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[pixie-styx]

Today marks the 10th anniversary of this blog!

Stats and highlights:

Posts: 114

Followers: 471

Total notes: 27,037

Top 10 most popular posts of all time:

[S] Jasper: Mental breakdown

Karkat x Clover

Classes Chart

Dave x Karkat Quadrants

Dave the Archaeologist

John <3< Terezi?

The Mirthful Messiahs: Lord English and Calmasis?

Skaia's clouds and Alt!Calliope

Vriska's Return and the Alpha Timeline's Fate

Classpect Profile Guide

Although this blog has been inactive for many years, and Homestuck ended many years ago, I want to acknowledge that Homestuck was a huge part of a previous chapter of my life, and I'm grateful for that experience and for the friends I made through it.

Homestuck also sparked (and/or fueled) my interest in astrology, which led to me becoming an astrologer.

I don't know what the future holds for this blog. While I still post regularly on my general "reblog blog" @pixie-styx-mix, I don't have much interest or motivation to blog about Homestuck anymore, especially since its end. (And Homestuck^2 basically killed my interest, too.)

I still have several unfinished posts sitting in my drafts that I don't know if I'll ever publish. Some of them are completely obsolete theories, anyway. (And some of them are about Steven Universe, which also ended years ago.)

I've thought about finishing and publishing some of my posts. I've also thought about continuing this blog, but pivoting the content and expanding to theories and meta-analyses about other media/fandoms. Maybe even posting creative, non-meta content.

I guess we'll see what happens.

Thank you to everyone who's followed, supported, and/or engaged with this blog over the past 10 years!

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“Meat” and “Candy” Thoughts and Speculation

Spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn’t read both.

“Meat” and “Candy” are essentially fanfiction—perhaps specifically fix-it-fics—written by Homestuck characters themselves. While it doesn’t make them any less “true” or “real,” (even though it divorces them from the Three Pillars of Canon), it does explain the “fanficcy” feel.

“Meat” is written/narrated by Dirk and Alt!Calliope, each fighting for control of the narrative. Dirk might actually be Caliborn/LE, or at the very least, influenced/corrupted by him.

Dirk did something like this before, when he “wrote” Pony Pals for Jane, altering the original story by replacing parts of it with his own commentary.

Each page contains lovingly hand-written commentary on the deeds of this intrepid young horse.

Later, about halfway through the book, rather than see the gag through to the bitter end, Strider began pasting over entire pages of original text with his own completely rewritten version of the story, while keeping all the chapter titles. His revision is a tough, emotionally draining read. But it's cathartic, in all the worst ways possible. He tends to get carried away with his projects.

Sounds familiar, right? Using Pony Pals as an analogue, Alt!Calliope might represent the author of the original story, while Dirk modifies and rewrites it, twisting it into his own version. Alternatively, neither Dirk nor Alt!Calliope are the original author of the Epilogue, and both are altering the story as "Meat". Perhaps the book found in Calliope’s picnic basket is the original, unmodified story—the "pure" version of the Epilogues. (More on this below.)

Dirk is becoming Lord English/Doc Scratch. The parallels between Dirk and Caliborn/Doc Scratch are uncanny.

It might have something to do with Dirk's Ultimate Self and gaining access to the thoughts/memories/experiences of all his splinters and alternate lives. Those alternate selves/splinters include Bro (who was raised/corrupted by Lil Cal), Lil Hal, Doc Scratch, and Lord English, and the lines between all of them are blurring.

If Dirk is indeed LE in some way, shape, or form, the events of Meat may be LE’s way of trying to take over Post-Canon, exerting his influence beyond his domain of Canon.

(I plan to elaborate on the Dirk = LE theory in a future post.)

As a parallel to Dirk = LE, Jane is essentially becoming the Condesce. I’m not sure of the connection with her Ultimate Self, although I suppose that would include Crockertier Jane.

It might have something to do with the Condesce grooming her to be her heiress, and possibly even Jane inheriting her immortality curse? (I need investigate this further.)

Dirk and Jane even have the same alliance as LE and the Condesce: Dirk and LE pulling the strings while Jane/Condy carries out the plans. Similarly, Dirk and LE rule the metanarrative/story and travel through space, while Jane/Condesce rules the planet(s) of Trolls and Humans. (Credit to @wisdomdissimulator for the original observation/theory.)

“Candy” is written/narrated by Calliope from the Meat timeline. In Meat, Roxy mentions Calliope stays home and paints the walls with what sounds like the events of Candy.

ROXY: its not as bad as it sounds i promise ROXY: some of it is like ROXY: weird and violent?? ROXY: like lotsa nasty purple blood and um ROXY: nudity???? [...] ROXY: but MOST of it is cute stuff like... various combos of all of us being happy and gettin married . . .

While the Calliopes seem less inclined to control/force the characters and narration than Dirk, there are still moments of bias and asserting their will—specifically anything regarding the Trickster Lollipop.

Calliope (as the narrator) may have even controlled/influenced Dirk to suicide, possibly as a way to “save” the Candy timeline from Dirk’s influence. While the narration claims otherwise, it’s also possible Dirk killed himself of his own accord in a twisted mixture of Heroism and Justice, knowing what he could become if he lived, and thus wanting to spare the timeline.

Terezi of “Meat” is the same Terezi communicating with John in “Candy”. Since she’s still in Canon, she basically transcends the Meat and Candy timelines until she reaches Meat’s Earth C. This is why she expects Meat’s John to be older, why she thinks John and Roxy might be together, and why she has a hunch that things wouldn’t have worked out between John and Roxy—because this is true of Candy’s John, at least at the time Terezi last spoke with him.

Gamzee’s presence and influence might have something to do with the unexplained weirdness of the Candy timeline. Characters seem oddly blind or impotent to the circumstances around them, almost like there’s a Ragey influence sowing discord, anger, confusion, and obliviousness among the characters—just as what happens with the Trolls during Murderstuck. It isn’t until after Gamzee’s death that the characters start to seem more like themselves and are more capable and hopeful.

While Gamzee has “Joker immunity” within Homestuck, he’s able to die in Candy because it’s outside of Canon. (My theory is that Lord English grants him immortality, since Gamzee must become a component of LE and thus CAN’T die.)

John needs to take a third option, different from The Choice™ of either Meat or Candy. There's a book in Calliope’s basket, so the third option very well may be the book. Which would also make sense since a book represents/contains a story, and Meat and Candy, while food, also represent stories.

Another interesting third option would be “Vegetables”—or specifically “Pumpkin”—which Roxy could potentially summon via Void powers. It would make a cool reference and callback to “What Pumpkin”.

(More elaboration on the Third Option theory planned for a future post.)

I have a LOT more thoughts and ideas on the Meat and Candy Epilogues, so I’ll probably continue this in another post.

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Terezi’s first interaction with John:

GC: 1F W3 3V3R M33T  GC: 1M GO1NG TO CUT YOUR THRO4T  GC: 4ND L1ST3N TO YOU BL33D WH1L3 1 SM3LL YOU D13 

Terezi’s last interaction with John:

Terezi leans closer, then holds perfectly still. She tilts her ear toward him and sniffs once. There, she can hear it. The slow seeping of blood, like a distant stream. The scent of his life leaving his body, strangely unmistakable, like the quality of the air before it rains. She listens to him bleed while she smells him die.

[pixie-styx]

This is relevant again with the Meat and Candy Epilogues. Just replace the Mayor with Jade as the auspistice.

Everyone keeps debating what quadrant Dave and Karkat’s relationship is. Each has valid and supporting arguments, and they all make sense in their own ways.

But why limit it to just one? What if it’s actually ALL the quadrants?

It was said their love went beyond the four quadrants, transcending the grid entirely. Whatever that nonsense actually means.

Perhaps Karkat is following in the footsteps of his ancestor?

[pixie-styx]

!!!!!

I haven’t had the chance to read any of this yet, and I’m unsure when I will, but... The long-awaited Epilogue is finally here! And ~8000 pages? That’s almost as long as Homestuck itself! (Possibly a longer read, depending on format.)

This is an awesome and fitting 10th Anniversary gift! I bet Hussie’s been purposely waiting to release it on this particular anniversary.

Happy 4/13! Here’s to 10 years of Homestuck, and happy 23rd birthday to John and Jane!

Edit: Never mind; the 8000 pages was referring to Homestuck itself, not the epilogue.

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[S] Jasper: Mental breakdown.

[pixie-styx]

Reaction to “A Single Pale Rose”

Tag yourself; I’m Garnet.

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Happy 4/13!

My friend @musings-and-moldwork and I made a cake in honor of this day. She made and baked the cake, while I made the frosting and iced/decorated the cake. We had several hiccups (e.g. the frosting being too soft), but all things considered, it turned out pretty well (and it was delicious :9).

Happy birthday to Homestuck, John, and Jane!

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While this concept is certainly clever, there are a couple major flaws:

1) Classes (and aspects) have to be monosyllabic.

#monosyllablism was never actually a hard rule #just an extremely common pattern that happened to be that way until it didnt

It’s not just a “common pattern”; it’s a Word of Huss rule:

Q: “Are there classes and titles other than the ones shown so far in canon, or have we seen them all?”

AH: Maybe. Readers tend to make up their own. Some of them sound decent to me, others do not. They can only have one syllable. Any that has more than one syllable is automatically not good.

Q: “Are all God Tier titles made of monosyllabic components?”

AH: Yes. Class and aspect, one syllable, always. This is a rule.

Side note: I saw the “Seer” discussion, and was curious about it myself. The class Seer is pronounced as one syllable. While the "seer” can technically be pronounced “see-er” (two syllables) or “sear” (one), "see-er” is only used for an observer/one who sees, while “sear” is used for a prophet, sage, diviner, clairvoyant, or oracle. I checked the pronunciation and definition to be sure.

2) Waste and Matter work as inverses, but not as active/passive pairs.

Lord and Muse are a class pair that do the same thing in different ways, one actively, one passively. (You use the word “define”, while I prefer “embody”, but the concept is essentially the same.)

Active classes [verb] (with/through) [aspect], while Passive classes invite [verb] of/with/through [aspect].

In order for classes to be a +/- pair, that [verb] must be the same. Waste and Matter are OPPOSITE/inverse verbs, not the same verb.

If Waste is passive and “Invites Disregard” of/with/through [aspect], then its active counterpart must be “Disregards (with/through) [aspect].” But you have Matter as Regard, not Disregard. So yeah, they work as inverses but not a class pair.

Still, the concept is clever and I love the pun it makes.

Joke Classes because I think I'm funny/clever

so this was spawned from the thought that each of the 12 classes kind of form their own ‘quadrant’ when looking at inversion possibilities.

Witch, Heir, Seer, Mage. (All the combos between Active/Passive and Manipulation/Information)

Knight, Page, Thief, Rogue (All Combos between Active/Passive and Application/Relocation)

and Prince, Bard, Maid, Sylph (All combos between Active/Passive and Creation/Destruction)

so I thought wouldn’t it be funny if Lord and Muse and two other fake classes formed their own Quadrant also, so we’d have a quadrant of quadrants of classes :oD (also because I like when numbers add up in a certain way, 12 is pretty on its own as 3x4, 14 is kinda :/ but 16, now there’s a fine number if I ever saw one! 4x4 or (2x2)x(2x2) I love it)

the first one I went to was Waste, Hussies own fake class because lol

then I tried to come up with what their class verbs would be and how’d they interact with each other.

Lord and Muse I’d already had as Define, because they both effect action to have effect on Homestuck in either passive inspiring ways or active domineering ways. Lord being active for Muses passive.

so we have this so far:

-Lord = Defines (Aspect) or Defines with (Aspect)

+Muse = Invites Definition of (Aspect) or Invites Definition through (Aspect)

then for Hussie’s I decided that since he’s said before he will not directly affect the story as an author insert in any way (except for the yellow yard thing) and also because I remember him being all wizard of oz-y with his whole “DISREGARD THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN, HE’S NOT IMPORTANT.” and also because ‘Fondly Regard Creation’ etc.

That Waste and the other class’s Verb would be “Regard/Disregard” as in to look but dont touch, just sit and watch what happens or to ignore it completely, able to watch everything happen but not able to do/change anything about it. To counter Lord/Muse abilities to directly affect what happens while not always seeing everything that happens everywhere?

but Waste being the passive of the two would make it

+Waste = Invites Disregard of (Aspect) or Invites Disregard through (Aspect)

which would make the Active counterpart = Regards (Aspect) or Regards with (Aspect)

which I already love :D

and then the last thing would be to come up with a punny name for that Active Regard Class, that means something actively watching something while also meaning something of the opposite of Waste (Because I still consider Lord/Muse to invert to eachother, they are still Master Classes. Waste and ???Class would invert to eachother too, as the 'joke/unmastered’ classes haha. I like my jokes only when they don’t directly change what is already canon lol so they won’t touch Lord/Muse)

I eventually came up something when I figured it would only be a Matter of Time until I did and then boom. Matter and Waste.

You Waste something when you Disregard it. Something Matters because you are Regarding it (Why pay attention to something that doesn’t matter?).

Waste would be passively inviting you to disregard something unimportant. Matter would be actively regarding something that is important. Both can do nothing but watch events unfold. 

so our last Quadrant of Quadrants which includes both the Master Classes and the Joke/Unmastered Classes would be:

-Lord Defines (Aspect) or Defines with (Aspect)

+Muse Invites Definition of (Aspect) or Invites Definition through (Aspect)

-Matter Regards with (Aspect) or Regards (Aspect)

+Waste Invites Disregard of (Aspect) or Invites Disregard through (Aspect)

also something poetic hidden in the fact that while the Author calls himself the Waste in the story. When you ask what really Matters is that there would be no story without an Audience to view it.

Hussie is the Waste of Space, but we the fandom are just a Matter of Time :D

*EDIT* I didn’t mention this originally but I don’t want people to get confused between canon stuff and fanon stuff lol

Muse and Lord are an active passive pair AND an inversion pair, they invert to eachother and they are each others active and passive form. They do both to each other that’s why they are master classes

My additional extra funfanon doesn’t change or interact with that, I like keeping things seperate, so Matter and Waste are also eachothers Active/Passive forms, and they invert to each other as well. 

So the opposite of a Matter of Time is a Waste of Space, just like how the Opposite of a Lord of Time is a Muse of Space

[pixie-styx]

Today marks the 2nd anniversary of this blog!

Stats and highlights:

Posts: 105

Followers: 417

Total notes: 15712

Notes in past year: 10912

Notes in past 6 months: 1799

Top 10 popular posts in past 6 months:

Karkat x Clover

Classes Chart

Emerald Eye of the Storm

Dave the Archaeologist

Jack loses arm parallels 

The Mirthful Messiahs: Lord English and Calmasis?

Classpect Profile Guide

“Maimed Clown. Undead Cat. Impaled Crow. Omnipotent Dog.”

413 Followers

2X3Prong Day

Most popular posts of all time (not including above, which are in bold):

Dave x Karkat Quadrants

John <3< Terezi?

Skaia’s clouds and Alt!Calliope

Vriska’s Return and the Alpha Timeline’s Fate

Vriskagram horse omen

Eight-ball dream bubble 

The First Guardian of Beforus

Something I find interesting is how so many of my most popular posts involve “shipping” observation/speculation of some sort. I’m not sure if that’s a testament to the fandom (most likely) or to me being a Blood player (possibly) or both, but it amuses me.

In the past year, Homestuck has ended and the credits have rolled. Now we have Hiveswap coming soon and a possible epilogue to look forward to. Hopefully both will provide answers to many important questions that still remain.

