how do you feel about aranea serket? in general i mean
I've seen people say she's "worse than Vriska" as far as her whole character goes, and I strongly disagree. She really does not have any more malicious intent than Vriska, just because what she did in [S] Game Over was absolutely catastrophic doesn't mean she's a worse person.
People tend to skip over the fact that that was something that was building up for an unimaginably long period of time. She felt pushed in a corner and used as a doormat ever since before the session- all she wanted was for people to listen to her, and even her own best friend thought that was so terrible to sit through that Aranea literally had to pay her to even just attempt to pay attention.
There's no fucking wonder she went insane. The fact that she exhibited enough strength to endure this for such a long time is a testament to the fact that she's naturally extremely good-natured and tolerant. She's not offered any nuance or trust purely on the basis of being a Serket, and I think that's pretty unfair.
I think she deserved to have an absolute Joker moment, all things considered. At that point, you have to start considering her actions as an act of self-preservation. She wanted to finally be somebody. She wanted to be remembered, or even just considered. It was fair. I would've snapped a lot sooner, and so would you, probably.
We all love Vrisrezi, but do you think Aranea and Latula have chemestry in some quadrant?
Unfortunately, no. Absolutely not. They represent a break in a cycle, and have a completely neutral relationship where both parties are uninterested in any romance or even friendship developing. Latula finds Aranea boring, and Aranea… Sees her as Inspiration Porn, so… Yeah, probably better nothing’s pursued. The chemistry is next to none, even if they had interest in each other. I can’t think of anything particularly interesting to read coming of that, I can’t imagine any character development, nothing. It’d just feel empty, and like a Pyrope/Serket relationship for the sake of a Pyrope/Serket relationship.
There’s a whole conversation between Porrim and Latula about the fact that the Pyropes and Serkets tend to have storied relationships, actually, and the fact that Latula and Aranea are the exception.
This is leagues more interesting than Obligatory Pyrope/Serket Relationship to me. That’s just my personal take, though.
hello! sorry if this is a stupid question, but i recall seeing someone claim that aranea was pedophilic/predatory towards jake— is that true? if not, do you know where that idea may have come from?
Hi, Anon! Considering the question is prompted by the claims of another, and this claim has an extreme amount of gravity attached to it, this is not a stupid question whatsoever. I appreciate that you're trying to fact check this, rather than just spreading that idea with zero regard.
A lot of people online tend to get really caught up in the immediate emotional response that an Accusation of Sexual Misconduct gives them, and fail to do their due diligence. I can't fault anyone for feeling distressed upon hearing that anyone is a Pedophile or a Sexual Predator, but it's irresponsible and disrespectful to not... Y'know, check the evidence, if there's even any there.
I'm going to put this all under a cut due to the subject matter. You understand, I hope!
Content Warning: Discussion of Pedophilia, Assault, and Dubious Consent.
Let's get this out of the way right off the bat: No, Aranea is not a Pedophile, and I do not believe she has ever sexually or romantically predated on Jake.
I am not saying this to blame who is being understandably perceived as the victim of the situation. Jake is, by all accounts, the target of a lot of Non-Consenting and Dubiously Consenting advances… So it makes a lot of sense to immediately be on the offensive with regards to anyone's conduct towards Jake. I get it. Jake is living in the tragedy of being seen as an object by his peers- some kind of prize to be won, something that exists only to provide some kind of romantic or sexual catharsis. It's horrible, genuinely, and I totally understand the urge to instantly jump on anything that veers even slightly in that direction and take it to extremes…
…But that just… Did not happen with Aranea. Because Jake was not the target of attraction here. Aranea was.
Aranea never pursued Jake, to my knowledge, save for one single scene. Put a pin in that. She was not interested in him, he was interested in her. He labelled Aranea as his Dream Girl very quickly after meeting her, and at no point does she... Reciprocate his feelings.
The immediate counterpoint to that is that Pedophiles do not love their victims. And I would typically completely agree with it!! This is true!! Bringing up anything akin to "True Love" in defense of an act of Child Predation is absolutely disgusting!!
...But Aranea is not a Pedophile. In no universe would Aranea ever be considered a Pedophile, even if she had feelings for and sexually pursued Jake. She wouldn't be a Pedophile even if she straight up assaulted him on screen. She is 19 years old, and he is 16 years old. That does not even come close to counting as Pedophilia. Their ages are way too close for that.
If Jake was 13 years old or younger, and she was attracted to him, then yes, this would be an entirely valid point to make. That practically wouldn't even be an accusation, that would be an observation. It would be extremely fucked up if that was the case, as it is with Cronus and Meenah, but that's just... Not true here.
