you have one hour to give a lecture about any homestuck-related topic you like. what do you focus on? do you try to summarize it, do you focus on works that influenced it or works that it influenced, or do you spend that hour gushing about ur fav?
what do you do?
i will figure out a good signature. Eventually.
id do one on the quadrants and troll reproduction no question, ive explained it so many times that i think its part of my muscle memory at this point...
OR!! if we had more content regarding them, id do some sort of history class about the alternian ancestors. their individual histories, their interactions with one another, their deaths, etc. cuz they’re awesome. but considering how many of them there are, and how much mindfang alone writes in her journal, i don’t think this would even fit in under an hour LOL
i think the Most Academic answer is to zero in on its use of the web as a medium, making a case for its position as a unique piece of an internet that no longer exists in the same way. it moves in sync with the increased difficulties of making space on the internet. homestuck moves from a forum game to a complicated, medium-bending webcomic to a pretty normal book printed by a massive media company before going back to a webcomic, where it is now constantly fighting to assert itself as a worthwhile endeavor. ezpz case to make.
SHAPED OR MOLDED FORMS appear to have been formed from a plastic material through directly applied force.
ABSTRACT FORMS are of uncertain origin.
I would do the leprechauns, and just in general the intermission. I adore how it’s written and the anger between the felt and the midnight crew. their dynamics were so well written! i also love how we just have theories for the bare bones we get in regards to leprechaun romance, I desire to know what each individual charm is and just what harmony a trove may make.
RV - https://mspfa.com/?s=47681&p=1 — MS - https://mspfa.com/?s=63392&p=1
the quadrant system and why i believe its largely misunderstood/misinterpreted by the fandom
seconding @victoria, homestuck is a fascinating case study in so many different ways but especially this. bonus points if you include how its whacky multimedia format is simultaneously the most intriguing part of homestuck but also the most volatile and difficult to maintain part of homestuck, given just how easily it can collapse when UNNAMED TERRIBLE COMPANY decides that flash isnt worth maintaining anymore or UNNAMED RIGHTS HOLDER cant keep its own damn website functional long enough for people to read it.
Life is short. Become a brand risk.
good question....
seconding victoria again because she is always right: I would teach a class about the more real life meta influence Homestuck has had on internet culture and storytelling! many, many, MANY pieces of media wouldnt exist without it breaking the boundaries of how a story can be told on the internet, and not just undertale/deltarune. even to this day there really isnt a piece of media that does what Homestuck did- it was entirely unique and special in its storytelling format. it would be a great way to teach about what Flash was, as well, and give a brief history of how it shaped the early internet!
* and the universe said I love you because you are love.
blood caste and classpect as co-analogies for gender 🙂↕️ it would only be a half year course but i would grade HARSHLY
>eats somewhere other than olive garden once
>fucking dies
Obviously I'm going for classes and aspects.
Hussie made such an interesting system for superpowers I absolutely love it. Of course I'd go over what every aspect represents and their associations, and how every class interacts with any given aspect. However, the biggest thing I'd focus in on is the reasons why people are classpected the way they are! Aspects are all narrative focused. Aspects like breath, light, and doom are the most obvious ones, but anyone's given classpect will always align with the way they interact with and impact the story they're a part of, OR it aligns with what their goals are, even if they don't fulfill them. Like how Eridan was a Prince of Hope but was super shitty at it and didn't actually destroy all hope, he only tried to. It's a huge part of Homestuck's whole thing about being a story that's very aware that it's just a fictional story. It's why Hussie including their self insert is actually a good narrative choice.
A good example of this concept come from Vriska, who's a Thief of Light. Light relates to luck and knowledge, particularly knowledge that's important for the reader to know. The luck part ties into the other part because if the story needs something to go right, it will. Vriska literally steals the spotlight of Homestuck! It's why she's such an important character. Because part of light relates to anything that's narratively important. It's so cool!!! I'm so fucking autistic about this shit!!!!!!
Stewing on this... the 1 hour is a good restriction on scope but everything is so interconnected it's tricky to pick something that can be covered well in isolation. I think... I would deliver a talk called "Can't It Be Motherfucking Both Things?" and talk about ambiguity in Homestuck? Like when things are both alive and dead, both white and black, both masculine and feminine, both memory and desire... that also poses a danger of creeping scope but at least I would be able to lock onto 1 or 2 examples per theme to keep myself grounded
