The weird this about sburb is that people don't realize how flexible the rules are, I'd say that no two sessions even have the same set of rules. Two sessions my differ so much that they're barely recognizable as the same game.
There’s a set of rules to win a Session of SBURB; but really the degree of customization makes it so that, truly, two Sessions being the same is nigh impossible. There’s always something that makes a Session unique. In a way, this is what makes Fansessions so fun.
how would dreams work for an odd numbered session? would three people be like dream soulmates(?) or would one person not have a dream soulmate(?) or would all of that moon just dream together????
What do you mean exactly…? I mean. I’m not sure I quite understand the scenario you’re describing here. They’d dream just like normal Players in a normal Session, except one Moon would have more than the other, or there may not even be anyone in one of the moons.
I thought Quest Crypts are only for Dersites and Quest Beds are only for Prospitians? I mean we only saw Dersites (Aradia, Dave and Rose) die on their Quest Crypts and Prospitian (John, Vriska and Jade) die on their Quest Beds
If Caliborn is still IN Homestuck and John kinda 'got out of the game', then how come Caliborn can still live and snapchat to John? I mean Calliope created a black hole tend it all...
Well, John got them out of the loop of the Alpha Timeline by the end, they’re free of LE’s influence. Caliborn’s still an asshole and it’s good comedic material to have this glowy-eyed rude ass and the clown bother the Kids on Earth C. Specially if this is not the Caliborn that becomes LE.
In TLCstuck, John beat Caliborn down until he died and placed him on his Quest Bed where he became the Muse of Space; in short, god-tiered into Calliope. Is that possible in canon?
It’s likely not possible anymore because Caliborn predominated- The moment his cheeks filled in, every part of Calliope was gone from him. That’s why Roxy calling out her name didn’t wake Caliborn up as Calliope anymore. She’s gone from him.
Also in any case he’d need to be put on Calliope’s Quest Bed, which doesn’t exactly exist in Caliborn’s Session.
I wonder how the players of any session of sburb are chosen by ... paradox space?
The ones that must play the Game are predestined to play it because the game needs to be played in the first place to be sent to Earth and send the Paradox Clones back. Anyone else aside from the main Session, however, should have free reign to make up any team they want.
I thought that was just part of the session because of time loop lord of time bs
God I’ve gotten so many Asks about Caliborn that I don’t exactly know what this one refers to. If it’s the one about Caliborn snapchatting the Kids, given they require Retcon powers to go to the Masterpiece (If it’s even in this timeline), it’s still sort of outside of the loop, Timeline-wise, but still in the loop, Canon-wise.
so, besides the alpha/beta sessions that were meant to be anybody could just play? even without the meteors?
Skaianet distributed the game as a world-wide release on Beta Earth so as many people as possible could have a chance to escape the incoming meteor rain- But in the Alpha-verse and in the Troll Session, the code is taken by individuals and not spread around. Only the main Session is necessary, and only the Sessions that aren’t Void or at least have the Frog Temple will make meteors rain on the planet. Remember how the Alphas only had 9 Meteors? The 8 to bring the Kids and the Guardians, and 1 for the Frog Temple. Other than that, the major threat to the planet was Condy taking over and the Red Miles.
What would happen if Jane used her resurrect on Caliborns or LEs body to bring calliope back?
Again, there’s no trace left of Calliope in them, Cherub Predomination seems to be sort of taking over the Soul. Both the Vessel and the Soul that is Caliborn have no trace of Calliope left to bring back. LE is a trickier one though- It’d be easier bringing back ARquius and Gamzee through resurrecting LE than reaching Calliope. At least how I see it. Besides why want to bring Callie back like that? She’s already back and happy and has two lovely wives.
Nope, sorry, the timeline bs ask was about how kids are chosen for sburb
Thanks. Curiously enough, the Kids being chosen- While they’re needed to play and survive to eventually fulfil LE’s loop- Are also just sort of part of a SBURBan Time Loop. Any normal Session outside of the influence of Lord English woulds till work like that- The game needs to exist in the first place to be played, so retroactively, a bunch of people are created and the frog temple is sent through the Defense Portals along with them. This ensures that, if the people created by SBURB want to even exist in the first place, they MUST adhere to the Time Loop SBURB just created, forcing them to play and create themselves. This way the Universe is ensured to produce at least 1 SBURB Session, which hopefully has a chance at creating a new Universe. Outside of that 1 necessary Session though, if someone spreads the Game Code around like Skaianet, instead of keeping it to a reduced group, it makes more offshot Sessions that don’t necessarily have to adhere to any Time Loop with Ectobiology or Frog Time Capsules.
