Like it or not, we *are* thinking and acting in stereotypes and patterns, both when judging others or doing something ourselves. All in themselves, norms and tradition are fine, and categories and labels are okay. You can't do extensive research every time you stumble upon a typical situation; you can't re-learn what a chair is and what it isn't in intricate detail every time you want to sit on a chair, that would be expensive and counterproductive, and you'll promptly go insane. So you label and group stuff, and make behavioural patterns (or learn them from others). And That Is Completely Okay.

It's the matter of how often if at all do you update them and do reality checks is what makes all the difference. If it isn't broken, don't fix it, sure, but it's important to recognize that things inevitably break over time, and catch the moment when they do.

Even after all these years, I can't get over this shit and I just need to get it out of my system.

Epilogues suck. And they ruin everything Homestuck stood for.

"You may freely ignore the epilogues", says Andrew Hussie.

Yeah. But then it's kinda hard to ignore the fact that the story just isn't properly fucking concluded. It's incomplete, in a way that's disastrous for "a story which is also a puzzle". It doesn't come together.

"Canon is a meaningless term, you may invent your own epilo-" no! Don't you fucking dare to shift your god-damn responsibility on me, the reader. The angsty edgy completely-out-of-character trauma porn fanfiction of epilogues are out, in fucking official print, no less. And it, by necessity, shaped the perception of the whole story around it. You CHOSE to ruin the story and dial back all the character development they ever had. All just because you had a massive chip on your shoulder and an axe to grind with the fandom.