PROTECT KARAKO oh also some lore thoughts i guess

oh no i love this tiny little clown boy ;_; hes so good. OK theres a lot to talk about so lets start. big time spoilers below

Classpect:

The bottom line is I tentatively agree with the take that Karako’s a Lord of Mind, though Page seems like a plausible runner-up guess. Lord makes a fair bit of sense to me. There’s some obvious connections–Karako somehow ended up with a gold tooth, mirroring Caliborn’s.

Karako’s most emphasized attribute is his youth, Caliborn is identified by his eternal immaturity, and Porky Minch and Bastian (the two characters who most seem to infliuence Caliborn’s Lord status) are also either defined by an inability to grow up, or deal with a possible failure to do so, respectively.

And Karako does seem to operate pretty much off instinct, much like Caliborn.
That the Reader is left to carry on his will to punish the
Horror-Terrors is particularly compelling–the Reader has to make the CHOICE (Mind) to follow Karako into death, and getting onto the carousel is their reward for doing so.

As an ask pointed out back when we were talking about Boldir, we might expect circles to pop up in relation to Lords as well as spirals, and indeed circles pop up with Karako in several ways. His symbol contains a circle, and the dog tag his symbol is printed on is a gold circle itself. @wakraya also pointed out the cans can be seen as Tallcircles which seems like a stretch but still, worth noting.

But the most interesting circle in the Sim is definitely the Carousel.
What we’ve got here is a circle, a wheel, that spins endlessly, always
pulling the horses that exist within it around and around. They’re bound
to the wheel, stuck in it.

Much like everyone who exists in the circle of LE’s causality.
I think this has its roots in LE’s nature as a Demiurge, and so a direct
offspring of “Abraxas”, the abstract God that we could see as Paradox
Space itself.

Abraxas is always depicted with twin snakes pulling in different directions, and in this notable depiction, the snakes themselves are pulling/guiding horses along.

To me, this evokes Caliborn and Calliope exerting their twin influences on the narrative, with the horses representing individuals living under their influence.

Whether it’s a psychic projection of Karako’s or some kind of afterlife (and we’ll come back to that question soon), the Carousel seems like a pretty succint presentation of the Mirthful Messiah’s entire Lord English-centric religion.

We’ve got the conflicting tragic/comic masks, Gamzee raising Caliborn
(red sun, green background) and Callie (green sun, red background), and
of course a wheel/circle that many horses are bound to.

Its interesting to note that this makes it pretty clear that the Mirthful Messiah was a seperate and distinct figure from Callie and Caliborn in the cult’s doctrine–it is specifically Gamzee, not the cherubs or LE’s later incarnations.

Of course, Callie isn’t really being worshipped here–the carousel is an altar to LE, not Abraxas.

Yaldabaoth was real big

on being known as the “one true god”, and being himself unaware of the
higher orders of God who created him. It’s unsurprising that his cult
would be lacking that higher-order imagery, and would place its highest
emphasis on the symbol of LE’s looping dominion.

The Dream version of the Dark Carnival that Meenah and (Vriska) visit in the dreambubbles is empty and lacks the historical frills describing Gamzee and Callie, but the religion’s most important symbol, the Circle/Carousel, remains. That’s the most prominent recurring memory.

(Aside: This might answer why horses are so ironic–horses bound/stuck to a wheel are a prominent symbol of LE’s dominance, and free horses running as they please are a suitable undermining of his symbolism.)

(Aside x2 combob: Akio Ohtori from Revolutionary Girl Utena is a Yaldabaoth figure quite similar to Caliborn, and his power/dominion too ends up being depicted through carousels. Chalk it up to shared gnostic symbolism I guess, but still, odd coincidence.)

Back to Karako.

Its worth noting that coming into conflict with highbloods/high
class members of troll society was one of the few things we were
expecting from Karako-it fits the motif of his Joker Card–oh yeah, a
bunch of the purplebloods in Hiveswap seem to match Joker Cards from the
ICP’s albums in their designs:

“
The first Joker’s Card, Carnival of Carnage (1992), is a representation of the ghetto and the violence that occurs within.

