saeto15:

also on the whole ‘unstable highblood’ thing that people tend to fall back on-

that’s basically empire propaganda.  i mean, come on.  from what we’ve seen, trolls are no more violent than humans.  yes, they come from a society that praises ruthlessness and weeds out the weaklings, and uses a caste system that oppresses a huge portion of the population, but that still doesn’t stop trolls from being able to feel compassion toward each other, or feeling platonic pity toward others (see: tavros, nepeta, kanaya, karkat, feferi, etc etc etc).  the highbloods are in control of basically everything.  what makes you think they’re not the ones spreading that bullshit so they can get away with murder?  so they can manipulate lower-caste trolls into pitying them or excusing them simply because they “can’t help it”?

(the whole romance system plays into that, too.  what better way to control your subjects than to make them fit their emotions into restrictive little boxes? signless was so dangerous to the empire because he loved and pitied trolls in general and not just individuals close to him, and showing his followers that they were capable of the same) 

gamzee didn’t start eating sopor to control his murderous urges, he started eating it so he didn’t have to deal with real life. that’s basically his response to everything difficult in his life: hide from it so he doesn’t actually have to confront it head-on.  he’s been a manipulative asshole from the start, and i have a feeling he retroactively orchestrated his and karkat’s moraillegiance in order to stop the others from killing him.  he probably didn’t have a plan at the time, but after the fact he went back and made sure it happened.

but i still like gamzee.  like, a lot.  he’s one of my favorite characters, because he’s so fucked-up.  you don’t have to make justifications for his actions because you like him.  all you gotta do is own up to why he’s so terrible, realize that he’s the one to blame for that, and go on with your life.