Homestuck presentation post
Much delayed for various reasons, but I really wanted to try to make my own, because this way not only can I try to lure more people in, but also to organize my thoughts and ~*~feelings~*~ about this new weird obsession of mine :D
1) What is Homestuck/MSPA?
Homestuck is a webcomic made by the very imaginative Andrew Hussie, though after a while he started to get help from many contributors in the form of music and additional art in his animations. You can start reading it here and then go through the story by clicking the > link on each page, like you’re entering commands in an interactive fiction game that would have only one choice every time.
Hussie’s previous webcomics used the same format and the commands were given by readers, but it was not entirely possible with the complexity of Homestuck (it is still extremely interactive, as Hussie sometimes includes readers’ suggestions for comical interludes or to lead the plot in an unexpected way). Hussie advices new readers to start reading his site (MSPA) with Problem Sleuth, his previous story, but that’s not obligatory as you will only miss a few references if you start with Homestuck. (Problem Sleuth is an awesome read too! Its style is much rougher, but it’s very fun and full of crazy ideas. It is also much shorter, and finished.)
In case it isn’t obvious, the site is named MSPA because everything is drawn as if with the software Paint, but don’t let the apparent simplicity fool you! Homestuck is not at all what it looks like at first.
Note: I started reading while knowing very little of Homestuck, and I really enjoyed each twist and character introduction. So I’ll stay as vague as possible here, but if you want to know a little more before deciding if you’ll give it a try or not, I put very very little spoilers between links :)
2) Why you might like it - the story
Apparently Hussie said that Homestuck was like Spore meets the Sims. Somewhere I read that it’s like Jumanji, only with space instead of the jungle and more time-travel shenanigans, and I think it describes it even better! Basically, it’s the story of four 13 years-old kids (who only know each other through the internet) playing a videogame they don’t know anything about, and which turns out to be something much bigger than a simple game, that will transcend reality to the point of changing their and the Earth’s destiny. And the universe’s too, come to think of it!
The plot starts slow, almost inexistent as we watch a single character going through a mess of silly disorganized ordeals in his house, but then the game starts and it gets more SF, complicated, apocalyptic, meta… And then you find yourself unable to stop clicking those > links.
This is what I mean when I talk about change of setting (and this one is only Act 1 -> Act 2, so imagine Act 5!)
Sure Homestuck looks huge from the outside, it’s been going steadily for more than two years! As of now, there are thousands of pages and something like 300000 words. But please don’t be intimidated, just read at your own rhythm :) I really really advice that you don’t skip the seemingly “boring” parts of the story, because Hussie is a master of foreshadowing and Chekhov’s guns, and many of the things that seem silly at first or just there for comical purposes will become relevant and important to the plot or the characters’ development. Don’t skip the pesterlogs either, because beside plot exposition, you would also miss character interactions and a lot of humor.
Oh yeah, because I should also mention that Homestuck is full of very funny moments, as well as epic or tragic ones. Shit gets real. People die. Readers cry. Readers also get trolled a lot >.>
3) Why you might like it - the characters
Those kids, guys, my heartstrings ;_; They will grow on you as you read and learn to discover their complexity. They are cute. They are funny. They hide a lot of things under the surface. As the story progress they are forced to grow up and sometimes it’s so sad it’s painful, but sometimes it’s really sweet. It’s always a pleasure to read how they interact with and stick up for each other.
Here are more details on each kid: EB, TT, TG, GG.
As the Homestuck universe grows, more characters are added to the cast. Some of them will be helpful, or ambiguous, or silly, others some terrifying villains. Some of them will be a complex combination of those traits, and an endless source of speculation.
Also, you might have heard of the Trolls, and wonder what the hell is going with them and why is everybody babbling about them? I won’t go into details here because they appear quite late in the story, and at that point I bet you’ll have already decided if you’re enjoying reading Homestuck or not. Just know that they are characters that are very popular because of their particular personalities, quirks and flaws, which make people identify with them a lot. It is also very fun to play with the insights of their culture, their history and their biology the comic is filled with.
