Act 1, Part 3 of 3
Pages 138-247 (MSPA: 2038-2147)
Coming up with new names for these posts is pretty fun.
Spoiler: “Down the Chitinous Windhole” will not be renamed.
Welcome aboard to the wonderful, mysterious world of SBURB! Come join as I play the role of a first-time reader, fallen into the trap of confusion that catches many readers of Act 1.
The first thing we see of the game is Rose viewing John’s house, with symbols and icons related to captchalogue cards, seemingly used for moving and adding things to John’s house. “Wait a minute,” the reader thinks, “this isn’t your usual video game.” Is Rose able to edit a digital recreation of John’s house? Or is this a real live camera, able to edit things from afar?
In a series of panels watermarked with the Sburb interface, Rose moves John’s magic chest to his roof. A pesterlog confirms that Rose really is able to edit John’s house from afar:
EB: whoa, what are you doing??
TT: Sorry. I’m just getting a feel for the controls.
EB: is my magic chest on the roof now??
TT: Yes.
EB: 😦
TT: I will try to be more careful next time.
John and Rose don’t seem surprised or have any profound revelation that Sburb is a game revolving around the real world. As in the actual real world, not a fictional work that resembles it. I was always so confused that their reaction to what the game does is, “yeah? cool.”
But then something hit me. Four and a half years after first reading Homestuck, I FINALLY understand why the two are unfazed by this game. Although the reader went into Sburb blind, without any description of this game beyond the house and spirograph icons, John must have known that this game takes place in and alters reality; it’s just that the reader did not know. This divide between the reader’s knowledge and John’s knowledge probably throws readers way off, even though it makes complete sense that John would be so excited for a game like this! I can imagine what advertisements for the game were like:
Skaianet’s SBURB is an immersive simulation game like no other. It is the first of its kind that opens you up to the real world! Exciting enemies and bosses, thrilling planet journeys, and tons of fun with alchemy! Grab your friends for an early sneak peek at this epic adventure. Don’t miss your chance, SBURB BETA is coming to stores near you on April 10!
This isn’t the only time John knows something that the reader doesn’t. Much later on, he is the only one who remembers the short reunion between him and the meteor crew, while everyone else’s memories were erased. It’s just jarring for this to happen with the comic’s protagonist instead of someone else; usually in the early acts, Jade is the one who knows all the mysteries.
But I really do feel like an idiot for having been confused for so long why John knows Sburb makes sense.
Note that the Sburb interface is no longer shown here.
If you doubted Sburb was “real”, then here’s proof it interacts with the “game” the reader/player is playing, and thus very much is “real”.
The blue ghost, apparently there due to GIF compression, is one of the stranger things revisited later. We see it as one of Jade’s shirt designs, which she got as a present from John many years ago.
Through Rose moving John’s magic chest out of the way, John picks up the physical copy of his stack modus. Again something that probably makes perfect sense in an RPG: you start with your first weapon, then you find a new one, then you need to look somewhere else to be able to use your old one again. The option to switch typically makes you realize different weapons are good for different things and adds a new layer of excitement to the game. It’s a bit odd that recovering the old modus is done through Sburb, but it makes more sense if you see Sburb as an expansion upon the “game” that John already lives in.
It looks like your DAD is leaving again for more baking supplies. You’re relieved to have the house to yourself again, if only for a few minutes.
You just hope he doesn’t notice the MAGIC CHEST on the roof. Or all the shit you threw out the window, for that matter.
Small random things being revisited later on didn’t stop being a thing or anything. Near the end of Act 6 Act 1, Jane’s dad notices the mess being made of his house and what happens next? She’s grounded. I don’t think that happened with this particular blurb in mind; it’s just a natural consequence of deconstructing John’s relationship with Dad. I’ve discussed it a ton in my early Act 6 posts.
John asks Rose to pick up the mess John made in his backyard, but she can’t because it’s out of bounds. I think this serves as our first reminder that Sburb is a video game with rules and limitations. This reminder is executed rather nicely; when you’re early in a game and experimenting with basic mechanics, “nope, can’t do that” will likely occur abound.
Rose is commanded to select John, but we get another “nope, can’t do that”. More straightforward than the prior page, but good to have out of the way.
I can mostly skim over the next bit as the two get to know the game, a bit like my old posts.
Rose expands John’s room and deploys one of the three starting devices, known as the Totem Lathe, or I guess the totem lathe because who capitalizes those words. We learn that Rose has both her copies of Sburb, but John only has his server copy and the client copy is locked in his dad’s car, which is what causes the kids to play in a loop of four instead of just John and Rose together. When John stands in the corner of his room, Rose is able to pick up what’s in his backyard.
OK here’s something of note. As Rose deploys the cruxtruder, we get a sneak peek at John’s entry item. Rose had just inferred that free items are used to start up the game, so readers paying close attention might be able to predict that something important is going to be done with this apple.
Whenever you see a gray color palette, you know we’re peeking into Mr. Egbert’s true self.
Through Dad’s PDA, we get an early hint that he isn’t who John thinks he is. We’ve moved past the stage where one-offs are dropped on a whim and expanded on later, on to the stage where the author hints at countless events he really did plan in advance.
After Rose deploys the alchemiter on the balcony:
EB: hey, i’m out on the balcony now.
EB: i am messaging from my dad’s pda.
TT: The one you threw into the yard?
EB: no, i am telling you.
EB: it jumped out of my sylladex like a frightened weasel.
TT: What were you doing with it in the first place?
TT: I am not sensing a lot of regard for the personal property of others.
TT: Is this how your pent-up frustration with your father manifests itself?
EB: what? no.
EB: those were all accidents.
EB: please take your psycho-babblery elsewhere, miss!
John borrowing his Dad’s PDA matches with the usual way of collecting anything useful you find in his “game”. Rose questions that action, again breaking the in-universe fourth wall I talked about last post. Unlike other times she psychoanalyzes people, this one comes off as a wild speculation a reader might come up with, which is why it seems like such a fourth wall break to me.
TT: Your bathroom is a mess.
TT: Did you do that too?
EB: oh man, see this isn’t cool.
EB: all this snooping nonsense!
TT: There’s a cake in the toilet.
EB: yes. there is.
TT: I’m tempted to clean it up for you.
More fourth wall breaking. Only in Homestuck could “breaking the fourth wall” have three possible meanings: the fourth wall between the media and the audience, the fourth wall between John as a game character and John as a regular person, and the fourth wall between paradox space and Hussiespace. If you want to get extra confusing, you could refer to those as the first fourth wall, the second fourth wall, and the third fourth wall respectively. Then the fourth fourth wall is divided into subsections like Wall 4 Wall 4 Corridor 3, a huge and complex wall we need to slog through before Wall 4 Wall 4 Wall 4 and then the fifth wall, which is only used for self indulgent garbage and rescuing Spades Slick from one of his fifty different almost-deaths and also kind of disappointed everyone.
Whoops.
Out of the three types of fourth walls I mentioned, the second fourth wall is clearly the most important, because it gave birth to the running gag of girls ripping out toilets.
EB: what was that noise?
EB: is this something i should go investigate?
TT: No, I have it under control.
TT: You can keep playing with your telescope.
Oh, Rose. Hiding your “oh fuck what have I done” moment ever so subtly. I really don’t give your character enough love sometimes.
John hops down the hole into the utility room and oh hey it’s Jade again.
GG: john did you get my package??
EB: oh hey!
EB: no, not yet.
GG: darn! are you sure? it was in a green box…..
EB: oh!
EB: yes, but it is in my dad’s car and he is still out at the store.
EB: he should be back soon.
GG: great!!! so what are you up to today?
EB: i am up to my neck in this sburb stuff.
EB: TT is making a royal mess of my house.
GG: lol!
GG: whats sburb??
EB: oh, it is this game.
EB: it’s ok i guess. i’m still figuring it out.
GG: whoa what was that?????
EB: what was what?
GG: there was a loud noise outside my house!!
GG: it sounded like an explosion!!!!
EB: wow, really?
GG: i will go outside and look….
EB: oh man, alright but be careful, ok?
GG: i will! 🙂
How many herrings would a red herring herald if a red herring could herald herrings? Probably enough herrings to fill up Wall 4 Wall 4 Corridor 3 and then some.
Everything Jade says here starting from “whats sburb??” is super misleading. I actually can’t tell if the truth behind Jade’s words was planned in advance, or if it just sort of happened as the author went along, or a mix of both. I won’t reiterate the truth behind this conversation; you can read the old version of this post for that. Instead, I’ll just explain that Jade is built up at an extremely gradual pace, which makes sense because of how much of a plot device she is early on, but also a bit annoying to read. I will admit, it’s rather genius of Hussie to reveal that the confusion between clueless Jade and know-it-all Jade lies between her waking and dreaming selves. Also genius is the choice that the first substantial dialogue we hear from Jade so happens to be clueless Jade, which readers will probably brush off at first as “well if one of the main characters thinks Sburb is boring nonsense, it makes sense that GG won’t even know what it is”. You can tell Hussie had a lot of fun coming up with all these red herrings.
