I am deeply invested in the Homestuck fandom and will be sticking around on Tumblr, but this is obvs going to become a much more unviable platform for tailored content. Just not worth the effort expense with how much the audience is going to shrink.
I am giving a lot of thought to where the fandom might go from here and how it might benefit. Watch this space for updates and hopefully we’ll all find ourselves somewhere entirely new soon enough–Ideally, somewhere where actual communities can be built. Remember forums? Those were fun.
See y’all later I am distancing myself from this and gathering my thoughts for right now.
I keep noticing how some artists have been silently leaving the fandom. Like, the kind of artist that’ll make casual posts and usually have an open and welcoming attitude about fellow fans and homestuck by itself.
While I’m sure they leave for their own reasons, I cant help but be aware that these artists may come and go sometimes because of either the stressful environment of the fandom, or get targeted/bullied enough for no real reason to the point that they wanna leave, and their traction on people’s dashes get replaced by other artists (or even just louder blogs in general) who instead make fun of others people’s art and like to passive aggressively critique the artistic expression of other’s in the fandom (from ships, to fave characters, to headcanons, to other things one would dub as cringe culture).
Like, unless some other’s want to shape up and stop being assholes, there’s nothing that can really be done, but I’m just a little sad that we’re left with less positive content creators to look up to around here and more that like putting others on blast and sneering at art habits that other homestuck artists have, all while wrapping themselves in this thin veil of woke purity.
Hey, positive Homestuck blogs, reblog this! I’m still here and I know I follow plenty of you that are still supportive, creative and welcoming. Spread this around for other people to find and follow, don’t let the loud assholes drown us out.
A Big Bang is a fandom challenge where writers and artists collaborate to create
fanworks over a set period of time. You do not have to be at any
specific skill level to join!
The r/Hiveswap Discord now hosts a dedicated channel for the Big Bang, so any curious writers and artists can head over to talk, pitch and discuss ideas, or coordinate if they’d like to enter the big bang together!
We’re here to help, so feel free to check us out and we hope you have lots of fun on your Homestuck/Hiveswap Big Bang adventure!
i HAVE to say something because this specific thing im seeing about lanque is driving me up the wall, simply because it makes it rly clear some of you just have no fucking clue what homestuck is about actually? like at all.
and thats this idea that lanque is bad because jadebloods are associated with motherhood, and subverting or complicating that thematic association is bad.
which…just… did these people just like, forget porrim? what happened to caring about the nuances and complexities of girls’ arcs lmao.
like yeah Porrim personally finds a middle ground she’s comfortable with, but the fact that her society coerced her into a role of motherhood and caregiving is still something she struggled with and its still! fucked! up! There is a larger point being made here!
Jadebloods’ motherhood themes arent about a tribe of Happy Mom Girls who all happen to be biologically born into a role they all love because jade bloods are just Like That.
Jadebloods have motherhood themes because Alternia is a dystopian LITERALLY GOD-DAMNED HELLSCAPE that forces trolls into extremely specific + isolating jobs based on their biology, no matter what they want.
As a caste, Jadebloods DO NOT have a choice, and odds are good most of them arent super fulfilled or happy doing the whole selfless mother of the fascist empire thing.
I’ll leave it to women/afab nonbinary folks/TRANS DUDES who have actually dealt with similar pressures right here on planet Earth to talk about how glorifying that dynamic is fucked up.
I just want it to be clear to anyone confused by these hot takes that this criticism isn’t even rooted in an accurate reading of Homestuck and Hiveswap’s actual canon, let alone any semblance of reality.
It frankly boggles my mind. How the hell is this a reading! Homestuck spends literally all of its time tearing biological essentialism the fuck down, whyyy why WHY would anyone expect anything different here.
Take it as a warning about falling too far down your echo-chambery fandom-slash-sjw “activist” rabbit hole. All of this nonsense is grounded in readings so far removed from the comic they may as well be writing their own story.
anyway i usually dont bother with this stuff but i had a moment of weakness, sleep-deprived tumblr blogging is a bad idea. relatedly: dont drink the discourse kool-aid, kids. it’ll fuck you up.
I don’t want to sound negative, but I think if people don’t understand canon it’s because they aren’t here for the symbolism, the narrative themes, or how the characters interact with the world and what aspects of that world are good/bad.They’re here for the art (comics and games are very visual after all), or the characters, or the relationships between the characters, or the sheer fun of the story as it is told, or some combination of these, and the way they interact with the story is based on that paradigm.
