I'm afraid for HS^2

[Dream Muttman]

What other social media could work for fan interaction?

Since things like tumblr, twitter, and dreamwidth are out of question in terms of sharing and posting certain content.

Curious Cat is just like Formsprings.

Personally I'd advise them to turn new updates into "chapters" and put a comment section at the end of each one that gets skipped unless it's the end of the latest chapter or you go looking for them, like manga sites sometimes have. I think it's a good way to see people's reactions, memes and expectations without the baggage of social media.

[Alder]

What other social media could work for fan interaction?

Since things like tumblr, twitter, and dreamwidth are out of question in terms of sharing and posting certain content.

Curious Cat is just like Formsprings.

Personally I'd advise them to turn new updates into "chapters" and put a comment section at the end of each one that gets skipped unless it's the end of the latest chapter or you go looking for them, like manga sites sometimes have. I think it's a good way to see people's reactions, memes and expectations without the baggage of social media.

I really like this idea. Too many social media platforms are vitriolic these days.

[sorbicCondition]

Might be just misunderstanding stuff but, I really don't get this thread. We have a total of 32 pages so far. All this criticism seems to be aimed at a hypothetical place the story might be going, but it hasn't yet. We have no idea what it's gonna be like. The only precedent we have for what the new authors writing styles are like are Friendsim, the Epilogues, and Pesterquest, which have all been pretty clean and well written from where I'm standing. I don't get the hate outside of vague worryings about canon and authorship.

I do get the argument against the idea of disengaging with the community completely if you don't like it. Lots of folks have friends here that they don't want to stop talking to, or maybe they have fanworks they're invested in. But is it too much to ask to just... wait it out? See where it goes? I'm not asking you to stop criticism entirely that's stupid, I imagine I will have criticism myself when there's stuff to criticize. But again, we only have 32 pages. I wanna ride this out before I get up in arms about how Homestuck is ruined.

[Dream Muttman]

Sorbic, Homestuck^2 is a sequel to the epilogues that were released over half a year ago. To some of the people posting here Homestuck has been on track to ruin, if not already there, for a long time. Homestuck^2 is hardly new in following the trend of that. It in no way promises to be a return to form to the storytelling of Acts 1-7, much less 1-5.

For people willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, there's still concerns over whether it's capable of sustaining an ongoing plot as a premise. There's a reason the epilogues dropped pretty much all at once.

Should we wait and see? Sure. But expecting people to withhold judgment entirely is not super reasonable. Homestuck is old by now, like it or not. 10 years of franchise means 10 years worth of opinions.

Part of the problem is Homestuck has a habit of recontextualizing past events and characters as it goes on, and those changes aren't always well received. People have concerns because Homestuck^2 is dissociating from that by calling itself non-canon while still being an official continuation with no real alternative.

[calamityCons]

Sorbic, Homestuck^2 is a sequel to the epilogues that were released over half a year ago. To some of the people posting here Homestuck has been on track to ruin, if not already there, for a long time. Homestuck^2 is hardly new in following the trend of that. It in no way promises to be a return to form to the storytelling of Acts 1-7, much less 1-5.

For people willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, there's still concerns over whether it's capable of sustaining an ongoing plot as a premise. There's a reason the epilogues dropped pretty much all at once.

Should we wait and see? Sure. But expecting people to withhold judgment entirely is not super reasonable. Homestuck is old by now, like it or not. 10 years of franchise means 10 years worth of opinions.

You said this in an incredibly accurate and more polite way than I could have. I was very tempted to just get really pissy about it because Homestuck is not POSSIBLY considered 32 pages long in my mind, not after reading it for two years back in 2009-2011 and then coming back to find this story I loved shambling around and being repulsive >:/

I can't help the opinion I have. If I get new evidence leading to Homestuck^2 going somewhere more palatable for me, I will be happy. I was definitely reacting positively to The Inaugural Death of Mister Seven, dedicating so much time to the Felt interacting with one another and a more straightforward, action-oriented narrative style with a gripping premise and time shit. But that poor bastard's been gathering dust on the PSpace website that hasn't been updated in years, and what I'm getting instead from the canonical sources of Homestuck Content is Dirk Strider being a fucking asshole who talks too much.

[Sahxyel]

I can't help the opinion I have. If I get new evidence leading to Homestuck^2 going somewhere more palatable for me, I will be happy. I was definitely reacting positively to The Inaugural Death of Mister Seven, dedicating so much time to the Felt interacting with one another and a more straightforward, action-oriented narrative style with a gripping premise and time shit. But that poor bastard's been gathering dust on the PSpace website that hasn't been updated in years, and what I'm getting instead from the canonical sources of Homestuck Content is Dirk Strider being a fucking asshole who talks too much.

Pretty much my sentiments regarding the direction we've been heading, but also holy shit someone who also loved The Inaugural Death of Mister Seven!? You, CC, are a cool person in my book.

[calamityCons]

I can't help the opinion I have. If I get new evidence leading to Homestuck^2 going somewhere more palatable for me, I will be happy. I was definitely reacting positively to The Inaugural Death of Mister Seven, dedicating so much time to the Felt interacting with one another and a more straightforward, action-oriented narrative style with a gripping premise and time shit. But that poor bastard's been gathering dust on the PSpace website that hasn't been updated in years, and what I'm getting instead from the canonical sources of Homestuck Content is Dirk Strider being a fucking asshole who talks too much.

Pretty much my sentiments regarding the direction we've been heading, but also holy shit someone who also loved The Inaugural Death of Mister Seven!? You, CC, are a cool person in my book.

THE INAUGURAL DEATH OF MISTER SEVEN IS ALL OF THE THINGS I HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR FOR THE PAST EIGHT FUCKING YEARS AND I LOVE IT A LOT.

[nonsenseMnemonic]

Might be just misunderstanding stuff but, I really don't get this thread. We have a total of 32 pages so far. All this criticism seems to be aimed at a hypothetical place the story might be going, but it hasn't yet. We have no idea what it's gonna be like. The only precedent we have for what the new authors writing styles are like are Friendsim, the Epilogues, and Pesterquest, which have all been pretty clean and well written from where I'm standing. I don't get the hate outside of vague worryings about canon and authorship.

Muttman's response is important here, but also want to add that the entire premise of the thread, of being afraid of what's to come, is about hypotheticals by necessity. I haven't read every post here, but my current impression is that most of the responses are concern and doubt, not necessarily people getting up in arms or condemning HS^2 as permanently ruined forever. The precedents you mentioned are important as well: Those who are going with the latter are most likely doing so on account of the Epilogues -- I don't feel like we need to get into specifics about which parts of the Epilogues people don't like here but "clean and well written" is something I've seen a lot of people disagree with, lol, so those who do think HS^2 is definitely going to be terrible are generally basing that outlook on their own opinions of those precedents; they're not coming out of nowhere.

[sorbicCondition]

I guess I might just be coming at this from a place of bias, both as an archival reader and as someone who enjoys the epilogues. I still don't think reserving judgment is unreasonable. It's a new project, they've got a lot of time to make this good (or bad!), but it isn't really anything but an intro yet.

[sylvarn]

look how right everyone was

[calamityCons]

I recognize your flamebait and I just want to say I don't feel any fucking joy out of this. It's satisfying to know my own tastes well enough that I could tell HS^2 wasn't going anywhere I would enjoy, but I'm not exactly over the moon about my prediction being correct when it means such a huge bummer is canon.

[VASKA]

I liked the update, I don't think it's great personally. The only thing bumming me out is how small it is.

[PilotBlackSmith]

Honestly I can't fucking wait.

[rookie1978]

CR8 was entirely correct. the writing team does seem to prioritize trying to out-hussie eachother.

A majority of homestucks current fans only latch onto their own headcanon version of whatever homestuck actually is, and the artists/writers working on nearly every piece of canonical homestuck fiction (including the epilogues, friendsim, hs2, even hiveswap/pesterquest) shove these new headcanons and ideas into the actual canon, forcing these ever-flanderized characters we once loved into our faces, screaming "look, look at how homestuck this is, look at how hussie we are, this is so homestuck, get it, look at how deep this is, look at how meta this is, isn't the fact that we're so meta just so entertaining and cool"

and there's nothing we can do about it. that's why I'm scared for homestuck 2. that's why the epilogues we're a terrible idea. that's why yes, people got mad over sprites in the visual novel spinoff game. it's people taking a beloved work of fiction that spanned years of their own life and twisting it into their own special version with 2deep4u tearjerker moments and trying-too-hard-to-be-interesting writing.

homestuck was about 4 kids playing a funny videogame. humor and entertainment was it's primary goal. as of now, everyone is simply trying WAY TOO HARD to be adult and deep and so on and so forth. That's why I made this thread. Homestuck as it is, is currently nothing like it was, lacking most if not all of what made homestuck 'homestuck', in an attempt to be MORE 'homestuck'.

the team behind epilogues/hs2 even try to say "well canon is debatable now so its really up to you" but that's just a hilarious flat out lie. Regardless of what you like about a comic, if it's officially recongized by the company/creator, it's canon. There's no magic handwaving away, because these new canon events WILL be brought up in conversations and discussions about the topic, and you can't tell people not to talk about them because you just don't like them.

That's just NOT HOW YOU HANDLE STORIES, LET ALONE SUCH A LARGE ENCOMPASSING PROJECT LIKE HOMESTUCK. That's not how stories WORK. In an attempt to be deep and subversive, homestuck has been turned into a weird mashed potato gravy stew of conflicting genres and themes with NO CENTRALIZED PURPOSE OR IDEA. Thats why the fanbase is so largely split on major topics like toblerone wishes, for example.

