MS Paint Adventures V: THIS IS STUPID

[Gez]

I'll pretend for a moment that you don't already know about MS Paint Adventures, Andrew Hussie's experimental more-or-less user-driven webcomic.

"MS Paint Adventures" seems to imply it's adventures in using MS Paint. This is false. None of the protagonists ever try to use MS Paint. It's not adventures made with MS Paint either, there's only one page ever made in MS Paint, the rest are made in Photoshop or Flash. However, it's true there are several adventures. Four at the moment: Jail Break, Bard Quest, Problem Sleuth, and Homestuck. You can pretty much safely ignore the first two, they're immature crap. Problem Sleuth is when it started to get good, and Homestuck is the currently on-going adventure, so it's the one that's going to be discussed in that thread.

Keen-eyed readers may notice the numbers in these URL. 1, 2, 4, 6? What happened to 3 and 5? Well, 3 was some sort of easter-egg joke about the Midnight Crew. 5 was the first attempt at making Homestuck, with the idea it'd be entirely in Flash. That was dropped as too time-intensive to create, and turned into some sort of in-joke easter-egg as well.

Which brings the next point: in-jokes. The comic is full of them. They constantly reference each other, and are full of callbacks. Here's a few of them:

What Pumpkin? : Jail Break introduced a useless contraption known as the Pumpkin Appearifier. It "appearifies" a pumpkin taken from somewhere else. As a result, that pumpkin disappears from the other place. Why anyone would create a teleporter that only works on pumpkins is a mystery; but this legacy has endured and there is a tradition still upheld in Homestuck to have gratuitous pumpkins in the story, here just to disappear without prior notice. Hussie's shop and imprint is called What Pumpkin?, but they don't sell pumpkin appearifiers there. Just shirts and discs and stuff.

Midnight Crew: during Problem Sleuth's run, one of the reader, known as Mayonaka, paid Hussie some money to star his D&D characters in a PS crossover. Hussie made them into a small-time bunch of thugs, and they become very popular, to the point that readers clamored for a series about them. Eventually, they turned up in Homestuck, although by then they didn't have much in common with Mayonaka's characters anymore.

Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff: This started on the Penny Arcade forum, as a mockery of someone's request for feedback for yet another of these "two guys chatting about games" comics meant to amuse a few of the author's direct friends and that's it. NWS? source, go to second page and look for S_O's posts. It became a vehicle for in-universe Homestuck memes, shared by the protagonists, which of course became real-world memes too because Homestuck fans.

Hussie used to have a site called Team Special Olympics (hence his PAF name of S_O) where he posted various creepy comics and articles about stuff he found on the net that was unsafe for work and mind both. If you dare digging around, you'll find the origins of a lot of other references and in-jokes later used in the comics.



Homestuck Music can be listened to at Bandcamp. One may also mention the fan music while they're at it. Because Homestuck fans are exceedingly productive. Go on a music-sharing site like Tindeck and count how many of the "popular tracks" have a Homestuck-derived avatar. That's usually between 60% and 90% of them. DeviantArt is less homestuckized, but only because there is a much larger userbase. You will still need more than a lifetime to see all pieces of HS fanart on DA.



Homestuck fans can be quite gross. Don't be like them, try to remember how to function normally in society. For example, even if you're dressed-up as a bunch of alien clowns, don't go in a classy restaurant to noisily spit in a bucket. It's rude.

But Homestuck, and MSPA in general, didn't attract such a large number of socially-maladjusted fans if it didn't have some good qualities about it. It is a masterfully-written story, cohesive despite the user-driven shenanigans that shaped it at the start, and very intricate. It makes use of its medium (the web) in ways more clever than just an infinite canvas, as the entire site can change to represent a shift in narrative voice, or to tell a parallel story hidden in a little corner.

