#friendsims

My two best friends and I. 🥰

I wonder how much Alternian society changed with each new heiress? Based on some of Xefros’ dialogue, as well as some things that were mentioned in the dreambubbles, it looks like the Empress and heiresses had a lot of direct impact on the culture—what items were available, different trends in advertising, etc.—sometimes by actual, imperial mandate. So with people like Trizza and Meenah, who are very “in your face” with their personalities and actively promote themselves, you see a lot more interest in things like social media, consumerism, fashion trends… stuff like that.

In comparison, Feferi doesn’t really seem to get out as much. Truel, she was a little younger than Trizza is, or at least she seemed to be—it is still a little unclear how old trolls actually have to be for the Maturation trials, but apparently trolls like Xefros and Dammek were nearing it, and they seem to be around the same age as Joey—who is clearly early teens. I mean… sweeps are longer than years, so even if Dammek’s trials were coming “next sweep,” that would still be 2.5 years away or so, which IS a lot of time for growth, since that would put him around 15ish for the trials. But even then… while the Beta trolls did discuss a little bit about their future plans in their introductions and before they entered the game, there was none of that “this is actually impending and coming really soon, time is running out” feel like you got from, say, Skylla’s route?

Anyways… point is, even if we factor in Feferi’s youthfulness, her personality seems to be more… not introverted, exactly, but more oriented on behind-the-scenes planning type stuff? She isn’t really putting herself out there much, is what I’m saying, and she seems to be more focused on safety/fortifying the ranks, as it were, and making sure her mother is appeased over everything else. (And now that I think about it, she actually has a lot in common with her niece [technically, via adoption. And ancestry. Sort of] Joey, as far as animal care and the like goes. Kind of). I’m not entirely sure anyone outside of her friend group even knows she exists, actually, which leads me to wonder about troll society and culture, now that there’s a void where Trizza was.

Now, maybe this is a relatively new thing. Perhaps it’s because Trizza was so out there and public, that Feferi felt the need to hide. Maybe her mother told her to do so because of however Trizza died. Perhaps because Trizza was so influential on the population, Meenah tried to give herself more of a presence than she typically would have when it comes to Alternian youths. Karkat mentioned soda like Tab… maybe that was a relatively new development—Meenah’s response and push-back on the brand Trizza promoted. Who really knows.

Beyond that… I have to wonder what forces are at work when it comes to the maintenance and implementation of all the technology on Alternia. Some of it is probably the kids, sure, but we know that adults do sometimes deal with them directly, even if not necessarily in-person. Those adults the lusus bandits were working with? Or the fact that the Grand Highblood apparently communicated with the churches a lot (though, admittedly, that could be an outlier because of just how weird and complicated the purpleblood caste is). Things like the libraries or clubs… the structures surrounding the mall on Polypa’s route… someone has to be maintaining those structures through each successive generation of children. After all, it isn’t as though the kids take it with them when they go into space. And stuff like movies—it was at least heavily implied that those were created by adults.

But at the same time… it doesn’t look the kids and adults share their internet services or forums (beyond adults probably monitoring them to look for signs of rebellions), so you would lose giant chunks of culture and things just to people going off-world. Like—their accounts would probably still be around and accessible, but nothing new would be uploaded. So unless you had a lot of mentoring situations going on, you probably wouldn’t get a whole lot of lasting, impactful influencers or ideas for subsequent generations.

Which is probably part of the point, as far as quashing rebellions go, but…

It just makes me wonder how extreme the generation gaps would be among the new young adults on the ship, what sorts of culture clashes you would get since the majority of adults wouldn’t be able to access what the kids are doing, to keep up with any new trends or ideas. Especially ones started by the heiresses.

How much loyalty and confusion would there be when the trolls who grew up under the effects of Trizza then made it to the fleets, where Meenah rules? Wouldn’t you see more rebellions happening immediately after enough young adults were finally old enough to join the fleets?

Maybe weeding them out is part of what the trials are about. Or the fleet is big enough that it would be easy to spread them thin.

Going back to an earlier point about Meenah, though, and her possibly increased influence on Alternia while Feferi was growing up…

It is entirely possible that, had the Game not happened and Feferi had continued to remain more-or-less out of the wider social loop… or I guess even if she had, assuming Meenah kept up the presence she was curating… that the trolls of Feferi’s generation would have less of a cultural shock upon joining the fleet (at least as far as actual social aspects, trends, and popular products goes) simply because Meenah was promoting herself both on the Alternian Homeworld and the wider fleet. There would be more familiarity, at least.

And I really do think that’s what she was doing during the period that Homestuck was taking place, since Karkat and the others seem far more aware of the Empress and what she does and likes than what the Friendism/Hiveswap trolls do. Sure, they are aware an Empress exists… but they only really mention being glad she’s busy far away, whereas they actually talk about Trizza by name and act like she’s already ruling everything.

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you know, somehow I think this was the point of his route

I don’t blame people for projecting onto characters that present the way that they do, especially Canon characters, I’d argue that that’s the driving force behind my own interactions with fandoms in general. but at the same time it creates a sense of ownership that does, in certain context, end up tearing down the representation that was given for both legitimate and less than legitimate reasons

lanque was intentionally given two subversive routes that were meant to represent the extremes of both what people Want in a trans character and what they Don’t Want, and it’s,, Really Something to see what’s being made of him

I haven’t played his route in full yet, so my commentary on how well executed this premise either was or wasn’t is moot, but honestly? this is a microcosm of fandoms’ tendency to define progressive media by one trait, painting it as wholly pure and good or (more commonly, or perhaps just Eventually) tearing it down as the devil itself

I tend to agree that the different routes are supposed to represent the extremes of his personality, with the whole of himself resting somewhere in the middle. which honestly, how often are homestuck characters defined by one aspect of who they are, for better or for worse? how often is this tactic used to tear characters down?

it’s honestly just uncomfortable to see him so readily torn apart by This Fandom In Particular the second he’s shown to be a flawed person solely because he’s trans. the actual murder clowns didn’t get an eyelash bat at them, but being kind of a dick or acting too feminine makes lanque unsalvageable for some people