pesterquest 9.0 nepeta boongaloo

[thorondraco]

I am wondering if Bulge just refers to general genitalia at this point for trolls. However they are set up down there.

Kanaya’s return was cute but also kind of left me feeling bitter because I used to think Kanaya and Sollux were a cute ship until Kanaya was confirmed to be a lesbian

maybe sollux and kanaya are both trans. that might explain why kanaya dressed sollux up instead of dressing herself up. this is even more into "shaky headcanon territory" but there's no reason they couldn't have developed a crush on each other before they transitioned. but sollux looks like A Man so now they're this kind of close friends? huh.

yes i guess "they're trans" is somehow a solluxtion to everything. i don't know why my brain always goes in that direction. if anything, for me this mostly explains why his name is solluxander, which breaks the six letter rule. i'm very picky about pointless bullshit.

i hope someone can come up with a different explanation. personally i don't think trolls are hermaphroditic but i'd like to hear from someone who thinks they are.

IDK, it seems more like Sollux used to have hair more like Mituna and since Sollux and Gamzee ship was hinted at, maybe he dressed like Gamzee. I don't know why everything has to go to trans.

Not to mention making everyone trans also means their dancestors and ancestors also had to start off as the opposite sex.

That is really the issue i have with the idea of making Vriska a transgirl. While her personality could possibly related to gender dysphoria and the pesterquest definitely pulled from Kate's own experiences, the issue is that it would make both Aranea and Vriska ml a transgirl. And then you gotta wonder if it means you would have to turn one of the boys into a transboy cause apparently Sburb is obsessed with shipping and reproduction metaphors even when the species is not reliant on binary sexes. Then you would have to take into account the ancestors AGAIN.

It kinda just goes around and round in circles. The weird timeloop and fate stuff is honestly THE thing that messes with the idea. Vriska would be fated to be born female cause sburb created her and possible limitations to her species maybe? The whole Sign stuff seems to play a dsitinct role in their species as people who share the same signs are near genetically identical to each other. Even their horn mimic their damn sign.
I think why people keep going to transgender is because there are so very few transgender characters in media. We need more. But i don't think this is the solution >_>

[TH4NK YOU B3N]

I don't really have a problem with Aranea being transgender. I interpreted Vriska starting out experimenting with crossplaying as her Mindfang character as her taking inspiration from her ancestor's smutty, smutty journal. Something about that strikes me as hilarious and relatable. Starting out thinking your gender identity is a kink is a trans experience. It also ends up being a parallel to how some Vriska defenders started identifying as Vriska.

It's Vriska ML that's weird. I already have a hard time relating to characters that transition early in their lives (because i'm a bitter millennial and to this day I still haven't gotten what I wanted). So, you got this kid, assigned female from the get-go, and they live as a girl from the start and continue to do so. Regardless of her parts, is that really a trans character? I think it breaks conservation of detail to have all that in a story that's not about that.

It might be hard to tell with grubs; they don't even have ears when they're hatched. But I'm a human being and I can't relate to that.

I think that's why I like trans Roxy? Whether they're nonbinary, genderfluid, and transmasc. There's something amusing about Skaia putting lipstick on a baby (something that's completely nuts regardless of assigned gender) and Roxy going "nah i think thats weird lol." I'd say that I'd like June, but literally nothing official has been about her beyond how Hussie is mad jazzed for this headcanon that he wants to be canon. There's a lot of ways it could go really bad.

EDIT: o yea and lanque sexy

[sorbicCondition]

I don't see why "more characters might be trans" is an issue. Especially with trolls, since their gender isn't really based on the merit of reproduction the way it is for humans and other species on earth. They're more akin to bugs, and by that metric, you could make the argument that all trolls are scientifically male while the Mother Grub is the only female, like bees and their queen. So their gender has probably always been based on presentation more than physical differences. Maybe their lusus assigns them a gender, and provides said young trolls with food or chemicals that contain hormones leading them to look more feminine or masculine? It could be literally anything, they're a weird fantasy alien race. Assuming they're identical to humans is both a pretty weak stance textually speaking and just kind of boring.

[calamityCons]

I don’t think trans discussion should happen in the thread dedicated to nepeta’s and sollux’s pesterquest. Although the pesterquest content is already so damn shallow that there isn’t much else to talk about. However:

• The timeline created where Dave and Jade are forced to survive on Alternia for the rest of their lives was so fucking cool and I wanted to see that.

