You know that I said I’d doubtlessly come up with something else that I dislike about Homestuck^2? I did.
One of the things that frustrates me most about Homestuck^2 is the villainisation of Dirk. Re-villainisation, even.
Dirk’s struggles in Homestuck are reflective of a lot of people in real life, especially of young, mentally ill people or men who struggle with toxic masculinity and overcoming that.
He knows he has the ability to do grevious harm to his friends without even trying. He knows he could easily convince himself that he’s doing it “for their own good”, and that he could easily take it several steps too far. He knows he has this incredible capacity to hurt the people he loves physically, mentally, and emotionally, the same way Bro did to Dave - knows that it would be very easy for him to become that person without even trying.
Dirk is not an inherently good person. That is his struggle.
Dirk’s journey in Homestuck is him actively working to be a better person. It’s him becoming more self-aware of the harm he’s doing and trying to cut it out; it’s him admitting openly how he feels about his friends, and how desperate he is to protect them; it’s him agreeing that, yeah, he can see how he could become Bro - but that Bro isn’t the sort of person he wants to be.
Dirk makes a conscious choice to be better. To do good.
This is something a lot of mentally ill people have to go through. You can so easily hurt people if you’re not aware of what you’re doing, of how your actions affect those around you. It’s so easy to become selfish and wrapped up in yourself, and it’s so easy to use survivor tactics to get what you want or need. It’s so easy to emotionally drain the people you love if you’re not aware of what you’re doing.
You have to make a conscious choice to look at yourself, analyse what you’re doing, and try to get better. It’s always an uphill battle. It’s always going to be hard, especially if it’s something that’s easier to handle when medicated. But it can be done.
At the same time, Dirk is a prime example of young men who could very easily fall into the trappings of toxic masculinity. Men who could become abusive and harmful. Men who are selfish and use their authority to keep others in check. Men who look at what they’re doing and decide they don’t want to be that. Men who try their hardest to stay away from those pitfalls and to become kinder people, more aware.
He is a brilliant example that we are not villains. That we can be the best sort of people we want to be. That it isn’t inevitable for us to fail.
And then the Epilogues happen, and it turns out it is inevitable.
This is what pisses me off most. I get why Dirk could re-convince himself that he’s meant to be the bad guy. I get why in a moment of weakness, all of that progress could break. I get why it had to be him, the Prince of Heart, on a purely Classpect basis.
But what the fuck sort of message is that? “Mentally ill people and especially mentally ill men are always doomed to become the sort of people they try not to be, no matter how much effort they put into it”?
This goes in line with the Gamzee “redemption” arc, too. People wanted Gamzee to be redeemed. They wanted him to get better - another person who is heavily associated with mental illness - and to make up for what he’d done. They wanted him to regret and they wanted him to improve. They wanted him to get that chance to apologise and to show genuine remorse, or to at least end up being somewhat good in the end.
Instead, we get the Candy Epilogue actively making fun out of character redemption arcs. It is quite literally thrown back in our faces that characters aren’t mean to be redeemed. Gamzee? Oh, he’s bad forever. He can’t ever come back from that. He’s just a dirty, perverted, twisted clown, and that sweet medicated kid from the beginning of Act 5, the one who loves his friends and didn’t vibe with the Hemospectrum and was pretty much just trying to live his life? That kid died long ago.
It’s this infuriating ideology that characters can’t be redeemed or improved if they’re signposted as bad. That being a bad person is inevitable, and something you just have to accept. That you can fight against your nature, but your nature will always win through. That you’re not worthy to get better.
It’s this idea that redemption is a joke and something to be laughed at, made fun of. Which is honestly just such a horrible stance to take on the idea of people getting better.
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