#Jake english analysis

[quadrantbot]

Jake and Dirkjake and other mildly related tangents. (Additional paragraph on alpha kid romance, because I guess that was necessary to me.)

Heads up this post is not positive about Dirkjake like, at all. I'm not saying you can't like it or do anything with it, I am just sharing my own personal opinion and analysis on it. And Jake in general. (I'm not going to tag with Dirkjake because that's a dick move, but I'm not going to intentionally avoid saying it in NON tag text either. Scroll on if you don't like Dirkjake hate. Okay? Cool.) 

Jake is one of those characters that fandom wise, is super mischaracterized. This includes the mischaracterizations in postcanon as well, which also at least to some degree includes Pesterquest. It's confusing to me for several reasons why so many major changes were made to Jake outside of the main comic, but considering how most of the fans do not seem to take him seriously and the writing team for the dubiously canon content seem to lump his existence purely in with Dirk, it's a little understandable.

Jake isn't really too complicated of a character when it comes to likes, dislikes, motivations and issues. Jake likes his movies, the IDEA of adventure, and he loves blue ladies. He doesn't really care for romance at any major point in the story, especially considering his entire friend group had feelings for him, and when it comes down to actual adventures, actual conflict, he's freaked out. Jake has a great deal of care for his friends, even despite the weird romance shit occuring in the group, and his main issue when it comes to that friend group is a lack of communication from everyone involved. Jake "wants" to be important, Jake "wants" to be a hero, Jake "wants" to be a brave adventurer, but these "wants" don't ever appear to reflect in his actions, even so far as contradicting them, leading to conflict between his supposed wants, and what he actually seems to go for. Jake is often seen as a "himbo" by the fandom, but even that is not really all that accurate. Jake isn't stupid. Jake does have some issues when it comes to reading the room, but even when he DOESN'T, it's usually picked up whenever he's in a weird situation that he doesn't want to be in, which can be seen in his conversation with Jane about her romantic feelings for him, or the proposed lack thereof. Should be pages 4587-4593, but I'll screenshot the notable parts I'll be referencing and put them below. 

Jake didn't really seem very convinced when Jane said she DIDN'T have feelings for him, but he just continued along with the conversation, expressing his relief because even if she was lying, he didn't really want to face that sort of thing head on. Jake then goes onto explain the weird shit with Dirk and doesn't exactly seem very interested in him either, but seeing as Jane supposedly has no interest in him, there's a weird sort of obligation going on where he feels he HAS to just let this happen, which doesn't really seem like the common fandom idea that he was like, head over heels for Dirk. There's a vague mention of jokes from "years ago" where they could like each other if Dirk was a girl, but seeing as these are 15 year olds, "years ago" is a pretty vague period of time AND teenagers will say shit like that all of the time! Mostly younger ones, yes, but I think a good portion of teenagers have joked about having feelings for/WOULD have feelings for someone if they were a gal or a guy. Nothing when it came to Jake's behavior was intentionaly shitty or leading Dirk on or anything, because Jake can't always be aware of literally everyone's feelings for him? 

On a vaguely related tangent, I used to be large on the "bi Jake" being canon thing, but just taking the bare minimum look into some of this just makes it seem like he's got no interest in men at all, and his interest in women appears to be from both a jealousy/almost gender envy standpoint (in the way he seems to WANT to be like them,) and a genuine attraction, especially when considering his blue ladies and more specifically, Aranea. (I do not like Aranea/Jake for the record, and if somehow you guys who enjoy that pairing (or any pairing with alpha trolls/anyone who isn't an alphatroll, I'm looking at you Meenkat, Vrismeen and other freaks,) have made it this far, PROSHITS GET OUT!! I am a normal consumer of darkfic not a FREAK!!) I think I can understand those who read Jake as not aromantic, just uninterested in romance with his current issues, but I also thoroughly enjoy reading Jake as arospec as someone who is both arospec AND someone with several arospec friends who like the reading just as much, Jake never seems to take a genuine interest in relationships with anyone, only considering one with Jane or Dirk because they're his friends, and if he's good friends with them, they MUST be good partner options for him. While it's true there can be a good basis on friendship, I don't think the two major Jake ""romance options"" are all that fit even with the basis of friendship, seeing as neither Jane nor Dirk communicate well, and Jake really doesn't either. 

The thing about the base alpha kids (excluding cherubs and any of Dirk's robots, whic includes Lil Hal, despite being a copy of his brain,) is that when it comes to the most prominent "proposed" canon pairings, Dirkjake, Janejake, Dirkroxy, it just seems they only exist because those four are each others only options romantically. Jane likes Jake, so Roxy feels like Dirk is the only option. Dirk, though unlabelled, only has a canon interest in men, so Jake appears to be the only option. Jane seems to like Jake to a degree, but I think that primarily stems from the fact that Jake is extremely kind and caring to all his friends, so she really does see him as HER only option as well. Again, I do think some of the base alpha kids pairings are alright, but that mostly relies on things AFTER the trickster mode section completely explodes all over everyone and the conflicts reach a boiling point. Dirk and Jane make up, and I do think there's something good that could be said about some form of moiraillegiance between the two, because even despite their issues with each other prior to the Dirkjake breakup, they still do care about each other. I also like Jakeroxy as a pairing option, though mostly in a queerplatonic sense, because when Roxy took a step back from any form of romantic interest in Jake because of Jane and later Dirk, Roxy is more capable of having some form of bond with Jake that wouldn't automatically feel like a necessarily romantic thing, and I think their shared caring for their friends and each other could make them closer. The thing about the base proposed pairings between the alpha kids is that, at least in the case of Dirkjake, it's overglorified by the fandom, even if there are ""nuanced"" readings of them. 

