Forum:The Homestuck Epilogues General Theorizing

The Homestuck Epilogues opens the path to some theorizing. Let's get the obvious one out of the way:

'''ARE THESE CANON AT ALL, IF SO IS THE MEAT PATH CANON WHILE THE CANDY PATH IS NOT CANON? '''

Is the creator able to say something is canon despite it appearing directly inside the canon work? Are the boundaries of Homestuck's canonicity defined by the creator, the urls, the website, the published book, the arbitrary mapping structure used to navigate it, our chosen interpretation(s), or something else entirely?

I really hope the answer isn't "our chosen interpretation(s)" because I'm pretty sick of postmodernist "the world is whatever you make of it" subjective answers that make thinking about this pointless and boring.

Is Obama canonically in Homestuck? He appeared in the Candy path which is treated by Calliope as non-canon, but simultaneously actions in the Candy path directly dictated actions in the Meat path, beyond merely having one reference the other.

In a case where a non-canon work directly ties into the story of a canon work, is the non-canon work thus canon? Or, is there a partial canonicity achieved at that point? Normally canonicity is dictated by the mindset of "is this part of the main work by the author, and treated by the work's own conveyance to be canon?" If that were the case, while the "non-canon" Candy path is by the author, and it is conveyed by the story to both be and not be canon in the meta-textual sense of arguments made by character dialogue and presentation. However, in the context of ignoring those arguments and looking strictly at the work's story, which is the general main focus most people care about because we're mainly focused on the story itself being canon, since events in the Candy path and Meat path affect each other, that would indicate both paths are canon. The only way the Candy path is 100% canon is if you cut away the fat of arguments by characters, by the author, and by the presentation, and look strictly at the story itself, because the story by itself independent of those factors is reliant on both paths and thus you cannot have a canon Meat path without having a canon Candy path. But, this would take things to a 0% canon or 100% canon scenario, where either both paths must be canon, or neither can be canon. At which point the argument is, are the Homestuck Epilogues part of Homestuck's canonical framework, or separate as the author tries to treat them? If the fat were again cut away and the story created by the author were focused on, one could argue that yes the Homestuck Epilogues are part of Homestuck because Homestuck has several loose story ends that are tied up by the Homestuck Epilogues, and both works are made by the same chief author. That is to say, the first work based on story alone conveys that it is incomplete, from a lack of a definitive ending to various plot threads that are not taken care of, and thus based on story, one must take away that if the author of the first story were to create another work that ties up those threads and unfinished story, that latter work must at that point be treated as part of the former work's canonical framework.

This whole argument hinges on the assumption that canonicity is strictly dictated by "the author was the chief architect of the works involved, and the story itself makes more sense with the works included than without them," which means the works are all canon regardless of arguments, feelings or intentions conveyed by fictional characters or the author. If one were to assume a different definition of what is canon, then one could of course naturally brush away all arguments that were just made; though at that point such a definition of canonicity would make a lot of fictional works in the world less canonical such as this one.

What are the Dirk Strider's intentions now that he is free?

Seems like he's predictably taken to his role of Prince because Lord English liked him as a kid, much like how Jane Crocker took to her role because Condesce chose her as an heiress as a kid. Sounds like Dirk is acting like a villain and was thinking some evil things that made Calliope think he is evil -things which Jade somehow picked up on and believes must be stopped. But what, since turning Rose into a robot wasn't really a bad thing so much as a body modification at that point; and arguably saved her life from imminent death.

Seems to me that Dirk would if this were taken to its logical conclusion, become the narrator of a new civilization he shall raise in a questionable way Calliope takes quarrel with. It also sounds like Calliope may dislike Dirk simply because of stylistic differences rather than legitimate concerns over right and wrong; which Dirk has hinted at in calling her something along the lines of a pompous holier-than-thou condescending bitch, which based on reading her dialogue is not far off the line from how her character communicates with others; though far less of a bitch than the bar Vriska set, without question.

What class is Obama, what was his session like, is Obama gay or bisexual (considering he has what appears to be a wife)?

While these might at first glance seem like meme-tier questions, they are worth pondering seeing as a full scan of his brain's contents was captchalogued by Dave Strider if my memory serve's me correctly, which would be relevant since Davebot escaped with said contents above the horizon which leaves open the possibility of Obama being remade.

Michelle Obama could for all we know turn out to have just been a robot/female clone, or Obama might have simply meant he is bisexual as opposed to meaning he's strictly homosexual, when he spoke of this to Dave.

Obama appears to embody the aspect of Hope, as evidenced through his real-life history and campaigning with the Hope slogan and bringing other hope. This is similar to how an Heir class would work, as the Heir class tends to be about embodying and bringing forth the aspect. That would be in contrast to say, if a President were a Prince of Hope who destroyed hope or wielded hope in a destructive way; a class Eridan and Donald Trump may share in common but I digress. Since Obama has been watching from afar however, it's entirely possible he has a Seer class.

As for his session, that one's too hard for me to theorize on and I can only hope somehow Donald Trump, George Bush, and the Illuminati were somehow thrown in.

Please ask about and discuss additional theories.