You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
I thought it sounded like Mandy too, though I thought I heard Azula in there as well.
Unrelatedly: Should I catch up on Homestuck? I stopped after the very beginning of Act 6, whenever the hell that was.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Well, I was looking for something to do while Tumblr's out of commission anyway...
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Truth be told, I actually don't like the last two video game entries because it makes me waste time running around and doing some basic puzzle shit to move the story along.
That being said, some people have done runs on Youtube, and I found I could turn the volume off on my PC and just fast forward to all the dialogue and read that, so that helped.
Other than that, Act 6 has been a blast, and probably one of the funniest arks of the whole series, but there are some pretty awesome flash videos, and I actually mean "I was filled with a sense of awe". The one with Caliborn is a thing of beauty; dark, terrible, ominous beauty.
It reminded me of when Eridan showed that in addition to being this sort of goofy, pathetic kid, he could be play the dangerous, murder-happy card as well or even better than many of the characters there. Except it was like that X10.
The new trolls I'm kinda lukewarm on so far, but I'm not sure that was unintentional. Don't get me wrong, Arena and Meenah are pretty well developed, but the others seem pretty one-note. Still, I think that might lend to some interesting relationships between the Beta Trolls and their Alpha counterparts.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Also, so far, this is my favorite part of the interview linked above:
O'MALLEY: You obviously have been working on Homestuck nonstop for, like, a pretty long time now. How do you make your money? When did you start making enough to get by? For me there was a pretty specific window of time where it switched over from being "this is sh***y" to "this is OK now," but it was to do with books and royalties and suddenly having enough books in print (four Scott Pilgrims) for the math to finally be in my favor. I don't know what the equivalent is for a Web Person, so I wonder.
HUSSIE: I've been entirely supported by MSPA since, I guess, the latter half of Problem Sleuth, though things were still pretty lean back then and stayed that way for the first year or two of Homestuck. I don't think it ever crossed my mind to think "this is sh***y" because I was totally used to living that way forever, and I thought it was totally cool being able to make "free money" with internet ads, which stayed as the biggest source of revenue for a good while (it's now easily the smallest, though). But there was definitely a moment where it crossed the line and became "this is definitely far from sh***y" and that was also the critical fan spike I mentioned earlier, introducing the trolls. I was still underestimating the profitability brewing under the surface, though. I had the idea to make the zodiac shirts but thought it would be a pretty niche item and didn't want to bug my usual shirt maker Topatoco with 12 new designs. So I got my own company, What Pumpkin, to make a bunch, but woefully under ordered. We had a huge amount of trouble keeping those shirts in stock and shipping out all the orders for like a solid year after that. That's pretty much been the story of all merch since then; constantly underestimating steadily growing demand. It was that way with the early runs of the god tier stuff too.
I seem to have this knack for falling totally ass backwards into highly marketable ideas, like the troll zodiac symbols. It really seems like such a money making scam when you look at it. Like, taking these icons that have been around forever, give them all one color which is easy and cheap to print on a simple black shirt, associate them with some distinctive characters, and also the zodiac which people can intrinsically identify with (having a "patron troll") then just slap it on a bunch of merch and rake in the dough. The god tier stuff also felt that way, 12 nice colorful icons, also associated with particular characters, special powers etc., and canonically associated with a particular garment, a hoodie (i.e. godhood), so any cynical observer looks at it and can say, "Heh, look what bulls*** Hussie cooked up to sell hoodies." But honestly this is always accidental. The ideas always just seemed cool to me, filling out the zodiac with troll characters, fleshing out the full god tier system and such. I've never actually put anything in the story to sell anything. But throughout the entire ride, every time I turn around, I'm saying, "Oh, whoops. Guess I gotta sell that now."
When I started selling books, that also really kicked up the revenue. And like you said, it starts stacking up with more books out. I have five out now and that's really adding up, and I'm barely even scratching the surface of publishable content. Homestuck could have 10 books alone, probably more. This is another one of those "completely accidental moves of merchandising genius" on my part. Making a type of story that is produced so quickly, that I can put out in a few years the same number of books that might take someone else a decade to stockpile. I very rarely have a palpable sense of how much work I've actually done over the last few years until I'm sizing up the book project. Then, once the magnitude of the bookmaking job begins to sink in, I start muttering, "Oh my god, what have I done..."
