Misplaced Pages

#448551

101-499: Homestuck is an Internet fiction series created by American author and artist Andrew Hussie . The fourth and best-known of Hussie's four MS Paint Adventures , it originally ran from April 13, 2009, to April 13, 2016. Though normally described as a webcomic , and partly constituted by a series of single panel pages, Homestuck also relied heavily on Flash animations and instant message logs to convey its story, along with occasional use of browser games . Its plot centers on

202-478: A website . While most are published exclusively on the web, some are also published in magazines , newspapers , or often self-published books. Webcomics can be compared to self-published print comics in that almost anyone can create their own webcomic and publish it. As of January 2007, the four largest webcomic hosting services hosted over 18,000 webcomics, ranging from traditional comic strips to graphic novels and covering many genres and subjects. In

303-466: A Kickstarter to raise funds to develop a Homestuck video game. Kotaku noted that the project had raised "more than $ 275,000 in hours". More than 80% of the $ 700,000 goal was pledged in the first day. The game reached the full $ 700,000 of funding in fewer than 32 hours. The campaign also reached certain "stretch goal" amounts, whereupon Hussie added macOS and Linux support onto the proposed game. Digital Trends writer Graeme McMillan commented that

404-475: A boy "so cool he only appreciates things ironically." He copied this behavior from his older brother (also his biological father through ectobiology and his only guardian), who collects puppets and katanas on what Dave assumes is an ironic level. Dave has been described as "smart-cynical", and is John's best friend. Surrounded by bad video games and junk food, he wears aviator sunglasses , obscuring his eyes entirely, and wields katana in combat situations. Dave

505-487: A company commissioned to write and illustrate Homestuck^2 , has reportedly shut down. On October 8, 2023, the comic was updated again for the first time in nearly three years, with a news post stating that the comic was being worked on by a new team being directed by Hiveswap composer James Roach, with Hussie acting as Executive Producer. On October 30, 2023, the Homestuck Patreon was relaunched. The ^2 from

606-523: A dull gray as his signature accent color as not to reveal his true blood color. His astrological sign is Cancer . The name Karkat is a reference to "Karkata", the name of Cancer in the Hindu zodiac. It may also be a reference to the Hindi word करकट meaning waste, a reference to his blood color. Nepeta is an olive-blood, considered the "middle class" of the hemospectrum. She lives in a cave with her lusus, and

707-773: A group of teenagers who unwittingly bring about the end of the world through the installation of a beta copy of an upcoming computer game . Homestuck features a complex story and a large cast of characters, starring the four children John Egbert, Rose Lalonde, Dave Strider and Jade Harley. Hussie invented an alien species, called trolls, that have a unique culture. Homestuck characters are particularly popular to cosplay at anime conventions . According to Lauren Rae Orsini writing for The Daily Dot , there existed 128 named characters in Homestuck in September 2012, with more still being introduced. The cast of Homestuck features

808-572: A group of teens who trigger the inevitable destruction of Earth by installing the beta version of an upcoming PC game , Sburb . The teens soon come into contact with a group of Internet trolls who are revealed to be horned aliens, and these trolls work with the kids to create a new universe by completing the game. It has been noted for its complex and nonlinear plot , considerable length at over 8,000 pages and 800,000 words, and intensely devoted fan community. The success of Homestuck has resulted in numerous related projects and sequels , including

909-411: A kind of Internet behavior that is "marginalized or controversial, or something most people just want nothing to do with." Homestuck aims to normalize and humanize internet cultures that are usually disfavored and rejected. Trolls chat with unique typing quirks , inserting clues concerning the speaker's identity in their chat patterns. For example, Vriska, a troll with spider-like attributes, replaces

1010-507: A large cast. Though Hussie used death as "the line between relevance and irrelevance", characters generally remain relevant in some way in the story, as there exist various video game-style constructs that allow a character to be revived. Rebecca Peterson of The Martlet described how "characters are gleefully killed off, brought back, and killed again" in a manner that makes it difficult to follow which characters are still alive. Characters may even have multiple versions of themselves active in

1111-611: A large quantity of LGBT characters and a major theme of the webcomic is the multitude of characters that die throughout the story. The first few acts of Homestuck center around four 13-year-old children. Early pages of Homestuck were experiments in "fan-sourced storytelling", where Hussie allowed readers of Homestuck to name its characters and make story suggestions. The main characters of Homestuck were all named by fans. The four main characters are presented as Internet friends who have technically never met one another but interact through an online chat application. John Egbert

SECTION 10

#1732783581449

1212-400: A little goofy-looking and are often shown without arms", it only "adds to the charm". Mordicai Knode of Tor Books explained that Homestuck has to be discussed separately between what it is as a webcomic and what its plot actually is. Comparing it to hypertext fiction and the genre's attempted use in physical novels like Pale Fire and House of Leaves , Knode concluded that " Homestuck

