Monthly Archives: March 2016

Cookie Fonster Says Stuff About His Homestuck Commentary 5: Holding Off Posts, Probably

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So Homestuck, the comic I’ve been blogging about for nearly half a year now, just resumed. And when I saw the news, I got super hyped to read it; heart beating, fingers twitching, loads of energy within my body that can only be released through running and jumping around. It sounds like a story of a guy preparing for the BIG GAME (it’s sports) rather than a random dude finding that the famed webcomic he’s overly invested in has updated after 8 months of pause, but that’s exactly what I felt like.

Lots of thoughts are running through my head about everything that went down in the new update. So many that I feel that working on my Homestuck post series during that time will interfere with those thoughts. During that time period I’ll mostly hold off posts to collect thoughts.

According to the news post the final updates are as follows:

3/28-4/2: 125 pages of updates

4/3-4/5: no updates

4/6: End of Act 6 animation(s)

4/7-4/13: 40 pages of updates, last one is the entirety of Act 7, the final act

So here’s my tentative plan. Unless I feel like making these posts again during the updates (which is entirely possible given how much I’ve failed to stick to plans with this post series), the series will progress as follows. Next post will be April 5, with the pause before the EoA6 update to write most of it. Although there’s no guarantee that’ll happen, the extra time might, and I say might, make the next post be super-length. Next post after that will be a bit after the 13th, then back to posts everfy five days. Maybe I’ll also write posts about the final stretch of updates during/after it’s all posted.

Like I said, I’m posting my reactions to the updates on my Tumblr. So if you want to keep up with my ramblings about that weird anime with those gray horoscope aliens during the final stretch of updates, go there. 

Cookie Fonster Says Stuff About His Homestuck Commentary 4: After the Comic Resumes

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So I was browsing the various Homestuck discussion boards and stumbled upon this Reddit post, which leaked news from one of the author’s friends that the comic is already finished, it would resume very soon, and end next April 13, its seventh anniversary. Previously readers were led to believe it would resume April 13 by extrapolating from the following values: on February 1, 2016, the end of Act 6 was 30% finished, and on March 7, the end of Act 6 was 65% finished, placing the completion date and by association the time the comic resumes nicely at April 13. But seeing the news that it’ll resume probably in late March is quite a shock. I was prepared to make this post about the blog after the comic resumes a few days before the comic’s birthday, but now I guess I should make that post right now.

On April 13—previously the presumed resume date and now the designated end date of Homestuck—my post series should be around page 5500. That’s a good ways into the section of Act 5 Act 2 known as Murderstuck, and not far from the Doc Scratch intermission. I guess this means that the portion between where I am now and roughly page 5500 will be the portion I’m commenting on during the comic’s final stretch of updates. I was kind of hoping to comment on more stuff during that time, but I’m sure I’ll have interesting stuff to say during those two weeks or so.

What’s good about this whole thing is that much of my commentary posted before the comic resumed will probably be funny in hindsight, maybe with some on-the-dot accurate predictions, maybe with some predictions that were completely different from what really happens. After the point I’ll be at when Homestuck has its grand finale, my post series will go as I originally wanted it to be: done after the comic is complete and all plot threads are resolved. I was kind of hoping to be further through my post series at that point but whatever. Though it would have been cool to do this whole project after Homestuck is over, it’s fun in hindsight to see what I thought might happen after the comic resumes.

Something else: I plan on blogging my reaction to the final updates as they are posted as many readers do, most likely on my Tumblr blog. I posted my reaction online for parts of the previous stretch of updates but not the whole thing, largely out of laziness.

Also, happy Easter everyone.

Cookie Fonster’s Homestuck Commentary Part 43: The Evil Juggalo Nightmare

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Introduction

< Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 >

Act 5 Act 2, Part 16 of 32

Pages 3321-3359 (MSPA: 5221-5259)

NOTE: Sorry the post’s two days late. So much for spring break giving me a faster schedule.

Up next is another walkaround, similar to Alterniabound but with a somewhat different, more worrisome tone. If you take a moment to examine the items scattered across the floor, there’s so much dramatic irony (thinking Vriska is harmless and Tavros is alive and well) and worries as to where everyone is, especially Gamzee.

