Chapter 7: Distress Call from the Closet

[Kidpen]

Back to Vrissy and the gang.

[thorondraco]

PEsterquest finale and homesuck^2. feels like crimbo. With all the shitty jpeg stockigns.

Also quite suddenly, we have a have room sprites. A room introducing itself too. It feels like they are finally launching off somewehre.

[thorondraco]

OMFG Harry is a goddamn fashion.... what do you call it when its a dude who likes fashion?

[overThinker]

who else is pissed that john isnt emulating dad egbert lol

[thorondraco]

who else is pissed that john isnt emulating dad egbert lol

not really honestly. I imagine he shaved it once he began feeling nothing like a dad.

[davehomestuck]

vrissy is great as always but I'm mad they didn't show karkat or meenah please

[ThePungeonMaster]

Liked it overall, but there was a lot I didn't like. I speculated that the usage of sprites was exclusive to meat, because it was more like OG Homestuck, what Dirk was trying to emulate, but now that sprites are being used in candy, I'm less inclined to give the team credit for this move as an artistic decision and now think it's done more in the spirit of laziness. The pace was glacial, as I've come to expect. Like, this was the new Karkat's first panel in the entire comic that has been ongoing for 6 months now, and we see a quarter of his face. They really don't need to tease us with this. The only thing salvaging this update was John's reaction at the end. It was the only thing in this update that really made me feel like they knew what they were doing here. John's fucking reaction says so much, and actually feels cathartic in the grand scheme of things, so good on you for that, team. Overall, kinda middling so far as updates go.

[epimetheusEmrys]

Yo this is pretty epic ngl

[trying]

vrissy is great as always but I'm mad they didn't show karkat or meenah please

Basically this. Was excited for more vrissy, she could have starred in more panels. I'm pretty pissed they did not show us karkat or meenah. Room gag was nice, nobody retrieved any arms though unfortunately. Brody has crocs, reminds me of my sister lol.

[thorondraco]

Liked it overall, but there was a lot I didn't like. I speculated that the usage of sprites was exclusive to meat, because it was more like OG Homestuck, what Dirk was trying to emulate, but now that sprites are being used in candy, I'm less inclined to give the team credit for this move as an artistic decision and now think it's done more in the spirit of laziness. The pace was glacial, as I've come to expect. Like, this was the new Karkat's first panel in the entire comic that has been ongoing for 6 months now, and we see a quarter of his face. They really don't need to tease us with this. The only thing salvaging this update was John's reaction at the end. It was the only thing in this update that really made me feel like they knew what they were doing here. John's fucking reaction says so much, and actually feels cathartic in the grand scheme of things, so good on you for that, team. Overall, kinda middling so far as updates go.

It depends i think on who is going to 'be part of the game' as it were. And we are pretty certain that these kids are gonna be part of the game at some point and this might be someone showing his hand. The one conveying this part of the story to us.

[SteperOfTheLongEarth]

We back in boys!

We finally got the kids to stop playing around with the dumb dead clown (should have just left him there...)
Harry is a theater kid, Vriska steals shit again!
And finally get to see Candy Jon and Roxy!! Fuck yeah! And John is looking better!

Issues though: there was some mumblings I saw floating around twitter and I agree with the rumors but I think it is official. SOMETHING is rotten in the state of Candy. Because I think this chapter really establishes that things are not the same as they were in the epilogues. For one thing: John doesn't have a mustache like it said he did. He's clean shaven as all get out now.

This goes back to how in the Epilogues Jake and Jane definitely got the divorce papers all squared away but in HS^2 they don't?

I was also hearing about how this ties into Pester Quest somehow? (I still haven't played it yet so I can't say for certain.) But it boils down to either MSPAR fucked something up, or because writers change whatever they feel like it and the characters just suffer the consequences? Either that or John is somehow changing things without realizing it? He is as of right now the closest thing we have to an author ANYTHING in Candy right now. Dirk is dead. Alt!Calliope fucked off with Davebot and Aradia. And Gamzze is super dead so no questionable perception of the narrative going on right now...

Also ghost are apparently incorporeal now? Even though they never had trouble picking up shit in the first ring before? A least that's a sort of good excuse for why Meenah had to steal the ring of life from John I guess?

So the theory I heard on the twitters is that Candy is now acting like a fix-it fic. Getting almost but not ALL of the details right from the original story and putting them in new context. It also doesn't help that we don't know WHO the narrator of Candy was. Alt! Calliope is a really good guess and for now until we know otherwise I'm going to continue to believe it was, but I'm expecting a big twist on it. Now, question: If Alt!Calliope WAS the narrator of Candy, who it the narrator now? Is it John of all people?? I don't know what to expect.

What are your guy's thoughts?

[BrobyDDark]

Harry Anderson's dorky room and John Egbert smile simultaneously save Homestuck2.

[ThePungeonMaster]

Issues though: there was some mumblings I saw floating around twitter and I agree with the rumors but I think it is official. SOMETHING is rotten in the state of Candy. Because I think this chapter really establishes that things are not the same as they were in the epilogues. For one thing: John doesn't have a mustache like it said he did. He's clean shaven as all get out now.

Yeah, what the fuck did happen to his stache? Thinking about it, that was one of the main things I wanted to see when John showed up in Candy.

[thorondraco]

We back in boys!

We finally got the kids to stop playing around with the dumb dead clown (should have just left him there...)
Harry is a theater kid, Vriska steals shit again!
And finally get to see Candy Jon and Roxy!! Fuck yeah! And John is looking better!

Issues though: there was some mumblings I saw floating around twitter and I agree with the rumors but I think it is official. SOMETHING is rotten in the state of Candy. Because I think this chapter really establishes that things are not the same as they were in the epilogues. For one thing: John doesn't have a mustache like it said he did. He's clean shaven as all get out now.

This goes back to how in the Epilogues Jake and Jane definitely got the divorce papers all squared away but in HS^2 they don't?

I was also hearing about how this ties into Pester Quest somehow? (I still haven't played it yet so I can't say for certain.) But it boils down to either MSPAR fucked something up, or because writers change whatever they feel like it and the characters just suffer the consequences? Either that or John is somehow changing things without realizing it? He is as of right now the closest thing we have to an author ANYTHING in Candy right now. Dirk is dead. Alt!Calliope fucked off with Davebot and Aradia. And Gamzze is super dead so no questionable perception of the narrative going on right now...

Also ghost are apparently incorporeal now? Even though they never had trouble picking up shit in the first ring before? A least that's a sort of good excuse for why Meenah had to steal the ring of life from John I guess?

So the theory I heard on the twitters is that Candy is now acting like a fix-it fic. Getting almost but not ALL of the details right from the original story and putting them in new context. It also doesn't help that we don't know WHO the narrator of Candy was. Alt! Calliope is a really good guess and for now until we know otherwise I'm going to continue to believe it was, but I'm expecting a big twist on it. Now, question: If Alt!Calliope WAS the narrator of Candy, who it the narrator now? Is it John of all people?? I don't know what to expect.

What are your guy's thoughts?

For starters they needed to help differentiate john from jake here. both having the moustache would be distarcting. Also he was only mentioned having it way back when Harry was a kid.

When it comes ot the ghsot that is a new detail. We never actually see or hear much of the ghosts except for the whole 'forgiveness baptism' with gamzee, feferi and eridan. But at the same time they aren't in a dream bubble here, they are in a universe so they might be more 'ghosty' now. Like aradia when she first appeared but more visible i presume.

The pesterquest, not really. We had some of homestuck^2 cross into it but there was no major changes cept the possilbity of a more sad dave.

Also at this point its clear that alll of this is happening during the Week mentioned by John at the end of homestuck^2. WE know cause this chapter is during the point where John takes his son out for a drive. That week is a blindspot.

The only actual problem right now is that they made, lets face it, a SUPER easy to make mistake. Basically Karkat talking about how he calmed Gamzee down with a shooshpap. But that was preretcon. That is sucha prevalent part of Karkat wholse thing pre retcon. So its easy to have that overshadow the lack of shooshpap post retcon.
Also its an easy fix cause just edit the dialogue. Mention that it wasn't 'him' as it were.

it makes sense for meenah to bring it up cause she will often confuse this karkat for the old one she knew.....

To be fair it might also be deliberate on the part of the writers to imply something is going on. Because the ultimate self exists, it is a link to all incarnations of oneself and its possible details may slide through the the cracks. A person remembering someone from a life they didn't currently live. Actually that happens in the bonus update in a deliberate manner, a certain someone remembering details of another life.

FUCK, far as we know it is narrators and such that keep them away from those memories and a narrator can make a flub and let them remember something by accident. This karkat did not shooshpap but the memory of doing so exists in his ultimate self.

[lavendersiren]

Hm... I think I sorta get what's going on here now.
Being linked back to the candy epilogue and rereading John and Roxy's conversation, it kinda puts things into perspective a bit. According to John, or whoever is narrating, things are finally starting to have weight to them again. Of course, Roxy reminds us all that just because something isn't integral to a cosmic narrative doesn't mean it isn't worth enjoying. One of the running narrative themes in candy was the constant reminders that everything "doesn't matter" in that timeline, likely a message perpetuated by Calliope. In my opinion, candy would have been a lot smoother to read if the juicy drama wasn't undermined by these constant reminders, but others might think differently, idk.

But, this is also near the point where Calliope makes the exit from Candy, meaning that with this power vacuum, it is suddenly free to be interpreted differently, by another narrator figure.
More than likely, it's Dirk pulling the strings in some manner.

Now, back to chapter 7...
When John gets the news of the clown finally dying, he is thrilled at the prospect of some sort of plot rolling forwards.
Shit's about to get real in candyland, and we're not gonna have to deal with Calliope's uninterested narrative style souring the experience!

I can't wait to see where this plot leads to.


also, blue crocs

[thorondraco]

We back in boys!

We finally got the kids to stop playing around with the dumb dead clown (should have just left him there...)
Harry is a theater kid, Vriska steals shit again!
And finally get to see Candy Jon and Roxy!! Fuck yeah! And John is looking better!

Issues though: there was some mumblings I saw floating around twitter and I agree with the rumors but I think it is official. SOMETHING is rotten in the state of Candy. Because I think this chapter really establishes that things are not the same as they were in the epilogues. For one thing: John doesn't have a mustache like it said he did. He's clean shaven as all get out now.

This goes back to how in the Epilogues Jake and Jane definitely got the divorce papers all squared away but in HS^2 they don't?

I was also hearing about how this ties into Pester Quest somehow? (I still haven't played it yet so I can't say for certain.) But it boils down to either MSPAR fucked something up, or because writers change whatever they feel like it and the characters just suffer the consequences? Either that or John is somehow changing things without realizing it? He is as of right now the closest thing we have to an author ANYTHING in Candy right now. Dirk is dead. Alt!Calliope fucked off with Davebot and Aradia. And Gamzze is super dead so no questionable perception of the narrative going on right now...

Also ghost are apparently incorporeal now? Even though they never had trouble picking up shit in the first ring before? A least that's a sort of good excuse for why Meenah had to steal the ring of life from John I guess?

So the theory I heard on the twitters is that Candy is now acting like a fix-it fic. Getting almost but not ALL of the details right from the original story and putting them in new context. It also doesn't help that we don't know WHO the narrator of Candy was. Alt! Calliope is a really good guess and for now until we know otherwise I'm going to continue to believe it was, but I'm expecting a big twist on it. Now, question: If Alt!Calliope WAS the narrator of Candy, who it the narrator now? Is it John of all people?? I don't know what to expect.

What are your guy's thoughts?

there are a few more timelines issues here and there though admitably. one part being that it is stated to have been a week between vriska's arrival, jake coming in, and john meeting roxy, but it seems like the meeting in question is happening on a shorter timescale than before and a week has very much not passed.

But yea ALL of this is pre Calliope's escape from the black hole so that isn't in question.....

