Eridan Ampora

[Sahxyel]

Since we have threads already about 'problematic' characters like Vriska or Dirk how about an Eridan thread? Love him or hate him I like reading people's opinions and then afterwards debating them, or just appreciating things like his design or theme song. Feel free to walk in and say your mind about the violet prince!

[VFFN]

Eridan as a character is very complex! I have so much to say about him desu, but it's a shame we haven't seen more of him :(

[warren]

he is a very cool concept for a villain, and i feel a lot of people get him wrong. just last night i was having a lengthy conversation with my friend about eridan. hes the kind of person who gets lonely really easy but he thinks the solution is to isolate
he reaches out, albeit not in a Good way, and gets denied so hes like HM FINE. he wants to be in a hallmark movie and have someone stop him before he leaves forever at the airport. he wants other people to be able to read his mind and pull him out of his funk, but they just cant. he has this image of feferi in his mind that just Isnt Her and he gets mad when she doesnt act like he wants her to. this all just causes him to wallow in his own pity for a little two long until he snaps bro! his belief in the caste system lends itself to his Snapping as well. he is not a good person...... but i like him He is a very tragic villain while also being a joke character and im very excited for his pesterquest route to expand on him some more.

[calamityCons]

I have always found Eridan to be extremely fascinating from many aspects and it's very difficult for me to dislike him. I have no clue why he would lash out to destroy the Matriorb and outright murder the girl he was trying to get together with (I still think it was just a cheap way to add extra drama to an already bleak situation but that's probably just me), but I found everything else about him very understandable and pitiful in the way that I wanted to give the guy a hug and then dad the shit out of him by kicking his ass about how he believes everyone should follow his internal script. He also has an extremely attractive design aesthetically and I find he has a lot of potential as a character outside of being a one-note joke villain. He expressed many times in canon that he has situational awareness and knows his friends, and wants them to be happy. He prioritizes the person he cares for over his own desires, which I mean, is kind of noble.

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I distinctly recall Eridan was really upset about something at one point, and tried to contact Karkat, but because Karkat was overwhelmed with his own problems he was unable to help, and thus Eridan went to Gamzee. When Gamzee relayed the situation to Eridan, Eridan says he feels bad about having to bother others with his feelings.

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Eridan's really just one of those characters that got shafted because the trolls were too superfluous to begin with and were just a big collection of minor characters that weren't intended to be important, and yet, the narrative spent so much fucking time setting all of them up with cool powers and interesting backstories and relatable desires and goals and shit.

So yeah in conclusion I like Eridan and he deserved better.

[TC]

I really like his scarf and his pants. He's got good pants.

[Sahxyel]

I think Eridan is a very interesting case in he's an example of social ineptitude but also I don't think there are aspects of him that are irredeemable. He definitely isolates himself and expects outreach but we have similarly seen him reach out unsuccessfully and afterwards internalizing the experience. For people he shares some kind of candor with like Karkat and Kanaya they barely give him time even when reaching out for help, and in some instances even him being absolutely genuine with them gets thrown in his face, like in the computer lab when he earnestly thanks Kanaya for making his wand and 'believing' in him only for her to throw it in his face and say she was being sarcastic. His reaching out to Karkat after his rejection from Feferi, only to discover from Gamzee that Karkat was mourning Sollux, and his offended reaction for Gamzee's glib 'miracles' line disregarding this all was an interesting character moment there. It's like he understand some aspects of social shit but any social attempt he makes goes poorly and it honestly seems like he doesn't understand why. I think he has some kind of mental problem, he just doesn't internalize very well.

Speaking of rejection from Feferi though, I appreciate him for doing what Jane Crocker had no gut to do: Eridan admitted his feelings to Feferi and put himself on the line for crushing rejection. He really is an interesting mirror to Jane, actually, as they share the aspect of being privileged children with great expectations of influence and power within their grasp. They also likewise have unrequited love affairs with a friend, and in both cases the results end poorly. Where Jane held her tongue and let Jake go, despite his insistence to ask if she liked him or not, Eridan threw himself into the ring for Feferi and was soundly rejected for the trouble. I feel like I respect him MORE for this than Jane, who bizarrely seems to get off fairly untouched from her own romance issues and is only really examined much later into the epilogues.

