#this was my take on one of Vriska's Pesterquest things and I love it

[pumpkiinns]

No one thinks a pretty girl has feelings

[propheticclown]

I need you all to understand. I've seen so many people talk about how Eridan would be slaying the fashion scene. How his fashion sense is awesome and epic, or whatever. NO! Firstly, I wanna preface this by saying that Pesterquest falls under the category of "Dubiously Canon." so his massive closet isn't actually canon. But secondly, LOOK AT HIS FUCKING FIT, MY GUY!

THE DEEP BLUE WITH THE PURPLE??? THE CAPE??? THE HAIR??? BROOOOOTHER!!! THEY EVEN CHANGED THE COLORS OF HIS SCARF AND PANTS TO LOOK BETTER IN PESTERQUEST!

It's subtle but the color shifts towards indigo/cobalt rather than royal blue. "B-But what about March Eridan? March Eridan looks good and is canon!" I don't know how brainrotted you are from buying all your clothes from shien (derogatory) and temu (derogatory) to think that March Eridan looks good, but let me just show you what it looks like again to refresh your memory.

Ignoring the insanity that's even happening with this image in the first place, this IS the Original March Eridan image. Now let me tell you why this fit is more atrocious than Kankri Vantas' takes on feminism. 1. THE COLORS DO NOT WORK!!! His VIOLET symbol combined with MAGENTA arm warmers and thigh highs and a RED SKIRT???? AUUHHG NONE OF THESE COLORS LOOK AESTHETICALLY PLEASING TOGETHER IN A FASHION SENSE!!! NAME ONE TIME RED AND PURPLE HAVE EVER LOOKED GOOD TOGETHER IN TERMS OF FASHION??? 2. STRIPES AND FUCKING PLAID??? WHAT??? IN CARTOONS, MUSIC, BOOKS, AND EVEN FUCKING GAMES, DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH "Ew stripes and plaid." IS SAID??? THAT IS LIKE THE NUMBER 1 NONO IN ANY FASHION WORLD!!! 3. AND WHILE THIS ONE IS A BIT OF A STRETCH, THERE IS NO CONVINCING ME THAT ERIDAN AMPORA WOULD WILLINGLY WEAR THIS SHIT! IT JUST DOES NOT MAKE SENSE FOR HIS CHARACTER TO WEAR THIS OUTFIT! FASHION IS A WAY OF EXPRESSING ONESELVES! FASHION, AS A MEDIUM OF ART, IS A WAY A PERSON CAN EXPRESS HOW THEY FEEL ON THE INSIDE! March Eridan as an outfit, artistically expresses confidence, empowerment and a general "I'm a bad bitch you can't kill me" energy. Here's the problem. Eridan at his base components is envious, closed off, emotionally volatile, and a massive fucking nerd, which the old outfit actually does express.

His clothes are long-sleeved, showing the least possible amount of skin he can, which usually can represent being closed off. His cape is large and grandiose, showing that he likes to be exaggerated and theatrical. His scarf indicates his nerdiness, with it being a reference to Harry Potter and how it could be a tie-back to his nerdy love of wizards. The only other outfit he's shown wearing is with a flashback to when he and Vriska were a kismesis.

Here the outfit, even with as little as we see of it, is big and intense. Unlike Vriska, who essentially doesn't change outfits, Eridan puts time and effort into each theatrical performance he considers himself to be a part of. He adores intricate and exaggerated outfits. Things that are fancy, complex, and over-the-top. So that even though he doesn't feel great on the inside, even though he feels as though he's "wworse than evverybody. all the bodies." He can still look well put together. And that's WHY I don't think March Eridan as an outfit works. It's too casual for him. It's not big or flashy in a way he likes. There's not enough for him. It doesn't cover him up and because of that, he'd feel exposed. He's not closed off anymore. It doesn't exude "Eridan Ampora". Who's "most casual" piece of apparel is probably a sweater vest.

Even in the original image, he looks uncomfortable, like he doesn't actually LIKE wearing it. The only way I can find this artistically working from a writing standpoint is if Kanaya made it for him because, in the story, it is shown time and time again that Kanaya doesn't understand Eridan, so by making him this outfit, she'd take it a step further by not even understanding what he likes. Kanaya doesn't understand that Eridan is terrified of being culled, because Kanaya doesn't have to worry about that. Kanaya doesn't understand the pressures Alternian society is forcing upon him, as an Orphaner. Because Kanaya's only societal expectation is raising the new mother grub. Kanaya doesn't think about how he's most likely going to live the longest out of all his friends. Eridan has the second highest lifespan out of every troll blood color, but even then with Feferi, she's most likely going to get culled by the Condense when she's the proper age to inherit the throne. So in Eridan's mind, he's going to be alone, expected to be an Orphaner until the day he dies, utterly alone to feed Feferi's lusus until he eventually succumbs to old age or dies in war. That's why he's so closed off, yet so emotionally grand. That's why March Eridan doesn't suit him from a fashion-artistic standpoint. It's not what Eridan Ampora embodies as a character. Envy.

[madam-melon-meow]

VRISKA SERKET IS A BISEXUAL WOMAN.

This is Homestuck canon. She is a transgender woman. This is Pesterquest canon. If you can respect the one you can respect the other.

I understand some are attached to lesbian headcanons. But if yourr bedrock is to insist she experiences comp-het. A THING THAT DOES NOT EXIST IN ALTERNIA. A THING THAT IS NOT SUPPORTED BY CANON. THEN YOU ARE BEING BIPHOBIC. PLEASE DO NOT SPEND PRIDE MONTH ERASING CANON BISEXUALITY. IT IS UNDER REPRESENTED AND MUCH MALIGNED FROM BOTH OUTSIDE AND INSIDE THE QUEER COMMUNITY. BISEXUALITY IS QUEER ENOUGH. BISEXUALITY IS BEAUTIFUL. CHARACTERS LIKE KARKAT. VRISKA. TEREZI. DAVE. ROXY. ERIDAN. GAMZEE. THESE HAVE ALL EXPRESSED BISEXUALITY. IT IS CRUELTY OF THE HIGHEST ORDER TO BE BADGERED BY COMP HET THEORIES ABOUT CANONICAL BISEXUAL CHARACTERS. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH THIS MESSAGE I AM SORRY BUT I REFUSE TO SIMPER AND KOWTOW REGARDING MY SEXUALITY. BISEXUALITY SHOULD NOT BE ERASED. IF YOUR DAVE HEADCANON RESTS ON OVERCOMING INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA THEN BISEXUALITY DOES NOT PREVENT THAT. SIMPLY RELABEL IT INTERNALIZED BIPHOBIA. BUT COMP HET WAS COINED BY ADRIENNE RICH-

~~~~~~~

A (transphobe, if you cant figure this out from the rad fem rhetoric) proponent of the belief that all women can be lesbians regardless of sexual orientation by identifying as a “woman-identified woman”, aka thst the woman’s focuses are on the needs and emotions of other women. This belief is A core component of the lesbian separatist movement began in the 1970s, which should be pinging alarm bells. This is the organization that believes women’s bisexuality , MY sexuality, is inherently anti-feminist because of the implied desire for penetration, sexual dominance, and submission. This woman stated that women due to their socialization could not ever freely “choose” to enter a hetero relationship, that coercion was ever-present. Her words imply bisexual women (and others socialized as girls while growing up) have inherent lack of agency, erasing the freedom and truth of our love for what can be perceived as straight relationships. Ti Grace Atkinson said “ feminism is a theory, lesbianism is a practice.” Lesbian separatists take this to mean Feminism is the theory and lesbianism is the practice, reflecting an assumption that lesbianism is the purest and most desirable manifestation of feminism, and that bisexuality thus is sullied and impure. Compulsory heterosexuality was coined by a TERF for the inherent purpose of invalidating bisexual and transgender women, as both run up against the terf ideology that all men are bad, that all relations with amabs are bad, that amabs are rapists in disguise and abusers on the prowl and to sleep with a man or anyone that could have been a man taints you. Bisexuality has always been transinclusionary. Those who exclude the one tend to exclude the other. terf theory should not be your bedrock of queer or feminist theory. What hurts one letter hurts us all.

S. Young’s “ Breaking silence about the B word“ has a fantastic paragraph about coming out as a lesbian and learning from other lesbians that my sexuality was considered a copout, that bisexuals were treasonous and would run back to men and leave the lesbians behind, that only lesbians had an anti-patriarchal sexuality, that we were buying into sexism by being bisexual. while gay men do not seem to view bisexuals as sleeping with the enemy as strongly as lesbians view us, there is still the presumption that a bisexual man is just trying to hold onto heterosexual privilege.  these views are not absent from fandom spaces.

Bisexuality is treated as a transitional category, as experimenting, as promiscuity, as being a liar and a cheat. To reduce every bisexual character you come across, to force them to “pick a side”, to comment on ship art of characters like John and Vriska as “generic boring and straight”, to similarly comment on art of characters like Vriska and Terezi as “lesbian favs”, to insist it is homophobic or lesbphobic when people push back against this categorization- this is cruel. This is biphobic. This is bisexual erasure. Andrew Hussie, no matter what you think of him, was very clear. They wrote a story in which an entire species is bisexual “by default”- where Kanaya is the only troll in a set of 12 to have a mono sexuality (albeit, while still displaying biromantic tendencies, at least in the ashen quadrant). Whatever issues you have with Vriska and Eridan viewing relationships with eachother and others (Terezi, Tavros, Kanaya) (Feferi) via the lense of their ancestors, that does not erase their bisexuality. (Vriska) canonically dated killed-by-Terezi!John , and followed it up with an albeit unhealthy relationship with Meenah. Vriska had a celebrity crush on nic cage, implied she was attracted to Karkat, and had a relationship with Terezi. Eridan flirted indiscriminatorily with most of his friends of both genders. Gamzee’s infamous flirtations with Tavros and relationship with Terezi exists. So does Roxy’s pursuit of Dirk and her insistence that Jane is hot. Dave pursued relationships with Terezi and Karkat, Davesprite dated Jade. Karkat caught feelings for Jade, John, Dave, Terezi. I could go on but i will not- there are many bisexual characters in homestuck, after all.

