when john high-fives Kernelsprite and later Nannasprite in acts 1-3, why doesn't he fuse with them?
He’s a core player of the game. Prototyping him would create a Doomed Timeline immediately. People also tend to forget Seppucrowsprite pecked Dave’s head and brought a lot of items to make a nest. Maybe you can only prototype a Kernel if it falls right into the core, and then fully formed sprites are more lenient in that regard?
They also favor dead/doomed things, so a perfectly undoomed boy could be straight up rejected for Prototyping by Skaia’s Standards.
why didn't vriska's dream self die when she lost her arm in the waking world? i mean, she didn't die in the waking world because equius gave her a prosthetic, but she didn't get one on prospit, so shouldn't she still have died there?
The wounds only seem to appear when you’re actually dying, not when you get any minor wound. Besides, the wounds on the Dream Self are a reflection of those in your Normal Self- If she just. Doesn’t die in the Waking World, there’s no reason why her Dreaming Self would die. Same way the wounds would reflect, so would the healing.
how would you describe each class in a "lawful good" to "chaotic evil" scale? like for example i'd think most rogues would be chaotic good, though most thieves are chaotic neutral
Classes and Aspects don’t have an Alignment. They depends on what people do with them.
Homestuck: Execution of a Masterpiece - Part 3 - Birth, Death, Rebirth, Redeath
Homestuck’s beginning is slow, but it helps to set the mood and the setting for what’s going to come next- Which is very important. One of the many reasons Homestuck seems confusing to outsiders, is because they see or hear about stuff happening in the middle or towards the ending of the story. Homestuck is dense, and it makes sense if you follow it through, but without the start that are the first Acts, without a solid base to support the rest of the comic’s craziness, it just wouldn’t work.
With Acts 1, 2 and 3 out of the way, we move onto Acts 4 and 5 in this part, after the first reveal of the trolls, after the Intermission, after Rose’s entry into the game. Now that the comic has a solid base to work upon, it’s time to delve in deep into the story Hussie wants to tell with this world he’s created.
And what better way to begin the new Act after an Intermission some people don’t quite seem to care about, than with a beautiful Flash Game?
Breaking the tedium and confusion many felt during the Intermission, but having showcased all of the relevant things Hussie wanted to showcase within it thus far, we follow John’s descent into his Land. We get to see the world beneath the Clouds, we get a name for this Land, and we get some impressive amount of World Building! Some Imps now have tendrils, suits, dresses and cat faces, showing us that Rose’s prototypings affect everything as well, and John encounters Frog Monuments and Consorts that talk to him about the World, about the Fireflies, trapped in the clouds by a spell put there by the Slumbering One. About the Slumbering One creating the Underlings, commissioned by the Agents, and clogging up the Pipes that serve to request and send items in the Land. This puts John’s Quest in the Land into light, how he must unclog the pipes and let the Breeze flow once more.
It’s not only informative, but also fun to go through, as you get the chance to freely go around bonking Imps, and also picking up stuff and tossing the stuff in your Sylladex to attack
But once that little appetizer is done, we move to the plot threads that weren’t closed in Act 3 immediately. Namely, we see the Aimless Renegade recognize the symbol of Bec’s Head and rush down to meet the Mayor, while PM assaults him because he’s been trying to shoot them all this time. Similarly, we finally move on to Jade and whatever the hell her deal is with Dave’s Beta Copy.
Jade messes around with her Sylladex, and ends up having to leave her Bass behind, which explains why it was in the future jamming the elevator pad. Bec finds her messing around in the Temple, and promptly warps her back home, where she starts installing Dave’s Beta. And to all of this, the trolls are trying to contact her! She doesn’t want to talk them though, but it begins to showcase them getting more involved in the story, letting the reader know they’re in for a few new interactions soon enough.
She also contacts John about the game, and tells him her statement about not knowing what the Game was was just because she was asleep! She starts connecting with Dave to save him from the Meteors, while John is contacted by CG.
For those who missed the “CG” at the end of the Intermission, this panel confirms that the trolls really aren’t human. And knowing CG had a sprite and a captcha card, making it obvious he is playing the game, it puts their claim of being able to contact them at any point in their lives in a new light. They’re messing with them, but they’re not lying when they make such claims. The question this raises is, of course… Why are they fucking with them? CG also states he’s been talking backwards with John- This sets up the utterly confusing yet plot-relevant conversations with CG. The further into the Timeline John goes, the more he knows CG, and the less CG knows him. And since stuff he said in the past would be redundant to say in the future as well, he has a reason to not simply tell John everything that’s going to happen, always leaving us with the lingering mystery of what’s going on. This can be highly frustrating, but since CG does spill the beans little by little, and his conversations are always hilarious, they only build up anticipation for the next conversation.
We continue setting up what comes next, all the post-apocalyptic characters chill out and start to get along, Jade starts to deploy everything in Dave’s house, and finally we get a glimpse at Rose’s Land. We see a diagram of the Kids’ Session for the first time, with a sphere already there, and a new one appearing before zooming in- This puts things more into perspective. Just like John has the Land of Wind and Shade, Rose has gone to an entirely separate planet, the Land of Light and Rain. Rather than ‘levels’ in a videogame, or something similar, they’re basically creating a Solar System in their Session, with Skaia as the ‘Sun’ so to say.
Immediately afterwards, WV wants to get PM to the terminal to meet John, and she pauses on the Planets. Now that we’ve seen LOWAS and LOLAR, it becomes obvious these are all the 4 Kids’ Planets! For those who’d forgotten about the mural, it brings the realization home without seeming forced, and we learn that PM was the voice talking to John through the entirety of the Act 4 Walkaround.
And then we see a voice talk to Rose. A new voice. Speaking in fancy text, and calling her ‘Seer’.
This clearly indicates a fourth, yet unnamed, unseen character in the Future, and marks her as the Seer of Light according to Nanna’s notes on the Sassacre Book, to go with John’s Heir of Breath title.
John continues his exploration and finds tough monsters. Jade falls asleep and in her sleepy stupor, prototypes the impaled crow Dave killed in Act 2. She recovers the Betas too- An important detail since she obtains them somehow, and does just as expected with the crow. After all we already saw an image of Dave’s future in which he was on the roof with the Crow Sprite, just as we saw a flash of Zazzerpan’s broken, half-buried statue in Rose’s Land. Temporal Foreshadowing begins to come true.
With Temporal Mechanics already in play, Hussie then throws us yet another curve ball! We are seeing WV and company having a meal, when suddenly…
We see, in the Session, the Authority Regulator, and the Parcel Mistress. Not only do they have the same personalities as AR and PM- They share their initials. This is an immensely clever detail. We already knew they were from the Kingdoms of Light and Darkness, but to make it more obvious and less confusing, their Past and Future counterparts always share the same Initials. This is true of every single Carapacian’s title- Although the fact the Archagent’s name is Jack Noir, implies that, aside from their title, Carapacians also have a normal name we don’t learn about.
AR finds John’s Dad’s car that has fallen from the cliff above, and takes the Beta and Jade’s Present which was in there. PM, as the intense Mailswoman she is, chases after him to get the package and deliver it to John. This marks the beginning of an intense chain of events that spans the entirety of Act 4′s story, all, simply, to deliver a package.
In his Land, John is quickly overwhelmed by higher level Underlings, but is saved by a mysterious blunderbuss-wielding man carrying his Sassacre book. It’s Jade’s Grandpa. He’s Dead, which reminds us that the Medium is a weird timeless expanse outside of the normal flow of time on Earth, but we are left to wonder HOW he got there, and WHY he is there.
After the Consort Village is saved, John uses the pipes, as he’s learned from the Consorts, to request the envelope with his missing Server copy so that he may connect to Jade as soon as possible. PM complies this request eventually, but instead of just delivering it normally like a god damn rational person, she sends it through the pipes which makes it get to John eventually, in the future. This leaves John to pretty much mess around in his Land while the rest of the Kids’ stories develop, and while we follow the Carapaces in the Future, and now, the Present as well- Carpaces which are implied to be Exiles from their Kingdoms now.
A third, Egg-shaped station appears next to the Frog Temple in the future- And we see Dave’s Entry Item be an egg laid by a bird. Yet another symbol of a beginning. However, since his Sprite is a bird, it takes the Egg away from him to make a nest- Of course his entry just couldn’t be easy and straight forward with no time constraints. Where would the suspense be in that?
This marks a trend as well, a lot of the time in Homestuck, while there would be a more logical, straight-forward way to do things, the silliest and most hilarious way tends to be preferred. This is, after all, a comedy at its heart, even if by this point the story has grown to be something quite a lot more intense.
Through the following pages, we begin to learn more about SBURB mechanics, and get in contact with more of the trolls. gallowsCalibrator specifically reveals a lot, like the Titles of a few of her partners, and the fact the carapaces in the future are, in fact, Exiles. They reach the dead planet long after the ‘Reckoning’, and aid the players in non-obvious ways. carcinoGeneticist talks to Jade in the past- Seeming kinder than in the future, and talking how she needs to get in contact with him when her robot explodes, which she dismisses as him being a jerk. We also begin to see the trolls more clearly, their designs solidifying.
Anyone observant enough about their symbols would also already know at this point, the 12 trolls are based on the Zodiac. We see Jade in the past working on John’s present, too- Meaning she has been working on it for quite a while. The same present PM is still tracking down into the very Kingdom of Darkness. We get a brief glimpse of the Black Queen…
And beyond the fact she has been prototyped twice, it also becomes evident Snowman from the Felt is, in fact, the Black Queen as well. Furthermore, from the Egg Capsule in the future, the Fourth Exile appears…
As a white version of Snowman, named the Windswept Questant. The White Queen, of course. While time hopping can be confusing the picture starts to be painted rather clearly at this point. The Stations of the Exiles are shaped like the Kids’ entry items. The Exiles are members of the Kingdoms in the Session. The Trolls have their own session where Jack was their Exile, and the Black Queen too, arguably. We also see Jack task PM with taking the crown of the White Queen and King if she wants to get the package- While being teased about knowing what IS in the package. This back and forth of PM’s Quest and Jack not letting us see what’s in the package spans the entirety of Act 4 as one of the core plot threads that keep us engaged in the story. Why are they Exiled? PM did obviously not kill the Queen. What’s in the box? Why does John need it? Jade can see into the future and sent it specifically to go in this roundabout way, so it could literally be anything, from the most relevant thing yet, to the stupidest thing.
And while Rose proves herself to be a badass, we start to alternate between mild progress in the Kids’ stories, with involvement of more Troll stuff. GC tells John to skip to the last Gate of his Land using a Jetpack- To ambush his Denizen while he’s asleep and have an easy Final Boss victory. Rose gets pestered by adiosToreador to find ways to own Dave, while on the other hand, grimAuxiliatrix contacts Dave to find ways to understand Rose and get on her level. The two are revealed, and things seem to start to build a semi-friendship. The Trolls that until now were nothing but a bother, start to become more fleshed out characters.
Enacting the final scene from Con Air, John adopts a young Salamander and calls her Casey, who becomes a bit of a recurring comic relief.
The Package Quest continues, and we learn about the White Queen, and how she abdicated once PM requested her crown- After all, White is always supposed to lose, and she feels giving up on the throne may be an important tactical step to save as many people as possible. And given she gave her Crown and Ring to PM upon abdication, now, in the future, it’s PM who gets the honor of being named the new Queen.
We also see Jaspersprite for the first time since the [S] Enter flash, who talks to Rose about being her cat, as well as the Quest of her Land, about Playing the Rain and bringing back all the fish her Denizen devoured. This gives the process of Land Quests a bit more of a solid ground- In each Land, the Hero has a Quest, something about something the Denizen did, and how they must prove themselves a Hero to fix it, and then face the awful slumbering beast at the core of their planet. A generic base upon which to build more specific Quests based on the specific person and their Land and Title. At this point in the story, the Fans are already quite encouraged to make their own characters and involve themselves in the story! Making Lands, making Quests, making their Hero Titles, making Alchemized Items. This extreme flexibility of the setting and how the game is shaped to each person individually makes for a lot of fun Self-insertion. And while the story and the characters are compelling, this is a big draw for a lot of people. A good way to keep fans engaged while the comic was coming out.
And at the same time, while things seem to be advancing the story smoothly, we get our first taste of loss in the comic. So far, there’s been the looming threat of dying quite a few times, but things have never quite gotten far enough to grant it to be anything other than mild concern. However, as Dave enters the game and pesters John, he finally blasts off into the 7th Gate to meet his Denizen…
And we fast-forward, to learn that John died to his Denizen, Jade never got into the game, the Trolls stopped talking to them immediately afterwards, and Dave and Rose have been living for months in an offshot, doomed reality. Dave can’t take the fact he prototyped Cal anymore, and he decides to go back. He’ll change the past, reroute the Timeline so they don’t fuck up, but in turn, since they’re in a Doomed Timeline, Rose, left behind, will cease to exist. A first taste about the existential drama revolving around Time Travelling and being able to see into the future, as well as a first taste of loss. Dave suggests Rose goes to sleep, since their Dream versions, their Dream Selves, seem to operate weirdly outside of the flow of Time. And as Dave goes back in time, everything fades, leaving Dream Rose to vanish- An act which forces Rose, in the present, to collapse.
Dave manages to convince John to not get tricked by gallowsCalibrator into getting killed, and promptly drops all of his equipment before Prototyping himself instead of Cal.
The timeline is changed, and gallows is warned to not mess with John because he’s a gullible idiot that will literally do anything you tell him to do. John still blasts off in his jetpack, but doesn’t go to the gate- And CG informs us of a few more things about the game. They are a group of Players that already finished the game. At one point in the game, the Reckoning happens, a time when the Darkness wins against the Light, and meteors are drawn from an asteroid belt, the Veil, towards Skaia. It’s an endgame event, and CG implies the Kids weren’t able to win the game, and did something that somehow affected their own Session, forcing his group to hide in the remnants of the Veil. There’s still many questions raised by this statement, but at this point, the Trolls’ antagonism and claims of them ‘fucking up’ somehow take on a whole new meaning. They’re bitter because they lost their Session because of the Kids, and now we’re left to wonder what they’re going to do next. Specifically, the assurance that the Trolls can see them into the Future, and there’s no way to change the fact that they’re going to fuck up, then fuck the Trolls up. Inevitability, Existentialism. Introduced immediately after Davesprite’s Timeline and Future Dream Rose ceasing to exist and merging with Present Rose, it’s a clever way to put the stakes into perspective, and leave the reader nervous, nervous that there may not be hope left. To all of this, of course, we still do not KNOW the purpose of the game! We know that they need to defeat the Denizens, and the Black King and Queen but… We still do not know why.
A stream of unanswered questions, while answering questions already posed before, this is the forward motion of Homestuck, and what drives its narrative. Hussie is really good at building up expectations, and making you wonder why something happened the way it did. He gives you answers, but doesn’t give you ALL of them. He spaces them out, slowly feeds them to you, lets you figure things out and make sense of what was happened, and then lets you try to figure out what’s going to happen next based off of these new revelations. As he implied back in the day, Homestuck is like a Puzzle. You can have fun merely going through it at surface level, but the real fun begins when you start to piece the more obscure pieces together, and learn to see the full picture.
Right after CG tells John that they will all fuck up, we actually switch to… Jack of all people. In the Flash that marks the End of the First Year of Homestuck, [S] Jack: Ascend. We learn that the Kingdom of Darkness’ name is Derse, we see an image of the three planets of the Kids of afar, Dave’s inclusive, the Land of Heat and Clockwork, before focusing on these Dark Kingdom shenanigans. And we see, much like Spades Slick and Snowman, Jack and the Black Queen have a rather turbulent relationship. Jack hates her, she teases him, and forces him to wear the ridiculous clown dress until he refuses to and tears it apart. She angrily suspends him in the air and threatens to kill him- But in the last moment, Jack reaches for the box with Jade’s present to John, which he’s keeping… And uses SOMETHING in it to tear the Black Queen’s finger and kill her. As we see the White Queen abdicate, we see that taking off the ring she wears makes her lose her Prototyped appearance, and the same happens with the Black Queen. Except rather than giving it to PM to keep it safe, Jack takes this ring for himself, wearing it, and gaining the powers of the Kids’ prototypings.
To all of this, Rose wakes up in her room in Derse. Just like John had scrawled subconsciously on the wall, so has she- Except her drawings are the letters of the word MEOW written repeatedly and randomly. This is the secret Jaspers whispered into her ear… And for a split of a second, she can see the letters shift, from MEOW, to GCAT. Most people miss this fact, and some don’t even know what it means, but this is not just MEOW written over and over. It’s a genetic sequence of some sort. It should be mentioned that all of the Kids’ and Trolls’ Usernames use every possible combination of the GCAT letters, except John, ectoBiologist- But he changed his Username, and it used to be ghostyTrickster, GT. This is just a little interesting detail by Hussie- Between Ectobiology introduced with Rose in Act 3 and this Genetic Code, as well as the names of the Kids, it’s obvious something is going on.