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Also, probably relevant to various discussions on the fora:
It also bears mentioning that one thing I think Homestuck has always done is take marginalized internet cultures that most people think are icky or incomprehensible or just completely laughable, and sort of humanize those things. Or at least, slowly bring people around on those things, where they stop being viewed as completely absurd or untouchable, and become sort of insidiously normalized in spite of everyone's best efforts to keep that stuff on the fringe where it belongs. Like, people who've been reading through its entire run, at the beginning most of them would have decried shipping as something beneath rational consideration, something only teen girl anime fans bother even mentioning. But over time I noticed a lot of those people started gradually being "converted," and now so many people who were once perfectly respectable from an internet culture standpoint, seem to freely engage in discussions about shipping, using all the terms and actually seriously evaluate hypothetical ships.
The same thing kind of happened with juggalo culture. Earlier juggalos and their ways were seen as a complete joke, and early references to them in Homestuck seemed like a gimmick designed to slam Insane Clown Posse while accomplishing little else. But Homestuck just kept riding juggalo humor so persistently, and to certain extent so sincerely, that the Homestuck fandom now encompasses a legitimate sectarian offshoot of juggalo culture. The ICP lexicon, clown makeup, Faygo, all that silly bulls*** is arguably as much a part of Homestuck culture as it a part of the actual juggalo culture it's supposedly mocking. Though if you look closely, it hardly resembles mockery anymore.
That's more or less the lesson that I think you're supposed to take from the internet, or even life in general. You can't have as good of an understanding of things if you're in denial of all the silly and obnoxious shit people do, so you might as well just try to find the humor in it. If you take it all too seriously, you just get consumed by rage.
I like Hussie's descriptions of the new trolls. Especially admitting that Cronus is pretty much the worst character ever. I mean, why smoosh together Johnny Bravo and Strong Sad? It's as unresolvable as Vriska and Tavros. :P
Also, apparently these three games took about as much effort to put together as [S] Cascade did. That's pretty amazing.
There's something really off about Damara for me. Just, in general.
Part of it's just that she looks like a stereotypical Chinese girl (it's more emphasized in the Handmaiden, but you can still see it in the hairstyle and whatnot) and talks in Japanese. It's inconsistent.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I got the impression that Hussie sort of didn't want to bother with new trolls at all, so (with the exception of Meenah) he intentionally made them pretty 1(or 1.5 as he mentioned) dimensional. Or perhaps, he didn't care to give them any more depth...or width.
Yep, it looks like Damara's becoming one of my least favorite alpha trolls, if not one of the least favorite characters in Homestuck. Not quite at Cronus level, but it wouldn't take much digging to get there.
SPOILERS, of course.
Here's what I've noted as 'troublesome' so far: - The aforementioned cultural discrepancy between her appearance and language, as well as the emphasis. Pretty much everything about her can be nailed down to an Asian stereotype, right down to the backstory (see Yandere) - The fact that she's kind of a boringly bad person, backstory aside. Sure, Kurloz was evil, but he had a reveal that shocked pretty much everyone. Even Cronus was unique in the sheer level of his jerkocity...and his being a greaserkin. She's just kind of bland compared to those two. - This isn't to say that there aren't other bland characters. Meulin, Latula and Mituna are all pretty flat. But they all have the decency to be likable (even Mituna; a little bit). - Her very existence is going to cause arguments about the whole "everybody's the race that you want them to be" thing. I don't want to be near the fallout when someone decides to do a non-Asian, non-White version of Damara. - She's already causing arguments about whether or not her actions post-trauma are justified by what happened pre-trauma. - Her theme's Rust Maid. I listen to that song semi-regularly, and hearing it in the flash just bugs me. This isn't really a complaint against Damara; it's just a personal thing. - Her face. It's drawn differently than everybody else's and it freaks me out. That and the engrish.
...I was going to write something else, but I ran out of vitriol. Figures. My vitriol mileage is pretty freaking terrible.
Anyways, counterpoints to my argument. The backstory's not too bad. Makes her out to be the victim, which'll net her a good amount of fans, but it's too late in the story. By that point, a good number of people will have already formed their perception of her. And she does appear to care about Rufioh, as is standard for a Yandere. There's just enough to create personality to create some depth to her. Buuuuut, most of that's from Serket's explanation instead of the character herself, creating a disconnect. I was told of a nice little foreign girl who got pushed too far; what I saw was a sex-crazed qipao demon.
Also, I have minimal problems with her broken English. I'm pretty sure she was invoking that on purpose in order to seem innocent, so that gets a pass. Still freaky.
Yeah, it seems like Hussie went to pains to make Damara as horrible as possible. While I still think Cronus is worse, man, that translation was hard to read. :P
As for the shallow characterization...it's been hinted at since the end of Act 5 that the pre-scratch trolls basically sucked at everything, but we never really saw just how much they sucked until now. So I'm willing to live with it, in that respect. Aranea and Meenah are well-done, Rufioh is much cooler than Tavros, and I also like Porrim, Latula and even Mituna (though I'm not sure how much the latter is genuinely liking him or just feeling sorry for him), but the rest? Uggggggggh. I bet they all die again in the big battle, if not sooner. :P
Well, I guess I was right to be kind of weirded out by Damara just a little last night. I didn't read the translations yet (I'm at school and Tumblr is blocked) but I don't even know if I really wanna.
As for the rest of the trolls, I like the majority of them (Cronus and Damara notwithstanding, and Kankri gets on my nerves occasionally but that's the point), but I can understand why some of us think they're a bit flat; overall most of them could use a bit more substance but I'd give them a bit more time in the spotlight before jumping to anything.
Latula FTW though. Like seriously, even if she stays "flat" I'll still like her.
I think maybe we're judging them a little bit too quickly. We haven't seen all that much of them yet.
Besides, Homestuck has like, what, at least fifty important characters? The fact that any of them have been as well developed as they are is pretty astounding.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
I noticed otherkin tendencies are a bit more common in the Alpha trolls. Cronus seems like a pretty obvious "take that" at troll otherkin, but I'm wondering if Horus was a similar jab or just a convenient way to make him worse than Equius and more excuses to have Kankri show up.
I ran Damara's stuff through Google translate and was actually pretty entertained. Pretty risqué (I'm sure this surprises no one) but amusing. It's not just with Huros either, though he has it wosre (or better) than Meenah.
Comments
YES
YES
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
INDEED.
I mean, cool.
I should actually 8e screaming a8out Gamzee or something instead. ::::P
what kind of a question is that
Also, update. John looks so confused...
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
HUSSIE: I've been entirely supported by MSPA since, I guess, the latter half of Problem Sleuth, though things were still pretty lean back then and stayed that way for the first year or two of Homestuck. I don't think it ever crossed my mind to think "this is sh***y" because I was totally used to living that way forever, and I thought it was totally cool being able to make "free money" with internet ads, which stayed as the biggest source of revenue for a good while (it's now easily the smallest, though). But there was definitely a moment where it crossed the line and became "this is definitely far from sh***y" and that was also the critical fan spike I mentioned earlier, introducing the trolls. I was still underestimating the profitability brewing under the surface, though. I had the idea to make the zodiac shirts but thought it would be a pretty niche item and didn't want to bug my usual shirt maker Topatoco with 12 new designs. So I got my own company, What Pumpkin, to make a bunch, but woefully under ordered. We had a huge amount of trouble keeping those shirts in stock and shipping out all the orders for like a solid year after that. That's pretty much been the story of all merch since then; constantly underestimating steadily growing demand. It was that way with the early runs of the god tier stuff too.
I seem to have this knack for falling totally ass backwards into highly marketable ideas, like the troll zodiac symbols. It really seems like such a money making scam when you look at it. Like, taking these icons that have been around forever, give them all one color which is easy and cheap to print on a simple black shirt, associate them with some distinctive characters, and also the zodiac which people can intrinsically identify with (having a "patron troll") then just slap it on a bunch of merch and rake in the dough. The god tier stuff also felt that way, 12 nice colorful icons, also associated with particular characters, special powers etc., and canonically associated with a particular garment, a hoodie (i.e. godhood), so any cynical observer looks at it and can say, "Heh, look what bulls*** Hussie cooked up to sell hoodies." But honestly this is always accidental. The ideas always just seemed cool to me, filling out the zodiac with troll characters, fleshing out the full god tier system and such. I've never actually put anything in the story to sell anything. But throughout the entire ride, every time I turn around, I'm saying, "Oh, whoops. Guess I gotta sell that now."