Many people view bisexuality as not committing, as not picking between “us” and “them”, as having “passing privileges” by finding an opposite gender partner. We are experiencing a time of great unrest. Do not return to the days of isolating aspects of the community, of infighting that weakens us. You see what rhetoric is being used against the transgender community, against anyone who dares to do drag, to break the binary boxes. Bisexuality breaks boxes too, by daring to love our own gender and other genders. By being unapologetically attracted regardless of sex. Fandom biphobia is nothing so serious as real world oppression, sure. You could say it is just another pin prick. But each pin prick makes me bleed. And I only have so much blood to give.

I see many musicians irl reduced to straight women or gay men when they have repeatedly expressed bisexuality. This is cruel. This is biphobic. This is not the move from inside the community i want to see. For young queer kids online, those experiences will shape them as much as bisexuals being kicked out of the gay organizations does those who are old enough to join one. Homestuck helped me understand I was allowed to be bisexual- i thought bisexuality didn’t really exist, especially not for women, when i was 13. If my first experience with homestuck had been being told vriska is a lesbian and is only compulsive about perusing boys, i would have never understood what i was feeling, because my crushes on boys as a kid, my relationship with men as an adult, those were not and are not a sign of being coerced by society. These feelings do not deminish or delegitimization my attraction to women. To say such a thing is to take away my agency, to reduce me to either an experimental straight girl or a lesbian who is “just confused”- the latter of which is rhetoric transmen and asexuals have aimed at them. This is a biphobic world you have been raised in. All i ask is that you do not impose the rheotric of a biphobic transphobic “feminist” on characters and people like me. This a shitty rant, but i needed to say it.

[homestuck-iconz]

can both mods rate a few ~ships~ i have???? smile -jadenep -arajade -arasol -jadekat -vriskan -daverezi idk theyre random ones i thought up on the spot except arasol for obvious reasons & jadenep -moon anon

Hihi!!! Mod rose starting off here.

Jadenep - 9/10, what kind of crack did hussie put in WLW ships in homestuck? Like actually I don't think I super hate most of them which is super weird????? ANYWAY JADENEP THEYRE BOTH SUPER SILLY I THINK THEYD DRAW FURSONAS TOGETHER

Arajade - 9/10, they could have a VERY funny dynamic [but when doesnt aradia have a funny dynamic w someone in a ship? Never]

Arasol - I've rated it before, heres what I said then with a few addons to be more on topic: 7/10, it cute and i can appreciate the angst, but they kinda have 'dated in middle school for awhile' vibes? and the fanbase [spesifically, fic writers] really soured it for me?? its cute though. Also I think Aradia either works better shipped with other characters or just straight up on her own.

Jadekat - 7/10, There's some cannon precident for this iirc??? It's plenty cute, but if I was going to ship them it'd be pitch. I think that could be the funnest. Nothing wrong with it, nothing to particularly write home about either.

Vriskan - 4/10, Can be cute but I feel like people ignore the fact that they broke up for SUPER valid reasons and that Kanaya doesn't have to be boiled down to Liking Vriska or Liking Rose. Pesterquest is SUPER guilty of this for example. Not the worst ship out there but It's not my favorite by a long shot either.

Daverezi - 8/10, anyone who says they never shipped them at all is a damn lier. Though I do perfer terezi in wlw ships, they have a special place in my heart as THE middle school couple who broke up but are still besties

and mod dave finishing it with my opinions

jadenep: 9/10, haven't got much to add, had the exact same 'fursona maker' thought as rose and just cat x dog is very funny to me (possibly pitch to reference the cat and dog thing... could b cool...)

arajade: 7/10, they both have that kinda whimsical vibe and i think they would enjoy hanging out together. i dont think i could see them in a relationship though because they both have abandonment issues in opposite directions

arasol: 1/10, i know i've rated this before and i might've been nicer then but i hate this, specifically pale. i don't even enjoy the angst. the one point is for the fact that the scene after aradia explodes with sollux taking his glasses off and crying is my alltime favourite homestuck panel

jadekat: 5/10, i prefer them more as friends because i can't see jade getting into a relationship with someone who she literally had to auspice with himself. i do think they're besties though, she pulls him out of his own ass when he gets in too deep.

vriskan: 2/10 yeahh like rose said, they broke up for really valid reasons and as much development vriska could go through i dont think she could reach a point where she would make a good partner to literally anyone other than egbert and terezi

daverezi: 8/10, i'm a damn liar guys. as high as i'm rating them, i don't ship them and i would never go out of my way to search for content or read fics. that being said their dynamic is fucking hilarious and i love them as best friends in fics who dated and never acknowledge it except to make fun of each other for how low their standards are.

[pochapal]

Homestuck question for you - have you played any or all of Hiveswap/Friendsim/Pesterquest? I'm just curious how much postcanon content you've consumed

i played both hiveswap acts (i thought they were okay) and i played the first few and the last few friendsims (my hot take is that i just don't find the majority of the hiveswap trolls that interesting enough to go through a 10k word vn route for each of them!) mainly for the friendsim epilogue. i do think hiveswap is cute and fun but it's appealing to a certain part of homestuck i just don't find that engaging personally. i know this comes a lot from its troubled development but hiveswap as a concept never really did it for me. it just felt like a smoothed-down reiteration of the fandombait parts of homestuck but without any of the bite. the extended zodiac is cool to use as a background character-filling resource though i will give it that. idk i think a piece of media that just follows the pre-established rules without at the very least bending them lacks that secret sauce that gets me obsessed with it.

i did go through the entirety of pesterquest doing each route the literal day it came out though because it was definitely an epilogues tie-in more than it was part of the Hiveswap Extended Universe and that made it way more appealing to me. a lot of the routes were just Really Super Good (off the top of my head i am recalling jade's route, aradia's route, vriska and terezi's routes, roxy's route, and the dirk route finale) and it was just so much fun at the time to have this ongoing project to bounce off of while making omelette route. the trans content was also really good - the june hints, the explicit trans girl vriska canonization, and even the rancid psychic assault that was choosing to make eridan an egg in his route. i thought the finale/epilogue were super interesting with regards to illuminating some of the denser points of the epilogues themselves and the ending itself was great because its notion of "protect one fictional instance of post-canon homestuck from the nightmare meat/candy cycle" was also what i was going for with omelette route so on a purely egotistical level i loved that my line of thinking vis a vis post canon was on the right track. one thing that makes me sad about it is the cool homestuck^2 hints during the aradia route that never went anywhere because hs^2 died before it could really take off but homestuck^2 is a whole can of worms that requires careful defusing to talk about.

but yeah! that's my level of engagement with the "post-canon era" of homestuck and also some of my thoughts on it. i say post-canon to distinguish this time period from the newly-emergent "home22tuck era" which i have less than zero interest in due to it being much more interested in reviving old canon/talking about hiveswap than the more interesting and more insane ideas and discussions inherent to the post-canon era. this is also probably why i will not end up engaging with hiveswap act 3 since everything seems to indicate that it'll be part of the home22tuck wave of Content and i'm only interested in the good shit (very insane pretentious metafictional nonsense).

[rosemary-is-in-pesterquest]

literally I was watching someone's playthrough of pesterquest as it was being released, and I almost finished it, but then I got spoiled for the fact that Ult Dirk shows up, and it totally knocked me off the wagon. like I've had it in my head that eventually I'll go watch Dirk's content, but it's been so long since I watched everything else... by this point it'd be kinda disjointed to even do that.

also, I was weirdly irritated by MSPAR in pesterquest? I found them so charming in hiveswap, because they were characterized as kind of a bumbling, overeager and well intentioned traveler that just wanted to help. but in pesterquest they get all know-it-all ish... it's reeeeeeally off putting. like I could forgive them being confused or disheartened, but they went a step too far and got all cynical and been-there-done-that, and gave a lot of advice that just wasn't good? as if they were some sort of expert or something. it makes pesterquest kind of irritating because you play as an irritating audience surrogate character who does shit that you don't actually want to do.

like, okay, Eridan's route, right? at the end, the advice MSPAR gave was basically "stop being an asshole" which is like... warranted and fair? but first of all, this Eridan needs different advice than homestuck's Eridan! and second, would a real asshole actually take advice like that? it's so... basic.

Eridan is a character that I'm not super attached to, but I get peeved when people get him wrong. in homestuck, the thing that Eridan needs, is to realize that if he wants something from another person, he has to try not to be a leech about it. everything is all about his perspective all the time. when he wants something, he'll ask, but if he doesn't get it, he'll whine and beg, and if people get mad at him for doing that, he gets all self deprecating and bemoans how hopeless his situation is, and how much everyone hates him. like he'll literally annoy one person into getting fed up with him, just so he can go cry to another person about his problems, and ask them for advice that he probably won't even take, because getting attention was the point, and this is technically what he wanted anyway. and the more people catch on and get frustrated, the more fuel he has for his "everybody hates me" pity party.

and the interesting thing about Eridan is that all of this probably comes from a real worry that nobody could like him, even if he tried. I mean, most of his friends are lower on the hemospectrum, and have a systemic reason to hold some sort of resentment towards him. so like, he probably likes Feferi because the two make an appropriate match class-wise... but he also probably likes her because she's his only friend that is more privileged than he is, so she can't hold his status against him.

