Yeah, "Vriska magically fixes everything" is the joke, but, well, it becomes a problem if she actually DOES fix everything! You can't mess up character development for the sake of a joke, and if I know Hussie well enough, he hasn't. Those problems she fixed? Yeah, stuff will bite Vriska in the ass when she pulls her Green Sun stunt, but their own feelings need to bite the others in the ass as well. Rose and Kanaya's addiction, Terezi's anxiety, they have to resurface in SOME way later on, right?

(This ask was in response to my main “[S] ACT 6 ACT 6 INTERMISSION 5” update thoughts post.)

First of all, you could argue that Terezi’s “soul” managed to conquer her personal issues as the version of herself who orchestrated the retcons from a pre-retcon timeline. Her main character arc has ‘happened’ already, even if it wasn’t quite the same version of her who did it. ((EDIT: From her blind trust of Vriska, it doesn’t look like Terezi is completely together yet.))

Second, well… sometimes deep personal problems happen to arise as a mere matter of luck. So luck can avert them, too. It’s not a very pretty truth, but it’s a truth nonetheless. And it especially applies when the odds are stacked against your favor, as they heavily were with Rose and (to an extent) Terezi on the meteor, as I’m about to explain: The meteor was like an entire landscape covered in sharp d4s.

Because as my third and most important point, there is a thematic meaning to Vriska solving these things, beyond the meta joke I discussed in my update thoughts post. Vriska is actually providing something desperately needed on the meteor, something which it lacked the first time around, allowing plenty of personal problems to brew and fester. What was it missing?

Someone willing to rob others of agency. In other words, a Thief of Light.

Why was this necessary?

Because the meteor was full of unsupervised six-sweep-olds!!!

If you leave KIDS completely without adult supervision for THREE YEARS, smart or no, there’s a serious chance they’ll decide to do some really harmful stuff to themselves. You’re giving immature youths complete control over their lives, and that’s going to lead them to make bad decisions.

You aren’t supposed to eat that slime. It does funny things to a troll’s head. But you were never taught that on account of a lousy upbringing. Your custodian was always out to sea.

Unsupervised kids given complete agency over their lives are going to screw up. They’ll go out and buy (alchemize) alcohol, just to see what it’s like to drink. They’ll get into inadvisable relationships with abusive clowns. They’ll undergo controversial eye-healing medical procedures. And some of these decisions can cause lasting harm, even endangering their lives in the short or long run.

The problem is compounded by the fact that without a “responsible adult” around, nobody feels responsible when one of these things goes wrong for another.

Being kids, none of them felt that they were qualified to meddle in each others’ issues. (And the human/troll xenobarrier only made things more difficult.) Dave refused to believe he had the authority to lecture Rose on her drinking, or lecture Terezi on her hate-dating. Karkat’s frustrated relationship-meddling evolved into a resignation that he had no place to intrude on Terezi’s choices, compounded by the dejection from “leadership” he felt by having so many teammates he was responsible for die on his watch. Kanaya was convinced that to have a proper flushed relationship, she had to abandon the pale side of herself that wanted to meddle in the other person’s life to help them avoid bad decisions. And it’s pretty understandable that they stayed out of everyone else’s business regardless: they’re kids! It’s not their JOB to make sure that everyone is doing the best they can for themselves. They’re not old enough to feel that they have the right to take those choices away from their friends.

But y'know who does feel like they have that right? Vriska Serket, egotistic meddler supreme.

((Note: Remember that in a Light/Void sense, “fortune” is when things happen to fall in favor of what you want, and “misfortune” is when things are instead happening ‘to’ you against your will. So when you’re trying to accomplish something harmful to yourself, “fortune” becomes bad and “misfortune” becomes good.))

Vriska is the only one who felt she had the right to step right in the way of another meteor-goer, to prevent them from doing what they wanted to do by force. Vriska is the only one willing to disregard a dangerous person’s “rights” and put them in an 8-ball-and-chain. Vriska is the only one who decided she had the authority to knock the booze straight out of Rose’s hands and stomp the cup to pieces. To respond to Rose’s potential insistence that drinking is normal for young humans with a “no it’s not”. In general, to immediately say “fuck no” to the idea of one of the other kids doing something for themselves that she doesn’t agree with, and back that opinion up with a degree of action, unlike Karkat’s words-only blather. To specifically stand up and openly say “you’re using your freedom wrongly”, in front of everyone else, forcing a private choice into a public issue! (Credit dahni for that last sentence, I forgot to explain that part.)

Is this behavior usually a good thing? No! Does she really have the right to do it, as a kid just like the rest of them? No! Does this make Vriska a bully? Yes! Did it happen to help on the meteor regardless? YES!!!

Every hero role has good uses, even the most deleterious-sounding ones. A “Thief of Light” robbing others of agency sounds to many people like a blanket bad thing. But the fact is, sometimes people who shouldn’t be choosing everything for themselves need those choices limited, that glut of agency reduced. Children e-fucking-specially. When Vriska talks as if some people need her to rob their free will from them for their own sakes, she’s quite usually being arrogant and wrong. But it’s not always wrong!

And thus, simply by being her own obnoxious, bully-like, meddling self, Vriska managed to inadvertently serve as the Team Mom of the meteor, the one who blocks the front door with the fridge to keep the kids from hurting themselves. It’s strange as hell, she definitely wasn’t trying to, and she sure doesn’t fulfill that role in any other way, but it’s still true. Vriska is the one who takes your keys away, regardless of her reasons, and it turns out that’s exactly what this meteor trip needed.