Collection of book commentary for all the things in the profiles that arent on Yuri's blog.
This will be ordered by profile and abilities, not by the actual books or anything.
General[]
Fraymotifs utilize aspects in combat:
"Here's the first concrete evidence that fraymotifs are actual game constructs that players can acquire and use. I believe they were mentioned at least once earlier, though when things are mentioned offhand, you can frequently write them off as whimsical gags or small points of worldbuilding that might not receive further development. But these do, and are presumably some sort of cool spells or battle techniques that you can buy in a shop. The astronomical prices suggest they're late-game maneuvers you can start incorporating into your tactics once you can afford them. And the dual aspect symbols in the shop menu imply the stronger ones are combination attacks. I think I imagined this battle concept much earlier in the story, when the kids' musical interests were more pertinent, and conceived some vague idea that combined their aspect powers with something musical in nature, like playing a song that results in a strong magical attack. Aside from this little shop menu here, mentions of fraymotifs throughout the story are exceedingly rare. There's a brief shot in a smaller panel of Dave and Jade using one later in this act, and that's it. You have to wait until [S] Collide to see a few of them in action, in an actual animated setting. Frankly, they were never even invented to be shown on-screen in an explicit way. I considered their appearance in Collide as sort of bonus material, like throwing a bone to anyone who remembered these were a thing. The point of hinting at a system like this is to capture the imagination—to let readers speculate about what these mysterious things could be and how they might be used in a typical session—and not so much to provide a concrete indicator of what's to come. In short, it's more background lore in a story where stuff like this is fun to think about, but not the real focus."
Book 5, page 470, website's page 3080
Dave and Rose physically emerged from the Green sun rather than being teleported
"Okay, I said she was rising above mortal concerns forever starting now, but that's not quite right. She's going to offer some help to our favorite mortals (who will be immortal by the time she meets them) at this rendezvous point, and then she will commence her narrative retirement forever. There's also some casual misdirection here. Soon, friends will arrive. This is true, but not in the way we're being led to believe. Review what we know: John is busy extracting the Tumor. Rose is planning a suicide mission, wherein the Tumor is used to destroy the green sun, to deprive Jack of his power. So we assume this means they will be arriving soon with the Tumor, and Aradia is waiting here, ready to assist them. Whoops, wrong. [S] Cascade shows the truth. Their mission was recently completed, resulting in the creation of the green sun. Dave and Rose were standing on their Quest Slabs when the bomb went off, elevating them to god tier status, thus allowing them to survive the blast. But it also means they're buried in this huge green sun, and will take some time to emerge. So, yes, this is correct. They will arrive soon, and they will need her help. But the missing information is /takes a deep breath, whilst preparing to deploy an extremely Lord English voice/ THEY ARE ALREADY HERE."
Book 6, page 356, website's page 3569
Alpha Timeline dictates destiny
"Here Karkat starts talking to another murderer who doesn't know he's a murderer yet, and who frustratingly doesn't believe Karkat when he tells him about it. It makes sense that Eridan doesn't believe him, since Karkat's talking about his future magic wand, and Eridan is on record as knowing magic to be fake. It's not that frustrating he doesn't believe Karkat though, because if he did, then that would change the past, resulting in this turning into a doomed timeline. But wait a minute... Now it seems like everyone is suddenly dying, so... How could anyone be sure this isn't a doomed timeline resulting from just such an intervention? What exactly is preventing Karkat from suspecting he's forked off somehow into a doomed timeline, resulting in the systematic demise of his friends? (Aside from the fact that he's probably too freaked out to consider that possibility.) If this were a doomed timeline, that would mean it's possible the right thing to do would be to try to alter the past via Trollian and set things back onto the rails of the alpha timeline, which is basically what happened with Davesprite. He, a strict product of a doomed timeline, is instrumental in the course correction which the alpha timeline needed to continue. Okay, I'm probably starting to slightly confuse myself, whilst massively confusing you. The bottom line is, even if Karkat did think "This is a doomed timeline, and I need to fix it," it still wouldn't have worked, because this isn't a doomed timeline. It's the alpha timeline, and everyone dying here is just normal-doomed, not doomed-doomed. There's a clear distinction between those things. If you're doomed-doomed, it means you're living in a non-viable timeline, which is running its course and tapering off into oblivion, sort of as a means of Paradox Space keeping itself tidy. But if you're just normal-doomed, it means your death was an important event in the long chain of authoritative actions which were all necessary to keep reality itself propped up. So does that mean it's better to be normal-doomed than doomed-doomed? I'm not sure. I guess you could ask some ghosts about it. Though chances are, the normal ghosts don't feel substantially more honored than the doomed ghosts for having died a relevant death. Mostly they stop caring about any mortality issues at all, and get back on their bullshit as soon as possible upon entering the dream bubbles."
Book 6, page 200, website's page 3361
"This carries the implication that Gamzee really could have snapped at any time, and it was only by the grace of the alpha timeline that he didn't until now. But clearly some doomed timelines were plagued by his murderous impulses. Which undercuts the idea that his truest nature is that of a sweet and peaceful softclown. This excerpt frames this particular Aradiabot as particularly important and heroic. Not only did she contribute to the Black King fight like all the others, she also salvaged an aborted timeline Davesprite-style, brough an important code book with her, and finally, was also the one who brought Lil Cal to Alternia by getting smacked by a meteor. We got a lot of mileage out of this Aradiabot. Also note how we start to see some dreamers drifting away from the crowd as they wake up, reducing the clutter. That's all right, they got the gist. They probably understood what they were seeing only marginally less than we did anyway."
Book 6, page 376, website's page 3609
John Egbert[]
Hacking Knowledge
"He talks about hacking codes to theoretically extract simpler items. Which is exactly what he does later to make the rocket pack. So there you go. This entry was not merely a nerdish indulgence, but provided critical foreshadowing which you skimmed over."
Book 2, page 63, website's 845
Jade Harley[]
Pictionary Modus trading platonic concepts for discrete ideas
"Why, yes, that is Charles Dutton. The algorithms for the Scribblepad lean very generously toward Dutton-recognizing patterns, thanks to Jade. The Scribblepad is definitely one of the more fun types of fetch modi. Maybe the most fun. It does quite a bit to show that captchalogue technology really can be ANYTHING, and also does a bit more to hint at the underlying logic of Homestuck's universe. It's a universe not so much of physics as of discrete ideas, and devices that trade in these platonic concepts can understand nothing else. When the user scribbles something, the system will search for not only that which it knows, but that which can ONLY be known, to anyone. There's nothing in between, nothing more subtle. Of course, Dutton knows all this. You can just tell."
Book 3, page 37, website's 1378
Aradia Megido[]
She could hold Bec Noir in a headlock
"Aradia currently is an exceptional portrait of a character who absolutely has her shit together finally, in every way possible. I think you will agree she is coming across here as something of a "bad ass." If she didn't straight-up decide to just peace out through Jack as a portal, and if Homestuck rolled somewhat differently, it wouldn't be hard to imagine her unfreezing Jack, getting him in a headlock, and absolutely whaling on him in a frightful display of dominance. But no, it doesn't roll that way, mainly because my tendency was to gravitate away from outcomes involving depictions of action and physical conflict due to it being such a pain in the ass to execute. Also it would probably be stupid if that's what happened next. Mainly because now Aradia herself, like me, also gravitates away from conflict, due to this radical god tier-fueled transformation of her persona into an fairly unusual death and destruction-worshipping pacifist type. Sometimes a character will get their shit together so hard, they experience such a profound transcendence of all the petty matters related to the conflicts and plot, that there's really nothing left for them to do but bounce from the story almost entirely. That's basically what she's doing here. She's absconding to a different plane of reality, and rising above all the petty concerns of mortal beings forever."
Book 6, page 355, website's 3566
Gamzee Makara[]
He is a blind spot on Terezi's possibility vision
"Terezi has multiple layers of blindness. She is literally blind (i.e. her eyes don't work). But she can still see (via other senses). But she's legally blind, sort of (her nasal sonar makes things blurry, she walks with a cane, and draws like shit). But she has a greater degree of perspicacity in other ways, through her Mind aspect, her cleverness and insight into others, and so on. But she also has certain "blind spots," not unlike Doc does. Some blind spots are similar to everyone else's, like navigating stupid romantic issues with troublesome boys like Karkat. But probably her biggest blind spot is localized on Gamzee himself. Here she worries for his safety, in a fit of vintage Murderstuck dramatic irony. But it's more than just a gag. She just can't seem to lock on to him as a source of trouble, negativity, or outright evil. She gives him the benefit of the doubt, overlooks the red flags, and keeps him in her life long beyond the moment when she should have cut him loose. This acute case of Clown Blindness seems to be the entire foundation of the Gamrezi debacle. It's not until the retcon stunt—which she designs in part to break some negative patterns in her life—that she finally lifts the clown curse. All it took to wake her up was to get John to honk a horn at the exact right moment. If only we all had a John with a horn at the exact moment in our lives when we needed him to honk the most."
Book 6, page 205, website's 3368
Becquerel[]
Can fetch photons
1:40 - There's a variation on this game which is played with a flashlight instead of a rifle, and Bec fetches the photons.
Book 2, page 150, website's 980
"Becquerel had to bolt suddenly because someone on the other side of the world just threw a tennis ball."
Book 2, page 125, website's 944
Doc Scratch[]
Author role
"It's already evident that Doc Scratch has been manipulating circumstances to help this gruesome series of events unfold. He's always there at the right moment to nudge people in the direction of doing the nasty thing that, deep down, they already know they want to do. Like any self-respecting devil figure would. A couple pages ago, you might have noticed Terezi and Aradia alluding to his presence, when Tavros was in the process of jumping off the cliff. He asked them for help, but they didn't answer. The reason apparently was that Doc was distracting them, to ensure Vriska had the time to get the job done. It also seems likely he egged her on too, given what he's saying to her here. Maybe he'd been inflaming her contempt for Tavros leading up to that moment as well? Whispering things in her ear about what a loser he is, how he'll never become strong without her "help." He'd surely know just what buttons to push. One reading of Doc is as a manipulative devil-creep in the model of many fictional characters who fit this description; he's a fairly recognizable and traditional presence in the story, when viewed that way. A less traditional reading centers on his role on a metatextual level, as a nefarious, all-knowing, profoundly evil alt-author presence. A guy who has the full powers of the author, who essentially IS the author with certain dark authorial impulses greatly exaggerated, while functioning as a character in the story who can speak to and influence other characters in support of an evil agenda. (That is, the summoning of yet another, even more satanic alt-author being into the comic.) Viewed this way, his conversations with other characters take on a different quality. Normally, the author remains a disguised presence and influences the thoughts of characters with an unseen hand, simply by writing their thoughts directly into their heads, their words into their mouths. This alt-author is essentially doing the same thing, but as an actual character and a known presence to those he influences. He whispers in their ears, gets them to do the nasty, terrible things that are latent within their nature to do, which I as the unseen author easily could have done myself through a conventional writing process. But I outsourced that dark influence to this guy, thus establishing him as a narrative construct in the story on the same level as, but at odds with, the actual author. This surreptitiously lays the groundwork for a future point of tension: a narrative war between an Idiot God and a Genius Devil. Which, admittedly, when the shit finally hits the fan, mostly reads as one buffoon's struggle with a figment of his imagination, in the form of a wrestling match with a floppy, inanimate puppet. It's actually the perfect metaphor signifying the creative rocess behind this comic. Doc here refers to the dark spots, the pockets of void on which his vision is built. These hint at limitations to his omniscience. As an alt-author figure, his omniscience makes sense, since the author has sweeping knowledge of story details as well. Because I "know everything," he "knows everything" too. Of course, as I write the story, there are plenty of things I don't know yet, and the "not knowing" is always an important part of the process in this largely improvisational medium. The known gaps are worked into the story, evaded through time skips and other tricks, filling out the surrounding narrative until certain answers become clearer, and then revealed at the right moment. The voids are built around, and in a real way, become foundational, almost load-bearing gaps in knowledge, just as he describes. Pillars of shadow. So his dark spots are not only a limitation to an otherwise ridiculously overpowered villain that can be exploited, they're a feature of a specific type of "authorial omniscience" copied into his profile."
