apologija:

Gamzee: Comedy and Tragedy

I’ve had a few requests to make a Gamzee RP guide, and while my Gamzee is hardly perfect or the best, I decided to bite the bullet and do it. There will be a lot of Sober Gamzee focus, though most of this guide is about Gamzee in general, including personality and the more universal concepts. Also please keep in mind that Gamzee is actually a rather multifaceted character that can be interpreted a rather astounding number of ways, so this is not the be all and end all compendium for roleplaying him, merely the way I like to do it. There is a lot of headcanon and conjecture coming up, so take it all with a grain of salt! I will be adding as much evidence as I can to support my theories. 

Please note that this is written before Lil Cal’s influence became more clear in his behaviour and actions (if it ever becomes more clear), and also written under the personal belief that he was more nudged in the appropriate directions rather than directly controlled. I think most of his actions were a result of Gamzee and his psyche, with only encouragement from outside forces. I will be writing based on that belief. 

Comedy and Tragedy

Gamzee’s design on his god tier wings isn’t just for silly clown shenanigans, but rather I feel the very crux of his character. 

Gamzee is the embodiment of Comedy and Tragedy. His backstory is rather tragic: He had a custodian who was never around to teach him basic things and he spent an inordinate amount of time sitting around and waiting for him to show, and with the exception of Tavros he didn’t seem to have much outright friendliness aimed towards him most of the time. The guy he considers his best friend spends most of their first pesterloginsulting him and everything he stands for, and most other people he talks to don’t show much respect for him. It’s popular interpretation to believe he is rather lonely at the start of SGRUB, and it’s something I agree with. Troll culture is not like human culture, but in many cases there are outright displays of friendliness among others, which is something Gamzee did not receive frequently. 

On the flip side, he’s also one of the sillier characters in the comic, often participating in outrageous shenanigans and used for laughs (even during his breakdown!), and part of his potency as a comedic character is because of the tragedy mixed into his story. Strife and hardship is often a cornerstone of some of the best comedy, and this is a problem I see often: People focus too much on one side or the other when both sides are crucial to his character. 

So, what is Gamzee?

Above and beyond everything else, Gamzee strikes me as an ordinary kid in a lot of respects. He spent years repressing his emotional response and awareness of his situation through the use of sopor and devotion to his religion, and the second he lost his crutch and finds out certain truths about his beliefs he never wanted to know he completely flipped out. 
Why? 
Because he doesn’t know how to react and respond appropriately to those emotions. He’s an evasive creature, avoiding truth and smiling on despite all the bad in his life. He has trouble confronting, accepting and taking the blame for his mistakes and many of the occurrences around him. This post on tumblr by a friend of mine outlines this really well and far more concisely than I ever could with my verbal vomit:http://novatoast.tumblr.com/post/39418998696/i-wonder-how-many-people-in-the-fandom-remember — This is also applicable to his emotions in a lot of way, as is made obvious in the link above, not just visceral “scares”, as is it also applicable to his belief system, as seen here: 

He’d rather not hear about the scientific stuff, evading it in favour of his own beliefs. He doesn’t like facing down what he doesn’t want to hear— he would rather remain ignorant to the uncomfortable truths of his life and in regards to those around him. In the same log he even evades an unfortunate truth that while he considers Karkat his best friend: 

He knows that at this point Karkat does not consider him the same, and promptly changes the subject: 


Beyond that, he is also a clown at his core. He does things because he thinks they would be funny or hilarious in some weird way. That’s not to say he’s #1 constant prankster, but this is something that can’t be avoided. He is silly, creepy and weird. This counts even as sober. 

To follow up here’s a list of frequent mistakes I see with Gamzee:

1) Sober Gamzee is not a completely different character from Sopor Gamzee. He is the same person, with the same urges and tendencies, only he’s had a bit of a breakdown and he’s far more in touch with his emotions than he ever was before. He’s likely prone to mood swings, bitterness and possibly even self depreciation now, but judging from his behaviour in the cod!tier with the Alpha session, he’s still /very much/ a silly and laid back guy when he’s more stable. 

