I can’t focus on anything enough to write about Homestuck today, so I’m gonna talk about something that matters a lot more instead. I know this isn’t like, part of My Brand, but Puerto Rico is part of who I am and why I’m here. And since I couldn’t be part of the day of action officially, this is what I’m doing instead. So here’s what it comes down to:
I can’t stop thinking about the Homestucks in Puerto Rico.
And yes, it’s myopic to focus on a people suffering who happen to be part of a fandom. Everyone is human and nobody deserves this kind of suffering. Puerto Ricans deserve help because they’re people, full stop.
But people weren’t designed for numbers to track this scale of suffering, and even having spent part of my life there, the devastation my little island is going through has been more than I can relate to, or even imagine.
So it’s this particular memory that sticks out for me, and those particular people that stand in for the unfathomable many who are suffering right now. I’m going to tell you guys a story, and try to put the place I remember into the context of the Island’s current struggle, and the sorely lacking support of the American government.
Then I’m going to talk about what we can do to help.
I can guarantee that at least one of those things is something you can do. Even if you can’t do anything but blog about fandom and talk to friends online–and trust me, I get it if that’s where you are. There’s still something important I want you to consider trying.
If you have the spoons and mental wherewithal, and you care at all about what I do here, or about Homestuck, or about the friends you’ve made and the people you’ve met through fandom, or about any story that has ever moved you to reach out and make a friend,
Then I hope you can find the time to read and signal boost this. No pressure. I know it’s hard and we’re all tired. Still, It would mean a lot to me.
Upd8 culture isn’t something that all the fans here have been exposed to. Fans have gotten flashes of it like on 10/25 last year or, of course, with Hiveswap’s release. But back during the days of Homestuck’s height in popularity, we were all wired, all the time.
An Upd8 could happen any second, and anything and everything could change with any upd8. This was the height of update culture, and it was like being on a neverending rollercoaster. It was a sense of communal excitement and thrill that made me feel connected to everyone sharing the ride.
I went to a con with friends only once in PR, but while there, we hung nearby a Homestuck meetup. I didn’t really engage with them, but I did have MSPA Notifier on my phone, and it just so happened an update hit.
I remember grinning and telling my (Non-Homestuck) friends to watch. That was the first and only time I got to yell the word “UPD8” to someone else in person. The result was spectacular.
The explosion of yelling and the flurry of activity was too overwhelming to follow. Suddenly, teens were yelling and scrambling to get near the closest screen. The one who sticks out in my head is a God Tier John–pretty sure the outfit was homemade–pressing his tablet up against a wall.
For a good ten minutes, we watched as what was a pretty chill meetup beforehand talked and traded screens with fervent excitement. My friends, exposed to nothing but my self-indulgent blather about the comic up until then, looked at me in bewilderment and asked: “What did you do?”
But of course, I didn’t do anything. I was just a lucky messenger. What moved me, what moved us all with the same joy and excitement, was a shared moment of love for a story. A common passion.
I didn’t make friends with any of them that day, and I wish I had now. Really, I just wish I knew if they were alright. Any of them.
I wonder if they enjoyed Hiveswap in the few days between the release and Maria, or if they got the chance to play it at all before the electricity grid collapsed. I wonder how many got off the island. How many have stayed behind.
How many are LGBT, now cut off from access to what was my only lifeline on the largely conservative island? I think about the reports of sky-high rates of depression and PTSD pouring in whenever I can bring myself to listen.
I hope all of those kids are still alive and well.
I should mention: All of these tweets and news reports are verifiably true. I can confirm them myself, because I hear the same thing whenever I manage to get in contact with anyone on the island.
My family hears supplies are coming, but never seem to see them arrive. The woman who drove me to school contacted me today, saying the same thing. Wherever there’s contact on the ground, there are reports of inadequate support and desperate need. Food in grocery stores is near running out.
Everyone I know who is able making plans to leave. Everyone I know cries and hurts most for those who cannot make these plans. Those who are stuck. Those who will be left behind to survive the nightmare.
What can we do for them?
Of course, donating to verified and trustworthy charities is an option. For those of us who are able:
I will continue to post about this when I am able and have useful information to spread, but it may also help to follow blogs such as @tumblricans if you’re able.
But even if you can’t do any of this: Believe me, I understand. I know how hard and unbearable it all is.
Even if you can’t do anything but talk to people online, try to keep your mind off it, try to focus on fandom and friends and whatever gets you through these days,
There’s still something you can do.
Choose to be kinder. Here, in this space that you share with so many progressives, coming from so many walks of life, that have all been hurt by this world through so many cruel and unusual punishments. Even if nowhere else.
Choose to be kinder here, in this nebulous place where many of us come to forget our sorrows and share our joys and pains with others.
Try to remember that everyone has a story. That everyone has something they’re dealing with, and you have no way to know what it is. Try to choose kindness and compassion over instinctual judgment and ideological superiority.
Extend this kindness to creators as well as your fellow fans and users, because the people who make art for us are people who are struggling and trying hard just like me and you.
Extend this kindness to yourself and your friends in your moments of weakness, just…remember to extend it to your perceived “enemies” on this website, too. In the grand scheme of things, they simply don’t exist.
Fandom spaces on Tumblr and Ao3 are predominantly made up of lgbt women, and lean highly towards progressive sentiments besides. Wherever we turn to this hyper-critical behavior, we are making threats out of allies. It’s not necessary, and worse, it drives us apart.
Remember that ultimately, we are all in this together. The world is a scary place right now. There are people out there in the world who deeply and truly want to hurt us. You can even find them online, if you really want to.
But like…fellow fans invested in the progressive agenda? Creators making progressive art? They are not your enemies, and for the progressive agenda and anyone identified as basically any kind of minority, the shit is hitting and will increasingly continue to hit the whirling device.
We all need support now more than ever, and it is really only going to come if we begin to choose to support each other.
And that’s important work to do. Because the kinder we are, the closer we are, the better we can connect. The better we can organize. And the more good we can do for places like Puerto Rico or people like Rune.
Sometimes, making the world a better place is just a matter of being nice to each other. That alone could well have the power to change everything.
Thank you for reading all this. I love you. Keep rising.
davesprite and davepeta are characters of particular interest to me because they explore a hs theme that i find pretty cool
ive seen a lot of people insist one or the other – that davepeta is their own character and not dave and nepeta at all, and that you cant gather any info about either of them from davepeta. then ive seen people say the opposite, that theyre basically just nepeta and dave taking turns at piloting a 3d holographic card in person form. then ive seen both factions insist the other one is completely wrong.
honestly i think it comes straight down the middle. i think davesprites arc is an exploration of the dichotomy between mind and heart. davesprite is a divergence from dave – we see very clearly how he reacts differently to things than dave (getting pissed off at john for being ungrateful while alpha dave tells john its nothing and not to worry about it right after), davesprite saying hes just a janky dave knockoff and not worthy of having friends or relationships of his own, and john very notably telling davesprite to fuck off and that he couldnt wait to meet up with the real dave when he got angry at him during his birthday. davesprite underwent different experiences, different choices, and is different from dave in a measurable amount as a result. this is where you get people insisting that davesprite is his own character completely separate from dave. and while i agree in the same way that bro is not the same as dirk, grandpa harley is not the same as jake, kankri is not the same as the signless, etc, it doesnt mean that davesprite doesnt illuminate certain things about daves character and personality and how he would react to similar situations or his general thought process. (you see this get sort of lampshaded in this conversation, where davesprite says that he just noticed he likes to talk to himself, wonders if alpha dave also made that observation and concludes that nah, he had to be a bird for 3 years to come to it. meanwhile….alpha dave at about the exact same time has this monologue where hes come the same realization, sans birdness factor) its the balance of nature vs nurture, and while davesprite comes swinging in heavily on the mind/nurture side of things (with some indications that its not a complete divergence) and this contributes to his lower self esteem and identity crisis, once he merges with nepeta (a heart player) a more balanced view of this is achieved. davesprite, through davepeta, gains an understanding that hes still technically connected to the greater platonic entity of dave just as much as the current alpha version of dave is and is just as important to the grander scheme of things, which was the main source of his inner turmoil.
this is where you get a lot of complaints saying that the ultimate self resolution to davesprites character went completely against his previous conflict, and while i understand people who say this…. this isnt really taking into account the other things davepeta said about their existence. they still declared themselves a new person, with new pronouns, consciously decided not to act on nepetas former feelings for karkat, and decided to just live their new life as a new person, instead acting on former feelings for jade. (presumably because shes not in a relationship like karkat already is, and the former relationship was requited and just…more thematically tied with jade) while talking about how everyone is connected to a greater self, at the same time they still went ahead and distinguished themselves as a new entity separate from that. you could say it should have been executed better, but its still a balancing act between the two aspects.
anyway this was way longer than it should have been but in conclusion davepeta rules
She could be significantly younger–tbh I’m not even clear on A. Claire’s timeline at all–or it could be Hiveswap being a fantasy story and not caring about stuff like menopause, or it could be hiveswap being a fantasy story and having perfectly functional forms of procreation that work regardless of age, like ectobiology.
I’m not sure why anyone is assuming these kids were born without ectobiology, honestly? Like…Pa is the dude who runs skaianet…ectobiology is kind of a big deal w/ this crowd. It’s not an area i’ve found myself wanting to speculate on much, but ectobiology is definitely the likeliest explanation for how they were born, just, statistically
useful context, thanks! pretty much however things shake out with A.Claire and Jake as far as Joey and Jude’s birth goes, i don’t think i’ll be bothered by the execution.
I’m more than a little upset I’m going to have to work these into my Force and Flow essays soon, but I figured I’d write these posts on the Unifying Myths for the Steal and Destroy classes because they’ll help me get my thoughts in order for the Classpect video I’m writing the script for.
(PS: That’ll exist soon! Ideally an easy way to introduce all sorts of newbies to the Classpect system. I’m excited!!)
So let’s talk about the unifying myth for Princes and Bards: That of Royalty. Related terms include aristocracy, nobility, and high blood by association.
I…don’t know why it took me so long to notice this? I guess I got tripped up by the royalty focus on the Fuschias, but I mean, class roleplay is an established thing and the Ancestors, as complex and multifaceted people living in the real world, muddy the water with the multiplicity of symbols they portray all the time.
Also, both Meenah and Feferi explicitly reject their royalty status and abdicate the crown. So. I really don’t know what was stopping me here. Anyhow, let’s get into it.
I think this mostly speaks for itself, honestly? Equius attributes Dave’s habit of destroying things to the training Bro–a Prince–gives him. He suggests it makes him nobler than others, and Dave himself likens himself to a King while carrying out the behavior.
This contextualizes Dave’s habit of destruction during Act 5 as him roleplaying as a Prince, in imitation of Bro. Fittingly given his confused state with regards to his abusive parentage, Dave doesn’t realize that’s what he’s doing or why, but his habit of breaking random stuff is one he mostly drops as he grows out of wanting to imitate Bro on any level (with one notable exception).
If the Royalty classes have a coherent theme, it’s a focus on historical legacy, lines of descent, and inherited destiny. Where other classes draw their interests from fiction, abstract concepts, or their own creative interests, the Royals typically find their biggest interests in the past–that of themselves and of their people. So Dirk and AR both view themselves as scions of Dave’s legacy.
The Makaras are beholden to their Subjugglator bloodline, and the allegiance to Lord English it represents. They don’t seem to believe in the cause of the Mirthful Messiahs so much as simply know the inevitable reality of their success well in advance. And why wouldn’t they, with evidence all around them like Doc Scratch, Lil Cal, and Lord English already wandering the Void?
And while we’re talking about Gamzee, I may as well cover Bard’s link to Royalty. I should note that this is part of a recurring trend with the Classes–one will generally relate to the unifying myth very directly, while the second will come with a host of references and plot beats linking it to the myth indirectly.
So a Witch is a magician by name, while an Heir is revealed as one through the myriad references John gets to wizardry. A Sylph is a kind of fairy by name, but it’s Maids who get described as being “Made of” their Aspect, and so their brand of magic. So on.
In this same respect, while Princes are Royalty manifest by their very name, Bards–though Gamzee–are lifted into the noble circle by implication and continuous reference.
Gamzee’s allegiance to LE results in the cultural dominance of Subjugglators, both on Alternia and on the Alpha Earth. The Mirthful Executives give us the clearest link to Gamzee, since their rise to horrible, aristocratic power is prophecized well in advance, George Washington describing them as “Salty Bards”.
The Amporas seem to have two distinct lines of inherited destiny–one related to their Blood, and one related to their Aspect. Their status as scions of the legacy of the Angels sees them as champions of fantasy, belief, and Hope. It also sets them up as natural rivals to the Makaras, and threats to Lord English.
It’s also likely deliberate to some extent, since it’s suggested that someone close to Lord English talked Cronus out of his relationship with Magic, and Alternia was all but designed to bring out the worst in Eridan’s entitlement complex and arrogance.
Since Caliborn had prior experience with the danger of a Hero of Hope, it makes sense he’d want to neutralize the others by prompting them to believe in something darker to believe in.
Which brings us to the arrogance and entitlement the Royalty classes often struggle with–the part of their natures that seems to constitute their greatest challenge before achieving fulfillment and balance.
The concept of High Birth seems to manifest in a sense of inherent superiority for Princes and Bards, and it’s this belief that tends to destroy their ability to make relationships. Both Makaras and both Amporas harbor these intense, megalomaniacal worldviews.
This, however, is where the best Prince begins to set himself apart. A successful, happy, healthy version of a prince who reaches balance is one who humbles himself, and gets over their sense of arrogant supremacy.
So we can see Dirk as a loose, loose glimpse into what it might look like for Eridan, for example, to chill out after a couple of years–had he gotten the chance. Of course, Dirk was never half as domineering or controlling as Eridan, so this is an unequal comparison, but I think it’s worth noting how their three age difference is meant to influence or readings of the two.
AR/Lil Hal is the version of Dirk that commits most of the abusive/manipulative behavior people usually pin on Alpha Dirk, and fittingly, he’s the one who actually distinguishes himself as Above his friends for most of his narrative.
In AR’s case, he does so on the basis that he is cybernetic and cyber-omniscient, a state he views as superior to being flesh-and-blood, even likening it to an aristocratic position once he’s mixed with Equius.
To swing things back around to Dave’s roleplay, there actually is one final act of destruction in his arc. After talking things out with Dirk and coming to see a version of his Bro as someone with the potential to do good, Dave and Dirk engage in what I can only describe as a 2x roleplay combo, with Dirk serving Dave through his Self and Dave killing Dirk to finish off the Jacks.
I like the sense of inverted symmetry here, and it puts into context why Dave’s attack is a positive thing for him–this moment is about Dave accepting that there can be some good in Dirk’s nature, and being willing to incorporate some of Dirk’s influence into his person at an appropriate time.
By embracing Dirk’s affinity for destruction and giving Dirk the chance to put his fate in someone else’s hands, Dirk can find absolution and Dave can find a coherent understanding of his identity, and Bro’s influence on it.
Anyway that’s about it. I’m glad to finally have coherent myths for Princes/Bard and Thief/Rogue, but we know how these classes work mechanically, so it’s not like they revolutionize my whole understanding of the canon. Feel free to send me asks with your thoughts, but for now…
okAY so i was just thinking about homestuck cause im always thinking about homestuck and I think i just figured out the ultimate riddle.
let’s talk about the Choice:
It’s been long accepted that the Choice is largely related to facing your own mortality. Alt!Calliope chose to die, Caliborn chose to be immortal, Roxy and John chose to live, all the trolls chose to fight. but we all forgot one.
davesprite chose to fix the sword instead of himself.
listen. LISTEN.
The Choice isn’t about facing your own mortality, it’s about choosing between being useful and being a good person.
bringing this back because with hiveswap, we now also know pretty much every single ancestor got to be big and important at the price of being a really really shitty parent. or they could lead a simple life and be dead.
Oh yes, I like this quite a bit. More fuel for the fire:
Gamzee choosing to be important over his friends.
This entire exchange from (Vriska) about LE and, by implication, Vriska.
AR being isolated from his friends and incredibly important/powerful, and later Arquis going on about this incredibly specific and important impact he later realizes through the Masterpiece.
There’s also Dirk struggling with his own innate self-worth and morality so much he ends up not really doing much of anything himself. I think that case is interesting because, if you think about it, Dirk is at his most impactful and successful in a healthy way only when his powers are working together with Jake’s.