1313-551: A multilayered non-linear story. The basic premise of Sburb has been described as similar to games like The Sims , Spore , and EarthBound . As in Hussie's prior webcomic Problem Sleuth , the adventure is characterized by time travel , mystery, a complex fictional universe, and frequent references to pop culture and previous adventures. Changes from previous stories include an emphasis on contemporary society, such as online gaming and Internet culture , which contrasts with

1414-451: A pair of "diametrically opposed twins living inside the same body" named Calliope and Caliborn. Andrew Hussie also inserted himself into Homestuck ' s story as a character, where he offers detailed summaries and ends up in "bizarre in-world encounters." After Ryan North asked why "MS Paint Adventures" doesn't follow the adventures of a " Ms. Paint", Hussie included a minor Carapacian character to Homestuck with that name. Late in

1515-408: A pay host. Donations are a common way of getting money for web serials, often using services such as PayPal , but one of the main means of monetizing Web serials is advertising on blogs, which can allow writers to both host banners or purchase them on other sites and blogs. This can allow authors to recoup many of the costs associated with online novel creation. These are sometimes sufficient to cover

1616-459: A place called "the Medium". John's friends, Rose Lalonde , Dave Strider , and Jade Harley join him in the game along with their guardians, and they learn that playing the game has inadvertently triggered the destruction of Earth and that they must beat Sburb to create a new universe. John and his friends are attacked by a ruthless villain known as Jack Noir while exploring the medium. As this

1717-601: A result of this, more fans of web serials have decided to create their own, propagating the form further, leading to the number of serious, original works growing quickly. Some serials utilize the formats of the media to include things not possible in ordinary books, such as clickable maps, pop-up character bios, sorting posts by tag, and video. Web fiction has become hugely popular in China, with revenues topping US$ 2.5 billion. There are several popular platforms for publishing web serials and webcomics. With their large user bases,

1818-455: A sea of grey body paint, surpass War and Peace ' s word count, raise $ 2.5 million on Kickstarter and then suddenly disappear, leaving its fans either desperate for more or wanting to forget it ever happened." —Reuben Baron, "Let Me Tell You About Homestuck, the Internet's Most Ambitious Comic" Lauren Rae Orsini, in an interview with Andrew Hussie, asked Hussie whether, because of

1919-448: A serialblog. Web serials are cheaper to run than webcomics for the most part, although it is very rare to make money off of such works. Many writers use platforms specifically created for hosting fiction. Free writing platforms such as Wattpad have alleviated most serial writers from financial concerns, as well as any requirement for technical knowledge. However, these free hosts provide less flexibility and also may not be as scalable as

2020-466: A session that sees Caliborn cheating to win by having his sister assassinated . When finally uniting in the new session, the kids and trolls enact a plan to create a new universe and to defeat Lord English, the Condesce, and Jack Noir; the latter of whom escaped from the original doomed session. John Egbert develops new powers allowing him to retcon previous events within the Homestuck narrative. In

2121-453: A unique way to read fiction by choosing a page, a character, or a direction. By following hyperlinked phrases within the novel, readers can find new ways to understand characters. There is no wrong way to read a hypertext interactive novel. Links embedded within the pages are meant to be taken at a reader's discretion – to allow the reader a choice in the novel's world. Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on

SECTION 20

#1732783581449

2222-439: A violent cycle of revenge which kills her lusus (caretaker). Eventually it is revealed that this also killed Aradia, turning her into a ghost and causing her to lose interest in everything she enjoyed prior, including archaeology and focus instead on acquiring and playing Sgrub. At Vriska's suggestion, Equius Zahhak creates a robot body for Aradia which she inhabits for a large part of the comic. After her robot body explodes, she

2323-421: A web serial's main site to increase community interaction. Some web serials have been told entirely on Twitter or have used it as a way of adding depth to the universe. Character Twitter accounts are a very popular example of this. Twitter is also a useful tool for author-fan interaction and update announcements. There are a variety of Twitter hashtags now in use for the web serial community. Facebook integration

2424-412: A work of web fiction is often not published as a whole. Instead, it is released on the Internet in installments or chapters as they are finished, although published compilations and anthologies are not unknown. The web serial form dominates in the category of fan fiction , as writing a serial takes less specialized software and often less time than an ebook. Web-based fiction dates to the earliest days of

2525-501: Is Gemini . Karkat is the de facto leader of the trolls' group, and his introduction in Act 5 mirrors that of John Egbert at the start of the webcomic. He is quick to anger, loud, and often rude, but has a strong sense of justice, and is good at heart. His blood color is candy-red, which is considered a mutant color outside the hemospectrum, giving him an unshakable fear of persecution, causing him to be self-conscious, and leading him to use

