This upd8 has cemented my conviction that The Muse is just as bad a narrator to have as The Prince. Because let's not forget that she is in fact the one currently doing that. And you can find her voice in the things she chooses to highlight and how the pacing of scene descriptions in the candy timeline (including the bonus content other than the treatise)
I saw someone say that the characters feel like they're responding in character to the extremely ooc situations they're in. In other words, most of the out of character actions and things have happened off screen with out even proper allusion to them. In example most recently, the ENTIRE thing with Yiffany.
Rose seems confused about why she wouldn't have told her wife she would be acting as a surrogate for Jade because not telling her was out of character for her, AND SHE KNOWS THIS. But the narrative had already established this as TRUTH (or maybe it's just as "truth"? I'm still holding out for the Pumpkin timeline tbh) so she had no choice but to accept it as something that happened and to react to it to the best of her ability. The Muse seemingly likes petty soap opera narratives but isn't necessarily any better at writing stories than her brother was. What she is good at tho is INSPIRING. That's why since The Muse has taken over narration of Candy the characters within it have been able to come back in to their full potential and make such great outward progress, Jake reawakening his HOPE, John reconnecting with his family, the omega kids becoming more than just the set dressing they were in the epilogue, and so on. Vriska is another strong catalyst obviously and I'll need to reread some meta on the roles Vriska played in the original canon to even start on the irons in that particular fire.
I'm gonna hop over to The Prince, and how his narrative style influences the Meat timeline in comparison. First off, his voice is FAR more obvious than The Muse. The Prince is by far the most attention seeking Strider in paradox space, and falls just shy of Davesprite's lowest points when looking at insecurity rankings. And I don't mean that The Prince isn't as confident or cocky or self assured as he presents himself (he isn't, but that's not what I was saying). What I mean is that he lacks security of self. He is the ULTIMATE PRINCE (ACTIVE DESTROYER) of HEART (SELF/IDENTITY/SOUL/ESSENCE of BEING) like there is no way he's stable. (I also plan on writing a post on ultimate selves after I'm done with this one) anyways back to the narrative mumbo jumbo. The characters under the narration of the Prince suffer from more direct interference on their actions and stories so when they do act out of character we are more likely to see it but due to the nature of homestuck, they can ALSO pick up on it much easier than their Candy counterparts, who are simply INSPIRED to act in different ways retroactively. This also means we see the characters in Meat introspectively look at themselves and wax purple prose about what a shit show their lives continue to be. The Muse is not absent from Meat but her influence is contested and marginal. What is absent from Meat however, and stay with me here, is Aradia.
The Maid of Time is currently kicking it on the moon in Candy which has no observable impact but I love Aradia and as such Meat is inferior and is the timeline that will be overridden without she who HEALS TIME. Ok but actually I feel like this is RELEVANT, I just don't know why yet.
Meat is NECESSITY and I feel it plays the role of setting the paradoxical space stage where as Candy is RELEVANCY and is there to provide us context (chaotic and FUBARed context, but context so the same) for how the characters who will play a major role in the felling of the Prince got to the stage. And Pumpkin will be TRUTH. Pumpkin? What pumpkin?
Anyways if you expected a neat and tidy ending to these ramblings there isn't one and if you attended this TedTalk I'm sorry.
P. S. If you possess information that invalidates everything I've said here specifically about The Muse narrating Candy, with all my love, keep it to yourself. Allow me my blissful ignorance. If I wanted to be sure about something before posting a crack theory I would've looked it up, again with all my love, look y the other way. Please, I'm begging you.
kianamaiart
tangentwithtanner
andulkaphoto
izzy806
dailybridgerton
