#also. hi homestuck fandom i guess. HELP

[somdxr]

no ones awake time for a 3 am shit post

[divineerdrick]

Homestuck: Beyond Canon Upd8 for 413

Happy 413 everyone! We knew we were getting something today, as James announced that earlier. This time, it's an extensive news posts with notes from the whole team. Looks like we've got a few comic pages as well. Let's see what we got!

James: I can definitely relate to what James is saying. Homestuck and its community helped me keep going when it seemed like there genuinely wasn't a path forward. Obviously it hasn't always been sunshine and rainbows, but I do still feel there is a lot of genuine goodness and greatness in our little corner of the internet.

And yay! James is an Aradia fan!

Kim:

Kim is one of the people who grew up with this comic. I honestly can't imagine what that must be like. Although I had a lot of media I enjoyed at 13, I don't feel like any of it had the kind of impact on me then that Homestuck had now. It's not like there wasn't anything good on, either! It was 1993 when I was 13, and WB and Disney were at their apex. But Homestuck hit different. I honestly can't imagine what it was like being able to relate to those kids like they could be your friends in another life, growing up along side them.

Miles:

A beautiful mindfuck is a great way to describe it. Honestly the somewhat over the top, trollish, insincere seeming way that Miles is writing shows a great love for Homestuck and the project in and of itself. The love honestly does come through.

Chumi:

Chumi appears to be even younger than Kim, though I could be wrong there. And she also grew up with it, if maybe starting a couple of years into its run. But it goes a step further for her. Homestuck is her formative fandom. And again, I can't imagine what that must be like, let alone now creating art for it.

Andi:

Andi is another member of the team to have grown up alongside Homestuck. It makes sense that this would create the most talented and passionate people to work on the project. Like many fans, though, they also had Homestuck influence their identity and help them feel safe in discovering who they were. It will always be important we have people like them keeping this fandom alive.

floralmarsupial:

While the way Homestuck inspired me was different, she too was drawn in and influenced by the very artistic questions Homestuck posed. Looks like James has managed to put together a team that has all been impacted by Homestuck in subtly different ways. And I'm totally here for it!

Haven:

Oh wow! Coming in on Murderstuck! Ouch! Still, the effect Homestuck has had on them is very obvious!

It's nice to hear more from each voice behind the project. I'm glad they took the time to make this celebration a bit more personal. But with all that said and done, it's time to read an Upd8!

There is so much to talk about just from this image.

First off, this is the most like Bro that Dirk has ever looked. And it's not just the fact that we've just got a plain white silhouette with shades. There is a lot of chaos in this panel reminiscent of Bro's apartment. That outfit has absolutely never looked wackier. The anime ninja aesthetics combined with the pooffiness of those shorts is already crazy. But the Kamina cape in this looks more cliché villain than anime hero.

While we can't currently see one of the monitors, we absolutely can see that Dirk has been keeping track of our Meat crew. My guess is that the other monitor is Deltritus.

Also we get a throwback with some orange drinks floating about.

Dirk is, of course, being suitably condescending here. After all, in his mind this is the only way to make the narrative matter, to make anything that we'll give a shit about. He probably knows we still enjoy the "narrative kiddy pool" but he's counting on us truly getting invested in what he has planned.

Wow! Nice frame break! Also this art slaps!

Apparently Rose and Terezi are still a thing. Dirk only seems to partially approve of this. From his perspective, the relationship is a very Rose thing to do. And Rose doing Rose things is important to him and his plans. He also appreciates that Rose doesn't have infinite patience for the finetuning that Dirk could spend a literal eternity on. It keeps him on something resembling a schedule.

So are we going to see these "scions" of theirs?

I like that there's an obvious sea horse in that test tube. Also, outside of Hero mode Dirk is still sporting his character features at least. He hasn't slipped into being a full guardian yet.

Well fuck. That might just be the hardest anyone has ever "spoken too soon."

Hell yes! Adult Terezi is awesome! Also, she's not getting rid of her facial features any time soon!

I hope I didn't jinx that . . .

I'd forgotten Terezi can hear Dirk's narrative. She's also very much on the "Get on with it!" train. Dirk was planning to skip ahead anyway, but of course he wants to unveil his creation first.

So Terezi will be the one that actually makes sure the new session happens. I'm surprised Dirk is allowing that. I can definitely get why he doesn't want it automated.

I can honestly believe that Dirk really does care about his creation.

And I can honestly see Terezi playing the long game. I'm honestly curious why she wouldn't, beside Dirk's fuckery.

Ouch.

Also, damn this art is so fucking good!

We've seen the way Terezi can let what she sees as a mistake eat at her. We've seen how far she'll go to fix it. Is John's death doing that to her? Is even this older, seemingly more jaded Terezi unable to let something like that go even with what's at stake?

Or could she possibly be letting Dirk think that's what's going on? I really kinda hope that's it.

Now that's just being mean pretending you don't know what she meant by being in her "CH4MB3RS", Dirk.

Apparently Dirk still has a mouth when he needs to.

FUCKING!!!

DAMN!!!

That's an interesting way of showing them speaking at the same time. Kinda like it.

Okay. That is some legitimate Bullshit. I like that even Dirk calls it out as such. That is a ton of power to just flex like that. His reasoning is sound, but even he knows he's partly doing it because he can.

Wow.

There is so much to potentially read into this moment. On the one had, this might be a genuine Rose moment. Even if Dirk has been manipulating her a lot, this version of Rose might genuinely be appreciative of what they're trying to do.

The other possibility is that Rose is manipulating Dirk this time. There've been hints, and I find it hard to believe otherwise, the Rose is aware Dirk has been manipulating her somehow. She may not have figured out how he's doing it, but I feel she knows. As an ascended Seer of Light, her ability to read the most fortuitous path is literally godlike. I can't imagine that definition of fortune including one where she keeps losing more and more agency. So this might be a moment where she's telling Dirk what he needs to hear to stop him from stealing more from her.

The worst part is he genuine believes that.

[dafry-shenanigans]

I'm a hundred years late but whatever-

I blame my friend for tempting me into this fandom (they tried to warn me but alas my curiosity beckoned me), but anyway enjoy some drawings of John and Dave:

Sorry not sorry lol

Warning ramble bellow and also ocs;

All started cause a friend of mine wanted my help in making some ocs based on it-

I didn't know anything and it doesn't help much when they try to explain it to me (and turns out not experiencing it first hand and instead trying to understand it from watching summary videos makes even less sense- make sense tho now that i got a better explanation from other vids), so instead i took some fun test quiz thing at the time for my classpects, which was actually fun to do and i only needed to read and share the results which was also very interesting and made me even more curious about homestuck (and the rest is history)

Which btw here are the ocs!

