#coming out as a homestuck fan yall :(

[that1overthere]

Some old gay gals for your lovely 4/13

#homestuck #homestuckfanart #rosemary #coming out as a homestuck fan yall :( #art #digital art #my art #illustration

[yoitscro]

Homestuck Beyond Canon

Just as a side note,

Regardless of how you feel about Homestuck 2/Beyond Canon from the past, the new team should be treated with basic decency.

If you're not interested, then look forward to other future Homestuck projects, or other franchises that you enjoy entirely. But don't be one of those people who wish for the downfall of another indie thing that isn't made for you.

It is arguably made for people who like Homestuck Beyond Canon versus the entire fanbase. Just like how Hiveswap is made for Hiveswap fans. You can say it doesn't need to exist, but you can dismiss any kind of art like that.

I highly doubt this new team is coming back to cause strife. They're here to make something for fun regardless of its previous footprint. It is, at this point, an officially acknowledged fanventure. I assume yall know how to respect fanventures.

Be normal and keep your past grievances out. Obviously, critique will come, and isn't outlawed, but don't be daft. Since we all have had over a year to do other things and hopefully have a healthier way to interact with this series as a whole, I hope people realize that repeating the same behaviors as before, whether or not they like the direction of things, will only bring back familiar toxicities. At that point, you'll be straight up stupid to scratch your head and wonder why things die out if you start scrutinizing the character of artists and writers that are a degree away from (if not already in) your same fan space.

#homestuck beyond canon #homestuck 2 #homestuck^2 #homestuck #I have my woes but none of them are here. #I don't think im even calling anything too early bc this boils down to “dont harass anyone” #i dont think any of these folks are gonna fight teenagers or tell the readers fuck u thru updates. #even if u dont like a character decisions you will be straight up inhuman if you choose to dox anyone

[ardourie]

stuff like this makes it so unenjoyable to even exist on here like i refuse to leave bc yall always run black people off of here it’s why black tumblr is barely existent now but it just feels so alienating seeing literal online lynch mob behavior bc a white woman lied about what a black person supposedly did to her / another white person, like i fr cannot even put into words how upsetting it is, she says i started a death threat harassment campaign, i say i didnt, but despite her having no proof, and me having proof that she lied, she gets trusted bc yall donot value or believe black people, my crime in this entire thing was saying “as a homestuck fan it hurts seeing ppl dismiss the antiblackness the comic contributed to” and ppl immediately ran around sending ask saying i wanted every trans homestuck fan to die, and you believed it, you didn’t even bother to check, when checking and showing proof would’ve been beneficial to you, but no, im a crazy evil black person and im out to get you and thats why i deserve to be laser focused on as the aggressor despite never calling or wishing for anyones death, im the one who started it all on a post i never touched, im the one to blame when you completely side stepped the ppl actually doing it on that poll to come after me for saying “i wish you all treated antiblackness more seriously” it is so fucking exhausting being a black person who doesn’t want to be stepped on

[wifegideonnav]

should i read homestuck. like i feel it would be interesting so i could see what yall are talking about in regards to tlt but is homestuck actually good

"is homestuck good" - the greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 8129 pages of heated debate,

no but seriously, it highkey depends on 1. your definition of good and 2. your tolerance for stupid bullshit. as someone who read tlt and then hs, i'd say that being a fan of the chaotic aspect of tlt is a good predictor of being able to hang in with homestuck.

readmore because this. um. got long. the tl;dr is: i like homestuck a lot and i am glad i read it. i can't tell you if you should read it bc idk your tastes, but there is a lot to like and enjoy about it.

the official pitch for homestuck is something like "4 kids play a game and then a bunch of other shit happens." here's my pitch based on what the core of the story is to me:

several groups of characters across time, space, and reality are brought together in order to succeed at creating a new universe after their own are destroyed. this takes the form of a game, which is called sburb (by the humans) and sgrub (by the trolls). the characters must contend with an eternal battle against good and evil in which they are the deciding factor, and level up while following personalized quests. at its heart, homestuck is about relationships of every sort and how they shape us, growing up and the associated grief and loss, coming into ones identity and choosing who to be, predestination and fate, and stories themselves. it gets very meta at times, and the characters are semi to fully aware that they're characters, and attempt to subvert or escape that. it's got hordes of fleshed out, compelling characters, one of which will almost certainly glom onto you for the rest of your life, real emotion, extremely funny jokes, smart and exciting plotting, and some very cool moments. it more or less invented an entire new genre/medium, and plays with medium in a very cool way.

it is also clunky, hard to get into, and way too convoluted. you will never fully understand what's happening. there are tons of characters whose stories you will follow whom you simply do not care about. there are too many characters. it was written by an edgelord in 2009 so there's some unsavory humor and character writing. it's so fucking long. the ending kinda sucks because the fandom was so toxic that hussie simply wanted it over with. the fandom still kinda sucks tbh. so many people have wrong opinions about it. it requires a very specific lens to approach and understand it. i still dont understand what happened with that fucking puppet someone explain it to me.

overall, i'd say that if you think you want to read it, give it a shot. i have a complicated relationship with it but at the end of the day, i genuinely love the story and the characters and i know they will be with me forever. it certainly enhanced my understanding of tlt, and getting to read more of tamsyn's writing was such a bonus (even though her taste in pairings is. not the same as my own). and like honestly. it's just fun. even when you're going "wait what the fuck just happened" you're having fun. it's really goddamn funny too. it WILL change the way you speak and also think about romance forever.

the best way to read it is to have an experienced reader guide you, but if you or other people don't know anyone like that, here are my basic tips:

i think most people know this already, but download the unofficial homestuck collection. just do it. it's like 4 gigs and it's infinitely better than trying to read on the broken website, and it's even ad free. it can also be modded - for instance ik there's a slur replacer mod (lmao) if you don't want to read those

act 1 sucks to read. you're like what the fuck is this, THIS is homestuck?? the beginning is radically different from how it ends up, so just hang in there. for me, it really picked up somewhere in act 3. just focus on the silly fun the characters are having and you'll be good

things you should actually try to follow in the early acts: the concept of a sylladex existing (the various fetch modi are only there for jokes and eventually just kinda stop being a thing), where all the copies of the game are, what each kid's relationship with their guardian is like, the mechanics of the game and the lore behind it, including classpects and quests

things you do not have to waste brain space on: anything about how the totems work, what the various machines are, what the levels are, basically any of the jokes that would be funny to hussie's original intended audience of software engineers and rpg gamers. oh and the intermission with the midnight crew and the felt, just know that those are guys that exist and you'll be good.

and the biggest tip i have is just. go with it. suspend your disbelief. a lot of the worldbuilding doesn't really make sense, but it would be a worse story if it did. when the time shit and ectobiology come into play, literally just go ok got it and keep going, don't think too hard.

so yeah i don't even know if any of this is useful but i hope it helps you decide. and if you or anyone else have follow up questions send em!

