i’ve been rereading the infamous vriska & (vriska) dialoglogs for a fanfic lately and i’m starting to think that i’ve been interpreting the scene wrong.
(vriska) is obviously a better-adapted person than vriska is, given that she seems to have a healthier method for coping with her trauma – in that she’s at least willing to acknowledge that she is traumatized, and that she wasn’t really happy while she was alive. but she’s also demonstrably codependent, and pretty much falls apart when meenah leaves. (vriska) isn’t the picture of what an improved vriska could be; she’s vriska stripped of purpose. (vriska) wanders the afterlife meaninglessly, searching anything that provides a cheap source of entertainment, because that which gave her purpose during life – i.e., the impetus to “do good,” regardless of whether or not she was actually doing good in trying – she sees as impossible. she seems pretty fucking depressed.
we don’t exactly get a clear rationale for why vriska hates (vriska) so much, despite the pages she spends insulting her. the gist of it seems to be that vriska is venting her issues with her own past decisions on (vriska), not necessarily objecting to the person that (vriska) has become. she’s angry that her ghost gave up on saving the world, which has always been vriska’s goal. in her mind, it seems to have taken on a redemptive role: vriska saves the universe, and redeems herself for the wrongs she’s inflicted on her friends. that (vriska) has given up (not without trying, mind – vriska doesn’t actually know that (vriska) has already tried and failed to do some good in the dream bubbles, which resulted in the others leaving her, permanently) disgusts vriska, because she sees it as a corruption of her own purpose. (vriska), in vriska’s mind, is prime evidence that she is not, at heart, a good person, and that the instant the external factors driving her to do good are removed, she will revert to a selfish mindset.
this explains in particular why she’s so vitriolic about criticizing her alternate self: she wants to make clear how disgusted she is by that, to demonstrate, even just to herself, that she would never follow that path. appealing to meenah – who probably suffers from the exact same issues, actually, with regards to damara and the Tumor – is her last-ditch ploy to prove herself superior. vriska has always performed best in front of an audience. i don’t think that she would have been nearly as cruel to (vriska) if meenah weren’t watching; vriska, consciously or unconsciously, adapts to suit those she wants to impress.
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