this homestuck discourse shit is easy

gamzee kills people because he is trying to spoil the show; he's going off script because he wants to be written out.

before murderstuck, gamzee has no idea that he is a clown. sure, he anoints his face with greasepaint, rides a unicycle, and juggles, but these are serious religious sacraments to him. and, sure, sometimes he trips on his giant floppy shoes and lands face first in a pie, but that's just being blessed with a miracle, because he was just thinking about pie. and, sure, sometimes his friends say things like "HEY ASSHOLE. CLOWN ASSHOLE. YOU WORSHIP A CLOWN RELIGXON. FOR CLOWNS." to him, but he's too zonked on sopor slime to extract any meaning from it.

when gamzee sees the ICP miracles video, he's too sober to dismiss it as a mere coincidence; for once, he gets the joke, and realises that he was the butt of the joke the whole time. he understands that every time he fell face first in a pie, it was the work of an unsen riddler. he grasps that he is, in a cosmic sense, a clown, and hates it.

the next time the curtain rises and hussie says "everyone look! he's about to do something stupid!" gamzee goes shithive maggots and starts mauling his friends and fondling corpses; every time hussie says "don't worry, folks, he can't hear us making fun of him! everyone point and laugh!" gamzee gets angrier. that's what the "are you next?" bit is about - gamzee is aware of, and hates, the audience.

when the murder spree is over, gamzee's beatific grin returns; no longer a look of blank ignorance, but a knowing smirk. he's successfully ruined his character forever - no one wants to see him and no one thinks he's funny. hussie seems to say: jesus you are such a shitty clown. and gamzee's impassive face seems to say: i know.

gamzee refuses to clown out of spite, and hussie refuses to remove gamzee from the story out of spite. it's a committed relationship of reciprocal, mutual antagonism. what i'm saying is that hussie and gamzee ar

Thinkin' about how Gamzee Makara is genuinely a Really Tragic Character. Like he spent his entire childhood unsupervised and unattended in the throes of a cult, developing an actual substance abuse problem in an attempt to self medicate because of the constant voices he appeared to be hallucinating. Except He Wasn't Fucking Hallucinating, THOSE VOICES WERE FUCKING REAL they were the Literal Devil and an unholy fusion of what would become of his debilitatingly loyal and subservient friend after Gamzee kills him and some thirteen year old alien But Fucked Up And Dangerously Overclocked By A Supercomputer made as a response to apocalyptic loneliness and said someone else's need to keep occupied and feel on top of things, and Gamzee could only hear them because his soul is irrevocably tied to the cursed artefact they all reside in that brings nothing but misery and paranoia wherever it goes. He developed a very laid back unbothered inscrutable personality in response to all the awful things he didn't want to be aware of and relied heavily on his faith in a pair of Mirthful Messiahs that would give deliverance to all and forever erase any unpleasant stagnancy in favor of a chaotic carnival of wonder.

When Gamzee calms down from his whole murderous rampage/vindictive ruining of the Beta Kids' Session thing, he Can't go back to the way he was. He Can't be the same person he was before. He never speaks the same again, we hardly see him speak again At All. His thirteen-year-old mind breaks under the realization that he is not who he thought he was. He is not the person who extends his own brand of kooky clownish shangri-la to those around him until they see the world as it should be. He is the tool of something malevolent and petulant and calculating and selfish. He decides (correctly if the deterministic Alpha Timeline is to be followed) that this cannot be helped, and simply leans into dissociation.

Like-- Karkat sees this kid when they're still on Alternia and is like 'I can fix him' and he tries so god damned mother fucking hard and fails in part if not only because he simply was not meant to fix Gamzee. Not because Gamzee never wanted to be fixed, but because when Gamzee sobers up and his head becomes clear enough for him to reckon with reality and he understands that: he hasn't been hallucinating the voices, the religious beliefs he has held above all else throughout his broken memory were corrupted half truths at best, and at least two of the trolls on this void forsaken meteor are dirty backbiters and bad friends who he believes don't deserve an ounce of forgiveness, he completely goes off the deep end and starts relying on The Literal Actual Most Evil Person To Ever Exist for judgement. How is Karkat supposed to remedy that when he doesn't understand or won't believe that the voices are realer than he previously believed and He Is Powerless To Dispel Them? When he truly wants all of them to just. Fucking. Be A Team and trust one another and be good to one another, but Gamzee no longer believes that was ever an option? What does one Knight wager against the Devil and The Narrative for someone's soul?

