#knowing homestuck and what it’s about probably makes it worse imo

[plugnuts]

Ok, unironialy, could you explain/resume to me the basics of homestuck??? I have NO CLUE what is it even about or even WHAT IT IS and I feel like I should know

Also much love ur like one of my favorite people on tumblr <3 🥺💕💕💗

Dnfnnfs yeah ofc! I’ll try to summarise it as best I can!

And thank you so much!! 🥺 dude I wanna hug you rn much love to you too <3 your presence on my dash is always a delight honestly! <3!!

The short and sweet official summary of it is: A tale of a boy and his friends and a game they play together

But if you would like a more detailed, but still summarised, explanation then look under the cut. But beware for it for it is long.

I haven’t read this webcomic in over a year so bear with me lol (I actually went and read a recap of it and. wow)

! Major Story Spoilers Ahead !

Okay so in as simplest terms I can manage is that four kids play a game that ends their world, but them and their homes are transported inside due to certain conditions that were met. They each get planets and if they die on a certain spot on these planets they become gods (aka ascending to god tier). There’s another race that played this game called trolls that also destroyed their world in order to enter, however only one of them became god tier. The trolls playing the game created the kids’ world (they didn’t do it right tho and that lead to one of the ‘npcs’ doing their own thing and.. ruining the course of the game.)

I forget where it happens but there’s an intermission that is super important. (Although it doesn’t appear to be lol it introduces the big bad and all his associates and whatnot)

A lot of shenanigans. We learn about the trolls, about the game and time shenanigans!! Some of the trolls help the kids, most of the trolls die bc they kill each other (and can’t resurrect bc they aren’t god tier). Key part of the killing is that one of the trolls, Vriska (the one god tier troll), is killed due to almost committing a timeline altering act. She doesn’t resurrect as her death was deemed Just. The only ways you can die permanently when god tier is when it’s deemed either Just (justified) or Heroic (being a hero).

(I’m missing a lot but it’s okay lol)

Anyway as the game is nearing its “end” and due to the trolls fucking up the kids’ session they’re forced to do a hard reset. Using their new god given powers they force this reset and the kids split up to escape their session, one group of two going with the trolls and the other two go off on their own together. This split lasts three years, by the way!

In the mean time due to this reset (or scratch as it’s named) the kids’ universe resets itself and basically…. Is reversed. So, instead of the kids we have their ancestors that are now… kids. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, during the shenanigans earlier one of our kids, John, basically made both him and his friends and his nanna and his friends’ guardians in a lab using shenanigans and sent them back in time so that everything can happen. Yeah. So, in this new session we have a new set of kids which I’ll refer to as the Alpha Kids, whereas our set of kids are the Beta Kids. So, we have the alphas now and we see their journey into the game. It’s to note that these kids can’t become god tier traditionally because of their Dream Selves dying beforehand (a needed self in order to become god tier).

So the alphas enter and are met with a dead game, basically. You could say their game is ‘infertile’ as it doesn’t have the means to create a new universe once it’s done. So it’s unwinnable. There’s nothing the alphas can do but wait. There’s some back and forth, we’re met with a new ‘troll’ and get to know her and her ruthless brother who wants to kill everyone his sister loves and stuff. Fun!

We get to know the betas more on their journey and wow one of them is depressed okay back to the alphas who. are high on sugar. Okay. Through their sugar high they get to their Quest Beds (ones that can grant them godhood without having a dream self but it’s buried deep within their planets (iirc)). So. They die on them and become god tier!

Oh yeah and during this we get to know one of the trolls’ dead ancestors called Meenah who works to build an army of the dead to tackle the big bad (Lord English) in the dream bubbles where those who die (either in this timeline or another) go to as a sort of afterlife.

The three years are up (only 6 months for our alphas) and everyone’s now in the alphas’ game. Jade (one of the betas) brings over everything from the Beta’s game so now the Alpha’s game is fertilised! Yippee! John sleeps and dreams and finds a treasure whilst everyone else uh. Suffers, basically. Once the betas arrived two of the kids (one alpha one beta) get possessed by Betty Crocker (one of the alphas’ mother but she’s an evil troll who can mind control). Jade (beta) and Jane (alpha) are now possessed.

A lot of stuff happens here. Best way I can explain it is that there’s a lot of glitches, death, and bad drawings. John also gains the power to rewrite canon (retcon), if you can believe it. The evil brother plays his game, kills his sis and gains way too much power for his own good. (Remember I might be getting things wrong here). Now, remember Meenah? Well from her group of trolls we have Aranea and she ruins everything. She brings herself back to life using what’s called the life ring and brings everyone to the same planet (except John who’s running from Jade). So. She fucks everything up, gets a lot of people killed (some people dying Justly and Heroically) and basically creates a GAME OVER timeline. Did I mention that when the betas came to the alphas they also brought along their own game’s bad guys? Yeah. Whilst GAME OVER was happening John was out there battling a kid version of the big bad. He teleports back into canon when everything’s already over.

So, now we’re in game over where basically everyone save for some are dead. Terezi, one of the trolls, tells John to fix it bc of his retcon ability. She gives him a list of what to do because of her own game given powers (she’s a Mind player but. yeah I won’t explain that sorry) and John goes and does it, using the keywords she gave him to find those specific points in time to change and fix. This leads to Vriska not dying when she was supposed to. A lot of shenanigans after this, basically everyone who was dead before is okay in this new timeline bc Vriska is here now. Yay? Anyway, they all go through their dramas and stuff, betas mingling with the alphas yada yada they all talk about defeating the bad guys.