Left is Kyle and right is Ivie, siblings and both are seers, Kyle of doom and Ivie of mind (guess which one i am lmao-), Ivie is the older sis (16) kyle is the lil bro (13), he's also a prospit dreamer while his sister is a derse

Also he was supposed to wield daggers but i changed my mind because i had a cooler weapon concept XD (cutters which evolve into a retractable sword which the blade length can be completely adjusted)

Meanwhile she has a paper fan which becomes giant (and also can changes color and have certain abilities based on it, buut i don't wanna make this too long so ask if ur curious ig)

Also here kyle using Ivie fan (why? Just because it's cool and also- my second top aspect is actually breath so :P)

Now that's it for human ocs... TROLLS ONES THO-

...tbc in the next post :v

[rose022]

hi~ im rose! (among other names lol, ask for them or find them) welcome to my intro!

- dont feel bad about blocking or unfollowing me, just wanna say this. i may make posts abt being confused when i see people leave but curate ur own experience, be happy

- you can call me whatever you want idc, just lemme know. like genuinely any nickname. i do have others tbh but ehh

- yeah yeah im an adult so dont block me if i like ur post and u say mdni ight? also for any minors if that makes u uncomfortable u can leave. if i post some here, its likely jokes in some form. both nsfw and suggestive are tagged just like that

- pronouns are whatever is funniest in the moment. or just use your own. neos are ok

- asks and dms always open for anything. i won't really reach out first but i promise you can always talk to me about anything. if you don't have anyone else or just want to talk about a particular thing or want to vent, etc. like genuinely pretty please talk to me about your interests i will gladly listen!!! <3

- also you can always tag me in anything!! i love tag games (i may take a bit) and if theres anything you think id like or reminds you of me id love to see it!!

- don't really have a dni but like i will block you if you're a bigot. im a fag and autistic if you don't like that go away idc. also if you are pro cop or military stuff fuck off

- i post about whatever i want all the time. you may follow for one thing, but there is no consistency here other than what i like. i have too many things i like

- i am not mentally well. there will be vent posts that are on main sometimes. i tend to post them on my vent if theyre particularly bad but there will be some here. you never have to reply, i will be okay eventually.

- if we're mutuals please tag stuff with cw rose for anything with touya or akito being shipped with anyone else or TBHK nene and tsukasa as a ship, self harm images, stuff about spiders (or any bugs kinda) mostly pictures of them or them on someone (bees moths and butterflies exempt), needles if theyre detailed not cartoony, real life gore of animals or humans (not sfx or art just real stuff), sa, stuff about veins, and please use tone tags but mostly just for joking or sarcasm as i tend to assume everything is serious.

- MUTUALS PLEASE TELL ME STUFF TO TAG FOR YOU!!! i do my best to read carrds and intros and stuff but i might forget please remind me please. gore and sexual stuff will get tagged as gore and nsfw but it's mostly explicit stuff. things are tagged as what it is, not with cw or tw.

- !!current things i tag are homestuck, eye strain, saiouma, bsd, religion (marlo dont look), elie shoo (csm saiouma gore), suggestive (anything relating to anything nsfw like jokes or anything else), adrien no look (alcohol, crickets, girl interrupted, hospital innuendos clowns, child death, natural disasters), deco 27, emetophobia

- tags

#rose rambles - my posts

#rose tagged ramblings - i made a separate one for when i talk a lot in tags

#rose art - quite simply rose's art

#rose ocs - the sillies from my brain

#ask rose! - asks

#rose pics - look i don't get creative with naming these i think you can tell

#rose cosplay - ^^^ yeah

#helpful - things that could be helpful to anyone

#save - similar to above but more so personal things

#important - maybe not technically helpful but i think people should see

#favs - self explanatory, i believe

#sillies - similar to above but not really

#luv - mutual appreciation mostly

#heart! - things made by mutuals!

#liebe - things made for me!

#mecore - woah thats so me frfr

#rose writing - idk man take a guess

#für das rose - submissions aka post limit

#favfavs - fav art or fandom things

#wm - reminds me of ocs

(i wanna like fix all my posts to have tags but i reblog so much and itll take me a million years to get back to the start of my account atp. maybe one day.)

- commission info

art:

writing: $2 per 100 words (?)

i also take requests for these!! or other stuff but like it will almost definitely take me a bajillion years to finish so if you wanna make sure i do something, gimme money. but u dont gotta its ok ily anyways

i have a k-fi rose226 and dm for p-ypal

- sideblogs

@nightcord-luka-official

@luka-spotted most active

@daily-akiyama-mizuki hiatus!

@daily-asahina-mafuyu hiatus!

@kokomi-sangonomiya-official

@mafuyu-asahina-official

@wansho-luka-official

@junior-high-enanan-official

@fischl-official

@rosemusictime lol no followers

@oz-the-bird-official (to translate my Fischl)

@ako-udagawa-official this and above in progress

@daily-purple-character send reqs

@rose-poll-account

@aoi-shirosaki-official pjsk oc rp blog

@hikari-itsuki-official ^

@yuki-jigoku-official ^

@kei-makura-official ^

@roseswonderland things i make

@yuki-spotted

@niigo-va-updates

(i may remove u as a follower depending on if i trust you enough for these next few but if we're mutuals ur pretty much safe)

@moonlit-thoughts22 vent

@selfless-lvr selfship/kin

@softrosebud agere

@shhh-its-rose moots only ig. random idk

@eros-engel who needs secrecy anymore. fuck it. nsfw blog.

(guys i think I have too many sideblogs help)

im not active on many other social media but if we're mutuals you can ask for like anything and ill probably have an account. somehow im most active here tho (and in one discord server but u guys cant join)

[davekat-sucks]

every now and then ill come back to this blog because its the only place where i can criticize homestuck and have people listen to it without screaming, "gurhhh ummm u just hate cuz um um um.. your.. your transphobic! homophobic!"

i just wanted to say homestuck fans have some of the worst humor ive ever seen, ESCPECIALLY the homestuck team. it feels so, milk toast. i get a insane vibe of old person who is trying so hard to make funny memes.

one of the comics was just,, vriska saying "gay" over and over? its not the fact that its a gay joke, cuz i think lgbtq jokes can be funny. but its just so uncreative here. it feels like laziness on full display. repeat gay over and over.... i dont really get it i guess.

or the general obsession with lgbtq identity in homestuck fandom. again, out of context this sounds like homophobic or transphobic bs but its moreso i just feel a insane dissapointment how storytelling is not valued anymore in this fandom. you just slap a label on a character and thats as far as content goes now a days.

its been like that for years as well. how many variations of different genders and sexualities until we get.. some creative headcanons? a creatively made comic? some storytelling that fleshes out the characters deeper?

the thing is people could make interesting stuff with lgbtq identities too but they never do. the bar is so fucking low man.

TLDR; homestuck fandom is the epitome of anti-creativity.