also, pesterquest leans into that old fanon thing where Eridan is indiscriminately desperate and will date anyone. like... no! originally, Eridan specifically wanted to fill all of his quadrants! he wanted a matesprit (Feferi), a kismesis (Vriska), an auspistice (Kanaya), and a moirail (possibly Karkat). and not only that, but he wanted these specific people to fill these specific roles for him unconditionally and without conflict, in spite of their actual feelings. Feferi doesn't want to date him... she doesn't even really want to be his moirail because she's doing all the emotional labor and it's exhausting. and Kanaya had a red crush on Vriska at the time... the last thing she wants is to be auspistice-zoned! meanwhile, Vriska is becoming less and less interested in Eridan anyway because she's got her own unhealthy fascinations with certain people. so like, Kanaya wouldn't even be acting as a proper auspistice anyway... she wouldn't be helping to calm a volatile rivalry, she'd be trying to force a lackluster relationship to continue. that's like, the opposite of how it's supposed to be!

literally the only one of these that might've worked is Karkat as his moirail, because Karkat is amazing at giving advice, and dealing with difficult people's bullshit without getting sucked into too much drama. but like... that's probably the one relationship out of all of these that started from genuine charisma between two people, rather than Eridan deciding who he wanted to pursue based on a checklist of socially advantageous qualities. at least with that, it's implied that Karkat also likes talking to Eridan... like, both of them are getting something out of this. in all other cases, Eridan isn't even in it for the romance. he's in it to gain validation by living up to a societal standard.

it's only after our 12 trolls end up on the meteor after their SGRUB session that Eridan starts getting all weird about dating people other than the specific four he was already interested in. and that's specifically because there are now only 12 trolls left that exist. these people are the only ones left, so if he can't get a relationship to work with any of them, that's that. so basically, when pesterquest characterizes him this way, even though he still lives on a fully populated Alternia... why is he acting like that?

Eridan needs to learn how to actually put something into a relationship that he wants to get something out of. and to do that, he needs to believe that he has value beyond his status, and that it's possible for people to be motivated by more than class politics and spite. he treats people exploitatively because he expects them to try and exploit him just as badly... it's not just about fixing bad behavior. it's about him learning to put in work, and give another person reasons to like him, without feeling like a sucker for conceding any ground. the more defensive he gets, the worse he is.

and pesterquest messed up Jake's route too! what is it about hope players that stumps people like this?? I get that Jake is tricky, but jeez... I won't get into it as much, but Jake is always masking what he really feels, and the way his route handles him makes him seem like he's acting equally neutrally friendly to each of the other alpha kids. but then it implies that his true feelings are that he considers all three of his friends' romantic interest in him to be equally serious, and equally unwanted. that is... blatantly untrue. he knows Roxy might find him attractive but won't make a genuine move on account of Jane. she literally drunkenly told him so. and Roxy also drunkenly told Jake that Jane likes him. meanwhile, he also pretty much knows that Dirk had a crush on him when they were kids, but back then he kind of shut it down, or at least sent mixed signals, because he wasn't confident about having a crush on a boy. now Dirk himself is not confident that Jake actually likes him, and is trying to back off because he feels like his younger self was overly aggressive, but the AR is still as brazen as Dirk used to be when pursuing Jake, so it kind of undermines that attempt. still, Jake feels like he might've already come off poorly to Dirk. he does like him though... and he knows that Jane has a crush on him, and doesn't want to be the one who disappoints her, so he weasels his way out of addressing it. that is the deal with the alpha kids. not Jake just kind of bemoaning the fact that all of his friends are in love with him and he's not down for anything. so once again, we see a pesterquest route written on the basis of mistaken assumptions.

sorry for going on and on and on... I just find all of this so frustrating. half the characters are only the fan interpretations of themselves, and MSPAR sucks, and the meta is confusing, and... I wish it was good but it's not.

I love you for this ask anon, I never played friendsim but I did see a lot of people who tuned into all the friendsims express annoyance over the way Reader was portrayed in pesterquest. I can't even remember what happened in the Jake route bc I'm tired but it definitely could've been better.

Imo, best alpha kid routes go from: Roxy, Jane, Jake, and Dirk (half his route wasn't even dedicated to him lol rip)

[dirkstriderz]

for the homestuck ask thing:

4, 14, 18, 21, 25, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38 (naturally), 40, 41, 42, 43, 49, 50, 53, 65, 68, 84, 99, 100

I KNOW ITS A LOT (you certainly don't have to answer them all) 🥲 homestuck is monumental, what can i say

it's okay if only do the ones u really wanna do. feel free to throw in ones you'd wanna answer that i didn't list too!

WAUGH I wish I got inbox notifs on mobile >:( anywho i WILL answer them all original ask game here

4 - Ever made your own chumhandle?

pistachioPigeon didn't start as one (it was a... Voltron reference...) but it's morphed into my own! I like it, it's comfy

14 - Least favorite Alpha kid?

I hate to say that- while I adore her so much- I don't think about Jane as often as I do the others. Her narrative is super good still, and she's still very high on my list of favorite characters, but she doesn't occupy my mind as much.

18 - Favorite Beta troll?

I'm NOT a Vriska apologist i SWEAR i just like her she's 13 your honor. I don't even have an explanation I just like her story a lot. it's that or kanaya (obvious virgo who latched onto her when he was like 12 because same star sign)

21 - Least favorite Beta troll?

... gamzee. I just, I think he's fine in story, but just the cumulation of the Gamzee-ness makes my brain fizz over him. again like with jane he's fine and i love him but just. not as much as the other trolls

25 - Favorite Alternian ancestor?

The Dolorosa <3.. i'm still a virgo fan at heart but it's more than that, she's just the catalyst for everything- if she hadn't rescued the signless as a grub, if she hadn't raised him as alternia's first mother like... alternia wouldn't be the same. her fury over her son like HOO

33 - Favorite pale ship?

davejade. this is 100% influenced by the best friends amv but i don't care they should be friends and supportive!! they're super good friends before-game and they don't necessarily need a romance!!

34 - Favorite pitch ship?

erisol, going off of pesterquest- if they had a normal life without sburb maybe they would have turned out normal. OR egbert/davesprite if you want to go with the less popular favorite. they couldve made it work if they had any concept of kismesis

35 - Favorite flushed ship?

i'm not going to say the obvious answer (it's dirkjake) but-- yeah it's dirkjake. i dont think they're the best for each other but they're also perfect for each other. but they hate each other and are madly in love. but they're meant to break each other and meant to hold each other together. but theyre meant to be belittled and yet inspired by each other. maybe this is more vacillating in my mind but whatever they were written for each other

36 - Favorite ashen ship?

i don't think i have one particularly- i haven't thought about ashen ships a lot. i do looove love kanaya as an auspistice but she stresses herself out so much over it and auaughgh!!!

38 - OTP?

dirkjake OR pitch john/davesprite. peepsicola <3

40 - BROTP?

dirk and roxy best friends for life do NOT take this away from me

41 - Character you’d choose to be your moirail?

jake, so i could be his moirail back, because he needs it and !! augh. and i think he'd be a good friend who'd listen

42 - Character you’d choose to be your kismesis?

all of them would kill me no jk but in seriousness- if i could even be a match i would throw hands love vriska. if i could survive and also not be mlm i'd choose her. except she'd take it too far and still kill me anyways but oh well it's a death i'll accept

or. hear me out. hal. i think it'd be funny and i'd survive AND he'd just bully me all the time. it'd be so fun. i'd love to trade blows with him he'd call me an idiot in 500 words

43 - Character you’d choose to be your matesprit?

clenching my fist at this because i don't know. i love roxy a lot though in terms of if i had to choose someone. i could love them easily and i'd hope they could love me back if they'd choose, and i feel like our love languages would sync up well

49 - One character you didn’t like at first, but like now?

NOT to say her again but vriska. i used to be really bad at tying characters to narrative, so i saw vriska as a person first and just hated her for what she did. i've wrapped hard around now that i've matured. same with davesprite i feel- i used to not care about the sprites but i love him so much im a davesprite apologist no shame

50 - One character you liked at first, but don’t like now?

i don't have any that really fits this criteria i think other than the fact that i used to really enjoy the dancestors- and now im just... i don't care for them particularly. they're. they're just, you know. you know, right

53 - Alpha kids or Beta kids?

alpha kids i think- they're going through it and butting heads with their best friends in the universe and their story is a lot more relationship driven. i love the beta kids to the moon and back too of course but the love underlying all the frustration the alpha kids face drives me

65 - Have you read the Epilogues? Do you like them?

unfortunately, yes to both. it's definitely a slog of a read and i don't enjoy them 100%, especially since it utterly butchers so many characters and cuts down completed arcs, but i enjoy a lot of the concepts it brings to the table.

68 - Classpect you identify with currently?

knight of void! at the very least, knight of some kind- someone told me knight of mind and i sort of see it?

84 - Favorite Homestuck flash?

prince of heart: rise up OR unite synchronize. i can watch both of those on repeat so much

99 - One unpopular HS opinion you have?

it's probably not too unpopular, but homestuck to me is kind of a very adult media. as in, i will refuse to tell minors to read it. i'll tell people in majority to read it if they know what they're getting into, but, seriously. discussing it with minors- while not really preventable unless i seek out adult only spaces- it makes me feel kind of wary? i saw a discord with the ratio of minors to adults at 3:2 in favor of minors and i was suuuper uncomfortable with that.

also i love hs2 </3 i love yiffy and the new kids and whatever the fuck dirk has going on why did he make himself JACKED it's so fucking funnyyy. except yknow the fact that they ruined his relationship with gender in the epilogues but whatever--

100 - One popular HS opinion you agree with?

i couldn't think of an answer but the boyfriend said snakebite piercings dirk and they're right

[ardenttheories]

A genuine question I mean absolutely no harm with, please don't hate me: is it so wrong to have trans characters be bad people? I get wanting to have good rep (speaking as an enby) but not all trans men are UwU soft bois. Or is this more of a case of "they're the only rep we've got so them being bad people brings real trans people into a negative light as well"? Again, there's no malice or ill will behind my asking, I'm just still a baby when it comes to these things.

It’s okay! I’m more than happy to answer a question like this - I’m by no degree upset, mad, etc... at all. 