This isn't to say that you can't interpret the text however you want, but when it comes to the bare minimum in canon Dirkjake doesn't really work at all. Not as a fluffy pairing, and not as a strange, codependent teenage relationship where they're mutually obsessed with each other and tearing each other apart. Jake has no romantic interest in Dirk. Jake also has a completely reasonable extra reason why, even if he DID have feelings for Dirk, which, according to canon, he doesn't really, they still wouldn't be good together. I definitely understand the value in exploring negative relationships via fictional means, but when it comes to Dirkjake, their conflict isn't complicated, or nuanced, or even really that complex to understand. Dirk didn't know how to properly go through with his feelings for Jake, so he did fucked up shit, and Lil Hal did fucked up shit, and it very easily came crashing down on him. Even without every strange and fucked up thing Dirk and Lil Hal did towards Jake in order to express those feelings, the biggest point of conflict, the decapitated head kiss in front of the volcano, was definitely enough to state that there's nothing really all that great between them, and there's nothing to take from it that really requires or calls for an exploration of the fucked up side of their relationship, because every way I've seen that handled, it's just as full of mischaracterization as fluffy Dirkjake is. I can understand the excitement at "canon gay representation," but at the end of the day, all Dirkjake really is is a one sided relationship between Dirk and a guy who doesn't have any feelings for him outside of platonic ones, a guy who felt an obligation to be with Dirk just because Dirk was his friend. Could that be explored in an interesting and angsty way? Definitely, but that is a Dirkjake interpretation I've seen the least of, if any at all, and that's literally what's set up canonically! 

"But Ro, what about postcanon?" There's a lot to be said about postcanon, and a variety of things that make any form of romantic feelings on Jake's end completely unbelievable to me. For starters, Ult Dirk is in control of postcanon, Alt Calliope is also, to some degree, but anything that may or may not ""confirm"" romantic feelings on Jake's end is being told to us by two unreliable narrators. But also, postcanon is stupid, existed to get Hussie out of debt, and overall was a piece of garbage that didn't do anything for canon whatsoever. So I don't consider it canon. At all. But if you do, the unreliable narrator argument above is for you. 

#jake english #homestuck #homestuck analysis #alpha kids #dirk strider #roxy lalonde #jane crocker #Jake english analysis #hs analysis #hs character analysis #Homestuck character analysis #Ro's Character Analysis Tag

[exaltior-a]

Personally the amount of people who are either "Jake is a stupid himbo" or "Jake is actively malicious" blow my mind. No, Jake isn't stupid, and he's not evil. He's a sixteen year old who is implied to have a mental disability and/or brain damage (it's not exactly clear, Caliborn claims they have the same developmental disorder and Dirk iirc worries that Jake hit his head too much, I guess you can take either with a grain of salt but I digress), and has not had meaningful real life interactions with other human beings in years. He is in the wrong for his actions, but it feels. Purposefully ignorant to claim he's just stupid or just evil for them.

He's socially stunted. He wants to emulate heroes in movies but lacks self esteem and experience. If the alpha kids had enough time to be more fleshed out (and let's be real, if Hussie cared about Jake) this might have been explored more thoroughly. He'd never had the opportunity to learn how to cope with a relationship, how to communicate his needs, or understand that he can't control how other people perceive him like he can through a computer screen.

He doesn't know healthy boundaries because he's never had to use them, and this goes both ways (allowing his friends to sexualise him and treat him like an object, as well as constantly complaining about his relationship with Dirk to Jane) Like yeah he does run away instead of communicating with Dirk and yeah he does dump all his problems on Jane. I love Jane, but one of her problems is her bottling up her feelings and people pleasing until everything blows up. She should have told him off much sooner, and while he was being a dick, it was partly because she allowed him to feel like it was okay to do, since she never told him it wasn't after the first few times or when she was starting to get aggravated.

His problems with Dirk are a little more complicated because we're never actually shown their relationship or how it broke down, but from what we can gather, Jake felt overwhelmed by Dirk's intensity and decided to ignore him rather than tell him try and avoid confrontation but leading to Dirk being frustrated and breaking up with him. Dirk claims he feels like he bullied Jake into a relationship, and though I personally think that's him making it seem worse than it was, it does mean that Dirk probably was trying to go too fast. I've best heard it is Jake being an introvert pretending to be an extrovert.

This is not to say I don't think people can't dislike or even hate Jake, but it's like. Idk. Misinterpreting a character and disliking that version of them is a little redundant to me.

#homestuck #dirkjake #jake english #dirk strider #jane crocker #character meta #homestuck meta #this is kind of in response to those people in the “worst homestuck character” tourney lol #the notes on those posts are atrocious especially the ones about the alpha kids. especially roxy #god if you think roxy is a perfect sngel i assume you haven't read the comic #btw im not mad at the person running the polls or whatever for that they seem fairly chill #its just that homestuck fans are sometimes stupid #and lack reading comprehension and critical analysis #long post #ummm jake dislikers ur fine but please. be correct about him if you're going to not like him #ok bye lol

[offkilterkeys]

Being a Jane liker is so hard cause you go to her tag and it’s just a bunch of people lamenting how overhated she is and then continuing to ignore her, and being a Jake liker is so hard cause you go to his tag and it’s just tons of people making the most demeaning comments about him cause his character committed the crime of being annoying (unforgivable.)

