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.
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
When you say you’re going on hiatus, that means you ramp up your posting massively, right? I was going to leave this by the wayside but I am, lucky for you guys, I’m still too sick to record.
Plus the Xefros and A.Claire posts are doing really well and frankly winning over the fandom is my best shot at long-term stability and things changed for the better for me in a big way recently, so I have the time to get out a couple more of the things I’ve really wanted to say before I start focusing on video–these will all be useful scripts for me soon anyway.
Let’s talk Jude Harley, who has already given us a likely Class and a definite Aspect. And who knows–maybe he’ll lead us to a bit of prophecy on the threats our heroes will face in Hauntswitch? Maybe, maybe not, but either way it’s clear I was doomed to make this post from the start.
So let’s dive right in, and let’s start with the side of Jude’s title I’m surest about: His affinity for the Aspect of Doom.
If Jude’s psyche is concerned with anything, then it’s concerned with death, risks, threats, and the rules you follow to avoid them. While not exactly cynical, Jude is certainly cautious and wary. Even his interest in aliens and cryptids frames them as mysterious threats to watch out for–his shirt isn’t depicting a simple alien, but an alien abduction.
He keeps a flare gun because the chance of a life-threatening emergency is a basically constant presence in his mind, and his interest in POGS is linked to his belief in their eventual post-apocalyptic value. Jude sees the worst in the world, and he prepares for it.
Apparently pretty well, too! I’m not AS sure that Jude is a Seer as I am that he’s a Doom player, but if this is a case of Class Roleplay, then it’s an oddly successful one. The big twist of the first half of Hiveswap is, of course, that Jude was right about basically everything–even if he muddled the execution a bit.
The Seer/Mage key verb–Know–is repeatedly linked to Jude’s biggest contributions, and it’s his foresight that keeps not just Joey but her beloved dog Tesseract safe.
All of this squares quite nicely with the verbiage we can extrapolate for a Seer: One who knows Doom (or through Doom) for the benefit of others.
And we should stress that “for others” part, because where his plans stumble, Jude himself is the one to pay the price. For Joey’s benefit, but also for ours–the audience’s– as his tragedy give us the deepest glimpse into his psyche and character we get during Act 1.
As @curlicuecal ‘s excellent post on Jude tells us, Jude’s pigeons actually each reflect his relationship to one of his family members, and how he experiences the loss of each of them in turn. Of course we start off with Frohike, apparently Jude’s favorite. Jude is devastated by Frohike’s tragic death, but nothing about it necessarily links the bird to A.Claire except context.
Langly makes things far clearer. When Jude finds himself abandoned, his fury is outright vicious. He makes it clear that he regards this as both betrayal and abandonment, an act of cowardice. He also alludes to being unable to communicate his anger properly and needing to suppress the emotion in order to focus on the task at hand.
Given that we’re talking about Jude, who basically ALWAYS has a task at hand, this all reads as a clear analog for his feelings about Pa. Emotional repression is something of a hallmark of the Harley line–John, Jake, Jade and Jane are all known to dabble in it. If he’s this upset when a bird abandons him, how does he feel about his own father doing so?
All this loss had already gotten to him before the attack on the Harley manor–Joey refers to all of this stress on Jude growing bad enough that Roxy took him to a doctor.
And the losses of his birds leave Jude isolated and desperate–he begs Joey to protect Byers and refers to him as “all he has left”. Not long after, he begs Joey not to go near the portal, saying he can’t lose her, too.
Byers, of course, is the bird that represents Joey in Jude’s heart, and he leaves with her when she’s abducted. However things work out between him and Dammek, for the time being, Jude is now alone.
And maybe worst of all is that this always seems to have been the plan, because Jude is the victim of Act 1′s titular Kansas City Shuffle.
In order for a confidence game to be a “Kansas City Shuffle”, the mark must be aware that he is involved in a con, but also be wrong about how the con artist is planning to deceive him. The con artist will attempt to misdirect the mark in a way that leaves him with the impression that he has figured out the game and has the knowledge necessary to outsmart the con artist, but by attempting to retaliate, the mark unwittingly performs an action that helps the con artist to further the scheme.
Given that we know that Scratch was expecting Joey, and that he is involved in the events that have put her here, we know for a fact that the swap between her and Dammek was always the plan.
Jude assumed the cult wanted the Cherub Portal for themselves, and that may well be true, but it’s his very defense of the thing that leads Joey right to it–and so, right into Scratch’s plans.
In this regard, Jude’s fears have come fully to fruition, as his knowledge of Doom helped the aliens who abducted his sister in the first place. Jude’s shirt is not just a mark of interest, but a prophecy of the fate Jude himself was doomed to witness, and Joey to experience.
And here is where it gets interesting (and somewhat speculative), because Jude’s Classpect is only half as relevant to his family as it is to his relationship with the source of all their troubles, the true antagonistic force behind both Hiveswap and Hauntswitch.
Homestuck’s Doom players were always marked by a duality motif, largely centered on Red and Blue. This was fitting for the trolls, as everything that Beforus and Alternia were doomed to was ultimately linked to the Red/Blue bomb that would eventually lead to the creation of the Green Sun.
Notice how once the sun is created, Sollux’s red/blue motif expires, and reaching the sun is basically the end of his relevance to the plot.
But even then he maintains a focus on Black/White duality. As is fitting of a Doom player, because Duality seems to be one of the biggest fundamental principles of Paradox Space. Everything in Homestuck comes in pairs: Aspects, Classes, Class Verbs, Players–all of it.
Duality is the rule, the boundary–just as death is a rule we all must follow, just as some fates are unavoidable. And so Jude, like the Captors, is similarly marked by a motif of duality. Only instead of the Red/Blue that the Captors are bound by, Jude is marked by the Red/Green color contrast linked to all Cherubs and, specifically, the cherub responsible for these games’ events:
Lord English.
Jude’s Red/Green motif directly references Lord English at least once, when the red and green marbles are used as the Lion’s eyes. Yaldabaoth–the evil, flawed creator God that Lord English is partly based on–is commonly depicted as a serpent with a lion’s head. And this lion has its gaze planted firmly on a globe of Alternia, reflecting Lord English’s indomitable control over the planet.
It goes further.
Whether or not the Cherub portal is a literal doomsday device, as has been hypothesized, it’s undeniable that every member of the cast is doomed. Both Alternia and Earth are doomed by Sburb in a matter of decades, so Jude, Joey, Xefros and Dammek are all on borrowed time.
Hell, this even extends to Trizza, who must inevitably be ousted or killed as Heiress in order to make way for Feferi’s short-lived reign. And on both sides of the Portal, the fates the characters are being led to are tied to agents of the
Lord of Time himself.
Because while Joey and Xefros seem to be dealing with the nefarious influence of Doc Scratch, Jude still has his Cultists to deal with–and they’re likely more linked to Lord English than it initially seems.
After all, The Condesce spent time on Earth before her dissapearance–perhaps enough to craft the perfect Heiress, but almost definitely enough to continue her habit of empowering clown-themed cults to carry out her agendas for her, just as she did on Alternia through Subjugglators and as she will on Alpha Earth through the juggalo presidents.
And while we never learned about the cult of the Mirthful Messiahs in too much detail in the comic, they are described as being spread across the cosmos. It makes sense to think they may be a smaller operation on the Beta Earth, where the Condesce spent relatively little time. But it is still altogether likely that they are already here.
And if so, Jude and his friends seem to be the only ones watching.
I’m really overwhelmed and grateful by the support so many have shown me, and excited to take posts like the one I did on Joey and this one to Youtube, where more of the fandom can engage with classpects in an accessible way!
You can also feel free to drop by and chat about this and other interesting Hiveswap and Homestuck topics in the r/Hiveswap discord!
No. Well, probably not. But I think I have a pretty decent guess?
My Jude post is going to take a little while longer, and once I put these pieces together it didn’t take much to make things fall into place, and turned out to be pretty quick to put together.
I don’t usually do outright speculation, I tend to dislike doing so. But this feels solid enough that I’m willing to at least mention it, and more than that its simply interesting to think about, so while we wait for Hiveswap: Act 2, I figure we may as well mull over this possibility.
So, humor me.
A. Claire is a pretty mysterious figure. She seems to come out of nowhere to shake up Homestuck’s core cast, and she seems to know more about the game than we ever confirmed for any other Guardian, barring Pa himself. Why does she seem so connected to the Cherub Key? How on earth did she paint a mural of the green sun??? What’s her deal!
There’s no precedent for a character quite like the mysterious actress, and seemingly no background profile that would explain how she knows what she knows. Except, of course, for the obvious one. The one we’ve overlooked.
Yep, I’m arguing A. Claire is Jane. Or, well, A JANE, anyway. I always thought the two Nannas thing was a little odd, but really, one than one lifetime spent on the same mortal plane makes perfect sense as part of the potential power of a Life player–particularly a creator of Life who tends to benefit themselves.
But hear me out on the context. If we regard A. Claire as another Jane, then suddenly this story Nanna tells us–relayed to her as a fairy tale by the Condesce–is completely true. And the Condesce is a Thief of Life, with an established interest in genetic manipulation.
It’s at least possible she would already have access to cloning technology with which she could have cloned Nanna. Stolen her life, so to speak. And she would have had an interest in doing so, because how better to shape her ideal Heiress?
A Jane who grows up under the Batterwitch’s brutal tutelage could readily be expected to know secrets about Cherubs, who the Witch researched. Suddenly, A. Claire’s painting of the green mural, her knowledge of Cherubs and connection to Cherub technology–perhaps even her and Pa’s posession of the Cherub machine would make sense, either through the Condesce’s secrets or possibly Jane’s memories, as with Pa.
In fact, that may well be the most likely way they got the Cherub Machine, and the Key that served as Joey’s heirloom. This Jane would, after all, be the Batterwitch’s ideal Heiress. The Cherub Machine could well be part of the inheritance she and Pa received.
But this isn’t Jane, right? This character is named A. Claire. And with this context, we suddenly have true grounds for the name Anna.
Anna–the name that Dirk said sounded almost right for Jane in another universe, in another life (and in the same page where he correctly intuited the way the Beta version of Jake got his last name)–means “beautiful” or “graceful”. Both of those names are good fits for A.Claire, but most interesting to us is “Favor”, possibly as in favored child.
Just as Anna Claire would be the favored version of Jane, from the Condesce’s perspective. Meaning the fairy tale she related to Nanna was simply literal fact; a retelling of the setup she already orchestrated. And the kids she was destined to have with Jake, those who would save the world, are not John and Jade (sburb didn’t do that anyway), but Joey and Jude.
Anna and Jake, then, are bound together through their shared experiences in another life, their mutual connection to the Game’s secrets. And, of course, their relationships with Roxy–who they take in as a babysitter. As well as…
Dirk, who it seems they had plans to take in as well–Rocking horse and everything. Makes you wonder what happened to Bro, and what he’s doing. How did he avoid being found? Or was he found, but too influenced by Cal to indulge something like horses? Idk, this is clearly overthinking.
But I’m intrigued to see if we ever find out.
As for Anna Claire, I’m feeling pretty confident about this and think it’d be cool. But I’m obviously not married to the idea just yet–I’d like to learn more about A. Claire first. I just wanted to get people talking about the possibility for now. Anyone compelled by this reading?
