Homestuck-related AMAs

Q: I've found that one of the biggest hanging questions of the original ending, which some of the old patreon updates touched on, is how this new world was put together.

I understand that this is a story about kids and their kids now, but Earth C is... Well, The Earth. And apparently it was segmented into four kingdoms? Where are those kingdoms? How have they run for 5,000 years while the kids skipped ahead?

Jane is Not-President in one world, but is actually president in the other? Is that of the whole world? What's the actual power structure and geography at work?

Put simply: Is there a desire to dig into the worldbuilding of Earth-C in both timelines, to explain how it all functions as a society, beyond the patreon update that effectively said "Automated Socialism, but no longer"?

MILES: I think that a lot of how we want to explore this is in the way that the omega kids talk to each other. I'm hoping to have them pepper a lot of references to the society they came from into their dialogue so as to let us allude passively (and occasionally actively) to that world.

FLORAL: Miles said it best, there is definitely thoughts and discussions we've had about Earth C but one of the things I love about Homestuck is how it feeds this information to you in really natural ways.

Q: I know the team gets a lot of questions along the lines of "how are you going to improve story X" or "can you please fix Y?" and by now is probably sick of hearing them. But I, and likely dozens of other fans, want to know something much more important to Homestuck: What are some of the things the team is excited about making WORSE?

ANDI: grins evilly

MILES: grins evilly

HAVEN: grins evilly

CHUMI: 𝖌𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖘 𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖞

FLORAL: *crashes my car into your house*

JAMES: what the fuck

Q: James: What pushed you and the others into picking this project back up?

Kim: Are you intending to push for new artstyles that mirror the spirit of Homestuck but defy the usual conventions (as you guys have so far) similar to how Hussie continued to try and innovate new styles for various moments?

Andi, Chumi, Haven, and Floral: Who's your favorite character to draw, and do you have a favorite godtier outfit you're looking forward to drawing? And/or a favorite moment?

Haven, Floral, and Miles: Who are your favorite characters to write, and how do you feel about your grasp on them? Are you looking forward to growing the universe and seeing where it goes and how you can further defy narrative conventions and embody the spirit of HS in your own way?

Kohi: How is it working on the web treating you? Are you looking forward to the possibility (slight, but not out of the question) of breaking a site again like Hussie did by working together on this project? Further, what sites do you wish you could advertise HS^2 on if you could? Alongside this, what kinds of difficulties do you have to deal with maintaining the servers and site?

JAMES: I think the easy answer is we just really love Homestuck, also Andrew asked me specifically to do it. I handpicked this team because I thought they truly understood what made Homestuck good. Wow they are typing so much in this google doc. I'm watching the words fill out like little ants.

KIM: Absolutely! I've been thinking a lot about this actually! Homestuck is such a living piece of work that's constantly evolving, including the artwork as well. I love that while so far we have been drawing in a way that is very reminiscent of Andrew Hussie's early Homestuck art, I really wanted to emphasize to all the artists that we should also strike a balance taking a lot of our own artistic liberties and just go crazy with it illustratively. No spoilers, but there's a certain part of the story we DEFINITELY want to go wild and experimental with it LOL.

CHUMI: My favorite character to draw is Jade!!! Harley!!! hehe. ✌️ Other than the obvious answer, probably Aradia! And a favorite GTier outfit.... I'd say Vrissy's! Take that as you will, hehe.

ANDI: I really like drawing Aradia, I love drawing big hair. She's very fun!! I don't like a lot of god tier outfits lol. But when I do draw them, you know I'm gonna go incredibly hard..

HAVEN: my favorite characters to draw in fanart are dave, karkat, vriska and aradia but since starting working on the comic panel-wise my favorite characters to draw are The Alternate Calliope and kanaya. I'm looking forward to drawing vriska's god tier more.

FLORAL: Personally, I really gravitate towards Space players along with John. They really lean into my wheelhouse with how subtle their voices are. Not to mention I love “""nice""" characters because their motivations require a lot of nuance. I also love writing Karkat because he's closest to my own sense of humor.
I am so so excited to work with the universe of Homestuck. I love the themes of OG HS so much and I love discussing what it means to make a story. *rubbing my hands together*
As for the art question, I love drawing Jade, Kanaya and Karkat 8). Jade is one of my fave godtier outfits too.

HAVEN: honestly it's kind of a cop out answer but i really love writing literally every character, this is all a dream come true. I find myself enjoying every character more as i get chances to write them, recently The Alternate Calliope in particular has been really fun for me.

MILES: I love writing almost anyone, but I think one of my surprise new passions has been writing Dirk, who hasn't shown up much at all in the comic yet, but (spoiler alert!!!!!!!!!!!) will. Everyone is fun, though. I think one of my best strengths as a writer is character voice, to say nothing of the fact that I'm one of the millions of us who has a Homestuck Lobe of my brain.
Where the story/universe is concerned, I am more excited than you could possibly fucking imagine. We have some really, really incredible stuff coming both insofar as we're continuing the plot we inherited and jumping into new stuff. It's a huge honor, folks on the team can tell you that I'm constantly geeked about it.

KOHI: Working on the site has been pretty rewarding! As far as breaking the site goes, obviously that's something that no web developer wants to see happen, but the Homestuck fandom takes it in stride and finds it more amusing than detrimental. With site maintenance difficulties, the biggest challenges are making sure to respond to any alerts that pop up for our VPSes, as well as any new CVEs that pop up. Y'know, typical routine routine webdev stuff.

Q: When is the Homestuck x Fortnite Collab?

ANDI: NOW!!!!! Sorry I got excited at a hypothetical.

ANDI: But really, if its gonna happen, we need to make homestuck even bigger than the peak of 2014. If we can do it once, we can do it again, yall have crashed websites before. C'mon. Don't you wanna see that limited edition god tier john skin hit the griddy? Could you imagine a vrillyhoo pickaxe?

MILES: You guys are literally our only hope of this. Please don't let us down.

JAMES: demand homestuck in fortnite anyway heres what im thinking for the first drop. Typically fortnite collab drops come in threes. Obviously John has to be one, but we have to have at least one troll. I'd say Terezi, because she has the most alt outfits. Backbling would be a perfectly generic object or Casey. The emote would be a traversal Ghost Pogo Ride

Q: Hi James. Can we expect interactive (Flash) pages in the near future? I do understand it's not as easy as it sounds but I'm still curious.

JAMES: “NEAR?" future? How about this. We have at least one planned. I'm committing everyone to it by saying this.

Q: Many of you have been involved in homestuck fanworks in the past (and continuing into the present.) How different does it feel, working on HSBC? Does it feel basically the same as working on fanworks, or does the level of "official-ness" make it feel different for you? How much of a dividing line do you draw there, mentally? I'm interested in all of y'alls personal perspectives on this!

CHUMI: I would say it's quite different! The “officialness" is something that's a little intimidating for me, knowing that this thing I've drawn will be seen by many, MANY people and forever regarded as canon. It does affect how I tackle each storyboard and panel. Of course it's still very exciting though! Being part of Homestuck is a dream come true, and I want to convey how much I love our stuff and Homestuck through my work! I'd say I'm learning a lot! 😀

KIM: It's definitely different making something as a fan vs making something officially LOL. I think what's important to consider is that since a wider audience is involved, you have to take into account that a lot of story decisions are now very crucial. Especially if there's anything I know from being a fan of Homestuck of 10+ years, we as fans LOVE to theorize on all the little details– so we gotta be very intentional too! I'm very much the kind of person who loves to play in the realm of non-canon, so I very much compartmentalize what I'd like to keep for myself as a fan to play with VS. what we make canon.

KOHI: There are a lot of similarities that carry over between any kind of collaborative work like this, but the fun has been seeing the different workflows and processes that the members of the team have brought with them. This is a craft where you're always improving yourself and those working with you through these nuances. The “official-ness" brings with it an inherent weight of responsibility, sure, but I think we'd be giving our best work regardless.

FLORAL: Personally, with my fanwork projects that process is definitely a bit different and I actively try to approach it differently too. With the Liminal Space comics, the mentality is to interact with the source material in a format and subject style that is contradictory. It's all about the inbetweens and the quiet moments of Homestuck canon. Fanwork feels like a suggestion for other readers to try out a new perspective. The fun of official work is separating from that and working with the larger team about what feels right and true. It's not about “look at this fun thought I had" but moreso how I would approach original work. “This is a functioning, finely tuned narrative that people will be interacting with as source material." It's really fun this switch up and I love working on Homestuck with other people. Fa work is isolating honestly(at least how ive always done it) but now we can all celebrate and be excited together.

Q: Is hussie still "involved"

HAVEN: andrew is in our discord

ANDI: He's around!

JAMES: he makes me do things every day :c

Q: how many acts are you planning to have?
is HSBC gonna be smaller than homestuck, or comparable in size?

MILES: HSBC is going to be LONG, for sure, at the very least temporally. Looking at our plans for the plot structure right now I can't imagine it's going to take us less than three years of regular updates, but it could end up stretching longer. You're going to be happy for that, trust me. I'm gonna be saying this a lot, but we have So Much Neat Shit to get through.

HAVEN: a stupid amount, we look at the outline and start laughing like “hahaha they don't even know bro..."

FLORAL: You guys can't imagine. That said....no Act 6 Act 6 Act 6. Everyone promise me right now...

Q: are we gonna see more of the mystery species the OG Hs^2 teased at?

HAVEN: they died its over

MILES: You actually just missed them. They were sooooooo cool...

HAVEN: tragic

JAMES: disregard these jokers. these tricksters. completely unhelpful.

Q: do you have plans of doing more spin-offs like pesterquest and friendsim?

with homestuck having such a large universe, there is a lot of spin-off potential in the dancestors, earth C, ghosts, ghosts, etc.

MILES: We are going to make a Homestuck Gacha game. I refuse to word this as a hypothetical. We are going to make a Homestuck Gacha game.

HAVEN: we discuss homestuck gacha literally every meeting

ANDI: its not a joke.

JAMES: GACHA GAME GACHA GAME

KIM: I don't think we have any plans set in stone currently, but I would LOVE spin-offs that expand the world. I (personally) want more Alternia-based spin-off adventures because I love thinking about troll lore, hehe. Realistically, I think with any further projects, we should tackle those once we have our bearings together and perhaps when our current projects are winding down. We're just in the beginning and we're just a small team!

Q: what are you going to do with ult dirk. i mean he's done some fucked up shit. also bgd in candy

MILES: What is ult!Dirk going to do with US? I don't control him. I just write him.

HAVEN: filling him with milk slapping him against the wall and sucking the milk out

MILES: Not if I suck him first...

FLORAL: I dont like it here.

