thought back to the times when Dave was lost to them where he had felt time stutter, where the gears and the ticking had gone silent before returning as though nothing had happened, and he wondered if he should’ve said something.

But it didn’t matter now. The past was cemented. Inevitability meant that if they changed anything, they could create a doomed timeline, and they would know they were in one and that would be the worst part. Knowing they would have to watch each other die.

The idea made his chest ache and he took a moment to recenter himself, breathing Dave in and paying attention to how the temporal energy in his body sung at the proximity to Dave, the way he could feel his aspect resonating, calling out to him from where he had pressed it into Dave. He spread his awareness further, felt the steady pulse of Dirk and the blank absence of Roxy and the singing chorus of Jade and Kanaya and Calliope. He heard the whistle of wind of June and the mechanical hum of Hal and the musical lilt of Davepeta. There was the thrum that was possibility from Terezi and the gentle radiance of Rose and the taste of life of Jane and the uplifting vibrance from Jake.

Karkat breathed out and let the tension drain from him. In front of him was the steady, comforting clockwork of Dave, steadily lulling him deeper and deeper as though it knew he hadn’t slept since Dave set himself adrift in the Resonance.

He fell asleep to the sound of clockwork and the steady presences of the rest of their little family beyond.

#homestuck #writing #dave strider #karkat vantas #davekat #davekatweek2022 #davekat week #decay au #and also some background rosemary and june egbert rights #all the cool people are mentioned at least once (because karkat is a sap)#((they're all cool people))

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mmmmalo · 2 years

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I wanted to get your take on a theory that a friend of mine came up with, relating DaveKat as a freudian reinterpretation of an old joke.

Karkat is a red blood, a mutation of lime green. Lime and Red are drawn as allusions to the cherubs, and by proxy the oroborus. This is even reflected in Karkats sign, which appears as two snakes chasing eachothers tails in a circle.

One of the very few tidbits of information we know about limeblooded trolls is that they're amphibious, as can be assumed from the design for Fiamet that was revealed during SAHCON featuring a tail and resembling an axolotl.

In act 3, when exploring the striders apartment, specific attention is drawn to a moment in which Dave is unwittingly coerced into acting as a prop in his brothers puppet snuff film, blending a frog.

What's green and red and goes round and round? A frog in a blender.

Calling it a frog is sort of an inference -- it's a green humanoid puppet. The Felt are likewise called frog men much later, the Billy!Kermit in the comic on the door brings Kermit into the discussion, and Dave sending a decapitated Billy head into the garbage disposal (another blender) makes it seem natural to view the green puppet in the blender as Kermit... so it works, I just felt like the association could be fleshed out more.

I don't share your confidence that Fiamet is a limeblood. Even though we saw the concept art of the green-fire-breathing Axolotl (first?) guardian, Fiamet's youth (like Tirona before her) tells me that a relevant part is the axolotl's status as a paedomorph, allowing it to act as a child symbol... and though we see constant violence against child on Alternia (eg the innumerable grub byproducts), I don't know if there's a dimension to the limeblood genocide that maps to a child/adult division... Sufferer was a child within the Jesus/Mary paradigm I guess? But Kankri's masculine/black signifiers are underpinned by references to feminized whiteness, and by placing him as the mother would render him the only (representation of) "adulthood" on Alternia? In which case HIC banning adults from Alternia becomes synonymous with the Sufferer's execution (and with the death of the fully pupated Summoner?), and both of those events signify the limeblood genocide? Maybe...

Possible point of contradiction: Dave striking out at the 4th wall plays into miscegenation paranoia, so it's odd that the voyeur (Billy the Puppet) would be equated with the frog puppet, whose death seems to represent the horror of being seen (blender as eye) and made into essence? Though I suppose the idea of returning the voyeur's stare is also firmly established Homestuck, Roxy's speech on making the void blink wonk first in a staring contest is a classic. And that was the thrust of trying to blend Billy in the first place (though Dave fails, and the decapitated Billy continues to gaze all the more disconcertingly from atop the garbage disposal)... I've lost my train of thought

I wrote a little more about the blender here, but it likewise dissolves into confusion.

