chase your bliss, yo regardless of whether or not it's "silly" if it's something that'll make you happy, make it! being silly sometimes is fun
I recall that Equius is supposed to be a vegetarian, but I don't know if that's actually canon or if it's something that arose from fanon based on his love of animals. I suspect that being a vegetarian, for a troll, is a lot more difficult than it is for a human and is probably usually the result of some sort of food allergies where they can't afford to switch to a novel protein, so they made do with what they can afford.
If I recall correctly Equius did say he doesn't like Nepeta hunting beasts but is willing to accept it if she eats them and doesn't waste them. Whether that means he's veggie or not I don't know; he probably could still eat invertebrates, or according to some headcanons (including mine) other trolls. I'm not very good with kismesissitude, but I think a healthy one is just as important to the trolls' wellbeing as a matespritship. Feeling conflicted about that too...
i head canon that he can afford to live a vegetarian lifestyle because he can afford the proper food and supplements and it might be a class thing among higher blooded folks who really imprint on a certain animal
I agree that a healthy kismessitude is just as important for trolls as a matespritship. It gives them someone to compete with, and it gives them a reason to try and improve themselves and a bar to measure themselves against. Oh yeah, he's definitely in the tier where he could afford to get any supplements that he needs to make up for nutritional deficiencies in a vegetarian diet. Same as how, if he needed a novel protein diet, he could probably afford to eat nothing but fish for protein - while Nepeta might need to rely on her moirail's support there, or have to catch fish from ponds and lakes herself, and Tavros would be completely out of luck.
I also headcanon that trolls eat each other on the reg and he likely wouldn't have a problem with that, though I doubt he's the type to go out of his way to do it.
oh my god. what even. I love SCP Foundation. I mean people are currently flipping out about the fact that it seems like one of the new Troll Call trolls is eating a 'oblong meat product' made of GRUB all the mentions of 'grubsauce' and such would seem to indicate SOMETHING, at least. personally I think kismesissitude is as important to trolls as matespritship, but while I can comprehend what a blackrom involves I can never seem to write it well on its own? I'm halfway decent at writing, like, vacillation or multi-quadrant relationships involving blackrom, but I just can't ever seem to get the blackrom by itself quite right.
I'm not sure if canon meant grubs in that sense to be troll grubs or some other form of insectoid, but considering how they reproduce and their general lack of respect for others' lives, especially those of children, I always figured they'd have to eat troll grubs in order to stop them overrunning the planet entirely. When gametes come in literal bucketloads, that makes for a lot of offspring.
plus, I mean.....gotta do something with those culled grubs amiright //I'm kind of joking, but I like to imagine that this is where a large percentage of, if not all, culled grubs go. mutant blood color or something? you are now oblong meat product.
I'm still bitter that Gam<>Kar didn't go anywhere. Why have Karkat calming Gamzee work in the first place if the whole business was never going to go anywhere or work at any other critical moment? Gamzee made comments in Openbound which may or may not have implied he really did care about Karkat, and I always thought Aranea's messing with him qualified as pale abuse and she would turn out to be behind him dumping Karkat, but nothing came of it. If Gamzee really was totally evil and uncontrollably sociopathic, why did it work the first time?
Also, maybe it's me but I don't recall anyone ever being remotely upset about any of their supposed friends trying to murder them, or for that matter being dead. The latter doesn't really matter while they're still in the game, yeah, and I don't begrudge them making new lives in the aftermath and messing about with cake and Snapchat, but don't they miss anyone ever? Everyone immediately writes Gamzee off ("Fuck That Guy") and people are surprised he remains evil? He spent all that time hiding in the vents; did Karkat ever go looking for him? I think I'm kinda falling out of love with the cast if they're all going to be so dickish forever. I still like them in AUs because they have so much potential to be good, but...
also, I’d like to note that their society is, from what we know, very....murder and death. I mean, I think the trolls at one point don’t even really understand the concept of friends? it seems like their society would mostly encourage them to only care if the person who’s dead or trying to kill them is someone they’re dating or someone they’re ‘owed’ loyalty by—i.e. a rustblood trying to kill a blueblood. and even then, like, if you’re rust and your bronze moirail is killed by a cerulean, hemospectrum would seem to dictate that you can’t do shit, and a proper human mourning period is probably not a societally allowed/accepted thing. like, Kanaya gets pissed at Gamzee, presumably for killing people she cared about, if I remember correctly. Nepeta went after Gamzee for killing her moirail, she was upset as hell over that. but beyond that, I mean—I’m not actually sure I’d classify a lot of the trolls as ‘friends’ so much as ‘all at least acquaintances from death planet who went on to play a death game’, and so I’m not sure I’d expect, say, Terezi to mourn Tavros’s death. and even for the ones who ARE friends, like Terezi and Nepeta, mourning doesn’t seem like something their culture would hold with much, especially with the lower castes. I AM pissy about everyone declaring Gamzee evil forever and just leaving him to hide in the vents, or only trying to find him to kill him.
