I took a pretty long break in my reread. It started in January, and now it's August. Don't ask me what happened, I sincearly can't tell you, BUT, I AM still determined to finish my reread by the end of the year. I wanted to pop in a bit of a re-grouping of my thoughts here, since a lot of stuff has happened with Homestuck since my reread began. Or, rather, I started to take these issues more seriously because they started affecting the Unofficial Homestuck Collection.
I'm not going to rehash my thoughts from the video I made about the topic, but I WILL take a moment to reflect. Throughout a lot of my reread I point out consistencies or inconsistencies in character arcs and speculate about intension. For one, this is to further my own understanding of the text, but the bigger reason is my general "death of the author" stance. In trying to parse what MAY have been intended, I'm essentially trying to play with the idea of what could have been - roads not taken that might've made the story more compelling or cohesive in my opinion. If I wanted to further distance myself from Hussie's intent, I could phrase it as "what could have been" rather than "what the author may have intended", but in that sense I feel like I'm souring the conversation. We know SOMEONE wrote Homestuck, and whether that someone is a huge piece of shit or not shouldn't affect the reading of the text, right?
I'm personally still torn on that. On the one hand, there are some Choice Words I have when it comes to things like the classes system, or the hemospectrum, or the way the carapacsians and consorts are treated. On the other hand, systems like Prospit/Derse, the Aspects, and the general construction of the Medium are nothing to sneeze at. The craftsmanship that went into the worldbuilding is commendable, and there has to be a level of reconciliation between disliking the author and liking their work, or the way their mind constructs worlds. For my own sanity, I try not to dwell TOO much on everything Homestuck The Company has done and continues to do, but there's an almost guilty feeling in putting that aside to consume the original comic again. Maybe I'm just being overdramatic because this is all still fresh on my mind, but I can't be the only one that got genuinely angry seeing that website rerelease trailer, right? I can't be the only one trying to make heads or tails of genuinely reprehensible actions, and feeling unable to when the whole point of Homestuck is the chaos of it.
I feel like I need to figure out an approach, or a philosophy behind my approach, by the time I finish this reread. Not just for Homestuck, but for other franchises I've grown disillusioned with over time. So, the goals of this reread haven't changed, they've just been solidified and expanded on.
Post-break, post-bluesky, post-unofficial-collection-website-takedown.
(3480) The reveal that this is young Dave is interesting, and the Time symbol would make me assume it's his future self talking to him, if I didn't know any better.
(3481) God, such a breath of fresh air to see Aradia in a good mood. My previous assumption about Dave talking to his future self might not be incorrect, symbolically speaking. Just as he's talking to a more realised Time player, Aradia is talking to a less realised Time player, and as they're both servant classes with similar arcs it's not a surprise that they're narratively less foils to each other, and more extensions of each other.
(3485) I mentioned it before but it's interesting to me that ghosts have to be walked through what happened to them. Remarking that Aradia is a fairy actually reveals something interesting about troll symbology in Homestuck - in that, they're more guides than they are their own people. The story is about the human heroes, and trolls are the fae that guide them on their quests and in their deaths. The "caretakers" while the humans are the "heroes", it's interesting because the trolls still have a micro-mythology of their own within their session, but it's given less weight than the humans', because their mythologies are essentially supplamentary. They deepen our understandign of the humans and of human culture, and while the trolls themselves have rich inner lives, their story failed and the humans' is meant to perservere. I wonder what an inverse would look like, a troll session guided by a failed human session, because in that sense you'd have to reverse the human/fae symbology. Possibly deepening the idea that troll traditional folk tales are more akin to trickster stories, or stories of faustian bargains that get circamvented, fae style? Or would you lean into the idea that humans, unopposing figures without wings and horns, are more akin to spirits of a home than they are to trickster divinities, essentially "cleaning up" a respective session rather than guiding it through riddles like our trolls do? Why did I write an entire paragraph about this?
(3490) There is an almost cold precision in the way Aradia walks Dave through the grieving process, like she's done it before and will have to again. Dave is a stand-in for a lot of things in a lot of scenes, but I think this one, facilitated by a fellow server class, is a scene where we see Dave at his most naked. His first instinct is agression, then denial, then sense and logic. Once that fades, all he can think about are his friends, how he can still help and be of use, but it's not his place anymore. Whatever place he had is gone in death, and as much as that's a metaphor for canonicity in this scene, it's also a metaphor for growth I think. This isn't Dead Dave's story anymore, and it's time to move on. This memory is of another Dave, and while he can invision himself as that Dave, he doesn't want to. He's sick of being "that Dave", and wants to be something else. That's the purest moment of death as transformation that I can think of.
(3491) This is what I meant by doomed timelines being metaphors for non-canonicity. Here, Dave is essentially grappling with loss of plot, with loss of purpose in a story. He's suddenly thrust into a very ordinary moment, a new friend showing him around and asking if he wants to go to her house. He's back to being a kid after days spent playing the hero. It makes sense that his first instinct is to just go home and process, he still has to grieve after all. After that, he can go back to making friends, and making sense of his lack of purpose, and playing with Time like it's a game rather than his goal in life.
(3492) This is that thing I mentioned with Feferi and Aradia switching roles, Aradia intends to stay alive, while Feferi gleefully prepared for when she will wind up dead forever. It's interesting to juxtapose it to Tavros and Dave specifically, since they're another pair I've previously lamented lacked proper closure of what was set up for their relationship. The bubbles are the place where hitherto unexplored dynamics and possibilities go, and Aradia is the guardian that CHOSE to be alive on her own terms rather than a slave to the narrative. I just love the dream bubbles so much I'm sad they were destroyed by the ending for literally no reason.
(3493) Interesting that Vriska implies the "best way" to find the Tumor is through a cave system, but then says "winners cheat". As I speculated before the doomsday device that was within Dave's grasp in Jade's paraphanalia is likely what would allow players to dig for the Tumor, there'd be no reason to look for a cave in that case, but just as Dave's bullshit card reader seems like an asspull for a game that has the capcha mechanic, it's also possible the doomsday device is a sort of "patch-in" to help players if they're REALLY stuck without any other way to suicide their session.
(3494) It fucks me up that John and Vriska's genuine bond is juxtaposed to the suicide mission she's going out on. To me, it sounds like a kid who's doing something she hates, with people she doesn't want to be around, and her friend who can't talk her out of her self destructive habits and instead just listens, and hopes for the best. "It's not farewell" and "I'll text you before I leave" sounds really, mundanely tragic when ripped out of this context and into a less dramatic one. She IS going out to her death, because she's choosing to keep playing the hunter and killer. She "has to try" to kill Jack, despite all signs pointing to that being a bad idea (most of all Eridan sharing part of her plan even if it's flipped on its head), even though she spent a large chunk of their previous conversation lamenting that she isn't the killer her society needed her to be. She's lost, and in the dark, wandering towards her own death instead of sitting still and waiting for help. Understandable to a degree, but a palpably bad idea.
(3503) This passage (much like the Equius minigame before his death) is meant to prime us for the death of these two, but I'd like to point towards Roxy's drunkenness and DadEgbert's little narration blurb about immediatly removing her garments. It's played for jokes obviously but they're also in an apocalypse. Unlike the kids, they have developped modes of dealing with stress, even when hightened, and in this case it's getting stupid drunk and talking about shagging. In a most dignified fashion, of course. Again, unlike the kids, these two already have figured out that in the face of doom and apocalypse, turning to other people and being there with them, holding them close, whoever they are, is what's most important. And also letting go of all inhibitions I think.
(3505) Also interesting that their romantic moment is juxtaposed to Dirk's shades viewing them through the eyes of someone with murderous intent. A surface level read would be jealousy, my personal read is that Dirk's hatred of irrelevance is so palpable that seeing Mom Void find meaning in it isn't something he can let go.
