Every Homestuck Line Has Impact

I believe that every single sentence in Andrew Hussie's Homestuck adds to its themes, story, atmosphere, and characters. And I want to prove it.This blog features one post a day in which I break down and analyze one or more lines from Homestuck, with the purpose to eventually go through all of them. Some sentences may be more interesting than others, but I am sure I will always have something to say.—Maplestrip

[ehlhi]

If you were wondering what Pesterchum is: stress not, you get the needed context right away. The name of this chat client is fairly interesting: these characters “pestering” eachother may already be an indication of the trolling that will happen lateron. But pestering is a fairly neutral word; in fact, it really doesn’t have to mean much more than messaging your chum at an inopportune time.

The best I can really say about “Someone is trying to get in touch with you” is that I like how English uses the word “touch” to describe being in contact with someone. Uhm, yeah, this sentence really just means what it says on the tin, though it should give all the context you need and no more.

[ehlhi]

You may have realized from the pained file names: John isn’t that good at programming. This is a very easy way to create a flaw in a character. Interestingly, John does actually improve in this field as the story unfolds. Whether programming is actually his calling, I don’t think so.

You are perhaps wondering why John is even trying to learn how to program, if he has so little success with it. Maybe it’s simply because it seems cool, maybe it’s because his friend is better with computers than him, or maybe it’s just fate. John wonders why he even bothers with it, but he keeps at it. 

[ehlhi]

So that’s what those are! This line harkens back to when we were told about John’s interests. You may remember him not being good at programming. The way he “litters” his programming files on his desktop may be interesting. Same with how these programming files have the extensions ~ATH and ^cake. What do these mean? Well, if you spell those symbols out, you get TILDEATH and carrotcake. One of the two is a bit more sinister than the other. We’ll find out why that is eventually.

Maybe you don’t really care about programming at all. If so, well, this sentence isn’t the important one.

[ehlhi]

With the risk of sounding a bit mean, I think the fact that John is “really proud” of this desktop wallpaper indicates that he doesn’t really have any significant achievements on his name. Don’t get me wrong, It’s always nice to hear when someone is proud of their work, even if you don’t really understand it yourself. I’m glad John is proud of himself. I’m just saying that this means that he’s still a blank slate when it comes to doing something significant.

My emotions regarding this wallpaper are complicated.

[ehlhi]

Handsome? really? You got some weird tastes, John. I suddenly feel appalled about the fact that I just called you “relatable”. Eh, I still love you anyway. People aren’t perfect.

The decoration is a bit weird, but it matches John’s interests. Also, it’s fun to create your own wallpapers. Just playing around with MS Paint or some other image editing software, copying some images from Google, it’s part of one’s childhood. Did John insert himself in this wallpaper? I honestly can’t even say.

[ehlhi]

Me too, disembodied narrator, me too. I’m glad you’re being honest about it. We are told that John pulls up to his computer primarily for the sake of consistency. Almost all actions the character takes is also described in text, while the manner in which the world around him responds to it is communicated primarily through the visuals. This micromanagement of our protagonist’s actions helps keep the story flowing as smoothly as possible and keeps things relatively clear. It also adds to the adventure game feeling you get from this webcomic.

I assume I don’t even need to note how John spending most of his time on his computer is both incredibly relatable and helps humanize him? No? Good!

[ehlhi]

Lots of text on this small desktop. I cropped it a little bit, but it isn’t that much bigger than this. I suppose clarity is more important than accuracy anyway. But I’m not here to talk about graphic design! This desktop has a lot of text on it!

The “SYSTEM” icon will be familiar to everyone, and it lends this screen its much-needed familiarity. The task bar helps with this as well, despite the weird “actuate” button. “Actuate” actually basically means “Start”, except for computers: “verb1.cause (a machine or device) to operate.” It’s quirky.

Typheus is a web browser. This isn’t ever made very clear and it’s easy to miss. It also technically isn’t too important, though oddly, it ties in with the denizens lateron. Typheus is actually Typhon, a monster from Greek mythology, but the relevance of this too won’t become apparent for quite a while. Just the idea of web browsers based on mythological monsters is neat, I’d say.

We don’t know yet what “^cake” and “~ATH” are, but it seems like John finds them very frustrating. Three different emotions are represented here: a mildly amused disheartenment, a tired/bored bitterness, and pure frustration. I relate.

It seems like it is 4:13 PM on April 13th. This number is basically going to be a leitmotif.

The minimized Pesterchum window is blinking!

[ehlhi]

Guess what? We’re back!

I apologize for the long hiatus. I hope you have all enjoyed 17776 and Hiveswap while we were gone. I know I did! I also hope you are ready for more compact analyses of every sentence in an eight-year-old webcomic. I know I am!

The story was just getting really good where we left up!

[ehlhi]

A new quest, so to speak! As we finish up randomly checking out posters, calenders, and cakes, the lack of things to actively respond to was becoming an issue. This is the perfect time for something to do! Moreover, what our protagonist needed to become more human is a second character to bounce off of. Knowing that someone is messaging me gets me a bit exciting.

