2024-10-13 2:41:54 ¶ ● ⬈

##

something thats bugging me is what the latest chapter implies. like, are the sprites manifestations brought about by the Point to guide vriska, as per their literal reasons for existing? cuz the convo between dp and jr implies that this davepeta IS the same one, and not just a manifestation of the point. i guess like you said its not hugely important, and sort of the point, but it does make me wonder. like, were all the sprites drawn into the point, much like their supposed urge to die on the battlefield? or is this all just the Point's psychic manifestation for vriska?

dingodad:

> this is kind of the unspoken point to that last ask i answered. the sprites ARE manifestations of the plot point, but they also ARE the “real” sprites because a “real” sprite IS a psychic manifestation. in homestuck all versions of a character add up to a single unified vision, yadda yadda, but this is especially true of sprites because sprites are just ghost images that represent a person (like how a sprite in computer graphics merely “represents” an object) rather than being living people in and of themselves. if sburb can spontaneously manifest a sprite whenever they need one to appear, and that’s always the “real” one, there’s no reason the plot point manifesting that same sprite for different purposes wouldn’t also be the “real” one, at least as far as i’m concerned.

> i don’t particularly prefer the “psychic manifestation” phrasing anyway because i don’t think it’s productive to think of the plot point versions of characters as any less “real” than the people living outside of the plot point. they’re all characters living out their roles in stories; it’s just that the plot point is a highly condensed story-within-a-story with a highly specialised purpose, so it has a smaller scope than the story it’s nested within.

> the plot point is a “hell” in a figurative sense - confronting vriska with her worst nightmares - but also in the very literal sense that it’s swarming with the shades of the dead. are these the “real” spirits of the people vriska killed in her youth, or just manifestations of her guilt? the distinction isn’t necessarily important; for the sake of the story being told we as readers need to treat them as real, or else vriska’s penance becomes meaningless. i think it’s wise to treat the sprites the same way - being spirit guides, an underworld-equivalent like the plot point is almost a natural sort of habitat for them.

> i’ve never imagined the sprites literally being “drawn to” the singularity bc i’ve been taking davepeta at their word that they really did just manifest inside spontaneously the moment they were needed. but i do think the comparison to the Battlefield is interesting bc the black hole / Skaia have always been mirrored to each other as the cosmic centrepoints of their respective mediums… and Skaia being the fountain of all creative potential it does kind of feel like the sprites returning there is in a sense returning to the place of their creation like spirits returning to the underworld. so I think there’s definitely something to it