Hi all,
I suppose I owe you all this post after my absence the past years.
Like I mentioned at the time, when Homestuck^2 went into its indefinite pause, I got upset. Upset due to the reasoning behind the pause. Specifically due to how the creative team felt they were being treated by the fandom.
And it kind of reflected my own feelings on the topic. I've been a Homestuck fan since December 2010 and was greatly involved at the time with the MSPA Forums and a bunch of creative projects. But over time I noticed the fandom becoming more bitter. Where previously I mostly saw positive emotions and reactions to updates, I started seeing more and more negative things. ESPECIALLY since John's retcon powers were introduced.
And of course anyone is free to share their own opinion on matters! It's just, I could personally never comprehend it.
For me personally, entertainment has never been linked to any negative emotions or opinions. To me, entertainment is the very definition of positive emotions, and if there's anything bringing up negative emotions for me, I can no longer call it entertainment and would never continue doing it for fun.
And over time, I kept being confronted with more and more negative opinions on Homestuck, and it began souring the experience for me.
I sincerely hoped the end of Homestuck would bring everyone together, so I created the Omegaupdate forums to try and bring everyone together.
But I failed.
There were still so many negative emotions, and it never really stopped. I tried 'ignoring' the negative things and continue to enjoying the postive things.
But when the negative part of the fandom caused Homestuck^2 to be paused indefinitely, something snapped inside me. One of the things I loved most in this world, was forcibly taken away from me by 'fans' acting horribly.
And I was sad. Sad because deep inside me, I feared Homestuck^2 might never be finished properly.
From that moment onwards, almost anything related to Homestuck made me feel sad. So I couldn't bear it any longer. I stopped doing my Dutch translation of Homestuck, I stopped doing the Omegaupdate forums, I stopped doing Homestuck From The Perspective of, I stopped listening to Homestuck music.
I moved on, at that moment. And for a part, it's been a blessing. I had so much time for other interests, like Pokémon, Disney and Marvel. Me and my brother looked into moving out of our parents home, and we did.
As time went on, I could slowly allow myself to feel nostalgic again about the good old times of Homestuck. Especially in terms of music, I started listening again and slowly I could enjoy it again.
But still, I couldn't think about Homestuck too much, or I would feel sad again.
Fast forward to 12 days ago. On the 19th of October, I got an email from Patreon (just to be sure, I never cancelled my Patreon subscription even though it wasn't charing anything anymore).
I was surprised to see a post by James Roach, and I was so surprised!
Surprised to see that Homestuck^2 was starting up again, and posting new updates!!
I hadn't dared dream this day would come, where Homestuck^2 would return. But there it was anyway.
It made me feel so happy, and I could finally allow myself to start actively thinking about Homestuck^2 again.
So, the past 12 days me and my brother have been rereading the Homestuck Epilogues recap, as well as the 407 pages of Homestuck^2 (AND the bonus stories!) that had already been published before.
To get back in "the flow", to remember what came before, and prepare ourselves for the new updates.
Now I've caught up again to that point, and my brother's almost there as well. Once he's also reached that point, we'll start reading the regular updates again.
I'm not sure yet what will come after that, for me. But I don't think things are ever going back to the way they used to be.
At this moment, I don't see myself going back to any forums, or active community. I don't see myself continuing the Dutch translation.
I'm not even 100% sure if I will still be making reaction posts to the updates.
Anything I do, for now, will be what feels good to me. We'll see as we go what exactly that is.
Right now, I think it's pretty likely that I will continue doing the tally for "Homestuck From The Perspective of". I still love seeing that overview, myself.
Anyway, thanks for reading this, and take care.
