just what we need right now: more vriscourse

kerapace:

krwks:

nostalgebraist:

theaudientvoid:

I suspect that Vriska has fanboys for a lot of the same reasons that Edward Cullen has fangirls.

I mean, yeah, pretty much.  (And I spent a lot of time with the fanboys!  I read was subscribed to the Vriska Quarantine Thread for, like, years.)

(“But it’s different, because Edward Cullen is a guy and Vriska is a Strong Interesting Female Character!”  aaaauuughghhh)

because vriska is……………. hot??? what

Well, she’s a broody, controlling character with ~emotional issues~ who seems to display an unalloyedly positive, “redeeming” romantic interest in the everyman protagonist, and inspires a lot of hurt/comfort interest despite the fact that she’s an objectively unhealthy person to be around?

(I’ve never read Twilight, but I was a Vriska fanboy back when I was in the Homestuck fandom three or four years ago. I think the reason I empathized with her at the time was a result of my own self-loathing, basically identifying her own outsized awfulness and mistakes with my own… occasional pretentious douchiness? It’s kinda hard for me to empathize with the me of 3-4 years ago. I will say this: I was palpably relieved on a recent reread to read the big John/Vriska castle conversation (the one where she admits to John that her murder of Tavros was because she was confused and basically just trying to keep up appearances) and not feel anything.)

Yeah, this sort of thing – and also some of her relationships w/ other characters follow an “I am hot and dangerous and exciting and will make your everyperson life less mundane” script that is very paranormal romance-like.  (At least, it seems like that given my very limited knowledge of paranormal romance.)

(via kerapace)

just what we need right now: more vriscourse

theaudientvoid:

dagny-hashtaggart:

nostalgebraist:

(mostly posting this because I saw the word “Vriscourse” on my dash earlier and was amazed I’d never heard it before)

I mentioned a while ago that one of the reasons it’d be hard for me to get through another read of Homestuck is that I’d have a lot less patience for Vriska these days

More broadly, I think I’d just get really frustrated by Vriska in light of all the … Vriscourse I’ve seen since reading HS in 2011

Keep reading

Yeah, it’s stuff like this that makes me suspect it’s for the best I don’t follow Homestuck fandom very closely.

For my money, Vriska’s main appeal is that she’s a shitty person whose shittiness is compelling and appealing on some level, in a way that tells us something interesting about ourselves as viewers. Like Humbert Humbert, or Rorschach.

I suspect that Vriska has fanboys for a lot of the same reasons that Edward Cullen has fangirls.

I mean, yeah, pretty much.  (And I spent a lot of time with the fanboys!  I read was subscribed to the Vriska Quarantine Thread for, like, years.)

(“But it’s different, because Edward Cullen is a guy and Vriska is a Strong Interesting Female Character!”  aaaauuughghhh)

(via theaudientvoid)

just what we need right now: more vriscourse

typicalacademic:

nostalgebraist:

(mostly posting this because I saw the word “Vriscourse” on my dash earlier and was amazed I’d never heard it before)

I mentioned a while ago that one of the reasons it’d be hard for me to get through another read of Homestuck is that I’d have a lot less patience for Vriska these days

More broadly, I think I’d just get really frustrated by Vriska in light of all the … Vriscourse I’ve seen since reading HS in 2011

Keep reading

You may be navigating higher echelons of the Vriscourse (wow that is a great word) than I am, but every Vriska argument I saw from 2011 to 2013 went like this:

• “Vriska is a terrible person” 
  
• “No! Vriska is a great character” 
  

and then usually (though, tragically, not always) someone would have an epiphany that these were different things:

• “wait everyone… what if… BOTH.” 
  

That seems to me to be the Standard Sophisticated Opinion. Are you really seeing people say that Vriska can’t be an asshole because she’s nuanced? 

I’ve never seen people say that in exactly those terms, since that would sound outright silly.  But I think I’ve seen a lot of people do things that amount to the same: accept that Vriska is an “important and interesting central character,” and then write lots of stuff about her psyche or whatever in not very condemning terms that tend to (eventually) lose sight of the fact that she really is awful.  Accepting Vriska’s legitimacy as an “interesting characters” slides into accepting the legitimacy of her perspective as an “interesting perspective” which, in some cases, it really really isn’t.  (Moreover, one of her big character flaws is the way she constantly tries to insert her perspective into anything, even when it’s not well-informed or helpful!)

dagny-hashtaggart​ likened her to Humbert Humbert in a reblog and I think that’s appropriate in several ways.  It’s like how there are some people who just say “Humbert is a portrayal of a charming and cultured monster” (yes), and certain people are outright fans (no!), and then some people get so lost in tracking his nuances and ingenuities that it starts to feel almost fawning.

It’s not that I expect literary analysts to punctuate their writing at regular intervals with moral evaluations of characters, just to keep me comfortable – but in fandom at least these things tend to blend into one another a lot anyway.  The ultimate feeling is something like “you have no obligation to made lots of condemnations, but I do get the sense that if this person were a less of a ‘fascinating character,’ you’d be making a lot more of them.”

 (Walter White might be another example?  The sort of antihero or similar character that people love because “they’re so well-portrayed!” but that blends into just plain fan-worship.)

(via typicalacademic)

just what we need right now: more vriscourse

(mostly posting this because I saw the word “Vriscourse” on my dash earlier and was amazed I’d never heard it before)

I mentioned a while ago that one of the reasons it’d be hard for me to get through another read of Homestuck is that I’d have a lot less patience for Vriska these days

More broadly, I think I’d just get really frustrated by Vriska in light of all the … Vriscourse I’ve seen since reading HS in 2011

Keep reading

Re: doing things ironically – one of the recurring motifs in Homestuck is that characters keep assuming other characters are “doing things ironically” and it turns out they just liked doing the stuff, or had other reasons for doing it.

Ultimately the reader gets the sense that no one is actually doing anything ironically, but everyone is trying to figure out how to because they think it makes the other characters cooler than them.  Which is pretty much how this stuff seems to me in real life

I’ve totally lost track of Homestuck and this point and I either lightly skim the updates or don’t read them at all, but I do feel like I have to chime in and say I like the latest turn of events