Okay, John's Note That "it Was Gamzee," On The Most Obvious Level, Means Gamzee Is Responsible Nepeta's

This can’t be coincidence.

!!!!!

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

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

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

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

Cinnamon Roll Classes

Looks like a cinnamon roll, is actually a cinnamon roll: Heir, Page, Rogue Looks like a cinnamon roll, could actually kill you: Witch, Sylph, Maid Looks like they could kill you, is actually a cinnamon roll: Knight, Mage Looks like they could kill you, could actually kill you: Seer, Prince, Thief SINnamon roll: Bard

Hey, Paradox Space fans

If you've enjoyed Summerteen Romance, go check out the web comic Paranatural. It’s by Zack Morrison (firstnamezacklastnamemorrison), the same guy who wrote and co-illustrated Summerteen Romance and has also done a bunch of other comics for PXS.

Paranatural is one of the best comics I’ve ever read. It’s about a group of kids who can see ghosts and spirits, and they use superpowers to fight harmful spirits. (Okay, that description isn’t entirely accurate, but that’s the simplest way to describe it.)

Everything about Paranatural is fantastic. The plot, characters, humor, facial expressions, dialogue, pacing, foreshadowing, art, world building, alt text, everything. It’s hilarious, clever, action-packed, and even tugs at the heartstrings. Every single character, including (maybe especially?) the antagonists, is likeable and entertaining.

Here's a preview:

            I cannot emphasize this comic enough. Homestuck may be the comic I’m most obsessed about, but Paranatural is my favorite. Go read it; it’s amazing!

Finally got around to making my finale bingo card!

Original blank template by @traceexcalibur.

From Clover’s perspective, the fight between Karkat and Clover is a leprechaun mating ritual.

Instead their charms comprise a spectral continuum of more su8tly varying types of relationships, most of which are esta8lished in mutual chicanery, such as the exchange of pranks, coy riddles, slapstick shenanigans, and games of chance.

ARANEA: No charm is specifically tied to procre8tion, though any type of relationship could 8egin waxing concupiscent if lady luck should so decide. Certain charm com8in8tions are known to 8e more conducive to fertility than others. If the leprechaun pair has 8een so 8lessed, they will 8egin an ela8orate coupling procedure culmin8ting in a lively m8ting jig. The jigs are specific to the charms of course, similar to how different kinds of music lend themselves to various styles of dance.

A sta8le relationship consisting of three or more charms is called a trove. These advanced relationships are often viewed as the ideal end result for a romance, much the way certain pairing rituals are for humans.

Clover’s eyes even flash the star-heart-horseshoe charm when Karkat hogties him.

Karkat is a Blood player, the aspect of bonds and relationships. Even though Clover is extremely lucky, and thus generally unbeatable, Karkat defeats him by unknowingly forming a bond with Clover (and literally binding him).

Rose’s Quest and the Pink Sun

  You wonder if this rain will ever let up. It's driven since the month began, perhaps long enough to forget its purpose. It no longer even knows to assuage fire. Somewhere a zealous god threads these strings between the clouds and the earth, preparing for a symphony it fears impossible to play. And so it threads on, and on, delaying the raise of the conductor's baton. How you hate this season. "April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain." -American sports legend, Charles Barkley

(Charles Barkley quotation actually from T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.)  

We know from Jaspers the gist of Rose’s quest in the Land of Light and Rain:

JASPERSPRITE: Rose im just a cat and i dont know much but i know that youre important and also you are what some people around here call the Seer of Light. JASPERSPRITE: And you dont know what that means but you will see its all tied together! JASPERSPRITE: All the life in the ocean and all the shiny rain and the songs in your head and the letters they make. JASPERSPRITE: A beam of light i think is like a drop of rain or a long piece of yarn that dances around when you play with it and make it look enticing! JASPERSPRITE: And the way that it shakes is the same as what makes notes in a song! JASPERSPRITE: And a song i think can be written down as letters. JASPERSPRITE: So if you play the right song and it makes all the right letters then those letters could be all the letters that make life possible. JASPERSPRITE: So all you have to do is wake up and learn to play the rain!

Hussie even summarizes and clarifies this information:

[Jaspersprite] explained elements of the mythos of her land, and how she'd need to learn to play the rain to produce the musical analogue of a genetic code to reintroduce life into the ocean.

Produce a genetic code? That sounds familiar. Where else have we seen a genetic code?

“MEOW” combined with Halley’s ectoslime to create Becquerel.

“t1CK t0ck 8r8k H34DS honk HONK” combined with Lil Cal and a Magic Cue Ball to create Doc Scratch.

“BARK” combined most likely with Jaspers to create God Cat.

These genetic codes are used to create First Guardians. First Guardians all have the Green Sun as their power source. So most likely, these genetic codes are related to the Green Sun itself.

So, Rose’s Quest is to play the rain, to produce a genetic code that reintroduces life into the ocean. Like the previous codes tied to the Green Sun, what if the genetic code Rose plays is tied to a different sun, a Pink Sun?

There are clues everywhere for a Pink Sun paralleling the Green Sun.

Rose is a Seer of Light, and the Light symbol is a sun. It would make sense for the genetic code to be for a literal source of Light, a literal sun.

But what other significance might this code and Pink Sun have? Well, "They wait for she who would breed lilacs out of the dead land." “They” being the Nobles—the kids of the Alpha Session.

The “dead land” may very well be the Land of Crypts and Helium. Jane’s planet is filled with seed pods that seed and water the planet, yet nothing is able to grow on the surface. What her planet lacks is Light—sunlight. (Her denizen is even Hemera, goddess of daytime.) Perhaps by “playing the rain,” Rose provides the Light LOCAH needs—in the form of the Pink Sun—enabling lilacs to breed out of the dead land. Considering during Trickster Mode, half the planet sprouts flowers everywhere, it seems to be the intended transformation LOCAH will undergo.

But wait, Rose’s planetary quest is to reintroduce life to her planet, to LOLAR. More specifically, to restore ocean life that was eaten by her denizen Cetus.

JASPERSPRITE: But sadly there are no fish i think. JASPERSPRITE: They were all eaten by the Denizen! ROSE: Who? JASPERSPRITE: It ate everything in the ocean and got so full that it took a long nap. JASPERSPRITE: No there is surely not a single living thing left!

Ocean life? Hmm…

What is something heavily associated with both Rose and the ocean?

  The Horrorterrors (Squiddles)!

What if, when Rose plays the rain and reintroduces life on LOLAR, she creates the Horrorterrors? The very same ones currently residing in the Furthest Ring. The same ones who likely created the Trolls’ universe.

If so, perhaps the Pink Sun has ties to both the Horrorterrors and to the flora of LOCAH. That would make the Pink Sun a Light—a symbol—of Life and Void.  Just like…

…The Rings of Life and Void!

When the Draconian Dignitary puts on the Ring of Void, shades of pink and purple flash around him. Symbolic—even powered by—the Pink Sun, perhaps?

(Image made static because seizure warning.)

Compare to when the Queen’s Ring transforms Jack Noir after Bec prototypes himself, giving Jack powers of the Green Sun:

And then there are the green and pink moons of Alternia, paralleling the Green and Pink Suns.

The green moon is home to Doc Scratch, representative of the Green Sun (symbolic of Space) as a First Guardian. Yet pre-scratch, the pink moon is home to Meenah, Thief of Life, further tying the Pink Sun as a Life symbol.

LOLAR and the rain itself have symbols of Light, Life, and Void through their colors—yellow, cyan, and pink.

Yellow represents the sun emblem of Light, its Seer Rose. Cyan represents Jane, Maid of Life, whose planet lacks Light. Pink represents Roxy, Rogue of Void, whose planet’s element is Neon—that is, Neon Light.

Aside from the Pink Sun, restoring life to LOLAR, and sending Light to LOCAH, Rose may even have a role in Dave’s quest, considering the rain “no longer even knows to assuage fire”—its purpose forgotten.

Regarding Dave’s quest,

It's meant to rain this season but there ain't been a drop in sight. Even a little drizzle would help. Might help to fizzle this sizzle a little bizzle, set the record straight on this global turn-tizzle.

Perhaps the rain Rose plays—or even the Pink Sun itself—will aid in his quest. (But more on Dave’s quest in another post.)

It seems pretty clear that Rose represents the “zealous god” who “threads these strings between the clouds and the earth.” As for “delaying the raise of the conductor's baton,” perhaps the conductor is…

  You wouldn't trade your dualing weapon for any other. It is lightweight, elegant and precise, like a conductor's baton with stopping power.

…Calliope!

A Seer would not charge into the fray headlong but direct it as a conductor with a baton.

…Or Terezi, or even Rose herself. Perhaps all three!

As for “mixing memory and desire,” that sounds a lot like…

    …What the heroes have been doing all along!

If they are meant to create not just a new universe, but a new reality to escape Lord English, wouldn’t their new reality consist of memory and desire? A new reality conducted, inspired, and embodied by Calliope, Muse of Space; located in the currently blank canvas Void to where LOWAS, Roxy, and John escaped; its information (Light) to be supplied by Rose and the Pink Sun; and filled with the memories and desires of the heroes.

“Meat” and “Candy” Thoughts and Speculation

Spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn’t read both.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Classpect Profile Probability

1 in 72: Odds someone will share any given Classpect pair of your Classpect Profile.

1 in 144: Odds someone shares the same Hero Title as you (Master Classes excluded).

1 in 2,123,366,400: Odds someone has the same Classpect Profile as you.

1 in 25,480,396,800: Odds someone has the exact Classpect Profile AND Hero Title as you.

One in over 25 BILLION.

What does this say? There are many people similar to you and who can relate to you. But at the same time, it shows that...

You are unique. You are special. You are one of a kind. And you have a distinct way to impact reality.

Music Theory and Dream Moons

Quick Prospit or Derse Dreamer Test:

Which song do you prefer?

SBURB OST by The Homestuck Fan Musicians

SBURB OST by The Homestuck Fan Musicians

"Lulling Lutescent" = Prospit Dreamer "Lavender Lullaby" = Derse Dreamer

Elaborated hypothesis involving music theory:

Prospit Dreamers generally gravitate toward music with major tonality, which has a lighter, happier, airy feel.

Derse Dreamers generally gravitate toward music with minor tonality, which has a darker, melancholic, heavier feel.

"Lulling Lutescent" is an example of major tonality, while "Lavender Lullaby" is in minor.