homestuck

10-25-2023 Update Writer's Commentary

JAMES, Director: Everyone gets to do a fun little goof title on these but I have to be serious because I’m the director. No one suffers as I have. Whoa, this ones got pictures. (At the time of writing the 10/8 commentary has none.)

HAVEN, Lord of the Black Flame:

Jail8r8k 3: A Very Merry Vrismas, this was the first one I wrote! Now I know you’re looking at this classic and tasteful homage panel thinking; "this is shit where's the pumpkin" and you already know I'm gonna answer that question with a question, but I know you know what question I'm gonna ask so I'm actually not gonna say it.

JAMES: (god damn it)

MILES, Who Is Here Too: I’m here too!  I don’t think I wrote pretty much anything for this one, but this is a writers’ commentary, not a “wrote this update specifically” commentary, so what can you do?  Nothing.  You can’t do anything.

HAVEN: Looks like Vrissy still has her phone in here, these guards suck ass at this. Though I suppose it’d be hard to confiscate someone's phone from their Sylladex since it’s not even like a real physical thing. “Intellichum 8.0, for the chatter who gives a shit about living in a surveillance state." Two of the handles here you may recognize as characters we've seen, the third is someone you might've seen if you've read the bonus updates (though she sadly didn't have time to say much of anything), the last handle "gavageCunctation" however, is entirely new and also somehow perceptibly online despite Vrissy's lack of service! Who could this be? Could they be important? Our teenage griftress here seems adamant that they aren’t.

JAMES: I love this update. I love the return of second-person narration. I love how cleverly so much of this is written. This feels like HOMESTUCK to me. Haven was the first person I picked for this team. I thought, “I need someone who is funny and has experience making comics” also he fucking drew this one too??? This is so fucked up.

MILES: Seconding the Intellichum love, as well as the love for that classic Homestuckian vibe.  I tried to keep that energy in updates of my own, when appropriate, because like many of us, I missed it!

HAVEN: Making these panels here was making me laugh so hard, this whole sequence was so funny to me.

JAMES: I love how crazy she’s going behind the bars.

MILES: Not as crazy as Goon McGuard is about to go on that pastry.  Or is he…

HAVEN: Yeah, I slipped an x-men reference in here. I love the x-men, no one on the team is willing to sit down and have me point them towards dense reading guides to get them into the x-men, so putting minor x-men references in here is left up to me. I’m like Atlas in this way. Anyway, one thing about guards is they’re always trying to get at some donuts or sleeping on duty while they have a cartoonish ring of keys on their hip.

JAMES: That’s how I’m trying to live.

MILES: If it were me I can promise you there isn’t a teen alive that could stand between me and my treats, psionically or otherwise.  If I was in this situation I’d simply handle it.  Fortunately for Vrissy, this was not the case.

HAVEN: Ah, the hall of goons… fun thing about this panel here is this isn't actually a looping gif, if you wait long enough you’ll see the last few goons trickle out and then the gif just ends. Fun thing about this commentary here is that I'm also lying. Or am I? Only one way to find out.

FLORAL, Principal Boob Scientist: Hi, I’m a scientist. I don’t know how I got here. Anyways I love this update too. The charm. The Vriskas. The guards running down the hall which is just crazy good animation and so silly to look at!!!! I agree, this is Homestuck. It’s so well paced too, I’m excited to see more updates get down to business like this.

JAMES: This update gives us some much needed characterization for Vrissy. Her character always sort of took a back seat to her namesake, but she isn’t her. So interesting that her powers are a little different. So interesting that she doesn’t have Thief of Light powers. Just so very interesting. While we have these threads to work with, it was also very important that we start telling the story that we want to tell. We are starting to plant those seeds in this chapter especially. There is a lot going on here. What could Vriska mean here? Ha ha. Guess we’ll have to wait and find out. Am I perhaps being TOO subtle about this?

HAVEN: Whatever THAT means…

HAVEN: Here we have a classic part of the hero's journey where the character decides to do their own thang. If doing your own thang was a job, Vriska would be employee of the month every month.

JAMES: This is an important point for Vrissy. She is seeing that blind idolization of someone can sometimes lead to them being kind of dangerous and annoying. I think you can be critical of people you admire and still look up to them. I need this to be true because I am annoying, personally.

FLORAL: Good for Vrissy! Vriska is so prone to adopting these avatars and “pet projects” of people, I’m glad one of them finally put their foot down. The fact it’s another version of herself is the best part.

HAVEN: Vrissy is here doing her thang, knockin out guards like dominoes, hopping off rails, just generally flexing her psychic prowess in a way she probably hasn’t ever had a chance to. Her being raised on Earth C alongside humans means her powers work on them in a more definitive way to contrast with the og Vriska. Side note, the guard was watching a live stream of Jane delivering some kind of news...? What information could she be disseminating to her followers? It’s funny talking like this in the commentary because you already know but I get to act like you’re somehow reading this commentary alongside your first readthrough of the update.

FLORAL: The propaganda posters are such a nice added touch. Also, I love how Jane’s henchmen are portrayed, you know they are strongly related to her…an army of ecto sons.

HAVEN: Back out into the open, and now that she’s got service, people are back online. Well, one person is back online and it looks like his spheres are rumbling over seemingly getting snubbed by Vrissy.

MILES: I can’t lie, every time I see this panel the gamer in me wants to toss a grenade or other such projectile towards these red barrels and let whatever happens happen.  Vrissy is seriously tempting fate with this one.  But fuck if she doesn’t look slick doing it.  And for that, she lives to smirk another day.

HAVEN: Homestuck characters are always sneaking around in vents it seems like, huh. Gamzee, Calliope, and now Vriska. That’s like 80% of the cast. The meteor’s location here is being established as “The Troll Memorial Meteor” I feel like that spot would be a popular tourist destination, the interior probably cordoned off to preserve it for the cherubs in the far off future. Maybe there are ghosts working as tour guides.

FLORAL: That would be crazy. Nepeta leads you around this dusty death trap, suddenly stops and points to a stain on the floor, “that was me! :3.” And then just keeps walking!

HAVEN: Jane is in the middle of her broadcast to her soldiers getting a little silly goofy. She literally can’t help it. Odd thing of note here is that she refers to The Point as a “superweapon” to be used against her. At no point in the conversation with John, Roxy, and Calliope is The Point implied to be a weapon. What’s Jane angling at here?

HAVEN: There was a whole thing we were gonna do with a bunch of characters finishing updates by saying “let’s get to the point!” because we were like trying to drive it home that we wouldn't be meandering around with this big rebrand, but after I put this here we just straight up didn’t make anyone else say it.

MILES: Also it was becoming kind of a typographical superfluousity.  God I hope that’s a word.  Homestuck is full of Words That Matter Formatted Uniquely, which I love, but blasting it out like four times in rapid succession sort of kills the buzz a bit.  Not to say that we’re not going to do that at some point in the future, but when we do just know that I correctly anticipated that it’d look kind of weird.  And if it doesn’t end up looking that weird when it actually happens, just know that I’ve been toying with you the whole time.

FLORAL: I got to say, the way this panel fucking owns is off the charts. The economy is booming. The visual abstraction serving narrative purposes is bloated with cash. I love the energy of the gif’d background and the composition is set so nicely, not only multiple points leading to Vriska’s eye but the circular repetition surrounding it that emphasizes it even more. Hooting and hollering.

