November 2018

Homestuck: Execution of a Masterpiece - Part 4 - Death of the Author

Hoo boy, Part 3 was a doozy wasn’t it? It was way too long and took me so long it burnt me out on making these, but I think I am ready to tackle on these again.

I will try to be more concise here, and try to showcase the important story beats rather than going with an all-out retelling of the events beat by beat. And it’s not merely because I want to make this shorter. (Spoiler Warning: Surprise! This is still super long. God dammit.)

Acts 1 through 5 are down. Years of web content building up this insane adventure about 4 Internet Friends and 12 Aliens, suffering the after-effects of inevitability in a Game designed to destroy their worlds and give them a chance to Ascend to Godhood and Create a Universe of their own. Culminating in what may be the most well known and acclaimed Flash Animations in the entirety of the comic, tying loose threads, setting up mysteries and villains…

Where do you go exactly from here?

Well, according to many in the Fandom… Downhill. Downhill is where you go, as Act 5 is usually regarded as the peak of Homestuck, with Act 6 losing a good chunk of the Fandom. And while there are genuine reasons for this slow-down further in, the very initial dislike of Act 6 comes from the fact it features yet another fresh start. Just like Act 5 Act 1, the Action and the characters we’ve been following take a step back, and we begin following a wholly new set of characters. However, unlike Act 5 Act 1, we won’t have to wait that long until we get back to our ‘main’ Heroes.

Either way, Act 6 is a very interesting time for the story. Because up until this point, as much as Hussie likes interjecting within the story and breaking the Fourth Wall, we have been following these characters go through the story of dealing with their SBURB Session, dealing with Inevitability in their Universe.

And it’s only now in Act 6 that we see a shift in the way things work. It’s only now in Act 6 that, paralleling the struggle everyone has gone through to avoid their demise in the face of an Unfair Game, we’re going to see them push against a force even more powerful and confining than that of SBURB itself, than the grasp of the Alpha Timeline within these self-contained Sessions.

The Narrative itself.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5

But before we get to the meat of what this new Arc, and the whole overarching Theme of Homestuck is all about, we have some people to get introduced to.

The Scratch was well foreshadowed and presented through Act 5, with everything from Jade’s mysterious Pen Pal and Scratching Imagery, to a straight-up explanation of its physical effect on the Session by Doc Scratch.

The Beat Mesa is Scratched. The energy within released. The Universe, changed and restarted. Our Heroes, outside of the confines of this Universe, are able to preserve their existence, but the very Timeline they come from is erased completely. And we see the result of this event in the beautifully nostalgic Act 6 Animation, zooming into this freshly scratched Universe, showcasing brief shots of the rooms of our new 4 protagonists, as well as the state of the world around them. Everything from the Uberbunny still being constructed, to a Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff movie poster, from strange window-based machinery to Lil Cal.

Finally, it pans out to show us our first shot of who will be our ‘John’ stand-in in this new reality, a youthful girl with a very similar sign to that of John’s. And yet, before we can be formally introduced to her, Act 6 throws its very first curveball at us.

Someone. A Troll, is watching the events on the screen go down, the presentation of Act 6. This shouldn’t be a surprise, after all we know Trolls are able to use viewports to spy on Humans, but this feels significantly different, not only ominously presented at the beginning of the Act, but also showing us a completely brand new sign. A Caduceus staff, snakes on its sides, associated with what’s referred as the 13th Zodiac Constellation, Ophiuchus.

Immediately this makes… No sense. The Human Universe was Scratched, not the Troll Universe. And while it is true the Troll Universe is mentioned to have been Scratched, we’ve also been told the other group of Trolls was one of 12, like the original one- Leaving this 13th Troll a complete mystery. It’s not the only strange thing at the beginning of the Act, however, as we’re soon introduced to Jane and Jake- Our Post-Scratch Nanna and Grandpa.

And while superficially it may seem like we’re in yet again for long-winded introductions and self-contained storylines regarding their Session, the amount of unexpected differences thrown at us right off the bat are staggering.

