We get glimpses of it, but small ones. Only enough to know that the kids we’ve followed are alive and well. Anything further would define them, and as I’ll explain soon, that would betray the point of the ending.

Notably, this new reality is truly limitless. While Paradox Space as our characters knew it seemed to have no limits, in reality it was constrained by the shape of its causality: a circle. Everything in Homestuck leads back to itself, and nothing can escape the commandment that for anything to happen it has to cause itself to happen, too. It’s a cycle.

The new status quo of Paradox Space is not a cycle — subject to the tyranny of LE’s stable time loop.

It is instead a single point that can spiral outwards infinitely, in all directions. This is symbolized by Calliope destroying not one but TWO circular symbols in her creation of the black hole: The Green Sun, AND the circular white cracks of paradox space caused by Lord English.

But attempting to portray a literally infinite reality is a loser’s game, as far as artistic work goes. No matter what Hussie decided to show or not show us, people would use it to decide that one version of Homestuck’s future is Absolutely Real — Canon — while others are Absolutely Not.

CANON IS A WEIGHTY THING

The nature of Homestuck is multiversal. It’s never been shy about stating that there are countless unseen versions of reality playing out, constantly, that we are never privy to. There’s no reason to assume the kids’ new universe is any different, because the kids are the same fundamental agents of change and possibility they’ve always been.

When Hussie says “All ships are canon” that isn’t him playing a cop-out or being silly or anything — he’s speaking a plain, literal truth.

In a multiversal system that extends infinitely across all vectors of possibility, the natural result is that not only will every character end up “with” every other character, but also that they will do so in every group combination and every SEQUENCE of combinations over time that can possibly happen.

Essentially, ANY combination of characters that can possibly be arranged together in any kind of “relationship,” from friends to mortal enemies to group relationships to queerplatonic relationships to ANYTHING you can imagine, is already in existence through the nature of parallel worlds theory alone.

In that context, to give any character in Homestuck a single, definite Ending would be an absolute betrayal of exactly what Homestuck thinks these characters ARE: As infinite as Sburb and paradox space themselves, as eternal and vast and all-encompassing as all the universe, expanding inwards instead of outwards.

They’re people existing in the midst of life’s infinite potential, like us.

Not characters with single tidy arcs to close and wrap up for our satisfaction.

(Because I know for a fact some people are going to use this as justification for shipping gay characters in heterosexual pairings or whatever, keep in mind that while reality is essentially infinite, it’s still ultimately created by the characters! That means that realities the characters don’t feel are true to them aren’t going to be desirable for them, and likely would not be made. Infinite causality sure is weird!)

That doesn’t mean that the arcs we saw and were invested in can never have any kind of resolution, or that we can never see how the characters move foward with the issues they wanted to resolve. I’m guessing the epilogue will likely address those things, in a fashion!

But our culture is really not past the notion of authorial intent. For all intents and purposes, if Hussie had closed anything in Homestuck as definitively as a list of “endgame ships” or with a definitive statement of Who Lives and Who Doesn’t, if a particular characters’ arc resolved in a particular definite way, all of fandom and fanfiction and fanculture would follow his cue.

All creative work after that point would mold itself around The Way Things Ended, and while some fanwork would definitely deviate from that ending, they would be seen by the rest of our culture as less “legitimate,” less “Real,” than something that follows compellingly off the path that was already set for us.

It would basically put in place a new Alpha Timeline, or something like it. A limiter on the endless potential of the characters we’ve come to know, a denial of their Ultimate Selves and the Ultimate Reward that they’ve earned.

So instead, Hussie chose to avoid limiting the characters to any single Way Things Are, and decided to expand our canonical role from Reader to Creator, if we choose to take on the mantle.

All the characters got progression to their character arcs, they learned something new or came to some new degree of insight and resolution. But all of them did so in a way that makes it clear this is only the beginning of their story: Jane and Terezi coming to understand their own potential, Jade realizing reality is there for her to enjoy, Dirk learning to let go of control and Dave learning to take it when it’s necessary, Jake realizing it’s fine to be alone and that his friends don’t hate him and beginning to work on fixing his relationships. So on and so on.

