Homestuck/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


> WEIGH IN ON CONTROVERSIAL MATTERS

You proceed to give your two boondollars regarding the following controversial subjects.

Story and Characters

  • Alternate Character Interpretation:
    • Is Vriska a Broken Bird who is just trying to fit in desperately with people in the only way she knows how? A Magnificent Bastard who manipulates everything for fun? A confused little girl trying to live up to the example set by her infamous ancestor, even when she doesn't necessarily find it all that fun? Someone who has atoned for her actions and should be forgiven or hasn't and her ultimate death was justice? Hello, Broken Base! Canonically, she is present as somewhere in between all of these things.
    • Interpretations of the Felt pretty much rely on this, as aside from Clover, none of them are portrayed as anything more than mobsters.
    • Jack Noir is presented as a Complete Monster in canon, but fans often play up his sympathetic traits.
    • Is Bro's relationship with Dave a friendly brotherly rivalry, or is he an abusive father?
    • Was Darkleer's Wangst legitimate or was Mindfang just being dismissive?
    • Daddy Droog, Diamonds Droog as an overprotective father / big brother figure Jerk with a Heart of Gold, specifically toward Aradia. This is assuredly non-canonical, as Droog was implied to be masturbating to Aradia.
    • UU is a mysterious character, and while she's been presented thus far as a nice girl, there's enough to suggest she's a Manipulative Bitch for fans to believe it.
  • Angel-Devil Shipping: Tavros is often shipped with either Vriska or Gamzee. Both are canonical for Tavros, though Vriska gave up her crush.
  • Angst? What Angst?: Act 4 and 5 are a Trauma Conga Line for the Kids but none of them are very fazed by it.
    • Averted later. Rose angsts a fair amount about the futility of their session, and all of the Kids are affected to some extent by their Guardian's death. Dave outright goes a little crazy for a bit from grief and doesn't snap out of it until the end of Act 5.
    • John, however, seems fairly chipper just hours after the deaths of his father, Rose, and her mother.
    • Jade. Everything points to Break the Cutie for her, but the only part of her that's really broken is holding back on the swears. She even turns out to be perfectly fine with Dreambubble shenanigans once she's gotten used to everything. Which is really a huge improvement from swearing to never go to sleep again.
  • Anticlimax Boss: The scene is all set for an Evil Versus Evil Melee a Trois between Gamzee, Vriska and Eridan, and the plot has indicated that Gamzee would have the upper hand against the others... but then before anything happens Rainbow Drinker Kanaya runs and kicks him where it hurts, sending him right off a cliff.
  • Arc Fatigue: Act 5, part 1. Starts with And Now for Someone Completely Different. Introduces 12 new characters (we've seen a few of the trolls before, but the exposition and characterization really takes off here), in an entirely new world, which slows the story to a crawl. As the story goes character by character, it becomes even more confusing and thus fatiguing (the "cycle of revenge" plot is the worst offender). It doesn't tie in with the original story until the very last scene, when Jack Noir attacks. Overall, it's a rerun of the first half of the story, with three times as many characters, until you wonder if the author will ever get back to the original quartet.
    • What's even worse than that? Act 5, Act 2. Just look at the map for it. Then look at how many checkpoints it has.
    • In fact, all of Act 5 can be seen as this, as Act 5 in total takes up nearly half the webcomic by time spent on it alone.
  • Artistic License: Biology: Andrew doesn't understand biology very well. This is most obvious with the troll's blood colors (as pigmented body fluids make no sense at all) and their reproduction methods, as well as the high rate of significant mutations (Sollux and Vriska especially are never much explained despite being far beyond the genetic norm) and the nautical royalty race (which in reality is more or less a completely different species).
  • Artistic License Physics: The united trolls & humans plan to be sent at near light-speed on their asteroid to the new B2 session in a single push. When Karkat objects that they can't stay ahead of a pursuing Jack, Rose shuts him up by mentioning "Troll Isaac Newton," which is well and good except for two problems:
    1. Accelerating to near light-speed in a single short push would impart enough energy to render them instantly into a sub-atomic plasma.
    2. The Medium is breathable, so there's presumably air resistance. Hitting air at near light-speed would also more than vaporize them. It would also slow them down, gradually. Newton's 1st Law would only prevent this in a vacuum.
    • The trolls were able to move far faster than light-speed, meaning the g-forces are not an issue, at least when using troll telekinesis. The friction problem does still hold merit though, given that during the Reckoning, meteors light on fire before entering Skaia's gate, and the meteor is later shown having a fiery trail in the Furthest Ring.
    • Both apply to John and Jade in Andrew's study however.
  • Author's Saving Throw - Tavrisprite's creation was probably the most horrific thing to ever come out of Homestuck, and several fans were not happy at this turn of events (see The Scrappy below). Mere panels later (though about a day later), Tavrisprite explodes and Vriska and Tavros are apart again, albeit still dead.
  • Browser Narcotic: Only because you're very, very likely to miss crucial details on the first read, especially if you zip through the relatively slow-paced first year, and updates drop sporadically. It could've updated right now.
  • Cargo Ship: Bro/Lil Cal. Yes, it exists.
