chainsawskind

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I started working on this Lyricstuck in 2017/18, spent about a week working on it, and then I completely forgot about it and never finished it.

I didn't want to throw out all the work I put into it so I decided to post what I had completed. Enjoy!

The song is Philosophize In It! Chemicalize With It! by Kishi Bashi

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roxanne

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we’ve all thought it

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A Moon or a Button by Ruth Krauss and Remy Charlip, 1959 // [S] Terezi: Remem8er, 2015

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I think the really big problem with focusing on how unambiguously bad Bro Strider was, is the fact that it kind of messes up two important themes.

FIRST:

Dave Strider and Rose Lalonde both have issues with their parental figures that make them into defensive people overall. Dave feels like his Bro expects him to be something that he legitimately doesn't want to be, aka, some sort of legendary hero. this makes Dave feel like his actual identity is irrelevant, and discardable. meanwhile, Rose feels like her Mom doesn't expect much of anything from her, doesn't understand her, and barely gives her the time of day. this makes Rose feel like she has no value, and she cannot get Mom's attention because nothing she does is enough. in both cases, they feel like they are being rejected, implicitly, by their guardians. and it results in the personas they show us in the beginning of the comic. Dave is the aloof cool guy... he mimics the "bro culture" that his Bro values, because he's trying to live up to him. Rose is the mysterious analytical type... she mimics the enigmatic qualities that she sees in Mom, because Rose wants to understand her. and knowing each other is good for Rose and Dave. they see each other's walls, and pick at them a little because they want to know what's behind all that defense... because they care. but they also know enough not to make each other feel threatened by the degradation of their defenses. they're sympathetic to that, in their own dumb teenagery way. they really are like siblings in my eyes, and a brother/sister (respectively) is exactly what they both need.

but see? all of this is about THEM. it's about THEIR perception, and THEIR needs, and yeah, I could mention some pretty interesting things about their guardians, but the whole point is the effect that these guardians had on their kids. aka, the characters we're really following. the interesting part is what they do. how they grow past this. how they find peace.

SECOND:

so okay, let's talk guardians. I know I just said shit was about Dave and Rose primarily, which is why they went first, but let's talk about this.

the thing about Mom and Bro is that they know, prior to the game, that it's gonna happen. and actually, the Harley/Egbert guardians (Grandpa and Nana) knew shit as well, but we're talking Lalonde/Strider right now. Mom Lalonde understood shit about the game. Rose found the lab that Mom was using, and found that huge fucking monitor that displayed where the meteors were going to hit, like, that's pretty explicit. and the company that the lab belonged to? Skaianet? was the developer of the SBURB beta. in the alpha universe Roxy is heavily into computer shit, so I mean... you're meant to put 2 and 2 together on that I think. and that was seeded WAY early in the comic.

so what about Bro? like, I want to take a minute before going further and ask you to think of what his connection to the game, prior to the kids playing it, might've been. and if you think you know what I'm gonna say, and you don't like that tidbit of information, I'd like to know what else would fulfill this theme.

okay yeah, that paragraph was a tad snippy, but I just know someone out there is dying to simplify this out of Bro so they can vilify him easier. anyway.

Bro owns Lil Cal, which houses LE's horrible amalgamate soul. and to me, this means that despite Cal being a literal puppet, he may have been pulling some of Bro's strings. I think that this was a fairly even match tbh... I think that Bro was limited in his mind by Cal's influence, and Cal was limited physically by his inanimate body. Cal's workaround was to manipulate Bro into moving him, but Bro is a prince of heart... the guardians all keep their class/aspect symbolism, and heart is about knowledge of the self, and about identity. basically it makes sense that Bro would be able to keep some control of himself, even with Cal trying to make him so much worse. like if we take Gamzee and LE Jack as examples of what Cal can do to a more suggestible mind, Dave's upbringing could've been horrifying.

as it stands, Dave's upbringing was the result of a silent war for control that was going on in his household, without Dave even necessarily knowing about it. and the aesthetic backdrop of Dave's home makes a grim suggestion about who might be prevailing in that war. like... if you compare the alpha kids and their interests to their guardian counterparts in the beta universe, it's pretty one-to-one... Roxy and her drinking and hacking, Jane with her baking and pranking, Jake with his adventures and technology... Dirk. Dirk doesn't have that much in common with Bro. we don't see Bro with an interest in cartoons, or building robots, or all of Dirk's stuff that he actually talks about with other people. we see a bunch of weird puppets, and Saw-like notes left for Dave. interestingly, the "bro. roof. bring cal." note was referenced in the note that Gamzee left for Terezi before she confronted Vriska... after Gamzee had gotten his hands on Cal. and all of this stuff... the puppets, and Saw shit, and even the implicit heteronormativity, hyper masculinity, and ultra violent behavior that was encouraged by Bro. all of it has so much more to do with Caliborn's traits and behavior. Caliborn is literally Jigsaw, complete with "I want to play a game" and the red spirals on the cheeks. hell, I would even say that the reason for smuppets existing is perhaps because that's kind of how Dirk and Caliborn intersect. if Cal is making Bro be obsessed with puppets, then "fine, but I will make it weirdly pornographic to spite you" seems like a very in character response. it's basically that interaction between Caliborn qnd Dirk where Caliborn is asking for "filthy smut" of like... hugging and shit. and Dirk antagonizes him by escalating things and making it weird.

basically, in a LOT of ways, it is complicated to parse how much of Dave's childhood experiences were really Bro's fault. this does NOT absolve him. I said it's COMPLICATED. to THINK about. this is not black and white. and notice my FIRST. point. this is not about Bro. Bro is dead. this is about Dave. how he handles things, how he reconciles it all, what he needs in order to move on. playing the blame game with Bro can be interesting when you're considering all this Cal shit, because that's what makes it complex and interesting. but if you want a simple, black and white, concrete, unambiguous answer, as a way to legitimize Dave's suffering? just know that DAVE'S STRUGGLES ARE ALWAYS LEGITIMATE. you don't need to legitimize shit! the effects of Dave's childhood are already what the actual story is about. Bro doesn't have to be a 100% uncomplicated monster for that to be true. let the themes be what they are and let them be complex!

(unless you don't want to engage on this level at all. I don't fault anyone for not wanting to go all deep lore, and just enjoy their goofy web comic. but this is how I have fun. I love themes.)

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i think a big part of why there hasnt been and never will be another true vriska especially in any kind of mainstream/corporate-sanctioned media is because vriska existing as she does is in large part due to homestuck being almost entirely untouched by corporate influence. vriska was never focus group tested. vriska wasn’t created to be marketable to to appeal to a wide audience. vriska wasnt defanged to make her more likeable and thats such a huge part of why shes such a unique character, there IS no other girl character who truly comes close to the raw, unsanitized personality vriska has 

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Elasticity; Linear

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i’m a nonpracticing homestuck. i don’t really believe anymore and its just what i grew up with but i still observe the high holy days

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Woof woof bark bark

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Wow you know if this quarantine extends into next month then people are really gonna be h

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homestuck day observed

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[bass boosted prospit dreamers bgm] kanaya in monster giuseppe heels what will she do

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heroes of light design sketches!

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speeddrawing