homestuck uses seemingly random things/concepts – the zodiac, a deck of cards, billiards, the magic 8 ball – as thematic elements so fucking cleverly it’s almost infuriating
the game over timeline failed because vriska was killed – much like in billiards, you lose the game if you pocket the 8 ball too soon
not to infodump or nothing but imho its even deeper than that, in that by act 7 the entire web of symbolism has been flipped
this is foreshadowed kind of obliquely by one, having chess and pool be exactly the same game in-universe, with sburb taking the form of a collosally complicated game of chess in multiplayer sessions, but taking the form of pool in a single player session, and two, having caliborn switch his king and queen’s appearance, but having them move as if they were the piece they appear to be
vriska appears to be the 8 ball and killing her appears to end their game prematurely, but shes actually the cue ball, and killing her causes a scratch in which she can be placed wherever is most advantageous for the opponent, and english is the 8 ball, and shoving him into the metaphorical pocket that is the black hole from the collapse of the green sun ends the game
what im getting at here is that i fucking h8 homestuck
holy shit
There’s also all the parallels drawn between Snowman(The Black Queen) and Vriska. And of course, while Snowman APPEARS to be an 8-ball, what is killing her circumstantially simultaneous with? A SCRATCH. From the perspective of Caliborn and his Session, it appears to be a victory, but it actually allows his opponents to reposition themselves to best win The Game(like vriscourse says).
Okay but seeing how Trizza acts puts Feferi into a whole new light like hoLY SHIT
Trizza’s out there using her wealth and status for mass murder and forcing people to keep literal shrines of her face in their hives and My Girl Feferi just makes herself into a hermit and plays marine biologist/zookeeper with herself and prevents her silly moirail from doing the exact things that Trizza does
I’m seriously wondering if Trizza has any ambitions beyond “rule Alternia with a flawlessly manicured iron fist for a few sweeps before I inevitably die,” actually? Like, she could be preparing to challenge the Condesce and it just doesn’t end up on social media, but Feferi is explicitly worried about assassination attempts, not from shitty adolescent revolutionaries, but from the Condesce’s forces. Which implies to me that the Condesce may be a lot more worried about Feferi than she was about Trizza.
Feferi has serious designs on the throne, and Trizza mostly seems to want to take sick selfies.