2) Sopor Gamzee does not get offended by things. He will not get depressed because Karkat is being mean to him. He will not get depressed if anyone is being mean to him. He lets insults and taunts roll off his back without batting an eye. If you are having your Sopor Gamzee react badly to insults, you really shouldn’t be. This can also apply to Sober Gamzee. 

For canon evidence of both 1 and 2 in a more concise format, read this:http://novatoast.tumblr.com/post/36322241676/gamzee-makara-everyone 

3) Gamzee isn’t as dumb as people think he is. Does he avoid facts for the sake of his own ignorance? Yes. Is he socially inept? Yes. Is he dumb? Probably not. He has an good vocabulary and despite his nebulous grasp on grammar, he seems to have a pretty decent beat on his friends and things in general. Willful ignorance and capricious impulse does not equal stupidity. 

4) It is heavily implied that he is empathetic towards his friends. There is a lot of evidence supporting this, especially in his early logs and even his later logs. He may not have the best advice, or really understand people enough to act on the empathy he has, but he tries: 

There is more in the other logs, so this is just a quick taste. Just keep in all of the advice he gives, it can be construed that he is suggesting solutions that he himself often employs when he is feeling down: Crack open a wicked elixir and hope for things to work themselves out. Ineptitude does not imply a lack of caring. 

5) Karbro, Tavbro, Equibro, etc; Canonically, Gamzee doesn’t ever use any of those terms. I personally try to avoid them (though I use tavbro occasionally cause I think it’s cute), and stick to him usually not saying someone’s name to their face and sticking to bro/brother/man/dogg, etc. He only seems to mention people by name when talking about them, rather than too them. This is more of a personal thing though, and if you want to use the -bros or -sis, knock yourself out. There’s just no canon evidence behind them. 

6) He does not want to kill indiscriminately while sober. Even prior to the shooshpap. He did not randomly kill Terezi, and instead employed her to kill Vriska for him through “careful” (read: blatant and truly clumsy) manipulation. This is especially true after the shoosh pap; he’s not going to flip out and kill people just because he can. 

7) Even when Gamzee is sober, it doesn’t mean he can’t be calm. Calm!sober is a very rewarding and fun play style, please consider it. I like to play it as him being very threatening still, but never quite acting on it, and interspersed with a lot of genuine joviality. 

8) Gamzee and Karkat were /not/ moirails while he was on sopor. I see this mistake a lot, and it’s highly suggested that Karkat doesn’t really like Gamzee at all prior to the game. If you compare how he treats Gamzee to how he treats Sollux, Kanaya or Eridan, it’s a world of difference, and that only changes /after/ the game begins and he starts showing concern for Gamzee. This isn’t specifically a Gamzee thing so much as a Karkat one, but it bears mentioning. 

9) He will not go from high to sober at the drop of a pin. I think potentially it can be an interesting concept if done right, but he needs to be pushed and broken in some major way, such as the events in canon. Chances are there won’t be an opportunity for this to be done right, so best not to do it, especially if you want to stick to canon. It’s insinuated his transition from calm to sober was over a longer period, and with a lot of outside influences coming in to fuck things over. If you want to do this in an AU or an alternate scenario, please keep those concepts in mind. 

Gamzee and his Friends

I’m not going to go in a big rundown of Gamzee’s opinion on every person, but I am going to point out one thing people tend to forget:
Gamzee is really, utterly blatant about his interests, and possibly quite loyal as well. 

Check out his first log with Karkat here:http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003910 The entirety of the log can be construed as pale flirting with the concern he shows for Karkat’s well being and his preoccupation in trying to set things up in a positive way for Karkat. You can also see that in some of his log with Terezi here:http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003924 — It’s insinuated that Karkat likes Terezi early on, and he even manages to set it up so Terezi will be Karkat’s server player:

In the screenshot you can even hazard the conclusion that the spacing out may have even been an act to encourage her to go play with Karkat under the belief he couldn’t be relied on. Wow! That’s a lot of concern and thought for Karkat, and a lot of blatant pale actions. 