(3507) It's very interesting, to me, that the first writing of Mindfang's we read is her sbusing one of her female slaves to piss off her very male kismesis. It's narratively juxtaposed aginst the way Vriska forced Tavros to kiss her while Kanaya watched. In both scenarios, the Serkets are being abusive emotionally (and in Aranea's case sexually) towards an unwilling partner, while a willing partner starts to question their devotion and the colour of the quadrant they feel. Kanaya realises she's redder for Vriska and hates herself for it, Dualscar realises his jealousy may be turning red, and he starts retreating into himself. Mindfang talks about how she doesn't care about the caste system, and how she dominates for the sake of itself, essentially. She's driven to manipulate and abuse because in her mind, that's the only way to survive the system she disagrees with. Perpetuating abuse for the sake of itself, for the sake of her temporary survival while she feigns disinterest in the colour of blood. She's trying to send a messege to Dualscar, and he's too preoccupied with his own feelings to register it. Fittingly enough, the messege is probably lost on Vriska too, because reading something like this since she was young seems genuinely damaging. Not only in the sense that it's given her fucked up ideas around the social order and how to perform it, but also because Mindfang's abuse is specifically physical with a female slave, while purely mental with the male Dualscar. This is because of the difference in blood colour, but to a young lesbian troll, it might just seem like "oh fuck, if I don't trick men into doing what I want, I might end up like that subjugated slave, I can't let that happen." Alternian society is fucked in a lot of ways, but Mindfang's perspective specifically is rife with contradictions and complexities that a young troll wouldn't be able to parse from actual codes of conduct and tradition.
(3509) Mindfang valued "the slave" in the Potential she held for a genuine bond with Mindfang, which of course could never actually be genuine because mind control was involved. And also because Mindfang didn't give a shit about her as a person. Dualscar had the slave assassinated for the sake of petty revenge. A parallel is being drawn to Eridan who killed Kanaya, but Kanaya and Vriska's bond never went red, it didn't go anywhere near it. Was it because Vriska was afraid Eridan would do something stupid out of jealousy? Or did Vriska found Kanaya's care to be unsatisfying to her masochistic urges? Much to think about.
(3510) Another nod to Mindfang's opposition to the blood caste system being rooted in domination rather than liberation. It's not really about the bounty, or the law, or the fact that Dualscar is a shithead, it's about the fact that Mindfang wants to keep the control she has over the people around her.
(3513) Took me a few reads to realise, but I think the bottom line is, Dualscar's harbouring of red feelings towards a Fuschia blood is considered traitorous by design, so just as he's looking to outside help to settle his score, Mindfang could easily tattle on his intentions to someone else and get him killed. Weird.
(3514) Dualscar dies and his death is fuel for the Vast Honk (aka the arrival of Lord English), seems fitting for a Bard of Hope. But there's also a hint in this bit of the text that Dualscar is a privateer, just as I suspected, rather than a Pirate like Mindfang is. In this regard, I think it's possible he was considered "low" among the fishy royalty as he took on the mantle of a pirate in the name of the queen, rather than being a true aristocrat. If that's the case, that might be why Mindfang found him so "interesting" in the first place, his presence on her battlefield was odd and out-of-caste thinking.
(3517) Mindfang isn't considered a threat to the Highbloods, far from it. They comission a "neophyte" (new) legislator to hunt her down, essentially assuring her failure in the matter, and I think they did so because Mindfang upholds social order rather than truly opposing it. As long as you don't come for OUR heads, you're allowed to take as many as you want, we rule by fear after all.
(3518) Interesting bit of MISinterpretation from Mindfang, she not only misunderstands Redglare as not a threat, but she also falls into the trap of assuming the highbloods want her alive on HER terms (her adventures being fun) rather than on theirs (her violence is benificial to them). Redglare, though, seems to have a genuine conviction for justice.
(3519) Mindfang's oracle is the cue ball, the same one that eventually blows up Vriska's eye coutesy of Terezi's meddling. Not only is Redglare's impact on Mindfang forshadowed, it's so grand in scale that it's Generational. The bitemark on Terezi is also really good foreshadowing for the fact that Terezi essentially has to be reborn the way Kanaya was, and that it's precisely Kanaya who will fuck up the going-ons of the remaining Highbloods, because she is not going to be anybody's slave, or victim. She's not a nobody. She is Kanaya Maryam and it's time for her to Fuck Shit Up.
(3524) Her immediate targetting of Gamzee tells me she saw him as the biggest threat here, which fuels my Aspect reading of Rage and Space being opposed.
(3526) Vriska is dumbfounded by this because she genuinely failed to consider that Kanaya is a whole person who can do her own thing even if it doesn't fit into Vriska's mythology of all her "friends".
(3528/3529) Arguably the most satisfying panels in the comic.
(3532) Kanaya's targetting of Eridan is decidedly more personal than of the other highbloods. She punched Vriska in the face for personal reasons, and kicked Gamzee in the nuts similarly, but Eridan? She BROKE the symbol of their friendship and his power (over her), but her rage here isn't the same as when she first tried attacking him. It's calculated, and petty, and by god is it satisfying.
(3536) Just as I mentioned before, Eridan became the dark mage and therefore couldn't be the one to oppose Rose's darkness. Rather, it's Kanaya herself who now embodies the light and danger she was so attracted to. She is the rainbow drinker that will conquer the darkness of Rose and bask in her true light. I'm getting a little over the top with these I know but let me have this.
(3537) rip bozo you had it comin lmao
(3539) Ok I am DEFINITELY reading too much into the symbolism here but, as Kanaya wasn't the one who killed Equius, wearing his shades has to have a different symbolic meaning, right? I posit that her single most decisive act of pure selfish agency, to Kanaya, can only be understood as a "masculine" outburst of violence, before she goes back to her feminine passivity and lipstick and somesuch. Since I don't think she ditches the shades until much later on, I think she holds onto this feeling of STRENGTH for the sake of herself and honestly? We love that for her.
(3544) TOO LITTLE TOO LATE VRISKERS THAT SHIP HAS SAILED AND SUNK. YOU DISASTER LESBIAN. YOU ONLY LIKE KANAYA WHEN SHE MURDERS YOUR EX well ok that part's valid. But on a serious note, the thing I said about the "sexual abuse of a slave woman" passage in Mindfang's book leaving a mark on Vriska might actually be true. She only lets herself feel something red for Kanaya when it's undeniable that she's not going to die, and that Vriska can lose without being victimized.
(3546) Huh. Interesting that the narration calls dad and mom "a family" when I genuinely read them as just friends who gave into temptation at the end of the world. I dunno man I think some of this heteronormativity is baked into Homestuck and isn't always meant to be dismantled by the reader. But I'm gonna do it anyway!
(3548) Jack claims a trophy off of each of the guardians, EXCEPT for grandpa. On the one hand, it could be read as grandpa already being an absent figure, and therefore wearing a piece of him wouldn't aid in the symbolism of Jack Noir being the destroyer of all things that gave the kids safety. On the OTHER hand, Jack is more often than not an accidental stand-in for Lord English himself, in antagonism and in plans. For this, I posit: he has no item of grandpa Harley's, because Jake is the one fated to defeat that which Jack symbolises, and while Jake himself has plenty of Caliborn-themed items and symbols, there's nothing that's Intrinsically Jake that carried over to Grandpa that can be taken for that reason. The fedora is Jane's, the Scarf is Roxy's, the shades are Dirk's, and Cal sits idly in his hand as a symbol for the one who's already here. But no Jake in sight.
(3551) MORE FUEL FOR THE FODDER THAT JACK REPRESENTS CALIBORN, OR AT LEAST ACTS AS HIS UNWILLING AGENT.
(3554) It's interesting that, similarly to how Bec can only speak in the language of the Green Sun, even when trying to aid Jade, Jack seems to have no way of properly controlling his own urges and impulses. His "omniscience" is more a burden than anything else, and the way the Queens treat the rings seems to facilitate that reading. In claiming divinity, you become a symbol rather than a person who can fully and freely control their actions and thoughts.
(3557) Even with how bleak everything is, Bec's sacrifice was not in vain, as his genuine love for Jade lives on to this day. I just. I get a little emotional thinking about a girl who's dog was so thuroughly her best friend and only companion that THAT bond and love between them is inadvertantly what saves the world.
(3559) Another fascinating glimpse into the world of the carapascians and consorts. High ranking agents don't even seem to care about the players as much as they care about their mundane lives, and honestly I can't blame them. The players are figures of myth that are annoyances more than anything else. There's an entire war going on on Skaia and these idiots think it's all about them. They don't seem to (or maybe aren't capable of) grasp(ing) how much of a threat the players really are. After all, if they COULD know, chances are no dersite player would have a living dream self.
(3562) Jack's assault on the session being fuelled by pure undiluted boredom is, in my opinion, a very good commentary on the aspect of Rage itself. Dissatisfaction with life that fuels destruction of unbearable proportions, and in this case it can also be seen as a Destructive Approach to analysing fiction. Methodically and brutally likking everything out of boredom is a pretty apt way to describe nitpicking something just because you didn't find it entertaining. I've certainly done that before.
(3569) I truly adore that Aradia found a way to subvert her doom. She won't die, and she WILL help her friends. She's a wonderful character in that her triumph isn't as narrative-shaking as it is personally satisfying. I wonder if that's an aspect of time, or if that's an aspect of servant classes? That they can't find true fulfillment within narrative and have to subvert and find life outside of it. I think it's probably a time thing, but we'll see when Dave god-tiers.
(3580) This panel, this pose and composition, just like it did with Jade represents "going home". With her lusus by her side, she's happily excavating and living life. She isn't AS happy as she will be later on post-god-tier, but she's still happy. She's more of a child, she's more of a free person unburdened by the doom that waits for everyone.
(3584) The frog temple was underground???
(3586) Finding the temple, the remains of Cal and of Herself, are all symbols of the doom she will endure. The session, the demon(s), and her own inescapable fate as a servant. She "went home" in a more tragic way than Jade did, because she found discomfort and disorder, while Jade found reconciliation and progress.
(3589) Ow My Heart Hurts
(3591) Despite also being a psychic, Aradia was always more in-tune with death, even in death. Alpha Aradia's main concearn right now seems to be waking up "dormant" ghosts and reminding them of what happened and who they are. I'd also like to comment a bit on the lore from the previous page, in that Aradia visited or was interested in Kanaya's ruins and Sollux was the one helping her decypher its mysteries. It's just a neat bit of worldbuilding (relationship building?) for the trolls. I wonder if that's how Kanaya met Aradia, and by extension Sollux, and by extension Karkat? Was Aradia inedvertantly the one to connect their whole group and start their session, or is Karkat partly responsible for the connection part? And what the FUCK is written in the ruins?????
(3592) I practically didn't even see Jade there LMAO, also once again I like the bubbles being an avenue to just let the kids act normal for once. Roboradia and Sollux are both relieved, they're "doomed" by the narrative but free as people. They don't have to fret, they can just exist.
(3596) I don't know how to feel about the word "groomed for" being used in the context for a metamorphosis that was decidedly empowering and necessary for Kanaya. The rest of the conversation is interesting though, if I rememebr correctly this is about the genetic sequencing right? We'll see...
(3597) So, this is happening for Sollux while Karkat was dragging him around, for Kanaya while she was turning into a vampire, for Jade after she entered the medium, and for Aradia right after she ascended. This is kind of complicated BUT Kanaya and Sollux at the very least seem to be in the same timeframe. Kanaya is also partially glowing so that's neat. It's very possible she wasn't aware of the "metamorphosis" while it was happening.
(3598) Kanaya repaired the Cal doll that Jack stole from Dirk (further showing the Space aspect's animosity is towards Rage rather than it's opposite of Time, even when the embodyment of Time is the enemy), who himself got the puppet from the meteor that fell with baby Dave, who actually got it from the Derse planet of their session. The doll seems to originate in Dave's subconscious, fitting as he's the only human time player, and also one of the subjects of Caliborn's eventual anime fascination. There's also something to be said about how right after Cal is repaired, the sequence that follows is the one that created Doc Scratch.
(3601) Huh! God tier Aradia can revert to Ghost Aradia form from before the session. Can anyone who enters the dream bubbles physically control their physical form?
(3602) The writing is genuinely poetic in this sequence. You can tell it is because I don't know what "less an arm and an eye" means in this context.
(3604) Interesting that Vriska's part of the code has three symbols while Terezi's has five. Aradia describes the scales as tipped, but I'd wager to guess that it's more about how they complete each other, even when one takes and the other loses.
(3605) Each piece of the code was written in the rule books. Also, on the previous page, god-tier Vriska showed up. I wonder if she's still alive here? If she's in the same timeframe as Kanaya and Sollux she must be, but who knows at this point. Also, I would be remiss not to mention Terezi crying as she writes her code. All four of them wrote it while in some kind of mourning, of themselves mostly, so I wonder if she wrote this after disarming Vriska, or after she first lost her own sight? I'm leaning towards the ladder.
(3606) Aradia I'm happy for you but the little interaction between Kanaya and Terezi is really funny. Terezi isn't in the same timeframe as Kanaya is, therefore it's possible that Vriska isn't, either. Seeing Terezi's bitemarks might be, paradoxically, what gives Kanaya the idea to try and start drinking blood. Also why is Jade here.
(3607) Ignoring that this is an additional 6 symbols rather than 8 because the k's are repeated, it's interesting that Gamzee's part of the code only came to be in a doomed session, further lending credence to my theory that doomed timelines are non-canon, the place where rage festers best.
(3608) The framing of this sequence makes me think this isn't just a timeline where Gamzee went insane, it's specifically a timeline where his rampage began because Terezi and Karkat became romantically involved, therefore leaving less time for Karkat to properly befriend and become moirails with Gamzee, pacifying him for a good long while. In a weird fucked up way, Gamzee is acting as an almost "red auspistice" for Karkat and Terezi, keeping them both close to himself in order to prevent them from being with each other, and when they fall out of that pattern, he kills them both. It's also not lost on me that this is the dream vision that will haunt Terezi from now on, and is explicitly what she envisions before going on to kill Vriska to prevent it. It's interesting, to me, that Aradia here spells out that Gamzee went insane, and yet Terezi seems to have enternalized none of it the way Kanaya must have. I wonder why?
(3610) I like the detail that the book is written in every colour of blood except for Aradia's, because Gamzee killed everyone but her.
(3611) The codes being written on walls is purely symbolic, the books are really what matters. Not only because they hold the full genome sequencing, but also because the books being stolen and used to create the first guardian is sort of indicative of the childrens' personal mythologies influencing the session they partake in. It seems to be Derse agents specifically who create a first guardian, likely because the guardians are a threat to the players, even if Bec ended up being a friend. 2/3 of the First Gurardians we know ended up being much more of a nuisance and a threat than a help to their given players, and it makes me wonder about the first guardian of the alpha trolls' session. Did they encounter it at all? Was the genome sequenced from 4 dersite players and 1 prospit player instead? If so I'm willing to bet that singular prospit player was Aranea. Or maybe Kankri? Probably more likely Kankri, as it's either a Vantas or a Myriam that contributed to the code (if we run with the idea that it has to be a different bloodline as well as a different planet, like how it was with the kids, Rose vs Jake). Anyway, what I meant to say was, while Skaia's systems can be head-spinningly cyclical, the players' personal mythologies are literally written into the DNA of their session, which is really fun and also weird and creepy.
