Let me tell you about Homestuck again
February 1, 2022 7:46 PM Subscribe
Let Me Tell You About Homestuck
5 years.
7,000 pages.
13,000 panels.
700,000 words. [Approximately the length of the Bible.]
Over 3 hours of animation.
Over 23 hours of soundtrack.
15 separate games, in 3 unique styles.
PBS once called Homestuck the "Ulysses of the Internet". Its author, Andrew Hussie — who resembles Joyce in his impishness, stylistic maximalism, and fondness for disturbing smut — calls it "a story I've tried to make as much a pure expression of its medium as possible". It has become a cultural phenomenon, inspiring proms and dominating Amazon makeup reviews. But most importantly, it's a rollicking good read, equal parts slapstick and epic, bildungsroman and cultural commentary.
Revisit rorgy's epic introduction to Homestuck from 2014 for Doubles Jubilee month.
Follow-ups:
Homestuck: Act 7
Exactly seven years after it began, Andrew Hussie's maximalist webcomic Homestuck has concluded with Act 7, a nine-minute, hand-drawn, fully-animated-and-scored climax to an epic that began with a young man standing in his bedroom.
posted to MetaFilter by Sokka shot first at 6:47 AM on April 13, 2016
Homestuck: The Epilogues
Ten years after the debut of Homestuck, and 3 years after the end of Homestuck, The Homestuck Epilogues begin - following the core team as jaded young adults making sense of canon, relevance, and the aftermath of their mission.
posted to MetaFilter by divabat at 7:18 PM on April 15, 2019
5 years.
7,000 pages.
13,000 panels.
700,000 words. [Approximately the length of the Bible.]
Over 3 hours of animation.
Over 23 hours of soundtrack.
15 separate games, in 3 unique styles.
PBS once called Homestuck the "Ulysses of the Internet". Its author, Andrew Hussie — who resembles Joyce in his impishness, stylistic maximalism, and fondness for disturbing smut — calls it "a story I've tried to make as much a pure expression of its medium as possible". It has become a cultural phenomenon, inspiring proms and dominating Amazon makeup reviews. But most importantly, it's a rollicking good read, equal parts slapstick and epic, bildungsroman and cultural commentary.
Revisit rorgy's epic introduction to Homestuck from 2014 for Doubles Jubilee month.
Follow-ups:
Homestuck: Act 7
Exactly seven years after it began, Andrew Hussie's maximalist webcomic Homestuck has concluded with Act 7, a nine-minute, hand-drawn, fully-animated-and-scored climax to an epic that began with a young man standing in his bedroom.
posted to MetaFilter by Sokka shot first at 6:47 AM on April 13, 2016
Homestuck: The Epilogues
Ten years after the debut of Homestuck, and 3 years after the end of Homestuck, The Homestuck Epilogues begin - following the core team as jaded young adults making sense of canon, relevance, and the aftermath of their mission.
posted to MetaFilter by divabat at 7:18 PM on April 15, 2019
Further follow-ups and things:
Paradox Space, a 2014-era spinoff anthology in traditional comic style (there are word balloons instead of chatlogs).
Homestuck^2 (previously), a sequel to Homestuck (to the epilogues in particular), ran from October 2019 through December 2020 before stopping abruptly. The current plan is to upload all the rest of it at once when it's done, like a book or something.
Pesterquest is a bunch of brief episodes focusing on all of Homestuck's main characters. It is a sequel to Hiveswap Friendsim, itself a spinoff of the Hiveswap acts, which are point-and-click adventure games set in the Homestuck universe(s) but mostly without the main characters.
Psycholonials is a kinetic visual novel by Andrew Hussie, portions of which can easily be read as autobiographical about the experience of creating Homestuck.
posted by one for the books at 10:02 PM on February 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Paradox Space, a 2014-era spinoff anthology in traditional comic style (there are word balloons instead of chatlogs).
Homestuck^2 (previously), a sequel to Homestuck (to the epilogues in particular), ran from October 2019 through December 2020 before stopping abruptly. The current plan is to upload all the rest of it at once when it's done, like a book or something.
Pesterquest is a bunch of brief episodes focusing on all of Homestuck's main characters. It is a sequel to Hiveswap Friendsim, itself a spinoff of the Hiveswap acts, which are point-and-click adventure games set in the Homestuck universe(s) but mostly without the main characters.
Psycholonials is a kinetic visual novel by Andrew Hussie, portions of which can easily be read as autobiographical about the experience of creating Homestuck.
posted by one for the books at 10:02 PM on February 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Even less officially, there's too much Homestuck fan content to give any sort of adequate summary (though homestuck.net does make an effort), so I'll just point out my favorite genres:
Homestuck (Reaction) Liveblogs are the closest thing possible to reading Homestuck for the first time, for a second time.
