Homestuck & The LGBT Community (Patreon)

Hello! Long time no see! December has been a mess of a month with Doctor's appointments and Family stuff but I've not forgotten about the essays! The recording for the Archival Project is underway as well and going quite well so... That's good!

Before we begin with the contents of this little talk about the LGBT community and rep in Homestuck, I want to address something that I have recently heard about. As a lot of you are probably aware of, J.K. Rowling is supporting a transphobe on Twitter and, as a result from this, people have been showcasing how not only was this known, but she had already showcased herself to have rather unpleasant ideas about certain collectives.

A while back, talking about representation in media in general, I put J.K. Rowling as a joking example of someone that didn't quite get it and was bashed by people, but since I didn't know about her ideas and politics, I mentioned about giving her a chance, how although it seemed like 'random representation' at least it showed a hint of potential care towards the community. And while my statement of giving creators a chance when they mess representation up if their intent was to make a positive impact stands, it's obvious given her ideals that either Rowling only cares about SOME parts of the community, or simply does her schtick for an attempt for clout. Also I'd like to add that even though her work may show some of these ideals of hers, to tell people who've grown with the series, that have had a positive impact on their life thanks to Harry Potter as a whole, to simply drop the series mindlessly is kind of a dick move. Acknowledging the bad stuff and how Rowling's ideas bleed into the book is important, but you can enjoy something and acknowledge its major flaws, while building something positive from it (Lovecraft being a great example).

With that out of the way, let's get into the Meat (or is it Candy?) of this essay.

Homestuck began in 2009. All things considered, given the time frame and the general style of Homestuck, it doesn't seem like prime territory for LGBT Representation, and all things considered? It really wasn't. There were also other questionable things peppered through the initial Acts, matching well with the general vibe of the Internet in the early 2010's. Andrew Hussie is a white dude, and (at least as far as we know), he's straight. So obviously when the comic started, there was no purpose or thought given to the idea of tackling stuff regarding queer people. 

However, multiple interviews with the author have revealed a few key points to the way he thinks, about creativity, and about humor. He vehemently defends the idea of Exploration, of going down new routes, of being open to change. He also believes that humor comes from Intelligence and Awareness, that when you're aware of more things than your own personal bubble, you can come up with funny stuff, and that a failure to acknowledge these other points of view can lead an artist to creating bigoted material while trying to 'be funny'. Of course, Hussie is not exempt of this, some of his older work shows these very issues, but they also speak of something important- His drive to change and actual concern for doing good.

There are a lot of ways to describe Homestuck, but Hussie himself has gone at length about his ideas for it. A Creation Myth, a story about Kids growing up. And this is an important thing to keep in mind, because while initially not thinking about some of the things he added, or considering collectives like the LGBT Community, his main desire for the story he built was to showcase the growth and evolution of young Teens going through some frankly awful stuff. He didn't expect his story to attract so many queer folks, but when it did, he wanted them to feel included, in his words, not because he was thinking of the idea of 'representation' in those terms, but merely because he wanted to be true to people and the different range of experiences.

Hussie has messed up a lot. Sometimes something escapes, other times old work with less palatable ideals pops up. Sometimes he doesn't realize something he did was wrong until people point it out. And that is, really, one of his biggest strengths- The ability to acknowledge stuff he did wasn't good, and actually providing apologies where needed and changing things for the better (See: The Skaianet Fiasco).

Of course the dude is not flawless, and of course representation could be better in Homestuck. However, there's a genuine effort in his work, and not simply to 'add' representation. It's not simply relationships or acknowledgement of people being attracted to other people, the strength in the way LGBT Characters are shown in Homestuck comes from the talking. Having Rose and Kanaya get together is great, but having Dave talk with John at length about toxic masculinity and his relationship to sexuality, and the ways he fucked up when he was wrong and how John still doesn't quite 'get it' but he's willing to share this stuff with him, is something you don't see always. Having Davepeta show up and refer to themselves with neutral pronouns is nice, but actually acknowledging some initial realization about their gender identity, and talking it with Jasprose, solidifies it a lot more for me.