#asks #hs

[tunaababee]

gonna get really sappy and DEEPLY tmi/personal about twenty one pilots on main so im gonna put it under a cut. i am cringe but i am free and clancy tour coming up is giving me Feelings

i've been a top fan since 2016. i initially had some resistance to them bc it was when Stressed Out was at its peak and like, yall know how oversaturation goes. even if its good, its fucking annoying by proxy. all the 12/13 year olds at my high school were into it. i was turning 17. and it was a really fucking rough year.

i've been deep into homestuck since i was about 14/15, but by age 16 i had branched out into text-based rp and met a guy from italy who i kind of had a situationship with i guess?? at the time?? idk if that's what the kids call it. (whenever i describe how many relationships ive had, i count this one as a 0.5) anyways. it eventually got to a point where he was emotionally abusing me for a period of about four months. it was brief, but intense, especially since im a fucking lovesick lonely teen at this point who doesnt know any better. he lovebombs me, talks to me and acts like i am his girlfriend, gets jealous and shitty if i talk about other people, but then the moment he goes and does the same shit i get told i'm the reason he was depressed, im the reason for his problems, etc. until he calmed down and placated me and won me over again. over and over, regularly, for four months. it was a lot for my little developing brain to handle.

i know people have had it longer, have had it worse, but it really left a lasting impact. i was left with a litany of abandonment issues, and self-esteem and image that was already bad was buried dead in the fucking ground. i wanted to die every single fucking day for those four months. he even told me, as i began to question my sexuality properly, that i couldnt be bi 'because i liked him'.

but he LOVED twenty one pilots. would quote their shit regularly. wore the merch. all that stuff.

by 2016 i'd managed to see clearly enough and have enough support from friends that i felt comfortable cutting him and his circle off permanently. and it was fucking hard. i didn't have a lot of irl friends at the time and it felt like my only support network. after i finally left, i was desperate to feel some semblance of control, take something back, my own personal little 'fuck you' i could carry in my heart.

with all the hype around them, i gave top a try. slowly eased my way in. i knew i was hooked when i heard Holding On To You for the first time. it made me feel like i could take back that control and find a light at the end of the tunnel.

i consumed everything they had put out after that. i saw them live at emotional roadshow sydney 2017, i was turning 18. i made so many new friends. i felt such hope in my heart. i sobbed so fucking hard when they played HOTY. they weren't the only reason i made it through, itd be naive to contribute everything to them when i've done a lot of work and so have the people around me, but they were like a lifeline to hold on to when things were hard.

i went and saw them again in 2018 for the bandito tour. i made my own outfit and was surrounded by people who had done the same. i made more friends, had more adventures. i was dropping out of high school the year that Trench released due to having the worst mental health i'd had probably since my abuse and felt so lost but it helped me feel a little more stable and grounded. like that light was still there.

a lot has happened since. i'll be 25 when i go see them in November, once again at Qudos Bank Arena in sydney. i'm in a happy relationship with someone i love who respects me. i'm doing things that make me happy. i'm happy. i've felt and experienced and lived and loved and lost and done so so so much since i was a scared 16 year old hearing them for the first time. i've gotten piercings and tattoos, something i never thought i'd do, and put their work permanently on my body. i'm so proud every time i see my tattoo on my arm. i genuinely love and accept myself exactly as i am, which is something i NEVER thought i'd do.

having Clancy come out nine years to the day from blurryface, an album that has been so deeply important to me in a lot of ways, gets me real misty. this entire tour gets me so misty. i didn't think i'd live past 18 at BEST. but i'm here and i'm fucking happy.

genuinely cannot emphasise how much this album and this tour means to me. i plan on getting a Clancy tattoo once the album comes out and i've had some time to sit with it. it feels very full circle, i guess. hearing Next Semester has just had me thinking about this constantly and all weepy all the time haha. but a good weepy.

i cannot fucking wait to scream in a stadium full of people again in a way that heals my heart.

#twenty one pilots #tw suicide mention #tw abuse mention #i wasnt kidding when i said i get real fucking tmi in here #my household already has to deal with me rambling about them all the time lol so tumblr gets the deep and meaningful

[spacedhead]

homestuck reread #13 act 6 p4

still in these conversations where the kids reveal their true feelings about each other except not TO each other but to someone else. this dirk one is so true though roxy has been the goat of their session and the one fucking thing holding them all together. god i love roxy

wow so cool they all ascended at the same time! surely nothing bad will happen immediately after

theyre finally arriving. holy shit . theyre COMING THROUGH THE WINDOW. JOHN AND JADE

yeah ok so jade showed up and her and jane immediately got turned evil

DAVE AND KARKAT HIIII

this is a CLASSIC dave/karkat mess around. if you know, you KNOW . shit had me ROFLing.

holy davesprite . i havent seen this mf since like RIGHT AFTER cascade. literally its been eons

TRUEE i think its a strider lalonde thing they looove to go on and on about random bullshit

hey its these bozos what up yall

waitt theyre being friendly to each other? breath players CAN get along!!! this is huge news. especially for me.

this actually would be a hard ass shirt fr i need that shit

this is the reaction i get when i bring up minestuck to my friends... and im like guys please its actually fun i promise... .(im lying)

yo its the fan trolls what uppppp

okay nice meeting you

this is all very silly :D

OH GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU. WHY DO YOUHAVE EYES.... WHAT THE FUCK I DONT LIKE IT I DONT LIKE IT I ACTUALLY HATE IT GET IT OFF GET IT OFF

YES!!!!!!!! OKAYYYY TAVROS!!! stand up for yourself girl you are serving like crazy right now. i think maybe this is more meaningful than when he tried to kill her, cause that was just a too little too late type of thing where he wouldnt have actually accomplished anything by succeeding, and also had no chance of doing so. BUT realizing his CONFIDENCE and his FREEDOM actually is meaningful and it will accomplish things later on!!! :D YAY TAVROS

insane behavior

i think i agree with john here, i dont think it is out of line for him to hesitate in giving you the life ring. you dont have to be a good person to be a hero. but you do have to do... heroic things? like, ever? maybe once in your fucking life? when is the last time ANYTHING you did could be considered "heroic?" when you were alive, all you did was make everyone around you suffer. they had to kill you just to make sure you didnt doom them all. when youre dead, sure youre hunting down a weapon to kill the big bad monster, but you dont even seem to care about the millions of troll lives you are mind controlling against their will to be bait for your big mission. who the hell are you trying to save? the heroes that are alive in this story literally NEVER encounter the version of the villain that you are trying to stop. whats more, this big plan to use the your ghost army FAILS because the one who was doing basically ALL the legwork mind controlling most of the ghosts ditches you, and the only reason you still have an army by the end is because the guy you fucking bullied the whole time when you were alive (and a lot of the time you were dead) BAILS you out by ACTUALLY being a hero and a genuinely good person that doesnt need to MIND CONTROL PEOPLE to get them to follow him. look. i understand everything you are saying. about not having time to deal with the morals and ethics of what you are trying to accomplish. because the ends justify the means. but the thing is that NONE of it matters. YOUR PLAN FAILS. YOU GIVE UP and have an actual SATISFYING character arc. then it gets retconned and the main version of you goes back to being Worse. and then her plan...? succeeds? i guess? if succeeding means literally EVERY ghost in the army gets obliterated, the secret weapon deploying the four beta kids who are almost all killed by LE, and randomly davepeta being the one to throw him as well as themself into a blackhole. i guess if that counts as success, then congrats. you didnt even get to see that happen though, because you got ejected from the fight frame one. HOPE IT WAS WORTH IT!

