#rose is liveblog 2020

[13eyond13]

THE MANGA REC LIST

in order of date released (and with the number of volumes listed on Wikipedia in brackets... I will keep this list updated with my progress through the volumes):

1967 Cat-Eyed Boy (3) / [progress: 3/3 read] {★★★½}

1968 Ashita no Joe (20) / [progress: 1/20 read]

1970 Lone Wolf and Cub (45)

1972 The Rose of Versailles (14)

1972 Devilman (5) / [progress: 5/5 read] {★★★½}

1974 The Heart of Thomas (3) / [dnf]

1974 Dear Brother (3) / [dnf]

1976 Glass Mask (49)

1981 Touch (26)

1982 Akira (6)

1982 Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (7)

1984 Dragon Ball Z (42)

1985 Banana Fish (19)

1987 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (132) / [dnf]

1989 Berserk (42) / [progress: 42/42 read] {★★★★★}

1990 Tokyo Babylon (7)

1990 Slam Dunk (31)

1990 Crows (26)

1991 Sailor Moon (18) / [progress: 1/18 read]

1992 X (18)

1992 Boys Over Flowers (37)

1994 Monster (18) / [progress: 9/18 read]

1994 Neon Genesis Evangelion (14) / [progress: 14/14 read] {★★★★}

1996 Card Captor Sakura (12)

1996 Yu-Gi-Oh! (38) / [dnf]

1996 Inuyasha (56)

1996 Revolutionary Girl Utena (7) / [dnf]

1997 Haru wo Daiteita (14) / [dnf]

1997 Hellsing (8)

1997 One Piece (107)

1997 Trigun (14)

1998 Hunter x Hunter (37) / [progress: 3/37 read]

1998 Fruits Basket (23) / [dnf]

1998 Uzumaki (3)

1998 Forest of Piano (26)

1999 Naruto (72) / [progress: 6/72 read]

1999 20th Century Boys (22)

2000 Dorohedoro (23)

2000 Nana (21) / [progress: 21/21 read] {★★★★½}

2000 Chobits (8) / [progress: 2/8 read]

2001 Worst (33)

2001 Fullmetal Alchemist (27)

2001 Claymore (27)

2002 Skip Beat! (49)

2002 Ouran High School Host Club (18) / [dnf]

2003 Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (28)

2003 Death Note (12) / [progress: 12/12 read] {★★★★★}

2003 Gintama (77)

2003 xxxHolic (23) / [progress: 1/23 read]

2003 Wolf's Rain (2)

2004 Vampire Knight (19)

2004 Soul Eater (25)

2006 Black Butler (33)

2006 Pandora Hearts (24)

2006 Code Geass (8)

2007 Totally Captivated (6)

2007 The Breaker* (10)

2007 Noblesse* (25)

2007 Goodnight Punpun (13) / [progress: 2/13 read]

2008 Bokura no Kiseki (29)

2009 Attack on Titan (34) / [progress: 4/34 read]

2009 Durarara! (18)

2009 One Punch Man (28) / [progress: 1/28 read]

2010 Cheese in the Trap* (webtoon)

2010 Tower of God* (13)

2011 Puella Magi Madoka Magica (3)

2011 Tiger & Bunny (9)

2011 Orange Marmalade* (webtoon)

2011 Tokyo Ghoul (14) / [dnf]

2011 Girls of the Wild's* (webtoon)

2011 Hero Union BBS (1)

2012 Made in Abyss (12)

2012 Houseki no Kuni (12)

2012 Erased (12)

2012 Mob Psycho 100 (16)

2012 Assassination Classroom (21) / [dnf]

2013 The Gamer* (6)

2013 A Silent Voice (7)

2014 Golden Kamuy (31)

2014 Dungeon Meshi / [progress: 5/12 read]

2015 My Next Life as a Villainess (9)

2016 The Promised Neverland (20)

2016 Demon Slayer (23)

2016 Moriarty the Patriot (19) / [dnf]

2016 Beastars (22) / [progress: 22/22 read] {★★★★}

2017 Blue Period (14) / [progress: 1/14 read]

2017 No Longer Human (3) / [progress: 3/3 read] {★★★½}

2018 Chainsaw Man (15) / [progress: 12/15 read]

2019 Cheating Men Must Die** (18)

2019 Vampeerz (9) / [dnf]

2020 A Stepmother's Marchen* (webtoon)

2020 Death is the Only Ending for the Villainess* (webtoon)

2022 Gokurakugai (2) / [progress: 1/2 read]

2023 The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All (1)

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*manhwa // **manhua

Check out my sorting hashtag #13readsmanga to see my liveblogging of the series I'm currently reading (but beware of potential spoilers in there!)

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Check out the notes of THIS POST [X] for my spoiler-free reviews of the series I newly finish

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And check out THIS POST [X] if you want a short explanation of why I dnf'd one of the series on the list

--

last updated 2024/Sept/22

So for my book reading goal next year I think I'm going to attempt to read a lot of iconic/classic/influential manga series everybody should know, and I'd love to get your recommendations if you have them! Pls comment them here, even the really obvious ones, chances are I probs have not read it yet

[dogcopter]

Rose is Liveblog 2020

Episode titles link to a long form play-by-play of the episode and whatever other meta I was thinking about, roundup posts are shorter with summary of relevant information/behavior in each season.

These posts are in the #rose is liveblog 2020 tag, older Rose is Lion meta and reblogs are under #rose is lion 2020.

 (Don’t take the sillier lore/comments too literally, there’s some humor involved, and likely wrong about Rose’s motivations as often as I’m right) 

Posts are image-heavy, I tried to use smaller and lower quality screenshots.

Season 1A roundup

Season 1A

Episode 10: Steven’s Lion Part One

Episode 10: Steven’s Lion Part Two

Episode 13: So Many Birthdays

Episode 16: Steven the Sword Fighter

Episode 17: Lion 2: The Movie

Episode 18: Rose’s Room

Episode 23: Monster Buddies

Episode 24: An Indirect Kiss

Episode 26: Ocean Gem

Season 1B roundup

Season 1B

Episode 32: Fusion Cuisine

Episode 35: Lion 3: Straight to Video Part One

Episode 35: Lion 3: Straight to Video Part Two

Episode 38: The Test

Episode 45: Rose’s Scabbard Part One

Episode 45: Rose’s Scabbard Part Two

Episode 51: The Return

Episode 52: Jail Break (& Full Disclosure)

Season 2 roundup

Season 2

Episode 54: Full Disclosure (& Jail Break)

Say Uncle

Episode 63: Cry For Help

Episode 68: Nightmare Hospital

Episode 75: Steven’s Birthday

Episode 76: It Could’ve Been Great

Season 3 & 4 roundup

Season 3

Episode 79: Super Watermelon Island (Melon dog)

Episode 81: Same Old World

Episode 96: Crack the Whip

Episode 98-99: Bismuth

Season 4

Episode 106: Buddy’s Book

Episode 124: Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Season 5 roundup

Season 5

Episode 132: Lars’ Head

Episode 133: Dewey Wins

Episode 138: Kevin Party

Episode 139: Lars of the Stars

Episode 143: Pool Hopping

Episode 145: Can’t Go Back

Episode 151-152: Reunited

Episode 153: Legs From Here to Homeworld

Episode 156: Escapism

Episode 157-160: Change Your Mind

Movie & Future roundup

Movie

Steven Universe: The Movie

Steven Universe Future

Episode 3: Rose Buds

Episode 6: A Very Special Episode

Episode 13: Together Forever

I Am My Monster

[fyeahgustavo]

[terryboot]

These girls are all on the himym hot crazy scale tbh

[friendlyneighborhoodtree]

7:30 am - i am awoken by my alarm. i sleep for another 10 minutes, then get dressed and leave at 8:05

[kelleyanneohara]

ROSE!!!!!!!

[thewertsearch]

Asks Compilation 16/10

The old finale of SBaHJ. (201?-201?) Gone, but not forgotten.

Homestuck is SBaHJ #55. Dave's trying something new this time.

Honestly, spam away. It's become a lot more easier to handle asks now that I'm doing them every weekend.

WTF, SBaHJ historians rewriting history!

Well if that ain't absolutely perfect casting. Grey's Mandy would be a perfect Rose, and honestly, her Azula is a pretty flawless Vriska.

Both of these ideas for Dave's modus refer to him dealing with arbitrary restrictions - and I have talked before about how Dave seems pretty good at working within Sburb's.

The Tree Modus is harder to untangle, though. Trees are such a general symbol (and John's the one with the apple symbolism), and as a data structure, they're awfully abstract. The fact that she calls it elegant when it's obviously as janky as all the others is a good metaphor for her own feigned elegance, though.

I do really like the idea of analyzing people's modi, so I'm going to keep doing it.

[ this is actually true, I didn't know! it was announced in April 2021 apparently, this is what you miss when you stop following the fandom 😂

"In early 2020, Hussie officially left What Pumpkin to work on new projects unrelated to Homestuck. In the time since, they completed a new project called Psycholonials. The final chapter of this visual novel was just posted today, and is available on Steam and mobile platforms. While Hussie still retains ownership of the Homestuck IP, they decided last year to fully discontinue their creative involvement in any future Homestuck projects, and instead plans to continue independently developing more projects like Psycholonials." ]

No kidding?

