Woo, the ask box is open again!!! I imagine one of the best parts of doing a liveblog like this is interacting with the people following it. To make this a legitimate Ask: Looking ahead in the comic, what are you least looking forward to, and what are you most looking forward to (besides seeing Jade again, of course)?
To be honest, I’ve really missed it. I trust my mods when it comes to making the recommendations to close submissions. It’s the same trust I have for my mods who watch over the #general chat in our Discord server. I admit, part of the reason why I’ve been silent is because my new job does not allow me to be interactive during the day. I’m not allowed to be on Tumblr or Discord at my computer, and my phone signal is abysmal at best. But part of my silence has also been because this year has not been the best for me. I admit, I have way more privilege than I did a year ago (which was still a lot), but… *sigh* I have never been more scared of Thanksgiving than I am right now. Because our relatives have been sharing and liking on social media a picture of one of our cousins moving to University with an Iron Cross flag displayed in his shared dorm room. I don’t know what scares me more: that they either don’t know what that flag means, or that they do know what it means.
*sigh* Okay, back to Homestuck.
I’m not sure what would be something I’m least looking forward to, but I guess that depends on the prediction of what I think may happen. If we take it as read that every iteration of the Game ends in ultimate failure, then I’m not at all looking forward to what that would spell for the kids. However, from what we’ve seen so far–John skipping all of the other Gates, Rose destroying a Gate–the kids aren’t playing by the conventional rules. I’m concerned about what the end game would be for them now.
What I’m most looking forward to is somewhat easier to answer. Yes, seeing Jade again is right up there. I am looking forward to seeing the kids and the trolls meet face to face. If I was to predict that, I’d say that John would be innocently welcoming, Dave would be snarky with a dry sense of humor, Jade would be genuinely happy, and Rose would be apprehensive about all of them except for Kanaya.
For what it's worth, the "poppop in the attic" line is an Arrested Development reference, Hussie was still going as bit hogwild with being able to make post-April 2009 pop-culture references at that point.
brrrrrrrrd said to nora-reads-homestuck:
“Sometimes you tell dad you really want poppop in the attic. He says the mere fact you call it that tells him you’re not ready” is a reference to Arrested Development. I guess Hussie had it on the mind when writing this section since the blue mustachio’d man in the picture on Jane’s wall, the HALLWAY CERA, and this joke are all related to that show.
OH SHIIIIIIIIT, yeah, ok! That makes a lot more sense. *watches the clip* AHAHAHAHA. Oh, Cera.
Building on mageddondreams's ask, what do you think would constitute a "victory" for either Prospit or Derse? What would it look like?
An “ideal” victory in the sense of black and white chess pieces on a board would be one side causing the other’s king to forfeit the battle and step down, and one side reigns over both kingdoms.
But go with me on this one.
It seems to me that Prospit and Derse are pretty much identical. They have the same type of kingdom, the same kind of troops, the same ships, everything. And when two equally matched forces do battle with each other, if all things are equal, then there would be a stalemate. That stalemate is what’s been happening between the kingdoms before the Game begins.
So, why does Derse always win? In my opinion, once the Game starts, Derse has one variable that changes everything:
Jack.
It’s my theory that Jack is the reason why Derse wins. If Prospit had a similar force, then there would be at least another stalemate. Then again, with a second variable in the equation, it’s entirely possible that Prospit would win.
But that still leaves the question: What would a “victory” look like?
Well, what happens when a game of chess is over? The chess board is reset for the next game. Going on that logic, I guess the Battlefield gets reset as well. The only way to reset the Battlefield to its original state would be to… reset the Game? And if the loser of a chess game picks what side to be for the next game, does that mean that Prospit becomes Derse and Derse becomes Prospit? So, the only way to win is to be the second one to move?
"Fan" Album, old archived posts by Hussie, some videos, and two actual Fanworks!
(SkaiaMechanic) Another Fanfest Post! What Nora responded to here was actually done back in December. However, various parts were incomplete (for reasons you’ll see) so this just sat around in the Google Doc for months. It’s getting to a point where it’s just clogging up the shared document, so I’m posting what’s here and will make additional posts based on the rest of the content when/if she gets to them. Enjoy!
brrrrrrrrd submitted to nora-reads-homestuck:
Visual art has never really been my thing, and other people have been far better at sharing pre-Act 6 art than I could be, but I can submit a few things you may have missed. They’re all somewhat dubiously labeled “fanwork” being that most of them made by either members of the music team or Hussie himself, but I don’t know of any better time to post them.
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Before we get into the meat of this post, there is one more “fan” album you are current on. It came out just a week after Act 6 began and has no songs about anything from it. It’s called Tomb of the Ancestors and is by Kalibration (aka Robert Blaker) who also wrote Upward Movement (Dave Owns), Skaian Flight, Play the Wind, and Ira Quod Angelus, among other things. https://homestuckgaiden.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-the-ancestors-unofficial-album
There’s nothing more recent than Nov. 17th, 2011 on that page.