JAMES: Someone sent me an email to my commission email (please do not do this) very passionately telling me to put Jane in the next update and I had to write out a whole thing about how while I am open to feedback and want to hear people out that I’m not actively taking suggestions and the next update was already written etc. Only I knew Jane was already in the update at the end here. So if you’re reading this, this was already planned but I’m glad you’re happy. Please do not email me like that again though.

HS:BC (Bonus Comics) 1 and 2

#1 Written and Drawn by floralmarsupial

#2 Written by James Roach and Drawn by Ashley Tahilan 

10-08-2023 Update Artist's Commentary

Chumi, who is Generally Enthusiastic about Most Things: Hi! Wow, look at this month’s update! The first update of them all, a momentous occasion marked by some silly courtroom shenanigans! Believe me, it’s so exciting to get rollin’ again. Hope you’re just as –EXCITED as we are! We’re cooking right now, and it sucks that we can’t show you everything immediately, but MAN… Anyway, it’s nice to see some callbacks to previous panels, right? I think my pals on the team did an amazing job on these, seeing Terezi up to some silly NONS3NS3 brought back some warm, nostalgic fuzzies.

Kim, gay: And what a hearty update it was to kick off the comeback! The first thing y’all probably noticed coming back to Terezi here in the Meat timeline is that she has a spankin’ new outfit (again?!) The previous fit was definitely fun and very Terezi-core, but we figured it would be the smart decision to streamline her outfit in a way that would be more feasible to redraw for many future panels to come. (I mean, the artist had to draw her for about a WHOLE 30 panels just here! That’s already a whole lotta times to redraw the same design over and over!)

Kim: I helped pitch the new look for her design, and immediately the creative crew already loved the direction we were going with. There were a few subtle iterations of this that floated by too– like what if she also had a tie? Or a bolo tie? Suspenders, or no suspenders? Her initial design also implied she still had a coat too, but it wasn’t really all that relevant for this update. But, maybe it’ll come up later– who knows! The world is our oyster. To have a coat.

James, Director: I really wanted Terezi to have a simplified down design, but also still look a little like a lawyer. So I asked for suspenders.

Chumi: You were correct!!! Suspenders look slick on her. A new outfit for a new phase of the comic!

Andi, a humble virtuoso of the canvas: Agree with the above. Her outfit was so fitting for her. I couldn’t imagine it any other way. Kim did an awesome job cooking it up!

Kim: And we couldn’t have asked for a better artist to start off this update than Andi! I remember as soon as they presented the sketches to me for this update, I was already blown away with their vision. They captured the visual vibe of Homestuck perfectly, I hardly had any notes for it. Here you can see the initial boards they pitched below– you can even see how some small things changed and what stayed! I always think it’s so fun to observe how things evolve during the production process from the original idea to the final product, hehe.

Andi: Beginning our artist rotation for the updates, I volunteered to draw the first Terezi panels. Truth be told, it was a little intimidating! Considering my take on the new art was going to set an example for the future of the art style. Us artists had long talks about it, we explored how the new style can be both economic and whimsical. We thought it would be refreshing if we tried to maintain the charm of the old HS1 style with a bit of our own styles mixed in. I’m happy to see that it really hit home for some people. Once it was time to start working, James handed me a really interesting script to begin thumbing. I thought, “Woah, a courtroom scene. Reminds me a lot of those little Hivebent moments....” Then I smirked, realizing I had the opportunity to violently hammer that little nostalgia button in the deep crevices of your brain lobotomy style. As a Homestuck old head of sorts, I am prone to indulging in a lot of oldies but goodies, but I think this time it was VITAL that I include something that would convey that Terezis’ old habits are still there, she is an adult now, but we still get glimpses of the old Terezi we know and love. I got some comments about the animation and how they said it felt very homestuck-y. That is one of my favorite things to hear considering I studied the HS1 gifs for an unreasonable period of time just to achieve this. I really want the animation to have these janky jitters and abrupt cuts between sprites and movement.

One of the funny things about that though is that our AMAZING technical helper Wunkolo (programmer/artist/animator) helps us with some animation work once in a while, and we worked together on the panel where the bucket creature was kicked into the sky team rocket style. This one was going to actually be a lot smoother. As artistes, we don’t really think about how jank Homestuck really tends to be! Making things look shitty is an art form in itself. So here was the original frame rate:

This is MUCH too smooth and PERFECT to qualify as a Homestuck animation.
So, we got some advice from professionals: “MAKE IT MORE CHOPPY!!!!!!!!!”

There we go, chop it up baby, make it a whopping 15 fps. Sometimes homestuck has to look like a powerpoint slideshow, ya feel me? Who thought janky animation took this much effort…. *wipes brow*

I am going to make sure the rest of the comic can maintain these little animation traditions with a touch of stupid.

After finishing my half of the first update, it was then time to see what was cooking up with John and Sollux. The art for that was just so visually stimulating for such a brief interaction. It really enhanced both their charms, including the little exasperated hand to the head that John can do when he’s just perplexed. Haven did awesome! (As per usual 😏) I’ll hand it off to Mr. Foods to share the genius.

HAVEN, Mr. Foods: Hi guys, I did the art on the second half of the update!

HAVEN: The start here has John walking through a tunnel towards the light, creating a nice parallel with the previous section finishing with Terezi speaking to John's corpse in the wallet. During the production phase of that update, we were talking about Terezi having a back and forth with an unseen party and I wanted the reveal to be Terezi literally speaking to John’s corpse propped up against a tree or something.

HAVEN: I made this image about it, but people thought it a tad morbid so it got nixed! :p

JAMES: At first I wanted him to be a skeleton. I started calling him “Dry John.” This lasted about 15 minutes, but I still call him Dry John in the work chat and people know who I mean.

HAVEN: This is the big reveal. Sollux, the Gamer. The prompt was something like “sollux-male-living-space.” Luckily, I’ve been thinking about “sollux-male-living-space” for years now, and I had this edit made that I could quickly build off of.

Chumi: Sollux, what a guy. I love their exchange. Good on him for calling John out for being sorta weird. I think you should be more worried about other things instead of being so nosy! And I always forget he’s like… 40 years old! Isn’t that crazy? All of our favorite characters are middle-aged now, at least in one timeline! New outfits, new-ish style, old characters we love, a new game to play, and new things to come… This is all such a marriage of the new and the old, it’s kinda beautiful. I hope you’re ready for it all, because I think we’re making something great. We are making it happen, and you all better be there to see it! 🫵

HAVEN: Here he is in full force gaming, getting down on DK country looks like. I think this was a toblerone wish we wanted to subtly address. I think someone wished “I want Roxy to be a Donkey Kong Country fan” and it went years without ever being addressed… until now.

HAVEN: I like John sitting here kind of sheepishly with his knees together like that. In the sketch here, Sollux was gonna be way more sloppy, sandwich out on his chest and it's starting to all fall apart, but he just can’t give a shit.

HAVEN: Panel arrangements here ended up being switched around between iterations of the update. The bottom panel with the Vriska knockout callback was originally first, with the dramatic Sollux with doom symbol in the back going second.

HAVEN: The final punchline of the update here was a request from a team member that Sollux also played Sonic CD. I think Sonic CD’s soundtrack, or songs that sound like Sonic CD, have been associated tangentially with Sollux for a while so we’re, um, what's the opposite of lampshading something? Well, we’re showing that he’s into that shit.

