Gamzee Makara

Gamzee Makara, also known by his Trollian handle, is one of the Trolls. His associated zodiac sign is Capricorn (♑) and his horns resemble those of a goat.

He uses purple as a text color, and used to type with each letter alternating case, which (like most things) annoyed Karkat. After going insane, his lines alternate between all caps and all lowercase.

Gamzee was named after forumite Gammy, as well as "Gamze", which is a Turkish word meaning "dimple" or "coquettish look". Makara is the Sanskrit counterpart to the Capricorn sign, as well as referring to a mythological Hindu creature with the hind legs of an aquatic creature and the forelegs of a terrestrial one (much like the Greek Capricorn). This land-sea duality could be taken to represent Gamzee's highblood status among the land dwellers (and his lack of care about caste when he isn't sober) as well as his own dual nature.

Gamzee was a member of the Red Team.

Hivebent
Gamzee was HS 3911 (first) shown in his room, which is decorated with posters depicting demonic clowns. Among the things that litter his room are bottles of Faygo, an oversized unicycle, a laptop, juggling clubs, pie tins filled with sopor slime, and several bike horns.

Since his custodian is always out at sea, Gamzee wasn't brought up very well. He wasn't taught certain simple things and common troll knowledge, such as the fact that sopor slime is not supposed to be eaten, lest strange things happen to a troll's head. Gamzee's lusus resembles a large mer-goat. This follows the trend of the custodians resembling the zodiac symbol of their charges, as Capricorn is the sign of the goat, or the sea-goat.

Although Gamzee doesn't seem to care about the caste system, he is a higher-up (the highest of the land-dwellers) in the blood-caste system. This was referenced by Equius, who forces himself to suppress his urges to order Gamzee around because he has "no right to be disappointed by (Gamzee's) conduct." Equius also appears to believe that Gamzee's love of Faygo and sopor slime is harmful to him, as he states, "...you pollute your precious b100d... With your bottled fizzy sugar and soporific to%ins," in HS 4121 (this) conversation. However, when Gamzee becomes sober he does seem to adopt the caste system ideology and even commands Equius to kneel before him. Gamzee is the only purple-blooded troll not seen wearing jewellery, though whether this is because he doesn't care about the system, or because of his Juggalo lifestyle, or just because he isn't a sea dweller, is hard to tell.

Personality and Traits
Gamzee appears to be the troll equivalent of a Juggalo, belonging to a cult of capricious minstrels, and his text is littered with references to Juggalo subculture. So much so, in fact, that it's something of a miracle in itself that he hasn't uttered the phrase "fuckin' magnets" yet. Another possible reference to his design as a Juggalo could be his strife specibi, which is clubkind. Of these, he uses juggling clubs, a pun possibly on Juggalos. Though he swears quite a bit, he is a very good natured and laid back troll. He is without question a supportive friend and will do things and make sacrifices, even stop eating sopor-slime pies and drinking his wicked elixir, Faygo, at the request of a friend. Because of his magnanimous personality, Gamzee will frequently act as an advisor or even a therapist to his friends, such as Karkat and Eridan, if they are experiencing emotional stress, though his usual counseling involves them waiting for a miracle.

His fetch modus is miracle based; he does not understand how it works and doesn't care to find out. Sometimes he just likes to pick things up and watch the colors. He and Rose are the only characters who have thought to retrieve items from their sylladices in HS 3923 (the most obvious way). He doesn't like knowing the technology or science behind things, stating that "". Vague allusions to his strange horns were made, which turned out to be the bicycle horns strewn on his floor. Sometimes he accidentally steps on one and scares the shit out of himself. He is very good natured, and has seemingly pacified the imps around his house as he is sharing sopor slime pies with them, referring to them as "pretty dope".

"Capricious" means impulsive and/or unpredictable, so this may be an indicator of his personality although most of his actions and conversations have shown him to be more silly and spacey than impulsive. The fact that capricious means unpredictable would go along the lines of how Gamzee believes in  happening all the time- also, in thesauruses, it is seen as synonyms with arbitrary (which means "whimsical, chance") and eccentric. The word capricious could also refer to his given symbol, Capricorn, which shares the same root word.

Gamzee spends the Alterniabound flash capriciously dancing and trying to sell access to his pile of horns. As the Trickster Mode shows, this is in a direct reference to the dancing shopkeepers in Secret of Mana. In one such instance of his 'Horn pile innkeeper shit', he offered Karkat a nap in the pile of obnoxious noisemakers for 420 boondollars, a reference to the cultural marijuana reference of 4:20. Such would fit well into Gamzee's laid back, stoner-esque personality also in the time lines later on in the game have the number 420 mixed in several times in several different ways ex.) PAST terminallyCapricious [PTC] 420 HOURS AGO responded to memo.FUTURE...terminallyCapricious [FTC] 0:42:00 HOURS FROM NOW responded to memo.

He has a hidden darker side to his personality, which is in line with him being capricious. Since this is the case, a lack of the sopor slime that was suppressing this nature has proved HS 5258 (downright terrifying).