  • Complete Monster: The Jack Noir that becomes Jackspers Noirlecrow/Bec Noir not only kills hundreds of people for his own amusement - he thoroughly enjoys it. That he goes so far as to kill many of the protagonists because he can only cements him in this status.
    • The Grand Highblood. The wall behind his throne is COATED with various colors of blood, and surviving a meeting with him is basically up to his whims: Whether it would be more hilarious to him to allow a troll to survive or to beat them to death for shits and giggles.
    • Doc Scratch once it became clear that he wasn't joking about breathing privileges.
    • The Condesce intentionally revels in dog kicking For the Evulz.
    • If lusii are fully sentient, then Vriska's lusus should count.
    • Post-Scratch Guy Fieri was responsible for the deaths of five billion people, and was referred to as the "third and final Anti-Christ."
  • Crosses the Line Twice: Many, many times.
    • One notable yet funny example is Jack putting on Bro's Shades.
    • Another is Karkat's hilarious expression after seeing Sollux get knocked out, and then Feferi and Kanaya getting killed.
    • Sollux being blinded by a vengeful Eridan? Upsetting. Karkat accidentally knocking out all of Sollux's teeth while he was unconscious and inexpertly trying to stick them back into his mouth? Hilarious.
    • You are now Jack Noir. You have just murdered an innocent family. What will you do?
    • HoNk
    • Equius.
    • undyingUmbrage.
  • Diabolus Ex Machina / Contrived Coincidence: Really there are a lot of these. Justified perhaps in that You Can't Fight Fate, but just for example: Jack Noir emerges from the Lotus time capsule at precisely the correct moment to dismantle WQ's plans; which also only fell apart because WV hit the caps lock button at the wrong moment.
    • When you consider how many characters have access to Time Travel and are actively interfering (most notably Doc Scratch, who orchestrated just about everything), It's less Contrived Coincidence and more of a deliberate plan to travel to a specific point for time shenanigans. I wouldn't say it's quite You Can't Fight Fate just because of how many characters are fully aware of what they are doing and what needs to happen (not to mention that there are deviations from what was supposed to happen, it just creates a doomed timeline).
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Vriska, Jack/Bec Noir and Gamzee still have quite a number of fans, in spite of their actions. (Or because of.)
  • Evil Is Sexy: The Condesce in-universe. Dirk describes her as a "sexy fish woman in a skin tight suit", though he's not shy about mentioning the atrocities she committed.
  • Fan Hater: undyingUmbrage pretty much represents all the people who don't like Homestuck.
  • Fashion Victim Villain: Almost any Derse agent in the kid's session, thanks to the required harlequin clothing.
    • And Eridan. Though he apparently wasn't a villain in that timeline, his God Tier outfit inspired much lulz, especially his pantaloons. And his regular clothing in the B2 timeline might also count.
  • Foe Yay: Although it's been specifically stated that it's not synonymous with Foe Yay, "Kismesissitude" is a similar concept, and one of the fundamental concepts of romance in troll culture. Mutual hate plays the same important role as mutual love (and has a role in their reproductive cycle). These relationships are designated by a black spade, as opposed to a red heart. Further detail here. And here.
    • Eridan feels this for Vriska, and before getting to know him, Karkat feels this for John. Both are unrequited.
    • The Black Queen & Jack Noir feel this for each other in all sessions seen so far.
    • PM has fallen into kismesissitude for Jack Noir after he murdered all her friends. This is unrequited, though, since a stunned Jack has fallen into "red" love for her after seeing her prototyped and ready to kill him.
  • Generic Doomsday Villain: Bec Noir.
  • Genius Bonus: So many. Three worth mentioning are the Trolls' similarity in personalities to the signs they represent, the card puns involved in the Derse Bureaucracy (and subsequently, the Midnight Crew), and the various Billiards references in the Felt.
  • He's Just Hiding: Happens with several characters, but it was probably invoked when Jane was caught in a mailbox explosion...and then found to be sleeping unharmed behind her house.
    • Earlier, it was common for fans to speculate that when a character died it was really an Alternate Timeline and didn't actually happen. In what might be a Fandom Nod, Jack Noir's apparent killing of Karkat and Terezi was in fact an alternate timeline, as was the death of Spades Slick seen a short time later.
  • Genre Shift: Hivebent had elements of Teen Drama, horrorstuck has elements of a Slasher Movie. Also, Homestuck has gradually gotten darker in tone from act to act.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: The early pages with John goofing off in his house take a much darker cast when you know what he's about to experience.
    • Even worse is rereading Rose on her mother while wandering her house pre-session. After Rose admitted that she probably always loved her and after seeing them through the mirror of Roxy's life, some of her more ridiculous actions seem nothing less than a desperate and tragically failed attempt to connect with her daughter.
  • Hell Is That Noise: honk. HONK.
  • Ho Yay:
    • Kanaya canonically has an unrequited crush on Vriska, and fans believe that she may be developing feelings for Rose.
      • At one point, Kanaya considers leaving the others and their adventures behind and staying on the meteor, but Rose convinces her to come with them. Not shippy in and of itself...except for the fact that immediately after Karkat starts complaining that everyone is hitting on each other, and Sollux seems to agree.

