< Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 >
Act 6 Intermission 2, Part 3 of 3
Pages 4741-4819 (MSPA: 6641-6719)
NOTE: I’m not going to pretend this isn’t just filler text again.
John wakes up in a dream bubble and oh hey it’s another 2x callback combo: to Jake waking up to see Aranea, and to Karkat getting hit in the face by a bucket.
Continue reading< Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 >
Act 6 Intermission 2, Part 2 of 3
Pages 4709-4740 (MSPA: 6609-6640)
NOTE: I’m not going to discuss those aromantic John headcanons because I don’t really care to. Actually no, I changed my mind and discussed such headcanons in this post a few years later.
Picking up from where we left off, Kanaya is about to leave the lab when all of a sudden…
KANAYA: Augh
KANAYA: Why Does That Always Happen
KARKAT: EVERYBODY OUT OF THE GODDAMN WAY.
KARKAT: I GOT A LAB FULL OF HUMANS, A MOUTH FULL OF YELLING, AND A TORTURED PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE FULL OF TOTALLY HYSTERICAL EMOTIONS AND UNAIRED GRIEVANCES AT PRACTICALLY EVERYBODY.
DAVE: karkat is broken guys
Karkat’s sudden entrance is done via a 2x callback combo, and Dave completely lampshades how bizarre that is.
Karkat and Dave immediately start arguing about stuff and dear god the insults they trade are killing me. Unlike prior cases of characters trading insults (one-sided or not), this scene is just too hilarious to be any sort of setup for character development. Despite that, the comic does a good job developing their dynamic later on; before you think I switched my stance entirely I’m only talking about before the retcon. I have to say I think I’m kind of doing an alright job not moaning too much about stuff.
Continue readingOne of the most famous bits of foreshadowing in Homestuck is when only 32 pages into the comic, it’s stated that this one book could kill a cat if you dropped it, which happens over four thousand pages later. But I didn’t at all talk about that bit of foreshadowing, not in my first post where that bit of foreshadowing happens or any other time that cat’s death is hinted at. I only ever mentioned it one time in a tangent about retroactive foreshadowing.
Why didn’t I talk about it those other potential times in my post series? Because I didn’t really feel like pointing out stuff readers probably know already. That sentiment didn’t change at all between my first post and my recent posts, but here’s a thing about that: if my early posts were as detailed as my latest posts I probably would’ve discussed that bit but in terms of something people already know.
When talking about the blatant hints leading up to Jaspers’ onscreen death I probably could’ve mentioned the thing from early on as a sort of “bonus” hint for attentive readers. But upon the closer inspection I got from rereading I decided that hint is pretty far removed from all the other hints much closer to the event, and probably serves mostly as something meant for people to catch while rereading the comic.
< Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 >
Act 6 Intermission 2, Part 1 of 3
Pages 4667-4708 (MSPA: 6567-6608)
Delicious plot dumps if I say so myself.
EDIT (12/14/2016): Shit, I forgot to rant about how weird illogical the supposed retconned version of the penis fight scene was. Better luck next time I guess.
EDIT (10/5/2019): After a really good streak for over 30 posts, this is where my Homestuck posts start reading like garbly nonsense again—makes sense because this is where my posting schedule started to slow WAY down. I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote about half the stuff I said in this post, so I didn’t even bother making many edits to it, just so you’re warned.
Hold still, Slick.
After a terrifying montage of the world turning into a flooded alien queen wasteland, suddenly Hussie is trying to feed Spades Slick lusus milk. I must say, this sudden mood switch makes for a surprisingly good transition device.
Amidst all this hilarity, if you stop to pay attention to things a whole bunch of stuff is happening. First off, Hussie is cosplaying yet again, this time as an interpretation of what Calliope might look like. He presumably rescued Slick from the destruction of the trolls’ universe, and gave him some robotic upgrades. The deal with Slick is that the comic consistently refuses to kill him off*, and now Hussie displays a comical obsession with keeping him alive, full out making fun of this recurring motif. I swear to god if he doesn’t turn up alive once again after being killed off in the stupidest way possible…**
Oh, and Aurthour is alive again too somehow? As with Minihoof that’s yet another weird inexplicable horse thing.
* I knowwwwww 😦
** That sentence can also be read as Slick turning up alive in the stupidest way possible, which is semi-intentional. But getting more stupid that self-insert shenanigans requires a bit of creativity.
Continue readingToday Homestuck updated with a short interactive page, followed by a credit roll plus photo montage. And you know what? I actually truly honest to god enjoyed it. My reaction to it was much like my initial reaction to Collide: it made me forget all my salt about late Homestuck, which is kind of a mystical effect. The update addresses a lot of things Act 7 left unresolved, like bringing back the human and troll races and what happened to Terezi; it even gives Jane and Jake a semblance of satisfying arc resolutions!
But the end credits and Collide both had a certain flaw that make them almost perfect. In Collide that flaw is Slick getting killed off; the end credits, meanwhile, don’t at all address John’s blatant romantic tease with Roxy, which is saying a lot because the credits feature two characters getting married, which feels surreal to even say. But since I don’t like being pessimistic about hopes for the future of Homestuck, I’m still hoping that pairing is addressed somehow in the epilogue. I would say more but the next post after the one I’m working on is a PERFECT time to discuss that ship.
