What do people enjoy about the Epilogues?

Dirk is a super hard to understand character, but i think his main motivation was "get away from the people living their lives so i dont ruin them again" and that was twisted by his bro and cal parts to lead him towards villainy, which was in turn justified by dirk because "its all a story and im just on my villain ark" and "without me everyone would fade into obscurity" until he gaslights himself into believing its all for the greater good

I read the epilogues right after finishing homestuck in 2023 so I can really only answer from the perspective of a new fan (so sorry if this is totally unrelatable to you!) and I'm so thankful I did!! After finishing the comic I didn't have a fully formed opinion on all the characters yet, especially since a lot of the characterization went right over my head (I read as fast as I could because I was enjoying myself, but I should have probably taken my time to really get into the text)

The epilogues basically gave me a new chance to think about the characters and the story and the surrounding narrative. It really opened my eyes!! Reading Jane's arc and having to go over what I knew of her in my head was a fun excercise, basically retracing the steps that led to her doing all that. Also, it motivated me to re-read Homestuck, this time trying to actually take it all in and look out for the all the things that the epilogue and post canon are a continuation of

so in short, I enjoy the epilogues and post canon a lot because it offers a new way of looking at the story and incentivizes a more thorough reading of the text

also, I like homestuck so I'm generally pleased about there being more canon content, especially now that I can read it live and have way more time to digest the story

My theory is that people generally enjoy the Epilogues because the Epilogues have the official Homestuck branding. The same way people watch Robocop 3 because it has Robocop in the title and stars Robocop. If the project did not have Hussie's name attached to it, and was posted exclusively on AO3, it would probably be ignored as a marginal piece of diaper fetish literature, indistinct among a sea of its own kind.

I think regression arcs are just as interesting as progression arcs when they're done right, and I found Dirk's was done really, really right. Now that it's years later and everyone knows about the Dirk twist I guess its impact is different, but so much of the intrigue of the Epilogues for me was this creeping discovery that, oh, a character I've known for the better part of Act 6 now actually was always part of the villain of Homestuck, and he has always had the capacity for this.

Speaking honestly, the characters were never my main attraction to Homestuck. But the Epilogues and now HS2 continuing to highlight the negative or irrational sides of them has really forced me to reckon with the deeper more intimate aspects of them and figure out what really makes them tick, and I think that's a serious achievement. It's just one of the various ways that the sequels take Homestuck's already-mature themes and reconfigure them in a way that actually forces the reader to engage with them in a way that is itself mature, rather than just with passive readership or frivolous fanwank.

There are parts that are deliberately offputting in a way that doesn't quite reach the level of transgressive art but do represent this really interesting shot across the bow towards the reader regarding how mutible a lot of the things people seem to like about the comic and the characters are.

It also emphasises a lot of the weird callousness that comes from having a bildungsroman narrative that also has apocalyptic stakes. Stuff like Rose's plan involving sending younger versions of herself and her friends off to die as proxies in order to fulfill the debt to the narrative the versions of the characters who matter have incurred for thier happy ending, while she rots into this fake myopic self actualisation.

There's a thread throughout Homestuck about characters having some level of awareness of their own development as people being baked into the universe and the ugly endpoint of that being someone looking at the world around them spiralling out of control and only being able to ask "How does this effect me?" Like millennial versions of the people who started out as hippies, got into self-help and ended up alone in the suburbs.

I also liked the Johnrezi parts, seeing Egbert be down bad for someone after being oblivious throughout the main comic was very funny.

i honestly really like how insane everyone is in candy. in retrospect it's fairly obvious that a group of characters with as weird of an upbringing as the homestuck cast has will not grow up to be functional adults, so when they start forcing themselves into what they think is normative it falls apart completely. like, the conceit of the entire thing is the characters settle down and start trying to do Real Adult Things, but none of them have a proper grasp on what Real Adult Things are so it very quickly spirals. in a way it's a parallel to the ongoing theme of homestuck of characters emulating their ancestors/parents, except it's taken to its extreme in part because of the whole "fake fanfiction world" thing, and in part just because the longer you stay in an environment where you try to emulate adulthood to the best of your ability without being questioned because you're literally a god and all your friends are equally maladjusted, the worse you get. it's part of the reason why meat doesn't go as far timewise as candy gets, because the point is that with every time skip these characters just get worse off screen because every time skip they marinate more and more in their respective self-made environments and delusions.

