#Post Retcon

[propheticclown]

Gamzee's treatment in Act 6 makes me so sick because he went from this troubled religious kid with problems with addiction and obsession to just being "angry violent guy". Which, firstly, shouldn't technically even be the case because he's a Bard of Rage. And Secondly, still shouldn't have happened because Post-Retcon Gamzee didn't even do anything and still got treated like crap. It's even worse considering that literally all of Gamzee's problems still would've been solved if John just brought Tavros back instead of Vriska. Like the retcon makes no sense in hindsight because Vriska STILL KILLS TAVROS and yet everyone is just chill with her all of a sudden??? Why???

[davekat-sucks]

In both timelines of Beyond Canon, we see different directions Karkat went in, and I think these Karkats resemble the absolute worst traits of Karkat before and after his character arc.

Candy Karkat is the toned up version of Karkat at the start of Hivebent. He’s everything Karkat wanted, threshecutioner serving the Condesce, and a leading figure who commands respect and power from his voice. He’s also dismissive of other people’s emotions, always angry and argumentative, and loves to insult anyone who annoys him even a little.

Being the power fantasy of Hivebent Karkat, he gets to be Hivebent Karkat and more, calling women walking wombs and fighting glorious war with an alternate universe sea Hitler for some ambiguous goal to liberate the troll race. He’s certainly not happy with what he’s doing but he feels like this is his destiny more than anything.

Meat Karkat is what’s wrong with when Karkat stopped doing the leader yelly thing and become a soft apathetic romcom man. In Act 6 his whole deal was doing nothing on relationships and letting every bad pairing or pairing path happen. He let Rose get drunk and sabotage her own relationship with Kanaya, he let Gamzee and Terezi destroy each other in a pitch relationship, he did almost jack squat training for the battle in the aloha session, and what he did most was… mope around in the dream bubbles running from Meenah.

Now Meat Karkat is back to being on the metaphorical meteor, a long trip with friends trying to stop a super nasty bad guy who will destroy everything for esoteric goals towards dominion over everything. He mopes with Dave and does barely anything even as a positive relationship with him. He abandons any bonding or connection with Kanaya and Jade to complain about his pains with Roxy or read fanfiction with Calliope. He decides to not be a leader, and without that leadership, he has become fully aimless in his life.

Thus my conclusion is this: Homestuck: Beyond Canon is Karkat’s terrible vivid nightmare of what will become of him if he does not find that balance in his life. If he does not embrace responsibility nor stand up for the struggles and problems of others he’ll be a lazy pushover bum. If he does not embrace love and understanding of other people’s struggles he will become a cruel warrior who pushes all his soldiers away to be in the arms of the commander.

Thusly, if James Roach cancels HSBC for whatever reason, I will write a fanfic where reality melts away and Karkat wakes up to realize he was dreaming. He will be consoled by his fiancé, but rather than it being Dave, I enact one final work of Hussie-style trolling, and reveal in a great twist that it is Terezi that united with Larkat in marriage, and that Karezi was always endgame. That’s right, Homestuck webt to shit the exact moment John tried making Terezi break up with Karkat.

Here's hoping that James Roach and HICU don't try to justify Karkat's actions in the Meat Timeline and that him still acting like a sack of shit is valid like what happened during Act 6. If Karkat in Candy Timeline is portrayed as this hot badass leader who has a deep longing for Dave, then Meat is the uwu soft boi tragic figure that everyone most feel sorry for and has only Dave to comfort him. I'm not sure what would be the wakeup call besides him being called out on his bullshit from someone. Be it from someone like Kanaya, Terezi, John, Jade, or even Dave himself (though I doubt on the latter since he has his own issues). To be fair as well, Terezi wasn't specific to John that the message "you don't need him" was aimed at Gamzee. Since she never went into detail, John just did as told and the Terezi in that timeline assume it was for both Karkat and Gamzee since the him could mean any or all of the boys (including Eridan, Equius, Tavros, and Sollux. Which could explain more in Post Retcon timeline that she haven't thought about Tavros or Sollux despite that she was close to them). If it does come to James Roach officially cancelling HSBC, I'd love to read it. Karezi was the true endgame ship.

