I think we should work on demystifying homestuck.
-It’s not unapproachably long. If you can spend a month reading/watching whatever else, you can also spend a month reading homestuck without difficulty.
-If you pay attention you can understand it just fine. There’s a lot of moving parts, but it’s like a clockwork: if you don’t get something despite paying attention, it will most likely fall into place later.
-There’s filters for the desktop app in case you don’t wanna see the era-typical edgelord humor of the first half, but honestly sometimes it adds to it. (The Future!ArachnidsGrip bit is good. Sorry.)
-It is flawed!!! That’s true!! But this website is constantly on about how no media is irredeemable and how you should read things that make you uncomfortable and analyse why that is and still recognise the value in it.
-kill the part of you that cringes 👍
-IT IS GOOD. Older fans, stop with the “hoho it ruined my life” and “homestuck sucks!!!” jokes. It has compelling (extremely queer!!) characters, and an interesting, tragic narrative told in a comedic way.
-Vriska was thirteen. VRISKA WAS JUST THIRTEEN.
- most of the backlash against is based on its fandom having been annoying and toxic some years ago, even though by that metric you should also be reacting the same way to pretty much every other pop scifi classic, including Star Trek, Doctor Who, everything Douglas Adams and Alan Moore ever did, and (dear Lord!) Star Wars
Going back to the complexity thing, it’s not actually that difficult to understand. Pretty much everything is explained very clearly, it’s complex enough that I would suggest not putting it down for long periods of time if you can but it was originally read like that so it’s definitely doable.
There’s a lot of diagrams and explanations for everything happening without feeling like overwhelming exposition. A lot of it’s also based on callbacks, but remembering them all is far from a requirement. You won’t understand every reference, even to things within the comic itself. That’s just how it goes.
It’s more an experience that flows over you than a story demanding you maintain notes.
and for the love of god
DO NOT READ IT OFF THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE!!!
The Unofficial Homestuck Collection is the way you want to go if you want to experience the series the way it was back in the day. The official website has been gutted by Viz Media and a number of parts straight up do not work anymore on their own.