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Murder, Love, and Destiny: An Eridan Ampora Character Study

Warnings for things from Homestuck, like discussions of child abuse, mental illness, murder, suicide, etc. etc.

Because there's a huge wall of text after this point, I'm going to summarize what I hope to convince you of in bullet point format, and then hope you'll actually read the rest of the text before arguing with me about it.

Eridan is the least casteist highblood, if you ignore all the slurs.

Those are his emotional support slurs.

Pale EriKar was not only canon, but set up to be endgame.

Eridan is incredibly plot-relevant, thematically relevant, and was definitely originally intended to be brought back to life, alongside the other dead trolls.

He's Sad.

The first thing we have to establish is what counts as "canon" for the purpose of this essay. I am only counting the original comic up to Game Over, after which there's a general consensus that Hussie kind of gave up on his original planned ending, and slapped together something that most people hate. So I am immediately disqualifying Pesterquest, supplementary material, fanworks deemed canon, the epilogues, and Homestuck^2.

Moreover, we are taking Hussie's commentaries with a grain of salt, for two reasons. The first reason is that I firmly believe - and will be arguing - that the original plan was to bring Eridan (and the other dead trolls) back; therefore, Hussie (who has a track record of playing coy with future plot twists) can't speak too fondly of him, lest he give it away. The second reason for de-emphasizing Hussie's words is that, post-retcon, Hussie isn't very well going to say that he had plans for a better ending, and then didn't execute on them; to save face, he has to act as though his trashing of several prior plot threads, including but not limited to Eridan, was the plan all along.

Therefore, this essay will not be putting too much emphasis on Word of God, and will instead be relying on textual evidence from the comic itself, of which there is plenty. So without further ado:

Eridan is a Consummate Murderer.

The reason I'm starting with this point is that, far more than any other, this truth lies at the core of his being. Eridan is formally introduced to us with a murder, and he's haunted by an overpowering genocide complex. He outright describes to Rose at one point that "killin is all i evver done practically," and uses "murder" as an expletive (ie "swweet stinkin murder"). With a conservative estimate of 5 kills per week for 4 sweeps (Vriska looks VERY young when she has to start killing, and Eridan was likely a similar age when he began), both Eridan and Vriska easily have bodycounts above 2000 - the real number is probably even higher.

At this point, many raise an objection that Eridan is only killing lusii, but I believe we need to count his kills as troll murders, for three reasons: first, a dead lusus results in the orphaned troll being culled; second, one has to assume he has had cases of trolls trying to defend their lusii, or coming after him for vengeance; and third - and most importantly - Eridan HIMSELF is thinking about the orphaned trolls.

Compare Feferi: Go Home:

That should keep her happy for a while. At least until she dies.

To Eridan: Go Home:

That should keep her happy for a while. And make a freshly orphaned troll somewhere very sad.

So Eridan, to a much greater extent than even Feferi, is thinking about the orphaned trolls he's leaving behind, and considers his own actions to be murder.

Now that we've established the facts regarding his murders - a rough bodycount, and the fact that, by his own admission, he barely had any hobbies outside of it - we can move on to the effect that it's had on him. It's not very good!

Vriska's manipul8tions and murders had to be done for her own sake - if she ever stopped, she died. Therefore, much of Vriska's personality revolves around justifying her own actions so she doesn't have to reckon with her softer feelings, like guilt or kindness - which she expresses would be viewed as scandalous by others of her caste.

But if Eridan ever stops feeding Gl'bgolyb, everybody dies. The stakes he has riding on his shoulders are, at all times, the fate of all trolls, including all his friends. Given Dualscar's title was "Orphaner," it's implied that killing lusii for Gl'bgolyb has always been a violet blood's duty, and is seen as such by the others, which is why nobody expresses gratitude for his hard work even a single time.

Which brings us to our next point:

Eridan is Crushed by Anxiety.

If Eridan stops killing lusii, everybody - especially his friends, but everybody else, too - dies.

If Eridan ever shows guilt or kindness, he'll be considered "weak" by the standards of highbloods - he shares this with Vriska.

Eridan is expected, by aristocratic tradition, to take on the mantle of his ancestor Dualscar and finish his work. Dualscar met a comedically cringefail end, so this is a massive undertaking.

Before finding out that god tiering is an option - so, for nearly his entire life - Eridan has had to live with the expectation that he will outlive all of his friends. The lowbloods from culling or dying on the battlefield, the highbloods from old age, and Feferi from being killed by the Empress when she gets old enough.

(This is reflected in who he talks to the most - Feferi, who's the only one with a natural lifespan longer than his, Vriska, who's a highblood, Kanaya, who's practically guaranteed to survive into adulthood, and Karkat, whose anonblood allows Eridan to give him the benefit of the doubt.)

Also if he can't land his concupiscent quadrants he'll die from that too, but that seems pretty secondary to the rest of his concerns.

He can't even make friends with the other highbloods, because sea dwellers are expected to hate and antagonize them.

He had a free ticket into adulthood, but would almost certainly be expected to join the army and serve as a commander. That is to say, his fate of performing the role of a vicious, murderous sea dweller seems dreadfully inevitable to him.

NO WONDER he can't stop having emotional breakdowns. NO WONDER his chatlogs swing wildly from relentless self-aggrandizement to traumadumping. NO WONDER he's obsessed with murder and death and genocide.

Doc Scratch calls him a "vengeful boy on the path of nihilism," and it's not hard to see why: Eridan's entire life has been about living up to the role imposed on him by society, sacrificing his own time and sanity for everyone else, which he "nevver got any appreciation for anywway." And all he had to look forward to was more of the same, all his friends dropping dead one by one before him. For Eridan, there has never been any hope.

SGRUB could have been a way out for him, but a combination of his own terrible choices, spurred on by his anxieties, and his teammates' unwillingness to knock some sense into him, meant that he only wound up mired even deeper in his hopelessness.

We all know about how Eridan wouldn't stop killing the angels on his planet, provoking their aggression and turning it into a ball of death. How he was definitely not supposed to be doing this, and how his stubborn insistence on it led to his further ostracization from the rest of the group. The thing is, when we look at his angel-murders from the point of view that Eridan's entire life has been about murdering things or else Something Bad™ happens, it actually starts to become... kind of sad.

KARKAT: BETWEEN A TRIGGERHAPPY PRINCE WITH A GOD WEAPON BLASTING ANYTHING THAT TWITCHED AND A MILLION CRAZED ANGELS HE DELIBERATELY ENRAGED, IT WASN'T WHAT I'D CALL AN IDEAL SOCIAL HUB. KARKAT: IF YOU WERE LONELY WHY DIDN'T YOU VENTURE OUT MORE OFTEN? ERIDAN: wwell i wwoulda but nobody else wwas vvolunteerin to pick up the slack on angel killin duties

Killing the angels is something he feels like his has to do, because his entire life has been about killing things he doesn't want to kill. He's unable to break out of that mindset on his own, and his unpleasant personality has scared off anyone who might want to help. No one on the team tries to understand his thought process on a deeper level, not even Karkat, who just tells him it was an idiotic thing to do without addressing his underlying anxieties at all. Indeed, "nobody understands."

And this is really the root of why I think so many people get the wrong read on Eridan - Eridan is constantly contradicting himself, constantly denying his own feelings, constantly pushing an image that he doesn't actually believe in, and constantly insisting that he's fine with all the horrible shit in his life - that he likes it, even. After all, he can't admit to his guilt for his murders, or how much he doesn't want to watch his friends die, or how scared he is about the future - that'd be weakness!

CC: I can't look after you anymore. CA: I DIDNT EVER NEED ANYONE TO LOOK AFTER ME CA: i was totally fuckin fine my ambitions were noble

You see his contradictory nature with his stated love of history, which he only ever offhandedly mentions - because he's not actually that interested in history, it's just something that's expected of someone of his station. And you see it with his wavy accent, which he himself calls "weird" and drops when he's trying to be emotionally sincere. And you see it with his dumbass outfit, which is very clearly an imitation of Dualscar (with the only exception being the wizard-ass scarf, because wizards are his actual interest. I don't believe he likes fashion. I genuinely believe - and Eridan himself says so - that he basically has no hobbies outside of murder).

Even being proud to be a sea dweller is pretty much an outright lie:

CC: You can't )(ave t)(e sort of affinity for "our kind" t)(at you profess if you've only spent, w)(at... CC: A few days underwater, maybe? IN YOUR W)(OL-E LIF-E!

One that he tells because he's SCARED OF THE OCEAN. Because he knows what lives in the ocean, because he's been feeding it his entire life. I see a lot of people who give Eridan an interest in marine life, and I'm telling you, that's just got no basis in canon. He's fucking TERRIFIED of the sea.

And for that matter, land dweller genocide. Eridan doesn't want to do it. Both Feferi AND his internal narration call him out for not actually wanting to do it. He outright states he wouldn't kill his friends.

CA: wwell CA: im not goin to vvery wwell kill you am i that wwould be fuckin unconscionable CA: wwhat kind of friend wwould i be

But he feels like he HAS to want it, HAS to believe in it, HAS to be talking about it constantly, because that's what's expected from him as a sea dweller, and a sea dweller is ALL that he will get to be. The mutation that puts a violet streak in his hair is damning. It's a fate he feels like he can't escape. Which brings us to:

Eridan is Not Actually Casteist, Well He Is But Not Like That, It's Complicated

Secondary title: Those Are His Emotional Support Slurs, Okay

In the exact same vein (haha) as secretly not wanting all the land dwellers dead, Eridan also genuinely doesn't feel like he's better than lower blood castes. Vriska and Equius obviously put quite a bit of stock into being nobility, and both have acted superior to Karkat for it. Feferi actually revels in her high status, and while she is genuinely well-meaning, she's not as interested in abolishing casteism as she is in changing the meaning of "culling" specifically (the hemocaste, aristocracy, and casteism still very much exist in a Beforus under her rule). Gamzee MIGHT be the only highblood less casteist than Eridan, but then again, as soon as he snaps, he does say a lot of casteist stuff to Equius, although it's unclear how serious he is, and he also proceeds to get really into his weird highblood clown cult.

Meanwhile, Eridan - despite all his slurs and talk of genocide - does not actually try to "pull rank" on a lowblood for being a lower caste than him with a single exception. That exception is Sollux... after he's already shown having entirely caste-neutral opinions on Sollux:

CC: But Sollux finally came t)(roug)(, and now I believe t)(e full c)(ain is complete! CA: man that guy CA: hes a fuckin drama machine it is fuckin pathetic CC: YOUR STUPID FIS)(Y FAC-E IS T)(-E DRAMA MAC)(IN-E T)(AT DO-ES NOT)(ING BUT W)(IN-E AND GLUB. CC: 38P CA: fuck SORRY CC: Anyway you s)(ouldn't say t)(at about )(im, )(e is a )(ero and )(e saved my life. CA: yeah sorry

CA: my feelins seem petty and meaninless noww CA: she had better things to wworry about than my ovverwwrought bullshit CA: like the dead guy wwho savved her CA: so forget it thanks anywway

It's only AFTER he's mad at Sollux for dating Feferi that he starts going in on Sollux with casteist rhetoric... which is treated as unrequited flirting and not serious casteism:

ERIDAN: hey finless this doesnt concern those wwith mustard sludge slippin through their vveins ERIDAN: its a matter for royalty only ERIDAN: so keep your mouth closed or ill slit you open ovver my next meal SOLLUX: w/e bro, not iintere2ted. FEFERI: -Eridan, please! I don't want to see any more dueling. FEFERI: Don't try to provoke )(im. It's not like I don't know w)(at you're doing! You keep trying to spark a rivalry wit)( )(im to get me to auspisticize between you two, and pull us out of our quadrant! FEFERI: It is t)(e oldest and lamest trick in t)(e book. It didn't work t)(en and it won't work now!

THEY don't even think he's being casteist.

In fact, directly contradicting this earlier argument he has with Feferi:

CC: T)(is is t)(e last time I will say t)(is. CC: W-E AR-E NOT B-ETT-ER T)(AN ANYBODY!!!!! CC: GLUB. >38( CA: pshh CA: hemospectrum begs to differ

He OUTRIGHT states his real feelings here:

CA: im the biggest fuckin idiot who ever lived CA: i cant BELIEVE i just opened up to you like a chump when i knew what was comin CA: i am one sad fuckin brinesucker CA: overemotional sappy trash youre right im not better than anybody CA: im worse than anybody CA: EVERYBODY CA: all the bodies

So the question of "is Eridan casteist" has an answer of "kind of, but also no." Eridan DOES espouse the rhetoric; he's constantly saying stuff that a casteist sea dweller "should" be saying. However, if you look at his ACTIONS, and the way he actually treats people, he doesn't actually care about blood color. He'll hit on anybody, and he's rude as fuck to everybody. The real problem with him is that he's terrible to talk to, not that he's discriminatory.

That's the thing about Eridan. Understanding him means looking past the way he presents himself, the lies he tells to himself, and even, at times, the way the narration presents him. His "overblown emotional theatrics" seem a lot less overblown when his problems ARE so real, deep-seated, and constantly causing him an unimaginable amount of anguish.

The problem is, the main people he has to bounce those problems against are Feferi, Vriska, and Kanaya, three of the people most comfortable with their privileged positions, for whom Eridan's genuine emotional distress seems like needless melodrama. Feferi loves being a princess, Vriska enjoys her noble privileges, Kanaya doesn't need to worry about culling. But for Eridan, his noble status, and the duties and expectations placed on him for it, have caused him nothing but pain - of course he would feel like nobody understands. Most of his closest friends genuinely don't, nor do they try to.

Because that's what he is at his core - a traumatized fucking child, who doesn't see any way out. Eridan is not a casteist genocidal sea dweller... he just wishes he was one, and tries to be one, because if he actually was one, he wouldn't feel so awful and scared and sad all the time. He'd be normal, like his friends.

The reason he constantly spouts anti-land dweller rhetoric and uses casteist language is to assuage this cognitive dissonance. That's why he has to come off so strong, present himself in such an aggrandized way, act like such a douchebag. They're his emotional support slurs. He doesn't actually believe what he says, which means he's a Bad Sea Dweller, which means he's Failing, which means Something Bad Will Happen, so he'd better get his ass in line and say something casteist!

And it's all made worse because:

Eridan is Dumb of Ass (and True of Word)

Oh my god you guys he's so stupid that it hurts.

Okay, that's not entirely fair. Eridan is clearly well-educated and book smart; he has some of the most elegant prose out of the trolls, and he's prone to going off on insane rants with it. (Actually, his language gets more flowery and showy when he's trying to impress a stranger, and gets progressively more laid back, chill, and even kind of "bro"-y when he starts talking to people he doesn't feel like he needs to impress.)

CA: at this point i find all her adorable black pixie dabblins to be prime kiddie playtime shit CA: all of her FRAUDULENT MAGICS cannot come close to posin threat to my mastery ovver the TRUEST SCIENCES CA: an wwith my empiricists wwand i servve as the righteous hope that wwill incinerate delusion and the deluded alike CA: my holy fire is the wwhite fury bled from the wwrath-wweary eyes of fifty thousand nonfictional angels CA: and wwhen theyre finished wweepin they wwill boww before their prince GG: wow what are you talking about

What I mean is this: his brain is so full of anxiety and cognitive dissonance and murder and death that he struggles to care about other people, which has devastating effects on his social skills. I go really in-depth on how his though process informs his behavior here. The question may have popped up in your mind already: if his casteism stuff isn't actually real, then what is Eridan actually like? The answer is, overwhelmingly, and discomfortingly, SINCERE.

