aw man ok, i need to clear some things up because my wording in that post was pretty poor and now I feel kinda bad. I was excited I guess. But like this is probably overstating any impact I may have had by a fair measure? Buuut I really don’t like the idea of putting any of the good folks at wp in a position where they feel like they HAVE to make statements about stuff.
I also don’t think you got QUITE the message I did from the tweet when I went over to look at it, either, anon. Just in case, here’s a big disclaimer: I OBVIOUSLY don’t know shelby or necessarily what she might have intended! All I can tell you is that what I read gave me a different picture of where she was coming from, ok? This, along with everything I post and say about Homestuck, is just MY perspective on a property I happen to know a lot about because it raised me, but I don’t know really anyone at WP and nobody should assume I know what I’m talking about when I talk about what they say.
Are we clear on that? Ok. I’m gonna do something I REALLY usually don’t like doing and post the tweet for clarity’s sake.
This doesn’t sound like moving away from the Joey as lesbian hc to me.
What it sounds like is that in my post–and i don’t know if others made posts to this effect, i doubt it was just me but i’ve been loud in fandom recently so, maybe?–I credit her with being involved in the writing of Hiveswap through admittedly poor wording on my part. What I should have put the emphasis on is that last sentence–I think it’s pretty obvious that there were LGBT creators and women who KNOW the experience of growing up like this, and who’s collective experiences and camaraderie and mutual understanding influenced the text of the story, no matter who wrote the actual text.
That focus on community understanding, teamwork, and mutual solidarity is probably the single factor I’d credit most in Hiveswap’s writing being so powerful. And I think that’s likely what she’s pointing to. Shelby didn’t personally do any writing for Hiveswap, and she’s NOT the only lgbt person who worked on the game, so it’s absolutely true that not all the credit should go to her.
I wanted to thank her for tweeting about it in the first place and validating fandom suspicions, though, because that also mattered to me. And I’ll be honest: a bit of it is just the fanboy slipping out of me? I’ve been following Shelby–anyone affiliated with Homestuck as creators really–for most of my life growing up, since I was 16. I love Steven Universe and Neo-Kosmos is absolutely fantastic and brilliant (and by the way, if you’re hungry for more content while you wait for Hiveswap Act 2 GO READ NEO-KOSMOS??? ITS SO HOMESTUCK AND KIND OF STEVEN UNIVERSE AND AAAH).
So uh yeah. I get really excited and emotional and worked up and I’m not always PERFECTLY eloquent and making my points as a result. I feel bad about that in this case because I feel really weird about putting anyone at wp in a position they need to respond to, but really all this means to me is that thanks for hiveswap and joey should go to ALL the creators who worked so hard on Hiveswap and to craft this amazing character. Cohen wrote most of the literal text, but he made a tweet I’ll also post here only because it echoes a similar sentiment:
And retweeted a similar one:
And I think that perspective is rightfully deserved. Poinko, papers plase, james roach and toby and so many other people along with these two deserve all our thanks for working so hard under such durress to deliver not just an amazing product, but a thoroughly transcendent experience. The kind of story that changes the world for the better. That’s what I believe Hiveswap is, anyway.
I feel like somewhere along the way during the course of Homestuck, Hussie’s reputation as a troll and other stuff resulted in a culture prone to mixing genuine criticism and hurt with deeply-rooted irony and insincerity, and that only grew worse as the hiatuses and ending came about. At some point, we kind of forgot to praise creators for the work they do to entertain us, and I think doing so is…really important, personally. I’d like to see a return to a more appreciative and celebratory kind of fandom culture, if possible, on a personal level.
Also, to be clear, I don’t think any of this has any bearing on reading Joey. I wanted to thank Shelby for speaking up through her tweet and confirming what many already knew, but I am fundamentally a very DOTA focused Homestuck reader, and that’s carrying over to Hiveswap as well. I don’t think Joey is canonically a wlw because Shelby tweeted about it, although that was useful in a highly skeptical and highly Word of God focused fandom.
