A tour through time, as seen by the MSPFAS that have at least 200 Favourites or more.
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WOKEN VOID
Woken Void is the closest of these āfuture-200 favouritesā fanadventures to the big hundo-deluxe (a thing people say I am sure), with 198 favourites. I guess technically they might never actually make it over that 200-favourite threshold, which also goes for literally any other Fanadventures that Iāve talked about in this strange mini-series of mine. But whatever, Iāve committed to this, and so Iām going to do it. I posted about it on an update that got people liking and commenting āLetās Go!!!!!!!!ā I canāt quit now. So I guess, existential crisis about what Iām even doing here even though Iāve pretty much exhausted the 200 Favourites Gravy Train I was riding for a while aside, itās time to read WOKEN VOID.
Actually, hang on, letās examine that existential crisis I was just having. What exactly was I trying to do with that original post? I think a lot of reactions were PROBABLY because I was going to, like, review the NEW hits, the most recent hits that everybody is abuzz about. And, likeā¦
Well, a lot of my reviews have come from the assumption that a lot of these fanadventures were, by and large, popular, if not now, then probably back in their day. And I reached that conclusion by going, huh, the site emphasizes this threshold that most fanadventures will never ever come close to clearing, so any Fanadventures that do clear it must have had a significant impact or word of mouth, or enough people clicking on it and seeing something that they like. But I thinkā¦I think thatās not quite easy to quantify when you go below that threshold? Like, can I really assume this MSPFA, WOKEN VOID, was popular in itās heyday? Can I really assume ANY of the MSPFAs beyond the MSPFAs weāre still talking about NOW were popular in their heyday? I guess it doesnāt have to be in their heyday, itās just has to be at least crossing that threshold where atleast 200 people click on the webcomic, looked at it, and thought āyeah I want to get updated on this.ā Thatās all this threshold really means.
Okay Iām stalling a bit on this but I want to say, likeā¦Iām wrestling with the possibility thatā¦I donāt know. Something about reviewing things that Iām not personally into, that havenāt crossed that threshold of popularity, that I donāt think the authors would like, want me to talk about being lukewarm when literally the entire basis of this mini-series is literally just āthese are SO CLOSE to the finish line of being labeled popular.ā Because, like I said, I only started this mini-series because it was, likeā¦me trying to get ahead of those comments on the original post when I said I ended the fanadventure! And I am very grateful to everybody who said well-wishes on those posts and suggested new fanadventures for me to review. I am very grateful that the response from the MSPFA community has been a positive one to this blog. Thatās such a relief to me, personally. But like, now Iām starting to question what I set out to do, but I donāt want to delete the blogposts Iāve already made on those MSPFAsā¦AUGH!!!!!!!!
And now this post has basically become like. All about the Blog itself, and not about the MSPFA. Which is, you know, decent. Got good art, as always. Itās about Trolls, itās not really clicking with me, you know the song and dance. But yeahā¦I guessā¦what Iām saying is that I donāt think I have to worry about MSPFAs like, blind-siding me? I think what Iām saying is that I donātā¦really want to continue this mini-series. But I will definitely review new Fanadventures that cross that threshold, somehow. Soā¦yeah.
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SBURB 2
āIf SBURB is so good, why isnāt there a SBURB 2,ā outcried the community during 2019. Okay nobody actually was saying that except as a joke, but thatās what this Fanadventure proports to be. A Sequel to SBURB. Wow. Just imagine it. Okay you probably know the deal by now, itās on the brink of crossing that all important 200 favourites threshold by now, thatās why Iām covering it, 194 favourites, yada-yada-yada. You also know the drill pertaining to something called āSBURB 2ā that came out in 2019, after the Epilogues. Yes, thatās right, itās time for another HOMESTUCK CONTINUATION! But this timeā¦this timeā¦itās dealing with the next generation of HEROES!!!!!!!!
It's so interesting that before the Epilogues came out, the idea of āWhat if there was another SBURB session played on Earth Cā was like. Barely even a thing. Only one time, ONE TIME, did I come across an Earth C SBURBventure (413 AC, if youāre curious). But, like, once the Epilogues Drops, this is like, one of the big things on everybodyās minds? I guess because what was previously thought to be a completed story has just revealed new layers, new mutations of itself. In addition to, you know, The Epilogues being a story that definitely wants a response, so what better form but to respond to it in kind? What better way to frame your story, give it more heft and punch, than by focusing on the Next Generation of heroes, ALA classic literary giant Warrior Cats? Sounds good enough for me. And you know, thatās kind of my estimation of this fanadventure. Good Enough. Itās there. Pretty good fanadventure, all things considered (the āthingsā in this case being all the other Fanadventures that didnāt really vibe with me). I wouldnāt say itās my favourite, or anythingā¦but pretty solid little MSPFA weāve got here. Iāve got literally nothing else to say.
