Homesuck: Vriska Rising

[Loyal]

I've only browsed three or four pages of #homestuck, but I can't see any of the complaints stemming from the possibility of the characters being not white. The whole "Trickster means exact opposite therefore Jane is nonwhite" bit seems to be from people who are either desperate to verify their person-of-color headcanons (from which there is truly a great deal of rage - you would not believe how invested Homestuck fans are in their respective headcanons), or people trying to mollify the former. Regardless, it's at best a fan theory since all we've seen Trickster mode do so far is make Jane colorful, powerful, and completely without inhibition.

The people most outraged about this mess are calling Hussie racist because they think that not only is Hussie using this update to declare a character to be White And Therefore Superior™, but that Hussie is rubbing the fandom's nose in it for daring to think differently. What they don't realize is that this is just Hussie picking up from Meenahbound in continuing to openly mock his Tumblr fandom for having exactly the reaction they had for Trickster Jane being white.

I gotta say, for a guy whose stated plan is to make a story that will make most sense to an archival reader (as opposed to a serial reader) he sure is doing a bunch of things that will only make sense to serial readers.

[Locke cole]

No. (well, yes, I'm sure) it's also people outraged over Jane being white in Trickster Mode. Something about "whitewashing".

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Loyal

The people most outraged about this mess are calling Hussie racist because they think that not only is Hussie using this update to declare a character to be White And Therefore Superior™, but that Hussie is rubbing the fandom's nose in it for daring to think differently. What they don't realize is that this is just Hussie picking up from Meenahbound in continuing to openly mock his Tumblr fandom for having exactly the reaction they had for Trickster Jane being white.

That's strange because I had the exact opposite reaction. I thought Hussie making Trickster!Jane Caucasian, and more importantly Jake's exaggerated "NNNNOOOOOOOOO!" in response, was:

A: Confirmation that Jake and Jane, and by extension John and Jade, are canonically not-white.
B: Confirmation that at least Jake, and possibly the other kids generally, dislike whiteness enough to be upset at the possibility that they'd be turned Caucasian. Jake's reaction reinforces the notion that's it seen as a negative development? Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

So if anything I thought the progressives would be overjoyed at confirmation that at least half the human cast, and possibly more than half, are ethnic minorities, and perhaps more importantly, that Being Caucasian is displayed as a negative development -- who would really want to be Jane right now, with all her emotional instability, a lack of social filter, and merely acting as a probable pawn?
And if anything I thought the bigoted Caucasians would be upset that Delirious Jane was portrayed as Caucasian, and that they'd lose their headcanon of Normal Jane being Caucasian herself.

[Arcanum]

It's funny because people are acting like Jane's appearance is a huge shocker and they are also surprised that Hussie is doing a shoutout to whatever shit the fandom is currently obsessing/arguing about.

e-

A: Confirmation that Jake and Jane, and by extension John and Jade, are canonically not-white.
B: Confirmation that at least Jake, and possibly the other kids generally, dislike whiteness enough to be upset at the possibility that they'd be turned Caucasian. Jake's reaction reinforces the notion that's it seen as a negative development? Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

Sounds like you're reading wayyyyyy too much into it.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Arcanum

Sounds like you're reading wayyyyyy too much into it.

I usually do. I'm just surprised that this time my initial read led me to give Hussie the benefit of the doubt, because usually with me it's the exact opposite (see: 'Killing off' Kanaya, anything with Vriska, etc.)

[stefan]

tbh the only human character I never really thought of as being white is Jade, who for some reason I always interpreted as asian.

Yes, I know this makes no sense, shut up.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by stefan

tbh the only human character I never really thought of as being white is Jade, who for some reason I always interpreted as asian.

That's probably because, in the absence of any other indication as to a character's race or ethnicity, it's common for western cultures to just assume Caucasian as 'default mode.'
Which is why I actually really appreciated Hussie stripping away that assumption with Jake's reaction to Jane's declaration of Newfound Caucasianness.

[Loyal]

A: Confirmation that Jake and Jane, and by extension John and Jade, are canonically not-white.
B: Confirmation that at least Jake, and possibly the other kids generally, dislike whiteness enough to be upset at the possibility that they'd be turned Caucasian. Jake's reaction reinforces the notion that's it seen as a negative development? Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

Considering Hussie has gone to great lengths in the past to say the kids have no ethnicity and gone out of his way to not bring up race in the comic (including erasing Dave's mention of "white kids" in favor of something unintelligible), it'd be pretty ridiculous if he suddenly turned around and declared a character white, and even more ridiculous if, implicitly or explicitly, it were for no other purpose than saying being white is a bad thing. So yes, you are absolutely reading too much into it.

Just remember that Hussie hates his tumblr fandom, and remember what tumblr in general is like, and everything falls into place.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Loyal

Just remember that Hussie hates his tumblr fandom, and remember what tumblr in general is like, and everything falls into place.

Fair enough. I've avoided Tumblr like a plague, so it's easy for me to attach myself to alternate reasoning that has nothing to do with Tumblr.

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Hussie's twitter a couple days ago

all characters in trickster mode are Canonically Caucasian

It's just a joke about how the trickster mode sprites actually have a clearly defined skin tone.