Unpopular Opinions Thread

[syrupsand]

NGL I've found that most of the popular lesbian ships like Vriska X Terezi and Kanaya X Rose are infinitely more interesting when you replace the second party with John. Terezi X John, Rose X John, and, in case you couldn't tell by my signature, especially Vriska X John. Both Terezi X Vriska and Rose X Kanaya are overdone and have no chemistry, and just come off as kind of insipid. I dont know why people even like them beyond just "lesbians". Heck, that shouldn't even be a problem, because you've got June now. If you insist that Rose, Vriska, or Terezi must be lesbians for some contrived reason, you've sill got no reason to give flak to people who Grimdorks, JuneVris, or June X Terezi. Heck, even Rose's one page blackrom with Terezi in HS^2 is more interesting than any cannon content from either of their cannon ships.

fuck even johnaya is a best ship than rosemary only because it usually involves kimessitude and that shit is fun to read/watch

Couldnt agree more.
We need a like/dislike system man

[Shitpost Lizard]

Rosemary is a boring ship because Rose and Kanaya were already basically the same character with some surface-level differences.

Unpopular? shipping opinion: Davekat would be infinitely more interesting if Dave and Karkat were kismeses instead of matesprits. They already had the rival dynamic going on a bit before Game Over.
I don't mind the flushed ship, but I feel like the comic has turned them too much into "uguuu kyooot widdle gay beanz~", which is boring and fucking annoying. You can put them in a romantic relationship without muting the hell out of their dynamic.

[syrupsand]

Rosemary is a boring ship because Rose and Kanaya were already basically the same character with some surface-level differences.

Unpopular? shipping opinion: Davekat would be infinitely more interesting if Dave and Karkat were kismeses instead of matesprits. They already had the rival dynamic going on a bit before Game Over.
I don't mind the flushed ship, but I feel like the comic has turned them too much into "uguuu kyooot widdle gay beanz~", which is boring and fucking annoying. You can put them in a romantic relationship without muting the hell out of their dynamic.

You sir/maam/fuckface? are a proffesional shipper
Too bad my english isnt proffesional ( Augh )

[harmoniousCalamity]

Rosemary is a boring ship because Rose and Kanaya were already basically the same character with some surface-level differences.

Unpopular? shipping opinion: Davekat would be infinitely more interesting if Dave and Karkat were kismeses instead of matesprits. They already had the rival dynamic going on a bit before Game Over.
I don't mind the flushed ship, but I feel like the comic has turned them too much into "uguuu kyooot widdle gay beanz~", which is boring and fucking annoying. You can put them in a romantic relationship without muting the hell out of their dynamic.

oh my god, I loved them when they were like ---pseudo moirails or whatever was going on there, but having a davekat kissmesiss would've been like infinitely more interesting , and honestly I probably would've loved them as a flushed ship too but we don't get to see it happen, and it's just kind of there. & then like the total sapping of their characters happened as well when vriska showed up---man what was up with that? (Because everyone became kinda lame and samey at that point)

[luigi]

Couldnt agree more.
We need a like/dislike system man

I've been saying we need likes like omegaupdate for a while now. Dislikes I don't think are very helpful, if reddit is any indication they're more often used to slam people you disagree with than like shaming trolls or off-content garbage, but yeah likes would be great because then for instance I could have just liked your comment instead of clogging up the thread with my nonsense.

I see everyone leaving these based hot takes and want to participate but from what I've seen nothing I can say will be really that unpopular :^) you all make me so proud.

[overThinker]

but yeah likes would be great because then for instance I could have just liked your comment instead of clogging up the thread with my nonsense

i share the sentiment but i can easily see it backfiring with, say, the site in question becoming a sort of microcosmic form of reddit in which people compete for meaningless upvotes with insubstantial one-liners. personally i view the lack of an upvote feature as a challenge to contribute something meaningful instead of just a like. forums feel more actively communal i guess. (probably not unpopular opinions anymore)

[syrupsand]

but yeah likes would be great because then for instance I could have just liked your comment instead of clogging up the thread with my nonsense

i share the sentiment but i can easily see it backfiring with, say, the site in question becoming a sort of microcosmic form of reddit in which people compete for meaningless upvotes with insubstantial one-liners. personally i view the lack of an upvote feature as a challenge to contribute something meaningful instead of just a like. forums feel more actively communal i guess. (probably not unpopular opinions anymore)

Then just add a goddamn i agree/i disagree button
Why not?