It's kind of weird to be liveblogging the heyday of a comic which has essentially been orphaned by its author. It's a little sad, to be honest - it means that eventually, I'll run out of original Homestuck material, and there'll never be any more. Well, what can ya do.

The worldbuilding, of course, I'll love, but it'd also be fascinating to read a deconstruction of a fandom I was never part of. Maybe I'll try to reverse-engineer what the fandom was like from the fic itself.

I'm building up a proper list here! I'm going to have to make a page for it on the blog, I think, so I can compile my recs.

We know he's not really omniscient - and so does Terezi, actually - but it seems as if Vriska completely buys into it. I'd still call it an assumption, but it's a completely reasonable one, given the circumstances, and especially given that he's trying to mess with her head.

It's interesting, because if Vriska really believes he's 'never wrong', then how could she possibly expect him to lose at Battlefield-chess? Is she just that competitive? Why am I asking a question I already know the answer to?

Shit that's good. I'd love to get my hands on a compilation of these ship names.

Oh, I actually didn't catch the pool reference! And it's funny that someone whose name alludes to the Father Of Lies claims never to lie...

So that's the scratch explained, but what about the doc? He sure ain't healing anyone, and the 'omniscient' have no need for research.

The table actually kind of makes sense, since he wears an enormous, green, rectangular-looking coat. It's also fuel for my half-serious 'Felt megafusion' theory - all the cueballs are in the pool table at the end of the game, after all.

Yup! Hass (I presume) knows how to name 'em.

If it helps, Notepad++ is what all my initial notes go into as I liveblog. In a way, it is a wertsearch application!

Hell yes! I find it weirdly complimentary that anyone would pull a late-nighter to read my ramblings. Hope the rest doesn't disappoint, and welcome to the live readers' club!

[mugiwara-rosewolf]

!Announcement!

Hello my lovelies,

If anyone has been wondering about the recent remodelling of my blog, here’s an explanation: (and if not, there’s still some important info here)

Starting last month (May 5th, to be exact) I made the resolution to commit myself to One fandom for the rest of the year. I literally made a list, turned it into a spinner (unsponsored-plug: wheeldecide.com) and the winner was—

ONE PIECE!

Since then I have been consuming the manga, recently started the anime and have been drowning myself in fanfiction and fan art for the series (all of which is wonderful, btw). (If anyone has fanfic recs, plz lmk).

In scrolling through the OP fandom here on tumblr I noticed a fellow blogger (thank you @whereistheonepiece) was doing an op liveblog and I have been considering doing the same thing. If y’all are vehemently for (or against) the idea, again, I’d be happy to hear what you think.

Fair warning, even if you are against it, I may still do the thing because it actually sounds like a lot of fun.

All this to say, from now until December 31st, 2020, I will be producing solely One Piece content. Whether you’re familiar with the fandom or not, I still hope you’ll enjoy the works I’ll be creating. 👒

With that said, I hope you are all doing well—safe and sound—and that you all have a delightful summer. 💥

Wishing you all the best,

Rose

[house-of-mirrors]

Warning: bad things happen here. Looking into the mirrors is the prerogative of the foolish.

Contrary to the description from the game, nothing bad happens here, unless you count Bad Post Sunday. You can call me R. they/them guy. I’m in my 20s, I’m disabled, I’m queer, and I live in the United States. Currently in grad school for an MFA.

Editing Commissions:

I'm happy to provide grammar editing and/or content editing for fic or original writing! Please DM me if you're interested. We will negotiate a price based on the length and detail of the project.

My writing:

Find me on AO3 (snow_and_moon), where I post for both FL and sskies with things about the Masters, revolutionaries, and ocs, with more focus on the subjects of Mr Wines, Mr Fires, dreams/nightmares, and the Liberation

My OCs:

Please send calling cards to the 4! Their profiles are their first and last names as listed here.

Compilation of reference images

The Preoccupied Professor, Orsinio Elderwood, and the story of his journey through Nemesis

The Laconic Captain, Samuel Weatherbee, and his connections to the East

The Tenacious Doctor, Lucretia Doherty

The Avid Apprentice, Miles Darlington. Rumor has it that Miles used to go by the name Lovelace before vanishing into the North. Don’t pay that much mind. All shall be well.

The Intractable Storyteller, Captain Min, my sunless skies OC (this is an old post and needs updating)

Moodboards for my OCs and my ocs in historical picrew

Also, look at this compilation of art of my OCs by @thedeafprophet (find more on their blog)! And this piece by @vonlipvig. I appreciate all of you who draw for me <3 (I need to add more to this section, WIP)

Highlights of Lore Discussion:

A retrospective on Seeking Mr Eaten’s Name

A retrospective on Ambition: Nemesis

Headcanons about Mr Wines my favorite evil bat whom I love to torment

Not a theory about the Discordance

Some fanmade futures and destinies after the launch of Irem

Picrews I made of the Judgements

If you ever tag me in something and I don't respond, please let me know because tumblr does not notify me for mentions. Webbed site!

