#hs2 day 13

[simmonsized]

respectfully asking for those hs2 opinions if u do wanna share !

My opinion of Homestuck^2 is that it is, at the end of the day, glorified fanfiction, and I'm so serious about it. Like, is it impressive that a group of people care so much about Homestuck that they're trying to work within the bounds of the epilogues and the limitations that that world set for them? Yes.

But is it also a group of people who are fans of a work that started in 2009 and has arguably transformed a lot of fandom and internet culture in ways non-homestucks do not recognize, and thus as homestuck fans are also going to bring their own personal shades of experience with years of interaction within the fandom, especially depending on what years they were most active in the fandom? Yes.

Like I won't call it bias but. Yes, yes I will let lol. Fans of a thing are going to bring unconscious bias to a work even if they are invited to work on this by the creator directly or just with the creator's blessing itself.

I think roach said this many years ago but there's no "fixing" Homestuck, and there's no fixing the world created by the epilogues, either.

I admire the endeavor to work within the bounds of a work of fiction not inherently your own.

But tbh, it's still going to be an MSPA fan adventure. Homestuck^2 was always going to be a MSPAFA.

There's nothing wrong with that, but it's just like. The concept of considering it canon at all would be laughable, which is why I respect the decision to call it "Beyond Canon."

Because all fan works, in all their ways, are historically love letters to the original work that exist "beyond" the canon of the story, and I think that's what makes them good. I think that arguing against Homestuck 2 being a fanwork is an insult to the years of effort other fans have put into Homestuck -- the way it is viewed as a whole (good and bad), the ships that are popular and reviled, the popular tropes and headcanons.

And over the years the original Homestuck was influenced so by these things, too, and it shows, and I'm more watsonian than doylist, which is apparent to all who know me (my favorite character has no speaking lines and no canon personality and yet also somehow went from being one of the most popular to least popular characters in the past ten years), which is why I say again, that I don't think there's any shame in calling Homestuck 2 a fan adventure, and pushing back against that is, to me, an insult, especially after being here for 13 years.

Anyway all that to say, the concept of Homestuck^2 is interesting, but doesn't feel like required reading, least of all to me, haha.

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

Homestuck Poll Round 1 Results:

Beta Kids: 226 votes

Dave Strider: 31% - Winner

Jade Harley: 27%

Rose Lalonde: 22%

John Egbert: 20%

Lowblood Trolls: 275 votes

Aradia Megido: 41% - Winner

Karkat Vantas: 30%

Sollux Captor: 15%

Tavros Nitram: 14%

Midblood Trolls: 356 votes

Nepeta Leijon: 31% - Winner

Terezi Pyrope: 28%

Kanaya Maryam: 23%

Vriska Serket: 18%

Highblood Trolls: 314 votes

Feferi Peixes: 40% - Winner

Gamzee Makara: 24%

Eridan Ampora: 22%

Equius Zahhak: 14%

Alpha Kids: 655 votes

Roxy Lalonde: 51% - Winner

Dirk Strider: 28%

Jake English: 13%

Jane Crocker: 8%

Miscellaneous Characters Pt. 1: 171 votes

Calliope: 42% - Winner

Meenah Peixes: 24%

Caliborn: 23%

Aranea Serket: 11%

Miscellaneous Characters Pt. 2: 164 votes

Davesprite/Davepetasprite: 46% - Winner

Mayor (WV): 30%

Dad Egbert/Dad Crocker: 30%

Doc Scratch: 9%

Cursed Characters: 35 votes (I forgot to tag this one)

Lil Cal: 37% - Winner

Sweet Bro: 26%

Hella Jeff: 20%

Andrew Hussie: 17%

Villains: 164 votes

Spades Slick: 45% - Winner

The Condesce: 25%

Bec Noir: 24%

Lord English: 6%

Comments:

The kids and trolls got a lot more votes than the miscellaneous characters. That makes sense. We spend more time with all the kids and a lot of the trolls compared to the miscellaneous ones so I guess more people searched up their name in the Tumblr tags

That being said a sample size of only a few hundred is WAY too small. Especially for a fandom as big as Homestuck. I'll go off of this in the next poll ofc but to get a good idea of who the fandom ACTUALLY likes I need like at least a few thousand votes. Maybe more idk how big the Homestuck fandom is now. I know @abraxas-calibrator is planning to make a comprehensive poll with every single character in HS someday and they a) have more followers than me probably so more people will see the poll, b) is more of a "Homestuck blog" than me so more people will know what they're talking about, and c) will probably organize this poll better than I did so. Check out their poll when they do it I guess.

The alpha kids got a LOT of votes. From the tags it seems people have been trying to get their followers to vote for Jane and Jake who were less popular. Didn't work, as you can tell. I love Jane but I don't think her reputation in the fandom ever recovered after HS2 unfortunately. Also I guess ppl just didn't pay attention to her before HS2 either.

The midbloods had a lot of people voting and a relatively close race between Nepeta and Terezi. In the tags of the poll I said Terezi was my favorite but I didn't expect her to win. I expected Vriska to win. Vriska made waves a few days ago bc ppl were APPALLED that she was having such a tough race against Katya Goncharov. Can't believe she's one of THE Tumblr Sexywomen but she came in last in a poll against characters from her own comic. I mean I voted for Katya in that poll bc Vriska sucks (affectionate) but still. She deserved to win that one and I'm surprised she didn't win this one.

