Line #55 Webcomic/HomestuckBeyondCanon


1	! Beware of spoilers. This is the sequel to ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' and as such all spoilers pertaining to ''Homestuck'' and ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues'' are unmarked.
2	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/homestuck_2_logo_black_bg_8.jpg]]
3	[[caption-width-right:350:> Dirk: Stop making Homestuck.]]
4	'''[[TextParser > Commence chronological continuance.]]'''
5	->''Surprise, bitch.''[[labelnote:==>]]\
6	''I bet there was a moment just now when you thought to yourself, oh thank god. Thank the maker. Thank literally what-the-hell-ever recalcitrant entity was, is now, or perhaps always has been responsible for piloting this story. Whoever it is whose cataclysmic fingers hang suspended and quivering with anticipation somewhere beyond the curtain of the world; whose hunched form lurks forever in the shadows, its work seemingly unimpeded by the very real threat of a chronic lumbago; making no sound, giving no speech to thought, save for that fateful moment where first one elongated phalanx, and then another, crosses the threshold between thought and reality; when ten declamatory digits, possessed for the moment of a zealous frenzy, reach down and set the air astir with the heart-rending creative cacophony of an overly rambunctious mechanical keyboard.'' ''Whichever accursed species of demiurgic figure that is, you thought, let's just thank the ever living fuck that this time they decided to call it a night and get out the drawing tablet instead.'' ''Finally, this story is back on the rails. Maybe we can get back to what things were like in the good old days, where boys were brave, girls were guileful, authors were alliterative and in various dubious states of non-/un/double-death, and this comic made at least a little bit of sense to more or less everybody. No more dealing with narrators, unreliable and not. No more embittered scrimmages over the bounding metafictional reality within which everything transpires. No more stupid tang-tinted text.'' ''Your collective sigh of relief is deafening.''[[/labelnote]]
7	-->-- '''Dirk Strider'''
8
9
10	Paradox Space has fallen, consumed by a black hole large enough to contain a multiverse. No longer must our heroes toil in the service of the "alpha timeline." The Prince and his Seers seek to preserve the Canon-That-Was at great personal and narrative cost. But inside the black hole, those who the paradox once discarded seek to claw back to relevance and escape to the Fanontinuum, a new fabric of story and space woven by the hands of new narrators, thousands of voices that fill the vacuum left by the death of the author.
11
12	This is not Homestuck. But it is not ''not'' Homestuck. This is ''Homestuck: Beyond Canon'',[[note]]Originally released as ''Homestuck^2: Beyond Canon'' prior to coming out of hiatus in 2023[[/note]] an “officially commissioned” sequel to the cult webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' by Creator/AndrewHussie. It began on [[ArcNumber October 25]], 2019. It can be found [[https://beyondcanon.com/ here.]]
13
14	Andrew Hussie has stated that this comic -- like [[Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues the Epilogues]] on which it follows up -- is intended to explore various ideas and themes about the very concept of "canon" itself, blurring the lines between {{Fanon}} and canon, and should be treated as a separate-but-connected entity to the original ''Homestuck''. Or not, depending on if you want to. Hussie himself was directly involved in the project at the start, producing a general outline of the story; however, much of the actual writing is to be done by a series of other writers.
15
16	After a 3-year long hiatus, the comic resumed in October 2023, with long-time series composer James Roach now serving as director and a entirely new team in charge, named the "Homestuck Independant Creative Union".[[note]]To make things brief, they're a unionized team acting independantly from What Pumpkin or VIZ Media and were given free license by Hussie himself.[[/note]] See more on that [[https://homestuck2.com/news here]].
17	----
18	!!> Gather articles of supplemental data related to ''Homestuck: Beyond Canon''.
19	* AdamAndEvePlot: Dirk invokes this when the ship reaches an empty planet, setting himself and Rose up as the progenitors of the race that will ultimately play the next Sburb.
20	* TheAlcoholic: Candy-timeline Jake turned into quite the example over the years, though when we first see him he's been trying to hold off on the stuff. When he takes up the bottle again, he's seen imagining the adventures he had in his youth.
21	* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: The POV often changes to not just characters or groups of characters, but also across the Meat and Candy timelines as well.
22	* ArcNumber: [[Mystical108 108]] is shaping up to be a new one. The 3-year hiatus ended with an update released on October 8 (10/8), which featured Terezi's phone showing the time 1:08 PM.