(3612) Bec was made with only one imprint, right? Why was Doc Scratch made with two? It can't be the size of the session, it might be because both dersite and prospitian kids gave codes for the genome, or at least I assume that's why it is.
(3615) Oh shit, are we finally starting the Doc Scratch arc? Or is that for later?
(3618) And so the intermission pays off! We finally continue where the midnight crew left off, and what a continuation it is! I find it interesting that Jack and Scratch are both given vague symbolisms of Lord English, and in trying to find him Jack has accidentally become a symbol of him. If I were to further interpret this, I think the clash between Jack and Scratch is symbolic of Caliborn's own impatience with his mission. A part of Caliborn yearns for ruthless destruction while the other is aware that he needs to be calculated and act like the god he intends to be. There is an order and refinement with which Caliborn conquered his session, and I doubt the kind of impatience and brutality Jack embodies was ALL he had in his arsenal to do so.
(3619) I hate to say it but Scratch's narration is actually really entertaining because it reminds me of the narration of the Narrator from The Stanley Parable, which Scratch is essentially a superpowered version of.
(3621) Their dynamic is so funny actually?
(3626) Once again Rose's little cult is both cute and worrying. "You'll get back to [your friends] later" is so tragic knowing what's about to happen.
(3627) This entire converstion is actually a very good thesis on the aspect of Light. Relevance, truth, and luck. Doc Scratch is essentially an embodyment of it, hence his tanting of Vriska and his reaching out to Rose. She regards him with bemusement, but when he starts talking like a creep, she changes her mind. It's an "I wish I never learned that" moment for her. However, Doc Scratch is technically correct. All women are young from his perspective, but the fact that he keeps being interested in talking to 13 year old girls specifically IS REALLY FUCKING WEIRD. It's another extension of Caliborn and his misogyny, specifically how his demeaning of women is a power grab and how he's mentally stuck as a teenager even when he's an unkillable demon. Doc Scratch though, in this instance, is light itself, pure truth, so he doesn't speak in falsehoods but his opinions, by virtue of being opinions, cannot be falsehoods. Light is a contracting aspect, and in narrowing his worldview, Scratch has decided on one interpretation of his actions that he regards as the pure truth and nothing but, because he defines himself as someone who never tells lies. To change, in a way, is to have lied in the past. He can't allow himself this, because time is no agent to him. Furthermore, it explains why Rose "regresses" from having woken up on her dream planet. Much like Scratch, she's narrowed her view of herself and her situation, and decided there's only one thing she can concievably do - self-sacrifice.
(3628) I'm assuming something of Echidna's always has to be used to form a scratch. This also makes me wonder if void session without a time or space player, or both, can even perform a scratch. Are void sessions just doomed worse than all others?
(3629) With how heavily Scratch is related to The Scratch, it's making me wonder for how long the idea of the Scratch as a concept has been woven into Homestuck's narrative. The puppets in Jake's foyer, Bro beginning the scratch process, Roxy doing Roxy shit through Skaianet... How long ago were the Alpha Kids planned? How much of their Session was planned?
(3630) "One to destroy Jack's power source and defend all of existence, and another to ensure our cosmic progeny at the price of oblivion."
I can't help but read these two "suicide missions" as two types of heteronormative doom. Protector and weapon at the cost of bodily autonamy, and birther of a system at the price of personal oblivion. This is making me think each of the kids are queer in one form or another that Prevents them from properly fulfilling these roles - Jack will not be defeated by destroying his power, nor will the kids die for the sake of progeny. If I continue my belief in the June reading, then I have to account for what could make Jade and Dave queer to the point of being unable to fulfill typical gender roles. For Dave it's easy, he's gay like Rose is, but there hasn't been too much hinting of it up until now, though that could be a consequence of both him and John not having anyone they HAD real romantic feelings for until all the Bullshit. Jade, tohugh, is harder to pin down. Earlier I described her (in contrast to Kanaya) as happily fulfilling her "motherly" role to the session with her science and enginuity. The exact phrase I used being "she'd happily grow kids in test tubes like she grows flowers in pots", and I think Jade might be infertile in that cosmic sense. She doesn't "give birth" the way Echidna does, but she still creates life and new beginnings. My instinct is to lean into the transfemanine reading, because it would provide a nice parallel to the way her and John's queernesses "match" like Dave and Rose's do, but as my theory around their ectobiology goes, I don't think she can have a Y chromasome if John also has one. Then again, biological sex is weird and sometimes doesn't actually reflect chromasomes... I'll look into that, because I don't think and isolated Jade on an island who never really had a parental figure would be at all barred from being transfemanine from day one.
(3631) Rose's role of Seer of Light is emphasised in this page, alongside a bit of groundwork laying out the rules surrounding Lord English. Every time I try to write his name I misspell it in a new way before correcting it. Anyway. Rose's role is that of a "fortune teller", someone who knows truth and divinations by virtue of them existing, her vision can be focused and narrow and reveal pressing answers at the cost of losing sight of the peripherals. Just as she ignored the literal cue ball while talking to Scratch. I'm starting to think her descriptor of "the big picture" from a previous conversation with Dave was innacurate. I think that SHE thinks she has the bigger picture, when in reality her aspect and her title force her to follow a single thread, no matter how much the tapestry it weaves ends up being expansive. I'd hazard to compare her to Jade, actually, as Jade seems to be much more beholdent to a "bigger picture" while Rose keeps herself to the nitty gritty of a given task. I think Witches, much like Seers, CAN be oracles, and often are, but their divinations are more... vibes based, for lack of a better term. It's about constructing the Shape of an image, rather than it's details, if that makes sense. I am a lot like Rose, I get hung up on a LOT of details, as is obvious...
(3632) Continuation of what I was talking about, Rose is irritated by leading questions because instead of giving information, they force her to zoom out and try to gather it herself. There's also something interesting about how Terezi is a blind prophet, but Rose's answer to Scratch's question is forced to be "with her eyes". He has, indeed, groomed Rose, and Kanaya, and Eridan, to be puppets and perfect embodyments of their roles. With Kanaya and Eridan there's a clear motive to help Lord English, but with Rose there seems to be more of an investment in just... Destruction for the sake of itself. By making her go on this more violent path, he's ensuring that she is more likely to blow up the green sun by her own volition, or at least that's what he assumes. Just like he assumes that Kanaya becoming vampyric will lend itself useful to his grand sceme rather than destructive to it. It's just mind games with these people.
(3635) Just as Vriska's power is literal luck stealing, Rose's power is literal sight of the truth. It's interesting that the prompts are "Rose: Ask" and "Rose: Answer", as it seems like she answers her own question. Is the cue ball as an instrument purely accidental? Is it more about Rose tapping into an "inner eye" of sorts, letting her glimpse the truth she already knew? Much to think about.
(3636) A literal light in Rose's eye that's going to be snuffed out. I presume the symbol isn't just for that, though. Do seers have a knack for realising their full potential without god tier?
(3638) Rose's mourning is so heartbreaking. She completely loses composure and starts spewing random thoughts without the grace she usually does. Jade comments on her complicated relationship with Roxy, and Rose describes her interpretation. Rose felt Guilty. She thought she was holding her mother back from her true potential, a young girl seeing a woman resigned to the sole role of mother and nothing else, and feeling responsible for her lack of whimsy. All along, that whimsy wasn't lost, it was Rose's cynicism that wouldn't let her see it, and now that guilt is worse. Guilt that makes her think she should've saved her mom. Guilt that makes her think she shouldn't survive the session if her mother doesn't. Guilt that's plunging her deeper into darkness. Jade and Scratch here are acting as vessels for light, Jade is Light in the sense of Hope, while Scratch is Light in the sense of Focus. Rose's lowest point is discarding light entirely, and durning to darkness for comfort and purpose. Darkness, just like the aspect of Void embodies, the aspect of her mother.