You can also find me on pixel cat's end as acetimetraveler.

Tag list below the cut:

Currently tagging: #firmament spoilers

Ask box is open, and if you need a specific trigger tagged, just ask me.

I try to tag: fl spoilers, es spoilers, hd spoilers, lf spoilers, bal spoilers, hd spoilers, railway spoilers, nemesis spoilers, smen spoilers, irem spoilers, city in silver spoilers. But be aware I can’t catch everything and this is not a spoiler free blog. I post mature content from time to time, typically tagged with #suggestive.

I tag #sskies playthrough for my liveblogging of the game and #lore discussion for deeper analysis of the games.

For the periodic negative rambling, I also tag #fl crit, #fl negative, #anti smen, #motr response, #motr crit if you want to filter those.

More random/personal things are tagged as: #from the desk of R or #disability tag. Stuff made in cahoots with Prophet is tagged with #two of them and/or #my step blorbos. Check #meme archive or #bad post sunday for funny times.

A little more about me:

I started playing Fallen London in December of 2020 after being recommended to it by a friend, and since that day it has consumed my waking thoughts. I’ve done more or less everything in the game to this point: Railway, Discordance, SMEN, Paramount, Irem. I have played all the ambitions except Light Fingers, but I don’t intend to do that one, though I have friends who told me the whole story minus the triggering parts lol. I’ve finished all four ambitions in Sunless Skies. Don't intend to play Sunless Sea. Still working my way through Mask of the Rose... I wasn't a huge fan of it lol.

I love the Calendar Council/Revolutionaries and I play Black on the chessboard. At the same time, I love the Masters because I love villains and I love bats. The Masters are scary powerful, the Masters are cartoonishly evil, the Masters are fluffye, the Masters are comically incompetent clowns, etc etc. In addition to Fallen London, I love math, literature, and history. Looking at social issues in fiction is important and interesting to me. I'm so very gay for space.

Here’s my first OC introduction post for the archives, although it’s quite outdated at this point.

A final note:

By nature, this blog is an inclusive space. No sort of bigotry or harassment is tolerated here, nor is any sort of “fandom discourse.” I’m too tired for that. It isn’t anyone’s business what fiction someone consumes in their personal time, and it’s your responsibility to avoid content you don’t want to see, and that’s the end of the argument.

[suworkbook]

Welcome to what might be the most critical event of 2020: Our countdown of the top 10 lesbian moments in Steven Universe Season 1. 

10. 

Take a trip down memory lane, back to when this liveblog was more sceptical and we were all still living in a society so we had things like manners and reason. The lesbians were only a distant dream, but for a brief moment Pearl and Amethyst made mad eyes at each other and threw each other around in the world’s most passive aggressive two-step to become one singular giant Aimee Mann, even though all they really wanted was a long nap. A golden age.

9. 

Greg steps up and gives us some of that old-school, self-made, independent woman energy with his absolute banger, Comet. As Greg’s rough, grainy vocals go crazy over shimmery power chords and a drummer that can only be thumping away like mad in Greg’s MIND, you could easily picture him frontlining for K’s Choice in 1998. Incredible lesbian representation.

8. 

Pearl gives us a really strong start to season onebee by immediately levelling up her lesbian energy and evolving into grimy mechanic Pearl who gets excited over Garnet bench pressing vans. The only thing we can say for certain is her next reincarnation is going to be wearing flannel and a trucker hat. 

7. 

Shout out to Sadie, who carries constant fight club energy with her. It’s very hot when a girl is ready to smash anything with a chair at any time, but it’s even hotter when they do it while wearing ripped jeans with stubbly legs. More Sadie beating people up in 2021.

6. 

Pearl really went above and beyond on lesbian duty this season, even going so far as to channel the spirit of the most sapphic 90s shoujo of them all. 

5. 

LIFE CHANGING MOMENT RIGHT HERE.

4. 

Pearl doing pretty much anything in Rose’s Scabbard. What was she doing? None of us can really say for sure, but it held a lot of DEEP MEANING and IMPORTANT METAPHOR for Pearl and that’s all that really matters. Pearl got afflicted by the world’s worst case of U-Haul syndrome by skipping straight into running away from home and joining a war for a giant space lady who hadn’t even held her hand yet, and it was probably AWESOME.

3. 

I mean just look at it.

2.

Amethyst literally dove into Garnet’s spread thighs, and this one still beat it out for pure lesbonic vibes.