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"The Why of Fry" Reminds Me of Homestuck (and to a lesser extent Phineas and Ferb)

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Top: foreshadowing.
Bottom: also foreshadowing.

For the past month or so I’ve been watching all episodes of Futurama in order. And I have to say, it’s one of my favorite shows. It turned out that there’s A LOT more episodes I hadn’t already seen than I thought. The Luck of the Fryrish made me tear up and is my favorite episode so far, Jurassic Bark was FUCKING SAD, and The Why of Fry is also really memorable because it heavily reminds me of the story webcomic Homestuck with its stable time loops and revelations of characters’ involvement in past events. Here I’ll go over these similarities because they really are pretty striking.

“You are the chosen one!”

At the start of the episode, Fry feels like a useless tool, with his crewmates accomplishing more than usual without him at their side. But then the mysterious little pet alien Nibbler takes Fry to his home planet where he learns that he is the most important man in the universe because he has brain attack immunities that arise from him being his own grandfather. Being the “chosen one” is also a theme in Homestuck; all of the major characters would be considered chosen ones. Out of the whole population of Earth, four nerdy teenagers are given the quest of creating a universe in the guise of a new video game. John, the protagonist of Homestuck, is also in a sense his own grandfather (having created all the guardians who in turn were cloned to create the four kids), but unlike Fry, who FREAKED THE FUCK OUT when he realized this fact, he took that revelation pretty lightly, merely thinking it’s a little strange.

But wait, it gets better, a lot better.

“That was a (Nibbler/Vriska) thing!”

We later learn that Nibbler was behind Fry getting frozen a thousand years in the future, an iconic event that at first seemed like a pure accident. This instantly reminded me of how Vriska in Homestuck loves involving herself in important plot events, such as Jade constantly falling asleep, Bec the omnipotent dog getting created, and Jack Noir turning into an omnipotent dog. The first two of those events are especially noteworthy because at first we didn’t know Vriska was behind those, just like we didn’t know Nibbler was behind Fry getting frozen.

This isn’t all Nibbler was behind. It turns out he did the I.C. Wiener “prank call” that led Fry to the cryogenics building. I have to say, that was a BRILLIANT plot twist which I previously did not know of at all. This further supports the whole idea that Nibbler is Vriska. I don’t mean he literally is Vriska, just that they have a lot in common.

Nibbler and Vriska are both pretty strongly foreshadowed as shown in the picture at the beginning top of this post. Nibbler is literally foreshadowed when his shadow appears as Fry is about to get frozen in the first episode. The title card page of Homestuck (which is 82 pages in) has the sun symbol that Vriska wears on her god tier outfit, which the author stated retroactively foreshadows her. Some argue retroactive foreshadowing doesn’t count but it’s close enough for me.

Going on, when we get a closer look at what went on when Fry was frozen, we see that future Fry went back in time in an attempt to catch Nibbler and stop this moment. He finds Nibbler under the table, argues with him about whether to freeze his past self, and as it turns out, he (not Nibbler as suggested earlier in the episode) blows on the chair at the last second, causing it to tip and his past self to fall in the tube as we saw, effectively not changing the past. Being unable to change the past is very much a thing in Homestuck (with a few exceptions), as are stable time loops.

“Nobody can know this useful information!”

Towards the end of the episode, Nibbler takes Fry back to Earth and wipes his memories of this whole experience. This is yet another thing that reminds me of Homestuck. In Homestuck it’s sort of a recurring theme that characters refuse to share useful information they know. For instance, Jade always hid her knowledge of the future from John, apparently because doing so would mess up the timeline, but I STILL don’t see the harm in telling him. Likewise, Nibbler pretends to be an adorable mindless little creature rather than the almighty universe maintainer he is.

This part also reminds me of Phineas and Ferb, a show I used to watch pretty often. Perry the Platypus has a similar thing going on to Nibbler: for some reason he can’t let the kids know that he’s a secret agent. The movie “Across the 2nd Dimension” explores what would happen if the kids found out (and like The Why of Fry, ends with the kids’ memories being erased); although I’m sure the movie makes it clear why the kids can’t know that Perry is a secret agent and I remember pretty well how the movie goes, I can’t remember why exactly they that fact has to be a secret.

