Me, like a man who has alienated people that I've come to love. I can sympathize with Karkat's antics and his inability to adequately express his love to Terezi.
This is something Karkat himself says and admits, he screwed up with Terezi and ruined a chance of having something solid with her. I don't think this is being incel, it's just recognizing that we have pushed away a person we love.
Anon, it's not his inability to express his love for Terezi that makes him an incel, that's just him being shy and insecure and that's fine because he's very young and emotionally inexperienced, and HIC's regime has fed into him the idea all his life that he's the most unwanted useless being that's ever existed, because as a mutant he doesn't have role that justifies it, that's why he tries so hard to replace that by titling himself leader and overcompensate he feels so useless, even though he has no idea what that actually entails. And that vulnerability and genuinity is part of what made him sympathetic and a good match for Terezi. Up to a point.
Because what made him like an incel is writing that schedule, butting into Dave and hers relationship and projecting it only happened because Terezi wanted to make him jealous and not as if she actually liked Dave (same how Karkat did with Jade), and making Terezi's insecurities and even potential break up with Dave all about their non existant relationship, and even also never standing up for Terezi against Gamzee, when he was the only one that proved could do so. Karkat said he wanted Terezi in all quadrants, but imagine him as her moirail or viceversa, they don't fit, because they both misunderstand each other way too much and Terezi doesn't like this vacillation/flakiness/uncertainty of where they stand, as she's very uncertain herself too.
This is known in their conversation in both the dream bubbles, as well as what future Karkat himself says to his past self. In addition, Yes, indeed Karkat left Terezi alone and at the mercy of Gamzee and that is unacceptable, horrible and stupid... but a product of bad writing! Dave did the same! And that's not blaming Dave, it's acknowledging that Hussie was an absolute idiot writing Act 6! But it was Karkat's intervention that gave Terezi the strength to confront Gamzee, Even though it was late, these are the last glimpses of their relationship. He died defending Terezi from Gamzee, he gave his life and even showed physical abilities superior to Kanaya's at that time, as he surpassed her in speed in Game Over. And we also see an absolutely human error in Karkat, idealizing our partners or love interests, which deepens that proper idea that Karkat did indeed screw up with Terezi and that she loved him, but again, it's Karkat's fault.
Anon, you can like Karkat, but you can’t excuse his pre-retcon failures as “bad writing” while still treating his good moments as meaningful, tragic, or somehow redemptive. You can’t have it both ways. If the writing is inconsistent, then that includes the sacrifice scene too. You can’t cherry-pick which parts are “bad writing” and which ones deserve to be taken seriously. That inconsistency is the issue, and it’s baked into Karkat’s characterization, not only from act 6, but from the very beginning.
That scene where he died just ended up amounting to nothing beyond giving Karkat yet another cringy consolation prize like how post-retcon Karkat only beat Clover. Using it as proof that Karkat’s one sacrifice “redeemed” himself and proved Terezi and him were meant to be isn’t valid, because it didn’t have consequences, it was erased, as a doomed timeline, downright cruelly by Terezi’s own hand to justify why Vrisrezi and Davekat should become canon and a plot device to make it a reality. Like his post-retcon “victory” over fucking Clover, it was just another shallow consolation prize that didn’t resolve his narrative flaws or relationships in a satisfying way. THAT is bad writting.
It does Karkat’s character no good to keep blaming himself for everything, telling Terezi so and making her feel even more guilty of having to cater to his hyper sensitivy, while he doesn't bother to check his own wording for her and even keeps on putting her on a pedestal and therefore objectifiying her instead of seeing her as a flawed person like he was. Putting her on a pedestal and idealizing her doesn’t mean he respects her. It just dehumanizes her in a different way than him telling her having self-esteem issues is nonsensical.
Framing everything as Karkat’s failure to be a good boyfriend reduces both characters to vehicles for angst. It’s tragedy porn and it’s why Karkat keeps getting woobified.
If the writing wanted Karkat to be heroic for protecting Terezi, it shouldn’t have waited until Gamzee was literally beating her bloody in front of him. At that point, it wasn’t brave, it was too late. Even Terezi had decided she didn’t need him anymore. Whatever that means, as even though Terezi is also toxically codependent on Karkat because despite how dumb he is, that’s still better than her clinging to her even worse relationship with Vriska, who literally made her cullable. So that’s yet another horrible nonsensical bad choice on Terezi’s part.
And all of this, the entire purpose of Karkat that could even give him a motivation, the responsibility to the Sufferer’s sacrifice and legacy, who Redglare ALSO followed and that’s why Terezi was written as his cheerleader to his undeserving leadership in a way, was thrown into the toilet in favor of idiotic meta commentary against romcoms, and him praising HIC and wishing he could personally execute undesirable trolls, like TEREZI, himself.
Karkat WANTS to be seen as a dependable mature leader, but what he SHOWED when it mattered was just relegate duties to everyone else when he was too scared. Equius and Nepeta's deaths could have been avoided if he was the one to confront Gamzee first instead of sending Equius to do it for himself.
Karkat WANTS a relationship with Terezi and for her to know he cares about her, but what he SHOWED whenever Terezi attempted to connect with him further, like telling him she wanted to hang out with him in Prospit, is rebuke and that he doesn't give a shit. He also denies very publicly and to anyone that asks that there is nothing going on with him and Terezi, and that coupled with the fact that he's contradictorily so quick to make advances to John and Jade, or even fucking Meenah, makes it seem like he's ashamed of liking Terezi.
