#(also another example of how homestuck's dated)

[tigerbears]

Homestuck Spoilers Out of Context.

[clevercatchphrase]

Ghost Switch's 7th Birthday.

2017 was 8 years ago. I don't like that math. 2018 was 7 years ago, which is slightly more acceptable to me because 8+5=13, and 6.5 is half of 13, and if you round 6.5 up you get 7, but 7+5=12, and 8 is 2/3s of 12 which is more than half of 12 and that is gross because 12x12 is literally gross. (The 5 came from the end of 2025, if you were wondering)

You still with me? Good, because I have some thoughts about the last seven years I've been working on Ghost Switch under the cut.

Ive always had a weird way of contextualizing the passage of time, keeping track of significant or personal events in my life, be they places, or memorable occasions, tying them together in a mental spider web mad of thumbtacks of monumental dates and connected with the red string of my special interests at the time. It's always so insidious, how fast time passes, even though you're there for each moment. It's always so shocking how fast the days and weeks and months add up and suddenly a decade or two have passed.

Ghost switch turns 7 years old in 2 days. 8, that ugly number, if I count the full year of preproduction I spent planning and scripting the outlining and drafting. It's not quite a decade yet, but when it comes to webcomic longevity, it's damn impressive. Homestuck ran for 7 years, from 2009 to 2016. I was reading active updates for 5 of them. My webcomic will never reach the page length or word count of homestuck (thank god), but ghost switch will have actively been updating longer than homestuck has when it finally finishes. In three more years, i'll be able to add Ghost Switch to the list of "webcomic longrunners" on Tv tropes. (Special shout out to the dedicated soul(s) who update Ghost Switch's Tv tropes page, 'cause lord knows I haven't touched the thing after I made it.)

I cant help but compare myself to other Undertale fan comics that I've read and loved and followed. Not as competition or as a standard to live up to, but merely for curiosity's sake. The UnderlineAU by Dustyart and ifellforundertale, Caretaker of the Ruins by eruto, minty and ellipsis, flavor-text-chara by stemmmm, Unexpected Guests by undertalethingems, zombietale (zombie-frisk) by spooks, unofficial-underfell by comicpixel01, and that-one-underfell-comic by blueberryjamsart just to name a few.

And not just the other undertale comics as well. From time to time I find myself revisiting some discontinued deviantart comics from the early 00's like Wurr by Paperiapina, Off-White by Akreon and tanathe/vesner, Over The Mountains And Far Away by Skailla, and The Blackblood Alliance by KayFedewa. All of these stories from other people also doing it for fun and for free the melancholy I feel when they quietly tapper off or go in indefinite hiatus. It's strange to revisit their pages some times, snapshots of the past, perfectly preserved, same as they were when I last saw them update live, like the next page link could update any second.

Granted, not every webcomic started by starry-eyed teens inevitably ends up as unfinished. There are plenty of webcomics that I've followed for years that are also still going to this day. Africa by Arven92, Golden Shrike by Doeprince, Up And Ahead/No North (also by Skailla!), Oren's Forge by Teagan Gavet, and Tofauti Sawa by ThCynicalHound are some notable examples.

It's equal parts empowering and sad to see how many comics i've outlasted, outlived. It's just as humbling to be reminded how many are still going. I've been doing this for 7 years now. If my freakish estimation skills prove true, I'll be doing this for another 5. At time of writing, I am 32 years old. When I finish, I could very well be 38. Even if I decided to quit the comic today, this is by far the longest time I've dedicated to any one art project, one story, one single piece of fan art. Ive spent close to a fifth of my life (20 percent!) working on this comic, always thinking about it at the back of my mind. If it does take me 12 years to finish, that will be almost a whole third. I cant wait to finish. I cant wait to never draw another comic page as long as I live. I cant wait to get back to writing fan fiction and learning other artsy things like crocheting and quilting plush making, woodworking, metal working, stained glass making, all the hands on creating I can think of. Am I finally tired of undertale? No, as I've just said, i've still got a shit ton of fan fiction I gotta finish before I can say "I'm done with you." The hyper fixation has slowly released its grip, though. Enough so that I was able to start exploring other media to get unhealthily obsessed with this year (mostly in the form of anime.)

Undertale turns 10 years old this year, and can you fucking believe the birthday lands on a monday this year? I don't know if I'm going to do anything special for the anniversary like I have in years past. I'll probably just upload a page like normal and not much else.

It's strange to think that a baby was undoubtedly born the day i started this comic, and now they're probably old enough to read and comprehend it if they found it this very day. I don't look forward to the day when I finish, and a grown-ass adult comments on the last page saying; "Loved your story! Ive been reading since middle school and yesterday I graduated with my masters degree!"

Time needs to stop. And not, like, freeze. Just like… Stop. Doing that thing… Passing and changing us subtly and irreversibly without our consent or awareness until years have passed and we suddenly realize we've become different people, all tangentially tied together through this shared connection that is this webcomic I've become unhealthily dedicated to. This comic could very well see 4 different presidents in office across 5 election cycles before it's done. 5 more years… Half a decade more. "You have a true red soul of determination if you kept up the comic for this long!" Maybe. The sunk cost fallacy, the fear of death before finishing, fear of disappointing readers, and an all around general attitude of spite and stubbornness are strong incentives to finish though.

I wish I could say I'm over the hill at this point, but technically I'm not. Yes, I'm half way through but there's no gravity assistance to help roll me down the rest of the way. Comic making is more like mountain climbing. Yeah, I'm half way up, but there's still quite a lot of "up" left to go. The air is getting thinner, and I'm starting to tire, but it's shorter to the summit than to the base at this point. Might as well keep going. I still want to see the view from the top, and marvel at how far I've gone~

[shoegazingmonad]

Hussie's commentary on page 2340 suggests that Bluh panels usually involve a person being exposed to something they'll grow a taste for later, giving the example of Kanaya drinking her lusus' blood as foreshadowing of her becoming a rainbow drinker. So far we've gotten two of these panels in HS2.

Tavvy, Vrissy and Vriska all share a bluh, which sucks because this could either mean whatever's being foreshadowed here applies to all of them or is a case-by-case situation. The combined '8luh,,' would imply it's all three, but I think it's worth discussing other options anyway.

The subject being applied here is suspiciously colourless water with Gamzee's corpse suddenly wrong-side up within the context of the panels before and after, graciously framed to look like the water is spewing from him rather than the sprinklers. Great start.

I shouldn't have to state the obvious here - this is just another one of homestuck's classic bukkake jokes. You could interpret this as them having toxic masculinity shoved down their throats since this is something worth gagging over, or it could indicate gender and / or sexuality changes later. Candy is very focused on cisheteronormativity, so it's possible that Tavros might end up dating a guy or that Vrissy might end up being a guy.

There's also the 'seeds as bombs' interpretation, which is an arguement applied to doc scratch's cueballs but I still think works fine here, as though the seed / bombs raining down on them is an omen of Jane activating her 'contigency plan'. Though right after this we get GC associating bombs with self-destruction / sabotage, so this could mean that they might adopt those tendencies in the future.

My first thought for the water interpretation involves Rose's new species; we know they're aquatic and that Vrissy is (likely) in contact with one of them, and that they seem to be romantically interested in her, so it could signal a developing relationship between the two. There's also connections between drowning and loss of control - the panel does make it look like that's what's happening here after all, which could make it another reference to how out-of-control everything has been getting in Candy recently.

You could also interpret the water as sweat, as though his very essence is rubbing off onto them perhaps in the same way that his aspect tends to rub off onto people. Or as milk - which in the search for a plausible explanation has reminded me that in Gamzee's 'redemption arc' rituals he uses milk in a way John' compares to baptism. It's as though Gamzee is washing their sins away - and all of a sudden the choice to depict 3 characters simultaneously makes sense to me; they're supposed to represent a trinity.

Baptising someone is defined as 'sprinkling or pouring water on the head, or by immersing in water either partially or completely, traditionally three times, once for each person of the Trinity.' Since Tavros, Vrissy and Vriska are all being baptised together at once rather than thrice per person, it's likely they're stand-ins for each trinity member. The order of 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit' commonly uttered during baptism could apply to the order they're in here, with Tavros as Father, Vrissy as Son and Vriska as the Holy Spirit... though as of now, I'm unsure as to how this applies to them at all.

There's the odd timing of this symbolic 'redemption', too. I'm not sure why they're being redeemed now, what for, or by who specifically but Gamzee forgiving them for killing him doesn't seem too unbelievable seeing as he'll probably just be back later.

