man, im reading vriskas intro again and i didn’t expect to feel so sorry for her....she’s like, desperate for attention but also there’s a note of absolute despair in her pesterlog with kanaya. hidden behind lots of coolkid posturing, ofc! but still. she’s a kid with a lot on her plate and feeling alone in every possible way.
yeah, she’s mean and attention seeking, but she’s a kid who was literally brought up this way. and it’s pretty obvious that she really h8s herself sometimes.
Warning: Life on Alternia is life on Alternia. This post contains mentions of child abuse, bullying, a child-eating monster, and at least two stabbings.
Vriska is...complicated. She doesn’t have the sort of clean character arc or clearly stated goals that other Homestuck characters have. Because of this, she’s attracted the kind of controversy that we I Like Homestuck writers have been reluctant to wade into--if we took one side or another, we wouldn’t be describing her character completely. She’s too hard to pin down.
Then I realized that all this dithering was missing the point. I like Vriska because she’s complicated, and because she invites such controversy. Hussie has put more work into her backstory and motivations than almost any other character’s, and so when some people love her and some hate her, it’s not a case of misplaced sympathy or misplaced apathy. It’s because she's complex like a real person, and I love it.
Here’s what we know about Vriska, and some of the big questions that fans disagree on about her. I’m not gonna try to answer these questions; for me, asking them is the fun part.
Vriska grew up with an abusive guardian. Her lusus, a giant spider that eats young trolls, quickly grew too big to leave her cave, leaving Vriska to find ways to feed her without becoming lunch herself. With help from her pen pal Terezi, she quickly became what we on Earth would consider a serial killer, luring unsuspecting wigglers into unwinnable FLARP scenarios and then dragging them back home to Spidermom. From the cruelly Social Darwinist perspective of Alternian society, this is totally justified: if you die before you reproduce, you didn’t deserve to reproduce anyway. But we humans agree this is a terrible thing, especially a terrible thing to make a child do, and we start to wonder what Vriska herself thinks of it all: does she manipulate and kill her peers so that she doesn’t die herself, or because society expects her to, or because it’s all she knows how to do? Or has she begun to enjoy it?
Vriska is horribly abusive to the other Beta trolls, especially Tavros. She claims to be toughening him up to help him achieve his potential both as a Page and as the descendant of the Summoner, but doesn’t seem to care--or even, sometimes, to see--that his reaction to her physical abuse and constant verbal belittling has been to become timid and resentful. Does she abuse Tavros because she enjoys making him feel bad, because that’s the only way she knows how to interact with people, or because she really thinks she can make him fulfill his destiny this way? In the end, she murders Tavros, and then blames him for provoking her. Is she so hard-hearted as to believe he brought it on himself, or is she just a child trying to avoid taking the blame for her own actions?
Vriska is constantly searching for an identity. For most of the time we’ve known her, she’s modeled herself after the way her ancestor, Marquise Spinneret Mindfang, depicted herself in her journal. Vriska does everything the way she thinks Mindfang would: her treasure-hunting FLARPs, her relationships with Eridan and Tavros, her rivalry with Terezi, even her use of Doc Scratch’s magic cue ball. But in the Old Alpha timeline, modeling herself after Mindfang gets her dead by Terezi’s hand.
After that, she spends some time drifting around dreambubbles thinking about her life, and she expresses what seems like regret about killing Tavros. She briefly reasserts her Mindfang persona during the hunt for Lord English’s legendary weapon, but it all starts to fall apart when Tavros grows a spine out of nowhere and stops obeying her. She finally settles on Meenah as her new role model, adopting elements of her speech and clothing style and mellowing out quite a bit. With Meenah, Vriska is happy, in the nice, easygoing way you might hope a child of her age would be happy. But is that really Vriska? Is Mindfang or Meenah the better role model? And will this new Vriska be a better match, whether platonically or romantically, for her timeline’s Terezi?
The split between Old Alpha and New Alpha happens when John interrupts Terezi’s execution of Vriska, knocking Vriska out so she can’t fly off to fight Bec Noir and keeping her on the meteor with the rest of the surviving trolls. During the three years she spends on the meteor on the way to Alpha Earth’s session, Vriska seems to assert herself over nearly everybody: keeping Gamzee restrained, forcing Rose to stay sober, and pulling Terezi into a pale relationship that keeps her away from Gamzee, Dave, and Karkat. By all accounts, these three years on the meteor are much happier and more peaceful than the Old Alpha’s three years on the meteor. But most people’s respect for Vriska as leader is grudging at best, and even Terezi claims to have worries she was unable to confide in even her moirail. Is New Alpha Vriska nicer, or better, or less mean than the pre-Cascade Mindfangy Vriska? Is she a better Vriska than the Vriska who models herself after Meenah? Is her moirallegiance with Terezi a healthy one? And if not, is it Vriska or Terezi (or both) who deserves better?