For all those reasons above is why I made the thread and why I'm afraid for Homestuck 2. In two updates alone it's proved its NOT a return to roots and it's just diving DEEPER into the same pool of who-knows-what in a desperate attempt to make homestuck something it never was.

Its like a monster wearing the skin of an old friend. It's not what we had, it just vaguely resembles it, in an awful and terrifying fashion.

[Dream Muttman]

I can't read the bonus update as I'm not a Patreon supporter, but it seems to have confirmed a lot of people's fears that the bonus content gated behind the paywall would be necessary to understanding the story or at least important pieces of the narrative (though I can't confirm this is the case so take it with a grain of salt).

[Cr8torscreed]

CR8 was entirely correct. the writing team does seem to prioritize trying to out-hussie eachother.

A majority of homestucks current fans only latch onto their own headcanon version of whatever homestuck actually is, and the artists/writers working on nearly every piece of canonical homestuck fiction (including the epilogues, friendsim, hs2, even hiveswap/pesterquest) shove these new headcanons and ideas into the actual canon, forcing these ever-flanderized characters we once loved into our faces, screaming "look, look at how homestuck this is, look at how hussie we are, this is so homestuck, get it, look at how deep this is, look at how meta this is, isn't the fact that we're so meta just so entertaining and cool"

and there's nothing we can do about it. that's why I'm scared for homestuck 2. that's why the epilogues we're a terrible idea. that's why yes, people got mad over sprites in the visual novel spinoff game. it's people taking a beloved work of fiction that spanned years of their own life and twisting it into their own special version with 2deep4u tearjerker moments and trying-too-hard-to-be-interesting writing.

homestuck was about 4 kids playing a funny videogame. humor and entertainment was it's primary goal. as of now, everyone is simply trying WAY TOO HARD to be adult and deep and so on and so forth. That's why I made this thread. Homestuck as it is, is currently nothing like it was, lacking most if not all of what made homestuck 'homestuck', in an attempt to be MORE 'homestuck'.

the team behind epilogues/hs2 even try to say "well canon is debatable now so its really up to you" but that's just a hilarious flat out lie. Regardless of what you like about a comic, if it's officially recongized by the company/creator, it's canon. There's no magic handwaving away, because these new canon events WILL be brought up in conversations and discussions about the topic, and you can't tell people not to talk about them because you just don't like them.

That's just NOT HOW YOU HANDLE STORIES, LET ALONE SUCH A LARGE ENCOMPASSING PROJECT LIKE HOMESTUCK. That's not how stories WORK. In an attempt to be deep and subversive, homestuck has been turned into a weird mashed potato gravy stew of conflicting genres and themes with NO CENTRALIZED PURPOSE OR IDEA. Thats why the fanbase is so largely split on major topics like toblerone wishes, for example.

For all those reasons above is why I made the thread and why I'm afraid for Homestuck 2. In two updates alone it's proved its NOT a return to roots and it's just diving DEEPER into the same pool of who-knows-what in a desperate attempt to make homestuck something it never was.

Its like a monster wearing the skin of an old friend. It's not what we had, it just vaguely resembles it, in an awful and terrifying fashion.

i have to imagine it's to keep more fervent fans at bay, really. homestuck's fanbase is only the way it is because its full of teenagers- now adults who haven't really outgrown it that related and identified with some of these characters as teens and refuse to let go. that's why everyone has their own bid to make "what is homestuck? what im making is most certainly homestuck, over that persons homestuck."

at this point its pretty evident they are capitalizing on that, see: the pesterquest bs. you said it a lot better than me, really.
that's why the new writing staff is especially obnoxious, they aren't people who are above kinning a character or something and they will engage in it. one of our lead writers is a vriska kin apologist, which i mean you can already expect vriska dicksucking from hussie.

[Deageon]

wait are some of the people on the team actually kinning characters or is that a funny meme.

[thorondraco]

wait are some of the people on the team actually kinning characters or is that a funny meme.

Its more an accusation than anything. There are some major fans for some of the characters mongst the staff and people tend to accuse them of such a thing.

[classpectanon]

Let's try to keep the talk of who may or may not be kinning who to places that are Not this Forums. The last thing we need is kin drama.

[PilotBlackSmith]

homestuck was about 4 kids playing a funny videogame. humor and entertainment was it's primary goal.

fucking this
I want to laugh again
I want to look at homestuck and get a chuckle out or get curious and hyped for whats going to happen
I don't want to DREAD the updates, to have a feeling of agony everytime I think of the countless ways they could destroy these arealdy destroyed characters
remember when Jake LITERALLY SHAT HIMSELF ON LIVE TV in the epilogues? How the FUCK do you go lower than that? these characters dont have a single fucking sense of pride and respect anymore and they've all devolved into a fucking laughing stock