Galekh doesn't show the strongest Blood ties, but some allusions are made to promises (a Blood-linked concept) as well as his jealousy of the main character's free-spirited friendability (a Breath concept). He has a clear penchant for knowledge, with his library of a hive and his drive to acquire information, which might indicate Light ties, but in this case, it seems to highlight a knowledge-related class rather than his Aspect itself. He also has a reasonably beneficial relationship with his lusus, which seems to stand in for a 'familiar', as is typical for that group of classes.
Narrowing his class down to Witch, Sylph, Mage, or Seer, then, one might note that he does not display the urge to manipulate his Aspect that a Witch or Sylph typically would, either to rebel or to reinforce it. Interestingly, he shares a certain wordiness with the known canon Seer of Blood, Kankri. He also shows a pronounced Seer-like tendency to turn to others (in his case, interview-style) for the knowledge he wants, as well as some gullibility. However, his choice to get a tattoo in an attempt to understand what the main character is trying to convey to him is a more Mage-like insistence on personal experience. Arguments could be made for either Seer or Mage, as a class, and he doesn't display notable leanings in either a Passive or Active direction, though my gut instinct would be to say he tends slightly more Active.
Guess: Tirona Kasund - Thief of Heart
While Tirona shows the fixation on skills and abilities common to the Thief/Rogue/Knight/Page subset, she also seems to value interpersonal obligations and favors highly, which is more often a Prince/Bard/Maid/Heir trait, yet still emphasizes the importance of knowledge often seen among Witch/Sylph/Mage/Seer types. Given the lack of clear indications in one direction or another, I might chalk up her interpersonal awareness as a more Heart-linked trait rather than class-influenced, and say that her overall view of the world as Everyone vs Tirona, along with being convinced that she needs to pull one over on everyone else, constantly, and that she's a lot more intelligent than she actually is, may indicate Thief most strongly at this time, though she is a very young Thief, still developing, and could easily turn in a different direction with age, experience, and growth.
Here we have a troll whose characterization in their episode absolutely does NOT match their reputed sign's Aspect.
Mallek does not display Time cues. There is little to no language in his entire episode to even obliquely support Time as a meaningful motivator, to him, beyond a couple of throwaway mentions of how little time he has left. However, he is strongly signaled to belong somewhere on the Light - Void spectrum, through information (Light) technology vs his need to disconnect and get away from it (Void). There are repeated references to darkness, shadows, misinformation, lies, and water/liquid--all Void symbols--and also many mentions of knowledge, truth, information, publicity, and gleams of light, which are predictably Light-aligned.
Then there's his class. He shows every indication of being highly conscious of social hierarchy, tallies of owed favors, and a tit-for-tat mentality, all of which tend to be patterns found in the Courtier group (that is: Prince, Heir, Maid, or Bard). As well, I tend to guess any character who has such a strong apparent shadowing of both their Aspect and the opposing Aspect is displaying Prince or Bard cues. He seems fairly Active, at first glance and in his speech, and shows some attraction to the role of a "villain", though he isn't quite as oblivious to other's thoughts, feelings, or needs as the strongly-Active Prince can sometimes be, and acts on instinct to save the main character. With the strength and sheer frequency of the Void cues in his route, I'm actually inclined to peg him as a somewhat heavily inverted Heir of Light. He masks, superficially, as a Prince of Void, but he's not out to destroy misinformation or wreck anyone's shit with it, in the way a Prince would be. Instead, he fixates on new information and doesn't really question what he's told, as well as showing the very laid-back attitude more common to Heirs.
(So, wild headcanon time... how could a Heir of Light have ended up with a Time-linked symbol? Did someone stamp a grub's paperwork with the wrong sign? Did he 'inherit' a sign from someone else entirely? Does he know? How seriously am I willing to take the extended zodiac's Aspects, when they just don't fit someone specific--especially when it was such a well-written episode and not the fault of there just being zero data to interpret?)
Guess: Lynera Skalbi - Sylph of Rage
Her Rage Aspect seems to show in the form of emotional volatility and acute suspicion and mistrust about everything displayed to her. For her class, while at first she seems self-absorbed in a relatively Active way, she makes a comment about rule-breaking irritating her greatly that sounds very Sylph-like, as Sylphs are instinctively drawn to order and organization. Sylphs also share a focus on what they 'know' with Witches, Seers, and Mages, and tend to start by acting unwisely based on the knowledge they have, all of which fits Lynera to a T.
