>Start thread for MS Paint Adventures

Hussie treats his own work like gospel. And anything anyone else writes that he likes, he just goes Sure, Why Not?.

As for the update, I wish I could say to somebody "maybe if you're lucky"...

It's so cute, they're wearing each other's shirts~

So's Calliope-Jade's new dress.

Edited by Keybreak on Jan 17th 2020 at 11:11:01 AM

Found a graphic of the Hiveswap troll aspects and dream planets◊.

I read that Joey would have been a Mind player and Jude would be Doom, so with Xefros as Rage and Dammek as Blood that's the last of the aspects to fill out the main characters.

Would have been?

Like, if they would have actually played the game.

Or, do you think that they keep their classpects even if they don't play...Aradia still went godtier, but she probably isn't bound to M.C.'s timeline...

Ancestor selves of the Homestuck cast have been shown manifesting weaker versions of their classpect powers, which are themselves Personality Powers, so classpects are definitely constant.

Just became a Patreon, got to read the bonus updates. And it is really good? Like, way more fun than I expected. So much I am resenting it being behind a paywall, because it means less people will get to read it. Like, seriously, I was mostly indifferent to their existence, but now I want everyone to read them.

I know I've seen Catnapped Part 1 leaked on Imgur. I'm definitely planning on making a private personal archive.

Posting something not about Homestuck, but I'm going to use it as an example.

Found this◊ on tumblr. I don't think I agree.

"I don't like this ship but the art is good" is totally a compliment. You're praising the technique of the work, if not the subject matter.

A ship is a pairing of two (or more [or less...]) characters, typically romantic in nature, idealized with the traits of all parties involved. Some people just go good together. Others don't.

Since ships are (typically) based on fake people, you can downplay some of their canon traits to make the ship work out better, but it wasn't what the author had in mind.

If a writer says something like "all ships are canon", then go ahead, ship whoever you want. But people can disbelieve in a pairing while still enjoying your skill in drawing them.

Like for instance, I've seen some Jake and Dirk art I like, but since they didn't work out as a couple, I guess they weren't a great pairing. I would have liked them to, but something about Word of God's dismantling of their relationship had me rethinking.

And I would have liked John and Rose together, but she ended up with Kanaya and that worked out great. Or at least like, halfway. In the other half she dead. And he ended up with Roxy—halfway—and they got along well enough to have a pretty cool kid.

I like to imagine the potency of ships down the line. How well they'd actually stick it out together, instead of what just looks good drawn on paper.

Edited by Keybreak on Jan 25th 2020 at 1:22:36 PM

I think the intention there is more like, if you want to tell someone you like their art, you can just say that. You don't need to include that you dislike their ship. I know usually people don't mean anything bad by it, and it does sound like you're saying that the art is exceptional at first blush - like "I don't usually like chocolate, but this is good" sort of thing - but I think the point that poster is trying to make is that you ought to just say you like the art.

At least, that's what I assume.

I don't know...I feel like approving some pairs might be approving of toxic relationships.

Like, toxic even if it's with trolls.

Unless you can rewrite them better somehow. Terezi and Gamzee was apparently a bad blackmance, while Tagora and Galekh are written as a good one.

As for redrom, Vriska tormented Tavros before and after she crippled him, but would their potential matespritship actually be a good one unless she stopped being so Vriska?

Yeah, you don't have to mention you don't like the ship, but "I don't like the ship but the art is good" is still, technically, a compliment.

Edited by Keybreak on Jan 26th 2020 at 2:05:24 PM

Yeah, that seems like the intention.

Personally I think it's fine to say stuff like that, but I also get why people would be bothered by being told it.

Also, shipping pretend characters doesn't in itself imply anything about one's actual perception of moral realities? Approving of them no more approves of real abusive or harmful relationships than approving of fictional action movie murder is pro-killing. Now, if someone tries to justify or defend the thing on a level beyond "It's fake and I like it", that could be problematic; it's probably more misguided than immoral, but that can still be a problem. And it's possible some approve of the ship because they approve of the corresponding real relationship dynamic, but I think that's a very small fraction of such shipping. I think "I like it even though it's awful" and "It's actually not awful because [stubborn apologism here]" are much more common, and the former still more than the latter.