First, there’s the SBURB Alpha poster behind Jane, with the Crockercorp brand on it, already a major difference from the Skaianet-developed game Pre-Scratch. We’re also told that these new characters are, in fact, not 13, but rather between 15 and 16 years old. The big shocker comes from learning these two characters’ full names- As rather than Egbert and Harley, as one would expect, they happen to be Jane Crocker, and Jake English, both names which kickstart Act 6 on a very ominous note.

This continues through the rest of this Act, as we see English and the Batterwitch seem to be very prominent figures in these Kids’ lives.

With Jake’s computing devices directly mirroring Lord English himself…

And Crockercorp technology directly taking on Her Imperious Condescension’s branding. We were told by Nanna how she was raised by Betty Crocker herself, who was not a Human, but while Jack Noir and Doc Scratch were the two main villains through the previous Acts, it becomes obvious the Condesce and Lord English are going to take up on the roles of the Big Baddies from now on.

While most of the Act serves to set up the characters and their relationships with each other, as expected of an introduction- With Jane being cynical and not believing the whole SBURB Schtick entirely, Jake being a much more trusting albeit aloof individual, the young Lalonde being apparently drunk off her ass, and the young Strider being some sort of Robotics Genius able to build robots for his friends to spar with and create AI to stand in for himself while he’s off doing other things- Other things in the background already set up more overarching plots than back in Act 1 or even Act 5 Act 1.

We see UU, the new, Ophiuchus Troll, cheering the characters, encouraging them to do what they must do, with a seemingly wider view of what’s going on than the other 12 Trolls. Careful about causal Spoilers, and overall very pleasant to interact with, she almost seems to be orchestrating the events leading to them playing SBURB in the first place.

Lalonde and Strider take on a more background role for the Act, as we focus on Jane and Jake, and specifically, on two specific points- A Dream Jane seemingly had involving Jake, as well as her trying to get the SBURB Alpha copy while being grounded, aided by Lil Seb, a bunny-robot built for her birthday by Strider- And the overall daily routine of Jake English in Hellmurder Island.

Because as we soon learn, things are kicking into high gear before we even get to the meat of SBURB.

Jake’s Dreamself is apparently already Dead, and this Universe’s Frog Temple island seems to be inhabited by Lusii. Furthermore, Jake’s home seems to have been destroyed, leaving just the satellite room partially intact on the ground beneath.

This introduction culminates with the introduction of Brobot, the bot Strider built for Jake to spar with, and the main obstacle he has to overcome in order to obtain Uranium to finish the Uberbunny for Jade, as well as a protector from the many hazards of the island…

And with Jane attempting to retrieve her Alpha copy of SBURB, which happens to be booby trapped, resulting in a major explosion mirroring the ending of Act 1 proper.

It’s at this point that the structure of Act 6 becomes more obvious. Acts proper for the new Kids, and Intermissions showcasing what’s going on with the Beta Kids and Trolls. Although this will become muddy as time goes on, it generally stands true up until Act 6 Act 6.

Hussie, using an authorial robot avatar, attempts to make true on his promise to change the events of the story directly, but ends up getting lazy and just level up the characters- This is, however, a nod to the absurdity that he’s already pretty much killed Doc Scratch by himself, interacting directly with the events of the story, even if he says he hasn’t.

The Intermission itself is fairly straight forward- The aftermath of the events of Cascade are shown, with Jade and John crossing through the space between 4th Walls to the new Session, the Yellow Yard…

The Meteor Crew reuniting with the ones waiting for them at the Green Sun…

And PM, now 4-Tier Powered, confronting Bec Noir.

In the extra-authorial Space the 4th Walls are in, Jade is unable to use her teleporting powers, meaning they cannot travel as fast as she’d like to. Similarly, Rose points out thanks to her new insight as a Seer of Light, that they will need to travel a very specific route in the Furthest Ring to get to the new Session. Both trips will last 3 Years, coinciding with John and Jane’s 16th Birthday, which will happen to make it so both groups of Kids and Trolls are the same age when they meet.

A farewell message is sent through Jade to the Green Sun, to wish good luck to the Trolls, Rose and Dave. Aradia and a half-dead, overexerted Sollux stay behind in the Bubbles as they’re done with all the adventuring. PM sends the mortally wounded WV with the Meteor Crew, hoping that they’ll be able to heal him. And Bec Noir flees away from PM, having a huge crush on her, not wanting to deal with an enraged lady with his exact same set of powers. The scene is set, the trips in motion, and with that, we end the Intermission with a few prophetic images straight from the Skaia Clouds of this new Session.

Drones, a focus on Lalonde and Strider, Jake’s volcano erupting, and a panning view of Prospit in this new Session, which apparently lacks the Prototyping Towers the Beta Session did.

Before the new Act begins, however, we have a brief scene showing us something shocking-

The Dersite Agents are the ones responsible for killing Jake, and they have gone for Jane as well. Derse is under ‘new management’, and all bets are off. Something is up in this new Session, but thankfully, the Maid of Life doesn’t seem able to go down as easily as Jack would expect…

As some sort of Lifey Thing activates, just as the tower is detonated and the room sent down crashing into Prospit below.

I will go quicker with the few following Arcs. Because around this point, something starts to happen.

We’re formally introduced to Roxy Lalonde and Dirk Strider. We see the rest of the beginning of this Session progressing. Jane is rescued at the last moment from that explosion by this planet’s First Guardian- A cat instead of a dog, known only as God Cat, or GCAT. Roxy’s Dreamself sleepwalks, giving us a good view of the Dream Bubbles, some ghosts, and nearly meeting Rose for the first time. Dirk’s Dreamself kills the Hegemonic Brute before he can kill him, and then announcing he’s awake and ready to fuck shit up to Derse. We see the Condesce herself, as the new ruler of Derse. We see Jack trying to off Jane again, but getting his shit kicked in by the White Queen herself. We see Jake get the Uranium he needs, and awkwardly dismissing Jane’s feelings for him while considering Dirk’s own interest in him. We see Roxy accidentally appearifying Sassacre’s book from Jane’s house on top of the Jaspers she snatched from Pre-Scratch Earth, giving context to his disappearance and re-appearance later on near Rose’s house. And curiously, we see two Ghosts in the Dream Bubbles that we’ve never seen before-

The first appearance of Aranea and Meenah, the Pre-Scratch versions of Mindfang and The Condesce.

Ultimately, it all culminates with Jane’s entry into the game, and the revelation that, all along, Roxy and Dirk were living in the future! Not in the same time frame as the other two! With Roxy living in a Carapace Colony and Appearifying Pumpkins to feed them, and Dirk being alone in the middle of the Ocean. Jane doesn’t prototype anything, and there are no Meteors headed to Earth, instead it’s the Condesce’s ship that looms overhead, and with time, she apparently conquers Earth and turns it into a desolate Water World, where Roxy and Dirk now inhabit.

But wait… Why am I rushing through this? Why am I telling these things, which are actually interesting and fun, in such an… Anticlimatic way? Well, because as I said, something begins to happen in the story at this point, and because we’re introduced to someone very special in this Act.

Another… Ophiuchus Troll? While the Caduceus is associated with Ophiuchus, that U happens to be the Ophiuchus Zodiac Sign. UranianUmbra and uNDYINGuMBRAGE, UU and uu, and where UU is cheerful and happy and trying to encourage her friends, uu shows himself to be the polar opposite. Jeering, taunting, being generally unpleasant, creepy and demeaning. But specifically, one thing these two Trolls share is the view points of the very audience of the comic. UU sets herself as a fan, excited of what may happen in the future, wanting to see the Kids succeed. uu sets himself as a bad fan, criticizing the story beats, disregarding character development, and pushing for the carnage and the action. We’ll get back to these two in the next Act, but first of all, as Jane Enters her Land, we reach the next Intermission.