I think a model to lime that might engulf some of these contradictions would be to say that it represents purity in the abstract, which means Hussie will draw from as many specific narratives of corruption as they can think of, and combine them in a slurry, to lend richness to the abstraction? Even if the narratives contradict... I suppose that's already the assumption that goes into a lot of this, but teasing the use-cases apart is a kind of a headache

#homestuck commentary #race mapping

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inksteaks · 5 years

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dave shouting at the narrator to get out of his head, making his first kiss with karkat arguably the only definite act of pure free will in a story where every action is being influenced by hidden speakers on *both* sides, just, absolutely, fucking, RULES

#every time I think about this I start FROTHING at the mouth #ok and not only was this part just soooo good in a general story sense #but this is THE ESSENCE OF DAVEKAT #NO ONE SAW IT COMING #NOT EVEN THEIR CREATOR #but once it began to organically bloom it COULD NOT be stopped #davekat emerged from the chaos of paradox space and homestuck fully formed and none could say no #epilogues #spoilers #bluh bluh

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rosemary-is-in-pesterquest · 3 years

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I am. SO. frustrated. that they keep fucking up davekat. like I just wanna go off. just wanna go the fuck off, man, I didn't even ship them that hard at first but god damn I do now and it's pretty much because the epilogues and HS2 have fucked them up so bad and I know they are better than that. let me just.

okay so originally, davekat is built on themes of mutual defensiveness in response to insecurity. when Dave is first introduced, he portrays himself as a cool guy, and gives us the concept of Strider irony. where a normal person might claim to love something shitty as an ironic joke, or maybe the ironic joke masks sincere enjoyment... Strider irony, according to Dave, has a billion more levels of sincerity and insincerity, to the point where you have no idea what the real intent is. in part, this is due to teen pretentiousness... but in some ways this is a reflection of him genuinely finding his Bro unfathomable, and wanting to protect his own genuine thoughts, opinions, and interests from criticism, without actually coming off as insecure. as time goes by, you can watch him and figure out what is sincere and what isn't... he doesn't actually keep that tight of a lid on things, but that's partially because the game allows him more freedom than he usually has. he at least isn't living in his Bro's shadow anymore. some might extrapolate this to mean that he's experiencing more physical and mental security than usual, while others might just say he's coming into his own via this journey, but the fact of the matter is that he felt the need to hide behind this facade in the first place. and the tricky thing with Dave is that it isn't all fake. it's a weird mixture of who he is, who he wants to be, and what he thinks others will respond well to. his development isn't so much discarding the mask, as it is reconciling what it's made of, and incorporating it into his true self as he matures. he accepts it as a piece of him. it's very subtle, and natural, and true to what growing up is really like. I think this is why so many people like Dave and relate to him so much.

for Karkat, insecurity manifests in the form of being hyper critical of everyone around him. to be honest, this also comes from a deep sense of concern for the people around him, and the fact that his friend group is made of a bunch of loose canons who do destructive shit for fun, and people who are easily dragged into that sort of thing. but the thing that keeps Karkat's hyper critical nature from irritating people too much is that he's also super extra critical of himself. he admits it when he's done something wrong... though admittedly often after it's made people angry at him, and he has a good amount of very sincere apologies that he delivers so that they come off as very sincere and actually work in terms of reconciling with people. Karkat's biggest issue is that criticizing your own internal flaws and actually fixing them are two different things. and while Karkat can identify many problems with himself, he's not always the best at making them go away. it takes him a long time to learn how to change himself, because in order to change yourself, you have to accept the flawed parts of yourself and work with them, rather than just trying to push them out of your sight. this is why his anger at his past and future selves is ultimately unhealthy. it keeps him from truly addressing the fact that his current self is just as subject to those same flaws. for example, if he's talking to a past self and a future self, and his future self is condescending to him, and his past self is naive, then his present self is both of those things to his conversation partners. but he's so repulsed by his own negative attributes that he's not really dealing with them. his saving grace is that everyone can see how hard he's trying, and how worried and scared he is. ultimately, Karkat doesn't want to be the reason for screwing everyone over, and that's more concern for others than anyone ever asked for. it gains Karkat a lot of good will, without him necessarily even realizing what he's doing.

