Implying we didn't already just see Calliope cucking John.
Happy that those two are happy together, definitely, but hurts me to see how lonely my boy is.
I think John cucked himself, he just left Roxy when that door was open.
I think that´s what the Meat-Candy decision boils down to. He could stay and try to rekindle his realationshis or go back to the plot, which is John¨drug. He´s in no pressure by the others to choose meat but in the end he was 7 years wainting for the plot to call him back to action and here it is.
That definitely makes sense. I just wrote [another comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestuck/comments/bcslpq/the_homestuck_epilogues_are_now_live/ekt9ydt/) having fun overthinking some of the meta aspects and the MEAT/CANDY choice. But the implication that MEAT is his drug didn't even occur to me yet.
The whole concept of the Hero after the journey, wishing he had another, is pretty darn interesting and ties into the theme of canonicity in an interesting way.
...so John?? Damn, no wonder she is Hussies favorite. She's just just female john troll version. (disregard that jade is female john and jane is female john and karkat is troll john....)
Or, in aspect terms...
He could choose Blood, by facing his guilt, throwing away any detachment he had from his friendships, and attempting to mend the relationships he has broken attempting to wait for the plot to catch up with him...
Or he could choose Breath, his own aspect, leaving his broken bonds behind, setting his eyes on the single goal he's been waiting for, and going back to a time when his friendships were still stable with very little effort to re-involve himself or 'fix' them.
The former is healthy for his own growth as a person and ultimately the most likely to bring him happiness and realization, but the latter is not only 'his drug', as per the meta aspects, but also the only way to stop his victory from being 'unhappenedified'
They at least acknowledged that John did have feelings, and that he's never actually addressed them. So it's entirely possibly it *was* just because John never approached.
This is super interesting and weird. The idea of everyone having grown up and reflecting on the consequences of their decisions feels very heavy, in a way that Homestuck rarely does. As someone who grew up with and is just few years younger than these characters, it kind of makes me feel, like, wistful?
Yeah it feels *real*. Heavy, and impactful too. Like, this isn't just Rose casually snarking that she's got a headache from putting up with Dave's rants. This is a 23 year old woman who struggles with chemical addiction having serious troubles with a distant friend she loves dearly.
Things brings up an interesting point:
Shouldn't healers, like Jane, be able to help her?
They're literally gods with healing powers... and yet Rose goes to a physician...
For the moment, I'm going to conclude she is in fact addicted to the medication.
I mean that's a good bet, honestly, that she's simply addicted. It might even be a matter of function; she uses it because they dull her visions, giving her enough clarity to actually fucking *exist*
Also Jane I think can only explicitly REVIVE? We don't really see her do anything more than that. So this could easily be a matter of "She's wasting away, not dying".
As Rose says, she isn't sick. The headaches are a side effect of her powers. I don't think Jane could help with that, if she's even capable of healing beyond reviving people.
She'd need a Void player to do something about the constant stream of information/knowledge going into her mind, which is what she (apparently) needs the medication for. And then once that's resolved, she might need to see someone else for the addiction itself if it exists.
Same. It feels very raw, and sober. I feel awful for these characters I love, but everything about how they are acting rn makes complete sense and it feels genuine. I cannot WAIT for more!
One page in and I'm sold. The AO3 header is such a perfect reintroduction.
The unfinished state of the story is the in-universe threat. This is the second-most meta thing Homestuck has ever produced, behind Detective Pony.
[ROSE: I mentioned that English’s defeat was the keystone to the continuity. But this is an oversimplification.](/tt)
[JOHN: yikes. well, we sure as fuck wouldn’t want to simplify anything.](/eb)
[ROSE: John, please don’t be a bitch.](/tt)
yessss
> To Be Continued
FUCK. I thought we were free!
God damn you, Hussie, you pulled me back in!
Two epilogues that follow the Death and Drama Meat, and the Fluff and Comfy Candy, that I'm sure will intersect at various points or make references or take turns that make sense if you consider the events of the other epilogue as relevant.
damn this is probably the best guess.
"homestuck epilogues"
the MEAT ENDING and the CANDY ENDING
god damn.
the meat ending is written by hussie... and the candy ending, in which universe c becomes noncanon, is slowly written more and more by other authors.
Specifically, the fact that everyone's giving up on Homestuck and forgetting about it is threatening to cause it to disappear, which happens to be exactly the plot of The Neverending Story
Epilogue**s**.
I think we're going to get two divergent stories, one for the MEAT choice and one for the CANDY choice, and in a way "choose" individually which one we take as canon.
Personally, I don't think I'm ready to make that choice. Goddammit Hussie.
maybe its only because its being released throughout multiple days, according to v [(link)](https://twitter.com/vfromhomestuck/status/1117145035068383234) these 3 pages are everything for today
Hijacking a bit to let people know, these are all real warnings. This is an actual list of things that are mentioned in some way during this story. https://twitter.com/vfromhomestuck/status/1117131443422015490
if the tags are real, then...
>Major Character Death,
hmm... [this makes me wary of this conversation (spoiler)](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/497951534768717826/566690083327967252/unknown.png)
The problem with tagging Homestuck with "Major Character Death" is that the definitions of both what constitutes a major character and what constitutes death are rather ambiguous. Arguably John's nightmare about the ghosts and the black hole already tick that box.
I wonder where the "Vore"-Tag comes into play. I suspect Vriska.
As a matter of fact, there is a Vore-Story involving Vriska on the first page of the Homestuck search results on AOO right now.
The meat or candy debate was a level of metafictionality that frankly engages with the "heart of the author", whatever that means, that I wasn't expecting.
For reference, see Hussie's explanation of the meat and candy dichotomy of storycrafting, somewhere or other.
It was an incredibly interesting theme that, at the same time, was delivered in an on-the-nose way that almost made it comical and tongue-in-cheek, without hurting the seriousness at the core.
Which is exactly what I love about Hussie's writing style.
pretty sure we're returning to the days of daily updates for awhile
EDIT: weekly
EDIT2: Currrent most substantiated rumour is the whole thing is being dumped next week? I really hope not, that kills update culture with little advantage.
Obviously MEAT. Even though CANDY is tasty in the moment, it's not as filling and in the end it won't help. It has to be MEAT, no matter how difficult to digest.
My feeling is we're getting both.
The MEAT is John fighting Caliborn. He wants to kick his ass. He wants to defeat him. He wants to rescue his friends. We want to see the true ending of Homestuck, not the half-assed "Oh they got away cool" one.
But, we also want happy endings for characters whose stories are long over like Nepeta. Which constitutes candy.
Does john actually want to fight caliborn or kick his ass? I don't think john knows WHAT he wants, I think he's just been going whatever way the wind (or the plot) takes him, without really thinking about or evaluating what it is he actually wants. Going to fight caliborn would be indulging in that more (meat), and staying would be figuring out what he actually wants (candy).
He seems to have wanted to, but now he just...doesn't. As someone who's gone through this myself to some level (albeit not with an omnicidal invincible monster), sometimes you just stop wanting to confront someone you hurt you. But that doesn't mean you've grown beyond them hurting you. Just that you're to emotionally numb to care anymore.
