#Homestuck Role System

[zenosanalytic]

do you think the Doom aspect has any direct connection to ghosts?

HMMMM

We've got two examples of doom characters in the story, and we really don't know THAT much about Mituna, but Sollux has some pretty strong ghost-connections. His relationship with Aradia, obvsl, his "whispers from the soon to be deceased" which are PROBABLY the ability to talk to/be talked to by atemporal ghosts, but more explicitly by BEING half-ghost after Cascade, and choosing to spend pretty much the rest of the story from that point with Aradia and the ghosts of the Furthest Ring rather than continue the story. You could also make a shakier argument about dream-selves being rather ghosty: activating only when you sleep(there was an old European folk-belief about the soul leaving the body at sleep), being able to float/fly, and generally acting on dream-logic; all of which are ghosty-traits. And there's John, our resident Ectobiologist, being the only Earthican kid(I think???) to interact with him in all of Homestuck. Then there's Sollux's romantic partners, Aradia and Feferi, who not only each have their own strong associations with ghosts but situate HIM, quite literally, between Life and Death XD XD XD BUT: we see Players pickup aspects of ppl they're close to all throughout Homestuck, so it's possible these ghostly interactions, particular to Sollux and (to our knowledge)not shared by the only other Doom player we have, are a result of his association with Aradia and not aspect-related.

BUT-BUT!!! I think there are good thematic reasons to suspect Doom has close associations with Ghosts. Obvsl there's the basic definitions and associations of Doom itself; when we say someone has "met their doom"(which tbf NOBODY SAYS), we mean they've died, and ghosts are dead ppl; Doom can mean judgement and prophecy and Ghosts are often related to judgement and prophecy(See: The Odyssey and A Christmas Carol); Ghosts are often associated with Dread, Inevitability, Stasis, Repetition, and Patterns which, in turn, are all associated with Doom. Then there's his Polycule again, and how it places Doom, as an Aspect, between life and death, which is Proper-Ghosty uwu uwu

So Yeah; I think you can def swing Ghost-associations for Doom. What I WOULD add tho is to remember to make it thematic for the character? Like: Aspects are huge broad ideas and each character expresses them in their own particular way through their much more specific interests and recurring story-motifs. And interests can be shared across characters and Aspects(for instance: wizards popping up as important concepts for Light, Hope, and Void characters, or Death and Ghosts across Sollux, Aradia, and Feferi as discussed here) which inform us primarily about the characters, while secondarily revealing things about how those concepts themselves work in the story, and Aspects more broadly.

[en8y]

[IMAGE ID: two horizontal flags with nine stripes. the middle stripe is twice as large as the rest of them, which are equally sized. the first flag has these top three colors: white, medium blue, and black. the second flag has these top three colors: medium blue, white, and cool pink. each flag has these bottom six stripes: dark grey, off-white, dark grey, medium grey, light grey, and medium grey. END ID.]

carapacian system (carap- carapa- -pacian): a gender connected to being a/an [xyz] carapacian; this gender is connected to [xyz], [xyz] aesthetics, carapacians from homestuck, prospit and/or derse, chess and/or chessboards, and if the user deems it appropriate, being an exile.

homestuck sprite system (spri- sprit- -homesprite): a gender connected to being a/an (kernel)sprite, or a (kernel)sprite of [xyz]; this gender is connected to [xyz], [xyz] aesthetics, sprites and kernelsprites from homestuck, being an amalgamation of multiple things, having innate knowledge of certain things, and sburb/sgrub itself.

@radiomogai @liom-archive @obscurian @gendersystems @role-systems @dragonpride17 @libnius

[gender-mailman]

Finalboyhometrick!

A gender connected to being a final boy trickster, or a trickster final boy; this gender is connected to final boy, final boy aesthetics, trickster mode from homestuck, neon or bright colors, candy and sweet foods/drinks, and being chaotic. can also have ties to romanticism or sexuality, but doesn't have to

Coined by me. Requested by no one. Tagging @en8y

[utopianparadoxist]

On Roxy, Centrism, Gravitation, and Love

So Candy Roxy has gotten a lot of shit--rightfully so--for taking a consistently centrist and peacekeeping role in the Candy timeline. Generally averse to the spotlight and of the opinion that the Gods, with their outsize importance and cultural weight, should stay out of the governing affairs of regular people, Roxy has largely been reduced to a passerby watching as her friends plummet the world into chaos as they try to tear each other's throats out.

But there's another way to read her fundamental centrism, one where her focus and perspective simply aren't political, but rather interpersonal. As one redditor (I lost the comment and don't know who, sorry!) put it, they read Roxy in this latest update as a character striving to "keep everyone together", to pull the fracturing group back into unity.

Pulling things together. That sounds familiar.

It sounds, in fact, like Gravity. "In physics, gravity (from Latin gravitas 'weight'[1]) is a fundamental interaction primarily observed as a mutual attraction between all things that have mass." In other words, Gravity is a word we use to describe the fact that everything that physically exists, that has substance and matter, is inexorably pulled towards each other.

Rose describes gravitation as "the intrinsic nature of nothingness", that is to say, the nature of Void itself. And while the force of Gravity gets weaker the further things are spread apart, this weak and subtle force is what draws together cosmic gases that compact and condense into each other with such intensity that they give birth to the Stars themselves.

In this way, Void is a force which creates and becomes Light. And in the same way Gravity acts as a force pulling stellar objects together, laying the foundation for organized solar systems and ultimately Life itself--could Roxy be trying to act as a force pulling her friends into harmony reflect her relationship to the Void, right at the time the Black Hole threatens to grind them all into oblivion and they most need someone to rally them to a unified cause?

Let's see how deep we can dive into the dark.

--@lime-bloods's Void/Home Collage.

To start with, there's some required reading to understand where I'm trying to go. The image above is from Homestuck blogger @lime-bloods, who has done some absolutely brilliant work unpacking the symbolic importance of Black Holes.

I suggest reading the images above to grasp the full context of the idea, but in essence, it suggests that Black Holes are synonymous with the concept of the Home in the bounds of Paradox Space.

As Lime-bloods states, The local Black Hole of a Cherub's birthplace is identified as that Cherub's home, and Cherubs always return to this same black hole in order to reproduce. John's speech about the note that desolation plays makes reference to "the Voids keeping neighbors apart", in other words, the houses separating communities into families.

--@lime-bloods's Void/Home Collage.

The Sprites, too, are bound to the gravity of their player's Home during Sburb, unable to leave the house until the player reaches unlocks the ability to summon and eventually release them. This carries over into Homestuck: Beyond Canon, where almost every sprite manifests inside the Black Hole created by The Point.

The only exception to this is Jasprose, who A) As a Light player may have some natural resistance to the call of the Void and B) was the only Sprite explicitly released from her duty by her Player--Davepeta "released themselves" as Davesprite, but we don't know if that represents true freedom from their Sprite nature or merely a more nuanced rebellion against it. That's a tangent though, lets get to The Point.

--@lime-bloods's Void/Home Collage.

The Plot Point is a massive machine created by Roxy and Calliope for the purpose of stabilizing a Black Hole, a supermassive source of literal and narrative Gravity, and for all intents and purposes, it represents a Space/Void fraymotif, or feat of combined Aspect magic.

And what it does once Vriska dives into it is pull her into an cocoon forcing to re-experience of her old childhood Home, her very experience of being Homestuck, to force her to confront and grow past it. In this simulacra of her Home she has to contend with the toxic family dynamics she grew up with--Mindfang and Spidermom as her mothers, Doc Scratch as her groomer and symbolic father.

