#the purpose of act 5 is rlly just that its setting up for the intro of the alpha kids

[davestriderascend]

the homestuck reread pt 2

this is a continuation of this post, where i recap my reread of acts 1-4. in this post, ill be focusing on just act 5, bc its literally like the length of 1-4 all on its own. act 5 started in 2010 and finished in 2011- it took about a year to make! act 1 started in 2009, meaning that this one act took the same amount of time to finish as the previous 4 acts!

act five is split into two acts, or "bifurcated." the curtains are red and blue, the act is neatly split into two plots, and we are introduced to the best and most important troll- sollux (jk). anyway bc of this i will also be splitting my recap into subacts, and then talking about the act as a whole!

Act 5 Act 1 - AKA, Hivebent

a5a1 is the act where we are finally, officially, introduced to the trolls. a5a1 is fast-paced, text-heavy, and made with the intention to summarize the trolls session as quickly as possible. its hussies way of catching us up on the trolls backstory, the plot relevant info from their session, and the midnight crew + felts role in sgrub (w implications for how that impacts the kids sburb session). were introduced to doc scratch, and we learn a lot more about the paradoxical nature of sburb/sgrub. thats pretty much the whole subact! while this act was coming out, toby fox released his solo album alternia, and a bunch of ppl collabed on a squiddles album!

The Plot

im going to mix it up a little and start w the plot this time. the plot of hivebent was fastpaced and crammed a lot of things into one subact. if you recall anything from hs that happened before the trolls were on the meteor, chances are it all happened in this act! the purpose of this subact was very obviously just to set up for the following subact, and i noticed a lot of people complained about the pacing on the formspring (were still on the first one, btw). personally, i understood immediately what hussie was doing, so it didnt really bother me at all.

the trolls session was brief, largely bc unlike the kids, they were all already familiar w violence and weapons and frankly overprepared for their session. they breezed through the quests and bosses, and without even godtiering (except vriska) they all managed to beat an extremely overpowered black king that had been prototyped 12 times, one of which was w feferis monster horrorterror lusus. aradia largely played jades roll in setting up the whole session, following nudges from mysterious sources to discover the ruins, get sollux to create the game, and push all of her friends into playing it. hivebent ends with the end of their session and their new fate on the meteor.

The Characters

karkat, obviously, is one of the main characters in hivebent. hes ornery and obsessed with leadership, and he fights with everyone all the time. however, we still see a lot of moments where he genuinely connects with even the most insufferable people, regularly giving all of his friends the benefit of the doubt and offering compassion every time the need arises. in a5a2, vriska credits him for being the reason why the trolls didnt devolve into competitive murder. while he might not have been the best leader, he was genuinely really good at keeping the team together, even when the thing uniting them was just bitching about his obnoxious memos. like dave, karkat was one of my favorites on my first readthrough, and like dave, hes been a lot less compelling for me this time around, but theres still a lot to enjoy about his dynamics with others.

in a lot of ways, vriska also holds the limelight. sometimes it kind of feels like act 5 is her act to me, but maybe thats just bc she was my favorite and therefore all i cared about. vriska and john are both like, just as compelling to me as they were my first read, and my feelings on them really havent changed at all. its incredible. vriska is just such a complex character, and its like. man to this fucking day i will see tumblr posts like man i wish we had female characters who x and im like vriska already did. she already did and she killed it and fandom hated her so bad for it. shes genuinely so refreshing as a character bc i feel like we really never do get to see women who are just loud and brash and cringe and messy and she is just. ugh. she is the moment she is everything fr.

kanaya is my GIRL. shes one of the most genuinely hysterical characters in all of hs and one of my favorite trolls. even before she meets rose and starts playing up the sarcasm thing she has a very dry, deadpan sense of humor, and very little tolerance for stupid people, as much as she is patient with them. shes a little goofy, a little silly, and her crush on rose oh my god its literally so cute. i completely forgot she had a crush on rose way back before she even met her. listen, i love her, shes so great

tavros gets a fair bit of focus as well, as an early troll in hs, and ill be honest. i paid like no attention to tavros whatsoever my first read, bc i just didnt find him very interesting. however, im finding him a lot more compelling on my reread! the parallels he has with vriska are really interesting, and its unbelievable how much fandom has watered him down. he really is kind of a dick? and i dont understand why youd get rid of that! it makes him a much more nuanced and complex character than the woobie shy boy i see in so much fancontent

terezi gets less attention than you would think before a5a2, but she certainly has her own role in this act. shes never really been my favorite, because i just dont really relate to her at all? so i dont have much to say other than like. man. she sure is there. her relationship with nepeta is cute i love when people rp along w her and i think its really cool how she manages to outmanipulate doc scratch (tho that might be a5a2?), and early karez! is actually pretty cute.

