Jack Noir

Jack Noir is an Archagent of Derse who appears in every session of Sburb. He oversees various affairs of the kingdom and does all of the most important and most tedious paperwork, and is the direct subordinate of the King and Queen. In the kids' session, he slew the Queen, and soon after, the King, declaring himself as the Sovereign Slayer and wreaking havoc on the Medium. In the trolls' session, he was able to enlist the help of Karkat Vantas and the Red Team to exile the Black Queen (who became ), and at some point was exiled himself, becoming first a Scurrilous Straggler and then Spades Slick, leader of the Midnight Crew.

A "Jack" is a face card in a normal deck of cards that ranks below the king and queen, and "Noir" is a pun on the detective film genre Film noir, an allusion to Problem Sleuth, and Jack's alternate universe counterpart. "Noir" also means "black" in French, making his full name a pun on the card game Blackjack and a possible reference to the real-life Jack Black. Furthermore, Jack Noir, like Spades Slick, is an incredibly cool name.

This article is about the instance of Jack Noir that appears in the Kids' session of Sburb, also known as the Sovereign Slayer, Jackspers Noirlecrow, or Bec Noir. For the instance of Jack Noir that appears in the Trolls' session, see Spades Slick.





Biography
When he was introduced, Jack appeared to be a normal-looking Dersite wearing a multi-colored jacket with a spade on the lower right. He particularly despised wearing his Jester's hat. Jack Noir was also seen without his outfit on after it appeared to be affected by Rose Lalonde's Prototyping involving the Eldritch Princess, giving it a pink frilly skirt and a hat similar to that of the princess.

Jack finally became so fed up with the ridiculous costumes that he utilized the object in Jade's box to kill the Black Queen, taking the ring for himself and ascending to the throne.

Jack looks exactly like Spades Slick of the Midnight Crew, to the point that the player tries to name him Spades Slick. Jack Noir is the first major character, beyond than the four protagonists, who the player attempts to name. Spades Slick does come from the same character template, but he is the instance of Jack from the Trolls' session, entirely seperate from the Jack in the Kids' game.

Derse
Jack's role in Derse is to make use of several window-shaped monitors—or Fenestrated Walls. He has three such walls. The fourth wall was stolen, possibly by Grandpa (ending up as the "odd device" in Jade's bedroom) or Andrew Hussie (ending up in Andrew's study).

Jack can watch events anywhere in the Incipisphere. He views the victories of John and his father over his minions. He seems to consider the monsters they face 'graveyard stuffers'—though, since they're the weakest known Underlings, he's probably right. He is also responsible for keeping prisoners of Derse from escaping, though neither he nor his guards (including the Hegemonic Brute) were able to stop Dad and his massive amount of Mangrit. Dad eventually reaches Jack, and then burns, stomps, and shaving creams Jack's comical hat, after which Jack grudgingly sets him free.

He later finds the Parcel Mistress attempting to retrieve the green package. Too lazy to process the paperwork, he instead offers the package in exchange for the white crowns. He gives her a Regisword, incorrectly assuming that she will achieve this by killing the bearers.

His subordinate Agents include the Draconian Dignitary, the Courtyard Droll and the Hegemonic Brute. They continue to serve him after he becomes the Sovereign Slayer (as do their counterparts in the Trolls' session, who become the other members of the Midnight Crew).

Prototypings
Jack took on the physical prototypings from the Kids' session after he slew the Black Queen and put on her ring. The first three prototypings were already present and visible on the queen when he took the ring: First was John Egbert's (carried out by Rose Lalonde, his sever player). John's kernelsprite was prototyped with a harlequin with an arm missing, a slashed eye, and a piece of his comical hat cut off. This caused the Black and White kings and queens (and eventually Jack) to have a slashed eye, missing arm and a missing piece of their comical hat.

Rose's prototyped her kernelsprite twice before enterint the medium, first with the body of her cat Jaspers and second with an "improved" princess doll that had been given Horrorterror-like tentacles (the latter carried out by Dave Strider). These prototypings caused the kings and queens (and eventually Jack) to grow two long, prehensile tentacles and added princess flourishes to their outfits.

Dave's prototyping (carried out by Jade Harley) used a dead crow, accidentally skewered by one of Dave's cheap-piece-of-shit swords. This caused the kings and queens (and eventually Jack) to grow large wings, capable of interplanetary flight, and to be (harmlessly) skewered by a sword, which they could remove and use as a weapon.

The final prototyping occurred after Jack donned the ring, while Jade was preparing to enter the medium. Bec teleports everything near the kernel into space and prototypes himself. Jack loses his comical hat and tentacles, and his head loses its catlike features and takes on the emblematic "devilbeast" shape of Bec's head. He keeps the single arm, sword, and scar through one eye. It appears that with this prototyping Jack also acquired all of Bec's powers.