2626-502: Is Taurus . Tavros' ancestral figure, Rufioh, was inspired by the character Rufio from the 1991 film Hook . Dante Basco , who played Rufio in Hook , started reading Homestuck because his character made an appearance in it, and he later stated that Tavros is his favorite Homestuck character because of his relation to Rufio. Sollux is a computer programmer whose personality is associated with ideas of duality and bifurcation. Sollux

2727-536: Is Andrew Hussie's "gift for character-building", and that the characters are unique and "strangely relatable". Elliott Dunstan of Monkeys Fighting Robots said, "the sheer number of characters and possible interactions can get overwhelming", and that each fan ends up with a favorite cast member. The characters of Homestuck are particularly popular among cosplayers, with cosplay events such as San Diegostuck being held for Homestuck cosplay specifically. Mary Kinney of New York University wrote that Homestuck , which

2828-647: Is a fan of action movies and speaks in an antiquated fashion. English's surname comes from the villain Lord English. His grandmother took the surname to spite her abusive mother, whom was afraid of Lord English. He was in a romantic relationship with Dirk for a few months, however due to Jake's introversion, the two broke up. Jake later regrets his avoidant behaviour, and the two returned to being on good terms after some time. Jake also has an imaginary version of Dirk that haunts him, known as Brain Ghost Dirk. In

2929-634: Is a gold-blood, a caste known for great psychic power. He is the one who programs Sgrub (the troll version of Sburb) from the code Aradia Megido found. Sollux has the ability to talk to the recently deceased, who inform him that Alternia will be annihilated. He also claims that he is destined to go blind before dying, a claim which later proves to be partially true. Sollux speaks with a severe lisp, and his typing quirk reflects this. He frequently calls his friends by two-letter abbreviations of their names (e.g. Karkat becomes KK, Terezi becomes TZ, etc.). His introduction mirrors Dave Strider's and his astrological sign

3030-413: Is a hammer. Later in life, John becomes a transgender woman and takes the name June. This originated as a headcanon, however Andrew Hussie made it canon when a fan of Homestuck found a hidden chocolate bar was granted a single wish for if they were the author. Rose Lalonde is portrayed as an "intellectual", both through her obsession with Lovecraftian literature and through her organizing and planning

3131-499: Is a known fan of the webcomic, having been urged to read it by friends telling him that the character Rufio, which he played as in the 1991 film Hook , is featured in it. This interest in the webcomic led to a friendship with Andrew Hussie and resulted in the creation of a new character, Rufioh, with Basco's "typing quirks and personality". He would then team up with the Voice Over Nexus YouTube channel to voice

Homestuck - Misplaced Pages Continue

3232-455: Is a novel published online. Web novels exist in both free-to-read and pay-to-read formats. Web novels are particularly popular in China , with the country producing and consuming the largest amount of web fiction in the world. Most web novels are written as serials. Serialized novels have a long history, predating the internet by centuries. Fan fiction popularized the publishing of writing on

3333-422: Is a violet-blood, making him part of the two castes that make up the sea-dwellers, a sub-race of trolls "distinct from the commoners by mutation and habitat", as it is put during his introduction. His astrological sign is Aquarius . Feferi is a sea-dweller like Eridan Ampora, as well as his former moirail. Feferi is the heir apparent for Alternian rulership, which puts her at risk from Her Imperious Condescension,

3434-552: Is also depicted as having a romantic interest in Jake English. One of the last two humans on a future post-apocalyptic Earth (along with Dirk Strider ), Roxy Lalonde lives by herself and is known to frequently drink. In sequel content, Roxy is depicted as a transgender man. He does not struggle with gender dysphoria in the traditional manner, and did not change his name after transitioning. This leads to situations such as Dave accidentally referring to Roxy as "mom," however he

3535-439: Is also popular, with Facebook fanpages for web serials or web serial authors as well as character accounts. Some web serials are produced on content management systems such as Drupal , WordPress , or Joomla , which may integrate blogs directly into the site and also have many custom add-ons (such as for integrating social networking services such as Twitter or Facebook ). A distribution tool integrated into almost all media

3636-476: Is an example of effort justification . Homestuck was compared to James Joyce 's Ulysses by PBS Idea Channel due to the work's length and complexity. Lori Henderson of the School Library Journal described Homestuck as being "mostly black and white with splashes of color and a minimal amount of animation", but said that it worked for the webcomic and that, because the "characters are

3737-456: Is fifteen years old and the protagonist of the new arc. She leads her three friends Roxy Lalonde , Dirk Strider , and Jake English – the mother, brother, and grandfather of Rose, Dave, and Jade, respectively – through their own session of the game, while the original humans and surviving trolls journey through dimensions to the new post-Scratch session over the course of three years. The post-Scratch version of Earth quickly becomes dominated by

3838-409: Is heavily stylized as an adventure game , features an "implied character" as the player . This "nebulous" actor changes the Homestuck world. For example, on the first page of the webcomic, the player is prompted to enter the protagonist's name. After clicking to go to the following page, the reader's sense of control dissipates as they are not actually allowed to enter a name. The relationship between

