#anyway there was this thing i read which i can only assume is a homestuck roleplay exerpt feat karkalicious yes thats his full name and dave

[thewertsearch]

GG: so anyway, that reminds me ive got to talk to john! GG: ive got to get him to make me some new gizmos… TG: no dont bother john TG: hes on like his fuckin TG: wind mission or whatever [...] TG: in any case egbert lost his computer and game disc TG: so he cant do anything for you anyways

I honestly didn't think that was going to be a problem. Dave's Turntop had Sburb preinstalled when he alchemized it, so I assumed John could make another Sburb machine without the need for a disc.

Maybe John just didn't save the code for his computer. Damn it, Egbert!

TG: we just have to think outside the box here [...] TG: [...] honestly i figured wed have to do something like this TG: so i guess here we are doing it GG: doing what?? [...] TG: i need you to deploy something first [...] TG: deploy the intellibeam laserstation

Ooh, I remember that thing.

I originally thought it was a turret - but a turret wouldn't help Jade recover her Sburb devices.

Maybe it's a range-extender for the Sburb Server program, allowing Dave to move his cursor from Rose's house to Jade's, and deploy her gear himself.

TG: it reads captcha codes GG: on the back of cards? TG: yeah GG: but GG: we can already read those! TG: some are too garbled and complicated TG: the human eye cant decipher them

Captcha codes! Hell yes, it's been so long since we've done anything with the Captcha system.

I did always hope that we'd eventually be reading the 'locked' codes we occasionally saw in earlier Acts. The Laserstation breaks one of the final limitations of the Alchemiter, allowing us to duplicate forbidden items like pumpkins - and, notably, Sburb discs.

It also allows us to perform alchemy with these objects. We may have just unlocked some very, very powerful items.

GG: but isnt the whole point of captchas that only humans can read them? GG: and not robots???

Cackling right now.

TG: so the solution to the anti piracy measure is to override the anti spam measure [...] TG: cause god knows the last thing youd want was some web bot being able to figure out the code for like TG: a potted plant

The idea of Sburb alchemy being automated by computers is fascinating beyond words - it just begs so many questions.

Can a computer take on the role of a Server Player, or maintain a Grist Cache for itself? Can an AI be a fully-fledged Player, created in the Veil and sent to Earth on a reinforced hard drive?

We're pretty deep into the comic now, and I can say with a reasonable amount of confidence that Homestuck isn't going to go there - it's just not what the comic is about. But I'd love to read a fanfiction which dealt with ideas like this.

TG: basically robots are in control now TG: which is good news and bad news TG: the bad news is theyre all pornbots and theyve got LOADS of provocative material theyre just dying to share with us GG: whats the good news? TG: thats also the good news

This page came out in 2010

[blaperile]

Homestuck: Beyond Canon (reactions pages 656 - 665)

Ok wow, my mind went ALL OVER the place while (and after) reading this update.

Before starting the update, I expected Vriska to end up in just some kind of generic black space within the Black Hole.

But this… it seems like she's in some kind of Dreambubble emulating her old hive? Except we never saw an ocean, pirate ship or horses near her home. I would rather associate those with memories of pre-retcon Vriska who saw horses in the Dreambubbles and went on this exact same kind of pirate ship on the treasure quest for finding the Plot Hole.

So that thought made me think at first that Vriska was somehow going to encounter her pre-retcon version here.

Though in the meantime abundantChewtoys has seen an interesting Tumblr post which indicates that perhaps this ocean was always there near her hive and we just never saw it, so I'm willing to believe it really does just represent her hive.

But her seeing the SPRITES??? That I DEFINITELY did not expect.

How is that even possible?

Like, I could understand Davepetasprite^2 being here. Last we saw of them they rode Lord English into the black hole, and the only thing we know for sure arrived on Candy Earth was one of Davepeta's feathers. So if Davepeta was still stuck somewhere in the black hole, I could kind of understand that.

But the other sprites?? We haven't seen Erisolsprite since the end of the Game Over timeline, and sure there was speculation that he also survived and came along with LOWAS to the post-retcon timeline, but how would that explain him ending up here??

It makes even less sense with Gcatavrosprite and the Nannasprites, in the official Credits we saw they came to Earth.

But what makes the least sense of ALL is Fefetasprite's presence here. We KNOW she died. She exploded, and the ghosts of Feferi and Nepeta then joined the ghost treasure hunt until they left with Sollux.

So there's no explanation for Fefetasprite physically being here. The only thing I could imagine is that the ghosts of Feferi and Nepeta got stuck in the black hole, and due to Dreambubble-like appearance mumbojumbo majykks (where we know ghosts can just change their clothes) they "changed" into their Fefetasprite form here.

It's notable however that we haven't really seen the Nannasprites, Gcatavrosprite and Fefetasprite (other than a brief emoji) speak yet. And that we haven't actually SEEN Fefetasprite, just the brief emoji dialogue. Is it an indication they are not actually physically there and just some kind of memory/projection? Kind of like how the ghosts behind that window (in reference to Vriska's old kills) are presumably not actually there, and like how Doomed John found (a memory of his) Dad in the Dreambubbles but Dad couldn't actually really be there.

Are ANY of the Sprites actually there, or is Vriska just dreaming/hallucinating?

And are these sprites the Meat versions or Candy versions? ARE there multiple versions of them or not (I would except there are, at least for the Nannasprites and Gcatavrosprite here)?

It's also interesting to note that there's no indication yet that Arquiusprite is here. It's still the question how he eventually ends up with Caliborn to be sucked into Lil Cal (I think there was a theory he placed himself into Lil Seb?).

Also, no Jasprosesprite^2. I mean, we know in the Meat timeline she was on Earth and went on her side adventure with Jane. But even if we assume there's no separate Candy Jasprosesprite^2, take into account that the Jaspersprite in there is from the pre-retcon timeline and we never really found out what happened to the post-retcon Jaspersprite.

God, there's just so many questions about this.

Anyway, if the Sprites are going to help Vriska do some reflection, does it mean they're going to try and teach her about the lessons her pre-retcon version learned? Are they going to make her REMEMBER, and open up to her ultimate self?

I'm really curious where this is going, and just how much of the above will actually be explained haha

[valle-de-sombra-de-muerte]

Homestuck Reread: Act 2, Part 1/3 (p. 249-439)

Read the previous post here.

From this point on, these successive Act breakdowns will be spread across multiple posts. Act 1 is easily the shortest Act at 248 pages, so I was able to fit everything in one post. I think I just barely made it under the image limit. Anyway, let's move right along to Act 2.

I didn't discuss Rose's character in the last post, so I think this is a good time to talk about her. She strikes me as a bit of a "gifted kid" that was always ahead of her peers in terms of academics. She's bookish and more educated than her friends, a fact that she flaunts by utilizing her robust vocabulary and making allusions that go over other peoples' heads.

She must love having a dullard like John as a friend. He's too dumb to cotton onto her pretentious, ridiculous metaphors. She can act like a pseud all she wants and he'd never question it. He just sees big words, assumes she's talking about something far beyond his understanding, and laughs it off. To him, she just comes across as very smart, which is precisely the image of herself she wants to cultivate for others. Having someone like that in her close friend group must give her immense validation.

This GameFAQs guide is a great showcase of her big ego. She uses multiple paragraphs full of unnecessary verbiage to deliver a simple introduction. "My introduction will be sparse" my ass! Imagine trying to scour through this while meteors are crashing down all around you. Even though nobody who reads this is going to survive, she still insists on making a big spectacle of things and flexing her skills as a writer.

And yet, she's so secretive of her private writings, refusing to let the reader even look at them. Her persona of being a highbrow intellectual obsessed with psychoanalysis is all a facade, something she uses to conceal her genuine interests (wizards and fantasy).

I guess what I'm trying to say with all this is that even though Rose comes across as garrulous and self-important, she's still a more fleshed out character than John.

I severely dislike these little walk-around segments. Normally I'm a fan of point-and-click adventure games, but this feels so clunky and not fun to move around in. You explore them the first time and have no inclination to do so ever again. I can't even find any worthwhile dialogue clicking on any of the objects. It's a waste of time. I'm glad there's only one other page like this later on before Hussie switches to the "Alterniabound" design.

Rose exposits this fantastical scenario John has found himself in, as well as the impending danger threatening the rest of the world. All he has to say about it is "wow, ok." I can't deal with this kid, man. He must've been lobotomized shortly after birth or something.

He has more of a reaction to Rose seemingly forgetting his birthday than to any of the other crazy shit currently happening. He doesn't even thank her for helping to save his life. This reread is really making me hate John.

John seems to draw the line at following potentially life-threatening commands. Though I somehow think this has more to do with WV having gained control of the command console at this point in the story. Unlike Rose or the reader, WV has a very rude and authoritative way of typing commands that upsets John. I wonder if he'd have less reservations crossing the catwalk if Rose told him to do it.

Here's the beginning of the "Fedorafreak Saga" where this man is shown to survive the cataclysm brought on by Sburb. It's kind of a fun little diversion, but there's no real payoff to it.

"especially ethnic wedding" is another crazy Rose quote. Also this GameFAQs guide continues to be incredibly word-dense and not at all conducive to helping players succeed in this literal life-or-death scenario. Especially when they're on a time limit.

For narrative purposes, it's just info-dumping all the technicalities of the various Sburb mechanics. It really isn't worth reading, in my opinion. The game mechanics might be one of the least interesting parts of Homestuck to me. I don't want to get bogged down reading about how an alchemiter works.

Besides, we saw all these mechanics in action during Act 1; it's unnecessary to read about all of it again. This sort of thing should be reserved for supplemental material, not as a part of the work itself.

Dave be spittin' bars here. I don't think enough acknowledgement is given to Dave's rhymes. I think they're pretty funny. I'd like to hear someone actually rap them over a beat.

