- For the pre-scratch counterpart of this character, see Becquerel.
God Cat, aka GCat, is the first guardian of Earth in the post-scratch session.
It interacts with the post-scratch kids, primarily Jane. Unlike Jade's relationship with Bec (Earth's pre-scratch first guardian), Jane doesn't see GCat as a guardian or protector, or even pet or friend. “He's just a feisty stray who likes to meddle with [her] life, then vanish for weeks at a time”
. This is likely due to the lack of a space player in the B2 session.
One striking difference between God Cat and Becquerel is that GCat interacts with multiple players of the session instead of just one, much like another post-scratch first guardian we know of. GCAT is also seen at an unknown point in time resting in the lap of the Condesce and being petted, in a traditional villain motif.
It is currently unknown what GCat's true feelings, motivations, or agendas may be, with regard to Jane or anyone else. Nobody even knows its name. In the future, the Condesce has control of him and his actions; however, it is unknown when this happens, leaving it unknown if she is responsible for past actions of the GCat.
Name[]
Jane believes the creature doesn't have a name, and as such she and her friends refer to it as GCat for short. This name's connection to the four nitrogen bases that form DNA (Guanine, Cytosine, Adenine and Thymine), not only connects it to the naming convention of the various online handles, but also, more delicately, to how the DNA sequence involved in Bec's creation was recorded with a substitution of these letters by those used in the word “MEOW”. This was due to Rose's subconscious association of the code with the "secret" Jaspers left her before his disappearance. Whether these aspects of the name are anything more than in-jokes remains to be seen.
Biography[]
Possible Origins[]
The exact origins of GCat have never been revealed, but Jane while under the Condesce's control was seen apparently preparing to create GCat. However, the process for the creation of first guardians is known and would suggest that a cat that has already been seen or yet to be introduced would be the ectobiological origins of GCat. This leaves a limited pool of cats. Looking much like a regular Earth cat would suggest a relation to Jaspers; another possibility is that like Doc Scratch he has multiple ectobiological parents, and that Jaspers, one of his clones, or another cat was combined with yet another cat. The source of the genetic sequence that all first guardians share is very likely written in the notebook that Roxy managed to appearify from Jake's room, as it appears to contain a genetic sequence encoded with the word “BARK”, mirroring the “MEOW” code used to create Becquerel.
As the death of Jaspers is caused by GCat momentarily appearing in Roxy's room and provoking him – an incident previously referred to more obliquely – this may be GCat's way of fulfilling the necessary task of all first guardians having to ensure their own creation. This would imply that GCat's ectobiological parent may be Jaspers, and in getting Jaspers killed, it is ensuring that he is paradoxifiable – a requirement of ectobiology.
When Roxy sends Jaspers back to where he came from a number of his clones gather to "bid farewell to their common ancestor" with GCat having also arrived. Whether the narrative was referring to both them and GCat, or solely to the known clones while falsely implying GCat to share this ancestry, is unclear.
On Earth[]
Prior to the Alpha Kids' entry into the Medium, GCat is seen performing various esoteric and often inexplicable actions on post-scratch Earth. While it interacts mostly with Jane, it does not do so exclusively. GCat appears to possess a capricious spirit, hindering the kids' efforts as much as it appears to aid them. Whether this attests to anything about GCat's own nature or the general independence of cats as opposed to dogs is unknown.
GCat had been interfering with Jane's life for years prior to her playing Sburb, including an incident in which GCat teleported her into a random field on the other side of town . Whilst this action is definitely unhelpful, GCat later saves her life twice, although this could be more due to a necessity to fulfill the conditions of a timeline in which Jane does not die and thus secure its own existence than due to loyalty to Jane. Jane states that he often vanishes from her life for weeks at a time.
When Jane was preparing to enter The Medium, GCat stopped Dirk's auto-responder from prototyping Poppop's stuffed corpse by warping it into space. This may be because the post-scratch session was destined to be a void session, and any action deviating from that would result in a split doomed timeline, which GCat was probably trying to prevent. Years in the future (but not many), after Jane and Jake have entered, the Condesce uses her powers to control GCat in a fight against Bro and Mom.
Hundreds of years in the future, when Roxy is about to appearify a Colonel Sassacre's, GCat teleports into the room, provoking Jaspers into attacking it before teleporting away, and causing Rose's former cat to get crushed by the giant joke book. He then watches as Roxy sends him back to Rose through the lab machinery , only to abscond as soon as she is attacked. As she tries to escape, through the fenestrated plane, he warps it out and sends it to Dirk's apartment - unplugged.
In the Medium[]
He is next seen in LOPAN during Jane's and Roxy's preparations for Jane's upcoming birthday. This implies he either entered the Medium alongside Squarewave or Sawtooth or had alternative means of entry (potentially connected to the Condesce).
In the pre-retcon timeline, the Condesce's ability to influence G-Cat is further exemplified when Jane uses a Betty Crocker mouse toy to summon G-Cat in order to distract PM and Jack Noir, a tactic that is effective due to their rings' prototyping with Becquerel. This further implies a natural rivalry between the two First Guardians similar to that normally encountered between cats and dogs.
In the post-retcon timeline, the mouse toy is instead used by Jake under Vriska's command to summon G-Cat in order to prototype them with Tavrosprite, creating Gcatavrosprite. Vriska promptly puts the sprite to sleep, telling Jake that she used Tavros to prevent that cat from being a threat to the session.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The line that “everybody has opinions, but nobody can agree on a good name”
is likely a jab by Hussie towards the forums, where users were trying to come up with various different names, such as Curie or Sievert, but no consensus had been reached. - He has a green tongue, which may or may not be atypical among first guardians, or significant at all: Doc Scratch most likely has no tongue since he has no face, and the inside of Bec's mouth is shown to be white, although this may be a question of stylization as Bec's mouth was shown in a symbolic manner, and as such details may have been omitted.
- The fact that God Cat teleported Poppop to outer space to stop a prototyping is a reference to Bec doing the same thing to Jade's Grandfather.