Let’s be real here: the average 13-year old that reads a webcomic in 2009 would be interested in seeing some good representation of a 13-year old using a computer. Kids never seemed to use chatting software in 2000s television, so we had a void in the market that desperately needed filling. 

[ehlhi]

I have become completely obsessed by Jon Bois’ 17776 and probably won’t be able to post anything here until it is finished...

I’m so sorry > ~ <

But while we’re on a short hiatus, be sure to check this amazing webcomic out, as well as Bois’ earlier work, The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles. If you like Homestuck, I can promise you these two are worth it.

[ehlhi]

The CAKE will be moved eventually. Nice cadence again, as hussie makes clear that we’re not going to screw around with a stupid cake. In fact, we’ll finally get to a much more interesting point thing next (finally!).

[ehlhi]

Let’s see how long that will last. Defining these cakes as “birthday artifacts”, Hussie immediately tells his readers not to captchalogue the cakes. John has better things to do. The word “clogging” suggests that these cakes are basically a waste of space, reinforcing the fact that John is sick to death of these things. Cakes are ballast moreso than anything else, and there is basically an endless supply of this worthless artifact on a birthday. Video game-like. You’ll miss the taste of these a few weeks later, I’m sure.

[ehlhi]

Why do you even have so many cakes!? It’s absurd and a bit meaningless right now that John has multiple cakes in his bedroom. Apparently, he’s been eating a lot of cakes today. Is this just comedy? We all know how it feels like to eat too much of something sugary like cake. It’s just... not good.

Of course, we later find out that John’s father is baking all of these. It’s really obvious that he is overcompensating, once you try to read more into it. John’s dad doesn’t know how to connect to his son and, almost robot-like, he just produces a thing I’m sure John really liked at one point. Trying to create someone’s perfect birthday this hard just really doesn’t work. In fact, John is sick to death of it. If only he could tell his dad how he feels.

Hussie likes using three exclamation points. It gets the emotions across.

[ehlhi]

Don’t you just hate it when you have to wait days for a package to arrive? Especially when it’s something you’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I like the phrasing in this one, “It’s starting to become a sore subject with you.” It frames John’s emotions in context to the people around him. I really shows that he’s annoyed, but not pessimistic. There was a weekend inbetween, which is obviously the reason for the delay, but John doesn’t care.

Hussie was clever to space out the official beta launch of SBURB and John’s birthday three days apart. This not only makes the story more temporally “real”, but it also allows for three days in which people were able to try the game, before our protagonists finally got a hold of it. Using a weekend as a buffer is very clever.

[ehlhi]

You can remember new information better if it is connected to known information. The SBURB Beta is the focus of the story and Hussie wants you to know it. The day the Beta should have come out - the 10th of April - isn’t particularly relevant, but you can check it on the calender if you want anyway. It encourages more active interaction, while the late arrival of the game creates mystery.

“SBURB” is an absurd name for any product, let alone a “highly touted” one. You are forced to assume it’s somekind of indie thing. Or not? Who knows, the game is going to be submerged in mystery either way.

What we’re linked to is the Homestuck Beta, an experimental early version of the webcomic that is entirely made using Flash animations. It is really cool, but adds nothing new. I doubt Hussie could have made the webcomic as long as he did if he had stuck to this technology. I am happy the “beta” is still available, though. There is at least one unique sentence in it. Maybe I’ll dig into the differences at some point? Either way, it is interesting that Hussie decides to draw a parallel between his webcomic and the fictional game SBURB - it’s as though they are the same thing to some degree.

[ehlhi]

I hope you haven’t forgotten yet that today, the 13th of April, is this young man’s birthday? I’ve made a pretty big deal out of it before. This was basically the first bit of information narrated to you, after all. This is going to be an important bit of information for the next few pages, so it may be worth it to get a quick reminder of it. This way of bringing it up is nicely diagetic, as John was already looking at this part of his wall. Even more important is how this line ties in with the next line. Stay tuned!

[ehlhi]

Barrack Obama was inaugurated as the President of the United States on January 20th, 2009. Homestuck started three months later (and went on for about as long). This tongue-in-cheek line cleverly diverts attention from the purpose that this page serves and ties back to Morgan Freeman's role in the film. It’s hard to say why Hussie opted to misdirect his readers. Perhaps it makes the whole story feel more purposeful without making everything feel like foreshadowing. Whatever it is, it worked for me. I think this aspect of the work can be a turn-off for some readers, however...

Deep Impact came out in 1998, roughly ten years before Homestuck started, at a time where the idea of a black president was mostly science-fiction. It seems like there were only two films in the 1990s featured a black US president. Eleven years later, this thing that once seemed impossible had become a reality. John thought it was a big deal when he first watched the film, and I can imagine a lot of children his age feeling the same way at the time, even if they don’t care about politics in any other way. The cult of personality is strong in the US.