#cyv reads homestuck wrapups

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 5 Act 2 Wrapup

It's that time again.

Another act under my belt, another wrapup post. Like the last one, I'm gonna try to keep this relatively brief and condense it down to the main shit. For this act in particular, that's especially needed, since if I went fully in depth, this post would presumably take on the length of a considerably hefty novella. Seriously, this act is BEEFY. Over double the length of any of the previous acts, and with the content to show for it.

Apparently this was the act that got everyone hyped in Homestuck's initial run, and I can absolutely see why. Everything here is raised to an astronomical level, (literally and metaphorically) as we get not only greater stakes and more action than ever before, but more intrigue, more questions, more lore, more character depth, more fun interactions, literally just more of everything. I think this act is extremely interesting, because it capitalizes on what Act 5-1 teed it up for; that is to say, Act 5 Act 1 queued us into the fact that this story was going to get more complex and darker than before, and went places that never could've been expected in the first 4 acts of the comic. Meanwhile, this act is essentially an entirely new thing. It puts 100% into the new identity that Act 5-1 created for Homestuck, and imo, hits it out of the park.

The first major contributor to this is the shift is the character interactions, which have noticeably taken a much more nuanced approach than anything before. Many scenes or lines that would have been purely jokes were now seen as opportunities to genuinely explore these characters and their relationships with each other. As far as returning characters, Dave in particular stands out as someone who has been completely opened up to new layers that, if they were there before, were heavily obscured by his place in the narrative. The trolls are undoubtedly responsible for this element making its way further into the dialogue, as they give the kids so much more to bounce off of than they used to have, and with these many new dynamics that are formed, new avenues of exploration and analysis are opened.

And speaking of the trolls, their story also escalates far beyond anything possibly imaginable when we first met these angry goofballs several acts ago. They stand as the latest in a generationally traumatized race, one so beaten into their societal roles that anything short of bloodlust is considered weakness. A bloodlust that, as we later learn, was maticulously crafted by our darling villain, Doc Scratch. This layer of their collective characterization, though, makes it all the more potent when they manage to let part of themselves slip past this torturous conditioning and reveal the sympathetic souls that lie underneath. Even Vriska, cartoonishly evil as she's been, comes out the other end of this act seeming much more three dimensional than before. Also, Gamzee's murder arc happened. Honk honk. That's really all there is to say on the matter.

With the mention of Doc Scratch, I would be remiss to leave out his role in all this, and how it encompasses another aspect of this act that left me impressed and overjoyed, which is the multitude of ways in which the conventions of Homestuck and its medium are expanded and broken, over and over. The games begin to feature much more story-relevant information than before. The animations become longer, denser, more daring with their content (Cascade is a whole fucking cartoon episode!!); the easter eggs of games past are folded into the narrative itself, as well as other meta elements brought from simple gags into genuinely intriguing plot points. Even the way the comic allows itself to be interacted with twists and changes as it needs. The banner on top of the website becomes its own entire canvas for storytelling, the borders of the panels are less restrained than ever, the command system is contorted in various ways that make for a more interactive experience even just on the web page. I could go on. Even in the final moments of the act, when the curtains close, we see them tattered, fire surrounding them, and a shattered fourth wall behind. To me, it acts as a declaration that the confines of this work are no longer relevant. That this is truly a multimedia project which will take any shape it sees fit to convey what it desires, and which will blend realities and rulesets to create a strange, new entity. I've watched this piece of fiction grow and mold itself over the course of these various acts in ways I truly never anticipated when I'd begun, and this moment feels like a symbol of that mentality becoming its mantra. I highly doubt these experiments with form will stop any time soon, and I truly do look forward to whatever is waiting for me next.

And finally, for my own sake I kinda want to decompartmentalize into a list all the currently unanswered things leaving me either curious or interested as I move forward:

Not really a question but I just couldn't find another place to write that I fucking love all the god tier stuff. Just really fun and satisfying magical fantasy shit with very cool aesthetics and also thematic elements that tie extremely well into a lot of what the story seems to be getting at.

LORD ENGLISH HAS ENTERED THE PICTURE. Clearly, as we all already knew "He is already here." So the question is, where? Where has he been? What will be that decisive moment that he will propel himself into this story?

Regarding resurrection, what actually classifies as "heroic" or "just" seeing as these are largely subjective concepts? Is is simply a mystic "Paradox Space will decide" type thing? Will the comic address this quandry at some point?

On this point, Doc Scratch's clock. It shows the results of this query. Does it actually decide the result, or similar to the meteor timers, simply show the result that was already going to happen? If it decides the result, this implies that by manipulating the clock, the outcome of the resurrection can also be manipulated.

On timelines: What actually consitutes the Alpha Timeline? Who decides that? Who's to say that one particular timeline is more canonical or holds more importance than the rest, other than the author themselves I suppose.

Who's fedorafreak? Is this actually gonna be important?

What actually are the denizens? John implies they aren't as threatening as they initially appear. What does this say about their function in the game and in this world?

Who is the mother of all monsters? I don't think this is a term we've ever heard before unless I'm just forgetting

Why does the emblem of "Her Condescention" look somewhat like the Betty Crocker logo. Don't tell me I'm looking too deep into this. This fucking story has done me dirty before. That thing fucking looks like the other things and I don't trust that one bit especially after hearing about the whole Betty Crocker isn't human thing. hrmmm...

WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT MEAN THAT THE KIDS ARE IN ANDREW HUSSIE WORLD. WHAT. I CAN'T GET OVER THAT. I LITERALLY DON'T KNOW WHERE THAT COULD EVEN GO.

As for any predictions or expectations? Basically none. At least as far as predictions go. I've learned to surf Homestuck like a big ass wave and let it take me where it takes me. If I pick something up along the way that I feel I can properly theorize about, I will, but I'm no longer trying to pick everything apart and estimate what it could mean for the overall story, because quite frankly, there's simply too much shit going on and too little of it has any intention of appeasing my base instincts about the movements of the narrative. Now, I'm not going to lie and say I know NOTHING about what's next in Homestuck. I know next to nothing, but that's still not nothing. In fact, I'll break down literally everything that I know so you know exactly what expectations I'm going in with. So obviously if you're also reading for the first time, maybe tune out here in case you wanna be completely blind!!!

