History Homestuck / TropesAToL

** As if that wasn't enough to establish it as HellIsThatNoise to the characters, then came "[S] Equius: Seek the highb100d". After you enter the vent as Nepeta, it's dark, you have no idea where Gamzee is, and [[NothingIsScarier all the music stops]] save for... [[http://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/blackest-heart-with-honks this]]. ''And you can hear the honking''.

** [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/1658 This conversation]] explains the abortion of ''Webcomic/SweetBroAndHellaJeff'''s nacho party arc -- Dave got tired of it and decided to pull the plug early.

** Act 7 itself wraps up the majority of the plot, but leaves a number of threads hanging. However, ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues'' have been released.

** Invoked in-universe, [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/4372 from Karkat's POV]] when John sends him and the others a letter in a bucket. Buckets are used in Alternian society to ''collect reproductive material''. Not helping is the line in the note saying "We all contributed to the contents of this bucket". Played with even a bit more before, as Jade chastises John and tells him to "throw [a bucket] through my mysterious portal"

* AdultsAreUseless: Played straight at first, as John's father seems to care more about baking then the imminent danger he is in, Rose's mother seems to be near insane, Jade's grandfather is dead, and Dave's parents are no-where to be seen. Later subverted however, as John's Dad *SINGLEHANDEDLY* escaped from his captors, with none of the advanced weapons the children have. Rose's Mother opens the door that allows Rose into the laboratory, which saves them both, and eventually also singlehandedly slays a large monster. Dave's Bro slices a meteor in half with a katana. Jade's Grandfather turns out to be alive, and is piloting a spaceship which carries John's Dad and Rose's Mother.

** Calliope and Caliborn grow up on a planet that is later revealed to be the post-scratch version of Earth, long after all human life has gone extinct and its sun began to die.

** The final form of Skaia is certainly non-euclidean.

** Every player has at least one "dreamself," who usually begins the game sleeping in a tower on either Prospit or Derse. The dreamself can act as an "extra life" for the player, and once dreamselves have woken up at least once they allow a player to be in two places at once.

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: When trolls are grubs, their eyes and bodies are their blood colors. Once they pupate, their skin and eye colors become the same between all trolls, however they fill in with blood pigment as the trolls get older. The twelve main trolls are still young enough for their eyes to be uniformly gray-and-yellow.

* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: The Intermission initially seems like a small MythologyGag-laden break from all of the Sburb shenanigans with the kids, but it does set up a lot of important pieces for the later Acts: Not only does Spades Slick become a major recurring character, it introduces the ApocalypseMaiden Snowman, sets up a lot of the StableTimeLoop shenanigans the comic would later explore in greater detail, is the first in-comic mention of [[GreaterScopeVillain Lord English]] and the end reveals the internet trolls harassing the kids were actually aliens.

* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: The Intermission initially seems like a small MythologyGag-laden break from all of the Sburb shenanigans with the kids, but it does set up a lot of important pieces for the later Acts: It introduces the ApocalypseMaiden Snowman, sets up a lot of the StableTimeLoop shenanigans the comic would later explore in greater detail, is the first in-comic mention of [[GreaterScopeVillain Lord English]] and the end reveals the internet trolls harassing the kids were really aliens.

* InsistentTerminology: The '''Green Sun''' is always written in green with flickering letters (using an image file).

For the interested, the classes are [[EntropyAndChaosMagic Bard]], [[BeneathTheMask Knight]], [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Heir]], [[GameBreaker Lord]], [[TheSmartGuy Mage]], [[TheMedic Maid]], [[TheParagon Muse]], [[StatusBuff Page]], [[BlackMage Prince]], [[JustLikeRobinHood Rogue]], [[{{Seers}} Seer]], [[WhiteMagicianGirl Sylph]], [[LovableRogue Thief]], [[TheRedMage Witch]] (though the powers of each class are strictly YMMV, this is just one possible interpretation). The aspects (which are more firmly defined) are [[BloodBrothers Blood]], [[BlowYouAway Breath]], [[YouCantFightFate Doom]], [[EmotionalPowers Heart]], [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve Hope]], [[GreenThumb Life]], [[WindsOfDestinyChange Light]], [[SuperIntelligence Mind]], [[UnstoppableRage Rage]], [[ThePowerOfCreation Space]], [[TimeTravel Time]], and [[PowerOfTheVoid Void]].

** The aspects are: [[BloodBrothers Blood,]] [[TimeMaster Time,]] [[ScrewDestiny Breath,]] [[YouCantFightFate Doom,]] [[TheEmpath Heart,]] [[RealityWarper Space,]] [[TheChessmaster Mind,]] [[MsExposition Light,]] [[PowerOfTheVoid Void,]] [[UnstoppableRage Rage,]] [[HotBlooded Hope,]] and [[LifeEnergy Life.]]

* AllJustADream: [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/3832 Here]], Doc Scratch [[TheReveal reveals]] that, from the [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/3774 coin flip onwards]], he had [[HalfTruth actually been describing]] a [[ForWantOfANail doomed alternate timeline in which Terezi let Vriska carry out her plan]], and that, in the alpha timeline, Terezi had [[SelfDefeatingProphecy foreseen that outcome and stabbed Vriska to avoid it]].

