so i think, generally speaking, because i as a writer often suck at writing the last act of a story, i notice it a LOT in other people's works and i fear i'm noticing it with hs (and also noticed it in solitaire but like she wrote that a long time ago i was kind of getting hopeful. which is on me, ig.)
but a lot of my disappointment comes from the fact that we spent what felt like the whole first half in a really interesting conflict with nick really struggling with his feelings and with change and that conflict was so toothy, and i spent what felt like MONTHS being like okay but when is david coming back. i know david is there. then we got david for all of 2-3 updates and i sat there fucking GOBSMACKED bc i felt like that was a severe underutilization of his character and a sibling dynamic that parallels charlie and tori's (and obviously olly too). and i would say my biggest like... critique with the webcomic is that nick and charlie are just on their own way more than they ought to be for two teenagers with various responsibilities and friendships.
i'm sure everyone also knows at this point that i disliked how the way nick was treated during those pub chapters by the paris squad side of his friends group was essentially brushed to the side and never brought up at all? even though elle and tao were both unreasonably mean to their very obviously drunk friend who yes was being annoying but was also PLASTERED and everyone knew? it just left a bad taste in my mouth and now that we're in the sort of final stretch till april i'm just sort of like a) sad that the webcomic is ending right when it feels like, to me, alice oseman has *finally* found nick's voice, b) that some of the more minor conflicts previously established seem to be swept under the rug in favor of a "tidy" ending. c) the pacing has felt wonky since the pillowfort scene but that could be because i consume media a little too fast so that may just be a me problem.
in general, it's just really hard to feel excited about the updates when everything is so saccharine. hooray, everyone is going to be happy and friends forever #theend. i don't dislike that heartstopper is meant to be lighter and fluffier, hell, i wouldn't write fanfics or post online if i disliked it. but to me, this ending doesn't feel quite earned and we have a few more updates left, and i'm hoping i'll be proved wrong and alice pulls a fast one on me and is like psych we're talking about important shit now.
but i guess one of the downsides of having read something for so long and for an author to have written something for so long is that ending it is always going to be the hard part, and i empathize with that, but the part of me that really likes nick as a character is always going to feel a little wounded because it feels like it took till the very end of the series for him to finally have a real character arc outside of just being charlie's boyfriend. like wow im really sitting here teary eyed about it, which is embarrassing as fuck. but it's weird, you know? it's weird that i somehow managed to predict so many plot events for this book, it's weird i predicted some of the details of nick's parents' divorce. it's weird that i could guess alice's next plot moves with a shocking amount of accuracy and without even trying that hard and i really hate that i don't even look forward to the remainder of the updates because i have found these picky little threads and im just not confident alice will put them together. i understand that charlie's the main character of hs, but i really wanted nick, the deuteragonist, to have just a little bit more time and now i'm just like well if my skills in media analysis are correct, im not going to get that. so i will throw my silly little tantrum online and probably kick out a few more angsty nick fics to cope and then turn in my fandom card until the movie releases, because i know once the movie is out i'll want to be back to writing. i know my own brain and i am looking forward to the film bc if there's anything ive learned about being a show and webcomic enjoyer, it's that alice tends to correct the weaker points in the comic in the show and i'm hopeful the same will be true for the film.