We also see what’s going on with the rest of the cast, and with their Guardians, with Dad, Mom and Bro facing off against a series of powerful monsters, and beating the crap out of them.
And in the end, we shift to the first of Hussie’s silly self-insertions into the story, through the Fourth Wall. The Fourth Wall is, initially, presented as the fourth wall of Jack’s vigilance cubicle, but he says it was stolen a long time ago, a little tease about how Hussie likes to break the Fourth Wall.
Hussie and the Reader mess a little bit with each other, he then Recaps the first year of Homestuck, and then we get back to the story. Nothing too spectacular, but a fun little tease.
Afterwards we follow John, and GC guides him to reach his Second Gate this time, which leads him to Rose’s Land. There he finds her asleep, and Dave, too curious for his own good, tricks John to get him the code for Rose’s journals- And then promptly falls asleep because Rose is visiting him on his Dream Room in Derse, making him notice he’s been awake there all along, but didn’t know it. John further checks around her room and finds the delayed Birthday Present she was making for him…
Which looks suspiciously like a modified version of the Bunny he got from Dave? It’s even dirty with Oil Stains, which it got in his Land. This makes one wonder if they are the same bunny, but how would that even make sense? Either way, John blasts off before Rose can wake up and greet him in person, to explore her Land. Meanwhile, Rose and Dave spend some time together messing around in his Dream Room- And a Dream Version of Dave’s Bro’s main doll, Lil Cal, creep her out enough to toss it out of the window. Strangely enough, the doll is caught just in time by Bro’s rocket skateboard?
Following this, we see the Guardians and some other things gathering somewhere. John’s Dad finds Jade’s Grandpa and follows him to a Transportalizer. Rose’s Mom and her Horse go on another Transportalizer. And John, following the steps of Rose’s mother, lands himself going through the same Transportalizer.
Much like the Ends of Act 2 and 3, it seems like all of the plot points through the Act are slowly coming together in some way. John has landed himself in the Veil, and found a genetic laboratory of some sort, where it’s obvious all of the Guardians have been to a few moments ago, and left a series of items around.
We see AR leaving the Veil with Bro’s Rocket Skateboard, enjoying the ride around the meteors. Meanwhile, PM is preparing to head into Skaia, to meet the White King- But on the way there, the Courtyard Droll, one of Jack’s subordinates, manages to steal the White Queen’s Ring from her!
Which is promptly recovered by Jade’s Dream Self, who’s taking her sleeping time to build Dave’s house up to his First Gate, just like Rose did with John, and just like Dave has already done with Rose’s house.
It’s now, as we look into Skaia, that we see the past of the Mayor, much like we’ve already seen with PM and AR. While originally a Chess Board, the more people entered the game, the more the Battlefield for the Battle between Light and Darkness shifted, until it made an entire chessboard-like planet of strife and death. WV was but a peasant taking care of his crops, when the war destroyed his life. And so he rose as a revolutionary leader, turning both armies against the Black King.
Before he could launch an attack, however, Jack, now with the Queen’s Ring, attacked the King, destroyed the Sceptre that gave him powers, and decapitated him- Ascending to something higher than a King or a Queen. Meanwhile, PM gets the White King’s Sceptre and Crown, getting him to abdicate as well- But is ambushed by one of Jack’s minions again, causing her to lose the Sceptre.
We shift from this montage about the Battlefield, to Rose and Dave finally getting equipped with some new weapons and clothes, preparing to ascend to the First Gate.
And it’s at this point that some Time Loops we’ve already seen started begin to close. Dave clones Rose’s Journals through the code he got from John, finding out one of them had the MEOW code on it, and the other just some Wizard Fanfiction. He uses his juice-stained Betas to bookmark the page, and then sees Rose…
Destroying the original books. She’s being told by the Dark Gods that the MEOW code is a dangerous genetic sequence that needs to be destroyed at all costs. Rose’s always been interested in Eldritch Creatures, but now that she’s starting to use Dark Magic, and claims to have heard their whispers, in her Dreams, as her Dream Self, things start to take a creepy, concerning turn for Rose. Dave goes to get rid of his own MEOW book copy, but finds it has already been stolen.
The Draconian Dignitary, the third of Jack’s minions, has stolen it- And apparently Dave tried to go back in time to stop him, only to end up dead. This puts into perspective the dangers of Time Travelling to solve problems, and forces Dave to get rid of his own corpse in an incredibly morbid display.
It’s in this Act 4 that Death begins to become a prominent thing- The looming threat of people dying has begun to actually come true, even if some of the Deaths are Time Clones or going back in Time, the characters still remember them, and are obviously traumatized by these events. Hussie describes his idea regarding this sort of Death, as how in games, you simply start at your last checkpoint, and no one mourns the thousands of dead Marios left behind. He takes the mechanic of how you mess up a lot in games until you get it right, and turns it into a morbid, deadly display.
To break the tension of what’s going on with Dave and Rose, we move onto what John is doing in the Veil- And we get yet another immense Plot Bomb. The 4 screens are locked at different points in time over his Nanna, Jade’s Grandpa, Dave’s Bro, and Rose’s Mom. He can also see a series of events- Dad seeing a meteor blow up a Crockercorp Factory, Grandpa arriving to the Island with Jade- Who’s holding the sewn bunny Rose gifted him…? Dave’s Bro standing next to a crater with a pair of tiny shades, and Rose’s Mom watching as a meteor crashes into Nanna’s prank shop, killing her on the spot. He tries Appearifying each of the adults, and as expected, the machine Paradoxifies them, which takes their genetic material…
And clones them. Furthermore, the slime then mixes in pairs of two, and…
Creates clones of the Kids. CG messages John to put what just happened into words, and once more, the existential nature of SBURB and Homestuck itself comes into play. Those aren’t just clones of the adults and the Kids- They are the adults and the Kids. To ensure the game is played in the first place, SBURB sends a set of players back to Earth, that will be fated to play the game, to ensure they are born in the first place. The Kids and Guardians were created in a laboratory, and Jade and John are the genetic children of Nanna and Grandpa, just like Rose and Dave are the genetic children of Bro and Mom. CG implies that the Kids’ Reckoning starts extremely early because they fucked up and let Jack get the Ring- Whereas in the Troll Session, Jack was apparently an ally. He went on a Rampage and began the Reckoning early, and Skaia, to prevent being destroyed too fast, creates portals that send the meteors of the Veil to different points in time on Earth. This causes the both the Apocalypse, and also ensures that the Babies are sent to the point in time when they were born.
SBURB is recursive, and ensures its own existence, as well as that of its main players. As such, their birth, and the destruction of Earth, were pretty much fated from the beginning. Clones of themselves, fated to play, timelines where people fade from existence, dark gods influencing others, some of the heavier themes of Homestuck are already in play, set up and ready for Act 5.
After having been investigating the mysterious meteors and the woman he saw that day, Dad and Mom are finally reunited atop a flying ship Grandpa is piloting through the Veil, towards Skaia.
We also see something we already came from a Meteor in the Veil, discovered by AR, who decides to investigate…
Inside, he sees the past of Nanna and Grandpa, how young Grandpa accidentally shot Sassacre, who would’ve otherwise been their adoptive father… And yet the device isn’t locked on any of the adults like the ones in the laboratory John was just in. It’s set over something else.
Halley, the beloved dog Grandpa called ‘Harley’ because of a speech impediment. At 13 years, he left with the dog, and left Grandma to be raised by Betty Crocker herself. Things start to become clearer, too, when DD shows up with the MEOW and Wizard Fanfic books…
And discards the latter, along with Dave’s juice-stained copies which were being used as a bookmark. These fall on the open Time Capsule, and set it up for Jade to recover once the temple is sent back to Earth, finally closing that loop that had been left lingering since the very end of Act 3! And with John enacting Con Air’s last scene and gifting his bunnies to young Rose and Jade, explaining how Rose was able to have a bunny to gift him, and how Jade had it on Grandpa’s past, the Act’s curtains close…
Hussie teases us a little bit, making us think the End of Act 4 is going to be silly, before we get back to Dave, Rose and Jade. Dave is talking with GC about what to do next, as well as the little momentary trauma of seeing his dead corpse and having his own blood on his hands. Rose is pestered by GA, who’s worried about her communing with the Dark Gods, but Rose is busy killing things. Finally, Dream Jade chats with AT, who tells her he loved sleeping in Prospit, until their Dreamselves died, a fact Jade didn’t even know was possible.
And with those last bits and pieces of information set up, we reach the actual End of Act 4- [S] Descend.
We see Dave’s entry, and how his Brother split the meteor heading to his house in half, buying him some extra time to enter. The ship with Mom and Dad prepares to reach Skaia, and we see Jack going on a rampage- Exterminating both armies of Light and Darkness, tearing the Battlefield itself asunder, and finally, being given the lost White King’s sceptre, which allows him to begin the Reckoning. Once started, the babies are warped on top of meteors, and the meteors are sent towards the Skaian Defense Portals, that will sent them back to Earth. On the Frog Temple meteor, we see DD use the MEOW code and Halley’s genetic code, to create Bec- Who as we know, would then emerge from the crater the Frog Temple Meteor left on Earth. Another Time Loop close.
Meanwhile, Jack continues his rampage on Prospit, as the White Queen and an entourage of Prospitians leave the planet. Everything is destroyed, and Jack tears the chain connecting the Moon of Prospit- Where John and Jade dream- to fall towards the Battlefield. He then goes to Dave’s Land, and faces off against Dave’s Bro, on a giant, record-shaped device. After a short strife, Bro stabs his Katana on this record, making some kind of energy to start emitting out of it… Before leaving mysteriously. A hint? A signal? We don’t quite know.
Finally, we move back to Prospit, to the falling Moon, and see John’s Dream Self cast out of his room, as Jade’s Dream Self tries to wake him up in time. To no avail, she decides to sacrifice himself- Pushes him out of the way, and bears the brunt of Prospit’s Moon crashing on top of her on the Battlefield. The explosion tears a good chunk of the Battlefield right out of the planet, and manages to wake John’s Dream Self up, but at the obvious cost of Jade’s Dream Death. With her Dream Self dead, her Dream Bot explodes, along with the rest of her room, leaving her asleep and on free-fall plummeting towards the ground of her island. Becquerel watches this as the biggest Meteor heading to Earth looms above Jade’s place.
Dave ascends to his First Gate- But Rose, instead, casts a spell upwards and destroys her own, instead deciding to fly through the Land with her powers.
We’re left with a lot of questions from this flash, while many others were answered- However, while the Act is over, a short Epilogue puts things into perspective. Rose writes a last entry in her walkthrough, talking about how she’s been informed time and time again of how they’re all doomed and fated to fail. And she’s not having it. She’s going to tear the game apart if she needs to to find answers and save everyone. She also mentions she has ripped the Walkthrough out of Earth’s Internet, and set up a Server out with the Eldritch Gods so anyone would be able to access it.
John is awake on the Battlefield now, and finds Jade’s dead body, taking the ring she had on her. Mom and Dad land on the Battlefield, and Grandpa finds Jade’s body, which he taxidermizes and brings back home- As we learn out, Halley’s body, Jade’s Dream Self, and Jack’s 4th Wall has been hidden in his attic laboratory all along, explaining why Grandpa had a photo of Dream Jade over the Foyer.
We see the Exiles, one by one. AR finds John asleep in the Veil, and uses the Rocket Skateboard to send him to safety, leaving him to be Exiled to Future Earth through the portals. WV laments the loss of everyone, and dons John’s Dream Blanket as the rags that cover him in the future. PM assassinates the mook that ambushed her, meets with Jack to get the Package, and gives it to John, before being exiled herself through a portal. The White Queen rides a ship to Earth, finds the halved Egg terminal- Halved just like the meteor Bro halved, repairs it, and then crowns PM as the new Queen. WV reaches into his trusty pocket knife and shows us he’s had the White Queen Ring all along. John sees this in the Clouds of Skaia, and knows he has to give the Ring to someone at some point.
He opens the package, and reads a birthday wish by Jade, explaining exactly how she knows all she knows from the future, and what Prospit is. Of course, now that it’s destroyed, it only makes John sad. He also reads a letter from… Someone else. Someone who knows Jade, and has helped her make the present, but little is known about him. Jack finds John, and wants the Ring- But just in time, his present jumps out of the box. The same Bunny Jade had, the one Rose had sewn, but now with robotic implementations and four powerful Weapons. The Quills of Echidna, Ahab’s Crosshairs, the Warhammer of Zillyhoo, and the Royal Deringer. Jack is forced to flee from combat for the time being.
Hussie recaps the vents leading up to the End of Act 4, and we finally reach Act 5. There’s so many things that have happened, a lot of plot threads that were open still close at last, and while there’s still a few things left up in the air, the story seems perfectly set up to continue advancing, and seeing, not explaining things that have happened before, but what comes next, what the Trolls have been implying is going to happen, and how everyone fucks up so tremendously.
This marks the End of Part 1 of Homestuck, and in a way, while I feel Act 1 and 2, and at most Act 3, should be considered the ‘introduction’ of Homestuck, when it comes to the whole of the story, it really is only, at this point, that we finally move beyond the Introduction, and start getting into the thick of it.
And yet, with everything set up to continue the story, we cut, not to any point in the story of the Kids…
But to the Homeplanet of the Trolls, Alternia. The beginning of Act 5 revolves, entirely, about the story of the Trolls, their culture, and their relationships with each other. But of course, now that we’ve been presented with the Sylladex and SBURB, with the Sprites, now that we’ve already talked to a bunch of them before, Hussie kicks up the pace of the story. We’re told what the Trolls do, yes- However, since we already know what the Game does, we’re explicitly told about some things that would, otherwise, have been quite the stunning revelation, and at times we straight up jump to the future to see how things said in the past as foreshadowing later turned out to be true, as a sort of Instant Karma kind of deal.
We learn about their Culture, Trolls are a violent race of space-faring insectoid creatures that have violent nightmares if they don’t sleep in special soporific slimes. They’re all born from Mother Grubs, huge insects to which the genetic material of all the combined population is given so that she may lay eggs for their species- Which are born as insectoid grubs with heads, and pupate into a more human-like form. They have no familiar structure, Adults don’t live on the planet and they are raised exclusively by monstrous creatures known as Lusus Naturae, that act half as beasts they have to feed and take care of, and half as guardians that protect them. And they have a complex Romantic system with 4 different kinds of Romance. A lot regarding Troll Anatomy and Culture is left ambiguous, or seems completely made up on the spot- And it really likely is. Specially the Quadrants, are needlessly complex, and yet describe four kinds of relationships the Fandom has learned to embrace, love, and use on other different Fandoms. This silly little bit of worldbuilding, and how Trolls all have different horns and symbols, inspired many to create their own Fantrolls- As if SBURB already didn’t offer infinite customization possibilities for self-insertion and OC-Making, now they had a WHOLE other species with weird alien romance. This is what makes a lot of people consider the Trolls their favorite characters.
The Trolls also have different blood colors. Lowest bloods are lower on the class hierarchy- They have much shorter lifespans, and at the bottom of the Hemospectrum, they’re basically treated like slaves. It goes all the way from Rust to Fuchsia, with them being the respectively lowest and highest possible colors, divided in 12 castes, and having the Highest two, Violets and Fuchsias, be a sub-species of Trolls that live underwater and have fins and gills. On top of this, every Troll talks with a different typing quirk, and along their color, makes their text immediately recognizable, if likely harder to read.
The first part of Act 5 is, as such, a fresh start with fresh new characters, but boosted to not drag on infinitely. For this reason, we quickly hop back and forth through the Timeline, to relevant and interesting moments to keep people’s attention regarding the Troll Adventure.
Sollux Captor, goldblood and Hacker of the group, has found two sets of ruins thanks to Aradia Megido, rustblood, and thanks to Kanaya Maryam (GA), jadeblood. Much like the Frog Temple for the Kids, these two Frog Temples carry the code from which the Game of SBURB is developed, to open the gateway into the Session. Sollux has prophetic visions of the imminent extinction of their race, and has been convinced that the game is their only salvation.
As such, they make two Teams, only for each of the Sessions, for each of the Frog Temples. The Red Team with Karkat Vantas (CG), Terezi Pyrope (GC), Kanaya Maryam (GA), Gamzee Makara (TC), Tavros Nitram (AT) and Vriska Serket (AG), and the Blue Team with Sollux Captor (TA), Aradia Megido (AA), Nepeta Leijon (AC), Equius Zahhak (CT), Eridan Ampora (CA) and Feferi Peixes (CC). These weren’t originally the pairings however, there was treachery and betrayal to set them up like this- And yet this was also, always, the groups they were fated to create.
