#that and i never really was invested in homestuck lore

[pale-opal]

Hear Me Out:

I know that image and what I'm about to say has a chance of being incredibly niche, because I have no idea how much overlap there is between the Homestuck and Mega Man fandoms. But if there's anything I've learned from the internet, it's that no matter what fandom you're in, it's almost guaranteed that someone in said fandom has read Homestuck before. So I think someone out there will understand the rant I'm about to go on. But for everyone who hasn't read Homestuck before, here's a quick explanation: Homestuck is a webcomic that was written and published by a man named Andrew Hussie. It ran from 2009-2016. It follows the misadventures of four kids as they play a game called Sburb with the help of twelve other kids known as "trolls." Together, they go on a quest to complete the game, as the initiation of it has caused the world to end (so even if they wanted to quit, they couldn't. Whoops). It is currently available to read on mspaintadventures.com, however I do NOT recommend reading it if you are a minor, or if you have sensitivity to content that contains violence, strong language, etc. - There were also two (technically one?) epilogues produced afterward, as well as a sequel called "Homestuck^2". - The disclaimer above applies to those works as well.

Okay. Now that I've explained what Homestuck is, let's get into why I put these four Doctors in the squares that I did.

Dr. Cossack: Has read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - He just seems like the kind of man who casually knows a lot about a lot of things. - A "nerd," if you will. - I can see him reading this in college and subsequently getting totally invested. - He relates to John Egbert (one of the four kids I mentioned earlier) on a personal level. - He did not like the epilogues. - He likes Homestuck^2, though. Dr. Light: Has Read Homestuck, Doesn't Know What Homestuck Is - I imagine that Light was introduced to Homestuck through Cossack while they were in college. - Like, what if Light got sick at some point, and Cossack came over and showed him this random webcomic he found in an attempt to make him feel better, only for Light to wake up the next day, convinced the whole thing was a fever dream? - Cut to many years later, after the birth of Proto Man. - Light and Cossack are having a conversation on the phone: - Cossack: "Hey, Thomas. Do you remember Homestuck?" - Light: "...Homestuck?" - Cossack: "You know, that webcomic I showed you when you got the flu back in college?" - Light: "I'm not sure I-" - Cossack: "The one with the little gray people?" - Light: "Little gray- wait. Wait, that was real?!" - He has not read the epilogues or Homestuck^2. Dr. LaLinde: Has Not Read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - I think that Dr. Cossack would go on many coffee-fueled 2 a.m. rants to her during last-minute attempts to finish projects on time when the two of them were in college. - LaLinde would always listen respectfully, and as a result knows the entire lore behind Homestuck despite never reading it. - One day, she decided to give it a go. Here's how that went: - LaLinde: "Okay, let's see here- what? Eight thousand (8000) pages? Where am I going to find the time to read all of that?" - And so, she has to this day never read the darn thing. Dr. Wily: Has Not Read Homestuck, Does Not Know What Homestuck Is - The reasoning behind this is simple: he just couldn't get into it. - Dr. Cossack tried several times while they were in college to convince him to read it, but it sounded really convoluted to him. - Dr. Light tried to get him to read it before the whole "Dr. Wily becomes evil and takes over the world" thing after he remembered what it was. - That didn't work either. - Plus, the whole thing just seemed too long. - He eventually just forgot it existed once Light stopped trying to get him to read it. But here's something else about the Doctors: they all had kids. Kids who all grew up with different levels of parental involvement. Kids who would've probably heard their parents talk about this strange little webcomic at one time or another. Which brings me to my next point:

Blues: Has Read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - I imagine that he heard the aforementioned phone call between Light and Cossack, and asked Dr. Light about what they were talking about. - Light straight up tells him that he's not allowed to read it. - Blues accepts this. - Cut to Blues' life after he runs away from home. He's at the library. - He's also in the midst of his "I hate my dad" arc, and as a result is more than willing to go and read this comic Dr. Light told him was off-limits. - He spends a whole day reading the webcomic, its epilogues, and its sequel. - He is there from the time the library opens to the time it closes. - And once everything is said and done, he is a changed man. - His favorite character is Dave Strider. - He also used to like Dirk Strider and Jane Crocker, but then he read the epilogues. Bass: Has Read Homestuck, Doesn't Know What Homestuck is - Bass was just minding his business, until he finds Proto Man broke into his house... again. - I like to think Blues breaks into Wily Fortress sometimes, just because he can. As a treat. - And to visit any Wilybots he's friends with. - He goes to confront Blues, only to find him in the midst of his third reread of Homestuck. - He asks what he's doing. - Blues tells him to pull up a chair. - He starts the reread over so that Bass can understand what's going on. - Bass, too, ends up a changed man. Even if he has no idea what he just read. - His favorite character is Karkat Vantas. - He made a trollsona (basically a troll OC), but has never told a living soul about it. - Also, he will never admit it, but "[S] Game Over" messed him up on an emotional level (if you don't know what "[S] Game Over" is, don't worry about it. Don't look it up. It's okay. Just forget I said anything). Tempo: Has Not Read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - Quake Woman has not read Homestuck for the same reason her mother hasn't read it: She's simply too busy. - Blues tries to convince her to read it, though. - But here's the thing: Vesper Woman HAS read it... but she just thought it was just alright. This leads to conversation like this happening: - Vesper: "Don't listen to him, Tempo. It's okay at best." - Blues: "..." - Blues: "...would you like to elaborate on that?" - They get into arguments about different aspects of the plot a LOT. - Tempo just listens quietly while she works. - Out of curiosity, she ended up looking it up one day when she had free time, and ended up stumbling across Hiveswap instead. - Hiveswap is a spin-off game that takes place in Homestuck's universe. The first Act was released in 2017, and the second was released in 2020. - I will admit that I haven't played Hiveswap, so I'm not sure if the disclaimer I provided for Homestuck applies here. Kalinka Cossack: Has Never Read Homestuck, Does Not Know What Homestuck Is - My reasoning behind this is even more simple than Dr. Wily's: - Dr. Cossack does not let her know that Homestuck exists in an effort to keep her innocence in tact. - That's it. That's the reasoning. You can all go home n-. - ...wait. Is that ANOTHER image down there?

You see, there's one more set of characters that I want to discuss in this long, long post. Characters that wouldn't be influenced by their parents, meaning that whether or not they've read Homestuck would be more up to happenstance:

...I can explain.

Zero: Has Read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - Part of the reason I put him here is because he ended up being the opposite of what Wily wanted him to be. He wanted a ruthless killing machine, and instead he got someone who helps save the world on multiple occasions. So why not have him be the opposite of his creator in Homestuck knowledge as well? - (Although if you think about it, Zero is technically a ruthless killing machine, but that's not what we're here to talk about). - Another other part of the reasoning is that I thought it was funny. - Zero had trouble getting invested until Act 5. - After he reached that point, he was locked in. - He sees a little bit of himself in Rose Lalonde and Dirk Strider. - He has never read the epilogues, or the sequel. Once he saw the Snapchat bonus content, he thought that was it. - Zero successfully got Iris into the comic as well. - Her favorite character was also Rose. - I like to think he and Layer also became friends after realizing they were both Homestuck fans.

Axl: Has Read Homestuck, Doesn't Know What Homestuck Is - He found a dub of the series on YouTube on day while watching random videos. - He was invested almost immediately. - Axl would talk about it with the other Red Alert members a lot - especially to Red and Tornado. - But there was one problem: He didn't know the name of it. It just completely slipped his mind at one point, and he wasn't able to get it back. This led to stuff like this: - Axl: "And THEN John and his friends are losing to the Condescence, but-" - Red: "That's nice and all, but what's this webcomic you read called?" - Axl: "Uh... I dunno. I can't remember." - Red: "Are you sure you didn't just make it up?" - Axl: "Wha- Yes! Yes, I'm sure!" - Red: "...sure thing, little buddy." - After joining the Maverick Hunters, Axl casually brings up the plot of this comic he can't remember the name of. Zero soon says this: - Zero: "...are you talking about Homestuck?" - Axl: "That's what it's called?!" - He made a trollsona like Bass did, but is a lot less shy about sharing it. - His favorite character is Roxy Lalonde. - Axl got Palette into it as well. X: Has Not Read Homestuck, Knows What Homestuck Is - He heard Zero talk about it with Iris a lot, but it sounded a bit too violent for his tastes. - He did play the Pesterquest visual novel, though. - Yes, the disclaimer does apply for this visual novel. - I like to think that at some point in X7, X complains about Zero and Axl's interest in "overly violent media" and asks if Zero has started "corrupting the youth." - He is promptly told to shut up. - X is more open to the idea of reading Homestuck by the time X8 comes around though. But it isn't until Axl is recovering from the game's ending that he actually starts considering it, since he knows it'll make Axl happy. - Speaking of which: will Capcom ever give us X9? - I just want to know if Axl is really okay, or if Lumine messed him up somehow. - It's been almost 20 years since the game released. 20 years is a long time to leave part of a video game franchise on a cliffhanger (but then again, Mega Man Legends fans have been waiting for 24 years...) Sigma: Has Not Read Homestuck, Does Not Know What Homestuck Is - The reason Sigma is in this category is very easy to explain: - He deserves nothing that could give him any semblance of happiness. - Also, I hate him.

Alright, rant over.

The inspiration for this post, as well as the original template, can be found here.

...now you can all go home.

[souji-upseta]

yo my name is nyx, it's my birthday today (2/3). my birthdays have sucked SHIT the past few years for reasons that are depressing—

—cringe is also dead, i killed her myself, and i'm still grieving her loss. its been very hard for me—

—since i am the protagonist of Me and can do st abt this, this year i turn 31, and i will at some point turn 31.4, with all of this in mind, what do i want for my birthday? i'll tell you:

to talk about homestuck.

i'll do that, anyways, but you'd be doing me a gift by giving me a prompt to follow, and to feel slightly more validated in my inability to shut up about my hyperfixation.

so i'm asking YOU to talk about homestuck with me.

talk to me abt homestuck? ask me my headcanons. my thoughts. my relationship to the work. tell me yours. expect nothing that's profound, and plenty that's stupid.

i'm even turning anon on, for the first time in 6 fucking years. where making this happen.

this never expires btw. today is my birthday, but, for story purposes, let's say that it's still my birthday after it isn't, bc i will still want and, if i am honest, NEED you to talk to me about homestuck for years onward. i'm very metatextual like that.

i get the feeling it's going to be a long day.

>Nyx: Be the other guy.

You are now the other guy! What will you do?

>Web Tumblr User: Inbox Tumblr user souji-upseta?

>Mobile App Tumblr User: Do that, but hyperlink is unavailable?

=(n×∞)>

FOURTH WALL BREAK!

you are now nyx again, and i am now me, and i need to exposit some lore.

as in, some starting points to get u going, since "homestuck" is a very broad subject:

•i'm a massive massive slut for the epilogues and post canon content/hsbc. pesterquest is too good for this gay earth.

•dirk is my fav, ALL of the dirks, all of them, and it isn't even close. my fav relationship is the canon platonic/familial one between dirk and dave. i fucking love the striders. dave is my 1.5th fav.

•im more invested in dave's relationship to corndogs (and corn dogs) than you even know.

•mspa reader is my second fav after the striders, bc they are a good thembo friendsimp and also bc they are me and they are You. i might be biased. i love You. i love me. i love us. we're fucking gr8.

