Thoughts on the End of SSSS

[Jitter]

Dinoonthenet, thank you for posting this! And thank you for joining us. I think most of us still sticking to the Forum feel the same, although friendships and community also plays a part in why we are not planning to give up the Forum or the Known World.

I’ve bn around longer than you, since early Adv II but still not in the heyday. And I shared your feelings about “is it ok for me to be this upset”, but I’ve gotten over it since. I love you Forumites, and I love the team ad the world, despite the shortcomings* that are sometimes so glaringly obvious that I have to wonder how I disregarded them earlier, but I’m very happy that I did or otherwise I wouldn’t be here

If you’ve read through the Forum (surely not ALL of it? I know I haven’t and I’m pretty manic about it) you know how shattered we were and how close we came to actually closing shop. I’m very glad we didn’t. And extremely glad that we still get new people! Participate in the discussions as much or a little as you like (although I personally prefer much), everything counts!

* shortcomings in the worldbuilding and later perhaps with development or lack of it of the team. The Forumites of course have no shortcomings!

[thorny]

ssss and all that it's inspired deserve better than to be forgotten.

Indeed. Including by its author; who very unfortunately (IMO) appears to want to do so.

Welcome very much here. This community seemed to me, and clearly to a number of its other members, to be something worth saving on its own; and, although we couldn't save SSSS, we can save this forum. And one of the reasons to save it is to provide a place for those who loved Adventure I and the first portions of Adventure II, and wish to keep a portion of themselves living in that world.

[Jitter]

Today, March 28th 2023 is the first anniversary post-comic. It’s been a difficult year, for the world and for the fandom. But still, in the undying (pun shamelessly intended) words of Granny Weatherwax of Discworld fame, WE ATEN’T DEAD! It’s something, don’t you think?

[dmeck7755]

Today, March 28th 2023 is the first anniversary post-comic. It’s been a difficult year, for the world and for the fandom. But still, in the undying (pun shamelessly intended) words of Granny Weatherwax of Discworld fame, WE ATEN’T DEAD! It’s something, don’t you think?

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It has been great talking and meeting you all this past year. 

[thorny]

It is very definitely something, Jitter. And something good.

Happy Independence Anniversary to All!

[Róisín]

Seconding thorny on that! There is such a diverse group of fascinating people here that I hope to enjoy their company for a long time yet.

[Buteo]

Yes, Jitter, it is indeed something!

This forum is a treasure to me, even a lifeline!

May we all continue to enjoy this community for a long, long time!

[Keep Looking]

Yes, I'm glad we're still around! Although it feels weird to think that the comic has been finished for a year. Here's to another year forwards, though!

[Róisín]

Raises a glass to another year!

[NightMareMage]

I think I found SSSS about a year and a half ago, and then I joined this forum while the epilogue was finishing. I just can't believe it's been a full year!

Happy day after the first anniversary of the post-comic!

[Glass]

This is going to be a strange place to post this, but if I can see rightly some life still lives on in this forum and I have the strangest melancholy growing in my chest about it.

I remember reading SSSS back when I was younger - fifteen, I think, back when it all started. I kept up with it for a few years and then my life got busy and my brain decided to shift on to so many other things that all I really remembered was some beautiful art and some wonderful focus on languages. I never engaged with the fandom, or the community, and seeing what happened recently it's...very strange to feel sad about not doing that.

I decided to give the comic a reread just two days ago because I was talking about a setting of my own that I wrote back in the late 2010s as a place for a few friends to make up stories in and to roleplay around. Though it was inspired by dozens of other things there was Stand Still, Stay Silent in the DNA. Post-apocalypse, horror, and a desperate thirst for discovering what was lost and humanity clawing back after a lot of despair.

I decided, having started at page one (and going there from an ancient bookmark somewher near the end of Adventure I) to see how far I had to go, how much I could read before catching up again. Ten years worth of content, right? And now I have no idea if I even want to keep reading all the way to the end, even through stuff I've never seen before, because of the terrible weight of how the comic's ending came to be. I even read the author's statement about 'old works' and how she can't recommend them anymore and that makes me sad, deeply, as a writer myself. I couldn't imagine growing so distant from something I loved and poured my heart into.

This is just a very long way of saying - I can't imagine all the pain at the slow decline, I can feel a sharp disappointment now on my own - not that it ended, but around how -, and that it's heartening to see people brought together by a creative work still holding on to each other.

[wavewright62]

Hi and welcome, Glass. 



I certainly feel that, even though I lived through it.  For awhile it felt like:

Interestingly, I have seen signs that a portion of the fandom is beginning to reclaim some of the SSSS worldbuilidng through fanworks.  The Russian fanbase is particularly active, I'm told (haven't fed those works into a translator personally). 
Shades of Monty Python - we're not dead yet, we're getting better!  (Do we feel like dancing? hmmmm)

[Glass]

Hi Wave, thank you for the welcome - I'm glad to at least find people still around to empathise with the frankly weirdly complex feelings about a comic that's lived in the back of my mind for years.

And, knowing it's still being clawed back and kept alive by people's passion is a salve all on its own. The fact that the world had a spot in my head for nearly ten years, paying absolutely no rent mind you, is still being built on and treasured helps. Here's to things continuing to get better.

[Buteo]

Hello, Glass, welcome to the forum.

What you say about your feelings for the way SSSS ended strikes so many chords. Minna's abandonment of her creation hurt me deeply.

The attachment of so many readers who remained connected to that story, and to each other, has been healing and encouraging to me. I have sadly little life beyond this corner of the internet world, and with this as my haven I have the courage to venture further.

Have you been to Archive Of Our Own, the site where fanfiction and art flourish? Stand Still Stay Silent has some amazingly good writers and artists posting there. (Some of my favourites are alternative endings for Adventure II, but there are many other seriously good works.)

We are a smaller group than we were back in the 'good old days', but we are determined to keep the best of what we had then - including the friends we have made here: knowledgeable, caring, sharing, and kind. These can be the 'good new days'.

[Glass]

Buteo, hello! It's been quite a while since I joined a forum - it's very nice to be welcomed.

 I'm glad I was at least mildly intelligable in my feeling filled rambling; it was all quite a rush of emotion in the space of a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. 

I have in fact heard of AO3 and have, once upon a time, actually written there. Being reminded of that makes starting something SSSS related quite tempting, or at the very least hunting down some tales written by people who still hold the world dear. Especially to salvage some of the enthusiasm the setting really left awoke in me.

For everything that burns down I suppose there's new ashes for things to grow in - so, 'the good new days' sounds more than pleasant. Even if I am falling in through the door to have a look around while the shoots are a fair bit grown.