Then there’s this whole animation about it!

Anyway that’s Homestuck as best as I can describe it without going into BIG detail. There’s a LOT of stuff I missed, but it’s very overwhelming lol.

TLDR; Kids play game. Time shenanigans. Death and destruction. Godhood. Vriska. Kids play game. Kids play game. Death. Big fight. They create a new universe where they can all live together and whatever have you. :)

I hope that clears SOME things up and if you have any more questions feel free to ask! Or you can read the webcomic but. I wouldn’t read it from the source bc it’s broken. I’ll tell you what to do if you Do want to read it but with over 9000 pages and god knows how many words….. it’s quite the task. But there is games you can play in it! And cool animations!! But some of it.. didn’t age well, let’s say. Anyway if you’re still reading then colour me impressed! I tried to summarise it as best I can but with limited memory and with so much plot it was difficult lol, ik you said the basics but also. Homestuck ain’t basic nfngnrksmnd sorry

[rosemary-is-in-pesterquest]

literally I was watching someone's playthrough of pesterquest as it was being released, and I almost finished it, but then I got spoiled for the fact that Ult Dirk shows up, and it totally knocked me off the wagon. like I've had it in my head that eventually I'll go watch Dirk's content, but it's been so long since I watched everything else... by this point it'd be kinda disjointed to even do that.

also, I was weirdly irritated by MSPAR in pesterquest? I found them so charming in hiveswap, because they were characterized as kind of a bumbling, overeager and well intentioned traveler that just wanted to help. but in pesterquest they get all know-it-all ish... it's reeeeeeally off putting. like I could forgive them being confused or disheartened, but they went a step too far and got all cynical and been-there-done-that, and gave a lot of advice that just wasn't good? as if they were some sort of expert or something. it makes pesterquest kind of irritating because you play as an irritating audience surrogate character who does shit that you don't actually want to do.

like, okay, Eridan's route, right? at the end, the advice MSPAR gave was basically "stop being an asshole" which is like... warranted and fair? but first of all, this Eridan needs different advice than homestuck's Eridan! and second, would a real asshole actually take advice like that? it's so... basic.

Eridan is a character that I'm not super attached to, but I get peeved when people get him wrong. in homestuck, the thing that Eridan needs, is to realize that if he wants something from another person, he has to try not to be a leech about it. everything is all about his perspective all the time. when he wants something, he'll ask, but if he doesn't get it, he'll whine and beg, and if people get mad at him for doing that, he gets all self deprecating and bemoans how hopeless his situation is, and how much everyone hates him. like he'll literally annoy one person into getting fed up with him, just so he can go cry to another person about his problems, and ask them for advice that he probably won't even take, because getting attention was the point, and this is technically what he wanted anyway. and the more people catch on and get frustrated, the more fuel he has for his "everybody hates me" pity party.

and the interesting thing about Eridan is that all of this probably comes from a real worry that nobody could like him, even if he tried. I mean, most of his friends are lower on the hemospectrum, and have a systemic reason to hold some sort of resentment towards him. so like, he probably likes Feferi because the two make an appropriate match class-wise... but he also probably likes her because she's his only friend that is more privileged than he is, so she can't hold his status against him.

also, pesterquest leans into that old fanon thing where Eridan is indiscriminately desperate and will date anyone. like... no! originally, Eridan specifically wanted to fill all of his quadrants! he wanted a matesprit (Feferi), a kismesis (Vriska), an auspistice (Kanaya), and a moirail (possibly Karkat). and not only that, but he wanted these specific people to fill these specific roles for him unconditionally and without conflict, in spite of their actual feelings. Feferi doesn't want to date him... she doesn't even really want to be his moirail because she's doing all the emotional labor and it's exhausting. and Kanaya had a red crush on Vriska at the time... the last thing she wants is to be auspistice-zoned! meanwhile, Vriska is becoming less and less interested in Eridan anyway because she's got her own unhealthy fascinations with certain people. so like, Kanaya wouldn't even be acting as a proper auspistice anyway... she wouldn't be helping to calm a volatile rivalry, she'd be trying to force a lackluster relationship to continue. that's like, the opposite of how it's supposed to be!

literally the only one of these that might've worked is Karkat as his moirail, because Karkat is amazing at giving advice, and dealing with difficult people's bullshit without getting sucked into too much drama. but like... that's probably the one relationship out of all of these that started from genuine charisma between two people, rather than Eridan deciding who he wanted to pursue based on a checklist of socially advantageous qualities. at least with that, it's implied that Karkat also likes talking to Eridan... like, both of them are getting something out of this. in all other cases, Eridan isn't even in it for the romance. he's in it to gain validation by living up to a societal standard.

it's only after our 12 trolls end up on the meteor after their SGRUB session that Eridan starts getting all weird about dating people other than the specific four he was already interested in. and that's specifically because there are now only 12 trolls left that exist. these people are the only ones left, so if he can't get a relationship to work with any of them, that's that. so basically, when pesterquest characterizes him this way, even though he still lives on a fully populated Alternia... why is he acting like that?

