#aa.lvb

Almost immediately, I'd like to take note of the usage of color (or lack thereof). The house is mostly white. I don't have any smart comments on this right now but it is an interesting stylistic choice. >Liveblog stitching! Aluria here, I think I was thinking about how it could relate to the feelings of isolation I touch on later in this post.

Page 9: It took way too long for any of this sylladex shit to be even remotely comprehensible to me the first time around. Am I stupid. >No, sylladex mechanics can be a bit tricky to get to, something which narration on multiple pages acknowledges.

Page 10: It's fun to see sylladex shenanigans :]

Page 16: A thing I always liked about the suggestion format is how subject the main character is to the player's dumb fucking whims. I like that about point and click adventures also. >Checked what page is page 16. F in chat for Zoosmell Pooplord and the unwanted desire to shit on his desk.

Page 18: It just occurred to me how the manner in which the sylladex mechanics are encountered via the reader prompts fucking around and finding out really is like a video game without much tutorial.

Page 19: "Films about impending apocalypse fascinate you. Plus, a black president??? Now you've seen everything!" 1. I like the funny foreshadowing 2. ah yes... a tongue-in-cheek ironic joke that feels a little distateful.

Page 22: I do find the Homestuck Beta to be an incredibly charming little gag.

Page 24: the names of his programming projects on his desktop are a fucking MOOD. "FUCK FUCK FUCK" indeed. John's desktop is just like mine fr. I believe I have an audacity file somewhere titled "fuck my life", and our screensavers are equally bad and weird. >Clearly experiencing emotions best conveyed with the word 'fuck' is a universal experience of creators.

Page 26: I think one of Homestuck's strengths is how it pulls off making the dialogue of teenagers feel like the dialogue of teenagers. >THIS. Always this. There are many times that I as a Real Teen (TM) have read a page of Homestuck and gone "yeah, I've had this conversation in real life."

Page 31: Genuinely deranged collection of games. John's bad taste knows no bounds. Also why do you have Bard Quest on DVD. Why would you put Bard Quest on a DVD. It's literally a browser game that's like 100 pages long. >Actually it's 47 pages. That makes it worse.

Page 34:

Infinitely amused by the mood settings in Pesterchum. "happy :) happy :) happy :) happy :) happy :) INCREDIBLY PISSED D:<"

Page 35: Dave is acting as a tutorial npc Me when I fucking lie. Dave honey no one wants you. I'm conflicted about Early Homestuck Dave because he very much fulfills the role he is meant to and sets up his later character arcs perfectly. But he does so by annoying the fuck out of me. >See you're right about that second sentence and it makes perfect sense in context but out of context that sounds so mean lmao.

Page 37:

I could look at the kind abstratus for hours. Also, the planning had to be insane for this. Literally every strife specibus used in Homestuck, no matter how out there, is on here (I think. I only did a quick scan). >Decided to attempt to verify this by looking for all the trolls' strife specibi and immediately failed with Aradia's whipkind. I am sending Jasper to Autism Hell for the crime of being wrong. >>I am being set on fire! Sad! (But hey, there IS still a lot of very specific canon strife specibi in there that I'm willing to bet were there on purpose. Canekind, for one). >>>If I had to hazard a guess, it's possible that some of them were either picked by looking at that page, or just that there are so many potential weapons on there that of course some made it on. In some cases planning ahead may have occurred, but I am not Andrew Hussie so idfk.

Page 39: "EB: yeah, that's fine i guess. i can't imagine it's going to be all that relevant." heh. the fact that Dave knows more about the minutiae of sylladex mechanics, in particular how strife specibi work, takes on a more depressing tone when you contrast his home environment with John's healthier parental situation.

Page 48: First Betty Crocker mention! fun fact once i infodumped about Homestuck to my dad and now the Batterwitch is a running joke we reference whenever we purchase Betty Crocker products. Genuinely surprised the Betty Crocker Wikipedia article isn't protected at this point. >It isn't, but if you go to the talk page it seems like it's been a point of contention before.