Oh fuck.
Rose, meanwhile, is dignified and careful as ever.
EB: you can see me, right.
EB: tell me what is wrong with this picture.
Hilarious then, hilarious now. I really can’t explain why this image combined with John’s line I quoted is so goddamn funny to me.
TT: Sorry. I keep losing the wireless signal.
TT: Must be the weather.
TT: I would look for a stronger signal in another part of the house, but I’d rather not risk an encounter with my mother.
TT: I battled through her cloud of gin and derision once already this evening.
EB: haha, yeah I hear you.
TT: Yes. Cake, jesters, unfaltering love and support.
TT: Quite a road to hoe there.
TT: Though I suppose I’m complicit for not informing Social Services about your situation.
Here’s our first time learning of Rose’s mother. The obvious parallels with John’s father start to paint her as the “second player” and her “mom annoyances” put her a bit more on par with the protagonist, preparing us for the switch to her side of things near the end of the act.
Of the four kids, each one’s cruxtruder is opened in a different way. John struggles to open it until he gets some help from Rose, which is a short but sweet demonstration of the power of friendship. The other three don’t really follow a pattern one would expect from this, which probably makes sense because the symbolism role is taken by the entry items instead
EB: what is this thing?
EB: and what is that clock counting down to?
TT: I’ve been looking at the GameFAQ walkthroughs to figure some of this stuff out.
TT: Hold while I read further.
EB: ok.
TT: All of these walkthroughs are extremely short.
TT: None progress much further than this point.
This is the very first hint at something ominous with this game. Reading those last two lines, I can feel the very moment the story makes contact with the gas pedal.
Arm/eye motif is now fully in action. And by now, surely planned to be big in some way.
Rose learned from GameFAQs that the kernelsprite needs to be “prototyped” twice and she ends up interpreting it as…
The kernelsprite avoided the cruxite but freely welcomed the harlequin doll.
Early hint at predestination.
No wait, I guess she actually knows that prototyping means dropping something into the kernelsprite. Thank god that bit of predestination was fulfilled. Well, thank every big villain in the story for that.
John looks into his telescope and..
Blue slime ghost, we meet again.
what’s this?
oh FUCK
Here’s the big “oh shit” moment. A meteor is headed for John’s house! Another simple but effective way to suddenly raise the stakes way high.
Sweating in fear, John high-fives his kernelsprite. But then we get sudden mood whiplash:
> John: Attempt to ingest a unit of build grist.
It is tempting because they strongly resemble Rockin’ Blue Raspberry Gushers. However, units of BUILD GRIST are a gaming abstraction and do not seem to exist on the physical plane!
There is apparently no crisis so imminent that will deter you from contemplating idiotic and frivolous actions.
While the clock ticks, John suddenly thinks about how much build grist looks like delicious juicy Fruit Gushers. Did I ever say how much I love when Homestuck does mood whiplash? Especially when it’s the serious-to-silly kind. Those scenes never fail to crack me up. Also did I ever say I firmly believe Homestuck is a lighthearted story at its core? In my mind, the more TV Tropes insists a work of media is super dark, the more dedicated and obsessive its fanbase is.
Dad walks into the house, confused at the toilet in his backyard. But the book commentary states the following:
In truth, Dad has never been more proud of his son. A toilet full of cake in the back yard is a top notch shenanigan for an aspiring prankster. A single tear beads at the corner of his nonexistent eye.
I love that Hussie decided to (jokingly?) retcon this part of the comic, with a description of Dad’s reaction that makes far more sense. I almost wish this idea of “Dad is proud of his child for pulling such a good prank” was revisited a bit more on the other side of the scratch, but instead Dad is portrayed as a lot more stern and strict with his child.
TT: I’m working on the bathroom.
TT: But we are running low on Build Grist.
EB: oh man who cares about the bathroom, now there’s a meteor heading for my house!!!
Rose’s strange bathroom fixation is way too funny and makes perfect sense in a story like Homestuck, where the silliest things imaginable are universal constants.
TT: I see.
TT: Do you suppose it has anything to do with the game?
EB: i don’t know, maybe! what do i do!
TT: I think it’s very likely.
TT: The walkthroughs vaguely suggest an impending threat before they end.
TT: The already poorly constructed sentences become even more curt and ambiguous.
TT: As if written hastily and with a sense of alarm.
TT: Actually, their dedication to updating the walkthrough under such circumstances is admirable.
EB: wow, FASCINATING.
EB: ??????
TT: If the meteor is a game construct, I think the only thing to do is to proceed, and try to solve the dilemma on the game’s terms.
TT: Try using the lathe.
TT: It says you can use the card on it, but isn’t more specific than that.
EB: ok i’ll do that.
What’s interesting about the Sburb walkthroughs is that they seem to give just barely enough information for John and company to be able to figure out this game. It isn’t a leap to assume that out of all the people that played Sburb, Rose is one of, if not the only one that had enough dedication and Roseness to wade through these walkthroughs and figure out how to start up the game for real. “Just barely enough to allow what needs to happen” is a very common theme in Homestuck and it can be entertaining to figure out the tiny things that caused these massive twists.
TG: i heard you got the box
TG: i hope you appreciate my heroic fatherly perseverance in getting it to you
TG: in my rough and tumble dirty wifebeaterly sort of way
TG: also i hope you appreciate how many no-talent douches had their mitts on that bunny before you
TG: its like a grubby baton in some huge douchebag marathon
TG: hey where are you
EB: oh man, the bunny was awesome, but i don’t have time to talk, i’m playing sburb and it’s kind of a nightmare.
EB: TT is breaking everything in my house.
TG: dude i told you to steer clear of that game
TG: and for that matter you should probably wash your hands of flighty broads and their snarky horseshit altogether
So Dave was right to doubt this game was worth caring about. Well he wasn’t actually, but this comes off as giving Dave a bit of redeeming factor. Knowing that John already knew Sburb would take place in the real world, it makes sense that Dave would not want to play it. Or he maybe thought of it as just some nonsense about building houses like the GameBro guy did.
EB: and now there’s a meteor coming, and i’m not even joking about that!!!
EB: it’s like a big asteroid or comet or something.
EB: in the sky.
EB: heading right for my house!!!!!!!!
TG: oh man
TG: how big is it
EB: i dunno.
EB: big, i guess.
EB: i gotta go!
EB: we’ll talk later if i am still alive and the earth isn’t blown up.
TG: like the size of texas
TG: or just rhode island
TG: theyre always throwing around these geographical comparisons to give us a sense of scale like it really means anything to us
TG: but its like it doesnt matter its always just like: WOW THATS PRETTY FUCKING BIG
TG: like mr president theres a meteor coming sir. oh yeah, how big is it? its the size of texas sir
TG: OH SHIT
TG: or, how big is it? its the size of new york city sir
TG: OH SHIT
TG: sir im afraid the comet is the size of your moms dick
TG: OH SNAP
TG: sir are you familiar with jupiter
TG: you mean like the planet?
TG: yeah
TG: well its that big sir
TG: hmm that sounds pretty big
TG: i have a question
TG: is it jupiter?
TG: yes sir, earth is literally under seige by planet fucking jupiter
TG: OH SHIT
TG: anyway later
When John talks about the meteor, Dave doesn’t go “oh fuck, this is for real”, but instead gets distracted by commenting on movie tropes. Dave’s trope dissection is a side arc that doesn’t get enough love. It’s also one of those things that I can pretty much just quote without saying anything additional about.
John carves the cruxite and gets ready to make his entry item, but then this happens:
Bathroom antics probably cost the lives of many Sburb players the past few days.
One GameFAQ walkthrough might have ended like so:
“friend suddnly disconnected, on my own now”
“tryin to use alchemixer but big toilet in the way, 20 sec left on the congtdown”
and we never hear from him again.
John is stuck in his room, which was probably done to put him out of focus and transition the story to…
…. our second protagonist, this time a girl. She’s introduced in a rehash of John’s introduction, with some appropriate differences.
When given a joke name, John put on a video game protagonist’s “nope can’t do that” face, but Rose puts on a face of annoyance. Makes sense for the first player character to behave like a game protagonist while the second player is a bit more subdued and realistic.
And when given the correct name, John is delighted but Rose puts on just a slight smile. Typical characterization you’d probably come to expect from the (mostly) more mature and (mostly) more adultlike second player.
