Karkat Vantas, also known by his Trollian handle carcinoGeneticist, is one of the Trolls and is one of the main characters in Homestuck. His associated zodiac sign is Cancer (♋) and he has horns that are rounded instead of pointed (constantly referred to as "nubby horns.") He types in gray with all caps and near-perfect syntax.
His Trollian handle is a play on the medical term "carcinogenesis" which is the development of cancer in the body (or carcinogens, cancer-causing substances), and "carcinology," the study of crustaceans. Vantas is a prostate cancer treatment drug, and Karkat is "Karkata," the Hindu astrological equivalent of Cancer, minus one letter. Additionally, his name may be drawn from "Karkinos," a giant crab who fought Hercules of myth, also the origin of the Cancer astrological sign. His online handle is particularly nefarious sounding, implying genetic engineering and carcinogenic factors. This is proven to be the case later on as he had genetically bred cancer into Bilious Slick by undermining the importance of the completion of its genetic sequence, thus ultimately dooming the kids' universe. Later Karkat tries to think of a title more befitting of him considering the apparently doomed life he created via Ectobiology. Ironically, he can't think of the obvious choice present in his trollian handle.
His weapon of choice is a sickle. This is most likely to contrast or even complement John's hammerkind, as the hammer and sickle are the symbols of communism. It may also be a reference to sickle cell disease, or anemia, a sickness of the blood caused by a genetic mutation.
Karkat is the leader of the Red Team, and later of the joined teams.
Biography
Karkat was introduced in Act 3 as an incredibly rude individual who trolls Jade, which earns him a place in her Trollslum. He is aware of what the kids do during their adventure via Trollian. He is convinced that Jade will fuck everything up and seems to want a different outcome, asking Jade "IS THERE NOTHING I CAN DO TO CHANGE YOUR MIND?" and later providing information on Sburb and giving advice to John on how he should go through his adventure. It becomes clear that he had hoped to deter Jade from sending a package to John, which would lead to disastrous results for both the kids and the trolls. She ignores his warnings and sends the package that Jack Noir later uses to kill the Black Queen.
In Act 4, Karkat later contacts John, and tells him that they will be friends in the future. He mentions that he is trolling linearly backwards along the kids' timeline, unlike the forward motion of Terezi Pyrope and the random pathways of the other trolls. Later on, he and John have a discussion on movie titles, and it is implied that Karkat's civilization is much older than John's since they ran out of good movie titles over the course of thousands of years. John also reminds Karkat that he wants to talk to Jade and to calm down if he contacts him any earlier in the timeline so as to prevent any time paradoxes from occurring. He also finds out that John is in "cahoots" with Terezi and gets pissed and asks John to send along a nasty message to her. Later, Karkat gives John information on the geography of the Incipisphere and the purpose of Sburb.
When John arrives in the Ectobiology Lab and creates the Paradox Clones, Karkat explains that every player who plays Sburb will, without exception, be their own clone. Through the actions of one player , all players in that Sburb session will have been created as clones of themselves, with the originals being clones; essentially, the information used to create the clones comes from the clones themselves. Karkat was the trolls' ectobiologist, and created all twelve of them. Apparently, he was quite unsettled by all of this. In addition to creating the twelve current trolls, he created each troll's ancestor. However, he believed them to be "random extra wigglers serving no purpose."
Midnight Crew Intermission
At the end of the Intermission, Spades Slick finds a monitor with 12 screens. The one illuminated screen shows Karkat in his respiteblock engaged in Sgrub, standing idly next to his Kernelsprite, a Cruxite Dowel, and some sylladex cards. Slick begins to communicate with Karkat in the same way that the exiles had with the kids. His respiteblock at the end of the Intermission does not resemble his respiteblock in Hivebent, probably because it was before the trolls were further conceptualized.
Hivebent
Karkat is even faster to get tired of bullshit than Dave.
Act 5 opens with the beginning of a new adventure, with Karkat in his respiteblock. Karkat was not given a name before his sixth Wriggling Day (his thirteenth birthday), just like John Egbert. He is initially named Bulgereek Nookstain using the inverted Daedric Alphabet, but chops the name entry box in half—much like Dave, Karkat doesn't put up with that bullshit.
