#and yet. and yet!!!!

[homestuckreplay]

Ms. Paint Main Character Theory

(page 1976-1987)

Here it is! The final update before Act 5, and there was a pretty huge reveal saved for this one regarding the current owner of the queen’s ring.

But first!! After abandoning her people to die in the wreckage of Prospit, WQ arrives on Earth and reveals that she’s the owner of a special spirograph shaped key. She uses this to repair the egg-shaped command station, but it might have a couple other uses too.

- WV’s appearifier has a spirograph key toggle, allowing it to move from Earth to the Incipisphere (p.748). Presumably if moved, he could appearify items from the kids’ planets, Prospit, and Derse.

- PM’s sendificator has this same function (p.1128).

- More mysteriously, the locked room of WV’s command station has a spirograph key toggle that points to each side of a frog (p.1411). Its associated device only has one big blue button. Obviously this station was attuned to the frog temple on Jade’s island, both in its appearifier coordinates and homing mechanism. So I wonder if moving this dial attunes it to the frog temple in the Incipisphere, allowing it to travel there instead. I think that’d make sense, but wouldn’t be a super exciting reveal as we’ve already seen what happened in that temple, so I’m holding out for a more surprising reveal.

It feels good and right to see all four exiles hanging out together (plus Serenity) after following their individual stories and seeing how they ended up here. All of them dressed in rags, standing on equal ground, their chess ranks meaningless in this new planet they’ll build together – although PM is still wearing her mailbox crown. WQ speaks to WV and seems to know what he has, which is her once-discarded ring, last seen with dream John on the battlefield, now hidden in WV’s trusty knife. WV, a nonviolent protester who’s never been seen wielding any sort of weapon for combat, has held this knife close since Act 2 (p.683). This makes a lot more sense if the knife was actually a cover for another object.

I kind of assumed that the queens’ rings would only work inside Sburb sessions, mostly because Snowman isn’t wearing hers in the Intermission, and I assumed she’d want the power if she could get it. Still, I guess she’s untouchable even without it, so twelve (!) prototypings might just be an inconvenience. If her head grows strange appendages with the prototypings then her 8-ball hat would never fit. Anyway, the ring WV holds is glowing with all four orbs, so it looks like it still works, and also contains whatever Jade prototyped.

sidenote: I saw someone on a forum calling for Jade to prototype her furry Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff poster to SBAHJify Jack, which is an idea I kinda love.

Any one of the four exiles could wear this ring and gain its powers. WQ reclaiming it is really too obvious, plus she already gave up the crown, and the idea of her abdicating and then reclaiming her power at a moment that suits her doesn’t feel good to me personally – if she can reclaim power at any moment, then she never really gave it up. WV has been carrying the ring around for a long time and never put it on. He’s against the monarchy, and even if he struggles to imagine a power structure outside of it, he dreams of democracy at least in theory. Putting on the ring would go against his stated ideals, and wouldn’t fit with how he’s presented in the narrative as the little guy who has no structural or magical power but manages to rise up anyway and challenge those who do.

PM and AR both make more sense as recipients, in my opinion. When she abdicated, WQ gave PM both the crown and ring, functionally turning both the symbolic and actual power over to her. Both of those were lost to enemy hands, and are now returned. WQ has already symbolically re-crowned PM the leader, and could now turn over the actual power to her. If this happens, I’m not sure PM would actually use the ring (she’s already pretty powerful in her tenacity, diplomatic skills and swordplay), but there is something meaningful in the mail carrier finally being the one to receive the mail, instead of deliver it.

AR’s recent arc focused on him not being powerful enough – he was terrified of Bec’s creation in the frog temple, scared enough that he still surrendered when he saw WV’s pumpkin with the Bec carving much later (p.1363). And even though AR wanted to expose DD’s mutiny, he knew that DD was too powerful to take into custody (p.1924). So AR is the only one of the four exiles who actively seeks power, and might actually want to wear the ring. Obviously I don’t love the idea of the ultimate powerful item ending up in a cop’s hands, and I also don’t think people who seek power are the best ones to receive it. But if the ring is going to be used against Jack somehow as the counterpart to his powers, it’d be interesting if instead of Sburb’s classic ‘light vs dark’, the war becomes ‘old guard vs new guard Derse’, with an AR fighting for the status quo and Jack fighting for radical change – both of which would actually be bad outcomes for the kids, meaning they’d end up fighting against both sides of the war.

However, I have a wild card theory. Recent pages specifically showed that WQ brought her entourage to Earth, just to leave them behind. An entourage led by Ms. Paint, whose adventures these are, in a story that makes extensive meta-references including to the site it’s hosted on (p.112, 327, 831, 1167). That site, in-universe, holds a Midnight Crew adventure starring Spades Slick, who is alternate universe Jack Noir, who wears the Black Queen’s ring. Who better to fight against Jack than the entity who already controls the very medium he exists in? So I’m calling it now – Ms. Paint is gonna show up and wear the ring, return to the Incispisphere, and use it to help the kids take down Jack. It’s bigger than light vs dark, it’s one side of the fourth wall against the other.

Before any of that (in the ring’s timeline, at least), dream John will have to deliver the ring to WV, as he’s now seen in the clouds, and Jade will have to prototype her sprite to make that fourth orb shine, meaning waking John will have to return to LOWAS and finally get her into the Medium. So both versions of John have a critical mission, and he’s going to be working double time. Difficult, considering only one version of John can be active at any given moment. I am excited, though, to see John take over from Jade as the character whose two versions are alternately active in the story and doing important jobs; I think that’ll be one of the big shifts in Act 5.

Finally, there’s a very smooth transition into the second recap, via another cloud John sees in the sky. Like the bunny and the queen’s ring, the fourth wall’s journey is wrapped up. Grandpa stole the wall from Jack at some point during his adventures in the Medium, because he’s always collecting ‘trophies’ from his travels, including things he has no right to (for example, his collection of mummies) – and in this case, he wanted to experiment with its powers. ‘Treasure hunter’ and ‘scientist’ are both in Jade’s long list of Grandpa’s ‘occupations’. Jade plays with this wall and tries to copy its design, but is unable to get it to work (p.790), because as the fourth wall, its power exists outside of Skaia (the source of her talents) and outside the story itself. But its presence in her house explains why Jade is closer to the fourth wall than other characters, and has some ability to communicate with the player – for example, letting them play with her modus (p.808-12). Neat. ‘chalk another riddle up in the solved column’, as Rose would say (p.1858).

Final question: has Grandpa communicated with AH, and what does that mean if he has?

[drumlincountry]

If your life is horrible and you need a new source of meaning and direction.... Do NOT find religion. Learn to identify plants.

[ryan-sometimes]

LMAOOOO

[rowanisawriter]

this what im going thru rn. if anyone gaf

[pipebombgf]

gender-affirming surgery is a months-long dark comedy. what the fuck do you mean you're charging me double for everything. what do you mean they itemize the bill by left and right ball. what the fuck.

[codecicle-archive]

MY FAVORITE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS' PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE!!!!

[valdotpng]

an accomplice turned victim his apology, long overdue

[ruerock]

im sure someone already made a post about it but i came across a ublock origin add-on that blacklists around 950 AI websites and disables AI overview ☝️ so u can be free from seeing AI in your search

[spaciebabie]

trauma therapy has been swell

[miggylol]

Surprise! Tumblr just got turned into an epic fantasy RPG, just like [your favorite appropriate media franchise]. And the Tumblr RPG's plot needs to have all of its characters covered, in roles both large and small.

That means that you are assigned to a stereotypical RPG role inside our new fantasy world. Spin this wheel to find out what you are now doing for a living.

[pinyatapix]

most funniest sudden deviation from a youtuber’s typical video lineup i’ve seen in recent memory

like bro imagine being SO pissed at the direction a show had taken that you have to momentarily quit spongeposting in order to talk about it for two whole hours. king shit

[inkskinned]

How come you're all about "feminism" until it's time to protest? We haven't seen you make a single fucking post about the LA riots and it's really disappointing.

Hi friends. This is your reminder not to reply to questions like this. You do not need to self-report your behavior. This is a guilt trip designed to make you violate your own Miranda rights.

Also, they are not riots (Freudian slip, fed?), they're peaceful protests and are a democratic right under the first amendment.

where to find your local protest donate to legal funds my local immigrant support network

be safe out there, i love you.

[lautakwah]

average gay interaction

[skyberia]

if you keep re-equipping ralsei with the Blue Ribbon he has a bunch of additional flavour text

(spells out KRIS & SUSIE ARE MY FRIENDS!)

[cafeyote]

me and gang at the haunted house