What is the difference between enjoying the comic and enjoying the characters? How is that different?

>>65642
Only the former implies reading the comic.

I for one am a big fan of Hussie's writing (when he gets it right, which is often enough to tolerate the rest). However, the characters may very well be the best part, and I have read my fair share of fanfictions.

>>65642
By that logic, characters = entire story?

>>65646
There are works of fiction like that.

Homestuck is not one of them.

Well.

I have seen people who've only read Hivebent and are only interested in the trolls. Who don't care about the kids/guardians/pawns/whatever.

That's a thing.

I think it really is just a case of Andrew making some character's with a good shtick/general personality but not really providing a good structure for them to act out without it just getting meandering and repetitive.

>>65642

Despite what people will argue, good characters can only get you so far. If the plot you've set up for them keeps giving you false climaxes, pointless segues or bad pacing then you're fully free to get fed up with someone about it. Imagine watching your ignorant but well-meaning best friend play a really good videogame or use a really powerful and good-conditioned gun at a shooting range.

You see your friend constantly miss the obvious puzzle pieces the game gives him that you figured out a second ago and he keeps dying at a boss you could beat with your eyes closed, or he keeps missing with the gun and keeps putting bullet holes into trees because he isn't holding it or firing popular at all and it's making him sloppy. You'll feel aggravated and annoyed, right?

That's got nothing to do with the SUBSTANCE of the material he's dealing with. He's not playing a shitty game or using a shitty gun. He just doesn't know how to PLAY THAT GAME RIGHT or how to USE THAT GUN PROPERLY and it's pissing you off because you can see where it's going wrong and all you can do is sit back, watch and pray to Christ he finally realizes where he's fucking up.

That's what it means to have a bad story, but interesting characters.

I have seen some people who don't really like the storyline but really loves the characters and their interactions with each other.

>>65649
All that right there...

Thats Kubo Tite.

>>65642
>>65646
>What is the difference between enjoying the comic and enjoying the characters? How is that different?

I would put forth that one can enjoy the characters within a work without enjoying the work itself, regardless or not (and often due to) reading said source material.

Thats an assumption that I'm holding to that can occur, WITH the full agreement that it IS an assumption.

A character and their personality can be held seperate from their canonical history via archetypes, if we want to start getting snooty writin' terms up in here. WHICH I DO.

With that in mind, continue.

That might be true for some, but you could also make an arguement that most of the fandom is here for continued information on game mechanics.
How many classes there are, what they mean, what the aspect means and which stupid windsock they're going to wear- not to mention the functions of Prospit and Derse- and we all love watching the kids gather and spend grist, y/y?

>>65649
>Despite what people will argue, good characters can only get you so far. If the plot you've set up for them keeps giving you false climaxes, pointless segues or bad pacing then you're fully free to get fed up with someone about it.
Some writers will argue that if your characters are good enough, plot and pacing will happen naturally as they interact. I tend to agree, on the principle that good characters all want something, and even in a very small cast these desires should conflict with each other.

If you have good characters but you're incapable of writing them faithfully, how can anyone tell they're good?

>>65659

Plot is more than just "Character wants ________, character faces opposition, character gets ___________."

There is a lot of individual moments that can go wrong. Introducing new plot elements, introducing new characters, segueing from character to character and keeping your plot moving in a relevant fashion. Get any of those wrong and you could still bring the entire story down.

Dunno... fandom does have a lot in saying how invested i am in something and for how long. It's like watching a movie or or trying a roller-coaster ride, it's just funnier with someone to share it with.

I've also noticed, sort of, that many of the Homestuck characters(specially the trolls) have something very.. simple in common with other very popular characters subjected to huge fandoms. A group of "not normal" creatures, all have a different theme/personality/quirk, a special weapon or trademark fighting move, but we still now they're in a group, be that because of skin colour/clothing or a special theme. They often have assigned colours, titles, trademark sayings and so on. They live together(or fandom just really like imagining that they do), making it easy for fans to imagine.. scenarios, and they make huge amounts of fanart/fanfics/cosplay. I'm thinking of the Akatsuki and Organization 13 in particular.
I don't know what to call this trope, but it attracts fans.

Or maybe i'm just high.

I can only speak for myself, but I agree. Personally I adore the characters themselves, but have grown to nearly hate the story they're in. In the same vein, I've grown to derive more enjoyment from other peoples' interpretations of the characters, and what they do with them.

>>65649
The problem is, people who go crazy about act 5 seem to be 14 year old girls who have no understanding of the characters or plot and seem to just be interested in ailen sex and in-jokes, not telling a good story. No matter how good Homestuck's story is, it will always have had fans who didn't care about that and just wanted sex.

>>65677
I like the characters more then the overall story (just by a hair) but i have never found any fanwork that i like more than homestuck itself. I find that the characters are never as entertaining or interesting as they are in the story proper.

I thought that the end of Act 5 was the place to start winding down the story, not introducing a slew of new characters and complications (of which only some are interesting). We didn't need any more than the Alpha kids. We didn't need the UU's, we didn't need Aranea, and we really didn't need Meenah. The story was bloated and convoluted enough as it was.

So yeah, around the start of Act 6 I did start disengaging with the story. It was more fun reading people's different interpretations of the characters because the characters themselves were starting to get buried under an avalanche of Who Gives A Fuck About The Ancestor's Pre-Scratch Selves.

The way I'm understanding OP's question isn't really in a 'characters vs plot' kind of way. You know those youtube videos that feature Homestuck characters doing stuff over some voice track or soundclip, but the Homestuck characters featured are often really out of character or only barely relate to what is in the video? That is what I'm thinking of.

And yeah, there are a number of people like that. The appeal of Homestuck characters for them generally seems to be using really basic cliches. To them Dave doesn't have any characterization other than 'cool kid,' for example. The appeal of the characters for them isn't what is in the characters themselves, but in what little comics or animations they can use the characters for. This is partly why there are so many Homestuck fan-things that have everyone acting really out of character, the creator doesn't really know those characters beyond their most basic element (cool kid, blind girl, stoner clown, etc.).

So yeah, I'd say there are definitely a number of 'fans' who are like that. Otherwise I don't think there'd be as many ooc fanworks.

>>65677
But in most fanworks the characters are usually distilled into simple flanderizations and/or OOC.

>>65686
Which isn't all that egregious when it aligns with your own take on the characters. I don't think anyone goes through the story taking the characters purely at face value with no extrapolations whatsoever, certainly nobody I've known who's read through it. Of all the ridiculous OOC sketches and youtubes and audio skits, a few of them probably made you smile, and they couldn't have managed that without a springboard for their own creativity. Being exposed to occasionally awful headcanons is the price of accessing that creativity.