Homesuck: Vriska Rising

[The Argent Lord]

I'm sort of confused by the "Act 5 is so bloody long" comments that happen every so often, honestly. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't THINK about what act we're in or how long it's been going when I read the comic. Do other people? Is the act structure critical to the enjoyment of the comic in some way I'm not understanding? Snake, would this scene be more acceptable somehow if we had had an epic Act 5 closer last week and were now partway into Act 6?

[rpgdemon]

Originally Posted by The Argent Lord

I'm sort of confused by the "Act 5 is so bloody long" comments that happen every so often, honestly. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't THINK about what act we're in or how long it's been going when I read the comic. Do other people? Is the act structure critical to the enjoyment of the comic in some way I'm not understanding? Snake, would this scene be more acceptable somehow if we had had an epic Act 5 closer last week and were now partway into Act 6?

Yeah, I don't get it either. I really don't pay attention to the acts, and find the, "Act over, here's AH doing stuff" bits to be kind of not too great.

[MuMu]

Plus, we're still in the dream bubble, no? Chances are this won't be just a simple flashback.

[Flarecobra]

We all need time from all the serious stuff for something fairly lighthearted.

[Art of Hilt]

Originally Posted by rpgdemon

show not tell is much better than, "Hey, here's a pesterchum log of all that happened but doesn't give you an idea of how awesome I was."

Yeah, this was something that I heard as a complaint against the earlier part of Act Five Act Two, where we just jump over things that the characters did and have them just tell us in retrospect (hello Rose and also sometimes Dave). I personally found that kind of frustrating as well. It's like, Yeah okay maybe some of those things might be considered boring to watch, but it would still be nice to see some of it, you know? Just something beyond "And then this happened". I'm enjoying this flashback, personally. It gives us a nice look at how Aradia used to be before we knew her as a ghostfrogrobot, which in turn serves as a nice refresher of what it means for Aradia to be alive again.
We also get to see a transdimensional time loop close up ("How did Aradia get the Crosbytop?"), in a way that foreshadows a dilemma that'll happen in the past ("How did John lose the wallet?").
I think this last bit especially was why seeing the events in person was important. I can't imagine how that information can be conveyed in a pesterlog without feeling out-of-the-blue.

It- the final panel with the hat in particular- also conveys what I believe to be the most plot critical plot point in the story.

Aradia plays too much TF2.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by The Argent Lord

Snake, would this scene be more acceptable somehow if we had had an epic Act 5 closer last week and were now partway into Act 6?

Actually, I've thought about this a bit and I've concluded I'd have felt a lot btter about things if Act 5 ended just before the Grimdark twist with the trolls began, and then the Grimdark Troll Murdering Festival was presented instead as an Intermission before the beginning of Act 6. "Hivebent Part 2," if you will.

As for Aradia in the past, sure it can be shown, but it could have been shown in less updates. I dunno. It depends on the payoff, I guess. I think at this point it's more a criticism specific to serialized readers, insofar as someone checking updates on a daily basis falls into the "superhero comics" trap of being disappointed when it feels like there's a long lull before a payoff. At this juncture I personally feel that we've sort of gone long enough without getting to the climax and acquiring significant answers to questions and learning what the stakes really are.

...Although I think it's less a critique of Aradia gallavanting around as Indiana Jones specifically, and more related to my personal interpretation of where the narrative was headed upon the sudden seismic shift in tone accompanying the "Troll Murderfest" developments. I kind of thought the sudden dark tonality meant we were finally reaching the climax, as if perhaps the only bright side of watching characters I like go crazy and kill each other was that it was a necessary step in order for us to reach the Important Climax and learn Exactly What Was Going On.

Instead, it kind of feels like the Grimdark developments was independent of any such buildup, and that in fact we'd experience more shifts in tone before reaching the climax with the Kids and the Scratch and the Denizens and defeating Jack Noir.

...Which gets me back to my original point: If the troll-centric Murdering Shenanigans has presented as an Intermission, like "Hivebent Part 2," I wouldn't have fallen into the trap of presuming that the dark buildup was leading us to the end of the story, and I would have treated the events as an interlude (akin to the Midnight Crew or the original Hivebent) with a different thematic feel than the rest of the storyline. So then if the story decided to get lighthearted again in "Act Six" and decided to include a bunch more flashbacks and revelations that really weren't leading us to a final confrontation or progression with major plot points, I'd feel less bummed or misleaded into believing we were finally going to get serious answers.

...It's surprising how much typing this has reminded me of the kinds of complaints I regularly made against Lost during its run. To all those personally offended when I get all critical of Homestuck, all I can say is Lost was my favorite television show of all-time and I critiqued it more than anything else I've ever watched. I tend to be a lot more vocal and lot more harsh with my favorites, because I imagine lofty possibilities that do not always come to fruition.

[Loyal]

Aradia: Fucks with time for kicks and grins.

[Hyndrays]

hehehe.

Love sollux's reaction at the end of that chat log there. :P

[Solid Snake]

Sorry for bein' stupid but I seem to have forgotten the exact rules of the characters interacting in Memories.

...This isn't what happened canonically, right? That is, God-Tier Aradia is not actually influencing the past, she is simply viewing the memory of the past from the perspective of the "other" (now-dead) Aradia?
Does this mean that this is a "dead" version of Sollux too?

[Hyndrays]

I wouldn't imagine so, since Sollux is currently not dead that we know of, so most likely not. This could be God Aradia contacting them in the past, or, For all we know could be a doomed timeline but that seems unlikely as it would be pointless.

But technically your idea could be true, just in the future.