And similarly, the Intermission gives us story beats, and important ones at that. The Mayor is saved by God Tier Dream Bubble Feferi. We see Karkat struggle with himself and his role in Paradox Space. We see some relationship Drama between Terezi, Dave and Karkat. We hear about the new Session’s status. We see how John and Jade pass their time in the Prospit Ship with Davesprite. We see Terezi interact with Aranea, talking about regretting her decision of killing Vriska, and being led somewhere. Both the Alpha Kids and the Betas + Trolls seem to be delving more on the psychological aspect of growing up ever since Act 6 began, rather than being Kids thrust into a strange world and having to fulfil their Cosmic Fate against Inevitability itself, trying to find a way around it and maturing thanks to the challenges presented, they’re now Teens growing up and trying to keep pushing their way through both their physical reality, and their mental blockades. This is one of the reasons why some people seem to dislike Act 6, they consider it has too much Teenage Drama, while the story itself presents new characters and convoluted new story beats that don’t seem to make sense yet.

Homestuck has always been about growing up, but now that they’re being treated more like Teens than Kids, there’s a whole new set of things to take into account. Furthermore, there’s always been confusing story beats and plots in Homestuck, however a lot of those were answered during Act 5, and a bunch of other ones were presented afterwards, dividing the Interest between two groups of characters that get different amounts of screentime. The fresh start, the drama, the two groups of Kids, presenting new Trolls in the Dream Bubbles, some people loved this, others didn’t quite like the new characters or the direction the Comic was going down, but one of the most controversial topics the story touches upon formally begins in this very Intermission.

The Meta Aspect of Homestuck.

Because up until now, the Meta seems to have been played for Jokes. Breaking of the 4th Wall, Andrew Hussie… But then Lord English, the Villain of the story, kills Hussie. Literally murders the Author of the story. This part of the story can also easily be taken as a joke, specially given that right after this we have Hussie try to put a Ring of Ghost Vriska in the Dream Bubbles and marry her, but…

With the introduction of uu and UU paralleling Audence trains of thought, and the death of Andrew Hussie- Who should be mentioned, is wearing a Calmasis Cosplay with UU’s Sign and Horns on it- Calmasis being the main character of one of Roxy’s Mom’s nigh-prophetic Wizard Novels- There’s something more going on beyond just the story of Teens playing a Game and Growing Up. It is not quite obvious what is going on yet, but this is a very interesting set-up, and this Meta Aspect is what I want to focus the rest of this Act 6 Analysis on, because I believe it is widely misunderstood and shunned within the Fandom.

Jane has entered the Game, and we see her dealing with a Dead Land, the Land of Crypts and Helium. Consorts are long dead, and Legends speak of how they came to know the Nobles would be coming way too late to save them. Barrent, empty, void. Her whole Session is a Void one, one where no Sprites are Prototyped before entry, one which doesn’t even have a Reckoning or an evolved Battlefield to bear fruits.

Trying to get back to her home, Jane also comes across something… Disconcerting.

Gamzee… In full God Tier clothes… With Aradia’s Time Music Boxes… Wanting to be Jane’s Guide, selling her potions, and immediately throwing the corpse of Vriska and Tavros into her empty Kernelsprite, a mixture so unstable it causes the Sprite to immediately detonate.

So. Yeah. What the fuck?

Last time we saw Gamzee, he’d just come down from a murderous rampage, and had stolen Sollux’s body and dragged it deeper into the meteor, with Kanaya chasing after him. Also, last time we saw him he was most certainly not God Tier, or never even IMPLIED to have reached God Tier.

The narrative of Homestuck starts disjointed and builds up towards the big Critical Moment in Cascade, but now that we’re beyond that, the narrative seems to unravel yet again. This is a very chaotic time for Homestuck as we’re shown seemingly unrelated plot threads going at the same time, while having more exposition about the Post-Scratch World and how things are supposed to go to start the game.

The story of the Alpha World and how it got fucked up by Condy, how Jake’s Grandmother, Dirk’s Brother and Roxy’s Mom all fought back in their own ways, paired with internal monologue by Jake using a mental projection of Dirk as a stand-in of his psyche. a parody of Jailbreak with Jack Noir in a Prospitian Cell while DD gets the Black Queen’s Ring and starts to use the Red Miles to punish Dirk for his actions, a chaotic reunion of Jake’s dreaming self in the Bubbles with the Betas on the Meteor passing through the Bubble alongside Meenah and Aranea that doesn’t end well, the arrival of the Red Miles Bec Noir used in Cascade to the Alpha Iteration of the Universe, while Dirk and Roxy are being attacked by Condesce’s Drones. The prior Acts were full of Countdowns, but they were all counting down to something with very specific numbers and time frames. Act 6 throws the exact countdowns out the window, and just tosses everything into a complete, rushed chaos. Not that the story itself is rushed, but rather, that the forces conspiring to move the story forward are rushing things along.

