(1/2) I really liked your post on the ending a few days ago, and it made a lot of sense to me, but I was wondering if you have an opinion on the ominous fade into static at the end of collide? It really felt to me to be signalling that the danger wasn't over, but at that point, at least for like John, Roxy, etc. who were pictured there, they were basically on their victory lap, so it never really made sense to me.

(2/2) I guess it could be interpreted as the ‘break out of the narrative’, since all the panels from that point on were all bigger than the regular narrative window, but I still wouldn’t understand the ominous framing of it in that case. And I could also see it as reminding us that Lord English at that point had not been defeated, except everything from there just went according to plan, the danger was effectively passed. Do you have any thoughts?

That really kept all of us on our toes didn’t it? I feel it was symbolic of the end being near, and while English did get defeated, there was still the collapse of the Green Sun left. It was a huge event that’d been pretty much been waiting to happen ever since Act 5, perhaps even before that. Curiously the windy wails at the end also happen at the End of Act 4, in Descend, before the few panels between Act 4 and 5, sort of like how there were images between Act 6 and 7, and anticipated the fall of the huge meteor on Jade’s island, just like how Collide ended with us anticipating the end of Homestuck.

There’s also a detail to have in mind, and that is, the Sunset. The plane where the Curtains are, that is, Hussie’s place, has had the Sun almost setting ever since the beginning of Act 2. When Slick climbs back up after being tossed off by Hussie, he notes this, likely a reference to Hussie mentioning ‘You’ve got the feeling it’s going to be a long day’ at the very beginning of Homestuck. When Act 6 ends and the camera pans out, the black-white shift happens exactly the moment you’d expect the last beams of light to disappear behind the Horizon. The day is over, the Comic reaches its final Act, its end.

To me, it was building tension intentionally because… Well, the Ending was finally upon us. Homestuck was such a massive work and it’s so incredibly dense. Act 7 was the last piece of the puzzle Hussie tossed at us (Before the Credits, and even now we’re waiting for the Epilogue, but still the ‘last’ piece of the puzzle), it marked the actual end of the narrative, even if the story still continues, whether things went right or wrong, I feel like it was still an important moment to build up tension to.