Horror Terror squiddle theory

[thorondraco]

Okay here my out with this.

Wtih the horror terrors we have learned seeming contradictory information about them. They are great eldritch evils in the depths of the furthest ring, yet apparently aren't bad guys? They allow doomed selves and those sacrificed for the Plot a place to screw around in, yet they seemingly used them as bait against lord english? They defy the narrative and presumably its influence is weak in the depths of the Void, but they are integral in certain aspects of the story?
We have seen them depicted as affectionate plushies and as horrific monsters.

But what if this dichotomy is simply showing two sides of the horror terrors, if not different Factions?

During the pesterquest, yea i know beyond cannon but its part of this horror terror thing, we see something presumably speaking through a friendsim character. This individual seemed to speak relatively clearly and was very wise, if prone to complicated prose. More than likely, this was a horror terror...
More so it seemingly was talking about unlockin one's ultimate self and it seemed to be less of the void and darkness and more of enlightenment and wisdom.

When we look back to what Rose was becoming when she was dealing with Horror terrors though, she became darker and darker still. She kinda became a bit villainous and self important, risking shit. True she had to for narrative but it was still on her. As if rather than being enlightened she grew darker and angry. More align with what the horror terrors are viewed as or may appear.

By this standard apparently horror terrors are vicious, angry and necromantic beings, yet enlightened, empathetic, and wise....
But both posses a similar theme or defiance. The monolgue of the horror terror in the pesterquest route was about comprehend the biggest picture, to comprehend the true scale of reality, and to 'move the movers.' As it were. While the horror terrors Rose was drawing power from were destructive, dissecting how the universe worked and defying the inevitable.

This leads to another factor. We know the names of perhaps two 'horror terrors'. Not the fo chtulu names, but Podlight and Inkabelle, the names of two characters in the squiddle show. Inkabelle being one lost in darkness for many years, and podlight being the one who found her. And yes, pesterquest again.... Maybe i should have put all of this there but i don't care atm. Horror terrors came from Homestuck first.

So we have buhddist horror terrors and we have more traditional eldritch horror terrors, contrarian actions by horror terrors, and we have two individuals named who are clearly referencing Light and Void aspects. This does not seem like a coincidence.

[MorganMustDie]

I dunno if this addresses everything you've said but Hussie pointed out in the commentary for one of the books (sorry I can't remember which one, so someone will have to go trawling for it) that the horrorterrors will do a lot to stop Lord English, and that treating their motivations as such explains a lot of their behaviour.

The earliest example he gave that I remember is the horrorterrors influencing Rose to get rid of her journals, because without the journals there is no Becquerel, without Becquerel there is no Bec Noir, without Bec Noir there is no Cascade, without Cascade there is no Lord English.
Feferi asks them to create a playground for all the ghosts of alternate timelines? Great! An infinitely huge army of ghost pawns to throw against English!
Teenage Rose wants to utilise your dark magic to tear her session apart? Great! Maybe in there she'll discover a way to kill Lord English!

The horrorterrors, like the denizens or Skaia itself, seem to be pretty hiveminded for the most part, and I would guess this extends to their existential mischief. There is something to be said for timeless, immortal, all-knowing and all-powerful beings being afraid of death and nonexistence, and since Lord English's powers trump those of the conditional immortality system, he is the biggest threat to the horrorterrors' collective presence. As such, they are willing to bend Skaia's rules (eg trying to prevent Bec from existing even though they can see he already does) and create doomed timelines for themselves, despite knowing the consequences. To the horrorterrors, living in a doomed existence is preferable to death by English's hand.

Most of their actions seem to line up if you think about it this way. They're a group of near-immortal, ultra intelligent, hivemind beings, trying to use their influence to sway the timeline away from the one thing that can kill them, regardless of the consequences

[thorondraco]

I dunno if this addresses everything you've said but Hussie pointed out in the commentary for one of the books (sorry I can't remember which one, so someone will have to go trawling for it) that the horrorterrors will do a lot to stop Lord English, and that treating their motivations as such explains a lot of their behaviour.

