#rufioh.pdf

[nekropsii]

Trying to have any discussion about Damara and her whole Sexual Harassment Bit is deeply tricky, because it's very much so a multi-pronged issue. Like, here's a list of things that are simultaneously true, regarding it:

Sexual Assault/Harassment is deeply traumatizing to go through.

Sexual Assault/Harassment Jokes are very rarely funny*, and the normalization of them helps to normalize the action itself, as well as the belittlement of survivors of Sexual Assault/Harassment.

Damara's Sexual Harassment (and, yes, occasional Assault) of the other Alpha Trolls is not taken seriously by the narrative, and is intended to be funny. Like, this is a bit. This is comedy. The things she says are intended to be comedic.

Damara's tendencies towards Sexual Harassment has very interesting Watsonian reasoning for existing - it is a Trauma Response. Rufioh, Horuss, and Meenah were basically tag teaming her mental health the entire game. Hell, Rufioh and Horuss had been tag teaming her mental health since before the game even started, since her and Rufioh got together before the game, and Rufioh started cheating on her + gaslighting her about his cheating before the game, too. It's easy to guess that the reason she targets everyone with this rather than just Rufioh, Horuss, and Meenah is because no one tried to help her, so she sees all of them as equally culpable for her mental ruination, and therefore equally deserving of eternal torment.

Damara's Sexual Harassment bit has the obvious Doylist reasoning of "Hussie was being super racist about the fact that Damara is Japanese". Unavoidable aspect of the conversation, and if you did manage to avoid it, then you did not have the conversation in full nor did you have it successfully. East Asian women, and to my (admittedly limited!) knowledge especially Japanese women, are often portrayed as being idealistically submissive and pure, with the usual reasoning for this being that they're "Untouched by Western Feminism", so a common 'inversion' of this Racist trope is making them instead be hyper-promiscuous and sexually aggressive. This is also Racist. So.

The Watsonian reasoning plays very, very interestingly into Rufioh's recurring "Psycho Ex" bit - an age-old Misogynistic card played by shitty Ex-Boyfriends who royally fucked up in a relationship and ruined a woman's mental health, but don't wish to take any accountability for their actions, so they blame every problem on her. It's even more interesting when you pair it with the fact that he only calls her this behind her back, and he textually isn't over her. Hell, he starts creeping on an Aradiabot - a 13 year old girl! - because she's "just like the real thing", meaning she's "just like Damara". Worse is that he's saying that not about the younger, meeker Damara - that was his response to her threatening him! He's talking shit about her behind her back, calling her crazy, psycho, etc., meanwhile he's so not over her that he's willing to try and get at a fucking 13 year old girl that vaguely looks like her and acts like a version of her that he's not only already mentally ruined, but is still friends with to this day! What the fuck!

Sexual Harassment/Assault is a recurring theme in Homestuck, even within the Alpha Troll segment alone, that is almost always taken very seriously. Damara is literally the only instance of it being mostly a joke. Even then, there's interesting stuff in there, so you can't fully dismiss it.

The characters that Damara Sexually Harasses/Assaults don't eeven take the fact that she did that seriously.

*I fully understand this is a Red Flag statement on its face, though please understand the only example that was coming to mind was the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia "Because of the Implication" bit. You can probably make any joke work, as long as you're not just punching down on the vulnerable. Most SA Jokes do not work because their punchline is the victims, not how shitty it is to commit - or imply the danger of to get what one wants - SA.

So it's like, what the fuck. The thing is, I wouldn't blame anyone for having a knee-jerk "Oh No" response to someone defending Damara - especially in this day and age, you're kind of trained to take any instance or reference of Sexual Harassment/Assault very seriously, and any indication of turning it into a joke is met with immediate hostility. It's a good response, but it's also not a very helpful one. Not for conversations where this kind of thing is actually legitimately kind of complicated.