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YOURS, MINE and OURS
YOURS, MINE, and OURS is another MSPFA thatās just on the verge of having 200 favourites (it has 194 favourites as of writing this review) and honestly thatās so surprising to me. Wait, let me back up here. YOURS, MINE and OURS is yet another response to the epilogues, as we are in 2019 yet again. It is specifically the āHalloween Specialā and technical sequel to the EXTREMELY EXCELLENT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED original response to the Epilogues, āJADE ROUTE.ā If you havenāt read that, go read that. Itās, very well done and so good. Unfortunately, it does not quite qualify for this readthrough journey, as it is on another site than MSPFA and has no official mirror on MSPFA. Okay now you know why I am so surprised this thing hasnāt crossed that threshold, because itās SO high quality and I saw a lot of people talking about in 2019? I just. Thought it was apart of everybodyās consciousness around that time, but maybe people werenāt interested in like, yet another Davekat spinoff or something.
But listen. Throw out all expectations, except for the expectation that you will get jumpscared. Again, itās a Halloween special, and again, I donāt really like Jumpscares, but I understand why the jumpscares are there. Just. Donāt have audio and youāll basically do FINE with the Jumpscares, theyāre the same level of jumpscare as like. Sburb.exe. So, yeah, if you read that and did okay with those Jumpscares, youāll do fine with the jumpscares in this comic as well.
Okay where was I? Iām getting off track a lot during this review, but basically, oh right, I was talking about how you should throw away the expectations of it being another Davekat centric MSPFA. Because, this is not about wish fulfillment. This is about twisting the Dave/Karkat ship so far into an unrecognizable state from itās fandom incarnation. This is about exploring the horrifying idea of like, āwhat if somebody basically got addicted to Ecto-Biology, so that they wouldnāt have to face that their less-immortal partner was going to die pretty near in the future?ā Yeah. Thatās the hook. Thatās the Premise. OBAMAA DAVEKAT and JOHN DAVEKAT are our two central protagonists, as they look for their Father and try to explore the messed-up manor they were raised in, and we recoil in horror at all the grandiose whimsical macabre children on display. Itās a vibe unique to anything else on MSPFA, Iāll tell you that much. So why not give it a spin this Holiday Season? You might like what you seeā¦
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STUCK IN PAST
I am now officially done with all the Fanadventures that have recently gotten 200 favourites, or that I just didnāt get to in my initial readthrough. BUT! The problem with this journey is that thereās always going to be MSPFAs that cross that 200 favourites threshold. So, Iāll cover those Fanadventures that are, āOn the Edgeā as it were, to crossing that aforementioned threshold, as all of them have at least 190 favourites and are below that crucial number. So, by covering them *now*, if and when they later become valid for this journey, Iāll have already done them! Simple as, as Easy does. Or whatever that expression is.
The first of these is a Fanadventure from 2018, known as āSTUCK IN THE PAST.ā Apparently, this one is about a boy who can remember another timeline which has people in it that donāt exist in the current timeline? Which sounds really interesting as a premise to a Fanadventure. Also, this fanadventure recently upd8ed, which is probably why itās so close to the threshold! Neat.
Okay so this is a very compelling and competent execution of the premise and thatās really all I have to say on the matter. Honestly. Itās just. A really well told story so far! Itās also got cool characterization patterns like, the repeated motif of how somebody takes care of flowers, that I always like to see in MSPFAs. I really enjoy this one and I think others would too, maybeā¦yeah sure Iād recommend this to people. I guess Iām doing that right now.
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MOBIUSTUCK
You know, Iām actually kind of surprised it took all the way until basically the end of the year to get around to like, a Sonic-Based Fanadventure. You wouldāve thought that, with the kind of cultural impact that Sonic has had on the internet and gaming and internet-discourse about gaming, there would be more of a Prescence of Sonic-based Fanadventures on MSPFA. But nope, this is the only one of itās kind (that I can remember reading, at least).
I guessā¦did I talk about any Fanadventures that was based off of like, other properties playing SBURB? Because itās one of those again. Except, itās not really, because itās not like, how you would think it is. No, instead, all the main Sonic the Hedgehog cast have been transformed into KIDS, to better fit the strict adherence to structure that must have been all the rage back in 2013. Like, why canāt it be Sonic the Hedgehog looking into this new āSBURBā thing that every mobian is talking about?