[overThinker]

but yeah likes would be great because then for instance I could have just liked your comment instead of clogging up the thread with my nonsense

i share the sentiment but i can easily see it backfiring with, say, the site in question becoming a sort of microcosmic form of reddit in which people compete for meaningless upvotes with insubstantial one-liners. personally i view the lack of an upvote feature as a challenge to contribute something meaningful instead of just a like. forums feel more actively communal i guess. (probably not unpopular opinions anymore)

Then just add a goddamn i agree/i disagree button
Why not?

i don't know, it just feels lazy, and it seems more conducive to productive discussion if one agrees/disagrees and then explains why they do, or raises another point or whatever. two easy buttons would demotivate users from making a written post and maybe bringing something new to the table, even if they're unaware of the potential value of their take, and the buttons' connotations of positivity and negativity frame posting as a way to pursue popularity, which just isn't in the spirit of forums as a social media. the point is not to have the most correct opinion or to be the most entertaining, the point is to learn more about and actively discuss whatever you're interested in, without the social pressure or disorganization of a discord server or other alternative. i would rather be motivated to contribute by the lack of an upvote feature than be demotivated to post by the presence of an upvote feature.

[syrupsand]

i share the sentiment but i can easily see it backfiring with, say, the site in question becoming a sort of microcosmic form of reddit in which people compete for meaningless upvotes with insubstantial one-liners. personally i view the lack of an upvote feature as a challenge to contribute something meaningful instead of just a like. forums feel more actively communal i guess. (probably not unpopular opinions anymore)

Then just add a goddamn i agree/i disagree button
Why not?

i don't know, it just feels lazy, and it seems more conducive to productive discussion if one agrees/disagrees and then explains why they do, or raises another point or whatever. two easy buttons would demotivate users from making a written post and maybe bringing something new to the table, even if they're unaware of the potential value of their take, and the buttons' connotations of positivity and negativity frame posting as a way to pursue popularity, which just isn't in the spirit of forums as a social media. the point is not to have the most correct opinion or to be the most entertaining, the point is to learn more about and actively discuss whatever you're interested in, without the social pressure or disorganization of a discord server or other alternative. i would rather be motivated to contribute by the lack of an upvote feature than be demotivated to post by the presence of an upvote feature.

hmmm...


Hmmm indeed.

[Shitpost Lizard]

oh my god, I loved them when they were like ---pseudo moirails or whatever was going on there, but having a davekat kissmesiss would've been like infinitely more interesting , and honestly I probably would've loved them as a flushed ship too but we don't get to see it happen, and it's just kind of there. & then like the total sapping of their characters happened as well when vriska showed up---man what was up with that? (Because everyone became kinda lame and samey at that point)

Kind of feel like they were pushed together to "pair the spares" after the retcon, because someone really, really wanted Vrisrezi to happen, and thought "Hey, more gay rep."

But the problem with rep for the sake of rep is that you should still make it interesting. Just putting it there isn't enough.
Otherwise you're just tokenizing.

It's another part of why I don't like June being a "thing" now. It's just there for the sake of being there.
You could do something interesting with it. You could show John using gender identity to refresh his life from the monotony it's become and his dissatisfaction with that, or just the idea of him questioning his identity in general.
But nah. Let's just slap the label on. That's good enough, right? What's building character anyway?

It's a big problem I have with the current direction of HS in general. It's just lazy.
Good ideas are there, but they're just so lazily executed.

It doesn't relate to just identity and sexuality stuff either.
As much as I hate Vriska's guts, we could have seen her snap on the reporters. We could have seen Kanaya's frustration and depression while she, John, Rose, and Jade were talking about the Yiffany subject.
We could have seen Rosebot and Terezi scuffling. We could have seen the stuff that happened in the Epilogues.

But that takes effort.

[Mandy]

It's another part of why I don't like June being a "thing" now. It's just there for the sake of being there.
You could do something interesting with it. You could show John using gender identity to refresh his life from the monotony it's become and his dissatisfaction with that, or just the idea of him questioning his identity in general.
But nah. Let's just slap the label on. That's good enough, right? What's building character anyway?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but... it doesn't seem like June really is a thing? Sure, Hussie said it. He also said Sollux's full name is Solluxander. He says a lot of things that shouldn't be taken as canon. So far, there's no trace of it in actual media.