That being said for both the midblood and the highblood polls I get the feeling that people assumed that more Tumblr Sexyman characters like Vriska and Gamzee would get all the votes so they voted for the least controversial characters to compensate? Like I have no doubt in my mind that people ACTUALLY like Aradia and liked her enough to beat out Karkat. But. Do people actually like Nepeta and Feferi more. Actually maybe they do. Maybe I'm just cynical. I like characters that are a little problematic bc they're more interesting that way. I guess a lot of people don't see it that way and like the characters that they would genuinely want to be friends with. That's valid tbh.

Some of these brackets weren't well done tbh. The midblood bracket had all popular characters and there were several miscellaneous brackets with characters that aren't most people's favorites. But because I put them together in one poll it forced people to choose their favorite out of the selection. The winners of different polls will be going into the next round but it doesn't really reflect the actual popularity in the fandom. Maybe doing them in batches of 2 would have been better than 4. Ah well. I'll do that for the Tumblr Sexywoman poll I'll eventually put on. I don't have the energy to do all that for this one. Same with the Danganronpa one I want to do later they're still going into batches of 4.

Roxy is literally the only character who won the majority vote. And that's only by 1%. The other polls all have votes split more evenly 3- or 4- ways between the characters. Again, I wonder if any characters would have come out on top if I did a 1v1 poll for them?

Yall really like girls. 5/9 winners of the polls are girls, and 4/5 of the kids/trolls polls had girls win. And for a bunch of the polls where a girl didn't win a girl was the runner-up if there was one in the group. In conclusion wamen I guess.

I have homework so round 2 of polls will be up tomorrow. There are 9 winners in round 1 so for round 2 I'll put them in batches of 3. And the final round will also be in batches of 3. I tried to make 8 batches last time bc it was the Vriska number but also bc then I could do 1v1s but I thought of more characters in the last second. Ah well, I'll refine my methodology for other polls. Peace.

Pandora

[enviousennui]

Nobody asked me so im doing it on my own accord

1/2- My chum handle is my username, so yes my username is hs related. When coming up with a username, i thought hard about it and ended up leaning towards the hs format. as for the meaning, it doesn't particulary have one. Im not really an envious person but i guess ennui works sometimes? Idk it doesnt mean anything deep

3- I have referred to my partner as a matesprit in the past but i dont currently since it isnt something ive done for a while

4- I have with online friends but i dont irl. I probably would of in the past though

5- I used to say i kinned Jade but It was always more in the way of strongly relate to instead of traditional kin culture. I do not kin anybody in that sense

6- Sylph of Light

7-I do! It's mostly doodles and more relaxed art as opposed to more detailed pieces, but i post art here and my ask blog

8- I do not but i have been thinking about a potential fic. Im not sure if i will or not though

9-Im currently on a rp server which i play as WV. i havent been super active this week but i try to hop on every week. I used to rp on msprp all the time though

10- Ive been looking to pick up cosplay again. I have cosplayed hs before in the past, that being Terezi. I made her stick and the horns using felt sheets, but it definitely looks like a first cosplay. I gotta revamp it

11-Yep! It's very casual but I've got a wayward vagabond ask blog. I've been thinking of stuff to draw from it aside from asks, since i xo not recieve many asks, but i have not had time recently.

12- not particulary other than the disgrub rp group

13- fuckk thats a hard question. June, Jade and Roxy are very high up there...Terezi ofc, i wouldnt of cosplayed her otherwise. These characters all mean a lot to me but those are the top. Oh and i think it goes without saying but the exiles are definitely top too

14- Equius ane Damara. I like fanon interpretations but those two are just not my faves. I dont need to get into it

15- rosemary, cottoncandy, wvpmar and pepsicola. Guilty pleasures guys.

16- ugh really not a fan of pm/bec noir. Its not very popular and only mildly implied as a black rom thing but no. As for other ships? there's probably a few but none on the top of my head

17- Jane and Dirk. I love their friendship sm

18- I have a lot of mixed feelings. I like aspects of hs2 but yeah.

19- I played the first act of hiveswap when it released but i wasn't able to play act 2. I watched it on yt instead and i enjoy the game. I cant wait for whenever the next act releases....

20- Well i got into it when i was around 13 and im almost 20 now. It feels like a significant amount of my life has revolved around it. I used to reference it at school and even now i make subtle jokes when they pop up naturally

21- not particularly but i do know a few people online through fandom

22- yes but it wasn't an intentional leave, it was more of a slow interest decline where i got into something else at the time. But it came back, this comic is very relevant to me all the time. despite not being my number one interest at times, i always reblogged art.

