dirkar:Let’s talk about childhood grief and how Hussie is not only addressing it, but also discussin
dirkar:Let’s talk about childhood grief and how Hussie is not only addressing it, but also discussing the different forms of it. It’s no surprise at this point that Homestuck has transformed from a zany and relatively weird fan-driven comic into a giant epic focused not only on an incredibly complicated story, but also heavily upon the development of characters. It’s fairly obvious—especially in the newer acts—that these developments are keyed towards the readers as inspiration and relatability in their own lives. Whether it be an addiction or a bad relationship or your own self-esteem, Homestuck has probably given a shout out to your problem at some point. Because as much as we complain about how being a teenager is hard and no one understands, with that many well-developed characters Hussie was bound to hit a majority of the common teenage and young adult issues. However, the most notable of these issues, or at least of the ones apparent in the recent updates, is the idea of moving on from your childhood. Which is something I, as someone who has had a breakdown every year around her birthday since she was five, relate and recognize as a serious problem, and as something I’ve observed everyone handles differently. In fact, all of the of the eight kids are experiencing it some way right now.John delving himself back into ConAir and Ghostbusters and shit he’s probably told himself he’s too old for, reminiscing over his lost childhood. Rose drinking her problems away (in order to mimic her late mother, to add salt to the wound) and regretting her rebellious attitude and need to grow up faster than what’s healthy. Dave, sweet precious Dave, who got thrust back into his old room only to ramble to himself about the things he will never get to do and the things he took for granted in the past. Dave, who is now completely frozen and unwilling to move forward towards his destiny, both physically and emotionally. The Alpha Kids together, who learned the very unsugar-coated way (punintended) that there is no easy way out and you just have to keep moving forward.And now we have Jake alone, who just wants things to go back to the way they used to be. He wants to go back to his island, but that’s contradictory to the plot. The whole point of the game is to grow, isn’t it? Jake is at a point that could be considered what the comic defines as a catharsis. You can either stay frozen, or you can push through your breaking point and pray things will get better. Jake is experiencing very human emotions right now, but he can still grow from this breakdown—hell, he can still continue to grieve his childhood—but he cannot let it stop him, especially considering many of us still believe him to be a key piece in winning this very, very long game.This is getting kinda long, but I just want to share my love for recognition for problems like this, and the fact that while the kids are working through them they are not easily solvable. Stories are often focused around a character’s journey out of adolescence, but more often than not have the character inhumanly excited about something that really fucking sucks. Media almost glamorizes the future. But in truth it sucks to grow up. It sucks to have responsibility. It sucks to admit that you were a naive little kid for your entire childhood. It sucks to admit you never appreciated it like you should have. The fact that this comic not only acknowledges it, but has a large percentage of characters deal with it (all differently, mind you, there is no such thing as two characters with the same personality in Homestuck) is actually really inspiring. You can argue about Homestuck and its worth a lot of ways, but at the end of the day underneath all the insanity and weird time shit, there’s something completely real in there.Okay, ramble over. Point is Homestuck is really rad. -- source link