Preface/Disclaimer: This series is not meant to belittle or otherwise shit upon the obvious tremendous amount of artistic effort that went into Homestuck’s final updates. I think everyone can agree the conclusion was visually & aurally stunning, and I would even say that what writing that was present was also top notch. This series is purely meant to explore something many people have found fault with: the failure to deliver on arc conclusions for just about every single one of Homestuck’s main characters despite a significant amount of build up and narrative foreshadowing that such conclusions were planned. I won’t be chiming in about the main plot/plot holes/etc, either, this is purely character discussion.
What Is A Character Arc? Also known as an “inner journey,” a character arc is generally what separates a main protagonist from a secondary, minor or background character. The successful completion of a character arc is often what allows a character to be considered “round” vs “flat” – meaning that by the end of the story they have changed in some fundamental way.
Homestuck is a coming of age story, featuring young characters thrown into impossible situations expressly meant to challenge them and grow them as people. This is actually stated in the narrative several times, but more importantly, shown to us via what actually exists of each major characters’ arc. My argument then is that these arcs were truncated with a narratively lazy conclusion, not that they didn’t exist at all – and this is a large part of why so many people are finding the conclusion unsatisfying.
Pt. 1: Jane Crocker
Few people would deny that Jane Crocker caught the short end of Homestuck’s narrative stick; she is used to introduce us to the B2 Universe, her primary conflicts and motivations are laid out for us early on, and then… nothing ever happens with them, ever. She is waylaid partway through her story via a subplot wherein she is mind controlled by the Condesce, and – more importantly – never recovers any significant agency after being released from HIC’s influence.
So, what were Jane’s primary conflicts? Let’s talk about it.
