HSE: Ectobiology

[@sussy3778]

"Dad, where do babies come from?" "From Meteors, my daughter"

[@kitkatmuffin]

I’m telling my child this

[@sussy3778]

Best mom

[@kitkatmuffin]

ValdemarCristino Fontenele Andrade :D

[@TORchic1]

Wasn't there a Paradox Space comic with this exact premise?

[@sussy3778]

Yes

[@franicman_6829]

How to legally have babies at the age of 13 by Optimistic Duelist

[@cicadakeep6749]

@@Errenium explain pls

[@cicadakeep6749]

@@Errenium I know, so pls explain. Why is cloning illeagal.

[@cicadakeep6749]

@@Errenium I was just curious about the specifics. But I won't pin you to a cross for it.

[@revarevarevar]

At first, I thought I knew everything about ectobiology, but it turns out I didn't! I completely forgot that the alpha kids were created from themselves and that John and Jade (and also Rose and Dave) are technically twins! Fantastic video as always :D

[@jeftar3po372]

Yeah go for it. Talking about the relationships in Homestuck.There's 4 quadrants to explain instead of one. It's a romantic system I found interesting. If I only knew what the 9 types of romance were for the Leprechauns. I think that was a joke.

[@l_spagal7649]

Someone actually did an entire theory on it - www.reddit.com/r/homestuck/comments/2nlz70/leprechaun_culture_and_romance_theory_you_asked/

[@withercat]

that was a super fascinating read thank you for sharing

[@jeftar3po372]

L_Strongo Gaming That's amazing, but damn is it confusing for a human.

[@whimsicaldeviant7799]

L_Strongo Gaming that was actually really cool, to bad it isnt tied to cannon

[@CrystalFoxxx]

Of course that was a joke. The quadrants were too, at least in the beginning of act 5.

[@wakrayaHS]

THESE ZOOMS. TAZ, YOUR HOPE IS SHOWING.

[@aroma_tic]

this is a beautiful joke. everyone comment/like this to get it to the top

[@FiSH-iSH]

y e s

[@The_Zap_Bug]

I would LOVE if you did a thing on the romantic relations in Homestuck! It sounds cool!

[@gamzee3610]

Ooh yees I agree

[@pastaguy7053]

8:30 So what you’re saying is you’re gonna do a deep thematic study of ships...I am okay with this.

[@abbylyngar8422]

I would love exploring the relationships in homestuck and why they matter because they do matter and so many people argue against that or against specific relationships

[@KingOpenReview]

OD: So for the official last episode of Homestuck explained... Me: *Heart stops.* OD: Season one... Me: *Heart beats.*

[@MrMortull]

Would it be nitpicky of me to offer what I consider a small correction? Genetic and Biological relations aren't *exactly* the same thing... going to the example you made of the job John did with 'clone-mixing' (breeding) from the kids' Guardians, Nanna and Grandpa are John and Jade's *genetic* parents making the younger pair fraternal twins in the genetic sense, but none of them are *biologically* related in the same way that you or I are to our own siblings, parents, cousins etc. It's the same with clones sent through the Scratch to their own independent timeline really; they're GENETICALLY identical to their progenitor (identical twins in a sense) but because they have their own causality to live in they don't turn into the same people. So going back to it, Jane ISN'T Nanna exactly, but a regular old clone like we could theoretically produce in real life. As soon as she crossed the threshold of the Skaia Defense Portals and into the Alpha-Earth session she became her own person, causally distinct from Nanna Egbert. Now that doesn't mean that the 'families' of the kids from either session, or the Trolls for that matter, don't have a biological component; Dad Crocker is Poppop's *biological* son for instance. The same goes for Dad Egbert being Nanna's, and Karkat being the "biological descendant" of the Sufferer, who is a non-paradoxical clone of Kankri thanks to the A1 Trolls' own Scratch. It's a fine distinction and perhaps irrelevant, but the distinction IS there. :)

[@nicolassagrillo1442]

I think there is a theory somewhere that Dad is adopted by both Nanna and Poppop

[@nicolassagrillo1442]

Also kankri(and thus the sufferer) are both clones of karkat

[@MrMortull]

Dad Egbert/Crocker is an odd one to be sure, but I think it's worth noting that only the guardians are capable of being as powerful as they are (among non-player humans). My theory to reconcile that is that by some fluke, the same broad chunks of the "Harleybert genome" got pasted directly into both Jane and John without modification, meaning that Dad can still be their biological son in both sessions. It's the thing all the adult Guardians have in common, and nobody else does... correlation doesn't equal causation but still... As for Signless/Sufferer, I have to flat-out disagree. It's implied pretty much outright that Karkat bumbled through the exact same process as John did with broadly the same results. Besides, if Kankri and Si were both perfect clones of Karkat (which they'd have to be), then there'd be THREE of Karkat at once in the same effective causality. That's a HARD Paradox of the kind that simply cannot be allowed in Homestuck's cosmic logic.

