#yes i know far too much about the complexities of classpects

[dreamsurvivormultiplayer]

i made the mistake of perceiving a hermitcraft homestuck au and as Someone Who Has Done Far Too Much Studying On Classpects I. Now feel. Like I Am Legally Obligated To Think About This. Anyone is welcome to throw in thoughts if ya have any.

Given 26 Hermits, normally that might be annoying to divvy up into 12 classes/aspects (if we wanna be shitposty, technically 17 classes and 13 aspects) BUT we can double up the main 12 and then throw the extra two as Muse/Lord Time/Space which is quite fun actually. Also perfect number for an equal split lunar sway, but that’s for a different post.

I’m just gonna go right ahead and throw Xisuma intooo im thinking Muse of Time? cause yknow, Server Admin. That feels right. Influencing/inspiring the timeline/end from a distance for the benefit of others. But. on the other hand. XisumaVoid... Technically there's nothing stopping us from making him a Muse of Void, which still fits the Server Admin themes (except this time now more aspects of creating a world from nothing/protecting that world by obscuring it/wiping it for resets). Also if the Muse/Lord duo aren’t Time/Space aspects that could play into them having a broken session which fits Season 8′s plot pretty well.

Opposing that, I’m kinda tempted for Doc as Lord of Space? Mostly for shadow items n stuff - Manipulation of space/material existence/physicality for benefit of self. Or Lord of Light (manipulation of knowledge/chance/observation/etc) which does still fit with the game-breaking themes.

Grian i’m debating a class for (hesitantly settling on Maid, Mage, Bard, Prince, or Thief - Mage/Maid for more Watcher!Grian vibes, everything else following his semi-destructive/chaos streak, and an argument could probably be made either way for benefit of others/self). Aspect though, my gut feeling is Time or maaaaaybe Heart (for splinter-selves)? I’m admittedly liking Time much better because of the destructive associations with it, inherent chaos, and timelines/multiple selves stuff which is far more subdued in Heart. Heart is a lot more following. yknow. your heart. and prioritizing that over Mind/”rational” thought (alongside misc soul stuffs). Maid of Time for him is very tempting. I Would Like To See Grian Hit A Timeline With A Broom.

I don’t have much thought out for the other Hermits (mostly either an aspect or a class) but here’s some misc ideas: (note - the pair of class & aspect is v important because it dramatically changes how the god tier functions so basically any of these are subject to change)

Scar I’m thinking either Prince or Page? Not sure aspect. I’m leaning more towards Page but Scar with a destructive class sounds very fun. Also, bonus, both those god tier outfits are dorky as hell but I think he’d vibe with that.

Zedaph - Almost definitely an active class, unless we’re going the route of a classpect that opposes/challenges that. Aspect... hmm... Light? Maaybe Mind? I’m feeling a lean towards Light particularly with the s9 daredevil route.

Gem’s giving me Hope or Heart vibes? Not sure on class. I almost wanna say Rogue? But I’m always hesitant to have too many canon god tiers. Maybe Seer? Gem as a Seer sounds kinda fun.

Joe maybe Life? Maayyyybe Sylph...???

Cleo im thinking maybe Witch? Or maybe even Bard? with Witch they’d be an active class & have manipulation over their aspect which is fun, though the focus is use of aspect for benefit of self which i’m more ? on for them. Bard would be benefit of others and also a destructive class which is very fun for her. Not sure on Aspect though which would definitely change things up dramatically. Especially given the gorgon s9 theme I really wanna incorporate her statues stuff. Best I can think of for that would prob be Light/Void or Space?

Mumbo’s got me very stumped, but maybe Heir? For the transformative/”becoming” aspect thing. Sounds like it’d be something fun to mess with for him (espc given his s8 themes).

I feel like im legally required to make Wels a Knight.

Anyways enjoy this half-sensical babble.