JAMES: man. I fucking hate you guys.

Q: Was changing Calliope's cheeks from full to swirls a result of a changing story direction or just because it was a visual error on behalf of the old team that slipped through the cracks?

HAVEN: yes to both

JAMES: thanks haven

Q: Will there be any more canon fantrolls?

HAVEN: only ours

CHUMI: Yeah I'm gonna put myself in the comic somewhere, multiple times hopefully.

ANDI: Where's Wally except the teams ocs or something.

KIM: If you got a keen eye, I already put one in LOL. : )

MILES: They're not fantrolls if they're canon, now, are they?

FLORAL: mine is in one of the bonus updates. Nepotism.

JAMES: in a sense they are all my fantrolls now

Q: I heard about SAHCon and you guys partnering up. How are things going to go next year?

MILES: Things are gonna go so badly and everyone's going to regret it and I'm going to cry and pee my pants. Or maybe it'll be awesome. We're excited nonetheless.

JAMES: I wish you guys would stop talking about pissing yourselves. We're excited to be reaching out to different communities. We want to showcase more fan stuff because I think its the fans that really make this all work.

Q: Will we see more horrorterrors again in beyond canon?

HAVEN: yes

MILES: Hope they don't see you....!

JAMES: thats spooky man

ANDI: Yikes!!!

FLORAL: * is devoured *

Q: is it true that the adult protagonists will be getting sprite redesigns (please don't tell me that big head John silhouette is real...)

HAVEN: its all real

ANDI: oh its all really real

Q: Ok last question: Will we see Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff again? X)

MILES: Real shit I'm gunning pretty hard for this.

JAMES: ok just for you

Q: Will y'all provide a commentary on the whole comic after beyond canon is finished just like what Andrew did with Homestuck at first? If so, how will it be formatted?

MILES: We'd love to! Not sure if we will but I think a retrospective would be a great thing at the end. We actually do writers commentary for every update right now, though; it's on the Patreon. You can see them if you give us money.

JAMES: We're gonna start posting them for free too. Right? Am I remembering that right? A few months after they go up initially we want to have them on the site for the non-paying fans as well

Q: What does Homestuck mean to you in 2023? Who's your target audience, and who would you love to get involved and interested?

JAMES: it means the same thing its meant to me the whole time i never left my target audience is me

ANDI: Homestuck as a story meant a lot to me growing up and I think now it means to me as a chance to revisit our favorite media with a fresh mind and to invite in fans old and new!! I think about how insane it is that the events have transpired in this way, my 14 year old self is shaking in their boots. We're so back.

MILES: Homestuck means everything to me. It's a story that hit me HARD when I started reading back in 2010 and was my whole life for a while. It remains one of my favorite stories ever, so getting to continue it and put some of myself back into it is a dream come true and feels very full-circle for me. Like, I get to write this now? What the fuck? Anyway you're all our targets... NONE of you are safe.

CHUMI: Homestuck is basically my house that I've lived in for over a decade and, in a sense, I've been stuck here perhaps? It began my journey as an artist, I've met so many friends, gained so much inspiration from others... It marked the beginning of everything for me, and I'm eternally grateful! Literally would not be an artist without HS and I don't know what that would be like. Our target audience is... you! And everyone else who has interest in HS, whether it be old or new. -^_^-

FLORAL: Homestuck is my dream come true tbh. It taught me a lot about being a writer and narrative and now it's asking me to use those years of thought to help make something new. My target audience is the hoes. I stole that from Miles. But forreal, I'd love to reconnect with old fans along with inspire new fans of Homestuck in general.

KIM: What Homestuck means to me, personally, it's like an open sandbox playground. By that, and I feel like I've said this so many times by now LOL, but I feel Homestuck is just so EXPANSIVE! The possibilities are honestly limitless within this universe, and I just love to create within it and that's what constantly keeps me invested and coming back as a creative. I think I'm honestly chasing the high of how creatively inspired the fandom was back in 2014, and it'd be so cool if we can continue to reach that audience of people who feel that creativity.

HAVEN: homestuck is one of my favorite stories of all time, that's something that's never wavered for me. My target audience is the oil oligarch interested in investing in us.

Q: In what year did each of you first read Homestuck? And would you have expected to still care about the comic in 2023?

For reference, I first read it in 2014 and I think I knew at heart it would become a lifelong obsession.

CHUMI: Probably around mid-2011, I saw my sister looking at a picture of dead Kanaya and that's what started it all! Adolescent me did not expect to be into the same thing 12 years later, but I'm glad I'm here!

KIM: I also first read it in 2011 when I kept seeing this Karkat guy showing up everywhere in my DeviantART feed and I needed to know who these gray motherfuckers were. I'm honestly pretty consistent with my interests, even when my interest would have waned for a couple years, I always had a foot in the door for the fandom.

MILES: I mentioned this earlier but I started reading in 2010. I caught up right before Bec Noir happened and that whole era leading into and including murderstuck was one of the best times to be an active reader in the entire life of the comic, at least in my experience. I knew I was obsessed at the time, but I think it'd still surprise young me how long I'd care. If I could travel back in time and tell myself I'd be writing the sequel I think young me would like... shit himself.

FLORAL: I first read Homestuck in 2012 but the hyperfixation wasn't real yet. I dropped it for quite a few years, in the beginning of Act 6. But then I reread around the end with Collide. I drew Dave taking a snapchat of President Karkat and it was over after that. I don't think there will ever be a time in my life I don't think about Jade Harley.

