TC: shit was motherfuckin poison, didn't you know?
CG: UH...
CG: NO? I MEAN, I WOULD NEVER EAT IT, BUT
TC: THEN GET MOTHERFUCKIN SCHOOLFED ALL ABOUT THE WICKED NEWS, PUNCHLINE BLOODED MOTHERFUCKER.
TC: it rots you.
TC: RUSTS YOUR MOTHERFUCKIN THINK PAN.
TC: and the floor all stares up back at you through the motherfuckin hole.
TC: BUT THERE IS NO HOLE NOW.
I think that this little bit of dialogue is probably the creepiest thing that Gamzee says in this whole exchange, if not in this whole part of the story.
but seriously, I know your reasoning is perfectly valid (and I find Rosemary adorable too), it's just having the kids together hits a special sweet spot for me, especially when thinking about them post-canon
I actually finished my initial binge right before Jade: Enter, so Murderstuck has a very particular place in my heart.
Not necessarily a dear place. My early days as a homestuck fan were filled with arguments about how so and so shouldn't have died that way or that quickly.
I do remember specifically claiming that (murderstuck spoilers) Kanaya getting shot below her sign (unlike Tavros and Fef, who took it right in the chest), combined with the destruction of the matriorb, was a metaphor for abortion. Which still makes some sense, but I have no idea how I was going to connect it ith literally anything else in Homestuck .
It's not my fault for not suspecting that the sign being left intact meant that she'd come back as a glowing vampire. I kind of, erm, skimmed through Act 5.1. I was not a fan of the trolls in the beginning, let me tell you.
AC: :33 < have you ever even successfully fired an arrow? AC: :33 < like actually got one to leave the bow?? CT: D --> I think CT: D --> We need to stop talking about archery
Bless.
Also, I forgot that Kanaya and Aradia had a conversation early on.
OK, my new favorite thing about this reread is that--Rose got super into making this FAQ, right, to the point where Dave was all "do you think the nobel prize committee is scouring the dregs of gamefaqs".
And now it turns out, yes, someone was scouring them. It ended up being the girlfriend selection committeee, composed entirely of Kanaya Maryam.
OK, my new favorite thing about this reread is that--Rose got super into making this FAQ, right, to the point where Dave was all "do you think the nobel prize committee is scouring the dregs of gamefaqs".
And now it turns out, yes, someone was scouring them. It ended up being the girlfriend selection committeee, composed entirely of Kanaya Maryam.
Pretty much, yeah. Also the Desperately Seeking Dramatically-Worded Constructive Advice On A Mysterious Situation Committee—also composed entirely of Kanaya Maryam.
^^^ It is really pretty crushing in retrospect to see just how different Aradia was before and after what happened to her and how differently she related to other people and they to her. The loss is palpable.
So I feel kind of bad in retrospect that I haven't spoilered any of the Act Five Act Two stuff, but on the other hand I think it's understood that I'm mainly spoiling stuff that happens significantly later in the story and just saying what immediately comes to mind when I reach a particular spot. So fair warning: If you haven't reached [S] Wake. or so, beware.
I have come to learn in my time as a fan of this comic that the involvement of Terezi is liable to introduce black comedy into basically any situation, no matter how ghastly.
Additionally, I have some things to say about Eridan and Gamzee here that will only fully make sense well into Act Six, and I'm not sure whether or not to wait until I have my working knowledge refreshed by a certain walkaround (and some nifty storytelling well before it) or address it when it initially comes to the fore.
Important aside that, again, will take a while to make sense: Do all Pages have imaginary friends? [Furthermore, are all of those imaginary friends actual people? I get the sense that part of the whole Page deal is that they always have a spirit-guide modelled around someone intimately connected to the player that is at once "fake" and "real," perhaps representing who or what the other player sees as their champion—allowing others to arm themselves with an aspect, or wielding that aspect as a shield.]
And now John is flying the car and there is magic in the air and the silliness of how these references are compounding without actually being intrusive is really something.
Yup. This sequence. Whole lotta 0_0 going on over here all over again.
I don't think I fully exploited the range of options available with Nepeta last time. Seeing her angry cat face when talking about Eridan is just delightful.
I'm not as alarmed by this as I was the first time I read it by any stretch of the imagination, but the colour and scene composition is just brilliant.
John and Vriska's dynamic is a really interesting one. As crazy and vicious as Vriska gets during the human session—and she really, really goes crazy—John almost sneakily brings out the best in her nature, including that tiny whit of compassion that she denies in herself constantly. Dave does the same for Terezi, but as kooky and flip as she is, Terezi does not need a moderating influence the way Vriska does.
