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The first thing to note is that Eridan, by the standards both of Alternia as a whole, and by his team in specific, is genuinely not that bad (before his crashout). Yes, he says a lot of very alarming and racist shit, And That's Bad. But also... so does literally everyone?

Genuinely, before his crashout, Equius, who tried to force Aradia to love him, and Vriska, who crippled a bronzeblood, then killed a rustblood by mind controlling her goldblood boyfriend, were both actively DOING way worse shit than Eridan was. Eridan's only actual crime before murderstuck was, like, saying awful, embarrassing, cringey edgelord racist things in the group chat. Which, to be clear, Gamzee, Vriska, and Equius were also doing! Because that's kind of "the point that is being made" - none of these kids were able to grow up in such a shitty, racist society and escape it unscathed. Even Feferi's hemoequality is performative - the moment she isn't speaking to another troll, she starts unironically glubbing about "sea dweller supremacy" and equating land dwellers to peasants. She even uses one of the slurs Eridan uses!

CC: I will suspend my neato quirk just for you. CC: I hereby renounce the royal mark of sea dweller supremacy in the interest of INT-ERSP-ECI-ES DIPLOMACY. [...] CC: Okay, you win. I have officially humbled myself before you. Entirely glubbing peasant-IFICATED for your pleasure. CC: Shall I clip my fins for you as well, your majesty? [...] CC: PSH WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT, MISS HORNLESS MCFINLESS.

So, like, slash gen, Eridan was actually kind of significantly less bad than Vriska and Equius in terms of racist harm dealt. Don't get me wrong, it's still bad to be going out there talking about genociding land dwellers regardless of whether or not he actually bought in to the rhetoric, but at least he wasn't actively physically harming or controlling them? In fact, he was considered so little of a threat by the time of the meteor that Nepeta cheerfully says she doesn't hang out with him anyway 'cause he's a creep, Terezi turns down his desperate ashenflirting and tells him he's pathetic to his face with zero fear of repercussion, and even Equius takes potshots.

CG: YOU ARE SUCH AN IDIOT, I DON'T GET IT CG: YOU KISS THE GROUND THIS LUNATIC WALKS ON BECAUSE HE HAS PURPLE BLOOD CG: BUT THAT DOESN'T STOP YOU FROM RIPPING ON ERIDAN, I KNOW FOR A FACT YOU DON'T LIKE HIM

Look... I'm just going to say it. I normally try to avoid diagnosing characters because, quite frankly, I don't have a psych degree, but I think it's fair to say that if Caliborn obviously has a little neurodivergent something-something, Eridan's got that, too.

FUCK YOU. OK, THE THING IS. DON'T TELL ANYBODY I SAID THIS. BUT. I'VE ALWAYS HAD A LOT OF TROUBLE. AT. LEARNING STUFF.

Eridan and Caliborn share several thematic similarities - they're both vaguely associated with Captain Ahab, they're both vaguely associated with Voldemort/Slytherin!Harry Potter, they both use riflekind, so on. On top of that, they share several similarities in personality: Eridan is also frighteningly stubborn, very bad at social cues, extremely sexually/romantically forward with zero subtlety, and has a difficult time taking in new information or alternative points of view.

KARKAT: IF YOU WERE LONELY WHY DIDN'T YOU VENTURE OUT MORE OFTEN? ERIDAN: wwell i wwoulda but nobody else wwas vvolunteerin to pick up the slack on angel killin duties KARKAT: OH MY FUCKING GOD WHY DON'T YOU LISTEN

He's neurodivergent and a minor.

Now, obviously, this doesn't absolve him of anything. Someone with a learning disability saying slurs is still someone saying slurs. But it's important to keep in mind because it contributes to the actual power dynamics at play within the group. Sure, all of these bitches appear to have a mental something-or-other going on, but Eridan's seems especially severe, and especially predisposes him to low social and emotional intelligence. In other words, it makes him an easy target for social humiliation and mockery - as I'm sure many of us can relate to.

Just as an example, here Rose - pretty obviously - is sarcastically framing blowing up his computer as "a lesson in showmanship".

