Years in the future, but not many...: I want to point out a misconception about WV's design in his exile rags: He is not always pointing towards the side. His right eye is covered under his face clothing. I know it might sound dumb, but I labored under this fruitless delusion for YEARS.

RETCON WATCH: You can barely see John warping in on one of the structures in the distance.

ACT 2 ==>: Important note: At this time, the suggestion box featured on MSPA was suddenly replaced with a graphic of a meteor crater. At the same time, we suddenly get WV commanding John in ALL CAPS. Over time, the metor graphic underwent small changes, as it gradually became more like the desert in WV's future. I'm uncertain over what period of time this took place, but whenever commands weren't given by WV, they turned back over to reader submissions.

Since this is the first time an Act is mentioned in the story, I'll point out how they were originally always accompanied by ==> commands on the same page title. This practice was only dropped when Act 6 started.

==> (251): What's weird here is the Derse kernel flying down towards LOWAS. I mean, Derse is probably directly on the other side of LOWAS, but this is still a pretty weird misdirect, whether intentional or not.

[S] YOU THERE. BOY.: This is the first Homestuck 'walkaround' flash! The biggest thing one might miss is the first-ever 'Trickster Mode' easter egg. By pressing Ctrl+T, usually with some combination of Shift or Alt thrown in depending on OS and browser, everything gets real fucky and "Harlequin" starts playing. These easter eggs were what the in-universe concept of Trickster Mode was adapted from. The drawing of Hussie that follows you around is taken from Problem Sleuth. I'm fairly certain that 'Trickster John' originated from early Image Manipulation threads on MSPAF (note to self: dig deeper).

A rundown of what you can do in Trickster Mode: First off, you'll notice you can walk wherever you want. If you go outside of the house, you can access places you normally wouldn't be able to view. To the left, on a ledge, is a pumpkin and the numbers '024913' in morse code. These numbers were chosen at random by Gankro (the walkaround coder) are were used as the code for the next instance of Trickster Mode. At the very top right you can find the text 'Gankro was not here' written upside-down. And if you click on the chimney, next to where it says 'This is not SAFE' you can enter Problem Sleuth's office!!! NEAT

When looking through John's room's window: the text about the tire swing references the joke made when John first looks out his window at the tire swing on his tree.

When examining the kitchen cabinet (that Hussie notes is Death's game cabinet from Problem Sleuth): What's seemingly a "Saw" reference is probably a reference to the end of Problem Sleuth, where Death harangues Mobster Kingpin with games to play. Or maybe that was in and of itself a "Saw" reference??

==> (267): Fedorafreak makes his grand entrance.

Years in the future, but not many...: It might not occur to people used to the current state of Homestuck that not being in control of the commands was actually a pretty big 'twist' for the narrative. As well as the revelation of the Wayward Vagabond being the one responsible for the recent commands.

==> (272): We know now that releasing the kernelsprite from the cruxtruder has no real bearing on the timing of the meteor headed towards your house. A minor theme in Homestuck being about portents of destiny, which somehow invariably turn out to be clocks, and whether they directly affect your destiny or are simply instruments that relay your fate to you. In this case, we deal with the latter.

DO AGAIN AS PURPLE WORDS SAY.: Minor detail that people sometimes gloss over re: why underlings don't take on aspects of Nanna. Only prototyping that happen before the kernel separates from the sprite (read: before entering the Medium) affect them, since it is the kernel that carries the 'data' to the towers of Prospit and Derse.

INDULGE THE DEVICE. BUT BE CURT WITH IT.: This whole rap is about the movie "Armageddon". It's probably going to be more clear to someone who's seen it. Maybe that person is you????

==> (291): RETCON WATCH: Oil in the top-left corner.

WHAT COLOR ARE THE WORDS THAT THIS CHUM SAYS?: For those of you keeping track, it turns out the "explosion" she originally heard was just one of her flashback visions. This time, of the meteor that carried the frog temple 'seed' to Earth, along with Bec.

THE GREEN TEXT WAS ATTRACTIVE. NOW VIEW THE RED TEXT AGAIN.: "Negrocity" is an from an ancient joke during the Special Olympics days. It seems to have been one of those weird transient internet phrases that never get anywhere and disappear. Anyway, the usage probably inspired the name of the track "Liquid Negrocity".

Rose: Consult the grimoire.: Fluthlu, as previously stated, is from Problem Sleuth. You can see the landscape of the imaginary universe, as well as the generic 'beasts' that would later on become the basis for Jane's shirt icon.

==> (304): These other two are original creations. Note the initial references to Horrorterrors and the Furthest Ring.

==> (305): Problem Sleuth's windows served as gates into the imaginary universe. If the power was severed while inside, vile monsters would begin to spawn. Hence the 'summoning procedures'.

[S] ==>: This page provides the map title for Act 2, "Raise of the Conductor's Baton", as well as the title for the Homestuck album "Symphony Impossible to Play". Also tying in Rose further to concepts of rain and water, like John was to wind in his 'weird monologue' page. Not like she ever pays any attention to it. Also, the quote from T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land", probably chosen because of its reference to the month of April.

Try again.: The Stiller shades were eventually claimed by Godhead Pickle Inspector, who shares a descriptor with Dave's chumhandle.

Examine room.: The full Midnight Crew / Felt 'backstory' will be expanded on during the Intermission. For the time being, simply note that The Felt were conceived and drawn well before the Intermission or even the MC flash in Act 3 that formally introduces them, and that contrary to commonly thought, they were not created by Mayonaka, who made the famous Felt fanventure.

As for the poster of Sawtooth and Squarewave, facts get somewhat murky. They are definitely originally designed for Homestuck, although the concept of rapping robots immediately brings "And It Don't Stop" to mind. Of course, their designs eventually come back wayyyy later as rap-bots of Dirk's creation. At one point, they were being considered for one of the 'fake band' albums that were being worked on, but it's unclear if they even had names at that point.

Dave: Bleat like a goat and piss on your turntable.: Quickly going over all the standard gags: retrieve arms, do something silly, et cetera. I will remind everyone that regardless of Brobot's actions, Dave still owes our narrative satisfaction one (1) humorous goat bleating.

Dave: Check the blue box.: You will have noticed by now that the boxes are colored according to the people sending them. Also, John's note being teased, which means that the recurring 'gift note' concept now exists in some form.

RETCON WATCH: Oil in the box.

==> (323): You'll notice this conversation is a repeat of the first pesterlog from the beginning of Act 1, confirming this is a sort of flashback, as well as Dave's time zone.

==> (324): Hussie is talking about "And It Don't Stop" which is a pretty fun comic you should check out. Dirk's fetch modus is directly based on the rapping limitations imposed on its characters.

Dave: Go online and view sites indicative of your interests.: https://sweetbroshellablog.blogspot.com was registered by Hussie and then promptly abandoned. For shame.

==> (326): Foreword: sweetbroandhellajeff.com redirects to the SBaHJ comics, but it is in fact registered to someone other than Hussie who has maintained said redirect for nearly a decade. WHAT A HERO.

The forums Hussie mentions are the Penny Arcade forums, of which Hussie was a fan. The specific thread (from March 2009, around the end of Problem Sleuth) can be perused here: https://mrcheeze.github.io/andrewhussie/originthreadp1.html

Notes: You can see several people in that thread, such as Michael Firman (Tripwire), Betelgeuse, and NotASenator (who helped manage the MSPA Forums for the longest time). You'll also note the emblematic '8^y' mouth shape being made by the comic being mocked, instead of being a Hussie creation. The famous 'stairs' comic is actually the second SBaHJ comic, not the first as the official site would have you believe.

I'll attempt to point out whenever a new comic was added. I'm not certain when comic #4 was made, but the first three definitely were made at the same time.

Dave: Check the latest page of the Midnight Crew.: The pictures of mspaintadventures.com are often little snapshots into how the site's design changed over time.

Dave: Skip ahead a hundred pages or so.: RETCON WATCH: Arm sticking out of the door on the left.