Cookie Fonster’s Homestuck Commentary Part 42: Password Weirdness and Frog Breeding

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Introduction

< Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 >

Act 5 Act 2, Part 15 of 32

Pages 3297-3320 (MSPA: 5197-5220)

Fitting that post number 42 (the answer to the Ultimate Question) is where we finally get an answer to a very fundamental question in Homestuck: how exactly universes are made.

First here is a flash, titled [S] Wake, that I could’ve ended last post with but didn’t. I’m not sure if it’s more thematically appropriate to end a post with the start of Murderstuck or start a post with it. Last post was getting long so I stuck with the latter.

If there’s anything about Homestuck the average person is likely to know, it’s the story behind the song Megalovania (a version of which is used in this flash). There’s really no reason to rehash it all over again, nor is there any reason to point out for the ten millionth time how funny it is that so many people got into Homestuck through the iconic Undertale song.

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Cookie Fonster’s Homestuck Commentary Part 41: Jade’s Adventures in Dumbtimeloopland

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Introduction

< Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 >

Act 5 Act 2, Part 14 of 32

Pages 3250-3294 (MSPA: 5150-5196)

NOTE: Next week is spring break, so the next two (possibly the next three) posts will be posted at a faster rate than usual: on March 15, 18, and possibly 21 respectively. Never mind, that’s a really time-crunchy schedule. Let’s just say the next three posts will each be posted at most five days after the previous.

Hilarious every time.

Back from where we left off, Jade answers Karkat and talks about her sprite. Speaking of which, here’s another pattern Jade breaks that I should’ve mentioned last post: (21) her sprite is not a long-lived entity.

GG: i made the mistake of prototyping my dream self who has been dead for years 
GG: and shes completely crazy and theres no talking any sense into her 
CG: HMM. 
GG: hmm? 
CG: YES. “HMM.” 
GG: hmm what 
CG: HMM AS IN HMM INTERESTING. 
CG: AS IN HMM HOW VERY, VERY FUCKING INTERESTING INDEED.

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Cookie Fonster’s Homestuck Commentary Part 40 (Recap 3 Annotations)

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(back to main post)

Here are my comments on Recap 3 of Homestuck. It’s pretty long so I’ve decided to put it in a separate post. Are you ready for lots of words? If so, then here we go.

  • The recap doesn’t dwell much on the events of Hivebent; it just says a whole bunch of stuff happened and the trolls created the kids’ universe but had their entry to it cut short. Then it goes straight to recapping Act 5 Act 2 so far. This is notable because it kind of acknowledges that much of the trolls’ arc isn’t too relevant to the greater story line; I discussed this in more detail in post number 27.
  • After the first paragraph, the recap first lists events from Karkat’s perspective, then John’s, then Rose’s, then Dave’s, then Jade’s. I suppose it’s the most convenient way to list a huge array of events that went down in Act 5 so far.
  • The scratch is referred to as a “spacetime rift” that “forced [Jack] into the trolls’ session”. More scratch red herring stuff I guess. Later, Doc Scratch outright states that the scratch is not a rift used to banish Jack; another one of those “making false theories explicitly wrong” moments.
  • The section about Karkat’s perspective makes much reference to events back in Acts 3 and 4, which I guess is for the sake of reminding people of the order of the trolls’ events.
  • John is stated to be “oblivious to the true nature of [Vriska’s] schemes”. What is the true nature of her schemes? I guess as the point talked about at this point he is oblivious, but later Vriska makes it clear that it’s for self-aggrandization, involving herself in a boy’s path to heroism, and everything else for that matter.
  • I’ve mentioned several times that it’s a bit fuzzy whether John almost prototyped the blue doll because of its missing eye and arm or just removed its eye and arm. The recap seems to point to the former idea, saying that he “resolve[d] to prototype with the blue doll, missing an arm and eye, to deliberately disable Jack”.
  • Rose’s study of the Green Sun leads to a subsection on Doc Scratch and Lord English, talking about events in the trolls’ arc like Scratch making Vriska kill Aradia and himself being used to blow off Vriska’s arm. This shows that the trolls’ arc isn’t entirely irrelevant; the first paragraph just gives the gist of it and its ultimate purpose, and later parts I guess recap it further.
  • Terezi helping Dave is stated to be “in part due to her rivalry with Vriska”, which I guess answers the question of whether the Terezi-Vriska competition is just one-sided Vriska misconceptions.
  • Terezi is stated to heave led Dave into a pot of soup only because it “needed to happen on his timeline”. I don’t think that was stated when I read that part, though I could be forgetting stuff. In Act 4 Terezi said to John that she wanted to see what happens if she tries messing with the timeline even though they say you can’t mess with the timeline, so it’s a bit weird that now she’s apparently just following through stuff.
  • It’s stated that Terezi and Vriska are “partaking in a dangerous game of rivalry fueled flirtation”. Is it supposed to be flirtation with each other or with the kids?
  • Dave’s section of the recap does a decent job clarifying stuff about the order of events in his timeline. I’ve seen multiple attempts to sort all pages in chronological order from each of the characters’ perspectives, and there are pretty clearly some hard or ambiguous parts. The recaps probably help with that.
  • Apparently Jade couldn’t remove her entry item blindfold, which serves as evidence that maybe it does have first guardian properties or something? I’m not sure.
  • Finally, Hussie is apparently the second most important character in Homestuck. Even though he’s kind of a joke character, he’s involved in Caliborn’s rise to power, just like Gamzee, his rival in supposed importance.

