Homestuck and Religion | Funk McLovin

TRANSCRIPT: archiveofourown.org/works/487...
this is incredibly stupid
PATREON: / funkmclovin
TWITTER: / bigfunkyj
Happy SAHCon 2023!

[@That_Ozian]

Once upon a time, I was a devout Christian. And once upon a time, I was in church and the sermon was literally actually warning against the dangers of fandom as a false idol.

[@moonstar9559]

Hahaha! Meta!

[@brastionskywarrior6951]

Its not every day you see someone who understands. Someone who can connect just a bit

[@hellomoonart]

"you cant fight the homestuck" is now gospel music

[@tereziipyrope]

that ending was beautiful. Hella Jeff's wise words never fail to bring me to tears.

[@matusjansta]

Truly you speak as wisely as the mind avatar, sister!

[@br8kspider]

thank you homestuck for 8ecoming my family's primary religion

[@Ruby_The_Fiend]

Why am I seriously tempted to found a temple of Aspectism?

[@zetaalpha5110]

Thats it, i am now a hussianist, though i cant say im a fan of the person, the idea that homestuck is basically a prophecy seems nice to me

[@comicsansseraphim4934]

Babe, new religion just dropped.

[@Fragmentsinfractals488]

We could make a religion out of this...

[@sethll7]

out of all the videos on homestuck this sure was one of them

[@acerbicTeatime]

Reinvents the long dormant tumblr community of homestuck paganism through literary analysis in the year 2023...

[@timaeusTechnopath]

Going to the church of Karkat with Vriska to praise the egbertian gospel

[@bagaboo4746]

I was just thinking how I would go to the church of karkat first

[@horrorhermit413]

The Hussian definition made me sit up in my chair, jaw dropped, eyes wide open. I've been called out.

[@turkintrance]

devoted homestuckian

[@Woogwoogus]

Going into this I genuinely thought it was going to discuss the usage of religions in the comic and talk about the Signless and the clown stuff with the high bloods and all that so you would not believe my reaction when you suddenly went on to compare Homestuck to religious texts and how fandom can partially be considered religion in some ways All in all; good video! Fun video to crochet a cat to

[@FunkMcLovin]

That's a good idea for a follow up

[@supremechaosbeing2696]

@@FunkMcLovin also notable: this odd snippet from the Carapacian page on the wiki: "The white and black colorations of the Carapacians might be a reference to Black and White shamanism, if the references to Mongolian spirituality in Homestuck are intentional." ??????

[@percivalderolo6195]

I come out changed , baptized even . I am egbertian .

[@dykemaxxing]

JESUS STRIDER?

[@Mononokyo]

Here I though the Signless was Jesus lmao

[@romorris7906]

The translation is even funnier

[@angelshot9264]

it's Jegus Strider we are a proper religion sir/ma'am/they/him/hers/attackappachehelicopter/chesterthecat.

[@dykemaxxing]

@@angelshot9264 bless you, kind samaritan

[@qwertyuiop.lkjhgfdsa]

yeah he is struggling, google translate. he is

[@soko7awen]

"Ah yes, a new funk vid! GOOD LORD WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THERE" i'm in for one hell of a watch lol

[@soko7awen]

funk you madlad you've really done it now, makin me tear up at the end there! but seriously, thanks. that was great! :]

[@slugcat6226]

i kept getting distracted by the crucified dave strider in the background 10/10 video essay

[@heartycromia]

ah yes, the human culture trying to explain how to see the astral plane and the metaphyisical nature of the universe in the phyisical world with homestuck, yes

[@witchboy44]

This will be homestuck after the post apocalypse

[@ibrahimzonbia155]

Karkat was crucified for our sins

[@Alice_Bedlam]

I have never read Homestuck, and know barely anything about it. This video is basically a fever dream since it is the most I have learned about it

[@drewwallingsford6768]

Go forth, and read.

