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Homestuck/Characters/Guardians


Guardians in general are all examples of

  • Ancient Conspiracy: All of the Human Guardians, save Dad (who is Locked Out of the Loop), are tied into massive unknown conspiracies. While for Post-Scratch Bro Strider and Mom Lalonde, it takes the form of being La Résistance, for the Pre-Scratch Mom Lalonde and Bro Strider, they're suggested to have outright created Sburb.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Almost all of them are killed offscreen.
  • Killed Off for Real: And the lusii die a second time after they were revived as sprites, while the Alpha Guardians are all Dead to Begin With
  • Nominal Importance: They don't actually have names (aside from Bec and some of the lusii). And aside from some stuff early on in their kid's games, they also don't really do a whole bunch.
    • However their alternates are of great importance in the post-Scratch universe. Mom, Bro, Nanna, and Grandpa later appear as the Alpha Kids, Dad has an Alpha counterpart, and the Lusii appear on Jake's island. But on the other hand, the alternate versions of the Beta Kids end up falling into this.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: It looks like intially the Beta guardians are off working on some mysterious plan to stop Noir. This is never resolved as they get killed off midway through it.

Dad

John's father. Well, foster father; he's actually his biological half brother. He is very supportive of John, even going so far as to pretend to be a street performer to try to connect with him. He is obsessed with pipes and hats and baked goods.

Another near-identical version of him appears in the Alpha Universe as Jane's presumably adoptive guardian, and the Alpha iteration of Dad. He is John Crocker's son.

Universal Tropes

  • Badass Normal: Even though he's just a suburban businessman, he kicks a ridiculous amount of ass.
  • Crazy Prepared:
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Repeated attempts to imprison him all end in failure. Jack finally gets sick of his escapes and lets him go.
  • Eyeless Face: All the adults so far have been featureless except for one part of their face. Mr. Egbert's one feature is his nose.
  • Epileptic Trees: Could he be Problem Sleuth? (Answer: No).
  • Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Smokes a Pipe of Patriarchal Authority.
  • Improbable Weapon User: He uses cakes and shaving cream and nearly everything else.
  • In Spite of a Nail: He seems completely unchanged in the Alpha universe as Jane's dad, despite the fact that he can't be Nanna's son anymore.
  • Kitsch Collection: He has a fanatical obsession with harlequins and joker figures, though this was faked out of a sense of desiring to appeal to John.
    • Whether or not he likes harlequins, he certainly likes pipes, shaving, and anything else "fatherly."
      • And comedians.
  • Standard Fifties Father: Both a parody and subversion of one. He dotes on his son and is obsessed with stereotypically manly/fatherly things like pipes, shaving, and business-like clothing, but he's also an obsessive baker and a single dad, neither of which are typical for the trope.
  • Super Strength: Dad is just as strong as a kid thinks his father is. He is powered by pure MANGRIT. While on Derse, he punches a Shale Imp right through a stone wall. Add this to the fact that he also expects his son to be able to lift a huge floor safe, and it's pretty likely he has this.
  • Trickster Archetype: Much less so than his mother or son, but John observes quite early on that Dad usually enjoys the prankster's gambit on their exchanges, so he has the skills, if nothing else.
    • Jane isn't any better at beating him.
  • Wallet of Holding: His WALLET MODUS contains such useful items as a literal ton of shaving cream and a spare car.
    • Mundane Utility: He uses his powerful Wallet Modus just to move the car around the back to wash it.

B1 Dad (Mr. Egbert)

  • Determinator: He attempted to escape from imprisonment on Derse multiple times, refusing to give up no matter how many times he was thrown back in his cell.
  • Doting Parent: As required to by his Coddlebrand, which causes John to Wangst considerably for the first act.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him
  • James Bondage: The Shale Imps capture him repeatedly after John's house is transported into the Incipisphere. He manages to break out just as frequently, however.
  • Killed Off for Real
  • Megaton Punch: He delivers one to a Shale Imp during his escape from the dark world.
  • Noodle Incident: And he also has a restraining order from Cirque Du Soleil, although the reason why has never been fully explained. It was very embarrassing to John, whatever it was.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: It's heavily suggested he knows more about the overarching plot than previously thought.
  • Official Couple: With Ms. Lalonde.
  • So Proud of You: A note left in the safe, claiming that since John was strong enough to lift it, he's now a real man. Subverted however, since John is definitely unable to lift the safe; it only opened when it broke after Rose dropped it on an Imp.
    • And once again in a card left on his wallet.
    • He seems to do this all the time, perhaps because of John's wall scribbles, on which he calls himself a "fool" and a "lame kid".

B2 Dad (Mr. Crocker)

  • Adult Fear: Watched his daughter get blown up.
  • Disney Death: After Jane's computer exploded, the fanbase was worried that Dad would die the same way Karkat's lusus did. Shortly afterwards, he's seen crushed by the debris of the explosion...but he gets up one panel later, a little worse for wear but still fine.
    • Badass Normal: His reaction is more confusion than anything else.
  • Dude, Not Funny: Invoked. He was NOT happy with Jane's Prankster's Gambit in regard to the letterbox bombing.
  • In Spite of a Nail: He seems more or less identical to his old self, despite everything that's changed. His relationship with Jane is different in some specifics, but functionally the same as his relationship with John.
  • Made of Iron: Dirk assures Jane that it'll take a lot more than just falling debris to kill that dude.
  • Private Detective/Vigilante Man: He had a short-lived stint as a private eye.

It turns out the police aren't as grateful as you'd think when ordinary citizens go around roughing up a lot of crooks.

B1 Kids' Guardians

Mom Lalonde

Rose's mother. An alcoholic rich woman, she and Rose have constant passive-aggressive battles with her playing the role of the affectionate, doting, stay-at-home mother.

Her Alpha Universe incarnation is Roxy Lalonde.

  • Action Mom: While she doesn't seem to care that much about her daughter (or does she?), she's still a mom who knows kung fu.
  • Adult Child: That Tastes Like Diabetes cat-and-princess-themed bedroom in the Skaianet lab basement? It's hers.
  • Alcoholic Parent: See Lady Drunk
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: She constantly showers her daughter with affection in ridiculously over-the-top, elaborate ways. Rose interprets this as her being cruelly sarcastic, but whether the displays of affection are actually malicious or genuine has yet to be determined.
  • Badass: Has shown herself to be every bit as competent as the other guardians in a fight.
  • Crazy Prepared: She had a secret escape passage made in the family cat's tomb. This comes in handy once the fire gets dangerously close to the house.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him
  • Drunken Master: BLOTTO-PARRY!
  • Killed Off for Real
  • Kitsch Collection: Like Mr. Egbert, only her house is filled with artwork of wizards rather than clowns "harlequins".
  • Lady Drunk: Is always shown with a gin martini in one hand, and it's implied she's an alcoholic.
    • She left her ever present drink behind when she left Rose in the Land of Light and Rain, presumably to take on the huge monster that we see her killing in >Jack: ASCEND.
    • This is what happens when Rose discovers that what she previously believed to be her mother's room is, in fact, a bar.
  • Mad Scientist: The passage underneath Jaspers' mausoleum leads to a gigantic underground laboratory that houses cloning machines, among other weird devices. There is another passage that leads up to Mom's bedroom (or what Rose thought was Mom's bedroom), so she's clearly in on it.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: Had it when she's nearly blown up by the meteor carrying baby John; gets it back from Dad when they're reunited in Skaia.

