John Egbert
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | John Egbert |
| Occupation: | |
| Relationships: | Jade Harley (ecto-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) |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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
4/13
Birthday art for 4/13 is a common way to celebrate the Homestuck anniversary, possibly along with Jane Crocker's birthday or Neil banging out the tunes.
Shipping
Popular ships include John/Karkat, John/Dave, John/Vriska, and John/Rose. Nicher ones include Dirk/John.
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." Joan has historically been a common name for genderbends or trans headcanons of characters named John (see: Joan Watson).
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. Using the name "June" grew in popularity at this time for unclear reasons, possibly in reference to a pesterlog with Vriska.[3][4] At some point, Andrew Hussie was made aware of the the headcanon, and those close to him indicated his excitement for it. [5]
Toblerones
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".[6]
Fan Response
Some fans were thrilled and adopted the idea as canonical immediately.
(in response to an anonymous ask reading: "Wait so is John a trans girl now? Like, officially? Or is it just a "do what you want" thing?"):it’s official in the most homestuck way official can be- content is still being released, the work is actively a franchise, we know the team working on new stuff likes it and we like it, it’s all a matter of ‘when/how/where’ it’ll show up
tomatograter, August 27th, 2019 [7]
Other fans were very upset by this development, which frustrated June Egbert fans browsing the relevant tag.[8]
Still other fans enjoyed the headcanon, but felt like it was premature to declare June Egbert definitively canon.
i recently saw someone’s twitter bio that said ‘don’t deadname june’ [in reference to june egbert] and don’t get me wrong i love june and the whole concept of here more than most but like she has not been canonized in literally any homestuck media the only place she exists with any legitimacy beyond headcanon is a twitter reply from andrew hussie you can not fucking be mad at people for treating her like she isn’t canon when she… isn’t canon. it’s some JKR dumbledore shit. this shouldnt be good enough Representation to please youif and when hs2 gets around to canonizing june that’ll be awesome (i still will not read it but my bottles will pop) but like… shit like this is the reason i can not interact with any facet of the homestuck canon at all anymore.
Homestuck^2: Beyond Canon
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.[10][11] In October 2023, the comic started up again with a new team.
Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanfiction
- 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.
Fanart
- i luv the junior ectobiologist lab suit soo much… by meruz
- it is in the nature of the wind to change by tomatograter
MSPFAs
- Failure to Launch by cutelilufo
Games
- Pink Sky, a post-canon visual novel directed by Dani Lalonders
Meta
- John’s a really interesting case of this blank-slate, everyman sort of character surrounded by a very deep, richly written supporting cast by heir-of-puns (Jan 19th, 2017)
- John’s narrative in the epilogues - specially candy- feels very trans-like by tomatograter (August 14th, 2019)
Archives and Links
References
- ^ Page in Act 4
- ^ Page in Act 5 Act 2
- ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/homestuck/comments/g0qxwf/vriska_and_names/
- ^ June Egbert FAQ megathread on Reddit by MoreEpicThanYou747
- ^ https://tomatograter.tumblr.com/post/186994621105/episode-49-live-in-renton-evil-women-w-aysha#notes
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20190826181008/https://twitter.com/placeholder4abn/status/1165649722561855488
- ^ "it's official in the most homestuck way official can be". Retrieved 18 Oct 2024.
- ^ https://tomatograter.tumblr.com/post/187321587370/i-know-the-news-might-come-as-a-surprise-to-a-lot
- ^ "it's some JKR dumbledore shit. by ot3". Archived from the original on 18 Oct 2024. Retrieved 18 Oct 2024.
- ^ https://www.patreon.com/posts/future-approach-47431875
- ^ https://homestuck.net/official/patreon/posts/future-approach-47431875/