I think Joey is a wlw because little kids who play as her and fill her shoes and read about her feelings will definitely connect with the similarities between her experiences and theirs. Because she reminds me of knowing I was into boys and pretending otherwise except for the moments I prayed to god to make it go away, to make it stop, to change me. Because I feel in my heart that the text speaks for itself, and if you let go of the 20 layers of Tumblr ideology and ways the story is problematic and w.e and try to imagine thinking like a KID for half a second…you’ll see that too?
And that’s important. It’s maybe the most important thing that can happen right now, when our culture so sorely needs to understand itself in new ways.
So like. Props to you guys, @whatpumpkinstaff . Sorry if this is weird but well that tweet literally says to do this even if I’m shy so like…yea.
Yeah, it seems like a Neverending Story thing. AURYN–the medallion that grants any wish–has a corrosive effect on humans, even as it makes them all-mighty.
Bastian quickly becomes attached and obsessed with AURYN, compelled to hold onto it against logic and reason.
Also, AURYN changes Bastian’s race, making him an “oriental prince” (this book is from like 1970 or something ok? its not me.)
Which blows a huge hole in the “The trickster kids are a joke about the kids actually being white”, because the kids’ original races have absolutely nothing to do with their caucasian color pallette. That’s all an AURYN thing. In other words, as I’ve said before, trickster mode was perfect and Homestuck is good actually.
OK but this is kind of the best “why you should read Homestuck” thing I’ve ever seen. This cover is amazing, but please watch the video too–it’s really something else.
IRMA JUST LEFT AND NOW MARIA IS ON HER WAY AND SHES GOING TO SLICE RIGHT THROUGH THE CENTER OF THE ISLAND AS A CAT3/4. We haven’t even gotten over the damages with irma yet and some people STILL dont have water or power and now we’re getting hit with something thats going to be even worse for us PLEASE PLEASE pray for puerto rico and the caribbean because this shit is serious
hey @ og homestucks if you’re giving hiveswap fans advice about sealing body paint maybe don’t be aggressive about? i’ve seen a lot of posts where people are swearing at people about sealing body paint and yeah that’s important but you don’t need to be an asshole to get your point across.
on that note, sealing body paint is important, for people who don’t know the ins and outs of paint, because the worst thing that can happen is getting grey on people’s hard worked on costumes! you’ll probably feel guilty if it happens and it’s the kind of thing that is enough to dampen your experience of a convention – worse still, they’ll be stuck walking around with grey paint on that careful armor they spent fifteen hours sculpting and painting or the shirt that they had to find in the right colour, etc etc. seal your paint with lots of baby powder or translucent powder! ben nye is a good brand of paint (for my skin tone which is like, white as heck, i mix one of their white and grey together) if you can afford it because it’s waterproof and long lasting. you’ll need alcohol based remover to get it off – otherwise, snazaroo is cheap, although it’s not waterproof and will probably come off way faster. there is also kryolan which i’ve never tried but heard good things about! it pays to look around at tutorials and the like, there are a load on youtube about how to do it as safely as possible so as to avoid dampening someones con experience! some people make arm socks, but i cant sew at all so i paint my hands. i’d recommend covering them extra well, and if you think you’ve covered them enough…well, cover them a few times, juuuuuust to be sure! i also never paint the palm of my hands or underside of my fingers because i like to grab stuff to look at in cons and it’s just overall safer for me not to!
tldr; homestucks be nice, and there;s some actual help instead of a !!!Sea L Yo ur B o D y P AI nt !! rant in the big blurb. have fun i guess and i hope i get to take photos with people cosplaying hiveswap at my next con!
truly tho. I saw the post that this post here is refering to. and honestly why all the swearing? this just serves the cliché of tumblr being full of unnecessary negativity. you were a beginner once, too. nobody started out knowing all the tricks.