(Past!Skaia) As a single person fan-album, it’s not necessary to review this, at least not now. If you were going to, I would suggest holding onto it for later, when the amount of music albums in the story dramatically drops off.
(Nora) I agree, and will hold off for now! Album reviews actually take me a while to get finished because I can only listen to things at certain times, and I want to save my steam for meatier posts right now.
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Most of this stuff is stuff that has previously been deleted by Hussie or hidden by the original poster, so if that’s not kosher then feel free to skip down to the section below this one. A little background: Hussie at previous points in time had both a Formspring and a Tumblr on which he would talk about various things Homestuck, and other various things. He also has a nasty habit of deleting old things, meaning a LOT of his old posts are gone and most of them only exist as archives. Here’s some of that stuff, most which was posted before Act 6 or if it was posted during only very early on and not referencing events of Act 6.
To start things off, the origin story of Hussie’s horse painting. This one actually still exists, but the images are broken: https://web.archive.org/web/20140408053025/http://andrewhussie.blogspot.com/2009/01/need-for-steed.html
(Nora) I’ve seen this one before, but I read it again and I think I guffawed just as hard, if not harder. Hussie has quite the way with words… and homoeroticism.
Hussie’s infamous trip to Olive Garden: https://web.archive.org/web/20130312060633/http://mspandrew.tumblr.com/post/12963616983/land-of-souls-and-olives-a-conclusion-pasta-la-vista
Olive Garden part 2: https://web.archive.org/web/20130312060012/http://mspandrew.tumblr.com/post/13585722775/land-of-souls-and-olives-a-conclusion-plmfers-part
(Nora) Trix once suggested I audio react to these. Would that be a good idea?
(Past!Skaia) Nah, just read them through. It’s definitely worth a read, but nothing more than that. (Current!Skaia: As of 3/5/17, there’s no indication whether she’s gone through it or not. I’ll keep it in the GoogleDoc just in case though.)
The post-Cascade recap part 1, in which he talks about the the process of creating it and then the content of it. Really great insight into his creation process: http://web.archive.org/web/20111028175330/http://mspandrew.tumblr.com/post/11938555890/about-eoa5-part-1
Cascade recap part 2: http://web.archive.org/web/20111028222551/http://mspandrew.tumblr.com/post/11941710181/about-eoa5-part-2
Recap part 3: http://web.archive.org/web/20120801112223/http://mspandrew.tumblr.com/post/11960418585/about-eoa5-part-3
Recap part 4: http://web.archive.org/web/20111029142442/http://mspandrew.tumblr.com/post/11975241895/about-eoa5-part-4
There are more posts on his tumblr if you go to the archive and and mess around with the Wayback Machines captures, including a reddit AMA that for some reason only collected the questions from reddit and answered them on tumblr. But that’s for a point much later in the comic.
(Nora) Huh! Fascinating read-through. I enjoyed him talking about the process in particular (he makes it seem deceptively simple, doesn’t he, considering the lion’s share of the comic was a completely solo project banged out at a nearly inhuman pace). It hadn’t occurred to me that [S] Descend was actually scored, as opposed to simply animated to existing music, which is a bit embarrassing since it is obviously a medley. I also like what he says when he clarifies Doc Scratch’s means and motive—it’s basically exactly what I’d surmised from reading all his conversations. That tricky, tricky bastard. I am however still mystified by the Horrorterrors, and neither does Hussie seem keen to provide a real explanation for their actions:
The dark gods helped chart their course through this spacetime maze to deliver them to this location, at this time. Take that for what you will
(Nora) Also… why the hell did I not ever realize that Lord English is literally a giant green space pimp??? He’s got the gold tooth, the horrible gaudy coat, the pimp cane cue stick peg leg…
First of all, [Jade] didn’t actually conjure the 4th wall out of thin air. Remember when Karkat told her to turn the wall off, and then draw it? He was asking her to captchalogue an undamaged copy using her Pictionary modus, for this exact purpose. The eventual getaway. So she had it on standby, waiting for the right time to use it.
(Nora) Ohhhhh. OHHHHHHHH. Wow, this whole plan was even more convoluted than I thought, and with the whole password system and all, it was already pretty damn convoluted.
What’s waiting for them on the other side, beside a big ugly coat? Recall the setup I had with the two 4th walls facing each other, separated by one yard. They will break through the wall on the right, traveling nearly the speed of light, and presumably, break through the wall on the left to enter another reality. If you were thorough during Seer: Descend, you might have caught this excerpt on a bookshelf. “Though we adore Him we shall never enjoy His beauteous Croak. We spill our blood on acres of black and white so they may cross the yellow yard. At last in Skaia’s reflection through broken glass He may find the pond in which He’s meant to squat.”
(Nora)You may recall that when I played through the minigame, upon coming across that excerpt I said the following:
(PastPast!Nora) ….’They’ may cross the ‘yellow yard’? This must be referring to Hussie’s aforementioned interference with the story. It’s pretty abstruse, but I feel like it’s telling me something that I’m going to come back and go ‘OHHHH’ over, when I’ve seen more of the story.
