doc scratch kidnapped past-aradia!ancestor to be a maid for lord english but secretly she swtiched bodies with vriska freaky friday style now doc is reminiscing about his war days
I'm thinking that SBURB/Skaia and so on exist for their own sake, and Lord English is like a third party parasite or predator. So he's a part of the natural scheme of things, and he takes advantage of the system, but the system isn't supposed to serve him.
Through a series of bad decisions and worse luck, the four kids created an unbeatable boss hellbent on killing them all and destroying their universe. Their session is "barren," and they have less than 10 hours before the Tumor or the Reckoning wipes their session. The trolls have less than an hour before the Critical Moment, when Noir will attempt to annihilate the kids' universe.
After discussing the situation with the trolls and Doc Scratch throughout Act 5-2, the kids decided to initiate a double suicide mission to:
1 scratch the session, rewinding/rebooting their timeline to get more a more favorable starting point
2 use the Tumor to destroy the Green Sun, rendering Bec Noir mortal again.
Rather than accepting the inevitable, they will attempt to survive these events and cross over into the new, post-scratch Earth universe, and the trolls will attempt to join them. (Karkat, Gamzee, Terezi, Aradia, Kanaya and Sollux are currently alive. Aradia was trollnapped by Doc Scratch at an unspecified point in time.)
Also, Jade made a bargain with Echidna to bring the four planets and denizens along.
And before all that they're going to exile Jack to the troll's session somehow...and he's going to get that fucking bloody hand that's been haunting the comic since last year.
Lord English will arrive after the demise of a tyrant less an arm and eye...
Someone is exterminating the gods of the Furthest Ring...
The Earth exiles will have a part to play in all this. WV has the White Queen's ring...
Spades Slick has Doc's gun...
So I assume that EOA 5 will be all this shit going down simultaneously, and the next Act will deal with the fallout from the Scratch, the destruction of the Sun, and the arrival of Lord English. A final set of circumstances and conflicts to overcome before the heroes can successfully create a universe.
Meanwhile, Vriska has secretly submitted John's name for the Triwizard Tournament
@Avraham: That's entirely probable. He could have easily found the game in one (or many) of the universes he devoured and thought, "hey, there's a neat idea". But I feel there's something appropriately apocalyptic in the idea that 1) the participants of this game are deliberately manipulated, without fail, into bringing about the destruction of their entire universe under the guise of an innocent game; 2) a game ostensibly about creation and closed-loop causality is meant to simultaneously create a new universe and destroy an existing one; and 3) the game, by design, is meant for failure and that said failure is actually a primary function of the overall game itself.
Also, I feel there's a lot in the text that hints at this being part of the natural order of things. There's the ~ath script (thanks to someone here for pointing out that the name is technically, tildeath. I never would have picked up on that), which seems to fit this setup perfectly. Two overlapping universes, one apparently creating the other, ultimately resulting in the death of both. There are a couple of lines in Scratch's convo with Rose:
There are rules to his entry, and his grim procession through paradox space is rather orderly. The present equilibrium has accounted for him, and will continue to.
Instances of myself have spawned in countless universes, and my objective is always the same. I have never once failed to complete this objective, and I never will.
The fact that Doc Scratch and elements of the session and greater paradox space itself (particularly the denizens of the sessions and possibly the horrorterrors) have been so forthcoming with information of how to initiate the scratch and so damned persistant about it being important also strikes me as kind of suspicious, given that null sessions are implied to be such a rare thing, yet these so-called glitchy sessions seem to be conveniently steering the kids (and apparently the trolls before them) towards the reset switch.