Ultimately, you have to remember Homestuck was written during a time period where screaming "RAPE!!" out of nowhere to scare people - the same way some do with FIRE!! in a building, or SHARK!! at the beach - was a very commonplace "joke". There was almost bound to be at least one off-putting segment regarding a shitty Sex Crimes joke, and it turns out that segment is Damara's character, and Damara's character specifically and exclusively. Literally no one else gets that treatment. The closest you get is Cronus, and his Sex Crimes are not jokes. The joke with him isn't that he's a Rapist, it's that he's The Worst - which, yes, includes the Rapist thing, but him being a Sex Criminal isn't the actual Punchline. It's that he's the worst person ever created. Damara's Sex Crimes thing, meanwhile, is the Punchline. Everywhere else it's taken seriously. Everywhere else it has some major thematic resonance. Only with Damara is it really not that serious. It's odd!

[nekropsii]

do you have any thoughts on how some of the alphas fit their classpects? im struggling to figure it out with rufioh, porrim and cronus

Plenty. I can do that real easy. With those specific characters, even.

Rufioh Nitram, Rogue of Breath, is very social, charismatic, and free-spirited, and leaves people breathless but also steals their sense of independence when he enters their lives. Despite everything he's done to Damara, she still sticks by him, and even though Horuss knows Rufioh wants to break up with him, he still sticks by him and staunchly denies him any opportunity to carry through, because he's staked his entire sense of direction and identity on Rufioh's presence in his life.

Porrim Maryam, Maid of Space, becomes more obvious when you realize Space is an aspect deeply tied to femininity. Due to her talks on how Misogyny exists on Beforus and her avid belief in Feminism, it's not difficult to assume she had her sense of womanhood defined for her and dominated by men earlier in her life, and later on found empowerment through Feminism. Maid of Space, Made of Femininity.

Cronus Ampora, Bard of Hope, is a hopeless fuckhead. He is beyond help, he is beyond repair, and he crushes the hopes of the people around him. He used to be quite full of a genuine belief in magic and prophecy, particularly because said prophecy centered around who he assumed to be himself, but that belief got extinguished presumably by Kurloz, and now he doesn't believe in anything other than his entitlement to other people's bodies.

[nekropsii]

opinions on rufioh? i have literally none on him, and i’m interested in what you have to say about him.

Rufioh is an absolute shithead in such a normal, average, everyday way that it makes me want to throw him. I like him a lot, but he's a complete bastard, and I don't ever really see that acknowledged. Usually people are too busy thirsting over how "hot" he is to acknowledge he has any character outside of his looks and his spinelessness with regards to his relationship with Horuss. He has, like... Jake Syndrome, in that regard. Boiled down to nothing but meek arm candy. I feel like a lot of people are willing to look over his actions because he's attractive, and therefore declare him as the "normal one" of the Alpha Troll men, but that's... Not the case, really. He really does benefit from being a Rogue of Breath in that respect...

The way he's treated Damara over the years is nothing short of diabolical. One thing everyone needs to recognize is that their relationship started before the advent of the session. You know what else started before the advent of the session? Rufioh cheating on Damara with Horuss. Despite that, despite the fact that he was knowingly cheating on her for years, despite knowingly going behind her back and betraying her for years, he has the audacity to continuously call her crazy, paranoid, jealous, psycho, et cetera. As if her fear, anger, and hurt weren't valid. As if that's all uncalled for! As if that all just came out of nowhere and had zero justification! He deeply, severely hurt this young girl who genuinely loved him, he took advantage of her trust in him for years, and he has the absolute fucking audacity to act like she's in the wrong for being affected by it. What an asshole! What a huge fucking douchebag! Wow!

He still calls her his "crazy ex" and his "psycho ex-girlfriend" despite the fact that they're... Still friends? Damara and Rufioh have a complicated relationship by the time we meet them in canon- yes, he's done so much harm to her, and she's reacted in turn, but they're still friends. And he's still demonizing her. It's awful. He sucks so bad. I don't know what ungodly force compels him to be such an insolent manchild but he sure is one.

[nekropsii]

…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.

[nekropsii]

adding to the Rufioh negativity: when trying to break up with Horuss didn't work, Rufioh started to try and cheat on him and asked out Aradiabot (who reminded him of Damara from being her beta counterpart and her wiring making her aggressive) right in front of Horuss who was oblivious (too many fans forget fanart is just fanart and canonically, his headgear covers his ears and "fills with sweat"- stating this because fans blamed Horuss for it???)

