homestuck is so critical of the ways love is systematized in basically every way and i think this is awesome. like. quadrants are a means of control. full stop. alternia as a society only functions as it's supposed to - as a funnel into dying on another planet - if the kids on it are eager to leave and are ready for war. the idealized, beautiful, man and a woman romance only exists for dad egbert and mom lalonde and it lasts just long enough for them to get teleport-stabbed to death. "this is what a kismesistude is supposed to be" literally gets terezi killed too, it's crazy. homestuck is so like. anti-love. it's awesome.

and on a more doylist level, it is ever funny that this approach to it also (seemingly accidentally) provided a foothold for polyamory and more openly queer thoughts in its fandom. i remember being in high school in 2012 and kind of into my friend (we were both boys at the time) and thinking "it's cool, it's not gay because it's in the homestuck way".

(and it was gay. just in a "budding trans lesbians who don't know how to navigate the idea" way)