i mostly liked what i heard from homestuck made this world, but ended up stopping around their reading of act 5 act 1 since it's just so long for what i was getting out of it. the format idea of having one guy who's read the comic and one guy who hasn't is cute but... also makes a lot of the actual analysis pretty weak, imo. i do like the focus on contemporary fandom history and stuff, but the baked-in focus on the serialized experience makes a lot of the actual comic analysis a lot weaker because homestuck is so tied together and in conversation with itself for its entire run that any analysis made partway through is really shaky (which you'd think would be obvious since that's how most media works but yknow). the equius/aradia heart scene mentioned earlier actually was the specific moment i stopped listening, just since their very moralizing "this is BAD because it depicts RAPE" take on it is such a perfect example? like taking that scene as an outright endorsement of equius is the opinion you can only have when you're right there in the moment and don't know that those two never go anywhere and equius is also kind of a scumbag and even part of lord english. maybe hearing their takes develop is part of the appeal and i just didn't get that far?

it's not a terrible podcast though, really the only reason it frustrated me the way it did was because even the full-length, academically minded, somewhat professional discussions of the comic are wrapped up in The Serialized Experience. like dang can ANYONE take this comic as just a piece of art instead of a time capsule designed to be read over seven years?