It’s worthy to note that while Homestuck is not perfect when it comes to social justice and sensitivity, at least girls are extremely well represented, with a balanced male to female character ratio, and really badass and independent girls. No damsel in distress here! It is also pretty open-minded when it comes to pairings. Het couples get most of the spotlight in canon but slash is also acknowledged and hinted pretty much everywhere.
4) Why you might like it - the format
Homestuck is a multimedia experimental platform. Beside text and images, pages may have animated gifs, flash animations, background music, interactive flash games… Obviously Hussie doesn’t like routine and always tries to surprise readers with his format choices as much as with narrative twist. Flash animations are like cutscenes of a videogame and I really wish I could link one to show you how impressive they are, but the big ones are all full of spoilers, ahah oops. Flash games can be battles, exploration of a map, characters dialogues with multiple choices… Possibilities are endless.
Music is another great point of Homestuck. Some songs are directly included in the comic itself, especially for cutscenes, but there are many others available for listening online (and buying, if you feel like supporting the webcomic). Influences are as diverse as game soundtracks, jazz, rock, metal, mixing, a bit of everything, and I’m far from having it all covered here!
But, here is what makes Homestuck so fun imho: it’s full of meta. It’s a story about a videogame that is told in the form a videogame, with videogame features like cutscenes and save points. Characters are following the rules of a defined gameplay (like their inventories or their weapons), however it’s mainly for gags though it can become critical in the most unexpected ways. The story itself is regularly a brilliant example of mise en abîme, with various levels of plot going on in different timelines and interacting with each others. There are narrators and fourth walls and deliberate self-inserts and they actually serve a purpose in the story.
Not to mention, Homestuck is a melting pot of influences from pop culture and internet culture. It’s full of references/tributes/parodies of various videogames of course, but also movies, actors, comics, books, folklore, internet memes and semantics... It takes all of it and alchemizes it into something new, its own culture with its own memes and references. Ultimately, I believe that the final layer of meta is that Homestuck is a webcomic about its readers, those internet-addicted geeks who grew up with all these influences like you and I :)
Finally, despite its apparent simplicity, Homestuck takes great attention to details, whether they are winks to geeks or just borderline OCD. Anyway Hussie doesn’t take his readers for idiots and it shows, and that’s really pleasant.
5) Why you might not like it - and seriously, that’s ok too
- The art, I can understand it could put some people off. But you might get used to it faster than you think!
- The plot, because sometimes it really get convoluted to the point you won’t know what’s going on and when. However Hussie does sometimes some very helpful recaps of the story so far, and Homestuck has a very detailed wiki that could help if you’re really lost.
- Hussie’s occasional asshattery. It’s up to you to take it as condescension or playful trolling, though.
6) How is the fandom?
I am very conflicted on this one. I love it and it’s extremely creative (after all canon itself takes “the only limit is your imagination” literally to new levels), with a lot of fics, avalanches of fanarts, a very active kinkmeme, cosplays, FSTs… I don’t think I ever had a fandom with so many AUs and crossovers I enjoy! There is also a lot of fanmusic, which is a new experience for me. I’d love to make multi-support rec post of Homestuck fanworks in the future, there’s so much awesome stuff!
But on the other hand it’s definitely one of the wankiest fandom I’ve ever been a part of, and it has quite a bad reputation outside. I think it’s because a lot of factors add up: the fanbase is huge, there are many young fans, there are many entitled fans who consider the proximity of Hussie with his fans and interactivity as an assurance that the story will go the way they intend it (not surprisingly it hardly ever does), and there are many dedicated shippers and anti-shippers who take the webcomic way too seriously. I mean, it’s the fandom where shipping wars are not so much about which character should end with, but more about who interprets/respects canon the best and understands the sexuality of the characters the best (and Hussie doesn’t help, he created a whole species with an entirely different concept of romance. It’s very fun to play with but it’s pure trollbait for shippers).
But as usual with fandom even if wank is louder, the huge majority of people are very nice and enthusiastic, and have enough hindsight to not take things too seriously. At any rate so far I’ve been having tons of fun :D
Finally, Homestuck is updated regularly (almost every day), which means it’s a constant source of discussion and speculation. This fandom is never boring!
tl;dr Read iiiit and then we'll have fun together spazzing and speculating :3 :3 :3
1) What is Homestuck/MSPA?