Hussie is a cis, straight dude, and he's messed up of course. But it's moments like these that genuinely sell for me his look on the community. His characters are complex and nuanced, and much like the story, and the author, they evolve. They show confusion about their feelings and interpersonal relationships, they show growth and regression, and a search for happiness in one way or another. It's not simply the representation, but the earnest effort to understand and showcase various different kinds of experiences, that make me really enjoy what the comic has done for the members of the LGBT Community.

And then there's the Epilogues. 

Hoo boy. We're going there.

The Epilogues are a... Messy subject. A lot of people have read it in an extremely negative light, specially regarding LGBT representation, and you can easily see why. As I've said many times before, I like the Epilogues but I will never, ever, want to force anyone to like them because I think they read them wrong (Although I'd appreciate if people also stopped sending slurs and hate to my Inbox for liking them, *COUGH COUGH*). But I personally think there's a lot of good in them, and yes, good even for LGBT Representation.

Let me, first of all, address a common complaint, about how the Candy Timeline made everything very... Cishet. And, you know what, it's true! It really is, the characters having babies or being unable to have babies, the way the pairings are split off and re-arranged... It should be noted, however, that this is an intentional thing, or at least a consequence of an intentional desire. Candy acts as a Monkey's Paw Timeline, that makes ships that were popular in the Fandom but never came to fruition a thing. Roxy and John. Meenah and Karkat. Dave and Jade. Jane and Gamzee. Eridan and Feferi. Of course you can criticize the side-effect of it making the Epilogues a lot more het, but at the same time, it's important to understand first where these pairings came from, and also, how... Practically none of them work in the end. 

John's conflict with the Timeline ruins his relationship with Roxy. Karkat settles with Meenah as a rebel leader, while still obviously missing his old friends and partner/s but being unable to bring himself to put them through the trouble of the Rebellion. Dave settles with Jade out of lack of choices, and his separation from Karkat makes him re-consider his sexuality once more from his thought of being bisexual, to being gay. Eridan and Feferi are literally set up by Gamzee as a 'redemption arc' bullshit, and I don't think I have to say anything about the awfulness of Gamzee and Jane. Even Jake and Jane just doesn't work either, he settles with her in the wake of Dirk's death, but... Yeah.

Of course people also cite the Meat Timeline and namely the split between Rose and Kanaya, as if this was something good or that was going to be lasting, either.  The Epilogues are fucking awful on the characters, so many bad things happen to them. It's why I am not going to make anyone ever try to enjoy them if they didn't. But precisely because they showcase such an awful sequence of events, it's important to see what the Epilogues actually frame as Good, and what is obviously Bad Stuff that needs to be fixed, and is absolutely going to be fixed in Homestuck^2.

And I know that it's going to be fixed. That's not even up for debate, things are going to be better, because the Epilogues are an incredibly low point for the series as a whole, so many awful things happen, and everything that's come after it is a direct response to the negativity of the Epilogues. Because it's not who Hussie is, but namely, it's also not who the WhatPumpkin Team is.

A really interesting thing Hussie has done, is basically give the keys of the official Homestuck content to a trusted Team. Of course he's still there, overseeing stuff, laying rules, but the people behind the content itself as it's presented, is a team of fans, largely some shade of LGBT+. A hugely queer team that loves the setting, that loves the characters. A narrative that has framed all the bad things that happen to the characters as bad and unfair. Side-projects that poke fun at the Epilogues and narrative unfairness and literally give us a wish-fulfilling narrative to make the characters happy. If you don't think the future of Homestuck is both extremely queer, and all about working out through the issues the story has presented until now to make people be happy, I don't know what to tell you.