Despite that problem, the end credits make me a good deal less salty about Act 7, something that should logically be impossible but somehow isn’t. Now what do those credits mean for this post series? Pretty much what the first Homestuck updates after I started this post series meant: I’ll have more stuff to think about differently in retrospect, and might complain about stuff a tiny bit less?
Happy Cascade Day everyone.
So if you’re active on the Homestuck subreddit or whatever then I’m sure you’ve seen this thing:
It seriously looks like Hussie art! That’s a pretty good sign.
There’s no way this isn’t a teaser for the “post-canon content” coming tomorrow, on the ever-fabled Cascade Day. And this image is kind of worth analyzing in terms of which characters Hussie cares about.
First off, Jade isn’t there. Neither is Jane, or Jake, or Terezi. All those characters have been criticized for not getting good character development; many believe the author doesn’t care about them as much as others. It’s kind of hilarious when you think about it; this image is pretty solid indication of which characters Hussie does and doesn’t care about.
Oh wait another teaser just came out as I was about to publish this post but I’ll talk about it some other time. Here’s me hoping the upcoming Homestuck material is good.
< Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 >
Act 6 Act 2, Part 6 of 6
Pages 4595-4666 (MSPA: 6495-6566)
Jack returns to kill Jane again but is interrupted by a message from DD:
Hang on. It’s this guy. Gotta answer this. He better be bearing news of murdered youngsters.
He says the deceased child count is still sitting at zero over here. You say WHAT? He says that’s not all. You wait for him to spill the beans.
He says one of the brats staged a little rebellion on the moon. Stuck the Brute’s head on a pike for all to see. Real black eye for the kingdom and the Condesce. Press is going nuts with it. Wait. The Brute’s dead, you say? He says yes. Dammit. He was one of your best agents. You never really cared for the guy but you admired his brutality. We all did sir, he says.
It seems like the alpha kids are actually doing a good job going against the Derse agents, inadvertently or otherwise, since the agents’ plans are all ruined now. What’s especially crazy about this is that Jack Noir of all people is hopelessly struggling to accomplish anything.
Continue reading< Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 >
Act 6 Act 2, Part 5 of 6
Pages 4569-4594 (MSPA: 6469-6494)
Jane’s conversation with Dirk’s responder about Sburb (i.e. stuff that matters) looks like this:
but her conversation with Roxy about teen drama shit looks like this:
(click to zoom in)
I think this difference says a lot about the alpha kids’ story arc, and how much time they waste on stuff that isn’t Sburb. I don’t even have much to say about the short pesterlog, other than that Jane is noticeably enthusiastic about starting up the game and more than ready to begin, and I think her entering the game could’ve easily progressed smoothly from here on out.
However—and this is a tangent that isn’t so much saying stuff about the short pesterlog—I imagine the progression of events might be too straightforward if Jane didn’t start getting bugged by other people. In the beta kids’ arc, getting John into the game was an interesting storyline because it was our first time seeing that happen, not to mention we didn’t even know he would be transported to another dimension. In the trolls’ arc that stuff is all kind of fast forwarded through, while in the alpha kids’ arc it’s interrupted by relationship drama. I think the story probably would’ve progressed interestingly enough without that happening since plot twists regarding starting the game have already happened in the form of things blowing up. Then again I can kind of see why Jane entering would keep getting delayed like that. Act 6 Act 2 isn’t really in any position to conclude yet; for one thing we still haven’t heard from Jake at all in this act, let alone see him make progress on his bunny mission.
Anyway let’s get on with the long pesterlog.
Continue reading< Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 >
Act 6 Act 2, Part 4 of 6
Pages 4470-4516 (MSPA: 6370-6416)
This post is now a week too late to be the anniversary special. I guess it’s still sort of the de facto anniversary special?
We now switch focus over to Roxy and the first interesting bit we get is her examining her collection of dead cats. The narration says about one of them:
The biggest one has been around for as long as you remember, encased in that glass-like material. You’ve considered giving it a name, but it always struck you as a little morbid to name a dead cat.
Yet another subversion of a longstanding motif in the comic; in this case, different people giving animals different names of different genders. In this case I guess it’s only fair that happens because the cat has already gotten two names. Besides, it’s yet another recurring thing that’s gotten a bit stale. That motif happens again later on with Serenity the firefly, but in that case it’s a somewhat more unexpected thing to happen.
Continue readingI finally came to terms with the fact that I’m no longer able to keep a steady posting schedule with this post series, something that’s been obvious for months, but only now am I finally letting go of those phantom post schedules that don’t mean anything. From here on out, the only certainty regarding post release dates is as follows: there should never be more than two weeks in between Homestuck posts, unless I’m on vacation or something.
That said, I’d still like to give an update regarding my next post. Right now I’m about 40% through that post, and it should be done in maybe two or three days.
EDIT (9/22/2016): It’s been two days since I posted this, and now I’m about 80% through my next post; mostly what’s left is another expository Calliope pesterlog. It should be released within the next two days. From here on out, these progress reports will be edited to the start of my most recently published Homestuck post.
EDIT 2 (9/24/2016): Next post is almost finished now, as in really really close to done. It should be released tomorrow.
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