I didn’t give these extensive comments on the first two recaps, though look at how long this bullet list is. Make of that what you will.

Cookie Fonster’s Homestuck Commentary Part 40: The Miracle of a New Beginning

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Introduction

< Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 >

Act 5 Act 2, Part 13 of 32

Pages 3192-3249 (MSPA: 5096-5149)

Jade tries out her Christmas presents, continuing the Christmas special theme, I guess like the episode following the Christmas special.

First off, Jade shows us what John and Rose are up to. I really like how both pictures above show some future knowledge device showing Jade with her spectagoggles, signifying that pretty much everyone now has some way of knowing future stuff. The narration says “You wonder why…” or “You wonder what…” a lot of times, which I think signifies that knowledge of the future does not equate with omniscience.

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Cookie Fonster’s Homestuck Commentary Part 39: the CRISMATS SPECAIL

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Introduction

< Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 >

Act 5 Act 2, Part 12 of 32

Pages 3133-3195 (MSPA: 5033-5095)

HO HO HO

WV, thinking John is dead, tries to escape his command station but the door jams because the station is out of fuel.

Of course you still have your secret treasure, but it will almost certainly prove to be of no use to you in this dilemma whatsoever. It clearly serves no significant purpose other than to be pretty, and to make your hand glowy.

Sure, whatever you say, Mr. Narrator! Some time later in the exile arc, we learn about plans for dealing with Jack Noir where it’s made clear that the ring will be used for stuff. With that in mind, PM being the final wearer of the ring is quite the plot twist.

Oh yeah, there’s another thing you forgot about! You ate that delicious green nuclear rock earlier in the day, even though it feels like it was more than a year ago.

Here’s something Homestuck occasionally does: linking to earlier pages in order to remind people of things they might have forgotten about. I think this probably should be done more often; for example, I’ve seen people reading Homestuck completely forget about the time Karkat told past Jade her robot will blow up when it is referenced several times later. In this case it’s a reminder of the Chekhov’s uranium. The “more than a year ago” bit is another one of those things that made the most sense to serial readers. But I guess that could make sense to archival readers (most especially those reading at a slow pace) given that as the link reminds us, the uranium was eaten over two thousand pages ago.

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Cookie Fonster Says Stuff About His Homestuck Commentary 3: Character Selection Screens

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Unlike my previous two posts of this type, this one is pretty short; it’s just something I’ve been meaning to say about how I’ll do this post series.

Every so often, Homestuck will have character selection screens, where you can select which order to read parts of the story. To spice things up, I will try to avoid doing those in the most common order. This means that in two-option selection screens I will do them in reverse order (for example, in this selection screen I’ll first do Jake, then Jane, rather than what most readers do), and in selection screens with three or more options I will do it in random order. This is practically a moot point for the “click the panels” selection screens, but for the other ones it is relevant.