13/09/2017 13:55:21 ¶ ●

## OFF-THE-CUFF HOMESTUCK POSTS #6: THE TRAGEDY (AND SECRET TRIUMPH) OF JADE HARLEY, OR: THE GNOSTIC GARDENER

betweengenesisfrogs:

> DISCLAIMER FRAMEWORK

> [CHECK THE TAG FOR MORE THOUGHTS]

> [Note: Content warning for brief mention of sexual abuse and longer discussion of perceived suicide and associated thoughts.]

> Let’s talk about Jade Harley.

> A common feeling I’ve seen about the final chapters of Homestuck is that Jade Harley deserved better, that she suffered completely unfairly and arbitrarily in the final timeline.

> I actually completely agree. Jade *absolutely* deserved better. Where I disagree is with the argument that Jade’s suffering somehow shows Hussie is a bad writer.

> I think it’s important to recognize that good storytelling isn’t always the same thing as happy storytelling. Some stories or parts of stories are *about* suffering. They’re tragedy, a form of storytelling I’d define as an examination of a negative set of events: why they took place, why the characters involved couldn’t escape them. Done well, this can be as meaningful as any happy ending.

> I mean, there’s a reason a bunch of Greeks wanted to watch a series of plays about a guy who accidentally marries his mother and then stabs his eyes out.

> So when we’re talking about good storytelling in Homestuck, i.e.: whether character arcs reach meaningful catharsis, we have to bear in mind that the bad shit that happens to our characters is sometimes the very subject of the story.

> In other words, yes, Jade Harley deserved better.

> That’s the *entire point.*

> Now, that said, I actually think Jade does have a happy ending, and a damn cathartic one. But we need to understand the unfair suffering she went through to understand why. What I find fascinating about Jade’s arc is that she confronts the tragic, suffering-causing aspects of SBURB and the domain of Lord English more directly than any other character and finds a way to become free of them. It’s not that her suffering was in any way merited or right, it’s that by rejecting that unfairness, she finds incredible self-affirmation, freedom, and escape in a way that makes her the most direct manifestation of Homestuck’s Gnostic themes.

> In the causes of her suffering, and in how that suffering is overcome, Jade Harley is the key to the deeper meanings of Homestuck.

> Keep reading