Fridge / Homestuck: Cherubs

Cherubs

• uu finds normal nonsexual romantic things to be despicably attractive. When UU explains cherub reproduction, we learn that it is normally violent and confrontational. So, for a cherub, the kind of things uu likes would actually be despicable and scandalous.
• UU speaks using British slang. British, which is often used synonymously with "English." Perhaps this was her way of hinting the connections we now know exist... Or maybe it was just brilliant foreshadowing that most readers missed.
• Uu is a cherub; according to troll mythology angels are used to usher in the end. This is a double entendre, for a possible origin of Lord English and the narrative end of Homestuck.
• UU reveals her name to be Calliope, a Greek muse. Foreshadows her title of Muse of Space!
  • Another Greek muse is named Urania. Probably doesn't mean anything, but interesting to note.
  • Interestingly enough, Urania is the Muse of Astronomy.
• Also concerning the muse Calliope, her role was the muse of epic poetry. Calliope writes fanfiction! Plus, each Greek muse had an emblem. Calliope's was a writing tablet. What's one of UU's most treasured items? Her drawing tablet.
  • Homestuck is quite the epic.
• uu's gift◊ to Dirk becomes Nausea Fuel Hidden in Plain Sight after remembering troll reproduction. At first, it's a Funny Moment, showing how bad an artist uu is. But, imagine the squiggly lines as the outlines of puddles or liquids, color-coded to represent the genetic materials of the involved participants. In uu's mind, Jane and Roxy are "enjoying each other's company," and Dirk and uu are "getting friendly," by mixing each other's...fluids inside a bucket. But Wait, There's More! ...how many people saw the squiggles, and thought troll reproduction instead of bad artistry? If you saw the former, then good for you getting an In-Joke based on a subtle Shout-Out. If you saw the latter, however, and just realized the Squick Hidden in Plain Sight...here's to forgetting what you want to forget.
  • Except there's absolutely nothing indicating this, uu isn't a troll, and he considers hand-holding to be risque so he likely wouldn't even DREAM of that? His later drawing to Calliope shows that he really is just that bad at drawing figures.
  • It is more likely a display of cherub reproduction- the figures look like snakes.
• When Calliope plays chess with uu, the pieces keep disappearing and she accuses him of eating them. Considering they share a body, not only was Calliope losing pieces of her chess set, but she was also ending up with little pointy chess pieces in her stomach!
• uu says that when Calliope dies, he will paint everything with her blood. Now, remember the Felt Mansion.
  • It gets worse he mentions he will write his words with her blood. Remember who else is known to write in lime green (or "felt") text? Lord English.
    • Even worse after meeting the doomed version of Calliope who never got to know the Alpha kids and somehow mustered up the courage to kill Caliborn before starting the game, just as he did to her: she types in his blood colour as well.
  • Considering that there's no way Calliope would realistically have that much blood in her body, he most likely just meant it metaphorically and used actual paint. Y'know, like a sane person would.
• UU and uu have specific shackles that only they can unlock and Calliope wears her brother's on her left leg, meaning uu wears his on his right. Remember how Lord English doesn't have a right leg? Also, each has a color spiral above where the chain connects with the wall and Calli has a Lime green spiral while her brother's is "Candy" red since he is based on Jigsaw. The spiral seems to match the swirls on a cherub's face which may be implying the cherubs can change blood color. Lord English has been shown to have red blood and matching cheeks. As an added bonus watch the intermission that showed Lord English and read the opening code considering uu's symbol consists of "U" and "~".
• Take a good look at Caliborn's Cruxtruder when he enters. The time shows his symbol in two parts: ~U. It resembles ~ATH code. His timer is saying Caliborn will enter his session at the end of the universe...just like how Lord English enters at the end of a universe.
  • Caliborn's sign represents a man holding a snake, so it could also mean that the snake (Caliborn) has escaped its handler (Calliope).
• Alright, so Calliope's dreamself is dead and Caliborn seems to have taken control. No big deal, Roxy knows how to wake her up and her soul's floating around in the Dream Bubbles now. Except Lord English just went into a Dream Bubbles and destroyed everyone there...
• Remember when Caliborn was said to represent the people who hate Homestuck? Now, combine that with the possibility that he's Lord English. Lord English murdered Hussie and is now destroying dream bubbles. He is essentially striving to destroy everything in the Homestuck universe. Think about that for a moment.
  • Jossed. The third intermission of Act 6 reveals that he's hunting down Calliope's dead dream self, who is one of the few people capable of taking him down.
    • However, Caliborn is killing many of the trolls because Calliope would not stop talking about the trolls. This is like how many people will hate Homestuck and Homestuck fans because they talk about Homestuck so much.
• uu/UU's tag represents Uracil replacing the T in DNA. So by logic, TT (timaeusTestified) may be in more danger of being 'replaced' by uu. Remember the conversation Calliope and Dirk had about Prince of Heart translating to 'Destroyer of Souls'? And how Caliborn wants to *destroy* Calliope's *soul*?
