Karkat Beyond Canon - A Knight's Irrelevance

I also want Karkat to become a little relevant. Imo, I think the reason Karkat isn't ever allowed to be "relevant" in canon is because of his aspect specifically. Blood is an aspect of connection and relationships, and because the two timelines are split apart with different needs, Karkat acts accordingly to what the people in that timeline need the most or whatever. In the Meat!Timeline, he's just a guy with a boyfriend going on another space jaunt, and he has nothing to do with the actual plot, he's kind of just there for emotional support or something lol. And this is because everyone in Meat is doing something about their problems, they're actively working to better themselves and are already thinking about what's really wrong with them and the way their lives were going.

In Candy, Karkat became a whole rebellion leader; he's super badass! But the Troll Rebellion is just something that happens that has no real "impact" on the larger Canon of the story. It has nothing to do with Dirk or Calliope or the Helltier thing. And I think this is kind of intentional, because throughout all of the Candy arc and the Epilogues, Karkat and Kanaya are the only two characters who have retained any of their senses, as in they don't make stupid, dumbass "Out Of Character" decisions throughout the whole thing.

They are also the only characters who aren't gods and never attain godhood during the game. I think when Echidna wanted to go and take a look at them, she knew intrinsically that they would be the two characters that would be able to hold everyone in both timelines together long enough to see things through to the end. And Karkat also is one of the characters who straight up tells John that even if the world was completely fake that it doesn't matter to him, because he, unlike the rest of them, is stuck living this life. And he has to make the most of it, which is why I think he's so divorced from Canon in a way. The others get to choose what lives they want to lead without the story holding them back, but they refuse to change where as Karkat can't. He doesn't have plotpoint meta bullshit powers, he can't go back in time and make things different, he can't see into the future to predict what the next best action would be, he can't move the planets to get what he wants etc. He's just a soldier with a sickle, and like a really desperate race of people who are willing to follow him into battle.

I guess another way to say it is that Karkat is essentially one of those characters that the narrative can't actually do anything about or for, because he's stuck there and has already changed and grown while the others haven't. Karkat's gotten over a lot of the problems that held him back when he was younger, like his blood color, and whether or not he even fits into any quadrants. Because the rest of the characters haven't changed yet, there's nothing for him to do narratively, I guess. There's no character Arc because he's the one who changed the most by the end of their adventure and who just grew up and got over all of those problems on his own. After all, most of what he went through as a kid was him having to learn so many lessons about getting over stuff.

I saw a funny thread a while ago when the Vriska helltier upd8 happened, where someone theorized that Karkat will be the next person to go through it, but that he'll only be in there for like 5 minutes. And then when he comes out, the others will wonder why he was in there for such a short amount of time and why he doesn't look any different, and it'll be because he has already changed for the better. We also see Karkat get over a lot of his past relationships during the Epilogues. He hates Gamzee more than anyone and not in 'that' way, he walks away from the Jade and Dave situation on his own after getting sick and tired of them going to bat for Jane, Kanaya and him are the only people who point out how everything is weird and strange and how none of the humans besides John seem to have noticed but when nobody listens they both decide to just fight back anyways against the growing tide of fascist Jane bullshit lol. He even became a better fighter! And someone who can actually hold his own in a battle without having to have Kanaya or one of his friends knock him out before he does something foolish (Like run headfirst into a giant Lord English mouth laser blast.)

All this to say, I totally agree and I do hope he becomes relevant or whatever just because I think he's also really cool and if they just squander all of the potential he has by idk offscreening the results of the troll rebellion or just making it end in some stupid way that doesn't result in Karkat helping and doing something for once, I'm going to be a little disappointed </3

@elegantSpinstress

oh my god, ive never seen that post but... yeah, that feels kinda accurate. hes definitely the most self actualized. wouldnt be surprised if hes just off camera gained helltier on his own without even god tiering, and just. never uses this power, because he doesnt really need to. that would be very funny. karkat is secretly OP, thats my theory.

