what do you think when people say Homestuck died or got so confusing/irritable that even the creator didn't know what he was doing towards the end?
I’m really rather offended by the suggestion that I must be latching onto popular opinion or misunderstanding the comic if I hate the ending. There are numerous things I could point out here about why people hated the ending, but here’s a dissection of the idea of it being an “open ending” and a dissection of what actually happened at the end which I think are relevant.
I get sad, really, for different reasons. When people say Homestuck died, they say it with the same intent they say things like FNAF are ‘Cringey’ or games like Undertale should Die. It’s a trend online, where things that get really popular are immediately dumped into the cringe category, and assumed that they have to die within the year. People will defend watching Classic Movies or playing the same nostalgia-ridden games over and over, but god FORBID you have fun enjoying modern content in the same way as if it was a Classic. And when a franchise that’s already deemed cringey or dead continues, it’s either ignored and still assumed to be dead, or confusingly wondered why it’s it even still going, as if there aren’t people that totally do enjoy it. I hate this kind of attitude, towards any content, to think enjoyment of something has an expiration date is absurd, and specially when there’s still content coming from both the author and the Fandom, but people are so caught up in their accusations of Cringe and hatred that they just don’t care. They just shame something popular until the Fandom is reduced only to people who genuinely like the stuff, then mock said people as if they were the whole of the ‘big obnoxious’ Fandom they used to be. Not saying this is the exact case with Homestuck, but it’s definitely the same attitude.
And when people say that Hussie didn’t know what he was doing towards the Ending, I feel it comes half from most people not even knowing what Homestuck IS about, and half from people not liking to admit they can not like something and that something can still be good? Like, even if you don’t care about Homestuck on a deeper level and you just follow it for the characters or the base storyline… Yeah, the comic had an open end? And there could’ve been more interaction with the characters towards the Ending. But that doesn’t make it bad and wrong immediately, the Ending was still intense and enjoyable, and Hussie heavily encourages the Fandom to produce content around it with it. People have this mindset that not enjoying or getting the Ending immediately means all the years that came before it are somehow erased or ruined and latch onto catchphrases like “The Retcon changed everything and made things worse” and “Hussie just wanted to finish the story quickly”. The latter of which is baffling to me because Act 7 and Collide were both ordeals to create, and the Ending was incredibly insanely bold. If Hussie just wanted to get the story done with he would’ve killed off everyone he didn’t think was relevant, had a big fight with LE and everyone at the end and made everything concise and simple. LE is defeated, Kids win, the end. Instead we got symbolism and the fabric of reality coming apart at the seams and a glimpse at the future and still obviously lingering stuff like John’s depression and Terezi seeking Vriska. That’s not what ANYONE does when they’re rushing a story. That’s what someone does with an intensely symbolic open end planned. That’s maybe what someone intending to go more in-depth about this in the Epilogue does, too. And that’s the thing- Homestuck is so heavily symbolic. It’s a Creation Myth, and a Puzzle, both said by Hussie himself, and it sticks to these roots, it sticks to the symbology it creates and the Gnostic references and the Meta. You may NOT like this, but. It’s how Hussie built the story? And saying this is bad because you personally don’t enjoy delving deeper into it and piecing the puzzle together does not mean the Ending is objectively bad. Buuut that seems to be a trend lately where subjective opinions become law and people bandwagon on it because it’s easier to be part of a hateful hivemind than thinking critically about something and your opinions. Again not saying this specifically applies to Homestuck, but it’s a trend I’ve seen in other Fandoms.
What can you even take from this meta-narrative? “Stories are oppressive and bad”? “People don’t have arcs, no one ever improves or even changes in any way that is not complete and total destruction”? (Because I swear, no one can change in this thing without becoming such a huge mess their character needs to be retconned back to square one or stuffed into a fride or something. Unless that character is Dave Strider. It’s like some sort of character stability entropy). “Shit just kinda happens and trying to find meaning or uphold some sort of moral standard is pointless”? “In every pair of identical twins, one should be disposed of since it’s just a copy of its sibling”? “I, the author, am a complete and total jerkface”?
Maybe I wasn’t concise or clear enough in my last post- I’m not saying everyone who disliked the Ending is wrong. If I did I would be going against the very thing I’m criticizing in my post. I am saying that it’s not good to excuse your dislike of something in the pretense that the Author got bored or lazy, and that things can be subjectively good or bad depending on what you enjoy, without needing to put something in a Universal Pedestal or Bash it as if no one could ever enjoy it.