In that space of three years where he's growing into the offputting smelly clown husk of a teen that Jane meets in front of her house just before The Trickster Incident and that everyone in the fandom in my experience collectively frowns and groans audibly at, he tries to become comfortable in this new state. In the dreaded Retcon Spree that removed a huge chunk of the complexity happening in an effort to power through to an ending, it's revealed that he did genuinely develop black affections for Terezi, He Just Also Was Bad For Her and she wasn't what he needed because Nobody could give him what he needed because what he needed was to Not Be Connected To Lord English for one second longer. He brought out self loathing in her and no amount of fucking with her and getting into fights that were supposed to be stimulating and romantic but in reality were just hurtful and toxic could make him feel like he could be any semblance of any normal ever again.

I have thought about Gamzee taking care of Calliope and Caliborn from the shadows for Literal Actual Years at this point. He does it because he has to. Because it is his duty as steward and passive enabler to the evil locked inside Lil Cal. Because he has faith that this little sugar loving skrellington squiggle worm will grow up big and strong and horrifying, and it is imperative that he help that along. We never once hear him say anything about Calliope. It's as though she's not a factor that weighs at all in his mind. As though her existence is incidental to the fruition of his grander purpose in her brother's life. Does he think about her? Does he know that another version of her is what will do in the voices that have tormented him since he could comprehend speech? Does he want good things for her? Does he think Caliborn is good at this point, or does he just think he's Important? Is his perpetually placid vacant stare a mask he uses to become inscrutable, or has he truly locked away his every emotional reaction from even himself never to be found again?

The interaction he has with Kurloz and Meulin between becoming sober and becoming a caretaker where the other two are going all 'Hail Lord English' and doing The Cult Thing and he just looks at them with such deep contempt and says in all lower case 'shut the absolute mother fuck up' is So Fucking Important-- like he does not think this is fun and glorious and enriching anymore. He just knows it to be true and knows he's in this shit whether he wants to be or not. These two Chose this. Kurloz could've Run The Fuck Away from the chucklevoodoo bullshit that deafened his matesprit, and Meulin could've simply Not leaned into this evil toxic nonsense, but they both actively turn to it to cope. They see serving the power of Lord English as their salvation. Gamzee sees his salvation as completing his grim purpose and hopefully finding solace in oblivion, and he Cannot Fucking Stand these two talking like that grim purpose is a blessing that gives his life new dimension instead of a horrifying curse that ruined his health and relationships.

I don't mind the existence of The Retcon, I think a retcon was a perfectly sound writing decision given The Everything, but I really hate that the solution to everyone's problems in The Retcon was just bringing back Vriska so she could be The Most Important Person Ever just like she always wanted with no downsides and no caveats. This is in no small part because the solution she provides to The Gamzee Situation is just to domesticate him essentially. He won't be a problem if we keep him leashed up and under control. After all Gamzee's always been passive and only started being a problem when he started committing murders, so just keep him where we can see him and keep the option of murder off the table and Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen With Him Again~. And he Never Does Anything Else and We Never Hear From Him Again. Or if we do, it certainly wasn't consequential enough for me to remember it. Like, if you're gonna take the Gamzee Piece off the board while still holding the story together, just create a scene where the others banish him to Earth A during the timeframe where he's taking care of the cherubs and then bam! He's no longer a factor in the Alpha Medium while also still being able to do the things that he Must Do in order to retain the most continuity. Like I get that keeping him in the fridge for the rest of canon is a joke about fridging a character, but It's Not A Good Joke.

Gamzee Makara Deserved Better! I'm not even necessarily saying he should've gotten better. He deserved like. A Moment for us to see into his head before/whilst he went Full Catatonic Sycophant, as a token of respect for the Really Fuckin' Tragic arc he underwent. He deserved the ability to speak his mind post-Sober Murder Rampage. He deserved to be given weight beyond 'Anyway, now the murder clown is Also Here, so you know some funky shit is about to go down.' Or at least a proper transition into that 'portent of further chaos' role and not just a weird disconnected moment of Calliope going 'Yeah, bards are real passive and real fucky, y'all are lucky you don't have one in your session.' as a vague hint that Gamzee is doing the shit he does and appearing where he appears for completely inscrutable reasons that you shouldn't be looking into. Gamzee is one of plenty of characters in Homestuck whose arcs and selves kinda got lost in the shuffle, and It Makes Me Sad.

This essay has been brought to you by the emotions that arose in me thinking about how Gamzee Makara could've been a really good kid, and the only person who seems to mourn that loss is Karkat offscreen.

Gamzee and Vriska parallels drive me insane actually because they are clearly the ying and fucking yang of homestuck as the two characters do the most to drive the plot but Gamzee is such an empty shell of a character it completely kneecaps both of their stories.

