BEYOND CANON - New Homestuck album, available at Bandcamp now. homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/... Track by Sean William Calhoun (Do the Musicy Thing) seanwilliamcalhoun.com
it starts off with control being in callie's court, then at (0:20) Dirk slowly enters to assume control. at first gently, but slowly progresses to more and more hostile, as if Dirk himself were talking in the background with a very muted, very frustrated voice with callie herself messing up at (1:11) until at (1:22) he seizes it completely. you can really feel how "corrosive" his control over the story is, it feels very oppressive throughout, like walking outside into a very hot day with an even hotter wind. and on this very hot day the invisible puppet master pulls your strings and everyone elses and *you aren't even aware of it.* very sinister. but even during this it feels like dirk is struggling with his *self* as the intensity wavers into another tune at (1:39, 1:48, 2:00). (2:06) makes me think of his Bro splinters seizing the reigns for a bit (kinda sounds like Beatdown Round 2). at (2:23) his (1:39) splinter is the dominant voice again. once (2:35) rolls around the Prince skips a beat which leads to the narrative getting once again ripped from him at (2:47). The cherub is once again the dominant voice with a very soft, very cooling, very feminine tune. Dirk is muted momentarily, but cannot be silenced indefinitely. he swoops back in like the swing of his blade and pitches his tune around from one side to the other, which at this point, it seems like they are simply competing for the listener's ear. at (3:26) it seems as if Dirk has the force to simply layer his notes on top of calliope to ignore her completely, but at (3:33) it turns out the Muse is still here and playing, she just momentarily shifted her awareness back to the other timeline. for a few moments on they are evenly matched in narrative control, then they go halfsies and swap ears for the listener every so often. at (3:56) it appears as if calliope is forced out completely and we're forced to listen to some skipping record of what Dirk was previously playing. if I may be so kind to speculate, it seems as if the battle within Dirk himself is reaching a tipping point. arriving at the end of the song, whatever cosmic force that is beyond even ultimate Dirk and Alt!Calliope simply stops the record (4:08), because they are frankly tired of only meat and candy.
the bit at 3:56 is still Calliope and Dirk fighting over control, but really fast Also I don't know where you got that "cosmic force" narrative from, the final piano note in the track belongs to alt!Calliope, which frankly, is interesting on its own.
Omg, this is so good. The idea of Ult!Dirk's melodies going apeshit to show his internal struggles, and Bro splinters coming up with heavier and more oppressive sounds, is just brilliant.
Cse dead ghosts are actually SOULS in homestuck. Dirk once said(when he was talking with Dave) - he kinda felt that could do (as Bro himself) some stuff with young Dave. Like. He able to feel all his pieces of personality. * HEART PLAYER NOISES *
Dirk: Yo, pass the narrative. Alt-Calliope: you better not write trash. Dirk: **kicks up drama between his friends because he’s bored and bitter and scared of the abyss, splinters the soundtrack’s time-signatures into fractalised polyrhythms because he loves mess**
This song bops. I just love calliopes soft tone but then she fights to keep it control and there’s dirks tone which is really heavy, and there’s some splinter dirks in there too! Then it switches back and they battle, and it’s great.
piphomestuck.tumblr.com/post/188633341105/are-there-going-to-be-flashes-in-homestuck%C2%B2 I don't think they will be making animations but still don't try to lose hope that there might be future [S] panels.
This music is obviously a reflection to Alt!Calliope and Ult!Dirk's confrontation in HS^2, but I wanted to try posting my own interpretation of the song since it's one of my favourite tracks. As we know, Calliope is the piano and Dirk is the synth. In the beginning, it is only Calliope. I believe this represents Homestuck, the original web comic. Calliope was shown to be at the start of the Act 7 [S] page with a wand acting like an orchestra conductor. She was always a presence on the original HS and in my mind, this means she is like a personification of the web comic itself. The one behind the scenes. Basically, the start of the music represents the original Homestuck. Then, when the piano starts to distort, it represents the deterioration of canon itself as mentioned in the prologue of the Homestuck Epilogues as Rose talks about. We have transitioned to the Epilogues where Alt!Calliope is still the woman behind the scenes ensuring the success of the alpha timeline and therefore, ensuring Earth C is created and Lord English is defeated. Then, we get to 1:17. Short blips of a synth interrupt the music, until switching to an entirely different melody with synths. Dirk is now in control of the narrative. He narrates and uses his powers as an Ultimate Prince of Heart to alter the story and begin his plan to continue Homestuck by any means necessary even if it means affecting and manipulating his friends and even his ecto-biological family. At 2:35, we hear a short piano note. Calliope finally notices Dirk's control over the narrative and takes action. She transports to Meat using Jade's body and takes control over the narrative. The music returns to a peaceful piano melody. Calliope is in control, steering Meat into its normal course (or at least, Calliope's own vision for what Meat should be.) As the piano plays though, short bursts of synths play. This represents Dirk trying and failing to retake control as Calliope narrates. The small orange text Dirk in the Epilogues showing he is no longer fully in control. 3:08, the piano continues to play, Calliope is still in control, but Dirk means business. The synth goes between the left and right ear, like it is spinning. I think the spinning synth represents Dirk's plan to retake control where he tricks Calliope by spinning 180 degrees and shoots Jade with a sleeping dart, making Calliope lose narrative control. Finally, the synth takes over and Dirk is back in control. 3:33 and onwards, the synth and piano fight for the melody and conflict. Dirk and Calliope are locked in a battle over narrative control, they both have different goals and want to achieve them. I believe this is the end of the Epilogues, where Dirk is now in control of the Meat narrative, and Calliope is in control of the Candy narrative. They are both in control of the opposing universes and are going head-to-head to achieve their goals and stop each other from interferring. Finally, at 4:08, the synth finishes off perfectly. This shows Dirk is the one in control, and marks the end of the beginning of Homestuck^2, where he is the big bad. However, after the perfect synth finish, a single piano note is heard. I think this represents the fact that Calliope has gone (with Aradia and Davebot) into the wormhole to achieve Calliope's goal. She is still here, waiting for the perfect opportunity.
So one is all about keeping Homestucks legacy going and going until the sun explodes give actual meaning to what they do and the other thinks the og comic is sacred and all this post canon things are trash Wanting to end things as soon and as well as possible