The earliest example he gave that I remember is the horrorterrors influencing Rose to get rid of her journals, because without the journals there is no Becquerel, without Becquerel there is no Bec Noir, without Bec Noir there is no Cascade, without Cascade there is no Lord English.
Feferi asks them to create a playground for all the ghosts of alternate timelines? Great! An infinitely huge army of ghost pawns to throw against English!
Teenage Rose wants to utilise your dark magic to tear her session apart? Great! Maybe in there she'll discover a way to kill Lord English!

The horrorterrors, like the denizens or Skaia itself, seem to be pretty hiveminded for the most part, and I would guess this extends to their existential mischief. There is something to be said for timeless, immortal, all-knowing and all-powerful beings being afraid of death and nonexistence, and since Lord English's powers trump those of the conditional immortality system, he is the biggest threat to the horrorterrors' collective presence. As such, they are willing to bend Skaia's rules (eg trying to prevent Bec from existing even though they can see he already does) and create doomed timelines for themselves, despite knowing the consequences. To the horrorterrors, living in a doomed existence is preferable to death by English's hand.

Most of their actions seem to line up if you think about it this way. They're a group of near-immortal, ultra intelligent, hivemind beings, trying to use their influence to sway the timeline away from the one thing that can kill them, regardless of the consequences

That displays the behavior of the darker part of these individuals but not the more wise and even empathetic ones. The perspective of something raging against reality and lord english, another who is wise and seems to have an understanding of the universe of the same level as an Ultimate self.
It seems Feferi largely has contact with the benign horror terror. Which would mean even if there is some hivemind going on, if there is, it is divided between two beings. A dark and a benign one.

An interesting thing is noted during Aradia's pesterquest too. The dream bubbles blind the 'powers that be'. Which means while we the audience can see into them those who command paradox space, apparently, are blind. Which means that the entirety of the dream bubble events are actually unknown to the 'powers that be'.

I have a theory. We are basically peering into lord english's 'post canon' with the dream bubbles. It is possible that rather than all of the dream bubble and furthest ring adventuring being naturally part of homestuck, the horror terrors FORCED it to be part of homestuck, so that they could do something major.
My guess is that the Horror terrors are so powerful that paradox space had Lord english exist as a means of eliminating them. He would spend all of existence attacking the horror terrors. The horror terrors create dreambubbles to use as a means of applying influence onto the alpha, that or they were originally just benignly designed but the darker horror terror plotted and used them for this purpose.
And then their masterstroke. The Retcon. If the powers that be have no vision, hearing, nor influence in the void, then there is no way they could stop retcon from being unleashed. No dooming that timeline, cause it happens OUTSIDE of the timelines.

And the best part is, obvioiusly, they ain't dead. The horror terrors are likely trapped in Candy, but thanks to retcon and the presence of Candy, they survived. And there is no telling what they are plotting now. Retcon was their means of surviving paradox space's attempt to exterminate them, by changing lord english's victory into defeat.
Even the ghost army is not necessary for the timeloop if you think about it, nor is unleashing the captive players. What is important is caliborn goes into the void as Cal and becomes a component to lord english. That is necessary for the loop. And if the furthest ring cannot be seen nor heard by the powers that be, ALL of the ghost nonsense was happening without them knowing it.

One thing we have to remember about Homestuck is one can make changes and make them seem like that was the direciton all the time. By reinterpreting a scene or altering the course of the story before it is properly displayed to an audience. That is literally how story telling can work. You can turn a cough into foreshadowing or rewrite the ending to an new direction, fooor better or worse.
as both Dirk and John said, they can make it seem like what they changed was always meant to happen.

We can even say the same with the friendsim character. The horror terror speaking through him MADE it that all along that Feferi was seeking advice from it. Even if the timeline itself is not the main timeline, because it showed the concept to reality, it BECAME reality, manipulating the shadows of the story, unspoken and unshown things, so long as it does not contradict the main canon.

So yea if the Ghost subplot of homestuck was created by the horror terrors and connected to homestuck, that kinda changes literally everything. And i think there is evidence to this cause, ultimately, the timeloop does not NEED the subplot.