homestuck-typicalabsurdism

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Homestuck Epilogues: Meat liveblog

This post contains my thoughts, feelings, and reactions to Chapters 1 & 2 of the Meat route. I’ll be reblogging this post and adding my thoughts on other chapters as I can! This may get long so everything is going under a read more/cut.

Chapter 1 starts really strong right out of the gate. The description of John consuming the meat was so visceral that I had to actually set my book down and pause. It was gruesome and great at the same time. The nastiness of the greasy, oily meat that then haunts him is such a great image and pervasive image. Whoever wrote that section should genuinely get into horror. It was a great piece and I absolutely applaud them.

This chapter is definitely a turning point in what Homestuck is all about. The atmosphere changes and it’s a darker, more mature tone. I know there will be goofs and gags (this is Homestuck after all) but the more intense themes that underlined the story are going to be coming out. John’s come of age. What happens next? This chapter tells me that the Epilogues are a bit more mature? Or aimed at an older audience. I’m hoping that is followed through on.

Chapter 2… Is a chapter. I love Dave and Karkat and their interactions are some of my favorite parts of Homestuck. They manage to get along and annoy each other so well. Dave’s rambling about politics and the economy is such a good turning point for his character and something that was brought up in the early acts of Homestuck that had faded by Act 5 and 6.

What this chapter fails at for me is explaining how and why Jane is now a fascist and is xenophobic. What happened between the ending of Homestuck to now that made her this way? Many of Jane’s faults in the comic come from her having been sheltered as she was groomed by the Condesce to be the heiress for CrockerCorp and the fact Jane was 16. Her not understanding the economy could be her main fault as a presidential candidate. Introduce a new human as the xenophobe. It stinks of misogyny for one of the few female characters to become the stand in for Tr*mp.

The discussion about the different kingdoms and their voting blocks is confusing. How many people (trolls, humans, consorts, carapacians) live on Earth C? Are there any concrete numbers??

The sexualizing of Jake is. Something. I feel like they couldn’t make Jake actually interesting so they settled on making him a ‘himbo’ and passed it off as good enough. It makes him boring. I’d be interested in a Jake who took time away from his friends to explore who he is and what he wants in life. Not this Jake who’s just… A prop for his friends to continue idolizing as a sex symbol.

I also have stuff to say on some of the parallels between Karkat and Dave but I’ll save that for another post. Bleh.

[homestuck-typicalabsurdism]

Homestuck Epilogues Liveblog

(or as live as i can make it since i started reading yesterday)

I'm going to start off with the prologue here which I read yesterday. I'm probably going to make two separate posts for my readings of Meat and Candy as this thread would then become impossibly long. My thoughts on the prologue are under the cut!

Chapter 1 starts off strong right out the gate. The prose is very well done and it's descriptions are visceral. The opening paragraphs are honestly wonderful. I can see these images as either panels or flash animations and I love that. Translating a visual medium into text is not easy but the authors did well here. Kudos to them!

John's weird dreams are rather obviously related to Lord English and his destruction of the dream bubbles. These dreams he's having seem to be connected to whatever visions Rose is experiencing and I hope the connection pays off at some point in time. John's mental health is obviously not great here. He has isolated himself from his friends in the Salamander Village and the fact he forgot it was his birthday is a little concerning. I do enjoy the callback to the start of Homestuck in this ending paragraph. And I'm a little concerned at how John is continually Going Through It on his birthday.

Chapter 2 made me pause a few times trying to fully get what the fuck Rose was talking about. It's also where cracks began to form for me. The conversation around Rose and her past substance abuse felt incredibly awkward and the description "she looks wasted" left a bad taste in my mouth. I think everything for this section could have been written better and with more tact to Rose. I am currently building a pedestal for the Homestuck fandom wiki writers for summarizing the conversation between Rose and John in an explainable way. The threat of becoming unreal is a big one and this set up is leading into that claymation fight between Caliborn and the 8 kids.

Chapter 3 continued the weirdness from Chapter 2 and I'd argue it was amped up here. Roxy calling Kanaya "Maryam" is such a turn from their interaction before the final fight. Roxy approved of their relationship and they had some shared interests! Roxy and Rose both wanted to get to know each other and be closer. Roxy is also weirdly passive in this chapter. John's lack of communication is again hinting at his mental state and that he isn't doing well. Even so, does nobody reach out to him? Or do they and he just ignores them? I'd like to know more, if possible. Calliope is weirdly characterized as well. She loves learning about humans and the picnic options are. Bizarre. I know this is to set up for both epilogues but it's still off putting.

Overall, I like the prose and the foreshadowing present here in the prologue. But the characterization is so... Off. Bad. Weird. Other synonyms that fit. I'm apprehensive to continue reading but I'll press on. I'm going to start with Meat then read Candy. If you'd like to see my reactions, thoughts, and gripes with the epilogues, feel free to follow! Thank you for reading if you've read all of this.

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Gamzee's tender headed AF and he hates doing their hair.

Karkat is struggling.

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cant believe i used to hate jane. shes baby. baby girl.

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what year is it again

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if i had a room like that id fill it with an alchemiser

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intro/pinned post

hey there, welcome to the circus! i'm Juice, 23 years old, and use he/him pronouns. this is my homestuck blog for better or for worse. i'm honestly not really sure what to put here yet LOL.

my favorite characters are Eridan, Dave, and Rose! but honestly i find all the cast interesting. feel free to ask me anything!