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trans-clown-catgirl · 1 year

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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

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davestriderascend · 4 months

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the mspa reread, pt 7

after finishing homestuck, ive been working my way progressively through the other content available on the unofficial collection. at this point, all thats left to reconsume is problem sleuth, so ill just recap my feelings about everything else in one singular post here to keep the flow going.

if youre new here, dont even worry about it. the previous parts dont matter, unless you want to read my homestuck recaps.

so heres the recap of the unofficial collection bonus material, ig

Skaianet

i was one of the few people who was there when this came out and managed to read the whole thing before it was shut down. i reread it. no further comments.

Sweet Bro & Hella Jeff, + Team Special Olympics

i am not reading either of these. ive glimpsed more than enough in passing.

The Vigil Prince

i read this but i genuinely have no idea what the fuck its supposed to be???

Ryanquest

probably the shortest thing on the site outside of the vigil prince. its pretty funny ig

Namco High

ive played a decent number of dating sims in my life, and this is my least favorite. i played through davesprites route and then resolutely decided i wouldnt bother playing any more. there are too many fucking characters, there arent really any choices, and the whole thing is just a drag. i tried looking up walkthroughs or playthroughs for the purpose of this recap, but i found nothing bc of how unpopular/how little time this game was available for. i was unfamiliar with all characters except the cousin, teh ship thing i GUESS? nad obviously the hs characters. this did not help anything. i think davesprites route was probably the most interesting one anyway.

Paradox Space

i owned this book, i think. i know when i first read the comic i read the physical version. its in storage now, so i just reread it thru the collection. its still really good. i didnt realize hussie had actually written some of the comics. its funny, and parts of it are really great bonus material or commentary on hs.

summerteen romance surprisingly enough holds up for me as both comedic genius and a surprisingly sincere commentary on hivebent and karkats feelings about it on the meteor trip. mister seven remains my favorite comic, but the last one with vriska and equius was particularly powerful, leaning into a chaotic art style that really emphasized vriskas desperation and incoherence as she lost more and more blood. it made me think of what arkham asylum by grant morrison wanted to be. in general though, there are a lot of genuinely really sweet and funny moments in the comic as a whole. i think i loved it more on my reread than i did on my first read.

Jailbreak

jailbreak is a short comic with one splitting track (with no real consequence) wherein a guy tries to escape from jail with some other guys. if i recall, this one is entirely based off of reader suggestions, so its really random and all over the place. its also very characteristic of hussies earlier era humor.

i remember loving it the first time i read it, but honestly? a lot of the jokes were just kind of distressing on my reread. the dark humor just really isnt my thing anymore i guess. its just kind of... gross now.

still, it has a lot of influence on jokes in homestuck. lord jack's entire jail sequence is like, a direct riff off of this comic. this is also where the what pumpkin joke comes from, and the porno sword. the elf saw a penis and began to cry meme is from this comic.

Bard Quest

hussies incomplete short comic. this is where she really experimented with splitting tracks. however, unlike in homestuck and jailbreak, none of them are resolved, which can result in a clunky narrative where you just have too many damn tabs open.

this is very obviously where the codpiece thing started.

Albums

once youve finished homestuck, hiveswap acts 1 and 2 ost unlock, as well as the friendsim ost, a "grubbles" album based off of the fictional hiveswap band, and the final "beyond canon" album.

Hiveswap OST

im a sucker for the hiveswap soundtrack, absolutely. act one especially is fantastic. but the real highlight of this album is toby and james's track commentary. they bicker back and forth and joke around in the notes, and honestly, its fucking hysterical. act 2 is also good, but it doesnt have any of the commentary.

The Grubbles

its good! it has a nice, consistent sound, and the tracks are pretty solid. its very short, though, and i dont have a ton to say about it.

Friendsim OST

the reality is that everything james roach makes is pretty fire. some of the commentary on this albums really interesting, also. i really like M O I S T and >tfw another james roach song, i think theyre some of the most powerful tracks in terms of atmosphere. however, service car is definitely my favorite. its just so funky.

Beyond Canon

something i think is interesting about beyond canon is that its largely new artists. in all of the previous hs albums, you got the sense that a lot of the musicians knew each other and worked together or listened to each others work, and as a result, you really see them build off of each other. there are so many repeating sounds and motifs, with people constantly remixing each others works, or sticking to similar themes in instruments or sounds- ie; favoring piano in songs about john, whatever. theres a distinct sound to those early albums where you listen and youre like, oh yeah, this is a homestuck album.

i dont get that with beyond canon. it doesnt reference any older stuff. these arent recognizable artists whove influenced homestuck for ages. its all new.

robert j, one of like four returning artists, says this in the track commentary:

about five months ago i was contacted to be a part of the homestuck 2 music team and was told the lowdown: it was a clean slate, and a chance to establish the musical rockbed for homestuck 2 going forward. no quotes of hs1 songs whatsoever, but we'd be making new songs TO quote

which pretty much backs up everything i said. and i get the purpose of something like this, but it does present a challenge for new musicians because theyre working without the same base for nostalgia. the fact that there isnt a ton of really distinct musical diversity in this album, with a lot of it relying on a very electronic sound to the point where i originally thought the album was themed, rather than a supposed new start for this new era of homestuck, also may be challenging when moving forward with new albums.

idk. its a fine album, the songs are fine, but nothing about it really sticks out to me.

Final Thoughts

anyway, all thats left now is to reread problem sleuth, and then i can uninstall this massive fucking thing. i might replay the games, or reread the post canon stuff eventually, but the light is shining at the end of the tunnel at last

#hs reread #recaps #this post is largely negative in retrospect i think whoops #wasnt really my intention but it does come off that way

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catnipcatastrophe · 11 months

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Homestuck reread Act 1 Part 2 (Pages 27-51)

< -= PREVIOUS

In the last part of the reread. We got introduced to two Characters. John Egbert And TG. We left off at John about to look out his window. This time John gets to finally Look out His window, Hurrah.

> John: Look out window.

You see the view of your yard from your window.