Dave continues to make reference to his and Rose's flirting. John is tired of hearing about it.

needleKind might be a contender for the dumbest kind abstratus since knitting needles aren't even sharp. I wonder if Hussie was even aware of that. Probably not or else he wouldn't have included that "filet a sword fish" line.

All the creature entries in the Grimoire are funny, but this one takes the cake. Every sentence here is gold.

This is a nice passage that I like a lot. It seems to relate to Rose's quest to "play the rain" later on in the story. I'll talk more about it when I reach that part, but it was always a part of the story that I wanted to see come to fruition and it burned me that it never did.

However, reading this passage and noting how it actually does foreshadow Rose's reluctance and ultimate failure to play the rain does help ease the sting a little bit. It is thematically relevant to Rose's character for her to put on this grandiose display of competence only to fumble when put on the spot. She's a kid who's way in over her head, something that applies to many of Homestuck's characters.

Unfortunately, it's capped off with the fourth instance of this dumb misattributed quote gag. The Charles Barkley detail is part of another running gag where all the kids are associated with a black celebrity, Charles Barkley in Rose's case. It's weird and I don't get it.

Dave swoops in from nowhere and interrupts Rose's scene to do his intro. Like Rose, he also disobeys the reader's commands, going so far as to slice apart the text box when the joke name is typed in. (Insufferable Prick... now where have I heard that before?)

(Rose's joke name "Flighty Broad" was also based on a line Dave called her before).

Dave's interest in photography and dead things don't manifest nearly as often as his love of rapping and music. He specifically likes obscure bands because he's a hipster doofus. Funnily enough, I don't see as many people call him a hipster as often as they do to other characters like say, Eridan.

Dave never does bleat like a goat by the comic's end, does he?

Dave, despite outwardly acting like an aloof jackass most of the time, really does care about his friends. I think that's part of the reason he's always been my favorite out of the kids.

I love that Clubs Deuce just flails about uselessly when the Midnight Crew are all beating the shit out of each other.

In Dave and Rose's first pesterlog, Rose immediately suggests Dave might be gay because he's been ignoring her. Unlike John, Dave is able to keep up with Rose's repartee and the results are some of the better written pesterlogs in the whole comic. I love the chemistry between these two so much. Dave is less cerebral than Rose, but he's just as intelligent. He's able to see past her shit and challenge her instead of being awed by her intellect. She in turn also sees right through his own mask of "irony" and tries to poke holes in it.

Their friendship seems the strongest out of the whole group; Dave even mentions that he knows who's messaging him before he checks the Pesterchum window. In previous conversations with John, he acts as though Rose is a nuisance and that she's always bugging him, but here we see them get along very well. At no point does he attempt to brush her off or weasel out of the conversation.

For Rose's part, Dave isn't some sycophant or a dupe who's swayed by her way with words. He's someone she can respect, someone who can match her mentally, and someone who loves typing out over the top metaphors just as much as she does. It's likely refreshing for her to be around someone like that, which is why she's always pursuing him for conversation.

Ah, I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to further gush about these two as I progress through the story. For now, let's keep moving.

Oh don't worry, she'll hold you to that promise.

Rose responds to Dave's earlier interruption with one of her own and we're back to her perspective again. Even meta-textually, they go back and forth with each other.

For an aspiring psychoanalyst, Rose is quick to dismiss the idea that her mother's behavior is motivated by anything except spite. Rose's mom knows her daughter loves wizards, so she buys all this wizard memorabilia in the hopes it'll make her happy. Rose, refusing to believe her mom feels genuine love toward her, twists these gestures into ones of malice and mockery. Teenagers, am I right?

This is similar to how John's dad displays all that harlequin junk in the house to please his son, even though John can't stand any of it. Parents not understanding their children is a classic theme in Homestuck.

Rose acting utterly deranged in response to her mom's sincere, albeit excessive, displays of affection.

Dave's conversation with Jade is void of all the wit and chemistry present in his talk with Rose. Here he strips himself of his sardonic, crude side because he is a dumb teenage boy fawning over the "nice girl" to get in her good graces.

Jade is just... I don't think I can put off talking about her for much longer. Perhaps in the next post I'll explain my gripes with her character.

I'm not sure what to make of Mom Lalonde's "ironic negligence" where she offers Rose her martini. Is she playing into Rose's idea of her as an incompetent mother, or is she just that drunk right now?

I don't think that Mom is the perfect parent, mind you. She does come across as emotionally distant and constantly intoxicated. To compensate for that, she showers Rose with gifts, which isn't exactly a good substitute for proper parenting, well-intentioned as it may be.

Mom isn't perfect, but she's trying. Rose's insistence that she's some kind of spiteful, passive-aggressive mastermind is pure delusion on her part.

Dave trusts Rose enough to tell her that he doesn't like his brother's puppets as much as he lets on. Very interesting for someone who is so hesitant to drop his mask around others.

Also, Rose reveals that she likes his brother's puppet porn websites.

Oh no! Yeah, really selling that distress, John.

He has a bigger negative reaction to being told to eat some cookies than he does to finding out his father had been kidnapped. If I was in Rose's place, I'd be losing my mind.

In this first third of Act 2, it still suffers from the same PS-esque jokes and video game references. John is still aggravatingly dull and his conflict with WV is unfunny and interrupts the pace.

But the stakes are also getting higher, the plot is progressing, and the cast is expanding with two much stronger characters. Overall, I think this is a step up so far.

Read the next post here.

[1007xf]

With the 4th of August just around the corner, I was thinking about a little something The Tapestry does that I really like and that is its portrayal of how it is to be a weird lonely little nerd.

Warning comically huge rant. I wasn't planning for it to be this long. I do not know what possessed me. It's 2:30 in the morning.

In Homestuck proper, the beta kids are also lonely kids who only really have eachother, however Homestuck's setting kind of obscures this fact because Beta Earth, really, truly, feels empty. Unless there is something I'm forgetting (I haven't read actual Homestuck in a while, oops. I should really re-read.) Beta Earth is just normal 2009 Earth. And you can see that if you look at all of the cultural references in it. Earth Beta isn't empty because all of John's shitty movies had to have been produced by someone, because someone had to have been frequenting Bro's weird puppet porn website, because we literally see other human beings talk trough the Internet on Dad's PDA and such (I wonder whatever happened to fedoraFreak haha). Beta Earth isn't objectively empty, of course. Yet it feels like so, because its main cast seems to only superficially exist in it. You could probably assume John, Rose and Dave all went to school (funnily enough I looked it up and April 13th 2009 was a Monday. Damn brats, skipping middle school so they can contribute to the creation of a new Universe.) because that's what kids their age do (Jade doesn't count for obvious reasons). Yet we never really seem to see or hear about all that. These kids only interact with eachother and their guardians (well, the living ones anyway), and so it's hard to see Beta Earth as a planet with a living breathing ~6880 billion humans on it. It's really more of a cardboard cutout of Earth, where the idea of culture and people is there, but none of the moving parts are present.

And so, it really feels like, even though Jade is the only one who is actually secluded, all 4 kids live in isolation, their only window to social interaction being their computers and the Pester Chum client. It feels like John, Rose, Dave and Jade are the only real individuals on Earth, because even their guardians don't feel like much more than placeholders or just vessels for one joke or stereotype. And this makes it seem like the kids are placed in this impossible full yet empty world, which is not something any of us are living in (I hope so!).

Most lonely people aren't alone . You can't say Homestuck's portrayal of loneliness, especially at that young pre-teen to teen age is accurate because it literally feels like the cast is alone (sans Jade bla bla I said this already) and so of course they'd be lonely. In any case, it portrays being lonely (take a shot everytime I write this word. Or don't! It depends on how suicidal you're feeling at this particular moment) all the same, just in a different (and less likely) way.

And with that bigger than I expected speil about Homestuck out of the way, let's get to the actual post. It has been said already the The Tapestry is an amazing MSPFA on so many fronts, but I'll say it again, just because it deserves it. The Tapestry is great, go read it if you haven't.

The main cast of the comic (sadly not counting Sedranovel, Limeweld and Expanaiver. I know they're technically also protagonists but they just.... don't really fit the idea I'm trying to portray here. Sorry!) is also 4 youths who play a God Damn Game. They're aliens too, but they're "like a human but..." type of alien, so their world is not all that different form ours. And a thing you'll notice right away as you start reading the comic is the emphasis that is placed on the worldbuilding, from the grand aspects like the the Solar System on the alien world and its geographical and political structure to the minute aspects like a mecha anime or the educational system of just one of many nations. Right of the bat, unlike Beta Earth, Siltsphere is bustling with life, culture, conflict. It helps that we also get to literally see other setyrs, lots of them in fact. It's nice eye candy, since they're usually part of the huge sweeping landscape scenery porn pages, but it's also a stark reminder of what is at stake. All of the supernatural fuckery afoot now affects not only the protagonists but also a planets entire civilization.

And yet, the main cast seems to gravitate towards eachother only. And unlike in Homestuck, we know that they have acquaintances and that they talk to others. Sosav mentions her neighbors, Handa makes friends with the pagan kids at his school, Deime tries (and fails) to connect with his countrymen. They have a form of social lives, each different, but they exist and they acknowledge the existence of a complex world with lots of real individuals. But they're all best friends with eachother. Oenia mentions that she doesn't really have friends outside of the other 3 and I think this is true for all of them.