It's at least *possible* that he could be a Light aspected character... his themes seem to suggest distance is a big source of trouble for him, which could indicate a Space affliction, but he is also described as 'radiant' when he smiles, and he's very focused on appearances/perception in a way that could tie to Light. Some of his narrative does imply that he's intended to be a Page... starting out feeling deprived of relevance/importance by those around him, and very outwardly focused (a Passive trait). Pages do also have a tendency to be self-deprecating and insecure. And check out those socks + sandals.
Guess: Tegiri Kalbur - Knight of Void
Given the sword as his weapon of choice, and his ostensible desire to protect and uphold the system, Knight seems a logical selection. He seems to lean more Active than Passive, focused on his own wants and needs, but torn by the occasional desire to assist others, and he has a Knight-like carefully constructed persona at odds with his actual skills or wishes. His Void Aspect ties into his collection of figurines (statues), as well as the meaningless and misleading contacts he wears. Even his face is hidden, in his troll call picture....
Mind seems important to Azdaja, as an Aspect, and he displays bitterness about a future where he loses decision-making power and control over himself. He refers to himself several times as a 'prince' and having a high station, which could be taken literally to indicate that he is meant to be a Prince of Mind, though he doesn't display the heavy shadowing of Heir of Heart I might expect.
Guess: Chahut Maenad - Heir of Hope
While I would have initially pegged her as likely to have some tie to Rage, due to her surname being a very deliberate reference to the Maenads, Hope and Rage are inverses of each other, and often shadow each other. She also doesn't show a lot of very visible aggression, despite her reddened eyes and occasionally... alarming statements, and sincerely appears to believe in her faith. With the way her Aspect and her belief generally seems to provide for her, by happenstance, without her actively seeking it out, and her overall level of laid-back attitude... I'm going to guess Heir fits her pretty closely.
Her Aspect could reasonably be Blood--there are numerous references to Breath in her episode (e.g. 'take a breather', gusts of wind) though it seems to generally oppose her rather than aid her, which at least puts her on the Breath - Blood continuum. And while Breath players often seem to want to rebel and oppose bad systems from the outside, Blood players seem more inclined to work from within it. Tyzias definitely wants to change it from within, as a legislacerator. I would say she's near the middle of the Active/Passive scale as well, neither strongly oriented toward other people to the exclusion of self-awareness, nor self-absorbed to the exclusion of empathy. This could mean that she is either a Knight (least active class) or a Rogue (least passive class), and I feel she fits the mold of Rogue more than Knight. She's both somewhat more focused on others than herself, and somewhat more wistfully positive about herself, overall, than Knights tend to be. She also (like many Knights, Rogues, Thieves, and Pages) tends to evaluate herself and other people in terms of their skills and abilities.
Guess: Chixie Roixmr - Maid of Mind
Chixie's Mind Aspect is chiefly evident through the changing personas she employs to get herself through talking with Zebruh, then stealing the stage for her impromptu slam poetry battle with the highblood thief. While she has an Active focus, she does not have the ego of a Thief, the notable Aspect-shadowing of a Prince, the contrary will of a Witch, the sense of personal hard-won experience of a Mage, or the heavy fronting of a Knight. She does, however, occupy a subjugated position to begin with, denied her rightful Aspect, until finding a source of it within herself--a Maid pattern.
I cant believe how few notes your class posts have. I found them really enjoyable to read and it really got me thinking of new perspectives to view everything with. I especially love that you made a full class wheel that lines everything up so organized. I'm more of an aspect person myself, but maybe we could discuss classpects together sometime! Keep up the good work
I’m alive! Sorry it (probably) took so long for me to see this and respond. It’s been a wild few months.
I love discussing classpects pretty much every chance I get, so, I’m game!
So, uh. I got moved back to the US, with cats in tow. We did it. We made it happen.
I’m still too mad about big chunks of the Candy epilogue to finish writing a coherent essay. It’s a WIP on my computer. I’ll get to it someday.
Feeling validated in this chili’s tonight thanks to a great deal of the Pesterquest language re: classpecting, though.
Aaaand finally... dug up the file on my computer where I was in the process of classpecting the Friendsim trolls. Still working on some of them, but at least I can queue up some posts now.