•im pretty canon-compliant, so my fav ship is dirkjake as exes (for now), and my fav ship as not-exes is panquadrant (canon) davekat.

i'm also really fascinated by rosemary and would welcome more opportunities to learn abt and talk about them but if homestuck makes a statement about anything it's to let the women and the sapphic characters tell their story (thats a joke, talk to me abt them too)

•june eg(g)bert real.

•i'm fascinated by classpects and the applications of paradox space's classpecting and extended zodiac system when applied to real life, since our only experience of those fictional systems is in linear dimensions of spacetime, and our only experience of astrology is as a species that in-universe cannot experience the sign caste system the same way the fictional aliens that created our species in their own image do. skaia knows, but we sure as fuck don't.

•i'm a former prince of heart (2012-2020) and a current knight of space, and my aspect is light. that is a thing that actually makes perfect sense for the reasons i just said.

don't ask me about vriska serket or (vriska) serket. not bc i'm not willing to discuss dark or problematic characters (hello, lanque bombyx) but bc:

for one, she can speak for her damn self, and has, tyvm.

for two, talking at length about a problematic character in any positive capacity marks you as an enemy of the state if that character is a woman, and being an enemy of the state is way too much fucking pressure for me for reasons i already explained as soon as i told you i'm a knignt of space. i wouldnt make a very good enemy of the state. it'd be an unhealthy blackrom relationship to the detriment of us all.

for three, i can just give you all my opinions/headcanons on vriska that matter:

•JOHN HUGGING VRISKA IN HSBC YESSSSSSSSSS

•she's greasy and gross and unkept af but not unclean or unsanitary, like, she bathes, she smells fine, she changes her clothes, but she's got the troll crust punk aesthetic absolutely on LOCK. she doesn't comb her hair.

•it would have been funny if she did even more bad things

•aradia did nothing wrong. vriska did but the meme is funny even if someone needs to take that meme out back and shoot it for the good of humanity.

•she should beat up ultimate dirk, and my reasoning for that is bc that would, also, be really fucking funny if she did

•john has both punched her in the face and hugged her, and now that john has punched aranea in the face, all that's left is for june—i assume she will have come out of her egg(bert) by then—to hug aranea and complete the circle of stupidity.

•she is trans yeah but she doesn't wanna get into it, she doesn't have to, and neither do i.

•vrisrezi most important relationship in homestuck.

there. you already got me to talk about vriska at length, and you didn't have to try. moot issue.

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Bimonthly Media Roundup

- Hellsing Abridged (Webseries) - A rather old one but I do really like the aesthetic of this series - The kind of rough gothic look that was popular in the early 2000s. I appreciate that the author took the Dracula lore and just decided to go really weird with it with the multiple monster designs for Alucard himself, then applying that same "Rule of Cool looks over logic" monster lore for every other character in the series.

- Army of Darkness (Movie) - VHS night at my friends place, While I was familiar with Ash Vs the Evil dead I'd never actually seen this film and uh. Well I don't know what I was expecting but boy this sure wasn't that. I would not exactly call this a 'good' movie but it certainly was a fun one, and an incredible watching experience in a group setting. It reminded me a lot of Big Trouble in Little China with it's campy low budget energy where weird shit is constantly happening that the movie will never explain and the characters react very nonchalantly to the batshit things they are experiencing, Plot wise the movie could be described as Bruce Campbells No-Good Very Bad Day but the things that make it bad are honestly very funny and creative so good for it. I wish they made more movies like this nowadays honestly, just dumb little fun passion projects with obviously fake but still cool practical effects and an unnecessary skeleton army.

- Star Trek Strange New Worlds (TV) - Not too far in yet so not much to say, I like court themed episodes so I'm having fun with season 2 so far. Pike and Uhura are my faves as they are just very likable and silly guys who still know when to take their jobs seriously. Also this is a cool poster.

- Star Trek Lower Decks (TV) - Also only 2 episodes in so far but Season 4 is starting strong, I loved The Moopsy and everything about it and the menagerie in general, the vulcan girl getting a larger role with Tendi in particular seems like it will be a fun dynamic, and the humor and overall hyped vibes of the characters is still as strong as ever. Hmm I wonder if it would be worth it to paint myself green to do a Tendi cosplay or if Homestuck made that illegal for everyone forever.

- Dr Stone (Anime) - Yup.

- The S Classes That I Raised (Webnovel) - While I was never not invested in the story I've glad we've moved on to a new arc. Han Yoojin using his abilities to find people with unique non-fighting skills to take business away from what would be an evil mega corporation is a nice use of time-travel based knowledge, so I hope we get a bit more of that. I also would like some more downtime as I like all the characters and wish they got to hang out in low stakes situations more often. I suppose I'm also just a bit worn out of scrolling through action scenes, as while I quite like the art (and especially the coloring) style, the big effect explosions just don't translate super well to the scrolling style still-art pages of K-webcomics. That being said it could be a lot worse as Yoojin's relative powerlessness does make every fight at least interesting in how it needs to be thought through rather than just punched a lot - I just enjoy the fun character banter and political drama more.

- Ace Attorney Vs Professor Layton (Video Game) - Well that ending. happened. In truth I don't hate the twist necessarily on it's own, so much that it's the kind of twist that if you think about it too long it retroactively makes the rest of the story nonsensical. I also find the storyteller and Darklaw's motives to be very dumb which brings it down, not to mention they just axed Barnum from the last part of the game entirely despite him being arguably the best character in the game. Overall I didn't hate the game though, as I found a lot of the little character dialogue, puzzles, and Layton interactions cute - It makes me want to play a Layton game again that's for sure. I'm not sure it's a good Ace Attorney game as it feels very tonally different from the rest of the series, but hey with this I've experienced every Ace Attorney game in the franchise so that's nice, I'll have to do some character and case rankings at some point.

- One Piece (Anime) - Just finished Skypia and thinking about doing a liveblog from this point out. This was a pretty good arc honestly, I loved the villains design aesthetic and powers, lots of good crew bonding moments (Especially for Sanji + Usopp and Luffy + Nami), I liked the setting, the flashback episodes with Mont Blanc had uh questionable politics but the "we both have wives offscreen but are always shown together, think about each other constantly, and die thinking only of the other" gayness of it all made me laugh, and I think it did a good job giving everyone something interesting to do. Other notes would be how funny it is that Robin for the first half was having an entirely different, lovely experience wandering through the woods while everyone fights for their lives, that she nonchalantly snapped a guys neck when he told her to leave, and that poor Chopper had to fight 3/4 of the big bad guys all by himself that poor little deer.

- Genshin Impact (Video Game) - Still here, doing more co-op with my friend now, exploring the bonkers long Chasm quests in Liyue, hoping Kokomi comes back because I want her on my team so bad. Anyway Inazuma has been cool so far, I like the different environments on the islands (other than the lightning island which can sink into the ocean frankly) and there are lots of good character designs. Also I've been listening to the music more and its good!

Listening To: Bones by MSMR, In My Head by Mike Shinoda, Ivy by Taylor Swift, Dancin by Aaron Smith, Make Up Your Mind by Florence + The Machine, Ordinaryish People and World's Smallest Violin by AJR, Ghost by Justin Beiber, IDOL by YOASOBI, Atlantis by Seafret, Doin’ Time by Lana Del Rey, All the Boys by Panic! At The Disco.

[dafukdidiwatch]

2021 Housekeeping

Hey guys. Sorry for this blog being like, dead for all of December. A lot of holiday stuff happened and I just got sidetracked with all of that. That aside, I figured since this is the start of a new year I should go over some of the stuff I did throughout 2020. This is strictly dealing with things that I personally did for this blog. I want to keep this a safe-space and not deal with the crap that went on this year, for both you guys and me.

It’s all under the “Keep Reading” because this post is long as hell

Dafuking Films:

For a first attempt I think this went pretty well. 32/52 isn’t that bad, given how I have a real bad habit of just dropping things and never returning to them. Plus with the actual quarantine going on, watching a bunch of different movies people suggested to me was a lot of fun. Some were fantastic and enjoyable. Some people just really wanted me to suffer. But still, good times were had by all. I still have the list of movies that people suggested to me from last year, so I’m still gonna try to go through them all. Maybe twice a month instead of weekly so I won’t burn myself out like before. Regardless, I had fun, so I’m going to continue this.

Website:

Just to get this out of the way. Website was a valiant attempt. Didn’t really give a shit nor cared about the uptake. I Tried. I got tired updating it. If I was going to use it 100% then I would just move from Tumblr to There, which I won’t since all of my good shit is here. So I’m gonna move on.

Newvember:

This was a great idea. I had so much fun doing Newvember. No worries, no commitment. Just reading random shit with no pressure to maybe add them to my already overflowing list of blogs. It also helped me figure out what works and what doesn’t in terms of blogging.

Comic strips comics don’t really work well for me. I mean, the only good things to blog is just the last 2 panels, so I’m sort of only blogging the punchline which ruins the joke if people want to read it themselves. So stuff like Dominic Deegan and Sluggy Freelance probably won’t fly unless they somehow turn into page-format in the future.

Novels and Webnovels are flipping hard for me to figure out on just the logistics on how to blog. Do I give like a page summary on what I read like with The Wandering Inn? Or just do screenshots of the lines to react to like with Detective Pony and A Practical Guide To Evil? I am still working that out so I might not do much written stuff until I find a groove I like.

Interactive Comics get a toss up. I think Homestuck sort of spoiled me a bit here. I’m so used to how Homestuck works that I’m instinctively comparing other interactive comics to it even though I very read an Interactive comic while it was actually interactive. Stuff like Ruby and Awful Hospital unfortunately already has a high bar to jump over just because I like/used to the Homestuck format.

For the liveblogs themselves now that I have time away from them:Dark Science got a cool Cyberpunk vibe to it with a mix of magic-maybe. So it would be cool to read, but probably won’t continue it until the longer blogs like Girl Genius and Order of the Stick get caught up/finished first. Poppy O’Possum is just cute and honestly refreshing to have the main character be a hard-working mom. How to Be a Werewolf is a slowburn of how werewolves work, which I am always a sucker for how lore works. But I don’t really remember too much else from it so I might not revisit it given how I’m not too invested in it. Granted the same can be said for the prologue of Girl Genius and we saw how THAT went. Dominic Deegan is 90s fantasy slice of life, but with like some way old comedy jokes that I can just hear the ba-dum-tsst every punchline. So, yeah that one’s gonna drop. Practical Guide to Evil is a really cool read and I always like fantasy rpg style settings. I like the idea of Titles giving power and having the protagonists be the necessary evil. But again, I have to figure out how to webnovels. Awful Hospital has interesting art, but it isn’t really clicking with me too much so I’m probably gonna drop it. Sluggy Freelance is just wild. Part of it is the random plot things like having asshole rabbits and sci-fi references. Other part is me just saying random shit like how Dirk Strider is living his offshoot life in this comic. Fun read, but I don’t think the strip comics are good liveblog stuff. So will probably drop.  A Better Place ABSOLUTELY Slaps. I was down with that since the first comic. Will 100% continue with that (when I get enough space). Blindsprings has an interesting 1800s steampunk magic vibe and I do like the theme of idealization vs reality. Check Please is cute. I’m A Spider is a fun isakai with a cool twist of being reborn as a monster. Not Drunk Enough is just terrifying. Both with the horror and alcohol poisoning.