Karkat is the leader of the Red Team with Terezi Pyrope as his server player. Sburb has designated him the Knight of Blood, his planet the Land of Pulse and Haze. Karkat wields an alchemised sickle: Homes Smell Ya Later, in keeping with his sicklekind Strife Specibus. Later
he's shown using a sickle that appears similar to a regisword. Karkat, during the course of the game, runs across and forms an alliance with Jack Noir to exile the Black Queen. Beforehand, his sharp tongue gets him stabbed by Jack, revealing his candy red blood color and helping him form a bond of sorts with his assailant, both of whom have the same color blood.
Karkat starts distributing memos through Trollian's time-travel memo feature to try to order people around, but these memos end up hopelessly muddled by various interjections from the other trolls (and even Karkat himself in other points of the timeline). He witnesses the last moments of Sollux Captor this way, as he was gruesomely killed by a psychic shockwave emitted from Feferi's Lusus, but thinks he's joking. He becomes very distraught once he sees his friend's lifeless body, and then disgusted as Feferi kisses him.
After many unseen shenanigans over the Sgrub session, Karkat seems to have developed a Matespritship with Terezi, and became at least somewhat respected by the others. He is the one who attempts to claim the "ultimate reward," before being interrupted. Vriska claims that Karkat only awoke on Prospit after "winning" the game in this fashion.
In the unlinked page, past Karkat speculates that he gave Jade's universe cancer, by skipping the last frog required for his genetic sequence to be able to fight the black king in time. Past Karkat apologizes for his hasty mistake, and although it is nothing but a single "sorry" it is one of the few times where Karkat apologises at all. Amusingly, the position he put the universes in fits with his username carcinoGeneticist (creator of cancer).
Post-Hivebent
Karkat observing Jade and Jadesprite
Upon arriving in the Veil, Karkat watches John's life unfold linearly, and refrains from trolling him. He becomes angrier at him, in part because he had a role in causing the rift, but also possibly because John, living in the universe that was supposed to be the Trolls' reward, reflects what Karkat's life may have been like had it not been so horrible. This may have been the reason he singled out John as his trolling target in the first place. Karkat believes John to be his Kismesis, and begins trolling him, but as we've already seen he becomes friends with him instead.
Karkat believes Jade to have prototyped Bec intentionally, leading to a series of events that set off The Scratch, and extends this blame to John for falling asleep and not preventing it from happening. However, as John was actually put to sleep by Vriska, and Jade was attempting to break her cruxite artifact at the time, only Bec himself was to blame for the prototyping.
After developing plans with Jade, he witnessed Eridan killing Feferi and Kanaya. He attempted to revive Kanaya with a kiss afterwards, which may have contributed to her later vampirism (as he is the Knight of Blood). He was also contacted by Gamzee, who had run out of pies and gone crazy. Freaked out by this, he took Sollux (who was KO'd in the fight with Eridan) with him to hide from Gamzee. Soon after he woke up, however, they were separated. At this point he began believing that he was in a doomed timeline, since Kanaya was supposedly dead yet he had talked to her in the future. Some time later he continued a memo to talk to Jade, explaining to her that he gave their universe "cancer" (who he revealed is Jack Noir) and is sorry for it. He was then contacted again by future Kanaya.
In an alternate timeline, Vriska inadvertently leads Bec Noir to the Troll's hideout and Karkat is killed along with Terezi by Noir as trophies to show to Vriska. In the alpha timeline, after Vriska is stabbed he is seen with a letter written in Gamzee's blood using a combination of Terezi's QU1RK and his own, then is seen with Terezi hugging or kissing. He is then seen with Gamzee's blood on him and said to John that he just got done "DEALING WITH GAMZEE," which means here becoming his moirail.
One of his future selves from beyond the mysterious countdown appears in a memo here.
Personality
Karkat is a crab in more ways than one. He constantly insults others in the style of a stereotypical internet troll, supporting his arguments with what seems to be empty logic. Jade has even gone to the point of flipping out at Karkat. In keeping with the crab apple asshole theme of his personality, he rarely smiles.
