Side note: I wrote all this before I read

Rant's only there's because there was some baggage from early days of reading to go over.

So sorry for exposing you to this!

I mean... I dunno? I think your points about the Alpha kids being a group of shitty idiot teens is fair and correct and everything, but I resent the idea that the Beta Kids were not also kind of shitty teens and that Hussie ruined them by making them so in A6. For one, they kind of always were, it just manifested really differently than the Alpha Kids. Their shitty teenliness was a result of and mainly influenced by their circumstances and backgrounds- Rose’s grimdark rampage and rebellious path of destruction she carved, Jade’s terrorizing of Jadesprite, Dave’s pretty much everything post Bromurder, and John’s repressed, apathetic treatment of his father’s death. They’ve got a lot of issues that are at their core teen ones. Childishly resenting and working against your parents, distancing yourself from the concept of abuse and attempting to convince everyone that it’s all good, forever, and smiling at everyone just in case they thought there was a chance you weren’t happy and content!!!!!! The only real difference is that it’s not romantically motivated and doesn’t translate into frustration towards each other. (which is fitting, as Jade and Dave’s issues are pretty interchangeable with the themes of putting on a facade of strength, confidence, and relevance even when you aren’t strong, confident, and relevant, which empowers itself pretty neatly to never snapping at your friends even when you kind of want to.) their Alpha Kids, meanwhile, have teenage problems that manifest and hurt your friends. Not just their romantic clusterfuck, but Jake’s obliviousness, Jane’s spoiltness, Roxy’s alcoholism, and Dirk’s Dirk, all contribute to poisoning their respective relationships, and it’s when this begins to pan out that it starts to translate to the Beta Kids too, and cause them to externalize a lot of their issues created by circumstance and generally, being a kid and growing up. Enjoyment is subjective and I can’t make you like it, but Homestuck has almost certainly always been a coming of age tale and thus involves some coming of age.