alright strap in everyone this is gonna be a long one yes im writing this to be petty no thats not the only reason i also want to be very perfectly clear about this and why i keep saying it WHY (VRISKA) IS THE BAD END TO VRISKAS ARC IN HOMESTUCK BY KRIS DREEMURR
for starters lets define what "bad ending" even means in this situation. i would argue (vriska) herself doesnt actually have a particularly bad ending. yeah she dies but she gets her own little happy ending in one of the most touching flashes in the entire comic. in contrast, post-retcon vriska is alive, first and foremost, therefore shes not being forcibly drawn into irrelevance by her literal death. she gets shit done, going out of her way to scout around the B2 session, doing research, and putting together the plan. she doesnt HAVE to reunite with terezi because theyre already there together, and she gets to spend three whole largely uneventful years together where they get to be GENUINELY THE ONLY REAL HEALTHY MOIRALLEGIANCE IN THE ENTIRE COMIC.
she shapes up everyones lives on the meteor, she keeps rose from drinking, everyone literally admits that tho she can be a bitch, she at least is a helpful bitch who kept things from falling apart. nobody ever even points this out either! she spent three fucking years on that meteor being a functioning helpful member of the group and nobody ever bothers to acknowledge that when criticizing her. vriska haters refuse to admit there was a stretch of time where she just chilled and was a decent person. because nobody wants to admit she maybe was actually a good person who just wasnt very nice.
because that ties into the other major themes of homestuck: good people arent always nice, and nice people arent always good. vriska is example number 1 of the former. and her story doesnt end with her "opening a box to let OTHER PEOPLE save the day". regardless of what you think of the post-canon stuff, her story clearly continues. and even if you only consider what happens in canon? it still doesnt end that way. because someone had to go get the weapon. someone had to go out there and stop him. she was literally prepared to do it entirely alone. because nobody else was going to. nobody else wanted to. they were happy to let her do the hard part. all by herself.
let me stress the importance of her going out there: if she had not gone out there, the entire rest of the groups attempts at fighting off condy and the two jacks would have been for nothing. all of it would have ended in failure if nobody had taken the weapon out there. like i cant stress this enough. the entire rest of the finale was literally them distracting the three beings that could have possibly made her job even harder. yes it also kept condy from getting her hands on the new universe but otherwise the two jacks were irrelevant. vriska going to fight lord english was the reason they were able to enter the door. they would not have been able to without her.
im not even exaggerating. she literally spells this out. (vriska) even spells this out! page 6053 when she does her monologue about being a hero. if nobody went out to stop him, he would keep coming. he would keep destroying worlds, even universes. they wouldnt be free from him on earth C. he would find a way to come after them. but thanks to her, and meenah, and even TAVROS, plus all the ghosts? hes done for.
and let me once again remind you: SHE WAS GOING TO GO THERE ALONE. SHE WAS WILLING TO BE THE ONLY ONE IN ALL OF EXISTENCE WHO WOULD ACTUALLY ATTEMPT TO STOP THE METAPHORICAL MOON. BECAUSE NOBODY ELSE CARED ENOUGH TO DO THE HARD THINGS.
i dont say things like "(vriska) is objectively the bad end for vriska" lightly. i dont use the term objectively lightly. i dont typically refer to things as objectively because im not an arbiter of that. but this? this is all right there in the text. its loud and clear. (vriska) is objectively the bad ending to vriskas arc because she shows what happens when you give up and accept irrelevance. you stop caring, and you die. or double die. if you still cant understand why i say this after all of this im happy to answer questions but like: if you genuinely cant see it after all of that plus me expanding further and answering questions and clarifying things? then you didnt understand homestuck. sorry. hussie is pretty good at being subtle. vriskas arc and especially what happens with (vriska) isnt them being subtle. thats hussie spelling out exactly what they want to say. vriska serket is just a bitchier simon the digger. always pushing forwards, never giving up.