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masc / neutral gamzee : homestuck fashion kit based on canon outfit with a scenemo aesthetic for @gamz-kins !

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Ah, the website going down in a blaze of inglory for hours on end was not something I missed.

It seems that no matter what Mr. Hussie does for the servers it’s never enough.

But things like this he does in the story will always warm the cockles of my heart.

sure why not

(edit: at this point Jake is actually my favorite Homestuck character, but to change the title of the essay would break links and be weird. I just wanted to say something about it anyway though?)

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My favorite characters in Homestuck hit upon things that are really personal to me, which also makes them difficult to talk about. I thought I’d try to talk about them anyway, starting from the easiest to discuss (for me) and working my way up to the hardest. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get through all three because this requires a lot of honesty on my part, but we’ll see?

For now, let me tell you about Jake English. This also has DirkJake discussions because it’s very hard to talk about Jake without also talking about Dirk.

Headcanon: Kokichi was sexually assaulted.

Aright FINE I'll give you people your DAMN age list!

(I’ve previously rambled about my fondness for this theory here.)

You said it yourself! That’s not the kind of news he’d “take well.” Shin was protective of Kanna, so if he learned that Midori had a responsibility to the girl and knowingly failed her, I think he would be horrified and furious. It sounds like the kind of news that could send him into a rage, which is the reaction Midori deliberately provokes in Keiji at the end of 3-1A.

Actually, if this theory happens, I’m more curious how Midori would present the news, since Shin’s reaction feels more predictable? What words would Midori use to dig under Shin’s skin? (And how would it compare to him delivering the news to Kanna?) Or…is this something Midori would actually feel ashamed about? I realize that’s hard to imagine at this point since Midori is so outrageously villainous, but this is the kind of topic that could lend to showing a more human side of him. (Even if it’s very subtle!)

My favorite aspect of this theory is that it adds another parallel between Original Sou and Shin. Original Sou would have the “legitimate claim” over Kanna by blood, similar to how Original Sou also has a “legitimate claim” over his own name. Since Original Sou has died, Shin has usurped Sou’s claim to his name, and he’s taken responsibility over the little girl as well.

The fact that Shin failed to protect Kanna puts another parallel between him and Original Sou in this scenario. Midori could devastate Shin by pointing this out, that Shin is no better than him. Shin is a failed pretender in every regard.

In contrast, if Kanna is alive, she would be living in a world where Shin succeeded in protecting her. He would have proved himself to Kanna as a loving big brother, just like how Kugie proved herself a loving big sister.

KANNA: Without any blood relation… Kanna and her sister got along really… really well… / ……….

This dialogue is from Kanna’s negotiation discussion from Chapter 2, when she tells Sara more about Kugie. The fact that there’s so much emphasis on Kanna’s “blood relationships” makes me wonder if the topic could come up again! I can imagine Kanna coming away with a more positive lesson that found family is more important than blood, while Shin might internalize even further that he is a worthless impersonator.

If Shin had the blood relationship in the first place, perhaps he might have had the power to save Kanna from the start, but once again he is forced to acknowledge how useless and weak his position is.

There are scenes in YTTD that are explicitly gruesome and violent, but the scene in Chapter 3 where Shin AI describes his abusive relationship with Original Sou is disturbing in its subtlety. Shin AI seems aware that their relationship has problems, but he still calls Sou a friend, much to the distress of either Kanna or the living Shin. One of the lines that has haunted me since I first heard it was Shin AI’s enigmatic statement, “Who he really is… I really, truly know nothing… Though I learned a lot of things at his house.”

I wanted to write a piece analyzing Shin and Sou’s relationship based on this line. In this post, I’ll make references to different types of abusive relationships, but I won’t claim anything specific for them since the nature of their friendship is deliberately open-ended. I think this line is vague enough to both mean everything and nothing. Perhaps we aren’t meant to read too deeply into it, but…It was a line that affected me deeply, so I wanted to share my own views.

1) Something this character is truly proud of.

 Saving Kanna's life. 

 It's absolutely saving Kanna's life. There's nothing else that comes close. If I were in his shoes, I'd feel the same. Knowing that you gave your life to save someone else is a powerful thing to take pride in! You can see that pride in his final smile. Most people don't know if they have it in them to be so brave. That's a beautiful thing to know about yourself before you die.

So that's lovely, but...what else? After all, he's only able to save Kanna if Sara is willing to help him.

To be honest, this question makes me sad, because Shin isn't proud by nature. He's self-righteous and smug, sure, but that's all part of his mask. Deep down, Shin believes himself to be a weak coward. 

He can't land a decent job. He doesn't take care of his health. He feels self-conscious about having to depend on his parents. He sounds like a lonely person. And when he enters the Death Game, he lies to everyone, and worst of all, he hurts Kanna. 

Shin is a thoughtful person. He knows all of this about himself. What does he have to be proud of? 

It's sad because Shin is genuinely smart and talented! He's observant, quick-witted, and he's a computer hacker, which is super cool. Unfortunately, it seems like Shin can't pursue his passion for computers in any meaningful way outside of the Death Game. And I don't think he has friends to assure him that he's smart, or funny, or reliable, or kind, or anything else you'd take pride in.