Yeah, that Vriska gay jokes was from the official Homestuck Independent Creative Union team that was posted on Patreon, drawn by floralmarsupial. It sucks hard. Someone said it looks like Vriska trying to gaslight Dave to thinking he is gay (for Karkat). It should feel wrong, but LGBT and Davekat fans don't care. Bullying and grooming are the same kind of definition in their eyes. Most of the humor in modern Homestuck plays it safe. They don't want to offend others if they try to do edgey, dark, or slapstick humor. So the go-to kind is often the hashtag relatable humor. But even then, that could be taken as offensive by someone. Even the pool of latest Internet memes can be hard if most of it sucks for what's currently popular or can't be portrayed in certain forms of styles. Simple text over image is not the same as trying to say it in a speech bubbles at times. Sudden deep fry visual humor won't pull off well if previous art styles had them looking clean and crisp at first. Maybe it can pull off well, but the execution of it mostly sucks in recent times by modern generation. LGBT themes really have taken over priorities in story telling, even when it is not involved or that important in the narrative. Like how does being trans gonna help save the world from impending doom from a big bad that is destined to appear in every existing timeline? Can we also get headcanons that may expand on the characters interest? Like if Eridan is interested in military war history, would that extend to movies or video games he could watch/play? It could get people to look more into other things they never thought they would be interested in. What about Dave's interest in collecting dead things? How about him having a fucking dinosaur collection in his house because it is cool? Showing his silly side a little? Or have Jade's gardening being taught to the other citizens of Earth, be the one that ends world hunger since plantations would be possible even in places that shouldn't be able to grow certain types of food?

[paradoxcase]

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess:

Spading is found in the always accurate Urban Dictionary as slang for sex. Probably a regional variation. :P But leave it to Gideon to make anything sound dirty.

@badcatcait:

A note on the spading thing! I think it’s slang in New Zealand specifically for flirting…but it’s also a Homestuck reference. It’s known at this point that TLT has its origins in Homestuck fandom which Muir was big in. The aliens in Homestuck have 4 types of romance based on card suits—spade/black romances are a kind of enemies-to-lovers situation where they stay enemies and hate each other but are romantically involved as well. Perfectly describes Pyrrha/Wake’s dynamic ♠️

Is there a source for it being NZ slang? Wiktionary usually lists major regional variations and slang for these sorts of things

I wouldn't put it past being a Homestuck reference, though, they did have that kind of relationship

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess:

Theory is that one reason John didn't 'fix the holes' was that it might make his daughter more beholden to him. We know he could likely have done so. Instead he turned her into a construct. Also, a sort of callback: GtN: “Half a dozen tendrils came after her. They would have given her an interesting array of new airholes for speed.” And then from NtN: “Those are my speed holes. They help me go fast,” said Kiriona quickly.”

If John ever was trusting of the people around him, I guess he probably moved past that since the last book, haha

and this hits hard: Gideon talking about Harrow, in HtN: “You could always leave everything else behind, but you never got rid of being so absolutely fucking goddamn sad.” And Nona talking about Gideon, NtN: “Nona had never seen anyone so sad in her whole short life.”

No one in this story is having a good time at this point. Even the villains aren't having a good time

The audiobook narration of this chapter is fantastic. Moira Quirk uses her Gideon voice, but gives it a bit more meanness of sorts, more snappishness. It's so good.

Ooh, that sounds interesting!

Do you think, generally, that Gideon seems...meaner...now? A bit of the 'came back wrong' trope?

@dreanner95:

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess I personally would say that she seems meaner because we are watching her from Nona's POV. Nona doesn't like her because of how she talks to her family but the way Kiriona talks is not really that different to how she talked to people back in GtN. Now we just don't have her POV anymore to factcheck how she really feels.

I think part of it is that it's through Nona's POV and we aren't getting Gideon's perspective on things, but also I think she definitely is being meaner. Like compare how Palamedes was treating her and reacting to her in the first book versus this:

[valle-de-sombra-de-muerte]

Homestuck Reread: Act 2, Part 2/3 (p. 440-614)

Read the previous post here.

We pick up this second third of Act 2 by reading another section of Rose's GameFAQs walkthrough.

Credit where it's due, I like this section title.

Rose wants to know more about this hypothetical Pornsprite. This girl is freaky. Too bad Ao3 didn't go into open beta until a few months after Homestuck began, she would've been all about it.

Interesting how she only cites part of her guide as "logorrheic sludge." Honey, that's the entire guide. Brevity is not your strong suit.

Rose and Jade's first pesterlog. I'll use this as the jumping off point to talk about Jade since she has only appeared sporadically at this point and none of her logs were worth talking about.

Actually, she did have one log in Act 1 where she asks John about his present. The one interesting thing is that she apparently didn't know what Sburb was when John mentioned it.

So John, Rose, and Dave all knew about Sburb and none of them thought to tell Jade about it? Huh... guess that tells us a lot about the dynamics of their friend group.

Anyway, I realize this might be a "hot take" given her inexplicable popularity in the fandom, but I don't like Jade. And unlike with John, there never was a point where I did. I am of the mind that Homestuck would've been much stronger and have a tighter pace if she was cut from the cast of kids (or at least, this version of her. The story could also work if she had some heavy rewrites) and it was limited to John, Rose, and Dave. Rose and Dave alone make for an engaging pair, and I suppose John acts as a sort of "anchor" to ground their increasingly esoteric insincerity and bullshit. If he was fleshed out more, it definitely would've worked.

But Jade doesn't help with this dynamic at all. Like John, Jade is also much more grounded and sincere, but her personality is also coupled with an overwhelming optimism where she believes everything will be okay if left up to chance. If John is true neutral, Jade is 100% positive. He barely reacts to the otherworldly things happening to him, but she actively seems to enjoy them (the meteor crashing near her house is something she wants to explore regardless of the risk, and John struggling in Sburb is "exciting").

She doesn't serve as a convincing counterbalance to Rose and Dave and comes across as more of an extraneous extension of John's lack of danger sense than anything else. Do we really need two happy-go-lucky kids with slight variations on the same niche? The very fact that the story is able to progress without her involvement thus far shows just how little she matters.

These first two acts shroud her in so much mystery, and we barely know anything about her even through these sparse pesterlogs. (As we later see, this amounts to nothing, so all this intrigue is unfounded and only leads to an unsatisfying payoff). At this point in the story, we only know that she lives with her grandfather and someone named Bec (which Dave refers to as a "devilbeast"), she has a "goofy modus" which frustrates even Dave (who, mind you, mocked John for using a simple modus earlier), she lives in a far-off part of the world, and that she has some degree of inexplicable precognition.

Jade's cutesy cagey attitude about her precognitive abilities is fucking annoying, and it is perhaps the worst thing about reading her logs. "oh gee i know all this stuff but its a secret and you gotta find out on your own tee hee! :)" This truly is typical hackshit writing when handling characters with prophetic knowledge. You can't make them too useful, or else there won't be suspense or conflict. Instead they have to act as a ineffectual plot device to softly guide the characters along. Except she doesn't do any guiding. She just unhelpfully alludes to things that the others don't know yet and leaves it at that.

