Sorry, but how and why did we veer off into referring to gay couples as "yaoiz"?

I don't think Dirk and Jake being dysfunctional individuals is bad writing, I also don't think their relationship having PROBLEMS is bad writing. I'm expressing that as someone who spent a lot of time around gay men whilst reading Homestuck, a lot of the content came off as if it is scared of giving M/M relationships any respectability, constantly veering the relationships into either "jokes" or creep factors.

Also, as much as Roxy and John is a "bad" relationship by the Epilogues, they weren't coercive towards one another; and whilst RoseMary gets its share of drama in Candy, with Rose cheating, Meat doesn't lay the blame of their dysfunction on that, it lays it squarely at Dirk's feet. Kanaya is still seeking her love and Rose has been "tricked". Likewise, Callie and Roxy get to have a stable relationship in Meat.

Comparatively, Dirk and Jake are either living in a situation where Dirk has decided to wield ungodly narrative control over him, to exact some kind of weird "Revenge" for ???, or Dirk is dead and Jake has been stuck in an unhealthy relationship with Jane.

And when it comes to Dave and Karkat, either Dave is dead and Jade and Karkat are arguing over what could have been, with both of them laying the blame at each others feet, or Dave and Karkat got together but only because Dirk spent an entire chapter narratively controlling them to do so, and we only get confirmation of Dave's autonomy in that scene. We had a relationship that was *fine* and then had a coercive element dropped on it for no reason other than giving Dirk more villain chops.

To me, that sucks.

I think when I started writing this, it was because I was also going to elaborate that the perspective of Homestuck at the time, where Hussie was using Dave as an in universe reflection, kind of echoed a degree of that discomfort a lot of "edgy" people have WRT to male queerness. It's evident that that perspective changed as the story went on, because Homestuck also kind of acts as a reflection of Hussie's own growing POV.

Additionally, Callie and Roxy are doing just fine.

And I'm going to be completely honest, I do not for one second believe VrisRezi will end in tragedy. They have been the beating heart of pining lovers for the comic and their dysfunction really does rise from trauma and miscommunication. Terezi's despondence is because she misses Vriska and feels she did wrong by her and Vriska's continued presence is because she deep down wants to reconcile with Terezi. [S] Remem8er would have been a send off for that, but given Vriska got a second run at her own character arc, I don't doubt we'll get a reunion that's going to fight to surpass that.