Still, there are times when you'll have to wonder just WTF is happening. Why is there suddenly a lengthy essay about troll romance? Why do we need weird made-up names for passionate hatred and platonic friendship? What does that thing about getting locked in the attic have to do with anything? Chances are that at these times, Hussie is trolling his fans. Because he loves to do so. It can be seen in the flippant tone with which he answers the formspring tumblr questions readers ask him. Unfortunately, this flippancy means that it's easy for a small controversy to degenerate into complete drama. An example would be when former music contributor Bill Bolin was removed from the music team after a misunderstanding escalated to full-on bridge burning. The latest drama is about Hussie being racist since he declared his white kid protagonists were "canonically aracial" and you could pretend they were Asian or Black or whatever. Some tumblrers unearthed an old in-universe chatlog between two of the protagonists referring to a third character as being white, and the blogosphere exploded. There was an older, previous dramasplosion about sexism with the "bluh bluh huge bitch" thing applied to Vriska. Chances are more drama will inevitably happen in the future.

So, huh, keep in mind that Andrew Hussie is just an ordinary White American guy, not a perfect deific incarnation of Talent itself, and that he can make mistakes and be clumsy, especially when under the pressure of having to deal with a huge, obsessive, and often creepy fanbase.

So, just be reasonable people and all should be fine.


Previous threads:
MS Paint Adventures
MS Paint Adventures II: Who's Playing Who Now?
MS Paint Adventures III: [S] Comment
MS Paint Adventures 4: 13

[Rezby]

Man, I can't wait until we get to see more of Roxy's and Dirk's actions.

Roxy is just about the coolest person ever, in my opinion.

[Grytorm]

Finally I can wait for updates because I'm actually caught up. Hooray!

Does anyone else think that Roxy will eventually summon some of the horror-terrors? Also do we know anything about the mother version of Mom? Could she be some sort of cult leader maybe?

Also Gez, did you think of the thread title yourself or did you see my suggestion in the last post of the old thread?

[Fayd]

Is that... Is that UU's symbol on the P?

UU is the RNA complement of AA... She MIGHT be the Handmaid, with Felt-Lime blood due to Lord English's interference OR the Handmaid from the previous universe...

[Bad Situation]

UU is Calmasis.

[maximus25]

UU is the sufferer.

[Draconi Redfir]

UU is the distant decendent of the Trolls (and maybe kids) in the universe they are about to create.

[Derjuin]

UU is your powers combined. They are the Captain Planet. It's them.

I kinda hope the 3 separate storylines (yellow yard/meteor/alpha universe) merge sometime soon and not, say, "right at the beginning of act 7". But then I stopped giving a crap about trying to understand where the story is going around Act 5, so :shrug:.

[Tectonic Robot]

So, guys, I was reading the updates, specifically the ones about Calmissis and his chess game. At first I was like, eh, who cares? Then I remembered the whole extended chess metaphor thing, and wondered what the implications of fighting on after your king has perished is! The Condesce has already replaced the Black Queen- does that mean someone is going to replace the Black King? And if so, who could that possibly be?

Spoiler

Show

LORD ENGLISH LORD ENGLISH LORD ENGLISH LORD ENGLISH LORD ENGLISH LORD ENGLISH LORD ENGLISH LORD ENGLISH LORD ENGLISH LORD ENGLISH I'm down now. Sorry.

[maximus25]

If UU was in the universe the kids were about to make, wouldn't they be able to see it, the same way that the troll's could see the kids?

[Draconi Redfir]

If UU was in the universe the kids were about to make, wouldn't they be able to see it, the same way that the troll's could see the kids?

The kids don't have Trollian.

And dangit i cant see the updates due to the strike thing. booo.

[Arrghus]

The kids don't have Trollian.

And dangit i cant see the updates due to the strike thing. booo.

Lemme guess, you clicked Examine Room to keep up with where you were? It's just the old comics that are gone, everything from "Dirk: Jut your ass" and forward works perfectly well.

[Fayd]

An observation: Becquerel, a dog, was made using the MEOW code trapped in Rose's subconscious. Gcat, a cat, was made using the BARK code trapped in Jake's subconscious.