  • It gets better. Remember how Dirk said that he doubted he'd be destroying any souls unless he became a "cartoonishly evil sorceror"? Soon afterwards, Lord English arrives to destroy a bunch of souls in the dream bubbles. Remember what was in his hand?
• When you think about it, cherubs are really, *really*, extinct. Calliope/Calliborn/LE are/is the same person.
  • Actually, no one said there aren't any Cherubs in other galaxies.
• Doubles as Fridge Horror: Calliope and undyingUmbrage make a point behind their universe being dead, or dying at any rate. Kernelsprites are attracted to the doomed and deceased.
• We all know that Lord English was already here. We all know Caliborn is Lord English. We know Caliborn has been searching for Calliope to finish her off. Now take the time to remember the form that she took when she visited Roxy's dream to tell her about the Quest Beds. Caliborn was already here, but so was Calliope.
• Possibly a Shout-Out but the cherub players are heroes of time and space, have a 11 based tic, and wear bowties. Now look back at the source of the "Bowties are cool" meme and remember he was the 11th regeneration of a well known time traveling hero from outer space.
  • Not to mention that in [S] Act 6 Intermission 3, Caliborn was confirmed to be a Lord of Time.
• Remember Caliborn's Freudian Slip about the girl on the "How to draw manga" book and his sister? It sounds vaguely incest-like, but of course he would liken her to Calliope: cherubs look for other cherubs who remind them of their lost siblings when they mate!
• The B2 kids' planets are named after noble gases, right? Well, the last element in the noble gas column is called UnUnoctium!
• Karkat's text color is the average of Calliope's and Caliborn's. Calliope is similar to Karkat's caring side, while Caliborn is similar to Karkat's angry and annoyed side that he usually shows. Caliborn has the same blood color as Karkat, whereas Calliope has the blood color that he would have if he wasn't a mutant. This all seems like Faux Symbolism, right?. Well, Cancer is the 4th Zodiac sign and Ophiuchus is the 13th Zodiac sign in some systems. Arc Number much?
• It's mentioned that cherubs were never supposed to play Sburb. Turns out there's a very logical reason for that. Cherubs will never have another of their own kind to play with, and playing Sburb solo breaks the game on multiple fundamental levels.
• Why did Hussie hide the cartridge in the Caps Lock capsule? Because Caliborn would never turn the caps lock off, at least not intentionally!
  • Except Caliborn isn't using Caps Lock; he's holding down the shift key, because Caps Lock is "A TRAINING KEY FOR RETARDS". It works anyway because it never occurs to him to turn it on.
• The most recent updates described Caliborn's mission in his game session: he has to conquer fifteen planets, one after another, by knocking them into a black hole. It may be obvious to most people, but take a look at the planets and think about it. What is he, albeit on a cosmic scale, actually doing? He's playing pool.
• With the revelation that the server that summons Lord English is, in fact, the clock that controls his immortality, his summoning ritual finally makes sense. The honk HONK code infused Doc Scratch with a portion of Caliborn's DNA so when Scratch died it caused Caliborn's immortality clause to kick in and revived him where the DNA was!
• After his summoning, Lord English locks himself in a sarcophagus. He wears a Cairo Overcoat. A Chicago Overcoat is slang for a coffin. So a Cairo Overcoat would actually be an Egyptian coffin.
  • If you look closely, the sarcophagus is his Cairo Overcoat. It's a reference to the innocuous doubles of Problem Sleuth.
  • Not just that, it's a reference to Mobster Kingpin's (imaginary) vessel, the Chicago Overcoat. He eventually becomes Demonhead Mobster Kingpin. And what is Lord English? A demon.
• Considering the comic's theater-esque style (with acts, intermissions, etc.), it's quite fitting that Lord English breaks a leg shortly before his debut.
• Caliborn states to Jake that his title is the Lord. If it wasn't already obvious, this appears to be more Foreshadowing to him becoming Lord English.
  • Contrasting the Lord, the Muse is the most passive class possible. What's more passive than spending the entire duration of the game dead/dormant?
• So, Caliborn's whole Saw pornography game was pretty ridiculous at the time, right? But consider this: according to the green man himself, all relationships among his people are "dictated by the miracle of hatred." In other words, Cherubs ONLY have Black Romance. Possibly as a foil to us humans only having Red. Red romance runs counter to everything he knows about what's natural and right. So, when he contacted a human and asked for Red pornography... yeah, that was culture shock. And completely natural from his standpoint.
• Caliborn is described as having undergone a negative instance of Character Development, since by killing his sister be cheated himself out of properly maturing for his species. He grew up into what is essentially a Psychopathic Man Child whose actions have also ruined the course of the game, itself a metaphor for ones own character arc. The point of a normal session is basically to mature in a positive direction so one can create a new Universe and finish playing. Cal completely broke this, he became an emotionally immature gamer who forces everyone to comply with his playstyle, ruining their experiences with the game. An interpretation of the ending is that he's now stuck in a time loop where he does this forever while everyone else actually completes the game and gets to move in with their lives. Lord English and Cal can be interpreted as a Basement-Dweller "Stop Having Fun" Guy.
