derselord:

I’ve never really written an in-depth post on how to roleplay a character, so let’s give this a shot! This is part one of how to roleplay Karkat, and in this post I’ll cover his personality, typing style, and the insults he uses. This will all come from the notes I’ve taken while researching his character and rereading pesterlogs. Part two will cover how he interacts with each character, currently and at different points in time. Part two probably won’t be up for a while because I’ll have to do a bit more research. This is going to be a long post, but anyway, here we go!

First I’m going to cover his personality.

When you think of Karkat, what’s the first thing to pop into your mind? For most people, it would be angry, shouty, etc, etc, right? Well, that’s not quite right! Karkat is usually associated with being angry ALL THE TIME but, to be more accurate, the vast majority of the time he’s incredibly ornery or grumpy. I’m going to go ahead and take a moment in this to talk about fanon Karkat.

Fanon Karkat directly relates to the question I asked above; in fanon, Karkat is an angry, fuckass-spewing troll. Most fanworks show him as lashing out in anger without even being provoked and jumping down the throats of people he wouldn’t be as quick to anger with. I’m not going to touch on how he interacts with others until my next post, but this point will definitely be revisited.

Karkat, as I said, is ornery, grumpy, crabby, etc, most of the time, which will show in how he usually types. He’s also incredibly aggressive in getting things he wants; for example, being the leader of the Red Team.He is quick to anger, but it really depends on the person. When angered, he can type walls of rage, peppered with insults and profanity. I’ll give examples later.

The other parts of his character that most tend to forget are that he tends to be a bit of a coward, truly does care for his friends, and is incredibly full of self-loathing.

His cowardice could be construed in several ways. He first showed it while Gamzee was on his brief rampage on the meteor, and it might have just been the product of seeing one of his good friends(Eridan) killing two of his other friends and injuring one other. This mixed with his panic and feelings of failure due to not being able to keep his team together, could account to his cowardice at the time. Another way of interpreting his cowardice is how he lived pre-Sgrub. He lived in his hive, and due to his blood color and obsession with keeping it hidden, probably didn’t leave much! We also know that he never killed anyone before the game, and even when he was in the game the only things he killed were game constructs. His aversion to combat and his tendency to stay inside could be the reason he reacts to such cowardice to Gamzee’s rampage.

Personally, I subscribe to the first one.

Moving on, Karkat cares deeply for his friends. However, he doesn’t always outright show this side. A great example of this is with Sollux. He and Sollux have an interesting friendship, near constantly arguing and insulting each other. It’s clear that Karkat values his friendship with Sollux greatly, even asking if they’re still friends every time they argue. The first time Sollux dies because Karkat was unable to get him into the game in time, we see Karkat openly sobbing because of how upset he is. After Eridan’s attack, it’s even said that he wouldn’t know what to do if he saw him die again.

Another example would be with Karkat and Eridan’s friendship. He genuinely cares about Eridan and his problems, listening and giving him advice from time to time. It’s also implied that they gossip about the quadrant issues of their other friends pre-game, but I’ll touch on the rest of their relationship and others in my part two post. Overall, Karkat cares for his friends. I only gave a few examples, but there are tons of them. And trust me; I’ll cover each one later.

Self-loathing! This is a big one, very deep rooted in Karkat’s characterization. The memos and logs of him fighting with his past and future selves can be very amusing, but he does that for a reason. Karkat’s self-loathing stems from his mutation. It’s because of this that he views himself as badly as he does at times. His ornery attitude also stems from his mutation, as he had to constantly hide his blood and deal with those who would bother or tease him about it. He’s still grumpy while playing the game, because honestly, who wouldn’t be irritated constantly while trying to lead 11 others who don’t listen to you half the time?

Another thing! Don’t forget about Karkat’s love of romantic comedies and troll Will Smith things(This isn’t a main focus on his character, but it’s nice to throw in from time to time). These are often overlooked, but Karkat is big on giving out romantic advice. He also has really high standards for his own quadrant-mates (troll Serendipity), and is a bit of a sappy romantic. Giving out quadrant advice isn’t a must, but it’s really nice to see and honestly I find it really fun to do. Another thing I love doing is giving out romantic advice based on different scenes from various romcoms, but again, this isn’t necessary. It’s just something I have a lot of fun with.

Impatience! Karkat isn’t the most patient troll, and his impatience is what gives the kids’ universe cancer. He was the one who helped Kanaya gather and breed the frogs and they ended up rushing because of his impatience, which ended in messing up the frog they produced. 

He really wants to be respected, but no one does. He tries the best he can to obtain their respect, but he isn’t the best leader. His short temper and overall ornery attitude combined with other aspects of his personality could attribute to this. Unfortunately, this is a cycle. The lack of respect leads into further irritation with everyone, which only leads them to continue to deny him the respect he wants.

I’ll probably end up going back and editing this when or before I post part two, but moving onto his typing style and his insults.