I really feel that about it being lazy, though. I don't really object to there not being flashes. Even pages without images. There's hundreds of pages in HS that would have been just as good without the image, because all the real content was in the text. But what really tells me you're right is that those aren't the pages losing their images. The pictures of people standing around typing on their phones, those are still there. But as soon as there's an action scene that could be done well with a flash, or even just a gif, that's when they switch to text. Sure, keep the text-only pages, but maybe they should have been used for the discussion before the journalist strife scene. If it's not laziness, it feels like they're intentionally choosing the worst medium for any given part of the story.

[eldomtom2]

There's him having his fingernails painted in Pesterquest, and his new-found aversion to "cute" is probably going to lead into it somehow.

[classpectanon]

but yeah likes would be great because then for instance I could have just liked your comment instead of clogging up the thread with my nonsense

i share the sentiment but i can easily see it backfiring with, say, the site in question becoming a sort of microcosmic form of reddit in which people compete for meaningless upvotes with insubstantial one-liners. personally i view the lack of an upvote feature as a challenge to contribute something meaningful instead of just a like. forums feel more actively communal i guess. (probably not unpopular opinions anymore)

Then just add a goddamn i agree/i disagree button
Why not?

i'm not adding any form of upvote/downvote and i never will. the only way that will happen is if someone else becomes the site admin and decides to do it.

[syrupsand]

i share the sentiment but i can easily see it backfiring with, say, the site in question becoming a sort of microcosmic form of reddit in which people compete for meaningless upvotes with insubstantial one-liners. personally i view the lack of an upvote feature as a challenge to contribute something meaningful instead of just a like. forums feel more actively communal i guess. (probably not unpopular opinions anymore)

Then just add a goddamn i agree/i disagree button
Why not?

i'm not adding any form of upvote/downvote and i never will. the only way that will happen is if someone else becomes the site admin and decides to do it.

Um......okaaaaayyyyy?

[VF]

Caliborn is a bad and boring character. His presence is a couple of reused jokes hinging on shock value, misogyny, thirteen year-old edge, and cheap meta commentary, which is funny the first few times but that wears thin really fucking fast. These certain parts of the fandom that have such an obsession with him as "the last good Homestuck character" is hilarious to me. Homosuck is similarly boring. Calliope is barely even a character and the dichotomy they each represent is cripplingly mediocre. Lord English, likewise, should've been given more presence, and Caliborn and Calliope should only have been mentioned, at most, in passing.

The problem with Homestuck isn't (usually) the saturation of characters but rather a lack of use and purpose for those characters, the focus of those character in the narrative, or the introduction of bad characters. You see this brought up a lot with the Beforus trolls (and rightfully so, since those characters are terrible and do nothing to advance the core themes or relationships of the narrative) but it applies to the beta trolls as well. Homestuck shouldn't have gotten rid of them or killed them off, but relegated them to a more semi-important role as prevalent side characters farther removed from the main cast. The beta and alpha kids should have always taken center stage. The carapacians and Midnight Crew, similarly, should've taken those same side rolls - not tossed away, like in canon, but maintained a limited presence that serves specific functions, such as to heighten tension or interact in some meaningful capacity. Beforus should've been cut entirely; same with everything relating to the cherubs. If we needed more, then a quick aside for the ancestors proper would've been more interesting, but ultimately still an unnecessary detour. We just needed these characters to have more of a concrete impact rather than being used as a distraction.

The beta kids should never have been split between the meteor and the battleship. That one decision is the catalyst for Homestuck turning out so shitty.

Probably not a super unpopular opinion here, but Vriska isn't a bad person or a bad character - her arc is, actually, one of the most complex and interesting in Homestuck. That said, people ignoring her (many, many, numerous) flaws is absolutely unbearable. They (by which I mean the HS2 writing team) ruined her complexity and moral grey, and I hate them for that. In general, the essentialization of characters in Homestuck to basic definitions of "good person" or "bad person" is incredibly disappointing. Gamzee is the inverse of this - complex character turning into "evil bad evil man." Fucking insufferable shit.

