KANKRI VANTAS ♋ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
privilegecheck) wrote2013-03-04 08:10 am
privilegecheck) wrote2013-03-04 08:10 am
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PERSONAL
NAME: Tricks
PERSONAL JOURNAL:pantsu
AIM: fail hero
PLURK:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
naoto
CURRENT CHARACTERS: N/A
CHARACTER
CHARACTER NAME: Kankri Vantas
SERIES: Homestuck
CANON POINT: The end of the third Meenah walkaround.
LOSS: Kankri has lost the red sweater Porrim made for him. BEHOLD HIS GLORIOUS TALL PANTS.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER: Kankri is long-winded, obnoxious, and kind of a terrible person overall. When he first appears in Act 6 Intermission 3, which makes up the bulk of his appearances so far in canon, it becomes fairly obvious that he’s a parody of the “social justice warrior” phenomenon found mostly on Tumblr. (This fits with the nature of Homestuck’s troll characters in general, Alternian and Beforan alike, who parody various internet subcultures.) Kankri seems on first blush to have his heart in the right place, since he’s passionate to the point of obsession about promoting equality and sensitivity to other people’s issues. The problem is that he’s incredibly boring and self-involved about it. Much like actual SJWs, Kankri has the ability to turn just about any topic into a sermon on structures of oppression and privilege, even in conversations he’s not involved in or even anywhere close to - he might only physically appear in the first Meenah walkaround and the ministrife, but he butts into conversations between the Beforan trolls all over the place, much to their bewilderment. He doesn’t really listen to people about their issues and concerns, instead pretty much sinking the conversation under a giant wall of run-on sentences that are almost impossible to follow. It’s not as if he’s unaware of this effect, as he calls his conversation with Karkat a lecture before hastily “correcting” it to a dialogue, but he doesn’t much seem to care since he’s busy with the effort to explain every single little detail of his thoughts on the matter at hand. It might come as no surprise, then, that most of his group of friends doesn’t like him very much - he’s just not that much fun to be around.
Moreover, when examining his social justice cred a bit more closely, it becomes obvious that he’s really not as much of a considerate person as he’d like everyone to think, nor one who wants to effect meaningful change in his (dead) society. He trivializes serious things, such as overusing the word “trigger” until it’s basically meaningless; at the same time, he treats far less significant issues as if they have the same gravity, such as including trans-caste identification in the realm of blood-caste oppression. Looking at how he treats Latula’s disability in comparison to her matesprit Mituna’s is a good example of this. He congratulates Latula for essentially being a model minority and overcoming her “disability,” even though that disability is an inability to smell rather than anything meaningful that impedes her life. Mituna, on the other hand, he criticizes for wearing a helmet and thus playing to a stereotype even though he actually needs one, and is harsh on him for having no social filter even though he knows Mituna is incapable of expressing himself normally. His pet cause of caste equality sounds like a worthy and important one on the surface, but it quickly becomes obvious that he’s mostly feeling that he’s treated unjustly due to being a mutant; when Porrim tries to discuss how troll gender roles relate to caste roles with him, he accuses her of distracting from “real” issues for imaginary ones. Recognizing hypocrisy is not Kankri’s strong suit, obviously. Actually, he’s kind of generally oblivious - he treats Cronus identifying as a human as something serious and champions him for it, but since Cronus only really talks about it much with Kankri, it’s obvious the guy is seeking attention and probably trying to get under that fuzzy red sweater.
Not that Cronus (or anyone else) would likely have much success in that without a lot of persistence. Kankri claims to be celibate, and at the least is very repressed, considering he slut-shames Porrim for being sexually active when he isn’t. It’s unlikely he’s asexual, though, and he certainly isn’t aromantic, since he pretty clearly implies to Latula that he’s interested in her and has been for a long time. That is to say, he denies being interested in her in very specific language, and repeatedly, to the point where she’s confused and kind of uncomfortable. He might be able to talk forever, but he is really not good at all at expressing himself in a clear and understandable way.
Kankri isn’t really irredeemably terrible, but his bad points do outshine his good ones. He can be genuinely sweet - he’s very nice to Latula, he tells Porrim that he thinks of her like family, and he’s more patient with Cronus than anyone else - but in the end, he has a lot of maturing to do before he can really be a good friend to anyone, let alone the paragon of justice and equality he so badly wants to be.
ABILITIES: Kankri’s Seer of Blood ability allowed him to remember his past life in post-scratch Alternia, but as his pre-scratch Beforan self it is inactive. Aside from that, he has no supernatural abilities in canon as far as we’ve seen.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: Kankri had to admit, he was somewhat skeptical of these journals. They worked well enough, but explaining it away as magic was just so...unenlightened. Besides, they didn’t have as much functionality and convenience as the devices he’d been accustomed to on Beforus. Oh well. He was living in a new culture and thus had to be sensitive to and abide by its conventions! He would simply have to make do.
Now, what to call his new blog? Sort of a blog. He was sure it wouldn’t be as good as it could have been on a platform like Bubblr, but he could at least bring some much-needed discourse on problematic elements that he’d seen present in his life here so far to the castle. He might not have been here long, but he’d already noticed a lot of possibly triggering, privileged, maybe even backwards thinking. He hardly judged the people here for it, they couldn’t know the damage they could be inflicting on each other as well as unprepared new arrivals, but now that he was here and had observed the inconsiderate way people treated each other he certainly needed to make everyone aware of it and facilitate an open dialogue about their perpetuation of oppression and privilege. Awareness was the first step on the way to changing things for the better, after all. Why, no one was even tagging their triggers yet. That had to be fixed.
Hopefully they’d listen a little better than his friends used to. He was only trying to help, after all. He opened the journal and leaned down over it, carefully titling a page Pr96lematics in red ink. Might as well start with the basics.
FIRST-PERSON JOURNAL SAMPLE: Greetings every9ne. First 9f all I w9uld like t9 say just h9w h9n9red I am to have met all 9f you, it’s 6een a real pleasure getting t9 kn9w every9ne here and to 6e am9ng such varied and diverse cultures all in 9ne place. I have felt s9 welc9med here and I think this place can 6e an amazing safe space, with a little w9rk.
In the interests 9f f9stering that space I’d like t9 9pen a discussi9n t9day a69ut triggers. While I’ve 6een here I’ve seen a l9t 9f pe9ple failing t9 tag theirs in their pu6lic p9sts, and while I’m sure this is n9t d9ne 9ut 9f any kind 9f malice 6ut rather fr9m ign9rance, it’s extremely inc9nsiderate 9f any9ne wh9 might happen t9 find these p9sts and 6e triggered 6y them. F9r instance, y9u might j9ke a69ut slaughtering s9me9ne in a vide9 game, 6ut t9 s9me9ne like me wh9 has experienced death that might 6e a triggering thing t9 say. We all need t9 6e a little m9re mindful 9f 9ur language, 6ecause saying s9me things might 6e hurtful 9r even damaging t9 s9meone else. Failing t9 c9nsider the needs 9f 9thers is pr96blematic, t9 say the least.
I will have t9 wrap this up quickly f9r n9w, since I pr9mised Cr9nus a heart to heart a69ut his pr96lems, 6ut I’ll write up a 6it m9re a69ut this t9pic when I return, 6ecause there’s far m9re t9 it than I can manage in such a sh9rt time. In the meantime I enc9urage every9ne t9 9pen up a69ut their triggers s9 every9ne kn9ws s9me specific things t9 tag f9r in the future, and t9 engage in th9ughtful discussi9n 9n the su6ject.
#triggers #discussi9n 9f triggers #death #pr96lematic #vide9 games #Cr9nus
NAME: Tricks
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
pantsuAIM: fail hero
PLURK:
CURRENT CHARACTERS: N/A
CHARACTER
CHARACTER NAME: Kankri Vantas
SERIES: Homestuck
CANON POINT: The end of the third Meenah walkaround.
LOSS: Kankri has lost the red sweater Porrim made for him. BEHOLD HIS GLORIOUS TALL PANTS.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER: Kankri is long-winded, obnoxious, and kind of a terrible person overall. When he first appears in Act 6 Intermission 3, which makes up the bulk of his appearances so far in canon, it becomes fairly obvious that he’s a parody of the “social justice warrior” phenomenon found mostly on Tumblr. (This fits with the nature of Homestuck’s troll characters in general, Alternian and Beforan alike, who parody various internet subcultures.) Kankri seems on first blush to have his heart in the right place, since he’s passionate to the point of obsession about promoting equality and sensitivity to other people’s issues. The problem is that he’s incredibly boring and self-involved about it. Much like actual SJWs, Kankri has the ability to turn just about any topic into a sermon on structures of oppression and privilege, even in conversations he’s not involved in or even anywhere close to - he might only physically appear in the first Meenah walkaround and the ministrife, but he butts into conversations between the Beforan trolls all over the place, much to their bewilderment. He doesn’t really listen to people about their issues and concerns, instead pretty much sinking the conversation under a giant wall of run-on sentences that are almost impossible to follow. It’s not as if he’s unaware of this effect, as he calls his conversation with Karkat a lecture before hastily “correcting” it to a dialogue, but he doesn’t much seem to care since he’s busy with the effort to explain every single little detail of his thoughts on the matter at hand. It might come as no surprise, then, that most of his group of friends doesn’t like him very much - he’s just not that much fun to be around.
