A major issue I have with all post-canon Homestuck content so far is its depiction of Calliope. Main series Calliope was intelligent, they were intuitive, a forward thinker. Calliope's capacity for strategy was one of the prime saving graces in the cast's eventual victory. Calliope wasn't a weakling, they simply lacked the ruthlessness to resist an unstoppable force like Caliborn (and was frankly quite immovable until the most extreme of circumstances.) But in post-canon, they're bumbling. They continue to be knowledgeable, yes, but everything they do lacks intention or thought, they willingly create a massive world-altering timeline split but had not even bothered to consider what they'd do about the ramifications for over a decade afterwards, they bumble hopelessly and thoughtlessly behind Roxy (allowing their dynamics with the other characters, of which they had many, go entirely unntouched) and it kinda feels like the writing teams haven't really put thought into their actual perspective on the situation at hand?? It's not just that it doesn't get achknowledged, it doesn't seem to exist. Callie and Dirk were friends! Why don't they have any thoughts on that? My response to them not planning Vriska's interaction with the Point at all a is simple "they would not fucking do that." Overall it feels like they're being babied, which is a theme with a lot of the queer rep in postcanon. In the Epilogues/Homestuck² especially, "Queer rep" and "being a good character" tend to be treated as two separate things. BC totally picks it up and now with Deltritus its queer rep is really very good, and I can't fault the team for working with what was already laid out, but its a consistency earlier on that even the characters who do have queer identities only really get to be, um, interesting, when they're being Cis and Straight. Focal points always seem to be Jade and her Husband. John and Terezi, or John and Roxy. Jane and Jake (the relationship on their respective hetero sides.) Karkat and Meenah. Meanwhile, the gay relationships feel really goo goo ga ga to me. Roxy really feels like they (as in, both Roxies) get wrapped in a safety blanket for their honestly horrible ethics, issues with Meat Davekat have already been discussed to death, and Calliope's gender identity feels sorely neglected and only present for the sake of the words they and them, when their identity and how it defies the nature of cherubs, and everything that Caliborn was, and the major point Calliope stands to make about Homestuck's themes as a whole of understanding yourself in the context of the world you live in go wholly unrealized. It feels like a waste. Now, I say all this, but I did like them in the Roxy/Jade/Kanaya meeting from a while ago, that was a big step in the right direction, but I need mooooore.
