HS^2 Chapter 16

[PurplePest29]

Fuckin spider

[_DASHFLAME_]

I'm so confused by this chapter. First of all, I'm pretty sure what Calliope said is incorrect about how the universe works. People with Retcon powers ( John Egbert, MSPA Reader ) are able to go back and make very important changes to the timeline. These changes don't destroy the timeline that already existed but instead create a new timeline that can be interacted with, essentially these changes create new Genesis Frogs where these events happened. Such as the Game Over timeline itself is a genesis frog, John used his retcon powers to create a new genesis frog with better circumstances to help everyone defeat Lord English. When John makes his decision at the picnic, he creates two Seperate Genesis Frogs, Candy Frog and Meat Frog. Calliope is saying that they are stuck in a black hole( for some reason) but that's not true. What happened with the black hole was that Meat John battled Lord English and found Terezi ( I believe that the Terezi with Dirk is the Terezi that has been answering Candy John's messages in the Epilogues) and then he Retconned him and Terezi back into the Meat timeline, he accidentally sent the black hole to the Candy timeline, that's why Meenah and Vriska both appear there and why the Car Meat John and Terezi had sex on appear there. Alt Calliope, Aradia, and Davebot use the black hole to observe things from a standpoint. The main thing about this is that the Candy Earth isn't consumed by the black hole; it's that the black hole appeared there, had some very important things and people fall out, and then dissapeared because of Candy Alt Calliope. Speaking of Candy Alt Calliope, because Meat Alt Calliope left Meat jade's body, I think Meat Alt Calliope tried to enter Candy Alt Calliope's body, and that's why Candy Alt Calliope faints at the end of chapter 11.

[calamityCons]

I'm only following the comic through the Webcomics Review liveblog, so I'm honestly on board with the current direction of "fuck this shit, have Vriska blow it up" just so we can get the fuck out of this candy coated nightmare.

[IamtheFather]

This update was better.

Updates with John are usually higher quality for some reason.

[bersona3]

huh... well that was definitely an update. i'd agree that it's better though i still have some Things about it. art was great (as... well, usual) and i think there were some pretty obvious trans john hints in there. i have Thoughts and Opinions on june as a trans person myself but honestly i don't have the energy to talk about it, just something to note.

i couldn't point out any specific problems with the ways the characters were written or anything outside of the general 'just feeling slightly off' vibe hs^2 has had the whole time so no real complaints which is a pleasant surprise. the probably-a-cherub-portal is intriguing, but the team really fully leaning into 'vriska is the most important person narratively' really is just exhausting. i didn't hate this though. it wasnt amazing but it wasnt awful. also since when did non-alt callie have full cheeks what happened there

[AsherCrane]

Speaking of June, even John is noticing how weird his feelings are, so I wonder if the whole June thing is an offshoot of the aforementioned chaos caused by non-canonicity?

[PilotBlackSmith]

they literally spelled it out that Vriska is the most important and relevant person in the universe

mother
fucking
unbeliavable

this is what hell looks like.

[harmoniousCalamity]

they literally spelled it out that Vriska is the most important and relevant person in the universe

mother
fucking
unbeliavable

this is what hell looks like.

Are we sure that Virskas a spider and not a cockroach? Bc she seems to be impossible to kill, and keeps on coming back.

[PilotBlackSmith]

Are we sure that Virskas a spider and not a cockroach? Bc she seems to be impossible to kill, and keeps on coming back.

Vriska is like this Patrick Colasour guy from gundam 00 who's a random enemy officer but somehow has the biggest plot armor of the entire franchise and literally just keeps surviving every single encounter and participates in every major fight despite constantly BLOWING UP to the point where he becomes a fucking meme where sunrise sticks him in randomly sometimes in other series like build divers


also both have the most shit eating grins imaginable

[harmoniousCalamity]

Also for like real thoughts for this chapter.

I honestly didn't know that they were hinting at June the entire chapter, I just did not see it but it's there apparently.

I STILL think how everyone is treating John is weird/is just straight up using him, even though his talk with Roxy was the most normal (--even though they are divorced, and I feel like there should be something more there but there isn't? Which is weird.)

I can't say we needed another 5000 page essay on stuff that doesn't make a lick of sense/doesn't matter/is wrong , coming from Calliope. Which is new coming from her, but like, why.

I also think Calliope was very rude in this chapter pertaining to John, and Roxy didn't seem to care about that which is also weird. I mean I understand where Calliope is coming from, being an alien, but like c'mon man give the guy a break, be a little less brash and more sensitive. He just had his house blown up for christ sake.

Also some more minor notes/thoughts:

• How is this June thing going to work in combination of everything else going on. Like? You are in the middle of a war?

• I also don't think linking his house being blown up to freedom and as such some sort of transition is....good. At like, all. It makes it sound more like a serious cry for help, for the help that John clearly is not getting/has not been getting for y e a r s.

• Why are Roxy and Calliope hiding stuff from everyone else?

• Also are we going to find out next update to see if Rose/Kanaya/ Someone else from the friend group sent Jane to Johns house because I'd honestly love to see that.

EDIT:

I just realized that Vriska might actually be Johns one and only true, real, whole ass friend left and that's really...so fucking sad.

[AsherCrane]

Also for like real thoughts for this chapter.

I honestly didn't know that they were hinting at June the entire chapter, I just did not see it but it's there apparently.

I STILL think how everyone is treating John is weird/is just straight up using him, even though his talk with Roxy was the most normal (--even though they are divorced, and I feel like there should be something more there but there isn't? Which is weird.)

I can't say we needed another 5000 page essay on stuff that doesn't make a lick of sense/doesn't matter/is wrong , coming from Calliope. Which is new coming from her, but like, why.

I also think Calliope was very rude in this chapter pertaining to John, and Roxy didn't seem to care about that which is also weird. I mean I understand where Calliope is coming from, being an alien, but like c'mon man give the guy a break, be a little less brash and more sensitive. He just had his house blown up for christ sake.

Also some more minor notes/thoughts:

• How is this June thing going to work in combination of everything else going on. Like? You are in the middle of a war?

• I also don't think linking his house being blown up to freedom and as such some sort of transition is....good. At like, all. It makes it sound more like a serious cry for help, for the help that John clearly is not getting/has not been getting for y e a r s.

• Why are Roxy and Calliope hiding stuff from everyone else?

• Also are we going to find out next update to see if Rose/Kanaya/ Someone else from the friend group sent Jane to Johns house because I'd honestly love to see that.

EDIT:

I just realized that Vriska might actually be Johns one and only true, real, whole ass friend left and that's really...so fucking sad.

In case you still don't know what people are alluding to with the June evidence, from what I've been told it's centrally linked to John:
1. Starting to panic when he thought Roxy wanted to have sex, and then thinking himself weird for feeling that way.
2. John feeling awkward when Roxy referred to him using his man-grit, and the feeling seeming similar to the earlier feeling from 1.
3. John being OK with being called babe, and noting how weird it was that this, apart from the earlier two things, felt OK and natural.

Someone feel free to add or correct as necessary, I got most of this off a commentary, because I didn't see it either.

[BrobyDDark]

In case you still don't know what people are alluding to with the June evidence, from what I've been told it's centrally linked to John:
1. Starting to panic when he thought Roxy wanted to have sex, and then thinking himself weird for feeling that way.
2. John feeling awkward when Roxy referred to him using his man-grit, and the feeling seeming similar to the earlier feeling from 1.
3. John being OK with being called babe, and noting how weird it was that this, apart from the earlier two things, felt OK and natural.

Someone feel free to add or correct as necessary, I got most of this off a commentary, because I didn't see it either.

To me, this just reads like a sensitive dude who didn't have the chance for a proper puberty phase.

Also >is fine being called and it feels natural

Do people not know that babe has been gender neutral in relationships for, like, decades?

[harmoniousCalamity]

snip snop

In case you still don't know what people are alluding to with the June evidence, from what I've been told it's centrally linked to John:
1. Starting to panic when he thought Roxy wanted to have sex, and then thinking himself weird for feeling that way.
2. John feeling awkward when Roxy referred to him using his man-grit, and the feeling seeming similar to the earlier feeling from 1.
3. John being OK with being called babe, and noting how weird it was that this, apart from the earlier two things, felt OK and natural.

Someone feel free to add or correct as necessary, I got most of this off a commentary, because I didn't see it either.

I thought the first one was because you know...they're divorced. Like. Of course that's going to be a little weird if she did?

And I chalked the third one up to like, them again....they're divorced. Why would you want your ex-wife calling you pet names exactly?

[BrobyDDark]

Caught up on Chapter 16.

I fucking hate how Callie takes ten hours to say one thing that isn't even the thing she wants to say, back-tracks to explain further, only for all of it to result in "None of that information is relevant to you, go get Vriska."

Jesus fucking christ.

[Shitpost Lizard]

At least the art is consistent again.

I honestly didn't read "June" into anything that happened this chapter except Roxy randomly being coy about gender shit.
John's an awkward nerd. He's always been an awkward nerd. Having hesitation about your EX teasing you and potentially (by his assumption) wanting to sleep with you isn't something that screams "I'm struggling with my gender identity" to me.
It's just him reacting to social situations like he always has.

In any case, I really hope they're not going there with the story, because Roxy's sudden identity change was forced enough as it is.
And I repeat myself in saying that they have four (if not more) perfectly good and new characters to flesh out if they want to do the trans rep thing.

Vriska continues to be forced into relevance like the narrative chronic illness she is.

[Generalrabogolfo]

no one going to talk about roxy having a portal under their bed that literally gets her to calliope since THEY WERE MARRIED??? like dude, that thing was there from the very fucking begining??

also calli's talk basically confirms they were aware of john's decision and yet they let him have the mentalbreakdowns he had about canonicity for some reason? like dude that shit basically killed his marriage but whatever i guess?????

[PurplePest29]

U think its implied they werent sure about this. Probably at least not during the marriage

[arachonteur]

they literally spelled it out that Vriska is the most important and relevant person in the universe

I don't think this is one of the things you can take at face value, I'm fairly certain it's Yiffy, if only because Vriska is the obvious misdirection, and there was a whole Patreon bonus about Yiffy being the most important character in HS2 or whatever.