by marathemara

I like big books and I cannot lie. You other readers can’t deny that when the post-Scratch version of Rose Lalonde uses her Seer of Light powers to predict everything that will happen in the Alpha Earth session, and then turns that knowledge into a bestselling series of high fantasy doorstoppers as a subtle critique of Betty Crocker’s corporate imperialism…

Okay, enough dropping of beats. But Complacency of the Learned (hereafter abbreviated CotL) is brilliant. It’s Rose’s writing journal all grown up, expanded and adapted into an extended allegory of Lord English’s rise to power.

The most important part of CotL for Homestuck readers so far is that the main villain, Calmasis, is a transparent expy of Caliborn. On the cover of one book, s/he is drawn in Caliborn/Calliope’s green suit and bow tie, and the white wig from Calliope’s trollsona. S/he even shares their naming convention, eight letters beginning with CAL.

In the cover image, Calmasis directs giant red and green chess pieces (similar to the cherubs’ chess set) with Calliope’s wand/pistol. The chess game depicted is the climax of the series, in which Calmasis defeats Zazzerpan, the last member of the Complacency, in chess despite being checkmated him/herself. This is a reflection of Caliborn and Calliope’s last chess game, which Caliborn wins by tricking Calliope into thinking she’s checkmated him.

CotL is also fun, especially in the design of its wizard characters. The emphasis they place on the beard-stroking trappings of wizardry, and the obsession some of them have with high-calorie foods, remind me of the wizards in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. It’s hard to go wrong with Discworld wizards, unless of course there’s someone evil out there who actually cares about doing magic. And Calmasis reminds me in this way of Coin from Sourcery. Both are products of a strict system of magical education, and both rebel against that system, killing anyone who gets in their way to avenge some injustice done either to them or to a mentor. They’re not identical, though: while Calmasis seems to act on his own, Coin is ultimately controlled by his father’s staff and therefore has a shot at redemption (by breaking the staff and disobeying his father) which Calmasis is never going to get, and which Caliborn, by choosing what Aranea Serket calls “the path of the conqueror,” has already turned down.

The one thing that bothers me about CotL is that Calmasis gets top billing. It’s like having a Harry Potter book with Voldemort front and center of the cover art. But I’m sure that on Alpha Earth, this was seen as a bold and innovative move that helped Rose make the ridiculous amount of money in sales that made even the Condesce sit up and pay attention.