3939-452: Is known for role-playing and acting like a cat. She embodies an interest in both furries and shipping , a combination Hussie described as "for the sake of efficiency." She is Equius Zahhak's moirail, or pacifying platonic soulmate, and she has a flush-crush on Karkat Vantas. Her astrological sign is Leo . The name Nepeta is a reference to the Genus name for the plant Catnip. The name Leijon

4040-490: Is of the lowest caste. He is Nepeta Leijon's moirail, a companion who is seen as a platonic soulmate and helps pacify their more aggressive tendencies. His astrological sign is Sagittarius . Gamzee is a purple-blooded troll with strong ties to his religious faith, referred to as the "Cult of the Mirthful Messiahs," which he eventually brings about the creation and realization of through time travel. This religion

4141-593: Is one of the most popular canon same-sex relationships in the webcomic, commonly referred to as "Rosemary." Her astrological sign is Virgo . The name Kanaya is a reference to "Kanya," the name of Virgo in the Hindu zodiac . Maryam is a reference to the Arabic form of Mary . Terezi is the troll who guides Dave Strider through the earlier acts of Homestuck . She is blind (due to the same incident involving Vriska Serket that left Tavros Nitram paralyzed) and able to visualize

Homestuck - Misplaced Pages Continue

4242-467: Is one of the only two trolls to reach god-tier (along with Vriska Serket). Her astrological sign is Aries . In Homestuck: Beyond Canon, a version of her, along with Tavros Nitram, help guide Vriska through the beginning of "The Point" and give her a form of therapy. Tavros is a bronze-blood who deals with self-esteem issues throughout his character arc. He is shy and unassertive, and struggles with standing up for himself, especially to Vriska Serket. He

4343-417: Is ongoing, John and his friends are also harassed by a group of twelve Internet trolls whose own session of Sburb was a failure that they blame the kids for. Among them, Karkat Vantas , Kanaya Maryam , Terezi Pyrope , and Vriska Serket each develop a relationship with the four humans, and the trolls are revealed to be an alien species simply called "trolls". The narrative shifts to a side story arc about

4444-495: Is remarkably similar to the word for lion in languages such as Finnish and Swedish. Kanaya is a jade-blood. She has a great interest in fashion, and is thematically strongly influenced by the Virgin Mary , taking on a motherly role towards the other trolls, particularly Karkat Vantas. Over the course of the story, she eventually becomes a so-called " rainbow drinker ", or vampire. Kanaya's romantic relationship with Rose Lalonde

4545-457: Is shown as an aristocrat with a genocidal superiority complex. He claims he has a strong desire to kill all land-dwelling trolls and had commissioned a doomsday device from Vriska Serket to that effect, but he never acts on any of this. He was broken up with by his moirail Feferi Peixes which later led to him becoming so enraged that he killed both her and Kanaya Maryam (who tried to stop him), as well as blinding and almost killing Sollux Captor. He

4646-464: Is shown to have an interest in fairy tales and fantasy stories, notably Pupa Pan, the Alternian equivalent of Peter Pan , and also has the ability to commune with animals. He uses a wheelchair after an encounter with Vriska, whose romantic intentions towards him are indecipherable, left him paralyzed, but he later gets robotic legs (although Vriska kills him directly afterwards). His astrological sign

4747-463: Is similar to that of the juggalo : he has an obsession with Faygo and believes firmly in miracles and the coming of the Dark Carnival . He is often high on Sopor Slime or possessed by other forces. He is good friends with Karkat Vantas and Tavros Nitram and asks Tavros out once, but the page cuts off before Tavros could give a definitive answer. His astrological sign is Capricorn . Eridan

4848-475: Is the RSS feed, so that subscribers can get updates on the latest chapters or episodes via an RSS reader or other media. Blog fiction is a form of fiction writing that uses blogs to reach its readership. It is a small-scale fringe activity in the world of blogging, and although it has generated some literary critical interest, it remains isolated. It is presented in many forms, from a pretend diary or posted novel to

4949-460: Is the fictional creator of Hussie's spin-off webcomic Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff , in-jokes of which are featured frequently in Homestuck . Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff are intentionally poorly made, featuring unsteady lines, liberal use of the spray paint tool, heavy JPEG artifacting , and the unpopular typeface Comic Sans . First shown on-screen during Homestuck ' s third act, Shaenon Garrity described Jade as "the most recalcitrant " of

5050-496: Is the first great work of genuinely hypertext fiction. If that puts it in the same breath as Ulysses , then so be it." Bryan Lee O'Malley , creator of the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim , described Homestuck as a "massive undertaking of deftly-handled long-term serialized storytelling. It's well-written and thoughtful. It has things to say". NPR named it among its top 100 reader favorite comics and graphic novels in 2017. Internet fiction Unlike most modern books,