anyway... what was i doing. oh yeah look at this. this is a bit sad

okay this is pretty real. even if it is nonsensical, and maybe a little bit problematic?

me talking about myself three images ago

i like this panel. poor john cannot find his friends

this is a very cool panel as well

FAWK

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO worlds most epic meetup

my worst nightmare

fucking scary ass motherfucker please get a grip. also brown contacts .

GOD. ROXY IS SO FUCKING REAL AND TRUE. THEYRE ACTUALLY MY GOAT ITS SO FUCKING INSANE HOW MUCH I LOVE ROXY

well. things are pretty bad right now! jade is evil jane is evil everyone is on random planets with no memory of how they got there john is missing. if i didnt know any better this might seem like the beginning of something really bad . but what do i know. anyway catch you on the next one. or catch me? joff i will see you next time. ok joff bye joff

#joff hs reread #freakin out

[autisticaradiamegido]

do you have any fan trolls? trollsonas? do show

day 66

sssorta? i have a sburb au for my d&d characters, and i decided to make half of them trolls. i didnt bother changing their names to fit the typical homestuck naming conventions, but their backstories in this are necessarily pretty different than their og ones.

but that means yall dont need to have played d&d with me to understand what im talking about so! infodump under the cut

The main conceit of their adventure is that Victavyre and Davril (who originally were both played as eldritch knights for lost mines of phandilver/princes of the apocalypse at 2 separate tables) are the first two to enter the game, and their entries are Circumstantially Simultaneous. They both think they're playing a four-player session with their friends, but they end up on opposite sides of the same medium in the same way the hivebent trolls had a bifurcated session.

When Davril wakes up on Prospit, he encounters not only a sleeping Elis, but also Szelseis and Arastina. He thinks they are just weird reoccurring dream demons until he encounters Victavyre in the medium. They get their teams in touch with each other and gradually arrange to daisy-chain the two sessions together. Adventures ensue and all that.

Victavyre and Arastina (originally tieflings) are sisters in their og backstories, so in this au they are simply two grubs who were adopted by the same lusus (who i think is going to be some sort of two-headed creature, each head instinctively adopting a grub of its own).

Szelseis (originally a yuan-ti pureblood) has a giant snake lusus, and he HATES her. He keeps her around because he likes to start shit and it is useful to have a big snake around to eat your enemies when they come knocking. But he and his lusus have a very contentious and semi murderous relationship.

Hella (originally a water genasi) is a seadweller! no lusus shes just out in the ocean vibing and keeping it tight.

Davril (originally a halfling) is sort of bopped around various foster homes, and considers his most consistent family member to be his pet rat, Wink, who he eventually sprites and it is very cute but also Rat Enemies. Final boss is da giant rat who makes all OF da rules?? idk.

Esvele (originally a homebrew race similar to warforged, a human soul in a robot body) has kind of a combo of aradia and jades' robot situations? following the onset of a terminal illness, her mom (a talented scientist) built her a soulbot and she's been in there ever since. but robots don't die naturally so she ended up being passed down the line of guardianship from talented roboticist to talented roboticist throughout the 20th century, her chassis and power source being updated with whatever new technology as it came along. I like to think she eventually is able to do an aradia and come back god tiered somehow but idk, i sort of think its cool if she just stays a robot since thats how her og campaign went.

Asra (originally an aasimar) lives with her mom who is Very Important in her community (im thinking possibly the mayor of a small town) and asra has major gifted kid burnout about it.

Elis (ok hes not "originally" anything because i havent technically played him yet. hes a human wizard based on a random mini and set of dice i got in a blind bag last year and ive been trying to build him into something interesting ever since. im not even sure what kind of magic he DOES i just know hes some kind of wizard and im hoping developing his personality will inform what hes into. i mostly wanted an even number of humans and trolls for this and hes my most recent standby character ANYWAY) i dont have much for him hes just a lil guy. hes goth and eccentric and he likes wearing a lot of fucking layers.

#day 66 #year 3 #d&d #my ocs #homestuck #szelseis #arastina #victavyre #hella #davril #esvele #asra #elis

[davethot]

The future of Homestuck^2, and why you shouldn’t be celebrating

So... as some of you may have heard, Homestuck 2 is pretty much done. Hussie himself sent a post out to the patrons about the future of Homestuck 2, and the tldr is that because of constant harassment and abuse from the fandom, Homestuck 2 will be finished privately and released all at once. We don’t know how long that will take, but Hussie and the rest of us are easily assuming it’s going to be... a long time. According to Hussie, the rest of Homestuck 2 is going to be funded with the saved up money from the Patreon. The Patreon will no longer be charging patrons and is closed forever.

So, that’s the rundown. And you know what? I’m not excited. I’m not happy. I’m not celebrating. And no, it’s not just because I liked the direction of Homestuck 2. It’s because I am, quite frankly, disappointed and borderline disgusted with the actions of the Homestuck fandom ever since the epilogues dropped in 2019. 

While I can hope and wish that it’s not going to happen, I am sadly waiting for the celebratory posts to come rolling in. “WE DID IT! HOMESTUCK 2 IS OVER! WE WON!!” 

Sorry to be dramatic, but if you’re one of these people, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Say what you want about Andrew Hussie, but the fact that this new team, comprised mostly of lgbtq+ and poc folks being harassed to a dangerous/worrying degree because of a fucking webcomic??? Is fucking asinine. 

And don’t think I’m only referring to the annoying people on twitter either. To all of you Homestuck “fans” that have been nonstop berating and attacking the Homestuck 2 team, even indirectly, are also part of this. Constantly accusing people of such heinous things just because a fucking character in a comic does something you don’t quite agree with is quite literally almost just as bad to me. The never-ending finger pointing at this team and trying to say that they’re homophobic, transphobic, or literally any other kind of incredibly intense label just because some of the characters within the comic were not perfect examples of what you deem to be acceptable lgbtq+ representation. And, again, these characters were being written by a largely lgbtq+ team!