One of the only times Karkat smiles
He is also often seen screaming, pounding his fists against his keyboard, or generally raging when talking to the other trolls. He is not particularly patient as when explaining himself, he makes even his most sound advice appear to be random insults and he becomes visibly aggravated when other people are having fun.
Somewhat similar to Jack Noir, Karkat is ruthlessly ambitious and will grasp at any opportunity for power, but he just doesn't have the subtlety of his troll compatriots and ends with the sharp end of the stick more than once. His real strength is to shepherd his boneheaded troll friends into following a plan, which just gives him another excuse to go off the handle when something does not go according to it.
Despite his flippant demeanor, he also seems to care quite deeply for his friends' well being, judging from his tearful reaction to Sollux's apparent death, his seemingly genuine desire to help Eridan and Tavros with their relationship issues with Feferi and Vriska, respectively, and his willing enough to revive Kanaya. Towards the end, Karkat seems to show a softer side that hasn't really been shown before. In his final memo, future Karkat leaves a rather emotional story shortly before Kanaya responds to it. At this point he treats her in a friendly and polite manner, something that he really hasn't done with anyone before.
Unlike other trolls, Karkat doesn't "wear his blood color on his sleeve," in either the figurative OR literal sense, and is very defensive when asked about it. When he is stabbed by Jack Noir, it turns out his blood is bright red, a mutation among trolls, one that he is extremely ashamed of. He and Jack Noir form an alliance when it is revealed that they have the same color of blood, a revelation that shocks Karkat.
Karkat uses rich and imaginative language in his particular fashion (e.g. "YOU ARE SUCH AN IGNORAMUS I COULD SHIT MILES OF RAGE SNAKE TO CHOKE YOU TO DEATH), but not to the extent of a typing quirk.
Karkat is not nearly as bloodthirsty as some of the other trolls (like Vriska or even Kanaya), and has trouble jumping to action when shit hits the whirling device. If things go off plan and he's not nearby, he gets pissed off and starts yelling at the related parties. If he -is- nearby he faints, starts crying or sits there looking stupid.
Relationships
Despite being possibly the grouchiest troll on the whole planet, Karkat relates well to people, possibly because he is mentally stable, by troll standards, and believes that showing many kinds of pity is the best way to have the capacity to hate. He usually stops insulting and whining whenever the other troll mentions he or she has some kind of significant problem that isn't worth making fun of. He is the go-to guy for several of the trolls with romance issues, like Tavros and Eridan, and even unwittingly advises Vriska, as well as Kanaya. Ironically, Karkat admits that he has problems with relationships, particularly blackrom, and thinks he sets his standards too high. His inclinations towards redrom are strictly private.
Nepeta has a redrom-crush on him according to her Shipping wall, possibly due to their mutual interest in Troll Relationships , but Karkat, while aware of these feelings, tries to avoid the subject with her. The fact that he admits to having been "tip-toeing" around the problem is possibly one of the reasons he keeps his redrom life private. However, in a conversation with Eridan, Karkat acts very defensively about Nepeta, saying "She's a person with feelings you raving douche!" It was known that their ancestors had relationship beyond the four quadrants.
Moirails Forever
He is best friends with Gamzee, once referring to him as the "worst best friend ever." He also has a friendly rivalry with his best friend Sollux, and is visibly shaken when he witnesses Sollux's first death, and half-death.
He and Gamzee recently became moirails. Such good moirails, in fact, that Karkat was able to calm Gamzee down from his homicidal rage with some shooshes and paps, and a hug. It is unclear whether this was a spur of the moment decision to act calm and pacifying, or it has something to do with his heritage and the Suffurer's peaceful doctrine suddenly coming to him. It is possible that his title, Knight of Blood, refers to the hate and murder contained in a highblood's blood, which Karkat with his powers can pacify. Upon Sollux's half-death, he turns to Gamzee for consolation as he spews tears out like a shipper.
Karkat and Terezi embrace.