This boy is gunning at 100% emotional earnestness 100% of the time, and it's deeply uncomfortable for others to deal with. He'll swing wildly from insults and derogatory language, to stating a desire to kill all land dwellers, to awe and amazement at his friends' prowess, to demanding that they do things for him, to traumadumping and venting, without missing a beat. Often in the same conversation.

CA: kan its hard GA: What CA: being a kid and growwing up CA: its hard and nobody understands

He's also specifically terrible at parsing hostility. Functionally, he interprets all hostility aimed AT him as either pitch/ashen flirting or "ironic repartee," and similarly views his own hostile words as verbal jousting, pitch/ashen advances, or even just factual descriptions of the world around him (ie calling Nepeta a "kittycat shipper cavve girl"). Hostility and aggression are just kind of his baseline, default state of being, and he basically has no ability to differentiate between good and bad attention. I talk more in-depth about his emotionally bereft upbringing (and shitty lusus) here, but suffice to say that our boy isn't getting any emotional support at home, and as a result, craves attention, no matter what kind.

This also means he's insanely gullible. For example, Rose calls him an idiot to his face, and then blows up his computer, sarcastically calling it "your first lesson in showmanship." Eridan proceeds to literally considers it that, blowing up Jade's computer after he's done talking to her. Furthermore, Kanaya sees him as a burden, insults him to his face, and pretty much just bullies him along with Rose for fun.

So she trains Eridan to become a powerful white wizard of hope to challenge her, as a joke.

And yet, in spite of all that, Eridan still has nothing but gratitude and praise for Kanaya:

ERIDAN: kan i been meanin to thank you KANAYA: For What ERIDAN: for all that trainin you did ERIDAN: i wwouldnt be the incredible holy wwizard i am noww wwithout your help KANAYA: But I Didnt Even Really Train You I Just Made You A Wand ERIDAN: yeah wwell thats all i needed i guess ERIDAN: i just needed for someone to showw a little faith in me so im sayin thanks i owwe ya KANAYA: Okay Then Youre Welcome KANAYA: I Hope You Use Your Magnificent Powers Of Light And Hope For Goodness And Purity And Lets Not Forget Science ERIDAN: dont wworry im all ovver that shit you dont evven knoww KANAYA: Uh Oh I Hope That Didnt Come Off As Too Sarcastic ERIDAN: wwhat KANAYA: The Thing I Just Said KANAYA: I Didnt Even Realize How Sarcastic I Was Being Its Starting To Become A Problem I Think KANAYA: Please Dont Take Too Much Offense ERIDAN: haha damn kan if thats your idea of offense bein made then i honestly gotta fuckin wworry for you ERIDAN: tell you wwhat ill givve you some lessons in dealin out the dark umbrage to repay you for your tutelage in the wwhite science

Like, he's in the middle of genuinely thanking her for believing in him, she makes fun of him to his face, and his response is to laugh it off and offer to teach her how to properly insult someone. It's honestly... kind of sad. Not that he doesn't deserve the ridicule, but what we're seeing here is a traumatized, emotionally neglected boy trying to communicate the best that he can that he loves and appreciates his friends, and receiving nothing but mockery in return.

It's really not a surprise, then, that he goes off the deep end. His entire life prior to the game has been shit; he got broken up with as soon as he entered the game (by someone who didn't even care enough not to use fish puns while doing it); he's ostracized and avoided for the game's duration; and then he spends the rest of his time on the meteor being bullied. He feels deeply hopeless and anxious about their situation because he literally doesn't know how else to exist, and his concerns are dismissed and mocked at every turn. When Feferi turns on him with intent to kill, that's his breaking point.

I see a lot of people say he goes grimdark, or succumbs to external influence somehow, but I don't think that needs to be true (nor is it) - he's just a deeply traumatized kid with almost no support network who's finally been pushed to the edge, despite displaying every possible warning sign and making multiple cries for help. Yes, ultimately, he's guilty for his own actions, but his killing spree - alongside Gamzee's and Vriska's - represents a cohesive failure as a team to address very clear problems in their midst.

So Feferi and Kanaya are sick of his ass. Sollux hates him platonically, Equius doesn't like him, and Nepeta thinks of him as a creep. Vriska is his awkward ex, and Terezi agrees with him when he calls himself pathetic. He never interacts with Tavros, Aradia, or sober!Gamzee. Is there anyone that treats him nicely?

Uh, okay, so I swear this isn't shipping goggles -

Pale EriKar Is Canon And I Can Prove It

So, I'm going to start this with a disclaimer: you can ship what you want to ship. I don't mind. I don't care. Headcanons are valid, death of the author, etc. What you do in your free time is up to you.

What I am attempting to argue in this section is that an Eridan/Karkat moirallegiance was heavily foreshadowed, one of the most heavily foreshadowed things in the entire comic, and - assuming that the original ending of Homestuck included all the dead trolls being brought back and redeemed - was going to be endgame. There's a torrential amount of evidence pointing to this, and very little of it is acknowledged even by the EriKar shippers, which is a shame.

At the very least, I'll be happy if I can convince some Karkat RPers to be extra nice to Eridans, because they are actually just friends who care deeply about each other. Canonically.

The first thing to note is that Eridan and Karkat, at least prior to SGRUB, talk all the time, to the point where Feferi feels the need to comment on it:

CC: You know, I'm not sure w)(y we never talk about our romantic aspirations. CC: We s)(ould more often. It is kind of -EXCITING! CA: shrug CC: Probably because you fill your gossip quota wit)( your nubby )(orned bro. CC: You leave not)(ing left to talk about wit)( your dear sweet moirail! CC: We are supposed to )(elp eac)( ot)(er wit)( t)(at stuff too, remember. CA: maybe CA: seems kinda CA: odd though

("Can you please stop having an emotional affair with Karkat" "Eh, I'll think about it")

The second thing to note is what the contents of those conversations entail. Sure, they "gossip," but it goes deeper than that, because they gossip about things that Karkat would NEVER gossip about with anybody else, because Karkat usually respects his "VERY GOOD FRIEND"s. For example, here Eridan mentions that Karkat has speculated on Kanaya's love life with him:

CA: you dont wwant to be our auspistice cause you dont wwant to get locked into that sort of relation wwith her i can respect that GA: No Thats Not It CA: yeah it is your real feelins run pretty awwful RUDDY methinks evverybody knowws it CA: especially that assblood karkat he and me havve you so pegged about that its upright silly

And it's not even a one-off thing, because here Karkat is again, mentioning Nepeta's crush on him:

KARKAT: OK, BUT TO BE FAIR, I'M PRETTY SURE SHE'S STILL OBSESSED WITH ME. KARKAT: IT'S A VERY UNFORTUNATE, VERY RED AND VERY UNREQUITED SITUATION I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TIPTOE AROUND FOR A LONG TIME, OK? KARKAT: HER DISINTEREST IN YOUR ADVANCE WASN'T A REFLECTION ON YOU AT ALL. KARKAT: COME ON, WE TALKED ABOUT THIS.

It's a situation he's been trying to "tiptoe around for a long time," and he tells ERIDAN, of all people? MULTIPLE TIMES? (AND HE ALSO TELLS ERIDAN THAT THE REJECTION WASN'T HIS FAULT???? WHAT??????)

So we've established that they talk frequently and about some pretty seriously sensitive topics. But did you know that they also talk about... their feelings?

See, the thing is, Karkat has always been weirdly nice to Eridan. Here he is in a memo near the very beginning of their game, when Karkat is at his most "rah rah, I'm the big bad leader":

FCA: i got a problem FCA: wwith feferi FCA: and im really kinda sittin here in bad shape about it emotionally speakin CCG: OK, WELL CCG: I GET THAT, I HEAR YOU BRO CCG: BUT THIS IS STILL NOT THE RIGHT PLACE FOR THIS SO I'VE GOT TO BAN YOU. CCG banned FCA from responding to memo. CCG: BUT SERIOUSLY JUST GET IN TOUCH WITH ME IN PRIVATE ABOUT IT, OK MAN? CCG: WE'LL GET YOUR SHIT STRAIGHTENED OUT.

Compare that to Tavros asking for advice later down in the same memo:

PAT: sINCE i DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE NOW, bUT MAYBE HELP ME, PAT: aBOUT A THING THAT HAS TO DO WITH A GIRL, PAT: lIKE, PAT: a ROMANCE THING, yOU MIGHT KNOW ABOUT, CCG: YOU PEOPLE ARE IMBECILES. CCG: ALL OF YOU. CCG: I AM NOT POSTING THESE MEMOS TO COUNSEL YOU ON YOUR PAST AND FUTURE DATING PROBLEMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CCG: WHY ARE YOU ALL SUCH BASKET CASES. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY ANYMORE. PAT: sORRY, CCG: SHOULD I BAN YOU? WHAT'S EVEN THE POINT ANYMORE! ONE OF YOU STOOGES WILL BE RIGHT ON THE LAST ONES HEELS WITH ANOTHER SOB STORY. CCG: JUST CCG: HURRY UP AND TELL ME WHAT YOUR PROBLEM IS BRO.

He then proceeds to dispense no actual love advice; he just points out that Vriska can totally read this memo too, and then mocks them both when she shows up - thus making it clear that he is giving Eridan special treatment.

You see it again in his discussion with Eridan in [S] Kanaya: Return to the Core, where Eridan invokes a "pact" between them, and Karkat immediately plays nice with him, despite himself being extremely high-strung and stressed out:

KARKAT: RIGHT, IT'S POWERED BY SCIENCE, I FORGOT. KARKAT: OR HOPE. WHATEVER THE FUCK THAT MEANS. ERIDAN: i dont fuckin need this from you i take enough shit as it is from the rest a you dirtscrapers i thought you and me had a kinda pact or wwhatevver KARKAT: OK FINE, SHUT UP, I APOLOGIZE. I KNOW IT'S TOUGH BEING YOU.

That's definitely pity, which Karkat states to be the basis of all relationships besides pitch. But, sure, okay, Karkat is sometimes nice to his friends. He is, after all, the Friendship Troll, so that's not necessarily out of the ordinary. But how about the fact that it goes both ways?

That's right, Eridan "100% aggro 100% of the time" Ampora is actually really considerate toward Karkat's feelings, and basically nobody else's. Upon hearing that Karkat is distressed that Sollux has died, Eridan actively puts his own meltdown about his breakup with Feferi on pause:

TC: BeCaUsE OuR GoOd bRo sOlLuX JuSt kIcKeD ThE WiCkEd mOtHeRfUcKiN ShIt CA: wwhat the fuck do you mean by that CA: are you sayin hes dead TC: YeAh :o( CA: oh fuck CA: oh god fuck noww i feel like an asshole

He then goes on to chastise Gamzee for his shitty advice, demanding to be given the chance to comfort Karkat himself instead:

TC: BuT I ToLd hIm tO Be cHiLl TC: BeCaUsE ThErE Is a mIrAcLe cOmInG, i cAn fEeL It CA: that is the wworst fuckin advvice CA: wwhat an awwful thing a you to say CA: MAGIC ISNT REAL STUPID STOP BELIEVVIN IN IT TC: i'Ve gOt tO BeLiEvE At wHaT My hEaRt tElLs iN Me, EvEn iF It's a fAkE ThInG TC: HoNk CA: this is a lot a pointless fuckin rubbish and isnt no emotional help to him or me either for that matter CA: put kar on

Before finally giving up when Gamzee insists he's "too scared of Jack" to help, drinking some Faygo, and trying to ask past Karkat for help, because past Karkat isn't sad yet about Sollux dying. So, to recap,

Eridan's first instinct when in emotional duress is to go to Karkat.

Eridan feels like he knows Karkat well enough to know that Gamzee's advice would be useless (and is proven right by the fact that Gamzee and Karkat's moirallegiance fails for similar reasons).

Eridan is willing to shelve his own emotional meltdown for Karkat's sake.

Eridan demands to be the one to provide Karkat with emotional support.

And this is, again, not a one-off thing. In the memo Karkat opens right after Eridan and Gamzee have both turned murderous, after he's spent several minutes making death threats toward Eridan and insulting him directly, he goes:

CCG: I'M SO UPSET, I'M JUST COMPLETELY FREAKING OUT IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE. PCA: yeah i knoww wwhat its like you wwanna talk about it

Eridan spends this entire memo under the belief that it's a completely run-of-the-mill conversation they're having:

PCA: i mean yeah obvviously i kneww you wwerent serious PCA: i guess i appreciate the effort youre puttin into cheerin me up PCA: i can alwways count on you for some good ironic repartee kar nobody else really gets our sense a humor CCG: UGH, NO PCA: are you busy PCA: you said youd try to make it to lowwaa soon wwell howw about it

Which implies that offering to listen to Karkat's feelings is also a completely regular thing for them.

But something magical is ALSO happening within this last memo, and to really explain it, I'll first have to be a little mean to the GamKar shippers (sorry).

So, canonically, GamKar doesn't work out for them, despite also being somewhat foreshadowed. In fact, they feature on Nepeta's shipping wall, which is actually, in my opinion, foreshadowing that it WOULDN'T work out. (Nepeta's ships being wrong, and shipping being something she needs to learn to outgrow, is a whole essay on its own, that I'm not getting into here.)

But the thing is, the seeds for them not working out were also planted in the first - and only - real post-moirallegiance interaction that they have with each other, where Gamzee tries to calm Karkat down... and FAILS:

GAMZEE: naw brother, i was just about to all say for you to try and get your settle down on, maybe. GAMZEE: :o( ... KARKAT: OK KARKAT: OK YEAH KARKAT: I GUESS YOU'RE RIGHT. KARKAT: NO, YOU'RE RIGHT, I SHOULD RELAX. KARKAT: AND BREATHE. KARKAT: I MEAN, WHAT ARE MOIRAILS FOR, RIGHT? KARKAT: THIS IS HOW IT WORKS, I STOP YOU FROM KILLING EVERYBODY, THEN YOU RETURN THE FAVOR AND CALM ME DOWN AND I JUST KARKAT: BREATHE KARKAT: LIKE KARKAT: THIS... KARKAT: SNIIIIIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK, THAT SUN IS BRIGHT. KARKAT: CALL ME CRAZY, BUT IT'S KIND OF HARD TO RELAX WITHIN A STONE'S THROW FROM, OH, I GUESS ONLY THE BIGGEST FUCKING STAR ANY MORTAL HAS EVER LAID EYES ON. ... KARKAT: BUT I MEAN, CAN THIS BE HEALTHY? KARKAT: AREN'T WE GOING TO GET BURNED OR HAVE OUR RETINAS SCORCHED BY LOOKING AT IT? KARKAT: OH GOD I THINK I'M HAVING A PANIC ATTACK.