This is where I should probably clarify that I am no means a āSonic Fan.ā I mean, I like him, I donāt dislike the games (but Iāve never really played any of them to really know if I do or do not like the games), but likeā¦my main interaction with Sonic actually was like, reading the Sonic the Hedgehog comics back as a child, and then in 2020 (or 2021, I canāt remember) finding the Blog āThanks Ken Pendersā and reading that. Iām not invested in claiming an identity as a āSonic Fan,ā is my ultimate point Iām trying to make here, so this SBURBventure really is not aimed at me. Still, itās pretty good, I guess.
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HOMESICK
So I have no idea how to actually start to introduce this webcomic so Iāll just say what I believe the premise is, which is āwhat if a blood cell played SBURB?ā Iā¦think thatās the premise. This is a fanadventure that only recently *just* crossed the threshold of favourites to be on the āmainā list, with 200 favourites on the dot. Itās also from 2013. I think all the previous facts are just neat.
Like. The premise is just, so out there. āWhat if a bunch of like, organicā¦organismsā¦like Estrogen and Red Blood Cells and stuff played SBURBā is like, kind of a weird premise? Which makes me all the more interested that this was in 2013. This feels like the kind of stuff you could see TODAY, when people are trying to figure out the limits of the structure of the SBURBventure and testing out different permutations of it.
Okay so Iām really glad people actually, like, found this and favourited it enough to be on the list, because, gosh darnit I have to leave the fanadventure and I want to keep reading MORE!!!!!!!! Itās competently made and Iām interested in where you could possibly send this premise that I want moreā¦ā¦..so I guess thatās a recommendation from me?
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HACKBENT
Now, for the big reason why I wanted to do this āgoing back and recollecting all the fanadventures that I hadnāt yet covered in my original journey.ā The year is 2013, the big hits of the fandom are still GuideStuck and Heinoustuck, and the juggernaut that Vast Error would become is still a tiny little sapling, wandering around playing with Darts. HACKBENT is the one glaring ominious at my original journey, so glaring I made a small post about it back in the halcyon days when nobody really cared because I had only just started getting to the real heavy-hitters of MSPFA. So, letās do it. Letās fix this glaring hole. Letās read HACKBENT. Which apparently was created by a person who now works at DREAMWORKS???????? Crazy.
Alright, already Iām noticing a couple of tropes that gained traction afterwards, but I guess started here (or was added to the Homestuck Formula by this comic). Mainly, mysterious narrator intro that tells us that, hey, hold on to your hats. Weāre not just going to do Act 1 of Homestuck. Itās gonna be a totally different thing. Then immediately after that, the comic THROWS you into a Pesterlog without any warning. āYouāre here to see Trolls, Letās get you straight to the trollsā the comic seems to be saying. Okay so the comicās like, paced weirdly so far, but Iām kind of getting into it? Mainly because like, wow, thereās so many favourites here and itās so early in MSPFAās career as a website that there must be SOMETHING here worth remembering and capturing. But the weird pacing is like, all over the place. Obviously shadowy, mysterious narrator, then immediately pesterlog with two characters that you donāt anything about, then an introduction, check the computer, and suddenly weāre the other character from the initial conversation. Itāsā¦a bit all-over the place, in a way that even Homestuckās early acts werenāt like (trust me, I checked) and even, like, the other contemporary (relative to this comicās initial posting, at least) comics arenāt like. Like, Guidestuck mainly stuck to one character at a time. Thatās the main formula for most MSPFAs, you stick with one character until you get far enough into their introduction that you introduce another character, and so on and so forth. I guess this is a different way of doing it, and you know what, now that I type this out, this kind of pace of like āintroducing characters rapid-fireā is EXACTLY the pace of Homestuck Act 5 Act 1, without the framing around that act of course. So I mean, who am I to complain. If you want to get your audience to meet all your characters and get to the āgood stuffā of your comic, this is a pretty nice way of doing things.
You know, I wouldnāt be shocked if HACKBENT was like, around when Vast Error started conceptualizing itās characters. Iām seeing so many character concepts that would later show up in Vast Error, and reading Hackbent is like the missing piece of the puzzle. āAha!ā Iām saying to myself. āSo this must be what all the fanadventures were like back then, before Vast Error rose to prominence.ā I mean, I know what they were like back then, Iāve read them. But you know what I mean. Like I said, itās the missing puzzle piece.
