pfeffer-29 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 10:20 pm
thorondraco wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 3:27 pm
Well the question is if its the Character of Dirk doing it or if it is meant to be taken as the writers doing it. I think its pretty clear that it is Dirk who is doing it here rather than Dirk being the mouth piece as he has been doing this during the epilogues almost a year ago. Before Hs^2 came out.
The thing is, Dirk isn't purposefully antagonistic to the readers. He thinks he's doing what they want, and that what they want is what he wants: twisty plot stuff, game mechanics, and time shenanigans. But he interrupts character moments and rambles for paragraph upon paragraph of (metaphorically) purple prose to do it, and this is meant to be annoying. I certainly found it annoying. And of course, there's all the messed-up stuff he did in the Epilogues, which does not help his case.
Dirk is a villain. Since he has yet to do anything directly beneficial to the narrative with his strategy, that strategy is tied to his villainy.
The views Dirk holds would place him firmly in the Acts 1-5 crowd if he were a Homestuck fan. Because there is no-one else in Homestuck^2 who holds these views, Dirk is the de facto representative of the Acts 1-5 fans. And he is an insufferable prick who doesn't care about character arcs or passing the Bechdel test.
Dirk does not hold the writers' views. He is meant to represent those who
don't hold the writers' views. This is one of the many reasons he is problematic. Dirk has opinions that would be considered extreme by everyone, even the people he is meant to represent. By picking an extremist as the sole representative of a group, one labels the entire group extremists.
I think you make a lot of interesting points here, but I want to take this in a secondary direction, and maybe expose on it a little further. Dirk wants what the average Homestuck reader as of Act 6 wanted. "Enough of the character drama, go back to the plot stuff and game mechanics!" was such a common complaint about the comic at the time, to the point it got incredibly annoying. And I feel like this missed the point of Homestuck, which was that it was never really about the mechanics of the game. Yeah, they are fun, and interesting to talk about, but, they were always meant to be a springboard into meta narratives and character relationships. And I think it's more than self evident from the plethora of Fanventures that nothing but the game mechanics, or a priority focus on the game mechanics with the characters as a backdrop, ends up boring. (I also think that Hussie and co. recognize that as well, and that's why they've only showed the part of the game that everyone seems to agree is
actually really interesting, ectobiology and alchemy, cutting away the other factors and giving regular interludes of character drama. Giving us this cake narrative of Dirk being a stand in and a post-work reflection on the fandom, while allowing us to eat the cake without getting sick from an excess of flour.)
I will say though, I don't think he's the only person with views within this headspace. Rose, for example, holds the perspective on the narrative that, while the character drama is good, ultimately it's not Good if that is all there is, with the action and plot suffering for it. This is the way narratives present themselves in a traditional fashion, I feel, having characters develop only if it's in service of the plot or doesn't come at the cost of the plot. In perspective, the generalized audience wouldn't like it if an action movie stopped half way through and instead held all of the characters sitting around and talking to each other for several weeks. This, on the surface level, is what Homestuck turned into, and it's another perspective that critiques it's own source, while writing it's future. It's, I believe, important to note that Rose is the only Ult. Self we've noticed so far without any narrative awareness, outside of things being "canon" or "Non-canon"
Another perspective that's provided is from someone who believes in the sanctity of the narrative, is Alt. Calliope. Alt. Calliope holds this belief that the character relations are all that matters, and loathes the fact that Dirk wants to disrupt that to further the plot. Her perspective is, as well, a function of the audience, and I personally believe, a function that's connected to what Calliope has always been, the Tumblr part of the Homestuck audience, shipping and forcing people into rounds holes while the characters are square pegs (Woobiefying them). This perspective is also presented as unhealthy within the context of Homestuck through the entirety of Candy, a timeline in which everything is entirely character driven. Not to say that any of the perspectives are healthy, but the two mentioned prior are obviously unhealthy, while Calliope's is insidiously unhealthy.
Terezi, and, I assume, Davebot, both hold the perspective that the reflection of the narrative, it's manipulation via characters, and this whole metanarrative thing shouldn't be fucked with, and is, in fact, dumb as shit. It's two characters who have always had a strong tie to the metafictional aspects (Terezi, being the one to direct John's Retcon abilities, as well as in the presence being able to notice the manipulation, and Dave, being a close self-insert of Hussie himself, to the point of him being the only character with conversations Hussie has held verbatim). This is mostly speculation, but I feel as if Dave is one who would lean towards plot if push came to shove, and Terezi would be the more character driven one (Reflected in this upd8).
Ultimately what does this serve? These perspectives on the nature of the narrative, the ideals of plot driven vs. character driven, what does any of it matter? If saying nothing creates a nonexistence, and having or trying to change the perspective in any way creates a worse end result, what is left? I think this may be something explored further in the future. Nobody is right, and nobody is able to see the negatives of their ideals, But nobody is evil either, the only true evil being nonexistence, something that's been dealt with and is continuing to be dealt with.
If I had to guess, from this early on, how it all ended, I'd say that eventually John, or June will return, and I think they'll go Ultimate Self. I think they'll end up convincing Terezi and Davebot to understand the narrative in a different way, and I think that through whatever actions they take, we'll get a branch of the epilogues by the end that present a perspective Hussie finds is healthy. Something good for you, and good for what's inside it too. A... vegetable, if you would.
Probably talking entirely out of my ass on this one but I found it interesting to write and parse through