Basically: A Better Place will definitely be revisited. Poppy, Check Please, Blindsprings, and I’m a Spider will probably be revisited for just short quick sessions. Not Drunk Enough and Dark Science might come back if/when I am finished with longer series.

Either way, I like doing Newvember. So I am going to initiate Ju-New-ne to be the next New-Blog month. So this WILL happen again.

Schedule:

Yeah I believe my time of doing daily blogging sessions is over. It worked well for 2019, but that time is basically over. I probably will try to go for twice a week if I can. It sounds fair enough for content.

Videos:

I am NOT giving up on my Undertale videos. There is more coming. I just got stalled because I lost my art stylus for drawing the thumbnails. I swear to Jegus I am going to Post the entire thing!!! I Shan’t Give Up!!!

Homestuck:

So early 2020 is the time, where after 2 full years I finished reading Homestuck. It was, honestly, a wild ride and wild time. My literal presence on this blog was shaped because of Homestuck from the asks to videos to discord. It was just, good. Nice. Like looking back through a memory book with warm feelings. Having it end the way it did was good, especially with when it ended. I might make posts on how I view the characters overall, maybe make a Final Epilogue Troll Rank/Fav Rank. I will work on that.

And from that, I think that a year is probably long enough for me to revisit Homestuck again. Pesterquest, Epilogue, HS’2, whatever is the next sequel. Hell maybe Problem Sleuth and see what the hell all those references were about. The goal is to be caught up in a bunch of other comics first. Like, gonna gun for 3-5. Once I get caught up (or close to it) then I will return into Hussie’s orange arms once again.

Anyway, that’s a surprise for anyone who actually bothers to read to the end of this. Happy New Year everyone.

[arcanenrok]

You know what? I really like the epilogue.

Like, there’ve been a lot of complaints about Homestuck subverting tropes for the sake of subverting tropes, and that coming at the cost of a good story.

However, the epilogue is meta, and in a good way. It’s good because it’s meta as in it’s working with the fact that it’s a story to make something unique, not trying to fight against its nature as a story.

I really liked Rose talking about the “Three Pillars of Canon.” For those who may have been confused, basically, there are things that are Relevant (Anything such as the Paradox Space comics, which give insight into characters), Essential (anything that is a plot point, basically), and Factual (things that are said to be a part of homestuck’s continuity, by either being present on homestuck dot com or by word of god).

If you are still confused by the distinction between factual, essential, and irrelevant things, think about JK Rowling’s additions to Harry Potter lore. Wizards pooping themselves and making it vanish with magic is “canon,” but the work of Harry Potter would still hold up if Rowling never made that addition to Pottermore. It is a “fact,” but an inessential one. So, if the Harry Potter world operated by Homestuck’s rules, the fact that wizards pooped themselves and vanished it with magic would fade from reality.

Basically, as we all know, a lot of readers are dissapointed by how Earth C, and homestuck’s ending, turned out. So basically, Earth C is “factual.” According to Homestuck, the events on Earth C are a thing. However, they are becoming increasingly irrelevant and inessential, because, for one thing, being at the tail end of the story, it would be fairly easy for a fanfic writer to change it to whatever they wanted without compromising the plot.

Other people have spoken at length about the Meat or Candy metaphor, so I’ll leave that one alone. However, I will talk about how when they “exited canon” they entered the Ao3 format. Basically, according to Rose, they no longer have all three pillars of canon. You see, fanfiction, fanart, and all other transformative work, they are relevant to Homestuck, but inessential because the narrative isn’t affected by them, and non-factual because the author didn’t authorize them. They only have one pillar of canon. Earth C is similarly standing on only one pillar.

The reason John needs to perform his mission is so he can restore the other two pillars by connecting Earth C back into the narrative by making what happened there essential, which is accomplished by him going from this epilogue and back into the main story and making the plotpoint of Lord English’s defeat happen. Without that, Earth C is pretty much pointless, more or less just a collection of fun facts of what happened after the story. To continue to exist, it needs to be in the story.

Also, the thing about relevancy. Others have already mentioned that it needed to happen “today,” and that is as much today for the characters as it is for us. You see, people are starting to forget homestuck, i.e. it’s becoming irrelevant. Relevancy is one of the aforementioned pillars of canon, and Fancontent is in possession of this pillar. It also serves as a good metric for how relevant a piece of media. The more fanart of something is being produced, the more likely the source content is trending. Already, from this epilogue, they have partially succeeded in restoring relevancy; we are making fanart again. We finally are given a reason to be invested in Homestuck’s story again.

To sum this up, basically, because Homestuck is working with the fact that it is a story with an audience, instead of trying to discredit it’s own medium, it is now using the meta aspects of itself as story elements. The epilogue is starting to acknowledge some of the negative effects of this “hollow victory” they won in the ending. The problem they have now is not something in the story itself, it is the story. However, this time, they’re not going to fight against the story, they are going to fix it.

[analytic-chaoticism]

Who’s Going To Die In The Homestuck Epilogue Tomorrow?

Homestuck is finally ending for real now so, obviously, somebody is staring down the barrel of Hussie’s final Chekhov’s gun, except also for real now. After 10 years, the shed wall has more bullet holes than wood knots and the proverbial horse stands dutifully awaiting the next shot in a series of hundreds, but it might actually get put out of its misery forever this time, with John and Vriska - in my mind - the most obvious candidates for permadeath. I’ll briefly discuss the (de)merits of both outcomes - and how both could (maybe, hopefully, please?) be averted - under the cut.

For context, I’m assuming that John will meet Terezi and Vriska at the Green Sun/Black Hole before he goes gallivanting with them through time and space. 

We’ve known John Egbert for 10 years and for all the characters and perspective switching we’ve done since 4/13/2009, he is our protagonist. Homestuck is a story about breaking free from fated suffering - the will of Lord English - and becoming an independent agent, so it should only make sense that the main character is an embodiment of that freedom: the Heir of Breath.  

It’s for this reason that John dying forever at the end of it all - having survived the death of his dad, an omnicidal dog god, the reset of reality, misadventure in the bubbles, a solo retcon journey through Paradox Space, a fight with Caliborn and another on the horizon, killing the Condesce, and making it to Earth C - would be really bad narratively and philosophically! There are no merits! Let’s go over why it Just Won’t Happen. 

1. As the quintessential bildungsroman character (a story requiring the survival of its protagonist to gain experience of the world, find their place in it, and mature with hope for the future) and audience surrogate, killing him in the final act would just be bad writing. It goes against the story’s holistic narrative and philosophical arc and totally undermines Act 7 thematically. 

2. In a story about overcoming fated suffering, the depressed character with the most repressed trauma - who represents freedom and is working to help everyone escape that suffering - dying without coming to terms with sadness and reconciling with his friends and purpose to find happniness? It’s even worse writing. The only possible merit to his death is having to directly confront that trauma in a super sadstuck way; what stakes will it take for him to overcome his disaffected ennui, right? But killing him is a real shitty way of dealing with those problems. Dying with regret is just... super lame. It could be said many characters die with possible regret in HS but if a character doesn’t at some point get revived in one way or another and their death served a purpose, then, on word of God, they just weren’t that important. 

3. It defies the narrative of fantastical escapism. At one of its many cores, Homestuck is a story about kids playing a crazy game about wish fulfillment: bringing the dead back to life, meeting their friends, having an adventure, and becoming super heroes. As the Heir of Breath, especially with the retcon powers, John is ALL ABOUT fantastical escapism. John dying for suffering, subverting escapism, is 100% counterintuitive thematically. Super unsatisfying conclusion to his arc. 

4. People cite this scene with Scratch as evidence that John is going to have a permanent heroic death one day, but I would argue that the metaphysical way in which John would permanently be tying himself to the narrative to ‘maintain canonicity’ (whatever the FUCK that entails) would be a little bit more than a Just or Heroic thing. For me, this was more about Scratch acknowledging John as - though not infallible personally - a totally good guy. And note that reference to Vriska and her ‘Justness’ at the end there: 

Instead, I imagine the whole situation, despite the seeming distinction between Meat and Candy, COULD go something a little more like this - 

A story that is just meat - dense with exposition, action, violence, and tension (plotcentric) - is bad, and a story that is just candy - light with fluff, fanservice, frivolity, and comfort (charactercentric) - is bad. In isolation neither is of consequence to the reader, and reader investment is what this whole epilogue and the quest to avoid ‘dissipation’ is about. You need both to develop the other in a healthy and satisfying way, ultimately producing a well-developed set of characters. Homestuck is the best story of all time and it’s been meat and candy all the way, I don’t foresee that changing. For me, the ‘dual epilogue’ is a 1+1=3 situation. Typheus’ choice for John here was a practice for a metacosmic-scale third option regarding the meat/candy ‘binary’ he’s faced with now.  

The whole story, John - though he represents freedom - has never made his own choice besides in this moment. He’s gone on quests for prophets, just like he’s doing now, and done whatever people told him or expected him to do. Becoming a free agent is the capstone of his character arc and what better way to realize that than assuming control of the narrative and Doing Whatever You Want For Real - the Ultimate Riddle (as many people theorize) which I imagine we’ll see more of soon being ‘do as you will.’ 

But let’s imagine that John does become in every way a martyr for the narrative itself in a Christ-like sacrifice befitting of the Easter Sunday I will probably be reading this upd8 on. How could he get out of it because, trust me, John Is Not Dying Forever:

Transcendence. We’ve descended and ascended, so what comes next?

Juju nonsense. The house or something else, who knows?

Denizen nonsense. I’ll get into this in a second.

A second John takes his place and we get ours back. ‘2 endings,’ right?

The Ultimate Self is gearing up to be important. It’s Jesus 101 people. 

So I’m expecting Abraxas, Jake and possibly Karkat’s denizen, to make a significant appearance in the epilogue. The epilogue itself, as the rest of the story, is geared up (with it’s black and white symbolism) to basically revolve around the cherubs which I fully expect to get more lore on. As @revolutionaryduelist details in this video, Abraxas is “technically at the center of Paradox Space, as a deity that represents both everything in the multiverse that exists ever both physically and conceptually,and the very process which leads to the creation of those things.” Abraxas is, as the true god in enlightenment, the opposite of Yaldabaoth, the false god in ignorance: more relevant, truthful, and essential as a deity - representing the 3 pillars of canon. Yaldabaoth was Caliborn’s denizen, giving him the clock and juju he required to assume ultimate power in the first place. It makes sense that Abraxas would have a hand in his undoing. Abraxas also shares a connection with the cherubs physically and metaphorically, and considering the importance of the cherubs, I think it’s safe to assume this similarity will become relevant. In this way, Abraxas could Just Get Up To Some Nonsense to save John (who is related to Typheus, a potentially Christ-like figure within the denizen genealogy as John is to the story). Resurrection of Christ anybody? Our snakey parent who art above Paradox Space? As somebody connected to magic, it also makes sense that Abraxas could pull off the miracle of the century if needs be.

All in all, John’s not dying. So what about... 

Vriska?

Vriska dying forever is almost ALL merits. This is NOT because I hate Vriska: she is one of the best characters ever written, has never done anything wrong, if she dies I will weep, and I NEED Vrisrezi to become Earth C endgame, but I can’t deny the narrative quality of a potential sacrifice. 