on the walking away from Jade and dave thing- thats a point i think is also super in line with the knight of blood thing. he sacrifices his relationship to... pretty much every character except meenah, for the good of everyone else, because getting involved in this ooc drama would NOT help. i love how he and meenah team up as well. meenah doesnt write him off like most people do, and gives him some much needed advice on taking some Him Time (because a knight is chronically allergic to giving a shit about themselves). i also love his relationship with sollux being so... the same. theyre still just kinda frenemies. because they never really had that sort of drama, theyre just a couple of friends who like trolling each other but know they care about each other. its weirdly wholesome.

its odd though, that theres this... underlying selflessness, this almost lack of true support karkat has. it almost feels like hes taken a step back from himself as a person, completely allowing himself to be used as a tool for the good of others without considering whether hes actually fulfilled or getting his own emotional needs met. dude works himself into the ground, and then instantly gets up and goes, "alright, what else needs doing by me?"

in a way, hes embraced his role more than anyone except maybe vriska, which is again a point in the Secretly OP collumn.

as for meat karkat, i think everything you said is a big reason why i think hed be great at stepping in on the DirkRoseRezi... situation. theyre all kind of lacking a groundedness that he always brings to the table. terezi is trying real damn hard to keep her head out of the stratosphere, but its almost impossible with the two biggest egos in the timeline around. i wouldnt be surprised if karkat instantly saw those candy kids and was like, ok, we need to lock the fuck in. im going to give you so much guidance and shit its insane. uncle karkat to the rescue.

or maybe thats wishful thinking.

Honestly, I really didn't think about that aspect with Meat!Karkat, but I like that idea. Karkat has always been the "friendship" troll, the one who is always constantly thinking about other people and how to better his relationship with them. Even if he doesn't think about it in the moment, he is always the type to think back on it later. I think a prime example of this is how he is the only one to really bring up some of the trolls who died on the Meteor or who he hasn't seen in a long time.

Like during the whole meeting scene when Aradia and Sollux make their appearance for the first time in front of everyone, Karkat is like "Well who else is back? Is Nepeta gonna come back from the dead? Is she hiding behind one of those pillars? Come on out Nepeta!" and sure you can say he's just joking because he's so flabbergasted by them just suddenly appearing out of thin air, but it has been like 10 years since Nepeta had died from his point of view and he still thinks about her and how she had died T_T And similarly when they're on the meteor during the Retcon, when everyone is reminiscing about their time there Karkat brings up how he didn't exactly dream a lot but that if he did he didn't exactly think it'd be totally awesome to "see a bunch of dead Nepeta's again". Imo, I think he is constantly bringing up Nepeta specifically as a good example of him still seeing all 11 of them as his friends, even if he hasn't seen any of them for well over a decade.

When Sollux calls him up for food (during a war mind you lmao) Sollux is like "hey uh...we're still friends right?" and Karkat is like "OF COURSE WE'RE STILL FRIENDS!" mind you, he also hasn't spoken to Sollux in years but he still thinks of him as his friend despite that large gap of time. So, I don't see why that wouldn't change for Terezi especially since they were really close.

Terezi's in that bad mental state again, where she's being harangued by a person who wants to use her for some selfish purpose or goal, and she has always struggled with feeling like she's actually the competent, suave person she portrays herself as. And Karkat was the first one to tell her, "Hey, you're like really great and awesome you should stop comparing yourself to other people, you're super fucking cool dude." So if there's one thing I think Terezi NEEDS, it is a normal friend who won't quote philosophy to her and isn't using her as a pawn in a weird pseudo-incestuous game between gods (Wow Rosebot and Dirk are so odd lmao pls someone add normal guy Karkat to this dynamic)

And I kind of like the idea of him being a "mentor" or whatever because then he'd just be following in the Signless' footsteps except this time he's like just "Some guy" and not really a jesus figure. Vriska will also be there so I guess the Candy kids can have two mentors like an Angel and Devil situation </3 Vriska could convince them to take chances and risks and not to be complacent, and Karkat can talk to them so they chill out or whatever since this is an adventure that is due to cause a lot of trauma </3