Frog

A frog from the Land of Wind and Shade.

Frogs are essential animals to the process of Sburb. Universes, in reality immense Genesis Frogs, require the Heroes to gather various frogs and combine their genes through a process of ectobiology until such a frog that is produced that can grow within the Battlefield into a new Genesis Frog of its own; thus continuing the universal life cycle. This cycle is encouraged through the seeding of Sburb's technology in amphibian-shaped Frog Temples.

Being associated with creation and the continuation of life, frogs are “considered illegal contraband” by the tyrannical authority of Derse; Derse's queens, vain creatures as they are, will give up their power before being forced to take on attributes of a frog. To the other creatures of the Incipisphere, however, the role of the frog is absolutely sacred.^{[citation needed]}

Process

Some “ruby contraband.”

Frogs can be found throughout the planets of the Medium, though traditionally not until the later stages of the game. Heroes of Space generally seem to have planets even more abundant with frogs, such as on the Lands of Rays and Frogs and Frost and Frogs. This is because, in addition to stoking the Forge, “Breeding Duties” are a role common to Heroes of Space.

Three linked pieces of Phernalia constitute the frog breeding apparatus; an appearifier terminal for retrieving frogs' ghost slime, an ectobiology apparatus for collecting and combining the slime, and a pad for the cloned tadpoles to appear on.

Because of the nature of paradoxes, it is advised that frogs are only cloned if a Hero can commit to finding that frog later on, to ensure a temporal anomaly and the production of paradox slime. Similarly, because of the nature of paradox clones, it is necessary to slightly alter the genes of all cloned frogs in order to produce mutants and prevent the frogs from being sent back in time to become their own parents. The results of this process can have interesting blood colors.

History

Kanaya Maryam reached the frog breeding stage of the game, helped by Karkat Vantas, but after weeks of searching was unable to find the frog she believed would “Remove The Last Traces Of Dissonance” from its genes; though she had a good lead, she was “Rushed” when the beginning of the Reckoning saw Karkat order the trolls to the Battlefield to kill the Black King.

Just a small congregation of Jade Harley's frog clones.

Jade Harley's “weird” one-day session forces the frog breeding to begin even earlier, though she has the advantage of Kanaya's guidance. The murderous Dersite Jack Noir proves a constant obstacle to the process, but is prevented by his Becquerel instincts from making the “Extermination Attempts” Kanaya experienced; the stoking of Jade's Forge also provides her with plenty of water to rear the tadpoles in, just as was available on Kanaya's planet.

Though Kanaya advises against using Dave Strider's time travel to expedite the paradoxification process, she ultimately goes ahead with the plan. The Choice offered by Echidna allows her to remember the location of her last frog; in her own past, on Earth. The resulting tadpole, glowing with cosmic energy, goes on to become the home of the new Earth.

The final frog

The appearance of Jade's last needed frog indicates that it was sendificated from elsewhere, but as of the end of Homestuck, the frog's origin point has not been made clear. Similarly, Kanaya's "lead" on finding her last frog is not elucidated on.

Karkat believes that the “MISSING [...] CRITICAL SEQUENCE IN [Bilious Slick's] DNA” caused by his rush to defeat the Black King “GAVE HIM CANCER”. Doc Scratch refers to the kids' Battlefield as “cancerous”, implying that The Tumor may be the main symptom of this cancer; however, Karkat believes that Bilious' sickness is “UNLIKE A NORMAL DISEASE [and] WOULDN'T KILL ITS HOST FROM WITHIN”; “NOIR IS THE CANCER.” Despite Karkat's self-blaming tendencies, however, Jack Noir's rise to power was in large part due to the joint machinations of Vriska Serket and others; it is also known that Tumors can come from a variety of sources. As such, it is not exactly clear what the consequences of the apparent missing gene sequence was. Because the "completed" frog bred by Jade went on to become a universe seemingly beyond the Canon of Homestuck itself, it would seem to be that its genetic contribution was highly unusual, perhaps implying that this kind of final gene sequence could simply not have been used in any session but the unique mixed session depicted in Act 6.

Trivia

• A drawing in John Egbert's Dad's study may be the first appearance of a frog in Homestuck.
• Kanaya and Jade were both assisted in their frog hunting by their sessions' Knights.
• Frogs are implied to be present on every planet with life.^{[citation needed]}