23- i originally read it during the gigapause, then i read it again once it had ended. I read through it again after hiveswap was released and then again in 2019 before 413 (unaware of the upcoming epilogues that would be released that day) and finally at the beginning of January this year

24- i hate to admit it but when I first got interested in the comic, i couldnt read it. So i decided to watch the voxus dub but i got bored, so i started skipping through and upon seeing Karkat, i thought john had turned into him? When it came time to me actually sitting down with my old shitty pc to read it, i skipped the intermission. I went through the pages but i didnt read it. I didnt think it was important :/

25- once again, mixed opinions. Current fandom is fine, old fandom was all over the place. I was an avid tumblr blogger then and was in a lot of the popular fandoms at the time. Fandomstuck had so many fandoms i was in, for example. Seeing old posts makes me very nosta!gic though and i love to see how loved and active it once wasgic

26-Oof. Okay. The comic is rough but for all the circumstances, it still holds up well. Of course with the website being in shambles, flash being extinct and certain...writing choices...its hard to recommend to people. But if you can look past certain things, or even read the unofficial collection if it makes it more digestible, i still think you should read it cause it does a lot of things i love. And also things i dont. But thats not unheard of

27- carapacians

28-Oo i should of read through this question sheet before answering them all in one. Thats hard to say but cascade is still a huge moment to me. That or jade:enter (yes these are both flashes but those are what came to mind)

29- the retcon. Not the idea of it but the fact its so vriska central. Vriska is not the problem solver. Also hate hate the whole vriska (vriska) stuff. I like (vriska) and seeing her get shredded to shit by the "better" vriska is just. ugh. Theres definitely other things i dont like. Oh god trickster mode. I love the designs but i hate what it is in the comic.

30- *insert the cop upd8 story because im not coming up with something on the fly*

31- Pretty much 95%. In the paat it was more like 50% but now its pretty much blog wide.

“Homestuck Isn’t Dead” Tag

I wanted to make one, so send a number or reblog to get one!

1. Do you have a chum handle? What does it mean?

2. Is your username homestuck related/have you had one hs related?

3. Do you call your s/o a matesprit?

4. Do you call your best friend your moirail?

5. Are you “kin” with any characters or commonly called a character?

6. God Tier?

7. Do you make HS fanart?

8. Do you make hs fanfiction?

9. Do you roleplay homestuck? where and how often?

10. Do you cosplay homestuck characters? Who and where?

11. Are you apart of ask blogs?

12. Are you in any homestuck groups?

13. Favorite character?

14. Least favorite character?

15. OTP?

16. NOTP?

17. BROTP?

18. Do you want homestuck to just die already?

19. Are you following up with hiveswap? Do you play? Watch YT videos?

20. Tell us how homestuck has effected you in real life?

21. Have you met anyone through homestuck?

22. Have you left the fandom before?

23. How many times have you read through it?

24. Did you ever skip intermissions/dialog/animations?

25. Opinions on the fandom?

26. Opinions on the comic?

27. Do you favor the trolls, humans, or carapaces?

28. Favorite moment of all of homestuck?

29. Least favorite moment of all of homestuck?

30. Tell us a homestuck based story.

31. How homestuck related is your blog?

[thespoondrawer]

So...I did a thing.

A long thing, a wet thing.

Did I enjoy every minute? nope. Did I enjoy most of it? nope.

But, did I finish it? yes. Did I run every step? yes. Did I finish in 3h59m and 26 seconds? hell yeah!

THANK YOU to EVERY single one of you who donated and made it worth doing the thing. I won't do it again so don't worry...you will stop hearing about this very soon.

It was the hardest thing I've done physically, and almost as wet as the last horrid (virtual) London Marathon I did in 4h2m in 2020.

I AM happy, honest....but I think I'll only realise that in a day or two more. I'm aching but it's a nice ache and only going DOWN stairs hurts and I ain't picking anything of the floor any time soon.

BUT...without seeming arrogant, and I know Nicola Hunt gets it (thank you so much for saying exactly what's in my head), but I did think I could possibly hit 3h40m...looking at my 22 mile training run to Bedworth and back which I did in 3:00 including a fall at 19 miles only a few weeks ago...so 4 hours was a surprise. BUT as I'd written off that target by mile 20 when I was overtaken by the 3:55 pacers (obviously not MY pacers in the end) it was a pleasant one.

Why did it take me 20+ minutes more than I thought? why was every single step after Tower Bridge awful? I put it down to 'sensory overload'. From Saturday AM getting to London on shitty trains, getting to the Expo to pick up my number in 5 mins then getting back to the AirBnb (surely making this mandatory to do in person is all about trying to sell me more running tech I don't need), meeting Shiv and the girls who arrived later, trying to eat well, get some sleep, then getting up in Tower Hamlets and trying to eat something when the stomach said NO...finding out the Underground line to Lewisham was out of action, having to get 3 tubes to get to Blackheath (waiting for 4 trains before one has 3cm of space for me to fit in), walking up to the heath not even being able to see any of London on the horizon, queuing for the toilet I didn't even need because I'd been told I should, hanging around in the cold and wet for 90 mins then ALL that 'I don't know what is going on' in my head.

Once we had started it felt...ok....I did have a little space and quickly I started chatting to the lovely Amber who entertained and motivated me all the way to Tower Bridge....but then I 'let her go' to smash it in 3h42m. What I did know but didn't prepare for, I don't know how you could, was the noise, the cheering, the banging choons, the puddles, the desolate drab arse end of London for the first 13 miles (except a tiny bit of Cutty Sark) then another 10 of drab 'could be any city in the world' before the final ouchy 3 miles where you CAN see London but you just want to see a foil blanket.

