Confessions

[Tatzel]

That was the idea behind that weird title I had for a while, Tatzel "Manly" Nanako T

[YCobb]

I don't really know. It's not a web comic, really, because a comic is more like a graphic novel kind of thing. Questionable Content is a comic, Gunnerkrigg Court is a comic. Homestuck is something else entirely, it's very much a thing designed around the internet and taking advantage of it.

So, it's a thing that's designed around the internet, and it's also a comic. Almost like a comic that's on the web instead of in the papers?

alright so you go off and find a series with a very heavily established world and less than ten characters

go on, i'll wait

Uh, off the top of my head? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Roadside Picnic, Dandelion Wine, The Library of Babel - hell, you could make a case of that not really having any characters.

I mean, yeah, there's lots of different methods of storytelling sure, but just throwing more and more characters into something usually isn't a great idea.

Shotgunning more characters into a story is only detrimental when the shotgunned characters are then followed to watch them do a totally irrelevant thing. If you have it where they do wtuff with the centralized group, then it adds atmosphere. If they run off, and the camera follows...you might as well have a spinoff.

Apparently there's something about a story with more than nine characters that specifically grips readers. I can't cite this because I've lost the link, but I believe it was Nancy Drew whose stories first capitalized on this? Since readers can only focus on around nine characters at once, any significantly higher number puts them into something of a trance because they can't keep track of it all. This is actually a pretty nifty storytelling trick, because it lets even otherwise predictable plot points surprise readers who simply can't focus on the story well enough to guess what'll happen.

My confession: Since the two month hiatus I've sort of stopped liking Homestuck. No idea why. I think it's that '''''''grimbark Jade''''''' and Jane are stupid as hell at the moment, and are also all that we're seeing.

[Galaxy Man]

So, it's a thing that's designed around the internet, and it's also a comic. Almost like a comic that's on the web instead of in the papers?

Except it's not a comic. Comics don't have flash pages that last over seven minutes, or a soundtrack. Comics don't have the entire web page change for certain pages.

A comic is a series of static images. Homestuck is something else entirely.

[Nancymaker]

Okay so like, I'm a big fan of Homestuck too, and I'd agree that it's not really a webcomic any more because it's deviated so heavily from typical webcomic architecture. I think, though, when you say it's 'Something else entirely', it sounds a bit arsey. Like, it's a fun and detailed story that's done a fair amount of unconventional things in it's lifetime, but it's not like it TRANSCENDS THE MEDIUM or anything like that.

That being said I don't really know WHAT I would define it as. I guess "Webcomic dealie with music and flash in" will suffice for now.

[hotb]

you should read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud :)

[Vax]

Look I'm a HS fan myself, and there are really two choices here

we could either call homestuck a "multimedia web-based entertainment experience" or we could simply file it under "webcomic" as Hussie routinely does himself.

For the sake of brevity and not looking like you're hyping HS up as something that transcends storytelling conventions (not saying that you're necessarily saying that but yeah) I'd just go ahead and refer to it as a webcomic more often than not.

That being said I find Homestuck easy enough to follow despite the large cast. I think it makes it easier when a lot of the characters aren't really overly important, and when they die the only times we touch base with them are for jokes or some expository scenes.

[Exeres]

The characters are easy for me to keep track of because they tend to follow motifs that I'm already familiar with.

[YCobb]

There's that too. So many characters are not only extremely similar, but also have storylines that follow each other closely thanks to Hussie's frequent use of callbacks. It helps that the whole thing is somewhat modular, to a certain point - x number of players play sburb/sgrub/whatever dictates a lot of the development just because the game mechanics drive most of the early narrative.

[Galaxy Man]

There's also that every character is unique enough to remember easily. Maybe not all their names, but at least their faces.

[Winchester]

I tend to have difficulty saying no to others, but lately I've been trying to be better

Like today in AC on the international island someone asked for my friendcode and I was going to go get it but I realized I didn't like him very much since he was a bit rude, so I said no

I guess I'm just pop flyin' with myself for not going with what someone else wants when I don't feel comfortable, just because I don't want to hurt their feelings

[Exeres]

Throwing newspapers for two years is the price I paid for being unable to say no.

[DoNotDelete]

alright so you go off and find a series with a very heavily established world and less than ten characters

go on, i'll wait

Uh, off the top of my head? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Roadside Picnic, Dandelion Wine, The Library of Babel - hell, you could make a case of that not really having any characters.

I mean, yeah, there's lots of different methods of storytelling sure, but just throwing more and more characters into something usually isn't a great idea.

In regard to my own writings I've generally learnt to err on less of everything - fewer characters, fewer locations, fewer 'objects of desire' (mcguffins), etc. Trying to juggle too many characters can kill a story dead - better to focus on a select few characters and define their objectives and motivations thoroughly than have a hundred badly-defined/directionless characters.

The same goes for locations and 'objects of desire' - better to understand them thoroughly - inside and out - than to have poorly or loosely defined locations that can be cut-and-pasted into any story. Locations and objects have character/personality of their own - and have as much impact upon a story as the characters themselves.


Confession: I don't follow Homestuck because I find the characters visually unappealing - so I really don't see how more of them is better.

[shazza]

i loved homestuck up until act 6. i was able to follow the characters and the story quite easily. but then they threw in 4 more kids and a million more trolls and i didn't care about any of them and there was too much going on. all i was concerned about was "what is happening to john/jade/dave/rose." i didn't like or really care much about the new kids. they're well written but you can't just throw in new characters in the end of a story and expect me to like them or not sit here for months wondering what is happening to the characters i ACTUALLY have emotional attachment to.

i stopped reading it ages ago.

[YCobb]

What's worse is that now I can't even care about the old kids even though they're back in the story. I still read it, but only in the hopes of something interested finally happening.

[Taruta]

What's worse is that now I can't even care about the old kids even though they're back in the story. I still read it, but only in the hopes of something interested finally happening.

I share this pain. Homestuck used to be okay but now it's just kinda uuurgh to read