Yiffy's has a few obvious topics, Jade's doting, embarrassment (what they state the situation to be), maternal love and vulnerability, - something they've shown to take issue with showing in front of others. There's the option that this somehow ties into the previous Bluh's themes of christianity, too.

So back to that for a moment; there's a noticeably devilish aspect to Yiffy's design with the dog ears looking like horns, the general sharpness and the red. I guess you could propose them as an 'antichrist' because of that but it wouldn't fit much with the panel itself, so it's unlikely that it's got much to do with the previous bluh.

Anyway, easiest suggestions for what it means would be that Yiffy'll come to appreciate Jade's affections later, or get over their insecurities regarding vulnerability / public embarassment. There's the narration to go off of too, as Yiffy's described as 'an unconscious patient in the clutches of their sadistic nurse' with the 'nursing' being the relentless kissing. This brings to mind corpse smooching, which frames Yiffy as a possible substitute for Dave?

Jade does say herself that Yiffy exists because she needs her to, and I'm sure that extends to Yiffy as someone she can genuinely love and care for in a way she doesn't seem to be able to with Dave considering how awkward their relationship is in the epilogues (and also the fact that they were somehow so distant that Dave never even learnt Yiffy existed). Perhaps when Jade finds someone else she can love unconditionally and wholly without complaint, Yiffy will miss the attention Jade gave them?

Or maybe I'm going the wrong direction with the corpse smooching arguement, and Yiffy's annoyed that Jade is trying to kiss the life back into them after their scuffle with Jane? I'm a little less sure of a deeper meaning for this one.

[lilacflowersss]

now, I shouldn't have to go into much depth, because most people already understand the sheer power of jake english's sword, but there are still many ignoramuses cavorting about spreading their gross void-fueled lies across the land. If this doesn't work, I'm gonna have to resort to euthanasia.in This Panel, Jane, Jake, and Jade are looking at the front of Jake's pants, obviously to look at his wonderful bulge. Why else would they be looking at the front of his pants?Hope players are known to need something to conduct their hope magic with. For Eridan it's his wand, Cronus's is unknown but I assume that it's also a wand. For Jake nothing much sticks out... other than his massive bulge. The only reason he can’t use his Hope powers without outside help is because he’s Jake and he sucks at everything. (An exciting implication of this is Jake's semen most likely glows with hope powers and is probably extremely tasty.)To me, John is much more attractive then Jake, both in looks and in personality, and yet Jake gets much more attention then John does. The reason that Homestuck shoves in our faces most often is Jake’s tight, juicy ass, but this alone doesn’t explain the field of pure lust that Jake creates around him. The only reasonable explanation is his impeccable, S+ tier dick.ImplicationsWhat does having the greatest dick in Homestuck mean for Jake Homestuck? Well, for one, we know that god tier costumes are indestructible, no matter how much pressure is put on them. Due to Jake having the platonic ideal of a dick, his dick is most likely incredibly hard and nearly impossible to bend, leading to a situation like thisNote: his sprite doesn't actually appear like this in Homestuck because the art style is complete shit.As you can see, due to Jake's spandex being indestructible, his penis is forced to bend. This situation is most likely an incredibly painful experience for Jake, and he probably immediately changed out of his spandex as soon as he got the chance. (The ideal pants for Jake would probably be tight around his ass to show off his tight, meaty ass and loose around his pelvis area so that it isn't painful for him and it shows the full length of his girthy sword. The material sagging wouldn't be a problem because when you have a good enough penis you can get hard at will.)Another implication that this could have is the discrepancy between his physical appearance and his psyche. His physical appearance absolutely screams "top", and yet his personality is "bottom". This has most likely caused many a discomfort in his stupid, pitiful life. For example, when Dirk and Jake were dating each other they most likely both wanted to be the bottom, Jake most likely got quite the shock when Dirk was like "Dominate me daddy uwu." and even more of a shock when he saw Dirk's small, weak penis because at this point Jake has probably only seen his own penis in his entire life and therefore most likely had impossibly high expectations, which has probably contributed to what seems to be a preference towards women. This most likely contributed to the downfall of Jake and Dirk's relationship, as well as make Jane infuriated with Jake enough to fuck a gross clown.Final RatingSize: 5/5Shape: 5/5Blood flow: 5/5Comfort: 5/5Color: 4/5Semen: 5/5Ball Symmetry: 5/5Durability: 2/5Total Rating: 4/5Jake English by far has the greatest penis in all of homestuck

Anon what the actual fuck

[davekat-sucks]

This is in response to the anon that posted this-- dad egbert and mom lalonde having something between them makes all the beta kids related. anon is kinda sorta right but ultimately, the incest in homestuck is just kinda something you gotta role with and the fandom shouldn't care so much about. I want to say my take on the family tree of homestuck. John and Jade are siblings. Jake and Jane are their parents. John's dad is his half brother since Nanna is John and Dad's mother. Jane's dad was Alpha John's son. That's why Jane's dad hugged John at the very end of Homestuck. Dave and Rose are siblings. Dirk and Roxy are their parents. John's grandmother, nanna was raised by the Empress. The Empress descendent is Feferi. John and Jade are related to Feferi through something a kin to adoption but it's nothing to really be that concerned about. ((This is more easily understandable with a visual chart.)) Incest is a bit of a theme throughout homestuck but since everything about the trolls is so alien, it's easy to ignore. It's also hard to know if Mituna is Sollux's ectobiological dad or if it's the other way around. Either way, Karkat made all of the trolls that played the game in a lab. The empress had noncon sex with beta Mituna who was her slave she kept with her for thosands of years. Both their direct decedents ended up dating. Feferi and Sollux is somewhat an incest couple. That's an example of why you really shouldn't care. The moment you think too hard about how much incest is in homestuck, you go down a rabbit hole.

If only the fandom can be okay with incest since people still bitch at others for liking Dersecest. But then again, if people ship DirkRoxy by making Roxy trans, incest is suddenly fine? Or just another case of pick and choose which incest is okay and not okay. Like people saying KatNep is bad cause it is incest incest (cause Signless and Disciple are lovers, making them their kids) despite trolls are fine with it. Like troll incest is fine when people ship Vrisrezi, but human ones like JohnJade is suddenly bad?

[dullorangepulp]

Rereading Act 6 Intermission 3, specifically John's 15th birthday party scene, & seeing him already exhibit signs of clinical depression, long before it was fully addressed in the epilogues, is really heartbreaking to me & I wanna rant about it.

(Pages I'm talking about: 5265-5307)

His favourite movie, Con Air, doesn't even bring him the same joy it used to anymore. A very common symptom of depression is a loss of interest in activities/hobbies/anything that used to make you happy. Even though yes, Con Air is objectively an awful movie, it was still something John cared about, so watching him completely switch gears & start tearing into the film like it killed his father really speaks to how there's more going on with him than what's shown on the surface. Jade tells him that it's fine & even if he doesn't like the movie now, he can still cherish the fond memories he has of it on a nostalgic level. John however just brushes her off because he's become so bitter & averse to things changing. (another symptom of depression)

Speaking of, here's an example: when he learns that Jade & Davesprite broke up, he gets so mad because, according to him, their relationship was "the glue holding the ship together", he heavily fixates on this idea that they were "the rock" anchoring the ship, even when Jade protests that absurd notion. When John asks why they broke up, Jade explains that it's because Davesprite was going through a lot of stuff, & wanted to be alone for a while to figure himself out. John gets pissed & calls him a douche, because at this point in the story he doesn't understand what kinds of problems Davesprite (& also the real Dave, but if we get into all of that then we'll be here all day) is dealing with. He's even more pissed about this than Jade, because while yes, Jade is sad about the breakup because she's always been in love with Dave, she understands if Davesprite just needs time to himself, & she's fully willing to give him all the space he needs.

Anyways, after John lets it go, he finds the note Davesprite wrote of him impersonating John's late father. A joke that, while yes, is in pretty poor taste given that it's the 2 year Anniversary of his death, John completely loses it over. He snaps & hurls some rather hurtful words at Davesprite, lashing out on his own best bro (something lots of people who're going through depressive episodes can end up doing, even if they don't mean to) & attacking some of his deepest insecurities. I would go into just how every specific thing John says hurts Davesprite, & really dive into his character & his struggles & stuff, but then we'd be here all day & that's not really the point of this rant.