I’m hearing two main arguments online… a lot of people saying the epilogues are Terrible, for various reasons, and a few people saying they’re Good, with a smaller but vocal subset of those people arguing that if you don’t like them then you’re obviously just expecting to be spoon-fed a fluff ending in which the Character You Like gets a wish-fulfillment storybook epilogue.
There are probably some people who are mad about not getting that. However, I think misrepresenting the range of anger various parts of the fandom are experiencing as being purely some kind of childish knee-jerk tantrum at not getting the toy they wanted is disingenuous, at best, and parallels some of the mistakes of the epilogues themselves. Note that this in no way excuses or justifies people sending the writers or anyone else death-threats or whatever the hell else has been going on.
Honestly… the Meat ending was pretty good writing, in my opinion. It wasn’t comfortable or happy or flattering in any way to a number of characters who I recognize people care deeply about, but it was nothing really worse than I expected from Earth C, based on the fundamental narrative of Lord English’s giant closed-loop system. The loop had to close, in order for Homestuck proper to occur at all. That means that Earth C is where Calliope and Caliborn hatch and grow up, far, far in the future. And that means that universe, like the others, will be destroyed by a SBURB session one day. Sorry, folks. It was never meant to be a ‘happy ending’.
Meat was deeply metatextual. It was gristly and greasy and discomfiting. It raised questions about what it means to have a narrator, and whose biases are implicitly included–and I think those are very interesting questions to raise, whether or not they are particularly satisfying to someone who is also reading for the characters.
Spoilers beyond the read-more, for obvious reasons.
Morning reblog. tl;dr - Meat route is reasonably good. Still has some issues I’d frankly love to discuss and analyze. Still has elements I’m critical and/or real damn Tired of. But was fundamentally pretty much exactly what it says on the tin.
(My absolute favorite line was:
KARKAT: ALSO, WHAT THE FUCK IS A CALISTHENIC?
KARKAT: IS THAT THE NAME OF YOUR FAN CHERUB??
Honestly.)
@hareofhrair I hope you don’t mind a tag, since I saw the question of Dirk being Serket-influenced raised on your blog, originally.
I’m hearing two main arguments online... a lot of people saying the epilogues are Terrible, for various reasons, and a few people saying they're Good, with a smaller but vocal subset of those people arguing that if you don’t like them then you’re obviously just expecting to be spoon-fed a fluff ending in which the Character You Like gets a wish-fulfillment storybook epilogue.
There are probably some people who are mad about not getting that. However, I think misrepresenting the range of anger various parts of the fandom are experiencing as being purely some kind of childish knee-jerk tantrum at not getting the toy they wanted is disingenuous, at best, and parallels some of the mistakes of the epilogues themselves. Note that this in no way excuses or justifies people sending the writers or anyone else death-threats or whatever the hell else has been going on.
Honestly... the Meat ending was pretty good writing, in my opinion. It wasn’t comfortable or happy or flattering in any way to a number of characters who I recognize people care deeply about, but it was nothing really worse than I expected from Earth C, based on the fundamental narrative of Lord English’s giant closed-loop system. The loop had to close, in order for Homestuck proper to occur at all. That means that Earth C is where Calliope and Caliborn hatch and grow up, far, far in the future. And that means that universe, like the others, will be destroyed by a SBURB session one day. Sorry, folks. It was never meant to be a 'happy ending'.
Meat was deeply metatextual. It was gristly and greasy and discomfiting. It raised questions about what it means to have a narrator, and whose biases are implicitly included--and I think those are very interesting questions to raise, whether or not they are particularly satisfying to someone who is also reading for the characters.
Spoilers beyond the read-more, for obvious reasons.
That said, there were elements that did surprise me. The removal of the other kids from different points in different doomed timelines, to fight with John against LE, rather than being his teammates from Earth C--but from John’s perspective, it doesn’t seem like there’s much difference. Either way, they’re not fully ‘real’ to him (and barely feel real to us, as quickly as they appear and then die). He’s from the Game Over timeline, he’s battling depression, and nobody in the retcon timeline is really quite authentic to him, either--just as to many fans, they didn’t feel quite authentic, when the retcon happened and we had to suddenly let go of the characters we'd watched grow and change, replaced by funhouse mirror reflections and could-have-beens.
