is homestuck 2 and the epilogues worth reading

[nepeta]

im currently re-reading homestuck and im almost done and id like to consume more homestuck content after i finish and i know hs2 and the epilogues are good official addons to the original but like im scared they arent gonna be good i saw a picture of all the warnings for the epilogues- and oh my god what the fuck the art and shit for hs2 looks good though but i dont know if i have to read the epilogues for hs2 to make sense

[tertiaryapocalypse]

the epilogues are not good in terms of characterisation*, just overall. especially if you're a big fan of jade or jane**. i think the most notable warnings are s/a, major character death and misgendering, if i'm remembering right? the majority of the s/a is in candy, specifically chapters 5 & 6 and basically any chapter with gamzee in it. the other two warnings are mostly in meat.

honestly i think it depends a lot on what you want out of reading post-canon. if you just want more homestuck content, i'd turn to fanworks, maybe pesterquest or hiveswap if the notion strikes, though pesterquest's characterisation is also half-good half-bad

but if you want weird, semi-canon metafiction that taps into characters at their worst OR best, then the epilogues may be something of interest

i dont think the epilogues are 100% necessary to read homestuck 2? i think hs^2 is honestly more enjoyable without the burden of epilogue knowledge, but the epilogues definitely bolster your understanding of hs^2, haha. i'm sure there's a summary online somewhere of the epilogues that you can refer to

*characterisation in post-canon is a funny, funny thing. because it's based off of traits each of the characters have, or their backgrounds/upbringings, but it's taken pretty far to the extreme (i.e. jane growing up as the heiress to crockercorp & later becoming a fascist dictator.(specific candy spoiler)) homestuck^2 does a small but good job at 'remedying' this, in a way, though that's all i'll say on the matter.(vague, hs^2) it's not handled well, but i do think it's an interesting lens to look at a character with.

**jade and jane especially get a poor cut of the deck-- dirk, too, but not in the same way. he's still enjoyable as a character. on the other hand, dave, karkat, egbert... they're all fine. well-characterised, even. i have a lot more i could say on this, but this message is like, so long already

[nepeta]

I've heard the epilogues do have Davekat, which I find interesting. But Davekat comes off as annoying and stupid to me. I do admire the quality of the art in the epilogues from what I've seen online, however, I don't particularly appreciate how they played out the trans-Roxy thing. (I'm referring to it as the thing- a canon storyline?? lmao idk I haven't read the epilogues yet so idk what to call it.) I think it's a good idea on paper, but I heard they executed it VERY badly. Roxy is a dear character to me because I can relate to her in some ways. I think I can relate to a lot of the homestuck characters in tiny ways lmao. (the main ones like the kids, trolls, cherubs.) Anyway, from what I've heard from friends who have read them, the epilogues butcher some of the homestuck characters in someway and ruin them.

[tertiaryapocalypse]

yeah, they kind of turn meat roxy into what i'd almost call dave 2.0? imo its not that they executed his transition poorly, more that he lost some of his whimsy, if that makes sense. it's also a blow because a LOT of people noticed roxy to be coded as a trans woman, as far as i'm aware. & i have to agree with you on davekat, they feel really flat to me? like they lose their draw as a dynamic when seen in a purely flushed light, or something. davekat is really mid in the epilogues, but it's definitely the focus of multiple chapters, even when it's only one of the two there. honestly, you might be better off not reading them? & if you do, take them with a grain of salt. especially with jane, i've seen TOO many people's opinions of jane turn due to the epilogues.

[BrobyDDark]

Nah. Homestuck^2 and the Epilogues are honestly not worth reading in the slightest. It is, at best, fanservice and, at worse, character butchering slop. In the middle it is just a pointless fandisservice

[EggedTats]

it's me the dissenting opinion!!!!

listen, what you gotta do is two things: first you gotta go into the epilogues with the understanding that homestuck had a happy ending, and that any continuation means breaking that happy ending

and second, (and I feel like a lot of people get this part wrong), notice that the very first page of the epilogues is an emulation of ao3. these aren't the canon continuation of homestuck, because the canon continuation of homestuck is these characters you know and love growing up to be normal and basically happy. June eventually transes her gender and starts leaving the house sometimes I bet. the epilogues are outside of that reality.

having said that, are the epilogues good? yes, please read the epilogues. yeah Jane and dirk suck in them, but sometimes a character sucks and it's ok to like them. dirk always had a a shitty dude (bro) at his core, so it's hardly character assassination, and Jane is the way she is for specific reasons (I'm not going to go into them because you should read the epilogues). they DO ask more of the reader than the comic does, and not just because there's no words. the thing I just said about Jane? they mostly leave that unexplained in the candy side, you gotta deduct why she's that way on your own. there's no point where the story sits you down to explain her motivations.

and once you're done with the epilogues (or before, I'm not your guardian) read godfeels. it's just Good, without any caveats.


_{as a bit of a warning, meat has a lot (like, unbroken pages) of dirkspeak, so you may find it, like, physically challenging to get through that one. it's still worth it imo but don't forget to take breaks if you need them!}

[EggedTats]

I still have not read homestuck², not for any real reason I just have adhd and sometimes my shitty brain thinks it's fun to turn any discussion of things I like into a spoiler minefield! given hs² is a direct continuation of the epilogues I can only assume anyone saying to skip those and read hs² is, in fact, some sort of layabout and/or villain