here ya go, instead of going like ‘seal your fucking paint’ try ‘sealing your paint is important, here’s a helpful post with brands of powders you could use/ my advice as an experienced cosplayer’ next time.
is this forreal? Look, I know Homestuck has historically been a free-for-all fandom that tends to express itself really abrasively as jokes because. we read homestuck.
but. I think as a fandom we need to reckon with the fact that Hiveswap is not that kind of experience necessarily, and a lot of its audience is not going to feel super comfortable engaging with that. there’s going to be lots of kids watching, playing, and talking about hiveswap. given the e10+ rating, lots of LITTLE kids. As a fandom comprised primarily of older teens and young adults, it is on us to be like. careful? caring? approachable i guess?
I’m not saying that swearing is like Off Limits in fandom now but like. guys. theres a time and a place. and the place to be inscrutable and dramatically aggressive is probably not when you’re trying to be helpful to newbies.
Just something to keep in mind.
Yeah, the harsher tones of longstanding fans and old school HS humor will more than likely discourage newer fans from engaging with the fandom if it’s the first thing they encounter. And given Hiveswap’s nature and audience compared to Homestuck’s it’s probably time to hang up the old “seal your damn paint” rhetoric that had been so fundamental back in 2013 when the cosplay world was suddenly swamped by grey painted aliens… We have a chance to be the supportive mentor figures sharing our experiences and preventing a new wave of chaos and drama rather than being the people angrily yelling at children who had no other way of knowing. Really, there is too much negativity and hate within fandom these days, we don’t need to contribute to it. Please, let us be a supportive and welcoming fandom for the new comers and make this resurgence something we can ALL enjoy.
I made this STICKERED AND AUTOGRAPHED JOEY CLAIRE MEME just to declare how important and valuable this message is. Just like Joey herself. Because she’s important and she matters to me. Like this post does. Oh also to make clear that I am so writing that Joey post,,, right now. That’s still happening.
But yeah forreal guys it is not gonna kill anyone to be careful to be nice to kids! It’ll probably require more consistent tagging for things like politics and nsfw and stuff but like, that’ll make it easier for the two main “age” distributions of the fandom to coexist in a healthier way.
Tumblr is a hellsite and we would probably all be better served in a dedicated social media hub designed to encourage this sort of coexistence. But in the meantime, we should take care to welcome the youngins playing with areas that aren’t too stressful so they can process everything Hiveswap gives them.
Like. I’ve been losing sleep the last few days because of how good Hiveswap is? I haven’t been in a public venue this weekend that I didn’t cry in. I’ve made rash, hasty, DRAMATIC decisions in fits of passion. I’m just…not like I was.
If that sounds familiar, I think it’s because what growing up reading Homestuck felt like to me. Hiveswap revived my sense of wonder and mystery and beauty, and shown me wonders I’d never seen-like Joey. I guess I just fucking like homestuck way too much?
But that’s…exactly what being a kid feels like. Important and dire as it is to talk about the state of the world and vent from our battles, teens and kids have a lots to do just handling what they’re feeling. I don’t think they should grow up like I did, reading Homestuck and learning about politcs and the state of the world at the same time.
I don’t regret it. But it was bad for me. I think it was bad for a lot of us. Still, it gave me the experience, I hope, to know it didn’t make me super healthy. The only benefit of that possible is to know not to pass it on to another wave of kids.
I don’t know how we’re going to work this out. But this is something I feel really strongly about. We need a way to make adult conversations opt-in, at the very least–so that any kid who wants to dive into them is essentially peeking through a window they shouldn’t.
Try and remember how it felt to read Homestuck and talk to people if you read it when you were young. Try really hard. We can and should do better than that experience, and What Pumpkin have proven they deserve that from us. I don’t think any little girl who connects to Joey should be made to feel that the game that moved her so much is garbage for x or y reason.
I just think…I think we should choose to be gentler than that.
Flying through Storytelling 