Also, Nepeta's observation about Vriska and Terezi's relationship was... you know, I don't think I disagree. It's a fucking weird relationship.
The story becomes pretty sad when you realize that Karkat has to choose between dooming himself and his compatriots and essentially wiping another universe out of existence.
The fact that Karkat chose the former option indicates that he has a lot more integrity than anyone else gives him credit for.
Karkat could’ve told John about the prototyping of Bec and warned him not to communicate with Vriska. John probably wouldn’t have listened anyway, but Karkat could’ve still at least tried. Since the prototyping of Bec was what caused the kids’ universe to be created in the first place, it would lead to it being wiped from existence. It would, however, allow the trolls to cleanly win their own game.
I was saying that Karkat not trying to do that shows that he has integrity because it meant that he’d rather make himself suffer than end other peoples’ lives. Then again, thinking about it harder, I’m not sure that’s integrity so much as it is his own self-loathing. I still say that it says some good things about his character, though.
Karkat is, I have noted time and again, a really stand-up person, and he clearly has a far more developed capacity for empathy than his society would ever approve of. This makes him at once a really fun protagonist—he is a human (troll) prickly pear—but also a tragic one. His society rejects him on every level, and he is trapped in circumstances where things have to go wrong with him at every turn in order for them to go right in the greater scheme of things.
...and now I am beginning to suspect that being a Blood player has almost as much to do with the spilling of blood as the bonds of blood.
Since the prototyping of Bec was what caused the kids’ universe to be created in the first place, it would lead to it being wiped from existence. It would, however, allow the trolls to cleanly win their own game.
While Karkat is a much better guy than he thinks he is, this isn't really how time travel works in Homestuck. If Karkat had been able to convince the kids not to prototype Bec, Bec Noir wouldn't have forced them onto the meteor, meaning they never would have come into contact with the kids, so he wouldn't have been able to communicate with them to tell them not to do that--which would have been a paradox. Paradoxes create doomed timelines, they don't work by nullifying stuff that already happened.
No, there are hope-worthy things. After all, as someone very ingenuous says quite a bit later in the comic (and in different words), if you really believe in something true to you that isn't factually so in the world, you can make it a little more real.
Of course, that can work in a not-so-positive way. Look at Eridan. WWHITE SCIENCE indeed.
^^^ I think I've already gotten up to that point in the comic, actually. I can't find the link now, but I remember Terezi saying something along those lines to Tavros. It is something I should keep in mind anyway, no matter where it's said and who said it, so thanks for saying it now.
^^ It does kinda feel like one at this juncture, but you're right anyway. I will say that the fact I was trying to make up fanon explanations for how Karkat could possibly get the chance to live a decent life says a lot about how strongly Hussie makes you emphasize with him.
^ Yeah, that sounds about right from what I've read so far.
A variant on that line occurs much later in the comic, from the mouth of a very different character. There is a very subtle connection between the two, however.
But yeah, A5A2 gets really dark in the middle. Where are you?
^^ As you can probably tell from my speechifying, I just got up to the point where Bec is prototyped and Karkat has to explain to John how badly he screwed up.
You are nowhere near the nadir of darkness. For point of reference, that's probably [S] Seer: Descend, although it's really a double-dip with the immediate aftermath of [S] Equius: Seek the highb100dbeing the first long stare into the pit.
Although watching Jack rip apart Prospit with the RedGreen Miles is really fucking creepy.
^^ As you can probably tell from my speechifying, I just got up to the point where Bec is prototyped and Karkat has to explain to John how badly he screwed up.
Yeah, it gets really bleak and sad after that point and doesn't let up until... I think the incident with the exploding shaving cream. (And no, that's not really a spoiler without context.)
Although it does contain some really touching moments. Like this exchange between Sollux and Terezi that I was just reading. You may well cry while reading it. I'll leave you to read why when you get to it.
^^ As you can probably tell from my speechifying, I just got up to the point where Bec is prototyped and Karkat has to explain to John how badly he screwed up.
I remember doing a lot of Final Fantasy 6 comparisons back in 2011, even though they didn't fit well.
Back then, I thought Cascade was like the End of the World, and Act 6 was like Searching for Friends, but now I see it's more like [S] Jade: Enter was the End of the World, [S] Cascade was the amazing 20-minute grand finale, and Act 6 is a twisted New Game Plus with dust in the cartridge. :P
Besides, FF6 is kind of shoehorned anyway, because I never played EarthBound. :(
Comments
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Not necessarily a dear place. My early days as a homestuck fan were filled with arguments about how so and so shouldn't have died that way or that quickly.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
^ Yeah, that sounds about right from what I've read so far.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Population: the dead and dying
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