im confused, wasnt vriska being influenced by doc scratch to kill aradia and cripple tavros? and if youre so frogiving of gamzee and jade and jane, shouldnt you forgive vriska too?
Doc Scratch is a pretty influential person, I give you that. At the same time him contacting trolls (including Vriska) are not comparable to manipulation others are subjected to. I’ll get to that, but first, let me estabilish why I am I so forgiving of these three (and two others) and not Vriska herself.
Let’s start off with Jane.
Jane gets controlled directly by her tiaratop, which shows clear wiring going through her skin and her eyes.
This is a pure definition of “hacked” and she starts acting like a stand-in puppet in place of Condescension. This is evidently clear with two side by panels that show how Jane is doing the same motions Condesce is doing.
She still maintains some of the personality of herself, as she still keeps going on about Jade being her precious granddaughter and blushes once it finally gets to her that Dave has been calling her “John’s hot mom”, but for most of the time most of it is erased as she is acting more as a robot waiting for orders.
Once Aranea manages to turn off whatever’s left of her consciousness, Jane immediately starts acting like a puppet and does exactly the same thing Condesce did later once she managed to get to the place herself.
You see that? She goes for the throat choking.
Later on, when Arquiusprite finally manages to hack the tiaratop (and yes, this is the wording he uses)
Jane wakes up and what’s the first thing she does? Apologizes.
Roxy waves it off and no one holds it against her as this was clearly not her doings but Condesce’s. That’s why Jane shouldn’t be held accountable for what she did during her mind control.
Next one is Jade who is a little different on this matter - she gets controlled directly by stolen powers of Mindfang and Summoner (clearly to control both both human and animal side of her)
which causes her to go grimdark (or “grimbark” as she prefers to call it herself). Grimdark modes (as we’ve already seen with Rose and Eridan) are triggered by a heavy stress put on a character and basically makes them unleash hell upon others by using the abilities and personality traits that has been inside them all along.
Rose can be less cowardly.
Eridan can believe in magic.
…and Jade is no different. She is a witch, she can be wicked, she can do all the evil stuff we have seen her do. But the thing is, aside from the situation Condesce allowed her to act all out, she never does. Not even when she is under stressful situation.
This most likely has to do with the fact she picks to control Bec’s possible aggressiveness. Once Condesce manipulates her mind and makes her let go of self-control, this is what happens. She should not be blamed for what she did.
I wrote countless posts about Gamzee and why he should not be blamed for what he did (at least yet). If you want to read detailed info about that, go to my blog and use tags “gamzee” and “gamzee needs help”. For the sake of not repeating myself I’ll just post this:
Tavros’ eyes when mindcontrolled by Vriska
Gamzee’s eyes when mindcontrolled by (presumably) Lil Cal and/or Caliborn.
And this leads to two, usually forgotten and not mentioned manipulated beings who are co-responsible for killing someone under mind control and whom no one blames for the murder they’ve helped comitting.
Aradia’s death and Terezi’s blindness are all on Vriska’s account and I think there won’t be anyone disagreeing with me when I say they shouldn’t be blamed for it.
Why I can forgive them all and I can’t forgive Vriska?
None of the mentioned above chose to do what they did - it was an influence put outwardly onto their minds, and act of puppetery that made them do things without letting them have a say if they want to do it or not. Vriska, on the other hand, has the luxury of a choice and she chooses to be terrible all the time. No one makes her do anything against her will and yet, there she is, doing terrible things because she deems them to be necessary/wants to do them/thinks it’s the only way. You think it’s not true because of Doc Scratch? Let’s look closer at Doc Scratch and his influence on Vriska (and Aradia and Tavros’ outcome) then.
Doc Scratch is someone who has actively onscreen interacted with Vriska, Terezi, Aradia and Gamzee, however Kanaya admits that he most likely has been contacting all trolls without exception (including her).
Doc Scratch was to Kanaya what Rufio(h) was to Tavros, lol.
But, unlike other manipulative influences given by mind controls, Doc Scratch’s influence is not direct - he mostly adjusts his behavior to the one he wants to exploit. And he did exploit Vriska, there’s no doubt about it (even if Vriska doesn’t want to admit it).
And how does he even get to Vriska to make her cooperate with him?
He offers Vriska to play a game (as seen in previous text, Doc Scratch really takes from Caliborn when it comes to playing a game). Vriska, as the one who hates losing and thinks of herself as of the best in any sort of situations (so, a winner) falls for it.
