Terezi and Dave used their combined powers to “revive” Dirk, after Dirk was killed by Spades Slick via dozens of point blank gunshot wounds. We can assume this death was heroic, as he didn’t begin to revive on his own, and he certainly didn’t deserve a “Just” death. So for a few seconds of the flash, Dirk Strider was permadead.
But then Dave and Terezi used their classpect powers in conjunction with each other, in the fraymotif you see above.
Now, from the image, we can get an idea of what exactly their combined power actually is. You can see Dirk and Jack English doing a variety of different actions, with the timeline splintering off in different directions based on the choices Dirk makes as to how to go about fighting Jack.
Once the fraymotif fades, Dirk is fine, and is in a much different situation combat wise than he was originally- the battle never went in that direction, so he never died. This is, obviously, time travel- that’s clear from the get-go. But what’s remarkable is that it’s a type of time travel we’ve never seen before in Homestuck.
Time travel in homestuck- even John’s retcon powers- involves the person in question physically traveling back in time, so that if they want to change their own actions, they have to carry a conversation with their past self and convince them to act differently. In Terezi and Dave’s fraymotif, though, nobody actually physically travels back- at least not in the sense we’re use to.
Considering that, in the picture above, every cyan branch represents a barrier between potential timelines- there’s actually no duplicates in the image. Every given timeline shown has one Dirk, one Terezi, and one Dave. Rather than there being two of someone, because someone went back and changed things “manually”.
Mind as an aspect represents choices, the reasons people have for making those choices- and other choices they could have potentially made. Combine that with time travel, and it’s clear that their combined ability is to retroactively cause people to make different choices than they originally did. Dirk never died because he never made the combat decision that led to his death. It’s a type of time travel that leaves no fingerprints- nobody runs into another version of themselves, nobody meets anyone from the future.
you just happen to make a different choice than you would have originally, probably not even realizing something is different.
and odds are, only the player(s) who did it are aware.
it’s a form of time travel where you BECOME your past self, rather than encounter them. and that’s remarkable. that’s unprecedented in homestuck. seamless time travel like that has endless potential, it’s like an “undo” button in photoshop. considering that it forces the person in question to make a different choice, it’s arguably a form of mind control.
in conclusion:
terezi & dave are a fucking powerhouse.
Terezi did this kind of thing when she had dave call the coin flip back before cascade. Granted it was a single choice and in the moment, she was still able to cause a fracture by having there be two outcomes both happening simultaneously. My guess is that this is the similar thing on a bigger scale.
“god forbid women do anything” is one of my favorite phrases. the government shut down my experiments because it was “transforming people into horrific amalgamations of flesh and bone.” god forbid women do anything. my crewmates voted me out because i keep killing them and escaping the scene through the vents. god forbid women do anything.
SMewtwo: "Isn't that funny Pig girl?"
Pig: "Yeah, almost as funny as what'll happen if you call me that again."
....
SMewtwo: "Guess it's just you and me now Pig girl"
Pig: *Long exhale and inhale*
*SMewtwo as he's launched throught the sky*: "AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
I think it would be funny if wizards could change the sound effects of their spells like ringtones
I cast fireball and you bet your ass it sounds like fart reverb
Spell: Transmute Sound Effect; uses a spell slot three levels below that of the spell it’s affecting but can be cast simultaneously with no added cost.
you have an accident on the second floor and the EMTs show up, see they have to get the gurney up and down a rock wall, and opt instead to just shoot you like a lame horse.
I use this scene to explain implicit bias to people. his first instinct is to assume the aliens are violent and the girl is innocent, but instead of acting on those assumptions he takes time to recognize his bias, look at the situation again, and then act.
I watched this with my dad when I was fairly young, and I remember thinking that this was why he got chosen; before he even really knew what was going on, he didn’t assume that aliens were dangerous monsters.
It goes even further. The Men in Black IMPLICITLY are pro-non-violent-aliens-living-among-humans.
Therefore Jay taking note of how each one seems menacing but notes the smaller details is exactly what the MiB are looking for. The other candidates fired at every nonhuman looking entity in the simulation.
Look closely and you’ll see the simulation is full of big teeth, dangerous looking aliens doing mundane tasks like crossing the street, preparing for a sneeze, hailing a taxi, getting a hot dog from a vendor.
The Men in Black SPECIFICALLY look for people who are perfect at sorting out what an actual problem is in a crowded situation. Zed must have been beaming on the inside. This man really WAS a perfect candidate.
I love pointing this out: the novelization confirms, yes, he was 100% right in his assessment there
it’s always strange to stumble onto those people who never evolved past the tumblr social justice of six years ago, whose top priority remains figuring out which TV shows or celebrities are Moral or Immoral. Somebody has to sit them down and tell them we’ve all moved on to more useful stuff, like communism
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