23	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: After being flippant with Hussie over the topic of Yiffy in "A Threat, Sensed", Dirk gets laid into:
24	-->[[cinnamon:Wow, sorry, this conversation was so irrelevant I completely forgot what it was even about. Me. Scared of Jade and a shittier Rose’s spawn? I have to laugh.]]\
25	'''Then why are you shaking?'''\
26	''(Dirk, shocked, looks down at his trembling hand.)''
27	* ArtisticAge: The art style makes it hard to distinguish the ages of characters. John looks the same age as his teenage son, when he's supposed to be several years older than him. This is eventually lampshaded in the 4/13/24 update, where Dirk deliberately gives himself an older looking sprite [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall before everyone else gets updated designs and sprites as well.]]
28	-->[[cinnamon:There we go. We're adults, for fuck's sake.]]
29	* AscendedMeme: Terezi mentions having perused Dirk's "book about horses" and been deeply confused by it, particular a part about memes; this is a clear reference to the ''Pony Pals'' book that Dirk defaced, and more specifically to [[Fanfic/PonyPalsDirkStriderEdition the fanmade full version]]. She even quotes the iconic line "Remember Longcat, Jane?" directly.
30	* BelligerentSexualTension: Rosebot and Terezi have entered into a blackrom relationship over the three year trip.
31	* BigBadEnsemble: Ultimate Dirk from the ''Meat Epilogue'' timeline and Jane Crocker from the ''Candy Epilogue'' timeline.
32	* TheBusCameBack: Brain Ghost Dirk returns after last being seen in the events prior to [S] Game Over. He shows up in Jake's dream and later helps form a plan of rebellion. Whether he really is as independent from Ultimate Dirk as he claims remains unknown.
33	** After years of offscreen gang wars against the Midnight Crew, The Felt finally returned to [[https://beyondcanon.com/story/628 help out build Jane's giga laser.]]
34	* CanonWelding: As of "Catnapped, Part 3", [[spoiler: Problem Sleuth has been pulled into this pile of absolute bullshit, and is still having issues with leaving his office.]]
35	** In Chapter 11, Aradia references her involvement in ''VisualNovel/{{Pesterquest}}'', although Alt!Calliope says that was a non-canon timeline.
36	* CardCarryingVillain: Ultimate Dirk has adopted the mantle of "antagonist" with glee.
37	-->'''DIRK:''' Well, I'm an antagonist now. That's what I do.\
38	'''TEREZI:''' [=OH MY GOD G3T OV3R YOURS3LF 1 4M B3GG1NG YOU=]
39	* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: As before, everyone has their own text color. John's has faded to a lighter blue-gray.
40	* ComicallySerious: Dirk of course, much to Terezi's display. Alt!Calliope in the Meat timeline as well.
41	* ContemplateOurNavels: Dirk tends to do this '''a lot''', specifically on the nature of story-telling, mediums, canonicity, etc. It's so insufferable that Terezi [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech explodes in frustration over the fact that he cares more about the nature of stories then exploring a new planet]].
42	* ContinuityNod: Many of Homestuck's older ideas and set pieces appear as easter eggs
43	** The suggestion box returned for a few updates.
44	** Dirk's room is chock-full of these. Dirk's trickster outfit appears here, as-well as Roxy's rifle, 2 copies of sburb given to Dave from Bro, Roxy's rifle, Terezi's rocket wings, all 4 of the beta kids' cruxite items, the prospit and derse flags, a frozen jaspers, Rose's pony, and a drawing in the similar style of the [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/4970 Jane and Roxy yuri]] requested by Calliborn in the original.
45	** From one space venture to another, Dave is still drinking terrible coffee.
46	** [[https://beyondcanon.com/story/408 Page 408]] starts off with a direct homage to Terezi's [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/2033 all the way back in act 5]]. How nostalgic!
47	** If you consider every MSPA to be set within the same universe, then [[https://www.homestuck.com/jailbreak/1 a scene where they gotta break out of a jail cell with only a key and a supposedly missing pumpkin could sound awfully similar]].
48	** Yet another Egbert opens yet another box for a small bunny. Like father like son.
49	** Karkat and Sollux in the [[https://beyondcanon.com/story/623 623 update]] have some of their classic banter, but Sollux asks directly if theyre still friends, which calls back to thier conversation back in the epilogues where Karkat questions the same of Sollux.
50	* DesecratingTheDead:
51	** As soon as Tavros lays eyes on Gamzee's corpse, he starts kicking it repeatedly before letting out a CatharticScream.
