A homestuck reader.

January: •bad new year jokes •if a dog wore pants would he wear them like this or this •all these suggestion blogs •orange soda please i’ll have the strawberry soda me too, the strawberry soda •You fucked up a perfectly good x is what you did. Look at them. They got anxiety. •kylo ren is shredded •Jared Leto: *does something* Director: oh my God…it’s like…is he Jared…or Joker right now????? •tag yourself •super mario 64 half a press •this is x. be like x

February: •the finebros suing something •secret government agent: *punches me in the face* SAY IT me: never secret government agent: x me: *spits blood in their face* fUCK YOU •bernie or hillary things that have a ridicilous issue and even funnier answers •jean something, jomething •damn daniel •ted cruz is the zodiac killer

March: •the dad from kuzco being like 👌 •kazoo kid •everyone who watched zootopia is a furry •history of japan •x or y? *insert similiar pictures here, like donald trump and raw chicken* •get you a man that can do both •going to papaw’s house for burgers •no oscar meme is dead meme •we dem boyz •i’m you but stronger

April: •marge simpson •different variations of the hs panel where jade picks up the note •tumblr’s lizard voting •everyone’s a dirty homestuck •lot of those powerpuff selves •baby stevens •ruining someone’s dream journal •there’s no way out of it you’ll just have to decapitate me •autocorrect in verbal conversation person1: i love you person1: *hate person2: this is a verbal conversation •WHAT WE REALLY AREEE •don’t talk to me or my son ever again •dark x show me y

May: •dan backslide (and dover boys) •dat boi •stone age spongebob

June: •are you x or y person? (tag yourself meme in text format) •get a man who can do both is getting more popular again •it’s june where the fuck are halloween memes???

July: •america memes •IT’S HALLOWEEN •the vacuum cleaner playing a harmonica •associating characters/songs/etc. with spongebob screenshots •this👏emoji👏after👏every👏word •(any videogame) go, go outside and x •a picture of something with text, and more pictures after that, in every one of the pictures the picture starts getting waaay worse, but the text gets really detailed •HANDSY👏CLAPSY👏IS👏A👏NEW👏TROLLSONA👏 •judge: how do you plead? x: *looks at y* y: *mouths ‘not guilty’* x: hot milky y: jc just lock them up •hitting the blue button

August: •arthur screenshot where his hand is a fist •9-1-1 for kids •Exeggutor •harambe •RANDY YOUR STICKS •sausage party •how (character) are you feeling today? *numbers from 1 to ten with silly pictures of the character* •alola form

September: •the thing with voltron fandom where there’s train tracks and “death in season 2” and two characters and u have to choose which one to kill •someone: a basic word me, an intellectual: that word said with synonyms to make it sound weird •gonna prank dad when he gets home ((he never gets home)) •[song] but it keeps getting faster

October: •userboxes •the presidental debate, i can’t believe that there still are people who want to vote trump after that, yikes •dedede •you vs the guy she told you not to worry about •photofunia retrowave •picture of someone with those math things •my longest yeah boy ever •taking a picture of something that requiers two hands in a bathroom •posting ur favourite vines

November: •christmas stuff •dick: out •sir, you’ve been in coma •kermit with a hood on his head •blurred image that says perfection, after that an image where glasses are being cleaned, and then something u like •WE ARE NUMBER ONE

Hello. I’ve never really done a proper theory post before, but I really hope I can manage to make my points clear? Because this is something I feel strongly about.

First of all, today is October 28th 2016, Homestuck had its Credits three days ago, and Hussie has been hinting at an Epilogue to come. Many people really want the Epilogue, because they feel Homestuck’s ending was unsatisfying. The reasons for this, and whether I agree with them or not, are up for debate and are more complex than they seem. But one reason people have proposed is that Hussie grew tired of writing Homestuck and just whipped up an ending. That is the viewpoint I absolutely disagree with, and I believe I can (if not prove) make a convincing case against. Which means I believe I can make a convincing case for the suggestion that Hussie had this entire ending planned, including people’s dissatisfaction with the ending and the reasons why they found it unsatisfying.

So then. What was the ending, again? Let’s describe it from the perspective of one who didn’t like the ending.

John finds his way into a rewritten world where his friends are not really the friends he knows. Roxy is dead here, indirectly killed by John’s own choice (but it’s okay because we know the real Roxy is still alive). The protagonists fight the Big Bad witch and inexplicably kill her with one lucky blow off-screen. A wolf thing, presented as a dire threat, has nothing to do with the actual fight and is neutralized and appeased naturally. A robotic killer is threatening but ultimately blows itself up. The audience is rewarded with, essentially, fanart of Homestuck characters being affectionate with each other. The audience is pissed off by this turn of events; after all that was built up, suddenly our favourite characters are being drawn by other people, suddenly all plot seems to have been forgotten and just strung together with contrivances. It feels like an insult to everything we’ve come to admire. The next Act, instead of providing more answers, we just get anime, and still not drawn by Hussie. A little while later, we hear again from the story, and we see our focal point character is despondent and mournful, deciding ultimately to take action and leaving us on a cliffhanger.