As it turns out, the Ruins weren’t two different sets of Ruins, but rather a same set split in two. And when the time came to close the circle of their Sessions, they were forced to actually connect the two different chains together, joining the same Session. The Red Team were Prospit Dreamers, the Blue Team, Derse Dreamers. With the exception of Sollux, whose whole schtick is doubles and bifurcation, so he has two Dream Selves, on on each moon, and Aradia has no Dream Selves.
There’s a lot that happens in this Act, but it’s mostly presenting the story of the Trolls, rather than bringing up any special Plot Point. Aradia starts the story Dead, after an accident doing Fatal Live Action Role Playing, but has a robot built for her soul to inhabit after prototyping her ghost. Tavros has been left paralyzed from the waist down, but gets sweet robot legs after they all get trapped in the Veil. Sollux dies trying to save one of his friends before entry, but a kiss awakens one of his Dream Selves and makes him able to continue the adventure. Karkat fancies himself the leader of the group, but he’s shouty and annoying. He’s also incredibly insecure, specially because he has mutant Candy Red blood, an oddity in his species. It’s thanks to this that Jack bonds with Karkat and aids the group take down the Black Queen. Nepeta is a wild Huntress who’s kept in check by a blood-racist-and-creepy blueblood. Kanaya is a jadeblood- The caste who takes care of the Mother Grub, and her lusus was a Virgin Mother Grub. She took the Matriorb from her Lusus, an egg which she now keeps and protects as the only hopes of repopulation for her species.
Terezi is a law-loving blind girl, blinded after a FLARP incident. Her lusus never hatched, and died shortly after hatching before entering the game, sadly, but she taught her telepathically how to smell and taste colors rather than seeing them- Letting her see the world through synesthesia even while blind. Equius is the creepy robot-building blueblood that keeps Nepeta in check, and is in turn pacified by her. He’s creepy and loves horses, muscles and being degraded, but in the end he actually ends up being quite well meaning. Gamzee is a Juggalo stoner part of a creepy highblood cult, but that’s always eating soporific pies that leave him just kind of stoned. Eridan is an overdramatic violet noble with a genocide complex that wants to kill all Land Dwellers. He keeps Feferi’s lusus fed by orphaning other Trolls’ lusii. Feferi is the Heiress to the Alternian Throne, and wants to redefine the Trolls’ violent society to be more kind. Her lusus is an Eldritch Abomination that must be kept well fed or she will create a psychic shockwave that will destroy Troll Civilization. Eventually, her lusus dies and releases this Vast Glub, killing everything but herself and the Empress of Alternia, before being prototyped, which proves to be a big problem in their Session.
And finally there’s Vriska, a manipulative cerulean blood that’s pretty much the source of all the conflict from the Trolls. She’s a bully that abuses Tavros on the pretense that she’s trying to strengthen him, because she likes him but thinks he’s a weenie. She mind-controls him to jump off a cliff, which paralizes him. She FLARPs to get villainous Trolls and feed them to her hungry spider lusus, who torments her, and so, as a retaliation for hurting Tavros, Aradia communes with the spirits of the Trolls she’s killed to haunt her. In turn, Vriska is manipulated by someone else, and enticed to control Sollux to visit Aradia and murder her. As a retaliation, Terezi causes Vriska to lose her arm and an eye, which in turn angers Vriska enough to manipulate Terezi to blind herself. The cycle of revenge goes deep with them.
We also get a few 4th-wall-break cameos with Hussie being silly, teasing the audience about the story dragging on before skipping right to the juicy bits, or straight up posting the whole exposition about Troll Romance again before laughing. From the first self-insertion in which he says how it was a ‘bad idea’, to now where he rejoices in teasing the audience, the author has become more recognizable, more of a character. An interesting fact, too, is that by this point Hussie had the story more or less on rails, rather than letting the readers choose where to go next- But the interaction didn’t stop there, as every one of the Trolls’ names were chosen by the fans! It’s little things like those that keep people engaged, and what made Homestuck a fun Fandom, while still retaining a lot of fun meta and wall-breaking references now that it’s done.
However, and while the Session in itself is important, and showcases how some other SBURB mechanics work and how their Session went, there’s some very important things scattered through the Troll Introductions.
Doc Scratch is an entity first introduced as simply a mysterious man who writes in white text, and that has been manipulating Vriska. We learn, however, that he’s the First Guardian of Alternia, an entity supposed to protect the world. A God, pretty much, nigh Omniscient and Omnipotent. A smug asshole really. He is in service of an Unstoppable Time Travelling Demon named Lord English. If that name sounds familiar, it should! It’s the name of the boss of the Felt, and a quick look at Doc’s room shows that we are, in fact, in a green sort of Manor just like the Felt Manor. Furthermore, those green crackly powers of his are awfully similar to Bec’s, which implies Becquerel himself being a First Guardian as well.
Doc Scratch is the cueball to the Felt’s Pool Balls, the one that puts everything in motion. His name is, in fact, both a reference to Pool, and also to Satan Himself. He plays the role of the Devil, manipulating and messing with the Trolls to lead things the way they need to be. He doesn’t lie, but he’s good at omitting truths.
We’re not told much about Lord English, but a program Sollux finds implies he will be summoned into the Universe when the Universe itself dies. However as he can travel through time, when he appears should not be an issue. After all, He Is Already Here.
Doc Scratch’s only purpose is to bring forth Lord English into the Universe, and will do anything to accomplish this goal. He’s an excellent Host.
As such, the Troll Session not only works to give us some context about SBURB and what they’re doing and who they are, it also gives more relevance to the Intermission. The Black Queen is banished from the Session- And Doc Scratch gives her a new role in the Felt. The boss of the Felt is Lord English- And we’re told that when the Universe dies he will appear. We also know, if you remember, that if Snowman dies, the Universe dies- She’s the 8 ball, the one that must be sunk last. Things are starting to get eerie and ominous, this sub-plot about the Trolls suddenly takes a lot more relevancy. But we continue to watch their Session develop.
At last, Aradia, now Aradiabot, gets her revenge on Vriska beating her nearly to death, and then warps to the very end of their Session.
We learn Aradia gathered Doomed Copies of herself through 1000 different Timelines to face off against the Black King. With their best equipment, with 1000 Aradiabots holding back the psychic powers Feferi’s Lusus gave to the Black King, and with an impossibly lucky roll of Vriska’s magic dice weapon in the last second, they managed to beat the Black King, miraculously.
And so the Trolls were about to claim their Ultimate Reward for beating the game. But right before they could do it, something happened.
The Kids’ Session, at some point, caused a Rift in Time and Space. Something called a Scratch, and left ambiguous to what it’s effects are or what it does. A Scratch by itself shouldn’t have done anything, however, it seems, somehow, the Kids’ Scratch sprung a demonic entity of some sort on the Trolls just as they were to win. Forcing them to hide in the Veil, while it rampaged through the Session and murdered all the other 999 Aradias.
And finally, we learn, the purpose of the Game. Why it’s something much more important than saving Earth. The Players are thrust as Hero into a battle between Light and Darkness. They’re tested, they’re proved. And ultimately, if they are able to defeat the Darkness…
They will create a whole new Universe to rule as Gods. The Humans’ entire Universe was created by the Trolls playing the game. And in playing their Session, they somehow managed to ruin their reward right as they were about to claim it. And now, trapped, waiting for the Demon to get to them, they bitterly bother and hassle the Kids through different points in time.
Act 5 Act 1 ends up- We see the Blue Curtains representing the Trolls’ Blue Universe, as opposed to the Kids’ Red Universe, close. Two Sessions, Two Universes, Two Curtains, Two sub-Acts for Act 5.
The ending of this Act comes with major implications, about the role of the Game and whatever it is the Kids do that fucks everything up. We’re also left wondering about Lord English, and also, about the Demon that sprung up on the Trolls. The first assumption is that this Demon is the same as Lord English, but that then raises questions about the Universe dying! Does it have to do with the Scratch perhaps? Where Act 4 left a lot of things nicely tied up and ready to open up new doors, Act 5 Act 1 opens the floodgates to a whole bunch of new speculation, and now that we’re following two different groups of Players, both Humans and Trolls, there’s so much that could happen next!
Hussie is good at building expectations and then surprising you. Even in the quickly-told tale of the Trolls, there are still impressive twists and turns, they’re downplayed by the narrative as a nudge to how the author is rushing through it to get back to the Humans, but they’re still surprising enough to leave you wondering for a moment. And this last bit towards the end, about Creating the Universe, truly puts everything in perspective. SBURB, the Game with the Highest Stakes. Your entire civilization dies, you’re thrust into mortal peril, but if you overcome it, you will become a God. Here enters the ‘Creation Myth’ portion of the story Hussie described as well. The characters are faced with their own mortality, with revival and Dream Selves, with moral choices and the dubious nature of Free Will when the Trolls can see exactly what they’re going to do, when Failure seems all but avoidable. Kids, trapped by Fate. Humans, rising to Godhood. Creation, Dreams, Hope. And such, Act 5 Act 2 opens its curtains.
And Act 5 Act 2 begins with Karkat watching John’s entire timeline, and getting a hate-romantic crush on him. With what we learn about Troll Romance, suddenly his antagonism towards pretty much everyone in the previous Acts, but specially John, takes on a whole new Troll-romantic light. And straight off the bat, we begin with a plot bomb the size of Planet Motherfucking Jupiter.
Karkat has been trolling John backwards, from the end of this Timeline to the beginning of their adventure, so the very first conversation he has with him is right at the end, right before the ‘Scratch’ that causes everything to go wrong. So we get a glimpse of the far future, and when Karkat tries to throw it in his face, John not only comments that he knows about the Scratch and is in fact about to start it- He tells us Future Karkat has pretty much helped them come up with the Scratch plan, and mentions it is their only hope now. Coming off from the perception that the Scratch was what made everything go wrong from the prior Acts, suddenly the reader is left not knowing what to think, or knowing what the Scratch really IS. What better way to kick off a new act?
We then begin to switch, from seeing how the Trolls interact with the Kids and find about them the first time, and how the Kids are following the story that we left off on Act 4. This intertwines the new action the readers have been waiting for regarding the Kids’ Session, with some more context about why the Trolls have been acting how they have. Karkat is apathetic at first towards the Humans, but as soon as he finds out they’re the source of their problems, he orders everyone to bother them. And of course, very few, if no one, actually take him seriously, but given the way Trolls just are in general, their morbid interest end up coming hostile a few times.
Vriska takes an interest in John, and tries to use her powers to Mind Control him- But as it happens, her powers don’t work on Humans. Instead, she finds out she can only use them to put Humans to sleep or Wake them up. She finds this out just as John was about to meet his Dad in the Battlefield, ending up leaving him without his reunion, and making him lose the White Queen’s Ring.
And then, much like how Terezi had been guiding him around, she starts to tell him what to do. John luckily also recovers the SBURB Beta copy he’s been trying to recover since Act 1, finally the Breeze delivers PM’s parcel to its destination, and John is ready to return home and connect to Jade.
So now he needs to go back to his house, install the Beta, and finally begin the process of getting Jade into the game, to complete the chain and save her before the enormous meteor we saw at the End of Act 4, and that has been a looming threat since we saw it in Rose’s laboratory in Act 3, impacts.
With Rose, meanwhile, we see how Kanaya has slowly gained more interest about Rose, because as she’s found out, she’s the writer of the GameFAQs guide she found prior to their adventure and that helped her group start the game more smoothly. Rose locked it away in a server outside the boundaries of Sessions and Universes, in the Furthest Ring, so even though technically Earth didn’t exist yet at that point, Kanaya was still able to get it. However, a few misshaps with John pretending to be Rose and a few not so friendly conversations, keep her lukewarm towards Rose until they finally start to get more in tune with each other. This all culminates with Kanaya seeing Rose blow up her First Gate.
Concern mounts about what Rose is doing anymore, specially as Kanaya starts to examine her Timeline more closely. The girl has gone rogue, and is tearing her Land apart trying to get the answers she seeks. In fact, Kanaya is extra-concerned because she has noticed, at one point in Rose’s Timeline, she simply. Blacks out. Her screen goes dark, and she cannot see her anymore. Now that we know Jack, that we know the Trolls, and that are more or less advancing through the story at a steady pace, having Rose go rogue like this, listen to the Dark Gods and tear everything apart adds an element of suspense and uncertainty, coming from one of the Kids no less.
Rose also talks with Dave, telling him the Dark Gods aren’t as bad as they seems, that she has other sources as well and is doing this out of her own volition and judgement. And of course, she asks of him to remove his shades and look into the Furthest Ring from Derse, as the Gods would like an audience with the prince of the Moon. We also learn that Rose is trying to track something very specific down- Something called the Green Sun.
After watching Prospit get destroyed, Terezi is crestfallen, and returns to tell everyone, before receiving a donation that gets the Trolls in contact with the Kids.
This Donation is, in fact, something she later on instructs Dave to do, once more creating a recursive situation in which they only met in the first place because of events that only happened because they met.
Terezi takes a liking to Dave, and begins to instruct him on what to do next, where to go, how to advance in his Quest and become more powerful. In a way, it seems like Vriska and Terezi are trying to push their rivalry through Dave and John, but they’re too good friends to actually argue or do anything like that, and in fact it’s more Vriska than Terezi who suggests such a rivalry exists.
In this way, while also showcasing the other Trolls talking to the Humans and among themselves on occasion, the story builds up a few specific Trolls as the ‘main’ Troll paired with each Kid, making it less of a headache to go through 12 different Trolls bothering the 4 Kids, and at the same time, builds expectations and suspense. You have Terezi and Vriska messing with John and Dave, with romantic undertones and rather funny shenanigans, while Rose and Kanaya keep most of the intensity, still with their humorous moments of course, but tilting more towards a concern for Rose and a wonder of what’s going to come next. You’ve just returned from meeting all of these Trolls an Act ago, but you’re already thrust deep into the thick of the story, and wondering just what comes now. What’s going to happen? That is one of the best things about Homestuck. Wondering just what comes next.
John installs the Beta, and Nannasprite tells him about a necklace he can use to summon her while he’s away now that he’s ascended to a sufficient level. This starts to present a trend of allowing the Sprites to roam anywhere, setting up for them to be elsewhere however they may require, rather than being bound to the house. She makes him eat dinner on a floating bed while he works away on Jade’s place.
Rose and Dave are, meanwhile, assaulted with inquiries and questions coming from other Trolls. Rose shuts down a romantic solicitation from Eridan, and gets into an intriguing conversation with Aradia. She doesn’t like the way Rose has been doing things, and doesn’t like hearing that she’s been tracking down the Green Sun- Which she calls, the ‘Power Source of all First Guardians’, and which pin-points it as the thing that gives Doc Scratch and Bec their powers. This makes sense, too, since the Green Sun occasionally flashes in the background of Becquerel’s warping. Then Nepeta asks for Rose to let her talk to Jaspers- And complies happily, bidding him farewell and letting him have her laptop. This is a really reassuring moment too, with the risk of Rose becoming evil or something, having a genuinely nice moment with her cat puts the reader at ease for the time being, while still knowing she will ‘black out’ eventually.
Dave meanwhile, has to deal with Equius, as he’s trying to get a sword out of a pedestal Excalibur-style, before deciding to break it in half. This is something Dave has done before too, having his swords broken is part of a bigger theme regarding Dave that goes back to his Strife with his brother. He deals with Gamzee as well, and given Gamzee is a juggalo, he sends him an ICP music video, which Gamzee actually finds to be Blasphemous and gets visibly angry for the first time, rather than letting it slip as the stoned Clown he is. Finally, Terezi tells him he’s going to fall asleep soon, and given the sword he took is important loot that’s going to attract monsters, he lets Davesprite handle them himself. Vriska puts him to sleep, and Davesprite defeats the monsters, before flying away. Asleep as he is now, Dave heads out to visit Rose’s Dream Self.
It’s then that we start to flip back and forth between two main scenarios. On one hand, you have Jack Noir, still in Dave’s Land, examining the sword Bro left behind…
And taking it, tracking him down to John’s Land for a rematch after what happened in [S] Descend. Jack has been pretty much tearing everything apart with no direct opposition except from the bunny, and Bro proved to be a really interesting adversary. He wants more.
And he gets more than he bargained for when Davesprite joins into the battle.
In a fit of rage, Jack frees himself from Lil Cal and sets fire to the Oil surrounding their arena, and given the nature of John’s land, the entirety of his world begins to ignite slowly, creating a most dreadful scenario.
Meanwhile, Jade, whose room exploded, was caught just in time by Bec before she hit the ground.
Before falling asleep in another narcoleptic fit of hers. But, now, her Dream Self is Dead. There’s no Prospit to Dream on, and so she starts to have a psychodelic dream about her favorite series. Things take a strange turn when her dream zooms out and pans to Dave on Derse- Removing his shades, and looking up into the skies of the Furthest Ring, and gazing, apparently, into Jade’s dream. Feferi appears in her Dream, and everything goes wrong, Eldritch Creatures begin to whisper at her and appear around her until she’s forced to wake up from such nightmarish visions.
