2024-02-09 3:03:15 ¶ ●

Lord English’s symbol being a black hole, or singularity, is a double entendre - because a “singularity” is also the hypothesised end result of machine supremacy, the point at which technological advancement outstrips human advancement and spirals out of control. AR alludes to this theory when he brags of “the jaw-dropping speed of [his] post-singularity cognition.”

the machine uprising, à la the Terminator, is the inevitable outcome of technological expansion in just the same way Lord English himself is the embodiment of inevitability itself!

2024-02-12 2:41:18 ¶ ●

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How do the Helmstrolls fall into your analysis of Alternia biological Vs flesh dichotomy?

The Helms-trolls are Trolls forced to power Alternian war machines the Psionic/Helmsman is the most famous Helmstrolls.

They are a pretty obvious metaphor for how the mechanical exploit the biological

even moreso than flesh being suppressed by machines, Alternia’s lowbloods ARE the machines. as part of its veil of superficial matriarchy, Alternia has no true computers or robotics, and instead uses living organisms for those roles. drones and battleships are ultimately the same in this respect, which is why they’re both depicted in the same colour schemes in act 6 (with dronegorg as a crossover between the two) and why Trizza’s battleship in Hiveswap is depicted as a giant crustacean; it is itself an immense drone.

2024-02-12 2:59:08 ¶ ●

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I think many fan analysis forget the fact that Equius and Vriska where neighbors. which might mean their meteors crashed together or something. but they built their houses close by for a reason. with Spidermom being the dividing line between Equius and Vriska.

Equius saw Vriska feeding lowbloods to Spidermom from his window all the time.

Equius is also the person who gave Vriska her prostheses. Equius also hides the cue ball from Doc scratch.

i think their Lusues are also a contrast. Author is a butler who assists Equius in his things including donating his blood for Aradiabot while Spidermom forces Vriska to feed her trolls

Vriska and Equius live in a symbiosis as man/wife and lowblood/highblood. Hussie’s commentary on Equius’ introduction says the following:

> Equius has a few things in common with Vriska […] they’re both blue- blooded aristocracy whose castes maintain both deep contempt for those lower and (especially in indigo cases) exceedingly high regard for those above. The fact that they’re neighbors suggests there isn’t that big a divide between blue and indigo in terms of status and daily life. Both classes probably cluster together somewhat in a kind of snobby symbiosis, since they’re one notch below purple-blooded clown hell […] And both are one notch above the jade and teal middling classes, which enjoy some status, but both castes revolve around more functional, municipal services …

in this way Vriska’s blue caste is almost vestigial, without any purpose in the Alternian hierarchy distinct from that of indigo nobility - which is why her “class” is that of an outlaw, the Thief. Vriska’s ancestors were once proud gamblignants, who offered the Zahhaks sanctuary in their territory; but now the gamblignants are dead, and Vriska hides within Zahhak’s pocket of void while offering very little in exchange. as you say, this is reflected in their lusii: Vriska’s lusus demands servitude, yes, but it is also a parasite which basically gives its troll nothing in return for a constant supply of food. other blue blooded lusii, like Ardata’s tick, further emphasise this parasitic nature.

2024-02-12 2:59:36 ¶ ● ⬈

dingodad:

> i think it’s interesting how ectobiology is being used as a symbol of the regressive and the repetitive; it is literally the science of “making babies out of ghosts”, so in other words the art of remixing existing ideas over and over again (its literal main purpose in Sburb: creating multiple groups of slightly different kids, literally ‘paradox clones’, so it can attempt to reproduce the same way again and again until something works). Dirk thinks making a new species out of old ideas via ectobiology is the way for Homestuck to keep going forever. Jade thinks having a new kid without ectobiology is the one way to break the monotony, even if it’s literally with one of the same eight people her family has been tied up with for the past 5000 years.

> this does have further implications worth discussing when viewed through a queer lens. what does it say, for instance, that these characters appear to view pregnancy as the only way to have a “real” baby, and making a baby in a lab as the “fake” way? even Kanaya seems to echo this sentiment when she expresses resentment over her race having been forced to reproduce with machines. we have been talking a lot recently about how aspects of paradox space that may seem queer or liberating on first glance - quadrants, for instance - are actually just veiled tools of the patriarchy, and it’s true that the same could be thought of ectobiology; for one thing, Sburb only seems interested in pairing men and women, even when they lack any sexual chemistry in reality. so maybe it is queer and liberating that Jade and Rose, by eschewing ectobiology altogether, have earned the place of being the first gay couple in Homestuck to make a baby together, breaking that streak. but because Homestuck^2 inherited by necessity the Epilogues’ positions on sex and gender, which at times come across as deeply un-queer and un-liberating, it’s also true that Jade and Rose have only been allowed that opportunity because of some fluke of their biology. nothing seems to have been truly liberated from the way it was before; if two people on Earth C want to have a kid regardless of their own biology, the very machines which are being painted as regressive seem to be the only option they currently have. and this has ramifications for the building of interspecies families just as much as it does nonheterosexual ones, which is a major concern not just for the subjects of Jane’s xenophobic regime at large, but also for a great portion of Homestuck’s own core cast

2024-02-12 3:03:38 ¶ ●

wondering if maybe Vriska’s caste as a “vestigial class” is maybe reflective of women in general being a vestigial concept on Alternia