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I don't see how it would be lazy writing if it becomes necessary and someone is capable of doing so. In that case you could argue that Roxy appearifying a new Matriorb is lazy writing too. Or Jade saving the planets from the Beta session. Or John retconning the timeline.
I’m no English major so this isn’t a perfect analysis but,
It would be lazy because there’s been no build up to it. Creating a new Matriorb has been a thing for years and Roxy was forced into the role of attempting to create it by the Condesce, and then chose to continue to try to make it of her own free will. Jade saving the planets was also an established plot point before hand as Echidna’s request was for Jade to do so. John’s retcon was kind of lazy writing but due to Homestuck being a webcomic Hussie was able to pull that off in part to the nature of the story. This of course is only my opinion and you are free to yours but I just don’t think it would be strong for the story if Roxy just up and made the trolls’ slabs.
I’m an English major! Let me contribute.
Roxy didn’t appearify a new Matriorb just like that. (Actually, she didn’t appearify a Matriorb at all - appearifying is something completely different.) Not only has it been a thing for years (AKA heavily foreshadowed), and something many different characters have been working towards for their own reasons, but Roxy had to go through a lot to get the ability and earn the right to make a Matriorb.
Look at it this way: Do you think post-retcon Roxy could have created a Matriorb? Of course there’s no way to know for certain, as she never tried, but probably not. Pre-retcon Roxy has been through some different stuff. First and foremost, she talked to John in her cell, where he gave her this invaluable advice:
JOHN: i’ve noticed whenever i learn to do new things with my powers, it’s usually in response to something. like something important that has to be done. JOHN: so why are you trying to make this spike ball? JOHN: and how important does it feel to you? Source
This advice had to be helpful to Roxy in her quest to master her powers and create the Matiorb. Shortly after she got it, we see her create a partial Matriorb, learn to become invisible and intangible, and figure out how to teleport. She also goes to see her denizen, which is something players aren’t allowed to do until they’re ready. They have to reach a certain point in their quests and personal development before they’re allowed to see their denizen. Remember that doomed John who went too soon? Take into account the way Rose hasn’t seen her denizen yet, and she is still in very strong denial about the legitimacy of her quest.
Beyond simple power mastering, it’s been pointed out by bladekindeyewear that a major theme of Homestuck is sacrifice. This is most easily identifiable in god tier ascensions, where you have to die before you can ascend, but it shows up in other places too. Consider the following:
ROXY: she said ROXY: keep in mind i am paraphrasing ROXY: if paraphrasing is even a thing you can do with stuff said in unfathomable monster jargon ROXY: that either i could stay behind and vanish into nothingness forever, and everyone in the new reality would inherit all the bigtime responsibilities, including a version of myself who had no memory of any of this and never experienced all the loss and sadness i just went through ROXY: or ROXY: i could go with you ROXY: but in doing so, everyone i loved would know that loss instead ROXY: w/e that means…… JOHN: yeah! JOHN: typheus gave me almost the exact same sort of choice JOHN: something about other people feeling the loss i felt, if i accepted his challenge. JOHN: which i’m sure is probably… not good? JOHN: but, i mean, what else was i going to do? JOHN: i couldn’t just let things stay the way they were. Source
It’s pretty obvious in this dialogue that John and Roxy each had to make a sacrifice in order to survive. Roxy’s sacrifice was the inevitable death of post-retcon Roxy, because there can’t be more than one of the same person in the alpha timeline, unless one is doomed. It’s not really explored within the comic, but that Roxy was a real Roxy just as much as Davesprite is a real Dave. Someone had to die in order to ensure this Roxy’s survival. Somewhere in the dreambubbles there’s a dead Roxy who may not know what she died for. And beyond that, her friends and family had to watch her die. Jane had to accidentally kill her and then be unable to help her despite being a Maid of Life. Rose (who probably did not see this coming with her Seer of Light powers, given that Roxy would be replaced in a few hours) and Dave had to watch their mother die in front of them. Jake probably saw it too. They had no way of knowing that she would be coming back, and even though she did come back, they still had to watch her die. That’s a traumatic event that will stay with them their entire lives, which may be very long, considering.
