well, personally i think that the continuation for these characters does make sense, and a lot of people agree, but i think making a case for that doesn’t address the issue you’ve been having in this entire thread.

the truth is, someone can come here and make a fool-proof case that the epilogues are the greatest piece of fiction and are a perfect continuation for these characters, and you may even agree and change your mind as to the quality of the writing and the logic in character progression. that will not, however, make you actually like the epilogues. it will not flip a magic switch in your brain and erase all the read throughs you did where you didn’t like them, it may change your logical approach to the work, but it will not change your emotional response, because there’s a big difference between thinking something is good and liking something.

the reason you have this emotional response is not even entirely because the character progression is necessarily illogical, it’s because you have preconceived notions of what these characters are and what directions they are headed in at the end of homestuck proper. these notions may not even be inaccurate, they’re definitely not unsubstantiated, but they differ with what post-canon does with these characters, and that’s not the fault of post canon, and not your fault either. your preferences for how these characters should’ve progressed are just different.

and, at the end of the day, if that’s the case, there‘s pretty much two options:

1. try to engage with post-canon on its own terms, try to see the logic in it and try to appreciate it. there are plenty of people talking about why they think the epilogues are good, and your approach to this (if you want to pursue this option) should be trying to see those perspectives and *consciously* and *deliberately* trying to appreciate them. it must be emphasized that this approach is not simply just engaging with defence of the epilogues, but going in with the mindset “okay, yes, i will try my best to perceive this as interesting and take it in and try to come up with reasons for me to find this interesting too”. taking these concepts as they are, and engaging with them not to disprove them or argue that they’re bad, but deliberately coming up with why these, too, are valuable.

2. accept the fact that you dislike the epilogues and post canon and just go from there. accept that this is media you consider bad, and don’t want to try and find enjoyment in it at all. move on, onto whatever greener pastures: be it imagining your own ending, finding value in fan endings, continuing to analyze and engage with the original text, criticising post canon if you find joy in that.

i guess my larger question is: why do you want to like the epilogues? you come at every point in favor of post canon with the preconception that it’s bad, not a good representation of the characters, and actively try to argue against any other notion. why not accept that you just don’t like it? why do this song and dance of saying you want to see other people’s reasons for liking post canon, and yet reject every single answer anybody actually presents to that question? why not accept that you don’t have to like every single piece of homestuck media and move on?

i think you talked about wanting to engage with fandom but being unable to do so without seeing all these versions of characters you don’t accept, but “fandom” is such a huge and nebulous community, you like, totally don’t have to engage with fans who like the epilogues. fandom culture is built on alternate universes, mischaracterisation, basically oc-ifing their favorite characters, shitposting and drawing characters who exchanged two words with each other kissing. i really, really do not understand what exactly you’re talking about when you talk about fandom as this collective that all largely accept the epilogues and dedicate significant amounts of content to them.

like, most of my current engagements with the homestuck fandom as someone who doesn’t even mind the epilogues and post canon are, in no particular order: watching a bunch of deltarune fans live read homestuck on twitter; shitposters; analysis blogs that regularly get into age old character discourse; a bunch of artists who dedicate their entire presence to drawing their favorite characters in any and all contexts, most of them entirely made up.

i think fundamentally what’s happening is you’re wallowing in a negative mindset and are unable to move on and curate your engagement with homestuck to your liking. the fact that you are very set on disliking post canon and yet reread it multiple times is kind of indicative of this mindset to me. speaking from personal experience, there are two types of people who consistently and continuously engage with something they dislike: 1. people who are dedicated to being haters and find genuine enjoyment in critiquing said thing 2. people who are unhealthily obsessed with the misery and negativity the thing brings to them. and these aren’t totally distinct types either, type 1 often if left unchecked just turns into type 2.

so, the question you should be asking yourself is: do you enjoy critiquing post canon? if so, make an analysis blog, make a thread, a video essay, a few bitter tweets - whatever it is, go and express those opinions and make sure you still get a healthy dose of engaging with things you still actually like, be it homestuck or not.

if not: stop doing this to yourself. stop trying to shovel food into your mouth despite it hurting your throat.