#act 6-3

[cyvonix]

referring as Calliope as Cal. Hrngggg. Cal. Lil Cal. Lil Cal is Lil becuase. There is a Big Cal. Effigy or idol of, big Cal. AKA. Calliope? Perhaps

[cyvonix]

[cyvonix]

sometimes the simple pages are the absolute funniest

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 6 Act 3 Wrapup

the big john....

HASS the ring

yeah I'm gonna be 100% honest with you, I'm gonna try to keep this and probably upcoming wrapups especially brief for the purely selfish reason that as I get further and further in I'm getting more excited to just keep readin so I wanna delay myself as little as possible. List of some quick thoughts about the act overall:

The Calliope/Caliborn shit is by far the most interesting stuff going on atm. So many implications that go so far back into the comic it's astounding. I'm genuinely so excited to see where the story with them and Lord English goes from here. See this post for my detailed opinions on that last big Caliborn flash because I had a lot to yap about

All of the meteor banter is absolutely peak. All the beta kids and trolls have been developed enough that just dropping them in a room and letting them bounce off of each other makes for outrageously fun scenes as well as genuinely fascinating character moments

Gamzee??? Huh??? Murderstuck doesn't seem like a fluke anymore. That feels like part of something bigger. I'm not sure what the fuck is going on with the Mekaras but he and Kurloz have some devious shit going on that I'm dying to know more about.

The John and Jade side of the beta kids is definitely a little less bombastically fun but no less interesting. John is going through some genuinely interesting devlopments as far as his changing mindsets and opinions and I'm very curious how this will continue to manifest especially once they're together with all the others again.

The Alpha kids are SHMOVIN now. Finally all together in the session, lfg!!! They've by far been the most far removed from the rest of the cast, so I'm so ready to see how they'll be integrated into all the other goings on. Obviously the beta/alpha counterpart meetups are the biggest thing to look forward to.

Also really fascinated with the Auto Responder and the way he's been set up to question the idea of mortality. Plus the references to HAL make me narrow my eyes suspiciously at the possibility that he goes rogue and turns all evil on the kids. OR already has and has been working with the Condesce or some shit.

Going off that, wondering if the Condesce will enter the story as an immediate threat. She's obviously been orchestrating everything in the background but I'm wondering if she'll show up as a miniboss on the way to Lord English. I assume so, and I wonder how Meenah will deal with that if it is the case.

And some unfortunate negatives:

Openbound fucking killed the pacing for me. I was enjoying A6A3 SO MUCH and then the intermission put the brakes on so god damn hard it almost made me forget how much I was enjoying the act beforehand

On that note, I have extremely mixed feelings on the alpha trolls rn. I sincerely hope they get more interesting and grow on me but the vast majority of them are leaving me without much impact. See my previous homestuck post for detailed opinions on all of them lol

There are just... so many characters... and so many storylines. I historically have enjoyed the complexity of Homestuck. I find all the time travel and time loops and converging storylines very satisfying. However. I feel we've reached a point where there is just so much going on at any given time that the story unfortunately starts feeling so much less focused because of it. In order to meaningfully explore one portion of the story/characters, so many others inevitably have to get benched intermittently.

As kind of a consequence for that last thing, LOTTA FUCKING PARAGRAPHS ABOUT SHIT. I kinda felt this act had a bit of an excess of exposition, with Aranea being the obvious worst case of this. The story wants to fill us in on so many little details that some of it ends up just reading like an article on a fan wiki. It's just not very engaging when this happens.

Jack is just barely even a thing anymore. I know it makes sense in the story; he's being held up by PM and the whole idea is that he won't catch up until the kids are in the new instance. But that doesn't make it feel less anticlimactic that he went from a hugely intimidating, front-and-center threat to essentially a background character for a few acts in a row. Bro has been demoted to a Jobber

Although I've had more obvious complaints about this act than many of the previous ones, don't get me wrong: I'm still having a lot of fun and loving most things about this. I've had some hang-ups that are certainly more noticeable, but overall I find that the story is still going in an interesting direction and I continue to be excited about it. Stay tuned for more :P

[cyvonix]

callie's lil self insert fics AW

[cyvonix]

also now that I've met all 12 of the alpha trolls just gonna leave this here, kinda my first general impressions of them all:

Meenah is actually really appealing to me. Like yeah she's an asshole but like. idk. She's just really fun and funny. I actually enjoy spending time with her. Thumbs up.

Porrim seems kind and cool, I'm actually interested to get more from her and especially hope we get some more Porrim/Kanaya interactions because the little bit we've seen has been very sweet.

Kurloz seems really interesting because of his implied role in the greater story, plus he's scary as fuck and I dig it.

Kankri is really funny but his whole shtick could get reeeeal old if he's around too much so I fear he'll either become a very tired joke or not get much screen time. I hope neither is the case though

Mituna can be funny despite a lot of the joke just having been "he talks weird lol" but the way some of the characters have talked to/about him makes me feel like he's not just entirely meant to be the butt of jokes. Could potentially be a very interesting character to explore because of the fact that he apparently basically ruined his life to save the others, but there's no indication of how much genuine development we'll get from him yet

Meulin is pretty fun. Kinda just Nepeta again but less weird anime kid and more superwholock kid. still a fairly charming character

Latula is fine. Funny sometimes. I did enjoy her friendship with Meenah

Rufioh is aight so far, guess he seems cool, not a whole lot to say

Aranea is kinda boring. I don't actively dislike her but for the most part she just exists to give exposition to the reader so she's not exactly fun to read. She shines more in the brief moments we get to see her dorky personality peeking out.

Horuss exists I guess

Cronus may just be the most outright hateable character we've met full stop so. that's impressive. but not as flamboyantly over-the-top as eridan so just... kind of uncomfortable to read.

Damara is... certainly something. kinda not sure what hussie was thinking when making this character

So yeah. Most of them are,, just kinda there. Basically every beta troll had an immediately intriguing personality (whether positively or negatively) and I just can't say the same here. Some evoke that same reaction - some to an extreme degree - but for the most part they're just a little... unremarkable. I reeeeeally do hope they grow on me.

[cyvonix]

oh my fucking lord. this entire flash was such abject chaos. and it was genuinely glorious. what a great time lol. karkat yelling karkat shit through the entire thing was making me lose my shit especially. I could just SEE this as an animated sequence as I was reading. I've said mixed things about the ancestors but dear god the overwhelming fun of getting to hear everyone clash is undeniable.

[cyvonix]

I'm sitting here on a fully offline version of this webcomic and I STILL SAT HERE LIKE THIS WASN'T GONNA BE THE CASE GOD FUCKING DAMMIT