But caliborn didnt predominate properly. Thats why Caliopes ghost exists in the first place.
He didn’t Mature properly to predominate over her- Like with so many other things he sorta cheated his way around how things are supposed to go and predominated by killing her Dream Self. That’s the thing though- He didn’t ‘predominate wrong’, since his cheeks did fill in, he managed to predominate over her. What he did was predominate early, ensuring he would never actually mature. Calliope exists as Dream Callie most likely because her Dream Self was killed- He consumed the Calliope within him, but by killing Dream Callie, he gave her an escape route from total oblivion, just because he wanted to get things done faster.
In a way it’s all an intricate set-up for a Neverending Story reference, with the Cherubs and the Auryn being linked so closely, the lack of maturation vs the ‘Childlike Empress’, there’s. A lot to unpack about the Cherubs.
The Nothing is a incomprehensible force that destroys everything in its path, leaving behind nothing.
Yeah I read about that, but I would need to really dig into the book to know the deeper details about The Nothing and what it represents rather than a literal description.
my favourite headcanon about LE is that he still does art like Caliborn and even has improved dramatically but still just uses it to draw Yaoi in his spare time, which is ALL THE TIME and also exactly 0
I think it was supposed to represent the death of imagination itself. Brought on by TV. ... The neverending story sure aged well
Pft, I wouldn’t say that right away though, all I know about the Neverending Story is that OD put it as an influence of Homestuck’s story, and that it had some Gnostic things in it, so maybe you’re equating it to the TV, but it’s in actuality a broader concept that doesn’t necessarily tie to it.
But I literally know nothing about it so I wouldn’t be able to tell you.
My headcanon is that inside of LE its just constant bickering between the four souls and thats why he only destroys shit randomly
Snrk. As fun as that is, I would say Lord English as the Big Buffskull, is mainly Caliborn with a little bit of Gamzee. ARquius really seems to manifest more as Doc Scratch.
this is kinda paradoxical but could you talk about the Void aspect kinda like how you talked about Tome?
About… Tome? I think your Autocorrect may have changed whatever Aspect that was to Void. Really though, the Canon Quiz’s talk about the Void Aspect, plus @revolutionaryduelist‘s Aspect video really says all there is to say about it.
What are the red miles? I didn't even understand while reading.
They’re a power granted by the Queen’s Ring. Someone recently put it in wonderful terms- The King’s Sceptre makes the King huge. He’s big and powerful, but he’s slow and cumbersome- Just like how the King in Chess can only move one step at a time. The Queen’s Ring, instead, grants the Red Miles- An Omnidirectional attack with Infinite reach. Just like the Queen in Chess.
8^8 is the amount of possible combinations Vriska’s Dice has, which is 16777216 possible dice rolls. y is a letter used in maths to define an unknown number. y=8, as he explains later on, but it’s basically used merely for a SBaHJ joke, as 8^y is the emote way of writing Sweet Bro’s face.
How many people do you need for a session to be successful? Im debating writing a lil fansession story about me and my twin, but idk if I wanna make more OC's for it.. I am a maid of space, and my twin is a bard of time.
Only 2 people are technically required to win SBURB.
Although wouldn't their revolutionary effort just kill trizza to give place for Feferi to grow up?
Trizza is going to die regardless- The moment she grows up enough to be an actual threat to the throne, Condy will come back to Alternia and murder her on the spot.
why is Condy such a fun villain? Or Jack Noir? You kinda explained for Caliborn already but I'd like to hear your take on these two.
I mean, there’s not much to say, they’re great because they’re just made to be great. Jack is just a compulsorily stabby guy, he’s pretty much a psychopath but his love for stabbing is played up to the point where the guy just greets you with a stab. He also has the fact he’s an Agent and pretty much kind of a businessman, slash gang leader if you’re counting Slick. The juxtaposition of his desk job with his propensity to murder everything around him makes him fun.
And Condy is just. Condy. Great, menacing villain, incredibly powerful, amazing design, but she also gives no fucks, loves clowns and is so extremely 100% extra with her aesthetics and narcissism. They’re all villains and shamelessly so.