Hanging from the tree is your TIRE SWING. In a kid's yard, a tree without a tire swing is like a proper gentleman without a monocle. That is to say, HE CAN HARDLY BE CONSIDERED A TERRIBLY PROPER GENTLEMAN AT ALL.

Right I'll make a note of how to be a proper gentleman for later so i can do the exact opposite of that.

And there beside your driveway is the mailbox.

And theres the mailbox.

> John: Examine mailbox.

Oooohhhh he's got the reflection of outside in his glasses thats pretty neat.

The little red arm-swingy-dealy thing or whatever it is called is flipped up!

What the hell is that thing called anyway. You do not have time for these semantics. The red flippy-lever thing means you have new mail. And that means the beta might be here!

I don't know if thats true or not I've never experienced that kind of mailbox. The only Mailbox experience i've had is the one in the neighborhood where everyones mail goes and sometimes packages when the packages aren't delivered to the door.

> John: Go outside and check mailbox.

You are about to hurry down stairs when you hear a car pull into the driveway. It looks like your DAD has returned from the grocery store.

Oh great. He is beating you to the mail.

> John: Forget it. Check mail later.

Wow that sounds very defeated. He just gave up instantly. Looks like he doesn't really want to interact with his Dad either.

If you go down stairs to get it, he will likely monopolize hours of your time. You decide to chill out up here for a while until the dust settles.

Ah. He just wants to play games with his friends. Understandable.

Sometimes you feel like you are trapped in this room. Stuck, if you will, in a sense which possibly borders on the titular.

Haha. He's stuck. In room. Roomstuck.

And now your chum is pestering you again. The clockwork of friendship turns ceaselessly, operating the swing-lever dealies of harassment in perpetuity!

Whatever. The dude can just hold his damn horses.

Whoa John does Not have the patience for this.

> John: Examine games on CD rack.

Finally something to interact with that's not text. Also its just links to other places.

You've put countless manhours into this assortment of quality titles.

> John: Read COLONEL SASSACRE'S DAUNTING TEXT.

You decide to consult with the Colonel's bottomless wisdom. Good grief this thing is huge. It could kill a cat if you dropped it.

This bit is really fucking funny rereading it. How many people got caught off guard when friggilish/jaspers fucking died from book.

But to really dig into this hefty book, you will have to captchalogue it. You are not sure you are ready to logjam your other ARTIFACTS beneath it just yet.

Is logjam a word?

It is.

> John: Captchalogue fake arms again.

What did you just say?? You don't want to clog up your...

Oh, Jesus. In a momentary lapse of concentration, you accidentally captchalogue the arms again.

ARMS OBTAINED

> John: Set Pesterchum status to "bully".

You don't think the situation is quite dire enough to go all the way to "RANCOROUS", but you still feel the PESTERCHUM client should reflect your mood change in some way.

"BULLY" will have to do. You guess.

This unsurprisingly does nothing whatsoever.

I have two sides: :D and D:<

Oh, right, you forgot your chum is still pestering you.

> John: Answer chum.

[not showing the image with the page this time its just the computer again but with TG saying something different also wow that textbox is small]

TG back with the tutorials for John. Also TT gets a mention here.

Don't think i didn't notice John joking about being attracted to TG, TG saying thanks and then John instantly backpedaling with the "jk haha" i WILL be remembering this for later.

> John: Combine fake arms with cake.

That. uhhhhhhhh. sure? I guess????????

You stick the FAKE ARMS in the CAKE on your bed.

This definitely makes the CAKE at least 300% more hilarious. You're sure COLONEL SASSACRE would know the precise index of elevated hilarity.

Who is Sassacre anyway is he a real person I never checked that

Looked it up I don't think he's real.

> John: Allocate hammer to strife specibus.

Oh look at all of those Abstratuses there are.

why the fuck is there a fireextkind. How is that a weapon?

You check the back of your STRIFE SPECIBUS for the KIND ABSTRATUS you have in mind for it.

> John: Select "HAMMER".

Your STRIFE SPECIBUS has been ALLOCATED with the HAMMERKIND ABSTRATUS.

The HAMMER has been moved from your CAPTCHALOGUE DECK to your STRIFE DECK.

Aw yeah here we go he has the weapon.

> John: Report progress to TG.

It will be very relevant.

> John: Captchalogue Colonel's big book.

Now that you've got some space in your SYLLADEX to work with, you figure you might as well start squandering it immediately.

Ordinarily this ridiculous book would be way too heavy to carry around in any practical way. You guess maybe this is one respect in which the cards present some convenience.

How Long has captchaloguing existed in the homestuck cannon anyways. At what point did someone find out how to do this. Like holy fucking shit if this was real this would be incredible and useful and probably expensive.

> John: Examine GameBro Magazine.

> John: Read article.

NGL that guy kinda looks like Logan Paul. Or Jake Paul. probaly one of the two the only thing i really know about them is that there was a controversy at one point.

> John: Captchalogue GameBro.

It might come in handy if you ever need something that burns easily.

Just a hunch but I don't think John likes GameBro.

> John: Captchalogue magician's hat.

You expend your final card on the MAGICIAN'S HAT.

> John: Get funny glasses too.

We can't forget about the funny glasses how else will I know when to laugh.

You don't have a free card in your SYLLADEX!

However, you are able to MERGE the BEAGLE PUSS with the MAGICIAN'S HAT to create a CLEVER DISGUISE.

It's called a Beagle Puss?

Okay then.

> John: Wear disguise to fool dad.

Holy shit it's Zoosmell Pooplord.

John? Who is this "John" you speak of? You are quite certain there has never been, nor ever will be...

Keeping note of this one for later. Which is to say Act 5 Act 2 later. Which is a really long ways away. Yeah, this is a really shitty disguise. While you are wearing the items, they remain on the card, but it is temporarily removed from the deck, thus freeing up the cards beneath it.

That sounds very helpful.

Oh and the cursor is here again for the third time unless i forgot one.

> John: Leave room.

Oh It's a poster of Zoosmell Pooplord. And a Harlequin.

You exit into the HALLWAY.

On one wall hangs a picture of a fella who sure knows how to have a laugh, a man after your own heart. You always thought he looked a lot like Michael Cera. But your DAD swears on the many HALLOWED TOMBS of Egypt that it is not. You're not sure about that though.

