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