ROSE: Can you please come?
ROSE: Between the two of us, you with your inexplicably heretofore unmentioned
phosphorescence, and I with my nigh-reflective traffic cone orange sun-sari, the meteor should never be too dark.
KARKAT: (sollux, oh my god is it me or is everybody already just fucking hitting on each other
left and right? oh god i can't take sweeps of this shit, don't leave me alone here, please don't)
SOLLUX: ehehehehe.

  • Hype Aversion: Boy howdy. The creepy, unwashed, and occasionally violent portion of the fanbase doesn't help this, either.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Karkat owns this trope. He embodies it.
    • Vriska. Murderous, manipulative megalomaniac without a shred of empathy? Or girl living under impossible (partially self-inflicted) pressures, unable to make a single one of her dreams come true, who wishes to live in a less cruel world? (Answer: Both.)
  • Kudzu Plot: Very much so! And Andrew is extremely good at keeping plot holes from happening [1]
  • Magnificent Bastard: Doc Scratch
  • Mary Sue / Parody Sue: Jade is full of Common Mary Sue Traits, her grandfather even moreso. Fortunately averts the Spotlight-Stealing Squad and contributes no more than anyone else to the story.
  • Memetic Molester: Scratch's conversations with Rose and Jade have catapulted him into this category, particularly this one.
    • Terezi qualifies as well, to a lesser extent, mostly because of her obsession with licking and smelling things.
  • Memetic Mutation: Now has its own page.
  • Memetic Sex God: Jake English hours after his debut.
  • A Million Is a Statistic: Arguably, Vriska and Eridan, killing three people between them, are considered Complete Monsters, while Jack, who killed millions, hardly seems to have hit the Moral Event Horizon. Arguably, Vriska and Eridan had killed their so-called friends, rather than simply attacking their enemies. Eridan did however destroy the Matriorb, thereby dooming the Trolls to extinction, and Jack will blow up Derse, which is basically his home.
    • The kids and the trolls are much more broken up over their friends' and loved ones' deaths than the destruction of their respective races.
      • Virtually nobody brings up the fact that Vriska personally murdered thousands of trolls, or that Eridan murdered their lusi.[2] Feferi and Terezi likewise escape judgement despite being complicit in their murders for sweeps
        • Feferi, at least, has an excuse: if she doesn't keep her lusus alive by feeding it the lusi Eridan hunts, it will kill everyone in the galaxy. Vriska's case is similar, if less intense (failing to feed her lusus will only lead to the death of the two of them, as opposed to the entire galaxy), but other aspects of her character mentioned elsewhere on this page keep her from being seen as sympathetic in the eyes of some.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Where exactly Jack crosses the line probably depends on the reader, but the way he runs around stabbing many beloved characters makes Aradia's curbstomping him really satisfying to watch. A good point of reference would probably be his senseless destruction of Prospit and Skaia (killing Dream Jade in the process).
    • Gamzee crossed when he choked Equius to death with a broken bow.
    • Vriska was shown having previously crossed it when she crippled Tavros because he wanted to stop playing a round of Flarp.
    • Doc Scratch actually crossed it before we met him, but we don't find out until we finally see what he's been doing to his "guest", the Handmaid.
    • Eridan hits this in universe after killing Feferi, Kanaya, and destroying the Matriorb, to the point where Karkat is completely disgusted with him.
  • Motive Decay: At first, Jack's motives appeared to revolve around a desire to rule, but now...
    • Eridan crosses this after he KO'd Sollux, killed Feferi and Kanaya, and attempted to fight Gamzee and Vriska.
      • Hammered home with Jack's duel with Rose versus his duel with Vriska. He doesn't remotely take Vriska seriously and simply flies off to murder the rest of the trolls to rub it in her face.
  • Poe's Law: Zig-zagged. Due to the meta-humour, self-parody and Andrew's Author Avatar persona, the lines between things like Creator Backlash, Creator Breakdown, Take That, Audience! and parodies of the same are pretty blurry.
  • Rewatch Bonus: Lots of them, given the comic's layered symbolism and Anachronic Order.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: How some viewed the troll romance shenanigans and subsequent exploration of terms.

EB: oh god, the quadrants...

    • John/Vriska is unique in that it's the only directly stated and serious romance that has developed during the story, as all other romances were part of the character's motivations from the start. This has caused many to respond to it with vitriol.
    • Act 6. Although it might be a parody, given that it centers around Memetic Sex God Jake.
  • Ruined FOREVER: It is very hard to take the ending to Con Air seriously anymore after [S] John: Reunite with your loving wife and daughter.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The trolls didn't come up at all until early in Act 3 with Jade's trollslum and Karkat's one angry rant at her. Then Act 4 featured lots of conversations between a few of them and the kids. Then all of Act 5 happened.
    • The Post-Scratch Kids too to an extent.
  • Too Dumb to Live
  • Toy Ship: All the main characters are 13. This was inevitable even before Hivebent throw Teen Drama into the mix.
  • Troll: In addition to the entire race in the comic that shares the same name, Hussie himself has a habit of leading on his readers and laughing at their surprise and anguish.
    • The Music Team often takes a perverse joy in taunting the fanbase, no more so has this been evident than with the large wait before the end of Act 5 animation, as many of the music team members have posted "Hey this is a sample of our work!" before said sample turning out to be comically bad voice acting slash fic or Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff esque screaming.
  • The Untwist: The fact that Mr. Egbert is really just an ordinary businessman outside the home. Also Lampshaded, since most of the readers had already expected this from very early on in the series.
    • And then Andrew Hussie wrote on his Formspring account that Aradia being Dead All Along was sufficiently foreseeable to deserve a fairly sarcastic treatment from the narration. And yeah, it was totally foreseeable, Andrew, we'd have to be idiots to not be able to guess such a thing without any foreshadowing.
      • To top it off, the page after the revelation about Aradia has one of the characters admitting she didn't see it coming and being reassured that that doesn't make her stupid.
    • None of these, however, compare to the stunning revelation that the trolls are really playing one game, not two. The other two are at least handled in a normal fashion and then lampshaded with "yes, I know that was terribly obvious", but Hussie drew the line at this one and didn't even pretend to reveal it properly—the joke was instead "If we were spending a lot more time on the trolls, we'd gradually build up to this stunning revelation. And yes, it's totally a stunning revelation."
    • Act 6 beginning with the B2 Kids was pretty widely anticipated and expected, though some doubt was thrown into the mix with ambiguity if the Scratch worked.