[Draconi Redfir]

Lemme guess, you clicked Examine Room to keep up with where you were? It's just the old comics that are gone, everything from "Dirk: Jut your ass" and forward works perfectly well.

Nope, i was clicking my favorites tab for it wich goes back to Aradia's first appearance. Thanks for the heads up.

[Lateral]

...Wow, Gez. That's one hell of an OP. 0u0

[irenicObserver]

I for one love the fact that the Kids are aracial, as it allow me to cosplay more than just the Midnight Crew.

[Fayd]

I for one love the fact that the Kids are aracial, as it allow me to cosplay more than just the Midnight Crew.

Well, there's also other Dersite-ish characters, like WV and AR.

[Draconi Redfir]

After reading that not-a-reblog-reblog Hussie made, i began wondering...

Am i the only one who thinks it's OKAY for a bunch of kids who know eachother to all just happen to be white? You don't need a token non-white just to be non racist, you can still have all your main characters be white and not be racist, there isn’t any kind of law or anything against it.

Not that I’m against the a-racial thing don't get me wrong, it's just that I, as a white man, have always viewed the kids as all white, and i don’t understand what exactly the problem with that is.

[Gez]

Also Gez, did you think of the thread title yourself or did you see my suggestion in the last post of the old thread?

Saw it, and thought it was the best possible thread title.

[CrimsonAngel]

Maybe Calmasis is UU's ancestor? 8 letters and all.

[irenicObserver]

I feel that they are aracial it's just growing up in the world they naturally assumed themselves to ethnic groups.

[Grytorm]

I think it is most likely that UU is a Troll from the Ancestor session. I say this because Doc Scratch said that the pre-troll-scratch trolls were not from their own session.

Random Speculation
GCat will die and be replaced by an English aligned Guardian.
GCat will be meant to summon English because it was cloned with Cal,
UU is a doomed timeline Rose.
The Post Scratch kids are not from their session.

Edit
UU will be the Troll that Kanaya imagined Rose to be.

[Bad Situation]

After reading that not-a-reblog-reblog Hussie made, i began wondering...

Am i the only one who thinks it's OKAY for a bunch of kids who know eachother to all just happen to be white? You don't need a token non-white just to be non racist, you can still have all your main characters be white and not be racist, there isn’t any kind of law or anything against it.

Not that I’m against the a-racial thing don't get me wrong, it's just that I, as a white man, have always viewed the kids as all white, and i don’t understand what exactly the problem with that is.

There is literally no problem with this viewpoint. As an Asian-American I still view the kids as white. I don't have any justification for this belief other than 'they feel that way to me.' And this is A-okay. So long as you never tell somebody that they are inherently 'wrong' for having a differing opinion it does not matter. It only matters when people, for whatever reason, feel that they must champion equality in the deepest darkest depths of the internet.

[Grytorm]

I just finished rereading Problem Slueth and I had a thought, could Sepulchritude be connected to the Green Sun?

[memnarch]

Just had a random thought go through my head; what happened to Grandpa after he picked dead dream jade up from Skaia?

[Draconi Redfir]

Just had a random thought go through my head; what happened to Grandpa after he picked dead dream jade up from Skaia?

Probably flew through a portal and went back in time to earth, weather or not he returned to pick up babyjade or to shortly before he entered the medium in the first place remains unknown.

[Shadow of the Sun]

I love Roxy so much. She's so adorable.

Dirk has the same eye colour as Dave. Makes sense, really.

Also, I'm pretty sure I saw a god-tier Karkat in the background of that flash.

SO. EXCITED.

[maximus25]

What the hell just happened in this update?

[Bad Situation]

Also, I'm pretty sure I saw a god-tier Karkat in the background of that flash.

Karkat didn't go godtier. He was obviously just feeling very emasculated by the godtier players so he alchemized his own set. :P

[maximus25]

If that was a dream bubble planet, how did Karkat godtier? Also, how did Roxy travel to a dream bubble planet for the trolls? And why would Dave hang out with Equius and Aradia. So much wat.

All of my wat in this update.