Homesuck: Vriska Rising

[Art of Hilt]

It doesn't matter if what manual action he would have taken was still "up in the air" because he already made the decision before the flip.

That decision leads to the split, yes, but it is not the cause of the split by itself. The split happens after he is told the result. Because before he is told the result, he had no practical course of action, just the possibility of it.

The 'decision' to assign one to the other was essential to the split, but by no means was it the only cause of it. It was one part of Terezi's machinations, the other being her telling him the result and having him lock down on the thought and turn it into a practical decision. It was the first strike of the one-two punch, basically.

I mean that's pretty much how it's described in the comic, so *shrug*

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Art of Hilt

I mean that's pretty much how it's described in the comic, so *shrug*

In all fairness, I learned a long-ass time ago to take anything Terezi says with a grain of salt.

[Fifthfiend]

Originally Posted by POS Industries

As I said, I think it's to be assumed that the vast majority of alternate timelines don't involve a Dave showing up on the alpha timeline.

The thing of this is that a lot of bother was put into establishing that these offshoot timelines literally don't exist once their initial link to the alpha timeline is severed.

If a timeline ceases to exist once it no longer connects to the initiating timeline then having infinite timelines doesn't seem tenable unless there's some separate rule for those.

EDIT I guess the entire thing holds together IF the green-suited Dave is created first, and then his presence earlier in the timeline results in some kind of indirect influence that results in the main-timeline Dave choosing differently (but not so much influence that he changes anything that would keep the entire coinflip thing from happening). But that's kind of just.. uggggggggh, you know?

Originally Posted by Loyal

hours combing over

This is now an intervention for Wiggles and Loyal's out of control TVTropes habits.

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

The thing of this is that a lot of bother was put into establishing that these offshoot timelines literally don't exist once their initial link to the alpha timeline is severed.

If a timeline ceases to exist once it no longer connects to the initiating timeline then having infinite timelines doesn't seem tenable unless there's some separate rule for those.

I don't know if it necessarily needs a rule if, by and large, they are irrelevant to the story. Alternate timelines like the one where John died or the one where Dave went back and got killed by Droog in the alpha timeline ceased to be, but then all the ones we haven't seen and will never see because they aren't important kept on keeping on to whatever their unfortunate conclusion probably was.

In this case, the timeline that this new alternate Dave is from won't cease to be, because its Dave going back in time apparently won't have any bearing on its creation. It will just continue on, completely fucked with no Dave or trolls, and we'll probably never hear from it again.

[Loyal]

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

This is now an intervention for Wiggles and Loyal's out of control TVTropes habits.

Yeah, good luck with that.

[Fifthfiend]

When you hit rock bottom, just know that we'll be here to pick you up again.

[Dracorion]

Originally Posted by Art of Hilt

Offshoot Dave lost contact with her the moment he was told the result. Luckily, since he went back in time immediately to sleep on the Quest Bed in the alpha timeline, he didn't notice that the timeline he just abandoned was a doomed one.

Small clarification: Terezi is able to see this new offshoot Dave on her viewport, and Davesprite was able to talk to her before.

So alternate Daves are able to talk to the Trolls if they go back to the alpha timeline. Though, yeah, offshoot Dave would've lost contact with her until he went back.

Carry on.

[Token]

Originally Posted by Loyal

Man, fuck the Homestuck entry. Every time Andrew posts an update people climb over each other trying to be the first to tie the latest comic to a trope that doesn't actually apply to it, and I end up spending hours combing over each of the sub-pages (which split into yet more sub-subpages, because the subpages themselves got that damn huge and broke the server) trying to un-shittify the entries.

I mean at this point the Homestuck page exists for the benefit of the people who write the fucking thing more than anyone who would actually read it (which is to say, nobody at all, because who wants to spend that much time reading that much horseshit?).

Same here. Shit drives me crazy. :/

UPDATE EDIT: The command lied. Dave showed none of his stabs. None of them.

[Dracorion]

Clearly, the only possible course of action is for Dave to stab himself.

Non-doomed future Dave stabbing himself (non-doomed future Dave), I mean.

EDIT: NO WAIT I GOT IT.

Dave is going to toss the sword into the air, and then fall asleep on his quest bed. Then the sword will fall on either Dave. That way, Dave can be free of any responsibility even though paradox space is obviously going to make the sword fall on doomed Dave.

[Art of Hilt]

alpha dave is going to shove doomed dave off the bed and THEN murder him
because he doesn't want to risk giving a doomed him superpowers while still proving he can kill himself when he needs to
it is going to be hella grisly