I know there are still more characters to come. Specifically, I know that there are at least four other kids to be introduced to, just from fan art and cosplay and such. I know two of their names are Dirk and Roxy, but I do not know the other two. I know ZERO about their actual roles in the story or like, who they are as people. Based solely on their appearances, my only real guess is that maybe, similarly to how we learned of the troll ancestors creating a new world and becoming ancestors to the true successors, the kids will do something similar now that they're essentially exiting the reset world, and become the guardians of a new group of children who are supposed to be like "the real heroes" and those will be those characters? I'm not sure if the logistics on that actually work out but it's all I got rn. Also, I know there are weird green people. Now, call me psychic, but now that I've seen Lord English, something tells me they have something to do with him. Again, I'm cluelesss as to how they actually connect or what role they'll have in the story or literally anything at all, I just know that they exist and are green. The third and final thing that I know is that trickster mode has like, a greater role in the story? I'm grasping at straws here but I've definitely heard talk about trickster mode in later Homestuck as if it becomes more than just an easter egg in games. No fuckin clue how. So again, I'll make a guess that, since the characters are continuously getting closer to the meta layer of the story, perhaps they find out about the "easter eggs" in the games and how to activate trickster mode, as characters and not just as us playing them, and then maybe they can use that to gain new information or traverse places in a different way, almost like Twilight Princess type shit. But yeah. That's all I got. I don't feel spoiled at all because that's all such minimal information that it doesn't really tell me anything of significance, but it does at least give me some breadcrumbs to look for as I keep reading, so that's pretty neat.

Anyway, yeah! This is what I call relatively brief now I guess! Either way tho, if you read thru this I wanna thank you, I know there have been some people sticking with me through this journey and seeming to enjoy my posts, so if I've provided some entertainment or interesting commentary that makes me very happy. Always feel free to chime in and discuss with me or even just correct me on stupid shit I say lol. But I'm gonna go start ACT 6 NOW I GUESS??? GOD DAMN WE'RE HALF WAY THERE BABY WOOOOOOO I'M REALLY DOIN THIS

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 3 Wrapup

where doing it man

where MAKING THIS HAPEN

Holy SHIT, where do I even begin? Act 1 was fun. I enjoyed it. Act 2 intrigued me. It kept me wanting more. Act 3, by all accounts, has latched its hooks all the way into me. I am IN, dude. While this act retains the quirky and random interactions that made the previous ones so casually enjoyable, the astonishing leap in the density and frequency of narratively interesting content here is undeniable. And now, at the end of it, I'm the most excited I've been to see the next turns these insane plot threads will take, and how these characters, who have fully endeared me by this point, will develop.

All of the characters have been left in a place that leaves the story ripe to explore so many things. Starting with John, who has now reached the first gate. I have no idea what that even means for him. I know that it was the goal, and that apparently each will be more difficult to reach, but we haven't been told in any way what the journey to those other gates will actually entail. The side story with his dad trapped in the dark kingdom has also been fun to witness, and I'm sure we'll be getting more of that soon enough.

With Rose, it leaves the most obvious cliffhanger. Now that she has also entered the Incipisphere, what happens? We've only seen one character in this environment thus far, so who's to say what adding another one to the mix will even look like? Dave has obviously been tasked with being Rose's server player (the ways he fucks with her game even in the face of imminent despair was absolutely hilarious) so that leaves me to wonder if he will also be transported into this world at some point, but also how Rose will be able to simultaneously manage John's game now that she has a client world of her own to take care of. The other interesting thing with Dave is his relationship to his brother, which clearly hints at the parental figures in their lives being absent in one way or another. With Dave also so clearly seeming to look up to his brother in an immense way, I think that could lead to some really great storytelling.

And then, there's Jade. Oh lord. What can I even say about Jade Harley, other than rambling off the many ways in which I was bewildered by her constant disregard of every "normal" aspect of the three other kids. My point being that she is a total and complete mystery. She seems extremely sweet, and almost aloof, but has by far the most compelling narrative implications of any of the cast. Not only does she not have surviving family at all, instead being cared for, or at least assumed to be, by some sort of magical dog creature of unknown origin named Becquerel, but she is also living on some sort of secluded island littered with ruins that seem to beg the reader to ask their purpose. As if that weren't enough, we now know that she is capable of using her dreams to see into both the past and future, to reasons that are unknown even to her. And as we've already seen how this can drastically affect the events of the story, including in the thread we've been following surrounding the odd denizens of the post-apocalyptic future, I have no doubt that this will play a large part in things going forward.

Finally, the mystery of Sburb continues to deepen, as several of the characters keep finding control rooms, symbols, and various other interfaces that so clearly resemble the iconography of Sburb. Just what the hell is this game? What is its true purpose? How does it tie in to the overall balance of light and dark in the world that has been proclaimed to us? I have a feeling that these questions will not truly be answered for a long time, but the breadcrumbs are enough to keep me fully engaged. Even the lore of this world itself, the idea of the Incipisphere, Skaia, and the two kingdoms in constant conflict for eternity, and all the things that this cosmology implicitly allows the exploration of, is so exciting to me.

Whew. So yeah, I guess that's about as condensed as I'm going to get my thoughts on this one. What a wild ride. I guess here are some other miscellaneous things to mention:

I read the entirety of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff. What a horrid, crusty, amazing archive of media.

Of course I know that the trolls will eventually enter this story, but I have zero spoilers for the context or even who they are as character; just that they exist. Thus, I've kept track of which trolls have appeared in Pesterlogs so far, and those are: carcinoGeneticist, grimAuxiliatrix, and adiosToreador. So we'll see how that goes in the next act.

The concept of Jade's dreaming mind/dreambot and the golden city, including the sleeping John Egbert, is clearly important. And clearly has something to do with whatever species is roaming the deserted future. But I have such little idea of how to begin parsing that at this point that I don't have much to say about it. But I am absolutely keeping it in mind

If you actually read all of this: Damn. Thx for inexplicably caring what I have to say despite being an irrelevant poster and like a decade late on this shit :P More (much smaller) updates to come soon as I move forward with this story

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 5 Act 1 Wrapup

Just finished Act 5 Act 1. Holy FUCK. I actually need a moment to collect my thoughts. Might be a minute. Which is to say, no time at all for you, unless you want to simulate the experience of me writing this by walking away from the screen for a few minutes...

Hey, welcome back. Unless you just kept reading in which case you're ruining the sanctity of this whole thing. Shame on you. Anyway.

Act 5 has been a huge departure for Homestuck in a few different ways, and the biggest reason for all of them is our new focus: the trolls. The trolls and their bizarre world help introduce us to entirely new aspects of the story, and presumably prep us for what is to come in terms of both scale and content. This act is one of extremes, taking further steps toward both sides of the emotional spectrum.

On the one hand, things are sillier than ever. The strange and oddly beautiful world of Alternia, its incomprehensible culture, its boisterous personalities; it's all wonderfully playful in its execution, reveling in the ability to craft a whole new world from scratch, unbound by the expectations of our own reality. The characters we're introduced to, consequently, are equally fun to learn about and be placed in the shoes of. Seriously, all the trolls except Equius are a joy to read, each filling the role of a specific archetype that is simple to understand from the onset, yet developed into fuller personalities as the act progresses. There's practically a particular troll for every kind of person, and I can totally understand how such personal connections were formed from a fandom perspective. These motherfuckers BEG for it.

On the other hand, things have never been more dire, more dramatic, more unsettling. Firstly, in the interpersonal sense. This act struck me as one where, as opposed to the previous acts feeling very much like a story about children, it is explicitly a story about teenagers specifically. There is a much greater emphasis on the confusing and sometimes frustrating experience of existing as an adolescent around your peers, letting the determinant factors in how things progress be friendship, romance, jealousy, rivalry, and all the other angsty feelings you would expect from a cohort of this age range. And despite the alien world and any of the bonkers social rituals or mating practices thrown into the mix, these core emotions still come through as clearly as they would in human children, climaxing in often devastating displays of sadness and revenge.

Outside of mere sociality, the cosmic horror present in the world of Homestuck is also more pronounced than ever. With the formal introduction of characters such as Doc Scratch and Lord English, the stakes are raised even further, leading us to inhabit a world truly eldritch in nature, one where time loops and visions of the future can be ghastly and harrowing. Some are left destined for damnation, as we and they are both left simply waiting to see how their undoing will occur. The idea that many of these characters seem trapped within an inescapable path to their own destruction, that some timelines are preordained to be martyred for the greater good - it's all quite unnerving.

Knowing all of this, I can hardly imagine how it will feel once we refocus on our four main characters. Hussie has opened the flood gates in respect to the depth and seriousness the storytelling is permitted, and with the events of the fourth act providing so many world-changing developments to the kids, I can only imagine that they and this new storyline will converge in the biggest and most revelatory act yet. Because as much as I've praised this act, it admittedly did feel mostly like setup; the careful placing of pieces and recitation of instructions before they are all catapulted into something greater. For this, I couldn't be more excited. Once again, thanks if you read all of this, I appreciate it lots and would love to hear what you think. Here are some random highlights and unorganized thoughts of mine before I sign off:

My favorite troll from an aesthetic and relatability perspective is Nepeta, the beautiful perfect catgirl she is.

My favorite from a personality perspective is Kanaya, because she just seems to be a really sweet and caring person and I'm intrigued to learn any more about her. Maybe tied is Terezi, who I find a blast to read absolutely all the time and who also seems to be a pretty nuanced character despite first appearance.

My favorite from a storytelling perspective is Vriska, who I fuuuckin hate. ARGH. Can't stand u. But god damn you're written so well and are so interesting and I wanna know bout u.

On a somewhat related note, wow! [S] Make Her Pay! Cool ass animation this time around: lots of beautiful artwork, sick soundtrack, awesome set pieces. Wonderfully done.

The end of this act?? Omg???? The entire monologue section from Aradia was bone chilling, and led up to what was such a SHOCKING revelation to me in that the trolls created Earth I fucking guess????? idk, maybe other people had guessed it by that point and I'm just an idiot but absolutely no part of me even slightly guessed that that was what was going on and it was insane and awesome to learn.

The art overall kinda took a big step up this act, just wayyyy more panels that were detailed pieces rather than the representational sprite art. I dig it.

So so so curious what ungodly series of events leads to the kids causing a literal rift in time space

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - The Final Wrapup

This is my last post for the main comic, covering all of Act 6 Act 6 as well as Act 7.

God I feel like I have so much to say but no way to properly put it into a neat little bow so it might be a little more like me just rambling passionately. Hey that's like the perfect allegory for Homestuck.

Anyway if you just want the TL;DR for how I'm feeling overall, I feel it should almost go without saying I fucking loved this story. I can say with complete certainty that it has been a landmark in media I've consumed and will assuredly alter the way I consume things moving forward. In the several months it's taken me to finish, I've grown so attached to this story and these characters, and despite any qualms I may have with it (and trust me, there are plenty) I think it is a wonderfully creative and excellent piece of art that I'm going to continue loving for a long time. It does so many things I've never seen a work like this do before, and it takes advantage of its format in so many masterful ways that it ends up a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of so many styles and mediums that makes it truly stand on its own as something special. As I prepare to read the continuation of the official content and assuredly follow various fan adventures, fan projects, art, music and all of these amazing things that have spawned from this, I just want to make it as clear as possible: I cannot overstate the positive impact this weird little webcomic has had on me.

So that's that. I think now I probably wanna get a bit more into the nitty gritty stuff and delve into some of my more specific opinions. Here's the problem: I have a fuck ton. Seriously, if I were to properly articulate all the thoughts I have on this work, we would be here all god damn day and I would get tired of typing and you would get tired of scrolling. So I'm just gonna kind of go with the flow and go where my brain wants to go with this post. I figure I should probably get some complaints out of the way first, because I don't wanna end this on a sour note, but I do wanna mention them, because Homestuck does certainly have its problems:

Pretty obviously, the early comic was entrenched in a 2000s edgy forum culture that made it a little cringe to read sometimes. The ableist language that was liberally used as well as pretty distasteful jokes pertaining to race and sexuality make some of these early sections age a bit like milk. Fortunately, this takes a massive dip after around Act 4, but it still lingers a while after, and it obviously didn't ruin anything for me and isn't like, EGREGIOUS, but it still makes me think like man I wish this stuff wasn't here because it adds nothing and feels so out of place in the current day.

Speaking of race, and specifically racial representation, oops! There's none! I know, I know, I know. "Aracial". And that's all well and good in theory, but it's pretty obvious that Hussie wrote these characters from a decidedly white perspective and as a result that's just naturally how they read, despite any excuse he used to try making for it. And that in itself isn't some massive problem, just a note on the authorial bias at play. But then the only ones who don't read as white? The violent one who uses broken, obviously uninformed AAVE, and the japanese schoolgirl who speaks in bad japanese and wears cute little stereotypical outfits and is constantly sexualized. All I'm saying is, come on man, we can do better.

Hey look we reached the part where I rant about the dancestors. I mean what do I even have to say. Why did they even exist ??? Meenah is the only one who ended up being interesting in any meaningful way, and I guess Aranea even though I didn't feel particularly positive about her and her place in the story even after everything had happened. The rest were less interesting than the original 12, less funny than the original 12, and way more annoying and surface-level than the original 12. Seemingly on purpose. So I thought oh ok, this story hasn't let me down with this kinda stuff yet, so let's give it the benefit of the doubt. Maybe this is for some bigger reason, maybe it's essential that they're in the story for later, maybe we'll get some actual development and I'll turn around on them. I was wrong to do so. They're nothing. They are nothing characters. Even what seemed like it should've been something - Kurloz working with Gamzee - just kinda never got elaborated on and faded into the background. So then. Why. Why are they here? Why do they exist? Why did you make me spend hours meeting them? Genuinely felt like a total waste of time and you could take out that entire section from the story and lose effectively nothing. Worst part of the comic by far.