4 hours of simultaneously trying to ignore the other 44,000 runners and having to be uber-aware where they are about to slow/stop inches in front of you, elbow past you or find a tiny gap to slip between them in a rare burst of speed. Exhausting and VERY different to a happy 13 miles to Kenilworth and back taking in the sights and smells of HS2.

Then the cheering was lovely, and I WISH I had put my name on my shirt...every 30 seconds...bloody 'GO AMBER YOU'RE SMASHING IT' whilst an older grumpier looking bloke got no love. I really WANTED to high five all the kids but by halfway I just didn't have anything to give them...

Then to nail my coffin, seeing so many obviously keen runners (in vests!) pulling up with cramp, lying on the street covered in coats and holding their loved one's hands over the barrier...thinking all the time 'my calves are going to cramp soon, that will be me' all the way to the line.

So...I've done it and that's a closed chapter I think. I know people say 'you'll change your mind' but I don't think I will. Those 34 seconds I think mean I don't feel I need to prove anything. I don't get my running mojo from races, medals or speed. Parkrun maybe...but I might have also reached my peak there with 22:03...

Back to solo running, early sunny mornings, podcasts on and my stats on Strava and fewer wobbly bits to motivate me.

BUT THANK YOU ALL for support, cash and love. xx

Especially Siobhán Harrison and my amazing girls who had a shit time in shit busy wet tiring London too.

Look at the face. That says it all

[simonloweblog]

Where is Britain Heading?

1. The Armed Forces: 

(Edward Lucas The London Times Feb 13) In this article the current state and limitations of the armed forces are exposed and the stark reality of the analysis is both shocking and frightening. Government foreign policy simply does not match the reality of available resources. It is time to face the fact that whereas we may be a nuclear power we are no longer a true World power. It is over 100 years since Brittania ruled the waves and over 80 years since the country went bankrupt defending itself and its Empire. Like Russia's old guard, many "old timers" may still dream of the days of yore but the young have other priorities and sending troops to Iraq, Afghanistan and overseas is neither a priority nor condoned by most Brits today. 

Grandiose procurement such as the Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales aircraft carriers were delivered years late and without any aircraft because the project had gone hopelessly over budget. This was yet another example of poor planning much akin to the HS2 project. As with the NHS, the defense budget must be balanced with realistic defense goals and a clear long-term strategy to achieve both.

2. The NHS:  Alan Milburn interviewed on.... "and the rest is politics".

Oh dear; is there ever going to be a time when the NHS is not the subject of political wrangling, public frustration, professional stress and crisis? Liberated from political office,  Alan Milburn,  the Secretary of State for Health in Tony Blair's government, recently gave a concise assessment of the current state of the NHS when interviewed by Alastair  Campbell and Rory Stewart. In short, he stated the obvious,  namely that the NHS's resources do not and have rarely matched demand and that unless there was a radical reappraisal and reorganization of this the largest employer and organisation in Britain there could be no solution to the ever increasing problems facing the country’s most beloved institution. Surely Britain’s political leaders must understand that the only way to solve the most challenging institution is with a by-partisan approach. It is time to put Country before Party.

3. Singapore or Scandinavia:

The political arguments of the past 75 years as to what society Britain wants and what it should evolve into has produced nothing but stop-go policies with every change of government, as each one tries to reverse the policies of its predecessor. From extreme right Brexiteers to the extreme left socialism of Corbin's Labour party, Brits have endured a see-saw of philosophies that have produced increasing extremes between the North and South, the haves and the have nots,  Racism and Sexism that together have exacerbated division amongst its citizens in many cases resulting in a complete lack of hope for the future.

Is Britain, a small Island that has been gently and sometimes not so gently declining in power and influence going to understand that it needs a new model that its people want to participate in and that can maintain consistency over a period of time. It's time to choose between Singapore and Scandinavia.

4. Old or New Monarchy?: 

Almost every Brit mourned the passing of the Queen, surely one of the greatest women who has ever lived, but many now want to see the monarchy adapt to the 21st Century. As the Prince Of Wales, Charles  said he would be "Defender of Faith" and had the opportunity to confirm that when he ascended the Throne. Sadly he did not take that opportunity to assert himself and his beliefs and instead succumbed to the Church and the Palace by swearing his commitment to be "Defender of the Faith". If Britain is to survive as a Kingdom and embrace the changes necessary to become a modern, prosperous society then the Monarchy must change and adapt quickly. Charles should start by insisting that the "gong" system be reformed immediately. Dropping the word "Empire" from all honours is a pre-requisite to the reality that it is Britain but no longer "Great" Britain. The class system remains one of the relics of Victorian England and is an ongoing barrier to a society where there is truly equal opportunity and an end to the top hat-flat cap society of the past.

5. Correcting Brexit.

I remain a Brexiteer but am shocked by the lack of preparation that the Government and the Civil Service put in place during the 4 years after the referendum and before we left the EU. Britain is, for the time being still the 6th largest economy in the world and is therefore strong enough to forge its own path and future but the likes of the Foreign office and the Joint Chiefs must give up on the idea that Britain is a world power that can send its armed forces across the world. Government must concentrate its energy on providing good health, education and living standards for its people and agree a long-term plan to do so.

