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tupacalypse-arisen:

Caliborn shot Gamzee and yet

Gamzee keeps acting freakishly devoted and obsessed with him.

That’s not the first time something like that’s happened though: (seizure warning under the cut)

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AHAHAHA OH MY GOD!!! :D

I mean, CHERUBS!!!!  Wow!!  And they both like to ship people too!

2012-11-27

Well, that was certainly a thing, wasn’t it?  Spoilers under the cut, further than the superfluous image above.

It seems like those recurring memes the cherubs suffer might have a canon source:

• [11/19/12 10:10:16 PM] Ash: update
• [11/19/12 10:13:00 PM] blastyoboots: well
• [11/19/12 10:13:04 PM] blastyoboots: that’s a thing isn’t it
• [11/19/12 10:13:13 PM] Lucyha: …huh
• [11/19/12 10:13:58 PM] Mel: You can’t explain that.
• [11/19/12 10:14:22 PM] Mel: Radio tower, causing Caliborn to think thoughts that Calliope would think because of their unstable brain merging sequence.
• [11/19/12 10:14:40 PM] Mel: Text on the screen, text in the narrative, never a miscommunication.
• [11/19/12 10:14:44 PM] Mel: You just can’t explain that.
• [11/19/12 10:15:11 PM] Romulus: once again this comic reaffirms its dedication to be the most meta thing in existence
• [11/19/12 10:15:23 PM] blastyoboots: uu: AND THE FACT THAT I MIGHT NOT CLuE YOu INTO YOuR FATE ALL THE TIME. 
• uu: DuE TO MY AGGRAVATED APATHY OVER THE MATTER. 
• uu: IS AN IMMuTABLE FACT. I AM STATING FOR THE RECORD. 
• uu: IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT GIVING A SHIT IS WHAT IS TAKING PLACE HERE. 
• TT: I feel like you’ve said something like that before. 
• TT: Different statements, but in that exact syntax. 
• uu: OH. YOu KNOW WHAT ELSE I HATE? 
• uu: WHEN THAT FuCKING HAPPENS. 
• TT: Wait. You mean it wasn’t intentional? 
• TT: I thought it was kind of like… this thing you were doing. 
• uu: SHuT uP.
• [11/19/12 10:16:05 PM] blastyoboots: uu: I SHOuLD HAVE KEPT IT BRIEF. AND SuRLY. LIKE I WAS GOING TO. 
• uu: LIKE JuST SAID. 
• uu: “HELLO DIRK." 
• uu: "I WANT TO PLAY A GAME." 
• uu: AND THEN LIKE. 
• uu: "BRO." 
• uu: "ROOF. NOW." 
• uu: "BRING JuJu." 
• uu: AND THAT’S IT. 
• uu: YEAH. THAT WOuLD HAVE BEEN GOOD. 
• uu: COLD FuCKING BLOODED. TO THE POINT. DAMMIT. 
• TT: That actually sounds familiar too. 
• TT: Are you sure you haven’t said something like that before? 
• uu: HAVE I? 
• uu: FuCK. I DON’T KNOW. WHATEVER.
• [11/19/12 10:16:49 PM] Mel: It turns out, Caliborn was the future-past author of Homestuck all along
• [11/19/12 10:16:53 PM] Mel: :V

(Mel’s ramblings are more IDE-ish, don’t take them as me committing to them.)

Perhaps this control station manages to spread memes farther than their little planet, and those two are just at the epicenter?

…Oh, shit.  What if this is where the arc numbers come from, like 413??

Also:

Note the red/green dichotomy:  How most of them are red, but a few green ones persist, representing Caliborn’s domination.  Also… the [A6I4] ==> is prefaced by red, the link that titles and indicates the progression of Time, and the Space underneath is filled by descriptive text!

EDIT:

• [11/19/12 10:27:33 PM] colwag: And now I’m like
• [11/19/12 10:27:39 PM] colwag: I don’t know if I can trust the narrator at all
• [11/19/12 10:27:47 PM] colwag: Like, at points in the past too
• [11/19/12 10:30:02 PM] blastyoboots: I wouldn’t go that far, even though Andrew’s obviously trying to mess with us that way
• [11/19/12 10:30:46 PM] blastyoboots: ahahaha!!
• [11/19/12 10:30:48 PM] blastyoboots: I just realized
• [11/19/12 10:30:57 PM] blastyoboots: in *ANY OTHER COMIC*
• [11/19/12 10:31:10 PM] blastyoboots: this kind of revelation would cause us to groan and roll our eyes extremely hard
• [11/19/12 10:31:17 PM] blastyoboots: but in *THIS* one
• [11/19/12 10:31:27 PM] blastyoboots: even if we groan and eyeroll, it also gives us vague chills!
• [11/19/12 10:31:39 PM] blastyoboots: it actually *scares* us

How amazing Homestuck is.  :D

EDIT2 (for completeness’s sake):  hellstobetsy asked:

If you missed it, the light bulb has the MSPA "Jailbreak Guy Face” logo on it, and appears to be being lit by a firefly-shaped light.

EDIT3:

• [11/19/12 10:38:35 PM] TheFinalWraith: I’m pretty sure Caliborn can only enter the commands, but not control the narration
• [11/19/12 10:38:56 PM] TheFinalWraith: What with the way the red and green lights are spaced, and there being a red light on the keyboard
• [11/19/12 10:39:27 PM] blastyoboots: lemme copy that in
• [11/19/12 10:39:55 PM] TheFinalWraith: Could make some kind of sweeping statement relating that to the whole
• [11/19/12 10:40:02 PM] TheFinalWraith: Active/passive Lord/Muse thing
• [11/19/12 10:40:14 PM] blastyoboots: yeah that’s what I was getting at

nostalgebraist:

In a review of Eoin Colfer’s continuation of the Hitchhiker’s series, science fiction author and critic Adam Roberts wrote:

And here’s the thing: the main thrust of the orginal Hitch-Hiker’s was never the world-building; it was the little jolts and leaps of comprehension: it was the ah-ha! and the ha-ha! They are terribly terribly valuable and wonderful things, those; and [Douglas] Adams understood (this is what makes him so significant a figure) that the little jolts and leaps of conceptual or perspectival comprehension that are the trademark of SF — the epiphany, the mind-expansion, the sense of wonder — and little jolts and leaps of comedic comprehension that make humour work (that make us laugh) are actually versions of one another.

Andrew Hussie understands this as well, which may be one of the reasons why his work reminds many people of Adams’.

As someone who took and enjoyed a Sci-fi and Fantasy Literature class, yes, this!!!!

2012-10-13

It's almost confirmed, and I’m personally (subjectively) certain it’s what Andrew is aiming for.

It’s time to break this down.  It’s time to analyze this a little.  It’s time… to argue with Vexarian.

It sounded quite clearly like Rose/Kanaya, and little else, to a lot of people.  However, as Romspeccers, we should do branching analysis.  Here’s the quote:

@kanaya_facepalm KANAYA: I Had The Same Feelings Of Trepidation The Last Time I Encountered Someone I Admired

@meenah_idle MEENAH: oh yeah who was that

@kanaya_happy:#- KANAYA: …

@meenah_idle MEENAH: huh

@meenah_happy MEENAH: you mean

@meenah_wink MEENAH: her over there

@meenah_happytalk:#her?? MEENAH: talky girl in the orange nighty jams

@kanaya_smirklaugh:#-#- KANAYA: …

@meenah_wink MEENAH: i seaaa

@meenah_happytalk MEENAH: saw you two hangin together last time

@meenah_happytalk MEENAH: she your g frond

@meenah_wink MEENAH: the red sort i mean

@kanaya_smirklaugh:#-#-#- KANAYA: …

@kanaya_smirktalk:#-#-#-#-#Additional-Bashfully-Blank-Hash-Tags KANAYA: Maybe

@meenah_idle MEENAH: thats adorbs yo

And don’t forget Rose seemingly flirting with Meenah:

@rose_coytalk:#Also,-I-like-your-braids. ROSE: I’m just curious about you. You seem like an interesting person who probably has a lot of stories to tell.

Our expectations have been subverted before.  We need to consider the alternatives of what Kanaya said, the ways Andrew could throw this back into our face:

• When Kanaya said ‘Maybe’, she meant they were pale!!!  (Just kidding, don’t worry.  Kanaya’s feelings for Rose have had no reason to diminish, and as long as that’s the case, she’s intent not to fall into the pale trap again like she did with Vriska, much less be satisfied by it.  How would her feelings for Rose have evaporated to allow that scenario, offscreen?)
• She’s fooling herself?  Kanaya might have imagined a relationship where there’s really just a friendship or other partnership.  However, this isn’t likely; it would only make sense if we had upcoming, immediate soap-opera-y interactions to come, but after these walkarounds we’re set to jump forward another year, and it can’t last that long.  There’s just no way to work it into the story.
• But seriously, this is indeed still ambiguous!  Kanaya’s positively glowing, sure, but she could just be bashfully acknowledging that she does have red feelings for Rose to Meenah.

That last one’s the kicker.

In context, it makes slightly more sense as “we’re in a relationship”.  Meenah said it was adorable, and Kanaya didn’t correct her.  She said an optimistic, smirk-laughing maybe, not indicating even a hint of frustration.  (She was happy!!!)  A metric ton of bashful hashtags.  Why would she be misleading like that?

But on the other hand, it’s not the first time Kanaya’s been unclear…

GG: what am i breeding???? 
GA: Frogs 
GG: :O 
GA: Sorry I Thought That Was Obvious

And for one with a penchant for being literal, 'maybe’ could indeed be a literal 'maybe’!

With all other evidence discounted, this statement would only be a 60/40 % in favor of confirmation.  But compared to how little movement we’ve had for Rose/Kanaya so far, that is huge!

It’s good evidence, and objectively so.

Which is part of why I don’t like what Vexarian is doing, and particularly the way he’s representing my opinions.

A short time ago I was arguing with BladekindEyewear on Skype, about the content of the latest update. And specifically it was about the state of Rose and Kanaya’s relationship as it currently is in canon. I’m certain you’ve all seen for yourself or heard of the goings on.

To put it simply, I’m not buying it.

As far as a confirmation goes, this seems to be exceptionally weak. We have literally nothing but Kanaya’s word, and I can’t even say with full confidence that we have that. Her response is sufficiently asinine as to throw under the bus of “wishful thinking”.

From my perspective, this looks much more like a deliberate attempt to mislead for the sake of later plans. Otherwise you would imagine there would be something, anything more.

Boots doesn’t agree, but he’s always been pretty asinine on this topic and his shipping goggles tend to be screwed on really tight.

Vex and I have had hot, clothesless arguments about this.  I exploded on him, even.  Messily.  Over Skype earlier.

• blastyoboots: auugh
• blastyoboots: I’m on my dash, and scrolling past your enormous arguments with the obsessed, wrong-evidence “rosekan is canon” guy
• blastyoboots: can’t you PLEASE not lump me in with that damn guy?
• blastyoboots: I acknowledge how little evidence there is, dude
• blastyoboots: though I don’t go to your extreme extent and discount the whopper we got in the latest flash as basically meaningless :T
• blastyoboots: I’m still not sure if you’re exaggerating when you talk about it meaning “jack shit”?
• blastyoboots: it’s not incontrovertible evidence, it does not confirm it as canon, and there are explanations for the sum total of events in that flash that aren’t “they’re in a relationship”
• blastyoboots: but it’s hard not to see that those non-relationship explanations are in the minority, by which I DON’T MEAN THE VAST MINORITY!
• blastyoboots: I mean something as clean as 60/40 relationship on its own, if you disregard most prior evidence
• blastyoboots: (which it isn’t hard to do)
• blastyoboots: furthermore, it’s my OPINION that the narrative flow has been toward relationship, and is still toward relationship
• blastyoboots: and it’s your OPINION that the lack of romantic decision conflict is too glaring for them to be confirmed to be in a relationship this way, that something must be wrong
• blastyoboots: but you can’t say it’s almost meaningless, in the same way that I’d be a fool to say it’s canon!
• blastyoboots: I’ve been very reasonable and evenhanded throughout these arguments, and if I didn’t know any better I’d say that YOU’RE the one who comes off as someone with shipping goggles welded so hard onto their face that you can see your cheekbones past the deluge of blood
• blastyoboots: you know what, I’m posting this on tumblr
• blastyoboots: YOU WANTED IT, I STARTED IT!  B)

And I admit, I overreacted.  I was just angry because of the context, seeing him berate someone saying it was confirmed, and compare him to me as a strawman.  It’s infuriating how he knows exactly where to touch me to drive me wild.

Boots do you see this? This is the sort of bedfellow you’re making for yourself right now.

Now, back to the issue at hand.  I’ve laid out the way I see it worked out from an objective point of view, and I don’t see how you’d say much otherwise.

Now, from a subjective, more meta view - and past this point, I don’t fault Vex for disagreeing with anything/everything - it’s my personal opinion that the above scene put Rose/Kanaya far over the edge.  I don’t think the scene’s canon inclusion has any other “safe” use or intent.

Why?

It’s complicated.  And very subjective:  It’s based on a subjective read of Andrew Hussie himself.

Let me paste you an excerpt of Andrew’s tweets on class roles, in response to an argument that he was introducing gender bias (with destruction and the master active class allocated to males only, and females receiving the most passive master class):

Beth Thomas ‏@TheBookOfBeth

@AndrewHussie Frustrating that a woman is relegated to most passive class & her brother to most aggressive. Your comic has gender problems.

andrewhussie ‏@andrewhussie

@TheBookOfBeth of the 12 std. classes, the most active is female, and the 2 most passive are both male. gender… peccadilloes, maybe?

Beth Thomas ‏@TheBookOfBeth

@andrewhussie Sure, but reserving master active class for guys and passive class for girls? More than a peccadillo, I’d say.

andrewhussie ‏@andrewhussie

@TheBookOfBeth challenge: reconciling gender roles as point of social responsibility w/ myth archetypes, which are seldom very progressive

andrewhussie ‏@andrewhussie

@TheBookOfBeth point was, scale overall is quite balanced, shading slightly male/active. ideal? no. but far from an essentialist nightmare

Now, Vex has disagreed with me before on this.  When I saw these, I used them to argue that Andrew intended the 12 standard classes to have a 3-active, 3-passive split for each (flexible) gender leaning.  Vex argued that it could easily be 4-active 2-passive for male, 2-active 4-passive for female, and that I was stupid and disgustingly liberal for projecting otherwise onto Andrew.

Of course, much like Porrim and Kankit, it’s difficult to tell whether he honestly thought that, or just formed that opinion to oppose and get a rise out of me.  <3<

But I think I’ve read something out of Andrew over the course of the comic, and through tweets like this.  And that thing is that I believe he intends to tell a relatively progressive story, with things like Homestuck.  To wit:

I believe Andrew intends there to be at least one naturally developing, serious homosexual relationship between main characters that isn’t just played for laughs.  I believe Rose/Kanaya is the only romantic arc that’s long or decent enough to qualify.  And, for what it’s conceivably worth to Andrew, I think he knows there would be intense outrage if the only serious, natural homosexual relationship between main characters were teased strongly, then shut down with no strong alternative.

It’d be - ugh, I know Vex is going to want to choke me for this, call me a braindead oversensitive social justice something something - if Andrew did that, it’d be almost as if the story were making a silent referendum against homosexual relationships.  ._.  Andrew doesn’t think that, I’m not accusing Andrew of intending that and never would.  I just don’t think he could avoid it at least looking like that if he did, and nobody knows that fact clearer than he does.  That’s not a message he wants to give with his story, intentionally or unintentionally, I think.

Gamzee/Dirk is going to be mostly humorous.  Kanaya/Rose is only sufficient remaining one.

(Thus, their romantic arc’s eventual conflict would predicate on whether or not Kanaya and/or Rose would survive or remain physically together; Kanaya may face a decision to choose between Rose and the resurrection of the troll race, or the like.)

I mean… imagine if after this heavy a tease, Rose/Kanaya were killed by an admission of heterosexuality on Rose’s part, Kanaya had nothing to look forward to but a weak relationship with Vriska (or even just post-relationship death!), and the only other main gay relationship (Gamzee/Dirk) was the type to be pointed at in laughter.  Wouldn’t that feel like a kick in the gut to… well, anyone who relates to homosexual relationships in the slightest?

That’s the reason their relationship has been so slow to have hints introduced, so relatively 'tame’ and non-contentious.  Past a certain point of hinting, it’s very difficult to roll this back, or have things go any differently.

That’s the way I see it.  From this subjective point of view, Rose/Kanaya is well over the line.

Does that sound like I have really, really tightly screwed shipping goggles twisting my objective judgment?!  I don’t think so! >:T

2012-9-2

I guess I’m wondering how we’re going to be made OK with a relationship that’s analogous to one between a Holocaust historian and a neo-Nazi. Narrative maneuvers like that are UNREAL. they don’t even HAPPEN. most of the time

It’s not quite that bad.  Do keep in mind that Gamzee hated ICP.  (But… yeah, it’s still pretty bad.)

This being Gamzee, part of the grand gesture of it all is how bad it is.  The fact that it is absolutely, horrifyingly terrible has to resound through their coalescing for it to reach its intended peaks of unbelievable, soul-wrenching abject hilarity.

But at the same time, the events before and (especially) afterward must shape themselves so that the event was - ultimately - respectful and fitting.  Gamzee proving his worth, for example, possibly by beating Sawtooth in a rap battle and such.  The pair accomplishing heroic feats later (while embarrassing the fuck out of Dave), laying a smackdown on a powerful enemy at a critical moment, or even sharing domestic sorts of moments like Rose and Kanaya have softly been alluding.

I’m not sure if Andrew wants to take this all the way, making their relationship as horrifying and amazing as possibly imaginable.  But if he does, then he’s certainly the one to pull it off.  Especially because the Striders are both fragments of author avatars:

• [4/26/12 3:58:00 PM] blastyoboots: one more thing:
• [4/26/12 3:58:17 PM] blastyoboots: the Striders have some pretty strong Andrew parallels built into them
• [4/26/12 3:58:48 PM] blastyoboots: and given the role Andrew has chosen for Gamzee to play in this story, and how he’s using him (and enjoying using him),
• [4/26/12 3:59:01 PM] blastyoboots: isn’t it fitting that one of the two striders ends up with him?

In effect, Andrew would quite nearly be expressing his love for Gamzee, his grandest joke, by effectively marrying him through Dirk.  (A sort of larger version of what it is with Dave / Terezi, which can be taken as an expression of his love for the fine art of trolling.)

And no, not in the fake, literal way he took with Vriska.

Wanted to mention a couple random things about recent/semi-recent updates.

Regarding Vriska showing up in that dead panel for andrew, her appearance there would make a great deal more sense in retrospect if she, say, created Lord English.  Andrew has her killed with a mocking Cage face, she happens to create Lord English, LE happens to kill Andrew, she has the last laugh etc etc.

The second thing I wanted to address is regarding Kanaya, which I was reminded of by someone liveblogging a homestuck readthrough:

GA: It Must Be A Certain Madness Im Afflicted By
GA: To Orbit Those More Reckless And Dangerous Than I And More Daring For It
GA: I Guess I Want To Help Them But They Never Can Be Helped It Seems

Oh no, Kanaya is one of those kinds of people. Listen Kanaya, it’s not healthy. You can’t fix them ok?

Now that we know that the Sylph is a healer class - one which, by Aranea’s indication, is predisposed toward the healing of others emotionally as well as physically - Kanaya’s gravitation to the dangerous and damaged makes a great deal more sense.

Aranea did the same thing, with Meenah:

AG: In fact, she’s the only reason we are here in the first place, as opposed to merely ceasing to exist upon the scratch. 
AG: In life, she was the only one I would have called a close friend, in a way. 

