10-08 Update Writer's Commentary (Patreon)

JAMES ROACH, Director:

Meowdy Pardners, James here. You might recognize me from my many appearances on your timeline over the last month. I wrote a lot of this update. Then a lot of it was edited by more skilled writers and it came out a lot better. Though, if you search in your heart you can still feel my foul influence on it. Anyway, I don’t remember why we picked Terezi and Dirk for the first update.

MILES, handsome and enigmatic Writer:

Hey all, happy to be here.  This update was mostly written by the time I hopped on the project, but I still got my hands on it a little in the weeks before we dropped it.  My first writing for the project was actually some stylistic editing for updates down the line, and then fully scripting an update even FURTHER down the line, but nevertheless I had fun with this, and have managed to get my irons in the fire of pretty much every update in SOME way shape or form.  You’ll see more of my work later, and I hope you dig it as much as I dig being allowed to write it.  It’s surreal.

JAMES: (This guy really wrote handsome and enigmatic writer)

MILES: Anyway, I think this was a really fun opening for HSBC’s return; Terezi’s Law and Order courtroom LARP was the kind of whimsical aimless shenanigan (singular?  Can a shenanigan be singular?) that Homestuck is so known and loved for.  Her new look is also honestly spectacular, and perhaps a sign of other delicious aesthetic moves to come?  Time will tell.

Moving into Sollux’s gamer cave was another super fun bit that was actually originally going to be the first part of the NEXT update; at the risk of sounding like a pompous fuck, I’m pretty proud of my idea to push it to the latter half of our first update drop.  I think it might have been a bit lonely with just Terezi there, so adding a few more fan favorites to get you all hyped is the least we could do.  There’s also something so stupidly, shallowly, badly-metaphorically poignant about the first update of the new team ending on Sollux’s request for a disc change.  It wasn’t written with that in mind, but it works in retrospect.  And pre-trospect.

I think we’ve all been that Sollux at some point in our lives.  Maybe you’re that Sollux right now.  I support you.  If anything, you should be gaming harder.

JAMES: I spent a lot of time thinking about how to reintroduce the comic and then one day I thought “haha wouldn’t it be funny if the law and order sound played” I guess there are “legal reasons” you can’t do that. I say “I guess” because I am guessing and didn’t look into it. Anyway, I wanted to dress Terezi like a funny southern lawyer so she needed suspenders to snap when articulating a particularly poignant point about not being from the big city. Originally, I wanted a whole jury of 12 Terezis but that would be insane to make someone draw.

HAVEN, Haven: Ahh HSBC Meat #1.1 a strong start! It's cool getting back to Deltritus and seeing what's new with everybodys (yes, yours too) favorite troll: Terepy Pipes, back at it again reporting live from PARADISE. Direct parody aside, I like how the updates James writes feel more like scenes of a tv show than a webcomic. It's like watching an episode of icarly but they have godlike powers (I've never watched icarly). James and Andi were a strong ass duo on this one, every time I'd read it with Andi's sketches I'd be like omg guys... it's like we're making homestuck in here…

I didn't really touch this one other than like a single line or something nonconsequential.
Meat #1.2 though? Uhh yeah, you could say I had a hand in that one. B)

I wanted john to investigate the noise and get distracted by Sollux who just happened to be around because the format of “tell john to do something” -> “john goes and does it without a hitch” was a little boring  (also allowing Kanaya, Rose and Jade to have a little space to themselves for now so later we can see them talk in depth about…um something? Someone? A Something that resulted in a Someone? Maybe?) James wrote the outline and then it went through a shit ton of iterations, with the meat of the final product being written by Floral, who did a bang-up job.

Sollux demanding john change his game at the end got me bad, the fact that it's a game for a completely different console so he would have to like, take all this time to switch out all the rca cables and hook up a whole different console when he just said he needs to hurry and get the vriskas out of jail kills me.

JAMES: I have seen every episode of iCarly. I wish this was a bit. I remember outlining this thinking “John needs to be kind of more of a shithead”. He’s on his way to “Save” some Vriskas, but he takes time to be a little self centered and get distracted. John’s not a complete asshole or anything though he is just used to his life centering around him. He’s got this whole ennui about “nothing happening” but he’s lived a whole life! He has a son! I wanted to see what Sollux was up to too. I guess chronologically this doesn’t make a lot of sense. Shit I never thought about that. Nobody else did either though so I’m innocent of all crimes. It's only been like a few days since he was up on that roof. Or HAS it (it has).

Very little of my original dialogue stayed in this one. We brought Floral on, and before we even gave her anything to do she was already editing this one. And you know what? It was way better. I originally had Sollux saying this really long soliloquy to try and lean more into his prophet role. Mage of Doom, baby. We never really see what Mage does so I wanted to showcase it a little here, but the line was a little flat. Having him go into a long winded Royal-Tart-Toter-esque prophecy was funny but it didn’t feel like Sollux. He’d just tell you what he means. Words don’t mean much. Only actions. He’s right. Haven took another pass at it and it just elevated it to heights I thought previously unimaginable. I like this direction for Sollux. He’s just hanging out. He and Aradia trust each other, so he isn’t super concerned she just got up and left. She does this kind of thing.

FLORAL, the most fucked up guy you know: Yeah, that was a silly moment on my behalf. The original edit was great but the prospect of both being newly hired and John/Sollux getting their first conversation got me furiously writing jokes. I love this duo. Everyone is always bothering Sollux about getting along with their exes. But unlike Eridan, John is friendly and nice in the inconsiderate and overbearing way, only friendly nice people get away with. Did John even get what he wanted from the conversation? Does he have the insight to even notice????

So I went a little rabid, and was so grateful to everyone on the team for considering this new draft, giving it suggestions to make it stronger and pushing it forward. It made me feel incredibly welcomed.

Anyways concerning the first part of the update, I am also a huge fan of the Law and Order opening. It feels good to return to Terezi first and foremost, her OG introduction is iconic and one of my favorites. Seeing that replicated by an older and worn version of the character was 100% the right choice. Growing up is hard…it’s hard and nobody understands.

JAMES: Well, it turned out ok, don’t worry. We wanted this intro month especially to be like MAD STACKED. There are a lot of very heavy decisions to be made about a lot of plot threads. I often get asked “Why not a retcon?” or “Why not a reboot?” Man, aren’t there enough reboots? I think it's fair to ask though. I have publicly mentioned this, but I think it will be more satisfying to resolve these story beats in-universe.

One of the tragedies of the original run was that it never got to finish its arcs due in part to the nature of a slowly updating story. I always try to end my sections with little cliffhangers to sort of subtly remind the reader that there is more, but later. Maybe that's why Haven says my parts feel like TV episodes. I think that by sort of leading people this way with your storytelling you remind them that this isn’t the end, and that they have to wait for more to see what happens. This helps push the story, even if you are switching to another scene now. Like, “Whoa! What's Terezi gonna do with that wallet? Oh right! Alt-Callie-Jade got knocked out last time we saw her! Ah, here's John and Sollux..” you get to shift around the focus but keep people wondering what's gonna happen next.