aradia and sollux occupy a much smaller role, which mostly starts and ends with their responsibility for getting the ball rolling. they made sgrub, they got everyone playing it. however, despite the incredibly small role they play, i love them both so much. sollux in particular was one of my favorite trolls when i first read hs, and whoa! shocker! he still is. hes so fucking funny. his relationship w karkat is hysterical and hes just a lot of fun as a character

nepeta and equius have an even smaller role. personally tho, i fukcing love equius, i think hes so fucking funny. he feels very much like a thirteen yo boy who spent too much time in video game lobbies and started saying racist shit as a result. hes weird and uncomfortable, but mostly harmless, when he isnt being a huge fucking bigot. nepeta on the other hand is one of the most iconic girls ever in fiction, which i must acknowledge even when she isnt one of my personal faves. shes vicious and tough and still super cute and girly and like, not in a femme fatale way, but just in a middle school girl playing warrior cats way. which is SO REAL? she is THE weirdgirl, man. its her. little girls everywhere are being so represented right now.

gamzee is uh. well ill be honest. he basically doesnt matter at all. he has almost no lines and no relevance and is just kind of there, really? hes such a nothing character in this act. even that infamous tavros and gamzee conversation? thats really late in a5a2. so he literally doesnt do anything worth noting. rip.

eridan and feferi are the very last characters introduced, and so they just have very little fucking page time. every time i read hs pesterlogs im always so struck by the imaginary version of feferi that exists in the collective fandom mind. people were never normal about either of them, and ive always found myself at odds with popular opinion when it came to those two. but idk that i should really get into that, just bc it seems like my life would be easier if i didnt.

im going to hold off saying anything about the midnight crew until a5a2, but i did want to comment very quickly on doc scratch. it is insane how much he influences in a5a1. like, vriska talks about how she had no intentions of killing aradia, or maiming tavros or terezi, and how she feels like its just going way too far, but she only did it bc of scratchs pushing and manipulation! he was grooming her, for ages. he also manipulated terezi, and kanaya, and aradia! none of them even realize the extent to which he manipulated them, he was so fucking slick about it. im also going to take this moment to mention that while it might not be clear in the comic, hussies talked a lot in the formsprings about how scratch literally only talks to girls, except for that one time he said one sentence to screw w karkat. he is like. so creepy. :')

The Albums

i think alternia was the very first solo album made for hs, and its not surprising it was made by none other than mr radiation. the albums pretty good, but honestly listening to it i just wanted to be listening to alterniabound. a lot of the alternia songs are remixed for alterniabound, and i like the remixed versions a lot better tbh.

and then theres.... squiddles. this album is a trip man. so many of these songs i was listening to and was just like. what the actual fuck. highly recommend sending to your non hs friends to mess w them, 10/10 way to spend your time. the unicorn song was particularly upsetting.

Act 5 Act 2

this one is significantly longer than a5a1. a5a2 basically synthesizes hivebent with the kids story and builds towards the scratch- or, cascade, which is the biggest flash project to date. this is where terezi kills that doomed john, where jade enters the medium, where most of daves medium journey takes place, where rose goes grimdark, where all the kids godtier, where gamzee goes shithive, the one with alterniabound, the bit with doc scratch and the green background, all that shit. a lot happens! during this act, hussie also quits using the first formspring and starts a new one, in hopes of streamlining it and answering less nonsense questions, which she abandons by the end of the act, instead starting up a tumblr. there are also a lot of new albums released during this period, including the felt, vol 6: heir transparent, strife, alterniabound, medium, mobius trip and hadron kaleido, vol 7: at the price of oblivion, sburb, the wanderers, prospit and derse, the vol 1-4 compilation, and vol 8. so lets get into it.