But like, just look at this:

There's a bunch of little things too, like when Jade points out that John's been in a crappy mood these days, he says "i am fine. this MOVIE is what's crappy these days", essentially lashing out at the world around him & blaming it for his irritable attitude. Or when he snaps at Jaspersprite to shut up. Or when he complains that shrinking down to visit the planets is "a whole big deal" because he has to ask Jade to use her powers, whereas she can just shrink herself whenever, even after she points out that she doesn't mind it. Such a small, innocuous thing is overblown in his mind as this big monumental deal, as if he's burdening Jade & encroaching on her personal boundaries whenever he interrupts her dates to ask permission for her to use her powers on him.

...Yeah I don't really know how to end this rant. Uhhhh the homestuck epilogues are actually secretly pretty decent & yall are sleeping on them. I (mostly) like them because they're about John & I like John & I have recently developed a massive crush on him & she's my wife. Anyways when does the main website get fixed?

[way2manyusernamez]

there are some videos on youtube about a situation with a roblox game called Free Draw, that I felt got some things wrong

(recap of situation based on the videos I've watched)

the main incident was basically: the admin of Free Draw (Nicole) started allowing unbans for people who drew porn in the game or who were predatory to children. She started saying that "anyone can change" and therefore predatory users should be let back into the space where they preyed on children? within just a year?? the moderation team protested this change to the rules, but Nicole said the changes were coming anyway. Nicole later made a statement that was like “oops, i didn’t think about how it’s bad to let a predator back into the space where they groomed children! my bad!” but people seem to not believe that anything changed, and that this statement was a lie that she didn't even write

also, Nicole is friends with someone named KonekoKitten. People are saying that KonekoKitten admitted to predatory/grooming behavior (I am not very familiar with this situation) but the admin says that KonekoKitten's cancellation was 'bullshit'.

also, apparently Nicole (a 19 year old) is dating (and moved in with) someone named Jaspup (31, she/he/it). Jaspup has a Bluesky where she reblogs lolicon/adbl/babyfur stuff, and seems to be interested in incestplay. i can't find the bluesky or website any more but i did see them.

(end of recap)

the youtubers point out the obvious stuff, but also go off onto weird tangents that I disagree with? like, one of them brought up God and seeking forgiveness via Jesus more than once (fooly_grulee's vid). another one keeps calling the admin & her girlfriend “degenerates” over and over and claiming that their ‘brains were poisoned by extreme porn’ (greenlegocats123's vid).

i feel like these videos partially missed the mark. and felt kind of right-wing? you don’t need to be Christian, against "extreme porn", or be not "degenerate"* to oppose predators in your community.

(* if you disagree with me on this point, please find a word for predators that doesn't sound like a nazi dogwhistle for minorities.)

i don't really know what to think of lolicon at this point. On one hand, I don't think enjoying it necessarily makes someone dangerous, I don't think it should be illegal if it really is fictional, and I can't stand people who call it "CP" or "kiddy porn" or "cheeze pizza" or any other cutesy name that people also use for ACTUAL child sexual abuse videos. On the other hand, it's often a red flag for someone having a predatory mindset, I think it's kind of trashy and definitely shouldn't be looked to for moral guidance, and it should be kept as far away from people who don't want to see it as possible.

.

Less structured thoughts under cut

the commenters keep using words like "pdf file" i cant stand it 😭😭😭get me out of here

.

Mostly unrelated, but it's kind of interesting that there are so many things in this story that I am tangentially aware of? For example,

I played on Free Draw (though a long time before this happened)

I watched KonekoKitten before, but stopped way before any of the callout stuff happened

I do not know much about the alleged grooming, but I heard the name Narpy, who I remember from some silly videos I watched a long time ago

Some of the people Jaspup tweeted from were people I knew of

I have been looking at the art of Wolfertinger. (apparently there's also some drama with him but i haven't spent a lot of time looking into it. i just think his art looks good)

She was also retweeting from Cadet-Blu/longcadetblu. (I was almost acquainted with someone who seemed to be a big Cadet-Blu fan. Awful person! To be clear, i don't know if Cadet-Blu them(?)self has done anything bad besides post all that fucked up Homestuck art.)

Princess Aggy, who I remember from some callout Youtube videos I watched a long time ago

[borzoilover69]

> BORZOI: Read Homestuck like its 2011 (Part one)

Hi guys, this is me doing long posts while i reread homestuck! Let me get this out of the way first, I'm going to be starting with the alpha kids because i have a LOT to say about them and ramble, but I have read everything up until this point. Long post be aware, lots of meta.

I could probably do a psycho-analysis of these two pages and their blurbs respectively, but what I like about the alpha kids is how apparent their character voice is even in secondary voice than the betas. This isn't flack to the betas by any regards but in terms of introductions the beta sessions sort of wiffle-waffled around it rather than it seem like you were really IN TUNE with their thoughts.

However here with the two's rather lengthy introductions, they list everything and in a way that makes you feel comfortable they're sort of directly thinking it. Whether it's using their slang, with Jane talking about her daunting reputation she feels she has to live up to through the bloodline passed down, and her like for amateur botany (which i completely glossed over and holy COW does it open so many oppurtunities here for it to be picked up post game) to Jake talking about his want to talk about the things he wants to do and share with others, and being generally resigned and saying he doesn't care but acting a lot like he DOES care about his image even with this first approach

" You're known to be found with your nose in a comic book or two not that it makes you a nerd or anything, like you even CARE about that! "

"You bluster frequently of exuberance for FIREARMS and FISTICUFFS and ADVENTURE though have no human company with which to share these interests but who needs chums?"

He emphasises at length to the reader from the get go what he likes and what he really is enthusiastic about, even when its about things he says he vehemently doesnt care about (and he does). And once again, there's that vague sort of. I don't know how to put it, but especially with that last line about a skull being at the heart of any mystery, haunting its every PAGE, it leads to an idea he may be more aware of a narrative that needs to be played out than he usually lets on, which I will extrapolate on later.

Also, I think its so very ironic that Jane despite being a detective is the most clueless out of the Alpha kids on what happens (due to constant brainwashing subliminal messages most likely ingrained since childhood. Its like a subconcious need for her to find out reflecting back on her and her ignorance.

Also another note, upon reading back, is how they quite literally make vague mentions to their classpects, how cool is that? > When it does, you will waste no time in embarking on the games MAIDEN VOYAGE, you are prepared to have the time of your LIFE!!

>There is a good SKULL at the heart of any mystery, haunting its EVERY PAGE. At least, it is what you always HOPE.

4121

Have i ever mentioned I headcanon Jake as a Fil-Aus mix (like me)? Well now you know. Not to mention his planets influence being quite obviously the Luzon rice terraces and the Chocolate hills in Bohol, places I've had the absolute pleasure of visiting and romping around. There's a few hot springs nestled amidst the Rice fields, did you know that? Do you realise what this means? Hell yes. I'm really happy Jake got to visit those too TBH. This man probably tried sinigang and adobo.

4122 and 4125

Another great example of character voice. I'm actually really fond of Jane because of how forthright her character voice is compared to Egbert. SHE'S taking charge of the story, and she's one of the most stubborn opinionated girls in the cast, beside Rose. (Which I will touch on at a later date). A stubborn 16 year old that wants things to be DONE.

I guess another reason I like the alpha kids as characters is because they're so much more openly flawed than the beta kids. You have to work to like and understand them, and even then most of it is lost on the fandom, unless it's Roxy due to how her character plays out, we see her character get BETTER contrasting her friends and how they got REALLY QUITE A BIT WORSE. Also talking so much about her LIFE and how he enjoys it is something i like to read. Shes adding life to her background whether its through talking about her past or life experiences and thoughts, and i find it so interesting that the alpha kids show such deficits later on yet so intrinsically wrapped with their aspects.

Also pointing out what bullshit alchemy systems are. Some of those combos are downright preposterous and it's so bafflingly curious.

Life is clearly a joy to Jane, she gets a lot of sweet loot that keeps her generally accommodated and comfortable, which, I can get. Why would you doubt the things and megacorp applications you regularly use when they're the most prominently focused and promoted in your life? I mean sure you could realise that Google is generally fucked and a giant evil corporate entity and fuck off using it but it's not going to make a lot of people quit it even if its blasting subliminal messages into your head. (Cough twitter cough cough).

4127

She would totally watch Sherlock and Hannibal and Brooklyn 99 she is just a well rounded detective fellow! A television guru. I get her. Eating toast or pancakes while watching these nitty gritty crime shows in the morning and you see a dead body and go "oooh detective how'll we solve this case now." Which brings me up to another point and I guess it's how desensitized a lot of the kids to some degree (BUT MORE PROMINENTLY THE ALPHAS) are with death, and how they deal with it a LOT to some degree. You know in my original notes for this I wrote a lot about dead bodies and how such and such would react but I'll. Save you from having to suffer from that.

