#note of desolation

[tranquilspot]

[S] ==> The Note Desolation Plays

Very long thread ahead!

Alright! Time to comment on one of the most iconic Homestuck flashes. It has no command or name, so we'll use the name of the act:

The Note Desolation Plays First of, the flash itself.

The closeup on John never fail to get me, it's moving and impressive. The technique is simple and yet it's efficient. I think it's the first time we witness the Hero Mode. Followed by a change of scene (the empty streets). Then we zoom out, back to a more general shot, zooming out twice. Cue the visual narration.

The streets are empty. Wind skims the voids keeping neighbors apart, as if grazing the hollow of a cut reed, or say, a plundered mailbox.

Really interesting start. A simple direct description. 'The street are empty'. And then a more metaphorical one. Wind, void, neighbors. Cut reed. We went from a human/civilized/controlled concept to nature. Then back to a man-made object, the mailbox. There's an early preview of what's to come, the challenges and ideas that John will be confronted to. A breathe among the void, wandering, singing in a tube to travel and signal its presence. It's a pattern that will appear more and more in the future: the postal system on LOWAS, the pipes, and the organpipe at the end of his Land Quest. Heck, we were already introduced by DAD's pipes.

A familiar note is produced. It's the one Desolation plays to keep its instrument in tune.

The wind travels and sing. It's now music. I always was fascinated by the instruments before the beginning of a concert. It seems dissonant by actually it creates something melancholic, anticipation, yet hopeful. The beginning before the beginning. A hint, to whats to come. 'Get ready'.

But who's playing? It is us, it is John, it is.. someone else?

It is your thirteenth birthday, and as with all twelve preceding it, something feels missing from your life.

This 'something feels missing from your life' is kinda vague. It seems like a neutral statement, but actually it's worrisome. Early signs of depression? Or does he feel like he hasn't done much in his life yet? Boy you're 13, you've got a lot of time ahead!

The game presently eluding you is only the latest sleight of hand in the repertoire of an unseen riddler, one to engender a sense not of mirth, but of lack.

Oooooh a mysterious character, a hidden Sphinx-like entity. They're holding the game like a playing card, one yet to be putted on the table. I like this part of the paragraph very much. But who's holding the card(s)? The author? The CEO of the Skaianet, the one behind the development of Sburb, Jake Harley? Or perhaps alt!Calliope herself, she herself is quite enigmatic and speak in riddles. 'One to engender a sense not of mirth, but of lack.' I think this sentence is quite ignored by all. One more reason to dig as much as we can. Mirth is laughter, joy and life, the opposite of lack. Life vs Void. I also found funny to see a word having 'gender' in it. OOOOHHH a new meaning appeared! If you're team eggbert, then the lack, the discomfort that John is feeling could be interpreted as gender dysphoria. The mirth being gender euphoria. But if you're on team cis, then it's highly possible that it's depression. Though it works for both cases.

His coarse schemes are those less of a prankster than a common pickpocket.

'His'? Is that a pronoun chosen by default, or specifically picked? LE? Also, alt!Callie and Jake don't fit the prankster shtick.

Maybe John is projecting because he's an aspiring prankster. Hmm, so this mysterious figure is not funny but more criminal. Malicious, perhaps? Or just cruel?

Unseen figure with unspoken plans, keeping like an apathetic thief the long-awaited game, the start of all, the end of all. The main plot, the full(ness) that will fill the empty. Additionally, 'His' could be God himself. Jesus' pronouns in the Bible are He/Him capital H if I recall correctly.

His riddle is Absence itself.

Can this riddle linked to the Ultimate Riddle? Or perhaps it's one and same thing? There is interpretation of what the UR can be, including a long-ass post that I read several times, cause it's dense and complex. For those that don't want to read the whole thing, the answer of the riddle would be: Do as you wish. Absence. 'Waiting for something to happen', perhaps? John wishes that something happen to him, something that will motivate him and change his life. It's an early exhibit of John's mindset. Doing nothing and waiting for an external output to push him around. It's a passive and submissive behavior.

It is a mystery dispersing altogether, like the moon's faint reflection, with even one pebble of inquiry dropped in its black well.

The ripples creates movement, and once it's set in motion, he sure is going, for a little while. Here, the answer seems to be within reach, but when we look for it it gets blurry. A mix of a truth not ready to be discovered yet, and an unseen force preventing him to uncover it.

It is the most diabolical riddle of all.

Me, when I try to understand why I'm not feeling well and what's my body trying to communicate to me..

But yeah, the kids will scratch their head for a while with that one!

"Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire." -Walt Whitman

Speaking of scratching, this one is a doozy. Extremely straight forward, and yet I have a hard time trying to link it to John's life and adventure. What would John attribute as "little passions" and "great ones"? "as wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire" is easily readable in a literal way. But for now its deeper meaning (how it applies to John) eludes me.

