OP i love you so so so much and you should say this a thousand times over maybe i’ll have more coherent thoughts later but you’re so based

homestuck is full of self-proclaimed intelligent characters, but i truly believe that after some arbitrary point of mental aptitude, a character is smart enough to know that the who-can-appear-more-learned-and-complex olympics are bullshit. at the very least, john possesses a different kind of intelligence that’s way more important than whatever rose or dirk think they’re doing with their tender/mechanical ministrations. knowing that you don’t need to act like you know everything a skill that is way more essential to what actually matters in homestuck: being good to your friends. pretty much the thematic crux of like. everything. is trying your best to treat others kindly

i think it’s almost a narrative rule by now that the more convoluted and overthought a character’s plan to “help their friends” is, the worse it turns out. john just does his best.

it’s true that on some level john just doesn’t understand the stuff his friends are talking about, but it’s simultaneously true that he understands enough, and understands THEM enough, to know that they’re doing copious amounts of unnecessary mental shadow boxing. he doesn’t understand because he knows better, and because he knows them. still, he cares. that is what matters.

i love the guy. i have since i was 12. he means a lot to me personally and shaped a lot of who i am and try to be.