#doom.pdf

[nekropsii]

A lot of people make Doom out to be an Aspect that requires a cool "Suffering Emo" aesthetic, and never explore how it works outside of "Lots of death" and "It sucks to be Doombound", so let me just turn that on its head real quick.

This is a Witch of Doom. Baba Is You is a Doombound Simulator.

[nekropsii]

what are your interpretations for those classes and aspects, out of curiousity? (or a link to an interpretation thats good)

[Re: This post.]

Okay, that's an incredibly complex, multi-tiered question. I'll try my best to summarize it as briefly as possible, though!!

FOR THE CLASSES:

The fact that Bards are the Wildcard Class is true, and I'm not going to dispute that... But I think the way that some people go about interpreting Bards is a bit weak. Oftentimes, they're made out to be forces of pure, unpredictable chaos, when... That's not the case at all. That has, in my opinion, never been the case. From my observation, the role of a Bard in the greater context of a Session isn't that they create Pure Unpredictability within the field of that Aspect, but rather that they're representative of Instability within the field of their Aspect. Those are two entirely different things. Bards do, in fact, have some greater purpose and reasoning behind their actions- it's just that those reasons might not make sense to someone who is particularly mentally stable- or, "hinged", as some might like to put it. Their status of being rather Unhinged and/or Unstable individuals is why they're known to Make or Break Sessions- especially since I'd argue that their existence may hint towards a general feeling of instability within that Aspect throughout the entire session... They are Passive Classes, after all.

Pages are not "Baby Knights", because that would fundamentally defeat the entire purpose of their journey and existence as a Class. Pages represent Lacking, and their journey revolves around Deficit- both in themselves, and in those around them. When their Deficit in their Aspect is healed or resolved somehow, they are stated to be one of the most powerful Classes from the viewpoint of baseline power. If a Page evolved into a Knight upon their full realization, that's not a victory. That's the start of an entirely new journey as a character with a power level that many, many people were able to start with. That's just a cruel joke, at that point. I have so many choice words for the whole "Pages evolve into Knights" theory that if I enable myself any more space to talk about it here, that's what the entire post will turn into, so I'll forcibly stop myself there.

FOR THE ASPECTS:

Doom is a very complicated Aspect, and it hurts my heart to see people boil it down to Misfortune and Death. That is... Nowhere near the full picture, and it's so saddening that no one ever seems to truly take the effort to dig deeper. It's also about Control, Self-Sacrifice, Restriction, Necessity, and so many other things. It's fascinating!! There's pros to being a Doom player- it's not all bad!! Also... The Doombound do not bring bad luck. Think of them like an Absol, from Pokemon- if one of them starts hanging around you a lot, their presence isn't going to kill you. It can, however, serve as an omen- the Doombound are attracted to those that are already Doomed. Come on.

Hope is not inherently good, nor is it inherently positive. In fact, we have yet to see a single example of a Hope player who is a happy person... Lol. Hope is about Belief, and that's an entirely neutral concept. My personal pet theory as to why Hope was elevated to be this paragon of good in the eyes of the fandom is that it has to do with the western world's relationship with Religion- especially the USA and its relationship with Christianity. That's a topic for another day, though... But anyways, Hope can very much so lead to toxic idealism, an inability to accept reality, and suffering... And quite easily, too! I'd argue it's actually a key part of the Aspect! It's not an inherently wholesome or fun Aspect. No Aspects are. That is how they work.

Rage is not "The Hope Aspect, but Evil", it is representative of Disbelief... Which is, you know, the actual opposite of Belief? I'm not sure why Rage gets so commonly misinterpreted as "The Evil Aspect", nor do I understand why they're so heavily related to Demons. Demons are a construct of Hope, actually, and so are Cults. Sorry! It's also not an inherently bad or negative Aspect- it's just Skepticism, Anger, and Pessimism... Which would sound bad, if you forget the fact that those are necessary parts of life in order to have an even moderately healthy experience with being alive.

I'm going to plug one of my besties here, because I will take literally any excuse to do so, and you kind of asked for it. @scalematez is an absolute scholar on the subject of Hope and Rage as Aspects, and she is the only person I've ever seen actually understand them on a deeper level without defaulting to some of the most common, rather egregious stereotypes regarding those Aspects. Here's an essay of hers about their dichotomy, go give her a follow!

[nekropsii]

I just wanna say i love your analyses. im not even into homestuck that much and really only pay attention to like 2 characters and the classpect system, but your analyses on the characters and the story are always so interesting to read, and its nice to see someone who is just. so aware of it, especially of the more problematic aspects of homestuck (like its antiblackness, ableism, and the infantilizing of characters like mituna and kankri within the fandom). as a blk person its refreshing to see someone acknowledge it because most of the time i feel like these things are so swept under the rug, especially by other nonblack fans...

besides that, id like to ask. what are your thoughts on sylphs as a class and how sylphs who are doom, void, timebounnd (you know, aspects that are normally seen as "negative") interact with their aspect? i feel like out of any class, they're the ones that are difficult for me to understand. id just like to hear your thoughts!