Eridan needs to learn how to actually put something into a relationship that he wants to get something out of. and to do that, he needs to believe that he has value beyond his status, and that it's possible for people to be motivated by more than class politics and spite. he treats people exploitatively because he expects them to try and exploit him just as badly... it's not just about fixing bad behavior. it's about him learning to put in work, and give another person reasons to like him, without feeling like a sucker for conceding any ground. the more defensive he gets, the worse he is.

and pesterquest messed up Jake's route too! what is it about hope players that stumps people like this?? I get that Jake is tricky, but jeez... I won't get into it as much, but Jake is always masking what he really feels, and the way his route handles him makes him seem like he's acting equally neutrally friendly to each of the other alpha kids. but then it implies that his true feelings are that he considers all three of his friends' romantic interest in him to be equally serious, and equally unwanted. that is... blatantly untrue. he knows Roxy might find him attractive but won't make a genuine move on account of Jane. she literally drunkenly told him so. and Roxy also drunkenly told Jake that Jane likes him. meanwhile, he also pretty much knows that Dirk had a crush on him when they were kids, but back then he kind of shut it down, or at least sent mixed signals, because he wasn't confident about having a crush on a boy. now Dirk himself is not confident that Jake actually likes him, and is trying to back off because he feels like his younger self was overly aggressive, but the AR is still as brazen as Dirk used to be when pursuing Jake, so it kind of undermines that attempt. still, Jake feels like he might've already come off poorly to Dirk. he does like him though... and he knows that Jane has a crush on him, and doesn't want to be the one who disappoints her, so he weasels his way out of addressing it. that is the deal with the alpha kids. not Jake just kind of bemoaning the fact that all of his friends are in love with him and he's not down for anything. so once again, we see a pesterquest route written on the basis of mistaken assumptions.

sorry for going on and on and on... I just find all of this so frustrating. half the characters are only the fan interpretations of themselves, and MSPAR sucks, and the meta is confusing, and... I wish it was good but it's not.

I love you for this ask anon, I never played friendsim but I did see a lot of people who tuned into all the friendsims express annoyance over the way Reader was portrayed in pesterquest. I can't even remember what happened in the Jake route bc I'm tired but it definitely could've been better.

Imo, best alpha kid routes go from: Roxy, Jane, Jake, and Dirk (half his route wasn't even dedicated to him lol rip)

[ivanaskye]

I’ve been thinking about making this post for a while, since I finished reading Wheel of Time, a series whose first book I read many years ago and hated, a series which ended up being very much one of my favorite of all time if not my single favorite, a series that has my two favorite characters ever.

A series that is very flawed.

So behold, my long answer to the question...

Should you read The Wheel of Time?

I’ll split this into three sections (but not three posts): What Even Is The Wheel Of Time, Some Likely Dealbreakers, and Tl;Dr.

Under the readmore, of course.

1. What Even Is The Wheel of Time?

A system of circular time in which the same rough eras of humanity repeat

However, the fact that time in the series operates this way... doesn’t actually matter that much.

And out of seven total repeating ages, we only spend time in one, and only know anything at all about four others.

The last three? A mystery

Don’t worry about it

Okay, that’s probably not what you were asking. You were probably asking something more like: what’s the plot of this series?

Let me be straight with you about that one.

It’s a Chosen One plot.

But,

It also has a very large cast of characters, many of which are very Protagonist in their own right

Including the main character’s immediate foil, who is absolutely not a “Chosen One” except for the fact that she freaking chose herself, basically manufacturing her own call to adventure out of the main character’s. 

The six Most Main characters (by most fans’ understanding), can IMO be divided exactly into three foil-pairs: the Central Saving The World one, the Self Awareness Whomst? I Hate People Of Course I’d Never Help Anyone (Trips over 139289131 Pictures of Helping Other People) one, and the Study In Leadership one.

And remember that Chosen One I mentioned?

Yeah, he actually has a shit deal with being Chosen

Specifically: he is 100% prophecized to destroy the world. Whether he also saves it is a little more up in the air.

He’s also almost certainly fated to Go Insane.

(...Which is why the first ~3 books of the series are just him Running Away From His Fate at Full Speed, which--spoiler alert--Does Not Work.)

See also: Alienating All Your Friends 101, How NOT To Accept Being Polyamorous, It’s War Crimes Time

(Yes, there is canon polyamory.)

(...And a LOT of canon war crimes.)

But. In order to go any further, I have to talk about the Possible Dealbreakers of these series. 

2. So, About Those Dealbreakers

Broadly speaking, I’d say there are three: length, The Gender Binary, and Oh God Why Is Everyone Such A Dumbass.

Let’s go at these one-by-one.

Length

Let me be very clear here: WoT is over four million words long in total.

This has at times been calculated as perhaps the longest word count for any series... ever? It’s certainly one of the longest English-language series that occurs to random statistics geeks to look at the word count of.

For reference, in case you needed it... that’s longer than Homestuck. This is true even if you translate images, videos, and so on into equivalent word counts. And include the epilogue. And... yeah.

It’s like, shonen-long.

The upside of this, however... is that it’s really long.

That might seem like a weird upside, but if you’ve ever wanted to get really immersed in a series... especially if you read very quickly and usually get through things fast... well.

To put things in perspective, I often read 300-page books in one sitting without trouble. WoT took me about six months.

So uh

Do you want your life, mind, body, and soul to get eaten by a book series?

The answer to that question will probably tell you if you should read Wheel of Time

The Gender Binary

Okay, so here’s the thing: in the time period WoT takes place in, only women can use The One Power (the main form of magic in the setting).