They are both highbloods with entitlement issues while also being on the two extremes of the inherent trauma of growing up on alternia. Vriska’s lusus forcing her to be a killer from a young age vs Gamzee’s lusus being physically incapable of caring for him and making is easier for Gamzee to fall into drugs.

Both of their powers make them extremely aware of the suffering that surrounds them, and find opposite solutions to numb themselves to the screams and hack away at their empathy till they stop feeling like shit. Vriska hardens herself and surrounds herself with pain and death till it becomes white noise. While Gamzee dulls his senses with soperifics and loses himself to his religion.

God the way they treat Tavros and Terezi is also paralleled. Vriska’s cruelty and assult towards Tavros vs Gamzee’s red crush reversed with Terezi with Gamzee’s abuse vs Vriska and Terezi’s dancing around their love for each other.

The way that from Tavros’s point of view Gamzee was just another Vriska who hadn’t hurt him yet because the societal power imbalance between highbloods and lowbloods especially a disabled lowblood like Tavros causes them both to treat him in a way that is deeply objectifying.

They both hold deeply symbolic narratives ties to Terezi like Terezi and Vriska are soulmates destined to be forever drawn to the other in a never ending dance but also God help them because the red string of fate can very quickly become an noose. They are Lady Luck and Lady Justice and they hunt each other for sport and kiss each other and die in each other’s arms

While Terezi and Gamzee are the church and state of which must always be separated. If Vriska and Terezi are destined lovers then Terezi and Gamzee are destined enemies but not a pitch way because they will destroy each other if allowed to get to close.

Vriska and Gamzee are morally neutral characters who’s main driving goal is simply to be active. Vriska wants to be the hero mostly out a desire to be relevant. She needs to be the main character, but she doesn’t want to follow the rules. She wants to defy fate but how do you defy fate when your fate is to defy fate? She is trapped in a paradox of her own morality and alignment. She is all three chaotic alignments at the same time.

While Gamzee is uhhhh. God what does gamzee even want? He has no true motives beyond serving lord english and caliborn, but why? He is a deeply plot driven character who’s choices ultimately always come down to “because it need to happen for the plot” why does he kill equius? Because arquiusprite is an ingredient of lord english. Because time loop. And thats where things start to fall apart because hussie would not let Gamzee be a fleshed out character.

I cant even bring myself to blame gamzee stans for rejecting gamzee’s corruption arc due to how little effort was put into making Gamzee a good antagonistic. Gamzee could have been a character with the same level of complexity as Vriska while still playing his antagonistic role but he doesn’t because fuck the clown i guess.

Vriska post retcon is a narrative weapon patching together the timeline just enough to speedrun the final levels and finish the game. She is a weapon who fulfills her purpose and then dies. The credits give us that heavy implication of hopelessness in the quest to find her, that Vriska is Gone.

Paradox space only allows doubles in the godly pantheon for space and time. Vriska is a leftover of a dead pantheon that has long overstayed its welcome, Rose is the true goddess of light for the universe they create. Bro she is fucking dead at the end of this comic.

Then Gamzee does everything the narrative needs him to do and is then chopped up and used as an ingredient of lord english.

Their stories end in ways that are very thematically simular but fail to truly form a connection. And that sucks!!!!! It sucks so hard because it kills the impact of both arcs! The demise of both characters should have left us in stunned silence as we realize that these two characters are now GONE. Even people who didn’t like them should still be shaken by their sudden absence in a narrative.

Let’s go back to act 5 act 2, let’s return to the death of pre retcon Vriska. Remember how tense the rising climax was, the way the metaphorical music becomes more and more intense then suddenly stop when Terezi’s sword peirced Vriska’s heart. Even if you hate Vriska don’t lie to me we were all shaken by that plot beat.

We should have had that but so so so much stronger at the end of the comic for both Vriska and Gamzee. The framework is there with the chekovs firing squad that is the lord english reveal and the slowly rising dread as Terezi searches for someone she will never find. but the refusal to connect the scenes, the refusal to have Vriska and Gamzee as counterpart characters, completely kneecaps both of them.

Anyways tl:dr vriska and gamzee stans should not be enemies we should be unionizing.

feat. @theothin

One day I asked my friends why I haven’t seen any character pile with Gam?? And they said I can made my own. So I really made it!! Feel free to draw your Gamz here!

this was the best idea thank u

how about another?

Hey what’s happenin’ on this side of the tumblrs?

here comes another honk friend

602474 thousands of million things to do, but I have my priorities.

my apologies to the artists whose work i butchered while trying to cram my stupid gamzee in