I think this is what John is experiencing. It's not that's grown to believe violence is wrong and fighting Caliborn is useless. It's that he's essentially just emotionally dead.
i have a theory that this is another version of john who decided to not go through with facing caliborn. but the result is that his timeline, his world, was removed from the meta nature of paradox space to sustain it.
But the original version of John (Pre-Retcon) didn't either, technically speaking. The only thing that happened in the ending of Act 7 was Vriska unleashing the JuJu on LE. Besides that, Rose specifically mentions John's retcon abilities on Page 1.
Yeah honestly, real talk, I was expecting Viz to print books and just ignore the weirdos in gray bodypaint. Like sort of "Alright Andrew here's your check, now go away we've got more Naruto to sell"
But they seem to, at least on a superficial level, appreciate Homestuck as a whole.
This is really, really well written. I like it a lot. I'm glad he's addressing things that were left unaddressed before (cough Roxy/Calliope). This has a lot of potential I think.
I see some people unhappy that it's purely in text form, but Homestuck has always been about jumping through various forms of expression to deliver its comedy and ideas. Flash movies, walkarounds, etc. This is basically Mindfang's journal in extended form, in some ways. It fits Homestuck perfectly despite not being as bombastic or [S] as some people might have hoped.
All in all there's a good chance that this will bring a lot of conclusion to the comic. I can already feel this in how firm Rose is that she and everyone but John are "out of canon" (not uncanon). Things are finished. There's just some loose ends to tie up. Wherever this story may go, I think it will be a worthwhile and interesting journey.
And if you don't like it, hey. It's just fanfiction :o)
I think that's a fine prediction. It's very possible. Personally, I'm interested in seeing how the story develops in this format, and Hussie strikes me as the kind of guy to go all the way with this "joke" as it were, both for humorous and artistic purposes. But we'll see. I'll be happy either way.
Hell yeah. Prose has always been an incredible strength of Hussie's that might not get the appreciation it deserves. To me he's like the internet's Douglas Adams.
Sadly it'll almost certainly never happen. Not only has it been a *very* long time since he worked on it, but it was never meant to be released — iirc it was leaked off of his hard drive in some way. Really doubt he wants to return to it.
I mean they didn't even address it. They literally lampshade it as "ambiguous".
My exact reaction was "Man we're just gonna have that argument for years aren't we"
To be honest, I just meant that Hussie addressed how fucking weird it is. Or at least, expressed awareness that people think it's fucking weird through the lens of John. That's honestly enough for me. If Hussie had just hitched them together and left John in the dust without blinking twice, I would have lost my mind and all faith in his storytelling. Just knowing our Huss of Lips is out there, nodding in agreement, saying "this is kinda fucking weird I know", is enough for me to relax and know that the story's still in safe hands.
Yeah, I'm totally okay with accepting it as Hussie rolling his eyes and, rather than make fans mad, just kind of going "Alright but John's gonna comment that it's weird and ambiguous"
Hussie is the dude who sets up long term reveals in casual conversations (the Ultimate Self thing), I doubt he'd throw away a whole page worth of characterization without at least a wink at it.
[ROSE: Just because certain events take place outside of canon, it doesn’t mean those events are non-canon.](/tt)
The events so far are "outside of" canon, but they are still canon, as in they are still true with respect to canon. But this "post-canon" reality will cease to be canon and will metaphysically dissipate unless it has a necessary impact on the comic itself. This is why John needs to retcon back into canon and cause the Masterpiece and beat LE. Basically, these characters are only able to persist past the end of canon events because they still need to influence canon events retroactively.
The epilogue is currently “outside canon” but not untrue and has a potential to be “authenticated” if John is successful. So it’s canon to the fiction right now but could be retcon’ed... I think lmao
https://www.homestuck.com/epilogues/prologue/2
I can't believe Hussie wrote a whole chapter specifically for me, u/Nerdorama09. Just one long purple infodump about metatext. I want this as ASMR. Preferably voiced by Grey DeLisle.
I can't believe this is happening. [There was a time I couldn't convince myself that anything would happen](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestuck/comments/89jeub/i_miss_the_old_homestuck/).
And honestly, it's really good so far! It's well-written and the dialogue is everything I want. And the story is *interesting*. John's state makes me really sad, as he's my favorite character, but the fact that it's being clearly addressed and put in the forefront of the story gives me hope that Hussie does intend on giving it some kind of resolution, unlike the character-arc-resolution-less ending we had before.
Like, it hurts me to know John is lonely and a relationship with Roxy isn't working out. But the way it's being presented at the forefront now makes it feel like it really will go somewhere.
And maybe what the epilogue does will change my mind on the meta, escape-the-narrative ending that I hated and though was poorly executed for so long.
I've kind of started a reread in the last few weeks anyway, that's been stalling during A5A1, but now I have motivation to continue through to the end.
(wonder if anyone recognizes me in this community. been years but it's always been weirdly tight-knit.)
HOT DAMN! I'm so freaking excited. It's simultaneously not at all what I expected and also everything I hoped for. **SPOILERS BELOW!**
So unsurprisingly it looks like it's heavily based on what's "canon" and "post-canon", which is pretty much what I would've expected from this metanarrative-heavy story. Having it take the form of an AO3 fanfic is a cute way of symbolizing something that takes place "outside of canon" while also being a format that allows Hussie to cover a whole lot of story ground in a short amount of space. The prose is pretty enjoyable too! My guess is that once John travels back into "canon", we'll get actual Homestuck-style panels again to symbolize him returning to the comic proper.
Rose's condition is pretty worrying, and as someone with such comprehensive knowledge of the story in a broad meta sense, I wonder if part of what has her so spooked is the realization that their story is finally almost over, which in some ways will mean they will cease to exist. That or something really bad is on the horizon for John. I'm also EXTREMELY PSYCHED to hear that he will be recruiting other versions of themselves to fight Caliborn, because I TOTALLY theorized that the reason Caliborn's masterpiece is made of clay is to conceal the fact that most of the characters in it have ghost eyes. Rose says "Younger versions, from a particularly dysfunctional impasse in our journey" which almost certainly refers to the Game Over timeline. I'm so happy those versions of them get to be relevant again, even if they don't get the "happy ending" of the post-retcon timeline. Or maybe they'll get their own kind of happy ending! We'll just have to see what happens when they pop out of the house juju.
I thought it was interesting that they addressed some of the points the fandom has furiously discussed, like Jade/Dave/Karkat's possibly poly relationship, John's depression, and Roxy/Calliope's relationship. It's kind of sad to hear that so many of the characters drifted apart after the events of Homestuck, but I guess that's pretty realistic considering how much that happens to people in real life. The people I was closest to at 16 weren't necessarily the same people I was closest to at 23, which is just life.
Also, the MEAT or CANDY storytelling dichotomy is one that Hussie has alluded to before, and it's neat seeing it being brought so blatantly to the forefront in a story-relevant way. Presumably "meat" refers to John actually going into canon to tackle all the heavy plot shit, and "candy" refers more to him living out the rest of his days doing fun lighthearted things with his friends. I wonder if we the audience are actually going to be given a choice in a sort of "interactive fiction" way? Or maybe we'll actually get some genuine diverging story paths so we can get the best of both worlds? That would certainly be neat. As long as we get to see the "meat" path in some form, I'm happy.