(Nora) Consider me motherfuckin’ OHHHH’ed.
However, speaking of AMAs, Hussie’s Formspring was essentially a year and a half long AMA and most if not all of the questions answered there have been compiled here: http://irratio.org/andrew_hussie_formspring_archives.html
Most of the early questions are inane, but after a while (after he stops answering everything that comes across his message box) there’s some really great responses in there (and some really funny jokes.) Only thing is, it is *LONG* and will take a really long time to get through. It went on from late February of 2010 to early October of 2011, with the last responses being around the beginning of the pause during work on Cascade.
(Past!Skaia) It truly is long. Kinda worth it though, and amusing to see Hussie’s actual trolling.
(Nora) Hahahaha, Hussie is a troll and I love him.
Who do you think should be the next president of the United States?
dumb
(Nora) Welp, consider that one prophetic.
Once there is a reasonable number of strips, is there any chance of a Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff book with commentary by Dave Strider?
yeah
(Nora) That one too, I guess.
When do you think HS will be over?
ive been considering ending it on 8/26/10.
but who the hell knows if that’ll pan out.
(Nora) AHAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHA. AHAHA. HA.
(Nora) I’m going to leave it here for now, as there are SO MANY DAMN QUESTIONS and I really ought to finish my text post.
(Past!Skaia)Sounds good. Once you finish the post above I’ll set up a queue for your responses to the messages above.
(Current!Skaia) This was the main reason I held onto this post. It’s no telling when she’ll get back to this though, so I’m posting what I have. I’ll keep the link in the document, and if she ever does go back to read and comment more I’ll make some more posts!
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Enough decidedly *not* fanworks, here’s some things you might possibly call fanworks! If you can call things made by Bowman or Toby Fox fanworks. And bonus actual fanworks!
(Current!Skaia) I have not shown Nora any of the below. I think…they’re not really necessary? Except Savior of the Slamming Jam, obviously, but that’s also in a submission she hasn’t gotten to yet. If enough people think she “needs” to see them I’ll pass it along but otherwise I’m just leaving it here.
A concert in someone’s front yard! http://www.nospoiler.com/y/HRT758PTmpw
Toby Fox’s Homestuck Abridged! [Removed for Giant Spoilers!]
An actual fanwork, Savior of the Slamming Jam! http://www.nospoiler.com/y/CKrO8kS8D6g
Chorale for Jaspers & Pony Chorale, Live! http://www.nospoiler.com/y/o0Z0oopPGpM
I’m a Member of the Midnight Crew, Live! http://www.nospoiler.com/y/xR5vN0ve4lY
How Do I Live, live! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDSEXd4KyO8
Actual fanwork, Club’s Deuce’s Homework! http://www.nospoiler.com/y/dLo22lvynNg
And two shitpost videos by Bowman:
1) Cascade announcement (can’t no spoiler link to this one, but comments are disabled: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o4NvBz8xac
2) “Toby Fox” is now on YouTube (can’t no spoiler link to this one either, unfortunately. Still, comments disabled): https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=WL&v=pA9uy3KdeEU
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I don’t think I have anything else at this time that either definitely has spoilers or possibly does due to having come out squarely in 2012 or later.
Those who walk the plank, walk towards the spider. See the cobwebs? Yup
Ohhhhh, I misinterpreted that. That makes more sense now. Vriska feeds her lusus the trolls, while Eridan feeds his lusus the corresponding custodians.
Also, thanks to brrrd on Discord for mentioning this as well
undyingUmbrage's text isn't *quite* black. It's hex code #323232, while straight black would be #000000. Also fun, Karkat's is #626262 and uranianUmbra's is #929292. 92 is "coincidentally" the atomic number of Uranium.
To add to that early shipping question, since we have four possible types of ships now, do you have any non-<3 ships that either you're thinking would be good or that you think will show up later on, or may already be happening but not spelled out yet? ♥ (<3) , ♠ (<3<), ♦ (<>), or ♣ (c3<)?
Oh holy crap.
Well, let’s see, I’m willing to bet that Gamzee and Tavros are moirails.
It’s possible that Vriska and Equius are moirails, and Vriska and CA are moirails as well, but I only say that because of her bargains with them, and because of the moirallegiance between Vriska and Kanaya.
I could see either John or Rose being an auspistice with others.
Something’s telling me that Dave could have a kismesis with either Terezi or Vriska. Then again, Vriska has a tendency to form a kismesis with almost anyone.
... Does CA have the tendency to want a matesprit? Is he looking for love in all the wrong places?
Sollux and Dave could be moirails. Jade and Nepeta could be moirails.
Hmm... here’s a thought. Supposed Dave and Karkat needed a mediator because of some specific conflict, and there was none to be had. That could push them to kismesis.
That’s all I’ve got for now. Maybe more will come to me later on.