2/3 I mean A. Claire affects the narrative indirectly, being The Dead Mom trope, but it really stands out to me the way we let our knowledge of the alpha universe affect our understanding of the Beta. A. Claire is one of the few human ‘things’ in Homestuck to have no counterpart in the Alpha timeline that we are aware Jake is aware of. Joey and Jude never drew breath on Alpha Earth. A. Claire and J&J fundamentally separate Jake English and Jake Harley into two utterly different individuals 2/3
¾ Which is why I still have to disagree that the Beta Guardians are de-facto the ‘incomplete’ versions of the Alpha kids, unable to ever reach their true potential – because where does that leave the life that Jake built with A. Claire? Even now Grandpa remains the outlier among the Guardians – from my standpoint I can’t but see him as a man who couldn’t handle the loss of his wife, for who his children were the most painful reminder. So he runs – again and again and again and again 3/4
4/4 (Sorry this is all splintered like this, Asks suck). None of this condones him being a shitty parent, but it does change the context in which we can view JE and JH as mirrors. I’d love to know what JH was like as a husband to A – kind, carrying, attentive, devoted? Maybe he wasn’t, and your original argument stands – the absence of his alpha friends ultimately stunts him as a person. But maybe when A was still around this ceased to be true – but once she was gone, he fell apart again.
I mean, my main post was never that Jake was shitty because of a lack of Dirk specifically. Jake Harley struggles with the exact same issues that detonate all of Jake English’s relationships with his friends growing up. Toxic masculinity, heteronormative ideology, and most clearly, escapism and neglect of those he cares about because of fear of confrontation.
It is through his relationship with all his friends–Dirk, Jane, Roxy, and others–that Jake manages to learn to get over those issues. All we can say for sure about Jake Harley, then, is that he most definitely does not overcome his neglect and escapism habits by the end of his life the way English does.
MAYBE he made progress with A. Claire on that front? It’s definitely not impossible. But we just don’t know, and in the meantime he continues hoarding behavior that suggests his alternate friends are very much still a part of his psyche. It’s also possible A. Claire was his partner in uncovering the secrets of Lord English and Sburb, given that she apparently painted Joey’s mural of a Green Star–in other words, the Green Sun–and was the original owner of the Cherub Key.
I certainly agree that Jude and Joey are unique, though, and A. Claire won me over hard enough that I would be happy to know she was at least a genuine comfort to Jake if he was struggling. I honestly don’t know what their relationship was like either–but I’m very curious.
Oh! Hm. Well I definitely think Lord English is involved by proxy–Hiveswap seems to be largely centered around Doc Scratch as an antagonistic influence, while Hauntswitch seems focused on the cult of the Mirthful Messiahs. Jude seems like he’s almost definitely a Doom player, probably a Seer, and his corresponding Two-color duality motif is Lord English’s main colors: Red and Green.
As for why Pa has been visiting Alternia or how he came to possess the portal: No idea! All I really have on Pa is a strong suspicion that he’s been setting up the plot of these games at least partly to save Jude and Joey, just as he set up Sburb to save as much of humanity as he could. Pa’s a shitty dad and I hope Joey gets to set him on fire, but I don’t think he’s evil and I do think he cares. He just sucks really hard at it.
As for the portal, well. I am pretty certain it’s not JUST a portal, and it’s not just a doomsday device, either. But you’ll be able to see my thoughts on it towards the end of Joey’s Classpect post (which I just finished!), so I’ll keep my thoughts there to myself for right now, if you don’t mind 🙂
Jude had a lot of humorous little lines referencing running away, retreating, balancing caution with bravery, or just generally sending mixed signals about how brave he was or considered himself.
Suddenly occurred to me that this is a BIG ISSUE with his dad–who appears to make running away from his problems (or addressing a sub component of his problems by running away) his primary coping strategy.
And then we have Jude’s pigeons who: 1) charge in bravely and immediately die 2) run away and leave problems unsolved 3) do whatever Byers’ best effort counts as.
Thematic? Especially when we consider one of Jude’s parents apparently did something that got her dead or vanished? And the other took off questing on related issues immediately after?
Flying through Storytelling 