[animallover432]

One thing about homestuck Act 6 that really bothers

me is that Caliborn is somehow able to interact with

The pre retcon timeline. How is this possible? He only

exists post retcon presumably, since Universe C only

exists post retcon. People originally assumed he was

pre retcon, but he can’t be because universe C

doesn’t exist in the original timeline.

The pre retcon timeline shouldn’t even

exist by his point. He should be seeing the kids from

the post retcon timeline on his monitors? I know that

the retcon hadn’t happened yet in real life, but this

seems like a plot hole. He messes with the game over

timeline by stuffing the homestuck act 6 cartridge

full of stardust thus causing things to go wrong. He

even gives the pre retcon alpha kids the lolllipops,

and I guess he also gives the post retcon kids theirs

too offscreen? He mentions Erisolsprite also so he’s

definitely talking to the pre retcon kids.

Then later, he watches the kids in the epilogues

battle him in the Masterpiece. Can he just see any

timeline on the monitors of his planet? Can he see

doomed timelines also? That’s the only way this can

all make sense. I mean it is supposed to be the

headquarters of MSPA, right?

The worst implication by far of the retcon though is

that since the events that led to Lil Cal would’ve

repeated again in the new timeline, there should be a

post retcon Lil Cal, Doc Scratch, and Lord English.

[homestuck-fanauthor-coalition]

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend (2361 words) by Madam_Melon_Meow Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Homestuck Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Kanaya Maryam/Terezi Pyrope, Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, Terezi Pyrope/Vriska Serket Characters: Terezi Pyrope, Kanaya Maryam, Gamzee Makara Additional Tags: POV Terezi Pyrope, pale vrisrezi, red rosemary, pale kanrezi, Pale Infidelity, One Night Stand, Retcon Timeline Summary: Vriska sure has been 'hands on' with Rose's alcoholism recovery. It almost feels. Like she's paling at her. >:[

@madam-melon-meow won Best in Melodrama, Darkest romance, Best in Moirallegience, and Best in Vacillation & Smeared Quadrants !

[freshbeeth]

two queens maximizing their joint slay

[sreppub]

jason is not immune to cat snuggles, even when the cat is his dad who he’s mad at

(continuation of my somewhat cracky cat bruce au)

[livinghalfway]

Mini Prompt: Hit and Run

It’s a surprisingly quiet night in Gotham, because of this everyone is currently gathered on some random rooftop for the time being; even Jason.

Bickering and joking taunts are being thrown around by all of them when suddenly a figure is zooming past most of them. Only for the unknown threat to tackle Jason. Throwing the two of them across the roof.

When the two finally come to a stop the unknown, a boy with white hair and green eyes, is on top of Jason. Just as everyone is recovering from the shock and rushing to help, the boy slams his hand deep into Jason’s chest. He is then pulling out a toxic green substance.

They try to attack the threat and get him off of Jason, but everything just goes right through him. Luckily the boy doesn't seem to want anything to do with the rest of them, and just as quickly as this all started it's over. As the boy simply disappears from sight right in front of them all.

Jason on the other hand is left on the ground gasping for breath. When they finally get him calm enough to tell them how he's feeling the first thing Jason tells them is that the pit rage is gone.

[butchdiaz]

still so hilarious to me that season 6 ended with buck and eddie both entering presumably happy functional relationships with women all tied up in a nice little bow. then season 7 rolls around and its BOOM. "we broke up" [faggotron 3000]. BOOM. bi buck. BOOM. catholic guilt. BOOM. dead wife doppelgänger. BOOM. bees. BOOM. "the lafd doesn't allow beards." BOOM. "im not your last." BOOM. he's finding joy. BOOM. "i'm your renter." BOOM. "it's not nothing." BOOM. awkward rain hug. BOOM. he's literally living in eddie's house.

[adhdevankinard]

In 8x11, Bobby kept accidentally calling Ravi “Eddie.” What if there’s a flashback to see more of Buck's first week at the 118? And Bobby keeps calling him “Tommy.”

And Buck is like, “Ugh. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. 🙄 I never wanna hear the name Tommy again.”