But let's go back to that memo where Karkat is freaking out in every way possible. This is how he starts that memo - so upset about the deaths of his friends and terrified by Gamzee that he can barely string together a coherent thought:

CCG: WE ARE SO SCREWED. CCG: OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK. CCG: GUYS, I AM TERRIFIED, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. CCG: I'M IN A ROOM FULL OF BODIES, AND I THINK I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO TURN MY BACK ON THEM? CCG: OH MY GOD, I JUST HEARD A HONK. ... CCG: FEFERI, I'M SORRY. CCG: IT WAS MY FAULT, I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. PCC: Sorry for w)(at?? CCG: FOR CCG: I CCG: I CAN'T DO THIS CCG: IT'S TOO MUCH FOR ME, I'M SORRY.

In fact, he's so distressed that he bans Past!Feferi and Past!Gamzee almost immediately after they come in. But then Eridan comes in, and... I mean, first of all, just compare how long it takes for him to ban Eridan:

But more interesting are the contents of their conversation. Over the course of talking to Eridan... Karkat completely calms the fuck down. Like he's entirely forgotten that he's shitting his pants with fear. In fact, he even starts critiquing Eridan for his dumbassery:

PCA: evven if i wwasnt compelled to think you wwere still bein flippant and ironic wwith me you cant exactly outright reject me can you CCG: WHY NOT PCA: cause youre future you PCA: doesnt count unless its present you til then its all fair game CCG: IS THIS REAL, ARE YOU BEING IRONIC OR SOMETHING, I CAN'T EVEN TELL ANYMORE CCG: THE PROBLEM IS, I CAN'T PUT THIS SORT OF BEHAVIOR PAST YOU AT ALL, SO I DON'T KNOW. ... CCG: YOU'RE KILLING ANGELS NOW, AREN'T YOU PCA: no CCG: YOU ARE KILLING FUCKING ANGELS, RIGHT NOW, IN THE PAST, WITH YOUR SHITTY GUN. I JUST KNOW IT. PCA: wwell uh PCA: therere just so damn many kar and theyre not gettin any less bloody pissed is the thing CCG: THIS IS WHY IT WOULD NEVER WORK BETWEEN US, MAN.

It's extremely funny. Over the course of talking to Eridan, he goes from:

CCG: OH GOD OH GOD OH MAN OH GOD CCG: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

To:

CCG banned PCA from responding to memo. CCG: ANYWAY CCG: THAT'S IT I GUESS.

Eridan isn't even trying to calm Karkat down. He still succeeds in doing so. This is because they are soul mates. And I mean that in the sense that the comic literally calls being moirails soul mates, which it doesn't do for the other quadrants:

A reasonable human translation would be the concept of a soul mate, but in a more platonic sense, and with a more specific social purpose.

That "social purpose" being that an even-tempered troll calms down a more hot-tempered one, and vice versa.

It also goes on to note:

But some pale pairings, as the one above [referring to a picture of Nepeta and Equius], will be strikingly obvious to all who know them.

But what's really interesting is the next page.

And yet others will seem to have been hatched for each other.

Did you catch that? Let me zoom in.

(Also, the blue and red cuttlefish to represent Sollux - Feferi and Sollux spend the whole game together, and even wind up talking about their feelings constantly in a pile - more on piles in a sec.)

In fact... in Eridan's first visual appearance...

The crab has always been there for him.

It's also important to talk about the bottle of Faygo that's been photoshopped to be candy red, Karkat's blood color. The path that it takes actually directly mirrors Karkat's relationships with Gamzee and Eridan - it's initially something that Gamzee has, but winds up being ejected out of his life, and washes up on Eridan's shore. In fact:

TC: SnAtCh aN IcEcOlD, dOg TC: MoThErFuCkIn cHuG ThAt sHiT LiKe yOu aNd tHe bOtTlE WaS ReUnItEd lOvErS CA: are you recommendin a bevverage to me or somethin CA: is that wwhat this is TC: YeAh mAn SlAm A FaYgO CA: i dont havve a fuckin faygo you stupid fuck wwhy wwould i keep that disgusting shit on hand TC: ArE YoU MoThErFuCkIn sUrE AbOuT ThAt? CA: oh CA: oh god youre right i do CA: i totally forgot about it TC: YoU SeE MaN TC: MoThEr TC: FuCkIn TC: MiRaClEs TC: :o)

When Gamzee and Eridan discuss this exact bottle, Gamzee even likens it to "reunited lovers"; it's something that Eridan has had this whole time (after all, he was cheating on Feferi with the guy), but never realized.

There are a few miscellaneous things that don't really mean anything on their own, but put next to all this other stuff, is worth considering, so I'll list those now.

First, they both do the bonk:

Second:

CG: ARE WE NOT FRIENDS ANYMORE BECAUSE OF STUFF I SAID. TA: eheheheh you LIITERALLY a2k me that every tiime are you jokiing. TA: ii cant even tell anymore. CG: IT'S A JOKE MORON. CG: HONESTLY I'M JUST GLAD NOBODY ELSE IS PRIVVY TO OUR CONVERSATIONS.

Third, Karkat muses to his future self about how he misses his friends, especially the assholes, two pages before staring at a dead Eridan's ass (joking, he's definitely looking at WV, but it's still significant that this thought is being associated with Eridan):

CCG: I MEAN, DON'T GET ME WRONG. CCG: I MISS ALL OF MY DEAD FRIENDS A LOT. CCG: EVEN THE ASSHOLES! I MISS THEM TOO. MAYBE EVEN ESPECIALLY THEM, IN SOME PERVERSE WAY. CCG: AND I SHOULD BE RELIEVED THAT THEY ALL SEEM TO BE HAPPY IN SOME WAY, EVEN IF IT'S BY FLOATING NEBULOUSLY THROUGH DREAM PROJECTIONS WITH THEIR FREAKY BLANK EYES. CCG: AND I GUESS I AM RELIEVED ABOUT THAT. CCG: BUT AT THE SAME TIME IT'S LEFT ME UNSETTLED.

Fourth, in the same conversation, he bemoans his failed relationship with Terezi, before Future!Karkat chastises Past!Karkat for his instability and mixed signals. Going back to the page on moirallegiances, an explicit function of a proper pale relationship is stabilizing a troll's other relationships:

The two partners in a strong pale relationship will serve to balance and complement each other's emotional profiles, and thus allow their other relationships to be more successful.

Of course, I don't need to tell you how messy and unstable Eridan's relationships have been.

And finally, Piles of Stuff™ are associated with moirails, and directly stated in-comic to cause an outpouring of emotion:

Standing near this pile stirs powerful emotions. The closer you stand to piles of stuff, the more freely the feelings flow. It is a law of reality.

So here's a seven-word tragedy for you: For Sale, Shitty Wand Pile, Never Used:

ERIDAN: at least i got the upright basic decency to hide my shitty wand pile somewwhere in the lab you wwont find it dont evven bother lookin KARKAT: WHY DO YOU ASSHOLES HAVE PILES OF THINGS, JUST STOP.

(Which he specifically tells Karkat about.)

So, yeah, what I'm saying is, there's just, like, a weirdly large amount to read into here. That Karkat and Eridan are probably soulmates or whatever. And that this is important because...

Eridan Is Plot Relevant (Well All The Dead Trolls Are But This Is An Essay About Eridan)

So. Now we are going to talk about themes. Yes, like we are in schoolfeeding again. I'm going to keep it simple, because "The Themes of Homestuck" is a whole essay on its own, and this one about just the shitty fish boy is already way too long.

I think it's fairly non-controversial to posit that the main theme of Homestuck is, "children should mature, care about each other, and throw off the shackles of their old society, because they will be responsible for a new world one day."

Up until Game Over/the Retcon, this is so prevalent and well-established that SBURB/SGRUB's coming-of-age themes will outright be commented upon by the characters, and the main villain is a child who deliberately stunted his own growth so he could go around kicking over other peoples' toys forevermore.

So, the thing is, with that being the theme of Homestuck, if ALL of the Alternian trolls don't survive to the end, the ending is thematically unsatisfying, because the message suddenly gains an addendum of "well, some kids just need to die," which totally sucks. Like, sure, Eridan was a violent, crazed murderer even at the best of times, but his permanent death within the canon ending kind of means that the comic is saying that people in his position don't deserve kindness or second chances. That position being a traumatized, emotionally neglected child, who was being bullied by people he considered his friends. It's a pretty terrible message.

It's even worse when you consider what other trolls don't make it to the end - Nepeta, the most outspoken troll against the hemospectrum (and Davepeta does NOT count, don't try to tell me the final culmination of Nepeta's character arc is being combined with some guy she barely knows and a bird). Feferi, who genuinely wanted the best for others, even if she was kind of a privileged princess. Aradia and Sollux also stay behind in the bubbles, even though their lives have pretty much been endless parades of suffering and being used by other people. Even Equius doesn't deserve it - he was kind of a casteist freak, but not irredeemably so, and the fact that he became kinder to Karkat over the course of SGRUB proved that he had the capacity to change. And Tavros, allergic to himself and being insulted by Vriska, is a terrible way to end his arc.

It's also really clear that, since half his friends are dead, Karkat just doesn't really have anything to do. His title is the Knight of Blood, and Blood is about bonds - romance, friendship. And yet, he ends the comic having never figured out what Blood was about, with no confirmed filled quadrants (sorry DaveKat likers, but within the comic itself, DaveKat is never confirmed), and most of his bonds nothing more than ghosts in the bubbles. It's a terribly unsatisfying ending for the most narratively important troll.

I think, then, that even if you don't agree that Homestuck should have ended with full revivals and redemption arcs for all the trolls, the essay is going to proceed on like you do, so, sorry, I guess.

The thing with Eridan, specifically, is that he's actually tied deeply into the plot and themes, and his return means more than just Karkat finally getting a date (although that's important, too). Eridan is directly intertwined with a prophecy to kill Lord English; he's set up to mirror Caliborn and Calliope; and thematically, his redemption would be the most clear instance of the "interrogating society" part of the theme of Homestuck, because Eridan is kind of the Society Troll. And also, he was definitely supposed to be Roxy's wizard boyfriend.

Just gonna get that last one out of the way real quick because it's a fast one, Roxy fucking loves wizards and is a hipster. Eridan is a wizard and is also a hipster. Roxy has a crush on a prince. Eridan is also a prince. Roxy wears a purple striped scarf. Eridan wears a blue striped scarf. Roxy uses rifles. Eridan uses rifles. Momlonde's introduction includes a passive-aggressive fridge battle that features a cameo of Eridan's quirk.

Using the colorful MAGNET LETTERS, you recently left a succinct message, which may or may not have been directed toward anyone in particular. But you couldn't find the letter W, so you just stuck two V's together. Your mother then purchased a fresh pack of W's and left them there for your convenience.

Yeah. So. Uh. Not only did Eridan need to be brought back to date Karkat pale, but he also needed to be brought back to date Roxy flushed. Can you imagine how funny it would be. They'd get together within 5 minutes of meeting for the first time and Rose would lose her shit. Anyway.

Him being a parallel to Calliope and Caliborn is also a quick one - Caliborn uses Riflekind/Sceptrekind, and Calliope uses Pistolkind/Wandkind. Eridan's two weapons are rifles and wands. Lord English is described as an evil wizard and at one point is shown using Calliope's wand. Eridan is also an evil wizard who uses a wand.

Look, I'm not saying that Eridan is necessarily directly related to these two, nor am I even necessarily saying that he and Roxy HAVE to date, but I am saying that he's got Weird Plot Connections that make him bizarrely relevant to characters that only come into play well after his death - almost like the comic was setting up that he would be coming back. His reaction to Cronus supports this, which I go into detail about here.

There's other strange "Eridan's plot important" things, too - like the fact that he's completely unimpressed by Faygo, considering it to be "just soda," and seems to be the only non-cultist who's okay with it. Or the fact that he's actually been awake on Derse since before the game (but unable to hear the horrorterrors, maybe foreshadowing some psychic resistance?) which he casually reveals to Kanaya and which Terezi is aware of, hence he's included in the people she names are "in" on the existence of the game. Or the fact that the genetic code for Alternia's first guardian was written within the pages of four FLARP books, with the addition of a fifth code Gamzee wrote in Karkat's ~ATH book... but Eridan was the fifth FLARP player in the team, implying that Doc Scratch/LE influencing Gamzee caused him to usurp Eridan's part of the first guardian code, giving LE his way into the trolls' universe.

Individually, it's all kind of nothing, but it just paints a bigger picture of Eridan being weirdly relevant, especially when we get to the juicy stuff:

The Prophecy

ARANEA: The 8ard of Hope may seem a little jaded these days, 8ut he once had a deeply a8iding faith in magic, and dedicated himself to 8ecoming a great wizard. He 8ecame convinced he was hatched to defeat an extraordinarily evil magician, one he swore the angels foretold of. ... [T]his magician once somehow from afar tried to strike him down at a young age, so he would never have to face him. 8ut the evil spell was deflected, sealing the magician's spirit away in a series of unassuming vessels until he could find some other cunning way to enter our universe. ... ARANEA: 8ut at some point he 8ecame disillusioned with magic. If there ever was any truth to his far fetched vision, the legacy of defeating the evil magician would have to 8e passed on to his descendant, or if his descendant proved to 8e as much of a failure as he did, then perhaps on to some other Hero of Hope.

ERIDAN: i slaughtered enough angels to knoww my limits and wwhere i stand against the lord of all angels they prophecized

GG: im pretty sure hes from the future! CA: wwhy GG: because he said hes my grandson CA: wwhat the fuck is a grandson CA: is that some kind of pervverse human familial thing GG: umm yes ... CA: that gun i just gavve you is somethin of a hatchright to the kid CA: happy i could play a role in your dirty stinkin lineage GG: like an heirloom? i guess it could be ... CA: i kinda think thats wwhy i found the gun in the first place CA: but noww im forsakin it because fuck i just found a better destiny than my old crappy one wwhich i nevver got any appreciation for anywway

Jake is supposed to have been the one to defeat Lord English. (No, Jake defeating pre-LE Caliborn right before he gets sealed into Cal doesn't count! He doesn't even get the final blow in that fight, DIRK does.)

But Eridan at one point had that destiny on his shoulders. Aranea turbohealing Jake, and the resultant hope field, summons a bunch of angels, which are heavily associated with Eridan - yet another random connection that Eridan has with future plot events.

Jake was another character, alongside Karkat, who was kind of reduced to a joke by the end, despite the fact that he had literally, directly, been passed the destiny of defeating Lord English. It's hard not to see this as a consequence, at least in part, of removing Eridan from the story. By cutting him out of the fabric of the ending, several plot threads - including this prophecy - are left dangling in irrelevance. And so Jake, like Karkat, now has nothing to do.

Homestuck is generally a series where every prophecy does come true, which makes it kind of startling when several prophecies fail to - Feferi's to "unite the two races," Jake's to defeat Lord English, and Karkat's to bring "compassion, forgiveness, and equality among all bloodlines" in the Signless's place.

That last one is actually relevant to:

The Thematic Importance of EriKar As Soul Mates

Eridan represents the worst aspects of Alternian society. He's a sea dweller at the top of the caste structure, with free reign to murder whoever he wants, soaked in the blood of thousands of innocent trolls. He espouses the casteist rhetoric that their society is built on, calling for the deaths of all land dwellers and the oppression of the lower castes. And while he should be benefitting from his position of privilege, it has also done nothing but hurt him.