HAVEN: i saw xamag post sober gamzee on deviantart in 2011 and i was like “alright whats going on over there"

KOHI: I've been online for a while and saw Problem Sleuth and Homestuck in my periphery for a while but didn't start reading until mid-2010 when some friends of mine on a forum called BZPower collectively changed their avatars to the trolls. Started reading out of curiosity -- immediately sucked in.

JAMES: I read homestuck as it came out because I was a fan of problem sleuth. I'm the oldest person in the world.

Q: If you had to have Homestuck crossover with one other property, what would it be?

ANDI: Fortnite.

HAVEN: we need homestuck in fortnite more than literally anything

HAVEN: also vampire survivors

FLORAL: Hello Kitty. I would buy the fuck out of that.

CHUMI: Fire Emblem tbh. Fire Emblem Heroes for the Homestuck gacha of course.

KOHI: Surprising no one who knows me: BIONICLE.

KIM: Honestly... SO curious how Homestuck would look in Cookie Run.

JAMES: fortnite also

Q: Who are each one of your favorite trolls?

CHUMI: Feferi, Aradia, Karkat!

MILES: Vriska, Karkat, and Equius. And Gamzee, kind of, hes like... a meta-villain. Foe of the audience. A narrative device. A baby boy. A work of art.

HAVEN: vriska and aradia, karkat too i cant lie i love that dude

ANDI: Karkat, Terezi, Meenah, Sollux

JAMES: I don't have a favorite troll and I've never mentioned it.

FLORAL: Karkat and Kanaya

KIM: I'm a big Hiveswap fan, but I know you're probably asking for Hivebent trolls, so I'll answer for both LOL. For Hivebent, I'm diehard for Eridan and Feferi. For Hiveswap, you could say I'm a fan of Lanque and Mallek. : )

KOHI: Aradia and Terezi are up there. Swifer is also endearing to me for some reason.

Q: What are each of y'all's favorite meme/moments in hs fandom history??
My fave is baby dave everywhere

CHUMI: The deluge of askblogs, I remember that being my first BIG art endeavor as a preteen. I used to run askPeixes, but it's been ground into dust so hopefully none of you guys have seen that. If I remember correctly, the wave of HS askblogs kickstarted the general askblog trend, so it feels funny to be part of Tumblr history like that LOL.

FLORAL: I watched Cascade in the dark in my yearbook club classroom and celebrated all by myself. And the daily blogs were a big part of post Homestuck end fandom. I was in Daily Karkat and that was so fun!!

MILES: I said this before but reading Homestuck live during murderstuck was like... manic and frantic and unmatched. It felt insane.

HAVEN: caucasian update

JAMES: i liked it when they all spit in that bucket in that dennys

Q: Are there any plans to show Vrissy, Tavros, and Yiffie's rooms and interests like the old team did Harry Anderson's?

MILES: Yes! One of the things we've been the most stoked about as writers, visdevs, anything, is getting the chance to flesh these kids out more both in terms of who they have been up to now and who they're gonna become. A character's room is a hugely important part of their Homestuck Essence and we wanna stay true to that and continue to explore it.

ANDI: Absolutely...we are making sure of that!! There is so much potential in these kids and I can assure you our team is obsessed with exploring and discussing them.

Q: With the Roxy DKC Toblerone wish being fulfilled, is it a goal to confirm and canonize more unfulfilled wishes with this comic? Also are there any characters you've had a difficult time figuring out what exactly to do with in the new direction you're taking?

MILES: I know exactly what to do with every character, as I'm am so genius.

HAVEN: we've went through the cast and figured out everyone's deals pretty succinctly. If I do say so myself... we're kind of awesome...

FLORAL: i'm in a discord with all the homestuck characters and they will kill my family if we fuck this up

Q: How big do you think relationships will play into this? I think romantic relationships have always gotten a lot of love in the comic, but due to the nature of comic parental/authority and kid relationships were very barely present.

Something that makes HS:BC unique to me especially comparing it while re-reading the original is that all all adults existing alongside their children + the mid-20 something's version of of the adults to on the other side.

Should we expect more of the same distance when taken to relationships between adult and children as HS? Or can we look forward to like adults and children working together having developed relationships between two people not a child and vague authority figure?

Also does anyone on your staff like/love Alt-Calliope?

She is low key one of my favorite characters and I feel both her and Calliope were dreadfully under utilized. Alt-Calliope being malicious and yet “good" and having it out with Jade is low key one of my favorite post-comic moments.

MILES: We definitely are gonna be ruminating pretty heavily on the parent-child relationships, and as you pointed out the adults this time are Full Characters who are themselves going to be having their own arcs and adventures, but these groups (the kids vs the adults) are going to merge and subsequently distance themselves from each other pretty often and chaotically over the course of the narrative. A lot of these intergenerational relationships are things that the individual characters might need to work through themselves. Homestuck gives a lot of responsibility to people to work their own shit out, then converge and sort of... emotionally compare notes. Also, we fucking love Alt-Calliope, and I get the feeling that after we're done you're gonna love her even more.

FLORAL: What fun about Homestuck is that despite the game actively putting distance between children and their guardians, the guardians are always present in how the kids approach playing the game. Especially with the 4 betas. And personally that's one of the things I love about it. Also Alternate Calliope fucking rules.

HAVEN: i fucking love The Alternate Calliope

Q: will commander karkat be making a return?