I’ve been a Homestuck fan since 2012. I’ve been an active Homestuck fan since 2012. I have been in the fandom through giga, omega, or whatever the fuck kind of pause you can think of. I was here when the epilogues first dropped, and I went through the “Oh I hate this” phase into the “oh, actually, I understand that this is not SUPPOSED to be like the original comic. It’s something new, unique, fun, and interesting, and plays around with fandom involvement while giving the fandom freedom to continue the story however the feel. Post-canon or dubiously canon isnt trying to erase what I think about the characters, it’s an interesting way to let a team trusted by Hussie do what THEY want with the story, and whether or not we choose to engage with it is completely up to us.”

And yknow, it just makes me really sad that people can’t seem to have that same mindset. While I’m incredibly grateful that hs2 will be finished eventually, it really disappoints me to see it go like this. It disappoints me that I can no longer support this project on patreon. And it really disappoints me that this fandom has turned into something that I’m genuinely ashamed to engage with 90% of the time because it’s full to the brim of people who are uselessly chasing after perfect representation and squeaky clean characters when quite literally that has not what Homestuck itself has been about since 2009. 

But I digress. Maybe this is a good thing because now I won’t have to see every tag of Homestuck plagued by people who simply don’t understand that if you don’t like something you don’t have to fucking read it. At least now maybe I’ll be able to find more people who were actually invested in this new direction of Homestuck, and new people who understand that dubiously canon was not meant to be taken so seriously. Maybe I can find people who agree that the harassment towards these creators over a fucking webcomic is absolutely unacceptable. 

I am eagerly waiting for the rest of Homestuck 2 to drop, and I hope that the team who was working on it finds financial security and some peace in the midst of all of this. Literally no one deserves to be treated like they did for simply writing a story. Yall did the best you could given the circumstances and there are people out there who liked and wanted to support your work. Literally godspeed yall, and good luck. 

To the rest of the Homestuck “fandom” that made everything go down like this, please have a terrible evening. Thank you. 

#homestuck 2 #hs2 #homestuck #hs #i'm writing an entire post-canon video essay #dunno when its gonna be released cause it'll easily be hours long #but it's going to cover a lot of these feelings in more detail #in the meantime fr fuck the homestuck fandom #it's been hell here and i'm so disappointed in how all of this turned out #please for the love of god stop attacking lgbt and poc creators for writing ur characters in a way you didn't agree with #it's embarrassing

[antiloreolympus]

Responses from Homestuck Readers

The ask in question:

The responses:

1. OP of that ask was clearly never in the Homestuck Fandom because it's actually still thriving. Zines, several Video Games, a very active Roleplay Community, etcetera. Lizardlicks (a major Homestuck creator) still runs a yearly zine that gets hundreds to thousands of submissions. JJust because you don't see it in your personal circles doesn't mean it isn't still there.

2. also, ironically enough: homestuck actually had better greek mythos refs in it than lore olympus ever did. but comparing homestuck to lore olympus is like comparing the hindenburg disaster to a gender reveal party that started a forest fire. please note, blog owner, that just because they're both on fire doesn't mean they're both a blimp. i would recc homestuck but its fucking long and the current property owners are absolutely awful. hussie no longer owns it. a bunch of confirmed predators do.

3. say what you want about homestuck's many, many many problems ... but there's a reason the fandom was huge and notorious. entire CONVENTIONS spawned from homestuck. the fanbase crashed several websites in terms of sheer viewership THIS YEAR ALONE. homestuck was a fucking massive cultural phenomenon with so many layers you had to be fully immersed to even catch half of them. lore olympus fucking wishes it had what homestuck's trashfire achieved.

4. HS isn't a cartoon but it was a HUGE webcomic back in the day, esp here on tumblr. Basically everyone knww about it and the character designs were very well known (esp the trolls) and it had a huge fandom with a ton of content. HS then branched out to media deals like video games, merch, physical books, and a production company, but it got too big too fast and burned out. I'd suggest watching Sarah Z's video on it, because there are a lot of aspects to it comic/fandom wise that LO has now.

5. okay so, as a homestuck fan: comparing ANYTHING to homestuck is pretty disingenuous. it was long and disjointed and EXTREMELY text/meta heavy, a little like undertale, but it was also super racist and homophobic at points. (the fans tend to ignore this part/rewrite it, homestuck is basically the grandpappy of death-of-the-author) but like ... one of them is a webcomic longer than war and peace with a toxic fandom, the other is a softcore 50 shades ripoff. they're bad for VERY different reasons.

6. lmao yall homestuck still has merch and phys books theres games and official cosplay stuff now too the new head writer is just a creep

7. ngl homestuck is just a fucking rube goldberg machine for coming out as transgender. started in 2013 with a bad eridan cosplay and now im getting top surgery can i get a HOOYUH

8. i read homestuck and now im gay. not even once.

I won't post more for now but if there is more, I'll add it in a reblog

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lo critical #lore olympus critical

[indig0tea]

Final 2020 Update: 2021 Goals!!

Cross posting from my devART

Also links to all my alts and shit will be at the end of the post if you need them!

So some of these may be unrealistic due to my struggles with ADHD/Depression Combo but. I wanted to get these down somewhere so you guys can see them and be aware..

Please note, my executive functioning abilities are absolutely Butchered on the regular by my ADHD alone, and the various stressors of 2020 have absolutely taken anything else I might have had in that department and tossed it out the window.

Something something something, financial stressors outside of my control sends me into shut down mode and I can't do anything productive or even fun until it's handled, but because I'm not doing anything productive, I'm not making any money, and the stressors gets worse and worse and it just ends up in a horrible cycle where I constantly want to die because I'm not able to create anything to relieve the stress! Which is why you've all seen... pretty much a standstill on my productivity save one or two pieces a month if I'm lucky

That said, I'm going to start trying (hopefully with some outside help/accountability to keep me on track while I'm unmedicated) to put a system in place that doesn't make me constantly want to die while like. maybe actually getting stuff done! So I'm making some optimistic goals for 2021 regarding both my art and ability to make money, so here goes!

I'm breaking this down into 3 parts:

Changes to expect regarding my social media, commissions in general, posting, etc;

Overall Goals for 2021;

and Goals for January specifically.

Changes to expect going forward from here:

I'm going to be making some changes regarding my social media accounts, including this one, mostly concerning when, where, and how I'm posting.

I am also going to be making some changes to my commission policies, prices, and payments in the coming year, namely:

Lastly, I will be making some changes to my art discord server!

Moving forward, I am going to be MOST active on my twitter and tumblr accounts. They're just easier for me to maintain in general, and although I hate twitter's formatting, it's just easier and faster, and frankly after deviantART and Instagram fucked with their websites/algorithms, it just makes the most sense for me as an artist.