52	** During Gamzee's funeral, Yiffany busts open his coffin and kicks it down the church aisle.
53	* DisposingOfABody: Finding a decent spot to dispose of a major religious figure's body? Sketchy. A trio of awkward teens doing the same while fumbling with the body in the empty high school halls? ''Slightly'' less sketchy, but far more amusing.
54	* DrosteImage: [[https://homestuck2.com/story/27 This page]] shows Dirk holding a recursive panel of himself holding a panel.
55	* FailedASpotCheck: Candy-timeline Jane didn't realize her husband was gone for several days. PlayedForDrama, Jake comments on it, and it hammers it home for him how little she really cares for him, and is the nail in the coffin that finally makes him take Brain Ghost Dirk’s advice to turn against her.
56	* FourLinesAllWaiting: Similar to ''Homestuck'', there are several different character groups across the Meat and Candy timelines, and there is no particular pattern in which the story follows them. Some scenes even take place at the same time as others that were seen earlier, making it difficult to determine what's already happened and what hasn't happened yet during a chapter.
57	* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Dirk opens up a suggestion box for the readers to use, noting it's one of the things the comic used to do before it got convoluted. As soon as he gets a suggestion he doesn't like (the page image quote), he [[RageQuit slices the suggestion box to bits]] and declares it a smarter idea to let him write his own commands. It worked for [[Creator/AndrewHussie the other guy]], after all.
58	* ImmediateSequel: The Patreon bonus chapters are set in the Meat Timeline immediately after [[spoiler: Jane wins the election.]]
59	* ImprobableWeaponUser: This is Homestuck, so that's kind of par for the course. Harry Anderson uses scissors.
60	* {{Interquel}}: The stories set in the Candy timeline take place around [[https://www.homestuck.com/epilogues/candy/38 Candy chapter 38]].
61	* InventionalWisdom: The ship the story opens on, which Dirk has dubbed the ''Theseus'', contains - among other things - multiple fully stocked drinks cabinets, a movie theatre, and a shooting range. Unfortunately, ''landing gear'' is conspicuous by its absence. Dirk is rather disgruntled to learn that the only way to land the thing is a controlled crash.
62	* InstantHumiliationJustAddYouTube: One kid among the crowd that catches Tavros and the Vriskas carrying Gamzee's corpse and streams the scene to [=YouTube=].
63	* JustEatGilligan: The sub-plot involving [[RonTheDeathEater Jane Crocker]] would be a lot shorter if the super-powered god protagonists could use their special powers and team up to just kill Jane before she does any more harm.
64	* KickTheDog: In chapter 9 Jane, who is already a rapist, xenophobe and a fascist, [[spoiler:[[ShockCollar electrocutes]] [[WouldHurtAChild Yiffy]].]]
65	* LamePunReaction: During chapter 4, Rose and Dirk have a brief digression on meme culture.
66	-->'''Dirk:''' Meme-a culpa.\
67	'''Rose:''' I regret everything.
68	* LegacyCharacter: Harry Anderson might prove to be one to his father, [[Main/{{Foreshadowing}} as John has given him mischievous fatherly advice that "any budding prankster or newly fledged fugitive should know", he's fallen into adventure without really realizing what he's doing, and he's taken on John's original text color, while John's has faded.]]
69	* LittleStowaway: [[spoiler:Chapter 15 reveals that Calliope has snuck aboard the ship.]]
70	* MeaninglessVillainVictory: In the bonus stories in Meat, despite Jane winning the election though rigged means, [[spoiler: she gets catnapped by Jasprosesprite^2 who forces her to redo the elections and do it cleanly this time without Dirk's help.]]
71	* MetaphoricallyTrue: Candy-timeline Jane tells Jake that her son has been captured and brainwashed by a couple of rebels who've taken Gamzee's corpse. When we actually see the scene in question, we see that the "rebels" are a couple of non-conforming troll teens bringing the corpse through a human school, and Tavros went along with the plan when he figured out who the corpse was.
72	* MiseryPoker: Generally no sympathy is thrown Tavros' way for his controlled and stifled home life because he's obscenely wealthy. Oddly enough, only Vrissy is able to defend him on this point because ''all'' of the current gen descendants are from wealthy families and it's not fair to discriminate against him for that.
73	* MoodWhiplash: The comic goes right from Dave and Kanaya having a touching conversation about their relationships and issues to snarking about Jake's backside.