It takes the form of a traveling carnival which doles out the same
brutality on those who have ignored the inner cities’ cries for help. The Card issues a warning against the upper-class and government’s negligence toward the lower classes.”

So yeah. That line of inquiry seems to be checking out so far. Really there’s a bunch of parallels between Juggalore and the Mirthful Messiah cult/LE in general, but I happen to know someone else is working on that, so I’ll leave it there for now.

Now to what is to me, the most interesting part: the vision of the carousel itself.

There are two possibilities here, I think:

1) This is a psychic projection Karako’s putting out in his dying moments. Its a quick vision meant to provide some small moments of comfort before they die.

2) I think more likely, we’re getting a glimpse into how death works in Paradox Space, absent dreambubbles. It seems likely to me that this is a dark carnival afterlife created by the collective unconscious of Alternia and, specifically, it’s fervent cult of Mirthful Messiahs.

Karako was led to it because he’s part of the group that collective consciousness recognizes–ie: it’s likely a burgundy would be rejected as one who doesn’t belong, or led somewhere different in Alternia’s collective consciousness. The MSPA Reader was recognized because Karako recognized them, specifically, and was able to extend his afterlife’s promise to his friend.

Either way, we have no way to know and there’s more interesting questions.
I’m struck by the fact that considering this is a promised afterlife of spiritual fulfillment, the vision we see is distinctly non-spiritual--in fact, it’s deliberately artificial.

There are angels, but they’re mannequin props strung up by string. There are happy inhabitants, but they are also mannequins made of wood. It’s like a theatrical parody of an afterlife, depicting the physical presence of holy attendants and subjects, but not the spiritual/magical influence that makes them true.

Basically, it’s a very Rage-y afterlife–it’s theatrical, it’s artificial, and above all it’s physical, not spiritual or magical. It all reminds me very much of the concept of “Maya” from various Indian philosophies–including Hinduism, from which we got the name “Makara” for Gamzee.

How Maya is treated by different cultures varies, but the basic gist is of

a magical power of illusions, of creating real, physical/material things that don’t actually reflect spiritual reality. To quote wikipeds:

Māyā connotes a “magic show, an illusion where things appear to be present but are not what they seem”.

Māyā is also a spiritual concept connoting “that which exists, but is
constantly changing and thus is spiritually unreal”, and the “power or
the principle that conceals the true character of spiritual reality”.

The thing is that according to this framework, basically all of physical existence, or at least quite a lot of it, is ultimately Maya and thus illusionary. Physical existence is might or might not be “real”, but it is constantly changing, and so does not reflect spiritual, eternal truth.

Māyā is the empirical reality that entangles consciousness. Māyā has the
power to create a bondage to the empirical world, preventing the
unveiling of the true, unitary Self—the Cosmic Spirit also known as Brahman.

I’ve suspected for a long time that at its core, the nature of Chucklevoodoo/Rage powers stem from an ability to manipulate the experience of Maya.

Chucklevoodos employ illusions that are physically real (the Jack Noir doll in John’s room, or Dave’s dream copy of Lil Cal), and inspire people to be afraid/paranoid/angry–binding them to their physical experiences of the world.

Enlightenment in these Maya-centric frameworks generally means becoming one with these eternal principles of spiritual truth, and thus moving away from Maya/physical reality and the fear/confusion it produces.

So here’s the thing: That’s pretty much exactly what the MSPA Reader begins to experience after Karako is killed.

They come into awareness of the fact that everything they’ve been experiencing on Alternia, everything about Paradox Space, is kind of profoundly unreal.

Which it is! Because its just a story being told to us, the players. They seem to become very aware of this unreal/illusionary nature to their own existence and that of the world of the Friendsim.

And instead of continuing to treat it as real/something to be afraid of, the Reader chooses to stand up for moral virtues, generate them into the world themselves.

And as they move on from the illusionary world of Alternia, they’re rewarded by becoming aware of an eternal, universal, spiritual truth:

Friendship.

Of course, the MSPA Reader is still on their path. If they’re going to keep up this metatextual evolution and eventually reach enlightenment, coming to understand the true nature of their own existence, then there’s a lot more to learn. (Here’s hoping Lanque will teach them (and us) something about Astrology, Alchemy, and Aspects.)

What I’m wondering is, how much longer before they start becoming aware of the part of their reality that is well and truly outside of the visible realm? How much longer before the MSPA Reader becomes aware of us?

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Hey guys! This time we look at some neat ways Gamzee might have used his Rage powers along the course of his arc, and some examples of what “Rage powers” might actually mean.

Today’s question is: Can you think of other ways Gamzee might’ve used his Rage powers?

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This time we dig into Gamzee’s recurring links to the masks of Comedy and Tragedy, historical worship of the Greek god of Theatre, Dionysus, and what all of this tells us about Gamzee’s arc and, potentially, even the Rage aspect.

Today’s question is: Can you think of other trolls with strong ties to figures in Greecoroman/Egyptian/Judeo-Christian mythologies?

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Gamzee Pt. 4 — Rage as Roleplay

This is a script draft that was used for the following video, and is missing picture assets as well as general polish:

This train of thought is a bit more speculatory, so I decided to keep it seperate from focusing on Gamzee’s character. But linking Rage to Homestuck’s Theatrical elements might also tell us about the abilities and powersets Rage players might exhibit, and that seems worth discussing on its own, so…here we are.

Obviously, reading Rage as the Aspect that rules over Homestuck’s reality as a play lends itself to Tex Talk’s theory of Rage as the Aspect that describes Plot Contrivance, and I could argue there’s even a link between the two in the text itself.

The MSPA Command Terminal that Caliborn and Gamzee unlock using the tragicomic mask keys allow Caliborn to talk directly with the author, Andrew Hussie — Specifically, the ghost of Andrew Hussie, who somehow communicates through the machine after being murdered by Lord English.

As the original author, he’s now the God in the machine operating the story of Homestuck, and his awareness of Homestuck’s larger context lets him give Caliborn the scoop, enabling his rise to power as Lord English in the first place.

This could be seen as an echo of Homestuck’s roots in Theatre as well:
The term “Deus Ex Machina”, or God in the Machine, originally refers to the practice whereby actors playing Gods would be entered into the play by an elaborate mechanism built into the theatre stage, usually by crane or a trapdoor.

The God character was often used at the end of a Tragedy, using their divine powers to wrap up remaining plot threads and bring the story to a close.
Now, of course, the term is used as shorthand for whenever a story resolves problems in highly unlikely and often surprising ways — and is often considered a hallmark of bad, contrived writing as a result.

Actually, this might solve a mystery nobody knew needed solving. A lot of fans assume the story’s logic breaks down with the dream bubbles, based on the perceived nonsensical absence of dream ghosts — mainly concerning four characters:

Meenah and Aranea, Vriska, and Gamzee. But Meenah and Aranea actually do have ghosts in the bubbles — both are present in the final army that faces Lord English.

Vriska only has (Vriska), which is kinda weird, but John’s retcon is bizarre enough that I can kinda believe it would collapse all potential versions of Vriska into the weird…schrodinger’s vriska setup the comic gives us.

Which leaves only Gamzee. If he’s aware of the mechanisms that run the theatre of Homestuck, then he may know about an obscure game mechanic. If a player goes to sleep at the end of a doomed timeline, like Rose does in the timeline that Davesprite came from, they don’t actually produce a ghost.

Instead, the player’s dreamself simply merges with the Alpha dreamself, and the player inherits all the memories of the doomed version. This might require that the player in question be the last one standing, which might be why Gamzee kills all the other trolls in at least one doomed timeline.

Whether he kills the others for this reason or not, if Gamzee outlives all the other trolls in every timeline in this manner, then we have canonical basis for Hussie’s statement that Gamzee hasn’t died in any timeline he’s aware of.

This would also mean Gamzee houses the conciousness of all his doomed selves, and that every single version of Gamzee would get to live out the truth that he is his own mirthful messiahs. No clown left behind…I guess?

But there’s something else I want to talk about.

If Gamzee views Homestuck as a play, then another facet of his power may be the ability to understand the various Masks that characters wear during their adventure — and the corresponding Roles they take on, as they perform their identities in relationship with the world.