Page 50:

"It doesn't matter that it's April and not terribly chilly outside. In a home, a FIREPLACE needs a fire, because that's what FIREPLACE is for. A fire BELONGS in a FIREPLACE, dammit, cata(ptcha)gorically, at all times, without exception." fascinating quote in conjunction with Page 27's "In a kid's yard, a tree without a tire swing is like a proper gentleman without a monocle. That is to say, HE CAN HARDLY BE CONSIDERED A TERRIBLY PROPER GENTLEMAN AT ALL." certain things simply must be the way they are. So there's a lot to be said about the whole fireplace thing but I've had time to ruminate and I'm starting to notice that John seems to have a pretty rigid worldview, maybe? I'm collecting data on this and I don't wanna speak too soon, but a lot of these lines seem to have the underlying implication that he's very much of the opinion that the status quo is not to be questioned or challenged ever, and things are the way they are because that's how they're supposed to be. In perpetuity. Forever. Even if it hurts you. You can see it in the recurring gag on this page and the one with the tire swing; you can see it in the way he talks about his dad; hell, even his joke book is a kajillion years old and described at one point as being at times super racist because of its oldness, as well as being too big to carry around or navigate efficiently. This is an especially fitting trait for him to hold considering he's from the suburbs. Not only are suburbs considered the picture of the American Dream, that idyllic image has historically been upheld through forcible exclusion of anyone who didn't fit into it. No wonder it took her 16 years to transition. >More than 16. :( >>Oh yeah I'm sure it's like. Decades (I haven't read HS^2). But it's been 16-ish years since Homestuck came out.

Page 51: Burn fucker burn.

Page 56: not much comment other than the transition from 55 to 56 and the bit that comes with it got the first audible giggle of this reread!

Page 63: I genuinely believe Rose is a contender for funniest character in Homestuck (speaking only in terms of intentional funniness). >It hasn't had much chance to come up yet, but she is rather silly wrapped up in a dry exterior and I think this fact should be acknowledged more.

Page 68: kinda funny to see John unable to captchalogue the doll because it's 'too big'. Act 1 feels rather quaint on a reread. >Genuinely. By act 6 we're captchaloguing literally whatever the fuck. Planets and shit. >>The fucking Tumor. >>>The fucking Tumor. Gotta get that HTML right. >>>>Oh I'm sorry Formatting King Jasper lemme just format all over the place. Trans women are really cool. That sentence only looks correct if you're on dark mode. sad!

Page 71: Is that. Is that the fucking Cirque de Soleil.

Page 74:

a continuation of the bit regarding the tire swing and the fireplace. this combined with John's willingness to commit to the bit even when it is unpleasant is rather fascinating for his character.

Page 77: FIRST [S] PAGE! "Showtime (Piano Refrain)" is a great song that also hits really different on a reread. Ah, but that is a subject for... *checks notes* 7021 pages from now. >You and your music commentary making me straight up melancholic all the time.

Page 78:

"The peanut gallery over there sure is getting a kick out of it. You are allergic to their scorn." I am unusually fond of this joke. Page 72's mention of John's peanut allergy was a funny enough moment on its own, but the additional reference/pun? Delightful. The jorker.

Page 79: The usage of a Hi-C commercial also hits different on a reread.

Page 82:

"You have a feeling it's going to be a long day." Oh, if only you knew... Homestuck's title page! I love how desolate the audio is, and I think the prose on this page adds to the feeling of isolation. Isolation is a theme throughout Homestuck, and with John as the Heir of Breath in the incredibly isolated environment of suburbia... ah, I just really like this page! This page is also where Act 1 gets its name on the adventure map: "The Note Desolation Plays." There's literally nothing I can say about Windchime Foley that isn't abundantly obvious but GOD does it set a tone. It's the first real hint that this is more than just a silly little adventure comedy.

Page 89: "Your DAD sees right through your costume! You don't know what you were even thinking with this foolish ruse!!!" early example of a recurring pattern of John viewing himself as stupid, foolish, etc.

Page 90:

There isn't much to this Flash, but I do like the animation, and "Showtime (Original Mix)" is a banger. The vibe with John and Dad's strife is SO different from the next two strifes. For obvious reasons (Dad Egbert is a good father). >True! It's very unserious. John is aggressively rejecting his father's cake, for fuck's sake, meanwhile Rose pulls out the empty suicide threat against her mother parrying with alcohol and Dave is. Dave.

Page 110: "TG: im wearing them ironically TG: because theyre awesome TG: the fact that theyre ironic makes them awesome" ah yes the classic "i'm totally doing this ironically and not sincerely".