And as the chaos muddles the underlying plot thread that brings it all together, so must we rush things along, and look beyond what we’re presented in this Act, to really start understanding what’s going on in Act 6.

You see, all this chaos, all these intermingling stories, all this focus on the Dream Bubbles, the Alphas, the Betas, is all a set-up for one of the most important reveals in the entirety of Homestuck, the true identity of UU and uu.

Because until this point, we’ve just been assuming UU and uu to be from some sort of ambiguously separated group of Trolls somewhere in Paradox Space, that they are some sort of yet another story we know nothing about, when in reality, their very presence has always been there, in every aspect of the story up to this point.

UU and uu, or as we’d find out, Calliope and Caliborn, are not Trolls, but a third alien species known as Cherubs.

Calliope and Caliborn share one and the same body. When she goes to sleep, he wakes up, and vice-versa. They’ve been at odds for a long time, with Calliope wanting to learn to cooperate with him so they can play SBURB and escape, together, the confined prison that is their room, their dying world, while Caliborn only thinks about beating her in ever aspect, predominating over her personality, killing her, and taking total and complete possession of her body.

Furthermore, we also learn that their world is none other than Earth- Post-Scratch earth to be precise, at some point in the far future when the oceans have dried off. And their room just happens to be…

A confined section within the very Meteor Rose, Dave and the Trolls are riding towards the new Session. On top of that, once Caliborn manages to get Calliope’s Dream Self murdered, and predominates over her the next time he wakes up, his cheek swirls fill into red circles, he chews his bound leg right off, and in the process, breaks one of his fangs.

We’re explicitly told this shortly after, but this imagery shows us the reality of the situation- Caliborn is none other than a young version of Lord English himself.

Now that this is set up, let’s roll back a little bit, specifically to the Dream Bubbles. Interjected within the chaos, we learn about the Pre-Scratch Troll Session, how it was a strange, Glitched Session, a mark of Lord English’ influence in trying to access their Universe, and Aranea orchestrated the Scratch, while Meenah prepared to detonate an explosion, kill everyone so they would live on in the Dream Bubbles even if their Session was erased completely. 

Now in the Dream Bubbles, Lord English, after dealing with Hussie, heads to the Furthest Ring and starts wrecking havoc, destroying Bubbles, cracking Reality itself, dissipating the Ghosts living there, and killing the Horrorterrors in the process. Meenah, as an ambitious Thief, starts trying to reunite an army of Ghosts to take the Big Bad down. Aranea, on the other hand, believes that finding the other half of Lord English that didn’t predominate, Calliope’s Spirit in the Dream Bubbles, is the key to taking him down. And yet on top of these two plans, Vriska’s ghost comes to learn about the existence of some sort of weapon capable of defeating Lord English hidden in the Furthest Ring, but she needs him to crack reality more to make the Furthest Ring navigable.

In the Dreambubbles, we learn about the 12 Trolls that came before the Betas, the so-called Dancestors, in what is considered by many one of the low points of Homestuck. Walkarounds presenting new characters that go on for hours, seemingly one-dimensional characters, while Meenah goes around trying to find people willing for her army. And while I’ll personally defend the Dancestors as not being as simple as they seem at first glance, ultimately they only add some background lore to the story. Their importance doesn’t come from who they are, but from what they are.

You see, as mentioned before, Calliope is a stand-in for the Audience. She makes Fanart, and Fanfiction, she has read the writings left behind by Rose, made her theories about their journey, made a Trollsona, she’s pretty much a part of the audience who adores Homestuck, to the point she wanted to be involved in this massive epic.

