The end of Homestuck: An outsiders perspective
Judging from the swell in content on my dash, I can only surmise that Homestuck is ending tomorrow, 4/13/16. And I am proud to say that in all the years Homestuck has been a thing, I have not read it. Yes, I gave the series a shot way back in 2009, but I honestly could not get into it, and so it has always been to me what Pokemon is to 90’s parents. A vague thing my children are obsessed with, which has me slightly concerned from time to time, no seriously it’s strange and foreign we should ban it. I keep seeing ships and fanart of these characters but apparently they only all just met up like a year ago, which in the comic’s time is literally just moments before the apacolypse? This is honestly the biggest thing I never understood about the series. The talking evil doll? Meh okay. Robots with sunglasses? Kinda Badass. A mayor of cans? Whatever. A game about creating and ending entire universes? Pretty original. But the shipping of characters that allegedly never really met until near the very very end? My head can’t handle this cthulu like concept.
Yet, despite my attempts to steer clear of it all, I cannot say that the sheer power of Homestuck and all MSPA jokes has not gotten to me. Of course, the phenomal JJ and Hella Jeff strips always make me smile, Problem Sleuth is highly entertaining in that nothing ever gets resolved, and I can only imagine the amount of Homestuck related jokes that got a chuckle out of me during my playthroughs of Undertale, wether I knew it or not. To simply disregard this comic as anything short of an epic masterpiece that has seeped into pop culture would be foolhardy.
But there’s plenty more odd things about this comic. Betty Crocker can apparently never be trusted, parents don’t have faces, there are musical segments, juggallos, buckets, contest winners that are only alive for two seconds, and the cosplay. Dear God. The cosplay. At the first con I ever went to, all I saw was a sea of grey paint. I admit, the sheer amount of fans was part of what threw me away from the comic, because a lot of interactions I had with them were less than kind, but they may have all been acting in character and I just didn’t know. Nonetheless, to say you guys are competitive cosplayers is no joke and I both commend and fear you.
All that aside, Homestuck was always weird in its fluctuations because, of course, the updates were so bizarre. Yet it’s the only comic I’ve seen go on extremely long hiatus’s and always have a fan base. That’s honestly really cool that people love it that much to stick around. The dedication of the fans is very clear, and from what I hear Mr. Hussie is extremely grateful.
Though I myself am not a fan, I will also somewhat be sad to see it go. In my mind, there was always some reassurance that no matter what, Homestuck will always come back around, and though I admit I was somewhat hateful to fans of the series at the beginning, I now realize that it has brought many a friend and family together in ways that I can only dream of fostering. To that, I say, well done. Well done to each of you. Through every hiatus, bizarre fanart, emotional plotline be it from the Canon or fan fiction, it is clear that you all survived and flourished because of the existence of this comic. and so I welcome you to all other fandoms that are still in progress. Because if any fan knows how to handle any sort of strife, or knows how to have a lot of fun with a series no matter what, it’s a Homestuck. The pride of the internet. As for Hussie, I can’t wait to see what he does next.