Homestuck Epilogue Theory: Rose's Gamble
The epilogues kick off with Rose giving John a Choice: Meat or Candy. We then have the option of following these paths in whichever order we choose.
Rose, at the point where she gave John this Choice was on the verge of becoming her Ultimate Self and unlike Dirk had no indication of becoming a villain as a result of this transformation. Rose, as a Seer of Light has already been established to have unparalleled information gathering abilities. My theory is that Rose knew about Dirkās change to villainy and the Choice she gave John is her attempt to allow Dirk to be stopped.
Rose could not have acted against Dirk directly because if she had told anyone aloud that he was becoming a threat he would have known (Dirk knows Dave is planning Karkatās campaign immediately after Dave says it aloud) meaning she wouldnāt be able to rally support, her condition made her physically unfit to fight him, and on a meta level, Seers are a passive class. So all she could do was to put the wheels in motion to allow him to be defeated sometime in the future.
Rose could have simply told John to go do the things that had to be done in the same manner that Terezi did (F1X TH1S), but instead she told John what he should do then sent him to the picnic where she ensured that Calliope and Roxy would tell John that he had a Choice, taking a different leaf from Tereziās book, making Johnās Choice create two branches in the same way Dave created two timelines when Terezi made him pick heads or tails.
Fulfilling the tasks Rose set out is the only way to verify canon events as it initiates the battle with young Caliborn that leads to his transformation to Lord English - this is an event that has already been established in canon and if it didnāt take place it would mean that nothing else in the story could have occurred because Lord English wouldnāt have been created. The only purpose of giving John a Choice was to establish the non-canon Candy branch.
So how can this seemingly non-canon branch affect the canon story moving forward? So far as a result of it Gamzee has died (an event that could not have happened within the confines of canon - you canāt keep the clown down), Davebot has been created hosting Daveās Ultimate Self (thanks Obama), Alt!Calliope in Jadeās body has left the space along with Davebot and Aradia (presumably to fight Dirk), Meenah has entered the branch (with the Ring of Life, taking it out of play in future canon events), and (Vriska) has entered the branch (who, thanks to Vriska, has the ability to contact Terezi with Johnās phone).
All of this was achieved in a branch Dirk could not see because he removed himself from it to keep his essence concentrated in canon - Roseās gambit in the Candy branch forced Dirk to remove himself, allowing these events to occur unimpeded mirroring Dirkās gambit against Alt!Caliope which forced her to insert herself, preventing events from taking place.
The benefit of Rose being an orchestrator as opposed to Dirkās mechanic is that she has the ability to put plans in motion with light touches that the narrator may not notice, similar to Dirkās sniper gambit but on a grander scale.
Also everything that fell into the black hole showed up there so if Lord English survives the wounds Dave inflicted, he might have his final showdown there on the planet that thanks to the interspecies tensions is armed to the teeth, and also has an army of ghosts
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