I’ve also seen some reasonably interesting arguments that a lot of Dirk’s narration, in the Meat route, either sounds eerily like Vriska talking or flips back and forth between Vriska-mode and Dirk-mode, well before alt!Calliope ever gets involved. I’m prepared to believe some Serket element (whether that is potentially Vriska, or the Aranea who was abruptly displaced from her attempt at wresting control of the narrative by John) was involved there, and Dirk was not acting entirely of his own accord. I’m also prepared to shrug and say “okay, maybe it was just a narrative parallel--Homestuck does that a lot”. Some narration, especially when Terezi is involved, doesn't sound at all how I would expect a Serket-influenced narrator to sound with regards to her, in particular. It doesn’t particularly grind my gears to think some version of Dirk, in the right environment, might make a series of choices that leads him to behaving like this, entirely on his own. I recognize that it’s upsetting to DirkJake fans in particular to see their favorite pairing written like this, but it doesn’t feel wholly out of character to me for either of them to develop in these directions, given the right (or wrong) pressures and external situations. This Dirk is the culmination of a very wide multiplicity of Dirks, including at least one if not more who ended up directly subsumed in Lord English and/or under his explicit influence.
I’ve heard that some people were attacking the Meat route on the grounds of transphobia, which... I think is a rather weak argument, given that it’s recognized in the text itself, as pronoun changes are handled respectfully by one narrator-character and inconsistently by a second, who is being set up as the villain of the story. That seems like a pretty solid metatextual rejection of the action, no? Like, if a villain does a bad thing, in a story, while the hero is fighting them, do you argue that the story itself advocates for that thing? There has to be some kind of distinction between ‘character does X’ and ‘author of story advocates X is Morally Correct’, or we would never have any villains at all. Dirk's dismissiveness toward Roxy's agency grows, the further toward 'villain' he slides.
Were there some things I liked, in Meat? I guess. From a sociopolitical and cultural standpoint, the shitty repercussions of the way the retcon gang set up a planet, dumped a bunch of chess people and clone grubs, then left them to do all the work of creating its society and waiting for their eventual 'godly' return... were pretty logical. I'm actually happy that it was acknowledged, instead of just brushed off as inconsequential. It was interesting, too, to see some of the kids playing with notions of gender identity as they grew, and how their companions adjusted. It was telling (in terms of Dirk's character development) how he thought of Roxy and Calliope's gender explorations as something he could choose to 'allow' or not. Also, with how truncated most of the gang's personal development (and plot development) was in Homestuck proper ('thanks', retcon!Vriska), I think it kinda made sense how stunted and incapable of like... dealing with regular life in a functional way a lot of them seemed. Jumping straight to teenage 'godhood' didn't make them experienced or smart. It's sad that all of them just kind of... stagnate there, but Earth C has always felt incredibly stagnant to me.
Retcon!Vriska getting swallowed by the black hole was at least thematically fitting, though I'm wondering why she is using such Seer-themed language, suddenly. I also like that the wallet is finally back in play. Rose and Dirk's philosophical debate about individuation and free will is delightfully creepy, given the themes of the story. There are moments, within the story, that the turns of phrase and the humor just hit me full in the teeth and remind me this is Homestuck, and I do love those moments. And of course, my xenobiological worldbuilding interests enjoyed that apparently, earth onions are quite toxic to trolls.
Were there things I didn’t like in Meat? Yeah, of course. I don't particularly like that John, an Heir of Breath--one who is innately positioned to awaken Breath, freedom and motivation in the people around him--callously shoves an unresisting teenager he's barely met into a refrigerator and just leaves him there, apparently convinced he deserves it.
Did some of the things I disliked relate to the storytelling itself, rather than just how characters were characterized, or what actions they took? Yeah. Why are we still out here queer-baiting with Dave and Karkat? Years have passed. They have spent literal years sitting 1.5 feet apart so it's 'not gay'? I sincerely don't think this pairing is actually healthy or beneficial to either of them, the way it developed in canon, but come on. Then, they still balk and drag their feet unless it's being narratively pushed on them by someone else. It's just painful to watch.