I'm also going to be making an effort to make scheduled cross-posts on all my accounts. In the past, I've been really irregular about when and where I post things (most things got posted to my old tumblr account but never here, i rarely remember to post to instagram, etc).

This is going to include commission slots, finished piece dumps, etc.

I will also be making an effort to semi-regularly post sketch dumps, both digitial and traditional. I am also considering at this time offering a monthly digital download of my sketch collections, though I am undecided as I'm not really sure how many people would be interested.

Increasing commissions prices to reflect time spent working on specific commission types, as well as my personal cost of living.

Planning and announcing commission slots in advance.

Taking and finishing regular commissions to cover living expenses on a monthly basis

Payments will be exclusively through paypal invoice, and will be broken up in halves: first half will be taken up front after I have started and given proof of start (base sketch), the second half will be paid after completion, with WIPS given between first and second payment. Fully completed art will be given after receipt of second half. This is both for my personal protection as an artist, as well as for the comfort of the commissioner as my completion time can sometimes be long due to my ADHD/executive dysfunction.

Moving forward into 2020, my discord will be SFW, but 18+ only. This is a personal comfort thing. I'm 25 years old now, and just really don't want to spend time hanging out with teenagers.

I'm also going to start trying to schedule art streams again! Since this is the only place I can live stream due to my art computer's limitations, it just makes sense to like. Schedule them so more people are able to attend. I haven't decided exactly how that's going to look, but once I have I'm going to make an announcement and formatting guide somewhere for people to see so they can make an informed decision about joining the server.

I will also be regularly posting in the server again. This may or may not be cross posts from twitter and such, we'll see, but I DO plan on being more active there since it's been kind of dead.

I may also reformat the whole server again. We'll see!

Goals for 2021

Regular Adopt Sets -- 2-3 per month. Size, price, and number in set will be decided on case by case basis.

I'll be doing a monthly prompt for myself as well. This is just to get me back in the habit of creating things I like for myself to just feel... less bad about my art in general, and about making art. Also it'll be good for my artistic development i think?

Keeping a monthly sketchbook for warm-ups and in-between pieces. May be offered as a paid download at the end of the month, we'll see.

Might start a patreon? This is EXTREMELY dependent on what my userbase looks like. Tiers and rewards to be decided at a later date

Regular traditional sketches + scan and upload of said sketches. May also be offered in the monthly sketchbook.

Draw more self portraits & self-expression pieces! I don't know if any of yall realize how repressed I've been in the last year without therapy, and I did't either until I forced myself to pursue a vent piece earlier this month, and then felt immensely better afterward so. Going to start doing that! Maybe I'll feel better weee

Regular posting to social media! (see changes above)

Drawing less fantrolls bc I'm just bleh about them lately, drawing more original content!

Drawing fancontent that ISN'T homestuck? We'll see but I'd like to. I don't usually draw fan art bc like. Idk in my mind I don't feel like my interpretation of things is important or cool and I think thats a confidence thing and I'd like to change that so! I'm gonna start making more fan content.

Draw more full illustrations & backgrounds in general because I actually enjoy doing them it turns out?

Practice painting more !! Both traditionally and digitally....

Goals for January 2021

Finish at LEAST 1/4 of my art queue. I'm shooting for half, really, because fully completing it might actually kill me but! We'll see! Maybe I'll surprise myself. But I'm setting the goal low to keep my mental health problems in mind.

Finish and release the base set i've been working on, on and off. It's an homage to  the old pixel doll days of 2009-2012, and the full sheet will be free to use (with stipulations, as I have some people blocked that I don't want using it). BUT! There will also be a mix and match .psd that will be pay to use (it'll be pay to use a, bc it'll be huge, and b, bc the edits to make it mix and match results in like 6 seperate bases in general so.... yeah. pay to use)

Finish the pay-to-use base pack i started in june (i may scrap and restart though, we'll see)

Possibly release all old p2u bases of mine in one pack on gumroad? price tbd but it will include old iterations as well as unreleased remakes.

Making some dainty-specific bases! One will be f2u, one will be p2u.

I have a whole dainty YCH set for january! I just have to finish the example... (:

Perhaps I'll be announcing a collaborative project later in the month! It depends on where each of us are at, at the time! We'll see! (: You should be excited though! It'll be a ton of fun!

EXTERNAL LINKS

Instagram

Twitter

Tumblr

deviantART

Discord server

[mossfig-moved]

Some people didnt like eridans route and i really did so heres my response to that

1. March Eridan isn't just a fandom thing, hes in openbound ministrife and we needed closure! There was so much discourse about it for YEARS. now we have a foothold. Its minor but it feels very much as if a correction has been made.

2. The shrek thing!!!!!!!! Homestuck doesn't HAVE little noncanon easter eggs. If it ever does, they later come to have some kind of metatextual validation. Like the vriskajohn you can find in that one walk around later came to be considered retroactive foreshadowing for June. Its how the hussie brain works. It makes perfect fucking sense that shrek, after appearing as an easter egg in collide years ago, is now an aspect crucial to the Eridan Lore. If you thought that part "wasnt homestuck" as ive actually seen someone say??? you may be forgetting the earlier parts of homestuck dude!

3. As soon as i saw eridans dresses i got very excited but as soon as he started to talk about gender i got verrrry scared. Like saying "uh oh uh oh" out loud. I've liked some folks' trans girl eridan hcs, its very fun and interesting to think about. but as part of CANON HOMESTUCK it has the potential to get very iffy very quickly and i was afraid we were about to go down the road of "lets talk about eridans gender and not deal with the less savory aspects of him at all" Like IMO eridan is equivalent to a racist incel school shooter. Im not going to sympathize with a characters gender probbies if im thinking about the person he MURDERED. (And im always thinking of her <3) BUT THEN the writer made eridan immediately whiplash back to murderous classism. I think it worked on the surface because it was funny, and under the surface because it communicates what eridan fans see in him better than any other moment in this game. It didnt have to be about gender necessarily, all that mattered was that it showcased that hes just this twisted up ball of contrasting personality. And thats where we might be able to sympathize with him for real!! honestly, i might get the appeal of him for the first time ever. He's a four car pile up of hypocrisies and you have to take a long deep look as youre passing by. Oof, i hate to say it, but teen me was on some wild shit too.

4. It lets you have a little hope, as a treat. You can see a future for this eridan! Its uh, pretty hazy! But it *is possible.* not only that, its more believable than ever before!

