The new (fixed) title page as of January 2017
Hackbent is a fanventure (fan comic based off of Homestuck) created by user Chasingstarlightz which can be read here
and its official blog can be found here
The fancomic follows six trolls from Alternia who have been captured by a mysterious alien race that wishes to test out their own modded version of Sgrub to figure out why the Alternians were chosen. The events began when Alleph finds the game copy, in many ways this goes along with Theme Naming in which Alleph (alpha) is the beginning. What starts off as a run-off-the-mill session, is made interesting by a certain character who decided to disobey the rules.
The author has a knack for making some events that transpire in this session sad as well as providing heart wrenching twists as well.
Contains Examples of:
- The 20th Century: All of the dancestors' fashions seem to hint at various eras of this century (ex. 50's, 90's, 80's).
- Art Evolution: The author's style goes from being round and cartoony to having more realistic proportions as well as lighting effects. A post on the official blog to compare, and as of 6/29/2017 all sprites have been updated to reflect said evolution.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lutark looked sweet enough to give one cavities, but is, in fact, a bitter killer.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Literally.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Beitus can infect others, and once infected they're doomed to behave like this and to become his familiar. Point is, the ones who are now, kind of give away Beitus' identity, due to Lutark being close to both of them.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Nohmyt tends to do this a lot with the reader.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Nohmyt claims that Chamorpheons cannot lie, but that doesn't mean they can't dance around the truth.
- Celestial Body: Blue Space Ghost ( Alt!Cyrill) is a being whose body seems to be made out of a blue galaxy.
- Cessation of Existence: When Beitus pays a visit to the dream bubbles, his anger combined with his powers corrupt the dream bubbles to the point of erasing all the ghosts from existence save for Cyrill.
- Color-Coded Characters: Everybody except Nohmyt. This is probably because this is because of the troll's hemospectrum.
- Cyrill and Vihnie - Azure Blue
- Morson and Rodard - Mint Green
- Ellata and Actaea - Apple Green
- Anaiad and Ollapa, Seleen and Haeton: Dark Blue
- Alleph and Lutark - Purple (The latter eventually discards this color.)
- Anything that is affected by Beitus, like the landscape glitching from time to time (which stirs up an sense of unease) and Haeton and Rodard, his familiars will have either red or orange in combination with black.
- Rodard eventually grows tired of the unease he gets from colors of the landscape and lampshades this in an epic snark moment.
- Rodard eventually grows tired of the unease he gets from colors of the landscape and lampshades this in an epic snark
- Covered in Kisses: Lutark makes a joke about Rodard possibly getting this from Vihnie when he reappears suddenly.Lutark: hmm but his fAce is a11 clean though.Lutark: Vihnie's cheAp 1ipstick should've left some mArks on his face!
- Crush Blush: Rodard and Seleen both blush when their respected crushes are mentioned.
- Cryptic Conversation: Happens between Beitus and Ollapa just before they corrupt his Seer powers. Also noted to happen when Nohmyt and Beitus chat, though vaguely about who and what Beitus is or may be planning.
- Didn't Think This Through: Alleph, on several occasions.
- The Dragon: Beitus to Nohmyt. Beitus was created by Nohmyt to serve his purposes of making the timeline more "exciting".
- Dragon with an Agenda: Beitus to Nohmyt, however how Beitus defines "exciting" may differ from Nohmyt. His plans have interfered with his data collecting in the dream bubbles and have gotten him in trouble with Nohmyt.
- Dramatic Drop: Morson drops a bowl of macaroni because Cyrill somehow figured out that he's actually a Morson from another timeline.
- Drunk with Power: Alleph in the alternate timeline where his obsession with his Chief of Heart powers made him use Cyrill to mercilessly murder almost everyone in the session.
- Encyclopaedic Knowledge: Seems to be what Nohmyt and his race are trying to do achieve.
- Evil All Along: The Lutark all of the dancestors seemed to know and love was always a lying, manipulative, power-hungry villain. Because of his dissatisfaction with his godtier title and his session, he made a deal with Nohmyt and eventually transformed into Beitus.
- Evil Wears Black: Beitus's being or body is completely dark, save for the computer-y orange designs on his suit.
- Forgiveness: Seems to be a recurring theme within the comic, examples would be when Morson forgives Cyrill for being too guilt-ridden and too late to apologize for murdering her friends, when Ollapa forgives the Alleph who had become power obsessed and murdered everyone, and another would be Rodard stating the incident that broke his horns was all a misunderstanding and was no one's fault. He forgives both Haeton and Vihnie, either way.
