its a bit of a departure from how homestucks content has been released in the past, yeah, but the thing is that this _is_ how every other piece of media works! you cant theorize about the new stuff in movies or books until youve read/seen them, which usually meant buying access.

heres a question worth posing when criticizing this — what WOULD bonus, 'fun little spin-offs' look like? i think the fundamental idea is that theyd be stories which arent required to appreciate the free-story plot of homestuck.

and that makes sense! nobody wants to be confused by some plot twist or turn which could only happen based on events that occurred in a portion of the media they dont have access to, right?

im certain the writers are aware of this, though. i believe theyve said that, in the case of stories which may be relevant to plot, theyll release summaries (presumably similar to the epilogues recap)

that, of course, is a compromise - between an understandable free plotline, and the writers' range to tell stories that are not entirely removed from that plotline. but do you think they should have that range? well, lets look at the original question again!

were only about 100 pages into hs^2 (120 if you count the bonus pages) so we cant be certain about what its plotline structure will look like, but we can look at the original webcomic and the epilogues to guess.

homestuck is more a story about its characters than the general Stuff That Happens; i wasnt part of the fandom while hs1 was being released, but since the time ive joined it it seems to me most discussion reflects that.

catnapped, the first bonus story, is about events transpiring around janes inauguration as president in the candy timeline. theoretically, it cant be too ground-shaking, because we know what happens til years later

but judging by what we know of its story so far, catnapped has the potential to strongly impact how we see jane as a character and leader! i see this as a good example of the problem with "plot irrelevant bonus updates"

as a strongly character-based story, much of enjoying homestucks content is getting to know and understand its characters. from this, you can extrapolate that anything that teaches you more about the characters ought to be free.

after all, if youre missing out on critical info when it comes to analyzing the characters, then how can you appreciate the story fully? and i think thats a fair argument, because...you cant!

but what other option is there? it seems the writers would have to tell stories entirely separated from the cast of hs2! and while i dont doubt those would be intriguing, especially with the art and overall quality hs2 is known for...

it just isnt what theyve decided to make (so far, anyhow).