Or maybe itās just a correlated variable that Iām picking up. Maybe this is just what webcomics in general were like back in 2013. Back before MSPFA really had itās own vernacular and language, and thus whatever MSPFAs were there were either borrowing from Homestuckās vernacular or from other works. Whatever. Maybe Iām overthinking this too hard. It doesnāt matter, what matters is that this is very evocative to me and Iām struggling to I guess get a clear picture of where this fits in on the āimpacting MSPFAā timeline. Because, like, to sort of quote a clichĆ©, āthey donāt make MSPFAs like these anymore.ā Because, like, I feel like recently thereās this, almost obessive fascination with OG Homestuck, as people are rediscovering that, hey, Homestuck isnāt all that bad. But back in 2013, people werenāt quite in the āHomestuck sucksā phase that the fandom would later find itself mired in, but people werenāt like, obbessed over the structure and trying to recreate it. Itās more like, āhow can we make Homestuck into a model thatās more traditional, more accessible to the general public, more like the other webcomics one might read on the internet?ā HACKBENT is very accessible, and wears its heart on its sleeve. You donāt have to guess what archetype each character is, because itās easy to tell-the pompous one, the conjoined one, the one thatās a ticking time bomb, the dirty one, etc. idk. Itās interesting to see how a niche community grows, is I guess my ultimate point here in this paragraph. I feel like Iām not quite communicating that point as effectively as I might like, butā¦Iāll stop now.
Okay so Hackbent is fascinating to me in like, pacing and what it wants to do, because itās so unlike what the other big fanadventures were like at the time (with the exception of Guidestuck, but even then, Guidestuck had a much slower pace to itās sequence of events, from what I can remember at least), and yet what itās trying to do would be emulated many more times in the coming years. In Other Words, I really recommend this fanadventure, and I enjoyed it overall! Give it a try.
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MeteorStuck
Weāre back in 2019 with this one, and you know what that meansāwish fulfillment! Catharsis! Everything a healthy, growing fanbase indulges in every once and a while. Also, Iāve noticed a lot of that wish fulfillment and catharsis is centered around two characters, namely Jade and Nepeta. I guess these two are just the ones that get the short end of the stick within Homestuck, and therefore have the most āI wishā¦ā statements about them. I wish she didnāt die, I wish she wasnāt asleep for most of the story, etc. you get it. Just, something Iāve noticed.
I guess another theme for wish fulfillment is āI wish that the Act 6 Intermissions went differently.ā Exile Dads AU had this too, where they started with the point in Act 6 Intermission 1 before the 3 year time-skip happened, and this AUās premise is centered all around the idea that, well, what if Jade and John *could* go on the ship and hang out with their friends for 3 long years? Idk, what *IF* they could go on the ship and hang out with their friends for 3 long years? I guess itās not a question that keeps me up at night, or one that I would want to actively pursue. The entire text of Homestuck is defined by a lot of charactersā loneliness and characters justā¦not being able to meet up with one another, due to various different reasons. I just donāt see how you could make this an entire comic. Idk, maybe Iām just grouchy this morning for some reason. I slept wellā¦anyways, yeah, not really getting this one, but you know what I will say. I think itās neat that this comic, which has not upd8ed for like, literally 4 years, has gotten new favourites? I think thatās neat, that this community can do that, can go back into the past and go āoh! Here's a thing that I really like and am going to express that I really like it, even though thereās no conceivable way that this could come back.ā I think thatās really nice and I like that aspect a lot.
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Hivebain't
Iāve probably mentioned this before, but Homestuck Act 5 Act 1 is fascinating to me, on like, a structural level (shocker). Itās just soā¦all over the place, narratively, jumping all over the trolls session timeline to best illustrate what itās trying to showcase about the trolls. Also, itās mission statement of āwhat if you got to sympathize with people you might never think to sympathize with. What if we took all these losers and made you care about them, and then told you it was all a tragedy all along,ā is quite something. Well, what if we took Hivebent, but made it into a Homestuck Act 1 AU? At least, thatās what Iām expecting, but I am curious about the approach this will take. Will it be, simply, āHivebent but itās Act 1 of Homestuck,ā or will it take the non-lineral narrative that Homestuck Act 5 Act 1 presents us with and uses that to build a different story out of those constituent parts? Only time will tellā¦and me reading this.
Okay so this comic has taken the option of āWhat if Homestuck Act 1 was Hivebentā and thatās kind ofā¦boring to me? I mean, it still stands out by virtue of being (by my own journey, anyways) the first of its kind to start itās āHomestuck but Differentā story HERE, butā¦yeah. A little disappointing. Iām kinda not feeling it, maybe because you get burnt out after so many of these fanadventures. Which doesnāt matter to most MSPFA readers, since, you know, you get to pick and choose which fanadventures you follow, and obviously you get to thus set how many āWhat if Homestuck Act 1 but differentā you view, but yeah. Iām feeling kinda burnt-out on this project. Itās interesting, butā¦itās notā¦I donāt know what Iām saying. Just. Yeah.