The Plot

theres so much. so much happens. but what you need to know is that everything from right before jade enters the medium to when they scratch the session, blow up the green sun, and are about to meet up w the trolls, happens in this act. for the trolls, this pretty much means everything from the end of their session to when they meet up w the kids, including the gamzee shithive incident.

The Characters

lets get the easy shit out of the way first. most of the trolls, with the exception of the patron trolls (terezi, karkat, vriska, and kanaya), have very small roles in this act. their only real moments to shine are during alterniabound and the murderspree. i will say, alterniabound and the other meteor walkarounds do a lot of work in terms of like, fleshing out the trolls relationships to each other. all of it, really. pretty much all of the touching, cute relationship moments between trolls happen in these logs, including karkat and eridans weird bromance thing, karkats love for kanaya, like, all of feferi and solluxs relationship, sollux and terezis honestly really touching friendship, and like all of the good equius and nepeta moments (where previously their relationship had just come off as creepy and controlling). i could probably write a post just about alterniabound, so im not going to get into it here.

dave also actually doesnt have a lot going on in this act. dave spends most of the act timetraveling around, collaborating with terezi to get a bunch of very necessary but completely unseen shit going on. it isnt until much later that we really get any moments with him, but notable moments include: john valuing their friendship so much that he listens to dave instead of terezi, daves horror at roses suicide plan and determination to intervene, dave and roses way of cutting straight through each others bullshit and being real with each other in a way that they arent with anyone else, and daves extremely weird and avoidant reaction to his bros death (foreshadowing!)

rose, similarly, is offscreen for most of the beginning, doing grimdark bullshit. it isnt until right before she literally goes grimdark that we start to focus on her again. compelling moments for me: her reaction to her mothers death, and pretty much everything she says about her mom (their relationship is so complicated, but it is obvious that rose does actually really care about her and mourns her, in contrast to daves relationship with bro), the way everyone tells rose that the horrorterrors are lyign to her and tricking her but nothing... really bad seems to come of her going grimdark, and she doesnt lose control or anything? and, again, everything with her and dave leading up to cascade

vriska probably plays the biggest and most interesting role of all of the trolls in this act, serving as johns patron and leading him through to godtier. her relationship with john is really cute, actually, and its kinda fun how john simultaneously sees right through her and teases her, but also will go along with her shit and is actually very kind to her most of the time. most compelling to me is her conversations with john about guilt, weakness, and death

john and jade easily have the biggest roles in this act, though, with jade finally getting into the medium, prototyping jadesprite (and THAT whole mess), befriending the trolls, coming up with the password system, and putting a lot of the plans into place, and john being heavily featured as he goes through his game and is the first kid to make it to godtier. i kinda feel like id just be repeating what i said w act 4 tho, so lets keep going

the midnight crew! i said id come back to them. there is a lot of filling in the exiles backstory in this act, so that its pretty much full circle by the time it ends. the midnight crew in particular i found interesting bc we see enough of them (post introduction of the quadrant system) that hussie actually starts leaning into their card suits as quadrant roles! cd excels at settling disputes between parties, jack is super destructive, hb is obsessed w romance, and dd regularly pacifies jack and talks him out of impulsive plans that they both know would just make their lives harder. which is really cool!! it was a neat little touch that i really enjoyed

The Formsprings and the Tumblr

finally, finally, the first formspring came to an end. hussie claimed that there were just too many asks and people were starting to ask things that had already been answered, so they wanted to make a new one devoted to only the comic relevant stuff. and, well. it didnt work. it was better! but the formspring was still full of stupid, pointless bullshit and dumb nothing questions. there were a couple of running jokes that made their way into canon (shooshpap, fedorafreaks session) and some running jokes that just sucked (fat vriska. ugh.), plenty of the usual bigotry, and a few answers that were genuinely really interesting. still dont recommend reading it. obviously, hussie wound up torching this one too, as it wasnt really any better, and instead started up a tumblr! as of the end of a5a2, there were almost no posts and so i have nothing interesting to say about it other than it existed.