(3639) Further evidence, to me, that the cue ball is an ordinary vessel. The answer was within Rose all along. And the answer is that it doesn't matter if the horrorterrors are evil. Grief has consumed her. Revenge is all that matters.
(3641) I can't pin down why this panel fucks me up so much. The way Kanaya mourns losing sight of Rose, the way Vriska mourns losing her glasses, like Kanaya needs Rose the way Vriska needs visual aid? Is it the way a Seer of Light's loss is juxtaposed to a failing Thief of Light? Is it the way that, no matter how much Kanaya glows herself, she's always attracted to sources of light, and losing Rose is still something to mourn, even in her victory? She saved herself, but couldn't save her. Is it just the way Equius' shades force stoicism on Kanaya's grief? She wears a blank expression because there's no one left to confide in. Not her moirail, not Rose, not Karkat, not Eridan. It's just a lot. In one kind of shitpost-y image.
(3646) Single focus, single goal. Kill Jack and Die trying.
(3658) Every time I read something sbahj-esque I feel like I glimpse into a fever dream.
(3661) Derse is a Waxing Crescent, Prospit is a Waning Crescent. As both kid PJs feature Waxing Crescents, I feel this is intentional, because the Waxing crescent represents a moon that is slowly being consumed by light, while Waning is one that is being consumed by shadow. Prospit is under threat, and so is Derse, and the players are the agents by which light is allowed to spread, they themselves must take the hero's path. Also yeah I call pullshit there's no cave entrances here Vriska lied!!!
(3664) The fact that there's already a clock in the tumor never fails to be chilling. It also adds fuel to the fire of my hypothesis that each session has a tumor because destroying the medium is a necessary step in the process, whether a new universe is created or not. THOUGH, since Scratch talked about the humans' session having a cancer, the Tumor could be the physical embodyment of that. He ALSO said the session that comes after theirs would bear fruit though, so I have reason to believe some of his information is innacurate by obfuscation/implication.
(3669) The bunny timeline shenanigains are played for laughs but I once again have to point out how the whole present thing changing with time is a physical representation of the love and friendship the kids have for each other, and how it can both be weaponized and comforting, but most of all always built on top of itself to further expand it. I forget what happens to the bunny after Cascade though.
(3675) I wonder how soon in Homestuck theorizing did people begin to piece together what would happen with the scratch universe? Because this is terribly on the nose. Also the needle the size of a skyscraper thing... is accidental divination a thing? Is that something Hope players do?
(3678) ZILLYHOO WEAPON!!! the first(?) of its kind. Also love that DC is just,,, part of this little squad now. Man forgot what he was doing.
(3679) Also if we want to talk about queer re-interpretations, the most powerful weapons in Sburb are rainbow themed. Also I need to point out, a friend of mine pointed out that the avatar for zillyhoo seems rage-ish, in the sense that its nonsensical and game breaking - the assumption being that the pink smiley face is actually in reference to a Denizen of Rage, which is a theory I've taken wholesale because it's cool as fuck and kind of fits the themes of Rage being tied to Clownery in Homestuck.
(3681) WAIT SO WHERE THE FUCK DOES THE GIANT NEEDLE COME IN??? also, yeah, uh, this whole thing is vaguely rage-ish to me so I'm doubling down on my zillyhoo/rage connection.
(3690) JOHNS ANTICS ARE ALWAYS SO FUNNY!!! I'm starting to think a core part of the Heir experiance is tomfoolery and being kind of a baffoon.
(3695)For the sake of my sanity, and my sleep, this will be the last bit of Homestuck I read before going to bed. Which is great because I love this game and everything it's about, so I will have a lot to say and a lot of procrastinating to do before I go to sleep!!
Rose doesn't even comment on her mother's corpse. She's gone cold in rage and is only thinking about revenge. She doesn't even bat an eye at the dead carapascians, which, yeah, are less pressing but still shocking, aren't they? I also find it remarkable that Rose just Takes the trophies, Bro's shades, her mother's scarf, without further comment...
The Skaia castle is massive, and knowing there's a lot of them all around the battlefield makes me wonder how much time players are MEANT to spend on skaia alone once they reach god tier... There's books here about the frog that the kids might genuinely find useful if their journey WAS the linear one invisioned by Skaia. I'd also like to once again comment on the amount of agency the chess people have, and how they ARE fully fledged people that Rose remarks things about or assumes and projects based on their expressions. It's an interesting dynamic where she's meant to be a hero, but doesn't act like one, therefore isn't percieved as one, and WOULD be able to glimpse into their lives if she weren't preoccupied with her own bloodlust.
Rose has multiple near misses with Jack, and it's interesting that he inedvertantly leads her to the curtains room. The curtains being Red - Red - Red - Red - Blue & Red. A metaphor for the Acts that have already happened/are happening, it seems. Wait why is there a scratch disc in a random Skaia Castle? Can the scratch be performed here too? Is that a feature in all castles? Is the scratch device ONLY on Dave's planet, or can it show up in other places? Ough. The next curtains are opened, they are Green - Green - Green - Green - Green - unopened Green. I can't map these onto future acts properly, that's probably not what they're meant to be anyway.
JOHN SHOWS UP: Rose and John being completely unable to communicate feels like they're stuck in two different phases of grief, Denial and Anger. John isn't even particularly trying to cheer Rose up, just understand her, and he can't and she's weirding him out.
The golden room dedicated to the Queen and King statue feels like another bit of heteronormitivity, especially with the way it compares JohnRose to the king and queen. It's very odd, especially since Rose is the farthest thing from a Queen of light right now. Then again, John isn't exaclty a "king" of light, either... Rose specifically refuses to go the way John came from, and WANTS to take him to see their parents. She's going to communicate one way or another I guess...
FINALLY John comments on the dead carapascians, but it doesn't last long. HOWEVER it results in him being able to understand Rose a little better. Which, in this case, means he's slowly leaving the denial phase. Which is sad and tragic, but also I can't help but love Rose and John's dynamic even in these circamstances....
The fact Jack leaves Jade's tapestry alone never fails to give me chills. A remourseless murderer, and a best friend...
Again with the weird heteronormitivity!! John brings up the marriege thing during what's otherwise a suspenseful climb up to a murder scene, and he says it casually as if he's just trying to... bring up the topic? It's strange, since Rose also seems to regard it as odd. This flash is giving me proto-snowgrave vibes, where there's heteronormative overtones placed on friends who are grieving lost families during a massacre that shouldn't have affected them, technically. Difference being that the heteronormitivity here is less outright villainous, but they still seem to be pushed towards each other by their narrative, the thing preventing them from being "married" legally speaking was their parents being together, and now they're dead, so marriege is technically not off the table! I feel really weird writing this while Black Rose/Green Sun plays in the background becuase it's the perfect encalpsulation of what kind of fucked headpsace Rose is in right now.
"They wait for he who would extinguish candles whilst fanning a fire. They wait for she who would thaw solid flesh and resolve it into a dew. They wait for she who would breed lilacs out of the dead land. They wait for the one who would drop it like it's hot whilst the pimp's in the crib."
"This is a book on theoretical physics, and complex spatial geometrics based on the hypothetical addition of orbs to the queen's ring. The shapes in the diagrams are very complex. This sort of nonsense is regarded as crackpottery at best. Why would the queen ever wear more than four orbs? Four towers, four orbs, four heroes; this is a sacred truth." "It is a holy parchment. Maimed Clown. Undead Cat. Impaled Crow. Omnipotent Dog. These four shall be held in reverence for the eternity they serve to cut short."
I'd love to analyze these excerpts but it's gonna have to wait.
(3696) Jack is an unbeatable foe. Coming here was a suicide mission. As much as Rose empathises with John, her rage prevents her from being the friend he needs, as he succumbs to anger alongside her, but unlike her, he was killed in an instant. John's death, to Rose, can't be just another body on the pile. That was a dear friend, a leader, a hopeful cry into the heavens that maybe the suffering has meaning if we enjoy the adventure that led us to it. His loss is a complete loss of care for anything alive for Rose, all she cares about now is blood and revenge.