Besides, I think it comes back to Lord English's role in this story. People keep saying (myself among them) that it doesn't seem very likely that the kids would have an epic showdown with him ala DMK, as the story hasn't really been building to that at all. And if the scratch really does happen the way this side story seems to be setting up, we'd be left with a very different status quo--basically back at Act 1 again, and throwing out a lot of previously established lore. Even with a Hivebent level of rushing through plot points (which would be a huge disservice to the story as a whole), I don't see there being room enough to pack that AND all the currently dangling plot threads into the rest of Act 5 and 6 (since 6 is supposed to be a lot shorter and 7 mostly wrap-up). It makes a lot more sense for this to be a story about how a group of kids/trolls manage to break out of an endless cycle of destruction (in a sense, defeating Lord English without ever really coming against him). Then again, I dunno, I really like this theory, so I might just be finding evidence to support my theory instead of vice-versa.
Edit: whoa, postings happened while I was writing this wall o' text.
Also: A line I just remembered while reading Avraham's recap about how Jack, as an agent of chaos, poses such a serious threat to the universe. Doc Scratch wants Jack depowered really badly. Possibly because Jack, who rose way out of control in this particular session, poses an actual threat to Lord English? And the kids send him over to a universe already marked for consumption...
Well, the story isn't planned out in a ton of detail, so I'd wager that Act 6 will at least be longer than one may think. Expect Hivebent, only we'll have more time to focus on the session itself due to not having to introduce 12 new characters. We really don't need to go over the details of sburb anymore: John's purpose was to show us exactly how things go down in the game. The focus will be on the plot points as opposed to the mundane activities of the game itself.
Gotta say if the story doesn't finish off with a major fight against English or jack or even scratch ill be disappointed.
Both of which are literally indestructible, rendering an actual fight totally pointless.
The only one who actually stood a moderate chance of seriously harming Jack was Vriska, with sick gear and a maxed out god tier, with a perfect roll of 8^Y. And even then she only held her own against him.
I recall Scratch saying why Noir was a threat to LE. But I forget if it was because Noir could hurt LE or if because LE simply didn't want an unpredictable element wreaking havoc in his universe.
Also: A line I just remembered while reading Avraham's recap about how Jack, as an agent of chaos, poses such a serious threat to the universe. Doc Scratch wants Jack depowered really badly. Possibly because Jack, who rose way out of control in this particular session, poses an actual threat to Lord English? And the kids send him over to a universe already marked for consumption...
I don't think Jack poses a threat because he is stronger than Lord English, or necessarily a personal threat.
I think he is just a complete wild card that is out of control and causes nothing but problems for everyone.
Whereas Lord English's presence is accounted for and balanced out in the grand scheme of things, or something to that extent.
Posts
I feel even more lost than I was before
scratch is doing something with aradia that we have no clue about
and
the trolls have actually scratched before, their ancestors were originally players and vice versa
karkat's ancestor revolted because he remembered what Alternia was like before they changed it with the scratch
within a dream bubble
I think Anti's av/sig combo is a small price to pay for the return of our favorite entomological mystery team
Through a series of bad decisions and worse luck, the four kids created an unbeatable boss hellbent on killing them all and destroying their universe. Their session is "barren," and they have less than 10 hours before the Tumor or the Reckoning wipes their session. The trolls have less than an hour before the Critical Moment, when Noir will attempt to annihilate the kids' universe.
After discussing the situation with the trolls and Doc Scratch throughout Act 5-2, the kids decided to initiate a double suicide mission to:
1 scratch the session, rewinding/rebooting their timeline to get more a more favorable starting point
2 use the Tumor to destroy the Green Sun, rendering Bec Noir mortal again.
Rather than accepting the inevitable, they will attempt to survive these events and cross over into the new, post-scratch Earth universe, and the trolls will attempt to join them. (Karkat, Gamzee, Terezi, Aradia, Kanaya and Sollux are currently alive. Aradia was trollnapped by Doc Scratch at an unspecified point in time.)
Also, Jade made a bargain with Echidna to bring the four planets and denizens along.
And before all that they're going to exile Jack to the troll's session somehow...and he's going to get that fucking bloody hand that's been haunting the comic since last year.
Lord English will arrive after the demise of a tyrant less an arm and eye...
Someone is exterminating the gods of the Furthest Ring...