If we don’t actively include thinking about aspects of the world like the autocratic empire and the cast system (which frankly are not all that appealing to think about) in the way we interact with the story, we don’t see how its universe – much like our own – is actually pretty screwed up. That’s not to say that it’s not worth thinking about them – in fact it can enhance your understanding of the story and the characters – but just that it’s not the way many of us interact with it.
That’s fine in general, this stuff is for fun and everyone should enjoy fandom as they find most pleasing and satisfying. But I see no reason to treat fans who don’t care about that stuff with kids gloves when they find themselves confused or dissatisfied by something,and then decide to make it canon’s fault without having all the facts.
Especially in a situation like this where people were tearing into WP for…giving a historically ignored population some actual representation. Nobody’s obligated to care about all the intricate lore and stuff, frankly Homestuck has more of it than is probably reasonable to expect fans to engage with.
But by the same token, nobody’s obligated to humor or patiently treat those peoples opinions on the text as if they’re grounded, or like these are legitimate grounds from which to criticize WP’s handling of their own story. They are not. These are well-constructed stories, and often criticisms of them I see (like this one) are simply verifiably deadass wrong.
I don’t see how those criticisms are any more worthy of respect than like, anti-vaxxers’ criticisms of vaccines, though of course the latter is more harmful. This is a public platform, opinions aren’t above criticism simply for being opinions, and I see no reason not to call it like I see it when people are being jackasses while also being spectacularly wrong.
I hope this isn’t coming off overly confrontational to you, to be clear! It didn’t seem to me like you were implying I should be at all, and even if you were, I’m p grateful. Since I’m often banging my drums about how great canon is, I think this is an important conversation for me, at least, to have and take seriously.
I don’t want to encourage aggressive fandom puritanism in defense of canon–I don’t think that’s really any better than puritanism against it. People are free to engage with media however they like.
But like. There are actual facts to this story, and while lots of people dont care about that, lots of people (like me) do. I have no intention of walking on eggshells about that, especially when people are using their bad takes to literally tear down the story I love.
Oh yeah, and here’s my hot take about people (especially men) in fandom using their platform to take steamy shits on cis, straight women:
Your misogyny is still misogyny, and it’s still disgusting! Sexism is still a real thing that affects women all over the world, many of whom are straight and cis! Oppression on one axis is still oppression! Reducing straight cis women who write fanfiction or draw fan art that you don’t like into villains eternally deserving of being on the receiving end of cruel jabs often littered with sexist language reinforces and normalizes misogynist perspectives! It encourages internalized misogyny! It harms real life living and breathing women! It assumes that all women in fandom who identify cis and straight right now in this moment will continue to do so forever, an assumption that is fucking laughable, and you god damn well know it!
Your queerness does not absolve you of your ability to be a misogynist!
And, by the way, if you are a queer woman who enjoys laughing it up with the group about how awful those evil cis straight women are, please know, the moment that your morality and the morality of the bullies you are surrounded by diverges even slightly, your identification will become subject to scrutiny. Please know the moment that you question or otherwise think beyond the groupthink, your identity regardless of how not cis or not straight you are will not prevent you from being lumped in with the cis straight women that you denigrate today.
Please find and surround yourself with people who respect women. Full fucking stop.
there’s something really disgusting and horrifying about people who pride themselves on being “progressive” and then fill their posts with misogynist slurs and insults, but because it’s about cishet women somehow that makes it ok
One of my professors linked this, I think it is important for people to read, especially people who like to be vocal about how much they hate everything.
And share it, wherever you think it may do good.
Tldr: Don’t be a fucking asshat to real, living people or you won’t have any games left to bitch about.
Didn’t the team that makes Half Life decide to delay the game’s next episode by a time frame every time they received some kind of abuse for the delays on social media? I can’t remember or cite… but, isn’t the release somewhere out past 2100 now?
Gods be damned people. Stop abusing people because things didn’t play out the way you wanted. No one deserves that kind of abuse.
This is absolutely happening across every creative platform everywhere. Its part of the reason I have such a difficult time in fandom.
“Vitriol has become a necessary part of the equation. They see developers as the enemy, and abuse as the only tool to keep them in line.”
