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Hamsteak fandom and its manpain tendencies
Apr. 8th, 2014 12:01 amIt's hard to miss that a fair amount of the Homestuck fandom is pretty sick of the overabundance of "Strider manpain" within fanworks at this point. It's understandable, Dave is not the most precious baby in the entire cast and yet he gets an unfair share of attention, but I find it mostly fascinating. Why does he attract such a huge fan following -- specifically a following that loves to analyze and amplify his angst in swarms? Other characters have sadder backstories, harder obstacles to overcome, and yet the rich douche from Texas gets the most woobie love.
Maybe I'm off-base, but I think it has a lot to do with how he comes across in terms of relatability. He doesn't have the worst obstacles, but they're the type of obstacles most likely to "ping" with an audience. The other characters are harder to project onto, which is why the other beta kids don't catch as much of an angst fan following in comparison to Dave Strider, even though they usually deserve it just as much if not more so. Let me give some examples.
First off, John's problems are small potatoes. They just are. He has a nice home, a doting parent, and his biggest complaint in life is that his dad thinks he likes clowns. Even later on, when he's confronted with his parent's death, he keeps a surprisingly neutral attitude overall. John doesn't dwell on negativity and thus provides very little angst fuel.
He does have tiny pockets of "blink and you miss it" emotional reactions, but they're similar to reactions one might have over a stubbed toe: there's a moment of intense emotion, then thirty seconds later it's as if it never happened and the pain's gone forever. When he does finally snap and make it clear that the pain is still very much dwelling in him, it's in a way that no one ever wants to admit they relate to: teenage temper tantrums. His dark side is too rare and too extreme to provide a hook for readers to hang their darker feelings off of.
Jade, meanwhile, has led... an interesting life. Her guardian died in what appeared to be suicide when she was young (aw, that could be relateable)... after which she stuffed him (what), and was raised in complete isolation by her dog (what), and knew she was going to die young because she had her dream self's corpse in the attic (WHAT). Jade Harley deserves all the fucking angst, all right? That is a RIDICULOUS amount of bullshit for a little kid to grow up with.
Despite all that, though, she is one of the most chipper and selfless characters in the whole damn series. Which means, naturally, that a general readership can't relate to her. Her tragedies are beyond a real world scope and, even beyond that, most of us probably can't imagine her levels of altruism. You can't easily project darker thoughts onto a character who succeeds so well in banishing them. She does have a hidden dark side, but she stuffs it so deep that it takes her Sprite self and grimbarkness to release it. Like John, her negative emotions are very all-or-nothing.
It surprises me a little that Rose isn't milked for angst more often: she thinks her mother is out to get her and doesn't realize she truly loved her until it's too late. That's such a near-universal teenage moment that it's not even funny. But at the same time, it requires a fair amount of self-reflection to admit that we've misread our parents -- especially in a readership that is heavily comprised of teenagers who often haven't had the distance to make those kinds of epiphanies yet. (Note: Sometimes those epiphanies are "Wow, my parents are dicks." All the same, age often means taking note of your parents' humanity, for good or bad.)
Plus, as odd as it sounds, Rose probably hides her negative emotions the least of all the beta kids. She may skirt around her shortcomings, if she's self-conscious about them, and turn to alcohol instead of confronting her fears, but when she's upset, shit can explode. Where the Prospit kids are too laid back in confronting their psychological problems, Rose might be too extreme. I don't think most people want to relate to someone whose coping mechanisms involve turning to the dark arts.
Which leaves us with Dave, who is at about the same Personal Tragedy Level as Rose (that is, above John's warranted angst but below Jade's). Somehow, this little douche tends to provide the most angstfuel in the fandom and I'm fairly sure it's because his problems are personally complex but universally simple: He wants to live up to and exceed his role model. He wants to be cool to the point he loses track of what he actually likes. He pretends he can handle shit that he can't. He tries to mask his uncomfortable emotions but time and again lets them slip in telltale ways.
He embodies those "Does anyone else ever feel like they want to do x but they’re just too y?" textposts that get seventy thousand notes on Tumblr. Not only does he fail to live up to his own expectations, but he can't even hide it when he tries. He's vulnerable in places that the other kids have strong defenses. Is it really any surprise that hordes of teenagers (consciously or subconsciously) relate to his often futile struggles?
