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autumnblogs · 2 years

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Readthrough 2, Day 1: John Homestuck

Here we are again, April 13th.

I’m going to try, as much as I can, not to repeat myself in this liveblog, so if you haven’t already read my first liveblog, you’ll still likely be able to get something out of it if you are picking up with me on my second liveblog!

Time in Homestuck is extremely flexible, in keeping with the demands of a Narrative-first reality, and of course, the very first idea that we’re introduced to in the setting is this sort of reverse-causality situation, where John is not named until his 13th birthday, but has paradoxically always been John, much in the same way that Prospit and Derse and the Medium are all created at the moment a session begins, but have paradoxically always existed.

I have said this before, I’ll say it again: I really like this format for introductions, and I love the way that these introductions are structured. A big part of the reason Homestuck characters end up feeling kind of like real people, is that they are interested in lame stuff.

Abstract Behavioral Medium, now there’s a humdinger of a phrase. Abstraction is a recurring motif in Homestuck, what with the different levels of detail in drawing. Sprite Mode, which we’ve got here, is the base level of abstraction for people who exist in Homestuck, it seems. Hero Mode, which becomes prominent in Act 5 and Act 6, is a level of abstraction up from that, and “Hussnasty” I think is the term for the level of abstraction up from that.

Being abstracted in Homestuck is associated with being dominated, under someone else’s thumb, subject to their will - Doc Scratch dominates Damara by abstracting her away from Hero Mode, and into Sprite Mode for example - and is also associated with a lower level of fidelity, authenticity, and “realness” - Hero Mode often becomes more prominent as the story becomes more serious, with more abstracted drawing styles associated with more comical, and less serious moments in general.

Sprite Mode as the base layer of abstraction suggests a level of cognitive distance between John and his reality, a feeling of haplessness, unseriousness, and lack of control. He is an abstraction of himself, layers removed from the Real Thing. It takes adventures that render him in Hero Mode and higher levels of fidelity to render him “More Authentic” - so maybe John’s idea of the real life is one of high stakes conflict. That fits with the cultural expectations of masculinity that HS is generally kind of interested in.

I told myself I was going to watch some of the Homestuck Reference Movies in between my last reread and this one, and I did not do so. Maybe I should watch the movies PARALLEL to my Homestuck Readings, see what’s up with them.

Homestuck has some interesting things to say about Race, but I’m not the most qualified to talk about it. I’ll talk when I think I actually have some interesting things to say, but I’m not as educated on it as I would like to be, and/or educating myself as much as I can, so I’m not going to talk about it at length unless I have something really interesting to say.

That said, I can also provide references: @mmmmalo’s stuff about race is really good, and I might reblog some of it later. For now, if you want to peruse what they have to say about blackness, here is the link to the tag: https://mmmmalo.tumblr.com/tagged/race%20mapping/page/2

In any case, it’s interesting to see that the first Black President is referenced so early within Homestuck, especially considering its weird relationship with Obama, and in particular, Dave’s fascination with Obama. I think I’ll revisit my thoughts about Black People in Homestuck when we get to Her Imperious Condescension.

A monocle is a signifier that points to someone being a proper gentleman - wearing a monocle is part of the performance of gentlemanliness (much like cologne and aftershave are signifiers of dadliness, and part of the performance of dadliness).

The keyword abstraction appears again, ersatz, in the phrase Kind Abstratus. These kinds suggest that a big part of Abstraction is in Definition - in labeling things, watering them down to a set of easily identifiable characteristics so that they can be sorted into categories, distinct from each other.

American Cool Culture is really interesting to me, because like, if you look at the history of cool, it’s almost all African-American in origin, which is appropriate, since apparently the history of the concept begins in Africa, and only enters European culture with the Trans-atlantic Slave Trade.

In my last liveblog, I talked a little about how Dave Strider is kind of a poser, and I interpret him as a white-coded character who is adopting black mannerisms - peppering his dialogue with out of date AAVE, for example, which is probably reflective of Andrew’s understanding of it as well. As long as I’m thinking about Race in Homestuck though, it’s interesting to think of the Bros of Homestuck as white guys knowingly or unknowingly appropriating blackness.

I am almost certainly not the first person to note the resemblance between the present and the perfectly generic object, or rather that the Perfectly Generic Object is like the present - containing we know not what, but certainly something incredibly desirable, absent of features until it is opened.

I wonder if that tags Roxy, whose introduction to John is being buried under a pile of PGOs as being the Bunny - the gift inside the box. But John is also the bunny.

Makes me think of the Theosophic Notion that God created androgynous souls, which were then split into male and female, such that soulmates are people whose souls are the masculine and feminine halves of the original androgynous soul, such that the Bunny is a symbol of John, but also a symbol of John’s love interest - he names her Liv, after all, because of his celebrity crush on the disaster movie female romantic lead from Armageddon - so John and Roxy are As One.

Odd place to bring this up, but the use of the word Artifact to describe all the sundries that can be picked up and put in cards is interesting to me, and seems tied to the theme of abstraction we’ve got going here in the first act. Artifacts are the leftovers of bygone things - and since Homestuck is an end of the world story, of course, all of these items are artifacts in that sense.

But it also reminds me of the word artifact as in Compression Artifacts - the infidelities and ugliness produced by the compression of a picture into a smaller format for easier storage.

While John isn’t into Chick Flicks, the adventure movies that he’s into almost all have the romantic dynamic in them anyway. Karkat replicates and exaggerates John’s sublimated interest in Romcoms. What’s interesting about chick flicks, rom coms, is that while they’re nominally for women, almost all of them are written by men, men’s idea of what women are interested in, men’s idea of women, and their relationships with men.

The Strider’s relationship with the concept of ironic enjoyment recalls something I read recently, I can’t remember the reference, but it was about how Irony is inherently destructive, or at least, non-constructive, it can only criticize non-constructively.

While the Striders, and more to the point, Bro, may get enjoyment out of derogating things, even in a multi-layered way, this derogation ultimately doesn’t produce anything new, and the ironic enjoyment is usually just a cloak to mask genuine enjoyment.

While only ~ath gets any user throughout the comic, the other books also have cheeky pun titles that I only caught on literally this readthrough, because I glossed over them every other time. Dis* (Disasterisk), ^Cake (Carat/Carrot Cake).

Homestuck’s meteors are of course, couched in reference to Armageddon and Deep Impact specifically, but to American Disaster Movies more generally. Disaster Movies seem to be kind of a phenomenon tied to both Anthopogenic Natural Disaster - Climate Change, and pollution of the environment - and in some ways emerged because of the world status quo in which America was the global hegemon with no real contenders. There stopped being a lot of new disaster movies as soon as 9/11 happened. Strangely Homestuck, is almost completely uninterested in the War on Terror though, in spite of the ways in which it’s otherwise aggressively contemporary, and the preoccupation with the apocalypse, and disaster movies, might give a hint that, at least in this one respect, Homestuck is actually stuck about ten years in the past - a strange and achronistic blend of the late 90s, just a moment before that world DID end and the late thousands, with all the early Obama-Era stuff that implies.

That’s about all I got in me for tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll pick up at Rose’s introduction.

#homestuck #john egbert #abstraction #her imperious condescension #race #theosophy #war on terror #disaster movies

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paradoxkinspace · 2 years

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ClowncAR! have you been asked about your Gamzee Megido timeline yet? Cause 👀

i haven't! lets seeee,,, whats some cool stuff i can clue ya in on?

oh! uh, for one, me and mod jubejube share this timeline through mutual connection to Eridan Serket (prince of light, catalystAlexandria, merlion lusus, had king arthur aesthetic vibes) via him being my moirail and being jubejube's descendent (she's Cronus Serket)

as for meee.... i was a bard of time! uhhh i liked painting, tho i dont think i was exactly good at or nothin haha.

