It's interesting that Dirk's themes are actually quite subdued and a little depressing, like this one, and Sweet Dreams, Timaeus. His songs are mysterious and a little lonely sounding, it capture his sort of longing for the past really well.
A young man, alone, looked out his window. Before him laid an endless ocean, the same dull, glittering blue as always. This sea covered up decrepit cities once full of people. People like him. Humans. Friendly people, lost in conversation. Innocent people. Wearing coats because they sometimes felt cold. Holding hands because they liked to be together. Feeling concrete beneath their feet, and if they walked far enough, grass. There were once trees, too, plants, before the Earth became nothing but ocean. Those people, once thriving in the city far below, had been gone for decades. All life was gone. Sometimes, the youth tried to see a skyscraper below the water, maybe even a highway. Other times, he was tempted to jump in even though he didn't know how to swim and would surely drown. He wanted to see a car. Perhaps a restaurant. He wanted to hear a dog bark. He wanted to run up an actual, real hill. He wondered what grass smelled like. Did it smell at all like the salt water below him, or maybe perhaps like the orange flavored soda he always drank? He wondered what real oranges tasted like. It was a bit ironic how he knew what imitation orange tasted like, but not the real thing. But the water never answered him, and the sun never revealed much in the way of anything. So he popped another disk into his television to get a taste of the civilization beneath him. If only he could meet someone from those days, when planes flew and books were written. Where children were born and taken home in little bundles by their parents. If only.
I was new to Austin when I heard this song. What a concept; the entire bustling, artistic, friendly city decimated and under water! As I walk the streets, I imagine all the statues entwined with seaweed, and schools of fish floating in the alleyways. To be honest, this is one of the saddest songs I've ever come across.
“When you think so little of yourself as a moral character, any act of self-termination will result in a death that is Just.” good luck out there sweet prince
People seem to keep pointing out "Flare" at the very end of this song, but no one notices that the entirety of the second half of this song is a somber, piano version of "Explore" and then "Flare" shows up at the very end.
The Fangirling Puella Magi thank you both SO MUCH for pointing that out, I've spent all day trying to find out what leitmotifs that explore part is because it shows up in pipeorgankind too
The world started fading, underneath a sea of blue. Under the oceans, Austin, Atlantis, I know you hear it too. Take a deep breath, hold it please. Underneath deep blue seas, ruined cities, brought to their knees. The whole world consumed by Atlantis, our mistake. The tears shed for the old world, impossible to fake. Welcome to Austin Atlantis, once a great capitol. Until the day, we all pay, was all swallowed whole.
I think it's fascinating how this song employs a _weaker_ adaptation of the arpeggios from Flare. It's beautiful, but compared to the original it feels empty, like someone is playing it without really understanding what made the original so haunting. And for a Dirk song, that absence of empathy is more heartbreaking than anything else I can imagine. To be clear, I love it.
Excellent point, past me. And yet, you wouldn't get that from blindly copying sheet music, you'd have to be playing from the heart to begin with. Keep doing what you're doing, Dirk, we love you for trying.
Okay but imagine Dirk finds a scuba suit, or more so, Sawtooth finds one and gives it to Dirk. Dirk, longing to learn about his people dives into the water, swimming down. He sees cars rusted, some still with kids seats in them. He sees the dull remains of his Bro's movie billboard and below it a department store. He swims inside the building, finding old water rotted toys in a toy shop and in a jewelry store he sees all sorts of rings and necklaces suspended in the water. Dirk swims through the sunken streets into a house, the TV is waterlogged and the couches have rotted away. In the bedroom he finds a water tight safe. using all his strength he swims to the surface with the safe, Sawtooth grabbing it and placing it on the roof as Dirk climbs back up, cracking open the safe. Inside is a time capsule of sorts. There is a letter addressed to anyone who's still alive, it tells the story of how the Condesce rose to power on 2x3 prong day. It tells of how two rebels rose to power, one of them named Strider, the other Lalonde. The letter says that Strider left his entire legacy to his future son who would be born through the Condesce' new breeding program and he along with three other children would change the world. Dirk tears up at this, looking at the objects in the safe. One catches his eyes, a bracelet, far too small for an adult or teenager, with a name engraved on it. It belonged to a little girl.
I listened to this song on repeat while writing a little introspection on Dirk's character a couple years ago. I've come back into Homestuck music recently, and coming across this one, even after all the times I've repeated it and should've gotten bored with it and didn't is so heartbreaking to still feel how much this song hurts. It's just so... lonely. It's desperate and anxious, those parts that Dirk conceals with his humor, bluntness, and the way he pushes away his feelings. It hurts every time to listen to it and to read the title of the song. Hussie's portrayal of him as a character never ceases to blow my mind because of how well he's written, and this song is living proof.
Funny story, where I live, we had severe flooding and had to evacuate to higher ground. A hundred-year flood, they called it. Listened to this on repeat for most of it.
(Late response is late) Austin is the state capital of Texas, which is in America. Dirk and Dave live in Texas, somewhere in either Austin, Texas, or Houston, Texas. The name of the song is called "Austin, Atlantis", because in Dirk's timeline, most of Earth's civilization is underwater, and the city of Atlantis, is rumored to be a city that sunk, and was lost.
I've never seen anyone point this out, but the choral sample is from Arvo Pärt's setting of Magnificat. Hope someone benefits from that information. It's a beautiful song
It sounds like you're trying to conjure every bit of happiness you can when everything you know and love has been completely stripped from your life. Your family, friends, that one person you always see at the coffee shop, old teachers, everyone and everything you love is now gone. What is there left to do now? There is no sense in living a life without sharing that life with someone else, no sense in making yourself feel good when there isn't someone else you can cheer up as well, no sense. Nonsense.
This one was right. Homestuck is literally the same age as the characters that it centers around (up until act 6) and the fandom is still pumping, albeit weird and random
i got really confused as i am listening to this as background music i thought this was gravity falls music for a bit and wondered, "how did i get here, from homestuck? u h h h" then i looked at what it was, saw it was posted 2012 and lasughed
It seems like a lot of Dirks themes have a sort of calm yet depressing vibe to them. It makes you feel sort of sad for him and the way his character developed
I think that's the joke! The song's name IS the location. But now that texas is a magical city under the sea in Dirk's eyes, the city and states full name might as well be "Austin, Atlantis" instead of "Austin, Texas". You're right, it's super clever and I love it.
It'd be good if hussie delved into these themes just a bit more instead of leaving it entirely to the fandom. I mean I saw a comment about davesprite and the other alt daves being the saddest characters in homestuck because they're not the right dave and die alone etc, and apart from karkat's speech about dream bubbles and "incorrect" realities being sick, hussie hardly delves into these themes at all, the same with the unknown. we see a sea in certain panels, nothing more...
the cover art, title, and body of this song is all just….really good. im about six or seven years removed from my homestuck phase but something abt this one still gets me
I was doing something else while listening to this, and suddenly 2:00 just hit me full force. This is really, really emotional. HIC killed billions of people and left our entire planet in ruins, deep underwater in an attempt to get her old world back. Homestuck: Everyone dies.
this song is already so awesome... then , at 2:50, i suddenly heard endless climb again. Whenever i hear endless climb in a piece of music, i cant help but cry out of sad joy.
buuuut Houston, Atlantis isn't alliteration... Besides, Austin, Texas, is still a city in Texas. It could be that Alpha Dave lived there rather than in Houston, too.
I don't know, most of the members have moved on and their having a hard time searching for some new voice actors. But if they'll update again, I hope they choose the unknown music this time.
Knowing how Dirk is and how he views himself, it's tragic and even more tragic that Homestuck^2 made him the villain. Dude's one of the best characters in Homestuck, yet, he's the one to get thrown into the evil guy category.
I think what people don't click with about the Epilogues a lot of the time is that Dirk knows this. Dirk isn't the villain because he's "a bad guy", Dirk is the villain because of his self-loathing. He wants the story to go on, but his perception of himself means that any plans he comes up with place him in the role of antagonist. Ultimately, I don't think he will be. There are greater forces out there, like "Skaia's malevolent tendrils", and the dissipation of meaning in the wake of a canonical existence, that the characters will have to contend with.
I love this piece. But I don't understand its title which some claim it to be clever, nor its relation with Homestuck. Does it have something to do with the massive floodings caused by the Condesce on Alpha-Earth?
+R. MEYER its like a play on words like it's supposed to be an address! So Austin is hinting at (idk if its ever outright said) the fact that the Striders lived in Texas and Atlantis is the lost underwater city in mythology so because everything is flooded when Dirk grows up there, its hinting at that. This is also one of Dirk's songs (I think) so it's basically like Dirk's address but obviously not if that makes sense?
this song, man I live in Austin and I can just imagine this giant wave washing over it and consuming the whole city. the street I walk and faces I see everyday... disparaging in one moment and then forgotten
Twilight Princess has some of the most emotional music I have ever listened to. I've noticed those connections too! Bronze Page and Riches to Ruins Movements I & II carry memories of the desert. :)
It's true that the wiki says that but the Wiki tends to be wildly inaccurate. Not saying that you're right or wrong, just telling you that your source is bad.
Well, allow me to put it this way then. Hussie has never confirmed that they live in Houston, therefore it is only speculation that they live in Houston.
