schneefink

I was productive today! (A rarer occurance than I'd like.) I studied a lot of econometrics - please, please, I don't want to hear the word "regression" again for at least 24 hours.

Have an econometrics joke!
History of economics: trying to catch a black cat in a dark room.
Economic theory: trying to catch a black cat in a dark room that does not exist.
Econometrics: trying to catch a black cat in a dark room that does not exist and then claiming you caught it anyway.

As a reward up I've decided to make a Homestuck post. So. Homestuck!

Warning for spoilers is difficult - I'm not going into details here, but there are some general spoilers. A lot of spoilers in the fic and art recs.

One thing about Homestuck: the beginning is extremely boring. I nearly gave up several times. I thought this was a comic about trolls, but there was just a silly guy trying to nail his arms to the wall - wtf? It got better, obviously. But every once in a while there are similar episodes that apparently have no connection to the main plot and are even weirder than the rest; most of them eventually end in awesome stuff. The best example for this is the Intermission, which is long, even more confusing than the rest, and until now only loosely connected to all the other plotlines.

What's the great thing about Homestuck? I'm not sure. The art is good (it varies greatly), the flash animations are fun, the setting is interesting, the plot is sprawling, and the characters are great. One after the other:

Plot. I'm not sure I believe anyone who says that s/he understands the whole plot of Homestuck. A lot of it is deliberately confusing, of course. And it's certainly easier to follow if one reads along regularly instead of reading the archive. But all the time travel and different worlds and dimensions and change of scenery etc. make it very, very difficult to follow. Amazingly, this is not as problematic as I would have thought. I'm very grateful for the wiki (though it is annoying that they don't link to the source strips of the information), but even without it's not too important, except, of course, if you want to remember all the details.
I have no idea where the plot is going or how the story is going to end. Hmmm.

The characters: From Hivebent onward, there are so many of them! I still like the "original" non-troll characters better, but the trolls are interesting, too.
And it's true, Homestuck really does have awesome female characters. I noticed especially when thinking of prompts for the Female Character Trope Fest: SGA, for example, or One Piece or Dresden Files, have some very interesting female characters that I love, but the main character(s) are male. Homestuck, on the other hand - okay, technically John is probably supposed to be the "hero", but the most awesome characters are the girls: Rose, Jade, Kanaya, Terezi, Vriska, Aradia, PM, and many more. They get at least as much screen time as the boys. And they're very good characters - all of the characters are.

It took me a while to realize, but actually Homestuck is pretty - sad is not exactly the right word, neither is tragic, but it does have a near-apocalyptic (or post-apocalyptic, for the Exiles) feeling. I probably didn't notice at first because I was distracted by the excitement, the prettiness (oooh, the LOLAR) and the many Crowning Moments of Awesome, but if you think about it most of the characters come from or into dire circumstances, nobody is guaranteed to stay alive, there is no light at the end of the tunnel and the Big Bad - all of them - seem invincible. And then more bad things happen.

Fandom:
I've heard bad things about Homestuck fandom, and honestly I think that getting into the fandom as an archive reader at this point is way more work than I'm willing to invest. I just happened to find some fanworks I like. Unfortunately I don't think many of them make sense without reading Homestuck.

Fic recs:
Careworn Victory by Ember_Keelty - okay, I lied. This is the ending I can (almost) imagine, and it would be awesome. I <3 PM.

Three Exiles, Slightly Broken by RedPen - more Exiles fic. It's a strange and broken little family, but it's hers.

stitching up the circuitboards by dellaluce - this is the Jade we don't see because she doesn't want us too.

sun's angle by dellaluce - and this is Bro. The author has a true gift for character studies.

we drive by braille by dellaluce - Dave, post-Sburb. This is the fic that made me like Dave, and it hurts so good.

Closing Time by Cephied_Variable - post-Sburb, the kids try to adjust to normal life. Very well done.

four titles by liquidCitrus - AU with no Reckoning, but still everything has changed.

Why is it that all of these fic are so sad? Even the one where they win. They are sad in that way that makes me swallow and breathe deeply and wish for a happy ending somehow, anyhow, for all of them, but more often I don't know where it could come from.

Fortunately there are pretty pictures.

Art recs:
So many! I've already signed up to rec for fanart_recs (I did SGA this month, but Homestuck will be much easier), but here, have a few examples:

Chess Rules by starspiritgate - PM's journey, illustrated by chess rules. Genius.

Peregrine Mendicant, by LargM - PM, fierce.

Further by skepsisfox - Rose, Kanya, and monsters.

Rose (in the Land of Light and Rain) by zalein - soo pretty. I love the LOLAR.

Rose: Play the Rain by B-Fennec - the LOLAR again, and this time less calm and with music. Gorgeous.

Rose Lalonde by sillyapple - yet another site of Rose.

Jade: Enjoy the Scenery by Fanart-Freak - in the LOFAF

Jack vs. Davesprite by lexxercise

Bec Noir by DiosBoss

Wacky Shenanigans by YamiRedPen - a shale imp, a salamander, and Vodka Mutini up to no good

Avatar:TLA/Homestuck crossover art by sqbr - wow, this fits surprisingly well. ^^

Wow, this took longer than I thought! I'm not sure how much sense it made, it's past midnight (whoops), but maybe you enjoyed it. I did, I got to look at all the pretty pictures again.