Having trans characters that are bad people isn’t inherently bad, no; wanting good rep is great, and it’s always nice to have a hero be trans, but it doesn’t necessarily mean having them be perfect. You still want them to be human - to fuck up, to make mistakes, to have feelings and emotions and motivations, even those that are questionable - and you still want them to be 3 dimensional enough to be interesting. So having them be bad people? That’s engaging! 

For instance, Vriska could be decent trans rep. Yeah, she does a lot of absolutely awful shit, and she is genuinely a terrible person; but her reasons behind it, the moments when she is genuinely nice, how she feels about people and about herself - they even her out and make her more believable as a person and more interesting as a character. Like, you can’t deny that Vriska is a victim on her society to some degree - but you also can’t deny that she thrives in that society as well. 

That’s not the inherent problem with her. She still has experience that transwomen associate with, and a lot of her past - especially in Pesterquest - can absolutely hit home with transwomen. Even her actions and maneurisms can make her amazing rep for transwomen, regardless of how good or bad she is as a person. 

The actual issue is how the writers treat her, and how they use her being trans to erase all her wrongs. To them - especially to Kate - Vriska being trans excludes her from taking any and all blame for the horrible things she’s done. She’s trans, so she can get away with paralysing one kid, blinding another, and outright killing a third. In this light, she represents every anti-transfem sentiment and stereotype I’ve ever seen. That is NOT the sort of representation we want. This isn’t what we want to be associated with; this supposition that abusive trans people don’t exist, simply because they’re trans and apparently free of blame.

It’s also a tiny bit suspect to me that, out of every character they could have canonised on the main cast first, they went with the one that people are abuse apologists the most for. 

On the other spectrum of things, it’s very much the latter point you gave; that we don’t want all of our trans rep to be negative, and so far, that’s... all we really have. It’s either that, or trans people so badly written that they just don’t come across as trans or could be read as absolute stereotypes (such as Roxy, who is just badly written transmasc, and Lanque, which I’ve gone over before having my own issues with). 

If they made Dirk trans on top of that, we’d have an actual, outright villain who’s gone back to toxic abusive behaviour as our transmasc rep. As much as I’d love Dirk to be transmasc, I don’t want him to be transmasc now. If the other trans rep we had was better then I’d likely be happier with it, but at the moment we’ve got no genuine, actual, acceptable representation that doesn’t make me internally cringe or infuriate me to some degree. 

Trans characters can be bad people, but if you only ever portray them as bad people - and rely on stereotypes or struggle to write them well when they’re not bad - then that’s when we get an issue. 

If you only ever canonise the bad people as trans, that’s also a huge issue. You’re indirectly saying that you could only ever see trans people as bad, abusive, and toxic. 

Characters in representation don’t specifically need to be good people, but you desperately want to avoid falling into stereotypes that could harm the groups you’re trying to represent . You desperately want to avoid putting characters into boxes of “interesting but horrid” and “boring but good”. 

[creepy-bi-day]

I am a female, my pronouns she/her and I am pansexual greyromantic. I am 5'7 and curvy and I guess a bit chubby. I have anxiety, dyslexia, dyscalculia, I am on the spectrum more towards the Asperger's side, I also have some tics along with some ADD. I will randomly say lines from a scenario inside my head, I have also picked up poses from characters I like (I do Ardata's pose as a laugh kind of thing when people are really dumb, Feferi's fist on hips and excited pose and Kanaya's both hands on one hip kind of pose from pesterquest) I have recently taken interest in the occult. My special interests are homestuck, Undertale, and creepypasta. (I suck at describing my personality so I am going to try) I am also a potential Derse dreamer, and Sylph of Life, technically I am a Scorpio but I am more inline with a Pisces I am also a raccoon (day, you probably understand why). I love learning about true crime and other 'dark and disturbing things' I really want to explore an abandon place. I usually wear leggings with a homestuck t-shirt and jacket as I am always cold no matter what. I am a beginner cosplayer (I cant sew complex patterns for glub) I also like drawing and making papercrafts or just little cosplay accessories in general. I am currently studying to be a forensic pathologist. I would also like to have a kid adopted or not.

Saving from nuke

UR A SYLPH OF LIFE?! BRO IM A SYLPH OF BLOOD HOLY SHIT— AND IM ALSO A DERSE-

ALso if you want nsfw later just send another ask, cause you didn’t mark it in here and stuff and askfhaksljfh—

I ship you with...

Toby!

Believe it or not???

This boy will go on tangents about homestuck, too

Kins Vriska and will go on tangents about her

“She fucked up, she was a fucked-fucked up person. But she was abused and tortured and terrified of her parents-“

Please have debates with him, he loves it

Will take you to do urban exploration with no hesitation

Loves to bring you random shinies

Shiny

Like his brother, his love language is crow

Honestly, he probably will pick up a few tics from you

Sometimes quotes Karkat unironically

“Suck my bulge.”

If you want to ask him about true crime, he’s super open about it

A bit too open sometimes

Please let him help you cosplay

He loves crafts and is actually surprisingly good at sewing. His mom taught him how before shit hit the fan

He’s one of the few that Jane lets help her make new outfits

You’re always cold?

Cool! That just means more cuddles

Overall? Give him hugs plz-

[thewebcomicsreview]

Oh shit, Homestuck 2 is back! Looks like the art team problems are getting worse, but maybe the writing’s good? Quick, recap of the story so far, since there was a hiatus

Previously, on Homestuck 2:  DIRK: I’m evil now and we’re on a new planet where we shall create our own lifeforms and rule them as gods ROSE: I’m making memes and vaginas DIRK: NOOOOO ROSE: Jade got me preganté and we named our kid Yiffy and I kept it a secret from everyone this whole time, including my wife but inexplicably not the dictator I’ve trying to overthrow, who kidnapped her JOHN: NOOOOO CALLIOPE: I’m in ur bod drinking ur juice JADE: NOOOOO CALLIOPE: Oh, like you’re not used to having weird people inside you, skank JADE: Wow, rude, I’m kicking you out of my brain for that  CALLIOPE: NOOOOO JOHN: Man, I love how my son tells me everything and keeps no secrets  KARKAT: John! Vriska’s alive and she murdered the clown pope and your son is hiding her because he and his friends are wanted for treason  JOHN: ...... KARKAT: You’re supposed to say “NOOOOO” John: Why would I? That fucking rules!  We now return to Homestuck 2

Yay, we’re finally seeing Davebot, Aradia, and Calliope. Fun fact: In a comic with like ten billion retcons and timeline splits, this Aradia is still the definitive “real” Aradia in a way no other character can claim to be (except Sollux), which is a fun endgame for a character who was introduced has having hundreds of thousands of duplicates.  I can not wait to see how the HS2 writers ruin her. (Also, where did they get a rocket ship?)

Also it it me, or is there something a little off about this art?

DAVEBOT: beep boop ARADIA: i have told you several times that i was a robot before and i know for a fact you dont have to say beep boop DAVEBOT: hm that sounds fake does not compute ARADIA: david DAVEBOT: mom

“David”? 

This is the first indication in the entire series that any of these kids’ names are short for anything, something Hussie explicitly said wasn’t the case but which was never actually addressed in the comic proper so I guess it’s not a plot hole. Still, it feels a little....wrong? 

ARADIA: well we are both an infinite number of years old living countless lifetimes at once but thats no reason to waste any of our...

Wait, what?! Aradia is Ultimate, too? When did that happen?! Why does she not need a robot body? 

DAVEBOT: time DAVEBOT: say time ARADIA: ... DAVEBOT: time then make a weird face

There’s a fine line between “callback” and straight up recycling a joke. 

ARADIA: would you say you are hung up on leaving your wife and friends behind DAVEBOT: are you ARADIA: am i hung up about leaving your wife and friends behind ARADIA: i do not think that i am no DAVEBOT: arent you even a little guilty about ditching your boyfriend ARADIA: what ARADIA: oh fuck

I do like the implication here that Aradia flat forgot about Sollux. Poor dude can’t catch a break. .

Ooh, an [S]. An extremely basic one, but still. Also, from this scene in the epilogues:

The distant sounds of war travel above the canopy of a forest. The artillery fire fades to a series of muted knocks and thuds as the sound waves cross beyond a thinning patch of the forest and arrive in a clearing of grass and shrubbery. Above, the sky is dramatic, colorful, menacing. The way it looks when a storm is coming. The clouds are wild, whipped into a sort of spatial frenzy, as if they know what’s imminent is no earthly phenomena. Aradia stands in the field, her mouth gaping wide. But not at the sky.

Probably the starkest example of how the epilogues presented Earth C has falling about and doomed and stormy and scary like the system crash in Reboot and Homestuck 2 has it all sunny and bright. I kind of wish HS2 kept the semi-apocalyptic feel of the epilogues, even if it made Aradia’s spurious decision to leave Sollux behind way more dickish. 

Oh hey, God’s back, and back in the body of the OG pre-Retcon Jade Harley. There’s something very Shoujo about this posing.

DAVEBOT: thanks JADE: They sit in each other's presence, the silence between them as meaningful as any words they could exchange. DAVEBOT: its always really cool to hear how meaningful my silences are DAVEBOT: especially while DAVEBOT: CALCULATING DAVEBOT: CALCULATING DAVEBOT: especially while i am attempting to experience them

I think Calliope, and possibly Aradia, is shipping Dave/Aradia right now, which is a pairing that has some comedic appeal were it not for Dave’s gayness.

ARADIA: i think she looks quite lovely covered in the viscera of the all-powerful enemy she consumed ARADIA: floating lifelessly in our periphery

We just established that this is months after they left Candyland. Has Jade’s body been covered in the blood and guts of Lord English this entire time? Take a goddamn shower, Jesus. 

Oh, there we go. Much better. Also, the one thing I heard about this upd8 was all the discussion of jorts, and then Dave references jorts, but no one is actually wearing them, unless Aradia’s got a pair on under her cultist robes? (Also, is Calliope’s Jade body healed from the shard of reality that killed it originally, or is there just a huge hole under her shirt)?

