#hs pilot

we get to see Dave's POV after John hangs up and his smile slowly falters as he just stares at his phone

and he goes back to whatever he was doing with a blank facial expression

scene cuts back to John sneaking around the house and everything plays out the same

i think this could give people who don't read Homestuck a hint of Dave's character and what he's really like

I know people already have 3 major complaints about the pilot, but overall I liked it!

A lot of swearing

I'm not so much bothered by the swearing; the characters swear a lot in the comics. There's definitely a difference between reading swearing and hearing it, but... the only thing I'm interested in is how they'll portray Karkat? He literally swears every other word, and it's part of his character! "If everyone swears, then no one will swear."

Dave's character

This hits a nerve... I love Dave very much and this is the only point that really upsets me. In the comic, Dave is more of a... cool, chill dude, rather than a... energetic, annoying cool dude. I understand that it's possible that they'll show us this as "he can afford to be like this with his friends, but in front of others he tries to appear cold," but that's not it. I definitely have a favorite character type in Homestuck... A cool, serious, possibly manly character who hides all his feelings inside, but is actually a little meow meow. Hello Dave, hello Dirk, hello Equius.

Fight with Dad

I REALLY LOVE THIS! I know a lot of people don't like it because Dad, in the comic, barely responds and instead positions himself as a truly caring parent to a teenage child, but you know... in my opinion, Pilot only complements this picture even more. Initially, Dad doesn't respond to John's actions, but then, it seems, he decides to play along with him and also enters this battle, where, technically, he wins, since he is an adult and stronger. But at the same time, when they fall, Dad catches John so he doesn't fall and hurt himself! It's such a small and sweet detail! In the Pilot, Dad is portrayed not just as a caring parent, but as a parent who tries to care for his teenage son while still being on the same wavelength. I LOVE IT!

This is probably going to be controversial, but I honestly love this way of depicting Jade. Not only is she "rendered in a more symbolic manner," but as I said before it matches her typing quirks.

Mailbox flag gag is kinda here. But honestly the lack of reference to the fact the flag is up is blown away by how good John's depiction is. This really does feel like how I imagine John is looking as he's examining his neighborhood during the title scene.

Okay! I actually kinda love how John interrupts the title card here. This then becomes a gag to draw us to some other teasers for if this actually gets a season.

I like how, since this is being done on cellphones now, both Jade and John react intensely to the meteor impact.

Since Dave is supposed to type in all lower case, I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt and say this is a reference to how Homestuck always capitalizes important things.

Again, I feel Dave is being a bit overly expressive here. But this at least somewhat resembles a classic Dave rant.

Small detail, but the arm shouldn't have a sleeve. John is in his God Tier pajamas while he's reaching across Homestuck, and they have short sleeves.

Actually a pretty badass depiction of the meteor. I love how it still doesn't look at all like it's on course for John's house.

And now we get our familial Strife! It honestly makes sense that this is where the most time and effort gets put. The thing most of us want is to see our favorite moments lovingly detailed out in high quality animation. While this is just the pilot, this strife is SpindleRoo's chance to show what some of the most memorable moments from the comic could look like. And, for the most part, they deliver.

But seriously! They couldn't throw up a single "AUTO-PASTRY"? I know it's small, but we get both:

A failed attempt at DOTESMITE . . .

. . . though it's correct here.

And Beagle Aegis!

On a more positive note, I love the callback to what Dad's wallet cards look like.

And how Dad pulls John behind him before the big impact.

Also love how we go from the house getting wrecked to . . .

Just a little smoke in the kitchen.

But at least some of the damage is going to be persistent.

Love how John is critical of the cover when in the comic it's just CDs in sleeves. Also, someone's got balls marking this game as E for Everyone.

Then we get a moment that I'm going to let be hand-waved for the sake of this "[S] END OF ACT 6 INTERMISSION 1" style preview of what we could see in a Homestuck series. No, WV should not be able to activate a view of Jade's Room. But I don't care because this sequence is pretty cool.

And, of course, we can't have a work of Homestuck animation without a Trollcall!

And of course, our angriest boy stinger!

Final Thoughts

This is a mixed bag. On the whole, I do feel like there's a lot to like here. And as a Homestuck fan, I'm going to be super critical of this. I should be remembering that part of the goal here is to bring Homestuck to a new audience, and I should not gate keep.

As I said initially, I think the animation is fantastic! I've honestly always loved Spindle's animation. And while there are definitely some things that I wish they'd included or that I feel they breezed over to much, they do a good job of animating their way through a lot of classic Homestuck gags.

