Homestuck, Teenagers, and Roles: an examination
Content warning: mild Homestuck spoilers and wild psychology theories without any proof.
Let’s talk about Eridan Ampora.
Eridan is a character from an online webcomic Homestuck. He is a troll, a member of a violent, cruel and melodramatic race. Homestuck is filled to the brim with crazy characters, but Eridan manages to put it to another level — even other trolls don’t like him. Homestuck almost never forgets its characters, and even death is not really an obstacle — a lot of characters manage to return to the story and stay relevant after dying. But when Eridan dies somewhere halfway through the story, he (mostly) stays dead, and fades into obscurity.
What is the problem with Eridan? Why is he so unlikeable that he managed to be forgotten in a comic that never forgets anything? Eridan is high on the “Least favorite troll” polls only beaten by Gamzee (who serves as an antagonist for the large part of the story). Eridan has a lot of unlikeable qualities: he is selfish, he is a snob, he talks too much about himself. But my best guess to what exactly makes him so bad is Roles.
Teenage rebellions are a well recognized psychological phenomenon: at some point kids stop following their parents mindlessly and attempt to carve their own path, create their own identity. Perhaps this comes from the disappointment in your superiors — realizing that that your parents are not all-knowing, that they are not infallible, that they might not really know what’s better for you. Attempting to escape from their influence, or at least diminish it is a reasonable move in that case. But in the rebellion, in breaking the existing structure, in escaping the established role of the “obedient child” teenagers also come to a question: “If I am not just an obedient child, then who am I, really?”. And here starts the search of your identity.
Society often views labels as something given to the individual from outside. It is often seen as something horrible, generalizing the complex character into one word, killing the beauty in favor of standardization. While this might be true, I think that the internal desire to have a label is no less common. Teenagers come up with the masks for themselves that they can wear effortlessly, and that helps them to both fit into social circles, and to satiate the need for an identity (even if this identity is not very original). Who are you? I am a jock, I am strong and smug and popular and I wear a sports jacket all the time to look cool. Who are you? I am a class clown, self-deprecating loudmouth who earns his place by provoking teachers with shitty jokes. Who are you? I am a Good Girl who has all the best marks in classes and always does her homework while being bit awkward around people. Subcultures, that are most popular in teen age are also a great fit. Goths, hipsters, metalheads exist to satiate the need for a role to play, for an identity.
Another thing about roles is that they are not really genuine. They work as a public identity but do not replace the original one. After all, labels and stereotypes really are incapable of describing a complex personality even if it’s just a teen. People wear masks on their faces and masks are really important for them, but they still do have faces underneath. And teens are aware of that, even if they are unlikely to acknowledge it. Even the jockiest jock probably has a life outside of sports, he probably doesn’t wear his jacket in the shower. Most Goths probably don’t want to sacrifice the world to the Ancient One no matter what they say. And teens are not stupid, they know that. The world’s a complex social stage, and people are players in it, but they do not mix the play and reality.
Trolls in Homestuck are the best example of this: their society conditions them to be highly ambitious, competitive, violent and dramatic. Player trolls have ancestors that are literal “Me but in the past” to follow as role models. They have their roles and they do their best to pursue them. However, most trolls are aware that it is just a game. An important game but a game nonetheless (which could be a general theme of Homestuck). You can constantly see here and there how trolls break out of character, complaining about “stupid shitty teen drama” that led to some disastrous consequences. The game often leads to self-destruction, and trolls often have awareness to admit that (but not reject it).
The same is true for most human players: Dave is playing the role of Cool Kid, Rose is playing the role of Smug Literary Analysis Girl. In fact, John is considered to be so naive, pure and, well, dumb because he doesn’t really play the Game. He sometimes engages with it when others suggest (most of his interactions with Dave) but he doesn’t truly accept it. He outright rejects it when something bad might happen as a result. This might be a reason why he is a unanimous leader of the kids team — despite a certain naiveness he has he is the only one of them who is not a tool, who is not a hostage of his role and, therefore, can make better decisions than others. Other kids might destroy their life because it would look cool, because that would be dramatic. John would not.
And on the other side of the spectrum is Eridan Ampora, the most faithful servant of the Game in the series. His entire life is filled with pretense and that is why he is the most pretentious troll. He is a highborn aquatic troll, and these are supposed to hate lowborn land trolls. So he shouts about hating these filthy land trolls at every opportunity, while still being friends with some of them. The only match for a highborn aquatic troll such as himself is another troll aristocrat — so he continues his attempts to get Feferi in a relationship, even though she repeatedly rejects him. He sees his commitment to the Game as his duty, as something higher than he is, so even when the Game leads him to the precipice he smiles and makes a step forward.
Eridan is not oblivious, he is the author of the growing up gag (it’s hard being a kid and growwing up. it’s hard and nobody understands). But here he is not complaining about the Game being bad, or thinking if he should abandon it sometimes. He complains about himself, about his own inability to follow the role established for him, his failure at the Game. And that is exactly what is wrong with Eridan: his commitment, and his failure at it. There are other characters devoted to the Game, like Vriska, but they are good at it. There are other characters who fail at the Game, like John or Tavros, but they don’t really try to play it.
Eridan Ampora accepts his role with passion, but fails at it. And there is nothing that teens might dislike more than that.