In fact, Jade as a whole is less of a character and more of a plot device, by which I mean she doesn't have any sort of character to speak of. Her overbearing cheerfulness is not endearing to read, neither is her dropping hints that she knows more about what she lets on. She doesn't have any entertaining chemistry with the others either. Her interactions with John are like watching two morons acting excited with each other while the world is literally ending around them. Dave intentionally strips himself of his personality because he has a crush on her and wants to impress her by being "nice," but she doesn't seem to reciprocate his feelings at all. Also, come on, dude, Rose is right there.

Rose is the only one who shows any scrutiny about Jade's "quirky" clairvoyance. But even so, she only expresses this through occasional, bemused remarks. Jade dodges the question whenever Rose asks how she knows about things she realistically shouldn't, and Rose doesn't ever press further.

So Rose had prior knowledge about a game that will bring her cat to life. We later find out that this opportunity to revive Jaspers was her her motivation for playing Sburb. Doesn't seem worth ending the world for, but whatever. I daresay this casts Jade in a bit of a villainous role for planting the idea in Rose's head in the first place.

Actually, if Jade ended up being a twist villain, that would've been interesting and provide, you know, intrigue! Or if nothing else, it would've at least added something of substance to her character, something she desperately needs. Even ignoring that angle, you'd think the other kids might be more than a little resentful toward Jade since she knew the world was going to end, yet never told any of them about it.

But no, Hussie can't implement anything that would've been conducive to good storytelling. Especially if it leads to, gasp, conflict!

Okay, enough of Jade, let's get moving.

I want to bring attention to this passage and compare it to the earlier "symphony impossible to play" one with Rose. First of all, it's worth noting the rain/drought contrast between their respective settings. Unlike the more elegant and cerebral prose in Rose's section, this one reads more like a stream of consciousness from Dave's perspective. Loose and casual, even ending with a Snoop Dogg-esque rhyme at the end before transitioning to an actual Snoop Dogg verse.

Yeah, for those who haven't caught on, John Keats didn't actually say that. Very easy to miss, I'm sure. For those counting, this is also misattributed quote gag #5. I am positively rolling with laughter.

I find it noteworthy the room where Bro has his whole setup is stated to be the living room, not a bedroom. I'm quite certain that the Striders live in a one-bedroom apartment where Dave gets the room and Bro has all his shit in the living room and kitchen.

Dave's relationship with Bro is an inverse of John and Rose's relationships with their guardians. Whereas Dad and Mom decorate their homes with shit they think their kids will like in order to seek their approval, Bro isn't doing any of this for Dave's sake. He fills his home with his puppets and weapons because he's the one into that shit (ironically or otherwise, it doesn't matter). Dave in turn adopts Bro's mannerisms because he craves his approval.

The amount of mental hoops he needs to make in order to justify his brother's fixation on sex and puppets is concerning. Is Bro even being "ironic" or is that just an excuse he tells Dave so he doesn't have to explain this stuff any further? I think the love of Lil Cal, his childhood possession and best friend, led to a love of puppets being a core part of his personality. Everything else that extends from that is up to interpretation.

Like Dave, Bro is also a hipster doofus who does things seen as patently "uncool" in a bold display of being unique. The logic is such: a disregard for what society deems "cool" is what leads to it becoming "cool" ironically. At a glance, Bro's interests include typically "cool" things like ninja weapons, video games, and rapping. Bro plays with expectations by using these interests, which he may very well only enjoy ironically, in conjunction with puppets, which he loves genuinely but passes them off as ironic since most people deem them creepy and uncool. Applying a sexual element to the puppets makes an interest in them even creepier, so Bro does so if only to make his love for them appear even more ironic.

Convoluted and confusing? Yeah, that's Bro Strider, baby.

I don't know how necessary it was to show just how Dave gave Lil Cal a fist bump, but I do like this panel. One of the few reminders we get that these characters are, in fact, small children.

Bro's 6-character password is "puppet" right? It has to be. (Correction: a helpful anon has informed me that the password is actually "lilcal"). Also, just like his home, his desktop organization is also a mess. There's no method to this man's madness.

For all the negligence and questionable parenting methods Bro is guilty of, he still cares for Dave in some capacity. He stays up to date on his webcomic and blogs, and even hangs up one of Dave's SBaHJ drawings on the fridge. I wonder if Bro, on some level, likes the idea of raising a kid that he can raise to be just like him, but is just a woefully inept guardian that he doesn't know the first thing about parenting.

Remember, these are the kinds of websites Rose says she likes.

Just gonna say perhaps it's not ideal that Dave is being exposed to this kind of thing at such a young age. As much as he idolizes Bro and wants to emulate him, he can't get over the fact that all this sex stuff disturbs him. Yet he doesn't even view it as sexual, only as a form of irony, one he can't comprehend until he can somehow overcome his aversion toward it. It's kinda sad, really.

Unsettled, Dave's first recourse is to talk to John to try and calm down. John leaves him hanging. Such a good friend, am I right? He then goes to Rose, where they have the earlier conversation where she says she likes Bro's websites, but this time we get added context.

Dave of course is attempting to act casual about the whole thing, only slightly alluding to his deeper distress, and Rose is just like "That shit rules. I like it." This whole exchange is both tragic and darkly comedic.

Rose really does come across as a little pervert sometimes. She casually drops sexually charged phrases in conversation ("sun's lurid glare"), her username is a lewd double entendre (tentacle the... I'll let you finish that phrase), and she does show a marked interest in sexual topics (Bro's websites, the Pornsprite... honestly I'm surprised she doesn't suggest that to Dave at any point).

Both she and Dave play with innuendo and act as though they're mature and know all about sex. However, Dave's attitude toward sex is more a response to his exposure to it at a young age, whereas Rose is more casual about it and sees her flippant attitude toward it as a mark of maturity. She must love treating sex as this trivial little thing that might make others uncomfortable, but not her because she's soooo grown up.

Also, if Rose truly did give a shit about psychoanalysis, she probably would've picked up on Dave's cries for help in his messages. She really isn't as perceptive as she lets on.

Thank you, Rose, for saying what I was thinking.

Rose gets a kick out of Dave's webcomic and laughs when John makes references to it. Also, she doesn't tell John about what Dave told her earlier about the puppets when he mentions it. How nice of her. John is a fucking jackass though. Seriously, fuck him.

I'm putting a pin in this for later. Rose being able to "see only [...] what John can see, or has seen already" will be important to note later on.

Another tragicomic exchange where Rose continues to make light of Dave's distress. I wonder if she is incapable of seeing Dave as being sincere in this moment and thinks he's overreacting as a part of their usual back-and-forth.

Here it is. My favorite Homestuck page.

Dave wants to please Bro and goes along with his shtick no matter how far he pushes the envelope. This only encourages Bro to go further and further in his methods of fucking with Dave. Is his end goal to push Dave to a breaking point, or does he truly hope something with click that will make Dave truly understand him? Either way, it's fucked up.

I didn't want to get into Bro Discourse during this reread. I know there are opposing camps who either think he's a monstrous child abuser, or a silly guy who did no wrong. Personally, I think that while he doesn't read as outright malicious, it's safe to say this dude is a menace and has no business raising a kid.