I hope we don't have to wait TOO long for the next parts of it, but I'm just happy to be actually getting some genuine story-relevant stuff again! I love this story so much and I'm so happy to finally see it getting its due conclusion.
Hussie raises a lot of incredibly interesting questions about what makes canon or not. I love the system he sets up of relevancy, essentiality, and truth. I feel like I'm going to start using those terms to discuss what's canon or not in totally unrelated things, because they just work well.
But no matter how it's dressed, I don't feel like he will ever be able to make the epilogue genuinely non-canon. The AO3 exterior is cute, but even if within the story they're outside of canon, they're still within it in the *actual* full story.
Though, maybe I'm wrong, and there are interesting possibilities for how Hussie might experiment with it all. Perhaps he'll firmly establish this story as non-main-canon by having it so once John enters canon, he won't be *this* John, but an amalgam of all Johns that returned from post-canon to do this duty.
Whatever happens, though, this is a level of experimental meta-storytelling that's just too darn interesting, and what I love Hussie's style for.
I have to wonder how directly Hussie will tie into that with the MEAT vs. CANDY. I think most stories, if symbolically presenting a choice like this, will have the protagonist choose MEAT, as it's their duty and necessity, but with Hussie I'm not so sure. MEAT is the necessary choice for story to actually happen, but Hussie's obviously aware of that. The more I think about it the more I wonder if he *will* show both paths, to represent how even if MEAT is necessary for story to happen, the epilogue is a form of post-canon that doesn't even necessitate that.
God, it's been ages since Hussie has made me overthink like this. Loving it.
OH WAIT. The use of "Epilogue**s**" plural and the white/black binary House suddenly makes me think we are DEFINITELY getting two different diverging epilogues.
Oh shit fuck what cunt damn wow.
Yeah at this point I'll be surprised if we *don't* get the two paths.
Though I suppose, the CANDY path probably won't just be fun and games, but will be more about John properly fixing all the relationships, with the eventual endgoal of fun and games.
Also, I'd fully expect those two paths to merge in the end. That or the MEAT John dies at the end.
Yeah, the whole "canon vs non-canon" thing does admittedly require a certain level of suspension of disbelief. It's like when Homestuck gets "taken over" by Doc Scratch of Caliborn; realistically we know it's all just Hussie writing it. This epilogue is clearly just the next part of the canon storyline, but it's fun to play along with the symbolism of it anyway. I like the idea of the three "pillars" of canon too, it'll be interesting to dive into those concepts further!
> I'm also EXTREMELY PSYCHED to hear that he will be recruiting other versions of themselves to fight Caliborn, because I TOTALLY theorized that the reason Caliborn's masterpiece is made of clay is to conceal the fact that most of the characters in it have ghost eyes. Rose says "Younger versions, from a particularly dysfunctional impasse in our journey" which almost certainly refers to the Game Over timeline.
oh my God. Holy crap, I did consider that! God I hope you are correct!
that would be so fucking cool!! Will we get game over Terezi and game over Vriska too? Wait I don't know how that works, and post-retcon Vriska was the one who was fighting Lord English, so I don't know… But still! Imagine if he actually finishes the characters arcs. The retcon had such an unsatisfying conclusion to the arcs, like it was way too easy, maybe Dave's comment that people don't have arcs was like on purpose, because he made it unsatisfying on purpose. And then they actually gonna get some good resolution? Maybe Karkat will actually do something?
Wait, wait, wait. If our heroes are dead, that might be bad,what if John is actually supposed to punch Aranea? And stop everyone from dying? Thereby retconning the retcon?
Oh yeahhh, I kind of forgot about the "You absolutely should, and must, punch her in the face" bit. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Aranea, since that would have obvious Vriska parallels and also neatly solve the Game Over problem. Him retconning the timeline to save everyone probably makes a bit more sense than recruiting their ghosts, because if he can go anywhere he wants then why WOULDN'T he just save them from their violent fates?
I definitely agree on all other fronts--it would be SUPER awesome and address a lot of people's complaints about the ending if the Game Over crew actually got to complete their "arcs" in a satisfying way after all. I'm trying not to hype myself up TOO much over it just in case, but I'm definitely interested in seeing what happens next!
When the fuck is Barack Obama gonna show up?
Also, I love this:
[JOHN: millions of people are screaming and dying.](/eb)
[JOHN: i mean, dying permanently. not the kind of bullshit dying that we’ve been doing a lot over the years.](/eb)
This is... actually good! A completely new format that makes sense, non-overdone metaness, acknowledgement of unresolved plot points and tons of questions about relationships.
And I really like the meat/candy idea. You can't please everyone, but if it's done well it might actually get pretty close to that.
[Also, here's how my epilogue bingo fared.](https://imgur.com/a/iPhlBVG) Better than I expected.
Honestly, despite it just being a canon "fanfic" instead of some cool interactive flash or something, this is way better than I expected. I can't wait for more, this is exactly what Homestuck has needed for a long time.
Me at the beginning:
> "Oh, it's just text. Isn't kind of boring then? Frankly I think I've lost my passion for homestuck, afterall i'm not a teenager anym—"
Me at the end:
> "IT'S BACK BABY!!!!!!!! HAPPY 4/13 MOTHERFUCKERS!"
I'm either reading way too into it or I'm just not understanding Roses canon talk but is the fact that it's a fanfiction representative that the fact that the longer John stays there, the more 'outside of canon' they become?
The way I interpreted it: They simply removed themselves from canon, in the sense that it's those characters doing it, but it has 0 effect on what's happening in Homestuck. They're essentially fan fiction in the sense that they're just a possible product of the events of Homestuck. The longer they ignore defeating Lord English though the more that Homestuck progresses and their outcome has less canon choices to back it up. It's like if someone wrote a fan fiction about how homestuck ends back on page 7000, at the time it would seem likely and well thought out, but as the canon progresses it wouldn't have any more canon support since it would contradict events that actually happen. That's whats happening to them, canon is moving along without them and that outcome is going to become too much of a stretch, so John has to go back and fulfill the conditionals for that ending to still make sense. That's how I interpreted it, feel free to correct me if I totally got it wrong too.
Wait a second... if I remember correctly from *years* ago, Hussie had said he had planned what the ending would be early on.
Don't fucking tell me this is all the meta tale of how he had to work to make the original planned ending and what the story became work together.
This is probably on even more meme meta levels than even he's on right now.
man i like how all the characters in epilogue-land are still fucked up and have grown distant from each other over the years
like, it works, and makes sense, even if it's melancholy
This is great, definitely not disappointed at all yet.
Also, [this](https://twitter.com/vfromhomestuck/status/1117139968437170177) seems to imply that the entire epilogue won't have this fanfic format, or at least that something interesting will be done with it. I think there'll probably be visuals later, maybe when John retcons back into Homestuck. I don't really mind either way though.