Feferi explains, the Elder Gods of the Furthest Ring have glubbed Bubbles for them to Dream on now that they don’t have Dream Selves. They allow them to dream collectively, but in exchange, they’re pretty much in Eldritch Space. Feferi, whose Lusus was an Eldritch Abomination, seems even happy about this, but Jade is absolutely freaked out. Nevertheless, she’s awake now, and she ses John messing around with her house! They start to install the Beta, things seem to be finally reaching the point where someone isn’t under the imminent threat of being killed by a meteor! But there’s one problem.
Jade’s house is absolutely full of shit. John had the Harlequins, they were an obvious choice. Rose prototyped her cat and something eldritch. Dave had the Crown. But Jade, just in the very same room the Kernelsprite’s hovering in, she has everything from her Grandfather and a Suit of Armor, to wall-mounted monster heads and globes. We have no idea what John is going to prototype, and in fact he’s so confused about what to do himself that he asks Rose for advice! She doesn’t want to spoil his adventure, as she’s already learned what he is going to do- And so just tells him that, if he doesn’t prototype anything, they will be Doomed. With every prototyping, Skaia’s Battlefield changed, and it will only acquire its final form if John prototypes something. She also mentions that, once prototyped one last time, a Treasure will appear at the core of it, a Treasure John will have to retrieve. Its name is The Tumor.
And just like that… With no explanation about what’s going on, John wakes up after his bed has fallen into the Oil Ocean, with his Land still blazing because of Jack’s powers, and no idea of what happened to Jade, as well as no way to check a computer to see if she entered the Medium or not. Rose is being cryptic with him and doesn’t give him a straight answer, but for once, Karkat proves to be a huge help in explaining what’s happened. He insults him, saying that they JUST fucked up majorly, that they just did the thing that fucked everything up, and then proceeds to explain.
[S] Jade: Enter proves to be one of the pivotal moments in the story. Vriska forces John to collapse asleep, unable to prototype anything- And Bec is forced to Prototype himself in order to help Jade out and destroy the meteor about to hit her house. The blast razes the surface of the Earth, but earns Jade a few extra seconds to complete the entry process. In doing so, however? Jade’s effectively prototyped her monstrously powerful First Guardian dog- And Jack Noir, wearing the Ring, acquires First Guardian powers.
They have created an essentially unbeatable boss, and somehow, whatever it is they manage to do afterwards, it is Jack Noir with these powers, that manages to enter the Trolls’ Session and begins to destroy everything. Karkat wakes up for the first time on Prospit, just in time to watch Jack devastate everything around him. We also see, Jack, right after entering the Trolls’ Session, has a blood stain on his hand- But we don’t see it yet in the present. It’s not from Bro, and it creates the concern that he’s going to be killing someone else. It also works as an effective way to distinguish Jack in the Kids’ Session, and Jack in the Trolls’ Session.
Suddenly the looming threat of whatever it is they did becomes a much more tangible and dangerous thing, when it is apparent that both Bro and Davesprite have just died. Bro isn’t a player either, and thus has no Dreamself ‘spare lives’ of any sort, so unless Jade prototyped Bro into her Becsprite, there’s no way he can come back. He’s, effectively, the first major character in Homestuck who dies for good.
While John converses with Karkat, the flames in his land take on a green hue, and we also see, in the future, the White Queen repairing the last Station- Just as she did with the Egg, bringing forth the last of the Terminals. We still don’t quite know why they’re all gathering on the Frog Temple, but now they’re all there, for whatever purpose they may have.
And seeing the station appear, reminds the Mayor of something he’s forgotten, gazing at the Ring in his hand, reminiscing about something. As it turns out, the Ring John lost floated over to WV, and the two briefly met on the Battlefield in that short nap Vriska forced him to take.
Things slowly start to come together like this, the threat looming over everyone’s head is made evident, one of the biggest mysteries in the series thus far is revealed, and now, John is trapped in the middle of a blazing Land.
And then Vriska tells us something even more concerning- She intentionally put John to sleep knowing Jack was going to get First Guardian powers. After all, Jack is already in their Session. He is Already There. Even if she’d prevented it from happening, John would have ended up in a Doomed Timeline. Another show of inevitability, of futility. We’ve basically already been told what happens- The Kids lose, Bec Noir arrives to the Troll Session. But seeing things deteriorate in action, and seeing what happens to everyone, is an intense ordeal. Vriska wants to involve herself, just like how she’s trying to make John into a Hero, she also intentionally created the biggest threat they are facing. Because she intends on taking him down herself.
John thinks she’s crazy, but he doesn’t have time to complain. He’s on the verge of death now, about to burn to a crisp, but the Mayor starts to contact him again. He accidentally gets locked up in his terminal, and begins to rant at John about how he is the Windy Boy, and how he should do the Windy Thing, and how he’s being stupid. John doesn’t know what’s going on, but under pressure, ordered to ‘do the Windy Thing’, he, subsconsciously, activates his powers as the Heir of Breath for the very first time.
This is the first time the titles have become something relevant other than merely a title- This is a manifestation of actual power, strong enough to extinguish the flames destroying John’s Land. And while it takes him a while to activate it, as it happens, the Breeze just flows effortlessly to save his Land. Whereas the creation of Bec Noir came with a sudden realization of despair and the grim future ahead of the Session, suddenly seeing John demonstrate these insane powers flips it back with a show of hope, of excitement. A quick whiplash, stabilizing the mood so that the reader becomes interested in what’s going to happen next, once again. Homestuck is a Comedy after all, but it has shown us, at this point, that it doesn’t mind becoming a darker tale at times, to drive home the point of how serious something is. But after something heavy, the audience needs something lighter.
Something lighter we don’t quite get, however. Jade’s Land is the Land of Frost and Frogs, a snowy landscape with frozen amphibians scattered through it. She’s fallen asleep again after the entry, and in her Dream, she has a flashback to the first time Feferi talked to her. She tried to bond with Jade over prototyping something awfully powerful, and how it wasn’t her fault, and explained how she would shortly contact the Horrorterrors of the Furthest Ring to allow everyone to Dream there with them. It soon becomes obvious Jade and Feferi are sharing a dream again, just like that time before… Except Feferi states she’s not asleep.
She’s Dead.
The terrifying, blank-eyed expression, paired with the sudden shocking possibility of Feferi dying is a disquieting mixture. Aradiabot is implied to explode at some point in the future for some reason, but that was more of a confusing statement at one point during a walkaround flash. This, is a whole panel dedicated to the revelation of Feferi being dead, and Jade waking up creeped out from this nightmare. This raises other questions too, then- Specifically, how she died, and how can she, being Dead, contact Jade through a dream.
Things are starting to get serious, so Hussie interjects some more silliness. Jade confronts a Bec-prototyped Imp, and has a hard time shooting it as she’s warped through the entirety of the Session unable to shoot him, paralleling when she played fetch with him in her island. Ultimately, though, Becsprite helps her take the Imp down.
Following this, Dave contacts her and, given John is busy doing his own thing, manages to clone his own Beta Copy of SBURB so that he becomes both Rose and Jade’s Server Player, deploying everything she needs to begin the game. However that’s a Future version of Dave, and we go back to see our Present Dave who just woke up from a nap. He contacts Rose, now that he’s seen the Horrorterrors, and tells her he’s heard a plea for help.
The Horrorterrors are being Exterminated by something, and they need help, which is why they are reaching out to Rose. On the other hand, Rose has been making plans with none other than Doc Scratch himself. Rose mentions that Doc Scratch wants to die, and being a First Guardian, he’s virtually indestructible. But, he shares a power source with their newly-created archnemesis, Bec Noir. The Tumor she wants to recover from the Battlefield is actually a Bomb. Rose needs Dave, a Hero of Time, to map out the blank, non-euclidean, eldritch space that is the Furthest Ring. Rose then will carry the Tumor to the Green Sun in a suicidal mission, and help take Bec Noir down.
Of course Dave refuses, knowing this will be a suicide mission, but Rose assures him she’ll only be sending her Dreamself. He calms down after this, but Kanaya is still extremely concerned. Specially knowing she blacks out at one point, she mentions that she has ‘trained a powerful wizard’, and humors Rose with a bit of a roleplaying scenario about taking her back from the clutches of Eldritch Corruption.
In reality, she’s just messing around. She make a wand for Eridan because he was being pushy and wouldn’t shut up about Rose’s own magic, but has not been training anyone. Still, the concern stands, as she’s worried Rose is doing something very rash.
We move back to Jade, and a talk between her and Tavros- Who’s talked to her a lot while asleep, and is now trying to push his self-confidence to new limits by asking Jade out. She obviously turns him down, however he also has a plan she wants her to allow him to do. Communing with her Sprite and facing him against Bec Noir, using First Guardian Powers against a First Guardian, however Jade simply doesn’t trust him, specially because he reveals he did this in the past, and accidentally killed Jade’s Grandpa in the process. He’s turned down on this idea as well, and then Vriska immediately teases him about this.
As it turns out, however, Vriska maybe spills a bit too much to Tavros. She starts teasing him about how useless both him and Jade are- But then she starts to imply Jade’s narcolepsy has actually been Vriska practising her power on hers through the entirety of her childhood. She was the one to point DD to get the Books with the genetic code to Create Bec. She was the one who made John fall asleep to create Bec Noir. She’s the unseen hand that’s been manipulating their Session and made it as fucked up as it is, and Tavros can’t just stand by and let that happen. He sets off to face against her.
This section of Act 5 is an emotional rollercoaster. Things are being revealed, plans and plots are happening, possible deaths and foreshadowing, everything is starting to come together in really interesting ways, and finally, we reach what I believe is one of the best parts in the entirety of Homestuck. And it begins, with John finally landing after doing his Windy Thing, close to a Consort Village.
After doing the Windy Thing, John has reached the highest level he can possibly get to, but Vriska tells him he’s not done. There’s a special Quest Bed he can go to sleep on, and once he does so, he can begin climbing the God Tiers. Consorts in his village also talk about such a thing- The flash is a nice mixture of a walkaround with one single fighting section against an Uranium Imp, showcasing how hard to kill those things are. We get to hear how excited the Consorts are to see the Breeze clear up the flames, knowing the legendary Heir is around. They speak of the Bed in which the Hero will take a Legendary Nap. And ultimately, we get to the Quest Bed…
As it turns out, it’s a hard stone slab in the shape of a bed, with the same symbol we saw in John’s shirt at the beginning of the Act. The name of the God Tiers, the implication of an extra boost of power, and also, seeing John in new clothes! Things are looking like they’re going to get interesting, and John requests Vriska to put him to sleep! But then…
Vriska merely posts a smiley face once John is asleep. And the next thing we know?
The Heir is Dead.
This is a sudden, and unexpected development, followed by an incredibly beautiful flash with music that has brought some readers to tears. WV watches in horror as the Windy Boy stops moving atop the slab, but even while dead, we see fireflies clinging to John, the quest bed’s posts glowing, and then, a shift of perspective to the Battlefield- Where WV in the past is watching the same event from another perspective. John’s Dreamself is transported atop a Quest Bed equivalent in the Battlefield, and while the wounds begin to transfer from his Real Self to his Quest Bed, they soon clear up and heal. He rises, above the Quest Bed, in a spectacle of lights even the other 3 can see from their respective Planets, and then…
The Heir rises. But it’s not all triumphant victory. Nay, immediately after his ascent, we see John see his corpse on one of Skaia’s Clouds, and watch as WV in the future looks at John’s lifeless body, and the screen communicating with him blacks out.
John has ascended to his God Tier, as the Heir of Breath, but ultimately, he has still been killed upon his Quest Bed. This is John’s Dreamself, and while he may be a consciousness-merger, the morbid fact is that there’s a Dead John in his Land, and that WV thinks John is dead now. We know he has Ascended, but we also don’t know why just yet. Is dying a requirement? Or did the God Tier Ascension activate in time? The details are ambiguous, and knowing Vriska has been plotting behind everyone’s backs, it creates distrust and concern. Homestuck has lots of themes, and it touches a lot upon existentialism and mortality- But seeing the main character die on screen and then resurrect in such a spectacular manner makes for one of the most beautiful moments in the entire comic.
And yet the moment is not over yet. Before we can ask too many questions, we switch to someone else…
Here, we get confirmation. To become a God, you need to first Die. The Quest Bed is a Sacrificial Slab of sorts, and Vriska has tricked John without telling him what he had to do- Merely putting him to sleep, letting him Ascend unaware of what was going on. The morbid realization is immediate, we’re seeing characters face their own mortality now. Jade’s Dreamself has been dead for a while, Dave is seeing Time Clones die and is about to kill himself on the bed. Rose is going on a suicide mission, and John was tricked into dying to Ascend. It’s a heavy, unpleasant topic. It is also extra nerve-wracking for Rose- Kanaya says she blacks out on the screen, and we just saw WV’s screen black out after John died… So does that foreshadow Rose’s fate as well? Only time will tell.
We get even deeper into existential territory here with Dave and Terezi, however. Dave knows something is off- That version of him on the Quest Bed is not part of the loop. He’s a doomed offshot. Insisting in wanting to reach the God Tier, Terezi didn’t think he was ready to confront his own mortality, and tricked him. She’s the Seer of Mind- She mentions, Reality is made with every thought, with every moment. And she can see the consequences of where those thoughts would lead if they would turn into actions. She asked Dave to choose heads or tails in a coin flip, to find out about the God Tier at that moment, or later. And in doing so, there was a split in the Timeline- A version of Dave who chose heads, and one who chose tails.
Dave is freaked out. Not only does he have to face his own mortality, but also the fact the one right beneath him is a Doomed version of himself. Terezi also teases him, what if he became the Alpha Dave if Dave killed him? But what would happen to himself after that, would he be the Doomed Dave? Ultimately, Dave can’t bring himself to do it, and Terezi mentions he never reaches God Tier in his Session. They talk about how only one of the Trolls ever reached the God Tier, she teases about how Luck doesn’t actually matter when it comes to such choices…
And we move back to the Trolls’ Session, a flashback to when Aradia beat the shit out of Vriska. Hussie rides this extremely heavy train of emotions, sacrifice and death for a while, an uncharacteristically intense sequence of events for the comic. Tavros, having watched this happen, is encouraged by one of their Exiles to kiss her, which would revive her as her Dream Self, as we saw with Sollux-
But she doesn’t want him to revive her. She knows about the Quest Bed, she knows about the God Tiers, and this is too good of a chance to pass up on.
Vriska’s Dream Self starts to suffer the same wounds as her Real Self, a hint that she’s slowly dying, while Mind Controlling Tavros from Prospit to get her exactly where she needs to be.
However, she’s not controlling him completely. Unlike other times where she overwrote other people’s will entirely, Vriska, much to Snowman’s distaste, wants him to do it of his own volition. She tells him to do it, to kill her, to not let her bleed to death slowly, forcing him to write her words in blood, but never forcing him to stab her on the spot.
Fresh off of seeing John die, and having Dave nearly off himself on the Quest Bed, this scene is extremely bloody and fucked up. Snowman urges Vriska to force him to kill her, and Vriska starts to freak out herself- Screaming at Tavros, wanting him to kill her, but he just cannot do it, he cannot bring himself to kill her.
He scrapes his fingers raw on the rock writing in her blood, to the point of bleeding himself, and ultimately, traumatized and in tears, he simply escapes Vriska’s Quest Bed, leaving her to bleed out slowly.
Of course, the Trolls’ Quest Bed is a Cocoon because they are bugs. This is representative of metamorphosis, in the way it cracks and blasts right open, unlike the Kids who simply lie in a bad surrounded by flashy lights.
Seeing Vriska in her God Tier garbs as the Thief of Light is how this uncanny, morbid section of death and existentialism. We close a few loops, about why Vriska considers herself to be so strong, and how she has her arm and eye back even though they were blown off earlier in the Troll story. We see how John gets his new outfit, and learn more about the process to power up further in the story and make use of cool powers like John’s Windy Thing. But ultimately, while presenting the interesting concept of God Tiers, this section serves to remind the audience how fickle the lives of everyone in the Session actually is, how easy everything can go wrong, how fucked up the game is, forcing Kids to Die if they want to reach a higher level. It’s simply, an unsettling time.
Finally, things seem to take on a lighter note when Jade begins to alchemize stuff to start her adventure properly. Clothes, weapons, the Alchemizing montages are always fun to go through, and they serve as a good break from all the Death that’s been happening. She also manages to combine some of ther more divination-oriented items to create glasses through which she can see the others in the Session, just like how Rose has been using crystal balls to see everything around the Session.