It's really skeevy of Bro to incorporate his underage brother in his fetish videos, which will doubtless be uploaded to his site for others to view. This is probably the one of the more damning things he's guilty of.

Bro has reduced the kitchen as a storage space for his weapons. It's a wonder how he's able to take care of himself, let alone a child.

It's stated that Bro doesn't have anywhere else to store his stuff, which further reinforces my theory that Dave has the only bedroom in the apartment.

Yes. Thank you. One can only watch characters launch objects at high speeds for so long.

Dave's sylladex shenanigans are a little more tolerable than John's. Assigning different names to objects in order to make them fit in the modus is more fun than watching things eject once the deck is full.

This metaphor caught me off guard. It's so abrupt and out of pocket, I love it.

Shit's about to go down. Let's see how things resolve when I finish Act 2 next week.

Read the next post here.

[play-rough]

8, 21, 22, & 25 for Dazai and Chuuya 🥹💕

🩵❤️‍🔥

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Dazai- god i feel like I’m so picky about Dazai characterizations and it’s so hard to describe sometimes I’ll just be like NO THATS WRONG‼️ but I guess one thing is when Dazai mentoring ryunosuke is just boiled down to a black and white situation where Dazai was soooo abusive to poor ryu (and i feel like this is a disservice to akutagawas character too), but Iike you have a child raised in a strict mafia environment and then you give that unstable child control over *another child* it’s not gonna go well, and i don’t personally blame either of the children in that scenario 🙄 idk BSD just has a lot of complex situations and I feel like they’re not always handled as such 😌🩵 Wtf this morally grey character is making problematic choices??? Cancel him🚫

Chuuya- when he’s just angry shouty guy who yells and shouts, sometimes I feel like I’m looking at a bad bakugo parody 😭

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

Ummm for Dazai i like making him break down and cry and forcing him to admit he needs help or attention 🥺👉👈 or sick or just any kind of general vulnerability, and flip side for Chuuya, I love forcing him to admit he’s worried about Dazai or cares about him. My favorite part of Chuuya’s character is that he’s a genuinely nice person, Dazai is just so annoying and pushes his buttons, so I love showing off Chuuya’s softer side and highlighting his protective and caring nature. That scene where chuuya watches Dazai get slammed into a tree by lovecraft x1000000❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to ths character? Something you don't like?

For both of them like I said above im so picky and if you make them one dimensional or even if the vibes are bad I’ll just be like NO THATS WRONG‼️ and close the fic

Something i *like* is pretty much my same answer for 21 ajdhhfhdjs I really only write about what I like reading about so I’m a sucker for vulnerable Dazai and sappy Chuuya BUT for a more specific, ridiculous, self indulgent answer i like when Dazai is written regressed 🥹🩵 or even if he’s baby, just in energy 🥺🩵 Dazai is baby and should be written as such

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

First impressions of Dazai was i don’t even remember him, I read the first bsd book at the library when I was in middle/high school (don’t remember exactly when) and was like eh. Boring. I think it didn’t help that they didn’t have all the books so it was like volume one, three, five, prime numbers only. I think I read soul eater instead lmao. Flash forward to college I had seen bsd characters and i liked the designs, and i had figured chuuya would be my favorite bc he kinda reminded me a bit of Karkat from homestuck (a dear fave of mine at one point) in that angry but actually sweet and kindhearted kinda way.

I was still eh whatever about Dazai, which is crazy because I’ve seen him compared to both Gojo and Reigen in the silly mentor who lost the kids he’s custody of kinda way, and those two are some more faves of mine. Tbh i didn’t solidify him as my fave until we learned of his tragic past because my OTHER favorite kind of character is a rude little bastard, and i was shown the light. Dazai Osamu has the range. He’s like a two for one, which I’m pretty sure he’s a Gemini??? I’m not gonna google and confirm just trust me i think he’s a Gemini ♊️

Impressions now obviously Dazai is my babygirl, my soaking wet cat, my poor pathetic meow meow who has both never done anything wrong and also committed so many war crimes. Chuuya I knew i would like him and I do lmao, close second from Dazai. I think Dazai is pretty much my ultimate fave character of all time…

[marisoft-paint-adventures]

Pgs. 214-247

it’s her.

Rope Lalope.

icon for weird goths who for some reason decide to live in the Midwest, those who can somehow still enjoy Lovecraft while knowing the truth of his fucking cat, and

I don’t think WLW ships have ever been the same since the advent of The Rosemary from The Homestuck,

or if I want to sound like a fuckin goofy ass oldhead, femslash.

the thing is that I cannot identify any actual concrete change in general fandom and shipping post-HS, I just feel it. I can feel that something within the universe’s structure changed the moment grimdark gorl and sparkly gay vampire got together.

but I’m talking about a character that hasn’t even shown up yet.

also front facing Rose is fucking haunting stop please.

[insert dabbing joke here.]

the fucking haunting violin refrain flash is so good I love how her movements sync up with the song.

not gonna gush about Aggrieve the same way as Showtime because come on it’s fucking Showtime, but Aggrieve is still very much up there.

Since your good for nothing friend is obviously not going to bail you out in time, you issue words of parting fondness to dear, sweet Liv. Oh, if only Affleck could have been the one to make the final sacrifice instead of her stubborn, blue collar, salt-of-the-earth father. Then she would fall into your arms for consolation, and YOU would be the one to make the deceased Bruce Willis proud.

the crush on Liv Tyler is not explored enough in fandom, I need to know how much John imprints her on his other romance options. how much of a Liv Tyler is Vriska, these are the fucking questions people.

Your panoramic window offers a view of your yard below, and the mausoleum housing your dead cat, JASPERS, who died when you were young. Your MOM had the structure erected with a spirit of scornful IRONY in response to your youthfully innocent request to hold a funeral for the animal. At least, that is how you have come to interpret the gesture in retrospect.

compared to John’s struggle with the clownkind, Rose has a much more grounded strife with her parental figure.

I say that but Rose takes this shit to an 11.

regardless, a parent that constantly performs malicious compliance with a hint of irony isn’t unbelievable, neither is someone fooling themselves into thinking their guardian is operating as such due to a general disconnect and the feeling of not having enough attention.

with all of this established,

it’s still really fucking funny,

because Rose will stare down Mom with sheer contempt thinking “SHE’S FUCKING WITH YOU! SHE’S TRYING TO GET TO YOU! DO NOT GIVE IN TO HER GAMES!” as she stands around vacuuming jackshit, probably having no thoughts in her fucking head except for “I love household chores. :))))))”

WIZARDS.RAR.

genuinely the funniest story surrounding Homestuck, Andrew Hussie risked their entire PC for a bunch of fucking stupid wizard pngs.

the Egberts do high action cake forcefeeding, the Lalondes do drunken covert operations, the Striders DO MAD NINJA TRICKS.

GIRL IS DRENCHED.

early HS art is so fucking pretty. everyone’s always on about the kids looking like bobbleheads and that’s good but the environments are so fucking good as well.

iconic panel, banger panel. look at how her knees do the swirly thing.