November Patron Exclusive Illustration

Illustration by Haven

10-08-2023 Update Writer's Commentary

JAMES ROACH, Director:

Meowdy Pardners, James here. You might recognize me from my many appearances on your timeline over the last month. I wrote a lot of this update. Then a lot of it was edited by more skilled writers and it came out a lot better. Though, if you search in your heart you can still feel my foul influence on it. Anyway, I don’t remember why we picked Terezi and Dirk for the first update.

MILES, handsome and enigmatic Writer:

Hey all, happy to be here.  This update was mostly written by the time I hopped on the project, but I still got my hands on it a little in the weeks before we dropped it.  My first writing for the project was actually some stylistic editing for updates down the line, and then fully scripting an update even FURTHER down the line, but nevertheless I had fun with this, and have managed to get my irons in the fire of pretty much every update in SOME way shape or form.  You’ll see more of my work later, and I hope you dig it as much as I dig being allowed to write it.  It’s surreal.

JAMES: (This guy really wrote handsome and enigmatic writer)

MILES: Anyway, I think this was a really fun opening for HSBC’s return; Terezi’s Law and Order courtroom LARP was the kind of whimsical aimless shenanigan (singular?  Can a shenanigan be singular?) that Homestuck is so known and loved for.  Her new look is also honestly spectacular, and perhaps a sign of other delicious aesthetic moves to come?  Time will tell.

Moving into Sollux’s gamer cave was another super fun bit that was actually originally going to be the first part of the NEXT update; at the risk of sounding like a pompous fuck, I’m pretty proud of my idea to push it to the latter half of our first update drop.  I think it might have been a bit lonely with just Terezi there, so adding a few more fan favorites to get you all hyped is the least we could do.  There’s also something so stupidly, shallowly, badly-metaphorically poignant about the first update of the new team ending on Sollux’s request for a disc change.  It wasn’t written with that in mind, but it works in retrospect.  And pre-trospect.

I think we’ve all been that Sollux at some point in our lives.  Maybe you’re that Sollux right now.  I support you.  If anything, you should be gaming harder.

JAMES: I spent a lot of time thinking about how to reintroduce the comic and then one day I thought “haha wouldn’t it be funny if the law and order sound played” I guess there are “legal reasons” you can’t do that. I say “I guess” because I am guessing and didn’t look into it. Anyway, I wanted to dress Terezi like a funny southern lawyer so she needed suspenders to snap when articulating a particularly poignant point about not being from the big city. Originally, I wanted a whole jury of 12 Terezis but that would be insane to make someone draw.

HAVEN, Haven: Ahh HSBC Meat #1.1 a strong start! It's cool getting back to Deltritus and seeing what's new with everybodys (yes, yours too) favorite troll: Terepy Pipes, back at it again reporting live from PARADISE. Direct parody aside, I like how the updates James writes feel more like scenes of a tv show than a webcomic. It's like watching an episode of icarly but they have godlike powers (I've never watched icarly). James and Andi were a strong ass duo on this one, every time I'd read it with Andi's sketches I'd be like omg guys... it's like we're making homestuck in here…

I didn't really touch this one other than like a single line or something nonconsequential.
Meat #1.2 though? Uhh yeah, you could say I had a hand in that one. B)

I wanted john to investigate the noise and get distracted by Sollux who just happened to be around because the format of “tell john to do something” -> “john goes and does it without a hitch” was a little boring  (also allowing Kanaya, Rose and Jade to have a little space to themselves for now so later we can see them talk in depth about…um something? Someone? A Something that resulted in a Someone? Maybe?) James wrote the outline and then it went through a shit ton of iterations, with the meat of the final product being written by Floral, who did a bang-up job.

Sollux demanding john change his game at the end got me bad, the fact that it's a game for a completely different console so he would have to like, take all this time to switch out all the rca cables and hook up a whole different console when he just said he needs to hurry and get the vriskas out of jail kills me.

JAMES: I have seen every episode of iCarly. I wish this was a bit. I remember outlining this thinking “John needs to be kind of more of a shithead”. He’s on his way to “Save” some Vriskas, but he takes time to be a little self centered and get distracted. John’s not a complete asshole or anything though he is just used to his life centering around him. He’s got this whole ennui about “nothing happening” but he’s lived a whole life! He has a son! I wanted to see what Sollux was up to too. I guess chronologically this doesn’t make a lot of sense. Shit I never thought about that. Nobody else did either though so I’m innocent of all crimes. It's only been like a few days since he was up on that roof. Or HAS it (it has).

Very little of my original dialogue stayed in this one. We brought Floral on, and before we even gave her anything to do she was already editing this one. And you know what? It was way better. I originally had Sollux saying this really long soliloquy to try and lean more into his prophet role. Mage of Doom, baby. We never really see what Mage does so I wanted to showcase it a little here, but the line was a little flat. Having him go into a long winded Royal-Tart-Toter-esque prophecy was funny but it didn’t feel like Sollux. He’d just tell you what he means. Words don’t mean much. Only actions. He’s right. Haven took another pass at it and it just elevated it to heights I thought previously unimaginable. I like this direction for Sollux. He’s just hanging out. He and Aradia trust each other, so he isn’t super concerned she just got up and left. She does this kind of thing.

FLORAL, the most fucked up guy you know: Yeah, that was a silly moment on my behalf. The original edit was great but the prospect of both being newly hired and John/Sollux getting their first conversation got me furiously writing jokes. I love this duo. Everyone is always bothering Sollux about getting along with their exes. But unlike Eridan, John is friendly and nice in the inconsiderate and overbearing way, only friendly nice people get away with. Did John even get what he wanted from the conversation? Does he have the insight to even notice????

So I went a little rabid, and was so grateful to everyone on the team for considering this new draft, giving it suggestions to make it stronger and pushing it forward. It made me feel incredibly welcomed.

Anyways concerning the first part of the update, I am also a huge fan of the Law and Order opening. It feels good to return to Terezi first and foremost, her OG introduction is iconic and one of my favorites. Seeing that replicated by an older and worn version of the character was 100% the right choice. Growing up is hard…it’s hard and nobody understands.

JAMES: Well, it turned out ok, don’t worry. We wanted this intro month especially to be like MAD STACKED. There are a lot of very heavy decisions to be made about a lot of plot threads. I often get asked “Why not a retcon?” or “Why not a reboot?” Man, aren’t there enough reboots? I think it's fair to ask though. I have publicly mentioned this, but I think it will be more satisfying to resolve these story beats in-universe.

One of the tragedies of the original run was that it never got to finish its arcs due in part to the nature of a slowly updating story. I always try to end my sections with little cliffhangers to sort of subtly remind the reader that there is more, but later. Maybe that's why Haven says my parts feel like TV episodes. I think that by sort of leading people this way with your storytelling you remind them that this isn’t the end, and that they have to wait for more to see what happens. This helps push the story, even if you are switching to another scene now. Like, “Whoa! What's Terezi gonna do with that wallet? Oh right! Alt-Callie-Jade got knocked out last time we saw her! Ah, here's John and Sollux..” you get to shift around the focus but keep people wondering what's gonna happen next.

We're live!

A newspost will go up some time tonight (10/30) with some more common questions we've gotten over the last few weeks. Payment should go through on the First of November, and we'll upload the rewards then. Thanks for your patience!

The Plan

(This will also be posted on the main site, In the coming days there will be a post detailing the new reward tiers)

First and foremost, what a launch! Glad to be back. Thank you for all the well wishes, kind words and honest criticisms. The team and I are loving the energy. You have made us feel very welcome in a sometimes overwhelming space.

In a continuing effort to be as upfront as possible about things..

