Genuine question. I’m still not sure. The cynical part of me wants to believe it’s just a cash grab. Historically, that is something that’s very much in Hussie’s wheelhouse. The less cynical part of me wants to enjoy it, but it’s hard. I’ve been a homestuck fan for a long time, and it’s hard to not feel nostalgic about the old webcomic. I’m using this blog post to give my honest review of the animated pilot, as well as a brief ramble/introduction to how I first discovered Homestuck and why it means so much to me.
First of all, what is Homestuck? Homestuck is a webcomic that was created back in 2009 by Andrew Hussie. It centered around four friends playing an online game together and accidentally tearing holes in reality and the space time continuum. This created multiple different timelines, portals to different universes, and various versions of themselves. Also central to the comic are the twelve trolls (one for each zodiac sign). That’s probably the most brief introduction I can give. The story of Homestuck is extremely confusing, even to the creator himself.
It’s also important to note that, while Homestuck was created by Andrew Hussie, it was also equally created by the early fans who engaged with Hussie’s forum posts back in 2009. In the early days of Homestuck, Hussie would upload comic panels and then make forum posts, asking fans to vote to suggest what the characters should do. Because of this, Homestuck was extremely influenced and contributed to by the fanbase. Also because of this, Homestuck involved a lot of internet culture, mentions of celebrities, and other copywrite-able things that cannot be transferred into a fully funded, animated show.
So how did I get into Homestuck? Well, I’ve known about Homestuck since around 2015- at least from what I can remember (I have a really bad memory). Homestuck officially ended in 2016, but remained popular throughout the 2010s. In the early 2010s, but especially 2015 and 2016, I was on musical.ly (old tiktok) all the time. For those of you who don’t remember, cosplayers used to dominate musical.ly. The first time I was ever introduced to cosplay was through musical.ly and specifically through compilations of Homestuck cosplayers. Did I understand what was going on? No. But I thought they looked super cool and I wanted to be them. It wouldn’t be until 2017 or 2018 that I actually started to read the Homestuck web comic. I believe 2019 was when I finished reading it for the first time.
A lot of people are critiquing people for critiquing the Homestuck pilot- which feels like a dumb, self-made paradox, but whatever. The main reason for this stems from the argument of “Homestuck was never good in the first place, so what does it matter if the animated show is bad?”- and to that I agree and disagree. Homestuck is not some outstanding work of fiction that should be regarded by scholars and students alike. It is a product of the late 2000s, early 2010s era: filled with stereotypes, slurs, and other topics of discourse. Does it handle those topics well? Not always. The creator is a white man who definitely didn’t know what he was doing and has since vetoed many of the decisions he made in the plot. However, all this to say- all of Homestuck is not bad. In fact, Homestuck has powerfully deep character development, storylines, and lore for a story that not only has multiple universes and timelines, but also has maybe a hundred characters, give or take. It genuinely baffles me that people are able to ignore the genuinely strong and well-written parts of the comic just because some sections weren’t perfect.
All that being said, Homestuck is a product of the fanbase. This is something that the creator himself is well aware of and fully content with. Because of this, I don’t intend to gatekeep Homestuck from the younger fans who are first learning about Homestuck through the animated pilot. I worry it will be a different experience altogether and I know they will miss out on the joy of the early Homestuck days, but technically I did too so who am I to talk. If you enjoyed this rant in any way, shape, or form, I’ll be back very soon with a deep dive into the pilot itself and everything I liked or didn’t like about it.