This is quickly followed by an unpleasant conversation with Eridan, who still seems hellbent on having a rivalry with Rose, and tries to aid Jade one-up her… Except she refuses and thinks the rifle he’s sending her is completely stupid, and just stops dealing with him.
At this point, it should be interesting to note, through the past few sections of this Act, there has been a Countdown. Leading up to some critical event. Given the build-up, one’d assume it’s the Scratch itself, but then again, for the Trolls, the Scratch already happened and it’s what made Jack appear in their Session, so it’s left ambiguous. And so, we cut to a series of little flashbacks, with the countdown appearing on top of various points in the Timeline of the Trolls after they were forced in the Session, we see them split up slowly, the team falling apart, and it culminates with two specific heartbreaking moments.
One is the unsatisfying fulfilment of when we saw Aradiabot having exploded in one of the previous flashes. She bids farewell to Sollux, sadly, before randomly blowing up, for no apparent reason, that reminds the readers this was a thing that had already been shown, and yet frustratingly giving no more answers than we already had!
The other is Terezi’s grief. She almost seemed unaffected by how she had made Dave split his Timeline to show him about mortality, and yet, as she watches the Doomed Dave on the Quest Bed wake up and get immediately murdered, it’s obvious she cared. She cared a lot.
There’s still comedy, there’s still humor, but Hussie makes it clear that, at this point in the story, he’s not afraid of showcasing the horrors of the situation the Kids and Trolls have been thrust into, and death starts to become more frequent, and more graphic. Much like how the Time Mechanics were built up, so was Death, slowly built up from the looming threat of meteors, to having a teleporting murdered able to appear anywhere and kill anyone at any point in time, with two completely different sets of characters, period. This builds fear and suspense, and added onto how the Troll group is falling apart, and how the countdown is ticking down, creates an uneasy atmosphere. Before, the plot hooks were all about seeing what the Kids would do next. Now? Now it’s about hoping they will all survive.
And so we move to Jade again, who’s using her goggles to examing the Session. She sees Rose in Dave’s Land, speaking to Doc Scratch. She examines how her friends are doing, and ultimately finds Bro’s corpse, and the body of the Doomed Dave. Dave tries to reassure her things are fine, but much like how these last panels have shown the reality of the threat these Kids are facing, this makes Jade begin considering options, about what to do next. Tavros is indisposed and unable to commune with Bec as he suggested, so, instead, what Jade does is… Prototype her Dead Dream Self.
Who is immediately distraught by these events and blows the laboratory at the top of Jade’s tower right off of it. What seemed like a great idea, having Jade take over Bec’s powers and deal with Bec Noir herself, suddenly this little bit of hope is put into question as this happens- And yet we’re teased and not allowed to see why she’s so distraught! No, we briefly see something else…
“The most important character in Homestuck”, watching the miracle of a new beginning, as the Countdown reaches 0. The facepaint, the face, the purple blood, all seems to hint Gamzee, but Gamzee is just the comic relief stoner, so he CAN’T be the most important character, right? There’s something fishy going on, and we’re thrown yet another curve ball, to another of Hussie’s self insertions.
Wearing Lord English’ Coat, teasing us about the fact we still don’t know who Lord English is, but mentioning how it’s so big he can barely even make use of it. He toys with the Audience’s lack of idea to where the story is headed, and recaps the story once again to refresh our memories, because things are about to start getting more and more interesting.
Finally, we’re back to Jade and Jadesprite… And what she says is concerning. Jadesprite mentions having been dead for Years, that she was with her Friends and had forgotten everything bad that Happened, to her, to John, to Prospit. This makes sense since Grandpa took Jade’s body back into the past, and she was in the Laboratory for years, but this makes us wonder who her friends were exactly, and WHERE she was. An Afterlife of sorts it sounds like.
Jade attempts to calm her down, to tell her there’s still things to fight for, that John is alive, but that they need her help, her help to defeat Bec Noir. But Jadesprite is too defeatist. Where Jade’s trying to be optimistic, Jadesprite has lost all her Optimism, she wants to give up, she wants to let go. And this infuriates Jade. It infuriates her because she doesn’t believe she would act like that, because she wants to believe they can still do something. Inevitablity and Pessimism, against Hope and Optimism.
Her sprite’s circular arguments, her talk about how they’re ultimately doomed and nothing matters, goes against Jade’s personality entirely, and it angers her, it angers her absolutely, until Karkat contacts her- After years of ignoring him and not wanting to be in contact with him, this is the one occasion she’s GLAD something distracts her. Jadesprite flies away, and Karkat, for once, is nice to her. He exposes how her arguing like that with another version of herself is akin to Karkat arguing with himself and all the different times he talked to her from different points in time, painting an unpleasant picture of her. He also apologizes, to her, for being such a shithead, and Jade starts to finally take a liking to him. He also mentions that he’s been talking to her from the future, and he has a single request of her right now- To captchalogue the Fourth Wall.
Another Blackout, teasing us about Rose once again, about Death, as we move on to the Exiles again. PM doesn’t want to be the Queen, the previous Queen insists she needs to. We learn about their plan, to destroy the 4 Stations for some unknown reason, and AR already starts to rig them up with explosives. But within the cylinder capsule, still trapped inside, we have the Wayward Vagabond… Who has a nightmare.
A surreal nightmare about the tragedy he saw on the Battlefield, about the monster that killed everyone he was leading during the revolution.
About him blaming himself for the disaster, coming to embody Bec Noir in his nightmare, as the one who led everyone to their death. It should also be noted, the nugget of uranium he ate back in Act 2 has been shown quite a few times already, as if Hussie wanted to refresh people’s minds about this fact.
WV relives in his nightmare, how everyone died in the Battlefield, and is absolutely horrified, but his dream is cut short by- Vriska. Invading his Dream. Just like how Feferi invaded Jade’s, does this imply the Mayor also dreams in Feferi’s Dream Bubbles? Whichever the case, Vriska just states her intention of wanting to take Bec Noir down once again… And then, [S] Wake.
In the past, Bec Noir destroys Derse, as expected, however we zoom into Derse and find something inside we didn’t know about, something highly intriguing. Deep within the catacombs of Derse’s Moon, there’s something, lying dormant…
Aradia’s Dreamself, which we thought didn’t exist, atop a slab of a Quest Bed that shouldn’t be there. This is a mysterious development that raises a lot of questions about the Quest Beds and Aradia- However, the result is immediate. Derse is destroyed, and Aradiabot’s explosion is caused because Aradia’s Dreamself Ascends to God Tier.
And with her powers as the Maid of Time, she quickly freezes Bec Noir in Time, not letting him continue his rampage any further, at least for the time being. Before we can sit too much on this revelation however, we fast-forward, to the Present, and see Vriska waking up from her nap to face Tavros. After finding out she’s been manipulating everyone, she deserves to have Tavros be after her- But as much as Tavros is trying to be a Hero, Vriska still proves to be too much for him to handle.
Tavros dies, murdered by Vriska, with his own lance. And where Bro’s death was the first death of a major character, he was, still, one of the Adults, not one of the characters we’ve been following more closely. Aradiabot died- But we just saw her revive as a God Tier. Tavros however? This is the end of Tavros’ Line, and marks the very first character of the main cast we see dying for good.
Terezi finds his corpse soon after, and we’re shown that yes, he’s 100% dead. And teasing us yet AGAIN with the end of Rose, we have Kanaya once again concerned about her well being. Given she has no answers, she tries to contact Jade from the future, to tell her what’s going on- But in the future, Jade has set up a series of passwords so people from other time frames won’t mess with her, tired of dealing with Time Shenanigans, she manages to keep things linear. Sadly, this means Kanaya still knows nothing about Rose’s fate, but it hints her that she has to start talking to Jade in the past to eventually get to talk to her in the future.
And thanks to this conversation, we learn about one of the biggest details we needed to know regarding SBURB. Jade, as a Space Player, has breeding duties to attend to.
Kanaya has found the key to the captchalogue card for the Matriorb- Which implies she’s supposed to hatch the new Mother Grub in the Meteor, right now. This brings up a talk about how they’re supposed to eventually repopulate their species, however, the Breeding Duties are something else. Kanaya mentions that once the Forge- Jade’s Volcano- is stoked, the Land will change climatically, and she will require to follow a series of steps to clone Frogs. Using Ectobiology equipment, she’s supposed to paradoxify the Frogs in her Land, and mutate them. Of course, given the Frogs are frozen and doing nothing, any attempt to Appearify them will just warp them- So she has to pretty much make plans to track down each Frog at some point, so that she can get their Slime instead of warping them. And through the genetic recombination of the Frogs, they will eventually create the Genesis Frog- The embodiment of the new Universe they will create with SBURB.
With this, we know almost everything we need to know about the Game. How it changes with each Prototyping, how the Black Royalty needs to be defeated before the Reckoning, that the Denizens in each Land are guarding a Hoard of Grist used for something, and finally, that they need to create the Universe by breeding Frogs. It seems arbitrary, but there’s very specific symbology about Tadpoles looking like sperm cells and Amphibians tying to Gnostic currents of thought, but that’s a talk for another day.
A clearer picture of how the Universe is created, and what the Universe is in the world of Homestuck, paired with more concern with Kanaya about Rose, and exacerbated by the way she’s been talking to Doc Scratch- Which she recognizes, as she had a brief encounter with him during her childhood before waking up on Prospit, before everyone else, just like Jade.
Finally, we arrive at [S] Kanaya: Return to the Core. And while everything leading up to this point has been quite heavy, this moment marks a turning point in the entire narrative of the story. Now that Hussie has dangled the threats and danger in front of our faces, it’s time to kick things up a notch.
Kanaya readies to bring the Matriorb to the Core of the Meteor and hatch it. She tells Karkat, and we see that the only ones left around are Karkat, Kanaya, and Sollux and Feferi- Who seem to have been spending an awful lot of time together and are chilling nicely together. However, as Kanaya tries to leave, Eridan interrupts her- As the Prince of Hope, he considers himself the go-to guy about anything regarding Hope. And he considers? Their situation is absolutely Hopeless. He’s going to joing Bec Noir’s side, and wants to offer Feferi, as the Royal of the group, to join him. Of course both her and Sollux are astonished he would even suggest something like that, it’s an obviously awful plan and it’s turning him against everyone else! As such, Eridan and Sollux have a duel…
A duel which, surprisingly, ends up with Sollux being defeated. Up until now Sollux always won, but it would seem that this situation, and the Wand Kanaya made for him, has given him enough confidence to actually overpower Sollux.
Eridan snaps absolutely. There’s nothing left to fight for in his mind, there’s only waiting for their eventual death, or joining the villain. And as Feferi tries to stop him…
She becomes a victim of Eridan’s rampage as well. Kanaya hesitates to go after him, but ultimately, after a staredown between the two, Eridan notices Kanaya’s reason for hesitating to attack him. The Matriorb.
And just like that, Eridan leaves Karkat alone with two corpses, a destroyed Matriorb, and a knocked-out goldblood. In an incredibly short amount of time, two major characters have been taken out, and another has become a noticeable villain. Even with the God Tier stuff, even with Jack around, this is an absolutely crazy twist of events, everyone is dying, things are awful- And yet things are about to get more awful. Karkat is contacted by none other than Doc Scratch, who warns him with these eerie words.
And on top of this? Gamzee contacts Karkat- But his Quirk is completely different. His attitude is dismissive and angry, and we learn, he’s run out of soporific. And now that he’s not stoned? He’s ‘found his calling’, as a descendant of the violent, high blooded Subjugglators. Eridan has snapped, but his snapping comes from the fear, from the fact that he thinks everything is lost and is looking for a way out. Gamzee, here, completely flips his personality, and just for his own enjoyment, and heritage, threatens to track down and kill every single one of the Trolls still left alive.
Karkat is absolutely terrified, and tries to drag Sollux away, to save themselves. Meanwhile, Terezi becomes obsessed with the fact Vriska has murdered Tavros- And becomes blind to the fact there’s another 2, potentially even more dangerous killers on the loose roaming the Meteor.
Before, there was the implication and possibility of the Trolls and the Humans meeting together through some crazy plan, that they may manage to evade or kill Bec Noir. But now everyone is dying. Now everyone is turning against everyone. At this point it suddenly becomes a worry if anyone is even going to survive long enough to see the End of the Act, and the section of the comic the Fans have unofficially dubbed Murderstuck begins. A hopeless and powerful start to the following Arc of the comic, dealing with Terezi’s investigation of the murders, the fear of dying at any point, and the culmination of the Kids’ plans regarding their own Session.
Worse yet? Hussie likes teasing the audience, and Homestuck is a comedy, as dark as things may get. A Black Comedy perhaps at this point, but a Comedy nontheless. And now that the author has shown he’s not afraid to kill off characters, we also return to what John has been doing in the Battlefield since he Ascended- Making it hard to tell when he’s going to flip the script on us again, keeping the reader tense and fearful that their favorite characters will be next.
John finds his Dad’s wallet, and uses his powers to ride his Car through the Battlefield while he catches up to what has been going on with his friends. He contacts Jade for the first time since she entered the Session. Karkat also contacts John in a panic, about how he’s freaking out and how he may die- But when he attempts to contact him back, Temporal Shenanigans make things difficult and instead John contacts Past Karkat, who’s still angry at him. The conversation goes nowhere, and John is left confused about Karkat’s state.
And so we keep moving with Karkat’s absolute terror regarding the situation, and Terezi’s obliviousness to what’s going on. Beaten up by Eridan, and dropped down the stairs, Sollux starts losing teeth, and Karkat tries to contact everyone about the situation, warning Equius and Nepeta, but unable to contact Terezi. Her shades have been left behind and stolen by Gamzee, which makes Karkat assume the worst and thing he’s already gotten her. Meanwhile, Terezi finds Feferi’s corpse- But finds Kanaya’s body has disappeared. A trail of jade blood leads around, and Feferi’s body also has a pair of suspicious bite marks she simply regards as Vriska’s doing again. Unable to see beyond her own feud with Vriska, much to the reader’s concern for her.
And yet, the bite mark and Kanaya’s disappearance, specially considering her early-stablished love for vampire-esque romance novels, and that some goth style Rose has, makes one wonder if there may still be hope for at least one of them. It doesn’t matter however, as Murderstuck continues in full force with the unsettling [S] Equius: Seek the Higb100d.
Equius and Nepeta are spending some quality time together, but Equius expresses his concern about Gamzee. He bids her farewell just in case, and tells her to hide in her room. Of course she can’t just stay put, however, and ends up sneaking through the vent ducts. She starts seeing, messages written in blood, specially in Tavros’ bronze blood- As well as a trail of jade blood leading to a chopped-in-half transportalizer. More mystery about the state of everyone, culminating in Nepeta staring, wide-eyed, outside of a grate…
Before moving back to Equius, and his search for Gamzee. Finally he finds him, having stolen Terezi’s shades, and one of Equius’ bows. He doesn’t recognize him at first with the shades, but soon realizes his mistake when he’s told to Kneel before him. His subservient attitude towards a Highblood, however, proves to be Equius’ biggest flaw.
Strangled to death, and Nepeta, who’s been watching this happen, quickly jumps to try and avenge him- Only for Gamzee to show his most absolutely terrifying side. Not only catching her mid-pounce, but revelling in the scratching of his face and drawing of his blood.
He’s absolutely crazy, and it’s left ambiguous whether he kills Nepeta as well, and as one of the Fandom’s favorite Trolls, this is an absolutely perfect dick move to keep the suspense going. Specially since we switch entirely away from Murderstuck, and back to John, who’s searching around for his parents, while Vriska contacts him.
Vriska’s beginning to feel bad about killing Tavros, and is wondering about her worth as a Troll. She starts to bond with him about the fucked-up nature of Troll Culture, which, while obvious to the reader, has never quite been addressed directly too much. And Vriska seemed like the least likely person to have this realization! The death, the drama, it builds up this section to be incredibly emotional. Sollux finally wakes up, blinded by Eridan, and without his lisp now that his teeth are gone. He’s also stopped hearing the screams of the imminently deceased, which puts him at ease. Him and Karkat confirm Terezi to still be alive, but don’t manage to mention Gamzee is out on a rampage before something happens to her.
And just like that we go back in time to what seems like a random spot in the comic, Dave’s past, speaking with Aradia. Soon enough though, we learn that this is a Dream Bubble, and God Tier Aradia appears before Dave.
He tries to remember when he fell asleep, and ultimately comes to the realization- He’s not asleep. He’s Dead. He’s the Doomed Dave Jack Noir killed. The Dream Bubbles act as a Hub for both the Dreamers and the Dead. He also sees Memories of the Alpha Dave, about him finding out about Bro’s Death, and Aradia pretty much guides him around to adapt to the idea of being Dead. She, however, is not Dead. She’s Alive, for the first time in the Comic, and very much looking forward to staying that way. Curious, how while everyone else is dying, Aradia, the one who started Dead, actually manages to be brought back, more cheerful than ever.
