There’s this one theory about the ending going around. That theory being that the reason Hussie thumbs-downed LE, the reason the animation cut off before the final battle, and the reason the door on the platform turned white is that the true purpose of the House Juju was just to end the comic, “freeing” the characters from the narrative.
There’s enough evidence to suggest that maybe that’s what happened. I’m not interested in disproving the theory, just because Act 7 was vague enough on the details that, really, anyone’s theory is equally valid. What I do want to talk about is why that ending fucking sucks.
It’s strange because the main cast escaping from the time loops and causal obligations of Paradox Space was the ending I wanted. Always have. I remember a dark shadow settling onto me in Act 5, realizing the crushing inevitability in everything these characters did. No one’s choices mattered. There was no free will. Everything they did had already happened. That feeling of hopelessness is supported by the narrative – Rose’s attempt to thwart the narrative and destroy the Green Sun turned her into the very author of its hold over reality. That bullshit feeling of being “suckered” by the narrative was cut with the victory of Jade literally breaking through the fourth wall. But even that was fore-ordained. More causal bullshit. The kids never truly had control over their destinies, and they knew it.
Wait. So why is Act 7 as an escape from the narrative unsatisfying?
It has to do with agency.
Hey, let’s change gears and talk about the ending of a movie from the 90s. What’s more Homestuck than that?
I actually love this type of ending a lot, and here’s a movie that fucking nailed it. The Truman Show, for all of you way younger than me, is a movie about a guy whose entire life is a narrative. As a baby, he was chosen to be the star of a pioneering new television show. Truman’s lived his entire life in a dome, surrounded by actors who are paid to be his family, friends, and coworkers. The director manipulates his life by introducing elements as plot twists and drama. Ultimately, Truman realizes that his world is fake and ties to escape from it.
In the final scene, Truman reaches the edge of the dome. The director reaches out to him like the booming voice of god, telling him that, yes, his entire world might be artificial, but it’s also safe and familiar. The world outside is frightening and nothing is certain. Truman decides that, despite understanding this, it’s better to be in control of his own destiny. He makes his choice, takes a bow, recites his catch phrase, and leaves the dome. The movie ends immediately here, because there are no cameras to document what happens from there. Awesome, ambiguous ending that nails its themes.
The key word in what makes it so good? CHOICE.
Okay. Back to Homestuck.
I started getting nervous last year when Arquius began to release the grist hoards. I was struck by the fact that I didn’t know why the kids were actually trying to make this frog. I couldn’t remember them talking about wanting to beat the game. I never got the sense that they particularly wanted to be gods of a new universe. They always just seemed to be fighting for their lives, thrown from one crisis to another and swimming against the current. Pages upon pages upon pages of dialogue, and I can’t recall one single time when any of the eight kids talked about what happened after the game, not even with the trolls, who had actually done it before and did have some feelings about it. The thing was, Sburb was never the enemy. Paradox Space was. And making a new frog seemed to play right into what Paradox Space wanted. One more universe to seed and eventually destroy, continuing the cycle forever.
Thematically, everything was leading up to an ending where the characters overcame the grip of Paradox Space and made their own destiny. But instead, they killed some bosses and made their frog.
There’s no reason why this frog is different. We aren’t given any indication that this is a special frog. It was made the same way as any other frog. The kids just did exactly what the narrative wanted them to, smiling vacantly up at old Bilious Slick and then going through the door, ostensibly walking into yet another Paradox Space controlled universe and seeming, somehow, entirely satisfied with it.
Why do they look so fucking happy? What did they actually accomplish, here?
Maybe the House Juju did release the kids from the confines of Paradox Space. Maybe its entire purpose was ending Homestuck, which took away Lord English’s power. But that’s a bullshit, unsatisfying ending, because it happened entirely by accident. Vriska thought it was a powerful relic that would destroy Lord English. And the kids? They didn’t think jack shit. They didn’t know what the Juju would do. They didn’t know Calliope intends to collapse the sun. They didn’t know ANYTHING.
In the final moments of Homestuck, the characters we’ve spent seven years and ten thousand pages with end the narrative the exact way they started it: with absolutely zero control over their destinies. Only now, they seem perfectly happy about it.
It doesn’t matter whether they escaped the comic or not. A victory without a choice is just a fucking coincidence. And the only choice they made was to walk through that damn door and start the cycle all over again.