Book 4, page 217, website's 2244
Caliborn[]
Horrorterrors are affected by inevitability
"The gods seem really desperate to destroy this code and break the endless loop of destruction that leads to the emergence of Lord English, even though they must know they can't stop it. It doesn't seem that clear why they'd be so desperate to prevent something they know is predestined to happen—until we start seeing some of the destructive potential of LE in Act 6. Then, in Act 7, it becomes super clear why they'd want to stop it. In the end, HS is a tragic tale about billions of hideous eldritch monsters who try in vain to avert their own demise, in order to continue being innocently unfathomable and nefarious for eternity. So sad."
Book 3, page 361, website's 1856
Cairo Overcoat deattachment
"Cairo Overcoat talk: I think I covered some basics in the Intermission book. It's an idea imported from Problem Sleuth, with object-duality properties—at times it's a coat, and at other times it's a sarcophagus. In PS, the Chicago Overcoat was the final boss's method of transport (a pirate ship) and was also an old mobster term for a coffin. When I adapted this idea for Lord English, I made both the coffin and overcoat parts of the euphemism literal, by making it a dual-state coat/sarcophagus. Okay, whew, that was an explanation, but these are the most trivial things to say about the coat. Because I seem to be making a big deal about it in this scene, you know some other stuff is going on with it. First, it's just indicative of the fact that we're waiting for LE. An empty wrapper, ready to be filled. And since it's also a vessel, his chariot awaits. The eerie, blue inner lining? The coat is yet another metafictional construct. The blue lining is something I contrived to serve as a visual barrier between characters in the story, and things happening on the other side of the 4th wall, i.e. the "real" (fakereal) world. I put the coat up on the wall to block them from seeing any obtrusive, distracting nonsense on my side of the wall that would mess with your suspension of disbelief too much (I get into this issue more directly later with a really bad "pledge" written in SBaHJ-style font and artifacts). The consequence of this is, from the character's POV, the 4th wall appears to emulate a "blue screen of death" type of computer crash. It mimics a simple terminal glitch, which can be written off as an innocent technology malfunction. The truth though has more to do with the properties and symbolism of the coat itself. "Why don't we get back to what's happening on the other side of the coat" is the line that leads back into the story action. Which implies that the coat functions as sort of a delineating barrier between one sort of reality and another. Which the 4th wall already was, but the coat added another non-permeable layer to the dividing plane. It's like a sort of membrane, producing an almost electrostatic buffer that shields one field of narrative potential from another. And if AH understands this on some level, then he's making some (for now) good faith effort to insulate the narrative from this 4th wall meta-fuckery. But the shielding can only last as long as LE himself has not been summoned yet, and is not wearing the coat, which would remove it from the wall (this happens in [S] Cascade, conveniently just before Jade's golden ship crashes through the wall to traverse between sessions, or narrative realms). And since this construct is associated with LE, its partitioning effect also has some insidious implications. As a supreme author-tier villain who wears this thing, its insulating, enveloping effect serves to keep him detached and distinct from the narrative field which he terrorizes. In his absence, it seems I'm "unwittingly" using it to envelop the narrative itself, starting now. It's almost like the story is now wearing the coat. And as a result, he's managing to stake a sort of claim over it. As if to say, this is mine, or intrinsically consists of me and my evil desires. The story is keeping my coat warm until I'm able to fill it physically. And now is also the moment where Doc is beginning to become more aggressive in directly pulling the strings on the story to bring about the emergence of his master. It seems like poor AH here doesn't know what he's doing when he's doing this, but clearly I did. This is about as illustrative as anything of the fact that there's a significant difference between AH the character and AH the author."
Book 6, page 72, Webcomic page 3229