When the comic came to an end, I made this huge post about why I felt it was a good ending and how it changed my entire perception of the story, and while I still stand by it- Actually, no, while I stand by the better and more detailed theory by @revolutionaryduelist, there are a few things that I feel I didn’t quite explain back in the day. I’ve seen the theory circulate a few times, and I’ve seen both fair amounts of criticism and appraisal, and now that I’ve done a little re-read of some of the story with a pal, I wanted to clear a few things up about it.
First of all, when I saw the Ending for the first time, I was happy. The point of the entire theory was not to invalidate people’s own thoughts about the ending or to find a way through which I would enjoy an ending like that. I hadn’t thought about any of the Meta Stuff at that point, but I enjoyed the ending, and I saw so, so many people through the tag complaining and bashing the finale. I wanted to put my opinion out there, in a sea of people that seemed angry at the ending, to see who else actually enjoyed it, to find why I actually enjoyed it. It was only then than I started to think deeply about the story and began to find a common thread through everything.
Second, as I said, my intention wasn’t to invalidate people’s opinions or start a discourse about why the ending was objectively good and anyone trash talking it is bad. You can be disappointed by the Ending. You can not like Open Ends. That’s fair. However, while I do agree that the story and the characters are every bit as important as anything else the comic showcases, saying that making the narrative intent, moral lessons and bending of the medium and the meta of the story important undermines the enjoyment of anyone who enjoyed the comic for the story is ridiculous. I’ve heard how authorial intent shouldn’t influence a story that’s a grounded narrative, and that doing so towards the end just shits on everything that’s happened before and makes the story ‘pretend to be something it wasn’t until the end’, but…
The thing is, one of Hussie’s earliest talks about Homestuck described it as a Creation Myth. Furthermore, given Jade’s very handle introduced in Act 1, gardenGnostic, the Gnostic and Philosophical themes of the story are actually, not part of any theory, but grounded firmly in the author’s view of what the story is or should have been. It’s fair for people to not enjoy thinking too hard about these things. It’s fair for people to dislike authors putting more personal opinions or views on things in their work. But Homestuck was never something that shied away or hid its intent. If anything, it was just obscured by the fact Hussie’s style tends to be complex and intertwining, and the sprinkled humor through sections doesn’t make it any easier to decipher it. I personally like overthinking this kind of stuff. I know other people don’t.
What I’m trying to say is that, not enjoying the ending is totally valid, and not accepting a theory about its more meta aspects and the philosophy within the comic doesn’t have to make anyone like it any better. But these themes do exist there, and are put out early and through the entire Comic. And in the same way focusing only on the Meta Aspects undermines the narrative itself, ignoring and refusing to accept the existence of something deeper in the story is also a detriment to it.
Last of all, I would like to add that, a year and a half later, I still love the Ending. But furthermore, I still love the story itself in its entirety. As I said, when I got to the end, I was surprised to see how many people disliked how it all ended. Maybe it was the wait, maybe it was the expectations. Whichever the case? Reading beginning to end with someone who hadn’t read it before was amazing. Seeing their reactions to events and new characters, to deaths and shocking bits, going from beginning to end without having to wait for an update. Remembering the good times, noticing things you missed the first time through.
Homestuck isn’t perfect, nothing in life is. Everything has its flaws, and yes, the pacing towards the end isn’t the best, yes, it has an open end and a lot of things you can’t quite know if they were intentional or if you’re reading too much into it and any more casual reader won’t pick up on it and become confused. It’s not for everyone. But with the themes it presents and how it delivers? The way it’s changed my life and my way of thinking? The enjoyment I have gotten out of it and out of this Fandom, and I still get on the daily basis as I wait for the game to come out?
Whether the theories I believe are right or not, whether people love or hate the ending, as far as I am concerned, Homestuck is a Masterpiece, and I will cherish this dumb, long-ass, crazily intricate Webcomic and Fandom for the rest of my life, and keep on sharing the joy it’s brought me with anyone and everyone that’s willing to give it a try.
Tag: inspo
Take a melody
Simple as can be
Give it some words and
Sweet harmony.
Raise your voices
All day long now,
Love grow strong now
Sing a melody of love,
Oh love.
This is my favorite sign from any video game.
If you want to know anything about me as a person, well–this song is why I do pretty much anything I do. This is how I feel, or how I strive to feel, at least. How I want to feel.
Earthbound is good.
I love you.
