#eoy2

[homestuckreplay]

This was originally intended as the top section of a significantly bigger piece! I've been super busy and had to give up one of my 4/13 projects, so I gave up this one. I'm still hoping to finish this at some point (maybe in time for 6/12....) but for now, here it is in its beta version.

one of my favorite quotes, said from my favorite troll to my favorite kid <3

[homestuckreplay]

IT IS APRIL 13, 2011.

Lady Gaga's Born This Way, Katy Perry's E.T. and Rihanna's S&M are on top of the charts. Fast Five and Thor are about to release in theaters. Game of Thrones is days away from its TV premiere. Tumblr is four years old.

Andrew Hussie has just posted pages 3710 - 3714, the two-year anniversary update of their groundbreaking webcomic Homestuck.

TWO YEARS AGO TODAY, I turned on New Reader Mode in the Unofficial Homestuck collection. Every day, I wake up, I read the Homestuck pages posted fifteen years ago to the day, I read forum threads and social media posts from 2011 documenting people's real-time reactions, I look at fan content, speculation and sometimes drama, and I try to understand the live reading experience for this comic. A year ago the fandom was small but dedicated. Now, it is becoming something massive, and it is no less dedicated.

You can join in with the ongoing read by catching up on pages 1 - 3714, and following this blog for daily updates as we gear up for the end of Act 5. Or, you can start a new replay from 2026-2033, reading pages 1 - 16 today and using this spreadsheet for daily updates. (File -> Make a copy to edit and customize the sheet for yourself).

It is April 13, 2011, and Tumblr has a Homestuck community, but it is not yet the Homestuck website. Perhaps, this year will be our year.

[homestuckreplay]

EVERYONE IS SO QUICK TO SAY “WHERE DOING IT MAN. WHERE MAKING THIS HAPEN”

BUT DOES ANYONE EVER STOP TO ASK.

WHY ARE WE MAKING THIS HAPEN?

JOIN SWEET BRO ON A PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNEY

TO UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF HIS OWN EXISTENCE!

> VIEW AS SLIDESHOW ON GOOGLE SLIDES

> DOWNLOAD THE PDF VERSION

As part of this project, I do a recurring bit where I pretend to analyze Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff through the lens of traditional literary criticism, inventing themes and symbolism that I do not actually think is present. But, I do actually think that SBAHJ is an important phenomenon in its own right! For a while now I have been wondering what a genuine analysis of SBAHJ would look like, and this is my first attempt at that.

This slideshow puts Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff in context with the history of humor and technology, and talks about why we find things funny and how we build community. It is pretty long, but I hope the slideshow format is easy to bounce around in and skim. It was made with love and complete earnestness towards its subject matter.

[homestuckreplay]

Homestuck Fan Communities by Numbers, 2009-2011

In the two years I've been doing this project, I've read a fair few posts. 85,969, to be exact. Subjectively it was very obvious that the number of posts has increased a lot over time, but I was curious about the exact distribution of posts across communities - when they take off, if they ever slow down, and how they compare to each other. So, I made some graphs! Here are seven websites where Homestuck fans congregate during the first two years of the comic's run, and how many posts per month they each receive (plus the number of Homestuck pages per month for comparison).

raw data table

Data for the five forums is exact. Reddit is approximate, but close to true numbers. Tumblr is a general trend at best.

Data was collected as follows: for the five forums, all posts made in a dedicated Homestuck or MSPA thread between midnight EST on the first day of the month and 23:59 EST on the last day of the month were counted. Each post counts as 1. In general, forum posts are not deleted even if users are banned or delete their accounts, although users may be able to manually delete posts. It's my understanding that few to no posts from these threads have been deleted, since I have never come across a user replying to a post that no longer exists.

For Reddit, each post in r/homestuck was counted as 1, and each comment on that post was also counted as 1. Reddit retains a 'ghost imprint' of deleted posts and comments, so these can still be tracked for stats, though their content can't be seen. Comments were assigned to the month of their parent post instead of tracking their dates individually, making the data imperfect (but much easier to continue tracking in the long term). Most Reddit comments are made within a few days of the original post, so the data is still roughly accurate. Posts were retrieved from PullPush Reddit Search.

For Tumblr, each original post tagged #homestuck was counted as 1. Likes, reblogs and additions to these posts were not tracked. Only posts where the original poster's blog was still active as of 2022 could be tracked, meaning the numbers represent a fraction of what was once available. General trends, such as the sudden exponential growth in early 2011, may still be interesting. Tumblr data was compiled by Andy via the Homestuck Tumblr Explorer, whose work is invaluable, and you can tip them here.