When I started selling books, that also really kicked up the revenue. And like you said, it starts stacking up with more books out. I have five out now and that's really adding up, and I'm barely even scratching the surface of publishable content. Homestuck could have 10 books alone, probably more. This is another one of those "completely accidental moves of merchandising genius" on my part. Making a type of story that is produced so quickly, that I can put out in a few years the same number of books that might take someone else a decade to stockpile. I very rarely have a palpable sense of how much work I've actually done over the last few years until I'm sizing up the book project. Then, once the magnitude of the bookmaking job begins to sink in, I start muttering, "Oh my god, what have I done..."
Read More: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/10/02/homestuck-interview-andrew-hussie-bryan-lee-omalley-ms-paint-adventures/#ixzz28XVMgy4w
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
The same thing kind of happened with juggalo culture. Earlier juggalos and their ways were seen as a complete joke, and early references to them in Homestuck seemed like a gimmick designed to slam Insane Clown Posse while accomplishing little else. But Homestuck just kept riding juggalo humor so persistently, and to certain extent so sincerely, that the Homestuck fandom now encompasses a legitimate sectarian offshoot of juggalo culture. The ICP lexicon, clown makeup, Faygo, all that silly bulls*** is arguably as much a part of Homestuck culture as it a part of the actual juggalo culture it's supposedly mocking. Though if you look closely, it hardly resembles mockery anymore.
Read More: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/10/02/homestuck-interview-andrew-hussie-bryan-lee-omalley-ms-paint-adventures/#ixzz28XksSCcL
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Tavros is being a douche, which is actually kind of sad.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Not as good as her Vriska, but still pretty good.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Technically. Site's going through mega-update slowdown.
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Part of it's just that she looks like a stereotypical Chinese girl (it's more emphasized in the Handmaiden, but you can still see it in the hairstyle and whatnot) and talks in Japanese. It's inconsistent.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
SPOILERS, of course.
Here's what I've noted as 'troublesome' so far:
- The aforementioned cultural discrepancy between her appearance and language, as well as the emphasis. Pretty much everything about her can be nailed down to an Asian stereotype, right down to the backstory (see Yandere)
- The fact that she's kind of a boringly bad person, backstory aside. Sure, Kurloz was evil, but he had a reveal that shocked pretty much everyone. Even Cronus was unique in the sheer level of his jerkocity...and his being a greaserkin. She's just kind of bland compared to those two.
- This isn't to say that there aren't other bland characters. Meulin, Latula and Mituna are all pretty flat. But they all have the decency to be likable (even Mituna; a little bit).
- Her very existence is going to cause arguments about the whole "everybody's the race that you want them to be" thing. I don't want to be near the fallout when someone decides to do a non-Asian, non-White version of Damara.
- She's already causing arguments about whether or not her actions post-trauma are justified by what happened pre-trauma.
- Her theme's Rust Maid. I listen to that song semi-regularly, and hearing it in the flash just bugs me. This isn't really a complaint against Damara; it's just a personal thing.
- Her face. It's drawn differently than everybody else's and it freaks me out. That and the engrish.
...I was going to write something else, but I ran out of vitriol. Figures. My vitriol mileage is pretty freaking terrible.
Anyways, counterpoints to my argument. The backstory's not too bad. Makes her out to be the victim, which'll net her a good amount of fans, but it's too late in the story. By that point, a good number of people will have already formed their perception of her. And she does appear to care about Rufioh, as is standard for a Yandere. There's just enough to create personality to create some depth to her. Buuuuut, most of that's from Serket's explanation instead of the character herself, creating a disconnect. I was told of a nice little foreign girl who got pushed too far; what I saw was a sex-crazed qipao demon.
Also, I have minimal problems with her broken English. I'm pretty sure she was invoking that on purpose in order to seem innocent, so that gets a pass. Still freaky.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
i get so angry sometimes i just punch plankton --Klinotaxis
Especially the "touching someone who is clearly uncomforta8le with it" part.
Eugh.