Why do you think (Vriska) and Meenah were able to develop as people in the bubbles while the dancestors All stagnated? And what do you think of their arcs as a whole?

I really don’t think anyone actually developed too much in the Bubbles at all, and what development there was, it was only towards stagnation- Okay, let me explain.

Once a character is dead and in the Bubbles, they’re faced with irrelevancy, and most of the characters’ stagnation in the Bubbles comes from this fact. The fact that they no longer matter in the grand scheme of things, so without any stakes, they become complacent with their situation and just kind of hang out and hang around and do little other than exist in the Bubbles. There IS development of the characters in the Bubbles, with newly learned knowledge and interaction with other characters from other eras, they mildly change what they do, but they do not change it in any meaningful way to further themselves as people.

Meenah seems quite active and trying to actively do stuff, but she JUST appeared in the Bubbles. Everyone had a lot of time to become complacent- And even then, Meenah doesn’t change in the SLIGHTEST. To the point where she begs John to take the Ring away from her, to the point where she abandons (Vriska), because she KNOWS she’s a thief, she KNOWS she’s all about the bling, she KNOWS she’s not a good influence. And she’s unable to change any of it. It’s her nature, and she doesn’t strive to improve herself. There’s depth to this way of being, there’s emotion, but there’s really not growth. She’s a power-hungry Thief trying to get shit done when she dies, and she’s a power-hungry Thief trying to get shit done when she faces Lord English.

(Vriska) is a bit more complex, because you’d think she DOES develop, and in fact she does! But that’s the thing… She develops… Towards stagnation and complacency. She’s hungry for relevancy, she wants to be in the spotlight so badly, but unlike Meenah, she actually learns that maybe there’s more to things than just being The Big Heroine That Does Everything, and starts to accept her situation, and accept being with Meenah. She becomes kinder, she becomes happy- But she becomes TOO dependent on Meenah. She becomes complacent with the situation, gives the spotlight to the person closest to her, and follows her instead of being the one that calls the shots. It’s honestly better than what Vriska ends up doing, but it’s still far from ideal in general, and it’s definitely far from ideal for Vriska as a person. She’s not fixing her problems, she’s using someone to cover them up, and letting it be, and in the end this attachment to Meenah, who’s still trying to get shit done, ends up hurting her. Her development is tragic, and only gets a pick-me-up from her meeting GO! Terezi, as they truly complement each other and can settle their own personal issues. This reunion comes to be by someone who just died, and someone who just went through a big change in their status quo.

Development in these situations comes from the interactions of a character with others, and how they change their perception of themselves or what they’re doing- And once they’re dead, most characters simply become used to the way things have been, to the way things are, and simply… Allow them to happen as they always have. They don’t seek change. And since they don’t seek change, no one is affected by the ripples of someone else’s change, and as such, there’s very little development.

There’s simply not enough people trying to bring change in the Bubbles for meaningful and constant self-actualization to ripple through people, they just shrug, accept they’re Dead, and keep on going.

The one character that may have gone through the most development was Aranea, influenced by Vriska and Mindfang’s ideals, she comes back full force to get shit done- And it’s very telling that Aranea is the one who gets the Ring of Life, and that both Meenah and Vriska wanted it.