hs
i feel differently about nepeta than many nepeta kinnies i see. i don't wish that nepeta was more developed or narratively important, and i don't seriously think of the various femslash ships people stick her in as meaningful or terribly interesting at all. i just remember being an very autistic child who thought a lot about romance in very autistic ways and who sometimes felt peripheral to things in my circle and my reaction to first encountering nepeta as a character when i was that age
hs
she's not important to my kin "selfhood" now really, nor was she the character in homestuck i related to the most, even. but it feels like a disservice to horribly awkward child joey to not grant her a spot on the onions, bc at a very young age i saw the similarities and felt them deeply. it's a testament to andrew hussie that even a throwaway character can be such an almost uncomfortably accurate portrayal of a very real type of child
hs
I will say it’s not like i care very much or am upset by the nepeta femslash as long as people aren’t pretending they’re a better or more interesting alternative to the complex relationships between women that ACTUALLY exist in canon. bc there are many girls that are nepetas at age 13 that end up growing up into gay girls (like me!). however there are also many other girls who are nepetas at age 13 who grow up into gay boys… which is why I’m very endeared to Anthy’s trans man nepetas.
hs
and nepeta spends the whole date being awkward and shy and hesitant and not knowing how to react, only to wind up talking about the guy she had a crush on anyways (karkat), and then immediately combines with the most repressed bisexual guy character in the comic and becomes nonbinary and the happiest most confident and powerful version of themselves while the lesbian is distraught and upset that they’re no longer a viable romantic option for her.
hs
it’s funny to me because I think the most damning evidence for transmasc nepeta is in act 6 act 6 intermission 5, when she is roped into a date by a deranged lonely lesbian who clearly doesn’t see her as a person and just as a a possible girlfriend (sorry Jasprose) (continued in next trill)