[KnightOfRage413]

Eridan's style is bitchin and I can't wait until I can make a cosplay for him. A cloak? A bunch of shiny rings? H e c k y e s.

Honestly I think that Eridan is such a sad character. All this importance is put upon quadrants for trolls, especially moirails which, y'know, are meant to help keep trolls (especially highblooded ones) mentally stable and not flying into murderous blood rages. And then Eridan?? Has absolutely no one?? And then sees the girl he has so many feelings for curled up in a pile with the guy he absolutely hates??

And I think one of the reasons he destroyed the matriorb was that he'd killed Feferi, one of the people who meant the most to him in the whole world, and after that, what was left? Why should he move on to help the trolls rebuild their race? If he couldn't be happy, why should everyone else?

[TC]

I just remembered I was considering buying the Eridan scarf off the What Pumpkin store back when What Pumpkin was still a store and I didn't. That's pretty sad.

[Sahxyel]

And I think one of the reasons he destroyed the matriorb was that he'd killed Feferi, one of the people who meant the most to him in the whole world, and after that, what was left? Why should he move on to help the trolls rebuild their race? If he couldn't be happy, why should everyone else?

He clearly lost all Hope at that point. Eridan in the duel proper, despite being threatened by Sollux that if he won he'd kill him, still only overwhelmed Sollux and KO'd him rather than kill him. There was a point for things to calm down afterwards and Sollux was still alive. Feferi even drew close to inspect if he was dead or not. It's when she whirled around glaring daggers and rushed him to attack that he seemed to snap. Even showing mercy, even in his own misguided way he was doing what he thought was right and thought enough of Feferi's feelings to not kill her boyfriend no matter how much he personally disgusted him.

It's like the charge itself did it. I'm not sure if Feferi ever could attack with such ferocity or hate before then, or even if she would have tried to kill him if she got close enough, but the duel was brought about by rising hostilities and ramped to the point where Eridan snapped and killed her. Afterwards he was processing it and Kanaya was making moves to attack him next.

He remarkably still spares Sollux and Karkat after this and sods off to head to the top of the Meteor, despite having every opportunity to slick the room with more gold and candy red blood too!

[Darth_Energon]

Eridan being a douche is definitely the result of troll society, but that's one of the things I find interesting about him.

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[gwynnevere]

I like him well enough. I think he could have used more development as a character, though. So much of what we think of him is mere projection.

[livingNingyo]

I remember posting this on another board, but I remember saying how he can handled redemption without going down with what Vriska in Pesterquest is something like this:

Show that he had no regrets in doing these bad things, but knows that doing these horrible actions will cause him to lose or push away connections and relationships that are dear to him. He wants to be closer to people, but conflicts on doing horrible deeds to help himself and others survive, as well as that if others were to do the same, they would breakdown easily while he is able to handle most of it. If he were to repeat the actions again, knowing the same outcome, he would do it again.

Like helping Feferi to feed her lusus. He knows if he didn't help, everyone, including himself would die. Eridan knows Feferi does not want to kill other lusii if it meant to ruin other trolls' lives despite the fact that as a fuchsia, she would have absolute power to do everything. Being a future heiress and all that. He would rather take the fall of being a monster than let himself or others close to him die. Maybe it is a selfish desire to have expected Feferi to like Eridan, but maybe he hoped she would see past that.

[Sahxyel]

He knows if he didn't help, everyone, including himself would die. Eridan knows Feferi does not want to kill other lusii if it meant to ruin other trolls' lives despite the fact that as a fuchsia, she would have absolute power to do everything. Being a future heiress and all that. He would rather take the fall of being a monster than let himself or others close to him die. Maybe it is a selfish desire to have expected Feferi to like Eridan, but maybe he hoped she would see past that.

