- For a character actually named 'Death', see Death.
Mortality, and the overcoming of mortality in the form of immortality, are recurring themes in Homestuck. Just like everything else in paradox space, mortality and immortality come with their own special sets of rules; a character's immortality will often be conditional, with very few able to attain what is called unconditional immortality.
Mortality[]
Examples[]
- Main article: List of dead characters
Immortality[]
There are “enigmatic forces presiding over all that is eternal, and perme8ting all those endowed with immortality”, which seem to manifest as energy flickering in the various colors of the rainbow. In nature, this energy is harnessed by mating cherubs, who become “only a8le to 8e injured 8y one another” during the course of the ritual. However, similar energy is also found in Heroes who have reached the god tiers when reviving after an apparent death.
Conditional immortality[]
The apparent immortality of a god comes with caveats; they “will live forever, unless killed.” Doc Scratch explains further to Rose Lalonde:
- “The death must be either heroic or just.”
- “TT: How are those terms defined?”
- “Broadly, mysteriously, and according to the case of the individual.”
- “One may be killed by opposing a corrupt adversary and die for a just cause, as through martyrdom, for instance. This would be heroic.”
- “Or one may be subject to corruption, and slain by a hero. This would be just.”
When a god is killed, a magic timepiece Scratch keeps in his apartment flashes with the same rainbow energy, and ticks between these two options before landing on the result. Scratch calls these rules conditional immortality, and refers to a death that is neither heroic or just as “unceremonious”. Given Scratch and the game of Sburb's shared interest in storytelling, these rules may serve to give god tier Heroes more satisfying narrative arcs, while also alluding to the sometimes contradictory ways in which death is depicted in real life video games: a character who unceremoniously dies while under the player's control will usually be allowed to respawn, but a character who sacrifices themselves or is killed under dramatic circumstances may stay dead to further serve the game's story.
Examples[]
Only seven permanent deaths of god tier Heroes have been depicted in Homestuck; though there are a great many more ghosts of those who reached the god tiers in doomed timelines, how they received these deaths is for the most part unknown.
Gods whose deaths were ruled neither heroic nor just, and as such were subsequently revived:
- John Egbert was sucker stabbed by Jack Noir while facing him down with Rose. Despite facing a villainous adversary, John did not have the chance to take any step of action. Therefore, the death was judged Neutral, and he revived a short while later.
- Jake English was killed by Jane after his involuntary and impenetrable Hope aura dissipated. Due to a lack of any conscious action on his part, this death was judged as Neutral, and he revived shortly afterwards.
Gods who lost their immortality after their deaths were judged just:
- Vriska Serket died when she was stabbed by Terezi Pyrope. Terezi did this to prevent Vriska from accidentally tipping off Jack Noir to the trolls' location, which would have resulted in him killing all of them. According to the clock, Vriska's death was Just. However, Hussie stated that the ruling was meant to be ambiguous, due to Spades Slick's interference.
- Jade Harley was killed by Aranea. When the clock was ticking, it very nearly stopped in the middle, but ultimately ruled the death as Just. This is due to Aranea manipulating the clock into a “Lucky 8r8k!!!!!!!!”. Hussie explains that Jade's corruption was not typical mind control: rather, the Condesce had "turned off her ethical filter", allowing her to act on more evil impulses that she would normally suppress. This alone does not condemn her, as her behavior was still compromised, so the death would have been a close call, possibly sparing her. However, Aranea's luck allows close calls to break in her favor, ultimately being the deciding factor.
- Jane Crocker was also killed by Aranea, who stabbed her through the chest with Brain Ghost Dirk's katana (with Jake impaled on it). Aside from the clock visual and Aranea's manipulation not being shown, the circumstances surrounding Jane's death were essentially the same as Jade's.
- Aranea Serket died when the Condesce removed the Ring of Life from her finger, immediately snapped her neck, and threw her into a wall of fire, where she faded back into a ghost. Despite the Condesce's status as a villain, the death was ruled as Just because Aranea was committing a number of villainous actions: she intentionally doomed a timeline by essentially destroying the session, which she initially accomplished by corrupting Jake, whom she later killed along with Jane, as well as killing Jade and fatally injuring Terezi.
Gods who lost their immortality after their deaths were ruled heroic:
- Jake English sacrificed himself in an attempt to save Jane, by jumping in front of the katana Aranea was throwing at her. Although Jane had acted as a villain (her death was ruled Just, confirming this), Jake's act was nevertheless Heroic, because he'd sacrificed himself to save someone he cared about.
- Dave Strider was killed by Jack Noir and the Prospitian Monarch. Because he was facing them in an attempt to "save" Jade – although the two carapacians were not directly threatening her, they were obstructing Dave's intention of taking Jade's body back to Jane for revival – he died Heroically.
- Rose Lalonde was mortally wounded by the Condesce after she attempted to avenge Kanaya's death, and thus her subsequent death was judged Heroic.
- Roxy Lalonde was accidentally killed by Jane as she was saving Rose, and Jane says that her death was “surely heroic”.
Rose, Jake and Dirk were all killed during Collide; though no judgements were shown, their actions suggest Heroism, and they had to be brought back to life by Jane afterward.
In at least two cases, denizens have been able to permanently kill Heroes in their god tiers without a judgement being made clear:
- As a result of a Choice offered by Typheus to John prior to the retcon, another John Egbert died when the Land of Wind and Shade exploded shortly into the three-year trip through the fenestrated plane, catching Davesprite in the blast and leaving Jade alone on the battleship.
