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Helloooooooo everybody! I am HomestuckExamination, and you may have seen my recent project of Homestuck Archived on Youtube! 

Fearing Adobe being assholes and not supporting Flash anymore after December of this year, I started recording, and uploading, Homestuck videos into Youtube, trying to preserve the ‘feel’ of them. Namely, trying to keep the website’s Framing so that special Flashes would have the same punch as the originals. If you’ve read Homestuck, you know exactly what I’m talking about. And given I was already recording them, I went the extra mile, using the HQ Audio from the Bandcamp, and also trying to keep the thumbnails spoiler-free, in case newcomers used my videos for liveblogging purposes.

And while I finished this project earlier this month, there was still something missing. Why, having the videos, collected, is good, for preservation and archival. But if I wanted to accomplish my goal of making it easier for newcomers to use my videos, I needed to go a step further.

Enter: Homestuck Archived - Chrome Extension.

I tried to get this to work in Firefox, but couldn’t, sadly. But as it stands? This Chrome Extension will remove every single Flash, Animation Container and Low Quality Video in the website, and replace it with my videos. On top of that, ‘character select’ type screens will add new links on the page, to allow you to click and get the full experience despite them being embed Youtube videos!

There’s the potential that, if the website changes in some way in the future, certain flashes may break. But if that happens I’ll keep supporting and updating it! Similarly, I was only able to test this in my PC and my Dad’s PC. There were no issues there, but if some version of Chrome or Windows breaks the extension, do send me a screenshot of your issue and I’ll see if there’s anything I can do.

Hope this helps someone!

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HOMESTUCK COMMUNITY SURVEY 2020 STARTS NOW!

—–

WHO: Anyone who likes Homestuck!

WHAT: The HSCS is an annual survey intended to find out the “state of the fandom” in a given year. It looks at Homestuck and its related media, and seeks to find out the demographics of the fanbase. 

WHERE: 

Available in English: https://forms.gle/f5AEpxooBTtx39H99

Disponible en español aquí: https://forms.gle/JfKwZtS8pz7ZPee39

Disponível em português aqui: https://forms.gle/c5vP1mRg2ym6R6dV9

此问卷的简体中文翻译: https://forms.gle/AwgeyBd2UUAzAVhS9 

WHEN: July 10 through August 10, 2020!

WHY: Because it’s interesting! We’re curious, you’re curious, and there’s a lot to be learned here!

—–

Please reblog! The more responses we collect, the better our results will be! Feel free to make your own posts and share on other platforms as well!

(you can find us on twitter too)

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The Epilogues Opinions Post™

Disclaimer: people can like what they like! These are solely my opinions and I don't want to start any arguments. I'm not tagging this with fandom tags for that reason.

Disclaimer 2: no, I haven't read more of the Epilogues than what I've liveblogged. No, I haven't read HS^2. Yes, I still have opinions based on spoilers, fandom reactions, etc.

Also, yes I know I'm late to the party on this one. I'd still like to get my thoughts written down.

Without further ado:

Opinions on the Epilogues

- bad

I just don't like 'em!

The breakdown of why, though:

The tonal shift was wild. I got into Homestuck for the funny ha ha goofs and stayed for the expansive multiverse worldbuilding. I did not sign up for a soap opera.

Giant blocks of text aren't fun! A lot of my interest in HS, especially early on, involved the multimedia aspect of it. Plenty of gags involved visuals, audio, and messing with the site itself. (I'm sad to see that's been lost somewhat in the site transition.) Lots of text pings in my brain as boring work, like slogging through Chaucer.

It's just not a good time for a liveblog. A lot of the jokes and commentary I've done has hinged on that visual aspect. I was finding it hard to clip parts of the dialog that worked with my commentary without including the whole chapter each time.

The story was mediocre. Who cares if there are loose ends in the extremely long lore heavy fantasy epic? Not everyone can be Tolkein with his entire extra book of backstory nonsense. Whatever the plan was for the house juju in the first place, this was not the way to execute an explanation. Put it in canon or not at all.

Opinions on HS^2

- ehhh

Now, here's where we get into stuff based on fandom osmosis. What I know about HS^2 is what I've seen shared as memes or written about in discourse. So here's what I know:

Dirk runs the show. Apparently he's ascended or some bs.

There's a character named Yiffany. Hate the name but the design looks cool. Also this character exists because of a cheating scandal involving Rose and Jade, maybe? I want to stay far away from whatever that situation is. Don't explain it to me.

I have no clue if there's a plot.

Andrew Hussie has handed the reins to a group of creators, some of them former BNFs. My only interaction with these folks was a PGenpod livestream of some American primary results. They seem like cool people.

Homestuck is dying, in terms of site quality and ability to watch the flashes. I am unsure if this applies to HS^2 due to it being released on the new site, but I haven't heard about any flashes.

Again, that's all I know. My full opinion, therefore, is that whatever's going on in HS^2 clearly isn't interesting enough to be a successor to the epic that is Homestuck if I haven't heard anything about the plot.