5. YES eridan is trans YES hes a violent bigot YES those people exist. If this was the first trans rep in homestuck it would be a severely different conversation. And i understand the hesitations some folks are feeling, hell i! Was fucking feeling it! But now everything in homestuck is trans, and getting transer by the minute. Callie, Roxy, June, Vriska, Sollux, and Eridan make 6 confirmed trans characters. (Not counting davepeta because they came to exist by magical means, and leaving out friendsim) Honestly am i forgetting someone? oh JADE???? JADE WAS IMPLIED TO HAVE SOME GENDER THOUGHTS AS WELL! Yall... this rep... Unprecedented. Let us feast. But seriously, if homestuck were airing on TV where cishets could see it i would be furious and horrified that of so few trans characters we got one like this. But homestuck has 1 straight fan for every 100 gay fans. Its a small, insular, and dwindling community of vast majority lgbt+ people (and the team is in the exact same boat jfjdhd its so nice) so i think its OK here. Just my feelies tho. anyway, back to working my job so i can pay my rent.

#no pressure to read this i just felt like i wanted to defend it!!! it really was a fun time for me #pesterquest spoilers #obviously in touching on like a real conversation at the end so feel free to like? reapond to that #like this is different than 'can trans characters be problematic'you know where the answer is an obvious yes #this is like #'can trans characters be violent and killers' and like every part of you wants to say no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #i feel super weird about it but i guess i just have a lot of faith in homestuck team

[macklives]

i dont technically hardcore ship kids buuuut i will say “fuck thats hecking cute” to any and all pairings and join in on the fun wholesome content. for example, if you give me fanart, give me fics, give me headcanons, then im already sold on how adorable that specific pairing will be bc theres now some quality content to explore. as long as its not toxic, disgusting or impractical.

god okay, get motherfucking ready guys.

now, i may rant a bit on the matter to further explain my point of view on shipping in this comic and how i will go around it lol. sorry for the long note. there’s a tldr at the end.

honestly, idc who gets together, bc i just want the kids to be happy and if the pairing is happy together, thats all that matters to me. i just dont like taking shipping to the extreme, yknow. (which means having nsfw stuff for kids and flipping out if one ship is canon when another really should be. similar to many other fandoms who have those problems and i just.. dont get why?) anyways, thats not to say i will freak out if a cute pairing of mine becomes canon and especially if the rep is nice. and honestly? ill probably freak out for any canon ship as long as its healthy and theyre both happy - as ive mentioned. keep in mind im still a fan lmao, i will prob participate in the recurring ship talk and discourse bc ugh it can be so fucking cute.

anyways, regarding what we have now, i honestly like all pairings atm (obviously between the kids only and not some cursed ones ive heard about which i refuse to get into). all their interactions are so unique and cute and quite adorable. davejade is wholesome. johnrose is valid. i also like jaderose, daverose and johndave. which technically is almost every possible pairing lmfao. sometimes my opinion can vary, sometimes things could happen to make my view on that specific pairing to change. and sometimes new people come into the picture which allows me to explore more potential candidates that i think would be better for that characters rather than just having a ship to progress the plot further. if that makes sense. it always depends, doesnt it? (so keep in mind you can ask me if i ever have changed my opinion on a specific ship, character, ect in the future)

and of course, there’s a big difference between who i think are going to get together and who i wouldnt mind getting together despite canonical evidence that it wont happen. which i wont get into unless yall want me to talk about in depth who likes who and how it will probably impact the relationships of the characters vs how it should be.. well, not “fixed”, but what could be another alternative if a specific relationship seems to have its downfalls. 

however, i doubt there’s going to be any “endgame” ships bc homestuck is more prone to story telling than romance. it’s a webcomic for plot and probable character growth rather than making people’s ships come true. meaning shipping is a concept that andrew will give you, and he will give you all types of interaction so you’re free to ship what you want. however, he’ll leave it open without giving us an ultimate pairing. which is where i think this comic will go. i may be wrong. but it seems the most likely situation.

so shipping is all fun and games but things happen, not everything becomes canon and even if i have theories on future relationships, i will only analyze what we were given and not necessarily based on non-canonical evidence. so as much as i like crackships (and boy do i have fun in crackships, lets be real), because this is a liveblog, i wont be able to get into depth with false claims on a ship if there’s literally nothing to go on. however, pls expect joke ships to happen. if i say cake #42 wants to be with john’s fake arms, so be it. that was a fun time on the discord, man. i love joking around but then again, they are just jokes. im not actually shipping them. its similar to how i view dave and AT. they got married duh. yet thats a joke. something i will bring up again, but that never means im serious about it. (besides imp soap opera. thats becoming massively real now, isnt it. a liveblog inside joke that got way out of hand and is now canon.)

anyways, romance is a nice bonus treat for everyone as they read a webcomic which is not centered around it. and of course ill analyse the possibilities of what we could get and how characters will go through it based on their personalities and past experiences, but i dont think itll become a main part of homestuck as of now. perhaps something.. could happen in the future? and ill keep my hopes of some pairings getting together. but, overall, i will be happy with whatever we get and i refuse to bitch about how some ship is better than the other and be mad at homestuck in its entirety. because andy here is not trying to portray a romcom, he’s making an actual story.

wow, i kind of went off a little on what you were trying to ask in the first place, but i feel this was a nice place to get that out there and explain how ill perceive shipping in homestuck. all so i wont have to explain this for the future when characters potentially start getting together. which is to say, ill enjoy shipping characters on my hs experience, hell, ill even participate in it, but they are 13 and i have my limits.

cool. i feel like i just wrote a philosophy book.

tldr; shipping is a nice gateway in a fandom, i like pretty much anything as long as its not toxic and theyre happy together. expect character/relationship analyses in the future. 

#god this prob makes no sense #sorry for being illiterate #i went OFF #ask #hs56 #hs56 ask #anon #im in a ranting mood ever since ive watched it chpt 2 #made me monologue all day that i just need to get my thoughts out there

[h0neywheat]

honestly as 4/13 approaches i just want to remind everyone that there’s google docs made by multiple people explaining the ins and outs of why yall should stop holding onto homestuck. like, coming from a former fan that got woken up from these compilations, yall gotta see that there’s so much shit that it goes passed the point of enjoying critically anymore. it doesn’t matter if it was a comfort series or the influence it had over the internet during its runtime was important to you or you made friends through the fandom, you literally need to stop pushing the nasty shit hussie has done under the rug because there was a canon lesbian marriage or your ship became canon or whatever the hell reason you still enjoy it. there’s no death of the author or application of nuance here. it’s a bad series and it needs to be forgotten.

#mk speaks #there's links just about everywhere if you google why homestuck/hussie is bad

[nebuletteart]

Merry Christmas!!

So first off, I got a new drawing tablet for Christmas, so expect some art soon because I’m hyped as fuck. Secondly, in the spirit of this festive holiday, instead of art, I’m going to be sharing my opinions! About homestuck, the epilogues, and hs^2!! If you don’t actually care, and just wanna look at art, just like, go look at art or something. It’s cool! Support your favorite artists yall!