1. 

I would name this whole episode if I could, including the parts where Jasper and Lapis hate fuse, Ruby’s entire existence, and the bit where Peridot slams her face into the floor hoping for the sweet release of being flung into space. This is the purest lesbian experience - chaotic, tired, surrounded by exploding machinery on fire and having NO TIME for ANYTHING except BEING A LESBIAN and KISSING YOUR GIRLFRIEND’S FACE. 

[keyofjetwolf]

THE GIFTENING 2020: Day 4

Oh, Utena. I never know what the fuck I’m in for when I revisit Rose Dick High, but you are often entertaining in your bafflement.

We’ll pick up Utena today where we left off last GIFTENING, with episode 8. And as a bonus extra treat, @docholligay​ will ALSO be liveblogging this episode, since she somehow managed to skip it when doing her series liveblog. IT’S AN UTENA TWOFER

A couple things before we start:

I’m watching Utena unspoiled. Please be careful with any Asks, replies, or reblogs. Also bear in mind that I lack the context of future episodes. That context may – or may not! – shift my views on events and/or characters. But above all, my opinions are only mine and it’s okay if they aren’t yours. IT’S A CARTOON WE CAN DISAGREE I PROMISE

We have a Discord server if you’d like to enthuse with others without worrying about spoiling me. They’re neat and welcoming and other such complimentary things. Link is here!

The tags to follow or block are: #jet wolf watches utena for this event, #THE GIFTENING 2020 day 4 for today, and/or #THE GIFTENING 2020 for the whole damned thing.

If you’d like to catch up on my previous Utena liveblogs, click here to be whisked away to the tag. We begin in just a few minutes!

[dogcopter]

If anyone needs a list of (probably) every Rose is Lion appearance/astral projecting secret Rose Quartz ghost in Steven Universe but in bite-sized tweets instead of a big old theory post, I made a thread for this purpose

[fyeahgustavo]

[mmmmalo]

@overtrolled-liveblog‘s recent post on Gamzee made me realize that Gamzee’s first interaction with Terezi (Terezi attempting to hurt Gamzee and being angry when he doesn’t react) is also the basic dynamic of Terezi’s ill-fated attempt to “avenge” herself upon Gamzee around Game Over. I never understood why Terezi’s was manifesting for Gamzee in that interaction, but the repetition seems like a good lead. So here’s an attempt:

Aranea’s mind control is being juxtaposed with whatever allowed Gamzee to maintain his composure in Act 5. Sopor is an obvious candidate, as is his general early interest in avoiding conflict, but there might be something else to it...

2018. When Gamzee remarks (in the narration) that "it is dangerous to leave unarmed", the commentary has this to say: "It's probably not actually that dangerous to leave unarmed. This was probably something his goat dad told him a long time ago. But only to scare him, and make sure he stayed inside so no one would ever see him, because he was so embarrassed by him. Goatdad is probably one of the most sympathetic characters in the story. If Gamzee was your son, wouldn't you abandon him too?" Glib dismissal, veering sharply into needless cruelty. But it nonetheless draws attention to the narration's unreliability, moored as it is to Gamzee's POV.

2017. Speaking of unreliable: "You aren't supposed to eat that slime. It does funny things to a troll's head. // But you were never taught that on account of a lousy upbringing. Your custodian was always out to sea." Gamzee is evidently thinking the very thing he was never taught, but he attributes that thought to a higher power (the narrator) and thereby pleads ignorance of it? Or it could be read as an expression of shame: as Gamzee eats his pie, he imagines a stern voice admonishing him from over his shoulder. OR you might more literally parse the contradiction as the voice of two separate Gamzees sharing the brain space in some kind of daze...or you could call it simple memory loss. These are inclusive ors, btw.

2019. Anyway, Gamzee reaches the beach and we get this line: "You leave your hive and head out to the beach. There is no sign of your custodian. // You should not stay out here very long. The SEA DWELLERS are quite hostile." Commentary on his custodian's absence, followed by a voice of authoritative behavioral cautioning, as though a guardian were living in Gamzee's head. Immediately following this, Terezi manifests for Gamzee, though he doesn't answer immediately... so I suspect Terezi's manifestation will be an elaboration this internal division?

2020: "You're always down for shooting the wicked shit with anyone that who'll put up with you." Man... Act 5 is misery. The Miracle Modus is a picture of Gamzee's brain being fried to a point of being nearly inaccessible. Vivid flashing colors (like Jade's rich scents) are a mark of unfiltered EXPERIENCE sans language/reason (which is probably why Lord English's eyes are flashing), but here that means disorientation -- difficulty organizing sense experience...