CRINGE MAC USER.

you’re making the John nervous!!! Egberts only do this under high stress!!! help him!!!

TT: And the content of the card appears to be variable from session to session. TT: In one instance it was described as an "eggy loking thign" [sic].

presenting without comment.

“John: Take bite of apple.” is a really good ending flash in which John takes a bite out of an apple 

and then gets fucking nuked. 

the act then ends there.

a marvel that the only reason John lived was because he did what looked like the goofiest option ever. did the apple even taste good? what the fuck is cruxite made of???? I guess it’s edible??? might be candy, is it candy??? do they come in different flavors???

after way too long, Act 1 is finally fucking done, yet the more I read it, the shorter it feels. I can’t tell if it’s because I don’t need to absorb the tutorial stuff due to being familiar with the comic already, or because I’m anticipating when shit really goes crazy later on. maybe a bit of both. it certainly preps me for the art style, the flowery language, the weird humor, and so on.

I can say that Act 1 is

fine.

it is of good quality.

nothing groundbreaking and not the best,

but enjoyable nonetheless.

I get that it’s a bit slow and nothing really happens, but I’m able to entertain myself with the page to page shenanigans and good character interactions.

honestly I don’t understand how people skipped this act at all, how the fuck do you skip the start of the story??? don’t you want to like

understand

what is happening

and who these people are???

especially the later part, so much Homestuck skipping was for the sake of immediately getting to the character interactions, but

there are character interactions here,

and

you learn who the characters even are.

like what the fuck, the introduction to the characters and their dynamics should be key to being invested in them, but I guess not because some people were able to just jump in the middle and grow attached while not knowing what the fuck is going on.

in conclusion: people who skipped Act 1 are cringe, and have doomed themselves. Act 1 good.

[code-heiress]

hi its time for my Yearly Foray Into Fandom Stuff and being Sad About How Its Changed Over the Last Decade

its been abt a decade since i like. joined fandom spaces for the first time, since I discovered that fanfiction was just a Thing that was Written. 10 years since reading my first Zelda x Samus shoujo ai yuri fic with lemon (that i was, admittedly, too young to read). since my first link x dark link yaoi fic that helped me figure out my sexuality. 10 years since reading fanfiction on the opera browser on my nintendo wii.

in that time ive only read for a handful of fandoms- zelda, RWBY (my main one, activity-wise), Fire Emblem (my main one, spending-wise), Homestuck (sadly), and general nintendo stuff. Ive only really been ACTIVE in like, two of those, so I guess I can only really speak for these few fandoms.

obviously over the past 10 years we've seen a massive push from corporations to enter the fandom space and milk it dry of all funds available. Which is super cringe and has been the driving force behind part of why ive burned out on fandom stuff. companies figuring out that autistic teenagers have money to spend on Blorbo from Their Show has been atrocious and predatory, especially with the rise of limited time merch runs.

we've also seen an increase in people monetizing their fanworks- ko-fi, patreon, commission work, ect, which is a weird thing. artists/writers/creators absolutely can and should be able to make money off of doing what they love but i feel like the increase in monetisation of the hobbies is a side effect of hustle culture and capitalism, which can force burnout (if i dont do x commissions a week i cant pay rent, added stress, ect).

I was there when RWBY was one of the biggest fandoms on this hellsite. I was there when people were writing fics when WE DIDNT HAVE THE NAMES OF THE CHARACTERS. when blake being a faunus was a secret. Its weird being a fandom elder when im merely and freshly 25. Its also the fandom im the most aware of the changes in. Not even talking about the death of RT, but seeing how the fandom has like. Splintered. A big part of that i feel is the shipping discourse, but its also like. idk its wack

i think the melatonin is hitting me so this is getting posted as is and im just gonn edit it wgen im coherenr

[dual-fantasy]

GUESS WHOS BACK . Anwyays half homestuck fandom rant again half headcanon . i think people underestimate the amount of input eridans lusus(going to refer to him as seahorsedad. following the early fandoms lead) had in him ending up the way he did. given how young he wouldve been when he had to start seahorsedad either wouldve been neglectful enough to not realize his son is going out every day and coming back traumatized and covered in blood, or (more likely) being the one teaching him how to kill lusii. even in the best case scenario where he does genuinely care about eridan in some way, and eridan craving any kind of attention Desperately has some other factor, he still subjects eridan to extreme violence that hes obviously way too young to be exposed to(considering the role lusii have in troll society, compared to nepeta hunting actual animals. and it being her choice & hobby to hunt, with her lusus' support and help, compared to eridan being forced into it since he was a kid) going Back to eridan craving attention, i feel like thats another thing that gives away seahorsedad isnt The Best. hes said(Multiple Times) that he doesnt care if people genuinely want him dead and hate him(in a Not Kismesis Way) because at least someones thinking about him. it just Doesnt make me think he gets enough of Anything at home. he is like chase to me he absolutely drops insane shit all the time. yeah he couldnt hang out cause his dad was teaching him a more effective way of blasting holes through lusii with his gamer guns but its ok because hes saving the world from dying to his girlfriends mom. yea his dad left him to fend for himself in the ocean as a baby but its alright it did not do shit to him(canonically has spent 5 days underwater his whole life. seadweller who does not live in the sea but hes fine it has nothing to do with the survival exercises he did with seahorsedad when he was barely old enough to actually hold the guns) GRAVE DOG

Jesus Christ. he's going through it. i don't have much to say but like holy shit. that is so much he's been through. seahorsedad has put that poor dude through it. he's so fine and ok though it didn't effect him. he was too busy shooting guns to learn how to count. don't even worry about it. it's fine. also sorry I couldn't get this earlier Ive been fucked by school ngl :/ but you're so real

[chirp-featherfowl]

... ykw sure <- never read homestuck. give me a classpect for martyn. maybe it'll help us settle on his winner symbolism

it has been a long and grueling three days of trying to find a classpect for martyn inthelittlewood. every time i think i've got it, another option pops up. maybe he's a knight? maybe he's a maid? maybe he's a muse? who knows! he called himself a wanderer, so he's gotta be breath. he meets gods in the void--obviously, he's a maid of void. he succumbed to the watchers and betrayed scott: so his aspect is light! he broke the cycle: his aspect is doom. he won. his aspect is time.

so: here are some classpects based off the different symbols that the fandom has given martyn. be warned! really long post ahead!

THE VOID: he's a maid of void! obviously! maids struggle with a strong force of their aspect weighing on them (jane with crockercorp, aradia literally being dead, porrim with-- ohhhh no this does not reflect well on andrew hussie), and who has a stronger force of void weighing on them than martyn? these gods, who speak in riddles, contact him through the void, and purposefully are obscure as all hell RIDICULE him, and he needs to learn how to fight back.