6. The North-South divide:

Is Levelling Up dead? Osborne's "Northern Powerhouse" was followed by Johnson's "levelling up" both of which got stuck soon after being launched. It is high time that action and not lip service be paid to the continuing North- South divide. In recent years, Governments have failed to deliver large projects either on time or on budget; 50 years on, the country is  still waiting for another runway at Heathrow. The HS2 project is already way over budget and behind schedule and there is about to be yet another review of it. It should be canceled and the £100 billion plus it will cost used to upgrade and modernize schools, hospitals and support new businesses in the Midlands and the North. Shaving 20 minutes off the trip from Euston to Birmingham is simply not good value for money.

7. Coming together:

The government needs to stop making enemies:  fighting Scotland, the Doctors and Nurses, Unions and the EU and start getting everyone on Board by doing deals that work. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher said as she entered Downing Street, "Where there is discord, may we bring harmony...."

Sadly,  much as she and her policies were loved by many, she was hated by many and neither she nor those who have followed her have succeeded in bringing any measure of harmony that is essential in any family, corporation or community to achieve success, peace and happiness. Instead, greed, personal ambition and tribal conflict dictate social, political and economic direction. 

    .       Is there anyone out there who will put the good of the people first??

[missfinefeather]

Wakraya

Don't be alarmed, I checked, it's not 'all', but there were some issues.

OH!

This is because Tumblr has changed their tag system

Tags have spaces now, not dashes

So for example

Your liveblog for The Question is tagged as "https://missfinefeather.tumblr.com/tagged/The-Question/chrono"

This no longer works, now it needs to be "https://missfinefeather.tumblr.com/tagged/The%20Question/chrono"

This goes for every tag on your Tumblr that has a space in it. Y i k e s

I’ve since went back and fixed the Steven Universe Master List, so it should be all linking now.

Now, the Homestuck Master List I haven’t gotten to. Hundreds upon hundreds of links now broken, fuck me.

Homestuck was before I got a system down for liveblog tags so, yeah I’m going to have to go fix all that eventually. Siiiiiiiiiggghhh....

I guess that’s what I’m working on tonight. Hopefully it won’t take long.

EDIT: Fixed the Homestuck Master List. Let me know if I screwed up or missed anything.

[pesteringchum]

i just remembered the function on my ipad to read text in images which makes converting all of the additions into text so much faster! unfortunately, idk how to add alt text to posts retrospectively so heres a fresh rb from the original post with every addition on the mega post so far!

my additions: this is mostly projection bc i grew up chronically online but. jade never stood a chance without sburb i think. she never rlly had irl human connection with anyone other than her grandpa and you can only learn so much from tv and chatting to ppl online. physically being around people can be exhausting, let alone talking AND listening AND interpreting your interlocutor's body language. does she have the tools to not only perform social existence but to also cope with how tiring it is? if she chose to stay among society how long would it take her to learn body language and learn what her social limits are? would she ever learn her limits or would she exist in a cvcle of partv partv party > burn out > isolate self > repeat? without sburb i think she would have really struggled to Exist in an observable way. blipping in and out of existence, on and off the radar. which doesn't make for stable relationships.

also she never learned how to LEARN bc gramps died when she was super young and therefore he probs didnt get around to homeschooling yet. she's a genius, yes, but that goes only so far. how would she do in a college environment? its less rigidly structured than high school but it still has rules and deadlines. would she be able to learn at a pace not set by herself? i wonder how well she speaks, bc other than maybe calling the other kids idk if she gets enough practice speaking. hc that she mispronounces words a lot bc she mostly read words and not heard/spoken them.

@zoosmelllawboy’s addition: i have so many brain worms about how the beta kids were never meant to have any purpose other than playing burb so thats why they could never join society like a normal person but thats for another day BUT you can totally see how these brainworms work in hs2 and the epilogues even tho i despise how they were presented. its just how jade is so othered from the rest of the group because they atleast grew up with a little bit of normality to copy but she wasnt and she has to blindly fall through her feeling which she was never meant to feel because her only reason to exist was to be the witch of space and not to be a wife or a mother or a friend or a sister. shes been a tool from day one. she was simply the pen that filled in the blanks and helped her friends progress as people and she was left behind, figuratively and literally alone on an island for 13 years and then on a ship for 3 more

@ladylolalilly’s addition: everyone in the tags is right but also her immune system would be FUCKED after so long without other people around. plus no vaccinations. shed probably spend a long while super sick from all the common diseases she was never exposed to before

@tricksterwitchkat’s addition: not to mention if she turns out to have sny sort of condition or disability. she probably wouldn't notice because she only experienced living with one person and that person was an old man. the only person shes been around probably had all kinds of minor physical problems that shes probably internalized as normal, combined with an old fashioned idea to not speak of it. we know she needs glasses already and theres no chance they're the right prescription. the only way shes had a pair of glasses since she was a baby and they've grown with her and stayed the right prescription is if they're a game construct that the kids just... never questioned. otherwise she's probably got a pile of old glasses that she tries out and wears whichever pair is the least blurry, which is really bad for your eyes btw. but yeah, if she was hard of hearing or had a speech impediment or even had a bad limb or chronic pain she'd probably think that was normal. she could be on that island with asthma or something and be like "ah yes the Bad Breathing. Hate When That Happens.” heck she could be deaf and just like the vibrations of the base through the speakers, probably not since she has conversations with people later over computer without seeing their lips but you get what i mean.

