#Intermission But Trolls

[kylemarshiku]

Last week I dropped the Ultimate Homestuck Recap that summarized the webcomic that once dominated the internet, particularly Tumblr.

Today I bring you what it was all for, a video essay called Homestuck Is Good, Actually.

If you were wondering, "Homestuck, really? In 2025?" The answer is yes. This isn't ironic. It's 100% sincere. I love Homestuck. And I think you should, too. Let me tell you why. Let me tell you about… Homestuck.

It's not perfect by any means though, and brace yourself for some hot takes. But if you'd check it out or show any friends that might be interested, I'd be very grateful.

[propheticclown]

Kurloz Makara and Meulin Leijon: Till Double Death Do Us Part

Hello! Today I wanted to make a little (long) essay of The Prince of Rage: Kurloz Makara and The Mage of Heart: Meulin Leijon. I feel that these are two characters who the Homestuck community has greatly mischaracterized and as such, I wish to rectify any false claims made against these two characters, as well as give my own personal interpretation of them, as well as their relationship. Let's begin with my utterly favorite of all the dancestors, Meulin. Meulin as a character seems very surface-level to the average reader. She's loud, excitable, and obsessed with romance. However, if you dive deeper into Aranea's expositions, Horuss' moraillegiance, and even her conversations with Meenah and Kurloz, you can see that she harbors a lot of feelings of regret, shame, and self-doubt. Meulin is a character who is VERY interested in romance and craves being in one. However, according to Aranea;

Meulin isn't very lucky when it comes to romance, not just with Kurloz, but with other characters too (Ex. Her moraillegiance with Horuss). This fits her as a Mage, since Mages are known to not fully have their aspect, or rely on others to feel their aspect (Like how Sollux, as a Mage of Doom, repeatedly "half-dies" throughout the series, never FULLY meeting his doom). This clearly causes her lots of shame, as the whole reason she became moirails with Horuss was to mimic the relationship between Nepeta and Equius. She copes with these negative feelings through repression, even telling Horuss to repress his feelings too. The main reason why she does this is to portray an image of sorts. An image that she's fun and lovable and always happy. She wants to portray an image of the perfect, lovable girl because she craves a romantic relationship. She wants to be loved. That is Meulin's main character motivation. To be loved and be deemed attractive by someone (In Naranjo's terms, she's a massive Sx3). She's also known to ship her friends together, like Nepeta, however unlike Nepeta, Meulin does it so she can feel some semblance of warmth and love, "THE F33LS!!!" as she calls them. This is even shown, as she prefers making red ships over black ones.

So how does Kurloz tie into this? Well, it's because her and Kurloz's matespritship was perfect in her eyes, and even considered perfect by the other Dancestors.

But of course, it all got ruined. One day, as they slept, Kurloz had a horrific nightmare. A nightmare, so utterly terrifying and monstrous that when he awoke he screamed. He screamed so loud that his poor, loving matesprit was permanently deafened, and out of shame and guilt, Kurloz sews his mouth shut and chews his own tongue off, and they slowly drifted apart. That should be the end of the story, right? Wrong. Because I think that, as much as Meulin attempts to deny it, they both still feel red for one another.

In her conversation with Meenah, they both talk about Kurloz, with Meulin poking fun at his silly little rambles about his religion and angels of double death. However, it's when Meenah pushes a bit further about making fun of Kurloz when THIS happens.

Meulin immediately becomes dismissive of Meenah, repressing her emotions so much that all she can offer is a blank expression and a dismissive, passive sentence. Not even giving any it any tags as she does for every other sentence. It should be noted that this is the ONLY time where Meulin's "happy-go-lucky" facade cracks. It's clear that she harbors an intense amount of guilt from Kurloz's self-mutilation, most likely believing it to be indirectly her fault. This single sentence of completely optional dialogue is probably where we get the most understanding of her as a character. She's ashamed of herself, repressing her true emotions and shipping her friends just to possibly get back any semblance of those beautiful red feelings she lost. She doesn't care that she's deaf, she doesn't care when she's insulted, she doesn't care if the relationship she has with Horuss is unhealthy, as long as she's loved she's fine. But the second someone insults her Prince, insults his self-inflicted disability, she immediately retreats, disengages, and stops the facade, not only does the image break but the mage breaks alongside it, until the conversation finally changes subjects.

Even with Kurloz, she portrays repressed red feelings in their mimes, starting with the first mime.

A Tododile with heart eyes, while this is most likely just a reach from my end, I do think it could possibly be interpreted that Meulin still has an unconscious desire to be "hearts" with Kurloz. A desire to rekindle what was once lost and it's not just on her end either, Kurloz clearly feels the same way too. How do we know this? Well by taking this CANON Purpleblood description and applying it to Kurloz. "In love, they tend to be strictly monogamous and fiercely devoted, ready to pledge themselves to a person the same way they do their goals-utterly, and without reservation." Purplebloods are incredibly devoted to their romantic partners, this can even be seen with Gamzee, who only held flushed feelings for one person throughout all of Homestuck. Needless to say, like their religion, Purplebloods take romance VERY seriously, they love once and never again, committed to their partner even after death. They don't just fall OUT of love. It's even implied that Kurloz is one of the few characters who hasn't had flushed feelings for Rufioh. His sights are set on Meulin, and Meulin only. While we're on the topic of The Prince of Rage, let's talk about HIS life now. Kurloz, unlike Meulin, seems to be unanimously disliked throughout his group. At the BARE minimum, it's shown that Meenah, Cronus, and Aranea dislike him. He is constantly insulted and belittled by the others, whether it be his religion, the way he expresses himself, or even just his hair. Heck, even Gamzee dislikes him. It's also implied through the 2014 Homestuck calendar (not even joking) that Kurloz was the last person to enter the medium since no one actually wanted to be his server player. On top of this, in Openbound, every character is seen near their lusus, or at the very least, their lusus is in the same area as them. However, Kurloz's lusus is nowhere to be found, implying that either his lusus is like Gamzee's and abandoned him for long portions of time, or that he never had a lusus to begin with. From the constant belittling from his friends, his lack of love from anyone around him, and the fact that he's incredible at blackrom pairings, it can be implied that Kurloz is a character who is very familiar with hate, frustration, and of course some good ol' unbearable shame. Kurloz as a character is described as secretive, mysterious, and preachy. He's also shown to be incredibly inquisitive and curious, only stopping his insatiable curiosity when he realizes that it's teetering into religious blasphemy.

