#helltier

[abundantchewtoys]

Beyond Canon, re: p666.1, 666.2

So, I want to comment.

The fact that the "session" Vriska has begun is no S***b at all but a therapy session in the hyperbolic helltier chamber. Hilarious.

It's cool how the page is basically Homestuck: The Visual Novel. The talksprites & dialogue do the heavy lifting, the background & music's there for the ambiance.

Upon seeing the time skip, Blaperile had the good idea that she might be in here for 6 to 8 years. Bringing Vriska closer in age to the other Meat timeline kids. At least, near the start of their journey to Deltritus. Plus, most of them are functionally immortal.

In a lot of ways, Vriska was left lagging behind. Her insistence on going out to fight Lord English meant that her own personal timeline has been so short until now compared to the rest. Terezi went out to search for her for years upon years, while for her, less than a week passed on Candy Earth? Crazy.

I was wondering what introspection could be forced upon Vriska, that would feel earned. I mean, the post-retcon version of her already did much of this on and off screen, it could've ended up feeling repetitive somehow. But no.

No, this feels right so far.

She spends the first two years (???) trying and failing to move forward with Tavros (and Davepeta). I would've assumed she only had those two locations to explore in all that time (Tavros' hive's terrain and her own). Until she started venting there.

Seems everything in Helltier Alternia is available to her. It probably just never stops feeling fake. Which reminds me a lot of the (revised) ending to qntm's Ra.

SCROLL TO THE NEXT ARROWS TO AVOID SPOILERS ========> . . . . . . . . In which the characters end up on a simulated version of Earth with the story's self-proclaimed protagonist swearing up and down she can feel the difference. And nothing what the people in here do matters as none of it's real. . . . . . . . . <================ END SPOILERS

So, what are the people in the hyberbolic chamber, truly?

Tavros & Aradiabot seem like self-aware versions of their past selves, like unawakend dream selves. Tavros even felt more confident than I've remembered him ever seeing. Hope this isn't because this was his pre-paralysis self.

I kind of wonder if the sprites are standing in for themselves in the chamber. Aka that Vriska hung out with GCATavrosprite-as-his-past-self all this time? Not sure though.

Aradiabot, you ask? Well we know that Alpha Aradia has been travelling to all sorts of alternate timelines and is very much much older than she looks. So she could've gone and filled in for Aradiabot here, too. She used to be her own sprite, after all!

But that doesn't feel entirely satisfactory, either. It kind of feels nicer to imagine Vriska's been engaging with "meta Tavros" and "meta Aradia". Aka, an amalgam of who've they've been in the story, to the people reading Homestuck. Very much a function of the Point, but also very much the character themselves as well.

In other news, how many times will Vriska end up 'dying' in the chamber, on screen? I mean, in the last part she went to lie on her quest bed. Not a lot of sleep happens on those! At least, not for long.

It's hilarious that Davepeta seems to have been designated Vriska's "handler" but has no real experience to help her along. I mean, that's most of the sprites in a nutshell, but still. If the chamber's supposed to give her growth, you'd have thought she'd be given a better helper.

Then again, the sprites might be constructs of the chamber too. Vriska might really be in here alone and the chamber just has her own psyche to work with. She's internalized she's a badass who doesn't need help.

And now she's slowly unlearning things. By now, she's learned to ask other people what they want to do. The prompt "What will you do?" was never about her, it was about the others.

It's going to be interesting to see what she has to confront in the Mindfang path, though. It would be wild to get talksprites for Mindfang or Spidermomsprite! But if it's about her toxically near-religious obediance to Alternia's obsession with ancestors… Yeah I can see her talking with a version of pre-retcon Vriska. Or Aranea. We don't know if she ever did meet a version of her dancestor post-retcon.

Loved how the page went and took in a larger part of the page, like during [S] Cascade. And the branching paths evoke the paths we got to choose from during the time the cartridge was corrupted.

Yeah, on rereading the text, I think Tavros & Aradiabot are elements of the chamber trying to guide Vriska along.