On the 30th of October, we are going to restart the Patreon. This was a sort of heavy decision that we understand may not sit well with some people so we want to be forward with you about it. We want to allow people the time to sort out whether they’d like to stay subscribed or not. Patreon exclusive content will be made public after a few months. This will consist of non-canonical one-shot comics, behind the scenes visual development, sketches, storyboards, writer/artist update commentary and a few other things that we will get into on the Patreon itself. I want this to be something you choose to do because you support what we’re doing, and never because you feel like parts of the comic are being withheld behind a paywall. The comic will still update on the main site as always.

So, how will this time be different? This might be a lot to read for those of you who are not interested in this, but I want to do things differently this time. I want to give the readers as much clarity as I can afford.

First up, we need to be very transparent about where the money is going. This time we are paying all of it to the HS:BC team. Unlike previous projects, we won’t have a larger absent entity dictating what is and isn’t necessary for us. This time there will be no third parties taking large percentages of money that could be paid to the people who contribute instead.

Every month, aside from basic operating expenses (web infrastructure, hosting costs), 100% of patreon funding will go directly to the HS:BC team. For the first few months 80% will be split up evenly among the current team of contributing members and technical crew. The remaining 20% will be used to backpay the current team several months of work done for this initial buffer of updates.

Secondly, the update schedule has been a hot ticket item of discussion. October will see two updates to get us started. After that the plan is to switch to one update a month while we continue to produce more and feel things out a bit. If we are able to get into a groove, we would like to increase this number. I do not want updates to be tied to how much money the patreon makes, though I won’t pretend It wouldn’t be nice to quit our day jobs and do this full time.

The team has been building a sizable backlog of pages, which is sort of a new thing for HOMESTUCK. All the hits are here: aspects, classes- you get it.  We have taken a lot of care in developing and resolving story beats and character arcs and making sure a lot of these things happen on screen. Though, some of these things will take time. We aren’t even out of Act 1 yet! A lot of passion has gone into continuing and evolving the story we have inherited by a group of people who care very much. And so far they have been doing it purely for the love of the game. In that regard, we truly are so back. 😲

After I have paid the team for this buffer and development time that number will change to a 95% even split revenue share with the HS:BC team. 5% each month will be saved in order to provide any capital for [S] pages, Albums, Merch, etc. The money made from those endeavors will still be paid to the individual artists. We can talk about a financial breakdown for that when the time comes, and if you still want to know. I do not mind.

For albums and merch I want to do a much fairer split than the current system. The money would go to the musicians and the artists. I do not have a company to run so there is no reason for me to make money off of contributing creatives, other than recuperating any costs (which shouldn’t really be much). This is something I would like to work out with people individually and I am slowly beginning outreach to the old music team so this may take a while. I am also interested in new blood in this capacity, so I’d love to hear from some fan music groups too. I will try and set up some channels for this in the coming months. There is a lot of work for us to do. Hm. I take it back. It truly is so over. 😒

I think that just about covers the plan. Here is the short version:

- The Patreon is coming back and will begin again starting November 1st.

- The money from this goes directly and entirely to the HSBC team.

- We operate independently from What Pumpkin and VIZ Media, and we will not be paying them.

- Another update will be coming in October.

- Starting in November, updates will be once a month while we feel things out.

- Small percentage going to [S] pages, merch, and more music.

We are going to be updating the reward tiers and will talk about that a little more in the future. We want to conclude the bonus update stories, but if and when we do that we will probably tackle the important threads from those in the main comic so that things don’t feel paywalled. Overall, I want to have more community involvement and engagement, and I think the first step towards crossing this bridge has to involve us being more open with the fans.

Future Approach to Homestuck^2

Homestuck^2 is going to be completed, but the Patreon will not be charging patrons anymore. The account will be frozen and no additional patrons will be accepted, but the ones currently registered are welcome to stay and receive notifications about the future of this project if the team is inclined to post any.

The plan now is to have HS^2 finished, but without a regular update schedule. Previously saved Patreon funds will be used to privately commission the team to finish the story. It will all be posted at once when it is finished, and there will be no updates until this happens. I expect that it will take a long time to finish the story. This is because I am specifically instructing the team to work slowly.

I originally agreed to let this project move forward entirely based on the presumption that it would be an enjoyable experience for the team involved. It's not like I had a burning need to release a continuation of the narrative, or a formal "sequel", which is never how I viewed this arc. The project mostly came about because I picked up on the enthusiasm the original creative group had for the idea, and I also sensed that energy was being reciprocated by the particular state of the fandom at the time. But since then I've observed it's been pretty far from an enjoyable experience for the team due to the way the members have been treated by large segments of the fandom, and this pattern appeared to surface almost immediately after the project launched.

This put me in a state of conflict about the project ever since, because I like the content quite a bit. Some have lamented that it doesn't feel much like the original series, but it was never supposed to. I've never once invited anyone to work on a Homestuck project with the hope they would perfectly clone my style or approach to making content. I feel that is neither possible nor desirable. So any time I invite anyone the only real standard I want them to meet is to bring their own voice and perspective to the work even if, or sometimes especially, this results in significant departures from the expectations for the characters fans typically have. Like pretty much everything else that's been released over the last few years, I think HS^2 has satisfied that purpose very well.

So there has been conflict between liking what's being done, not wanting to waste the work or disappoint those who enjoy it, and the chronic abusive treatment the staff has received while trying to work on this story. I admit I've been at a loss on how to handle this, so I've just let it ride for a year or so. To some extent it's part of any project like this, to put stuff out there and receive criticism, and I'm sure the team understood that. But I think there's a line where criticism crosses over into more abusive expressions, and I've observed this has happened way too often.

If it were just me making it, I don't think it would even occur to me to have a problem with it, because I'm so used to wild stuff coming at me from doing this for many years prior. I view attitudes toward me very differently than those I invite for collaboration. I've done this so long hostility toward me barely even registers. If I inexplicably log onto tumblr appearing to resemble some sort of extravagant clown, make a few shitposts, and I'm met with literally thousands upon thousands of comments about feet, it's pretty easy to laugh it off because that's exactly the type of stupid shit I expected to see. I've just always worked with those types of contentious interactions in a way that is inseparable from whatever strange performance is connected with the content I happen to be making at the time. But it's a very different situation when I see stuff directed at the people I work with.

The things I see that my co-creators and friends have to read are a lot more alarming. One major problem here is the people I work with are mostly women, many are transgender, many are people of color. So the stuff they get is especially vicious, because the people giving them shit usually target the sensitive features of their identities in ways they don't with me. And I'm not just talking about obvious stuff like calling them slurs or anything. It's more that I've noticed people have clever ways of using people's identities to bully them in less conspicuously bigoted ways. They always go a little harder, a little more critical, manufacturing ways of blaming them for things they had nothing to do with. Stuff you start noticing when you've seen way too much of it. Much of this stuff even crosses into physically threatening territory. Some people I work with get multiple threats every week, and it's just become a routine part of their lives while being involved with Homestuck. All the above treatment I'm referring to is not focused on a couple  people, it covers everyone contributing to the full range of Homestuck projects over the last several years.

And I don't think that's what contributors were signing up for, or at least, I never wanted anyone who takes on official work to feel like it's an essential cost of participation. But I've never really known what to do about this, because it's very difficult to control fandom behavior, and if you ever try to police anyone's conduct it usually just backfires. The worst offenders out there almost see it as a challenge to go harder. So usually I leave these things alone, since the only alternative is pulling the plug on certain projects. Which is essentially what I'm doing here, while taking steps to make sure it gets finished in the background, because I really don't want to see the work wasted.

