Before all, this review contains spoilers!
*Accurate recreation of my reactions on Jade route\*
Me: OMG JADE IS SO CUTE!!!!!!!!
Me: WHY SHE IS CUTE!!!
Me: GODDAMIT, SHE IS CUTE.
Me: Why you would punch an omnipotent ultra instinct stand dog?
Me: Woah, David, neat job.
Me: Fuck you, Epilogue Jade
Me: PAJAMA PARTY!!!!!!!!
Me: Gosh, Rose and John are so cute in their little manicure section.
*And now, to the review\*
1-Art
2-Music
3-Story
4-The Good Ending
5-How it relates to me!
First, lemme say this, I was worried as shit when they announced Jade's route. Worried that they would butcher up Jade as they did in the Epilogues. But thankfully, I didn't happen. DAVID TURNBULL AND AYSHA, THANKS!!!
So yeah, if you follow me or my reviews(likely not, since I am just a random Reddit user with no influence whatsoever) you may know that Jade is my favorite beta kid, she is cute, funny and just overall an amazing person, she is tied with Roxy was my favorite kid. So you probably may guess that I was really excited with Jade's Route, and oh boy, they didn't disappoint, it was actually a lot better than I thought, so yeah, let's go.
1-Art: The art is good like the previous chapters, If you couldn't see by the teaser JADE LOOKS INCREDIBLY CUTE. Seriously, of all official renditions of Jade, this one has to be my favorite, it captures everything, for her personality to her lifestyle, with props to her hair, eyes, and teeth, not only they are adorable, but it matches with her situation, of living in an island with not people to cut her off, seriously, is so big that someone could use it as a blanket! Bec also looks really cute, which is quite surprising, since his original sprite looked so... serious. The backgrounds also are pretty good, I noticed that they have sort of a crayon style, which again, matches perfectly with Jade. Overall, the art is great, the only part that I didn't like was when Jade was pointing the guns towards us, the way that she holds the gun is really... weird, and I think that would be better if she was pointing directly to the screen. Props to smug Jade tho.
2-Music: The music once again is great, is a remix of Carefree victory, which is likely the theme that people more associate with Jade. It also has some vocals dog barks and the chiptune seems to be taken of Earthbound, more specifically, the sound that makes when you are writing the character's names. So yeah, neat design James.
3-Story: Ok, now for the fun part of this review. First of all, Jade's route is a lot bigger than the others, is arguably bigger than John's and Rose's route combined, so yeah, thanks Aysha, or David? Anyway, the route starts with Bec showing you who's the alpha male(not be mistaken with Incel) of this interdimensional webcomic and messing with your teleportations powers, after that, you find Jade pointing out a Sniper Rifle at your fucking face, after an awkward conversation about all this, she lays off a gun and the route really starts. It starts with her showing her toys and questionable tastes about animals(jk, I like furries). The route, however, has a major turning point and one that will compliment greatly. What seems to be a pretty run in the mild route about a friend showing her house became a full-on cargo pant of character development, world-building and heartwarming moments. Don't misunderstand me, I love Jade and all, but of all Beta Kids she was arguably the one with the least amount of development, while we don't exactly need character development to make a good character, is a thing that can elevate this character to a whole new level, just look at Eridan, if that douchebag had some sense knocked in his head and stopped being a shame to the Hope aspect, he likely would be one of most powerful and beloved HS characters of all time. Going back to Jade, yes, she was lacking some development and a more deep vision of her personality(unless you consider her suddenly ascension in the echeladder to "Big Asshole Level" on the Epilogues to be "development", but, pls...). "Ca-ham", anyway, I really glad to see Jade being explored, and her personality is pretty much what me and likely everyone expected, while the times that she acted rudely gave me Vietnam flashbacks to the cursed tomes, it quickly faded away, because unlike there, Volume 4 actually gives a reason to why Jade acts rude, besides the (urrr duh, is her classpect, of course, she will act that way, ok sorry if this sounded offensive), MSPA Reader even quotes that she is apologizing for being angry at the guy that pretty much ruined her life, so yeah, is really good to see Jade as a decent human being.
Jade is not the only one that received head pats, Bec gets more screen time too, and he is adorable. It is really cool to see Bec behaving more like a Dog with superpowers, rather than an Almighty God that is shaped like a dog(if this even makes sense). He, like every good dog, acts very protective towards Jade as he did in the original comic, while this may sound a bit abusive and annoying, and yeah, it's a little bit, Bec actually is quite sympathetic, not only because he is a dog, so the "father wants to keep his daughter a virgin forever" trope doesn't really apply here, but also because is pretty obvious that, while there are probably jealous feelings in the equations, Bec is motivated mostly and purely by love and loyalty towards Jade, and is really cute. (Also, I thought about a "block" joke while I was playing, but is better than this joke remains unspoken and only commented on my internet social circle).