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Genocide Route
Every once a while there will come along a Homestuck AU that really gets it. Or atleast, intrigues the viewer on where they might be going. And alsoā¦
MWAHAAHAHA⦠YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD SEEN THE LAST OF HEINOUSTUCK? WELLā¦I meanā¦technically you are correct about that one, this isnāt a continuation or a revamp or a reboot of Heinoustuck. But it contains the essence of Heinoustuck.
You might even call itā¦possessedā¦by Heinoustuck⦠MWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!
Yes, weāre back in the familiar, and if Iām being honest with myself, slightly comfortable in the most dreadful way possible territory of THE HORROR AU. October, Pumpkins, Strange Prose stylings, the works. I also feel like this review/note taking session has really gone off the rails so Iāll just put this here: I really like how this MSPFA takes the āTake Arms from Chestā and makes it more explicit that Jane canāt actually use her arms until she opens up the magic chest to receive the fake arms. Thatās an interesting direction to take that gag in and I like how it says āFollowing Jane's new ability to reach for things, you have unlocked CAPTCHALOGUE!ā Thatās good Homestuckian prose right there, is my point. Like, this Fanadventure GETS why Act 1 works, on a level, which is that itās the pure, unadulterated joy of just bungling around your house with a vague goal in mind and leveling up using obscure meters and game mechanics. Itās good, is my point. I keep saying that, but whatever. Very curious to see where this one goes.
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SOVEREIGNSTUCK
Iāve heard about this one, vaguely. I think I saw it when it had just started, but for one reason or another, I just didnāt keep up with it. Though now I am curious about what it is, and thatās ultimately why I started this whole thing in the first placeābecause I was very curious about the MSPFAs of yesteryear and tomorrow. Thatās a very poetical phrasing but you know what I mean. What I mean is that itās time to read Sovereign Stuck.
OH! Itās an Earth C comic. Well then. Also this might not be the comic I was thinking of, because I donāt remember these panels being in my initial readthrough of this comicā¦they are very stunning, like, with this kind of pointillism filter over everything, and very rich colors, which all in all make for a very intriguing, compelling start. Like, seriously, these opening panels are absolutely dynamically interesting, visually speaking, and VERY well photo-mashed. Oh, wait no those panels must have been added later because now weāre back to familiar territory, at least for me. (although I must say, I do like starting off a fanadventure with somebody struggling to get out of bedāitās relatable).
It's interesting to get back with one of these more anime inspired, ensemble-cast fanadventures that are more towards the Desynced or Vast Error side of things. Techincally you could make the case for AUTOPRAXIS being one of these more ambitious MSPFAs, but I see AUTOPRAXIS as more interested in wanting to explore the spaces left unexplored from Homestuck rather than, for example, trying to make a more traditional webcomic structure around Homestuckās main āgameplayā loop, such as it is. I donāt think that last sentence made entire sense but I canāt think of another way to phrase it so Iām just going to move on. Suffice it to say, very interesting to come back to this and immediately be grabbed, once again, by the idea that my personal tastes do not lean this way in the slightest.
Like, I know that thereās been a lot of heart and passion poured into this webcomic, I can feel that, but itās why Iām ultimately saddened to say thatā¦yeah, Iām just not getting it.
I think ultimately, for these large, (usually troll) focused casts of more traditional webcomic leanings whilst still recognizably a āSBURBVENTURE,ā it is basically determined whether or not youāll click with one is whether or not you grew up with that one as YOUR SBURBVENTURE. Like how people who are just getting into a band will probably like the album that introduced them to that band the best. Like, itās the new generation of fans who donāt know anything about Crossmound when it was at itās peak (or Desynced or Vast Error to that matter), but SOVEREIGNSTUCK is their āBig Oneā. Itās probably a lot easier to dive in and get invested when youāre already following the lead-up and the roll-out of the initial stages of the comic and can get hyped about the things you WILL see, rather than coming later when the dust has settled and you already have your own āBig Oneā that you will be comparing this comic to. Or maybe Iām just talking nonsense and nothing that I just said made any sense, I donāt entirely know. What I do know is that you should check this one out, because it seems good, itās just not for me.
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> s33k the highb100d.
Finally, we come to the last Fanadventure of the 2024 (so far) Fanadventures, and what better way to end it off than with a HOMESTUCK AU thatās not āAct 1 but Different,ā but is instead that other old chestnut, āWhat if Gamzee *hadnāt* killed Nepeta????????ā This is like, classic wish fulfillment. Probably one of the bigger wish fulfilment plotlines, if Iām being honest, since the root of that wish fulfillment was seen within the haunted halls of āALTERNATIVE MEWNIVERSE.ā Also this is the second-highest favourited fanadventure (as of writing this), behind Home-Skillet. So yeah, Iād say the theme is popular.
