John: warily eyes the pastry booths bc he still has a deep mistrust for baked goods thanks to the Betty Crocker incident aka literally the apocalypse. Plays a (rigged) wack-a-mole game and gets frustrated when he keeps losing. Terezi makes fun of him so he whips out the hammer of zillyhoo and ah, crushes the game, so to speak. His prize is a giant bunny. He puts it back in the box.
Jade: sees one of those rodeo electronic bull things and goes oh that looks fun! Everyone is like uhhh Jade that can get pretty wild are u sure?? Karkat bets Jade that she won’t last 5 mins, oh really Karkat? 5 minutes? She sits on that bucking bronco for an entire hour making uncomfortable and spite fueled eye contact with Karkat the entire time. She only gets off because there’s a line.
Dave: wants to go on all the big rides and drags Karkat along despite Karkat complaining very loudly the entire time. Sorry Karkles, you scared of heights? You a scaredy Kat? A scaredy Karkat? Fuck you Dave, I’m fine! Dave drags him on the biggest rollercoaster in the entire park, they get off and Karkat says wow that was actually pretty fun! Dave’s hair is a mess, he looks inches from perma-death, that was horrible oh god. Not a word, Rose, he says. She and Kanaya are definitely not snickering behind their hands.
Rose: makes a goddamn beeline with Kanaya in tow to the haunted house ride because fuck yes she wants to see some creepy ass shit. If y’all have ever been in an amusement park haunted house, you know how vastly disappointed she was by the lame jump-scares and cheap monsters. Kanaya made it up to her by taking her to the Tunnel O’ Love™ and Rose was significantly cheered up.
Kanaya: isn’t a huge fan of non-blood food but v intrigued by all the fried stuff. Why Is It Fried? Does It Add Flavor? Not really, Rose tells her, it’s mostly just another way humanity likes to push itself closer and closer to its own imminent demise. Only now they’ve roped the trolls and carapacians into it. Oh, Kanaya says. She tries a fried Twinkie and sucks the filling out w her sick rainbow drinker/ vampire skills. Delicious. A single tear trails down Rose’s cheek. I have never been more in love w you.
Terezi: that scene with Toph and the scam artists in ATLA? Basically picture that. It’s one of those rubber duck games where they’re all floating in the pool and at the bottom of them is a different color and that’s how big a prize you get, thing is, Terezi can smell what’s on the bottom. She wins Vriska all the prizes and the dude running the booth is sweating and has to write her an IOU that John won’t let Terezi cash in on because that’s cheating and that’s wrong!
Jane: goes around with Jade and Roxy and Callie critiquing the food booths on their baking skills. She absolutely loathes that everything is fried bc it’s a cheap tactic to make weak bakers stronger! She tries a funnel cake and immediately changes her mind. CrockerCorp releases its own line of fried food that fall. Roxy calls her a sellout but eats it all anyways bc it’s just That Good.
Jake: finds one of those carnival shooter games and one of the big stuffed animal prizes is a gigantic rainbow dash my little pony and,,,he sees Dirk eyeing it. He doesn’t say anything, but Jake Knows. He tells Dirk he has to run off to the “little lads” room for a second, but he goes back to the shooting game, crushes the fuck out of those targets with the wimpy water gun, and presents Dirk with this oversized goddamn pony. It is touching and romantic for everyone involved.
Dirk: tries to show off to Jake by doing that strength test where u slam the hammer down and try to ring the bell at the top, he makes it about half the way up and he’s like fuck yeah that’s pretty fuckin’ good. Jake goes wow golly that’s impressive! Mind if I give it the old college try? Dirk is like pffft go for it, still flexin his muscles trynna show off and shit. Jake casually slams it down and rings the goddamn bell so hard it almost flies off the top. Dirk just stands there with his eyes v wide behind his shades while Jake is like gosh! Must have been buggered, huh?
Roxy: goes on every single ride she is living for today y’all, Callie is too short for most of the rides but Roxy promises to dab at the top of every coaster so Callie can spot her from where she’s watching down below. They share an ice cream sundae and Roxy gives Callie the cherry on top bc it’s “a cherry for a cherub!”
Sollux: idk about amusement parks near y’all but I live right by cedar point and there’s a coaster called Gemini so uhhh he and Aradia just do that. All day. Sollux rides this rollercoaster 53 times, turns to Aradia, says “what if bees had yaoi hands would that be fucked up or what” then passes out for a week.
Bonus video for the month! This isn’t any sort Homestuck or Hiveswap lore post, just a rough overview of the current state of Homestuck, Hiveswap, What Pumpkin, and their relationship with VIZ media.
If you’re feeling down about things as they stand, I hope my contribution makes you feel a bit better about things. And maybe even makes you consider checking out Hiveswap and the Hiveswap: Friendsims! They’re both fascinating and add a lot to the Homestuck universe, in my opinion-Alternia has never been more interesting than the last couple of weeks!
All things considered, I am quite excited to see where things go from here. Hope you’ll join us!
I’m gonna queue this one to keep going up every so often, because I think it’s particularly important to the current fandom sentiment and I want to see as many people be better informed as I can.
