HS^2 reread till p407 - reaction post
So, in preparation of Homestuck 2 restarting, I’ve reread the whole first few pages.
First I reread the epilogues recap page, then the story proper up until page 407.
It was a good refreshener, because a lot of events were already gone from my memory or very vague.
Which, given the nature of Candy Earth C, is rather appropriate, heh.
Reactions under the cut!
That Dirk called his ship Theseus may say something on how he views his mission.
Then again, he declared himself the villain of the story.
page 4: he called authors alliterative, I wouldn't really call 'AH' that, nor his full name.
Rose really goes hard on the 'being a robot' thing. I guess between Aradiabot, Jadebot, and AR, it was time for someone to unequivocally enjoy the state.
p5 : Cool to see his 'omniscience' is only pseudo, like Doc Scratch' was. He didn't know about the missing landing gear.
Hah, and Rose still sees Dirk as heroic. Pretty blind for a Seer of Light.
p6 : OOh, I still had dark mode on, I realize. Let's change that 'n return to the old format, it influences the feel of the story, especially Dirk' bright text.
p9 : You know, it feels like a missed opportunity not to command him to shit his desk.
p12 : Okay, pretty sure I didn't spot Jade's mug on the well, flower mug on my initial read. I own that mug, actually.
And oh yeah, it was a three-year journey to the new planet, nice parallel to the travel time between Universe B1 and B2.
p13 : So, uh, Bro had a relationship with Barack Obama, I'm reading this right, right?
p15 : Dirk claims to have researched his trollsona extensively, yet doesn't display their blood colour on his shirt, smh.
p17: Riiiight, Terezi was aware of Dirk's narration, as a Mind player, right?
And hah, as a troll, with Alternia's awkward synonyms, her roasting Dirk for his verbose prose? Gold.
Pff, and I forgot Dirk was tired of Rose's psychoanalysis, too.
p33: Right, both paths were distinguished by the arrows.
p34: It's heartwarming to see Jake actually having mastered the supposedly basic (yet oft neglected) skill of housekeeping.
p38: We never really saw Jake have Skaian dreams, did we? His Prospit self never woke up on account of a peanut allergy.
I wonder if the dreams of a non-awoken dreamself could have ever been prophetic...
And anyway, he's his ascended self now.
Hmm, but right, his dreambubbleself did have a rather prescient twist to it, in the form of Brain Ghost Dirk...
p41: Speak of the devil, I forgot about this part here, heheh.
Soooo, wait, we're getting back in muddy waters.
Jake is from the post-retcon timeline, where Vriska was on the meteor.
But the ghosts in the Furthest Ring weren't duplicated by the retcon.
If we assume they only met the post-retcon kids chronologically (for them) afterwards, there were a bunch of conversations that happened twice.
And Aranea's ghost 'survived' the Game Over timeline aka got thrown back to the Furthest Ring.
Still, it's gold to have Brain Ghost Dirk be his own self, distinct from ascended Dirk.
p47: "DIRK: You’ve spent years feeling sorry for yourself, totally convinced you made the wrong choices and that it’s all over. And it’s easier that way, isn’t it? If you’re a lost cause you don’t have to try to be better."
That's the challenge for the Candy timeline people isn't it? Continuing to try even if it feels like nothing matters.
Brain Ghost Dirk stopped correcting Jake there that he didn't actually was Jane's running mate, since he wasn't that Dirk.
Well, 'I' and 'you' could be seen as located between air-quotes, of course...
P54: Jake being hopeful again probably triggered the return of Brain Ghost Dirk
P59, 60: The new kids’ quirks are something to get used to again
P64: Almost seems like a Hope glow, around the car
P70 : By shedding his purple sweater, we now see Tavros is dressed in layers similarly to Calliope & Caliborn.
P90 : Note how she doesn't even really counted Jake as part of her family, there.
P95 : Gotta love cross-culture influences on Earth C, like the carapace derp face.
P96 : Introducing the world's most pollutive missile.
P97 : You'd think once it reached critical speed it wouldn't need the propulsion anymore. Maybe the sails actually serve as (stellar) wind breakers, hahah, and the giant pipe is a countermeasure.
p101 : Showing Karkat has started living at human hours since he's asleep at 5 AM, n'aww.
p105 : Meat timeline folks just keep on being couped up in small spaces for extended periods, don't they?
Meat timeline just really focuses on the cabin fever side of things.
p108 : I swear I forgot Dave pointing this out :p101
p109 : In the story people & the appearance of them in other's minds is important. It's the same for the old Homestuck kids.
Who they are and who they were to us are two separate things.
At the same time, in story, who they are to each other is also very important. Brain Ghost Dirk's a culmination of that.
p114 : Dave really just drew the short stick there w/r his best friends' fates, didn't he.
And Bro still casts a long shadow.
At least it's good to see Dave is in a somewhat good place. Just a little sad he has to basically be a hermit apart from some close friends to achieve it.
p115 : So Karkat never really was close with Rose, interesting.
p130 : I wonder if Dirk started discarding things "pointlessly difficult and irritating" as a way to cope with his isolation growing up.