Diving into the Black Hole makes her once again Homestuck.

"...Understanding that Rose's lapse into alcoholism is her own way of succumbing to 'gravity' - a pull towards toxic familial cycles which not only evokes Vriska's own "addiction" to breaking 8-balls but also literally surrounds the drinker in a dark pocket - her allusions to the Void and gravity here are also tinged by her own experience and outlook as a Seer of Light (who heavily relied on a magic cue ball as her source; a fountain of information which is symbolically opposed to the information-consuming black hole)..." @lime-bloods reader response to my ask.

Lime-Bloods also draws the insight that Rose's relationship with alcoholism--brought out by her grief over the loss/absence/non-existence of Mom in the first place--is itself her succumbing to the call of Void, of Gravity, the narrative and force that pulls her toward Roxy, Mom, and her own childhood. It is in the midst of her alcoholism, after all, that she has the very revelation that leads her to tie Gravity and Nothingness/Void together in the first place.

There's another name for that force. Another form Gravity can take, that is experienced not narratively, but emotionally.

"My instinct is that Rose has reached the same conclusion I have: that 'gravity', as a metonym for the influence of a black hole, is just the inevitable pull towards oblivion. I think she's using "nothingness" as a euphemism for "space", over which gravity has dominion, but through this we can start to appreciate how the concepts of Space and Void weave into each other ("nothingness", "space" and "void" all being functional synonyms)..." @lime-bloods reader response to my ask.

At the same time that lime-bloods identifies Gravity with characters being pulled towards their homes--and so, emotionally, toward their histories with each other, in the context of Child/Guardian pairs-they also identify Gravity with the pull towards oblivion, towards nothingness.

Towards death, like how it was in death itself that Rose's mother gained the gravity to pull her daughter's heart closer to her, bringing all of Rose's love flooding to the surface. Death is itself a kind of nothingness after all, and while Space is the neighbor holding Void's left hand on the wheel, Void spins through the cosmos holding Doom's hand on its right.

And there's something interesting there when it comes to Roxy. A recurring pattern in her emotional responses to death and brushes with mortality. When Jaspers died and she held an elaborate funeral for him in an attempt to connect with Rose, like when Rose died and she held a private funeral for her and reached out to embrace Jaspers, when Dirk committed suicide in Candy and Roxy reacted by proposing to John at his funeral--

when faced with her mortality, Roxy reaches out for love.

She actually lays out this logic explicitly in the midst of her proposal. Death reminds her that time is finite, and that reminds her that what she wants to prioritize in her life is her love and connections to the people that matter to her.

John's inner thoughts in response to her proposal describe love in a rather interesting way, too--describing it as a feeling that goes "unexamined", unobserved, not directly paid attention to, as if out of the spotlight of the concious mind, until it becomes overwhelming and crashes over you.

As if a mass of cosmic nebulae gaining enough Gravity to compact gases together intensely enough to birth Stars--or Light. This association between realized Love and Light isn't new--as the aspect of Truth and Importance, the original comic associates Light with almost every major pairing, including Dirkjake, Vrisrezi, Rosemary and Roxycallie.

But the process of being drawn closer together and developing love, of strangers becoming acquaintances becoming friends becoming family or life partners, gaining importance in each other's eyes through the mutual attraction of Gravity--that process tends to take place mostly in the Void in original Homestuck, askance and askew from the viewer's perspective, hidden and private.

Though perhaps I shouldn't limit the force of Gravity entirely to the word "Love" (perhaps Passion is a better one, Heart's echo to Void's Gravity as a horizontally mirrored pair on the wheel) after all, Terezi tells John that the purpose of kissmesitude is ultimately to force both partners to "Shine a Light" on parts of themselves that would otherwise go ignored in other to improve both parties, meaning Hate can serve much the same purpose.

Dirk, for example, shines a light on massive problems with himself and with his effects on other people interpersonally through his relationships with Jake (Love) and Hal (Hate). Both force him to contend with himself and grow, enabling his eventual rooftop conversation with Dave.

Coming back to the Candy timeline in this latest update, we find Roxy trying to pull everyone in a centrist position on the matter of Jane, again reaching out to the friends she knows and loves for support when faced with the imminent mortality of someone she cares about. She finds nothing.

The thing is, the call towards love, towards Home, isn't inherently either good or bad. What I'd call it instead is essential, as in that in the same way gravity pulls astral bodies together and keeps us bound to Earth, it is in the essence of people to be pulled towards one another.

This contextualizes the Home as a Void symbol somewhat. Above all else, what a Home literally is is a House, and what a House really is is Empty. A house means nothing by itself, its purpose to be a hollow shell encasing people away from the elements.

It is the shared life, the mutual draw of love or the conflict and hate between the people sharing that Home that defines it, that gives it distinct meaning, whether for the better or for the worse. Without that inner Light, a House is indeed a perfectly generic object--an oversized Box, forgettable, infinitely replaceable. A microcosm of the Void itself.

So as Lime-Bloods says, Gravity/Love pulls Rose towards reliving toxic family dynamics, and in this case it pulls Roxy towards saving the life of a fascist who will inevitably make the world more toxic and cruel for everyone, simply on the strength of feeling provided by Jane having been a core part of Roxy's Home herself.

That said, what is toxic in one context can be productive in another, and right now the Candy adults are desperately in need of a leader who can get them all to agree on a direction to take towards solving the very real, very imminent problem of the Black Hole obliterating the Candy Timeline to nothingness.

While Vriska suggests that it may be possible for them to save Earth C from its fate, it is really only Roxy that is stepping up to the plate of advocating for it, continuously emphasizing the metaphysical threat and her unwillingness to abandon her Home, and by association, the very Black Hole that entraps her.

She says it best herself: She feels it in her gut that they can still save this place, and who better than a Hero of Void to make that kind of determination? A Black Hole is after all as much a symbol of Void as it is one of Space.

So I suspect she's going to rise to the occasion of meeting this particular challenge, and if she does, she's going to do so on the merit of the Gravity/Love that keeps her bound to Earth C, in all its wretched beauty.

The two easiest ways I can think of to solve the Candy Earth situation are for either John to dive into the Point and become June, for all the Gods to work together on some sort of large-scale abstract fraymotif or combined God magic the likes of which we've never seen before, or some combination of both.

In any of those scenarios, it feels like Roxy will likely be coordinating and keeping the group on task, simply because everyone else is too distant and divided from each other. And all of this makes me think about someone else. The other Roxy, traveling to confront Dirk in Meat.

When I first read this update, Meat Roxy came off unusually cold to me, surprisingly callous about the idea of killing Dirk. He even came off as willing to do the deed himself if need be, and like he was simply asking Dave if he was up to the challenge.

Now I find myself wondering. It feels to me at the moment like Meat Roxy is playing it cool, so to speak, keeping his own cards close to his chest and deliberately providing the space for Dave to express his own feelings and opinion. Neither Roxy nor we get to hear Dave's answer, but considering Roxy even said he hopes things end hunky dory, he really asked the question as neutrally as possible, providing space for Dave to go either way without feeling judged.

But considering the lengths Jane was able to go and still have Candy Roxy's love keep her attached to her, at least as far as wanting to offer mercy, it seems likely to me that Meat Roxy would feel similarly merciful about Dirk. I'm sure Dirk will do everything in his power to make Roxy and Dave feel they have no choice but to try to end his life, but I think he and we may end up surprised at how far he'd have to go to really convince Roxy of that.

