there's a lot of stuff here to respond to and I don't have it in me to really directly address any of it rn but this all got me thinking about something that I think is worth bringing up here? trust me this is related to homestuck

trans representation is in a very strange place right now, because societal perspectives on trans people are changing so rapidly. this discussion got me thinking about a really good video I watched about Wandering Son a while back, I can't remember who made it unfortunately, I don't think it was someone I'd watched regularly? I just saw wandering son and thought "eh fuck it let's check it out"

anyways, part of the video was about how Wandering Son is one of many pieces of trans representation that has fundamentally changed just due to the passing of time, and it echoed my experience with the piece 1 to 1

when I first watched the anime in high school, it resonated so fucking hard for me. it was genuinely some revolutionary shit, and extremely optimistic for the time. but now a lot of younger trans women see it as extremely doomer-y and maybe even just transphobic torture porn. and the video goes on to talk about how some more recent trans manga they read felt unrealistically positive, and that that's how older trans women than them described wandering son. and it all speaks to a very rapidly progressing landscape of trans culture, and a kind of inevitable poor aging of representation in a world which is getting better for trans people in a lot of ways, even as we backslide in a lot of ways too.

I bring all of this up to say that where I'm coming from is what many would call an "older trans perspective" at my morgue-adjacent nearly 27 years old. and I struggle to see really any of the trans representation in Homestuck as legitimately bad. I think what victoria said was mostly pretty resonant to me.

in my experience, good representation usually does not come in the form of "explicit" representation. I think of system stuff in particular, which is almost always better represented with something like an alien or whatever showing up and linking brains with a character than by someone trying to Capture The Experience of a system. capital r Representation is so often someone trying to fit every single experience into one person in a way that often comes off as a gross jumble of stereotypes.

so I look at how Jade is and like... even if she was a cis woman before the fusion, I don't think that keeps her from being trans rep? I think given the opportunity they had and the apparent intent behind it that they probably should have just come out and stated it as her always being trans in the comic, but I don't think it's a requirement for it to be effective and Good trans rep

this is all kind of a mess and i'll probably have to elaborate on it later after I've gotten some sleep, but I wanted to get these thoughts out now before I zzzz. see you frafers. feel free to tear this post apart and i'll respond when i'm able