#like its not as inherently AWFUL for a kid to fall into homestuck even if they are still genuinely just even worse equipped to handle its

[shame-kink]

someday we will invent a vaccine for kids getting into south park

[lotarclasspects]

The Homestuck Epilogue and Analysis of the Text as a Whole (brief)

EPILOGUE SPOILERS AHEAD 

As many of you in this fandom have recently born witness to: The Epilogue is finally here. It begins with a prologue, with John being disillusioned from the world and Rose telling him that him going back is essential. In the beginning of the story we are introduced to the idea of things which, viewed from the lens of the greater story, are not necessarily measured in terms of one person’s moral stand point of “Good” or “Bad”, rather Essential and Inessential. This is the axis upon which Vriska turns, this is the path of events which Rose can see, and this is the stage upon which the conflict of our two Narrators comes to pass.

To understand the Epilogue, we must first, briefly, summarise some of the core themes of Homestuck. These, in short being: The Agency of the Characters, The Narrative itself as the Villian, and the meaning of Freedom. 

We will begin with the meaning of Freedom. What it means to be Home Stuck. Homestuck is not named simply as a joke about the start of the story, but its name rings true as an abstract way of representing the main objective of its characters. To win, and be at peace in the new Universe. For you see, much like Problem Sleuth, they only leave the house at the very end. But this only makes sense if you understand the Symbols because as Rose Lalonde, Seer of Light, One who Understands the Narrative’s Focus, explains: “The symbols holdall the power”. As you are probably all aware, the entire story focuses on the fates of the characters as they toil through the Alpha Timeline. As we later learn, this “timeline” is not the one which leads to the most fortuitous outcome, nor is it one which allows all characters to have equal relevance or fulfillment. It is simply an extremely specific series of events which allows the main villian of the Text, Lord English, to exist, take pleasure in his wanton destruction, and then die and be reborn all in a circuitous loop. Sure, the kids “Stop” Lord English in the end, but their Victory is more defined by their escape from their terrible, dire, and tragic situation. They enter their “Roles” by way of Sburb, which is symbolised by a House. A human house, a troll house, it doesn’t matter. It ends with them escaping through the door never to be truly seen in the comic again. They finally leave The House, and by House I mean the Narrative, which for the purposes of this examination is essentially interchangeable with Lord English himself, because in truth that’s what he represents. 

Lord English is the main villian of homestuck, but what he represents is a core theme of understanding the story. Lord English’s character design is essentially made to be a charicature of Andrew Hussie himself, the worst, most vulgar and horrible parts of his prior works. Gamzee, shitty clowns, Equius: Horses, Dirk, the narcissism and stuckupishness of his own narration, and Caliborn. The “Tortured Artist” who complains that “Internet Teens” don’t understand his “Masterpiece”. Sound familiar? But he also represents the Narrative itself. The awful cycle which the characters are subjected to suffer in. the Lord of Time itself is a classpect which means “One who Controls Time, One who controls Others with Time, and One who controls Endings, the wrapping up of plot threads, and Certainty” Which is exactly what the Alpha Timeline is. Lord English is representative of a DM, or storyteller who insists that everything must be done THEIR way, who is rigid and controlling about what they WANT to happen being what HAS to happen and any deviation of the sort will either be not allowed or punished. Therefore, the villian representing this shows a core theme and belief of the story. That controllers and rigid authoritarian storytellers are something evil. Theyre the bad guys here. On the flip side, The Rigid Authour’s nemesis in the end is the Muse of Space, Calliope. Someone who “Inspires others with her Creations, Inspires Creation, or Is inspired By creation, expansion, worldbuilding, and co-operation.” She is a caricature of the Fandom. Who desires collaboration and working together. This is a core element of SBURB, that a good session (Which in and of itself borrows themes from both GAMES and STORIES) can only happen from a collaboration and understanding between individuals. This is a core element of the Epilogue. 