(I gave this description on Reddit, though I added the last sentence specifically for this post)

That is the ending, right? Let’s go over it again.

John finds his way into a retconned timeline, where the art is predominantly a different style than Hussie’s conventional (and when it is Hussie’s, it is “fast and loose”).

His friends are there, but John is consciously aware that they’re not literally the same people he has known all his life. 

John’s very act of arriving in this retconned timeline (his Choice with Typheus in A6A6I4) necessitated that the new Roxy would have to die (which is okay because there is still the old Roxy).

The new John died before we came to this timeline.

The protagonists fight the witch (Batterwitch), the wolf (Jack), and the robot (different Jack).

The witch is inexplicably killed with one lucky blow. (The audience is rewarded with “fanart” of Homestuck characters being affectionate with each other, including a wedding.)

A wolf thing, presented as a dire threat, has nothing to do with the actual fight and is neutralized and appeased naturally, non-lethally.

A robotic killer is threatening but ultimately blows itself up.

The audience is pissed off by this turn of events; after all that was built up, suddenly our favourite characters are being drawn by other people, suddenly all plot seems to have been forgotten and just strung together with contrivances.

The next Act, instead of providing more answers, we just get anime, and still not drawn by Hussie.

A little while later, we hear again from the story (Credits), and we see our focal point character (John) is despondent and mournful…

…deciding ultimately to take action (fight Caliborn) and leaving us on a cliffhanger leading presumably up to the Masterpiece.

Character Chart Character’s full name: Reason or meaning of name: Character’s nickname: Reason for nickname: Birth date: Physical appearance Age: How old does he/she appear: Weight: Height: Body build: Shape of face: Eye color: Glasses or contacts: Skin tone: Distinguishing marks: Predominant features: Hair color: Type of hair: Hairstyle: Voice: Overall attractiveness: Physical disabilities: Usual fashion of dress: Favorite outfit: Jewelry or accessories: Personality Good personality traits: Bad personality traits: Mood character is most often in: Sense of humor: Character’s greatest joy in life: Character’s greatest fear: Why? What single event would most throw this character’s life into complete turmoil? Character is most at ease when: Most ill at ease when: Enraged when: Depressed or sad when: Priorities: Life philosophy: If granted one wish, it would be: Why? Character’s soft spot: Is this soft spot obvious to others? Greatest strength: Greatest vulnerability or weakness: Biggest regret: Minor regret: Biggest accomplishment: Minor accomplishment: Past failures he/she would be embarrassed to have people know about: Why? Character’s darkest secret: Does anyone else know? Goals Drives and motivations: Immediate goals: Long term goals: How the character plans to accomplish these goals: How other characters will be affected: Past Hometown: Type of childhood: Pets: First memory: Most important childhood memory: Why: Childhood hero: Dream job: Education: Religion: Finances: Present Current location: Currently living with: Pets: Religion: Occupation: Finances: Family Mother: Relationship with her: Father: Relationship with him: Siblings: Relationship with them: Spouse: Relationship with him/her: Children: Relationship with them: Other important family members: Favorites Color: Least favorite color: Music: Food: Literature: Form of entertainment: Expressions: Mode of transportation: Most prized possession: Habits Hobbies: Plays a musical instrument? Plays a sport? How he/she would spend a rainy day: Spending habits: Smokes: Drinks: Other drugs: What does he/she do too much of? What does he/she do too little of? Extremely skilled at: Extremely unskilled at: Nervous tics: Usual body posture: Mannerisms: Peculiarities: Traits Optimist or pessimist? Introvert or extrovert? Daredevil or cautious? Logical or emotional? Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat? Prefers working or relaxing? Confident or unsure of himself/herself? Animal lover? Self-perception How he/she feels about himself/herself: One word the character would use to describe self: One paragraph description of how the character would describe self: What does the character consider his/her best personality trait? What does the character consider his/her worst personality trait? What does the character consider his/her best physical characteristic? What does the character consider his/her worst physical characteristic? How does the character think others perceive him/her: What would the character most like to change about himself/herself: Relationships with others Opinion of other people in general: Does the character hide his/her true opinions and emotions from others? Person character most hates: Best friend(s): Love interest(s): Person character goes to for advice: Person character feels responsible for or takes care of: Person character feels shy or awkward around: Person character openly admires: Person character secretly admires: Most important person in character’s life before story starts: After story starts:

So I had originally used this Strike Industries angled foregrip on our Alpha Trooper - but with the Orange Mod Works kits installed it takes a lot more pressure to prime. Essentially your hand would slip on this little angled grip when you prime the AT. Looks cool but just didn’t work right.

So I swapped it out for a Stubby foregrip that was used on the Roughcut. Doesn’t look as cool, but works way better.

What was nice is that the angled foregrip works great on the Roughcut. The Roughcut has stock power, so it isn’t difficult to prime - plus, it just ended up looking kinda cool and different.

The Ancestors

The previous set on the Hemospectrum was received pretty well, so here is a new set of images describing the lives of the Alternian Ancestors. I hope this is useful and enjoyable to read!