Similarly, however, Caliborn is also a part of the Audience. He riffs on how long some things drag on and how stupid others seem, while revelling in visceral action, death, and fetishization of the characters. He’s misogynistic, narcissistic, hateful. And he’s our main Villain. Our main Villain, who shows himself as a hateful Internet persona, and whose main drive to cause the mayhem and destruction that’s killing the Horrorterrors, is to find his Sister’s Soul in the Furthest Ring and destroy it. A Villain, whose main motivation to enter the Troll Universe, subjugate the entire species and make the Empress of the Trolls his servant may just be to spite the memory of his Troll-loving Sister.

And when Caliborn finally enters his Session, barren, desolate, Dead, completely different from any other Session as a punishment for having tried to play a Solo Session without cooperation, he’s faced with something…

Oh come on, him again???

No, I didn’t mean fucking GAMZEE again, we’ll get back to him later.

He literally finds the command prompt of the story. And directly speaks with Hussie, the Narrator, who he identifies as a nagging voice in his head.

See what I am getting at?

The Chaos of the beginning of Act 6, the way things seem to unravel and slowly come together, they culminate with not one, but two different stories, being told simultaneously.

Homestuck is a story about growing up. About facing the challenges life has in store for us. About developing as people, and living our lives. About respecting others, and not allowing tyranny to take over our lives. As such, we have the chain of events starting at the Pre-Scratch Troll Session, and leading to the Alpha Session- A story of two civilizations, a story of Trolls, being subjugated by Lord English, and a Human Session infected by Gamzee, a follower of Lord English, made unwinnable, terminal, and rippling back to harm the Troll Session. A story about Teens, facing inevitability, and trying to grow up, past their personal problems, and past the challenges Paradox Space throws at them.

And at the same time, parallel to these, and causing most of the story beats that cause all of this predetermination and suffering? There’s the story of two Cherubs, Calliope and Caliborn. Of Calliope’s love for the story and attempts at helping them succeed. Of Caliborn’s disdain for the story his sister loves and for his sister, culminating in a megalomaniacal wave of destruction, in trying to erase every last trace of her, in trying to subdue and muddle everything she loves.

And that’s the thing- While the Kids are aware of Lord English, their objective has always been, primarily, to win the SBURB Session. The ones that try to fight back against the Demon, the ones that devise three different plans to stop his rampage? They are Dead. They are voided from the story. They are characters that should no longer be relevant, and yet, even in this fabricated afterlife, plot to fight back against him.

Those who are no longer relevant to the story, try to take on the antagonist, who has a disdain for the story itself, who killed the Author himself and took his conductor’s baton. Those who are relevant to the story, try to push through inevitability and the awful situation they’ve been put in, to live their lives. And this is, in my eyes, one of Homestuck’s most interesting narrative twists, and one that gets often muddled or downplayed, or simply… Disliked because people prefer less Meta on their stories. Which is just fine.

The Alphas manage to survive, just barely, the situation they’ve been put in, each losing one of their spare lives in order to enter the Session before they all die, and right after their entry? We see them in each of the Lands, showcasing how the Session itself looks, before doing a Timeskip of nearly half a year, and leaving us to deal with the downfall of 4 frustrated Teens being left alone in a Session with nothing to do.

The Characters we’ve been going alongside with for three Acts now, up to their entry, now are suddenly pushed to the side for such a long time. We’re introduced to 12 new Characters that we don’t know that much about. We focus on three Ghosts, three Characters who should be Dead but are still trying to do important things. It’s a bizarre moment for the story, but a pivotal one in what it tries to show us, the Audience, about these characters and the world. And hey, at least, while we don’t see much about the Alphas, we do get to see a bit more about the Betas, and specifically, one of the best moments in Homestuck for shippers everywhere:

Act 6 Act 5 begins on a low note. We’re finally back with the Alphas, however it seems things aren’t exactly great. Jake seems to be exhausted and overwhelmed by Dirk, Dirk is having some serious issues with his Auto-responder and his identity in general, and while Jane and Roxy are getting along fine, Jake’s obliviousness to Jane’s feelings and need to vent about Dirk end up causing Jane to dismiss her own birthday party in a fit of rage. To make things even worse, the Condesce herself manages to capture Roxy, throwing her into a Dersite jail, in an attempt to get her to fulfil some sort of unknown duty. On top of that, Gamzee has been busy making Troll Amalgamation Sprites with the corpses of his ‘friends’.