Now, to understand how this all ties into the Epilogue, it first needs to be understood how fucking Meta homestuck is, and WHY the Narrative is the villian. It’s because, for a story to happen, the characters must suffer. Endure drama, heartache, weird adventures. Because otherwise there would be no story. Kevin from Home Alone gets left behind every year. If he was a real child, he’d probably need therapy about that in his older years, but Kevin is not allowed to have a happy, non abandoned christmas, because then they wouldn’t be able to make any more Home Alone’s. So Kevin has to suffer for the Narrative to continue in its existence. Precisely the fact why Homestuck ended where we couldn’t see them walk through the door. If we were to see that, then they wouldn’t truly be free of the narrative because the sole ability for us to be able to witness that would mean they’re still trapped. This is why the credits are in the format of Snap Chat. It allows the audience to have a small window into their lives whilst showing they’ve truly escaped and are allowed to live like real people.

But here again comes our problem. For the Epilogue to exist as a compelling story, the characters would have to experience conflict for that to happen. But the Epilogue does something interesting. It formats it in the style of a Fan Fiction. Because whilst Homestuck plays with the ideas of how restricting a story would be if the characters were real people, the Epilogue plays with the idea of what is, and is not Real to a story in the first place. What can be considered “ Canon”, and does that really matter. In the Meat and Candy halves, as referenced by Dave later on in the Candy section, when you flip a coin, in the short instant before it falls the two offshoots of the result of that perfectly equal choice come to exist. This was the nature of Calliope asking John which he wanted to pick. By doing so, she gave the opportunity for an alternate version of himself to live where he would die and so forth. The John who ate the Meat may have died but by doing so allowed all of creation to continue. Even though he didn’t get what he thought he wanted, he died in a relationship with terezi after his life had meaning again. Candy john got what he wanted. A relationship with Roxy. He got to live. But these things, in the end were not what he’d hoped them to be. His other self got to be with terezi. The same is true for the other characters. Karkat lost the presidency in Meat, but in Candy he proved he’d make an excellent leader. In Meat, Davekat became canon, but in Candy dave lived to be romantically unfilfilled but he got to meet Obama and achieve an ultimate catharsis of the self.

But the thing is, these choices, in a sense ARE perfectly equal. There is no evidence in the Narrative, that one is inherently more Canon than the other, because it is directly stated that they both exist outside of Canon. If both exist outside of Canon but are not Fanon are they both True? Or is truth relative. I believe that the Epilogue was a way of seeing what reality would bring to these characters, whilst filling out two different paths. One where they got something and one where they didn’t. And this also comes to the sub plot of the battle of the two narrators. As Calliope mentions in Candy, when it becomes obvious that the speaker had an agenda you begin to wonder whether it simply came to light who the speaker was or if they had been using their subtle passive influence all along. We barely even notice in Meat, because Dirk’s typing quirk is identical to the quirk used by Andrew Hussie himself. Whether he is simply an alternate version of Dirk Strider in canon... up for debate. But this also begs the question. If the stories are outside of Canon, and the Authour can change, then who is the executive on saying what happens and doesnt? The Epilogues are explorations. Not closures, but exploring what would happen in situations. It offers the idea that anyone could narrate about a series of events happening outside of canon,and it would be just as feasible and valuable as anything else outside of Canon. Therefore... Your fan fictions have just as much narrative Truth as those, and if those had some truth at all then do yours also? Or if your own stories are false then so are they. These are not meant to be taken as the “missing link” of the end of Homestuck, but simply filling a gap where a prior hole has already been filled. The end of the story seemed to have the characters so briefly meet but here it was FILLED TO THE BRIM with dialogues. So take of it what you will, because in the end, what it meant by “Above the Line, All is true and below it is all things which are insignificant” means that literally whatever you imagine could happen has an equal chance of happening in another “Outside of Canon” timeline. But what it meant by “The Important and the Unimportant will never again meet” is that Homestuck itself will never explore these things. That was it. What happens next... Is up to all of you.

-The Knight of Breath