JADE: As a point of curiosity- ARADIA: oh shit!!!!

The dead Cherub possessing the body of an equally deceased Goddess of Space pauses at the interruption. Were she to voice her opinion, it would be that --actually-- it is not unusual for those whose primary concern is The Grander Scheme to have a passing curiosity about the insignificant. So when one really thinks about it, any annoyance with the attendant’s small mindedness is both understandable and warranted.

ARADIA: :(

Given how much time was spent on how Terezi can sense Dirk’s narration, I like how Calliope’s narration is literally just her talking out loud and everyone can clearly hear it and just assumes it’s like a troll quirk.

ARADIA: in this form our bodies stop aging once we reach maturity i think ARADIA: the god tier keeps our physical form locked in a state of undying ARADIA: even in death the bodies do not decay ARADIA: only lay dormant DAVEBOT: no thats boring DAVEBOT: like how long have you been alive JADE: yes, that one.

One of the things I don’t fully get about Calliope is why there’s stuff like this she doesn’t know. Another thing I don’t get: How come John and Jake are visibly middle-aged? They’re gods, too. 

ARADIA: you were there too i threw your air conditioner into the sun DAVEBOT: wow thats fucked up DAVEBOT: thats not where that goes at all JADE: these events are not-canonical. ARADIA: rude

I believe this is a reference to Pesterquest?

DAVEBOT: is that the trope of being hundreds of years old but looking young forever patently sucks ass DAVEBOT: a plot device an asshole would write ARADIA: :( JADE: that is not what i am trying to say at all. DAVEBOT: hmm wow yeah thatd really be a sort of pot/kettle situation i guess DAVEBOT: i cant believe im the only woke one here DAVEBOT: its hard being such a visionary AND such a fine metallic specimen

What the fuck is David even talking about? What? 

DAVEBOT: but can she see why kids love the sweet cinnamon taste of cinnamon toast crunch JADE: i do not know, or care, what that means. ARADIA: neither do i :)

I like the “Best Narrator” mug, and with this sudden headache to interrupt the laughter comes the end of the chapter and presumably a lead in to the next one when we’ll learn what’s blowing Calliope’s mind 

[therianomalocaris]

Hey I don’t know if you remember me but a long time ago or maybe not so long ago it’s hard to remember.

But I was mildly freaking out because I felt like I was kin but didn’t know who, kin from homestuck yet I haven’t finished homestuck due to my availability to read being cut off during a trauma in my childhood. I was unsure of these kin/troll type therian feelings, so I dismissed them.

Well today I bought pesterquest on steam after having an irl type homestuck internet to irl friend experience. And man the feelings they just come back.. I’m not sure but I think I’m sollux or gamzee or someone else? But it’s weird because I’m trans feminine in this lifetime. Also because like kin type and therian is a spiritual thing for me (past life belief) but it conflicts with some of my Christian upbringing and I still believe in God, but my mentality with the man upstairs is kinda fucked and confused

So I am here once again, asking for your help.

How do you figure out your kin type/therian type, especially when you’re like unsure as to who you may have been in a past life. It’s hard to tell between like a “me feeling” and “oh this person was a friend and or enemy feeling.”

How does one gain memories or seen into ones past life? And would you recommend I take out the tomes that are the homestuck books so that I can see if it sparks anything (I don’t spend much time online anymore to read online)

Also what was your experience when first figuring this stuff out?

Sorry, for talking your ear off. Also I saw you have a webcomic and just wanted to say your art is amazing.

Thanks if you answer this if you don’t well thanks you seem like really cool and your blog gets a thumbs up emoji x2

hello! i do remember you, yes! thank you for your kind words about my art, and don't apologize because i love receiving long messages ::::)

i dont have any advice for getting past life memories, apart from directly interacting with your source. im actually really bad with memories which is why it takes me a really long time to "confirm" anything. it took me a very long time to figure out my kintypes, and most of that was spent basically trying kintypes on? saying "im this" for a while, then dropping it when i realized it didnt fit. theres kind of a stigma against this in 'kin communities, it's kind of the brute force way of doing things, but it worked well enough for me.

for homestuck trolls though, a solid piece of advice i can give to figure things out is to try writing with quirks! after i had eliminated most possible candidates i didnt know if i was vriska or terezi, but writing with terezis quirk felt wrong whereas writing with vriskas quirk felt like me. this may not work for everyone, but it's the best ive got.

i would NOT recommend reading the homestuck books to someone who hasnt read the webcomic. they are heavily edited and annotated, and pretty much only exist to be a collectors item for fans of the comic looking for author commentary and a sweet series to have on their shelf.

maybe you should try let's read homestuck from voxus instead! it's basically a homestuck audiobook with visuals, but honestly most of homestuck visuals dont really matter that much so you can just let it run in the background until you hit a flash. still ongoing and currently goes up to act 6 intermission 4, i havent listened to it myself but ive heard good things so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i hate to tell this to people, because i legit think it's Bad Advice™ for reading homestuck and obviously i have Opinions™ about that, but if you SPECIFICALLY want to know about the beta trolls, you might have an easier time skipping to act 5. thats the part of the story that focuses on them!

also quick thing about the gender thing: im transmasc and was transfem as vriska. gender is weird like that, dont focus too much on it if you wish to retain your sanity lol.

i wish you the best of luck in figuring yourself out, you got this!!!!!!!!

[catflowerqueen]

Oh, look, a Christmas upd8!

-John looks extremely young in this upd8. I can’t tell if it’s the clothes, or just the general art style.

-…Okay, yeah, that’s… extremely sadly like John, to kind of just ignore the bad things happening in favor of something else. I mean… it isn’t that bad a coping mechanism if he’s just putting it off for the moment so he can take some time to process, but it’s also very clear he’s still upset about what just happened. Hopefully that really is Roxy on the other end of the phone.

-That picture of Harry Anderson in the onesie on Roxy’s wall is adorable. At least, I’m assuming that’s him, based on the one next to it where Roxy is clearly pressing foreheads with a baby, who is most likely Harry Anderson. The onesie picture dos look a little blobby, though. Also, I love that cat lamp.

-…John, that’s not really a mug Roxy is holding.

-I don’t know, John, based on Roxy’s body language, and the fact that she led you straight to her room, I think it was a fair assumption to think that she was flirting with you.

-Hm. You know, it just occurs to me that not only did John’s stuff get destroyed in the fire, but also Jake and Tavros’ stuff, since they were living there with him. I mean… presumably they still have a bunch of stuff over at Jane’s place (especially since she didn’t even notice they were gone, apparently, until she saw her son on the news) but still. I’m not entirely sure what to think of that…

-Those cat pillows are also adorable. They remind me of the Peeps pillows you see a lot around Easter. …I want them.

-Oh, so that’s where Callie has been this whole time! I love that outfit. Neat. Also, yeah, it makes total sense that Roxy would have a secret lab.

-That better not be the Hiveswap portal under that sheet. I am going to be so freaking mad if the Hiveswap portal is under there.

-Eh, I mean… those transportalizers can hook up pretty much anywhere. Even in and out of the Medium, considering that Jane got to Prospit/Derse from Jake’s house. So, really, you could be back in the Game for all we know.

-Oh, wait, does this version of Callie still identify as female? …I guess so? Callie used them in the past-tense story, but then didn’t really reference it again one way or the other, so…

-Hm… Actually… considering the wind thing, I wonder if John has sort form of Claustrophobia? It would make sense that he would be uncomfortable underground… Unless Callie is just more referring to the whole secrecy aspect of things?

-Well, their being in a black hole would certainly explain why they got that ghost infestation, considering the whole “white hole/black hole” connection.

-Though, on the note of the Green Sun… loathe as I am to bring Pesterquest into this, but I do have to wonder what the Green Sun’s destruction means for the fact that Reader became the First Guardian there. Since it’s not the Alpha Timeline, is it still there? Because the fact that its destruction even impacted the ghosts in the dreambubbles at all would seem to imply that it still has some dominion over doomed timelines. …Perhaps that just lends to my theory that there is more than one Green Sun in existence, it’s just that they govern different sessions—ones that would be far less interconnected than the trolls’ and kids’ were, or at least ones which would have been connected in different ways.

-So if, as Callie puts it, nothing in their world really “matters,” then this does make things interesting as far as what could be considered “canon” for this story. I guess that’s why the epilogues themselves were labelled as “Dubiously Canon” (or something like that). And it kind of makes me feel better about certain characterizations I hold, especially from my understanding of Homestuck proper, and the way I’ve planned out certain character arcs for the Homestuck fic I hope to one day write.

-Sigh… Again with making a big deal about Vriska. Like… I do like her as a character and all, and I don’t really hate her, but… well, it’s stuff like this that make it abundantly clear she’s the golden child, creator’s pet of the stories. I guess that does make sense with her classpect, especially considering some meta about her I saw recently, but… it can get a little disheartening at points when it all comes down to her, and how important she is, considering that Homestuck was always more an ensemble cast situation. …Unless maybe they’re talking about the Earth C Vriska? Not that it necessarily makes that any better, mind you. …At least Callie is acknowledging how much sway Vriska seems to hold, I guess… and she’s always been way more chipper about stuff that others would find at least mildly concerning, so… yeah.

-…They better not have just sent this John off to die like the one from the Meat timeline. Like—it was never explicitly said in those terms that Meat!John was going to die, but it was pretty clear from that Rose’s demeanor that he wasn’t coming back.

-And, again, I reiterate—As neat as it would be to see Joey, Jude, or Xefros… I do NOT want the Hiveswap portal to be the thing behind that curtain!