The reason for this is that the One Power, despite being called one right there in the name, is divided into the Female Version and the Male Version. Only women can use the former, only men can use the latter. And the latter has been tainted such that any man who uses it goes mad.

Our main character is a man who can use the power.

The upside is that things actually go very un-sexistly from here. The different ways to access male (saidin) vs female (saidar) power don’t actually correlate to any consistent difference in personality or attitudes between men and women.

The fact that the MC is The One Man Using The Power and The Most Powerful, Because Chosen One... is actually also played shockingly un-sexistly. 

However, there very much always is that binary. Trans people? Nonbinary people? Uh... you can headcanon if you want, but the canon is not giving you that much to work with.

To make matters a little worse, men and women distrust each other to an almost hilarious amount in the setting. (My guess is something about Mostly A Patriarchy + Women Are The Mysterious Powerful Magic Users has really frayed gender relations in this society.) There are many, many in-character statements of “All men are [x unflattering thing]” “all women are [y unflattering thing]”, but these do not seem to in any way reflect the author’s beliefs, and are never actually true in-world; the characters are just Bad At This.

(A common example of this is “Women are all gossips!” *cut to a group of women* “Men are all gossips!”. Of course, the truth is that there are both male and female gossips and non-gossips in the series).

You would think this situation would lead to more just-women and just-men groups, but except from Magic-User Stuff, there isn’t that much of that, becaaaaause

~Heterosexuality~

Sigh, yes, this series is very het.

It’s not as het as it is binary; the Aes Sedai (female magic users) have a word for women who are having sex with each other, and there’s an onpage FF kiss in the prequel.

But it’s... not a lot.

So if you need a hit of sweet, sweet LGBTQ rep, it’s... not going to be here. Sorry. (Thankfully, a very large amount of fantasy books coming out today do have rep! It’s not that hard to find!)

Thankfully, most of WoT’s het romances are pretty good and believable/shippable. Though not all are.

And, the final likely dealbreaker...

Everyone Here Is A Dumbass

Listen. Nobody in this series drank their Having Brain Cells juice, uh... ever.

(Okay, exactly two characters--Min and Loial--did, but that’s it)

You know how I was talking about the gender mistrust? That’s just one example of an endemic problem of absolutely no one trusting other people, telling anyone things, or in any way having functional conversations

Min Literally Saves Lives By Being The Only Person Who Tells People Things

In addition to interpersonal problems, the characters’ problem-solving skills are uhh

Uhhhhhh

Uhhhhhhhh

Well, as I said, Rand, our main character, spends three books running away from his problems at full speed

After that, he’s only uh... dodging! Jogging away! Yeah

Meanwhile, basically everyone is doing the I Must Put Myself In Extreme Danger To Protect My Friends Who I would Never Accept Doing The Same (bonus points for when two people are doing this to protect each other at the same time) thing

And I Will Face God And Run Into Danger At Mach Speed

The upside is... you might like reading about these kinds of characters

But if you prefer characters who are not walking trash fires

Then I’m sorry

WoT is probably not for you

3. Tl;dr

In summary, Wheel of Time is an almost comically long series about a large cast of characters who have never functioned in their life trying to prevent the end of the world and having a really bad time.

(For some reason it doesn’t have a reputation as a Dark SeriesTM, but it actually is very dark at times. Although far from grim--every action seems to really matter, nothing is meaningless, it’s just that sometimes those actions are war crimes and people dying and a shit-ton of torture).

IMO, some of the other series that might be good predictors for liking WoT are Homestuck, Hunter X Hunter, and ASOIAF. In other words, other very long, large-casted series about trash fires.

If you want one other bit of enticement, the main character has the lowest nadir of any character arc I’ve ever seen, followed by the most impressive high and resolution. So if that’s your kind of thing, and if the dealbreakers don’t break your deals. Go ahead and give it a try.

[redandfranticfeelings]

My friend is getting really into Homestuck, and I'm tempted to grab your critical posts about it and show it to her But I want to legit know your so critical of HS, but you enjoy SP, when it's probably worst?

i mean if your friend is getting into homestuck, then let her enjoy it? she’ll probably discover the flaws in her own time, just make sure she doesn’t give credit where it isn’t due or that the comic doesn’t trigger her or anything. i think it’s silly to constantly remind people that their interests are problematic (i may have believed this when i was like 15 but i’ve grown past it), you should give them the chance to be informed but also give them the benefit of the doubt, unless it’s, like, literally propaganda.

as for the difference...a lot of it boils down to personal taste and my relationship with the fandom. and this got....long.

i believe south park is the worst fandom i’ve been a part of, both on and off tumblr, but it has a good subsection of people who are quite critical of the show, and enjoy it in the way i do: understanding why it became popular while also constantly pointing out the key failings in its satire. most people in my personal fandom circle know south park’s infamy and make it clear they don’t stand by it; i’ve gotten a people on my ass for calling out the show’s transphobic messages and such, but it feels good to watch the show just to pinpoint why it has such a bad impact. the show is also a simple enough premise to redo in fanfiction, and i have a lot of fun taking these characters out of their environment and finding the unearthed potential while the writers just continuously show they don’t give a shit.