If she'd only contemplated what WORDS could've been better than the ones she said already, instead of jumping to ACTIONS (hers or Tavros'), it wouldn't have taken two years for her to get there with Tavros.

But that's the road she had to travel: Apologies -> Revenge -> Actually sitting down & sorting it out with the other party.

Now for her to unlearn all her other unhealthy coping strategies! Yeah she's going to be here for a while.

Neat bit, that bit about projecting though. It's true, underneath all the bluster, she was just a kid trying to find the best way to deal with the world she was given. And then, when she thought she found it, she put everyone in the same box with her.

And hey, Tavros' reaction (pointing) at realizing she might be projecting… Was that a reference to the Turnabout fangame?

Him proposing they could be projects for one another… Imagine them as moirails, dear god.

Tavros can very much pretend to be blue as he is now (as a sprite).

It's interesting to (re)learn how much Vriska was obsessed with trying to patch things up with Aradia. While Aradia was like "whatever, bye", lol.

And, is the helltier rung thing a real thing? Cause we saw godtiers physically represented as platforms! This seems more like Vriska's finally truly scaling her echeladder.

Like she skipped a few steps in growing as a S***b player, which seems just so like her.

Real on the nose that she spends all this years. Stuck. In her old home. Bent. To return to her hive each time.

Aradiabot's spiel about incremental change & the danger of cycles reminds me of the song. "I'm going around, not in circles but in spirographs." It's the difference between getting stuck in this chamber vs. the dreambubbles, too, I guess.

Waiting to see if this all really will end up with a Scourge Sister fond reunion!

[r0semultiverse]

I think the Mindfang Journal upd8 would save me today ngl

Save me Homestuck Beyond Canon upd8

[ender--slime]

ughhhh vriska helltier is so good because you have like. a real genuine apology from vriska. not one where she’s groveling, just. a real apology. and tavros and aradia don’t accept it, because they don’t need to. the sentiment is nice but it doesn’t mean much to them. and then they send her on her way with well wishes. just a really great closing of that chapter ugghhhhh

[samstarium]

all the levels. ALL of them.

i realized i never did this for the first helltier upd8 to include vriska's echeladdder, so let's start now. but we won't talk about the tiers YET.

what's going on with the candle?

vriska's helltier echeladder interface is... weird, to say the least. often characters will be surrounded by items used to achieve said tier (john and the ectobabies, jane and the hat, etc) but we've never seen that candle before. not pertaining to vriska or anyone else, for that matter, although she does have her fire associations.

candles don't really show up that much, now that i'm thinking about it. given its diminished form in the second "level" upd8 of helltier, it seems like it burns down as vriska advances up the ladder, and as time passes. so logically we should expect to see it further burnt out by the next upd8.

the candle works as a reference two ways: as a manner of keeping time (a physical manifestation of life force, and the use of things like candle clocks), and as a symbol for the light aspect. fairly straightforward for that second one; illuminating important things and keeping people out of the dark is what candles are made to do.

ty aradia for this very applicable quote from the first "level" upd8

so........ something something, light motif and representation of vriska's growth? idk.

[blaperile]

Homestuck: Beyond Canon (reactions page 666 up to and including "flarp manual" path)

Woah, I didn't even have the time to write down my reaction the initial update before the second update of this page already arrived, hahaha

I'm a big, big fan of where this is going.

After Vriska's first initial conversation with Erisolsprite and Davepetasprite^2 upon arriving in "hell" I already had kind of high hopes of the potential where this was going, and it's definitely exceeding it.

She's making up with Tavros and Aradia, the conversations are glorious, and I'm not even mad that these Tavros and Aradia aren't actually really there. That may even be the BEST part.

It's providing Vriska some real and amazing character development, while not even giving her the "reward" of it ACTUALLY improving her relationship with them.

This shows Vriska what her relationship with Tavros COULD have been if she hadn't done all those awful things to him. But in "real life", she DID do all those things to him, and now he's gone (his pre-retcon self at least), and his post-retcon self is stuck as a Sprite.

