03/09/2015 12:24:10 ¶ ●

stormingtheivory:

> whisperwhisk:

> > stormingtheivory:

> > > Is there any shortcut in Homestuck that hasn’t resulted in disaster later on in the narrative?

> > > Like I’m thinking back and even though this seems to be the big idea of Act 6, there’s a bunch of incidents earlier (Bec helping Jade enter the game most blatantly) where shortcuts lead to catastrophe…

> > Nope! Sburb is a structural labyrinth - a twisting, dense scenario through which there is only one possible, correct path. Shortcuts don’t work because the point of a labyrinth isn’t to get to the end - the point is to follow the path correctly, and the reward is the personal growth you achieve by doing so. By trying to shortcut it, you undercut the fundamental purpose in the exercise, leading to disaster.

> > However, due to the influence of Scratch and English, the version of Sburb we see in Homestuck is a corrupted labyrinth - instead of a way out, the final room is a deathtrap. This makes shortcuts necessary for survival - but it’s still a labyrinth, and shortcuts still inevitably invite disaster. That’s a huge part of what makes LE such an effective villain I think - that crushing sense of inevitability he infuses in the entirety of the game, the way he turns it into a no-win scenario by his very presence.

> > The only correct answer is to change the nature of the game on some fundamental level - Cascade gave us a glimmer of that, and John and Terezi’s retcon gave us a lot more.

> So what results negatively from Bro giving Dave the disc and stopping the meteor from destroying the house and so on? That’s the one obvious external assist/shortcut that I don’t see as having a direct impact

I think Bro has an out because he’s sorta Dirk. I mean beta Roxy made SBURB, which in the troll session was made by Sollux and Aradia, and that doesn’t seem to have had any repercussions.