Feel free to decide the answers to these on your own, or to consult the reams of online Vriskanalysis that draw their own conclusions. I find the best ones are those that take Vriska’s own perspective into account. EnigmaRequiem on Reddit has done a couple of posts I particularly like examining the differences between Live Vriska and Dead Vriska’s personalities and beliefs. They are glorious and complicated. Just like Vriska herself.
The problem is less that Vriska learned from her ancestor, and more that she learned all the wrong things. She learned all her bad habits from her piracy days, and none of her moral developments from beyond that. Mindfang gave up her attempts to game luck, while Vriska buried herself in the charade. Mindfang was willing to wait centuries for her matesprit, but Vriska couldn’t even wait until they grew out of FLARPing. Upon receiving heavy comeuppance for her sins, Mindfang repented, and sought a better way, while Vriska doubled down and continued to be awful forever, blaming everyone else for her failures and woes.
Hmm. I feel like that might be giving Mindfang a liiiiittle too much credit, but I agree that she was certainly on her way to possible redemption! And good point about Vriska taking away all the wrong messages. Maybe they’re not as identical as I’d originally pegged them for!
Why would Kanaya kill Vriska? Aren't they friends and teammates? Vriska isn't like Gamzee or Eridan, her only goal is to kill Jack and save everyone. Technically she's still a good guy.
I…. feel like you’re trolling me here, but I will nonetheless assume you’re not.
Vriska’s motivation is definitely not the same as Gamzee’s or Eridan’s, as she is not determined to join Bec Noir, nor is she trying to fill her omnicidal ancestor’s clown shoes. However, I think it’s giving her too much credit to say her goal is really as selfless as saving everyone. She wants to kill Noir so she can write the final chapter of the fucked-up hero’s tale that she’s cast herself in, and if it means saving the others, well, then that’s a nice bonus. She probably does care quite a bit whether they live or die, but she cares about herself and the narrative she’s constructed more.
As for whether she’s still a good guy… I guess we’ll have to let paradox space be the arbiter of that, but I have the suspicion that if/when she is finally killed, she won’t come back. Like Gamzee and Eridan, Vriska murdered a teammate who stood no chance against her, and for no other reason than she was angry and tired of him. And yes, it’s true that she showed remorse, but remorse is not enough to absolve someone of their crimes. If that were true, our jails would be a hell of a lot less populated.
But I digress. When I said “Why doesn’t she curb stomp Vriska, while she’s at it?”, it would be disingenuous to say that my personal feelings didn’t enter into it at all, but what I meant was, why doesn’t KANAYA, with her knowledge of the situation, curb stomp Vriska? She got rid of Gamzee, got rid of Eridan, but as far as threats go, god tier Vriska has the potential to be the most dangerous. However, I answered my own question upon thinking about it more: maybe Kanaya has no idea what Vriska did to Tavros. After all, she was killed chronologically before Tavros was, and she may not have had time to come across his corpse and piece together what happened before Gamzee absconded with his body and started painting in his blood.
I know you've already done a post on what you think the classes mean / do, but I don't recall one for the aspects, so. What do you think the twelve aspects each mean? Or what exactly do they represent in the characters?
If you don’t mind waiting just a bit (hopefully not long, anyway), I plan to cover this in depth in my end-of-act impressions post.
Briefly, though, I will say that it’s harder for me to find a solid, common theme between the aspects and how they’re assigned. It’s easy to see why Rose got Light, because Light is luck and knowledge and illumination, all things Rose is either lacking or needs to embrace. That fits with her Seer role, also something she has trouble embracing. But Vriska needs to overcome her Thief role, and I’m not exactly sure why she’d have to overcome luck, unless it’s a statement on how when you behave villainously, your luck will always run out. It’s also much easier to see why John got the Breath aspect than it is for me to understand why Tavros would have gotten it. I’d like to believe there’s some deeper reason than ‘it makes you fly’.
Anyway, like I said, this will all get an in-depth treatment soonish! :>
Personally I am pretty sure that Vriska's involvement did not make a iota of difference in Bec getting prototyped, much like Tavros's involvement did not make a iota of difference in Bec saving Jade from shooting herself (but did make a difference in killing Grandpa). Bec has a mind of his own. He would have saved Jade, and I mean - he teleported everything out of the room into outer space right after John fell asleep, and he didn't do that at Vriska's prompting.
The same thing would have happened if John had been awake to witness it. Maybe the double prototyping would have been blue doll + Bec, but the first guardian was going in that kernel either way.
There's a theory that for every seeming self-causing paradox in paradox space, there's actually a straight causality line from someone wanting it to happen. For example, the theory says, Jade saw helpful hints on how to orchestrate sending herself the present in Skaia because she wanted to do it herself! And would have wanted to do something like that even if she hadn't got a present way back when at all.
So according to that theory, either Vriska would have wanted to fuck up kids' life for its own sake even if Bec Noir hadn't existed - and 'he's already here' is just a convenient justification, - or she didn't REALLY cause his existence at all, just hitched a ride on an event that would have happened anyway, exactly like she says, and there's someone else whose will led to it being inevitable - in my explanation, Bec himself.
I like this! I think you make some really good points, and I was already of the opinion that Vriska only intervened to prototype Bec because she was desperate to feel like she mattered. She has to be involved, has to be the center of attention, the crux of any large event. Never mind that Aradia has done more for the session and the other trolls than Vriska ever did...
I’ve been working on an argument/convert-you-to-my-side-analysis piece on Vriska, though seeing as you just got one I think I’ll spare you the long form stuff. (For now). But I do want to share some important bits that I think are a little different from what you got before.
Find the rest, as well as my response, under the cut!
dubstep-cheese:
The gist of my main argument was that Vriska’s character - every action and dialogue - can be broken down into two parts: The twisted, sadistic, sociopath outer layer, which I dub “Spider8itch,” and the warm, gooey spider guts inside, called “Sinnamon Roll.” (He he he).
Essentially, the former is a shell constructed to protect Vriska from basically everything she had to confront. Spidermom normalized killing for Vriska by making it an act of self-preservation, and the journals, the blueprint for her shell, and for a mantle she was supposedly destined to take up, taught her to revel in it. And in hindsight it’s obvious how meticulously the spider-troll crafted her own destiny. [screener trix: mild spoilers] […] how desperately she attempted to emulate her idol. How much she wanted, needed the life of the Marquise she was meant to be heir to.
And her desperation reveals to us part 2: The mushy innards. Because, as you’ve noticed, despite how hard she tries she’s no manipulative master mind. She’s not an idiot, but she’s not as sly or smooth as the Marquise. And she’s not as heartless either. All those other deaths she says didn’t bother her, they obviously had some effect on her (the aforementioned shell), but still she could pretend there was a purpose to the killing, convince herself it was justified. It doesn’t help that Troll society agreed with her. So she saw nothing wrong with her behavior, it was just par for the course.
(Oh wow that’s four paragraphs)
That is, until Tavros. He was her first true, personal killing, and the repercussions were immediate. I don’t know if you agree, but to me her conversations with John seem like some of the only sincere conversations she’s had up until now in comic. This Vriska is the one I referred to as the Sinnamon Roll; the “true” Vriska, as far as I’m concerned. And it’s evident to me that she doesn’t really want the shell anymore, and that she never really wanted to do what she did. She thought it was what she was supposed to do, necessary even. Vriska “8ig 8itch” Serket had literally two role models in her early years: a ravenous, sacrifice-demanding lusus and the teachings of a vile and sexy pirate, evil and attractive beyond anything Vriska should’ve been exposed to (Did I mention that Serkets are hot?). She was raised to be awful and still she somehow felt remorse. I don’t think she’s villainous - I think she’s sad. And, as calloused as it sounds, I pity her leagues more than I do Tavros.
(Shit I’m still talking)
Of course, I understand that bad past or not, there’s no justifying her actual actions. She did horrible things, but I think that’s different from being a horrible person, or at least from being a permanently horrible person. I don’t believe in a moral event horizon - instead I like to focus on motivation and intent. Eridan, for example was motivated by his intense need to be a dickhole. But Vriska? Well, her motivation was to emulate her predecessor. The point is that as awful as the things she’s done are, she’s shown the potential for reform. And while I doubt she could ever be particularly “kind,” good and kind are also different. Ultimately, I think she could be a better person, and that’s enough for me to not lose faith. So, what about you? Do you think she can change? Do you think she’s worth forgiveness?