Dave: Answer chum.: I'll take this moment to point out that the kids weren't originally written as being two pairs of siblings. When asked about it on Formspring:

"No. But there were similarities between the two pairs for aesthetic reasons, and some other reasons I guess. Bifurcation in broad personality type. The 4 character designs were drawn before page 1, so things were very loose back then. I left it open, and the cross-similarities between pairs, specifically between Jade and John, led me to get some steam behind the idea that these two very vaguely had "something to do with each other".

What they had to do with each other was something pieced together very organically over the development of the plot. We saw they shared identical towers on the same moon. The logic that they had something to do with each other naturally led to the same principle for Rose and Dave. They got a moon too.

This sort of stuff is all so gradual, and pieced together from so many smaller events, it's hard to pinpoint exactly when an idea originally took shape.

But the idea that they all had that origin was not pulled out of thin air. It was in the works for a good while, and a lot of foundation was laid for it. I would say it had its beginnings when I first introduced the concept of ectobiology, in Rose's next door lab when she made an unsuccessful paradox clone, a two headed cat. The thoughts weren't far off then, like ""Maybe this weird way of cloning someone is how the kids were made? Maybe for that matter they created themselves?"" Doesn't get more paradoxical than that, and thus wholly in the spirit of the fictional science, and in the spirit of the slowly rolling thunder that is this work's accumulating cache of themes.

But I think was sold it for me was when I got the idea to mix the pairs of slime from their respective guardians. The whole weird mess struck me as an especially novel origin story, and the thought of making these 8 babies all at once was just ridiculous enough to be irresistible. Not just because of the mad science/time travel/paradoxical novelty, but because of the new light it put the characters under. Especially the guardians I think. These weird automaton-like authority figures, mostly obstacles in the early going, are quite probably very much like the kids, just at different stages in their weird lives (i.e. the ones where they lose their facial features). They're all kind of like siblings in a way, even if not all biological. (Though some are!) And I think you could pick up on that from some of the early interactions, that for instance Rose was likely a very similar person to her mom. Her mom just happened to be an adult!

The origin story also lent a lot more relevance to John's designated handle, exctoBiologist. This was never something that was supposed to be significant at all. It was some funny word that tied into his interest of ghosts, and Ghostbusters. (The word was also lifted from an old comic I wrote.)

But now that seems like it was extremely important from the getgo, like it was all FORESHADOWIN' AND SHIT. But of course it's just yet again me connecting another one of these million dots to some others, when the dots were never actually meant to be connected.

I think very few major developments are pulled out of thin air, even if they appear to come from out of nowhere. There is almost always some foundational work for it. These things arrive through the series of details which lead to their cognition in the first place. You can always trace it backwards and find the clues that were pointing to it all along."

[S] ==> (beat sequencer): While Bill Bolin is pretty well-known in Homestuck circles, you might not know that this page was the first one he contributed music to, but even these simple beats were replaced when he left the music team. More on that later, as well as Robert J! Lake, on a page where he contributes more than a few beats.

I'll talk about Ian "xerxes33" Taylor here though, since he isn't featured anywhere else in the comic. He only made two songs. Sorry I don't have anything else to say.

The secret songs were originally, from left to right: "Harlequin", the Captain Planet theme song, the Ghostsbusters theme, and "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing", which was written for "Armageddon". Probably because Liv Tyler is Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler's daughter. But because the latter three songs weren't actually included into the flash, but rather simply attempt to load the songs from other places on the internet, the links slowly went dead over the years, resulting in a broken flash....

But you'll notice one of the buttons is playing a different song now ;)

==> (340): RETCON WATCH: Oil on Howie Mandel's gross monster knee.

==> (344): RETCON WATCH: Oil on whatever the fuck that ventriloquist doll poster is supposed to be.

==> (350): Dave's ironic selfies do get brought up again much later on, though.

==> (358): As previously stated: "Zazzerpan" is derived from Wizardy Herbert.

Rose: Attach a W to face as a fake moustache.: This is probably the launching board for a meme some of you might remember, about Rose and her proclivity to wiggle her eyebrows in an extfemely suggestive manner. It shows up now and again.

Dave: Answer chum.: The one-pixel-smile comes back in A6I1.