MS Paint Fan Adventures compiles over twenty thousand different stories using roughly the same format as Homestuck, often (but by no means always) in the same setting and/or starring the same characters. Some of them are even complete!
Land of Fans and Music (and further releases) are some of the most well known albums of Homestuck-inspired fan music. Many are remixes of official songs from the hours of official Homestuck albums.
posted by one for the books at 10:34 PM on February 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
Homestuck (Reaction) Liveblogs are the closest thing possible to reading Homestuck for the first time, for a second time.
MS Paint Fan Adventures compiles over twenty thousand different stories using roughly the same format as Homestuck, often (but by no means always) in the same setting and/or starring the same characters. Some of them are even complete!
Land of Fans and Music (and further releases) are some of the most well known albums of Homestuck-inspired fan music. Many are remixes of official songs from the hours of official Homestuck albums.
posted by one for the books at 10:34 PM on February 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
^^I have lots of links because that's the only way I can think to contribute at this point. My Homestuck experience was too vast and reverential for me to think I could summarize it in words, even five years on. Even though I change my mind sometimes about which are the good bits and which could be cut, there is absolutely nothing else that remotely compares.
posted by one for the books at 10:43 PM on February 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by one for the books at 10:43 PM on February 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
jan Misali (Previously, Previously) recently made a video about Homestuck which I feel like does a pretty good job as an overview, if anyone would prefer that to text.
posted by wesleyac at 12:05 AM on February 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by wesleyac at 12:05 AM on February 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
Cameron Kunzelman & Michael Lutz have done a podcast about Homestuck, Homestuck Made This World.
posted by juv3nal at 1:46 AM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by juv3nal at 1:46 AM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
There goes my plan to make a post about Psycholonials! I'm still tempted to make a Fanfare discussion for it.
Seconding the podcast Homestuck Made This World—I find it ever-so-slightly frustrating, but the discussion is meaty.
The Epilogues are extremely flawed but absolutely fascinating pieces of writing. Not Homestuck at its peak, and something I really don't consider part of the "canon story" (not even in the sense of its being a continuation or a sequel), but as a standalone messy attempt to do interesting things, I think it succeeds.
Homestuck^2, meanwhile, is maybe the meanest and worst thing that could have been done to the Homestuck legacy: a cruel parody, like if everything bad that anyone ever said about Homestuck was utterly true.
Lastly, sadly, I don't think you can talk about Homestuck in 2022 without talking about the gross legal saga: Youtuber SarahZ made a video about the bizarre and upsetting saga of how Homestuck went about wasting a lot of fans' money making a game that might never be finished, and What Pumpkin responded by... threatening to sue her. And it's somehow dumber, more immature, and worse than that sounds.
posted by rorgy at 2:25 AM on February 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
Seconding the podcast Homestuck Made This World—I find it ever-so-slightly frustrating, but the discussion is meaty.
The Epilogues are extremely flawed but absolutely fascinating pieces of writing. Not Homestuck at its peak, and something I really don't consider part of the "canon story" (not even in the sense of its being a continuation or a sequel), but as a standalone messy attempt to do interesting things, I think it succeeds.
Homestuck^2, meanwhile, is maybe the meanest and worst thing that could have been done to the Homestuck legacy: a cruel parody, like if everything bad that anyone ever said about Homestuck was utterly true.
Lastly, sadly, I don't think you can talk about Homestuck in 2022 without talking about the gross legal saga: Youtuber SarahZ made a video about the bizarre and upsetting saga of how Homestuck went about wasting a lot of fans' money making a game that might never be finished, and What Pumpkin responded by... threatening to sue her. And it's somehow dumber, more immature, and worse than that sounds.
posted by rorgy at 2:25 AM on February 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
(Also, just as a note, there is currently some debate/contention as to what pronouns author Andrew Hussie uses these days; Wikipedia uses "he/him", What Pumpkin uses "they/them", and the text of Psycholonials suggests any/all are appropriate, though the idea of "attachment to gender" is itself a big part of early Psycholonials plot.)
posted by rorgy at 2:27 AM on February 2, 2022
posted by rorgy at 2:27 AM on February 2, 2022
Sweet jegus, the homestucks are everywhere ;;-;; .
Here's my favourite piece of homestuck content. It's kinda spoilers and won't make sense if you haven't consumed homestuck: A lullaby for god's.
posted by real-fern at 7:56 AM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Here's my favourite piece of homestuck content. It's kinda spoilers and won't make sense if you haven't consumed homestuck: A lullaby for god's.
posted by real-fern at 7:56 AM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Seconding SarahZ's videos about Homestuck and the Homestuck fandom. As someone who never got into Homestuck, I thought they were a really helpful summary, and just an all-around fascinating watch.
posted by lock robster at 6:49 PM on February 2, 2022
posted by lock robster at 6:49 PM on February 2, 2022
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"Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past."
-Joyce.
posted by clavdivs at 8:38 PM on February 1, 2022 [3 favorites]