Tag: Homestuck

Normally I’d laugh along but no. I really can’t. Imagine Rose Quartz shattering someone’s legs and then demanding that they apologize to her for no longer being able to walk. Vriska is a sociopathic bully. Rose Quartz, while probably very SELFISH, consciously made a choice to never kill anyone, to celebrate life, and to defend the rights of the downtrodden rather than add to their suffering..

Did you like, not watch the new episode yet? Spoiler talk below

Rose Quartz is also pink diamond, which means she’s the same as the callous girl Stevonnie dreamed about wanting a colony for her own like it was a plaything.

Rose Quartz still initially treated Greg kinda like something to keep in a zoo even after millenia of loving humans, and it never occured to her to remove the VICIOUS command she gave pearl across millennia even AFTER the war was over and she had ample opportunity to face the truth and talk things out, which is every BIT as cruel as crippling tavros even if it was more careless than thoughtless.

She left Pearl alone to help raise Steven without doing so on her whim, leaving Pearl to deal not just with the grief but also with the silence of never being able to tell her friends or STEVEN the truth. Forcing her to be alone with Rose’s lie. Forever.

And i’m not really here for reducing Vriska’s complexity like this, either, because you’re throwing (Vriska) down the same hole. Yeah, Vriska was like that initially, but the entire point of (Vriska)’s character is that she has the potential to grow and change, and (Vriska) actually did that and ended up having the personal connection Vriska wants but can’t conciously face.

The point of the Pink Diamond reveal is that Rose Quartz was complicated and messy and deeply hurt people she cares about even if she was trying to do the right thing.

It’s a message of redemption and hope, that even the worst people can put in the effort to grow and change and do good for the world, even in their imperfection. That’s exactly what Vriska’s arc is about, too. I made the joke not because it’s laughable, but because its true. Sorry if you don’t agree, but that’s genuinely how I see it.

after watching your videos i’ve become increasingly interested in gnosticism. i feel strongly drawn to the symbolism, but i don’t know where to start in terms of reading. wikipedia articles can only get you so far. where did you learn about gnosticism/what are some introductory readings you’d suggest?

Let’s be clear here: I barely know anything about Gnosticism. It’s a spiritual tradition that as far as I can tell has been mostly dead for ages, and it’s roots are tangled with Christianity, so the history we’re dealing here is massive, complex, and often contradictory.

I learned about Gnosticism simply by taking note of thoroughly Modern works that play with its symbols and ideas, and not always in a completely sincere way, or at least not an overtly religious/spiritual one. It’s compelling imagery for worldcrafting! Useful for fiction writing.

And Japan in particular seems to like making God the bad guy in some video games–a suitable threat level for a long campaign, I guess–so a lot of my understanding comes from comparing these modern works and seeing how they use the same symbols the same way, or very very very VERY similarly.

Some of those works are:

-Homestuck

-Mother 3, the sequel to Homestuck’s namesake, Earthbound (and to a lesser extent, Earthbound itself)

-Revolutionary Girl Utena

-The Dark Souls series

-Angel’s Egg (anime movie; it good)

-Persona 5, and generally the Persona series through its Jungian themes.

But when I say Homestuck is a Gnostic work, I don’t mean it’s literally to be understood solely through that particular spiritual doctrine. I just mean it draws from Gnosticism in crafting itself, and deliberately plays off Gnostic themes. Homestuck draws just as much from Greek, Egyptian, and potentially even Judaic myth.

And with most of these works, there’s a lot more going on than just those themes. My other big source here is Carl Jung, a psychoanalyst who was quite influential in the field and in pop culture, too.

RGU, Homestuck, and Persona all explicitly work his ideas into their worldbuilding, and though Jung himself was known to be a Gnostic, he had more to offer than just regurgitating Gnostic ideas per se. He’s probably the biggest source of Gnostic inspiration for modern writing, though. You can find a free compilation of some of his Gnostic writing here.

You might also want to check out Herman Hesse’s Demian, a novel I’ve read (its good) explicitly dealing with Gnosticism set just before the beginning of WWI. It’s a well-known influence on Utena in particular, and reading it illuminated some of the prominent symbolism across all of the works I just mentioned, too.

Hope you have fun with this! I’d probably reccomend engaging with any or all of the more modern works and seeing what comparisons you can draw to Homestuck, rather than trying to force yourself to read relatively dry ancient literature without context. This is all for fun!

Hello! I’ll be doing a term paper at Uni on Archetypes for my course on “Theories on Personality”. I had in mind to quote Jung and Carol S. Pearson as per your videos mentionned, however I was wondering if you had any other leads? perhaps a collaboration over time?

I’m not sure what you’re referring to RE: collaboration, but I don’t really have other leads on that particular front! I ended up deciding that trying to claim the Carol S. Pearson connection for homestuck’s classes was overly cumbersome, so I’ve mostly dropped the angle until whenever we get canon Class info by way of a quiz or whatnot.

I still think it’s true, don’t get me wrong. But since it’s true, I don’t need to make the hard to justifyclaim that Rogues all have arcs that deal heavily in their issues dealing with romantic problems because they’re in some way based on Pearson’s Archetype of the Lover, because instead I can be like:

Yo. Check it out. Between Nepeta’s unrequited love for Karkat, Rufioh’s inability to assert himself with Horruss, and Roxy’s unrequited love for/sexual harrassment of Dirk and general longing for a romantic partner,  every single Rogue has an arc that deals heavily with romantic problems.

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And so does every Rogue roleplayer, like with Tavros trying to steal back the ring of life to propose to Vriska and saying this (^) in the same conversation.

Seems almost like being overzealously devoted and/or subservient to others in a romantic context might be something Rogues struggle with, and the Summoner’s/Rufioh’s influence on Tavros might have rubbed that particular trait onto Tavros for a while.

And it’s just generally less of a pain in the ass for everybody to think about this way, you know? More efficient. That said, that’s Pearson’s more hyperspecific contribution. If you want to talk about Homestuck, Jung will keep you busy for days.

The collective unconcious, Classes as archetypes, synchronicity, maybe even Active|Passive by way of Jung’s introversion/extroversion theory, though I’m not sure how much I buy that one. There’s plenty to look into and work off there.

In your Gamzee part 1 video you mention that Lord English is a physical entity on Alternia that the Highbloods worship. But I thought LE didn’t actually manifest there, and only worked through his agents (Scratch/Handmaid/etc). Was LE actually there, or did I misunderstand what you meant there?

Nope, he’s literally already there. Here’s the breakdown of LE’s influences per universe, NOT counting cross-universe influence situations like Gamzee making the Jack Noir/Lil Cal dolls in John and Dave’s heads, because seriously we could be here all week.

Pre-Sburb :

Beta Earth | Setting of Hiveswap [B1]:
No Lord English. Lil Cal and the Batterwitch are both present. The Batterwitch MAY have started a small Mirthful Messiah cult, which might be operating in Joey’s hometown.

Alpha Earth [B2]:
No Lord English. Society is run into the ground and reduced to a nightmare waterworld dystopia by the Batterwitch, acting as a Witch on LE’s behalf. She employs a massive Mirthful Messiah cult that takes over the U.S. Government in this endeavor*.

Caliborn is present, but ignorant of his future as LE. AR acts for himself, not LE, but echoes many of Scratch’s traits and so evokes a weaker version of the controlling horror of LE. This is intentional, as AR’s cyber-omniscience is part of what makes LE/Scratch’s control so terrifyingly efficient.

*(Sorry 2 Guy Fieri and Juggalos, who get it rough from Homestuck, to put it mildly. Please remember that Homestuck is a work of fiction just poking fun at some random people, ok? Thanks. Also, to be fair, mind control is kind of a thing with the Batterwitch, so she might just be mindcontrolling them all during that whole thing.)

Beforus [A1]:
No Lord English. Presumably no Lil Cal? Kurloz Makara acts for Lord English. Meulin Leijon is mind controlled or manipulated by Kurloz into acting for Lord English.

It’s noted that while Beforus was matriarchal, most of its actual power of governance was held by Purplebloods and Violetbloods–male dominated castes that collectively embody different versions of LE’s patriarchal dominance.