Then the Alphas come along and tear all this theorizing to shreds, because hell if I know why Dirk gets all the fandom manpain focus like his ecto-son. (After his self-loathing and depression conversation with AR? Sure, that makes sense. But I'm faaairly sure he's been a fan fav long before that pesterlog was released.) If I had to hazard a guess, it's possible that people project Dave's issues onto him on top of the whole living in isolation + unrequited crush stuff. I'll have to give it more thought.
Maybe I'm off-base, but I think it has a lot to do with how he comes across in terms of relatability. He doesn't have the worst obstacles, but they're the type of obstacles most likely to "ping" with an audience. The other characters are harder to project onto, which is why the other beta kids don't catch as much of an angst fan following in comparison to Dave Strider, even though they usually deserve it just as much if not more so. Let me give some examples.
First off, John's problems are small potatoes. They just are. He has a nice home, a doting parent, and his biggest complaint in life is that his dad thinks he likes clowns. Even later on, when he's confronted with his parent's death, he keeps a surprisingly neutral attitude overall. John doesn't dwell on negativity and thus provides very little angst fuel.
He does have tiny pockets of "blink and you miss it" emotional reactions, but they're similar to reactions one might have over a stubbed toe: there's a moment of intense emotion, then thirty seconds later it's as if it never happened and the pain's gone forever. When he does finally snap and make it clear that the pain is still very much dwelling in him, it's in a way that no one ever wants to admit they relate to: teenage temper tantrums. His dark side is too rare and too extreme to provide a hook for readers to hang their darker feelings off of.
Jade, meanwhile, has led... an interesting life. Her guardian died in what appeared to be suicide when she was young (aw, that could be relateable)... after which she stuffed him (what), and was raised in complete isolation by her dog (what), and knew she was going to die young because she had her dream self's corpse in the attic (WHAT). Jade Harley deserves all the fucking angst, all right? That is a RIDICULOUS amount of bullshit for a little kid to grow up with.
Despite all that, though, she is one of the most chipper and selfless characters in the whole damn series. Which means, naturally, that a general readership can't relate to her. Her tragedies are beyond a real world scope and, even beyond that, most of us probably can't imagine her levels of altruism. You can't easily project darker thoughts onto a character who succeeds so well in banishing them. She does have a hidden dark side, but she stuffs it so deep that it takes her Sprite self and grimbarkness to release it. Like John, her negative emotions are very all-or-nothing.
It surprises me a little that Rose isn't milked for angst more often: she thinks her mother is out to get her and doesn't realize she truly loved her until it's too late. That's such a near-universal teenage moment that it's not even funny. But at the same time, it requires a fair amount of self-reflection to admit that we've misread our parents -- especially in a readership that is heavily comprised of teenagers who often haven't had the distance to make those kinds of epiphanies yet. (Note: Sometimes those epiphanies are "Wow, my parents are dicks." All the same, age often means taking note of your parents' humanity, for good or bad.)
Plus, as odd as it sounds, Rose probably hides her negative emotions the least of all the beta kids. She may skirt around her shortcomings, if she's self-conscious about them, and turn to alcohol instead of confronting her fears, but when she's upset, shit can explode. Where the Prospit kids are too laid back in confronting their psychological problems, Rose might be too extreme. I don't think most people want to relate to someone whose coping mechanisms involve turning to the dark arts.
Which leaves us with Dave, who is at about the same Personal Tragedy Level as Rose (that is, above John's warranted angst but below Jade's). Somehow, this little douche tends to provide the most angstfuel in the fandom and I'm fairly sure it's because his problems are personally complex but universally simple: He wants to live up to and exceed his role model. He wants to be cool to the point he loses track of what he actually likes. He pretends he can handle shit that he can't. He tries to mask his uncomfortable emotions but time and again lets them slip in telltale ways.
He embodies those "Does anyone else ever feel like they want to do x but they’re just too y?" textposts that get seventy thousand notes on Tumblr. Not only does he fail to live up to his own expectations, but he can't even hide it when he tries. He's vulnerable in places that the other kids have strong defenses. Is it really any surprise that hordes of teenagers (consciously or subconsciously) relate to his often futile struggles?
Then the Alphas come along and tear all this theorizing to shreds, because hell if I know why Dirk gets all the fandom manpain focus like his ecto-son. (After his self-loathing and depression conversation with AR? Sure, that makes sense. But I'm faaairly sure he's been a fan fav long before that pesterlog was released.) If I had to hazard a guess, it's possible that people project Dave's issues onto him on top of the whole living in isolation + unrequited crush stuff. I'll have to give it more thought.
