>>107944402most of the personality that he let melt away were coping mechanisms for his fucked up situation. he aspired for being a high threschutioner and leader because he wanted to be worth something and valued, but was a mutant and a kid raised in a fiercely militaristic society. his logic was explicitly "maybe if I become incredibly useful to the empress I won't be publically gutted like a fish by a 9ft murder clown" and once sgrub happens his mindset shifted to "I seem to be the only one here who grasps how easily we can all fuck up, and not just die horribly but lose the chance to save our race from extinction, also maybe if I actually do a good job as a leader my friends will actually respect me"
even on the meteor his moirallegiance with Gamzee was fueled by the validation he felt from being the only one capable of keeping Gamzee from killing the rest of them, and once it became obvious Gamzee didn't actually need him to keep from going crazy again that relationship fell apart
>Being aware of your problems isn't the same as trying to improve on them.most of his problems were contextual. they were only problems due to the circumstances he was in.
>Also last I checked, aren't your kind always going on about how giving up your hopes and dreams because you got a boyfriend is a bad thing?first of all he started shedding all his bullshit when he actually got a good friend for the first time in his life. secondly, not everyone wants or would benefit from chasing lofty dreams their whole lives. You have people with great talent and ambitions that are being wasted stuck working at a bookshop or whatever, but you also have people that never truly thrive and begin enjoying life until they reject all the great expectations they grew up thinking they had to meet and realize they would rather just run a bookshop and take it easy With or without Dave, Karkat's true passion has through the whole story always been analyzing and discussing movies.