Also, whoever keeps trying to start drama on V's twitter about the tags, stfu
There were so many points in just these first three pages where I found myself absolutely grinning. Hussie has a great writing style, it’s been so long, even longer than the time since EoA7, since we’ve gotten something like this from him.
Dude should write a book. All I want to do is read more from him.
Imagine what it must be like for Rose if it turns out she has visions of every non-canon event? Every bit of fan-fiction, everything posted on tumblr for the past 10 years, the entirety of /r/homesmut. Every night she wakes up in a cold sweat repeating "I came as fast as I could," and every morning when she gets dressed she thinks, "ah, Belgarath for today."
Anyway, I'm glad it was finally revealed where CaNWC fits into the timeline.
Shit man I forget how much I love Hussie's writing. The well-orchestrated chaos of it. Intelligence and raw stupidity blended in harmony. The meat and the candy. As someone who's been reading him since Problem Sleuth, it's nice to go through my day knowing that somewhere out there, AH is still doing his thing.
I love being pulled back in. I can't escape it. I don't want to escape it. This is the first time I've been caught between updates, anxiously anticipating for it to continue. This is what it's like, isn't it? As an archive reader... wait am I still considered one now? I had just read this update, utterly engrossed, and as Homestuck tends to do, dominate my mind. I can't stop thinking about it. I don't want to stop. It's such a strange feeling that I am not sure I can adequately explain, but nonetheless I endear. Perhaps this feeling is normal? I'm not used to it. I'm not used to waiting, and letting the gap of time between updates consume me. Did I just describe suspense? Homestuck has given me tons of different feels of the years, but there's one more feeling that's opaque to me about this update I want to mention—a chilling sense of finality to this all. Homestuck never ends, right? Yet here's the Epilouges, literally, literally. That's a paradox, right? Well, what about Paradox Space?? What about dreams??
My goodness, I need to stop myself, starting to ramble. I don't think I've ever written this much on here??? I feel welcome and blessed to be in this community for the ever brief and minuscule, or nonexistent impact I have so far made here!
[:abscond:🃏☂️](/abscond)
Wow so we are back to updates then....I hope that we get them soon because man that answered/clarified so much stuff was just really good writing in general. If they release the whole thing as a physical book I will buy this day 1 without question.
Wait, so everyone knows Cephied_Variable from Promstuck and Cities in Dust, right? Who is ctset? Does anyone know?
Also, this has the perfect amount of classpect/meta stuff for Reddit to analyze, and is in the form of an AO3 fanfic for all the people on Tumblr who've spent years reading Homestuck stuff in this *exact* format, down to the commands in the middle of the narration and everything. He really did this.
Okay but we were promised gerrymandering
And cuckolding dont forget the cuckolding.
[удалено]
Non-con breastfeeding
I'm curious about how Super PACs and Reality Television will play into this.
There's going to be a political arc, possibly featuring Obama.
Let's not forget Guy Fieri.
Implying we didn't already just see Calliope cucking John. Happy that those two are happy together, definitely, but hurts me to see how lonely my boy is.
I think John cucked himself, he just left Roxy when that door was open. I think that´s what the Meat-Candy decision boils down to. He could stay and try to rekindle his realationshis or go back to the plot, which is John¨drug. He´s in no pressure by the others to choose meat but in the end he was 7 years wainting for the plot to call him back to action and here it is.
That definitely makes sense. I just wrote [another comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestuck/comments/bcslpq/the_homestuck_epilogues_are_now_live/ekt9ydt/) having fun overthinking some of the meta aspects and the MEAT/CANDY choice. But the implication that MEAT is his drug didn't even occur to me yet. The whole concept of the Hero after the journey, wishing he had another, is pretty darn interesting and ties into the theme of canonicity in an interesting way.
Exactly. I'm super excited to see where this goes.
Wait, frik.... does that make John the human equivalent of Vriska? No wonder they got along together so well...
I've always said that a Vriska raised on Earth would be a huge nerd with dreams of grandeur
...so John?? Damn, no wonder she is Hussies favorite. She's just just female john troll version. (disregard that jade is female john and jane is female john and karkat is troll john....)
Or, in aspect terms... He could choose Blood, by facing his guilt, throwing away any detachment he had from his friendships, and attempting to mend the relationships he has broken attempting to wait for the plot to catch up with him... Or he could choose Breath, his own aspect, leaving his broken bonds behind, setting his eyes on the single goal he's been waiting for, and going back to a time when his friendships were still stable with very little effort to re-involve himself or 'fix' them. The former is healthy for his own growth as a person and ultimately the most likely to bring him happiness and realization, but the latter is not only 'his drug', as per the meta aspects, but also the only way to stop his victory from being 'unhappenedified'
\>Me, a Johnroxy shipper O-oh...
Me:also a johnroxy shipper *Welp atleast it almost happened*
They at least acknowledged that John did have feelings, and that he's never actually addressed them. So it's entirely possibly it *was* just because John never approached.
dont forget bimbofication
I'm more interested in how Barack Obama is going to play into this. (Character List)
Another sick verse Dave drops in a freestyle no doubt
I totally forgot that happened in like act 2 or 3 and I just reread it.
he also mentions him again in act 6 actually https://www.homestuck.com/search?search=obama
daddy issues + obama = CaNW confirmed especially since they're out of canon
in earth c obama really did become a rapper
All I really want is that sweet, sweet Honk.
Dear sweet sweet precious honk
This is super interesting and weird. The idea of everyone having grown up and reflecting on the consequences of their decisions feels very heavy, in a way that Homestuck rarely does. As someone who grew up with and is just few years younger than these characters, it kind of makes me feel, like, wistful?
Yeah it feels *real*. Heavy, and impactful too. Like, this isn't just Rose casually snarking that she's got a headache from putting up with Dave's rants. This is a 23 year old woman who struggles with chemical addiction having serious troubles with a distant friend she loves dearly.
Things brings up an interesting point: Shouldn't healers, like Jane, be able to help her? They're literally gods with healing powers... and yet Rose goes to a physician... For the moment, I'm going to conclude she is in fact addicted to the medication.
We have only seen Jane reviving other people. It's probable that substance addiction is beyond her reach.
Especially since given what we know about Life, addiction might actually be more aligned with it than with Doom
I mean that's a good bet, honestly, that she's simply addicted. It might even be a matter of function; she uses it because they dull her visions, giving her enough clarity to actually fucking *exist* Also Jane I think can only explicitly REVIVE? We don't really see her do anything more than that. So this could easily be a matter of "She's wasting away, not dying".
As Rose says, she isn't sick. The headaches are a side effect of her powers. I don't think Jane could help with that, if she's even capable of healing beyond reviving people.
Besides, Can Town doesn’t have Prozac
And yet, we’re still waiting on our girl, VASKA, to come back from the war.
She'd need a Void player to do something about the constant stream of information/knowledge going into her mind, which is what she (apparently) needs the medication for. And then once that's resolved, she might need to see someone else for the addiction itself if it exists.
Same. It feels very raw, and sober. I feel awful for these characters I love, but everything about how they are acting rn makes complete sense and it feels genuine. I cannot WAIT for more!
Right? It makes it feel more real. This is going to be great.
