i also think it is 100% reasonable for black people to want to be represented in homestuck. homestuck is a very white fandom, and it's not like you can't argue with POC on the internet, but i think conversations that say "this character HAS to be white because they live in the suburbs" or "this character HAS to be white because they are a bad rapper" throw black fans under the bus. i don't want to open this can of worms but i'll get my can opener out: it does make me uncomfortable that the only "black coded" interpretations the fandom will accept are made in the context of arguing that a character is an offensive racial stereotype. how tf am i supposed to recommend this comic to black people if the loudest race conversations in the fandom are about how unbelievably racist the author is. if it really is true that these kids were always intended to be white, let fans reclaim some of these characters! let dave be black! let jade be a pacific islander! Redesign the trickster modes to have the characters be dark skinned. Give at least some of the trolls black voice actors, and make those decisions wisely. Let black people enjoy and feel represented by homestuck! i think it is a story a lot of people can relate to. i am putting my hat in the "recast dave" ring. nothing wrong with the voice actor, but the tone of this conversation has tipped the scales for me. if people are looking at an all white cast and taking it as a signal that the characters were "meant to be" white, then that's all the more reason to prove them wrong.