Only in Homestuck, roles that define how characters Act are a codified game mechanic: Classes.

And I’ve recently found myself arguing that characters perform the behaviors of the Classes they’re assigned, but also often emulate — or try and fail to emulate — other Classes’ behaviors, through a mechanic I’ve taken to calling Roleplay.

Most characters only Roleplay classes they absorb through culture, whether it’s their interests or — more commonly — role model adult figures called Ancestors.

Having power over roleplay would make Gamzee uniquely dangerous, because it would give him the power to warp how other players see themselves and each other — confusing them by alienating them from their own true roles.

By inviting Terezi to adopt the persona of Redglare, he encourages her to take on the role of a Knight. As a result, Terezi gives a Knight’s performance in one of Homestuck’s theatrical Flashes — [S] Seer: Ascend. She’s even cast in another Knight’s shadow— imitating Dave’s own ascension flash.

It would also make him uniquely flexible. Understanding all the roles played in the story, Gamzee would be able to wear any of those masks to complete whatever objective is at hand. This is likely why Gamzee’s Jokerkind Specibus allows him to use every weapon.

He introduces himself to Jane with music boxes originally owned by Aradia Megido — A Maid, a class linked to the Fae archetype.

Maids and Sylphs are often referenced as imaginary beings, and this tends to include players committed enough to roleplaying one of the two — vampires, ghosts, gnomes, fairies, and in Gamzee’s case, he’s referenced as an elf during this stint.

The Fairy classes are associated with healing and creating new things. And Gamzee happens to perform this role— healing his troll friends by reviving them as Sprites, merging their personalities together in the process.

Later, Caliborn learns he’s immortal for arbitrary reasons that make no sense. Of course, it’s because he’s still relevant to later events in the story, and knowing this, Gamzee is aware he cannot die.

Wearing Fairy wings labeled with the masks of comedy and tragedy,
Gamzee evokes Maids as ones who are “Made of” their Aspect — in his case, Made of Rage: In this case, in the form of theatrical contrivance.

In the comic, Maids are repeatedly shown to have some passive self-ressurection or survivability perks, and Gamzee seems able to make use of that benefit by acting out the Maid’s role.

Inviting destruction through Anger/Rage.

But all of Gamzee’s creations are abominations, and his form of “immortality” is brutal and painful for him, especially since his natural inclinations invite destruction — no matter what part he consciously tries to act out.

This is a common result of roleplay. Homestuck seems to lean on a “Know yourself first” approach to identity, as characters often confuse their own personalities with what they wish they were, commonly while trying to emulate an ideal or person they view with admiration.

This commonly leans to failure and confusion for Roleplayers, as their own instinctive tendencies come out even when they’re going for something entirely different.

Gamzee is subject to these negative effects, but to him, it doesn’t seem to matter. He’s just barely good enough at acting like these classes to accomplish the goals he sets out to achieve, and the rest of us just have to deal with it.

Of course, many would argue that Theater has nothing to do with Rage and everything to do with Gamzee belonging to the Purpleblood Caste, since several Purplebloods in Hiveswap share Gamzee’s clown motif and one pair even evokes the Comedy and Tragedy imagery.

Just as Xefros’ Rust-Blood status encourages him to think in terms of Time, I believe it’s possible these cultists are being societally pushed into thinking in terms of Rage, the Aspect of their Caste’s True-Sign — Capricorn.

So I’ll be interested in observing just how they relate to their own Aspects, and in seeing to what extent any of them are linked to Rage — not to mention comparing them to characters that we know are Rage-bound, such as our hero, Xefros Tritoh.

Off the top of my head, Sports and Wrestling share some similarities with theatre — the inherent artifice of the experience and the distinct roles for every participant to follow. One of my biggest inspirations, Supereyepatchwolf, has actually done a great video on the theatrical elements of wrestling you can check out here, if you’re interested.

I’m not necessarily claiming this interpretation of Rage is canon or anything — I just thought it’d be an interesting thing for you guys to talk about, and consider, as we get to know the trolls through the Hiveswap: Friendsim and Hiveswap: Act 2.