MARS: okay, well, i feel like we should all come to the consensus that martyn is a bard of blood, right? it's only fitting he shares the same aspect as grian (SEND ME ASKS ABOUT GRIAN) considering the way he won. bards usually start out with a lack of aspect, and they're fine with that until SOMETHING (like a video of some clowns, dave, and there's another bard in homestuck but i don't like to think about him for long periods of time) sets off a path of destruction in them (this could have just been a gamzee thing though. i could be wrong and that could have been gamzee being gamzee). in this case, martyn has never been the one in charge--even rejected by his soulmate, he defaults to her. ren was charismatic, and scott kept alliances open while martyn was being hunted down by literally all of ties. this changes until the last episode, where martyn wants to win. he joins TIES, stays alive 'till the very end, and wins with a betrayal at the very last moment, destroying any bond they might have hand. (this is not even touching on how he ghosts breath.)

THE OCEAN: ALTERNATIVELY... martyn is a textbook prince of breath. he ghosts blood: he's loyal even to the risk of his own death, even when it's to his own detriment--i. e. the red alliance not inviting him for fear of his betrayal, knowing that martyn would kill them all for scott. in ghosting blood, he destroys any indifference, any easy way out, and any independence he might have had (examples of princes ghosting their inverse can be seen in dirk, being cool and calculating, eridan, in uhh. uhh. KILLING HALF THE TROLLS IN A VICIOUS RAGE. SPOILERS I GUESS. BUT HE DID THAT. and i seriously could not give less of a shit about kurloz). eventually, when there's just three of them left, martyn kills the alliance. he breaks their agreement. he even kills scott first. and when everything is done? that's it. he's alone.

A METEOR: this MIGHT be controversial, but i'm under the firm belief that martyn is a muse of l--

sorry. we're skipping meteor. martyn doesn't deserve to have a masterclass unleashed upon him (also this one's going to take me over a day to figure out and i want to finish this ask QUICK)

??? NOTHING I GUESS: martyn is a maid of time. oh wow! canon classpect! we did it, boys! okay, here we go:

limited life was built on the previous seasons. every action didn't have the same weight to it when taken from the context of the series as a whole. joel tried to save jimmy from the canary curse and failed. skizz tried to rectify the four hours of time he lost and failed. etho tried to forget bdubs and failed. grian left his alliance again. impulse kills bdubs, grian kills scar. martyn watches that happen. they plan on ending it like third life, doing another cycle, and martyn's not about to fit into another cycle. scott or impulse could have another ending--one about trust and forgiveness or avenging your alliance or surviving, but martyn doesn't want a story, and he doesn't want a satisfying ending, and he doesn't care about the past. he wants to win.

so he wins.

[chucktaylorupset]

Dashboard osmosis question: disco elysium

dashboard osmosis meme!

*presses hands together and inhales* chucked me straight into the deep end with this one.

Disco Elysium is a futuristic sci fi maybe cyberpunk video game (?) with gameplay that is a lot of multi colored text and thus the fandom should be friends with us over here in the land of 17776 for medias that make people point and howl homestuck!

it is a game where you can sit in a chair wrong and it kills you?

It is about some fucking guy who is not doing great. i knew his name at one point but i HARRY HIS NAMES HARRY. I REMEMBER. harry duboit/dubois?? dubois. harry dubois.

harry has maybe brain damage and lost his memory? And his brain is constantly multitrack drifting so you see all possible lines of thought even if there's only one which he'll say out loud. Despite his some fucking guy, basic sad white dad energy, he is constantly saying the most unhinged of shit only some of which is communist.

he is also constantly failing at things i think this game uses a random skill check plus ability score modifier so he will end up shitting and pissing and killing himself after you asked him to, like, buy four packets of ramen noodles which im sure is frustrating and endearing

The other buddy in the central buddy cop dynamic is Kim Kitsuragi who is the divine saint of everyone but specifically transmascs, he's gay, if you're willing to work for it,

he's also the best, everyone loves him, they would rather die than disappoint him, he is also weird but you wouldn't know it because there's never time to talk about it with how everybody gushes about loving him. i am tentatively hopeful he is helpful to the whole harry being literally too dumb to live thing, but he also doesn't seem to care at all about harry's brain injury so maybe not

my guess would be that kim and harry are trying to solve a case since they do seem to be bastard cop partners but honestly i have no idea about anything to do with the plot. harry and kim have enough vocal specificity to spawn a bunch of memes that are also really long walls of text that i scroll through without reading.

[daedalusdavinci]

spell homestuck

GOD. THIS IS SO MUCH LONGER THAN TWO FACE. i typed too much and theres too many qs so under the cut it goes

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?

books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or....... i guess comics, these days, but i HATE READING COMICS they juST HAVE MORE COMPELLING FANDOMS. book fandoms are PUNY nad everyone is STUPID. youd think actual literary fandoms would have reading comprehension and understanding of literary critique but no!!!!!!!!!!!!! its literally my eternal fuckign struggle. somehow comic fandoms hit the perfect medium between compelling, readable content and the enthusiasm of cartoon fans without the childishness of cartoon fans

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

this isnt really a thing i do. the only time i associate characters w songs is my own ocs. barbies theme is miltons tower from the what remains of edith finch soundtrack!

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

i have also never really been one to project myself into stories. its just not how i consume media. i think sollux and rose already closely resemble the kinds of friends i make, so maybe them?

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

(freddy fazbear vc) vanessa.... ive done things, im not proud of.

i dont even know if i want to answer this question bc its so fucking humiliating LKJSNDLFSDNFSDF the truth is yes. i am solely responsible for. a lot. particularly in the pjo fandom. i created several crackships ground up all on my own way back in 2014 and developed a following for them and i. dont wantto tell you what those ships were. LSKJDFNSLDJNSDFSDDF ive also pioneered many ship tags for other fandoms and i ship a lot of rarepairs and stuff but i dont think im RESPONSIBLE for them?? in that some ppl already were into them/talking abotu them or tht theyre still not popular (augh. to the ones that became popular) but i AM liTERALLY responsible for some crack shit in the pjo fandom and its. it haunts me sometimes. i dont want to talk about it. IF YOU REMEMBER WHAT I DID NO YOU DONT

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

this is so vague. my headcanons are shifting and nebulous and aus are my constant companion in everything, but uhhhhhhghhusjkdjnsdg i think. roxy writes the same way dave draws comics. its extremely memey and meta and self aware and largely just for the personal lolz, and were all doing her a disservice by pretending her writing looks like roses, when in reality dirk is probably the one whod make comics the way rose makes books (which is probably why he doesnt make comics). its more of that thing where roxy and dave are the same and rose and dirk are the same ykwim. well YOU dont corvus but im sure someone else does

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

jason takes after bruce in terms of like. adopting entirely too many kids. he broods

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

harvey is a heartwrenching character when written well, with a complicated view of morality, heartbreaking ties to our main hero, and a lot of internal conflict. something about such a hopeful character deadset on making a different in the system becoming a victim of it, and the potential he has as a vehicle for critiquing the law.