I think we all need to ask ourselves, regularly: do we treat creators as the enemy? Are we treating abuse as a viable tool to “keep them in line”? How are our behaviors likely to shape the larger field of creative output for the things we love? How would *our* creativity be affected if our audience interacted the way we do?
There are other ways to collaborate with creators as responsible and engaged audience members, other than rage and abuse.
JohnRoxy is a good ship and this is a good post. Wlw don’t have to ship every fictional woman they like with other women exclusively to be ~valid~ don’t let this egregious hellsite fool you. Tumblr is so disconnected from the real world and fandom has completely abandoned the novel idea that you can like or dislike something without fucking moralizing it to hell and back and without being a total asshole to people whose opinions differ from yours. Not to mention the way bi/pan erasure is allowable and even encouraged and this pervasive and completely ridiculous idea that pairing a woman with a man somehow devalues her, disrespects her or otherwise makes a bi/pan woman less queer.
Fandom should be fun. Ship what you like. This year please consider aggressively blocking and blacklisting people who can’t conduct themselves with respect for other human beings and improve your fandom experience tremendously.
“This year please consider aggressively blocking and blacklisting people who can’t conduct themselves with respect for other human beings and improve your fandom experience tremendously.”
We have over 350 amazing and generous human beings who have signed up to auction off fan fiction, fan art, physical crafts, writing services, fanvids, mixes, podfic, and other awesome gifts to benefit Puerto Rico’s recovery. You can see a list of fandom creators here, as well as professional comics creators who generously donated their work.
The auction will be live from 9am EST, Tuesday 10/17, and bidding will be open on all items until 6pm EST, 10/23. At that time, the auction posts will be screened to private to bring bidding to a close. Afterwards, the winning bidders will start to receive a reply to their posts informing them that their bid has won, and further instructions. You can find further detail on the auction timing here, and detail about the event itself at our master post.
A Buy it Now! flash event will run from 9am EST 10/18 until 6pm EST, 10/19, or until we run out of items. (Link is currently screened and will go live at the above time).
I can’t focus on anything enough to write about Homestuck today, so I’m gonna talk about something that matters a lot more instead. I know this isn’t like, part of My Brand, but Puerto Rico is part of who I am and why I’m here. And since I couldn’t be part of the day of action officially, this is what I’m doing instead. So here’s what it comes down to:
I can’t stop thinking about the Homestucks in Puerto Rico.
And yes, it’s myopic to focus on a people suffering who happen to be part of a fandom. Everyone is human and nobody deserves this kind of suffering. Puerto Ricans deserve help because they’re people, full stop.
But people weren’t designed for numbers to track this scale of suffering, and even having spent part of my life there, the devastation my little island is going through has been more than I can relate to, or even imagine.
So it’s this particular memory that sticks out for me, and those particular people that stand in for the unfathomable many who are suffering right now. I’m going to tell you guys a story, and try to put the place I remember into the context of the Island’s current struggle, and the sorely lacking support of the American government.
Then I’m going to talk about what we can do to help.
I can guarantee that at least one of those things is something you can do. Even if you can’t do anything but blog about fandom and talk to friends online–and trust me, I get it if that’s where you are. There’s still something important I want you to consider trying.
If you have the spoons and mental wherewithal, and you care at all about what I do here, or about Homestuck, or about the friends you’ve made and the people you’ve met through fandom, or about any story that has ever moved you to reach out and make a friend,
Then I hope you can find the time to read and signal boost this. No pressure. I know it’s hard and we’re all tired. Still, It would mean a lot to me.
Upd8 culture isn’t something that all the fans here have been exposed to. Fans have gotten flashes of it like on 10/25 last year or, of course, with Hiveswap’s release. But back during the days of Homestuck’s height in popularity, we were all wired, all the time.
An Upd8 could happen any second, and anything and everything could change with any upd8. This was the height of update culture, and it was like being on a neverending rollercoaster. It was a sense of communal excitement and thrill that made me feel connected to everyone sharing the ride.
I went to a con with friends only once in PR, but while there, we hung nearby a Homestuck meetup. I didn’t really engage with them, but I did have MSPA Notifier on my phone, and it just so happened an update hit.
I remember grinning and telling my (Non-Homestuck) friends to watch. That was the first and only time I got to yell the word “UPD8” to someone else in person. The result was spectacular.