There are lots of major curveballs thrown at you in HS. I personally don’t think this was one.

  • Viewer Gender Confusion: A surprising number of people thought Kanaya was a really girly boy before Word of God confirmed her gender.
    • Mostly because the kids didn't know her gender and called her a him in their conversations.
    • Eventually acknowledged in a conversation:

GT: pff, i know i'm dumber than rose, that is not much of a burn, dude!
GA: Im A Girl Not A Boy
GT: oh, sorry.
GT: i don't know why i thought you were.
GA: It Happens

  • Wangst: Parodied with John's angst towards his dad. His lack of a problem is lampshaded by Rose on this page. Also parodied with Rose; although her mother may be a legitimately unpleasant person (it's hard to say), Rose seems to interpret her every action as an attempt to spite her.
    • Eridan spends a lot of time complaining about how hard things are for him—either Growing Up Sucks, how he can't seem to get a proper black or redrom, or how no one visits him. Then decides that everyone needs to join Jack or die. By his hand if necessary.
      • Darkleer, at least according to Mindfang (although that might just be her being unsympathetic).
  • What Could Have Been: Hussie had planned Heroes of Light: Strife, an epic animation for round two of the battle between Grimdark Rose and Bec Noir (round one can be seen here, as well as the battle between Vriska and Bec Noir that would have been set to this but--

Hussie: The planned animation would have been a major escalation in production value. The sophistication of the animations has increased over time, and part of the point of this for me is to keep pushing the envelope, but there are limits to how far you can go. It's good to keep pushing and find your limits and test them, but realistically you'll have to pull back at some point. Because that is what a limit is. A line between something you can do, and something that is literally impossible.

I'm not saying the animation I had in mind was impossible, but it was approaching scary territory. I just made a judgment and decided it wasn't worth the energy, all things considered.
—(More details here)
    • So instead, the fight is shown in an abridged, narrated, slideshow-like format starting here.
    • Earlier, Dave's Inventory Management Puzzle was going to lead up to a hashrap battle between Dave and Bro. Hussie decided not to go through with it - and this is actually Lampshaded by Dave after the actual Strife with Bro. Much later in Act 6, Hussie did manage to do a rap battle using the Inventory Management Puzzle, thanks to Dirk and Squarewave.
    • After Problem Sleuth finished, Hussie thought about doing a Midnight Crew adventure before starting Homestuck. They ultimately became important characters in the comic and got their own Intermission.
      • And in the B2 Universe he decided to do Problem Sleuth 2, which clearly is far superior to anything else he could have done.
    • Let's not forget Homestuck was originally going to be done entirely in Flash - as in the Beta here. This was abandoned as Flash was too much work.
  • What an Idiot!: John, despite several warnings from Future Dave and making a promise not to fly off to confront the Denizen, does it anyway. However, this isn't the first time Andrew has made 'THIS IS STUPID' jokes to illustrate that a character decided not do something. Thankfully, he quickly reconsiders.
    • Not to mention John's utterly thoughtless loss of his sixth computer.
    • Eridan's decision to join Jack despite Jack being an Omnicidal Maniac who probably wouldn't let anyone join him. Then there's his whole genocide against the angels on his planet. And his attempts to get his friends to help him genocide all of them. And his pathetic romantic miscues. The list goes on.
  • Wham! Episode: There's a whole page for it.
  • Wheelchair Woobie: Tavros, the woobie and pushover of the trolls' session, spends much of the story crippled. He even convinces himself his lack of mobility affects his self-esteem.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Clearly evident in Eridan after he destroyed the Matriorb and killed Kanaya and Feferi.
  • World of Woobie: Multiple Worlds of Woobie. It's probably safe to say that damn near every character in the comic needs a big hug.

