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Homestuck is one of those canons where I often veer dramatically from "This is so awesome!" to "ARGH SO ANGRY WHY CAN'T I QUIT YOU??" and back again. Right now I just feel like venting about the latter.
All the human characters are white. (The art style is a little ambiguous, but I think it's fair to assume they're meant to be white, even if we have space to interpret them otherwise) In my opinion: Since there aren't that many human characters, and most of them are related, this would be somewhat forgivable were it not for the repeated images of African Americans as sometimes creepy figures of fun. Also, there are songs on the soundtracks with names like "Tribal Ebonpire" and "Octaroon Rangoon" (the former is apparently a remix of another song called "(something else) Ebonpire" so may not be QUITE as deliberately racist as it seems, but still)
The constant over the top homophobic and ableist (and less often sexist, racist etc) language, especially from Dave.
Not being able to walk up stairs is hilarious(*). While Tavros is clearly a loser who happens to be disabled, there's this really creepy dynamic of "Lol he's crippled" that skeeves me the hell out. The way Nepeta and Terezi are talked about is a bit off sometimes as well (I'm not even sure if Nepeta is actually autistic or people are just using the word as an insult)
And now things that don't make me super angry but are still annoying:
There was this big deal made about WV fighting against the injustice of the Skaia system and the value of democracy as opposed to kings…and then he is all "Yay queens!". I can accept the pro-monarchy slant in most fantasy when there's no alternative given, as much as it irritates me sometimes, but now that democracy is on the table I just can't get invested in the whole PM is the Rightful Queen thing. And I love PM! I think she'd make a pretty good interim president until elections can be held! (I may or may not have gotten a little overinvested in WV's ode to democracy. I may also have read one too many bits of leftwing propaganda about the power of the people as a child, thus skewing my id. But, dammit, democracy is awesome!)
The gender roles aren't bad exactly, but something about them (and the other issues with the comic) makes me think they could end up going to a bad place. I've seen people complain that the ring should by rights be PM's: I can see that, and might be annoyed about it were it not for my aforementioned issues with the whole queen thing.
The pansexual dynamic is awesome but the (admittedly few) actual relationships that happen seem skewed towards straightness. Plus all the m/m subtext is about kismesis or Eriden/Equius being creepy, we haven't seen any nice m/m. This isn't really a complaint, per se (most of the m/f romance is pretty messed up too), but as with gender it makes me feel like things could, in the final analysis, end up very heteronormative.
And now I feel better. Pretty sure I forgot some stuff, but I can always rant again.
Continuing from a previous (locked, sorry) post, I will say that I like how Homestuck canon and fandom is way more open to lgbt relationships and characters than Certain Other Fandoms (Yes I am looking at you Full Metal Alchemist).
(*)Note: I can't walk up stairs (well, not unless I want to be in a fair amount of pain) This is surprisingly unhilarious.
All the human characters are white. (The art style is a little ambiguous, but I think it's fair to assume they're meant to be white, even if we have space to interpret them otherwise) In my opinion: Since there aren't that many human characters, and most of them are related, this would be somewhat forgivable were it not for the repeated images of African Americans as sometimes creepy figures of fun. Also, there are songs on the soundtracks with names like "Tribal Ebonpire" and "Octaroon Rangoon" (the former is apparently a remix of another song called "(something else) Ebonpire" so may not be QUITE as deliberately racist as it seems, but still)
The constant over the top homophobic and ableist (and less often sexist, racist etc) language, especially from Dave.
Not being able to walk up stairs is hilarious(*). While Tavros is clearly a loser who happens to be disabled, there's this really creepy dynamic of "Lol he's crippled" that skeeves me the hell out. The way Nepeta and Terezi are talked about is a bit off sometimes as well (I'm not even sure if Nepeta is actually autistic or people are just using the word as an insult)
And now things that don't make me super angry but are still annoying:
There was this big deal made about WV fighting against the injustice of the Skaia system and the value of democracy as opposed to kings…and then he is all "Yay queens!". I can accept the pro-monarchy slant in most fantasy when there's no alternative given, as much as it irritates me sometimes, but now that democracy is on the table I just can't get invested in the whole PM is the Rightful Queen thing. And I love PM! I think she'd make a pretty good interim president until elections can be held! (I may or may not have gotten a little overinvested in WV's ode to democracy. I may also have read one too many bits of leftwing propaganda about the power of the people as a child, thus skewing my id. But, dammit, democracy is awesome!)
The gender roles aren't bad exactly, but something about them (and the other issues with the comic) makes me think they could end up going to a bad place. I've seen people complain that the ring should by rights be PM's: I can see that, and might be annoyed about it were it not for my aforementioned issues with the whole queen thing.
The pansexual dynamic is awesome but the (admittedly few) actual relationships that happen seem skewed towards straightness. Plus all the m/m subtext is about kismesis or Eriden/Equius being creepy, we haven't seen any nice m/m. This isn't really a complaint, per se (most of the m/f romance is pretty messed up too), but as with gender it makes me feel like things could, in the final analysis, end up very heteronormative.
And now I feel better. Pretty sure I forgot some stuff, but I can always rant again.
Continuing from a previous (locked, sorry) post, I will say that I like how Homestuck canon and fandom is way more open to lgbt relationships and characters than Certain Other Fandoms (Yes I am looking at you Full Metal Alchemist).
(*)Note: I can't walk up stairs (well, not unless I want to be in a fair amount of pain) This is surprisingly unhilarious.
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