I also take a certain level of personal offense as a Tavros fan when the narrative goes out of its way to repeatedly harp on Tavros being useless and no one giving a shit what he's doing. Ghost Tavros was awesome, okay, and was personally responsible for gathering the ghost army, so fuck you, Vriska-coded narrator. You have bad judgment. But that is not a crime of writing, if it is an intentionally biased perspective and not just writers taking cheap shots at a character they don't happen to like. I'm just incredibly tired of it being done habitually and collectively, as a fandom, to that character in particular. Furthermore, I'm really discomfited by the way Tavros's development (am I the only one who remembers him dancing and telling Vriska to suck it?) is completely ignored and de-legitimized by having him immediately fawning on her, trailing around after her, hiding against her shoulder, etc. Tavros was a victim of emotional and physical abuse, at Vriska's hands. Can we just agree to stop narratively forcing victims back into contact with their abusers, period? It's not a good look.
Moreover, there's the whole misogyny angle. When does a story about misogynistic characters (and narrators) doing misogynistic things while misogynistic shit narratively happens start being a critique of misogynistic tropes rather than a tired old rehash? Every step Jane (allegedly a strong, independent woman, though also stepping into her dictatorial role as 'Heiress') takes is either dictated by Dirk, sent into a complete tailspin that upends her confidence by Jake, or verbally decried as factually wrong and/or stupid by Dave and/or Karkat. Rose and Kanaya both have their agency overwritten and end up separated from each other through the actions of Dirk, and Rose becomes an extension of Dirk, losing her very selfhood. Jade is treated as an accessory to the DaveKat trainwreck, simultaneously discounted as actually emotionally relevant and blamed for its ludicrous problems. She, of course, also ends up having her agency overwritten as she's plunged into a coma and possessed, prevented from actually having reactions to the things that are going on, or taking action for herself. Borrowed!Rose and Jade are KO'd almost instantly in the fight against Lord English, and become either literally erased, or dead weight for a male character to drag around until it's no longer convenient. Terezi admits to wasting a huge amount of time trailing around after Vriska--who was an emotionally abusive gaslighter to her, on the retcon!meteor. (And we're back to victims being constantly evaluated according to their proximity to their abusers again.) Then, she's on to redirecting herself into some quest on John's behalf, instead. She's still not living for herself. Finally, you show me an Aradia who would ever, ever be concerned about 'saying more embarrassing stuff' around Dave, or thinking of him as an ‘outrageously cool dude’, and I'll show you a bridge I'd like to sell you. That ain't any Aradia I've ever seen. So who’s narrating there, Dirk again? A third party?
Other weird things: apparently Jane's kidnapping in the snapchats just... never gets explained or referenced again? I went back to reread those, and they connected to Meat even more than I realized at first. I guess Jane grew up to be... exactly what she was raised/groomed to be, which is *uncomfortable* but not particularly shocking. I feel bad for people who were hoping for happier endings for the human kids, but I don't think I ever really expected Homestuck to serve up happy endings. I don't buy that things in the snapchat were just thrown in at random, though. Those elements were there for a reason, and arguing that everything in the snapchats were connected to the epilogues EXCEPT that one major extended plotline doesn't make sense. Especially when it visually and narratively seems to be a direct link to the events of the Meat storyline.
Also, where the fuck are the sprites? We never see or hear from Jasprosesprite, Gcatavrosprite, or the Nannasprite(s?) again. I’m not sure anyone cares, but. Uh. Yeah.
I have other thoughts regarding the classpect-coded language that crops up pretty frequently in the epilogues, but I think I will devote a separate post to that, if I get around to it, given that this *is* at heart a classpecting blog.
So anyway, Meat ends, it's depressing and futile and grim, I get it. I don't like every element, but it hangs together as a story with a narrative, overall.
Then we get to Candy.
Hoo boy.
I’ll tackle that one next, but as it was considerably more upsetting for me to read, rereading it for fact-checks and commentary is going to be a lot harder for me. I’ll get through it here sooner or later, though.
I’ve been trying to decide whether to post my thoughts on the epilogues here, or on my ‘main’ blog (which I almost never use anymore). This has the advantage of being homestuck-specific... but on the other hand, it’s narrowly focused on classpecting, primarily.
If I do, I’ll tag such posts appropriately, of course.
I am, however, attempting to potentially arrange an international move within the next 3 months, involving two cats and 10 years’ worth of collected detritus of varying import. It’s expensive, I am extremely lacking in liquid funds to pay for any of it, and I’m stressed to the point of losing sleep.
