#atxt

characterization aside: the meta playing-with-narrative in both storylines (but especially meat) was FANTASTIC, and reminded me why i loved and unfortunately probably will always love homestuck. dirk and calliope’s fighting over the narration? incredible! the ultimate reveal of how the two storylines coexisted? extraordinary! it’s a very hard gambit to pull off and it was done really well. 

there were moments of characterization that felt true. dave, generally, felt pretty legit. roxy’s gender exploration felt powerful and right. rose seemed pretty spot on throughout candy, at least, and kanaya seemed good throughout both. 

although i liked meat more, overall, it contained more of the thing that made me the most angry when reading: homestuck has never, ever, felt sexist to me. not that it was perfect, clearly, but i am unfortunately accustomed to reading or watching things in which women and girls are sidelined from plot-relevancy, reduced to objects of sexuality, never allowed to be angry or powerful or evil in a way that wasn’t entrenched in male attention - and homestuck never felt like that!!! we had tons of female characters who were allowed to be messy and broken and flawed and angry and powerful, whose dalliances with men were honest to their characters and never became more than just a single aspect of who they were, who were never overly sexualized, or sexualized at all. 

i was so fucking angry when jade was reduced to someone sex-crazed whose entire plotline seemed to revolve around getting herself into a relationship with dave and karkat, who also clearly didn’t seem interested and the whole thing felt really uncomfortable and dubiously consensual. I was so fucking angry when Jane’s tactic for getting Jake to her side was through seduction. And not only that, but even basic character descriptions for female characters focused way too much on appearance and beauty. Like, even when Dirk was narrating it kept talking about the way Rose’s hair looked in the light and how delicate and beautiful she was in a way that made no sense and was so goddamn uncomfortable? Terezi and John’s fling didn’t bother me as much, because I guess at least it felt remotely around the realm of possibility for her character, but it still spoke to the degree to which women in this story were constantly sexualized. 

And in the big fight with Lord English, Rose and Jade were taken out immediately so John and Dave could do everything plot relevant - despite the fact that theoretically all of them were needed to fight him? Rose being a non-player in Meat who existed only to be manipulated by Dirk was also uncomfortable, and reducing her to a gullible and sickly waif was such an assassination of a character that was always so intelligent and powerful.

And then there’s the whole deal with other characterizations. Here’s the thing. I never really gave a particular shit about Dirk and Jane, so this one I’m going to be a little less angry about than some. Honestly? It just didn’t feel like them. I didn’t care deeply about their characters in the comic proper, so it just felt like there were two new people occupying their roles who were just more fascist and more megalomaniacal. As much as this new Dirk wasn’t the old Dirk, he was a fascinating villain (except for the constant misgendering of Roxy. could have done without that). I really enjoyed what he did for the narrative in Meat, although I was frustrated few characters picked up on it despite seeming to come so close. New Jane felt like a generic cardboard cutout of a genocidal fascist, and served her kind of narratively uninteresting role fine. So, whatever. 

I was more angry about the way other characters reacted to them, or more specifically Jane. The fact that other characters decided to remain “politically neutral” in a time that was CLEARLY not one you could remain neutral in felt wrong to characters that still otherwise seemed theoretically like their old selves. They still have an idea of right and wrong, and whether they believed Jane’s good intentions at first (which was fine, sometimes you trust the wrong people) there was a point in which Jane was just OBJECTIVELY EVIL. I’m mostly @ing Roxy and Calliope here. I’m surprised nobody came up with the idea of like, killing her, when it would so obviously be a Just death? 

smaller notes: 

reducing the significance of dave’s whole sexuality speech at the end of act 6 just so he could go through/not go through it all again felt cheap. not necessarily unrealistic. just cheapening of a very significant and poignant moment.

i love roxy so goddamn much. (in meat. they were... kinda boring and more ooc in candy)

john remains uninteresting to me unfortunately

the story focused way too much on m/f couplings despite it overall upping the amount of gay present

the fact that we never got to see terezi and vriska’s reunion despite all the teasing is a CRIME 

i guess people do sometimes just Want Babies but the huge emphasis on Babies For Everyone in candy was. offputting

why was there so much emphasis on uncomfortable/nonconsensual/abusive/unhealthy relationships? is it supposed to be a message about how All Happiness Is Fake? sounds dumb

but like seriously it didn’t even just seem all just for the Grimdark it was just. uncomfortable

like the authors had some weird personal issues and/or kinks 

Anyways. Overall, I’m glad I read them, because it was certainly a better ending than Act 7. Meat was much better than Candy. I wish there had been one final chapter that gave us a little less of a cliffhanger on what both timelines were doing, maybe had them meet a little more, but oh well.