Homestuck is a webcomic made by the very imaginative Andrew Hussie, though after a while he started to get help from many contributors in the form of music and additional art in his animations. You can start reading it here and then go through the story by clicking the > link on each page, like you’re entering commands in an interactive fiction game that would have only one choice every time.
Hussie’s previous webcomics used the same format and the commands were given by readers, but it was not entirely possible with the complexity of Homestuck (it is still extremely interactive, as Hussie sometimes includes readers’ suggestions for comical interludes or to lead the plot in an unexpected way). Hussie advices new readers to start reading his site (MSPA) with Problem Sleuth, his previous story, but that’s not obligatory as you will only miss a few references if you start with Homestuck. (Problem Sleuth is an awesome read too! Its style is much rougher, but it’s very fun and full of crazy ideas. It is also much shorter, and finished.)
In case it isn’t obvious, the site is named MSPA because everything is drawn as if with the software Paint, but don’t let the apparent simplicity fool you! Homestuck is not at all what it looks like at first.
Note: I started reading while knowing very little of Homestuck, and I really enjoyed each twist and character introduction. So I’ll stay as vague as possible here, but if you want to know a little more before deciding if you’ll give it a try or not, I put very very little spoilers between links :)
2) Why you might like it - the story
Apparently Hussie said that Homestuck was like Spore meets the Sims. Somewhere I read that it’s like Jumanji, only with space instead of the jungle and more time-travel shenanigans, and I think it describes it even better! Basically, it’s the story of four 13 years-old kids (who only know each other through the internet) playing a videogame they don’t know anything about, and which turns out to be something much bigger than a simple game, that will transcend reality to the point of changing their and the Earth’s destiny. And the universe’s too, come to think of it!
The plot starts slow, almost inexistent as we watch a single character going through a mess of silly disorganized ordeals in his house, but then the game starts and it gets more SF, complicated, apocalyptic, meta… And then you find yourself unable to stop clicking those > links.
This is what I mean when I talk about change of setting (and this one is only Act 1 -> Act 2, so imagine Act 5!)
Sure Homestuck looks huge from the outside, it’s been going steadily for more than two years! As of now, there are thousands of pages and something like 300000 words. But please don’t be intimidated, just read at your own rhythm :) I really really advice that you don’t skip the seemingly “boring” parts of the story, because Hussie is a master of foreshadowing and Chekhov’s guns, and many of the things that seem silly at first or just there for comical purposes will become relevant and important to the plot or the characters’ development. Don’t skip the pesterlogs either, because beside plot exposition, you would also miss character interactions and a lot of humor.
Oh yeah, because I should also mention that Homestuck is full of very funny moments, as well as epic or tragic ones. Shit gets real. People die. Readers cry. Readers also get trolled a lot >.>
3) Why you might like it - the characters
Those kids, guys, my heartstrings ;_; They will grow on you as you read and learn to discover their complexity. They are cute. They are funny. They hide a lot of things under the surface. As the story progress they are forced to grow up and sometimes it’s so sad it’s painful, but sometimes it’s really sweet. It’s always a pleasure to read how they interact with and stick up for each other.
Here are more details on each kid: EB, TT, TG, GG.
As the Homestuck universe grows, more characters are added to the cast. Some of them will be helpful, or ambiguous, or silly, others some terrifying villains. Some of them will be a complex combination of those traits, and an endless source of speculation.
Also, you might have heard of the Trolls, and wonder what the hell is going with them and why is everybody babbling about them? I won’t go into details here because they appear quite late in the story, and at that point I bet you’ll have already decided if you’re enjoying reading Homestuck or not. Just know that they are characters that are very popular because of their particular personalities, quirks and flaws, which make people identify with them a lot. It is also very fun to play with the insights of their culture, their history and their biology the comic is filled with.
It’s worthy to note that while Homestuck is not perfect when it comes to social justice and sensitivity, at least girls are extremely well represented, with a balanced male to female character ratio, and really badass and independent girls. No damsel in distress here! It is also pretty open-minded when it comes to pairings. Het couples get most of the spotlight in canon but slash is also acknowledged and hinted pretty much everywhere.