[bibiana112]

would u like to explain homestuck classpects ? i wanna understand how youre categorising ze characters with em :o

Oh my god yes, but also I wanna pretend I was never a Homestuck as much as possible, but also I can't help how relevant this whole system is to how I think about a bunch of stuff, but also did you know I have a 25 page messy ass google doc on this for like five kh characters that I think only AJ ever read, did you know I started on the equivalent to that for ze like last week but it's a very low committal sort of thing, I am absolutely torn between trying to give an abridged version as best I can and just grabbing what little I have already succinctly typed out hmm I think I'll go with the former? Okay I can't for the life of me do that actually and I tried it still goes on for longer than it should anyway, like, the alternative would be making it sound far too shallow and uh yeah idk ya could wait 'til I have the bare minimum to show or ask specifics on stuff? I'll write what the headcanons are here though, I think they always sound funky without much context

It's also just for the 999 cast, what a surprise

Little crash course on what these even are is that they're two notions, a class and an aspect that interact with each other and form a hero title which is pretty much like an overall archetype, since each of those has 12 different ones the total number of possible combinations is 144. A class is things like Witch, Thief, Knight, Mage and those are more tied to personality traits and how one approaches situations, but aspects are the ones I tend to put a larger focus on, those are things like Space, Time, Doom, Life they each represent a great deal more than the namesake though and they're each so very interesting to me for the nuance, they're concepts that are all always present to some extent, what varies is the concentration or how much of it that is present in someone's overall journey, and they're not like teams or houses or anything in fact they're supposed to be as diverse amongst a group as possible and also they come in sets! Both classes and aspects do, they're 6 complementary pairs each, the way it works on classes is that they're divided as active or passive which is really more about either directing energy towards oneself or towards those around you, and for aspects they're complementary concepts the way two sides of a coin are, for example there's the Social aspects Breath and Blood, one is about freedom from social bonds and the other is all about nurturing those attachments and that's an oversimplification but it's serviceable, I really didn't realize it was this complex to explain until now and I probably didn't do a grade A job at it

Ace - Prince of Breath

Snake - Mage of Void

Santa - Rogue of Heart

Clover - Maid of Blood

Junpei - Witch of Time

June - Seer of Mind

Seven - idk

Lotus - Sylph of Doom (?)

Fun little factoid that will not make any sense to anyone, but, with Junpei and Akane I sort of feel like they switch their aspects from 999 to vlr and ztd? Akane suddenly has many more Time player motifs and reasoning and Junpei is the same, suddenly his behavior has so much more Mind vibes in full display. It's a fun observation and by nature of this whole thing drastic shifts in a story can mean recontextualizing a character's role in it, and thus, their aspect and I kind of think that's neat but still like to keep in mind the ones I put up there when writing the two, cause that's something I do

So yeah, hmm my goodness I really never got like any ideas for the rest of the cast? I feel like we either don't get much insight aside from very literal and plot related motivations on most of them at best and shallow characterization at worst, like, freaking Carlos? Idk he's firefighter of murica my dude not much else, Diana can be a Life player because she's a healer/caretaker I guess and Phi and Sigma kind of fuck me up because it almost feels like they're different characters in ztd altogether (Sigma kind of is?? Although I can see Dr.Klim as a Space player maybe) and idk I guess my biggest issue is I have a hard time imagining them just being people separate from the story with a very narrow framing we witness unfold with them which makes this difficult? WAIT I got it, so much of vlr and ztd's plots rely on the characters not being themselves that it makes this murky, like, with radical-6 and mind hacking bullcrap, y'know? My first instinct for everyone in vlr almost would also be Mind but that's probably because of the plot y'know? Except Luna? She could be Hope or Breath idk and share a class with Diana but idk which one that'd be, Dio being a Bard makes sense I guess? WAIT MIRA MIRA THIEF OF HEART WOULD BE SO FUNNY BUT I DON'T THINK THAT'D BE IT LMAOO

Okay that's what I have, I hope this made no sense I will be working on my google docs to show u later if u want akdjkasj

[swimfuel]

Hey!! The X-men are literally my favorite thing and I was wondering if you could elaborate on how Scott is a knight of doom

YES OF COURSE!!!! i'll put it under a cut since i tend to ramble a bit & i'm pulling a bunch of explanations from people smarter than i am

the knight weaponizes their aspect; they have an inherent understanding of their aspect that allows them to exploit it completely. doom is the aspect of systems, restrictions/limitations, sacrifices, and endings.