Each off the 4 main characters is a bit weird and they're all definitely huge nerds. That is to say, they're all very passionate about their interests. And, sadly, intense passion, especially when directed at something not viewed as necessary to society, can sometimes be very alienating. Because most of the time it's hard to find someone who shares the same spark of love for that thing. I think Handa illustrates this problem the best, what with his... I want to say inferiority complex but that sounds kind of mean haha. He definitely loves history and art, and he is good at them too. Excellent, really. And yet, we hardly see him proud of his achievements. Because he thinks that his talents are a waste of time and energy, because they're not "necessary". Because those passions don't prepare you for a "real job". Because the world goes round thanks to the work of scientists, not artists. This is all really relatable to me personally, to a scarily accurate degree. And this sort of thinking is sisyphean, really. Because you'll reach a high where you think you did good, where you look at your art and say "wow, I've gotten better, this genuinely looks good!", but then the little shitty voice at the back of your mind will remind you that drawing won't help you solve cancer or launch rockets or whatever and therefore you're useless to society. And if this thinking sounds dramatic that's because that's how it is. Sosav literally calls Handa out on this, which shines a light on the fact that, since Handa lives in an almost-utopia society, he really shouldn't have to worry about stuff like that. And he shouldn't, but he does, because this line of thinking doesn't make sense anyway!

I wrote all that just for one of the characters! Imagine if sat down to dissect the others too. I could write 3 different posts just about Deime. But I won't because then I'll probably forget what the point of the post actually is. Yeah, there's a point. Remember the point? Jesus.

The point about being a lonely stupid nerdy kid. Like I said before, being super into something can sort of isolate you from your peers, because it's just hard to connect with those you don't have a lot in common with. But that doesn't mean you won't talk. You'll greet eachother, have meaningless conversations about whatever during recess, maybe you'll even hang out outside of school. But, really, there will never be anything there. Because it just feels like your brains are wired differently. Of course, I feel like the parallel to neurodiversity is starting to become obvious here. I'd say more, but I'm not an expert and while I do suspect that I am neurodivergent myself, I was never and probably will never be diagnosed by a professional, so I can't really say I'm in a position to write about this.

That's how you become lonely without being alone. And it's worse, because you'll see the people (or setyrs, I guess) in front of you and they're your age, and they're just like you, and they're going trough the same life experiences, but there just isn't any spark there. The thread to connect to them just isn't long enough.

That's why you need other weirdo nerds in your life. And thank fuck for the Internet. Because otherwise, where would I be ranting into the void about some fancomic to probably one or two people, or maybe just myself? Hah.

The main characters are all into very different things and they're from pretty different environments, yet they seem to click together anyway. And it's because I think when you're a passionate nerd, seeing someone just like you makes you admire them. And they don't have to be way better or more skilled than you, they could be just at your level, yet you feel enamoured by their passion nonetheless and they feel the same for you and that's friendship! Handa admires Sosav for her physics knowledge and Oenia for her art improvement, Deime, despite his bickering with Handa, definitely recognizes his (comically potent) art skills and Oenia is amazed by Deime's "search engine skills". It's all really cute. I love it when in bigger groups of friends you can tell that everyone is friends with everyone and they all have unique relationships with eachother.

That being said, I believe that, miraculously, I may be reaching the end of my... whatever this is. This thought vomit. This is mainly just me writing down whatever came to mind with only a rough idea of what I wanted to say. Is more or less a clusterfuck but I did manage to say some things I had on the brain. High chance there's grammar or spelling mistakes in here I didn't catch on my proofread, so sorry for that. Good night 👋 and read da damn comic.

[hydrate-or-diedrate]

Day 11 of reading homestuck wahoo yippee

Just for fun, I did some doodles during class uwu

Karkat is literally the crybabyest of all the characters so far its adorable. Hes cried like 3 or 4 times now I think and the only other character to have cried on screen did it once lol. Too many feelings for his liddol body so he gets rid of them by yelling <3

My friend was making fun of me earlier because she witnessed me getting a new blorbo in real time x)

Anyway onto reading

Ughhhhhh hi Scratch

Is this scratched CD gag Andrew's way of saying act 5 act 2 was going on for too long/he got tired of writing it normally, or is this concept plot important lol

Not to be a Vriska hater but YEAH TEREZI BEAT HER UP

This truly is fuckin kill murder dead town right now

Goddammit Terezi, I believed in you. I still love and adore you but 😔

And then Rose is trying to take out Jack which I assume will not go well

Scratch what the hell does "8^y" mean? 8 to the power of y, with y being a variable? Or is it just a silly little face? TF

Shut the fuck up Scratch, John's jokes are great

NO SCRATCH YOU DONT GET TO CASUALLY GLOSS OVER THE TROLL'S HIDEOUT BEING DESTROYED I NEED TO MOURN THEM

I LITERALLY JUST GOT THOSE BLORBOS, DAMMIT 😭

Oh okay, so it's 8^y is just 8⁸..?

Woah okay that's quite a few sparkles. Idk man, gotta be at least 12

Okay Vriska go off, get his ass

Okay Scratch it seems you might be suggesting that this (the timeline in which half my blorbos killed either themselves or eachother) is not the alpha timeline

YEAH TEREZI I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT

AJJDGDJKDV KARKAT JUST IN THE BACKGROUND SCARED SHITLESS

Nice dress, Kanaya

GO AWAY GAMZEE

Yeah yeah we get it you're a God or whatever

Vriska stop being so desperate omg

SLICK FFS

Okay Scratch I can respect the beatdown

Hoooooooh boy, hi Karkat :(

And bye bye Gamzee, I see that blood on Karkat's face

Okay so Rose stole the suicide mission, so I'm assuming she's confirmed dead until proven otherwise

Oh? Or not?

Okay, John giving Vriska(dead) a tour is kinda cute

Oh? New denizens lore?

Okay wow there's a lot of these scrapbook pictures to look through

DAVE YOU FUCKHEAD YOU PROMISED

Aww, it's the John that died at the denizen

Dead John talked to Typheus? 👀👀👀

Oh I don't like this hopping around

Uh oh y'all, CueBall is in the backrooms

Wow (past) Gamzee just casually suggesting making out like that's not a big thing for (past) Tavros

Karkat is so mean to himself, poor guy :(

Oh gosh fucked up Gamzee is back

Okay Gamzee so are you saying it's actually YOUR fault?

Okay and now ancestor lore? I really need to make a new reblog before I manage to lose all the stuff I already typed

[mandy4ever69420]

i would like to see the og version :D

man if yr sure. anyway i do love fanfiction i think it's fun but i am the weirdest person to be talking about fanfiction.

i find fanfiction to be a really fascinating medium TBH it can tell you a lot about people what they look for and write about. and one thing i learned watching shameless is that the general vibe of shameless is pretty much what i want out of a fanfic. like, watching it i remember specifically thinking "this is what i'd been literally looking for reading xyz" which is a little weird for shameless fanfiction, no? fanfic as a medium has its own genre conventions so most (not all) (i <3 conceptual fic) fanfictions intentionally or not make their stories slightly more like fanfiction than like the source material. normal. Funny enough, the fanfic that's most closely ever actually matched the tone of shameless to me was written for homestuck

the MAIN THING i want to say about. the way i read fanfiction. and the fact that i am a lunatic. is that like. i kind of became an expert for some reason in sniffing out people's political and social biases really fast. and i can sometimes spend more time psychoanalyzing an author than i do worrying about the story. this comes up a lot when the law ever gets involved but also just.. you can tell exactly where someone is on their "how to be gay" journey by how they write it. i think what people write as escapism can in general tell you more about what they consider normal/safe/acceptable than if they just tried to explain to you their beliefs (see: are there royals/rich people as protagonists? what is the time period being discussed?)

BUT wrt fanfiction's genre conventions id make note that most fanfiction is very much in the romcom niche. which is a super disrespected genre in film/published lit in the same way and for the same reasons fanfic gets dismissed a lot. erotica is also a very frequently dismissed and disrespected genre. not only are romances seen as frivolous, but sex as shameful or cheap. <-also relevant to the way that sex work is dismissed when ex. working in an amazon warehouse takes as much or more of a toll on someone's body.

1 thing i love to see is weird niche interests and jobs. lots of opportunities in a fully freeform zero interest groups/showrunners/advertisers genre to get someone explaining the intricacies of being a mail carrier or quality controlling machinery. it's always frustrating to me to see rock stars and secret agents when we have all the time in the world to get sunshine cleaning (2008) with it.

it's also a good format for more or less endless speculation development and character moments. which is what fanfiction was built for. in published work there has to be a ticking clock to keep the audience's (and network exec's) attention, but you can assume if someone looked something up, you already have their attention. that's not to say not going for a plot-heavy conflictful story, just that there's no need to build in a requirement end/goal. you have all the time in the world because you're not batting to get a new season. no shark jumping required. <- this is somewhere that shows like mr. robot and the bear really fuck up i think. if your end goal would finish your story, you can't make meaningful moves towards it without losing your renewal & your plot is sort of barred from going anywhere or doing anything, while also demanding that you try every time

unfortunately for a lot of fanfiction FOR ME though is that sometimes the "make things sweeter" impulse that comes with the genre (part of the genre) (not necessarily a writing flaw) tends to put me off a bit. it's a big part of what i love in shameless: when someone is in the hospital it's a bit more "waiting room filling out forms and trying not to look at other people crying" and less "patiently waiting by your bedside with roses". something about detailing the shitty terrible sides of situations that pop up a lot in romances really scratches a specific itch in my brain. this contradicts the romcom genre in some ways (though there are romcoms that do this sort of thing)

i also happen to love AUs. im literally like an AU guy. though for me one of the most important things to keep in mind is matching tone, i really dont like when things get changed in terms of what they FEEL like. into like, something that isn't weird and pathetic and fucked up. SAD!

i'm also unreasonably resentful of retcons/AUs to avoid a sad thing happening. i think stories are better when all the horrible shit absolutely happened and the ending is good anyway. it's a kinder way to look at trauma to me. the person who lived through the worst thing you can imagine can live in a happy story! i also just love to feel a little bit like i'm eating glass with fiction.