5151-480: Is the main protagonist of Homestuck and the first character that is introduced. He is portrayed as a loyal "leader" of the group of kids, despite also being described as a "stereotypical mischief-making teen." Jokingly described by blogger Subdee as a " shoujo heroine", John's character is notably fond of bad films and has a seemingly irrational revulsion to the Betty Crocker brand. His weapon of choice

SECTION 50

#1732783581449

5252-401: Is understanding and forgives such errors. Dirk Strider is the brother to Dave Strider who shares a similar affinity for irony. At a young age, he made a digital copy of his brain that became his self-aware chat auto-responder. His older brother, another version of Dave, created a media empire surrounding Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff; the movie stars Donald Glover as "Geromy." Dirk considers

5353-456: The Hiveswap series of adventure games. In 2009, on thirteen-year-old John Egbert 's birthday, he receives a beta copy of an upcoming computer game, Sburb . Upon installing the game on his computer, he triggers a real life meteor storm , as a massive meteor approaches him, with a countdown slowly ticking down to when it will collide with his house. John survives only by being transported to

5454-482: The Betty Crocker fortune, and she is the symbolic leader of the four alpha kids. She wields a weapon similar to a pitchfork that vacillates between a pronged or spoon-like head depending on the Betty Crocker branding at the time. Her genetic son is, due to the "Paradox Clone" phenomenon, actually her grandfather and an alternate version of John Egbert, whose sister was Jake English's grandmother, Jade. Crocker

5555-495: The World Wide Web , including the extremely popular The Spot (1995–1997), a tale told through characters' journal entries and interactivity with its audience . The Spot spawned many similar sites, including Ferndale and East Village , though these were not as successful and did not last long. Most of these early ventures are no longer in existence. Since 2008, web fiction has proliferated in popularity. Possibly as

5656-666: The ebook has allowed writers to become quite prolific with "bound collections" offered as downloads in formats such as pdf , Smashwords , and Mobipocket . On-demand merchandising sites like CafePress and Zazzle are also sources of income from sales of T-shirts, mugs, calendars, mousepads and other fan items. Some publishers have started using serials on their sites as "eye bait" and proving grounds for novels, Tor Books . Similarly, writers with established series have been able to continue writing those series after being dropped by conventional publishers, as Lawrence Watt-Evans has done with his Ethshar novels. A web novel or webnovel

5757-429: The Condesce, the sinister former troll empress now in service to Lord English. In lieu of trolls, the four post-Scratch kids interact online with two alien cherubs, the siblings Calliope and Caliborn. While Calliope becomes a fast friend of the group, Caliborn resents their camaraderie, and is highly antagonistic towards them. After the post-Scratch kids enter their session, the two cherubs play their own version of Sburb in

5858-495: The Empress of Alternia, who would make an attempt on her life if it weren't for her lusus' protection. She is fuchsia-blooded, the highest ranking blood caste, being that of royalty, but is shown to be much more passive than other high bloods, wanting to coddle low bloods rather than "cull" them. Her astrological sign is Pisces . Other characters featured in Homestuck include the nearly-all-powerful antagonist Lord English, and

5959-456: The basic costs for hosting, and some of the more popular web serials can succeed with their entire budget made from donations or revenue of this type. A few web serial authors have taken to collecting their work and releasing in a book format for easy consumption offline. Self-publishing is key in this field, and services such as CafePress and Lulu.com are often used for distribution and sales of these anthologies. The advent and acceptance of

6060-540: The campaign was approaching, at the time, the record for most successful comics-related Kickstarter campaign, which was previously held by The Order of the Stick campaign with $ 1,254,120. The Kickstarter eventually raised $ 2,485,506, making it the "fifth game on Kickstarter to pull in a full seven figures" and the third highest funded video game in Kickstarter history at the time. An additional PayPal -based fundraiser

6161-497: The characters would take. Later, Hussie moved away from this style because the fan input method had grown "too unwieldy and made it difficult... to tell a coherent story." While Hussie now controlled the main plot of the story and the characters' actions, he still "visit[ed] fan blogs and forums " to figure out small things to add into Homestuck . However, throughout its run, content within Homestuck would cease to be updated in several named pauses . The most infamous of these pauses

SECTION 60

#1732783581449

6262-412: The constant chatter between fandom and author. Homestuck is done. If you missed it, you missed it." Rob Beschizza added that reading Homestuck now would be "like buying a DVD of Woodstock . It doesn't matter how well they played or how pretty they were; what mattered was being there." In 2018, Hussie partnered with Viz Media to release physical versions of Homestuck . These hardcover books featured

6363-476: The creation of two visual novel games: Hiveswap Friendsim and Pesterquest . MS Paint Fan Adventures , or MSPFA for short, is a website in which users can create and view stories in the Homestuck format. During the period when the series was still ongoing, Andrew Hussie allowed fans to contribute suggestions to the story via the MS Paint Adventures forums, but this was later deprecated when