MILES: In all his bodacious glory.

ANDI: Jaws will drop, baby.

FLORAL: He's here with us right now.

Q: With SaHCon coming up and the development of the vinyl, Im wondering if we could assume more merchandise to be rolled out as time goes on? (sincerely someone who would love a troll plushie)

CHUMI: Bro you don't even KNOW the half of it. I'm so excited to make more merch, and we have definitely talked about plushies and “bigger" merchandise! However, for now, settling into the groove of things (ie: updates, patreon, etc. etc.) is our top priority. But I'd say, look forward to it because you've got several people on the team who love making merch!

Q: What is a something that you know you cannot make canon, but really really really wanna make canon anyways

JAMES: I can do anything I want

Q: There are many many various styles of horns to draw! Which horns are yall's favorites, and also if you were a troll, whos horns would you have/want to have?

MILES: I'm not one of the artists but I love Kanaya's horns. They're so clean. The little barb on one of them is so classy.

HAVEN: i like drawing aradia's horns a lot

FLORAL: I like Karkat's horns, like they are embarrassing in comparison to everyone else. Also...Tavros horns...cow

CHUMI: My favorite ones are the swirly horns like Aradia or curved ones like the clowns!

KIM: I'm a big fan of jadeblood horns, they're nice and swoopy with a cool hook(s), hehe. I already have a trollsona that appears in several Homestuck spin-off properties (including Beyond Canon, already LOL). If you keep an eye out for a glasses-wearing indigo with a singular arrow pointed horn, that's probably me.

Q: Question for the artist or anyone involved in the process! I'm a really big fan of the new art style, I was wondering what the process was like when it came to changing it!

KIM: It's a mix of taking inspiration from our favorite panels of Homestuck, observing and taking note of what made OG Homestuck's art style in its entirety distinct to us, but also giving artists their own personal artistic spins on it! A really interesting observation about the “Homestuck art style" is that... it has always been visually all over the place, and that's what makes it fun! It's daring! It's experimental! Of course, there's lots of recurring stylistic ticks, but there's no singular art style– if that makes sense. I think all the artists on the team have a mutual understanding where we wanna go with it visually too, but the most important thing we all have to remember– you gotta have fun with it!!!

Q: How is HSBC/HS^2 partitioned? Like, will there still be chapters? If not, will that be replaced by "acts" or something else? How should the story's parts be referred to, for example should we call the first 15 Chapters Homestuck^2, and everything onwards Homestuck: Beyond Canon?

Any plans on adding an adventure map for HSBC?

MILES: We've been internally thinking of HSBC in Acts, and we're probably gonna crystallize that going forward. For reference, everything that's happened in HS^2/HSBC up til now would be considered to be part of HSBC Act 1. I believe we'll be delineating these things pretty clearly In-Comic, so over time/in retrospect it's gonna be pretty clear. You'll know when an Act has ended, and when a new one is beginning. As for what you should call the first chapters, I think you can sort of unofficially call those chapters “HS^2" if you want to refer specifically to that as a production era, but Homestuck: Beyond Canon is gonna be the name of the whole story, and HS^2 is the first part of That Story.

HAVEN: act 1 confirmed

KIM: If it helps, I've been personally referring to the first 15 Chapters of Beyond Canon as the pre-hiatus chapters.

JAMES: i heard someone call it the pre roach era which drives me insane

Q: Hey HS:BC, all here - What's the process like for creating an update? Is there a "writers room" where people spitball ideas, then get to work on the art afterwards, and then rinse and repeat

Keep up the good work!

HAVEN: our discord

MILES: Meetings and meetings and meetings and meetings. It's kind of as you said; we write/"storyboard" first (most often an update will be drafted out at first by one person, then the group congregates as editors), then the artists do their magic. It's some of the most fun I've had doing anything ever.

CHUMI: We have so many docs.

ANDI: Lots o' folders.

KIM: It's super collaborative! Even us as artists, we're not barred from coining in on the story either! Though, of course, the writing team spearheads it and have their own pipeline process LOL. When it comes to the art, it's a whole back and forth process with the artists making their boards and sketches for the update. I would constantly correspond with the artists, as I help overlook and make sure all the boards read clearly and unifies the overall visual intention for the comic.

Q: Hey James! A few questions if that's okay :)

1) What's the internal thoughts on the younger skew of the fanbase, especially when most of the content within the comic and Beyond Canon comic itself is geared towards older and adult readers? Will it continue being for older readers, or will it be a bit more sanitized/for all ages? I'd prefer to have it more adult still personally, but that's for you guys to decide ultimately .

2) Are there any updates on a gacha-type game you've discussed a few times, just as an idea? Or any other merch plans you can share?

3) Thank you for being nice to Roxy. Not a question ig.

CHUMI: I think our main priority is writing a story that's loyal to our vision. Since it so happens that HS:BC is currently exploring a lot of “adult" themes, HS:BC so far has been more adult-oriented. Of course, as the course of the story progresses, this is subject to change just as the themes of the story change! We're working on merch ideas, but that'll probably come at a later date, since we're more focused on settling in right now. Gacha game, we think about it all the time, at every meeting.

KIM: For your first question, Chumi put it best, I think we're simply focused on just trying to tell a good story. I don't think “sanitizing it" is our goal or the right way to put it either, but we just want to tell our story honestly, ykwim? And sometimes, those topics may touch upon more mature themes!