#homestuck #jake english #jane crocker #vent #? #I guess hahaha #I am in the content trenches with these two #it’s always secretly about Dirk with them #Jane is Dirk’s bestie #Jake is Dirk’s boyfriend/ex #I just want content about them being friends/siblings/cousins or whatever #or with other people like Roxy or Jade #or even just stuff on their own #but nooooo always the same guy #and even the people who talk about how this fandom focuses too much on the dudes #characterize Jane as Dirk’s bestie and nothing more #I’m considering sharing my Jane analysis if only to bring more diversity #it’s actually kinda funny though that so much of their stuff revolves around Dirk #cause in canon that bothers Jane #how easy things are for him to just do #and she literally admits to being jealous of him #and while he interprets it to be mainly about Jake it’s honestly just in general #like he just does a bunch of stuff that she wishes she had the courage to do #and honestly he’s just more of a hero #they’re kinda like an inversion of John and Dave’s dynamic mixed with Jade and Dave’s #where from Dirks perspective it’s JadeDave in the sense that he just sees Jane as his silly friend who he must protect #while from Jane’s she’s the Dave to his John in that she wants to be heroic in the way he is #and like nobody does anything with that #The fandom ever focused on the boys takes Dirk’s side and says look at her #she’s just a girl

[nekropsii]

I personally detest Jake English but i'm interested in your perspective on him being aroace!

Page 4876.

Page 4589.

Page 5811.

Just seems like an easy read to me.

#homestuck #homestuck meta #homestuck analysis #alpha kids #jake english #jake.pdf #nekro.pdf #nekro.sms

[disguisedcheezed]

I made a relationship chart from the standpoint of dirkjohn and how insanely funny it is, but fucked up for everyone involved.

(I forgot to add that Ultimate Dirk also lead John to his death in hs^2. head in hands)

#rose projects her lesbianism through her mind's eye #homestuck #dirkjohn #johndirk #dirk strider #john egbert #dave strider #karkat vantas #jade harley #jake english #jane crocker #rose lalonde #roxy lalonde #vriska serket #terezi pyrope #vrisrezi #davekat #hs analysis #homestuck analysis #yeah #hs meta #mine #im still crying over this becaise i made this in an hour and im seeing mistakes you cant #<- edit sept: bitch you forgor #oh no i remembered actually. its that rose was just a suggestion to be married to. not a love interest lol #500plus

[charliecuntcicle]

Why are the StriLondes treated more like a family than the Egbert-Harleys?: My thoughts

So, I've noticed that a lot of the time, despite them both being ectobiological families, in fandom and to some extent canon the StriLondes are more focused on being a family than the Egbert-Harleys. It's very easy to boil that down to the fact that StriLondes are just...more popular than the Egbert-Harleys, so they have more content in general focused on them, including family-based content. And you'd be right! That most certainly is a factor! However it's more than just that.

When you get down to it, the Egbert-Harley's all had very positive parental figures in their lives. John with his dad, Jade with Bec and, to an extent, her stuffed grandfather, Jane with her dad, and Jake with his grandma up until her death.

With the StriLondes, none of them had that. Dirk and Roxy had people they admired and thought of as positive parental figures, sure, but those figures were never properly in their lives. Dave's bro is around but he serves as a negative parental figure in his abuse to Dave. Rose's mom is around and does care for her daughter, but her alcoholism and Rose's way of interpreting certain actions have tilted their relationship into a negative one.

The Egbert-Harley's have experienced positive parental influence, no matter how short lived it was (*cough* Jake *cough*). The StriLondes have not experienced this.

It's why when Dave meets Roxy he wants to call her mom. He wants that positive parental figure like hes seen others have. It's why, despite everything, he and Dirk sit down on that roof and talk over everything.

It's why when Rose and Roxy meet they both fumble over calling each other mom and figuring out what they are to each other. Rose wants to make things right with her mom, even if it's not the version she knew. Roxy wants some semblance of the mom she never had.

When the Egbert-Harley's interact, sure, it's sweet, they have some nice moments. But none of them have that distinct need for a parental figure like the StriLondes do.

Jake and Jade are excited to meet a version of the people they lost so young, but they don't have a particular desire to serve as each other's grandchildren. They're fine if their relationship falls more into friendship than family.

John and Jane are excited to meet each other, it's cool to meet a version of a dead respected member of your family! But John and Jane never knew their grandparents and they didn't grow up admiring them the way Dirk and Roxy looked up to their versions of Dave and Rose.

The StriLondes are more into the whole family thing, using familiar terms and these types of dynamics seeping into their conversations. The Egbert-Harleys are okay wherever their dynamic falls, they're just happy to know each other.

This isn't to say the Egbert-Harleys don't call each other familial terms ever, because they do, but it's not in the same way the StriLondes do it. The Egbert-Harleys call each other familial terms in a "Oh hey you're my [x]! That's so cool! I'm glad I get to meet you!" way rather than a "Holy shit that's our mom holy shit Rose that's our mom that's our fucking mom" way.

TLDR: The StriLondes crave positive parental figures because of their complete lack of them whereas the Egbert-Harleys already had those positive parental figures at one point or another.

