original post (tumblr): https://tt-squid.tumblr.com/post/707961048113758208/a-summary
OKAY SO. this is going to be partly a discussion of the cannon facts, and my own made up interpretation of the various forms of cannon, and how the squiddles acts as a narative foil/mirror for jade harley
also… its 12:25 am rn as of me starting to type this up? so idk how coherernt this is going to be…? BUT. in terms of ‘cannon’ squiddle lore, theres three main sources:
- the comic propper (specifically the flash where jade dreams post the death of her dreamself, pre the creation of the dreambubbles)
- the fan-created-but-lets-be-real-its-cannon squiddles album
- jades pesterquest route
homestuck propper
in the comic, the squiddles are a subconsious reimagining of the horrerterrors blah blah badly reviewed tv show that ran from 2000-2004 blah blah you get the point, youve all read homestuck. the horrorterrors are the fabeled blackdeath trance of the woegothics to the squiddles tangle-buddies and candycorn-shrimp
theres skipper plumbthroat and his crew, the squiddles, various other unknown creatures including the rainbow horned narwals (that are possibly this universes equivalent of maplehoof? but thats a theory i need to workshop a lot more but lol)
hussie also states at somepoint (idk when or where exactly, it may have been in the commentary section) that squiddles are a 'cute, approachable fachade’ that the horror terrors present themselves as
music
in the squiddles album and the additional pieces that go with it expand on the squiddles by giving names to some of the squiddles (princess berryboo), and setting up some sort of synopsis? im not exactly sure what it was doing its just a great album if your into the squiddles lol
ADDITIONALLY TO THIS: mobius trip and hadron kaleido, which is a great album btw, and presented as songs that could have been played in the homestuck universe (paraphrasing here, i cant find the exact quote:) 'in order to prepare the kids for sburb’. the main song in the album that relates to the squiddles is 'lies with the sea’
this on its own isnt exactly related to the squiddles in anyway? but im stretching those straws together to make a basket and in that basket its a piece of paper saying that if the horrorterrors project themselves as cute little easily marketable characters, and mobius trip and hadron kaleido is setting up the kids (subconsiously) for sburb, then it works
ALSO IN THE SQUIDDLES ALBUM, and accessible from the unofficial archive, is squiddlevid.swf
its basically an intro for the squiddles show, but seeing as it dosent have any names, nor a specific squiddle, inkabelle, described in jades pesterquest route whos the main focus of this essay, its null and void
still a important piece in the squiddles cannon! but its just not relevant to this tangent im currently on
i lost where i was going with this.
okay try again. 'lies with the sea’ in this long rambled theory relates to the next point (perfect seguae :]) in which we talk about two specific squiddles mentioned in jades pesterquest route
pesterquest
the most interesting thing about jades pesterquest route (for me anyway) is when shes talking about the 'silly cartoon show rose dosent like’
(this is from a transcript i found of the game cause i dont have the energy atm to grab a screensht from somehwere)
so jade 'lonliest girl in the world’ harleys favourite squiddle is the one that gets lost in the dark scary place at the bottom of the ocean all alone with no friends or sense of where she is
HRMMMMMMM… making any connections yet?
well gee sounds like someones missing their friends a whole bunch, and is relating to a squiddle from her favourite cartoon show
through this its very easy to draw the paralell between jade and inkabelle, with podlight being whoever is placed as jades 'savior’ (who this is depends on what part of jades story were choosing this to link to)
discussion: the podlight dilema
so.
jade is inkabelle, but who is podlight?
whilst its never speficically mentioned, its presumed at least (?) that podlight is a squiddle. HOWEVER. unlike previous exampleswe cant take this at face value. cause do you really think that squiddles wouldnt be leaping with joy to make friends with whatever they see? theres probably a squiddle out there whos dated a rock or something idk :\ (this really means nothing i just needed to say this for my own comfort lol)
theres a few characters in homestuck you could place next to podlight and say 'welp! that looks good enough, no im gonna go see if that whashings finished yet…’ and go do that, forgetting about the previous topic entirely (definitely havent done this multiple times lol)
some of these include:
- alt calliope
- calliope (for the purposes of this, theyre different people)
- dave/davesprite/davepeta
- feferi
alt calliope
during the later acts and sub acts and intermissions of homestuck as well as in postcannon such as *sigh* homestuck^2 and rhe epilogues, alt calliope tracks down jade multiple times , forcing her to furfill her duty as the witch of space (isolating herself from her friends in doing so, you know how it is with space players u_u)
seeing as the squiddles are manifestations of the horrorterrors, and skipper plumthroat is the main antagonist of the show, its not too much of a stretch to connect skipper plumthroat to lord english seeing as (from my memory at least) in his destruction of the dreambubbles, lord english was killing off the horroroterrors like theyre pieces of dust in the path of a laser beam
seeing as podlight 'tracks [inkabelle] down and saves her’ in the original run of the squiddles cartoon, this would allude to alt callieope tracking down jade and 'saving her’ by telling her about what it means to be a witch of space
WHICH IS BLEAK AS FUCK NO WONDER JADE CRIED WHEN SHE WATCHED THE SHOW AS A CHILD I WOULD TOO IN HER POSITION
like seriously give the girl a break shes had her whole life guided by the clouds of her dreams, only for that to be taken from her when her dreamself died, to the point where she dosent even remember what the colourful reminders on her fingers are for bar one, and then shes thrust into sburb where she spends the majority of the time alone or dead or asleep, before getting told by alt callie that 'OH YOUVE GOTTA BE ALONE CAUSE YOUR A SPACE PLAYER AND STUFF’ like bro dude mate give her a break!!! (and then davesprite comes along and is like 'nah lol just vibe haha whats gender again? B33’, we'll get to that in *checks watch* a bit)
calliope
after her death in the game over timeline (or whatever it is, idk this part makes NO SENSE AT ALL THEY SHOULDVE JUST STUCK TO ONE OR THE OTHER) callie plays the role of helping to illuminate jade on what was happening in the realm of the living outside of the yellow brick road and how she died!