Karkat types in caps. Obvious, everyone who even glances at one of his logs should get this. However, he uses perfect grammar and syntax. At times his posts will read as he’s typing while thinking, without ending each line with a period as that would interrupt the train of thought. Example here:

• CG: THAT’S JUST IT.
• CG: YOU DON’T.
• CG: ORDINARILY YOU WOULD BUT
• CG: YOUR RECKONING STARTS MUCH SOONER
• CG: BECAUSE OF SOME DUMB THINGS YOU’VE DONE
• CG: YOU COMPLETELY BLEW IT ALREADY AND YOU HAVE NO CHANCE OF WINNING ANYMORE
• CG: WHICH ORDINARILY WOULD BE FINE
• CG: JUST ANOTHER BUNCH OF LOSERS TO FAIL AT THIS GAME
• CG: IT’S WHAT YOU DO LATER THAT CAUSES SO MUCH MORE TROUBLE THAN THAT 
• CG: AND NOW WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT TOO.

He uses an extensive vocabulary, if you don’t have a huge vocabulary a thesaurus may come in handy for this. While he usually cusses in his conversation, he definitely doesn’t do it every other line.

When he uses “fuck”, he definitely does not use it in every sentence. Use it conservatively. He can finish a sentence without cussing.

Now, I’m going to give examples from his logs of the insults and colorful metaphors he uses.

• ·         BIG SCHOOLHIVE RUMPUS RESPITE
• ·         WRITHING KNOTTED HELL OF A TIMELINE CHOKING US ALL TO DEATH
• ·         CRYPTOBAFFLING MIND FUDDLERY
• ·         OH MY THROBBING PHLEGM LOBE, WHO GIVES A BARFING FUCK ABOUT THAT
• ·         SWEET ALMIGHTY TAINTCHAFING FUCK
• ·         SHITSPONGE
• ·         A ROCKET PROPELLED SPAZ MAGGOT SPRINGLOADED UP THE ASS OF A PSYCHEDELIC FUCKING FREAKOUT WEASEL ON IDIOT DRUGS
• ·         THE MOTHER GRUB’S HEINOUS UNDULATING ASSHOLE
• ·         LIKE A GODDAMN HERO WITH A RIPPERWASP IN HIS JOCK
• ·         FROTHING LOONEYBLOCK NONSENSE
• ·         IT’S GOING TO FONDLE MAJOR SEEDFLAP
• ·         LET’S BURY THE THRESHER WITH A TOTALLY PLATONIC BRO BULGE BUMP
• ·         NOW MY CHUTE IS DOING A FUCKING STELLAR IMPRESSION OF SOMETHING THAT DOESN’T GIVE A SHIT
• ·         EVERYONE CAN GO POINT THEIR PROBING BUSYBODY SNIFFNODES UP THEIR OWN IMPERTINENT SEED FLAPS
• ·         BRAYING UP THE WRONG FROND NUB
• ·         I COULD HATE A HOLE IN PARADOX SPACE ITSELF, STRAIGHT THROUGH TO A NEW REALITY FRESH FOR THE HATING
• ·         I HAVE TO SPREAD THE WICKED WORD LIKE I’M MASSAGING SHITTY SPARKLEDUST AROUND MY NETHER REGIONS TO ASSUAGE A VICIOUS RASH
• ·         I HAVE A CRUCIAL DATE WITH A PNEUMATIC DRILL, TO BORE A HOLE IN THE CENTER OF MY FOREHEAD, DEEP INTO THE PLUMP ANGUISH BLADDER WHICH STORES MY ALIEN DISMAY FLUID
• ·         LIMP FRONDED STOOGE
• ·         PAST ME IS THE DUMBEST BUCKET OF FESTERING DISCHARGE I EVER FELL ASS BACKWARDS INTO
• ·         YOU’RE THE FUTUREST ME I EVER HAD THE CROTCH BLISTERING MISFORTUNE OF JAWING WITH
• ·         YEAH OF COURSE, WE HAVE TONS OF MOVIES AND THEY ARE INFINITELY SUPERIOR TO YOUR PRIMITIVE CINEMATIC NEANDERTHRASHINGS.
• ·         OK I DON’T SEE HOW WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE BECOMING FRIENDS IF YOU RECOIL FROM MY OLIVE BRANCH LIKE I’M WIGGLING A GNARLED TREE MONSTER’S DICK IN YOUR DIRECTION.
• ·         EVERYWHERE YOU TURN THERE’S ANOTHER WAY TO FIGURE OUT WHAT’S GOING ON, SO PLEASE, GO SECRETE ME AN EARTH RIVER THROUGH YOUR STRANGE HUMAN TEAR DUCTS.

I keep these saved in my notes as good examples for when I can’t think of anything to use. It can also be incredibly difficult to come up with your own insults while roleplaying, but trust me, practice helps so fucking much. It becomes a habit after a while. But anyway, with the insults, I find it much more fun to roleplay with a Karkat who calls you a dickmunching shitguzzler who can’t stop the noise flatulence that is your voice that’s constantly spilling from your mouth over a Karkat who calls you a fuckass.

Now, going off of that last sentence, it’s actually a pet peeve of mine when you find a Karkat who can’t say anything but ‘fuck’ and ‘fuckass’. I don’t like when people even use it, as the only time Karkat used it he wasn’t trying to insult anyone, but instead he was giving Jade a password, or was trying to do so.

But guys, really, practice makes perfect! I’ve been roleplaying as Karkat for about four months now, and I’ve reached the point to where I can spin out paragraphs of ranting. I still don’t think I’m the best Karkat roleplayer ever, but I feel somewhat satisfied with my roleplaying a good 40% of the time. This really is a big improvement from when I first started, and honestly, you can really only improve as you keep going.

And one last thing before I wrap this post up. If I forgot anything or you can think of some way to add onto this post, feel free to do so.