[@nicolassagrillo1442]

@@MrMortull dad and the other guardians being that powerful is mostly a reference to how the world operates by game logic, with the players levelling up and such, and also a physical signifier of their age(they got lots exp(erience)! Also re:karkat, i meant to say that the a2 players(including karkat) are the first generation he creates, while the dancestors(kankri/sufferer) are the results of the combined material

[@MrMortull]

Fair enough on the face of it, but in a logical sense the Guardians stop being significant if *every* adult human can potentially be that powerful. Soldiers, police officers and even pro wrestlers would presumably put even Highblood Trolls to shame, and that's a thing that we know just isn't the case. Humans are wimps compared to Trolls, pound for pound, but I wouldn't know who to bet on in a fight between Mom Lalonde (Beta) and The Disciple. And you're right about the Trolls' Ectobiology thing. I forgot the fact that their 'generations' were reversed (which probably gives us the A-1/A-2 B-1/B-2 switcheroo). Gonna have to revise my opinion then and say that none of the Trolls are biologically related either! I guess they're all just reverse-ancestors... oh wait, "Dancestor" is a word that already exists. > .> It would, however, make sense from the perspective of Beforus since someone (presumably Kankri?) must have paradox-cloned all THEIR ancestors and did the breeding thing in the 'correct order' before Scratching. Maybe Karkat was just closing the causal loop to make sure that what had already happened was going to/have already past-happened? Then again, the timelines of separate universes are independent of each other so it wouldn't really matter where the grubs came from so long as they existed.

[@otagen]

I am SO interesting in learning more about what the relationships in homestuck have to say wrt to the story and what it has to say!!! And excited to hear it from you, because you explain them so clearly and simply even to a long-time fan of homestuck who doesn't have the words to describe it myself!!!

[@ratthew8287]

i never really thought if ectiobiology as anything other than a plot point and explanation of family dynamics. it actually does have cool heartwarming implications like you said and holy hell it's so cool.

[@Type3Diabeto]

I would greatly enjoy to see you talk about the relationships and LGBT aspects of Homestuck. I think it's one of the strongest sources of modern fiction that does justice to such characters, as an extension of the character rather than trying to gain progressive points. One example of this is how it's not afraid to show both healthy and toxic relationships. I'm sure you could do the topic much more justice so i strongly encourage you to tackle it when you can.

[@mfriz5317]

i was so excited to see you uploaded a video and clicked a little to quickly >o

[@mfriz5317]

also a series about the romantic relationships would be wonderful

[@mfriz5317]

omg ye noodle >0< not just me!

[@jadethenidoran]

I would definitely be interested in seeing the exploration of the romantic arcs and such.

[@planetmars924]

I was having a really rough day but this video really makes me happy. Keep it up with the great work, OD!

[@milifilou]

I would love more analysis on the relationships in home-stuck, espec with all the complexity involved in timeline stuff. What I kinda missed was a recoup on the trolls, or what we saw on troll ectobiology

[@robotbirdcat4867]

Every time we see a video it's like another book I can slot into my library of Homestuck lore, it makes me feel fulfilled in a way!!

[@woobzie1878]

That romantic video would be so cool! I would like to hear your views on what makes a healthy kismesitude and moiralligence

[@mimipeahes5848]

These videos are so amazing. Thank you for your hard work.

[@heliosskyler6306]

I would absoutlely love seeing a video on the romance in Homestuck! There isn't nearly enough anaylis of it out there as most people just say I ship this and that's that and they don't actually look in the meanings and implications and all that of this kind of stuff when really it's all really intresing to think about and look into! Especaily the not so healthy relatioships.

[@aitamopoldaccount1497]

OH MY GOD THE TINY CARAPACE BABIES LOOK ADORABLE

[@derpycrow5671]

Yaaaaass! New episode! You're honestly the main thing keeping me tethered in the Homestuck fandom. Your content is so good!

[@gamefan2455]

Amazing video you explained this all so nicely and I love that when the music changes you put the name of the song being used, truly outstanding!

[@LoonyLoofah]

Awesome! always get so excited when i see a new video out :)

[@nerdorama009]

1:47 HI JOHN! So, putting aside all the zooming that's going on here, here are some helpful terms from speculative fiction nerdery here: "Perfect" paradox clones are an example of a Bootstrap Paradox - something that, essentially, creates itself without having any external origin. They are an ontological paradox, but they're consistent with the rest of Homestuck, where an effect can in general be its own cause. "Breeding" results in a magic-sci-fi equivalent of an actual thing called "Recombinant DNA cloning", which is basically mashing two genetic sequences together on a molecular level to turn two sets of DNA into one clone. It's very similar to sexual reproduction in result, but the mechanics are entirely different. And of course, there's nothing stopping you from combining more than two sequences, as we see with Doc Scratch. Homestuck simply takes the principles of DNA and applies them to *concepts*, because it treats those things as interchangeable. You ever notice that Aspects work like base pairs in DNA? And oh my god thank you so much for this video. I've been talking on reddit all weekend about how there's a fucking theme here that biological reproductive mandates are explicitly subverted and even called out as a villainous thing in Homestuck (mostly to explain my view on RoxyCallie as being as subversive to Cherub "biological imperatives" as the same-sex and xenophilic relationships are to human and troll ones and therefore part of the same theme) but I would *greatly* appreciate that series on Homestuck's LGBTness from the perspective of someone both more intellectually and personally prepared to explain it such as yourself. I can talk about how Homestuck is the gayest thing I've ever read all I want, but you would certainly be able to explain what I mean by that better than I could.

[@tudoraragornofgreyscot8482]

nerdorama009 Ectobology renders sex and heterosexuals MUDA.

[@tudoraragornofgreyscot8482]

nerdorama009 Ectobology renders sex and heterosexuals MUDA.

[@beblazeblue93]

It would be cool to see some insight on the relationship dynamics- I mean, I learned a lot from watching how the protags succeed and deal with issues in theirs (especially Dirk/Jake) but I tend to learn a lot from watching these! This was cool~

[@pyrinepygween]

g e n e t i c d a t a 🌚🌝

[@penguinpinata]

I didn't even about why they would have included ectobiology ! This is awesome :D Thank you for looking into this

[@Dragon555]

You’re a smart guy Mr Optimistic Duelist!

[@uncreativename3440]

Honestly ectobiology has always been one of the most confusing parts of homestuck for me- I'm just not very good with understanding the often cluttered explanations of it's mechanics in the game itself. Thanks for making this so much easier to understand!

[@linky0064]

Would I love if you made a video explaining how Homestuck was even gayer than I thought? Uh, yes, absolutely yes, always yes, please yes.

[@matthewramos9220]

I love every video that you make

[@Cri_Jackal]

I'd like to point out that the big hulking Lord English that gets unleashed from within Doc Scratch absolutely falls under the category of "mutant" ecto clones. From what little we know about adult cherubs, they seem to have pretty standard body types, human shaped and such, the huge musclular mass of the cloned Lord English is seemingly a mutation that deviates from that, which is also implied to be a trait that comes from Equius. Also worth noting that before the Homestuck Credits, it was established that the true Lord English had eyes that simply flashed different colors, as seen with Lord Jack. The reason why the clone Lord English has pool ball eyes is because he's derived from Doc Scratch, who contained the genetic "idea" of a pool ball set due to being made from a cue ball. The credits decanonized this idea by showing Caliborn with pool ball eyes, which honestly just seems like it was a oversight on the part of whoever did the art for the credits, but since it's directly shown within Homestuck proper we hace to accept it as the actual canon, despite what it subtracts from Lord English's visual design.

[@sofivear]

Brilliant as always

[@karkatvantas9557]

Yes absolutely do videos about the relationships in the story that would be awesome.

[@oreganothankyou]

I swear hussie can straight up see the future

[@Morrigan_Spade]

Id love to see some videos on that stuff about family you talked about

[@Pablo360able]

I'd love a dive into the romance of Homestuck! Romance interests me on a theoretical level.

[@WilltheHedgehog02]

Hey dude, go for it. I would very much be good with you discussing romantic relationships and what they mean in the grand scheme of things. EDIT: I *HOPE* you're glad that I can't stop laughing at the way you say "genetic data" and the zooming of crotches. Oh god, the zooming.

[@asocksual4910]

I would absolutely love some homestuck relationship vids, I need that good good calliroxy analysis!

[@ethanolds8861]

I think looking at the many romantic relationships and what they contribute to the story would be absolutely amazing! ^ ^

[@griphusgriphus5530]

Just when I started to wonder what happened to the "Homestuck Explained" series.

[@SingeingFeathers]

I love homestuck and I love you

[@chemistweeb]

your videos are great and i love them all. id be very excited and glad to if you do make that video :33

[@papercutsunset]

I was just thinking about the topic of Ectobiology!

[@liamsanderson7099]

Thank u for this, ectobiology’s always been a lil confusing. And chyea I’d love a vid on the romantic arcs in Homestuck pls, I think it’d be rly interesting :)

[@NeP516]

[Ecto babies in the thumbnail] :DDD [Not baby Dave in the thumbnail] DDD:

[@abbie_joan]

Please explore relationships in homestuck i love all the types of relationships presented in this webcomic and how they affect the comic as a whole

[@pahbody5336]

I love your methodology and your perspective I feel like you letting us now that you are gay is a gateway to more mature and creative content from you, and boi do i want stuff out of your brain, yes iiiiii do you're lovely and you make me wanna give patreon a shot

[@dakblood7543]

Do it! Join the cool kids club ;)

[@jolynecujoh7863]

It would be nice to see a video on the romantic relationships in Homestuck, I'm not entirely sure I fully understand the concept of Quadrants yet. I'm excited~

[@ashstyles756]

i really want to see this extra analysis of stuff. it sounds interesting!

[@kitkatliz1495]

*le gasp* I would be so very interested in a video focused on the main romantic themes! yes please!!

[@ravendreaming3966]

That sounds AWESOME!

[@sadhbhauldwyn3798]

aye, yo, OD. Would you still be interested in a podcast type deal for theorizing, classpecting, shipping, or analyzing HS and HiveSwap?

[@kaueh.sobral6222]

Perfectly Generic Podcast is already a thing that exists.

[@theblackoutexplorer2658]

I kinda wanna link to that article we as humans are getting freaking fancy with the Science wonder what else we’ll be able to do

[@michelleslay2701]

I’d be REALLY interested in the romantic arc discussion!

[@genoskool3520]

notification squad where you at

[@nightcollapse]

Here

[@genoskool3520]

excellent we grow in greater numbers each day

[@royalcomputer3780]

Kek. Hello

[@bingcrosbygaming616]

Here

[@xXFeralPyr0pteraXx]

Bit late but here!

[@carissawood1854]

I would LOVE to hear about relationship dynamics in hs

[@MadamMelonMeow]

A personal relationship/ romance centric series of videos, with your great mind behind it? Sign me up!

[@geogeo3644]

Thank you

[@mikailnascimento3380]

OH boy, oh boy, oh boy, i am about to start the video. And holy World of Ideas, i never throught that was going to have one only about Ecto(breath)boi's chumhandle. Even i loving the mysteries of the smile from the Paradox Space, ectobiology is pretty... strange? even more than the normal? () ? ()

[@jokuma5798]

"homestuck poeple" somewhere on this planet... Especially when you live in countries who wasn't "invaded" by the "homestuck wave"... KONK YEAH! i would love so damn much if you would do a video about the romantic relationship in homestuck! ^^

[@withercat]

oh thank god ectobiology has always been the biggest confusing aspect of homestuck to me

[@Dysteleologist]

I f i n a l l y u n d e r s t a n d.

[@MamaTrixxieAsmr]

G E N E T I C D A T A *Zooms in on crotch* 😂

[@jessamynroguski9649]

Cant wait for the LGBT episode Good work as always ^-^

[@jt0n]

i still dont know, is ectobiology required in a sburb session? since john created all the kids and parents from the existing kids and parents, what if he hadnt done that? would everyone disappear??

[@pogus5998]

finally quality content :DD

[@Moonsong227]

If ectobiology pulls more from the idea of the target, then that means the kids have in a way a divine genesis, summoning the idea of themselves into existence. And even worse in that they're technically like the crowbar and the suckers and lil cal. Its even neater when considered in the context of how Jaspersprite describes a beam of light, a drop of rain, a strain of song, and gcat letters: as well as how the genesis frog is a pantheistic god of sorts that is formed the same way as the god tiering players, and for whom breeding the right genetics is described as smoothing out the waveform of its song. Iluvatar was right, how poetic!

[@kronus1882]

Dang Ectobiology was always interesting especially now that I know the aspects play a part on that it. With the part of romantic relationships, I think it does the part of death and society. Once you think about it kids are your last footnote in the life something you helped which always reflects upon you. Society and its whole, by both time and location, has always pressured the idea of romance and marriage of a man and women, so it been ingrained in humans minds for centuries and ages. Guess maybe aspects might play a part in society as well.

[@thatmanjames1647]

oh man I’d be down for some HS relationship vids

[@cloverwoods6387]

Yes sounds like an amazing idea

[@sophiaerinnmape1678]

Yeah you should definitely do some about the romantic arcs in HS. To me it's actually one of the most interesting things that kept me glued to this. I'm a sucker for good relationship dynamics, whether it's bad or good

[@Laydralae_Joy]

I would be very interested in hearing your piece on Rainbow relations in Homestuck please.