My only criteria for the completion of HS^2 is that whoever is involved the rest of the way just has a good time with it, and ends up feeling like they have made a good story. If the team is happy with it, then so am I, and nothing else about it matters to me. Especially not sticking to a schedule or satisfying fandom demands, whatever those even are at this point.

Since this is a post appearing on the Patreon, I should say any reference to abusive fan behavior isn't including current patrons obviously. I can only assume anyone willing to donate to the project for this long would hold a very sincere attitude about supporting this project, which I greatly appreciate and I'm sure the HS^2 team does as well.

There's probably more to say about this, but I'll leave it at that for now. If there's anything to add later I may address it in an internal note to patrons (remember that if you want to remain a patron you will never be charged again). I'll consider ways to thank the patrons for hanging in there all this time and supporting the team. Maybe some free stuff. We all appreciate your support.

—Andrew

Commentary and Sketches: Welcome to My Secret Lair

Panels 1-2

I really like the lighting here. Big fat sunlight shapes on the blues and greens. I also really like the bouncing message icon. If we’ve done that so far in hs^2 I don’t remember it.

(Artist's note: eagle eyed readers will remember its appearance in our very first update, all the way back in 2019.)

Gina: The striking colors used on the previous update were such an inspiration to bring some peace after the chaos, so I imagined John being there for who knows how long, so the passage of time here is reflected on a dawn palette.

Panels 4-10

I also really like John and Roxy talking! One of my favorite interpersonal dynamics to write is people who used to be extremely close trying to work out what their new interaction style is, and how many old patterns they can afford to fall back into. Sometimes it’s super comforting, when things are going to shit, to talk to someone who knows you super well, even if you’re not close anymore.

It’s just… divorce. I love all flavors of it. And John, bless his heart, is going through like 50 angles of life shakeup at once, so it’s both interesting and scary to have him interact with his ex. What is left to panic about?? John will find it!

When John is speaking in ellipses in panel 9, just imagine him doing kombucha girl dot meme about the idea of gender. One of the classic emotions.

Also I love the artist’s concept for the wine glass shaped coffee mug. It’s very Roxy (or strilonde in general) to use a blatant reminder of a past addiction in your daily recovered life.

Please observe baby Harry Anderson on the wall… it’s very good.

Panels 11-12

It’s Callie! There’s honestly so many versions of Callie rolling around, but it’s nice to get back to ye olde, i.e. sort of knowledgeable and dorky, ready to describe the secrets of the universe to you, but only enough that you’re vaguely intrigued and confused rather than have any idea what the fuck is going on. She’s much like an author in that way, giving out info in drips and drabs in order to make sure the story stays on course.

Callie’s role in the story has always been deeply meta, to the point that initially she was even meant to reflect a section of the audience. She is, in fact, one of the most charitable and loving caricatures of a fangirl I think I’ve ever seen. It’s interesting that she’s moved from a watcher and dreamer, to a facilitator.

Anyway some shit is gonna go down.

Gina: I loved drawing these panels! Roxy’s morning attire seems way too laid back for what happened previously, but I imagined that she may wanted to get comfortable with that coffee (cherry scented!) and get a good talk with John. By the way! As a divorced couple, I thought that a marriage portrait could still be there, but the main focus for Roxy’s room should be Harry in his baby years ;_; ♥ cherishment  that should be always present and not so close for Harry to get embarrassed from haha.

New Years Jpeg

Check out this excellent New Years PNG from guest artist Sollay! Check out their work here! 

Thank you guys so much, and happy new year! 

Hiatus and The Future

Hello! I hope everyone is well, or as well as can be expected in these the dying days of a terrible year. As you may have noticed from a patreon alert, you all won't be charged next month. We're taking a bit of a break to recharge and refresh, and to do some reshuffling of tiers, update schedule, and bonus content. 

Also, if you haven't heard about it already, make sure you check out the trailer for Andrew Hussie's new project, which was announced on December 20th. Get excited, it's awesome.  

Thank you all for sticking with us through the pandemic and all the stresses that come with us. We appreciate all of your support. 

See you next year! 

Commentary: December Bonus

November was a very stupid month. I mean, stupider than the rest of the year, which is saying something. Didn’t Destiel happen in November? Fuck, it feels like Turbo Hell became a thing at least a year ago. Whatever. Between personal life stresses, a pandemic, the election, and scrambling to get last minute details squared away before we shipped Act 2, I arrived in December with my brain feeling like a large, floppy mushroom growing between my ears. A large, floppy mushroom that did not want to do anything besides kind of ooze around, and definitely not come up with any clever ideas for comics.

And listen--I know we’re supposed to love all of our children equally, but this is my favorite part of working on HS2--this storyline. When we were hashing out potential bonus content at the beginning, this is what I wanted to do the most. I think I’ve already tried to articulate why in other commentaries. I like cheesy noir bullshit and homoerotic tension. Simple as.

But for the life of me I couldn’t come up with a good way to end the arc. I knew I wanted to do something sort of Midnight Crew intermission adjacent, with time shenanigans and all of that, but I couldn’t figure out how to keep it short enough to fit in the usual update format, and not overtax the artist. So I turned to an expert for help.

Andrew got back to me in about twenty minutes after I asked him if he had any ideas. He sent me a whole outline that went a little bit like this

“DD urges dad to pick up the knife and free him, which he does. DD stands up, dusts himself off, and looks pitifully at his boss on the floor, who is bitching and moaning from the fall he just took.

Dad notices Slick on the floor and suddenly looks extremely alarmed. He rushes over to attend to the injured Slick, as if to suggest he has a big heart, and has pity even for his ruthless captors. But it turns out he is just highly distraught over the damage caused to Slick's nice suit. This is an emergency. When DD understands this is the source of dad's concern, DD agrees wholeheartedly.”

And so on and so forth.

He also agreed to do the art because as things were, we were already cutting it pretty close, and it was December, people had plans, people were thinking Holiday Thoughts and stuff like that.

PAGE 37

Extremely nostalgic, this vibe. Andrew’s art is a very specific sort of simple, but invigorating. It’s kind of like Italian cooking, right. Like, you use very few ingredients but they all meld together so well and are so fresh that it doesn’t matter that the food isn’t complex. It’s just good.

Even DD notices the slight difference in their usual rendering. Dad tells him not to worry about it. Dad is a pretty chill guy.

PAGE 38

Some Stern Tailoring Concern happening here. Dad is very worried about the suit situation, and can you really blame him? Spades Slick is a dickhead, but he’s always been pretty well turned out.

PAGE 39

Dad is pretty alarmed by this. He obviously didn’t mean to bat Slick through the wall like a cat playing with a mouse, but sometimes a guy’s mangrit gets the best of him. DD isn’t really surprised. At this point he’s realized that this guy is a little different.

Also notice how DD has begun calling Dad his friend. Aww. Really makes you think. Maybe the torture we underwent and the missing dictator daughters were the friends we made along the way.

PAGE 40

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the guys over at Serious Business. Really good to know that Dad has made a new group of friends on Earth C, and that he still respects the classics. I wonder if he had to have that PDA specially made, or if a bunch of fathers on Earth C have brought them back. At any rate, they’re very concerned about Slick’s wardrobe and its malfunction. I’m sure all of their advice will be invaluable and not completely worthless immediately.