[nebuletteart]

The Problem with HS^2

(And the HS Epilogues)

Ok, so I think I’m gonna do another post on this, because I’m feeling bothered. I’ve been really frustrated because I just couldn't seem to get hype for 4/13, like, at all, and I couldn’t even do any homestuck art today. I decided that I wanted to reflect on why that is.

BTW I AM NOT DUNKING ON ANYONE WHO LIKES HS^2 AND SUCH!! If it makes you happy, go read it! And if you don’t want to see me dunk on something you love, feel free to skip this post! I in no way want to pressure someone into hating something they enjoy, I just want to pull this fucker apart and see why is doesn’t tick.

Ok so first off, the build up. Imagine it’s the tenth anniversary of a property you really love, and word is that something big is dropping today! You sit at your computer and wait and wait, all that hype and excitement building up and then? They drop three chapters of fanfiction. And tell you to wait for the rest. When this happened, I, as someone who’d spent the last four or five years deeply invested in this comic, I legit cried out of fucking disappointment. I know Homestuck is known for trolling, but that was straight up not the way to handle that sort of build up. But I told myself, “Well, the other chapters will be good! I’m sure they’ll bring back the art, or bring the story to an enjoyable conclusion!” And then a week later they dropped the rest. And it was, not great?? Like, it had good concepts, and some scenes that were funny. But overall it was a pretty bad and draining read.

Why?

I think the main flaws in The Epilogues (and HS^2 by extension) are the themes. The theme is Meat and Candy. Basically, too much of one or the other makes for bad story telling. And that’s interesting in theory, but little thing to take into consideration, YOUR THEME SHOULD NOT MAKE YOUR STORY WORSE. Writing something bad on purpose doesn’t make it any less bad. And another big detrimental theme is “Suffering makes a story” and like, NO?? NO NOT REALLY??? That’s not how that works. You don’t need to make your characters senselessly suffer for a good story, like any good writing tool, you use it in moderation. Good writers can make their story interesting without just throwing pain at their characters. The original Homestuck knew not to take itself too seriously and even in the face of suffering and tragedy, it kept a good blend of comedy to keep it from getting dreary.

And I think this focus on Suffering (+ the Meat/Candy binary) really does negatively impact the writing of The Epilogues and HS^2. It feels like by narrowing in on every single bad thing that could possibly happen, and making sure bad things do happen, they’re stretching the character’s to meet these themes. Many characters are basically unrecognizable due to how they’re pulled and stretched to meet the demands of the story, and as a result, characters act different than how they do in Homestuck proper.

Beyond this it also feels like the current team are pretty obsessed with inserting their headcanons and ideas into HS^2, The Epilogues, and Pesterquest, with no care for the source material. I am all for representation! I’m Nonbinary and I’m lesbian! I think rep is important! But going back in and retconning your rep when there’s literally no build up ain’t how that works chief. That’s not proper representation. I think the only character that they really managed to pull that off with was Vriska, and maybe Eridan, but even then it was still a bit shaky for me. But for many other characters (For instance June!! June is cute, but word of god is in no way good rep, especially since June literally has like, no build up or subtext or ANYTHING!) That’s basically the exact same as JK going back and saying Dumbledore (or whoever bc I never read Harry Potter) was gay! That is not rep. Rep requires time and writing, and that’s why I think (hold on a second I’m about to praise this not very good sequel) Nonbinary trans Roxy is done well. They took time to build them up, and their issues, in an authentic way. If you want to put rep in your comic, that’s how you should do it, retconning only alienates your fanbase, and makes characters seem even more out of character.

But beyond this, I think the most damning thing about the Epilogues and especially HS^2 is it’s very foundation. It’s just not built out of the same stuff, and as a sequel that makes it impossible for it to ever properly mimic Homestuck in any meaningful way. What I mean by this is, lets swivel over to look at the Patreon. Yall probably know what I’m about to gripe with. Bonus Updates. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, BY THEIR VERY NATURE THEY GO AGAINST WHAT HOMESTUCK IS. And you may cry, “support the artist!! They’re just trying to make an honest living!!!” BITCH, I am an artist! Lets just look at the content of the Bonus Updates themselves:

The Bonus Updates take place in The Meat Timeline and have potential to become important later on. That is sneakily putting important content behind a fucking paywall, which directly stands against the accessibility Homestuck had for young teens. (And I personally consider it shady practice to accrue more Patreon support) Especially considering that, guess what?? That doesn’t have to be the case! The Bonus Updates could yknow, have focused on the time before the timeline split in order to avoid being plot relevant. Or if the Bonus Updates are plot relevant, they could at least release them later for those who cannot afford the Patreon bill? They could stagger the release, after two months, release the latest Bonus Update? Oh, or they could do something entirely different, such as showing behind the scenes sprites and artwork-- OH WAIT-- They set that to the twenty fucking dollar tier. And another thing that feels a bit anti Homestuck, basing the amount of updates on Patreon support.

Considering their rate is 2000 supporters a month, at the very least that would be 4000 dollars a month, if everyone payed the lowest tier. But most are likely paying the five a month for access the the Bonus Updates, so you could very likely bump that up to about 10,000. This is a ridiculous amount of money, especially considering the lackluster updates, three a month if you take into account Bonus Updates. I’m sure everyone get’s a smaller piece of the cut, and some of that goes into other HS^2 related projects, but that is a lot of fucking money, and definitely more than enough to pay the team if managed well. I don’t think that they should, and I don’t think that they even need, to use bonus updates to force invested fans to pay. If they were confident in the content they produce, they would certainly still have the backers.

Lastly,

Kanaya would not wear this ugly anime ass outfit are you kidding me. And this is also a not well preformed callback panel (like literally all callbacks oh my god none of the old Homestuck gags hit right in HS^2 at all!!) I could understand Dirk (Even though I think him looking more like Bro would have been a cooler symbolic thing but whatever), Terezi’s outfit was a stretch but I’d accept it, but Kanaya??? KANAYA??? You know she has more fashion sense than the entire Homestuck cast combined she would not be caught dead in this outfit. 

[snowtimeisbesttime]

Thoughts and questions on Pesterquest Volume 12, with a side dish of various future speculation! Volume 11's post is also out on the tag (which im not gonna link bc idfk if tumblr still hates links).

-Jake's volume is... weird. Both routes leave him not too far from where he started (can't jake have a little a character development, as a treat?), and the correct “choices” literally involve not doing things. Overall his volume doesn't really tread on new waters so much as go deeper into older ones, so to say? It's still a nice volume, though.

-Also, I think there might be a possibility for next volume to be Dirk's instead of Roxy's? If anything to call back to Jade's route, “The Loneliest Girl In The World” → exactly what Roxy is at this point in the plot! An Epic Alpha Kids Reunion would of course solve the whole “can't meet friends because no sburb au” problem, as well.

-There's also the fact that MC has made the association between Roxy and Mom Lalonde (though regardless of which strilonde gets to go next, mc's likely gonna flip their shit due to time shenanigans), and that they might prefer to meet Roxy first based on what they've learnt about the rest of the alpha kids. Another extremely important factor for this is that Roxy was sad in vol 11 and that's illegal so basically give roxy pesterquest now pls

-And of course Dirk's route has a very good chance to be the last one, both because he was the last alpha kid to be introduced and because of more... dubiously canonical reasons (might pesterquest's no sburb au nature have nipped the whole ultimate self shit in the bud, even if only for one instance of dirk? Like, it was implied that he'd been actively becoming a dirk smoothie since a good way back, right...?)

-There was that Thing (the fake error featuring ultdirk) back at the beginning of Pesterquest, but so far in Hs2 he's just creating potential horrorterrors with Rosebot and I personally hope he keeps to it for a while, ngl.

-Where's Calliope??? IIRC they were helping Jake out with Liv Tyler the bunny robot, but neither him nor Jane have even mentioned them. If Roxy doesn't talk about them either, then we'll know that something's up... did they lose contact with them when the No Sburb AU happened?? might this be the version of A2 that Alt Calliope would have interacted with??? like, does she come from Pesterquest's timeline/reality?

-Will Hal (if he appears big time in Dirk's route) be a cameo like Vodka Mutini, or will he have an actual route for himself?

-dare i hope the volumes after the alpha kids' ones might include the cast from hiveswap (act 1)????????? blease........ at the very least MC *can* go there with their powers.... this is also the second time they “malfunction” like this, the first one was in Jane's route to get to the post-scratch universe....

-Jake time again: he's incredibly deep in denial about his life sucking ass, both for perfectly understandable reasons (as he's spent like 10 years completely alone in hellmurder fisticuffs island) and for more selfish ones (he wants his friends to be happy and doesn't really want to deal with conflict, which again is understandable but the way he's going about it Can -and Does, as we've seen in Homestuck proper- end very badly for everyone involved)

-He's also really really in denial about his relationship with Dirk, specifically. There's even a comparison with Vriska and Tavros and everything, talk about going deeper into the same old waters. (This is the part where we sit down and ask ourselves how in the froggy universe did MC take so long to realize introducing Jake to Vriska was an awful idea.)

-English's my second language so I'm not sure if “jake” is also a word that means good, but. That kinda does make all those times that Vriska called him “Joke” or “Jape” in Act 6 even worse...

-Jake aro canon. Also Jake and Jade meeting was just lovely.

-Regarding what Jade said... at the end of the day there's good things and bad things in both Pesterquest's and Homestuck's paths.

-Jade also says that you can't have powers such as MC's without being a little corrupted by them (especially as they're getting stronger with each route)... so far they haven't changed too much, though not everyone's Threshold of Evil Because OP will be at the same level.

-On Jake's opinion on shorts: does this mean that left to his own devices instead of plot hitting the fan, he'd have liked his godtier costume? (as well as added some leg pistol holsters to it, almost definitely)

-MC made Marvus' outfit for their cosplay...... and it's all but confirmed that all our Friendsim pals are dead by Hivebent's time...... :(((

[m39]

I’m taking a break from Homestuck^2

No, you aren’t reading it wrong. I’m taking a break from Homestuck^2 and all of that main crap until it reaches Year 1 (probably). All that I care for now is Hiveswap, Hauntswitch, the third Homestuck connected visual novel and some Homestuck artwork.