TT: You want to learn magic? CA: yes teach me your secrets wwitch TT: Sure. Let's begin. TT: Consider this your first lesson in showmanship. caligulasAquarium's [CA'S] computer exploded.

Later, when talking to Jade, it's revealed that he absolutely took that literally and decided to put that lesson into action.

CA: noww go and be cleansed by the light of truth purity nonfakeness hope and abovve all SCIENCE gardenGnostic's johnnytop exploded.

Like. This guy is just not capable of playing the social game, man. He's totally clueless. Everybody is running rings around him.

Let's return to our example of a real life rich white guy for a moment. When we mock someone fitting this description, we instinctively feel as though it's justified, or even doesn't count as mockery - but why is that? What grants them such power that any act of verbal hostility towards them can be considered non-problematic?

Well, it's because the rich white guy doesn't exist in a vacuum. He exists within a society, a structure of countless numbers of other people, that helps to ensure that he will always have the upper hand, and possesses both a greater capacity for inflicting harm and fewer consequences for doing so. If you take away capitalism, the fact that he's rich literally stops mattering. If you smash all other humans to death with meteors, the fact that he's white holds no inherent power. The same thing applies to being cis, straight, or even a dude. Without the power of a society to back him up, he simply stops having privilege.

That's the actual dynamic happening in Eridan's team. Now, because they're a bunch of kids brainwashed by a shitty fascist society, they still sometimes FEEL like privilege ought to matter.

AG: On my world, I would 8e completely vindic8ed for killing him! He is far lower on the hemospectrum than me. He managed to disrespect me time and time again, 8ut I kept letting him live! In fact, the amount of slack I cut him would 8e considered scandalous 8y those in my class. AG: I had every reason to kill him. And yet... AG: I feel 8ad a8out it like a lame weak fudge8lood, just like he was. AG: And the fact that I feel 8ad is why I'm sort of freaking out right now!

But the truth is, it doesn't, and characters realizing this on some level is part of why they treat Eridan so flippantly. Without the societal backing of Alternia, all his bluster about hating land dwellers or whatever just seems like stupid, meaningless bullshit he's clinging onto because his idiot brain has difficulty letting it go. Characters who were already not particularly affected by hemospectrum bullshit - the greenbloods Nepeta, Terezi, and Kanaya - are also the quickest to adopt egalitarian attitudes and recognize the arbitrary nature of the caste system. Nepeta outright says that blood color shouldn't matter, Terezi never seemed to care in the first place, and Kanaya happily chats away with both Aradia and Feferi.

So, on that note, if Eridan is seen as one of the team jokes, whom it is perfectly socially acceptable to pick on and target, and who is also an easy target owing to his learning disability, what's Kanaya's standing?

Kanaya, obviously, is well-regarded. She has a fairly close friendship with Feferi, and used to be Vriska's moirail, signalling her acceptance by the high end of the hemospectrum. She also maintained friendly relations with Aradia, Tavros, and Sollux, indicating that she isn't seen as a snob by the team lowbloods. Though she is somewhat literal - a trait explicitly prized by the higher castes, as Equius makes disparaging comments about the usage of sarcasm - she's socially intelligent enough to immediately grasp human sarcasm and mind games once they're explained to her and employ them to great effect in flirting with Rose. In fact, maybe she's so literal to begin with BECAUSE it's a societally valued trait in troll culture, and she's capable of reading the room and making herself socially acceptable.

So, if you're looking at the actual dynamics within the team, Eridan is considered a joke and an idiot, who has practically zero friends (even Karkat barely counts by the end), pretty extreme mental and emotional problems, and is constantly the butt of the joke. His Alternian privilege, in Alternia's absence, has actually only served to isolate him further, as the lowbloods tend to avoid him (he has barely any contact with them), and his aforementioned psychological issues have caused him to alienate almost everybody else. Even the other nobles keep their distance, as it's "respectable" for land-dwelling nobles to maintain rivalries with sea-dwellers. He's desperate for positive social interaction, has no idea how to get it, and has basically nobody to turn to for support or advice.

