by lackadaisicallexicon

The Bard of Rage is among the most divisive characters in Homestuck. Many view him as misunderstood, endlessly apologetic for his actions; others view him as nothing but a villain worthy of the worst kind of perfidy. And yet, much like his capricious class, Gamzee skirts the line between genius and tomfoolery, terror and humor, so effectively that there’s only one way to explore his character for the reasons I love him—to follow in his footsteps.

Let’s McFreakin’ lose it.

Gamzee is a Bard to his bones. For those familiar with Dungeons and Dragons (which, of course, draws from the same wellspring of myth as Homestuck) and the complicated web of personal preference and fan lore surrounding both the game and the class, that may come as a shocking statement, but abilities like Deception, Bluff, and Intimidate are all key abilities for the Bard class, with Charisma being the central stat. There is a precedent for Gamzee’s actions. He’s not a mold-breaker; on the contrary, he fits the mold in a way his early characterization seems to directly counteract.

Pulling directly from that deceptive ability, Gamzee’s character seems to be nothing but an overextended clown joke at first; a perpetual stoner, with a hilariously improbable religion and a way of putting things that makes him sound a few blades short of a razor. In fact, most people, including some of the I Like Homestuck team, would call pre-Murderstuck Gamzee more evocative of a bard character than any other period of his life. Gamzee dances, and reader perception follows; most people write him off in Hivebent, and reasonably so.

But hints of his true nature are hidden where any could see them. It’s a testament to his deceptive abilities that Gamzee pulled off a mysterious attack comparable in damage to the Black King as Vriska’s souped-up final blow (obviously exhibiting control over his abilities to some degree, if only for a moment) and still convinced his entire session (and, apparently, thousands of readers) that he was still a silly, harmless person.

It’s important to remember that he wasn’t trying to convince people of his harmlessness. Rage is an aspect surrounding obsession with a single concept, and Bards passively destroy or allow destruction. Gamzee allowed himself to destroy others by convincing them, more through the sheer reality of his passive incompetence than direct action, that he couldn’t.

But it wouldn’t be sustainable for the completion of his long-term goals for him to be terrifying all the time. So he allows himself to be publicly calmed, retreats into the silence, and uses his cover to very carefully warp situations; raising Caliborn and Calliope, collecting artifacts, abusing Terezi, and all the while convincing the few he appears to, like Rose, that he’s a completely benign personage. Gamzee’s uncanny ability to seem exactly like his pre-sober self casts doubts on how long he was sober before he revealed himself, and what his true personality is.

Gamzee scares me, for sure. But as a character, his ability to entice with his mysteries, compel with his unparalleled violence and brutality, and impress with both his powers and cunning, make him an easy winner in the contest of my favorite characters—not to mention bards—of all time.