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08-2024 Writer Commentary
🕑 Added 2024-09-01 19:00:07 +0000 UTCJAMES, Director: Welcome to the writer’s commentary. Hell of a couple of sessions today, lads. Mother issues? Meeting your Idols? Confronting abuse? Lotta themes. Much to fathom.
FLORAL, Kelly Voice: “Lets Party”: Boy, do I LOVE themes.
JAMES: Big themes fan over here. I’ll let Floral take it away from here.
FLORAL: While the Tavros/Aradia update was very clear in my mind, this update was incredibly hard because this is an aspect of Vriscourse that is very very blatant. It was explored in HS1, in Pesterquest, in every possible fanwork; so making this subject feel fresh felt a bit impossible.
But also it had to be Mindfang. She was the root of so many issues Vriska had with her friends, the foundation of her protective layer and persona. And it also had to be Spidermom, because she’s why Vriska depended so much on Mindfang in the first place. Still, it was a challenge! I had the Nannasprite part of the conversation wrote ages before Momfangs because of it. But I am happy with the whole, especially how it interacts as a bridge between the first chapter and third. Let's get into it!
VRISKA: [Smiling] We kind of 8onded over how, despite our cultural differences, we shared this same experience of connecting to our predecessors through their writings.
VRISKA: I’m glad he finally got to meet you. I hope he appreci8ed every minute of it!
NANNASPRITE: [Giggle] Oh ho, I’d like to think so!
NANNASPRITE: [Neutral] I miss that boy. He could be a bit of a pill at times but we had some lovely chats. Always sung his heart out during our little “jam seshs,” too.
FLORAL: I was so so so happy to write Nannasprite. I LOVE Nannasprite. She was such a small part of the original HS run but she made such an impact on me, especially her conversation with FedoraFreak. A lot like Mindfang, Nannasprite is a story teller and like Vriska, she was an abused kid. So to be able to utilize her as a positive influence, all while tying back this update to Vriska and John’s previous conversation AND Candy Jane. It was soooo juicy.
It also meant I got to reread Nannasprite’s pesterlogs again!!
[PAGE 7805]
NANNASPRITE: But in a way, it's been a lonely life for me since my ashes fell in this silly old sprite.
NANNASPRITE: I've been strictly an auxiliary actor, there only to serve others even during my greatest moments to shine!
NANNASPRITE: So when I heard of you, a version of myself who was a true hero, so young, empowered, and set to embark upon a life filled with consequential deeds...
NANNASPRITE: I was absolutely giddy. I knew that we had to meet!
FLORAL: I’ve always loved this excerpt from the original Homestuck, because it puts into perfect words what I feel like is a common thread for Jane’s. This struggle of being in service to others and this lack of agency.
[PAGE 3956]
pipefan413: In following years, she was left to ponder all that might have been.
pipefan413: What might have been if there had been no baroness to keep the girl and boy apart?
pipefan413: What might have been if the baroness had not disappeared, and she had the opportunity to use her secrets against her!
FLORAL: The fedorafreak conversation is particularly such a moody and awesome part of Act 5 Act 2’s build up.
[HSBC]
NANNASPRITE: [Serious] The past is always going to be the past.
FLORAL: I went into this conversation pretty set on the vibe of Nannasprite, how Candy Jane AND Vriska would move her perspective along from what we saw in OG Homestuck. If the last chapter was about boundaries and motivation, this chapter is about choice and acceptance.
NANNASPRITE: [Neutral] Seeing that choice isn’t innate to every iteration of Jane Crocker has assured me that I did indeed fulfill a path of potential to its fullest degree. I’m grateful to her for that... marginally.
FLORAL: I love Nannasprite, I love that she is a Jane that really understands love outside of commodity and appreciates it as a privilege, happy to give it away.
[MOMfang-back]
The spider did not pause to find an answer; she already had one.
[MOMfang-back]
“HUNGRY. KILL. EAT. SHIT. DEATH.”
VRISKA: [Neutral] So same as usual! Awesome. Glad to hear it.
FLORAL: So going into this part update, I did know some points I wanted to make-
Spidermom’s abuse needed to be specific to her part as mostly animal, sorta caregiver vs a very general, overly anthropomorphized idea of an abusive parent
Vrissy needed to be mentioned
Vriska could not kill her Mom to complete the level
Why the last one is because everything both Mindfang and Spidermom represent is the violence of Alternia. Killing Spidermom is just winning the game that’s already been set and appeasing past hurts instead of setting a course beyond that. Vriska is so defined by fear, it takes a lot to turn for her to turn her back on an enemy. To accept their existence and choose herself over that fear.