Meanwhile, Kanaya is one of the more stable members of the cast by far, on cordial or better terms with nearly everybody in the cast, has plenty of friends both above and below her on the hemospectrum, and finds no abnormal difficulty in navigating social situations.

And that brings us to the really important question. Deciding to just stop talking to Eridan was both easy to do and had zero consequences. Nepeta and Terezi, right above and below Kanaya on the hemocaste and both girls, were able to do so with zero blowback. So, any argument that she felt particularly pressured to keep entertaining his bullshit because of power differences or whatever simply don't hold water: people on his team of Kanaya's standing or lower regularly just went "stop talking to me", and all he did was grumble.

ERIDAN: it wwas so lonely ERIDAN: hey guys anybody wwant to come hang out wwith me in the land a wwrath and angels ERIDAN: anybody at all i knoww it isnt anythin like one of your flippin land picnics ERIDAN: anybody please ill evven settle for the kittycat shipper cavve girl ERIDAN: but yeah i guess bein her servver player and savvin her life wwasnt goddamn enough ERIDAN: had to be my most humiliatin rejection yet

So... why didn't Kanaya just do that? Well, she says it herself.

GA: Has It Occurred To You She May Have Blocked You Because You Are Vvery Ovverbearing GA: I Just Said That Aloud Now In Your Silly Accent And Had A Private Moment Of Enjoyment

She keeps him around because she likes ripping on him. Mocking him is fun and enjoyable. And also, who's going to stop her? Everyone agrees that Eridan is a loser who deserves all the shit he gets. There's no one he can turn to for help. In fact, Kanaya participates in making sure that people consider Eridan in the worst possible light.

CC: I will need to connect after my goofball moirail does so I can keep my goggles on )(is nefarious escapades. [...] GA: I Wonder If Any Other Kid On The Planet Has As Many Burdens In The Fire As You GA: I Doubt It CC: T)(ey arent burdens! CC: Ok I guess t)(ey are )(a)(a.

Like, let's be clear about his relationship with Feferi, too. Yes, Eridan is really fucking annoying and emotionally exhausting to be around. Yes, Feferi is 100000000% in the right to be sick of his dumb ass and want to break up with him. Yes, I support women dumping shitty men and leaving them in the dust.

THAT BEING SAID, again, let's just look at the situation objectively, here. Eridan spends literally every day of his life hunting for food to keep Gl'bgolyb from screaming and killing everyone. Even if you have the worst possible view of Eridan - that it was a task he was undertaking purely to stay in her good graces - he was still, bare minimum, performing hard physical labor every day for her sake.

In truth, it would be all too easy to solve the land dweller problem once and for all. You'd just need to lighten up on the feeding schedule for a while. Maybe you'd be a little too busy to bother with that hassle for once? Or maybe you could happen to be off your game for a spell? It happens, even to the best sometimes. But nah. It would make her upset.

CA: killed a fuckin fuck ton of marine life accidental CA: doin thats all i evver done practically the ocean wwas my killin cauldron

This isn't even touching on the psychological scarring he incurred from having a bodycount of "many thousands" (Vriska's words) before the age of 13, what it would do to someone in general to have an apocalypse-level event ride purely on their willingness to commit murder, and any guilt he would've been carrying as a result of orphaning all those kids, with a dead lusus explicitly leading to getting culled.

Feferi never says a word of gratitude or appreciation about this. In fact, if anything, she thinks he's really annoying because he has the gall to bring down her good mood by whining about it.

CA: i am one sad fuckin brinesucker CA: overemotional sappy trash youre right im not better than anybody CA: im worse than anybody CA: EVERYBODY CA: all the bodies CC: STOP!!!!!!!!!!! CC: God. CC: Will you just clam up for once in your life? CC: Always carping and carping and carping! CC: You go completely overboard with your emotions, always looking to reel in drama wherever you can. CC: I am up to my gills in it! I just can't salmon the strength anemonemore. CA: i cannot CA: BELIEVE CA: you are doin the fish pun thing while youre breakin up with me CA: real nice CA: whoops i mean REEL nice CC: HEHEHE, sorry.