• In Lord English's infamous Alt Text, his initials are the only letters that are solid black instead of flashing in several colors. Considering LE enters the trolls' universe right after Snowman is killed (and all the other Felt members have already been offed), it makes sense..
• You could say English was *Glasses Pull* made from Scratch. YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! And then there's that possibility of him having a connection to Betty Crocker...
  • On that note, in pool, English means to put a spin on the cue ball. "Putting a spin on" means "give a new interpretation or meaning to".
  • So if Doc Scratch was hosting Lord English, you could say he was already here?
• tICK t0ck 8R8K H34DS honk HONK: It made no sense originally... however, it turns out to be foreshadowing Lord English's arrival.
  • The honk HONK voiced by Lord English and included in his code has spawned numerous Epileptic Trees about Gamzee being Lord English or being related to him. HOWEVER, if you think about it, the whole thread of the "honk HONK" theme can be traced back to Lord English. Doc Scratch is an agent of Lord English, and was responsible for guiding the development of troll society in this iteration of their universe. In now-familiar circular paradox space fashion, it could easily have been Doc Scratch who planted the seed of honk HONK in the first place, after which it grew into the rule of Subjugglators on Alternia, which led to Gamzee's madness, which led to his scrawling of the honk HONK code, which led to...
    • It seems it wasn't as much of epileptic trees to be related when he's later seen to father Caliborn and Calliope.
    • Cali is not a paradox clone, so Aranea wasn't just talking about Cherubs in general not being meant to play, but to Cali as an individual (or two individuals after a few minutes) as well. This would also explain why his birth was orchestrated with the Scratch, by creating a universe where a location was found and Cali's birth would not fail due to a lack of planets. It's not exactly easy to find one.
• Lord English is finally revealed in Intermission 2. So guess who shows up when Act 6 Intermission 2 rolls around?
• Recently we've learned that Caliborn, Arquius, and half of Gamzee had their souls trapped in Lil Cal. This explains many, many things.
  • It explains how LE is so STRONG.
  • It explains the spontaneous honking.
  • It explains why Lord English possessed Doc Scratch's body.
  • Lil Cal holds the soul of Arquius. a mixture of Equius and Dirk's Auto-Responder. Doc Scratch was made from Lil Cal via ecto-biology shenanigans. This explains why Doc wanted a Megido as a henchman and makes the fact that he is insanely abusive to her all the more creepy.
  • And the "Mental Breakdown" flash makes it clear that Lord English was already there. For the whole time.
• How one can destroy Lord English? By exploiting bugs and glitches in the paradox space, which basically is the entire game. What has Caliborn done recently? He stuffed a bunch of candy corns in the cartrige. What happened then? The game started glitching severely. Caliborn is Lord English. He is basically killing himself just to show his superiority in spite of the narrator.
• Remember when Caliborn was said to represent the people who hate Homestuck? Now, combine that with the possibility that he's Lord English. Lord English murdered Hussie and is now destroying dream bubbles. He is essentially striving to destroy everything in the Homestuck universe. Think about that for a moment.
  • Jossed. The third intermission of Act 6 reveals that he's hunting down Calliope's dead dream self, who is one of the few people capable of taking him down.
    • However, Caliborn is killing many of the trolls because Calliope would not stop talking about the trolls. This is like how many people will hate Homestuck and Homestuck fans because they talk about Homestuck so much.
• Kind of a sillier one, but Doc Scratch is a puppet, right? And he explodes when Lord English is born from him? That can only mean one thing: LORD ENGLISH IS A FIDUSPAWN.
  • But then where would his card be?
• Regarding the types of fanfiction she writes she seems rather embarrassed about some of her work which in other circumstances like she has written some self-insert "Lemon" Fics. Considering how her brother, and her species in general, view romance she might be referring to the more "softcore" type stories otherwise known as Limes.
• Calliope's role, as stated in a Reddit comment[1]◊:
  ''Simple she died and by dying she appeared out in the furthest ring, baiting Lord English into action or rather inspiring him to hunt her down if you will. Lord English goes into the furthest ring to hunt her down and along the way he starts murdering the horrorterrors. Because they are being hunted the horrorterrors ally with our players so when requested they create the dream bubbles for them, which in it of itself created the very dream bubble Alt Calliope would appear in to begin with."

Jujus

• Li'l Cal is a juju. Jujus origins are untraceable. We know Li'l Cal exists because of a causality loop which means he exists because he exists. Sort of like a law of physics or even a fundamental flaw in the session/universe. The notion that he would spring from the void even makes sense if the void refers to Paradox Space, since Paradox Space is basically fate. The creation of Jujus goes in line with the idea of fundamental flaws in sessions dooming them. It could even be considered a reverse of the gaming abstraction idea in the sense that a few bad lines of code create random glitches in reality. Heck, that could even explain all the callbacks to different "games" like Problem Sleuth and Jailbreak; straggling lines of code not properly removed before release.
• Li'l Cal is a Juju that can be used to hypnotize a person who gazes into its eyes. Why does this never happen before Act 6 Act 5 Act 1x2? Because both boys it winds up entrusted with always wore shades.