lets see.... oh! here's somethin actually interesting, i'm pretty sure i was basically haunted by Kurloz for most of the timeline. or maybe it was my ancestor (The Funerary) sendin me in the right direction beforehand

lets see... ive already mentioned me and Loz were Bard & Prince of Time. and Eri & Cro were the Prince & Bard of Light.... buuuuut....as for other swaps in the timeline.... John Jojo Harley (Witch of Breath), Dave Lalonde (Seer of Time, possibly involved with Eridan in some other quadrant. or maybe they were just broskis), Jade Strider (Knight of Space), Rose Egbert (Heir of Light), Jane English (Maid of Hope), Dirk Lalonde (Prince of Void), Jake Strider (Page of Heart), Roxy Crocker (Rogue of Life), Aradia & Damara Makara (Maid & Witch of Rage), Tavros & Rufioh Maryam (Page & Rogue of Space), Sollux & Mituna Pyrope (Mage & Heir of Mind), Karkat & Kankri Peixes (Knight & Seer of Life), Nepeta & Meulin Zahhak (Rogue & Mage of Void), Kanaya & Porrim Nitram (Sylph & Maid of Breath), Terezi & Latula Vantas (Seer & Knight of Blood), Vriska & Aranea Captor (Thief & Sylph of Doom), Equius & Horuss Ampora (Heir & Page of Hope), Feferi & Meenah Leijon (Witch & Thief of Heart)

not sure of anythin about the cherubs tho.... i think they were still around and me and 'Loz had somethin to do with em... probably with Ara and Damz. after all, Loz and Damz were in some type-a red quad. at least i know our ancestors had somethin goin on and were usually linked in terms of "legend" for lack of a better term. i think while The Funerary and The Great Mortician were probably matesprits (or at least, rumored to be), their pre-scratch selves (that is, Kurloz & Damara) were running a bit paler. don't quote me tho. the time-space axis is where i'm strongest for this timeline, not heart or blood hehehe

i'm equally stuck on the vagueness of my lusus. i doubt he was around much, tho im not sure if he was just an absent custody or if he was motherfuckin dead hahahahahaha

either way i think he had some sorta reptile or amphibian vibe to him, maybe a frog or crocodile? but it's more complicated than so i'd place my bets with some sorta hybrid thing, like a chimera in some way. even if that means it was just a literal horned toad. id make some shit pun combo-ing baphomet and frogs/toads but i cant think of one thats actually obvious enough to be funny. (bufomet is the closest ive got so s/o to anyone who picks that one up hahahahahahaha)

hmmm.... need to think a bit more on this one tbh hehehehe :o)

💫

#mod clowncar #mods kinning #txt n talk #timeline 200 event

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nightlight-stardust-and-rain · 4 years

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So I wanted to do a Homestuck HP au because I love writing about Homestuck. But like right now I don't have a lot of ideas so I'm gonna write whatever goes in my head.

John is a muggleborn. Everyone thinks he's a halfblood because when he talks about his dad people thinks he's a wizard (nope just a weird but cool muggle who took the magic thing very well). John doesn't correct them because honestly, pranking half of his classmates without even trying, that's something (he just want to see their faces when they realize). Also I think he would be a gryffindor. Oooor maybe a slytherin, but idk I don't see the "ambitious" side. No, gryffindor. Because pranks. He think he'd be very good at potions and charms ? Because pranks. Like you know you're better with subjects that are interesting to you. He really likes potion and charms because the amount of pranks he can do is like, unlimited. He's also good with a broomstick, even if he's not on the quidditch team : he likes to fly for flying, not for playing. He never really understood the problem with houses - or rather, the competition. He pranks everyone equally, that's all that matters (OK maybe he pranks more Dave and Karkat, but come on. Their reactions are priceless).

Jade is, I think, a half-blood ? Honestly, nobody knows, not even her : she doesn't remember if her grandpa was a wizard or not, and she remembers even less her parents. She grew up on a island (like in canon tbh) with Bec, who is a ex-wizard : he had a accident and he got trapped in his animagus form but due to the incident he sorta kept some of his powers (that's why he can still apparate) and, kinda, got the mind of a dog (still more intelligent than any dog, but not enough to notice that he was a wizard - he doesn't even remember bieng one). She's a slytherin ! Because she's really clever and kinda ambitious ? Like she really want to mix science and magic. She wants the magic world to know science ("guys, they don't even know what an atom is !!!"). Due to that, she's really fucking good with potions. The best of her years (of any year, really). While being a arithmancy and herbology genius, She's also pretty good in every other class tbh. Not really the best at flying, but she tries. Also she somehow learn to apparate when she's like 12 and everybody is stunned like HOW (and she's "oh my dog taught me !" "... WHAT"). She's very happy to be a witch but her scientific side SCREAMED when she learned the existence of magic. She can often be found staring at the moving stairs mumbling something about the physics laws.

Rose iiiiis... A pureblood. Come on. Like she grew up with magic traditions and such. She also loves the muggle's representation of wizards (it's very funny). She's SO a ravenclaw. That was obvious. Her mother is a famous witch (both famous for her acts of heroism during the last War (??) and also famous for being drunk anytime) and she doesn't really likes to be famous by association, but eh. She's obviously a Seer (like, a true one). She took divination and she fucking destroyed the teacher. Like she just looked at them with her superior smile (you know the insufferable one) and proceeded to walk out of class and never return (the destroying the teacher part took place at the exams when she got the highest score despite having skipped every divination period). She's really good in DADA and Alchemy and potions. Maybe sometimes she's a bit too close to the dark side of magic (*snort*) but eh she didn't killed anyone (yet). The only classes she's not good with is care of magical creatures : the creatures are all afraid of her (tbh it's because she tried to summon a eldricht horror once. She failed but the eldricht aura kinda stayed on her). She's very interested in vampires, but her interest may be personal rather than scholar ;)

Dave is, I think. A pureblood ? Tbh I really don't know where Bro stands. Since he's Rose's twin, he's obviously a pureblood, but he didn't grew up in the same place. Bro was the kind of wizard who was absolutely obsessed with muggle's technology so one day he just... Moved to the muggle side ? Idk. So here I'm really torn up between "Dave's shitty childhood and shitty role model is a important part of his character" and "I want Dave to be happy and have a happy childhood". Fuck it he' ll have a extremely weird but happy childhood (like. Remember before we knew that Bro was abusive and we tought that he was just a cool and really really really weird guardian ?). So he grew up in a mix of magic and technology : ofc Bro didn't hide he was a wizard, he used magic pretty often. Dave knows some things about technology but he kinda lacks... Basic knowledge. You know. Bro still taught him fencing (kinda was a family thing) but like. Low-key ? Like not before he was ten and Dave wasn't beat up, it was actual teaching (I just want Dave to be happy without PTSD, dammit). Also Dave is a hufflepuf (fight me). The beta kids are all the four houses (they think that's funny and they're kinda proud to be a multi-house group. XD amateurs just wait to see the trolls). When Dave got his letter, he was "... Bro. There is a magic community ??" "yes ? You didn't knew ?" "you never told me I tought we were mutants". Bro then realizes he never told Dave that he was actually a wizard, uh. Then "oh yeah your twin sister must be at hogwarts too" "I have a twin sister". Like. Bro legit forgot to tell him. Also Dave is absolutely fascinated by magic pictures. He's kinda good with classes because he's pretty smart but he's better with charms and DADA. He can fly (I mean with a broomstick of course) but he's not in the quidditch team. He took divination because he knows it's bullshit : it's for irony. He carries a camera everywhere because honestly magic pictures are so cool. He takes pictures every time because come on, Hogwarts is wonderful (he sends some of his pics to Bro who replies by "I know how Hogwarts looks, dumbass"). He also likes to take pics of his friends and also of this strange, huge group of friends who are not in the same house and who are indeed very strange and very differents but they stay together no matter what (yeah I'm talking about the trolls). Not gonna lie, he takes more pics of one of them... (yes I'm talking about Karkat. Because I ship DaveKat). He didn't realized he got a crush, the poor boy (also a lot less internalized homophobia because Bro is so gay. Dave's just takes a while to understand that he's Bi).

The trolls are a big multi-house group. Some of them knew each other before Hogwarts but mostly they were strangers who inexplicably and despite all their differences became friends the first day of school and stayed together for their whole life (it's Karkat. What keeps them together is Karkat).

And you know what I'm gonna do the ancestors before the beta trolls.

The Handmaid, Damara Megido (yeah they're keeping their post-Scratch selfs names), is Aradia's mother. She works at the ministry's time department (idk if it exists in HP so if not it's a department to regulate time travel and time traveling objects) and she's pretty great since she's the head of her department. She likes her work and she's pretty famous : both for her work, her magic skills (she's super fucking powerful) and her one-night stands (come on it's still Damara I had to). Actually Aradia comes from one of these one-night stands. She never hid it to her daughter. Aradia honestly doesn't mind. She's the type you would never expect to have a kid, but she's actually a good mother. She smokes a bit too much and maybe sometimes she forgets to cook but she tries.

The Summoner, Rufioh Nitram, is Tavros' father. He's part fairy and has absolutely no fucking clue about who was a fairy in his family but he doesn't really cares. His wings are cool, he likes to fly, talking to animals is even cooler. He's really chill about it. He never really felt ashamed of his wings, even when people tought they were girly. He's an auror affected to the department for control and regulation of magical creatures. He deals with dangerous creatures such as dragons. He loves his job. It's perfect for him : when he was a teen he was torn between auror (the action !) and the department [...] of magical creatures (the creatures !) but he got a mix of the two. He's proud of his son : he fully knows that being different can be hard and knows that his son is doing his best.

The Psiioniic, the Signless and the Disciple are in a happy poly relationship. Their kids Sollux, Karkat and Nepeta are actually triplets. The funny thing is that since they named them differently (Sollux is Captor-Vantas-Leijon, Karkat is Vantas-Leijon-Captor and Nepeta is Leijon-Captor-Vantas. Honestly their parents did that just to mess with everyone) and that most of the teacher's call list was only long enough to include the first of their last names, everybody at Hogwarts took like a year to understand that they were related and one more year to discover that they were triplets. That's exactly the kind of mess that was in their parent's mind when they named them.

