jakemorph:

revolutionaryduelist:

yes. the answer’s yes. Hiveswap has in fact already done this in the trailers. 

I am talking, of course, about the sexy horse statue outside Grandpa’s manor.
Some people immediately pointed to this as a random meta nod to Equius, which is really disappointing to me because there’s actually fleshed out canon lore behind it, which is so much more hilarious. 

“Jade’s parental unit, as the Pattern Breaking parental unit, has a much larger variety of strange, off putting interests.  Dad has FANCIFUL HARLEQUINS, Mom has EXSQUISITE WIZARDS, and Bro has RADICAL PUPPETS.  Grandpa has not one, but FOUR such interests, of the same descriptive two word format.  They’re all just as dumb though.  One reason among several for this was to create an element of uncertainty over what kind of item Jade would prototype with .  And by uncertainty, I mean misdirection, which is what I always mean by uncertainty.

Notice the colors of the lights in each room.  Orange, pink, and cyan, corresponding with Dirk, Roxy, and Jane.  The items have a loose correlation with the other three guardians too.  Knights in that Dirk is a skilled swordsman.  Roxy’s land is full of pyramids, Jane was grandpa’s long estranged blue lady.  You see how the gears are always turning.  Not only does everything mean something.  It turns out everything means EVERYTHING.  Now you know.”

–Andrew Hussie, Homestuck Book 3 Commentary

Hussie has confirmed that Grandpa’s INTERESTS reflect the Alphas. 

Which means that if you use occam’s razor Grandpa’s interest in HORSES–

most reasonably has to do not with some random callout to a troll Jake never met and doesn’t care about, but with his memories of Dirk. 

who is. you know.  all about horses and muscley horse dudes. So yeah, Grandpa–and by association Jake–have been deliberately fleshed out further by the narrative, with the wrinkle that, given time, Grandpa took on Dirk’s interest in horses. 

And he’s not even the version of Jake that dated Dirk, so…yeah. Whatever you think of their relationship, it’s a pretty powerful and funny look at their friendship.

Anyway Hiveswap is good. I’m excited.

I don’t feel like that’s what Occam’s Razor would cut it down to in this case, though. By putting the muscley horse statue by itself, it’s being removed of some context – it’s also in the same yard as this;

– and on the same property as a mansion that’s full of antler and antlered animal motifs. Sure, by itself, the muscley horse couldn’t just be a reference to an Alternian animal; but when obvious references to other Alternian creatures (Xefros and Dammek’s lusii, specifically in this case) crop up in the vicinity, it becomes a lot less unlikely.

Considering that the premise of the game is that Grandpa Harley had a portal to another world in his attic at one point, and taking into account Grandpa’s known penchant for taking trophies to Earth from other worlds (there’s a lich skull in the trailer too, so signs of his extradimensional travels are all there;)

– I think it becomes considerably more likely that, at least in terms of the muscle horse statue, Grandpa did take the motif from an established icon of Alternian Highblood culture.

(of course, I do agree that to say the statue refers to Equius specifically is being a bit short-sighted)

Huh, thanks! I hadn’t seen the argument for the Alternian influence before, and now I’m inclined to buy it.

That said, I think we’re looking at a case where both options are true. Your own response removed a bit of context from my post, too. 

I emphasized that Grandpa’s interest included not just Musclebeasts, but horses in general–of which there are several in his manor. Some dolls that could be Joey’s, yeah, but also really expensive paintings and dignified looking statuettes and stuff that are way more in the price range of an adult man. 

Like, the crucial thing here is that whether Grandpa remembers Dirk to some extent isn’t in question. It’s confirmed enough to influence his interests, so there’s no real reason to discredit Dirk’s influence here where they overlap so strongly.

horses in general are way more a specifically Dirk thing than a broad Alternian interest. It’s arguably a thing for Equius but I only really remember him mentioning musclebeasts. 

Dirk’s interest in horses is pretty sincere and not necessarily fetishistic by comparison, which is more like what we’re seeing with grandpa. this kind of just means that the alternia stuff is as well-considered as the Alphas stuff which just makes me more excited, personally? thanks :B