The explosion of yelling and the flurry of activity was too overwhelming to follow. Suddenly, teens were yelling and scrambling to get near the closest screen. The one who sticks out in my head is a God Tier John–pretty sure the outfit was homemade–pressing his tablet up against a wall.
For a good ten minutes, we watched as what was a pretty chill meetup beforehand talked and traded screens with fervent excitement. My friends, exposed to nothing but my self-indulgent blather about the comic up until then, looked at me in bewilderment and asked: “What did you do?”
But of course, I didn’t do anything. I was just a lucky messenger. What moved me, what moved us all with the same joy and excitement, was a shared moment of love for a story. A common passion.
I didn’t make friends with any of them that day, and I wish I had now. Really, I just wish I knew if they were alright. Any of them.
I wonder if they enjoyed Hiveswap in the few days between the release and Maria, or if they got the chance to play it at all before the electricity grid collapsed. I wonder how many got off the island. How many have stayed behind.
How many are LGBT, now cut off from access to what was my only lifeline on the largely conservative island? I think about the reports of sky-high rates of depression and PTSD pouring in whenever I can bring myself to listen.
I hope all of those kids are still alive and well.
I should mention: All of these tweets and news reports are verifiably true. I can confirm them myself, because I hear the same thing whenever I manage to get in contact with anyone on the island.
My family hears supplies are coming, but never seem to see them arrive. The woman who drove me to school contacted me today, saying the same thing. Wherever there’s contact on the ground, there are reports of inadequate support and desperate need. Food in grocery stores is near running out.
Everyone I know who is able making plans to leave. Everyone I know cries and hurts most for those who cannot make these plans. Those who are stuck. Those who will be left behind to survive the nightmare.
What can we do for them?
Of course, donating to verified and trustworthy charities is an option. For those of us who are able:
I will continue to post about this when I am able and have useful information to spread, but it may also help to follow blogs such as @tumblricans if you’re able.
But even if you can’t do any of this: Believe me, I understand. I know how hard and unbearable it all is.
Even if you can’t do anything but talk to people online, try to keep your mind off it, try to focus on fandom and friends and whatever gets you through these days,
There’s still something you can do.
Choose to be kinder. Here, in this space that you share with so many progressives, coming from so many walks of life, that have all been hurt by this world through so many cruel and unusual punishments. Even if nowhere else.
Choose to be kinder here, in this nebulous place where many of us come to forget our sorrows and share our joys and pains with others.
Try to remember that everyone has a story. That everyone has something they’re dealing with, and you have no way to know what it is. Try to choose kindness and compassion over instinctual judgment and ideological superiority.
Extend this kindness to creators as well as your fellow fans and users, because the people who make art for us are people who are struggling and trying hard just like me and you.
Extend this kindness to yourself and your friends in your moments of weakness, just…remember to extend it to your perceived “enemies” on this website, too. In the grand scheme of things, they simply don’t exist.
Fandom spaces on Tumblr and Ao3 are predominantly made up of lgbt women, and lean highly towards progressive sentiments besides. Wherever we turn to this hyper-critical behavior, we are making threats out of allies. It’s not necessary, and worse, it drives us apart.
Remember that ultimately, we are all in this together. The world is a scary place right now. There are people out there in the world who deeply and truly want to hurt us. You can even find them online, if you really want to.
But like…fellow fans invested in the progressive agenda? Creators making progressive art? They are not your enemies, and for the progressive agenda and anyone identified as basically any kind of minority, the shit is hitting and will increasingly continue to hit the whirling device.
We all need support now more than ever, and it is really only going to come if we begin to choose to support each other.
And that’s important work to do. Because the kinder we are, the closer we are, the better we can connect. The better we can organize. And the more good we can do for places like Puerto Rico or people like Rune.
Sometimes, making the world a better place is just a matter of being nice to each other. That alone could well have the power to change everything.
Thank you for reading all this. I love you. Keep rising.
My commissions are now formally open! Contact me through ask, tumblr messenger, or email with questions or orders. (cm_noir@yahoo.com) NSFW commissions are priced separately, found here.
To clarify, I’ll draw any character/s you like, fandom, fandom OCs, or original characters alike.
If you can’t buy, I’d really appreciate a reblog! I won’t go into detail, but my financial situation is really not great and absolutely anything helps. Thank you!
Flying through Storytelling 