percy is my favorite character from pjo bc it was the very first time in my life i ever read a book and saw myself in it. hes aggressive, impulsive, and rebellious, he fidgets and has a hard time standing still, he acts on emotion without always thinking it through, he gets in trouble in school and hands his mom a murder weapon to kill his stepdad, hes just... hes a lot of the things ive always gotten in trouble for, things i couldnt help being, and hes a hero. he means everything to me.

vriska, i will maintain until the day i die, is one of the best homestuck characters- maybe just characters?- ever written. shes dramatic, shes impulsive, shes manipulative and mean and creative, and shes just so messy about it. shes a mean girl in a way that feels real, where her trauma impacts and shapes her as a person, and shes complex, with warring wants, and people she cares about, and dreams, and shes so messy. shes rough and rude and shes doing what SHE wants to, being a version of herself that feels right to HER, rather than some caricature of the hot badass evil lady. shes thirteen!! and she FEELS thirteen. shes a thirteen year old weird girl who is kind of an asshole, and she means literally fucking everything to me. shes a pirate!!!!! shes a swashbuckling badass dressing up in her larping outfit and yelling at her friends on the playground to swab the deck and she is the bestest ever, the end.

i didnt mean for each one of these to be longer than the last but here we are.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

i hate jdedave peace and love it just feels weird as hell to me. dave, for the most part, is hyper respectful of other peoples choices and boundaries but when it comes to jade hes always trying to mke choices for her, to protect her, and it gets to the point where even jade points out how much it bugs her. jades crush on dave also seems to come from a place of misunderstanding to me, admiring a lot of the parts of himself that he exaggerates and pretends to care about as a result of trauma. it always felt like a kid crush that they shouldve grown out of with time. dave also just sort of seems to... go along with whatever romantic relationships people push him into at that age, rolling with whoever flirts with him jsut bc hes trying to maintain the image of a player, so its really hard to take him seriously any time he hits on someone?

that is just my interpretation of it tho

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

well. i havent finished my reread of homestuck, so that feels difficult to comment on just yet, bc im sure ill have a different opinion when i do finish it. no one in dc gets character arc bc theyre all just undone immediately, so thats like. yeah. and in pjo the arcs are pretty weak bc 1) kids books and 2) RICK UNDOES THEM ALL. AUGH. regardless of all of this, i am going to say jason grace. he had a lot of development in like the last two hoo books, or maybe just like.... hints of how he couldve developed? promise? which rick immediately set fire to in toa when he killed him, but fUCKING WHATEVER. UGH.

anyway actually tho eleanor from the good place. bisexual icon. queen. probably one of the best character arcs of all time. the episode w her mom has some of the most powerful fucking dialogue ever and i think about it. all the time. i should rewatch the good place.....

[davekat-sucks]

About the question about aging characters in hs^2. They are adults and some of them are parents, it is common in sequels to put a time skip where the characters age and hs^2 candy route follows the (mercenary) trope of "next generation". I think it is tremendously serious to make such an accusation when the art of hs^2 itself at the moment is stylizing the original characters differently from their child forms in the original series. Imagine using this same argument for Goku for example.

But it doesn't help on the fact that when it was originally in WhatPumpkin's control, they kept the same child-like sprites because laziness and easier for old fans to recognize. That's what made people assume that they were still kids/teens even after reading shit like Epilogues. It wasn't until James Roach and HICU decided to go an update the sprites to make them older to fit in-canon of what adult guardian sprites look like. And when there is mention of time passing in Epilogues like XX years passing, ages of characters are not confirmed unless we hear it from the author behind it or fandom making guesses based on the age they were when the original webcomic ended. The latter can be difficult if you include technicalities like the fact that the kids time traveled 1000+ years ahead so they can see the society already developed. Does their age number go up because of the time passing around them? Or does it not? I also think using Goku for this is a little different. One is that Saiyans would stay youthful after a certain point, so they don't grow that much older like humans can. They can also still be killed if they let their guard down, so they aren't immortal. Dragonballs are there for a reason. Gohan and Goten looking like Goku in some way is also to show who is the father of it. And of course, Goku becoming a child again happens a bit for the sake of nostalgia of the original Dragonball series and a plot for him and his family & friends to find a way to change him back. Homestuck Epilogues and Hoemstuck 2/Beyond Canon wishes it could recreate nostalgic moments of our fave characters.

[d1nnerd0g]

Hey it's that anon again. y'know that one from like a day ago. or a few days ago I don't have a good sense of time. it could be 2030 for all I know

I think my most major like, post-canon take is that I'd probably sorta hate it if I were treating it as a real completely serious canon continuation of Homestuck. Instead I read it more like fanfic than anything, just slightly more Creator Approved than most fics.

Not to say I lack standards of quality for fanfic, but I am more open to certain character alterations and interpretations (there are still more than a handful I don't like in post-canon) because I am more cool with seeing it as someone else's vision of a character rather than them being "utterly ruined" in canon or whatever.

I think it also helps that I read all of Homestuck a couple years after HS^2 paused so I wasn't in the active fandom during all of that (I almost was! I originally tried reading back in 2011 but I fell off of it within 500 pages because I had bad taste) so I didn't actually have my opinion particularly swayed by outside influences and was just more willing to give it a fair reading.

My next most major post-canon take is that, as an epilogues and HS^2 liker, the most recent upd8 is quite literally the best I've actually felt about the writing in ANY post-canon content. I think even if I DISLIKED HS^2, I'd still be interested in seeing where it goes from here, after that.

Hi! I waited til I read all of HS2 to reply so I actually know what I’m talking about. I get you on the benefits of backreading, reading this thing in one go I cannot imagine waiting month-long pauses in between scenes, boy can you really feel them in the text (in a way that wasn’t true in the original comic.)

I don’t find that either the AH-lessness or the divisiveness of the postcanon stuff changes the fact that this is the de facto continuation of the canon storyline - it is the reason any of us are reading it. Them framing the epilogues as an AO3 fic doesn’t make them any less on homestuck.com, rejecting this continuation is an active choice you have to make as a HS reader.

Anyway reading HS2 I was surprised both by how little plot occurred (except in Candy, ironically -- oh my GOD I cannot believe Meat decided to do 3 more years of The Yard/Meteorstuck) and how overall unobjectionable it was? This comic’s just been a lot of really nice art and decently written character banter, and that’s essentially it. Then both took a shocking nosedive in ch15/16, the worst writing I’ve seen in all of HS/postcanon, which was so egregious that I think… if the New Team honestly cares about this project shouldn’t they at the very least go back and revise some of that? At least fix the numerous typos?? Instead we get Terezi offering wry meta commentary that this time she’ll “do it right”, which already communicates a dismissive attitude I’m not impressed by. But hey all we've seen so far is two new conversations, everybody loves Sollux, let’s see if JR can fanfic his way into a compelling story.

…Seriously tho anon, thanks for sharing your thoughts and I absolutely just used your ask as an excuse to bitch some opinions out. It remains true there’s nothing in HS2 that I like that hasn’t already been done or done better in fanworks, except drawing Jane looking extremely bangin I guess, but I haven’t sought that out, as a fan, so it’s like the gift I didn’t even know I wanted, and didn't want