My reading of the ending of Homestuck always hinged on the idea that it was a happy ending because they were able to escape being in a story. They spent basically heir entire childhoods in situations forcing them to have arcs and grapple with narrative consequences and they could finally be free from that. With that in mind, I honestly think the best way to continue the story is through the lens of a depressing fanfiction forcing the characters back into the plot that they escaped.

Personally, I like it because I think they're handling the characters' growth and maturation very well, how they abandon their youthful innocence to embrace adult maturity, and that includes dark things, like regression of bad habits, depression, bad coping mechanisms, and basically whatever happened in the Candy route XD

Also, the best thing is that it's clear that these things didn't come out of nowhere, and I mean it, if you reread Homestuck after reading the Epilogues and Beyond Canon, you realize that many of those dark, depressive, mature facets of the now-adult characters were present even in their childhood selves, but downplayed by their innocence and lack of understanding of the gravity of the consequences.

Plus, I really love the meta message that it doesn't matter if a fan work is canon or not, the important thing is that it's loved by the public, and that you don't have to adhere to the original canon. Basically, you can go as wild as possible with the characters as long as you love what you're doing and have something you want to share with other fans.

I'm really excited for the future of Homestuck, both Beyond Canon, the animated pilot, Hiveswap, and all the current fan projects (^///^)

It's more Homestuck and explores more lore stuff.

I'm an avid Epilogues and HS^2/HSBC fan, so I'd be happy to share some of the points I genuinely enjoy. Sorry if it's all a bit ramble-y.

First off and at the most basic level, its of course just More Homestuck, so it'd have to be really bad for me not to appreciate it at least a little. But I also don't think it actually is bad on the whole of it, even if it takes some things in directions I don't "like" to see. As much as I love the cast of characters and want to see them finally be happy and fulfilled, that itself doesn't make for a properly sensational basis for telling a compelling continuation of the story. So thrusting them back into the narrative limelight is going to entail robbing them of their "happy endings" such as they were. And the Epilogues aren't shy about deliberately undermining any sense of closure for p much the entire cast.

Besides, where Homestuck proper leaves off at the end of Act 7 there are still plenty of plot threads still up in the air. Getting off the ride that is Homestuck at this point was always going to mean accepting not being able to tie those up. The approach the Epilogues and Beyond take allows for as comfortable an off-ramp as you're likely to get for anybody whose truly done with Homestuck, while still providing various branching points from which to continue things in all sorts of directions for those who are still interested. Effectively getting to have it's cake and eat it too, which is both very Homestuck, and one of great things about fiction in general.

As for the characterizations, they all basically work for me too. None of them strike me as particularly out of character, just as disappointing turns for them to go down. The roads to self improvement they were beginning to go down are unfortunately rarely linear journeys even for well-adjusted people, which these characters definitely aren't. Relapse along the way is normal, and even to be expected, especially for a gaggle of child gods with a severe lack of support systems and accountability in the new world they've created. Plus, just seeing how things fall apart is interesting to me in itself.

When I try to be charitable to the Epilogues, the silver lining I can draw is that there is some excellent concepts being ideated.

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I try to view Dirk's arc as one akin to Homura's turn to villainy; she has convinced herself that Madoka is secretly miserable for having sacrificed her existence to preserve everyone's soul in the Magical Girl Afterlife, and the key moment occurs in the 3rd movie, where after Homura has lived this cycle of grief and loss over and over again, she finally has a chance to be with the one she longs for. Only that Madoka has none of her memories and acts in a way that is a projection of Homura's beliefs, confirming her worst suspicions.

Thus, Homura at the end rips Madoka from heaven and rewrites reality. And she must rewrite reality and maintain that reality if Madoka is to live a mortal existence. She fails to understand that Madoka is truly that selfless and would rather in her eyes take on the role of villain to appease her own loss, upsetting the cosmic order Madoka established. (Deep down she now KNOWS Madoka is that selfless now, so inevitably waits for the day Madoka will confront her over what she did. Though given Madoka's former actions in the story, I have no doubts Madoka will still forgive her because Madoka represents an unrelenting force of hope and positivity).