6464-488: The ensuing conflict, only John, Roxy, Dirk, and one of the trolls, Terezi, survive. With Terezi's guidance, John retcons key events in the narrative, most notably Vriska's death, setting up a timeline with a clear path to victory. In the retconned narrative, the kids and trolls defeat their enemies in a giant battle and create the new universe. The comic ends with Lord English fighting an army led by Vriska, Caliborn becoming Lord English after gaining unconditional immortality, and

6565-434: The fifth "act" of Homestuck , Hussie introduced an alien species called "trolls", based on Internet trolls , who live on the planet of Alternia in another universe. While the first few acts of Homestuck focused on a more realistic theme of what it is like for a group of kids to be friends on the Internet, the trolls took on more explicit representations of facets of Internet culture . Hussie stated that each troll represents

6666-423: The fifth anniversary of Homestuck , Paradox Space , an anthology spin-off webcomic, was launched. On April 13, 2019 – exactly ten years after Homestuck started – The Homestuck Epilogues began. The Epilogues are presented in purely text format with no images, completely abandoning the webcomic genre and instead being styled similarly to Archive of Our Own fanfiction. Alongside Andrew Hussie, it

6767-497: The film series to switch between "surrealist slapstick and inexplicable boxoffice dynamite, to veiled, near-subliminal protest pieces" and frequently pranked audiences in manners such as selling films that did not exist. Dirk Strider is also gay, and depicted as having a romantic interest in Jake English, similarly to Jane Crocker. He later helps Dave Strider with coming out and understanding his own sexual orientation. Similar to Jade Harley , Jake English lives alone on an island. He

6868-422: The form of a Snapchat story. By the end of its run, the entire work contained over 800,000 words across at least 8,000 pages. After its completion, writer Ben Tolkin said, "Do I recommend Homestuck? Should you drop everything and start reading it? You can't. Homestuck is over, and I mean over, not just that it isn't updating. 'Homestuck,' the masterpiece, was the event, the community, the shifting pace of updates,

6969-464: The four kids. Jade Harley lives on a remote island together with her dog, Becquerel, who is the First Guardian of Earth (later merging with him). As she can see the future through her dreams, Jade was the one who encouraged the other three kids to play the fictional video game Sburb, and therefore set the plot in motion. She often uses a hunting rifle in battle. Jane Crocker is the heiress to

7070-401: The group's movement during the story. She tends to speak and write in a formal, overwrought manner, as if to demonstrate her knowledge. Aside from her interest in the occult , the character also enjoys knitting and uses her knitting needles as her go-to weapons. Rose forms a relationship with, and marries in Act 7, the troll Kanaya Maryam during the events of Homestuck . Dave Strider is

7171-478: The historical settings of MS Paint Adventures comics Bard Quest and Problem Sleuth . Hussie first launched an early version of Homestuck , the Homestuck Beta, on April 10, 2009. The Homestuck Beta was published only three days after Problem Sleuth and ran until April 13, 2009. The initial style of the webcomic was developed to be advanced by fan contributions, with the fans deciding what actions

7272-437: The immense size of Homestuck and its fandom, with more than 5,000 pages and 128 characters at the time, Hussie considered himself in control of the comic. Hussie responded that he felt Homestuck was "still under my control", but that the background of Homestuck as a movement "is not under my control, and never really was." Orsini also suggested, in a separate article, that the effort put forward by people who finish Homestuck

7373-415: The internet and set the standards for much of the community interaction surrounding web serials. Many fanfiction works have been published in multi-part works of epic length which prepared internet-based reading audiences for the easy digestion of serialized original works. Also, some web serial authors (and many authors in general) made their start in fanfiction before setting out for original work. Therefore,

7474-501: The kids learn about a game mechanism called the "Scratch" that allows the humans to reset their session to escape Jack but will also inadvertently summon Lord English, Doc Scratch's master who seeks dominion over all of reality. Executing the Scratch resets the kids' universe, and versions of themselves become guardians to a new group of players, who are versions of their own ancestors. As a result, John's late grandmother, Jane Crocker ,

7575-475: The kids via a chat program. Returning to the present, the two species cooperate to salvage the kids' game session. However, Vriska sabotages key events which results in the kids' accidentally empowering Jack Noir from a simple adversary to a seemingly-invincible monster. Rising tensions among the trolls eventually boil over, and some begin to attack and kill others; almost half the group (including Vriska) dies before Karkat manages to restore order. From Doc Scratch,

7676-469: The letter 'B' with the number '8' and uses emoticons with eight eyes. Troll culture features a complex system of romance, featuring four " quadrants ", that was specifically designed to encourage shipping among Homestuck fans. Homestuck trolls are by default bisexual ; this normalization has been described by a fan as "incredible for all the bi and gay kids out there... seeing loads of couples that don't think twice about how they're dating somebody of