[@Searonix]

I'd be very interested in your series for the lgbtqa+ things in homestuck! :O

[@XDyaoifangirl]

Romantic arcs please!!!

[@chaoticnyoom4591]

Sometimes I feel marginalized because I am hetro in a mostly lgbt+ community as a fan of this huge story. It's very upsetting、 and when I speak out about it I get a huge backlash. I don't know why. I know I'm a bi girl who dates men、 and people always seem to dismiss my concerns. And when ships I enjoy getting shot down because I feel insanely hurt. This comic is my childhood too! Why do I have to keep quiet just because I like straight ships? Or ship gay characters with straight ones? Do what you want! It's very interesting. Ectobiology has always been a topic that has muddled me up、 but your video explained it well enough for a normie like me!

[@codenamejinza]

So cool! And an excellent lesson on how love will always find a way :) You mentioned something about thematics, showing Session leaders John and Karkat doing the Ectobiology-ing. Does this mean there's a difference between a Breath Player doing the cloning and a Blood Player?

[@deltaphant_]

I finished homestuck just today!

[@gamzee3610]

Yes YES YEES YIS I'd hEcking love you talk about romantic relations in HOmestuck. (I Ain't heir of hearts for nothing lmao)

[@red-rax]

Huh. Well that clears things up. I always thought that Jane + Jake and dirk + Roxy were siblings like John + Jade and Dave + rose

[@supagummylord6541]

Yo could you answer me why the space player is always assisted by a knight?

[@taddad2641]

The weirdest thing is that the trolls reproduction seems to function much like ectobiology. Cept it is less a machine and more a strange queen bug thing. god i wish the epilogue answers os many question. cause lets face it, the story is nto actually over until we nkow the fate of the main characters.

[@tman3778]

Dude I would love to see what you would have to say on the relationships of Homestuck.

[@cathieupchurch4166]

Do what you want, I don't think anyone would be mad. I am curious if you're going to do a video on the 7 gates, I find them a little confusing. I know they represent the chakras, but don't know much else. Like where there located (some sources only three are above the house, while others say all of them are), where do each led, ECT.

[@seraphinasullivan4849]

If you do a video on relationships and their thematic significance, could you also include attractions and the mutual crushes that didn't go anywhere? I dunno, the parts of the story that don't happen are just as interesting to me as the parts that do, but they always get swept under the rug and deemed insignificant

[@QueenEevee]

Heck yea to the vid about romance in homestuck

[@ramager]

But why is the intro music so quiet???

[@JohnVance]

Goddamn I love your channel.

[@MK.5198]

doesn't Roxy use ectobiology equipment to make the mutated clone kittens that fill the skaianet lab she lives near? that would count as deliberate use of mutation ectobiology to me.

[@MK.5198]

Yeah, she does. it's on her introduction page.

[@demondeity9816]

I know that this video isn't really about this but, were the kids and parents from the alpha session created from some character cloning everyone off screen or were they the result of John's cloning during descent ,the result being changed by the scratch?

[@demondeity9816]

The relationship series sounds interesting btw

[@gonfftheprince]

The alphas were all cloned by John

[@griphusgriphus5530]

The answer ti that is not in ectobiology itself, it's a result if the Scratch. When you scratch a session, the only thing Skaia does is to change the time and destination of the defense portals the babies enter. This result in Schrodinger portals that duplicate all babies, one of each for both universes. Hope it helped.

[@demondeity9816]

It did thank you

[@dianadarling3337]

I would be particularly interested in that 🌹

[@TroublingZeal]

I would *hella* be interested in an LGBTQ+ analysis of Homestuck

[@frostflaggermus]

heheheh i actually already knew most of this probably because i actually paid attention to it while reading. strange family trees fascinate me.

[@PartiallyCubed]

Romantic - Yes

[@evanredacted7977]

Not sure what to think about that last part. While I do agree lgbt and romance is an important part of homestuck, it has more to do with character relationships, not necessarily the overall creation myth.

[@cosmoem6393]

John Egbert troll, wait he’s got candy red blood so.. does that mean-

[@ashiekermit7425]

okay since at the end they just decided to copy paste their genetic material with each other to create various trolls and humans, what if the trolls and humans start feeling ashen/flushed feelings for each other?? wouldn’t it be messed up if, for example, this troll and that human both had daves genetic material but they had feelings for one another?? or are they all just platonic friends or some shit??

[@ColonelSnivy]

is it just more or did the intro seem a bit quiet