The Albums

ok so there are so many that were released like, right at the end, i am not actually caught up yet. so ill just talk about the ones i have listened to so far.

first up, we have the felt album. the idea for this one was similar to the mc album, where music helps set the stage and develop the environment and characters. the concept was an orchestral album that played with chronology, and the results are so cool. songs reverse and slow down and fast forward, and listening to it is just such a cool experience! i thought docs song especially really fit him.

vol 6: heir transparent. its a pretty middling album. its good, but i dont have anything particularly interesting to say about it. i hate the nic cage songs on here, but it has megalovania, which we all know is an irrefutable banger. i honestly kinda prefer the hs megalovania to the ut one.

strife! this was actually one of the first hs albums i ever listened to all the way through. time on my side is one of my all-time favorite hs songs, and heir conditioning STILL goes hard as hell. its a good album!! its fun.

i said earlier that listening to alternia just made me want to listen to alterniabound. this album is fantastic, and i think its also like, the first one w track commentary? which was really cool to read through! i think my favorite track is killed by 8r8k spider, but all of the themes just fit the characters so well and theyre really well done.

medium. this was another environmental album meant to sort of set a mood for the universe, and a solo album! i liked this one, but i dont have much to say about it. it was very pretty.

mobius fucking kaleido whatever. i hate this one. its a solo album and most of the tracks have lyrics and i just did not enjoy that one bit. the lyrics feel really corny, the like... art book thing?? is illegible, and it is just not for me.

vol 7: at the price of oblivion. this is the first album to have individual track art!! which, ofc, is all gorgeous. a lot of the songs on this album are so fucking good (except warhammer of zillyhoo. ugh. UGH.), and my favorite is terezi owns. it goes HARD. black rose/green sun is also really striking and perfectly haunting.

sburb is another solo, environmental album. the whole thing is a series of piano compositions, and its beautiful. really, really stunning work.

i listened to the wanderers while i was typing up this bigass post, and its really good! i think it perfectly fits the vibe of the desolate wasteland planet and the exiles silly little shenanigans, and i think of all of the like, themed environmental albums so far, this one does the best job at representing the energy for me personally (except probably squiddles, but ugh. squiddles). my favorite track is riches to ruins movements i & ii, i can tell it was remixed for heir of grief and i actually really love the og.

im still working through my relisten of prospit & derse, but like strife, this was an album i listened to over and over again long before i started this reread and i know i fucking love it. derse dreamers was always my favorite (theyre ALL good tho, NO misses), but who knows! maybe ill have a new one when im finished. i always really liked that the prospit tracks had really distinct piano, bass, and wind instruments (in parallel to john and jade playing bass, piano, and flute), and the derse tracks have really distinct synth and violin (in parallel to rose and daves instruments). its such a nice touch.

idk if vol 1-4 has any new stuff in the collection, and i havent listened to vol 8 yet, so ill just update about those whenever i write another recap.

Final Thoughts

uhhhh... im tired? lmao. ive been typing so long i cant remember if theres anything else. there was a lot more to say about this act than i thought thered be.

i guess, in summary, im really enjoying my reread so far. i think im reading with a much more critical eye than i did way back when (i started in 2014, for those of u just getting here), and im really paying more attention to certain characters i glanced over before or the actual mechanics of like, alternia and sburb and etc. ive retained more memory of the characters than i thought, but less about the plot than i thought, and my favorite characters have shuffled around a bit.

prior to my reread, i probably would have told you my favorite characters were dave, john, karkat, and then vriska and the rest of the strilondes. during my original read (almost a decade ago), my favorites were dave, vriska, sollux, dirk, and rose. now, id say my favorites are rose, kanaya, vriska, john, and sollux.

but yeah! i think thats about all i have to say, for now. stay tuned for. sighs. act 6.

update: wow, here it is! act 6, sub acts 1-3. also, heres a recap on the formspring and blogspot. youre welcome.

#hs reread #homestuck liveblog #fuck me i accidentally clciked keep reading and couldnt reach the bottom of the post #anyway i just wanted to add quietly that #the purpose of act 5 is rlly just that its setting up for the intro of the alpha kids #act 1-4 is about hussie finding their groove #act 5 is where the plot really gets chugging #recaps

[tslasvegas]

Episode 3: “UGH just rename Luxor to Loser” - Xavier

Well... that takes care of the Timmy problem... Love Timmy... Just didn’t know how our dynamic would be cus he was runner-up to the last survivor game I played which I won. Hm... Well...