Kurloz is also incredibly devout to his religion, going so far as to want his friends to experience double death because of it, mocking Meenah for her heretical words and behaviors, saying that she will be "DOUBLE SLAIN BY OUR LORD LIKE ALL THE OTHER MIRTHLESS HERETICS"

Considering this, and him flipping Meenah off, we know that at the very least, he dislikes Meenah. His only other known feelings towards the others are his "friendship" (absolutely repressed red feelings) with Meulin, his moirallegience with Mituna, and his admiration for Gamzee. It should also be noted that I don't personally think his relationship with Mituna is toxic or abusive. I do legitimately think that Kurloz is interested in Mituna's condition, and since the "incident" they both saw most likely had something to do with Lord English, he is probably enthralled by the chance to learn more about his Lord. Also, considering that he's a Prince of Rage, he'd actually be a pretty good moirail to have. But back to his relationship with Meulin. If you clicked on this post, you're probably curious about how I view Kurloz using his chucklevoodoos on Meulin, so let me first explain some of Kurloz's religion. Kurloz believes that once Lord English destroys the world, his spirit will ascend to The Dark Carnival, which is essentially clown heaven, but there's a problem with this. Only those who believe in The Cult of the Mirthful Messiahs pass into The Dark Carnival. Meulin is not actually a follower of the Mirthful Messiahs, and as such, will get destroyed along with everyone else. This is where the internal conflict with Kurloz happens. Since Purplebloods are extremely devout to both their beliefs and their love, Kurloz is faced with a horrifying decision. Does he choose his religion, assisting with Lord English's plans and ascending to The Dark Carnival alone or does he choose the love of his life, the love he so painfully deafened and hurt, and get destroyed alongside her? This is also what I think the nightmare he had was about, he had to choose between two things he loved, and because of that, was so distraught that he screamed himself awake. And this is also when he begins planning. You see, as previously discussed, Kurloz is a Prince of Rage, and as such, destroys doubt and negative emotions, he will never be dissuaded from his beliefs. He's also highly inquisitive, no doubt pouring himself into his religious scripture, looking for some way to save his beloved Meulin, his sweet mage, his darling matesprit. That's when he comes up with an idea. If he manipulates Meulin, if he uses his chucklevoodoos on her to do Lord English's bidding, makes her preach his teachings, then surely that will count, right? Surely the Prince could save his Mage. So that's what he does. I believe that Kurloz's use of chucklevoodoos on Meulin is an attempt to appease Lord English and get his beloved into The Dark Carnival. Kurloz found a way to both save his darling and still stay faithful to his religion. And luckily for The Prince and The Mage, their double death didn't happen, and they never had to part, as shown when Kurloz and Meulin are telepathically communicating as Gamzee complains about Vriska during the retconned timeline.

Thank you for reading this. Meulin and Kurloz are my favorite Homestuck characters and I adore their dynamic. Let me know if you'd like this kind of analysis with any other characters, and let me know if you have any types of criticisms to give! Once again, thank you for reading this and I hope you have a lovely day! €o: <3 :33

[tigerbears]

Homestuck Spoilers Out of Context.

[mintofhtagn]

Speciesswap! My 10 fanfelt as ancestors >:D

Bonus TOPHAT and HORSIE

[hiredpencil]

Lettering by @ transientcuriosityart on Insta!

Art by @hiredpencil Music by Aviators!

[starryeyed-seer]

My bazaar design has been compared to a troll (of homestuck fame) multiple times and like i get it but...

I'm a huge fan of a fairly unloved character in wider canon. The character is some kind of weird bug person. I was indeed a huge homestuck fan a decade ago

But i was an intermission fan, obviously! WAHAHAHA!!! I joined tumblr and first was introduced to fallen london because I was really only a fan of a small niche of the Carapaces, chess themed, hard shelled, less loved guys :^)

[jakeeexp]

i think that since im real into troll culture n shit, my trollsona would be into leprechaun culture

[groggygrimalkin]

Okay but like the de-humanification(idk how else to put it) of any homestuck species that aren't trolls or humans in the fandom by some ppl is a little bizzare to me. Like for example WV,literally a grown ass man with war trauma getting reduced to "awwwww cute widdle guy that Dave loves" is bizzare to me. I'm glad ppl are talking about this

[indecisive-dizzy]

Hi I had an idea and I’m lowkey making an au for it :D

It’s Eddie focused! And I have Holly and Wallace there too :DD

Thinking about Eddie lashing out at his neighbors about them not appreciating his work or even respecting him

All he wants was the slightest bit of respect and some his neighbors just treat him super poorly (Howdy and Sally mostly, but Barnaby maybe for the dog piling (not as much but still something))

So he’s stressed out and overworking himself in his mailman work, not to mention his whole mental state deteriorating after what happened at Homewarming and him lashing out at his friends

I think Wallace and Holly were just visiting for a while and saw Eddie struggling and decided to help him out

Holly still isn’t super fond of Eddie, but seeing him in such a state hurts her. He’s usually so sweet and positive, it genuinely makes her angry seeing him like that

Wallace and Holly become ✨assistant mailmans✨

Basically, all three of them split the work and deliver the mail together

It helps keep Eddie from overworking himself and burying himself in his work, and it lets them hang out

Sibling bonding the au + neighbor angst is the very simple summary of this au lmao

Frank visits and stays with Eddie while the twins deliver mail

Holly totally helps Eddie be less of a doormat, mostly by trying to make him be mean but failing cause he’s too nice to be mean willingly

Still don’t know what to do with the neighbors, but Holly doesn’t like them and Wallace is very hesitant to get too close to them

In this universe, all swear words and middle fingers are censored (like in TADC) so whenever Holly gets too mad and swears there’s just a black box and a clown honk noise censoring it. It pissed her off and it’s hilarious to Wallace

Anyways we just get wholesome Dear/Dearest sibling moments, I need them to be happy and togehter

I might expand on this idea later when I have more ideas for it, but this was mostly what I have for it :3

"Eddie Dear has depression but he also has Siblings" the Au ajdhah

honestly tho I love this idea!! Eddie snapping at the others is such good brain food I love seeing this kind hearted man be Angry for once

And sibling bonding <3 ugh the shenanigans that could ensue between the three of mail managing the mail together

The TADC style censoring is also funny lmao

[erigold13261]

do you find yourself looking forward to the advanced shipping in homestuck

Nnnnot really, no.

If I'm gonna be honest, just opening up Homestuck and reading it at the moment is a bit hard because I'm still on most of the introductions for each troll and it's just kinda... boring? Or confusing i guess is a decent word?

Like we got a lot of time between each of the human characters before another was fully introduced, so we had time to get to know each one before moving on.

But with the trolls, it feels like we get an introduction then move on. Which kinda works given how many there are and how connected they all are, but I also get confused very easily and very quickly with characters and names and so I don't really know who is who (and not to mention I don't know shit about the zodiac so I can't even fall back onto that to help me figure out characters).

I'm sure once I push through the introductions I will get a lot more motivated to continue reading with a passion instead of making it feel like an obligation.

I'm much more interested/looking forwards to see how the blood works because I want to start headcanoning what each curse, vocaloid, gems, and others of that kind have for blood colors and how that creates a hierarchy (as well as how powers, influence, themes, and goals lead to different levels of hierarchy).

Shipping isn't one of the biggest things to me. I much more like friendships that turn into a kind of relationship. More like friendship+ if that makes sense?

Maybe once I get to the shipping stuff I will be more interested in it, at least the logistics and using that to specify what existing relationships fall into which category, but honestly so far I haven't even gave a second thought to the shipping chart advancement thingy at all yet.

[demonicnarwhale]

I was messing around with this brush and then also thought back to these idiots being trolls and all that yadda yooha (i got Die's horns flipped teehee too lazy to fix)

edit: NO I THOUGHT I DID BUT IT'S CORRECT

[bolasmasivas]

i have a LOT of questions

[dingodad]

please god i need to know what U think of the whole “jadebloods are all female!” thing because i got into homestuck in 2019 around the time of friendsim and (retching) Lanque so i always assumed they were explicitly intended to be an all-female caste. however, re-reading the comic this year, i couldnt find a mention of it other than virgo and the Space aspect being really feminine, but i think kanayas journey with motherhood is more kanaya-centric than All-Jadebloods centric??

on one hand, it makes sense given that alternia has very real gendered oppression, so what’s better for that than CATHOLICISM?? on the other hand, i always saw kanaya as being transfem coded, because it connects so well with roxy yknow.. homestuck fans love to insist that certain characters just have to be cis women (kanaya, jade, roxy)

(as an aside; was “long hair was butch on alternia” a one off joke? i like speculation about alternia’s fashion opposing earth, lol)

most all of our basis for explicitly gendered interpretation of Alternia comes from act 6 intermission 3, where Aranea tells us that "jade 8loods were also an almost exclusively female caste". so the door has always been open for there to be "some male jadebloods". but it's a mistake to view this as having anything to do with any kind of "biological sex". the whole idea of biological sex among trolls is a smoke screen. the jadebloods' assigned gender at birth is "jadeblood". this is what makes them a feminised caste.

Caliborn doesn't have a clue what biological sex is. Aranea will tell you that there are boy cherubs and girl cherubs, but for your own sanity you need to cast this idea out of your mind: cherub sex takes place between good and evil cherubs - which is determined by their blood - and anything else is just roleplay. Caliborn's attitude toward sexing is that the ones he likes are boys - that's all the thought that goes into it. and that's the mindset we need to be aware of when we delve into understanding troll gender. there are some trolls who have breast tissue and some who don't, but they aren't "mammaries" in any sense, so there's no reason to believe they're actually sexual characteristics of any kind; maybe this is what Lord English chose to base his gender schema on, but the idea that this means there must be "male trolls" and "female trolls" is completely imagined for the narrative convenience of the human reader.

when we read that there are "male-dominated" highblood castes and therefore by implication female-populated lowblood castes, it's not by some coincidence of biology: the highblood castes are male-dominated BECAUSE they are highblood castes. each caste has a role to play in Caliborn's Alternia, and just as the highblooded roles are those of patriarchal domination, the lower castes must take on roles of feminised submission; and in the case of the jades in particular, this means breeding duties. the fact that this also comes with the expectation to wear makeup and pretty clothes is just more roleplay.

so tl;dr what i think of "the all jadebloods are female thing" is that it is very obviously true but in a way more 5 dimensional gender studies way than anyone else tends to mean when they say it

my pet "long hair was butch on alternia" headcanon - which is a joke but in the way all headcanons about alternia should be jokes of some kind - actually kind of relates to this lol. bc i figure that if gendered expectations of female trolls includes working in disgusting underground caverns filled with genetic material, it's going to be practical to keep your hair close to your head where it won't get dirty, in much the same way the feminist image of the short-haired woman became popular in the west during and after world war 2, wherein a lot of women had to start wearing their hair close to their heads to avoid scalping themselves in the factory machinery they suddenly had to start working with. hence kanaya dedicated to her assigned feminine role and wearing her hair short vs. porrim rebelling against it for feminist reasons and thus wearing her hair at a length that would be totally impractical for wading through gene pools.

