2024-08-30 16:34:07 ¶ ●

thoughts on Scratch’s Parlor that don’t really lead anywhere in particular:

I saw someone point out that these final three chapters consist of two different pool balls separated by what looks like it could be a sprite-oriented intermission, and that this might be taken as suggesting two takes on the Doc Scratch confrontation - the 8-ball chapter representing the version where Vriska is in control, and not the cueball. I’m torn on this.

one the one hand, I think it would be a really compelling elaboration on the “recovery isn’t linear” theme for Vriska’s therapyquest to not involve beating Scratch at all! (in my search for sicklyseraphnsuch’s post I saw someone refer to this as scars “healing around” the trauma and moving on, which I thought was really good but immediately lost the post. shoutout if that was you.) this chapter didn’t end like previous fail states; the time loop didn’t repeat (Scratch specifically says no do-overs!) and we end on a level-up screen, which brings a level of finality to the interaction.

on the other: having Vriska spend some time working on herself, hanging out with the sprites like they asked, and then be able to re-approach the same situation with a new mindset and ultimately come out victorious would be a great demonstration of her ability to grow and solve problems without brute force. after all, while Vriska did level up this month, she didn’t fill out her echeladder like she has in previous chapters, and her previous failures to advance in the time loop have all ended in death, either by Tavros’ lance or being eaten by her mother… so maybe that’s all “no do-overs” means? Scratch won’t kill her, so she won’t get to play this conversation out again, but that doesn’t mean she can’t come back and initiate another dialogue entirely, try to overcome him a different way… if Vriska needs to learn to grow without burning her candle, maybe she just won’t earn any new levels in sprite chapter, and she can come back and finish what she started for the big finale?

both options clearly have thematic value, which is a great position for a story to be in.

I absolutely see the appeal of the common theory, too, that the 8-ball chapter will feature Vriska confronting herself (possibly in the form of the alternate (Vriska)). but I also think the events in Scratch’s Parlor cast the idea of Vriska confronting a younger version of herself in a totally new light… one thing I realised upon reading the linked post is that the final chapter is of course represented by an 8-ball because the 8-ball is the ball the player has to pocket to finish the game. but Vriska is already in a pocket in the form of a black hole: so for Vriska to sink the 8-ball here means what, exactly? to sink another Vriska into the hole so she can be free? leaving a younger Vriska behind while the alpha continues on into adulthood would be a potent symbol of growth, for sure - but it would also be a repeat offense.

say that is the path we go down, though; the big finale to Vriska’s therapy is a confrontation with herself. it occurs to me that there’s an alternative - but equally nonoptimal - consequence to journeying into the underworld and confronting the shadow-self. and it’s one that anyone who’s seen Twin Peaks will already be intimately familiar with: what if isn’t Vriska who sinks {Vriska} into the pocket to win the game? what if the “Hell Tier” Vriska who escapes from the Plot Point is in fact the shadow-Vriska? it would certainly put a dark spin on this particularly emphatic thread of philosophising we’ve followed in the pages leading up to now:

> JAKE: […] its nice to think that there might be countless janes somewhere out there who never stopped being happy […] If i can believe in those janes, / i think i can let this one go. (p. 635)
> VRISKA: C'mon, we’re not doing this again. You can’t keep comparing yourself to her! She’s a freak and you’re like the least freakish person I’ve ever met.
> NANNASPRITE: […] it’s simply a fact of reality. […] The past is always going to be the past. […] And while in my twilight years of retired spritehood, I have often pondered the “could be.” / Seeing that choice isn’t innate to every iteration of Jane Crocker has assured me that I did indeed fulfill a path of potential to its fullest degree. I’m grateful to her for that… marginally. (p. 666)

of course, we’ve already seen this play out to an extent with the younger Vrissy, who Vriska evokes directly in her conversation with Momfang (“I didn’t have to go through aaaaaaaall of THAT to 8e strong. Vrissy didn’t!”). and something I’ve maintained ever since the the veil was finally pulled off the Plot Point is that there is absolutely no way Beyond Canon can possibly sustain itself if that damn black hole manages to produce yet another set of duplicate characters- OH SHIT

> Due to principles of uncertainty regarding the existence of angels in a vacuum, each splits in to ANGEL/ANTIANGEL PAIRS.
> For each pair, one of the two escapes, while the other falls back into the black hole.