i haven't reached the epilogues yet (just started act 6 act 5 act 2) but i've vaguely heard they're bad and controversial. can you explain to me what's wrong with them that makes so many people hate them?
(also i can't read further yet because i can't download the unofficial collection and the website's gonna take a while to reach where i'm at. i was relying on the youtube voxus dub until now)
Well, when it comes to people avoiding it, it certainly doesn't help that this MASSIVE trigger warning list is the first thing you see when going to read it..
In hindsight, I personally think this formatting is a bit of an in-joke about fanfiction, but the trigger warnings do apply.. vaguely.. For example, one of the tags is "Diapers" which refers to a single scene in which a diaper is thrown at Jake English and then I don't believe diapers are in the story at any point beyond that. A majority of the tags here are a similar case, with themes that are rarely touched upon/mentioned, but end up in the list nontheless.
This is not to diminish the darker themes the story does deal with, such as rape and cheating. These are some of the themes present within the story of the Epilogues, but a majority of it is off-screen/implied and the story does a pretty good job treating it with the proper weight and consequence in my opinion.
These darker themes may be a contribution as to why people tend to avoid the Epilogues. If your main pull to Homestuck is those silly goobers having adventures and messing around, and you're not as interested in them dealing with their flaws, getting hurt, making mistakes and trying to grow as people, it might not be as interesting (Though there are still silly shenanigans!!!!) Beyond Canon more or less carries on this idea.
One of my main theories for why people hated the epilogues so much on release is that an Epilogue, by definition, is a final or concluding act, but ultimately the Epilogues are just a bridge to Beyond Canon, and don't exactly end (however it does tie up some plot threads from the end of Homestuck.)
Another reason is due to "mischaracterization" as people will often call wildly when a character they like does something bad, but in the case of the Candy timeline it's technically warranted but isn't a detriment to the story, it's actually intended! Spoiling as little as I can, it's directly addressed in the text of both the Epilogues and Beyond Canon that people in the Candy timeline are acting a bit erratic and out of character because it's neccessary for the timeline to continue existing, at least that's the interpretation I've gained. Candy timeline is fun though, all the new characters are awesome!!
Overall I think the Epilogues are really incredible, and deserve an honest try!! If they're not for you, Beyond Canon might not be either, it's basically just Part 2 hehe
