The other day, I was recently reminded of a fandom that I was a part of in middle school that utilizes the concept of a reverse timeline. I knew the concept was familiar to me when I began developing my film ideas, but I couldn’t figure out where from. Turns out, I remembered the concept being used in a popular comic called “Homestuck.”
Similarly to the Dream SMP, the plotline of Homestuck is complicated and extremely long, so I’m not going to explain it in its entirety. If I did that, I would be here all week. Instead, I’ll only talk about how Homestuck incorporates the reverse timeline idea.
Since the story of Homestuck typically follows the protagonist, John Egbert, the first time that we see evidence of the reverse timeline is from his perspective. The reader sees John respond via text to another character, whose name we later find out is Karkat Vantas. At this moment in time, it is John’s first time speaking with Karkat. Karkat, however, says this:
(A photo showing Karkat explaining to John over messages about the reverse timelines when John first speaks to Karkat).
John has a hard time believing this, and so do the readers. Primarily because this idea of opposite timelines, someone knowing more about you than you do about them, and future selves speaking with past selves are unnatural concepts to humans. In our non magical world, none of these things exist, which makes it hard for our mind to comprehend abstract thoughts like the ones listed above. Karkat does do a pretty good job at explaining the basics of the reverse timelines idea, even if John remains suspicious. As we continue reading, Karkats words prove true. John continues to learn more about Karkat while Karkat seems to know less about John. And, like Karkat said, he has to repeat himself a lot. When we finally arrive at the highly anticipated first contact with Karkat from Karkat's perspective, it is a stark (and quite funny) difference in each other's first and last conversations with one another.
(An excerpt from Karkat's (grey) first and John’s (blue) last conversation with one another).
John does a much better job at explaining the strange backwards conversations the two engage in. We also are given a bit of backstory in the dialogue as to why Karkat chose to speak to John backwards. Spoiler alert, it’s because Karkat embarrasses himself. He also chose to speak to John right at the end of the available time that Karkat can converse with John, which means if Karkat wanted to speak more with John, it could only be past Johns. Note: Karkat's access to John’s timeline is never explained in clear detail, the mechanic is pretty much chalked up to Karkat and his other friends having created the world/dimension that John lives in. There's a lot of strange time shenanigans and general weirdness in Homestuck, so a lot of times the readers simply have to accept that these things just happen in the story.
By examining Homestuck, I now know that there is a way for me to incorporate my reverse timeline idea into my story successfully. I also know that I could potentially take inspiration from how Homestuck doesn’t explain how this happens. Doing so could prevent myself and my viewers' heads from hurting as I try to explain how a reverse timeline works in modern day. I mean, it has worked before. I could also provide no explanation as to how the magic works as a way to share with the audience how “magic is everywhere” or even “the power of imagination.” These themes will work really well with my modern day setting, and could be a cool take on a fantasy film. Homestuck has given me plenty of ideas that will be helpful in creating my final project.
I’ll see you soon :))
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