I just really like Jane because of how energetic she seems, willing to make jokes and rib on people in playful jest and stuff. A life player is lively get it.

"Comics aren't really your thing but you hung it up anyway because that's the sort of thing you do in a mildly escalating feud of passive-aggressive one-upsmanship. You *own* it."

I laughed when I saw this. If anyone would see something as a passive-aggressive nudge on their psyche, it's Rose and Jane, the two most stubborn #girl characters of the cast adamant to forging their own paths (but never truly being the mastermind behind it). Knowing Jake, it's so totally one-sided, Jake probably really not thinking much of it but a little poke back. God he's such a little freak and a weirdo.

4129

I had to think a bit about this. On one hand, she’s well aware that characteristically speaking, these things line up with her friends, and their interests, and it’s bad manners to buy something for your friends bday that seems more directed towards yourself than at your friend. On the other hand, she sees the sentiment and motion made behind them which is. so sweet.

4130

Really neat parallel between page 28 and page 4130.

And yet again I'm struck by the contrast between the Alpha and Beta sessions. Comparing how the betas session start at spring, a season of starting fresh, where things start to bloom, of hope, of new beginnings and oppurtunities and adventure and exploring a world, to the Alphas session starting in late fall, where the trees lose their leaves, a season represented by the late stages of maturity and decline and decay, especially death. It drives me fucking mental I tell you.

4133

"Looks like somebody is bothering you. He better make it quick! You've got a window to stay glued to."

She's so PASSIONATE about things she wants. I love her.

4135

Clearly, I'm an idiot, because I never noticed the subliminal messages, or rather forgot them, until now. I too have fallen into the trap.

4136 AND HERE WE HAVE IT FOLKS. THE SCRIMBLY SCRUMBO. THE SILLY FELLOW. HIS FIRST TRUE APPEARANCE!! [ APPLAUSE ]

GT: Jane! GT: Forgive my botherations. I know this is meant to be a spanking ripsnorter of a day for you and all. GT: But do you happen to know where the devilfucking dickens mr strider might be?

AND THE FIRST THING HE MENTIONS IS HIS BEST FRIEND. *Rolls around on the floor sobbing.*

I think it's interesting how Jane and Roxy seem rather fond of the autoresponder, but Jake and Dirk to some degree really seem to dislike it (for reasons that become more clear later on), Jake even rebutting what he knows of Dirk to Jane. Maybe it's just musing on my part, but I naturally assume Dirk has aired some sort of frustration about AR to Jake and Jake alone, if it was just Jakes gripes with the thing he would mention it (which he does), but here he mentions Striders distaste for it even though the girls both point out its incredibly helpful.

Just a really funny line.

Jane has a point. Its a passive aggressive poke at Jane to consider.

Did i mention how much I adore the alpha kids in general and their narration? Their voices are so clear. Shes so inquisitive.

4141 and 4143

Hello mister.

4144 AND HERES CALLIE!!!!! :DDD!!!!! :DDD!!!!! >v< >v< Oh you silly GOOBER you. Also be warned for future I'm always so excited to see ALL the alpha kids, and their little quirks that are so fond. I can imagine Callie pacing her room considering how they would say this and writing it all down in that massive tome of theirs.

You're telling me John Egbert was this guy? Ok that IS sort of John like. And rather funny! Hahaha! Hes got such a witty charm to him!

From a youtube comment:

He owned a magic shop in New Orleans during his final years. He was a very good guy, and I think probably one of the more influential characters for me as far as style and humour. The whole show was amazing, although it was every week night it never got old. The show afterwards was always Cheers...which wad good but more verbal than the slap stick audacity in Night Court.

OH HOLY COW THAT IS EGBERT!! WHAT THE FUCK THATS SO COOL! As for the actual Harry Anderson..

Its so fucking cool. Anyways i gotta go get my haircut so imma wrap up here.

[relaxxattack]

i am a little confused on the homestuck quadrants i think they're called? you know, the ones with the card symbols, could you explain those?

BOY COULD I !!!!!!!!! ( <- has a special interest in this and is vibrating at the speed of light )

alright, so, first of all there's four of them. one for each card symbol.

humans use the heart symbol for our romance (♥) but since troll romance is so much more complicated, they use four symbols. hence where the card deck comes from.

i'm going to try to explain this as simply as possible when it's really incredibly complicated stuff- i mean, human romance is the same and there's only one of it- so just bear with me here, haha.

matespritship ♥

when a troll feels flushed towards someone, and dates them in the flushed quadrant, that's their matesprit. this quadrant is one of the physical/reproductive ones, and it's based on positive emotions (pity). it's similar to human romance, i would say, although possibly with less emotional leeway.

pretty easy, so let's move on.

kismesissitude ♠

this is the pitch quadrant, your pitch partner is called your kismesis. this one is also a physical/reproductive quadrant, but instead of being about positive emotions (pity) it's based on negative ones (hate).

this is someone that you hate so much you want to be in a relationship with them about it. in better terms, they're your rival. the person you are driven to challenge and fight, and always be better than.

the partners in this relationship must be equal and hate each other equally, otherwise there's no point. because if they aren't equal how are they challenging or fighting one another? they must also respect each other and actually want to better each other, for similar reasons.

here's a quote from karkat i really like about the respect you have to feel towards your kismesis to properly challenge and hate each other:

*alt text in image. full quote: x

pitch romance is important to trolls, and it's not just about fucking someone you hate like people generally like to assume.

moirallegiance ♦

a troll's pale partner is also called their moirail. this is the first of the non-reproductive relationships. although some people might tell you this is like a platonic best friendship, that is false. a moirallegiance is a romance. and it's a very important one in troll society- in fact it is practically a job!

the purpose of a moirail is to protect a dangerous troll from themselves and others. this means to tend to them emotionally, to guard their heart, to watch out for their other relationships. you know everything about this troll, you help with their mental issues and their place in the world. the main focus of this is to calm them down, usually, as many trolls have rage issues.

moirails will often be closer to each other than other quadrants, and build nest-like piles together to canoodle in while they talk about their feelings. it's all very intimate, really.

*alt text in image. full quote: x

(canon will tell you that dangerous, violent trolls are always palemates with even-tempered, "good" trolls who tend them. but i personally don't believe this to be true. a moiraillegiance, like any relationship, gives both partners benefits if it lasts. for example, you may assume nepeta simply calms equius, but there's plenty of evidence that he does his best to protect her in different ways too.)

auspisticism ♣

an ashen mediator, or an auspistice, is a facilitator between a pair of trolls who feel themselves starting to hate each other. the point of this auspistice, or middle leaf, is to foster communication and calm down both parties at once, to stop them from letting their annoyance towards each other develop into an actual pitch relationship. this is also one of the non-reproductive relationships.

usually this is because it would interfere with another relationship or friendgroup as a whole, possibly by causing pitch infidelity.

this is probably the most confusingly defined troll romantic relationship, and definitely the most underrated. it would be nice to know more about it.

in the end, we have these four types of romantic relationship.

the top two, or the red romances, are the ones that are based on positive pity.

the lower two, or the black romances, are based on negative emotions, hate.

the left two are concupiscent- aka dealing with sexual reproduction. the right two are conciliatory, aka dealing with calming someone else down.

that's the simplest way i can put troll romance. i hope it makes sense? feel free to ask me any questions :]

[mudstoneabyss]

can you make a list of your top indie horror game recs ::3

yeah! so these wont be in order of what i like the most, they're just going to be here in whatever order I think of them. i'm also trying to go with what I think are more lesser-known ones, and if one is more popular it'll because I think it's one people write off that are actually good. as i'm writing this i'm going back up to say the descriptions for these will become less detailed because i got tired and cant keep repeating the art!! the atmosphere!!