So I really hope that in the future we get to have a "real" conversation between this grown Vriska and Gcatavrosprite, I'm very interested how that will turn out.

I find it hilarious that the way for Vriska to get past the Tavros "stage" was for her to finally listen to him and what he wanted to do… which was basically what he was already trying to say to her the first day she got there, but she just wouldn't listen and repeated the same mistake she made all those years ago, trying to make Tavros "braver" and stand up to her, and be more like herself. But it was never what he really needed.

Man, the 2 Pages (Tavros and Jake) sure have been having some amazing scenes these past few updates.

Also "based on the rules of gay, we both have to shut up and game" may be one of the best quotes Beyond Canon has delivered us so far, hahahaha.

The way Tavros could get under Vriska's skin in this update was brilliant.

I absolutely love all these references and callbacks to early Hivebent, what with Tavros not fitting in his recuperacoon, cavalreapers, flarping, etc.

And at the end, the visual callbacks to Vriska's fight with Aradia and her ascension to God Tier (with her instead now climbing her helltier echeladder, I LOVE IT!)

Of course, the return of the look-and-feel of the Alterniabound-like talksprites and conversations is also absolutely great (plus the fact that we even got a Sprite Mode of her in this outfit at the end with the helltier echeladder is also a nice bonus).

I'm very curious just what the rest of her stay here will be.

Originally, I was pretty much convinced she'd stay at least 6 years here (because 666) and possibly even 8 years (because Vriska). But I'm kinda shocked that already in year 2, she's making this kind of progress.

So if she's really going to stay so long here, what else is going to take her so long?

Once we got to see Aradiabot I wondered if it meant Vriska was going to see Terezi next (so that in this "flarping book" path she'd get to see all of her old flarping partners). But she didn't, not in this path anyway.

But if I think about it, perhaps it would be even better if she never gets to see (a fake) Terezi during her stay here?

Aradia's dialogue here that some people would be willing to be friends with Vriska even if she's "useless", instantly makes me think of Terezi.

If there's one person who truly cares a lot about Vriska, it's Terezi.

I mean, Terezi even sacrificed her comfortable life on Earth C to go out there for a long time and search for Vriska. Sure right now she's ended up with Dirk and trying to save John's life, but it doesn't mean she wouldn't still want to find Vriska.

So, I wouldn't be surprised if this whole helltier will eventually end up with Vriska also wanting to find Terezi. And dear god, I'm so looking forward to an eventual reunion.

But anyway, that raises the question of what else will be happening in [S] Begin Session. If the "flarping manual" path is about reconciling with Aradia and Tavros, what will the other paths be about? What other conversational partners will she have?

The feather path seems like a giveaway that it will be Vriska talking to Davepetasprite^2 again.

There's Mindfang's journal, which I'm sure will be about Vriska's introspection of how she practically based her entire personality around her ancestor's journal. But the question is, who will she talk to about it?

It would be very interesting if she talks to (a fake) Aranea here, who is pretty much the best possible substitution for Mindfang for her to talk to.

But what will that be like? I don't think this post-retcon version of Vriska ever met Aranea, right? It was only ever her pre-retcon version that encountered her.

So if she really does meet Aranea here, that ought to be interesting.

I'm curious about the cueball path. I mean, that will probably be about Doc Scratch's manipulation of her, but who could she talk to about that? I'd be down for (a fake) Doc Scratch to return here, but I kinda doubt it. But I'm not really sure who else would be a good conversational partner for her about that. Maybe Arquiusprite???

Then we have the 8-ball path, which is the object most closely associated with Vriska herself. I'd love it if she gets confronted with (a fake version of) her pre-retcon self who already went on a huge path of character development and this Vriska didn't want to believe/face it.