7777-503: The main story titled Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff . The webcomic, drawn within Homestuck by character Dave Strider, is intentionally poorly made. TopatoCo produced a print publication collecting the strips. The press release from TopatoCo described Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff as "the worst comic strip ever". In 2017, TopatoCo announced a second Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff book, co-written by dril , co-drawn by KC Green , and funded through Kickstarter . On September 4, 2012, Hussie announced

7878-472: The original storyline and art, while also providing new commentary. A significant amount of merchandise has been sold through Hussie's shop, company, and record label What Pumpkin, including "T-shirts, hoodies, pins, books" and fan art prints. Fans have also been "recruited" to make music for the webcomic. The music has been bundled into albums , with ten major soundtrack albums having been released thus far, in addition to eighteen side albums. On April 13, 2014,

7979-467: The past, few were financially successful . However, as webcomics have risen in popularity in recent years, many artists have garnered the support and trust of loyal audiences who are willing to pay for their work through sites such as Patreon or Podia. List of Homestuck characters#Roxy Lalonde Homestuck is a webcomic written, illustrated, and animated by Andrew Hussie as part of MS Paint Adventures ( MSPA ). The webcomic centers on

8080-482: The player and the reader of the story fluctuates from page to page, and the player character may switch from avatar to avatar. In this way, the reader experiences Homestuck ' s narrative through the experiences of various characters. In an interview with The Daily Dot , Homestuck guest artist Shelby Cragg praised Hussie's webcomic for its 50:50 gender ratio and large number of well-written female characters. Creatrix Tiara of Autostraddle noted that Hussie

8181-452: The popularity of these sites may arise from their interactive aspects allowing creators, readers, and other users to communicate with one another and create new communities. Another format in use is the internet forum . A free forum service such as ProBoards or Ezboard may be used to create a board for a web serial, or the web serial may be a feature of a larger board in order to benefit from its traffic. Forums can also be integrated into

8282-447: The publication of serial works. Fanfiction.net has a sister site, Fiction Press, for original work. Authors of traditional paper-and-ink novels have sometimes tried to give readers an interactive experience, but this approach did not become completely feasible until the development of digital media and hypertext . Traditional novels are linear, that is, read from page to page in a straight line. Interactive novels, however, offer readers

8383-474: The readerships for fanfiction and web serials intersect quite a bit, and some fandom language and memes are shared by the web serial community. Most web serials tend towards regular publication schedules, however, whereas the bulk of fanfiction is published at the author's convenience. In fanfiction there is less obligation to finish or continue stories. Many fan fiction archives (such as the popular Fanfiction.net archive) are set up to accommodate and encourage

8484-824: The remaining living heroes about to enter their newly created universe. While nominally a webcomic , Homestuck consists of a combination of static images, animated GIFs , and instant message logs. Generally, pages included a single panel , and navigational links to successive pages are phrased similarly to commands in interactive fiction games. Additionally, unlike previous works from Andrew Hussie which exclusively relied on GIF images for animation, Homestuck introduced complex animations and browser games made with Adobe Flash , many involving contributions from fan artists. According to academic Kevin Veale of Massey University , Homestuck used these various methods of engagement to manipulate its readers' experiences in order to tell

8585-518: The same gender as themselves." With few exceptions, all trolls fall on the hemospectrum, a caste system dictated by blood color and its corresponding attributes, including lifespan, powers, personality, and rarity. Where burgundy-blooded trolls are common and fall at the bottom of the social hierarchy, fuchsia blood is exceptionally rare, and its carriers sit at the top of the hierarchy. Each troll also has an astrological sign that carries their blood color and reflects their personality. The names of

8686-420: The story simultaneously, both dead and alive. In an interview with Big Shiny Robot , Hussie said the following on this topic: [ Homestuck ] seems to combine all the meaningless deaths of a trial-and-error game journey with the way death is treated dramatically in other media, where unlike [the] oblivious Mario , the characters are aware and afraid of the many deaths they must experience before finally winning

8787-491: The sub-arc introducing the characters. Told as a powerful psychic with an ability to speak with the dead, Aradia is responsible for recovering the code for Sgrub, the troll version of Sburb, from some ruins. She is a burgundy-blood: the lowest ranking blood color on the hemospectrum with the shortest lifespan of all trolls, but also the most likely to have psychic powers. One night, before entering Sgrub, an incident occurs involving Vriska Serket, Terezi Pyrope, Tavros Nitram and

8888-403: The title was also dropped, with Roach saying "In the original outline, it was just called Homestuck: Beyond Canon . Andrew mentioned the old team pushed for the ^2 but this isn't actually a sequel in the traditional sense." The original chapters leading up to the first 2023 update were also referred to as a "prologue" by Roach. Early in Homestuck , Hussie introduced a webcomic contained within