Now a little while ago, whereloquaciousnessgoestodie argued to me that Kanaya’s arc focused around unhealthy codependence to the extent that cutting herself off from her gravitation towards the likes of Vriska and Rose - even as far as the possibility she’d end her arc or perhaps choose death without a fulfilled romantic pair - was not only plausible, but perhaps a moral imperative.  I didn’t see it that way, but I couldn’t find much strong evidence against that interpretation.

Here, though, we’re presented with an alternative.  Healing others is a part of her role.  She doesn’t need to cut herself off from her predispositions - which would be against her role, in fact! - but rather learn to stand up both for what she wants and against those on paths to harm themselves and others.  She’s already begun to learn this (clocking Vriska), and it’s been quite effective so far.

Basically, especially with this new evidence:  While her arc will have her healing a race and possibly universes, I don’t think it will end with her having sacrificed her relationships to do so.  The plot could very well scare us into thinking she’ll take the option, as I’ve often posited, but it won’t pull the trigger on her.

You guys are very good at making me doubt my assertions, here - which I’m glad for - but ties like this healer thing eventually remind me that Rose is set to breed lilacs out of a dead land.  If Rose helps Kanaya resurrect her race, I don’t see anywhere else these two can go but together, really.

2012-4-2

quinkit:

I am assuming that every person who follows my blog does so because I regularly post about Homestuck. Unless you really liked that Jake hat I bought a few months ago and wanted updates on it. (its still awesome btw)

However, if you are not aware of Andrew’s previous comics, I highly suggest you check them out. But I’m here to talk about one comic series in particular. One I feel is the most important of Hussie’s pre-MSPA work. I am talking about Humanimals.

Before you all groan and give up reading this, I assure you this post is not a sarcastic “THERES SO MUCH SYMBOLISM EDWARD IS THE WAR ON TERROR” post. This is a legitimate post about why I feel Humanimals is important to anyone who reads Homestuck.

First, tell me this. Who do you think the target audience of Humanimals is? The answer is no one. Andrew did not draw Humanimals to please anyone. He made it because Andrew is fucking weird as hell, and wanted to horrify and disgust his audience. Nobody actually reads Humanimals because they enjoy the workplace antics of these lovable characters. Furries won’t get off on it because these characters are anti-anthropomorphic abominations instead of humans with fox ears or some shit. People read Humanimals because it’s disgusting and bizarre. Nobody asked for Humanimals. Nobody wanted Humanimals. Except Andrew Hussie. He wanted these to be made.

Now think about Homestuck. I’m sure at some point you’ve been disappointed by some kind of plot point. Maybe it was Tavros’s death, or John telling Karkat he isn’t gay. You might think that your fanfiction where Tavros kills Vriska and stops Gamzee from going crazy and then they make out is better than what Andrew made. I know I was disappointed with Karkat stopping Gamzee in such a lame, anticlimactic way. I’ve made several posts before about how much I hate sober Gamzee.

But Andrew doesn’t care. No matter how much I bitch about Gamzee, he’s not going to write him out of the comic. Because Andrew likes Gamzee. Andrew wants Gamzee in Homestuck. He once said on Formspring that he makes Homestuck because it’s a story he wanted to read, but nobody made it yet. So while I want to read “Homestuck Minus Sober Gamzee,” Andrew doesn’t want to make it.

Humanimals is actually very similar to Homestuck in this regard. Andrew wanted Humanimals to be made, but no one did. The only difference between Homestuck and Humanimals is that Hoimestuck has a much broader appeal than just Andrew Hussie and a real life Equius.

So basically, complaining about how Andrew writes Homestuck is pointless, because he is the kind of guy who draws disgusting comics about naked muscular animal men when no one else wants him to.

edit: holy shit i wrote a lot of words about humanimals.

Yeah I read this a while ago, but it was worth reblogging to keep around.

Anytime someone seems self-righteous or moans about the way Homestuck’s going/not going, I kind of just remember Humanimals and laugh at them.  (I already kinda did before I knew about it, but now I can articulate why.)

Odds are that whatever your opinion - such as “Gamzee is getting away with murder with nothing but a shoosh-pap, why didn’t you kill him” - Andrew has already predicted your reaction, and is laughing his ass off.

Andrew is the best troll.

2011-9-24