my response to tricksterwitchkat’s addition: this is so interesting! i never considered how skewed jade's concept of normal health/functioning would be! if she had these conditions, i think that would only add to her dependence on bec, since he would probably have learned over the years to quide her around things on the floor/away from things in the distance that she might not see, alert her when a sound like a crash happens that she might not hear, or help support her if shes having trouble getting around. in this case, if she ever got off the island, bec would totally be qualified to be her service animal, so at least she'd be a little less alone on a day to day basis than she would otherwise!

i think a lot about if jade would ever have been able to live a normal life.

had the kids never played sburb, what would’ve happened to jade? does she have citizenship anywhere? does she have a passport? does she have a birth certificate? if she ever got off the island, does she have any proof at all that she exists?

if she doesn’t and can’t get any, would she just stay on her island? would she die there, without ever being near a human other than her grandfather? would she die there, a distant memory of her childhood friends, who’ve long since grown up and joined society and no longer had time for her? would it be as if she’d never existed at all?

if she does get off the island and is able to join human society, would she even like it?

she grew up alone, aside from bec. she’s smart and curious, so she probably would want to go to university so she could do research. would she be able to live in a city packed with people people people and bricks and concrete and air pollution? would she learn that her social battery is a lot shorter than she thought, that the concrete and brick is colder than she thought, that even the air is more foreign to her lungs than she thought it would be? would she feel suffocated?

she grew up with bec constantly by her side, but many places dont allow dogs. would she feel separation anxiety? would she feel more alone than she ever thought possible, amidst more people she ever experienced in all years of her life combined?

would she return to her island? would she die there, lonely again but content but hungry for something she can’t stand? would she be remembered by her peers and professors? or would they, too, with time, forget her? would it be like she’d never left the island at all? would it be as if she’d never existed at all?

[molynomials]

hahahahahahaha funny homestuck day

[hammieslice]

HAPPY HOMESTUCK DAY IDIOTS!!!

[sheneophyte]

I NEED SOMEONE TO FRICKING TAKE ME TO SEE HARRY STYLES 😭😭😭

[cassolotl]

I posted this 16 hours ago, and it's now over 22,000 signatures and climbing fast. At lunchtime it was getting about 50 signatures per minute. :D Here's the graph:

I'm not 100% up on politics these days, so I'll tell you what I've picked up: it's been the Conservative Party conference over the past few days; during the conference it became apparent that there's a splinter group of 60 Conservative MPs doing some separate thing with Liz Truss (who was recently Prime Minister but resigned after 45 days because she did some radical capitalist thing and totally tanked the economy); a couple of days ago the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said that the public don't want a general election, and today he announced that a whole chunk of HS2 (a high-speed rail project that has been in progress for over 10 years) won't be going ahead anymore, and he also denied the rights and existence of trans people. Under the Conservatives we've had 13 years and 5 Prime Ministers, including 3 in the past 13 months or so.

Anyway...

[ Sign here ]

UK petition: Call an immediate general election

[ Sign here ]

The Prime Minister should call an immediate general election to allow the British public to have their say on how we are governed, we should not be made to wait until January 2025 Consistent opinion polling has shown the British public have lost confidence in the current government. The NHS is in crisis, the asylum system is broken, there are delays at the ports, and institutions are failing. The British people should be given a say on what to do next.

Deadline: 4 February 2024

Signatures: 12,653 of the 100,000 needed for a discussion in parliament (as of 4th Oct 2023, at the time of writing this!)

Track signatures on a graph: here

Who can sign? British citizens and UK residents [source]

[ Sign here ]

[yoitscro]

HOMESTUCK RAMBLE

The most troubling thing about the Sarah Z situation is that everything felt like damage control, tactical intimidation, and knee-jerked censorship. Right off the cuff of Hussie’s patreon message*.

(*Does anyone ever notice how Hussie only talks to the fandom when some kind of trouble eventually boils over, usually pointing a finger in one direction, versus addressing things earlier or addressing things period? Such as him having the power to speak against the actual anti queer jargon toward his employees prior to them leaving when things got worse? Or him mentioning the concerns of HS2 that people only found out through word of mouth and were reasonably upset about, such as them getting rid of the content warnings, or the fact that Hiveswap Act 2 was released without credits?

Would certainly make me less irritated if I didn’t know that that message is probably going to be one of his only few that he chooses to write and not mention other things, such as the returned antagonism toward fans. 

But this is also the same guy who continues to write passive aggressive messages in his comic and game scripts that calls everyone else a loser for still being mad about the racism and ableism. (Seriously, Psycholonials is just a vague post in game form and it’s chaotic as fuck to do things like using riots (racially prominent a year ago) in the toned environment of 2020 as goofy plot points. I thought we were suppose to do BETTER after Skaia Net.)

Idc if he’s not apart of WP anymore. Even then, he certainly left a lot of baggage for other people to handle. It’s incredibly irresponsible.

Anyways.)

Those journals have existed forever. Whether right or wrong, they have. They’ve gone unaddressed despite being known for existing. A big name youtuber giving an auditory version that doesn’t take up all the video probably shouldn’t have been the reason that fans finally got some kind of answer, and it’s blatantly transparent that it was to protect the IP from having it’s name tarnished. As if Homestuck doesn’t already have issues that it refuses to acknowledge after a decade that everyone else has talked about.

I can imagine that some kind of NDA was keeping them from talking about Hiveswap to their kickstarter backers, but the convenience of that expiring once Sarah said something gives me an inkling that the people who’ve actually stuck around to support Homestuck could’ve heard sooner. Not to mention that before this big blowout, people just wanted to know that the game was being worked on period. There was actually no NDA preventing that communication.

People wonder why there’s such a rift between WP and the homestuck community, and it’s stuff like that. The fact that Hussie only comes down to address damage when it piles up to a breaking point, rather than earlier. The fact that if you have one criticism, friends or associates of the people who write their favorite characters will maul you in the name of whatever marginalized group they happen isolate you from.

And at the end of it all, it’s almost like some big, surface level moral, because no one cared 3 days after Sarah’s video. Everyone treated it like usual youtube commentary essays about troubling developments and moved on.

Instead, now, still, everyone cares about the fact that an opinion video about Homestuck was getting legal threats during 4/13. After years of a troubled relationship with it’s fandom, this was the last thing they needed to do. I’m trying to wrap my head around what the favorable outcome was here; to look GOOD?

I can’t even imagine what this stunt looks like to other studios and IP groups. I wonder if Homestuck is secretly blacklisted at this point because so much bad behavior has been normalized instead of having a healthy blend between criticism and sympathy.

BC again, a transphobic bigot sending death threats bc homestuck “isn’t what it use to be”, and responding to that rightfully, isn’t the same as someone thinking that more jarring post-canon content and execution of things like toblerone wishes suck some, and figureheads deciding to insult minors, stir character drama, and call other bulk criticisms from the queer community homophobic or transphobic. That in fact loses support, money, and causes infighting, actually.

I’ve never seen a fandom decline in stable activity as hard as 2019-2020 Homestuck.

This is the part where I say that my caliginous crush from wanting to see this IP improve itself flares up from time to time, but is starting to die down knowing that, unless there’s a massive overhaul on how things are run, things aren’t changing...seriously. There are things HS can do even without Viz Media’s overbearing presence, but it doesn’t want to. Starting a feud on your holiday wasn’t one of those things to do, maybe, actually.

I think it’s telling that it’s actually bad enough that I usually refrain from talking as much as I am now, because some part of me knows that some ex WP member, or a friend of one, is reading this and potentially sharing it in whatever snotty chat to once more emphasize how evil of a person I am for saying what everyone else is thinking, lmao.

I think that if anyone wants to pride themselves in not being “terminally online” and in fandom, they should refrain from putting their hands on a story that’s literally embedded and literally about it’s fandom. Go join a private discord instead, or try a different franchise. Maybe have some self awareness. Just a thought.

Anyways, the trust is tainted. The fallout has been followed by quiet, and the current members are reshaping the ground of this community before the weeds eventually rear their heads again.

[stormsbourne]

do you think hs is worth reading? for someone who hasnt read it before. bc i kinda wanna get into it but this epilogue stuff seems kinda shitty and confusing af. sry for bothering u abt it but i just genuinely wanna know. xoxo

ADDED AFTER THE FACT: WOW THIS REPLY IS LONG SORRY

honestly, I don’t know. my experience with homestuck at this point is that I try not to think about it because the ending was so deliberately mean and shitty that it ruins the journey. it tells me all the depth and meaning I saw in the original was just me projecting, playing shadow puppets with themes I like and relate to and could get invested in. a friend of mine has a theory that andrew hussie is just the ultimate appeaser who adopts the views of whoever he hanggs around with, and so a lot of the stuff I identified closely with was during the era when he hung out with mostly sjw types (act 5.2 through pre-omegapause act 6). then he started hanging around with edgelords again, and people who sniffed his farts and told him how brilliant they were. whew. love it. love where this has brought us.

if you really do want to read it for the context of knowing what everyone has been talking about, honestly, then you should go for it. the story might not click with you and you might find yourself falling out, because the early comic is infamously difficult to get into. HOWEVER: 

you may feel like you have gotten a complete story after a video/flash segment in late act 6 called “remem8er.” if you want to stop there, you are perfectly within your rights. 

if you don’t stop there, then you SHOULD stop either after a video/flash segment in act 6 titled “collide,” or, at the latest, after “act 7.” don’t bother with the snapchat updates. they were ultimately completely pointless.