Daily we made 8ets with death, and whichever faulty panlo8es occasionally sparked empathetic were rightly silenced, that we might revel in our winnings undistur8ed. We have always taken what we wanted.
[MOMang-thinking-annoyed]
She taught her descendant so much, and in such lurid detail.
VRISKA: [Angry] It was 80% smut!!!!!!!!
VRISKA:[Angry] Fine, fuck!
VRISKA:[Angry] JUST LET M8 GET 8UT FROM UNDER Y8U, THEN! L8T ME 8E MY OWN F8CKING PERSON, F8R ONCE!!!!!!!!
FLORAL: Another thing I subtly wanted to remind people too is not only the majority of Mindfang’s known writing is sexual but it is explicitly a dubcon fetish fic with the Dolorosa. Which, of course, she’s a fucking pirate! That’s what they do. They take.
Considering where the Scratch update was going (since we wrote these all concurrently), I didn’t want to overly focus on this aspect, just make it present. This was the pre-grooming grooming, the subtle undercurrent that normalizes this violence, so when a creepy dude starts messaging you and domineering over you, your first instinct isn’t to run but prove you can handle it.
Not to mention if this behavior is weird from Scratch, that means it was weird of Mindfang, and that can’t be true. Mindfang is the lifeline.
[PAGE 3474]
AG: I was nearing the age where I would 8e expected to feed her.
AG: And she was starting to get so 8ig, that she would have to crawl out of the caverns soon, no longer a8le to feast on stray wigglers she caught in her we8.
AG: It was kind of an intense sym8iotic thing, a particularly demanding lusus-troll relationship, and only really strong kids are supposed to 8e a8le to handle it.
AG: So of course I was terrified of the responsi8ility looming!
AG: I really didn't think I would make it. I was sure I'd fail, and my lusus would either get angry and eat me, or she'd just die and then I'd 8e culled.
AG: 8ut then I saw a shooting star one evening.
AG: I tracked down where it landed, and found a chest with my sign on it.
FLORAL: Hey! I wonder who sent that shooting star! It MIGHT not be Scratch…but even if that’s not true, he did know Mindfang personally.
VRISKA: I’ve already tried respecting you for making me the 8est, 8ut you know what I’m realizing?
VRISKA: I didn't have to go through aaaaaaaall of THAT to 8e strong. Vrissy didn’t!
VRISKA: [Angry] Even growing up in a f8ke world where no one has a spine and with 8arely any guidance, her powers can do things mine can’t.
VRISKA: [Angry Smiling] So what silver lining is left, honestly?
FLORAL: Yes Vrissy!!!! I really did give away the whole route with the Nannasprite conversation beforehand, but sometimes I think people need that. To be given a new framework and fit the pieces together with it. Sometimes it’s not the worst thing in the world to see another version of yourself. Of course we don’t have to go that far into it here since Vriska said so much in the epilogues on the topic.
[MOMfang-thinking-annoyed]
To hear her say “THANK YOU” for the young girl’s service, for her to 8e “SORRY"?
VRISKA: [Angry] What I w8nt is for you to go 8ack in time and pr8tect that fucking kid, like you were supposed to!!!!!!!!
VRISKA: If you did, may8e I’d 8e a8le to relax and let my f8cking guard down for ONCE, instead of const8ntly ruining things and thinking everyone is going to turn around and kill me!
VRISKA: [Neutral] Oh my god.
VRISKA: [Angry] Tavros was right!!!!!!!!
FLORAL: We are bringing back the lessons of yesterday, as if it was a relevant foundation for Vriska’s whole road to recovery.
VRISKA: Y8u’re the reason why I could never trust any8ody!
VRISKA: [Sad] Even h8r!!!!!!!! Especi8lly her.
FLORAL: And this is crux of so many of Vriska’s relationships, the performance, this feeling of being turned against or punished for failing to live up to expectations.
[PAGE 3467]
AG: For one thing, they would pro8a8ly just 8e pissed off at me for killing Tavros.
AG: And more importantly, there's no waaaaaaaay I could tell them how I really feel a8out it.
EB: well, how do you feel?
AG: Horri8le!!!!!!!!
AG: If any of my friends knew that, they would think I'm weak.