what's excellent about davekat is that they come out the gate fully critical of one another... but neither is willing to back down either. somehow, these two insecure idiots trick each other into defending themselves. and it's brilliant, because they get all their critical bullshit out of the way immediately. they don't fear criticism from one another. they already criticize one another all the time, and it's fine. like, their worst complaints about each other are right out there in the open, and how freeing must that be for a couple of guys who worry about other people's opinions of them so much? Dave has nothing to hide and nothing to prove. Karkat defends his own positive qualities. it's good for them. eventually, they just kind of run out of material... and there's something comforting about knowing that they've said every bad thing they can think of about each other, and none of it was a deal breaker. they're still in each other's business constantly. and that's when they start to learn from each other. see, Karkat is really blunt. he wanders into the thick of things, yelling at people and making mistakes all over the place... and Dave is just more cautious than that. his whole cool guy persona is made to keep that kind of raw emotion from leaking out, and to make every mistake seem like he meant to do that. but Karkat makes mistakes all the time. and apologizes all the time. and he comes out okay. Karkat is sincere. but Karkat is also high strung... and Dave isn't. Dave knows how to chill, and he plans things, and he can sit down with people and calmly talk through a plan. get it in simple terms and hash things out without panicking. Karkat often exhausts himself trying to run around and manage everything, and while it can be kind of endearing to see how much he cares... it's not exactly healthy. Dave has more of a level head, beyond just his cool kid persona, and isn't afraid to make people walk things back and take it from the top. and actually, what Dave and Karkat have in common is that they try really hard for the people around them, and feel great concern for the people they love. when the chips are down, they value similar things. and once they've run out of ineffectual ways to badmouth each other, that's what they have left. probably the thing that bugs them the most about each other is how much they actually have in common in terms of priorities. and while I do think that in their relationship, they'll probably always bicker with each other, that's the core foundation. they're caring people who look out for their group and try to help wherever they can. in essence... they're both knights through and through.

and then HS2 fucks it all up. legit why even confuse anything about their relationship? just let them uncontroversially date, keep it lowkey and tasteful, realize the wonderful potential of their friends razzing them about it a little, and write a better story for them to exist in. god damn. like, seriously, just give them more people to actually care about, because Dave and Karkat feel out of character if they aren't constantly in the lives of a plethora of friends who are important to them. look at them in homestuck. look at everything they do best. of course they wouldn't thrive in HS2, none of the cast even likes each other anymore!! Dave and Karkat were basically instrumental in setting up rosemary, which fits so well with all of their characterization its insane. I just want everyone to periodically go back, and reread homestuck, and remember when these characters were good people.

BASED WENDELL COMING IN WITH THEIR ANALYSIS BETTER THAN WHATEVER THE FUCK THE HS2 WRITERS SHIT OUT

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r-ivelaliker-typebutnotactually · 3 years

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the core essence of davekat is basically two people explaining two entirely different vines at each other, progressively getting more and more furious as it goes on

#hs #homestuck #dave strider #karkat vantas #davekat #vine

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small-reptile-cake · 4 years

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Me: casually forgets about davekat being the very essence of my existence, life story, first relationship, shipping endeavors, the reason I read homestuck and why I am the impulsive dumbass I am.

Also me: Has a davekat background on my phone and casually glosses over it like "ah yes hello there you"

#davekat #homestuck #karkat #karkat vantas #dave strider

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facetiousfanatic · 5 years

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Dave broke up with Terezi because he was incapable on an emotional level, not just an intellectual one, why anybody would have a kismesis and what one was like.

sorry it took me so long to answer this ask but I’ve reread it so many times and i still cant figure out what you’re trying to say?? I’m guessing it was a response to this post. I think I agree with you, but I’m pretty sure Terezi and Dave were red?

Also not really a response but more of a continuation of my post: if you ask me everything that happened in both Dave and Karkat’s canonical past was meant to underline how none of them were capable of having a stable relationship in any quadrant. Like I respect fics about pale davekat a lot more than black fics but to me that still feels kinda wrong? Their whole deal is realising their respective societies views on relationships don’t apply to them.

Karkat kept forcing himself to categorise his feelings into quadrants even though he always vacillated to the point of his feelings turning into amalgamations of two or more of the quadrants simultaneously. Then he realised what he felt for Dave transcended those limiting labels and since Dave didnt give a shit about quadrants Karkat allowed himself to stop overanalysing and to love unapologetically, because being alone in space meant he was free from all the constrictions of the society he grew up in.

Dave had a similar experience where he tried to fit himself into his society’s cookie-cutter mold of a strong, stoic, (straight) hero figure, and therefore distanced himself from everything he enjoyed with a layer of irony and sarcasm. Then he realised what he felt for Karkat and it went against everything he had molded his persona around but as they grew closer he healed and learned to love unapologetically, because being alone in space meant he was free from all the constrictions of the society he grew up in.

