You Should Read: MSPA - Homestuck

Thought I'd bring back this blog with some articles on comics to read and games to play, and what better way to start than with an oddly controversial topic.

MS Paint Adventures: Homestuck — or just Homestuck, for the sake of simplicity — is an unusually divisive subject. There are those who hate it with a passion, who deride it for its convoluted story or its predictability, and who subsequently loath anything related to it, including, and especially, its fanbase. Then there are those love it with an equal, if not superior, passion, who fill online forums to discuss the direction of the story and its underlying themes, who cosplay characters at conventions, who produce fan art, fan music, and (for better or worse) fan fiction.

But why? What is Homestuck really? And why does it cause such conflict? And why should anyone consider taking a look at it? In the following article, I shall endeavor to answer these questions, and maybe a few more.

What is Homestuck?

Homestuck is a webcomic, to oversimplify. In reality, it is a multimedia experience.

Designed like an old-fashioned text-adventure game, the 'next page' link is often styled like a text command, and pages are regularly a single image (sometimes animated), with a box full of text underneath resembling a chat log. Occasionally, a fully animated flash video, more often than not with music (composed specifically for use within Homestuck), will be used in place of the usual still image/chat log. Rarely, instead of a flash video, a flash game will be presented, allowing the reader to become an active participant.

In addition to the "comic" itself, there is also a store that sells myriad products featuring icons, characters, or art from the comic, and an independent record label that produces albums full of music either used in the comic or inspired by it (and sometimes both!). Many of the products are created by teams, whose members were often once just fans, coordinated by the author himself, and who also contribute back to the comic itself, resulting in a fascinating circuitous stream of art and music that flows between community, comic, and store.

"Wow, that's pretty cool!" I hear you say. "So, why are people so divided on it?"

Well...

Why People Hate Homestuck

Me being the pessimist that I am, I might as well start with the negatives.

• It's long: VERY long. I'm not checking right now, but I'm pretty sure it's in excess of 5000 pages. Now, a lot of those are just still images, and some have very little text on them, but there's still enough text and imagery to fill several hundred pages of an actual book. Then there's the flash videos and games. So yeah, it's kind of chore to get through.
• The story is convoluted: And I mean really convoluted. There are a lot of plot threads going on, and the author, Andrew Hussie, while doing a remarkable job of tying up loose ends, seems to have a penchant for adding subplots, many that most don't realize at first. Frequently, an offhanded comment, ignored for the most part, will come back with some kind of significance. Many view this convolution as a cheap shot at keeping the story going for as long as possible, and thus utterly unnecessary.
• The art is kind of simple: Early on an art style is established, and some readers just don't like it. The style was designed to emulate the simplicity of old text-based adventure games; lines are aliased, colors are minimal with little to no blending, resulting in very sharp, fairly basic images. While the style grows as the story moves on, retaining its relatively limited palette but adding complexity in environment and character design, many readers who drop it early never witness the evolution in art, or if they do, they simply can't get over it.

Now, while I don't particularly agree with them, these are pretty valid (if poor) reasons to not read Homestuck. "Hate" is a little strong, though. What pushes those who would simply dislike Homestuck to "hate" it?

• The fanbase: Fans of Homestuck can get really rabid, and socially awkward. The more fearsome will berate non-readers for not reading, and even verbally attack them. Others, while keeping to themselves, will produce fan art and fan fiction of questionable (read: adult) nature. This is incredibly off-putting to many would-be readers, especially when non-readers realize the characters in the story are in their early teens, no where near the age of consent in most developed nations. Even when the content isn't adult in nature, shipping, or the fan speculation of perceived or desired relationships amongst fictional characters, runs rampant in the fan community.

The fanbase is probably the single biggest reason why people "hate" Homestuck. In addition, there's one more, somewhat comedic reason why people might "hate" Homestuck.

• Andrew Hussie is kind of a troll: He knows he's not the best artist, and will occasionally make a panel purposefully horrible or outlandish just to mess with the readers. Those who take the story less seriously, and who understand Hussie's sense of humor, might get a chuckle out of this. Others though, might feel offended, or at least let down, that the author isn't taking his own work seriously. He also tends to pay attention to the fan community, and will make in-universe jokes at their expense. Some would-be fans might feel insulted by this kind of behavior, and thus avoid Hussie's work as some kind of personal protest.

Why People Love Homestuck

With so many thoroughly explained and easily proven reasons to hate Homestuck, why does anyone actually like it?

• It's long: Who doesn't like an irrationally vast epic every once in a while? Whether it be a light 500 pages or a back-breaking, eye-watering 2000 pages, some people simply enjoy a lengthy story, or maybe a series of stories that while individually short, totals several thousand pages. To help things along, Homestuck is divided into Acts, some with sub Acts (the infamous Act 5 for instance), and a couple Intermissions, that help move the story along a little at a time without moving too far ahead.
• The story is convoluted: For the same reason why people might want a long story, some might want a convoluted one. Many readers like a challenge, and with all its plots and subplots, Homestuck is a lot to keep track of. It even has its own Wiki, curated by the community, just to keep track of what's going on, and a page on TVTropes to keep track of its various literary/cultural influences and effects.

