now the Official Voices are just going to be another thing used to say that the kids are undeniably white ADSHJFJHD i feel like race as a Subject in homestuck should just be abandoned.. like any themes tackling whiteness/non whiteness that are present in the text, lets just ignore those and forget they happened ok? trying to fight against the reality that white people made these characters to be white and didn’t put much thought in it beyond that is like man. WHY DO WE EVEN TRY? AJKFKSJJK
> READ GODHEAD at SPICYYETI.COM
It's like Homestuck but during Antebellum slavery.
There's a level on which I'm fine with the castings even if they go into the show, I guess,but yeah it is pretty frustrating. Jade's pretty indicative of the dissonance for me here--on an individual level I find the idea of the voice actor for Tails (and Genis from Tails of Symphonia! both really formative characters for me) playing Jade really exciting.
On the other hand she and Jake are the characters I particularly fixate on racially, as fellow islanders. (To a lesser extent Roxy and Dirk also fall into this space for me.) I like black/varied poc reads for all the other characters too of course, and it's not even like Jade and Jake are Caribbean since it's a Pacific island, *and* I know that singling Jade and Jake out to be The Brown Ones has its own messy representational history anyway, but they're just the ones I imprinted on as a teen so its just how I feel. So having Jade be white feels particularly disappointing, personally.
That's kind of where I'm at. Ultimately I think race in Homestuck is inescapably unsatisfying to me--I don't think more varied trolls would make me feel better because the trolls are themselves kind of a subtly different racialized category and I think having *their* castings be diverse but the kids be all white would be just about the worst case scenario.
But even in a world where all the castings change after the pilot and it gets a lot better in that respect, the truth is Homestuck is fundamentally a story of U.S. exceptionalism where a bunch of kids adjacent to the States specifically get to live/matter and we never hear from anyone from any other country again, even if I very charitably imagine that Grandpa and Mom really saved lives by mass distributing Sburb.
The point being, even if I imagine Jake and Jade as Caribbean or Dave and Dirk as afrolatin (and I do), and they're played by actors who reflect some version of that or another headcanon, it's not like there's ever a world where they would speak *Spanish* in the story, and to me the politics of race are tied into the politics of geography and language-- so this is an aspect of Homestuck that's just always going to quietly suck for me.
It's still really good in other ways. I still think its valuable to voice a desire for better, and especially to celebrate fans when they do the transformative work that makes these characters into mirrors of us, and even if it's a broken promise I do still appreciate the araciality gambit for enabling that to some extent.
But Homestuck is kind of a story about the psychological reality of american empire to the bones, and white as default is baggage that comes with that too, I think. A truly racially diverse/positive version of Homestuck would look completely different as a story to me, I think.
Sorry for the rambleeee I am more or less sorting out my feelings about it in real time since I came across this thread.
'"I thought this was a love story," you say.
Your Lola's insistence has remained with you since the beginning, and you say these words in a quiet manner, with a shrug, as if to let these performers know it is fine, it does not matter that much, this thought—that maybe the definition of what a love story is could be stretched to include all that has up till now taken place. You say it like an apology. Like it is a thing to be apologized for.
A runaway child, charging through the porcelain shelves:
I thought this was a love story. I had hoped this was a love story.
You say it with shame, embarrassed at having said it, wishing you could take it back.
You say it, worried that you have betrayed some secret part of yourself that does not wish to be exposed—
an old gremlin in you, sick and yearning. You say it with hope.
Timid, and without conviction.
The hope of someone who knows they are about to wake from a dream to a reality they do not understand. The pub awaits, as does your empty bed.
I thought this was a love story.
You regret having said it; as if you know it will lessen the quality of the tale. Rob it of its smoke and shadow. But still, you say it.
And this moonlit body smiles. And from the wings the patting of the drums slowly builds, and the curtains behind the dancers rise. Because you are right, this moonlit body tells you;
This is indeed a love story. Down to the blade-dented bone.'
-You, in the Inverted Theater - The Spear Cuts Through Water
"I don't care if the best I can hope for is half of what I want. I'm not here for a realistic outcome. I'm just going to fight! Forever! With perfect greed! Until I get everything!"
-Saturn, Heaven will be Mine
I do not think that is an appropriate comment to make on this thread. ^
Oof couldn't resist outing yourself huh?