- The Choice offered by Echidna to the Alternate Calliope also resulted in her permanent death.
Jade speculated that this John's death must have been Heroic, but could not fathom how. However, the path in which a Hero chooses to embrace their death has been called “the path of the martyr”, and is supposedly “assured to 8enefit all who will ever live”; as noted above, Doc Scratch describes martyrdom as a textbook Heroic death, so it may be assumed that any such sacrifice at the hands of a denizen leads to such a demise.
Meenah Peixes made intentional use of the delay between death, judgement and revival to permanently kill the alpha trolls, an unknown portion of which had reached the god tiers;[citation needed] activating a bomb right before the scratch began, all twelve were physically killed and then wiped out completely by the temporal energy which subsequently flooded the Medium. Whether the resurrection process can be subverted by other means which involve totally erasing the god's body is not clear.
Conditions[]
The exact rules governing whether a death is Heroic, Just, or neither are not known, and Andrew Hussie has noted in a news post that he never intends to codify a complete list of rules. He does, however, indicate that they are closer to being hardcoded rules of the game than moral judgments, by pragmatic necessity in enforcing them.
On the subject of "close calls" in the judgment, Hussie remarks that:
- There's reason to think there is a nuanced scale ranging from Heroic to Just inside the clock. There may be many shades of justice and heroism, some forms just barely qualifying to seal one's fate. But there's nothing nuanced about Alive vs. Dead. The result of a coin flip is absolute, even though there may be many subtle factors contributing to which side it lands on. Such as whether the coin is pure of heart, and whether the table it lands on has ever killed a man.
He then goes on to discuss some close calls, and what factors affected the results of those cases. In addition, he goes into detail on the difference between John Egbert's intent to avenge Dad and Mom's murders by Jack Noir (which was judged neutral), and Rose's intent to avenge Kanaya Maryam's disintegration by the Condesce (which was judged Heroic).
One of the determining factors for a Heroic death involves taking an actual step of action (no matter whether it succeeds) against such a corrupt adversary. Heroic intent alone isn't enough, which is why John's death while fighting Jack Noir didn't permanently kill him. Presumably, the same applies to earning a Just death: villainous action must be taken. Although it was previously suggested that a Just death must occur at the hands of a hero, the subsequent deaths of Jane Crocker and Aranea Serket, respectively killed by Aranea and the Condesce, proved this was not the case. Similarly, sacrificing one's own life to save an arguably villainous person can count as Heroic, as shown when Jake English sacrificed himself for Jane.
Hussie specifically clarifies that revenge-driven action is not disqualified from being judged as Heroic, as that would simply be too big of a loophole to exploit. This is because it would lead to any vengeful hero – which villains' atrocities have a habit of producing – being completely impossible to permanently kill as long as the villain remains alive.
Receiving mortal injuries under Heroic or Just conditions is enough to make the judgment count, even if the player survives for a short while before succumbing to them.
Unconditional immortality[]
Aranea describes English as having “the 8oon of unconditional immortality, where resurrection would not 8e linked with the just or heroic nature of death.” This is part of the 'reward' Caliborn receives for choosing the path of the destroyer in the Choice offered to him by Yaldabaoth, along with “a limitless supply of power. Enough to destroy anything he wanted, for as long as he wanted.”
Scratch's clock is tied to Caliborn's conditional immortality. This clock was seen to be part of the reward Caliborn received after killing Yaldabaoth, and was destroyed by Caliborn using the crowbar. Because the clock could no longer judge his death Just or Heroic, he attained unconditional immortality.
Conditional mortality[]
Scratch describes the nature of English's curse on those who serve him as "conditional mortality", to contrast with conditional immortality. The terms of the curse are that his servant cannot die until English no longer has use for them. In short, where conditional immortality has resurrection as the desired outcome, contingent on the judgment falling in the middle, conditional mortality has death as the desired outcome, contingent on completing service to English.
So far, two servants of English have been seen. The first was the Handmaid, who was permitted to die in the course of completing her final act of service: recruiting her replacement, the Condesce. As of [S] Collide, the Condesce appears to have been killed, implying that English no longer has need of her service at this endgame stage; thus, her curse has been lifted, allowing her to die. No apparent replacement has been recruited.
Clowns[]
Clowns are notoriously difficult to kill for reasons that basically don't make any sense. How related this phenomenon is to the above principles is unknown.
It's worth noting, however, that of all the clown themed characters in Homestuck (and other comics by Hussie), Gamzee Makara is the only one actually portrayed as difficult to kill. Even then, Gamzee has actually been vertically bisected twice in two different timelines, which is enough to kill most sentient beings.
One probable explanation for Gamzee's invincibility is that the alpha timeline – and English's will, enforced through his power as the Lord of Time to cause events to conspire in his favour – required Gamzee to survive until the point at which he fulfilled his role in the creation of Lord English, as seen in Caliborn's masterpiece. His death in [S] GAME OVER, therefore, was possible only because it was subsequently retconned.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Vriska jokes that if Tavros Nitram reached the god tiers, he would be completely indestructible, implying that he's too lame to die a Heroic death or a Just one. However, during this Flash, a god tier ghost Tavros was seen, meaning some version of him must have died after achieving god tier.
- Likewise, Nicolas Cage as a god tier will never die either, since he will kick too much ass to be heroic or he'll do something at the last minute to save himself.