"Wait," you say, "am I missing something? Those are the same reasons why people claim to hate it!"

And you'd be right. Which is why I said those are poor reasons to hate it. They're really subjective. And they're not going to stop being subjective. But I'll at least try and make them sound a little different...

• It has a unique art style: Read a thousand comics and you'll never find an art style quite like that used in Homestuck. It's simple, yet expressive, charming, and sometimes even cute, and to older readers, even a little nostalgic. It makes fun of both old and new gaming tropes, and includes both homages and outright mockery of cultural figures and memes. It also starts to shift later on, to include contributions from Hussie's "art team", a collection of fans that he has tapped to assist in the "production" of Homestuck, mimicking the kind of arrangement used with print comics. Not a whole lot of webcomics actively include fan contributions as part of the comic itself.

I know, I'm still recycling reasons to hate it, and I'm not going to stop any time soon. Why? Because...

• The fanbase isn't all that bad: Like most fanbases, it seems like the scary ones are the only ones that ever get attention. In reality, most Homestuck fans are pretty OK people. They still might be socially awkward, or even ship characters, or even involve the fictional characters in adult situations, but they recognize what they do might offend outsiders, and try to keep it behind screens, so as not to alienate potential readers and fans. They're productive, innovative, creative, functional members of society, though they may occasionally be a little odd. In the end, Homestuck wouldn't be the epic it is without its fandom, and without its fans willing to contribute back to the comic and community.

And let's not forget that...

• Andrew Hussie is kind of a troll: Some people absolutely love that the author can't take himself seriously. Some people are aggravated by authors that consider themselves literary gods or goddesses, and to these people, Hussie is a breath of fresh air, especially when he inserts himself into the story as a parody of those same egotistic god-like authors. A handful of characters have been identified as Mary Sues or Marty Stus by the community, and he'll mirthfully play along, leading the community by the nose, until he inevitably either kills said character or destroys their once-flawless façade through failure or exposition, and sometimes both. He knows his audience and will abuse this knowledge regularly, becoming something of a savior to both masochists and disillusioned readers of fiction alike.

Okay, okay, I'm done recycling excuses. I'm not finished though, not completely. You see, there are still a couple more reasons why people like it, reasons that by themselves weren't very good reasons to hate it. Like...

• The characters: There are a lot of characters. Counting main characters, there are about 12. As for side characters, there are about a dozen more, not counting the handful that don't have dialog but still affect the story, which would possibly include another dozen. Then there are background or briefly utilized characters that still have an effect on the story, or whose existence provides some kind of anchor for a plot point or a character's actions. Each character, regardless of influence, is surprisingly fleshed out, and most readers can find at least one character to sympathize with. Even haters have an avatar or two with which they can relate, either by design or by accident.

While this could have easily been included in the "Reasons to Hate" section, with its "far too many characters" aspect or the fact that some characters are too juvenile/irrational/2-dimensional (all on purpose, of course), I believe these reasons to be somehow less acceptable than those I already include in that section.


Finally, there's one last point I find to be an indisputable reason to actually like Homestuck, and that's...

• The music: Hussie's music team has produced at least a dozen full length albums, all for preview/sale on Hussie's "record company's" Bandcamp page. In addition, there are a handful of concept albums, produced by subsets of the music team, and a pair of anthology albums that are compilations of fan submitted music, the result of a contest, the final tracks selected by the music team. The genres range from classical, to oriental, to rock, to electronic, to chiptune, and everything inbetween, including complex orchestrations of several genres. There's something for everybody, unless you hate music of course.

Conclusion

I personally think there are way too many reasons to like, or at least attempt to read, Homestuck. Then again, all of the reasons provided to hate and/or like Homestuck are fairly subjective. Maybe you really hate long stories, or stories with several dozen characters, or characters with personality. Or maybe you really like those things, but are unusually sensitive to actions of fan communities or the author. I can't help with these thing, unfortunately. All I can suggest is if you can't handle long stories, try and take it a little bit at a time, and if you can't stand rabid fandoms or eccentric authors, then don't pay any attention to them.

If you don't like characters with personality though, or if stories with more than one plot thread make your head hurt, all the advice I can offer is grow up, and start reading stories more complicated than The Berenstain Bears or Twilight.

Links

Page 1 of Homestuck: click here

Official MSPA Store: click here
Other Official MSPA Merch: click here
Homestuck on Bandcamp: click here

Homestuck Wiki: click here
Homestuck on TVTropes: click here
Homestuck on the PBS Idea Channel: click here