Karkat, meanwhile, is a pariah. A mutant who would've been culled on sight, who spent his entire life living in hiding, and most of the game in fear that he would be ostracized or worse by the rest of his friends if they found out about his blood color. He's also the second coming of Troll Jesus, and thus, more despised by the Alternian ruling class than a mutant normally would be. For most of his life, he dreamed of nothing more than finding belonging within the society that had deemed him unfit.

Their friendship is something that "should not be." The highblood and the mutant. The royal-v and the off-spectrum. The empress's sea dweller and the second coming of the signless. Eridan "should" see Karkat as a miscreant to cull on sight. Karkat "should" be terrified of Eridan's very existence.

But in reality, Eridan doesn't give a shit about blood color, and Karkat just wants to be accepted. Eridan just wants someone to care about him, and Karkat loves his friends. Aside from Feferi, Eridan is the only highblood who never comments about Karkat's mutant blood, and they were best buddies even before Eridan knew.

Eridan and Karkat getting together isn't JUST the two most undateable trolls on the team finally landing a stable quadrant. These two, moreso than any other pairing, represent the themes of Homestuck. Children growing up, caring about each other, and throwing off the shackles of their old society.

In the pre-retcon timeline, their team failed to do so. This led to Gamzee falling into his highblood clown cult, Equius letting himself and Nepeta die by submitting to his place in the hemospectrum, Vriska killing Tavros because she couldn't allow herself to show weakness, and Eridan completing his caste's dream of genocide. Karkat spent the entire meteor trip and beyond beating himself up about it, since he considered it all to be his fault.

But with the introduction of John's retcon powers, they have the chance to, one by one, redeem themselves. I believe that's how the original ending would have gone: Terezi would ask John to bring Vriska back, because she only feels comfortable fixing her own mistakes. Vriska would then have asked John to bring back Tavros, whom she regretted killing. Tavros would be there for Gamzee, rendering him an ally. Gamzee would ask John to bring back Equius and Nepeta. Equius would ask John to help him not make the same mistakes with Aradia, and Aradiabot would catch John by the wrist and demand he bring her back in time to before she died, allowing her to circumvent her own death and Sollux's guilt. Sollux would ask John to keep him from provoking Eridan, saving Feferi. And Feferi would be pretty ok with the way things were... but KARKAT would then pull John aside, and drop an entire book of mistakes he made on John's lap, and this would result in a finalized timeline where all his friends are alive and god-tiered.

Because all the trolls SHOULD have survived.

Vriska should've survived because people should be allowed to have second chances.

Tavros should've survived because caring about each other, and being willing to show kindness and mercy, are good things.

Gamzee should have survived because people mired in religious fundamentalism and cults deserve to be offered a helping hand.

Equius should've survived because people should be allowed to grow and change their beliefs.

Nepeta should've survived because she was the anti-casteism troll. Casteism is bad, folks! Not only that, but I'm convinced that she was originally going to give the Ultimate Self exposition, and Davepetasprite^2 had to be contrived in the canon ending in order to shortcut Nepeta's character development, ruining it in the process.

Aradia should've been allowed to stay with the rest of the team and live a life free of the control of evil uncles and shitty ancestors.

Sollux should've been allowed to stay with the rest of the team because we all deserve to heal and be happy.

Feferi should've survived so she could be in a kismesistude with Nepeta, and realize that casteism itself is bad, not just the definition of culling, and then used her Witch of Life powers to even out the lifespans between the next generation of trolls, which needs to happen or else casteism will just happen again as long-lived highbloods inevitably amass power. And, also, it would complete the prophecy Gl'bgolyb gave her that she was intended to unite the two races (dream bubbles don't count, because by that metric, Sollux did more than she did by establishing a connection between the trolls and humans).

And Eridan should've survived, because the harm society has done to us can be undone. We don't have to submit to the roles it imposes, to the laws it wrote, to the abuse it inflicted. We can be free.

I've seen a lot of people who believe that such-and-such character did SUCH awful things that they don't deserve a happy ending. Oftentimes, it's Eridan, but nearly all of the dead trolls have gotten this treatment. So, let me just ask all of you who have gotten this far and still hold that opinion one thing. Do you think that's what Troll Jesus would have wanted?

This is why pale EriKar is so important: for it to happen, Eridan has to make a choice between upholding the beliefs of his shitty society, or pursuing a happier, kinder future, one where he outright rejects the caste system. For it to happen, Karkat has to shake all his insecurities about not being good enough by Alternian standards, and take on the duty of creating something better than what he came from. If pale EriKar happens, it means Eridan and Karkat choose love, not fear. Compassion, forgiveness, and equality.

This choice - this pairing - is the ultimate representation of giving Alternian society one big middle finger. Saying, we don't need you anymore, fuck off! Saying, we reject you at your core; we will choose something better! Saying, we will create a new world, and it will be kinder than the one we came from!

Pale EriKar means LOVE WINS.

Thank you for reading.

#homestuck #eridan ampora #karkat vantas #erikar #im also going to tag all the other trolls that feature because yeah. #vriska serket #feferi peixes #nepeta leijon #equius zahhak #gamzee makara #kanaya maryam

[disabilityshowdown]

and with that, folks, we have finished the preliminaries!

our aim was to get 132 characters narrowed down to 64, we narrowed them down to 67, because of an amazing three polls where the difference was made by literally a single vote, and i think as far as preliminaries go, that's not preference that's chance (one vote may make the difference when it comes to the final rounds, bc then it's exciting, but here that's a tie)

you can view the complete set here

which means more importantly, i can reveal who those 67 are up against!

so without further ado, here are the 64 characters that you guys nominated the most, in order of who got the most nominations! (read left to right, up to down, or look at the list i'm about to put under the cut)

the post containing the full bracket can be found here, and as usual, image description and list of characters under the cut!

ID: An 8x8 square containing icons of the following 64 characters, in this order:

Eda Clawthorne (The Owl House) 

Hiccup and Toothless (they’re a set do not separate) (How to Train Your Dragon)

Barbara Gordon/Oracle (DC)

Toph Beifong (Avatar: the Last Airbender)

Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Ashton Greymoore (Critical Role)

Finn Mertens (Adventure Time)

Kitty Softpaws (Puss in Boots)

Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Marvel)

Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Marvel)

Nicholas Benedict (The Mysterious Benedict Society)

Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - both Rise and IDW)

Octavio Silva (Apex Legends)

Crutchie (Newsies)

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (Star Wars)

Amaya (The Dragon Prince)

Charles Xavier/Professor X (Marvel)

Viktor (Arcane)

Taimi (Guild Wars 2)

Johnny Joestar (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)

Vash the Stampede (Trigun Stampede)

Drey Ferin (Just Roll With It)

Geordi LaForge (Star Trek)

Kaz Brekker (Six of Crows)

Melanie King (The Magnus Archives)

Snake (Zero Escape)

Future Leo (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Janice Palmer (Welcome to Night Vale)

Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)

Alphonse Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Marvel)

Della Duck (Ducktales)

Jayfeather (Warrior Cats)

Shouko Nishimiya (A Silent Voice)

Violet Evergarden (Violet Evergarden)

Briarlight (Warrior Cats)

Ticket Jerry (Dialtown)

Yang Xiao Long (RWBY)

Ricky Potts (Ride the Cyclone)

Jimmy Valmer (South Park)

Terezi Pyrope (Homestuck)

Bruno Madrigal (Encanto)

Gregory House (House MD)

Moon Knight (Marvel)

Shanks (One Piece)

Chai (Hi-Fi Rush)

Kazuhira Miller (Metal Gear Solid)

Izaya Orihara (Durarara)

Finnegan Wake (Monster High)

Frankie Stein (Monster High)

Sage Beldaruit (Witch Hat Atelier)

Urakawa Mamoru (Mega Man)

Teo (Avatar: the Last Airbender)

Tavros Nitram (Homestuck)

Hearthstone (Magnus Chase)

Tony Stark/Iron Man (Marvel)

Rani (Pixie Hollow)

Wilt (Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)

Izumi Curtis (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Juno Steel (Penumbra Podcast)

Imperator Furiosa (Mad Max)

Bentley (Sly Cooper)

Quasimodo (Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Nagito Komaeda (Dangan Ronpa)

#disability showdown

[tilia-cacophonous]

Got tagged by @hydromantia(thanks, Florian! 💕)

Last song: either Siúil, a Rún or Mo Mháire by Clannad from the 1976 Dúlamán album, I'm not sure

Currently watching: …My youtube Watch Later playlist? I'm not really a Movies or TV series person, ahaha. Last proper thing I watched was the bootleg of official play recording of much ado about nothing with Tate and Tennant, back in February

Currently reading: I'm over halfway through the Fellowship of the Ring (i am,, A slow reader,,I think both Florian and I are acutely aware of that 😅 enjoying myself a lot though! The environment descriptions are absolutely Delightful). Also Gottland by Mariusz Szczygieł when i remember about it

Current obsession: I'm busy! So ive tried to force my brain into being calm-ish and able to focus on other things by trying to limit engagement with things that could kick off a fixation. I've been…. moderately successful? Let's go with that. Last big one was eurovision in May, and since then it's been only max 2-day-long micro-obsessions lol

Oh! Because it fits the spirit of the post, I'd like to share that I've started learning piano! :D (homestucks may recognise Dance of Thorns!!! I'm very excited about that)

Tagging @comrade-slugcat @nintendont2502 @daz4i @dihalect @thatll-do @morkify @attachablepenis @velcorvid @furtiveseal

no pressure and feel free to take your time :)

#I think these are fun

[trans-clown-catgirl]

Jack Noir: A masterclass in villain introductions. (A Homestuck writing essay)

Hi! I'm Holly. I'm currently rereading Homestuck, several years after my first readthrough, and this reread has made me keenly aware and analytical about many of the comic's good aspects, and quite a few of its... Not so subtle shortcomings. But I've decided to pause midway through Act 5 Act 2, in part because it's very very long, to talk about what is thus far one of my favorite aspects of the entire comic; Jack Noir, and his introduction to the story. Without further ado, let's dive right into the deranged ramblings of someone with a severe case of villain favoritism, and a keen eye for good setup and payoff regarding villains!

Warning, this is very long, over 3000 words long. I have a lot to say about this guy, ok? Ok. Oh, and spoilers for HS all the way up to A5A2. Eyestrain warning too also

Intro

As someone with a long history of absolutely adoring watching villains in fiction, analyzing every aspect of the stories they’re in and how they impact them, their roles in said stories, and how the author handles them, it’s no wonder I’d instantly gravitate towards Jack Noir. He is, in my sincere opinion, one of the most effectively, swiftly and masterfully set up villains in not only Homestuck, but the general landscape of action media. Why is this, exactly? Well, a few reasons come to mind…

Prelude

We first meet Jack Noir less than 1000 pages in, watching over Dad Egbert, who has broken out of Derse’s prison and started wreaking havoc on the agents of Derse. Jack is one of these agents, and right off the bat it’s clear that this guy has a really, really short temper. Calling the agents trying to get a hold of the fugitive "Graveyard stuffers" in irritation at their incompetence, and making it clear how much he absolutely despises his boss, and of course, as will become relevant later, the stupid outfits she forces her underlings to wear. He hates his position, he hates his job, he hates his boss, and just about everything around him. You normally wouldn’t bat an eye at this, though; he doesn’t seem particularly dangerous, and seems like a relatively minor character, judging by his amount of screentime. His underhanded and cunning nature is demonstrated as he sends PM on a suicide mission to kill the White Queen and King in order to receive the green parcel; two crowns for one box. Again, you might not think much of this when you first come across it, it seems like Jack is just doing his job in his own way, applying underhanded tactics to make sure this package stays where his boss wants it to be; but it will become relevant later.

As the comic progresses, the trolls become more and more active, you might start wondering what the point of these conversations are, why they’d talk so much to the humans and what the point of this trolling campaign is. But more importantly, you might begin to ask why they seem to harbor so much hate towards the humans and why they treat them as nothing more than irreparable fuckups. It's implied that the kids eventually do something so catastrophically bad that the trolls (mostly Karkat) can’t possibly look past it and regard the kids as absolute idiots because of it. But, you’re just left wondering… 

Intermission

As you’re left wondering, something odd happens; the Intermission takes place. The Intermission is relatively short, and seems mostly pointless at first. Its placement seems odd, leaving you on a cliffhanger as you begin a story seemingly entirely unrelated to what you were just reading, save a few cameos from the Midnight Crew. The Intermission, of course, will later go on to be incredibly relevant, being the first ever mention of Lord English (albeit without a rapidly flashing pool ball in place of the O in Lord), and establishing the very important fact that if Snowman dies, the universe goes down with her.

Instantly, you notice that the members of the Midnight Crew reflect the designs of the Derse agents, although they’re clearly entirely different people, by different names, with different goals; although their core personality remains the same.

Most relevant to this conversation is Spades Slick, the leader of the Midnight Crew. He gets a good amount of screentime near the start, before the focus is shifted to the rest of his crew and their hijinks (Mostly Deuce, though.) as they destroy the Felt Mansion’s clocks and kill every single green torso they can find in the building. It’s clearly a messy job, and a few of the kills happen by either complete coincidence, or through sheer stupidity from the members of The Felt.

… That’s with the exception of Slick’s kills.

It’s stated right off the bat that he made sure 3 of The Felt’s members were dead before their raid, including Crowbar, possibly the most well rounded and clever member of the green torsos. This, combined with his entire layout for the plan, show that he’s got a knack for planning well ahead of time, and doing it well. His first kill is completely unceremonious, tripping a certain fast yellow dumbass right into his untimely demise. The focus remains on him for a bit, but we don’t see him do much before we cut to Deuce, and then the rest of the members of the Midnight Crew. But when we do…

So, the Intermission continues, and we’re shown Slick doing cleanup duty; taking out the remaining red torsos, stopping Eggs and Biscuits’ shenanigans in one fell swoop, and generally getting things done in a timely and efficient manner. And then, it’s shown how unhesitant and ruthless he can be, willing to sacrifice his crew’s lives and take a massive risk by forcing the vault open. He and Snowman are the last ones standing. And, you know the rest… Including how unphased he seems at the loss of his arm after the initial pain.

He’s precise. Methodical. Almost brutally so. Every single move he makes is well calculated, knowing exactly what outcome it will have before he executes it, with the goal of getting Crowbar’s, well… Crowbar. And along the way, making damn sure Sawbuck is dead too… Not before manipulating his time warping abilities in a precise manner that allows him to get what he wants from specific points in time, and efficiently return to the point in time he was at before he pulled the pin. He does so seemingly with little effort, calculated, surgically precise, each action done with purpose. Each stab and slice at Sawbuck performed with intent. Not to mention a clever reuse of Snowman’s own weapon to his advantage.

Now, why did I discuss all this? Well…

Setup, part 1

The Intermission serves a very important purpose for Jack’s setup as an antagonist; it shows us, through an alternate version of himself, how capable, ruthless, cunning and calculated he can be. Realizing this, the previous intermission makes much more sense… Kind of. You wouldn’t piece that together while reading it. But later on…

As you progress, it becomes evidently apparent that the reason the trolls (again, mostly Karkat.) are so mad at the kids is because they did something that affects both parties, and now the trolls are suffering the consequences of it. It’s hinted at and slowly built up, until…

This conversation makes it completely clear. The trolls are under siege by a threat that the kids caused. And as you scroll through the rest of the conversation, you wonder what that could be, and then you lay eyes on the bottom of the page.