JAMES: The thing about young people is that they just keep making new ones. Audiences are always gonna skew “young" and thats cool man. I read things that were meant for older audiences as a kid, and theres very little we can do to stop kids from reading it. I think the best we can do is make it clear this intended for an older audience and cater it to that intended audience.

As far as a gacha game we half-joke about it. We all really want to do it because it would rule.

Also, no problem Roxy rules.

Q: 1. I know Hussie has largely washed his hands of HS (in a creative capacity, anyway), and we'll almost certainly never see a complete collection of HS books, but do you know if there's any possibility that we'll see a continuation of his author's notes in any form? I totally understand if he just wants to move on from talking about HS/making HS content himself, but I would love to see them on the Patreon or as a paid-for plug-in for the unofficial collection, or something else like that.

2. Is there any chance we ever get to see any of Homestuck's story bibles/development documents? Every time James mentions the classpect one, my Hunger grows. I know James always wanted to make a SBURBology-style guidebook, which would essentially be those sorts of documents turned into an actual product. Now that James directs the HICU, might SBURBology finally see the light of day?

3. On a related note, what's everyone on the team's dream HS merch? Besides SBRUBology, I would personally kill for Nendoroids of all my little blorbos.

4. What's everyone on the team's dream HS-related project? James and Kim have talked about doing a gacha game of some sort in the past, but what about everybody else?

5. Writers, of the Omega kids, who's your favourite and least favourite to write?

6. Have the Omega kids been assigned god tiers internally and, if so, will we ever find out what they are, inside or outside of the story?

7. When can I see Yiffany again I love her with all my heart and I miss her so bad.

MILES: Answering question 1 here. I don't want to get too into stuff just yet without working some stuff out on the back-end, but we'd very much like to see the author's notes continued and are actively looking into avenues to explore that. We'd love to have some good news for you guys on this front early next year, but no promises. As for question 5, I love writing Tavvy. I've been playing around with him in my head for a while and I have a lot of fun thinking about how to develop him.

CHUMI: Answering the 3rd question, my dream merch is plushies, cool attire that doesn't scream fandom but if you know you know, and just more cute, creative, and fun merch in general!

KIM:(3) FIGURES AND PLUSHIES!!! (4) Besides a gacha game LOL– my absolute DREAM project is to do a spin-off anthology series that explores the different kinds of possible complexities with each troll quadrant; each chapter featuring an entirely new pair of characters we've never met before. Human relationships are already so complex, and thinking about how quadrants can twist that is so fascinating to me.

FLORAL: Answering 5 and 6, I love writing all of them but Yiffy is so good. And you can't finalize characterization without assigning possible god tiers :)

Q: Is Davepeta really dead?

HAVEN: who said theyre dead

Q: not a question, but i want to shoutout floral and haven for the years of brilliant art ive seen from both of them! im sure other team members are talented too, im just not very familiar with their work

HAVEN: :D thank you!

FLORAL: I went waaah audibly, thank you!!

JAMES: yeah

Q: whats the hardest part of writing pre existing characters?
who would you give the aux to?

FLORAL: I love writing pre-written characters, I love crawling under another hypothetical person's skin and figuring out what makes them happy and what hurts them. What's hardest I'd say is distancing yourself from what popular fan readings say and finding your own voice. Except I also love that. I would keep the aux and force the characters to listen to MY playlists.

JAMES: It's actually way easier to me cause if you get it wrong you just say its character growth. Who's gonna stop me? You? Nice try. I wanna see what Karkat's listening to. Troll Mitski. Troll Lana Del Rey. Troll Sadgirl Music. Everyone else thinks I'm wrong. We're in a call and Miles said Eridan's listening to Troll Imagine Dragons. Argh gross.

HAVEN: karkat listens to Feels So Good by Troll Chuck Mangione. i would give the aux to sollux and roxy

MILES: I think the only thing that's hard about writing pre-existing characters is checking yourself to see “would they really do/think/say this?" It's actually been enormously helpful for me in terms of seeing how developed my understanding of these characters is and testing where it makes sense for us to take them. As for who to give the aux I was gonna answer Dave, originally, but I don't know that this is a safe thing to do. I'm changing my answer to Equius, because you know he's listening to a bunch of heavy shit. Cybergoth industrial. Hardstyle. Dubstep. Prog metal. Headbanger shit.

CHUMI: I'd give it to Floral. 🙂

Q: Is there any plan or news about the whole “Dragonology" type book for Sburb you mentioned? Also, love your work! The new team is doing great

MILES: We'd really like to do one someday, it'll be a huge project but it's VERY DESIRED by fans and staff alike. That said, if you saw how barebones the Official Document We For Real Got From Andrew was you'd fall to your knees. Or laugh.

HAVEN: putting it vaguely and unsatisfyingly most of the shit people have theorized every classpect about it is correct but the actual doc is like 1 sentence for each class and aspect, very bare bones.

JAMES: Sburbology is my dream. Right there next to HOMESTUCK GACHA GAME. It lives in my heart like a tumor.

Q: Will the new kids birthdays be revealed if said at all? In my opinion it would be pretty neat!

CHUMI: Yes, they'll all get canon birthdays!

FLORAL: We have to canonize a new scorpio.

Q: can dave beat goku

HAVEN: no

MILES: You can't pit two queens against each other like this. Also no.

JAMES: Nobody can beat Goku chucklehead

Q: christ o'maily there's a million of one frivolous questions so i guess if you feel like any of them are interesting then take your pick and answer, or answer none, i'm not picky.