one of scott's core themes is reclaiming his restrictions in order to serve others/the greater good! he takes the possible liability that are his faulty powers and shifts them to become an advantage, largely through the strength of his restraint and discipline. his role as a tactician and the way he sees sacrifices (more on that later) also mesh EXTREMELY well with the knight of doom.

i feel like the Wh*don run (specifically astonishing x-men #22-23) really highlights how scott can turn a situation on its head through exploiting his disadvantages to the point where they become tactically advantageous!! like, let's count the ways:

the ship the x-men stole from kruun is obviously bugged, so his team won't be able to communicate without being overheard. he realizes this, and uses that restriction (being overheard) as an advantage, by falsifying their course of action.

he has been left "without his powers"—he presents a restriction that lowers the guard of his adversary and grants him entry to their home base. he then subverts this by exploding the shit out of everything when an opportune moment arrives

HE LITERALLY EXPLOITS DEATH...... HE EXPLOITS HIS OWN DEATH...................FOR THE GREATER GOOD..........DUDE???? someone get this man an advil

some more thoughts, followed by some examples by people smarter than me:

he exhibits a similar pattern of idolization/realization with xavier irt karkat/HICand dave/bro.... not sure if this by itself is a knight-y thing but i think the consistent disillusionment with their role in defending their aspect is interesting (aka knight burnout, more on that later)

he is def willing to sacrifice shit for the greater good of mutantkind. the shit in question sometimes being his closest friends and allies. the examples that stick out to me are how he allowed beast to get tortured (utopia era) while executing his plan to solve All His Problems At Once & also when he sent x-force to the future to defend hope knowing it was going to be a one-way trip

that entire issue revolving around just how GOOD scott is at self-repression😭😭😭 i'm pretty sure it's post-schism utopia era i don't remember the exact issue WAIT NVM i'm pretty sure it's uncanny #518

seeing phoenix!scott as an inversion to (rogue of) life is also an interesting concept (unchecked growth!)

the amount of responsibility he feels he has to take on (partially due to his idolization cycle w xavier/xavier's dream) is also both knight-y and doom-y

and of course the instinct to protect the people around him --> being expanded into the whole of mutantkind (which, in turn, expands his sense of obligation)

everything leading up to revolutionary cyclops is also very interesting through this framework because its reminiscent of the knights & doom players in hs! the "taking on an insane burden" (phoenix force, whatever whammied mituna) -> the "resignation to the fate handed to him by his aspect" (his stint in prison, dead daves, sollux in general) -> the "refusal to accept that fate" (prison break, dave not wanting to use time travel, sollux fucking off into the dreambubbles, karkat coming to terms w his relationship w leadership) --> experiencing knight burnout at the end of revolutionary era going into death of x

im not sure exactly how to put it into words but everything about his childhood/teenhood... like being surrounded by forces seeking to control him and use him for their own ends..... idk

(from @/land-of-classpects-and-analysis, sections highlighted red are of particular interest)

HIS GIANT STINKING MARTYR COMPLEX.....DUDE😭😭

side note & ive mentioned this before but scottjean is an interesting parallel to davejade in a way i cant verbalize

Then there are the ones who may accept [the fact of inevitable human suffering], and so choose to live in high alert of any danger - any threats - as well as living in fear of what harm may befall them and/or their loved ones. It is this third and final group of people that so deeply marks that of the Knight of Doom.

Now, this might cause a few eyebrows to become quirked. After all, a Knight? Being fearful of something - nevertheless that thing being related to their Aspect? Knights do often present themselves as ruthless and fearless warriors, yes, but that is only because their Aspects and the world around them raised and called them to act as such. 

... A key factor in the Knight’s life, specifically before their journey truly begins, is that they are already well equipped with their Aspect.

... The Knight of Doom is one where their Aspect being all around them is far more bittersweet than anything else.

... What is important to acknowledge is that the facade the Knight of Doom puts up is not only to hide the fear they have for their Aspect, but it is most definitely there to hide the grief and pain they have not yet completely finished going through. Whether it’s been weeks or years, the Knight of Doom is someone who would rather hide themself away from these feelings than find a way to truly mend and heal them ... they have built a false wall between them and their suffering strong and thick enough to partially block it from their memory. 