Aww, thank you so much! This is an absolute DELIGHT to hear. I'm glad my work has held so much value to you!! It really does mean a lot. Glad I'm doing something right in your eyes. :)

Homestuck has been a deep passion of mine for years now, and I find that it's physically impossible to earnestly and completely tackle it without directly confronting the layers of bigotry that Hussie was operating under while writing the comic. The comic is so overtly caked in it that it affects even the most basic meta of it all- foundational parts of the story are infested with it like termites. Classpecting is an example. Even the magic system isn't free of it! I don't see very many people bring that up, but then again, I don't see very many people bring up literally any of the Anti-Blackness in the comic, like... Period. It fucking sucks. But that's what I'm here for, in part. If no one else will do it, then I will- and gladly so, because it really ought to be discussed more.

And, to answer your question about Sylphs of Doom, Void, and Time...

Sylphs either Mend or Create, depending on circumstance. They largely intend to maintain stability of their Aspect within themselves and their session, and are eager to speak about their own perspective + experience with their Aspect, should you let them do so. The presence of a Sylph tends to imply an excess of their Opposite Aspect.

Doom is, largely, the Aspect of Rules, Restriction, and Sacrifice. The job of a Sylph of Doom is to keep these things in check- Mending where it's needed, or Creating where it's needed. To use Sovereignstuck as an example, a Sylph of Doom could take on the role of a Game Patcher/Moderator, making sure the active session follows whatever set rules were given... Perhaps a little too strictly. Void is, largely, the Aspect of Obscurity, Nothingness, and Oblivion. Mending these may require active deceit... Though that's not necessarily a bad thing. An excess of Light is a frightening thing indeed- though largely seen as a positive Aspect, Light is about Chaos and Uncontrollability, and even the slightest amount of unchecked excess of it can snowball and tank a session. Time is, largely, the Aspect of Entropy, Fate, and... Well, Literal Time. The job of a Sylph of Time tends to imply the stabilization and restoration of Timelines. They maintain linearity- keeping the threads of Fate from getting tangled into a terrible mess. Not to bring up Sovereignstuck again, but we also have a Sylph of Time, and she aids greatly in keeping the timeline- and therefore the narrative- straightforward. A Sylph of Time would prevent the story from becoming as much of a tangled mess as Homestuck proper is... Dave was never good at keeping things clean.

I hope these explanations were adequate! Feel free to ask for any clarification you need, thank you for valuing my opinion, and I hope you have a lovely day!

[nekropsii]

i would love to know your thoughts on the doom aspect or any of the other aspects honestly

Taking you up on both parts of that and talking about Doom and Time in tandem. Hope you don’t mind! I have many thoughts, and I feel like both of those Aspects are done a disservice in the field of Analysis. Here’s some short Fridge Thoughts to get your brain moving:

In my personal opinion, Time and Doom work very well together as Aspects. The presence of one often leads to the other.

Time has more to do with Death than Doom does. Time is about Death as an inevitable concept, while Doom is more about (often prolonged) Suffering, or Death coming early through Self-Sacrifice.

Time is about Entropy, Doom is about Atrophy. Both are Necrotic.

Time is about Inevitability, Doom is about Terminality. Both are Fatal.

Both Aspects have a high likelihood to enter a state of Malignancy within those who are Bound to it. While all Aspects are very much so capable of causing harm to people who Embody them- even Aspects stereotyped as “Inherently Good”- Time and Doom seem to have the highest probability of having rather noteworthy negative effects on Players. This may be due to their Theming, and what they Represent.

[nekropsii]

what do you think about doom that's not necessarily focused on the suffering of the self, but the suffering of others? both in the incidental and purposeful way.

While Doom is about Sacrifice, Suffering, Rules, and Control, most people make it very much so as an internalized force, and never consider the idea of Doom as an externalized force. There’s hardly any content at all of the idea of Doom as something that could be a bad thing, even though virtually everyone agrees that it sucks to be Doombound.

I think the reason for that is because, culturally speaking, Suffering, especially for your peers/loved ones, is often seen as a virtuous act. But Doom is every bit about Control as it is the Lack of Control. Doom is every bit about Suffering as it is about being Disordered because of your Suffering. It’s about not knowing what to do other than hurt sometimes. Being Doombound can feel like a Sisyphean Punishment, and sometimes people’s expression of handling that sort of thing is to not handle it at all.

The Doombound are just as liable to hurt people as anyone else is. They’re often intensely negative, pessimistic people, and constantly being put in harms way can absolutely lead to someone lashing out. Constantly. It’s technically a valid expression of Doom- Doom is very much so the Aspect of Atrophy- and I’d like to see more evil or morally gray Doombound characters.

[nekropsii]

i know the ask was two days ago but re the one anon that asked whether mituna would do those white guy gamer raps: have we forgotten about g4m38l0rg

GOD, LMAO. G4M38L0RG is absolutely fucking hilarious if you imagine that Mituna was the one who made it. It also gets, like, approximately 200x better.

I honestly unironically really love G4M38L0RG? It fits him perfectly! Plus, I like to imagine that some of the lyrics are directly referencing his abilities as an Heir of Doom!

Doom, as an Aspect, is all about Rules, Control, and Limits. Heirs are a Passive Manipulation + Embodiment Class.

Passive, in relation to Classes, essentially means “Done Largely for the Benefit of Others.”

I sure bet he does, in fact, have a few cheat codes for you! Maybe even for SGRUB itself! Manipulation of the rules of the game for the benefit of others sounds awfully like Heir of Doom behavior to me!