As always, thanks for your support (and patience), everyone! Here’s to another year!

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Waaah! I recently hit 413 followers! This is so awesome! Thank you, everyone! ^_^

As a thank-you, have a low-quality selfie of me dressed as Roxy!

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I love how Roxy removes her tie and turns it into a mask. XD

Happy 5th anniversary of 2X3PRONG DAY!

(Which might also be the Cherubs’ birthday? Happy birthday, Calliope? Could this is a be a birthday celebration dinner?)

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Remember how Dave entertained the idea of becoming a paleontologist?

DAVE: dead things are actually pretty rad DAVE: i feel like if i was legitmately into all this then more should have come of the interest [...] DAVE: maybe i could have really developed this interest DAVE: maybe i could have been something cool as a result [...] DAVE: i could have been a paleontologist DAVE: instead of what i became [...] DAVE: that would have been the dopeness!

Looks like he’s gone into a similar field---archaeology!

He’s searching for and excavating cultural artifacts (of JPEG artifact Liberties). That’s a new level of irony, too: recovering remnants of an ancient civilization created by his older (i.e. future) self from a parallel universe. It’s both figurative and literal layers upon layers of irony, which is so Dave. He’s combining his passions, and it’s beautiful. :’)

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UU: it is the day whereafter the legendary octet of mUtUal progenitoriety will come together and heal a great breach in paradox space. UU: a day delivered throUgh eighty billion years and foUr distinct Universal instances worth of Unfathomable tUrbUlence. UU: and while the emerald eye of this storm is fixed in the abyss forever UU: today yoU are poised to escape its scowl once and for all. UU: by skaias gUiding light, yoU may leave behind its tUrning arms of bright coloUrs and mayhem, and secUre peace for yoUr cosmic progeny for all dUration.

The emerald eye of the storm---the storm of “Unfathomable tUrbUlence“ and “a great breach in paradox space“!

[pixie-styx]

Today marks 1 ½ years since I started this blog, and also this is my 100th post!

Stats and highlights:

Posts: 100

Followers: 392

Total notes: 13913

Notes in past 6 months: 9113

Began sideblog @pixie-styx-mix

Top 10 popular posts in past 6 months:

Classes Chart

Karkat x Clover

The Mirthful Messiahs: Lord English and Calmasis?

The First Guardian of Beforus

Cinnamon Roll Classes

PM cue ball head

Jack loses arm parallels

John the Wizard

LOTAK’s destruction and Gamzee

“Maimed Clown. Undead Cat. Impaled Crow. Omnipotent Dog.”

Thanks, everyone, for your support for the past year and a half! It’s been a wild ride!

At this point, I’m not sure what the fate of this blog will be. I’m still disillusioned by Homestuck’s finale, although I realize an epilogue is in the works. I might do some character analyses, non-predictive theory posts, classpect stuff, or other posts, but we’ll see. I do still have some asks I need to answer. (Thanks for your patience on those.) I’m considering adding in some non-Homestuck content, perhaps applying classpect analyses to characters from other works, to keep it tied to HS.

At some point, I intend to read Problem Sleuth. (I know, I know, I’m behind. XP ) Maybe I could comment on that and sort of... pseudo-live blog as I go? I’d also like to re-read Homestuck now that it’s “finished”, and see if I can glean anything new. (Plus I want to make note of what’s been left unresolved.)

What would you guys like me to do? What content are you interested in seeing on this blog?

[pixie-styx]

My reaction to the finale of Homestuck.

Essentially, the stages of grief (excluding acceptance). In no particular order.

