There’s this one theory about the ending going around. That theory being that the reason Hussie thumbs-downed LE, the reason the animation cut off before the final battle, and the reason the door on the platform turned white is that the true purpose of the House Juju was just to end the comic, “freeing” the characters from the narrative.
There’s enough evidence to suggest that maybe that’s what happened. I’m not interested in disproving the theory, just because Act 7 was vague enough on the details that, really, anyone’s theory is equally valid. What I do want to talk about is why that ending fucking sucks.
It’s strange because the main cast escaping from the time loops and causal obligations of Paradox Space was the ending I wanted. Always have. I remember a dark shadow settling onto me in Act 5, realizing the crushing inevitability in everything these characters did. No one’s choices mattered. There was no free will. Everything they did had already happened. That feeling of hopelessness is supported by the narrative – Rose’s attempt to thwart the narrative and destroy the Green Sun turned her into the very author of its hold over reality. That bullshit feeling of being “suckered” by the narrative was cut with the victory of Jade literally breaking through the fourth wall. But even that was fore-ordained. More causal bullshit. The kids never truly had control over their destinies, and they knew it.
Wait. So why is Act 7 as an escape from the narrative unsatisfying?
It has to do with agency.
Hey, let’s change gears and talk about the ending of a movie from the 90s. What’s more Homestuck than that?
I actually love this type of ending a lot, and here’s a movie that fucking nailed it. The Truman Show, for all of you way younger than me, is a movie about a guy whose entire life is a narrative. As a baby, he was chosen to be the star of a pioneering new television show. Truman’s lived his entire life in a dome, surrounded by actors who are paid to be his family, friends, and coworkers. The director manipulates his life by introducing elements as plot twists and drama. Ultimately, Truman realizes that his world is fake and ties to escape from it.
In the final scene, Truman reaches the edge of the dome. The director reaches out to him like the booming voice of god, telling him that, yes, his entire world might be artificial, but it’s also safe and familiar. The world outside is frightening and nothing is certain. Truman decides that, despite understanding this, it’s better to be in control of his own destiny. He makes his choice, takes a bow, recites his catch phrase, and leaves the dome. The movie ends immediately here, because there are no cameras to document what happens from there. Awesome, ambiguous ending that nails its themes.
The key word in what makes it so good? CHOICE.
Okay. Back to Homestuck.
I started getting nervous last year when Arquius began to release the grist hoards. I was struck by the fact that I didn’t know why the kids were actually trying to make this frog. I couldn’t remember them talking about wanting to beat the game. I never got the sense that they particularly wanted to be gods of a new universe. They always just seemed to be fighting for their lives, thrown from one crisis to another and swimming against the current. Pages upon pages upon pages of dialogue, and I can’t recall one single time when any of the eight kids talked about what happened after the game, not even with the trolls, who had actually done it before and did have some feelings about it. The thing was, Sburb was never the enemy. Paradox Space was. And making a new frog seemed to play right into what Paradox Space wanted. One more universe to seed and eventually destroy, continuing the cycle forever.
Thematically, everything was leading up to an ending where the characters overcame the grip of Paradox Space and made their own destiny. But instead, they killed some bosses and made their frog.
There’s no reason why this frog is different. We aren’t given any indication that this is a special frog. It was made the same way as any other frog. The kids just did exactly what the narrative wanted them to, smiling vacantly up at old Bilious Slick and then going through the door, ostensibly walking into yet another Paradox Space controlled universe and seeming, somehow, entirely satisfied with it.
Why do they look so fucking happy? What did they actually accomplish, here?
Maybe the House Juju did release the kids from the confines of Paradox Space. Maybe its entire purpose was ending Homestuck, which took away Lord English’s power. But that’s a bullshit, unsatisfying ending, because it happened entirely by accident. Vriska thought it was a powerful relic that would destroy Lord English. And the kids? They didn’t think jack shit. They didn’t know what the Juju would do. They didn’t know Calliope intends to collapse the sun. They didn’t know ANYTHING.
In the final moments of Homestuck, the characters we’ve spent seven years and ten thousand pages with end the narrative the exact way they started it: with absolutely zero control over their destinies. Only now, they seem perfectly happy about it.
It doesn’t matter whether they escaped the comic or not. A victory without a choice is just a fucking coincidence. And the only choice they made was to walk through that damn door and start the cycle all over again.
That’s kind of the point, though. One of the big themes of the comic is the act of confronting inevitability.