Bro Strider

Dave's brother and ectobiological father. Like Dave, he is obsessed with being cool and ironic. He's an expert swordsman and has a bizarre puppet fetish.

His Alpha Universe incarnation is Dirk Strider.

  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: When Bro cuts Dave's incredibly shitty sword in half, he doesn't just cut the sword in half -- he also changes Dave's strife specibus to ½BLADEKIND and cuts the record logo on his shirt in half. And this carries over to all other uses of Dave's record sigil thereafter.
  • The Ace: Dave concedes this, but would never admit it to him.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: His creepy obsession with puppets seems to be closer to a fetish. Dave interprets this as him being ironic to a level that Dave can't even begin to understand, because it freaks him out to think otherwise.
    • If Dirk is any indication, Dave was actually right, and unnerving Dave and others about it is actually half the joke. Bro may be just that devoted to Irony.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Dirk at least is openly gay, while Bro is merely a lifelong bachelor making a living off incredibly phallic puppets.
  • Badass: Even more so than Dave, at least at first. He's squared off against Jack who had not long ago slaughtered an entire army in mere moments and destroyed a moon (and it took Jack becoming just shy of a god to kill Bro), cut a meteor in half while riding it, and is fast enough to fight via puppet proxy.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: He plunges his sword into the Beat Mesa after his first duel with Jack. It's later revealed that he was initiating The Scratch.
  • Cool Shades: Kamina shades, to be precise. John's referring to them as "dumb anime shades" seems to confirm this is deliberate.
  • Crazy Awesome: If this update doesn't qualify him for it, not much else will.
    • Or this one even moreso. He moves so fast that Dave, who is pretty fast himself, winds up actually fighting Bro's afterimage.
  • Crazy Prepared: He carried around a baby-sized copy of his own Cool Shades for the day when Dave would come hurtling out of the sky in a meteor and destroy his favorite record shop.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Rocketed up to this after his Strife technique was unveiled.
  • Fetish: Soft. Puppet. Ass.
    • His Complete Bullshit web browser even has a bookmark for "Puppet Porn" and another one for "Plush Rump" which provides "the plumpest plushiest bare rumps this side of Jim Henson's most sordid fantasies."
  • Fingerless Gloves
  • Flash Step: The undisputed master. He uses it mainly to make Lil' Cal even creepier. And in battle, he uses it to basically use Lil' Cal to fight by proxy. And watch out when he actually steps into the ring using this.
    • And by "fighting by proxy", we mean live-action stop-motion.
  • Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: He's fond of doing this before duels.
  • Hotblooded Sideburns
  • Killed Off for Real
  • Kitsch Collection: He collects disturbing "radical puppets" for work and pleasure.
  • Marionette Master: He doesn't use Lil' Cal in the traditional way, but that just makes him all the more awesome.
  • McNinja
  • Older Than They Look: Despite being referred to as Bro, he's as old as Mom Lalonde, placing him anywhere from his early thirties to his forties by the time of the comic.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname
  • Pretty Fly for a Íæûë€Å Guy: Part of his "ironic roof rapping ninja" schtick. Several of his puppets, including Cal are dressed up in urban style. [1]
  • Promotion to Parent: Bro is Dave's older brother and serves as his guardian. Bro is actually Dave's (and also Rose's) biological father by genetic engineering, so he is a subversion.
  • Sacrificial Lion
  • Sibling Rivalry: Dave says they're both very competitive, and he only undertakes certain activities (like getting the Sburb Beta) to try and outdo his Bro. Despite this, Dave really does admire him and aspires to be exactly like him.
  • Too Cool to Live: Much like the guy he was retroactively a reference for.
  • Worthy Opponent: To Jack Noir. That should about tell you what you need to know.

Becquerel / Becsprite

Jade's guardian, and the First Guardian of Earth who takes the form of a dog. He was prototyped with Jade's Kernelsprite (this is not a good thing) and thus became Becsprite. Some time after, he was tier-2 prototyped with the corpse of Jade's dreamself; he thus became Jadesprite, and the "Becquerel" persona effectively ceased to exist.

  • Animal Jingoism: If God Tier Jade is any indicator, Bec had an instinctual dislike of cats that's carried over in spite of Jade's best efforts to control herself.
    • Related to this trope, it's unclear if he blew up PM's terminal to "protect" Jade from being influenced by an exile or due to a similar stereotype of dogs v. mailmen.
  • Big Badass Wolf: Yet also:
  • Big Friendly Dog
  • The Blank
  • Cool Pet
  • Fourth Wall Observer: As Becsprite, he notices the text boxes housing the commands issued by Peregrine Mendicant to Jade.
  • Immune to Bullets: Instead, he plays fetch with them.
  • Killed Off for Real: After being prototyped (which made him quasi-dead anyways), Jade's prototyping of her dead dream self apparently overwrote any of Bec's original personality, leaving her with only a Verbal Tic. However, much of his personality and instincts were transferred to Jack and may affect PM post-prototyping too.
  • Meaningful Name: Becquerel is the SI derived unit of radioactivity, named for the French scientist Henri Becquerel, the first to discover radioactivity in 1896.
  • Nearly-Normal Animal: While he does a few things that hint at the possibility of greater intelligence, like keeping Jade away from meteors and from the ruins, deliberately merging with the kernelsprite, and killing the ultimate frog (thus allowing its paradox ghost slime to be used), Bec clearly runs mostly on dog instincts, putting him at the lowest end of the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Bec, in order to save Jade's life, prototypes her sprite with himself. This... could have gone better.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A giant radioactive dog/wolf/devilbeast-thing/Guardian of Earth with reality-warping abilities. Coolest. Pet. Ever.
  • Now That's Using Your Teeth: Catching a bullet in his teeth.
  • Overprotective Wolf: Peregrine Mendicant tries to say hi to Jade. Bec does not approve.
  • Papa Wolf:
  • Phrase Catcher: "Good dog. Best friend." Leads later to Jack catching, "Bad dog. Worst enemy."
  • Posthumous Character: We learned a lot about Bec after his death, via Jack and now Jade.
  • Power of Love: Bec adores Jade. Enough so to prototype himself to save her life. And hard enough that it's transferred via prototyping to Jack. Oddly, it didn't transfer to Jadesprite, neither in the form of a desire to please Jade nor in any sort of weird devotion to herself possibly because of dream Jade overwriting Bec's personality.
  • Promotion to Parent: In the absence of any other parental figure, Bec serves the role of looking after Jade and keeping her out of trouble.
  • Reality Warper
  • Starfish Language / The Unintelligible: When Jade tried to talk to Becsprite after prototyping, she quickly found out that doing so was a Brown Note and resolved not to try it again.
  • Teleporters and Transporters
  • Time Abyss: He appears to have come from a meteorite impact during the Devonian period, which puts his age at around 413 million years old, minus about 400 years.
  • Trademark Favourite Food: "You dial up a thick T-BONE STEAK, which you are sure Becquerel is in the mood for because he is in the mood for steak every day and is never in the mood for anything else."
    • More specifically, steak that has been lightly irradiated. (He does like his steak rare, after all.)
  • Undying Loyalty: Being both a Big Friendly Dog and a Papa Wolf at the same time, it's not surprising that he has this towards Jade. As mentioned up at Power of Love, Bec's loyalty is strong enough that it transferred to Jack and renders him both incapable of killing Jade and sending him into a flying rage when Jade dies.