And even within the Epilogues themselves, beyond all the awful things that happen, you can still find a fair deal of extremely interesting LGBT content. Roxy talking about their relationship to gender, and seeing it reflected in two different Timelines in different ways is huge and comparable to Dave's whole talk about toxic masculinity and sexuality. There's Dave's talk with Roxy about gender and sexuality themes as well. There's a visible push against a restrictive regime that could develop into fascism, and the stories of people living in such a world striving to stop tyranny from taking over their lives, and even as the planet goes into war, pushing back as a revolutionary force and not letting themselves be silenced. Even the breakup of Rose and Kanaya is not shitting on these themes, because the instant the manipulation wears off, Kanaya's objective becomes to save Rose, and it's single-handedly the motivator for the group to chase after Dirk. There's not a lack of love or representation in this relationship, but insidious manipulation that requires someone to be rescued. It's practically a classic epic of an odyssey to save a corrupted lover.

But none of these things are easy to swallow, and that's the issue. Relationships are shown, in Homestuck, in both toxic and non-toxic ways. Break-ups and reunions are shown, how characters come to terms with abusive events and how they learn to cope with stuff, pinning and missing, joy and sadness, and how things work with someone or stop working and complex situations that make one question how good or bad someone is for someone else. These are all things that happen in real life, and with the Epilogues painting largely negative events in the lives of the main characters, this also means a lot of hurt in their relationships, romantic and otherwise. In no moment do these different explorations of events negate someone's sexuality or the validity of a relationship. 

Homestuck led towards something positive, and as such, the LGBT characters and themes had a lot of positive things relating to them. The Epilogues was a fall from grace, a dark reality, meant specifically to have fucked up shit happen, and as such, the LGBT characters suffered in turn. And if you think that suddenly means that the Team and Hussie don't care about the community or the characters anymore, and that future projects aren't going to be exactly about fixing what's happened and making people be happy again, then, are we following the same people?

The last thing I want to talk about is the Epilogues' stance on itself being dubiously canon content. I've gone at large about that, how it's 'official' content but it holds itself as one of many possibilities, as just a route the authors want to explore. And this is important to talk about, because by exploring a character's gender identity, or pairing them up with someone specific, you 'lock' them in the eyes of the Fandom one way or another. Roxy is a great example of this, Roxy has a large following that sees her as a trans girl, me included, but the Epilogues showed us Roxy being dfab, and some shade of non-binary, and perhaps even a trans guy by the time the Meat Epilogues end. As good as they are in the way they're showcased, their experiences and their thoughts about gender, this still seems like a slap to the face to the large trans girl Roxy fanbase.

And that's why the Dubious Canonicity holds extra importance to me. It's not just about the plot- It's the characters. The WhatPumpkin Team wants to acknowledge things about characters, their sexualities and preferences, their gender identity and exploration, but once you've "canonically" settled on something, it's a big change the Fandom has to adapt to. However their acknowledgement of Fanfic having the same weight tells us that they want us to explore other routes. To not feel constrained by this, that different reads of the same character are valid, so long as they're striving to be happy.

And of course, outside of the Epilogues, things like Vriska being trans, the potential for June Egbert to happen in the future, and mild trans undertones in Sollux's Pesterquest route as well tell us that the future of Homestuck has always been, and still is, queer as fuck.

So remember, if you lose hope about how things are going to be handled in the future, remember that when Murderstuck happened, people were in disbelief at the characters that were dying. When Game Over happened, people were rightfully worried as well. We've had low points where awful things happen to character. But the Epilogues took it to a more personal extreme, with their relationships and the world they're trying to live in. And yet precisely, because of the precedent we've seen before, and what we see the Team still doing?

I have no doubt the Gay Singularity is still underway.

PS: I didn't even talk about EVERYTHING that's queer in the comic. I actually intended to pretty much list the importance of the various LGBT bits in Homestuck but ended up rambling more about authorial intent and development, as well as the current Team and the Epilogues.

As per usual, if y'all want to talk more specifically about some detail, the Discord and Tumblr are always open for extra discussion!