Your name is ROSE. As was previously mentioned you are without ELECTRICITY, although your LAPTOP COMPUTER still functions on BATTERY POWER.
Rose’s introduction page starts off with a bit more of a plot point than John’s does. It’s highly emphasized her portion of this act will revolve around regaining access to electricity.
The rest of Rose’s introduction page is mostly a reskin of John’s:
You have a variety of INTERESTS. You have a passion for RATHER OBSCURE LITERATURE. You enjoy creative writing and are SOMEWHAT SECRETIVE ABOUT IT. You have a fondness for the BESTIALLY STRANGE AND FICTITIOUS, and sometimes dabble in PSYCHOANALYSIS. You also like to KNIT, and your room is a BIT OF A MESS. And on occasion, if just the right one strikes your fancy, you like to play VIDEO GAMES with your friends.
- “really terrible moves” becomes “rather obscure literature”
- “bad at programming” becomes “secretive about creative writing”
- “paranormal lore” becomes “the beastially strange and fictitious”
- “amateur magician” becomes “psychoanalysis”
- “knitting” and “room a bit of a mess” is added to the mix
- interest in video games is only on just the right occasion
Unlike with John, every one these interests is elaborated on and kept in some way relevant; some of them the reader is already well aware of. This simple edited version of John’s introduction is clearly a bit of video game satire, but it works well to establish Rose’s character in a simple manner.
After the “retrieve arms” and “___ like a ___ and ___ on your ___” commands are out of the way, we skip the callbacks to John all the way to the musical instrument flash. Since violins are a portable instrument and Rose just got introduced, I suppose it makes sense for this to be one of the first things of John’s she rehashes.
I take back what I said, there was one last bit of the imaginary walkthrough I wrote earlier.
“if youre reding this jodie foster i lov yuo dearly”
Meanwhile, John is fantasizing about his celebrity crush, Liv Tyler. Another thing that many of the players of Earth’s failed Sburb sessions probably did in their final moments.
The next pattern we follow up on is Rose’s fetch modus, based on sorting data in trees. I didn’t mention earlier that Rose already said what her modus was in a conversation with John; as with her talking about her mother, that was probably another instance of the story preparing for the focus switch to her.
What a spiteful, sarcastic mother.
Who would build this big a mausoleum to house a beloved dead cat?
Rose looks outside and we get to know (an extremely warped and inaccurate perception of) her mother:
Your panoramic window offers a view of your yard below, and the mausoleum housing your dead cat, JASPERS, who died when you were young. Your MOM had the structure erected with a spirit of scornful IRONY in response to your youthfully innocent request to hold a funeral for the animal. At least, that is how you have come to interpret the gesture in retrospect.
Here’s an interesting comparison between John and Rose’s relationships with their guardians. Both of their perceptions of their guardians could not be further from the truth and the ways they are far from the truth could not be more different. Rose’s perception of her mother inverts John’s perception of his father in every way. John thinks his father loves clowns though he is really just pretending, while Rose thinks her mother pretends to love wizards even though she really does love them.
A major point with the guardians is that they are twisted around a lot from how they would ideally be. John, Rose, and Dave all understand each other’s guardians better than they do their own and I think it’s quite depressing it turned out this way. A rough idea this leads to is that Rose and Dave would have been better off with their guardians swapped; I wouldn’t be surprised if this contrast is part of what inspired Hussie to devise the kids’ ectobiological family tree. I’d love to talk more about things like Rose being raised by someone just as overcomplicated and analytical as she is*, but that’s probably better done when she converses with Dave about their guardians.
* In that timeline, Lil’ Cal would probably be empty.
Hanging just next to your door in the hallway is a painting of an EXQUISITE WIZARD. Your mother collects these awful things IRONICALLY. She must know how much you detest them, and there is no doubt in your mind she stores these dreadful things in the house to bother you.
What Rose doesn’t say is that she is a big fan of wizards, just not her mother’s “fake” obsession with them. In other words:
ROZE LIKED WIZORDS THE HOLE TIMEHENCE THE MYSERTY
This is another example of protagonists knowing things the reader doesn’t. It’s less strange for this to happen with Rose because her introduction says that she is secretive about her creative writing.
Brief teaser of Rose’s mother.
Oh yeah, what is Rose doing exactly? Not aimlessly exploring her house this time; rather, on her way to the observatory.