Dave would've been an infinitely superior character to make trans. June is dumb, and doesn't fit with John as either a canon extrapolation or as an aesthetic, and fails on multiple levels to provide any sort of substantive commentary. Trans and enby Roxy is just worse Dave, and adding them to the story had literally no benefit because it, similar to June, isn't making a commentary about anything. Trans Vriska is actually super good and fits in really well with her character, and I wish it got explored more in-depth. (Addendum: while I don't think you need to inherently justify or make commentary on the identities of your characters, retroactively applying them to pre-established canon deserves a more critical examination of what might have brought about that change. It's the change itself that needs an explanation, not the identity. What makes trans Vriska and trans Dave so good is that both of these characters fulfill their arcs in some capacity by learning about themselves on an introspective level - their path is necessarily one of self-discovery and overcoming toxic cultural prescriptions. They have a theme which complements these changes and therefore can be justified and say something that contributes to their arcs beyond blasé aesthetic difference.)

Davepeta is obviously hot trash, and Davesprite deserved better, but that isn't really unpopular.

Roxygen is one of the worst mainline Homestuck ships. It's fucking boring; neither of these characters have anything in common other than vague Dad/Mom parallels. Their chemistry is non-existent. Why the fuck was this ship so popular? They don't even have a neat "opposites attract" kind of aesthetic - it's just "boy/girl meet for one day and they fall in love." I hate the epilogues, but pointing out the obvious flaws in that ship were appreciated.

Rosemary is boring shit but it has more potential than a lot of Homestuck Critical (TM) give it credit for. Acts 4-5 Rosemary were actually really cool, and I wish their relationship hadn't been such normal weakshit nothing on the meteor. It fucking smothered what was interesting about each of those characters when it totally didn't have to. They had so much potential to be neat and I'll never not be mad that they didn't live up to that. That being said, canonically it is the best ship for both characters. My heart will always belong to Vriskan though.

Davekat is bad, and I hate it. It epitomizes everything wrong with the retcon. I am willing to bet this is not an unpopular opinion here, but I'm stating it for the record. Pre-retcon pale Davekat, on the other hand, is one of the best ships in Homestuck.

Davejade and Davejohn are the only good ships for him. Aroace Dave is also good. Davejade or Davespritejade are similarly her only good solo ships. Except BetaOT4, which is objectively the superior ship to all of these.

Spider8reath is also good. Jadekat is boring. Daverezi is fine but it isn't my cup of tea. Rosemary is in the tentative category of Okay. The best troll/human ship is Johnkat.

The trolls have a lot more chemistry between their group than they do with any of the kids.

[Khiara]

Some of the most based opinions ever, especially this one :

The problem with Homestuck isn't (usually) the saturation of characters but rather a lack of use and purpose for those characters, the focus of those character in the narrative, or the introduction of bad characters.

Sir...

[pfeffer-29]

Additionally:

Davekat is bad, and I hate it. It epitomizes everything wrong with the retcon. I am willing to bet this is not an unpopular opinion here, but I'm stating it for the record. Pre-retcon pale Davekat, on the other hand, is one of the best ships in Homestuck.

Hard agree. Also, I don't ship pre-retcon pale Davekat but I agree that it would be much better than what we have now. They had chemistry and their conversations were fun to read. It feels like after the retcon Hussie thought "well these guys worked together, let's make the relationship happen!" completely ignoring the fact that all their interactions (the basis for the ship) had been replaced by a two-minute flash. The way they got together in the Epilogues was dubiously consensual and once they were dating, they lost all their chemistry and personality.

Canon Davekat feels like the average of thousands of m/m ships. Dave is the stoic top who calms Karkat when he gets flustered. Karkat is the loud, constantly angry tsundere bottom who is alternatively pacified and annoyed by Dave. Any other character traits they have are suppressed when they interact. This makes reading their conversations a chore.

Probably the worst thing about Canon Davekat is the post-canon's insistence that it is the One True Ship across all timelines. As well as contradicting the idea of "everything is canon", this is a childish way to write relationships. People change depending on the circumstances they're in, and different timelines with different circumstances should be able to produce Daves and Karkats who would fit better with other people.

[madeforascreenshot]

Unpopular opinion:

I have never read this stupid dum dum bum ass comic or at least not past the fith act because honestly what, the, fuck. Hussy. The guy must have been addicted to adderal, coke, or pain because he put in WAY too much work on this.

Just the real truth You don't need to agree

you just need to wake up.

Peace.

[Shitpost Lizard]

I have never read this stupid dum dum bum ass comic or at least not past the fith act

Honestly, stopping after Act 5 is probably the best thing to do anyway.

I wish I knew to do that in retrospect.

[Placebo]

Davekat isn't that good