That would be because it's Zoosmell Pooplord, and not Michael Cera.

On the other wall is one of your DAD'S stupid clowns. Or HARLEQUINS, as he is quick to correct anyone who would venture such brazen assumption.

> John: Go downstairs.

The accursed odor of fresh baking wafts into your newfound nostrils. Something is brewing in the KITCHEN. It must be the connivings of your arch nemesis, BETTY CROCKER, and the rich, buttery aroma of her plot stinks to high heaven.

Little did he know how right he was.

This mission is going to be more difficult than you imagined.

> John: Admire harlequins.

You check out the shelves of FANCIFUL HARLEQUINS.

Look at this fucking garbage. You hate this stuff. Funny is funny, but your DAD sure can be a real cornball.

Sometimes at night you pray for burglars.

Holy shit i forgot how much he fucking despises those things.

> John: Examine fireplace.

A bright orange flame flickers in the FIREPLACE. It doesn't matter that it's April and not terribly chilly outside. In a home, a FIREPLACE needs a fire, because that's what FIREPLACE is for. A fire BELONGS in a FIREPLACE, dammit, cata(ptcha)gorically, at all times, without exception.

As domestic myth of unaccountable origin holds, a home borrows the spirit of the flame for as long as it makes a guest of it, much as the moon takes liberty with the sun's rays.

"The moon's an arrant thief, and her pale fire she snatches from the sun." -Mark Twain

You are almost certain Mark Twain said that.

Mark Twain did say that I would know I was there.

> John: Toss GameBro into fire.

It doesn't burn as quickly as you hoped.

Each GAMEBRO MAGAZINE is guaranteed to be printed on 40% recycled asbestos. For big ups to Mother Earth, yo.

And there goes GameBro. Goodbye Gamebro you will not be missed.

> John: Fondly regard cremation.

I don't think He's going to regard it very fondly.

And thats another 30 images and 51 total pages down. Hurrah.

Tune in next time for when John regards the cremation of GameBro.

< -= PREVIOUS *** =- > NEXT

#homestuck #homestuck liveblog #homestuck reread

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deviljho · 3 years

Text

hs on main but

i’ve been thinking a lot about post retcon vriska and the simply epic vriska vs (vriska) confrontation...

i think that before i actually reread the comic last year, my takeaway of it from hussie’s commentary in the books and just general fan analysis online was that it’s vriska showing her whole ass re: her deep seated self loathing & inability to self actualize and move past her trauma. which is actually a defining aspect of her personality (bc as much as she likes to pretend this isn’t the case it dictates so much of what she does) lmao. in the face of a version of herself, in this case, (vriska), who has done some of the work to unpack her issues and is “happy”, vriska goes sicko mode and vents that frustration on her dead alternate self. but i think it goes even deeper than that and i can’t stop thinking about it so allow me to go off for a bit:

first off i think it’s crazy to claim (vriska) is happy or working past her childhood issues...she’s become more aware of them, sure, which lets be real is HUGE for any vriska lol but her existence as a ghost forces her to experience an inertia which prevents her from actually taking that awareness and doing anything with it. this is especially highlighted in her relationship with meenah, who is too much of a self absorbed enabler to really help her. having given up on their heroic cause, they start dating because, it’s something to do. but it becomes completely stagnant, just like (vriska) herself, because there’s literally nothing there for (vriska) to bounce off of. vriska needs more than just someone to let her talk, and feel heard to grow and change as a person imo, but i do think being given the specific environment to do so obviously has changed her, just not necessarily for “the better”.

contrast this with retcon vriska, who is for all intents and purposes now the “real” vriska (and indeed, vriska herself clings to this idea). brought back from her death by terezi for a variety of reasons, mainly that terezi personally regrets killing her and is in love with her LOL but setting aside my vrisrezi agenda for a moment, terezi’s successful use of her seer of mind powers confirms in-story that bringing her back has strategic merit, and from a meta standpoint, narratively i felt like it really worked to reveal that vriska’s presence was needed to keep the meteor crew from falling apart, not to mention her psychic powers playing an important role in protecting the whole team from jade being possessed. i know some people dislike the retcon, but i love it for this simply epic twist tbh.

anyways...this retcon vriska is someone who canonically obsessed over their plan to defeat lord english for three years and had planned it all out to the last detail, she’s clearly taken the reigns on directing the team overall, and talks multiple times about “not having time for relationships” with the exception of being moirails with terezi which lets be real, is a hard friendzoning of their messy, quadrants-transcending relationship but again i digress...

vriska was brought back with a purpose, To Be The Hero That The Story Needs, and she’s more fixated than ever with completing this task, probably because in the epic story that she larps being a part of in her mind, successfully completing this mission is to empirically prove that she was worth bringing back, despite all the harm she’s done (and pretends not to feel badly about). vriska also desperately wants her suffering to MEAN something. we see this in her pesterlogs with john before she’s about to fight jack noir; she passes off having her lusus as a task “only really strong” children are given. i think this is why seeing (vriska) enrages her; she’s being confronted with the version of herself who she perceived as making the selfish choice to fight jack, who “deserved” to die for doing so, and on top of all that this (vriska) is now just sitting around in paradox spacing doing nothing and proving nothing to anyone?? i think it honestly has a lot less to do with (vriska) and a lot more to do with vriska obsessively reassuring herself that she’s doing the right thing, that she HAS to go through with sacrificing herself in a big epic moment for the good of everyone else because anything short of that means she’s failed at redeeming herself. vriska cannot accept that there is a version of herself who is okay with just “existing”, without deriving meaning and purpose from the abuse she suffered as a child and inflicted on her friends and countless innocent bystanders.

it’s markedly different from, for example, jade’s confrontation with her dead dream self which really is her being forced to look back on a younger version of herself who is (obviously) less experienced and or/traumatized. and i think it’s different from dave & davesprite’s interactions too, the small amount of them we get to see beyond like, ironic jokes. but imo this is bc jade and dave are markedly different from vriska. dave openly rejects the notion of glory and heroism, and avoids it whenever possible. jade is continuously forced to suffer for the sake of the timeline and the narrative, but is shown passively accepting this as simply things that “needed to happen”. personally imo in jade’s case i wanna chalk that up to bad writing on hussie’s part; it kind of sucks that jade never gets to unpack that in homestuck proper.