So, when I see the idea of Dirk placing himself in the position of villain because he believes conflict is necessary to keep the story "relevant" and thus preserve his friends existence in the long term, I don't *hate* the idea. It's one where he ultimately thinks he's doing something good by taking on the burden. But my other answer to that will always be: Dirk has the power to write his will into reality, he can literally invent any manner of villain or puppet Caliborn to the end of time if that's the issue, he himself doesn't need to BE the villain. I have yet to think about how the story will confront that fact or explain it away. Like, Dirk orchestrated the defeat of Lord English IN the Epilogues, which seems weird if the idea is continuing the story.

Ultimately, the Epilogues feels concept first and characters second, with some chopped and squeezed to fit the mold of the idea they wanted to put to paper. The Epilogues could have easily been all the characters having settled down and we get a glimpse of their ever after, with open ended ideas of how it finishes. (Much like the Snapchats seemed to.)

I'm gonna be so for real, I was exactly like you when I read the Epilogues. I hated them, I thought they butchered all of my favorite characters and basically just ruined Homestuck for me. And then I reread Homestuck, and when I got to the Epilogues I was able to just see it in a different light. I hated specifically the Candy arc which is obviously the one a lot of people have issue with, because it's the one where the most stuff happens and the one where everyone's characters are just out of wack.

The Candy Arc just dials up all of the characters pre-existing problems and puts them at the spotlight so you can't ignore it anymore, and you see how the issues these people had as kids morphs them into awful, terrible adults. I think it's especially painful for a lot of people to read Candy because we essentially grew up with these characters, and so seeing John become a depressed shut in, or Rose and Kanaya having a whole cheating scandal, or Dave and Karkat not even getting together and not even being friends in the end because of all sorts of problems, is like getting splashed with cold water all at once lol.

And it's especially that way if you read Homestuck and then just jumped to the Epilogues. Homestuck ends with all of them smiling towards a hopeful future, and it ends with all of them lowkey hating one another in a separate reality. For what it's worth though, Meat is just as good but just as Depressing because it's more John focused then anything, but in Meat everyone still has problems but are willing to work through them rather than continue to live in this idyllic life.

frankly i just love weird messed up and complicated relationships. and pretentious bullshit about literary stuff. honestly the epilogues and beyond canon feel like they were tailored to my tastes specifically

I've got to respect the Epilogues for telling an actual story, rather than giving us the Happily Ever After. When you start a sequel series after the original series is done and dusted, you have a few options.

a) Shunt the OG characters offstage and start with a whole new set. Next Gen time! Pros: you can do whatever you want now. Cons: everyone going "but I want the old characters back!"

b) Keep the OG characters, and tiptoe around their Happy Ending. Nothing bad can happen to them now, so you can't go much beyond low-stakes comic shenanigans. Which is fine in its place (I personally view Homeslice as the Cake Timeline) but maybe not for the mainline sequel.

c) Keep the OG characters, but let plot happen to them. They can now do bad stuff. Bad stuff can now happen to them. Their "completed arcs" are no longer complete; their personalities can continue to develop. If you want high stakes AND your beloved OG characters, this is the devil's bargain you must strike.

...so I was entirely fine with seeing my beloved characters return in a proper story, as characters in a story rather as than treasured little action figures kept safe in their dustproof packaging. Might help that I grew up reading epic fantasy, and sweet slimey Dagon, fantasy writers can be ruthless with their characters. Think of Robin Hobb, bringing back poor Fitz for yet another ride in the blender every time he thinks the story is done with him. That character is basically a rubber stress toy that a Rottweiler ran off with, and we love him for it. Lest we forget, Damn You Hussie was similarly ruthless in the original comic, making fan-favourite trolls torment and brutally murder each other for our enjoyment.

I also like the theme of "doing adult life very badly", and relate to it strongly.

They're funny. Don't get me wrong, I love the high-concept stuff and all the themes and symbols and whatnot that others have brought up. I remember sitting in a chair in my apartment late at night, reading it for the first time on my phone, and just laughing out loud.

I also like the fact that it has an ending. It may be a crescendo, but it wouldn't do itself justice any other way.

@chitonousCerate That's another thing, the Epilogues are indeed fucking hilarious. I think I have never laughed harder at this comic than I have during the entire conversation where Jade finds out Obama is a real person and not just someone Dave "made up". Really, the entire arc where Dave gets Karkat to run for president is hilarious and even though there's all this other shit that happens in the story that makes it super dark, I loved both those scenes for just how absurd and silly it is.

And as much as it is ridiculous, the Dave and Obama thing is also really funny I like how much pay off it had for such a absurd scene. Truly a joke that just keeps on giving.