• The timeline where Sollux just out of the blue decided to fly around on Earth and become an alien hermit boy was an interesting premise and also I am confused why John didn’t rush outside to talk to Sollux and MSPAR

• While on the topic of Actually Interesting things to happen in the pesterquest routes, Karkat being discovered by the drones and Sollux’s attempt to get him to accept help by saying Karkat was gonna become a Threshecutioner was heart wrenching.

[pfeffer-29]

Sollux's route was pretty good, though I'm a bit peeved at the ambiguity of blanket-troll's situation. Did the Reader somehow alter causality? Was Sollux just being paranoid? I don't know, and I could just be missing something, but I have no idea what it is. I am the big stupid; I'm kind of bad at interpreting stuff like that. Also, what was the point of the whole "bulge curse" bit? Are the writers making an effort to include Vriska in as many volumes as possible now?

Negativity aside, all of Sollux's dialogue was a joy to read. I found him more far endearing here than in Hivebent. And the "most oppressed class on Alternia" joke legitimately made me chuckle. This has not happened before in Pesterquest or Friendsim. It's not even a good joke. But I found it funny, so props to Sollux's writer!

I found Nepeta's route to be okay. Her sprites were mostly fine except for the one where her tongue sticks out, which got weirder the longer I looked at it. It was similar in structure to Tavros's route, but it never quite endeared me to Nepeta. When her tragic backstory was revealed, I thought, "oh, tragic backstory. ok. cool." Which kinda sucks. Aren't these stories are supposed to provide complexity to the characters, especially the ones who got nothing in Homestuck proper?

Dave and Jade had the most boring interactions in all of this volume. Their chemistry was sucked away. They were vaguely annoyed with each other sometimes and that was it. Where's the banter? I usually like Dave/Jade banter, dangit!

Finally (major bias warning) I did not find the Davekat shiptease funny or clever. It was like the text was screaming "DAVE THINKS KARKAT HAS A GOOD TONGUE. THEY MAYBE KISS. LOOK AT JOKE." It feels like every time I see Dave outside of his own route, he mentions Karkat. His essence is bound to that ship in the Epilogues anyway; can't the dude have important relationships with other people too? They don't need to be romantic, heck no, but it feels weird how Dave's character seems to revolve around Karkat.

[thorondraco]

Sollux's route was pretty good, though I'm a bit peeved at the ambiguity of blanket-troll's situation. Did the Reader somehow alter causality? Was Sollux just being paranoid? I don't know, and I could just be missing something, but I have no idea what it is. I am the big stupid; I'm kind of bad at interpreting stuff like that. Also, what was the point of the whole "bulge curse" bit? Are the writers making an effort to include Vriska in as many volumes as possible now?

Negativity aside, all of Sollux's dialogue was a joy to read. I found him more far endearing here than in Hivebent. And the "most oppressed class on Alternia" joke legitimately made me chuckle. This has not happened before in Pesterquest or Friendsim. It's not even a good joke. But I found it funny, so props to Sollux's writer!

I found Nepeta's route to be okay. Her sprites were mostly fine except for the one where her tongue sticks out, which got weirder the longer I looked at it. It was similar in structure to Tavros's route, but it never quite endeared me to Nepeta. When her tragic backstory was revealed, I thought, "oh, tragic backstory. ok. cool." Which kinda sucks. Aren't these stories are supposed to provide complexity to the characters, especially the ones who got nothing in Homestuck proper?

Dave and Jade had the most boring interactions in all of this volume. Their chemistry was sucked away. They were vaguely annoyed with each other sometimes and that was it. Where's the banter? I usually like Dave/Jade banter, dangit!

Finally (major bias warning) I did not find the Davekat shiptease funny or clever. It was like the text was screaming "DAVE THINKS KARKAT HAS A GOOD TONGUE. THEY MAYBE KISS. LOOK AT JOKE." It feels like every time I see Dave outside of his own route, he mentions Karkat. His essence is bound to that ship in the Epilogues anyway; can't the dude have important relationships with other people too? They don't need to be romantic, heck no, but it feels weird how Dave's character seems to revolve around Karkat.

"bulge curse' is the kinda joke i can see Kanaya making on occasion. What adds to the joke was the error message about Kanaya's neutral expression not loading, cause it doesn't exist XD.