On the flipside, his flushcrush with Tavros is also pretty obvious, check his logs here: 
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004023 
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005886 
Compare that with how he acts with Karkat or anyone else. He is excitable (downright /hyper/) with Tavros, incredibly talkative and his entire cadence of speech is far more upbeat and less laid back than his other conversations. It’s pretty obvious he likes Tavros, and he likes him /a lot/. 

Also as a funny little aside to take into consideration, this was a reply Novatoast made in regards to his Gamzee post I linked previously in regards to his taking abuse with a smile:

I also have a lot of other beliefs in lines with this, but that ventures incredibly deep into the headcanon and theorycrafting realm. If there is any interest I might outline it in a separate post. 

Gamzee Roleplaying Mechanics

Okay, now here’s the meat of the post including how he talks, quirk use and everything else. First and foremost, be sure to read his logs— ALL OF THEM! Study them, learn them, love them. They are your guides to this endeavour. I have a directory of his very logs at the end of this post, it’s extensive and I think has everything with substantial dialogue. 

Let’s start with the quirk: Pre Sgrub: aLtErNaTiNg CaPs, WiTh SpAcEs AnD pUnCtUaTiOn ExClUdEd FoR tHe PaTtErN. pRoPeR pUnCtUaTiOn Is UsEd. — with MSPARP and stuff, this is the kind of thing I don’t think anyone would split hairs over since they only have one alternating pattern, but if you want to be really correct for playing pre sgrub Gamzee, use this method. 

Sgrub: SpAcEs aNd pUnCtUaTiOn nOw cOuNt tOwArDs tHe aLtErNaTiNg pAtTeRn, EnD PuNcTuAtIoN Is iGnOrEd wItH ThE ExCePtIoN Of qUeStIoNmArKs 

Sober:
small line.
BIG LINE.
no exceptions.
I WILL EXPAND ON THIS MORE IN A SECOND.
most of the quirk doesn’t have to do with the typing.
BUT RATHER THE CADENCE IN WHICH HE SPEAKS.

Sober punctuation can be kind of inconsistent— he will use question marks, and sometimes even if he is continuing the same thought through different lines he’ll slap a period on it, and sometimes he’ll leave it unpunctuated. Once a thought is finished, however, he will use a period, it can just be kind of nebulous if the new line starts halfway through the thought. Kind of think of it if he’s splitting up a thought with a period that his words likely have either a more commanding or more “finite” feel to them— aka he might be kind of “mad” or “salty”. 

Here’s a list of things you should not do while playing sober!Gamzee:
hahaha. I AM GAMZEE. and i’m great. BLAH BLAH BLAH. — all on one line (unless you are trying to keep from spamming in a chat or other circumstances) 

AnY FoRm oF AlTeRnAtInG QuIrK 

all lowercase
on multiple lines.
WITH RANDOM CAPS.
and then back to a lot of lowercase.


It’s a really simple quirk mechanically speaking, though I think it is the hardest Gamzee to pull off due to reasons I’ll touch on later. 

Vocabulary

As mentioned earlier on Gamzee has a good vocabulary; he uses a lot of different words to describe things, and quite enjoys making up words as well (harshwhimsy, grieftrapeze, etc). He also has a lot of creative names for body parts. Play with this, have fun with it. I have an extensive cheat sheet of Gamzee vocabulary both taken from the comic and concocted on my own— don’t just stick to “miracles” and call it good, have /fun/! That’s half the joy of playing Gamzee. 

Here’s a few words from my own collection that I like to use:

righteous, riotous, contrivance, toothsome, heinous, mutinous, disorderly, desecration, horror show, salacious, reproach, raucous, delirious, salty, rebellious, lurid, grievous, unkind, uncouth, rude, shitbit, jovial, sprung, atrocious, amiss, scripture

Some of those may have been used in canon, I have a hard time remembering, but you just need to focus on getting the same feel as his canon vocabulary. 