(3698) We don't get any direct dialogue of John mourning his father, which means Dave and Rose's mourning processes are essentially set up to be parallelled. Where Rose immediatly flies into an uncontrollable rage, Dave sits back. He wants to be alone, and he wants to feel like shit. It's oddly emotionally aware of him, because the moment someone else shows up he starts falling into old habits, cracking ironic jokes and talking about cock. This is the first(?) time it's really pointed out as being odd, and it's specifically juxtaposed to what Bro taught Dave. The kind of masculinity Dave was taught isn't the kind he embodies, and it's eating him alive. He doesn't think he's worth a hero title because, to him, what makes him who he really is is worthless (being gay, taking care of the timeline), but what makes Bro and John heroes seems to be that percieved masculinity that Dave LACKS. In essential terms, Dave's self loathing stems from him fearing he LACKS what makes other men around him good and normal and worthy of being heroes, while what he HAS is worthless and undignified. I can see how people could read that in a transfemanine way, but I think in this case specifically it's more tied to the abuse Dave's been enduring his whole life. He even specifically states that he didn't love Bro, and he seems to mean it, meanwhile Rose never SAYS she loved her mom, but in the way she talks about her and mourns her and grieves it's obvious she very deeply did. Dave feels perpetually inadequate, no matter how integral he is to the session or how admirable he is to his friends, because he was TAUGHT to FEIGN confidence while constantly being undermined, terrified and beaten. Like, all of this and I didn't even mention that Bro is gay too. Dave never knew, and he never COULD have known, because Dirk taught him to mask the same way he always masked. He taught Dave survival skills in the brutal ways that he had to learn them, perpetuating a generational cycle that's now left Dave directionless and insecure.
(3699) Maybe unimportant, but his run is a visual callback to Kanaya's. Is Dave trying to get petty, personal revenge for his abuse?
(3703) Dave seems to be lamenting the fact that no-one else is angry. While this is kind of funny on account of Rose's murder spree, he isn't incorrect in his assesment, metaphorically. Because Dave isn't really mad at Jack, the true anger he's feeling comes from the fact that even in death, he can't break his Bro's shitty sword. He can't get a one-up on the guy, even when he isn't alive anymore. And it fucks with Dave, because it seems their hierarchichal abusive structure survived death, the one thing Dave has/will master. And in it not dying, the abuse hasn't died, it's still with Dave, so his instinct is to lash out and take the anger out on someone else. First partly on Terezi, then he identifies Jack as the real target of his ire. Because Jack represents taking away everything the kids thought was sacred and safe. But, again, Dave never had that safety - the way he describes the rest of the humans reveals their family situations. John is "too nice", he wasn't abused; Rose is "scheming", reading too much into her mother's gestures and ruminating; and Jade is "a liability", it'd be a bigger problem if she TRIED to do something, because Grandpa Harley was an absent kind of abusive, rather than physically abusive, and trying to step up to him and get angry with him would only wound Jade more, because there's technically nothing THERE to be angry with, the man is already dead. Dave, though, feels angry with his Bro, and feels alone in that anger, because none of his friends were abused the way he was.
(3705) In the same way WV acts as a pseudo-father figure to John in the sense that he's an inner voice (an inner parent voice?), AR is Dave's inner voice too, just less. familial. Less familiER. Instead he's a voice that's nudging Dave towards realising his Bro wasn't a hero, "this is illegal, and he was a criminal" in the sense that "he did bad things, and he was a bad person".
(3707) It's interesting that Dave's the least equipped to recognise a foreign voice in his head, just like from a character perspective. He's already awake on Derse, but doesn't have a great hold on his waking mind the way he has on his sleeping mind. There's something to be said there about how your private life can be all figured out but the moment you Exist in a World you get confused and disoriented with it all.
(3709) I think I'm starting to get it, blowing up the terminals and their holding cells is a ritual of sorts. And I just now noticed that the inside of the Dog ship is Green, when the inside of the Bottle Cap ship was Purple. It's all tied to the server/client stuff but I also think it's worth wondering why it's set up that way. Maybe it doesn't really matter. Blowing up all the ships is a "cristening" of the universe, just as the kids' rituals christened them INTO a new universe, finally bringing it into existance as a real place. Partaking in a ritual to welcome a new beginning.
(3710) We're now switchin to Terezi's feelings of inadiquacy and I'm fascinated where this will go.
(3711) Terezi suspects Eridan, what with the fishy line, and stands over Nepeta's corpse the way Dave stood over Bro's. Is there another parallel here? Perhaps Terezi feeling her own skills as a friend are lacking, when Nepeta was able to effortlessly subdue a highblood of Equius' strength with pure cunning?
(3712) This conversation is now parallelling the one Vriska and John had. Of course, Terezi and Dave's version of being emotionally vulnerable with each other is still steeped in jabs and quippy remarks, rather than a full mask-off. I don't think either of them are capable of that. Terezi turns her back to the capricorn creature, ignoring the signs pointing to Gamzee's guilty verdict because she's too preoccupied by the thought of Vriska - of her own personal shortcomings. She isn't a killer, and she thinks there's something wrong with being unable to just stoicism her way into being one. She's worked her whole life towards being a legislasher or whatever, but now feels as if it's a job unfitting of someone unable to get her hands dirty. She's stuck in the past, both with Vriska, and with the role lawyers USED to have on alternia. "They didn't used to spend all their time in offices, they used to be hunters. I thought I would grow out of my stuffy mind games and really get out there. But I can't."
There's also a neat bit of symbolism to Terezi's blindness to the giant capricorn monster. On the one hand, when at her best, Terezi is "The Blind Prophet", perfectly embodying the aspect of mind that empowers her and she's able to be terrifyingly observant and clairvoyant through it, even when genuinely sightless. On the OTHER hand, being so reliant on her mind aspect is exactly what leaves her vulnerabe and (for lack of a better term) blind to her surroundings. She's blinded by emotion and her obsession with Vriska, and is unable to properly rely on her senses to scope out Gamzee. The clown's a killer who works in the shadows, he SHOULD be the perfect criminal for Terezi to catch, by relying on sounds and smells, but she's unable to because of her overwhelming guilt about Vriska. It's all the poor girl can think about, and despite all the evidance leading towards Gamzee, she just turns away from it and walks away, lamenting to Dave how she feels there's something wrong with her. The thing that's wrong is her plan to kill Vriska, but she can't tell, because she's failing to percieve the clown in the room.
(3713) I also find it FASCINATING that Dave points out the human/troll discrepancy in the same conversation that Dave makes a reference to Terezi's whole a-lucky thing. Out of the main trolls, Kanaya and Terezi always seemed the least prepared for human conversations, while Karkat and Vriska would've undoubtedly been happier as humans. This conversation makes me think, though, maybe Terezi and Kanay would've been happier when human, too. If only because the pressures plaguing them would be different and less... murderous. Also I think there's a miscoloured pixel or two under Terezi's hands in her walkie sprites.
(3714) Resident evil reference? And we're finally getting the disc thing?
(3717) Ah, we're getting a little meta with it about controlling Terezi. Can't really complain. The way the narration says "sweet precious Gamzee" makes me think Terezi might've had the hots for him for a while? It'd explain why he's not even on the suspect list even when shit hits the fan. The fact Gamzee ransacked Mindfang's journal though is interesting. I'm sure Vriska only ever took her eyes off of it for a second, but that's enough for the clown man I suppose.
(3718) Gamzee going out of his way to taunt and fuck with Terezi tells me he percieves her as more of a threat than she percieves him as. It might be him trying to stoke a rivalry/black romance between them, or maybe he's just planning to be extra mean when trying to kill her, just like he was with Equius. This music is NOT appropriate for the shit I'm writing...
