Homestuck.XYZ 2.0

Hello,
I am new to homestuck and am interested. That being said, my sister who have read it already says I am too stupid to understand the complex storylines of homestuck. Is there a guide that will let me skip around and get the gist of the story, or at least to the cool grey people.
Thanks,

Alan

Your sister is dumber than you if she says that.

Do not skip anything in homestuck.

Why though? I skipped a bunch of parts in things like Naruto and Jojo. How is this different?.

Alansworld rocks wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 23, 2020 4:01 pm

Why though? I skipped a bunch of parts in things like Naruto and Jojo. How is this different?.

Naruto and Jojo are intentionally designed to be able to pick up any episode randomly and get enough context to still enjoy it.

It's the difference between episodic television and a serial webcomic. These examples are not comparable.

I suppose so, but at the same time, wouldn't something as complex as homestuck have callbacks that would allow me to understand what I skipped. Skipping is vital to a good series

Alansworld rocks wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 23, 2020 4:01 pm

Why though? I skipped a bunch of parts in things like Naruto and Jojo. How is this different?.

A lot of things that look completely unrelated to the plot turn out to be very important later. Like the first thing you might want to skip is the first intermission, but if you do you'll be completely lost later.

That said, there are *some* things you can skip. The recaps don't really add anything. The excerpts from Complacency of the Learned and Wizardy Herbert are there for a reason, but they're not all that important and if you find them to be a bit of a slog you won't be missing much (the excerpts from Mindfang's journal, however, are important). Rose's FAQ is mostly recapping things you've already seen, but it does tell you a bit about how she's processing it. Other than that, you really shouldn't skip things.

Alansworld rocks wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 23, 2020 4:09 pm

I suppose so, but at the same time, wouldn't something as complex as homestuck have callbacks that would allow me to understand what I skipped. Skipping is vital to a good series

Homestuck isn't really an episodic series. It's a singular work, meant to be taken as a unit. The acts it's broken down into are more to do with how it's published than how it's meant to be consumed. I'd compare it to something like LotR, where it was intended to be read as a single book but the way publishing worked forced it to be broken down into three. You wouldn't just reread the second book, if you want to reread it it'll always be from beginning to end.

But yeah, I wouldn't pay any attention to her. The plot can get pretty complicated, but it's not like you have to be a genius to understand it. In general, Homestuck explains itself pretty well. Maybe you'll miss some things, I certainly did on my first read. But that doesn't stop you enjoying it.

How many times will I have to read it to understand it

You should only have to read it once, but if you are anything like me, a reread will help you to catch a lot of the stuff you may have missed the first time around, especially if you can get a hold of the books for the vaunted Authors commentary

Alansworld rocks wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 23, 2020 5:02 pm

How many times will I have to read it to understand it

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's one of those series with enough detail and foreshadowing and Chekhov's guns that you pick up on a few new things every time. It's not that you don't understand it on your first read, it's just that there's always some more details or implications to pick up on.

Alansworld rocks wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 23, 2020 3:46 pm

Hello,
I am new to homestuck and am interested. That being said, my sister who have read it already says I am too stupid to understand the complex storylines of homestuck. Is there a guide that will let me skip around and get the gist of the story, or at least to the cool grey people.
Thanks,

Alan

They're not complex unless you're literally a baby. Just read it all. Don't skip around or you'll miss something important and then ACTUALLY get confused. Also, the only parts in anime you should skip are filler, and there's a lot of great things in JoJo that give context to actions later in the series, so you should prolly go back and watch what you skipped.

But you can skip part 5 it literally adds nothing.

For all further Jojo discussion feel free to go Here.

why would you skip things? why would you so this? why would you even think that skipping is essential to a series? wtf? if act 1 to act 4 are boring you so much that you feel the need to skip them then just admit that this is not for you and drop it. it seriously baffles me that someone would ever think of skipping things for the sake of skipping them.

I'm gonna offer my two cents into the ring and say something on this.
If you wanna get to the grey people, Act 5 is where you'll find them. Do note that you will be hella confused, and the hivebent arc is written in a way that it expects that it will be a glossed over summery of a presumably longer adventure that is never given fuller attention that only managed to get the length it did due to scope creep, but if you wanna meet the trolls, that's where you'd find them.
After some point, I'd suggest going back to act one and starting from the beginning (prolly sticking within disc one and jumping back to page one before the 2nd disc comes into play), so you can get a feel for how it all works together, and meet the human kids too. Then once you get back to your initial starting point, you can prolly skim 'til you get to the part you haven't read yet and then keep going.

Considering Homestuck is a work that has a lot of timey crap interwoven throughout it, it might actually be an interesting to follow it in a manner that isn't strictly from beginning to end (and considering there is a much later part of the story that introduces a leap-back, this isn't exactly unprecedented), and may even help with overall understanding if read in such a manner.

You could, if you're feeling bold, skip to some grey people by playing Hiveswap Friendsim first. It's a canon visual novel all about trolls designed in such a way that you don't really need to read Homestuck to play it. The final chapter will link you to the official Homestuck site, where you will then have to read the actual comic (skipping around in it will for sure confuse you).

If you're just looking to dip in and see what the HS universe is like I genuinely recommend this method.