Vriska has never had direct karmic comeuppance for anything she’s done besides Make Her Pay and getting killed by Terezi: all other forms of punishment for her actions were either problems with self-hatred or people she cares about suffering - there’s been little direct consequential action taken against her. Even when She’s 8ack with a second chance she gets to dominate and bully others and still be the leader. And look at what she did to Tavros. That was just mean (but will hopefully be relevant in the epilogue because I love GCATavros oops). Her character is also marred in the emulation of Mindfang, and being an inauthentic individual is a Great Crime in Paradox Space which you could say she has been punished for but we can always squeeze a few more drops out of the cloth. Key to understanding Vriska is knowing that she has little ill will. She said herself, she wants to be a hero. That’s why she’s obsessed with becoming the Most Important Person. She wants to save everyone. It just so happens this conflicts with her selfishness (coming in parts from Spidermom, Mindfang, and her caste) which sweeps people up as collateral damage. The important thing is that she feels really guilty about losing control to her ego/persona and hurting people. 

And she turns to John for absolution. For freedom from her circumstance and misery. 

EB: i guess i had no idea how different we really were.

EB: what i am hearing is seriously scaring the shit out of me!

AG: Yeah, I know. I wish we didn't have to 8e so different. I'm just trying to 8e honest with you, 8ecause like I said, I have nowhere else to go.

John is ignorant of her culture and her behaviour at large, and his kind, innocent disposition makes him the perfect person to tell her that she hasn’t done anything wrong, or - at least - can become a better person. That’s why his opinion matters so much to her when nobody else’s does. 

And even knowing that she’s not a flawless person, she still doesn’t think that she deserved to die. She has never been truly absolved of her guilt, and turning to a stranger - and an alien, whom you manipulate even though NOT doing that is the WHOLE point - to do that for her is cheating in the same way Tricksterism was for the alpha kids. 

That said, John does present a genuine avenue of character development and emotional vulnerability for the girl who would become (Vriska). (Vriska) became her own person free of Mindfang’s shadow, having overcome the trauma of her past and the need to be ‘the best,’ which is as close to well-adjusted as we could hope for Vriska to be. But this character arc - a form of redemption itself - ends with the death of (Vriska) with GO!Terezi as Paradox Space collapses around them in the most emotional and romantic moment in storytelling history. John’s effects have yet to take hold on post-retcon Vriska as they did on pre-retcon Vriska starting from the above interaction forward, as Vriska is still a 8ig 8itch. John has come to recognize this, and I’m sure it will come up at some point, perhaps inspiring some kind of change in our anti-heroine. 

Sacrificing herself for canonicity - maintaining all relevance EVER in a mostly selfless but still kind of selfish act that represents a major step in a redemption she would never get to complete but may not fully deserve besides - is the perfect end for her personally and thematically. Vriska saving John would be wild after their entire relationship including but not limited to the pivotal moments of their ghosts meeting and him saving her life so she could once again experience relevance in the first place; she’d basically be repaying him: something she has never done willingly for totally selfless reasons in good faith and karma before. Wouldn’t that be the most bittersweet character growth to end on? John would FINALLY be a mechanism for her absolution. It was cheating when John didn’t know her. Now it’s been earned after their relationship has evolved so thoroughly and John sees her for what she is, presumably removing his ability to absolve her from the equation entirely. What a 180 that would be. Her arc would technically be incomplete as a character who never fully matured, but what a beautiful step in that journey to end on. It would also be a form of direct recompense to John, having manipulated him in the past as Scratch alluded to! The (Just) master becomes the (Heroic) student! What a great fuck you to Scratch that would be after he ruined her life and fucked up her personality (so would her surviving to become a better person outside of Scratch’s narrative but we’ll get into that). 

Vriska has been primed to destroy the Green Sun for a loooooooong time. 

Within the scope of the story before we were introduced to serious meta like ‘dissipation,’ destroying the Green Sun would have been the most significant thing a person could ever do. But there’s a reality beyond Paradox Space and a wider ‘canon’ that needs to be maintained both within and outside of the Green Sun’s influence. Vriska never truly got to cash in on the Green Sun imagery. What if she got a second chance to do so?

Assume in some way that the most significant object within Paradox Space and its resulting black hole eating all of reality - which, as Terezi showed us in the Credits (making it still canon) has something strange at its centre - plays a role in maintaining canonicity. I know, a bit of a gimme, right? Presumably,we’re going to explore the confrontation with Lord English as part of the ‘unloading’ of the house juju. If the mechanism for canonicity lies in all this green mess, we’re killing 2 birds with 1 stone! Her relationship with John serves its original purpose in a newly genuine context and the green sun foreshadowing would finally amount to something. 

I think Vriska would be almost perfectly content to die like this. It fulfils her philosophy and places her in canonical lore as the most significant, undeniable hero. As Hussie discusses in the Viz book 4 author notes, one of the dynamics Homestuck revolves around is Vriska inserting herself into everything and the Scourge Sisters’ karmic cycle that arises from that, so wiping it all clean would be a fitting end. 

That said, I don’t want Vriska to die forever, because I love her with all my heart and I would never want to do that to Terezi, and Earth C would be way more fun if Vriska got to fully develop as a character with friends outside of canonical restraints/pressures. Let her enjoy candy after a life of meat! (Vriska) got to enjoy candy with Meenah and Terezi after she gave up on meat. Vriska has never had true candy comparatively. All of her relationships and romantic leads have had undertones of contention and manipulation that it would be fantastic to be free of in a new world where she can leave the burdens of ‘importance’ behind. This happening, I feel, is one of (if not the best ways) Hussie can further the commentary on candy being just as important as meat: making someone who has prioritized meat her whole life happy with candy once she learns to let it into her life. Meat is NOT the only important thing, Vriska. 

How could she escape dying forever if she wanted to sacrifice herself to save John from doing the same? Sounds pretty final. I can’t imagine the ultimate self is in her near future, she doesn’t have retcon powers, and unless she pulls a juju out of her ass (maybe auryn somehow???) then the only mechanism I can see working is denizen nonsense. Beyond this, we know Terezi would not be content to let Vriska be dead forever. I was thinking maybe, on Earth C once the dust has settled and canon is Gucci, the kids could use their god tier powers to recreate Vriska (Terezi/Dirk for memory and self, life from Jane, a body from Roxy/Jake/Jade etc.) but that might be a long shot. Who knows. But also resurrecting Vriska as a free person in a free world would be... really Cool. Like, wow... what a scene. Ultimately, I think both potentialities would be pretty rad and would make me weep like a baby. I’m open to anything here. 

In the end, we’ll see what happens tomorrow! I started Homestuck when I was 12 and its influence on me for the last 6 years as both a person and a creative is incomprehensible. I cannot imagine who I would be without it, and I don’t want to. Making analysis/theory posts and getting involved with community discussion has been one of the best things ever and I’m glad I could squeeze this one in before the end of everything. I’ll have plenty more to write about Homestuck and Hiveswap in the future, but it’s crazy to think this is the end of theorizing for Homestuck proper. Homestuck as a property has plenty more to give and I’ll be here with ideas for all of it :)

Thanks for reading!

[dumbasshivemind]

May I recommend my own obsessions, for you to try out:

- Magic: the Gathering. Kind of hard to get over the first hurdle of actually learning how to play the game, only to then start learning how to be good (it's similar to fighting games in that way, but at least you don't have to practice execution). Anyways, it's extremely deep, with decades of lore and stories if you want to get into that, and very varied formats with distinct metagames, to the point you're guaranteed to find a deck that clicks with you. Again the problem is that you need to play a lot to find out what you like and don't. But hey if you have a buddy or three also looking for something to invest hundreds or thousands of hours and dollars on, it's perfect.

- Chess. You probably know about this one. Again, big learning curve just to get to the point where you can actually start doing the worth to obsess over stuff, but at least you'll sound like a cool nerd in parties, instead of a total nerd. There's less lore, but a bigger community, both online and offline.

- Warhammer 40K. Luckily the starting point of this one isn't behind hundreds of hours of frustration, but behind of hundreds of hours of lore. Like. over 50 books (~150kw) worth of lore, and counting (there's a ton of introductions to the lore, you don't need to read it all ofc). There's also the wargame side of it, which is great if you like optimizing points and hearing about balance updates, and the mini-painting, which is very relaxing once you get into it, and also is a great artistic outlet. Tho it can become a chore if you want to paint an entire army

- My Little Pony. This one's my homestuck or undertale. Massive, filled with artists, literal endless content if you know where to look. I've read almost 2 Mw of pony fanfic, and have a to read list twice as long. There's an astounding amount of everything, and even if you go only by the official stuff and never touch the brony side, you have at least a week of content aviable (I recommend mlp.heartshine.gay and yayponies, because there's not really an easy way to get most of the stuff officially anymore). If you want to get into fan stuff, you'll have to delve a lot, or go to some active forum or discord server to ask for recommendations (I personally would tell you to go to Manechat, because it's the biggest, most queer and inclusive server, but there's many to choose). Most fanfics are on fimfiction.net instead of AO3. And also uh, there's a new mlp series coming soon so there might be an increase of pony stuff in general soon.

- Geology. This one's my most recent, and it's more of a focusing of my obsession with science in general. But Holy Shit. Rocks are so cool actually. Also helps that I'm studying it in college as a career, so I learn from people that know a ton of it and also love it. I can't recommend getting into a science enough. And getting into I mean like actually study with textbooks and classes, on top of all the cool videos and fun facts. Also for geology specifically you get to go out for a walk and just look at rocks and guess what they are. There's even some rock identifier apps to check your guesses. And if college is out of reach, you can try working and getting connections (usually starting out by working with mining machinery, or as a geoligist's assistant. I can't recommend much more past that, cuz this is second hand info already)

Anyways probably none of these will be right for you, but if one is, I'll be glad

by golly-gee-mcfuck I want an obsession. I want to be obsessed with something. I don't care if it's media or obscure history or outrageous biology I am in TREMENDOUS NECESSITY of a new hyperfixation. internet I pray thee give me a new fixation, fascination, a fatuation, a fetish in the archaic sense, internet please I am at loose ends, I'm a compass without a needle a hermit without a mountain a sad sorry remnant of my former self please my dopamine is oozing from my pores faster than I can rehydrate

[ardenttheories]

Okay, if overarching narrative isn't Homestuck's strong point (which I completely agree with, it only kind of makes sense to me because my brain likes torturing itself by twisting into knots but it still has lots of holes), then what attracts so many people to it?

Homestuck creates an entire universe of lore that is oh so juicy to dig into. 

I mean, can you think of another piece of media where the general plot is that once a universe becomes old enough that it needs to be replaced a game will come into existence and the previous planet will be destroyed while a series of children attempt to complete the game by dying, becoming gods, fighting against a King and Queen inherently affected by their actions, breeding Frogs in order to create a new universe which is an incredibly big Frog that hosts every single instance of that universe inside its colossal mass, and taking such a long time in doing so that they mature into adults whom are worthy of becoming the actual living Gods of the universe they’ve created? 

It’s the depth that we can get into, too. Skaia, the Lands, Quests, Ectobiology, The Ultimate Riddle, Sprites, Alchemy, the importance of Doomed Timelines/Selves, the existence of Null/Void/Barren sessions - each piece of SBURB comes with such intricate lore that half the fun of the journey is understanding how everything works and why it all tangles together into something as coherent as this one game. 

Classpects just by themselves are interesting enough to warrant hundreds of blogs on Tumblr to have some sort of focus on them, and maybe thousands of people around the globe trying to figure out what their Classpect would be - something which has no inherent affect on their life besides the importance and meaning we read into them. 