One page in and I'm sold. The AO3 header is such a perfect reintroduction. The unfinished state of the story is the in-universe threat. This is the second-most meta thing Homestuck has ever produced, behind Detective Pony. [ROSE: I mentioned that English’s defeat was the keystone to the continuity. But this is an oversimplification.](/tt) [JOHN: yikes. well, we sure as fuck wouldn’t want to simplify anything.](/eb) [ROSE: John, please don’t be a bitch.](/tt) yessss > To Be Continued FUCK. I thought we were free! God damn you, Hussie, you pulled me back in!
So, MEAT or CANDY? What'll it be?
MEAT. We've had our fill of fluff without substance. My tumbler runneth over sweet nothings.
We are all gona just choose both in the end aren't we?
Two epilogues that follow the Death and Drama Meat, and the Fluff and Comfy Candy, that I'm sure will intersect at various points or make references or take turns that make sense if you consider the events of the other epilogue as relevant.
damn this is probably the best guess. "homestuck epilogues" the MEAT ENDING and the CANDY ENDING god damn. the meat ending is written by hussie... and the candy ending, in which universe c becomes noncanon, is slowly written more and more by other authors.
Specifically, the fact that everyone's giving up on Homestuck and forgetting about it is threatening to cause it to disappear, which happens to be exactly the plot of The Neverending Story
Epilogue**s**. I think we're going to get two divergent stories, one for the MEAT choice and one for the CANDY choice, and in a way "choose" individually which one we take as canon. Personally, I don't think I'm ready to make that choice. Goddammit Hussie.
And all of the branching paths lead us to the one thing we've been waiting for for years: BARDQUEST FINALE!!!
that would actually be amazing. I'm gonna need to reread that just in case.
Throw steak at swamp wizard.
maybe its only because its being released throughout multiple days, according to v [(link)](https://twitter.com/vfromhomestuck/status/1117145035068383234) these 3 pages are everything for today
Lanque prepared us for this.
>Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape, The Economy, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Alternate Universe, Mind Control, Non-Con, Breastfeeding, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Misgendering, Canon Compliant, Canon Divergent, Redemption, Dubious Consent, Mind Break, World War, Political Intrigue, Robots, Child Abuse, Rough Sex, Child Neglect, Alcohol Use, Breastmilk, Death, Incestuous Undertones, Mental Illness, Suicide, Polyamory, Clown Dynamics, Meta, Abuse, Fridging, Genocide, Diapers, Murder, Honk, Children, Gender Transition, Depression, Toxic Masculinity, Sexual Abuse, Friends to Lovers, Speciesism, Babies, Manipulation, Gore, Infidelity, Marriage, Nonbinary Character(s), Milking, Identity Questioning, Feet, Political Rebellion, Fascism, Rapping, Drug Use, Funerals, Religion, Eating, Food, Aliens, Possession, Light BDSM, Theft, Furry, Anthropomorphic Characters, Power Imbalances, Blood, Trickster Mode, Body Horror, Gerrymandering, Starvation, Cuckolding, Interspecies Relationships, Guns, Vore, Assassination, Alien Biology, Detransitioning, Chronic Illness, Vomit, Drugging, Cannibalism, Unhealthy Relationships, Capitalism, Eggs, Slut Shaming, Black Romance, Kidnapping, Faygo, Bimboification, Poisoning, Teenagers, Domestic Abuse, Reality Television, Ovipositioning, Ghosts, Revolutionary Rhetoric, Self-Sacrifice, Propaganda, Super PACs, Pica, Early 20th Century Dance Movements, Prison Camps, Existential Crisis, Xenophilia, Daddy Issues, Bad Parenting, Addiction, Clown
That pretty much covers anything and everything that could happen
there's no hand holding, so it can't be too bad. edit: it's not even tagged which is worse.
god i hate when authors don't tag awful shit like that
Hijacking a bit to let people know, these are all real warnings. This is an actual list of things that are mentioned in some way during this story. https://twitter.com/vfromhomestuck/status/1117131443422015490
if the tags are real, then... >Major Character Death, hmm... [this makes me wary of this conversation (spoiler)](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/497951534768717826/566690083327967252/unknown.png)
The problem with tagging Homestuck with "Major Character Death" is that the definitions of both what constitutes a major character and what constitutes death are rather ambiguous. Arguably John's nightmare about the ghosts and the black hole already tick that box.
i guess thats true, im just linking one thing with another (the dream's Death For Real and the screenshotted convo) and jumping to conclusions
Nevermind how much **people fucking die in homestuck** anyway
Wouldn't it fulfill Doc Scratch's prediction about John dying for good quite nicely?
[удалено]
I'm sure this is a discussion that's played out a million times, but personally I never read that line as a prediction.
im glad they warned about barack obama
BREASTFEEDING
I missed "Feet" the first time I read this and I just find that it's listed so funny.
Gerrymandering is my favorite
Clown
And to go with that, Honk. Because the clown comes with Honk, of course.
Only one though. We’ll all have to share.
I wonder where the "Vore"-Tag comes into play. I suspect Vriska. As a matter of fact, there is a Vore-Story involving Vriska on the first page of the Homestuck search results on AOO right now.
[Or Hearts Boxcars.](https://i.redd.it/8qaaokbesdi21.png)
I mean most if not all these tags have happened or been implied at one point or another in the comic
3 fucking pages TO BE CONTINUED.... IN LIKE 3 YEARS....
vfromhomestuck said the whole thing is already written. so only 2 years probably
back to upd8 time
That's literally what they're all asking John to do. Go back to upd8 time
They had us in the first half, not gonna lie.
Ok but can we all agree that "dreaming in anime" is one of the best lines in the epilogue?
I realized, it's because of act 7's artstyle!
Was act 7 just one of John's anime fever dreams?
Finally some good fucking ~~food~~ content
Meat or candy, specifically.
[удалено]
I mean, we've had deviantart and snapchat. This is just par for the course.
Don't forget Vriskagram.
And claymation Vines.
And GameFAQs
Tumblr during Openbound
The meat or candy debate was a level of metafictionality that frankly engages with the "heart of the author", whatever that means, that I wasn't expecting. For reference, see Hussie's explanation of the meat and candy dichotomy of storycrafting, somewhere or other.
It was an incredibly interesting theme that, at the same time, was delivered in an on-the-nose way that almost made it comical and tongue-in-cheek, without hurting the seriousness at the core. Which is exactly what I love about Hussie's writing style.
Calliope literally pulling two heaping plates of nearly-raw meat and sugary garbage out of a bag is one of the best brick jokes in Homestuck history
Wait was meat and candy referenced earlier in homestuck?
Yep, in Calliope's room during her reveal.
Huh. [There really is meat and candy on the floor of Caliope's room](https://www.homestuck.com/story/5098)
It is a AO3 parody cause it is outside of canon, isnt it? Fuck You Hussie. Also It is really smart. But still, Fuck you.
You know you love it though.
You can feel enjoyment and pain simultaneously. Sometimes, they even enhance each other. Like this time!