Scarlet Hollow: A heavily choice-based horror mystery visual novel about going back to Scarlet Hollow- a small town in south historically ran by your family- for the funeral of your late aunt. its episodic and there are currently only 4 of the 7 episodes out. even with just them it is my favorite game. I love the writing and the art and the whole atmosphere of the game AND the soundtrack brought Brandon Boone (the composer) into my top 5 artists in my spotify wrapped last year

Slay the Princess: Another choice-based horror visual novel (and dating sim!) by the creators of Scarlet Hollow where you are tasked with, well, slaying the princess to prevent the destruction of the entire world. It's only a demo right now-releasing q3 of this year- but I'm excited for the whole game! my selling point for it with my followers is that the narrator (and some other characters) are voiced by Jonny Sims and hey podcast fans you like him check out this game

Endacopia: A click and point horror game inspired by Humongous Entertainment games such as Pajama Sam. Currently also a demo and set to release in October of 2024, I can not emphasize enough how excited I am for it. The game's style is so fun and there's lots of little details and the music??? There's two musical numbers in the demo alone. Some of the style and writing also reminds me of Undertale and even Homestuck somewhat (I say as someone who hasn't read homestuck)

FAITH: The Unholy Trinity: This is an 8-bit style horror game inspired by the 1980s Satanic Scare coming in 3 chapters with multiple endings, a very good example of games not needing high-end realistic graphics to be scary

Doki Doki Literature Club: Glances at my icon. who could've seen this one coming. I feel like most people know about ddlc by now, even if they don't know anything past "horror anime dating sim". It starts off for a long while a seemingly normal, if bland, visual novel dating sim until-seemingly suddenly- twisting into psychological horror. There's, however, a lot of foreshadowing once you see the beginning again after knowing what will happen. Honestly I think this games brilliant and its such a shame it somehow got lumped in with "cringe" mascot horror (its not even a mascot horror game?). For me a lot of the horror comes from the amount of scares left up to a random percentage- and how subtle a lot of them are. You can replay it and have a fairly different experience than you did the first time- and be scared by completely new things. There's also this existential and cosmic horror element that is less one you experience while playing it, i think, and more thinking about it afterwards. This isn't even touching on a lot of the secrets and easter eggs. a few years after the original game came out, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus was released, and it leaves the og game experience essentially untouched while adding a new vn experience the length of the og game (thats seemingly horror-less) as well as some more lore to the world, not of the game, but around the game, and builds more on the existential/cosmic horror. Needless to say from the length of this, I adore this game. also take the content warnings seriously, in the (free) og the game opens with warnings and a link to a page with specific tws, and in ddlc+ you are given the options to see those warnings listed before starting the game, as well as the ability to turn on tw pop-ups before game events

Home Safety Hotline: Also currently a demo, a horror game where you work for a home safety hotline, answering calls to help people deal with pests and other household problems. as the game progresses you get some more... off-putting calls and access to more unusual problems. I love games that put you into the role of someone who works a mundane job dealing with horrifying shit (similar reasoning to why I like the I'm On Observation Duty games, which I think are more popular rn than I want to put on this list)

NiGHT SIGNAL: By the same creator of Home Safety Hotline, this one's a short one about getting a new tv set and finding some strange channels during the night, inspired by The Twilight Zone and a 1995 game, The Dark Eye. A lot of the art in the game is done with clay which creates this really nice uncanny look and atmosphere- details about which you can see in an artbook you unlock after playing the game, which is REALLY cool I adore seeing the creativity behind and what goes into games like these.

and there's a bunch more I like, these are just the ones off the top of my head and I also dont feel like typing a bunch more dfnafnsk I'll also say if yall haves one you really like that I havent mentioned feel free to send an ask talking about them

[undertale-data]

[Image Description: an Undertale textbox with “INTRODUCTION AND DEMOGRAPHICS” in all caps in its middle. To its left and right are a radar screen and an egg, sun, and "WED" from the Dating Hub. End I.D.]

Our sample size consisted of a total of 2651 responses. We did not set any sort of age restriction to take the survey, and no other qualification than self identifying yourself as part of the Undertale fandom.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “AGE OF UNDERTALE FANS”. In clockwise order, the results: 31%, or 812 responders, are 13-17 years old; 44% or 1160 are 18-24; 15%, or 398, are 25-30; 6%, or 158, are 31-40; 0%, or 6, are 41-50; 3%, or 91, preferred not to answer, and 1%, or 25, are 12 and below. End I.D.]

The age group most represented is composed of people between 18 to 24 years old (also known as emerging adults), corresponding to 44% of all participants. They are followed by teenagers aged 13 to 17 years old (31%) and young adults aged 25 to 30 years old (15%)

(Many more demographics under the cut.)

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “GENDER OF UNDERTALE FANS”. In clockwise order, the results: 374, or 14%, are male; 1144, or 43%, are female; 789, or 30%, are nonbinary; 167, or 6%, identify as ‘other’, and 177, or 7%, prefer not to say. End I.D.]

In terms of gender, most people identified as female with a total of 43%, followed by nonbinary with 30% and male with 14%.  A significant amount of people responded with “Other,” explaining their identity (or questioning) more in depth.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “UNDERTALE FANDOM AND LGBT+ IDENTITY”. In clockwise order, the results: 1949, or 73%, identify as LGBT+; 293, or 11%, do not identify as LGBT+; 280, or 11%, are questioning; and 129, or 5%, prefer not to say. End I.D.]

Considering the great amount of LGBT+ representation present in Undertale, we decided to ask people whether they identify themselves as part of this community. The majority, 73%, has declared to be a part of it. It is relevant to add that 5% chose not to say, and 11% were questioning. It is possible that media containing well developed representation draws more people to it; many people said that the reason they liked certain characters was being able to feel represented as a minority.

[ID: a pie chart titled: “LOCATIONS OF UNDERTALE FANS”. In clockwise order its results: 1788 responders, or 67%, are from North America; 420 responders, or 16%, are from Europe; 141 responders, or 5%, are from Asia; 94 responders, or 4% are from South America; 83 responders, or 3%, are from Australia; 11 responders, or 0% are from the Pacific Islands; 22 responders, or 1% are from “Other” locations; 92 responders, or 4%, selected ”Prefer not to say.” End of ID.]

The internet has made the game known all over the world, which motivated us to look into the way its fans are distributed around the globe. It is important to consider that since this survey is in English, people were more likely to respond to it if they understood the language, whether it is their native language or not (like Vessel #1, who’s writing this paragraph). It would be interesting if other communities did a similar exercise in the future by translating the survey. 

Having said that, we present the results. To get these numbers some of the answers were distributed into their corresponding existing group, and at least three new categories were created.

North America: 1788 votes 

Europe: 420 

Asia: 141 votes

South America: 94 votes

Australia: 83 votes

The most represented area is North America, which is no surprise considering it’s composed by a majority of native English speakers. It should also be noted that considering Toby Fox is from the US, it makes sense that people with a similar cultural background would more likely hear about Undertale and join the fandom. Europe follows with 420 votes, which could be due to their usage of the English language either as a native language or a frequently taught second one. Asia has a similar situation, however, if we take global population estimates (e.g: 141 per 4.561 billion in the case of Asia compared to Europe with 420 fans in an area with a population of around 746 million people), we can see that the density of Asian fans is drastically lower. After that we have both South America and Australia with a similar amount of votes. In those cases, knowledge of the English language may also factor into the density. Common social media used around the world could also be a factor but we do not have enough data to draw any conclusions.

92 people preferred not to specify and 50 people answered the survey with “Other”, giving their explanation. A few of these responses were put in bigger categories (Canada is in North America, for example). Besides them, the most notable group were Pacific Islanders, making up 11 people, 3 more than Africa. Due to their sizes, further investigation is needed to know if this is a replicable result or just the product of the places the survey was able to reach this time.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “YEAR FANS FIRST EXPERIENCED UNDERTALE”. In clockwise order, its results: 937 responders, or 35%, experienced it in 2015; 687, or 26%, experienced it in 2016; 231, or 9%, experienced it in 2017; 181, or 7%, experienced it in 2018; 123, or 5%, experienced it in 2019; 145, or 5%, experienced it in 2020; 88, or 3%, experienced it in 2021; 231, or 9%, don’t know when they experienced it, and 25, or 1%, have never experienced Undertale. End I.D.]

We asked about the exposure to the source material. After all, to be a fan of something, you should know about it. The biggest proportion of fans experienced Undertale for the first time in 2015 and 2016, with those two years amounting for more than half of our sample. As for people who have only started playing during this year, they represent 3% of all participants.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “YEAR FANS FIRST EXPERIENCED DELTARUNE”. In clockwise order, its results: 1585 responders, or 60% of those responding, experienced Deltarune in 2018; 275, or 10%, experienced Deltarune in 2019; 213, or 8%, experienced it in 2020; 126, or 5%, experienced it in 2021; 115, or 4%, don’t know; 253, or 10%, have not played but want to; 77, or 3%, have not played and don’t plan to; and 7, or 0%, do not know what Deltarune is. End I.D.]