The Earth exiles will have a part to play in all this. WV has the White Queen's ring...
Spades Slick has Doc's gun...
So I assume that EOA 5 will be all this shit going down simultaneously, and the next Act will deal with the fallout from the Scratch, the destruction of the Sun, and the arrival of Lord English. A final set of circumstances and conflicts to overcome before the heroes can successfully create a universe.
Meanwhile, Vriska has secretly submitted John's name for the Triwizard Tournament
http://gobletofsickfires.tumblr.com/
Also, I feel there's a lot in the text that hints at this being part of the natural order of things. There's the ~ath script (thanks to someone here for pointing out that the name is technically, tildeath. I never would have picked up on that), which seems to fit this setup perfectly. Two overlapping universes, one apparently creating the other, ultimately resulting in the death of both. There are a couple of lines in Scratch's convo with Rose: The fact that Doc Scratch and elements of the session and greater paradox space itself (particularly the denizens of the sessions and possibly the horrorterrors) have been so forthcoming with information of how to initiate the scratch and so damned persistant about it being important also strikes me as kind of suspicious, given that null sessions are implied to be such a rare thing, yet these so-called glitchy sessions seem to be conveniently steering the kids (and apparently the trolls before them) towards the reset switch.
Besides, I think it comes back to Lord English's role in this story. People keep saying (myself among them) that it doesn't seem very likely that the kids would have an epic showdown with him ala DMK, as the story hasn't really been building to that at all. And if the scratch really does happen the way this side story seems to be setting up, we'd be left with a very different status quo--basically back at Act 1 again, and throwing out a lot of previously established lore. Even with a Hivebent level of rushing through plot points (which would be a huge disservice to the story as a whole), I don't see there being room enough to pack that AND all the currently dangling plot threads into the rest of Act 5 and 6 (since 6 is supposed to be a lot shorter and 7 mostly wrap-up). It makes a lot more sense for this to be a story about how a group of kids/trolls manage to break out of an endless cycle of destruction (in a sense, defeating Lord English without ever really coming against him). Then again, I dunno, I really like this theory, so I might just be finding evidence to support my theory instead of vice-versa.
Edit: whoa, postings happened while I was writing this wall o' text.
Also: A line I just remembered while reading Avraham's recap about how Jack, as an agent of chaos, poses such a serious threat to the universe. Doc Scratch wants Jack depowered really badly. Possibly because Jack, who rose way out of control in this particular session, poses an actual threat to Lord English? And the kids send him over to a universe already marked for consumption...
Is a surprisingly well written recap.
Seriously, Avraham, well done.
doc scratch is a suicide counselor, and aradia is his patient
bec noir is a manifestation of freudian tendencies ,because I say so
According to Freud, everything is a manifestation of Freudian tendencies.
Just gotta throw that out there.
It will dwarf Homestuck in it's complexity.
Both of which are literally indestructible, rendering an actual fight totally pointless.
The only one who actually stood a moderate chance of seriously harming Jack was Vriska, with sick gear and a maxed out god tier, with a perfect roll of 8^Y. And even then she only held her own against him.
And then Lord English... yeah.
Curled up in the corner of his apartment.
Thinking of people spitting in buckets
Crying
Also by the end of the story there will be no green sun and English and Jack won't be un-killable.
128 different characters to begin with and the complexities of life for each one individually before we learn what the comic is actually about.
I don't think Jack poses a threat because he is stronger than Lord English, or necessarily a personal threat.
I think he is just a complete wild card that is out of control and causes nothing but problems for everyone.
Whereas Lord English's presence is accounted for and balanced out in the grand scheme of things, or something to that extent.
I don't see why we should expect the green sun to affect Lord English. I don't believe he's a first guardian.
Because I can.
Would he like...rob banks and stuff?
And where is he prior to all this?
The Demon was already here.
Gravity's Rainbow isn't nearly as bad as it's made out to be. As for how it compares to Homestuck... apples and oranges.