Feel free to blacklist #video-boost if you’d like to dodge it.
There’s also this really good video by Pedantic Romantic on I think Huggto Precure? That might help you decide if its interesting to you. Obvs spoiler warnings but i’d personally say its worth it:
usagi literally watches all her friends die over and over again in
sailor moon so the whole ‘magical girls BUT DARK’ thing is so dumb
also I’ve heard pretear is a good magical girl show for people who don’t like sailor moon, and in addition, there’s of course always princess tutu
EXACTLY its so frustrating. Also yeah I never watched much Pretear but what I have seen looks pretty good, so add it to the list of reccomendations I’m putting below which already included, for….
that’s super interesting bc I loved Madoka! You mention that there’s better magical girl genres that are better written and I actually watched Utena bc of you and actually really enjoyed it so I have a lot of faith in your recommendations :‘0 so other than Sailor Moon (which I couldn’t really get into, unfortunately) can you tell me those other magical girl shows like Madoka?
I love Madoka Magica too, don’t get me wrong-I still cry every time I listen to Sagitta Luminis, it’s a very well-crafted show in a lot of respects. And to be fair Sailor Moon is a really long show with some real peaks and valleys-I’d probably recommend season 3 of that above everything else, since it’s where the series is strongest.
Off the top of my head some recommendations are:
1. PRINCESS TUTU –
Super dark, super weird, deals with a lot of the same themes as Utena and Homestuck, there’s a duck named duck. what’s not to love?
2. Mawaru Penguindrum – Only barely a magical girl show, but it’s by Kunihiko Ikuhara, the director of Utena, so I’m blood-bound to talk about it until I die. its exactly as fucked up and surreal as the Utena link implies. Substantially moreso on both counts, actually.
Lots of abuse and incest themes just like with Utena, but just as with Utena I feel its treated pretty appropriately. It features enough lgbt stuff that i’m pretty happy with it on that front, too. It’s even more dense and hard to understand than Utena in some ways, so I’m planning to rewatch this one myself and probably do some videos on it eventually.
Unfortunately its also a lot more overtly fanservicey/sexual than other stuff I’d recommend–Ikuhara seems to have gotten unfortunately trashier with time. I still think its good, the recommendation just comes with even heavier caveats than Utena.
3. Magical Lyrical Girl Nanoha – More episodic and combat oriented so its a pretty simple story, but it deals with a lot of abuse themes and following the series means watching the two main girls literally fall in love and adopt a child together. It’s maybe tongue in cheek, but they literally live together and sleep in the same bed. its canon.
Rating: Moms
I could think of more for sure–the Precure series (wanna chime in on standout seasons, @nelfes ?), Magic Knight Rayearth, Cardcaptor Sakura, theres all sorts of different weird stuff in the genre so it kinda depends on what you’re looking for. These are just a couple shows that hold a special place in my heart for one reason or another.
i always get rly sad because the original ending of rebellion was
supposed to be homura and madoka going to magical girl heaven together,
but some people behind the movie were like nah. the creator was pretty
upset about the change and same. it’s still there in the manga
adaptation.
Oh. That actually makes me feel even more justified in erasing that ending from canon in my head, and makes me feel better about Gen Urobuchi for whenever I throw myself into the Fate/Stay Night franchise, not to mention making me more positive on the actual artistic vision behind Madoka overall.
Thanks a lot for the tip! Do you have a source, by any chance?
A great precure guide for those new to the series imo is this one by @ladyloveandjustice so I advise anyone interested to look there first! I’ll cover some of the more recent seasons not mentioned but first let’s begin with my fave:
Suite Precure is the eighth Pretty Cure season and the fourth stand alone season (all seasons following it continue to be stand alones). It went back to the two cures formula (thus the original seasons “futari wa” subtitle), but added in the magical girl warrior team popularized by Yes! Precure 5 and Fresh which honestly
The only other season to follow this two cure formula going forward is my other faveMahoutsukai Precure but unlike Suite! Maho is a fairly quirky and unique season so I wouldn’t start with it. It IS, however, very gay and heartfelt and healing.
The only Pretty Cure season with a canon love confession (between the two seventeen year old Cool High Schoolers ™ above ) is Kirakira Precure a la Modea suitable mouthful for the name of a season that had a lot of ideas that didn’t quite pan out. So while it’s a lot of fun and Macaron and Chocolat are great chars as well as the rest of the cast we sadly do not see their future together. We are assured they have one, however, so the rest is up to the imagination :’D (the mangaka certainly ships them).
Ultimately, Precure is about all kinds of loving, reaffirming bonds so with that said I would definitely recommend the current ongoing season – Hugtto! Precure
The point of the Friendsim is obviously to let us get to know some of the troll call trolls before we met them in the context of Joey and Xefros’ adventure. It’s set at around the same time in their lives as Act 1, which means they’re going to be dealing with similar struggles, have the same basic personalities, and so on.
It’s loosely canon because it’s playing fast and loose with reality RE: the MSPA Reader, but we’re not even sure the MSPA Reader’s existence will be completely retconned in Hiveswap, or if it’ll just take on a more structured form! Who knows?
