‘I AM A HATCHED LEADER AND YOU KNOW IT.’ WHO IS KARKAT VANTAS?

 

A new protagonist takes the stage: his demeanor, angry. Act 5’s ‘Hivebent’ arc introduces a new cast of twelve characters, long before they begin trolling John Egbert and his co-players. Karkat is the first of the twelve introduced, the first to enter their Incipisphere, and the first Homestuck character with any real determination to drive the comic’s plot.

Using Karkat’s list of interests from his official introduction page (p.1994) as a framework and information from pages 1989-2199, here’s my analysis of Karkat as he’s presented at the beginning of Act 5.

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1. You have a passion for RIDICULOUSLY TERRIBLE ROMANTIC MOVIES AND ROMCOMS.

Karkat’s first listed interest is also his most surprising one. I think that every Homestuck character, as well as everyone I’ve ever met in real life, has at least one interest that I wouldn’t have expected on first meeting them, and with Karkat it’s his romance movies.

Karkat’s favorite movies are the troll versions of Serendipity, Hitch and 50 First Dates. If the troll versions are similar to the human versions, all three of these feature a heterosexual couple who fall for each other, temporarily break up due to miscommunication, belief that they’re better apart, or belief that fate will reunite them if they’re meant for each other, and get back together at the end of the movie. Like most romantic comedies, they suggest that true love can overcome situational obstacles to their relationships, such as difference in class status or life goals, other romantic entanglements, and serious illness.

Karkat doesn’t display any obvious romantic interest himself, so it’s possible that his movies have given him an unrealistic idea of what relationships are like. He’s waiting for his unexpected meet-cute with the perfect partner who appears accompanied by swelling music. Alternatively, he might relate to these movies’ male protagonists, who are able to find happiness despite their personal flaws. Karkat is self-aware about being an asshole and doesn’t yet make an effort to change. These movies could reassure him that he’s still loveable despite his unpleasant exterior. Karkat also doesn’t have strong religious or spiritual beliefs – he actively makes fun of Gamzee’s religion with Sollux (p.2027) and doesn’t have the mystical psychic powers that many of his friends do. For him, these movies could represent a belief in fate. Alternia is a cruel world where culling happens randomly and no troll is ever safe, but if Karkat has a soulmate who he’s destined to someday meet, the universe can’t be entirely uncaring.

Karkat adorns his hive with bright red banners, which in human society is the color of passion and romance. These banners, along with his movie posters, are his one concession to aesthetics in an otherwise functional hive. He’s generally pragmatic about such things, criticizing Terezi for spending his build grist on an ‘UGLY PAINT JOB’ instead of building his hive in accordance with Sgrub’s objectives (p.2061). In addition, Karkat feels like he should be embarrassed for liking these movies, but isn’t. He ‘[doesn’t] care what anyone says’ about them (p.1997) and thinks 50 First Dates is still ‘so good’ even though he has a hard time defending it (p.1998). In other areas of his life, Karkat does care about other people’s opinions, for example badly wanting to be seen as a leader.

So in both aesthetics and in the image he displays to the world, Karkat’s movies are an exception to a general rule – something he feels strongly enough about to override his personal rules. Part of this comes from Karkat being highly emotional, and likely struggling to contain himself when his interests are criticized. I also wonder if this would extend to a real life romance. If Karkat fell in love with someone, perhaps he would allow them to distract him from his future-oriented pragmatism, letting himself relax and enjoy life to a greater extent. If so, his ideal partner would be somebody carefree who tends to live in the moment and has a strong enjoyment of art, as those qualities would balance him out.

Karkat’s enjoyment of romantic movies doesn’t extend to other trappings of human romance, such as fancy poetry or sending letters to loved ones, both of which are largely useless in troll society (p.2005) – so there’s something about movies specifically that compels him. That could be an attachment to specific actors, as he’s a fan of both Troll Will Smith and Troll John Cusack. In a world where a young troll’s only guardian is a vicious beast, it makes sense that Karkat would look to an older troll as a role model. A romantic comedy is also intended as a complete, feel-good story, intended to be watched for its surface level meaning and positive emotions, in contrast to poetry which is often open to interpretation and requires active reading. Karkat’s movies are probably his only form of escapism, the only time he’s not worrying about the dangers of his society and his own future.

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2. You like to program computers, but you are NOTORIOUSLY PRETTY AWFUL AT IT.

