With Act 6 Act 6, Hussie’s taking Homestuck to new levels of fourth wall breakage, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the Act 6 Act 6 Intermission 1 flash animation. Its beauty and sheer awesomeness rivals Cascade in places, and draws you even more into the story, quite excellent considering we’ve been on a two-month break. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

- First of all, if you navigate to the A6A6I1 page, it doesn’t look at first like there are any more pages. The link to the next page is farther down, and you get too involved in the animation right away to question it, so you assume this is the only page that’s been released. In archive binging, this will be a dead giveaway as to what will happen, but here it provides the added effect that a single long flash was what was intended, but circumstances require Hussie to advance the narrative following it in an unconventional manner.

- The first hint that this flash is not normal is the meteor; its tail rotates so far as to leave the panel, and the meteor only gets bigger from there. It takes a few seconds to register this, but the tail overlaps the “ACT 6 ACT 6 INTERMISSION 1” text at the top, so your attention is drawn there (and away from the sound icon, which quickly moves to the top left corner of the screen).

- Like with Cascade, you may at first be frustrated that your screen can’t see the whole thing at once. Unlike Cascade, I think this animation was very much designed with that in mind. The panel moves down the screen but stays the same size, so you have to scroll to keep up with it. The meteor stays on the screen at this point, so it seems to have left the realm of the panel, like it’s actually physically on the MSPA web page. (Jade does the same thing several seconds later.)

- Once the panel showing Skaia settles, the meteor occupies another, thinner panel on top of it. This is a familiar setup from Doc Scratch’s narration towards the end of Act 5, and you might think you can relax with the scrolling. You’d be wrong. The panels immediately start growing vertically again, and Jade breaks out of the panels to appear in front of it, very appropriate for a character who has the powers of a First Guardian.

- Those two panels widen vertically until they’re too wide to fit on a standard computer screen. This fits nicely into a transition to a single, extremely tall panel of Earth, and now we’re in full Cascade territory, where we know the panel exists, but it’s too big for us to see the whole thing. Of course, panels are still a part of the animation, because the meteor exits a smaller panel on the top left corner. So we have panels-within-panels, and even that one isn’t stationary or staying the same size.

- Then there’s a very thin panel of Jade riding the meteor, which quickly conveys a sense of speed, and brings a nice break of emptiness to the page. Jade leaves that panel; another one appears after it that’s about a normal size. You scroll up to keep this one centered, too.

- Hussie plays into that scroll, because that’s where everything starts glitching, and the animation borders get really apparent. These are neither consistent from glitch to glitch, nor do they reach the border of the true animation, which is lower, but they are right at the edges of your monitor based on where you last scrolled to.

All along the way, Hussie is playing with the panels to give a sense that these characters inhabit a four-dimensional world, which sometimes breaks into the webpage itself. Rather than just being a cool gimmick, this sets up the idea that Caliborn’s messing with the game cartridge does have the power to physically alter the world of Homestuck itself. Since it has been hinted previously that Lord English might only be able to be defeated with glitches, this flash could be a very important setup.

“We are drawn to master what can be known about worlds which always expand beyond our grasp. This is a very different pleasure than we associate with the closure found in most classically constructed narratives.” - Henry Jenkins

Let’s talk about creative paralysis.

I’ve experienced two very different forms of this, where I feel like I am incapable of creating anything due to an irrational and overwhelming sensation. I really have no idea how common this is, but it’s happened to me several times, so I’m going to write it down.

The first form, which I feel in the days immediately leading up to a project I’m directing, is paralysis through terror. I feel unprepared or somehow unworthy of the mantle of creative executive-in-chief. Even though filmmaking is the core life path I’ve chosen for the past several years, I feel like I’m not good enough. I tend to respond by undergoing extremely intense preproduction, so that I’m extremely prepared going onto the set, which adds to a sense of calm and control once I get there.

The second form, which I feel whenever I finish a really awesome book or TV show or movie, is paralysis through love. This happens for a very select few works. I finish the book, or episode, or video game, and walk around feeling like my mind is still back in that world, turning over every little detail, thinking about the characters and the setting and the ideas. It’s like I’m stuck in the world of that thing, unable to really leave even though the story is over.

It’s frustrating because so often I feel it’s unhelpful. It’s a holding pattern while my mind gets over the thing’s sheer awesomeness. Analyzing more rationally through lists doesn’t really itch the sweet spot I’m looking for; the obsession tends to be more emotional. It’s not easy to pull away from the world, but nor is it easy to write things within the world’s context, because I’m still obsessing over all the story’s little details.