[pixie-styx]

Comments on [S] Collide

Better late than never, I suppose. This ended up taking me longer than I thought. Plus I procrastinated on posting it. >_<

So, a bunch of battles take place:

The Condesce vs John, Roxy, Rose, and Kanaya (+ Jasprose, Nanna, and Jane)

The Felt vs Jake (+ Jane and undead army)

Cans vs Arquius (+ Dad)

Clover vs Karkat

Jack English vs Spades Slick vs Dave, Terezi, and Dirk

Bec Noir vs PM vs Jade

Yaldabaoth vs Caliborn

Hussie vs Vriska

Lord English vs the Ghost Army (including Meenah, Tavros, Aradia, and Davepeta)

The Fraymotifs are awesome! I love the Zazzerpan tornado callback from [S] Enter, and also Kanaya reading a book and applying lipstick while the others attack!

I’m guessing Kanaya never bought any Fraymotifs, or she would have used them. (They are insanely expensive, and I think Vriska and Terezi were the only ones who earned tons of boondollars. Plus Kanaya was focused on frog breeding.)

Roxy’s Void attacks are glorious. I have no words.

Wait, when and how did Die get his doll back?

Arquius attacks Cans by summoning robo-horses and bashing him repeatedly with the fridge containing Gamzee.  Hilarious yet ominous!

Cans does his fourth wall-breaking attack by punching everyone out of the panel and onto LOFAF.  Remember, Karkat was last here in Echidna’s lair, and he woke up when LE did the Rainbow Death Laser on his dream self. So now he can battle! ...With Clover. XD

So Crowbar kills Jake, and apparently the Condesce kills Rose and Kanaya, because Jane does the Lifey Thing on all three of them.

John uses the Fear No Anvil hammer! Nice callback!

It looks like Nannasprite attacks the Condesce with heavy objects from John’s house? But it doesn’t seem to affect Condy, and instead hurts John and Roxy?

Jake. Jake what are you doing. XD

Casey’s undead army! Hooray! I can mark that on my bingo card!

Dirk uses a Zilly Santa weapon!

When Dirk dies, Terezi and Dave use an amazing Fraymotif. From what I can tell... Terezi does the Mindy Thing, and envisions (at least) four alternate paths.

Then Dave selects the most favorable path’s timeline? Or he merges the most favorable choices into one timeline? It results in there being three splintered, living Dirks who then seem to merge.

And Slick somehow has two cuestaffs, one in staff form, another in gun form? I’m guessing the Slicks merged, too, then. So a timeline merger makes the most sense. Either way, nice callback to Slick riding the horse hitcher!

Dad is so powerful and strong, he intimidates Cans and Arquius! That really says something!

The battle between the dogs makes a nice parallel to a Cherub mating ritual, with PM as the Cherub heroine.

Interesting, though, how PM has a red background, while Jack has a green one.

Glimpse of Yaldabaoth’s face:

Vriska vs Hussie. This is hilarious and ridiculous! Also I guess this is a Problem Sleuth allusion? (And also looks like Caliborn’s art style, haha!)

As the interlude of “Eternity, Served Cold” (song from [S] Caliborn: Enter) plays, Alt!Calliope approaches the Green Sun, the processional cracks in Paradox Space are nearly complete, Lord English faces the ghost army, and Caliborn defeats his denizen and obtains the house juju and God Tier clock. This is... incredibly ominous, to say the least.

Also, the God Tier clock is stopped dead center with the Time symbol, I suppose indicating Caliborn’s earned immortality?

Serenity brings hope to the heroes! (I assume this is Serenity flying to different locations, rather than multiple fireflies?) Interesting how it first focuses on her body spiral, especially because [S] Caliborn: Enter ended on the red sun spiral right before this part of the song could begin. (Post on this here.)

Another callback!

The Mayor and Serenity reuniting is so adorable and heartwarming! :’) <3  (They’ve been separated since sometime before Year 2 of the meteor journey)

Tavros’ lance is made of Fiduspawn host plush bears, haha! (Apparently he had this weapon in [S] Make her pay.)

Aradia uses her Time spell while she, Meenah, and Tavros attack Lord English. Hehe, I love Aradia, and also I love all these callbacks!

