like for the longest time i just took it as read that the violent nightmares trolls have that force them to sleep in drugslime were completely just trauma from the violent baby war they were forced to participate in from the moment they were born. no supernatural chucklemagic or eldritch shit required
when vriska asks if tavros even remembers the trials and he says no and she says well you probably got a stupid easy trial by mistake i was reading between the lines and assuming that meant he never went through the trials at all? and that was why he was so averse to violence. which made complete sense to me with the knowledge that none of them were even born in the caverns, they landed on alternia’s surface from space, so how would they even end up there… the comic ends up basically handwaving this by stating outright that the dolorosa found the signless in the caverns somehow but even looking back it still feels like that vriska/tavros convo is supposed to be indicating something
this is pretty fascinating. i like the idea that (at least some of) the other trolls have completely fabricated memories of the trials because youre Just Supposed To Have Those. i mean of course you see a lot of characters pretending they’re more well-adjusted than they actually are in homestuck - i think it’s very relevant that the only two trolls who suggest that they remember their trials are karkat and vriska - but imagining trials that never happened would be a level of self-delusion on par with john and his clown drawings. it’s an interesting thought that, to survive on alternia, you have to retcon your own personal history…
fwiw, because the tavros/vriska conversation in question involves tavros trying to commune with game constructs to avoid violence, i always assumed that that was what he did as a pupa, too: he didn’t get “easier” trials, he just asked some nearby lusii for protection or something. maybe he never realised he went through the trials because he was always kept out of harm’s way. this would also tie back into the summoner/ghost army arc; tavros was the only one who thought to go and ask others for help