Audience reactions and Fandom related tropes

  • Alas, Poor Scrappy: Certain trolls by the time of their previously clamored-for deaths.
    • Vriska, Vriska, Vriska. The last messages she sent for John pulled a lot of retroactive heartstrings even amongst diehard haters.
      • On the other hand, Romantic Plot Tumor. She still has her haters. Not to mention her view of her murders is really scattershot; she waves off Aradia's murder in the same breath that she feels bad about Tavros's.
    • Fans have always blamed the Andrew Hussie for any of the bad events that happened in the story. When his his Author Avatar got shot, a lot of fans were shocked and hoped he would survive somehow.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Fans of Gamzee/Tavros (considered a popular pairing with little backing) had a field day with this update.
  • Arc Fatigue/Base Breaker: Hivebent got a lot of criticism for going on too long (among other reasons), but a lot of fans also enjoyed the arc immensely... for the exact same reasons.
    • As was the Troll Murder arc. This caused a lot of anger in the fandom as to some, the deaths seemed pointless, and it was a stark change from the lack of main character deaths in the story prior.
      • And again with the slow pace of an arc centering around Terezi not really doing a whole bunch.
      • And again with the Doc Scratch segment, which lasted about 3 months, over 1/4 of Act 5 Act 2.
  • Archive Panic
  • Ass Pull: Some plot developments are dubiously this, given that Andrew often writes unforeseen twists simply because it's fun. Many of them fall into 'Retroactive Foreshadowing', but at the time of writing were still largely pulled from nowhere. Davesprite's survival is perhaps the biggest example of an Ass Pull, though many others exist.
  • Award Snub: The absolutely breathtaking "[S] Cascade." animation only made a meager Daily 5th Place award. This may be justified due to the fact that the file itself crashed Newgrounds, preventing people from voting for it.
  • Awesome Art: It has all the Awesome Art. All of it.
  • Base Breaker: Vriska is easily the most divisive character in the comic. Just look at how many tropes she has as compared to the rest of the trolls and kids. According to Word of God, this was fully intentional.
    • Eridan nearly matched Vriska after his murder of Feferi. He became both Draco in Leather Pants and Ron the Death Eater at the same time.
    • The trolls in general - to some, Ensemble Darkhorses even before they were really introduced who add depth to the strip, to some a pointless distraction that slows down the main plot.
    • Snowman to a much lesser extent. She has an enormous amount of fans to screentime and in comic she does little but torment Spades Slick constantly.
    • Doc Scratch taking over the story has also been met with dislike, though that faded mostly as it progressed to a more normal story
    • All of these pale before Vriska admitting feelings for John and asking him on a date.
    • With the advent of the Great SHOOSHPAPPING of 2011, the fandom is divided over Gamzee and the fate he deserves.
    • Roxy is a more recent example. Some see her as an Ensemble Darkhorse for some of her drinking moments. Some find the underaged drinking not so funny.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: During the Act 4 finale, we see Jack slaughtering the white and black armies and smashing Skaia and Prospit's moon together. Then we have a quick Squiddles! clip.

Voiceover: I just had a friendship aneurysm!

