Unpopular Opinions Thread

[egg]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - everything in Homestuck is a joke until Hussie decides it isn't, and for Bro that really messed some stuff up.

[calamityCons]

Homestuck has a lot of opportunities to be a kickass action comedy like all those superhero cartoons and shonen anime that I loved as a kid and love to this day. The swerve into Teen Drama with Hivebent was the beginning of the end of my enjoyment of the series, and Act 6's introduction with IMMEDIATE love triangle setups made me quit outright.

And yeah, you're right, Dave was ALWAYS given the symbolism of becoming himself. He looked up to his older brother but was put on impossible standards that fucked him up more than he wanted to admit. He can take a beating, absolutely. He can deal with some really fucked up shit, definitely. But he's still a human and he still had all that shit surrounding him that was all pointing to one main character arc of "I am not my brother, and I will spread my wings, learn to fly, and become myself in spite of the damage done to me."

I mean the fucking. There are consistent themes of patience (waiting for the egg to hatch, waiting until he could go no further to timetravel and become Davesprite), getting explicitly or symbolically damaged beyond repair (his 1/2 Swordkind abstratus, his broken record shirt, the hatched egg, his meteor being sliced in half), Bro being the explicit CAUSE of that damage (Bro throws Dave down the stairs, Bro splits his Record icon in half, Bro breaks the meteor in half), and also, crucially, of Dave growing beyond that pain through the baby bird symbolism that is often related to Trying Again, after the way baby birds fall down many times before they learn to fly properly. And also, him using his traumatic experiences as creative inspiration for SBAHJ and the stairs gag.

I kinda thought Dave already managed to finish his character arc by the end of Act 5 when he chose to go with Rose to destroy the Green Sun with the Tumor, fearlessly dedicated to a heroic sacrifice that is 100% his own decision and not at all influenced by his shitty older brother. But uh. I guess not????

[egg]

snippity snoppity

Dave was always a very plot relevant character, and I figured Hussie probably wanted to do something with him Post-Act 5. In that sense Dave still had quite a few issues to deal with. The ones with Bro were major ones, but also he had problems with emotional repression for example.

[JakeMorph]

yeah idk why a main character of the comic should be expected to just sit around and not talk about his feelings for the whole rest of the story just because he completed ONE character arc

[Sahxyel]

I kinda thought Dave already managed to finish his character arc by the end of Act 5 when he chose to go with Rose to destroy the Green Sun with the Tumor, fearlessly dedicated to a heroic sacrifice that is 100% his own decision and not at all influenced by his shitty older brother. But uh. I guess not????

I personally thought there was something very strange of how Dave with all his time shenanigans seems to give up while fighting Bec Noir with Jade and dies, and afterwards doesn't really use time travel again. This is my star moment of pointing and saying "maybe Dave is a selfish asshole after all" because his resolution is to get in on Rose's own suicide run with the Tumor who had better reasons for doing so and was placed on that path by Doc Scratch and her own first body dying facing off against Bec Noir to no avail even with the Horrorterror's strength.

What's also terrible is this is set up with Jade accidentally killing Dave with redirected bullets and she just doesn't see him again afterwards. I inferred that later on when Grimbark Jade is upset and furious at Dave over Davesprite, she might also be holding him abandoning her and dying against Bec Noir as well, since his job as a time player is to...not! Not do that!

Now my expectation especially with Jade's Grimbark moment is for Dave to finally get over himself and Be The Hero, basically spread his wings and finally fly to rise to the occasion except...when he has the opportunity he again refuses to use his time powers and gets fucking killed while trying to retrieve Jade's body in Game Over. Retcon jump and he's using time travel after having a pretty shitty conversation where he dumps on Dirk how awful Bro was (and I personally think this is a significant moment for Dirk where he gets the confirmation he really can't try being good, making his villainous turn happen in the Epilogue). Dave is so self-focused, so fucking blind to his friends, and rises to the occasion in this timeline because he has synthesized that doing so is not a reflection of Bro for some reason and not because he should step up so his friends and him survive and finish this stupid fucking game.

TLDR: DAVE BECOMES A NARCISSISTIC ASSHOLE AND A BAD FRIEND WHEN HE DIDN'T USED TO BE THAT.

[Generalrabogolfo]

TLDR: DAVE BECOMES A NARCISSISTIC ASSHOLE AND A BAD FRIEND WHEN HE DIDN'T USED TO BE THAT.

and this is basically why i hate him

[thorondraco]

I kinda thought Dave already managed to finish his character arc by the end of Act 5 when he chose to go with Rose to destroy the Green Sun with the Tumor, fearlessly dedicated to a heroic sacrifice that is 100% his own decision and not at all influenced by his shitty older brother. But uh. I guess not????