This in itself isn’t having enough weight to turn around on Vriska, mostly because Doc Scratch is a really manipulative guy and he had no problem outsmarting a bunch of 6 sweeps trolls. He is doing it for his own amusement and there’s no doubt about it that he is a bad guy who is responsible for giving the ideas out. But the thing is - that’s it. He only gives ideas to the trolls - which is a form of manipulation, of course - and that’s where his intrusion ends. It’s a choice trolls are given and it’s up to them what they’ll do about it. Gamzee surely fell for it and I’m sure that Doc Scratch (along with Lil Cal) is supposed to be held accountable for giving him idea of killing Equius and Nepeta and collecting heads. This can be seen in Cascade where Gamzee reports to Doc Scratch as if he is waiting for instructions.
Gamzee in his defense has loneliness, resentful friends, dead Tavros and broken faith Doc Scratch surely renewed within him (and Gamzee, being a silly believer in miracles wants to desperately relieve the blissful innocence). In other words, he had nothing to lose.
Endless riddles!!! He won’t shut up!!! He will log her back in once she logs out!!!
Suggesting pretty final and dire solutions when she is aware she doesn’t have to do them!!!
Especially when it comes to people that are off the limits when it comes to killing them of which Vriska is very aware of!!!
Doc Scratch in the end is doing all that simply to bring his master into the world he is in since he himself is an egg awaiting arrival of Lord English and he simply is making a nest, making sure it’s done well. is aware of that and he simply admits it too (this is still a nudging form of a manipulation). He is not pressuring her into anything, he is not threatening her, all he is doing is suggesting. It even ends on a notion that maybe he is the one who is wrong.
Sure, it’s a manipulation technique, but a person with a strong morale knows it’s just a trap and would never go against their own code and hurt people whom she has sworn are off the limits. So, Vriska patronizes Doc Scratch telling him she won’t do it, closes the convo and…
…and immediately goes to kill Aradia. Why? Because who gives a shit about the fact it’s her friend who has a very good reason to make her feel sorry, who cares if it’s a living being we’re talking about, it’s all about her comfort zone and winning the game. In other words:
The situation with Tavros is no different - at worst Doc Scratch suggests getting rid of him to which Vriska immediately jumps with eagerness cause she can’t stand Tavros and follows her plan which is supposedly making him scare powerful monsters in Tavros’ direction (which is pushing him nearby the cliff).
In other words, Doc Scratch was all but an opportunity given that Vriska leapt onto because she hated Tavros (someone who can’t even hate her back properly) and because “no point in living with moanng spooks” which she killed herself (in the end, those “moaning spooks” were ghosts of victims she killed for Spidermom) and which she had brought upon herself because she hurt Tavros. In other words, Doc Scratch was the button and Vriska was the one who pushed it because she is a spiteful being.
Also, even if you still want to stick to the idea that it was all Doc Scratch’s fault anyway (even if clearly showed you it wasn’t), here’s this:
Doc Scratch from the on stops talking and influenting Vriska in any way. So, these things?
Creating Jack Noir that undermined whole session
Killing endless groups of alternate ghost selves
Manipulating Tavros into lovey-dovey when he didn’t want it and because he didn’t want it (it falls under category of rape, you know)
Traumatizing Tavros into shutting himself in the dream world on Prospit
Treating Gamzee like a slave (wow, great callback to Mindfang and Dolorosa, right)
Bullying Jake and Tavrosprite for being “losers”
Closing Gamzee up in the suffocating fridge
THEY’RE ALL ON HER. They’re her choices, not influenced by Doc Scratch. She feels no remorse about them (like Jane), they’re not one time events that are possibilities that stem from part of the nature that slipped out of control (like Jade), they’re not acts of desperate man who lost everything that was dear to him and will work with the devil to regain happiness like a true fool who doesn’t know that no one wins in such deals (like Gamzee). Vriska is an abusive character who is painted in all possible colors of villainry because that’s what author wanted, and so far I have no reason to forgive her simply because ABUSE IS ABUSE IS ABUSE NO EXCUSES. You don’t get a cookie for being a bitch because you willingly want to keep being a bitch and refuse to admit your actions are wrong.
Of course, we could all talk about how Vriska is a great person whose acts has been nothing but right from the perspective of sources, but that’s a whole different story.
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