    • Later, and completely apropos of nothing, a Vriska-manipul8ted Hussie rides Falcor (with rapidly cycling pool-ball eyes, no less), who barfs on some bullies.
    • And then he does something even more ridiculous.
      • These authorial inserts are parodying the fan reactions to the events prior, see Creator Backlash below for more information. Given proper context in that sense, they are not this trope but to a reader not aware of the fandom at large, they are indeed. Another example would probably be the out of nowhere Tavros and Gamzee rap battle late in Act 5, which is Andrew's nod to them being a popular pairing. A lot of the story is shaped by what the fandom does and thinks, so not knowing that entirely or being a fan disconnected from the fandom can cause some moments to be rather odd.
  • Canon Defilement: John directly told Karkat he wasn't interested in him or any guy for that matter. John/Karkat and John/Dave remain some of the most popular ships in the fandom. Some fanfics will often have John say his previous "not a homosexual" was just a prank.
    • Any flushed[3] or caliginous[4] ships pairing Kanaya with a guy.
    • Double Standard: Related to the above. Shipping Kanaya with a guy is a good way to start a Flame War; shipping John with a guy is done by a large chunk of the fandom.
      • There's a long discussion about this one in the Headscratchers page, but to discuss it here further is Flame Bait.
    • The common fan interpretation of Gamzee having abandonment issues. It disregards that Terezi never had a lusus until shortly before the comic, Gamzee's problems stemming from underlying mental problems, and the seagoat lusus shown in the B2 Universe being Ax Crazy. Not to mention the fact that Gamzee had his lususprite around during his adventures for a month solid before he went nuts, which was clearly triggered by ICP.
  • Crack Pairing: Too many to list. There are multiple [dead link] fanart threads [dead link] dedicated to all the other crack pairings, and the author himself has drawn [dead link] Colonel Sassacre/Lil' Cal.
  • Creator Backlash: Andrew is doing the story however he feels is best, and occasionally his attacks on the fandom in the comic itself can be seen as childish and crude.[5]
  • Creator Worship: Andrew has mentioned that people are beginning to recognize him in public and apparently doesn't wear MSPA merch outside of cons anymore so they specifically don't. Online, criticizing the Hussiah in some circles is tantamount to painting an enormous target on your back.
    • One more good-natured and universal idea, however, is a respect of Andrew's decisions, as Homestuck is ultimately a grand experiment for him, and so certain things like Vriska being an intentional scrappy are justified as him exploring the reception of characters.
  • Creator's Pet: Vriska again. She even develops a romance with John and is more important than Karkat, the designated main troll character. Also gets a sequence where Doc admits that she stood a fair chance at defeating Jack Noir, ie the man who blows up planets for fun. If that doesn't cry overpowered, nothing does. As with most things involving Hussie, this was intentional.
  • Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: Act 5 Part 2 just keeps getting bleaker and bleaker to the point where some fans just don't want to follow it anymore.
    • Fortunately It Gets Better as the rest of the human kids ascend to god tier, Jade using her new powers to save all the planets and their inhabitants in the kids' session from the Scratch, and there seems to be no more troll deaths.
    • Then Act 6 comes around. Sure, there's some lulls in the seriousness of the act, but given all that has happened so far, it's not hard to see people stop reading it post-Act 5 Part 2.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Jack gets this. A lot.
    • The same goes for Eridan. Ironic when you consider who he looks like, isn't it?
    • Gamzee gets a bit of this treatment as well.
      • Gamzee and Eridan at least have the excuse of being mentally unstable or outright insane. Jack however takes malicious glee in his kills and is completely sane, and yet fan depictions often play up his adorable doggy-ness or say he's not all that bad.
    • Actually, the number of Eridan fangirls who bend over to excuse him for going in a rampage and killing Feferi is staggering. Specially considering that many of them bash the crap out of Feferi and call her "bitch", "slut" and "shellfish" acknowledging that her and Eridan's moirail relationship wasn't the best for her, and breaking it off. She did offer Eridan to be her friend, which is frankly rather good considering how things were, but he still killed her. Nice Guy (TM) syndrome at its finest.
    • Whenever Vriska isn't labelled as The Scrappy, she gets a surprising amount of this trope. To the level of Jack and Gamzee.
  • Dude, Not Funny: There are several characters that die. Andrew plays this a few times for comedy and uses SBaHJ quotes.
    • The quote in question, regarding Kanaya's death, makes a lot more sense when she comes back as a Rainbowdrinker.
    • Gamzee's murders are the ones most often accused of this, as Andrew whiplashes between comedy and horrific images, such as using a SBAHJified Gamzee turning to face Nepeta immediately after having strangled Equius.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Now divided by section!
    • Dave is easily the most popular Kid, though John is also fairly popular. Jade tends to alternate between being The Scrappy and an Ensemble Darkhorse because of her Parody Sue nature while Rose is consistently not very popular.
    • Sentryworm, FedoraFreak, Ms. Paint, Secret Wizard and Crumplehat out of miscellaneous characters.
    • Bro is the most popular Guardian, and Karkat's lusus is the most popular lusi.
    • The trolls receive a vastly disproportionate amount of fanart compared to their amount of featured time. Probably because they expanded the main cast by 300%, are all sorts of messed up, have a system of romance which allows people to remain technically monogamous while simultaneously being paired with multiple people, and have no concept of gender-specific sexuality. Or because they're an in-canon Sailor Earth, with their own session of Sburb (or Sgrub, rather).
      • And even among the trolls, one character stands above all the others in terms of fan-love-to-appearances, thanks in large part to a simple comment made by Hussie himself. To wit: "There are major characters, and there are minor ones. If you're waiting for me to fire up NEPETAQUEST 2011, don't hold your breath." The end result? At least two major Nepetaquest fan projects underway, and Nepeta probably has more art of her extant than any other individual troll.
      • Prior to the actual naming of trolls and their arc, GC or Terezi as she's known now was by far the most popular troll. She's actually The Scrappy now, having become the Straight Man and shed a lot of her original characterization.
      • Eridan remains very popular in some circles long after his death, whereas some other characters like Tavros and Equius have been almost completely forgotten, being remembered only by virtue of interacting with Vriska and Nepeta respectively.
      • Aradia is pretty popular as well.
    • Andrew indicated that The Felt were just one shot characters without any real personalities to speak of, but that hasn't stopped the fans from loving these guys to death. Even more telling is the fact that while we're supposed to root for the Midnight Crew, most fans felt sorry whenever a Felt member was killed off. Clover in particular gets a lot of love.
      • This is possibly the reason for Doc Scratch and Lord English taking such a focal role towards the end of Act 5.