> [S] JACK: ASCEND

Jack Noir. The archagent. The Derse counterpart to Spades Slick. You instantly recognize that name, because you saw his counterpart in action not too many pages ago. That ruthless precision, the brutal nature of each kill, the calculated and planned approach, these are things you’re to assume Jack is perfectly capable of as well. And it’s shown to you firsthand that he is just as capable. The aforementioned repressed rage and boatloads of anger are brought to a complete boil by the Black Queen showing her face and making a plaything out of Jack, someone overflowing with hate, overflowing with rage, overflowing with bloodlust. He completely snaps, rips off his outfit, and as the Queen threatens to kill him for his disobedience… The box comes back into play. He opens it, and whatever was inside vaporizes the Black Queen, leaving only tattered remains and a ring. His planning, cunning nature leads him to victory. And it creates the single most dangerous monster you’ve seen to this point.

The ring is used. The soundtrack’s pace flares right back up as Jack Noir transforms, in a menacing, gorgeous looking sequence, ending with a perfect shot of our new villain. 

Jack Noir, the insurrectionist. A threat to every timeline, and every universe.

ACTUAL INTERMISSION

As the comic progresses, this is shown in full display, as he ravages the Skaian battlefield, kills hundreds in one fell swoop, and does away with the crowns and/or their powers. He’s shown going toe to toe with Bro Strider, one of the guardians, who we just witnessed taking on some of the highest level monsters the kids’ session had to offer. This instantly sets the stage for how much you should be afraid of him, and how massive of a threat he poses.

… Or does he?

By this point, I had already been absolutely enamored by the way Jack Noir had been set up as an antagonist, even if I knew it was coming. I had never appreciated just how much went into making sure you were vaguely aware of a threat’s existence, setting up that threat, and without you knowing, showing you what that threat is capable of. And then you get payoff! A flash that’s pure eye candy, backed up by an utterly amazing track by the incredibly talented Toby Fox, that serves as an amazing piece of payoff for the foreshadowing that took place. An amazing way to establish a threat and what they’re capable of! By now, you’d think that’s it, that’s our guy, but… We’re only halfway through.

SETUP 2: TROLLS EDITION

So, now you’re familiar with Jack Noir. He’s a present threat, you know exactly what he’s capable of. I mean, come on, he went toe to toe with Bro and forced him to retreat! He wiped out the entire Skaian battlefield, he got a kickass theme, and got yet ANOTHER flash to show how horrifying he is in Descend! But oh, it’s only the beginning…

Hivebound. You’re thrust straight into the Trolls’ session, where the plot becomes quite a ways more complex, and you start to better understand and know the trolls. Something becomes quickly apparent, though; their session was much, much more complicated and difficult to get through, with stronger monsters, stronger weapons, and a 12x prototyped Black King. A Black King that they managed to take down, even though you never got to actually see it happen. If Jack Noir is still somehow in your mind past all the drama, atrocities, sea nazis (Or… Singular sea nazi. God I hate Eridan. Why did Pesterquest try to make him sympathizable. They failed. Fuck you, What Pumpkin. I’m glad you’re dead.), class fetishism, and other abject horrors of troll society, you might start asking yourself a few questions.

How… Exactly is Jack a threat to them? Jack went toe to toe with Bro, sure; but he didn’t absolutely dominate him or anything, and he only had 3 prototypings powering him up, while the trolls faced a 12x prototyped adversary and won. So, he shouldn’t be that much of a problem to them, right? Hell, their Jack even helped them out! Seeds of doubt start forming to those who pay attention, but the story proceeds.

Despite all this, as conversations go on, it’s clear that Jack is very much still what the trolls fear most at the moment, but it’s not clear why. In fact, he’s fighting Bro and Davesprite and getting his ass kicked. His credibility as a main villain begins to be put into question! Regardless, Jade’s part of the game begins after much waiting, and Jade enters the medium. Not before a conversation about how much of an irrefutable fuckup June is, though, courtesy of Karkat. Finally, you’ll get to know exactly what went so wrong that would spur such an intense hatred.

The trolls reach the end of the game, but right before they can close it out… A cataclysm happens. Something shows up, wipes out the Aradiabots, and forces the Trolls to retreat to the furthest ring, stranded on a meteor with an impending sense of doom. You might not assume it’s Jack at first! It could be the fabled Lord English, as you might suspect due to the green aura that caused all the destruction, but there’s no implication that he’s awoken yet, especially since Doc Scratch makes absolutely no implication that he ever did. Couldn’t be Jack either, right? He’s not shown to be able to do anything like that up to this point. Whatever it was, it destroys Prospit. Things are looking rough, and the trolling campaign soon starts.

Now, with Jade about to enter, you might remember her dog, Becquerel. You know, the one that could warp space and time to its will, and is nigh invincible? That one. Well, June falls asleep, thus leaving an unprototyped kernelsprite, and a Jade on the cusp of death; but not before her guardian, Bec, prototypes itself into the kernelsprite. It destroys the meteor! All is well, right?

… It cuts to Jack’s fight with Bro and Davesprite. And then it sinks in.

The spacetime warping dog’s power is going to be transferred to Jack Noir.

Something terrible is born.

A cut to the mysterious force that forced the trolls, the ones that took down that abomination of an ultra-prototyped Black King.

The threat makes itself known. A victory denied, doomsday begins.

The Aradiabots, a large factor in the victory against the Black King, are completely annihilated.

The force behind Prospit’s destruction is revealed.

There is no going back. The end is nigh.

The conversation resumes.

Bro is dead. He never stood a chance. Good riddance.

CG: YOU MADE AN UNBEATABLE BOSS IS WHAT YOU DID.

CG: THE IDIOT YOU CALL THE JADE HUMAN WENT AHEAD AND PROTOTYPED HER FREAK OF A LUSUS, WHILE YOU DECIDED TO TAKE A NAP FOR SOME REASON RATHER THAN DOING WHAT A LEADER IS SUPPOSED TO DO AND STOP HER FROM BEING SO FUCKING STUPID.

CG: YOUR VERSION OF JACK, WHO YOU WERE SOMEHOW DUMB ENOUGH TO ENTRUST WITH THE QUEEN'S RING, BECAME ESSENTIALLY INDESTRUCTIBLE.

CG: HE THEN WENT ON A RAMPAGE THROUGH YOUR POINTLESS SESSION, WHICH HILARIOUSLY, WAS ALREADY A LOST CAUSE EVEN BEFORE THIS HAPPENED!

CG: I AM JUST BESIDE MYSELF WITH THE SPECTACULAR BREADTH OF YOUR FAILURE.

CG: AND IF THIS WASN'T BAD ENOUGH

CG: YOUR "SOLUTION" LATER WOULD BE TO OPEN A RIFT IN SOME GLORIOUS GESTURE OF MEANINGLESS SUICIDE.

CG: AND I HAVE NO IDEA HOW

CG: BUT THE RIFT YOU OPENED ENABLED HIM TO ENTER OUR SESSION, JUST AS WE WERE ABOUT TO CLAIM OUR PRIZE.

CG: AND NOW WE'RE THE ONES WHO HAVE TO FUCKING DEAL WITH HIM!

CG: SO THANKS A LOT, SHIT HEAD.

God he’s so fucking cool.

It’s then explained to you that Becquerel was a first guardian, a protector of its inhabited planet, a type of being that’s omnipotent and just about impossible to kill. Properties you’ve already witnessed in the past with Bec. And those properties now belong to this brutal, bloodthirsty, cunning, methodical force of nature.

Everything is fucked.

Trophies collected, he leaves the scene. All hell is now loose.

AFTERMATH

CONCLUSION

This marks the end of Jack Noir’s introduction as a villain. First, his personality and personal abilities are shown in full display, instantly creating a menacing villain who you can absolutely be afraid of; followed up by how he got his hands on the power that allowed him to become a multiverse-scale threat. It’s set up through the course of the comic all the way up to his ascension, and the payoff is fantastic. However, he’s not too big of a focus, and in fact, you might forget about him as you enter the trolls’ session. New impressive feats come up that might make you doubt his credibility as a threat… And then you slowly find out that what you witnessed isn’t even half of what the characters will have to deal with. Another introduction takes place, an established powerful character killed, a proper measure of his power set by previous impressive feats becoming completely obsolete in the face of this unstoppable force of nature. Built up over the course of several thousand pages, he makes it look like the trolls’ session exists purely to portray how purely and utterly screwed anything is in the face of this black-snouted living superweapon.

Thus, a villain is established; he will continue to demonstrate his prowess and sheer level of absurd power, all the way till the penultimate page of this 8000+ page long comic. He will continue to be the single coolest villain in the entire comic, and a memorable one; in no small part due to his amazing double introduction. A lot of the best parts of the comic include him, and are often caused by him. And his first impressions, his initial impact, everything leading up to him being formed, are a large part of the reason why.

Jack Noir may not be objectively the best antagonist in the comic, the best written character, or the most deep (On purpose, mind you; he doesn’t change, but his presence drives other characters to change as a result of his actions), but one thing’s for damn sure; his introduction, both the first and second halves, were executed with a degree of elegance, cleverness and efficiency the likes of which any author can envy. It is utterly perfect; show what the villain can do, what kind of person they are, what drives them, and most importantly, make damn sure you convey to the audience how utterly terrifying they are by making it clear what kind of threat they’re dealing with. In Jack’s case? An omnipotent being that renders every previous opponent the heroes have faced completely obsolete, driven only by rage and bloodlust. A cunning, intelligent and brutal one at that. Everything being showcased and built up over the course of the first quarter or so of the comic in a perfect manner. Ample setup, paired with perfect payoff.

A villain introduction worth remembering.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Jack Noir is my favorite antagonist in Homestuck, and one of my favorite villains of all time. From his design in both his ascended and Bec Noir forms, to his personality, and how the story perfectly sets up everything regarding him and delivers an amazing degree of payoff, I am absolutely all over this guy.

Yes, I’m reusing this image, because look at him. He’s so goddamn cool. That’s your reward for reading through all of this. Me gushing about how cool and utterly amazing Jack Noir is as a villain and character. By the way, he should have kept the shades. They would have looked amazing on him.

Where was I? Oh, right. I hope I properly articulated why I think Jack Noir’s introduction over the course of the comic was executed to absolute perfection, and I hope I helped put other people’s similar thoughts into text in a unique and interesting way. If you have anything to add or anything you want to discuss, feel free to do so! An appreciation for media can only go so far without hearing other people’s thoughts, after all!

With that, I draw a close to this massive gush-rant-essay about my favorite villain in all of HS, and a contender for my favorite character overall. That’ll be it for me, and I hope this was a fun read at the very least.

I’ve been Holly, turbo-nerd extraordinaire, and I’ll see you on the flipside! Have a good day!

#homestuck #holly rambles #jack noir #bec noir

[blaperile]

Homestuck: Beyond Canon (reactions pages 408 - 475)

Alright, we've read the latest 2 updates .

I mentioned last time that I wasn't really sure whether I would feel "ready" to be typing any update reactions again, like I used to do.

Well, there is actually a few things running through my mind right now I want to write down already!

So without further ado, I suggest I just get to "the point" :B

I absolutely LOVED these pages!

Before I started, I was a bit afraid, due to there being a new creative team, that perhaps things would suddenly feel very, very different.

Now, I would say it DID feel a little bit different, but in a good way!

The art style especially was marvelous. It looked just so classic Homestuck! With the Sprite Mode, and Hero Mode-like imagery.

But also something that seemed to be a new kind of art style? I'd say it felt kind of like a mix between Sprite Mode, and Hero Mode, and kind of reminiscent of Problem Sleuth style!

I totally approve of that. It's "new", but feels so classic MSPA.

Story-wise I'm also very happy! I wasn't expecting so many new pages already, with focus on so many different characters. That was amazing.

It felt like a great continuation of where we left off with these characters. Maybe something DOES feel a little different, but only in a good way, with how many references there were to classic things that came before (His Honorable Tyranny, coin flip, Problem Sleuth-like art style, Jailbreak scene, references to the pirate ship adventure of John and Sollux, DEAD panel, pesterlogs, John and Roxy being rendered in a kind of Dad and Mom like manner on Jane's screen)

To me, it feels like this new "Homestuck: Beyond Canon" team is honoring even more what came before than the "Homestuck^2" team did (and tbh, IMO those guys still did a really good job).

I absolutely loved that Sollux made his glorious return, after having only appeared for a brief gag in the "prologue". While seeing him with Aradia was always cool, it's nice to see him interacting again with other people by himself too.

Speaking of which, I love how he basically didn't give a shit about John, just like how in the good old days on the Troll meteor Sollux was the only one not interested in speaking to any humans.

A bit sad that he didn't tell John about Calliope, Aradia and Davebot's escape from the Candy reality, but then again, there's nothing really any of them can do about it (other than entering a SBURB session, me thinks?), so maybe they really are better off (for now) thinking that Dave is dead.

I assume the original creative team had a very different direction they wanted to take, perhaps with John really meeting Rose, Jade and Kanaya after he left Roxy, and Vriska and Vrissy being stuck in Crockerjail for a while longer.

But still I felt the new team handled this very well with the return of Sollux and the Jailbreak references.

I'm a bit bothered by how exactly Jane figured out all this information about what John, Roxy and Calliope were up to and what they talked about, though. Like ok, maybe her team hacked into John's phone and saw he was meeting up with Roxy, but how did she know what they talked about in person on the meteor? Are there cameras/microphones planted there?

Anyway, it seems like the team is eager to "get to the point" in going to the meteor and bringing Vriska there, for whatever will happen. I hope it won't lead to the meteor's destruction (and dear precious Sollux getting hurt so soon after he just joined us again :( )

I think that's about it what I want to share for today! I'm really excited to see where "Homestuck: Beyond Canon" goes next, and I will make sure to update my "Homestuck Multiverse From The Perspective Of" tally soon.

#Homestuck #Homestuck: Beyond Canon #Homestuck^2 #update reaction #Sollux Captor #Jane Crocker

[hungeringheart]

If you're still active can I have a Derse witch of hope analysis

Hi! I'm going through my backlog answering a bunch of asks (in appearance order). I'm sorry I took so long, a lot was happening! I have to say thank you for letting me have a reason to do another classpect post, I really liked doing that first one. I hope you like this!

Without further ado, let me make this as lovely an experience to read as it must have been to see the other one for you!

Let me teach you to wonder and worry,

Permit me to tell you how to wage war;

A creature's reach should exceed its grasp,

Or what's a heaven for?

- Leslie Fish, Lucifer

Regarding Hope

Homestuck frames Hope as a very powerful aspect. I would caution people against the assumption that it's always the most important variable in all games -- it was central to the kids' story in a way it may not be in other narratives -- but we get direct statements from Aranea about the power of Hope, and a number of people get stepped on by Hope heroes who shouldn't get stepped on otherwise. This is because, basically, an aspect that runs on not obeying limitations is really effective in a story about unfairly imposed limitations.