1. What's the classpect you like to give your self?
2. are you sticking strictly with all narrative precedent you were given with the prior chapters or are you going to pick and choose some bits?
3. whats your prefered table stuck system?
4. are you nervous about takeing up this project? I know that the last team was treated like horse shit and I hope you guys arent treated even a fucking fraction of a percent as badly as they were but is the worry there?
5. how did this team form up? did you recruit in secret or did you all know each other prior ?

JAMES: CLASSPECTS. We decided these after reading the design notes, that you may see in some capacity. We really wanted to answer this one so sorry for ignoring the rest of your questions. To keep it fair to you I promise I at least read them.

MILES: Not sure on class, but I'm a Hope player, I think. Prospit gang.

FLORAL: Knight of Rage!! (Prospit) Rage gets a bad rap

HAVEN: page of mind (prospit)

JAMES: the team assigned me Seer of Doom (Derse)

KIM: Being a Void player is now my entire personality. At every turn I'm saying, “this is so Void player of me." I'm an Heir of Void (Equius.....) (Also, Prospit.)

ANDI (who had to leave early): Witch of Hope or Light ✌️ (Derse)

CHUMI: Witch of Hope or Light ✌️ (Derse)

KOHI: Mage of Hope (Prospit) cause I'm just a fucked up little optimist

Q: how are u :)

ANDI: Very good!!!! Enjoying answering these questions with the team. I am about to have a pre-christmas dinner. Hope you are doing well, thank you for asking!

HAVEN: having fun with the hs:bc team :)

MILES: I'm sooo hungry...

FLORAL: My friend started playing disco elysium so I'm doing better than before he was playing disco elysium.

CHUMI: Great! Winter break just started for me, so I'm ready to chill!

KIM: SWAGGY!!! Havin' a blast answering questions with my fwiends!!

JAMES: i was doing good but now you got me thinking about it and im getting all existential

Q: What are all of yours' favourite acts in Homestuck?

KIM: Ironically, as someone who was one of Those People who skipped to Act 5 when I first read it when I was in middle school (I know LMFAO)-- Acts 1-4 are actually my favorite acts.

HAVEN: i like both halves of act 5 the most, this is because i started reading when act 5 was going on

MILES: Agreed, Act 5 is the most crystallized in my mind when I think about the Homestuck Highs. It still had a lot of the fun gamey granularity of the early acts while also hitting really intense emotional and narrative crescendos.

JAMES: Love Act 1 and The Intermission if that counts. I can't believe Kim said he skipped to act 5. Thats so brave.

Q: What's Casey been up to?

CHUMI: Casey's up to some things! Somewhere!

JAMES: completely unhelpful answer

Q: Favorite pizza toppings?

MILES: Pep and sausage, baby.

JAMES: PEP AND SAUS AS WELL

HAVEN: i actually like a plain cheese pizza, that cheese has gotta be a little broiled though

MILES: With that tasteful burn on top... moans

CHUMI: I actually honestly 100% like pineapple on pizza... And all meat toppings.

FLORAL: Maybe pepperonis and mushrooms but cheese is my favorite too. Especially with way too much chilli flakes and white sauce. I'm so fucked up.

KIM: I don't think about pizza.

KOHI: I'm on that meat lover's grind

JAMES: did this motherfucker say they dont think about pizza what the fuck

Q: It is my understanding that the HICU is a completely different team than the team that made the "prologue" portion of HSBC and Pesterquest. Does the team have any affiliation with the Hiveswap team? Are there any other official Homestuck-related teams / projects? PS, I'm excited to see y'all's work!

KIM: Depending what you mean by “affiliation," but we do have a couple overlapping team members with the Hiveswap production (including me), but so far we have been working independently from the Hiveswap team. In regards to spin-offs/other Homestuck projects, I think we answered it pretty succinctly here!

JAMES: yeah.

Q: Ive never read homestuck, should I?

CHUMI: yea 🙂

Q: would it be possible to get a list of all the character's current official ages?

FLORAL: it's rude to ask a woman her age

MILES: Dave is a baby.

Q: This is a question directed to the whole team, but anyone of you, feel free to answer.

Do you all feel constrained at all by the writing style, formatting, or art style of OG Homestuck (or Homestuck2), or does this feel like its entirely a new frontier from which you wish to forge your own path?

HAVEN: i love it all its so fun

CHUMI: New frontier baby!!! Of course we want things to be at least a little familiar and connected to the OG Comic and HS2, but I think we're blazing our own paths here. It's really exciting, I hope you all will stick around to see what we do! If I could tell you guys, I would (NOT because it's more exciting to wait and see).

MILES: We get to balance both. As writers on a story that is at times viciously meta, I think it's important to be faithful to the style we inherited for the sake of like... already established Universal Integrity, but I actually really enjoy working within that style and adding my own flourishes to it.

KIM: Before the hiatus, I definitely feel like the art was a lot more standardized– which isn't a bad thing, per se! There's a convenience to having the art very streamlined, but of course that would mean there's a limitation to what we can do as artists. I've always admired the experimental aspect of Homestuck's art, and I hope we can re-introduce that within Beyond Canon again!

FLORAL: Personally I love the challenge of writing with pre-establish styles. The main draw of being in fandom is the interaction between the author's original vision and then working within those parameters while being true to myself. Respect to source material is paramount imo. And considering a core part of Homestuck's charm is reveling in authentic author voices and the constant push to break convention, the very format of Homestuck requires embracing new frontiers. So we stay winning no matter what.

