An interesting perspective. I can certainly understand getting fed up with all the perspective swaps (I certainly do), although arguably, that's a problem with reading it as it's coming out rather than at the hypothetical end of the comic, since there's a longer wait involved before getting back to someone you care about. 100 pages feels a lot longer when it's released in 4 page chunks, after all.
I disagree somewhat on the plot twists, especially with the specific example given. HIC brainwashing Jane's been foreshadowed almost as long as Jane's been a character, both through the Tiaratop and HIC getting the powers of the various blood castes. Her mind-controlling Jade is similarly foreshadowed, as one of her first B2 appearances, she was seen with the Scorpio and Tauros symbols flashing.
As for characters and screentime- When you've got as many characters as there are in Homestuck, some are bound to be more important than others. I'd love it if Equius and Nepeta had gotten more screentime before getting killed, but they weren't exactly important to the story— not for the Trolls' side and not for the Kids'. All of them except maybe Nepeta got to do their One Important Thing before becoming irrelevant, so there's not really much more for them to have done.
On the subject of the timeline— for the most part, every individual "chunk" is linear— the problem is that everything doesn't take place at the same time, so you have the Kids playing the game in a linear fashion, while Trolls talk to them starting from one point in their timeline, moving forward.
As for fanfiction, since I don't read any I can't say much, aside from "Read as much of the comic as you can tolerate first, as fanfiction writers have a bad habit of overemphasizing or downplaying character traits." That goes for any fanfic and not just Homestuck.
They lost me. Forgot me. Made you from parts of me. If you're the One, my father's son, what am I supposed to be?
...Technically, the issues you point out don't actually do anything to support your thesis that the comic is pretentious bullcrap. Not that I'd argue that it isn't, but that has more to do with the stupid fourth wall shit and nonsensical temporal mechanics
Also, the thing about the character focus: I don't see any problem with having major and minor characters. I think the problem was something of the opposite, actually; too many unimportant characters were given introductions that made them seen more important than they actually were, and enough focus for people to get attached to them
Leave a Comment:
Holy Shmoly.
Homestuck is... interesting.
Good points:
-The characters. The cast is diverse and interesting, particularly amongst the trolls.
-The relationships. The characters all have varied, interesting relationships. From Equius and Nepeta's moirallegiance to Karkat's lashing out at just about everyone, Homestuck runs the gamut of character interaction.
Bad points:
-The length. Homestuck is BLOATED with odd flash animations, pointless jokes, and all manner of strange focus swaps.
-The seriousness. I honestly think that Homestuck would work better if it was not meant to be taken seriously. It seems like a gigantic parody of an epic, mixing the ludicrous with the dramatic, and should be treated as such for optimal effect.
My recommendation: Read as much of Homestuck as you can, but try to look for fanfics also. Compare the fics to the actual story, and see which you prefer.