PAGE 41

Smh. Nice car, though.

PAGE 42

Snowman is quite the enigma. She’s the Black Queen, and there are certainly versions of her that know that. Are there ones that don’t? Are there an infinity of sessions out there, all with Black Queens serving different functions, playing out different games with a different version of her Archagent and his followers? I find it interesting that although it’s the war between the Dersites and Prospitians that always starts off a session, it’s an act of betrayal that kicks it into high gear.

Not that this has any bearing on this particular story, I just think it’s cool.

PAGE 43

Memes.

This is the first panel that Andrew drew, and he sent it to me around 10 pm like “Is this the right vibe?” It was, but even if it hadn’t been, I would have immediately altered the vibe in order to match this vibe.

PAGE 44

I didn’t notice the “Gay Fatherly Tittillation” in the corner until right before we posted. I’m glad Dad is having a good time. 

PAGE 45

Andrew’s idea was that, instead of having them perform a whole Intermission-esque song and dance, we should just have them skip it. A very clever and not-at-all obvious narrative device in order to wrap things up faster. Snowman is really annoyed by this, since it’s her real and not made up job to make sure that the timeline stays on track. God damn but she’s really been letting down the team in the last year or so. Shit is REALLY wack over in the main story. Maybe she should head over there next and start hitting people with her car.

PAGE 46

This page underwent its conception thus.

Andrew wrote: Dad seems tentative. Gives a half hearted tweak of the cuffs, and shrugs. They're way too strong. DD seems to "blush", or whatever the equivalent of that is for him. He says, yeah. Looks like the strongest pair of cuffs he ever saw.

In the panel outline I described it as “Dad and DD look at each other in a really yaoi way.” Then Andrew drew this.

And yet I still was not prepared for this panel. Damn.

See you guys next year!

Chapter 16: Welcome to My Secret Lair

Here! 

Bonus Update: Diamonds, Dames, and Dads pt 4

here!  

Sketches + Commentary: Influencers Pt 3

PANEL 1

VERY excited to get a turn with these kids. I love their designs, I love their weird personalities, and I love that they are maybe the most normal people in all of homestuck. And one of them is a southern gentleman, so you know that’s saying something.

One of the first pieces of fiction I ever published was about a guy who realizes that he is a side character in an immense story about someone else. I don’t recommend looking for it, it’s not very good, but it was one of my first forays into “how does this NPC feel about their role in the story”. It’s especially interesting to me if it’s in a story like homestuck, where everyone sort of knows that they’re in a story.

PANEL 2

I used to sit around in diners a lot as a teen. There isn’t really anywhere else to go besides restaurants and cafes, you can’t get into bars, movies are expensive, etc etc. There was a diner in my town that didn’t care how long you sat there or if all you bought was coffee. At least, I don’t think they cared, they never kicked me out.

Also here we have Chekov’s troll in the foreground, and you know how that saying goes. Can’t have a new troll in the panel if she’s not going to become relevant by the end of the update. Or something.

PANEL 3

I really like the idea of there being troll-owned small businesses. Standing up against the all-powerful encroaching force of Crockercorp.

Silas comes from a pretty conservative, old-money family and probably hasn’t brushed shoulders with many trolls. I don’t think she’s a racist, or anything like that, I just think she’s young and impressionable and hasn’t grown up around the best role models. Good things she’s hanging out with these awesome Woke Teens now.

PANEL 4

And speaking of being woke, what’s more woke than accidentally eavesdropping on a bunch of famous Celebrity Gods’ marital problems.

Nothing like an extremely awkward situation to bring people together.

PANEL 5

Here Avril is suffering under one of the most intense modern conundrums--to post or not to post. Like, we all know that we shouldn’t post. Posting only leads to misery and sin and depravity, but it’s just so tempting. You just have so many things to say, so much salacious gossip to make your numbers go up. That’s the best shit.

PANELS 6-8

Remember high school friendships? Not the good ones, the friends you hang out with on the weekend with and do sleepovers with and shit. The “friends” who weren’t really even friends, just people you had to see every day in class, and tolerate to a certain extent. What a weird fucking thing. I honestly don’t know if there’s any comparable situation to “people you go to school with”. I guess there’s work friends, but you at least have a little bit of control over where you work. You can, I guess, in theory, “quit your job”. You can quit school, too, I guess, but most people don’t. And then you legally have to just be there, everyday, or you and your family gets in trouble with the law. Isn’t that kind of fucked up?

Being a teen is a really weird time to be alive, especially an older teen. There you are, 17 years old, old enough to have developed opinions and routines and a life trajectory, and you still have to raise your hand and ask for permission to go use the fucking bathroom.

I really like Silas’s fancy shoes in this party scene. Incredibly good.

PANEL 9

I love this panel. Everything going on here is just not anywhere near what I was imagining, but it’s perfect. Haven’s composition is always just so on point.

Up until now, war has been conceptual for these kids. Not anymore.

PANEL 10

There she is!! Miss Ruthie. I’m excited for you all to meet her!

See you next time!

January PNG Poll

2021 is almost here! I'm sure it will be very normal!! Vote on what you'd like to grace your phones during this auspicious month! 

EDIT: if you have any suggestions for future polls, let us know in the comments! 

December Wallpaper!!

PREVIEW 

It was a month before Christmas and all through the house, we put up a jpg so you could download it on your phone. 

Thank you guys, so much!! Shout out to Andy R. for this month's png! Happy holidays, everybody! 

Look for January's poll to be up shortly! 

Bonus Update: The Influencers Pt. 3

Here! 

Chapter 15: Ok So There's This Flower

Here! 

November JPEG!

actually it's a png. a wallpaper for your Phone or Tablet or Verizon Blackberry 

shoutout to our incredible featured artist Courtney for this wonderful Autumn interpretation of the beta kids! 

The next month's wallpaper will be the omega kids! 

November WIP and December Poll!

Hi everyone! November marks the first month of our new tier, and what better way to commemorate its birth than with some... DEMOCRACY.  Just to remind everyone how this works: every month starting now, you can vote in polls to determine what the next month's illustration will be. Each poll will consist of four potential prompts, including a theme and a set of characters. This month, all the prompts were chosen by us and are themed around the holiday season. HOWEVER, if there's something you would like to see further down the line, then comments section is a great place to suggest ideas.  

The poll will be open for one week starting today, so you've got plenty of time to agonize over your choice.  Finally, as a little thank you for participating, here is the sketch for the November illustration! We'll aim to have the finished thing ready for you as soon as possible.

Sketches + Commentary: Best Laid Plants pt 3

Commentary + Sketches: Diamonds, Dames, and Dads pt 3

PAGE 26

Here we go again, back into the glittering world Midnight City and everything that entails. Dames, dads, danger.

As we’ve all learned from being on the Internet over the last decade, the thing about irony is that it tends to disguise a staggering sincerity. It is very difficult to satirize something if you don’t love the source material, or at the very least, hate it in the sort of way that makes you obsessed with it. The entire Problem Sleuth sub-plot in MSPA is, obviously, satire of the noir genre. Taking it to absurd levels. That’s what I’m doing here, but the truth is, I absolutely 100% sincerely love noir, in all its absurd problematic decadence. And what I always want to do with Classic Genres is take them and twist them to fit my own Political Agenda. I.e. take a story that is traditionally about a hard-boiled tough guy and a flighty broad, and make it about a hard-boiled tough guy and a Dad.