I suppose time will tell. This somehow feels incomplete--perhaps fittingly, even now it feels like nuances of both Void and Roxy escape me, and I find myself simply waiting for what the future will bring. But I think the association between Gravity and Love treads new ground on the subject of Void, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Nothing to do now but wait for the next upd8.

Keep rising.

[calware]

Caleare... whats your searing hottest homestuck take. Boiling fresh out the oven red hot homestuck take?

Idk if this counts as a hot take (this isn't much of an original reading) but quadrants always seem to be controversial so here are some of my thoughts on moirails. I think a lot of people tend to lose focus on pacifism as the foundational aspect of the relationship, where one troll pacifies the other. Nepeta's role in the relationship is to pacify Equius, Feferi's role is to pacify Eridan, Karkat pacifies Gamzee, Kanaya pacifies Vriska, Meulin pacifies Horuss, Xefros pacifies Dammek, etc.

I think that this is pretty intentionally meant to evoke the imagery of relationships within our own society and the societal imbalances that they can reinforce. Notice how in every m/f moirallegience, the woman is the one pacifying the man, or how overall, it's the troll on the lower end of the spectrum pacifying the one higher up. Not only does this fit in with the misogynistic attitudes of Alternian society, it reinforces the caste system as well (male-dominated highblood castes, female-dominated lowblood castes). Even outside of societal context, it's pretty easy to grasp how a relationship where one person depends on the other for emotional stability is inherently imbalanced (and, even if they were to have an equal role in pacification, it's then codependent). However, tied in with the fact that this role is most often attributed to the individual with less power, it reinforces the idea that they're fit for the role of servitude. It calls to mind the sexist imagery of the husband and wife, where they both "balance each other out," as it's the wife's job to serve the superior husband while it's the husband's job to provide for the helpless wife. Homestuck consistently presents the imbalances between genders within society and the concept of moirails is likely meant to be one of those avenues for that theme.

The only outlier in this model is Vriska and Terezi, at the end of the comic, who don't seem to fit into these roles. It could just be that we don't see much of their relationship, but they appear to fit the mainstream fandom idea of a moirallegience: two people who are intimately close outside of romantic or sexual attraction, fitting the model of what we know to be a QPR irl much more closely. They are like the question mark in all of this to me. Again, this could just be that we don't see much of their relationship, but it could also be an example of queering the dynamic to make something more sustainable 👍

My overall take on this isn't that moirallegience isn't inherently unhealthy, especially on an individual level, but rather that the general concept exists to reinforce and perpetuate the harmful dynamics on Alternia, almost like the lubricant that greases the gears of their societal systems (similar to how similar sanctions do so IRL, i.e. marriage). Still, any potential imbalance in the relationship isn't a bug, it's a feature. It's such an interesting way to reflect on these themes within the story and I think it would be cool if more people took it into account, if only because of how fun it is to utilize :^)

[amplexadversary]

I'm going to say something horrible and I hope you forgive me for it

But I think you just worked out what Chibodee's homestuck/sburb classpect is.

He's a Maid of Hope

(Though I could also see an argument for Heir. )

Chibodee's position as a symbol of hope conflicts with his struggle to stay optimistic without some sort of external encouragement, like his fans have hope because of him, and he in turn only has hope because of them, in this essay I will

[zan0tix]

Said it on twitter but ill say it here too Homestuck instantly becomes 1 million times more engaging to talk about when you speak about it with feminists 😭

Homestuck features commentary on just about everything you could think of (again, hussie dumping her brain out into a piece of media so youre basically getting a capture of somebodys worldview, what they like, dislike, their media palette, cultural awareness, misunderstandings of the world etc)

specifically Misogyny is the biggest one in the whole comic and homestuck dives into how its shaped our storytelling conventions as a whole as long as stories have existed, with showcasing the tribulations the female characters go through and how hard it is trying to fit these roles that supposedly predestined for people like you, but really nobody can live up to that.

It points and laughs ofc but also shows how horrifying and dehumanising these narrative roles really are when applied to characters who feel and express like real people and not in a Corny Why cant the princess save herself #JustGirlbossItUp kind of way but in the “Oh these systems push people to try and conform to roles in attempt to fit in or be successful and that limits their personhood and expression of freedom and its been this way for hundreds and thousands of years and that fucking sucks” kind of way bc of homestucks on the ground level presentation style.

And it also displays how these things affect Everyone, but doesnt end up putting a special emphasis on or adding more depth to the men how so much other work does with multi gendered narratives when written with gender in mind.

Another video essay topic actually. Homestuck and misogyny perhaps.

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

CLASSES - a comprehensive guide

The first thing that needs to be said is that there is no such thing as a "bad" class. All of them have the potential to be a great detriment OR great boon to the rest of the team, depending on how far along the journey of self-actualization a party member is. Some may have steeper challenges, but this corresponds with greater rewards.

The second thing that needs to be said is that all players are part of a team, and all personal journeys and playstyles are interlinked. No class is truly "solo." Even the smallest viable session is still two people, and even the most suitable classes for solo play are stronger when they're in a party.

The last thing that needs to be said is that the game wants you to succeed. The game, inherently, wants every player to reach godhood, wants every player to self-actualize, wants every player to win. It respects free will and free choice, so it will allow for failures (and, indeed, doomed timelines are vital to the alpha one existing), but Skaia is ultimately optimistic, and tries at every turn to ensure that a golden ending is possible.

Because, after all, SBURB/SGRUB - and Homestuck itself - are about children growing up, maturing, and learning compassion for each other. About fixing their flaws and rejecting the negative aspects of the society they came from. It's about how it is our duty, our responsibility, to become kind, mature people who care about one another, because we will one day be responsible for creating a new society.

And so, without further ado:

ACTIVE (-) Classes and PASSIVE (+) Classes are described with the dichotomy of "powers working for the self" vs. "powers working for others," but I believe this to be an oversimplification of what the active and passive split is. Both active AND passive classes benefit from being in a party; however, an active class will gain fewer party benefits in exchange for being more suited for solo play, while a passive class will be less suited for solo play, but confer much greater benefits to party play.

This is reflected in their personal quests: while active classes and passive classes will both require intervention, empathy, and guidance from their teammates, the struggle of an active class is usually one of grappling with internal flaws, and the struggle of a passive class is one of grappling with interpersonal or societal relations. In other words, the personal quest of an active player will usually involve getting therapized, while the personal quest of a passive player will usually involve addressing a systemic societal issue. Often, both will be required, but whether a class is active or passive will indicate an area of focus.

KNIGHT - / MAID +

PARTY MANAGEMENT

one who wields [aspect] or leads with [aspect] / one who distributes [aspect] or manages with [aspect]

KNIGHTS (-) are a very flexible and versatile class; "wielding" their aspect does not necessarily mean they are skilled at DPS. It actually indicates the way a knight interacts with their aspect, a very straightforward relationship of tradesperson and tool, or soldier and weapon. Similarly, while a knight does not always take up the "leader" position in the party, they will be the "spearhead," a point behind which the other players rally, a beating heart keeping the party together.

This straightforward relationship between a knight and their aspect leads to knights finding little difficulty mastering their aspect once they've begun. Many knights are, in fact, instinctively drawn toward utilizing their aspect, in the same way that they are naturally drawn toward roles of importance or heroism.

Knights often struggle with their perceived place in society, as well as with their innate sense of self and self-worth, seeing themselves as outcasts, resenting the responsibility placed on their shoulders, and fearing vulnerability. Unaddressed, these issues will lead to knights who actively become a detriment to party success. For example, they can dismiss valid concerns, shirk their duties, and in the worst case scenario, actively lead the party down the wrong path, invoking their natural ability to lead for ill.