8989-548: The titular character in Let's Read Homestuck. Toby "Radiation" Fox , best known for his later creation of the video game Undertale , was a noted member of Homestuck ' s official Music Contribution Team. Amanda Brennan , an Internet historian, has credited much of Undertale 's initial success on Tumblr to Fox's association with Homestuck . "So begins Homestuck, Andrew Hussie's webcomic/cartoon/video game/mixed media art project that went on to take over every convention with

9090-442: The trolls and the specific sequence of events that led this group to play their own session of the game. The group and troll society as a whole is manipulated by the enigmatic Doc Scratch, who serves an even more mysterious master. The trolls win their session and a new universe – the universe the kids inhabit – is created. Before they can claim their prize, they are attacked by Jack Noir and forced into hiding, where they begin to troll

9191-433: The twelve trolls were also suggested by Homestuck readers, but they were the last instance of user input, as Homestuck ' s readership had expanded significantly at this point. In an interview with ComicsAlliance , Hussie remembered how "the moment it went crazy was really unmistakable ... it was when I brought the trolls into the picture", saying that Homestuck became a "contagious phenomenon" about halfway through

9292-490: The webcomic, Hussie introduced Davepetasprite^2 , a fusion of the characters Davesprite (an apparitional alternate timeline version of Dave Strider) and Nepeta Leijon. The character is notable for having a short-lived crisis regarding their gender identity , due to the differing genders of the sprite's two constituent characters. Eventually, most of the fandom defined the character as non-binary . According to Lilian Min of The Atlantic , Homestuck ' s greatest strength

9393-416: The work got more popular. Throughout much of its history, the size of Homestuck' s fan community was in the millions, with around a million unique visitors coming to the site daily. At one point, one of the webcomic's Flash animations caused Newgrounds , Megaupload , and Twitter (now X) to crash when it was uploaded, due to the strain that the number of views had put on the servers. Actor Dante Basco

9494-521: The world through her sense of smell and taste. She is teal-blooded, portrayed as an avid role-player and has a strong sense of justice. Her astrological sign is Libra . The name Terezi is a reference to the Albanian word Terezi , meaning "Justice." Terezi was the first of three Homestuck characters to be introduced in Namco Bandai 's dating simulator Namco High , of which Andrew Hussie

9595-530: Was also written by multiple fan writers. Though released for free online, the Homestuck Epilogues were also given a physical release. On October 25, 2019, an official followup was launched, titled Homestuck: Beyond Canon , initially Homestuck^2 . Homestuck: Beyond Canon has been written by a team of writers based on a story outline by Hussie, and the project receives funding from Patreon . In March 2021, Homestuck: Beyond Canon' s about page

9696-453: Was considered among the "most hardcore" eyepatch -wearing fictional characters by The Mary Sue . In the alpha timeline, she is one of two trolls (along with Aradia Megido) to reach god-tier. Her astrological sign is Scorpio . Equius Zahhak Equius is an indigo-blooded robotics expert with an unnatural amount of strength. Despite his thorough belief in the hemospectrum, he has a borderline fetishistic adoration for Aradia Megido, who

9797-454: Was created to accommodate those who could not donate via Kickstarter's available methods. While development was going to initially be done by game studio The Odd Gentlemen , production was later moved in-house to What Pumpkin. This coincided with a change in the game's art style from 3D to 2D. Development began in 2013, with the finished product expected in 2014; the first episode was later released in 2017. Additionally, Homestuck has led to

9898-414: Was highly successful with creating a diverse LGBT cast, by writing the characters in a "realistic, non-fetishistic manner." A large number of LGBT readers have claimed to have been strongly affected by the representation of diverse sexualities and gender identities in the webcomic. Characters frequently die within the plot of Homestuck , which Andrew Hussie described as a necessity of a story with such

9999-434: Was the creative director. Vriska is cerulean-blooded and takes the role of an antihero in Homestuck . Being raised by a giant spider, Vriska uses a spider-themed typing quirk and aspires to be a pirate . Her weapon is a set of eight legendary eight-sided dice , which, depending on what they roll, can cause either devastating or worthless attacks. Her character is described as "ruthless, manipulative [and] powerful", and

10100-418: Was the result of Andrew Hussie taking a full year to solely focus on the production of Hiveswap in the gigapause . On April 13, 2016, Hussie released the final chapter of the webcomic: a nine-minute-long animated short titled "[S] ACT 7". Hussie stated that an epilogue to the webcomic would be released at some point in the future. In late 2016, the comic updated with a credit sequence and more panels in

10201-427: Was updated to state that the work was "updated regularly for about a year until it was paused indefinitely. The creative team is now being commissioned to finish the story privately. All content will be posted here at once when the story is complete." According to a February 2021 post on Homestuck's Patreon page, "Homestuck^2 is going to be completed, but this Patreon will not be charging patrons anymore." Snake Solutions,

#448551