question for eridan fans

i have way too many things to say about eridan but my basic reasons why i like him is:

- he's actually the least casteist troll, all if it is posturing because of his massive inferiority complex and striving to be "like dualscar" because of the expectations placed upon him for being a violetblood

- he's really genuinely stupid. he is not smart, emotionally or logically, and it's funny

- he's actually nice he just says things in the worst way possible (defer to stupidity). giving jade an epic gun, inviting karkat to come chill with him on his planet (i could say way too many things about destined moirails erikar too but i digress), helping feferi kill lusii for sweeps despite the severe trauma and psychological damage its doing to him? king shit

- i think he was actually supposed to kill the angels he just did it the wrong way. good job eridan on trying to do your job

- also isn't actually genocidal. if he truly wanted landwellers dead all he'd have to do is not feed gl'bgolyb for a little bit and her whisper would kill a shit ton of lowbloods. but he never does, and when kanaya calls him out for "hey if you kill all lowbloods you kill us too" he goes "i wouldnt kill my friends who tf do you think i am" (this is not actually an incorrect statement despite later because he literally goes grimdark. which. yknow rose. yeah thats all ill say)

- i like guys with terrible fashion sense (he is a hispter shoe collector canonically) and cringe interests

- making magic real simply by believing its not real and that its science beams is fucking awesome

aside from all that, you do not have to like eridan and i think character defenders as a whole are way too focused on forcing other people to like the character they defend??? my reasons for liking a character and your reasons for disliking a character do not contradict with how well we understand a character. i understand gamzee and dirk very well but i still think theyre assholes

i don't have any strong feelings about eridan, he's fine enough as a character, but i feel like people pointing out at the contradictions in his actions and taking that to mean "he doesn't actually believe all that racist stuff" are missing the forest for the trees.

yes, eridan isn't entirely ideologically consistent - but so are most trolls, and hey, even a lot of people irl. especially when it comes to bigotry and right wing ideology, it's irrational and nonsensical and nonetheless sincere. the first troll we're introduced to is karkat, who literally wants to be the number one empire bootlicker despite being someone who the empire would love to kill. even eridan's whole "seadweller supremacist despite hating living in the sea" thing seems to be a somewhat deliberate jab at all the not uncommon cases of non-white white supremacists. a lot of people who hold fascist views believe themselves to be the exception, that if they just align themselves with fascism hard enough they'll prove themselves to be the mythical "good one".

and, honestly, the fact that he's "friends" (term used loosely because they all hate him lol) with lower castes is not even because he values them as people. one of his defining traits is his neediness for romance, and most interactions he has with the other trolls are opportunistic along this thread - he attempts flirting with basically everyone, and again i don't think it's because he values them as people. we briefly see what it's like to be in a relationship with eridan from feferi's perspective, and from her account it's basically just taking care of his neediness at the expense of your own feelings. it's nothing like a balanced relationship, and this fits in line with eridan constantly soliciting (particularly black rom) flirtations, despite the outright rejections.

homestuck touches on the fetishization as an extent of racism with its other prominent racist character - equius, and the way his relationship with aradia is definitely like, a weird fetish thing of getting off on authority and the subversion of authority. and i feel like a lot of eridan's solicitations follow along a similar line, albeit more subtly - his relationship with sollux is definitely colored by the fact that sollux "stole his girl", and eridan's response to this is to attempt to hate fuck him. if that's not opportunistic, idk what is. hell, his ideal relationship configuration in the beginning of the comic is having a red rom top of the ladder girlfriend, and a black rom non-seadweller but still highblood girlfriend. his racism and incel tendencies mix with the fact that hatred is a form of romance in his culture, so he tries to pull anyone he can into a relationship with him.

i think ultimately this is what makes eridan an interesting character, it's pulling at his ideology and his actions and seeing how he justifies the contradictions for himself, what motivates his actions and how that reconciles with what he states to believe. making up a "this is why eridan is secretly not racist" theory just makes him more boring, imo, especially since most of act 5's bread and butter is several trolls examining the contradictions in their beliefs and identities, and seeing the (often disastrous) consequences these contradictions lead to.

Great breakdown from oomfie :) all I have to add is that I would never forgive myself if nobody pointed out that Eridan did not actually ever go grimdark, it's basically a fandom myth that he did, and that grimdarkness doesn't even make sense as an explanation for his murderous actions because grimdark Rose retained her existing moral code and was even capable of hanging out casually with John... she was just surrounded by a huge magical aura and could only speak in the language of the horrorterrors at the time. Grimdark doesn't mean insane or evil, the whole joke is that it's a very silly and basically superficial transformation that has no real effect other than making Rose look more Goffik.

Exactly like danya said, the complex and contradictory nature of Eridan's character is what makes him interesting, so making up (literally magical) reasons that he was never actually complex and contradictory to begin with just detract from his value rather than add to it.

i at first thought all his bad/annoying qualities were really entertaining and funny, which led to me unironically being obsessed with him. that's MY comfort genocidal mentally ill fucked up fish boy <3

some of you wouldnt find his genocidal tendencies endearing if you were a person of color . the fuck is wrong with you all ? treating him like some lost kid whos unaware and 8roken 8y the system . its funny how some of you go "oh but he didnt really do anything wrong you know . but yeah feferi did the same thing and shes a total cunt so . "

it straight up does not matter whether eridan "really was casteist" because he did in fact say all of those things, and as cruel as it may seem it actually makes us better communicators not to ignore the words coming out of people's mouths. though the real reason why eridan sucks is because he is a boy, and everybody who may or may not do similar highblood things to him eg vriska, equius, feferi don't suck as much (or in vriska's case, at all) because they are girls. it's really that simple

Did the last person to reply in this thread just call Equius a girl?

what if i turned eridan into a ball and rolled him down slopes and he screamed a lot and was scared and then once he reached the bottom of the slope i picked him up and then brought him back to the top of the slope and did it again

What if Eridan was made out of butter?

i would fry fritters in him

saltfish fritters

now this is probably on me for continuing to check back here expecting actual engaging conversation but wow sure are a lot of ppl who don’t like eridan being little jokesters in the thread specifically asking fans what they find the appeal to be. wowzers