So I guess this October I'll try to get a basic primer on Vriska up

[farla]

Fey-child on Chapter 6
Yes he is an emotional mess, but so is vriska. The difference is we see why vriska is an emotional mess. We don't see what caused Eridan to be the way he is, and so naturally chalk it up to him being a dickhead. Here is an example. If you didn't see her conversation with John, where she apologises for everything, confesses self-hatred, and explains everything, etc, why would she be the way she is, a butch who crushes everyone else, emotionally, and apparently enjoys hurting those who can't fight back (tavros). But we do, so we understand her inner confusion.
We don't get that for Eridan. We don't get his reaction to murdering Feferi and kanaya. We don't see him break down and explain everything. We see him act an asshole. But how do we know that isn't, like it was with vriska, just him putting I on. That he thought he needed to be like he was, a genocidal maniac. I think he also suffered from low self-esteem, like tavros, but he became, instead of introverted and nervous, offensive and brash and not-giving-a-fuck-about-you. His social incompetence in relation to Feferi might be that he genuinely thought it wasn't a problem for her, that she liked hearing his problems. But when she began to pry, he became nervous and didn't want to look weak, so clammed up (I know, sorry). This is all speculating, and unfortunately hussie won't give him a chance to explain himself, as there just isn't the demand for it.

I also think you are dragging out the fact that he kills her, a bit much. He went to her offering what he thought was a good deal, Sollux attacked him, Eridan won, Feferi flipped and attacked him. He was defending himself from her. I think he got caught up in the moment, as vriska did with tavros, and just let loose.

Comments

[ember-reignited.livejournal.com]

"butch"

Oh, I think I heard of this person at one point. If I'm right, they're generally considered to be completely nuts. It was a while ago, though, back when I actually paid attention to Homestuck fandom, so IDK maybe there's more than one person who uses weirdly inappropriate words like this.

[ember-reignited.livejournal.com]

Oh, never mind, it's totally just a typo for bitch, isn't it?

[(Anonymous)]

why do you feel the need to comfort farla about this, she's not going to have her feelings hurt by someone disagreeing with her; let her deal with the person's points herself

[farla.livejournal.com]

...what?

[ember-reignited.livejournal.com]

That's... not "comforting". It's closer to "gossiping", which is a word with much more negative connotations, so maybe you can try accusing me of that instead next time!

[farla.livejournal.com]

Homestuck fandom is kind of the looking-glass world of fandoms, isn't it? There's stuff that seems almost right, but just isn't.

Hey, when the comic ends, then the game comes out, do you suppose we'll get a game fandom out of it that follows more normal patterns?

[ember-reignited.livejournal.com]

I don't know about "more normal patterns," but the introduction to the fandom ecosystem of a whole bunch of people who have never even read the comic would be marvelously entertaining, wouldn't it? I'm thinking of the divides you see in Les Mis or LOTR fandom and imagining the current Homestuck fandom acting like Tolkien snobs. It's going to be great.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Huh. Has that ever happened in a fandom where the original state was all-human coffeeshop AUs? I'm picturing the old guard descending on sburb-based fanfic to tell them that proper fandom doesn't involve the canon setting, now stop being such a n00b writer and stick them all in college, take away their powers, and maybe some mpreg if you want fantastic elements in there.

[(Anonymous)]

I'd love to see you do a well-thought-out meta picking apart Vriska. There are just as many dumb Vriska fans as Eridan fans.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Sorry for not replying within a sane timescale, anon! Anyway, thanks but I wasn't planning anything so ambitious, it was just going to be regarding the If you didn't see her conversation with John as if it came out of nowhere and otherwise she was just an irredeemable bitch whore the whole comic and the broader problem of dismembering Vriska's character to stitch the few nicer bits onto fanon Eridan.