Many people are familiar with Deltarune as well. Most of them played the first chapter of the game as it was released in 2018, and other people followed in the next few years. Among the people that didn’t play, 253 manifested interest in playing in the future, while 77 stated they knew of the game’s existence but did not plan on playing it.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled "HOW FANS FOUND UNDERTALE". In clockwise order, its results: 870 responders, or 33%, saw someone play it online; 576 responders, or 22%, were introduced by a friend; 539, or 20%, saw fancontent first; 195, or 7%, read reviews or recommendations on social media; 63, or 3%, came through the Kickstarter before release; 50, or 2%, came through a different fandom; 34, or 1%, came by following Toby Fox, Temmie Chang, or other collaborators; 221, or 8%, came through another way; and 101, or 4%, don't remember how. End I.D.]

33% of responders found Undertale by watching someone play it online.  The next largest categories were those who were introduced by friends or saw fancontent first, comprising 22% and 20%, respectively.  These statistics are indicative of the love that fans have for Undertale: they want to share the game with others, whether by creating and sharing fancontent, or just by talking about the game positively enough to inspire others to give it a chance.  In the “other” category, many fans mentioned specific fanworks or AUs as their reasoning for giving Undertale a chance.  Other common answers in the “other” category were through the soundtrack, through memes, through connections to Homestuck, and through curiosity about the infamous fandom.  One humorous response that stuck out said, “I was searching for the word ‘sand’ and had wrote ‘sans’ by wrong.”

[tomatograter]

What are your Thots on jake’s pq route?

I already wrote some about it in this post where I discuss the problem with taking dirkjake as a literal parallel to tavris (Mainly, that it’s inaccurate to both situations and misrepresents the dynamics at play) but it’s been long enough since release that I feel like I can talk about it without that criticism being taken as a personal witch hunt. TL;DR: As a general rule of thumb I don’t cite Jake’s PQ as part of his characterization, and I think basing your Jakewriting on it will only lead you astray.

I liked a lot of the Pesterquest routes and the alphas were among some of my favorites, but I think when you play the four of them in sequence Jake’s really... stands as the odd one out. It’s almost as if he’s afforded way less sympathy from the get go for some indiscernible reason, or like MSPAR took a day to say ‘I can’t stand this kid in particular’ after dealing with waaaaaaaay more mindboggling troll customs or stupid dangerous situations that tested their patience and their limits. When it comes down to it, it’s mostly an issue of framing.

Let’s go with the “Just the Alpha routes” example, because I think that makes the overall context clearer and the response/reactions it gathered (or the lack thereof) easier to understand. The alpha kids were the last 4 Pesterquest episodes. They were also afforded entire volumes just for themselves, which cemented our expectations on “oh, they’re going to really dig into unexplored territory!” and for the most part, that’s what we got! It was really nice to see the internal mechanics of Jane as someone raised within a corporate echochamber, Roxy as a grieving, isolated kid, deprived of all human contact, and Dirk as a nerdy doomsday prepper haunted by private flashes of himself as a supervillain. It all works! Those are things the alpha kids were dealing with on the background of the broader Homestuck story, things we were only hinted at as the *larger* problems played out. It makes you understand their point of view. Except on Jake's route, where nothing about his life seems to be relevant at all? 

With Jane we get discussions about HIC and her family, with Roxy beautiful passages about a mother they never met and growing up alone— Same for Dirk, who gets a whole brother zapped from an alternate timeline. But on Jake's route there's not even an expansive dialogue path dedicated to Grandma English, Skaianet, the rebellion, or the giant red ship that came and murdered her in the night and then bombed his house, leaving him trapped inside his only surviving tower. No understanding passage realizing that this kid has had to fend for himself in an island full of Actual Giant Alien Monsters trying to eat him alive, or that he cremated his guardian specifically to avoid attracting predators to the scent of fresh blood drying on her mutilated corpse at the age of an actual toddler. The text refuses to dig into any of the psychological implications or impact an environment like this could have on a kid, which is even weirder when you consider MSPAR has met and helped Vriska get out of a similar situation. The whole thing with Jane in the previous volume has just happened, even, while Jake's particularities go unremarked. He was just supposed to deal with it. And that's because a choice was made to portray all of Jake's problems in this route as sort of... single handedly Dirk's fault? Something he should have Just Dealt with?

There's not even a hint that Jake knows Hal exists. Which is important! Jake can pick out Hal from Dirk based on *verbal cues*, and the fact that he considers Hal a barrier between him and his "real friend" getting to communicate with one another is a whole point of contention (and even comedy) in the story proper. Instead of examining Jake's isolation, or grief, or how he literally locks himself in his room and plasters it with cinematic posters to pretend he's just the main lead of a wacky adventure movie in the face of the immense shitshow outside, we get brobot acting nonsensically and threatening to break into Jake's room to beat him up. 

A general reminder on brobot: He was programmed to scout the jungle and deal with predators so Jake could a) Be allowed to safely leave his room (something he simply didn't do before age 13 out of sheer terror, and we know this because dirk and jake talk about it on his birthday conversation, when he first gets brobot) and 

b) Learn how to defend himself in the case of a surprise attack, with different combat settings adjusted to his level. The brobot has a novice mode Jake feels patronized by, but pushes him up levels quickly enough. In Homestuck proper, the brobot only enters "stalking mode" after Hal gets pissy with Jake for finding him out, and forcefully switches the setting on to make Jake work for the Uranium inside it. When you take Hal out of the picture, this plotline makes no sense! Jake's route is set way before the Alphas even think of entering the game, so this particular event hasn't even happened. Jake goes on to text Roxy and she turns the stalking setting off remotely anyways, so even if brobot was programmed to murder Jake in his sleep, or jump him inside the safe zone of his room (he's not) he has literally no reason to be acting like that when he's been set to Baby Buff Up Mode.

(Brobot does end up spontaneously pulling himself apart to give Jake his reward after this)

Which brings me to my other problem with the general framing of this volume; the alpha kids don't feel present in Jake's life as friends at all. It's all "romantic options" and "shipping discourse" and MSPAR making these silly logic jumps to justify insisting on this line of query, and all it does is completely flatten out anything of interest having to do with Jake as a Person, to build up an image of Dirk as being suspicious and shady for his volume and more or less come to the conclusion that Jake sucks because he just Cant Choose Who To Date Between All His Friends! And that's why jake is just like tavros… and dirk is just like vriska! Or something. 

And just as a reminder, here's Jake talking with Roxy so I don't have to explain why that feels like a weird choice to me. (click to zoom)

And then there's the endings. On the vriska ending, MSPAR just ends up weirdly angry at jake for being such a piss baby and not getting that he's tavros and dirk is vriska so he had to… uh… take all his anger out on this 13 year old alien girl he has never met and teach her a lesson to prepare to do the same on dirk, or something. And on the other ending Jake mentions his pen pal, is zapped to meet jade, they have some non-committal greetings and then a cosplay party where Jake insists that he totally likes Lara croft not because she's a femme fatale and he relates to that, because he's never ever in his life thought of anyone being interested on him. Or Something. He likes Lara croft for normal reasons only. He wears really tiny shorts and does sexy poses because he's not aware at all of how other people find him attractive. He's just too dumb to get this, or the shipping thing, or that he's tavros and Dirk is vriska (who the hell are these people?).

Jake feels like an afterthought in the grand scope of events. Sidelined on his own episode. This volume is busy with rehashing age old fandom arguments that have little to do with his character, because said arguments were started and maintained by bored teens engrossed on fighting online instead of analyzing Homestuck; we introduce vriska for no interesting reason at all (thank god at least Jake has enough decency to say he's not into hitting on 13-year-olds, because that would have been particularly rancid.) And aside from catchphrases and old slang sprinkled liberally into his dialogue like a fog making machine, none of the motivation for the character is there. What does he want? What does he fear? Why does he act like the way he does? What would accommodating him look like? What would helping him look like? We get this on Jane's volume, Roxy's volume, and Dirk's volume. To really heart-wrenching and dramatic results, too. You get to know who they are, where they live, what they want, what they fear, what might help them get better, but Jake is just sort of There. He's a burden. MSPAR either ends this volume berating him for not doing what they want or finding him weird and confusing and like they don't know each other at all, and the fact both of those were marked as dubiously bad ends in the game files speaks for itself, I think.