Ha. Idiot. 🥰

[mochasucculent]

I'm rewatching Arcane, and after my third time seeing season 1 I had a hot new reading on Viktor's scenes in episodes 6, 7, and 8.

Like a lot of other people, I felt it was weird and unsavory that Viktor - very close to death with a disease that affects his lungs - suddenly starts experimenting on his disabled leg. Those two things have nothing in common, save for the fact that the cause of both might have been the toxic fumes of the undercity, which could have resulted in Viktor being born disabled if his parents were also subject to those conditions.

So why does Viktor try to "fix" his leg when his main goal is to utilize the Hexcore to prolong and improve living conditions before he's gone?

Viktor in acts 2 and 3 is motivated to save himself long enough to make a difference in the world. Even though Hextech is revolutionary for Piltover, it hasn't reached who Viktor wanted to help this whole time, the disenfranchised in the undercity. In his mind, he hasn't done enough to change the world for the better, and he will be gone before he has the chance to do so.

After realizing the Hexcore responded to organic matter when it absorbed Viktor's blood, he experiments with plants, only to find that they wither and die soon after the Hexcore makes them grow.

This causes him to visit Singed once again for anything that could help him figure out how to use the Hexcore for magic that could save lives, one last shot at accomplishing his dreams.

Viktor parted ways with with him as a child upon seeing that Singed was willing to hurt Rio, his salamander test subject, in order to prolong her life. Viktor didn't understand that cost before, but he does now, being in the same position as Singed and Rio simultaneously, both the scientist trying to make a breakthrough and the subject he needs to save in order to do so.

Like Rio, Viktor is not his own end goal to his scientific pursuits. Singed is trying to save his daughter, Viktor is trying to help his people. He's his own means to an end, and is now willing to pay the cost of getting there.

Singed gives Viktor a variant of Shimmer to experiment with, the idea being that it will stabilize an organism while the Hexcore's magic affects it, hopefully allowing it to survive through the aggressive and sudden healing process.

Viktor injects the Shimmer into his leg, as well as carving runes into both his brace and thigh to channel the magic towards there before he offers the Hexcore his blood. It does Something to his leg which we don't see till the following episode.

The new reading I have of this scene is that the reason Viktor chose his leg specifically is not because he was trying to "fix" it, but because:

-He's not willing to put others' lives at risk and knows he's not long for this world, so the only test subject he's willing to use is himself

-He knows the organic matter he tests the Hexcore on might die

-Viktor's leg is a part of his body he's willing to lose if things go wrong and it rejects the transmutation (he also knows that he could just fully die then and there too and is willing to take that risk)

Obviously, the scenes involving Viktor's experimentation center his physical disabilities (shots of his back brace, the focus on his leg) and equate them with the disease that is literally killing him. The narrative lens shows us that Viktor "curing" himself begins with his disability, which sucks.

So while the boat scene undoubtedly is written to be "triumphant" because Viktor's leg is no longer disabled (shown by him dropping his crutch, the swelling music, the parallel to the scene where a child Viktor can't keep up with his toy boat), a different reading is that it's another experiment to him.

Viktor is stress testing the organic matter he infused with magic, and the scene is triumphant because he's realized his leg isn't deteriorating or weakening - it holds up. The mutation of the magic in his leg survived. It's a sign that maybe he can use the Hexcore on the rest of his body, keep himself alive long enough to do what he's always wanted to do: leave a legacy that changes the world for the better.

To me that's a much more in-character perspective for Viktor in these scenes than what is being said narratively through directing, framing, music, etc. Previously, Viktor had never expressed distaste for his disability as an adult, only commenting on it as a part of why he was isolated socially from Piltover. To me, him testing the Hexcore on his leg is merely an indifference to its current state, rather than a preference to have it changed. I don't even necessarily think it'd be a bad thing if Viktor did outright say "I would like to not be disabled", because I'm sure many other disabled people feel that way from time to time, but season 1 really does a poor job of pushing that framing of "curing" disability onto a character that did not express those perspectives himself at this point.