Therefore, a knight's journey is one of accepting themselves and accepting their duty to better the world. It is about coming to terms with their own insecurities and learning to rely on others. It is about learning to take responsibility, and accepting the banner of a just and glorious cause.

A fully realized knight will be the center of every charge, the guiding star behind which the other players rally. They can provide clarity and guidance to those still on their journeys, and peace and comfort to those who are struggling or in pain. Where the knight goes, the party will follow, as a unified and united front.

MAIDS (+), meanwhile, tend to be on the backlines. If the knight is the forward march, then the maid is the supply line, an incredibly vital role whose absence is disastrous, even if its presence is nearly invisible. Maids have a nearly infinite well of their aspect to distribute, and are uniquely talented at managerial duties - keeping players on task, patching up the holes in a plan, sourcing and supplying resources, so on and so forth.

This is not to say that maids are relegated to support roles - a maid is usually capable of holding their own in combat just fine, especially if they've been endowed with a more combat-suited aspect. Both knights and maids are extremely versatile. That being said, maids truly shine when they're able to take on these backline roles, and many maids are more noticeable by the devastating effects of their absence rather than the invisible touch of their presence.

However, they are the class that most often starts in subservient conditions - low status, strict duties enforced upon them, so on - and their personal journey is a constant struggle against the control of others. Maids whose parties fail to grapple with and undo these shackling forces will find their maids succumbing to the influence or control of malicious entities; in the worst-case scenario, a maid can become an actively hostile enemy or saboteur, invisibly pulling the party's strings and setting them up for failure.

Therefore, a maid's journey is about rejecting societal oppression and throwing off the chains that bind them. A successful maid rises to become the head of the household - nothing occurs within the game that does not first pass the maid's inspection, and their touch ensures that there is a place for everything, and everything is in its place.

A free maid, who belongs to themselves, incomparably increases a party's efficiency. Every communication line is clear, every distribution route is clean, every mystery is solvable, and every plan is airtight. A maid guarantees that nothing can ever go too wrong.

PAGE - / HEIR +

TEAM BONDING

one who must earn [aspect] or inherits the mantle of [aspect] / one who is beloved by [aspect] or awakens to [aspect]

PAGES (-) start the game with the fewest benefits from their aspects, but the greatest potential for growth. Theirs is a constant battle with the self; they are often cowardly and naive. They possess sensitive souls, and while it is incredibly easy to hurt a page, it's much more difficult to build them up. Because of the difficulty of raising this class, it's practically defined by its journey - a constant struggle against the self - rather than its destination, and the powers the class confers.

Pages, like heirs, are classes of inheritance. A page is promoted by trials and tribulations and comes to inherit a greater power than they begin with; in the same way, the class will one day come to embody its aspect, although the road will always be turbulent and long. Moreover, it is a journey without end; pages, being as sensitive as they are, are the most prone to backwards progress, even after reaching their peak.

They prone to staying weak throughout the entire game, never self-actualizing past being the party joke. They attract the obsession and ridicule of stronger-willed players, and their mistreatment can become extremely divisive. A page can easily become a party's albatross, the epicenter of massive interpersonal conflicts, which can tank an entire session.

Therefore, a page's journey is one of the most difficult of all - that of teaching others how to care about other people. Pages rely on great patience, kindness, and understanding. Their sensitive souls must be carefully nurtured and propagated with love and attention. In the same way that a page can tear a team apart, they can bring a team together, all in the name of compassion and empathy. A fully-realized page is the symbol of a party that has linked hands with one another.

Self-actualized pages, as a result of the difficulty inherent to the class, are incredibly powerful and versatile when fully realized. Inheriting the mantle of their aspect, they become pure embodiments of their aspect, capable of achieving impossible feats of raw, unfiltered power, and inspiring all those who gaze upon them.

HEIRS (+) begin the game very strong, but have a difficult time becoming stronger. This is because their usage of their aspect is very instinctual to them, even at times being entirely beyond their control, hence, "beloved by" in the class description. However, because of how naturally their aspect comes to them, it makes taking further command of their powers difficult.

An heir "awakens to" their aspect because their natural, intuitive control often renders them too comfortable to grasp the greater implications of their class. As an inheritance class, heirs can come to embody their aspect, transforming entirely into it. Their challenge lies in breaking out of their comfortable shell and learning how to utilize their powers in more active, intentional ways.

This is reflected in their personal quests. They are often set to inherit great privilege or wealth prior to entering the game, and are thus naive to the realities of the suffering and pain of others. Without a supportive party willing to challenge their views, heirs can perpetuate that pain by submitting to their place in the world, becoming a divisive force within the party, or, in the worst case, losing themselves to their inheritance, and submitting so wholly to their aspect that they become lost to the rest of the team.

Thus, an heir's journey is to question the stratification of the society they belong to, so that they can recognize and address its flaws. They must learn to interrogate their inheritance, separate it from themselves, and reconcile with it. Theirs is an arc of examination and understanding, descending from their position of privilege and peace to learn about the suffering of others, and deciding that they wish to do something about it.

With full command over their aspect, and a clear vision for how it ought to be distributed, the party gains a new and powerful ally - the aspect itself, which will come to embrace the entire party as family. A fully-realized heir connects the privileged and underprivileged, spreading their inheritance to all.

MAGE - / SEER +

GUIDANCE

one who invokes [aspect] or is drawn to [aspect] / one who comprehends [aspect] or is guided by [aspect]

MAGES (-) are a class of prophets, although saying they "see the future" is misleading. Rather, mages "invoke" the future, collapsing causality to align to their desires. Most mages remain unaware that they are doing so until well into their journey. While all players weigh on the scale of causality, affecting both past and future events, and which sequence of events is the "alpha" sequence, mages have the most direct effect.

Because of this ability to invoke future events, mages possess powerful buffing/debuffing abilities. Furthermore, as one of the two knowledge classes, a mage usually has a very deep understanding of their aspect, and an intuitive knowledge of how the flow of time and causality function. They are "drawn to" their aspects in this way, instinctively searching out points where their influence can affect the flow of events.

However, with great power comes great cost; the mage class is usually assigned to those who are stricken by tragedies and prone to negativity and self-loathing. Mages often begin the game as a detriment to the party, "prophesying" future events that leave the party - including themselves - at a disadvantage. In the worst case scenario, a mage can invoke certain doom for their party or themselves.

Therefore, it is vital that a mage address their tragedies and be given a chance to heal and grow. The ones most struck by tragedy, theirs is a journey of reclaiming lost joy and rediscovering lost hope. However, the transformation is powerful once completed - as the one who suffers tragedy and loss most intimately, a mage can also come to be one of the most empathetic and compassionate members of the team.

If a mage is uplifted, and capable of believing in a kinder and gentler world, then their ability to invoke the future - and the aspects of their aspect that they are drawn to - become kinder, as well. Pain and suffering still have their place, but the ending will be a happy one. With a fully empowered mage, the future will always be better than what came before.

SEERS (+) see multiple branching paths. A mage determines where a road will be built, but a seer tells you where a road CAN be built. They are also often gifted with knowledge of the game and its mechanics, and are especially uniquely gifted with understanding of their own abilities. In this way, they "comprehend" their aspect.

Seers themselves are not particularly gifted in combat through their classpect alone; however, in exchange, they often play a vital role in steering the party. They are the game's built-in guides, with an intuitive knowledge of the game's victory conditions, as well as an instinctive desire to lead others along their paths. Seers are, therefore, one of the most important classes in the game, when one is present.