It’s a creative universe that we want part of. We know enough that we can make our own universes, our own sessions, and all of them are technically viable; this isn’t a comic where the path we see is the only one. This is a comic wherein the path we see is only one tiny, tiny portion of the much, much larger implications we’re faced with in the lore. The Beta kids aren’t the only kids on Earth playing SBURB; Earth isn’t the only planet in existence chosen by the game. 

Hussie himself even confirmed that pretty much anything goes - because the whole point of Homestuck is that, through timeline shenanigans or weird, spacey bullshit, anything you can think of probably exists. That AU where the trolls are all bloodswapped? That exists as a possibility within the Alternian Genesis Frog. That AU where SBURB doesn’t exist and the kids go on to live normal lives? That exists as a possibility within the human Genesis Frog. 

This is the sort of creativity that drives a fandom. 

It’s also important to note that Homestuck isn’t just a comic. It has games. It has flashes and music and gifs inside it that all come together to create a unique experience that has since been copied, but never truly to the same extent. Homestuck is something different; you’re not going to find anything like it anywhere else, not for a very, very long time. Part of Homestuck’s draw is some of the unique things that it does - such as the animations and music, which drew me to the comic because I just straight up couldn’t believe that something like that was possible. 

It’s the humour, too. Homestuck has a way of making you laugh that really settles well with the humour a lot of us have developed online; even now, some of the jokes - like “the circle of stupidity is complete” - can get enough of a chuckle out of me that I really doubt I’m ever going to forget them. 

Hussie’s writing is pretty good when it comes to developing characters - at least, when he wants to. I’ll be honest; I’ve read a lot of books, because I’m a fucking nerd and also because that’s sort of what I shoved myself to do in education. I’ve read books from America, from the Victorian era, from the Middle ages, I’ve read things written in Old English, I’ve read comics and extended, fluent fiction published officially and excessively long fanfiction written totally for free - and yet I really can’t think of anything that makes the characters as real as Homestuck does. 

It’s easy to tell, sometimes, that you’re reading a book. That the characters are really just that; characters. There’s some note to them that makes them inhuman, that makes them a bit cutout and stiff. Homestuck never really does that (again, unless the characters aren’t meant to be focused on). The main kids are written in such a way that they are believable as people; if you showed me an out of context conversation between John and Dave in Homestuck, I would 100% believe that it was a conversation between two real, 13 year old boys. The way they grow is believable, too; Dave changes during the Retcon timeline, especially when he starts to get closer to Karkat and thus more at ease with himself, but he never stops being Dave. Characters like Dirk, too, tend to change without changing away from their core; Dirk might become a better person, but some of his flaws are still there, all those traits that are still him staying constant while how he presents them shift as he as a person shifts. 

I think a lot of it boils down to creativity, too. Hussie created an entire cast of aliens with a unique breeding system, caste system, and biology system, all which he draws into a narrative that makes sense. Sure, we don’t know in depth everything about the trolls, and there’s definitely still flaws, but it’s enough to be exciting to learn what little we do know and to imagine the rest of it ourselves.

That’s a big thing, actually! So much of it is the fandom. Yeah, the fandom can be horrendous, but when you’ve got a fandom like this, one that picks everything apart and tries to make sense of it and latches onto the characters and becomes emotionally invested in them to the degree that we made a fucking global holiday out of 413, it’s hard not to get drawn in. It’s hard not to want to love each character, write your own theories, share ideas with people, become part of this wider community that has existed and thrived since 2009, to create OCs or AUs that the fandom eats up because nobody really wants to let Homestuck die. 

And that, I think, is probably most important part. I currently have 272 followers. That’s 272 people who want to follow this barely updating, kind of long winded blog filled with my own rambles and personal opinions, because it’s some sort of new content for a thing they love. My blog isn’t popular by any means - so imagine how many followers some of the big classpectors, theoriests, fanartists have! For a lot of people, Homestuck was a huge part of their lives for years - this thing ran for, what, around seven years? - and almost everyone I’ve seen online in any sort of fandom circle knows of Homestuck at least by proxy. Letting go of something like that is super hard, and I’ll be honest, my attempts to get into new fandoms always lead to me coming right back here - and I was only around for Homestuck’s end! 

Seeing a fandom that in love with a comic that it thrived for around seven years, and that is still going strong even when the main comic has ended and all that’s keeping us afloat is a game that we’ve heard no news of for months and a secondary game that’s more an introduction to characters to tide us over till it eventually comes out, has to be interesting for some people. 

For most people I know, both IRL and online, at least some of their interest in Homestuck came from the line of thought that “I’ve seen it just enough to be curious, and at this point I’ve got to know what the hell the hype’s about”. 

So, there we go! My thoughts on the things that attract people to Homestuck. Even if the narrative could be better and I definitely don’t agree with certain choices Hussie made, it’s in no way enough to lessen my enjoyment of the characters, lore, or comic as a whole. It’s just too charming, even with all the bullshit. 

[parachutingkitten]

Season 4 Analysis

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I am going to be applying the concept of criticism to a TV show you presumably love and adore as much as I do. If you do not want your idea that the show is immaculate to be challenged, I would not advise reading past this point.

Mood for the season: It's a SuPeR fUn HaPpY pLaCe!!!!!

You don’t need to, but if you are interested, and haven’t seen my analysis of past seasons, you can find those here:

Pilot

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Hey guys! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Season 4! We are here! I am SO biased with this season. It has problems man. It has ALL the problems! ALL the plot holes! ALL the stupid, stupid stuff, but I LOVE ALL OF IT! okay, let's back up. I'm about to drop some context on you. 

So, when you're a military brat you tend to make friends with whoever you can, and when I lived in Germany I had a friend who was fandom OBSESSED. She, at the time, was super into Homestuck, something I managed to avoid being sucked into, though I do know more about it than I would like. Anyway, this was the point at which I started getting sucked into Ninjago. So, I figured that if I could trust anyone with a strange obsession, it was her. I showed her the last episode of season 3, and she decided she was just going to dive head first into it with me. We watched season 4 together as it came out, we talked about it, had a bunch of inside jokes about it, I wrote some very short fanfiction about it, she made some OCs, one in particular that I remember was Stormy, a ditzy cloud master who wore pink, we shipped him with... one of my OCs, I don't remember. She hadn't watched the first two seasons, so I had to fill her in on a lot, but she was the first person I ever fandomed with, and it was over season 4. So I guess you could say season 3 was the grand beginning of my love for this show, and season 4 was the peak of my fangirl experience (at least for that phase of my life).

Plot

This season is a real mixed bag. Coming off the heels of the first season, nothing makes sense. Suddenly there are more elements, completely discrediting Lloyd's supposed power of four powers. And now it's genetic, which brings up the problem of Jay, who... if either Ed or Edna were masters, they would have slipped by now (but also like, how cool would it be if Edna just busted out with lightning powers) and then Zane who... doesn't have genes. It makes the world bigger, yes, but it also discredits the lore of the last two seasons, and brings up the question "Where the hell were the rest of the EMs when the Great Devour attacked? Or the stone warriors? Or the final battle?!" Anyway, it's a bit jarring and sudden to say the least. It definitely was not planned beforehand. There aren't even any hints in season 3. Like wouldn't it be cool if in season 3 we saw them go to the noodle shop, or Wu was really vague about elemental questions. It would make a lot more sense then. Idk. It opens the universe up to the plotlines of most of the future seasons, but it does sort of discredit the first two. This season is also kinda choppy feeling wise. You go from the mood the past season have had in the first episode to this sort of native tribal feel on the island, and then the factory and then back to Ninjago. It's kinda a mess. Overall it was just an excuse to put these characters in cool situations (which I have done before, I understand). Which I get, and it makes for some cool stuff, but I don't think any of it ends up meshing together super well in the end. When I think of this season I think of the tournament. I forget about the whole snake stuff at the end most of the time. I forget about the while Garmadon conflict. The fact that I forget that's there has to be a bad sign, right?

Characters

Character work this season is really pretty good for the most part! There are a lot of new characters. And they all are very distinct and fun, and even when two people you don't know especially well battle, you're still really invested. All of the Cole and Jay stuff is pretty good this season! Major upgrade from season 3. The whole fight scene is absolutely fantastic. Garmadon is freaking awesome this season. He keeps on trying to kill himself, and it's stupid, and the show sort of acknowledges that it's stupid, cuz Lloyd is just like 'dude, what the heck'. Kai's arch this season is pretty good, exploring his darker side and putting that intense conflict in front of him was good. I can tell you one thing, I like it a heck of a lot better than season 7, but we'll get to that when we get to that. So, yeah. Overall improvement in character! It doesn't dive super deep or anything, but it all works and is all interesting.

Skylor

So... she is one of the reasons I call this season the fanfiction season. We have a whole bunch of other elemental masters we've never heard of, and one of them their power is... all the powers. I can not tell you how much this ticked me off! And she hardly ever uses them! She has pretty much infinite power, and she doesn't think to use it, pretty much ever! There are no restrictions on her! This is what I hate Skylor for. And I do mean hate. BUT aside from that, strictly character wise she is done pretty well. She feels pretty fake and overly sassy at the beginning of the season, but there's a reason for that. It's an act. But it's not like she changed her personality to fool him, she intensified her personality to cover her intentions. Her arch feels pretty natural. That one scene where she does the evil laugh... that was weird. But aside from that, it feels okay. She was raised to think that lying and cheating is the norm, so when someone presents her with another option she begins to change. It makes sense. I love the scene where Kai and her look at each other through the prison bars and (even though their freaking legos) you can feel her realization that she's ashamed of what she's doing now. And after she makes the transition, she's just really chill. Like, I would like to hang out with her. I guess it is kinda sweet that even though she had all of the powers of... ever, at the end she's happy to just run her noodle shop. It's kinda poetic. Anyway, she may be a bit overpowered, and she feels like a bit of a Mary Sue, but overall her personality and interactions are enjoyable enough for me to mostly ignore that. I do agree that she is best used in moderation. She doesn't need to be part of the team. I wish we had a quick cameo each season, but whatever. What we have now in season 9 is nice, but she definitely needs to step back out of the spotlight in future seasons (knock on wood) in order to remain as likable as she's been.

Karlof

Love him. Freaking love him. Honestly, I probably relate to him the most. He's the first loser of the tournament, he avoids trouble, he sticks to what he knows, and he says it like it is. I love his interactions with everyone down in the noodle factory. He's like this perfect blend of optimism and pessimism. His interactions with Cole are beautiful. Their chemistry is really great. One of, I think everyone's favorite masters, and there's a reason why.

Shade

So... typical darkness character. Obviously selfish. But once the climax hits, I actually like him a lot. He kinda serves as an antagonist at first and then flips. It's kinda cool seeing a character with moral boundaries that far out. He's purposely suspicious to take attention away from Skylor, which I get. I think he has a lot of missed potential, but nonetheless, a decent character.

Neuro

I absolutely love his power! I love his manor, I love his voice. He may well be my favorite EM. I don't even know what else to say about this guy. If Karlof is who I am, Neuro is who I'd like to think I am. Calculated, calm, reasonable, and much like Karlof again, not too risky. I like him a lot. Cool guy. I like seeing how far he's willing to go for the ninja, and where certain lines are for him. It's kinda cool to watch. He could use a friend though. I HC he and Paleman hang out. Both quiet. Both reserved. Neuro could probably locate him in a room even if he's not visible. Idk. Anyway, I like him a lot! Great character.