The idea of blaming Horuss for Rufioh hitting on a 13 year old girl is so fucking funny to me. Some people really do not want to acknowledge that Rufioh kind of just sucks. Way to blameshift! Totally not a weird thing to do. I've gotta correct something here, though: The thing about Horuss's headgear "filling with sweat" and therefore blocking his hearing is a deliberate act of dishonesty on Horuss's part. Rufioh's not the only person at fault for the relationship not ending, because Horuss is achingly aware that Rufioh wants to conclude it.

Horuss isn't stupid, he just really doesn't want it to be over. At least not on his own terms.

The context to the line about his ears filling with sweat... Is that it's right after Rufioh goes on this whole speech about the entire history of their relationship. It's incredibly long, and then it leads directly into Rufioh trying to break up with him.

He's deflected like this before. That's what that is. He knows what's happening, he's just denying it, because he's not very good at giving Rufioh much autonomy. This is why he immediately goes on to reasserting their status as "Romantic Afterlife Partners" right after that deflection. He doesn't even give Rufioh a chance to repeat himself, even though he asked... Because he wasn't ever going to give him the chance to do that. It sucks. This is undeniably a bad situation and undeniably a toxic relationship, but it doesn't excuse everything Rufioh has done. Like this!

Every square nanometer of this is just plain creepy.

The idea of approaching and hitting on a 13 year old girl who is related to your ex-girlfriend- which you do nothing but ridicule behind her back, calling her psycho, refusing to view her perspective with any level of compassion or validity, et cetera- purely because she reminds you so much of her is just... Downright predatory, in more ways than one. This is genuine sexual predator behavior. What he wants here is a repeat, but with a clean slate, and a new layer of vulnerability- because, again, Aradia is 6 years younger than him. She's 13. He is 19. That's a Middle Schooler and a College Student.

The way he's talking about her here sounds more like he's talking about a sex doll in Damara's image than a real, separate person, who is also 13 years old. It's completely and utterly vile. Attractive or not, and tragic or not- there's no excuse for this behavior. None! And not one part of this exchange is legitimately Horuss's fault. Yes, Horuss is a bad partner to Rufioh. He is responsible for that. But no, Horuss is not responsible for Rufioh being a predatory. That's all on Rufioh.

[nekropsii]

Admittedly one part of this question is outside your wheelhouse but as the main Alpha Trolls Guy I follow, what would you say is the purpose of the parallels between Horuss and Rufioh on the one hand and Dirk and Jake on the other? Esp since it was Rufioh, the Jake-figure, who was decapitated. Is it just an “All things come round again” example of Paradox Space doing its thing, or to show that Dirk and Jake wouldn’t last under the circumstances of the void session, or?

I swear to God I don't mean this to sound mean, but... I don't think there's any profound "purpose", because I don't think they parallel in any profound way at all. Similarities between the two are incredibly surface level, and I'm not really of the opinion that Dirk and Jake own the themes/motifs "being paralleled" or anything.

Typically the explanation for DirkJake/RufUss paralleling each other is that they're both Gay Relationships that have Communication Issues, and there's something in there relating to Decapitation. That's... It, though? Sure, that's a parallel in the technical sense, but there's nothing deep to it. Plenty of other things in Homestuck share one of those traits, and it doesn't really mean much. Hell, I'd attribute Horuss and Rufioh being a gay relationship with communication problems to Hussie genuinely just not handling gay relationships and characters all that well, rather than them being some god-tier writer.

I couldn't tell you the purpose because I'm not even sure if it was intentional. Everything else about them is so vastly different that I'm inclined to believe any similarities weren't intended. To me, it's purely a consequence of them having been written by the same author.

[nekropsii]

my thought for today is rufioh's quad troubles and i think a lot of it stems from his lack of backbone and inability to say no.

You know, I never fully considered Rufioh’s quadriplegia being a physical manifestation of his spinelessness specifically. I definitely tied it to his journey as a Rogue of Breath, considering part of Breath is freedom, but the tie-in of the specific resulting trait of his journey- spinelessness- did not fully click!

I agree! Very interesting point! Definitely a mean little joke, but that’s absolutely nothing foreign here.

100% gonna loop back to the Openbounds and reread a bunch of his canon to really get into the sauce here. I’ve been neglecting writing meta on him… And I want to change that!