Dancestors and Dancestor Things

[YoItsCro]

Figured there needed to be a thread for those who enjoy these background characters. Or those that don't, though try to keep any discourse at a low.

Have a favorite pre-scratch troll? A theory you want to share about those specific trolls, Beforus, or the dream bubbles? An idea of what you'd like to see from the dancestors in the future, be it plausible or of wish fulfillment? Maybe you have a random fact from Openbound and Ministrife! Feel free to share!



As some ways to help enable chatter, or even just some for fun (but relevant) links, here are a few dancestor related conversations and content I've engaged with that I'd highly recommend to fellow fanatics.

VIDEO: The Worst Character In Homestuck
Perfectly Generic Podcast: Episode 25: The Ballet of the Dancestors
Perfectly Generic Podcast: Episode 32: Je Suis Les8ifins
Before Us: A Homestuck Zine
Year of Beforus: A Homestuck Calender Project
THEORY: How Cronus, Damara, Kurloz, and Mituna could be connected to each other
ANALYSIS: Dream Bubbles & Literal Plot Armor

[vanico]

MITUNA IS THE BEST DANCESTOR!

[RoyalFiddle]

I'd honestly much rather see the Dancestors for the friendsim trolls

[YoItsCro]

I'd honestly much rather see the Dancestors for the friendsim trolls

Fair enough; I personally will take anything at this point that gives me information about Beforus as a planet.

[nonsenseMnemonic]

I dislike how most of the dancestors were in the comic, feel like most of the jokier of them weren't in good taste. Totally up to see them worked on more in new stuff though. Some of their fan art is really nice too

[thorondraco]

Tell me if it sounds off. But from what we know thanks to the hvieswap sign stuff and before.

A Sign has some connection to a troll's biology. Ancestors and Descendants are trolls that share the same sign and thus are near identical, with admitted differences just we don't know how many. I think that their physical appearance and vestigial sex is part of their attributed sign. Though we can presume that nature provides them their aspects but nurture their personality.

But it also possibly means that troll biology only allows so many Signs in general and simply different versions of that individual. Effectively trolls end up cloned time and time again.

[Flame_Warp]

Some sizzling takes here: Kurloz has the potential to be one of the most interesting characters in the comic.

Keep in mind I say one of. Like, top 5 maybe.

I think he's honestly really interesting when you dive into what character traits we know about him. He strikes me as an incredibly guilt-driven character--even as much as he's a servant of LE (A servant who mostly just...makes their clothes? I mean honestly he doesn't even do anything bad in the grand scheme.)

He accidentally hurts Meulin, and self-mutilates to make sure he never does anything of the like again. He's implied to have at least been around during Mituna's accident. It's also claimed that Mituna is coherent around him-he does what he can to keep his brain together. I honestly think Kurloz genuinely likes those around him, but is too resigned to LE to really do anything about it.

[hamifihekrix]

wouldn't it be super epic g*mer time if there was another batch of friendsim/pesterquest-like routes but its just the fucking dancestors

like. man. i feel fucking cheated out of the dancestors route. there was so much potential there. i guess we'll see where the future leads.

[Sokota]

MITUNA IS THE BEST DANCESTOR!

This, basically.

[TH4NK YOU B3N]

I want to see how Feferi did everything wrong, just to be contrary.

[Drinosi]

I wish we could have gotten more time with the dancestors. There's so much more to learn about them. I would love for them to get a friendsim.
I think Meenah and Mituna would have to be my favorites.

[seerofheart]

I love the idea of the Beforan Ancestors! Beforan!Eridan and Beforan!Karkat interest me the most but I also love the idea of Beforan!Gamzee (The Redeemer?) and Beforan!Nepeta.

With the dancestors themselves, I love Meenah the most but I almost forget she's a dancestor because she's an actually relevant character to the narrative. Kankri and Porrim are the ones I'd love to see explored more and given more relevance. I am fascinated by Kurloz and Cronus and their drama of Rage and Hope. Damara would be a very interesting character if she weren't, you know, like that.

Lots to do with the Dancestors!

[YoItsCro]

Made a twitter post on this but I'mm just copy paste.