(I thought I said I’d keep this short but wow do I suck at that. Obvious Vriska fan over here, can’t contain his love for the Serket. Also, sorry if this sucks, but I wrote this almost stream of consciousness, with only a few edits and pre-planned phrases.)
I… gosh, I’m not sure where to start with this. I guess I should start by thanking you, because you obviously put a lot of thought and work into writing all this down. However, I think you may be out of luck (heh) when it comes to changing my mind about Vriska. Before I explain why, I guess I should qualify what my opinion actually is.
Vriska is one of my favorite Homestuck characters. She was compelling from the start, just like Doc Scratch, expertly written and delicately characterized. A triumph of a character, honestly. She’s loud, complicated, foolhardy, easily hurt, and sure, sometimes I want to root her on. Sure, I admire her sometimes. Do I like her? Not really, no. ‘Compelling’ and ‘sympathetic’ are very different things, and are neither mutually inclusive nor mutually exclusive. What I mean by that is, she can be a favorite without me having to like her or feel sorry for her.
Do I think she can change? Do I think she’s worth forgiveness? To me, these questions are meaningless because Vriska is a fictional character. Can she change? That’s up to Andrew Hussie. I get the feeling you’re sending me this message with insider knowledge about future remorse she might show, but at the point in the story I’ve reached, it seems to me like Hussie is implying it’s within the realm of possibility for her to change. However, within the context of the narrative, it’s pretty clear that it’s coming, as she puts it, ‘too little and too l8′. I think her character arc is clearly pointing to some kind of ‘alas, poor antihero’ death. (Feel free to laugh at me if I’m wrong, and Vriska is still kicking.) If that actually comes to pass, I’ll probably find it was fitting, and will be satisfied with her character arc. Not because I’m gung-ho about seeing her get her ass kicked, mind you, but because sometimes deaths are necessary in service to the story.
As for whether she’s worth forgiveness, again, that question seems meaningless to me. She’s worth me continuing to read about her and enjoy her character, sure. But the only people who could truly answer your question, the people she hurt, are also fictional. It’s up to Hussie to tell us through Terezi, Tavros, and Aradia’s words what they think.
I want to stress that I don’t think your opinions are wrong! You are entitled to like her as much as you want! Again, this is due to her being a fictional character. If you’d sent me the same submission about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, for example (young, handsome, well-liked, and corrupted by the influence of an older family member he looked up to), I’d have broken my finger slamming the block button. But liking Vriska, Snape, Hannibal Lecter, and any other base-breaking character out there doesn’t bother me, though I might disagree. I respect your opinion, and you have certainly made some valid points!
As to those points: I especially like what you said in the ‘mushy innards’ paragraph. I think you have it pretty spot-on, there. Her desperation and fumbling to keep up the appearance of sangfroid while living up to troll cultural expectations certainly does serve to fill out her character, and make her, like, 8x more interesting. (I’d have to consult Sassacre for the exact figures.) And like I said, I do agree that Hussie has shown she has the potential for reform. Will it matter? That remains to be seen, for me. And if she were to reform, would I like her? It’s possible. I almost wish it would happen, just to find out.
Again, thanks for this! It’s always fun to think about and really examine my thoughts on any particular character. Keep these coming, you guys (and maybe even write up a prompt for someone other than Vriskers!)
I partially agree with what you're saying about responsibility, but if Vriska see's John randomly fall asleep at that point, how can she not think that she must be responsible? It's not like anyone else can do that (I think). Regardless of her other reasons, don't you agree that if she knew that then she kind of had to do it?
Vriska’s not talking about seeing John fall asleep [as her reasoning for having put him to sleep], though. She’s talking about having seen Bec Noir already in her session. That’s why I think it was a ‘crime’ of opportunity: she was watching John, and realized that if he prototyped the doll, the Bec Noir she witnessed ruining the troll session would never come to be. That’s when and why she decided to put him to sleep.
[Edited for clarity.]
Edit 2: Although, the way she talks about it, it could have been more premeditated than that, in which case, she might have had the idea to set up Bec Noir’s existence, and then gone back through the timeline to see when John fell asleep, and then made sure it happened. Kind of the same as Bill and Ted planning to go back in time to plant helpful items for themselves. The fact that the items then show up is proof that in the future, they will indeed go back in time and plant those items.
…Fuckin’ time travel causality, man. This is confusing as fuck. @_@
