a revelation that can easily fly under one’s nose is that Jade’s Grandpa’s expedition to the Medium actually happened contemporaneously with the events of Homestuck’s first four acts; Jake’s mysterious appearance on the Land of Wind and Shade is the very same expedition on which he took one of Typheus’ minions as a trophy.
so when Jade observes that her Grandpa got his fourth wall “years ago”, what that actually means is that he’ll pilfer it from a bureaucrat’s office sometime today; and if we’re lucky, we might even be able to spot the moment he gets his hands on it.
and as it happens, at the actual scene of the crime, the given time frame is a much cagier “some time ago.” so when was it? when did Jake get the opportunity to pop over to Derse and take the fourth wall, so to speak?
the answer is literally two pages earlier when Andrew Hussie makes his first appearance as a character in his own webcomic. the fourth wall is stolen from Noir’s office between panels, at the exact moment the fourth wall officially disappears from Homestuck the comic.
my first thought was that i wonder if that’s how Jake’s grift normally goes; stuff whatever isn’t nailed down into your sizeable pockets while everyone’s distracted with meta bullshit. but if we’re still thinking of Jake as a doppelganger for English, the thought that inevitably comes to mind is that Hussie and English are some kind of double act, and English can only get away with what he does because everyone’s too busy looking at Hussie when he does it…
lime-bloods:
my first thought was that i wonder if that’s how Jake’s grift normally goes; stuff whatever isn’t nailed down into your sizeable pockets while everyone’s distracted with meta bullshit. but if we’re still thinking of Jake as a doppelganger for English, the thought that inevitably comes to mind is that Hussie and English are some kind of double act, and English can only get away with what he does because everyone’s too busy looking at Hussie when he does it…
this being the very scene where we get Hussie’s “Why are [my fingers] orange? Let’s not answer that question” commentary, i also can’t help but think that the message here is “ignore whatever Dirk’s doing and focus on what Jake’s up to behind the scenes”; but maybe the fact that there’s even such a coy comment on that page is exactly the kind of meta bullshit we’re supposed to avoid being distracted by?
jakemorph-art:
my yearly snowman drawing is usually a celebration of the past so i thought i might change things up this april and take a look toward possible futures…. 🎱
does the idea that the machinations of orange fingers only distract from Jake’s actions in the background contradict the possibility that Dirk has been controlling Caliborn all along (which you may know from these drawings that have been going around again recently)?
or does it merely warrant a re-examination of the Equius/Vriska dynamic… despite Equius’ higher status, Hussie “suggests there isn’t that big a divide” between the blue castes, to the point that they “probably cluster together somewhat in a kind of snobby symbiosis” (Book 4, p. 192), hinting that the relationship between the two should be interpreted more bilaterally than Equius just being the robot puppetmaster behind the scenes… perhaps that means Equius’ supposed immunity to Vriska’s manipulations is out - or maybe the trick is just that Vriska finds non-psychic ways to mess him around (commentary from the same book, p. 188: “Another funny thing about [Vriska supposedly building a doomsday device for Eridan] is the fact that getting help from one of her "pals nearby” (Equius) probably just means she made him do almost all of the work and is taking full credit for it").
more obviously, though, a re-examination of the Dirk introduction in question might be to our advantage. that Dirk “possess[es] the extreme dexterity to operate your FALSE FRIENDS UNSEEN” merely means, on the surface, that he’s so fast he can move his puppets without being seen: but the choice of capitalisation makes “FALSE FRIENDS UNSEEN” emerge as if it’s a noun of its own - Dirk possesses the capability to manipulate characters we don’t even see, which describes the marauding older Jake perfectly.
so I suppose it’s less that Jake uses Hussie’s meta bullshit as a cover like I thought at first, and more that the two are collaborating? (or both using each other as cover, if the Vriska/Equius example is indicative.) which makes perfect sense on a purely practical level; Hussie needed Noir’s 4th wall to perform his “science experiment”, so it’s only logical that he would have employed Jake’s help to steal it in the first place
i promise another actual theory post will come someday soon and it won’t just be note taking forever
