Homestuck fanfic rec again?

General Vantas Gets Hitched, or, The Limits Of Bilateral Diplomacy: A Black Powder Romance
by JumpingJackFlash
at AO3 here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/360877/chapters/585197
also on tumblr, but I lost the link

It has John <3 Karkat, which isn't my ship, but the John here is a magnificent manipulative monarch who worked in counterintelligence in the war. It's like Vetinari from Discworld, but with broader resources. And with friends. And gay.

Yes, he is basically Vetinari, but with friends and is a king. And xenophiliac in the paraphiliac way, or is that just karkatsexual, not to mention in love, but he doesn't let it get in the way of his job and, instead, he saw it as another tool to manipulate and used it to full effort to fuel his own end. How magnificent is that? In a more clichéd story he would struggle to only keep one, but here he can play with both in perfect ease. Like a good king would. Why don't we have kings like him.

( spoiler )

It's probably fanon now that every single not-heterosexual in Homestuck or derived work must be an impossible badass.

And it's not like this fic made him a Gary Stu. He still have his mortal side, like wanting a hug. He still looks a bit too perfect, but he was like that in the canon too, so it's not a big deal. And we all know that without his conscious effort of acting like a dumb innocent child, John is actually pretty dangerous and enough of a bastard. He is, after all, the Trickster God equivalent. I'm talking about both the canon and this fic here.

Wow, I just realised that this is also one of the few fics that remember to portray John as the Trickster god/king in this case rather than the God of Impossibly Transparent Armoured Closet.

Anyway, good fic, best John.

Note to Self

Ask myself what I want.

I really want to read more fanfics, but I know that I need to moderate. I'm trying to rationalise by telling myself that those fics were, um, educative.

...they are very educative, aren't they?

Homestuck update...

( spoilers )

Edit: Why is everyone worrying more about their ship being sunk than the possibility of a major protagonist going evil and doom his friends? Internet, what the fuck? I know that both death and revival are pretty cheap in this story, but what the heck?

Edit 2: I was off the Karkat ? John ship for a long time already, but just saying, I don't want anything in that ? anymore. Karkat deserves better. And Vriska, just stick with the John Terezi killed, that John was much nicer. You lucked out. You are really a lucky person, don't you know that? Stick with that John. Don't ever bother to meet the alpha John anymore. He's the god of Actually An Asshole.

Well... seeing that this is Homestuck, it's still entirely possible to have a nicer John later on. But I'll just prepare for the worst.

Karkat, when John's here, avoid the hell out of him. You can't shoosh pap that guy. He's going to take your heart out and beat it into a pulp. Don't try to become a friend with him, he has never taken you seriously (I'm not guessing here: he said so to Jade in a pesterlog few acts ago). Jade looks pretty ok though, so be friend with her.

To all the fanfic writers who got John's dark side right, kudos to all of you. Oh my god that was so scary. Like, >Connect-verse John, General Vantas 'verse John and any sociopathic master actor John out there. That was observant.

Edit 3: Guys? John isn't just brushing off romance here. He is brushing off friendship as well. I would understand that a teenager that age might not want to think about romance, but throwing friendship out is throwing the baby out along with the water. Look how he's treating Davesprite. That's not what a friend does, is it? He's like, classified him as the same as the salamanders and stuff. And he's not even grateful of Davesprite saving his life. John insisting calling him Dave instead of Davesprite doesn't seem to be out of compassion here. It's horrible.

Edit 4: Guys! It's not just shipping and romance here. Why don't you worry about their personality and mental health more than shipping?

Edit 5: Fuck? What's with people calling John's dismissal of interpersonal emotional issues as becoming more mature and as a good thing? The hell it's not. You don't grow into a healthy adult by calling heart things childish and dismiss them, you learn to live and control them in a way that you bring out the best of them. Granted at 14 you might try to do that, and it's normal at this age and am important phase to live through, but that isn't a good thing in itself, it is in fact bad.

I'm going to enjoy the General Vantas 'verse John more because that one learned to play both adult responsibility and all kinds of emotions to the max. But that John had all his friends with him his entire life. The canon John is living without his friends for an year. I can't blame the canon John, but it saddens me.

(All my edits are reaction to the tumblr mass. I might crosspost there, but better not?)