The pacing of this story can be rough. And I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this point, because reading this archivally and knowing it was updated serially in small bursts over time, it makes total sense and I honestly excuse it for the most part. Buuuut that doesn't mean it's not noticeable sometimes that the comic will go through dry spells that can sorta be slogs to get through, and then follow with most breakneck pace you could imagine immediately after, and is always undulating between these two modes. Eh.

Those are really the only big negative things I have to say. Well, sorta. I think the rest will mostly be positive, but I... hm. I think that... ok let's talk about the ending.

First of all, Act 7. Wow. just holy shit. I've jokingly been calling Homestuck a shonen anime since like Act 4 but ???? god DAMN dude that was fucking incredible. Never would I expect actual, traditional animation from a Homestuck flash, and it was so satisfying as a final animation. That being said, I feel a bit... conflicted about the context surrounding the ending? For the record, the actual ending itself, like the last moments of the comic, I think are lovely and thematically feel super appropriate. Seeing Caliborn basically transform into Lord English is that one final time loop after a series of hundreds of time loops, finally finishing itself off. And all the while, the kids break the cycle. No more loops of destruction and rebirth and destrucion again. They won, not in the sense that they beat the big bad guy and saved the day, but in a much more poignant way; they stopped this whole fucking thing from ever happening again. I genuinely do love it. It feels appropriately existential for Homestuck, but not quite cynical. It's an ending of death and rebirth. Hopeful at its core.

I think there are a few reasons I feel a little odd about it. First is that, just tbh, I think we were introducing way too many characters way too fucking late. I mean we basically just met Davepetasprite, who is a fucking joy btw, and then BAM ending. This means that most of these later additions to the cast don't get to have much impact on the ensuing events, and even if they do, it's not as emotionally resonant as these other characters we've had plenty of time to learn about and grow to love. I would never insinuate Homestuck should be EVEN LONGER, but it does feel a bit like just throwing the fandom a few last bones to be like here! Write some fics about these peeps! But I would've wanted more actual in-universe development and narrative relevance, otherwise I just don't get a whole lot from it.

The other thing that just feels a little... idk, odd? is that I just still have no fucking clue what Vriska did to LE with the weapon, or even like, what happened to LE or Vriska. I guess maybe they're both going to die anyway because of alt-Calliope basically ripping apart this entire continuity with the black hole, but I don't know that for sure. And since Act 7 was only the single flash, I don't feel like I have much to even go on in terms of theorizing about it. The credits did like, a liiiittle more in that department I guess?? (btw those were adorable and I loved them a lot) But even then it feels like even THOSE are opening new questions as much as answering old ones. Is Vriska who Terezi is looking for? Otherwise why is Terezi the one venturing out there? Can they just come and go as they please despite the black hole? There are so many things that are completely unanswered.

I guess my main point is that the ending just felt really abrupt, cutting off a lot of plotlines that I thought were actually gonna go somewhere, and inconclusive. And maybe it's meant to be. In fact I'm almost certain it's meant to be. But the problem lies in that it does not feel inconclusive in a "up to your interpretation" way, but more in a "literally not concluded" way. Like it wasn't actually finished telling its story. I'll put it this way: the ending feels like a big awesome season finale, but not a series finale. And I know that the post-canon sequel content exists, but it seems like the fans and those works themselves distance themselves so much from the original comic that it makes it seem like that feeling wasn't the intention, so it's just really strange.

So much for not having any more negative things to say lol. Sorry. But all in all I do still largely enjoy what I got from this ending, I just hate that it feels like it was cut short or something.

Let's balance all that out by talking about some cool shit!!! I'm just gonna spitball some of my favorite things about this comic, whether in this reading section or just overall:

The art is so good!! All of Act 6 Act 6, especially the last several updates, is so immaculately rendered. I can see why this basically became *the* Homestuck style moving forward, because it's just so pleasing to look at and captures the characters in a great way. Speaking outside of specifically this section and more generally, I adore how loose Homestuck is with its art. Hussie seemed to just pick and choose whatever style would properly represent the events at hand, and it ends up being so awesome in a way that's unbound by things like staying on-model or being consistent because it's just pure expression. Plus, the constant guest art is fuckin amazing, not only because most of it is genuinely incredible in its own right, but also because Homestuck is such a wildly community-driven experience that it only feels natural to let other talented artists make their own mark on the story. It started early on and continued being a thing all the way until the end and I love love love that.

The metatextual elements of this story are so fascinating to me. Unfortunately this is one of those things I thought was gonna be expanded on a bit more by the end, but what's there is still great. I like that it goes so far beyond "fourth wall" jokes and nods to the audience. The way the characters directly interact with the narrator, the story structure, and even the website itself, is so much more interesting. Beyond being simply fun, it manages to raise so many interesting questions about the very art of fiction. What authorship means, the responsibilities of it, the follies of poor authorship, the interaction between an audience and fictional characters, the way character voice can be used to convey tone, all this and so many more things are tackled as actual in-universe concepts that can be materially tinkered with to varying results. I could genuinely write other entire posts about the way this story discusses a lot of meta concepts.

The way this comic uses its medium to its advantage is unparalleled. I just always appreciate when a story is so thoroughly connected to its medium that it would become something else if adapted, and this is certainly one of those stories. The way that the style of narrative prompt itself can convey something about what you're reading, the banners and menus being shifted, changed, obscured, and otherwise altered to add an entire new element to the experience of reading the story, the colors of the website, the way characters and items aren't necessarily bound to the frame of the panel, the way the very act of clicking on a link to go to the next page is made to be a central part of the experience, ALL OF IT... I can't call it anything other than masterful. (Ok I'm sorry to throw yet another complaint in here but I was fully expected A6A6A6 to continue this trend and basically be a huge amalgam of all these website-bending tricks we'd come to know so I was a liiiiittle disappointed when it was just a youtube video).

The character writing, often times, is phenomenal. Even from the beginning, the way character voice was so strong was impressive and fun, but as I got later into Act 6, and especially A6A6, some of the long-running character traits, flaws, and storylines finally came to a cathartic close in mostly really great ways. Some obvious highlights: Dave, in too many ways to count tbh, whether it's him grappling with destiny/heroism/things of that nature, realizing he's not straight, coming to terms with his bro's treatment of him, reconnecting to his authentic interests, so many things about Dave are so insanely amazingly done. Of course Dirk is an interesting character as well, with many questions brought up concerning mortality, control, self-loathing, and other pretty heavy stuff. Hooray for alt-Vriska getting some justice lmao. Her and alt-Terezi finally finding peace in themselves and comfort in each other in the afterlife is like almost too beautiful to not make me wanna cry. Again, like with the meta stuff, I could write entire posts about various characters and the awesome ways they're written, but I'll leave it here for now.