If I could figure out how to fairly price it and thought anyone would be interested, I would absolutely try opening commissions to classpect people.
On a side note, though... Miles Morales. If you’ve seen Spiderverse... how would you classpect him? If you haven’t seen it, please correct this error and support a fantastic movie that absolutely shines and proves what it’s possible for ‘comic book movies’ to be, as a statement, as an art form, and as an homage to the source.
My gut instinct is leaning Page or Heir right now, based on the events of the movie, but I haven’t spent long enough contemplating the matter to really refine that to a firm statement.
@classpecter this is an interesting idea, if you’ve seen it? I’m comparing/contrasting with triangle theory and stroking my chin, because I really like distilling things down to simple keywords and clear, repeated patterns, using the canon wheel we’ve been given...
blood/mind/light line up perfectly and ‘drive’ or ‘ambition’ seems like a really good theme for them. You happen to things, you impose your will on the universe around you.
doom/breath/void contrasts with breath/heart/void, but I could see the latter being connected under ‘acceptance’. Things happen to you... and you accept and even embrace those things.
the remaining two groups, though, get a lot further off the wheel and fully break with the pattern. heart/rage/time is quite different than rage/space/life... not sure if ‘determination’ fits the latter, exactly. ‘rebellion’? ‘resistance’? I’m really struggling to find a single keyword that seems to embrace all three, but doesn’t just fit with one Aspect while ignoring the other two.
hope/space/life is also completely different than hope/time/doom, and ‘support’ doesn’t fit them at all. same problem as above...
If you do classpect analysis-es, what would be the primary differences between an Heir and Maid of Hope(and on that note, can Creators of Hope be pessimistic or otherwise sullen by nature)
Well, Maids are mildly Active, while Heirs are strongly Passive. Maids are much more self-aware than Heirs, in general.Maids usually start out with some sort of disadvantaged situation especially in regards to their Aspect, while Heirs start out with an excess of resources or influence they may not recognize. In Hope terms... a young Maid of Hope might feel as though they are not allowed to believe in anything, they may feel denied creativity and imagination. They’re likely to be in a position where someone is always telling them ‘no, you’re wrong, that’s not real, stop pretending’. Maids tend to grow up into incredibly self-reliant and strong-willed, pragmatic people, and natural skeptics, though the Hope aspect may lessen the skeptical bent somewhat in this particular case.An Heir of Hope is likely to start out more comfortably, in contrast with the Maid--whether this is in the form of literal wealth/property from their family, a wide circle of friends, or a wealth of beliefs and a sense of wide-eyed optimism strongly supported by the people around them and the circumstances of their early life. They are likely to simply not recognize how much Hope they have, just by existing, and may think of themselves as disadvantaged in some way, but they are unlikely to have a lot of motivation to actually change their situation or break out of their rut, without significant shake-ups in their life. Heirs tend to have a lot of inertia and a lot of unconscious privilege. I think that if a Maid or Heir of Hope is exhibiting strongly pessimistic, sullen traits, long-term, they may be experiencing inversion to some extent due to external pressures. A Maid of Hope could be ghosting the evasive, mildly Passive Bard of Rage, while an Heir of Hope could be ghosting the strongly Active Prince of Rage.
heya im a bard of void too! but i kinda want to make sure because i am like that so can you tell me what the personality traits are of a bard of void? thank you.
Have you read the Bard Quest post? That gives an overview of what sort of path a Bard of Void would be very likely to experience.The key things to remember are: a Bard of Void may superficially resemble a Light player pretty strongly (specifically a Maid of Light), depending on age, self-awareness, and the point they are at in their natural development, but what is motivating them isn’t the fundamental desire to generate or possess knowledge for themselves, but the need to destroy misunderstandings and clear up errors for the people around them. They are a mildly-Passive destroyer class, and Void-aligned--they need to destroy Void, mostly for the benefit of others.Bards as a class also tend to be fairly evasive. We're capable of avoiding the hell out of things we don’t want to face or acknowledge, especially in early stages of development, until we learn to come to grips with those things that make us uncomfortable.
There’s been a great deal of argument and discussion over how to organize the classes, ever since the concept was introduced in Homestuck. I’ve been wanting to type up my own thoughts on Homestuck classes as a ‘unified theory’ for awhile now, if only to present a straightforward alternative to some other fanon, arguments, theories, and suggestions I’ve seen floating around. