Bladekindeyewear Dreamwidthbubbles

Jake forgot Jane’s birthday.

That’s going to sting when she hears it.

2012-11-30

theneonwerewolf asked you:

Thoughts about the likelihood of JohnXVriska?

Anonymous asked you:

What is your speculation for jades romantic future? With dave and karkat and anyone else?

I considered doing this in ask-reply form, because it’s so tentative that I didn’t feel like having it rebloggable, but yolo.

Let me quickly go over my take on the romantic arcs I’m sure of…

Here are the ones that seem solid.

• Jane –> DEAD, by character-arc corruption and descent  (80% certainty)
• Jake –> DEAD, via Lord English possession  (80% certainty)
• Karkat <3 Terezi  (90% certainty)
• Rose <3 Kanaya
• Dirk <3 Gamzee
• Kanaya <> Vriska  (unless she never sees her again… which seems unlikely)
• Kanaya <3< Gamzee
• Terezi <3< Vriska  (even if she never sees her again!)
• Karkat <3< Caliborn  (no to any deep relationship, but yes to him technically being his destined, epic kismesis)
• (Karkat <> Gamzee, duh)

So… here’s my reasoning.

Jane and Jake are “strangled by the red string”.  But no, I don’t mean that like the trope at all… what I mean is that their inborn romance has the potential to literally strangle them, sort of like their destined attraction acting as a meta-level kind of Destiny Bond.  Jane and Jake either both live, or both die.  Even if one finds love elsewhere, it’s nearly impossible to imagine either going on with life without the other at least nearby and living… sort of like Karkat and Terezi.  (Quite clingy, Karkat is.)

Add in the narrative hints about them, the growing clues that Jane will descend entirely, or that Jake may lose his head or have his body stolen from underneath him upon ‘defeating’ Lord English, have his face taken like the movie his golden guns reference…

EB: in my foolishness, i came very close to prototyping your grandpa. 
GG: D: 
GG: john, try to be more careful! 
EB: we very nearly had to face our grandfatherly paradox-dad as a last boss. 
EB: that would probably be the worst case scenario. 
GG: um….. 
GG: what?

Their combined likelihood of survival becomes lower and lower.

Jane was always meant to be the counterexample to John.  John was the one who grew up with a 'normal’ and loving father, goofed around a ton, greeted his game and quests with plucky enthusiasm, and realized his role to become a heroic God.  Jane is the one who is also shown to grow up with the same 'normal’, caring father, in the same normal house, with the same plucky, vivacious, and quite frivolous demeanor… only for her resolve to fail, and her will to fall to death and destruction!

If Jake isn’t torn apart by Lord English’s intervention, rest assured that the women/robots in his life will finish him off.  Jane, Lil’ Hal (destined to become Doc Scratch), and possibly Vriska, might find themselves with ample opportunity to put him in harm’s way.

Terezi is slowly dissolving away from Dave, on a path to reunite with Karkat unless Karkat gets suddenly distracted by a new (living) suitor.  There doesn’t appear to be anything Dave could possibly do to forestall her path.

Rose and Kanaya have solidified past most of the huge amount of tension in their relationship’s leadup, with an enormous onscreen display of bewildered, drunken romance.  They’re likely to have a true one-to-one conflict / dramatic break, but this will likely be a physical challenge or something regarding a challenge to part in order to resurrect Kanaya’s race or heal Paradox Space, environmental factors threatening to separate them more than each others’ emotions, in my opinion.  (Others would disagree.)  Especially since the two have virtually no other plausible romantic options.  (Others would disagree even more vehemently.)

Dirk and Gamzee are a destined couple; Gamzee, who will certainly either live to the end of Homestuck or die the most absurdly Heroic death one could possibly imagine, has romance in the future of his character arc, and Dirk is so much the only option that I predicted he’d be a homosexual just from the relationship’s raw likelihood, before [S] Cascade.

There are also some hints that the unbelievably epic, 'destined’ Kismesis that Karkat has been waiting for all his life is Lord English himself, in a way.  Not that an actual relationship will take place, but Caliborn is essentially a meaner, nastier, stupider Karkat, and threatens all existence.  Karkat wouldn’t find a more perfect destined rival anywhere in Paradox Space.  :)

Terezi <3< Vriska has always been our prototype kismesis example, despite its ups and downs; one of the most obvious and solid kismeses in the entire comic. Terezi was never annoyed by anyone as much as she was by Vriska, except possibly Gamzee lately… which Rose and Kanaya have assured us is unacceptable and doomed.  Kanaya has shown that she now has the resolve to stand up to Vriska and smack her down when she makes a mistake, and that Vriska would enjoy it rather than seeing her as an enemy as Kanaya had long feared.  The elements are all there… provided Vriska is actually alive again for any length of time.  They seem the 'destined’ relationships, in a way, even if Vriska dies a second time or stays dead.  It’d make them widows, sort of?

Alright.  Now we’re onto the fudgy bits… here’s where things get complicated.

UNPAIRED MALES:

• John
• Dave
• (Davesprite?)
• (Tavros?)

UNPAIRED FEMALES:

• Roxy
• Jade
• (Vriska)

And herein lies the dilemma.

Vriska has yet to cause her foretold “unfathomable destruction”, likely out in the Furthest Ring (but possibly afterward).  She has a reasonable chance of finding a way to cheat back to life out there, even if she has to betray Meenah or even Tavros to do so.  (Of course, the extent to which it might be considered 'betrayal’, if at all, when it unfolds, would speak to just how large or small her chances of eventual redemption and a secured lifespan will be.)

Vriska has a whole ton of romantic plot leaning on John, and a huge advantage in the relationship game if she resurrects.  However, her competition will be steadily growing stronger in Roxy Lalonde, the other thief after John’s heart.  The Roxy/John ship has had plenty of subtly seeded evidence, even before the Scratch (read underneath the Spongebob gif in the link).  And right now, John is almost certainly holding a ring…

…that Roxy herself may have cast into the Void.

It’s a struggle between Light, the broad and obvious overtures of Vriska’s in-your-face chances, against Void, the subtle and disconnected shadows building up to Roxy’s eventual stab at John from behind.

And I don’t know who will win.  It’s a toss-up.  And if Vriska wins, which would normally seem somewhat more likely… what happens to Roxy???

But anyway… moving on from John, that simply leaves Jade and Dave, right?  Straightforward, right?  Wrong!!!

• Dave –> DEAD  (Heroic sacrifice in a ploy against Lord English or young Caliborn (even perhaps Scratching his session!!))  (Chances high but unknown)

!!!!!

Dave is starting to accumulate some heavy foreshadowing that of the huge, major original characters, he himself - the one who’s something of an author insert based character in personality! - is going to be the one to bite the dust before the story ends, as the links describe.  Foreshadowing so strong and slow-progressing that even Davesprite doesn’t have the narrative weight to bail him out.

There is an out, though.  One out, the only one I’ve been able to think of.

• Roxy –> DEAD:  “A mother will do whatever is best for her children.”

It’s the only thing strong enough to steal a level of metanarrative doom that took [S] Cascade to first foreshadow.  And I honestly can’t tell you what the chances are of it happening, or her even possessing the opportunity.

What’s left for Jade if Dave dies?  Well… that’s hard to say!  Perhaps Davesprite?  Possibly a newly confident Tavros, reforged and reversed from the damaging sun of Vriska’s inversion-inducing and relationship-dooming abuse?  I couldn’t tell you for sure.

Possibly even Karkat, if something miraculous or tragic gets in the way of Terezi uniting with him.  (Such as Terezi/Davesprite or something weirder.)  After all, of the “sure” ships I gave at the top, you’ll see that some of them weren’t at a 100% chance.

(Of the “unlikely ships”, precluded by the way the plot seems to be going and other things, I personally enjoy the prospect of Jane/Karkat.  Sharing shocked expressions, freaking out at everyone else’s reality-defying shenanigans while retaining a resolute measure of normalcy… you can see it, can’t you?)

EDIT:  schafpudel reblogged:

And I don’t see why you think Dirk and ONLY Dirk will live if every other Alpha kid is dead! Yea, you’ve thought of reasons for the other three and not for him, but Hussie loves his symmetry. Ever notice how he likes to have an equal number of male and female characters in any given subset of the geodesic cast, barring the Midnight Crew and Felt? If he leaves Dirk alive, he’ll probably leave one of the alpha girls alive (or revive her through shenanigans). If he kills all the alpha girls, he’ll probably kill both alpha boys.

Dammit, sorry!  I didn’t think ahead that far.  :c  This is exactly why we did extended analysis of the branching possibilities in Romspec.

So… first of all, I want to emphasize that Roxy sacrificing herself to avert Dave’s foreshadowed death is a small and as-of-yet unknown probability.  I said that her sacrifice would be the only possible event with the strength to prevent Dave’s death; I didn’t say whether it was necessarily that likely.  We won’t know until events have unfolded further.

But second, yes, I agree with you.  In the case where Roxy, Jane, and Jake die - and keep in mind, even if Roxy dies, those other two are only mostly sure things - Dirk would surely die as well.  I would still hold Gamzee/Dirk as solid in that situation, and they may even die working together.  Or fighting each other.  It’s hard to tell with Gamzee.  :)

Regardless, that male/female ratio rule of yours holds mostly true, and we should keep it in mind for the future.

EDIT2:  And one more thing.

There’s a slight potential that Roxy and Vriska may both end up DEAD (in Vriska’s case, possibly *again*) at once.

If that’s the case, John may encounter a choice - possibly a Denizen choice - to revive one or the other!

Anyway… hope all those meandering musings were helpful!  Now you have an impression of my vague ideas on the pulse of the story and its impending disasters.

(Totally worth writing this up instead of finishing the Breath and Blood post.)

Romspec founder BlastYoBoots, your resident Seer of Doom, out! <3

2012-11-27

Have you read any of the Romspec threads?

Romantic arcs are played for tension, plot, and potentially momentous resolutions.  They follow certain ups and downs, and those ups and downs are simple enough to foresee that they can be rudimentarily traced.

Dirk and Jake’s relationship had approximately five minutes of tension before they got together.  (Compare that to the likes of Rose and Kanaya, who - without really experiencing much shared conflict - still managed to keep us on edge for well over a year!)  Furthermore, plot-important relationships often have to prove their worth by overcoming some sort of climactic conflict, proving the relationship’s fortitude against the environment or themselves.  In the Romspec threads, I referred to such a conflict as a “Dramatic Break” - the climax of the pressure that threatens to push the gravitating pair apart, physically and/or emotionally; it can take the form of a fight, a breach of trust, a physical segregation, a competing love interest, or even one of their deaths.  Take Terezi dooming and killing a Dave, for example, breaking Dave’s trust in her and putting a wedge in the relationship, which we strongly predicted in the Romspec thread over a month before it happened.

Even Kanaya and Rose are set to encounter such a conflict later, though with most of the tension drained out of the relationship arc, the stakes against its survival are hardly as high.  Dirk and Jake’s relationship is more fragile, hasn’t had a true conflict.  It had a mere month or two of buildup, Jake expressed out loud how unsure he was at the prospect, and Jake has a crushed and still advancing competing love interest - one unjustly turned from him by Lil Hal’s plotting - who is facing a very likely plot-important role inversion based on what the romantic snarl is doing to her mental state!!!

In other words, Dirk and Jake will suffer a dramatic break, the device that almost all plot-important relationships use to cash in their tension in a motion of narrative sensation.

The question is, given the break:  Will they reunite?  And the answer is often complicated, depending on the nature of the break.

In the Romspec thread, we performed something I termed “branching analysis”:  We thought of all the forms the relationship’s dramatic break could take, and determined what could ensue if each occurred.  Then, we prescribed nominal likelihoods to each branch.  The result looked something like this (click the DAVE STRIDER spoiler in the first post):

DAVE STRIDER: […]  

BRANCHES:

Initial State: Terezi (one-sided, incoming, aware)

The RUL3S OF ROM4NTIC DR4M4 say that a break will come in this relationship. Furthermore, the [S] Past Karkat: Wake up update gives us (2h) and (2i) recently, which may be used to conclude that a stronger dramatic break than previously thought is required to divide the relationship even temporarily. This narrows down our options…

Branching Event #1: Karkat dramatically rescues Terezi, proving his interest/feelings for her. Terezi breaks with Dave for Karkat.
Justification: Mixed. (2i) shows that this is how Karkat has been alienated, and (2h) shows how hard Karkat would have to work to win her back. That makes this, more or less, Karkat’s main option regardless of scenario. Secondly, there has to be an impetus danger for Karkat to rescue Terezi from; sleep, and its danger to the trolls at its current time, may serve this purpose. If not, then the only dangers allowing for this scenario would be the rush to the Rift, and whatever happens afterwards; this would not be able to happen at any prior point in time, otherwise. Still, this may not be strong enough unless Dave/Terezi is weakened beforehand: A milder version of Event #2 or Event #3 would allow more clearly for this, or make it more permanent.
Implications: This depends directly on the strength of Karkat’s dramatic rescue. If the danger was more mild/emotional and Karkat wasn’t risking his life in the process, Terezi would be open to reconsider and possibly come back to Dave. However, if this is a Dream!Jade level rescue, Terezi may stay with Karkat permanently (she’s already had her dramatic break with him too). This would force Dave to find other romantic options. (2k) points toward Jade.

Branching Event #2: Dave betrays Terezi’s trust, forcing Terezi to break things off.
Justification: Mixed. The lack of overt enthusiasm on Dave’s part, especially compared to Terezi in (2h), seems to leave room for this to happen, possibly by smooching one of the other kids. However, timeline shenanigans seem to prevent most of these possibilities, unless we assume that Terezi didn’t look far enough into Future Dave x3’s timeline to see everything that happens. Given her previous planning, this is a serious assumption. However, a weaker version of this could be likely, where Terezi misinterprets Dave as having stronger feelings for someone else, and opens room for Event #1 or Event #3 to occur. (2b) seems to hint at such a possibility. (2k) indicates future relationship growth between Dave and Jade, which might cause this.
Implications: These would depend on Dave’s feelings for the other kids, and his willingness to make a move in front of Terezi; given how he watches his image, a serious screw-up on his part is not as likely as a misunderstanding on Dave’s part. If Terezi breaks with him over a misunderstanding and nothing else interferes, Dave could repair things into a permanent relationship.

Branching Event #3: Terezi betrays Dave’s trust, forcing Dave to break things off.
Justification: Quite Decent. Terezi’s competition with Vriska, combined with (4a) and especially (4c), could lead to such an event; a weaker version of Event #2 happening before this would almost fully justify this possibility. In retaliation for a perceived disloyalty/offense on Dave’s part, she could do something to him or one of the other kids (like John again to assist her competition), something Dave can’t forgive. This would fulfill the manipulative, murderous tendencies that Terezi has previously exhibited, but have never been on full display close to the current time. It’s a part of her nature, a part the kids only tangentially saw with her alt-murder of John. This is one of the only imaginable events that would once again show off her skills to the readers… with disastrous consequences for her. (4d) seems to offer further confirmation.
Implications: Serious. The event must be quite severe for the relationship to break as it needs to, and if it’s just a hair too severe, Dave may never forgive her. And even if it’s the less severe scenario, it would provide Karkat opportunity to win her back ala Event #1, probably permanently. Dave/Terezi is still possible under such a scenario, but it seems likely that their relationship would need to overcome serious obstacles to re-secure, with a good chance of failure. Not knowing the situation, I’d give it a 1/3 or ¼ chance that Dave/Terezi could pull through in such a scenario.

That post was last edited at the end of December 2010.  Things have changed quite a lot since then, haven’t they?  :)

The recovery from the break between Dave and Terezi (#3, as predicted) turned out to be rather low-profile, Terezi and Dave seemingly entering their relationship offscreen.  The “dramatic break” didn’t have a very dramatic resolution… which has allowed Karkat to transition in, recently.  Terezi is becoming more distant from Dave, Karkat is getting closer, and the likes of Rose have hinted to Dave that perhaps his relationship isn’t going to last.

Karkat and Terezi have already had their dramatic break, and it seems as if they’re building to an onscreen - and possibly dramatic - resolution.  If this happens, Karkat and Terezi will likely be locked in as a permanent relationship through the end of Homestuck, unless they meet death!

(And it doesn’t hurt to mention, if I recall correctly, that the romantic movies on Karkat’s walls were ones where the main character loses his true love only to regain her later!)

Do you see?  There’s a science to these relationship arcs.  The idea that one relationship “might not work out” equating to “chaos” is nonsense.

And you can branch out the possibilities with Dirk and Jake, but there’s one big deciding factor that points to the relationship being permanently broken in some way.  And that factor - as I mentioned - is Gamzee/Dirk.

Sometimes, a character arc demands that romance is important to it.  With the introduction of the romantic misstep Gamzee had with Tavros - and the fact that Gamzee isn’t going to die (which is the joke) unless he dies the most hilariously heroic death in Homestuck, something I’ve been saying and could have told you even before Hussie stated it out loud - a dramatic and stable red romance in his character arc is just about guaranteed.

Given that, here’s the link to my reasoning… but the short answer is that Gamzee has no other plausible options.  His red destination is Dirk and nobody else, to an extent that I was becoming certain of it before Cascade!

To quote some of myself from the nested links I just gave you:

There was a bit of extra context there, but let me re-sum my logic simply:

• Gamzee is staying alive until future notice. He’s living through the timeskip.
• Gamzee is obviously going to participate in flushed romance. The failed attempt with Tavros is buildup to it. Before the plot ends or he dies, wewillsee him paired with somebody.
• Now at this point, before [S] Cascade, I concluded that none of the remaining kids or trolls seemed possible fits for Gamzee. Furthermore, I knew that we would be getting a guardian swap post-Scratch, meaning Bro, Mom, Grandpa, and Nanna would be the players. And that they would be eminently shippable.
• From what we’ve seen so far, Gamzee leans toward boys, sick rap-offs, Lil’ Cal, can flashstep-puppeteer, and only interfaced onscreen with a single human kid while on the meteor (a Strider), immediately going somewhat black for him.
• And other boring things like adding up the pairings, who’s free and who’s not, stuff I’m too tired to rehash right now.

So, basically, before Act 6 even started, I predicted that alt!Bro would be gay and eventually pair up with Gamzee.

Canon has abided by this so far; nothing has yet dissuaded me from this opinion. In fact, it’s gained followers steadily since the initial “what, that’s crazy, you’re crazy” reaction people had before. Because it makes sense.

And if you subtract all the nearly-already-paired kids and trolls from the equation – eg, Rose/Kanaya, Terezi/Dave, Jade/Karkat, Aradia/Sollux(/Feferi, he get2 both giirl2) - there just isn’t room for many other possibilities.

Just Dirk/Gamzee. Dirk/Gamzee, and the royal (Jane, Roxy, Vriska)»(Jake, John) romantic clusterfuck that still doesn’t quite add up without one of them dying. Or someone new coming in.

See how it all adds up?  Gamzee has eventual dibs on Dirk, so it’s easy to see that Dirk’s fragile relationship with Jake is rather likely doomed to fail.

Which makes sense!

Considering how likely it is that Jane and Jake both end up DEAD. :D

2012-11-26

(image source: askdeleteriousjane)

Jane Crocker is dangerous.

Specifically, her inversion.

Anonymous asked:

It strikes me that a Bard of Doom would be a fairly positive person, like how Gamzee was about celebrating Hope, wouldn’t an inverted Jane celebrate Life?

Celebrating Life? Not necessarily. Not necessarily, at all. Especially with the psychologically harmful conditions under which she’s primed to invert, as per classpect inversion.

A Bard of Doom’s role is to invite destruction through sacrifice, or invite the destruction OF sacrifice.

This is very, very dangerous.

Beyond the obvious, even: What popular mythological figure is known to tempt and entice individuals to sign something away in exchange for what they want, causing disaster, and is often depicted with a red fork? (EDIT2: And in the process, degrades the healthy moral hesitation and desire to sacrifice (for their own good and others’) of individuals, using temptation, and thus plunges them down the path to darkness?)

(EDIT: And in the SAW movies, who invites people to commit painful destruction through painful sacrifice?! D: )

And imagine another scenario… A hero devotes everything in his/her being to a last ditch effort to avert disaster. They metaphorically explode against reality with everything they have, burning themselves out in an attempt at changing the course of events with one last mighty sacrifice. It has to succeed.

But then, just before their effort results in victory… what’s that they suddenly see?

A cruelly smiling girl, with a big red pitchfork. Ready to snatch it away.

(sequel post: Jane Crocker is very dangerous!)

2012-11-12

ahpoordogsbody:

i pieced together a bunch of clues

heres some stuff that might happen

Read More

Everyone spec-interested should read this right now.

He’s mixed up on the timeline and motives, self-admittedly - I don’t agree with the ways he strings some of the stuff together, that Dirk would crush AR anytime soon (possibly after a lot more plot), or that the Lotus contents won’t be relevant until after Jake’s entry - but all the individual pieces are very well-researched and spot on.  Read it.

2012-6-25

Anonymous asked you:

and why is jane supposed to feel guilty???

Because Jane has to watch her friends and relatives die, one after the other, and feel impotent or like her decisions and apprehensions were somewhat at fault.

She’s eventually going to invert her role, after all.  There’s been evidence.

Right now would be a possible point for Dream!Dirk to get cut down in front of Jane; she’d feel responsible for having distracted him by not staying put and following AR’s orders.  (And especially so if he was busy saving her/them.)

Jake also looks like he’s in danger, but that’s more surely a red herring.  Unless Jane could Life him up and kick him back to his planet again.

2012-6-14

Jane has to watch most of her friends (and her Dad) die before that happens, though.  Either Jane or Jake (the FUCK is he doing here) is going to leap across the gap, and they both have immunity from actually biting the dust right now.  However, Dream!Dirk is as good as dead.

If Dream!Dirk gets crushed by debris or cut through by red miles, in full view of Jane - especially while saving her ass - then Jane would be able to consider his death her direct fault, since she chose to follow Lil’ Seb. That’d be the second serious nail in the despair coffin, the first having been her rom-fail with Jake.  (And Jake might fall somewhere out of her view, her thinking he’s hurt/dead, though he’ll be fine.)

2012-6-10

First, is it wrong of me to nearly be shipping Karkat and Jane now, solely on the basis of their shocked and horrified reactions to things?

(They both do seem to be going the woobie route, having their expectations and desires similarly pummeled during their session. I’d hate to be her even now; expecting to enter a mystical land and resurrect her poppop, only to be dumped into a dank crypt with a clown-ruined mutant alien sprite.)

The second thought: Maybe we won’t just have Vriska pursuing/pursued-by Jake to deal with, but also TAVROS AFTER JANE?? Hoo, boy.

sleepy0wl:

aradianal:

windicuffs-tier:

spookyhouse:

nonsuggestiveredhotironypistol:

karkats-foot:

classyprostitute:

thepirateking:

demonoflight:

lavastormsw:

invernom:

diirawringly:

….Uh?

OH GOD

WHAT IF JANE GETS WHAT SHE WISHED FOR DELIVERED TO HER SOMEHOW

BUT I MEAN, SHE DIDN’T CARVE JAKE, IN HIS ENTIRETY, ON THE BALLOON SEED POD

ONLY. HIS. HEAD.

OH NO

OH GOD

AUGH

i

w h a t

i’m going to throw up…

oh

my god

SCREAMS EVEYRHWERE JNO

wait… W-WHAT??

sadflawaiwyefasd INTERNAL SCREAMING and cackling

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

DGJKSKGJSG JESUS CHRIST WHAT

no no nO NO?!?!?!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Holy cripes.

This would explain plenty.  (Especially love how it cashes in her seed-pod carving.)  I couldn’t imagine anything more effective to finally break her.

EDIT:  Not that I meant he’s dead yet.  The head injury simply foreshadows future, more grievous head injuries that eventually culminate in his decapitation.  After all, Lord English has a skull there and flesh everywhere else.

2012-4-17

 

the-fever-prince:

I think it’s time I clue the rest of the fandom in about what I believe are the circumstances surrounding Lord English’s creation.

Read More

Yeah, you don’t have to be crazy to see what I’ve been saying about all this.

Odd, despite all my rants on the topic (including Dirk/AR’s involvement), I missed the specific applicability of that line of his, “When you’re through with English, he will be a ruthless killing machine. Mark your words.”  So, sweet catch!

Though prototyping is likely involved, if you read some of my other material on this blog I believe you’ll find adding in an inverted Maid of Life - which is rather foreshadowed - really provides the missing pieces regarding LE’s final form.  :)

ahpoordogsbody:

onecatch asked ahpoordogsbody:

So what’s post-scratch Dad’s deal? He’s the same guy as pre-scratch one, right? So he’s probably not Poppop’s bio-son. This probably isn’t going to be important at all, never mind.

It is important, because Dad is one of the only characters in Homestuck who was born normally! If he were a clone, we would’ve seen him during John’s ectobiology spree. Pre-Scratch Dad is (presumably) the biological son of Nanna and the “fine upstanding gentleman” that she married. Post-Scratch Dad is the son of Poppop and whomever he married. Under those assumptions, there’s no biological reason why Dad should be the same person on both sides of the Scratch!