2022: Gamzee says a prayer and Faygo gets launched out of his sylladex... is the Faygo the prayer? Jane launched wishes into the sky with the balloons on LOCAH -- but the balloon shape was inverted and transformed into Gamzee's bottles of "potion"... that association seems to be expressed more concisely here. Jane's case was also related to decapitation motifs, which I don't really see with Gamzee here... (aside from Terezi's general association with going for the neck) But at any rate, what is he wishing for?

2023. Gamzee standing in front of his sylladex is getting to me, even more so that his reaching into the sylladex. You are not SUPPOSED to be on that layer of the image. What are you doing. Is that safe? Are you okay?

2024. The conversation itself...continues to evade summarization. I'm going to just describe it piece-by-piece and see if I get anywhere.

Terezi deliberately misspells Gamzee's name in service of a joke: from 'gamzeez' to 'gamezez', highlighting its phonetic proximity to 'games'. Though I wonder if this disguises another sort of exchange: Gamzee goes down to the beach to find his dad, but instead finds Terezi. I'm humoring the idea that she is effectively functioning as the fatherly authority in Goatdad's place. But as the preceding panels indicates, that very notion of authority occupies a place in Gamzee's head that he remains somewhat...detached from? If Terezi gives voice to this aspect of Gamzee, the word blurring could obfuscate that she is saying "Gamzee" /twice/, such that her invitation to play games is an offer for Gamzee to pilot himself? (Which in the parent:child::head:body paradigm is not entirely ridiculous?)

Come to think of it, this is the second time Terezi has harassed someone on a waterfront (hi, Rose) and even then main subjects were a) haha your guardian abandoned you because you're terrible and b) a sense of hearing imploring voices in your head...

Terezi implies that she doesn't like Gamzee and is only inviting him in service of a joke. Gamzee ignores the ulterior message and accepts the given reason as justifiable... after which Terezi gets angry. But she doesn't seem angry that the implication was misunderstood (and her disdain ignored) but is rather angry that the arbitrariness of his selection wasn't itself objectionable -- /after/ which she confirms her own disdain by saying "no wonder Vantas can't stand you". The motivation for the joke became the effect of the joke...

"BUT WHO C4R3S 4BOUT H1M, W3R3 GO1NG TO H4V3 SOM3 MOTH3RFUCK1NG SH1TTY B1TCH3S PL4Y1NG TOG3TH3R!" as Rose said, "Still not sure if I'm being courted or trolled here." Terezi is making fun of how Gamzee talks but nonetheless seems to be attempting to bond with him here...?

With "keeping an eye out" and "you know how it is with family" back-to-back with Terezi's aggression, it kind of feels like Gamzee is likewise (successfully) attempting to bother Terezi... but his defense is his forgetfulness, like a taboo subject just slipped... the same is true of Gamzee's claim that he was never taught that sopor is dangerous, the legitimacy of which depends on Gamzee forgetting?

"The Bard of... fuck, i forgot" is literally a joke on Gamzee "forgetting" his way around anger and aggression, by way of the omission of Rage? Also, it's a generic phrase but John uses 'fuck i forgot' when reminded of his birthday in the Epilogues... topic of birthdays is significant since Gamzee parses his state of mind as 'spacing out' and 'losing track of time' -- a birthday is, in that context, a reminder of time's progression.

Twice in Gamzee's conversation he asks Terezi for a little bit more time before he plays the game with her. This again reminds us of Rose's procrastination -- which among other things represents a deferral of encounter with the Truth, again bringing us to forgetting. 

2028. But interestingly enough, the motif of procrastination continues in the section with Karkat that follows: Karkat expresses apprehension about meeting his guardian before the narrative segues to Terezi, which is structurally resonant with Gamzee going to the beach for his guardian, only to find Terezi? Which again associates her with unseen authority figures... 

Oh shoot, and the panel cuts from Karkat looking down through the hole in his floor to a low-angle shot of Terezi's skylight? As though she were below like crabdad. That seals it for me.

2030. Actually, I mentioned how Gamzee's flashing modus is related to the unmediated sensory bouquet that Lord English sees ALL THE TIME by having flashing eyes, but Terezi's room? Is set up to be exactly that sensory bouquet, all the time, with loud colors plastered and mixed haphazardly. I've mostly focused on Terezi's relation to English by way of their shared association with the Law (x)(x) but this is a fresh angle...

And since it becomes apparent that the scenes that /follow/ Gamzee's conversation inform the way it should be read, I would be remiss to exclude the Karkat/Sollux conversation between the Gamzee and Terezi sections... in which the ~ATH (til death) code is brought up, which proves central to Lord English's creation.

