Harsher In Hindsight / Homestuck

> Comprehend situations that later turn grimdark.

Homestuck is so full of these, it's getting to the point that laughing at anything is a dicey proposition. Not that that will stop us.

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• The throwaway line about the Sassacre tome being large enough to kill a cat becomes a bit somber when it turns out that the book is actually what killed Jaspers.
• Can Town counts. Wayward Vagabond pretending to be adored by a bunch of citizen cans becomes a lot less funny once we learn he once led a rebel army only to see it wiped out by Jack Noir, with him being the only survivor. The hints that it is his way of dealing with the trauma only make it worse.
• Tavros trolling Dave pathetically. He ends up blocking Dave. Later, we find out that Tavros. What was initially funny turned out to be caused by Tavros' total lack of self-confidence.
  • Hell, Tavros Nitram is one of the best examples of this. Prior to Act 5, he was only ever drawn from the waist up, leading to an in-joke in the community that he was in a wheel chair. Well, Act 5 comes around, and guess what...
  • Made even more painful by the fact that his first physical appearances shows him leaping around Prospit.
• At first it is merely said that "You [Sollux] do not under any circumstance eat the MIND HONEY. The consequences are highly unpleasant." At this point, you [the reader] might even get a little chuckle out of it; at that point in the narrative, we have seen many characters dislike things for weird reasons that don't seem so bad. Then Sollux accidentally ingests a bit and destroys his hive (home) with Eye Beams, because those are the aforementioned "consequences". You might find this pretty funny, really. Though it might be horrifying, because of the Eye Beams. That depends on your interpretation - at this point. But ultimately we find out that at one point in the past, he was forced to do this and it killed his beloved Aradia. The benign, understated, almost wry way the topic was introduced contrasts heavily with its sobering actual meaning.
• The humor within this scene is spoiled in hindsight of Act 5 Act 2, when Equius does smile... by being strangled to death.
  • Gamzee's Hero Mode shot. A CMoA until it was remade into Murder Mode. The original is just as disturbing by association now.
• Dave trolls Gamzee by showing him a video of the Insane Clown Posse, claiming that they are the "Mirthful Messiahs" of his religion, leading to a particularly amusing scene. Then we find out that his religion was really the only thing that kept him from falling off the deep end, and he becomes Ax-Crazy as a result of Dave's mockery.
  • Everyone who thought that Gamzee's background honks were hilarious are regretting every giggle because of this, since it's his Madness Mantra.
  • Let's just say that pretty much any joke relating to Gamzee before he went crazy and started killing people is a potential example.
  • It gets worse when you consider that for the B2 kids the ICP were The Quisling for the Condesce.
• Jade notes that Dave didn't prototype his Kernelsprite with a dead relative because he was "too cool" to have a family member die. Under a hundred pages later, Bro is Killed Off for Real.
• This strip made Rose's "empty suicide attempt" in this flash seem much less funny. The strip immediately following it mitigated this somewhat.
  • Speaking of empty suicide threats... Not to mention, pretty much any interaction Doc Scratch has ever had with any of the kids or trolls just got a billion times creepier in retrospect.
• One of the ongoing jokes, the flammability of shaving cream, takes a considerably dark turn in the 10/25/11 updates, when CD uses Dad's shaving cream hooked up to a bomb to kill Jade's realself. However, in the following flash, it's revealed that Jade can still go God Tier with her dream self turned into a sprite, so she comes back to life.
• John's enmity towards Betty Crocker seems silly at first. Then it turns out that Betty Crocker is an evil alien empress who has massacred hundreds of planets, working for a Humanoid Abomination, and in an alternate timeline her corporation has branched into virtually everything, and is brainwashing humanity. "The heinous batterwitch has her gnarled claws in everything", indeed.
• Dave's Hilariously Abusive Childhood at the hands of Bro (including but not limited to unnervingly sexual puppets left everywhere, swords that regularly fall out of the fridge or cabinets, and regular fights with Dave that send him falling down the stairs) may have become this now that we've met Bro's Alpha universe counterpart Dirk and not only is he a really nice guy deep down, if every bit as weird as Bro always was, but he's very wary at even the idea of having children because he's convinced he would be a terrible parent. During a deep talk the two have in LOTAK, Dave eventually reveals that he resents his brother through and through for simply not giving a shit about him, and Dirk finally gets a chance to be the brother Dave wished he had.
• This◊ picture Calliope for Roxy is kind of heartwarming. Until the Trickster Mode shenanigans: The lollipop Roxy's holding in the picture is the trickster juju lollipop, and Trickster!Roxy looks exactly like Calliope's art. Then it gets kind of creepy.
• Pretty much any mention of Bill Cosby in the comic becomes this, given real life events.
• The early pages with John goofing off in his house take a much darker cast when you know what he's about to experience.
  • Even worse is rereading Rose on her mother while wandering her house pre-session. After Rose admitted that she probably always loved her and after seeing them through the mirror of Roxy's life, some of her more ridiculous actions seem nothing less than a desperate and tragically failed attempt to connect with her daughter.
  • Wayward Vagabond's obsession with leading Can Town well certainly takes a dark turn when we find out what happened the last time he tried to lead someone...
  • Snowman saving Spades Slick from getting shot to death by Quarters becomes rather grim given that soon after he ends up shooting her dead.
  • Any early Acts scene showing Dave's Hilariously Abusive Childhood with Bro Strider, now that Act 6 Intermission 5 rolled in and shows what Dave thinks about all of those times.
  • The Cosbytop, after the allegations against Cosby damaged his career.
    • The second physical book makes this even harsher as the footnote of one page calls Cosby "the perfect father." In later copies of said book, this is brought up in a Let Us Never Speak of This Again fashion:
    *YEARS LATER EDIT - HA HA, LET'S POLITELY SIDESTEP THE FACT THAT HE'S NOW BETTER KNOWN AS A SERIAL RAPIST THAN A GOOD FATHER. HA HA, WHAT SEX CRIMES SPANNING FIVE DECADES??? HA HA, WOW, MOVING ON!
  • After having received the Kickstarter money for Hiveswap, Hussie (the Character) hands it all over to buy a cock-ring during the Act 6 flashes. Funny at the time, but much less so when serious allegations erupted over Hiveswap's budget as having been stolen by the company Hussie was developing with.
  • A fandom secret◊ posted some time after Gamzee's introduction credits Gamzee for helping the fan get over their fear of clowns. Uh... makes you wonder how that fan reacted to the later developments.
    • Likewise, Gamzee sobering up and turning the comic into a full-blown Slasher Movie becomes even more frightening after evil clown sightings were reported throughout 2016.^note These sightings have actually been reported since as far back as 2013, but never as common as they were in 2016.
• WV's messing around with can chessboard becomes pretty damn sad once you see what happened the last time he tried to lead an army.
• In a pesterlog between Dave and Gamzee in early Act 5 Act 2, Gamzee saying that he hasn't had a good pie in a while takes on new significance after he does his acrobatic fucking pirouette off the handle.
• The contents of Dad's wallet are revealed to be a ton of shaving cream, which is presented as comedic. Just before "Cascade", the Courtyard Droll returns with the shaving cream and uses it to kill Jade.
  • Dad Egbert's Doting Parent routine is a bit saddening when you consider what John's been subconsciously writing on his bedroom walls.
• Aradia's snarky line about how Karkat should just keep listening to his self-destructive, angry impulses gets much worse when you find out later from Karkat that many if not most of the Aradiabots from doomed timelines came about because of hasty decisions on his part. In other words, a lot of her snark towards Karkat came because she got to see herself (and her friends) die over and over again because of him.

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