anyways. tbh the existence of both of those dead alternate selves imo further proves my theory that (vriska) is far from happy; the experience of being a dead alternate self is obviously extremely unsettling and depersonalizing. vriska is terrified of dying; her entire childhood was defined by this terror in a lot of ways and by the end of the session she’s died multiple times, pretty gruesomely. i think her hysterical woman(tm) rant is way more about psyching herself up and her own fears of failure than it is about seeing a supposedly “happy” version of herself. i don’t even think vriska can conceive of such a thing for herself; she has no sense of normalcy or purpose after the session to return to the way john, or like, kanaya has.

also interesting to note here is meenah as a foil for both of them; immediately after this fight meenah ditches (vriska) to join up with vriska after admitting (with some regret) that she’s a bad person. meenah doesn’t struggle at all with the self image issues vriska has, and though she may feel some guilt over ditching (vriska) just like she expressed guilt to john about becoming the condescence in a different timeline because it meant that she would probably end up killing all her friends back when (vriska) was first trying to rally up a ghost army, she ultimately acts in her self interest and doesn’t really lose sleep over it. in fact she will readily admit that she’s being an asshole and still do whatever she wants. contrast this with all of vriska’s grandstanding about not caring that she comes off as annoying and overbearing, and her overcompensation for that in the form of confidently insisting that the others “need” her.

my final comment is that,...coming back to the vrisrezi of it all, it’s obvious from terezi’s final pesterlogs to vriska before [s] terezi: remem8er that there was a ton of stuff left unsaid between them and presumably between vriska and the rest of the meteor crew as well because vriska spent 90% of the time bossing them around, either about their plans for the new session or just in general in what i like to think of as her loving nagging scorpio way lol. terezi clearly feels like she’s alone in “needing” vriska because even their relationship post retcon is strained, and vriska is so wrapped up in making plans and making sure she gets it right this time, and is already planning to die again out in paradox space. and then after all of this, her fate after her big epic moment is left offscreen for us to wonder about. which in and of itself is pretty narratively tragic for a character like vriska. it makes me honestly wonder how much of this they’re going to unpack in hs2 because tbh it’s pretty juicy. i would love to see a huge confrontation between terezi and vriska about vriska’s choices post retcon...and just in general what life post-session would look like for a person like her. through the epilogues and hs^2 we’ve seen what “normal” life has been like for terezi, and she obviously can’t let go of the past (or vriska. AUGH)...so who’s to say what’s in store for them? i wish we lived in a world where we would eventually find out, and we could see them continue to be each other’s foils in unpacking that but i don’t know if i have faith that the writers will explore it in a satisfying way lmao.

anyways that’s all i have, thanks for reading this if you did read it. i love vriska

#vriska meta #thats all this is really....i have more hs thoughts since i finished rereading it in november but tbh this is the condensed core of them #the vriska of it all...#homestuck meta

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felinenthusiast · 6 years

Note

1,2,5,6, 20-30

Oh boy that’s a lot! But Ty 💕

1. Do you have a chum handle? What does it mean?

I don’t actually! But I have my trollsona who I’ll probably make one for at some point which would be mine by extension since she’s just be but grey with nicer hair pfh

2. Is your username homestuck related/have you had one hs related?

Hmmmm I WONDER.

I mean obviously I have the Roxy Lalonde branding™

Since this account it’s always been HS related (specifically to Roxy), I went rox-lal to rox-lalonde and then the person with the roxylalondes URL was nice enough to give it to me!!!

5. Are you “kin” with any characters or commonly called a character?

Nah I’m not kin, though I do relate to Roxy and Terezi, but I just don’t feel that kind of connection I feel ‘kin’ denotes (but ofc I don’t dislike kin, you guys are sweet) and ye I’ve been called Roxy before which I’m cool with since it’s My Brand™

6. God Tier?

Knight of Heart 💗

I’ve thought that for a while, and when the canon quiz came out it was like 'Yeah you’re heart for sure’

20. Tell us how homestuck has effected you in real life?

Hmm well it made my friends annoyed at me briefly when I first go in to it! Fkjsjdn but they’re not like that anymore don’t worry my friends who I actually keep close nowadays aren’t a-holes.

Honestly while HS is super important to me I can’t pinpoint much 'affected me in real life’ things! I have cosplayed and met other HSs irl briefly which was rlly cool!

21. Have you met anyone through homestuck?

Yeah ppl on Tumblr and a lot of my video editor friends 💕

22. Have you left the fandom before?

Nope! I’m afraid the fandom’s stuck with me.

23. How many times have you read through it?

Hmmmm 3? I think? I’ve tried to reread it a bit more than that but have ended up stopping. I haven’t read it through in a while, actually, maybe when I’m less busy I’ll go for another reread!

24. Did you ever skip intermissions/dialog/animations?

NOPE. I didn’t rlly understand the midnight crew intermission the first time but I didn’t skip it even if I was confused.

25. Opinions on the fandom?

Mostly a nice place nowadays! There’s still some areas I’m not fond of but for the most part I think despite the reputation homestucks had gained over the years, the current fandom is very pleasant?

26. Opinions on the comic?

Ilove it sm and there will never be anything like it again!!!

Could have had a better ending, I honestly think just adding a walk around where you can change characters and talk to ppl before act 8 would have improved shit sm! But if Hussie is rlly serious abt a possible epilogue, I think that could iron out a lot of my issues

27. Do you favor the trolls, humans, or carapaces?

TROLLS! like not all of them but I do just enjoy the alternia alien shit! Tho I do love the humans (esp Lalondes) and also the carapaces (the midnight crew cracks me up)

28. Favorite moment of all of homestuck?

FUCK! Uhh the Terezi and Vriska moments in [S] remember??? ❤️💓💔💕💖💗💞❣️💝💟

29. Least favorite moment of all of homestuck?

The whole Gamzee and Terezi kismesistude arc honestly! But more specifically on lofaf when he hurts her and also kills karkat and game over ):

30. Tell us a homestuck based story.

Okay, I have 2 short ones, cus I don’t have any long funny ones, and now they probably sound made up but I swear these are true

Once while I was in Terezi cosplay, in the middle of a con, I was yknow just eating my panini in Costa for lunch and a server came up next to me and whispered 'Vriska was better’ I was fucking reeling. I turned around and was like, 'i love both Scourge sisters equally!!!’