homestuck is probably better, at least in terms of intentions, but i have issues with the way fandom interacts with the comic. a lot of them brush the problematic jokes in the early comic under the rug, or praise hussie for his modern inclusiveness as if he didn’t make incest canon less than two years ago. every single fan seems to defend characters who do shitty things while chastising other characters for doing shitty things- there’s people who chastise eridan but sweep vriska’s ableism and sexual abuse under the rug, people who chastise vriska but sweep eridan’s genocide under the rug, etc. vriscourse is really what pushed me out of the fandom because one of my biggest pet peeves is when a complex female character gets her character twisted so you can’t criticize anything she ever does or you’re misogynistic, even if you do like her character and accept her flaws are what make her interesting, and the homestuck fanbase really started crossing lines for me by trying to recontexualize vriska’s abuse victims into the bad guys (saying tavros was a chaser based on flimsy evidence from when vriska wasn’t confirmed trans yet, etc).

also generally i hate the new loose way they do canon, especially in the context of LGBT canon, because if you have to argue about the canon then it’s cowardly IMO, even if i do appreciate the new representation like with roxy i fucking hate that it only cropped up once hussie and company decided canon no longer mattered. fandom has been praising hussie for poor representation since that agonizing meenah/vriska bullshit (which was unhealthy and fetishized by in-comic hussie but he praised it as ‘better than korrasami’ which reeked of wanting brownie points to me). and if more people could enjoy the comic critically then maybe i’d still be into it but i’m constantly afraid of being dogpiled by not just the fans, but the writers themselves who are former fans with very strong opinions and have their own controversies behind them. plus i could never truly follow the plot and it got even worse with the epilogues, especially when characters i liked kept getting sidelined constantly which especially stung with jade’s deliberately-bad characterization in the candy storyline. some people might enjoy that but for me it makes everything harder to follow, and doesn’t inspire me to rework it anymore because i just associate the comic with ship wars and fandom wars and biphobia and misogyny and ableism and just. frustration overall.

south park constantly frustrates me, no shit, but i expect that from the show. it doesn’t take itself seriously anymore, and i understand that, which makes it more rewarding to take it seriously and remind people of the impact it has. and i enjoy my selective fandom because it calls out the bullshit and makes it better. and i know not to take shit from the people who get mad at me, because they’re a bunch of anti-sjws who aren’t arguing in good faith. it’s fun to feel like i’m taking this show back from the assholes it’s meant for.

homestuck frustrates me because it could be better. it takes itself more seriously than south park, and the fandom probably takes it even more seriously. and it’s frustrating because not only can i no longer follow the comic (my attention span just isn’t made for it if it’s not a special interest anymore), i can’t find enough people in a fandom circle who can criticize the comic without pulling some other frustrating “[x] did nothing wrong!!!” bullshit. there’s too much discourse, complex discourse, often about complex topics like abuse and LGBT representation, and it just isn’t fun at all for me when i barely care about the plot anymore. that’s really it.

[hontou-baka]

a post.

been awhile, hasnt it, tumblr.

i have a fair amount of followers, half of which are probably old spam and porn accounts, so i doubt anyone will read this and i doubt anyone cares. venting, self indulgence, i guess.

im not sure if im back. i hope not. not to sound condescending, but im trying to spend my time doing meaningful and purposeful stuff. tumblr is just another social media app that sucks up my time when procrastinating. but i might try to get back into art, and tumblr is maybe the best place to put that, so.... idfk.

i came back once, fleetingly, when white diamond was revealed- knowing tumblr was my best place for content and info and craving it. same goes for right now. i just finished the homestuck epilogues and needed to see others thoughts, some content, i need it for my own catharsis.

ill give my hot take on the epilogues. im sure you could already tell what my opinion is from the posts ive shared. to my relief, this seems to what the majority of others are feeling, too (based on my scrolling through the homestuck epilogue tag for a few hours). they were fucking awful. felt like an edgelord's "pain is the epitome of human emotion" fanfic. it solidified my feeling that hussie no longer cares about homestuck. no, it confirmed to me that he violently LOATHES homestuck, and perhaps even (or especially) its fanbase.

i always thought homestuck would be the most important thing to me. it was, ever since i started reading it 6 or so years ago. there will never be anything that even comes close to what homestuck was for me. it was the only thing that kept me alive through some of the hardest parts of my childhood. i made some great friends at the time because of it (not that any of them stuck around). i was planning on doing homestuck cosplays for the rest of my cosplay existence, to prove that homestuck was still my #1. i wanted to get homestuck tattoos once i was free of debt!

but the ending of homestuck left me bitter. imo, the fandoms bullshit and the hiveswap fuckery left no love in hussies heart for his creation. he wanted it over, and just ended it. but nobody was satisfied with that of course, including me. so i was ecstatic to hear there would be an epilogue. but as weeks, months, years went by with nothing... i began to accept that wed probably never get epilogues. id just love homestuck for what it was, be salty about the ending, and that was that.

then, they came.

reading the epilogue tags, i thought they were a joke, just as many others did. it sounded like every sensitive subject that could ever be tagged was in there, including shit that just seemed ludicrous. but i persisted, like a fool, desperate for the sburb-logo hole on my heart to be filled.

the prologue already gave me so many red flags. my husband had hope, liked where it was going. a huge time skip, ten years we just have to accept went by. all of the characters had drifted apart so bad it was jarring. johns depression and mistakes and regret was daunting. everything felt so off.