One reason I wanna explore the dancestors more is because they feature their own facades. When talking to Meenah, a figure that had a very tense relationship with everyone, you see one side of these characters. Mostly caricatures of the beta trolls.

But when Meenah goes away you start noticing things. Meulin and Kurloz are in some freaky cult. Mituna is implied to be clear headed when around Kurloz. Cronus is doubtful of his cool guy persona. Latula is a tool as well. Kankri is really petty. Damara can actually be nice to people who haven't fucked over her life. Aranea is...Aranea. Etc etc.

It's just interesting to dig into. And, frankly makes them absolute targets for a potential, official pesterquest one day, so as long as they're given to the right hands. Otherwise, they absolutely need more protagonist centric roles in fanfiction, and/or fan adventures. There's so much potential to play around with these losers. They're not important characters, but that doesn't mean they can't be interesting. They're just the uh...beach city citizens or background ponies of the cast is all.

[Cheshire_Creeper]

It's just interesting to dig into. And, frankly makes them absolute targets for a potential, official pesterquest one day, so as long as they're given to the right hands. Otherwise, they absolutely need more protagonist centric roles in fanfiction, and/or fan adventures. There's so much potential to play around with these losers. They're not important characters, but that doesn't mean they can't be interesting. They're just the uh...beach city citizens or background ponies of the cast is all.

So, um, did you not hear about the PesterQuest Befriendus Unofficial Game? I just thought you of all people would hear about it.

[sorbicCondition]

I don't think I'd want an official Beforus Friendsim style game, or really any further extrapolation into dancestor lore. Not because I dislike the dancestors, quite the opposite. I just think an "official" gaze into Beforus and the deeper parts of the dancestors' personalities might ruin the magic of all the fanworks surrounding the topics. The vagueness of the characters let people run wild with extrapolation, and I think I prefer that better than hammering them into more concrete ideas.

I would adore a fan made Beforus Friendsim though.

[YoItsCro]

It's just interesting to dig into. And, frankly makes them absolute targets for a potential, official pesterquest one day, so as long as they're given to the right hands. Otherwise, they absolutely need more protagonist centric roles in fanfiction, and/or fan adventures. There's so much potential to play around with these losers. They're not important characters, but that doesn't mean they can't be interesting. They're just the uh...beach city citizens or background ponies of the cast is all.

So, um, did you not hear about the PesterQuest Befriendus Unofficial Game? I just thought you of all people would hear about it.

Oh yeah I'm helping with that, lol.

[YoItsCro]

I don't think I'd want an official Beforus Friendsim style game, or really any further extrapolation into dancestor lore. Not because I dislike the dancestors, quite the opposite. I just think an "official" gaze into Beforus and the deeper parts of the dancestors' personalities might ruin the magic of all the fanworks surrounding the topics. The vagueness of the characters let people run wild with extrapolation, and I think I prefer that better than hammering them into more concrete ideas.

I would adore a fan made Beforus Friendsim though.

Right! There are two currently being worked on, fan made ones. I know an official one would be weird in regards to fanworks, but if canon is so open now in regards to what is exactly canon, I think its best advantage is not being the official law of the characters, but presenting more ideas that we weren't originally given to bring something new to the table for people to play with. That, and maybe even wrangle in new fans for these characters who only solely know them through openbound and nothing else, some of which are not in good lights and could serve to be worth people's time more if given a diverse clarity (ie. Damara). It reminds me how this new Equius route made a lot more people give a shit about Equius because it was good and opened the character up to more creative influences, even if one didn't want to follow that route strictly since it, by definition, is already an offshoot timeline.

[Eromancery]

I like Kurloz

that's it that's my post

[YoItsCro]

I like Kurloz

that's it that's my post

You valid motherfucker.

[cygnus413]

hi that one aranea fan from twitter reporting in

I'm really looking forward to the Beforus fansims!! Kind of wish we got to hear about any other ideas Andrew had for Beforus, just to have literally anything more to build off of, but at the same time I'm glad that we don't have much official content. If we got an 'official' friendsim I'd be really excited but also like, 10 times more nervous that the characters aren't gonna be explored as well as they could be.

Also wish we knew literally anything about the Beforus ancestors. :/ Idk if there are any big headcanons/theories on what they were like, but I've never come across any.