The Psiioniic, Mituna Captor, is one of Sollux's, Karkat's and Nepeta's dads. He's a sarcastic little shit who got a job with computers on the muggle side of the world (people are usually stunned when they discover that he's a pureblood). He's a parseltongue and has a yellow-blue-red snake named Gemini. Honestly the only reason why everyone doesn't know he's a parseltongue isn't because he hides it (he doesn't care about people's opinion) but because, as a very not talkative person, he talks to his snake (or any snakes) like he talks to people : rarely. He's trying to introduce technology in the wizard world. It goes slowly. He' s actually a good dad who may forget to eat and/or to cook sometimes and has bipolarity (wizards usually think it's a curse. He gave up trying to explain every time) but he loves his childrens and is so in love with Signless and Disciple that sometimes he embarrasses himself.

The Signless, Kankri Vantas, is Sollux's, Karkat's and Nepeta's other dad. He's a half-blood and a Seer. Unlike Rose, he can't see the future, but the past lives. His past life or anyone's. He needs to touch people to See their past life and it's not really useful but he likes it. He's a teacher in Muggle studies : he was so appalled by the muggle studies in hogwarts that he decided to correct wizard's opinion on muggles. That's how he met Psii : he was trying to make a computer who could resist in Hogwarts (spoiler it exploded) and Signless was extremely interested (spoiler he lost his eyebrows in the explosion because he was too close). He kinda travels in various magic communities to teach them about muggle things that are very useful (he's not 'muggle are better than wizards'. Just 'we could learn so much from them and also the muggle are not a different species, we're all humans'). When his kids talked to him about their friends he laughed really hard and said "of course. You twelve are bound to each other after all". He's such a great dad. He loves his childrens so much and when he looks like he could explode you know he's thinking about how much he loves Psii and Disciple.

The Disciple, Meulin Leijon, is Sollux's, Karkat's and Nepeta's mother. She's a author and journalist. She does documentary-like articles. Like about animals or nature. She's a muggle born who was raised by a nundu ! You know the leopard-like creature with spikes in Fantastic Beasts (It moved silently, despite its "gigantic" size and was considered by some to be the most dangerous creature alive. The breath of the Nundu was toxic and filled with disease so potent that it can wipe out entire villages of people. Source wikipedia). Her muggle village was wiped by said toxic breath. Her magic protected her and somehow the nundu adopted her *shrugs*. She lived with her until she was seven and a witch found her and took her to the wizard world. It took her time to learn to talk, write, read, behave like a human. But oh she loved writing. She loved the books and she loved the stories and she loved to read. She kept some things from her years with her mother (she won't call the nundu who adopted her anything else), like the ability to move very silently and the, well, wilderness and fight skills. Honestly everyone believes she's a werewolf. She's tiny and pretty but actually more dangerous than half of the ancestor combined (admittedly in this HP au they are physically weaker or just not used to fight). So she writes reports about magical creatures and animals, she write books (her best book is an autobiography : everyone believes it's a fiction because of the adoption by a nundu thing). Sometimes Signless helps her to find a good story because you wouldn't believe the crazy things they did in their past life : he tells her, and she writes a book with that basis. Sometimes she works with the department [...] of magical creatures because she knows a lot about magical creatures and she understand their mind you know. Sometimes she works with the Summoner. They make a good pair and are very good friends.

The Dolorosa, Porrim Maryam, is Signless' adoptive mother, Karkat's, Sollux's and Nepeta's grandma and Kanaya's guardian and relative. She doesn't look that old because she's a vampire. She's Kanaya's ancestor, but literally. She must be like +600. She's really wise and really cool and also she can kick your ass easily. She lived in both worlds (muggle and magic) and lived in every country. She knows almost everything. Really she is just super badass. She adopted Signless when he was like 3 months. She greatly influenced him and his ideas. She's a very supportive mom and guardian. Also she uses a chainsaw. She's a bit of a legend everywhere honestly some people don't believe she exists.

Neophyte Redglare, Latula Pyrope, is Terezi's older sister and guardian. She's a auror (duh) and one of the best ! She's also a part-time lawyer and she's feared. With reason. She is Terezi's role model ! Redglare is very proud of her little sister and think that she will surpass her one day. Her and Psii are good friends even if they have nothing in common except their tendencies to sarcasm (Signless says they get along well because they dated in another life. They both gagged at that).

Spinneret Mindfang, Aranea Serket, is a fucking criminal. That's all. Like. She's a rich pureblood who leads a sort of magic-muggle mafia ? Like she does things on the muggle side and on the magic side and her group has wizards and squibs and muggles (who of course know about magic. When you're breaking laws everyday, what's one more ?). Her group works with magic methods as well as non magic methods - that's kinda why she never got arrested. Muggle police can never find them because magic, and aurors usually don't know where to search on the muggle side. She's feared everywhere and she's Redglare's principal target but she's not worried about being caught. She's not a really good mother to Vriska - she loves her daughter but she's a bit neglecting ? Like sometimes she's not home for a week or something. Also she has a pet acromentula.

Darkleer, Horuss Zahhak, is a black-Smith who lives in the same magic town as The Nitram, Maryam and Captor-Vantas-Leijon. He's a pureblood from a high family but he somehow get kicked out and ended up being a blacksmith. He actually, truly loves his job and while being Greatly ashamed (sweating) to have been kicked out of his house, he actually thinks that, hadn't he been kicked out, he would never have found his true vocation. He's very very awkward but his son doesn't mind since he's also very awkward. He's a good dad who teach blacksmithing to his son (while trying to erase the "better than anyone" way to think that his House teached to his son). He's friends with Disciple, she thinks his awkwardness is cute and he's kinda fascinated by her wilderness - they come from totally opposed sides after all.

The Grand Highblood, Kurloz Makara is a pure mystery. Is he wizard ? A muggle ? Is he at least alive ? Nobody knows.

Orphaner Dualscar, Cronus Ampora, is a pureblood who was a little shit when he was young (see post-scratch Cronus) but somehow (spoiler he pissed off the wrong person) he got his wand broken on his teens and he was dropped in the muggle world. Since he didn't knew what to do he ended up being in the marines by accident. It was hell for him. He fought a war, a muggle war, and saw what muggles can do. Years after his PTSD is still here. That's where he got his scars. After the war he succeeded to come back to the wizard world. He got a new wand and still had his family's name behind him but he still had the war in his bones. He never talked shit about muggles again and while being very scared of them he's also kinda fascinated - he had a sort of rifle harpoon (harpoon rifle ?) in the marines and it felt more right than his wand. He had Eridan like a year after being back. He panicked at first of course but he did his best to be a good father (he didn't had the best parents either) and kinda dropped everything to take care of his son. He's a very good dad even if he had to hire a cook because he can't cook to save his life. He later adopted Feferi and he has no clue why he did that but he loved her as if she was his biological daughter. Now that Eridan and Feferi are at Hogwarts he's searching for a job (spoilers he'll end up being Disciple's secretary because she's absolutely hopeless with planing and such and also he helps her with her books because he knows some things she doesn't about the muggle world or the army. He'll end up writing his own book - an autobiography)

The Condesce is the queen of the Selkies. Just. The queen. She's not a very good mother since she drooped Feferi in a magic orphanage after having her with a human.

now the beta trolls !

Aradia is a half-blood. She lives with her mother and their house is in the middle of a magic graveyard. Aradia grew surrounded by graves and ghosts, and she loved it. Some ghosts were around often, to visit their own grave or their family's grave. She talked to every one of them ! And they all had stories to tell ! And (and one day when she was little she met a woman with gray skin and eyes glowing of diferents colors and she had ram horns and she wore a green dress and she asked Aradia "tell me about yourself" Aradia told her about her mom and how she loved talking to ghosts and how her mom is the best with time problems and how they both are happy and the grey lady cried rust red tears and said she was relieved to know that at least in this universe they could know happiness and she vanished and Aradia never forgot her). She's a little spooky and also every ghost loves her, even Peeves ! That's, like, her own power. She can do necromancy and she thinks it's super cool. She doesn't talk about it outside of their group because she knows that even if her friends have no problems with that, the magic society isn't that accepting. She's gryffindor, even if the hat seriously considered Ravenclaw. She really like the dark red of gryffindor (that reminds her of the red eyelashes and red lips and red tears of the grey lady with ram horns who never came back but is somehow still with her). She' s really good with charms and DADA. she's not very good with herbology, every plant she touches seems to age a bit too fast. She's very good with flying ! Maybe a bit too risky. She's beater in the quidditch team ! She's animagus. A ram ! She loves it (and she swears she heard a laugh in the back of her head and she knows that was the lady with ram horns and rust red lips even if she never heard her laughter)

Tavros is a pureblood who grew in a magic town. He was kinda bullied because his family somehow got fairy blood - that's why his father got wings (Summoner is proud of his wings and doesn't see how having fairy blood makes you feminine). He had a disease who got him paralyzed. The Zahhaks built him a sort of magic-mechanic thing who helped him to walk but he still has to use his wheelchair sometimes. He can control animals and talk to them (he can't control people who are part animal and creatures who are sentient but he can talk to them). His father says it comes from the fairy blood. Despise being kinda bullied because being part fairy is "girly" he's still proud of his fairy blood like his father taught him ! (also it's hard to think that being part fairy is girly when your father is the Summoner). I'm so torn between hufflepuf and gryffindor for him... Nah gryffindor (like Neville you know). Gryffindor helps him to be more brave you know ? He's also the absolute best in care of magical creatures (of fucking course).