I want to interject here and point out that Eridan never said much about stopping the feeding entirely and killing everyone, only a little so Feferi's lusus would get ornery and throw enough of a fit to cull the lowblooded land dwellers thanks to some 'off' days. He would have been inadvertently responsible for a genocide of several castes worth of Trolls and in the same stroke proved to Feferi how important he was for her to never leave him again, lest this 'accident' happen. This is like 'Disgusting Manipulator 101, Machiavellian Bullshittery for Unrepentant Assholes' stuff that he could have sunk to but did not because the thought of Feferi being sad stayed his sinful hand.

This is why I think he's pretty interesting because the guy has enough empathy for her to not be 'As Big An Asshole' as he could have been.

[calamityCons]

... He would have been inadvertently responsible for a genocide of several castes worth of Trolls and in the same stroke proved to Feferi how important he was for her to never leave him again, lest this 'accident' happen. This is like 'Disgusting Manipulator 101, Machiavellian Bullshittery for Unrepentant Assholes' stuff that he could have sunk to but did not because the thought of Feferi being sad stayed his sinful hand.

This is why I think he's pretty interesting because the guy has enough empathy for her to not be 'As Big An Asshole' as he could have been.

This is exactly what made Eridan a huge source of intrigue for me when he appeared. He was not only a complete badass fish man with a sick aesthetic, he was also a dorky nerd with a boner for wizards and fantasy books, AND was also a bit of a jackass who had delusions of grandeur and fantasized about killing the people he saw as beneath him... and yet it's all just bluster and a very clear example of him not thinking clearly because he's a fucking teenager, because when he thought that Feferi would be upset by his actions, he chose not to do that because he valued her feelings over his ambitions.

He's a right mess and I want good things for him.

[rookie1978]

Eridan's one of my favorite characters and I feel like the comic never let him live up to his potential. I remember being so excited when he was introduced. He was used as bad guy bait and then the comic forgot he existed. Dude killed angels for fun

[Drinosi]

I've always found Eridan to be misunderstood. He's actually really complex and I'm sad we didn't get to see enough of him in Homestuck. I'm excited for when his Pesterquest comes around. He tries to have that superior attitude, but in fact, I feel like he's kind of a lonely guy who could really use some friends. I think if we could have had more time for character development with him, we could have seen some really interesting things about him. He's actually one of my favorite characters because of how his personality comes off. He has that tough outer shell that wants to kill everyone, but he also wears his heart on his sleeve and anyone who would have taken the time to get to know him would have probably had a really good and loyal friend. A good friend and a healthy moirailegiance could have probably prevented a lot of the bloodshed that was caused by him.

[Generalrabogolfo]

Eridan deserved better. I really hope they do him justice in PQ at least

[sacreligiousDelphi]

Eridan is a jackass, a dweeby jackass, who very clearly thought that bowing down to Jack was the right play. He tried to convince everyone of this, and when Sollux and Feferi called him out on it, he starts killing people.

He's a coward, but he's too much of a coward to admit he's a coward.

What an interesting character.

[Sahxyel]

He tried to convince everyone of this, and when Sollux and Feferi called him out on it, he starts killing people.

https://www.homestuck.com/story/3321



He really only tries convincing Feferi and he fielded his idea of facing Jack before to her. His intention of surrendering and working for Jack Noir isn't revealed until this conversation in which case both her and Sollux react reasonably. They call his plan insane and Feferi wonders aloud why the Prince of Hope would take a cowardly exit like that. He lays down the situation is Hopeless, and honestly at that point it looks that way for the Trolls in-story. Aradia randomly exploded, Kanaya went bananas and cut Tavros' legs off with no prompting, they were still pursued by Noir, and nobody really had anything resembling a plan. An easy solution to assuaging his dumb ass would be undercutting his dramatics with the reveal that there is an actual plan in place and they'd be okay. It isn't Hopeless!



They don't really refute his drawn conclusions though, instead Feferi grimly determines they have to stop him.

Which balls into this:



Feferi doesn't seem keen into admonishing Sollux for this, or revising that they just need to kick his ass to stop him from leaving, it balls right into the duel and then everything that comes after the fact.

[sacreligiousDelphi]

My b, Sahxyel. It's all kind of a blur for me.

I do still like his character a lot.