The Purplebloodsin particular are probably Mirthful Messiah cultists, if Kurloz is anything to go by, but we don’t know for sure.

Alternia [A2]:

Doc Scratch acts for LE, manipulating trolls into being as cruel and vicious to each other as possible. At the end of the universe, Doc Scratch dies and his corpse hatches, giving birth to LE. LE can time travel, so having arrived at the end of the universe, he can now access any point in its timeline to consume or destroy whatever he chooses.

This was Scratch’s objective from the beginning, and had always already happened. LE takes custody of Damara, who becomes the Handmaid–
LE’s loyal Time Witch, acting as a feared Demoness who stokes hostility and chaos wherever she appears.

With the exception of directing Damara, Scratch and LE rarely seem to directly involve themselves in the affairs of Trollkind.  The three main groups of trolls they delegate governance to are:

The Empress, who he manipulates while keeping his and LE’s existence hidden.

The Violetbloods, who seem to be manipulated similarly.

The Purple Bloods, who worship Lord English and prophecize about the coming of his Vast Honk. Their intense commitment to this truth motivates their brutal subjugation of lowbloods.

This is not a simple belief, but a fact they are right to see coming. LE releases the Vast Honk as soon as he enters the universe, thus proving them right all along. Hence, the Vast Honk can be understood as “inviting destruction through Rage|Truth.”–the verbiage associated with Gamzee’s title, Bard of Rage. 

This more direct presence/involvement is the direct reason why Alternia is so much worse than the other universes, and a big part of why the Beta Trolls are so much crueler to each other than the Kids are.

https://www.patreon.com/optimisticDuelist
[The script for this 3-Part Video Series is available to Patrons now.]

I didn’t plan for this, you gotta believe me. The Homestuck thoughts converged on me late in the night, beat me up and MADE me make you start watching what’s now at least a trilogy of videos on Gamzee Makara–often described as the worst character in Homestuck. I’m sorry.

…But is he? A combination of new insights from the fandom and lore details revealed through Hiveswap have left me wondering if, perhaps, this lousy purple clown may have hidden depths after all. I found the questions so exciting, I literally couldn’t resist the impulse to drop everything else I’m working on to share them with you. You’re welcome.

I wanna do something a little different, so I’m going to include a question of the day for each video from now on. Answer it, and you might have higher odds of eventually being featured in a comments response, whenever and however I bring those out for you guys.

This week’s question is simple:
What do you think the relationship between Lil Cal and Gamzee is like?

If you’d like some other perspectives on Gamzee to work off, here’s some of the works that inspired this one:

Tex Talks’ case for Gamzee, Rage, and Plot Contrivance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H7m2…

Oscar @problematwink‘s (200 Page!) Essay on Gamzee’s character arc: https://problematwink.tumblr.com/post…

My prior biggest post on Gamzee (now somewhat outdated): https://revolutionaryduelist.tumblr.c…

I don’t necessarily agree with the exact points raised in any work I link (including my own), but you might find such work useful in responding.

Hope they help! Feel free to respond here, on Patreon, or at:
https://twitter.com/RoseOfNobility
https://revolutionaryduelist.tumblr.com/

Find the music on Bandcamp!:
“Soft Happy Pal”, https://spellmynamewithabang.bandcamp…

“Purple Tyrant”, https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/…

“Midnight Calliope”, https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/…

“Blackest Heart (With Honks)”, https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/…

“Scratch”, https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/…    

Why does each kid have their respective species of consorts? Curious, because it is notable that they are different from each other.

all i’ve ever really thought about them is that they’re different species of cute, colorful amphibians that seem like the kind of thing a kid would like. i don’t really think theres some deep symbolism behind them or anything as of right now–they’re just fun npcs in some vague need of rescuing.

I have a question about the aspects, do the symbols associated with them change depending on perspective or did I misunderstand that?

i’m not super sure what you mean by this question. aspects in canon tend to be linked to roughly the same symbols across the adventure, though they’re basically all linked to more than one symbol.

There’s also symbols/entities that link to more than one aspect, like the Green Sun (Light/Space), the Horrorterrors (Life/Void), or Lord English (Time/Void/Rage/Heart).