and it only got worse. i started with candy. i was confused that thered even be the option all written out for john to stay. at first, i thought i was going to get some good ship shit. rosemary was the only good thing about candy. johnroxy started, took the fuck off, then just... it all fell apart. not a singe character consistently behaved in a way that felt like a natural progression of the characters we followed for so many years. what was the point of jane becoming trumphilter? to angstily show the duality of man? what was the point of all of the weird ass sex? it just feels like such a forced thing, like "oh, everyones grown up now! gotta fuck, and dont you dare even THINK any of it is going to be vanilla fluff and not.... anything but that...."

im not usually one to get upset over content that most find triggering, unless its real or shown in a very real way. but, for example, i honestly felt sick when dirk killed himself. i could go on about candy but it just felt like there was so much bait for a semblance of happiness, just to make it all as bad as possible.

meat was worse. hastily attempting to tie up plot points (like lord english) while also making dirk akuma homura...

also, apparently the author of family never ends had a hand in this? ive never been one for fan fiction, but for some reason i read that one, and it fucked me up. bad. i had the worst bout of depression and even suicidal thoughts for the first time in a while because of that fic. so, it feels like hussie wanted to recruit some ruthless-ass people to make something to intentionally hurt the people who demanded so much of him for a work he clearly hates now.

i... i think i dont like homestuck anymore, EXCLUSIVELY because of this. it feels like im throwing away one of the biggest parts of myself. it hurts so much, i feel so, SO betrayed. i would rather hussie have just announced he no longer had passion for homestuck, give us a shitty .txt file of a true ending (or the gist of one), and have left it there. but i guess that wouldnt have made him money now that viz bought the franchise.

i think, i will not come back to tumblr. it hurts. i had plenty of reasons for leaving, including everyone dipping out of homestuck. and i have other interests now that just dont align with the tumblr ive made and the followers i have (not like, core shit like lgbt+ rights or anything, im just really into health/fitness and particularly nutrition and i doubt my followers signed up for that plot twist). without homestuck, its even more just a painful past that haunts me here.

thanks for everything, if anyone ever even reads this. it was fun while it lasted.

-Hanna, aka hungoverterezipyrope

[littlebloogirl]

20 Questions

@a-sirius-crush-on-moony tagged me in this!! Ily Hannah

1: what do you prefer to be called name-wise?

Atlas, like the Titan.

2: when is your birthday?

January 5th

3: where do you live?

The U.S 🤠

4: three things you are doing right now?

Right now: Watching Kitchen Nightmares, FaceTiming Lizzie ( @chaoticgarbagepailsister ) and texting my gf

5: four fandoms that have piqued your interest?

I’m answering how Hannah answered, fandoms that I’m not a part of that interest me. Supernatural, as someone who was here in like 2016 oh my god these past couple of months have been entertaining. Teen Wolf only bc I’ve heard the Sterek timeline and I am so sorry for you all. Homestucks are interesting, but they intimidate me and I am too lazy to get into that and I don’t really think I want to. I don’t have a fourth so one that I recently got into is Hannibal and I love it so much. Chilton is my absolute favorite and his luck is really shitty and I just wanna give him a hug, although right now that probably hurt worse for him-

6: how has the pandemic been treating you?

Absolutely terrible. I got super depressed over summer “break” and basically never talked to my gf, only to Lizzie about Harry Potter bc that’s all that was keeping me afloat. This caused my gf and i to take a break shortly after school started back bc even though we saw each other now it was still strained. We’re together still though and everything is so much better, I even got her into Harry Potter!

7: a song you can’t stop listening to right now?

Our Word from 36 questions. It’s the only song I’ve heard from this musical but it’s been stuck in my head.

8: recommend a movie.

I don’t watch many movies, but the IT movies for horror fans are really good imo. Enola Holmes is also super good.

9: how old are you?

16

10: school, university, occupation, other?

I’m in high school, I’m physical because online school absolutely killed my grades. It’s really weird, we all wear masks and have a block schedule. Three classes a day, each 1 hour and 40 minutes and one of the days sucks a lot.

11: do you prefer heat or cold?

Cold bc I hate sweating and I can never be comfortable if I’m too hot

12: name one fact others may not know about you.

Uhhh friends know this but I’m 99% sure I have ADHD (causing my hyperfixations and a whole lot of other shit) but my parents won’t get me diagnosed.

13: are you shy?

Kind of? I’m shy around new people but really loud with friends, social anxiety gang

14: your pronouns?

They/Them

15: biggest pet peeves?

People inserting themselves into my relationship or making assumptions abt it when they haven’t had/have barely had relationships of their own.

16: what is your favorite “dere” type?

Himedere

17: rate your life from 1-10.

Uhhh 7/10 I love my gf and Lizzie but quarantine can go to hell

18: what’s your main blog?

This one

19: list your side blogs and what they’re used for.

@spookybloogirl is used to reserve my Halloween/October username

20: Is there something people need to know about you before becoming friends?

I’m loud and opinionated, and you can’t be mean/harsh with me when I’m excitedly talking about one of my interests bc I’ll get upset.

I tag @chaoticgarbagepailsister bc her and Hannah are my only mutuals here

[some-flyleaves]

steven universe and homestuck :Yc ?

fandom comparison

obligatory disclaimer: not up-to-date with either, lost track of SU at some point before “MindfuI Education” and have yet to read Act 6 of Homestuck. a majority of what I remember about both at this point is probably via dashboard osmosis & scattered chats. but based on that!

better protagonist: hmmmmm see neither Steven nor John stick out to me much, they’re both well-written characters and all but I can’t say either compels me strongly. arguably both stories have more of an ensemble cast to the point where “protagonist” is more of a “here’s the person you probably got most familiar with first” code than an actual fitting label.

for the sake of simplicity though I’ll stick with those two. as for who makes a better protagonist I’d have to say Steven, with him discovering the world of the gems alongside viewers for better or for worse and overall seeming to have a more clearly-defined character arc that hinges on self-discovery and a major flaw of his own (wanting to help everyone always & thinking his way of helping is objectively best).