Page 111: I do enjoy the meta bullshit of the characters being MSPA fans in-universe. Tragically, Midnight Crew will never finish because of the world ending. Sad!

Page 112: I <3 Self-Referential Jokes

Page 122: I should go back at some point and do a cake count of just how many goddamn cakes John's dad made. >I checked. 4. 2 in the room, 1 downstairs, 1 he was actively baking. 4 cakes for 2 people. If June came out to him in a no-Sburb AU every pharmacy stocking HRT in the area would be in crisis mode.

Page 248: Starting off strong with the first appearance of WV :D WV MY BELOVED WV YAY YAY YIPPEE CARAPACIAN SWEEP

Page 249: "My introduction will be sparse" who do you think you're fooling? "I will not do the bullshit", she said, while doing the bullshit.

Page 253: Though all the flashes are obviously playable in some way, this is the first one I consider a "game". We see a fixation on things having to stay the way they are again, briefly. Also worthy of note: WV being... the way that he is to John ("THIS BOOK IS TOO BIG FOR A YOUNG STUPID BOY"), as well as the very childish artwork that's apparently from a week ago (it's maybe a stretch but I'm calling it evidence for my "John is stuck in stasis due to a fear of change" theory). First walkaround game!

Everything is different now. Ruined emblems of childhood. Also: WV's distaste for the harlequin stuff hits different on a reread. >God, yeah. There's that pesky "cast out of Eden" metaphor again, arguably.

Page 263:

He's sad. :(

Page 264: I just think John's relationship with WV (and players' relationships with the exiles in general) is interesting. I haven't even put together if there's any deeper meaning to this. >I think there is but there's not much we've seen of it so far.

Page 271: I am a simple man I see WV I say yippee. >Yippee!

Page 272: "So your cruxtruder is ticking. Do this to live." I know in my heart that Rose has a passion for melodrama and absolutely jumped at the opportunity to write this line. HOWEVER. That does not change the fact that it goes hard.

Page 285:

Nannasprite ily >She's such an icon.

Page 287: This is worse than I remembered. Boos him off stage. Ah yes, classic shitty Striderian rap.

Page 290: THE FUCKIGN CAR.

Page 291: I love how at the end of 289 Rose says "Otherwise I promise I'll handle the car with velvet gloves." and then this shit happens on 290. John is so D: about it, too.

Page 293: Hiiii Jade. I know we've already seen her but not for long we haven't.

Page 294: Obligatory you can't be saying that white baby. Like. Like you really can't. Stop it white baby. >STOP THAT WHITE BABY Ah. Yes. Dave using a racial slur.

Page 301:

I like this gag because there was literally no reason whatsoever for this to be the case.

Page 305: The diagrams, retrospectively, make a lot of sense. Damn it this comic is detailed.

Page 307: This flash fucks. We get Rose's equivalent of the title page, which also has this act's name: "Raise of the Conductor's Baton."

Page 309: White woman jumpscare. Sorry, I mean cool dude jumpscare. No I don't. >It would be a White girl jumpscare, actually, because of the 'being 13'. Give her time. I believe in her. >>Denial is her second language. I don't think she'll transition until she is in fact old enough to be called a woman. At the earliest. (Incredibly unserious). >>>Ya think Rose ends quietly mentally placing bets on which of the kids will will figure it out first for shits and giggles? June vs. Dave (but girl) vs. Jane (idk what he would change his name to or if he would do that) vs. Lara FIGHT! >>>>She fucking would. My money's on Lara, and not just because I love her. >>>>>Lara "i don't wanna be a man" English vs. June and Dave "extremely repressed" Egbert and Strider? Yeah that checks out. Idk about the shot Jane has at winning the race but I think he'd probably need a bit to work through some of that shit. Mayhaps this should be an essay topic.

Page 312: Can we talk about how much of a hipster and a tryhard early comic Dave is? This isn't a complaint about this trait I just think it needs to be acknowledged.

Page 315: "you might as well wipe out human civilization with a meteor or something ridiculous like that which will probably never happen" we are being blatant with it now.

Page 318: His refusal of sincerity only hurts him. It hasn't really done so yet, but this panel hints at it, I think.

Page 319:

I love this stupid fucking sylladex.