Sollux is a slytherin. His blood status (as well as his sibling's) is kinda undetermined since he got three parents. He's not a muggle born for sure. Honestly he doesn't care if he's a half-blood or a pureblood. He's kinda pissed to not have inherited of his dad's parlestongue because he likes snakes but eh. He's a absolute genius with computers and he HATES how computers doesn't work at hogwarts. He's trying to make a magic-proof one (spoiler it'll explode and more spoiler Karkat Nepeta and him will be too close and will get their eyebrows burned). He's pretty good with potions but he's better with transfiguration. Arithmancy is like his favorite class (it's easy for him and he's kinda in competition with Jade). Surprisingly he flies pretty well but he hates broomsticks. Like. Blurgh. He's animagus and guess what he's a bee. Karkat and Nepeta made fun of him endlessly but it's actually quite useful. He likes it. He's not bipolar like his dad but he got some pretty bad mood swings. Honestly he wanted to go to hufflepuf because they're yellow. He likes yellow. The fact that everyone took like two years to figure out that him, Nepeta and Karkat were triplets was absolutely hilarious to him. Like. They have the same birthday and the same parents how did they not understood once they figured out that they were related ? (he knows they don't look alike but seriously) he's one of the only persons to know about Karkat's secret obviously. This tsundere won't admit he loves his siblings but Nepeta and Karkat are on top of his "things I love the most" list.

Nepeta is a gryffindor. She got a limited form of metamorphmagi (?) mixed with her animagus form (she's a cat of course) she can manifest only a part of her animagus form, like the tail and ears or the claws. But she can't do what a normal metamorphmagus can do. She can fully turn into a cat of course. She keeps the ears and tail more or less always. A lot of people think someone cursed her to be part cat. She's really fucking strong : she learned martial art (more specifically taekwondo and aïkido) and parkour. She knows that most of the wizards are physically weak and that without their wand they're usually kinda useless. She's not really powerful magically speaking. More average but she doesn't mind. She's good in care of magical creatures and transfiguration. She absolutely hates flying. Like she's not afraid of heights but if she was made to fly her animagus form would be a bird not a cat ! She's Equius' best friend and nobody understands how they became friends (then again, nobody understands how the whole group became friends). She likes to ship people and they usually come to her (or Karkat) for romantic advice. She wants to be like her mother because she's so cool. She loves listening to his dad's stories about their past lives and she tries to understand her other dad's thing with computers but honestly the only thing she can do with a computer is an explosion. She likes to go to the forbidden forest to fight some dangerous creatures. She LOVES her brothers so much you wouldn't believe it. One of her favorite thing is the faces people do when they discover that they are triplets. It's priceless.

Karkat is a hufflepuf. To everyone's surprise. Like... He does works hard but friendly ? Him ? (when you tell that to his friends they laugh because Karkat, not friendly ? lmao dude he's the mom friend™) he inherited of his dad's ability to talk to snakes. He think it's completely useless and also he doesn't talk about it because ~discrimination~ he doesn't want to be seen as a dark wizard (he sucks at Dark magic anyways). He also has a weird thing with his blood : his blood is kinda like a soothing soporific ? Like, he can calm people by contact and when someone touch his blood they sleep. Nobody knows why is blood is like this (although Signless muttered something about candy red and a mutation). He keeps it secret (obviously his family knows) because honestly he doesn't want to be a test subject for the Department of mysteries. It's actually super useful when Sollux or his Dads are in lack of sleep - one drop of blood and bam they're asleep. Ironically, he's insomniac - he's obviously immune to the soporific effects of his blood. So he's a hufflepuf like Dave and some others and maybe he has a little crush on Dave. Ok it's not a crush he's in love but still a bit in denial. He likes potions and charms and alchemy and he's quite good. He also likes DADA but despite it he's not really good. He thinks Divination and Muggle studies are bullshit (but he regrets to not have been here to see Rose destroying the teacher). At first he took muggle studies to see if it was as awful as his dad told him - nope. It's worse. He absolutely, fully, from the bottom of his soul, HATES flying. He's actually one of the best students (not as good as Jade or Sollux but eh). First years are always afraid of him at first because he's always grumpy and angry and loud but the older are "lol no give it some time you'll see he's a giant teddy bear". He ends up being a sort of big brother figure for the youngers badgers. Nobody except him is surprised when he's named prefect. He's known at hogwarts to be somehow angry to everyone but also soft to everyone, all houses and years included. Everyone kinda loves him, despite *vague hand gestures to Karkat *. Some people don't like him, of course but he's not in danger : he got some powerful and protective friends. He's like one of the only persons who did not get lost in the castle. Like not even one time.

Kanaya is also a hufflepuf. She's a kind of cousin to the Captor-Vantas-Leijon since Dolorosa, her ancestor, adopted Signless. She's not a vampire like her ancestor (yet. She'll be at like 25. Don't want her to be 13 firvever after all). She's absolutely feared by everyone but nobody knows why. Like she's not really threatening ? She's really nice and pretty and always helping people. But she's still feared. Pure mystery. She likes to do handmade clothes and she's obviously very good. She took study of ancient runes and she's really good. She likes to sew protective runes onto her friend's clothes (they really need it). Strangely she's absolutely terrible at charms. She's pretty good with everything, but charms ? Nope. She's the mom friend as well as Karkat. But less aggressive of course. Her blood status is just as unknown as Sollux's, Karkat's and Nepeta's (them because they have three parents and her because the only family she has is Dolorosa who is too distantly related - and Dolorosa might have forgot her own blood status. She's old after all). Of course she knew that Nepeta, Sollux and Karkat are triplets, she basically grew up with them. She has always been more close to Karkat than to Sollux and Nepeta but she likes to have tea with Nepeta and reminding Sollux to eat had become a daily habit. She's the other prefect of hufflepuf, no surprise. When she and Rose began to date, everyone was both happy for them and midly terrified. Because they both pretty scary to begin with, so together ?? Brrr.

Terezi's a muggleborn like her sister Latula. She's been raised in the magic world. When she learned about dragons she went absolutely apeshit. She wants one, it's like one of her big goals >:] also she's a Slytherin. She's still blind but it was from birth. She has extreme synesthesia, an actual blind cane and some magic detection abilities. She's fine and is actually one of the few people who can find their way through the castle. She wants to be the head of the Justice department ! She's already D34L1NG W1TH TH3 1NJUST1C3S at hogwarts. Usually the culprits ends on the infirmary. She's maybe a bit too violent, but she's fair. She is surprisingly good at flying (better than Nepeta, Karkat and Feferi, even if that's not difficult) : she says that's because she was a dragon in her past life (Signless quietly disagreed but said that she had a strong bond with a dragon in her previous life). She's pretty good with the other classes but absolutely terrible in potions. Nobody knows if she's really that bad or if she messes it up on purpose (her failed potions always explodes). She and Vriska are absolutely the castle's terrors.

Vriska is a pureblood. The hat hesitated between gryffindor and slytherin but she ended up in slytherin. She's absolutely fascinated by acromantulas. She's also extremely disappointed that she cannot be a pirate (she fully intends to take over her mom's criminal network). She's good with potions, particularly the mind-controlling ones (*badum tsss*). She's also good with DADA and transfiguration, in her own way : everything she does in transfiguration class ends looking like a spider.

Equius is a ravenclaw. He grew up in a pureblood family (see Darkleer's part for more details) and kept some pureblood manners. He likes to build magic objects and is absolutely fascinated by muggle technology (and also ashamed bc muggle technology). He's the most discreet person in the whole castle. This boy is tall and buff and always carries metal things, but somehow he's like hidden in the shadows. He's not very good in magic but that's because he always breaks his wand :( he'd trying to learn wandless magic (that's how it's called righ ?) so he can avoid to buy a wand every week. This also happens with broomsticks - he's been definitely banned from flying class after breaking five broomsticks. He loves his house, they're all pretty calm (with a few exceptions) and they don't seem to mind his awkwardness. When he discovered that Sollux and Karkat were Nepeta's triplets, his brain exploded (they're so differents - both mentally and physically. He tought that Nepeta had a crush on Karkat because she was always hugging him. Nope she's just a very affectionate sister and Karkat loves hugs even if he won't admit it).

Eridan is a hufflepuf and he's very disappointed. He wanted to be in slytherin because he kinda got the mentality "pureblood = slytherin, hufflepuf = lame". But well hufflepuf he is. He'll find out later that his house is actually great and full of nice people who support him :) he's pretty good in DADA (his expelliarmus is mortal *badum tsss*) and good with water spells (*badum tsss x2*). He can fly but only because he had hours of training (if he hadn't he would be just as bad as Karkat, Nepeta and Feferi). His dad adopted Feferi when Eridan was like two. He had a crush on her for five years then realized that being her best friend was better (listen I want them to be happy and without major relationship drama). He's animagus but nobody knows except Feferi and Karkat (and that's becayse Karkat saw him on his animagus form by accident) he hides it because he's a seahorse (*badum tsss x3*) and he thinks it's lame and people will make fun of him but he enjoys being able to breathe underwater so... He's that kind of wizard who claims that muggle are disgusting but actually hides muggle books under his bed.

Feferi is technically a pureblood since Eridan's dad adopted her but her mother is actually the Selkies queen (yes I'm talking about the Condesce) and her father is a unknown wizard. Since she's not fully selkie she doesn't have the turn-into-a-seal thing but she can still breathe under water and swim really fast. She's a Slytherin (Eridan was jealous at first). She's just as bad with flying as Karkat and Nepeta - she's afraid of heights. She's a pretty good student but she's especially good in herbology. Like Eridan she's good with water spells (*badum tsss x4*). She's pretty ambitious (that's why she's in slytherin) : she wants to be the Minister. To change the magic world ! But like in a good sense. She wants to introduce muggle technology into the wizard world ! That far she gained the support of the Captor-Vantas-Leijon family (especially Psiioniic, who works in the muggle side with computers and Signless who knows a lot about muggle things) and Jade (come on she's a scientist). She's very determined >:)

So much for having no ideas... I wanted to do the Beta kids but this post is already long enough. Lets' just say that Jane is in slytherin, Jake in Gryffindor and Dirk and Roxy in ravenclaw. Thanks to @cornusblr ;) you kinda helped me I think you'll recognize some things.

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damarassanctuary · 4 months

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(i know i said the last one was going to be the last sneak peek, but *this* is definitely the last one i swear)

[S] Catharsis is around 75% done ^u^ i might submit a little teaser once the full thing is done, hopefully between late february or start of march

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mmmmalo · 4 years

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Your posts on this are pretty old so I'm not sure if you're interested in analyzing it further but the parallels between grandpa Harley/lord English and mom Lalonde/Condesce really blew me away. It also made me realize that the Condescense is eventually killed by Roxy, and the only one who could ostensibly harm lord English was Jake. Do you think there are any candidates for villains being expys of other guardians? It's less clean cut with Dad/Nanna/Jane I guess.

Dave (and Cronus?) were also prophesized to defeat Lord English -- Dave's got his dumb cueball excalibur, idk about Cronus. But otherwise, yeah

This is... not a chain of thought I’ve entirely abandoned, but it’s not one that I’ve found especially fruitful either. The last time we really got into how the big bads might tell us about Grandpa and Mom was probably this post (x), and that’s more about how a certain pattern of relationship emerges throughout the story... the trail fell cold from there. Most recent discussion of HIC has related to how John and Jane regard advertising as a form of mind control, and Roxy’s barely related to that (besides being a faux-90′s GAME GRL, which is diegetically a marketing promotion for Betty Crocker brand snacks).

Wait could jack be a representation of Bro, with his thing for blades, connection to puppets, getting controlled by cal, collecting hats, and having many iterations of himself akin to Dirk? That's mostly surface level similarities I guess. I suppose being a character from the game meant to challenge them is sort of like Bro training Dave.

Dave decapitating 2 Jacks and Dirk at the end certainly suggests as much, though it’s not something I ever made much sense of.

There’s also the matter of Doc Scratch being partly composed of Dirk's autoresponder (crammed inside Lil Cal) which makes him a clear candidate for a Bro expy -- even though I’ve seen a bunch of posts (like this one) outlining how that was set up textually, Doc Scratch doesn’t make sense to me as a Bro analogue -- I can’t read Scratch’s story 1. as an analogue to Bro’s or 2. as a map for understanding Dirk better.

1. The closest I got was wondering whether ‘orb’ being ‘bro’ backwards, made slightly (but only slightly) less ridiculous by Bro being the only character outright described as white. Dirk’s conflating Ben Stiller with Mobster Kingpin (who distills booze) forms an interesting contrast with Doc Scratch as this figure of addiction who ‘scratches the itch’ of those tantalized by the Void (which applies to both the unknown and alcohol). But none of that has really coalesced into a better picture of Dirk -- I might revisit his discussion of orange soda (it’s a drink that’s bad for you!) at some point, especially since it’s recently become clear that those should represent Dirk’s severed head/dome/orb (with orange blood).

2. Since the Handmaiden being trapped in Felt Manor meant that she was in some sense a /component/ of Doc Scratch, breaking out from within, it becomes interesting that Damara is in (and escapes from) the section of Openbound that maps most closely to Dirk’s psyche. If there were a point for understanding how the relate to one another in terms I could find satisfying, I’m guessing it would be there -- so I’m actively rereading that section atm

#homestuck commentary #dirk

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busterofbeing · 5 years

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Aspect Analysis: Life

Greetings! I’d like to first apologize for the long delay in content; things have been crazy lately. Don’t worry, however! I’ve got plenty of ideas already in the works! As I mentioned in my class analysis of the Mage, I’ve decided to first analyze singular classes and aspects. This way when analyzing Classpects I don’t have to give the lengthy explanations of all the implications of the Class and Aspect; I can just provide a quick and to the point summary and provide links to these singular analyses. Alrighty! Here’s an analysis on the aspect of Life!

Summary

Life is the aspect of health, growth, nature, vitality, nourishment, and kindness. The challenge of the Life-bound is knowing how to balance helping themselves and helping others. The Life-bound tend to make great healers, helpers, cultivators, cooks, and therapists.

Extended Zodiac Definition and Analysis

“Those bound to the aspect of Life are the universe’s healers. They are concerned with the betterment of themselves and those around them, as well as the onward march of positive progress. Deeply empathetic, they have an intuitive understanding of others suffering and the best way of righting those wrongs. If you’re poisoned, chances are the Life-bound have something for what ails ya. This applies to both physical and mental suffering, though it might not be a cure you’ll like. They also have the tendency to put others needs before their own, which never ends well for anyone, because the Life-bound can grow bitter if they feel their own self-care has had to be shunted aside. At their best, they are great listeners, caretakers, and nurturers. At their worst, the Life-bound are passive-aggressive, and pushy-they’re certain they know best.”

In summary, the Extended Zodiac states that the Life-bound are healers (obviously), and that they care deeply about helping others, and/or growth (onward march of positive progress). However, they tend to put others before themselves (Jane with Jake, anyone?), which is what the Life-bound struggle most with. They can also be pushy, as they believe they know best. An extreme example of this point would be someone who would try to help others, even though they really don’t need to want help. However, the Life-bound are still generally good-natured, they just want to help others, kindness and growth are very important to them.

Analysis + Character Breakdown & Evidence

Life is the aspect of health, growth, nature, vitality, nourishment, and kindness.

JANE CROCKER, the Maid of Life. Jane is a maid, one who creates their aspect or creates through their aspect for themselves. Jane is at her happiest or full potential when she is creating life. Over the course of her narrative, her desire for “making babies” is very prominent. Heck, she even creates life (Nature!) on her planet when she initiates trickster mode, and has an affinity for baking, particularly as her pre-scratch iteration, Nanna. Jane really is a Nanna though; she wants children, and she’ll create more life; whether that’s making children, or making food and growing the existing ones. (I hope using two semicolons in one sentence doesn’t come off as too pretentious.) Overall, Jane is a kind character. She wants the best for her friends.

FEFERI PEIXES, the Witch of Life. Feferi is a witch, one who changes/manipulates their aspect or changes/manipulates through their aspect for themselves. Witches also tend to “break a rule” of their aspect. In this case, Feferi’s rule-breaking is the creation of the dream bubbles. These allow players to keep existing as ghosts after all of their selves die, which is basically cheating death to a degree. I’d argue the ending of her moriallegience with Eridan was effectively “changing” life for herself. By breaking up with Eridan, she changed her outflow of positive growth and emotional health for herself. Additionally, she wants to redefine culling as care for misfit trolls, not a death sentence. This belief would break the rules of the Alternian society Doc Scratch had established.

MEENAH PEIXES, the Thief of Life. A Thief steals their aspect or steals through their aspect for themselves. Meenah best demonstrates this when she uses the tumor to kill all of her friends at the end of their session so they may live on in dream bubbles. She’s “stealing” the lives of her friends, but in a typical, active “I’m going to mess some stuff up, just accept it.” thief way. Meenah is still nice (if she likes you), and she wants the best for her team.

Additionally, Meenah’s post-scratch iteration, the Condesce, “steals” the lives of the Alternian trolls in order to expand her own empire.

The Life-bound value kindness and/or growth.

