Confirmation on how long HS^2 will presumably be going.

[JakeMorph]

its a spinoff man it's exactly the same as rogue one being called "a star wars story". nobody's forcing anyone to tack "except rogue one" onto the end of their sentences when they say they like star wars. not everything based on homestuck should have to be exactly like homestuck. do you have the same gripes with the dating sim spinoffs, which are firmly within the homestuck brand but are nothing like the original comic?

[calamityCons]

I mean. Yes??? I don’t care about Hiveswap or the fucking army of fantrolls in Friendsim. I only vaguely pay attention to pesterquest because the characters I recognize and still kinda give a shit about are there and doing things I recognize they would do.

It is very hard to talk about Homestuck In general without also being involved in talking about its official continuation (Epilogues) and its SEQUEL, HS^2. I have no clue where you got the idea that it is a spinoff and not a sequel. Who even told you that.

Honestly the only place I can go that is willing to not give a shit about the epilogues or hs2 at all is the Intermission/Carapce fandom, and that is a subfandom on its own that inherently holds less weight than the mainstream homestuck happening on twitter

[thorondraco]

its a spinoff man it's exactly the same as rogue one being called "a star wars story". nobody's forcing anyone to tack "except rogue one" onto the end of their sentences when they say they like star wars. not everything based on homestuck should have to be exactly like homestuck. do you have the same gripes with the dating sim spinoffs, which are firmly within the homestuck brand but are nothing like the original comic?

In both a literal sense and in the in universe meta sense, Homestuck was what it was because Hussie was writing it. Now new peeps are behind homestuck stuff so, obviously, its different in how it presents itself. Different tone, direction, focus, and style. And that is okay, so long as its good, because a different author is at work now. Several even. In both the real world and in universe.

[BrobyDDark]

its a spinoff man it's exactly the same as rogue one being called "a star wars story". nobody's forcing anyone to tack "except rogue one" onto the end of their sentences when they say they like star wars. not everything based on homestuck should have to be exactly like homestuck. do you have the same gripes with the dating sim spinoffs, which are firmly within the homestuck brand but are nothing like the original comic?

But it's not "a spin-off"

It's a sequel. A direct continuation, even. Following the same characters, after the circumstances of the original webcomic. It is more comparable to the new Star Wars trilogy, than it is to Solo, Rogue One, or The Mandalorian.

Hiveswap, Friendsim, and Pesterquest are spin-offs. Homestuck2 and The Epilogues are not.

Of course I don't have the same gripe, because none of those are sequels. They don't change or effect characters I enjoyed in the originals. I can look at John Pesterquest and see no connection between him and John Homestuck, aside from them being in the same franchise and having similar personalities, appearances, and names. I look at John Homestuck and realize "oh that's right, this character fucking dies for no reason/has his life spiral out of control while his grandma becomes Hitler."

I never said Homestuck2 had to be exactly like Homestuck. What I mean is that it should live up to its title, which... So far all its done is spit in the face of that, in my opinion.

[pfeffer-29]

But it's not "a spin-off"

It's a sequel. A direct continuation, even. Following the same characters, after the circumstances of the original webcomic. It is more comparable to the new Star Wars trilogy, than it is to Solo, Rogue One, or The Mandalorian.

Hiveswap, Friendsim, and Pesterquest are spin-offs. Homestuck2 and The Epilogues are not.

Of course I don't have the same gripe, because none of those are sequels. They don't change or effect characters I enjoyed in the originals. I can look at John Pesterquest and see no connection between him and John Homestuck, aside from them being in the same franchise and having similar personalities, appearances, and names. I look at John Homestuck and realize "oh that's right, this character fucking dies for no reason/has his life spiral out of control while his grandma becomes Hitler."

I never said Homestuck2 had to be exactly like Homestuck. What I mean is that it should live up to its title, which... So far all its done is spit in the face of that, in my opinion.

This.
All the characters in Pesterquest are alternate versions of those in Homestuck proper. Their timelines diverge early enough in the story that they are, essentially, different characters. I can gripe about Terezi's and Vriska's single-interaction conflict resolution all I want, but in the end, it happened in Pesterquest, and that specific interaction (thankfully) does not affect the main versions of those characters. I could entirely ignore Pesterquest were I not so invested in our stick-figure thembo friend and their dumb companionshenanigans and some really good routes.

I can't do this with Homestuck^2 because, like BrobyDDark said, it is a direct continuation of a story which never got a proper ending anyway. Homestuck^2 and the Epilogues are canon because there is no alternative with the characters we know besides fanfiction. And if Homestuck^2 fails to satisfy a large chunk of the fandom as it is doing now, there is nothing they can do but wait and hope that it'll get better. For three to five years.

I think a step in the right direction would be for the writers to make good on their word and let more fans contribute to Homestuck^2. We could write short stories to be published with the updates or compose music to go with the panels, or even just name characters. Something like that. It would provide some support to the lofty idea of "everything is canon".
edit: spacing between paragraphs so it's not a text wall

[thorondraco]

Three-to-five years of one update a month. Wowie. What a great use of Kate's and everybody else's time and energy. Clearly a worthy successor to the modern-day epic that was Homestuck the First.

assuming an average of 24 pages a month (low estimate, the first update was 32 pages), that is a minimum of 864 pages and a maximum of 1440 pages. roughly equivalent to two to four novels, in three to five years. that is a perfectly reasonable pace and, in fact, industry standard for comic books?

We are now at the 2000 mark. Though we don't know if this means the comic will go faster or they will be able to add more to the story in general. Could be a bit of both even, going a bit faster but dciding to have some stuff to slow down the pace a bit and give some breathing room.

However i listened through the podcast a few times and ithink Kate meant that she would be done with the comic herself in 3 to 5 years once she they finish 'this arc that i care about'. Could mean that we enter another arc but Kate will want to move on from that arc herself. In the interview she says she wants to be working on her own projects eventually.