there is something so special to me about the way beyond canon plays with the established language of symbolism. characters are drawn in kid mode when they don't feel like adults, on even a metanarrative level.
in chapter 4 of hell tier, vriska is "changed into uniform" by doc scratch, and vitally, the "uniform" in question is the form of her six-sweep self, and it disgusts her.
after the battle, it starts from john's perspective, and the veil over his perception of himself and his friends becomes very immediately clear.
it's even capitalized upon in later pages, after jade punches john and everyone is looking down on him, and he feels so out of his depth.
john never grew up. he never left the game. but unlike vriska, this metanarrative veil of "kid mode" is something he has embraced as a comfortable, familiar shield against reality. for vriska, it was forced on her, a traumatic and violating episode of age regression for the morbid amusement of a horrible man, just so that he would have the pleasure of toying with a child, and not an adult. an analogue, to the terrors she felt back then, and how the game affected her.
but john? john is not vriska. that difference was staked years ago. john was handed his life and his quest on a silver platter, and was scarcely challenged by anything besides his own stubbornness. anything that did challenge him, he would go out of his way to ignore, to repress, to get away from. and it's catching up to him now, when everyone else grew up, and he missed it.
jacobvanloon
izzy806
blakekathryn