For Homestuck, each page was counted as 1, regardless of page type or content. Look out for the point in May 2010 where this line and the Blockland line kiss.

For all fan communities, length of posts, number of unique contributors, and whether or not the posts are 'on topic' was not tracked. Posts on these websites outside their dedicated communities, threads or tags were also not tracked. Again this is so I can keep collecting this data without having to permanently forgo sleep to do so.

The culture and demographics of each of these sites are really different, as are the topics discussed and types of content posted. Bay 12, Blockland and Giant in the Playground are all forums for specific works (Dwarf Fortress video game, Blockland video game, Order of the Stick webcomic respectively) so all users are also in those fanbases. RPGnet is aimed towards developers and players of tabletop roleplaying games. Something Awful is a general forum, but has a $10 joining fee, so users must be willing to pay and have access to a credit card. As such, most users are 18+, in contrast to other sites where teenage users are common. Reddit and Tumblr are social media sites, though Reddit is primarily community-based, i.e. users follow topics which anyone can post about. On Tumblr (you are here) users primarily follow other users, who may post about anything. Cultures develop differently due to these factors and many others, and may influence how many posts people make, and which parts of Homestuck are likely to appeal to these sites' users.

Looking ahead based on this data I'm expecting year 3 of this project to be the Year of Tumblr, when SA and Bay12 are still fairly active but may have passed their peak, but Tumblr (and to a lesser extent Reddit) will continue to explode. I'm planning to update these graphs year-on-year and see if those assumptions hold true.

[homestuckreplay]

EOY2 – Reflection

[ooc; personal thoughts on this project so far]

If I had to describe my perfect date, it would be April 13th, because it’s not too hot and not too cold. All you need is a light jacket. In all seriousness, I’m not religious but I love the concept of a spring holiday, celebrating just as the days are getting longer and the sun is coming out – so 4/13 feels perfectly timed, because that’s already the time of year when I’m happiest and feel most excited about life.

I think my biggest mistake when I started this project two years ago was expecting it to feel slow. I thought I’d constantly feel starved for more Homestuck because I was denying it to myself by drip-feeding the updates to myself day by day. That was true in year 1, but throughout year 2 the story, the fandom, this project, time itself have all felt like they’ve been accelerating, so I have spent the whole year clinging onto the back of a webcomic as it rapidly turns into a runaway train, letting it whisk me away on its wacky clown adventure and desperately hoping I can keep my grip and am not launched off into the sky.

Truthfully, I’m exhausted. Based on recent Formspring answers, I think Hussie and I are burning out at around the same time, right at the two-year mark. I knew early on that trying to keep up with Hussie’s rate of production in my own reactions and analysis was probably a fool’s errand, but I did it anyway because I was excited, and I had a lot to say. I still am, and I still do. But I am already struggling to keep up with the fandom to the extent that I’d like, and I’m slowly accepting that while there’s a lot of directions I’d love to take this project, I will not be able to do everything. I’m at two years out of seven, and I definitely haven’t explored two sevenths of everything I ideally would. To use my all time favorite Hussie quote, ‘i need currency and clockticks of which i aint got much of neither’.

In terms of what I do want to focus on, it’s important to me to read more fanfiction and fanventures, especially longform works. I’m not going to critique fanworks, but I am interested in discussing how different writers interpret the characters and themes of the main story. At some point soon I’ll start making a shortlist of ones I’d like to focus on in the coming year. I will absolutely continue keeping up with fan trends and projects too, but I have to accept that my understanding of the fandom will never be as rigorous and comprehensive as I’d like.

By sheer coincidence – and I genuinely didn’t plan this when I began – I think my essays for the ends of acts 1-5 will also be the main themes I pay attention to when reading act 6. Agency, representation of youth, surveillance and control, representation of the internet, and disguise and performance, is a set of core ideas that I care about and think the story is doing interesting things with. So, I’m planning to explore those in more depth instead of continuing to hop from topic to topic.

I think each year of this project will have a distinct identity. Year 1 let me laser focus on the early parts of Homestuck, letting Acts 1-3 be important on their own terms and not just as setup for something bigger. Year 2 has definitely been the birth of the fandom, where discussion, speculation, fanart and fanfiction have all exploded, forum threads have taken off, Tumblr and Reddit communities have begun, the cosplay scene and convention meetups have started to happen, and I’ve seen the genesis of the culture surrounding Homestuck that remains to this day. One year ago, I think Homestuck has found its identity as a story, but not yet as a community. Now, that community identity has solidified, and anyone just discovering Homestuck in spring 2011 is joining an established fandom instead of forging a new one.