He ends up as a lazy useless piece of shit that does nothing of importance, even though he should be anything but. What his character arc should have been is that he needed to realize he should stop wasting time blaming and hating himself, enough with the guilt trips, learn and GROW from what he experienced, and DO SOMETHING WHEN IT MATTERS BEFORE IT ESCALATES AND BLOWS UP. Like it also happened with all the minor relationship dramas that were festering until it all blew up in murderstuck.
That’s the bad writing that ruined Karkat, the lack of aim and purpose of what role his character was meant to fulfill. Not that Karkat was a bad not-boyfriend. But that his failures, and everyone else’s, were used to create ntr porn, not actual character development.
It also ignores the actual context of Karkat’s utterly messed up ideas about himself due to being born in a society that tried to ERASE him the moment he was born (like how the Sufferer was also erased) or how he’s so toxically dependent on his relationship to Terezi because he’s so obsessed with romcoms he thinks she gives his life meaning and a justification to exist. Why do you think the Sufferer was erased and his relationship with the Disciple was so important? He and Karkat are “undersirables”, a “cancer” that shouldn’t be allowed to spread. Literally, HIC didn’t want him, or others she considered defective for her powerful army, to add his GENES to the troll gene pool.
That’s the stupid meta reason why Karkat is so obssessively attracted to Romcoms and doesn’t even understand why. It was highly implied the Vantas are mutated limebloods, which were stated to be genocided since they had powers that could disrupt the hemospectrum. Narratively, the Signless, and Karkat, finding another troll that falls in love with them, is IMPORTANT as that would create the opportunity for limebloods to come back from ALSO being ERASED. The Sufferer last sermon was “Fuck”, because Karkat literally needs to fuck to prove HIC wrong and their existence have meaning.
HE is not the cancer that shouldn’t have been spread, he should have been who stopped INTERPERSONAL ISSUES from festering, growing and becoming the cancer reason their session failed. He’s the Knight of Blood, why the fuck didn’t he help Tavros with Vriska, let Nepeta down gently, helped Eridan not feel purposeless from not having a relationship to survive either, comfort Sollux from losing Aradia twice or defend Terezi from Gamzee and Vriska, or help Aradia with Equius, or tell Equius to cut that shit out with fetishizing the idea of Gamzee killing him.
Because Hussie is influencing with his own likes and dislikes, HE hates Tavros and Eridan and Nepeta and Feferi, so therefore KARKAT also doesn't give a shit about them, even thought that contradics the entire outline established for Karkat that he """cares""" and that ends up making Karkat a nonsensical character. He """loves""" Terezi, but Hussie loves Vrisrezi yuri even more, so Karkat lets Terezi be abused. Karkat is and does what Hussie wants at the moment to justify as a plot device and merch machine, not something that enriches him as a narrative tool.
This is also why davekat is such a shitshow, because now Karkat unawarely did what HIC wanted, take himself out of the gene pool by dating a human.
Why make Karkat end up with Meenah instead of Terezi or Nepeta, who actually cared for him? No excuse either. It’s just Karkat being a bootlicker to HIC again, when he could have dated someone like Terezi, Nepeta or Sollux instead, since those three actually do give a shit about him, and have suffered undered Alternian’s regime.
And if main timeline!Karkat wasn't allowed to end up with a woman, what's the excuse for not making solkat the endgame pairing instead, since they actually kind of also had a foundation like Karezi and unlike davekat? Nothing, it's literally just because fans are thirstier for Dave, who is even dollar store Sollux in the relationship. Davekat first """"implication"""" in canon even had dialogue copypasted from a conversation solkat had first.
All his "emotional intelligence" amounts to giving godawful love advice when he's never even dated anyone himself and he doesn't practise what he preaches, or, more rencetly, helping Calliope write candyland rape ntr fiesta. Even romanticizing Jake being raped, John getting cheated on and cheating on Roxy, Kanaya getting cucked or Vriska to be molested by Gamzee like what he did with Terezi. All while ruining Jade's life and still scratching his ass and not trying to go god tier.
Same goes for Terezi actually being a Seer of Mind, she can't look into the future, she's not a god tier and said so, what she can do is know what would logically happen from a decision, and envision the future that follows from her thought process scene for scene. It's dumb, but I assume it's like a lawyer coming across evidence, constructing the scene in their head from their own conclusions, and then literally being able to show a projection of what they conclude happened. Except with Vriska, Gamzee altered the evidence, and she sentenced Vriska without the correct evidence, for a crime Gamzee comitted, and not what Vriska actually did. That's what was eating at her mind and made her doubt herself, that she instinctively knew something was wrong but didn't know what.
She literally told Dave she can only "protect them from their tendency to underestimate the power confusion has over their fate". but who does that for her in turn? when she fools herself into having powers she doesn't have, or wonders if she made the right choice? That's what she's searching for, someone confident to reassure her of her confusion and overthinking.
Sollux can see in the future/past to some degree, but we don't know how much. Why not write him helping Terezi out, or warning Karkat so he can take action and stop Terezi from doing a rash decision alone, the sky is the limit. All of this is more interesting than idiotic love drama.
Karkat HAS a good concept, but Hussie has no idea what empathy even is even if it bit him in the ass, and that all goes to waste.
Because it's all written like shit.
Everything about this. Yes. Hell yes! HELL FUCKING YES!
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