2024-08-26 5:28:55 ¶ ●

Early on in page 666 we touched on the sprites, and how, like the other ghosts in the Plot Point, they’re frozen in time and unable to change. This latest chapter further emphasises the forever-childhood of the dead trolls; when Gcatavros and Erisol suggest that Vriska just chill with them for a little while, it’s an appeal to her own childhood - the years she spent roleplaying with them back when they were just Tavros and Eridan. Vriska comes close to calling this out directly when she teases Erisol for the fact that he “literally can’t change his clothes”, but Erisol pointing out that Vriska’s been wearing the same jacket since they were kids is actually stating plainly the thesis of the above post: for all the ‘progress’ Vriska has made up her echeladder thus far, she’s still reluctant to actually “change”, which is what the Plot Point was really constructed for her to do.

When Scratch reverts Vriska back to her own forever-childhood, he makes one last connection between growth and clothing by referring to it as “get[ting] you into your uniform.” Outfit updates have been a staple of Beyond Canon since its inception, and since last year’s relaunch quite a few characters have even received their second or third new designs; but Vriska stands out as one who has yet to be revamped in such a way - beyond receiving a new eyepatch, which is its own kind of regression to the way she used to be - given how uniquely fashion-conscious she could be in Homestuck itself. While sprites have no choice in what they wear, Vriska does, but has simply chosen thus far to remain in her old clothes in the same way she’s chosen to remain in an old mindset; if she is indeed on the way to some kind of “Hell Tier”, it seems very likely her first new outfit is on the horizon, and that inevitable change has now taken on a considerable symbolic significance.