And yea it does flesh out nepeta. The fire story is meant to explain why she is in the cave at all, and the route emphasized Nepeta's social isolation and feral traits because of that isolation. Honestly its probably kept her alive considering losing your hive or your lusus gets you killed on alternia.
Put simply, nepeta is really weird. "Autistic girl in a cave' was a lot more apt than we first thought.

[calamityCons]

I agree about Dave and Jade not being written well in nepeta’s route. The writers seem to be incapable of conceptualizing these characters outside of their Designated Ship Configurations. Dave mentions Karkat even when it doesnt make sense, and the relationship between him and his best friend Jade is downplayed really strangely.

On the whole Sollux’s route seemed very badly written in the plot sense. He was going to visit Kanaya, which is fine, but all of the other stuff that happens just seems lie pure randomness that doesn’t track in a believable way. Gamzee showing up out of the blue in a miniscule clown car was funny, sure, but why did that happen when you greet Sollux on the station instead of on the train? Was sollux freaking out because he confused the voice of the blanket troll for the voice of an imminently dead ghost? If so, why didnt MSPAR propose that as an explanation? And if it never happened, then what even the fuck was the POINT of that????

[Generalrabogolfo]

I agree about Dave and Jade not being written well in nepeta’s route. The writers seem to be incapable of conceptualizing these characters outside of their Designated Ship Configurations. Dave mentions Karkat even when it doesnt make sense, and the relationship between him and his best friend Jade is downplayed really strangely.

On the whole Sollux’s route seemed very badly written in the plot sense. He was going to visit Kanaya, which is fine, but all of the other stuff that happens just seems lie pure randomness that doesn’t track in a believable way. Gamzee showing up out of the blue in a miniscule clown car was funny, sure, but why did that happen when you greet Sollux on the station instead of on the train? Was sollux freaking out because he confused the voice of the blanket troll for the voice of an imminently dead ghost? If so, why didnt MSPAR propose that as an explanation? And if it never happened, then what even the fuck was the POINT of that????

are you seriously going to ask whats the point of something on this game when the whole premise is that there is no point since there is no sburb/sgrub to be played

[calamityCons]

What I mean when I say “what is the point of this” is “what is this supposed to leave me with.” Do I learn something new about Sollux like I did with Karkat? No. Do I experience a fun adventure at his side like with Aradia? No. Does the MSPAR help make his day just a little brighter with THEIR presence, like with Jade or Tavros? No, they mostly seem to annoy him and just get lugged around like with Kanaya or Vriska. Hell we don’t get to be on the receiving end of a genuine heart to heart like with Equius.

Also, just because Sburb/Sgrub is “the point” of homestuck proper doesn’t mean anything that soesnt include it has no point.

[pfeffer-29]

are you seriously going to ask whats the point of something on this game when the whole premise is that there is no point since there is no sburb/sgrub to be played

That's not how stories work. Random plot threads that lead nowhere might make sense from a meta perspective, but that doesn't keep them from being unsatisfying to read. This is a problem Homestuck has had since the kids entered the Medium. Things like the gates, alchemy, some of the trolls (and later, LORD GODDAMN ENGLISH) get dropped because Hussie didn't care to use them for one reason or another.

Now, this was a consequence of Hussie writing by the seat of his oversized clown pants. Pesterquest has no excuse. The writers clearly have some sort of plan--see a-posing tunnel guy--and Pesterquest is a visual novel. In the best visual novels, every ending (including the "bad" ones) contributes something to the characters or the plot. Gamzee's end doesn't contribute anything to Sollux's story, so why is it there? It shows no side of Sollux that we haven't already seen. It's just "you picked the wrong option so game over, have some clown jokes." Pointless things are not deep. Even if they have a meta reason to be pointless, they're still pointless in-story. Perhaps if the clown end was acknowledged to be useless within Sollux's route, it would be, paradoxically, less pointless. Then, it might contribute to the theme of "nothing really matters anyway" that the games are attempting to have. But that never happened, so there's no reason for that end to be so unsatisfying besides poor writing.

[thorondraco]

are you seriously going to ask whats the point of something on this game when the whole premise is that there is no point since there is no sburb/sgrub to be played

That's not how stories work. Random plot threads that lead nowhere might make sense from a meta perspective, but that doesn't keep them from being unsatisfying to read. This is a problem Homestuck has had since the kids entered the Medium. Things like the gates, alchemy, some of the trolls (and later, LORD GODDAMN ENGLISH) get dropped because Hussie didn't care to use them for one reason or another.