#i dont do analysis posts like ever is this okay #did i do good #dave strider #dirk strider #rose lalonde #roxy lalonde #strilondes #john egbert #jade harley #jake english #jane crocker #egbert harleys #i call them the egbert harleys this whole post cus they dont really have a family name like the strilondes #i dont think #homestuck

[alicesoinions]

In Homestuck, Guns are Magic.

In Homestuck, guns are associated with Magic and Wizards.

Jade? uses guns and is a very magic Witch. Roxy? uses guns and is fascinated with Wizards. Eridan? uses guns and likes magic knows magic is fake and made-up.

And then you have the cherubs, whose spell implements literally turn into guns.

The only exceptions to this trend are Rose (likes Wizards, doesn't use guns) and Jake (uses guns, no particular relation to Magic). But other than that, there's a strong association of Guns with Wizardry.

#what does this actually MEAN? #i have no clue #im just pointing it out #homestuck #homestuck analysis #jade harley #roxy lalonde #eridan ampora #calliope #caliborn #rose lalonde #jake english

[the-mei-chan]

the way dirk acts towards dave, at least in the original timeline, is so similar to the way he acts towards jake in the alpha timeline.

beta timeline dirk (hereon out referred to as bro for easiness) "trains" dave by sword fighting him often and ruthlessly. he believes that, if dave is strong, then dave will be happy because he can protect himself. bro believes that him and dave are similar, and that they base their satisfaction with themselves on 1. their strength and 2. their perceived masculinity.

in the second timeline, dirk (referred to as hal even though it isnt specifically hal its just easier to differentiate Dirk (ultimate) and dirk (became hal) ok) has a big fat crush on jake, obvi. so, because him and jake cant meet up in person, he builds and sends jake a robot - to train him. hal wants to help jake become strong and achieve his idea of masculinity because thats how he expresses his love.

however, bro took this over the top. someone who cannot express their love in a way other then jokes/violence/otherwise convoluted acts is not fit to raise a kid by himself. also, bro had done these things to dave from a very young age, no doubt fucking up his sense of when hes cared for or whatever blah blah blah daves sad .... anyway hals robot body is too difficult to beat for jake to truly learn anything from it. despite not really harming him, hals gift still had a less positive effect on jake than he would have liked.

both iterations of dirk see the training as nothing more than a simulation, because he is the opponent, and he is nothing but a vessel to carry out the blows to/from dave and jake, he sees himself as In Control. despite the fact the training has a very real effect on both of them, physically and mentally.

dave is fucked up about the guy who raised him fighting him with swords, and jake is messed up over seeing his boyfriend as an obstacle to overcome. so, dirks way of showing his loved ones he cares needs to be changed if he wants to help them, blah blah blah you can analyse the way other characters look at him to understand the way he acts and decipher the reasons he acts the way he does. i dont even like stridercest.

#homestuck #bro strider #dirk strider #jake english #dave strider #dirkjake #homestuck meta #homestuck analysis #dirk hs #jake hs #dave hs #dirk splinters #if ultimate dirk really loved rose then he would make her stronger by helping her train herself #not limit her to a robot body the way he did with his autoresponder aka the guy he hates #but yk maybe he just got character development off screen and i didnt realize (suspicious) #post

[rudecurator]

Arbitrarily Assigning Webkinz To Homestuck Characters Part Two: Alpha Kids

Same format whatever. Strilondes here get a little more wiggle room so their pets are both more recent

Jane Crocker

Definitely played at one point. maybe would have eventually lost interest but I think baby Jane would have loved it. Probably completed every quizzy's question and spends a lot of time trying to solve the mystery recipes. Her favorite little guy was probably a Basset Hound (below) and she LOVES it's pet-specific-item so so much.

Jake English

Probably wouldn't have been super interested but if swayed by a friend he could've probably played at one point. I think he had an original leopard (below) definitely. He would've genuinely loved the adventure park had he been around to see it come out. Makes really shitty Webkinz studio movies completely earnestly.

Roxy Lalonde

Genuinely and completely loves this game. Acquired all her pets through dubious manners that are also unpunishable because the servers don't technically even still exist. Loves PJ Collie on a personal level. Super arcade gamer with really scary scores on the worst and hardest games. She's somehow good at Pumpkin Patch Protector. Her favorite pet is a pom pom kitty (below) for certain.

Dirk Strider

I won't hear that he wouldn't. Shit gets boring when you live alone in the middle of the ocean so you crawl the Internet and play baby games for fun. He's not even remotely afraid to have childish interests when he can frame them as funny. (which I don't think he does on purpose but that's for another time) He makes really shitty Webkinz studio movies but ironically this time. He's good at skater Kat which is scary. Would love the night mare (below) literally it is the most Dirkish animal ever.

beta kids already posted. beta trolls soon

#overthinking {analysis} #big top {shitpost} #jane crocker #jake english #roxy lalonde #dirk strider #homestuck #webkinz

[aortaobservatory]

can i get your take on the hope aspect? your thoughts about rage got some gears turning, and like you said in your post about life, it helps to understand the opposite aspect in relation :)

Absolutely! It's my opinion that the Hope Aspect, like a few other aspects and what they're named after, is fairly misunderstood because of the connotations the word "hope" has. The Hope Aspect is also one I gained a better understanding of by comparing it alongside its inverse.