Page 323: Interestingly, Dave's Pesterchum client has more mood options than John. I went back to look, and John has Pesterchum 6.0 installed, while Dave has 7.0. Neat! The bit where all of the options are variations of happy except for rancorous is preserved, though. >:0

Page 325: One, the idea of a review of a review magazine makes my head hurt. Especially when the magazine is GameBro and the review reviewer is Dave Strider. Two, there's something to be said about the fact that he agrees when John mocks GameBro, but posts an objectively super positive review of it online. It reeks of wanting to be liked and I know because I've done it. Also, fun fact, this is inexplicably a looping gif. It could just be that every gif in homestuck is looping, I can't remember, but this one definitely is.

Page 326: Hell yes, SBaHJ time. Also, the Homestuck Unofficial Collection becomes visibly of lower quality when SBaHJ is open, which is cool as fuck. I don't want to try to make Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff more meaningful than it is, but I do think you could argue that Dave is trying to make himself seem more mature and "adult" than he is with overt sexuality. Or maybe that's just how 13 year olds are. Regardless of whether or not I'm spewing bullshit, the amount of sexuality in SBaHJ is noteworthy considering Dave's home situation. I sound like a fucking parent teacher conference. Anyway. SBaHJ is so fucking quotable and I know because I quote it regularly. >Never underestimate the ability of middle schoolers to shitpost. Or for them to be weird with sexuality. Or for the shit in their lives to pop up in the things they make. Many things can be true at once. >>Once again these chararacters are exceptionally, tangibly 13. I told you about stairs, bro. Fun fact: I got one of my brothers to read Homestuck, he's like 400-something pages in, but when we got to SBaHJ he took the time to read every single SBaHJ page.

Page 328: AYO MIDNIGHT CREW. For the longest time I thought CD had like a beak or something but no he just has his tits out. >HELLO? >>Yeah due to the pure light and shadow I misinterpreted his boob window as a weird beak. It is not. He has his tits out. God bless the carapacians.

Page 332: Homestuck is more than twice the length that Midnight Crew was when Dave declared it to be too long. >He is a coward who will not survive the winter. Wait technically he didn't. Survive. Dozens of times over. But this was well before the winter.

Page 333: Rose and Dave banter is always a highlight. Rose and Dave's first conversation, and it starts with her calling him gay.

Page 335:

Goo is happening.

Page 338: This flash is fun. It's fun! Everyone knows this flash is fun. Fucking around with the sampler is fun. >I think it's really funny how many times we said the same thing unprompted in this one. We're on the same wavelength. >>Friendship bonus

Page 344: Puppets AND Dave idolizing Bro? Pain. "Is there anything not awesome about your BRO? No, you think not." augh.

Page 351:

Isn't it so cool how we have to jinx good things all the time.

Page 355: Oh hi seppucrow.

Page 357: ZAZZERPAN JUMPSCARE

Page 358: I've been Zazzerpaned. I feel like now I have to Zazzerpan three other people to be unZazzerpaned.

Page 360:

I really like this face that Rose makes. It's very interesting to see the way Rose interprets all of her mother's gestures as spiteful or like there must be some trick when like. Nope. She just likes wizards.

Page 363: The pretty princess doll is too big to captchalogue... how quaint.

Page 369: Can we appreciate this incredibly one-sided game of oneupmanship for a second?

Page 370:

Classic.

Page 373:

Rose what the fuck.

Page 376: A SECOND WHITE WOMAN JUMPSCARE HAS HIT THE TOWERS. I knew it was coming and it still startled me.

Page 379: Damn Rose the youth roll is quite the acrobatic feat. She must have a lot of experience doing it.

Page 382:

First Dave and Jade conversation! It's very cute. Dave's smile of like. 3 pixels?

Page 384:

I like the way objects are animated leaving sylladices.

Page 386: The callback to the "in case things get too hot to handle" remark :( also generally dropping hints about what Bro is like. Eugh.

Page 387:

Page 127: I love the way objects (and people) tend to bounce around during some animations.

Page 129: I think there's probably something there about how early on, Homestuck involves the destruction and desecration of John's childhood room - an important space. Of course, it's primarily just humor - sylladex shenanigans are fun - but I do think there's something there related to the coming-of-age aspects of Homestuck. >Especially since a lot of that destruction is necessary to move forward. Like expanding the room so Rose can reach John's PDA.

