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Can I... can I tweet about Homestuck for a moment?
I should be writing smut but I have ADHD and Things To Say About Nepeta.
I should be writing smut but I have ADHD and Things To Say About Nepeta.
Nepeta is a really interesting character because the writer designed her to be just this incredibly lovable, weird, and absolutely tangential character. She doesn& #39;t matter. Her only role is to be cute and maybe a little annoying and flesh out the troll cast.
She has a rough time of it. Her only loyal friend is a creep who doesn& #39;t deserve her and lets her down. She has an unrequited infatuation and spends her time living vicariously through other people& #39;s relationships.
Unlike the other troll kids, Nepeta never really escapes her Ancestor& #39;s shadow. She lives out her Ancestor& #39;s tragic story and then, after doing nothing wrong, dies in a senseless and cruel way. Her only friend lets her down and the writer kind of spins it as a joke.
Her death is not remarked upon afterwards by anyone. Because she has no close friends aside from the guy who was supposed to protect her, who she died for. Nobody& #39;s happy she& #39;s dead, but nobody comments on it or shows real deep emotion. She simply didn& #39;t matter to anyone.
The author spends the next couple years joking about "NepetaQuest", recognizing that people loved Nepeta—because they were supposed to—and lampshading that she will never actually get a story dedicated to her. Because she doesn& #39;t matter.
Nepeta is brought back with Feferi as Fefeta, and then self-destructs, and it& #39;s implied that Nepeta gets to have something of a happy ending there—the gay catgirl and gay sea witch off playing dressup together in the bubbles???
Then, a shock! Nepeta is revived? Another gay romance with everyone& #39;s secret catgirl crush is in the works... only to be "foiled" by the emergence of Davepetasprite, who is, to be clear, an absolute *delight*, but still isn& #39;t Nepeta.
It& #39;s heavily implied by the semi-canon epilogue that the Dream Bubbles are no more, and that Nepeta has achieved a final death. If you follow that reading, Nepeta as we knew her no longer exists.
Nepeta never gets to grow up. She will always be a 13-year old (or 16-year old? it& #39;s weird!) catgirl troll with an unrequited crush and a single close friend. Nobody will ever speak of her. She is roughly as important as Equius and somewhat less important than Feferi or Sollux.
I honestly don& #39;t know if the sheer casual cruelty of her treatment is good or bad storytelling. It& #39;s obviously deliberate. Hussie likes to pick at narrative conventions, and I think there& #39;s something very powerful about a character whose tragedy extends into the metanarrative.
This is actually a huge part of why I ignore the epilogues. I think some ambiguity on what happens next actually creates a more "complete" arc that matches Homestuck& #39;s core message better.
Sburb failed these kids. It& #39;s a horrid, abusive game that forces kids into unfair predefined narratives. That& #39;s the point.
In leaving ambiguity as to the fates of Nepeta, Feferi, Sollux, Sad Vriska, and all the Dream Bubble characters, they can be set free from those narratives.
In leaving ambiguity as to the fates of Nepeta, Feferi, Sollux, Sad Vriska, and all the Dream Bubble characters, they can be set free from those narratives.
We can imagine that they escaped, that they continued into eternity, or that they were rescued and taken to the new world.
No matter what, their stories will go beyond the game& #39;s scope. It can be totally left open. The game is over and the author is dead. Thank goodness.
No matter what, their stories will go beyond the game& #39;s scope. It can be totally left open. The game is over and the author is dead. Thank goodness.
But seriously, the heads thing was too far, Andrew.