(Be warned hs fans, I’m gonna bring up Steven Universe Future later and this is gonna be a hella long post)

Ok now then, here are my juicy hot takes that are probably more mild than anything else. OG homestuck?? Fuckin baller. I didn’t like act 6 much, not as much as I liked act 4 and act 5 act 2, but overall OG homestuck was great. The epilogues on the other hand? Eh, I like parts of it, hate every bit of the rest.

If I’m gonna be honest when those first three chapters dropped I got so hyped until I got to the end of chapter 3 and literally balled my fucking eyes out from disappointment. I’d waited years with baited breath for homestucks grand return and it felt so minuscule and weak that it felt like a punch in the gut. But I held out hope that the art would come back soon, and the the rest of the epilogues would be better. They were ok?? Honestly had I started with Candy I think I’d have dropped homestuck all together and been so fucked up by it that I’d never be able to interact or enjoy homestuck again.

Probably a good thing I started with meat then. I actually sort of like meat, though I really didn’t enjoy the end, I at least like the direction they’re moving in with Dirk, and I think a lot of setup there is interesting. (They fucked Jade over though which I’m pissed about) I really love the direction they’re moving Roxy in too! And there were plenty of funny classic hs moments to enjoy. So as much as I dislike the epilogue it at least feels like it has some merit. 

Now hs^2. I like it so far, it’s good, though I’m pretty worried about the future. What I don’t like is the “Bonus Update” shit. That actively pisses me off and makes me not want to support the patreon. Now don’t get me wrong, as an artist I support supporting artists. But like, fuck dude, Bonus Updates literally go against what homestuck is! Homestuck has always been all these things rolled up into one, and all free so that you can dig up all that lore and understanding. Hiding that behind a paywall?? Fuck. That. And to make matters worse the updates are slow and few. And who knows, maybe if I were more gullible, I’d be willing to back this shit, but honestly? After seeing Steven Universe Future and how that crew is handling their epilogue series I just feel bad.

Ok here’s the point where I compare hs^2 to Steven Universe Future. If you don’t know anything about SU/ you don’t wanna be spoiled, don’t worry, I’ll keep this brief. Steven Universe Future has been taking everything that the OG show built and is now using that to play with things they just never could have done back then. It’s showing all the major development cleanly between episodes and characters and giving fans the shit they didn’t even know they wanted without it being straight up fan service. And on top of that, despite being the show known for its constant hiatuses, it updates more frequently than hs^2, which started first. Granted SU is a show and hs^2 is a comic, and the hs team has two games in the works (Hiveswap and Pesterquest). But they’re also raking in money from all of these things, + Patreon!!

I honestly think the hs Patreon should instead offer behind the scenes stuff on the games, scrapped animations and little previews. I just hate how not being able to put money into their Patreon (or not wanting to because honestly valid) should deprive a longtime fan of the homestuck experience and weaken their overall enjoyment and understanding of the comic. Literally the only thing keeping me into hs right now is Hiveswap, Friendsim, and Pesterquest. I’m still willing to hold out hope and with that maybe these “Bonus Updates” will be posted later on for fans who can’t support the Patreon.

Anyway, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

#whew lord #i've had this stuck in my head all day #actually for the last few #homestuck #hs^2 #homestuck2 #hs epilogue #discourse #steven universe #steven universe future #su #long post #looonnngggg post #also no art #but expect some soon!! #i got an xp pen screen tablet #heck yeah bois #merry christmas yall #mild to medium spicy takes

[snowtimeisbesttime]

Thoughts and questions on Pesterquest Volumes 1 & 2! Two days late, but better late than never I guess!

Overall:

-[insert all the heart emoji pics ever]

-The title screen's kinda ominous, what with the music and the glitchy logo... Also kinda fitting for what goes down in certain routes of the launch volumes, though. (It should be noted that Friendsim's first volumes were relatively calm compared with later ones as well.)

~VOLUME 1~

-No fucking shit MC would be pissed off, and at Scratch specifically. Thankfully, the Best Guest (Spades Slick)'s here and has them covered while they go off on a new adventure... though if a certain other DS decides to poke around here and fuck shit up, methinks he's going to catch some fucking hands. And i'll be here cheering the MC on.

-MC now has the powers of the house juju (canonically the most powerful thingy in all the narrative, as it can retcon pretty much anything) and therefore the ability to zap anywhere... though it came at the cost of their memories of Friendsim. Obviously this had to happen because they had to forget they read Homestuck in order to properly befriend the cast, but in-universe... did they get “scratched” somehow? (Is that what happened to Fozzer back then?)

-Also, they were trying to go back to their friends in Alternia... we're going to have fun when we get to the Hivebent trolls. (inb4 the “probably vriska” thing comes back here; there's no way the MC isn't recovering their memories at some point)

-Scorist, sign of the Mutineer Mail

-And with the MC's yeeting of John's mail into a sewer, Pesterquest officially becomes a whole ass No SBURB AU. It's a shame the bunny had to be lost too, but there's a possible reason for that: breaking (more) timeloops, both here and in post-scratch Earth (Jake helping Jade build Liv Tyler the bunny)

-I hope they do get to play another, non- world-destroying game all together, though... wait, now that they're not playing Sburb they could play Minecraft, when it releases in about a month from now!!

-Unstoppable force (John wanting to know wtf happened to his mail) meets unmovable object (MC's willingness to keep digging themselves deeper in order to make friends)

-The beta kids are confirmed to be pretty much each other's only friends... :(

-MC looked like a weird alien on Alternia, but here on Earth they're just shaped like a friend, and nothing else.

-Dave's here too!! and he's also understandably concerned about this random Not Mailman that popped out of nowhere, at least at first. Considering we know Volume 4's title (The Loneliest Girl in the World) Volume 3 will probably feature him.

-mc Hass the ghost blanket

-MC says the house juju may belong to Lucifer... which obviously means Lord English, but might also refer to Vriska... (lucifer means “light- bringer”, and iirc vriska did have some overlap with the whole “demon without an eye and an arm” foreshadowing??)

-Considering Rose's volume, John probably finds out about the MC's powers in his good route, while in his bad one they both go on a stroll through time... then again, we don't know if this is like Friendsim, where only the good ends were “canon”...

-Whenever people need to Discuss Important Tactics, John's backyard's the first place anyone thinks about. Good to know there can be multiple people running around with retcon powers though.

-We get to see something of what led up to the Masterpiece, after who knows how long! And John gets to imagining what events will lead to him and his friends getting colorful pajamas, powers and four (4) new friends... not that he knows that *he specifically* won't have that future. John's bad route is... actually very depressing when you think about it...