Another time at dnd club (yes, I have great hobbies!) I heard someone mention taz, which yknow the venn diagram for fans of it and homestuck is a circle!! Anyways someone mentioned taz and I was like 'hhhello’ and they just said to me, 'of course you like taz, you’re wearing a homestuck hoodie’ and I was just embarrassed at how predictable I was.

Both these stories give off similar energy fjdk

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a-panda-reads-act-omega · 7 years

Text

ACT OMEGA PART 1

THE 10/09/16 UPDATE

Alright, considering this update is nothing more than a curtain, I guess I’ll just try to do a bit of a re-cap for everything that’s going on at the end of Homestuck. I’ve already read up to the most recent update (12/05/17), so nothing here will be blind yet. ANYWAYS, I guess I’ll make a cut.

THE END

Ok! So, exactly where we left off at the end of Homestuck. Nothing new to liveblog about, other than the fact that the narration is a filthy liar. Like I said, this will just serve as a re-cap of everybody’s positions.

JOHN:

So, John is currently at the lilypad end-game thingy. Perfectly alive and not injured. He had his reunion with DAD after defeating The Condesce. Not much to say on him otherwise.

ROSE:

Rose is also on the lilypad thingy after defeating The Condesce. Again, not much to re-cap.

DAVE:

Dave is on the lilypad, after pulling off this HUGE SHOCKING 3x DECAPITATION COMBO! And killed off Dirky Dirk in the process. BUUT, Dirk’s alive due to Jane. That was probably a really emotional moment for Dave, which he will most likely just not speak of due to him being a butt who always puts on this cool ironic guy facade. Though I’m curious if it’s gonna have a positive effect on him or a negative one.

JADE:

Not too much to recap for her! She’s on the lilypad with everybody else after her big battle with Jack Noir and PM. In which she was punched in the face, and didn’t exactly finish it. She has the new earth I believe. OH! And the green sun was destroyed by the other Calliope, who I will now be calling DeadTier!Calliope out of convenience, and I’m curious as to how this is gonna affect Jade’s first guardian powers. Or just her in general! The effects could end up being horrible on her. Or maybe she’ll just lose them first guardian powers. OR MAYBE she’ll just end up keeping them for some strange unexplained reason. We’ll see.

KARKAT:

So the crab boy is on the lilypad after his underwhelming fight with Clover. There’s a lot I’m curious about after that fight. More specifically, how Karkat feels after that fight. Is he going to be disappointed or proud of himself? It’s possible he won’t care, but Karkat usually takes his performance very seriously when it comes to his self-value. He’s also in a pretty familiar situation. At the lilypad after a massive fight, just waiting for the door to be opened. He’s probably gonna let this stress the fuck out of him.

ARADIA:

Aradia seemed to be helping out somewhat with the big Lord English fight! She did say something about not participating in it, but it seems she decided fUCK that, and went off to freeze him in time anyways. Though I’m guessing she went off afterwards, as in the ACT 7 animation, it showed her flying around to watch the Green Sun get destroyed or something like that. Aradia’s kinda emotionally broken at this point, so I hardly doubt she’s gonna have any angst about anything that’s happened. She’ll most likely stay indifferently optimistic as always.

TAVROS:

As far as I know, he’s alive on the battlefield after dealing some massive damage (Or just light pummeling) to the big man Lord English. Not much to say on this matter, other than that’s gotta be a real confidence booster for him. I mean, if he even needs any more confidence boosts at this point.

SOLLUX:

I forget honestly. Oops. He might’ve been in the fight, but I don’t think he was? Oh well, I guess we’ll see if he’s still relevant.

NEPETA:

Forgot again. She was probably somewhere in the midst of the fight. I don’t know if there is a single relevant Nepeta anymore.

[EDIT]OH I FORGOT SHE FUZED WITH DAVESPRITE. ok thats all though. They’re on the battlefield with Lord English too I guess.

KANAYA:

She’s on the good ol’ lilypad after an epic encounter with the condesce. I believe she’s got the matriorb from Roxy at this point, so that’s gotta be really exciting for her. I’d imagine that she is really in a good mood. There’s no more trouble, and the coast is finally clear for bringing back their race.

TEREZI:

I can imagine Terezi being excited about this. I think I remember her having some confidence issues, as if she wasn’t living up to the pre-retcon Terezi. But I think there’s a possibility she’s gotten over that? I’m like 90% sure she remembers that entire timeline at this point due to her time powers. And possibly even merged her memories with them? If that’s the case, I can imagine she’s very glad all this shit is over with. She doesn’t even seem to be in this for the new universe at this point, it’s like all she wants is to be with her friends and not deal with all of these greater threats.

VRISKA:

#1 troll is on the battlefield with Lord English. She used the Juju on him, but it’s result is unknown. I’d say she’s probably looking forward to taking this big hero moment. If she does manage to take him out, her pride meter is gonna SKYROCKET. I’m sure she’d be more than happy than to have her friends regard her as a hero. But I’m sure she’s ALSO happy that the threat is gone as well. But like I said, we still don’t know what the Juju did to Lord English.

EQUIUS:

Again, no real iteration of him that matters. Other than I guess ARquiusprite. God, making a stable list of characters is difficult in Homestuck. Either way, not much to say.

GAMZEE:

In the fridge. That’s all. In this new retconned timeline, it’s hard to say how dangerous he is. So I guess we’ll see? Gamzee’s timeline is one of the harder ones to keep track of.

ERIDAN:

none that matter

FEFERI:

none that matter again. i think.

JANE:

This isn’t a character I’m too familiar with. I’m currently rereading Homestuck, so I should be able to get a better grasp on her character during that. But other than that, I’d say she’ll be happy. She’s on the lilypad, and sees her DAD. That’s all, really.