Griffin Turner

Classic speedster. Good enough. Not much to say. He's fun. He's cool. He's what you'd expect. Decent screen time. None of it particularly character developing. For what he is, he's good at it.

Jacob

So, let's ignore the part where they made us think he was dead. He's a lot of fun. Good for them getting a blind character in there. Still confused on what his powers can... do? But I like his spunk. I think we all have a little soft spot for him.

Chamille

One of the only girls and she's pretty much evil. Why do girls have to be evil at one point to be interesting? Idk. Don't really care for her, don't really think much about her. Whatever. She's there. She serves her purpose. Fine. Okay. Moving on.

Paleman

Friggin love him. For the master of light to be invisible is a great move, and pretty creative. His voice is kinda obvious, but very distinct. It's a creative background character to have. I like him a lot. Again, I feel he could use some more love. See above Neuro HC. Like him a lot and... yay.

Bolobo

Kinda missed the "mother nature" pun... could have had at least one more female master... that's okay. He's cool enough. Kinda disappointing though. I mean, vines? Is that it?

Gravis

Gravity is a dang cool power. Idk what else to say. He doesn't get a ton of screen time, so it's hard to praise him too much, but yeah. I really like that. Actually had an FC (she was a villain but you know whateves) with the power, so seeing that be a real element they used is really cool.

Ash

I don't like him. He's very strange. He's just got that one laugh. He seems comically over the top a jerk. I like the way his mouth looks though. Unique and kinda cool. I was looking on his Wiki page, and it said he and Chamille kissed in the background at one point? Is that true? I am way curious now

Tox

Okay. She's nonexistent here, no personality. I guess she's kinda tough. Yeah, this gets confirmed later in season 9, when she speaks. But even there she's pretty nonexistent. Here's my idea. Instead of having all your females being 'tough' why not flip expectation on its head? I think it would be way funny and clever if the master of poison was super friendly, and bubbly, and genuinely a nice person. I'm thinking almost like Jay's (lightning... or I guess adopted) mom, levels of talkative and nice. Wouldn't that be kinda fun? Idk. Whatever. It is what it is.

Kapau and Chope

Best villains ever 10/10. 'Nuff said.

Romance

KAILOR

Okay, I freaking love them! They're not my favorite couple or anything, but they work really, really well… under certain conditions. There are a few bumps I can't ignore. Can we have a protagonist in the show who doesn't send googly eyes at their future love interest the first moment they see her? And remember when they made us think Kai and Skylor were related... yeah... why did we need to do that? That was... kinda uncomfortable. BUT other than that, Skylor is exactly what Kai needed. First, he needed a redhead. Duh. Second, he needed someone who would see right through his Kai shmoltz and be real with him. Third, she had to be fun. And finally, she needed to wear the pants in the relationship. And Skylor fills ALL of those requirements! I like that Kai falls for her right away, and I love that she doesn't think she likes him until... she totally does and it's like 'Oh SNAP!'. I love that weird scene where Chen walks around with Kai like he's already his son in law, that cracks me up! I guess I like them more in theory than in practice. It feels a touch forced, and it needed a bit more time. Point being, the beginnings of the relationship are extremely awkward and strange, but towards the end of the season, it gets good! I just wish we could see more :)

The... love... triangle

Alright, by now, you guys should know how I feel about these things. They suck. They're stupid. I hate them. They're pointless. And this season is... quite possibly the stupidest. So... the whole Garma-Wu-Sako... thing this season is that Wu wrote a letter to Misako a long time ago, and Garmadon stole it, and then... Misako *groan* used it to determine which of them she was going to marry... okay. Yeah, Garmadon, that was a crap thing to do. But you know what, he was evil. Wu should have just signed the thing when he wrote it. But also, Misako... WHAT ARE YOU DOIN' GIRL?! Why... would you let a letter... be the final deciding point? I don't get that. And my main problem is that she basically chose her husband based on his writing ability. The thoughts Wu had in the letter obviously directly express what Garmadon wanted to say. In the end, his feelings for her were still the same. The only thing different is that he didn't write it. He's not good with words the way Wu is. But the show treats it like he lied about his feelings, and didn't even like her. Like he was using her for personal gain or manipulation or something. Idk. The whole thing makes no sense. Now, maybe if he did something to make Wu directly look bad or disingenuous THAT would be understandable. But... idk. I don't get it. Misako sucks. Let's move on.

Villians

Chen

Chen is my favorite villain. Hands down. No competition. Any way you slice it. I friggin love the heck out of this dude. And here's why. First off, he's a very comedic villain that still remains extremely threatening, which is an extremely thin line to walk. I mean, think about it. With all the other villains, they were intimidating, and the henchmen provided the humor. Here, I guess you could say they flipped it cuz Clouse is pretty intimidating, but Chen is still crazy scary on his own. And here's how they do it: He's insane. Straight up, he has lost his mind. Nothing he does makes sense, but that's fine, cuz it probably makes total sense to him. You can laugh at the quirky things he does, but also live in fear knowing that he has trap doors installed EVERYWHERE. Why? Cuz he likes them! Is there a better reason than that when you're crazy! That was my problem with people with Pythor. He is so smart, why didn't he ever think that the devourer might eat him too?! There is no explanation. But with Chen, that doesn't matter! He wants to be a snake! Why? Why not?! No flaws in that thinking, right? This is also why I like Ultra Violet so much. She's the only one to rival his position, but because she's more of a side villain, I don't feel that's enough to dethrone him. With insane villains, you never have any idea what they're playing at, if it's smart, or how to counteract, cuz they're just insane. I mean, seriously,

"Chen, the ninja have figured out our plan, what should we do?"

"COOL! Let's tell EVERYONE our plan!"

And it works! I love his voice. Just the way he says things makes me so happy! He's having so much fun, and I have fun with him! 10/10 villain. Great work.

Clouse

I can't get past the voice. It sounds so over the top evil and... it's kinda annoying for me? He has a decent backstory and such, but whenever he's on screen I always find myself wishing it was Chen. He just sucks the fun out of everything and leaves nothing there, so most of his interactions aren't particularly interesting. I don't know. Never really thought much of him.

Humor

Needless to say everything with Chen works! Everything with the EMs works. Jay's whole Positive Thinking streak is amazing! There's not a lot that falls flat on its face. It's really pretty fantastic.

Favorite joke: too many to count. If I had to pick one...

Chen's: the reds, the purples, the super dark purples!

Drama

This season has some damn good drama. It has my personal most sad moment in all of Ninjago. I'm of course talking about Garmadon's death...  JK! XD I WAS LAUGHING ALL THE WAY THROUGH THAT SEQUENCE! But we’ll get to that later. Okay. But for real, my personal most heartbreaking moment is when we find out Pixal is scrapped (of course it's Pixal related) but seriously, watching this for the first time, it broke my heart hardcore. I audibly gasped. They have these conversations, and she realizes he doesn't remember her, and it hurts her because they were comPATABLE GOSH DANG IT! And then he starts remembering, and she knows she can't go with him, so she lies to him to give him the motivation to make it out, and then the reveal, and Zane's heart breaks, and your heart breaks. This whole scenario reminds me of my own writing, it has all these things I enjoy using. Distinctions between fantasy and reality, characters lying to each other to protect them, and an ending realization of total and complete emptiness. Of course, Pixal is added into his head, and all is fine and dandy. It works for this season but serves her worse in future seasons. Regardless, that moment when Pixal says 'scrapped' is the most depressing thing I've ever seen. All of the Zane drama this season works really well. Zane having an identity crisis is something I didn't think the show would handle. When Zane says he's just a clone if himself I was like 'oh, dang! They went there!'. It's almost like he's comparing himself to Cryptor, and it's some heavy stuff. Everything this season is shrouded in mystery. I love that. For the first half of the season or so, I really like the tournament stuff. But as we get Cole, and especially Jay in the noodle factory, that plotline gets much more interesting. I don't get into the Nya and Lloyd and Garmadon stuff that much. The stuff with Kai is okay. But overall, there's some good stuff.

Climax

Okay, so... I... I mean I like the build up. The thing with all the trucks is really good. Most of it was really pretty good with all the EMs doing stuff the ninja would usually do. But the whole ending thing, with getting mini Pythor involved, and you know. The whole Garmadon death thing. He died an honorable death and all that, but... idk, I can't get past Lloyd's voice. As he reads him off I just couldn't stop giggling! It's so overdramatic, they feel like they need to make Lloyd mad at his dad for whatever reason so he can come back at the last second, and it all feels so forced. And then the ending is super overly cheesy for how serious the show wants to take itself at that moment. Idk. I don't like it. One of my least favorite finales.

Spotlight episode

There are some good ones to choose from this season. Some real good ones. But the one I find myself watching the most is Ninja Roll. This episode doesn't have too high stakes, it doesn't make much sense, it's kind of pointless, but it perfectly encapsulates the reason I watch Ninjago. I don't know exactly why I watch Ninjago. I'm not into the action most of the time. The romance is cute, but not potent enough to warrant watching the show. The humor isn't revolutionary, the characters aren't especially deep. No, the reason I watch Ninjago is cuz it's fun. Ninjago is just a good time. It has just enough of all of those aspects to make for something I love. It makes me smile. With seasons 8, and especially 9, Ninjago has shifted into this darker action based, lore-driven thing, which I thought I would like, and I do, but I think it's lost a bit of that fun factor. In my opinion, Ninjago is it's best when it's self-aware, and doesn't take itself overly seriously. When you don't have to end the season on an ominous dark cliffhanger. I mean really. What is this? Chima? No. I just want to go hang out with the ninja and the gang, whatever it is their doing. This episode takes advantage of every situation a roller derby with the ninja provides. Of course Jay roller skates with his mom. Of course, Kai is incompetent at it. Of course, Chen cheats, of course, it all comes down to Lloyd. Of course, there's freaking buggies that Chen releases! This whole episode makes me smile and laugh and it has a good message. This is what I miss about Ninjago, and that's why it's my spotlight.

Misc

I know everyone always teases Jay about his TV show, but what about Kai and his wrestling career? I just feel like that would come up more often

I completely subscribe to the theory that Pixal was scrapped to fix Zane cuz they beat him up so badly when capturing. I'd kinda like to think Pixal even volunteered herself for it... ONE SHOT IDEA

I have to scratch... my face.

I need a number on the trap door to button ratio on the island

This season has my favorite intro of any season. Mainly cuz the remix is FIRE and I hate the fact that they don't have an extended version that sounds more like the opening itself. 

So all together, the word to sum up season 4 is fun. Definitely not technically the best, or the smartest, or the most well done, but it's my favorite because of nostalgia, my inner child, and because it makes me smile. I love this season.

- Maya (Parachutingkitten)

[taz-writes]

10 Questions Tag Game

@micastarsandmirrors tagged me on my main blog for this, but I’m posting it here because it seemed more appropriate. :>

1. Which author(s) inspires you the most?

Oof, hard question! Recently I’ve been really inspired by Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series--I love how he deconstructs fantasy as a genre. Guards! Guards! is one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. 

2. Someone from a different world asks you, “Show me the song of your people” which earth song would you play for them?

Madeon’s Pop Culture. It’s such a genius reimagining of SO many other songs, and it encapsulates modern pop musical culture in a way that’s really fantastic. I love it. It’s not actually my favorite song, but as an example to an alien of what Earth music is, it’s a pretty good case study. 

