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edenfallingI read a Homestuck fic on ff.net this afternoon that pissed me off so much I do not have words. It is, by the author's own words, an argument in story form that Dave/Terezi cannot work. Which, okay, fair enough; we all have our own positions on shipping.
...Except if you read the story, you discover the so-called reasoning this author bases hir argument on. Which is that if Terezi is with Dave, then she is by definition not with Karkat. Therefore Karkat will kill himself from romantic angst and everything else will consequently go to shit, including a whole bunch of other character deaths. And the author's solution is not to get Karkat's canonical moirail (who is meant to help calm him down and deal with his emotional shit; that is the entire point of a pale relationship) to, you know, have a feelings jam with him. Nor is the solution to have Terezi say, "Oh, whoops, sorry Karkat, I didn't realize Dave and I were completely shutting you out. Let's hang out as friends sometimes." Nor is it even to get Rose to give Karkat therapy sessions, which he desperately needs if he's that close to suicide, whatever the final trigger.
No. The solution, obviously, is that Dave has to break up with Terezi for her own good, and she has to go be Karkat's matesprit to save everybody. And she has to feel like shit about ~mistreating~ him, and not come up with any good arguments against Dave's plan (even though this is Terezi, for fuck's sake; she would see through this bullshit in half a second flat).
Because clearly Terezi is a sexual object with no volition or needs or desires of her own. And that object must be given to Karkat as a reward.
Fuck. That. Noise.
...
I want to leave a review explaining the fundamental problems with this dynamic, but I don't think I can be coherent and polite enough to get the point across without making the writer tune me out as a flamer.
(The fic is also fucked up from a characterization standpoint -- I mean, the opening paragraph has Terezi smiling kindly at Dave and thinking he's never been anything but kind to her, which, dude, are you reading the same comic I'm reading? Their entire relationship is based on snarking each other to death, aside from occasional moments of deep communion that they then cover up with more snark. But mostly it's the underlying woman-as-sexual-prize dynamic that makes me literally shake with rage. Because that can happen to any female character, anywhere, any time, and it is SO FUCKING NOT ON.)
...
So yeah. That happened.
-----
In other news, my NBB wordcount = 13,800. Also, Ilgamuth & co are finally, really, truly, honest-to-gosh out of Had Ordjah. Of course, they are now going to be chased for miles by the really pissed off High Lord of Rachegra and half his army, but still. Victory!
...Except if you read the story, you discover the so-called reasoning this author bases hir argument on. Which is that if Terezi is with Dave, then she is by definition not with Karkat. Therefore Karkat will kill himself from romantic angst and everything else will consequently go to shit, including a whole bunch of other character deaths. And the author's solution is not to get Karkat's canonical moirail (who is meant to help calm him down and deal with his emotional shit; that is the entire point of a pale relationship) to, you know, have a feelings jam with him. Nor is the solution to have Terezi say, "Oh, whoops, sorry Karkat, I didn't realize Dave and I were completely shutting you out. Let's hang out as friends sometimes." Nor is it even to get Rose to give Karkat therapy sessions, which he desperately needs if he's that close to suicide, whatever the final trigger.
No. The solution, obviously, is that Dave has to break up with Terezi for her own good, and she has to go be Karkat's matesprit to save everybody. And she has to feel like shit about ~mistreating~ him, and not come up with any good arguments against Dave's plan (even though this is Terezi, for fuck's sake; she would see through this bullshit in half a second flat).
Because clearly Terezi is a sexual object with no volition or needs or desires of her own. And that object must be given to Karkat as a reward.
Fuck. That. Noise.
...
I want to leave a review explaining the fundamental problems with this dynamic, but I don't think I can be coherent and polite enough to get the point across without making the writer tune me out as a flamer.
(The fic is also fucked up from a characterization standpoint -- I mean, the opening paragraph has Terezi smiling kindly at Dave and thinking he's never been anything but kind to her, which, dude, are you reading the same comic I'm reading? Their entire relationship is based on snarking each other to death, aside from occasional moments of deep communion that they then cover up with more snark. But mostly it's the underlying woman-as-sexual-prize dynamic that makes me literally shake with rage. Because that can happen to any female character, anywhere, any time, and it is SO FUCKING NOT ON.)
...
So yeah. That happened.
-----
In other news, my NBB wordcount = 13,800. Also, Ilgamuth & co are finally, really, truly, honest-to-gosh out of Had Ordjah. Of course, they are now going to be chased for miles by the really pissed off High Lord of Rachegra and half his army, but still. Victory!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-15 03:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-15 04:20 am (UTC)What's even weirder is that the author recognizes the moirail relationship in the other direction -- that is, Karkat's hypothetical suicide sends his moirail spiraling out of control because Karkat's not around to help calm him down anymore -- so why ze missed that said moirail could AND SHOULD help Karkat rather than anyone dumping his emotional catastrophe onto Terezi baffles me. The whole point of troll romance is that no one person is the be-all and end-all to any other person! (Which I do not think is a healthy dynamic in human romances either, though I concede that we at least do have that notion floating around as an unrealistic ideal. Trolls don't, though. So why impose it on them?)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-15 07:07 am (UTC)Especially Terezi would be totally up to letting him lead her around with emotional blackmail! Does this person have any clue who those characters ARE, or are they going with "karkat is jilted and she OWED HIM"???
Gnarghghgh.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-15 09:56 pm (UTC)