I love Jane. I've been having thoughts about Jane. These won't be coherent and I'm also not really trying to make a point, I just enjoy thinking and talking (writing) about her. (// ω ◡)
Also these are mainly based on Candy because we haven't really seen meat Jane that much yet after the Vriska retcon!
Obviously she's strongly associated with capitalism. While the other kids somewhat stagnate in their powers, Jane grows stronger. Of course they don't all stay at the same point of power but she's exceptionally strong! At this point she's basically unkillable, disregarding the concept of sburb immortality. Her growth also happens to align with her accumulation of wealth. She's the richest person on Earth C by a mile. She's above the system as a Goddess and she's also above dying a "just" death. My favorite scene from HSBC is probably when Lara English attempts to kill Jane and it goes really really wrong. The scene both stands for a husband killing his wife and a political assassination. Jane, enabled by capitalism, subverts both and irreversibly harms Lara in retaliation (can't wait to see the aftermath, honestly). Even when Jane's head gets cut off she survives, quite easily even. Her growth can't be halted. You might say it's infinite.
The more Jane grows (accumulates wealth) the harder it is to get rid of her until it's nearly impossible (though I'm sure there will be a way).
(If anyone here has read Engels, you'll understand the next part a bit better.)
The patriarchy stems from and is enforced by capitalism and as such capital and ownership are above gender (roles). Jane can't be killed by her husband because she has grown so much that she stands above the role of a woman and a wife. She also can't be killed by Vriska who wins the fight in favor of the antifascist party of the war, because fascism is a product of capitalism and therefore below it. It's the defense of the bourgeoisie but it's not its definition. Capitalists make use of fascism but they don't die with its demise.
However, and I hate to say this, capitalism is somewhat passive. It functions more as the motivation and force behind the atrocities made in its name. Similarly, Jane doesn't directly kill anyone (at least not that I remember). She influences Earth C in a way that fabricates prejudice and genocide. She keeps reviving the troops fighting in her name and arms them using her wealth. She doesn't even get to activate her ultimate weapon, because that'd be active on one hand and would also kill her on the other one. Capitalism's goal is to use up every resource it can to keep growing but it can never really destroy everything because it'd obviously die right along with it.
As such I'm curious if Jane's powers will lessen once she leaves for Deltrius? Or if she'll end up as the final villain?
Now to get onto a whole other topic: Jane as a transmisogynistic force. This one won't be as elaborate because I'm uncomfortable myself talking about it at lenght. Just compilating what comes to mind.
I'll be using she/her pronouns for Tavvy here because she's named after our bronze fairy, Ms. Nitram. (// _ ^)
Jane sexually abuses and rapes Lara, implicitly pushing her into the role of husband and father yet still off-loading most if not all of the Care-Work onto her. She also turns a blind eye to the sexual abuse of Tavvy at the hands of Gamzee. After June attempts to save Tavvy, the child gets punished by stricter rules and locks on her window (!!!). She's also made to keep her distance from June. This is easily read as a trans kid nearly breaking free with the help of other trans people only to be reigned back in brutally by their parent.
Jane also mistreats Yiffy massively, a child born to a trans woman. She actually seems bothered and disgusted by Yiffy's existence. It also adds another layer of justice when Vriska beheads her.
This all kind of leads into my last talking point, which is more of a question or rather a headcanon. Maybe Jane has already gone ultimate.
We don't really know the extent of most ultimate players' powers. How I see it is that being ultimate means fully embracing and grasping one's aspect. Dirk of course fully grasps his whole Heart (his self) and destroys the peaceful ending of Homestuck through it. Jane fully embraces Life (wealth and also health), furthering her goals in a passive way. She's beyond killable and she also doesn't stagnate after the game. Jane is also fully aware of her power! Again, more of a headcanon. But I think it'd be neat if she has been ultimate this whole time and didn't tell anyone or be as dramatic as Dirk about it.
Anyway, I really love Jane. Homestuck doesn't shy away from making characters who suck in an interesting way.
(Also if there's typos in this just ignore them, I'm kind of drunk right now.)