That’s literally both of their character arcs!! I’m not saying people shouldn’t write black davekat fics, like go crazy live your best life whatever and if that shit makes you happy dont mind me, but it also goes against everything both Dave and Karkat experienced and the very essence of their arcs. I’m fine with them trying and failing to sustain a caliginous relationship in the beginning of meteorstuck, because they both feel like that’s what’s expected of them. Karkat because their constant banter is a tell-tale sign of a black crush, and Dave because constantly trash-talking Karkat is the perfect way to hide how much he relates to him. But a black endgame both goes against Karkats arc of thinking he’s the king of romance realising its Not That Simple and Dave’s journey to allow himself to be genuine and tender, so it’s not only out of character but completely stunts their character development.

TLDR: Kismesis davekat makes no fucking sense b y e

#davekat #homestuck #karkat vantas #dave strider #talking shenanigans

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ardenttheories · 5 years

Text

So, while I’ve yet to read Candy - and I admittedly don’t think I will today - I’ve got a lot of thoughts (both good and bad) on Meat.

Edit: removing the read more, and the initial description to the post. Most people have already gone over things I have here, so there doesn’t seem to be a point in hiding it.

I think one of the biggest reasons I dislike this Epilogue is because it fucks up how everything ended. Homestuck was over. This was a fact that we had all come to accept, and what he wanted to expect from the Epilogue was a conclusion to a story we all loved. There was an idea, here, that we’d have everything neatly wrapped up in a bow, that all the plotholes would be filled, that we’d get a satisfying and happy finale to something that spanned seven years of existence in its initial part, and has dragged on another three years beyond that to now.

John going back into canon was the right first step. It was going to, we thought, answer one of the biggest plotholes going. Something to do with defeating Lord English once and for all, freeing them of his tyranny, saving Paradox Space. We thought the worst of it was that John was going to die, or that he’d be unable to return. We thought, in the end, that we were going to get a bittersweet ending - one where everyone was happy, and safe, but some things would be permanent and utterly incapable of being undone. Maybe John’s death would have felt better, in some sense.

Instead, we’ve got this weird narrative with no active conclusion. More questions than answers.

Why was Dirk, as the Prince of Heart, able to become utterly omniscient? Why could he control the narrative? His power is incredible, and it’s fucked up. He can sway peoples’ inner thoughts, he can force decisions, he can slide them towards things he thinks they need, or things he believes needs to happen. That shouldn’t be a power available to him, even as his Ultimate Self. That isn’t a power of Heart, logically; metatextualism is and always has been a Light element. Even considering the logic of the Ultimate inner self, why does Dirk have access to everything and everyone? Where’s the logic in that? They aren’t splinters of himself. To a degree it definitely fits in with the puppet master idea, but it leans too far into it. Dirk was a puppet master because he thought he knew best for his friends and was a master manipulator - that hasn’t changed. But the way he’s doing so has.

Is it because, as the understanding of his Ultimate Self has come through, he’s recognised his position as a character? But then why can he influence canon, the narrative, everything? Why is he able to see their deepest thoughts when he’s not a Seer, when that goes beyond the capabilities of a Prince in general, let alone a Prince of Heart?

Edit: I think I figured it out. Princes of Heart destroy Heart. They destroy individuality, the inner self, the soul and the very essence of a being, a person, a thing with thoughts and feelings and the ability to access free will. They destroy what it means to be you. That’s what Dirk does. He destroys the ability for anyone to be themselves by replacing them with himself, making them broken splinters of his own demands and desires, turning them into the things he wants them to be. Every time someone speaks, they’re doing so because Dirk made them. Every thought they have, every decision they make - Dirk overrides their individuality and brings them into the circumference of his own self. I guess having a power like that would eventually blur your perceptions of reality to a point where morals seem oblique or obsolete.

I think, to that degree, part of the bitterness of this is seeing Dirk back at his old shit again. He was getting better. He was learning not to do shit like this, to grow as a person, to let go of the reigns and to invest himself in life and relationships and people - and he’s gone off the deep end again, seemingly maddened by whatever the fuck it is that he’s learnt, or figured out. This isn’t the place a lot of us wanted to see Dirk slip back to on Earth C. This isn’t a place we wanted him to ever go back to. He hasn’t developed, or grown. He’s tumbled back down the same old paths and he’s, worse, regressed.

He genuinely thinks he’s doing what’s best. I think that’s a fact, at least. But it’s horrific reading it. I don’t like reading it. It’s twisted and self gratifying on his part, knowing that when Jake’s free of his influence he’s more than content to support Karkat, and when he’s under it he becomes obsessed, unable to live without the concept of Dirk in his life. Some stage for Dirk to contemplate his bitterness over, and feel like he has the last word on.