Looking at it closely, it looks like Aradia makes Time for them, freezing LE in time, like she did before with Bec Noir. Meanwhile Meenah attacks very similarly to Dirk’s soul destroying spell; she must be stealing his Life force. (Shouldn’t it be cyan, though, like Jane’s Lifey Thing? Although, actually, Feferi’s Life powers are fuchsia, too. I suppose the color depends on the Life player’s color.)

Then it looks like LE tries to speed up the time Aradia made? Or otherwise do some sort of Timey Thing that resembles Dave’s record being scratched and then repaired. And then he breaks free.

Okay, this looks familiar, like a callback. But I can’t place where it’s from. This is bugging me!

This scene from [S] Game Over is the only similar reference I can think of, but it’s too different:

Ghost Army attacks! And also Shrek with his son Eridan ...who does not have ghost eyes? Hahaha, what even?! (Hello there, god tier Sollux and Latula ghosts! Nice to have sprites of Mage, Doom, and Mind garb!)

Davepeta! Undertale reference! THIS. IS. THE GREATEST. THING. EVER! I love this so much I am giddy!

I mean, Heart+Time basically IS Determination! So perfect! Also Davepeta has 33 HP, with reference to Nepeta’s number and how Davepeta uses the B33 emote.

A pink dream bubble next to a shrinking green bubble. More foreshadowing of the Green Sun’s destruction and the creation of a Pink Sun?

I’m really worried for Jane. I hope she’s not dead. We barely got to see her fight, and her showdown with the Condesce happened offscreen. This isn’t right.

Heir of Grief is such a lovely song! As is the sequence with the Beta Kids.

On LOTAK, Gamzee’s still in the fridge and crying. I never thought I’d say this, but... I... actually feel bad for him. :(

Love Crowbar’s stunned reaction to Jake defeating the felt. Also, victory for Karkat! He defeated the smallest, yet MOST DIFFICULT Felt member! Also Clover’s so kinky! XD (More on Karkat and Clover here.)

Jade auspisticizes Bec Noir and PM! But PM is so furious, she overcomes her Bec loyalty instincts and KO’s Jade, favoring her goal (Breath) over her bond (Blood).

That look of defeat on both Dirk and Dave... They know what must be done. :c

I am reminded of Dirk’s “shoulder to shoulder and to shoulder” line. Also Dave breaks Dirk’s Unbreakable Katana. For the first time since his death on LOFAF, Dave time travels to create stable time loops.

I already commented on the black hole with 2/3 of LOTAK and Gamzee, which is incredibly ominous.

PM slices off Bec Noir’s arm, KO’s him, and take the ring! This is not the first time a Jack has lost an arm to a kismesis who’s a queen.

Roxy takes down the Condesce?! Doesn’t Condy have an conditional mortality curse that her killer should inherit? Or was that transfer unique from the Handmaid to the Condesce? I guess it’s unclear. I’m incredibly skeptical of Condy being dead for good, though, considering her curse and how Terezi survived impalement (at least for a while).

It feels like Jane really got shafted in this upd8. She didn’t have much action or screen time, and basically her battle with the Condesce happened off-screen. If anyone should have taken down the Batterwitch, it should’ve been the heiress to Crockercorp. I guess we’ll have to see if Condy’s certainly dead.

That ending, though... That eerie ringing sound, the screen freezing and going static...

The clockwork mechanism being completely still and then fading to black on a white background... This is incredibly ominous. Not to mention those curtains didn’t close. (Compare Collide’s act closing to Cascade’s. In Cascade, the window curtains, though shredded, still closed.)

Some follow-up questions:

Where did Sollux go?

What happened to DD and CD?

How is it the comic went straight from A6A6I5 to A6A6A6 with no curtains closing to indicate the Intermission’s end?

But yeah, I am left with the strong impression this is a false victory. Lord English isn’t defeated, anyway, after all.

Wonderful flash, though! Major applause to everyone involved with making it! Looking toward to, yet incredibly uneasy and anxious about the upcoming finale.

Special thanks @hzapping for showing me how to make animated GIFs (ended up in the Clover post) and for helping me locate a bunch of reference links.