When I read Homestuck initially in 2023, I read it entirely separate from the fandom (and the better for it!) before immediately reading the Epilogues. I remember really liking Act 6, being blown away by the Epilogues, but hearing vague stuff about misbehaviour by Hussie. Nothing serious, but enough to burn some bridges. I then read Psycholonials in that context and like, it clicked, it was sincere and beautiful and really endeared Hussie as an artist to me.

I then joined the fandom and. Uh, wow, not impressed in the slightest. The vitriol for Hussie and indeed for Homestuck itself by its ostensible fans is unprecedented based on any other fandom I'm in. You don't get people like this about Gundam, even the bits they hate. And it made me realise something was rotten in the Homestuck fandom.

Even the conversations about Hussie's gender are really weird, like "Hussie goes by any pronouns" ok I'll use any pronouns seems reasonable but there's this interrogation of even that which is in ways that make me incredibly uncomfortable. I do think that FRAF, breaking free from the noxious reddit and discord is a breath of fresh air. I can only really describe it as a parasocial hatedom where you'd expect Hussie to have personally eaten a baby in front of people instead of "mismanage a property and generally be a PR disaster".

And that's before finding out about the fandoms penchant for harassment and generally just being Really Weird about the creators of Homestuck, including some drama I unfortunately was able to personally verify, which has endeared me even less to the hatedom. Which is a pity cos I love Homestuck, all of it! And there is this foul undercurrent that just poisons a lot of fan spaces.