Here’s some canon examples:

wicked, sicknasty, tight, legit, bitchtits, peeps, strict, fresh, ridic, tenacious, mucilage, sassed, noise, fraudulent, haps, sacred, sick, flagrant, grieve, blasphemer, front/fronting, ruckus, sickening, mirth, whimsy

Basically go crazy with this shit, he likes wordplay, abuse it! Pull out dat thesaurus and have some fun, but be careful about the sound of the words you use. They tend to have a certain “feel” about them, so don’t choose big words for the sake of big words. I don’t quite know how to describe it better, sorry! 

Grammar

Now this is the tough one, especially since my own grammar suffers in context so I don’t quite have the words to describe it properly. The point is Gamzee does not speak with standard grammar usage. My best advice is to study his logs and get a feel for the cadence of his grammar, but I can give you a few pointers/cheat sheets, but ultimately it’s a matter of practice. Most samples are taken from RP logs I’ve done unless otherwise noted, so please ignore lack of context and consistent quirk. 

Replace That/Which with What Don’t always replace it, but it is an easy way to start messing with the grammar. You’ll get a feel for when you should replace it pretty quickly, so let’s get samples rolling:

TC: SINCE I’M ALL BEING A SHOUTY MOTHERFUCKER WHAT’S GOT HIS SALTY ON PROPER, YEAH?
TC: ALL TANGLED IN THE MOTHERFUCKING TIGHTROPE WHAT’S BEEN STRETCHED BETWEEN US.
TC: that what get’s a brother acting the fool.

The Use of At
This can also help using at instead of other words at times, like gamzee doesn’t do stuff “to” you, generally, but rather at you. For instance he might:

TC: all what noise i spill at you.
TC: THERE’S SOMETHING I DID AT YOU WHAT’S MINE. (canon example)
TC: just saying when a bro can’t even be making a visit of his palest brother with any shade ease it can get him feeling a motherfucking shitbit of rowdy.
TC: ALL AT THE CHAINSAW WIELDING BITCH WHAT’S MAKING A BLOCK AT HIM.

Being/Been/Be
Consider using being/been/be in more improper contexts, either by forgoing necessary context around the use of such words, or playing with the order they’d usually be used.

TC: and all being like to thank you. :o)
TC: YOU AIN’T GOT A MOTHERFUCKING CLUE WHAT I’VE BEEN AT, MOTHER FUCKER.

Tense play/Word Order
Playing with your tenses can help with this a lot by shaking that up, also just in general messing up the order his words come out.

PTC: nOw wHaT ThE MoThEr fUcK WiLl i bE SuPpOsEd tO Do? (canon example)
TC: i ain’t never to do such noise in time before.
TC: HAHAHA AIN’T YOU LIKE TO BE A MOTHERFUCKING FUNNY MOTHERFUCKER RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.

Okay, that’s about the best I can do on that, but please remember the grammar play. Once you get a hang of it it’s pretty easy to do, and it’s a cornerstone to Gamzee’s communication. 

The Motherfuckings

Alright, just going to touch on this quick: Gamzee says variations of “motherfuck” a lot, so here’s a list of some of the variations:

motherfuckin
motherfucking
mother fucking
motherfuck
mother fuck
motherfucker
mother fucker

The spaces are pretty important since it’s a development to his sober quirk, I usually play them with the rule of thumb of being putting separate emphasis on either word, so keep that in mind when you’re sorting out his cadence. 