EB: oh…
[PAGE 7944]
GC: 1 KNOW YOU TH1NK 1'M W34K FOR N33D1NG YOU
GC: NOT TH4T YOU'D 3V3R T3LL M3 TH4T
GC: 1T'S N1C3 TH4T YOU C4R3D 3NOUGH N3V3R TO J4B M3 4BOUT 1T
GC: BUT 1 COULD 4LW4YS S3NS3 1T
GC: TH4T YOU KN3W
GC: YOU KN3W 1 D3P3ND3D MOR3 ON YOU TH4N YOU D1D ON M3
GC: 4ND YOU P1TY M3 FOR 1T
GC: 1 M34N, NOT L1K3, M4L1C1OUSLY
GC: YOU PROB4BLY JUST S33 M3 4S 4 B1T TR4G1C
GC: YOU C4N'T H3LP 1T
GC: 4ND 1 DON'T BL4M3 YOU
FLORAL: These were both moments from the comic I consistently thought back to when tackling this section. They project on eachother in such a tragic way, I love them. Nobody wants to be looked down on and Vriska in particular HAS to prove herself. I don’t think all of Vriska’s problems were solved over the 3 year trip, and now she’s someone who doesn’t care what anyone thinks. Maybe she just buried some of these burgeoning 13 year olds revelations in light of some great epic battle, the thing she knows how to do and knows people will respect.
[MOMang-thinking-annoyed]
She is an apex predator. A 8iological, existential threat to all those that cross her path. She thought showing weakness would have solved all her pro8lems? Those irrelevant victims she spent so much time mourning didn’t want her companionship.
[MOMang-thinking-annoyed]
They wanted to make new holes inside of her, to ensure their own survival.
FLORAL: I’ve always appreciated the symbolism of Vriska’s arachnid self and this inner turmoil about her not enjoying being a predator. I don’t think Vriska is so much scared of being the bad guy, but that she can’t live up to her own essentialism, and for that defectiveness to be taken advantage of.
VRISKA: [Stoic] 8ut that’s not true. I’m not a wiggler anymore. Alternia is dead.
VRISKA: [Smile] For once in my life, I have options.
FLORAL: In the end, it really is just that simple. Did your Spidermom regret hurting you? Would Mindfang be proud? Who fucking cares. This is not about them! I feel like people get so caught up trying to contend with their childhoods they allow that inner child take over their life. But the one good thing about being an adult is, you can just walk out.
JAMES: we loling in here?
MILES, joining in: lol
FLORAL: They are saying this cause I saved space in the doc with an “lol”
MILES: But this next bit is no laughing matter at all. The cue-ball update was a pretty rough one, all told, but as has been made pretty clear already, Vriska’s years-long ordeal in her own personal Silent Hill isn’t all peaches and cream. It’s short, compared to a lot of these other ones, but it’s decidedly not sweet.
MILES: That said, it was nice to open up with a bit more levity. The Doc Scratch update occurs directly after the final successful Momfang loop, and as always it helped a lot to have a little Sprite-convo preamble to warm folks up for the inevitable descent into trauma. Erisolsprite and GCATavrosprite are the stars of this little section, and although nothing of particular note happens here, it’s A: fun to see how they’ve settled into their lives as hostages of Vriska’s self-discovery speedrun and B: a little preamble to some of what’s addressed in Scratch’s single-instance lesson. I’ll get more into that in a little bit.
Well, well.
Isn’t this a perfectly predictable inevitability?
MILES: As Scratch said, it WAS inevitable that we’d come to him at some point, touring through Vriska’s various traumas as we are. His smarmy, faux-polite affect is pretty poor consolation for the almost immediate plunge into creepy overfamiliarity, but that’s why we’re here.
MILES: I think what’s important to remember and re-center in any discussion about what happens to Vriska during her many misadventures within The Point is that the phantoms she meets in here are not the Actual People that they represent; they’re constructs, representations of various personal issues she has that she needs to address within herself, or significant themes in her life, or lessons that she needs to learn (at least, The Point seems to think so, insofar as it does think, which maybe it doesn’t; the reason it’s been putting her through all this is still unclear.)
MILES: Scratch’s lesson, pretty appropriately, catches Vriska in a moment of haste and throws her progress pretty brutally back in her face. It’s hard to succinctly describe what it is exactly that he represents here, especially because he sort of does it himself later on during his chessboard monologue, but a good way to sum it up now before I get into details about it would be like... sort of a rumination on the question and consequences of fate.
MILES: Kind of an elephant in the room regarding this update, which I feel I should now address, is the way it touches on themes of grooming and child abuse in pursuit of its point. It’s important to note that we weren’t trying to use this update to explicitly say that Yes, Scratch Canonically Sexually Abused Vriska And Other Children, but his coding as a child-predator is overt, originates in the original webcomic, and matters kind of a lot for the points being made here. In his original conversation with Rose in Act 5 Act 2 (page 3627), he makes a point of denying her accusations of overt pedophilia, but his status as a Groomer, as it were, is undeniable. In this update, he remarks (quite self-satisfiedly):
I like to think that I’m far and away the most prolific contributor to your baggage.