And again. Listen. I think Feferi is in the right, broadly speaking. I think Eridan's problems are way, way above her paygrade. She is simply not equipped to handle him and his legitimate anxieties and traumas, and it's better for both of them for her to break it off, before she hurts him any further with her inability to take his pain seriously.

But like, uh, isn't it also kind of a problem that Feferi cares so very, very little about Eridan? Is it really okay that she genuinely thought of him as nothing more than a burden? And did Kanaya's active framing of him as such influence her thinking to be more callous than she would be, naturally?

Again, even if you take the worst possible view of Eridan - that if Feferi stopped stringing him along, he would stop hunting for her, and then Gl'bgolyb would genocide everybody (highly unlikely, given he cares about Karkat and Vriska, and would prefer they not get their brains exploded) - why did she insist on making him her client player?

When she says this line:

CC: I will need to connect after my goofball moirail does so I can keep my goggles on )(is nefarious escapades.

She already knows that she's planning to break up with him.

CA: and i decided i havve something i wwant to tell you CA: that ivve been meaning to get off my nub for a wwhile noww CC: O)(, really? CC: T)(at's good! Actually, I )(ave somet)(ing I )(ave been meaning to say to you too.

And, given the fact that we know she pretends not to be a sea dweller supremacist in front of other trolls, we know she's perfectly happy to lie in order to make herself look better in front of others. So what's her actual motive?

Well, Hussie has an idea.

Feferi's finally getting ready to have The Talk with Eridan. Notice how she waits until she's safely in the session before breaking up with him. It's a bit like moving to a country overseas, then breaking up with your ill-tempered jackass boyfriend over the phone. Not a bad play.

Literally, it's because it's more convenient for her this way. It's more convenient to not deal with Eridan's dumb red feelings, it's more convenient to isolate him before ditching him. If she'd broken up with him prior to SGRUB, well, they live next to each other. He'd be whining at her doorstep, and their proximity would continue to be forced because he's still got to feed Gl'bgolyb. We've already established that rejecting Eridan is a pretty safe move. He really doesn't do anything except whine and grumble. Feferi, his moirail, would've known that better than anyone. It takes way, way more to get him to snap than it did Gamzee or Vriska.

So, let's go back to Kanaya. Why does SHE keep him around?

GA: I Have Commissioned None Other Than The Legendary Prince Of Hope And I Am Teaching Him The Ways Of White Sorcery GA: I Have Observed Your Methods And You Will Come To The Most Unwelcome Realization That All Of Your Guile And Cunning Has Finally Backfired GA: This Noble Magician Of Pure Light Will Serve As The Counterpoint To Your Arcane Debauchery [...] GA: Maybe At This Point I Should Clarify This Is All A Big Joke

Yeah, it's because bullying him is so fun and funny that it's a primo way to flirt with Rose. She thinks it's hilarious, too.

GA: I Made Him A Wand To Shut Him Up TT: Wait, you did? Really? GA: He Wouldnt Stop Harassing Me For Your "Secrets" TT: That's incredible. Well done. [...] TT: I must say, this little project pleases me.

Hussie's also pretty clear on the fact that this is like... yeah, they're just making fun of him.

Here we have a story as old as time: a motherly lesbian apprentices a disgruntled fuckboy in the arts of white magic to take down her grimdark girlfriend, as a joke to impress said girlfriend[.]

But [Kanaya] acknowledges she can do nothing to stop [Rose]. So she trains Eridan to become a powerful white wizard of hope to challenge her, as a joke.

She could literally just stop engaging with him. She could block and move on. Everyone else did! And frankly, with a guy like Eridan, he's never going to take the hint, at least in part because he is literally disabled at doing that. At any point, she could just go "listen dude, you suck and I hate you, stop talking to me". She never does.

Instead, here's Eridan expressing genuine gratitude and love towards her for being a good, supportive friend to him by making him that stupid wand. Eridan sincerely, truly still thinks Kanaya is his friend, despite literally every interaction they have being mockery on her part, because he literally isn't good enough at social cues to pick up on it. And what does Kanaya do?

