So Jack is examining the sword in the turntable that is intended to initiate the Scratch—Bro's, it appears. I'd kind of forgotten about that. Small but important detail.
I forgot how fucking terrifying the introduction of the Gods of the Furthest Ring was.
Also how important Feferi was at this stage in the game. I reiterate: Waste of a potentially awesome character. But not here, not now. Here, she is the Herald of the Horrorterrors. Fuck yes.
Actually, it's easy to forget that even without reaching God Tier—a subject that will be broached soon in the story—Feferi is the Witch of Life, and to whit, she was raised by the single most monstrous organism on Alternia, with which she had a surprisingly close (if strange) relationship.
[Both are important to keep in mind for different reasons when considering her role as the dream-bubble shepherd. The Witch class is, depending on one's interpretation of Hussie's statements, either the first or second most active class in the game, and if fully realised, extremely powerful. The character of the class seems to be transformative or creative, and what does she do in collaboration with the Horrorterrors? She gives the dead and the doomed a second life. But of course this would not be possible if it were not for her communion with and total lack of fear of these titan alien deities of unthinkable size and might—creatures that even Rose ultimately finds hard to handle.]
CCG: OUT OF THE COUNTLESS TRILLIONS OF LIFE FORMS I BROUGHT INTO REALITY THROUGH ANGRY GRUBFUCK POWER ALONE, I HAVE SELECTED YOU FOR EXAMINATION AND HARASSMENT.
Jade is preparing to enter the Medium, the bunny has been christened Liv Tyler, and Karkat has made a huge fool of himself twice over. We are cooking with petrol now!
TT: Are those the things people say when they want unusual noises to come out of the pliable crescent-shaped holes sometimes found in people's faces?
EB: laughs, rose. laaaughs.
EB: also, those crescenty looking holes where laughs come out of?
EB: those are smiles!
EB: observe... :D
TT: I need to make a note of this.
TT: Excuse me while I open this tome bound in the tanned, writhing flesh of a tortured hellscholar. The screaming will subside shortly.
EB: ok, i will wait patiently.
TT: Continue to not be alarmed as I record your advice with runes stroked in the black tears bled from the corruption-weary eyes of fifty thousand imaginary occultists.
TT: And then brace yourself for the fabled blackdeath trance of the woegothics I will slip into, while quaking in the bloodeldritch throes of the broodfester tongues.
EB: no, rose!
EB: that sort of nonsense is exactly what is out of the question!
EB: i see things are more urgent than i realized.
EB: i will have to venture there straightaway, and slap you right out of that silly old trance!
TT: One is not easily shaken from the broodfester tongues, John.
And speaking of extremely striking and disturbing imagery: Bec Noir's bloody hand reaching out as he destroys Prospit, his body shown in double exposure with his former self. There is almost an ukiyo-e quality to the stylised pose and the dead grimness of both forms' expressions, like a wrathful deity meting out judgement.
I am going to second my previous 0_0 with similar emphasis.
Things have become extremely engrossing, or rather have been and continue to be but have risen to a fever pitch. So I think I'm going to be sparser and more thoughtful in my commentary from here on out, just speaking when I have some heavy or interesting stray thoughts. Which I do.
So, rundown:
1. It's funny how WV thinks of John as Vriska's apprentice, not so much in the "ha-ha" sense as the "hmmmm" sense. It's also worth noting that John shares an aspect with Vriska's hate-crush, but a class with her former "co-leader," both of whom she has consistently mistreated and neither of whom she particularly respects. But John? Him, she does, in her sick, weird way.
2. On the other hand, Rose shares her class with one Scourge Sister and her aspect with the other. Like Terezi, her knowledge of her aspect is her weapon, but as I think is wont for Light players to do, she plays with fire constantly. Oh, Kanaya, you and your dangerous women.
3. Karkat recounting his feelings of horror and betrayal at recognising Jack as the thing that killed his and his friends' dream-selves, even beneath his hysterics, is pretty harrowing. So is seeing Jack's first trophy as he stands over Bro impaled by his own sword. It's really just a very shocking sequence all around.
Aaaaaaannnnnnd Vriska's suicidal double-Möbius reacharound hero plan is finally in motion. But really, it's not like it something you wouldn't see coming. Again, look at Rose. Rose is the sane one in this equation. But Rose doesn't have crippling self-image issues and a history of abusive, culturally warped parenting in the way that our Serket does, so that's only fair.
One of my favorite long-term gags in Homestuck: Nana's death is described as involving the giant book on a high bookshelf and a ladder, and then it turns out instead of the book falling on her she just got hit by a meteor.
Aaaand I'm at the "I ruined a solid year's worth of perfectly good shipping with recent revelations. WHOOPSEE DAISEE" reveal.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
I wonder how true to life John's relationship with his father is. Like, do people have other people constantly encouraging them for reasons you don't understand, and then one day you just see yourself from a different perspective and then it hits you that they were just really worried about you?
do people have other people constantly encouraging them for reasons you don't understand, and then one day you just see themselves from a different perspective and then it hits you that they were just really worried about you?
Yeah.
like it's not a universal thing but it seems fairly common from what i can tell
in general as you get older you definitely get more insight into where your parents are/were coming from, even if it is not that insight exactly or even if it's a viewpoint you share
Slightly more on-topic: Jade's facial expression in reaction to Becsprite's attempts to "talk" with her is classic. Just all dem walls of green static and... "oh my."
Dave likening his travails with the egg to Winnie-the-Pooh pretending to be a rain cloud has to be one of the best reference jokes that Hussie has made so far solely on the grounds of unlikelihood.
So now Future!Dave is Jade's server player and some serious alchemisation is about to go down. Yee.
Which is to say that this will happen several pages from now or even later given that we still have to partly catch up with Dave's timeline. Or something.
OK, I remembered that Vriska was the one behind Jack Noir's ascension to unstoppable hellbeast, but creating Becquerel, I did not remember. And she really thinks she's in control and that Tavros of all people is trying to steal her thunder.
Nepeta's expression in this panel is priceless. Also fitting that she wake up just as this happens, given that she was the witness to Aradia's self-prototyping.
Really, it's an interesting pattern: All of the most loathsome villains, and frequently the most dangerous ones, are above all petty. There is one fellow in particular way down the pipe, but Vriska is an excellent primer for that sort of horribleness. Because she really is just so very petty.
Honestly, I can't see any feasible ships that would run into paradox ghost incest territory on the human side of the equation, and on the troll side it's moot because of their weird, messed up biology.
Anyways, we now cut from Terezi finding Tavros' corpse to the most adorable minion cabal ever. Hello, whiplash, my old friend, I've come to deal with you again...
But see, those simply do not seem plausible to me. Those two pairs already have very sibling-like relationships from the outset, if of very different sorts, and I can't see them as anything else. It's like saying that Equius and Nepeta would be anything other than moirails. Logic does not support it.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
OK, I'll be fair: Shipping is fine when it actually makes sense for the characters involved or can be argued persuasively from a "what if?" kind of viewpoint. But stuff like John/Jade just doesn't make a lick of sense. And there are plenty of weird, weird couples and non-couples in canon that make perfect sense despite being exceedingly bizarre on the face of it! [Davesprite/Jade, Vriska/Doomed!John, and Jane Crocker's bitter crush on Jake English are all in the story, my god; and ARquiusprite is basically the logical conclusion to a pet crack ship of mine, if we're being completely honest.] But really.
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Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead