HSE: John Egbert, Pt. 2 

"John is the ultimate self-insert character" MSPA Reader: am i a joke to you?? (yes mspar, you are in fact a joke most of the time)

John’s self loathing is also a bit of an analog for the self-insert that he’s meant to be, albeit in a rather dark way. Half of the reason why people want to be someone other than them is because of some desire that they are bland and uninteresting and that other people are always doing cooler stuff and having better times than they are. And just like John, sometimes you just need to take everything in and realize (especially in John’s case) that no matter what, you do matter and you have an impact in the world (in john’s case, making it possible to win the game with all party members alive). Sometimes you just need somebody else to point it out to you how special you are.

4:55 "For having failed to understand his dad well enough to properly appreciate him while he was alive." That's funny. I felt the same way about John after the epilogue.

Last time I was this early, I made a "Last time I was this early, John was still 10" joke. It was a week ago.

John's Dad's death was the worst death in the entire comic

"John hates himself for being ignorant of what is going on." ....oh ;_;

My favorite thing about John is, in spite of his ignorance sometimes both getting him and/or his friends into a jam, its that same blind trust and good nature that allows him to make friends in even the most unlikely situations. Hes a people pleaser at heart, loves and cherishes all his best buds no matter the distance, and personally contributes to their betterment in multiple ways directly or indirectly. He's a great guy.

John is a Persona protagonist like you said. He influences his friends to change for the better, he has many potential romances (Rose, Vriska, Roxy, Terezi, etc.), he is being messed up by powerful beings (Andrew Hussie, Doc Scratch, Gamzee Makara, Caliborn/Lord English, MSPA Reader, etc.), and he has relatable emotional problems. John's absence in Homestuck 2 shows all the chaos of Dirk trying to keep the story working by being the big bad, and everything else feels like a slice of life since there's no hero (John) and the villain (Dirk) isn't being taken seriously.

"He atracts the attention of Terezi Pyrope"

John: An introspective optimist in the face of adversity.

I just realized something. The fact that Rose let John write a chapter of the gamefaq might mean that Kanaya was tricked into thinking she was reading something written by Rose while it was actually John. Twice. I say let the former boy-skylark enjoy his prankster's gambit!

1:40 Which makes sense, because he is the Heir of Breath, he unknowingly changes directions and aspirations. 4:16 Ultimate "bland self-insert". Vriska and Caliborn are self-insert characters too, but in a different way.

That, I actually enjoyed the end of this video, not quite sure why.

Normally I would be mad at cliffhangers but I'm now thinking "woo Pt 3!"

Thumbnail: SELF LOATHING F O O L Me: haha same

Thumbnail: "The Self-Loathing Fool" gog what a mood

Ty for these quality John vids!! :) He loves his friends so much!! ;-;

Thank you for shedding light on this page of our story ;3

god, i love these SO much, these vids are so entertaining i could just binge them for hours

John is best kid change my mind.

Ok, I have been loving these videos, and since I have been thinking about this a lot, I wanted to kinda publish this idea, in hopes that others see it, or even DuelestSenpai(XD). On that note, this is about both John, Homestuck, Steven in Steven Universe, and one of my friends, who we will call K. The main crux of my argument is that the Heir of Breath is almost the "perfect storm" Classpect. It's pretty obvious that in terms of power and versatility, some Classes and Aspects just don't have as much as others. Calling the Heir of Breath the "perfect storm" is the same idea as calling a Lord of Time, or Muse of Space the "perfect storm". A combination of Class and Aspect that weilds amazing, almost horrifying power, even in its most basic idea/form. We all know that all Heirs have tremendous power and agency, unless your Equius and Mituna, who get the Aspects that are about Nothing and Limits, but still, Equius has immense strength to change reality through it, and Mituna has his immense psionic powers that he just lost. My point is, all Heirs have tremendous power and agency, with a road of self improvement and maturity to fully grasp it. Now, let me tell you about 2 characters, one, my friend K, who I have found is the Heir of Space. They allow the world to do what it wants, and just does their own thing, but even them, they have considerable prowass in many areas. Their main problem is their inability to fully grow up and imbrace how much power and potential I know that they have. Next, we have Steven Universe, who I see as an Heir of Life. He has enheireted Life and the Powers of Life from his mother, in the most literal way. Unfortunately, he has been fighting with himself in SU Future, seeing how not normal, how different and free he grew up. His whole growing up, instead of BREAKING rules, he doesn't HAVE rules. His powers in the show even reflect the horrible power an Heir of Life would have. A Magician of Life, casting their magic negatively, is a horribly destructive force, just as much as casting positive magic is a creative one. But here's my reasoning, now that I have those two out of the way: even with those two having so much power... John still outstrips both in Power and Agency. It is literally in his Aspect. I'm arguing that the Heir is the CLASS of Agency and Maturity, and the path for a Breath Player is one of finding their Agency and Letting their creative potential fly. John gets this power, as stated in the video, in the form of Retcon. He now has infinite Agency, infinite Creative potential, and infinite Time, Space, and Knowledge(Light) to his power set. That why I see the retcon as the combination of the 4 Beta kids aspects, as they were the ones sucked into the juju. Space, Time, Light, and Breath. So, John becomes the Heir of Space, Time, Light, and Breath^2. Or, Atleast symbolically he does. The Heir of Breath is the perfect storm, just as the Lord of Time and Muse of Space are. There are other perfect storms, of course. Thief of Light and Maid of Life come to mind- -Oh wait they are ALSO terrifyingly powerful characters in Homestuck- You get my point. OD, I absolutely love your videos, and hope to see more in the future, they are endlessly entertaining and thought provoking, as are the reads you have on Medium! Hope my short essay made Atleast someone think. ^^'

For this analysis of the character John will you strictly focus on the text of Homestuck? Or will you branch out to examine things his character in Pesterquest, The Epilogues, or will you comment on the Canonicity of June Egbert?

Hey, since you're a writer and director for Homestuck 2, I have a purely hypothetical question I want to ask: If HA (Harry Anderson Egbert), Vrissy (Vriska Maryam-Lalonde) and Tavvy (Tavros Crocker) were to have classpects, what will it be? I personally think that Vrissy would be a Light-Bound like her Ancestors, and Tavvy would be a Hope-Bound of Rage-Bound.

Yes, yes I will stay tooned for next time, I love this content, please, take your time to make it good!!

shoutouts for that gamefacks pronunciation

I DID IT I CAUGHT UP. i started watching your videos at the end of February and i'm here in the now. now what?

PLEASE DO EQUIUS NEXT OHFM

This video and homestuck are very similar. Why you may ask. Well it’s because I only under stood half of it

Anxiety wants to know your location

love it!

When I want something explained to me so I can understand it better, I want to be able to understand it.

4:05 "Down the stairs into the unknown." Son of a bitch.

Why are there comments from a month ago??

John is a twunk

Perhaps I have misjudged you.

Wait what Retcon abilities I’m not that far yet what the fuck is this

What song in the background?

It jogn

Wait, shit. What's that first song?

Real sick of every one shitting in bro..

What’s was the game/thing shone at 3:37

Beware, this is now Word Of God©.

what is 3:49?

The way I see it, John's self insert nature means that he can be of any gender. Cis male, trans woman, non binary, genderfluid... Though most including myself see him as male, no one version of the Egbert should be more canon than any other. Given his ties to the Breath aspect, it would only be fitting. All can coexist in the different realities and be chill with one another's existence, each choosing what to identify as for themselves. Love John so much. Having him be dead makes me sad.

First