The second form of creative paralysis is a little harder for me to cope with. It’s not unhelpful to find some other creative project to write or experience; on a Homestuck withdrawal, I created my own version of a character and began roleplaying with her. But this isn’t always possible, and creating a new story isn’t usually quite what I want.

Remember the Little House on the Prairie series, or wilderness books like My Side of the Mountain? They were weirdly compelling for books with little to no conflict, and a ton of regular chores written in detail. Each chapter was really a slice of life, and didn’t have the focus on character arc, plot structure, or (most importantly) conflict that a story demands. Any story writer worth his salt will tell you that conflict is the backbone of a story. Yet these books continued fine enough.

When I finish something like Wreck-It Ralph or The Golden Compass, I want to hear more about these characters and this world, but not necessarily because I want to see them put through more trials. I love the status quo the writer has set up in his/her parting paragraphs, and I want to dwell on it, really embrace the characters’ happiness and love. Maybe that’s shallow, but often the story has set up a sort of catharsis for me that I really want to see explored. Status quo can be interesting.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on two forms of creative paralysis. And heaven forbid if they combine, which they now threaten to. I’d be interested to know if anyone else has similar experiences.

This was a pinnacle.

Stories are often about narrative promises: making them, breaking them, or keeping them. The meeting of the B2 kids has been a desirable for some time. Roxy and Dirk’s loneliness has been particularly palpable since their future-dwelling reveal, and Jake grew up on his own as well, save for a few monsters. It’s also taken longer for them to enter the Medium than it did the B1 kids; Jane only just got in at the beginning of A6A3. More so than the B1 kids, who were isolated but at least had guardians to take care of them, we wanted to see the B2 kids meet up. Roxy’s satisfied smile in “Dirk: Unite” was proof enough of that.

It’s a pinnacle for the comic beyond the Act 6 storyline, too. Only once before has a montage approximating this been used, and it was in the middle of the revenge-driven “Make her pay” finale of A5A1. (Then, too, it was used to depict the passage of time.) This montage sits on its own, with only the subtly foreboding presence of Jack Noir to create any sense of unease. It’s a joyful payoff to the strife of the previous sub-acts.

Why should Hussie place this here, now? Not for mere trolling purposes, I might guess. This may be a two-page act, but it’s not the first; Intermission 2 also consisted of a single flash. There’s precedence, and this act’s sudden end is meant to be funny but not entirely surprising. The alternate purpose, I would say, is to establish a status quo. This may seem obvious, but in fact it’s very important. My guess is he does this for one (or both) of two reasons.

First, Hussie may be preparing to dramatically alter the status quo. We are about to see the collision of the meteor and the battleship with this session, after all. One or more villains should quickly follow. Before one or more major locations, objects, or characters is destroyed, it’s narratively important to show what came before.

The other reason is more thematic. In retrospect, much of Act 6 has been about establishing status quo, and often through snapshots of a long period of time. The meteor and the battleship are essentially in stasis for a period of three years; we’ve heard snippets of the implied A1 troll session, and seen its conclusion; the denizens of the dreambubbles are said to spend an unspecified but long period of time there; and now Hussie establishes a new status quo in the B2 incipisphere which lasts several months. All of these are established in the space of one act. Remember how short the B1 session was? In comparison, much of this seems strange. We’re used to a by-the-minute explanation of what happens to our characters, as John messes around with his sylladex and Rose tries to re-establish an internet connection.

Homestuck’s premise—-“four friends play a game that destroys one universe and creates another”—-is also its main idea. Companionship, play, and creative collaboration are the backbone of Homestuck. It so happens that this is the backbone of the fandom, as well. Many people find friends through Homestuck and its vast internet community. Act 6 reinforces that, and lest we forget that Homestuck is about more than just a single group of four characters playing their game, it sets up a bunch of other sessions. Hussie, and in fact all storytellers, likes taking ideas, magnifying them, and bringing them to their logical conclusions. We heard hints of other sessions as early as Act 2, and now we see the results of multiple. Don’t be surprised if the final acts involve every iteration of the game to ever play SBurb, from all across paradox space. If Homestuck climaxed with a cast of millions, its cast list would equal its fanbase in scope.

So where will this eventually lead the comic? I see a couple possible logical conclusions. First, if Hussie decides to take another of his ideas to a logical conclusion, he might expand on the idea of a creation myth. Yes, the A2 trolls created the B1 world, but what about the soon-to-be-combined B1/B2 sessions? What will they create? Perhaps, like Problem Sleuth, they will create our own world.