Like I said, Jane Crocker is still a nice person. She’s kind to everyone unless they’re not kind to her. She helps Jake with his relationship issues because she wants him to be happy. Does it go over well? Of course not, because it’s compromising her own feelings. More on that later.

Feferi wants to be kind to everyone and does what she can to help Eridan and Sollux. She’s very good in redrom quadrants, with a particular knack for moirallegiance. Even in her assumed flushed relationship with Sollux, she gives him guidance, ghosting the pale quadrant. Maybe their relationship vacillates between flushed and pale…?

Meenah made some questionable decisions in her session. She pitted her friends against each other in an attempt to improve them. Keyword: improve. While the morality of her actions was questionable, she really just wanted to see them grow. It’s stated in the comic that challenges create growth and character development; Meenah wants that for her friends, but she tries to force it.

The main challenge of the Life-bound is learning how to balance the needs of others and themselves.

Jane really is the best example of this point. Jane is kind, and her helpful nature just ends up causing conflict. We see this first when Jake tells Jane about his feelings regarding Dirk. Of course, Jane likes Jake. But instead of telling Jake this, she instead bottles up her feelings and instead tries to be a supportive friend for Jake. She doesn’t want to cause conflict and hurt his feelings. This mess climaxes on Jane’s sweet 16, in which she can’t stand listening to and providing advice for Jake any longer. Jane putting Jake’s feelings above her own was bad for everyone; it made Jane unhappy, it allowed Jake to pursue a very destructive relationship, and it allowed Dirk (and his Auto-Responder) to carry out his manipulative plans and get into that destructive relationship. If anyone ever asks about the main challenges and flaws of the Life-bound, I’ll personally print them a picture of Jane Crocker’s bucktoothed face along with transcripts of her pesterlogs with Jake on the back.

Feferi demonstrates this point in a very simple way; in fact, I’d say she’s the only Life-bound player we see in Homestuck to effectively balance her needs with the needs of others. Prior to Hivebent, Feferi had been in a moirallegiance with Eridan. This relationship proved to be far too one-sided, however, and it was emotionally draining for Feferi. So, she rightfully ended her moirallegiance with him. We see afterward that she is still happy and nice, and she managed to have a quaint relationship with Sollux for a little while. Here’s where one could argue Feferi was a bit too selfish; Eridan became more and more emotionally unhealthy, and murders both Feferi and Sollux. Hussie even stated Eridan could be considered one of the villains of Homestuck. Maybe if Feferi had kept looking out a bit, she might have been able to keep Eridan under control? Or, the more likely, favorable and concise explanation- Eridan bad.

Meenah is the Life-bound in the story that demonstrates the opposite problem; she isn’t nearly kind enough to others. Sure, she wants them to be the best they can be, but she disregards their feelings and promotes growth in a very destructive and unkind way. Her methods of pitting her friends against each other just caused all sorts of chaos. If she had been more considerate and gentle, Kankri would’ve been able to lead better and Damara might not have gone off the rails. Much later in her narrative, she dates pre-retcon Vriska. We see Meenah actually gets really bored of the relationship, and she isn’t comfortable with handling all of Vriska’s emotional baggage. She eventually leaves her to fight Lord English, which is tragic for pre-retcon Vriska at first. However, both Meenah and Vriska find themselves much happier afterward. Meenah gets to be in some action and helps defeat Lord English, and pre-retcon Vriska finds pre-retcon Terezi. Meenah sticking up for her own self and feelings turned out to have a great outcome for everyone.

Alternatively, the Condesce is much more selfish. She uses the lives of the Alternian race to grow her vast empire and doesn’t care at all about the suffering that she’s put her people through. You could say she’s doing this to create a larger world for more trolls...but it’s made clear she just wants to rule it.

The Life-bound tend to make great cultivators.

Jane creates life and nature on her planet when she enters trickster mode, she is called to propagate and bring up a new civilization in the Condesce new hypothetical empire, and she (as well as Nanna) have a knack for cooking.

Nanna is also very supportive of John, more so than any other guide. She also gives him plenty of food and makes cookies for everyone. After all, John is a GROWING boy!

As stated before, Feferi wants a world where the unfit trolls are cared for. In place of this, she spends her time pre-Hivebent taking in various sea creatures and caring for them.

On pre-scratch Beforus, Feferi implements this system successfully, caring for the Beforan trolls and helping them grow up.

You could possibly say Meenah “grows” pre-retcon Vriska in the dream bubbles, by making her open to new experiences and fashion…? Eh, it’s a stretch. She also tries to “cultivate” her team in SGRUB, however, her execution is not exactly the best. Generally pitting people against each other isn’t a healthy way to make them grow!

The Condesce also “cultivated” the Alternian trolls in the same fashion by encouraging violence and culling weak trolls, cultivating stronger trolls through a twisted version of natural selection.

The Life-bound make great listeners; when they offer advice.

Jane struggles with this one a lot. She clearly wants to help her friends, but when it comes to Jake things go off the rails before the train goes 10 meters. Frankly, it’s because she gives bad advice. When Jake goes on a mega-rant to Jane later on, she holds in all of her thoughts, only replying with fake “Mhm!”’s and “Yes.”’s. Eventually, this builds and she has to let all of her feelings out. Jake naturally turned to Jane for relationship advice; I’m sure this hasn’t been the first time Jane was in such a situation. But we see that when Jane doesn’t consider herself and gives bad advice, things go south. When Jane doesn’t give advice and just listens, whoops, we’ve gone past South America and straight into Antarctica. I’ll expand upon this point in the general analysis.

Feferi was apparently a good moirail to Eridan. However, he kept complaining and wallowing in his problems, which exhausted Feferi. She doesn’t like him constantly complaining; she wants him to not kill everyfin, and wants to provide advice and guidance. Later, when she and Sollux are glubbing in the horn pile, we see her listen to Sollux while being kind and offering advice and encouragement. This is Feferi and in my opinion a Life-bound in general, at their best.

Meenah can’t stand idly listening. Aranea has to pay her to listen to her exposition, and Meenah isn’t happy when she is constantly listening to Vriska’s problems, and she wasn’t inclined to giver Vriska guidance and growth because she herself had her own problems.

The Life-bound tend to be in and/or want leadership positions.

Jane is declared the “leader” of the alpha session, which she is okay with. On Earth C, Jane becomes the CEO of CrockerCorp, which goes hand-in-hand with her Maid of Life classpect. (Creating food/life)

Feferi, as an heiress, is naturally in line to (potentially) become the new empress. Interestingly, the true aspect of the Fuschia-sign is Life, and if the Life-bound have this thing for leadership, and Life is even slightly present in all fuschia-bloods...well, that’s a topic for another time…

Meenah is in the same position as Feferi, only she is much more adamant to be a great(?) leader, a desire that is fulfilled by the Condesce. In her session, Meenah tried to “lead” and cause conflict between her friends to make them “grow”. Her attempts at “leading” the session undermined what Kankri could possibly have done to keep the session together, and was what led to making Damara snap.

The Life-bound have a unique or at times overbearing energy.

Jane has a personality like that of a cute and fun grandma...I wonder why. She has an enjoyment for her pranks and is a fun person, but as we see in her meltdown she’s got some intense emotions. Even then, the pranking system is very impactful on her!

Feferi is almost always full of Life and energy. Quite a character.

Meenah has a very powerful presence (due in some part to her thief class) and is a very chaotic force in general.

The main power of the Life-bound is healing.

God-tiered Jane has the power to revive any player once.

Nanna, as a sprite, possesses healing powers. Hussie even suggests that Nannasprite had her healing powers because Jane is a Maid of Life.

A dead god-tiered Feferi revives the Mayor in the post-retcon timeline.

Meenah’s post-scratch self, the Condesce, is stated to have used powers to extend the life of the Ψiioniic, something no troll has been shown to naturally do.

Other Comments and Analysis

At their core, the Life-bound have good intentions. They are kind, value growth, and want to help. If you know a Life-bound, I’m sure this is fairly obvious.

Now, let’s wrap up their challenge. I feel the Life-bound typically fall in one of two categories; they help others so much they exhaust themselves, or they don’t help others enough. I’d say the former would be the more common challenge. The Life-bound do want to help, they just need to learn how to properly balance the needs of others and themselves. Learning this balance would make a Life-bound very effective, and they’d find themselves to be much more emotionally secure and happy. (As a Life-bound, I can attest to this).

Ooh! Leadership positions! As I’ve mentioned, the life-bound tend to be in or want leadership positions- they just might not be the BEST at it. Breath and Blood are the two primary leadership aspects. Players of other aspects can still be leaders, but typically a Blood or Breath player will lead unless there isn’t one in a session. Their helpful attitude and knack for growth would make them a decent leader, however. They just might be a bit too pushy about it. I’d say this is one the better aspects for a leader to possess, besides Breath or Blood.

Hobbies and talents! As I’ve said before, I’d imagine the Life-bound would have an interest or proficiency in cooking, gardening, and counseling. This is not a rule, keep that in mind. I’d say that their helpful nature would manifest itself in whatever their interests may be, though. For example: if a Life-bound loved to do a sport, they’d be the ones to encourage their fellow teammates; they might even bring snacks or water!

Parting Words and Thanks

Whew! One aspect down, 11 more (and 13 more classes) to go! Whoop.

Thanks again to optimisticDuelist for the life aspect card as well as his analysis of Jane Crocker. It helped a lot to better understand Jane and the aspect of Life!

Thank you for reading!

#Homestuck #classpects #classpecting #aspect #life #jane #jane crocker #feferi #feferi peixes #meenah #meenah peixes #nanna #nannasprite #condesce #hic

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solarianradiance · 6 years

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Homestuck: Star Trek Influence

So I havent exactly been doing a ton of stories lately for a while, partially because I have had to do other things, and partially because of a lack of motivation, but I have been doing other tidbits such as research, particularly on the components of Homestuck and where Andrew Hussie got his ideas from, such as themes and characters.

Star Trek is one of them, but I had no idea just how much of an influence it was on Homestuck, so I took a look to find out.

What I learned was that the show has held up extremely well over the decades, and I highly recommend you watching it yourselves

http://watch-series.cx/star-trek-the-next-generation/

Now, I wont go into too much detail, such as a break down of what Star Trek is, I assume most of you know its about exploration, philosophical and ethical questions, culture clashes, drama, soft science, that sort of thing.

What I want to dug in to is what exactly did Andrew Hussie take away from it.

I can tell you there are at least 2 things he directly lifted from the series

Colonel Sassacre X Condescension relationship

Which can seen in these 2 episodes

http://watch-series.cx/star-trek-the-next-generation/season/5/episode/26/

http://watch-series.cx/star-trek-the-next-generation/season/6/episode/1/

Side notes, Snake Cane, late 1800′s, and general silliness

And Damara and Doc Scratches nature + their relationship

Also Time Travel and the concept of Omnipotence and children ascending into Godhood

Which can be seen in this episode

http://watch-series.cx/star-trek-the-next-generation/season/6/episode/6/

#homestuck #star trek #her imperious condescension #damara megido #handmaid #colonel sassacre #Doc Scratch

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carnaptiousgambado-blog1 · 6 years

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hey guys! we’re still looking for people to join @hexflip, especially beforan trolls, so i decided to put a summary of all the ancestor ideas we’ve had for their alternian counterparts in hopes this might help stimulate some muse. of course, if you’re interested in one of these characters (their beforan version, of course) you’re free to change or ask about changing anything as much as you like-- a lot of this is just general framework or basic ideas!

handmaid!aranea: double spy for doc scratch of sorts? still chronicled the escapades of the ancestors. was an unwilling participant in the majority of doc's shit. was "killed" in the final battle between the players and doc scratch.

summoner!horuss: likely went from being a normal blacksmith to rising up in the lowblood revolution, still fell in love with mindfang!mituna and killed him.

psiionic!kurloz: lost his shit halfway through sufferer!cronus's rebellion and killed a whole lot of people before empress!latula captured him and repurposed him as a weapon.

sufferer!cronus: extremely violent as opposed to canon!sufferer, wanted to force change through violence and was an anarchist. was eventually killed by executioner!kankri.

disciple!meenah: was in less of a romantic relationship w/ sufferer!cronus and was moreso his right-hand man in the violence and mayhem. as we like to put it, was in a gun quad w/ sufferer!cronus. was potentially still pale for executioner!kankri.

dolorosa!damara: absolute shit wine mom. she gave this grub (sufferer!cronus) GUNS AND SHIT. was just an absolute disaster in general. couldnt give a fuck if she tried

redglare!rufioh: kind of a daredevil situation, in that he was more directly inspired by sufferer!cronus's rebellion and took matters into his own hand, becoming a vigilante when he wasnt on the job. was killed when mindfang!mituna exposed him to the court.

mindfang!mituna: likely served similar roles to that of canon mindfang; still had contentious relationships with summoner!horrus/redglare!rufioh. potentially initially driven by misguided kindness that was heavily twisted later on.

executor!kankri: likely knew sufferer!cronus beforehand, and heavily disagreed with him. this continued on until kankri finally killed him based on his orders, but potentially instead of rotting in shame, he may have continued his own rebellion in secret by helping lowbloods underground.

highblood!meulin: likely served a similar role to that of canon!highblood. it's unlikely she was much different. potentially still killed dualscar!porrim, or had a contentious relationship with summoner!horrus. more plotting/ideas are definitely welcome, though!

dualscar!porrim: was still empress!latula's orphaner, but she rehabilitated trolls after killing their lususes and raised them to become future soldiers/pawns for the military as opposed to letting them die and go to waste. murder fish mom

empress!latula: just as much of an extravagant bitch as condy. when sufferer!cronus's rebellion began, she went full judge/jury/executioner to deal with him, and was twisted by her endless power, which she no longer wanted to relinquish. she went on to conquer all she set her eyes on with psiionic!kurloz as her mortal weapon, and was eventually enslaved by doc scratch. was "killed" in the final battle between the players and doc scratch.

we’ve also done some decent plotting about what hexflip’s beforus was like under empress terezi, so if you’re interested, please check us out and let me know!!!! thank u <3

#ooc

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kin-glomerate · 2 years

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hii! sorry to bug you but: im gonna just take a leap of faith and ask if you’d be if i ask about your gamzee megido tl? i saw your playlist back on paradoxkinspace and realized those two swaps fit stuff for my jade strider tl so now i’m just gonna see if stuff lines up ig. if you don’t wanna, it’s cool! feel free to ignore this ask.

duuude!!! real shit??? we actually did have a jade strider in that tl!

to clarify the we, i do have one current canonmate for that timeline and it's @kintraveler (Cronus Serket)

i don't actually remember much about jade, but our guess for her godtier was knight of space (though it could be off)

lets see.... i guess the easiest thing would be for you to check against the swaps we know of (excluding the aforementioned local time destroyers Gamzee & Kurloz Megido, light destruction crew Eridan & Cronus Serket, and space warrior Jade Strider)

John/Jojo Harley (Witch of Breath)

Dave Lalonde (Seer of Time, possibly involved with Eridan in some other quadrant? or maybe they were just broskis)

Rose Egbert (Heir of Light)

Jane English (Maid of Hope)

Dirk Lalonde (Prince of Void)

Jake Strider (Page of Heart)

Roxy Crocker (Rogue of Life)

Aradia & Damara Makara (Maid & Witch of Rage)

Tavros & Rufioh Maryam (Page & Rogue of Space)

Sollux & Mituna Pyrope (Mage & Heir of Mind)

Karkat & Kankri Peixes (Knight & Seer of Life)

Nepeta & Meulin Zahhak (Rogue & Mage of Void)

Kanaya & Porrim Nitram (Sylph & Maid of Breath)

Terezi & Latula Vantas (Seer & Knight of Blood)

Vriska & Aranea Captor (Thief & Sylph of Doom)

Equius & Horuss Ampora (Heir & Page of Hope)

Feferi & Meenah Leijon (Witch & Thief of Heart)

i mostly remember Eridan (who was a prince of light, used the screenname catalystAlexandria, had a merlion lusus and a king arthur aesthetic vibe) and some vague appearances of Kurloz and Damara but here’s some extra info i remember in case it helps out!

i liked painting, but i don’t think i was ever very good at it. just spending hours slapping oil and acrylic on massive canvas (and spilling a lot of it all over my hive). oh! here’s somethin interesting, i’m pretty sure i was basically haunted by Kurloz for most of the timeline. or maybe it was my ancestor (The Funerary) sendin me in the right direction beforehand what else.... lemme see....

im not too sure of anythin about the cherubs …. i think they were still around and me and ‘Loz had somethin to do with em… probably with Ara and Damz? after all, Loz and Damz were in some type of red quadrant. i know our ancestors had somethin goin on and were usually linked in terms of “legend” for lack of a better term. i think while The Funerary and The Great Mortician were probably matesprits (or at least, rumored to be), their pre-scratch selves (that is, Kurloz & Damara) were running a bit paler. dont entirely quote me on that tho ^^;;;;

i’m pretty equally stuck on the vagueness of my lusus. i doubt he was around much, tho im not sure if he was just an absent custody or if he was motherfuckin dead :o/c

either way i think he had some sorta reptile or amphibian vibe to him, maybe a frog or crocodile? but it’s more complicated than so i’d place my bets with some sorta hybrid thing, like a chimera in some way. even if that means it was just a literal horned toad. id make some shit pun combo-ing baphomet and frogs/toads but i cant think of one thats actually obvious enough to be funny. (bufomet is the closest ive got so s/o to anyone who picks that one up hahahahahahaha)

#speaking #wicked paint and special stardust #rust tl #Memories #kin memories

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autumnblogs · 3 years

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Day 44: Preoccupied about the same things as Trolls, revisited

Welcome back y’all! Before we get into this, I want to talk about the Condesce/Meenah as a parallel character to Mom Lalonde/Roxy. You can read a bit about @mmmmalo‘s takes on Openbound, and why they think that Meenah is symbolically Roxy’s Doppelganger here.

