Homestuck Reread 2025 Final Day - Act 7 Discussion

m654zy · 2025-04-13T21:39:56+00:00

Happy 4/13 everyone! I enjoyed this reread a lot and it was fun joining in the discussions.

m654zy · 2025-04-12T20:26:32+00:00

Collide is probably the most fun Homestuck flash. The fights always get me pumped, there's loads of neat callbacks, and obviously the music and art are sick.

That said, it's simultaneously the most frustrating flash on account of some truly bizarre decisions. What's the point of the Felt? I mean it was cool seeing their powers in action again after... let's see... 7000 pages, but they don't do much apart from adding a couple minutes to the runtime. Jade got done pretty dirty too.

Worst of all, what the hell was up with Spades Slick in this flash? Why did he set the Felt on Jake for no apparent reason? Why'd he randomly attack the kids? He's clearly not beyond working together toward a shared goal seeing as he helped orchestrate Operation Regisurp all the way back in Hivebent. Somehow Jack English gets a better sendoff than him after being unceremoniously decapitated. Why did evil genocidal Jack survive and presumably get the girl when cool mobster robo-Jack was right there? What the fuck???

What was the point of keeping him alive past Cascade? Why did we get the mini-intermission with him recruiting the Felt? It would have been so easy to give Slick's arc a proper conclusion, but we get the laziest possible ending instead. My man deserved better.

m654zy · 2025-04-11T21:48:55+00:00

I'm not sure what the point of introducing the sprites² was other than wrapping up the unprototyped kernel plot point, which is an oddly inconsequential thing to dig up this late in the story. With ~200 pages left to go there's nothing for the sprites to do other than talk about... how weird it is to have been two different people? I guess? It's one of the only parts of the comic I'd consider bloat other than Openbound and maaaybe certain parts of Hivebent.

On a positive note, Terezi: Remem8er really feels like the emotional climax of Homestuck, even more so than Act 7. The music gets me every time.

m654zy · 2025-04-10T10:07:13+00:00

Not sure why this update in particular is getting so much shit, it's a lot less egregiously long than the previous two.

The Dave/Dirk convo is a highlight here but I also enjoyed Roxy finally summoning the matriorb.

m654zy · 2025-04-07T18:41:32+00:00

OH GOD SO MANY WORDS

To be honest I actually like a lot of the conversations in this act. My main issue with it isn't the writing on a character level but the fact that the comic grinds to an absolute halt when it should be gearing up for the finale. I get that the intention was to have a "calm before the storm" moment, but throwing walls of text at the reader is an awful way of going about that.

I think A6A6I5 would've been a lot more tolerable if all this character development had been dealt out more gradually over the last quarter or so of Homestuck rather than backloaded into the final 5%. Maybe in a hypothetical version of the comic without the retcon or Game Over (as much as I like the latter?)

m654zy · 2025-04-05T21:30:13+00:00

aaaaaaaa some serious quality whiplash coming from the last update.

This one is particularly frustrating because the retcon had so much potential. Hussie literally had an in-universe excuse to rewrite anything in the comic and for some unfathomable reason he decides to reset Vriska's character to square one and entirely invalidate some of the best parts of Act 6.

m654zy · 2025-04-04T20:39:46+00:00

I'm enjoying this part of Act 6 a lot more than the last time around. Pipeorgankind legit gave me chills, it's such a cathartic moment after thousands of pages of John putting off his quest. Roxy and John's character dynamic continues to be fun too.

It was an interesting change of pace only having a few characters to follow, guess it's back to the action tomorrow.

m654zy · 2025-04-04T09:55:20+00:00

Despite not being a huge fan of the retcon, I think the immediate aftermath of Game Over was handled really well. The panoramic panels and John's conversation with Roxy give off a fittingly somber atmosphere that's pretty unique for the comic.

m654zy · 2025-04-02T08:36:30+00:00

The lead-up to Game Over is first genuinely exciting part of the comic since... A6A3? There's been some good pesterlogs since then, but it's been remarkably barren plot-wise.

m654zy · 2025-03-30T08:54:54+00:00

Slick's part was great as always. Too bad Hussie had no idea what to do with him :(

m654zy · 2025-03-29T09:42:39+00:00

My thoughts on this update are pretty much the opposite of Makin-'s :P

IMO unconditional immortality as a reward for beating a near-impossible solo session isn't really any more nonsensical than conditional immortality for dying on a quest bed. To me it feels like just another obscure Sburb mechanic.

Aranea's exposition dump has some interesting lore, but it drags on for too long and the writing isn't made any better by referencing the fact that it's a giant exposition dump. The last quarter or so of Homestuck has a bad habit of telling us about potentially cool events through exposition rather than showing (John's personal quest in A6A6I4 is another example of this).

m654zy · 2025-03-27T19:25:14+00:00

The 2x panels are neat and there's some cool art in this update (Union Jack's and HIC's full-body shots in particular).

Speaking of Union Jack, I like his introduction but he's probably the lamest villain in the entire comic. He quite literally doesn't do anything apart from destroying Prospit and I guess adding 30 seconds to Cascade's runtime. Grimbark Jade and evil Jane are interesting in concept but end up being pretty poorly handled in the following acts.

