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. 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. (Resemblance to the name Jack Black is just an amusing coincidence.) Furthermore, Jack Noir, like Spades Slick, is an incredibly cool name. Bec Noir, the name given to Jack's fully prototyped form, is possibly a play on the French phrase Bête noire, meaning "black beast."

This article is about the instance of Jack Noir that appears in the Kids' session of Sburb. 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 Noir is the first major character, beyond than the four protagonists, who the player attempts to name.

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 server 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 prototyped her kernelsprite twice before entering 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 bunny 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.&nbsp 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. Notably, though, he manages to block every attack thrown at him.

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.

He proceeds to fly to John's Quest Bed, and kills him in his sleep--perhaps as revenge for his earlier encounter with him, even though the only injuries he could have sustained would be to his pride.

He eventually makes his way back to Skaia and finds Dad and Mom in a castle. He proceeds to kill them while John is somewhere drilling into the planet to find The Tumor. He then goes on a trophy binge, taking and wearing the guardians and Cals Accessories. However, he ultimately decides to only keep Cal, whom he refers to as his "only friend," and throws the other guardians' accessories to the ground.

Jack later (from his 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 appears to have blood on his arm after arriving in the session, implying a recent fight.

Within the Troll session, he first kills Dream Karkat and destroys Prospit's moon, presumably making short work of Tavros, Kanaya, Gamzee and Terezi's dream selves while at it. Some period of time after this he appears at Derse, slaughtering Feferi and Nepeta and blowing up the planet, before an unexpectedly revived God Tier Aradia freezes him in place.

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.

After his fourth prototyping, he seems content on flying around the incipisphere and killing at random. How much of this is part of a plan and how much is pointless destruction is anyone's guess, though it certainly seems to have shifted to pointless destruction after his arrival in the troll session.

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. Also, because of the traits he received from Becquerel, he feels cravings for doggy treats and even has intense feelings of loyalty and possibly love towards Jade which were strong enough to prevent him from killing her as she slept upon entering the medium.

Trivia

 * Jack's prototyping with Becquerel brings some physical similarities to Anubis, Egyptian god of the dead.
 * Andrew Hussie has stated that Jack's prototypings were always meant to be a sort of "Anti-Sepulchritude", with regards to the wings and the sword and the occasionally glowing green. This reference is reinforced by the fact that right before Jack steals the ring, he is seen writing with the Tectrix of the Arbitor and the Ink of Squid Pro Quo, the two items required to perform Sepulchritude.
 * Jack's name was suggested by Godbot. (He can personally confirm that the name's got nothing to do with Jack Black.)