I think... maybe that's all I have for now. Maybe. I have a multitude of thoughts, big and small, and there was absolutely 0 chance I was gonna fit them all in here or even remember all of them. But there you have it.

Hey would you look at that. Homestuck's good!

Not perfect, as I feel I've made perfectly obvious. But good. Full of passion. Full of care. An exceptional work of art and a unique phenomenon that will likely never be replicated. I'm so, so happy to have finally experienced it. So that's me signing off on my very last liveblog post for the original comic... Damn. Thanks to the people who've been so interested in seeing me take this journey and those of you who have contributed to the discussion, it definitely made it more special for me and I appreciate it.

Thanks For Playing <3

.........

For those of you wondering, no, this liveblog as a whole isn't necessarily over. I know the post-canon content (still don't understand why it's even called that) is contentious for many, and I feel like I've seen opinions ranging from people saying it's some of the best stuff released for Homestuck, all the way to saying it literally ruined the whole thing for them because of how bad it is. So clearly, this is some controversial shit I'm about to get into. But yes, I am indeed, getting into it. I'm going to keep this liveblog going, and at the very least, I'm going to get through the Epilogues, and what is currently released of Beyond Canon. If I really find it as atrocious as some people seem to, I guess no promises that I will continue reading and posting about it after that. But I gotta know. I need to see for myself and come to my own conclusions. And I'm taking you all with me.

Cyv Reads The Homestuck Epilogues coming to a theatre near you some time soon.

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 6 Act 5 Wrapup

Guys, I feel lied to.

I somehow gathered the gist that what I just read through was supposed to be one of the worst parts of this comic. Maybe Homestuck fans are just really harsh or dramatic or something, because I got the impression I was in for some truly heinous shit.

And instead, I get an act full of interesting meta commentary, constant utilization of the medium to do cool shit with the format, genuinely super well done, emotionally driven character writing, and a pretty consistent forward momentum of an ever-escalating narrative. What the fuck??? Did I drastically miscalculate the consensus on this act, or am I in the minority here? Either way, everything I said completely stands.

The alpha kids are fucking awesome imo. I don't care what anyone says about the melodrama being boring teen bullshit or whatever, they have unique and insane stories that I think deserve to be explored in this level of emotional vulnerability and it was satisfying to finally see some catharsis happen. People seem to dislike the trickster mode stuff, and ironically, I think the kinda person I'm talking about is one of the things that segment is poking fun at. The trickster arc, while also being really fucking funny and absurd and bizarre and fun tbh, somehow also does something kind of profound in that it shines a light directly at the characters flaws and internal struggles: Jane's inability to come to terms with her romantic feelings, Roxy's delicate sobriety on the verge of a relapse, Jake's oblivious, self-centered behavior, and Dirk's propensity towards self-critical introspection to the point of self-sabotage and even self-loathing. A mirror is held up to all the kids, who up to this point were using the framework of the game to hide and delay these issues in any way they could, and afterwards are essentially forced to face them head on and finally own up to some of the things they'd been desperately pushing down. So yeah I unironically love trickster arc fuck yall lol. I have some other detailed thoughts on the alpha kids if you wanna see, in this post.

The meta storytelling also remains just as important as it was in the previous act, but now extends past Caliborn and into the rest of the cast as well. With the way things are going - Caliborn's slow rise to power as he gathers the Felt members and learns how to use different powers, and the gang's discovery of the strange Sburb artifact that seems to have far-reaching implications concerning the fabric of the story itself - it's beginning to become clear that what the characters may be fighting for is the real-world, metatextual right to continue existing and decide how that happens. Almost as if the party who wins will decide the fate of the webcomic itself.

Even within the purely textual story below and meta elements, things are becoming really grand in an awesome way. We've finally reached the point where characters from different sessions are intermingling and aiding in each others' journeys to the fullest degree, and with the meteor and ship finally reaching the new session, I only expect this to ramp up as we enter the final stretch. I talked a lot about the emotional storytelling of the alpha kids, but the same remains true for all the others as well. I find Rose especially compelling at this point, seeing the way Roxy is finally beginning to cope with her alcoholism, and the way her Rose, obviously predisposed to the same issues, is only just beginning her journey with substance abuse. It's heartbreaking to see it get worse and worse as she clearly puts more of a strain on her and Kanaya's relationship, when just a few acts ago it was one of the cutest and most pure displays of romantic interest, but it tracks with Rose's character and feels like a step that has to happen for her. And in the department of the villainous forces at large, the Mekara's remain a giant fucking question mark that is equally amusing as it is terrifying, and the various agents at work are coalescing to ensure a devastating challenge for our heroes. Can't wait to see how any of this will be dealt with as it certainly seems the high point in intensity is upon us, or at least approaching very quickly.

If I did have to complain about anything, I guess I would say that most of the alpha trolls and even most of the beta trolls barely make an appearance or mean anything. Some get very fun, if small, roles, and the fusion sprites were definitely a fun thing to see, but... man it really feels like we did not need as many characters as we have right now when most of them could have basically had their role merged into a single, other character. I'm not surprised seeing as I found the majority of the alpha trolls to be fairly uninteresting, one-trick joke characters and the story has trouble getting 12 trolls into meaningful positions, let alone 24, but I'm still not sure what the purpose was in even introducing us to so many characters when most will essentially be background characters anyway. Maybe I'll be proven super wrong and they'll be like, the most developed and awesome and complex and important characters ever!!!! (but I really doubt it.)

Anyway though, I'm still just having such a blast with homestuck and I'm really happy to be able to say that. We're genuinely in the home stretch now - Act 6 Act 6 with about 2,000 pages remaining. I may just wait until the very end to do another wrapup post and review my time with the work as a whole, that way I can read through with less interruption between the sub-acts, but obviously I'll still be making posts often as I read live, so still look for those :)

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 4 Wrapup

... So I just finished Act 4.

Ummm..... How do I put this ... ....

I genuinely do not know how to put into words the intense feeling of excitement and satisfaction I am feeling. But I guess I'll try.

Let's just get it out of the way right away, best end of act animation yet, like hands down. The level of artistry, the dynamism of the camera and the animations, the excellent Toby Fox track, (I see now that bro knew how to use a recurring motif even before Undertale) it was just perfection. What an incredible way to finish off an incredible section of this story.

I'm going to hold off on going in depth into things like theories and predictions, because I feel I do plenty of that on my smaller liveblog posts and frankly it's getting so complex that if I were to lay them all out in a sufficient manner this post would be entirely too long for my liking. I would like to talk about some of what this act made me feel, however.