But then there's the claim of Predation left, which is an entirely ageless concept. There's no implication of an immoral age discrepancy in the label of "Predator".
...But Aranea never sexually predated on Jake. She just plain was not interested in him, not even as a friend. Jake was more or less just a tool to her, a mere cog in the machine of her plan to Fuck Shit Up. Is that fucked up? Sure!! But that's average Villain Behavior, and it's not inherently Predatory. Especially not in the way that's implied when paired with a Pedophilia Accusation.
Remember that scene I said to put a pin in, though? The one where she actually does make an unwanted advance on Jake? We're bringing it up again now. That, conceptually, sounds like a counterpoint to what I'm saying here at first, but just bear with me.
There's a scene in which, just prior to her making Jake Hope-splode, Aranea tries to kiss him. This was actually how she was initially going to "heal" him. The advance was made, and right before she actually did kiss him, he started flailing and wildly professing how much he does not consent to the situation.
[Homestuck, page 6582.]
It's clear from what he's saying and how he's behaving that the severity of this reaction has been building up over the course of his story. Even if that wasn't the case, his lack of consent is fair...
...And goes completely uncontested.
[Homestuck, page 6582.]
This is the problem. This is the biggest issue I have with the claim that she was predating upon Jake. Not as a child, but as a person. I have to assume that it was about this scene- there's no other place in the story in which you could make that claim and have it be any level of grounded. But taking a moment to read the text makes the entire argument that this was an act of Sexual Predation completely fall apart, because his lack of consent to being kissed goes instantly respected and totally unchallenged.
She drops him... And says this.
[Homestuck, page 6583.]
This... Is not Pedophilia. This is not Sexual Predation. This is two teenagers experiencing a messy situation.
Aranea knew Jake was into her, and assumed that that meant he would've enjoyed her making a move on him. It is, by all means, a valid assumption to make- it's understandable. It's a completely average train of thought. Jake, however, is tired of people making moves on him, and despite being attracted to her, did not accept this advance.
...To which she immediately accepts "No" as an answer, ceases physical contact, apologizes, explains herself, and then says that her advances were inappropriate, and that she will try to be better in the future.
This is... A fantastic response to someone expressing a lack of consent. Especially considering she's Beforan! By all accounts, she's the most normal person out of that whole group because of this!!
The only thing that puts a damper on this is that she immediately turns around and heals him. But... That's not an inherently sexual act. Yes, he did not give express verbal consent to being healed, but it's also just straight up not something you can quantify as Sexual Predation. It's not even a metaphor for it!
I don't know. Calling her a Pedophile is abhorrent. It is way too far and entirely inaccurate. Calling her a Sexual Predator is less egregious, but the bar for what's okay is being used in a limbo competition in Hell.
To me, this is just an instance of messy teenage sexuality. It's just... A misunderstanding that was immediately resolved, and then followed up by some Video Game Villain behavior. If their age gap in the context of any romantic advances makes you uncomfortable, that's completely and utterly fine. More than okay. It's a perfectly respectable boundary to have. But that boundary doesn't mean that it's fine to randomly stick a label as loaded and utterly despicable as "Pedophile" onto anything. A misunderstanding left unescalated isn't a crime, and Video Game Villain Behavior isn't sexually predatory.
I hope this response finds you well. Have a lovely day.
…I swear to God, why have like half the Beforan players tried to bone someone significantly younger than them??? Probably because the author’s a creep who got a kick out of it, but still, between what was just discussed with Rufioh, Aranea trying to hit on Jake, Cronus trying to bone his dancestor (jesus fuck) and Meenah dating a physically 13-year-old Vriska… that’s a THIRD of the dancestors? And those are just the four I’m aware of, I would be very disappointed but not at all surprised if there was a fifth.
Honestly, adults having inappropriate relationships with children is just a heavily recurring theme in Homestuck... It's not really all that surprising when you take a step back. Doc Scratch, Hussie's own self insert, Bro Strider... They're all much older than the Alpha Trolls are, and are creepy towards the Betas in some way.
Further discussion going under the cut.
Content Warning: Discussion of Sexual Assault, Harassment, and Pedophilia.
... Man, I'm having to write about this topic a lot lately, aren't I? This isn't even close to the only ask left in my inbox about something adjacent to this.
It's kind of... Flattering, in the weirdest way possible? I don't know, I'm often approached for my opinions on some of the much more serious and dark aspects of Homestuck. Things that people don't really know, or talk about, or address- like the racism issues, Dave's CSA, et cetera. It's not really prestigious, I don't think, but it does require a level of trust in maturity and literacy. I appreciate it.