Grandpa

Jade's grandfather and ectobiological father. Although he died when she was young, he had a large impact on Jade's life, teaching her all about guns and making sure she never left the house without one.

His Alpha Universe incarnation is Jake English.

  • Adult Child: Maybe. He has tea parties with a life-sized, blue-haired doll, and his living room has four life-sized dolls he refers to as his "distinguished houseguests".
  • Adventurer Archaeologist
  • Badass Grandpa
  • BFG: His gun appears to be a pistol handle with a blunderbuss for a barrel. Leaves craters large enough for a few people to lie down in.
  • Big Damn Heroes: He rescues John from the Underlings in the Land of Wind and Shade.
  • Captain Ersatz: Is suspiciously a lot like Theodore Roosevelt.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang: We've yet to see how he entered the Medium, and it may to come up in some fashion down the line.
  • Dead All Along: Until it was Jade's turn to do battle with her guardian, the readers were lead to believe he was alive. In reality, she's pretending to fight his corpse, which has been stuffed and preserved via taxidermy like his hunting trophies. He later turns out to be alive in the Medium, having not traveled back in time to live out the rest of his life just yet.
  • Death by Irony: When he was a baby, he accidentally killed Colonel Sassacre while playing with flintlock pistols. The circumstances of his death are complicated, but the key points are that he let Jade play with flintlock pistols, and he was killed by the same bullet she accidentally fired at herself.
  • Dirty Old Man: He collects old, sun-bleached beauty parlour photos. And has parties with a life-sized blue-haired doll. Don't ask.
  • Fan Nickname: Hass "The Flame" Harley.
  • Foregone Conclusion / Doomed by Canon: He's alive in the Incipisphere through time travel, but he's destined to return to Earth and get shot.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: He made Jade's dreambot.
  • Gentleman Adventurer
  • Kitsch Collection: Hunting trophies, one of which is blocking a transportalizer on the lowest level of the house; also valiant knights, decrepit mummies, sun-bleached photographs from the windows of beauty parlors, and globes.
  • Like Brother and Sister: Betty Crocker tells Nana that she and Grandpa were supposed to get married but it's not clear if they ever felt like anything other than siblings.
  • Mummies At the Dinner Table: He's still hanging around in the foyer of the Harley residence. This is apparently a Harley family tradition (at least the taxidermy part). He kept the taxidermied remains of Halley and Dream Jade in his lab.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Using his BFG to shoot a butterfly from point blank range.
  • Raised by Wolves: Sort of. He was raised by Betty Crocker and Halley the dog (whose name he mispronounced as Harley due to his speech impediment). He ran away from home at the age of thirteen with the dog (who the narration refers to as his "guardian", a term also used to refer to the kids' parents and the trolls' lusus naturae), and eventually took Harley as his surname.
  • The Runaway: Ran away from home with his dog Halley at the age of thirteen.

Nanna

John's deceased grandmother, who is later revived as his sprite. Her tropes are folded under her sprite iteration, as seen here.


B2 Kids' Guardians

Tropes common to the Alpha Guardians

  • Badass Abnormal: Mom at least has minor Light powers, and it's hinted they all have minor manifestations of their abilities displayed by their counterparts.
  • Dead to Begin With: Turns out they're all long dead, with the exception of Dad.
  • Famous Ancestor: All of them are pretty famous, though Grandma English ended up disgraced.
  • In Spite of a Nail: Despite them all undergoing vastly different lives, they seem to have similar personalities. Poppop and Grandma even have the same first names as their counterparts.
    • And some of them sorta have the same titles, Mom is described as a seer, Bro has apparently been knighted, and Jake's grandmother was a "witch" with manipulating space. Poppop is only loosely associated with his role as an Heir though, being referred to as the Heir of Crockercorp all of once by Dirk.
  • Time Capsule: Mom and Bro stashed tons of stuff for Roxy and Dirk to find in the future, like food and supplies.

Poppop Crocker / John Crocker

Jane's late grandfather, John's Alpha iteration and the counterpart of Nanna Egbert. He was legendary for his vaudevillian antics on stage, following in the footsteps of his adoptive father Colonel Sassacre, unlike his adoptive sister, who fled the Batterwitch's influence. He died at age 86 on the same day Jane was "born", a fate involving a tall bookshelf, a ladder, and a mysterious young woman in a suspicious looking hat.

He also played the role of Judge Stone in the Alpha universe's version of Night Court.