(also, specifically for shameless, i've noticed this intense impulse some people have to definitively characterize mickey as not a rape or hate crime survivor. it's an attempt to make a story "happier" that also happens to ignore how horrifying to me mickey sleeping with women in other contexts is. what happened with svetlana is in some ways a literalization of the kinds of social pressure that mickey was always under. best description i can think of is "how far away is the gun?" -- a lot of the "reasoning" for AUs as to why mickey wouldn't have been hate crimed comes across weirdly like victim blaming - i know that's not what people mean, but it's what you're saying when you say "if it weren't for ian, mickey never would've let his guard down like that" - his guard wasn't down, he made all the right choices wherever he could, and ian canonically blaming himself doesn't mean he was right about it. i also think the idea that mickey would otherwise be too smart or too tough to make the "mistake" of getting caught shows some messed up ideas about what people think of real world people who do survive hate crimes and abuse.)

fanfiction is very much the sort of thing that is for having a mental breakdown of the eating ice cream on the couch variety. obviously talking about fanfiction having romanticized tropes is like watching a mob movie and being like "whys there so many italians here" so i'm aware that's just genre.

ANYWAY TO MY OWN PERSONAL INSANE NICHE: DIALECT!

this is about fanfiction, AND gif and television captioning. people mix up mickey's working class white dialect with AAVE a LOT. working class and Black american dialects certainly interact a lot and have similarities, but they're not the same. also AAVE has a lot of complexities and nuances that speakers of other dialects definitely borrow from where something like standard american is lacking. i'm not an L1 speaker of AAVE but i do notice myself borrowing where a structure is just much, much clearer than anything else. al7ayaa hek

there are ways in which an lot of these mixups make sense. especially with gifmakers/captioners/authors who happen to be british. mickey DOES use double negatives (btw, this is a feature of many languages, including closely related german) occasionally (i think), and famously "you ain't window shopping" but i can't think of any occasion where he uses a construction like habitual "be" or a "you been a pain in the ass the whole time i known you" (made up example) he also doesn't exempt "have" from "where the hell have you been", he just reduces it to a single schwa sound.

when mickey says "doesn't mean i'm gonna wear a dress" it's absolutely true that he's not articulating the "s" and taken purely literally "don't" is closer to what you heard. culturally, however, "don't" has a different pronunciation than "doesn't" in a way unrelated to the "s". the biggest difference is in the vowel. so mickey's "doesn't" is "glottal stop-schwa-syllabic N-glottal stop" where as "don't" written in that same spot gramatically will read as "d-oʊ-glottal stop"

shameless netflix captioners do something similar with lip. he gets captioned as "aight" a lot when he doesn't articulate "lr" - technically, literally, closer to his actual utterance. but the connotations bring up a different pronunciation entirely. lip isn't white boy carl.

i think unfortunately in addition to being mistakes made by people with little understanding of or exposure to the details of AAVE these can often be based on people's assumptions about what a poor or "criminal" or "uneducated" accent sounds like, moreso than on actual observation of speech patterns. which is just like. a slightly subtler form of racism

anyway. since i'm on this topic i just want to mention that i'm fairly sure ian's speech changes in s10/11 to be more similar to mickey's. i haven't been taking very careful note of his speech patterns but i think it's cute.

[nutzworth]

every so often i get reminded of my ex friend rose who drifted apart from our friend group around 2022... and i get SO MAD i start spouting steam from my ears and everything. its such a specific scenario but im going to explain it because im crazy

ive known her for like literally years. weve been friends at least since 2017 when our friend group was SUPER into undertale and we had a minecraft world where we were cringe and awesome we were just kids. everything is SO cringe. you have to understand this

and everyone continues to be friends etc etc i dont remember a lot from 2020-2021 but i get into homestuck and rose is crazy about danganronpa and like chucky and icp and stuff like that. assorted nonsense. at this point im CRAZY crazy about homestuck. rose reads a little bit of homestuck. she plays danganronpa and the sims and valorant. we text every day on discord in the friend group discord server. she helps me cosplay dirk strider for the first time with her knowledge from cosplaying danganronpa. its still cringe as hell admittedly but by god were we free

and then..... well rose lived around the same area as the friend group did. most of them anyway. but in 2021? late 2021 ish? she MOVED AWAY. to a little further. to where its kind of a hassle to visit. and she moves schools. and then she TURNS NORMAL!!!!!!!!!!!

i only see her via tiktok and instagram which are like notoriously fake apps to see people on. but shes NORMAL. shes those girls at school that are normal. my definition of normal is wildly general seeing as im totally in the top 10 weirdos in my grade but you have to trust me. shes NORMAL!!!!!!!! and she gets a girlfriend thats normal too. the girlfriend is not weird or cringe at all. i meet her and its WEIRD. cus shes normal and im weird and its its its. you get me

anyway while she turns normal she also drifts away from the friend group and eventually we dont talk. like ever anymore. and it DRIVES ME UP THE WAAAAALL!!!!!!! HOW CAN YOU BE THAT NORMAL? AFTER EVERYTHING? how how how. how can you have friends that dont even like KNOW what tumblr is. i assume. i dont know them but thats my guess. they LOOK normal TO ME. how can you cosplay danganronpa and read some pages of homestuck and and talk about sans x komaeda and go on discord and fuck around on minecraft and then BE NORMAL? AFTER THAT? COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thats my main gripe. i dont understand it at all. weirdos that KNOW what danganronpa and homestuck are cant just... cant just BE normal. and obviously i dont know what shes like behind closed doors but from how she was acting WHILE we were drifting apart shes just regular. and normal. and not a weirdo freak like the rest of us anymore. whaaaat what what what what HOW POSSIBLY!!! i dont understand. it makes me so mad. how can you simply move schools and then be normal.

what goes through her head... like is she happy... was she happier with us than them? does she hate us now? i looked at her tiktok and she posted this like tiktok trend(?) thing? and its like "love is not my ex and my old friends .... love is my girlfriend :heart:" like is she talking about us? does she not love us? i love her still. i dont know if ill ever stop loving all of my old friends. did she love us? in the moment? she helped me style a cringe ass dirk strider wig for halloween. she made me play your turn to die. does she still care about us? is she mad that we were mean toward her sometimes? shes sensitive. weve all known this. but we were only like 13 or something. does she blame us? does she think we were cringe? does she think we ARE cringe? does she regret it? does she miss it? uuugh ugh ugh ugh ugh. IM CRAZY. about her. ohh my god. i dont know her at all and i dont know if i ever will again. i wonder if she still thinks of us. i wonder if shes relieved shes not with us anymore. i wonder i wonder i wonder (head buried in hands)

[dirt-str1der]

Three am me is such a fuckinf klutz i tiptoe through my kitchen and manage to stub my toe on everything on the floor anyway it might have something to do with all the lights being off

[nimsabeef]

davekat isn't a bad couple, actually

okay, i am bored and sleep deprived and i just went through @davekat-sucks's blog. this is a recipe for disaster. sigh. hope you don't mind me doing this ms. davekat sucks, its just that some of your takes were so frigid i just couldn't bring myself to ignore them. various thoughts under the cut

first off, id like to say that this not an attempt to blame you for making this blog, or for disliking davekat. you can ship whatever the fuck you want and express your opinion however you like. i actually really appreciate the courage. fuck yeah, go against the status quo. post about a controversial topic. fandom would be boring without people like you. but the thing is, your takes are so cold bestie. they are straight up frigid. i am so sorry but the sight of them got me freezing and shaking uncontrollably

why do you base so much of your criticism around hs2 and the epilogues whilst simultaneously claiming they're badly written and shouldn’t be canon? YES their characterisations were fucked in post-canon. that's the case for most characters!! it's kind of hypocritical to use post-canon as a basis to bash davekat and then turn around and completely disregard that when it comes to pairings like roxygen or rosemary. guess what! they were fucked over by post-canon too! and yet you're not going around claiming that johnroxy sucks, even though john basically abandoned roxy and cheated on her. you're not going around claiming rosemary is a horrible pairing because of the yiffy fiasco in homestuck 2. and you still like those ships. so do i!!

hs2 turned davekat into some kind of fanservice generator and robbed dave and karkat of most of their personalities, i agree. but that's because hs2 fucking sucks. they did that for most of the character anyway. why does it only matter to you when it's davekat? much to think about.

so yeah. im not going to address the criticism pertaining to the epilogues and beyond. im not defending them

another thing you keep bringing up is dave hating quadrants which, jesus fucking christ. it makes me doubt you have any reading comprehension skills. the label felt alien to him, yes. he initially rejected the concept because it seemed weird and off-putting, probably, and that's normal. most of the kids thought troll culture was weird at first. and! he didn't break up with terezi because he hated quadrants! he just doesn't like the polygamous aspect of it.

but let's suppose for the sake of argument that he actually, canonically, hates quadrants. what would that even mean? would that imply he would never get into a relationship with a troll, seeing as those would technically be quadrants? or that he doesn't feel any kind of quadrant-related romantic attraction? both of these were proven wrong by canon because: 1) he willingly got into a matespritship with terezi 2) humans can feel pale, pitch, and red attraction; they just label it differently. karkat elaborates on that in a conversation with john, probably around act6 act5. and davekat doesnt even fall squarely under any quadrant, so this is all pointless lol

one other point you brought up was that as soon as they got close to one another on the meteor, they stopped being active in the plot and disregarded all of the issues their friends were dealing with, proving that their relationship was lazy writing which caused their development to stagnate. this is a good point! but when you look into it, that's not really what happened.

the beta kids and the surviving trolls all began blending into the background during act 6 as the story began focusing on the alpha kids. most of them were sitting around, not particularly doing anything relevant, because there was nothing relevant to be done except for waiting. like kanaya, or davesprite, for example.

you mention that it was ooc for dave and karkat not to help terezi while she was getting abused. the thing is, terezi tried to keep her relationship with gamzee under wraps. she didn't really succeed at that, but people still didn't know exactly what was going on with them at first. karkat wasn't even told about it. he didn't even know she was dating gamzee up until very late into the trip. dave had just broken up with her and didn't know much about troll quadrants by that point, so he probably just thought it was all kismesis shit and didn't want to intrude. again, if he had known what was really going on, he probably would have intervened, but he only had a vague idea about it since terezi wasn't open about her relationship with gamzee. that is, up until the very end of the trip, and by that point dave and karkat WERE trying to encourage her.

you mention that they also didn't help rose with her addiction, but dave was trying! he spent a whole scene trying to get her to drink less! (the one right before the rosemary kiss)

but the thing is. most of the meteor shenanigans happened off screen, so we're not certain of anything. but again, for the sake of argument, let's assume they actually weren't even trying to help their friends. why would that matter? why would the fact that they weren't rushing to fix all of their friends emotional issues have any impact on their feelings for each other? they're traumatised teenagers, they make mistakes! theyre flawed characters!

kanaya didnt try to help terezi with the gamzee situation either. she didnt try to contact the ship either. instead, she spent most of her time with rose. does that make rosemary a horrible pairing? is it ooc for rose and kanaya? from what i've seen, this doesnt seem to be your opinion on the subject.

yeah that’s basically it. you don’t need to respond, but a response would be welcome. thank you for reading!

