The writing of Homestuck

Homestuck has the understandable and justified reputation of being confusing and hard to understand, but as someone who is actually rediscovering the webcomics a decade later (so older lmao), the writing of Homestuck is pretty... pedagogical and logical, I'd say.

The "weird" and "confusing" moments almost always follow the same pattern, which is :
"random"/out of context situation that has nothing to do with the previous scenes (flashback or flash forward scene) → the proper and clear explanations of that sequence the next page, or several pages later (for revelation purposes) so the reader can connect the dots by himself. (Exercise > Lesson)
OR, the introduction of an ongoing gag hiding a warning ("addiction is a powerful thing", "I told you about the stairs"…) or a big concept → consequences of said the warning few pages later or example for the said concept through a concrete situation. (Lesson > Exercise)

Thus, everything that happens is always the completely logical consequences of past actions, however absurd or stupid they may be. That way, there's a loooot of foreshadowing. And the pieces of the larger picture will gradually stick together to give a view of the bigger picture. Pretty much like an inverted funnel and solving a puzzle. This pattern is also essentially the basis of the tragic-comedy and irony situations.

(Especially when the big [S] animation flash comes and connects and explains everything that happened earlier)

This kind of narration structure is mainly what makes the comics so unique I think. I don't remember seeing such a way of telling a story anywhere else, to be honest. And of course, it has also a lot to do with the multimedia and meta narrative nature of Homestuck.

Another very recurring literary device is parallels. Homestuck entire structure is basically built on parallels between characters, situations, acts… Once you noticed them, you cannot unsee them. I think that's what struck me most when I rediscovered the comics. Because almost each element can parallel another one.

1. I don't think I'm taking too much of a risk if I'm saying that that Homestuck's writing is genius, period.
   
   Not only because the characters always have a reason to act/to do something, even if it's fucking dumb. And, I know, it's going to sound pretentious – especially when the reading experience depends on each individual –, but as long as you pay attention, there's no reason, in theory, to not understand what you're reading. And for a story like that, it's damn impressive.