Alright, if it's the limits of my intellect, then let's check the work of someone who actually understood it! It's way too long to translate and put in this already long post, so I'm going to summarize it. This sentence is about relationship. According to Rochefoucald, there's no small loves but rather mediocre ones. Absence has a different effect depending of the nature of the relationship. If the bond is weak, the distance can make it dissipate. On the other hand, a strong bond can be strengthened by it. Distance makes us think and identify if a relationship is important for us or not. Thank fuck for this analysis. Now I get it! Anything that is of little importance disappear to John's eyes, but the game and his friends? It gets stronger. The more time separate him from Sburb and his reunion with the others, the more his desire is intensified.

Yes, you are certain Walt Whitman said that. One hundred percent positive.

Aaaand we're back to 'Attribute this quote to its proper author'. Woohoo! (audience claps) This time iiiiiit's…François Duc de la Rochefoucauld (pronounced rushfooko). Oh hey french dude. I wouldn't guess!

There's also several translations for this section: -"Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires." -“Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and fans the bonfire.”

I guess the one with mediocre in it is the closest translation.

Small love is fine too, after all when an author mentions 'passions' they often mean love. Also 'feu' refers to a chimney fire, or fire in general. If it was a bonfire, the author would have specified with "feu de joie/de camp". Anyway, that was the translation intermission haha. Gonna love language and interpretations~

You have a feeling it's going to be a long day.

Did you mean 3 years?! hahaha But yeah, it's going to be a long and tedious 24 hours. Well well, let's sum up and reach to a conclusion: Something is missing from John's life. Someone seems to play games with him, not of mischievousness, but cruelty. John is waiting, longing for something but isn't willing to be the one to make a move, no he rather be pushed in the desired direction in a passive way. John wants to reach a certain truth about himself, but fail to grasp it every time. He wants to but isn't ready to learn it. There's also the Ultimate Riddle, which is linked to his personal riddle. Maybe it's one and the same thing. And finally, the Rouchefoucauld quote. A meditation on John's relationships (friends), the game, and himself. A bond between absence and wind is made. The wind is a melancholic melody, the full, that fills the absence (depression?), the empty. Will John be able to take back control on his life? How will he transition to the rest of the afternoon after such a deep and heavy moment? ==>

[smiggles]

Sorry to bitch but I have a huge pet peeve with people thinking tumblr is a "bad site" because when they switch from twitter to here they get "no traction" on their art

and its like. yeah DUH you just switched to a new platform. Do you expect to get 1k notes on all your stuff overnight? Do you NEED 1k notes? If art isnt your job why does it matter so much. IMO tumblr is so nice because your audience truly engages with you instead of silently hitting a like/retweet button. They comment here. They tag. They send you asks telling you how much they liked that piece or what you do Additionally I believe that, even if you posted here a long time and get no following, sometimes its just. Luck. And thats what it is on twitter too. Ive seen AMAAAAZING artists with only 100 followers and 2 consistent likes on their work despite posting constantly just because luck was not on their side. idk man. thats me being cranky

[jonathanohnn]

SPOTWORLD!!! IT’S FUCKIGN SPOTWORLD!!!!!!

[wouldtheybecomeafearavatar]

Would Walter White from Breaking Bad become an avatar of the web?

[koskela-knights]

I feel my motivation to post and even create decrease 🤪💔

The dreadful fandom dip.

Ik i shouldnt compare myself to others but that tends to happen when looking for/at more content and oof can it suck.

[always-a-joyful-note]

Glad you enjoyed the random Pixiv recommend! The artist who I linked to has a veritable goldmine of ZOOL goodness, so do feel free to check out the rest of their stuff. I also had to lol at the following comic collection (https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/79521271), this time featuring oblivious Touma and jealous ZOOL. Again, super rough translation for the first comic:

Q: Which entertainer do you message most on Rabbichat?

Minami: I... (Inumaru-san...)

Haruka: To... (Touma, I guess...)

Torao: To... (Touma, probably...)

Touma: It's Riku.

Minami, Haruka and Torao: HMMMMM????

Touma: He's always active on Rabbichat, after all.

And then to save face they all change their answers instead of 'Touma' or 'Inumaru-san' to...

Minami: Iroke no aru hito desu. (A certain sexy person)

Haruka: Toshiue no onna! (An older woman)

Torao: Toruko no onna. (A Turkish woman)

Touma: You can't answer with any of those! (We're idols, you know).

And then the last comic when they finish up work early so Touma asks the others if they want to grab dinner together but they all play hard to get, so he's like, whatever, guess I'll invite Riku instead, and they're like WHY AREN'T YOU TRYING HARDER TO ASK US OUT??? and he's like GOD YOU'RE SUCH A PAIN IN THE ASS, haha.