Or: another promise, kept. This is a bigger reach, since we have been promised a great meeting at the beginning of Act 6 Act 5 (when the three years are up). But remember again how the B1 session was an outlier? It was short, and more notably, the kids kept missing each other. They communicated largely over the internet. Jade was kept busy breeding frogs, Rose exploring the session on her own terms, and Dave setting up the money transfer for the trolls. Only John really had an exploration-centric story, as he wandered Skaia. Since then, the best they’ve done is to spend time in pairs. Meanwhile, every other session we’ve seen has been party-palooza, with tons of team-ups and adventuring fun.

So here’s a theory: the end is like Problem Sleuth, again, but slightly different. It’s the first real meeting of John, Rose, Dave, and Jade. They take hands, maybe (if Hussie wants to be cute). Then they get ready to start an adventure of their own. All the preparation that is Homestuck’s seven acts is over—-now they can get down to the business of play.

I’ve been told to put these up, so like a good little analyzer I am doing so.

- Let’s say UU/uu is Lord English, for the sake of argument. (This is implied by a few things. Calliope and her brother put a chain around each other’s leg, like in Saw, before going to sleep. LE has a pegleg, so it’s conceivable he could remove his leg somehow. The sarcophagus and pistol in recent updates also resemble LE’s possessions, and uu threatens to speak consistently in all-caps and green.)

- If this is the case, Act 6 has been Lord English’s act from the beginning. It’s immediately preceded by Intermission 2: Lord English’s arrival in the troll universe, and his first appearance onscreen. Subsequently, one of the first characters to cheer Jane at the start of Act 6 is Calliope.

- The creation of Tavrisprite was heavy foreshadowing for the UU/uu body sharing reveal, also within A6A3. Not that it wasn’t obvious by that point - “Myststuck”, the A6A3 opener, made it pretty obvious.

- What if Lord English only killed Hussie because he was cosplaying Calliope? It’s implied that she puts on the facepaint and then he has to take it off. It’s amusing that Hussie’s last cosplay is, in essence, a cosplayer.

- And now a musing on Homestuck’s length. Act 6 (now half a year long) is now half as long as Act 5 Act 2, and one-third as long as Act 5. If I had to make a guess based on three-act structure where we are, I’d put us in the middle of the second third of Act 6. The first third of Act 6 came to a close with Betty Crocker’s entrance into the alpha universe, I think, since she was so prevalent for so much of the beginning. Now she’s taken a short backseat to Lord English, and the focus is less on Jane and more on bringing the rest of the kids into the Medium.

Homestuck is a strange beast. I’m thankful to Tumblr, because through it I’ve seen the growth and death of other fandoms, and I know that Homestuck will be able to die. It may be slower than most because of the fandom intensity; it may be quicker because that intensity was (is) so dependent upon continual updates. Nevertheless, while I love these characters and want to find out what happens to them, I don’t want to know how it ends because it means this beautiful process of both the author and the audience will have concluded. This must have been how all those legions of Harry Potter fans felt when the final book was released. Deathly Hallows must have been a sad time indeed.

Seems to me like all of a sudden Hussie wants to be nice to his characters.

At the start of Act 6, new troll UU comes onto the scene. She’s a seemingly benevolent guardian to Jane Crocker, which is just as well because between her and Jake English we get some sort of inclination that this act is going to be all about the villains (Betty Crocker and Lord English as the references, respectively). Fast forward a bit and she’s (A) a little sinister, given her connection to uu, as well as (B) distracted for some reason, and (C) also possibly dead.

So then we get Aranea, new friend of Jake, who seems to be trying to pull everybody together as of the latest update. It’s an interesting dichotomy - some very tragic and/or evil stuff going on (drones being sent after 16-year-olds, Betty Crocker’s takeover of both Earth and the Medium) combined with both Hussie’s traditional comedy and some optimistically forward-thinking characters.

Compare Act 5. It got Darker and Edgier with troll culture, and even more so going into Murderstuck, Rose’s grimdarkness, and Scratchterlude. Cascade was the great conclusion, in that things became at once brighter (everyone reaches God Tier) and darker (the Green Sun is not destroyed but created). In order to keep tension without repeating the same valley-like story arc, Hussie has both good and evil sharing the scene in Act 6. Jailbreakstuck and DD share screentime with the kids and the trolls.

vrivet:

yay for finding other Homestucks at such a small con. If you are any of these wonderfuls then let me know

I gotta say… pretty cool first con. :D

Had a ton of fun with cookinglala and incinerates, and was glad to see fellow Homestucks! There were a ton of super-awesome costumes from other things, too; GLaDOS, Code Geass, Half-Life Combine, knights who say Ni, and zombie nurses come to mind immediately. There were others.

I took video and that should go up once I have access to my home computer. Thanks for an awesome day, guys!!

EDIT: Also something like, what seven Doctors? They were HILARIOUS playing off each other all day! Baker, Tennant, and Smith were present.