The word "hope" has some pretty positive connotations to it. Dreams, longing, yearning for something better, holding on, so on and so forth. These aren't wrong when thinking of the Hopebound, but they're certainly not the full picture of what the Hope Aspect has to offer. And, like the other 11 aspects, the Hope Aspect isn't necessarily good or bad; it is inherently neutral, with the potential to be either good or bad.

From The Extended Zodiac, I pulled these keywords from the Hope Aspect description. These would be the "canon" traits; they are what I adhere to when analyzing, but it should also be understood that this concept encompasses much more to do with than these keywords. Its "vibe", if you will, is much more than what is written.

TEZ Hope Keywords: Conviction, justice, aid, black and white thinking, imagination, dreams, better future, positive, caring, warm, (narrow-minded, selfish)

What really caught my attention in the canon description for the Hope Aspect was the descriptor "narrow-minded". It painted an interesting picture; that someone can be narrow-minded at their worst when their drive is towards that of a better future.

My chosen words for the Hope Aspect are "Conviction, Ideology, Commitment, Justice". I felt that the drive for many Hopebound is their sense of justice; they believe the things they do because they have a sense of justice. However, it's also important to keep in mind that one person's idea of justice is not always another person's idea of justice. (The Death Penalty debate is a good example of what I mean, but there are a lot of other good examples out there too).

The other word I chose for the Hope Aspect that didn't come from the TEZ was "ideology", which I felt encompassed many of the words on the list and off the list. Ideology is what a person believes; this can be religion, one's moral compass, true (or false) education, government systems, propaganda, so on and so forth. Ideology focuses on the system of beliefs a person has, and so the Hope Aspect also focuses on both personal beliefs, and systems in general (the government system, the education system, etc). This is perhaps why Ragebound tend to be anarchists and punks. Since the Hope Aspect is about beliefs, these beliefs can be anything. There's a lot of room in the Hope Aspect to look like other aspects if someone's ideology happens to match up with, say, the Life Aspect, or the Light Aspect, or any of the other aspects. There's a lot of wiggle room, but ultimately, the Hopebound do what they do because they hold fast to their beliefs and adhere to the systems that are in place which support their beliefs.

Like with Gamzee and Kurloz, the Hope Aspect doesn't get a full spotlight with Eridan (Prince of Hope) and Cronus (Bard of Hope) representing it, as the destroyer classes tend to skew the understanding of an aspect. However, for what Eridan's classpect was, he certainly was written up to it; the Prince uses hope to destroy hope, because he cannot grasp it or control it despite its abundance around him. His connection to the Hope aspect is fairly apparent in his Pesterquest route, actually, with how he talks about gender roles and his desire to be gender non-conforming and supportive of it, but he just can't grasp that for himself despite believing in it (ironically, because he's a shitty person via actively destroying the Hope of others). He also, in the next breath, proceeds to spout some pro-hemospectrum system bullshit, which I feel really does represent how narrow-minded he can be on certain subjects. Cronus is written flatly, but as a Bard of Hope, he has too much control over Hope, and that actually scares him. He allows Hope to deteriorate by actively enhancing Rage in others; this might be why he comes off as a playboy and a coward, and why so many people don't like being around him.

Meanwhile, I don't recall if Jake (Page of Hope) ever fully realizes his classpect within canon (and I am not counting being forced by Aranea), but Jake's arc has a lot to do with going out and forging his own ideology and set of beliefs; his attachment to adventures really shines through for his Page class. He has commitment problems with Dirk, which is a fault of the Page class and something he has to learn to work through to master Hope. He's got a fledgling sense of justice, and has to work through his meekness and shyness to hold fast to his convictions.

#classpecting #eridan ampora #cronus ampora #jake english #homestuck #hope classpects #classpect analysis #homestuck aspects #ao classpecting #Sorry I made it about Eridan do you guys still like me. /j #I just happen to be a big fan of the character development his Pesterquest route did for him...

[myfriendsdontlikehomestuck]

Dirk analysis for funsies

Dirk Strider is a character defined by poor self-image and loss of self. Of course, this is all related to his title. He must shatter his personality across timelines as the destroyer of self.

The primary manifestation of self-destruction is in his splinters, specifically Hal. Hal is a window into what Dirk could have been. Hal is Dirk. With his 13-year-old mentality, a dangerous possibility considering the fragility of Dirk’s mindset. Dirk’s entire character is about not being, similar to a void player. With Hal in the picture, that wall of void is amplified. Beginning at Dirk’s introduction, Hal lies continuously to the Alpha Kids, mostly Jake. The purpose is to deceive, and considering that Hal is a near-perfect replica of Dirk’s brain, it’s not a difficult feat to accomplish.

The issue with Hal comes from the repetition of his behavior. Unlike Dirk, Hal is predictable and calculable. Dirk detests the predictability of being human and goes out of his way to be surprising. Dirk has a mind for logistics, but not like a robot. Hal’s flaw is that he is in no way human and will never be human.

Dirk struggles with this in life, though to a less extreme extent. Since he is human, Dirk fights with personalization. He has seen all these different versions of himself, some terrible people. Dirk’s struggle with his identity comes from knowing all the other identities presented. He has no sense of himself, seeing that he has been strewn across timelines and will never be one solid thing.