Some of you may wonder how it all happened. It’s quite simple: After posting my thoughts about the first May update, some part of me started questioning: What am I doing? Why am I still doing it?!

Let me ask you something: Do we actually need Homestuck^2? If your answer is yes, then why do we need Candy timeline? Hell, let’s go further! Would we need Candy Epilogue at all if not the fact that some characters from the Alpha timeline appear?! What about parts that happened on Earth C and the ones after John defeated Lord English in Meat Epilogue?! Did we need all of that?!? I mean, I (somewhat) like Epilogues (even Candy one) and the Meat parts of Homestuck^2 but there is no actual reason for all of the stuff that I mentioned earlier to exist. Sure, you can say that Homestuck^2 is a filler for Hiveswap and Hauntswitch, but then again, Friendsim and Pesterquest are also this kind of filler and yet these games are much more enjoyable for the typical Homestuck fan.

Think about the old characters in these continuations, particularly the Candy timeline. People say that Homestuck^2 is nothing more but a high-budget, low-tier, fanfiction that is dubiously canon because it features characters from the original, Alpha timeline. And they might have a point. The AT characters are the best parts of both the Epilogues and ^2 because they are the ones that we know from the past, we know these characters and we love them (except probably Vaska). The new characters created for these continuations are also very good. They are distinct from the originals (yes even Vrissy) but they are still likeable characters that you want them to survive this shithole that is Candy timeline, even Yi- okay you know what?! FUCK IT!! I’M CALLING HER PIPPI NOW! ALL HAIL PIPPI LONGSTOCKING THE SECOND!!! But seriously though, even Pippi deserves to live, despite not saying a single word (I’m taking a break after chapter 9 so don’t add me if she speaks in the latest update). Now focus on the Candy timeline, pretend that there is no Vriska and no Omegas. You will realize that most of the characters act severely OOC. I mean, I’m not even talking about all of this dubiously canon shit anymore; you could change some of the characters to some random OC and there would be no difference, in fact it could make this comic better. I’m not gonna’ continue rambling about Candy because many before me explained what’s wrong with it and I don’t wanna waste your time.

I could say something about sluggish pacing (mostly in Candy timeline), endless paragraphs of text, the toxicity of fandom (mostly the Twitter shithole) etc. but I don’t have motivation for it and it’s already getting too long. So I’ll just end one two positive notes.

1) As I said earlier, in spite of its flaws, the Meat parts of Homestuck^2 are good.

2) I have one last post before my break starts 100%. Tomorrow.

And you know what’s the funniest thing about all of this? When I started writing this, later the same day (or the next one I can’t remember correctly) I found out on reddit that the crew behind Homestuck^2 is taking a break from it for the entire June (ironic).

See you all next time.

[dahniwitchoflight]

Candy 37-End

Vriska isn’t wrong when she’s picturing Earth C’s Sky as being like Skaia, where you see in the cloud’s of the sky what is real and canon, which is exactly what’s happening here in this Sky of Earth C, because everything, even the visions in the clouds, are being bent unconsciously to John’s will.

If John were a much more selfish person, willing to take and enjoy everything he ever wanted, this would be a paradise to him, thank god he’s not though, but still sucks to be him

Love the infinite character loop that is the character arc of “Vriska” that she just can’t seem to escape btw

“Asshole teenager does horrible things in the name of role model who she thinks is cool but is actually terrible and another version of herself from another life and its only once she falls into her own bullshit does she realize life could have been different, been better”

Maybe this would all be different if all these Baby Vriska’s didn’t choose asshole versions of themselves as a role model like some kind of terrible self fulfilling prophecy

I don’t messaging Terezi is gonna work, pretty sure she’s dead, but Vriska doesn’t know that, she skipped right past the latest conversation and went to the top didn’t she? yup

Good to see that, from Roxy’s point of view, she didn’t just stop existing, she did just naturally swerve into the kind of person John would like, but from John’s point of view and what he knows, it did make her feel like some kind of ingenuine puppet. Sad to see that once again, she just wanted John to be happy, but her attempts, since they were coming from her, would just be futile in his eyes due to the context of the situation they found themselves in

But hilariously ironic if it was literally just the normal relationship troubles of becoming estranged from him because he was becoming estranged from her because he stopped treating her like a real person because he felt like she wasn't real

when from your own perspective, yourself is always real. From Roxy’s perspective, she could be real while no one else isn’t, it kind of a side effect of reality feeling like it’s being warped, everything gets dilated and stretched to kind of orbit around only your own perspective and you get disconnected to everything else

and of course, you can’t help but think, is Roxy only acting real NOW because John and thus the narrative finally really wants her to be? It’s a circumstantial question without an answer, it really depends on which perspective is being written from and who you ask

but still, the one factor no one can really account for is the house juju, while they are all god tier players with ultimate selves, John has retcon power, and that IS an advantage over everyone else’s wills, whether anyone likes it or is aware of it or not

it just happens that due to John’s non interference policy as much as possible, the changes were more subtle and thus no matter how warped, it was “well written” is the only way to explain it

so even if Roxy is a puppet or a real person, she is indistinguishable from either one

But can’t forget that Skaia is not entirely neutral either, it contains an author with a narrative and an opinion, who may be doing his best to remove himself just like John but did it is still one version of events over others, Hussie himself

that’s the real seemingly inescapable canon that makes things feel right or wrong or real or fake, whatever Hussie thinks is so

and maybe because Hussie was their original creators, some part of their cores will always be tugged back to his vision in some way, that piece of narrative influence that gives an unfair sway to one thing over another

Just like the what the cursor does to John

like Roxy is 100% accurate in what she’s saying in Candy too, IF everything was equal in it’s influence, if Skaia was a pool of everyone’s wills and not the will of just one man doing his best to not be that

Once again, the biggest problem in the story is the plothole of the cursor, but that’s one Hussie can’t be the one to solve or else the problem of influence just continues on in his own work

So it makes sense to do what he’s done so far and give the reigns over in ways to others, have other people write the epilogues, have other people in the hand of creation for things like hiveswap and pesterquest

and yknow of course fandom and audience, but things that come from the audience won’t ever be real and canon, like fanfiction won’t solve this problem either, no one would ever really accept that

it has to be a scenario where the originator entrusts decisions to other people aka Hussie hires an official team to do something and then they take the reigns from there

WhatPumpkin, maybe without Hussie, has to be the one to solve the plothole of the cursor to everything to feel truly “right”

maybe not do everything themselves obviously, but that problem has to be solved by someone who isn’t Hussie, that’s what I feel

That’s what I think, that feels acceptable and satisfying to me

mood whiplash incoming:

OBAMA?? oh my god damn fucking fuck

this is how he shows up in the epilogues, goddammit

I’ll be honest, while this is hilarious as a joke, it’s actually very derailing to the narrative

It feels like something that should be happening in sweet bro and hella jeff, not Homestuck

Like I enjoy it, but I know it’s wrong here, not supposed to be happening

This is absolutely a test for the audience, basically a dare, how much are we willing to accept as “Canon”? outright challenging us to change the narrative now

because if we justify changing this, we can justify changing other things, and then that basically opens the floodgates

That’s honestly probably what a lot of the content in these epilogues was meant to be, each thing presenting more and more of a challenge to swallow as real, how much can we take before we decided enough is enough and start making it different?

I actually hit that a while ago with nearly every implied sexual escapade of Gamzee’s none of them are things I want to be in Homestuck proper straight up I can think of no good sexual relationship Gamzee has ever had in the history of Homestuck

I actually don’t like where this is going though, like it was shock but now it’s getting weird vibes

The fated place of this planet is to be a cherub nest for the big bad (and also Calliope)

Why is Obama so concerned about the fate of where it’s meant to end up at? Nowhere good is the answer. And also his speech is starting to sound vaguely Dirk like or at least Dirk justifying and I don’t like how it’s taking all of Dave’s attention like he’s getting a sudden pump of that Dirk withdrawal.

“OBAMA: Haven’t you been improved by the knowledge of what you grew up to be in my time? Can you really say you’d be what you are today without the memory of him?”

Which “Him”? because if you say Dirk I don’t trust like that

 All of this is such a lampshade though about the whole idea of the narrative, that’s so glaringly clear.

Obama was found by Adventuring Grandpa Jake as a kid??? I mean, sure, why not, I guess all of humanity is related to Jake technically just like the rest of the god tiers

Oh wow their just straight up making Obama another “Kid of Jake” story like Jade and Joey, “lonely kid lives on island, distantly related to an old man version of Jake English, turns out the Island holds some secret that unlocks the key to more knowledge.”

Also there making it pretty clear that the rest of the Earth Kids DO have SOME power to influence reality, since John wouldn’t think of this, I really don’t think he would, it’s just that when John is involved his everything outweighs everything

Even now it goes back to the shades John gave him over and over.

“OBAMA: I think Dirk would be proud if he could see how you turned out.

OBAMA: In fact, I know it.“

I DON’T TRUST LIKE THAT I DON’T TRUST LIKE THAT

I’m also really actually uncomfortable with how far this joke is going, like, Obama is a real person outside of homestuck, putting all this shit into his mouth just feels really in bad taste, like it’s taking the joke of how much Dave ironically likes Obama way waaay too far

“OBAMA: Believing is the key to understanding the truth underlying the words, the truth underlying the ideas they represent, and the truth underlying who we are as individuals.

OBAMA: The power of belief, the power of Hope, that’s what endows that which is intangible, ephemeral, or uncertain with a sense of reality.