2026. "later on you would run this code in a fit of stupidity." Creepy! I always assume the narration to be bound to the present tense, like the character's POV, so this sudden interruption from the future is really unnerving. How does Karkat know this? Is that just a miserable self-assessment, like he knows he'll harm himself when he gets worked up? Is this Karkat planning to curse everyone, but renouncing his decision as a product of fate? I feel like this confusion nicely complements the paradoxical ~ATH code on screen (Sollux's double reacharound virus)

2027. "Speak of the devil" Sollux has manifested for Karkat... yeah I still can't make sense of this as far as manifestation goes. BUT I think the fact that chatlogs are likewise two-colored might mean that Sollux and Karkat's conversation is in some sense analogous to the code...? The architecture of the conversation is... accusing eachother of self-loathing and then agreeing upon mutual self-destruction (of the conversational log), which at least superficially resembles a program that exists to destroy itself and the medium in which it resides? Maybe...

Shot in the dark: the (much procrastinated) march unto Truth is a march unto Judgement, which means both God and Death. Thus Gamzee (the procrastinator who avoids truth) transitions to Karkat/Sollux (vaguely suicidal gesture in their conversation) transitions to Terezi (judge and executioner, associated with ultimate authority and thus God). That's my best assessment of the proceedings thus far.

[bladekindeyewear]

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2020-10-15

More Homestuck, continuing directly from last time.  Gonna Bang Out A Liveblog Quick (GbOALq)…

No chapter title this time, just straight continuation.  (By the way, I didn’t reblog it so spoilers don’t headline my blog but this post regarding last upd8 is delightful)

> (==>)

Okay, this makes more sense as to why they both disappeared -- Vrissy is either trying to get her back or is going along and just being grousy about it, or one under the pretense of the other or the like.

By the way, if Rose specifically planned in a way that involved telling Vriska to sit on the sidelines and not doing anything, shouldn’t she ABSOLUTELY KNOW, one-hundred percent with a combination of her Seer of Light powers and common sense, that Vriska will Not Do That?  --so whatever Vriska is about to do I’m going to assume Rose has accounted for it, unless she’s like...

...sworn off using her powers much, or something.  That would super suck and I would hate for that to be in this story regardless of themes.

Vriska Maryam-Lalonde, recently "Vrissy," and potentially "You Are So Grounded You Are Never Leaving The House Again," isn’t what’s commonly referred to as an "outside girl".

She likes grass. It’s fine! To look at. And so are trees, as long as they’re somewhere off in the distance, swaying gently in the breeze. Trampling through them is not on the list of acceptable tree activities. Vrissy is already sweaty and dirt-streaked, and there’s probably like fifty gnats trying to drink her eye fluids. At this rate she almost envies Tavros his role as Batterwitch Bait. Sure, he has to pretend to be threatened by Vrissy’s mom, which is lame as hell and also very embarrassing, but at least his eye fluids are safe.

So she’s fine with this in principle, just not with the work involved? Or--

VRISSY: Hey, can you slow Down a Little? VRISSY: I have to run over Shru8s and shit, I can’t Fly! VRISKA: Hah! And who’s fault is that???????? VRISSY: My shitty 8iology I guess! VRISSY: Sorry, not all of Us had SGRU8 Sessions to make ourselves Immortal. VRISKA: Well, we’ll take care of that, don’t even worry a8out it. VRISSY: Lol I wish.

Oh Christ, we really should have seen it coming.  OF COURSE VRISKA is going to get her hands on a copy of the Game and try and have these kids play it, regardless of whatever meteor-based consequences to this happy society.  FUCK.  She doesn’t even see any reason to hide it!

--reading on, some discussion of how people on Earth C view the ability to fly unaided as a sort of religious thing so shot down Roxy’s idea of letting everyone fly.  Why does society always keep trying to shut down Roxy all the time

VRISKA: Really, we have to get you a god tier. That’s pretty much the only solution at this point. VRISKA: Ideally we’d go back to when you were a wiggler and start your training right away, 8ut that’s not exactly an option. So god tier it is. VRISSY: Is that even Possi8le? outside of the Game? VRISKA: Nope. 8ut we don’t have to worry a8out that, once we get back into SGRU8. VRISSY: What???

This is what you get for letting Vriska back into your story:  She starts another meteor apocalypse and destroys your Happily Ever After.  Fuck.

VRISKA: We have to start this shit over again, you have all let it get so out of hand there’s really nothing to do besides a hard reset.

NO.  Fuck you.  You just don’t like hard work.

(I know everything is accidentally going to end up working out “alright” whatever happens, but even if Vriska’s self-aggrandizing malfeasance HAPPENS to be the cause of it, I really, really don’t want her fucking ideology to be the cause of it.  She shouldn’t be Aesma of Kill Six Billion Demons mythology, she’s had too many flirtations with ACTUALLY learning a lesson and BEING EARNEST ABOUT IT to be the selfish chaos at the heart of victory and living.)