  • Ambiguously Good: It's unclear if he had any direct hand in Crockercorp's antics, but he at least took the Crocker name and not Colonel Sassacre's.
    • Dirk at least suggests he was just simply a really nice guy
  • Anime Hair: Just look at the picture.
  • Call Back:
  • The Pollyanna: Despite growing up under the heel of the Condense, he went on to become a famous comedian. This suggests to Dirk that Crocker "must have been seriously immune to witnessing fucked up shit".
  • The Danza: In the real Night Court, Harry Anderson's character was named Harold Stone. In the Alpha Universe, where Poppop played that role instead of Anderson, the character is instead named Johnny Stone.
  • For Want of a Nail: Since John didn't land with dual-wielded flintlock pistols like Grandpa Harley did on Beta Earth, Colonel Sassacre lived to raise him.
  • The Messiah: Despite being raised by the Big Bad of Act 6, he turned out to be an incredibly nice person. Dirk doesn't even begin to speculate on the tortures he must've undergone.
  • Mummies At the Dinner Table: His body has been stuffed and mounted in front of the fireplace (as stipulated in his will), meaning that he's five feet away from anyone trying to watch television and eat dinner on the couch.
  • Posthumous Character: Though given that Nanna became John's sprite, it's been widely speculated that Poppop will become Jane's sprite.
    • It seemed like the case... but then GCat for unknown reasons intervened.
  • Richard Nixon the Used Car Salesman: Inverted with respect to Harry Anderson by taking his role as Judge Stone in Night Court. Played straight by Harry Anderson who becomes a private detective as a result.
    • In Spite of a Nail: A book by the title of Harry Anderson's "Wise Guy" still exists, and Jane owns it just as John did, but in the Alpha universe it's instead a memoir of his days as a private eye after retiring from comedy when he couldn't beat his rival John.
      • Of course Anderson couldn't hope to beat Egb-uh, Crocker in a prank-off. He is simply the best there is.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Much as Jake looks near-identical to John, Poppop looks almost indistinguishable from Grandpa as far as we can see.
  • Vaudeville: Possibly where he performed as a comedian in his younger days, if references to his vaudevillian antics are to be taken literally.

Grandma English / Jade English

Jake's late grandmother, Jade's Alpha iteration, and the counterpart of Grandpa Harley. Unlike her adoptive brother, she set out away from the Batterwitch at an early age. She was an eccentric and brilliant woman, who explored the world, created Skaianet to rival Crockercorp (but lost), and raised Jake, before being murdered by the Condesce when Jake was very young.

Mom Lalonde

Roxy's mother, Rose's Alpha iteration, and the counterpart of Mom Lalonde. A famous author and, according to her "daughter", practitioner of real occult majyyks.

  • Badass: Like how Bro Strider, she takes on one of the main human figures that supports the Condesce by impaling him in the eyes and then riding his corpse down a waterfall.
  • The Chessmaster: Of the Resistance
  • Foreshadowing: Her writing includes amongst other things a chess match where the opponent played on despite losing their King and a Anti-Hero antagonist of ambiguous gender standing under a caduceus, which is UU's symbol.
    • According to Word of God, Rose's original wizard fiction was about the trolls. The full, published version involves Calmasis hunting down and killing each wizard one-by-one, with suitably ironic deaths. Each Troll thus far has had an ironic death.
    • Further explanations are listed on
  • Name's the Same: She is referred to as Mom Lalonde.
  • Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Roxy accuses her of this for caching cabinets full of booze she probably never drinks for Roxy to find in the future. Roxy just takes the booze though.
  • Reclusive Artist: Lived in the middle of nowhere and had a reputation for not tolerating Paparazzi.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Subverted, it's not the money so much as how she got it that left her above the law. She made way more money than should've been possible even if her books weren't dark and inaccessible. Suspected involvement of wytchkkrafts discouraged criminal investigations and even kept the Batterwitch at bay.
  • Seer: Well she is the same genetically as Rose Lalonde, and she somehow possess VISION OMNIFOLD and knows intricate details about the Condesce, UU and uu, and the Post-Scratch Human Session.

Bro Strider

Dirk's Ancestor, Dave's Alpha iteration, and the counterpart of Bro Strider. He became a very successful filmmaker, among other things, with an actual Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff movie being one of this latest productions as of the day on which Act 6 starts. He served as a integral member of the Resistance [2], giving him "a reputation staked on some order of MARTIAL NOBILITY."

God Cat / GCat

The First Guardian of post-Scratch Earth, and the counterpart of Becquerel. He apparently hangs around the kids, and both messes with and helps them at his whims.

  • The Blank: Except for his muzzle and green tongue.
  • Cats Are Magic: For a given definition of magic.
  • Cats Are Mean: Jade was very fond of Bec, calling him her best friend. Jane is... much more ambivalent about GCat.
    • Not to mention he indirectly killed Jaspers / Frigglish.
    • And left Roxy stranded in the Furthest Ring by cutting off her escape plan from the hungry Dersites.
    • And blocked Jane from pre-entry prototyping with Poppop Crocker by ejecting his stuffed corpse into space, also permanently preventing him from being used in post-entry prototyping.
  • Cool Cat
  • Fandom Nod: A possible one: it's common in fanart to depict Becquerel with a green tongue and/or mouth interior. GCat's tongue is green.
  • Meaningful Name: Since the Alpha kids couldn't agree on a good name for him, they call him God Cat - or GCat for short, which is made up of the first letters of the four bases of DNA, Guanine, Cytosine, Adenine, and Thymine.
    • GCAT is also what "MEOW" translates to in Rose's MEOW code, as seen in [S] Jack: Ascend.
  • Mind Control: GCat in the future is under the Condesce's control. It's implied that she's been controlling the cat's actions during Roxy and Dirk's timeline.
  • Physical God / Reality Warper: Like all the other First Guardians.
  • Right-Hand-Cat: The Condesce can be seen petting GCat (while under her control) in [S DD: Ascend more casually.]
  • Teleporters and Transporters
  • The Trickster: He's just as likely to randomly teleport Jane to the most inconvenient of places as he is to save her from letterbox bombings.
  • Troll: He once teleported Jane across town to a paddock in the middle of heavy rain, for absolutely no (known) reason at all.
    • In the future he's under the control of the Condesce, meaning his "Trolling" might well be part of her plans.

Frightening Fauna

Jake's island is populated by large numbers of frightening fauna... which happen to be the species of lusus seen in-comic on Alternia. The Condesce brought them with her on her ship as part of a plan to recreate Alternian society, but this ended in failure due to her own lusus killing off trolls and due to a lack of symbiosis between humans and Alternian life.

  • Ascended Extra: The skywhale lusus reappears, despite not belonging to any of the trolls in the comic.
  • Ascended Meme: The giant counterpart of Karkat's lusus is called a "gigantic Earth crabdad". "Crabdad" is the Fan Nickname of Karkat's lusus.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang: Jake's attack on the "gigantic Earth crabdad" confirms that it has candy red blood like Karkat.
  • Death Is Cheap: For the fairy bulls at least. Also, the Condesce brings with her a lusus that seems identical to G'lbgoyl'b, down to the same troll-killing voice -- much to her frustration. It's unknown how this lusus is related to Feferi's deceased guardian, but it's possible this trope is in play.
  • Giant Mook / Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The size of the lusii is pretty variable; the centaurs especially range from being their original size when seen with Equius to being the size of skyscrapers, probably intended as a continuation of Aurthour's Shout-Out to Humanimals. The "gigantic Earth crabdad" was also several times the size of Karkat's lusus.
    • King Mook: At least a few lusii seem to be solitary monsters and not an entire population.
  • Kaiju: Some of them are flavored like this.
  • Lost World: Jake's island has taken on this flavor because of their unexplained presence.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: The sweet fairy bulls. Jake reacts badly when he accidentally murders one.

