Dave to the rescue! Flying like goddamned time traveling Super Man.
AWWWWWWWWWWWW! She’s blushing! What an evil cutie.
Everyone is coming to the same place! This is so cool.
Oh man and soon Karkat and Kanaya will be there too!
Oh, I hope we get to see Karkat’s reaction to the shit Aranea is getting up to.
HAHAHAHAHA
Oh my god, Aranea, how deluded are you? You were never ~meant~ to be Mindfang any more than Mindfang was meant to be you. You’re different people with different experiences! Just like this Dirk isn’t actually Bro and the Dave chasing Jacquerel never left Dirk alone with a bunch of soda and SBHJ merchandise.
Dirk is so.
Fucking.
Cool.
He makes his hot pink powers look awesome!
Not that hot pink ever looks bad, it’s fucking hot pink and it’s great. But damn. You go, Dirk.
YEAH!
Heal that, Mindfang!
Aww! Meenah is braiding Vriska’s hair! They’re such a pair of cuties.
Oh, Vriska, you are maturing into such a fine young woman! I am so proud~
Really, I am proud, and it’s kind of weird. Like I had anything to do with it. But Vriska, she is the best.
God, Meenah, laying down some heavy character analysis!
*bawls eyes out* That is just so sweet!
At least they got the treasure/juju/weapon. So they can just hang onto it until whoever arrives and can do something with it. Elsewise I would think it’s a little silly to quit like that, when LE is eventually going to end up killing them too. But Vriska is growing up and realizing she doesn’t have to be the one to do the thing, and that’s great.
Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.
Jake, how could you stop believing in dream ghost Dirk when he’s being so fucking awesome?
Goddamnit, this is totally going to end in a heroic sacrifice.
Awwww, Dirk is such a good friend.
And this is page 008652, which means I am officially 100 pages from the end. D:D
I hope you guys have fanfic and meta recs ready for me, so I don’t immediately go into Homestuck withdrawals upon finishing!
*blubbering* Rose is rescuing her unconscious mom. That’s so sweet.
I legit gasped out loud.
Oh shit Aranea’s hold on him is weakening because dream ghost Dirk is sucking out her soul and wtf is he gonna do when he’s free.
Just a little farther! Hold on, Jake, it’s almost done!
What.
No.
What are you doing, Jane?
Was that really necessary? Aranea is ruining everything!
God damn, Jake, you use ridiculous phrases.
Also nooo, how could you die? I finally like you!
D:
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
This sucks.
The fuck? He’s back to mixed cases and everything?
This is some sort of a ploy, right? He’s not like back to old old Gamzee, the one who was always high on slime, is he? I somehow hope it is…
I had a moment of, “Oh, obviously that’s just an oversight” but I have learned that nothing in Homestuck is an oversight.
No no no no no no no no.
Don’t fall for it, Terezi. Don’t feel bad for him. He’ll just turn evil again. He did after Karkat papped and shooshed him, he’ll do it again.
Okay wtf Jane why kill Jake just when dream ghost Dirk is about to pull Aranea’s soul out…and then attack Aranea anyway?
And…well done putting her to sleep mid air, Aranea?
Time for a party at Calliope’s.
WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS EVEN.
Do not want!
SLEEP TACKLE.
SLEEP STRANGLE!
I guess if you put someone who is part machine asleep, they can still do stuff? Or maybe Jane’s just really, really determined. Either way, KILL HER JANE, GO GO GO!
Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.
Terezi. :(
Oh fuck, the artifacts are back.
And oh no, poor Terezi! Someone help her, dammit.
This seems slightly more than just artifact-y. The sword is bouncing and…hm…
The fuck?
That’s the just/heroic clock and the god tier hope symbol. And a lot of flashing. Owwy. The fuck is going on anymore.
Oh, of course, Jake is a god tier, and his death was neither just nor heroic. It was just Jane…I still don’t know just why she killed him.
And I am back to screencapping the gifs to make it easy to cut down on the flashing.
JAKE. STOP STANDING THERE AND DO SOMETHING. THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU.
Awwww, Rose! I mean… you did screw up, but there’s nothing you can do about it right now. However, you can totally try doing something about Gamzee beating the fuck out of Terezi. Be ethnocentric for a second, okay?
Oh no!
Terrible timing. :( Just in time to not be able to do anything.
Uhm…
That’s probably not a good thing.
Like, I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be the king’s scepter or what (probably not cuz they both got ‘sploded) but it probably should not be getting burnt up.
Aw yeah, future scenes! Karkat and Kanaya are totally going to go to town on Gamzee’s behind, right?
And wtf is going on with that sword? I don’t think Aranea has any telekinesis abilities, but she’s looking at it pretty intently… I have been corrected. I don’t like evil Jane but I really don’t want to see her stabbed!
!!!!!!
I don’t trust it, but yay, Terezi isn’t about to die a fiery, lava death!
Oh my god, Jake.
Maybe not tell Gamzee to “unhand” Terezi while he’s holding her above a lava pit, unless you’re about to hope her to safety.
The wand is back!
Thank god, Rose. Prefer your human morality and be culturally insensitive!
*facepalm*
Well, Jake was being useless anyway.
Go for the head, Terezi! Zombie rules might apply!
YAAAAAAY!
Oh god.
I actually did the frame by frame thing on those two gifs, and “Betty Crocker” pops up behind Rose, and the Condesce’s tiara flashes over Aranea.
So, I guess that is a thing that is happening now.
That can’t be good.
I hope English didn’t send her.
Oh shit, it’s breaking out of the frame again. I wonder what that means. I think my guess before was that it had something to do with the in-universe rules breaking down, specifically around John’s intervention? Not sure if that applies here…
God the Condesce looks so cool.
Also, I’m guessing she’s there to protect her heiress. She seems fond of Jane, for whatever reason.
Or not fond, but interested in her survival.
Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck ohfuckohfuckohfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.
That’s the last panel. And those are definitely Caliborn’s shitty ass curtains.
And…
Now I need to think for a while.
:(
I was going to post final impressions/predictions for Homestuck, but then I got into researching the Midgard Serpent and being kind of confused that I can’t find much stuff relating it and Homestuck through Google. Really guys? We’ve got the ouroboros and AURYN imagery already. I assume I’m just failing to find things.
I don’t think Lord English is going to die. The ouroboros and AURYN imagery implies a snake/two snakes that are consuming itself or each other eternally, but never actually completing the act.
Actually it’s just occurred to me that there’s also the Midgard Serpent, who encircles the world and bites his own tongue…and when he lets go the world will end. Which seems a bit like what Caliborn did, doesn’t it? Not all the way, but he broke the circle early. And then because of that, he reached the point where he could, and tries to, annihilate all of existence. I would love to explore this at greater length but I’m having trouble finding references to it in the Eddas and mythology books I have access to and I don’t want to be like, “Hey guys I read this thing on Wikipedia!”
Anyway, we know Calliope’s goal was a true union, rather than her overpowering Caliborn. Obvs a huge part of this has to do with how cherubs operate, which we don’t know entirely well. Assuming that Calliope will eventually have to face against Caliborn, the same way that her mother did with her father, and in fact all cherubs must do to mate (although obviously they won’t be mating, ew, gross, that’s also the only time cherubs directly interact so it’s our model), and assuming that she’ll be victorious, she’ll either have to kill him or bring about some kind of union, as she originally wanted to. I could see her killing him, for the good of everything, but it would be kind of boring, especially considering the rest of the story. Killing Lord English would leave the circle incomplete, like the one serpent we saw on either of the lollipop jujus.
We do know that one or another cherub’s spirit/soul/personality/whatever will die around reaching adulthood, but the point of Caliborn/Calliope is that they are different, so my guess is that they end up integrating fully into each other somehow, probably as a result of John’s new rule breaking time travel bullshit.
On deaths:
Vriska is going to die/double die. It just makes sense right now. Her issue has to do with wanting to be in the middle of things and wanting attention. So she can sacrifice herself epically, and everyone can recognize that she died being herself.
I can’t really see any of the humans dying, except maybe Jade staying dead. None of them have died permanently yet, unlike the trolls. I can kiiiiiiiind of see the alpha kids all dying. Their consorts were all dead, their session was inert, and they basically couldn’t do anything until the beta kids showed up, so I can see them all dying. But mostly I see the alpha and beta kids making it out alive.
Past that…I don’t know. I already said I don’t think English will die. I think there’s a better than even chance that English will kill Gamzee, or will do something like throw him into a black hole/nightmare zone where he won’t be able to do anything and everything will suck forever. If Gamzee dies I’m definitely expecting it to be at English’s hand.
So being gay myself, I mostly prefer lgb ships. I would expect that there’d be more of that in Homestuck, given trolls are completely bisexual, but it’s super hetero up in here, so I’m not really interested in canon ships.
Kanaya/Rose is my OTP and I’ll be so heartbroken forever if they break up.
I keep waiting for Nepeta/Karkat to happen. It feels like there’s a lot of foreshadowing, with Nepeta being the shipping ace and all, but Nepeta is totally dead and barely present, so maybe not.
I have a soft spot for Karkat/Dave. Dave being constantly snarky and Karkat being constantly earnestly angry just seems like a fine combination. But Dave also is on the record as not being interested in being in an open relationship, and while Karkat doesn’t seem to be actively involved in any kismesis relationships, he also doesn’t seem to be willing to reject it. But I am overthinking a relationship that probably will never be canon.
And I really, really, really want to see Dirk in a happy relationship. Because he is a doll, and also canon gay.
Mostly I care about seeing the platonic relationships. I adore Nepeta/Equius as moirails, they’re so effing cute. So are Vriska and Meenah. I wanna see Vriska and Terezi together again, too. And…more friendships everywhere.