However, the ability to see is a burden as well as a gift. Seers find themselves paralyzed by choice, and often doubt their own abilities to choose "correctly." They are prone to becoming mired in what-ifs, and struggle with political or ethical debates with no clear answers. In the worst-case scenario, a seer may feel so cursed by their sight that they self-destruct, and deliberately choose poor or incomprehensible answers, in an attempt to free themselves of their sight.

Thus, a seer's quest is, ironically, to see the world beyond the purview of their aspect. They must come to have a more comprehensive understanding of the world they live in, and what purpose they are trying to achieve, so that they can feel confident in the choices they make. A seer is often blind - their journey, therefore, is that of regaining their vision, by connecting with the world outside their inner sight.

A seer with a clear vision for the future will always know exactly which path to choose. A party with such a seer in it will never be stuck and never be lost. If there exists a path to self-actualization, the seer will know it. And if there exists a path to a breathless and perfect victory, a fully-realized seer will light the way.

THIEF - / ROGUE +

UTILITY

one who steals [aspect] from others or steals with [aspect] / one who steals [aspect] for others or steals from [aspect]

THIEVES (-) are a very difficult class to play. They start out with almost no passive abilities regarding their aspect, and their ability to actively use their aspect is contingent on their ability to first "steal" it from someone else. Thus, they are always playing a game of resource management, and there is always a chance for them to be left helpless after a heist gone wrong.

However, their gimmicky nature allows them to overtake other classes even in that class's specialty, if they can set up the exact right circumstances and manage their resources well. This makes them incredibly versatile, especially when a thief is working together with a party, and thus able to count their party among their potential resources. It takes great cunning to play the thief class well.

However, this also makes the thief a potentially dangerous element to the rest of the party. Thieves are often egotistical and self-serving, willing to see enemies and allies alike as resources and tools. Unaddressed, their reckless, selfish natures will earn their teammates' distrust and enmity. In the worst case scenario, a thief running rampant can severely harm the party, or earn so much ire that the party turns against them.

Thus, their journey is that of realizing that their selfishness and ego are flaws - the classic parable of "money doesn't bring happiness." Beneath their uncaring surface lurks genuine emotional distress; a thief must come to realize that their greed and selfishness is an active detriment not only to the people around them, but their own selves. Only then can they heal from their injured souls.

A thief that has undertaken this journey is one who has realized that they are stronger when they are working with others. Their versatility, creativity, and cunning are incredible assets once harnessed toward the will of the party. No situation will ever be inescapable, no safe uncrackable, and no problem unsolvable - not if the thief has anything to say about it.

ROGUES (+) are similarly difficult to play. Unlike the thieves, rogues do see passive benefits from their aspects. However, their active abilities are much less straightforward, and rogues often struggle with understanding them. A rogue's role is to redistribute wealth - thus, "stealing for the sake of others."

A rogue, being able to steal directly from their aspect, truly shines when given enough time to prepare. If a thief must fly by the seat of their pants, then a rogue is a heist planner - they have an infinite box of tools to pull from, if only they know what tools they'll need for the job. This makes them incomparably versatile, even if not necessarily in the heat of combat.

Rogues take on the mantle of challenging the status quo. They usually begin the game already in opposition to their society, seeking out better alternatives and considering unorthodox options. However, not every party is ready for a rogue's radical ideology, and not every rogue has considered the full consequences of their belief in change; in the worst case scenario, the rogue can become outcasted and disregarded, or cause an upheaval that proves disastrous, rioting for the sake of rioting.

It often requires the help of others for a rogue to understand how to use their powers. In the same way, it requires the party's honest communication and exchange of ideas to help a rogue grasp exactly what form their rebellion ought to take. A rogue knows instinctively that something must change; their journey is learning how they ought to go about it.

Once they do, a rogue - given enough time to prepare and plan - is the ultimate utility player, having the right tool for every possible situation. Their abilities are only magnified in a party setting, as their teammates become variables that unlock new possibilities. A party with a fully-prepped rogue always has a perfect plan, a way to solve any problem that they might face.

WITCH - / SYLPH +

AREA CONTROL

one who manipulates [aspect] or achieves dominion through [aspect] / one who nurtures [aspect] or creates a land of [aspect]

WITCHES (-) carry with them the winds of change. A witch manipulates, changing properties of their aspect and their aspect's effect on others, creating a "territory" over which they rule. They see few passive benefits of their aspects, in exchange for their active abilities being so all-encompassing and overwhelming.

Once their territory has been established, witches make the rules. Their changes can be permanent, temporary, massive, and miniscule. However, a witch "achieves dominion" with their aspect - this means that they must first struggle to create this domain, and it's difficult for their abilities to manifest until they do, often leaving younger witches weak and vulnerable.

Witches have strong feelings for how things should and should not be, but not necessarily grounded ideas for how to implement them, often due to some "outsider" status in society. Unfocused witches become dangerous for the party, as they are easily manipulated; in the worst-case scenario, they can fall in with malicious forces, who can sway a witch's turbulent heart and utilize them as a force for negative change, rather than good.

Thus, a witch's journey is that of interrogating right and wrong. A witch must struggle with morality and ethics, and come to clarify their own beliefs; only then can they know what sort of domain they wish to establish, and what sort of rules they wish to enforce. Once they know their own hearts, they can shake off the insidious whispers of malicious external influence.

As if a reward for their struggles for autonomy and independence, the witch is the one whose will is most imposed on the world that comes after them. Just as an evil witch putrefies the world around them, a fully-realized witch who has decided to use their influence for good can create a near-utopia.

SYLPHS (+) call to mind the images of fey folk who sprout plants where they walk. That is how a sylph "creates a land" of their aspect - merely by existing, the world around them becomes suffused by it. A sylph's mere presence nurtures, grows, and heals their aspect; unlike witches, who manipulate what is already there, sylphs can create something from nothing.

The establishment of their domain comes naturally to them. Those caught within it are on the receiving end of their aspect, whether they want to be or not. In exchange for such powerful passive abilities, a sylph's active abilities are weaker, and usually unsuited for solo combat, generally being of healing, buffing, or debuffing nature.

A sylph is prone to selfishness - to luxuriating within their own land, their own aspect, their own mind. They often have difficulty connecting with others and understanding why their own personal world may not be to the liking of the world outside of themselves. Often, they are aloof. An unrealized sylph can cause great harm to the world around them, their domain choking out and smothering their party; in the worst case, they can mire their party within it, leaving their party unable to proceed.

Thus, it often requires the outside world to breach their safe haven in order for a sylph to grow. They must be made uncomfortable, and then made to accept that uncomfortable things are also important - maybe even more important than comfort, at times. Growth often requires pruning; a sylph's journey is to come to understand that good intentions may lead to harm, and, vice versa, that harm can often lead to true growth.

Sylphs can provide the greatest compassion and emotional comfort within a party, encouraging - if not enabling - their teammates' growth in their personal journeys. Once a sylph understands when it is appropriate to encourage, and when it is appropriate to pull back, there is no refuge safer for the party than the sylph's domain.

PRINCE - / BARD +

OBSTACLE REMOVAL

one who destroys [aspect] or destroys with [aspect] / one who allows the destruction of [aspect] or allows destruction through [aspect]

PRINCES (-) possess the ability to annihilate, a destructive class not limited to physical or tangible objects. Princes also enjoy auxiliary benefits as befits their royal titles - many princes start the game with great talents, great status and wealth, or both. They are also endowed with royal presence; their very existence provokes strong emotions from those around them, for good or for ill.