That went well. There's nothing like a live video tribal to get people together. and stephen didn't react too badly. but i know now he won't work with me moving forward

I’m sorry I’m terrible at confessionals... So things are going well, I think we have a decent tribe but it is too soon to tell. I’m not a huge fan of creative challenges, at least from my previous game, I guess we will see how that goes. Most of the guys seem nice, still trying to feel everyone out.`

A 4-2 vote off is interesting. Someone is on the bottom for sure. Also, this next challenge is a creative challenge and when I do these solo I usually do really well. Hopefully I can channel that energy into a win for us here because two tribes are going to tribal. We’ll be down to 17 after this, so I’m not sure if we’d go into a tribe swap yet? Maybe 2 tribes of 8 with one person sitting out? 

Oh hot dang, two tribes are going to tribal next time. Probably going to be us :( now it is time to make alliance chats!

....five seconds later

I suspect that after this double vote out that there will be a tribe swap. I hope I end up with Mo and Jaiden at least.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17NPxKO_TKgqjNqsaWlbmlL0jgU36Aygi/view?usp=drivesdk

I really like this challenge. I feel confident about it but at the same time nervous that 2 tribes will be going to tribal. I really hope my tribe wins this one since I still don't know how the tribe feels about me. Wish me luck guys!

My tribe is not going to win this immunity challenge. Our nightclub is due just hours away and we have little nothing done. I am going to have to scramble soon.....I did nothing to help my tribe with the challenge, so if it is me that goes, I would understand 

....five seconds later

Honestly, I want to keep Jaiden and Mo around because I feel closer with them than anyone else. I want to keep Kailyn around because she seems to make time for challenges. Everyone else I am okay with going home, Ben hasn't really done anything soooooo maybe him? Oof

If we lose, then it's 2/3rds my fault and 1/3 Stephen. We better not be on the chopping block if we do lose. This is a two person Tribe as of now. Bobby Jon and Stephenie.

...five seconds later

UGH just rename Luxor to Loser

Second we lose Ben finally responded to my pm’s..... hm..... alright....

Y’all rlly won with a PowerPoint SKDJDJSKLALALL

Some of these guys have an excuse for not giving input into the challenge. Some do not. If I go home because some americans could be bothered doing some base level discussion, ill be annoyed. If I go home because a tribe threw a challenge because they thought id be an easy vote, ill be pissed.

All that hard work that went into this challenge really paid off! We scored the best and don’t have to attend tribal!! Which is absolutely exciting! Andrew told me he wanted to work together which is rad. Livingston and I want to work together which is radder. And Joey and i want to work together which is raddest. I haven’t spoken too much with Jeff lately even though we talked quite a bit early on. Pat and I speak occasionally. Stephanie and I didn’t really speak at all until recently but we’ve gotten into a good groove the last few days. I’m feeling pretty good about this game so far. I hope there’s no tribal swap or anything right away.

So when I get my chip total I'm gonna update Keegan. He is currently at a soap making class but I want him to know I am serious about working with him in this game and I think this is a good gesture. - keegan has let me know he has 4 chips and is willing to pool them over to me when we have enough so that we can unlock the store. I let him know I am okay with doing the same thing to him, whichever. But yes this is looking HOT for me. - "what's in the store?" | all i can really assume is advantages. we need 10 chips to unlock it. This is very similar to the Unnamed Season but the betting cap gives us more control. At this point, I don't think anyone can mathematically unlock without pooling chips. Keegan and I just need 1 more chip between us. Let's just hope we aren't separated by a swap or some shit. I am hoping for a bit more time on this amazing tribe to get that set up so I have a good idea of what the store holds.

Some of these guys have an excuse for not giving input into the challenge. Some do not. If I go home because some americans could be bothered doing some base level discussion, ill be annoyed. If I go home because a tribe threw a challenge because they thought id be an easy vote, ill be pissed.

We lost again!?!?!?!?!??! I am so surprised? Nah I'm kidding, but I don't care. I don't blame our team for losing because 3/5 of us were panicking because our president could be a cheetoh. I'm voting Stephen tonight, I hope the others follow suit. It SHOULD be simple, but 9 hours is a long time for Survivor; and if he knows it's him then might run around and create some chaos - which would be funny.