Finally, I'll just leave you with this lovely fanart (https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/103322461). No translation necessary, just wholesome/possessive vibes to be had. <3

AUGH JFISOEF IOWAE WHOEVER THIS ARTIST IS I LOVE THEM A LOT ACTUALLY

AGAIN OP THANK YOU SO MUCH.

The first comic is canon to me, by the way. Problematic tsunderes, all of them. And the other fanart just killed me....it really is just wholesome. They sure love their leader (abandonment issues meet three guys who were expected to be failures and then abandoned)

[deacblues]

when i was a kid, i liked star wars

[amphiptere-art]

Ravenous and his not dad.

Infero belongs to @digimonlover09

[kageqama]

so i've been seeing these fangames for awhile now and i can't decide which one i should play. ive been looking at pros and cons of each one but im still unsure. i mostly just want one where it has a good plot tbh. i don't really care about the pokemon that much (i mean... yeah i do but ... plot...). ALSO i'm not a fan of hard hard games. im more of an easy to normal to semi-hard type of girl when it comes to pokemon fan games.

[morethanwonderful]

ALSO while I'm losing my mind over the Note of Desolation page and how it lays out John's arc: look at this!

One fundamental underlying aspect of John is that I think he feels really lost when he's not given external purpose and doing Main Character Stuff. He seems to just kind of stall and wallow at home in his depression during the end credits and pre-prologue epilogues. He has a huge breakdown seemingly out of nowhere after two years of idling on the ship between worlds. And here, we see that's not just something that comes from the trauma of his first session of the Game.

To some extent, for the whole first twelve years of his life before sburb, John Egbert has felt like he's missing something.

There's two different ways that you can read this, and I think they work in tandem.

On one hand, there's the meta reading. John as a person was born to be The Main Character. Sburb's whole thing is meta narratives and turning its players into characters in a creation myth. John is the main character of his story. He's the first to boot up Sburb, the first to enter the medium, and the first to go god tier. He's the friendleader. He's the one that does his world's ectobiology. Of course, in the context of Sburb and its narrative, he always feels like something is missing from mundane life. He exists to play the Game and serve its story, and he's divorced from his purpose if he's not Being The Protagonist.

But at the same time, this also works really well as a mundane symptom of depression. For as long as he's existed and had the capacity to feel complex emotions, John has felt like something is missing from his life. The Game only works as a temporary distraction from this feeling. Sburb gives him urgent concrete goals to focus on, and it's hard to feel empty and listless when you're constantly in crisis mode trying to keep yourself, your friends, and your universe from dying. But running on adrenaline and living a task-driven life can't actually cure his depression, and in the quiet moments between sessions and after Game Over, he's left with that same feeling of something missing. Something empty.

Given all that, it's fitting that this emptiness is first raised as an issue when John looks in his mailbox and sees that Sburb isn't there. In line with the meta reading, it's impossible for him as an entity to feel complete when he's missing the Game because he's the main character. Not getting his hands on the physical game might not be the cause of his listlessness, but getting divorced from his protagonist purpose is. He's nothing without Sburb.

Yet, we're told Sburb isn't really the true cause. He feels desolate before the game, he feels desolate at points during the game, and he'll feel even more desolate after. He feels like his life is a trick played on him by some "unseen riddler," whatever thing that might complete him held constantly out of reach. Not having the game, be it the physical disc or the Game that gives him purpose as a god, is ultimately just one more frustration in a life full of the feeling of lack.

John's the Main Character and incomplete without his protagonist role to play, but he's also depressed. And in the end, even becoming a god, creating a universe, and fulfilling his glorious purpose can't fix the sense of lacking in his life.

It's a cruel trick—fulfilling the plot contrivance that helps bring about his sense of Absence in the first place cannot actually fill the hole or help him move forward. Not in any long-term sense.

[ohmerricat]

for the past few years i’ve been a clear cut case of martin but am now in the process of transitioning to a gerry keay

[verirosvous]

Finished reading Wolf Creek Origin

[sbatj]

VICTIM 28nd - skid & pump

it's not spooky month dumbass it's june

no wait it's not even june it's fucking april

sr pelo and online animation in general (mokey's show, spooky month, super mario bros. z)

friday night funkin' (mods only allowed for overlap in shared tracks, or mods/songs related to spooky month/its characters) (spookeez, chiller, trick or treat)

it's the spooky month! (friends 'n' fear, [s] cascade, political labyrinth)

things that are 𝓢𝓹𝓸𝓸𝓴𝔂 (super ghostbusters, bonetrousle, zombotany)

[wouldtheybecomeafearavatar]

Would Agent Phoenix from I Expect You to Die be an Avatar of the Desolation?

[anders-hawke]

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