i hate my life i’m in a history class full of theatre kids and this week we’re learning about alexander hamilton and
the theater kids fucking killed her before she could finish making this post
they strike me right between my ribs
Homestuck Tips for First Time Readers:
- Act 3 is when it starts getting good during your first read
- The pesterlogs are long, but they’re important
- The Midnight Crew intermission is also important, but not enjoyable the first time you read it, especially if you have trouble following circular time travel plots. It’s much funnier the second time around, I promise
- The Exiles are not enjoyable the first time. They grow on you, don’t worry (and they’re funnier during Read #2)
- When you reach Act 5 and meet the trolls, you may become irrationally angry that you just got used to the 4 kids and now you have to meet and like 12 more characters? Fuck this and fuck you Hussie I’m not reading this comic anymore these feelings are normal and expected
- Take your time with the interactive games, they’re full of easter eggs that are plot relevant
- Sometimes Hussie just fucks with you
- Have fun and go at your own pace
You experiences may be very different from these. I loved the exiles first time around. I thought Acts 1 and 2 were bunches of fun. Don’t go into it thinking you will or won’t like any particular thing.
Here’s the main tips that I would offer:
1) Homestuck is more book than comic, in that there is a lot of reading. A LOT. Mostly in the form of IM style online chat logs between characters. These ‘pesterlogs’ sometimes drive the plot forward, but more importantly deliver the bulk of the characterization. You will start to encounter them early in Act 1. If you find them entertaining and enjoyable to read, you will likely enjoy homestuck overall. If you find them boring and interminable, you should probably skip Homestuck altogether, because reading these logs will make up the overwhelming bulk of your time with the comic. If you don’t like the pester logs, try Problem Sleuth instead.
2) There is a general narrative flow to Homestuck that is different from most other woks. The pattern goes like this: you start with a character introduction and a very slow build up where you get to know them, then stuff starts happening with tension rising towards some sort of cliff hanger. Then the action will cut to another character and start the whole process over again from scratch. And then once a few cliff hangers are built up, there’ll be a big cathartic resolution of several of these threads at once. Then the whole thing will start over, again, from scratch, with the same or more frequently an entirely new set of characters. This happens repeatedly, with several completely new casts of characters, and IME it’s the main reason why people who start out liking the comic eventually drop it, as they find it frustration to go from a flurry of dramatic action with characters they’ve come to care about only for the story to lurch to a dead stop to start the whole process over again from scratch with an entirely new set of characters. Again. For the third or fourth time. And while you usually come back to those other characters eventually, it might be thousands of pages of dialog later. Just, expect this to happen, and you should be fine.
This was never a problem for me, because I love the slow ‘getting to know you’ bits dicking around with new characters. But then again, I loved acts 1 and 2.
I really do think the advice that ‘Act 3 is where it gets good’ is particularly unhelpful. You absolutely should not go in expecting to get over a couple slow bits and then have it be a fast paced action rumpas from then on out. This isn’t a story where once you get to know the characters and the world rules then everything will be snappy from there. Over and over again, the comic will return to slower paced dialog heavy character and concept introductions, sometimes throwing stuff at you without explanation, sometimes with way too much explanation as a gag.
If anything, how much you enjoy Acts 1 and 2 is the /best/ indicator of whether the entire monolithic beast that is Homestuck will be worth your time to chew through.
I told a guy his total was 13.21 and he said “wish it were that year, could actually get some good music on the radio”
breaking news from the AP, our boys on the front have just sacked constantinople. take that, heretics. coming up next are the soothing lute dirges of bing crosby
The Jacksonian, Cimarron, Kansas, October 20, 1921
fuck it up girl
I Was Always On Green Because My Mama Didn’t Play That Shit.
I got a Red for the first time ever cause I launched a basketball at this girls face 😭😭 it was an accident tho I swear lmao
This traumatized so many kids. I knew someone who had no memory of this until I said the phrase “go flip your card” and suddenly they remembered everything
I went from green straight to red because I gave my friend a piggyback ride for like five seconds
Suddenly you’re 21 and you’re screaming along in your car to all the songs you used to listen to when you were sad in middle school and everything is different but everything is good
this post keeps me going
stagecurtain