Keep rising.
i’m sad so its time to post a bunch of music that makes me happy to dump it in my #inspo tag
if you’re sad, i hope maybe it helps you
i hate like Starting Discourse but like … as somebody who has seen kind of a lot of messed up posts this pride, i want to point out that inter-community violence and exclusionism is … frankly inherently anti-pride. just… listen for a bit and if you don’t agree, that’s fine. but listen.
there’s a reason people say “no homo.” even though we hear all the time about how we’re *special snowflakes who get special attention*, people know that this isn’t a safe community to be in. i mean belonging to it – identifying openly – is a scary thing, one that paints a target on your back. so when someone voluntarily says “this is where i belong”, what the heck am i saying when i say, “no, you don’t.” they don’t get special buttons, they don’t get hugs and kisses. people who come out get kicked out of houses, abused by parents. we know that, but we lose sight of it for some reason. i was kicked out of my school’s lgbt+ group by some of the students because i was “not gay enough”. i believed it. i couldn’t say “i’m bi” for another four years after it. i said i was straight but like, playing. i said i was straight and i went home to catholic parents and i said i was straight and i went to prom alone because the girl i loved was out of state and i said i was straight until i was nineteen and drunk and whispering “i like her” to myself in a completely dark room. i still sometimes wonder – do i belong at pride? because of how much people seem to think we don’t.
and i might be alone in this but it makes me sad when people say “oh such and such an identity is taking up our space!!” there’s not a limited amount of space. that idea is something that the straight world wants us to believe, that we can only fit into this tiny little corner and that’s it. but the more of us there are, the more space we take up, the more force we have. so of course the outside community wants us to silence those who “aren’t gay enough,” because if you have only those who qualify shouting, you’re not going to have nearly enough voices. but if all of us – and i mean every person you call “fake bi”, every person who “just went through a phase” – whatever – if all of us are shouting, how much louder would that voice be? if we didn’t kick out every teenager who said “i’m just experimenting,” if we included every mom who “had a fling in college,” if we…. were together…..
those who oppose us want us to fight. divided, we are a mess, as every revolution is. they want our pride to be spent biting at each other instead of turning around and fighting. stonewall wasn’t where we fought each other. stonewall was when it finally stopped mattering, we were all angry, and hurt, and willing. and that fight? that’s what started us on the path to being free. an entire tide of people, all “enough”, no matter where they fell in lgbt.
i know this: people cannot steal my identity. just in the way that stars cannot steal each other’s beauty. let them in. if you won’t love them, send them to me. but a nation of gates and locks and tests is not a community.
WritScrib is a social media network for creators to come together and build their fanbase. Utilizing the concept of busking, we’re hoping to give new creators a supplementary salary by giving fans the ability to chip-in on individual posts in small amounts.
Here’s a few of our launch-day features!
Separate Feeds
Besides your main feed that shows the posts of the people you’re following, you can have tag feeds for the tags you love to follow and group feeds, all separated by tabs. No need for a side-blog when you can post to separate groups.
Groups
Do you really love Overwatch but only want to see Pharmercy? Do you love the ocean but hate how disorganized the tag is? Create your own group! You can make it public, or choose who to invite to the group. Posts can be tagged to be seen in the public tags, but if it’s posted untagged in a group no one but the group can see it.
Messaging
Message whoever you want, whenever you want in a tab just for them. Don’t want to get random messages? Don’t worry–you can disable it or set it to friends-only.
Level-Up
Buy Chips (or get them through your posts) to level up your account. Get access to more emoticons and a shinier badge. Are you a creator? You can set certain posts to only be visible after someone chips-in.
Earn
Each Chip is worth $0.10 USD. Once you’ve made at least $5 USD, you can withdraw it! Don’t want to link your paypal or bank account? You can spend those Chips on any posts that you want, or hoard them to level-up your account. Under 18? Don’t worry! Save up those Chips and get a windfall when you’re old enough to withdraw.
Open Communication
Got a good idea? Got a gripe? We’ll have a Feedback Group that anyone can join. The posts that are generating a lot of buzz will get taken into consideration and implemented if we’re capable (and if we’re not, we’ll let you know why).
There’s gonna be more, of course, but this is just a sample of what’s coming up.
Join our discord to keep up-to-date on our progress, send us an ask if you’ve got any questions, and check out our Indiegogo! Ask yourself:
Will you Chip-In?
We also have a Paypal donation option! Click here to donate via Paypal and send us a message via Tumblr, Discord, or e-mail with your receipt so that we can put the money in for you.
Ten days left on their indiegogo campagin!
They’ve said they will take out a business loan if they don’t meet their goal, but if you’re interested in the project and wanna get a beta key to access the site it’s worth checking out and donating if you can!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/writscrib-online-busking-for-creative-minds/x/13827059#/
Flying through Storytelling 