That said, Haven’s art is absolutely everything I could have ever dreamed of for this sort of story. It’s like 100% vibes. And that’s mostly what noir is, when you really get down to it. Attitude and a couple killer lines of dialogue.

Anyway, whose legs are these???

PAGE 27

This is a very forbidding lightbulb. This is not the sort of lightbulb you want to wake up in the morning.

PAGE 28

A little rich of Diamonds Droog to refer to Dad as a “dandy” when he has some very dandy tendencies himself, but I guess it takes one to know one.

Another thing you don’t want to wake up to see--a chain, no matter how skillfully foreshortened.

PAGE 29

God, this picture. Got me feelin’ some kind of way. It’s not that I like to see people suffering (although that’s a whole different discussion) but there is something incredibly narratively interesting about watching characters who are usually in perfect control having that control taken away. Stripping power away from someone who is used to being powerful is a very good way to get down to the core of their character. Which is why I find torture scenes to be so very interesting.

PAGE 30

God, DD looks so vulnerable without his hat. Really, what is a gangster without his hat? Pretty much a cheeseburger without ketchup. I don’t actually like ketchup so I don’t know why I said that.

Here we get the implication that DD has done a little torture of his own back in the day. The Good Old Days, before he was Sad and Drinking By Himself. Now the only person he’s got the wherewithal to torture is himself, and his liver. If he even has a liver.

PAGE 31

I described this guy as a “tough” in the notes, and Haven was like, okay but what do you want him to look like? And I was like...you know. A tough.

PAGE 32

Dad is very worried about his dapper new friend. Even though a different version of him kept him captive one time many years ago. Of course, I’m pretty sure the Draconian Dignitary didn’t do any torture on Dad, because he wouldn’t want to risk dirtying his impeccable ensemble. DD has his priorities straight. So to speak.

PAGE 33

DD’s life is just an endless round of betrayal it would seem. Spades Slick is really not turning out to be the man he thought he was. Or maybe he is exactly the man he thought he was, just he never expected him to be that man in his direction.

PAGE 34

It’s just absolutely incredible how Haven takes these designs that are supposed to be just rough outlines of people and gives them so much personality and dimension. Dad doesn’t even have FEATURES but somehow I can tell exactly how he’s feeling here.

Dad is here engaging in what’s known as some “misdirection”, playing along with Spades Slick in order to make him let his guard down. A well-known trick in any Dad Arsenal.

PAGE 35

I know that there’s been a lot of speculation as to what universe this side story takes place in, the timing of it, why certain people are alive when they should be dead, why certain people have eyes and arms when they shouldn’t. To that I say--don’t think about it so hard. Enjoy the ride. It’s a mistake to ever base any plot understanding on timing in Homestuck. Everything could be happening before, after, or at the same time as anything else.

As to what version of the characters all these people are, well. That remains to be seen.

PAGE 36

God damn this is such a good panel.

When I was initially imagining it I thought of it as like...way more “cool”. Like a cool angle, from which a very Cool Dad would deliver a Cool Karate Chop. But this is infinitely better and I really wouldn’t have it any other way. This is just a very dopeyl way to kick someone in the knee.

See you next time!!

Chapter 14: Best Laid Plans pt 3

Here!  

October News

Dear, sweet, precious patrons... it's amazing to think that we've been together for just an entire year. A year! It sure has been: one whole year since we started Homestuck^2. Oh how the time has flown.

Not only has it been a year, but I think we can all agree that it has been A Year. Just a real stinker of a trip around the sun, this one. In light of the various... Things going on, we'd like to thank all of you for your continued support—it's no trivial thing to be generous in difficult times. It really does mean the world to us.

To celebrate Homestuck^2's birthday, the Patreon will be undergoing some changes for the better in the coming month. The most important of these is...

THE I-DON'T-KNOW-WHY-WE-DIDN'T-DO-THIS-SOONER $10 TIER

That's right. A $10 tier is on its way. Mathematically, economically, aesthetically... there are just so many ways in which it makes sense. We really don't know why we didn't do this sooner.

"But WHAT will this tier get me?" This is an excellent question, brain-ghost patron. For pledging to the $10 tier, not only will you get access to all the bonus updates as usual, but every month you will be the recipient of a gorgeous, brand-new illustration by one of our brilliant artists, tailor made to be saved immediately as your new phone background, and featuring your favorite characters from the Homestuck and Hiveswap universe. It's one high-res PNG file every month. What could it cost? 10 dollars? It turns out that it costs exactly 10 dollars in fact.

The first of these illustrations will be released to patrons in November. Also, starting in November, a poll will be published each month for all $10+ patrons to vote for one of four potential prompts, with the winning choice determining the illustration for that month. If you have an idea that you don't see represented in a given month, suggest it in the comments! If you truly have a burning desire to see Kankri in a Christmas sweater, then (deep sigh) feel free to tell us just that. It may well end up in a future poll.

SOME LESS EXCITING NEWS

The keen-eyed amongst you will have noticed that we dipped below the 2,000 patron threshold back in September, and have remained just shy of it since then. This means that there will be only one main update in November and December, and the update schedule will continue like this until we go back over the 2,000 mark. Bonus content will continue at the usual pace, and in their characteristically bonusy fashion.

SOME MORE EXCITING NEWS

You all probably know already, but in case you've been living under a rock for the past week: HIVESWAP: ACT TWO will be coming out... within the next month!!! This is it. We're almost there. The team is hard at work getting the finishing touches ready for this long- and passionately-awaited release, so sit back, relax, and savor the last little bit of waiting. You've had plenty of practice at it by now.

Or, instead of twiddling your thumbs, you could brush up on your Alternian knowhow, and replay HIVESWAP FRIENDSIM in the meantime. Blow the dust off your favorite characters, or maybe discover some new ones! Get one last good whiff of that clown pit, whatever. Chase your bliss.

Bonus Chapter: Diamonds, Dames, and Dads Pt 3

Right here 

Sketches + Commentary: Best Laid Plans pt 2

Oh yes, time for more intense Vriska/Vriska action. And by that I mean one Vriska is sort of condescendingly competent while the other looks on in simultaneously excited and disquieted awe.

I think I’ve gone on about this before, but I can’t get over how fucking weird this must be for Vrissy. A different--arguably better, depending on whose viewpoint you’re taking--version of yourself running around, taking charge, doing all of the things that you’ve sort of pretended you’ve been doing for your whole life. Being a “bad girl” and a “rebel”.

This is a very common Vriska theme. There’s a lot of them running around, and all of them are superlative in a way, depending on your opinion of what that means. Do you want your Vriska out of the game, or in play? Do you want her unbent, or broken? Do you want the personality without the competence? Do you want her to be talented but toothless?

Vriska has always been a very clear-cut study in the destruction of reader expectation. When we read adventure stories, we expect the good guys to triumph, and the bad guys to be punished. And we expect the good guys to be, well. Good. If not nice, then at the very least kind and morally upright. Vriska is not any of those things, really. And we can get in an argument about whether that’s her fault or not--for the purposes of whatever the fuck I’m doing here (what am I doing here?) it doesn’t really matter. The fact is that when we read a story, we expect the hero to be brave and true. We expect them to have the moral high ground. We don’t expect them to throw absolutely everything out except the desire to win, like people do in Real Life. ‘Cause often in Real Life, lying and cheating and scheming in order to win...is usually how people win. It’s depressing, but it’s often true.

Anyway, I don’t know what I was talking about.

