Homestuck. What's the draw?

[Jitters Caffeine]

Pretty much the title here folks.

I have a ton of friends that read it and talk talk about it religiously, and to be honest, it's annoying as hell. Could someone explain the draw of this comic to me? I honestly don't get it. It sounds like a bunch of lame internet humor and I get enough of that in my daily life and I hate it. If someone could convince me it's worth looking in to, I would honestly take their recommendation.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

Internet humor? What? Homestuck isnt a comedy. Sure i laugh sometimes but that isnt the point, the story i find is interesting, original and quierky. I love homestuck and found myself emmersed in it. The first bit is a bit slow but the ideas behind the story i found very interesting. It gets complicated very quickly and it twists and turns suddenly. I found the characters to be witty, interesting and having actual depth. Thats just me though. I have no idea where you got "lame internet humor". It isnt a bunch of sketches. Its a story. Like a book. I read it for that. If it sint your cup of tea i cant change that but i encourage you to read the first chapter at least. It gets very interesting.

I wont lie it took three attempts to get into. The first, i dunno, 60 pages felt like i was directing some douche about his daily life. The inventory system was cool i guess but thats because i was doing an exam on data structures soon and that made me laugh a little. I had to trugde through that three times before i stuck it out and got to the awesome bit.

 

[Keoul]

The story is extremely complicated, often delving into the weirdest things such as time paradoxes and reviving dead people.
Personally the biggest lure is the complete "WHAT THE FFFFFFFFF" moments it brings all the time such as

Spoiler

btw it's a bit of a spoiler but not much, highly recommend you read the comic for a while before checking this out but hey whatever [link]http://gyazo.com/d52f1006830afa72b49c71e5da198166[/link]

 

[penguindude42]

Could someone explain the draw of this comic to me?

I ask this every goddamn time I see threads about it on this and many other forums.

 

[Chased]

The story is extremely complicated, often delving into the weirdest things such as time paradoxes and reviving dead people.
Personally the biggest lure is the complete "WHAT THE FFFFFFFFF" moments it brings all the time such as

Spoiler

btw it's a bit of a spoiler but not much, highly recommend you read the comic for a while before checking this out but hey whatever [link]http://gyazo.com/d52f1006830afa72b49c71e5da198166[/link]

Couldn't that just be a coincidence? I've only read a small amount of the comics so it might hold no relevance to me.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

Could someone explain the draw of this comic to me?

I ask this every goddamn time I see threads about it on this and many other forums.

Unfortunately, all I see are really contrive jokes about video game humor and weird grey people who have some kind of weird fetishism for buckets. I mean I have a bunch of friends going to MTac, and they're ALL going as Homestuck characters. And I'm pretty sure two of them haven't even read it.

Crossdressing aside, it just doesn't seem like there's any draw other than it being obscure enough for people to gloat about liking it before all these "fans who just like the trolls" popped up.

It's gotten to a point where we have like 3 people in our D&D group who have started making their characters after characters from the comic, and I can't help but think that it's only going to get worse.

 

[Erana]

Homestuck throws together everything nerds love, packaged together in a manner only possible in the hands of an extremely dedicated nerd.

All kinds of characters, nerdy and pop culture references, neato designs, obscure references that actually make sense, (like the hexidecimal number for a character's font in a chat client relates to an astrological sign relating to him) tons of crowning moments of awesome, magic, action, great villians, and even three additional types of romance for the people who like shipping.

There's something in it for every kind of nerd, as long as you can tolerate overwhelming silliness and absurdity at times.

Still, its not just a little thing. There's a lot of love put into Homestuck. While its major spoilers, (as the climax of the story and 6000 pages in) Cascade is the pinnacle of everything Homestuck is. For the super cynical people out there, before you dismiss it entirely as a bunch of drivel, look at that flash video. It brought down Newgrounds from the volume of traffic when it was first put up.

I'm not saying to go and watch it if you even have a vague interest in Homestuck, but its the big, multimedia moments like this that make me feel like it has more than earned its place as one of the most memorable webcomics out there. Like, how even if you don't like Avatar as a movie, the technical accomplishment of the CGI is nothing to scoff at.

 

[C F]

Yeah, it's got one of those fanbases you'd like to keep on a leash. totally messing with their speculations [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AndrewHussie]).

The only way to truly understand it is to free up your schedule, delve into it with an open mind (and a bit of patience considering its backlog), and see if it is indeed something for you. If it is, cool. If it's not, at least you tried. What keeps me coming back as a reader is the gargantuan ball of a plot this thing has managed to get rolling. Protip: Homestuck is pretty much Checkhov's Webcomic. Every mundane thing that seems entirely irrelevant somehow becomes important later on.

Couldn't that just be a coincidence? I've only read a small amount of the comics so it might hold no relevance to me.

Knowing how convoluted Homestuck can get with its own symbolism, and how subtle the author can be at times, it likely isn't.