ROXY:

The batterbitch is dead, in the most symbolic way possible. With a great ol’ symbolism sword. She’s on the lilypad, probably being super badass or super happy, and possibly still having the hots for John.

DIRK:

lilypad. he died, and got revived by jane. And thats all there is to say on the matter..? Again, dirk is one of those characters i had trouble wrapping my head around on the first read. so ill probably have more thoughts later.

JAKE:

He’s on the lilypad after fighting the felt. Not sure what to say on that. moving on.

MEENAH:

Also on the battlefield. not much to say. shes probably still feeling down about leaving (vriska) behind, but who knows?

DAVEPETASPRITE^2:

A fairly new character! Hard to say how they feel in the midst of all this. they make a pretty badass sprite though, with a cool/perky personality that i love. so we’ll see more on them later. They’re on the battlefield though!

JASPROSESPRITE^2:

HMm. I dont remember if I saw them on the lilypad, so im not sure where theyre at right now. Again a fairly new character, who I dont know enough about to predict how they feel.

CALLIOPE:

FUckin adorable as always. SHe’s on the lilypad. I dont know how she’s feeling. I believe she was only supposed to protect herself instead of contributing to the fight, but I dont know how shes gonna feel about that. Having to do nothing but stay safe while all your friends throw themselves into danger, and then being told that you can just TAKE the reward with them cant feel good. we’ll see though.

CALIBORN:

Idfk his timeline confuses me at the moment so moving on

(VRISKA):

I dont know. probably being gay or something with (Terezi). She’s probably still recovering from that betrayal on Meenahs end. But this is. kinda hard to comment about.

(TEREZI):

She’s with vriska, finally having found SOME happiness after the fuckfest that was her doomed timeline. Who knows how long she’ll be ok with JUST Vriska, but I guess we’ll see.

ALRIGHT! I probably missed a ton of characters, but it’s so hard to keep track of them all. That’s all I have to say for now.

#Homestuck #ACT OMEGA #homestuck liveblog #act omega liveblog #hs act omega #hs act omega liveblog

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davestriderascend · 4 months

Text

the homestuck reread, pt 6

ive finished it. the main comic, anyway. theres still all the bonus content to slog through and the postcanon stuff, but i finished the main comic, and you know what? i think thats a feat enough all on its own. so heres the recap of the end, from act 6 act 6, on.

heres the previous recap, and heres the first one if youre new.

act 6 act 6s intermissions and subacts works according to similar rules as act 6 acts 1-5. the acts are short and all about homosuck (excepting the last one), while the intermissions are where literally everything else is happening. that said,

Act 6 Act 6 Act 1

this is the beginning of homosuck. its just, absolutely classic homosuck. at the end, caliborn corrupts the game file, creating the glitches that plague most of the a6a6 intermissions. homosuck is, of course, fucking hilarious and meta and the stupid art style lives rent free in my brain and i find myself drawing in it constantly. basically, i had a good time. theres not much else to say.

Act 6 Act 6 Intermission 1

we pick up where we last left off with the introduction of grimbark jade, crockertier jane, and hics plot. the kids have been split up among the planets, and roxy and jake are in jail. john is struggling to control his retcon powers, and hops around time and space mucking things up, while jade tries to chase him down. this is where the big character selection screens and unclickable characters joke really gets going.

Act 6 Act 6 Act 2

this is the section of homosuck where john teleports himself into the narrative and bitches a lot about how much it sucks.

Act 6 Act 6 Intermission 2

this is where things start building up to game over. aranea inserts herself into the narrative. jake goes ultra hope mode. jade dies. jake dies, but gets better. terezi beats the shit out of gamzee. jade joins callie in the furthest ring, and jane might too? idk. tbh, intermissions 1-3 kind of blend for me. which is obviously bc theyre a part of one big overarching narrative.

Act 6 Act 6 Act 3

this is the part of homosuck with the animes. this also may have had some kind of impact on how i doodled growing up. this is also the part where john beats caliborn up. the act ends with the game over animation, which leads directly into the following intermission with no real clear separation between them.

Act 6 Act 6 Intermission 3

this is the part where everyone dies. well, the intermission as its marked on the hs map is literally just condy killing aranea, mostly, but the game over animation leading up to it kills everybody. john is the sole survivor.

The Characters

i think here, therefore, is where i must give my final thoughts on the pre-retcon versions of characters. dave and karkat are a lot closer than i remembered- i thought we as a fandom kind of made that shit up? but they are, in fact, besties. jakes crybaby breakdown in these three intermissions is.... well theres a lot to unpack around jakes ideas of masculinity and how hes sexualized and smarter people than me have done it, so i probably wont. otherwise idk that i have like, super coherent thoughts that are worth getting into.

on the whole, the pre-retcon versions are more dysfunctional, more insecure, and more toxic in their relationships. they dont spend as much time with each other as they mean to, they dont look out for each other as much as they wish they had, and theyre all so insecure all the time about everything, especially the meteor crew.

Act 6 Act 6 Act 4

caliborns tablet is broken, and so hes back to his shitty straight line doodles. the whole act is literally just him bitching and moaning about how hard his life is as a pitiable little guy.

Act 6 Act 6 Intermission 4

this is the one where terezi tells john how to go back in time and fix everything. roxy and john both make deals with their denizens to survive, which means that all other versions of john and roxy will die in every other timeline. roxy has a funeral for rose, vriska and meenah start dating and sort of give up on all of their plans, and terezi and john pitchflirt a lot. this is also the act where jane and jade hang out w calliope and talk about what happened before they woke up w her.

The Characters

something i thought was worth noting is that in this intermission, both jade and jane confess that grimbark and crockertier essentially removed their consciences and allowed them to follow through on thoughts or desires they usually wouldnt express- meaning a lot of the nasty things they say are their actual feelings, deep down. theyre both really ashamed of it all, particularly because they meant the things they said. i think reviewing these sections of hs will be really important for character analysis relating to the two of them.

we also learn that roxy just like. really likes funerals, for some reason. it feels like a mirror of dave, and daves interest in dead things.