Dirk is a profoundly pessimistic person. He is harmful to himself and, on occasion, others. He has caused physical harm to himself to further his plans and caused mental damage to others. Dirk cares about his friends deeply but is unaware of what may or may not be harmful to them, as his devotion to his plans blinds him. When Dirk decapitated himself, it was for a purpose. It was for a strategy that worked. However, in the process, he exposed his closest friends to his dead decapitated head, voiced by a robotic version of himself.

The issue of being influenced by a robot is the lack of consideration for others and the psychological effects it may invoke. Hal is utterly inconsiderate, and when Dirk listens to his plans, it causes him to lose all sympathy for the situation he is placing his friends in. Dirk is not easily influenced, but he can’t argue with logic. In his attempt to pursue reason, he loses empathy, sympathy, and understanding.

Dirk’s self-destructive behaviors also turn his friends away from him. He effectively sabotages his relationships to be perceived as logical and infallible. This shield of reason is a driving force, though it also drives others away. His friends, especially Jake, detest the side of Dirk that simply pushes for results without a second thought.

Dirk drives Jake away from him with his consistent apathy and pushes him further with the clinginess he exhibits once Jake closes off. Dirk wanted Jake to always be there for him without considering how he may feel about Dirk’s stunts.

Dirk is not a manipulator, but a dumb child who grew up in the middle of an ocean. Dirk never had anyone around for him, and because of that, he grows clingy but self-destructive. He believes he is an immoral person, but he isn’t. He is blinded by logic, reason, and emotional instability. Dirk completely loses himself without an emotional anchor, and the anchor in his life has consistently been Roxy.

As such vastly different characters, Dirk and Roxy are perfect anchors for one another. Dirk’s straight-headed logic contrasted with Roxy’s fun-loving ditziness. Roxy tends not to think some things through, and Dirk has the opposite problem. Roxy is emotionally wise, while Dirk doesn’t know his emotions or those of the people around him.

Roxy and Dirk are children who grew up without people or guardians, but historical figures they followed in the footsteps of. For Dirk, this meant he had nothing but fake portrayals of people on a screen. Roxy was left with complex narratives and alcohol. They are both children who are deeply flawed but balance each other out.

We see that Dirk and Roxy have one of the best relationships in the entire comic. Dirk encourages Roxy to stay sober, while Roxy encourages Dirk to live a little more. Roxy’s persistence in Trickster Mode directly contrasts Dirk’s inability to be affected. Dirk needs the emotional stability that Roxy provides, and Roxy needs his logic.

#homestuck #dirk strider #roxy lalonde #jake english #dirkjake #character analysis #I wrote this in scool

[roxykisser]

my twitter account got locked so tumblr gets my insanity full force. i’ve been thinking about dirkjake.

it’s mostly been vague spinning of concept ala food in the microwave BUT i’ve wanted to talk about them and colour association for a while now and what better time to do just that than this one?

dirk’s primary colour association is orange, specifically a sort of creamsicle shade. i find this to be one of if not the most interesting colour choices, as dirk’s chosen colour, at a surface level, seems to represent a concept that is near antithetical to himself. according to most search engines, it is associated with warmth, excitement, joy, the sun… all things that aren’t necessarily characteristics of his. there is the association with creativity, which most definitely fits, but other than that…?

it seems an ill fit choice, until you look at orange in how it’s used. it is an incredibly hard colour to match and counter, especially in fashion, and isn’t commonly used for that reason. it doesn’t carry the sweet calmness of yellow but also not the ferocity and unmitigated energy of red. it is commonly thought to produce a feeling of hunger. seems to make more sense, doesn’t it?

then we have his other primary association: pink. not sweet baby pink or millenial pink or bubblegum pink but something that i’d describe as almost magenta. pink is one of the primary colours in the cmyk colour profile (the stuff used in printers), and it’s associated with kindness and compassion, love, sometimes. while those aren’t traits we might assign to dirk at the beginning of his arc, as act 6 goes on we learn he has a uniquely large heart. pink is all the things he believes himself not to be, add the association with femininity and you get a solid metaphor for his coming into himself as a gay man.

then there’s jake. his primary colour is dark green, which also happens to be a primary in the rgb colour profile. this colour fit is an odd case. by popular lore it is heavily associated with nature, life, growth, inner balance, which might fit jake to a point, but generally assumes themes and traits better suited to other characters. funnily enough though, the negative traits associated with green fit him pretty universally, envy not so much, but jealousy is a large part of his arc, and he proves to be quite materialistic in his life as jake harley.

the colour green in practice proves to be interesting again, as it is kind of an everything colour. i can’t think of a scenario where a shade of green wouldn’t be downright inappropriate to use, and that just about sums up how i feel about jake english early in his arc. he tries so hard to stay away from conflict and keep his friends happy he becomes a sort of social chameleon, mirroring whoever it is he’s talking to, even if it doesn’t make him happy. jake doesn’t know who he is, at this point in life. he knows what he *wants* to be and what he’s *expected* to be but reaching inside himself yields no result. by being appropriate in every scenario you lose an amount of character that others with more specialised uses will always hold over you.

the light yellow of the hope aspect is a fun one. yellow is generally associated with happiness and optimism, traits that jake shows in equal measures, though how genuine they are at any given moment is hard to parse, unless you of course are dirk strider. it’s supposed to produce enthusiasm and confidence, things that we see once again in jake harley. on the flip side… yellow is heavily associated with cowardice. and it’s very true. jake is a coward, and it’s something he spends a good chunk of act 6 maybe not… coming to terms with but finding out about himself. not that there’s anything bad about being a coward, in the case of homestuck especially, he would have been stupid if he wasn’t scared. speaking of; another association: naïveté. something jake heavily projects into his image in order to absolve himself of the consequences of his actions. he’s a bit of an asshole in that way, but not maliciously so.