Now, this was a consequence of Hussie writing by the seat of his oversized clown pants. Pesterquest has no excuse. The writers clearly have some sort of plan--see a-posing tunnel guy--and Pesterquest is a visual novel. In the best visual novels, every ending (including the "bad" ones) contributes something to the characters or the plot. Gamzee's end doesn't contribute anything to Sollux's story, so why is it there? It shows no side of Sollux that we haven't already seen. It's just "you picked the wrong option so game over, have some clown jokes." Pointless things are not deep. Even if they have a meta reason to be pointless, they're still pointless in-story. Perhaps if the clown end was acknowledged to be useless within Sollux's route, it would be, paradoxically, less pointless. Then, it might contribute to the theme of "nothing really matters anyway" that the games are attempting to have. But that never happened, so there's no reason for that end to be so unsatisfying besides poor writing.

It was kinda obviously pointless. Its basically would be Sollux's reaction if you were really god damn blunt like that. And then it gets even worse when game comes in to make things even more ridiculous.

Its also very possible the puppetmaster put him there to ensure this goes wrong. Course he can't make gamzee go on a train he misses.

I noticed a huge shift way back in Dave's route compared to the first two. The reader began dying and or killing people by accident again right then and there. The reader not only avoided death here, he somehow generated a secondary good route which i am presuming actually happened to Jade and Dave, but Nepeta will remember it in a dream. And right after he regained his friendsims memories.

Its as if someone seized control of the reader at that point and now they have lost that control when the reader regained his friendsim memories. So gamzee might hve been a desperate attempt to waileigh.

To note. In the second good end for Nepeta's route, the quetion was "Do you make it?" showing that this was totally in your hands.

[thorondraco]

What I mean when I say “what is the point of this” is “what is this supposed to leave me with.” Do I learn something new about Sollux like I did with Karkat? No. Do I experience a fun adventure at his side like with Aradia? No. Does the MSPAR help make his day just a little brighter with THEIR presence, like with Jade or Tavros? No, they mostly seem to annoy him and just get lugged around like with Kanaya or Vriska. Hell we don’t get to be on the receiving end of a genuine heart to heart like with Equius.

Also, just because Sburb/Sgrub is “the point” of homestuck proper doesn’t mean anything that soesnt include it has no point.

That actually seems to be the point. Sburb is the center of Canon. Its why the sburb sessions and events and timelines that feed into it are in the 'canon' as it were and everything outside of this strange space that contains Sburb is post canon. And events that either served its purpose for canon or goes against the architecture of the story is noncanon.
ALL is beholden to Sburb short of the deepest depths of the furthest ring.

It is basically generating a paradox.

The big question is IF it really has to be sburb to begin with, that it is absolutely necessary that all timelines must coincide with sburb, or if the powers that be simply Choose that it must and has locked the system from being any other way.
If its the latter then it changes literally everyhting.

I am suddenly forming a theory myself. What if the dissolution that Rose was talking about from Epilogue was not, in fact, caused by John? It was presumed that john being inactive had negatively affected paradox space. What if it was the Reader who was behind it? And John's journey leads to the reader's changes being overwritten? What would the reader do in response?
And somehow this leads to the reader's presence on alternia to begin with?

[TH4NK YOU B3N]

My internet is inconsistently broken right now, but I'm thinking about that teenager post that goes "WHO PUT SPIDERS ON MY DICK."

I am suddenly forming a theory myself. What if the dissolution that Rose was talking about from Epilogue was not, in fact, caused by John? It was presumed that john being inactive had negatively affected paradox space. What if it was the Reader who was behind it?

There's a formspring ask where Hussie talks how the fifth wall, in Homestuck, is the wall between narrators and the sixth wall is the wall between a work and its memes come from. That could be relevant.

[TH4NK YOU B3N]

are you seriously going to ask whats the point of something on this game when the whole premise is that there is no point since there is no sburb/sgrub to be played

That's not how stories work. Random plot threads that lead nowhere might make sense from a meta perspective, but that doesn't keep them from being unsatisfying to read. This is a problem Homestuck has had since the kids entered the Medium. Things like the gates, alchemy, some of the trolls (and later, LORD GODDAMN ENGLISH) get dropped because Hussie didn't care to use them for one reason or another.

