It’s the late 2000s. You finally have access to the family computer and sign into your favorite website, Tumblr. While scrolling past countless doctor who, sherlock, or supernatural posts you find a colorful webcomic. It’s bizarre but kind of catchy. So you immerse yourself into it.

What’s it called?

Homestuck.

Homestuck was simultaneously the worst and best thing in my early teens.

The short premise of the comic is that 13-year-old John Egbert and his friends deal with the fate of the human race when playing a game called Sburb (created by Andrew Hussie). During this whole thing, they encounter and befriend (and more) members of an alien species called Trolls.

Homestuck is more than a webcomic, it’s a cult experience. It began as a choose your adventure comic but slowly evolved into the phenomenon it is now. It has over 8000 panels. It progressed into adding flash and music. There are multiple music albums from the series.

It was slow to get into but when the plot started to shine, it started to hit its stride. It’s also a very complicated plot with multiple, and I mean multiple plot lines. Homestuck was a tough fandom to get into due to how spread out the whole thing is.

I remember when it started to become popular. Teens and preteens took it and ran. It’s the first time I ever attempted a cosplay with cheap one-dollar gray Halloween paint and tried to make the troll horns out of air-dry clay. It also makes me cringe. I used to type like the Homestuck characters. I have like ten old group chats with about five or six that are just filled with it.

Days were spent bouncing from store to store on the hunt for Faygo, a soda popularly mentioned in the comics. One time I took a trip to Pennsylvania and found Faygo in the store. I brought back like 30 dollars worth and sold it to my other Homestuck friends.

It is a bizarre experience for me. You’re looking at something that has evil Betty Crocker and Faygo. Unfathomable buckets. Genocide. It felt like I was in a fever dream when reading it.

One of the plot points is that the trolls live in a society ruled by blood color called the Hemospecturm. Blood is used to denote social class. Red, Oranages, and yellows are lowerclass, Lime green to colbalt is middle class, and anything after to Fuchsia is considered upperclass/royalty. These classes are called low-bloods, mid-bloods, and high-bloods. There was a troll version of Jesus that had really bright red blood but he was killed (like how the Romans killed Jesus).

Also, a lot of character deaths. Trolls with drugs problem. Limb loss. Ressurection and rebirth.

I’m oddly thankful for Homestuck too. Reading it got me into drawing and writing. I would spend days sketching original characters that I would insert via fanfiction. It also helped me to create and grow new friendships. From previous interactions, I know I’m not alone when I say that. Countless people have gotten their start in cosplay, art, or writing due to this weird webcomic.

(Gamzee was my favorite and I will not elaborate on this.)

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I hope you found this post enjoyable. Have any questions or opinions? If so share them in the comments.

Happy Thursday everyone!

-J