prefacing this: i love homestuck. i think hussie writes characters incredibly well, i adore her work with the weird structural game meta in sburb, i even quite like the epilogues!

i do find myself falling into the ironic performance of homestuck distaste. i think a lot of the time people tend not to give each other the grace to believe they are capable of nuanced, complex thought unless they outright start off with it. every time i mention i like homestuck to someone who knows more than just the base "its an old webcomic that was really popular" i ALWAYS find myself having to follow it up with "i mean its definitely got its flaws and... etc etc."

i started getting really involved in online fandom culture in 2020; prior to that i didn't really use social media & ... touched grass, i guess. the way that DNIs were fucking embedded in the fabric of online interaction, with specific clauses for media enjoyment... i think it really left its mark. and i understand why someone outside the fandom, especially POC, may jump to distrust with people who present themselves as fans of the webcomic, and i really just don't think there's anything that can be done about that. you see the same thing with fans of hazbin hotel or steven universe or... well, less with attack on titan, i suppose, but

apologies in advance for how much i'm going to meander. i do think that there's some truth to the fact that a lot of people do not critically engage with media. shit, anyone who's read the epilogues and has a different opinion than just "they suck" has OBSERVED THIS FOR THEMSELVES. but online interaction is so shallow and banal that i think people immediately jump to the idea that anyone who doesnt follow up their enjoyment of a piece of media with an essay on its flaws is uncritically absorbing the media in its entirety, no matter what.

sometimes it's a valid safeguard, like with fans of a certain massively popular wizard franchise, since the issues with the media or the author are so glaring that they are a central part of the media in its modern context. but in most cases it really isn't, and i feel like homestuck falls in that second category. as much as i have trouble getting on with other homestuck fans, i've never met someone who ISN'T critical of the webcomic after talking with them for more than a single conversation.

i think a lot of folks who aren't involved with the fandom anymore don't realise how painfully self aware everyone in it is, and anyone in the fandom wants to be "one of the good homestuck fans" to people outside of it. i'm not innocent of this mentality.

it's just a fucking shame that being a homestuck fan is tied in with heaps of controversy and distrust. i know where it comes from and i get it but it sucks.

(obviously a lot of it also just comes from it "being cringe" but within modern day online spaces that doesnt matter as much)