| “ | The process of healing involves sifting through what it isn't, which happens to be everything your trou8bled mind has to offer | „ |
| ~ Aranea Serket |
Aranea Serket is a minor antagonist in Andrew Hussie's webcomic Homestuck. Aranea played an important role in causing the doomed timeline that resulted in "Game Over" for the protagonists. She is the dancestor of Vriska Serket.
Early Life
Aranea Serket originates from a pre-scratch version of the Alternian trolls' universe. After Damara Megido kills Meenah Peixes, Aranea takes Meenah's dead body to her quest bed, resulting in Meenah transforming into a god tier. Aranea and all of the other pre-scratch trolls were killed by Meenah's bomb, to prevent them from being erased by the scratch. Her post-scratch self is Marquise Spinneret Mindfang, Vriska Serket's ancestor.
Act 6 Act 5 Act 1
Aranea makes her first Offical apperance in Act 6 Act 5 Act 1, waving to Jake English in a black void after he fell unconcious. Aranea then climbs up a tree with Meenah that lead up to Jake's tree house. There they formally met Jake and Dirk Strider. Later Aranea goes back into a dream bubble on Vriska's ship and tells everyone about the reproductive cycle of cherubs, the birth of Caliborn and Calliope, and how Caliborn would have to complete a nigh impossible challenge in his dead session.
Act 6 Act 6 Act 2
After the ship ride Ghost Aranea goes into John Egbert and Jade Harleys golden ship were Ghost Aranea took over Gamzees mind and forced Gamzee to give The Condesces ring to her which brought Ghost Aranea back to life. Aranea then hijacked the golden ship and crashed into Derse. Aranea then used her powers to motivated Jake to power up. When Obey Jane Crocker and Grimbark Jade Harley saw this Grimbark Jade tried to stop Jakes power up from destroying Derse but Jakes power was no match for hers. Aranea then used her ring power to carry a tower and drop it on Grimbark Jade. Killing Grimbark Jade which brought the attention of Jack Noir and Peregine Medicant. Dirk Strider then tries to take Araneas ghost but since Obey Jane killed Jake, Dirk was forced to retreat. Obey Jane then tried to take down Aranea but since Aranea can control anyone, she put Obey Jane to sleep. However Obey Jane then sleep walked to Aranea and chock holded her. The Condesces ship then lands on their battle field and they all prepare for a battle royal.
In the GAME OVER timeline
Aranea managed to push Obey Jane away from her and Aranea used a sword to try and kill Obey Jane. Jake jumped in front of Obey Jane before she was stabbed and Jake took the hit. Then Aranea used telekinesis to lift Jake and push him into Obey Jane so the sword can stab them both. The Condesce shot a giant rainbow based energy blast out of her mouth and tried to kill Aranea with it.
Aranea being choked by The Condesce
Aranea moved out of the way and the blast hit Kanaya Maryam instead high instantly killed Kanaya. Aranea then crashed planets into each other and destroyed The Condesces ship. Terezi tries to stab Aranea in the middle of Aranea and The Condesces battle but Aranea forced Terezi to stab herself. The Condesce then grabbed Aranea by the neck and started roaring in her face with anger.
Act 6 Act 6 Act 4
The Condesce forcibly removes the Ring of Life from Aranea's hand, removing her immortality. She then snaps Aranea's neck and tosses her into a nearby wall of fire, thus killing her.
Araneas death
Personality
Aranea appears to be a nice and considerate person, interested in helping others around her. She however admits that she has a tendency to talk too much, and to bring conversations back around to herself. In this way she is very similar to Vriska, yet different because of her more gentle nature. Terezi even goes as far as to call her 4 N1C3 VR1SK4. This mirrors the relation between Feferi and Meenah, as Meenah is quite rude and mean, while sharing Feferi's bubbly nature and tendency to get excited.
The Cancer necklace she wears suggests she is a follower of The Sufferer. This seems at odds with her being pre-scratch Mindfang, since the tale of the Sufferer did not happen in the pre-scratch universe of the trolls. However, it was revealed that she acquired this necklace after death and that she learned a lot about the history of the post-scratch universe after her death. Note that Mindfang called the Sufferer's talecompelling, suggesting she was at least sympathetic to his teachings. It is also possible that she just wears it as a sign of appreciation for Kankri Vantas, though this latter possibility is unlikely, as the Sufferer and his sign only seem to annoy the Insufferable. Of course, that also might be her intention.
Like her dancestor, Vriska, Aranea posseses the ability to exert influence or outright control over the minds of others. Due to her eons of experience and possibly her Beforan upbringing, her ability is both more powerful and extensive. She is shown being able to control vast multitudes of trolls and, through this control, use their abilities by proxy (as shown by her manipulation of various incarnations of Damara Megido whilst she was in an entirely different plane of reality). As shown on this page, her powers include waking people up (mirroring Vriska's ability to put people to sleep and wake them up). Note that she was waking up a dream bubbleprojection of Dirk, suggesting that she was actually putting the projection to sleep, waking Dirk up on Derse.
Interestingly enough, she also shares personality traits with Kanaya, including her tendency to ramble, her helpfulness, and her affection towards the Thief in her group's session (though whether Aranea's feelings towards Meenah are flushed or not has yet to be made evident). This may be significant given her shared role with Kanaya as the Sylphs of their sessions. Aranea could also be Kanaya's genetic descendant, given the "twelve extra wigglers" Karkat created on the Trolls' meteor, the fact that after the human scratch, the first and second generations of ectobabies arrived in the opposite order, and Aranea having already impliedthat she is the genetic descendant of Terezi as well as Vriska.
Although Aranea's personality at first seems to contrast against Vriska's, she later on shows motives very much like those of her dancestor: just as Vriska has made highly risky moves to involve herself in achieving a goal (e.g. involving herself in the creation of Bec Noir to make sure that the person who she planned to kill exists), Aranea revived herself with the Ring of Life to try and prevent our heroes from creating a universe in whichCaliborn can reside and grow up to become Lrd English. This ultimately led to the catastrophic events of GAME OVER. John later refers to her as the other vriska, which further emphasizes their similarities.
Trivia
- Aranea was one of the original names suggested for Vriska, being suggested by Toby "Radiation" Fox.
- Aranea is also the latin word for spider, alluding to Aranea and Vriska being associated with arachnids.