Homesuck: Vriska Rising

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by POS Industries

Also also FUN FACT: In two weeks it will have been a year since the last time John and Dave interacted!

It is absolutely ridiculous how despite that apparently being true my most vivid Homestuck memories are almost all John and Dave interactions and it is ludicrously easy to imagine them interacting
I suppose that's a testament to what Hussie did with those characters back in the day

But to be completely and utterly honest I think Hussie's way overshooting the mark on these End of Act shenanigans. At this rate he'll turn the final flash to end Homestuck with into some insurmountably large and complex project. It's not like any of the earlier (even pre-Descend) flashes were terrible, they were fucking awesome.

He's killing all the momentum Homestuck had and dealing a blow to the breadth of his fanbase by taking so long on something that will inevitably disappoint despite being better than every other previous Flash simply because our expectations are going to skyrocket into unrealistic territory having waited this long

[POS Industries]

Well, it'll certainly be the longest flash we've ever had, but that won't make it the best.

I mean, it's been a couple years now and he still hasn't managed to surpass [S]: Enter, not that he hasn't come close.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by POS Industries

Well, it'll certainly be the longest flash we've ever had, but that won't make it the best.

I mean, it's been a couple years now and he still hasn't managed to surpass [S]: Enter, not that he hasn't come close.

[S] Enter was great and all, but I think the music really made it, that 'Jungle' Sburb tune was fucking awesome.

I can't recall which Flash is actually my favorite, honestly. I know so much less than I knew about Homestuck on October 6th last year, just because I haven't really been keeping up with things as I should.

[Aldurin]

I'd have to say my favorite flashes are a tie between EoA 4 and the one where Jack rapes the battlefield, mostly because both had that feel of a truly interactive video game that we would love to play despite it destroying the world.

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

I can't recall which Flash is actually my favorite, honestly.

I've had it all figured out for a while now, myself. In fact, I can list my top six in descending order, no pun intended.

Enter
Jade: Enter
Jack: Ascend
Dave: Accelerate
Seer: Descend
Descend

Honestly, the last two were a bit difficult to decide between, as I'm typically given to rate cinematics above walkarounds (which is a bit silly when you consider that walkarounds probably take more effort to produce, but I can't help but feel like the walkaround is a clunkier method of presentation overall), but I feel as though Seer: Descend had a fair bit more emotional gravity. Also I prefer original music to medleys.

It's also worth noting that all but one of those star the kids (and none of them star the trolls). While I admit to a personal bias toward scenes involving the actual main fucking characters of the story, I also only feel that the trolls have had only one good cinematic flash to themselves, that obviously being Make Her Pay (which, incidentally, would probably rank below Descend as my seventh favorite, but I was only going to do a top five here and six was already an internal compromise on my part). That said, the troll walkarounds were great, but even then just weren't as good as the one starring one of the kids.

It's almost like a story is more enjoyable when not focusing primarily on side characters! How crazy is that?

Also if Hussie hadn't been a lazy ass and made a flash for the Rose/Jack fight, it would have probably catapulted to #1, but he didn't so it didn't.

[Solid Snake]

Mostly agree regarding the kids and the trolls. Although I actually think the problem with the Trolls wasn't so much that they usurped too much of the story, but rather that only about half of the trolls merited existence. Like, Karkat is an amazing character, I'd say he and a few other trolls rival the Kids in value to Homestuck's narrative, but that can't be said for every troll and too many ancillary trolls received too much screentime.

I think I would have preferred either the idea of 6 or 8 as opposed to 12 total trolls, or, if Hussie really wanted to keep the Zodiac references, introducing twelve total trolls in Hivebent but then killing off X percentage of them before their own session's story ended. And this isn't just typical Snake Vriska-hate; I'm cognizant of the fact that Vriska would be the one of trolls who'd remain in the plot whether I liked it or not.

But really, characters like Equius and Nepeta and Feferi haven't added much value for the time they've taken to develop in the story, and other characters like Eridan and even Tavros (if Tavros was not formerly introduced as speaking with the kids) could have been prime candidates for "present in Hivebent, but did their grimdark betrayal / ineffective challenger to Vriska godmode shit and paid with their lives before facing the Black King" material.