Uh. Vriskas. Other selves. This good art! We wanted to do a visual heavy chapter, because sometimes you gotta. A picture is worth a thousand words, but don’t tell anyone I told you that because I’m a writer.

See you next time!

Best Laid Plans pt 2

(sorry the post is late, i got very flustered by twitter being down and didn't know how to act) 

Here 

Commentary + Sketches: Best Laid Plans Pt 1

PANELS 327-330

Vriska’s having kind of a difficult day. 

Imagine showing up right after getting completely obliterated by a huge chunk of reality through the torso, and everyone you just said goodbye to a couple hours ago is now a boring 40 year old constantly having marital problems. Fucking absurd. I honestly feel like most of them don’t know what to do with Vriska. They’ve got this new upgraded version of her who doesn’t have gallons of PTSD or the baggage of growing up with an abusive spider mom. 

John definitely thinks that her being here is going to make a big difference, which is what he excitedly told Karkat in one of the previous updates. But as we saw...Karkat wasn’t particularly impressed by what he had to say. To Karkat, Vriska is probably just another complicating factor in an already intense situation. She’s a wild card, and she doesn’t fit in this new world. 

Vriska is slightly overblowing her accomplishments here, for her audience of Vrissy. But I do think she’s fairly entitled to feel put aside. She isn’t used to having to deal with adults. And we have even more indication of just how incredibly large the gap is between the two Vriskas’ experiences. To Vrissy, misbehaving is sneaking out of the house or going on a trashy website. To Vriska it’s doing some child murder. Ya know. Little teen things. 

Meanwhile, John and Harry Anderson are also having a difficult day, but they deal with that in a different way. I like the parallels of these chats, though. Vriska and Vrissy being two iterations of the same person, and John and Harry being kid & parent. They’re both sort of playing off their counterpart, working out where they stand with them in their uh. Very different ways.

Harry Anderson and John are still working out how to interact with each other after so long not really ever talking. H.A. is a forgiving lad, no matter how much shit he talks. I wish we’d been able to include the whole clothes measuring scene, but too much plot is happening i GUESS. 

PANEL 331

YIFFY OFF THE LEASH WHAT WILL SHE DO

Sigh. God, Yiffy is just such an extremely good girl. Look at her go. 

PANELS 332

I think these are the two most blessed panels in all of Homestuck. Definitely all of HS2. 

Sometimes you have a lot of fights with your Moms and you have a difficult relationship, but at least you agree you all need to hug it out when you get free of a psychotic cookie lady. 

PANEL 333

First off, I love this combination of text colors. Just a very good-looking group of text. 

Boy, do I love women threatening each other. I don’t think we’ve ever seen Rose and Jane have a conversation before, at least not without a big group setting. Rose, in a way, is sort of Jane’s rhetorical nightmare, seeing as she’s a pretty heady mix of Dirk and Roxy (both figuratively and literally) and therefore has the ability to hit her where it hurts. With Dirk’s unruffled, precise wit, but with Roxy’s imagination, and a little bit of vindictive delight that is just pure Rose. 

PANEL 334

I wish Jade had more chances to yell at people. She deserves them! She’s got a lot to yell about! She also kind of has a Metal Gear look going here, I’m digging the goggles. 

PANEL 335 

Jane’s secret police are really well-dressed. 

PANELS 336 

Someone mentioned in the writer’s room that it’s a pity green and purple don’t look great together, to which someone else countered that’s absurd, look at Evangelion Unit 01. Whatever the case, I think Kanaya’s and Rose’s spaceship is extremely snazzy. Or, skyship, maybe? Idk if the ships in the fleet are actually used to go up into space. 

Obviously, Kanaya is not going to murder Tavvy. However, she is very much going to be Kanaya about it, and express herself accordingly. Jane wants to remind us all that she did read Homestuck, thank you very much, she knows you don’t get vamped from being bitten. Although if she read Homestuck she should know that Kanaya Maryam wouldn’t kill an innocent child. But Jane has spent so long being a hideous racist that she’s started to believe her own bullshit. 

PANEL 337-339

So. Jane. A controversial topic if there ever was one. 

Full disclosure, Jane didn’t really hit my radar as A Homestuck Character I Cared About until the epilogues. Vaguely distasteful teen Jane is fine, but I sleep. Villainous femme fatale Jeff Bezos ass dictator Jane? Sign me the fuck up. And this is partly because I love villains, and because I love evil women, but another part is that as cartoonish as Evil Jane is, she’s also...frighteningly real. Who among us does not have at least one friend who has fallen into the facebook alt-right hole? There are people I knew in high school who have become full whole ass white supremicists. It’s frightening to think about what people we thought we knew can become. 

At the end of the day, I don’t think evil is a moustache twirling villain in a cape, but I also don’t think it’s necessarily someone who is trying to do the right thing and just has corrupted judgement. I think it’s somewhere in the middle. You know that you’re doing wrong, but you’ve justified it to yourself. “It’s for my family, it’s for my nation, I deserve it, I want it and I don’t care who gets hurt.” With this you can justify all sorts of shit. Like, say, considering letting your son die on live tv to implicate your former friends in a war crime. 

PANELS 340-343

So would Jane have actually done it? Ordered a plane shot down while her son was onboard. I’m not sure. But we now do know that she wouldn’t do it in front of Jake. She hadn’t yet reached the point that she will kill her child in cold blood in front of his father. 

Which is...good, I guess? Great job, Jane. 

See you next time! 

Bonus Commentary + Sketches: The Influencers pt 2

It’s these guys again! 

We were originally going to post this on Saturday the 27th, but things happen, as they do, and it got pushed back a day. IF we’d posted it then, as planned, it would have been on Avril Lavigne's birthday. God, what a catastrophic fuckup!!!!

Wait. No. 

Avril Thorpe is named after TWO important historical figures. Avril Lavigne’s birthday is 9/27, but Jim Thorpe’s is 5/28. So let’s just say this upd8 happens on our beloved character Avril Thorpe’s birthday, which is now 9/28, because we took the month (9) from Avril Lavigne, and the day (28) from Jim Thorpe.

God. Perfect. Continuity restores itself. It now seems as though we meant to post on that day all along. 

Anyway, I got a bit off track there. What was I supposed to be talking about? Oh, right. Retconning things to seem purposeful.

Though actually in this case we did come up with the mysteriously unlocked door/influencers as reason bit on purpose. Sorry if that ruins the mystique for you. Don’t worry, plenty of other things are accidents. 

What is going on in Candy, huh? Wouldn’t you like to know.

Anyway, I like these guys very much even though their quirks elicit the cringe emotion like no other. How many times do you think I closed emojipedia, thinking I was done, only to have to drag it back open? What a life.

The feeling of desperately feeling like you need to do something to change things around you for the better, but having no idea where to start, feels ambiently resonant. Obviously things go a little smoother for them than for us actual humans. But I still think a lot about what it means to be a Regular Guy in times of absolute hellscape. Individual action sometimes feels meaningless up against huge forces of evil, and household recycling apparently got us nowhere, but hey you can still look up a local bail fund or march or banish your racist uncle to the nether realm or some shit! Anyway. These guys achieve a small victory that has further reaching repercussions than they realize. I dont know i’m now just explaining the themes that are just present in the text so i need to move along before i give too much away.

I did come up with classpects for these guys and maybe some of that is visible now. Who knows if it will ever come up, but have fun working out the lore!

We came up with everyone’s hobbies early on in the character creation phase, but I am very charmed by Avril’s renaissance man schtick. The hair flip is very good imo. Thank you artist.