He’s so much worse than he used to be at the beginning of the Alpha Kid SBURB arc. He’s selfishly pretending he’s selfless, and he’s convinced that he’s doing it for their good when all he’s doing is jerking off his own ego and tearing apart the very foundation of the people he claims to love. And he does love them. He does want what’s best for them - but what he sees as being best for them, for everyone, rather than what naturally occurs. The very idea of giving them individuality is impossible to him, because he is everyone (a conduit for his voice because of his influence over the narrative, incapable of fighting against him or even recognising he’s there unless he actively allows them to do so; they’re just puppets on strings) and he has control over everything, and he thinks it’s better that way, for some reason, because they need him, and they’re helpless without him - so it’s his duty to fix all the things that are broken. Except nothing is broken. I think becoming his Ultimate Self has just made him go mad.

Worse than that. John, a character dear to a lot of people, is unceremoniously tossed aside because Dirk doesn’t think he’s important. John’s just a pawn; an end to a means that, ultimately, Dirk doesn’t think he deserves to come back from. John died. That’s it. That’s all Dirk affords us to think about.

His budding relationship with Terezi - so beneficial for them both, so finalising for the concept of John’s growth, the realisation that he is depressed, that home isn’t home, but he now has someone he could make home with - is just completely sidelined. Dirk’s fucking awful at remembering Roxy’s pronouns, especially when Roxy was using they/them. Dirk was desperate to get Dave back under his control, believing he was incapable of looking after himself, that he needed his guidance. Even though, as it turns out, Dave was perfectly fine without him.

Dirk micromanages because he’s, again, in a position where he believes only he can lead to a good ending for them all - and he’s willing to become the villain for it, willing to accept a Just death when it finally meets him - and while he’s doing what he thinks is right it’s not what anyone wants.

In a weird way, reading the Meat Epilogue is a lot like being the characters Dirk is toying with. They don’t want to do the things he makes them do - we see as much with Kanaya, realising that Rose is gone, and losing her shit over it after coming to terms with the fact that her acceptance of it was forced on her mind - and we, likewise, don’t want to read the things he makes them do. We don’t want to see our beloved characters be twisted and played with that way, but we’re forced to.

We don’t want John to figure out that he’s finally found something to live for, only to die immediately after. We don’t want Terezi to disappear again, his corpse still in the wallet, after she’d finally found home. We don’t want DaveKat to happen on the terms they did, partially forced by Dirk, without the ability for the conclusion with Jade because of her position as a conduit for Alternate Calliope. We don’t want them to win like this. We don’t want it to end like this; Jane as a fascist president, Jake’s mind broken by Dirk, Rose off to some impossible and weird mission she likely doesn’t even have any say in - that she probably isn’t aware of or even agreed to because every moment she’s been talking, it’s probably just been Dirk, talking to himself using her voice, convincing her of his thoughts, taking over her individuality - Dirk losing his mind to whatever madness he’s been exposed to through his slow unravelling - because he is mad, with power, with responsibility, with something fucked up that’s twisting him and disengaging him and erasing all the development he got through prior to Earth C.

There’s something Dirk says, too, that fucks it all up.

Perfection to them is a sweetness beyond comprehension. Sugar so potent it’s poison to us. To our bodies, to our souls. Like the place she was operating from was a realm of self-construction. A bubble of pure, phantasmal confection. Well, I for one have had enough of that goddamn toothache. I’m back in the protein saddle, motherfuckers. I’m clacking my tongs, and the charcoal is hot. Now who’s hungry for meat?

To Dirk, letting everyone do what they naturally want to do - such as letting John and Terezi figure out their relationship on their own terms, to find passion in the backseat of a car that leaves them both open and vulnerable and ready to go home - is Candy. The lack of his influence is poison. In his mind, when he’s not in control, everything is too sweet. That’s why all we get is a hard slog. One pile of shit after another. It’s why John still dies, why Jake’s ability to think for himself doesn’t matter.