Something that was present in small doses previously but in Act 4 has been fully assimilated is the elevated way that everything is presented. Cinematic, I suppose, is one of the words I could use to describe it. But I feel it's more than that. It feels as though the team who put this together - obviously Hussie, for the greater proportion, but also those he worked with - had, by this point, entirely gotten a grasp on how to tell a compelling narrative with this particular format. The obtuse references and forum humor have been stripped back and toned down, not to the point where they are gone entirely, but enough that everything feels a bit more accessible, existing more as a part of its DNA, rather than its backbone. Instead, that space is filled with more authentic and illuminating characterization than we've seen at any part of the story so far.

In the way that a voice actor may settle into their role after a few seasons, by this point Hussie has mastered his already impressive knack for writing the unique voices of these characters and letting them just kinda bounce off of each other in ways that, despite being entirely silly and in the context of a science fiction epic, just feel so real, dude. Like, fuck, I love these characters. I didn't feel that way until this act, really. Sure, they had many funny and charismatic moments in the past, and I've gradually warmed up to them over time. But in this act, the veil (lol) really gets pulled away more than it has before, and what gets revealed is genuine connections between these friends, friends that are snarky and sarcastic and snippy with each other, but friends who care about each other, and are interesting, passionate people. Even the trolls, who could have easily remained joke characters and nothing more for this entire act without basically any issue, have been treated with the dignity of allowing more than one aspect of their personalities to peek through, surely to be explored further later in the story. For fucks sake, the faceless adults, only seen from the context of the kids before this point, have even begun to receive some genuinely compelling revelations. I love these characters. All of them.

The lore/world aspects of Act 4, as I mentioned, are far too complicated for me to fully get into here. But what I will say is that this part of the comic has fully sold the grand scale of the overarching narrative. Whether its the greater knowledge brought forth by the trolls, or the ability of the animations to showcase how many moving parts are at play here, things have been set up with an astonishing amount of style. Getting further glimpses into this strange system of planets has been beautiful and fascinating, and the twists and turns in the development of Jack Noir as our apparent main protagonist have been enticing. Jack is certainly intimidating, and ruthless to boot, so the story has done a great job of setting up a looming threat to build toward, especially taking into account the ominous revelation of The Reckoning. On top of this, the time fuckery has hit an all time high, but despite that, its integration into the story has felt more natural than ever, and maybe it's just me getting used to this bullshit, but it's honestly starting to feel easier to wrap my head around. And even if not, it's extremely fun to watch pan out.

All this said, I remain super excited to continue. Again, if you enjoy hearing what I have to say about any of this, whether you're an old fan or maybe even joining me for your own first time, please, talk to me about it! Lemme know what you think, or what you thought, about all this crazy shit. I absolutely love having discussions and hearing from people who are veterans to this world compared to me. It makes my day to see that someone can reinvigorate their interest in this through my experience. I gotta go to bed (writing this at like 3 am) but man I wanna start Act 5, and of course will post more updates when I do. TTYL <3

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 6 Act 4 Wrapup

This wrapup post is going to be about as long as this act itself lmao

Honestly tho, not a lot to talk about here. I mean, there is, but nothing concrete. If you want to know what I thought about this "act" if you can even call it that, it's pretty much all in this post and the few that preceded it. To expand upon that a bit, although it wasn't what I would traditionally want out of an act of Homestuck, I feel that the way it fully brought the meta elements into the story itself is kind of exactly what I've been expecting for like a thousand pages now, so it was honestly satisfying to finally see happen. What any of this actually means for the story overall is yet to be seen, but in a vacuum it feels like it's going to open the door to some real trippy stuff interrogating what it means to create art for an audience of people, which is wholeheartedly interesting to me. Of course I want more goofy banter and cool fantasy shit, but I hope this introspective energy also carries through into the remainder of the comic. Onward we go.

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 6 Act 3 Wrapup

the big john....

HASS the ring

yeah I'm gonna be 100% honest with you, I'm gonna try to keep this and probably upcoming wrapups especially brief for the purely selfish reason that as I get further and further in I'm getting more excited to just keep readin so I wanna delay myself as little as possible. List of some quick thoughts about the act overall:

The Calliope/Caliborn shit is by far the most interesting stuff going on atm. So many implications that go so far back into the comic it's astounding. I'm genuinely so excited to see where the story with them and Lord English goes from here. See this post for my detailed opinions on that last big Caliborn flash because I had a lot to yap about

All of the meteor banter is absolutely peak. All the beta kids and trolls have been developed enough that just dropping them in a room and letting them bounce off of each other makes for outrageously fun scenes as well as genuinely fascinating character moments

Gamzee??? Huh??? Murderstuck doesn't seem like a fluke anymore. That feels like part of something bigger. I'm not sure what the fuck is going on with the Mekaras but he and Kurloz have some devious shit going on that I'm dying to know more about.

The John and Jade side of the beta kids is definitely a little less bombastically fun but no less interesting. John is going through some genuinely interesting devlopments as far as his changing mindsets and opinions and I'm very curious how this will continue to manifest especially once they're together with all the others again.

The Alpha kids are SHMOVIN now. Finally all together in the session, lfg!!! They've by far been the most far removed from the rest of the cast, so I'm so ready to see how they'll be integrated into all the other goings on. Obviously the beta/alpha counterpart meetups are the biggest thing to look forward to.

Also really fascinated with the Auto Responder and the way he's been set up to question the idea of mortality. Plus the references to HAL make me narrow my eyes suspiciously at the possibility that he goes rogue and turns all evil on the kids. OR already has and has been working with the Condesce or some shit.

Going off that, wondering if the Condesce will enter the story as an immediate threat. She's obviously been orchestrating everything in the background but I'm wondering if she'll show up as a miniboss on the way to Lord English. I assume so, and I wonder how Meenah will deal with that if it is the case.

And some unfortunate negatives:

Openbound fucking killed the pacing for me. I was enjoying A6A3 SO MUCH and then the intermission put the brakes on so god damn hard it almost made me forget how much I was enjoying the act beforehand

On that note, I have extremely mixed feelings on the alpha trolls rn. I sincerely hope they get more interesting and grow on me but the vast majority of them are leaving me without much impact. See my previous homestuck post for detailed opinions on all of them lol

There are just... so many characters... and so many storylines. I historically have enjoyed the complexity of Homestuck. I find all the time travel and time loops and converging storylines very satisfying. However. I feel we've reached a point where there is just so much going on at any given time that the story unfortunately starts feeling so much less focused because of it. In order to meaningfully explore one portion of the story/characters, so many others inevitably have to get benched intermittently.