Karkat is not only terrible at writing his own code, he also doesn’t understand other people’s code. He exclusively tries to code in the ~ATH language, which isn’t beginner friendly. Karkat has an inflated idea of his own skills and would be embarrassed by the idea of coding in an easier language. This is further shown by his choice of fetch modus, ‘encryption’, which requires hacking skills to retrieve an item. It actively makes Karkat’s life worse, yet he is stubborn enough to continue using it. His struggling with his fetch modus due to not understanding the technology it’s based on is one of many parallels between him and John Egbert.

~ATH is debilitating to machines and its functions are tied to the death of various entities. Karkat seems accustomed to death and destruction, and it doesn’t unsettle him to write code that executes upon his death – at only six sweeps he’s pragmatic about his death, and considers coding a final will and testament (p.2025). He mentions that one of his neighbors was recently culled, so he’s surrounded by the possibility of death at all times. Because of this, he’s more scared of life than death – it ‘FREAKED [HIM] THE HELL OUT’ to later create paradox clones of himself and his friends in Sburb (p.1903).

Karkat compares his programming abilities to his friend Sollux’s, privately considering Sollux ‘obnoxiously good’ at ~ATH coding but refusing to admit it (p.2025). To his face, Karkat tells Sollux that he’s a fraud and that a hacker is ‘SOME BULLSHIT TITLE [SOLLUX] GAVE [HIMSELF] SO [HE] CAN FEEL JUST A TINY BIT LESS LOATHESOME’ (p.2086), calling his bluff and running a code that Sollux claims is dangerous. This reads like projection, as Karkat wishes he was a better programmer and in this case finds it easier to tear somebody else down than to improve uupon his own skills. It’s another example of Karkat being stubborn and rushing into a decision without considering the consequences. If he was able to pause for a moment and swallow his pride, he could realize and admit that Sollux is talented and his code is dangerous.

Karkat spends ‘a lot of time thinking of ways to make the perfect doomsday virus’ (p.2025), so even though he doesn’t know he’ll be involved in bringing about the end of the world via Sgrub, he’s already comfortable with the idea of it. That said, there’s a big difference between fantasizing about killing people and actually attempting it, as the fantasy can be a cathartic way to process difficult emotions with no real intent behind it. Karkat doesn’t actually put himself in any situations where he’d have the power to hurt someone, such as FLARP games. The only things Karkat actually hurts are computers, which on Alternia might be a form of living grub, but certainly a ‘lower’, non-sentient form of life. Overall, Karkat strikes me as someone who’s been influenced by the violent, death-oriented nature of his society, but doesn’t have a genuine desire to hurt people in real life.

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3. When you mature, you aspire to join the ranks of the most lethal members of your society, the THRESHECUTIONERS.

A young troll’s first challenge after pupating is to survive dangerous trials in the brooding caverns, which likely claim the lives of many trolls before they can begin. Ruthlessness, brutality and a focus on one’s own survival at the expense of others is likely necessary to survive these trials – so these traits are common to most trolls, and anyone without them is the outlier. Karkat isn’t satisfied with an average amount of lethality, though, and wants to be among Alternia’s most lethal of all.

Again, I don’t think Karkat is especially violent, but he knows that violence is prized on Alternia, and so he pursues violence for its associated status. His strife specibus is ‘sicklekind’, and a sickle is primarily an agricultural tool for harvesting grain and forage, and more occasionally a weapon. For pure lethality and career progression, Karkat could have chosen an executioner’s blade. Like the scythe, the sickle is sometimes associated with the Grim Reaper, so Karkat possibly chose the sickle to give a threatening appearance instead of causing maximum harm. Karkat does practice with his sickle, so he has a genuine commitment to his chosen path, and the practice pays off when he’s able to completely rid his hive of imps once playing Sgrub, killing them faster than they can spawn.

Karkat’s favorite TV show is The Thresh Prince of Bel-Air (p.2008), and his alchemized weapon is Homes Smell Ya Later (p.2060), which is probably the combination of his starter sickle and Thresh Prince DVD. Making a weapon that references his favorite piece of media is another parallel between Karkat and John. The Thresh Prince himself uses a sickle, so like with his movies, Karkat is probably inspired by an actor or character he admires. In this show, Troll Will Smith is of a lower blood caste than the other threshecutioners but gains their respect by refusing to be talked down to by the upper castes. It’s not explained how young trolls learn about their future career options, but lots of human kids share aspirations with media characters, so it’s possible Karkat’s only exposure to threshecutioners is in this show. If so, he might have an idealized, unrealistic perception of what the job involves. He has a similarly simplistic view of leadership, which I’ll talk more about in later sections.