If their culture is so death-filled, why were they even mad at him at all? None of the survivors seem to have particularly liked Equius and only Terezi was that close to Nepeta. And I'd have thought they would go looking for him just to not have an unpredictable murderer at large even if they didn't care about their one-time-friend's wellbeing! Especially since it's so flagrantly obvious from his log with Karkat that he has some serious delusion issues going on and I'd think even thirteen-year-olds from a culture with no mental health care beyond killing the afflicted would realise he wasn't in full control.
were that many people mad at Gamzee, though? Karkat shooshed him because he wanted Gamzee to stop trying to kill people, and they were moirails then, so it’s possible everyone still alive assumed that keeping Gamzee from going on murderrampage again was his job; it’s not like Alternia really promoted “care about others’ emotional well-being even if you aren’t their moirail.” beyond that, the only ones I remember caring were Kanaya, and I only say I think she cared because at one point she beat the shit out of Gamzee and I THINK it was somewhat related to his actions, and Terezi, who was justice-oriented—I mean, she went after Vriska for things she viewed as morally wrong, and so either she was pissed that Gamzee murdered Nepeta/others of their group and wanted to get back at him, or she wasn’t chill with him murdering Equius, who is high enough on the hemospectrum that even on Alternia it wouldn’t have just been brushed aside. like, I’m not saying it’s chill, but their society is HELLA different from ours. if your moirail is prone to being murderous, it’s your job to keep them in check. if you don’t, you failed. and no, no one liked Equius overmuch, but he was blue, so it’s possible Terezi wanted to go after Gamzee because even on Alternia, a purpleblood killing someone only one caste below them would’ve been frowned on and probably a matter of justice. and beyond Kanaya and Terezi, I can’t remember anyone actually caring that Gamzee killed people. heck, I don’t even remember Karkat caring all that much once the potential danger was seemingly dealt with.
....also, I don’t remember Kanaya ever actively looking for Gamzee or really being mad at him—so it’s possible she decided that if she saw Gamzee again, or if he acted out (aka Karkat failed), she’d just kill him not because she cared he’d murdered the other trolls but to keep herself/others on the meteor safe from him.
I mean them always going "fuck that guy" whenever he was brought up in conversation. Terezi's behaviour with him could be put down at least partly to Aranea's influence as well. Wonder if she messed with the others too... I feel like if it was me I'd at least want to drag him out of the vents and put him somewhere he couldn't sneak into my room and murder me, even if I didn't care or was too afraid to investigate why the hell he snapped. Clown-hunting might be dangerous but surely it's less dangerous than just leaving him there, right? Not a circumstance I will likely ever find myself in, but I'd at least want to try to take some form of control.
yeah, but again, keeping Gamzee in check was presumably considered to be Karkat’s job. unless he stopped being moirails, there was technically no reason to go find him, because his moirail is supposed to be keeping him from being murderous, as is the normal Alternian way with trolls who are particularly murder-inclined. we’re humans and don’t have that mindset. if there is a person who went on a murder-rampage once, of course we aren’t going to just leave them in the vents because someone else on the ship is SUPPOSED to be keeping them in check. but a lot of Alternian society seems very black and white, and if Gamzee had come out and rampaged, presumably he would’ve been killed because it was clear he couldn’t be kept in check, but until then, I mean...one purpose of a moirailleigance is to keep violent trolls in check, we saw that with Eridan and Feferi (even though theirs failed, she did mention trying to curb his violent desires), and Equius mentions that he doesn’t like to think what he’d be like without Nepeta’s influence. basically, yeah, Gamzee was murderous once and if he went there again I’m sure none of the others would hesitate to kill him—but until then, keeping him in check is his moirail’s job and if Karkat is letting him live in the vents it’s not their business. also, it seems possible to me that it was left alone because if Karkat was keeping Gamzee in check and then the others hunted Gamzee down and triggered a murder rampage and couldn’t stop him, then it’s on them for fucking up a situation that was working so far. I mean, he is assumed to be not murderous while in the vents—so they left well enough alone, but probably if Gamzee had tried go on a murder rampage again measures to kill him would have been taken.
Was anyone concerned Karkat wasn't doing a good job? KARKAT, YOU LEFT HIM LIVING IN THE VENTILATION SYSTEM FOR MULTIPLE YEARS, YOU DO NOT GET TO BITCH TO DAVE ABOUT HIM LEAVING YOU IF YOU DIDN'T SHOW ANY CONCERN ABOUT WHETHER HE WAS THERE OR NOT god I went looking for character analyses to cheer myself up after seeing character hate and all I can think now is that everyone in this comic really is horrible.
I imagine they might’ve, but....well, even humans don’t outright interfere in other people’s relationships without some prompting, in my experience. I feel like at least some of them were probably internally like “is that really the way to handle this”, but it’s Gamzee and Karkat’s relationship, so unless one of them complained during the relationship, or asked for advice....I guess they might not say anything.
