Can Town (The Official Homestuck Thread)

[SiFi]

i figured that she'd learned english on the meteor

probably while working on can town

While making that post I recalled that there was at least one occasion of Trolls writing in English before they even finish their session. Namely, when Vriska asks Tavros to finish her off so she can ascend. Maybe they picked it up from the Carapacians? Or is there an even earlier example of them using/understanding it?

What if, no matter how far back you look in Alternian history, English is already therHOLD ON A MINUTE

 

[Dr. Javelin]

What if, no matter how far back you look in Alternian history, English is already therHOLD ON A MINUTE

what

WHAT

MIND = BLOWN

 

[SiFi]

What if it's a language they only use in relation to death, like for Troll Last Will and Testaments, which can kind of vaguely be seen as what Vriska and Terezi wrote? LE is their Grim Reaper figure, after all.

Then again they didn't seem in any way culture shocked when they saw the humans using it exclusively

 

[Nabber]

JOHN: when you start looking back and realizing how interrelated everything is, it starts feeling like an overwhelming job to fix it.

man hussie hates this story more than i do

 

[Walkazo]

i figured that she'd learned english on the meteor

probably while working on can town

While making that post I recalled that there was at least one occasion of Trolls writing in English before they even finish their session. Namely, when Vriska asks Tavros to finish her off so she can ascend. Maybe they picked it up from the Carapacians? Or is there an even earlier example of them using/understanding it?

What if, no matter how far back you look in Alternian history, English is already therHOLD ON A MINUTE

Lol, but seeing as they made our universe, maybe it's the other way around, and we got English from them like how we got the Western Zodiac. Or, seeing as the Carapacians speak it, perhaps English is just a constant amongst the societies that give rise to Sburb players to ensure universal communication. With Alternian being the ceremonial language (which can also be used for stylistic reasons, like how Japanese uses katakana or roman letters for titles sometimes), while English is the common tongue.

 

[Lin Beifong]

You know, I wasn't joking with the Gift of Gab comment.

Before people started to get that badge, the bulk of communication happened via chat clients, which could have some sort of translation feature built in. Or maybe whatever modifications Sollux made to their Trollian client, it translated Alternian to English and vice versa, and whenever we see the Trolls speak or write in English, it's just a cosmetic effect for the audience's convenience and they're actually still using Alternian.

The Gift of Gab's purpose is apparently to allow people to freely talk face to face. That's kind of a silly ability, but if all the different cultures were to speak different languages, then a badge that allows communication without distractions would suddenly make sense, because a language barrier is essentially nothing more than a really persistent distraction.

 

[Walkazo]

English did show up a couple non-cosmetic times - in the ATH book and the Thresh Prince of Bel-Air (unlike all the Alternian movie posters), plus all the coded GCAT writing the trolls did in blood/chalk/etc. on the walls. Also, Karkat could read the bucket letter John wrote to them right when they all met up on the Meteor despite not having the Gift of Gab or going through Trollian.

Really, I just wrote off the Gift of Gab stuff in general as 2meta4me (and in-comic, Dave and Jade later make fun of the camper sash stuff not really existing, which made me happy). Hussie even relented and said on Tumblr or something that the kids could talk to each other (i.e. when Jade and Dave were catching frogs) all along, and presumably Equius and Vriska and the sea-dwellers all had face-to-face conversations even before the game started (and of the pre-scratch trolls, at the very least, Rufio and Damara knew each other in-person before the game).

 

[SiFi]

So hey I'm digging the art style in the new Paradox Space. And we finally found out what happened to Larry, one of the five good trolls mentioned in the pdf that came with the Alternia album!

 

[Walkazo]

Yeah, it's looking like a good 'un.


Also, I just stayed up all night writing a 2600 word essay for school (it's 7:00 AM now, woo, that's what I get for not starting the writing until after I read the midnight Homestuck update (although in my defence, I'd been working on the research and outlining for a while)), and after listening to some other things while I worked, I started going through the Homestuck albums starting from 6, and ended up writing the conclusion during Cascade, finishing right on word 2600 just as the song ended. Oh yeah.

'Course, I still gotta add the pain-in-the-ass list of references (why'd I cite 33 things? whyyyyy?). We'll call this part Act 6, but hopefully it'll go faster, because now I'm getting tied, even though I had some birthday cake for breakfast - the sugar has not kicked in yet. Act 7 will be the dreams I have when I nap through today's boring seminar.

Thus endeth my shaggy dog story for today.

 

[SiFi]

It's just occurred to me that the yellow brick road surrounding that stage is probably English's way of luring everyone he hates into one place.

At first I was wondering if John undoing the GAME OVER disaster would cause Jade and Jane to just disappear from that place with no memory of it or something, but then I remembered it's not the same Jade so it's probably not the same Jane either.

 

[Dr. Javelin]

Only John would tell Terezi that he winked when her eyes are clearly visible.

 

[SiFi]

Has he ever seen her without her glasses before? Would he know that normal looking meant cured?

 

[Walkazo]

Blind human eyes often look completely normal, so I don't fault him for thinking she was still blind. The fact that she (and everyone else) were completely derped out the whole time doesn't make her look particularly sighted either.

Gotta say, John's adorableness and the interesting branching/password link stuff makes it much easier to tolerate the wanton retconning.

 

[Lin Beifong]

Well, I don't necessarily doubt the existence or validity of this pairing, but I have to say I'm disappointed because this couple did not get the same amount of establishment as Aang and Katara.

...

Wait a minute, I think I'm having a déjà vu.

 

[Walkazo]

I thought it was just the human emotion called friendship.

(or a possible Moirallegiance since Meenah keeps dampening Vriska's instinct to wonder about everything (a precursor to wanting to be involved in everything))

 

[Spamton G. Spamton]

I really REALLY want them to be moirails instead of matesprits because they would be so much better that way mostly due to what Walkazo just said.
Also oh my god Vriska's new look

 

[Lin Beifong]

Ugh... betrayed by Marowak. How far I have fallen.

Well anyway, could be pale, could be red, could be anything. Personally I hope it is red because it removes Meenah as a threat to my OTP because they have a nice dynamic going between them and would make a nice couple.

 

[Spamton G. Spamton]

I thought it was just the human emotion called friendship.

(or a possible Moirallegiance since Meenah keeps dampening Vriska's instinct to wonder about everything (a precursor to wanting to be involved in everything))

Also, friendship isn't an emotion, numbnuts.

 

[Nabber]

i wouldn't necessarily have a problem with matespritship or anything but moraillaigence or however it's spelled would be better

 

[Walkazo]

Ugh... betrayed by Marowak. How far I have fallen.

Well anyway, could be pale, could be red, could be anything. Personally I hope it is red because it removes Meenah as a threat to my OTP because they have a nice dynamic going between them and would make a nice couple.

Yeah, they have good chemistry either way, but their dynamics just seem more like Moirails than Matesprits to me.

I feel like despite the Dave x Terezi and Karkat x Meenah stuff, both of which I find interesting and would be okay with, I still feel like Karkat x Terezi is the one that'll be the real deal in the end. I just always think back to him telling himself "YOU WANT HER IN EVERY QUADRANT LIKE A DESPERATE FOOL" - he really does (and their interactions have indeed run the gamut of symbols), and while that's no good for trolls, that's more like how humans roll (as Vriska (iirc) once said, he would've made a better human than troll), and it relates back to the Signless/Sufferer and his quadrant-transcending love for the Disciple. Plus, Dave broke up with her because he couldn't handle the quadrants either, which seems like some sorta parallel to Karkat's dilemma. And then there's the fact that Karkat died for her (while Dave died for Jade) - with her Seer powers, there's a very real possibility that even with the non-timeline-dooming-retconning shenanigans, Terezi might be able to "remember" that.

Although, something that occurred to me today regarding the retconning is that if Aranea doesn't turn traitor, Meenah and Vriska wouldn't be hanging out like they are: part of their bonding was over Aranea ditching them, as Meenah braided Vriska's hair - which is still braided. So maybe the fact that we're still following their non-erased plotline, along with the blatant dig abut Aranea not being important anymore, means she's still gonna screw shit up. (Or maybe she'll just show up and it'll be the same somehow anyway, idk.)

I thought it was just the human emotion called friendship.

(or a possible Moirallegiance since Meenah keeps dampening Vriska's instinct to wonder about everything (a precursor to wanting to be involved in everything))

Also, friendship isn't an emotion, numbnuts.

Isn't it, Marowak?
Isn't it?

 

[Spamton G. Spamton]

Ugh... betrayed by Marowak. How far I have fallen.

Well anyway, could be pale, could be red, could be anything. Personally I hope it is red because it removes Meenah as a threat to my OTP because they have a nice dynamic going between them and would make a nice couple.

Yeah, they have good chemistry either way, but their dynamics just seem more like Moirails than Matesprits to me.

I feel like despite the Dave x Terezi and Karkat x Meenah stuff, both of which I find interesting and would be okay with, I still feel like Karkat x Terezi is the one that'll be the real deal in the end. I just always think back to him telling himself "YOU WANT HER IN EVERY QUADRANT LIKE A DESPERATE FOOL" - he really does (and their interactions have indeed run the gamut of symbols), and while that's no good for trolls, that's more like how humans roll (as Vriska (iirc) once said, he would've made a better human than troll), and it relates back to the Signless/Sufferer and his quadrant-transcending love for the Disciple. Plus, Dave broke up with her because he couldn't handle the quadrants either, which seems like some sorta parallel to Karkat's dilemma. And then there's the fact that Karkat died for her (while Dave died for Jade) - with her Seer powers, there's a very real possibility that even with the non-timeline-dooming-retconning shenanigans, Terezi might be able to "remember" that.

Although, something that occurred to me today regarding the retconning is that if Aranea doesn't turn traitor, Meenah and Vriska wouldn't be hanging out like they are: part of their bonding was over Aranea ditching them, as Meenah braided Vriska's hair - which is still braided. So maybe the fact that we're still following their non-erased plotline, along with the blatant dig abut Aranea not being important anymore, means she's still gonna screw shit up. (Or maybe she'll just show up and it'll be the same somehow anyway, idk.)

I thought it was just the human emotion called friendship.

(or a possible Moirallegiance since Meenah keeps dampening Vriska's instinct to wonder about everything (a precursor to wanting to be involved in everything))

Also, friendship isn't an emotion, numbnuts.

Isn't it, Marowak?
Isn't it?

It totally isn't.
Also, I agree with you on the whole Aranea part. Because we have to remember that getting the ring has a subtile consequence, as Terezi described it along with the other retcons John is going to do. And I really don't think that preventing Aranea from fucking up the session by killing Jade, Jake AND Jane is subtle at all which really makes me wonder how the hell this whole thing is gonna go down.

 

[Dr. Javelin]

well now it looks like terezi sent john to ruin karkat x terezi?

uh, ok

 

[Lin Beifong]

Well, ok. Way to ruin one of the sweetest moments of the comic.

I hope there's still some room in that lava pool, Karkat, because here I come!

 

[Walkazo]

I'd say that maybe the goal was to make Terezi not feel dependent on Karkat and just be with him as equals, but that was never their dynamic to begin with iirc - if anything, he's the needy one, and while it was never stable (again, mostly thanks to him), it still wasn't anywhere near as terrible as what happened to her once she and Gamzee fell into their blackrom: that's the "him" you'd think she'd need warning off from. Which makes me wonder if perhaps the specifics of these early changes don't matter, with them really just functioning as a way to get Terezi's attention, so when John starts going things that matter, she'll be like "it's the blue prankster again" and pay attention instead of just thinking "that's weird" like she probably did about the missing witness or the mysterious message on the wall about her one-on-one conversation with Karkat. Or perhaps they're adding up in other ways - like, she'll have John deliver the witness dragon when she's about to get sucked into a relationship with Gamzee, and then it'll remind her of the message, and she won't do it.

 

[Spamton G. Spamton]

Yeah i was kind of suspecting Gamzee is the "he" she meant. The question is though, why at that specific MOM3NT? Why was the message that spoke about her future fucked up kismesis relayed to her just AFTER she is done talking with her...kinda sorta future not really flush boyfriend? The first time we see Terezi display black feelings for Gamzee was right before Cascade, so yeah, kinda weird.
Alsoihateyoujohnhowdareyousaydoctorwhoisalameshow> .