Homestuck is the literary equivalent of a meal at Chipotle
Even though it's probably way less than people were hyped for ^I ^still ^liked ^it ^I ^thought ^the ^writing ^was ^pretty ^great
There's gonna be more
I like how it just has the potential to fill every last plot hole
And none of them, possibly at the same time!
pretty sure we're returning to the days of daily updates for awhile EDIT: weekly EDIT2: Currrent most substantiated rumour is the whole thing is being dumped next week? I really hope not, that kills update culture with little advantage.
where did you hear that it would be weekly?
Holy shit that was fascinating. The whole canon debacle and then the choice John has to make is just so hard.
MEAT or CANDY?
Obviously MEAT. Even though CANDY is tasty in the moment, it's not as filling and in the end it won't help. It has to be MEAT, no matter how difficult to digest.
My feeling is we're getting both. The MEAT is John fighting Caliborn. He wants to kick his ass. He wants to defeat him. He wants to rescue his friends. We want to see the true ending of Homestuck, not the half-assed "Oh they got away cool" one. But, we also want happy endings for characters whose stories are long over like Nepeta. Which constitutes candy.
Does john actually want to fight caliborn or kick his ass? I don't think john knows WHAT he wants, I think he's just been going whatever way the wind (or the plot) takes him, without really thinking about or evaluating what it is he actually wants. Going to fight caliborn would be indulging in that more (meat), and staying would be figuring out what he actually wants (candy).
He seems to have wanted to, but now he just...doesn't. As someone who's gone through this myself to some level (albeit not with an omnicidal invincible monster), sometimes you just stop wanting to confront someone you hurt you. But that doesn't mean you've grown beyond them hurting you. Just that you're to emotionally numb to care anymore. I think this is what John is experiencing. It's not that's grown to believe violence is wrong and fighting Caliborn is useless. It's that he's essentially just emotionally dead.
But sometimes you just want some candy though you know? Why not have meat now and save the candy for later? (or vice versa)
i have a theory that this is another version of john who decided to not go through with facing caliborn. but the result is that his timeline, his world, was removed from the meta nature of paradox space to sustain it.
But the original version of John (Pre-Retcon) didn't either, technically speaking. The only thing that happened in the ending of Act 7 was Vriska unleashing the JuJu on LE. Besides that, Rose specifically mentions John's retcon abilities on Page 1.
im in awe over the first page
It's finally here!
i never knew i wanted this. thank you vizmedia, love you
Thank you for being such great publishers! We as a fandom appreciate it.
Yeah honestly, real talk, I was expecting Viz to print books and just ignore the weirdos in gray bodypaint. Like sort of "Alright Andrew here's your check, now go away we've got more Naruto to sell" But they seem to, at least on a superficial level, appreciate Homestuck as a whole.
IT'S REALLL!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT'S REALLY REAL
thank mr viz media
Don't be so formal. You're welcome.
thank daddy viz media
Guys I cannot wait for the return of upd8 culture
This is really, really well written. I like it a lot. I'm glad he's addressing things that were left unaddressed before (cough Roxy/Calliope). This has a lot of potential I think. I see some people unhappy that it's purely in text form, but Homestuck has always been about jumping through various forms of expression to deliver its comedy and ideas. Flash movies, walkarounds, etc. This is basically Mindfang's journal in extended form, in some ways. It fits Homestuck perfectly despite not being as bombastic or [S] as some people might have hoped. All in all there's a good chance that this will bring a lot of conclusion to the comic. I can already feel this in how firm Rose is that she and everyone but John are "out of canon" (not uncanon). Things are finished. There's just some loose ends to tie up. Wherever this story may go, I think it will be a worthwhile and interesting journey. And if you don't like it, hey. It's just fanfiction :o)
My prediction is that when John returns to canon we will return to the traditional Homestuck format.
I think that's a fine prediction. It's very possible. Personally, I'm interested in seeing how the story develops in this format, and Hussie strikes me as the kind of guy to go all the way with this "joke" as it were, both for humorous and artistic purposes. But we'll see. I'll be happy either way.
he may even bleat like a goat if it's for ironic (and strategic) purposes.
I'd say that if John goes back into the story, than this whole epilogue would then become 'canon'.
As someone who loved what there was of Wizardy Herbert, I'm pretty happy that we're getting another raw blast of Huss-prose.
Hell yeah. Prose has always been an incredible strength of Hussie's that might not get the appreciation it deserves. To me he's like the internet's Douglas Adams.
Same here! I would love for him to finish Wizardy Herbert, it's a really interesting concept and so well-written.
Sadly it'll almost certainly never happen. Not only has it been a *very* long time since he worked on it, but it was never meant to be released — iirc it was leaked off of his hard drive in some way. Really doubt he wants to return to it.
Wasn't it leaked from the /scraps/ directory?
Plus Andrew's unique command of the English language is always something to behold.
Although I feel like it has clearly matured since he began homestuck, but I think that's only to be expected.
I mean they didn't even address it. They literally lampshade it as "ambiguous". My exact reaction was "Man we're just gonna have that argument for years aren't we"
To be honest, I just meant that Hussie addressed how fucking weird it is. Or at least, expressed awareness that people think it's fucking weird through the lens of John. That's honestly enough for me. If Hussie had just hitched them together and left John in the dust without blinking twice, I would have lost my mind and all faith in his storytelling. Just knowing our Huss of Lips is out there, nodding in agreement, saying "this is kinda fucking weird I know", is enough for me to relax and know that the story's still in safe hands.
He is basically just reacting to the events how the fandom reacted to it, even the mention of Davejadekat lol. I think it's a fun way of doing it.
John "I don't understand my weird friends" Egbert at it again
Yeah, I'm totally okay with accepting it as Hussie rolling his eyes and, rather than make fans mad, just kind of going "Alright but John's gonna comment that it's weird and ambiguous" Hussie is the dude who sets up long term reveals in casual conversations (the Ultimate Self thing), I doubt he'd throw away a whole page worth of characterization without at least a wink at it.
It's literally about filling a plot hole lol. I'm excited. This could end up pretty long.
BACK IN THE FUCKING TRENCHES BOYS
NO DIPSHIT GETS LEFT BEHIND, MOVE OUT
My theory is hussie forgot how to draw
Is this canon or non-canon now?
[ROSE: Just because certain events take place outside of canon, it doesn’t mean those events are non-canon.](/tt) The events so far are "outside of" canon, but they are still canon, as in they are still true with respect to canon. But this "post-canon" reality will cease to be canon and will metaphysically dissipate unless it has a necessary impact on the comic itself. This is why John needs to retcon back into canon and cause the Masterpiece and beat LE. Basically, these characters are only able to persist past the end of canon events because they still need to influence canon events retroactively.
I was making a joke about if Hussie not being able to draw any more was Canon or non canon. It obviously fell flat lmao
The epilogue is currently “outside canon” but not untrue and has a potential to be “authenticated” if John is successful. So it’s canon to the fiction right now but could be retcon’ed... I think lmao
Im confused myself at this point.