It gives off a big ol' "aw, poor Viktor, not only is he dying because of the political landscape that leaves disenfranchised people to suffer preventable diseases, but he's got a disabled leg too!" One of those things is much more problematic than the other lol.

Season 2 definitely hurtles Viktor very quickly into the Machine Herald perspective in which he thinks humans must evolve past ANY limitations of their original bodies, but to me season 1 Viktor just doesn't feel that way about himself. His primary concern has always been rooted in how to improve the lives of his people permanently, and it's only when he's actively dying that his secondary goal is to live long enough to see that happen.

It's something he drops completely after his experimentation results in Sky's death. He's immediately spiteful of the Hexcore and tries to destroy it - and himself.

Viktor now accepts that he will die before he's able to change the world the way he wanted, and hides the fact that he fucked with his body from everyone as he awaits his demise. "Fixing" his leg is not something he celebrates in and of itself, it's now only a reminder that the pursuit of his dream resulted in someone else's death.

The narrative does well in season 2 to frame Viktor's Glorious Evolution as a Bad Thing at least, and Jayce's speech at the end about Viktor never being broken is extremely valuable and important, but it's just weird to see him say this:

Cause to me now, that ain't what Viktor was trying to do at all! The writers may have retconned that to be the case, which is fine, whatever, but season 1 in isolation does not support that idea to me after this rewatch.

Overall, I think Arcane can have confusing directing sometimes that focuses on evoking feelings and themes rather than the richness of its characters, their dynamics, and the world they inhabit - to the detriment of all the above. In season 2, this resulted in a lot of scenes that felt emotionally unearned or muddy to me, like pretty much everything with Jinx, Vi, and Vander together rip.

It's for this same reason that I think it took me so long to really come to this reading of Viktor's season 1 scenes, because the directing bias REALLY wants to make you feel sorrow and hope alongside Viktor, even though it means he'll seem to randomly start equating his disabled leg to his illness. It just felt like a weird disparity to me until I watched these episodes again and was like "wait" lol.

Anyway peace and love on planet Earth I cannot stop thinking about Viktor Arcane

[navree]

i think more people need to realize that the circumstances of how jason todd died would make him deeply untrusting of not only other people, not only himself and his own instincts, but specifically other people's proclamations of what they feel about/for him and how he reacts to that in turn

[journen]

In the revisited ending of MW3, this is how I hope Soap and Ghost can spend the new year. 🧡

(posted on my Twitter on new year's day but just posted it here now🧡)

[davekat-sucks]

wasnt john treated extremely poorly though like. everyone pretty much forgot about him, didnt contact him, etc. and he was extremely isolated.

and now his family hates him, he has no friends who support him or to rely on, etc. hes completely alone.

it just seems really fucked up to me that these so called friends of his would only change their minds once he transitions? can you imagine all of a sudden they want to hang out with him when he transitions. all of a sudden his family loves him, his friends support him..? like it just, gives a very bad taste in my mouth. it doesn't feel right.

It is fucked up. It's implying that his friends never really cared for him when they originally talk and met in the comic. Was Dave and Rose's crush on him a lie? What would have happened if Dave, Rose, and Jade never met him? Would Sburb be able to go on without him? This is especially the fact this dude saved everyone after GAME OVER. Without his Retcon powers, they would be nothing without him.

[spacerockband]

like, he didn’t even stop 9/11…

[homestuck-fanauthor-coalition]

Maybe annoying people can become friends without having to be less annoying.

Maybe annoying people can become friends without having to be less annoying. (3233 words) by terminalLoquacity Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Homestuck Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Vriska Serket & Dave Strider Characters: Dave Strider, Vriska Serket Additional Tags: Meteorstuck, Dave is slightly meta-aware but exclusively for jokes, Nic Cage movies as bonding experience, Developing Friendships Summary: Dave is left without anyone to hang out with. Vriska is similarly situated. Left with only the options of being alone or hanging out together, can they get along slightly better than either of them expected?

@herestoanotherweirdo wrote this! check Luke's stuff out!

[shepscapades]

now that I’m finally sitting down and making an actual fullbody colored reference for beesuma would y’all be mad if I went back and tweaked the images where he shows up to make him more accurate