I think that Karkat wants a defined role in society that he feels able to fill, one that gains the respect and admiration of his peers. He shows an affinity for lawnrings, and for neighborhoods of similar looking hives equivalent to the Alternian suburbs, telling Terezi that living alone in the woods is making her strange and that she needs to move into such a neighborhood (p.2058). So Karkat is very caught up in the ‘Alternian normal’, and is reluctant to deviate from it. Becoming a threshecutioner is the best way he knows to fit into his society, but he’s still young, and if he can find other roles that would give him the same status and comfort, he’d be drawn to them too.

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4. You like to chat with some of your other troll pals, most of which drive you BATSHIT UP THE FUCKING BELFRY.

Karkat is both perpetually annoyed by his own friends, and can’t resist talking to them when they message him. He thinks that ‘no news is good news’ from his ‘loudmouth pals’ (p.2006) and complains about his ‘moron friends […] hounding [him] relentlessly’ (p.2009), but he always answers messages sent to him and doesn’t try to cut conversations short. His messages are highly emotional, and I think once he starts to put his feelings into words and know that they’re heard by somebody, he struggles to stop.

Karkat thinks that ‘MOST OF [HIS] FRIENDS ARE SUCH PSYCHOS’ (p.2027) though he also passively accepts that they are his friends, and doesn’t show any desire to go out and make new ones. He later says that centaursTesticle is ‘ONLY GUY ON THE PLANET WHO’S A BIGGER ASSHOLE THAN [HIM]’ (p.2161), so Karkat is self-aware about not being a nice guy, and while he might wish he had better friends, he also understands that this group might be the best he can get.

Karkat refers to friendship as a mistake and ‘A BIG JOKE OF NATURE’ (p.2010) and on Alternia, I think he’s right. Karkat has probably had other friends, possibly friends local to him, who’ve gotten culled or fallen prey to the many dangers of Alternia. Trolls naturally forming interpersonal bonds but being prone to sudden, random killings must feel unfair, and part of Karkat’s reluctance to admit that he likes his friends must come from having lost friends in the past. This could also be why Karkat is reluctant to bond with the people in his group who he sees as ‘weaker’, like Nepeta, who he sees as overly trusting of CT, and Tavros, who texts Karkat in search of comfort after his FLARP accident and is rebuffed.

While Karkat is rude to everyone, his level of rudeness does differ based on his overall opinion of a person. His most intense hatred is reserved for Vriska, who he tears apart relentlessly, his insults targeted towards her own biggest insecurities – he’s also very clear that the two of them aren’t friends. In contrast, when he talks to Gamzee he’s just as rude about things that are important to Gamzee, like his religion, but he still acknowledges that the two of them are, unfortunately, best friends. He’s also extremely rude to Sollux, but his insults are a lot more generic. He asks Sollux if ‘A FEMALE EVER LOOKED AT [HIM] WITHOUT AT ONCE TURNING SKYWARD AND ERUPTING LIKE A VOMIT VOLCANO’ (p.2027) and there’s no particular reason to think Sollux is especially insecure about his appearance or dating abilities, they’re just common insecurities.

In a large friend group, not everyone always likes everyone else. Some outgoing and charismatic people might be central to the group and actively talk to almost all the members, while others are more peripheral, only talking to one or two people. Dynamics also change over time, and the trolls’ friendships would have looked very different before their FLARP game. Karkat is close to Sollux, Terezi and – against his own will – Gamzee, but doesn’t often talk to the others. I think he stays with the group for a couple of main reasons: first, his friends are in some ways an outlet for his anger, an energy which he needs to vent instead of perpetually stewing in it. Second, Karkat values community, shown both in his choice to live in the suburbs and in his desire for leadership. He can’t be a leader without first finding people to lead.

Karkat also has a tense relationship with his giant crab lusus, trying to put off encounters with him for as long as possible (p.2028) and unnecessarily griefs with via ‘a lot of kicking and fussing and gnashing of teeth and carapace’ (p.2070) before feeding him, as is a young troll’s job. Karkat has, however, drawn a picture of his lusus and placed it on the fridge, and also looks pretty devastated when he dies. They’re small moments, but they do suggest that Karkat appreciates his lusus for the protection and mentorship he provides, and possibly understand that he could have it a lot worse, as so many of his friends’ lusi are either absent or near-impossible to deal with. If Karkat’s lusus gives him combat practice and an outlet for his anger, then it’s easy to see how their goals are aligned, and Karkat probably sleeps the slightest bit easier knowing he actually has someone in his corner to defend him. If I’m right that Karkat is hesitant to be too friendly with Tavros and Nepeta because he sees them as weak and therefore likely to be culled, then his lusus is the creature he can rely on. This giant crab is able to take all of Karkat’s attacks while barely getting hurt and still just grumbling for roe. That makes it safer for Karkat to rely and depend on him, and it’s why his death hits Karkat so hard.