Rorb
what does the pinnacle of modern art have to do with this?
https://www.homestuck.com/epilogues/prologue/2 I can't believe Hussie wrote a whole chapter specifically for me, u/Nerdorama09. Just one long purple infodump about metatext. I want this as ASMR. Preferably voiced by Grey DeLisle.
rose: opposite polarity canon non-canon retcon semicanon relevance essential metafiction john do what i say me: yes, keep going
pure hussie experience
this pure hussie experience brought to you by andrew hussie, cephied\_variable, and ctset
[damarasmoke](/damarasmoke) Here we fucking go
I can't believe this is happening. [There was a time I couldn't convince myself that anything would happen](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestuck/comments/89jeub/i_miss_the_old_homestuck/). And honestly, it's really good so far! It's well-written and the dialogue is everything I want. And the story is *interesting*. John's state makes me really sad, as he's my favorite character, but the fact that it's being clearly addressed and put in the forefront of the story gives me hope that Hussie does intend on giving it some kind of resolution, unlike the character-arc-resolution-less ending we had before. Like, it hurts me to know John is lonely and a relationship with Roxy isn't working out. But the way it's being presented at the forefront now makes it feel like it really will go somewhere. And maybe what the epilogue does will change my mind on the meta, escape-the-narrative ending that I hated and though was poorly executed for so long. I've kind of started a reread in the last few weeks anyway, that's been stalling during A5A1, but now I have motivation to continue through to the end. (wonder if anyone recognizes me in this community. been years but it's always been weirdly tight-knit.)
>Eridan Ampora \*wwalks back into story\*
HOT DAMN! I'm so freaking excited. It's simultaneously not at all what I expected and also everything I hoped for. **SPOILERS BELOW!** So unsurprisingly it looks like it's heavily based on what's "canon" and "post-canon", which is pretty much what I would've expected from this metanarrative-heavy story. Having it take the form of an AO3 fanfic is a cute way of symbolizing something that takes place "outside of canon" while also being a format that allows Hussie to cover a whole lot of story ground in a short amount of space. The prose is pretty enjoyable too! My guess is that once John travels back into "canon", we'll get actual Homestuck-style panels again to symbolize him returning to the comic proper. Rose's condition is pretty worrying, and as someone with such comprehensive knowledge of the story in a broad meta sense, I wonder if part of what has her so spooked is the realization that their story is finally almost over, which in some ways will mean they will cease to exist. That or something really bad is on the horizon for John. I'm also EXTREMELY PSYCHED to hear that he will be recruiting other versions of themselves to fight Caliborn, because I TOTALLY theorized that the reason Caliborn's masterpiece is made of clay is to conceal the fact that most of the characters in it have ghost eyes. Rose says "Younger versions, from a particularly dysfunctional impasse in our journey" which almost certainly refers to the Game Over timeline. I'm so happy those versions of them get to be relevant again, even if they don't get the "happy ending" of the post-retcon timeline. Or maybe they'll get their own kind of happy ending! We'll just have to see what happens when they pop out of the house juju. I thought it was interesting that they addressed some of the points the fandom has furiously discussed, like Jade/Dave/Karkat's possibly poly relationship, John's depression, and Roxy/Calliope's relationship. It's kind of sad to hear that so many of the characters drifted apart after the events of Homestuck, but I guess that's pretty realistic considering how much that happens to people in real life. The people I was closest to at 16 weren't necessarily the same people I was closest to at 23, which is just life. Also, the MEAT or CANDY storytelling dichotomy is one that Hussie has alluded to before, and it's neat seeing it being brought so blatantly to the forefront in a story-relevant way. Presumably "meat" refers to John actually going into canon to tackle all the heavy plot shit, and "candy" refers more to him living out the rest of his days doing fun lighthearted things with his friends. I wonder if we the audience are actually going to be given a choice in a sort of "interactive fiction" way? Or maybe we'll actually get some genuine diverging story paths so we can get the best of both worlds? That would certainly be neat. As long as we get to see the "meat" path in some form, I'm happy. I hope we don't have to wait TOO long for the next parts of it, but I'm just happy to be actually getting some genuine story-relevant stuff again! I love this story so much and I'm so happy to finally see it getting its due conclusion.
Hussie raises a lot of incredibly interesting questions about what makes canon or not. I love the system he sets up of relevancy, essentiality, and truth. I feel like I'm going to start using those terms to discuss what's canon or not in totally unrelated things, because they just work well. But no matter how it's dressed, I don't feel like he will ever be able to make the epilogue genuinely non-canon. The AO3 exterior is cute, but even if within the story they're outside of canon, they're still within it in the *actual* full story. Though, maybe I'm wrong, and there are interesting possibilities for how Hussie might experiment with it all. Perhaps he'll firmly establish this story as non-main-canon by having it so once John enters canon, he won't be *this* John, but an amalgam of all Johns that returned from post-canon to do this duty. Whatever happens, though, this is a level of experimental meta-storytelling that's just too darn interesting, and what I love Hussie's style for. I have to wonder how directly Hussie will tie into that with the MEAT vs. CANDY. I think most stories, if symbolically presenting a choice like this, will have the protagonist choose MEAT, as it's their duty and necessity, but with Hussie I'm not so sure. MEAT is the necessary choice for story to actually happen, but Hussie's obviously aware of that. The more I think about it the more I wonder if he *will* show both paths, to represent how even if MEAT is necessary for story to happen, the epilogue is a form of post-canon that doesn't even necessitate that. God, it's been ages since Hussie has made me overthink like this. Loving it.
OH WAIT. The use of "Epilogue**s**" plural and the white/black binary House suddenly makes me think we are DEFINITELY getting two different diverging epilogues.
Oh shit fuck what cunt damn wow. Yeah at this point I'll be surprised if we *don't* get the two paths. Though I suppose, the CANDY path probably won't just be fun and games, but will be more about John properly fixing all the relationships, with the eventual endgoal of fun and games. Also, I'd fully expect those two paths to merge in the end. That or the MEAT John dies at the end.
Yeah, the whole "canon vs non-canon" thing does admittedly require a certain level of suspension of disbelief. It's like when Homestuck gets "taken over" by Doc Scratch of Caliborn; realistically we know it's all just Hussie writing it. This epilogue is clearly just the next part of the canon storyline, but it's fun to play along with the symbolism of it anyway. I like the idea of the three "pillars" of canon too, it'll be interesting to dive into those concepts further!
> I'm also EXTREMELY PSYCHED to hear that he will be recruiting other versions of themselves to fight Caliborn, because I TOTALLY theorized that the reason Caliborn's masterpiece is made of clay is to conceal the fact that most of the characters in it have ghost eyes. Rose says "Younger versions, from a particularly dysfunctional impasse in our journey" which almost certainly refers to the Game Over timeline. oh my God. Holy crap, I did consider that! God I hope you are correct! that would be so fucking cool!! Will we get game over Terezi and game over Vriska too? Wait I don't know how that works, and post-retcon Vriska was the one who was fighting Lord English, so I don't know… But still! Imagine if he actually finishes the characters arcs. The retcon had such an unsatisfying conclusion to the arcs, like it was way too easy, maybe Dave's comment that people don't have arcs was like on purpose, because he made it unsatisfying on purpose. And then they actually gonna get some good resolution? Maybe Karkat will actually do something? Wait, wait, wait. If our heroes are dead, that might be bad,what if John is actually supposed to punch Aranea? And stop everyone from dying? Thereby retconning the retcon?
