Does character design quality and memorability truly matter if the story is good enough?
>>7700874Please, someone, draw Kanaya
>>7700880Wrong board
>>7700874I've never once seen someone explain why Homestuck's story is "good", it feels like one of those things that brainworms the tumblr crowd that has an extremely narrow palette of media they interact with, but wouldn't even remotely hold up to the best films, literature, hell even American comics and manga.
>>7700874No. Even this character is good enough
>>7700880
>>7700874not in the mid 2000s. You just had to have your own site and be consistent.
>>7700874No, story is the most important thing, and even ugly comics can get away with being ugly if the story is good... BUT, good art is not only going to elevate the story, but it'll help attract readers infinitely more than bad art.>>7701063I wonder if that's not still the case? I see some people post comics on their own sites, but they always seem to be inconsistent. I wonder if the consistency was there, would the readers come? People might just be giving up too early because they're used to the quick dopamine of the usual social media, rather than the delayed gratification and buildup of a project like that.
>>7700988Have you read it? Do you know anything about it other than the crowd who were most vocal about enjoying it? Homestuck's appeal was very broad; it was less about the story being "good" and more that there was nothing like it. I think Homestuck had a "good" story for roughly half of its runtime, and entertaining characters for almost all of it (though eventually it's like just one entertaining character carrying very large portions of it), but the fact that Homestuck was a webcomic releasing on the very fast, very novel schedule it was (for a time, multiple updates daily) meant that it was never going to stack up to classic literature. The sort of planning and intentional storytelling required for that were antithetical to the way Homestuck was run, because it was so spontaneous and reliant on the internet for jokes and ideas and direction. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Homestuck was good (for a time) at what it did, which was deliver an entertaining, witty narrative centered around likable characters in a setting with fascinating mysteries, as well as having a strong multimedia factor integrated into the comic (flash games, animations). It wasn't high art, nor was it trying to be high art, and people didn't like it because it appealed to a sense of prestige, they liked it because Andrew Hussie was capable of writing funny dialogue that made them laugh and then pay off a stupidly elaborate long-running joke with a sick animation the day later that also answers some deep lore question. I don't know, man. In the truest sense of the term, Homestuck's appeal was that it was greater than the sum of its parts (until it became bad), and it had many parts that were all equally appealing. The Tumblr shit is the most visible side of it, but when it was running it had a robust following on 4chan and SomethingAwful.
>>7701058yay! tnx!
>>7700874Why do people who are bad at art but really want to tell a story assume they can write?
>>7700988>but wouldn't even remotely hold up to the best films, literature, hell even American comics and manga.Say what you will about it's story, but I actually think Homestuck is perhaps THE best example of a webcomic. Nothing else even comes close to it in terms artistry (I'm not talking about the drawings specifically), experimentation, and use of the digital medium to the point that it makes you question whether or not it's still a 'webcomic' (some pages are 10 minute movies, while other are entire web browser adventure games).Hell, even the 'average' page and panel for the comic was a looping animated gif - I believe there might not have been a single page that was just a static image (might be totally wrong on that).Add to this it's unique presentation of appearing as if you're playing a game, and where the dialogue and and actions are all coming through chat windows and console commands... well, that's probably not so fresh now, with the imitators and all that, but it was very unique at the time.Then there's the fact that the comic is truly and epic. I don't mean that in a 2000's 'oh that's epic' kind of way, I mean in the literary kind of way in terms of its scale. It really is a gargantuan webcomic, not just in terms of number of pages, but amount of dialogue, (again) animation, and split off comics that would somehow loop back into the main comic itself.I totally get avoiding it because of the cringy fandom, but if you're into comics and are interested to see what webcomics pushing the boundaries of the medium would look like, I don't think there's a better example - so do give it a quick flip through.As for the story though? Eh, it's a slog to start, gets really interesting if you're grabbed by its hook, then it meanders for waaaaaaay too fucking long, and ends like a disappointing and wretched wet fart...But the dialogue and character interactions are pretty good, so it has that going for it.
>>7700988It's a very compelling mystery/adventure story with a unique premise, presentation and storytelling style. It was new, unique and interesting and introduced numerous novel concepts.It fumbled in the end and it went on for far longer than it should have, but its first half was a really really fun rollercoster ride with a strong buildup to several great climaxes and twists.
>>7700874Both of those things are good to have. A good story can succeed without good, memorable character designs but it would be better if it had them. Good, memorable character designs can succeed without a strong story, but it would be better if it had one.
>>7701092>>7701115>>7701220>The shitty endingMan, just remembering how they fucking retconned so much of the story with some time travel bullshit, destroyed long running character development, and ended in such a downer way... fuck! I'm getting miffed at this damn comic all over again.I think it speaks to how great the story or characters were up until that point, that the ending can stick out like such a sore point.
>>7701235I don't think it ended in a downer way at all. The characters beat the bad guy and made a new universe and lived happily ever after (ignoring everything in the comics that came after of course) as was the goal. It was just a zombie of its former self at that point with basically all of the author's clever writing style drained out of it. Very pretty final animations though.
>>7701248>and lived happily ever after (ignoring everything in the comics that came after of course) as was the goal.If I recall, and I'm spoiling the ending here for those who actually give a shit, John becomes a recluse who becomes disconnected from everyone and spends his days just cyber stalking the rest of the cast and mourning his fathers death. He then gets egged on by the big bad to go fight him essentially causing a time loop, or something of the sorts (I'm probably misremembering some things).The main fly in the ointment was definitely the retconning; destroying the relationship between the loud troll and the blind troll was a crazy thing to do, among all the other storylines and character developments that were just poofed away.
>>7700880Beg For KanayaSubmit To Kanaya
>>7700874Homestuck's story was never good. Go back amd read it now as a full grown adult. The character designs are what became memorable and the story was a fucked up nonsensical vehicle to deliver them. Realized it the other day when I heard it was getting a show and tried to explain it to my friend who was a normie at the time it was at its most popular.
>>7700874Gods help us, the new homestuck madness has already started.
>>7700874Bleach's storytelling ranged from mediocre to atrocious after the first few story arcs but the character design is widely goated and the reasons why people still care about this series to this day
>>7700988It's one of those "you had to be there" phenomenonI could never recommend it as a whole now but reading it along with some friends on old fashioned forums was peak 2010s internet.I think the best way to describe it would be like participating on /a/s read a long manga threads but the manga hasn't finished and you have people theory crafting. Or maybe when /v/ used to do "Tails gets Trolled" storytime threads and anons had fun reacting to the insane happenings in what is essentially a really cringe but fun Deviantart comic.
>>7701420Kanaya is sexy <3
Sex with Aranea
>>7701103they think god is fair
>>7701103We all write in school, so the average person will likely have some experience more in creative writing than drawing, and if they had some decent grades, and read now and then, they perhaps have something of a false sense of confidence, because writing seems more achievable than visual art.Well, it could also be a reasonable confidence - while the actual brass tacks requires skill and practice, the core of what makes a great story, the creative idea and story you want to tell, isn't really something that you can 'learn'.There's plenty of stories of people who haven't really written before banging out their first novel and it becoming popular or successful.
>>7700874Gabe, please.
>>7700988It's not. It was spectacularly convoluted and difficult to follow, but it had spectacle, music and occsionally animations, and a colorful cast to latch onto. People will tend to overlook the 9000 retcons so long there is no interference of the retarded headcanons (i.e. the "caucasian incident") In other words people loved the idea of it more than what it actually was.