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5. Your trolltag is carcinoGeneticist and you speak in a manner that is ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY ORNERY, ALL THE TIME.

Ornery is defined as ‘bad-tempered or difficult to deal with’, which is a perfect description of my boy Karkat. His friends agree: Gamzee thinks of him as ‘pretty cranky’ (p.2012), Nepeta thinks he’s a ‘grumpy fellow’ (p.2160) and Sollux says Karkat is ‘way angriier than [hiim]’ (p.2085). However, Aradia believes that ‘his anger serves a greater purp0se’ (p.2085) and is somehow important to the trolls’ overall failure/success in their session.

Karkat is okay with being unpleasant if he’s able to get things done, and believes he’ll eventually be liked for his success in life, even if he makes enemies along the way. Before he’s even introduced, he gets fed up by the player trying to give him a derogatory joke name ‘in record time’ (p.1993), already trying to get the story moving. He thinks of himself as ‘a busy guy’ and ‘sort of a big deal’ (p.1996) and tells Sollux that he’s ‘PRETTY BUSY TONIGHT’ and can’t talk for long (p.2027). As a leader, he wants to keep moving. He’ll make a decision by himself instead of engaging in endless negotiations, and he doesn’t wait for permission or show any fear over forging ahead.

@tenaciouschronicler also thinks there’s more to Karkat’s anger than meets the eye:

‘theres moments where he shows concern but wraps it his regular agressive nature […] even his concern is laced in barbs. it just makes me wonder what hes trying to protect so hard that he cant let his gaurd down and makes his friends deal with the collateral’ -from this post

I want to believe that this is true, and that Karkat genuinely cares about his teammates. He talks shit about Terezi to her face, but defends her to rival team member arachnidsGrip, complimenting Terezi’s manipulation skills (p.2178). He feels bad when, in his mind, he goes too far insulting Sollux during his bid for the red team leadership, and suggests deleting the conversation from their logs (p.2027). He’s concerned for Terezi living out in the woods on her own, and offers to help her move to a new hive in his own suburban community (p.2058). And he indirectly compliments Nepeta when he says it ‘BOGGLES [HIS] MIND’ how she could be friends with a guy as bad as centaursTesticle, suggesting he thinks she could do better.

And I think the question of what Karkat is trying to protect with his anger is a really good one. By running Sollux’s ~ATH code in a fit of rage, Karkat places a curse on himself, his friends, and everyone they would ever meet (p.2088) – this includes their past selves, who Karkat will later meet when he ectobiologizes them as larval trolls. As Karkat was the person to bring misfortune to his friends, I can understand why he’d also think it’s his responsibility to fix it. But since his anger and leadership desires came before he ran the code, there must be more to it.

Part of his desire to protect could be in his own desire for glory: he wants to save these people from the end of the world, but he wants to be the one to save them. Pre-Sgrub, Karkat ‘stew[s] in [his] own impotent aggravation’ and feels that he’s meant to be in charge of something huge and important, but hasn’t ‘found the dominion in which [he’s] destined for greatness’ (p.2005). The specifics of gender roles on Alternia aren’t clear yet though gender definitely exists, and gender roles are something Karkat would know about through his romcoms. On Earth, targeted aggression used to protect ‘weaker’ people is part of traditional masculinity, exemplified by fictional heroes such as Superman. So, Karkat might be searching for a way to embody that gender role and prove himself as a man. This is a way he and John are opposites – Karkat is impatient to grow into the typical role of an adult man, while John is reluctant.

Karkat refers to his own ‘GUTTER BLOOD’ (p.2178) though he’s unwilling to share his exact blood color, which suggests he’s unwilling to subscribe to the caste system, and wants to prove his own worth outside of it. If he can lead his lower caste friends to a victory against the upper castes, he’s basically called the entire caste system into question, and the bluebloods will have to doubt their perceived inherent superiority, and Karkat will have his big Troll Will Smith moment. After all, Karkat is the Knight of Blood from a blood-focused society. So, it makes sense for his quest to relate to blood, and for ‘knight’ to be an aspirational title – not something he was born into, but something he can claim by surpassing his typical social rank.