Also, shipping a couple doesn't even necessarily mean one thinks they would make a good couple in the fictional reality. It just means one enjoys the thought of them as a couple. There are a lot of reasons one might enjoy such, several of which would be creepy or immoral if applied to real people instead of pretend characters. Of course, if your shipping preference is what would work out well and healthily long-term, more power to you.

Edited by RaichuKFM on Jan 26th 2020 at 3:16:42 PM

"I don't like the ship but the art is good" should be a good way to start some dialogue about it, if it's at least said with some tact. Relationships tend to make up the framework of a character cast. The way the people interact with each other and shape the plot through their alliances.

In art, it's often about how they look together, but in a story, it's about how they act together.

But sure, true talent is validating any kind of crack ship...show me a good way how Jade and Equius could date red and I'd buy it. I don't, but that's where good shipsmanship shines.

Shipsmanship. Somebody trademark that.

Eh, this is cute. But I'm sure Jade is more partial to Squiddles.◊

Edited by Keybreak on Jan 26th 2020 at 2:42:39 PM

The implication that he's hover-handing because he's worried about his ludicrous strength accidentally injuring her amuses me somehow. I think because of the contrast with more typical lack-of-confidence reasons? Of course, it can always be both.

Jane's not fat.

Geez some of those comments

Not the biggest fan of this design. I think it might be because lag meant the first frame of the gif I saw was one with fake mustache and it looked like she had no nose and it just didn't seem right? I dunno, the implied-by-shadow is screwing with me even though it looked totally normal with Rose. I don't think I looked at sprites for anybody but Rose, John and now Jane, come to think of it.

Also, while it's fine to dislike it, anybody surprised by the weight just kinda wasn't paying attention? Granted, a jackass skeletalesque alien calling her fat by no means requires that she was actually overweight at all, but it's not a headcanon fabricated from out of thin air, either. Plus the whole baking empire and absurdly cakefond dad, so.

Yeah I only looked at the first few and, wow I was expecting the stuff to be buried a bit but no, right up at the top, wow.

Edited by RaichuKFM on Jan 29th 2020 at 7:58:44 AM

Honestly the weird bit is that John wasn't fatter, because again, CAKE EVERYWHERE.

John also hates cake.

Yeah, John is noted to be long sick of excessive cake while Jane still loves baking.

I don't think John actually dislikes cake, we just always see him on his birthday after he's eaten enough to become sick of it.

He does specifically hates everything Betty Crocker, though. I don't think he eats much of his dad's baking goods.

Speaking of Betty Crocker...

Jane is (would be? If M.C. still lets her) the heiress apparent to the Crocker empire, and in either epilogue she leverages her power to oppress the trolls.

The Condesce leveraged her position, her people, her longevity, and her powers to oppress the trolls and every planet she conquered.

Jane is just godly and rich, while the Condesce is troll-godly, rich, and long-lived, but they both become "evil".

...I think about what Fozzer said about troll socialism. About giving power to the workers. And Dave talking about neoliberal austerity...

It's all Played for Laughs, but I think that it's less that the empresses are rich and more that they're powerful. The other kids are god tiers too but they fail to stop Jane because she's got that batterwitch moxie.

I'd like to hope that M.C. would calm her imperious tendencies, because pre-epilogue Jane was way kinder and less racist than post-.

As for her thing about "natural troll nature"...well, M.C. has firsthand seen what they're like. And Feferi's ambiguous reconstruction probably won't affect Earth B, will it?

Edited by Keybreak on Jan 30th 2020 at 9:39:16 AM

We are in post-canon, right? Anyone bothered by it can headcanon a skinny Jane and it'll be as valid as every other depiction. Or maybe not, I'm not really 100% on how this whole thing is supposed to work.

Candy also had a theme of people trying to avoid direct confrontation until the situation got so bad that they literally could not, and Meat...well Dirk was in her corner and he had secret fourth wall powers. So it's not all Batterwitch charisma.

Of course Reader may not have the same reservations about telling her off before she's too far gone to listen, and presumably no one has secret fourth wall powers (yet), so.*

*Should probably mention I haven't actually gotten around to reading Pesterquest yet as I've been too cheap to spend money.

Edited by Oceanstuck on Jan 30th 2020 at 9:30:59 AM

I'm fully expecting Dirk to be the final Friend and for the fourth wall stuff to come to a big head there.