Eridan Ampora

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Character
Name: Eridan Ampora
Occupation:
Relationships: Feferi (ex-moirail), Vriska (ex-kismesis)
Fandom: Homestuck
Other: Associated zodiac sign: Aquarius
Trollian handle: caligulasAquarium
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Eridan Ampora is a minor character from the webcomic Homestuck.

Canon

Eridan is a sea dweller and therefore has a high social position according to the hemospectrum. He intends to kill all land-dwellers, a plan his moirail Feferi Peixes doesn't agree with. He spends most of his time hunting to feed Feferi's lusus, using his famous weapon Ahab's Crosshairs, and roleplaying. Eridan has flushed feelings for Feferi, but she breaks up with him. Later in the game he learns magic from Rose Lalonde and Kanaya Maryam. He loses hope that they have a chance to win and plans to join Jack Noir. To prevent this, Sollux Captor challenges him to a duel in which he is killed. Eridan also kills Feferi and Kanaya, who attack him in retaliation, and destroys the matriorb, the only hope of saving the troll species. He is later killed by Kanaya with her chainsaw.

Fandom

Fannish reception of Eridan varies wildly. Some see him simply as a villain and find his constant attempts to date people who are not interested in him very creepy, and some think that he only killed Sollux and Feferi out of jealousy. Other fans see him as a woobie, misunderstood and lonely. The famous forum adventure Be the Sea Dweller Lowblood, in which the Hemospectrum is reversed, contributed to making Eridan more popular.

Memes

The 2011 Homestuck calendar had a picture of a crossdressing Eridan for the month of March. "March Eridan" subsequently became a meme.[1]

Another meme is Eridan saying "nyeh", which originated from an Octopimp video.[2]

In November 2011, a secret was posted to Fandom!Secrets about Eridan's character arc being a metaphor for the Obama administration. The submission went viral. The original post can be found here (#7) and the image itself here. It reads (in all caps):

I still think his character arc is an allegory for the Obama presidency.

Think about it - the supposed Prince of Hope knocks out Sollux (bipartisanship) and betrays Feferi (social welfare programs) and Kanaya (the LGBT community) in order to suck up to the fascist murderbeast Bec Noir (the GOP), who feels irrational loyalty to Jade (Reagan), a figure whom Noir does not truly know or understand and whose actions have often directly contradicted his stated ideals and goals.

Eridan then goes to confront Gamzee (the increasingly dispossessed and disillusioned middle class) and Vriska (Vriska) with the intention of eliminating them as well, while his past self has made futile attempts at flirting with Karkat (true leftism).

It just makes too much sense.

Secret because I don’t want to imply that Andrew Hussie wants queer voters to engage in the democratic process with their chainsaws in this coming election.

Vriska (Vriska) as well as the odd equivalences of politics and fiction have been memed.

Shrek as Eridan's father. This was later acknowledged in canon.[3][4]

Fanworks

Fanfiction

Fanvids

Tumblr

Archives and Links

Resources

References