Posted on

baby: M… m…
parents: Mama? Are you trying to say Mama?
baby: Mindfang holds the key to a more complete understanding of Vriska’s character development throughout Homestuck. Once we understand that Vriska’s obsession with Mindfang didn’t just extend to mimicking her questionable taste in romantic partners and dashing murderhappy persona in Act 5, but to her entire way of being, we can more clearly see the ways that even in Act 6, when Vriska seems to renounce her villain persona for a hero persona, she is still performing a facet of Mindfang: the heroic revolutionary who rebelled against the Condesce alongisde the sufferer. While (Vriska) reacts to Aranea’s exaggerated but relatable attempts to also become Mindfang by dropping the Mindfang persona and revealing the more sensitive, unsure Vriska who was sealed away inside, the only significant deviation Vriska makes from being Mindfang 24/7 is her relationship with Terezi. Is the alpha Vriska aware that her desperate desire as a kid to become more like Mindfang has consumed her? Is she aware that (Vriska) is not an impossible deviation from Vriskahood, but a version of who she really is without the crushing veneer of Mindfang? And if Vriska survives her Mindfang-esque heroic sacrifice in the dream bubbles, will she ever be able to peel the Mindfang off of herself, or has she become the mask?