Page 137: I will not be hearing anything bad about the Sburban Jungle flash at this time. Yeah it's kinda lame but it also fucks. Fun fact, I used Sburban Jungle as background music for a joint 3D Modelling and Physics project I did earlier this year. FUCK YEAH SBURBAN JUNGLE. Reading Homestuck for the first time was rather neat for me because I really like The Sims. Even though there's not a lot to this Flash, the music is a banger and the text with the loading bar at the bottom reminds me of being a kid on my mom's laptop waiting for The Sims 3 to load lol

Page 141: There is no way she didn't do that on purpose just to see if she could.

Page 142: Coloring error. John's shirt is Jane cyan in the second panel :0 >:0

Page 147: I just think this page is cute. The fact that Rose decides to put the bunny back in the box. The face John makes when she does. It's cute. Aw. It's cute how (in-universe) Rose gets a little silly with the bunny. I like John's little smile :].

Page 148: This panel has me thinking about how weird it would be if you were a Sim and suddenly your house had been renovated in the span of a second.

Page 151: I like how all the Sburb machinery looks so needlessly complicated and clunky. Too much sci-fi is smooth and sleek. Give me contraptions. >The humble contraptions...

Page 154: Thinking about how John knows literally nothing about shit like fetch modi and strife specibi at the beginning. I know it's because readers are meant to learn about these things from him, but it hits different when you think about how different his childhood was from all his friends. Like what Aluria said last time about it being depressing that Dave knows so much about strife specibi. John doesn't know this stuff because he never had to. >I think each kid's knowledge of sylladex mechanics at the start fits very well for them. John had the most 'normal' life, he is kind of the audience insert here, he doesn't know as much. Dave knows a lot about sylladex mechanics including strife specibi and (iirc) effective weaponization of a standard sylladex because he has to. Because his life is shit! Rose is a very curious person, she's the Seer of Light, it makes sense that she would want to learn more about sylladex mechanics, including unusual modi, regardless of whether she has to know it. Oh. R-slur jumpscare. Gotta love 2009. :\

Page 158: Serious Business is one of my favorite early on bits.

Page 160: I love Rose using psych talk to fuck with people.

Page 161: "This isn't very cautious of you, actually." lol.

Page 163: I like the silly little moments of them fucking around and finding out with Sburb, like with this and the bathtub later.

Page 166: I was going to scold John for literally jumping down a fucking hole (he could break his bones!) and then realized I would probably do the exact same thing if not for my fear of heights.

Page 167: "You think it's cool that things don't always have to be a federal fucking issue." I don't have any commentary it's just one of my favorite lines and nobody ever mentions it. >I also love this line. The phrase 'federal fucking issue' lives in my head.

Page 171: Rose's preferred method of learning is "fuck around and find out".

Page 173: Why were you going to put the bathtub in the driveway to begin with? Hello? >ToT It only now occurred to me that. Rose. What the fuck are you doing. Truly a moment of the characters being subject to the whims of the forum prompts.

Page 174: The dialogue is so good here. People always mention "EB: tell me what is wrong with this picture" but no one ever mentions "TT: Yes. Cake, jesters, unfaltering love and support. TT: Quite a road to hoe there." Also, first mentions of Rose's home situation. I feel it's interesting how she's so blunt about Mom's failures as a parent, especially in comparison to Dave's complete denial that Bro has ever done anything wrong. >I think part of it is the very different natures of Rose and Dave, as well as the different natures of their home situations. Dave is frequently actively in a dangerous situation and is actively being manipulated, whereas Rose's mom is an otherwise doting mother who's just kinda shit in one very particular (and major!) way. Dave can't really risk unpacking All That, a fight is a constant threat. Rose manages to get away with a lot more avoidance and more generally has time all to herself where she can think. Perhaps this is a potential topic for an essay. >>They're so fuckt up.

Page 177: Hell yeah it's Sburbin' time. >My favorite part is when John said "it's Sburbin' time" and Sburbed all over the place.

Page 186: We already mentioned this last time I think but I love Harlequin as a track. It's so Videos Game. >Thank you Mark Hadley.

Page 187: "EB: we don't have time for this asinine tomfoolery. TT: This unmitigated poppycock? EB: extravagant hogwash! EB: ok stop EB: stop typing whatever silly thing you're typing" this is what's happening behind the scenes of this blog at any given time. >True! This post has been fact-checked by real annotatedAmblings mods.

