Ok I’ve got a tiny bit of time in between classes so I’ll try to answer this thoroughly
The fact that John is usually a chill lil dude is part of the reason why this grates on me, actually. John avoids condemning people. He thinks Karkat’s trolling is hilarious. Even though he clearly dislikes Davesprite in A6I2, he insists ‘no we’re friends we keep no secrets’ and sits on that until his explosion a year later. When he’s getting skeeved by Vriska’s behavior, he says ‘i like to try to stay friends with people even if they’re….’ Now, talking to a Rogue of Void is likely to make you a little more honest and up front. But since it’s pretty rare and extreme for John to say he hates someone, I felt like that was a much bigger deal and shouldn’t get swept under the rug so easily.
I guess you could draw comparisons to Con Air (he said it sucked, then turned around and decided he loved it again) but with people it seems like you ought to have a little more going on. It just seems weird to me that he went from going ‘she’s dangerous and I can’t justify unleashing her on the real world, in fact she kind of sucks and I realized even her own species finds her behavior abhorrent despite her using that to justify her actions earlier’ to ‘oh hey vriska I saved your life isn’t that great it’ll be cool to see you alive in 3 years l8r’
I would accept him going ‘ok Terezi must know best’, but he doesn’t seem to be thinking that way. I didn’t get the impression that he thought bringing Vriska back was risky but he decided to trust her… he seemed pretty down with it before, during, and after the fact.
But I guess we’ll see.
My interpretation of it is that John was not actually careful to not condemn the undeserving at all. He used the word “hate” in the context that he was confused what to feel about her. He was faced with a contradiction of his impression from the pesterlogs with the events in the dreambubbles, and hated this contradiction – John isn’t a boy who handles his expectations being broken easily (see: mental breakdown in dad’s room. Sure, it was just a straw that broke the camel’s back, but it’s telling that it went on that back at all)
John told Vriska that she was too dangerous for him to give her the ring. I understood that he meant not “I have weighed all options and it’s definitely 100% better for you to be dead and if you were alive I’d murder you” (which is definitely what it came across as of course) but “I am not sure I am up to the responsibility of deciding to give the cheating ring of negating death to you considering I don’t seem to know you as well as I thought I did”.
He also deferred to other trolls’ opinions and judgement of her, which at that moment was most everybody flying the fuck away.
It was not “I want her not resurrected”. It was “I don’t want to make the decision to resurrect her”.
Well, it wasn’t him that made the decision. It was Terezi, who is
1) a troll just like Vriska who knows better than John what Alternian values are;
2) Vriska’s friend who knows her for longer than John did;
3) a person who murdered her in the first place, so kind of more of an expert on the specific issue of Vriska being dead;
4) a Seer he trusts to fix everything.
Mr. Cool Kid here is wearing the shades his best friend has sent him for his birthday even though he is inside his room.
Mr. Cool Kid here desperately tries to get his friends’ attention through rapping and ends up monologuing half of the time.
Mr. Cool Kid here fangirls about giving presents with a big sentimental value to his best friend and eagerly awaits his reaction, even resorting to contact others to know as soon as possible.
Correction- you cannot harm Clover.
When Karkat was trying to actually hurt him with his sickle in the
flash he missed every single time. The instant Karkat stopped trying to
hurt Clover and simply tried to incapacitate him it worked. Clover is
only untouchable if it’s with lethal/harmful intent. This is why Droog
was able to hit Clover with a rolled up news paper in the Intermission.
It’s a ‘grey’ area, hence it working.
Karkat
doesn’t have some magical power or secretly BAMF or whatever- he just
stopped trying to actually kill Clover and simply tied him up. So he
still didn’t hurt Clover. Clover is not harmed. Karkat simply tied him
up. It’s the ‘grey’ area since it wasn’t an actual threat.
[Bolded for emphasis] What if that’s the actual lesson for Karkat to gain here? It matches up to what Kanaya said to him in the cave:
Back in Act 5 when Karkat had to take on Gamzee, he first disarmed his friends and then calmed Gamzee down using gentle affection. If Karkat had used violence like he did in Game Over, he probably would have died. I think this is specifically the reason Karkat was matched with Clover, to reassert that theme.
…Assuming there is more to come for Karkat, and that this is building up to his real super special accomplishment.
……………………..sooooo blood powers turn out to literally be about bonds and alliances between people. I mean, I know it’s been said before, but it was always kind of allegorical and now I’m wondering if it’s actually just that straightforward.
I mean, it works really well, too?
karkat goes into the game with two teams and comes out w/ one, joined team
karkat goes in trying to destroy the humans and comes out BFFs
karkat gets stabbed by slick, and forms the alliance that overthrows the queen and helps win their session
karkat shooshes gamzee and he lives, karkat charges in to kill gamzee and everyone dies
karkat stops trying to physically harm clover and comes out w/ a defeated lucky leprechaun w/ a crush,
karkat charges in to kill lord english and dies
…wait I think I just talked myself around to ‘karkat should befriend caliborn’ ???
I love Karkat’s post-GO characterization so much. Figuring out how to do stuff without fighting!
He’s not pinin! He’s passed on! This mutant is no more!
He has CEASED to be!
He’s expired and gone to meet his maker! He’s a stiff! Bereft of life! He rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed him to the flogging jute, he’d be pushing up the daisies!
His metabolic processes are now history! He’s off the jute! He’s kicked the bucket! He’s shuffled off his mortal coil! Run down the curtain and joined the bleedin choir invisible!!
please jane would kill that motherfucker without hesitation! jane crocker is supposed to come off as soft and inviting but she’s a trained heiress who has dealt with multiple assassination attempts since infancy and what i’m saying is that she is literally cutthroat, ie if you fuck with jane, say goodbye to having regular non severed veins
concept: jane crocker has killed a lot of people. she’s just never been taught to look at them as people as much as adversaries, grunts on the way to the big bad. and this is her norm for years, and she doesn’t really think about it until she’s in her twenties and at the top of the corporate ladder.
unlike her friends and (technical) relatives, jane crocker doesn’t really grieve. she doesn’t process or sit down and pick apart the pieces. she just keeps taking bullets and keeps walking, blue eyes forward even when her feet are stuck with broken glass.
but when there’s nothing left to run from, jane only has herself to look to.
listen I literally identify with sollux the most out of any of the characters in this wretched comic we all adore, so know it comes from a loving place when i say that he really didn’t do anything at all. like im thinking about this guy and rereading moments with him, thinking about doing a small comic or some shit and he literally didn’t do anything. his biggest moment where he gave his life powering a ship was immediately followed by him actually being chill and fine and totally good.
he literally just decided to not participate in the primary conceit of half of the dialogue. its like if one of the characters from friends decided to mind their fucking business and not get to know any of their neighbors.
sollux literally just wants to hold hands with aradia, yell at/with karkat, and talk to feferi about how much he misses aradia. if anything else is involved he’s not interested. he literally was so uninvested in everyones issues that he barely appears in anything involving the ending or earth C.
i began this as a snide and goofy critique of the use of his character but honestly it just makes me respect him more. this is how he would have wanted it. let him and his ghost gf be freaky cryptids. hes happy.
Cheloneuniverse 