Just like John, Rose takes a moment to look through her telescope and sees not one meteor, but a storm of numerous meteors! A bit of a shame this pattern is dropped; imagine how cool it would be for Dave and Jade to see something even crazier later on. If those two observed escalatingly crazy things in the sky, I imagine Homestuck could have gone quite a bit differently. What crazy thing would Jade have seen in the sky instead of your usual meteors? Instead she only gets a boring mega-whopper size meteor approaching her home.
The telescope pattern is not completely forgotten though. It gets revisited near the end of Act 6 Act 2 in a mega red herring way; read this post (number 71) for more information.
Rose reconnects to John, concluding her brief arc and letting us switch back to the main storyline.
Rose’s arc was arguably forced in a bit to the end of Act 1, which for some people is a bit of a negative aspect of this arc. I don’t think it’s a problem at all; while it would have been perhaps more logical to start Act 2 with focus switched to Rose, I think the transitions to and from her story arc are quite elegantly done; her arc is best thought of as a small interlude.
TT: I’m back.
EB: hurry up and open my door!!!!!!
EB: not that it even matters, i think i’m probably dead no matter what!!!!!!
Through John’s stretch of time spent in his room, we get a picture of what Earth’s failed Sburb sessions were probably like (well, the ones that got closest to entering the Medium). Pretty much like what John is going through, up until the point where Rose regains Internet access and saves the day.
TT: Patience. You still haven’t used the new totem.
EB: ???
TT: I believe it will create the item on the punch card.
EB: so what is it, like an apple or something?
EB: what good will that even do?
TT: We’ll see.
TT: I’ve found no evidence that anyone has successfully created the item.
TT: And the content of the card appears to be variable from session to session.
TT: In one instance it was described as an “eggy loking thign” [sic].
EB: do we have enough of those building jewels to make it?
TT: According to the Atheneum, it is a free item.
TT: This speaks to its importance, in my view.
TT: Now off you go.
As we’ve encountered before, Rose knows just barely enough about the mechanics of Sburb, with several players that came close to entering the game, that they’re the ones that can succeed in starting it up.
And there was just barely enough grist left for Rose to move John’s door. Of those 20 units, only 6 of them were spent on important stuff: expanding John’s room and removing his door. Maybe Sburb knows that girls will destroy their friends’ bathrooms and thus gives them a bit of leeway.
With John’s bathroom restored to its original form, Rose can now move on to writing the walkthrough.
Good to have your priorities straight.
John finally makes his apple! With that we’re ready for the act’s ending flash: [S] John: Take bite of apple.
The homestuck.com version of this flash is not synced with the music for some reason. To experience this flash in its true form, you need to watch it as a video, or through the way the old domain can still be accessed (link).
The timer ticks down, revisiting locations in the Egbert household synced to the music unless you’re a poor soul watching the homestuck.com Flash version of this. The last shot we see of John is him holding the apple with the meteor rapidly approaching, followed by an explosion.
This ends the act on a cliffhanger, as well as a major “oh shit” moment. The explosion is an iconic moment for good reason: it’s the end of only the first chapter out of many more to come. With the introductory section over, from this moment nothing is safe; anything you encounter could lead to a gigantic “oh shit” moment.
END OF ACT 1
Oh yeah did I mention this is the first time we learn that Homestuck is divided into acts? The curtains closing in on the explosion only adds to the shock factor.
Final stance on Act 1, here goes.
Act 1 of Homestuck is a first chapter done right, starting as innocuous “tutorial act”—first for the video game style narration and captchalogue system, then for the game of Sburb. But the moment the countdown starts, you can tell the real story is about to start.
If you reread Act 1 in detail like I did, it’s super fun to analyze in retrospect. I think it’s the kind of first chapter that you just accept exists, because it really isn’t all that boring or uneventful. Not to mention that the true way to experience Homestuck is reading it many times over, with as many analyses and dissections you can dig up as you can.
In the community reread, I’m almost done with Act 3 and have quite a few thoughts I’d like to type here about the second and third acts as a whole, but I’ll save those for later parts. See you next time as I revisit Act 2 bigger and better than ever before! I might not start that rewritten post right away.
EDIT: “Next time” turned out to actually be the start of the intermission! Yes you read that right: in my rewritten posts, I skipped to the intermission. I’m giving you a choice below. You can either go to the start of Act 2, or skip to the intermission like I did. The two options are posts 4 and 13, a lucky coincidence.
Next => Part 4: Haunting Voices and Coolkid Mishaps
Next (chronological) => Part 13: Avenging the Fallen Casino
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