Act 6 Act 6 Act 5

this is the claymation homosuck, that tells the story of the juju said to defeath le and how le came to be. this is also where that big stupid animation involving illuminati and le's timeilne comes from.

i remember when homestuck ended that whole juju thing was like, the BIGGEST plothole left behind that made everyone nuts. how did they get in the juju??? DID they defeat le??? how did they get to a point where they could do that?? when tf did they all go back in time and fight caliborn like that??? the epilogue tried to answer these questions, but with how much success is largely up for debate.

Act 6 Act 6 Intermission 5

vriskagram. this is the part with all of those reunion conversations, with the plans to take out the bosses, with the sprite prototypings, with meenah and (vriska)s breakup, with tavros assembling an army, with the pre retcon terezi and vriska finding each other in the afterlife, with caliborn approaching his denizen, with jade, jane, and callie finding alt callie and waking up (callie coming back to life), and with the kids splitting off into groups to finally take on the bosses. everything right up until collide is right here.

The Characters

i have to comment on this. post-retcon, the kids are so much more... mellowed out. theyre in healthier, stable relationships, theyve matured a lot, they talk through their problems, and the nature of the act in general is such that the jokes take a backseat to genuine feelings and reunions and elaborating on relationships weve been waiting to see the payoffs for for ages. its setting up for closure, and it makes the following act hit so much harder for sure.

in retrospect, i think this is probably part of the reason so many people were averse to the epilogues. i genuinely dont think the tone of the epilogues is significantly different from early hoemstuck, its classically hussie in a way that i never questioned reading it for the first time, possibly bc in addition to reading hs i had in fact also read ps, jb, and bq, so id just been exposed to more of it. i also revisited logs a lot, and i think most people didnt. instead, their last and strongest memories of hs was this incredibly sincere, sweet act, which is really a MASSIVE outlier.

anyway, things that i thought were of note: jake hates crowds. not only is he really uncomfortable, but roxy backs this up by commenting on how reluctant he was to spend time w the whole group in their session, and john makes a similar comment about jades gpa liking his space so much that he moved to an island.

dave tells dirk that he hasnt told anyone else about his bro and never would, including karkat by name. he feels that dirk is the only one he really can talk to about it, and the only reason he spoke to dirk about it in the first place is bc dirks existence is just uniquely distressing enough to trigger a breakdown where he blurts it out. also on the topic of dave, i think dave first mentions paleontology pre-retcon, rather uncertainly, as something he could have gotten into but never did, to the point where hes not even sure if paleontology is the right word to describe his interest. as the comic goes on, he seems to become more confident in asserting that he wouldve liked to become a paleontologist.

callie, terezi, and jade all struggle with feelings of insecurity and worthlessness, either because they feel that they have no purpose, because they feel empty somehow, or because they feel secondary to an alternate self.

despite dvekat """""officially"""""" getting together in post-canon content, theyre alluded to being together in this act, with terezi and vriska stating that theyve settled into some kind of quadrant, japrose saying karkat has a matesprit, and daves intense aversion to answering any questions about romance, suggesting that he may be in a relationship and too embarrassed to talk about it. theres room for debate, i guess, but it really read to me like they were already together and just quiet asf about it.

anyway my favorite conversation in this act is by far the one between roxy, rose, and kanaya, and rather than even say shit about any of them i am just going to insist that you (by which i mean future me, probably) give it a reread bc its the best.

Act 6 Act 6 Act 6

collide. easily my FAVORITE flash animation in homestuck. i actually still have my old shirt that has the collide frame of dad punching through the brick, though its so full of holes ill have to repurpose it now. the rest of the act is everyone meeting up post battle and getting ready to receive the reward. ngl this act made me legit cry its just. SO good. the fraymotifs are awesome and the battle feels difficult and long without being boring, and there are so many genuine moments of emotional sincerity mixed in with punchy, exciting scenes. its just great, and the art is fantastic. i have a new pfp locked and loaded, believe it.

Act 7

act 7 is a single animation wherein alt calliope blows up the green sun, the universe tadpole becomes a frog, vriska and the ghost army unleash the second weapon, caliborn defeats his denizen and gains his le powers, wv and pm toss the rings in a volcano, and we get a preview of how earth c has developed.

the animation in this act is gorgeous. god, its so fucking stunning. the movement is so smooth, and the particle effects were really impressive. also, the tadpole was so cute.

Credits/Snapchat

theyre fucking cute. there isnt much to say, because there isnt much there. the last little plot mess with jane and the moon exploding has never made sense to me and likely never will. i get headaches trying to figure out why hussie released these if they wanted to also release the epilogues, given that they directly contradict each other more often than not. moving on.

Final Albums

during all of this time, no albums were released. however, directly after the end of hs, three were.

Collide

collide was previously my favorite album. what can i say? the music goes hard. yes its just the songs that are in the collide animation, but who cares, and also go fuck yourself. i am a really big fan of oppa toby style and just how fucking. fundamentally toby it is, god. however, heir of grief is literally my favorite homestuck song in existence period. its so bittersweet and yet the sound is so full and and the ups and downs of it are just really potent. plus, guitar is my favorite instrument and i really like the guitar in this :)

Act 7

its literally just the singular song used for the act 7 animation. i mean, its a good song. but it is literally just one song. weird that they gave it its own album tbh.

Vol 10

MY NEW. FAVORITE. ALBUM. there is not a single solitary miss on here. reading through the track commentary, its obvious that this album was created to be an ode to the end of homestuck, to show how far weve really come. it remixes so many classics, and for many of the artists who worked on this album, it was a chance to revisit stuff theyd done before and show how much theyd grown since they started out. every single song is so full, moving and beautiful and breathtaking. its the most polished album by far. i dont think i can pick a favorite song because theyre all so good. the album also wraps up in the most perfect and bittersweet way, and its just. ugh. this was such a perfect way to end.

