let’s sit down and discuss my favorite homestuck character, shall we?
This is Die. He is #6 of the notorious gang known as The Felt.
And contrary to what people might say, there is, in fact, a good lot to go off of in canon when it comes to his personality.
I’m going to read through the Intermission again, and pick up anything I can find about Die, and then use that to piece together a basic guideline for his character.
Die is first mentioned when we examine Slick’s Vendetta Itinerary:
This alone tells us something about Die: that he’s either dangerous, or unstable enough, to make Spades Slick want to avoid him.
Slick isn’t just someone who avoids things and people easily. He tends to go looking for people he wants to kill, and one of his thoughts is “what’s the point if you’re not gonna get your hands dirty.” (which is, funnily enough, a thought he has after he’s taken Die’s doll from his corpse)
So for him to want to avoid Die, means that Die is more trouble than he’s worth, and is not easy to kill. This could mean he’s dangerous, or “temporal mess” could mean something similar to how Eggs and Biscuits are people you’d want to avoid in a direct confrontation.
Either way, if Spades Slick wants to avoid you, that definitely says something about you.
Die arrives at a freshly-made murder scene, specifically Itchy’s. The description of his entrance I think makes perfect sense considering how his power—or rather, his doll—works.
When he puts someone’s pin in his doll, or takes it out, he’s transported into literally an alternate universe. An alternate universe where whoever’s pin it was is alive or dead. Not only does it take him to a different timeline, but a different place as well, so he’s transported through both time and space. He ends up in a completely different place, where it’s possible that everything is different, and the only thing he knows for sure is gonna be there is the person that matches the pin.
So of course he’s going to be a little confused and disoriented at first when he gets there.
The dictionary definition of nonplussed is:
(of a person) Surprised and confused so much that they are unsure how to react.
(of a person) Unperturbed.
So, this could say that generally, Die is usually unsure of how to react to sudden situations, or to sudden strong emotions, such as extreme confusion.
He’s next seen in a timeline described as “running roughly parallel with present events”, playing a game of cards with Itchy.
Of course, we all know what happens; Itchy cheats, and Die gets mad.
…Okay, mad might be kind of an understatement.
Alright, this scene right here, says the most about Die’s personality.
First of all, let’s look at the reason for Die’s reaction: Itchy cheated at a game of cards.
Itchy cheated. At a game. Of cards.
So what’s Die’s first reaction? To jump to a timeline where he’s dead.
First of all, this means that Die overreacts to things, when he does finally react. His reactions to situations would be way over the top, he most likely jumps to timelines where his teammates are deads for the most trivial reasons (hell, he did this because Itchy cheated at cards, why stop there).
Second, this also shows that Die is not confrontational and either does not know how to fix his own personal problems or is not willing to try. He could’ve easily called Itchy out on his cheating, or confronted him about it in some way, but instead he chose to jump to a timeline where Itchy isn’t even there. Die most likely does not fight unless he can’t run away, like a cornered animal.
Third, notice that the narration says “as usual, you find yourself in a bit of a predicament”. Die does this a lot. This shows that he does not think decisions through very well, he’s impulsive. If this happens often enough that he can say “as usual”, then that means that Die does not usually take into consideration whether or not the person responsible for the person’s death is going to be present as well when he warps there. This most likely means that he is impulsive and has a poor thought process when angry or under pressure, as either would most likely be scenarios in which he would put someone’s pin in.
Finally, this means that Die is both immature and morbid. His idea of winning a fight with someone is to warp to their bloodied corpse, to a timeline he’s not even a part of, just so he can stare at their dead body. This is his idea of coming out on top in a feud, and that alone is pretty childish. It’s also extremely morbid, believing that being beaten over the head to death is a just punishment for cheating at cards. He’s completely unfazed at the sight of Itchy’s head practically smashed in and blood being everywhere, his only comment being “he got what he deserved”.
Slick then proceeds to hit Die in the head with his horse hitcher, but apparently not hard enough to incapacitate him.
This scene shows that Die, again, does not work well under pressure. He panics, but instead of removing Itchy’s pin like you would expect him to, he puts Slick’s pin in instead, transporting him to the Alternian wasteland, presumably a timeline where Slick never existed, or after he’s dead and Midnight City is in ruins.
I’m assuming this is after Die is able to calm down somewhat from both the initial rage caused by Itchy’s cheating, and panic caused by Slick attacking him. He then realizes that it was a bad decision, and with no other way to go, has to pull Slick’s pin.
This is most likely stupid, but I think the whole “he thinks that’s stupid” kinda says that perhaps Die has quite the attitude to go along with the rest of what he’s like, just based on the wording. He could think it’s a lot of other things, like inconvenient, or impossible to live with, but the best way he can describe his situation is “stupid”.
aaand that’s where Die’s cameos end. Although, one last thing I’ve gotta say, his hat must be a pretty tight fit on his head, because in the course of the Intermission he’s knocked over twice and the hat never comes off his head.
Hope this was helpful and showed that in fact, Die does have a canon personality (to a degree)!