The full text is below the cut, with lots of citations.

content notes: The timeline and entries on Mindfang, Dualscar, the Dolorosa and the Ψiioniic involve slavery. The timeline and entry on the Dolorosa refer to a sexual assault, without detail. The Signless/Sufferer’s page involves torture, and has an image of the Sufferer being tortured from the comic. The Handmaid’s entry involves suicide. The Summoner’s and Handmaid’s entries refer to abuse. All entries involve death.

CONSIDER: CALIBORN AND CHARA.

When we talk about how a story should end, we first have to define what a story actually is.

A Story is NOT a sequence of events.  A story is a Sequence of events AND their consequences.  Hussie has given us a sequence of events.  He has not shown us their consequences.

To elaborate.   A story is a way of communicating a certain belief or value, called a theme, by listing a sequence of events, and the consequences of those events.  Comparing events and consequences reveals a truth about how the world works. Events + consequences = theme.

Theme is the reason we read stories.  Theme is what we take home from the story when we go back to the real world Theme is what we learn when we read/watch/listen to the whole thing.  All stories have themes, though some are more open to interpretation than others, and some are more abstract and others concrete and topical.  Good fiction is fiction that helps us understand the real world.  Good stories challenge us and make us wiser.  And authors do this through theme.

So in order for a story to not be a total bull shit waste of time, Authors must 1) list events, 2) reveal the consequence of those events, which can come in the form of lessons characters learn, ways characters develop, how the world changes as a result of events, the emotional impact the events have on the characters, etc.

The ending of a story is when all the themes are revealed and cemented because the ending is when we see the consequences of the stories events.

(SIDE NOTE:  this is why deus ex machina endings are annoying, because Deus ex machina events are the consequence of nothing else that happened before, and also tend to exempt characters and their world from the consequences of previous events.  They break the connection between action and consequence, and thus cheapen the story’s meaning.)

The ending of Homestuck was a series of events.  Lord English is (or appears to be) defeated, Caliborn rises to power.  The new universe is made and looks pretty, everyone lives in can town.  Some ships get together.

But what the ending of Homestuck doesn’t show are consequences.  Yes, a lot of the characters look like they are happy and having fun in the new universe, but we don’t really go into detail about this, how they are personally affected, And many characters who were very important to the story like Vriska and Terezi are not shown post conflict at all, so we don’t know what the consequences of their struggles actually were.  In fact we don’t even really know if Vriska is dead or alive.  The little montage we got of ships getting together and soccer games and general frolicking do not relate very well as consequences of things that had happened, the suffering the characters endured, the way their roles from class and aspect changed them.  We don’t know what the characters learned or how they changed. And in many cases we don’t even know what happened to the characters at all.

We could go into a deeper argument about how Homestuck has a deep problem with dealing with consequences, even though consequences of actions in and of themselves seemingly were building up to be an important theme.  (They certainly spend a lot of time talking about the consequences of actions, and weather or not actions even have consequences).  Retcon relieved characters of the consequences of their failure and suffering.  Nana revealing her healing powers at the last moment revealed the consequences of their fight.  The ending of Homestuck revealed very few consequences of story events, rendering the theme they seemed to be building–or any theme at all–null and void.

You can say, oh, okay, it was an ambiguous ending, maybe we don’t need to know what happened to EVERY character.   Many HS readers took this interpretation.  However when endings are ambiguous they usually are open about their ambiguity, and acknowledge up front to the audience that not just the consequences of the events, but the stories actual theme, is left for the reader to decide.  But homestuck makes no admittance, it just ends.

Homestuck’s ending sucked because things just HAPPENED in it, and as beautiful as those things were, they meant nothing, because we don’t get to see the impact of those events.  So at this point we can say Homestuck has no theme.  Which means this ten minute anime filled with sound and fury signifies nothing, and nor do any of the other 100+  reading we devoted to the story.  We have learned nothing from this story, except that maybe the universe is a giant frog which we know not to be true.  The story hasn’t done the job a good story is supposed to do, and the entire story has wasted 7 years of our time.

I totally get that. Right now, im very worried. Im hoping he shows up in the flash and just BEATS THE SHIT OUT OF CONDESCE. But… -sighs- Who knows. Honestly if Gamzee stays stuck in the fridge and is just thrown in the ocean, i won’t respect Hussies writing as much. There was was too much sub-text, too much foreshadowing to bigger, more amazing, more important things then for it to end without Gamzee having anything more to do then raise the cherubs and become part of Lord English. If THAT was why Gamzee was “one of the most important characters”, then fuck that. Thats just a plot device.

Gamzee is likely to not have his arc expanded for the same reason many other characters who died did not get a significant development. Gamzee over indulged in his Aspect, and as such Skaia deemed him unsuitable to inherit the ultimate reward. The same over indulgence occurred with Feferi, Eridan, Nepeta, Tavros etc, who no longer get to exist in a fashion where they may influence the universe around them. And in the same way, its why Vriska will not "win" sburb, likely dying a just death.