Homestuck is on a Megapause hiatus for the next few months so I think we should use this opportunity to get as many of our on-the-fence non-Homestuck friends to read it as much as we possibly can!
So I’ll just put all the need-to-know basic stuff here and reblog & link this to whoever…
NOTE: If you give it a shot and you’re just not feeling it at all, it’s okay. Nothing can be universally liked. No one should judge you or look down on you for not liking a thing. So with that out of the way…
THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE READING HOMESTUCK:
- What IS Homestuck? It’s a web-comic. A comic on the web. But while most webcomics just have your normal full-page or strip with panels and speech-bubbles, Homestuck has static panels, animated .gifs, flash animations complete with amazing music, and even interactive game sections! (which the whole point of them are for PLOT. Don’t go all Gamer and try to complete is as fast as possible, it’s not a REAL game, you’ll be missing out on everything!)
- The art’s not bad, there’s more than 1 art style, and there’s multiple artists. Starting-out though Hussie does all the art, and he’s emulating pixelly old-school adventure-games, so that’s why it looks like it does. Hussie himself is a really good artist, but he’s going for a specific tone here. It’s fine if you don’t like it, but don’t treat it like an objective flaw.
- Read the pesterlogs. Some people miss this, but it’s the comic’s dialogue. You literally have to, they’re the replacement for speech-bubbles.
- The first 4 Acts or so had readers GIVE Hussie commands which is why some of the pages seem really random and out of nowhere. He just used fan-commands to name the characters and establish the overall feel of the comic. Hussie completely takes the reigns over eventually.
- Don’t skip the Midnight Crew Intermission. It seems like it has nothing to do with the main plot, but it does. (Also, I love the Midnight Crew intermission personally…)
- You aren’t formally introduced to the trolls until Act 5. They show up sporadically before then, but yeah as much as the fandom loves them they’re not TECHNICALLY the main characters starting out.
- A lot of people will tell you “Keep reading it gets better after Act 1” but FUCK THAT, the first couple acts are pretty different from the rest of the comic in terms of pacing and, but they have their own qualities to them. No one told ME Act 1 sucked, I read that shit and I loved it! SO YEAH.
- “I refuse to read it because the fandom sucks” is a stupid excuse, because EVERY fandom has obnoxious moronic people in it, because the whole world is full of assholes. Go to ANY fandom and you’ll find them. Honestly, I’ve met some of my closest and best friends in this fandom, and as long as you stay away from the idiots, which thankfully I’ve managed to do pretty well, you’ll find great people too, just like anywhere else.
- You don’t have to read Problem Sleuth or any other MS Paint Adventure before Homestuck. Most of them are incomplete anyway. You can go back and read Problem Sleuth later, because it is a really funny comic and Homestuck references it sometimes (and the older MSPAs as well) but you don’t NEED to know that to understand Homestuck. It’s more like interesting trivia facts. You’ll never even know you’re missing anything, trust me.
I think that’s everything? If you want to add anything else you can include in your reblog go right ahead, especially if you’re trying to convince a specific friend with specific hang-ups. But again, don’t be antagonistic about it and don’t force the issue.
I HOPE THIS ACTUALLY WORKS OR I WROTE A BUNCH OF SHIT FOR NOTHING,
- Tooch