BlastYoBoots (scholarly dweeb; brony; text formatter extraordinaire) has a theory about Dad which I’ll quote verbatim because it’s indisputably true as fuck:

Oh, it’s probably not that complicated.  I think he’s just Harry Anderson’s son.

I mean, his dad keeps a poster of him directly above his photo of John.  Anderson would have had Dad from an earlier marriage, in this case, and either divorced or became a widower; Nanna would have later married him in B1, and in B2, Poppop could have become good friends with him sometime around when he supplanted his role in Night Court, possibly taking his son under his wing after Harry bit it for taking too many crazy risks.

Also, I don’t know of any other jokesters Dad kept around who wear that hat.  Especially not in both universes!

And, maybe the most telling evidence, which I brought up once before:

EB: thanks for all the help. bye, ms. serket! 
AG: 8ye, John…….. 
AG: W8. 
AG: John what? 
EB: Anderson. 
AG: Ok. Til next time, Mr. Anderson. 
EB: (hehehehehehehehe) 

Perhaps there was more reason to include that than the funny Matrix reference John intended?  >;]

In this theory, Dad’s biological parents are the same across the Scratch — he’s simply adopted by different people. The mystery of Dad’s birth will probably be revealed in Act 7; it’s not exactly critical to the plot (OR IS IT???)

Dad even keeps a large picture of him in his wallet.

And from Andrew’s commentary in Homestuck: Book One:

It is cute how John keeps a portrait of Harry Anderson in his chest to greet him when he opens it.  He is like a second father figure to him.  Actually, later it turns out John’s dad has a big Harry Anderson poster in his room too.  I guess he is like a mutual father figure to both of them.

2012-4-11

[3/20/12 10:57:00 AM] ashdenej: so did you guess that jade would end up with davesprite?
[3/20/12 10:57:05 AM] ashdenej: it suddenly seems plausible
[3/20/12 2:37:42 PM] blastyoboots: back
[3/20/12 2:37:58 PM] blastyoboots: why does everyone assume jade is about to refer to romance differences
[3/20/12 2:38:03 PM] blastyoboots: (including me) 

I was wondering if Jade was about to comment on a difference in Davesprite’s romantic inclination that pertained away from her (possibly to foreshadow ARsprite’s romantic changes upon prototyping, which it likely will either way), but come to think of it if Davesprite was substantially nicer / more forward to her than the distant Dave it would make more sense for her to notice.  Davesprite has been outside the main romantic ring, but has enough history with Jadesprite - who is part of Jade now - to jump back in if the story really is about to prompt it.  (Though I can’t and won’t say it will!)

While Dave <3 Terezi was busy getting locked in, Davesprite didn’t have enough foreshadowing or hinted romantic involvement to participate in the main shipping chart, and I didn’t see a way he could compete for anyone open, before.  I.E. Roxy’s his mom, and if, say, Jane were open he’d have an automatic ticket to whomever he gravitated toward, seeming like a cheap side-fill where a more meaty romantic pairing looked warranted.

But if he fights with Karkat for Jade, then…

WITHOUT DAVESPRITE:

• Bachelors:  John, Jake
• Bachelorettes:  Jane, Roxy, Vriska
• Locked in:  Karkat <3 Jade

WITH DAVESPRITE:

• Bachelors:  John, Jake, Davesprite, Karkat
• Bachelorettes:  Jane, Roxy, Vriska, Jade
• Locked in:  Fuck all

And suddenly, the romantic network seems less hopeless and much, much more interesting.  Jane, formerly relegated to either Jake or nobody, now has Davesprite and Karkat as possible pairs.  Roxy isn’t necessarily squeezed out from courting John and Jake by Vriska and Jane anymore.  Karkat has choices to reflect the feeling that he didn’t quite seem locked in at all, despite what the math said earlier.

So while this could all very well be completely dashed by the very next update, keep in mind that the possibility is tantalizingly workable!

Davesprite / Jane feels quite a bit odder than Karkat / Jane, though.  Even with the added drama this presents, it doesn’t seem that particular facet of the square would be much of a contest.

Any thoughts?  >:]

2012-3-21