Homesuck: Vriska Rising

[Locke cole]

...which one?

There's the angry at pogo rides face, the EVERYBODY OUT face, the catatonic with rage face, the hammer-grabbing anger face...

[Solid Snake]

It's kind of a weird update for me to process, to be honest.

I've always been a big shipper of both John / Rose and Kanaya / Rose (which is apparently called 'RoseMary' by a segment of hardcore Homestuck shipping fans I never knew existed until today.) So yeah, it's conflicting from that perspective.

...Also conflicting from the perspective that I simply thought Hussie wasn't ever going to confirm a ship between major characters like this. I thought it'd always be ambiguous. I think I'd actually have preferred the non-canonical approach where legitimate arguments existed for nearly every ship.

Also confusing in that, up until a few updates ago, I legit thought that despite my hopes that Rose would return Kanaya's feelings, Rose had actually shown far more interest and chemistry with John in their conversations.

It's weird how I should be celebrating this as confirmation that my favorite character in Homestuck has finally gotten what she's always dreamed of, but I just don't feel too excited by the reveal. Maybe it's the fact that Rose is drunk that's tempered things, or the lingering threat of Gamzee, or the way that everything is just a tad too perfect in a way that makes me incredibly suspicious.

...I should be celebrating, but I'm not.

EDIT: I think the more accurate way to describe the above criticism is that these recent updates have felt a tad too much like a Rose / Kanaya shipper's bad fanfiction as opposed to legitimate Hussie updates

[Art of Hilt]

Also confusing in that, up until a few updates ago, I legit thought that despite my hopes that Rose would return Kanaya's feelings, Rose had actually shown far more interest and chemistry with John in their conversations.

Man we did not read the same comic at all, did we.

To me this is just the subtext that was packed tightly between the lines of every Rose/Kanaya conversation ever finally coming out in the open via the loosening of lips through drink, which in itself only happened because Rose was trying too hard to play it cool like she usually does.

Meanwhile the fact that people shipped John/Rose always legitimately confused me precisely because they never seemed to have romantic chemistry. Like, how many times can you point out a possible flirt outside the one conversation where Rose sarcastically swooned to underline how ridiculous some ideas were?

These were the kinds of observations I only really made during a reread, though, so maybe it's easy to gloss over?

[Loyal]

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

I've always been a big shipper of both John / Rose and Kanaya / Rose (which is apparently called 'RoseMary' by a segment of hardcore Homestuck shipping fans I never knew existed until today.)

Suuuuuuure.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Oh boy, looks like the vent is opening. Lets hope Gamzee merely wished to congratulate them on their newfound love.

[Aldurin]

Originally Posted by Bard The 5th LW

Oh boy, looks like the vent is opening. Lets hope Gamzee merely wished to congratulate them on their newfound love.

That looks like it's just the lighting putting shine on the bottom part of the vent. Doesn't mean that Gamzee won't come out though.

[Dracorion]

Since when do vents open by sliding up, anyway?

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Art of Hilt

Man we did not read the same comic at all, did we.

To me this is just the subtext that was packed tightly between the lines of every Rose/Kanaya conversation ever finally coming out in the open via the loosening of lips through drink, which in itself only happened because Rose was trying too hard to play it cool like she usually does.

Meanwhile the fact that people shipped John/Rose always legitimately confused me precisely because they never seemed to have romantic chemistry. Like, how many times can you point out a possible flirt outside the one conversation where Rose sarcastically swooned to underline how ridiculous some ideas were?

These were the kinds of observations I only really made during a reread, though, so maybe it's easy to gloss over?

I just felt like their overall dynamic was more interesting and engaging than the one between Rose and Kanaya, and really I could say the same thing about "possible flirts" regarding them, as well. There were just a lot of scenes with the two of them, like Rose's disappointed stance at just having missed John's visit to her house, the letter with her birthday present to him about how she was sincerely making an attempt to show affection, the awkward fumbling about regarding Karkat's shitty shipping grid, Rose asking Dave to give John a message for her when she went off on her suicide mission, and even the most recent brief encounter between the two of them had a great deal of subtext to it from both characters.

And I think it's one of the reasons I've always liked it more than I have Rose/Kanaya, because the support behind that one has always struck me as being more about wanting Kanaya to have a happy ending than being about Rose at all. She got hurt by Vriska, she's always stuck in pale relationships and no one ever seems to have any interest in her for anything more than that, and the fanbase started pushing Rose as something of a reward for her suffering and heroism than actually giving a damn about what Rose gets out of it or why she'd even be interested. Just because both characters are female doesn't make the "girl as reward" trope any less demeaning.