[corvineglare]

how did you rip the sprites from the hs2 hyperbolic helltier updates past the first chapter, it just gives me the first one

i ran into that problem when i tried to get the ch2 assets and to avoid it i just download from an incognito tab now. idk specifically why it happens but thats what works for me

[dash-n-step]

this entire helltier quest is just going to end with Vriska realizing she needs to go after Terezi, just like everyone already knew, isnt it

"You really think there's someone out there who will deal with me"

I'm paraphrasing cause I don't remember the exact line but

[luna7822]

with everything thats happening in black hole helltier land so far i rly hope only 4 hours or so have passed on the outside since time works differently in there and that it would be crazy its somehow been 4 years that have passed on the outside but im just hoping every1s still the same as we saw them b4 at least once this is over lol

[luna7822]

wait till those losers who think those dumbshit """characters""" are """"alive"""" eventually realize that this is helltier black hole and that everything theyre seeing rn is just fake fake fake shit that of which theyre being trolled as we speak lmao

i knew smth was off anyways the moment that fake ass catfish loser sprite or whatever showed up despite thankfully exploding into pieces beforehand but whatever i just cant wait to see the looks on their faces when they find out that theyre all fake projections besides davepeta to which they shouldve known abt it beforehand in the first when this is literally black hole hell for cruing out loud and that theyre basically being fools in the worst fucking way imaginable lmaoooooo XD

u ppl better fucking not interact with my blog btw cuz i will instantly block u on site if u do since its no wonder why i really despise each and every one of u anyways and idgaf abt any bullshit petty excuses u make up either since theyre all useless and fucking boring by stereotyping autism as """""being silly 24/7""""" when its not like dont get me wrong theres nothing wrong with being silly even as an autistic person but theres literally no need to take it way too personal anyways and make it ur whole damn """"personality"""" or lack there of when being autistic isnt always """"SiLlY 247"""" or some shit and that it rly does piss me off smths that ppl take being silly wayyyy too personal to the point where it gets boring and that im obv not saying being silly is a """crime""" or anything like that its just that those idiots need to just stfu for once abt whatever stupid sappy useless bullshit they make up that nobody fucking cares abt and thats it

its hard to explain tho tbh when even as an autistic person i know that its literally stereotyping to think being siilly 24/7 """""counts""""" as """"""being autistic"""""" but rly tho i just dont like those losers that make it their whole damn personality all the fucking time instead of being normal for once but idk rly i just dont want to sound like a """"hypocrite"""" at all but no wonder why those piece of shit losers hate me anyways and idgaf cuz theyre all dumbshit boring in every way imaginable and nobody cares

well what im trying to say anyways is that theres nothing wrong with being silly but just pls dont make it ur only personality since itll get boring after a while and that theres more to being autistic than just plain silliness thats not meant to be taken srsly anyways

anyways what i was trying to say tho is that i feel like they shouldve realized it sooner that every1 but davepeta and vriska in helltier are fake as shit anyways and thats all there is to say on the matter since theyre being patheticalky dumb rn by thinking theyre """"alive"""" and shit when in reality theyre still burning in hell as we speak cuz if u ask me those losers were overrated as shit to begin with and that i regret interacting with those assholes anyways when all of the sudden they start """"caring"""" abt beyond canon despite all the bs """"hate"""" it gets before which genuinely pisses me off sm on so many levels and overall why i wish they never existed in the first place since its no wonder why i despise any f^^d^^s as a whole besides ow one (if u took away the cringe fanfics and all the other bs too since they were never real """f^^s""" of the series either) cuz i just wish they never existed anyways and that ow f^^base is better than whatever cringefest they do nowadays on their boring ass blogs cuz they missed the point of the series in the general and worst of all ship canon aroace characters with others for no fucking reason at all despite being canon aroace which also makes me wonder how theyre even incredibly AND obviously aph0b1c towards the same series that says aroace/nb rights and doesnt tolerate aph0b1a anyways or that theyre plain fucking stupid in general lmao

but yeah screw all of them in general except for my own followers that appreciate what i do for once and thats it

i do hate tumblr sometimes ngl but only towards those boring ass trend seeking piece of shit aph0b1c/lesboph0b1c/whateverph0b1c losers anyways and not the site itself aside from boring ads since idgaf abt what they think anyways lol