[@cursedcontent4207]

17:22 The Snapewives hastily leave the chat.

[@frogzie_]

HELP WHY DID YOU PUT DAVE ON A CROSS

[@dykemaxxing]

honorary crucifixion of the homestuck whiteboy

[@Lichzim]

He is the savior of our timeline. He repented for all the sins of us homestuck fans

[@frogzie_]

@@Lichzim i thank Dave😌

[@FunkMcLovin]

punishment for eating the last dingdong (just death)

[@CreatrixxxINK]

❤️‍🔥

[@legallypumpkin]

You could’ve chosen any Dave face for the thumbnail and you chose that one.

[@qwertyuiop.lkjhgfdsa]

no it had to be that one

[@DragonKing-xg2fx]

"There hasnt been any fandom holy wars" Idk if i agree there, have you seen vriskourse?!

[@FunkMcLovin]

Whats Vriskourse

[@gratingasshat2995]

I've actually seen part of a ritual aspect in a hypothetical Homestuck religion. Namely, the classpects. I used to be on a discord server made for the express purpose of analyzing the classprct system, and we had this assembly line of people who would come in. We would analyze them, talk amongst ourselves, then bestow them a classpect. We were considered a council, an authority on your title. This, of course, led to great catastrophe. The system was corrupt because a number of our "head priests" ended up working the rest of us like dogs and had a more rigid view of how a classpect was supposed to dictate your sense of self.

[@williamcoleman496]

Yikes was it BKEW sect or OD sect?

[@moonstar9559]

Great work on this! I am fascinated with religion AND Homestuck so it was really cool to see the two topics explored and linked together.

[@jonbones8178]

now this is a postcanon worth reading: a religius war between the long descendants of kids that look like hussie, because he is a descendand that somehow space-time traveled. what happend to troll an chess people? i dunno...

[@whentheskittlesfightback]

sir your going to make me believe in homestuck.. /hj

[@Jeylime]

Bless you, Funk. I started out in a Russian Homestuck fandom back in 2011 (we had a gigantic fandom, maybe surprisingly to some), and I am still a loyal Homestuck follower to this day. Homestuck and Aspectism just make way more sense to me on a daily basis in my life and I would love for it to be an actual religion. Like, if we could take it out of ironic grounds, I can see myself actually non-ironically being a follower.

[@sylphofheart]

this is actually very appealing, id love a community of people who take higher meaning from homestuck. sounds really nice.

[@arisenspirit]

Never knew I was a hussian before this, thanks!

[@2cat4life]

so basically religion is the biggest fandom

[@angletea7581]

OH MY GOD I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE DISCORD CONVENTION THEY EVEN HAD A BALL PIT IT WAS ACTUALLY SO FUN

[@leiamai360]

fucking beautiful piece of straight up scholarship bro

[@newpaperyes]

Idk what SAHcon is, I heard it as sawcon in the "sawcon deez nuts" sense. Amazing video though!

[@qwertyuiop.lkjhgfdsa]

stuck at home con

[@ukyoize]

If you need religeon to have morality that's a skill issue

[@FunkMcLovin]

man. i could make a whole video on this. religion is an EXPRESSION of morality not the other way around. the ten commandments were thought up by our ancestors because they noticed that killing other humans and stealing from them caused big problems, not because some god GAVE them to us. morals form in people and religion is the byproduct. so many people (christians) get it ass backwards

[@Moonsong227]

I love this way to explain it. I'm keeping it lol

[@justabit762]

it's me, uhm, happy sahcon 2023 y'all

[@meeptoons]

homestuck bible drop when?