[metellastella]

In Honor of Deltarune Chapter 2, Lemme tell you about exactly HOW world-breaking Chara really was, and IS.

Here's the thing about Chara. It is implied that they are THE PLAYER's insatiable thirst for new video game worlds (or, they have latched onto it). As in, they accompany the player to the next world they go to.

Direct quote:

"HP. ATK. DEF. GOLD. EXP. LV. Every time a number increases, that feeling . . . That's me. Chara. Now, we have reached the absolute. There is nothing left for us here. Let us erase this pointless world, and move on to the next." i.e.: Let US move on to the next.

Every time THE PLAYER conquers and sets aside a new game . . . they have effectively DESTROYED it. Because they do not "exist" unless they are played and interacted with. Also, they only exist up until the end of the game anyway (most of the time)

And- I say usually- no matter how many times THE PLAYER plays a game- they will eventually tire of it. Also, if they play 500 games in their lifetime . . . it is unlikely they will re-play that many consistently. Plus, add on random internet "mini" games.

Now, that's only considering ONE player.

But since Chara is a multi-dimensional being, because they are aware of other worlds . . . it's not much of a stretch to say that the millions of people who are carrying around Chara "with" them count . . . as Chara.

Bill Cipher, from Gravity Falls, to my knowledge, despite his reality-warping godly demon powers, makes no such 4th wall shattering and domineering claim.

Let's assume for sanity's sake, that this current dimension you're sitting in and reading this screen on is the primary reality. There ARE no dimensions higher than this. All others are contained within human imagination. Bill Cipher was Created by a Creator.

All the 'lower' dimensions we can muck around in as basically gods. (gods or demigods either incarnate as weaklings, or come about some other way, in many mythologies, but then grow steadily stronger to realize their godhood. Ya know, Hercules. Krishna. In Hinduism. That sort of thing.) We can travel between dimensions on a whim by flipping a switch. With enough Determination, we can ALWAYS reach the end. Now, sometimes collaboration does expand these universes a little bit- through comics and fanfiction. But even these created 'higher spheres' nearer to this primary dimension, author 'omniscience' is taken as a given. Actually there is some debate about that, given the real-world phenomenon of novel writers in some cases having no clue where characters are taking them . . . they just sit down to write with a kernel of an idea. That's how I operate, for instance. In that case, they somehow have had their 'future sight' that should be default as a god, blocked. People who outline plots and know where they're going with a story beforehand, and then create characters to fill in the gaps, they're the type of 'gods' that could tell their characters future events, if they wanted to. Anyway. Back to video games specifically, and their fandoms. There is only so much CONTENT and it can always be recorded and shared. So there is still a limting factor.  Here's the weird thing about Undertale. You are there as a 'god.' Just as usual. That's nothing special. You're just there to muck around. But. The whole toe-curling horror aspect UT was demonstrating, for specific characters NPCs who realize this sobering fact . . . such as Asgore and Sans, they are driven to despair, mental instability, and in two cases, suicide, by the fact.

If Homestuck is considered a "game" that is destroyed once you reach the end? It is rolled into all of this as well.  Homestuck is a game. What evidence to I have of this, since it's a 'written story'? It has many playable elements and 90% of its lore and plot is based on deconstructing game conventions and sticking them back together in weird angled positions with crazy glue.  Therefore. If the player reads Homestuck after playing Undertale, (i.e., someone who is newer to internet culture, and entered it after Undertale came out, which was far after Homestuck) Chara has CANONICALLY destroyed the Homestuck Universe.  (or, if you re-read Homestuck after playing Undertale)

YOU. The PLAYER make or break all fictional characters. They live and die by your interest in them, or, for games, your direction, and no other character has explicitly taken YOUR control over the game, as Chara has. In Homestuck, it never gives you something to "do" and then takes the decision away from you, as Undertale does.

Chara, except for someone who has 100% control of that little dopamine rush that comes with leveling up (read: no one), is out there, gleefully wringing out, growing bored of, and then destroying hundreds of thousands of worlds. Chara is the first of zeir kind.  And possibly the last.  Or at least, anything that comes afterwards will be but a pale imitation.  Toby Fox is truly LEGENDARY, in this way.  I'm not sure even he fully understand what he's done here.  Let me try to explain this.  Our education system is currenlty ripping itself to pieces over back-breaking student loans and the realization that we don't actually need all these professors because of the easy availability of information on the internet (Demonstrated, in a roundabout way, in one or two deft lines of dialog in the movie A Beauriful Mind). Now, let's say colleges and universities do survive this shift in society, going foward. It's probable that at the very least technical colleges and vocational schools will. Any others, including high schools, will be replaced by students shrugging and just taking a G.E.D. certification, because why should they spend time at a high school if they hate it, or if they want to learn at their own individualized pace? No reason to do that at all. If the stuffy old guard of the outdated higher education system ever starts treating stories told by video games as literature, as they ABSOLUTELY SHOULD, because they're merely a different medium, not some weird separate thing . . . Toby Fox, having overturned the "trope" of the RPG "genre", wrecking and dismantling it so thouroughly that it has unsettled millions of people who ever again play an RPG where they slaughter any monsters for 'points.'  He should be immortalized. Just like any other author in history who has churned out a landmark piece of literature.  It's merely his fair due.  Perfectly logical, right?  He is the Ubermench game-changer. Literally.  I hope Sans appreciates the pun. Chara is the vehicle through which this overturning of the trope happens. Chara stares directly at the player, deconstructs a longstanding staple in the 'literary genre,' and gives a body and voice to the psychologically addictive quality of video games.

One estimate says there are more than 60,000 video games in existence. And millions of copies of each one.

Chara, as we've established canonically, has access to ALL that are played after a runthrough of Undertale. (or at the very least, genocide Undertale) In Hinduism, it is Shiva that is the god of destruction.  To quote Oppenheimer,  Chara has become Death, Destroyer of Worlds.  Checkmate.

Q. E. D.

Endgame.

[thewertsearch]

If you're using the collection I think you might have unlocked some stuff from the time period which Andy was interacting with the Fandom.

I did indeed!

Most of the news posts are pre-Homestuck, but interesting nonetheless. A lot of it's just housekeeping - announcements about donation commands, thank-you messages to contributors, short hiatuses from the comic, etc, but there's also a lot of interesting stuff to highlight.

Turns out Problem Sleuth really was bigger than I thought, enough for it to have millions of hits and a sold-out merch store.

I'd been assuming that Homestuck was Hussie's big breakout comic. Maybe it was, but they had a pretty sizeable following before it ever started.

Really everything that's happened so far [by the end of Act 1] probably serves as more of a prologue than a first chapter.

Hussie talks a bit about Act 1 after it ended, saying that the entire thing is essentially a prologue to the comic proper.

This is definitely the impression I got. The whole Act is just an elaborate tutorial sequence for John, after all.

Glancing backwards, I can't help but monitor my progress. 55 days, 247 pages (with 295 images). That's a little more than 5 images per day, which is almost the exact pace I set with Problem Sleuth over the course of a year.

Their pace at this point was an astounding five pages per day.

This is an average which includes time spent making gifs and Flash animations, so I'm kind of losing it over this. Webcomics are notorious for the exact opposite of this update speed, and there must have been a lot of optimization behind the scenes to make it work.

It's especially impressive considering that they were only updating a couple of times a week back in the Bard Quest days. They seem to have found their rhythm in early 2008, because this is a hell of a jump in productivity.

John's shirt, which of course appears to be Slimer from Ghostbusters, is actually a depiction of an Asian knock-off of Slimer called the GREEN SLIME GHOST. Rose's shirt was once a depiction of a character from a fake cute cartoon show which I totally made up called "Squiddles!". She then went about defacing this shirt to make it look mean!

We get a bit of flavor on the kids' symbol shirts. This newspost predates Jade's introduction by several months, so we finally have an answer for where the name originally came from, which I was wondering about earlier.

A familiar refrain with pages like this I have found is something like: "Is that all? Can I do anything else? Can I kill the imp? Is there an objective I'm missing?" The answer is, what you see is what you get! These are not really fully functional mini-games with the sort of objectives you would expect to see from such things. They are partially interactive pages in a story, leaning on certian traditional elements of gameplay to convey the story-purpose of the page.

Bit of commentary here about the 'playable' pages. They're intended to be interactive cutscenes, rather than actual games. There isn't going to be any 'hidden' content, just obvious beats that progress the story in a format that looks like a videogame.

We get a hint that there's a secret in Jaspers' flash, which apparently is no longer clickable on the website version of this animation. This pretty much immediately destroys my assumption above that these things won't have any hidden content in them.

It's not any secret lore or anything, though, just a cute little animation giving us a look into Rose's head. She really is an animal lover, isn't she?

This archive link to a poll on what items John should have alchemized no longer works, which breaks my heart :'( I'll see about finding it later, I guess...

Anyway, I'll be back here later, when there's more to read.