Now, this was a consequence of Hussie writing by the seat of his oversized clown pants.

I think Hussie has said that, at least for gates and alchemy, it's not that he forgot about them. He skipped over them because we already understand how they work. Alchemy exists so we don't ask "hey, where did that object come from?" when it appears out of nowhere for the first time. We know how they got those things. They used RPG money, grist. Why are their new items so similar to items they already had? Punch cards. How do they get from one planet to another without FTL technology? Gates. (Rose blew one of the gates up in an attempt to softlock SBURB.) Why do they have to build their homes up if they can fly? I can't check but it has something to with shooting a lot of grist.

I guess I'm having trouble figuring out what your issue with Homestuck is. Aside from some of the trolls and Lord English, I see the things you listed as world-building on video game mechanics and not stray plot points. For the trolls and Lord English, I kind of see it, but I think he made sure to kill off the ones he didn't want to use? I guess that counts as a resolution, even if it's often unsatisfying.

The Gamzee ending of Sollux's route was meant to illustrate that they literally don't talk, ever, unlike Tavros and Kanaya who do talk but only off-screen. We already knew that Sollux would dislike Gamzee, but lots of people who dislike Gamzee still tolerated him before SGRUB. We also get to see that Gamzee is much, much worse at dealing with rejection than Eridan is.

If I wanted to use one of Pesterquest's bad endings example of "no new information," it'd be that ending where Terezi dies on her own noose. Yes, she hangs her toys on nooses. People die when they are killed. I don't mind it, since I expect one of the beginning choices to be less informative than a later choice.

[thorondraco]

My internet is inconsistently broken right now, but I'm thinking about that teenager post that goes "WHO PUT SPIDERS ON MY DICK."

I am suddenly forming a theory myself. What if the dissolution that Rose was talking about from Epilogue was not, in fact, caused by John? It was presumed that john being inactive had negatively affected paradox space. What if it was the Reader who was behind it?

There's a formspring ask where Hussie talks how the fifth wall, in Homestuck, is the wall between narrators and the sixth wall is the wall between a work and its memes come from. That could be relevant.

It sounds like one of his jokes for sure and his jokes could easily be clues.

Wait a minute. In the last volume the reader attempts to go to the past where his friends are at. But he fails and is incapable of doing so. IF there is a 'fifth wall' between the narrators, does that mean this fifth wall divides entire stories?

[TH4NK YOU B3N]

I'm pretty sure Andrew Hussie from Homestuck and Doc Scratch from Homestuck were from the same Homestuck. Dirk Strider and Calliope are also from the same Homestuck Epilogues. So, probably not.

Doc Scratch does go limp when Hussie is around, so I'm not too sure.

[calamityCons]

GODDAMNIT I JUST WANT HOMESTUCK TO BE A GOOD STORY THAT IS WRITTEN WELL WHY MUST IT ALWAYS RETURN TO METATEXTUAL FUCKERY

[thorondraco]

I'm pretty sure Andrew Hussie from Homestuck and Doc Scratch from Homestuck were from the same Homestuck. Dirk Strider and Calliope are also from the same Homestuck Epilogues. So, probably not.

Doc Scratch does go limp when Hussie is around, so I'm not too sure.

Andrew hussie got killed so its possible he lost most of his influence over the story. Alternatively it could mean that the Fifth wall divides Narratives.

Let us say that an author creates a story and it isolates the timeline and spacetime into the story. This would prevent outside interference by horror terrors or other beings, potentially. For example there could be countless kids and players from failed sessions out there in the void. They would probably be quite willing to invade a session they stumble across.
That is another detail i suppose. Post canon would apply to failed sessions too i wager.

Basically if the Reader cannot return to Friendsims, or more accurately to Hiveswap, that might mean that Hiveswap's story has nothing to do with Homestuck's story. If we speculate that the Retcon powers allow traversal of the narrative rather than time and space, then it would be limited to things related to the narrative. Or maybe to A narrative. They can only go to places that exist within the story in some capacity, scenes shown already. Its why the Reader couldn't visit nepeta's hive in equis' route. Because it hadn't happened yet. "Stop fucking skipping ahead, it won't work."

Though it brings up the question of how a story is hpapeing in Hiveswap if the only thing Canon seems to give a shit about is Sburb.