Just to reiterate: The price for pre-retcon Roxy’s survival was post-retcon Roxy’s life and the happiness of her friends.
Notice how they’re related: Roxy’s life for, well, Roxy’s life.
Now let’s talk about the sacrifice that was required to get the Matiorb. On the surface, it doesn’t look like there was all that much. Roxy just had to learn how to make it. But there actually was a lot of sacrifice that went into it. It’s no coincidence that Roxy lost Fefetasprite, who could have (and perhaps did) stand as a symbol of what she was working towards with the Matriorb. It’s not a coincidence that Roxy grew up without her mom (who she wanted to meet more than anything), was thwarted by Gamzee in her first attempt to bring her back, had to watch the Condesce kill Rose in front of her, and then had to sit through the only drawn out death scene in all of Homestuck. She’s going to lose Rose again, too, when she’s sucked into the Juju with the other Beta Kids. Rose has always been intrinsically linked with the Matriorb, through her connection with Kanaya, mostly. Alpha Rose’s opposition to the Condesce’s attempts to recreate the troll race could be referenced here. Rose also has ties to the idea of motherhood, which is a very Matriorb sort of quality. Even Calliope, who was very interested in trolls and allowed Roxy to believe she was a troll for many years, could be counted as a sacrifice here. And at the end of it, Roxy was pretty broken.
ROXY: and ive got to say john ROXY: this is starting to feel an awful lot like the end JOHN: the end? ROXY: yeah ROXY: whatever the end of the road feels like ROXY: has gotta feel like this ROXY: maybe we should just ROXY: admit to ourselves this is probably what its like when you find yourself in a timeline where everything went wrong ROXY: and you know it means youre doomed ROXY: and the only thing left to do is face the fact you have to ride it out into nothingness ROXY: stop worryin so much ROXY: and try to let it go JOHN: you mean, like. JOHN: … JOHN: what do you mean? ROXY: i mean ROXY: accept that we lost ROXY: admit that the people we wanted to be with ROXY: the life we always wanted ROXY: it was never gonna happen ROXY: except maybe in the afterlife ROXY: our friends are there ROXY: callies there ROXY: my mom is there ROXY: why shouldnt we be there too ROXY: why not just ROXY: let the doomed timeline work its gloomy majyyks ROXY: and slip away into nothing with the rest of this mess Source
ROXY: sometimes john ROXY: u just gotta throw a sad funeral for ur dead teen mom and then stop existing ROXY: LE SHRUG Source
This is the voice of someone who has given up. This is the voice of someone who is broken and so very, very done. This is the voice of someone who wants to “curl up into a ball and wait to unexist”. This is the voice of sacrifice, and a hell of a lot of it.
But the Matriorb is bigger than one person’s life and happiness. We’re not talking one life, or several lives. We’re talking an entire species. The future of the troll race depends on the existence of the Matriorb. The real sacrifice that matches the creation of a Matriorb is the sacrifice of the entire human race at the hands of the Concesce. An entire species died out so that another one could continue. Roxy and Dirk had to grow up alone, with no human contact. The Alpha Guardians had to watch their planet being conquered and destroyed, and must have known they couldn’t stop it. Jake knew it was coming and that he couldn’t stop it too.
Just a quick recap:
The price for pre-retcon Roxy’s survival was post-retcon Roxy’s life and the happiness of her friends.
The price for the Matriorb the continuation of the troll race was the human race and the happiness of a bunch of different people.
There seems to be a pattern here. The price you pay for something is what you get out of it, plus a little more.
Any guesses as to what the price of conditional immortality, plus a little more, is? I can’t think of anything, myself, and Roxy doesn’t seem to have made any other big sacrifices that might cover that. If she does do something to result in quest crypts for the remaining trolls, either it will backfire spectacularly or she will have to sacrifice something else in order to have the right to do that.