    • The original Ensemble Darkhorses were the Exiles, all of them at one time, but most especially PM.
      • Their deaths brought about an outpouring of sympathy, and PM rocketed up in popularity.
      • WV is still massively popular as well, though the fact that he's Plucky Comic Relief keeps him from widespread popularity.
    • Lets not forget the cheers that erupted when the Midnight Crew showed up officially.
    • Calmasis is very popular compared to their relevance in the story (i.e., none).
    • Squarewave and Sawtooth became very popular pretty rapidly.
    • Aranea and Meenah are very popular.
    • Roxy is popular even amongst those who dislike the B2 Kids, for being the only one to really differentiate her personality from her alternates.
  • Epileptic Trees: Fan theories about Doc Scratch's identity when he was just known as "White Text Guy" ranged everywhere from Lord English, to a thirteenth troll, to Bec, to an Obfuscating Stupidity Karkat.
    • The WMG pages are huge. It's safe to say Homestuck inspires a lot of theories.
    • Dave Strider is the in-universe author of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, and the comics often allude to events in Homestuck. So whenever a new SBaHJ comic comes out, there are a lot of crazy theories about what it might be foreshadowing.|
  • Fan Community Nicknames: Either Homestuckers or more and more commonly just "a Homestuck", as in "John is a Homestuck and keeps F5ing the main page".
  • Fan Sequel: 'Homestuck^2 is arguably this despite it being the official sequal to Homestuck since it was written by fans.
  • Fandom Rivalry: With Axis Powers Hetalia.
    • As well as with My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic.
      • What. Why?
      • Slash ships mostly for the first, both coming to prominence on 4chan at the same time for the second.
      • Dirk turning out to be a brony and My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic becoming somewhat less prominent reduced the fandom fighting on that front, and the Hetalia rivalry reached its zenith in December '11 with fans (or Funimation; it was never conclusively proved one way or the other) ironically buying adspace for it on MSPA before realizing the whole thing was somewhat stupid to begin with.
  • Fountain of Memes
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: All. The. Time. If TV Tropes had individual pages for this trope, Homestuck would be one of the first to get one.
  • Genius Bonus: Feferi's AQUATIC HOOFBEASTS are an actual Greek mythological creature called the Hippocampus. Later, she does many important things in the Land of Brains and Fire.
    • Aradia's land, Quartz and Melody, initially seems to be unrelated to time. However, the piezoelectric effect keeps clocks with quartz crystals running regularly.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: WV's messing around with can chessboard becomes pretty damn sad once you see what happened the last time he tried to lead an army.
    • In Dave: Answer Gamzee, Gamzee saying that he hasn't had a good pie in a while takes on new significance after he does his acrobatic fucking pirouette off the handle.
      • The contents of Dad's wallet are revealed to be a ton of shaving cream, which is presented as comedic. Just before [S] Cascade, the Courtyard Droll returns with the shaving cream and uses it to kill Jade.
      • Beta!Dad's Doting Parent routine is a bit saddening when you consider what John's surrounded by.
    • Aradia's snarky line about how Karkat should just keep listening to his self-destructive, angry impulses gets much worse when you find out later from Karkat that many if not most of the Aradiabots from doomed timelines came about because of hasty decisions on his part. In other words, a lot of her snark towards Karkat came because she got to see herself (and her friends) die over and over again because of him.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: This video came out about six months before the Felt album, though the former is jazz.
  • HSQ: An upper limit has yet to be found regarding this and Homestuck. If you see an animation marked with [S], you might as well leave your jaw on the floor.
  • Hype Aversion/Backlash
  • I Knew It!: The heavily reader-driven nature of the work causes this to happen a lot. "90% of calling it, is really influencing it in disguise."
  • Internet Backdraft: There was a contained but impressive one of these on the forums when it was revealed that Vriska had been behind Bec's prototyping and indeed, the creation of Bec himself. The comic's designated chat thread reached 100 pages in just over 16 hours.
  • It Gets Better: The beginning with John floundering about in his room is starkly different from the later parts of the comic. In fact, each Act can basically be considered a somewhat different style of story, as by the time of Act 5, the plot has become incredibly convoluted, confusing, and dramatic.Fans of Problem Sleuth have been a bit put off by the drastic change in style. Note that it has been stated the slow beginning of Homestuck was intentional.
  • Jumping the Shark: Specifically perhaps with the introduction of Vriska, an up to then unseen character who unlike the other trolls who had appeared as far back as Act 3, immediately became a focal point of the plot and a deliberate exercise in annoying the fandom. It succeeded.
  • Just Here For The Trolls: A large portion of the fanbase.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Due to the fandom's tendency to relentlessly ship everyone with everyone, the entire main cast could be classified as a launcher. This is especially true for the Trolls who are almost universally bisexual. Then there's kismesis, which opens up a lot of options.
  • The Law of Fan Jackassery: Served as a good example of a peak recently. Andrew became increasingly defensive and the forums adjusted poorly simply because the fandom had yet to start reaching relatively mainstream status, but had more than quadrupled in under a few months. As of more recently however, it seems to have passed over the hump.
  • Mood Whiplash: Also has it's own page now
  • Narm: Some feel this way about the line I THINK I GAVE HIM CANCER.
    • Karkat tends to attract Narm whenever he acts serious and remorseful, mostly because it's relatively rare and he's bad at it.
    • Though that may also be from the way works like Robot Chicken and Family Guy have desensitized audiences to the word cancer. In a charity commercial begging for research funds, references to cancer are usually viewed as heartbreaking; in a webcomic prone to silliness, it's more likely to be Played for Laughs (which in this case it wasn't, but the expectation totally ruined the effect).
  • Nightmare Retardant: With the Troll killing arc, Hussie is trying to have have both comedy and horror at once. It doesn't really work that way.
    • Andrew can really not draw dead people. They have goofy looking faces.
      • He's picked up on this and future deaths have all had people's faces off panel or face down.
  • Paranoia Fuel: John, Rose, and Dave have graffiti scrawled all over their walls... that they put there themselves but their mind won't let them perceive it. How do you know the same hasn't happened to you?
    • This update, directed to Karkat.
    • Also the Scratch hard reset function. Resets the entire universe so you can try again, but you have no memory of it at all and probably died in the process of resetting the first time. And you would never know. Never.
      • Or you might slowly regain your memories and be ostracized from society for it.