[@emilyanteau7517]

allow me to have a single laugh at your expense *ad break starts + me assuming this was all a meta joke* *after ad* Ha. I have indeed played myself

[@lilacbranches]

Fantastic as always!! My fuck, this is just wonderful. Being into Homestuck always kind of felt like a religious experience. It was my first real experience with fandom. After it ended I fell out with it for a bit (I think it was just burnout, the anticipation had been KILLING me at that point and I was just relieved) but it grabbed me by the throat and dragged me back in and now I love it more than ever before. It's brought me to almost all of my friends and I couldn't be more grateful for that. It's given me so many new lenses to analyze media, too! Nothing makes me happier to see this community alive, well, and thriving, except maybe getting to be apart of it!!

[@GeodeRegan22]

I've been excited over Tab and Faygo, I have guarded a baggy of scotty dogs, I have obsessed over the Captors (gemini represent). This webcomic has enriched my life and it will continue to for as long as I can stand it. Hopefully that day is when I am released from this mortal coil.

[@ShadaOfAllThings]

Hussie really did hit gold with Rosemary didn't he?

[@friedmombo]

what a daring dream, to combine the finest qualities of humanity with the elegance and nobility of the aspect wheel

[@FunkMcLovin]

@@friedmombo you're going to love my SAHcon panel

[@friedmombo]

@@FunkMcLovin i will definitely check it out!

[@riastarthay]

a whole hour of positing homestuck as a religion and you still somehow managed to avoid mentioning a single word about spiritual kinnies

[@heartycromia]

Ms. Jojo i don't think you are aware of the magnitude of creating aspectism as a example of a Homestuck religion I give 10 years before it became a serious religion

[@mayayamato7351]

"things always change into the same things" dear god a truer sentence may never have been spoken.

[@ShadaOfAllThings]

If Homestuck is a religion does that mean that The Game (the one you just lost) is a curse?

[@qwertyuiop.lkjhgfdsa]

jokes on you i saw xkcd 391 multiple years ago

[@ShadaOfAllThings]

@@qwertyuiop.lkjhgfdsa of COURSE there is a XKCD for that, its like asking if there's an Oglaf for that

[@articulatelyComposed]

damn this was a good video essay, it's too bad I had to miss it live, but this is the good fandom analysis I crave. I probably sit somewhere between Hussian and Reform aspectism. I don't consider HS^2 canon and I think of aspects as self-diagnosable/in the optimisticduelist sense, but I do consider pesterquest and hiveswap/friendsim canon. Maybe I should split off and create a new sect focused on the hiveswap trolls solely lol

[@whirligigwarbler]

growing up with religion and leaving it later on in life leaves you feeling incomplete. so many people move on to fill that "god shaped hole" with vices, cults, and mlms. finding solace instead in fandom and creation is a beautiful thing! im going to be thinking about this video for a long time. may we all learn from the media we enjoy

[@Teeto_K]

you got me getting all misty eyed. this was lovely, thanks for it.

[@skylertaliesin3132]

i actually started exploring the Aspects as an alternative to the classical elements in my own pagan practice, first as a "haha, what if?" and then as a legitimate representation of universal forces, though in the much more abstract sense that makes up the meat of their presentation in Homestuck. i've created sigils with the Aspect of Life to make some extra money delivering food, invoked Breath in order to move through traffic unimpeded, and even called upon Time when attempting to drop some bad habits and build up a new routine. nothing earth-shattering, but these efforts *have* been surprisingly successful. being ambitious, i moved on from minor works of thaumaturgy and into the realm of theurgy, viewing the Aspects as forces one must understand and connect with, both within and without, in order to self-actualize. it's not enough to understand the Aspect you feel most drawn to at any given time. rather, the goal should be to recognize the ebb and flow of each Aspect in your mind and the world around you, and to be able to identify when you're 'out of balance,' leaning too far towards one and shunning its opposite. (i've had to reckon with this recently, being so caught up in the restrictions and resignation of Doom that i failed to see the opportunities Life was presenting to me.) am i taking all of this too seriously? well, not really. i have plenty of good laughs about the whole thing, but i always say "if it works, it works." or, as tumblr user rowhan famously put it: "sometimes you have to be a bit mentally ill to get mentally well so if thinking naruto would be proud of you for brushing your teeth is what gets you to brush your teeth well grab that toothbrush dattebayo"