3. How did you get the idea for your current WIP?

Feilan is drawn from the mythology of a recess game I used to play with my friends in elementary school. My friends and I would team up and LARP as our super cool powerful fairy avatars and fight the annoying boys from the classroom next door evil! As we grew up, the lore of Fairyland grew darker and more complicated, and I borrowed bits and pieces of dozens of other stories to glue them to my self insert and my friends’. We grew out of the game, but the paracosm we’d created stuck with me. Around sixth grade, I started putting those old recess games into writing! 

4. Which of your characters is a lover not a fighter and which is a fighter not a lover?

Honestly, most of my characters are both! Feilan is an action story and the majority of the cast is prepared to throw down at any time. I think Lavender is the lover-not-a-fighter. She’s a healer, after all, and she prefers to avoid conflict. The fighter is definitely Amalie. 

5. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what do you listen to?

Sometimes! It depends on my mood, and what kind of scene I’m trying to write. Usually, I prefer instrumental music. I have a class at school where the homework is just listening to a few hours of classical music, so I’ll do that a lot while I write. Otherwise... video game music is the way to go. Undertale has a freaking amazing soundtrack. Also, I’m still quite fond of the Homestuck music albums.... They have a lot of great songs for setting a mood. 

6. What’s the best way to piss off your main OC?

Tell her she’s not good enough to be worthy of something. Bonus points if you imply her opinions don’t matter, or bring up her birth status. That’ll get her riled up in half a second flat. 

7. What inspired you to write your current WIP(S)?

Oh boy here we go, here’s the novel. Feilan’s backstory is long and very emotional.

When I was growing up, I could never find stories to read that actually gave me what I wanted. I was raised on that early-2000s strand of Girl Power(tm) that was really obsessed with characters who are girls fighting the patriarchy and everyone cares that they’re girls because there’s clearly nothing more important about their characters........ Either that or they were just straight up annoying. I adored Winx Club but every time the girls went shopping another piece of me died. I had a well-established Not Like Other Girls complex but at the same time reading characters who thought like that was really annoying? There were a lot of things I hated in the stories I read growing up: inescapable love interests, tiny sparkly boring fairies, the anti-sue genre of Plain Modest Protagonists who aren’t allowed to be powerful or even aware that they could be, female characters who can’t do anything without reminding us that they’re girls and girls can’t normally do this but I can and look how special that is!!, the inevitable Girl Media Shopping Montage... et cetera. 

I didn’t want that. I wanted Lord of the Rings, but with girls, and maybe a cute boy!Galadriel. I wanted a story where girls being heroes wasn’t a big deal, or even worth questioning. I couldn’t find those things, so I decided I’d make my own, drawn out of my shameless childhood power fantasies. Feilan is an aggressive defiance of pretty much all the tropes in the last paragraph. I’ve stuck to it so doggedly because even now, I still have trouble finding stories with the kinds of characters I want to read about. I’ve always been super invested in stories about characters who are Like Me, who are girls with feminine and masculine interests, who have ADHD but are still smart anyways, who are short and built strong instead of slender. I used to refuse to watch cartoons unless there was at least one blonde girl that I could latch onto who wasn’t a stereotype Popular Girl. More recently, I want to see characters who are bi like me, where nobody makes a big deal out of it. I don’t even like romance stories, I don’t understand why it has to matter if X likes girls and boys! Just let her do that and get her girlfriend and get back to saving the world! And I fucking hate stories that pretend to be progressive by driving in over and over again how X character is a girl, X character is so gay--the ultimate result is just reminding me that I’m weird somehow. By... being a person, I guess. I hate those narratives so much but especially in mainstream YA, they’re practically inevitable? 

So I wanted to write Feilan so I could have the story I wanted to read but never found, about characters who are like me and dealing with my problems and my strengths and my fears. And I’ve kept writing it because I still want that, and I want Feilan to be that story for other people too, because I don’t think I’m alone here. It’s also a major outlet for my emotions. 

This is a long answer, but I think it’s pretty clear why. :)

8. What is the last book/series you finished reading?

The last book I read was an English translation of Ghost Opera by Mercedes Roffe, which I read for a class I’m taking right now in the art of translation. It’s very far away from my usual fantasy genre, but I really enjoyed it! If you like neat artsy poetry, give it a look sometime, especially if you speak Spanish and can experience it in the original language. 

9. What finally made you say, “Wow! I really like writing, I’m gonna keep doing this”?

When I was in fourth grade I won a local writing contest with a cute little poem about nature, and I got to go to a book fair event and read it out loud in a fancy auditorium, and I was SO UNBELIEVABLY STOKED. My mom was really proud of me, too. A couple people complimented the poem to me afterwards and it made my year. I decided that I wanted to win again the next year, and started taking poetry more seriously. 

10. What’s your favorite thing about writing?

Rereading my work. It’s so incredible to me sometimes, because I can and will cry over events in my own story, and I get so happy reading over the triumphs of my own OCs that I wrote out with my own hands and there’s something so beautiful and powerful about seeing these ideas that I created in my brain grow wings and fly. I cried a lot, when I printed out the first draft of Feilan’s book 1 and held it in my hands. That’s mine! I did that! I did all of that, and now I can hold it and see it and show people! 

I’m now tagging @pumapauus @greenhousewriting @jaidynwrites @hklunethewriter and anyone else who’s interested to answer these 10 questions, then write your own and pass it on! Feel free to ignore if you don’t have the time :) Anyone else who sees this and is interested, you’re welcome to answer too and say I tagged you!

1. What does your workspace look like? Do you have a designated ‘writing area’? 

2. Do you prefer to write solo heroes or ensemble casts? 

3. Which of your characters reminds you the most of yourself?

4. What’s one trait your main OC has that you wish you had, too?

5. Have you changed or removed any major elements of your current WIP since its original draft/concept? What was the biggest change, and why did you make it? 

6. If you had to give your main WIP a theme song, what would it be?

7. What’s your favorite non-writing-related hobby?

8. What are some of your favorite books? 

9. What’s your favorite trope to read and/or write? What’s your least favorite? 

10. What do you love most about your own work and why? 

[existentialburden]

11 13 16 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 29 30

11. How do you come up with your fic titles?

ngl it just sort of... happens? I’ll be writing and then I’ll go “oh FUCK I need a title” and 9 times outta 10 it ends up a joke. placeholder names tend to be whatever characters are involved or whatever ik will remind me of the fic, if it even gets a placeholder name. “Duktra”. “Enslog’ph”. “Fern bby are you okay”. “Aila come out of the closet you grimdark bastard”. all placeholders the moment they move to their own document. “Give Enny A Decent Dad 2019″ is not a placeholder. the only difference is I took the time to capitalize shit.

13. Do you outline your fics? How much of a headache would someone get if they just looked at an outline of yours without reading the fic?

sometimes yes sometimes no! mostly no. the Enslog’ph outline is. okay it doesn’t even focus on what the fic’s focusing on now but it’s at least coherent, even if it goes into two branching paths. another Enny fic I have going has a two-sentence outline that is. technically correct. nothing headache-inducing but very Vague and Frustrating to look at.

16. Do you research for your fics? If so, how deep of a rabbit hole have you gone down by accident when researching?

depends on if looking for my own character lore is research! if not, nothing really takes that much research. if yes... every time I go to find character lore I end up reading through hours’ worth of rps just to find How West Types or Enzo’s Height Compared To Ryze’s or.... yeah. I did that today. it was nice and also a fucking ride bcause I ended up reading the ENTIRETY of the rp channel for an au and then an hour of dms.

18. Do you have a WIP that you keep telling yourself you’ll eventually get back to, but deep down you know that’s probably a lie?

anything on my OG writing document. like... look. we all know I’m not finishing any of those Aila fics. I’m not gonna wrap em up concisely. I’m probably not gonna finish that superhero au fic where Nuad gets to see just how much Enny’s affected by her false memories. the impulse Wynn and Aila monster au fic is not getting finished. except. wait. fuck. now I want to work on that. GOD DAMN IT.

19. Do you edit your fics after you write them, or do you prefer to just hit post and run (because it’s someone else’s problem now)?

depends who I’m sharing them with! I don’t edit them before showing people in dms. I do edit them before putting them on here or ao3. the editing process is... minimal. I will say that. Ro helps though!

20. What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

just getting that rush of an idea that I spit out most of in an afternoon, or not being able to go to sleep so I shrug and just let the midnight creativity carry me through another fic! the initial inspiration for an idea mostly. and also reading it back, sometimes.

21. What’s your least favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

when I inevitably get stuck and have to actually FIGURE OUT WHERE I WANT IT TO GO.... also trying to wrap it up into a neat conclusion. fuck that. this is a scene lifted from daily life out of a series of moments that never stop how tf am I supposed to give it an ENDING??? it leans into the rest. time doesn’t stop on  the hour every hour it flows into it! bluhhhh.

22. Do you take fic requests? If so, for what characters and why?

I used to do oneshot requests but uhhhh my motivation is inconsistent and it felt like promising something I couldn’t deliver ig? I’d take them again if anyone wanted specific fic about my ocs though! I just. I’m not invested enough in any canon stuff to write things people would request for. the stuff I AM invested in doesn’t have a huge following and I’m too close to it to feel anything but insecure about writing it! like... yeah I could feel comfortable writing some wild Homestuck shit if I were still invested in it. because Homestuck exists in the view of the masses and has for a while and there’s so many takes on the characters. but I don’t feel comfortable writing, say, Watt, because Netnavi RP is so much smaller and if I write stuff I’d be like... the ONLY PERSON. there are so few takes on character voices there. the large community versus small community terrifies me bcause if you write your take on a character in an ocean it’s like yep that’s just another stranger. if you write your take on a character in a kiddie pool everyone can see you doing it and there’s nothing to compare it to either way. the moment someone else writes something it will be immediately judged against yours. it just. terrifies me y’know?

tl;dr I would totally take fic requests if y’all wanted to request more of my OC bullshit and I’d write stuff for like... Animal Crossing. hand me those obscure villager favs like Hornsby or Antonio or Eloise. I’ll write about the Koopalings. shit I’d go back to Homestuck hell if you offered me a dollar (the others are free). fuck dude if you want my take on your OCs and give me an OC tag to scroll through I’ll do my best if you promise not to make fun of me for any misinterpretations.

23. What’s your absolute favorite trope to write?

hurt/comfort. or just comfort. I love me some cuddles and affirmations and overwhelming trust and care babey!

24. What’s a trope that you’d like to never hear about as long as you live, let alone write?

I hate miscommunication bcause I get HEAVY second-hand embarrassment and I’m prone to mishearing or misunderstanding things myself so it just... hurts to read. I’ll write it but hhhhhhhh y’feel?

25. Do you listen to music as you write? If possible, link your writing playlist.

sometimes! I used to do it more often. I don’t have a specific playlist but I did use this one for a long while, and you can get to my other ones from it! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2WdXLJmV6zOPRPx9lNRR1d?si=krNNeOWgTS666LJ8G_PoaQ

26. What’s your biggest distraction when writing?

messages or having to look for character lore. it just makes me wanna read old rps....

29. Have you ever written for an exchange or event of some kind? Which one(s)? Did you enjoy it?

nope! the thought is terrifying! I used to trade fic for Noodle’s writing but he stopped trading me back (I think he ran out of relevant fics he was comfy sharing. thas cool I just love feedback :3).