I also do love how they're adapting and animating some strange and silly rules for how Homestuck works in this new format. Character manipulating and breaking frames, a narrator everyone wants to shut up, all kinds of animated Sylladex fun, and, of course, the Strife. At minimum, I think that this will be fun to watch if it keeps going.

But I really don't like how they're depicting the characters. Dave feels way off. John isn't as bad, but there are still some things where I'd argue you've gone beyond interpreting him to another format. Rose is only slightly off, but she also doesn't get anywhere near enough screen time. The only flaw with Jade is that she isn't as cagey about what she knows in the final scene at the computer, otherwise she's great.

A lot of the concepts are rushed (moreso than in the original lol), things happen out of order (so that it can fit into a pilot), flashforwards and troll montages do kinda spoil the magic of their reveal (though I love it for a pilot). If they gave an actual act 1 adaptation time to breathe, I think it would be about half an hour/forty minutes, because it sets a LOT of the groundwork for how sburb as a game works. If they did 20 minutes episodes, act 1 could be two episodes, easy. Although, because of how the pilot already shows some things happening in real time (rose going past the hallway), it seems like the show will be doing things in a more chronological order, meaning a properly adapted "act 1" would be a lot longer, as we'd also get the early act 2 rose stuff. So maybe 3 twenty minutes episodes, the first episode being largely what happened in the pilot, second episode learning the sburb basics, introducing the gamefaqs (or equivalent), and starting the "rose stuff", and then the last episode focusing on the very last bits of act 1. But I do think that some of the stuff in the pilot should be retreaded by the show.

Past that (this post has just become Randy pitches the homestuck series) I definitely think the initial act 2 exiles stuff should be its own episode. Have episode one be called "ACT ONE", episode two be called "The note desolation plays", and have the third episode be called "END OF ACT ONE". Then you could have episode four be called "Years in the future, but not many", going through the beginning exiles stuff. I think it should be its own thing before episode 5 is called "ACT TWO".

Alternatively, each "series" can be the acts. This will mean that the acts of the show and the comic will differ, but I think it would be worth it, especially if Act 6 is as changed as it seems it's going to be.

My proposition, in this case, is that acts 1, 2 and 3 are "ACT ONE", then the intermission is one episode (and seems to be completely unrelated to homestuck. Like it doesn't even have the word homestuck anywhere in the episode. Have the title of the episode be "INTERMISSION" but make the intro be an intro for the midnight crew). Now, act 4 is a whole act, Act 2, and then act 5 act 1 and act 5 act 2 are acts 3 and 4 respectively. I wouldn't even mind intermission being after "ACT TWO" (comic act 4) to bridge make it flow into Hivebent, which would be "ACT THREE" (the full title for the series is HOMESTUCK ACT THREE: HIVEBENT). Then, Act 5 Act 2 is "ACT FOUR". Honestly, act 5 act 2 is so long, it would make sense to make it "ACT FOUR" and "ACT FIVE". This adds the nice detail of Act 6 being "ACT SIX", right?

I'm not entirely sure. Act 6 is a very VERY VERY complex and confusing clusterfuck. OUR clusterfuck, but a clusterfuck nonetheless.

Honestly? It'd be cool if Act 6 is, like, an entire different thing. Like you know how new who used series but now it started again from season 1? Do that with homestuck. Have each side be alternative serieses. Then have the parts of act 6 be called seasons. Act 6 acts 1-5 can be seasons 1, 2, and 3, then act 6 act 6 can be seasons 4, 5, and 6.

Honestly make Collide and Act 7 massive events, tied under the Season 6 banner. Have Collide because "HOMESTUCK ACT 6 SEASON 6: COLLIDE", and have Act 7 be "HOMESTUCK ACT 6 SEASON 6: THE RAPTURE".

And then, IF you wanna keep going (;3), you can make an intermission style episode called Epilogue, which sets up two series: "HOMESTUCK: MEAT" and "HOMESTUCK: CANDY". Either have them be the same number of episodes, and release each episode side by side (meat 1 and candy 1, then meat 2 and candy 2), or finish Candy first then Meat.

By this point, beyond canon is probably WELL into later acts, and you could start working on adapting/polishing homestuck^2, (all referred to as HOMESTUCK: BEYOND CANON), as well as beyond canon proper. This would require quite a bit of rejigging, but I'd say that you could make BEYOND CANON ACT ONE the more set up parts of homestuck^2, then BEYOND CANON ACT TWO be beyond canon act 1. Give the addendum and intermission stuff it's own combined episode, too. I wanna see the fanontinuum animated in the most insane style possible.