The Sober Cadence

Okay, this here, is the meat of playing Sober Gamzee. I see people who have good word choices, fuss up the grammar and otherwise do a good Gamzee fail completely here because they don’t set up the flow right.
Here’s something I usually keep in mind: The more threatening lines or lines which require bigger emphasis should generally be kept to uppercase, whereas friendlier lines on lowercase. 
Of course you’ll want to mix this up depending on his mood, but really, REALLY mind your flow. You have to pay close attention to what you put on the upper and lowercase lines, and resetting your quirk is a common device to get the right flow. Don’t be afraid to “honk” to reset a line (aka reset an uppercase line (HONK) into a lowercase one with that filler), or use an emote: :o) :o( etc, or even just laughter. There’s plenty you can do to reset your lines to keep your cadence flowing properly. Here’s a few examples:

TC: yeah brother, i got my remember on about that wicked shit.
TC: MOTHERFUCKING NOTHING BUT IGNORANCE ALL FLOWING IN THIS NUG BONE MINE.
TC: sweetest of motherfuckin never to be knowns all taking priority on this sponge.
TC: LACKING ALL THE MOTHERFUCKING WORRIES
TC: absence of every single care i got now.
TC: AND MOTHERFUCKER ARE THERE A SHIT LOAD OF CARES ALL CRASHING ABOUT UP IN HERE.
TC: thrashing about.
TC: MOTHERFUCKING DESECRATING ALL THE GOODNESS AND POSITIVITY LIKE TO BE CHURNING IN ME.

——
even though he isn’t really threatening anyone, he still manages to get some menace in how he words things and balances things out on his lines.
——

TC: my most palest of brothers.
TC: THE MOTHERFUCKER WHAT MEANS THE MOST AT ME.
TC: how the motherfuck you feeling, man?
CG: THE SENSATION OF MY AIR SACS ATTEMPTING TO AMPUTATE THEMSELVES FROM MY CHITINOUS WINDPIPE. YOU REEK LIKE YOU WERE JUST DREDGED FROM THE FLOOR OF A RIVER SO REPULSIVE THAT EVEN PUSS-FILLED CORPSES WOULD REFUSE TO ROT IN IT’S BOILING MURK OF HEMOPLAGUE.
TC: HAHAHA.
TC: aww man guess i ain’t paid heed to no hygiene proper in awhile. :o(

(thx to Ed for the karkat dialogue)

That’s an example of resetting also, rather than having Gamzee scream about how he hasn’t been bathed in a while, he went with laughter instead so he can have nice happy discourse with his palebro. You could also use a “HONK” or a heheh or anything like that, just above all pay close attention to what you use on the uppercase lines.

SLAM POETRY

Okay admittedly for this I just crunched and wrote a lot of poems to figure this out, but here’s a few suggestions:
1) Rhymezone. Use it, love it, pet it.
2) Listen to some rap— try and focus away from a lot of the current mainstream stuff (THOUGH SOME IS GOOD!!! Your milage may vary) and instead more lyrics focused stuff with messages and stuff. The vocabulary and word play in a lot of rap is absolutely amazing, and there is some really good stuff. This can also help you figure out a beat to measure your words to.
3) Write a bunch, just practice it out. As sober Gamzee is insinuated to be a good rapper: And I thought even as Sopor he had some pretty sick rhymes, so I’d recommend at least trying to get some-what good at it
4) Mind the cadence if you’re rapping as sober. That should be an important part of your rhyme scheme.
5) Yeah, that’s it. Just practice! Use his vocab and grammar craziness, make up some sick words if you can’t find an appropriate rhyme and have fun with it.


—————
Gamzee Log Directory (Excluding ones with just “honks”) 

Gamzee and Karkat:
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003910
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005258
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=006250

Gamzee and Tavros:
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004023
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005886

Gamzee and Terezi:
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003924

Gamzee and Equius:
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004121

Gamzee and Eridan:
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004375

Gamzee and Dave:
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004718
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005927

Memos (I might be missing one, IDK):
http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004529
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005260
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005261

Flash Transcripts:
Alterniabound: http://pastebin.com/XhVp759U
Openbound part2:https://dl.dropbox.com/u/73817062/mspa_files/Openbound2.html
Seek the highb100d: http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005338 though admittedly his dialogue is pretty sparse here, so here’s a transcript (might not be perfect since I had to screenshot each line because it moved so quick):http://pastebin.com/w6p1XMeM 

———— 

Alright, thank you for reading this overly long pile of mush. This will probably be a work in progress for awhile, and if you have any questions feel free to ask.