Someone remind me to check out the Blogspot later, too. It looks super wordy, and I wanna get back to the comic!

[blaperile]

Homestuck: Beyond Canon (reactions pages 408 - 475)

Alright, we've read the latest 2 updates .

I mentioned last time that I wasn't really sure whether I would feel "ready" to be typing any update reactions again, like I used to do.

Well, there is actually a few things running through my mind right now I want to write down already!

So without further ado, I suggest I just get to "the point" :B

I absolutely LOVED these pages!

Before I started, I was a bit afraid, due to there being a new creative team, that perhaps things would suddenly feel very, very different.

Now, I would say it DID feel a little bit different, but in a good way!

The art style especially was marvelous. It looked just so classic Homestuck! With the Sprite Mode, and Hero Mode-like imagery.

But also something that seemed to be a new kind of art style? I'd say it felt kind of like a mix between Sprite Mode, and Hero Mode, and kind of reminiscent of Problem Sleuth style!

I totally approve of that. It's "new", but feels so classic MSPA.

Story-wise I'm also very happy! I wasn't expecting so many new pages already, with focus on so many different characters. That was amazing.

It felt like a great continuation of where we left off with these characters. Maybe something DOES feel a little different, but only in a good way, with how many references there were to classic things that came before (His Honorable Tyranny, coin flip, Problem Sleuth-like art style, Jailbreak scene, references to the pirate ship adventure of John and Sollux, DEAD panel, pesterlogs, John and Roxy being rendered in a kind of Dad and Mom like manner on Jane's screen)

To me, it feels like this new "Homestuck: Beyond Canon" team is honoring even more what came before than the "Homestuck^2" team did (and tbh, IMO those guys still did a really good job).

I absolutely loved that Sollux made his glorious return, after having only appeared for a brief gag in the "prologue". While seeing him with Aradia was always cool, it's nice to see him interacting again with other people by himself too.

Speaking of which, I love how he basically didn't give a shit about John, just like how in the good old days on the Troll meteor Sollux was the only one not interested in speaking to any humans.

A bit sad that he didn't tell John about Calliope, Aradia and Davebot's escape from the Candy reality, but then again, there's nothing really any of them can do about it (other than entering a SBURB session, me thinks?), so maybe they really are better off (for now) thinking that Dave is dead.

I assume the original creative team had a very different direction they wanted to take, perhaps with John really meeting Rose, Jade and Kanaya after he left Roxy, and Vriska and Vrissy being stuck in Crockerjail for a while longer.

But still I felt the new team handled this very well with the return of Sollux and the Jailbreak references.

I'm a bit bothered by how exactly Jane figured out all this information about what John, Roxy and Calliope were up to and what they talked about, though. Like ok, maybe her team hacked into John's phone and saw he was meeting up with Roxy, but how did she know what they talked about in person on the meteor? Are there cameras/microphones planted there?

Anyway, it seems like the team is eager to "get to the point" in going to the meteor and bringing Vriska there, for whatever will happen. I hope it won't lead to the meteor's destruction (and dear precious Sollux getting hurt so soon after he just joined us again :( )

I think that's about it what I want to share for today! I'm really excited to see where "Homestuck: Beyond Canon" goes next, and I will make sure to update my "Homestuck Multiverse From The Perspective Of" tally soon.

[mallowstep]

hi! sorry if this is a weird question, but are you alright with minors interacting w/ your mistynight fics?

my rambles and thoughts figuring this out are below the cut.

minors isn't a helpful label: the difference between a 12yo and a 17yo is the problem, not the difference between a 17yo and an 18yo.

i initially said blanket yes to everything but "nothing you do can slow the rising tides," but in writing this, i've changed my mind. do note my rambles will reflect that. i want to publish my thoughts, as messy as they are, because they are relevant.

i'm okay with older teens (16+) reading "as the water rushes in." i'm not okay with anyone younger than that reading it.

(if you've already read it, and you're younger than that, it's okay. i didn't say anything until now because frankly i hadn't thought about it until now. please, just don't read any further.)

now, to ramble for a bit:

so like...do i want all minors interacting w nothing you do? no. it's...it's not rated for a reason. i don't want a 12yo interacting with it! i don't want a 12yo reading it! i don't want! it's above t!

but do i have a problem with a 16yo, 17yo, reading it? not really, no. i'm ngl, i'd rather they read that then some of what i read growing up. i still don't want them interacting w it, in the sense that i don't want them to comment on it and kudos it, but i don't care if they're just reading it.

y'know this minors/no minors is very b&w thinking that i dislike. i don't have the emotional energy to think about this every time i write something, so i usually CHOOSE to draw a hard line, but like.

sometimes things are appropriate for older children, but not young children. other things are appropriate for young teens, but no children. other things are appropriate for older teens. and some things are probably only appropriate for adults. i don't...like this is not a subject i can speak to very well, so like, y'know everyone give me some grace.

i think nyd is somewhere between pg-13 and r. probably closer to an r. this is a hard one to rate which is why i gave up.

so anyway, like, if you haven't read it and are wondering what the fuss is about, the tl/dr is that nyd contains some scenes that are, to put it impolitely, horny as hell. i'll abstain from including examples so the target audience of this post (minors who may want to read it) are not excluded.

i don't know if i can give a conclusive answer? my answer is. i don't honestly know. my answer is if a 16yo or 17yo wants to read it, they can. just please don't kudos on it or comment on it. i don't want anyone younger than that reading nyd. i'm not sure what the rest of the fics will look like, because i haven't written them yet, but assuming the next fic stays at a t, you won't miss any major plot beats in nyd.

i'm...i'm going to end with a quote, and a few last comments. the quote is from the series notes of the collegestuck 'verse, one of my favourite homestuck aus.

Although most of the stories here are rated T, even the T rated stuff may contain themes, in retrospect, that might not be appropriate for people under the age of 16 or so. If you're under 16 and want to read collegestuck, I ask that you either wait until then, or tread very carefully. Everything in this series rated M or E contains overt sexual content. If you are under 18, or in an area where you have to be over 18 (i.e 19, or 21) to consume such content, please wait until you reach the age of majority pertinent to your location.

nyd does not contain overt sexual content, and it's not rated m. i don't mind if anyone over 16 reads it.

but anyone under? no, i don't want that.

and i mentioned...i got to this point and said, "hold on, i changed my mind." this is the point where i went from "blanket yes" to "actually no."

some of the main themes of atwri are 16+. while you might not notice them in something like "just gonna call you mine," they are there, and i actually like --- i don't think i want someone just reading part of the series. like i was going to say yes, but then i thought about it, and it's like...mistyfoot's emotions are really important. not only do i think you weaken the arc if you don't have them, but...

saying "just don't read nyd" doesn't remove the themes, and i think it almost makes them worse? because now it's like --- now it's like, you're getting the subtext but not the text, and then it's like...y'know you're --- it's.

urgh let me start over.

there's a massive gap in maturity between a 14yo and a 16yo. i feel okay about a 16yo reading nyd, because i think they are, in general, mature enough to read that. and okay, there's no way to explain this without saying it directly.

while the scenes in atwri are not metaphors (i.e., i don't write them imagining what is happening is a stand-in for sex), they are still sexual in nature.

(in other words, my intentions are not, "mistyfoot and nightshade are having sex, i'm just not saying it." however, mistyfoot and nightshade's relationship does have a sexual component, and if you can't feel it when you read atwri, i'm not doing my job very well.)

and i sat and thought about not just what i've published but also where i'm going, and i thought of some of the events that will happen, and how things are already being set up in earlier fics.

for a mundane example, in "i want your midnights," mistyfoot warns featherpaw about the dangers of cold water. in "nothing you do can slow the rising tides," mistyfoot is thrown into cold water.

and i just don't feel right about someone reading the set-up and not the payoff. this isn't about story integrity, to be clear, this is about...

it's hard not to be vague and still give a satisfying example. i know the earlier one wrt water doesn't make sense, and that's because it's small.

ig what i'll say is, i don't like what happens to the emotional lines of the story when you take out nyd, and when i think about other fics that you might have to do. it's not that they become different or weaker or anything (although they do), it's that they take on new meanings and tones and suggestions, and i don't like the ideas that promotes.

and it's one thing if someone 16+ decides to skip nyd. i think at that point, you probably have enough emotional maturity to pick out the lines i intend. i do not have that same confidence in a younger teen, and when night and misty are portrayed as being in a healthy relationship, but the story becomes ugly? i don't like that.

if you read through all of that rambling, give yourself a sticker, and let me try to do a summary, if only for my own sake.

in essence,

mistyfoot and nightshade are portrayed, in every instalment, as being a healthy relationship.

"nothing you do can slow the rising tides," along with potential other future scenes, provide very important context to certain themes and emotional lines of atwri, but i am not comfortable with someone under sixteen reading them.

when i stopped to think about what that did to the emotional lines, i started to feel like mistyfoot and nightshade's relationship isn't as healthy as it's portrayed as.

i think someone who's sixteen or older can PROBABLY pick out what i intended, that's subtler subtext or what have you, but i don't have a reasonable level of confidence in anyone younger than that.

so since i don't want anyone younger than sixteen reading what provides that context, i don't want them reading atwri at all.

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom, season 3 episodes 3-6 thoughts!