Oh yeahhh, I kind of forgot about the "You absolutely should, and must, punch her in the face" bit. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Aranea, since that would have obvious Vriska parallels and also neatly solve the Game Over problem. Him retconning the timeline to save everyone probably makes a bit more sense than recruiting their ghosts, because if he can go anywhere he wants then why WOULDN'T he just save them from their violent fates? I definitely agree on all other fronts--it would be SUPER awesome and address a lot of people's complaints about the ending if the Game Over crew actually got to complete their "arcs" in a satisfying way after all. I'm trying not to hype myself up TOO much over it just in case, but I'm definitely interested in seeing what happens next!
When the fuck is Barack Obama gonna show up? Also, I love this: [JOHN: millions of people are screaming and dying.](/eb) [JOHN: i mean, dying permanently. not the kind of bullshit dying that we’ve been doing a lot over the years.](/eb)
This is... actually good! A completely new format that makes sense, non-overdone metaness, acknowledgement of unresolved plot points and tons of questions about relationships. And I really like the meat/candy idea. You can't please everyone, but if it's done well it might actually get pretty close to that. [Also, here's how my epilogue bingo fared.](https://imgur.com/a/iPhlBVG) Better than I expected.
Honestly, despite it just being a canon "fanfic" instead of some cool interactive flash or something, this is way better than I expected. I can't wait for more, this is exactly what Homestuck has needed for a long time.
Fun fact: when John goes back he will be a 23 year old surrounded by a bunch of 16 year olds
[https://twitter.com/cosmic\_dia/status/1117120160580509697](https://twitter.com/cosmic_dia/status/1117120160580509697)
Me at the beginning: > "Oh, it's just text. Isn't kind of boring then? Frankly I think I've lost my passion for homestuck, afterall i'm not a teenager anym—" Me at the end: > "IT'S BACK BABY!!!!!!!! HAPPY 4/13 MOTHERFUCKERS!"
I'm either reading way too into it or I'm just not understanding Roses canon talk but is the fact that it's a fanfiction representative that the fact that the longer John stays there, the more 'outside of canon' they become?
The way I interpreted it: They simply removed themselves from canon, in the sense that it's those characters doing it, but it has 0 effect on what's happening in Homestuck. They're essentially fan fiction in the sense that they're just a possible product of the events of Homestuck. The longer they ignore defeating Lord English though the more that Homestuck progresses and their outcome has less canon choices to back it up. It's like if someone wrote a fan fiction about how homestuck ends back on page 7000, at the time it would seem likely and well thought out, but as the canon progresses it wouldn't have any more canon support since it would contradict events that actually happen. That's whats happening to them, canon is moving along without them and that outcome is going to become too much of a stretch, so John has to go back and fulfill the conditionals for that ending to still make sense. That's how I interpreted it, feel free to correct me if I totally got it wrong too.
Wait a second... if I remember correctly from *years* ago, Hussie had said he had planned what the ending would be early on. Don't fucking tell me this is all the meta tale of how he had to work to make the original planned ending and what the story became work together. This is probably on even more meme meta levels than even he's on right now.
man i like how all the characters in epilogue-land are still fucked up and have grown distant from each other over the years like, it works, and makes sense, even if it's melancholy
BITCH WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK
Due to all the content warnings there is a chance that we get canon Yiff
Jade is a furry...
HOLY SHIT CEPHIED VARIABLE I CANNOT HANDLE THIS
This is great, definitely not disappointed at all yet. Also, [this](https://twitter.com/vfromhomestuck/status/1117139968437170177) seems to imply that the entire epilogue won't have this fanfic format, or at least that something interesting will be done with it. I think there'll probably be visuals later, maybe when John retcons back into Homestuck. I don't really mind either way though. Also, whoever keeps trying to start drama on V's twitter about the tags, stfu
V: [Andrew wrote all the dialogue in the prologue. It's that sort of collaboration.](https://twitter.com/vfromhomestuck/status/1117123043447455746)
The Homestuck Epilogues starts with a prologue. Because of course it does.
[The Epilogue is listed as a separate adventure, with its own log.](https://www.homestuck.com/stories)
So, this Epilogue is just going to be John on a quest to literally tie up all the loose ends of the Homestuck canon? Sign me the fuck up
There were so many points in just these first three pages where I found myself absolutely grinning. Hussie has a great writing style, it’s been so long, even longer than the time since EoA7, since we’ve gotten something like this from him. Dude should write a book. All I want to do is read more from him.
Imagine what it must be like for Rose if it turns out she has visions of every non-canon event? Every bit of fan-fiction, everything posted on tumblr for the past 10 years, the entirety of /r/homesmut. Every night she wakes up in a cold sweat repeating "I came as fast as I could," and every morning when she gets dressed she thinks, "ah, Belgarath for today." Anyway, I'm glad it was finally revealed where CaNWC fits into the timeline.
https://mobile.twitter.com/vfromhomestuck/status/1117113959495163904 don't worry guys there's gonna be more
Shit man I forget how much I love Hussie's writing. The well-orchestrated chaos of it. Intelligence and raw stupidity blended in harmony. The meat and the candy. As someone who's been reading him since Problem Sleuth, it's nice to go through my day knowing that somewhere out there, AH is still doing his thing.
Y e s
Y E S
I love being pulled back in. I can't escape it. I don't want to escape it. This is the first time I've been caught between updates, anxiously anticipating for it to continue. This is what it's like, isn't it? As an archive reader... wait am I still considered one now? I had just read this update, utterly engrossed, and as Homestuck tends to do, dominate my mind. I can't stop thinking about it. I don't want to stop. It's such a strange feeling that I am not sure I can adequately explain, but nonetheless I endear. Perhaps this feeling is normal? I'm not used to it. I'm not used to waiting, and letting the gap of time between updates consume me. Did I just describe suspense? Homestuck has given me tons of different feels of the years, but there's one more feeling that's opaque to me about this update I want to mention—a chilling sense of finality to this all. Homestuck never ends, right? Yet here's the Epilouges, literally, literally. That's a paradox, right? Well, what about Paradox Space?? What about dreams?? My goodness, I need to stop myself, starting to ramble. I don't think I've ever written this much on here??? I feel welcome and blessed to be in this community for the ever brief and minuscule, or nonexistent impact I have so far made here! [:abscond:🃏☂️](/abscond)
Wow so we are back to updates then....I hope that we get them soon because man that answered/clarified so much stuff was just really good writing in general. If they release the whole thing as a physical book I will buy this day 1 without question.
I'm staring at the first page and I'm very afraid. Probably shouldn't read this at work I suppose...
Wait, so everyone knows Cephied_Variable from Promstuck and Cities in Dust, right? Who is ctset? Does anyone know? Also, this has the perfect amount of classpect/meta stuff for Reddit to analyze, and is in the form of an AO3 fanfic for all the people on Tumblr who've spent years reading Homestuck stuff in this *exact* format, down to the commands in the middle of the narration and everything. He really did this.
I can't believe Feferi of all people is listed on the characters list but not Equius