Anyways, this is mostly going to be me adding to and even debunking your ask here. I think this subject both deserves and requires specificity. It's an extremely emotionally charged topic, so peoples imaginations tend to get a little... Carried away, when they don't know the full extent to what's happening. Considering how it's not easy to term search things said by most of the Alpha Trolls, and some people really just do not want to/cannot interact with things relating to Child Harm and Abuse... There's bound to be both a lack of information and an excess of misinformation. It's understandable, but... Deeply annoying for me in particular. Lol.
Let's do this.
---
The inclusion of Rufioh in this is both correct and based on some of my own posting on the matter. Rufioh was hitting on Aradiabot, who is 13, because she reminded him of Damara... Specifically remarking upon how she's "just like the real thing". Charming...
Here's where I'm going to supply a debunk: Aranea did not try to hit on Jake, and he is not significantly younger than her. That's a pretty ugly misconception. She's 19, and he is 16. She had zero romantic or sexual feelings towards Jake. Yes, she tried to kiss him once... Because she knew that he was attracted to her and assumed he'd appreciate her making a move on him.
This was part of her little scheme to make him Hope-splode. She never did actually kiss him, and there was genuinely no consent violations involved in the situation- he told her to stop before she could, and she did. It was just a misunderstanding. It happens.
If you're still put off by that age gap, that's fair and entirely respectable, but that's not "significantly younger", and the situation wasn't really objectively creepy.
... Cronus is... Fucking gross. His whole gimmick is that he is "The Worst Character in Homestuck", and boy does he succeed at it. He won that title. Earned it. Absolutely flying colors.
He tried to "get with" Karkat, Tavros, and Eridan. By which I mean he stalked Karkat all the way to his house and then tried to break into it, got really handsy with Tavros in the middle of a crowd, and... Sexually assaulted Eridan- his own flesh and blood!- also in the middle of a crowd. All of these kids are 13 years old, and his main character trait is "Sexual Assault + Harassment". No one's free. Not even literal children!
Cronus counts as a full-blown Pedophile, by the way!! There's your fun fact for the day.
Then there's Meenah, who had her whole thing with (Vriska), who was 13. Not just physically, but mentally, too. She was just 13. That was a whole arc, so it doesn't really need much elaborating upon, I hope.
---
That's... Just about it, I think? That's all I remember, anyway, as far as the Alpha Troll Age Gap Weirdness goes. So... Only 3 of them are really problems in that respect, which is 1/4th of the cast. Still an upsetting amount, but not... As bad as 1/3rd, as far as optics goes.
In full honesty, it's kind of funny to me how the Alpha Trolls who have overtly sexual theming are... Pretty normal about kids. Damara's nice to them and nobody else, we've got zero reason to suspect Mituna of anything, and Porrim's just chilling. It's accurate, if anything.
Hopefully this has been fun and/or informative. Have a lovely day.
What's your take on Aranea? Because I noticed a lil trend with the alpha trolls being a stereotype of?? Internet, or simply a stereotype.
Like with Kankri being an sjw stereotype, Latula with her rad girl thing, though that's probably because she's a Knight class
Okay, this ask is unintentionally a bit of a doozy, full of a lot of things I feel I need to address and talk about in order for this to be a complete conversation. You came to the Wordy Bullshit + Analyses blog, and now you’re getting Wordy Bullshit + Analyses.
Let’s talk about the Alpha Trolls and Beta Trolls, and how they play into the theme of Internet Archetypes. I swear I get to the crux of your ask- being Aranea- in this. Just sit tight for a bit while I ramble my head off!
Content Warning: Long.
Firstly, I have to clarify that while yes, the recurring theme of Alpha Trolls being largely Internet Archetypes is very much so intentional, and you’re correct to notice it, I must also point out that that’s not at all just an Alpha Trolls thing. That’s a “Trolls in general” thing. The Beta Trolls are also like that. They’ve always been like that. That’s actually where the species name of “Troll” came from- they’re Internet Trolls.
Trolls in general are a little more complicated than just being Stereotypes or Parodies through and through. All of them, and I mean all of them- yes, including your fave- started as joke characters. Sometimes either of these traits manifest in good ways, sometimes they manifest in bad ways.
Since you brought up Kankri, I’ll use him as an example: On a surface level, Kankri is a parody of, quite specifically, early 2010’s Tumblr SJW Culture. Everyone is aware of this. What a lot of people don’t realize is that there’s a lot of overtones of how Internet-based SJW Politics/Identity Politics had most of their conversations and spaces absolutely dominated by white, clueless, hyper-online teens who didn’t have any tangible life experience or any real comprehension of real world social issues.