Needless to say, things aren’t going exactly well.

Everyone except Roxy is falling apart, and she’s captured and unconscious in Derse! But while she sleeps, she has a Dream. One in which she is led to a small pocket of Void in which she manages to meet with Calliope herself, her spirit.

As the Muse she is, Calliope inspires Roxy to get ready for the next day, the culmination of all that’s happened in the story. She tells us more clearly how Lord English is tracking her down, and how she thinks the key to defeating him is not herself, but rather, an alternate version of herself. A Calliope that managed to predominate over Caliborn. Their little reunion is cut short, sadly, and once she wakes up, Roxy has the Queen’s Ring delivered to her, which she uses to escape the Dersite cell.

Following a conversation between Jake and Caliborn, where Caliborn gifts him one half of a powerful Juju Artifact’s code, and a pre-sent Birthday Message by Calliope in the past in which she sent Jane the other half in an attempt to cheer her up for her Birthday, a very depressed Jane creates the infamous Juju Sucker.

This spiral Lollipop makes Jane Engage Trickster Mode, a throwback to a literal Cheat Code in many of the prior flashes and walkarounds in the story. This is a very misunderstood part of the story, with quite a bit of controversy attached to it, specially the whole ‘Caucasian’ debacle, but that’s neither here nor there.

As a Trickster, Jane becomes carefree, hyper-happy, and speaks her mind without any regard for the consequences. All internal turmoil disappears, and she slowly ‘infects’ the other Alphas with this sugar-rush drug-like power-trip state. This is pretty much Hussie telling the audience that there are no shortcuts to Developing as a people, growing up, and forcing such things or making it seem like there are no problems ends up making things creepy and uncanny.

The Arc also serves as a plot device to get them to alchemize some ultimate weaponry, and lead them to their Quest Slabs in the Derse and Prospit Moons, where they are left with intense sugary hangovers. This is where they develop the most, acknowledging the things they said while in this high state, embarrassed about their feelings, but finally more open to talking about it and seeing where everything went wrong.

Once in place, two things happen. On one side, The Condesce prepares to off the ones on Derse. On the other, however, the Jack trapped in Prospit is gifted Lil Cal by none other than Gamzee himself.

Initially, Caliborn was reluctant and even fearful of Lil Cal, but once he finds a scorched version of him in his Land, he learns the truth about him- He’s a vessel, somehow, for his very essence. And staring through, he’s been watching, controlling, manipulating, whispering. Like an embodiment of the main Villain dating back all the way to Act 2, this gives an even more creepy twist to every time Lil Cal appeared in the story, and makes him even more terrifying when we see Jack literally mind-controlled by staring directly into his eyes- Which he proceeds to pull out of the doll, gouging out his own, and becoming an Avatar for Lord English within the Alpha Session.

The Moons are destroyed, the Kids ascend to God Tier, and Jane and Jake are promptly attacked by Jack… 

Only for the Prospit Ship to get there at just the right time, with Jade appearing to warp Jack away and save them. But reunions are short and bittersweet, as before everyone can get reunited, the Condesce manages to snatch control away from Jade, and makes her snap a mind-control Tiara on Jane.

With two Key Players under her control, Dirk is warped away, Jake and Roxy are captured, and Condy leaves herself in an incredible position of advantage over the rest of the Session.

Finally, we arrive at the very last section of this Part. We focus a little bit on what everyone else is going through before arriving to the new Session, while occasionally going back to see Caliborn’s Session develop. We learn Terezi allowed Aranea to heal her eyes in a moment of weakness due to her black-dating Gamzee in what’s obviously a toxic thing for her, and Dave and Karkat trying to help her through it. We see Rose’s struggle with alcohol and Kanaya’s determination to make their relationship work. And we even get to see Spades Slick make a return, bring the Felt back together and head to the new Session alongside everyone else, adding yet another wild card to the upcoming confrontation.