One of the more straightforward classes in the game, a prince's ability to destroy most commonly manifests as DPS. However, their abilities encompass a greater scope than mere damage - the prince's ability to annihilate figurative or metaphysical concepts makes them capable of directly removing any obstacles that stand in their way. As if hungry to consume their aspect, they are naturally drawn towards where it congregates.

However, with great power comes great responsibility: princes are often the most psychologically maligned within the party, and their destructive talents can very easily become self-destructive instead. Usually the result of societal pressure, trauma, and suffering, a prince is prone to embodying the lack of their aspect, rather than its presence. In the worst-case scenario, a prince spreads this misfortune to the rest of their party, destroying the presence of their aspect from their session altogether, often taking themselves along with it.

A prince must be shown compassion. Though they are often viscerally unpleasant to engage with, turning a blind eye to foolishness, loneliness, and suffering - which a prince embodies - is one of the worst things that a party can do. Though the effort at times seems undeserved, to heal a prince requires a staunch belief that there is good to be gained if we are kind to each other. This kindness will be returned; once you are counted among a prince's "people," they will do anything to keep harm from befalling you.

A prince, once shown this grace, is incomparably powerful. To destroy their aspect or with their aspect is the ability to destroy nearly anything, including concepts such as despair, death, and doom. As if proclaiming a royal decree, a fully-realized prince can banish misfortune and ill tidings altogether, leaving nothing standing in the party's way.

BARDS (+) are a wildcard of a class, often responsible for a party's improbable victory, abject defeat, or both. Their abilities are not very well-understood, even by the bard themselves, and they often utilize both passive and active abilities intuitively, unaware that they are doing so. The morale of the party is deeply tied to the bard's own, and it's unclear which side is cause and which is effect.

The ability to allow the destruction of their aspect, or invite it through their aspect, is actually something of a debuff rather than DPS - the bard's ability is to break unbreakable shields, tear down unclimbable walls, and nullify unstoppable forces. Rather than dealing damage themselves, they allow for damage to be dealt that would otherwise have no effect - in other words, by nature, they make the impossible possible. This is the true source of their ability to evoke "miraculous" situations.

Bards are inextricably tied to society - after all, their tales only hold as much value as their relevance to the audience. This means those with the bard class are invariably molded by the worst aspects of the society they come from. They serve as living embodiments of the most unpleasant aspects of society, and living reminders that leaving these elements to fester only means they will multiply in severity. If these beliefs are allowed to go unexamined, bards will always steer a party towards ruin.

Therefore, a party must engage with the bard earnestly, compassionately, and openly, and help them see the errors of the past. A bard must be led, with gentle guidance and genuine openness, to discard their harmful beliefs, and sing a new, more beautiful tune.

A bard that has been brought back into the fold is a worker of miracles. When every other possible option has been exhausted - the knight and maid in disarray, the page and heir unable to keep the party together, the mage and seer blinded, the thief and rogue out of action, the witch and sylph with their territory lost, the prince no longer able to function - this is where a bard will step in, transmuting abject defeat into a perfect and breathless victory.

[meraki-sunset]

i have a question about hiveswap as im just getting into it, considering that the events of hiveswap and hauntswitch both take place in the late 1900s, whats the point exactly?

we already know whats going to happen and that all of the characters are doomed fail on their goals and then die no matter the outcome. the caste system is never abolished, HIC stays in power, both earth and Alterna get destroyed, and doc scratch continues his plan without a hitch

none of it seems to really matter or serve any purpose other than worldbuilding for 2 already doomed worlds (3 if you count the cherub portal implying a lost society of cherubs)

Well, it is. It is worldbuilding, that’s what precuels are. They add extra context to events you already know will happen, they add to how they happened, how we got there. That doesn’t make them pointless.

It may seem irrelevant at first glance, but Hiveswap actually has a very important role.

It sets the stage for the arrival of the players on both Alternia and Earth-A

The events of Hiveswap are happening with an equivalent distance in years between both Alternia and earth

Which means the Beta children are about to arrive in their meteors (1995 - 1996) a little after the time when Joey and Jude are having this adventure (1994), which means the Alpha trolls will get to Alternia soon too.

Both timelines are mirrored in time, they both have the same exact amount of time before the end.

We know the Beta kids hadn’t arrived yet to earth during Hiveswap because it’s 1994, and that the Alpha trolls hadn’t arrived either because Trizza is the heiress, and there can only be one at a time, so Feferi isn't there yet.

This series of events are necessary for Doc scratch’s plan, otherwise he wouldn’t have intervened, giving Xefros a surveillance free communication channel, so Joey and him aren’t detected by the authorities.

He needs them under the radar so they can (while trying to send Joey back home) connect people with each other, cause necessary problems, kick start important events.

All which will set the stage for the 12 troll player’s arrival.

What do I think it’s the most important event Doc Scratch needs Joey and Xefros to make happen?

Trizza has to die. There can only be one heiress at a time, and if Feferi is about to arrive, then Trizza has to go.

The events of Hiveswap/HauntSwitch will cause the death of the heiress, either fighting against the Condesce, at the hands of the revolted trolls Joey and Xefros will influence, crushed to death by Feferi’s own meteor, who knows. But if this is the "equivalent to 1994 on Alternia" and all that is happening it’s really happening as a mirrored version of Earth’s timeline, then the 12 trolls should be to arriving at different dates during the following year. Which means she doesn’t have much time left, as we know Feferi was the only heiress on Alternia during Homestuck. And we’re 13 years away from the end of the world. It needs to happen now.

It's the same tactic Doc used with Rose, Vriska and Terezi

The only reason he ever “helps” anybody it's because he needs them to make things happen.

He needs Joey and Xefros alive, he needs the rebellion to go through (even if it fails, it'll fail in a way that it's usefull for him), he needs Trizza gone so Feferi can come to Alternia and so the final stage of this plan of millions of years connecting dots and manipulating people to create a hostile planet for the new players to grow stronger that their predecessors, can begin. The rise of the new players.

I personaly think Tyzias might be the one to intercept Karkat or at least be involved in it.

It could be her, Joey or maybe someone else, but whoever intercepts him will have to know about the signless and according to Tyzias’s password (69) she already knows about him and she knows his symbol, and seems to be a follower in the down low. Tyzias also must knows how the singless promised that there would be another troll like him, and according to Doc scratch's explanation:

The followers of the summoner decreased enormously, but the Doc said himself that there were still some of them hidden and I think he was talking about Tyzias and her alies.

Sometimes we forget that there was intervention from the suferer's followers to ensure Karkat's survival

That’s why he has the sufferer’s symbol, someone who knew it gave it to him. And we know Tyzias knows.

The ectobiologist and team leader also seems to always be the last one to turn 13, (as well as the last to wake up as their dream self) so Karkat should be the last one to arrive, ending that chain of events.

Of course this all means that, by the time the end of the world happens, and asuming they’re all still alive, all Hiveswap trolls would be adults carrying duties off planet and would die the day of the apocalypse during the Vast Glub along with all troll Civilization.

The same would happen to Joey and Jude, assuming Joey is successful and returns to Earth. They would die on the 13th of April 2009 with the rest of humanity, not knowing they had a part in it or that their lost brother was the detonator of the end of the world.

It’s tragic in the end, but it’s necessary. Someone has to play that role.

They are the stagehands who prepared the stage for the first act of the play they were never meant to see.

And who knows, it may not be the end of them, maybe we’re too quick to assume they didn’t get saved somehow. By some random paradoxical event or deus ex machine that teleported them away from danger. We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out.

It's been a while since i wrote an analysis, i really missed that ^u^

[plaidos]

hi! I 100% understand your post on how both Caliborn and Calliope are trans, and I’m not sure if what I’m about to say is smth you specifically headcanon since I’m not super familiar with your blog, but what do you think of ppl calling specific trolls trans? Like Kanaya/Vriska. if we are to understand all trolls share the same set of genitals, then aren’t all trolls sort of trans for choosing to present/become a certain gender? where and how are they assigned a gender at grubhood if they’re raised by lusii and mass made propaganda? do they have a female/male tag when approved by the mother grub jadeblood assistants? I genuinely thought it was a personal free for all instead of a 1:1 human mirror of cissexist society

so first of all, quick correction -- Vriska is canonically trans, that's not a headcanon -- it comes up in both Pesterquest & Homestuck: Beyond Canon so i'm assuming that tidbit is here to stay: Vriska is trans.

but speaking of headcanons, i think you're making a lot of assumptions about Alternian culture & troll biology here. first of all, your basic assumption -- that all trolls share the same set of genitals -- isn't canon; we actually know only a very small amount about troll genitalia (that they don't have two dicks [Meat 12] and that trolls & humans seem to be able to have sex without much effort [Meat 31, among other places in the Epilogues])

secondarily, transness isnt based on "choosing a gender identity" -- inarguably, cis people are also choosing to keep performing their gender presentations & identities; the gender roles that cis people on earth engage in aren't like... innate to their physicality.

similarly, even if somebody on Earth is born in a forest and nobody is around to say "it's a boy" that doesn't mean that baby is without an assigned gender -- because it still lives & grows up in a world where a particular set of traits is categorised as male, and another is categorised as female. imo, there's no reason to expect troll culture to work differently; we know that to some degree trolls are sexually dimorphic because, according to the posters in Karkat's hive, or the cover to his trashy romance novel, cis male trolls generally have flat chests & cis female trolls generally have breasts, much like humans [HS 4712]

(ok this is kind of a bad example because those boys have mega titties and you can't really see the girls. but there are other examples. trust. i just wanted to include the trashy romance cover.)

furthermore, according to Porrim in Openbound [HS 5263], alternia has a patriarchy despite having an empress (much like another empire y'all might be familiar with...) with different layers of the caste having different percentage demographic of "male" and "female" trolls; Porrim specifially points out that the legislative castes & other highbloods are male-dominated -- and to be fair, that totally lines up with the canon we see. between Terezi and Feferi's positions on the haemospectrum we only have one girl, and she's trans!

i also think -- though this is conjecture -- that a lot of the facets of troll biology that we see were not evolved traditionally but genetically modified into the population by the empire -- we already know that they used to have more blood colors, and that there are examples of blood colors uncategorised by their caste system [HS 4962]

plus, even Dirk mentions that the Empress tried to modify human children to have different blood colors to recreate her Alternian haemospectrum. [HS 4850]

i don't think it's a stretch to say that the haemospectrum, trolls' reproductive system & their symbiotic relationship to alternian fauna could very well be imposed onto the species by the Empire (perhaps even before HIC's time) rather than evolved the old-fashioned way. the fact that trolls are able to even have sex & have desire to do it similar to humans (again -- proven & reiterated time and time again by the Epilogues) suggests that there may be still some (perhaps vestigial) analogue way for trolls to reproduce or at least perform the physical motions of reproduction (which i believe the kids these days call "fuckin")

beyond that, bonus lore from Andrew (YMMV on its canonicity) suggests that Sollux's lusus was more accepting of a trans child than Eridan's, which ended up shaping Eridan's distaste & jealousy of him. also, at least in Beyond Canon, we get mentions of Old Aternian "schoolhives" [HSBC 75] which would imply some kind of formalised education -- the perfect place to disseminate cultural gender propaganda!

and to answer your question "where and how are they assigned a gender at grubhood if they’re raised by lusii and mass made propaganda" -- well, presumably the brooding caverns (which are manned -- or trolled? -- by teenagers) is where they're assigned their gender, but i don't know what you mean about the propaganda -- propaganda makes this sort of thing easier. a good deal of the beliefs about gender on OUR planet are soley reinforced by state propaganda! surely Alternia's regime would make that easier instead of harder. we get various mentions of information dropped in by drones, too, so i'll bet all of that was super reinforcing of cisgender society.

you're right that Alternia is kind of a "free for all" and isn't a direct 1:1 mirror of human society... but it very much is meant to be a reflection of human society!! all of the stuff about Alternian children being raised into a violent, colonialist culture with rigid views about reproduction , relationships & sexuality -- that was always supposed to be a reflection of the violent nuances humans raise THEIR children with. lots of the troll stuff in Homestuck is meant to be a massive deconstruction of the idea that Earth & Alternia are all that different. Trolls aren't "biologically predisposed" to polyamory or quadrants any more than humans are "biologically predisposed" to be a homosexual :B -- they're culturally coerced to.

great question though.

[zenosanalytic]

what do you think about Space players who somehow didn't get a Land with Frogs in the title? is there any way that might make sense or work or would Frogs be always necessary

HMMMM. Well, the Universes are frogs, and the DNA to make the Universe-Frogs comes from the frogs on the Space Player's Land...

There's nothing in HS canon that says ALL universes are frogs. Maybe some universes are other animals? Like: who's to say the Universe-Frogs don't live within a Universe-Ecosystem????

[starlit1daydream]

Introduction to my Classpecting Ideas

This felt like a good idea for something to put out before I put my Knight & Page analysis out there, since I plan on making this a 6 part series. (Potentially 7 if demand for a Lord/Muse addendum is high enough).

So, I'll be laying out my most important philosophies on the subject here for future reference.

Classpecting is...

Point A. Classpecting is malleable.

There is not one rigid, set definition for any Class pair, or any Aspect pairing. The freedom of the author is that they may assign any symbolism to a concept that they may like.

What I mean by this is that people often seem to think that manifestations of an Aspect within Homestuck's narrative paint that object or idea as a concept inherently tied to that Aspect.

Example: Pumpkins & Void. You would not believe the amount of people in the early fandom who swore by the idea that pumpkins were inherently just Void constructs because of their role in Homestuck's narrative.

No? Pumpkins symbolise Void in Homestuck itself and Homestuck itself only only due to a running gag inherent to Homestuck itself.

Anything, with enough narrative basis and existing thematic ties, can serve to symbolise an Aspect. Furthermore, two different authors may have different ideas of what Aspect something represents.

Some authors may see alcohol, for example, as a Void-bound concept owing to its obfuscation of fair judgement. Some may see it as a Light-bound concept owing to the idea of 'in vino veritas' and the tendency of drunkenness to induce truthful confessions. Some may see it as a Life-bound concept owing to its associations with hedonism and impulsive behaviour.

With enough narrative consistence, anything is possible. Homestuck's narrative is not as rigid of a point of reference as some people would swear by it being. This is deeply important.

Point B. Classpecting is not the whole of a character.

I can't exactly phrase this in a satisfactory manner, but... a Classpect is not a personality type in of itself. An individual being a Prince of Heart does not instantly make them Dirk Strider. It merely means that their core value is identity & selfhood, and they interact with it by destroying it. It is that simple!

I see, time and time again, Classpecting blogs acting as if a Classpect is indicative of a character's whole personality and giving guides as to the exact behaviours & quirks a character with that Classpect should have.

I am imploring you to explore wider possibilities when it comes to this. Even if it means sharing a title with a canon character! It doesn't mean you have to just rewrite that canon character because that's not how Classpecting works.