Vriska keeps talking to John. About life on Alternia, and eventually mentions about her Ancestor- Her genetic Ancestor. Trolls never get to meet them, but she found her Journal a long time ago, with her same symbol. Reminiscing about her past, who she looks up to, her dreams, her regrets, it helps make someone like Vriska, who’s been incredibly dubious thus far, into a more sympathetic character. And she encourages John to use his Windy powers creatively to recover the Tumor- And so he does, Drilling a hole straight to the core of the Battlefield.
And immediately after we’re met with Dad and Mom enjoying a nice romantic dinner together, while Bec Noir watches. Much like with Gamzee and Nepeta, this is cut before anything happens, but the implication is highly worrying, specially given John is worried about him still.
To break the tension of what’s going on with all this death, we also begin to learn more about Vriska’s Ancestor, and Ancestors in general. Interjecting excerpts from her Diary, with the slow but inevitable confrontation of the three Murderers in the Meteor.
Marquise Spinneret Mindfang, a powerful Pirate Captain notorious through Alternia, terror of the seas.
Orphaner Dualscar, rival to Mindfang, a powerful feud mirroring Eridan and Vriska’s FLARP campaigns.
The Grand Higblood, High Subjugglator and ruler of the Landwellers, interested in taking Mindfang down, and to whom Dualscar offers some vital pieces of information regarding her fleet and her situation.
Karmic Retribution seems imminent, and just like their Ancestors had a feud, Vriska, Eridan and Gamzee prepare to face off against each other. Mindfang, however, also speaks of someone else. The Neophyte Legislacerator, Redglare.
Tasked to track Mindfang down and bring her to justice, whom Mindfang downplays quite intensely because of being a novice. However, Terezi doesn’t find herself involved in this feud, no…
As she appears, collapsed asleep, and bitten just like Feferi was. No, she cannot participate in this Feud, but there’s someone else who can, and does intervene.
Brought back from the brink of the Dead, like the Undead Rainbowdrinkers she so loves. Feeding on the blood of those around her, and rising up to put a stop to this nonsense.
Finally, a beacon of Hope in the middle of this bleak section of the comic, Eridan is Dead, avenging both Kanaya herself and Feferi, and Gamzee has been kicked off a ciff for the time being. She’s back and more badass than ever, showing us that not all is lost, even among all of this death!
The celebrations are, however, cut immediately as we jump back to Bec Noir.
Kanaya is alive… But Mom and Dad are not. It’d be hilarious seeing Jack accessorize any other time, but seeing him toy with the others’ belongings while two of the Kids’ Parents lie down dead on the ground is absolutely awful. Furthermore, he’s not done with his rampage. He wants to go after John- But the windy thing is messing with his canine sense of smell. He also wanted to take Jade out, but Bec’s instincts make him unable to harm her- And so he commissions one of his minions to take her down, who in turn, tells the Courtyard Droll to kill her. We can simply not be THAT glad that Kanaya is back, everyone else is still in grave danger.
This insecurity makes the entirety of this section very nerve-wracking- And now that people are starting to die more and more, we’re also starting to see more of an use for the Dream Bubbles Feferi created.
We also see how Aradia managed to get to the Bubbles- Keeping Jack frozen in time, angering him, she made his First Guardian powers begin to act up. And just like that, as he lunged to try and get her? She used his flickering body as a portal to the Green Sun itself, right in the middle of the Furthest Ring.
We learn more about one of the Aradiabots as well. One who faced Jack, and got tangled up by Lil Cal, one Jack took from Bro as a trophy- And tangled, she was struck by a meteor and landed on Alternia. As such, a genetic code made by Tavros (t1ck), Aradia (t0ck), Vriska (8r8k), Terezi (H34DS), and a doomed timeline version of Gamzee that went on a rampage in the Session (honk HONK), were mixed by the Black Queen in the Frog Temple to create Doc Scratch.
It’s an interesting detail we’re shown this, how he was made from Lil Cal and a Cue Ball, how an apparently random version of Gamzee completed the gentic code. But whatever significance this has, it merely serves as a segue to visit Doc Scratch briefly- Who talks about Spades Slick about to come over pay him a visit, greeting him, and quickly returning to the chat he was having with Rose, the chat we saw Jade briefly glimpse before, the same situation leading up to Rose’s black out.
Finally, the intensity of this last section, is broken by some long-awaited answers. Doc Scratch is cryptic, but Rose gets some intriguing information. The Scratch finally becomes a more specific event- It’s a literal Scratch in a Construct in the game, which will release enough energy to cause a Hard Reset of the Timeline. A new beginning, with slightly different values. A new chance to Win the game, but at the price of total Oblivion, unless Rose found a way to keep existing afterwards. Doc Scratch insists that the Tumor has enough power to blow the Green Sun, and comments to Rose that she has a 50% chance of Ascending to God Tier- To which Rose deduces there are two Quest Beds, and only one of them will let her Ascend. We’ve actually already seen it too- Aradia’s Quest Bed, bringing new possibilities to the table.
We also learn more about God Tier itself- And the fact it provides Conditional Immortality. A God Tier will only be able to die if they are killed, and even then, only if their death would count as Heroic or Just. Rose is hesitant about the plan in aiding Doc Scratch- However, he ensures she shouldn’t be. He’s been reborn to pave the way for Lord English in countless universes, and has never failed. Rose helping him or not is irrelevant- He is already there. It’s inevitable. But in the same way, Bec Noir is a more unpredictable Wildcard than his Master, so taking him down is a priority. This confirms us that even though he’s been referred to as a Demon, Bec Noir is not Lord English, and keeps the speculation going about who he may be, if we have seen him yet.
Finally, Scratch implies Rose’s Magic may not be as Magic as it may appear. Rather, he implies it to be an innate power, not something granted by her wands. Rose is the Seer, she seeks answers, and she has to learn she other ways to get them. For example, Jade’s Cueball, which she manages to see through with her Seer vision. It tells her to contact Jade- And so she does, which leads her to becoming aware of her mother’s death. Regretful. Resentful. She would’ve liked to make amends, to find her before something like this happened, but was so busy with all the planning and magic that she simply did not.
Jade is concerned, as Doc Scratch joins their conversation, and as she sees Rose’s regret. She doesn’t know how to react, and eventually, the question about the Horrorterrors being benevolent or not comes up once more. Doc Scratch encourages Rose to ask her Cue Ball… And as she gazes, the answer comes in Eldritch Tongues. Rose blacks out of Kanaya’s screen, and she goes completely off the deep end.
Rose gives in to the Dark Gods in her thirst for revenge, and goes Grimdark. And just like that, she blasts off towards Skaia to go kill Bec Noir herself- A worrying prospect given we know Jack reaches the Troll Session. Finally, the worries are justified, Rose has been corrupted by her own Dark Magic, and is going to do something reckless. And of course, Hussie takes this suspenseful moment to tease the Fanbase, and tells us how he’s going to directly interfere with the story, for just a moment, but enough to change everything, in some reduced space of just one yard in length. Of course we have no idea what he’s even talking about or if he’s serious, but it does help defuse a bit of the tension.
We go back to John. After drilling through the Battlefield, he’s found the Tumor- A giant Yin-yang colored growth with a countdown within. He captchalogues it quickly before returning to the surface.
Back in the surface, John encounters WV once more, as well as the Robot Bunny, who hands him its Hammer, as well as the Courtyard Droll, who’s apparently just tagging along. He reads a second note by Jade’s mysterious pen pal, who speaks about their Grandma, and signs the letter as ‘J’. The story is teasing yet another character again, but at this point it is hard to imagine how they’d even fit into this story!
Tumor in hand, John decides to lift one of the fallen Dersite Battleships on the Battlefield, and send WV, the Bunny and CD on a quest to deliver the Tumor to Rose- Leaving himself without any computing device in the process, as he hands Dad’s entire wallet. And just like that, a deep darkness falls upon the Battlefield, which John goes to investigate, while Vriska bids him farewell for the time being, given he’s being blacked out from the monitor as he goes into the darkness.
Rose descends upon the spot where Mom an Dad were murdered, surrounded by the Inky Blackness, and tracks Jack down, There are many murdered Carapacians, as well as hidden survivors. And through the halls of the castle, we find a few interesting pieces of foreshadowing. Four red curtains, then a blue and red curtain hiding a replica of the Beat Mesa that needs to be Scratched. And beyond, 6 Green Curtains leading to a white platform. There’s also four Tapestries, symbolic of the 4 Kids, talking about They who Wait for the Heroes to arrive. Interesting tid-bits, but overshadowed by the fact Rose soon bumps into John- And unable to speak with him as she can only speak in tongues, leads him back up to where their parents lie, dead.
And in front of them also, there’s Bec Noir, waiting for the two. John realizes the gravity of the situation, and both Rose and John prepare to fight- Just as Jack teleports behind John and stabs him through the chest. He collapses immediately, and Rose goes on a furious rampage to try and take him down.
The sudden cut of the music, the immediate defeat even with his God Tier Powers, the fact John just drops right there and then unceremoniously, is yet another blunt reality check of how powerful of a foe they are facing up against. But there’s no time to grieve for John- As Dave finds his dead Bro in John’s Land. He tells Terezi, however, that he’s not sad, but there’s obviously something eating away at him. On top of that, AR is bidding him farewell, making him mix sentences and lose track of what he’s doing. AR prepares to blow up the Stations, and Terezi begins to vent to Dave about Vriska.
This is starting to feel, once again, like wrapping up the Act, but there’s also still a lot of other plot threads left. Terezi is expressing self doubt, about facing Vriska, about their rivalry. We also find confirmation that Nepeta is dead, adding her to the tally. But just as Terezi heads to face her? Year 2 of Homestuck is officially over, and in yet another little Meta tease from the author, Hussie chooses this spot to have ‘Disc 1′ of Homestuck to be officially over.
With the aesthetic of a Game, it only makes sense there’d be discs- But without the Disc, we can not control the characters in flashes anymore, merely watch them walk around. Terezi falls down a trapdoor and starts to get teased by Gamzee from the shadows- Given her old FLARPing outfit and Plush Dragon, teased with notes, manipulating and building her up for the final confrontation with Vriska.
She also manages to find Disc 2- But it gets Scratched. A nod, a hint, to the incoming Scratch, a tease to how close we’re getting to this climatic moment.
Still, Terezi prepares to Ascend to meet with Vriska, while we try to make use of the Scratched Disc- Which begins to glitch the comic itself and the flashes. To build up the rivalry between Terezi and Vriska, we learn more about their Ancestors- And how Mindfang, underestimating Redglare, lost her fleet, an eye, and an arm to her freakish fire-glaring Dragon Lusus, Pyralspite. We also learn how, during her trial, she Mind-Controlled the audience of the Trial and forced them to hang Redglare. Mentioning it to be curious how there’d be so many Lowbloods, as if it was all just some sort of highblood spectacle, making it easy for her to break free, and facing the judge-monstrosity known as His Honorable Tyranny.
Later, she’d meet the Expatri8, Equius’ Ancestor, to fix her arm, and learned through a prophetic vision from the Cue Ball about the Summoner- A Bronzeblood that’d be born in the future, and take control of Pyralpsite, trying to lead a rebellion to free the Lowbloods. One who’d become her Lover, and one who’d end up taking her life eventually. We see, in these stories, the Karmic undertones flowing through the stories of the Trolls and their rivalries, how they’re paralleled, and inverted. Like a never ending cycle.
Everything is ready. Terezi faces off against Vriska, and tells her that she’s seen with her powers- If she faces off against Bec Noir, she’ll lead him to the Meteor, and everyone will die. Vriska dismisses her, but Terezi is serious. She challenges her to a coin flip. If she stays, or goes, decided by Heads or Scratch. Vriska laughs, she’s the Thief of Light! She has ALL of the Luck. But as Terezi mentioned before- Luck doesn’t matter. Does it? She flips, a tense moment about the outcome and Vriska manipulating Luck…
Just as the Flash glitches to the point of being unable to continue. As a little addendum, I have seen many people try the ‘Glitched Game’ aesthetic to varying results, but Hussie is on POINT on how these sections look.
With the Disc Scratched, we’re told we’ll need someone able to heal a disc Scratch- A Scratch Doctor, if you will.
And thus begins the [o] Section of Act 5 Act 2. In which Doc Scratch, while he’s reparing the disc, takes over the narrative and begins to explain things, rather than following the story normally. It should be noted, the sudden narrative shift was forced by a Time Constraint regarding the End of Act 5 Act 2, but while it’s a strange and jarring shift, it becomes one of the most iconic moments of Act 5, as this smug asshole replaces Hussie and begins to show us shit. Additionally, now on the new Homestuck.com website, the banner is added on top- But back in the old MSPA website, the banner with the title of the Website was replaced by a banner with extra stuff that happens off-panel.
It is a shift in narrative perspective, but because it is Doc Scratch who narrates it, how unbearably smug and verbose he can get is played for a joke, which helps lighten up the pace. And this section of the story works to bring Plot Threads to a closure leading to the very End of the Act. So much like Doc Scratch, I will rush slightly through this section, shall we?
Left with such a monumental cliffhanger, Scratch begins by telling us how he thinks the events would go. And obviously, manipulating Light? Vriska cannot lose the Flip. She would always win, and as such, she’d leave to find Jack. To all of this, on the top panel, Slick is messing with Scratch’s house and fucking shit up, too.
And to talk about Vriska’s Duel with Jack, we first begin with Rose’s Duel. And while she held up well against Jack, ultimately, she died, and John came back to life. Obviously, we’ve seen John initiating the Scratch at the beginning of Act 5, he couldn’t die like that- But for it worked a charm as a short-term point of suspense and grief.
Just as Terezi predicted, Jack follows the trail Vriska left from the Meteor, and destroys everything and everyone, presenting Terezi and Karkat’s corpses to Vriska, to tease her. And so Round two against Jack begins, with Vriska rolling her impossibly lucky roll as she did with the Black King, and powering up with an Ancestral Awakening.
Like this, Jack would meet his match, and end up defeated by the Thief of Light. And meanwhile, Spades Slick, burning down Scratch’s apartment and fucking everything up, meets his demise at the hands of the Felt as well-
But, this is not a favorable outcome. With everyone else in the Meteor Dead? Such an outcome is not one the Alpha Timeline would deem as adequate. And Terezi knew this.
This Transition showcases beautifully, exactly how Terezi’s powers work. She cannot alter the result of the coin flip. She knows Vriska will win regardless. But as she knows.
Luck simply doesn’t matter.
And just like with this Timeline, we also see Slick’s death be an unfavorable Timeline- And we go back to the Alpha, where Snowman arrives and saves Slick from his fate.
Vriska collapses, and Karkat, Kanaya and Sollux arrive- Trailed after by Gamzee.
We see, one last message Vriska sent to John. She feels that defeating Jack will be something that will redeem her. She sent John the code for her dice set, encouraged him to revive soon thanks to his God Tier, and told him to kiss Rose to revive her Dream Self before it’s too late. She also mentions about going on a date… But as we know, she has just been stabbed through the back. John’s Judgement Clock doesn’t tip towards Heroic or Just, and he rises, ready to kiss Rose.
Now that Snowman and Slick are in the same room, things get heated and soon they start to make out- To which Scratch shoos Snowman away and changes the view of the top banner to something less scandalous, to Jade’s Land, after she’s stoked the Forge and talked with Echidna, tagging along with Dave to find the Frogs, before being attacked by Jack.
Vriska’s Judgement Clock ticks- And just at the last second, Jack smashes it. It tips towards Just, ensuring Vriska’s death sticks- Albeit whether her Death would count as Just by normal standards, or if Slick influenced her Death, is left intentionally ambiguous. Scratch, tired of Slick’s bullshit, beats him up, making a mess of the rest of the panels of the story, and tells him that he has to go Kill Snowman.
At the same time, on the top banner, the fight with Jack ends up with Jack warping Jade’s bullets through him, killing Dave, and thus Rose and Dave’s Dream Selves are saved and awakened on Derse at the same time.
Karkat makes sure to contact John about the final plans regarding the end of the Session- He’ll need Rose’s Needlekind Specibus, and the Quills of Echidna, something Jade would get from her Denizen, strong enough to Scratch the Beat Mesa. The problem is that now Dave and Rose have lost a Spare Life- And as such, if they detonate the Tumor to blow the Green Sun up, they will also die for good. Whichever of the two does it, is doomed for good. Jade has plans to save herself and John from the Scratch, but they’re vague. And Karkat has been told the explosion from the Tumor will be big enough to act as a Beacon to meet up with someone- Still vague, given Jade nows things in the future, having Dreamed in the Bubbles and hatched a plan to ensure as many people as possible’s safety.
And with these last facts set up, Doc Scratch allows us to parse through a series of ‘Choose your Own Path’ panels while he deals with another interruption. Between all that Karkat has just said, and the implication that Karkat just did something to Gamzee, the audience is left wanting to know how it will all come together- And allowed to choose whatever panels they’re the most interested in.