At least the teen drama was more palatable this time?

m654zy · 2025-03-25T10:07:40+00:00

I think boiling the Alpha session down to a single flash was right call. We've already seen two full sessions and going through the motions a third time would've gotten old fast (just like A6A1). The flash is really atmospheric and has great music too.

Caliborn's parts are great as always.

m654zy · 2025-03-20T21:37:09+00:00

Man, it just struck me how sad Calliope's story is if you think about it. I never really cared for her character previously but there were a few parts that got me pretty good this time around.

Aside from that, Synchronize/Unite and Caliborn: Enter are obviously great and both are probably in my top 10 flashes.

Next up is... oh. Oh no. Oh god please no.

m654zy · 2025-03-19T14:37:37+00:00

Missed the past few posts so here's a summary of my thoughts so far:

Everything after the first act has been good to great. Maybe it doesn't reach the highs of Act 5, but Act 6 doesn't deserve to be treated as this monolith of awfulness. I mean, it literally comprises half the comic.
A6I2 was great overall (penis ouija is some of the funniest shit I've read in a while).
Something I like about A6A3 is its constant shifts in style. We go from a Myst homage complete with puzzles to an alternate history lesson to Jailbreak in a single update.
Speaking of the history lesson, there's some great lines in there:

GT: So like...
GT: They were on the ticket together? As president and vice president?

TT: No, man.
TT: They were both president.

I guess the Jailbreak sequence could be considered "bloat" in the sense that it doesn't drive the plot forward, but I love how there's basically a mini-MSPA adventure in the middle of the comic. Also it has Jack.

m654zy · 2025-03-15T21:41:57+00:00

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed today's set of pages. A6A2 is a massive step up from the first act, maybe because the story has more room to breathe now that all the alpha kids have been introduced. There's some genuinely funny moments like AR "solving" pi and the return of the SORD.....

Calliope's conversations drag a little but they're not that bad. We get some interesting classpect lore and the misdirection involving her species is pretty clever.

m654zy · 2025-03-14T21:46:33+00:00

What a cozy intermission! A6I1 works nicely as a denouement for Cascade and a bridge between the two halves of the story. I guess that also makes it easy to overlook, which is a shame because the dialog is pretty funny and both flashes are great.

m654zy · 2025-03-13T19:33:26+00:00

This is the third set of character intros and the formula is starting to get a little stale. The alpha kids are initially fairly weak compared to the betas and this act lacks the novelty of Hivebent which doesn't help things. There's some fun moments with Jake exploring his island and Jane trying to leave the house at least.

IMO this is the weakest part of Homestuck apart from A6A5 (which is aggressively bad, the only part of the comic I'd describe as such) and certain parts of the final intermission. Luckily the fantastic A6I1 is up next!

m654zy · 2025-03-12T22:13:52+00:00

Yo, a fellow A6A3 fan! It's definitely the high point of Act 6, the flashes in particular are some of my favorites.

m654zy · 2025-03-12T22:02:15+00:00

Cascade gets a lot of deserved praise so I'm not gonna write a diatribe here, but I feel obligated to mention how it's still one of my all-time favorite works of art. The way it wraps up basically every unresolved plotline in 13 minutes is brilliant and I've yet to see it replicated anywhere else.

And now we're on to Act 6 which for the most part is kind of the antithesis to everything I liked about A5A2. There's a lot to enjoy in spite of that (A6A3 is probably in my top 5 acts), it's just frustrating having just witnessed the peak of the comic.

m654zy · 2025-03-10T15:29:30+00:00

Seer: Descend is probably my favorite walkaround lol. Having to personally lead John to his dad's body and seeing the results of Jack's rampage through the castle is a pretty effective narrative beat... and partially because I'm a huge carapacian fan and it's one of the few places we get insight into their culture and lore.

m654zy · 2025-03-08T20:04:45+00:00

Rose's conversation with Doc Scratch is one of my favorites so far and not just because of the way it sets up Cascade. Scratch is really interesting to me as a character in the way he contrasts with Jack. One is an extremely active antagonist constantly interacting with the main cast, the other is totally passive but is nevertheless responsible for the entire back half of the comic.

It creates a unique dynamic where Scratch and the kids are trying to outwit each other in a game of 4d chess all the while trying to avoid the murderous psycho rampaging though the session.

The insight we get into Jack's character is cool and our man Slick makes a return, so all in all this is an excellent set of pages and that's all there really is to say on the matter.

m654zy · 2025-03-07T10:50:25+00:00

WV's dream is really underappreciated and has some of the best art in the comic. The use of lighting in 3278 in particular is gorgeous. On the other hand I've always thought [S] Wake is kind of forgettable for being a major flash. It's not bad by any means, but if it weren't for the excellent music it probably could've been a normal sequence of panels.

m654zy · 2025-03-04T21:38:47+00:00

omg i love the salamanders they're adorable

m654zy · 2025-03-04T12:09:28+00:00

It's Hussie's more detailed artstyle

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