[@panflurr]

this is genuinely one of the best video essays that i've seen in a while! very lighthearted and fun, was an all-around delight to listen to. everything i love about video essays in a single video essay, glorius creation, keep it up, i have subscribed

[@TheLegend2T]

Dear Funk, I have something you may find to be an interesting addition to the general theme of the video. Not that long ago I read “A Cool And New Webcomic” (Spoilers BTW) an MS Paint fan adventure, a parody of Homestuck. During a very specific part of it Aradia prototypes herself enough times to enter reality, by which I mean OUR REALITY. The text then makes reference to the fact that it’s likely the reader will not believe this. Aradia in that moment says most of the readers won’t. I’d say reading that text gave me a religious experience, or feeling, or something very similar. When you talked about Homestuck possibly being a creation myth I instantly thought of Cool And New Webcomic because not only is Aradias presence in reality a concept that relies on reader faith, it also has a creation myth attached when she causes the big bang. I’d have a hard time believing CANWC wasn’t at least some kind of inspiration for this video, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t mention it so… I guess if you ever get around to reading it you could give your two cents on how this videos thesis and CANWC relate. Or even IF they relate at all.

[@incorporealnuance]

I would be a "cascadian" I suppose, if not for liking the alpha kids too much to throw them away entirely.

[@SPAGHET54]

09:13 I understood that reference

[@Grassuke]

taking furious fandom notes.... this video is real cool! you always have such amazing ideas that you give intelligent thought... i love watching videos like this

[@caligulasAquarius]

huh

[@FunkMcLovin]

[@dejavous666.]

:D

[@rommdan2716]

It's hard to make a house, man

[@Moonsong227]

While I think you're starting idea of religion is too western mainstream/christo centric,(granted its for a quick covid video about homestuck lol) I really enjoy your thesis. The discussion of Fandom dynamics in 2020 as philosophical sect academic discussion is hilarious and wonderful lol.

[@miajohnson4025]

this was wonderfully constructed! i don’t think i have any good critical analysis of it, just wanted to say it was beautifully written and incredibly insightful :)

[@caligulasAquarius]

8:52 huh.. smart guy = big mustache... yeah that checks out i think

[@leminhjuice]

You've made it pal, you've made it

[@EQuivalentTube2]

Actually, yeah. Religions are a lot like fandoms. Fandoms are more honest though. They don't pretend that the story actually happened in real life.

[@wantmydamncup]

As someone who knows nothing about homestuck but a good bit about religion, I really enjoyed this video!!

[@Takushika230896]

I am very happy to find this video, since I have always wondered about similarities between Homestuck fandom and religion. Personally, I fit the closest into egbertian category in the classification, being a classpect analyzer and classpect typologist (up to the point of making my own methodology, graphs, surveys and trying to ‘’feel’’ the archetypes of the classpects… yeah, you can call me a bit fanatic here). BUT the ritual of initiation into aspecticism is still unclear to me. Each religion has a certain initiation, a point, from which you can say ‘’Now you are [religion name]’’. Though not all who read the comic start to obsess over classpects and not all people outside the fandom of the comic, upon having been classpected, suddenly become followers of aspecticism. If any of you have ideas, please, share, because I am lost here.

[@FunkMcLovin]

Aspectism IS the fandom, the line between does not exist. Just like you did not choose to be Egbertian you say you "fit the closest." No one chooses their own religion they simply fall into either what they most resonate with or they are molded by it from circumstance. The ritual initiation is a formality that does not exist in all or even most religions. If you want an answer that is less of a cop out I'm planning to make a follow up video about specific rituals and prayers that the viewer can follow based on their ideal sect

[@ratatatbrat]

hella

[@whitesandals5759]

What’s the sauce for the music around the end

[@grimgondolier4943]

I....Honestly would say I am into Homestuck, but I have a hard time reading or listening to it because It Drags SO MUCH and It BOTHERS ME And I'm just too Nervous to finish It! But I still can't help but feel love and passion for it, I'm admitting my sins in the comments of a video about Homestuck being a RELIGION. (Actually, that's very fitting)

[@snartboy5000]

sahcon deez nuts lmao

[@blackberrynina999]

someone knows the name of the song that plays in the end of the video?