His breakdown leads to a change in typing quirk, his lines alternate between caps and lowercase instead of single letters. As noted by Equius, his volume, implying that he speaks calmly every other line while YELLING ON EVERY OTHER MOTHER-FUCKING LINE. In this form, he holds the lower-blooded trolls in high contempt, even more so than Equius, and demands that they "kneel" in his presence. He also becomes, or perhaps always was, a crack shot with a bow, capable of taking out an incredibly powerful prototyped enemy with two arrows in the eyes. Gamzee's serial killer mentality also leads him to leave disturbing messages around the walls, splattering an "are you next? :o)" on one with Tavros' blood.

He asphyxiates Equius to death with a broken-bow garotte, bringing Equius to the happiest and most ironic of all possible submissive demises. It was HS 4121 (the best fuckin miracle he ever did part of.) He then bludgeons Nepeta to death. Curiously, he appears to be missing one of his clubs after the encounter, but also takes her blue claws as trophies.

He seems to have an obsession with collecting the bodies of his victims and has been observed beheading them, preserving them in glass tubes and, according to Kanaya, HS 6257 (kissing them, sometimes). This may be more than a suspicion, as when he's seen sitting next to Tavros's beheaded body, his lips are covered in blood. This obsession may or may not have a connection to his ancestor's practice of painting his walls with the blood of his victims.

Gamzee's prowess with multiple weapon types may be a result of his dangerous jokerkind strife specibus, apparently allowing him to use any weapon as a wildcard.

Other Trolls
At the beginning of Hivebent, it seems Gamzee is on friendly terms with most of the other trolls. Due to his infinitely casual attitude to life, he is unaffected by Karkat's insults, Equius' bossiness or Eridan's emotional theatrics, all of which have been known to grate everyone else's nerves. Later on, Gamzee does a graceful fucking pirouette-swan-dive off the deep end, possibly because of a combination of running out of slime for his pies and having a major faith crisis because of the video Dave showed him. This puts him into a rage that causes him to make the kids' universe "Terminal". Gamzee has now declared his intentions to murder the rest of the trolls to show them the new interpretation of his religion. However Karkat's combinations of "HS 005988 (shooshes)" and "HS 005989 (paps)" seem to have ended his rage. During the 3 year meteor trip Gamzee distanced himself from almost everyone on the meteor and, together with his dancestor Kurloz, started working for Lord English.

Karkat


Gamzee apparently sees Karkat as his best friend, despite a strained relationship from Karkat's end, becoming a huge understatement later on. Gamzee doesn't take Karkat's insults seriously, and always checks up on him. Later on, Karkat is shown as expressing worry about Gamzee when he disappears, afraid he's gotten hurt, and even says that he should maybe look for him later. He is also horrified by Gamzee's new personality, trying desperately to snap him out of it. Finally, Karkat admits that he was not only Gamzee's best friend, but Gamzee was his best friend as well. Nepeta's Shipping wall later shows her opinion that Karkat and Gamzee are (or should be) moirails. This relationship comes to fruition after Gamzee's flipout. It is later revealed that their moiraillegiance has ended, due to Gamzee not holding up his end of the relationship.

Tavros
Gamzee also appears to have a strong relationship with Tavros. They form one of the worst rapping duos in, well, all of paradoxspace. Tavros's mood and text seems a lot more confident and mellow when talking to Gamzee, thus making them closer friends than anticipated. They also refer to each other as "bros" in a respectful way, also copying each other's faces as seen HS 4023 (in this conversation). It is strongly referenced that Gamzee once had flushed feelings for Tavros, seen in HS 5886 (this pesterlog), even suggesting that they should make out at the end of said conversation, although Tavros seemed speechless at the idea, leaving it unknown if he shared the red feelings.

After finding Tavros' corpse, Gamzee is seen with his HS 5927 (blood on his lips) implying that he tried to revive him (Although this is questionable, as he states that he wants to kill ALL of the trolls) or just had sloppy necrophiliac makeouts. It is unknown if Gamzee has any knowledge of Tavros and Vriska's complicated relationship.

Dave
Gamzee has an intense reaction to the VIDEO for the Insane Clown Posse song "Miracles". Gamzee calls the song "BlAsPhEmY" after Dave HS 4718 (sends him) a link to it. The result led to Gamzee engaging his Hero Mode with an interesting purple 'lightning' effect surrounding him. He has also shown signs of kismesis affection for Dave before kicking off one of the best rap offs in the history of paradox space.

Terezi
In the third part of Openbound he confirms that he has secretly started up a kismesissitude with Terezi, stating that she hates him for what he is but not enough to kill him. He doesn't want Karkat to find out about this.

Lusus/Kernelsprite
Gamzee's lusus is a giant goat-like sea creature. It had apparently often been out to sea instead of caring for Gamzee as a custodian is supposed to - about the only useful advice it ever gave Gamzee was "keep away from the ocean". It was killed after Karkat ran the Mobius Double Reacharound Virus, speared by what appears to be a harpoon or something similar. It has been speculated that Eridan Ampora is responsible, possibly because of his hatred of littering—revenge for Gamzee throwing trash into the sea, or just his genocidal tendencies toward land dwellers. Opposing this theory is the fact that Eridan's weapon is Ahab's Crosshairs, a rifle that shoots energy blasts, not a harpoon gun. Although, there is a regular harpoon pointed towards the sea in Eridan's window...