(3719) The narration calls out how the room isn't canon, but Gamzee made it canon!!! That's some weird rage shit, for sure.
(3724) This is exactly what I'm talking about!!! Terezi's blind to her surroundings even when AWARE of them, because of her obsession with Vriska!!! I'm starting to think Gamzee's only leaving "Vriska" clues for the sake of trying to stoke that rivalry I mentioned earlier, but Terezi is absolutely not reading the signs and is just thinking about Vriska. God.
(3725) Woah hearing the original Midnight Crew is throwing me off...
(3730) I forgot the scratch was foreshadowed by Terezi playing with records of all things...
(3735) I think through reminiscing about "the good old days" Terezi is both hyping herself up for the murder, but also accidentally hightening the fallout of guilt that will follow. Maybe THAT was Gamzee's plan all along? Who knows at this point...
(3737) ^ Doubling down on what I said above, she's embracing the doll like an old friend, and just like I assumed before, she uses the dolls as a crutch when she can't control real people. She compliments the dragon's loyalty while diminishing Vriska's, therefore the scalemate ACTS as her ideal scourge sister that she lost when Vriska stopped playing nice, by Terezi's standards. There's also something to be said about Gamzee replacing the doll with Cal instead. Literally he's preventing Terezi from feeling happy so she'll go out of her way to hunt Vriska (and Gamzee, still thinking about the blackrom thing), but metaphorically it's cementing that Terezi feels uncomfortable confronting real problems and villains, so she'd rather just reminisce and try and fuck with Vriska instead.
(3740) The text pointing out how childish Terezi's actions are further solidifies to me that she goes to roleplaying as a comfort from the horrors, just as she did with her dragonsuit, she's doing the same with the Redglare suit. The only difference is, she's convinced herself she's on a mission rather than just trying to avoid her issues like earlier.
(3742) This is exactly where Mindfang's hypocrasy in "opposing" the social order comes to light. I know from future that Redglare was a follower of Kankri's, hence why she doesn't bat an eye at taking out someone of higher blood. The behest of the GHB is a formality, she'd be seeking justice either way. But Mindfang can't wrap her head around that, her blinding and disarmment is a callback to Vriska but also a literal subjugation of her from someone she thought below her, in skill and blood and Relevance. Redglare takes away what makes Mindfang intimidating, she's now disabled and fleetless, and it's why she's able to apprehend her without much worry. She's strategically disarmed one who does it to others, for the sake of giving her her cummupance. What's striking to me is that however much the kids base their lives off of their ancestors, their situations can't be compared. Terezi "took revenge" on Vriska in a similar fashion, but it came from a different place, a personal place. Redglare wants to fuck up the dominators of the world, Terezi wants to control them. Mindfang wants nothing but control, Vriska has completely lost hers.
(3744) Yet further calling itno question both Terezi's confidence and her sound judgement. She's emulating Dave (going to confront his abuser) and Redglare (ruthless persuit of a random criminal) while she herself is an uncertain yet determined child. The Dave metaphor is more apt, because while fighting Bro on the roof is what he "needed", it fucked him up severely, just like what Terezi "needs" to do is to her own detrament, I'm assuming she'll justify it to herself that way, too, but hindsight is 20/20 so I know this decision is fulled by half-baked evidance and emotional disregulation.
(3748) Mindfang is being sarcastic, but yes the highbloods DID store the courtroom full of lowbloods, because Redglare alive is more of a threat than Mindfang alive. Redglare was attempting to execute someone of higher rank, which can't be allowed, but Mindfang? She's upholding the social order, even now. What a sucker.
(3751) The way Mindfang talks about potential lovers is always sadistic, and Vriska tries to emulate it even though she's deeply masochistic. It really paints a vivid picture, of a maladjusted mother fucking up her daughter without much care. "Defying" the social order and despizing it, while actually just reinforcing it both in the treatment of who comes next in her bloodline, as well as who's below her right now.
(3753) I still don't know what the tyranny is, but Mindfang calling redglare a "true seer" in taking out her arm rings hollow to me. My sister most of all posits the interpretation that the Ancestors of our trolls mostly acts as baggage/echoes of the beta trolls, rather than genuine reflections of the alpha trolls, but I disagree. In this panel, Aranea is not embodying a thief. Yes, she's a pirate, but she's also a sylph-y trickster who can't keep to herself to save her life, constantly meddling in affairs even when they put her in danger. She's terrifyingly capable when cornered, and her aspect isn't taken away from her at any point, she remains a scorching ray of light all throughout her time, even when in metaphorical chains. Her read of Redglare was also incorrect, for Redglare didn't forsee SHIT about the trial. She lobbed off Mindfang's arm for her own benifit, and her entire existance is to SERVE the aspect of mind the way Dave serves the aspect of Time. Kind of makes Terezi's stair sequence hit even harder, huh? Emulating a servant class when she's a scholar class, just like Vriska emulating a "pirate" (sylph) when she's really a thief. And they both suffer for it. Vriska isn't a fairy who can survive an overwhelming foe with a singe outburst, she's an underdog who has to outsmart her enemy before they outsmart her. The whole scourge sister rivalry really IS just a case of senseless murder, just like all other kills on the meteor were...
(3755) So Aranea provided protection for Horrus after he defied the Highbloods in order to spare Meulin. It's interesting to me because it's, again, that thing about the social order, and how Aranea's the one opposing it essentially the least right now. Horrus questions if what he did was the right thing, while I'm sure Equius is questioning why he DIDN'T do the right thing... Again, however much the ancestors may be parallels, they're almost opposite to the beta kids, and it's fascinating.
(3757) Mindfang's experiance with The Orb is similar to Rose's, except Rose's use of the scrying was finding answers to current predicaments. If left with more time around the Cue ball, I'm sure she would have eventually asked it similar things as Mindfang, but not the same. Mindfang was petty, she wanted to know who she'd fall in love with and how she would die, all personal questions partaining to her ego, while Rose would disregard such questions I assume. Romance is a thing you stumble into, death is an inevitability you always have to account for, and Rose's psychologically minded gambits usually prove more effective than a Serket's egotistical and manipulative gambits do. Mindfang herself says consulting the oricle comes at a cost, and I think Rose pieces that together once she brushes shoulders with Doc Scratch like she did when her mother died. I dunno, I'm spitballing again, I just find it interesting that no matter how surface-level similar Aranea is to both Rose and Vriska, she is still different (and worse) than them both in a palpable way, maybe not palpable to Vriska, but it is to everyone else (I hope).
(3759) I was gonna write a whole thing here but then something happened in my server and now I'm completely dumbfounded. Jesus. I was hoping I could get to cascade tonight but with a friend doing a stream tonight as well I don't know if I can... I should probably stop micro-analyzing everything BUT... This passage is interesting in the sense it restates those incorrect god-tier roles Aranea keeps assigning everyone, and I'm starting to think she does so in that mythical sense rather than actually trying to clock something intrinsic to their characters, which is ODD because the whole thing she does in openbound is provide exposition for the alpha trolls. Mindfang is a version of her that never had to care about other people but herself and it SHOWS. Even the way she describes Rufioh is weird, because at first I assumed he'd be the one rival/lover she holds in higher regard? But then she talks about taking his will again. In the end, Rufioh is a Rogue of Breath, I think he took her breath away and rather than her taking HIS agency, he's the one that took hers by like. Charming her or something idk how heterosexuality works. It's important to note all this because he's the one who kills Mindfang in the end, probably to aid in the whole rebellion effort, but it's left open-ended. There's a thread here, I believe, about how Mindfang wanted to mould Rufioh into a perfect mate, but instead got outclassed, and Vriska tried to uphold generational shit by bullying Tavros as retribution (metatextually), by trying to mould him into her perfect kismesis instead, which failed. Vriska following in Mindfang's footsteps was toxic from moment 1, and I still don't understand how Vriska hasn't realised that... did she always have asurface-level reading of Mindfang's journal? Did she never question if there was more underneath the prose and egoism? Oh who am I kidding she's 13 I didn't even catch the gender-based issues between most of the HS kids back then, of course she didn't question her idol.