30. Post a snippet from your current WIP without context - no more than 300 words.

okay gonna mix it up and not have it be GodqWest or Enslog’ph this time uhhhh take this. lore-wise “Aila” is correct but it’s about Enny, trust me. superhero au gang rise up--

"Is there a problem?" The voice is muffled, but not muffled enough. Yüur. 

Aila shakes her head silently, not daring to open her eyes. She can feel herself tense up, her shoulders raising and her head ducking down to hide herself, knowing that everyone must be looking at her now.

"Aila's having an episode," a voice mumbles, and she freezes. Shut up. Shut up.

Everything's quiet for a few moments, and she holds her breath to keep it that way. Her heartbeat pulses through her ears, suddenly so obvious that she can't bear the sensation of it. It beats, beats again, and her head dips lower, ears touching her shoulder blades, pushing against her hair uncomfortably. Ticklish and trapped and disgustingly there. It's a lot, it's too much, she's going to scream--

There's a low hum from just behind her, and she gasps in a new breath of air.

[traveling-madness]

RULES:  Ya gotta,, tell your followers 11 random facts about yourself, and tag 11 people in return! Tag backs are allowed, but you mustn’t repeat any of the facts you mentioned previously!

Tagged by @anotherler

1. I make my own clothes?? Like a lot of the time? Not even just for cosplay just for fun.

2. I have self diagnosed (and counselor, occupational therapist, and family diagnosed) Aspergers, as well as professionally diagnosed depression, usually I wouldn’t bring this up but it actually ties into how I joined the fandom. A few years ago, my attention span was shit in that I was always tired and bored and never satisfied with anything, I would switch special interests, latching onto one for a few weeks, a month at MOST, then switching in an instant. In February 2015 I first started medication, approximately a week and a half before watching the Lorax. I latched on immediately afterwards, but told myself not to get into the fandom because I’d be over it within a few weeks. I.. was not. For a long time actually, I expressed NO interest in ANYTHING else at all for almost 6 months. This was the longest I’d ever been entirely invested in anything, even Homestuck and Fairy Tail which took me a month each just to consume. Every time I thought I read it all I’d find another blog, another au, something new, almost 2 years later and it’s still at the forefront of my fandom list.

3. I’m an early high school graduate, I have enough credits to leave school but I’m choosing to take extra art and english classes. My honorary ceremony was yesterday.

4. I LOVE the story aspects of a lot of video games, but don’t have the ability to play them because I,, am broke and have trouble investing in frustrating tasks. So I spend hours watching playthroughs and reading lore and information and fanfics (I’m looking @ u Portal 2,,, )

5. I’m one of those stereotypical white kids who insists their eyes change color, not in any magical or special way though, it’s all genetics and light reflection, particularly the latter in my case, and really, going from blueish green to green to hazel isn’t that big a change, I just think the science behind it is neat.

6.Over the course of the next 2 years, I hope to publish a novel, excerpt of the first chapter can be read here.

7.@probably-gay-sparkly-kid is a big part of why I started drawing my own persona, and why I took on the name Mads in the first place. <3 I will always always love Sparky until I’m dead

8. I have four betta fish and they are named Comrade Yarrowslava Valdikov (partial credit due to @ineffablye for that one), Space Jam, John Seana ii, and Splortch.

9. I have written fanfiction since I was approximately four years old, before I was aware of what “fanfiction” was.

10. This fandom has genuinely changed my life, or at least pulled my life together. I was able to find my dream college thanks to @juniorbizarre, and I hope to attend there after my gap year. I met my lovely wonderful incredible girlfriend @medlie, as well as some of the best friends I’ve ever had. And I started The Tribune, which is now just over a year old and officially the longest running consistent project I’ve ever done.

11. I’ve seen Taylor Swift live in concert twice, which is a bit of a moot point now seeing as I’m so dissapointed in her refusal to speak on important issues. I still really enjoy her music for what it is, I always have, and I’m glad I was also able to see Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendez, and Vance Joy as her opening acts.

All y’all are tagged. Reading this? Tagged.

[analytic-chaoticism]

Hiveswap, Cherubs, Fantrolls, First Guardians, Limebloods: How Does This Concern Me?

New year, new theory! With Hiveswap hot on our heels it’s fitting that we kick 2017 off with a bang, right? Gotta get my bets in before the races start! You know what they say right? Go big or go home.

So let’s make the first theory of the year a Hiveswap plot forecast!

Let’s talk about how the fantroll we saw for 2 panels might actually tell us how Doc Scratch and cherubs factor into the plot of the game.

This is definitely a lot more interesting than the Handmaid.

Longish post warning. We’ve got some potential to discuss.

We know Mierfa and Nektan are going to appear in Hiveswap.

Considering their donors paid $10,000 this is only fair. As we can see here their designs have been altered a bit but they are still very much the canon fantrolls we know and love. Obviously we don’t have images of what they’d look like in the new spriting style but let’s just imagine it.

So how are they relevant? Well how did they die?

A particularly destructive male cherub attacked them.

Now if they’re appearing in Hiveswap at relatively the same age (judging by appearance and stylization) that they appeared in Homestuck, we know they lived on Alternia and not possibly some sort of troll colony planet that might exist.

What happened to this destructive male?

He fought a protective female…

And laid an egg. Calliope and Caliborn’s egg.

After killing Mierfa and Nektan he would go on to lay the cherubs of Homestuck. You could say Mierfa and Nektan’s death - and subsequently the other deaths that occurred (let’s not forget those) - were part of a crucial series of events that would lead to Caliborn’s birth. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Now if this cherub attacked Alternia, shouldn’t it be destroyed?

Why doesn’t troll land look like this?

What drew him to Alternia specifically, of all the other planetary bodies he could have destroyed? And what drove him away before he could finish the job? What could interrupt a destructive male cherub? It looks like he only managed to cause minimal damage, killing a crowd and… then what?

Well we’re not sure, but we know Alternia is relatively fine. Maybe there’s an area the size of a city which is a big smoldering crater now but even so the whole thing should be kaput right?

Question 1: Why Alternia?

I imagine the immense amount of Time and Space energies released by a cherub portal would draw his attention, and most likely drive his soon to be guardian female mate to pick up the pace in her chase.

Question 2: What drove him away?

Well we have some key players involved here.

Alternia has 2 first guardians, and one is VERY invested in the birth of Caliborn. One also presumably doesn’t happen to exist very much in Homestuck.

We have the puppet men backing up Scratch. 

A powerful, durable troll with an army worth of clown cult and adult trolls on call who is also invested in the birth of Caliborn and Calliope (keep in mind I’m not sure if it will be THIS highblood but I’m assuming there’s always a purple filling the position. Purples live for at least centuries and we don’t know where the GHB falls onto the Homestuck chronology so maybe they’re alive for Hiveswap but die before Homestuck?).

The Handmaid (who I covered in another theory alongside Scratch) - http://analytic-chaoticism.tumblr.com/post/154670995195/the-handmaid-in-hiveswap-homestuck-ancestors-in

Perhaps the female cherub’s hastened approach scared him off as well. But let’s also consider our protagonists.

We have no idea what items they’ll come across, but perhaps a juju or doomsday device they could discourage a cherub with?

Either way there are a lot of strong people invested in both Alternia not being destroyed and the cherubs having giant space snake sex. LE himself should theoretically be able to appear but that might bog down the lore a bit too much. Introducing Scratch and having him say something like ‘I work under a cherub with control of time who retroactively employs me to ensure his arrival, one of these things being getting his dad to not blow up the planet and then get laid’ isn’t too dense though. I can’t say anything for certain.

Perhaps the Axolotl sacrifices itself in the process of defending its planet?

In doing this it would make sense that Scratch could fully assert himself (as if he hadn’t already) as the first guardian, and explain why the axolotl never appeared in Homestuck despite FGs playing pivotal roles.

There are only two reasons Scratch would let the axolotl live lest it interfere with his activities: 1 - The indigenous FG lived within one of Scratch’s blindspots, or 2 - Scratch knew that it would be necessary in the fight against the cherub and so let it live that it may die valiantly defending its planet, ensuring the survival of Alternia and the birth of Caliborn. The male cherub, defeated, would slink off (and possibly universe hop to Universe C at a point in time where Earth is dead like we see in-comic, which is not that far fetched because chronospace universe hopping cherub portals exist and cherubs themselves are connected to ‘all that is eternal’).

So, is one of the possible events we see in the climax of the action of Hiveswap the attack of Calliope and Caliborn’s father on Alternia? Perhaps.

You could say that this is too confusing, incorporating such dense aspects of the Homestuck mythos but think of it like this: Scratch reveals that he has been manipulating events the whole game so that things may transpire in a way which culminates with the attack and defeat of the cherub, who would then lay the egg of his employer, a worse cherub who hired him retrospectively with some achronological time shenaynays like the Handmaid. Calliope and Caliborn, nor who they are or what they go on to do in Homestuck, are mentioned. Simple.

Kind of.

I mean I could see it all being explained pretty clearly in a 5 minute dialogue sequence in a way that unpacks the dense timeline relatively simply.

Possibly.

==>

Now this is where I’m going to throw in a crackpot ass idea, so bear the fuck with me. You think introducing Homestuck events into the mix is getting crazy? You think Hiveswap resulting in the birth of Homestuck’s villain is crazy? Well what else could I be cooking up.

“Crazy” Idea: Lime Bloods In Hiveswap Help Stop The Cherub

In an exchange on Twitter with Hussie (which not naming names BUT the person who asked him may or may not have been me on my first Twitter account under my old alias shhhhhhhhhhh) it was confirmed that limebloods would be in Hiveswap.

Limebloods were wiped out by the highbloods because their abilities scared them. Now what would scare a highblood, someone who benefits from their societal position as the violent oppressors of the lower castes who live in fear of their chucklevoodoos and rage?

Emotional manipulation abilities. The power to pacify.

Karkat is a mutant, placed on the hemospectrum between yellow and olive, where lime green would go. Here we see him pacifying the highblood rampage anger of his moirail. This is denoted by lime green text. Somehow, rubbing Gamzee’s face pacifies him after he killed 2 of his friends and beheaded 4? Uh huh. Sure Jan.

Idea: Karkat is a limeblood mutant. This mutation arose from ineffective attempts to purge limebloods from genetic materials. Their psychic powers to calm the highbloods who rely on their rage and strength to dominate the lowbloods caused them to fear them and kill them as a result.

If we learn more about limebloods in Hiveswap not because we get to hear about troll history, but because we’ve gone to a point in time where limebloods still EXIST, what if a bunch of them come to pacify the male cherub? Use their powers to calm down his violent rampage enough for everybody else mentioned above to land some strong hits on him and scare him away without too much fighting back? This frightful display of power - the ability to stop an incredibly destructive cherub in its tracks, or at least chill him out a bit - would definitely be enough to incite genocide on the part of the highblood’s.

Do keep in mind that this is possible! In one of the KS updates, Hussie said the time in which this takes place on Alternia is ‘nebulous.’ It could be decades or ‘centuries’ before the events of Homestuck. Centuries is long enough for limebloods to still be around I feel.

What if Fiamet - who appears to have an affinity for axolotls, coincidentally - is lime and not olive (NOTE: this would be really awkward because my limeblood OC has the axolotl as a lusus Hussie I’m sorry I have to sue you I have no choice).

Also I would just like to say that Fiamet feels… odd to me. Like it doesn’t sound quite like the rest of the troll names? Calliope did say that limebloods had strange names. I dunno. Might just be me.

Anyway, there are some thoughts for you.

Happy 2017!