I don’t know yet what will define Year 3, but there’s a lot I’m looking forward to. Cascade is in SIX MONTHS, and witnessing the live reaction to that flash will be so special. Act 6 begins this year, bringing with it the last few main characters! From the very start of this project I’ve been even more excited for Act 6 than Act 5, and there are two specific characters who I miss deeply and can’t wait to see again. Year 3 is also where the story starts getting weird – using the site design and space outside the panel as part of the story, branching paths, the Homestuck game disc, the fifth wall, recursive nested acts and intermissions, are all coming up, and these are some of my favorite things about Homestuck. (or have been in the past at least, because I consistently react to this story in new and surprising ways to me).

My original research question with this project was ‘to what extent can I reconstruct the original, real-time experience of reading Homestuck’. After two years, my provisional answer is that it’s possible, but it’s a smaller version of that experience. There’s plenty of fan content still out there, but far more has been lost or deleted. It is as though I’m participating in a fandom maybe 5% of the size of what it actually was, hidden in a corner hearing whispered tales about the other 95% of shadow fans. Like a dream bubble, recreating a specific memory for dreamers to relive and change, but never capturing the entirety of the world that memory came from.

Honestly, even that small percentage is still a pretty large fandom, and still extremely rewarding to investigate and be ‘part of’ in a strange and distant way. I truly don’t feel that I’m ‘missing out’ by not being there the first time, and the archaeological excavation is part of the fun! I just have to keep in mind that everything I experience is a snapshot, and I can’t guarantee that it’s a representative one.

About a year ago, I started playing The Longing. It’s a 400-day real-time adventure game about a loyal cavedweller waiting for their king to awaken from his long slumber. I decided to play this in parallel with Year 2 of this project, because it felt similar to what I’m doing here. Although the game includes a lot of content and explorable areas, the only mandatory part is the waiting. Players can log in once to begin the game and then again 400 days later to end it, and any gameplay in between is optional. I originally planned to do a lot more exploring, but then Silksong came out in September (between Vriska and Hornet it was a huge summer for cool spidergirls) and I suddenly didn’t want to play any other game. So, I just loaded up The Longing to complete it, and turns out I got the bad ending because I didn’t do enough while the king was asleep?! Which makes sense. I will definitely play again and give it the attention it deserves, probably for Year 4 after I’ve finally beaten Silksong.

I feel really lucky that I get to do homestuckReplay. I’m tired, overwhelmed, and have ideas way above my capabilities, but I get to wake up every day and look at a bunch of cool art and read people’s thoughts on my favorite piece of media. I have a project that lets me systematically devote time to something I love, that lets me think and research and learn in ways that are meaningful to me and don’t depend on other people’s standards or the demands of capitalism. I loved Homestuck when I started this, and after two years of scrutiny that could have dispelled the magic, I still love it just as much. For me, it’s worth all the effort I put into it. And to anyone who’s read my posts, left comments, sent asks, or shown any kind of interest in this project – thank you. It really does mean a lot to me when other people see something worthwhile in this project, too. <3

[homestuckreplay]

[EOY2] Countdown Timers

More housekeeping! If there's one thing the end of a Homestuck act loves, it's countdown timers. Right now, both the trolls and kids have one - for the trolls, we know a lot about what happens during the timer but have no idea what it's counting down to, while for the kids, we know exactly what it's counting down to but the time in between is a big mystery. Here's what's known about the timelines at the two year mark!

Trolls

10:25:00 – Bec Noir enters troll session; stops trolls from claiming Ultimate Reward Trolls transported to meteor; Sollux sets up computer stations Aradia writes memo for her past selves (p.2590-2624) Karkat writes sad memo (p.2567) Kanaya replaces Tavros’ legs with robo-legs; Karkat passes out 6:12:00 – Bec Noir destroys Prospit; Karkat, Kanaya, Terezi, Tavros, Sollux and Gamzee’s dream selves die (if not already expended) Terezi receives transfer from Dave; trolls discover and begin contacting kids (Terezi makes first contact) 5:12:30 – Past Karkat wakes up; all events of Alterniabound (except those designated as ‘past’ or ‘future’) Karkat makes ‘inspirational speech’ (p.2629); Karkat and Kanaya begin trolling kids 4:13:00 – Aradiabot explodes; Aradia ascends; Derse destroyed; all unexpended dream selves die 3:14:00 – Terezi watches Doomed Dave die; flees computer lab; Vriska wakes from nap All events of Reterniabound Eridan kills Feferi and Kanaya; knocks out Sollux; destroys Matriorb Gamzee flips the fuck out 2:41:30 – Vriska kills Tavros Terezi’s criminal investigation Kanaya rises as a rainbow drinker All events of Triterniabound Gamzee kills Equius and Nepeta 3x Showdown Combo; Kanaya kills Eridan 0:00:00 – Gamzee covered in blood; ???????? -1:00:00 – Terezi and Karkat still able to talk in memo (p.2629)

Kids

10:25:00 - John takes The Tumor All events of Lalondiabound Jack kills John ???????? 0:00:00 - The Tumor detonates.