(3760) Yeah, the disc got REALLY badly damaged. I think it's another fourth-wall-y thing to show off Gamzee's involvement, because after the retcon there's none of that scratched disc stuff. But the conversation between Terezi and Vriska is also interesting. Terezi sadly admitting she thinks Vriska smells nice, Vriska happily admitting she's happy to see Terezi but masking it with talk of "rivalries". It really makes me think Vriska is just trying to be Mindfang's successor, and nothing else, which to me seems both justified and like a cop out. Like there had to be a constructed narrative for why she bullies Tavros specifically, instead of her being genuinely manipulative and targetting the guy who's most susceptible to abuse. It makes her symbolism more shallow for the sake of touching on Ancestor plots - ankle deep mile wide sort of thing. I don't DISLIKE the Mindfang backstory, I just wish it wasn't so... paint-by-the-numbers the reason why Vriska acts the way she does with the people she does, again it makes her seem less decisive. And once again, Terezi sidestepping the Gamzee issue by focusing on Vriska and the consequences her actions will have. One reading is that Terezi is pleading with Vriska not to commit suicide, the other is that she's trying to stop Vriska from killing everyone. Both are simoltaniously correct AND incorrect. And, as always, the coin flip is arbitrary.
(3764) FINALLYYYY WE'RE IN THE DOC SCRATCH ERA - I might be able to reach Cascade yet!!!
(3766) He's talking about cascade he's MOCKING ME-
On a real note though, I think it's nice that we're actually getting a kind of fortold end point of Act 5 and know when Act 6 will begin. I know a lot of ppl shit on Act 6 but frankly I can't wait for a change of pace.
(3771) With Scratch's dialogue it's harder to parse the symbolism of the given scene, and I actually want to focus on the green menece for a second. The entire changing of the website is jarring and really makes you feel like you're "no longer home", it violently rips away whatever normalcy you have in order to thrust you into the uncertain, while our host is very, very certain. He only tells truths, but he's eerie and cunning and manipulative, his lies by omission can't be understated. There's also a neat detail that the icon of The Unofficial Homestuck Collection also changes to a cue ball for the sake of this atmosphere. It's very immersive! It's a kind of eerieness you can only really get from a perfectly circular white head staring at you from everywhere you look.
(3774) Vriska is essentially inviting Terezi to kill her. How am I NOT supposed to read this as suicidal, especially after all the talk of her not fitting in, and "something wrong with me" talk? Terezi, as previously stated, is the sadist to Vriska's masochist. Terezi is inviting Vriska to run away. "Get away from me before I do it", and "I dare you to kill me before he can." It's interesting to me because I can't parse the end goal for either of them. I'm starting to doubt there is one. I think they're both just waiting to see if the other will actually pull the trigger and finally end the game, and if so, then both of them are on a suicide mission.
(3776) This is where I have to question both my own reading as well as Scratch's. He posits that Vriska gambled on Terezi NOT killing her, while my interpretation is the opposite. While, yes, Vriska says she wants to fight Jack, more than anything else she wants to prove her worth - she wants her life to MEAN something. The problem is, she's emulating Mindfang, and just as she tried to make Tavros into her perfect rival, I think there's an arguement to be made that she wants to make Terezi into her perfect murderer. She can't die by Tavros' blade, so the next best thing is to die by her sister's. It's odd to me that Doc Scratch interprets Vriska's actions as anything BUT suicidal, especially in the way he underminds the kids overall. Is her ideation of ego-death outside of his periphery because it's so deeply human? Or am I reading part of Vriska in a way the author genuinely didn't intend?
(3786) It doesn't surprise me that Doc Scratch seems to somewhat revel in the inevitability of the deaths of his protoges. It's that creepy obsession with dominating young girls, literally grooming them and then watching them crumble from the influence. It's terrifying because the way he acts, Doc Scratch more often than not is a narrative tool, and because of that his actions towards these kids is never unpacked the way someone like Bro's actions are. This leads into a far less sensible reading of mine, where Calliope and Calliborn represent two halves of a whole author, two seperate ambitions that form a cohesive conductor with a baton, and in that symbolism I find characters like Scratch and the various Jacks as extensions of that metaphor. The antaonists in Homestuck that aren't heroes are less people and more tools of the author, and therefore aren't allowed catharsis or arcs the way heroes are. Eridan is a bad kid, but he gets his cummupance, and it's satisfying. Jack is a harbinger of doom and a mass murderer, but his cummupance is less than unimpressive, it feels almost paradoxical in its lack of depth or weight. A similar thing happens with Doc scratch, where after his death, he essentially becomes a footnote the way Caliborn intended - the way the author intended. I don't want to be overly antagonistic towards Hussie but I can't lie about the way Scratch's actions and lack of retribution rub me the wrong way.
(3793) I'm sad to say I kind of agree with Sburb's ruling that John did not earn a hero's death. As much as his friends call him one, John hasn't done anything particularly remarkable during his journey, and he's only now going to do the scratch. It's part of my reasoning for why I think all the kids sort of "failed" their quests, or really their rises to maturity and heroism. The trolls are self-explanitory, but with the humans it's more complicated, especially in the context that they did everything "right" and none of them killed each other, and they all reached god tier. In a normal game session, god tier marks the point at which a player has "ended" their arc, so to speak, and become an embodyment, or tool, or master user of their aspect. The kids, however versed in their abilities, have not reached the psychological aspect of that by the time they reach god tier, and it's kind of starting to weigh on me because I know/remember what comes in the retcon. I don't want to dwell on it too much because it won't show up for a WHILE, but it's pinging me as odd that I KNOW what is going to be retconned, and am both taking it into account while also disliking it.
(3794) I'm a big fan of this composition. The fire is probably just meant to be aesthetic, but with the ominous tone and the context of Doc, I kind of see this as him foreshadowing John and Caliborn's fight(s), even if John doesn't die during them. When DOES John die? After this, I'm not sure if he does. But Doc Scratch is certain in his moral assesment of John, I think purely because of his devotion to Caliborn.
(3795) Yeah so maybe I should just shut my mouth for a page or two because Scratch essentially just confirms my speculation in the above paragraph.
(3796) Huh, wait, this is a good point to bring up. The words used typically for Kanaya are flipped onto Vriska, calling out that she's mimiking a Sylph. On top of that, the last messege she left John went unanswered, and without proper Light-based resolution, or even Breath-based resolution. Was John ALWAYS meant to go back for her? To not break his primise to talk to her one last time? I'm not sure, because I rememeber they had a very good exchange in the dream bubbles after Vriska's death.
(3706) In the same vain that Vriska got away from Terezi, Jack got away from Vriska. This further fuels my idea that Vriska's mission was ultimately a suicidal one rather than a sadistic one, here she shares visual pllacement with Terezi, left hanging and without a violent outlet, despite "seeking" one. She wanted to destroy what she had created, but it got out of hand, and killed everyone she loved. Vriska's actions always have and always will be destructive of those around her even if her ultimate goal is self-destruction, and I think there's a poem in that.
(3808) I think it hightens the tension of "tick tock" that I'm waiting for a stream to start in another tab. Anyway. I still find it jarring and creepy how Scratch always seems to find a way to take a moral high-ground in the ways he interacts with his "proteges". Here he's basically admitting that he's a bad and creepy influence, but with Rose he denies it with "Facts and Logic". Is that part of the game? Eugh. I hate this guy.
(3810) Translation: "Timey-wimey non-linear bullshit that we pretend is linear, just don't question it ok??? I fucked up the timeline and can't fully explain everything away. Just work with me here. Please."