[thewertsearch]

Ask Comp 13/04

@bladekindeyewear submitted: You've noticed something important: Everyone seems to have come down with the SAME items that John gave them on their birth meteors. That means that excluding some incredible shenanigans, the ectobiology that created the kids only happened ONCE, and we're unlikely to see some weird repeat. John did it. In his session. Before the Scratch. Have you noticed the problem yet? In the Trolls' session, all of the ectobiology was done by KARKAT. In a session we now know was a POST-SCRATCH one. p=4053:

The Pre-Scratch trolls were forced to invoke the Scratch to even be BORN. And Lord English is somehow responsible. And this is apparently Lord English's "calling card". Utterly terrifying.

Yup. English's 'already-hereness' applies to more than just his physical presence, it seems!

Anonymous asked: I believe I sent an ask some time ago, regarding my eagerness towards seeing you take on my favorite character. At the time, I noted that their introduction was still a ways off, but now the moment is just about at hand and I couldn't possibly be more thrilled. Happy blogging, and welcome to Act 6! ^u^

Thank you! You're presumably talking about one of the new Players, and their introduction has certainly been a lot of fun for me so far. For the first time in forever, we're getting a new set of protagonists!

@sanctferum asked: seems like nobody has mentioned it yet, but 10/25, the day Cascade came out (and one of Homestuck's arc numbers, with 1025 being what you get when adding 413 and 612 together), was christened "Gristmas" by the fandom. Intermission 2, meanwhile, was (very fittingly) a Halloween upd8. Act 6 started on 11/11/11, so the arc number there is various configurations of 1 or 11. Truly the most important thing to happen on 11/11/11 and let neither man nor tod say otherwise.

Gristmas is pretty great - and thank you, I'll keep an eye out for long strings of ones. I imagine that we'll be seeing one on Jane's Cruxtruder, at the very least.

Anonymous asked: I'm surprised that no one pointed out that Hussie describing the story of the Troll Ancestors as Fanfiction is actually an accurate accusation In-Universe. As after, Doc Scratch took the trolls' original story, and rewrote it into how he wanted it to go. Anonymous asked: If you think about it, since Scratch is responsible for Alternia being such a hellhole when it originally wasn't, it is technically his "troll fanfiction".

Oh, I like that. Scratch is, after all, both the instigator and the narrator of the Ancestors' fucked-up lives, which does indeed put him in a position akin to that of a fanfiction writer. This Scratch-as-author stuff has layers, huh?

@manorinthewoods asked: If it was Bec's put-Jade-to-bed instincts that caused her revival, then Vriska's abuse of Jade to practice her powers on humans was the reason Jade survived Act 5. ~LOSS (9/1/24)

Good point, actually - but fucking hell, don't tell her that. You already know how insufferable she'd be about it.

Anonymous asked: Unsure if it was simply not mentioned, but in case you missed it there are two other messages on Jane's computer: Submit and Cease Reproduction

So there are.

CEASE REPRODUCTION, in particular, makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it. After all, I doubt the Condesce actually wants to rule over humanity; instead, she probably wants to exterminate them, so that they can be replaced with a brand-new cohort of trolls.

@joyfulldreams asked: Detective Pony is absolutely a masterwork of fanfiction. It has the original version on AO3, an equally excellent podfic by NakedBee, and then the podfic was later adapted by NakedBee into a full feature-length film. It has basically Legend status and in some ways has been partially(???) canonized because of how widely regarded it is by the fandom at large to be Legit. There is also a similar fic called Theatre of Coolty, a fanfic written in the format of a play, which I believe was written by the same person who voice acted DS in the Detective Pony podfic (DuckFace, I think) which NakedBee adapted into a short film. Recommend watching Theatre of Coolty before touching Detective Pony, tbh, it's much shorter and more easily digestible. (Both are EXTREMELY DENSE TEXTS.) Also you probably shouldn't touch either until you've finished Act 6, unfortunately. Theatre of Coolty has a minor spoiler for something pretty late in Act 6, and while Detective Pony doesn't TECHNICALLY have any REAL spoilers as-is (the movie has visuals that could be considered more spoilery), the entire thing is basically a deep dive into DS's character and you really ought to understand DS better before getting into it. (You don't even know his name yet!) @creamcloud0 asked:I don't know if it's what you were implying in your tags but i would absolutely LOVE seeing your dissection of Detective Pony. @heliotropopause asked: since we're doing this, The Serendipity Gospels should now also be spoiler-free, though i haven't double-checked, nor read the unfinished act three that's only available on tumblr. and yeah, very much seconded on sonnetstuck's Detective Pony- it'd spoil DS's name if you read it right now, along with maybe one other thing that'll get revealed soon, but it should be fine to read quite soon, and is one of the absolute best fanworks i've ever read. there's also a very high quality hours-long puppet theatre video adaptation of it made by someone else, but the visuals there contain spoilers up to pretty much the very end of the comic. ben-guy asked: The detective pony fic is absolutely still full of spoilers, if only for later kid bro characterization @pechikka asked: Im gonna be real. I don't even think of Detective Pony as a fanwork. To me it's just part of Homestuck's extended quasicanon to the same degree the epilogues are, and a crucial part of how I read kid bro as a character. It's THAT spot on to the characters and themes of Homestuck itself and it's a fascinating read. For obvious reasons tho that does means I absolutely cannot recommend anyone read it until kid bro has been introduced and has had a long while to be established as a character. @publicuniversalworstie asked: Seconding the Detective Pony recommendation as hard as I can, but I'd recommend saving it for after you finish the main comic at least. It's essentially a D-Stri character study. @hussianphilosopher submitted: There's really only one Hussie quote that matters.

(Thirding or fourth-ing or fifth-ing the Detective Pony recs, though I would argue that you need to wait a while before you read it - you need to meet teen-Bro and have seen quite a bit of him to actually get what it's going for.) Hussie's commentary is really interesting and deserves to be read if you like the comic, but the most recent and (in my opinion) most enlightening parts pretty much assume that you've read the Epilogues. If and when you're ever interested it's all wrapped up in the Homestuck Unofficial Collection.

I'm moving Detective Pony up on the list, because this all sounds amazing. We already know from the Auto-Responder conversation that Kid Bro is a pretty weird dude, so a deep dive into his character via a horse girl parody sounds like a hell of a time.