* ForWantOfANail: It's quite common for apparently innocuous actions to be the root cause of truly massive consequences. Especially notable is the chain of events starting with Gamzee placing a harlequin doll in John's bedroom on Derse, which ultimately leads to Jack Noir destroying the Kids' universe. To clarify: the doll placed by Gamzee haunts John's dreams, causing his (and Dad's) obsession with harlequins; this leads to John's kernelsprite being prototyped with a harlequin, which causes the Black Queen to enforce a harlequin dress code in Derse; this causes Jack to go (even more) crazy, kill the Queen and steal her ring, which gives him enough power (after Bec's prototyping) do destroy an entire universe; which he promptly ''does''.
** Arguably the most significant example of this would be Vriska's death; although Terezi initially believes that killing her is the only way to ensure their victory, as Vriska was primarily responsible for Bec Noir's creation to begin with (and allowing her to battle him alone would have led to the deaths of all the remaining trolls), doing so actually dooms the entire party. Without Vriska, Terezi & Rose both completely lose their sense of self and their abilities are significantly weakened. In addition to this, none of the remaining trolls have the psychic ability to pacify the possessed Jade and Jane before they can start acting out the Condesce's plans, leading to every major character (except John and Roxy) dying for good in [S] Game Over.

*** [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Vriska fights against Hussie because he wants to kill the cast.]]

* BigDamnHug: The scene with Davepetasprite^2 and Arquiusprite hugging. Davepetasprite^2 is a result of FusionDance of Dave from a BadFuture (fused with a bird) and Nepeta -- while Arquiusprite is a result of FusionDance of Lil' Hal (AI based on alternative version of Dave's abusive brother) and Equius (Nepeta's [[PlatonicLifePartners Platonic Life Partner]], who blames himself for not protecting her from being murdered). When they meet, they exchange a funny, but at the same time really touching dialogue, in which Davepetasprite^2 assures that he does not blame Arquiusprite for anything, and that he is something other than just Lil' Hal and Equius. It all ends with [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/7928 one of the most comically exaggerated hug scenes in fiction]].

* BonusBoss: John can fight a Uranium Imp during the [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/3079 Enter Village]] interactive segment.

* HomoeroticDream: When discussing Dave's dreams, Rose insists that they are simply bursting with phallic imagery.

* AffectionateParody: Of just about every facet of modern day culture you can think of, from the mainstream to the underground, and in particular mid 2000s internet culture and ''Earthbound''-like {{Eastern RPG}}s.

** He's also used ''Videogame/EarthBound''-style sprites, though those are the work of the art team.

** Starting from Act 2 and becoming the standard by Act 5, [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/artcredits.html art contributions are being made]], creating constant shifts between art. A major one found in [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/2792/1 this page]] has a style reminiscent of ''Videogame/EarthBound''.
** Following that page, Andrew introduced some new styles into the main comic pages, including ''Videogame/EarthBound''-like sprites and more detailed styles in the traditionally drawn panels. See [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/2805 here]] and [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/2809 here]], for instance.

** Of the ComingOfAgeStory, particularly the world-bending variation codified by ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' and ''VideoGame/Mother3''. The characters do come of age, and eventually they ''do'' save the world, but they do so at great personal cost, and not without making mistake after mistake in the process. The characters witness (and in some cases, are party to) a significant amount of death and destruction in their quest, and by the end only a small handful survive. In addition, the trauma they develop from their experiences doesn't just go away once they're "safe," and a major part of the story becomes dedicated to how the kids cope with their experiences & losses as they progress toward adulthood. It's made clear that the kids have been immeasurably changed by the events of the game and the responsibility foisted on them, but without the resources or knowledge to approach these emotions in a healthy way, they quickly spiral into unhealthy relationships and coping mechanisms during the three year gap.

* DiedOnTheirBirthday: The story mostly takes place on TheHerosBirthday. The 13th of April is quite the deathday for John Egbert, who dies about three times in that single day. Fortunately the story applies video game mechanics to its characters, and DeathIsCheap.

* TheHerosBirthday: It was John's thirteenth birthday when the adventure began, and it remains his birthday until the end of Act 5. During his three year travel in the Act 6 intermissions, the narration always cuts to John in one year intervals, meaning it's always his birthday when we see him. The second time it's [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]].

-->''[[InWhichATropeIsDescribed Wherein]] Numerous Vigilantes Confront Peril; [[FaceHeelTurn One of Them Betrays the Others]]; [[FakeDefector (But it Turns Out to be Part of The Plan All Along)]]; [[LoveDodecahedron Several]] Attractive Female Leads [[WillTheyOrWontThey Provide Romantic Tension]]; [[SignatureHeadgear Four Major Characters Wear Unusual Hats]]; [[TheReveal One Holds Plot-Critical Secret]]; [[StuffBlowingUp 47 On-Screen Explosions]], [[KarmicDeath One Resulting in Demise of]] [[TheDragon Key Adversary]]; [[{{Narm}} 6 to 20 Lines that could be Construed as Humorous]];'' [[LongTitle etc.]]

* LongTitle: Apparently all of the troll's movies have these, due to having run out of short ones in their longer-running society.