Really, the trolls worth following were Vriska (sadly), Karkat, Kanaya, Terezi, Aradia and maybe Gamzee, although even Gamzee's storyline really only applies to the trolls themselves so he's actually more ancillary than he appears unless Hussie actually wasn't kidding with his "most important character in Homestuck" title. Maybe Sollux, too, insofar as he's still alive and maybe he'll end up meaning something. I know there's some leeway for the other characters to influence things while "dead," but even still, the other trolls were mostly filler.

(Superbly written filler is still filler. The best written scenes and truly multidimensional, likable characters in some movies can still be completely unnecessary if their presence adds little value to the plotline.)

On their own, they're fine characters because Hussie generally doesn't write bad ones, but I wish Andrew just streamlined Homestuck a tad more and cut out a bit more fluff. I'd gladly lose a fun yet inconsequential character like Equius if it meant a faster, more concise, better flowing narrative that kept the emphasis on the kids and let John, Dave, Rose and Jade actually retain some degree of the spotlight in Act 5.

I fully expect most of you to disagree, by the way.

EDIT: Also, I think my favorite flash, if it counts, has to be the semi-interactive one where Jade teleports everywhere and runs into Dave while fighting an Imp with pseudo-Bec powers.
The music was a factor, yeah, but I just loved the whole concept, and Dave's appearance was just the "Woah" moment that iced it for me. I remember it putting a smile on my face as I was studying for one of the hardest finals I took fall semester last year, which was worth something. Probably around the height of my Homestuck fanboyism, not long before the Grimdark twists and a certain (ultimately retracted) death sequence that kind of began an unraveling for me.

[POS Industries]

I more or less agree overall. Hivebent took a long time telling us stuff that, while building on the background of the story, did little to actually surprise the reader. The only major twist was the reveal at the end of the universe-creating implications of the game, and it wasn't until afterward that any real conflict between the characters occurred (except for "Man, Vriska, what a bitch amirite?")

Things like Gamzee and Eridan going rogue, et al probably could have been better folded into their story, rather than having to stretch it into the point when we should have been focusing on the kids and further dominating the narrative.

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

Like, Karkat is an amazing character, I'd say he and a few other trolls rival the Kids in value to Homestuck's narrative

And even then, I don't necessarily think they should, at least not anywhere near the degree they have.

Like, Lando was introduced in Empire Strikes Back, where he had a relatively minor yet influential role in the story, then in Return of the Jedi he had a much larger role but not in a way that detracted from the value of the main characters. But if Star Wars were like Homestuck, Return of the Jedi would have primarily been about Lando, with Luke and the others relegated to tertiary roles, barely seen unless either talking to Lando or discussing amongst themselves how wacky Lando is. Then eventually we'd learn that Lando's ancient ancestor was Darth Revan and that he's the most important figure in the fight against the Empire, leading the Rebellion to victory against the second Death Star despite Han and Leia utterly failing to bring down the shield generator and dying in the process while Luke mostly derps around on Degobah after Yoda died.

Also I guess Lando would probably scream at people more.

And Vriska is either Boba Fett or the Rancor depending on one's personal preferences.

EDIT: Wait no I've got it. Vriska is Boba Fett, Gamzee is the Rancor, and Eridan is the fat guy that cried after Luke killed it.

[Art of Hilt]

I don't think the main trolls are really as much of a minor character as that. Considering when most of the surviving trolls are actually introduced (Acts 3 and 4), I'd compare guys like Karkat and Kanaya to, like, Aragorn to the kids' various Hobbits.

[POS Industries]

Except Aragorn was introduced pretty early on in Fellowship of the Ring. He'd be Dave.

The trolls are more like Gollum.

[Locke cole]

Except Gollum were introduced in The Hobbit. As in, before almost anyone in LOTR.

Aragorn can still be Dave, though. If only for the fact that he calls himself "Strider".