2022-06-19 9:17:51 ¶ ●

weird notes on black holes, some related to recent planet talk, some not:

> The kernelsprite collapses into a black hole, sucking the planet into it, and eventually the sun and entire solar system.

the fact that Caliborn’s first black hole starts sucking up the red sun is significant to a degree; it forms a prominent symbol that prefigures Calliope’s consumption of the Green Sun. but notably, it only ever forms a symbol. we never actually see the slow process of the red sun’s death come to a conclusion, and as such we never actually see the last part of this warning come to fruition: “eventually… the entire solar system”. this feels pointed given how much I’ve been talking about the weird pseudo-importance placed on the planet Mars, or the fact that Venus shows up in both the kids’ session and Caliborn’s session…

of course, we don’t know for sure that Earth C even had a neighbouring version of Mars (or Venus, or what have you): it’s a totally new universe, so we could probably be safe in assuming it doesn’t. but as much as I insist that Alternia’s green moon is Snowman’s black planet, repainted and repurposed, the aborted Snapchat storyline did seem to be building up the Land of Frost and Frogs as a potential green moon candidate by having the Felt build a new Felt Mansion there out of green wood.

the Epilogues never touch upon what happened to the kids’ leftover planets, but since we spent some time there in the Snapchat prologue, it doesn’t seem out of the question that it was intended for them to have been brought into the new universe and become the new solar system. prominently, Jade doesn’t seem to bring the moon with her when she relocates the Earth: but the Epilogues take for granted that the new Earth does have a new moon, and this fact is featured front and center on Snapchat. is that why the Land of Wind and Shade looks exactly like the Earth’s moon?

a little more troublingly:

> Cheru8s typically seek out 8lack holes as the setting for their m8ting ritual. 8ut not any 8lack hole. Once long ago it was a star, and circling that star was a planet. That planet was home to one of the presently sparring cheru8s. The male in this case returned to the site of his hatching to m8, a loc8tion now conspicuously occupied 8y a truly massive 8lack hole.

the fact that the cherub’s home planet is now “conspicuously” replaced by a large, red black hole is supposed to make us think of the black hole Caliborn creates when he enters his session: it’s supposed to tease the idea that Caliborn’s dad is in fact Caliborn himself. but now that we can be pretty confident Lord English isn’t going back in time to become his own dad any time soon, reading back on this line is just worrisome. part of me can’t help but wonder if Caliborn’s dad is Calliope, a cherub who we already know is alive potentially thousands of years before her own birth… but surely not. right…?