A lot of people who regularly engaged in that particular flavor of online politics at the time- especially to the point of dedicating a majority of their persona to it- were mostly just making the acceptance and celebration of diversity a significantly harder feat than their flavor of Discourse for Discourse’s Sake would initially leave you to believe. He actively shuts down anyone discussing their own experiences as a minority by policing their language, and even at times claiming their experiences aren’t real, he only ever gives himself space to truly talk, he’s actually very interestingly anti-recovery, and he’s willingly aiding in the oppression of what is, to him, real world minorities. He sucks up to those higher on the Hemospectrum than him, and regularly partakes in Punching Down- often making Disabled Lowbloods and Women his main targets for unapologetic expressions of his own deep-seated bigotry.
He is, at his heart, not just a parody of “Tumblr SJW Culture,” but specifically of how that era’s brand of Online Political Discourse was often being infected with the type of person who claims to be significantly more progressive than they actually are. He’s hiding his own bigotry, internalized or not, behind pseudo-progressive buzzwords that he, more often than not, will admit to have made up, and/or have fabricated the alleged grave importance of it. He’s significantly more conservative than a lot of people give him credit for, and that’s a damn shame, because it genuinely gives more intrigue to his character, even if it’s in kind of a fucked up way.
As for Latula: Her archetype is less the idea of a “Rad Girl,” and more the idea of a “Gamer Girl.” Weird distinction to make at first, until you consider the crux of her character is how in order to survive in most Gamer Circles online as a woman, you had to both embrace and/or adopt some level of Misogyny. Latula’s whole persona is very much so steeped in a kind of Internalized Misogyny that I don’t see people talk about, like… Ever. The crux of her persona is very much so based in overemphasizing how girls can be just as good as guys at gaming. She’s very deeply struggling with the coexistence of her hobbies and her gender, and just how hostile people who share her interests can be to her just because she’s a woman.
@scalematez can do a much better, more in-depth analysis of Latula than I can, but that’s essentially the core of what her deal is.
As for Aranea? If I had to wager any guesses about her, she’s very much so a “Fandom Blogger,” just like Meulin, though instead of a focus on Shipping and Fanfiction- the more traditionally “Fandom” aspects of Fandom- Aranea is a Media Analysis blog with way too much knowledge about very niche trivia. I’d also say she’s a WordPress native, rather than a Tumblr native like Meulin is. She’s the Quiet Nerdy Bookworm Girl archetype who spends a lot of time in libraries. She’s the absolute antithesis to Vriska’s character. Give her a while, and she’ll discover that she can make Video Essays on whatever she wants, and everything that was ever wrong with her will suddenly be cured.
may be a bit too spoilery but i'm interested how aranea's whole sylph of light main character syndrome thing would intersect with sovstuck's fight over the narrative
Ah, while it may be perceived as spoiler-y to some, this is something I actually do not mind going over, because a good majority of my points are just me talking about Homestuck’s canon!
In canon, Aranea’s “main character syndrome” was a very recent development, and the result of mounting frustration about being a “8oring no8ody,” a doormat whose opinions are so undervalued she has to literally pay people to listen to her, over the course of, according to her, millions of sweeps. Her actions in the comic are less her being a terrible, malicious person, and more just an act of blind, fervent desperation for some kind of relevance. She was a good person who was pushed to the absolute brink.
In Sovereignstuck, Aranea is actually a good guy. She’s a lore keeper, well known for aggregating and organizing mass amounts of information, and a good amount of the Player team actually value her insight enough with regards to the game that they will go to her for her opinion on things.
During the Patron’s game, she was the Rose of the session, and wrote down whatever she could about the game, wherever she could. The tomes she wrote on the matter were published- though they were pretty underground- and they’re actually a big reason why Retris starts the game knowing so much about it already. He’s already read a walkthrough. Or seven. Eight, maybe. Lol.
Granted… Any published walkthroughs about the game are only going to be useful as an outline. Retris definitely starts the game knowing a lot more than the average player would, or even should, thanks to Aranea’s guides, but that does not mean he’s in any regard prepared for the hell that’ll get unleashed during the session. Each game is very, very unique to themselves.
I like her, actually! She’s pretty interesting, and honestly pretty scary as a villain. Her built-up power over the course of about 1,000 years was quite a spectacle to watch in action! The way one’s trust is toyed with during her arc is very fun. I remember giving her the benefit of the doubt at first, because she seemed plenty friendly and nice, but a Serket is a Serket, it seems…
Aranea is concentrated essence of “I could fix him,” except her method of fixing involves making everything worse. To me, she is this image.