  • Ron the Death Eater: Sometimes happens in fanfic and fan art, the authors and artists generally seem to be going for Crosses the Line Twice comedy, True Art Is Angsty drama or exploring Alternate Character Interpretation.
  • The Scrappy: Vriska has more fan-hatred directed towards her than any other character in the comic. "Everybody hates Vriska" has become a Running Gag among forum users. This being Homestuck, it's an Invoked Trope by Andrew.
    • There are a number of readers who consider Andrew's self-insert interludes an unwelcome and self-indulgent distraction from the strip's drama, or even personal attacks.
    • Some other characters include Snowman (for doing nothing but antagonize Slick and being loved for it), Gamzee (for his murder spree), and Jack Noir (for decaying into a Generic Doomsday Villain)
    • Virtually nobody in the fandom liked Kanaya's portrait in "Past Karkat: Wake Up", and it was changed completely to a much better received portrait in a future walkaround.
    • There was an immediate negative response from some to Roxy's character glorifying teenage drinking. At the same time, many consider her to be their favorite post-Scratch kid.
      • Many find the B2 Kids in general to do little to differentiate themselves from their alternates. Dirk is somewhat different from Dave, while Roxy is completely different from Rose, but Jane and Jake heavily resemble John and Jade, making them somewhat unpopular for that.
    • Tavrisprite is an outright Squick mine and was immediately seen by many to be Gamzee's Moral Event Horizon. Not to mention Vriska and Tavros were rather divisive in the first place.
      • However, this might have been an intentional example. It's interpreted that Tavrisprite's existence was a Take That to those wanting Tavros and/or Vriska to be revived. And boy what a Take That.
    • WQ gets some dislike for being a Flat Character Ojou Chessmaster who does basically nothing else.
  • Serious Business: Shipping. Fans can get pretty opinionated about the nature of the quadrants (how much is nature and how much is nurture) and the feasibility of healthy troll-human romance in various quadrants. At one extreme, some fans insist that human-troll pairings could work in any quadrant, at the other extrime, some fans insist that human / troll are doomed due to psychological differences, even in the flushed quadrant.
  • Ship Mates: There are two major shipping "love quadrilaterals" that break down into handy complementary pairs: John, Rose, Kanaya and Vriska (which can be broken down into John/Rose and Kanaya/Vriska, or John/Vriska and Rose/Kanaya) and Dave, Jade, Karkat and Terezi (which can be broken down into Dave/Jade and Karkat/Terezi, or Dave/Terezi and Jade/Karkat). For added fun, Tavros can be a "fifth wheel" in either of these pairs of pairings (typically with either Vriska or Jade).
    • To add to the complexity John and Karkat cross from one "set" and create a whole mess of ships.
  • Squick: Jade's grandfather collected the corpse of her dream self... and stuffed it. Okay, it's a family tradition, but still. Strangely enough, that also served as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming for some.
    • Apparently, Jade did the same to him too. As a toddler.
      • Another one. Jade and John's parents are genetically not related, but were raised as brother and sister, so in a sense it could be considered incest, although they had no knowledge of it or ability to stop it.
      • Gamzee apparently ate part of Tavros's corpse. Or made out with his severed head.
        • It's also quite possible that he kissed it in an attempt to bring Tavros back via dreamself, failed, and promptly went insane. This doubles as a Tear Jerker and Fridge Horror when you start to wonder how it was that Tavros wound up decapitated...
      • The "Daddy Droog" fanon raises the question if those fans really got the point of Droog smoking after watching Aradia beat Vriska to death; and it's not even a debatable thing, because his Porn Stash is right there in his hands at the same time.
    • Spades Slick isn't actually dead, and Andrew Hussie is nursing him back to health after making him a cyborg. No problem. He is nursing him back to health with milk "fresh from the Butler's teat". Probable image of the butler in question.
  • Strangled by the Red String: John and Vriska both in regards to one another; it's hard to imagine the John in earlier Acts being okay with a serial killer crushing on him, and likewise up until she started talking to John, Vriska had few to no redeeming qualities.
    • Later updates have him realize that it was ridiculous of him to even have considered her as a romantic possibility, both because they had only known each other for a day and because of the aforementioned serial-killing.
    • Likewise Gamzee slightly in relation to Tavros. Not even mentioned before the very late stages of Act 5, and thereafter seems to be obsessed with him.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: The Squiddles album.
    • Averted with Let The Squiddles Sleep.
      • But the first part is cute...
      • Also plays the trope straight in that it is one of the least popular albums.
  • Ugly Cute: The trolls when they aren't downright adorable.
    • Double for their grub stage, which looks exactly like you would think only ADORABLE.
  • Uncanny Valley: Characters are depicted either in miniature form (stylistically depicted without arms) or a more realistic 'Hero Mode'. What happens when you have Hero Mode with the miniature form's stubby feet and no arms? You get this.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Troll romance can be interpreted as this, especially Kismesis couples that can involve abuse from both sides. Justifiable, in that they're aliens.
    • John and Jade have been seen by many to be Asian sterotypes, but this more or less died down with the revelation that they are not genetically related to any other humans other than their parents.
    • The heavy emphasis on shipping and erotic art of 13 year olds by the fandom is somewhat awkward.
    • Doc Scratch holding Aradia's ancestor The Handmaid hostage can be chock full of this if you read his chatlogs with Rose.
      • He even dresses her, cuts off her "furniture privelages", beats her, and she's already been shown to try to commit suicide once. It's not subtle at all. It Eventually receives a Lampshade Hanging from Hussie's Author Avatar.

Hussie: He's keeping little girls locked up in weird rooms, and rambling about troll ancestors. I just know it.

  • Win Back the Crowd: Kanaya's absolutely awesome return was a welcome turn from the grimdark of then recent developments, and the fanbase reacted in kind.
    • Arguably Hussie himself with his 4/13/11 news update, showing that he does care about the fans, even if several panels are dedicated to trolling them.
      • And again with Doc Scratch suddenly interrupting the story and deciding to move things along after a months long stretch of nothing happening.
      • And with the fans who disliked his story telling or the [o]termission cheered as Andrew Hussie burst out of his study to start strangling Doc Scratch.

> Go Back

  1. ↑ There have been a few small goofs in art and timelogs, but aside from that he's been pretty much perfect about plot holes.
  2. ↑ Indeed the first thing Eridan does after being officially introduced is murder a lusus
  3. ↑ the closest thing trolls have to human romance
  4. ↑ the closest thing trolls have to Foe Yay
  5. ↑ A good example: Andrew made an over-dramatic self-insert mourning the loss of Rufio from the movie Hook, in response to the reaction about the deaths of Kanaya (who got better), Feferi, and Tavros.
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