Should I read Beyond Canon?

I say power through it, the early stuff may not be your liking but it still contains important context for later parts of the story.

Personally, I think you should read it! I'd suggest trying to start from the beginning. If it's not your cup of tea, you can skip ahead as you please, or drop it entirely!

The early part of Beyond Canon is indeed a slog to get through if you don't want to read all of Dirk's long-winded prattles. But the ending of it and certainly the beginning of act 2 really have me hopeful that things are turning around for the better.

I will say that I think the beginning of Beyond Canon also suffers from the fact that we don't get to see the new kids shine all that much because so much time is taken up by the other previous characters who all have dumb, petty drama with one another that could be solved if all of them like went to therapy or something.

I was on board from day 1 so I may be biased but give it a shot!! Its doing some fun and interesting stuff imo and your experience will be fuller for yaknow experiencing the whole thing. Just be aware that like. you are gonna have to deal with ult dirk either way hes a kina super important to the story, and looking at the latest update more of him (or at least his narrative influence) is in the near future.

I'd say go for it. I confess that I didn't even read the epilogues when I got into HS:2 (and admittedly still haven't read them), but imo things to get much more enjoyable once it returned as Beyond Canon. (Granted, I didn't entirely mind the first part either, just not everyone's cup of tea.)

Reading it now. Kinda a snorefest but I gotta push through.

I’m a big fan of the updates that have been put out in the last year or so, whereas the epilogues/early HS2 were a slog for me personally. I feel like the recent stuff has been moving towards “fixing“ a lot of the more unpalatable things from the earlier era.

But. As with everything, it is all a matter of opinion!

no no no it is so bad everyone is mischaracterized the story is utter dogshit even in modern day just stick with plain old homestuck and remember it with mild discomfort and affection

Page 408 is where the HICU took over, though it's kind of a slow transition from the remnants of the old story and pacing into the new style. Around the vrisual novel (page 666) is where the new team really starts showing off, but the buildup is totally nessecary imo

I still haven't read all the HS^2 chapters or the epilogues myself, I just skipped to page 408 and intuited what happened earlier from context clues. Kinda similar to "skip to the trolls", really. I recommend.

Most people who talk shit about HSBC haven't read the new stuff anyway ._.

yes! homestuck has always been a work where what you get out of it is equal to what you put into it and beyond canon is no different.

If you like Homestuck there's a ton there for you to enjoy. plus you get to participate in fandom stuff which is very cool!

Beyond Canon is 100% worth the read imo. Dirk Strider is a really compelling character, and I find the interactions between the characters is often written better than in the original Homestuck IMO.

I've heard people say that the character interactions in BC are padding/filler, but I often find the naunces into their relationships to be really interesting, and you'd miss so much development if you just decided to skip it all.

Also the art is top noch.

You can watch the lets read on youtube by VOFT. Have you read the epilogues?

it’s not my favorite but i think it has its merits and is still enjoyable:) the beginning was hard to get through but once i did i found myself enjoying it

I personally didn't really like a lot of the beginning since it's so meandering and doesn't really have any direction, but the newer stuff is great. The end of Act 1 was refreshing, and the writing style for Act 2 is really reminiscent of OG Homestuck. I just consider Homestuck and HSBC kind of their own things, but I'd recommend at least trying HSBC out to see if you like it!

Disclaimer that I have been totally on board with it from day 1, but I really do think it's worth the read, especially after the last 2 updates. Right now, it really feels so similar to what it was like to read the original comic as it was coming out. I've been telling everyone who's been on the fence about starting to read HSBC that now is the perfect time. Even if you don't love how it starts out, shit's getting Extremely Interesting now that we're on to the second act, so it's worth it to put up with, imo.

All the act six intermission nonsense from the original homestuck was a lesson to us, to always consume every last drop of homestuck, no matter how you feel about it; because in the end their gonna bring it back in a big way... probably. honestly to me it still hasn't gotten good, aside from the art.

Hm...should I read the epilouges too?

The epilogues are mandatory reading. Beyond Canon's story starts right where The epilogues' ended.

i think they're definitely worth reading, for what it's worth.