I personally thought there was something very strange of how Dave with all his time shenanigans seems to give up while fighting Bec Noir with Jade and dies, and afterwards doesn't really use time travel again. This is my star moment of pointing and saying "maybe Dave is a selfish asshole after all" because his resolution is to get in on Rose's own suicide run with the Tumor who had better reasons for doing so and was placed on that path by Doc Scratch and her own first body dying facing off against Bec Noir to no avail even with the Horrorterror's strength.

What's also terrible is this is set up with Jade accidentally killing Dave with redirected bullets and she just doesn't see him again afterwards. I inferred that later on when Grimbark Jade is upset and furious at Dave over Davesprite, she might also be holding him abandoning her and dying against Bec Noir as well, since his job as a time player is to...not! Not do that!

Now my expectation especially with Jade's Grimbark moment is for Dave to finally get over himself and Be The Hero, basically spread his wings and finally fly to rise to the occasion except...when he has the opportunity he again refuses to use his time powers and gets fucking killed while trying to retrieve Jade's body in Game Over. Retcon jump and he's using time travel after having a pretty shitty conversation where he dumps on Dirk how awful Bro was (and I personally think this is a significant moment for Dirk where he gets the confirmation he really can't try being good, making his villainous turn happen in the Epilogue). Dave is so self-focused, so fucking blind to his friends, and rises to the occasion in this timeline because he has synthesized that doing so is not a reflection of Bro for some reason and not because he should step up so his friends and him survive and finish this stupid fucking game.

TLDR: DAVE BECOMES A NARCISSISTIC ASSHOLE AND A BAD FRIEND WHEN HE DIDN'T USED TO BE THAT.

Dave is less selfish and more cautious and antisocial than anything. He literally has no idea how ot properly interact. Thus why a lot of the time his social interactions including both shoving his foot down his own mouth that it comes out his anal cavity, and being compeltely unaware of this and sputtering past what is likely his hipbone at that point.
Dave definitely went through a lot of trauma himself. He likely saw sooo many dead versions of himself trying to figure out his powers. And Time powers seem to be the msot restricted of all the powers.
From what i can gather Time powers usage often ends up extremely situational. because time is what paradox space bases its loops on, and thus is the most punishing when that loop is in any way disrupted. He probably senses when he can use time powers, and senses when he can't with the latter being more common.. He could very well have the echoes of the selves that died doing the very thing he wanted to use those powers for.

Also he probably sensed he had to die against bec noir in that instance to complete the timeline stuff. It was probably the start of his hesitance with this whole thing. Worse is that as time went on and he interacted with peeps in a semi normal basis he realized just how fucked up his life was. He grew to hate his Bro and wanted to be anything but what his Bro tried to make him. It definitely was a bit selfish but he was robbed of any semblance of a normal life, beyond even his other friends and it really fucked with him.

John just straight had the greatest parent in all of paradox space, the holder of the fabled DAD aspect. Rose's mom was a drunk who struggled to properly interact and care for her daughter but tried to provide her with anything she could want, struggling to make up for it.
Jake Hraley was an irredeemable duche but he wanted to care for his grandaughter/litreal daughter. Probably felt a lot of distance with her anyway cause, he knew she was gonna die. And also got karmaed for his parental abandonment shit by being shot.
Bec was very protective and doting, to the point that his very dna is filled with his affection for Jade. But he was a dog who couldn't talk and was a creepy faceless eldritch retriever.

Then you have freaking Dave Strider, Bro type. Aloof, almost robotically detached, probably for his own ego feeding more than anything. Probably all normal interaction with dave ended when he could feed himself, and proceeded to boobytrap his house, put up spy cameras fucking EVERYWHERE as revealed in pesterquest, and continued to harass, torment, and violently attack Dave for perhaps a literal decade. Motherfucker didn't even keep a stocked refrigerator. He probably had a secret room all to himself in that damn apartment too, leaving Dave to live in the puppet porn hellpit. Fucker probably had an entire stock of applejuice and would randomly squirrel Dave's meals away in random places. If Dave doesn't find it, then he starves.

Basically yea we see all of he kids fighting their parents in one way or another, but for DAve, that was his only interaction with Bro. So i think he earned some slack there.

[Cyber-Fan]

I never really thought about how weird it is that Dave doesn't use his time powers to save Jade in Game Over despite having just used them to save the mayor.