ERIDAN: kan i been meanin to thank you KANAYA: For What ERIDAN: for all that trainin you did ERIDAN: i wwouldnt be the incredible holy wwizard i am noww wwithout your help KANAYA: But I Didnt Even Really Train You I Just Made You A Wand ERIDAN: yeah wwell thats all i needed i guess ERIDAN: i just needed for someone to showw a little faith in me so im sayin thanks i owwe ya KANAYA: Okay Then Youre Welcome KANAYA: I Hope You Use Your Magnificent Powers Of Light And Hope For Goodness And Purity And Lets Not Forget Science ERIDAN: dont wworry im all ovver that shit you dont evven knoww KANAYA: Uh Oh I Hope That Didnt Come Off As Too Sarcastic ERIDAN: wwhat KANAYA: The Thing I Just Said KANAYA: I Didnt Even Realize How Sarcastic I Was Being Its Starting To Become A Problem I Think KANAYA: Please Dont Take Too Much Offense

She mocks him.

So, like, if you look at Eridan's situation objectively, it's really not "an incel fuckboy does evil incel fuckboy school shooter shit, because that's what incel fuckboys are like, and then he dies, and it's great that the villain is dead". Rather, it's "a traumatized, neurodivergent boy is groomed by his fascist society into parroting its beliefs, and the resulting downward spiral of alienation and loneliness, hurried along by constant betrayals and bullying from people who claim to be his friends, eventually results in him lashing out and dying, and it's a shitty situation for everybody, him included. What a terrible, preventable tragedy."

A principle in Homestuck that definitely exists for real is that of "karma" - the idea that the thoughts and actions a person commits directly results in the events that occur around them.

GC: 1F YOU S33 WH4TS 1N YOUR M1ND CL34RLY 4ND UND3RST4ND TH3 POW3R YOUR THOUGHTS H4V3 GC: TH3N YOU UND3RST4ND R34L1TY WH1L3 3V3RYON3 3LS3 1S RUNN1NG 4ROUND CONFUS3D 4ND 4NGRY 4ND UPS3T GC: B3C4US3 TH3Y TH1NK R34L1TY 1S SOM3TH1NG H4PP3N1NG TO TH3M GC: R4TH3R TH4N SOM3TH1NG TH3Y 4R3 M4K1NG 3V3RY MOM3NT W1TH 3V3RY THOUGHT

So, let's ask ourselves: what is the reality Kanaya created for herself by bullying Eridan? What does it mean, karmically, that the wand she made for him to mock him is also what ends up destroying something she held dear?

Let me be clear, this isn't about "deserve". I'm not here to judge any of these shitty children, because I really don't see the point in that. In the first place, "good" and "evil" aren't real. Kanaya didn't deserve to have her orb hopesploded, and by the same token, Eridan didn't deserve to get bullied.

But Kanaya's orb getting hopesploded is a very overt example of Homestuck's karma at work: what Kanaya brought into the world is what she got out of it. She invested cruelty and callousness into the world, and that was what she was given in turn.

Even with Feferi and Sollux, Eridan's actually not the one who escalates that situation. In fact, he's trying to express - in his clumsy, earnest, cringefail way - that he's anxious and scared, but he considers Feferi important to him, so he wants to try and protect her in whatever way he can.

ERIDAN: as the prince of hope im uniquely qualified to recognize wwhen all hope is lost ERIDAN: and im tellin you there is no hope not evven a little bit ERIDAN: only thing left to do is servve him and hope he spares us ERIDAN: and im extendin the invvitation to come wwith me cause evven though you dont think so i really do care about you ERIDAN: servvin under jack together wwell be unstoppable and our anemones wwill tremble before us wwhat do you say

If she had reassured him, if she'd proposed a better plan, if she'd affirmed their friendship, if she'd given any sign at all that she actually gave a shit about him, would things have turned out differently? We'll never know, because instead of any of that, here's what she and Sollux say to him.

FEFERI: T)(at's it. T)(is makes me sad, -Eridan, but now we )(ave to stop you. We can't let you find Jack and risk you leading )(im to us. ERIDAN: so thats howw it is is it SOLLUX: 2he'2 riight, man. can't beliieve thii2, ii wa2 lookiing forward two a nap two. SOLLUX: ii 2hould have kiilled you on lobaf when ii had the chance.

And I think that really gets at the heart of all this, right? If Eridan was always such a problem - if there was never any hope for him - if he's really as bad as all his detractors make him out to be - why even bring him along to play SGRUB at all? Why not just ditch him on Alternia to get killed by meteors? Why not take him out behind the shed and put him down like he's a rabid animal?

This is always the really interesting contradiction I run into with people who maintain that Eridan is both irredeemable, and in fact, so abhorrent a person that he never had any redeeming qualities whatsoever. If that's the case, then the obvious move is just to euthanize him before he even becomes a problem, right?

Obviously, this question makes those detractors very uncomfortable, because it throws into sharp relief the problem at the heart of their beliefs. You can't really justify killing Eridan until after Eridan starts shooting, because he's a 13 year old child who's never done anything worse than be emotionally exhausting and say slurs. When you word it that way, it's almost like there was a chance he could've turned out differently if someone had shown him compassion and patience. Could that be... the point of his character????????

This is one of Homestuck's core themes: the world - nay, universe - that we create is a reflection of what we put into it. The reality we live in is a result of our thoughts and actions.

Ripping on Eridan is a really good time. It's funny literally always.

That's why people bully other people. The truth of the matter is that bullying is fun! People bully other people because it's fun and hilarious. All the better if the target seems "deserving" of it - that is to say, they're weird, they're a loner, they're a freak, they're neurodivergent, they have no friends, they act bizarrely, they react spectacularly, they can't stand up for themselves. Poke them a little and watch the fireworks. Turning off your empathy is super easy if the person on the other side "deserves" to suffer.

But, you know. I don't think "bullying is bad" is a hot take, but here we are. I've seen people twist themselves into pretzels trying to explain why Kanaya's bullying isn't bullying, or doesn't count, because everyone has had "bullies are Evil" drilled into them, and they don't want to think of Kanaya as Evil. And you know what? I don't think she's Evil, because again, "good" and "evil" aren't real. I think she chose to bully. She had the option of not bullying, and she chose to bully. And while that doesn't make her Evil, it does make her a flawed character, and being a flawed character is what makes her interesting.

The trolls' failure is not the result of any one thing going wrong, any single person being a problem. It's much more cohesive and interlinked than that. Even Eridan's meltdown doesn't sit squarely on Kanaya's shoulders, though she bears a lot of responsibility for it. There's also Feferi's insistence on calling herself Eridan's friend, despite actually sharing Sollux's sentiment that she'd prefer if Eridan was just gone or dead; there's Karkat making promises to hang out with him and then breaking those promises every time; there's Jade lashing out and screaming at him in a conversation where he's literally trying to be nice to her with zero ulterior motives; there's Gamzee deliberately driving a wedge in Eridan and Karkat's friendship because he has a palecrush on Karkat; and, yes, there's Eridan's own awful decisions. And on top of all of that, there's the society they grew up in, one where Eridan was expected - nay, obligated - to act a certain way, speak a certain way, think a certain way.

All our actions have consequences, one way or another. We construct reality with every action and every thought. What's the world the trolls created with their choices? It's exactly the one they got.

GC: 4ND 1 FORC3D MY OWN H4ND. 1 COULD 31TH3R L3T 3V3RYON3 D13 1N ON3 R34L1TY, OR K1LL 4 FR13ND 1N 4NOTH3R

GC: 4ND 1 T3LL MYS3LF THOS3 W3R3 TH3 ONLY TWO VORT1C3S 1 S4W...

GC: BUT TH3N, 1 W4S TH3 ON3 WHO M4D3 TH3 S3R13S OF D3C1S1ONS WH1CH L3D UP TO TH4T CHO1C3, 4ND COMPL3T3LY P41NT3D TH3 OPT1ONS 1NTO TH4T CORN3R

Maybe there was a timeline where Eridan didn't start shooting. After all, prior to his meltdown, he was making active efforts to reach out. He was friends with Karkat, and thought highly of him; he tried to give Jade his legendary rifle for free out of goodwill; the entire reason he was killing angels was because he thought it would help him figure out how to slay their lord.