- For the Evulz: Lutark Lampri aka Beitus states that he made the characters fight against him just for his own amusement. He also amuses himself with other people's suffering.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: It can be argued that Lutark's nosiness is what makes most of the other dancestors dislike him. Rodard, his best friend, is an exception.
- Go Out with a Smile: It is to be noted that Alt!Alleph smiled for his first time while saying goodbye.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: Blue and Orange, while being opposite colors on the color wheel both represent that of good in evil in Hackbent. Cyrill, being good, and Beitus as well as Nohmyt's eyes being orange and evil.
- Rodard eventually lampshades this and it's noteworthy because he's been switched to the enemy's side and is complaining about his boss' redesign of the landscape.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Vihnie wears a leather jacket.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Beitus's motives seem unclear other than to make the session interesting, what they're planning exactly is unknown.
- Hive Mind: Chamorpheons. This is the reason that they are unable to ever play the game, as they lack ability to be different and experience personal growth.
- High-Class Glass: Alleph sports a monocle. It's also to be noted that he has a whole entire drawer full of them.
- I Am a Monster: Many fingers are pointed at characters and characters themselves say they are "monsters". Arguably while certain circumstances, plans, or decisions are cruel, single actions do not automatically make them a monster. Especially since most have shown remorse/regret/reluctance.
- Identity Concealment Disposal: Both Beitus and the Blue space ghost hide their identities, for different reasons of course. Beitus is using his new form as a way of wrecking havoc until he's ready for The Reveal.
- "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Subverted by Vihnie. Rodard, who became Beitus' familiar, expects this (heavy spoilers!), but Vihnie slams him without hesistation
- In the Hood: The blue space ghost, who is actually the Cyrill Omicro who was mind controlled by Alleph wears a hood and a cloak in order to keep her identity a secret from her friends, because she is ridden with guilt and cannot face them after murdering them in her timeline
- Jerk Jock: Haeton arguably looks and fits into this role, though this could also be because the author has based his character and appearance off of Andrew Clark from The Breakfast Club, fitting his 80's theme.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: All of the ancestors have this due to Beitus erasing their memories of their session, specifically how they died. That doesn't stop them from guiding their descendants through the game though. It is also to be noted that Ollapa and Ellata both experience memory erasure because Beitus doesn't want them snooping around.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: Morson was given his powers because of this, and it wasn't exactly a good thing.
- Lizard Folk: Nohmyt, being a fan-species of super-intelligent lizard aliens that can shapeshift based on the Kanamit.
- Meaningful Name: Everyone. No, really. All the characters' names have to do with what kind of troll or other creature they are.
- 'Cyrill Omicro' comes from the Cyrillic alphabet and the Greek letter Omicron (meaning little o).
- 'Vihnie' is a six-letter version of 'Fini', which means 'to end' or 'to finish'. It also refers to her being inconvenient to Beitus due to her counteracting him.
- 'Morson Teslaa' is a mix of Samuel Morse, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.
- Likewise, 'Rodard' is also a mix. (of Rod Serling, the author of The Twilight Zone (1959), and Robert H. Goddard, a pioneer of the first liquid fueled rocket)
- 'Ellata Rhodos' comes from the Rosa Stellata, and 'Rhodos' is a variety of rose.
- 'Actaea' is a plant, bugbane to be exact. Her name is probably the one with the most meanings. In mythology, Actaea is one of the daughters of Danaus, who killed their husband because they were forced into marriage. Her breaking up with Lutark is a possible reference to this. That plant was said to be named for Actaeon, who was turned into a deer and eaten by his own hunting dogs upon seeing Artemis bathing. This could be alluding to her and Seleen's relationship. Actaea is also a moon, which also ties into Seleen's crush on her.
- 'Alleph Lampri' refers to the first Greek letter, Aleph, which represents an ox and could refer to his stubborn personality. Lampri is a shortening of Lamprias, the grandfather of the man who evidenced that that letter would be the first (That man was Plutarch, the source of Lutark's name). 'Lampri' also refers to his lusus, a lamprey eel.
- The name Beitus rivals Actaea in being the most meaningful. The name is an amalgamation of the words 'virus' and 'beta'. He could've chosen this to show that he was “Better” or it can symbolically represent that he is a second copy of Alleph fabricated out of his innermost thoughts and wishes, and that he is not Alpha. And also, because B comes after A in the Alphabet.
- In 'Beta' in Urdu and Hindi means 'elder royal son', reflecting the fact that his former self was the elder of the two seadwellers and thus royalty.
- There is Meaningful Rename going here, for multiple reasons. Read more about it by that entry below.
- 'Ollapa Sulise' and 'Anaiad Quilla''s first names are almost inverted from 'Diana' and 'Apollo', the two gods they refer. 'Sulise' is from 'Dies Solis' the Latin name for sunday, and 'Quilla' is the Latin-American (braid-wearing) goddess of the moon.
