Thoughts on the "Slur Replacement Mod?"

I view it like the quirk replacement mod: A tool that makes reading Homestuck easier for some people with the risk of losing some of "the art."

I won't argue for the merit of any specific use of a slur in Homestuck. Except for !Future arachnidsGrip. But if we follow the pattern of slurs throughout Homestuck, it feeds into one of the work's core themes: creation as a constant process. Act 6 gives us Caliborn; the character most likely to use slurs at the drop of a hat. But unless you count "bitch" (NOTE: Does the mod count bitch as a slur) he's notably more tame than the teenagers who came before him; who happen to have grown out of the practice.

The Scratch, and Act 6 in general, is a do-over. Here's what Homestuck would be like if it began in late 2011, but with all of the lessons Hussie learned while working on Homestuck. Would the webcomic have been better if it truly didn't begin before then? No, because then Hussie would have never had the learning opportunity of creating Homestuck.

I think there's a lot of value in the meta-narrative of homestuck where hussie becomes progressively more progressive and how that eventually leads to psycholonials. people can do what they want, and when I recommend homestuck I provide the link to the mod in case they want it, but like. you know. it's neat. it's a neat arc.

I feel like people are way too quick to associate the existence of a less needlessly-offensive version of Homestuck with the erasure of the original. Like, not only is that not going to happen, it doesn't need to. I think you can release and promote just about anything so long as you put in the legwork of properly contextualizing it. So long as they're not intentionally burying the lede on what Homestuck contains, I don't even see the problem in the less-spicy version becoming the default, which is almost certainly what's going to happen on some level if the animated adaptation takes off and becomes a full series.

The ways the mod replaces "cripple" manages to somehow make the ableism towards Tavros worse. Regardless of our opinion on the idea behind the mod, the execution leaves so much to be desired.

@cadence

I'm not sure about that. I mean, your opinion is your own, but I think the main problem with Vriska's lines here is the use of "shit" as a singular noun, which in my experience almost only happens with the insult "little shit" for someone being uncooperative or annoying. Her repeated use of "useless" feels repetitive too, so her calling him "such a useless shit" just comes across as kind of a shambles of a sentence.

i think part of my issue with it comes from the fact that people talk about it as if its the "definitive" way to read homestuck when its really not, and treating it that way feels like trying to pave over homestucks history for the sake of making it less "problematic".

also, the writing for the replacements is sort of all over the place, and a ton of the time it feels clunky as hell.

i think part of my issue with it comes from the fact that people talk about it as if its the "definitive" way to read homestuck when its really not, and treating it that way feels like trying to pave over homestucks history for the sake of making it less "problematic".

also, the writing for the replacements is sort of all over the place, and a ton of the time it feels clunky as hell.