74	-->'''Dave:''' every serious conversation i have inevitably falls apart into riffing on a casual acquaintances ass
75	** April 13th, 2020. 11 years of Homestuck being ''a thing''. John has more or less just tapped Harry to continue his legacy as a prankster. Shit has, as they say, gotten real. And then we discover that Jade has a daughter named Yiffy.
76	* MoreDiverseSequel: Compared to the original comic, this devotes a fair amount of space to trans and gender identity issues, and have several characters that are presented as cis in the original come out as trans or genderqueer.
77	* MyGodYouAreSerious: Harry Anderson thought Vrissy was joking about hiding a corpse. One look at his phone some time later, and he blanks out.
78	* MySecretPregnancy: Rose quietly offered to be a surrogate so Jade could have a child, and did not tell Kanaya about any of it. Justified - the pregnancy only took two months because of Jade's canine side, and Kanaya didn't notice the weight fluctuation because Rose was recovering from a mysterious illness.
79	* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: All the named humans in the Candy universe are named after popular human figures in the old universe, like [[Series/NightCourt Harry Anderson]], Music/{{Avril\|Lavigne}}, and Silas.
80	* OffscreenRomance: [[spoiler:Nervous Broad and Hysterical Dame return in a brief cameo, apparently on their honeymoon.]]
81	* OneSteveLimit: Vriska Serket gives Vriska Lalonde-Maryam the nickname of "Vrissy" to evoke this trope. It's at least a step up from how they handled her name before, where her name was in parentheses.
82	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Jane, after realizing she has been more focused on a crusade against Trolls than she has her own family, has a moment like this.
83	--> JANE: Oh... my...
84	--> JANE: I never... took a second to stop and think...
85	-->JANE: I don't remember when he took his first steps.
86	--> JANE: Or what his favorite food is.
87	--> JANE: I didn't even fucking breast feed him!
88	--> DIRK: (Which is fucking crazy, all things considered.)
89	--> JANE: I don't... even know what his first word was.
90	--> JAKE: It was "honk."
91	--> JANE: Jesus Christ.
92	* OrphanedEtymology: Many references to modern-day slang and memes are present, despite Earth C having a history separate from that of our Earth.
93	* PurpleProse: Someday, Dirk Strider will learn to shut up. Today is not that day. Even Rosebot comes across as restrained compared to him, which is quite a feat given what Rose was like back in the original comic.
94	* RevisitingTheRoots: The suggestion box briefly returns, after disappearing near the end of year one of ''Homestuck''. Dirk himself also has this as his overarching motivation - to take the comic's narrative and tonal direction back to where it was before everything went pear-shaped. Of course, this is before he trashes the thing one suggestion in and decides to write his own "narrative" from scratch on another planet, but it's the thought that counts.
95	* SexyShirtSwitch: Meat-timeline Dave and Karkat wear each other's shirts in chapter 3 and chapter 12.
96	* ShoutOut:
97	** Hussie gave Bro Strider [[TriangleShades pointy anime shades]] without knowing about [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Kamina]], but fans immediately made the connection to another badass 'bro' figure with the style. Dirk takes things full circle and wears a recolored version of Kamina's outfit.
98	** Chapter 15 begins with a parody of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' intro, with its take on the CouchGag saying "[[SelfDeprecation Now Demi-Bi-Monthly]]".
99	* SmokingIsCool: The Patreon adventures feature this with [[spoiler:Dad Crocker and Diamonds Droog]], who are depicted as suave and hardboiled customers while they light up.
100	* SomethingWeForgot: Aradia has to be reminded by Davebot that she left Sollux behind in the Candy timeline.
101	* SophisticatedAsHell: Rosebot retains the faculty for this she possessed in the original ''Homestuck''.
102	-->'''ROSEBOT:''' I'd say it's more of an ontological, existential headache, but that already describes [[TimeyWimeyBall basically everything that's ever happened to us up until now]].\
103	'''ROSEBOT:''' And also sounds as fake as shit.
104	* StylisticSelfParody: When Terezi commands Dirk to do a typical "[X] like a [Y]" action, he almost goes through with it before Terezi gets mad that he didn't reject it comedically. The other intro trend of doing weird things until the narrative sets them back on track is completely skipped over, instead having Dirk tell the audience he did all of that and just showing the aftermath.
