So, basically starting from [S] Game Over and carrying straight through to Act 7, the bulk of the criticism leveled at Homestuck/Hussie's writing has been focused on satisfying narrative expectations. Nobody got complete arcs, the retcon was a copout, they didn't defeat the big bad they just ran away, etc, and holy shit everyone and their mother became INSTANTLY convinced that this was a deliberate insult because Hussie hates their fans and wanted to hurt us on purpose
And if Homestuck was a story, I'd get that. But Homestuck is a story about stories.
From LITERALLY page 1, Homestuck built on the premise of 'what if real people were subjected to Narrative?'
The characters are aware of narration, aware of stage direction, and they are able to express their opinions on what they are being written to do. This is in multiple layers- they are aware of the Game, and explicitly understand that SBURB is a grand YA coming-of-age narrative built around each of them, they are aware of story narration, the narrators, the literal author, and the fandom. They are CONSTANTLY slotted into major narrative archetypes and tropes, and they are aware of it and often push back against it. Sollux remarks on being a blind seer, entering the game requires acting out new beginning metaphors, the whole kisses to wake dead princesses thing, Dave's thing with Bro's sword- which he subverts by trying to break the sword instead, then subverts again by failing.
The prevalence of roleplaying and denial is another reflection of this theme. Vriska and Terezi and Roxy and Dirk and Hal and Jake all construct narratives that allow them to deny or distance themselves from their lives. Karkat imagines his life playing out like a TV show. John invents a grand story about his dad's job, and spends the entire game very deliberately playing into the hero archetype. Rose invents motivations for her mother. Dave constructs a narrative to rationalize his abusive childhood. All of these narratives are unhealthy and must be rejected for the characters to grow.
Over and over again characters are put in the most Narrativey narrative devices to ever narrative, and compliance is almost never the right choice- 'I am Brain Ghost Dirk. You killed my boyfriend. Prepare to die.' but he doesn't kill her! Jade gets crushed by a house but it doesn't matter. Rose tears the game apart instead of doing her quest chores and she is correct to do so.
Over and over again, from literally page 1, the characters freely express distaste for and reject what the narrative imposes on them. Because thematically speaking they are Real People, and what real people do and want is not always narratively satisfying.
I think Rose and Roxy's alcoholism is an EXCELLENT example of this. The audience feels cheated because we didn't get to watch them handle their addictions, especially that Rose got to just retroactively Not Have That Problem.
The audience... feels cheated... because a teenage girl didn't suffer for our entertainment.
Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong or perverse in wanting to watch characters overcome hardship- just that the central conceit, 'what if real people were subjected to The Narrative?' pretty strongly conflicts with showing us that. Real people don't benefit from suffering. Real people don't owe you a satisfying explanation for every major change in their lives. Real people are entitled to avoid suffering, even if that's boring to us.
And then they just... escape. They don't beat the bad guy, like we expected them to. Why did we expect them to? Because a big army showed up and they had all their fancy powers and weapons? So that should magically make the impossible possible? Maybe in a story! But in a story about stories, a story about real people being trapped in a narrative and having to break the story, break the game, defy the author and free themselves, what kind of ending would it be for the characters to succumb at the last second? To turn their backs on freedom and risk their lives to do the impossible?
Vriska chose that path. Vriska was so incapable of confronting existence without an external purpose that she chose vainglorious suicide over freedom.
i just rediscovered this in my drafts and my train of thought has been long since broken. i didn't even get into the interplay between death/being dead and narrative development and i'm too focused on lego atm to change that BUT i hope this makes sense lol
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