I haven’t read the links yet, but from the excerpt you’ve sent me it’s already attacked Hussie as a total jerkface.
What can you take from this Meta-Narrative? Not that oppressive stories are bad, but that conditioning and tyranny are. Hussie is an author. He’s the author of the story and he’s seen as a goofball that doesn’t do much within the story. And then he gets killed. By LE. A tyrant that takes control of the narrative, both in Youth literally taking over the comic, and as an Adult where his powers shape the landscape of the entirety of the story. The kids don’t escape the story because stories are bad and oppressive- They escape it because it’s a story that has been built up by an awful manchild and left nothing but misery in his wake. And in turn it’s telling a Gnostic Creation Story- With Lord English as the Yaldabaoth of the comic, as the False God-like force that causes suffering, and managing to escape his grasp on the Material World.
The characters are flawed, and most of them do not manage to confront these flaws directly, which is not to say they do not grow in the slightest, and the Retcon did most CERTAINLY not set ‘everything back to square one’. Take Rose, for example, so many people seem so frustrated about her ‘development’ in the GO Timeline and how it’s ‘gone’ with the Retcon and I just cannot see it. Vriska stopped her from drinking- That’s it. She stopped her from making that mistake. But Rose tells us, directly, that she drinks to get closer to her Mother, because of her unresolved issues with her. Then she meets Roxy and it only reinforces the idea that she really misjudged her mother, completely. Then Jasprose makes doubt herself even more- Because that’s the thing, Rose’s issue is not about Drinking, it’s about her Mother and Identity. Compare this to Dave and Dirk. Sure, Dave had a heartfelt chat with Dirk- But he didn’t have a talk with Bro. He used Dirk as a proxy for Bro, in the same way Rose uses Roxy to learn more about her mother and change her perception. And Dave even states it up-front, that he’ll just go back to bottling things up and will need to talk it out afterwards.
Because issues don’t just get solved, and disappear entirely. They don’t fix what’s wrong with them- They find people that support them and they’re comfortable around, and build a relationship where they can reinforce each other and stop their flaws. And I think that’s way more relatable than if everyone had a Feeling Jam and then never talked about it again- They’re all teens with PTSD that’ve been put through Hell and Back in order to free themselves, and now they’re able to shape their own future however they see fit. Some deal with it better, other worse. Others, like John, lose their direction, and it makes sense as he was the Protagonist and now that the story’s over he doesn’t know what to do with himself! Terezi’s one of the most interesting characters in Homestuck and the Retcon only adds to her Flaws and her Character, and she cannot move on from the past, from her flaws, so she keeps chasing after Vriska even after the Ending! And whether that is Healthy or Unhealthy, she has the support of her friends back on Earth and still contacts them as we see in the Credits, at the very least.
What my post before talked about was PRECISELY this, that if you’ve read all of Homestuck and what you came out thinking was “Shit just kinda happens and trying to find meaning or uphold some sort of moral standard is pointless” and “In every pair of identical twins, one should be disposed of since it’s just a copy of its sibling”, you’re missing the moral core of the entire story, and while you can dislike the Ending for these reasons, they’re subjective opinions! Homestuck doesn’t tell you ‘shit just kind of happens and it’s all pointless and all copies should die’. Homestuck tells the tale of a powerful entity that shapes the future of a bunch of Teenagers without them realizing, and forces them through unfair and hellish trials that don’t benefit them at all. Homestuck tells the tale of the negative influence a toxic society has on the development of a group of Kids. Homestuck tells the tale of these Kids breaking their conditioning and the shackles imposed on them by this oppressive force, and that while they’re flawed and doubtful, in the end, they manage to push through it, and build a future for themselves, free of these bounds that’ve been holding them back all their lives.
And regardless of you liking the execution of the story or not, as a basis for a narrative in this day and age, that is why I hold Homestuck to have so much importance and relevancy. It talks about pushing back against an unfair society, to build the future you want. It teaches about sacrifice and acceptance. About corruptive and manipulative influences, about everyone’s wills coming together in trying to not let someone else’s will be imposed over them.
Whoops posted this to the wrong blog. I will add in the same way some people are biased in disliking the ending, I too am biased in liking it! So take all I say with a grain of salt, this is my opinion too and I can get a bit defensive about it. Sorry if I came across insulting or condescending to people disliking the Ending before, but I do genuinely believe there’s a big misunderstanding with a lot of the themes in Homestuck and how the story develops.