But the most important part of this Intermission comes from John and the Dream Bubbles.

After mixing their plans together, Meenah, Vriska and Aranea have made an army of Ghosts to lure Lord English into destroying the Furthest Ring, trying to track down the Legendary Weapon able to track him down, something that once belong to him, but once used became something that could only be used AGAINST him.

Aranea also explains a bit more about Cherubs, about Calliope and Caliborn, and specifically, about Caliborn’s bizarre Dead Session and his fearsome Denizen, Yaldabaoth, who’d give him an impossible challenge only him as a Lord of Time could have managed to overcome, claiming immortality and the power to wreck havoc as he wished through Paradox Space. Ultimately, it all culminates with their arrival to the location of the Legendary Weapon.

There, Aranea keeps talking, about treasures and Jujus, and she mentions a pair of Rings- One of Void, able to make the user intangible and invisible and more linked with the Void. One of Life, able to bring ghosts back. While the Void Ring appears to be the Black Queen Ring Roxy was given to escape Derse, and subsequently lost, the Ring of Life happened to be the one Hussie tried to give Vriska in his marriage proposal, currently in the possession of John’s waking self! Vriska throws a tantrum, frustrated, which ends up causing a schism in her group, with everyone except Vriska, Meenah, Aranea and John leaving her side.

John refuses to hand her the Ring, too, thinking, after hanging with her, that’s she’s just too dangerous to bring back. At this point, Vriska is very frustrated, but acknowledges her mistakes, and mentions how she knows she’s not good- But one doesn’t need to be good to do something big and Heroic. All she ever wanted was to do something BIG, take the Spotlight again, and she doesn’t need to be brought back for that, so long as she gets the Weapon and defeats the Big Bad.

It’s also at this point that Hussie tries to tease us, pulling the narrative away from the reveal of the Treasure, only for Vriska to directly address him as an asshole and pull the narrative back to her- Showing Hussie’s waning control over the very narrative.

The Juju is revealed to be… The SBURB Icon. As a transparent hole on the image. An intangible thing that should ‘change’ in the presence of Lord English. Of course, being something ‘intangible’, John as the doofus he is, decides to try and stuff his arm into it. And immediately, his arm phases through and warps through the entirety of the story, retconning its presence in a hundred panels of the story up to this point.

Not only that, but his Waking Self is affected by this, causing him to become unbound from the story, appearing at several points in the past, warping uncontrollably until he manages to come back to the Session! Confused, alone, bored, he begins throwing a bit of a tantrum trying to entertain himself, until a Mind Controlled Jade warps the rest of his Friends from the Meteor right in front of him… And the Disc 2 of Homestuck ends. Because that’s still a thing that existed, remember?

As the narrative gets ready to put the Disc 3, however…

Caliborn officially takes over the narrative of Homestuck. The Intermission ends, leading up to Act 6 Act 6, with Caliborn’s acknowledgement that he’s the one in control of the Webcomic now.

As such, everything is ready for the final stretch of the comic.

On the side of the story and plot in itself, everyone has been reunited in the new Session, Jade and Jane have been mind controlled, and Condy seems to have the upper hand, the Ghosts have the weapon able to take Lord English down, John has a McGuffin able to bring someone back to life, and Calliope has mentioned wanting to seek out the version of herself that overcame Caliborn.

And on the side of the metatextual state of the story, Hussie’s waning power over his own narrative has culminated with the antagonist acknowledging his lack of a presence and taking over the story, while the protagonist seems to have gained the ability to modify and shape bits of the story that have already passed.

Next time, in the final part of Execution of a Masterpiece, we’ll talk about the lead-up to the End of Homestuck, the Ending Proper, and a good bunch of Symbolism I glossed over in this part, namely the significance of Yaldabaoth as Caliborn’s Denizen, as well as other such things like the Symbol seen when the Lollipop Juju combines into one, the debacle of Plot vs Character Development vs Metatextual Commentary, and also, what the HELL is up with Gamzee?