[tyzias-ennnntykk]

one thing that really sogs my biscuits about the fandom handling of Homestuck^2 is how many people complain that the alpha & beta kids kinda do shitty things or bad decisions in this & the epilogue. as an example yiffany longstocking lalonde-harley's origins.

like lets be real. three of the eight watched their parental figures die at 13, two of which had fairly abusive parents (rose's mom, lets be real, was abusive, if not as much as bro was). one had a parental figure who was largely absent due to dealing with a evil space witch, and another was raised deep under the thumb of that dame space witch. two more never had one to begin with. one accidentally KILLED her own parental figure.

my point here is that at the very minimum these kids had REALLY fucked up lives!!!! and yes, they grew some awareness over their journeys, but thats not enough to truly "deal with" that kinda upbringing. throwing godlike powers on top of that is not exactly helping either!

but returning to my specific example, i think that...bear with me here....yiffany? kinda makes SENSE???? Her name and origin are BAD, DO NOT GET ME WRONG THAT KINDA NAME & TREATMENT IS ABUSE IN AND OF ITSELF. but heres my logic:

Jade, i think most people ive seen agree, makes fairly perfect sense. she grew up alone, wanting connection and family. everyone else settled into found families, and she felt like a third wheel to most of them. she wanted something her own, and as misguided as it may be, a child might be her best hope for that. she jumped the gun, but she was always pretty spontaneous. (most of her moves were based on premonitions, yes, but those in the skaia clouds are notably vague, so she had to fill the gaps a LOT.)

where most people have more of an issue in the parentage is Rose. And i get it. Rose has Kanaya, which was basically one of the two Big Ships of the series (that and Davekat, obv). Not only that, but she was into psychology, and was also often The Logical One, especially in the early and late game of Homestuck. All this adds up to her being Very Responsible about her relationships, especially one that shes so happy in as that with Kanaya.

But is she REALLY? I mean her entire childhood was a series of mind games with her mother, trying to passive-aggressively one-up eachother. Her psychology thing, to me, reads as a tool in this battle: if she can get some psych knowledge, or at least fake it, she can mess with her alcoholic mom better, and thereby "win". next, she goes about listening to dark powers as well as Doc Scratch, in an attempt to hack the game, ending up grimdark. Then, she ends up getting drunk to try and get closer to her deceased mother, and ends up *drunk* on the first date with Kanaya, almost FORGETTING IT ENTIRELY. Then in the postgame, she...basically just serves as another fighter, mostly making goo-goo eyes at Kanaya. Which isnt bad, obv, but i feel like ppl took it to mean she was "past all that".

which is horseshit. her entire character is that she wants to "hack" her way to success, be it in her relationship with her mother (before and after her death), or the game. She wants that extra angle, that extra piece of the chessboard, to use. and i think Yiffy was exactly that...toward Kanaya.

Kanaya, lets be honest, is an easy gal. When Rose was drunk for that first date, and forgot, Kanaya almost IMMEDIATELY forgave her. And even when stuff bothered her, like the grimdark event, Kanaya really just asked Rather Quite Firmly that she stop. And considering her previous crush was as dangerous and chaotic as Vriska, its understandable that shes generally cautious and polite. And, as we kinda see in Hiveswap, Jadeblood culture largely has that kinda approach. Meanwhile, Rose is used to relationships being constantly active, a battle of wits...and Kanaya isnt that. Kanaya is a grounding element in Rose's endless war against whatever.

But then, doesnt it make sense that Rose could tire of Kanaya's congeniality? That she might do something Pretty Wrong just to rile up her wife? Maybe even not-really-cheat-but-kinda on her? and then when Jade comes up saying she wants to have a surrogate mother...Well, isnt that just the perfect chance?

Then moving from there, the name. Both are doing something absolutely batshit for themselves, and they know it. Its the perfect "wrong but it feels so good" impulsive decision for both parties. So why not carry that impulse and maybe some alcohol into the naming factor too? And naming your kid "yiffany" is exactly the dumb kind of joke two impulsive adults who were incredibly online, and barely raised at all, would name their kid in the heat of a bad moment.

Then, of course, the aftermath sets in. They made their bad decisions, and they realize with them come A Decent Amount of Shame. So wrought with shame and still kinda feeling that impulsive wave, they ask for Jane to use her connections to put the child in boarding school, because thats far from Kanaya or any other prying eyes, and hey, boarding school is supposed to be good for kids right? right? And so off she goes to the Boarding School Fridge until we first meet her.

Jane's involvement in all this is i think also well-supported in-text, if still semi-unpopular, but ill include the logic anyways. Look, Jane's a classic case of reactionary, trying to justify her positions and actions defensively until everything breaks down around her and she has to confront the reality. this is why she did the whole "no i dont love you haha" dance re: jake. the initial moment was of course just her momentary fear of, who knows, rejection? the unbearable experience of being known? jake being too sexy? but immediately after she had to double down, and then triple down, and eventually she's just so frustrated, that the only way she can break her own cycle is by lashing out and abusing a substance (unwittingly, but yeah). this same behavior is whats at play here. she reacted to her fear of the trolls after being *literally mindcontrolled by one* and then doubled down by saying "no im just asking questions about their culture", then trying to control it, then trying to control it tighter, then attacking her own friends who go against her, and then starting a literal war against them, and fucking a clown she hates, and abusing her son, and eventually she has a shock collar on a girl who was abandoned by her birth parents, all in an attempt to control shit.

So i think that brings us all up to date on that specific case. but literally, when you think about Homestuck^2 and all the shit where "these characters i love wouldnt do [INSERT BAD THING HERE]" (lookin at you Dirk Defenders) think for a moment: maybe they fucking would??? none of them had good upbringings at all, and none of them can exactly go to therapy. imagine trying to therapize a god. would anyone even be able to be objective about it? no, all of them were left to their own devices, and GENERALLY have tried to do better than those who raised them, but often trip up, sometimes even in near-fatal ways.

And the most important thing to remember is: THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. MAYBE THE PEOPLE BEIN PIECES OF SHIT IS THEIR STORY ARC, AND THEY LEARN AND GROW FROM THEIR MISTAKES EVENTUALLY! or maybe they dont! sometimes thems the breaks. stories dont owe YOU what YOU want from them. dont be a child.

[davekat-sucks]

You know, when i originally sent my ask about whitestuck/transtuck then proceeded to the bit about the Striders being sexual harassers for the whole reason of spite and pulling a bait n switch. Why? Because i knew people who would get mad at that first part would jump at the opportunity to tell me im wrong but would shy away from answering that last part because people love to conveniently ignore or lie about parts of the story. It goes into my first point that a lot of people didn't actually read the comic. People get Daves character wrong a lot, he isn't really smooth or unbothered. He often breaks his persona and isn't a stoic as people think, he gets into long spergy tangents and can be bully at times but he deeply cares for his friends and yes he actually was hurt when bro died. But it feels like people prefer fanon interpretation which i find to get old fast reducing him only to a smart ass. If people do explore his emotional side they make him a super pathetic sad boy. My biggest issue with fandoms now in days are the characters get misinterpreted horribly and even on purpose making discussion around them difficult because people are so attached to their headcanons that they'll ignore any real detail about the characters. Like im sorry if you seriously think Dave would celebrate being Jewish, you must have missed the entire page where he shits on religion as a whole. Like can people realize their headcanons are what THEY BELIEVE THEMSELVES and NOT something that actually happened? Im not saying you can't draw or interpret the characters differently but can you accept that it doesn't match with the source material and its ok if it doesn't and you don't have to be on the defense about it? Like keep fanon and canon separate is all im asking. What does headcanon even mean anymore? I thought it was just a small plausible detail you could make or create about the character be some of them change the characters completely like an AU. Was there ever a proper definition? Whatever, Dave isn't even my favorite character anyway yet i remember he has hobbies outside of music. I love homestuck!

Had always assumed headcanon would be something that could be added to canon based on small evidence that the story never dwells upon, similarities to character trait, or could draw parallel to another character if they have a close connection. For example, Eridan playing the viola headcanon. That headcanon of mine mirrors to how Rose plays the violin. The notes for the viola on the open strings is C to A, which matches his handle, caligulasAquarium.

It can also be a jab at him being disliked by others since most would go for violin than viola when recruiting for musicians. Viola is really unpopular among music players. The sound of viola is also darker, which matches how Eridan would present himself and how he would feel by Murderstuck. I don't mind headcanons without base or evidence. But sometimes, I think a headcanon can really work best if there is enough established connection to what is said in the story and could expand upon if the original series never explores deeper to play with certain themes. Another is projection because either they want to be like this character that they couldn't be in real life if they try to improve themselves, or for the most part, want to meet a type of person like them in real life and date them. I am guilty of this as well. I'm fine if others don't think Eridan is great when he is mostly being slandered in the narrative. It's fine and can accept it. It's all in good fun and laughs. Most either want to be cool like Dave or they project themselves onto Karkat because they want to meet someone like Dave. The old fandom had used to project themselves onto Jade or Nepeta, but they don't anymore. For Jade, it's because they are jaded, ha ha, and became more cynical that they aren't the genki girl like they thought they were. For Nepeta, though she would represent the fandom and fangirls, people think she is creepy for shipping her real life friends despite trolls gossiping about quadrants is more normal in Alternia compared to humans and Earth. The fandom had made lots of different AUs back then. But now, it's become scarce that nobody would try to make interesting AUs. Sure there is the occasional bloodswap or alternate timelines, but it never seemed to gain much attention like Heinoustuck had. Undertale had more AUs when Homestuck has more backing for it with Dream Bubbles and Doomed Timelines. And this is all before Deltarune was a thing.