That's that. Send any questions my way via the askbox, and once again, don't use this post as discourse fodder please. It's just so I have my thoughts written out as I wrap up this liveblog.

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Announcement Time

Hello folks.

First things first: I'm so very sorry for dropping off the map again. It was not intended, and I had life stuff happening, but neither of those are excuses. So, sorry.

Secondly, sorry again, because this post is an announcement of my decision to stop the liveblog.

You probably have questions.

Why?

I did some thinking in the (far too long) gap between my last liveblog post and now, and I discovered that I just don't want to read the Epilogues. I started liveblogging them because it was the continuation of Homestuck and this was, of course, a Homestuck liveblog; I started liveblogging Homestuck, though, because I enjoyed analyzing the story.

The difference is I was seeing the Epilogues as work rather than fun. A continuation of an unsaid obligation. This may have come across in the few posts about them I did complete, I'm not sure.

What now?

I'm honestly not sure. Should I archive this blog? Should I keep up with Homestuck news and post my thoughts here, or would that be beating a dead author? I welcome any and all thoughts on the matter.

Why don't you like the Epilogues?

Hm. That's complicated, but I'll try my best.

Not on this post, though, it's long enough without a tangent like that.

What about skipping the Epilogues and reading HS^2?

I dislike Dirk Strider very much.

Also, I've heard tale of a "Yiffany" and that does not bode well for the writing. But that's another topic for the Epilogues Opinions Post™.

That's the long and short of it. Feel free to send asks if you've got questions, and input on what I should do with the blog.

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So uh, how's Candy epilogue treating you?

Sup. Been a while.

So to answer your question: it's not, yet, because I still want to record my reactions here as I read. You'll know when I'm reading it cause I'll post about it.

Clearly that might take a while due to my fantastic habit of having life things happen and then forgetting to return to this blog.

Also Homestuck^2 is a thing now? Which I hear is a continuation after the epilogues so I guess I'm avoiding spoilers for now.

Anyway, thanks for the ask, I'll do my best to read and post more often.

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Homestucks back

??

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My post about the wooden hands I purchased off FFBF is in content appeal. The algorithm sucks.

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It's here...

Mutie and Indiana Bones are helping out.

They were wrapped very securely, thanks @forfansbyfans and Internzi for making sure this perfectly normal set of artist's hands arrived safe at my door.

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Okay, I work in 4 hours and have real-life responsibilities like having clean dishes, so I'll stop this reading session at 10 pages. Tune in same time tomorrow for more Dirk hate.

...

I'm kidding about the hate.

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Meat - 12

Okay, fair.

Love watching these three interact. Somehow I'm not surprised that the very next thing that happens is Jade causing an awkward conversation lull in which Karkat shouts for half a minute.

I'm not proud of it, but I'd buy this as merch. Make it happen, FFBF.

This counts as a fandom in-joke right? Another one for the bingo card.

All of the discussion in the rest of the chapter is far more nuanced than Jade's been before, its very clear she's grown up in between canon and here.

A little bit, at least.

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Meat - 11

It's probably for the best we'll never see the full, unbiased account of the alphas' very stupid battle with Mangaka Dudebro, Lord of the Shitwanks.

That's another square on the bingo card.

Please say this means the way to fix stuff is having Terezi exist somewhere. She's the best, and also it sounds like if she'd been on Earth C to keep up her black rivalry with John, she'd have maybe pushed him to be active enough that he could deal better with the post-universe-creation depression.

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Meat - 10

Fantastic. Jane's character now boils down to "fake woke for political clout." It's good to critique that, but it's a shame Jane is the vessel for it; I once had high hopes for her maturing and having a satisfying end to her character arc.

Apparently that's not going to happen, or will only after another backslide. Maybe we're starting over? There was that bit about her still loving Jake despite his personality, although she's not feeling bad for manipulating him...

Yeah, that personality. Poor dude.

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Meat - 9

Stuck... in a house-shaped hole in reality.....

More importantly, John never learned to carry at least 5 computers on his person at all times, huh? He'd have something to read if he did.

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One hell of a transition here.

Guess the epilogues, plural, means more than just the meat/candy choice.

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Meat - 8

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Meat - 7

Rose is winning the "who's most quotable in the epilogues" competition so far.

I'd say "stop enabling Jane, Dirk" but it's more like "stop manipulating Jane for a warped sense of the greater good, Dirk."

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Meat - 6

So timeskips might happen between scene changes, or might not. Guess consistency is too much to hope for.

That... really, really sucks. How many doomed timelines is John going to personally create? It's technically the whims of paradox space, and always would have happened, but that's getting into a very long debate on free will. The way the story is going, that debate might even happen in pseudo-canon.

Who's typing in the commands this time? If it was a holdout from canon it wouldn't have happened in the prologue, and if it was a symbolic representation of the reader again it'd be happening with other characters than John. So who is it?

I bet it's Dirk. He uses full punctuation right? That asshole would find a way to influence everything.