Rachael (love her she’s probably who I’m closest with along with DeNara and Kailyn) is not being subtle about the fact that she either has a pre-existing friendship with Ben or is currently aligned with Ben. Because Ben, from my knowledge has not been social with anyone, nor has he been super active and in our alliance chat with Kailyn, Rachael seems uncomfortable with the fact that Ben is said to be the vote and is saying she would prefer someone else to go. But like c’mon you can’t deny he hasn’t been social, and even if I had a friendship with somebody before a game, if they aren’t active I’m voting them out. Also I lied to my tribe a couple times this round because I’m lazy.

UGH. We LOST the challenge!!! And it wasn't even close *grumbles angrily* But it's okay. I'm gonna have to work my pussy out to this entire tribe to make them keep me around! I feel pretty good about this, I believe the target is leaning towards Ben but we'll have to wait and see. I don't think it's possible rn but I'm hoping for a swap soon so I can feel a little more re-energized in this game because my tribe has been super quiet lately... I think people will try to move the vote around so I'm going to use my current lack of employment as an opportunity to make myself stay alive on this tribe lmao

These guys are being super boring and either Jake is dumber than i thought, or shadier than i gave him credit for. Xavier might be trying to play me but regardless its doubtful ill stay. John seems to have the most chance of winning out of these four as hes not overplaying. Kevin hasnt spoken to me since the colin vote and it pisses me off that I might be going home after being one of two people that worked on the challenge when kevin was taken off the chopping block immediately for playing jeopardy. i hate this tribe.

....five seconds later

Johns out, Jake too by the sound of it. Time for plan B, which never works but might as well try. Fake idol time.

Oof well the uhh, “obvious friend group” has picked their target and it just so happens to be the only person I’ve made an actual alliance with :/ Poor DeNara. I really didn’t want to have to vote her off this early if I didn’t have to and then the worst part is she didn’t even hear it from me. Nobody is even mentioning game right now and Rachael is acting legitimately surprised to me when I came to her saying “okay this is an easier vote than I thought”.. even tho Ben claimed he had already talked to her..?? Idk man I must’ve done something wrong along the way but these people LEGITIMATELY don’t talk to me. My instant reaction is leaning towards being bitter but bitterness doesn’t really get me anywhere :/ I feel kinda.. out of it rn emotionally just because of everything else I have going on so if I seem more reserved tonight at tribal than usual, that’s why. I just hope that I’m not still stuck on that damn mountain rolling my dumbass rock back up only to get knocked back down again. I’m remaining optimistic for the future.. let’s keep winning some challenges mmkay

Okay good news, I shouldn't be leaving. But that being said DeNara, you have goT TO PULL. YOURSELF. TOGETHER. She's packing her bags and from my knowledge she's going to be fine tonight. Hopefully it'll be Ben who's going but DeNara giving up like this isn't helPING. 

....five seconds later

Also I am in two alliances which is cool I guess.

Oops....... and now I'm controlling this vote I think :) It feels good. I don't know what my plan is !! I'm lying to everyone. I basically put myself in a position to be the 4th person in both votes and I love it so much. I keep telling ppl I'm an emotional mess and I think I'll milk that because SOMEONE is going to get betrayed tonight... love that for me. Rachael, Nik, and Ben want to vote out DeNara Mo, Kailyn, and DeNara want to vote out Ben And tbh I would prefer Rachael or Nik!! Since neither of those things are happening I guess it's up to me to decide which way I wanna swing... I hate/love myself for this. I think there are good cases for both people to leave, because I think that getting rid of DeNara strengthens bonds I never had with Rachael and co. while getting rid of Ben just makes me their enemy. Honestly I am starting to lean towards getting rid of DeNara for that sole purpose alone. It'll be messy for sure. Ben provides NOTHING to the game right now and I hate the fact that he announced in his intro that he's just here to backstab people... but villains don't win unless they're sitting next to another villain. He's the goat to me and Rachael right now, but pretty homos like me always win xx I might regret this decision down the road but HOPEFULLY whichever side I take will pay me back in protection down the line. I think I have the charm to smooth shit over w Kailyn and Mo but its up for determination. I think that I have the finesse to beat Rachael in a vote, too, but I don't want to put her back up against the wall just yet..... ;) Anyways... I hope this isn't my last confessional. I wasn't having fun until I found my place. Let's get it on.

It is me or Ben tonight. Guess we will find out who...