now, let’s look at their colours together. orange and green make brown, which is not a colour very common in these sorts of analysis, but it nontheless proves fitting for their relationship, at least pregame. it is the colour of stability, reliability, but also dullness and timidity. jake and dirk were clearly very comfortable with each other and knew each other well: enough that jake was able to tell hal apart from dirk based on speech patterns alone. but their relationship as it was wasn’t completely fulfilling for both of them, at least dirk seemed to want to take things further for a long time before the game but was unable to due to his own fears and partially jake’s immaturity.

yellow and pink on the other hand? orange, again. this time it seems fitting to look at orange’s negative associations: immaturity, impulsivity, impatience. dominance, in a negative sense. this i think mirrors jake and dirk’s time as boyfriends during the game, before their breakup following trickster mode. their inability to communicate became their downfall when forced to communicate face to face. they stopped balancing each other out and closed themselves off in an effort to keep up the charade of a functional relationship. considering their lack of communication even before the game started, this wasn’t a surprising outcome, but a sad one nontheless.

still, they beat the game. and now they are just orange and green again, albeit joint kings of all consorts (the epilogues don’t exist). people often forget but orange and brown are two shades of the same colour. and i believe given time and methods of communication suited to both of them they can build up to brown again. better, stronger this time.

#finally putting my graphic design studies to good use #jake english #dirk strider #dirkjake #homestuck #homestuck analysis #hs #harley posts

[exaltior-a]

So glad to be living in the dirkjake renaissance. Finally, Dirkjake nuance. Dirkjake understanding. Dirkjake violence.

#homestuck #dirkjake #jake english #dirk strider #literally people misunderstanding dirkjake used to make me feel like an insane person who was cut off from polite society #(i had to forve myself to block them instead of getting mad and arguing with them in their replies) #and now those people are the minority and dirkjake is thriving abd people like that they're not perfect and have problems #no more “dirk abused jake!!! theyre bad for eachother!!” or “Jake was so awdul for ghosting dork hes literally the scum of the earth!!” #nuace. companionship. meta analysis. #thats what we have. its beautiful.

[rin-hanarin]

I love the Strilondes to death, but it's also really sad and disappointing that the J gang is so disjointed, underdeveloped and just forgotten in comparison.

There's an actual feeling of community, familial ties and some sort of development in every combination between Striders and Lalondes, meanwhile I haven't seen a single wholesome family piece of content about the J gang in 7 years because the only actually developed combination is Prospit siblings. You can't even make a coherent endearing name for them akin to 'Strilondes', John and Jane have no relationship whatsoever, both Jane and Jake are underdeveloped in the comic and got just completely obliterated in the post canon content when the Strilondes are The Relevant ones, none of them get any closure and get so much hate in the fandom because author's bias is loud and blinding as fuck, the list just keeps going. John, Jade, Jane and Jake are either completely separate as individuals or really shouldn't be near each other at all while the Stellar Strilondes and their issues tend to be on the forefront of everything, getting either actually resolved or risen so high that they become the plot people actually give a shit about. The worst part is the fact that I can't even claim that I care about the J gang as a unit more than Strilondes and I'm so torn because there's nothing to care about without literally coming up with dynamics that aren't bad myself.

The Harlenglish-Crockerberts are just four lonely people who struggle to be in tune with themselves, open up and connect despite being "the more simple" ones on the surface and just happen to be related without being an actual family, and I can relate to each of them on some uncomfortably personal level way better than I can with Strilondes, which is probably what brought this on, but I'm also just really upset about the state of their characters. They're flawed in ugly human ways instead of a romanticized ones that tug at your heartstrings. For them it's apathy, indecisiveness, harmful ignorance and deflection, jealousy, isolation, but it never gets resolved, so what's the moral of the story here then, if it never gets better, only worse and more extreme? They're either hated or polarizing or boring or have no value without someone else in the picture, and it's been like that for so long that it's not going to change anymore. Oh, and don't even get me started on the addition of Hiveswap and the Harley-Claire family to the mix, which is probably never gonna get any development either, considering how slow things are, how rocky the entirety of Hiveswap is and how many new troll characters are either teased or introduced.

#homestuck #john egbert #jade harley #jake english #jane crocker #hs #rant #character analysis #not completely objective kind though #no hate for any characters here #but i'm a bit bitter about all this #some of that stuff resonates with me a bit too much #long post

[nekropsii]

do u have any links to resources about the beta and alpha kids' characterizations and personalities if you have any? i am interested in writing for them and i just wanna know what makes them them iykwim

The Beta + Alpha Kids are... By no means my specialty, as everyone knows, and I personally have zero interest in writing them. That said, I'm pretty sure that most "guides" like that are written by and for writers of lighthearted, canon non-compliant roleplaying, and all the ones that I've seen... Aren't good, and are typically incredibly biased. They definitely tend to want the reader to portray the character in whatever light they see the character in, rather than... How they are in canon. For example, some lean heavily into making Dave a soft, perfect victim, Rose into a tea-drinking lesbian, Jake into a lowkey villain, et cetera.

This is about to get pretty long. It's been a while since I've had to put something under a Read-More... But here we are. Let's get going.

