#homestuck has irreversibly changed the way my brain works

[deadmountaindaughter]

MMATTBP Canon Guide

so i mentioned i was doing this a while ago; arc 2 isnt ready yet but this is so here you go! under the cut im going to Get Nerdy abt how this happened in a way that is...paradoxically sort of canon compliant? so read it if you want i guess.

-EVERYTHING up through ch8 page 24 is canon, but not the part immediately after that, meaning dimitri is NOT leaving town. -(after ch8 page 7, nin chased after isaac and he popped her with lightning near collin's backyard on the way away from the manse, but he wasn't really paying attention so he doesn't remember it much.) -ch8 page 30-35 is canon; page 36 did not happen as it did in canon-isabel snuck in so flipflop wasn't taken, but ed did try to go in the front door bc they were tired or whatever so their half of the story there DID happen. -ch8 page 37-75 is canon. page 76 doesn't happen as the doctors burger get there just slightly earlier, in time to stop davy from wishing. -page 77 and 78 happen more or less as in canon, minus the bayview stuff. davy is disappointed and probably more angry/emotionally abusive towards cody rather than being nice, he doesn't get burnt, and everything else happens relatively similarly minus everything that happened as a direct result of the wish succeeding. -page 79 is mostly different-the pta isn't decimated, they're still breaking up bc everyone betrayed each other, but the wish didn't happen. mayor hijack still takes control, he still gives sophie zarei's name, etc. -the only canon part of page 80 is the shred section bc if you think im going to decanonize my beautiful wife you would be very wrong.

okay so the nerdy part. you know how all the chapter titles in arc one are random quantum physics terms for some reason? well guess what, thats somehow relevant now. basically, what i'm saying is that a Great Unknown wish is a quantum event under the many-worlds theory, so it split the timeline into the pnat canon timeline(where the wish DID happen) and the mmattbp canon timeline(where the wish DIDNT happen). so let's break down how that works.

(are you seeing the effect homestuck has had on my brain. are you seeing it.)

so, the event that actually changed between timelines to allow the wish to not happen in the mmattbp timeline was the doctors' arrival- they showed up a few moments earlier, just in time to stop davy from successfully wishing at all. therefore, bayview doesn't happen, of course, but there are a few other consequences.

those consequences come from peekaboo being sent back when the door closes after davy defeats the doctors, but still hearing dimitri's wish. but since it's not rewriting all of reality so thoroughly already, it only follows the parts he specifically said: his family, isabel, and suzy are the only ones to be affected by this rewrite of reality. namely, he doesn't have to move (davy was more focused on the pta plan than screwing over one specific family); isabel still has flipflop (she decided to sneak in that night rather than using the front door); and suzy develops a habit a few months ago that leads her to finding what she wants to know (tailing the AC).

the only ACTUAL canon divergence that's not part of the timeline shenanigans is nin following isaac and getting popped and ending up in collin. which, technically speaking, has not been explicitly shown to NOT have happened in canon!

so, to summarize:

the docs arrive as in canon->the wish goes as canon->bayview happens->pnat canon timeline is retroactively changed to accommodate bayview

the docs arrive early->only dimitri's wish happens->mmattbp canon timeline is retroactively changed to accommodate the elements of his wish.

so, in other words, the timeline split at the wish, and then each individual timeline had a Great Unknown retcon separately. PLEASE tell me this makes sense bc it does in my head and im going insane trying to explain this. but if it doesn't then ask me and i'll try again!

[eyedove]

im gonna talk about homestuck in 2023 under the cut and how it has influenced my art irreversibly but not just in the style in which i draw things but also in the way i imagine scenes, the way i interact with music, and the way i engage in the creation of fan works

genuinely still in love with the animation of the [s] panels in homestuck. they start as pretty utilitarian, but by enter, they're starting to get cinematic as hell. adore the use of minimal actual animation by just zooming and tweening that gets snappier and more satisfying to watch occur over time.

(the constant movement: always panning or zooming except in small key moments influenced SO MUCH in terms of amv and video editing in the time they were released. i do not have anything to back it up but i would absolutely put stock into the conspiracy that it really contributed to the back-and-forth inverse panning style that most video editing apps have nowadays.)

and yeah yeah it was fine and all but then we get make her pay and we get these sequences that have SMALL MOVING PARTS that are not just spritework from the comic panels themselves and are made specifically for the animation, but they're still fairly simple, like vriska's arm moving on an elbow hinge toward her face. it's mixed in with the same method of letting pan and zoom do some heavy lifting. parallax panning. animated-music-video vibe. that's what it was! animated music videos! i remember people getting excited about this prospect of indie-style, animated music videos in 2014 with mystery skulls and freak kitchen.

cascade. my teenage brain was forever changed by cascade. telling a story through animation was my fucking dream (it still is) and i am just now in recent years understanding, even after taking animation classes in school, how fucking incredible these things were at teaching (admittedly the basics of) animating shit. it had a multi-media feel: it was a good live example of how to use differences in style and detail to create emphasis and drama. how to keep a tight color palette (in pixelated scenes, anyway, it's something the fully illustrated scenes sort of missed), how to give the illusion of movement, how to keep an eye interested in the material through movement, how to frame and balance a shot. how to give a silly or lighthearted vibe vs a serious and dramatic one through pacing and expressions (expressions are something i've always struggled with and continue to do so, both in real life and in art).

most of FUCKING all, homestuck's art style is FUCKING INCREDIBLE at delivering art shorthand. the drawing of the basic shapes of hands without fully fleshing them out. no shading on limbs - so foreshortening looks more natural without extra rendering.

ok there were a couple that really hit and some that missed. sometimes both in the same flash. (personally not about to defend some of game over, although it did do a pretty good job of shit that others did not, which was keeping track of everything happening, where and when) and the earlier ones are waaaay more influential to my style.

some fucking day ill release one of the 463782469 animatics i have anywhere from half-to-two-thirds done and it'll probably be EXTREMELY apparent.

tl;dr the snappy, rubberbandy movements, constant panning and zooming, multimedia feel, and sparingly used hi-detail shots from the time of about make her pay up to cascade are just. imo fucking beautiful. they let you take in the music with a nice, interesting, emotional visual that easily and cleanly portrays a story. (the times it doesn't is a pacing issue, not a problem with the format.) i want to do shit like that. i want to make something that has a story like that, has replayability like that, and hits like that.