[arachnidsGrip]

I might've said this already, I can't remember, but I'm going to say it again in light of the new Pesterquest teasers: I think Eridan is completely and totally overrated. He's a murderer and an asshole, and honestly I can't see him as anything else. I've read basically every defense for him, and I just... I don't see it. I wish he had gotten more screen time and development, or less screen time and development. The amount we got was too little to solidify him as a very compelling character, but just enough for people who like sadboys to latch on to him for dear life. I'm honestly just sick of seeing his face. He's been drastically overshadowing Feferi in popularity with the recent Pesterquest sprite teasers and it's honestly kind of infuriating. The guy who MURDERED Feferi is getting more attention than Feferi herself. I think he makes a good opposing force, a kind of mini villain I guess, but nobody treats him like that. Everyone treats him as if he did nothing wrong. >:/

[BrobyDDark]

I'd rather read something about someone who did something wrong and was an interesting mini-antagonist, even if his motives make no fucking sense, than read something about someone who did nothing. Also, he stylin'.

The thing is, though, yeah he is an asshole and a murderer, but the defense is basically that he shouldn't be an asshole and a murderer. There was no reason for him to knock out Sollux and then murder Feferi. It would make sense for it to be the other way around.

And then destroy the matriorb because ?????????

I would rather his motivations be written out more clearly than him just left at "yeah he's an asshole murderer now because we need conflict"

[JakeMorph]

he was talking about committing genocide since like his introduction I don't know how his motives could be more clearly written than that

[BrobyDDark]

And then making excuses for why he wouldn't.

And I mean in Murderstuck, where he decided to become a maniac for no reason.

[calamityCons]

I think this belongs in the Eridan Ampora forum thread, guys.

[Dream Muttman]

My unpopular Bro opinion is that the sequence of 8 panels that starts after this one [https://www.homestuck.com/story/2762] shouldn't have been in the comic at all.

[Generalrabogolfo]

I might've said this already, I can't remember, but I'm going to say it again in light of the new Pesterquest teasers: I think Eridan is completely and totally overrated. He's a murderer and an asshole, and honestly I can't see him as anything else. I've read basically every defense for him, and I just... I don't see it. I wish he had gotten more screen time and development, or less screen time and development. The amount we got was too little to solidify him as a very compelling character, but just enough for people who like sadboys to latch on to him for dear life. I'm honestly just sick of seeing his face. He's been drastically overshadowing Feferi in popularity with the recent Pesterquest sprite teasers and it's honestly kind of infuriating. The guy who MURDERED Feferi is getting more attention than Feferi herself. I think he makes a good opposing force, a kind of mini villain I guess, but nobody treats him like that. Everyone treats him as if he did nothing wrong. >:/

i doubt this is an unpopular opinion when most of the fandom already hates him. if youre seeing more people defending/liking him now itd mostly be because his route in pesterquest.

[egg]

Lil' Cal is the sexiest Homestuck character.

[arachnidsGrip]

I might've said this already, I can't remember, but I'm going to say it again in light of the new Pesterquest teasers: I think Eridan is completely and totally overrated. He's a murderer and an asshole, and honestly I can't see him as anything else. I've read basically every defense for him, and I just... I don't see it. I wish he had gotten more screen time and development, or less screen time and development. The amount we got was too little to solidify him as a very compelling character, but just enough for people who like sadboys to latch on to him for dear life. I'm honestly just sick of seeing his face. He's been drastically overshadowing Feferi in popularity with the recent Pesterquest sprite teasers and it's honestly kind of infuriating. The guy who MURDERED Feferi is getting more attention than Feferi herself. I think he makes a good opposing force, a kind of mini villain I guess, but nobody treats him like that. Everyone treats him as if he did nothing wrong. >:/

i doubt this is an unpopular opinion when most of the fandom already hates him. if youre seeing more people defending/liking him now itd mostly be because his route in pesterquest.

No man, I was seeing plenty defending him before. Trust me, it's unpopular enough.

[Nep]

Here's an unpopular opinion.

I fucking love Bro Strider and he's been always a fucking awesome badass, the anime styled fights that he had with Dave were fucking kickass and he made early sburb Dave kick ass. Also he fucking SPLIT THE METEOR IN HALF, NORMALLY METEORS ARE HOT AS FUCK AND REALLY FAST.

Also it was awesome that he's the only guardian who fought Jack TWICE.

[BrobyDDark]

Bro Strider is a true god.

[Generalrabogolfo]

another unpopular opinion: act 5 act 1 is bad af and breaks the pacing completely. i know, i know, you can start throwing your rocks now.