That's what I think Hope really means in context -- perseverance at any cost, the faint glimmer of possibility, the boundary between "is" and "might be", the ability to dream and want things you can't have, the part of the future you cannot see and have to trust in. In some respects all players have to learn Hope-type behaviours and understandings (to play the game at all you have to go in blind and trust in the idea it will all be ok), but Hope players have the inevitable certainty that what they're doing will have an effect... and honestly, considering the grind? They deserve it, probably.

I'm not a sadist; I enjoy just being able

To be a witness of

the loneliness

And be a higher power,

In case there isn't one...

In case there isn't one.

I'm not a higher power; I just live in the ceiling,

'Cause I'm lonely on the fringes

And it gives my life some meaning

In the exile -- in my exile.

- Paris Paloma, notre dame

Regarding Witches

Witches, like I've said here before many a time, change and change through their aspect; their task is to challenge and reform things and systems that aren't working. They're supposed to be opposed in this in some way; the operative symbolism here is the Biblical witch, who in context would have been a type of spirit medium, a person who could hypothetically see justice done, call up the victim's ghost, reveal that it wasn't justice at all and complicate things for everyone immensely; we should also consider the more recent witch, the one properly called by that name, and the overall imagery of the outcast and the distrusted.

As the Sylph is the benign and accepted side of this dyad, the Witch is the questionable, dangerous, unpredictable one -- after all, to "heal" and "repair" something sounds a lot less threatening to the people who built it than "fix" and "change". Even if those things are substantially the same in practice, sometimes.

A Witch of Hope, then, is a person who exists challenging common understandings of Hope -- an unusual Hope player who chooses to lean into being unusual, maybe in many ways even behaving like a Sylph of Doom. A Dersite Witch of Hope is one who doesn't accept the way of things or necessarily the framing of their aspect, and whose methods are perhaps more invasive and direct than some others' may be -- but in what way? Let's see.

Tired and worn from the patterns I've carved,

I will do better in the morning.

I'm afraid of who I'd be without you,

I will do better in the morning.

Twisting up smokes, I'm in control

'Til the fire burns down my miniature vacation

And I'm always left with the taste in my mouth --

I will do better in the morning.

- Birdtalker, Better in the Morning

A detour to Prospit

There's something that all Derse dreamers have in common, and we can best understand it in terms of the opposite.

Of course there is the official quiz writeup about the moon sway, which tells us they're all unified by a restless skepticism and an anxiety about time -- but outside of that, and actually maybe even ignoring that, have you noticed that both canonical Derse dreamers had a similarity of journey?

Dave and Rose's struggle throughout the game is essentially the same struggle -- the game is pretty dumb for some shit that has everybody by the scruff of the neck, and the thing that has to change about that before they can approach the problem is their own approach to the situation.

Now, see, Prospitian quests seem to be focused more on external things, connections, social markers of coming of age, the system as it's meant to help growing children -- and Dersites' quests are internally focused, typically between them, some deep thought and the relevant entities one by one. Rose's grimdarkness, Dave's time travel -- oh goodness, the time travel. Why is that?

The answer is probably why Prospit dreamers have a stereotype of being agreeable -- not necessarily, and they don't need to be whimsical extroverts the way that John and Jade are; they just have to be able not to push away people they need, whether because they love those people and were never hurt by them, or because they're afraid of and resigned to them... or because the invisible hand of the game has, like the proverbial monkey's paw, curled a finger.

Not to say that all players don't have to go through both a social and personal maturation before they can create a new universe, but the game might select an arbitrary sway for a person based on a perceived shortage in their life of that element.

In this school of thought, it's popular fanon that abused children are often Prospit dreamers -- they're already on a journey of struggle no one else can see before they play, and if they refuse to externalize it (like Dave does, thus his Derse sway) they end up dreaming on Prospit because the computer is a cheating bastard.

Skaia needs them in shape to play and exploits their sense of order (damaged as it is) to get them in a position to do it -- if you're already really good at accepting existential horrors in your personal life, what's a fantastical computer world of friendly lizards to you? More importantly, might puttering around looking after several thousand mentally deficient salamanders and befriending individual pawns from a culture that hates you (the multiplayer equivalent of forming the Felt) help you heal from the trauma of your own uncaring childhood?

A Derse sway then might mean a typically edgy sort of lone wolf or contrarian for any number of readily worldbuildable reasons, but it could also mean that this person has trouble trusting and relying on themself and their own instinct -- and what better way to sharpen that faculty than making them rely on it all night every night in their sleep?

Put it all together now:

A Dersite Witch of Hope is someone who has to make some internal changes and grow a little around the idea that the conditions and axioms of persistence and faith in their world are flawed; someone who is assigned the task of dreaming about and iterating on these things until they crystallize in some sort of a waking plan or indeed a hope for a way forward.

This person will not be unopposed in the external world, but their internal journey is about them individually, about how they digest the ideas they encounter and grow into the type of person they need to be...

All in all, a perfectly charming kind of thing to be -- and player to have in your game, don't you think?

#classpect analysis #witch of hope

[nekropsii]

I wanna know your opinion on Humanstuck and the discourse all about race and all that if you have the time. I really like seeing how you color code your text to the character. its extremely cool.

Firstly, hello, and thank you! I think it looks quite nice. It looks even better on Dark Mode! :)

Secondly… This is a very, very touchy subject. It’s one to tread lightly with. I’ll just map some stuff out here in bullet points, both for digestibity and to insure I don’t ramble for too long, lol. Without further ado, and with the clarification that I am, in fact, Biracial, before anyone asks… Let’s go.

I’ve been “a Homestuck” for quite a few years now, and I’d say the weirdest possible thing people can do with Humanstuck interpretations is make everyone white. This was an incredibly common thing back in the day- if you look at most “classic” Humanstuck lineups, 95% of the time, almost everyone is white. The fandom has definitely gotten a lot better about diversity in recent years, though, so that’s cool. There’s… Definitely some aspects of that that could be worked on, but… We’re getting there! Much steadier and with much more ease than a lot of other fandoms.

Let’s all address the elephant in the room. Hussie is/was quite racist, and this shows up a lot during the course of Homestuck. If you need specific references for what I’m talking about here… Think about Gamzee, Kurloz, Meenah, and Damara for a moment. Now, addressing them in Humanstuck interpretations can be a little tricky. There’s no doubt at all that Gamzee, Kurloz, and Meenah were intended to be read as Black- with it showing up particularly heavily in Gamzee’s character through stereotypes, and in Meenah’s character through her speech patterns and her hair. There’s also no doubt that their Black-Coding is… Well, kind of offensive, especially when you remember they were written by a racist white guy. Personally, I think it’s best if you just… Make them Black, as per their coding, you just also have to acknowledge, at least internally… Why they’re Coded the way they are.

Jumping off the previous point… I think that, in general, for the characters that were written with specific Ethnic Coding, it’s probably best to just make them that Ethnicity. To ignore it kind of feels like Erasure, at least to me. You’ll just have to be prepared to fix them up a little bit, and make them less… Egregious.

Not everyone has to be the bastion of “Good Representation”- ultimately, not everyone is going to be aware of every minuscule cultural nuance under the sun, and not everyone is going to be very “aware” or “up to date” on that kind of thing- what matters isn’t really reaching Peak Diversity, because that’s a rather pointless uphill battle to fight. What does matter is understanding the Biases and Bigotry behind the original work, why things are the way they are, and why and how Hussie wanted you, The Audience, to perceive certain characters that he depicted as People of Color.

I am begging people to not make the Zahhaks Native American.

#hope this is what you wanted lol #homestuck #homestuck meta #homestuck fandom #humanstuck #nekro.pdf #nekro.sms

[transmeowsculine]

Hello hello hello and welcome to:

Nep’s Downloading Homestuck Walk through!!!

im on desktop and i dont know how to make colored text on desktop so just pretend thats a rainbow!

also going to at @ @ghostdragoncookie  because they needed help but feel free to use this whoever u are!

(also dropping the typing quirk for clarity cause maybe people want to download homestuck but dont have nepeta puns dictionary bookmarked for easy access)

OKAY SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO: the ramblings of a teenage boy who just woke up from a three hour nap and also knows like 4 things about computers but just used brute force to get his way through it

Step one:

go here https://bambosh.github.io/unofficial-homestuck-collection/

Step two:

press Download and then download the file that corresponds to your operating system, i have windows so screenshots that will be included will be for windows. but i will learn how to use linux or mac if needed i am a servant to the people! and the people must read homestuck!

also make sure to put it in a place you can find easy that will be important later

Step three:

Downlaod the asset pack. Now this is the hard part, imo, because they say all asset packs are the same but not all work with all the computers. “but nep, that doesnt make any sense! why dont they just tell you what asset packs work for what computers?” and to that i say: thats the joy of homestuck! nothing works, about three things make sense, and we all just guess until it works out. so if your asking what asset pack to download, just start at the top and work your way down ig i dunno man thats what i did.

Step four:

Assuming you magically picked the right asset pack (and if you didnt dw there will be a trouble shooting thing at the bottom of this) you will go into your files and find homestuck!

Step five:

Unzip your files. How I understand for macs if you click on a file it automatically unzips itself. (why does it do that apple? whats the fuckin purpose?) I dont know for linux but once again if asked i will learn. and for windows theres a nifty button to press pictured below.

Step six:

OPENING HOMESTUCK!!!!!

so now you will go into actual homestuck and open it! process pictured below!!

first you want to make sure ur asset pack and hs are in the same place, that is just for ease of finding things later

next you will go into homestuck and click this button

that will open homestuck!!! from there, i cant use anymore screenshots sadly because i already have everything installed. but it will ask you to tell it where the asset pack it. it is rather self explanatory and just make sure that the file you give is the actual asset pack and not a file with the asset pack in it

so basically as soon as you open this

you get this

after that you get this page

and congratulations you can now read homestuck!!!

Trouble shooting:

“I still cant open homestuck/my asset pack wont unzip/homestuck cant see the asset pack”

sadly i believe you have downloaded the wrong asset pack. as i said before its really hard to know what one to choose. just delete it and pick another one then try again.

“i have no idea where i downloaded the asset pack and/or homestuck to so now i cant open homestuck/cant tell it where the asset pack is”

alright so in windows at least you can search your files. just search homestuck or asset pack and you should be able to find it. move it to a place you will be able to find again (i have a folder for all my video games and homestuck is there) and get started!

if you have anymore questions reply to this post or send me an ask/shoot me a dm! i am always happy to help i like doing stuff like this!

#homestuck #the unofficial homestuck collection #toby talks #if you know a way to fix the asset thingy tell me please

[gendertrickster]

holy shit i LOVE the implication that dirk showed his friends the weirdass images that guy made him draw. AND that roxy uses one as her phone background

#ado reads homestuck

[funwithchickenjane]

"there is nothing like the locked tomb..."

reading slumps suck. so i wanted to take a crack at recommending some specific read-a-likes that i've enjoyed over the years. without further ado...

"i really wish more books had..."

big-ass bone construct battles > the archive undying by emma meiko candon

this novel follows sunai, a man who cannot die, cannot age, cannot escape his past, and tries to solve most problems with gay sex. you will find familiar themes of chronic physical and mental illness, unreliable narrators losing their minds, body-swapping/mind-sharing, and monsters of bone and flesh slamming into each other.

whatever 'as yet unsent' had going on > witch king by martha wells

several people, some with history, some without, most grieving, all gay. and you guessed it--they're on a dangerous mission tangential to a rebellion plot! this novel best captures that energy of "the battle has happened, and now what?" as well as the impact of personal relationships on peoples political convictions. and yes, one of them is an anal-retentive lesbian cop.

labyrinthine houses of mystery > piranesi by susanna clarke

a weird one! piranesi follows piranesi, a odd little man living in a infinite house(?) with endless corridors and rooms. he knows only himself and The Other, until one day a third person shows up. here, you will also find themes of chronic illness and insanity. it also has guys who maybe shouldn't be god, houses of mystery, and a dark-academia-adjacent mystery. sadly, i don't think there were any cows.

fucked up old people threesomes the broken earth - n.k. jemisin

this a pretty grim fantasy series about a version of earth with fifth, extreme, seasons and people with geologic magic. alongside familiar themes of imperialism, oppression, and rebellion, this novel features one of my other favorite trios that messed up the world with a baby and a bomb. it does capture some of that retelling of the end of the earth vibes from nona. the use of names and identity is also quite interesting.

nona's genuine love for earth and its people > 17776 and 20020 by jon bois

stay with me through the football beginning. if you've come from the homestuck, you will appreciate these webcomics about three space satellites and the immortal, utopian earth that has nothing left to do aside from playing football. i think it is the only other thing i've read that captures both the human spirit and the horrors of immortality in quite the same way. (yes, it's still gay).

lesbians lesbians yuri lesbians yuri > kissing the witch by emma donoghue

this novel reimagines and connects thirteen fairytales into a tapestry of different (frequently lesbian) relationships and experiences. this book is one of my favorites when "two young adult lesbians who fall in love" is a little stifling and you want a larger cast of characters. (milfs, i mean when you want a book with milfs)

epic queer love story with necromancy > mo dao zu shi by mo xiang tong xiu

listen. i know that in the queer novel/ship tournaments the tensions were high. i know we're trying to focus on lesbians here. but i need you all to know in your heart of hearts that every bit of propaganda in the great 'wangxian v griddlehark (v old people)'-off of 2023... applied to both books. highly, highly recommend.

lesbian nuns... in space! > our lady of endless worlds by lina rather

this series of novellas tracks an order of nuns on a living spaceship serving in the outer colonies. faced with new orders from the church and a the distress call from a new colony, the order begins to question the version of history they were taught and the validity of their mission. (i have seen this promoted as 'camp', but personally, i find the themes to be much more serious/genuine than that).

#tlt #the locked tomb #read-a-likes

[limeinaltime]

Switchie's OC: Reff

Switchie here! I've started reading Homestuck lately (currently at Act 3's beginning page) and I'd thought I'd share with you an OC I came up with!

…ok well technically it’s also a Murder Drones oc BUT WHATEVER!

So, without further ado, allow me to introduce…Reff!!

(Also I was inspired by some internet series online like Inanimate Insanity so…yeah. Keep that in mind)

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

A mysterious entity outside of Liminal and Paradox Space, Reff is an all powerful reality bender that resides in Shadow Space, a dimension connected to every universe and reality and plane of existence, giving whoever’s inside it access to travel the multiverse and beyond in its entirety.

Smart, charismatic, awkward and a little bit controlling sometimes, Reff is the most powerful being in all of creation , shadowing even X’s power. He can bend reality on a whim, changing everything to his liking. He is the only thing that Amberose and even X herself well and truly fear.

Unlike so many other reality bending entities, however, Reff doesn’t want power, nor conquest. He doesn’t want fame, glory, or to preserve some golden age that doesn’t exist. He doesn’t want bloodshed or genocide or perfection or anything like that.

Instead, he hosts a game show!

A game show where those who want to be redeemed can prove their character development by partaking in a competition! A game show where their cooperation with each other will be put to the test!

A game show where the respective competitors are transformed into inanimate objects that fit their respective characters, Be it a knife, a spoon, a ladle, a basketball, a tag or even a pack of bandages for goddamn chickens.