Page 195: Damn I sure wonder what that could be. Surely it's not an indicator of impending doom.

Page 196: Here's where shit starts getting real.

Page 199: In John's defense, I would also attempt to ingest a unit of build grist. >Remind me to never play Sburb with you. >>There are many reasons not to play Sburb with me. I'm bad at video games and generally not athletic. Also, you shouldn't play Sburb just as, like, a general rule. >>>It could be worse. It could be Sv- *gets shot*

Page 204: The infamous Dave meteor monologue :} >PLANET FUCKING JUPITER. DAVE TANGENT!!!

Page 208: What the fuck does John do every day that Dad is relatively unfazed by a bathtub in his hallway? >Maybe he just has more serious business. Like baking another cake. Could you imagine. Five cakes. That's as many as five. Dadbert is remarkably chill about stuff like the stray toilet and tub.

Page 214: HI ROSE :D

Page 222: "Nice time management skills there, sweetheart!" Mean to her :{ >Oh so when the narrator is pointing out her friend is dying and she needs to move on it's bad to be mean to her but when you advocate for a character dying in a piece of art i make it's just payback for a curse. I see how it is. </INCREDIBLY UNSERIOUS> "Nice time management skills there, sweetheart!" Okay but Aggrieve (Violin Refrain) is literally a good song so it's worth it.

Page 225: "At least, that is how you have come to interpret the gesture in retrospect." She wasn't always at war with her mom. >Sometimes a once nice parent-child relationship degrades over time as a child begins to recognize the flaws in their parent, and the parent can't, won't, or simply doesn't know how to fix their relationship, leaving the child to deal with the weight of the parent's failures. >>It's tough realizing the people who raised you aren't who you thought they were, but that's a topic for several acts from now. >>>Yeah.

Page 229: This is so funny on the reread. She literally just likes wizards. >God forbid a woman have hobbies.

Page 231: Hi Momlonde.

Page 232: Depressing. >Mood.

Page 234: "Oh the things you'll do to help out a friend." Girl his life is at stake.

Page 238: I like Rose's little smirk here. Iconic. >Yeah! Very classic Rose expression.

Page 239: Little 413 easter egg spotted.

Page 240: Using [sic] in casual conversation goes hard.

Page 245: I don't intend to make a habit of mentioning the newsposts because they're not part of Homestuck but I do feel the need to point out that in this one Hussie points out the absolutely breakneck pace at which Homestuck was updating at the time. This bodes excellently for her mental and physical health in the future, I'm sure. >So fun fact there's a statistic I came up with and started calculating in the context of attempting to mathematically track the increase in speed of the creation of an MSPFA I like called "Days per page". I calculate it by taking how many days since a webcomic started running as of the time of a specific update, and dividing it by the number of pages at that time. The idea is to calculate how far apart updates would've been if the addition of each page was perfectly spaces apart. A normal webcomic with an update schedule that isn't completely fucking deranged can be expected to have a DPP that is. Y'know. Greater than 1. Act 1 ended June 7th, 2009, 55 days after the comic started, and it has 247 pages, giving it a DPP of ~0.22. AKA the average gap between new pages during Act 1 is less than 5 1/2 hours. This is somewhat alleviated by the amount of sprite usage and the forum game aspect, but that's still a LOT of writing, and asset creation, and animation for the gifs, and the FLASH PAGES, some of which are interactive and/or have sound! Jesus fucking Christ no wonder Hussie eventually burnt out. (For the record, the DPP for HS as a whole is ~0.31.) >>This particular news post hit hard because they literally said that they had somehow managed to post with the same frequency as they had with Problem Sleuth despite Homestuck being significantly more difficult to produce. How. Why. >>>Christ. It's a bit of a miracle Homestuck got finished.

Page 246: Obviously, we all get the Bible symbolism here, but I had forgotten that John taking a bite of the apple was right as the meteor hit. Even more Biblical symbolism than I thought, then. I mean, is he not essentially being cast out of Eden (Earth)? And he can never go back, cuz it's gone. >Partake of the fruit of knowledge, enter the game that is a symbol of growing up. Loss of innocence. You can't go back to when you didn't know.