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6. Later, you will play a game with 5 other friends, and go on a big adventure with them.

Karkat thinks he was made for ‘BEING IN CHARGE OF ADVENTURE […] AND FUCKING SHIT UP LIKE A GODDAMN HERO’ (p.2058). Even though the Sgrub server role has more actual power, Karkat is drawn to the client program where he gets to be physically active, moving and fighting his way through a land instead of sitting at his computer, and where he gets to be the first troll to enter the Medium and progress through the game faster. A hero is someone who is admired for their achievements, so again, Karkat’s concerned about others seeing him in a positive light.

Karkat is a competent Sgrub player, and picks up the game quickly without much instruction. He completes the tutorial level without realizing that his house is threatened by meteors, and is later surprised to find out they’re a game mechanic (p.2061), meaning that Karkat is motivated by the game itself and an efficient player who’s focused on game objectives. He’s frustrated when his co-player, Terezi, doesn’t share his game objectives, and once he’s experienced the client role, he quickly wants to join as server too and ‘GET THE CHANCE TO FUCK UP SOMEONE’S HIVE’ (p.2061). I think Karkat is someone who’s afraid of missing out, and doesn’t like knowing there’s a whole side of the game that he’s not part of and can’t control.

When inviting Nepeta to join the red team, Karkat gives her a pretty solid game briefing, concisely sharing the team’s current state, what the future holds, and what he wants her specifically to do next (p.2161). He even makes a halfhearted attempt at roleplaying with her, as it’s more likely to convince her to join the team – they need another member quickly, and the perfect candidate doesn’t exist, so Karkat chooses somebody who’s better than nobody. He isn’t only concerned with his personal role in the game, he’s got eyes on the overall strategy and the status of each of his teammates. While Karkat has never FLARPed with Teams Charge and Scourge, he seems like he has experience with competitive team games, as he does fall naturally into this role.

I think Karkat genuinely believes that he’s the best person for the leadership job, even though the way he claims the role – messaging Terezi and lying by telling her he’s already officially been made leader – isn’t very respectful of her. He also refers to hers as a ‘TRIVIAL SIDEKICK’ role, so he sees the leader as the most important member of the team, instead of someone who literally can’t do their job without subordinates helping them along. His view of leadership would fit in well on capitalist Earth, as he’s okay making decisions that his subordinates will dislike, and having them talk shit about him, so long as they don’t actively interfere in his plans. Interpersonal ethics are definitely not at the front of his mind, and he takes a ‘big picture’ view where the ends justify the means.

Karkat promises to ‘TAK[E] APART THE BLUE TEAM WITH BRUTAL EFFICIENCY’ (p.2178), and the competitive team aspect of the game seems important to him. This is probably a big part of his drive to move through the game quickly and to stop Terezi from meandering his hive and spending his grist inefficiently – beating his friends is a more concrete objective than saving his species. I think that Karkat works well with these clearly defined goals, in contrast to some of his spookier and more spiritual friends.

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Final thoughts

Vriska describes Karkat as ‘impressssssssiona8le’ (p.2178), claiming that she can only control impressionable people and then proceeding to control him. I don’t think Karkat would consider himself to be impressionable, and when it comes to his friends and lusus, he tends to be very stubborn – refusing to consider that Sollux’s virus might actually hurt his computer and refusing to see anyone else as a potential red team leader. But Karkat is deeply influenced by Alternian society, to a greater extent than some of his friends who feel more confident living outside its norms, or picking and choosing which ones to follow. He’s also a fairly private person, choosing to keep his blood color hidden and trying his best to hide his actual, positive feelings about some of his friends. I think that part of being a leader is that it allows Karkat to control the way that he’s seen, to make people less likely to talk back to him and therefore less likely to pry into his secrets. Being a leader allows him to live in a brutal, bloodthirsty society unchallenged and ultimately, safer from danger.

Part of his impatience could be that he knows that any moment not spent singlemindedly pursuing his goals is a moment where he has his guard down, and is therefore at risk. This impatience and fear leads him to be clumsy, to make silly mistakes like captchaloguing his card vault inside another card vault (p.2000), which could have been avoided if he’d ever learned how to take a breath and consider his next move. So overall, everything about Karkat feels like a defense mechanism, a hedgehog puffing up all his spines to deter anyone who might seek to hurt him. But there’s different types of defense mechanisms, and his specific ones being aggression and camouflage into Alternian norms tells me that he’s willing to fight even when he doesn’t necessarily know what he’s fighting for, and that he wants more power for himself because he’s scared of the people and structures that have more power than him.