As such, there’s a series of paths to follow.
We see the mission John sent WV, CD and the Bunny to complete. CD tries to steal John’s Wallet with The Tumor, but the Bunny recovers the Tumor in time. WV is left trapped in the ship and ends up Exiled from the Session at last, the Bunny reaches Derse to deliver the Tumor, and CD gets scolded because he forgot his task was to Kill Jade.
We follow Vriska’s Ghost meeting with John- Except it happens to be a John Ghost. The Ghost of the Timeline Terezi fucked up, killed by his Denizen. Vriska tries to get along with him and go on a date, but that far back, he didn’t even know her. We also learn John chose to die to the Denizen- He was given a Choice, about how he was in a Doomed Timeline and everything was going to go wrong, so he could live and continue as such, or die and ensure things would be corrected.
Jadesprite is in the Battlefield, alone and sad, when we see a wounded Davesprite appear- He was not dead after all. He’s also carrying the whole Royal Deringer, not just a broken version. He went to see Hephaestus, his Denizen, and fixed the sword. He tries to encourage Jade, and she warps the sword away to Derse.
We see a few minor stories- Gamzee flirting with Tavros, Nepeta and Jaspersprite talking, some character buildinng, ironically, for already dead characters. We see Nannasprite talking to John’s Neighbour, about her Childhood, how she was raised by a wicked pastry baroness, how she vanished one day… And how the pastry baroness was, in fact, not a Human.
We follow Dave and Rose, a little flashback about Dave having nightmares, before realizing he’s asleep. Rose seems to not want to tell him exactly what’s going on, and Dave eventually figures it out- They were talking about who was going to go die setting up the Tumor. Dave refused to let Rose go until Rose acceded. The sword Jadesprite warped was taken and used to cut Derse’s Chain, sending the moon through the Furthest Ring- But just then, Rose knocked Dave out and rode the Moon herself. Dave resigns himself, he’s Asleep, but Rose isn’t, she’s on Derse’s Moon travelling through his Dream Bubble. She’s going to go and he can’t just wake up- Until the Draconian Dignitary appears, physically on the moon, to try and kill Rose. He stabs Dave, which wakes his Dream self wake up- And still seeing the Moon in the sky, rushes towards it to help her.
We see Jade finishing up the Frog Breeding, talking to Kanaya and Karkat. She’s gone see Echidna one last time- She helped her remember the location of the Last Frog they needed, a special Frog Karkat and Kanaya never found and thought wouldn’t matter. Echidna refreshed Jade’s mind, showcasing it as an event that happened long into the past, a Frog that appeared momentarily when she was young, and is implied to have been the trigger of her waking up on Prospit. In exchange for remembering though, Echidna requested her to bring every other Denizen, Consort, their Lands everything, with her, beyond the Scratch.
And from this, Karkat starts to get nervous. He realizes he made a mistake, when breeding the Frog, they rushed it, and didn’t make a healthy Frog. All of their problems, were caused by a faulty Genetic Code. Karkat gave the Genesis Frog Cancer.
And furthermore, Karkat realizes… It manifested as something specific. Dersites hate Frogs, but Jack has been murdering Jade’s frogs a lot. He knows what’s going to happen. He realized what everything is leading up to. Jack is the Cancer. And when the Countdown reaches 0, he will kill the Genesis Frog himself, destroying their Universe.
But while Karkat blames himself, we also see Gamzee, sober, murderous, talking to Dave in the past- Dave who teases him about the ICP video. For a split second we also see the ICP video that Gamzee found blasphemous was sent by Betty Crocker’s Media Account to Dave… And because of it, Gamzee claims to have used his powers to make their Universe Terminal. Focusing his Nightmare Chucklevoodoos to summon the Harlequin Doll that caused John to have nightmares about clowns, and that ultimately led to the ridiculous outfit that made Jack kill the Queen. The most important character in Homestuck indeed.
These few pages have an astonishing amount of information, and shocking revelations about what’s going to happen. But they’re ultimately interrupted by what Doc Scratch has gone to check- And what he finds is a young, Aradia-looking rustblood, slamming a Fifth Wall showing Hussie on the other side. As if things couldn’t get even more confusing.
Doc Scratch turns off the screen, and scolds her, before starting a Lecture about the Troll Race. It mentions that originally, the Ancestors of the Trolls were a group of SBURB Players, who Scratched the game. Trolls were a peaceful race. But after Scratching, in the new reality they made, Doc Scratch became the First Guardian, and manipulated their entire species to be more violent, prepare them for the game. We learn about the story of the Sufferer- Karkat’s Ancestor, a preacher that had visions of the peaceful potential of Trolls, who was ultimately killed for his preaching. Of the Dolorosa, Kanaya’s Ancestor, and a Jadeblood who abandoned her position in the Brooding Caverns to raise the mutant-blooded, lusus-less Sufferer, and was ultimately captured and sold to slavery, to Mindfang no less- The same slave Dualscar would later murder to ignite their rivalry.
We learn of the Disciple, Nepeta’s Ancestor, in a relationship with the Sufferer, and who kept his teachings alive after his death. The E%ecutor Darkleer, who was supposed to kill her, took pity on her, and was thus exiled as the Expatri8. We learn of the Psiioniic, Sollux’s Ancestor, a follower of the Sufferer who was captured and used as a living battery for the Empress’ Battleship- And of Her Imperious Condescension, the Empress, Feferi’s Ancestor, who saw her whole empire collapse after the Vast Glub.
And then we learn of the Handmaid- The young Troll he’s scolding. Who arrived to Alternia after everyone was already dead. Scratch would raise this Troll to become a weapon to instigate fear and violence, to serve him and Lord English, cursed with immortality until a new subject was found- And eventually it was. Her Imperious Condescension would, ultimately, return to her Dead World after the Vast Glub, and confront the Handmaid. Highest and Lowest bloods. And the Handmaid would be granted death at last, while the Condesce was forced into servitude of Lord English.
But while these explanations are happening? The young Handmaid turns the screen with Hussie back on- And he breaks through into Scratch’s Apartment.
He speaks of how the verbose asshole is being creepy and long-winded again, and pretty much goes there just to beat the shit out of him. Hussie has done Meta things before- But this is the most Meta he’s gotten yet, to the point of actually tearing a leg off of Doc Scratch and watching him collapse on the ground! He seems to just be an empty Puppet while he’s around- Which is an interesting fact, as if Hussie’s the puppeteer that Scratch tried to break free from, and now without strings, merely collapses on the ground. Hussie recovers the already repaired Disc 2 of Homestuck, and the Handmaid escapes… But she’s beckoned by a voice. Who shouts at her how she expects to escape.
When he is already there. The first glimpse we get at Lord English’s, his two eyes. Finally we’re back on track, and we get to see a showdown with the last surviving Trolls- Karkat pushing everyone else away, and taking care of Gamzee himself… By pacifying him. Subverting expectations and calming the murderous clown in a completely unexpected way.
Finally, everything is set up for the Ending of the Act. All but one thing. Karkat pesters Jade one last time, about to confess he maybe likes her- When she interrupts him. The Scratch has begun and the sky is weird, but there’s something else in the sky. “Shaving Cream?” she wonders, before her connection and Karkat’s cuts completely. The Courtyard Droll descends, with a bomb made with explosives and all of John’s Dad’s Shaving Cream- And detonates it in front of Jade. The tadpole of the Genesis Frog is cast down into Jade’s Volcano, and she dies on the spot.
Jack becomes enraged by this, even though CD did exactly what Jack wanted him to do. And so, we finally reach the End of Act 5…
[S] Cascade. The culmination of every plan and plot thread woven through Act 5. The animation that broke the Internet. This 13-minute behemoth actually crashed several websites when it first dropped, and for a good reason.
Cascade marks the climax of Act 5, and it’s a wonderfully constructed, fast paced sequence of events. John initiates the Scratch and fights monsters trying to stop him. Jack kills CD for killing Jade- And yet we STILL do not see blood in his hand. This fact is driven home by a quick shift to Jack at the Critcal Moment of the countdown, using his Red Miles to start tearing through the Genesis Frog. This happens as the Flash window expands to become bigger, to a lot of people’s amazement. We see this manifest in the Future with the Exiles, as the Red Miles start to fill the sky… And the White King finally appears, reuniting with the White Queen- As a final, wilted lily appears, set to open in 10 seconds.
Jack carries Jade’s body to her Quest Bed- Just like Bec carried Jade to her Bec when she fell asleep, and then rushes into the Frog Temple. We follow its timeline, and then… Jack Noir comes out of the Frog Temple. Murders both the White King and Queen, and then threatens PM with the same fate. However, AR starts to blow the Stations up, one by one, and Jack’s attention shifts to him! AR hesitates in the last second, unable to blow the Mayor’s Station while he’s still trapped inside, and he’s promptly decapitated. At long last, the foreshadowing is closed. Jack enters the station with his powers, and rips the Uranium the Mayor ate earlier in Act 2 right out of his stomach. This stains his hand with blood, and with the Station Powered, he uses the machinery within to transport himself to the Trolls’ Session.
And then, the music mellows down, and we move onto Derse, Dave and Rose. Dave caught up with the Moon, and helped Rose kill DD before he could do anything to her. This means, however, that both Rose and Dave are going to go through the Suicide Mission together. They descend to the core of the moon to set the bomb up- And find slabs with the Time and Light Symbols on them. Just like Aradia’s Quest Bed in her Moon. The Tumor is set up- And it opens up to show machinery inside, two tubes. One Red, representing the Human Universe, dying because of Jack’s actions. One Blue, representing the Troll Universe, zooming into Alternia, and then, into Alternia’s Green Moon.
Just as ordered by Scratch, and wielding his white gun, Snowman tells Slick to do it, and Slick shoots at her. A Cue Ball Bullet, right through the Heart of the 8 Ball. And once sunk, the Universe begins to collapse, as was once mentioned in the Intermission. Both Red and Blue Universes start to die, powering up the Tumor- It makes sense after all. To take out a Sun twice the Mass of the Universe, you need a Bomb powered by Two Universes. Right?
We move away once more, with a brief glimpse of PM seeing Jade die and finding WV with a gaping hole through his stomach, before zooming in on Jade once more. Hummingbirds gather, just like John’s fireflies during his Ascension- But before anything happens, we move to the Battlefield. There’s not enough defense portals, Meteors are raining, and Davesprite and Jadesprite gaze upon a huge meteor headed their way. It’s the End, and they know it… But just then, Jade Ascends. And as her Dream Self was alive, in Jadesprite, Jade merges with her, and Ascends as the Witch of Space- Along with a pair of stylish fuzzy Dog Ears, and paired with badass First Guardian Powers.
Jade immediately uses her new powers to shrink the incoming meteor and save Davesprite- And promptly rides a Prospitian Battleship, before shrinking the Battlefield, taking it with her. PM drags WV away, despairing as the only one left, staring at the Red Miles in the sky- Before spotting WV’s White Queen Ring. Jade warps John to her side, after he’s done Scratching the Beat Mesa. Dave and Rose contemplate their last moments. And then, the action kicks up a notch.
One by one, Jade shrinks the planets, as she promised Echidna, to take everything with her, and everything starts to flip quickly. Dave and Rose, the Tumor, and the two Universes dying, the Beat Mesa ascending, PM slowly putting on the ring, a crescendo of events while the Countdown remains in plain sight- And then Jade pulls out the Fourth Wall she took from the laboratory earlier in the Act. With the Scratch happening, everything is slowly being erased, and the entire adventure flashes backwards on the screen, freezing on that one moment when Gamzee was said to be the Most Imporrtant Character. He’s holding Cal in his lap, and talking to Doc Scratch.
And all he has to say is a single word.
S u c k e r s .
The Tumor detonates, but the Green Sun is nowhere to be seen. No, they are in an empty void, and suddenly… The Green Sun bursts outwards. Twice the Mass of the Universe, the Tumor wasn’t powered by two Universes to blow the Green Sun up- It created it instead. Scratch said it had the power to do so… He never said it would destroy the Green Sun. They also, indeed, travelled to its location- Moments before it was created. Manipulated, tricked, fooled. And the explosion the Trolls were told they’d see? The creation of the Green Sun, not its Death.
The Trolls gaze upwards at the Sun and Sollux overexerts himself bringing the Meteor closer, half-killing himself- Although also half-unblinding himself in the process. Bec Noir stares at something appearing from the Frog Pad he once came from, a white shade of himself, ready to throw down. PM, wearing the White Queen’s Ring, and carrying WV’s body.
And meanwhile, just as Aradia once did, emerging from the ruins of her moon, both Rose and Dave emerge triumphantly from the depths of the Green Sun, Ascended to God Tier, rising to meet Aradia and Sollux already waiting for them there.
Finally, the closing shots of the flash. Jade enlarges the Fourth Wall as everything about their story continues to be erased, and finally, she shatters right through it, escaping the Session before the Scratch is completed.
And so, the curtains close. Cascade is amazing, visually, musically, and the way it’s constructed is simply beautiful. The story it conveys, the converging of so many different things at the same time, the way it wraps up the Kids’ and Trolls’ Sessions flawlessly, but leaves other plot threads open to continue afterwards. One of the crowning achievements of the story, with an incredibly satisfying delivery, a grand Finale to the Session. The Universes are Dead, the Scratch has reset everything, but all 4 Kids are alive and God Tier, PM has been powered up like Jack, the Angel to his Demon.
And yet, so many questions remain. About who J was in John’s birthday present. About what’s going to happen next, with the Meteor on the Green Sun, and Jade’s Ship through the Forth Wall.
But most importantly, a detail many may dismiss in this triumphant instant.
The Troll Universe has been Destroyed.
As the Code foretold. The Universe has Died. And now, the Demon shall come.
Before Act 6 begins, and after the culmination of everyone’s plan to Scratch and Survive, we see the culmination of someone else’s plan coming to fruition.
The clock Ticks and Tocks, before stopping, and soon, green flesh begins to expand from inside Doc Scratch. He’s described himself, smugly, as an Excellent Host before, but this takes on the literal meaning of that statement. Lord English is summoned through Him, and that’s why he needs to Die.
Hands into claws, muscles bulging out, and his missing leg replaced by a peg leg, ending in the tip of a Pool Cue. It only makes sense, Scratch is the Cue Ball, the Felt is the rest of the balls, and now, Lord English, appears as the pool Cue, the hand behind everyone else, deciding where and what to strike. And meanwhile, we see a glimpse of Jade’s ship breaking through the 4th Wall, and headed right to another 4th Wall in front of it!
English dons his coat, and Doc Scratch’s head slowly shatters, to reveal his true form.
A monstrous, skull-like head, which unsettlingly resembles Lil Cal, which Honks terrifyingly- The Vast Honk Gamzee’s religion prophesized. He then uses his Cairo Overcoat to encase himself in a Time-travelling sarcophagus, and goes back in time to toy with the Universe as he pleases.
This Flash is the first look we get regarding Lord English and his fearful visage, and while he’s already been the indirect hand behind a lot of the events the characters go through, we finally can give an appearance to the Name. We finally see what we’re up against
The genius of his reveal, however, comes in the foreshadowing of the genetic code used for Scratch. t1ck, t0ck, as the clock ticks away in Scratch’s office. 8r8k H34DS, as Scratch’s head is torn open. And honk HONK, as English releases his war cry. A moment of hope and ecstasy such as Cascade, followed by a moment of fear and despair.
Where Acts 1, 2 and 3 set up the Sessions, Acts 4 and 5 narrate an epic adventure spanning two Universes, paradoxes a-plenty, death and existentialism, hope and optimism. The Heroes become literal Gods, the story goes unexpected places. And yet this crazy narrative still manages to keep a coherent storyline, through all those time hoops and uncertainty, a gripping tale that makes you want more. They have overcome their first major challenge- Surviving the problems caused by their Sessions, and resetting everything. So the only question left now is.
With the expectations the story has set thus far… And the Scratch having been successful… What comes next? Where could this tale possible go?
Also fuck you Tumblr. I forgot Tumblr Mobile doesn’t have working Readmores, and I made this long-ass analysis expecting it to just be hidden under the Readmore.
And now everyone who checks this on mobile is slowly dying.
I put it under a readmore for a reason, you perfectly functional website!! Why do you even have an option that straight up doesn’t work in your app!!
This is probably a stupid and obvious question but how exactly does someone go grimdark? Like, what do the horrorterrors do that makes someone go grimdark?
I mean they are eldritch Gods that whisper to you in your sleep and probe your mind with their ichory probosci. Just your typical Lovecraftian corruption.
just an observation, but it seems to me that Knights tend to be rather guarded people, Dave never really addressing the abuse in his past, Karkat with his blood, and Latula with her overall identity. What do you think?