(How do I know all this sacrifice stuff is true? It has to be. If Roxy didn’t have to sacrifice stuff in order to make things, she and John could end the story right now. Roxy would just have to steal the nothingness away from the concept of a weapon that defeats Lord English really easily with one hit and no effort or danger on her part, and John would just have to take her to Lord English so she could use it. Hell, she might be able to get there herself. And that would be really boring.)
Creating the Matriorb isn’t lazy writing because not only is it heavily foreshadowed, but it had to happen, or all that sacrifice would have been useless. There’s no sacrifice or foreshadowing for Roxy to create quest crypts, or at least none that I can think of.
Wow, all that for my first point? Moving on.
I don’t really see how anyone could mistake Jade saving the planets as lazy writing. Echidna requested it, and as soon as we the readers heard that, we knew Jade was going to accomplish it somehow. And it was foreshadowed too. In fact, that development has been foreshadowed since Act Two:
See that little screen with the Inciphispere on it? That obviously refers to the session the kids are about to enter, a four-person session. But there are eight planets. I’m feeling a strong urge to start being very salty, but I’m going to fight it.
Did Jade sacrifice something for the ability to save the planets? No, but It’s a bit different here. See, Jade needed this for her personal character development. Her whole life, she’d known what was coming and orchestrated things to come out the way she wanted them to with Weird Time Shit. Then, her dreamself died and she was suddenly the only kid who wasn’t in the Medium, she felt way behind everyone else, and all sorts of emotional bullshit started hitting her from left and right. Imagine thinking your grandfather and only caretaker committed suicide your whole life, and unable to imagine why, and then learning that you pulled the trigger on the gun that ended his life. Imagine, a few hours after this revelation, accidentally pulling the trigger on the gun that ended your friend’s life. Not fun. Imagine having one job - one job - in a game, to breed a damn frog, and not being able to do it. Plus, you’re now friends with the people who have been bullying you and telling you how you ruin everything your whole life? Oh yeah, not to mention meeting a version of yourself who disgusts you.
Jade needed to do something spectacular so that she could realize that she was not useless, as she must have felt, what with that sudden lack of guidance from Skaia and accidentally murdering two people who were really close to her.
Now, on to the sacrifice. For one thing, the ability to move the planets was the sacrifice for something else. Echidna’s deal was that if she told Jade where to find the last frog she needed, then Jade had to take the entire session with her when she left. Plus, being able to make things bigger and smaller is a normal Witch of Space god tier power. So the real sacrifice that enabled her to do that was the regular god tier sacrifice.
What we should ask instead is “What did Jade sacrifice to earn the right to leave the session?”
-Her grandfather. He was the one who provided Jade with the fourth wall she used to leave.
-His happiness. While he was wandering around the session he found a lot of shit, including Jade’s dead body. Imagine caring for and raising someone knowing that they’re going to die by having thousands of tons of moon fall on them.
Plus!
-Jake lost his grandmother, who did something similar to Grandpa to enable Jade and John to come through at the other end.
Last, but not least, notice how the solution (Jade taking the planets and the battlefield) was presented before the problem (the Alpha Kids’ lack of a prototyped battlefield, Time player, or Space player). This can’t possibly be lazy writing, because lazy writing slaps a poorly made patch over an issue that was already there. This was obviously planned out from the very beginning (see that picture from Act Two).
The timeline retcon wasn’t lazy writing. It was poorly executed, and what with the way doomed timelines work, I’m pretty sure there were better solutions, but it wasn’t lazy. There wasn’t very much foreshadowing for it - it was all very abrupt. There ought to have been more. And the reasoning for it seems to depend primarily on character growth. (Vriska) has grown more than Vriska, and they’re pretty good foils for each other. Same with dead Tavros and Tavrosprite. If Homestuck was a character-driven story, that would be good. As it is, it’s not exactly unnecessary, but Hussie went too far out of his way to accomplish it. The only way it can be fully justified in my eyes is if it has some defining effect on Meenah’s character development, but that’s a really long shot.
Okay this is a lot of words I’m'a shut up now. Hope y'all learned something.
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