A2 Troll Lusi & Ancestors

The Lusi

The trolls have a different kind of guardian, their Lusus Naturae, a kind of monster that takes the place of a parental figure as any adult would kill them without a second thought. They all die in various accidents and become each troll's sprite with the exception of Aradia, who is her own sprite.

In the Alpha Earth universe, Jake English's island is populated by FRIGHTENING FAUNA which are pretty much identical to the lusi.

GL'BGOLYB, a deep sea monster also known as THE RIFT'S CARBUNCLE, EMISSARY TO THE HORRORTERRORS, or in more hushed tones, SPEAKER OF THE VAST GLUB.

  • Kraken and Leviathan: Feferi's lusus is reminiscent of certain giant sea monsters.
  • Leitmotif: The lusi get a collective death theme.
  • Mercy Kill: Vriska puts her dying, trapped spider lusus out of its misery.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Gamzee's lusus was widly assumed by the Trolls and Gamzee himself to be kind of a lazy idiot. However, his neglect and letting Gamzee eat his slime pies led to Gamzee living a more normal and happier life as opposed to subjuggulating everyone.
  • Olympus Mons: Gl'bgolyb; it's not really clear if she's an actual Horrorterror or just one of their representatives capable of releasing a psychic shockwave capable of wiping out every troll in the universe (except for the Condesce and Feferi, who share her blood colour and have a natural Psychic Block Defense against it).
  • Our Centaurs Are Different: Equius' lusus, Aurthour. It actually looks like how centaurs are normally depicted, with the exception of having cow udders (despite its otherwise masculine appearance), which is a Mythology Gag to Andrew's Nightmare Fueled series at Team Special Olympics called Humanimals.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Terezi's lusus is a blind dragon that communicates telepathically, "sees" through smell and taste (which it taught Terezi how to do), spends it childhood in a giant egg, and hatches from it fully grown.
  • Parental Abandonment: Gamzee's lusus can be safely assumed to have not been there at all for Gamzee's entire life. And yet, he still goes outside every night to keep an eye out for him.
    • This is a good thing, for Gamzee at least.
    • Whereas Terezi outright never had a lusus, up until Vriska psychically connected her with her dragon lusus, who still took some time afterwards to hatch.
  • Peaceful in Death: The seagoat, unlike it's nature before it's death.
  • Seahorse Steed: Eridan's lusus.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": There's been some consternation over the correct plural of "lusus". On one hand, their death theme is "Death of the Lusii", with two Is. On the other hand, that's not the correct latin plural, so people tend to go with "lusi" with a single I. Radiation has said that he made a mistake with the pluralisation in titling that song, and pretty much sees it as an impetus to redo the song one day.
    • On the other hand, some handwave it away as being a Stealth Pun based on Sollux's quirk.
  • Stealth Pun: Eridan's trolltag is caligulasAquarium, and his lusus is a seahorse. Does this remind you of anything?
  • Tear Jerker: You know they're going to die. Some of the deaths--especially in the cases of Gamzee's guardian, Tinkerbull, and Aurthour--can be particularly heartwrenching.
  • The Un-Reveal: Several Lusus deaths are never shown but mentioned heavily, like Feferi's. As another example, Gamzee's lusus died from a harpoon wound, ie direct murder unlike the accidents of the others. At the time many suspected Eridan did this, but it has never been referenced since.
  • Ugly Cute: Karkat's sprite.
  • Uncatty Resemblance: All lusi seem to choose a troll with their same blood color. Additionally:
    • Aradia's kanagroo-like lusus has her curled horns.
    • Tavros and Tinkerbull share the same horns. Tinkerbull is also feeble and delicate, as Tavros is crippled, but has fairy wings, much like the Summoner, who may have shared the same type of lusus.
    • Sollux's bicyclops has the same red and blue eyes as he does and one horn on each head that resemble his four.
    • Nepeta's shares her cat-like mouth (though doubled) and her ears are in the same place as Nepeta's horns.
    • The virgin Mother Grub has Kanaya's horns and lips.
    • Vriska's giant spider has a fang bent like one of her horns and has eight eyes, though arrayed differently.
    • Gamzee's has horns that resemble his, and if the monster on Jake's island is any indication, shares his terrible temper and capacity for violence.
    • The Condensce's mane of hair, when viewed from the side, is a dead ringer for Gl'bgoylb. Feferi's hair isn't quite long enough to get the same effect but still resembles a few tentacles.

Ancestors


The Ancestors are Trolls who lived centuries ago and share a sign with the ones alive now. They are said to act as benevolent guardians if their descendant troll finds out who they are. Trolls with low-ranking blood colors tend to think of this as a fairy tale, but highbloods usually believe in the concept deeply. Not only is this belief true, but Karkat actually created the 12 troll ancestors at the same time he created himself and the other trolls we already know. The Ancestors all lived and died in the past with two exceptions - one who came from the far future, and one who lived to reach that point in the future and went somewhere else.

Doc Scratch revealed that they had Alternate Universe counterparts that had played Sburb/Sgrub but were unable to succeed. See their own page for details, as they have begun to appear on their own.

The Ancestors are:

Tropes regarding the Ancestors

  • And I Must Scream: The Ψiioniic, who winds up being used as a battery for the Condesce's personal ship, with a lifespan to match her own. It takes the Vast Glub to put the poor man out of his misery.
  • Anime Hair: Spinneret and The Disciple. The Grand Highblood takes it to the logical extreme. Her Imperious Condescension takes it to the illogical extreme.
  • Anti-Anti-Christ: The Handmaid does not seem happy about her role in shaping history.
  • Ascended Meme: Jegus and Gog, both in jokes between Terezi and Dave ballooned massively into a huge fandom meme. The Sufferer turning out to be almost literally Troll Jesus has revitalized that and Andrew mentioned it was partially a nod to the meme. ** Pantskat, a meme revolving around a particular Off-Model drawing of Karkat, was given a nod with the Sufferer's "Righteous Leggings."
  • Asskicking Equals Authority: Succession to the imperial throne is decided by duels, although only those at the top of the hemospectrum are allowed to challenge her. This is because only someone at the top of the hemospectrum can control Glb'golyb.
  • Atomic F-Bomb: The Vast Expletive uttered by the dying Sufferer, the culmination of his idealism turning to rage under the highbloods' torture.
  • Awesome McCoolname: Marquise Spinneret Mindfang. Orphaner Dualscar. Neophyte Redglare. Expatriate Darkleer. Even the Grand Highblood gets in on this, if only with a title rather than a name.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: The pre-Scratch trolls got screwed.
  • Beast of Battle: Redglare's dragon lusus, Pyralspite.
  • Bling of War: Orphaner Dualscar was decked the hell out back in the day, straight down to an incredible Badass Cape that is easily ten feet long, and it's clear now that Eridan tries to emulate this with varying levels of success.
    • The Condesce is decked out in so much bling she has more than every other character in the story combined and then some.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: Redglare was last seen in the middle of an angry mob of lowbloods.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: This line about the Handmaid's future from Doc Scratch: "My lessons would include mastery of obedience, clockwork majyyks, and being locked in a room."
  • Call Back: Everything, from Gamzee being an elite bloodthirsty killer clown to the dangerous magic cue ball to Karkat being a leader.
    • Karkat on the meaning of the Cancer symbol, 100 pages or so prior to the Sufferer's first physical appearance:

<span style=" color:

  1. 626262;">CG: [...] AND MY SIGN IS A PICTOGRAPHIC SYMBOL THAT LOOSELY TRANSLATES AS "PLEASE HIKE THESE PANTS UP TO THIS GUY'S ARMPITS, CHAIN HIM TO A FLOGGING JUT, AND MAKE A FUCKING EXAMPLE OUT OF THIS SORRY SACK OF SHIT."
  • Challenging the Chief: Successors are expected to challenge the Condesce to a Duel to the Death once they reach adulthood. Glb'golyb enforces this tradition.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Dualscar and Mindfang were introduced early on as Eridan and Vriska's FLARP characters, and Her Imperious Condescension was mentioned very shortly after Feferi was introduced. The concept of Trolls having a special conection to their ancestors wasn't brought up until much later when Eridan explains to Jade how he got his gun, Ahab's Crosshairs.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death:
    • Neophyte Redglare, who either didn't know about or severely underestimated Spinneret Mindfang's powers. Mindfang mind-controlled an entire stadium of lowbloods into lynching her, hence why she never got past "neophyte."
    • The Sufferer was tortured, flogged, shackled with red-hot irons and shot with arrows before he died.
    • The Ψiioniic was forced to Cast from Hit Points to get the Battleship Condescension back to Alternia as quickly as possible. The incredible strain would have killed him if the Vast Glub didn't get to him first.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Sufferer. The Dolorosa was almost literally the Virgin Mary. The Disciple has a lot of traits of the Apostles mixed with Mary Magdalene.
  • Cult: Following the Sufferer's execution, his followers -- including Redglare -- were reduced to being little more than a secret cult carrying on his beliefs and teachings on the down-low. Eventually even that faded away into little more than superstition, but they managed to make sure Karkat would have a lusus and a sign so he wasn't killed at birth.
  • Depraved Bisexual: Mindfang manipul8s a captive slave girl into making out with her while carrying on a casual conversation with Orphaner Dualscar, at least partially as blackrom flirting.
  • The Dragon: Both The Handmaid and then later The Condense serve Lord English in the role, the former throughout Alternia's post-Scratch history and the later in both versions of Earth and in the Alpha Session.
  • Dragon Lady: The Handmaid, described both as an Asian schoolgirl and death's "super foxy handmaid."
  • Dramatic Irony: What we know about "our" trolls vs. their paradox clones/famous ancestors.
  • Driven to Suicide: The Handmaid is very much alive and does not want to stay that way. Apparently, she's been like this since early childhood. Though who could blame her, with being raised by Homestuck's equivalent of the devil and constantly being reminded she can't fight her fate.
  • Expy: The Sufferer is fairly similar to WV; but this is probably only because they both are Messianic Archetype characters.
  • Face Framed in Shadow: Most of them are only ever seen in profile. Only the Disciple, Sufferer, Mindfang, and the Condesce have had their pupils shown but continue to appear in shadowy profiles. This applies even though the Condesce has become the Big Bad of Act 6. Several others never have their entire appearance revealed either. Orphaner Dualscar in particular never has his head distinctly shown, and his horns in his two appearances are just off panel.
  • Famous Ancestor: All of the ancestors held some kind of significance in troll history, be it a part of a great rebelion (The Summoner, The Sufferer, The Dolorosa, the Disciple, The Ψiioniic), holding some significant office or position (Mindfang, Dualscar, The Grand Highblood, Redglare, The Expatriate), or, in the most extreme cases, playing a key role in the entire history of the race (The Condesce, The Handmaid).
  • Fan Fiction: Word of God is that the sequences involving the Ancestors are meant as a Take That against Homestuck fanfic writers. Pretty much all of the ancestors have some Common Mary Sue Traits. It's even referred to as fanfiction on this page's banner Alt Text.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • Dolomom, for the Dolorosa.
    • Arasia, for the Handmaid back when she first appeared as an Asian-clothed Aradia in Doc Scratch's apartment.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: For most of the Sufferer's followers. The Ψiioniic has it the worst by far. Not only did he become the battery for the Condesce's ship, but was given an extended lifespan to match the Condesce's (he lived right up until the Vast Glub) -- and this is someone she liked. Likewise, the Handmaid has attempted suicide to escape from her fate, to no effect.
  • Fauxshadow: Mindfang's journalog hints at two big fights. The Grand Highblood/Gamzee will kill Orphaner/Eridan, and Mindfang/Vriska will kill Redglare/Terezi. Both are heavily subverted by Kanaya, whose ancestor was Mindfang's nameless sex slave and killed by Orphaner, comes out of nowhere and KO's Gamzee and Vriska and kills Eridan, while Vriska and Terezi do end up in a "battle" of sorts but Terezi kills Vriska rather than vice versa.
    • It also sort of back-fauxshadows everything we know about the trolls (see below) especially The Summoner, who was the one who ended up slaying Mindfang, and was possibly the greatest hero trollkind has ever known. It's obvious now that Vriska was honestly trying to get Tavros to kill her, and a large part of her disappointment was that he simply wasn't up to the task yet.