I want to call attention to some specific similarities between them, and while I think it’s a bit of a stretch, Homestuck draws parallels between characters all the time.

Both the Condesce and Mom Lalonde are matriarch figures estranged from their potential offspring by dire circumstances and servitude to a patriarchal authority and his time-spanning plan - for the Condesce, that’s English obviously, but for Mom Lalonde, that’s Grandpa Harley - servitude to his design renders her a wreck of an alcoholic forced to endure the end of days with no means to stop them from happening, living with a daughter who wants nothing to do her.

Both Meenah and Roxy are rebels against a repressive order, inclined to shirk their assigned Role in service to someone else’s master plan, but ultimately, through some roundabout means or another, give service to it anyway (for Meenah, scratching the game, and ultimately ending up English’s glorified slave for eons in the end; for Roxy, at first refusing to play Sburb in hopes of spiting the Batterwitch, but ultimately ending up playing into her schemes anyway).

They are both rebellious spirits who are repeatedly forced to participate in Paradox Space’s Alpha Timeline all but against their will by hegemonic forces, slaves to a system that they exist in perpetual rebellion against, and by the end of the comic, they both get to help strike a decisive blow against the ultimate foe. Unfortunately, unlike Roxy, Meenah is ultimately the kind of person who chooses at practically every occasion to continue cycles of abuse instead of breaking them. There is ultimately no possibility of reconciliation between these estranged sisters.

So, I see a lot of the Alpha Kids in the four Alpha Trolls who appear in this flash. As the Faux Heroic Himbo, the parallel between Rufioh and Jake is obvious. I don’t think that it’s fair to characterize Jake’s relationship with Dirk as being “cheating on Jane,” though that’s probably how Jane feels about the whole situation; I’ve always gotten the impression she feels entitled to him.

More after the break.

The imagery here is an obvious parallel between Jake and Dirk’s big damn kiss, and Rufioh and Horuss’s - but between Rufioh’s bravado and general obliviousness, and Horuss’s clear triangular parallel with Dirk and Equius, we should expect that the situation is switched here - Dirk = Horuss, Rufioh = Jake.

While it could easily just be a bit of extraneous characterization, I’m inclined to regard Rufioh’s characterization of the women in his life as “Dolls” especially because of his symbolic proximity to Lord English. (He is at best one degree of separation from him, as Jake English’s Alpha Troll Doppelganger) - and the fact that Puppets and Dolls are pretty much synonymous with each other in terms of the way that English interacts with them.

More extremely obvious parallels.

Both of the Zahhaks have hangups about dating down the Hemospectrum, and as long as we’re examining Dirk through the lens of the Zahhaks, allow me to speculate; I think that part of the reason Dirk chooses not to directly identify with the label of gay is less aloofly progressive futurism, and more that he is uncomfortable with his own sexuality.

As a guy who repeatedly appeals to reactionary ideals and rhetorical devices like “Western Civilization,” “Reason,” “Logic,” maybe there is a degree to which we can read Horuss and Equius’ self-repression through the haemospectrum into Dirk suffering from internalized Homophobia.

This is a real long shot, but I’ve always gotten the impression that Dirk is a bit of a bottom. Maybe his desire in building up Jake into a powerful counterpart, like English’s desire to transform Jake into a powerful rival, is built out of a desire to be Oedipally usurped by a former pupil - to have his Eromenos turn the tables, and become the Erastes in turn, in power-dynamic terms.

In Classical Civilization, homosexual relations weren’t unheard of, and were pretty reasonably common, but it was seen as shameful to bottom, especially for someone of a lower social standing than you were (Julius Caesar was mocked as the Queen of Bithynia when it was rumored that he bottomed for Nicomedes IV, which was a serious attack on his political career).

Wild speculative tangent over.

Now this is interesting; Meenah is unwittingly drawing a parralel between Damara and Vriska. The main commonality between them is that, like Vriska (and also like Rose, and also like Jane - who is the fourth and final character in this particular set) her spite and resentment is used as the vector for English’s manipulation of their setting.

Like Vriska, Damara deliberately sabotages the ability of her session members to win, helping to create a powerful foe who forces a session to be scratched.

Like Rose, Damara descends into nihilistic substance abuse to cope with feelings of emptiness.

Like Jane, Damara’s actual feelings of emptiness come about as a result of feelings of rejection in relation to betrayal from within her close friendship circle.

Ironically, while Damara’s reaction is far worse than Jane’s, her anger is actually probably far more understandable - Jane is not entitled to Jake.

The situation between Horuss and Rufioh is also similar to what will resolve between Jake and Dirk shortly - they are just basically incompatible, or at least they will be until both parties do some work on themselves, but a combination of an oblivious party who can’t stop talking about himself, and social timidity on the part of the other prevents the situation from resolving amicably.

“As Long As I Know That I Am Free”

Sometimes, encountering our ancestors doesn’t have to be a source of tension, anxiety, expectation, and fear. Porrim models parental love for Kanaya in a way that, unusually for ancestors in Homestuck, is purely beneficial for her younger counterpart.

It’s okay to identify with roles and identities that have been corrupted or hegemonized by our culture. There’s nothing intrinsically bad about being a man, or about being a woman, as long as our embodiment of those roles is emancipatory to us.

Kanaya can still be a Mom, if that’s what she wants to be. Violence and money aren’t the only form that power can take.

Sometimes, learning the right lessons is just a matter of pausing for a second and being critical of all narratives; deciding for ourselves what we want to be. It’s the lesson that Porrim has to teach Kanaya.

This is just objectively true.

Aranea positions Rufioh as both a foil to Cronus, and to herself, further strengthening the Jake as Rufioh parallels.

What I think is really interesting about all this, is if we want to read the other three trolls as Jake, Dirk, and Jane, that makes Meenah the Roxy of this group! And while Roxy has never been vicious or deliberately cruel, there’s a certain resonance between her persistent hassling of Jane, her meddling in the Jake English Sweepstakes, and the disaster that it provokes, and Meenah’s bullying - I even early on in my first readthrough took a disliking to Roxy because of what I viewed as exactly that - bullying her counterparts, assertively trying to get them to behave the way she wanted.

https://homestuck.com/story/5401

Oh man, where to even begin with Karkat riding off into the Penis Sunset. Like, the Sun in relation to Dave is persistently an icon of Bro’s surveillance of him, and then there’s his burgeoning affection for Karkat (he mentions story time with Karkat in the third Openbound suggesting that he actually took Karkat up on his offer to read through trashy Troll Romance).

Like, there’s probably something in Dave’s troubled psyche that’s on display here but damn if I know what it is. Maybe he’s ruminating on the fact that Bro would probably not be too accepting of his relationship with Karkat, hence the juxtaposition of the symbol of Bro’s hostility with the imagery of Karkat riding a dick?

https://homestuck.com/story/5404

I don’t really need to explicate much on what Rose is trying to say, I think but just in case, here’s a little rundown of what she’s trying to explain.

The apple is a symbol of an irreducible idea. Many ideas are reducible - as molecules are reducible to atoms, and atoms are reducible to quarks and stuff, so are ideas reducible to increasingly more abstracted and basic units.

The closer to notionally irreducible a thing becomes, the more difficult it becomes to express an idea, until at last, that which is truly irreducible resolves, and reveals to us the true, intrinsic nature of reality. For every complex idea, we can refer to more fundamental ideas, until at last, we arrive at an idea, which when probed, responds back simply, “It just does that.”

This, I think, is that to which we ought to give the name of God; that force so fundamental that it truly does just do that.

In the world of Homestuck, Symbols, and with them, Rituals - stories! Are manifestations of the primeval and irreducible ideas. Everything else is a universe in orbit around the Divine - the Aspects themselves, perhaps, or something more fundamental than the Aspects even.

What makes reducing these stories to the irreducible principles that they allude to so difficult is that you’re effectively trying to explain the electromagnetic force by comparing it to rubber bands, when in fact, the electromagnetic force is what makes the rubber bands behave that way in the first place.

As a Ritual, Rose’s drinking is pretty similar to John’s Dad roleplaying - an attempt at unity with Her Mom. Another empty signifier.

https://homestuck.com/story/5405

Dave is already really embracing his new role as the actually most sincere and straightforward member of the party. Lovin’ it.

It’s kind of nice that Aradia and Vriska are getting along now. That’s gratifying for personal reasons.

Ah yeah, I forgot that was ever addressed officially.

https://homestuck.com/story/5435

The man

HASS the ring.

https://homestuck.com/story/5440

And with the depressingly empty Void session established via a single flash, we shall conclude for the evening.

Tomorrow, we’ll get to know our little villain.

For now, it’s Cam signing off, Alive, and a little Annoyed that I wasted a couple hours playing the Outriders Demo this afternoon. Seriously, what an aesthetically bleak and kind of mediocre-looking class-based cover shooter.

#liveblogging #commentary #pederasty mention #richard feynman

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