As for The Serendipity Gospels, if I can vet it completely for spoilers, it might finally be time for my first fanfiction analysis. After all, I've been waiting for this one for years.

Anonymous asked: How many doomed timelines have Sally and Sahlee made from their continued insistence on trying to break the Incipisphere even after seeing how utterly fucked they'd be from attempting that?

Less than you'd think, honestly. They'd definitely make a few, especially in the first days of the session, but once they start to understand how Doomed Timelines worked, they'd probably try to ensure their experiments were less destructive.

That's not to say they'd stop trying to violate the Alpha Timeline - but it does mean they'd be smarter about it, potentially abusing systems like the Scratch to create some additional non-doomed timelines. I can't tell you where their experiments would lead, though - not until I'm more familiar with Sburb's deeplore myself.

@elkian asked: Obviously Jake types on the coat sleeves, Power Glove-style xD @thelegendofgreg-2 asked: "Jake, for god's sake. How are you typing on a coat?" I am choosing to believe right now as of this very moment that every single one of the rainbow flashing boxes on the lining of his coat is a teeny tiny computer screen, and he has a keyboard hidden under one of the arms of his coat It's very practical

I do think that the sleeves are the best choice here - but I also like the idea that his clawed slipper is an integral part of the setup, with buttons on the soles that he needs to shift his weight to press. A shift key, perhaps?

This thing's just so awesomely impractical. Grandma Jade was a real one.

@library-seraph asked: "Michael Cera's a strange choice for one of these portraits. He's neither a harlequin, nor a gentleman, and thus doesn't really fit Dad's normal aesthetic." This is a fandom injoke, actually. So many people joked that the guy wearing the groucho glasses in the egbert house's hallway looked like michael cera despite it not being him, that Hussie decided to shout out the meme

Ah, that makes sense.

Sometimes, I wonder how many of the comic's 'confusing' moments are actually fandom in-jokes that I don't have the context to understand. To get that context, I need these messages, so keep 'em coming!

Anonymous asked: it truly is like, the greatest jape of all that your blog popularity is coinciding with the tumblr fanbase popularity of homestuck

No kidding? I wasn't aware there was an uptick in the fandom's Tumblr presence, but I'm happy to hear it!

The last thing I want to do is finish the comic, stroll into the fandom, and discover that it died before I was ready to engage with it. Not that that wouldn't be kind of funny.

@elkian asked: Possibly one of the funniest things about the Alpha Reboot here is finding out Jane, of her familysquad if not the humans as a whole (depending on how sincere Rose was about her taxidermy Jaspers rage) who has a problem with embalment. Everyone else has been involved in the taxidermy or other preservation of some kind of corpse; I was gonna exclude Bro but then remembered the horsebib.

Jane, Homestuck's primary cast is all weird as fuck. You need to get with the program.

@abysswarlock asked: AR to Jake: “Here’s your problem”

Jake's response:

Anonymous asked: while not that big of a deal on the grand scheme of things, the revelation that rose gets her eloquence and wordiness from her father is perhaps my favorite revelation in all of hs.

I like it too! Based on what Bro was like with Dave, I expect his kidsona to be the strong, silent type, but - assuming he's as chatty as AR - I really like Hussie's decision to make him a yapper.

It feels right, somehow - and I hope it means that he's the one who wrote this session's GameFAQs guide.

Anonymous asked: One of my favorite bits of the Auto-responder's replys to Jake is the % of how close the responses are to Bro's goes down as Jake catches on, dude is having the time of his life messing with him

This guy really is hilarious. He's honestly going to be a pretty tough act for the real Little Bro to follow.

Anonymous asked: ive sent an ask like this in the early days. but il say i have never been so extraordinarily possessed by a 2014 era fan of homestuck in its UPD8 era than i have been waiting all these days for the D Stri inteoduction chatlog. for reasons i am almost betting many may have expressed in this inbox already Anonymous asked: Every update you post convinces me harder that you're going to absolutely love kid bro Anonymous asked: So fucking excited for you to start analyzing kid bro it has me twirling my hair. I barely even have enough hair to twirl this is a high compliment. So excited

...that said, people have pretty high hopes for the impression he's going to make!

I'm sure that whatever vibe I get from him, one thing is already clear: he's clearly recognized as the post-Scratch kid, the Vriska of his team. His introduction is getting the most hype of any character outside of Hivebent.

Anonymous asked: "Though we adore Him we shall never enjoy His beauteous croak. We spill our blood on acres of black and white so they may cross the yellow yard. At last in Skaia's reflection through broken glass He may find the pond in which he's meant to squat." - A Prospitan book in [S] Seer: Descend.

Hey, you're right - this passage does make a lot more sense in retrospect. I guess the implication here is that Jade's frog might still be the designated Genesis Frog in the post-Scratch session...

This gels well with Umbra's earlier statement implying that Jade & co. will be slotted into the new session as Players. It also means the post-Scratch humans might not need a Space Player, since Jade can still fill that role as before.

...yeah, it's looking more and more likely that Jane's team will wield completely different Aspects to their predecessors. I honestly prefer this to the alternative, since it'll allow us to get up close and personal with four Aspects that we've previously only seen in the abridged Hivebent session - or, potentially, four Aspects we've never seen at all.

Anonymous asked: "Poppop in the attic" is a reference to the TV show Arrested Development. In one episode, Michael Cera's character is harboring his fugitive grandfather in the attic of his home. He attempts to inform his dad but he misinterprets "poppop" as a euphemism for sex or masturbation. @skelekingfeddy asked: ‘the mere fact you call it that tells him youre not ready’ is just reference to arrested development lol. basically the kid michael cera plays is hiding his grandpa/‘poppop’ in the attic away from the feds. later he tries to tell his dad but due to earlier misunderstandings he thinks ‘poppop’ is actually referring to having sex with his girlfriend. and so he tells michael cera ‘the mere fact you call making love poppop tells me youre not ready’ the auto-responder's line ‘since we've already shot that wad's eventuality on so many dry runs of flustered ambivalence’ is also an arrested development reference, albeit a much more subtle one (the original line is just ‘i prematurely shot my wad on what was supposed to be a dry run if you will’) @random2908 asked: Maybe others mentioned this already, but the stuff about Poppop and the attic is a quote from the tv show Arrested Development. There's a bit where Poppop is hiding in the attic, only Michael Cera knows he's there, and his father is trying to give him a sex talk and misinterprets "poppop" as a euphemism. It's been a while, but IIRC Hussie makes a few Arrested Development references in early Act 6; fans speculated at the time that they must have just watched the show for the first time.