It never really made sense to expect the characters to wrap up all their issues and problems in the span of a few hours before fighting a bunch of Big Bosses. The story ends, but life continues! And the fact that these characters still have things to work for and live through only makes that clearer. It should be something to celebrate, not decry. But then, there’s also the question of who even gets to live in the first place. Who reaps the rewards of freedom?

Many questions in the ending are basically Schrodingers’ boxes. Does Vriska survive? Do the Beta kids get to live free? Do the trolls get to live forever, too? Did the ghosts get to go to the new universe as well? Hey, for that matter, what about (Vriska) and (Terezi)? Do the kids even have to go fight Lord English at all, or did changing the alpha timeline make it so they don’t have to?

For every black box the narrative gives us, we are faced with a question. With a little lateral thinking, we can answer all of these questions for ourselves, and we can come to different yet compelling conclusions for all of them.

So, effectively, we’ve been given a Choice.

And we already know what choices do to reality in Homestuck.

Hussie created a space open enough to allow us to decide how things proceed from here. The fact is, as far as the comic stands now, we just don’t know! And not knowing means we can create the future for ourselves: through fanwork, analysis, and care.

There are compelling ways to say that Vriska died while the ghosts and other trolls in the Furthest Ring survived. There are compelling ways to say even she made it! There are ways to argue (Vriska) and (Terezi) survived, too.

The key thing is all of those are individual choices, which means every individual reader can pick and choose the mix that works best for them. And they can spread that understanding of the story, share it with others.

Express it through themselves.

BUT, they can only do so by following the philosophical directives of the comic:

Respect others’ ideas.

Work hard to express your own.

After the ending I’ve seen dozens of people talk about writing fanfiction to fix the ending, to explain everything, to carry out their ships, etc, etc, etc. This is awesome! But it also seems pretty angry, pretty disenchanted, pretty resentful of the ending and of Hussie himself.

Most of it seems to miss the fact that that reaction, the impulse to create, no matter what emotions bring you to it, was exactly what Hussie wanted.

Here is the punchline to the V A S T J O K E:

Homestuck ends by giving its characters the same freedom we have, and by giving us the power to follow them down whatever chain of choices we wish to watch them make.

It believes it’s characters are vectors of infinite potential. But it also believes that about us, the readers. It believes that about you.

Do you want the story to proceed so that Terezi flies off into dreambubble land to drag Vriska back home and make out with her? Do you want Dave and Karkat to start dating Jade? Do you want it to turn out that the new universe has the means for the trolls to God Tier? Do you want it to turn out that all the ghosts got to be revived and live in the new universe too? Wanna write “All Ships Are Canon” postfic?

Go for it. Go for all of it. Create it, and it’s canon. It’s real. No timelines are doomed anymore, so now everything is alpha timeline. Everything is canon and important and true. You don’t even have to make fanfic of it if you can’t go through the effort: all you have to do is hold it as a truth in your heart, let it play out within you, and as far as Homestuck’s canon is concerned, it’s real.

Wait a minute…DRAW? HUSSIEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The epilogue is probably going to explain a lot more about the specifics of how and why LE was defeated, and it may also provide some closure for characters in the sense that it’ll show us a version — or several versions? — of how they are living now. But I think it will be careful to say that any single version of reality isn’t really the core of the story or The Way Things Ended.

Homestuck believes the story never really ends, and it believes the power to decide how it continues rests not with Hussie, but with you.

And the fact that there will be a time lag between this ending and the epilogue will likely help people accept and internalize that reality by the time it comes out. People are already working on fanwork, charting out their preferred possibilities, thinking and loving their versions of an ending even if they’re not actively putting it to text.

That engagement is creation, as far as Homestuck is concerned. Even if it’s borne out of dissatisfaction, it considers the act of creating more to be valid and beautiful.

And it believes that if you care about it enough, you owe it to yourself and to everyone else to do the work to express yourself about it as loudly and strongly as you can. More likely than not, someone will love you for it. You also will be happier and more fulfilled if you don’t waste time and energy tearing down someone else who wants to express themselves differently. That’s the final imperative, the suggestion, the challenge and the promise of Homestuck.

Be kind, try hard, and all of reality is yours.

Just like the characters, it’s up to you to choose the nature of your victory. You’ve earned that.