As kind of a consequence for that last thing, LOTTA FUCKING PARAGRAPHS ABOUT SHIT. I kinda felt this act had a bit of an excess of exposition, with Aranea being the obvious worst case of this. The story wants to fill us in on so many little details that some of it ends up just reading like an article on a fan wiki. It's just not very engaging when this happens.

Jack is just barely even a thing anymore. I know it makes sense in the story; he's being held up by PM and the whole idea is that he won't catch up until the kids are in the new instance. But that doesn't make it feel less anticlimactic that he went from a hugely intimidating, front-and-center threat to essentially a background character for a few acts in a row. Bro has been demoted to a Jobber

Although I've had more obvious complaints about this act than many of the previous ones, don't get me wrong: I'm still having a lot of fun and loving most things about this. I've had some hang-ups that are certainly more noticeable, but overall I find that the story is still going in an interesting direction and I continue to be excited about it. Stay tuned for more :P

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 2 Wrapup

Now, let's talk about act 2.

HOLY FUCK.

I thought act 1 moved quickly. I thought it dumped a lot of info on you at once. But that shit was nothing compared to this. All of a sudden, not only does the main cast open up, taking us to multiple locations in quick succession, but it also introduces different points on the timeline??? The wayward vagabond guy remains a complete mystery to me. He appears to be someone living on a far future version of earth, presumably after the meteors took everything out. But that still leaves so many questions. Why does he have a contraption that allows him to directly communicate with John? How is that even possible if he's in the future? Is he actually in the future? What are those little buttons on the console for? What species is he? So many questions and so little answers.

Then we have our new characters in Dave and Rose, which are both an absolute delight. Rose is really interesting to me as she seems to be the one to give the least of her deeper personality away, opting to write in knowingly pedantic ways that sometimes make it harder to decipher what her true emotions even were at the time. The horror nerd with a preference for solitude is certainly an archetype I can relate to, which was fun, and the purple color scheme is just really nice looking honestly.

Dave Strider is a bastard. I fucking love him. He's the exact kind of "kid who thinks he's so much cooler than he actually is" that, similar to what I said about the comic's writing in general, could get obnoxious really easily, but is instead written in such a brilliant way that makes his antics constantly entertaining. And the puppets just everywhere??? Help????

All three of these characters share some things in common. One being their unique typing styles, which I think really characterizes them so well and makes their interactions through Pesterchum so endearing to read. The second is that they're clearly all internet friends purely. They make reference to being in different locations and even timezones, and it's awesome to see the switching perspectives yet still have all of them feed back into the overall narrative.

Other than that, this act continues to be really funny and really interesting. Actually, much more interesting than the first. While act 1 kept me hooked for the intriguing structure of the story and way it was written, act 2 is giving me so many threads to latch onto and see where the hell they're possibly going to go (if anywhere, that is). In addition to the vagabond - which gets even more interesting when you consider the final, and may I say phenomenally done, animation wherein you see other parts of this strange and desolate version of our world - I also wonder about these strange little imps and what their deal could be. Where the two halves of the kernelsprite actually ended up and if they'll come into play. How these seemingly disparate worlds and times are connected and even communicating with each other. What in the fuck Sburb even is and where it came from. So, so many questions. And I don't know how many will be answered but god damn now I need to find out. I'm starting to understand how this thing captured such a massive group of people.

So yeah. I am into this shit. I'll keep updating as I read on in the next act. Probably just short posts for the most part, but I may still do post-act wrapups like this one just to compartmentalize it all.

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 6 Act 2 Wrapup

Yeahhh thiiiiis is more like it. I mentioned during my wrapup post for Act 6-1 that despite enjoying a lot of it, it felt very obvious that it was specifically meant as a set up for things to come, as it had dramatically slowed the pace of the story and in some ways felt like a complete halt in the momentum. I also said that I had faith in the story to gain that momentum back. At first, I was afraid this act would not do so, but pretty quickly, it won me over. To me, the pace of the narrative, as well as the level of intrigue, has grown back to what I felt pre-A6A1. Wheras in the previous act, I was still growing accustomed to the Alpha kids, I'm now finding their half of the story just as interesting as the Beta kids.

Since we became more familiar with the Alpha kids this act, I wanted to also briefly mention my opinions on them. I'm loving their chemistry, and already, I feel some depth has been addded since the caricatures I talked about in the previous act were introduced. Specifically, I want to highlight the way Dirk's queerness is handled in this act, as it feels like a dramatic shift in the way sexuality is tackled in Homestuck. Characters have absolutely been queer in this story, but in most, if not all cases, there was some layer of dismissiveness, obfuscation, or otherwise joking that left the discussion one layer removed from the story. In the case of the trolls, they get the excuse that they are a weird alien species with no concept of human sexuality, and it gets to be a reoccurring joke for the human characters. (Not saying I find this problematic or wrong in any way, simply that it's how it functioned in the story thus far) From our perspective, the trolls are absolutely queer characters, but the narrative does not have to treat it as such, if that makes sense. Meanwhile, Dirk being gay is starkly direct in comparison. There's no beating around the bush or ambiguity - Dirk is a man who has romantic interest in another man, and that's simply a fact the story presents to you. I point this out because it feels like this would have never occurred in the Homestuck of years past. I think it interestingly reflects the changing attitudes in fandom and pop culture in general surrounding queer representation at the time, as well as being a very good example of it, and I wanna shout it out for that.

In general, the dialogue across this entire act had a distinct feeling to me. It read as less soaked in irony, uninterested in the niche forum humor this comic had grown out of. Instead, it more closely resembles more traditional dialogue, but while maintaining the complex quirkiness that has characterized Hussie's writing up to this point. However, this tonal shift did not come across as jarring to me, and it's largely because, to my surprise, we experience a timeskip in this act. Homestuck continues to just be anime. But the point is, the Beta kids we knew are actually getting to age now, allowing for more significant developments to take place in their personalities and relationships. I found it fascinating to see how they've grown in relation to each other and the ways that the vast majority of them had ever so slightly changed over that year while maintaining the personality at the core of their character. Tracking the ways that this continues to happen over the course of their multiple-year journey will be interesting.

In terms of things to come, there's a lot I'm looking forward to. The wildest reveal of the act was the astonishing time difference between Jane and Dirk/Roxy, and I have no idea how that will play out. Seeing the post-apocalypse of post-scratch Earth was intriguing and evoked a heavily dystopian energy, making me want to see more of it and what Roxy and Dirk's life looks like in this hellscape. Meanwhile, in the Incipisphere, the entire normal structure of the game has been upended, with the Condesce in charge, the agents already taking action, and Dirk already retaliating. Basically, all bets are off, and it's clear that things are under no obligation to follow the formula from last time. Adding to the chaos is the way the dream bubbles are interacting with all of these pieces, becoming an integral part of the story and mixing up these worlds in interesting ways, as well as beginning to introduce us to the pre-scratch troll ancestors, leaving me wondering about how many more we will meet and how large their role in things will be. I imagine UU and uu are two more of these figures, although it remains completely ambiguous to whom they are related. That is unless they are unrelated and are entirely new entities, but that's just another question to throw onto the speculation pile.