Ah. I've never seen Arrested Development myself, so it's kind of wild to see a teenage Michael Cera for the first time. People say he has a baby face now, but he actually was a baby, here.

Anonymous asked: The dads aren't clones their eyes are completely different colors :P

Turns out one of them's left-handed, and that's literally the only difference.

@wickedsick asked: RoLal my beloLal @morganwick asked: "Huh, we're approaching the halfway mark of the comic and I haven't met Roxy yet. I mean, I'm pretty sure it's Mom Lalonde's name, but it hasn't come up. How could she make such an impact that I'd have heard her name before starting Homestuck despite only really appearing in half- oh. That's how." @abundantchewtoys asked: You try to control yourself and not overhype Roxy, but the S-tier on your tierlist… it beckons. @necrowyrm asked: So hyped for you to get to know Roxy, the greatest character in homestuck by a mile @elkian asked: God I'm so excited for you to meet Roxy. I'm pretty sure you'll love her for multiple reasons.

I can't wait! Like I said, I think she's very likely to be one of my faves. Hackers play with with an unfair advantage in the Sally Sweepstakes.

@manorinthewoods submitted: https://www.tumblr.com/darks-arts/757253456235053056/got-inspired-by-this-post-n-made-a-new-troll?source=share ~LOSS (1/15/25)

Don't get it twisted - this is who the Condesce picks as her VP.

@mrjocrafter asked: Any Bro Strider (and to some extent every Strider) analysis needs to be tempered by the acknowledgement that that's just what Texas is like. Like, one time I saw someone hold up a self-driving taxi at sword point. Texas is just like that.

Apart from a three-day childhood trip to New York City, the USA is a closed book to me - but I've heard enough wild shit about Texas that I don't think you're kidding.

@carcinogeneticist-writes-fanfic submitted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuNgQEWgjwk Submitted for your approval: a full orchestra cover of Sburban Jungle. Possibly my favorite fan work of one of my favorite homestuck songs. Really captures that epic feel of the original song.

Dang. This fire burns hotter than the Green Sun.

@dedicatedfollower467 asked: i'm sure lots of people will have told you this, OR you will have figured it out yourself by the time you read this, but where DNA uses guanine, cytosine, adenine and thymine to represent information, its counterpart, RNA, actually uses a base called uracil in place of thymine. Meaning that uranianUmbra manages to both break the troll/kids naming pattern AND fit in it, in a slightly different way. UwU Anonymous asked: Concerning UU: Uracil (U) is a nucleotide that replaces Thymine (T) in RNA, which makes UU an -- at least in theory -- valid base pair. Compare this to how their chat symbol is a caduceus, and the constellation Ophiucus (traditionally, Apollo battling a pair of serpents) is sometimes considered the thirteenth Zodiacal sign. Anonymous asked: Fun Biochemistry Fact: (Almost) All the players using a combination of GCAT in their names is a reference to the 4 amino acids found in DNA (guanine, cytosine, adenine and thymine). The exception is John (EB), but who originally used GT only to change due to the trolls' interference. However, RNA, which 'reads' DNA to perform biological functions, uses Uracil (U) instead of thymine. I hope this helps your theorizing about UU! @3dgftw asked: belated congratulations on making it to act 6! from biologist to coder- the letter “U” is almost as important as GCAT in biology, and for a related reason! while G, C, A, and T are the most common nucleic acids, they’re not the only ones around! uracil (U) replaces T when RNA is transcribed, and this substitution is one of the reasons why it’s so unstable, comparatively. that, and the fact that RNA is a single stranded polymer, while DNA is double-stranded. it’s quite the headache for me- sometimes it feels like my RNA will degrade if I look at it wrong!

Huh. So the pattern arguably does still hold, for now - but since uracil is a component of RNA, rather than DNA, there's still an implication that UU is 'different' from our GCAT heroes in some fundamental way. What the hell is up with this girl?

Anonymous asked: The symbol that was similar to the Rod of Asclepius is the Caduceus, the symbol of Hermes (who I think is Asclepius' father?). Interestingly enough, the symbols are often confused with each other, which has led to medical organisations using the Caduceus instead of the Rod. I'm sure you already know, but if you don't, Hermes was the Messenger of the Gods, and patron of a lot of things, most notably travelers and thieves. Anonymous asked: Caduceus anon here. Small correction on my last ask, Asclepius was the son of Apollo, not Hermes. @likelyvampirical asked: Although both have been used in the medical profession, that symbol is actually the Caduceus, a symbol of Hermes, rather than the Rod of Asclepius. Although, the origin of the use of the Caduceus as a medical symbol is also thought to be mistaken symbology, so I suppose it's fitting.

It's possible that Hussie intended it to be the symbol for medicine, and simply got the reference wrong, but it's impossible to say for sure.

The thing certainly looks more like a caduceus to me, but I don't know what it would mean for UU to be Hermes-themed. Maybe she's a Player, and Hermes is her Denizen?