[rosemary-is-in-pesterquest]

I am. SO. frustrated. that they keep fucking up davekat. like I just wanna go off. just wanna go the fuck off, man, I didn't even ship them that hard at first but god damn I do now and it's pretty much because the epilogues and HS2 have fucked them up so bad and I know they are better than that. let me just.

okay so originally, davekat is built on themes of mutual defensiveness in response to insecurity. when Dave is first introduced, he portrays himself as a cool guy, and gives us the concept of Strider irony. where a normal person might claim to love something shitty as an ironic joke, or maybe the ironic joke masks sincere enjoyment... Strider irony, according to Dave, has a billion more levels of sincerity and insincerity, to the point where you have no idea what the real intent is. in part, this is due to teen pretentiousness... but in some ways this is a reflection of him genuinely finding his Bro unfathomable, and wanting to protect his own genuine thoughts, opinions, and interests from criticism, without actually coming off as insecure. as time goes by, you can watch him and figure out what is sincere and what isn't... he doesn't actually keep that tight of a lid on things, but that's partially because the game allows him more freedom than he usually has. he at least isn't living in his Bro's shadow anymore. some might extrapolate this to mean that he's experiencing more physical and mental security than usual, while others might just say he's coming into his own via this journey, but the fact of the matter is that he felt the need to hide behind this facade in the first place. and the tricky thing with Dave is that it isn't all fake. it's a weird mixture of who he is, who he wants to be, and what he thinks others will respond well to. his development isn't so much discarding the mask, as it is reconciling what it's made of, and incorporating it into his true self as he matures. he accepts it as a piece of him. it's very subtle, and natural, and true to what growing up is really like. I think this is why so many people like Dave and relate to him so much.

for Karkat, insecurity manifests in the form of being hyper critical of everyone around him. to be honest, this also comes from a deep sense of concern for the people around him, and the fact that his friend group is made of a bunch of loose canons who do destructive shit for fun, and people who are easily dragged into that sort of thing. but the thing that keeps Karkat's hyper critical nature from irritating people too much is that he's also super extra critical of himself. he admits it when he's done something wrong... though admittedly often after it's made people angry at him, and he has a good amount of very sincere apologies that he delivers so that they come off as very sincere and actually work in terms of reconciling with people. Karkat's biggest issue is that criticizing your own internal flaws and actually fixing them are two different things. and while Karkat can identify many problems with himself, he's not always the best at making them go away. it takes him a long time to learn how to change himself, because in order to change yourself, you have to accept the flawed parts of yourself and work with them, rather than just trying to push them out of your sight. this is why his anger at his past and future selves is ultimately unhealthy. it keeps him from truly addressing the fact that his current self is just as subject to those same flaws. for example, if he's talking to a past self and a future self, and his future self is condescending to him, and his past self is naive, then his present self is both of those things to his conversation partners. but he's so repulsed by his own negative attributes that he's not really dealing with them. his saving grace is that everyone can see how hard he's trying, and how worried and scared he is. ultimately, Karkat doesn't want to be the reason for screwing everyone over, and that's more concern for others than anyone ever asked for. it gains Karkat a lot of good will, without him necessarily even realizing what he's doing.

what's excellent about davekat is that they come out the gate fully critical of one another... but neither is willing to back down either. somehow, these two insecure idiots trick each other into defending themselves. and it's brilliant, because they get all their critical bullshit out of the way immediately. they don't fear criticism from one another. they already criticize one another all the time, and it's fine. like, their worst complaints about each other are right out there in the open, and how freeing must that be for a couple of guys who worry about other people's opinions of them so much? Dave has nothing to hide and nothing to prove. Karkat defends his own positive qualities. it's good for them. eventually, they just kind of run out of material... and there's something comforting about knowing that they've said every bad thing they can think of about each other, and none of it was a deal breaker. they're still in each other's business constantly. and that's when they start to learn from each other. see, Karkat is really blunt. he wanders into the thick of things, yelling at people and making mistakes all over the place... and Dave is just more cautious than that. his whole cool guy persona is made to keep that kind of raw emotion from leaking out, and to make every mistake seem like he meant to do that. but Karkat makes mistakes all the time. and apologizes all the time. and he comes out okay. Karkat is sincere. but Karkat is also high strung... and Dave isn't. Dave knows how to chill, and he plans things, and he can sit down with people and calmly talk through a plan. get it in simple terms and hash things out without panicking. Karkat often exhausts himself trying to run around and manage everything, and while it can be kind of endearing to see how much he cares... it's not exactly healthy. Dave has more of a level head, beyond just his cool kid persona, and isn't afraid to make people walk things back and take it from the top. and actually, what Dave and Karkat have in common is that they try really hard for the people around them, and feel great concern for the people they love. when the chips are down, they value similar things. and once they've run out of ineffectual ways to badmouth each other, that's what they have left. probably the thing that bugs them the most about each other is how much they actually have in common in terms of priorities. and while I do think that in their relationship, they'll probably always bicker with each other, that's the core foundation. they're caring people who look out for their group and try to help wherever they can. in essence... they're both knights through and through.

and then HS2 fucks it all up. legit why even confuse anything about their relationship? just let them uncontroversially date, keep it lowkey and tasteful, realize the wonderful potential of their friends razzing them about it a little, and write a better story for them to exist in. god damn. like, seriously, just give them more people to actually care about, because Dave and Karkat feel out of character if they aren't constantly in the lives of a plethora of friends who are important to them. look at them in homestuck. look at everything they do best. of course they wouldn't thrive in HS2, none of the cast even likes each other anymore!! Dave and Karkat were basically instrumental in setting up rosemary, which fits so well with all of their characterization its insane. I just want everyone to periodically go back, and reread homestuck, and remember when these characters were good people.

BASED WENDELL COMING IN WITH THEIR ANALYSIS BETTER THAN WHATEVER THE FUCK THE HS2 WRITERS SHIT OUT 

[ailuronymy]

So bummed that this blog's time is coming to an end, but also grateful that it'll still be around as a resource, and as always, I'm very excited to continue reading your works!

Question: how do you envision "courting" (dating) in the Clans? I would assume they all have their own way of doing things.

Hello there! Thank you for writing in with such a fun question. This is something I really enjoy thinking about, because there’s so much possibility for creativity and world-building and inspiration when it comes to this kind of social construct in a xenofiction society. 

Unfortunately, that does mean that I can’t really give only one answer! (Although that’s hardly unusual for me). I think the primary thing to decide before actually thinking about culture traditions and expectations regarding courting is what is actually the norm for your clans re: relationships. 

For example, are your clans traditionally and culturally monogamous? Or are they traditionally and culturally polyamorous? Because each other those is going to result in very different beliefs, expectations, and norms around what are (or are not) an appropriate relationship dynamics. 

Since this is xenofiction, you are at perfect liberty to push it even further if you want--i.e., in your world, are cats capable of experiencing “romantic” feelings as we would define it, or does that not really factor in? For instance, the rabbits in Watership Down demonstrate profound care for one another, but I would argue the dynamics between bucks and does (even in mated pairs) isn’t really romantic. It’s trusting and collaborative in healthy, consenting relationships, and very much a kind of partnership, but not really what I would describe as typical romantic love. 

Likewise, you can even get inventive and create types of relationships for your world that we don’t have in ours. For example, Ursula K. Le Guin’s work is famous for exploring new relationship norms and dynamics, including “kemmer” (a transformative sexuality experienced by Gethenians in The Left Hand of Darkness) and “sedoretu” (a four-person marriage-equivalent relationship dynamic that is the norm in “A Fisherman of the Inland Sea.”) 

Probably the most well-known example of xenofiction relationship dynamics (on this website at least) is the infamous Homestuck webcomic by Andrew Hussie, which introduced the quadrant system as part of troll culture. 

There’s nothing to suggest that cats couldn’t have their own complex understandings of relationships and feelings, and I think there’s a lot of potential for exploring this kind of thing in your world-building, if it interests you! 

I hope this little ramble inspires you to figure out how your clans feel and relate to each other. Good luck with your writing!