JAMES: its great tbh

Q: James, will there at some point be more ultimate selves in Homestuck Beyond Canon? As I do kinda like the concept of the ultimate selves so I'm curious to know.

MILES: We wanna explore the concept more for sure.

FLORAL: If characters wanna get fucked up who are we to stop them.

JAMES: they are answering all of these before i get to them.

Q: James: Did you know that you have many fans from the Spanish-speaking community? and of course other languages, have you ever thought about adding more languages ​​to read homestuck?

JAMES: damn fr where the latinas at

Anyway. That'd rule. I know there are a few fan translations, and I'd love to work with them.

Q: could the team share some of their backgrounds on previous works before joining the homestuck?

ANDI: lots of us has tons of stuff under our belt! I was just a little commission artist doin some freelance here and there. Then I got invited to do some sprites on Pesterquest, and then HS2 artwork. And now I'm here on HS:BC!

CHUMI: I've been doing freelance art for maybe a decade and convention tabling for awhile as well! I've also worked on multiple HS-related projects, canon (HS Cafe, Act 6 Tarot Deck on FFBF when it still existed), non-canon (zines), and fan-adventure related. This experience also expands to non-HS projects! I just like getting involved in projects, so I've done LOTS of random stuff here and there.

KIM: I've done storyboards and board revisions for HBO Max, and have worked on several indie productions (mostly for games) doing a variety of things like character designs, illustration, and animation! I was brought on-board working on Homestuck since I was in college, so there's also just a lot of Homestuck in my professional resume too LMFAO.

JAMES: When I was in my early 20's I used to work in a country club as a manual laborer, basically just picking up heavy things and moving them from one place to another. I was a music teacher for a while. I worked in insurance briefly but hated it. I've been doing music for webtoons and stuff under various names since I was in my teens. I worked as a sound mixer on Steven Universe: Future, and have done a lot of music for pitches and pilots etc. I wrote on Pesterquest and Hiveswap a little. I've done a lot of things behind the scenes as well but thats not as exciting.

FLORAL: I have my fancomic project Liminal Space and have been in an array of fanzines like the Phantasmic Youngsters. Outside of Homestuck, I've done Original Character Tournaments and 1 silly try at a webcomic in my early 20's. I've worked so much food service to pay for school.

HAVEN: i worked on this cool visual novel called ValiDate: Struggling Singles in your Area, it's available on steam go check it out!

KOHI: Aside from a few other small projects on MSPFA and beyond, I jumped onto the Vast Error team back in the mid-2010's and really got the chance to grow my web dev and Flash/HTML5 skills there.

Q: Follow up question! If that's ok ;-;

Is there any chance for John to get his mustache back? My opinion is that his design would look much better with it and it's so painful to read that he had it and shaved it off before we could see it! And on a related note, are there any plans for the kids to start resembling the guardians more?

MILES: Jake 'stache-mogged him. It's kind of devastating. I think trying to come back from that would be an arrogance even John is incapable of. It's like, you're both sort of sadsacks but one of you is a thick muscle hunk and the other one is his schlubbier look-a-like, you don't wanna add salt to the wound of that comparison by growing a weaker mustache. I feel you, though. Facial hair is a good look. Underutilized.

Q: are you guys having a fun time working on homestuck? i sure hope so!

HAVEN: yes

MILES: It's a fucking blast LOL.

CHUMI: It's a dream! Everyone's so good at what they do, it's amazing to see everything come together so perfectly.

FLORAL: I laugh every meeting.

KIM: Ever since the moment I was brought on to contribute to the Friendsims back in 2018, it has been and continues to be an absolute joy and a dream come true as a long time fan to contribute in any kind of official capacity towards the Homestuck property... I love this team!!! 🥺

Q: Who is genuinely the coolest character, on a personal basis?

CHUMI: Probably Yiffy tbh.

KIM: YIFFY❗❗❗❗❗❗❗❗

MILES: I can tell you who's NOT cool. I saw Dirk at a grocery store in Los Angeles yesterday. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn't want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything. He said, “Oh, like you're doing now?" I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?" but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?" and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Orange Fantas in his hands without paying.
The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first." At first he kept pretending to be tired and not hear her, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.
When she took one of the bottles and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electrical infetterence," and then turned around and winked at me. I don't even think that's a word. After she scanned each bottle and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by yawning really loudly.

JAMES: the girl reading this

ANDI: Kanaya

HAVEN: had the pleasure of bumping into karkat at the HS:BC office the other day, very down to earth and extremely funny

FLORAL: Echidna. She's literally Mother.

Q: We should probably refrain from asking story questions but I have to know: Is June Egbert still (assuming it was planned back then) happening?

JAMES: I'm going to be honest with you guys, June was always the plan. The “Toblerone Wish" just happened to line up with what was already going to happen. So Andrew “Confirmed" it. This is true of a lot of homestuck stuff, actually.

KIM: From what I know, June has definitely always been planned since the beginning even within the prior team, and her transition is technically a spoiler that Andrew revealed early on and, while we understand the hype (I'm hype too!), but we gotta let it cook within the story!

FLORAL: I love girls.

Q: Are y'all planning on keeping the update around the 16th of the month or are y'all planning on later changing which part of the month the upd8 happens?

MILES: Guess what. This month's update is right now.

END OF AMA.