callie plays more of an.... educational? role in jades story?
shes there to help her realise how she died, and then shes there again when she wakes up again before the final battle! (callie really only points towards the colourful reminder around jades finger that has the note from dave but still!!!! its not exactly as if im talking about davekat or dirk or whatever, gotta work with what youve got ya know?
dave/davesprite/davepeta
theres SO MANY paralells between dave (all versions of him) and jade (all versions of her). from time/space to derse/prospit to the different forms of isolation, LIKE THEREES LOADS.
but this isnt about those
this is about a fictional tv show in a webcomic that ended over half a decade ago.
SO PODLIGHT!!
the fictional character, from a fictional tv show, in a webcomic about kids playing videogames.
theres the thing about knights and helping space players in their quest to bring about the creation of the genesis frog, which is described by kanaya. dave does thi for jade in homestuck, and even knowingly causes his death in the proces (for long winded reasons relating to his ascention to godtier blah blah boring stuff!)
the main part i want to talk about with the daves and the jades is two things!
one being jadesprite and davesprite on skaia before jade ascends to godtier. jadesprite is sad, alone and lost, and has to come to terms with the fact that all her friends on prospit are dead (taking note now: i just realised that cause prospit crashed into skaia theres the chance that jadesprite found the ruins of her old life ouchie)
but anyway!
davesprite finds her, does the comforting stuff (multiple times, and not only that, but through multiple distinct selves i.e. davesprite and jadesprite, davepeta and gtier jade, etc.), and presto! paralells between this and podlight finding inkabelle in the murky brineswallows and rescuing her :3
ADDITIONALLY - as you can guess by the image above, davesprite finds jade in the void and darkness (hint hint murky brineswallows hint hint) of space near the green sun after her talk with alt calliope and is the one to save her by waking her up so that she can… distract some doggos.......?
the dave(collectie) theory is the one i think has the strongest connection to podlight personally but, as this is a throwaway line from a dubiously cannon game i HIGHLY DOUBT that there will be any conclusion to this lol
feferi
okay i know this sounds far fetched. BUT. hear me out.
after jade looses her dreamself, she has the weird dreams everyone gets when one half of you is dead as a corpse
in that dream feferi is the one to enlighten her to her deathness after some weird rainbow almost trickster related..... stuff
in this!!! its important to note that there a lot of ties to the squiddle universe (the squiddle theme playing throughout, squiddles, but also candycorn shrimp, the narwals i can never remember the name of and other stuff, and the horrorterrors)
after jade and feferi (not pictured) party in the void of whatever is happening here jade 'wakes up’ (taking this from the flash title)
the flash in question fades/glitches out to horror terrors presumably not having a good time out in the far reaches of the furthest ring connecting to the whole lord english/skipper plumbthroat thing
(theres also something you could say about jade and her rejection of the standard tropes for homestuck (how she fuses with her sprite, interacts directly with the narative esppeacially in early homestuck, and how she has her introduction segment) and how she, princess of prospit, also rejects the steyreotypical tropes for princesses of being rescued by a knight (in reference to how she breaks off from both knights in early homestuck, dave/davesprite and karkat)
but thats not exactly a fully formed thought yet -_- )
an additional thing i forgot to mention in the above section: jades theme from pesterquest contains the same motif as in the song 'carefree princess berryboo’ (or vice verca? they share the same motif anyway)
in conclusion:
and finally! okay so its now 3:19 am, time to wrap this babey up:
- its ;ate and im tired -_-
- jade is inkabelle :B
- the identity of podlight is up for debate :/ but dave is a very strong contender!