A game show in which you can win THE OMNICUP, a trophy that reflects the entire multiverse in it. Oh, and a sense of completion for whoever wins BUT MOSTLY THE OMNICUP!!!

And this game show is called…

✨REFF’S REDEMPETITION!!!!✨

Yes, that's the name. Shut up.

Reff’s done this song and dance more times than he could count! He’s done this game show in countless realities! From actual shows like Steven Universe and The Owl House to the likes of BFDI and Inanimate Insanity, he’s gone through it all!

And now, he’s got to more realities to add to his list:

Homestuck, and Murder Drones.

And he's noticed quite a few people from both are still wanting to prove their character development.

What better way than to have them compete in his game show and televise their development to the people their trying to prove their development to, right?

(Appearance wise Reff has a, quite literal, shadowy figure with no discerning features apart from his limbs, combed hair and white, oval shaped eyes. Just thought I’d put this down here just to let ya know.)

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Aaand that’s my OC!

…

I uh…I don’t really have much else to say.

…

I’M GONNA WORK ON MAE’S THING NEXT BYE-

I could honestly see Reff and X being friends and him occasionally popping by the MD universe to visit a fellow Void entity, but he would probably just... hate Amberose. He has no idea what's wrong with the guy, but has decided that running him through the game would just be unfair (and too dangerous) for all the other participants to actually want to redeem themselves. You can drag a horse dragon demon god to game show therapy but you can't make him not try to kill everyone. The reality lawsuits after that who fiasco were insane.

[radicalagnostic]

Ok, before I get on with this, I need to list out a few things.

I am writing this down on a google doc first and foremost. I’ll copy paste it. It’s just easier this way for me.

I do not have access to the unofficial collection. This is because my computer only has 2 GB of space left and runs like a turtle with polio.

The update schedule for this will likely be inconsistent. I have plans this summer, and I don’t want to force myself into routines that will obstruct my normal life.

Finally, the J Egbert thing. I’m choosing to use they/them to refer to Egbert so I don’t alienate anyone, because I know people feel very passionately about them to say the least.

And, without further ado, into the vortex I return.

6/12/22 6:18 PM EST

It's funny how this comic is now just as old as the main characters are in the beginning. I personally learned about it first in 2018… when I was 10 years old. I remember the gifs scared me away. This has really not much to do with anything, it’s just kinda funny.

Honestly, I completely forgot Egbert had an interest in programming. I don’t think the comic expanded on it much

Ah yes, the Problem Sleuth poster on Egbert’s wall (with a direct link to Topatoco no less.)

Maybe...just maybe…if we-

No.

God I love the way this is written. “BIRTHDAY ARTIFACT”. Yeah no sorry guys I don’t say “presents” anymore, these are my fucking BIRTHDAY ARTIFACTS (all caps).

I forgot you could merge cards. Did anyone actually do that? I don’t think so.

You know, earlier this year I tried to get my older sister to watch ConAir with me on 4/13. We never finished it because she said it was racist and Nicolas Cage freaked her out. The latter brings me joy to this day.

I find it funny that Homestuck BETA is semi-canon. God, Homestuck BETA freaks me out. Why the fuck are they so smooth? It’s so incorrect.

Ok, real talk. How is Egbert even alive? How often does this kid eat cake, seriously? Get them some nutrition, asap.

What a beautiful desktop. My favorite addition is AAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH. ~ATH

That file must contain nothing but quality.

(ran out of image room, so I'll post the second part of this separately)

(btw, if it isn't obvious, this was written yesterday. My tag for these things is gonna be "rez reads hs")

#radicalramblings #hs #i dont think this counts as a 'liveblog' since i wrote it yesterday in a google doc #it's certainly... something #rez reads hs

[yours-the-author]

Team RWBY's Extended Zodiac Signs: My Thoughts

Hey, some stuff happened today and I want to take my mind off it for a bit, so I'm gonna try something that's different than what I usually do but have kind of wanted to try out for a while. I don't know if I'll do anything else like this or if this is a one off thing, but it just seemed like a fun way to write down some thoughts on some characters through the lens of a particular medium.

For those who don't know already, the Extended Zodiac is an extension of the constellation zodiacs (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc) made for a video game called Hiveswap, which is a spinoff of a webcomic called Homestuck (which you may or may not have heard of). The constellation zodiacs are combined with two other elements- Lunar Sway and Aspect- to create 288 unique signs, each of which offers a more particular explanation of your personality and thought patterns. Whether you think the zodiac is a bunch of hoopla or the absolute bomb, it can be fun to take the quiz (linked here) and learn more about yourself and find your True Sign. Or do what I'm doing, and take fictional character's birthdays and personalities to figure out what categories they fall into. Or create a trollsona for them.

And the other half of this, for those who don't know: RWBY (pronounced "ruby") is an animated series following the members of the titular team RWBY: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long, a group of young women who are preparing to become huntresses, which are heroes who protect the world from the dangerous creatures of Grimm (keep in mind, this synopsis is for the first volume/season, and the show has recently finished showing its ninth; the story has changed VERY much from volume one. You can watch the very first trailer for the show here)

Anyway, relatively recently (as in September of three years ago), the official RWBY Twitter/X account announced the official birthdays of our heroines (linked here), and given the personalities of the characters, their birthdays were very... interesting, to say the least. So I've decided to look into their Extended Zodiacs to find out more about them. It's possible this has already been done by someone else, in a way more detailed (read: better) way, but like I said: this is mostly for me, to get my mind off of some stuff right now.

So without further ado, here's my thoughts on the Extended Zodiac of Team RWBY, below the cut! (Spoilers for RWBY and Homestuck, of course!)

Ruby Rose - October 31

Scorus - Sign of the Victorious (Scorpio, Prospit, Breath)

Played for a joke, but very official: Ruby's birthday is the same day as Halloween, making her a Scorpio. This surprised me, considering that the Extended Zodiac is quick to tell you that Scorpios "are the ones to watch... they have the potential to do the most good, but also cause the worst harm."

Of course, most people are quick to jump on the "worst harm" aspect of Scorpios, given the reputations of Homestuck's Scorpio characters (...Does this make Ruby a Vriska?) So what's going on here? Was the choice of birthday simply a joke that got cemented in canon?

Not necessarily. Throughout the show, and especially more recent volumes, Ruby has always done what she believes is best for the good of her friends and the world, with incredibly varied results. Whether she intended it or not, Ruby has been at the center of some great goods and terrible harms, which fits very snuggly with her Scorpio sign. Scorpios are also "all in" types, "willing to throw themselves into work, play, and everything in between", and you can easily point to many scenes throughout the series to prove how this fits Ruby (a fan favorite, and a personal favorite, is the food fight scene from Volume 2).

Okay, so Ruby's a Scorpio, but that's not all this is. This is where things get a little fuzzy, because some people's interpretation of her character are vastly different from what I'm about to talk about. But let's start with her Lunar Sway: for Ruby, I chose Prospit.

Some people hear Prospit and think "ah, yes, the optimistic and silly one". But Prospit (and Derse for that matter) aren't nearly that simple. Prospit Dreamers are described as "reactive and intuitive... making decisions (based on) gut instinct and whatever emotions they are experiencing in the moment". They do tend to be optimistic, but the site is quick to point out that it's a FLEXIBLE optimism, meaning it can be prone to dwindling or growing stronger depending on the situation.

Ruby is creative and emotional, (and yes, optimistic). It can be argued that many of her choice were based on what emotions she was feeling at the time of the choice, ranging from her choice to defend Pyrrha Nikos from the Grimm even after her accidental involvement in Penny's first death, to choosing to lie to Ironwood about the lamp after the truths it revealed about Ozpin. Ruby cries a lot on the show (many of the characters do, and really, can you blame them?), but she's also quick to smile and laugh and offer encouragement (and in volume nine, her patience wears out and she gets angry, which leads to a lot of rash words and choices in itself).

There can also be some argument for symbolic representation, too; namely that Ruby's silver eyes can flash a light that scatters the Grimm (to ashes). Prospit being the "light" moon, pressed right against the bright glow of Skaia, is a pretty fitting choice for someone who holds the powers of the God of Light. Fun stuff!

Now that leaves the last part of the Extended Zodiac, and easily the most debatable part, mostly because there are twelve different choices based on personality, which again, can be interpreted differently from person to person. For Ruby, I ended up with Breath, though my other choices were Hope, Blood, and Life, for varying reasons.

The typical personality traits for a Breath player are: motivated, adaptable, forward thinking (positive), and volatile, gullible, and avoidant (negative). Being the leader of Team RWBY, Ruby has had to learn to motivate herself and others towards their common goals, be able to adapt to changes both on the battle field and in her relationships, and has spent most volumes looking forward (a very famous line by the creator of the show, Monty Oum) to what can be done next; how to next achieve her goals. But she can also be gullible, either for something innocent like a snide comment from Weiss (typically in the earlier volumes) or something much more dangerous, like Cinder's (in my opinion) not so secret infiltration of Beacon Academy. Then in the most recent volume, when Ruby loses her cool, the other characters would probably call her outburst "volatile", here meaning "a rapid and unexpected change, typically for the worse" (though really, we all knew it was a long time coming).

There's also that little hidden bit of lore about the aspects: Breath and Blood players tend to be considered leaders, for one reason or another (this doesn't mean that all "leader" characters are either Blood or Breath, necessarily, but it's a fairly consistent pattern in Homestuck, with John and Karkat being the unofficial/official leaders of their friends). Breath players in particular "will routinely be surprised that others look up to... them". This can be seen with Ruby's surprise at being chosen as the leader of Team RWBY by Ozpin in Volume 1, and later on by characters like Blake and Jaune, with Blake in particular holding great respect for Ruby as a leader.

And technically, there's one more thing; a fourth part to choosing someone's true sign: their "Word". I don't think this is officially a major part of the Extended Zodiac, but each sign is given their own word that represents them, a sort of "title" in its own right, and as you saw at the top, the "Word" for a Scorpio, Prospit, and Breath combination is: "The Victorious."

Victory is in a simple soul, indeed.

____________________________________

Weiss Schnee - May 15

Tauries - Sign of the Unsatisfied (Taurus, Derse, Time)

Funny story: it turns out that Weiss' birthday is very close to mine! I'm also a Taurus! I'll admit, I wasn't expecting Weiss to be a Taurus, though after comparing the details to what Weiss is like, I can see the connections.

The opening lines of the "Taurus" explanation are what really caught my eye for Weiss: they have a "warm and generous disposition, though you might not accuse them of it the first time you meet. They (can be) withdrawn and slow to open up... (they can) come off as arrogant and cold, like they think they are too good for everyone." That's basically Weiss' whole character arc in the early volumes! Weiss spends her early screen time living up to her nickname "Ice Queen", acting like a spoiled rich girl with a heart as cold as ice ("acting" might be putting it gently). But over time, she grows and learns along with her teammates and friends, showing off her warmer, gentler side in the later volumes.

Another thing to note is that Taurus' can be hedonistic, filling their homes with beautiful things if they have the means. No one's got an eye for luxurious items like the Ice Queen herself!

Next up is her Lunar Sway, which was a pretty obvious choice for me. Derse dreamers are skeptics, dissatisfied with almost everything in their lives. "Rebellion is in their blood... whether they are fighting back against a fascist dictatorship or the most recent trend in casual footwear." Again, Weiss' whole character arc! Despite being "born with all that (she) need(s), (her) comforts all guaranteed", Weiss is rebel through and through. Whether she's pinning her hair up asymmetrically, singing a rock opera rejection of her father's ways, or straight up disobeying and bending some rules to accomplish the team's goals, Weiss rebels in pretty much every way she can. Her shrewd and calculating mind doesn't hurt, either, leading to a perfectionist attitude and an aversion to unfamiliar situations that is very common for Derse Dreamers.

Now for her aspect. I kind of wanted her to be a Heart player, since it would fit with her theme of "Who am I, I'm the loneliest of all", but it didn't fit quite right, so I ended up with something more straightforward: Time.

Practically going hand in hand with Derse, "those bound to the aspect of time are fighters, full stop." They hate sitting still and looking pretty, and would much rather do anything and everything they can to fix a problem. Sound familiar? Weiss' personality fits pretty well here: she can be very empathetic to her friends and will relentlessly do her best to solve a problem (in particular, that brief scene from Volume 2 where she stubbornly tries to get a flower in a vase to stand up straight comes to mind). But of course, speaking of the earlier volumes, we get some of her worse traits: she can be ruthless to those she deems unworthy, gets very defensive of herself and her family name, even though she's aware of some of the less-than-stellar things her father's done, and can get impulsive when she's angry (Volume 1 is a big part of this).

Then of course, there's her Word: the Unsatisfied. That basically describe Weiss' whole arc: dissatisfied with the comforts and seeming perfection of her family, aware of the misdeeds done by her father, and aiming to do better, be better, Weiss fights to turn wrongs into rights, and won't be satisfied until everything's just so.

__________________________________

Blake Belladonna - January 19

Caprittarius - Sign of the Rift (Capricorn, Derse, Void)

In a world where some consider her only half a person, Blake is actually the highest ranking character on the hemospectrum (and ironically, Ice Queen Weiss is the lowest). I wasn't sure what I thought Blake would be, but it wasn't a Capricorn. But then I did a deeper dive, and things make a little more sense!

Capricorns are workaholics, stubborn and determined to reach their goal, their way. It can be difficult to change their minds, whether it's a political choice or a preference in restaurants. All of the characters in RWBY work hard, but you could argue that Blake's been working hard for the longest. Her younger life is marked with a stubborn need to bring equality and peace to the Faunus, and she continues to show that stubborn loyalty to who she is in later volumes, too (think of the scene in Volume 9 when the tree smoke's illusion suggests she could choose to be either a cat OR a human). One of the biggest things about Blake's zodiac, though, is her dedication to her goals and her relationships: "utterly, and without hesitation". (Her promise to Yang in particular comes to mind).

Next is her moon, which is fairly easy to pick: Derse. Yes, there's her rebellious streak, joining a revolution to fight for rights, even if not everything they did was legal, but it's more about Blake's thought process for me. Derse Dreamers are "great problem solvers, facing conflicts head-on with shrewd, calculating minds". Knowledge and problem solving is a big thing for Blake, be it from the books she reads or applying what she knows to strange situations (such as making the connection between the Ever After in Volume 9 to Alyx's story).

Now her aspect... I really wanted her to be a Light player, mostly because it would be a perfect foil to her color scheme, but as fitting as the aspect would have been... the Word didn't fit right. A Capripia (Capricorn, Derse, Light) is referred to as "the Brusque", a word that means "abrupt or offhand in speech or manner". Blake isn't afraid to say what she thinks, but something didn't sit right with me there. Blake typically puts a lot of thought into her words (I imagine she has to, being a member of a revolutionary organization and all). She's straightforward, not "abrupt". So, as fitting as Light was for her, I decided to look elsewhere. (Mind was a close second, but again, the word didn't fit).