During Hivebent, Karkat shows elements of a budding Matespritship with Terezi. Although he usually matches her aggressive flirtiness with bravado, he softens up when they get a moment to talk. She is also the first troll to learn Karkat's bloods color, which she discovered during a "L1TTL3 MOM3NT" he is too shy to discuss, and agrees to keep it secret until he is ready to reveal it himself. Early in Hivebent, Karkat mentions to Terezi that one of his neighbors has recently been culled, and wonders if she would like to move in, although this is preceded by his usual dislike of her current living conditions. He seems curious whenever she calls him cute or adorable, and at the end of their conversation he shyly responded to Terezi's <3 with his own, after she signed off. Unfortunately, Karkat's later actions confuse Terezi to the nature of their relationship. Although they share an embrace after she is forced to kill Vriska to protect the lives of the remaining trolls, judging from the face she scribbled out in a drawing she sends to Dave, they have not made up by the time the Critical Moment soon comes to pass.
Of all the trolls, Karkat seems to respect Kanaya the most, noting that she is the only sane one left to play when recruiting for the red team, and in one of his final memos before the Scratch with her he is more civil than he is with most of the trolls. After her attack he says to past Eridan that he considered her one of his closest friends.
Karkat may also be friends with Eridan, despite the latter's stated desire to kill all land dwellers. Such friendship appears to be fueled by the fact Karkat is very good at giving advice on relationships, which Eridan needs constantly. After Eridan turns on the trolls and kills Feferi and almost Kanaya, Karkat develops a deep feeling of (platonic) hate for him and swears to hunt him down and kill him.
He is not fond of Equius or Vriska, calling them "the only bigger asshole than [him]" and "the most vile backstabbing sociopath who ever lived" respectively. At the very least, Karkat is later somewhat polite to Equius after mentioning his dead lusus, but he still finds him disturbing. Vriska hate-flirts with Karkat on occasion but is most likely just messing with him. Karkat doesn't seem to hate Vriska post-hivebent, and just wants her to not do something dangerous while he tries to figure things out.
Despite his rudeness, he seems to be broadly on the same "team" as the kids, giving advice to John which helps him advance instead of acting as one of Homestuck's villains. At first, Karkat believes John to be his destined Kismesis, taking the spade on John's older shirt as a sign that it was meant to be, but hastily abandons this idea after John turns down his awkard hate-crush confession by claiming he is "not a homosexual," a concept Karkat finds foreign because Troll reproduction does not differentiate by sex or gender. The embarassment of the situation forces him to troll John backwards through time, leading to strange sort of friendship as both see the other as being less and less informed as they progress throught their respective timellines. John describes them as being "reverse anti-mutual friends".
Bucketstruck.
Jade's initial impression of Karkat is incredibly negative, especially after being caught in the middle of arguments between his past and future selves, but they eventually bond after he apologizes and helps her come to terms with being disgusted by her own past self's personality. In this same conversation, Karkat catches himself thinking of a rather odd image after watching Jade beat the shit out of her dreamself in a callback to another beating that ended in sloppy makeouts.. Whether it is because of his typing error or the cause of it, this was not the end of Karkat's Freudian slips. It is worth noting that Nepeta's reconstructed shipping wall portrays Jade as an auspistice for Karkat's past and future selves.
The most awkward thing in Homestuck.
He does not get along well with Dave, and rarely talked to him. Their only known conversation was when Karkat warned Dave and John away from Terezi and Vriska respectively.
Lusus/Kernelsprite
Karkat's Sprite
Karkat's custodian is a towering, bipedal crab monster with a taste for chilled roe cubes. It was killed when Karkat's computer exploded as a result of running Sollux Captor's Mobius Double Reacharound Virus, thereby implementing the curse (if curses are a real thing) that leads to the death of the other trolls' lusus as well. An interesting note is that it died concussively, leaving Karkat's anonymity intact by not bleeding. A similar although bigger creature on Jake's island has since been shown to bleed in mutant candy red. It is thus likley that Crabdad and Karkat do indeed share the same blood color, like all other trolls and their respective Lusus.
His origin has something to do with the Sufferer's followers, specifically so that Sufferer's second incarnation (Karkat) would have a lusus to raise him.
Karkat later prototyped his dead lusus into his Kernelsprite.
Trivia
- Karkat's text color is defined by the hex code #626262; 62 is the atomic number of samarium, a volatile but durable silvery-grey metal used in various applications including permanent magnets and cancer treatment.
- Given his position in the zodiac, it is possible that Karkat's blood would be lime were it not for his mutation.