This ending, like I thought it would be, is bitter. It’s not the ending we thought we’d get; it’s worse. It’s not satisfying. It’s open-ended, it leaves more questions than answers, it ruins the sense of finality that we thought we’d get after Homestuck’s end-

And maybe that’s the point. Maybe that’s the big shit Hussie was trying to get across to us. Because the point, here, is that nothing the kids have ever done have been their own will. Someone has always been writing their story for them, narrating it, guiding them along towards an ending. Hussie has written every line of dialogue in Homestuck; has put the words in their mouths until it’s felt natural for us to assume then when he writes, he’s transcribing actual facts of what’s happening and not just his own thoughts of what he wants the characters to do and be because they’re his and in his story. In the same way that Hussie is the author of Homestuck, Dirk is the author of the Epilogue - not in the same way, not by far; he’s still a character, still confined within its barriers, but he’s aware of it and us and the role he can play, and he’s taken control of the authorial pen to craft the story the way he wants it to be written. The same way Hussie has written Homestuck, up to this point.

Our characters have never had any voice. Any influence. At the end of the day, we’re still reading a story; words written on a page made by someone else. Dirk, I think, just wants to be able to control the story of himself and his friends. Alternate Calliope wants him to stop being so fucking pretentious and allow the story to run the way it’s meant to - the way Hussie intends it, the way it was meant to be, fluid and broken and ruptured. It’s like a confusing metatextual yet internal conflict where Dirk is still confined to being a character while also trying to be more than that - trying to be real, like us - and Calliope wants to allow everyone to be free of that influence while being openly aware that someone is always going to be writing those lines for them.

It’s just better if it’s the actual author doing it, allow them to speak their own words and thoughts, than if it’s Dirk doing it, forcing them to act and think the way he wants them to (though, in fact, that’s exactly what Hussie’s doing by warrant of being the author. Homestuck’s always had that weird duality of existing as a real universe, but still being purely fictional).

And in a way, that’s deeply interesting. It’s something literary scholars would eat right the fuck up, and frankly, I wish I could have done my dissertation on this rather than on the general use of the second person narrative in Homestuck.

But it’s bad fucking writing.

We, as consumers, are allowed to be upset and disappointed with this ending. This is not what we expected. This ruins literally everything we have been building up to since 2016. That beautiful ending, that idyllic finish, has been torn asunder. And sure, it’s engaging. It’s interesting. It’s beautifully written, it’s dramatic, it’s tense, it’s even uncannily funny in certain places - but it’s awful.

Because nothing good came out of this. We already had a relatively acceptable ending. Our main eight survived, plus some straggling trolls; they made the universe, the world they’ve been fighting to get to for seven fucking years; they were happy - some married, some finding relationships, some on the precipice. If our big takeaways from this had been Roxy comes out as trans (uses he/him pronouns), Terezi and John start dating (Terezi finally accepts that Vriska isn’t for her, John finally finds a life on Earth C), DaveKat/Jade is canon, and Lord English is finally dead - things would’ve felt better.

But that’s not what we got. We got all the other sloggish shit, too. Dirk’s controlled everyone to get to where they are now. John died because he wasn’t fucking important. Terezi’s heartbroken, doing who knows what (again). Rose is missing, and Dirk’s becoming the villain nobody wanted to see him become. Kanaya is heartbroken, Jane’s going to ruin Earth C, and Jade may never come back.

It’s a heavy ending. It’s too heavy. The positives don’t make up for the negatives. It’s too much.

I hate it. I love it, but I wholeheartedly hate it. I love the gender reveals, the relationships, the happy, tender identity stuff we’re given to think on and told as canon, the deep theory that’s embedded in every word and brings up so many perfectly developed theories on narrative and the existence of characters as a physical presence within their texts - but I hate how far back it’s set so many characters in terms of development. I hate that Dirk got turned into this. I hate what’s going to happen to Rose. I hate that, after all this time, John’s death means less than nothing. I hate what’s become of Jake. I hate what’s happened to Earth C. I hate that our good ending has been twisted into something this sharp. I hate that this is how ten long years of struggle for all of these characters has ended.

The more I think about it, the more I come to accept it. The more it’s becoming a fact, a thing that’s happened, a simple Truth of Canon that I’m never going to be able to change. The more I find things I like in it, and the more I realise there’s a lot of potential for theorising and for writing shit down, and the more I recognise it as a fucking smart piece of text.

But this isn’t a good ending. It’s not satisfying. It’s bitter and confusing and hollow and painful. At the end of the day, for as great as it is in a literary sense, in a purely fandom sense - a purely consumer sense, purely seen as a fan who is attached to these characters and their memory and their struggles - it’s just...

Meat.

#long post//#ardenttheories out of theory #homestuck #homestuck epilogues #character analysis #homestuck ramblings

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