one of the things that the dancestors serve to accomplish, IMO, is to reinforce immortality/stagnation horror. these teenagers- young adults, really- have been around for so long it's not even clear that they know how long they've been around. certainly for a very, very long time. but time has not granted them clarity or maturity. latula is still pretending at being a Cool Girl~, cronus is still abusing mituna, aranea is still rambling at anyone she can pay to stand still long enough to listen. whatever changes they've undergone, it's into the worst versions of themselves. and they are stuck, forever, making each other worse. it is a necessary contrast to vriska's speech about dead bait kept on ice for lord english! and is it any wonder that meenah behaves the way she does- that she hits on karkat, a 13-14 year old, that she starts dating (vriska), another 13 year old- when meenah herself is stuck at the end of adolescent development? (not that that's an excuse, but it's fucking interesting!!!)

in a lot of ways the dancestors are a prototype of the epilogues' horror. this group of people who are deeply insular by virtue of the narrative they embody, engaging with the only other people they have, and time is only making things worse and worse for them, transforming them into their worst selves. (points at candy, but you can also apply this to some aspects of meat). of course, it's not quite the same, but it definitely hits enough beats that it feels similar to me.