(Yes, I recently caught up with KSBD and it’s awesome.)

> (==>)

VRISKA: This is a perfect spot for a fight. An am8ush point. VRISSY: !! VRISKA: Don’t worry about it, that’s good. That’s what we’re looking for.

Vriska leveraging her luck and assuming they’ll be followed when she wants to be.

> (==>)

That’s a really, really damn good waiting-for-an-ambush image.  Pretty hilarious.

(Still having a background mental fit about how this HS2 crew might REALLY be trying to make Vriska the Aesma of the Homestuck “universe” which is just aaaAAAUGH NOBODY SHOULD WANT THAT.  I’ll be really unhappy with the end product of THIS ENTIRE HS2 PROCESS if they pull that shit, no matter what side benefits there are or how happily it ends.  Hell, ESPECIALLY if it ends happily.  They’re having fun elevating her somewhat more than most people agree she deserves but they shouldn’t elevate her TO THAT LEVEL. EDIT3: More discussion on that here if you don't know what I mean.)

> (==>)

VRISKA: This is actually way more fun than I thought it would 8e. VRISKA: 8ringing around a younger, dum8er me. VRISSY: I think we’re 8asically the Same Age. VRISKA: Whatever!

(Fuck you!)  :)

> (==>)

wait what the fuck--

MANDATED HAIRSTYLES?????

what the fuck!???

EDIT: plausible theory here

> (==>)

Vrissy is that fuzzy dice kind what the hell

> (==>)

Circle, fifteen guys, no special significance that i can detect

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Oh is War Shit kinda poppin off alongside the whole church thing?

> (==>)

Colorful ship design, weird zoomout frame transition; something wasn’t smooth with that

Anyway is orbital bombardment gonna happen or?

> (==>)

JOHN: vriska! JOHN: i mean, vriskas!! JOHN: where are JOHN: oh fuck

yeap

> (==>)

Is John flying out under the ship away from the house?  That’s really irresponsible.  (And abruptly transitioned, I didn’t realize it happened at first.  KEYFRAME THINGS BETTER AUGH)

--why is that belly button window still there?  I thought we had a line about Harry fixing his outfit, or at least having the capability to, did they not have time to finish?  Let me check, that’s bugging me:

HARRY: plus i wouldn’t have been able to get your measurements for some clothes that actually fit you if we hadn’t come back here where all my sewing stuff is.

Oh GOT IT.  Harry TOOK his measurements, but hasn’t fixed his outfit yet.

> (==>)

JOHN WHY DID YOU GO ALL THE WAY TO THE CHURCH WHO THE FUCK IS PROTECTING THE KIDS

> (==>)

Okay you’re back at Your House instead of Roxy’s house?

What, going to fight the ship or

I mean you could but you’re kind of forgetting what was the most important damn thing a few panels ago you jackass

> (==>)

Is that a bomb or fucking take out??

Why blow up John’s HOUSE that’s just so petty

> (==>)

ka-house

(pretty)

about time John stopped languishing in his childhood home instead of living life, anyway.

> (==>)

(o no i didnt want john to be sad tho)

it’s fine, he’ll be angry next panel or so

> (==>)

UM THE WHOLE SKY IS GETTING DARK???? HOW LONG ARE YOU SITTING HERE AND LETTING THIS BURN OUT???

HOW MANY HOURS ARE YOU LEAVING THOSE KIDS UNPROTECTED YOU GOLDFISH MEMORY CHUCKLEFUCK

> (==>)

APPARENTLY ALL OF THE HOURS BECAUSE IT’S NIGHT NOW YOU ASS

and that’s the last panel

yknow if we are going to have an arc about john learning to be a slightly more responsible parent it would help if it SHOWED HIM LEARNING ANYTHING

GOODNIGHT

EDIT2: Anonymous asked: "I think the whole "John watches his house burn down" is more him coming to terms with who Jane has become. In the last update they mentioned how Rose(I think it was Rose) baited Jane into believing John and the kids were hiding out at his place, and Jane just destroyed it, so he's coming to terms with the fact that she just tried to kill not only John and Vriska, but the kids too."

Oh shit. I forgot about that from the previous update: "JOHN: but rose sent out some false intel about us heading toward my house, so technically this is the safest place we can be right now, since they cleared the area and everything." He really does have to come to terms with the fact that Jane just tried to murder them all, too, so shit is definitely real.

...Which makes the fact that he didn't rush off to guard the kids in response to THAT NEW FACT still pretty galling, but.

[terryboot]

I think locky has a thing for brunettes

A minute into bachie and one of the girls has refered to CHESS as CHEST like 6 times