He always had that kind of narcissistic self-loathing where he hated himself but he also saw himself as the only person who could save the day and y’know despite fans not wanting Dirk to become a self proclaimed “bad guy” I can see why he was in a position where he would look at the possibility of ceasing to exist, see it as a problem to fix himself and think that the best way to do it would be to just embrace his most toxic personality traits and step into a new villainous role to drive the “plot” forward. I can accept all of that especially knowing that of all the human kids in the original Homestuck he was the most emotionally unstable and he always seemed to be stuck in his own ego. So in the Epilogues one version of Dirk becomes so self-absorbed after tapping into his highest potential that his god-tier powers grant him that he’s able to assume control of the narrative and as a result he decides that the best way to take advantage of this new power is to give the story a point by becoming a villain himself. Whether or not the ending was a satisfying way to end such a ambitious narrative like that is another debate entirely but for all of its faults the original Homestuck has a purpose. I feel like the point of the original Homestuck beyond just being a silly story making fun of video games was a commentary on growing up and feeling like you have no control over anything in your life. All of the kids struggled to meet the expectations thrown on them by the game, they all handled it in different ways from passively accepting their lack of agency to trying to wildly rebel against their fate and even then in some weird twist it always turned out that even their rebellion was predetermined by some higher power. Homestuck was ultimately a story about kids playing a game and it used adventure game tropes and conventions to not only make the world more cohesive but also to comment on said tropes and conventions. But I do feel like it had a point or at least a narrative structure that enhanced the story.
Blizzard/Activision has created a culture where this is acceptable and tolerated and they don't need to fear the consequences to their actions.ĭon’t get me wrong Homestuck Classic is dense and hard to follow if you’re not paying attention. How women's complaints about sexual harassment go ignored and the men who make them face no repercussions. It is not a surprise they are overlooked and overworked and underpaid in comparison to their cis/white/male coworkers. What is disgusting about all of this is how much the higher ups at Blizzard/Activision do not care about the women, LGBTQIA+, and people of colour that work for them. What makes this horrifying, other than the alleged incidents, mistreatment, mental and psychological abuse, economic discrimination, and unethical and frankly a failure on the human resources system is that this buzz around Blizzard/Activision is nothing new. Many allegations have been coming out about workplace harassment in the video game industry over the past few years, but we have never seen a mass lawsuit and so many individuals coming to speak out against a single company. And the way the gaming world is structure allows for this behaviour to be accepted, fester, and grow. These "anonymous male trolls" were fuelled with self-righteous violence that they thought was perfectly normal and okay. Because of the way online culture works, North America still to this day lacks proper legislation and protocols in place regarding internet safety, privacy, and the nature of the internet is that its hard to track down online “trolls”. These women were receiving threats of detailed murder and rape and the authorities could do nothing. It was a misogynistic campaign fuelled with disturbing hatred in enormous magnitude.
They were all doxed and most women were forced to leave their homes.
Wu received disturbing, detailed threats of violence, as did Sarkeesian and many others. In the case of Quinn, she was the target of revenge porn after her former boyfriend wrote a scathing blog post about her, released her nudes, and accused her of cheating to get better reviews on the games she worked on. In August 2014, a harassment campaign “#Gamergate” targeted multiple women in the video game industry including game developers Zoe Quinn and Brianna Wu, along with feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian.