New Update! Chapter 4: The Contest

[PurplePest29]

If Dork just extracted Rose's soul using his soul powers and put them into the robot, does that mean the Robot now has conditional immortality? Also, WHAT DID HE DO WITH THE BODY???!!.

[sigmatic]

I mostly enjoyed the ectobiology/alchemy this chapter, We're Going Back Baby

[luigi]

If Dork just extracted Rose's soul using his soul powers and put them into the robot, does that mean the Robot now has conditional immortality? Also, WHAT DID HE DO WITH THE BODY???!!.

The body was shown in Meat or the Candy post script to be still hooked up in the Theseus. Rose's brain is still awake and alive in the body, which is basically on life support, while it operates through Rosebot.

[NAKNAKNAK]

Haven't there being other attempts to subvert the game and have them not end as expected^tm? The trolls tried to run two separate instances of the game to compete against eachother to win first but ended up with double helix bullshit. The cherub session ended up being void, single-player and unable to create a universe and 'win.'

It makes me wonder how this attempt to make even getting to the session the prize for a species instead of the medium for the contest will affect things and if there will be any course correction from the game. Does the game itself and the mechanics involved yield to narrative control?

Also I wasn't about dirk, but seeing how much of a handicap he has going into this with this funny looking plant if he doesn't get a redo? I'm kinda rooting for that plant species to pull out ahead. Go team plant!!!

[VASKA]

So I'm having thoughts:

A lot of people are overlooking the fact that "someone" is talking to Terezi, and this someone apparently is quite rude to "her" (Rose? Vriska?). I wonder if this is a mind thing, or if it's someone influencing Terezi with narrative powers? Dirk wasn't narrating at the moment, so it wasn't him.

Besides that, I wonder exactly how much Dirk and Rose are going to meddle with this planet. Are they going to stop at making sapient, civilization building life, or are they going to populate the whole planet with animals? Is everything they make going to be vegetarian?

I think there was a missed opportunity here, though: Dirk claims that they have two humans to use for a genetic base, but that's not exactly true. I think a much more interesting route would have been to use John and Terezi as the base (and they're using ecto-tech anyway, so they literally could've picked anyone in the universe? Quibbling.). It would've been great to see Dirk-ified humans and Rose-ified trolls.

I have some speculation on Rose's creations too: Dirk referred to the ecto machine as a "genetic SBaHJ-ificator", which I think summarized his approach pretty well: he threw random shit in there and make this thing's (I'm calling Edward until further notice) DNA ridiculously shitty. Rose, on the other hand, has a much more vested interest in worldbuilding and constructing things that take themselves way too seriously, so I think we're going to get a kind of anti-Edward from her: a rich, vibrant race with noble spirit and a touch of wizardry, the kind of creature you'd see in a much more traditional fantasy.

[thorondraco]

So I'm having thoughts:

A lot of people are overlooking the fact that "someone" is talking to Terezi, and this someone apparently is quite rude to "her" (Rose? Vriska?). I wonder if this is a mind thing, or if it's someone influencing Terezi with narrative powers? Dirk wasn't narrating at the moment, so it wasn't him.

Besides that, I wonder exactly how much Dirk and Rose are going to meddle with this planet. Are they going to stop at making sapient, civilization building life, or are they going to populate the whole planet with animals? Is everything they make going to be vegetarian?

I think there was a missed opportunity here, though: Dirk claims that they have two humans to use for a genetic base, but that's not exactly true. I think a much more interesting route would have been to use John and Terezi as the base (and they're using ecto-tech anyway, so they literally could've picked anyone in the universe? Quibbling.). It would've been great to see Dirk-ified humans and Rose-ified trolls.

I have some speculation on Rose's creations too: Dirk referred to the ecto machine as a "genetic SBaHJ-ificator", which I think summarized his approach pretty well: he threw random shit in there and make this thing's (I'm calling Edward until further notice) DNA ridiculously shitty. Rose, on the other hand, has a much more vested interest in worldbuilding and constructing things that take themselves way too seriously, so I think we're going to get a kind of anti-Edward from her: a rich, vibrant race with noble spirit and a touch of wizardry, the kind of creature you'd see in a much more traditional fantasy.

They also mentioned that they will make mistakes as time went on until the get the just right species for both players. So it seems unlikely that Edward will be Dirk's main race, he is simply Step 1.