MILES: He has a pretty solid claim to this not only on a personal level, but on a fundamental geosociopsychopoliticalogical thatsnotawordbutyougetwhatI’mgettingat level. Scratch, after all, groomed Vriska’s ENTIRE SOCIETY. The reason Alternia is the way it is at all is almost exclusively due to his sinister influence. High-stakes forced breeding in pursuit of eugenics, violent classism, galactic hegemony, weird clown culture, being held hostage by the looming threat of complete psionic annihilation; these are all the legacies of Scratch’s meticulous tutelage. He took a perfectly good race of bug-people and gave them trauma beyond their wildest dreams, crushing their peace of mind and naivete in order to make them better at being awful, and he liked it.
MILES: I got really long-winded about this, but long story short, Scratch being a Capital-G-Groomer plays a huge role in what we were going for in this update. Scratch basically defined the society that traumatized Vriska and untold billions of other Alternian kids in countless different ways, and to make matters worse, he crawled down from the moon to have a hand in ruining her childhood personally.
MILES: The chessboard sequence, on top of being a really sort of over-the-top test of how many different effects we could force our poor programmers to code into the engine (thanks team I love you), is also just a pretty nasty way for him to hammer his real point home. I should get around to doing that myself, honestly, instead of loading you guys up with like a full page of preamble, but I don’t know how to do brevity. Sorry.
MILES: SO. The real point.
MILES: Scratch doesn’t just shrink her down physically but he regresses her age, as well, putting her in her 13-year-old body before taking her on a wild ride full of dubiously canon chess moves, splattering through pieces that quite obviously represent her friends. It’s a sort of crash-course rehash of the worst period of her life, and she pretty justifiably freaks the fuck out at him, culminating with her claim that:
VRISKA: NONE OF THIS MEANS SHIT,
VRISKA: AND I’M NEVER GOING TO 8E CAUGHT UP IN YOUR FUCKING G8MES EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!
MILES: His response reaches the crux of the point I’ve so lengthily been trying to get at.
Of course you will.
You think you’re better than me? Better than fate?
Vriska, I am going to put you in situations where you have the potential to do terrible things.
I am going to make things ugly.
I am going to corner you.
I am going to pressure you.
And no matter how much “better” you claim to be, all I have to do is catch you at the wrong moment.
You’re one bad turn from burning all your quaint little progress to the ground.
One lapse away from being mine again.
MILES: What Scratch represents here, summing up everything we’ve gotten into, is like... trauma’s ability to haunt you through your life, to reappear when you think you’re better, the non-linear nature of progress and healing. Lots of stuff, all of it ugly. But another point he makes, the point Vriska picks up on even in the midst of getting whipped around, exploded, and splattered with blood, is that the consequences of relapse aren’t inevitable, they aren’t necessarily inherent to her nature. He didn’t own her.
MILES: Vriska always had a choice, and this serves as both a condemnation of her past mistakes but also a confirmation of the fact that she has it in her to transcend them and act as a force for good in the world. Scratch has left an awful shadow on Vriska, and on every Alternian, but despite him doing his best to fuck them up crazystyle, we know that they still have a fundamental capacity to do and be good. Vriska herself has that capacity, as Scratch himself points out; the trick is to be aware of the nasty pitfalls that life (Light, Fortune, Fate, Causality etc.) will throw at her.
MILES: Will Vriska be a player, or a piece, going forward? Like Scratch, I look forward to finding out.
JAMES: Wanted to let Miles breathe with this one, I remember reading the first draft and really feeling that discomfort. This is a particularly tough topic for me, but I think if we’re going to make Vriska go through all this therapy this is the sort of thing that needs to be addressed. Having gone through therapy myself, sometimes confronting your trauma is worse before it gets better.
Something we’ve talked about in the writer’s room is that Homestuck originally sort of presents these ideas as like “Funny Jokes” but then the moment you look at them even a little bit closely it's kind of awful what these kids went through. So we sort of want to address some of that, without feeling like we’re punishing the characters or the audience for laughing at the joke originally.
JAMES: Anyway, hey thanks for coming to the commentary. Go home!
IT'S OVER.
Comments
Sam MadamMelonMeow
I think addressing scratch-the-groomer was incredibly important, and i’m glad you made it so raw and in your face. It needed to be said that way.
