ah, poor dogsbody: the literary allusion pile doesnt stop from getting taller

ahpoordogsbody:

Anonymous asked ahpoordogsbody:

if you are an awful homestuck, I’m much worse :3 what do you mean with the morbid corvid theory?

’s not a theory

i just noticed that andrew appropriated a powerful symbol from one of the most famous poems in the english language, samuel taylor coleridge’s “the rime of the ancient mariner”.

its not like andrew hasnt referred to other works before:

— from Peter Pan, especially the film “Hook”, we get the croc clock and “Tick tock: the sounds said to accompany the demise of the tyrant less an arm and an eye” (captain hook isn’t missing an eye, but an eyepatch is part of the pirate archetype). Doc Scratch is Smee, at least in stature and rank. Then theres all the overt references to Rufio; Tavros looking up to “Pupa Pan”, etc.

— Jade’s Witch of Space outfit is ripped from the most famous film adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz”. This is acknowledged in the text: “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, or anything out here in the emerald shitty paintjob”.

— Vriska died in the same way as the guy from the “put the bunny back in the box” scene in “Con Air”. Theres also a bomb in that movie that looks exactly like the Tumour, but i cant remember what scene it was in (i havent watched it)

— Lord English resembles the Incredible Hulk

— Egyptian mythology. Vriska is Serket, Jack Noir is Anubis, Lord English is Osiris; Rose, Roxy and GCat may have some association with Bastet.

and thats not counting all the little bits of culture that have been redefined and tightly woven into the story. The western Zodiac is repurposed and there’s an in-story explanation for it (the trolls created our universe). Betty Crocker is the pseudonym of a genocidal empress — this fits really well because the meaning of the colour red in troll culture had already been established (vriska’s red boots, karkat’s irresistably attractive blood). The rainbow is no longer a symbol of God’s promise to humanity; it represents indiscriminate bloodshed, and this is tied up with Gamzee’s stoner shtick (spreading a rainbow between his hands)

this is why i loathe the single throwaway “arrested development” reference in act 6 (“poppop in the attic”)

andrew already wrote a big thing on formspring about how he simultaneously mocks and celebrates shitty art so im not going to bother talking about juggalos

oh yeah and all of homestuck is an homage to earthbound

OH YEAH and jade is the hindu goddess shakti (in addition to being basically every fertility goddess ever). she’s associated with creation through her passion for horticulture; later she helps create a universe. then theres the “dream up extra arms” thing, and her stylized arm movements in “Cascade”; the way her body becomes a portal to the green sun is powerfully yonic. i dont think andrew intended that, though.

EDIT the autoresponder is hal from stanley kubricks 2001 a space odyssey

EDIT 2 how could i forget through the looking-glass (cheshire cat, red queen) duhhhhh

EDIT 3 featherwriter asked ahpoordogsbody:

Other outside Homestuck references: I found this one out tonight. “HOW THEY EXACT THEIR POUND OF FLESH” on page ?s=6&p=006173 is a reference to Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice!

yes this too! though “pound of flesh” has become a common idiom in english, like “albatross around the neck”; its not necessarily invoking any deeper allusion to the play.

Andrew Hussie’s definitely aware of the symbolism of Jade’s mysterious portal. He milked it for comedy here:

jade and dave sprite both say hi and send their best wishes. but now jade says i have to finish quickly! she wants me to throw this bucket and its heartfelt payload through her mysterious portal. so here i go.

But it seems pretty unlikely that he was taking that into account way back when he established that Becquerel can turn his body into a portal in Act 3.