... Knights are known to become extremely stubborn whenever people try to order them around and pressure them into doing something, and the Knight of Doom is no different - especially if they believe what they are doing is for the greater good. 

(from @/dahniwitchoflight)

Dahni’s Explanantion: “Doom can be a negative force that rejects and harms, fostering a sense of hostility or sadness. But, it is also the idea that you can pull backwards and cautiously and wisely withdraw into your own self.  It can be the idea of Control taken from the sharp Black and White Restrictions that everything in the world gets sorted into. It understands community necessity and need, responsibly pulling back and lowering you down into its lap to help wind yourself down. Doom then is an ultimate gentle Equalizer, instilling its players with an internal sense of Acceptance and eventually true Wisdom.”

Knight of Doom: One who Exploits with Doom or Exploits Doom

Knights hide a fear of a perceived fundamental failure with their Aspect behind a shield of confidence and obsessive effort. Their challenge is to learn to take it down a notch and to understand that they are skilled enough

A Knight is very skilled with using the rules and limitations of any game or session to their advantage. They skillfully fulfill any responsibility or obligation required of them with ease. They might use their natural caution and pessimism to make realistic choices and endeavors. They use and exploit any rule or limit that they can to their advantage. They might also be very good at exploiting any sacrifices made or any obligation or responsibility that they are held to. They might be very good at avoiding any unnecessary thing or person and are very good at recognizing when something is too futile to even bother with.

Likewise they might only focus on the necessary things in their game or session so they are likely to not do much unless it’s absolutely necessary. They would very likely be very meticulous with themselves about following the rules properly and constantly restrict themselves, maybe thinking they aren’t following the rules properly enough or not following the right ones. They might sacrifice anything they consider unnecessary about themselves or the way they live, sometimes even going too far with it, in order to be considered or thought of as less useless. They’re always trying harder and holding themselves to extreme self-imposed standards.

They would likely wait for the opportune moment to strike, though they are slow to move or act, they always will when something necessary needs to happen. Out of all the Doom players, a Knight of Doom seems like the one most likely to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. A Knight of Doom can also expertly use and exploit fire, bombs and explosions to their advantage, maybe they create flashy distractions during fights. They might even use decaying or dying things to their advantage.

(from @/communistvriska)

Role in the Session: Rather like the Prince of Doom, this role’s title kinda has “edgelord” written all over it, but that’s not a set-in-stone character trait. The first thing that comes to mind re: what the Knight Class and the Aspect of Doom have in common is a strong sense of obligation. The Knight of Doom is bound to take their duties and responsibilities Extremely Seriously, perhaps rather too seriously at first ... Knights also tend to be very protective of both their Aspect as a concept, and of themselves and those close to them; while the Knight of Doom isn’t likely to be outwardly aggressive, given Doom’s reserved, slow-burn tendencies, woe betide those who try to deceive or confound the Knight or their allies. One of Doom’s internal contradictions (which I find personally fascinating) is that the aspect is associated both with cynical resignation and with a profound albeit restrained sense of passion and persistence. Doom is what’s left after everything else gets burnt away.

The Knight of Doom will likely be a very skilled combatant, as the Knight is a class strongly associated with Strife / battle, and Doom is one of the more overtly destructive Aspects. I’d put them in the Top 5 Roles to use a cool flamin sword, at least. They’re not going to be eager to fight, per se, but they’re not going to have much trouble scaling the echeladder when it comes to that either. Internally, they’re likely to struggle with a perceived (but largely imagined) inability to fulfill their duties, and they could well stumble once or twice in their quest to be perceived as reliable and stoic, or as someone who their friends can lean on. They’re probably doing more than enough already, but if they’re not careful they might overexert themselves and take on too heavy a burden, and they’re liable to be crushed by their own expectation that they face their challenges alone. This is going to factor into their capital-Q Quest and the environment of their planet, and will be the biggest obstacle in their path to Ascension. A Knight’s duty is to protect their co-players, but their co-players also have to support them.