Is it possible to start a session with overlapping classes and aspects? Like say two Light players and two Maids. I know in Homestuck the overlap happens in the late part of the story but technically couldn’t it happen at the beginning as well? Especially since Like-Minded people end up being friends and as such the potential for matching classes or aspects increases?
There’s no reason why there couldn’t be a Class-Aspect Overlap, really.
Is the Caliborn from the Masterpiece the same one as Buffskull? After Dirk ripped his soul out, shouldn't that have left his body empty and unable to grow up? I think Buffskull has to be from a different timeline where John never warped the eight kids to fight him --maybe from the GO timeline since most of them were dead? That timeline used to be the Alpha, so English is definitely in it. Also do we even know if the Caliborn who creates the Masterpiece is the same one who features in it?
We don’t know if the Caliborn we follow at the end, let’s call him, ‘Artist Caliborn’, is the same Caliborn that gets his Soul Ripped and becomes English, and in fact, there’s evidence pointing to the fact he’s an Alt Caliborn. That being said, though, Buffskull is. Born from Doc Scratch? Caliborn doesn’t grow to become him, we see him ‘hatch’ from Doc Scratch, which happens because he’s the same Soul that inhabits the Lil Cal that got stuffed with 3 Souls and a half. Buffskull is just one of many iterations of English.
what's the evidence that points to the Caliborn we see not being the same one that lived through the Masterpiece and became Lord English?
He sees himself being surprised by the Kids retcon-zapping into the Masterpiece, which he himself states is a bit weird given he’s literally seeing them zapping on the screen. Likewise, he’s surprised by ARquius’ appearance, even though he’s watched himself on the screen. He also has the Ring of Void, an item which our Caliborn doesn’t have.
How is gamzee a deus ex machina and what does a deus ex machina mean and whats the definition of that word
“The term has evolved to mean a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the inspired and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object. Its function can be to resolve an otherwise irresolvable plot situation, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending, or act as a comedic device.“
Fittingly for the Rage player, Gamzee pretty much toys with the reader expectations as both a comedic and plot device to get things where they need to be. He cannot die because Clown Plot Shield Bullshit, he appears in the Alpha Kid Session to prototype Dead Trolls, he brings Lil Cal to Jack to possess him, he serves Caliborn all the items he needs to win- Whenever there’s something that needs to happen, the fucker is somehow in the most convenient place with the perfect item, and no matter how many wounds he suffers or what he does he just won’t die. I wouldn’t say he’s truly a ‘Deus Ex Machina’ since the stuff he does is sort of explained and sensical for a worshipper of Lord English, but fuck does he get on your nerves sometimes.
Jack is so much fun because no matter the situation, he stabs. Even if it only makes his situation worse. I wonder what he had actually planned to do to Lord English as Spades Slick. As long as he didn't just happened to have a cueball themed knife, I don't think he would have gotten far.
Jack finds a way to Stab. I mean, English is immortal, but if you like, managed to crush his skull or something I bet he’d die. He’d come back because God Tier Inconditional Immortality, but I bet you could /kill/ the guy. Maybe his plan was to like. Tie him up like a big piñata and just stab him forever.
In russian there is a more neutral term - a grand piano in the bushes. Or, if author is particularly insistent on having a lot of them, an Orchestra in bushes.
The origin is even funnier. You see, the USSR documentals had a rather interesting tropes to them. So, in one particular parody, where a presenter accidentaly meets an elderly man who JUST happens to be a former pacemaker. They JUST happen to keep running into relevant things or people. Said man JUST happens to like music and JUST happened to bring along a violin so he plays it. And Then they JUST happen to run into piano in bushes. "There just happens to be a piano in bushes, so I'll play it".
I was thinking about how English has multiple incarnations at once, and had a realization: does AR count as part of Dirk enough to be considered a Heart player? We know English uses Time (Caliborn) a lot, and Cal is in the Furthest Ring which is Void (Equius), and I guess his plot involvement is Rage (Gamzee), so if AR isn't just his own thing then this would explain the last component.
(same anon as AR aspect ask) Now that I think about it, even the classes that went into Lord English sort of work out. If AR counts as a Prince, that and Gamzee’s Bardness give double destruction, Page from Equius because he has so much potential that he eventually unlocks, then of course his Lordness gives him command over the alpha timeline.
Equius is a Heir. :V But yes, there’s a big mix of different Class and Aspect stuff in LE.