@skelekingfeddy asked: ok, some context on UU: basically, for more than a year the fandom had been theorizing about a SECRET 13TH TROLL. it started out as people pointing out that there were 4 kids and 12 trolls, so a 13th extra troll would make it so that it’s 4/13. then people realised, oh shit, there actually is a 13th extra zodiac named Ophiucus (one of the proposed symbols for which is the caduceus)! people even decided that their handle’s initials would be UU (because of Uracil, the fifth nucleotide base). the theory got so big, Toby even made a theme for UU as a bonus track in his Alternia solo album… …and now, in late 2011, here she is in the comic itself!!! she has the name, the zodiac symbol, everything. what’s her deal? you’ll just have to wait and see :)

That's good context to have, but I still have no idea what the implications are. It really doesn't feel like the trolls could have had a secret thirteenth Player stashed away somewhere, and we already know the pre-Scratch Alternian session was a twelve-Player one, too. Curiouser, curiouser and curiouser.

@aceotaku asked: random: it's only natural PM and Jack Noir were fated to be archenemies of sorts. After all, what is a dog's natural enemy according to cartoons without any real reason?

lmao, does this mean Jack's going to defeat PM by biting her ankle off?

@spiddermen asked: fun homestuck fact: shortly after homestuck ended, hussie came out as clowngender. everyone assumed this was just a bad joke for a while but it was not, hussie is nonbinary and one of the things I like about this second half of homestuck is that you can see them starting to critique the idea of gender roles a lot which I think is interesting. once they stopped working on homestuck they wrote psycholonials which explores these ideas and their thoughts on online society a lot more, it's really good

I heard about this recently, yeah! Apparently the official What Pumpkin press releases have switched to they/them for Hussie - who, if I'm not mistaken, uses any pronouns. Kind of based, honestly.

I'm surprised that this hasn't come up before, given how much the comic likes to delve into gender. I guess I just don't talk about things too much from an out-of-universe perspective, except to offer Doylist explanations for otherwise confusing plot developments.

@aceotaku asked: Your theory of Doc Scratch's Omniscience being based around meta knowledge of the author is incredibly clever and interesting and works really well especially with what we see of Scratch and Hussie after you made that theory. I also wanna bring up how he's my favourite villain in homestuck (I like his dark charisma and tendency to manipualte people while being upfront about his motives, goals and nature which i find unique) and am saddned by the many livebloggers who seem to genuinely hate him.

Oh yeah, I think Doc Scratch is great.

I kind of love to hate him, if that makes sense. He's totally awful, of course - but he's awful in a really fascinating way, that I haven't often seen in fiction. Above all, he's always entertaining to read.

@abibeur asked: One thing I like with the Betty Crocker propaganda is the obvious They Live reference, even if I didn't get it at my first reading. Jane Nada would be really funny… Even if there's another likely candidate to play a character with cool shades!

I picked up on the reference to They Live - but since I haven't seen the movie, I'm not really sure about the exact mechanics of the movie's iconic propaganda-revealing shades. One for the watch pile, for sure.

@abibeur asked: "Apparently his goofy lil' wave is a universal constant." This reminds me of another master of the wind…

Now that's a real Breath Player.

@calcamity asked: im rereading your liveblog for fun since youve reached act 6 (which features my favorite character) and i just have to say you have a great understanding of the characters. all of your pesterchum screenshot bits are (terminally funnily) in character. you could write some baller hs fanfic

Well, thank you very much!

I'm definitely going to at least write a fic involving my 'sonas, when I'm done. If I do have other ideas, though, I could easily end up writing some more canon-adjacent fiction, too. We'll see!

Anonymous asked: is jake english in the newtonverse called hass, just to tie this whole joke together? maybe the newtonverse is where the felt is the varnish instead, and hes like… hass brusher or whatever

Hass Brusher is too good. That one's 100% canon to the Newtonverse now.

@carcinogeneticist-writes-fanfic asked: New reader here who just caught up, congrats on making it to the EOA5! What was your favorite song of the four featured in Cascade? Savior of the Dreaming Dead is a top-tier personal favorite of mine, not just here or even in its album but in the entire Homestuck discography, and one of the songs I was most hoping would make it into the comic proper (not that you have to worry about that, I can def respect not wanting to hear any of the songs 'out of context' beforehand). Good luck with Act 6!

It probably was Savior of the Dreaming Dead, to be honest. It really sells how triumphant Jade's big moment was.

I also loved the section of the track that played during the Perfect Mendicant's transformation. The scene was already epic, but those chords knocked it into twelfth gear.

@krixwell asked: Curiously, as its card was stamped in the punch designix and used to alchemize a worn old hat, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias was "Oh no, not again."

Oh, that is a great pull. I need to reread the Hitchhiker's Guide series again sometime soon.

Anonymous asked: I never made the connection that Aradia's voices could have been coming from the Haidmaid before, but that fits so perfectly. I'm just imagining her summoning up a bunch of ghosts to constantly haunt Aradia and whisper exactly what she "needs" to hear.

That's pretty much what I'm thinking! I don't know if she'd have revealed herself in person, but she was absolutely behind that particular plot.

@aliceoverzero asked: I discovered this blog just before New Years and it's been an incredible binge-read. You've probably noticed by now that Homestuck is one of the most extreme cases of "you can never repeat the experience of reading it for the first time" due to the structures of its mysteries, and this was further amplified by the original reader experience including maddening wild speculation in between each wait for new pages to drop. Your deliberate pace with this liveblog and your willingness to slam the brakes to hyperfixate on details is the closest a returning reader can get to recapturing that feeling, and it's been a good reminder for me about why this comic has been so impactful to me. Thank you for doing this. Now that you've cleared Act 5, it's worth bringing up that while not present in the original panel where the declaration is made, the "most important character in homestuck" moment is expanded in Cascade to show that it includes both Lil Cal and Gamzee. This has prompted a lot of debate about which of them is actually being referred to as the most important character. Also now it's possible to talk about my favorite detail about Doc Scratch. His repeated use of the statement "I am an excellent host" has finally revealed its double-meaning. @leo60228 asked: so, what do you think about the alternate angle we saw the "The most important character in Homestuck fondly regards the miracle of a new beginning." panel from? @elkian asked: You may have received such a comment already, but during the "most important character in Homestuck" scene, Lil Cal was in Gamzee's lap. Either way you slice it, it's correct, but it's interesting to speculate which is meant. (Though ig one also requires considering Cal as a CHARACTER which is a bit unsettling…) Anonymous asked: Jade's laboratory falling seems to mirror Lord English's arrival. Also, in [S] Cascade you can see that Lil' Cal is also watching this happen. Does that make him the most important character in homestuck? @morganwick asked: In light of Cascade and Intermission 2, you might want to consider whether, now that you've seen the "miracle of a new beginning" moment in fuller context, the "most important character in Homestuck" might not have been referring to Gamzee after all…

Thank you!