[pfeffer-29]

I think Hussie has said that, at least for gates and alchemy, it's not that he forgot about them. He skipped over them because we already understand how they work. Alchemy exists so we don't ask "hey, where did that object come from?" when it appears out of nowhere for the first time. We know how they got those things. They used RPG money, grist. Why are their new items so similar to items they already had? Punch cards. How do they get from one planet to another without FTL technology? Gates. (Rose blew one of the gates up in an attempt to softlock SBURB.) Why do they have to build their homes up if they can fly? I can't check but it has something to with shooting a lot of grist.

I guess I'm having trouble figuring out what your issue with Homestuck is. Aside from some of the trolls and Lord English, I see the things you listed as world-building on video game mechanics and not stray plot points. For the trolls and Lord English, I kind of see it, but I think he made sure to kill off the ones he didn't want to use? I guess that counts as a resolution, even if it's often unsatisfying.

The Gamzee ending of Sollux's route was meant to illustrate that they literally don't talk, ever, unlike Tavros and Kanaya who do talk but only off-screen. We already knew that Sollux would dislike Gamzee, but lots of people who dislike Gamzee still tolerated him before SGRUB. We also get to see that Gamzee is much, much worse at dealing with rejection than Eridan is.

If I wanted to use one of Pesterquest's bad endings example of "no new information," it'd be that ending where Terezi dies on her own noose. Yes, she hangs her toys on nooses. People die when they are killed. I don't mind it, since I expect one of the beginning choices to be less informative than a later choice.

The problem is that we never see alchemy and gates used more than, like, twice outside of the first few acts. You're right; those aren't plot points. I did not think that list through. But I think I was going for a point on how they were used. The dream-bubbles were hardly used but to give Vriska a place to be and host the dancestors. There are thousands of alt-timeline trolls and kids in there that could be used to hype up Lord English or give us more background on Sburb. There are flipping horrorterrors in there, doing cryptic eldritch stuff and feeding off negative emotions! The horrorterrors were made out to be powerful (and probably malevolent) schemers doing something when they caused Rose's grimdarkness, and then they're forgotten except in passing reference. And Tavros! He just gathers a giant army in one go. We never see him start making it. He just shows up with an army. That could've been an excellent subplot!

Alchemy and grist are rarely used onscreen after Act 4. The audience never sees the houses being built or even new items being made. Everyone seems to stick with the same weapons in Act 6. Sure, the game mechanics might be used off-screen, but we never see that happening. From the audience's perspective, if we didn't see something happen in the story, it may as well have not happened.

Alchemy and most other game mechanics disappear from the story because Hussie didn't plan his webcomic enough, or he couldn't be bothered to work within the limitations he'd set for himself. Does it make sense that, like some of Pesterquest's bad ends, they're a waste of potential? Yes, because that's how Hussie wrote the story. That doesn't mean they're excused from being unsatisfying. Like I said, even if Pesterquest is going for the "everything is pointless because it's not an alpha timeline" theme, there's no reason for the writers not to use the bad endings to develop the characters. They've done this with Daraya and Equius and Lanque and several others.

And the Gamzee end doesn't give us any meaningful insight on Sollux or Gamzee. They don't like each other. Wow. It would be less redundant if they tolerated each other, because that's something we haven't seen before.

I am the big stupid. I like when things happen in-story and are not implied. I assumed more people felt like this.

(And yeah, the "terezi falls and dies" ending was a prime example of things going nowhere. There's no reason for it to be there. One could remove it from Terezi's route and it would be more or less of the same quality. Sure, it doesn't hinder the story, but it contributes nothing. I like when bad ends contribute something.)

[TH4NK YOU B3N]

yeah i agree that tavros gathering the army is a huge cop-out. that didn't use a pre-established macguffin or anything.

GODDAMNIT I JUST WANT HOMESTUCK TO BE A GOOD STORY THAT IS WRITTEN WELL WHY MUST IT ALWAYS RETURN TO METATEXTUAL FUCKERY

A story can't be ambitious and good at the same time. For something to be good, it has to be formulaic and familiar to an extent. Formulaic because by then the authors know what works, and familar so you know what to expect and your expectations that can be satisfied. I guess a good, well written Homestuck could have been possible at the time, but it wouldn't be Homestuck as I know it and it wouldn't be "Homestuck, except with minor differences."

I'm so glad that a lot of people are trying to make the next Homestuck.