In summary, this act was good as hell in my opinion, improving upon the last one in basically every way and introducing enough plot points and questions to keep the story going for miles and miles, all the while destroying the order of events we'd gotten familiar with, mixing together meta and non-meta elements in ways that mean basically anything could happen. And now that the narrator himself has been killed off and an enraged, seemingly unstoppable Lord English is unshackled, I genuinely have no clue what this story has prepared for me.

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 1 Wrapup

Ok, so thoughts on Act 1.

First of all, let's just get the elephant out of the room here. This shit includes some ableist language and poor-taste racial humor. Not like, a ton, but enough to be uncomfortable. I can't say I'm to surprised tho. 2009 internet white boy gamer shit. I've gotten the impression that this drastically drops off as we go along, so it is what it is.

That being said, damn I think this is hilarious. I mean, sure, some of the jokes probably don't land as well as they might've back then since our collective sense of humor has evolved quite a bit, but fuck man, a lot of this is still really great. Everything has this self-referential, sardonic tone to it- one that many people cannot pull off without being obnoxious, but is so masterfully pulled off here by always being one step ahead of you as the reader. Genuinely laughed out loud multiple times.

Outside of the humor, the meta way that this story interacts with itself and the audience is really interesting, because in a way, it barely even calls attention to it. The characters have inventories and wacky, cartoonish houses and experience downright reality-bending shit, and it's all treated as if we're reading a regular slice of life comic or something. imo this disinterest in explaining almost anything or meeting the reader on their level at any point makes it a bit of a hurdle to initially get into, but once you do, it's like you're part of the world and ready to be along for the ride. Again, just super great.

Granted, not a lot "happens" in this first act, that is, until the meteor shows up, after which things start happening really fucking fast, but I'm ok with that. I think if Hussie tried to drop a ton of narrative progression on the reader while also trying to introduce this weird ass video game version of earth, it would have been far too overwhelming. This act serves as such a good introduction to the very particular flavor of homestuck, and it's all it took to get me hooked.

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 6 Act 1 Wrapup

Already?

Yeah, after the beast that was Act 5 Act 2, which practically could've been its own whole webcomic by itself, I must say it feels pretty odd to go right back down to a normal length act and already be writing another wrapup. But here we are! I'm not gonna lie, I feel that I have less to say about this act by a long shot, but that's nothing against it. It's just that I think it served its purpose very well, which is to be almost 100% setup for the rest of Act 6. Pretty much everything that was done here, from introducing the new characters to showing us where John and Jade are to letting us hear the interactions between the rest of the trolls and kids were all in service of putting the pieces into place for what seems like the climax of the story to get started.

That being said, all three of those pieces above each have notable aspects to mention. The most obvious is that, well, we have a whole new cast of characters!!! The new four are already quite charming, and I like how they both play into and subvert what you'd expect from them based on what we know of the "Beta kids" as I've seen them referred to lol. I'm definitely interested to spend more time with them and learn more, and obviously extremely curious to know if the beta kids and these ones will actually meet or talk at some point, and how those interactions will end up. I do find that they currently feel more like caricatures than full characters, but I suppose this is to be expected, as the beta kids and the trolls both felt that way when they were introduced as well. So it's not necessarily a complaint, but more just a note of the whiplash produced after we've now had so much time to learn about our cast and develop the more three dimensional parts of their personalities, and then we're essentially thrust back into pre-Act 4 styles of characters. Again though, I do like them and am excited to see where they're taken in the story.

The other massive change is the dialogue, which really feels like it's been cracked wide open at this point. It was very notable how the dialogue between characters developed through each act, and to me, Hivebent was really the moment where Hussie officially shifted into a new mode of dialogue, which was kept and expanded upon in A5A2. Here, we finally get characters in the same, physical space as each other, talking under the pretense of their actual names. What this does is take what was so great about the dialogue before and let it breathe in ways it never could have. Because of the implied visual and spatial element of the conversations now, the dynamics between characters shine more than ever, and physical gestures and comedy can be used to such a greater extent than before. In any other comic, this would be the status quo and no big deal, but in Homestuck, where we've grown so accustomed to the characters being isolated for such a long time, there's something truly special and sweet about just getting to see them do something as simple as speak with each other in person.

And of course at the forefront of story changes is the fact that the meta elements have now been fully folded into the narrative of Homestuck itself. I wasn't sure if or how this would happen, but the way it has is really cool. Hussie's universe essentially being a gateway between sessions works on so many levels; as a potential commentary on the nature of storytelling itself, as an escalation of the cosmic mindfuckery that this story has reveled in up to this point, and even just as a fun, visually interesting device. This change makes it almost feel like we're playing with a bunch of little playsets, the characters being paper dolls that we can transpose between the sets and mismatch in whatever way we'd like. In this way, the story has truly given itself free reign to do whatever it wants to, honestly.

And I think that's just about my thoughts on this act. I would say it's much less dense than the past few, but again, I think as an introduction to the new status quo and setup for things to come, it works very well. As long as the story keeps its momentum, I believe the wheels will get rolling back at their previous speed pretty quickly. So, to close, some final observations and questions that were raised or remain unanswered by this act:

Lord English himself was nowhere to be seen, which is... almost worrying. I keep waiting for the moment he pops into the story and inevitably makes everything go to absolute hell

But SPEAKING of Lord English, Jake's whole thing is ????? Obviously his last name is English, which feels like it's purposefully dangling the answer right in front of my face without actually telling me. AGH! Is Jake Lord English? Is it somehow this universe's John? Will he create Lord English? It could be so many things and I don't have enough right now to make any judgement calls.

Also concerning Jake, why are there lusi on his island?!? This is absolutely bizarre to me and I can't begin to come up with what convoluted series of events led to either these things from Alternia ended up on Earth, or these things from Earth ended up on Alternia, or knowing Hussie, some secret third thing.

I'm wondering how the travel time thing is going to be handled, both in a narrative perspective and from a real life historical standpoint. The characters are talking about destinations that will take them multiple years to reach, and I wonder if this will actually be the case or if there will be some plot device to let these journeys be sped up. If not, I guess we'll be looking at an actual time skip? Man, this thing really is just a shounen now. But from the real life perspective, I'm wondering if this actually was going to take place over the next couple years and the dialogue was a nod to that, or if it's a time constraint purely contained within the narrative.