#at least no matter what i have my fic and godfeels and similar things to keep that specific thread alive in spite of whatever happens

[pochapal]

So, putting aside any feelings about the work itself or potential direction changes, what is your opinion on the idea of Homestuck^2 being back, with a new team, and nothing from the old team, when the idea was that the old team was still working on it behind the scenes?

given the way things ended in 2020 i was under no illusion that anyone was still working on hs^2 - the "we're still working behind the scenes" thing was basically a lie since by that time literally nearly all of the team had either jumped ship or was pushed out by a hostile fandom - so it is sincerely a surprise that a) people are working on it again and b) we're actually getting new content for it. i would have put hard money on homestuck^2 being forever dead and even said as much several times this year alone (i still stand by a lot of what i wrote in this post on the matter) so i was completely and totally unprepared for a version of this thing to crop up from the grave.

the fact that it's a wholly new unconnected team is absolutely the only reason that hs^2 is back. everything that happened with/to the old team was a bridge that can't be unburned. i worked through my feelings about what happened to the original hs^2 crew some time ago so i'll be brief: i was absolutely in love with the new, interesting, and challenging direction that team was taking not only hs^2, but homestuck canon in its entirety, and i will always be deeply saddened that their vision was killed before its time and will never be able to be visualised.

the story we will be getting both is and isn't homestuck^2. it will naturally be building off the same frameworks and ideas of the epilogues and what came before it, but it will not end up in the same place. this new team is working under a different outline towards a different goal and i will try to appreciate this new hs^2 for what it is (albeit with a very very veeeery cautious optimism) but the hs^2 i fell in love with died in 2020. the story i am writing about and responding to died in 2020. i am sure this will be a fun ride but i can't help but be wistful about what could have been, and i am unable to ignore the specter of the cruelty done towards its predecessor that hangs over this project. i wish them the best and i am looking forward to it but it isn't the same and it won't be the same and i wouldn't want it to be the same anyway. that moment in time and that creative vision is in the ground and to pretend otherwise would be playing with ghosts. i am interested in seeing something alive.

i really and truly hope things work out better for this new team and they learned from what killed the last attempt at this. more than anything else i would hate for history to repeat.

[deacblues]

well now I'm curious about your petty fanwork pedantries.

my pedantries mostly stem from my approach to fanwork, which is to be as accurate to the source material as possible. if not in form, then at least in spirit.

for example, i can't read most spider-man fics because the characters swear. the characters don't swear in the source material so when they swear in a fic it just pulls me out immediately (unless it's executed especially well-- traincat's tales from the back pages has a good "no fucking way").

my pedantic tendencies really flare up with it comes to homestuck. in the wake of the epilogues and post-canon, there's this sense among fans that canon is something to be ignored, and that you should just do your own thing. it clashes with my approach to fanwork. it doesn't help that the way i engage with any story i enjoy is to learn everything i can about it (a side effect from reading cape books , i suppose).

it also doesn't help that homestuck's many, many internal rules provide an excellent framework for making fanfic! like, i've seen a lot of people disregard the rules of sburb to just make stuff up, and i can't understand it because for me it's so much more fun-- and challenging-- to try and make an idea work within the framework. a lot of the creative challenge is making it work within the context of the story.

and with a work as long and winding as homestuck, the parts i like could be totally different than the parts someone else likes. so someone might make a fanwork that totally misunderstands the appeal of the source material (from my perspective).

like the homestuck epilogues strip away the breezy tone of the original, and dial up the angst. or something like godfeels, which is a well-recieved fic that i just can't get into for similar reasons. i have no interest in reading a fic that boils down to "what if the homestuck characters were adults and also they were fucked up"

it could even be something minor, like someone's conception of a character straying too far from canon. the other day, i saw a drawing of jade harley dressed like an emo. and i know it was just supposed to be cheesecake art basically-- like look at this cute drawing of a girl in emo clothes. but i just ended up being angry because i know jade harley would never dress like an emo! it doesn't make sense! it doesn't work! argh!!!!!!!!!

i want to make it clear that this is my problem, and not the fault of anyone actually making fanwork. i know it's so stupid and pedantic and neurotic and so i try to keep my mouth shut, because i know people are just having fun, and it's not a big deal. somehow, i can only get mad at trivial things that don't matter.