- 'Haeton' is a shortening of 'Phaethon' the son of Helios and foreshadows his brainwashment. 'Seleen' means 'moon' in multiple languages.
- 'Nohmyt' is extracted from 'Kanamit' from The Twilight Zone (1959), and as such, his full name is in fact Kanohmyt.
Word of God confirms that his race was based on the Kanamit.
- Meaningful Rename: After becoming a virus, a character who was "a troll" renames themself to be "Beitus", which combines the terms, Beta and Virus. Much to their dismay, Nohmyt chuckles and points out that it still follows the six-letter troll name rule. This is for multiple reasons. The first was that he didn't want Nohmyt to call him by his name anymore, and as such simply needed a new one. He also got a new name representing 'Lutark's despair, reflecting how they've stopped being a full troll (at least, one made from data), and are only an embodiment of 'Lutark's despair.
- Messy Hair: Out of everyone, Cyrill seems to have the messiest locks of hair.
- Motifs: A pentacle shaped symbol (of the nine personalities) is repeated throughout the comic, and is later to be revealed to be a symbol that was part of Alleph's Psychology book.
- Noodle Incident: All of the 'dancestors' remember next to nothing from an 'accident' involving Haeton breaking Rodard's horns. It turns out to be Lutark testing out his new viral powers. He influenced Haeton to break the horns of Rodard, and Vihnie went on a following rampage. He wiped the minds of the others for his own benefit.
- The Power of Friendship: Another recurring theme in the comic, shown in the teamwork between friends as well as Alleph coming to terms with having friends in the first place or at least, his Drunk with Power ghost self did.
- Not So Weak: Cyrill, who is constantly and always full of self-doubt happens to be one of the most powerful players in the session. She also states to Alleph that she doesn't care if he makes fun of her, if you hurt her friends she will probably snap.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Lutark, a VERY devious dancestor who hides his true self behind a sugary sweet personality more than once.
- Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date: In Vihnie's flashback, Rodard and her search for frogs on a rowboat. This little moment together sparked the beginning of their quadrant flipping.
- Orange/Blue Contrast: Oh so very much. Not only at the title screen, but in the entire story. However, the tints are toned down; the blue is more like a sky blue, and the orange is very dirty.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Anaiad and Ollapa share completely opposite traits, Ollapa being more reserved and observant and Anaiad being more lively and wild (being a boss ass bitch). The same can be applied to their dancestors because they are made by wishes and desires. Haeton and Seleen are vice versa, except that Haeton is more abrasive.
- Lutark and Alleph count as a dancestor pair, it's more elaborated on the Fridge section. To put it short, Lutark is a ruthless sociopath who has been using his cute and innocent image to get away with murder, literally, for years, and Alleph turns out to be sweet, gentle, and compassionate and not evil at all.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: As of March 6th, 2017, the updates are set on hiatus until March 18th. Earlier that day, the update (one page) was belated due to technical problems due to a virus.
- The Reveal: Beitus reveals that the dancestors aren't real; they're data based off of what the main trolls want to be like.
- Shapeshifting: Chamorpheons share this trait, but it is also noted that Cyrill is also capable of shapeshifting into apparently anything tangible in god tier mode.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Alt!Morson's whole entire purpose of his presence in the timeline, everything seemed to be going All According to Plan until Beitus showed up.
- Shout-Out: when Alt!Alleph uses his power, the symbol of his aspect appears in his eye.
- Tears of Remorse: Both Alt!Alleph and Alt!Cyrill cry because they regret their actions.
- Theme Naming: While the trolls don't exactly all follow an exact singular theme: Alpha, Beta, and Omega have been used as of far in names and thematically.
- Word of God says Ellata (Nature) and Morson (Technology) and Ollapa (Sun) and Anaiad (Moon) are supposed to be pairs too.
- Morson and Ellata can also represent past and future, if you think about it.
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- Unable to Cry: The Blue Space Ghost (Alt!Cyrill), after meeting up with Alt!Morson in what is left of the dream bubbles states that she cannot cry anymore for being unable to do anything.
- Walking Spoiler: Lutark. His character folder has been fully eradicated of spoilers, just because this trope applies so heavily on him.
- Wham Episode: In the 9/25/2015 update, it is revealed that Morson was never "normal".
- Beitus reveals that the game is all a simulation, and the dancestors aren't real, just data based on what they want to be.
- Whole-Plot Reference:
- A group of five (later six) individuals get trapped in a game where they meet up with their virtual versions to fight a virus together. Sounds like Scooby-Doo and the Cyber-Chase.
- The plot also sounds like Roma Heta's one.
