calibornswake:

Openbound is a Descent To The Underworld in the mythological sense, not for its characters (who have degrees of familiarity with or belonging in there) —but for an underappreciated little character named MSPA Reader. Openbound is your descent to the underworld, and it is Homestuck’s most interactive iteration of one central question.

Behold, new content from Caliborns Wake. I wrote this for you. Yes, for you. The one who is reading this right now.

“Was that the plan, DJay? To give me a reason to look at A6I3 again?”

Yeah. And you… got one.

I love this!!! Here’s some extra thoughts I’ll float out in response

There’s some  world details that I think prop up this reading of the bubbles pretty nicely, which I just want to repeat here for people who might not be familiar with them.

First, there’s the fact that the dreambubbles are styled after both  the Egyptian afterlife, which I first learned from you yourself so thanks ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mythology#Shape_of_the_world )…

and the Dark Carnival afterlife of the ICP, both of which feature Judge figures who obliterate/consume the souls of the unworthy- Ammit in Egyptian myth, and at least Bang! Pow! Boom! in the Juggalo cosmology. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang!_Pow!_Boom!#Music_and_lyrics )

Second, there’s the fact that the horrorterrors are explicitly feeding off the negative energy the trolls generate in the furthest ring through this eternal, performative social media dance. Meaning they have a vested interest in reducing these kids to hollowed out, cartoonish versions of themselves that can be predictably farmed for energy.

In general the gods are framed like social media website administrators, casting the whole thing as a grim parody of algorthims and corporations fostering negativity and hostility for the sake of “engagement”. Reminds me a lot of hussie’s recent interview where he outright suggests the possibility that we vitriol we see online is some kind of hellish illusion.

It all kinda reminds me of how Hussie frames the distinction between engaging with people offline vs. online:

“All in-person interactions with fans are overwhelmingly positive. Easily
over 99% of everyone I meet with in person seems great, and have
nothing but good things to say. It doesn’t seem sufficient to just say
they’re nice people. They all genuinely seem to be overflowing with
emotion and enthusiasm for this thing I did. It’s very odd how all the
argumentative chaos, invective and incrimination of the internet seems
to completely vanish when you directly confront great numbers of people
in their physical forms.

The two realms are so different, it’s hard to
reconcile, but it does lend a sense of optimism that the complete hell
we perceive on the internet every day is just some sort of horrific
illusion conspiring to agitate and demoralize us, without much truth or
substance behind it.

“

So it seems to me he does fundamentally think of social media a way compatible with that which the framing of the dream bubbles as a social media hell here suggests.

Finally:  Gamzee’s manipulation of Terezi during Horrorstuck and Rage’s theatrical motifs, combined with Kurloz’s exploitation of Meulin, vaguely suggests that part of what he might’ve been doing in the bubbles all this time is excacerbating these negative character traits and flat, extravagantly theatrical outlets for the alphas personalities, essentially helping to erode their identities even more than the bubbles naturally do.

So Kurloz may be very directly implicated in this degradation of character.

The Ridiculous Adventures of MSPA Reader in Hussnasty Hell