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-johnny was actually pretty civil with danny and left when he asked! thats nice. also, SKULKER?? HAD A FRAMED PICTURE OF EMBER?? oooo fuck wait had they established they were a Thing Before?? I dont think so. thats weird. its like that country boy/goth girl meme lmfao. I think i am going to choose to ignore this new info and pretend I didnt hear it. 100% unrelated to the jazz/ember fanart I already drew and posted....😳

-LADIES NIGHT EPISODE THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT. wish it didnt really center around the guys or them being pissed at them, but. willing to bet this was written by men lol

-THEY ERASED ALL THE MEN??? meanwhile, jack and danny are fishing at. silent hill or something. im glad jack is trying to read a parenting book and making an Attempt. (theyre at lake erie, but, they made it actually eerie...thats fun)

-the girls alt outfits...cute. EMBER MADE A NEW SONG TOO!!! kinda. jazz being one of the backup singers and being AWFUL. NOOOO

-'how are we going to get kitty to blow a kiss?' 'she'll have to think there are still some males in town!' ...i dont know how to break it to you, but I dont know that a 100% het girl would wish for all men to Begone. I think. I mean im not a het or a girl so I dont really know for sure. she Is probably Bi tho. esp having the other ladies in town chanting NO MEN!!! excitedly............(then again, the kiss is to get Rid of men, so, she probably would have blown it at the ladies only if they were actively trying to attack/stop them, so...I MEAN. THE DRESSING LIKE DANNY BIT WAS SO EXTRA)

-I feel like an all female cast ep couldve been way way way way cooler than that was. like. why was it still somehow all about Men. ...anyway. (where was valerie...)

-next ep opens with the observants, and, way way more of them than I expected...existed? I mean I guess them being a council/jury of some kind is what I expected from their first appearance (bc at that time they were basically TELLING clockwork to kill danny, not asking,, so I figured they had SOME kind of authority) but. there were so many. anyway, here goes vlad! letting his own hubris go brrrr. releasing a weather ghost for political gain! #justvladthings

-okay say what you will about him (he IS an asshole) but having an umbrella with his own face on it and more prepared to share is SUPER FUNNY. and him being fanned by huge wads of money by his bodyguards. SO ineffective but so Dramatic. He UNDERSTANDS that if youre rich you need to be. you know. obnoxious and kinda eccentric about it! fuckign hate when rich people are boring about it. I would trust vlad with nothing except to not be a boring rich asshole who wears...fucking khaki or some shit. man knows his Presentation Skills. and that 'V' chair in his mayoral office. is that fucking embroidered?

-maddie get your MAN PLEEEEASSSE. IM SO EMBARRASSED FOR HER. the way jack stays simping for this man. in FRONT OF HIS WIFE!!!! ...my god its like a love triangle. jack clearly loves vlad, who loves maddie, who loves jack. jack fenton is at the very least bi, right................. this is an OBSESSION . 'THE V MAN COMETH'???? i...my god. (also, on a serious note, to have a friend THIS SUPPORTIVE...and still be SUCH A DICK TO HIM (TRYING TO KILL HIM AND STEAL HIS WIFE??) NOT COOL VLAD. JACK IS YOUR 1 AND /ONLY/ HYPE MAN. if someone loved and supported me THIS HARD...LIKE. CMON DUDE.

-STOMP the fucking GAS, JACK

-this would make a great shirt design, looks like a metal band design! we love The Maelstrom

-oh, so vlad did in fact get a mansion in amity park. and its purple! good color choice! not as flashy as a CASTLE or MURDER CABIN, but still pretty eccentric, which I appreciate.

-...vlad knows the difference between picasso and da vinci? in the ep last post where we were watching him fail at conquering every historical time ever he didnt seem to know history well enough to like. be effective...was vlad taking art history at college?? (was he an art MAJOR??? we never DID KNOW WHAT HE WENT TO SCHOOL FOR. I kinda assumed business because in the masters of time ep he was still rich without ghost powers so he had to have..known something about business or something, right...but also, art and or theater FITS HIS PERSONALITY. possibly also something science-y, I guess, but I always felt like he got roped into that, esp how pessimistic he was about the ghost portal in the flashbacks to college, like, i felt like he was just there for maddie and was uninterested/un-invested at the time...)

-THIS GHOST JUST ELECTROCUTED MADDIE (THE CAT) BITCH!! THATS MY FAVORITE MADDIE!!! vlad going after vortex and being ~shocked~ .....WHEN. WHEN WILL YOU LEARN. THAT YOUR ACTIONS. HAVE CONSEQUENCES!!!

-the way this random man with a camera sees the mayor laying in an alley covered in TRASH AND DECIDES TO TAKE A PICTURE HAHAH

*snap* this ones going in my cringe compilation!

-vlad 'if we're going to defeat vortex, we're going to have to do it together!' *immediately dips after dropping danny off in front of vortex* JKASDFHKJHJKN

-DANNY CAN DUPLICATE!!! ...he couldnt even attack with it, but he DID IT!!! INTO (4) OF HIMSELF!!! SO PROUD!!!!!!!!!!

-'THE ROLLER COASTER EMOTIONS OF A TEENAGER THREATEN MY PLANS!' ...0 self awareness of his own dramatic moodiness. incredible, how dumb this man is. its very close to circling around to endearing, if he was less of an asshole. at least its very very funny to see danny shooting him with tiny lightning bolts anytime he's even slightly irritated! vlad you should be nice to danny anyway. this is what you GET

-...making sandwiches and ice cream and playing video games with your nephew is a totally normal thing. WHY is vlad acting like this is the end of the world. if you were a GOOD UNCLE YOU WOULD ALREADY BE DOING THESE THINGS!!! bitch I make my nephew food all the time and dont forget what he does and doesnt like. if u didnt know danny didnt want tomatoes, thats on u. if u, a grown adult, are gonna piss of the 14 yr old by not letting him win, u deserve to have to pay for the arcade machines he ruins because he now has uncontrollable storm powers because YOU THREW HIM INTO A FIGHT WITH THE STORM GHOST. fuck u vlad. paypal me $400,000 while ur at it tho. (also, gamer vlad confirmed)

-VLAD CAN COOK THOUGH???! I assumed he had...people working for him that did that. I mean. billionaires usually dont do that. then again, we've only seen those vultures working for him (and I guess the dairy king was AT his old mansion, but it was never really clarified if he worked there...I think he probably just Hung Out and they Enjoyed Cheeses Together. thats what I think, I dont think a KING would be working for anyone and also the dairy king was nice <3) but then again he would be a private person and we cant have anyone accidentally finding Ghostly Things, so...still, that's hilarious. pour one out for that really cute banana split that got ruined 2 seconds later

-vlad just fucking picking danny up and THROWING HIM AT VORTEX TWICE WITHIN LIKE A MINUTE. JUST ABSOLUTELY LAUNCHING HIM. BITCH THATS MY SON BE CAREFUL!!! HES GOT ORGANS AND THINGS!!!!

-danny seeing those animal commercials and feeling sad is the biggest 2000s throwback so far. i legitimately had to change the channel or walk out of the room when those came on bc id CRY AND BE SAD ABOUT THEM FOR DAYS AFTER. fuck those commercials and fuck that IN THE ARMMMS OF AN ANGELLLL song 😭

-'vlads ego almost got the town destroyed!' yes danny thats the entire episode. the entire series anytime vlad shows up honestly. this episode was just him being really embarrassing the entire time, and, me laughing about it. 10/10 would laugh at him again

-NEXT EP WE HAVE A SHAPESHIFTING GHOST?? I've said it before but shapeshifting is the power I would want when asked those 'what superpower do you want' questions...its the Best power! this guy looks like a homestuck character. ive never read homestuck but thats the vibe

-I love every time we see tuckers family, they are by far the most functional family. and dash has a lil chihuahua!!! named pookie!!! i am crying (I've had 3 chihuahuas, so I am very biased, but...) AND HE WATCHES THE ROMANCE CHANNEL WITH POOKIE. POOKIE I WILL DIE FOR YOU YOU SWEET LITTLE BABY.

-danny can lift a bus! I shouldn't be surprised, but i am proud of my son. hes got lil kid fans. i am going to cry about this

-JAZZ KEEPS A SCRAPBOOK WITH DANNY'S LIL HEROICS AND NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS!!! we've actually seen it on her floor before, but I didnt realize it was a scrapbook!! thats sooo cute.

-...and danny has to stand there listening to his parents saying danny phantom sucks and is a 'filthy ghost' and calling him egotistical...i am once again stealing their kids!

-THIS GHOST RIPPING JAZZ'S SCRAPBOOK!!! ILL KILL YOU. SHE WORKED HARD ON THAT!!! BITCH

-yes, maddie, the one with red eyes is For Sure Actually Your Son. ignore the, red eyes... (CLEARLY she hasnt watched the other 2 eps where danny has been evil, she doesnt know red eyes= evil!!!)

-'billy fenton'.......................

-danny being stuck as phantom in his own house, no way out is a fucking NIGHTMARE. his parents pointing giant weapons against him and SHOOTING AT HIM. THIS IS A HORROR MOVIE.

-NINE INCH NAILS POSTER.

-this is the most screenshot of all time

-amorpho turning into mr. lancer because hes 'someone no one will want to be around' BUT HES WRONG, I WOULD BEFRIEND AND HANG OUT WITH MR LANCER SO FAST.

-tucker dressing as danny, now I have the full Tucker set of him being sam and also being danny. also saying 'the ghost...uh...RIPPED MY FACE OFF.' and then running. SMOOTH. NOT AT ALL CONCERNING TO ANY PARENTS.

-sam accepts the toast from jack. and then 2 seconds later is like 'why am i eating this.' THIS SHOWS HUMOR IS SO UNEXPECTED SOMETIMES ITS REALLY GOOD. and then the scene after, mr lancer running into his ghost doppelganger and being like 'YOURE GORGOUS' THEN FAINTING. I AM CRYING. AND DASH FAINTING TOO.

-sam disguising herself as danny again to help tucker run from the fentons. but leaving him shirtless in the streets. incredible. 'plEASE DOnt NOTice MY FACELessNESS I MUST LIVE IN EXILE' this episode is destroying me the humor in this show is exactly my brand of corny and cheesy

-the impromtu story made up by danny and amorpho to explain stuff to the fentons. my god they are both such bad liars. but amorpho is a good egg. wish danny wouldnt have said he didnt wanna see him in town again!! I want him to be reoccurring. not that thats gonna matter since I'm almost done with the series, but the idea of this being the Only Time We See him is :(

-NEXT EP SAYS STARRING MARK HAMILL??????!!! hello ! mr . joker....mr. star wars.... I feel like I should be. idk. taking off a hat im not wearing in respect. I shouldnt be surprised tho bc hes in a lot of cartoons as a very good voice actor, and dp has already had a lot of talented ones so I've been looking out for ones I might know, but....mr. hamill....