One of the recurring themes of the comic is the act of escape; specifically, its futility. At no point was escape ever a realistic option for the characters, and attempts made to do so are cut brutally short by circumstances. Every single character struggles with that which confines them in the own way; hell, the act of setting the story within the context of a kind of game is a sort of irony. A game, symbolic of the act of escapism, is now a force which inevitably binds the players.
On that note, this ties back to the video games which inspired Homestuck. Part of me wonders just how valuable the idea of “choice” in games actually is, considering that you can never really change the game itself. You can direct small elements of the narrative. But the script is already written. The choice is ultimately illusory.
But even then, choice isn’t really the big theme here, and we could certainly argue about how much choice they actually had in the events of the game. There was, however, an omnipresent sense of inevitability, and that inevitability was embodied by Lord English. Omnipotent, time-travelling, a being you can’t run away from because… well, because he’s already there. To the trolls who saw him, they chose his form to represent Death itself. Indeed, all of the most powerful foes in Homestuck, like Doc Scratch, Jack Noir, and the Condesce, are impossibly powerful, to the point of being nearly unstoppable.
So we’re left with a situation where our heroes cannot escape their circumstances, and are facing down impossible foes.
And I appreciate that Hussie has the spine to write this kind of story.
It’s comparatively rare for heroes in fiction to truly face that which they cannot avoid, and we are lesser for it. Two choices are given, both of them difficult? Well, you can guarantee that the hero will find a way to make a third, where the consequences are minimal and the rewards are high. An enemy who has all the odds on their side? Ironically, in modern media, the underdog has the odds in their favour.
That’s not how real life works. Life is full of choices that have no third option, where we need to choose and live with the consequences of what we’ve done. Existentially, we are bound by laws that will always limit us. As much as we like to pretend otherwise, we will all grow old. We will all die. Nothing lasts forever, and there’s no avoiding it.
Homestuck refuses to be escapist in that regard. Well, it’s not against having the underdog prevail, because let’s be honest, that story is always fun. But the characters of the story are ultimately bound by forces much greater than themselves, and here’s where it all comes together: what defines the heroes of Homestuck is that they were the ones who confronted the inevitable, rather than running from it or submitting to it. Of all their choices, that was the only choice which mattered in the end.
So that’s what the ending was. The kids knew that they could never really escape Paradox Space, so they chose to take it on and do they only thing they possibly could: lock Lord English out of the universe, kill the baddies, and make a place for themselves. This was less of a victory coincidentally happening and more of relative victory in a universe where true victory is impossible. They cannot know the future, but they can rise to meet it.
And I will say that that is a satisfying ending. Like I said, I would certainly contest the lack of agency the kids had in setting that whole thing up. Either way, a story about inevitability ends not with the kids somehow taking a third option, but with the kids confronting that which they cannot escape. They couldn’t escape their choice, but they could find a best ending.
As God-tier Calliope said to her younger self, this is not so much about winning as it is about surviving.
And that’s exactly what the ending gives them. A chance to live.
This interpretation you offer pretty much ignores the entire crux of my argument.
I mean, this scenario you’ve outlined? This ending? Damn. It sounds pretty good. Give me that ending. An ending where the kids realize that there’s no beating the cycle. Where they try to struggle against Paradox Space only to realize that there’s no way to do so. That they can’t defeat a villain who’s undefeatable by his very nature. Where they face heartbreak and disillusionment, but then rally. Rise above it. Decide that giving up in the face of that crushing inevitability is a piss poor choice. That if you can’t win, at least you can live. That they might have to play into the system, but they can find their own happiness despite it. They can make their frog universe and make it as good as it can be. I really would have liked this ending because it would have focused on the characters. I really liked seeing Roxy and John struggle with existential despair in the Game Over timeline. It would have been cool seeing the characters face that sort of thing instead of finding a way out of it.
So, uh. Please! Show me where in the comic this happens. Show me where the characters actually realize the weight of their mortality, the pressure of Paradox Space. Show me where they decide that all they can do is rise above it and live with grace. Show me where they decide to “lock Lord English out of the universe,” instead of just forgetting that Vriska was maybe off dealing with that or something oh shit hey look a frog guys let’s go through and leave her out there handling that I guess
The theory you’re presenting is very nice.
It is not supported by the narrative given to us.
The characters talk about defeating some bosses, which they do, and then they’re all thrilled, acting like they’ve won and succeeded, and then they abscond through the door, the end. There’s no making that third option OR accepting one of the two they’ve been given. There’s no acknowledgement that there’s an option at ALL. And there’s certainly no acknowledgement of the continued existence (or maybe not?) of the biggest bad of all, Lord English, who you claim they “locked out of their universe.,” but whom they seem to have entirely forgotten existed.