    • Foreshadow: Now things are getting weird. The kids are about to cause a scratch which will reset their universe at the cost of their memories, which is what the troll ancestors did. Except the ancestors were the players in a peaceful version of Alternia and "our" trolls were their ancestors. The problems for "our" trolls started when Karkat's ancestor The Sufferer started remembering what happened.
      • The Ψiioniic died trying to get the Condesce's battleship to Alternia and Sollux dies (again) trying to get the asteroid to the Green Sun.
  • Fluffy Tamer: Especially the Condesce and Redglare.
  • Generation Xerox: Played with across the board. One wonders how different "our" trolls would've turned out if they were a bit older and The Summoner's rebellion hadn't caused the Condesce to decentralize the empire and leave all the younguns on Alternia. One can also only imagine the brutal ancestors playing SGRUB on the peaceful pre-scratch Alternia.
    • Terezi & Redglare and Eridan & Dualscar are incredibly similar in both their ambitions and relationships.
    • Vriska's similarity to Mindfang is a case of the trope being enforced; the latter sent the former her diary so that she would gain the necessary tools to deal with the harshness of troll youth. Her character arc is mostly about her attempts and failures to live up her Byronic Hero ancestor's example and to force those around her into that mold, finishing with her growing awareness that maybe that isn't what she really wants or needs.
    • The case of The Grand Highblood and Gamzee is a bit different; Gamzee doesn't really seem to know (or care) about his Ancestor per se, but rather takes up the office of the Subjugglators once he isn't stoned on sopor slime.
    • Darkleer differs only slightly from his descendant: he openly defied the highbloods for the lowblooded woman he pitied (the Disciple) and spent the rest of his life lamenting his defiance of the social order. Equius finds defying the hemospectrum a depraved, shameful, and secretly enjoyable kink. His mechanical ability is the same, though, as is his STRENGTH and building a mechanical arm for Mindfang.
    • The Summoner and Tavros are as different as night and day. Tavros falls incredibly short of the kind of behavior you'd expect from the descendant of the naturally gifted leader of a huge rebellion against the Highbloods. Then again Vriska's interference certainly didn't help him either.
    • Likewise Karkat and The Sufferer, who was such a great rebel leader of trolls that he was wiped from history while Karkat became leader because the others didn't want to listen to his whining.
      • Karkat has been having a pretty shitty day as well.
    • Feferi and the Condesce are the most extreme pair, even beyond Tavros and the Summoner: the former is the most compassionate person in the empire and the latter is the most vicious. They're also the only two who could've possibly met at some point.
    • Aradia is the Maid of Time, and her ancestor was/is The Handmaid of Lord English and a wielder of "clockwork majyyks". Both of them are pawns to cosmic forces--or at least, they're more acutely aware of their status as pawns than any of their peers are--and are 0kay with this, whether simply resigned to their fate or emotionless in general, except during their occasional fits of violent rage.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Orphaner Dualscar was apparently either insecure or possessive enough to get jealous of what his kismesis did in entirely different quadrants (in human terms: your rival is jealous of your lover, best friend, and union representative). Spinneret seems both amused and annoyed by this.
    • Then again, it is very strongly implied that Dualscar may have had some Red Rom feelings for Spinneret. So, in human terms: your rival is secretly in love with you, and is jealous of your lover for that reason. Much more logical. Didn't make Dualscar any less of a Green-Eyed Monster though.
  • Hero of Another Story: Scratch reveals here that they were the heroes of the pre-Scratch troll session.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Their Scratch.
  • Hope Spot: The Handmaid has a few panels of blissful freedom, only to run into Lord English almost immediately.
  • Immortality Begins At Twenty: The Condesce and the Handmaid don't look like they've aged much since they reached adulthood around nine sweeps.
  • Immortality Hurts: The Handmaid.
  • In the Blood: Special emphasis on Karkat and Tavros since their rebellious ancestors were probably wiped from history and it doesn't appear that Vriska told Tavros why she was so fixated on him or why she accepted Karkat as leader (if she connected Karkat and the Sufferer's symbols at all).
  • La Résistance / The Mole: The Sufferer had at least one secret ally during Mindfang's time.
  • Lady in Red And Teal: Redglare.
  • Living Forever Is Awesome: The Condesce was having a blast up until the Glub left everyone dead.
  • Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places: Mindfang was pimping. She was also completely nondiscriminatory, soliciting her ship's slaves while it was too dark to tell their blood color. And yes, she was hoping to find a matesprit among the slaves she seduced. Her final matesprit is the Summoner (Tavros' ancestor), who will love her and eventually kill her.
    • She also failed in looking for Hate with Dualscar, whose implied, mismatched redrom feelings for her turned their blackrom from rivalry to enmity and led to the loss of a potential love, an arm, an eye, her lusus, and her fleet.
  • The Makers: Of the post-Scratch troll universe. Well, sort of.
  • Manipulative Bitch / The Corrupter: The Handmaid takes/took over for Doc Scratch, manipulating Alternia into a violent dystopia:

Doc Scratch: She stirred up class warfare and intensified bigotry in whatever era she haunted. She made sure the descendents would enter a world which prepared them well for the game, and took measures to see that they would play as they did.

  • May-December Romance: Mindfang and the Summoner. He hasn't been born yet, and she knows about him thanks to her prized magic cueball.
    • And though she doesn't know it, between Mindfang and the Dolorosa, the latter having been alive for hundreds of sweeps - though it's implied Mindfang was around when the Sufferer was executed.
  • Meaningful Name: As it turns out, though, the fancy names aren't just for show; the names are, in fact, perfectly descriptive of each individual Ancestor. Mindfang really can tear into lesser minds at will, and Orphaner very likely did leave a mess of orphans in his wake. Yes, this is just about as horrifying as it sounds. It even crosses over into "our" trolls' Sgrub titles:
    • The Knight of Blood: Tortured bloody until he renounced love for rage at the end of his life.
    • The Maid of Time: Granted immortality and the ability to travel to key-points throughout Alternian history, shaping it into the over-the-top Crapsack World it was. She's also subservient to English, making her Maid-ness apparent.
    • The Thief of Light: She plundered many riches and stole the heart of the Summoner, one of the most heroic trolls in history.
      • The Sylph of Light: After billions of years in the dreambubbles Aranea has the best insight into how things work and offered to heal Terezi's eyes. Reborn as Mindfang she saw that she would die at the hand of her lover centuries in the future.
    • The Prince of Hope: He hoped the Subjuggelators would take care of his kismesis but it appears they took care of him instead.
    • The Witch of Life: The Condesce could extend a life but not resurrect it.
      • The Thief of Life: Meenah stole all her friends' lives to trade for the scratch; reborn as The Condesce she's stolen billions of lives.
    • The Mage of Doom: Psychically powered the Empress' starship, bringing doom to any alien life they found.
    • The Seer of Mind: As a legislacerator (bounty hunter/prosecutor/executioner) she should be able to outwit her prey; unfortunately she was herself outwitted.
    • The Page of Breath: He could fly and was probably erased from the pages of history.
    • The Heir of Void: His ancestor was a "psychic void" that made him undetectable even to Doc Scratch.
    • The Bard of Rage: His only demand is to be entertained; those who don't get added to his bloody frescoes.
    • The Rogue of Heart: Deeply in love with the Sufferer ("Their love surpassed the four quadrants -- whatever that means") and lived in seclusion with his teachings.
    • The Sylph of Space: A sylph is a female spirit said to be filled with melancholy. Dolorosa means "Lady of Sorrows".
  • The Messiah / Messianic Archetype: The Summoner: He would exhi8it a remarka8le pup8tion, the sort only recorded in myth, growing, or perhaps simply revealing, a striking pair of wings.
    • Dark Messiah / Fallen Hero: What happened to the once-idealistic Sufferer after he was tortured by the highbloods right before he died.
  • Mind Control: Mindfang can manipul8 people, and she's a lot more subtle about it than Vriska.
  • Monster Clown: The Grand Highblood.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast / Awesome McCoolname: Marquise Spinneret Mindfang, Orphaner Dualscar, the Grand Highblood, Neophyte Redglare, Expatriate Darkleer / the Executor, the Summoner, the Signless Sufferer and the Condesce / Her Imperious Condescension. The Handmaid subverts this but plays straight with her alternate title, the Demoness.
  • Nice Hat: Spinneret Mindfang. She is a Pirate after all.
  • Not Quite Saved Enough: Andrew could save her from Doc Scratch, but he couldn't save her from Lord English.
  • Off-Model: Seems Aradia follows in her ancestor's footsteps. (This panel was swiftly corrected, but not before the entire fanbase right-click-saved for hilarity.)
  • Offing the Offspring: The Condesce and her heirs are expected to Duel to the Death over the throne whenever an heir reaches adulthood.
  • Orcus on His Throne: The Grand Highblood definitely has the visual down, and seems to be content to sit around and wait for chumps to come to him instead of looking for dudes to slaughter.
  • Posthumous Character: Almost all of them are dead by the time their introduced.
  • The Power of Love: The Disciple loved the Sufferer and he in turn loved her so much that it superseded the need for the 4 quadrants. Doc dismisses it as being ridiculous though.
    • The Power of Rage: What the Sufferer discovered between getting the idealism tortured out of him and dying.
  • Powered By A Forsaken Psychic: The Ψiioniic is the battery that runs/navigates the Condesce's starship.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Mindfang, although The Condesce easily beats her.
  • Rebel Leader: The Summoner led a revolution that, while ultimately crushed, prompted a huge upheaval of the Troll society. The Sufferer also led one a long time before that was so great, even mentioning it in your private journal was forbidden.
  • Reincarnation Romance: Okay, not the technical definition of the trope, but a lot of pairings of the Ancestors recur in the modern trolls. Some play out the same way, like Eridan's unrequited crush on Feferi or cooling of ♣Auspistices with Vriska, or Darkleer's inability to kill the Disciple resurfacing as ♦Moirallegiance between Nepeta and Equius. But some are subverted like The Sufferer / The Disciple transcending all the quadrants, but Nepeta's crush on Karkat is unrequited. Whether this is due to age differences, the fact that the Ancestors were dropped in different times from one another (Redglare wasn't even around when the Sufferer died, for instance), or simple differences in character is unclear and will probably never be resolved.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The Signless alone among the Ancestors exhibited low levels of this, being able to remember some of pre-Scratch Alternia, but only brief glimpses.
  • Rule of Symbolism: The Sufferer is essentially Troll Jesus, with The Dolorosa as the Virgin Mary. The Disciple is a conglomerate of the Apostles (particularly Saint Peter) and Mary Magdelene. However, The Ψiioniic doesn't really correspond to any figure in the New Testament.
  • Short Hair with Tail: The Handmaid bears a variation with bangs.
  • Sinister Shades: Redglare. Her love of red sunglasses led Terezi to adopt a pair as one of her defining accessories.
  • Sinister Silhouettes: The only facial features we've ever been able to see on them are eyes, mouths, face paint, and glasses.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": The Ψiioniic.
  • Spell My Name with a "The": 2/3 of them: The Grand Highblood, The Summoner, The Condesce, The Sufferer / The Signless, The Dolorosa, The Ψiioniic / The Helmsman, The Disciple, The Handmaid / The Demoness. The remaining ones actually have names and aren't referred to by titles, though Darkleer is referred to as The E%ecutioner as well.
    • Insistent Terminology: And it is always a capital The as well.
    • No Name Given: We know from Doc Scratch's narration that they do have names, with possible exception to The Handmaid. Based on the Pre-Scratch Trolls (and if patterns shown with John and Jade hold true), Mindfang's name would be Aranea and the Condesce's Meenah.
  • Stylistic Suck: Mindfang's journal. Word of God said it's intentionally in "The Bad Fanfiction Zone". Doc Scratch's story introducing the rest of the Ancestors probably falls under this too, given that Hussie in-story calls it "troll fanfiction".
  • Sure Why Not: The slave girl who is assassinated by Dualscar ends up being the Dolorosa having since been sold into slavery, probably mostly because fans speculated that Kanaya's ancestor was said slave.
  • Team Mom: The Dolorosa, the Sufferer's adopted lusus.
  • Theme Naming: Most of the ancestors have eight-letter names except for the Grand Highblood/Subjugglator. This is often enforced in the comic by using special characters in place of letters, such as The Expatri8 and the Ψiioniic.
  • Tron Lines: All of the Ancestors are shown only as black silhouettes with colored details, invoking this with their clothes especially... But also Darkleer, who had actual Tron Lines apparently drawn into his flesh.
  • Tyke Bomb: The Handmaid.
  • Unperson: What the Condesce did to the Sufferer after crushing his revolution. This is probably a good thing for his descendant Karkat, who unknowingly wears the Sufferer's "sym69l" on top of having mutant-red blood.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Maybe. While Word of God states that anything a troll says about their history and biology is true unless otherwise noted, we're getting this information from Vriska's ancestor/clone; then again, Mindfang is less "dramaaaaaaaatic" than Vriska. Later on further information is revealed by Doc Scratch, who is unreliable in his own way.
    • Hussie (or his stand-in) further complicates matters a little by calling all this information Doc Scratch's "troll fanfiction" in the banner altext. On the other hand Scratch is the author of post-scratch Alternia, and Hussie pretty much hates the guy for taking over his story.
    • Hussie did say that Mindfang was "the real deal," and her story is simultaneously a retelling of real historical events (from her perspective) and a parody of ridiculous, trashy pirate romance fiction.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The Handmaid used to be such an adorable little grub.
  • Victory-Guided Amnesia: Revealed here. Well, more like Heroic Sacrifice guided amnesia.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Handmaid.

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  1. ↑ The garbled nonsense comes from when AH changed the use of the word "white" to describe him to that word to stop a heated forum argument over the kids' race. It's been changed back since. Hussie's also clarified that when he first wrote the line he hadn't defined Bro's role in the story as Dave and Rose's genetic father, so it wasn't supposed to be indicative of their ethnicity, which he says is canonically "a-racial."
  2. ↑ Keeping his class as a Knight in much the same way Mom Lalonde is a Seer
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