Regicide
While Jack idled away doodling bitter artwork of the Queen on a parking ticket, the Black Queen appeared on one of his monitors. The Queen appeared in the room and demanded he wear his new, frilly, humiliating outfit. When Jack refused, she tried out a number of equally humiliating costumes on him, until Jack snapped and ripped off his jester garb. The Queen threatened him with the blade in her chest until Jack grabbed Jade's green package. He reached inside of it, and used the Royal Deringer it contained to deprive the Queen of her ring before killing her. He then picked up her ring and donned it himself, taking a considerably more powerful prototyped form. He now refers to himself as the Sovereign Slayer and has made the wearing of the prototyped costumes optional for his Agents. From there, he encroached on the Skaian Battlefield, performing a second coup de grace and interrupting the Warweary Villein's uprising, bisecting the Black King's scepter and decapitating the second member of the Derse royalty. He dons the Black King's crown and faces off with WV.

Through his mutinous actions, Jack had become an unexpected variable in the game, and his seizure of power has disastrous consequences. It is hinted that this chain of events will lead to his position as a major antagonist for the remainder of the story. Jack's extreme variability (and more directly, his usurpation) has been confirmed by Karkat as what causes the Homestuck Kids' version of The Reckoning to occur earlier than expected, making the game impossible for the kids to win. Soon after Karkat confirms this, it begins.

Rampage
Jack Noir then proceeds to promptly flip the fuck out.

After killing the Black King, Jack begins a rampage on the Battlefield, indiscriminately slaughtering both members of the black and white army and devastating Skaia using the destructive power of the Black Ring. He leaves only the Warweary Villein standing for reasons that are unclear.

Afterward, the Courtyard Droll hands him the White King's scepter. He uses it to initiate the Reckoning, and heads to Prospit. After littering the streets with Prospitian corpses and destroying parts of the planet, he severs the chain that holds together Prospit and its moon, the latter of which then falls out of orbit and collides with the Battlefield, while the main planet drifts off, in shambles.



After Dream Jade is killed by the impact of the moon and John reads her letter, Jack appears in front of him brandishing the sword in his midriff, seeking the White Queen's ring. However, before he can kill Dream John and retrieve his prize, he is stopped in his tracks by the same bunny that he had killed the Black Queen with, and recently relinquished to the Parcel Mistress upon the fulfillment of their deal. Daunted by the bunny's raw power, he flees. Later still, he engages in a sword fight with Bro on top of the Beat Mesa in the Land of Heat and Clockwork, for unknown reasons and at an unknown point in time. Surprisingly, his fighting skills are matched by Bro's, proving that guardians are significantly more capable than previously thought.



He then finds Bro in the Land of Wind and Shade and returns his sword, presumably so that they may finish their battle. He finds the rematch more challenging as Bro unleashes a repaired Lil Cal and Davesprite enters the fray. He sets the oil rivers of LOWAS on fire, possibly out of anger at being denied a fair duel.

During the fight, Jade's kernelsprite is prototyped with Becquerel, shortly prior to her entry to the Medium. This effectively granted Noir First Guardian status, or at least abilities, in addition to the power that the Black Ring provided—which, even before, was already capable of wrecking planets. The fight is quickly turned around; shortly after his transformation, he kills Bro and Davesprite. Bro is impaled with his own sword, pinning his lifeless chest to the platform, comparable to Jack's own prototyping.

Jack later (from our point of view) ends up in the trolls' incipisphere after the Scratch, just after the Black King was defeated, at which point he slaughters Aradia's clones from doomed timelines. He goes on to destroy the trolls' Prospit and Derse, and presumably their planets and Skaia. He appears to have fresh blood on his arm after arriving in the session, implying a recent fight massacre.

Personality
Jack has no tolerance for things he doesn't want to do. His vicious demeanor, sarcastic nature and nasty attitude are readily apparent, and he exhibits a lack of concern for life that isn't his own. He has a propensity for shirking his royal duties in order to make deals of every sort: he sends the Parcel Mistress on a half-assed assassination mission, and closes a deal with Karkat hinging on a single moment of friendship between them. Jack sarcastically refers to the Black Queen as a wise and just ruler, but stews in his own resentment. He hated the Harlequin motif in which he was forced to dress, doing so only under the direct order of the Black Queen. He tried to draw the line at his stupid hat, but to no avail. When John's Dad went out of his way to destroy it, Jack released him out of thanks.

Despite his bad behavior, Jack seems to have some sense of honor. Even at times when it would seem at odds with what would be most intelligent. He immediately gives up Jade's package to PM upon the fulfillment of his bargain when he could have easily kept it and killed her, and spends some time off his rampage having epic fights with Bro, even returning Bro's sword to him at one point so that they could continue their duel.

Trivia
Jack's name was suggested by Godbot.