Unless is intentional meta shit? I remember seeing a comment by by Aysha that replied to someone asking about this inconsistency when it comes ot the divorce, and she simply replied 'it is isn't it?" They made an edit but it didn't include the divorce?

Basically this whole meta shit is reality manipulation so maybe something has happened that accelerated the timeline, and the original depiction is losing out to this new one?

I mean they litreally directly link to that conversation in story too.

[thorondraco]

Hm... I think I sorta get what's going on here now.
Being linked back to the candy epilogue and rereading John and Roxy's conversation, it kinda puts things into perspective a bit. According to John, or whoever is narrating, things are finally starting to have weight to them again. Of course, Roxy reminds us all that just because something isn't integral to a cosmic narrative doesn't mean it isn't worth enjoying. One of the running narrative themes in candy was the constant reminders that everything "doesn't matter" in that timeline, likely a message perpetuated by Calliope. In my opinion, candy would have been a lot smoother to read if the juicy drama wasn't undermined by these constant reminders, but others might think differently, idk.

But, this is also near the point where Calliope makes the exit from Candy, meaning that with this power vacuum, it is suddenly free to be interpreted differently, by another narrator figure.
More than likely, it's Dirk pulling the strings in some manner.

Now, back to chapter 7...
When John gets the news of the clown finally dying, he is thrilled at the prospect of some sort of plot rolling forwards.
Shit's about to get real in candyland, and we're not gonna have to deal with Calliope's uninterested narrative style souring the experience!

I can't wait to see where this plot leads to.


also, blue crocs

Or another figure entirely. Did you see the pesterquest finale?

[luigi]

Issues though: there was some mumblings I saw floating around twitter and I agree with the rumors but I think it is official. SOMETHING is rotten in the state of Candy. Because I think this chapter really establishes that things are not the same as they were in the epilogues. For one thing: John doesn't have a mustache like it said he did. He's clean shaven as all get out now.

Yeah, what the fuck did happen to his stache? Thinking about it, that was one of the main things I wanted to see when John showed up in Candy.

I think it mentioned he did shave it again at some point. He only had the stache for a few years.

buut MAN OH MAN MY BOY IS BACK!!!!! :D JOHN!!!!!!!! It's not homestuck without JOHN FUCKING EGBERT. I also love the timey shenanigans they pulled on us, having the Harry Anderson ride from the end of the epilogues be shown to be taking place in between these events.

I think John was laughing so much because he's incredibly happy that he realizes plot is finally happening again. The reason he got depressed throughout Candy was basically because he's entirely a plot-driven character and there was no plot anymore right? I think his outburst of joy was at the fact that he's realizing the plot is back.

[thorondraco]

Issues though: there was some mumblings I saw floating around twitter and I agree with the rumors but I think it is official. SOMETHING is rotten in the state of Candy. Because I think this chapter really establishes that things are not the same as they were in the epilogues. For one thing: John doesn't have a mustache like it said he did. He's clean shaven as all get out now.

Yeah, what the fuck did happen to his stache? Thinking about it, that was one of the main things I wanted to see when John showed up in Candy.

I think it mentioned he did shave it again at some point. He only had the stache for a few years.

buut MAN OH MAN MY BOY IS BACK!!!!! :D JOHN!!!!!!!! It's not homestuck without JOHN FUCKING EGBERT. I also love the timey shenanigans they pulled on us, having the Harry Anderson ride from the end of the epilogues be shown to be taking place in between these events.

I think John was laughing so much because he's incredibly happy that he realizes plot is finally happening again. The reason he got depressed throughout Candy was basically because he's entirely a plot-driven character and there was no plot anymore right? I think his outburst of joy was at the fact that he's realizing the plot is back.

He senses the movement of the world around him. The world stagnant has new life.

[lavendersiren]

Or another figure entirely. Did you see the pesterquest finale?

Admittedly I haven't delved first-hand into any of the pesterquest content, but I have skimmed some of the spoilers.
Now that you bring that up, it does seem likely, though perhaps a little out of left-field for those who haven't played pesterquest.