-sam has her own greenhouse, names all the plants, and says thank you to them (in the languages from where the plants are from) whenever she harvests from them. thats SO cute. and her lil gothy lunch box...

-and danny's lil red fuzzy lined jacket!!! ive said it before but every time the characters get alt outfits im like :D

-danny has ice powers now!!! THATS WHAT FROSTBITE MEANT. HE KNEW SOMEHOW WAY BACK THEN

-THIS SHOW NEVER LETS YOU FORGET VLAD IS A BILLIONAIRE, HUH.

-danny's lil 'holy hibiscus!' first off the 50s batman swearing is hilarious. 2nd. my username is from the flower sanchoyo hibiscus, so, shoutout to ME this ep. hi :)

-EURGH UNDERGROWTH MAKING EVERYONE PLANT ZOMBIES. HIVEMIND PLOTS SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF ME. and this dude made the city SO overtaken so quickly like how long was danny asleep?? oh god

-evil fucked up sam! now the whole trio has gone evil at some point! the voice actress did a really, really good job with making her sound like a zombie...

-frostbite's paws are so so so big compared to danny. oh my god. i want to hug the snow dog...

-the far frozen has an advanced medical stuff!!! very cool. very smart snow dogs

-im so glad danny has a friendly ghost snow dad to explain this new power and teach him!!! this is so sweet. DANNY'S GHOST SENSE WAS A PART OF HIS ICE POWER?? OOOH. COOL. we love a training montage!!!

-danny saying if he cant defeat overgrowth, that he'd want to stay with frostbite...oh my god...do you think this is the first real supportive adult figure in his life (I am NOT counting his parents because they threaten him on the daily even if they dont realize it.) I mean mr lancer is a Teacher, but he was also nice but this is different, but this is a GHOST WHO IS WILLING TO HELP HIM with his powers and also will help him when hes injured and is so so nice and comparatively so much more mature than 90% of the adults in this show!!!! god. dad frostbite is my everything.

-the framing and lighting this episode, and all the angles...they went all OUT and it looks really really good. this is my nightmare scenario, tho. like, FUCK zombies and dead city zones and hivemind shit. and using the humans as 'nutrients for the children' i am going to THROW UP.

-MALEFICENT VIBES WITH THE HORNS AND GREEN EYES! this costume kicks so much ass. sam is now mark hamills daughter, I guess.

-danny's ice powers making his eyes blue!!! thats neat. and him going for the roots underground was SO SMART. i will not stand for danny ever thinking hes stupid, hes SO smart.

almost done with the show... :"( thats a sad thought!!!

[telaraneas]

man i have so many words about homestuck but no one to talk to about it with. aimless ramble about classpects under the cut (disclaimer that other people have probably said the same things in much more concise ways, i literally finished homestuck like 3 days ago)

so, the way i actually understand aspects and classes in homestuck is that aspect = themes and class = arc. so, like, class and aspect as i think of them are not assigned as a role to play per se, like, they're not prophetic, they're descriptive. ive been reading a lot of old forum discussions from early act 6 because i crave whatever speculation and live analysis was going on at the time. and back then there was a lot of, for instance, "i wonder what the prince class is supposed to do, since eridan probably fucked it up" and im sitting here with the benefit of living almost a decade later and having read the entire story by that point, and im like, no, see, it's actually impossible to "fail" at your class in my opinion because they're descriptive, not predictive. so whatever a character did by the time homestuck actually ended (...with the caveat that i havent yet read the epilogues or the sequel), that was what they were supposed to do in the game/story, because like. that IS what they did.

like in the same way we have descriptive words for specific character archetypes in fiction, because i do think classpects are basically just That, like, for example, (to go. really really basic) princess peach in the original mario game may be a shitty female character but she's a perfect representation of the damsel in distress archetype. the "damsel in distress" denomination here is descriptive of the role she plays in the story of that game (to the extent it has one), whether or not it was consciously written that way, and it's assigned from the outside looking in at the finished game, not necessarily written from the outset to be that way. eg how inexperienced authors often end up writing what is commonly described as "mary sue" characters, even though most of them do not deliberately set out to write characters like that, obviously. the term "mary sue" here is descriptive, not prescriptive (and ofc the term itself has been dilluted to the point it's barely useful, this was just an example)

so like, an author may set out to write a character in a specific way, or to fill a specific role, and they may succeed or they may not; but a reader analyzing the story will interpret the story as they see fit, and will be the judge of how THEY would describe the characters. ofc interpretations may vary from reader to reader, but generally speaking when it comes to the role a character plays in the story, eg do they have agency, what function do they have towards advancing the plot, what are the dominant themes and ideas of the story and how does this character play into it etc etc will, at least to the individual reader, be informed by the work as a whole, not by the author's intent. the character's actions in the work as a whole as written by the author and interpreted by the reader speak for themselves.

i think i've gotten lost somewhere along the line here. this is all true and part of what i meant to say but i cant figure out how to connect it to my point. which is that i think the classes arent meant so much as rpg classes that dictate what you are capable of doing, so much as they're a descriptive label that sums up the role a character plays in the story. like the time loop stuff, it's not that a character MUST fulfill their role, it's that they already HAVE from the perspective of the finished story taken as a whole.

anyways all of this that ive said about classpects being descriptive and not prescriptive is ignoring the very obvious reality that homestuck itself was not written from the outside looking in, but in fact was often improvised from what i can tell, especially in regards to the arcs and themes of the more minor characters such as the trolls, but ofc it has the benefit that because its author is the one coming up with the classpect system in the first place, it gets to set its own definition. so in effect, the classpects in homestuck are self-descriptive; each title is an intrinsically correct description of the character's arc and themes, in the exact same way that the character's NAME is an intrinsically correct description of what the character is called. i think this is the whole reason why afaik there hasnt actually been explicit descriptions of what most of the classes do, and why there were only like 3 or 4 explicit in-universe descriptions of the classes, because if hussie said that a character's class means exclusively X thing, and then that character goes and does Y instead and never does X, then the story has contradicted itself

but instead, by keeping most of them vague, the classes become inherently self-descriptive. it's impossible to say that character A has failed their role as class B, because character A is part of the definition of class B. self-descriptive

(like how once in the adventure zone travis mentioned being shocked that people online were saying that something his character did was "out of character", to which he answered something to the effect of "what do you MEAN it's out of character, i write the character and he did that!". whatever actions character A takes are, by definition, in-character for character A; if this doesn't sit right with the viewer, they may say that this makes them an incoherent and/or badly written character, but by definition the character IS defined by the actions as written by the author. self-descriptive)

bringing it back to the eridan example, it's impossible for eridan to "fail" at being a prince of hope; eridan IS the prince of hope, and thus, whatever he did IS "what the prince of hope was supposed to do", which in this case meant being someone whose character is defined and tortured by his own hopes, beliefs, and convictions, until he reaches a breaking point and destroys his own aspect not just for himself but for those around him.

without context as to what a prince is "supposed" to do, it's easy to assume he must have failed in his role because of how he very literally destroyed the presence of hope in the part he played of the story, but in-universe the classes are descriptive and not prescriptive: eridan is the prince of hope BECAUSE of the role he played in the story, not in spite of it.

in any case, this whole mess is my way of saying that this is why assigning class and aspect to characters from non-homestuck media is, for me at least, very fun and illuminating! because, while in homestuck they may be self-descriptive, for non-homestuck media they are inherently just descriptive. you just need to analyze the characters, as you, the reader, understand them, and pinpoint their core essence as a character via their character arc and dominant themes. and it can illuminate interesting parallels, trends and contrasts in the story as it exists. it's kind of like a birds eye view character analysis cheat sheet and that makes it very fun dkfnekmf

[loki-zen]

Who is your favorite character? Did this change throughout? How much knowledge do you have of general consensus on the characters?

Do you think Homestuck is a creation myth, a story about friendship, metafictional wankery, or all/none/some of the above?

Yeah it’s all those things plus some other stuff

I don’t have much knowledge of the general consensus at all, except that I know Vriska is controversial and that caring about the Dancestors is one way to define ‘a Homestuck (derogatory)’. I assume there’s a quiet ‘except Meenah and Aranea’ on that one although I’m not really sure? Maybe they hate Aranea cuz she’s fake Vriska or something. Meenah otoh is clearly the most interesting Piexes so if they want to include her they can suck my bad fish pun.

I find ‘favourite character’ hard to quantify bc it feels like a lot of questions in one?

Anyway I John is very well-executed (it’s actually really hard to write a character of the sort that he is that I’m genuinely charmed by) but my early favourites were Dave, and Terezi when she came in. (Even when she was just a trolly troll voice actually)

Vriska I took a little longer to warm to but she’s so much fun to play (I read most of acts 1-5 out loud, play-acting the dialogue scenes with @dagny-hashtaggart) and quickly gained ‘I love her she’s the worst’ status, and she did not stop getting more relatable in an ‘I’m this picture and I don’t like it’ sorta way even though Act 6, during which eg Dave got very little development until that rush job right at the end. Plus she stars in both the single scene that sticks with me the most in terms of its quiet emotional poignancy (I think it’s her last scene in act 5?) and my favourite scene in which the metatextuality shit is working for me (when she puts her foot down about getting to do the goddamn reveal of the treasure already).

Terezi comes back with a being fucking cool vengeance some way through Act 6, though it’s then harder to be interested in the version of her that didn’t do the cool stuff?

And Meenah is the best of the characters who only appear in the worst parts of Homestuck, as previously implied.

Overall? Idk probably the mayor he’s the best