Finally, I ended up with Void. Sure, haha, the character with the black color scheme gets the Aspect of darkness, but it's much more than that. A void player values potential, seeing possibilities where others see nothing. "A blank page, an empty canvas, that's what the Void-bound live for". More importantly, though, a Void player tends to cast doubt on things that are considered fact. What's a better fit for a revolutionary than that? Especially during the earlier volumes, Blake casted a lot of doubt on the status quo of several characters, namely Weiss and Ruby. For Weiss, casting doubt on Weiss' certainty that all Faunus are evil, and for Ruby, casting doubt on Ruby's ideal dream of becoming a hero like in fairytales.

And, of course, there's her personality traits: wise, intuitive, and vibrant at her best. Bookishness aside, Blake's done a lot for someone her age, and has some experience to back up her knowledge, even if some of it was skewed at one point or another. Despite her more withdrawn nature, she can be a pretty vibrant and happy person, too (waving a flag for the team in Volume 1, getting excited and a bit silly over tuna), and her experience gives her a good bit of intuition to utilize, too. Then the less positive traits: Blake was pretty dismissive and apathetic in the earlier volumes, as the "boring bookworm" type character. Later on, she was shown to be indecisive, leaving everyone behind without an explanation after the fall of Beacon (I interpret her departure as an inability to decide to face her past with her friends, especially in the wake of Yang losing her arm, though I'd understand if people made differing arguments).

Finally, the main reason I chose Blake's True Sign, her Word: "the Rift". Blake is very much known for the rifts she has a tendency to leave in groups she's been a part of. She created a rift between herself and her parents by sticking with the White Fang, even when they started being less peaceful. Then she created a rift between her and her past, hoping to escape the people and things she was a part of. Later, she brings a rift between Ruby and Yang, by leaving when Yang was at her lowest, which in turn lead to Yang not joining Ruby for her Volume 4 journey with the remnants of JNPR. Later again, Blake created a rift between Adam and the White Fang (though really, that was Adam's fault). It's practically Blake's bread and butter.

________________________________________

Yang Xiao Long - July 28

Lecer - Sign of the Loyalist (Leo, Prospit, Blood)

Hotter than the sun in the middle of July, Yang is a Leo! I figured someone like Yang would be a summer child, so Leo was a choice I was prepared for. It's a little easier to find connections when you were already expecting a certain option.

Leos are described as agreeable, lucky, generous, and a little bossy, which is already a fitting start for Yang (at least, in the earlier volumes). Yang is quick with affirmation and affection for people she cares about, while still being a domineering girlboss when she's on the hunt for important information (her trailer is easily a prime example of this.) Admittedly, her luck runs out pretty quickly in Volume 3, and while a typical Leo would ride out a rough patch fairly quickly, it takes at least a few months for Yang to get back up, armed and ready. But she does get back up, and that's more than some people can say after a traumatic experience like losing your arm! Especially for someone as fist oriented (or should I say, handy) as Yang!

Leos can also be known to hold a grudge, which is another factor of Yang's long recovery time. Not only had she lost her arm, she lost her partner and friend Blake without so much as a goodbye, and it took until the end of Volume 5 at MINIMUM (I say closer to the end of Volume 6) to forgive her and reach an understanding.

Surprisingly, picking Yang's Lunar Sway was the most difficult one for Team RWBY. Yes, Prospit is the obvious choice, being the golden moon and all, but for most of the earlier volumes, Yang was stuck in the past due to her mother disappearing, and Derse Dreamers are very much about analyzing the past. Eventually, though, Prospit won out, because Yang finally decided to stop looking for answers from her mom in Volume 5, instead living in the present with the family she chose with her sister and her friends. Yang's slightly more capricious attitude (a word meaning "sudden changes in moods or behavior"; think of how quick she can fly into a rage when her hair gets pulled in the earlier volumes!) is also fitting for a Prospit Dreamer. So there you go.

Technically, I think Time is a better fit for Yang than anything, but I kind of wanted to give each character their own aspect (which isn't realistic, of course, though we've never once seen an official Homestuck session with multiples of the same Aspect). After hunting around for a while (Rage was a very tempting choice), I ended up deciding on Blood for Yang. There are lots of good points here! Blood players "draw their strength from bonds, from the trust and camaraderie that blooms among a group of people who share a single vision". With Team RWBY in particular making special attack combinations out of the unique relationships between each member (such as Freezer Burn for Yang and Weiss, or Bumblebee for Yang and Blake), I think I can safely say that all of these characters draw strength from their relationships. Yang in particular, though, noticeably has a private moment alone with each of her team members. For Blake, it was in Volume 2, when Yang explained her journey to find her mom in order to convince Blake to rest. For Weiss, in Volume 5, Yang opened up to her in private about her feelings on Blake's apparent abandonment. Yang and Ruby likely had many moments like this, being sisters and all, though my mind in particular goes to volume 8, when the two talked about the Grimm Beast with silver eyes and their own separate failures and successes on their individual missions (The RWBPN and ORYJ arcs, though I'm sure there's a better name for them than that).

Finally, her personality traits lend themselves pretty well to being a Blood player, too: Yang is charismatic, uplifting, and magnetic, even to her enemies (again, the Yellow Trailer), and still able to crank out some one liners even when fighting dangerous enemies ("I! HOPE! YOU'RE! HUNGRY!" from Volume 1 and "I'm not done with you yet!" from Volume 9). Her lowest moments are good examples of a Blood player's less positive traits, too: especially during Volume 5 (I'm not counting Volume 4 because she was in her own house that whole volume), she can be sullen and set in her ways, having this sort of dull expression when dealing with anything less than what she deems important to her, even during the fight with the bandits in the woods. She's occasionally a bit unkind, too, getting a bit snippy and impatient when things don't go well. It works out!

And now, my final point: Yang's Word is: "the Loyalist", which is pretty darn fitting for her, I think. Yang is intensely loyal to all her friends, and while she may need a break every now and then to do her own thing (looks at Volume 8), she always returns to support her loved ones in their fight against the darkness. Something interesting to note is how a loyalist tends to be loyal to the status quo, typically in a government type situation. I guess that would make her friendships and love her status quo? It's something to think about.

_____________________________

Anyway, I've been typing for over two hours and it probably shows. I'm going to bed. Thanks for sticking around.

#rwby #homestuck #hiveswap #extended zodiac #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #long post #like a really long post #too long even #rwby spoilers #homestuck spoilers

[snowbatsims]

VAMPIRE INTERMISSION #1

Let's see what these immortal dorks have been up to since the last time I was posting about their shenanigans.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: So this will be a soft continuation of the previous vampire shenanigans I used to post here! You don't need to have read them, it has mostly been played as a vampire sitcom anyway, but the past events of that game are still canon to this world.

Don't worry though, I'll provide enough context for you to know what's going on. See, sometimes I wanna play my vampires too, and since they're immortal they'll always exist alongside the legacy :3 ]

Without further ado, let's look into whatever they're up to at the given moment.

Rune has been keeping up his piano skills.

Einarr has been relearning his knitting and embroidery. totally not because i haven't really played in this savefile since before they introduced these skills to the game, nooo

Morten.... decided to quit their job at the culinary career. They had been promoted a bit too much, forcing them to work in the daytime hours, which... obviously doesn't work for him anymore. Due to the whole vampire thing and all.

Meanwhile, Bat just slept through the entire day, as vampires sometimes do, especially ones with day phobia. You'll see him later.

-------

LATER.......

While Einarr was gone fishing at his night job, the younger three decided to go check up on the kid they raised once:

Kvikindi, the alien-vampire.

MORTEN: hiiiii so good to see you again!! KVIKINDI: what's up!!! MORTEN: the- KVIKINDI: .... and don't say the ceiling. MORTEN: you know me too well

Since the last time we saw her, she has gone to college, she has gotten married to Lilith Pleasant, moved to Forgotten Hollow, and now they have two kids. That's all the context you need.

It has been a few years.

CARMILLA: i don't remember ever seeing you around here. BAT: yeah. CARMILLA: that's it? that's all you've got to say? BAT: yeah

MORTEN: so this is one of your kids? KVIKINDI: sure is. kanaya, this is mort, say hello! KANAYA: hewwo KVIKINDI: are you trying to look human again? MORTEN: ??? KVIKINDI: it's fine, uncle morty is safe~ KVIKINDI: you can show your true self

KVIK: see! isn't she adorable? MORT: "uncle morty"..??? KVIK: well yeah. you don't exactly pass for a grandpa. MORT: grandpa??? oh jeesh. have i already been a vampire for this long?? how old am i even...

MORT: i could have sworn i only became a vampire last year. i'm still in my early twenties... KVIKINDI: nice try! i'm in my late twenties. MORT: what

MORT: man, the passage of time is weird.

MORT: she's so adorable though!! so small and green.... MORT: i didn't know you decided to read homestuck though. KVIK: huh? MORT: you didn't? KVIK: i just named her after myself. that's my middle name. MORT: ....oh my god. this is my fault. KANAYA: weh MORT: you wanna go back on the floor? sure thing.

KANAYA: 😂 MORTEN: should i read you a little book? KANAYA: bah!! KVIKINDI: alright, i trust you to entertain her somehow. i gotta-

KVIKINDI: crap. it's already happeŇƗŇǤ,

MORTEN: wait, what's... oh no.

MORTEN: OH NO............... KVIKINDI: β€ΔỮŦ¥β€ΔỮŦ¥β€ΔỮŦ¥β€ΔỮŦ¥β€ΔỮŦ¥β€ΔỮŦ¥

MORTEN: WHAT!! i thought we cured you!!! we literally went through all of that back in strangerville some time ago, hey-- RUNE QUIT PLAYING RUNE: huh? MORTEN: KVIKKI'S BEEN POSSESSED AGAIN RUNE: wait, what???

RUNE: kvikindi? you there? not this again...

KVIKINDI: ŞỮβΜƗŦ ŦØ ΜØŦĦ€Ř ¥ØỮ ŴƗŁŁ RUNE: OH HELL NO.

KVIKINDI: ΜØŦĦ€Ř Ş€€Ş ΔŁŁ. ΜØŦĦ€Ř ƗŞ ĦΔƤƤ¥ ŦØ Ş€€ ¥ØỮ RUNE: i can't believe i have to get you another cure. how did this happen??? i thought we killed the mother plant???? KVIKINDI: βƗŦ€βƗŦ€βƗŦ€βƗŦ€βƗŦ€βƗŦ€ RUNE: actually, i should go ask your wife, maybe she knows. KVIKINDI: ŦĦ€ ƤŁΔŇ€ Ø₣ ĆŘΔŞĦ ŞΜ€ŁŁŞ ŁƗҜ€ ƤƗŞŞ Ø₣ ĐØǤŞ MORTEN: ... and i should distract the child.

CONTINUE ->

#my sims #vampire intermissions #gameplay #god dammit i can't have more than 30 pictures in one post 😔😔😔 #i wanted to fit this whole visit into one post but i guess not!!!

[nitnendoswinch]

TIM REREADS HOMESTUCK PART 1: PAGES 0-21

In which John messes around in his room for a bit, and I discover maybe the only reason for me to regret switching to a more privacy-focused web browser.

Liveblog Archive

First, while I wait for the Unofficial Homestuck Collection’s asset pack to finish downloading, some housekeeping to get out of the way:

First off, this is my fourth time reading Homestuck. Wait. Actually. Hang on. Is it my fifth? I’m writing this paragraph as I think this over, this isn’t a bit, I’m genuinely not sure. I guess I’m gonna have to go over it one reading at a time:

I was a serial reader, first catching up close to the end of Act 6 Act 6 Intermission 2 in 2013.

I read it all the way through for the first time in 2016, a couple months after it ended.

THIS is the one I wasn’t sure about. I feel like I remember rereading it in 2018? But I’m not really sure. I was thinking of looking way back in my browser history to check but I recently switched from Chrome to Firefox and can’t conveniently check on my desktop and mobile chrome doesn’t let you filter your history by date.

Another reread in 2020 because I was feeling nostalgic for it during initial covid lockdowns, appropriately I started on 4/13 this time around.

So there you have it, this is at least my fourth read-through of Homestuck.

Next up, the structure of this series of posts. My intent here is for this to eventually be a dialog of sorts with the podcast I’ve been listening to, Homestuck Made This World (I’ll just be referring to it as “the podcast“ from here on to keep things from getting too bloated). So first, I’ll be catching up to the point in the comic they’re covering (currently in the early parts of Act 6, about halfway through the comic). I’ll be publishing posts like this one as I go every couple days, whenever I feel like I’ve written enough. After I’ve caught up to the podcast, I’ll publish one post covering the same material that’ll be covered in the next episode, unless that makes the posts too long, in which case I’ll split it up into multiple posts. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. I’ll be tagging each post “#tim rereads homestuck” for convenient searching (or blacklisting) and will be keeping an archive post updated to make it easy to jump from one post to another.

As I alluded to above, since Flash is dead I’ll be using the Unofficial Homestuck Collection. This is essentially an app that lets you read the whole comic in a sort of offline browser of sorts, making Flash and other elements that may be unsupported in modern browsers work as intended. It has some features to make the experience even better than reading on homestuck.com would be, like inline music credits with links to the official bandcamp, a “spoiler free mode” to hide things that might spoil future events for archival readers, and even mod support to add things like author commentary and replace some of the slurs in the early parts of the comic. I’ll personally be running mods to add author commentary and news posts, as well as mods to translate things like that one morse code segment and Damara’s dialog in A6I3. This is my first time using the collection, so while this isn’t my first reread I do hope it’s my best!

Without further ado, let’s dive in:

The first thing you see when booting up the collection for the first time, after a brief intro page, is a list of content warnings. For whatever reason, Tumblr’s post editor won’t let me add text to a post after copy-pasting these, so I can’t show the full list. If I explicitly comment on anything that warrants a warning I’ll include it at the top of future posts. After that, there are some prompts to configure spoilers, locate the asset pack, and we’re off to the races!

I’m not gonna screencap every page but I can’t not include the first one. It’s so iconic at this point!

Also, I learned listening to the podcast that the name “Zoosmell Pooplord” is a reference to an old AH webcomic called “Zoosmells”, which I’m... probably not gonna read as a part of this project.

Another comment relating to the podcast, one of the hosts says at one point that “Andrew Hussie is really good at describing a type of guy.” The description of a new character’s interests are always some of my favorite bits to read. They start to get a little silly after Act 5 but the early ones are great. I feel like a 13 year old with this exact set of interests probably existed somewhere lol

I didn’t react much to the fake arms bit as I obviously knew it was coming, but it was pretty funny the first time around, taking what you think is a joke about the art style and using it to mess with you and all that. I know now that this is a running gag of sorts in MSPA - I wonder how many of those I still don’t pick up on considering I haven’t read Problem Sleuth or the other adventures (Maybe I will at least read PS this time around but no promises).

Another quick note: I don’t have a whole lot of programming knowledge other than a little bit of Python from college - Homestuck basically is all I know about What Data Structures Are.

And a few pages later, we get the first perk of the collection: instead of linking to Youtube, the Con Air clips linked when John examines his poster are archived within the collection itself! I gotta say this is pretty terrific, I wonder how many jokes I forgot the punchline of because they depended on a dead link?

And with that, oh shit I have work in the morning and this post has gotten pretty long anyways. I’ll probably keep the next one in my drafts til I’ve read a somewhat decent chunk, but it shouldn’t be more than a couple days. Thanks for reading!

#tim rereads homestuck