[@FunkMcLovin]

@@blackberrynina999 it's on my Bandcamp, it's part of the Homestuck Alternate Universe Act 1 OST.

[@keaton5101]

haha guys what if we made aspecticism real as a joke haha (WARNING: DO NOT DO THIS)

[@jamm6_514]

tfw i fall under hussian in this

[@hydroelectriclyre2775]

38:40 "this, of course, is not a literal belief in the modern era-" and that's where you're wrong

[@TheOnlyPedroGameplays]

Dude what

[@spaghettiiwithjuice9826]

oh god i'm an egbertian aren't i

[@pipislover1997]

Sawcon

[@eridanyuri]

This is makei to much sense to me /ref

[@gamzee8902]

:o)

[@benjaminjenkins2384]

I feel like this view of religion is incredibly sweeping and oversimplified even for the huge word count it take up in this video. I also dont like the reframing of history done when talking about religion. Jojo said, essentially that religion used to drive ideology and now its the other way around, but i think this presents a reductionist view of the very real ways that ideology and politics shape religious beliefs historically. The history of religion is mired on conflicts both political and ethnic, that were only justified religiously after the fact, in ways that frame political decisions as the will of god.

[@FunkMcLovin]

I will admit I come from a house that was Jewish then Catholic, two religions that (in my experience) attempt to influence the world instead of being influenced by the world. Especially in the case of Catholicism, they enforced dogma and shaped society far more than society shaped it. As an example, Catholicism was pro-monarchist far far after the advent of democracy worldwide. Another example is how in Hindu India, the caste system is enforced by religion and shapes its social structure. Nowadays, these religions that were once powerhouses of social influence have been reduced- The best example from Catholicism was Vatican 2 which represented (even to its current detractors) a reaction by the Vatican to modernize. They were "getting with the times." This would have been completely unthinkable before. Catholicism didn't "get with the times" the times "got with Catholicism." When Nietzche famously said "god is dead" he was referring precisely what I mean- He did not mean that organized religion was finished but that the influence of organized religion had been so neutered as to be impotent. Think of the American tradition "separation of church and state," that dogma would have been radical just a few hundred years ago. TL;DR: I only speak from my experience as a secular person raised by certain abrahamic sects. I do my best to back up my perspective and people seem to see what I mean, but inevitably some may disagree. I do agree however your point that certain conflicts are only justified religiously after the fact. American slavery comes to mind immediately. I suppose the question is- Which came first? The practice or the impetus? Foremost, however, thank you for your comment very much! I appreciate any comment that can make me think enough to devote a few paragraphs to. Might make a followup vid in the future.

[@benjaminjenkins2384]

@@FunkMcLovin Hey, super appreciate the response, I really hope I didn't come off as overly critical, I'm a fan of your work and very much of this video in particular spoke to me, which is why i wanted to add some more to the discussion! Another example is the history of misogyny being justified religiously, after being codified as a cultural practice, something common in the ancient near east. Of course like culture, pre-existing ideas affect the way people construct ideas of their own, and the roots of an in group and out group are very deep in religion as a social practice. Misogyny also appears to be one of the oldest bigotries, which could explain why that would be one element of culture many religions latch onto.

[@RunningOnAutopilot]

38:33 Extant is a totally pointless tryhard word Extant means currently existing But existing implies currently existing And something needs to exist to be current You don’t need to specify that something is in the present

[@Moonsong227]

In science, you actually do. The term extant comes from evolutionary biology.