4) Why you might like it - the format
Homestuck is a multimedia experimental platform. Beside text and images, pages may have animated gifs, flash animations, background music, interactive flash games… Obviously Hussie doesn’t like routine and always tries to surprise readers with his format choices as much as with narrative twist. Flash animations are like cutscenes of a videogame and I really wish I could link one to show you how impressive they are, but the big ones are all full of spoilers, ahah oops. Flash games can be battles, exploration of a map, characters dialogues with multiple choices… Possibilities are endless.
Music is another great point of Homestuck. Some songs are directly included in the comic itself, especially for cutscenes, but there are many others available for listening online (and buying, if you feel like supporting the webcomic). Influences are as diverse as game soundtracks, jazz, rock, metal, mixing, a bit of everything, and I’m far from having it all covered here!
But, here is what makes Homestuck so fun imho: it’s full of meta. It’s a story about a videogame that is told in the form a videogame, with videogame features like cutscenes and save points. Characters are following the rules of a defined gameplay (like their inventories or their weapons), however it’s mainly for gags though it can become critical in the most unexpected ways. The story itself is regularly a brilliant example of mise en abîme, with various levels of plot going on in different timelines and interacting with each others. There are narrators and fourth walls and deliberate self-inserts and they actually serve a purpose in the story.
Not to mention, Homestuck is a melting pot of influences from pop culture and internet culture. It’s full of references/tributes/parodies of various videogames of course, but also movies, actors, comics, books, folklore, internet memes and semantics... It takes all of it and alchemizes it into something new, its own culture with its own memes and references. Ultimately, I believe that the final layer of meta is that Homestuck is a webcomic about its readers, those internet-addicted geeks who grew up with all these influences like you and I :)
Finally, despite its apparent simplicity, Homestuck takes great attention to details, whether they are winks to geeks or just borderline OCD. Anyway Hussie doesn’t take his readers for idiots and it shows, and that’s really pleasant.
5) Why you might not like it - and seriously, that’s ok too
- The art, I can understand it could put some people off. But you might get used to it faster than you think!
- The plot, because sometimes it really get convoluted to the point you won’t know what’s going on and when. However Hussie does sometimes some very helpful recaps of the story so far, and Homestuck has a very detailed wiki that could help if you’re really lost.
- Hussie’s occasional asshattery. It’s up to you to take it as condescension or playful trolling, though.
6) How is the fandom?
I am very conflicted on this one. I love it and it’s extremely creative (after all canon itself takes “the only limit is your imagination” literally to new levels), with a lot of fics, avalanches of fanarts, a very active kinkmeme, cosplays, FSTs… I don’t think I ever had a fandom with so many AUs and crossovers I enjoy! There is also a lot of fanmusic, which is a new experience for me. I’d love to make multi-support rec post of Homestuck fanworks in the future, there’s so much awesome stuff!
But on the other hand it’s definitely one of the wankiest fandom I’ve ever been a part of, and it has quite a bad reputation outside. I think it’s because a lot of factors add up: the fanbase is huge, there are many young fans, there are many entitled fans who consider the proximity of Hussie with his fans and interactivity as an assurance that the story will go the way they intend it (not surprisingly it hardly ever does), and there are many dedicated shippers and anti-shippers who take the webcomic way too seriously. I mean, it’s the fandom where shipping wars are not so much about which character should end with, but more about who interprets/respects canon the best and understands the sexuality of the characters the best (and Hussie doesn’t help, he created a whole species with an entirely different concept of romance. It’s very fun to play with but it’s pure trollbait for shippers).
But as usual with fandom even if wank is louder, the huge majority of people are very nice and enthusiastic, and have enough hindsight to not take things too seriously. At any rate so far I’ve been having tons of fun :D
Finally, Homestuck is updated regularly (almost every day), which means it’s a constant source of discussion and speculation. This fandom is never boring!
tl;dr Read iiiit and then we'll have fun together spazzing and speculating :3 :3 :3