As for AR, yes he still counts as a splinter of Dirk, and in fact many think the fact LE destroys Ghosts has to do with the fact he’s part Prince of Heart. But Equius and AR are together as one, remember- It’s not one part AR and one part Equius, it’s both parts ARquius, and it shows with Doc Scratch.
THE TALE MY MASTERPIECE DESCRIBES, IS BASICALLY A SPOILER TO THE ENDING OF THINGS. IT TAKES PLACE IN A FUTURE MOMENT. LONG BEYOND WHEN WE, YOU, OR I HAVE ANY BUSINESS SEEING WHAT HAPPENS.
BUT I FOUND OUT AND LEARNED OF THIS SPOILER. I SAW IT ONCE, ON ONE OF MY PLANET’S MANY SCREENS. THE LAND OF “COLOURS”. AND THE LAND OF “MAYHEM”. IT KNOWS ALL. AND IT WILL SHOW ANYTHING TO ANY MAN. WHO IS WILLING TO FIND THE RIGHT KEY. AND IT TURNS OUT THAT JUST SUCH A MAN. IS THE MAN THAT IS ME!
What problems would there be if you fused with your sprite then flew all the way to your dream moon and killed your dreamself then put them on your sacrificial slab in the core of your dream moon? (Keep in mind, the dreamself is killed before taken to the slab)
Actually this is hard to say, because we have no instances of anyone drying on their Quest Slab while still having an iteration of themselves alive! Quest Beds have always been used when you have your body and Dream Self, and the Crypt Slabs have been used when there’s just the waking or the dream self left, with the other long dead. I’d imagine maybe you wouldn’t ascend? You’d need to carry the Dream Self over to your Quest Bed- Or would your Sprite self have to be the one to die on the Quest Bed? We have no precedent for these hypothetical scenarios sadly.
I have been looking into the Insidious movie series lately and can't help but notice some huge similarities between it's ghost dimension and how Homestucks dream bubbles work
Well, Dream World + Afterlife isn’t too crazy or weird of a concept! I haven’t seen the Insidious movies though, maybe it’d be worth checking at some point.
There are more similarities than just that, like some being able to go into that world when they sleep, with dream bodies and all, and the other world existing outside of time, meaning when you're in that world, you can visit moments from past present and future. You can also double die as a ghost.
(1/2) I really liked your post on the ending a few days ago, and it made a lot of sense to me, but I was wondering if you have an opinion on the ominous fade into static at the end of collide? It really felt to me to be signalling that the danger wasn't over, but at that point, at least for like John, Roxy, etc. who were pictured there, they were basically on their victory lap, so it never really made sense to me.
(2/2) I guess it could be interpreted as the ‘break out of the narrative’, since all the panels from that point on were all bigger than the regular narrative window, but I still wouldn’t understand the ominous framing of it in that case. And I could also see it as reminding us that Lord English at that point had not been defeated, except everything from there just went according to plan, the danger was effectively passed. Do you have any thoughts?
That really kept all of us on our toes didn’t it? I feel it was symbolic of the end being near, and while English did get defeated, there was still the collapse of the Green Sun left. It was a huge event that’d been pretty much been waiting to happen ever since Act 5, perhaps even before that. Curiously the windy wails at the end also happen at the End of Act 4, in Descend, before the few panels between Act 4 and 5, sort of like how there were images between Act 6 and 7, and anticipated the fall of the huge meteor on Jade’s island, just like how Collide ended with us anticipating the end of Homestuck.
There’s also a detail to have in mind, and that is, the Sunset. The plane where the Curtains are, that is, Hussie’s place, has had the Sun almost setting ever since the beginning of Act 2. When Slick climbs back up after being tossed off by Hussie, he notes this, likely a reference to Hussie mentioning ‘You’ve got the feeling it’s going to be a long day’ at the very beginning of Homestuck. When Act 6 ends and the camera pans out, the black-white shift happens exactly the moment you’d expect the last beams of light to disappear behind the Horizon. The day is over, the Comic reaches its final Act, its end.
To me, it was building tension intentionally because… Well, the Ending was finally upon us. Homestuck was such a massive work and it’s so incredibly dense. Act 7 was the last piece of the puzzle Hussie tossed at us (Before the Credits, and even now we’re waiting for the Epilogue, but still the ‘last’ piece of the puzzle), it marked the actual end of the narrative, even if the story still continues, whether things went right or wrong, I feel like it was still an important moment to build up tension to.