John gets some personal favoritism points though because he’s flat-out fun to read (as is everyone in home stuck, really). I can’t really say I’d be too hyped about an episode where Steven is alone in his room and plays a game.

better villain: Vriska gaytog has been using Yellow Diamond and Lord English as the designated villain and I’ll copy. since I have yet to properly meet Caliborn I can only really judge local cue ball skeleman based on ominous foreshadowing, so my vote’s for Yellow Diamond. that said, destroyer of the motherfucking space-time continuum or however it goes is a very high bar.

better plot: based ONLY on what I’ve watched/read (see disclaimer above), Homestuck. sorry, stets - without getting too deep into the “filler” discourse, there’s a reason I kinda slowly lost interest in the show, whereas I can’t remember being flat-out uninterested in a single pesterlog.

of course, by virtue of actually being planned in advance and from what I see of the homestuck anime’s… lukewarm reception, I’m sure SU takes the gold here in the long run. it’s certainly less convoluted and probably fits nicer into a traditional narrative structure. but man, the banter in Homestuck can make you forget you’re not reading legitimate chatlogs between real people while also moving along the plot, and I gotta give it endless props for that.

better cinematography setup: you know what? I’m cheating and changing this to be a general question about how the narrative is conveyed in its given format, because “cinematography” is pretty much exclusive to film/television. so… better composition, I guess, if we’re being all artsy, which I am because I’ve been going over this stuff all semester :V

on one hand I think Steven Universe can be held back by its 11-minute (or 22-minute for the two-parters) format, and don’t get me started on the scheduling disaster that is stevenbombs. too much of a good thing. >8,T within the episodes I’m not always a fan of the scene setup and feel there could be a lot more angle variation than there is, but to its credit when the show messes with fun dramatic angle shit it pulls it off brilliantly.

Homestuck, meanwhile… is a sprite comic with a shitton of text tacked on. and flash animations that 9/10 times require an epilepsy warning. and, uh, supplementary shitedits? it’s hardly the most intuitive format to get into and the length is daunting as shit, never mind the acts and subacts and sub-subacts etc. however, it makes use of its convoluted format to the fullest, which I can definitely appreciate. people who have a lot more thoughts on the whole webcomic phenomenon can probably articulate this better but imo it’s just fucking cool.

SO BASICALLY if we put any given frame of SU and a Homestuck panel side by side, unless it’s like… a smear frame vs hero mode guest art, SU wins. but it’s a toss-up! we’re comparing apples to a gif of an exploding orange with jpeg artifacts in every vandalized frame. don’t make me pick one. >:V

more fun: Homestuck, for sure. see above points about character banter. not that I don’t(/didn’t) get any enjoyment from SU, but I’m not gonna lie, half the fun of that was the fandom. I’m… less inclined to rewatch any given episode, especially nowadays, than I am to pick a random log and go.

more thought-provoking: see now I was almost tempted to give this to Homestuck by default because it requires so much sleuthing just to get through on a first read, but for me personally? gotta be Steven Universe, moreso in the characterization than plot department. not that both stories don’t have realistic characters worth every deep analysis the fandom has provided and then some, but I kiiiiiiinda get the sense people might be Reaching when I read, say, an analysis of one of the trolls who doesn’t get much development beyond their gimmick (hello, like 10/12 players of the alpha troll crew, all of whom I have yet to meet but Still). I don’t get that from SU character analyses, generally. if I agree, ofc :P

more relaxing: fucking neither honestly, I don’t watch/read stuff to relax I consume media to WIN. by which I mean my idea of relaxing with media tends to involve Video Gaem if not spacing out in front of a firealpaca canvas but I digress.

I definitely remember at least a few occasions of reading random HS scenes & watching various SU clips (on separate days) while procrastinating hardcore on schoolwork? but I’ll watch paint dry sooner than do my damn schoolwork so it doesn’t qualify, huh. tl;dr another toss-up because I suck

more consuming: hell if I know, I tend to be pretty all or nothing when it comes to watching/reading stuff so 8V I think I’m generally more engaged with homestuck nowadays but I also haven’t y’know Finished It so. eh

favorite: Episode 413: Ace Stares Blankly at Their Flashing Cursor for 20 Minutes Before Deciding They’re Indecisive and Going to Joke About It Instead of Answering The Damn Question

[roachliquid]

OK, this is gonna be a hot take, so hear me out.

(Also, this is Homestuck, so if you’re not into that or don’t want spoilers, you’re gonna want to skip this one.)

I’ve noticed that bladekindeyewear’s model of classpect arrangement seems to be pretty much universally accepted (or at least, accepted enough to be given considerable credence on the Homestuck wiki), which makes a lot of sense.  It’s tight, it’s well thought-out, and it actually answers more questions than it raises, for the most part.  Which is why I’m bringing it up - I’m actually operating on the assumption that most of his conclusions, including the majority of class pairings and inversion theory, are correct.

But (and this is a pretty big but, so get comfy) it’s missing out on a key clue to the puzzle, specifically: Karkat.

Karkat is effectively the troll sessions’ counterpart to John.  He’s crabby where John is calm, cynical while John is almost brainmeltingly openminded, obsessed with romantic fulfillment whereas John is ambiguously asexual, etc.  He’s even got the counterpart aspect to John’s - Blood vs. Breath.

So that got me thinking... why would he have the aspect counterpart, but not class?

I want to clarify here that I don’t think Karkat is an inverted John.  Knight doesn’t invert to Heir no matter what system you’re using.  An inverted John, I believe, would actually be a worse person than Karkat.

(Karkat’s not a great person, but there’s a reason his nickname is Nubs McShouty, and not, IDK, Prongs McStabby.  As far as trolls go he’s practically a cinnamon roll.  Anyway.)

So, rather than having the inversion of John’s class, I’m proposing that Karkat simply has the counterpart.  That Heir and Knight are a pair.  And I’m going to explain myself.

So, the first thing to address is one of the popular justifications for pairing up Knight and Page - that they have thematically complementary names.  This isn’t the worst reason to put them together, particularly since the counterpart pairing - Thief and Rogue - have a similar rhythm going on - but I am going to go out on a limb and say that’s not enough justification.  You also have to argue that they’re “two sides of the same coin”, and when you look at them, they’re really not.

BKEW argues that Knight and Page are both “exploiters”, characterized by a lack of their class and a need to carefully utilize what they do have to produce a greater result than it ostensibly would have been capable of.  And BKEW, I have to apologize in advance, because I love your work, but:

This is stupid.

Look at the classes in Homestuck.  One thing you might notice about them is that their names TYPICALLY correlate in a pretty straightforward manner to what they’re about.  Witch is a powerful manipulator, Thief steals, etc.  Prince, Bard, and Lord are the only real exceptions here, and that’s because they operate on a separate level of internal Hussie logic that seems to really hate royalty (and understands the unmitigated chaos that invariably happens when you bring a bard into the room).  So based on how other classes work, the correct role for a Knight should be a protector, not an exploiter.  And I’d like to point out that “protect” as a core concept pairs very well with the “steal” concept behind Thief and Rogue.  Better than “exploit”, even.

Furthermore, THIS IS NOT EVEN HOW PAGE WORKS.  Page is characterized by a lack of something that they will later have in abundance, provided they can work through their personal issues.  They don’t have to scrimp and save their aspect - they just have to earn it, and then they’re golden.  Jake English, legendary Page of Hope, is the ur-example here - at his full power level, he is capable of a hopesplosion on par with what Jade demonstrated when she first rose to god tier.  And while the first demonstration of this power was artificially induced and arguably not healthy, it’s confirmed at multiple points that this is also the power level he would eventually reach by properly completing his personal journey.  (Cal’s puppet theatre is the obvious citation here, but there’s another conversation I don’t remember the details of wherein Jake and another character are talking about the event and he is told that he COULD get back to that level of functionality in a healthier way.)  Tavros is a lesser example - his personal journey ends with him getting over his reliance on Vriska for self-worth, recognizing that he is capable of exercising autonomy, and using it to recruit an entire goddamn army.  It’s not as flashy or all-encompassing as Jake’s hopesplosion, but as far as dead trolls go, it’s pretty fucking impressive.

Busting Page out of knight-pairing jail is only half the battle, of course.  With Knight’s counterpart slot open, this has the potential to throw the whole system into disarray - or half of it, anyway.  After all, we don’t REALLY know for certain that Mage and Sylph are a pair, what if one of them is actually paired up with Knight?  There are some interesting possibilities here.

But there’s also some information that will help us narrow those possibilities down.  For instance, we have information (mentioned in one of the posts I linked) that states that the two most passive classes prefer male players.  With that in mind, we know we can only pair Witch - the most active normal class, if we follow the trail of breadcrumbs Hussie left us - with Heir or Page.  And since this whole theory hinges on Heir being the counterpart to Knight, that leaves us with Page, and Maid & Sylph stay exactly where they are.

Page works well as a manipulator, IMO.  Jake’s example is pretty straightforward - he straight-up channels the element of Hope to get shit done.  Tavros, in a less literal way, employs his own freedom to great effect.  Again, it’s not flashy, but neither was Feferi’s negotiation with the Horrorterrors to produce the Dream Bubbles, but that was certainly an example of her manifesting her classpect, as it saved a bunch of dead characters from ultimate oblivion in the void.

Heir as a protector is a somewhat tougher sell, if only because the title doesn’t really indicate the kind of person who guards something - unless it’s a plucky young heir rising to power to protect his estate, IDK.  Role-wise, though, we DO see John doing just as much to safeguard his session and people as Dave does.  While Dave operates behind the scenes, setting up key events and harvesting important information from doomed timelines, John is keeping things together in the limelight - first by initiating the game, and later by performing the Scratch and the Retcon.  Hell, in some ways he feels like the active counterpart to Dave, which is making me wonder if it’s not Knight/Heir but Heir/Knight - but that’s probably a discussion for another time.

Anyway, that’s my dissection of S---bian mechanics.  I’m certainly not saying I’m objectively right - who knows what was going on in Hussie’s head when he designed any of this - but I do think there’s a good chance that Karkat was intended to be John’s counterpart in EVERY way, including his class.  I like this theory because it makes things just a little bit smoother on the character design stage, and also because pairing Knight with Page on the basis of names always felt cheap and awkward in comparison to how carefully planned out many of the other class pairings were.