Well, Knights seem to want to seem reliable and build a sort of facade around themselves, which ties in with repressing or hiding some parts of themselves. It takes them a while and lots of trust to open up.
Regarding the kings and Queens, how are sessions usually supposed to go?
In a normal Session, the King and Queen would just like. Be there ordering the Army and the Agents respectively, without being dethroned early or anything. You’d need to face the Black Queen on Derse as a first Endgame Boss, and then the King in the Battlefield, before the Reckoning destroys Skaia. Arguably you may only need to kill the Black King to stop the Reckoning, but given the Queen may be a liability if she attacked you while you’re facing off against the King, it may be for the best to take her out first.
would you say terezis seer powers are more developed than roses?
They’re a different set of powers so it’s sort of hard to compare- It comes more naturally to Rose having reached God Tier, but Terezi actively uses and reaches out with them more. And in a way, Terezi has problems with herself, that she tries to solve with her powers, where Rose has problems with herself, including with her powers, hence her breakdown with Rosesprite. They two have their deeply rooted issues, and both of them have a version of themselves they consider to be better with their powers than they are.
Even if he needed one, the moment you violated his personal space he’d blow his whistle and begin to lecture you about inappropriate hugs and his celibacy.
Question, sorry if it's rude, but how would you feel if Pages and Knights are proven to be Passive/Active respectively. Wouldn't this blow away the whole Passive/Active = Selfless/Selfish thing? Then again the Class test might tell us about the alignment just like Dream Moons.
It’d be a bit of a halt to that theory and we’d have to rethink some things. That being said, I HEAVILY doubt that Hussie would present the Page as Passive and the Knight as Active without also changing some other more major parts of our current Class Theories? Like, if we got stuff wrong, I heavily doubt the ONLY thing we got wrong would be the Passive/Active Knight-Page thing. There’d likely be other stuff like, the paired Classes and what they can do, and that’d throw everything up into the air and we’d have to re-analyze stuff. It’d be fun!
so becoming the inversion of our classpect would be unhealthy right? like with rose?
Classpect Roleplay, whether a complete Inversion to your normal Classpect or simply adopting other Classes/Aspects, can be harmful, but it’s not necessarily 100% harmful? Rose’s led to her corruption and seeking revenge, but then you have, for example, Dirk, who struggles with who he is and uses Dave as a figure to improve himself upon, thus leading to him chasing more healthy tendencies. It all depends very much on the situation and who you are.
“They’re the post-scratch versions of the Dancestors” that always confused me, how are those guys able to become who the ancestors turned out to be? Either I’m missing something big or I’m not well informed on how the scratch works
They… Didn’t? They’re Post-Scratch. They’re an entirely separate set of characters from them- Babies get sent through the portals. Scratch changes when these babies arrive to Alternia. In one reality, they arrived later and were the Players. In another reality, they arrived earlier and were the Parents.
Can you explain how Sollux was "half dead"? Did it have to do with what his classpect was??
Sollux has always been the duality guy. He burnt himself out using his powers- But only halfway through, not all the way through. So he ended up half-dead- Except of course, ‘half dead’ is more than just an expression in Paradox Space, and he ended up literally just being half alive and half ghost.
I'm also confused about the trolls. I know with the kids, none of the alphas are related, but technically are parents to the beta kids so they're two brother sister pairs. But what about the trolls? Are the Beforus trolls the kids or the parents? Also are the Beforus trolls known as beta or alpha? Do we know which trolls mixed with which to get the "children" trolls?
I’ve answered this one, but it’s a common question. SGRUB on Alternia and Beforus, doesn’t have a ‘BETA’ or ‘ALPHA’ name, which is what makes it clear with the Kids. But Vriska does mention Aranea as her ‘Alpha Sister’, and they’re sort of mentioned to be the Alpha, on the grounds that they’re the ones that came first.
Karkat never tells us outright, but he implies, and we see in his flashback, that he first made the 12 Grubs that were themselves, and then a ‘redundant group of Grubs’ that happened to be the Ancestors/Dancestors. In this way, with the structure of Karkat’s Lab, every Prospit Dreamer Dancestor is ‘related’ to each other, and to every Prospit Dreamer of Karkat’s Group, and same with the Derse Dreamers. Of course though, Troll Genetic Slurry is already mixed pretty much like the Lab’s, so what counts is the ‘predominant’ genes that come through and make a Troll more or less similar than their Ancestor, ergo technically the only ‘related’ pairs are the Trolls who share the same symbol/surname. And even then, again, Trolls only have a concept relating to family because of Humans introducing it to them, otherwise not even that would quite matter. (And not like it even matters then to the desperate Eridan/Cronus in Ministrife)
Are you able to explain the timeline of Sollux’s deaths and when his dream selves woke up or when he was half ghost half not ghost because Sollux is the only character that got me confused about when he was dead and alive with two dream selves
Before the game, Sollux is in an ambiguous relationship with Aradia. In her feud with Vriska, the spider8itch controls Sollux and forces him to eat the Mind Honey, razing Aradia’s hive and killing her in the process.
Sollux hears the voices of the annihilation of their race, and knows the End is Nigh. Aradia tricks him into coding SGRUB, as something that will save their species, not realizing playing the game in the first place is what will cause the End of the World. Sollux then, resigned, plays the game as well since there’s nothing to do about it now.
Sollux is about to got with the plan to have two separate teams, closing the loop, when Aradia puts him to sleep and delays his entry. This gives everyone time to enter, and forces Equius and Kanaya, and Karkat and Sollux to connect, connecting the two separate 6-Player chain into a 12-Player chain. Sollux is Feferi’s server, and in trying to save her from the meteor, he ends up staying for too long on Alternia. When Gl’bgolyb dies, and releases the Vast Glub, he gets severely wounded by the psychic wave and only barely manages to enter the game himself.
Feferi goes to Sollux’s Land, and kisses him, letting his Dersite Dream Self take over. He plays the entirety of the Session as this Dream Self, duels with Eridan at one point, and ultimately, helps Aradia redirect the Reckoning’s Meteors towards the Black King for MASSIVE DAMAGE.
Before claiming their reward, they’re all interrupted by Bec Noir, and Sollux starts to spend more time with Feferi. Eventually, Aradia explodes and leaves him, making him spend even MORE time with Feferi, until Eridan snaps, KO’s him and kills Feferi.
Sollux wakes up in the middle of Murderstuck, blinded by the fight with Eridan, and having his teeth broken off, which leaves him without his lisp, and without the screams of the deceased echoing in his mind. From then on he kind of chills out until the Critical Moment, when the Tumor detonates, and guided by Karkat on which direction to go, uses his powers to blast the Meteor in the direction of the Green Sun.
He overexerts himself, and collapses, but only half-dies because he’s Sollux. And so, his body ‘dies’, while his ‘ghost’ in the bubbles is still technically half alive. Since one half is alive, he can see out of one of his eyes, the ghostly, blanked-out one. He decides to not tag along with the Meteor Crew, and just follows Aradia around.
During Vriska’s expedition for the Treasure, he tags along because Aradia is around. In the Alpha Kids’ Session, Gamzee prototypes Sollux and Eridan’s corpses- This rips Sollux’s dead half off of him, and into the Sprite, leaving him fully alive and fully blind in the Bubbles. He keeps tagging along until the group starts to split, at which point he, Feferi and Nepeta leave together. We eventually see him and Aradia together leading up to [S] Collide.
Meanwhile, however, John retcons the Timeline, which leads to a split. In a new Timeline, Vriska takes over Gamzee’s job, and she doesn’t prototype Sollux. And we see, a half-dead, half-blind Sollux, with Aradia and Feferi, waiting as Eridan wakes up in the Bubbles. It is unknown whether there are also two Aradias, or if Aradia just went back to the Green Sun and met up with everyone again. In either case, there are, confirmed, two different Sollux still alive, somewhere in the Furthest Ring, by the time the comic ends.
He implies having woken up on Prospit before, so it’s likely when he went to sleep as his Derse Dream Self, he still woke up as his Prospit Dream Self.
gee theoretically sollux could have had a god tier AND a dream self at the same time couldn’t he? or would all three bodies merge? also... what would happen to the “irl” body if a dream self went god tier while the player was sleeping? would they still merge even if the meat body isn’t on a quest bed?
It’s hard to tell, God Tier seems to be a Dreamself-Realself merger so like… The other Dream Self may also just die. I assume you mean if the Dreamself went God Tier on the Sacrificial Slab in Prospit/Derse, because otherwise the IRL body needs to be on the Quest Bed to ascend. But no idea? The closest we’ve seen is… Like… Aradiabot blowing up when she God Tiered. So maybe your Real Self would kind of. Die nontheless? No idea.
What are the life spans of each blood caste in human years? Do they mature more slowly if they live longer? Like would kanaya age faster than feferi?
We don’t have much of a set number, I believe Rustbloods live 20-30 Human Years, and the rest of the Castes’ lifespans are exponentially longer, with Seadwellers ‘basically living forever’, but we don’t have like, a specific scale other than I believe mention that Highbloods can outlive hundreds of lowbloods.
That being said, every Beta Troll is 13 and looks roughly the same age, and every Alpha Troll is 19 and looks roughly the same age, so it’d seem they all kind of age at the same rate, and then when they reach adulthood… Stop aging?
Anon just sent me an ask about a combined Fraymotif, and I don’t have a single idea what every single Class and Aspect at once could do together honestly, it’d be like, power of creation at its max, maybe LE’s rainbow bullshit beam? No idea.
Not posting the ask itself because it may have included spoilers for something so yeah!
So that last post you made confused me. You post homestuck spoilers here all the time, which means it must have been a spoiler for something else. Was it a spoiler question about hiveswap?
Nah not Hiveswap either. It wasn’t even a Spoiler, but an implication? I haven’t checked out what the asker was talking about, and I immediately got a mental image of what may have happened to lead to such a question, so I am not going to say what the Spoilers are for, so no one gets Spoiled.
We don’t have much of a set number, I believe Rustbloods live 20-30 Human Years, and the rest of the Castes’ lifespans are exponentially longer, with Seadwellers ‘basically living forever’, but we don’t have like, a specific scale other than I believe mention that Highbloods can outlive hundreds of lowbloods.
That being said, every Beta Troll is 13 and looks roughly the same age, and every Alpha Troll is 19 and looks roughly the same age, so it’d seem they all kind of age at the same rate, and then when they reach adulthood… Stop aging?
Wait- On second thought, was it 20-30 Years, or 20-30 sweeps? Which would be more akin to 50-ish years. Now I am not quite sure, I really need to re-check about Troll Anatomy, remind me to look any canon references to Troll Lifespans another time.
Years. Rust bloods, as far as I remember live "a dozen or two of sweeps".
Yeah that makes sense. Lowballing it, it’s kind of sad that, even if Damara hadn’t died by Meenah’s bomb, if they had kept just living in that glitched Session, she would’ve only lasted 3 more sweeps or so.
What if lowbloods live shorter because of Glubglub's influence? If she goes louder than a wisper, trolls start dying, but we don't know if there are any OTHER side-effects on living beings that are more psiionic-sensetive, such as decrease in life span! Just a small headcanon of mine
The Lifespan thing also happens in Beforus, it seems to just be Troll Genetics.
Vriska would have required more care then just getting the arm from equius after she blew her arm off. I mean, the explosion itself could have easily killed her. It didn't... But she also bled half to death. Leading to a very interesting headcanon that equius has some knowledge of medicine and first aid.
Equius’ mechanical implements are strangely robotic for Alternia’s biotechnology, but we know his bots are capable of having things such as blood pumping through them, so they still seem biological enough. If that alone doesn’t have enough weird troll stuff to keep Vriska from dying, do remember that he’s connecting functional limbs to people. The arm may be a tad easier, but with Tavros’ Legs, he would have to connect it to his spine and ensure they work properly. Forget ‘some knowledge of medicine and first aid’, Equius is very likely on par with a neurosurgeon.
We also now know Trolls have magic fleshy glory holes that can repair broken limbs so there’s also a possibility he just has a Medicalizer around.
i've been thinking, would a thief and maid of light be in more or less of an eternal stalemate? since the thief could forever steal the maid's luck... but the maid would keep regenerating it since they're Made of it
But see, the trick is that.
LUCK DO3SN’T 4CTU4LLY M4TT3R. >:]
Even with all the luck, Vriska and Terezi’s confrontation came down to whether Terezi would Act or not, not how much luck Vriska had. Likewise, their abilities may imply a stalemate, but it would come down to whichever of the two is more powerful, their actions, their motives, and what they focus on regarding Light- Fortune, Light itself, Information…
it could be possible that trolls have a much better pain tolerance (when vriska 8 ball exploded) since their species is pretty much based around getting your ass beat when aradia in (make her pay) beat vriska up so much to the point of dying shows that it takes a lot to kill a troll(?? maybe?)
Pain tolerance is a thing, but the other ask had a point in that you can’t just smack a robot limb onto a wound and be done with it, you need to do some healing. Unless you’re a Cherub apparently. In which case just fucking stab the fucking robot leg into your stump.
She actually does wink at some point in Friendsim I think, I can’t remember 100%? I BELIEVE it may have been ;,), but I could also be confusing Canon and Fanon, can’t tell 100% for sure.
that’s very true; another question it’s said in the maid description that at their worst they can be remorseful and i understand that not every maid can be like that at all times but was aradia remorseful when she killed vriska?
Not in the slightest and Vriska had it coming 100%. No remorse to be had there.
I think Vriska didn't die because (I think this is cannon???) The higher on the hemospectrum a troll is, the more beatings and stabbings they can take before dying. I mean, it could be true that all trolls are hardier than humans but I thought it was a hemospectrum thing. Like lowbloods aren't as strong and can't bleed out as much but they have cool powers, highbloods are way stronger and have sharper teeth and horns. This might just be a theory I've made up but I swear it had some sort of canon
It’s common fanon conception that Higher Blooder Trolls are generally stronger and tougher, but this is also heavily influenced by the fact Gamzee exists, so take that as you will.
Karkat takes a stab in the gut from their session's Jack and seemed pretty unconce about it (apart from it's colour) so I think all trolls are just that much tougher than humans. (It would make sense if highbloods were tougher, but still)
Question: Is the Sufferer actually Troll Jegus?
Hussie: Terezi mentioned Troll Jegus in a joking exchange with John a while ago. Whether the Sufferer's name is actually Jegus, and whether or not she actually knew anything about this story when she said that, is left to your speculation.
This ancestor interlude is a little religious tale. Over the course of the story sometimes we wander into these silly mini-genres, like "horrorstuck", or erotic historical fiction through Mindfang's journal entries.
The Jesus parallel is pretty blatant, down to the use of the torture device as the symbol for the religious movement (cross, irons). I personally think the explanation of the relevance of Karkat's sign is one of the more interesting aspects about it, just from the perspective of taking existing symbols and adapting them to an evolving mythological framework. Segments like this aren't really just about "Gee, the ancestors sure are cool, let's hear more about them." (Though there's no question there's a certain amount of fan service in play when I do stuff like this.) We learn more about the story and characters and answer questions beyond the limited scope of their biographies, like why Karkat had a sign at all if he had no caste.
We learn more about the troll race, as a once peaceful species and such before kid-ancestors as players scratched their session, though the short term relevance of this is mainly as a preamble to Scratch's religious story. Establishing an Eden-like paradise from which there is some departure through sin is sort of the boilerplate basis for religious lore.
Scratch is a devil figure about as blatant as the Sufferer is a Christ figure. The failed players from peaceful Alternia made a classic "deal with the devil" move by causing the scratch after being given a choice by the mother of all monsters. (Echidna. Hey, she's a big snake!) By doing so they brought Scratch into their universe, and therefore all the things you'd expect that comes with summoning the devil. This resulted not only turning Alternia into a planet full of violent murderers, but it only technically granted them what they wanted with a huge caveat, as is the case with such ill-advised bargains. The players were strong enough to win, but made a terminal universe, were barred from entry, hunted by a demon, and then started killing each other.
"Old Scratch" is actually an old timey nickname for the devil. It's used in some Twain books. The manipulative devil figure pulling the strings was always the basis for his character, and this was probably pretty obvious right away. He's part devil/puppet/cueball, with a dash of the old gambler/gunslinger Doc Holliday in his profile. Doc Holliday is actually my ancestor. He is related to me on my mother's side, who's last name is also Holliday.
Hopefully I won't die at age 36 of tuberculosis though. If there's anything to the karmic fortune-swapping of the trolls and their ancestors, ideally tuberculosis will die of me.
I propose Owl City as the official Breath player aesthetic music (I mean, have you listened to Fireflies???? Or his latest Lucid Dream?? I *feel* the breath of his songs in my *soul*)
I’d need to check the songs a bit more closely to tell 100% But.
Let’s be fair, more closely or not.
Who hasn’t heard Fireflies? If for nothing other than the memes.