When Gamzee is sitting atop the tube on HS 005338 ([S] Equius: Seek the highb100d), a genetically engineered knight creature very similar to his lusus can be seen inside the tube.

Trivia

 * Gamzee was named by Alyssa after the forumgoer Gammy.
 * Coincidentally, Gamzee sounds similar to the word "Gämse", which is German for Chamois, a european goat-antelope.
 * Gamzee is seen to be one of three trolls trolling Jade on HS 3290 (this panel), though he never took a keen interest in trolling the kids in the first place.
 * Gamzee's juggling clubs resemble the PX3 Vegas club by Play.
 * Gamzee has done some actions featuring the number 420, in reference to his apparent use of drugs, as April 20th/4:20 pm is a day/time centering around Marijuana and other drug culture.
 * Past Gamzee had responded to HS 4529 (two) HS 5260 (memos), 420 hours before they had began, and Future Gamzee responded to a HS 5261 (memo) 0:42:00 hours from the present.
 * Gamzee has also marketed with the price of 420 boondollars. In Alterniabound, he offered Karkat a nap in the pile of obnoxious noisemakers for 420 boondollars. In Myststuck, he sells every potion for 420 boondollars each (leaving poor, naive Jane to wonder why they're all that price).
 * In a conversation with Dave in Act 5 Act 2, Gamzee speaks of a "DoUbLe mEtApHoR AlL ThE WaY AcRoSs sKaIa :o)", a reference to a viral internet phenomenon commonly known as Double Rainbow in which an inebriated man on drugs becomes excited upon seeing two rainbows in the sky at once and contemplates the meaning behind it.
 * Gamzee's two main emoticons, depending on his personality, are :o) and :o(, which are reminiscent of the masks of Tragedy and Comedy.
 * This is further referenced by his god tier wings.
 * Purple is the color of death in some East Asian countries, while simultaneously being the color of royalty in European countries, which might relate to Gamzee's desire to kill the trolls as well as his hereditary nobility.
 * Gamzee's obsession with "MiRaClEs" is a reference to the Insane Clown Posse song of the same name.
 * Dave, believing Gamzee to simply be a crazed Juggalo, sent him the music video months before it was publicly released, causing Gamzee to begin reconsidering his faith. It was likely done deliberately to trigger Gamzee's antagonism.
 * When filled with murderous intent, Gamzee's eyes are shown to be dark orange and even red, rather than the golden color that trolls' eyes normally are. This is likely an artistic interpretation for his current mood.
 * Gamzee's god tier design was revealed by Hussie in a donation sketch months before it appeared in the comic. He repeatedly emphasized it as being canon, and it was later HS 6725 (revealed to be true).
 * Gamzee's heroic title as the Bard of Rage could be a tribute or reference to the clown bard from Problem Sleuth.
 * Gamzee's codpiece in his fake god tier outfit is a reference to Bard Quest and the Bard's noble quest to find a fitting Codpiece.
 * It appears that Gamzee obtained his codpiece from his Dancestor, Kurloz Makara, in Openbound 2, for a currently unknown reason.
 * In a short, Andrew joked that Gamzee is the shortest of the twelve trolls, deliberately going against what he considered most people's assumption that he was the tallest. He later confirmed that the trolls height and other aspects are up to the readers interpretation.
 * When Kanaya HS 5424 (kicks him out of his shoes), it is shown that Gamzee does not wear socks.
 * Gamzee strangling Equius with his own bow may be a reference to the Salvation Run arc of the Batman comics, where Joker strangles Splitshot with his own bow.
 * On HS 5119 (one page), he is referred to as "the most important character in Homestuck"; however he is HS 7384 (later) described by Hussie as ""
 * In Cascade, Lil' Cal was shown to be sitting on Gamzee's lap at the time, so he may instead be the so-called "most important character", as his connections to various antagonists suggest.
 * Gamzee's zodiac symbol is Capricorn, which is represented by a sea goat. A goat is often seen as a Satanist symbol, which could be reference to him becoming an antagonist.
 * While an alternate timeline version of Gamzee has been mentioned by Aradia in the comic, Gamzee is the only remaining troll whose alternate timeline versions have never had any confirmed appearances in the comic, much less any confirmed deaths.
 * Gamzee, along with Eridan, are one of the few post-scratch trolls that inherited both their class and aspect from the same two pre-scratch trolls. The only other examples are Karkat and Terezi. As the Bard of Rage, he inherited the Bard class from Cronus Ampora and the Rage Aspect from his dancestor Kurloz. Dualscar met his end at the hands of the Grand Highblood, which manifests in the 3x Showdown where Gamzee and Eridan both attempt to kill each other, and Cronus' unease around Kurloz.