Is Calliope talking to Jade her, or to alpha!Callie? Humans are soft, for sure, but “the ability to dominate” isn’t something I would say about Jade, her power isn’t really about domination. It’s alpha!Callie who was too soft to dominate, really. And we know that Callie doesn’t like seclusion, and even after Caliborn murdered her she doesn’t have the resolve to hate him. 

Alpha!Callie seems a lot like Karkat. They’re both alien species, but are incredibly human. (For that matter, Caliborn/Lord English also seems to be infected with humanity, since he’s done things very unusual for cherubs: killing his sister and improperly and unhealthily predominating, having a kink for pale and red romance.) Calliope looks down on Jade for her humanity and judges her less capable, but Homestuck is definitely putting humanity up as a sort of ideal. Our new, wonderful universe is going to be ruled over (or perhaps guided is a better word) by a troll who is incredibly human, and that’s what the all-knowing Echidna wants, even. All eight of our humans are still alive, compared with…less than half of our trolls and cherubs? In Homestuck, humans are great.

(I suppose we could say that Callie is more troll-ish than human-ish but despite her trollsona, I think she’s more human. All of our trolls are a bit human, but if we judge trolldom not from them but from the ancestors, we see that they tend to be aggressive, remorseless, more absolute in their views of the world, more antisocial, and generally harsher. Very unlike Callie. Even the kinder, gentler, laconic pre-scratch trolls don’t have a lot in common with Callie.) 

SUPER LONG QUOTE BECAUSE I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ON IT.

I said before that I do not think this doomed timeline Calliope is a reliable source of information. Before I was talking about when she said that Callie isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things. Obviously she’s wrong about that, but we know things that she doesn’t because we’re the audience and we know how stories work. Now I think she’s wrong about space as an aspect. 

Don’t get me wrong, she gives good insights, but Calliope is a defeated, defeatist figure. She was told that winning her dead session was impossible, so she gave up. Ridiculous! How often now have we had characters who were told to do something impossible, only to discover later that it is possible, it just required them to think about reality and their own abilities in a way they never had before? Calliope doesn’t believe in herself, and she doesn’t believe in other people, and that’s what will doom you in a game of Sburb. All of our strongest characters are strong because they believe in themselves. 

So when Calliope says that space players need to fall back, that they are pushed around by fate and miss out on important experiences? I call bullshit. Oh sure, it seems true right now, because none of us have the full picture. Especially not Calliope, who can’t see past her own emotions and her own failure. 

Just look at Kanaya, if you want to see why this is wrong. The matriorb was destroyed, and for a long time she had to sit back and wait. And she felt like a hopeless failure because it got destroyed, but now it’s back, and she can bring her species to life again! Space players may have long stretches of emptiness and inactivity, like space itself, but they are also full of action! Power! Life! Falling back isn’t the end, there will always be a charge after a retreat. 

The point is: Calliope is wrong about Jade, and wrong about America.

Er, sorry, I’ve been way into politics lately.

Maybe more about Davepeta coming later???