PLEASE do not read the epilogues. if, eventually, you feel the need to know what’s in them, there are some good summary posts out there -- I wouldn’t recommend mine, it’s a little too rambly and the original version got some plot points wrong. just use those. don’t read the actual thing. it is a waste of time

and obviously don’t bother with homestuck 2

and, more importantly, if you do get into it, don’t even fucking bother with the dregs of the fandom today. homestuck fandom always sucked shit, but these days it’s worse than ever mainly because the authors of hs2 are very active on twitter and are very loud about what they think of critics. they’re whiny ass babies who are overinvolved with their fandom and then whine about people discussing their shit. don’t bother with current fandom. go read some stuff from before april 2019 on ao3 and enjoy it there. the homestuck fandom as it stands now is basically a ghost town full of shrieking wraiths demanding why you don’t love andrew hussie’s brilliant genius. 

as for the companion games (hiveswap/friendsim/pesterquest), I have no interest in any of them whatsoever at this point especially because pq just seems like another way for the hs2 people to rub one off about their incarnation of “canon.” but if they’re your jam, go for it I guess. 

the thing for me is that my knowledge of what a shitbird andrew hussie is has ruined any depth I once read in these characters. there’s a couple things I may write on commission soon, but outside of commissions I can never see myself seriously engaging with it again because every time I think about it, I feel like andrew hussie is taking a shit in my dinner all over again.

did I meantion 4/13, the big arc number, is my birthday? lol

TLDR: if you want to read it to understand the cultural phenomenon, go for it, but don’t read anything outside the comic’s original ending, act 7. I find it hard to recommend for the same reasons that people who watched game of thrones might find it hard to recommend their show now. the ending so thoroughly stripped the rest of it of any meaning or depth or emotional resonance that the feeling I have when I consider it is just an inner deadness. so if you want the story or the characters or the worldbuidling, you have to be willing to weigh how much you personally can divorce What Happened After from what happened in the comic itself. and I just can’t do it because I was there as it happened, basically.

[missfinefeather]

Aaaaaaaahhhhh!!! this is so cute! :D

Thank you! Thank you so much for this adorable Kwiver!

(the longer i look at this the worse the face/head looks ▪︎_▪︎)

(everything else is pretty good though imo)

[originaldanganronpascenarios]

Just some info

About my inactivity?

Because of the whole virus thing I have to do a lot of schoolwork at home and yes teachers do send too much stuff... Like damn... We whouldn't do even half of it if we were in school normally.

About the last poll...

I'm so sorry but there was something rather unexpected to say the least... I got into fire emblem (three houses to be exact) and I FUCKING love it... It also was source of my inactivity but I played after I did my homework so- still it was about 13 hours daily for 3 days- but back to the topic my next blog will be Fire Emblem related if I will make another one. Then if after that I whouldn't feel overwhelmed I might also make Pokémon one (Wich was winner of the poll)

(only for Dr blog to read) Junko and Fanfic slots

I'll do all of requested fanfics instead of 2 but the fanfic slots are closed so don't send anything in cuz I'll make it a scenario! About Junko though... Thanks to lovely person (dunno if I should @ you or not) I'll start writing her! So to kabedon annon: I'll write Junko too when I will get to your second kabedon request!

(only for Homestuck blog to read)

I am saying it right now just in case that I will not write anything related to hs2 epilogues or pesterquest. Not becouse I am ignoring it but cuz I didn't read it all nor I care.

~Mod Angie

[lordendsavior]

I’ve been missing Harry The Artist lately and went on a little spree of podcasts where people talk about him as a writer and a musician, and now I miss him even more and want HS2 like tomorrow:

“Harry’s a fantastic writer… [Ross Golan]: Yeah, we did that song- Harry, Johan [Carlsson] and I did that song [‘If I Could Fly’] and it was shocking how good he is. [Savan]: Yeah. With him, it was really interesting, cause from [1D’s] second album, I really saw that he’s a fucking good writer. And we did a song together for the third album, the only thing I did for the third album. It was this song ‘Happily’, which I’m really proud of, I think he is as well. It wasn’t like that thing where you’re writing down for the artist, he was fucking great and full of ideas, so that was cool to see. (…) And we would always stay in touch. And obviously I brought Harry into our camp, working with Johan, and you guys started working, and you guys write great music together, and I’m so proud of him.”

Savan Kotecha, And The Writer Is… (Feb 13, 2017)

“It’s all about melodies for him. There was one session with Kid Harpoon when Harry was recording two new songs before he left town. So the songs are coming out like crazy and at one point, Kid Harpoon goes ‘Let’s do this old-school move and we’ll do blah blah…’ And Harry said ‘No. Let’s do the most modern tech thing we can possibly do. Because tape and analog was the best system they had in the day, so let’s go with the best system we have today, and just make it about the melodies.’ Which I thought was really great, cause he was smart enough to know ‘Let’s not go retro in a slavish way. Let’s embrace the new tech while doing old-school love for melody.’ It really comes from him and he’s a big music geek in the greatest way.”

Cameron Crowe, Rolling Stone Music Now (Apr 25, 2017)

“We pretty instantly had a full band that knew how to record. And I think in the first week, they did like 10 songs, really hit it off. Then I’d come and give my feedback. The first time it was like ‘Yeah, ok. This is good. You guys have some stuff going.’ And the second time I went they played me Meet Me In The Hallway. And I was like ‘Oh shit. You guys are really onto something.’ Just the vibe they had together, and Harry being all excited and happy. And also he got to be the one in the room that was leading the project. And it all came from him.”

Jeff Bhasker, It’s Been A Minute (Jul 18, 2017)