Homestuck, Act 6 Act 6

Homestuck Webcomic #19, Part 0 of 11

by Andrew Hussie

Genres: Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Webcomic

1842 pages, ebook

First published April 6, 2016

About the author

Andrew Hussie is the creator of MS Paint Adventures, a collection of webcomics that includes Homestuck, as well as of several other webcomics, books, and videos.

Reviews

[Rowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

God damn it, when Homestuck is bad it is SO BAD, and when Homestuck is good it is SO GOOD.

This Act was fucking impossible to rate, because it starts out ATROCIOUS. There's such a cynicism to the tone - the characters are at their worst, and caring about any of them is lame, actually. It's a parade of bad to worse that wants you to be miserable the whole time you're reading, and isn't even really giving you anything that funny to cling to.

AND THEN [s] Game Over. Fucking Yikes.

That bitch dropped in the middle of my birthday party when it first came out, and all the friends I had over at the time were ALSO big into HS, so that was. Man. A Fucking Experience.

What a jarring beat to put in the story, and I get the clear analogy to Murderstuck, but man Murderstuck was like.... 99% characters who were very clearly side-characters from the beginning. Watching the core cast die one after another is harrowing.

But it's okay! We'll just retcon so none of the bullshit you spent the last what, thousand or so pages reading even mattered! Yay! Wheeeee!!! Time for HS to REALLY dig into my absolute LEAST favourite of its recurring themes; Vriska Saves The Day.

One of the only redeeming factors up to this point for me had been that dead-Vriska was actually... starting to take some ownership of her shit and mellow out. I still didn't like her, but she was like.... getting somewhere. But nope, apparently the moral of the story is that Vriska saves the day by being self-important and getting in everyone's business and making it All About Her, which. Cool. Great. Cool. Love that this is how a character who got her start relentlessly bullying her disabled "friends" who she was responsible for disabling winds up. Cool. Yeah. Okay.

But then, much as I hate to say it, things DO really pick up. This act was heading for 2 stars before that last section. I think Act 6 overall is just... mis-ordered. There's so much goodwill burned early on while readers who've been looking forward to these reunions are being teased and denied and punished for having that desire... and then when it finally does come and is really good, it all feels like too little too late, crammed in awkwardly where it doesn't fit. That is, if you make it there - I know several people who dropped off during A6A6 especially around [s] Game Over, and I don't blame them at all. All the payoff that should have been spread through the act is crammed right at the very end.

But god damn, that payoff is good. There's so much character shit in those final conversations that we'd been waiting for for so long, and the only thing wrong with any of it is that it doesn't have enough room to breathe. (Okay, and also that Vriska's there, but that's personal preference I guess.) All of these conversations and meetings and reunions could have been so much deeper and more nuanced if half this act hadn't been spent making the characters miserable and then dicking around and eventually killing all of them. There's some really good stuff here, but it's just squished in in such an awkward way to make way for a bunch of pointless garbage beforehand that winds up having almost no actual ramifications at all.

OTOH - man, I had forgotten how much fucking ASS [s] Collide kicks. An EIGHTEEN MINUTE FLASH>??!?!?!? god fucking damn. Jesus christ.

Also - Davepetasprite^2 = best character in homestuck

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am confused.
Not really by Homestuck but, by Goodreads.
Is this suppose to be all of Homestuck Act 6 Act 6, or is it just that little bit where Caliborn plays the piano/the little bit before Homosuck starts?
I think it's the little bit where Caliborn plays the piano, but that doesn't really make sense, cause Goodreads says it's 1842 pages long. Maybe the piano bit is just super long. I don't know. I'm just gonna leave it like this and hopefully not think about/question this anymore.

[Ale✝ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A MESS.

HUGE.

TERRIBLE.

AMAZING.

JUST TRASH.

JUST FEELS.

HOMESTUCK.

Im scared of tomorrow.