Final Thoughts

it holds up. i mean, yeah, it has its fucking problems. however, hussie manages to capture the feelings of being a teen growing up on the internet so fucking well, and no one, ever, has written young girls like hussie has. i cannot think of a single comparable female cast in anything. there are so many really potent and genuinely touching moments alongside so many hysterical ones, and you know? i think we really forget how ahead of its time hs was in terms of gay rep.

hs was the first time i ever saw a gay couple get together in media. it was the first time i ever saw two guys kiss. it was the first time i ever saw a nonbinary character! rose and kanaya started flirting in the first few acts, and they not only survived until the end, but got married and raised an entire generation of kids. never before had i ever found myself shipping a queer couple that became canon. so its always gonna hold a special place in my heart, really.

but yeah, against all odds, i actually really enjoyed my reread. there were some rough moments, in terms of like, major bigotry hussie has and wrote in, but overwhelmingly its easy to remember why this had such a stranglehold on my life for like. idk, five fucking years? more?

my opinions have shifted around some, though, as ive gotten older.

i think, on my first read, my favorites list wouldve looked like this:

the kids: dave was my favorite, unequivocally. i think ive mentioned this before, but i imprinted on him instantly like a baby bird. i was inexplicably obsessed with davesprite and abro, also, to the point where i liked them even more. i think dirk and his splinters were favorites of mine mostly just because i viewed them as dave 2, the sequel. i liked john a lot while reading, but lost interest as the comic went on (i regained that interest much later). i always liked rose and roxy, but a large portion of that was due to their relationship to the striders.

the trolls: i imprinted on vriska instantly. she felt like the answer to the rep id been searching for my whole life. there has never been another female character like her, and there may never be again. i have always loved her and i will defend her to the death, however, after finishing my read, i never did engage w much fancontent. sollux was another early favorite of mine, though he was in hs so little that my passion sort of faded with enough time. karkat, conversely, grew on me progressively, starting as a character i was indifferent about and becoming probably my favorite troll. i was pretty attached to eridan, and violently outgrew a brief gamzee apologism phase. i liked kanaya, but she grew on me even more with time, as did aradia. equius i discovered a sudden passion for years after reading the comic for the first time.

dancestors/ancestors/guardians: ugh. ugh. i dont even remember my favorite dancestor. i dont wanna think about it. i was really fixated on them but moreso than liked them i think i just hated everything everyone had to say about them and had to be right always. my favorite ancestors were psii, dualscar, and the sufferer, and i dont want to even talk about the shipping i was up to. my favorite guardians were very obviously the bros. goes w/o saying.

carapacians: i thought droog was the coolest mc member for some reason, and itchy and crowbar were my favorite felt members. could NOT tell you why. ar and wv were my favorite exiles. i think i just thought ars little outfit was sick. i dont have toe xplain why i liked wv, everyone likes him.

pesterlogs: i recall once claiming that The convo between hal and dirk was my favorite. i also know i was a very big fan of anything erisol said ever (and sollux, similarly). however, i dont think i had one.

ships: i was a really hardcore drkjake shipper (all splinters included) while i was reading, which branched into an interest in johndve with enough time. i got big into just about every combination of eridan, sollux, karkat, and dave (sprites included), except solkt, and eventually i got rlly into aradve, dvejake, and jhnhal/johndrk. i am censoring to keep myself out of the tags. i think, in most recent years (prior to my reread), my faves were eridve, dvekat, and jhnhal?

current fave list, post reread:

kids: rose. rose rose rose. i adore her so much. roxy is a close second. there was a moment where i prefered jake over roxy, in those really early a6 acts, but she came right back in strong and reminded me why i adored her so much. hal is also very high up there. not dirk- just hal, because all of his conversations are literally so funny. john is great and i love him, my feelings about him really havent changed at all. the striders on a whole were a lot less interesting to me on my reread, though, and now theyre the characters im mostly just invested in for their connection to the lalondes. ive conquered whatever toxic masculinity i was battling when i first read hs and come out loving wizards. feminism wins.

trolls: vriska remains the og. she is still iconic. no one is doing it like her. i wont suffer argument. sollux is also still fucking incredible. my feelings about both of them havent changed in the slightest. kanaya was one of my faves this reread, and i think i really just didnt appreciate her the first time. she has such a great dry wit, and there are so many really cute, very touching moments with her. i think other than those three, i have discovered a new love and respect for equius and nepeta. i am still probably not normal about eridan. karkat, like the striders, was less interesting to me this go around. i still like them, dont get me wrong, just not as passionately as before.

dancestors/ancestors/guardians: my favorite guardian is johns dad (and also janes, bc theyre like, the same person). johns relationship w his dad is just so important to me. i couldnt give LESS of a shit about the ancestors. ive outgrown it. im different. im better now. but unofrtunately, kankri is...... sighs. probably my favorite dancestor now. hes just. so fucking funny. pray for me.

carapacians: jack is the best, period. dunno how i ever thought differently. cd is probably my second fav mc member now, just cuz hes a funny little dude. crowbar is my fave felt member bc hes the only interesting one, ig? but i dont care that much. wv is my favorite exile.

pesterlogs: every single convo between hal and jake was my new favorite for a long time, basically, up until that roxy rose and kanaya convo came up out of the blue and smashed that to pieces. definitely my favorite. its like, the perfect culmination of all of the things i love about all of them, all in one place. however, honorary mentions go to vriskas speech about being a hero, which has lived in my brain rent free since the first time i read it, and also probably The conversation between dirk and hal, bc lets be real it is pretty sick.

collide is my favorite flash animation by far, heir of grief is my favorite song, and vol 10 is my favorite album, as ive mentioned

ships: i am now an insanely hardcore haljke fan. that is most of whats come out of this tbh. i still think eridve is hilarious for no real reason i can explain, and halqius rules. arquius<>davepeta i also have strong feelings about suddenly. pay absolutely no attention to the fact that these are 75% hal ships he is just really shippable ok. butyeah mostly when ive freshly read something iactually. dont care that much about ships? that tends to come later, with too much time spent in the fandom. im sure ill be obsessive about some roxy or rose ship in a year from now

but yeah i think. those are all of my thoughts for now!! and i will just continue to chug my way through the bonus content, and probably make recaps about those eventually. if you read all of these thanks for coming along on this wild little ride. i am genuinely SHOCKED i finished the main comic in less than a month. and relieved, also.

#hs reread #recaps

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