I just realised what it is and what it DOES. So ever since this panel happened, it’s been on the back of my mind, and now that the comic is over and I’ve done theories on the Metastuck and found the Apotheosis and Creation Myth theory which is to me the perfect explanation of all things Homestuck, THIS fucking thing still held the one plot thread I couldn’t explain with Alternate timelines, and that seemed a bit too Deus Ex Machina for me to actually enjoy much. “Oh, the last frog? Echidna just helped me remember it was not in the Medium! It was back at my island!” Why. Why would it be back at her island?
And yesterday when I talked to a friend about the ending, I realised. It’s Game Design. Now hear me, I quote from the comic itself:
PCG: WHAT. ?GG: oh right ?GG: where the last frog is! ?GG: or was… ?GG: the thing is ?GG: the frog we need is nowhere to be found in the medium ?GG: it was on earth! ?GG: but only very briefly ?GG: it was when i was young ?GG: before i woke up on prospit ?GG: i had begun sleep walking ?GG: both on the island and on the moon ?GG: and in my dream it was very bright ?GG: i saw something in the light ?GG: i couldnt tell what it was so i got closer
[…]
?GG: later my grandpa made a robot for me to help me with my sleep walking ?GG: it could do all the walking while i stayed safe in bed! ?GG: it could also record my dreams ?GG: i am sure he always knew my dreams were going to be special ?GG: i suspect he knew it before i was even born
That’s it. the hint has been there all along. This was when Jade started sleepwalking, and that is not just a coincidence. This is the thing that caused the Sleepwalking in the first place. The ‘Seed’ shape glowing in the middle of Prospit, that bright light, has always symbolised a Game Construct, something the game does. Be it the place from which the Temple emerges, the lily time capsule storing people and items within, that’s the main symbol of SBURB that says it’s a mechanic of the game. Now, to explain this I have to take Kanaya, the other Space Player, as an example:
GA: I Woke Up A Long Time Ago GA: I Had Trouble Sleeping When I Was Young GA: The Sunlight Was Unnaturally Invigorating To Me I Guess GA: My Lusus Could Do Nothing To Help GA: And When I Was Supposed To Be In My Cocoon I Would Often Wander Out To The Desert GA: Where One Day I Was Visited By A Stranger Who Dressed And Spoke In White GA: He Put Me To Sleep And I Awoke On Prospit GA: Where I Have Dreamed Ever Since GA: He Said He Was My Guardian GA: And Though He Visited Rarely I Did Regard Him As That GA: Then Later He Stopped Coming GA: In Time I Began To Believe He Was A Figment Of My Mind GA: Like An Imaginary Friend To Give Me Reassurance When I Needed It GA: But Then While Playing Our Game I Learned He Was Real GA: He Had Spoken To Others From Our Party GA: And Had Been Manipulating Us All To Advance His Schemes GA: It Was Saddening To Learn My Fortuitous Awakening Had Been The Product Of A Nefarious Ploy GA: Youre Lucky That Your Awakening Probably Had No Such Entanglements GG: jeez, i hope not… GA: But I Guess Its Only A Minor Contamination Of Something Otherwise Great GA: I Was Allowed To See What Skaia Would Show Me GA: And To Prepare For Dangers Ahead And Try To Protect People
Of course, one could argue it was Bec who allowed Jade to wake up in Prospit, but she spent her entire life with her dog, and it was only after the Frog Event and Jadebot’s construction that she actually woke up there. So everything hints to the fact that the Final Frog is the Trigger that wakes up Space Players in Prospit. Kanaya didn’t need it, because Doc Scratch woke her up. Doc Scratch manipulated others to his whims, so the fact he only visited her a few times and then disappears means he had little interest in what he could get from Kanaya. Which bid the question to me, what did he want from her in such short time?
The Frog is what he wanted. He zapped himself on Alternia, and woke Kanaya up, thus making sure she didn’t wake up the proper way. He became the trigger of her awakening, making it so that Kanaya never saw this Final Frog in the past, and didn’t remember in the future, causing the Universe to be incomplete, cancerous.
In a normal SBURB Session, SBURB will ensure retroactively the Last Frog needed is sent to the past, near the Space Player, as a means of making them interact with a Game Construct and wake up in Prospit. Getting the Final Frog to make the Universe adds the need to search through Time as well as through Space. Doc Scratch preemptively woke Kanaya up in Prospit, saying he was her Guardian, with the explicit purpose of sabotaging the creation of a healthy Frog, and causing a chain reaction that ended in the combined Session that spawned a new Universe Frog, from which Lord English himself would be born.
Fucking. Hell.
oh god I’m glad someone actually wrote this so i didnt have to
by the way this serves another obvious purpose–by tying the Frog to the Space Player’s choice directly, a failsafe is established where the Space player can’t successfully create a Frog without getting permission from Echidna directly.
That instills a clear limit onto the hyperflexible frog creation system from the get go, ensuring that Echidna is a required step. It’s game design.
Flying through Storytelling 