John Egbert
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | John Egbert |
| Occupation: | |
| Relationships: | Jade Harley (sister)
Dad (Adoptive father, Genetic half-brother) Vriska Serket (patron troll) Nanna (Adoptive grandmother, Genetic mother) Poppop (Post-Scratch Self) Wayward Vagabond (Exile) |
| Fandom: | Homestuck |
| Other: | Pesterchum handles: ectoBiologist (current), ghostyTrickster (previous) |
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This article or section needs expansion. |
John Egbert is one of the main characters of the webcomic Homestuck and the first one who appears to the reader. John uses an online application known as Pesterchum to communicate with his other tech-savvy friends. His chumhandle is ectoBiologist. It used to be ghostyTrickster, but he changed it to avoid the trolls. He chose the name ectoBiologist based on a comment by Terezi.[1]
As of December 2014, there are 8,354 works on AO3 and 3,100 works on fanfiction.net with John listed as one of the characters. There may be some overlap between the two sites. The most popular Homestuck pairing on AO3 is John/Dave, with 3,023 works as of December 2014 and 4,471 works as of October 2017. It is difficult to track how popular he is on Tumblr, considering the archiving methods of the blogging platform.
Canon
Biography
He has a fairly warm and positive relationship with his parent, unlike the majority of Homestuck characters. He is the leader of his session, but considers himself more of a "friendleader."[2]
Relationships
Beta Kids
Rose, Dave and Jade are his long-standing best friends. He got nervous about Karkat's suggestion that John and Rose should get married. Around the Seer: Descend flash, he became nervous when they met, but quickly warmed up to her, and even brought up the subject of marrying her, which he became embarrassed about.
Alpha Kids
Dad
Trolls
Fandom
Shipping
Popular ships include John/Karkat, John/Dave, John/Vriska, and John/Rose.
Sexuality
In canon John says to Karkat that he is "not a homosexual." There is much discussion and fights about whether or not this means that canon John is clearly heterosexual: other fans say that as a 13-year-old kid, John himself might not be clearly aware of his sexuality yet, and that sexuality is fluid. The statement features heavily in many fanworks that ship John with Dave or Karkat for added angst.
Gender
Fans who have headcanoned or explored the idea of John being a transgender girl usually use the name "June" or "Joan."
With the release of The Homestuck Epilogues in 2019, interpretation of the character being trans became more prominent. This discussion was popular on Tumblr and AO3. At some point, Andrew Hussie was made aware of the the headcanon, and those close to him indicated his excitement for it. In August 2019, the first person to find the cache of candy in the first of Hussie's Toblerone hunts, Twitter user @placeholder4abn, posted her find to Twitter. Receiving a joking reply from another user of "CONGRATS ON BECOMING THE NEW HOMESTUCK AUTHOR," she replied in kind with a joke referencing the Bridges And Off-Ramps essay released in the previous day's episode of the Perfectly Generic Podcast: "Thank you all, having proven myself both conscientious and invested i declare June Egbert Real the direction of the will of the fans @eboy_hussie Take Note." Hussie replied, "you were the first to find my treasure, and so it will be done".[3]
It is expected that canonization of June would occur in Homestuck^2: Beyond Canon. Hints of setup for a gender arc were made in Candy timeline chapters, but in February 2021 the comic went on indefinite hiatus with a plan to be released all at once when it is finished.[4][5]
Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
- Battlefield Terra by Asuka Kureru or Askerian
- Real Men Wear Tights by Bananaramses and SergeantMeow
- Don't Point That Finger at Me Unless You Intend To Use It by Blue_Thallium
- Godfeels series by Sarah Zedig is a popular fanwork featuring June Egbert and an exploration of the character as transfem.