-the first thing i thought of when john said that he thought Future Him & Co kept saying “english” was that they were telling jake to get off the pogo ride before he like fell off and fucking died or something... and then a while later i was like Wait Fuck They Meant Lord English He Sure As Hell Exists

-even back at the very beginning of homestuck, dad's dadly energies are too powerful

~VOLUME 2~

-This singlehandedly catapulted Rose to my Most Favorite Characters list; not that I didn't love her before, but now im love her even more.

-We know now that all the kids wanted to play SBURB, be it because of Weird Destiny Stuff or to have a good time with their friends, but Rose was the one who wanted to play the most... to talk with Jaspers again. This hasn't been addressed in this volume, but it might be in later ones.

-Good kitty, best cryptid. Also, Mom Lalonde's guide to lab intruders: sic a pumpkin tiger on 'em. Then again if she really thought we were a danger to her or to Rose we'd been sniped before we knew she was there...

-Rose doesn't have a short end; the first choice of her route only decides whether we befriend Cryptid Mc Whiskers (plus get some additional dialogue) or not...* or at least that's what i thought before seeing the image rips orz

-She's the kind of person who has a lot of interests but also has trouble settling down and focusing on one at a time... yall mind if i relate? (also, adhd rose??)

-And now we begin again the timeless MC tradition of “accumulating clothing from friends”. *At least in one route, apparently.

-MC gets into one of those “Screw This I'm Doing (What I Think Is) The Right Thing” moods, though they do mellow out later and Rose didn't take it badly. To be honest after the oatmeal thing I thought they'd head for the kitchen, rather than get rid of the alcohol; now we'll have to see if it has any effect...

-!!!!! Jade & Rose interacting ON SCREEN!!!! (also, Jade seems to still have access to Prospit despite the fact that they're not playing Sburb anymore... is this where “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse” (the paradox space comic) hapens??)

-Bec's acting weird... wonder what's up with him.

-Then again, even in her good route Rose seems vaguely aware that something's different; in her bad route she straight up does Weird Light Shit, while apparently being able to hear MC's narration and probably referencing her Land (her comment about the rain lighting up a little). Looks like you can take the game away from the players, but you can't take the game out of the players... Rose's a Seer of Light whether she plays or not, and same with the others.

-Rose's routes are kind of weird in that the good one looks like it's going to be the bad one (re: MC getting in one of their stubborn moods, see two points above), while the bad one looks like it's the good one until it doesn't. Before getting there I genuinely thought Rose was going to have 2 good ends.

-We get some talk on wizards and witches, and we also get to read some fragments of Complacency of the Learned!!! Which is very much a subversion of typical wizard stuff, as Rose told us; even if she has a genuine interest in wizards she's still putting her own spin on things... kinda like fans interacting with content, maybe.

-Wizards hoard knowledge for themselves, while Rose, as a Seer of Light, explicitly guides others with her knowledge; from the SBURB walkthrough in GameFAQs (which she ripped from Earth's internet to upload it onto a server on the Furthest Ring, so it would help more people) to the book she wrote on the meteor. No wonder she despises them.

#homestuck #pesterquest #pesterquest spoilers #john egbert #rose lalonde #thoughts and questions #long post #<-- in case the readmore doesnt work

[hermitcrabofficial]

i feel like people either forget or ignore the fact that the epilogue is actually fanfiction

heres my hot and probably unsuprising take on this whole situation

i can understand that being deprived of "canon content" has people come to the conclusion that whatever just happened in the epilogue holds such a significant meaning that everyone practically considers it canon, but at the same time are completely outraged or in denial about the things that happened the way they did?

like. the ao3 formatting shouldve been a dead giveaway but i guess i can see where people are coming from, considering most of the diehard homestuck fans have been residing in ao3 after the end of homestuck and mightve probably formed some sort of muscle memory by not reading the tags and just going after any kind of new homestuck content like a. content deprived person

and the fact that this particular fanfiction has been written and endorsed by andrew hussie by posting this on the main website makes people come to the conclusion that this particular fanfiction holds more authentic and canon relevance and is in fact, a part of the overarching canon of homestuck

(not in the way as being "outside canon" like rose had explained, but rather in a way that this epilogue specifically attaches to the homestuck comic in a bigger sense than hiveswap does)

for example people are getting outraged by janes behaviour like shes acting completely out of character, and then theres people posting canon evidence explaining the reasoning behind janes apparent fascism (she literally grew up being brainwashed and controlled by hic her entire life)

people were hoping to see their favourite characters living happily ever after but homestuck has never been about that literally show me one scene where a character is completely alive and happy and is surrounded by their friends in a peaceful and harmless setting and are living happily ever after

that kind of scenario only exists in fanfiction and you know it

and the fact that the epilogue is basically an amalgamation of trying to set a happy ending with the endless fatal experience that is homestuck that leaves a lot of people utterly enraged and unsatisfied just goes to show that nothing makes sense at all, neither in a canon sense nor in a fanon sense

and really, it shouldnt make sense because thats literally what it is. a fanfic written by the author of the original material, trying to live up to his fandoms expectations by mixing the content the fans want to see with the content that happens canonically with both direction of the fans and the author and the content that the author has been trying to write all this time

but since even the author has been killed in canon, he never had any real influence beyond that point anymore, save for continuing the content through the character currently sitting in the metaphorical narration chair

within that character there also resides a clash between the fandoms view and the authors view of the character etc etc

and this just goes on and on and nobody is happy and the least thing hussie can do is setting this epilogue up in a way so that he can continue his story at a later date all while leaving the fandom the choice of accepting the epilogue to their canon

tldr: all im saying is that this epilogue was never intended to be hard 100% canon and hussie is leaving yall the option whether you want to accept this as your canon or not. homestuck has had so many narrative changes-

(in the sense of different characters assuming the narration and the change from forum-based command input to hussie assuming full control to hussie complying with what the fandom wants)

-over the past decade that it is pretty much impossible to write a coherent story in one unified direction with multiple characters with wildly differimg backgrounds and personalities, some of which have broken out of the narrative control of the author and are rebelling through a metatextual level

even more tldr: theres just. so much shit going on the characters have literal narrative freedom and are basically growing in the epilogue like plants in the soil that consists of their respective canon background, unhinged and uncontrolled outside the confines of their canon clay pot into the wild and vast space that is outside canon. what yall want are the seeds, the roots, the essence of the characters as you know them but the characters are growing indefinitely and uncontrollably by their own volition at this point and all you can do is watch then grow and like. cut some parts of the plant that you dont like. but you cant make the existing plant look like its roots.

#homestuck #upd8 #homestuck epilogue #meat vs candy #andrew hussie #artsy stfu #unpopular opinion #probably #i know most of my followers arent even homestuck but i had to get this off my chest #and this entire essay might not even make too much sense like im just ramblin man #tumblr mobiles readmore broke brb