Jailbreak ^2 review

Since I read through this adventure a while back I figure I might as well give it a review.

Jailbreak ^2: Beyond Canon, as I have been told and come to believe, is meant to be a literary response to the homestuck^2/the homestuck epilogues, but focuses instead on Jailbreak, and somehow nearly every official ms paint adventure plus psycholonials. It also reflects upon common tropes and conventions (though sadly I don't think it had any commentary on convention-likes) of mostly homestuck related fan-adventures.

It starts out with a similarly self indulgent ultimate Dirk thing going on, similar to homestuck^2's opener, but as the pages go on, it really grows into its own, though sometimes the walls of text are (purposefully) dense. The author is very aware of a number of things like this, and at times whoever is narrating will flip the reader off. There are a lot of points that seem to be embedded in the zeitgist of when it was posted, such as the election arc.

What I like about Jailbreak ^2 is that it uses somewhat of an episodic new-gag-per-update-bundle approach to its humor, in such a way that you don't particularly need to know the Deep Lore to find it funny. There is indeed Deep Lore, but its more of a puzzle to weave together (though even that has some jokes in it). I'm kind of a sucker for lore and jokes, so this worked well for me.
I will admit, at some points where retcons were present, I didn't know which things I had already read or not, or what I should skip or not. I think I skipped a good chunk of the text-only epilogue section.
The artstyle at first is rather unsurprisingly rudimentary, fitting somewhat in with its material inspiration, but there's a lot that uses the artist's own styles, especially later on.
There are two timelines of note in this adventure, the "shit timeline", and the "shittier shit timeline". One of them uses color, while the other one keeps things largely monochrome. I forget which one is which, but it probably doesn't matter.

One of the highlights in terms of the media this adventure was in response to is Davesprite's monologue, regarding a nuanced opinion on the importance of canon, which concludes with him casually flying off to never be seen again.
In the latter half (after [S] Waterfall mostly, which I cannot remember a single detail from, aside that its supposed to be the [S] Cascade equivalent in this story), the narrative is largely focused upon the question of who is (insert person here), and continues asking this up and down the chain until theoretically the identities are all known.

There's also a lot of jailbreaking, which is probably good to have if you're going to have jailbreak in your title. But then again the Start Jailbreak Adventure reoccurring gag does get a little stale after a while. I am glad however that there is far less cringe than the original jailbreak, which was comprised almost entirely of contrarian trolling in its first half (but then again, we're not here for jailbreak, we're here for jailbreak^2).
Granted, I have the feeling that pesterquest/friendsim/whatever other visual novels I didn't play have a big role in this adventure, due to the Ultimate Self Insert being a pivotal figure, but I never really got into those due to not really liking games where you're stuck talking to one person in a branching conversation tree.
(plus, friendsim volume 1 blew it by making the player suffer through excruciating secondhand embarrassment on the set of a snuff film stream setup, and killing off the other person you meet. That is not the way to get people to play your game series! At least that one I got as a gift so I didn't waste any of my own money on it)

Later on, near the end, there is an rpg maker game called Pumpkin Quest. Like, a whole-ass 3 hour runtime package first project rpg. Now, as someone who uses rpg maker often, I can tell that this game isn't exactly a blockbuster, but its got good gags and it has a reasonable difficulty curve... usually. One of the highlights is the toyota sequence. You'll know it when you hear it (toyota). I do hope that fruzmig eventually works on another game in the future, with the skills learned from taking on this first rpg maker project.

This adventure largely utilizes the fanmade Jailbreak album for its animations. this album, when I first listened to it, didn't stand out much. but this adventure managed to make it shine in context. Of course, the drillgorg song is still the best (I Will Drill You ASSSSSS), but its an overall contextual improvement that works.

The animations themselves are serviceable and well paced. Granted most of them I can't remember after all this time, but they do their job.

To sum it up, Jailbreak ^2 is a big meandering and witty adventure, weighing in at like, 2000 pages or something?
Do not try to read this in one sitting, you will crumble into dust.
Please pace yourself, and enjoy the ride.
You'll probably miss it and not miss it at the same time once you reach the ending.
I suggest reading it if you want a vaguely insightful romp though mspa history, future, and fandom, and need something to laugh at occasionally.

For anyone that found this review and has no idea where to find it, here's a link to it: https://mspfa.com/?s=35904&p=1