And... uh, hang on a second. Do you mean what I think you mean?

...ah, fuck.

[nekropsii]

what do you mean by WV being named the mayor? like do people think thats legit his name or??

Yes, more or less. People will call him that exclusively as if it is his name. It is not his name.

A common phrase amongst people who even just respect The Exiles and The Midnight Crew Intermission is "His name is Wayward Vagabond"/"His name is WV", and it's a pretty common observation that when people refer to "Wayward Vagabond" vs. "The Mayor", they are referring to two entirely different characters. (The same applies to "the Alpha Trolls" vs. "The Dancestors". Those are two different character groups, and with similar reasons as to why.)

People who exclusively or nigh exclusively refer to WV as "The Mayor" tend to be viewing him purely from the lens of his dynamic with Dave and Karkat, often turning him into either essentially a child or essentially a dog. In fact, the dog option seems to be quite popular in Kid+Beta Troll-centric Humanstuck/No-SBURB AUs. The Mayor is a cutesy little mute creature with little to no agency or independence that DaveKat can dote on- ignore the overpowering vibes of ableism, that's totally not relevant. Wayward Vagabond is a revolutionary leader and a grown ass man with hobbies, interests, his own independent beliefs, and complex relationships.

There is a difference. His name is Wayward Vagabond.

[ozuzo]

Ultimate Homestuck ask game! (100 questions)

1. When did you start reading Homestuck?

2. What made you want to check it out?

3. Had you heard about Homestuck prior to reading it?

4. What does Homestuck mean to you?

5. Has Homestuck influenced you in any way?

6. What's your fondest Homestuck memory?

7. Have you meet friends through Homestuck?

8. How long did it take you to read Homestuck? Have you read it in its entirety?

9. Fave character? (overall)

10. Least fave character? (overall)

11. Fave "problematic" character?

12.  Fave beta kid?

13. Fave alpha kid?

14. Fave beta troll?

15. Fave dancestor?

16. Fave ancestor?

17. Fave guardian?

18. Fave carapacian?

19. Fave cherub?

20. Fave sprite?

21. A character you'd be friends with?

22. A character you wouldn't be friends with?

23. Fave quirk?

24. Least fave quirk?

25. Fave pesterlog?

26. Fave flash?

27. Fave song/songs?

28. Fave fan song?

29. Fave Broadway Homestuck song?

30. Fave lyricstuck?

31. Fave Homestuck AU?

32. Are there any non Homestuck songs that make you think about Homestuck?

33. Fave fanfic?

34. Fave Homestuck writer/fan artist?

35. Fave ship? (alternatively: fave ship in each quadrant?)

36. Have you read any fan adventures?

37. Have you watched any Homestuck video essays?

38. Who's your patron troll? And do you identify with them in any way?

39. What characters are most like you?

40. If you do cosplay, which Homestuck characters have you done or would like to do?

41. Prospit or Derse?

42. Meat or Candy?

43.  The Felt or The Midnight Crew?

44. Beta kids or alpha kids?

45. Red team or Blue team?

46. Canon or fanon?

47. What's your classpect?

48. Do you like your god tier or would you modify it to better suit your taste?

49. If you were in Homestuck, what would your color and typing quirk be?

50. Your strife specibus?

51. If you have one, what's your chumhandle?

52. What character interactions would you have liked to see/see more of?

53. Do you have a kidsona or trollsona?

54. Have you ever made fan kids or fan trolls?

55. Do you have any Homestuck OCs?

56. What's THE Homestuck reference for you?

57. Quick! You gotta prototype your kernel sprite, what are you dropping in there?

58. Would you play SBURB?

59. Do you think you'd win SBURB?

60. Have you read The Epilogues?

61. Have you read/are you reading Homestuck^2?

62. Have you played Pesterquest?

63. Have you played Hiveswap?

64. Have you played Friendsim?

65. Have you read the Intermission?

66. Have you read Problem Sleuth?

67. Have you read Jailbreak?

68. Have you read Paradox Space?

69. Have you read any of Hussie's other works?

70. What's an aspect of Homestuck you feel you know more about than the average Homestuck fan?

71. What's an aspect of Homestuck you'd like to know more about?

72. What's something you like about the fandom?

73. What's something you dislike about the fandom?

74.  Would you recommend Homestuck to new readers/friends?

75. Do you have any Homestuck memorabilia/merch? (official or not?)

76. A hot take or hill you'd gladly die on?

77. What are your popular opinions?

78. What are your unpopular opinions?

79. If you could canonize one thing and one thing only, what would it be?

80. If you could uncanonize one thing and one thing only, what would it be?

81. Are there any panels you particularly remember or enjoy?

82. Is there any character you like aesthetically, but not personality wise?

83. Is there any character who's grown on you over time?

84. Is there a ship you don't particularly like/straight up hate?

85. Do you have any crackships or rare ships?

86. Any headcanons you'd like to share?

87. Do you have any voice claims for the cast?

88. Did you find any part of Homestuck boring?

89. If you're a creative, do you have any Homestuck related projects?

90. Do you celebrate 413?

91. Do you remember the characters' birthdays?

92. What's your favourite art style within Homestuck?

93.  Karkalicious definition?

94.  Has Homestuck influenced what you look for in fiction?

95. What's a non Homestuck thing that you think has strong Homestuck vibes?

96. Others could clock you as Homestuck fan because [blank].

97. You recognise fellow Homestuck fans because [blank].

98. What's your extended zodiac sign?

99. How normal are you about Homestuck?

100. Will Homestuck stay somewhere inside you forever and ever wherever you go?