Content Warning: Long, Whole Lot of Rambling about the Technical Aspects of Writing.

There tends to be interjection of headcanons, unnecessary opinions, and ham-fisted attempts to make characters look better or worse than they actually are. Context is missing, sources are missing, so on. Oftentimes when looking at guides to writing characters, I wind up just questioning what comic the writer read, because it doesn't feel as if we read the same one. Their writing and critical thinking skills are often called into question as well, given the way these guides tend to approach characters as a concept.

There's often a distinct failure in being actually analytical or observant, and they tend to view characters more as People than they do... Well, Characters. Which may sound like an odd distinction to make, until you realize that when you're writing a character, you need to understand what role they're fulfilling in a narrative before you focus on who they are as a person and judging their morals. Characters aren't anything more than narrative devices. They're strictly there to drive the plot forward. Yes, since characters tend to be people, of which are often in situations, you tend to judge their morality, ethics, the way they handle their circumstances and other people with average human judgment... But at the end of the day, moral arguments and personhood matter less than what they are meant to do, what they're supposed to represent, and how they're supposed to drive the plot forward. To focus on who and how they are as People- how righteous they are, how much their morals align with yours or those of the real world- is to focus on Form over Function.

Characters are Tools. A tool can be painful to use, or painful to watch in action, but it's still a tool. Sometimes pliers are for pulling teeth, and sometimes they're for twisting wire. You can't effectively pull teeth with a wrench, and you can't effectively hammer a nail with a screwdriver. You could, theoretically, and I'd love to watch someone try, but it's not recommended. It's ineffective. You need to know what a tool is for, how you could use it, and maybe even how you could make your usage of them surprising. A hammer is typically used for driving nails into place. Usually with the head. This doesn't mean you can't drive the nail in with its side, and it doesn't mean you can't use it to break fingers.

What this "Form over Function of a Tool" means in practice is... A lot of "guides" to writing Dave will go over the fact that he is the Ironic Cool Kid who has suffered a lot of Abuse at the hands of Bro Strider, and interject that headcanon of his character arc "being about overcoming Internalized Homophobia and/or Toxic Masculinity" (neither of these are true), but fail to mention that he is essentially a Tutorial Agent, and how his whole character hinges on how he absolutely does not want to be a Main Character. Everything he does is grounded in the fact that he's a Tutorial Agent, and therefore an NPC. He's a regular kid with a rough home life, and wants nothing more than to keep playing his role as just a random NPC. He doesn't want to be a Main Character. He doesn't want to fight, he doesn't want to be in an epic, he just wants to be Some Guy. He wants to be normal, and he wants to be able to be forgotten to the sands of time.

They focus so much on Who he is as a Person that they tend to fail to recognize What he is as a Character. It's not effective. You don't really need to worry about who they are as people. You don't need to focus on the paint job on a tool. You need to know what that tool is, and what it's being used for.

It's best to not consult guides written by other fans. It'd be best if you read through their dialogue yourself, and really dissected them and how they function... Find out what makes them tick.

Luckily, there's a blog out there that does have just about every line of dialogue in Homestuck sorted by character, so that's pretty good for ease of access. Good for you and good for me. I use it all of the time. Here you go.

#homestuck #homestuck analysis #homestuck meta #beta kids #alpha kids #dave strider #rose lalonde #jake english #writing advice #dave.pdf #homestuck.pdf #nekro.pdf #nekro.sms

[house-bound]

8lue Fairies

Jake's, Tavros's, Terezi's and June's obsession with their respective blue fairies is a metaphor for chasing hopelessly the image of perfect femininity, similar to how Vriska looked up to the Marquise.

Jake dresses like one of the women he has on his posters, Terezi hopelessly clinging to Vriska, Tavros crushes on blue fairies (at the end he manages to fly away by himself, and also his God tier outfit is blue) AND the fact that he briefly felt confident while stuck on a blue sprite with Vriska, June’s ghost finding Vriska outside her window and them going on a short date, they all want to be the fairy (Although yeah Terezi does want to be WITH the fairy instead)

It’s just that in homestuck, being WITH and BEING that person is often conflicted since these kids don’t understand what the want most of the time, Jane roleplays as a tough detective and wears mustaches like the ones from the men on her posters, but the only poster that has a hot shirtless man is one Jake gave her, she isn’t attracted to them they’re just who she wants to be them, and that mirrors Jake’s Tomb Rider poster and eventual cosplay of her.

And also even though Vriska is the metaphorical blue fairy for others (Tavros and June mostly) she herself chases after a blue fairy, Mindfang and then Aranea until she grows out of it.

And Idk if I want to get extra-textual I’d point out how Mother Mary, someone referenced through the Maryams, is usually portrayed in blue and she is the ideal mother/woman figure Kanaya tries to be (and you could mention Roxy’s desire for motherhood, HIC’s desire to bring the trolls back, every mother links to this kinda)

And the central conflict of “Be with/Be“ is central to homestuck because it’s one the Cherubs deal with, they chase after a partner that reminds them of their “missing half“, and the Cherubs influenced all the events in HS. And you as the reader becomes the characters whenever there is a “=>Be” command, which just weaves that into the very fabric of HS.

Also is the conflict of Attraction and Identity is maybe linked to the Heart aspect? Classpects are a whole other can of worms but yeah I think I’m on the right track.

#homestuck analysis #homestuck #my meta #jane crocker #vriska serket #jake english