The mods have been incredibly lenient already with the obvious trolling and bad faith arguing this person (@JadeTotem) has been doing in the most divisive threads. But coming onto a thread that is about a serious issue regarding race just to make some kind of weird joke is not good IMO.
Report his ass for it lmfao Genuinely this guy's a piece of shit.
my apologies if the joke was in poor taste.
tara and raven superfan
Yeah because you definitely didn't know ahead of time. Fuck off.
ain't nobody gonna ban this cunt already
-- The Butch
"aracial" characters oftentimes feel like a copout...
the best example I can think of it NOT being a copout is the Magnus archives, where 90% of the cast is white cause they were just who jonny sims knew. in the sequel show where they had money to hire actors they hired non-white vas from the start.
really disappointing that there was an opportunity to have that kinda do-over here and they didn't take it :/
@elegantspinstress For better or for worse it seems like the user genuinely believes most of what he says on the forum. Moderation action has been taken when his arguments have been insulting. Unfortunately "bad faith" is hard to moderate, whether or not we agree, we need to be sure to actually act on it as mods.
That said, there has been enough complaints that we'll go over his history of posts again as a team to make a decision.
Moderation standards and precedent is still being made on the site. I hope it'll become more transparent when we get some kind of "modmail" implimented 😅
Feel free to share complaints or recommendations on moderation decisions in the relevant category.
@ancientjadetotem if you see this, please try and avoid any further provocation of these users that you are arguing with on other topics, if you aren't already.
-KeCh
I can understand that. I mean, I fear an even bigger fallout would happen if you DID delete all of his sea-lionining arguments lol.
Understand that and all respect to the modteam. That said I also want to through my voice in with the folks who would like to see ancientjadetotem banned. I get not wanting to moderate based on vibes, but the guy has done nothing but troll and start fights, and he's clearly been upsetting people and making them uncomfortable. Like, what does this guy add to the forums? Does anyone want him here? It's really hard to see him as engaging in good faith. That said, understand wanting to make a decision with the whole team.
Immediate preface of saying well, yknow race isn't "real" so everyone comes at this from their own perspective, mines gonna be pretty biased from my perspective of a metis person and how that colours my view of race as a concept, i take this as more a bug than a feature though, also this is less about voice actors and more about race in homestuck in general but so is most other things in this thread
Taking the foundation that race isn't like an inherint part of the self, this is especially true for the beta kids given well, you cant blood quantum dave he's 100% dave. so like even moreso than in real life the race of the beta kids is contextual, dave growing up at a time when over one tenth of austins population was black(overrepresented in the dense urban center particularly cheap ares, i.e where dave lives) theres yknow only logically some blackness to him, culturally speaking. johns got the whole suburban washington plus bourgeoisie background thing going on i mean, he is the one noted as actually having white 'ancestors' even if not really related to him, we get introduced as race to him as something of a novelty(I.e black president)
considering this alongside the overwhelming crushing whiteness of the internet, especially in the past, i think the white rapper line is only logical
my perspective on these things is that a user went to a thread i made and suggested am author I like would make me into paste, and they weren’t banned, so there is a bit of leniency in the forum culture for ribbing. but I will stop since there is a line being drawn
tara and raven superfan
what the fuck are yall even talking about anymore
-- real slim shady
It wasn't ribbing Ayn Rand would make you into paste. It's just a fact.
While Kech initially just trashed the post, after further discussion I have issued a 1 week ban on AncientJadeTotem for their racist comment.
hasn't gone over my head that this is happening at a time when online is getting more and more conservative. we need continued advocacy for voices of color even in things as petty as webcomic voice acting, in every nook and cranny on the planet, as well as in spaces of greater consequence. that being said i wouldn't blame anyone for going hermit mode over this shit either
yahoo! yippee! wahoo!
voices can get recast after the pilot. i hope at least some of the trolls get cast as POC. i'd love a black kanaya or sollux. i will say i always hc'd rose as mizrahi jewish so i was kind of wishing for a mizrahi jewish vc, although i can't say i have a problem with the vc's performance. i will say i would not mind a recast. and if not that, maybe cast the alpha kids as poc.
- fuck off prepz
