(A fair warning: I’m not a native speaker of English, so you might notice some errors.)

First, let’s take a look at this quote.

It’s very easy to agree with Vriska’s interpretation. All unsuccesful sessions we see – Caliborn’s, those of both sets of trolls – feature the players’ failure to grow as people. In addition, those who manage to beat Sburb are tasked with ruling the universe they created as they please. It makes sense that Sburb would want its players to mature. Kanaya even outright states that this is what her second meeting with Echidna entitled.

A very important aspect of maturing in Homestuck is the ability to cooperate with others. This is why Sburb doesn’t allow ordinary single-player sessions – playing the game alone means skipping an integral step in maturation.

The mythology of Sburb has been described as “flexible”, and the same goes for the ways it allows its players to grow. It seems that following one’s personal quest is no obligation, but rather just a mechanism Sburb provides.

How players realize their mythological roles is a similar situation. Rose, again, doesn’t really do that much stuff related to being a Seer of Light, and some of the trolls don’t display any signs of classpect powers during the narrative. The titles that Sburb assigns the players do, however, serve some purpose in helping everybody mature: because the players have different sets of skills, they must cooperate and use their own strengths.

The subject of free will in Homestuck is a messy one and could be described in extensive detail. Let’s just postulate that the players do have choices and the ability to affect the outcome of their session. Even if Sburb features the oppressive system of timelines and predetermination, it also provides mechanisms to subvert its own machinations (such as the retcon juju).

And free will is what makes it so hard for some players to grow and learn to cooperate. A very prominent example is Vriska, who seems to value her will above that of others. When compared to her pre-retcon self, Vriska seems to have almost matured negatively. An interesting detail is the fact that Vriska seems to only be able to involve herself romantically to serve some purpose in stabilizing the party, because she couldn’t be able to respect her partner.

Also note the obvious reference to pre-retcon Vriska, who did indeed learn to be happy and was indeed able to be in a flushed relationship. Another interesting detail is that Vriska brought Tavros back as a sprite and claimed to have done this to make up for killing him, but actually just used him to neutralize Gcat, not even asking him about it first.

There is another character who is also filled with delusions of self-importance, but instead is on the other end of the free will/predetermination spectrum: Caliborn. If Vriska controls others to have her will fulfilled and fails to grow, Caliborn takes comfort in the fact that he has already won and abandons all personal growth.

It’s very easy to see why this attitude is as poisonous as that of Vriska’s. Caliborn is arguably the player who develops the least. He doesn’t even try to play Sburb properly, but instead dooms himself by killing his co-player, who would have been integral to his growth as a person.

Ironically, the Lord English Caliborn aspires to be is not even fully him. We have already seen what dramatic conflicts of personalities do to their fusions (rest in peace, Fefetasprite), but Lord English is immortal and unable to explode and cease existing. How much of his endless hunger for destruction is Caliborn’s will, and how much is the different souls inside him reacting negatively to each other? And how much of Caliborn’s desire to become LE is because he is predestined to do so, and how much is that he actually wants it?

We have established that both post-retcon Vriska and Caliborn, as players of Sburb, have failed their task of maturing, and I’m confident that this was Hussie’s intention. Now, is it a coincidence that the finale of Homestuck involves these two facing off – and being cast to narrative uncertainity, as other characters live their post-Sburb lives?

When we look at the details surrounding the final showdown, it can be argued that post-retcon Vriska isn’t at all needed for the events to happen. Alternate Calliope managed to magic the black hole into existance without anyone’s help. Tavros succesfully gathered the ghost army which lured LE in. If the juju is important, well, pre-retcon Vriska already had it and could perhaps have been motivated to use it. Post-retcon Vriska is again placing herself into the stories of others and pays the ultimate price for it.

And as for Caliborn… in the end, he did cause huge destruction, even if arguably the largest part of it was only indirectly his fault. Turns out it just wasn’t the best thing to wish for!

But the other players, who did manage to grow as people, are able to spend the rest of their lives as they please. It doesn’t mean that they are perfect people, or that they will ever be, but they are neverthless worthy of leading the new universe.

This, I think, is a interpretation that resolves both character arcs and the metanarrative of Homestuck. Can we make any epilogue predictions based on this? To me, it makes sense that Vriska would ultimately not survive her encounter with LE. This may be what motivates the kids to go after Caliborn: Vriska never comes back, so they cannot be sure that LE is defeated, so they decide to sabotage him early in his timeline (thanks to the retcon, it doesn’t matter that LE never existing leads to huge paradoxes).

I think I might also do posts on some other Homestuck things, now that it has ended. I’m thinking of exploring how the kids defeated LE’s predetermination-based rule of the alpha timeline and looking at how Hussie resolves character arcs with multiple selves, most prominently seen with Tavros, Vriska and Terezi.