It's been ages. As of April 13, 2016, Homestuck will have been running for an entire seven years, changing and evolving in art, soundtrack and characters every year. It ends exactly when it began: Andrew Hussie posted the first page of Homestuck on April 13, 2009, and an entire era of fandom and growth is going to be halted in the finale of the eccentric, beautiful and ridiculously long and confusing webcomic.

How has it all changed? When Homestuck just began, there was nothing but pixelated panels and short lines. Hussie's trademarked style in a choose-your-own-adventure style video game prevented any detailed art or usual dialogue lines as one might see in another comic, on the web or not. Instead of speech bubbles and clean lines, there were pixels and "pesterlogs," chatroom-styled, color-coded lines and usernames belonging to each character in the comic. As much as Homestuck was about a video game that ended the Earth and put different universes and species into a cosmic collision, it was styled in the same way as much as possible, too. The rest of the experience was similar: soundtracks and flash animations were all basic. Hussie drew all of the artwork, and he worked in a small team to do everything else. It started out small and humble. Hussie had only ever done two other webcomics at this point and was virtually unknown.

It grew into something explosive.

Somehow, this creation stuck. It stuck hard and accumulated fame like a snowball. Homestuck picked up speed and then streamlined immediately onto fame, just when the social network Tumblr was getting much more popular as well; at this point, Homestuck cosplayers were setting new trends at anime conventions all over the world. It was Homestuck cosplayers who began cosplay panels. It was Homestuck cosplayers who popularized cosplay balls. It was Homestuck cosplayers who got grey body paint banned in hotels and aided in vandalization. Homestuck spread tales of infamy and glory everywhere.

And as Homestuck's fan domain grew, crashing the mspaintadventures server whenever a webcomic update was published. Across the board in social networks on the Internet, nearly everyone has heard of Homestuck, whether it's been a bad story or a good one. Millions of animations, fan songs, cosplay videos, fanfiction and artwork contributions flew through YouTube, Tumblr, Archive of Our Own/FF.net, and even on Omegle, as Omeglestuck became a pastime. Roleplayers consisting only of Homestuck fans who were also programmers launched msparp.com and provided a venue for thousands of people every hour of every day. And Homestuck itself grew impressive -- artwork became clear-cut, beautiful, and more detailed than ever, and Hussie could now have teams of artists working on panels and sections. The soundtracks became more professional and moving, and every character grew and evolved in drastic ways only Hussie could have anticipated.

And now, years after its pinnacle of fame and life, it's all coming to an end.

Homestuck's artwork and the storyline has changed and evolved, but so have the fans. When they first began their journey through Homestuck, they were in middle school or high school; now, at the end of the webcomic, they are in high school or college. College kids have graduated and become adults. People grew with the story, as did the kids within Homestuck itself. It is the end of an era, as we know it.

I have made several of my closest Internet friends through Homestuck. The better part of many of my summer hours were spent reading Homestuck and delving into its rich fan domain, filled to the brim with content I could lose myself in for hours - let alone the actual comic, which took devotion to read through from start to beginning - and oh, how that devotion was always rewarded with the most passionate and poignant climaxes of each written act.

I have not lived my life for a long time without anticipating the next Homestuck update, and soon, after this Wednesday, I will never have to wait for another Homestuck update again. Homestuck has changed every fan and the face of fandoms in a way no other media could have.

I can only say I hope Homestuck won't be forgotten in just a year or two after the updates have finished. I hope Homestuck can flourish for as long as other classic comics have, for there's nothing barring this webcomic from the status and fame of something like Justice League or X-Men at this point. (It arguably already has.)

Homestuck, and Andrew Hussie thank you for existing and changing so much for everyone. The Internet won't be quite the same without your updates and your lovely shenanigans.