the Forge is such an interesting oddity in Homestuck’s mythos; why does Hephaestus need that particular lava to craft his weapons? why is that the necessary way to deliver a tadpole into the Battlefield? our Heroes forego the use of the drill usually required to deliver the frog, but in spite of how easy it would have been to just fly the tadpole to its destination, the volcano - and the rings needed to ignite it - still seem to be essential to the process. unlike anything else, the Forge is magical in nature, but has no magical origin; it just seems to grow from the earth where it’s needed.

in the time up to and around GAME OVER, Karkat’s dangerous proximity to lava had some speculating that magma might fall under the symbolic umbrella of the Blood aspect, and now I wonder if that might be part of what’s going on here; is the significance of the Forge firing lava up into Skaia that it’s a transfer of blood from the parent into the child, like a cosmic placenta?

the Forge as placenta could almost make the whole island structure into the image of a womb, obviously taking the frog as the baby..?