Which I think suggests something about Homestuck’s logic with regard to how to break out of the two extremes–it’s in working together that we get the best of both worlds and all that. Makes me hope the content we start getting through Viz really starts exploring the implications of fraymotifs and what characters are capable of together, to be honest.
Yeah, my writing on roleplay is strewn all over the place. I really need to write about it as it’s own mechanic in more detail, which I suppose I’ll be doing for videos.
Here’s a couple of the sections that are most relevant:
The Serve part of this essay outlines how Pages tend to inspire characters to act like their Knights, and how Jake’s summoning of Brain Ghost Dirk fits that mold.
And here I go on about how AR was the clear winner of the power struggle leading to Unite Synchronize and Dirk didn’t do like 90% of the shit people pin on him, which I’m dumping a link to as well because like, why not? I love dirk thanks
Man this stuff is going to be a nightmare to condense into a single video. rip
i mostly talk about the alphas more because people dont really appreciate their friendships as much and typically regard one or more of them as assholes/don’t like to think about them
i, meanwhile, will not rest until the fandom understands that hating any one of the alphas in favor of the others is missing the point, and it would be a surefire way to get the other three to hate you.
also i need the fandom to know that dirk and jake are just as good a romance arc as davekat or vrisrezi or rosemary. homestucks good at romance y’all.
anyway the betas own too i just think they’re better understood/more celebrated. I’m not sad their relationships got less exposure later on because, hey, homestuck ain’t over. who knows how much beta interaction we can get soon enough!
The hemospectrum as a biological thing is just part of how trolls are born, but Beforus doesn’t commit genocide and enforce slavery based on it. It has its problems as a society, but Alternia is a whole other ballpark of evil. And that has a lot to do with the hemospectrum as a violent, oppressive ideology, which is not really in Beforus to the same degree. That system is what I attribute to LE.
Also my view at this point is that Lord English is basically the God of all four worlds, with differing amounts of influence in each one of them–the least amount of influence in Beforus, the most amount of influence on Alternia. We don’t have a skull monster, but we do have systems of oppression, misinformation, and exploitative power, and Lord English is a villain that operates primarily through those abstract forces. That’s why I think Homestuck is such an important narrative–it presents the casting off of those toxic ideologies as inherently heroic, and necessary for both happiness and peace.
[2]Then wouldnt it follow that princes/bards and sylphs/maids would switch places with the heirs/witches and mages/seers
Hrmmm, I see what you’re saying. I was going off this quote from Calliope:
Along with the distinction of Lords as “Most Active” and Muse as “Most Passive”.
My logic was that the more intensely Active/Passive classes had more dramatic impacts on their sessions, while the less Active/Passive classes were more versatile and able to switch back and forth from Active to Passive easier, making them more flexible.
The Master Classes, then, have the best of both worlds–they can have incredibly high impacts like the far-end classes, but they can also reap the benefits of both Exploiting and Allowing their aspect as necessary like the closer ones.
But that may be inaccurate. I think we’re getting closer, but I’m not sure we’ve “figured out” all the nuances of the Active/Passive scale. There’s a couple things that are still puzzling me, and questions like this one shaking or playing with the model are definitely helpful for helping us figure things out.
I don’t necessarily have any thoughts on this right now except that I’d like to hear how you account for Princes being positioned close to Lords in the scale. I don’t think you’re necessarily wrong, I feel like I’m missing stuff in my model. I’m just not 100% sure how to square this with the evidence we’ve got in canon.
Any thoughts?
So,this is my current version of the active passive scale.
My theory is that the further a class is positioned horizontally,the more direct control over their aspect they have,and the less likely they are to act in a more passive or active manner,and if they do it usually doesn’t go very well.The further vertically positioned a class is,the less direct control over their aspect they have,and the more likely they are to act in more active or passive manners successfully.So Princes and Bards are very active,just not the same way that lords are,and vice versa for Sylphs and Bards.
hmmm. I like this setup in theory, I think? I guess my main issue is that I don’t see how it’s provable or referenceable in Homestuck’s canon, and if we can’t pin down what Homestuck thinks it means for a class to be (-1) as opposed to (-2), then the whole setup becomes too abstract and theoretical to easily explain to a layperson.
Do you have any thoughts on how Homestuck would transmit these distinctions through its storytelling?
Flying through Storytelling 