I'm glad that Hussie, despite clearly just giving the vocal fanbase what it wanted in that regard, managed to do something better with the relationship than what countless pieces of fanart and fanfiction envisioned it and make Rose the more aggressive party so that it at least comes off as something truly beneficial for the character development of both parties involved, at least for however long it lasts. So far it looks like whatever relationships happen during the three year timeskip aren't going to be permanent, and given that Rose/Kanaya is one of them sort of suggests that it might follow the same trend.

[Art of Hilt]

Originally Posted by POS Industries

And I think it's one of the reasons I've always liked it more than I have Rose/Kanaya, because the support behind that one has always struck me as being more about wanting Kanaya to have a happy ending than being about Rose at all. She got hurt by Vriska, she's always stuck in pale relationships and no one ever seems to have any interest in her for anything more than that, and the fanbase started pushing Rose as something of a reward for her suffering and heroism than actually giving a damn about what Rose gets out of it or why she'd even be interested. Just because both characters are female doesn't make the "girl as reward" trope any less demeaning.

We must hang out in different parts of the fandom too, then. A lot of the material I've encountered totally by accident (toootally) depicts Rose as a girl given to recklessness and in need of a stabilizing, practically mothering influence. They like to take advantage of the Rose-having-mother-issues and Kanaya-being-associated-with-motherhood deal just as much as they enjoy the Kanaya-having-low-self-confidence and Rose-being-strong-source-of-support/confidence deal. And that's just one example of the way they treat Rose as Kanaya's equal in the ship, with others including Rose coming to terms with her own insecurities through the ship (which is sort of what Hussie did too by having her descend into grindrunkness after overcompensating for her date here).

I'm glad that Hussie, despite clearly just giving the vocal fanbase what it wanted in that regard, managed to do something better with the relationship than what countless pieces of fanart and fanfiction envisioned it and make Rose the more aggressive party so that it at least comes off as something truly beneficial for the character development of both parties involved, at least for however long it lasts. So far it looks like whatever relationships happen during the three year timeskip aren't going to be permanent, and given that Rose/Kanaya is one of them sort of suggests that it might follow the same trend.

I actually have a feeling this ship will be treated differently. It's not an end goal for either of the characters, because the end goal for them is "Species repopulation" for Kanaya and "Playing the Rain on her Land" for Rose. The relationship is more like a process, to help develop their characters for those future plot points. And the reason I think it won't be sunk immediately besides all that is because:
- It's treated differently than the other intermission relationships. Both Daves hooked up with a girl of their own. Jade/Davesprite hooked up and broke up entirely off-screen without a single conversation between them. Dave/Terezi hooks up in a similarly off-screen fashion, and is part of a wide relationship drama, most of which is also off-screen. Not to mention that Beta John/Vriska relationship which we barely knew existed until after we're told it's sunk. We're told the Dave relationships. We're told the John/Vriska relationship. But we're shown the Rose relationship, in great detail.
And,
- This is totally part of Gamzee's plan. I'm sure of it. With Kanaya in all of Rose's quadrants, Rose can't dedicate herself as a proper mediator even if she tries. Without Rose as a proper mediator, Gamzee<3<Terezi will keep going on the shadows. I don't think Gamzee told Rose his "secret" because he wants it kept, but precisely because he wants her to tell people, and let the information fly out there so that everything Rose feared will happen. He's a Bard of Rage; passively inviting destruction through Rage is his thing, and this is the perfect way for him to do it. If this intermission ends soon, then that guarantees the ship for at least the next part of the intermission, which, if it follows the same time pattern as the previous ones, will happen in the third year ie when the meteor arrives at the session- and somehow, I don't think the ship that's in danger is Rose's, because Rose isn't the one dating Terezi.

[Solid Snake]

Yet again, I agree with POS.
This is bizarre.

Anyway, I've always supported Kanaya / Rose as a ship, but I've always felt rather guilty about it because my support has tended to stem from Kanaya being my favorite character. I knew Kanaya was very interested in Rose, but never exactly felt the interest was reciprocated. In fact, I kept feeling a tad worried for Kanaya's sake, because I always got the impression based on their conversations that Rose was going to break her heart (again) if she wasn't careful. I tended to interrupt Rose's ambiguous brush-off responses to Kanaya as a sort of pity, akin to an acknowledgement from Rose that despite her fascination with learning about the trolls as a race, a romance would never happen.

The most chemistry Rose exhibited was definitely with John, when John's oil-slick planet was ablaze. Coincidentally those were also my favorite Rose updates. I also think that game-segment with dark-Rose's gibberish exchanges with John -- prior to them discovering their parents -- had plenty of chemistry, too. Maybe I just read too much into Rose's expressions there.

That being said, I'm still pleased with this development, even if it's just from the selfish perspective of witnessing my favorite character getting what she's always wanted (and always deserved.)