Moreover, when examining his social justice cred a bit more closely, it becomes obvious that he’s really not as much of a considerate person as he’d like everyone to think, nor one who wants to effect meaningful change in his (dead) society. He trivializes serious things, such as overusing the word “trigger” until it’s basically meaningless; at the same time, he treats far less significant issues as if they have the same gravity, such as including trans-caste identification in the realm of blood-caste oppression. Looking at how he treats Latula’s disability in comparison to her matesprit Mituna’s is a good example of this. He congratulates Latula for essentially being a model minority and overcoming her “disability,” even though that disability is an inability to smell rather than anything meaningful that impedes her life. Mituna, on the other hand, he criticizes for wearing a helmet and thus playing to a stereotype even though he actually needs one, and is harsh on him for having no social filter even though he knows Mituna is incapable of expressing himself normally. His pet cause of caste equality sounds like a worthy and important one on the surface, but it quickly becomes obvious that he’s mostly feeling that he’s treated unjustly due to being a mutant; when Porrim tries to discuss how troll gender roles relate to caste roles with him, he accuses her of distracting from “real” issues for imaginary ones. Recognizing hypocrisy is not Kankri’s strong suit, obviously. Actually, he’s kind of generally oblivious - he treats Cronus identifying as a human as something serious and champions him for it, but since Cronus only really talks about it much with Kankri, it’s obvious the guy is seeking attention and probably trying to get under that fuzzy red sweater.
Not that Cronus (or anyone else) would likely have much success in that without a lot of persistence. Kankri claims to be celibate, and at the least is very repressed, considering he slut-shames Porrim for being sexually active when he isn’t. It’s unlikely he’s asexual, though, and he certainly isn’t aromantic, since he pretty clearly implies to Latula that he’s interested in her and has been for a long time. That is to say, he denies being interested in her in very specific language, and repeatedly, to the point where she’s confused and kind of uncomfortable. He might be able to talk forever, but he is really not good at all at expressing himself in a clear and understandable way.
Kankri isn’t really irredeemably terrible, but his bad points do outshine his good ones. He can be genuinely sweet - he’s very nice to Latula, he tells Porrim that he thinks of her like family, and he’s more patient with Cronus than anyone else - but in the end, he has a lot of maturing to do before he can really be a good friend to anyone, let alone the paragon of justice and equality he so badly wants to be.
ABILITIES: Kankri’s Seer of Blood ability allowed him to remember his past life in post-scratch Alternia, but as his pre-scratch Beforan self it is inactive. Aside from that, he has no supernatural abilities in canon as far as we’ve seen.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: Kankri had to admit, he was somewhat skeptical of these journals. They worked well enough, but explaining it away as magic was just so...unenlightened. Besides, they didn’t have as much functionality and convenience as the devices he’d been accustomed to on Beforus. Oh well. He was living in a new culture and thus had to be sensitive to and abide by its conventions! He would simply have to make do.
Now, what to call his new blog? Sort of a blog. He was sure it wouldn’t be as good as it could have been on a platform like Bubblr, but he could at least bring some much-needed discourse on problematic elements that he’d seen present in his life here so far to the castle. He might not have been here long, but he’d already noticed a lot of possibly triggering, privileged, maybe even backwards thinking. He hardly judged the people here for it, they couldn’t know the damage they could be inflicting on each other as well as unprepared new arrivals, but now that he was here and had observed the inconsiderate way people treated each other he certainly needed to make everyone aware of it and facilitate an open dialogue about their perpetuation of oppression and privilege. Awareness was the first step on the way to changing things for the better, after all. Why, no one was even tagging their triggers yet. That had to be fixed.
Hopefully they’d listen a little better than his friends used to. He was only trying to help, after all. He opened the journal and leaned down over it, carefully titling a page Pr96lematics in red ink. Might as well start with the basics.
FIRST-PERSON JOURNAL SAMPLE: Greetings every9ne. First 9f all I w9uld like t9 say just h9w h9n9red I am to have met all 9f you, it’s 6een a real pleasure getting t9 kn9w every9ne here and to 6e am9ng such varied and diverse cultures all in 9ne place. I have felt s9 welc9med here and I think this place can 6e an amazing safe space, with a little w9rk.
In the interests 9f f9stering that space I’d like t9 9pen a discussi9n t9day a69ut triggers. While I’ve 6een here I’ve seen a l9t 9f pe9ple failing t9 tag theirs in their pu6lic p9sts, and while I’m sure this is n9t d9ne 9ut 9f any kind 9f malice 6ut rather fr9m ign9rance, it’s extremely inc9nsiderate 9f any9ne wh9 might happen t9 find these p9sts and 6e triggered 6y them. F9r instance, y9u might j9ke a69ut slaughtering s9me9ne in a vide9 game, 6ut t9 s9me9ne like me wh9 has experienced death that might 6e a triggering thing t9 say. We all need t9 6e a little m9re mindful 9f 9ur language, 6ecause saying s9me things might 6e hurtful 9r even damaging t9 s9meone else. Failing t9 c9nsider the needs 9f 9thers is pr96blematic, t9 say the least.
I will have t9 wrap this up quickly f9r n9w, since I pr9mised Cr9nus a heart to heart a69ut his pr96lems, 6ut I’ll write up a 6it m9re a69ut this t9pic when I return, 6ecause there’s far m9re t9 it than I can manage in such a sh9rt time. In the meantime I enc9urage every9ne t9 9pen up a69ut their triggers s9 every9ne kn9ws s9me specific things t9 tag f9r in the future, and t9 engage in th9ughtful discussi9n 9n the su6ject.
#triggers #discussi9n 9f triggers #death #pr96lematic #vide9 games #Cr9nus