by @ohthewhomanity

Recently, I wrote about my favorite Exile, PM. Today I’m writing about another Exile I like, another NPC who rose to importance and proved a vital piece in the Beta kids’ game: WV–Warweary Villein, Wizardly Vassal, Wayward Vagabond, and Wastelandic Vindicator–commonly known by fans and other characters alike as “the Mayor”.

The Mayor bumbled onto our computer screens very early in the comic–first appearing on the page between Acts 1 and 2. As a latecomer to Homestuck, I can only imagine how strange he must have seemed to readers: the first obviously non-human character in the comic, rendered in a completely different way from the kids, his face hidden by gray rags. He’d taken over the prompt box, after the meteor falling towards John’s house destroyed the reader’s ability to give commands–and proceeded to give insistent, all-caps commands (YOU THERE. BOY.), that John was strangely compelled to obey.

And when we finally meet this mysterious command-giver…he’s this goofy little guy, who’s willing to try to bite or pry into a can (even though he doesn’t have the fangs or muscles necessary), can’t help but gobble down anything that’s green, uses a mailbox flag for a “knife”, covers the walls with chalk drawings, makes friends with a firefly, and on a whim dubs himself Mayor of Can Town. He’s cute, funny, and altogether lovable. And so we watch him run around, chugging down TAB, appearifying various objects, accidentally launching a rocket, making peace between his fellow Exiles, and we’re glad to have this nice break from the serious angsty life-and-death struggles the kids are having–

–and then we learn his backstory. The Mayor was a soldier who tired of war and became a farmer. But when the battle between the armies of Prospit and Derse destroyed his farm, he returned to the war, rallying both Prospitian and Dersite troops to follow him and take down the Black King. He would have succeeded, too–if it weren’t for Jack Noir.

That’s when it hit us that the Mayor isn’t just a goofy little guy. He’s shell-shocked, helpless, haunted by how he led his army to death instead of victory, and all of his antics reflect that. His bullying John? An attempt to reassert himself as a leader. His obsession with democracy and hatred of kings? Leftover from the war. The chess game in Can Town? A second chance at victory. And after all that, he’s still doomed to lose his newfound friends, and so regresses farther into his antics–recreating Can Town on the meteor, with Terezi and Dave’s help, and apparently never speaking at all–to escape his painful memories.

The Mayor is a tragic hero. He makes me want to hold him close and keep him safe from the world. Luckily, Dave has that covered.