OBAMA: It brings focus to the insubstantial, the mirages of the mind, the multiplicity of what is possible, of what could be, and isolates it—concentrates it—to turn it into that which is.OBAMA: And the result of that, Dave, is what we call truth.“

This is neat though, basically confirming Hope as a power of Reality has a direct ties to Canonical Truth

“The only thing he knows is he needs to listen carefully to every precious syllable. To listen with his ears, his heart, his entire being.“

Is the Ultimate Self of Dirk actually just extending to like, every person who potentially holds his DNA now??? Like, as one of the ecto progenitors of Mankind itself like how Grandpa Adventure Jake was implying??

Because that’s a terrifying thought

or maybe not, this Obama IS a constructed hologram, I forgot, pull back the reigns, Dirk could have easily constructed a robo-holo version of himself to look and act a fake story of Obama just for Dave’s sake

that makes more sense

“OBAMA: He taught me about many things. Combat, philosophy, life, love... “

Yup there is no way this isn’t some version of Dirk like a strange Obama-fied autoresponder

Okay, bad taste jokes aside about using Obama as a literary device going a bit to far

Dirk using that phrase as like, it seems to be confirmation that Dirk feels a need to “train” his romantic partners and people around him to be the people he wants them to be, servants for him and that’s so gross

“ The sliding panel reveals a recess, and in the recess stands a robot. It’s a gleaming, polished silver replica of Dave, but without shades. It stands totally still, unpowered. Dave struggles to make sense of what he’s looking at. “

IT’S A TRAP DON’T GO INTO THE ROBOT BODY THAT NEVER WORKS OUT FOR ANYONE.

IT IS *LITERALLY* CONSTRUCTING A VERSION OF ANOTHER PERSON TO WHATEVER IT IS YOU WANT THEM TO BE.

God, you never really get just how control freak and obsessive it is to literally want to remake every single cell of a person and program them obsessively so that they do whatever it is that you want while also seeming indistinguishable from themselves, perfectly programmed and perfectly written

I say this not without missing the irony that doing that is exactly what Hussie wants all of us to do as well, and even I think things could be better written but that’s still hubris too isn’t it?

Calling it a choice for Dave even now rings so entirely hollow, because Dave is being written here like he would never choose anything else, so really when did he ever have a choice?

The fact that Obama seems to actually have hope powers and the way that his backstory included that note about he was related to a version of Jake English though more just makes me think Dirk’s Ultimate self got a hold of Jake’s as well, and this holobama is more just Jake English twisted incomprehensibly into another being by Dirk Strider

"Dave’s eyes widen, his mouth opens as if to scream, but he doesn’t make a sound. Infinite experience flows through his consciousness, an unimpeded torrent of raw potentiality. He sees everything. The roads not taken, the lives not lived, the thoughts, desires, fears all unacted upon. The Doomed Daves, the Davesprites, the Davepetas, life with Jade, life with Karkat, life with both, life with neither. It’s like soaring through the clouds at supersonic speed, too quickly to make out the shape of any single puffy nimbus, like a breakneck jaunt through Skaia. Huge clouds rushing by, small ones, clouds with visions, empty clouds, white clouds, then a great dark one. And then, the briefest possible glimpses—most too fleeting to be noticed—of Dirk. “

You know I just realized something too, In it’s own Messed up Way, I can see how Dirk think’s what he’s doing might be good too

if the natural conclusion I came to is that all the characters themselves need to take a swill of that house cursor thing to all be on equal footing and decide together how they want the story to be

Dirk may think he’s technically doing the same thing by unlocking everyone’s ultimate selves and merging them into his

because then it is technically every version of all of his friends all making a decision together, not just his friends, all the aspects of reality itself

except their all strapped to his will and only his will

theyre not making decisions together, theyre making decisions together for Dirk how Dirk wants is to be

they all have to have equal footing and they all can’t decide how each other’s lives are going to be

If they all get canon imbibing power and want to remake homestuck, they have to only be able to only affect their own lives, nothing more, or we get this problem

and well, Dirk just got Dave’s Ultimate self now

“JADE: as it happens, this projection within me serves as a stable conceptual foothold from which i can sense and resist another growing threat which is determined to jeopardize the canonical plane of reality.”

So again if it hasn’t already been confirmed before, Dirk doesn’t want to uphold Homestuck’s “Canon” he wants to upend it for his own purposes.

Neither Meat or Candy is Canon, but both are affecting it.

Oh cool, Alltie is actually going into with Aradia how the narrative can be condensed in such a way that they can then be applied loosely in multiple different ways, just like how I was talking about before with how Vriska’s arc seems to loop around

haha I wonder if I can do the same thing

“A brat admires an asshole, becomes one, and regrets it.”

wait I can do better

“A brat imitates an asshole and regrets it.”

that was actually a neat little exercise in how entirely strip something of all of it’s context in order to broadly apply it to multiple scenarios. Stripping the cloth in order to create a narrative thread. 

“It’s a feather, burnt at the edges, flickering orange and green.”

Oh Ultimate Dirk’s definitely eaten Ultimate Jake

“JADE: consume his body.

JADE: absorb his essence.

JADE: and then using this host, i will generate enough power to move beyond the staggering pull of the event horizon encasing this world.

JADE: a prison of my own making, which can be escaped only through the supreme unification with my other half.

JADE: it is crucial to the cosmos that i succeed.

JADE: the prince of heart has to be stopped.“

Ah, Okay, now I understand that ending part of Meat, that was actually the end of Candy, so now I assume the ending of Meat is gonna happen here on the next page?

Also, Alltie, I dunno if merging with LE is exactly the thing you want to be doing here, unless you think you can win the battle of wills on the ultimate self scale, absorbing Dirk into you instead?

You probably can, I mean, even if Dirk is an especially manipulative human given godlike power to manifest his reality and put his will over countless other only humans so far

You are a Cherub who has a specific biological advantage on this field over overturning wills and you also have godlike cosmic power

Is that why our Callie is so afraid of you? Because your soul and will and ultimate self is just as much of an all consuming black hole as what you physically became? If she gets too close she’ll stop being her, pulled in by your inescapable will?

Alright, so this is Meat PostScript technically

Now I kinda wanna deconstruct the label of Post Script here though

If “Intermission” actually means “oops the story got to long, here’s a break.” but actually continues on with it’s own story not actually providing a break from long winded scripts but instead fighting with it for space and attention

If “Epilogue” actually means “oops, forgot some story, here’s some more.” not actually being an ending chapter but a tell of more to come, a bridge between stories

Does “Post Script” it’s its meaning of “After Story” an addition, a sequel coming after the original story

actually just mean “oops, I wrote the wrong story, here’s a different one”?

after all, a sequel to a story, is actually just writing a different story altogether, but one still related to the original

and why write a different story if the one you already wrote was enough?

so you think a sequel is going to be a sequel, because of the name, a different story, happening after the first, like were leaving what happened in Homestuck behind us

but in actuality it’s the same story, told in a different better way

I’m still harping on that Homestuck 2.0 is just gonna be the story of Homestuck but written differently this time, top to bottom front to end nice and neat using one elegant stroke the whole way through

Anyway one sec while I quickly reread the last actual chapter of meat before I read this postcript because I want it be fresh in my mind

Okay Dirk’s leaving at lightspeed in a spaceship with Rose and the rest of the gang are being directed by essentially a geiger counter/shield for Dirk’s presence in Jade’s body

Oh right, now I’m remembering bloody Jade tearing into flesh (LE’s flesh I guess) while Aradia watches and then her and Robot Dave and Aradia all rocket into that gaping hole, so I guess Robo-Dave might not be all that Dirk influenced? Or that Dirk sent him specifically to keep tabs on Alltie, subtly, they didn’t exactly greet eachother or interact at all or wait for him, so they don’t seem totally allied. 

Then following Dirk’s spaceship:

It looks like a shark? Interesting

Considering Void a great Ocean, Shark is fitting a predator of that Ocean

Like how the end of Meat had someone tearing into Meat viciously

and now the end of Candy has someone daintily mowing down on a bowl of Candy, very sour candy it seems

Rose doesn’t seem to happy in a robo-body. It’s pretty clear she’s struggling to hold on to any sort of humanity or normalcy, which is interesting, if she’s so unhappy and doesn’t consider herself Dirk’s servant, why is she still with him?

So something important is needed for her flesh body, something that will have something to do with canon I suppose. Tiara imagery never bodes well, so I’m guessing it’s not just moving her consciousness over its probably also controlling it somehow

It sure makes princess imagery ominous anyway, Rose is a right sleeping beauty, or maybe a snow white if the glass coffin is anything to go by.

Oh, theyre intentionally creating a new session of Sburb?

“New Race” so maybe not humans, trolls or cherubs? Interesting, still could be new human race though

Gotta love how it ends on a dismissive tone from Dirk lol

So, is Rose all in on the idea of starting up a new session for some purpose?

and what does her flesh body have to do with it?

The only thing I can think of is that it’s meant to be a vessel for something, and right now the only person using flesh vessels on Dirk’s radar is Alltie

Do they mean to trap her in Rose’s body for some reason? and through that control her in some way?

I can’t help but think of Callie’s word again, that this is not a purple rose, but a red rose dyed blue, Alltie is certainly Red, and in Rose she’d be a “Red Rose” like how currently in Jade she makes a “Red Jade”

Dying her Blue, using Candy to control her then? Her one weakness was basically her eternal reverence for the CandyPop which if Alltie ever took part of would be the one time she’d basically lose control and think there was no problem with anything, putting her into her own drugged haze of not caring, basically the only thing you could do to stop her if you wanted to

As for this new session of SBURB, I can only guess that it’s importance lies as their attempt to rewrite their own story top to bottom starting from Humanity as a whole, only this time it’s Dirk writing everything not Hussie

So Dirk really is doing the Doc Scratch thing like with Alternia

Again, he thinks he’s doing the right thing, but he’s just totally wrong about it

That’s it then for the “Epilogues” it was a good read!

Can’t wait for the “Sequel” :)