[homestuckreplay]

[EOY2] Open Threads

Some pre-4/13 housekeeping :) As the Year 2 mark of Homestuck fast approaches, and the story continues trundling towards the end of act 5, here are some currently unresolved plot threads that the story will hopefully address. let me know if I'm missing anything obvious

-> Will the kids and trolls create the scratch? How will the kids avoid being obliterated by its effects? Who will play Sburb in the reset version of the kids' universe? What else will be different? How will that session go?

-> Will any of the kids complete their land quests and fight their denizens?

-> Will anyone besides John, Vriska and Aradia ascend to god tier? Can Aradia's resurrection process be mimicked by players who didn't die pre-session?

-> What are the meanings of the titles and domains CLASSES AND ASPECTS that haven't been explored yet?

-> Was John's death heroic, just, or neither? How does God Tier death/resurrection work?

-> Is Rose alive following her fight with Jack? Can she be rescued from the broodfester throes?

-> Will Rose attempt her plan to destroy the Green Sun? Will she succeed? Has Scratch been pranking her or concealing information somehow?

-> What will happen to WV, CD and Liv Tyler on their journey to deliver The Tumor to Rose?

-> What has Dave learned/will Dave learn from seeking an audience with the horrorterrors and creating a map of the Furthest Ring?

-> Will the kids find Liv Tyler's other tiny weapons, and can they enlarge them to wield them if so?

-> What's going on with Jade's pen pal / grandson? Is he a 'known character' and will we meet him at some point?

-> How will Jade's attempts to breed frogs and create Bilious Slick turn out?

-> Why did Jade switch off and captchalogue the fourth wall? What will she do with this?

-> What are Jack's plans? How will he get John's wallet, and whose blood is on his hand when he enters the trolls' session? What does he do in the last 10 hours before the scratch? What's up with the doll of him from John's dream room?

-> Does Vriska go to fight Jack? Who wins? If Vriska dies, will her death be heroic, just, or neither?

-> Will Gamzee murder any other characters? Is he really the most important character in Homestuck, and if so, why? If not, who is standing just offscreen in that panel?

-> What is the Vast Honk and how does it relate to the Vast Croak and Vast Glub?

-> Is Nepeta alive or dead? nepetaquest 2011 when :33

-> Will Kanaya face any problems due to being a rainbow drinker?

-> Is there any hope for resurrecting the troll species without a Matriorb?

-> Who were the other eight troll ancestors? How did their stories interact with Mindfang, Dualscar, Redglare and the Grand Highblood's?

-> What happens at the end of the Troll Countdown?

-> Will the kids and trolls meet? Will Karkat's sloppy makeout prediction come true, and if so, between who?

-> How will WV escape the bunker he's trapped in? Why are the exiles destroying the bunkers and what is the destination they are traveling to?

-> Who will wear the White Queen's ring, if anyone?

-> Why are guardians part of Sburb? Does Grandpa Harley do anything else in the Medium? Will we see Mom and Bro's meteor arrival and childhood?

-> What happens to sprites after Sburb? Is Davesprite alive or dead? Where did Jadesprite go after being created? Will the kids' sprites survive the scratch if it happens?

-> What happened to Jaspers in his two missing weeks during Rose's childhood?

-> What's up with Lord English? Is he a 'known character'? Will the Felt reappear and what is their significance? Will Doc Scratch die?

-> Who is trying to massacre the horrorterrors and why?

-> What's going on with dream bubbles? What influence can people in dream bubbles exert on the world of the living? Is this supposed to be a 'good' afterlife? Do all versions of characters from all timelines end up here?

-> Can the alpha timeline, predestination, Skaia, etc, be subverted? Are there any major reveals to come about the nature of Skaia, the horrorterrors, paradox space, etc?

-> What will be the nature of AH's one yard intervention in the story?

-> What is UP with clowns like seriously. WHAT is going on with Dad Egbert and what EXACTLY is/was his personal relationship to clowns, harlequins, mimes, jesters and jokers????