[Earthbound and Mother 3 Spoilers but honestly if you havent played them already go…do that??? what are you waiting for???]

whenever anyone says “but what if Homestuck is a tragedy/sadstuck and the kids are doomed & stuck in the juju” its made obvious to me they havent engaged with either Earthbound or Mother 3

the similarities between them are. really apparent. Maybe I should scrounge up some screenshots and make a post about it or something but like

Both Earthbound and Mother 3 build up their stakes to ones of monumental, immutable Doom up to the very last second before suddenly giving way to pretty damn happy and positive endings–and Mother 3 does so in an explicitly metatextual way

Homestuck is not cynical or cruel to it’s characters for fun. The viciousness and cruelty with which they’re treated is ultimately almost all sourced in the cultural and metaphysical influence of it’s central antagonists–Caliborn and Gamzee. 

Caliborn and Gamzee (along with the other two components of LE) are also defined by being stunted and immature and unable to grow, and Lord English himself is pretty much a megalomaniacal manchild-as-cosmic-horror fascist who reshapes entire worlds in his own image. 

All of which he has in common with…

Pokey Minch, also a character stunted in warped, eternal youth who values power above all else and sets up a fascist utopia themed after him in New Pork City. Both characters spread the majority of their negative influence through culture and ideas. 

MOST Homestuck characters– even Eridan, who is regarded as an unabashed bastard– are treated with a measure of hope and optimism for their capacity to grow and change, and that’s because Homestuck fundamentally believes in.

This is why I can’t see Vriska or Eridan as comparable to Gamzee. What sets true evil apart in Homestuck’s universe is not the particular evil actions of an individual, but an intrinsic unwillingness to change or grow. 

The list goes on–Mother 3, like Homestuck, is set in a post-apocalypse and leads into another apocalyptic, “Rapture”-like event after which we only see the characters in tiny snippets of time (I’m pretty sure we only see like a single animation of Lucas grown up, if that much?).

God like THE ENTIRE CONCEPT OF EARTHBOUND AND MOTHER ARE “KIDS WITH PSYCHIC POWERS SAVE THE WORLD AND MAKE FRIENDSHIPS” LIKE…thats the core of the classpect system. Thats the core of all the troll psychic powers–EVERYTHING about Homestuck’s universe is built on that concept.

like. i could go on about this all day and probably will someday, for now the point is

Homestuck is not a tragedy. The kids are fine. The Juju situation is perfectly in keeping with the general modus operandi of this series, and Homestuck’s entire narrative has been about setting those hopeless conflicts up and then having the kids find a way out. 

Also go FUCKING play mother 3 it’s the best game ever made 

this post comes courtesy of @schafpudel asking me about the Earthbound part of that video I made on Homestuck’s influences on Undertale and now im all emotional about the Mother series which is a welcome swing from the immobile depression i was experiencing before so thanks they’re cool