I've seen fanventure characters share titles with canon characters. (Sovereignstuck's Annomi Errata & Dynama Zarrow sharing titles with Dirk & Porrim respectively, and Porrim herself is also a player in that narrative, mind you!)

I've seen fanventure characters share titles with eachother. (Vast Error's Dismas Mersiv is a Rogue of Mind. One of my fantrolls is also a Rogue of Mind!)

In every instance, they are fundamentally different people. I cannot put it any simpler than this.

Point C. Classpecting is always applicable.

That is the perfection of the Classpecting system. You can give a title to any character, from anything ever made. It's not even that difficult if you're half-decent at media analysis!

Quite literally all you need to do is ask yourself two questions.

"What's this character's core value?" and "How do they interact with that?" Do that, and you've got yourself a Classpect.

That's the beauty of it! It's obviously not going to be as airtight as a story that has the Classpecting system baked directly into the narrative, but it's still going to work out!

Hell, do it to yourself! Do it to your friends! The world's your oyster. You can do anything you want, forever, for the rest of time. I'm a Seer of Life! My best friend is a Page of Blood! My mother is a Witch of Hope! Go wild.

Post formatting

For my Classpecting posts, I'll aim to give two related definitions for every Class.

Definition A is the narrative function, what the Class says about the person and how they interact with their Aspect as an abstract concept.

Definition B is the practical function, what the Class says about their role in the session and how they interact with their Aspect as a SBURB construct.

Therefore, we get an idea of both the abstract, personal definition of a Classpect, and the functional, game application of a Classpect.

I'll also aim to give about two or three examples for each individual title about how you could write a character with them, since there are always going to be multiple directions you can take with a Classpect.

Conclusion

tl;dr - what I'm trying to say is this. Classpecting is malleable, easily applicable & capable of saying any number of things, and my posts will aim to give two concise definitions of both narrative and practical function for every title.

I'll get the Knight:Page analysis done either today or tomorrow, and the rest of the Class posts will be staggered releases in order of poll results. Thus, the order is going to be:

Knights & Pages, Deficiency and Exploitation.

Mages & Seers, Experience and Comprehension.

Witches & Heirs, Adherence and Manipulation.

Princes & Bards, Instability and Destruction.

Thieves & Rogues, Inundation and Redistribution.

Maids & Sylphs, Maintenance and Generation.

And, potentially...

7. Lords & Muses, Absolution and Dominion.

And then, subsequently, the order for the Aspect posts, which I've decided based on relevance to the canon, roughly speaking anyways...

Space & Time, Genesis and Terminus.

Breath & Blood, Fluidity and Stability.

Light & Void, Potential and Simplicity.

Heart & Mind, Instinct and Dialectics.

Life & Doom, Progress and Stagnation.

Hope & Rage, Conviction and Iconoclasm.

I look forward to the next post. Until then, take care.

[en8y]

[IMAGE ID: three horizontal flags with nine stripes. the middle stripe is twice as large as the rest of them, which are equally sized. the first flag has these top three colors: yellow-orange, bright yellow, and medium orange. the second flag has these top three colors: bright pink-purple, light cool pink, and warm purple. the third flag has these top three colors: hot pink, peach, and bright blue. each flag has these bottom six stripes: dark grey, off-white, dark grey, medium-dark grey, light grey and medium-light grey. END ID.]

prospitian system (-spitian): a gender connected to being a/an [xyz] prospit dreamer, or a prospitian [xyz]; this gender is connected to [xyz], [xyz] aesthetics, prospit itself, lightness and protection aesthetics, shades of yellow, and chess.

dersite system (-dersite): a gender connected to being a/an [xyz] derse dreamer, or a dersite [xyz]; this gender is connected to [xyz], [xyz] aesthetics, derse itself, darkness and destruction aesthetics, shades of purple, and chess.

homestuck trickster system (-hometrick): a gender connected to being a/an [xyz] trickster, or a trickster [xyz]; this gender is connected to [xyz], [xyz] aesthetics, trickster mode from homestuck, neon or bright colors, candy and sweet foods/drinks, and being chaotic. can also have ties to romanticism or sexuality, but doesn't have to.

@radiomogai @liom-archive @obscurian @gendersystems @role-systems

[gender-mailman]

Finalgirlhometrick!

A gender connected to being a final girl trickster, or a trickster final girl; this gender is connected to final girl, final girl aesthetics, trickster mode from homestuck, neon or bright colors, candy and sweet foods/drinks, and being chaotic. can also have ties to romanticism or sexuality, but doesn't have to

Coined by me. Requested by no one. Tagging @en8y

[cgtg]

looking @ all of this godtier stuff, i wanna say i dont rlly think classpecting is all that. it's a fun analytical tool for exploring a character's themeing and role in a narrative. but it's fundamentally impossible to assign an "arc" 2 a living person, & within sburb itself the godtier system has a very questionable view of what its characters arcs mean/should be. like. you can 100% interpret classpects as bullshit within the text.

that being said, again, they're still a fun narrative tool to bring outside of homestuck itself, & if you remove them from the intelligence/structure of SBURB they are rlly fun for vibes-based introspection. they aren't made up of nothing, they have clear inspiration & meaning to hussie.

i view classes like roles in a play. anyone can pick any of them for any reason, multiple at different times even, but you only know for sure if one fits you by playing it. my perspective on it is rly close to funk mclovin's theory.

i view aspects as a bit more immutable bc i feel like they speak to more core traits rather than the shit u operationalise, which is much more up to personal choice.

i have always felt a distinct calling to the space aspect, for well over a decade. i relate heavily to a lot of the core themes it portrays. i could ramble for ages abt that, legit.

the course of picking "witch" has been a progression to me. "seer" encapsulates how i am/was when trapped in passivity both internally & externally. relegated to a problem solver, advice friend, helper. a role which i perform well but am deeply unfulfilled & drained in.

the "witch" class encapsulates my fundamental need to have my own autonomy, function, control, freedoms in my life for myself & not for others. that is ultimately what i desire to be, & i feel that the "witch" encapsulates it well. i also fuck heavily with the archetypal "lonesome magician who is feared & revered for their wisdome and power" character. kid me would've fuckin *loved* being a wicked witchman.

like, i think it's worthwhile to work backwards from what you think of yourself & *then* put the godtier jammies on. bc fundamentally it is impossible to put humanity in all these little boxes, especially when we don't have enough evidence to prove the true validity of those boxes or their limitations. & they purely operate within the limitations of a piece of fiction made by one person.

this is why, although i don't put much stock in the actual system of classpects, my classpect is deeply personal to me. bc it culminates from extensive introspection. i also find it incredibly interesting 2 see how others classpect themselves, bc it is a fundamental expression of the self to place yourself in these grids, & *requires* personal interpretation of the system by a means that *also* says something about you as a person. like, it's a net gain if you're interested in how people live their lives & define themselves, which i am.

uh... basically have fun & be yourself

[conceptofjoy]

Hi! So,I’ve seen around your blog some talk about color theory? What’s up with that?

Many Thanks!

heh well. well that.s okay so.

in homestuck, colors denote a type of computery thing. simple example is red = 1, and blue = 0. binary. of course, theres a ton more colors than this, we get 12 different trolls doing shit, but each of the trolls fall into those two categories (or teams) when playing sburb.

but then questions arise as to why aradia, is in BLUE team. why is terezi and vriska who are blue RED? there are nuanced answers to both of those relating to their classpects and more accurately their role within the story. why is it that karkat is grey/red and types in all caps almost like caliborn, but they're on opposite moons, that sort of thing.

its about the base systems or concepts that make up homestuck i guess.