Much like many of the other āWhat if Nepeta Kills Gamzee insteadā Fanadventures, it knows what you want to see and sends you directly to the action. But like, writing that out in that last sentence, I realized, how else are they gonna do it. Are they gonna, like, go through the stations of canon all the way up to Act 5, and thereās no changes? That sounds terrible. Better to just start your station of canon at the part where youāve changed it. Anyways.
Well, I mean, I thought this was wish fulfillment, and it might be providing that niche to some, but so far (and by so far I mean. Literally all the parts that are there right now) itās just. A Fight Scene? Which, if youāve been following this blog at all, youāll know that I am slightly skeptical towards the inclusion of in any Fanadventure, but thatās just my personal taste. It is kindaā¦brutal? Not that brutal, but kind of. Also apparently this fanadventure has been already written out yet if the description of ānot spoiling the endingā is any indication, which makes me think that probably Nepetaās going to sacrifice herself to save Equius, which would not. Entirely be the direction that I would think the wish fulfillment would go in. But thatās merely speculation on something that Iām not exactly ātuned-intoā at the start of. Anyways this is probably the most competent one of these fanadventures Iāve seen, soā¦yeah.
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MY MOIRAIL IS A RAINBOW DRINKER
Hey, you know what we havenāt had in a long time? A Trollventure. Also, a fanadventure that stars a vampire. I donāt know if I have *ever* had a fanadventure on here that stars a Fanadventure, but I know with certainly this one does, because the title told me. The opening panel told me that apparently this comic contains grim themes, nudity, and gore, and that I should follow The Simpsonsā rule of ādo not follow the examples of the characters on screen.ā Luckily for me and the sake of this review, this fanadventure only has like, 26 pages, so I donāt think itās gotten to any of the real scary parts. But who knows. I will, once I start reading this, so letās not stall any longer.
The Spectre of Twilight will never leave us as a culture, will it? Who couldāve predicted that one day, 9/11 would set off a chain of events that not only included Shades of Grey and people misinterpreting Pete Wentz lyrics forever, but this specific adventure. I donāt know where Iām going with this paragraph so Iām just going to stop while Iām behind. I will say that reading first person prose is, again, an experience, mainly because, again, we do second person prose around these parts, even though it is the conventional thing to do basically everywhere else. Cool to note, which is why I noted it.
Okay so I have to ask one simple character design question: why is this character not wearing pants? I donāt mean from a Watsonian perspective, my complaint is specifically of the doylanian variety. Why are they not wearing pants. I get that this is an edgy, nsfw fanadventure but I feel kinda uncomfortable with how the artist is drawing our leading lady? Like, in a very overtly sexualized way I donāt often seen in Fanadventures, like sheās a piece of meat. Seriously, this comic is obsessed with showing her underwear for the whole world to see. Again. Very uncomfortable reading this.
Oh wait no this is not our leading lady, well she is but it turns out thereās a cooler, edgier protagonist just waiting in the wings, and he wants to be a Rainbow Drinker too. Gasp! How shocking! You know I thought that I would have seen the last of the 2000s era gamer comic machismo but thatās kinda the vibes Iām getting from this comic? And also yeah thatās basically the end of this comic. Iāmā¦Iām not gonna say it wasnāt interesting, or different from the usual Fanadventures that I have read on this blogā¦and I wonāt say that thereās not competent pacingā¦but also, I will say that there might be someā¦issues that the comic might have to work out.
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GRAVEKICKERS
GRAVEKICKERS is another entry in the āHomestuck Act 1 but itās MY AU so I get to write it.ā The enduring popularity of this concept never ceases to amaze me. Think of how much the world has changed since Heinoustuck first started all those years agoā¦think about how much the FANDOM has changed since then. Weāve had Vast Error, Bilious, KGTAC, SBURB.EXE, and now AutoPraxisā¦and yet, this one desire to redo Homestuck Act 1 1:1 except itās different keeps happening. Perhaps the incomprehensible scale of Homestuck is a challenge to some; can I pull it off. Perhaps it is an easy tool to practice writing, a familiar structure. I have no idea but I have, over the course of this blog, offered up some guesses on why this could be the case. Anyways I have nothing really to say about Gravekickers; itās another one of those and it's fine, really, but Iām not vibing with it. Second Verse, Same as the Verse. You get it.
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HOMESKILLET
HOMESKILLET. Another MSPFA Iāve heard a lot about, but then again, besides a couple of the MSPFAs Iāve reviewed in 2024, Iāve basically heard of all these MSPFAs? Which makes sense; again, these are the cream of the crop of 2024, if you will, the MSPFAs that were the fastest growing out of all other MSPFAs Iāve looked at because theyāve had the least amount of time to āproveā themselves or attract an audience. Not to say other MSPFAs havenāt proven themselves to me that they should be at least 200 favourites of more (to me), but these are the ones that are making waves. And since HOMESKILLET comes from the dynamic mind behind one of the BIGGEST Fanadventure ever, KARKAT GOES TO A CONVENTION, and was even purposed once upon a time as the āAct 2ā of that Fanadventureā¦yeah, Iād say that it made some waves.
And the intro seems to set-up once again that this wonāt be your regular ordinary MSPFA SBURBventure, with it being like, āwhat if MSPA Reader, instead of reading the epilogues, read a random Fanadventure?ā Which means that the actual ārealā fanadventure starts on page 69, therefore proving to me, at least that this text knows how the slower moments can build up to a reveal, and is comfortable going the slower route. Apparently, according to people āin the knowā (read: have read farther than me into Karkat Goes To A Convention), this is apparently somebodyās actual in-universe MSPFA? Iād be interested to see how this maps onto their character, then, and how their view of the world changes throughout Karkat Goes To A Convention. Although, splitting it off from the main text, KGTAC, means that that kind of analysis is a lot harder to get, since I could, theoretically (and in practice) not be coming into this Fanadventure with the idea of who that character is. Anyways, much to consider already.
Okay so far, this fanadventure has beenā¦slow? Like, not like, in an uncompelling way, like there is that sense of dread that occupies every SBURBventure when you havenāt quite had the āSBURB Meteors/Threat Dejourā show up yet, (in a similar way to how dread builds in a Murder Mystery, come to think of it), butā¦idk. Nothingās gripping me, so far. Itās been rather good and consistent and competent, and some of the jokes and phrasing of things are good, like refering to closing the door of a mini-fridge as causing āThe COKE BOTTLES begin to go back to their original temperature,ā which is like. Yeah thatās how a mini-fridge works. But it also mechanicalizes the process of opening up the fridge and closing the fridge in a very interesting way that I thought I should note down. Although, now that I think about it, that stuff is still present in Homestuck and other MSPFAs, just. Not as apparent, I guess?
I gotta say, I feel like the story wants to present itself as moreā¦grounded, somehow. Thatās probably a combination of both the vaguely slice-of-life presentation to Fredās bumbling around the house (thereās not really *a* goal at this stage in the story, like how John basically got a goal pretty quickly of āretrieve the Sburb Beta and play itā in OG Homestuck), to the slower pace of the story and the lessā¦extreme reactions to things from Fred. John is disgusted at his Dadās Fanciful Harlequins, and Fred just wants cookies and Mac and Cheese and loves his Grandma. I think the storyās doing this, again, to set-up the tension and dread; we ALL KNOW, if weāve come from reading KGTAC, what happens in these MSPFAs, and the destruction SBURB tends to set-up, so in these low-key moments of ānormalcyā (for a lack of a better term), I feel a more heightened sense of dread about proceedings.
I will say, I like how thereās been a trend lately of like, emphasizing various other forms of communication besides just pesterlogs? Like, Homestuck has the characters interact with each other through the internet, and this feels like a logical extension of that. Sburb 1996, Ever After, and now Home Skillet (and also technically DEAD MEAT with its text messages) all fit into this, I think. I donāt have like, anything further to say about that, noting that itās occurring and itās an interesting trend.
Okay got to the windchime flash and this is exactly what Iām talking about with regards to the slower, more grounded pacing. Instead of a flash marked entirely by the absence of other people, we have noises of children and families playing in the background. Instead of having the cool wind blowing through the streets, creating a more haunting feeling, thereās birds chirping and thereās sunny lighting everywhere. Instead of a monologue about how something feels missing, thereās a monologue about responsibility and wondering whatās next, as if to say, Fred has never wanted or considered absence in this life. Itāsā¦grounded. Slower. Anyways yeah if that sounds like up your alley you should probably check this out, I certainly liked it better than KGTACās opening stretch.
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REALLY! FUCKED UP ENTRY
I think a large part of the modern construction of SBURBventures is the feeling of like, everybody knows about SBURBās mechanics inside and out by now. Thereās a sense of like, there being a solid foundation from the audience to be able to grasp and understand the core conceit of why, for example, everything is on fire in the first panel of this fanadventure, and thus we donāt need to spend any time on it. RFUE is very much of the mindset that you need to get rid of everything that is unnecessary, that includes Introductions to the characters, introduction to the setting, and introduction to the mechanics. āCome on,ā it seems to say. āYou already know whatās going on. We donāt need to explain anything. You know why you are here, and why you are here is to watch a bunch of people mess up the SBURB entry sequence and fail around like idiots, while meteors fall overhead.ā Itās Touys, and itās touys being done at such a rapid pace that there is room for nothing else. Itās a veryā¦Time-Aspecty driven story, if that makes sense? Only dialogue and jokes and entry sequences, back-to-back to back, at least at first.
The cool thing about this approach is that, whilst we, the audience know about like. What is happening, the characters donāt. I believe they call this āDramatic Irony.ā Also I guess the audience also does not actually know whatās happen, because of the lack of anything that isnāt just āYOUāVE GOT TO GET IN THE GAME *NOW* GO GO GO GO GO.ā We donāt know who Ruby is, who AG is, what Rubyās home life is like, and thatās OKAY, because thatās not necessary for the Fanadventure to function. In a lot of ways, despite it's speedy plot, itās almostā¦minimalist in that sense? Like, not like how I could describe Youāre Someone as Minimalist, but like, in the way Iāve mentioned above. So we donāt have any clue on the typical things that some might say make or break a story, but the characters in the narrative donāt have any clue on the mechanics of the story they occupy, or how to actually enter the game. Idk I just thought that was a neat parallel.
I think Iāve run into this issue many times before but Iāve never really commented on it because I either didnāt notice it in time but DID notice it and just decided that it didnāt fit in the flow of my writing so I guess I should say it now. Thereās a lot of gif animations in a lot of these kinds of āPlaying with Touys Mode Onlyā MSPFAs, and thatās fine and dandy and works wellā¦to a certain point. Thereās a reason, I think, why Homestuck used Flash Animations that had like, arrows to replay the flash animation, because when you *didnāt* see an arrow, you knew that the animation you were watching was, in fact, still going. Iāve had many instances where Iād thought Iād seen the bulk of the animation, only for the animation to actually keep going and for me to only realize that it did after clicking away to the next page. Itās not, like, game-breaking or whatever, but it is a problem to note because it kind of takes away from the breakneck pace because I have to go back, thus reversing my momentum in the story, if that make sense. Pacing for MSPFAs is one of the most important things I think, and I think this only highlights it. Again, doesnāt ruin it for me, but itās something to watch out for.
I love how Homestuck only offers a tiny piece of like, the ludocris things that one could do with a game built kind of around the notion that people will be time-traveling and could, potentially also travel across universes, and that MSPFAs are taking up the mission for these kind of ridiculous scenarios and running with them, at least in the modern, neo-classical era that we now find MSPFAs in. Idk I think itās kind of neat. Thatās the second time Iāve said this in this review so Iām going to stop taking notes now I guess, but before I go I will say that this fanadventure was really fun, and I really liked it, soā¦take that as you will, I guess.
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AUTOPRAXIS
Now, The Tapestry might be the reigning title of like. āYouāre Favourite MSPFA Authorās Favourite MSPFA (besides the MSPFA they are working on).ā But for my money? Itās probably AUTOPRAXIS.
AUTOPRAXIS is many things, and is doing many things. It is an absolute masterclass in not just the bread and butter pacing and good bits of a SBURBventure, but also in how you can play around with the mechanics of SBURB to tell a more engrossing tale. Like, do we need the guardian strife to actually be with a guardian? AUTOPRAXIS is also the most explicitly leftist text on MSPFA right now (at least, as far as Iām aware of). I have never been so aware of a MSFPA characterās wealth and status within society and how they relate to said society than when I am reading AUTOPRAXIS. Itās also an explicitly, like, no bones about it, transfemmine text that wants to explore how trans women deal with the trials and tribulations of society, and that includes Trans Women who havenāt āfigured it outā yet (but they will, trust me).
Did I already mention that itās incredibly funny as well? And that said characters are some of the most thought-out, thoughtful, interesting to read-about characters on MSPFA? And that one character, Null, has stolen my heart? No? Okay well all of that I just said is true. Also it should go without stating at this point that itās got a rocking soundtrack and has cool Dark Souls Paratext (and other paratexts) that actually like. Matters???????? Also itās a period piece for 2016, that totally captures that kind of special hopelessness that was happening in 2016.
Iām having a hard time describing just what makes this text so good, I guess. Like, expressing myself. I guess I could say that I am literally Geme and have never felt more seen by a character than when I see what Geme is doing? Thatās a pretty good anecdote, I guess. Also itās constantly upd8ing and despite it only having started in April, it already has 803 pages. Also, itās doing a lot of cool things with not merely referencing Homestuck, but building on its foundations (see also my comments about being more aware of the status and social class of each character). Anyways yes if you arenāt reading this, thenā¦you should be reading this MSPFA. Like, right now. Why the heck are you still reading this review? GO READ IT NOW. IT IS THAT GOOD.
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