So, Act 2; Episode 1 of HSBC has just drawn to a close, and if I'm right, the next upd8 will be the start of another intermission where whatever the Fanontinuum is will be explained in more detail. So before that happens, I'm collecting my speculation about what it is here for posterity, and to see what I got right and what I got wrong.
So, what we know about the Fanontinuum from first glance: it appears to be a talk show set, hosted by Nepeta Leijon, with the help of a Gamzee-esque individual named Mr. Gamby, spectated by a bunch of other Nepeta Leijons. Our POV character, at least for its introduction, is Crowbar, who accesses it from the mansion Jane is having/has had constructed on the moon.
The last panel of the intermission reveals that showhost!Nepeta is alive, as her eye is a normal troll eye and not an empty white one. I also noticed that hers are the only eyes you see, all the Nepetas in the audience have their eyes closed or hidden, which seems like a very deliberate decision to me. I suspect the audience Nepetas are all ghosts while Showhost!Nep is special, somehow. It's been pointed out to me that the glasses she's wearing aren't just any glasses...
Which is to say, they're Dave's glasses. I've heard theories that that means this Nepeta is specifically the Nepeta that came from Davepeta, or that this is Davepeta altering their appearance to lean more Nepeta-heavy than Dave. I'm not sure if I believe that, but after Equius appeared in [S] Ly'lac: Enter wearing a familiar set of cracked, triangular glasses, I am leaning more toward believing that Davepeta has something to do with this Nepeta, (and the same goes for Arquius and this Equius.)
As noted, the Fanontinuum is accessible from Earth-C, (Or well, from a mansion on a moon which is adjacent to Earth-C but whatever.) The logo/title card of The Fanontinuum also reminds me of this mutated house structure they find in the dreambubbles, which al describes like this:
it is an eyesore and worse, its purpose has become obfuscated, form plagued with an ever-expanding amalgamation of wings, and rooms, and atriums, and winding exhibition halls. all uncurated, thoughtlessly tacked on to accommodate garish, self-indulgent new installations.
Which is how I imagine the concept of fanon would be described by someone who doesn't like fanon very much. As such, I speculate that this structure is the Fanontinuum, or a representation of it somehow.
What that means is, the Fanontinuum is accessible both from Candy Earth-C and from the Meat universe. And right now the Candy adults are all trying to get from one to the other.
So, here's how I think this is gonna go down. The Candy adults, looking for a way to get to the Meat universe and retrieve their kids, are gonna find Jane's moon mansion. They're going to try to use it as a path to the Meat universe only to be told that they have to go through a bunch of character development oversought by davepeta first, mirroring what Vriska had to do to gain the power to abscond to Meat. Once they're sufficiently prepared they'll exit into the dreambubbles, find their way to the satyr/nymph/candykid session, and confront Dirk and Vriska and their kids. I can't predict where the story will go after that, that's out of my wheelhouse.
I also suspect it'll have something to do with the Ultimate Self. If this Nepeta is/was part of Davepeta, she might have access to her Ultimate Self the same way Dirk does, hell, maybe that's even what the audience of alt-Nepetas is a representation of. I also strongly suspect Helltier will be a part of it, and that the trials the Candy adults have to go through will be an evolution on what happened to Vriska in the point. The Fanontinuum and Helltier are both concepts we don't know much about that I suspect will dovetail into each other.
Also, it's odd that Crowbar is our POV character for the Fanontinuum's introduction, isn't it? I'm taking that as a sign that some of the less relevant characters will get another chance at the spotlight. Who else will show up? Feferi? The Authority Regulator? Dare I even hope... QUARTERS?
Anyway, that's all my speculation about what's gonna happen with the Fanontinuum, but there's a few more things I couldn't fit into my big text dump. First I think that the dreambubbles will be important to the Fanontinuum. The Meat-side exit is in the bubbles, [S] Ly'lac: Look draws our attention to one specific bubble the horrorterrors seem to be protecting, and the last thing Nepeta says before our first look at an inhabited Deltritus is "But first, a word from our sponsors," which when paired with the fact that Callie says the dreambubbles are eminating outward from the Deltritus session implies to me that the bubbles are an important component that allow the Fanontinuum to exist. Also, I have a pet theory that basically isn't related to this at all that Jane's baby-blue mansion gets moved to Earth-C, stands there for thousands of years, gets overtaken by a rogue historian/author, gets painted green, and is eventually found by LE and turned into a home base for his goons. (in fact now that im looking at them side-by-side, yeah thats just the same mansion seen from a different angle and flipped on the X-Axis isn't it.) I'm guessing at some point during the falling action of HSBC, there's gonna be a scene of Hussie creeping out of the fanontinuum and finding his way to the Carnegie's Study room and propping his feet up on the desk, making a grand point about how anyone can be an author if they want and homestuck is whatever you make of it, or something.
Ok thats everything for real. I'm excited to see where HSBC take this, whether I got any of it right or not!