[RoyalFiddle]

I thought the Rude thing was Terezi noticing that Rose was being called Rosebot, and she was saying to call Rose Rose, and not Rosebot, because her name changes the second Terezi says to stop calling her that

Edit, can confirm the second Terezi said this Rose started being called Rose and not Rosebot, which, if that is what Terezi is talking about, means that Rose doesn't have the same level of narrative awareness

Screenshot_2.png (3.82 KiB) Viewed 24212 times

[Shitpost Lizard]

I also thought that was about Rose being called "Rosebot".

Also I feel like she's just picking up on Dirk's internal narrative, because Seer of Mind.
Which means she only has narrational awareness because Dirk's thoughts are currently controlling the narrative.

[Kidpen]

Wasn't it explicitly established in the Prologue that Terezis can hear Dirk's narration for aspect reasons and Rose can't? It definitely seems like it was about the Rosebot thing.
Also plus one on loving Terezis new design, it's pretty great.

[thorondraco]

Wasn't it explicitly established in the Prologue that Terezis can hear Dirk's narration for aspect reasons and Rose can't? It definitely seems like it was about the Rosebot thing.
Also plus one on loving Terezis new design, it's pretty great.

i love it too.... especially cause she is emulating the shirt john wore when Vriska coaxed him into making the outfit.

Some people are mixed but Terezi kinda has bad fashoin sense cause... Well she is blind and she probably thinks red and green taste really good together.

[pfeffer-29]

I found this update to be a little less enjoyable than the last one. On the one hand, the ectobiology stuff is interesting and I'm very excited to see what kind of ridiculous things Rose and Dirk come up with, as well as some NEW SPECIES(!). On the other, the dialogue is so exposition-heavy that it was hard to read, which is a definite downgrade from Homestuck proper.

The new designs are a mixed bag. Rosebot's dress looks nice and that's all there is to say on the matter. Terezi, though...hoo boy. Green, yellow, cyan, orange, and red together do not work. Why couldn't her jacket have been blue to complement the yellow? Two sets of complementary colors with orange in between. It was a bit visually cluttered, too. Each separate part of her outfit is fine on its own (except maybe the shoes), but when you put them all together, they just look bad.

[Rob]

The bit on this page starting with "DIRK: Ever heard of the Watchmaker analogy?" on this page was frustrating to read. Obviously Rose would know about the watchmaker analogy. The incredibly shrewd and calculating know-it-all would know Rose knows the watchmaker analogy. The only purpose of putting a miniature Wikipedia article in the text is for readers who don't know about it, which is an absolute chore to read. It would be miles better writing if Dirk referenced the watchmaker analogy implicitly, trusting Rose (and therefore the reader) to be able to follow along.

[lillithRamie]

Eh, it's been clear from the start that Dirk doesn't respect the reader, nore their intelligence. He's describing it specifically because he feels it's important for us the readers to know the specifics, instead of assuming we know already.

[thorondraco]

Eh, it's been clear from the start that Dirk doesn't respect the reader, nore their intelligence. He's describing it specifically because he feels it's important for us the readers to know the specifics, instead of assuming we know already.

Be fair i know quite a few things myself but i didn't know that particular instance.

This also confirms there is in fact a Creator of paradox space, or creators possibly, i think. Someone set this machine in place and built it gears. I get this general feeling that Dirk knows something we don't. Rose, for some reason, does not have his level of awareness nor knowledge. Maybe she needs a living body? She is being played along to some grand plan.
Dirk knows who the creators are and how they work and is acting ot undermine them somehow. He is saying 'if' they can succeed even though he know s they will. As long as he can stay away from Calliope at least. Though i imagine he knows that everyone is hot on their trail right now.

[stark]

somethings definitely going to go wrong or get fucked with, theres no way that blue plant is going to be the headlining species. something something spoken plan guarantee

Eh, it's been clear from the start that Dirk doesn't respect the reader, nore their intelligence. He's describing it specifically because he feels it's important for us the readers to know the specifics, instead of assuming we know already.

i think thats kind of a stretch and even then it doesn't make it any more bearable.

[calamityCons]

The expositional dialogue was far too much and extremely patronizing. The art was good though. That’s all I really have to say.

[stark]

yeah this panel was gorgeous, xamag is truly godlike

[lillithRamie]

They also had a guest artist on for this chapter. I think that panel may have been Gina's but I'm not sure which particular ones she did. Here's a link to her Twitter post:

[RoyalFiddle]

I do kinda feel like the patronizing feeling is supposed to be intentional, but I could just be looking too far into things

[lillithRamie]

The only times I've heard people complaining about the writing being patronizing is whenever Dirk is in control and 'writing' sooooo...