The world of Pesterquest also gets a huge 'upgrade" in this volume, not only is revealed more about how the world is going on without Sburb(even eliminating a plot hole that I've mentioned in a previous review, so yeah, I like to think about that I was part on that, of course, that I am not, but lemme live my dreams :c ). We also get to know more about how things are going off in the "unplayed" session, that now is being played and plagued by a Leather winged Jack? It's really interesting how things are going on in this timeline. Also, we finally get the full confirmation that Grandpa used a teleport station on the Frog temple to enter the session, while this was foreshadowed in ACT 6, we finally get a confirmation, so yeah, again, pretty neat.
Obviously, I will not cover everything in this route, like the Reader playing "BEGONE, TH*T" with Bec(that was really funny tho), but this is already a general idea of how good this route is, however, I Will cover one more thing... and this is the ending and how it impacted me.
4-The Good Ending: Of all Pesterquest endings til now, heck, even of all Friendsim endings too, this is my favorite, and will likely hold this spot for a long time, no, isn't as epic as Cascade or as exciting as WV: Ascend, but of all things, it a ending that struck me hard, in the chest. Like, Pesterquest could end now and I still would be satisfied. But why is good? Simple! It uses with full force one of the strongest elements in all Homestuck narrative, and no, I am not talking about the LGBT+ themes, the diverse and creative sburb world, the trolls.. no, I ain't talking about that, I am referring to The Friendship between the Beta Kids
One of the things that I love about Homestuck as a whole, is the connection that those characters have. It's such a strong and well-made bond that I am actually really impressed. This group of pre-teens is one of best friends groups that I had seen in literature, heck, it evens discrown the Witch trio from Little Witch Academia as the best friend group for me(which is my favorite anime of all time btw). This is not only shown by their pesterlogs, but also by the way that they know each other, even though they live miles away, they seen to know more about the other than themselves, and this just shows how powerful this union is. It not only leads to great chemistry but also to amazing dialogues and great ships, even for characters that don't interact that much, like Jade and Rose, we can still see how they care for each other. Which was a thing that the Alpha Group was lacking(and one of the multiple reasons why I hate ACT 6), seriously, Roxy says that Jane is her bestie, but after the first part, those two barely interact anymore, which makes their friendship look really fake.
Anyway, Jade's good ending uses this friendship with max power, not only showing how they care and love Jade but also for each other, like John worrying about having annoyed Rose about her drawings. It's just, amazing, seeing them talking with each other face-to-face for the first time and carrying on to make a sleepover with our Dog Princess.
Another thing that I really liked, and this is kinda personal, despite I advertising this in the title, you can skip that if you want.
5-"In the ending card of the good ending, it showed them enjoying their sleepover and one thing that is an insta-eye-catch is Rose painting John's nails. People had some reactions to that scene, the most common is obvious June, and how this shows more sings about John being trans and etc... Well... yes, it's maybe the intention, but I saw another thing, that scene resigned with me quite deeply actually, and while what I am saying may sound stupid(and likely is it), but is good to put it out: John and his chad Dad always stuck with me as example of Non-Toxic Masculinity, kinda similar to Steven and his Dad, or even Flint and Lucas for Mother 3. I didn't exactly have a very "good" father figure growing up, and it got worse over time. Good Father figures in media always struck positively in me, likely because it filled some sort of gap in my mind. Every time I see a father enjoying time with his son... it always gives me a good and warm feeling. And with John's dad wasn't different, but most of all, I also resigned with John, in similar ways to the way I resign with Steven and Lucas. Seeing those sweet boys and his Dad always gave me comfort in some way, especially when I saw them enjoying things that aren't exactly stereotyped as "masculine", like wearing pink, being kind and gentle with people, expressing their emotions, via crying for example(which is actually a thing that leads many men to suicide, since they are pressured/stereotyped to hold on their emotions). I... was always a person that didn't care much about what others thought about me growing up(it don't mean that it didn't hurt), I always liked to do what I want, even if made people make fun of me, especially relating to more "stereotypical female things", like having long hair, walking via hopping around there, even my body manners were multiple time referred as "feminine". Even to this day I still act that way, for instance, I would love to try painting my nails someday or doing a manicure, but now that I am older... well, is kinda harder to ignore what people think about you, especially if you live in an old dusty town like mine. This is the reason why seeing those boys doing those "not mainly things" makes me so happy, it gives me hope that someday I will have the guts to try out(or at least leave this city), but also I think that it gives a positive message to more people out there. This is why John having his nails painted made me so smiley. This whole thing is actually one of the reasons why I really don't like June Egbert and the possibility that she will be Alpha John, but again, this is a personal reason, so I won't dive in too much."
Jeez, that review was bigger than I expected. But hey, it's here, hopes that you enjoy and have a fantastic night my fellow Homestuckers. Here's the routes score:
John: 7,2/10
Rose: 8,8/10
Dave: 7,1/10
Jade: 9,7/10
Bye <3
P.S: Wait, stopping to think about it, how the kids will get out the island? GODDAMMIT READER!
P.P.S: #GRIMDORKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Submitted October 05, 2019 at 05:39AM by Poketv2 https://ift.tt/2AHh46I
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