Either way, the stars of the show are obviously the trolls, and THEIR depictions are roughly accurate to how they’ll be in Hiveswap. Hence the point of the Friendsims.
I think it could go either way, which is partly why I can’t tell what JOEY’s true classpect is, and thus why I haven’t felt confident making a Joey video yet. I am going to have to say fuck it and bite the bullet soon because Joey deserves better from me, honestly.
If A. Claire is a Jane well into her prime and roleplaying a Light player rather than Life, that could maybe explain her early death from a classpect perspective, and it would suggest Joey might be roleplaying LIGHT as a result of A. Claire’s influence, when she’s actually naturally a Life player like her mom.
This would be delightfully ironic, and if true I’d wager Joey is actually an Heir of Life by nature, since it would account for how she feels she can’t be assertive all the time.
It would also make sense if her rise to stardom along with Xefros is orchestrated by Doc Scratch, who’s always been fond of manipulating Light players, and her arc eventually involves moving a bit further away from her desire for stardom/the spotlight and towards simply enjoying spending time with her friends and pets.
This makes a degree of sense, especially since her Life imagery is displayed pretty much entirely through the variety of pets she’s accruing–Byers, Slothdad, Deercat–and pets are so far a more consistent source of joy to her than her dreams of stardom. But then, part of Joey’s light imagery also has to do with imagination and stuff like video games, so its not all bad or anything!
Still, if she were an Heir of Life, she’d be a mix of John and Jane’s title, which would be quite fitting, I think. Hence why I just don’t know right now! I think it may be a mystery we’re meant to riddle out as the Acts continue, but maybe Act 2 will contrive to give her a True Sign and thus give us the answer.
You’re not wrong, but I think part of what Homestuck’s arguing is that what we think of as “true evil” IS just lack of maturity, and Bro’s stoic machismo is simply one of the different explorations of this stunted lack of emotional growth and self-awareness.
Caliborn isn’t just arbitrarily an infinite evil asshole–he’s literally biologically incapable of growth. AR is the same way–frozen in time developmentally by his nature as AI. Both reflect an absolute domination that echoes Yaldabaoth, and both turn out to be mayor components of LE.
The difference between them is that AR becomes LE through heroic sacrifice, having transcended his innate limitations through connections to others by becoming one with Equius and wanting to serve his friends.
Caliborn stunts himself willingly, by making the selfish and childish choice to murder his sister and force his predomination early. This is what allows him to play Sburb alone.
But it also secures his downfall, because by killing Calliope rather than devouring her soul through predomination, he puts Calliope’s soul out in the furthest ring, thus ensuring he’d be out looking for her as LE and causing the events that end his rule in Homestuck.
(This is why there’s no Caliborn ghost corresponding to Alt!Calliope’s timeline–she predominated naturally, and devoured Caliborn’s soul/consumed his strength. This is also why we don’t just see AR/Equius/Gamzee’s souls out in the void after they become part of LE–Caliborn didn’t just kill them to take over, he predominated and made their souls part of him.)
Both are tragic heroes, in the true Greek tragedy sense. AR’s story is one of heroic but flawed transcendence out of inherently unjust circumstances that made him innately imperfect–a result of Dirk’s own childhood hubris and demiurgic act of creation. Caliborn’s hubris is his own, and it’s what allows him to both create and destroy himself and the entire reality of Homestuck.
here is an entire video just for u, since your ask is what prompted me to take this off the backburner finally
Personally, I assumed Act 2 would be delayed as soon as WP announced the friendsims. It seemed implied to me by the lines:
First, the most important thing to address is, Hiveswap’s development
absolutely will continue. The approach to its development will evolve as
this transition goes forward, but ensuring the release of the full
Hiveswap series remains our priority. We should have more specific
information about what exactly this means for Hiveswap in coming weeks.
Obviously its been longer than weeks, but that’s nothing new with Hussie. This is also pretty much why I’m not bothered they haven’t said more about it–the current situation has already pretty much been outlined for us.
It doesn’t really matter, in my opinion. WP is still committed to releasing the full series, and WP already went through worse just getting Act 1 to us. I don’t know when Act 2 will come out, but I believe it will, eventually.
More people buying and enjoying the Friendsims would make that happen faster though, I’m sure. Which they should anyway because they are excellent and for the first time ever we basically have full-blown upd8s on an actual schedule. I really don’t understand why everyone isn’t ecstatic over that.
Bonus video for the month! This isn’t any sort Homestuck or Hiveswap lore post, just a rough overview of the current state of Homestuck, Hiveswap, What Pumpkin, and their relationship with VIZ media.
If you’re feeling down about things as they stand, I hope my contribution makes you feel a bit better about things. And maybe even makes you consider checking out Hiveswap and the Hiveswap: Friendsims! They’re both fascinating and add a lot to the Homestuck universe, in my opinion-Alternia has never been more interesting than the last couple of weeks!
All things considered, I am quite excited to see where things go from here. Hope you’ll join us!
Flying through Storytelling 