105	* SympatheticAdulterer: Rose offered to serve as a surrogate so that Jade could have a child; this meant that, yes, they did have sex. This is downplayed - the affair was strictly physical, and when she finds out, Kanaya is only irritated that Rose lied to her.
106	* TakeOurWordForIt: Dirk discusses the trope when he realizes he doesn't have to narrate everything about his life since he's got narrative powers, and later invokes it when he talks about ShowingVsTelling with Terezi. He then narrates that he was put through a lot of silly commands in retaliation, which Terezi lampshades:
107	-->'''TEREZI:''' 1M [=GL4D=] 1 GOT TO [=W4TCH=] 1T 4LL THROUGH [=TH1S=] [=SCR33N=] TOO\
108	'''TEREZI:''' [=S1NC3=] 1 WOULD [=N3V3R=] [=H4V3=] [=B3L13V3D=] YOU [=4CTU4LLY=] [=D1D=] 1T 4LL [=OTH3RW1S3=]
109	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Terezi hauls Rose and Dirk over the coals during chapter 4:
110	-->'''TEREZI:''' [=W3 M4Y B3 1N COMPL3T3 4GR33M3NT 4BOUT D1RK B31NG 4 T3D1OUS NOOKW1P3,=]\
111	'''TEREZI:''' [=BUT, N3WSFL4SH=]\
112	'''TEREZI:''' [=YOU 4R3N'T 4CTU4LLY 4NY B3TT3R!!!!!!!! >8O=]\
113	'''TEREZI:''' [=SL33P W1THOUT SOPOR DO3SN'T COM3 34SY TO MY SP3C13S, 4ND Y3T 1 SOM3HOW M4N4G3D TO SP3ND 4 GOOD CHUNK OF OUR THR33 Y34R JOURN3Y UNCONSC1OUS=]\
114	'''TEREZI:''' [=TH4T'S HOW FUCK1NG T3D1OUS TH3 TWO OF YOU 4R3=]\
115	'''TEREZI:''' [=4ND TH3 WORST P4RT 1S TH4T N31TH3R OF YOU H4V3 TH3 D3C3NCY TO DO 4NYTH1NG L3G1T1M4T3LY 4WFUL=]\
116	'''TEREZI:''' [=YOU JUST S1T TH3R3 4ND DRON3 ON 4ND ON,=] [[ContemplateOurNavels T4LK1NG 4BOUT TH1NGS TH4T DON'T M4TT3R 4ND 4SK1NG QU3ST1ONS TH4T DON'T H4V3 4NSW3RS]]\
117	'''TEREZI:''' [=W3R3 ON 4 N3W PL4N3T, S331NG TH1NGS WH1CH H4V3 POSS1BLY N3V3R B33N 3XP3R13NC3D B3FOR3, 4ND 4LL YOU C4N TH1NK TO DO 1S HOL3 UP 1N 4 C4V3 4ND R3GURG1T4T3 COMPL3T3LY PO1NTL3SS BULLSH1T=]
118	** In the 4/13/24 update, Dirk fires one right back at Terezi, saying that she acts like she's above their scheming or that she cares about the new planet when she doesn't give "enough of a fuck" about either of the new species they're about to unleash to save them for the Strilondes' machinations. He then also tells her she's on the backfoot, that he's merely ''allowing'' her to facilitate the new planet's growth, and that she only wants to make the new session happen to [[MyGreatestSecondChance finally do the right thing after multiple personal failures]].
119	* TimeSkip: Dirk mentions that three years have passed since the end of the Meat Epilogue.
120	* TookALevelInBadass: Subverted. Candy-Timeline Rose and Kanaya are rebel leaders with an awesome airship, but they - and Rose in particular - may not quite be the badasses who felled the Condesce all those years ago. Rose in particular can't seem to do much with her powers.
121	* WhamLine: "Catnapped, Part 2" provides a one-two doozy when Jasprosesprite^2 offers to help Jane understand the pillars of government in a new location.
122	-->'''JANE:''' Oh jesus christ.\
123	'''JANE:''' What are these three vaunted pillars?\
124	'''JASPROSESPRITE^2:''' It's simple cherry pie:\
125	'''JASPROSESPRITE^2:''' [[ArcWords Women, wine, and song.]]\
126	''(Jasprosesprite^2 summons a Fenestrated Plane and smashes it against the group.)''\
127	[[spoiler:'''[[CanonWelding > PROBLEM SLEUTH^2]]''']]
128	----

Context Webcomic / HomestuckBeyondCanon