Roxy had the carapaces around, he only had seagulls...
And eesh, being your ascended self, as in, knowing full well what you'd do in any situation... Really kind of sucks, doesn't it? Not seeing room for growth for yourself.
p131 : So, recap: A2 was coded blue and had a purple game design. A1 probably had the reverse.
B1 was coded red and had a lime green game design, B2 was the reverse.
The C universe is coded white (see: the door they went through) and the game design will be cyan.
Meanwhile, Dirk and Rose's species might be associated with the color purple & orange.
Kind of makes you think of Prospit & Derse, doesn't it?
Makes you wonder if the trolls in A1 were also guided by their universe's gods, or not.
p133 : 10:25 hours ago
p135 : "ROSE: It's amazing what pieces of inconsequential information your mind can recall at a moment's notice, a whole decade after they were last relevant or interesting to anyone.
ROSE: ...
ROSE: I think I missed this."
Appropriate, given that it's been so long since Homestuck ended.
p141 : Basically, Dirk's DNA was used to animate the result of the alchemization. Not ecto-alchemologization, but more like... alchemogenesis?
p144 : Trial 'n error creation of species, with of course, Dirk focusing on the equine & Rose on the cephaloid. (Is that the right Latin word for tentacle-y?)
Right, Rosebot was only a projection of Rose's consciousness.
Weird to think stories about the Psionic survived two squashed rebellions. Then again, he was )(IC's Helmsman for the remainder of Alternian history.
"ROSE: Now [Earth] is protected, in the steady hands of a duly-elected ruler, sure to have a boring and uneventful perpetual term in office."
Ah, if only Rose could see into the bonus stories :P Guess they don't count as part of her domain. ;)
"ROSE: What value is a marriage, temporary domestic bliss, if all is lost?
ROSE: You understand this bargain.
ROSE: At least, you should. It's one that was made to leave you alone.
ROSE: Is your resentment towards my choice about Kanaya, or about V–"
Not sure I understand this fully. Does Rose feel like she had to leave Kanaya because Terezi didn't give up on Vriska?
p146: Calliope embraces irrelevance as Dirk embraces the opposite
P150: Forgot about this part. Good for Jade, not being kept down.
P160: Guess Caaliope has a preference for orsnge juice’s strings because it’s a bit like tendons from red meat? Maybe?
Trials and errors like Dirk’s with DNA, but for food. Wouldn’t Dave have still have codes from the meteor trip?
P171: Getting insight into how red & black romance works for Vrissy, might help us understand where it all went wrong for Vriska.
P172: Vriska trolling herself there
P194: Vrissy - Harry - Tavvy - Yiffy?
P215 : Oh right, Roxy lived in the Carapacian Kingdom? So then Harry just went to and from the human kingdom for school? And the human reporters have crossed the border to report?
P222: Derpy black-haired kid hiding a surprising amount of brawn. Truly, Tavros fits right in with Jake, Jade & John.
P223: Gotta love John was waiting on the "highest point of the building there", while they had to "ascend".
P232: "from somewhere out of a half-remembered dream, comes the sensation of falling. A burning golden city. A girl's screaming." Oooh, [S] Descend reference!
P234: Ohhhh, their naming their daughter like so wasn't 'really' serious, but a result of a a game between them taken too far, I really forgot that!
P240: Forgot that Jane really did <3< Gamzee.
P268: And that the trees walked
P286: Got to say, Aradia and Dave’s unruliness reaaly meshes well with the narrative device of Alt!Calliope’s speech+captions
P339: Maintainer of Peace and Plenty is sure one way to fill in the role of Maid of Life!
P401: Candy John crammed himself into a house-shaped box in a spiritual sense, Meat John got crammed in one literally.
Got to say, I wonder if the June Egbert crowd will get theirs in the end or not, with what John was not saying here. Mostly it might be the topic of masculinity and how to fill that in, I personally think.
P404 : Don’t tell me Dirk & Roxy have the Hiveswap portals under their respective curtains
P405: Didn’t we visit the meteor on Candy Earth before?
Or was that in the Epilogues/bonus stories?
P406: “the natUre of space and time is a little finicky in here” as in, time flows faster? Or geography & history are just weird and inconsistent?
See: Jake having gotten send divorce papers according to the epilogues, or The Felt, Ms Paint & Spades Slick ending up on Earth C according to the snapchat logs...
"CALLIOPE: [...] as far as i can see, there's simply no way for Us to commUnicate with the world oUtside the black hole.
CALLIOPE: i woUld certainly be very sUrprised to find oUt that anyone had managed sUch a thing!
JOHN: ...right."
Terezi & John communicated just fine through John's Dad's PDA. Is there anything the device is not capable of?!
Ooh boy, and now I'm caught up again!
Seems like the "prelude" to Beyond Canon is done now!
Wow, feels oddly comforting to be in the thick of it again.
I'm just going to buckle myself to this ride again.
The idea is to not go too deep into analysis this time around, but hahah yeah, that boat'll float till it sinks.
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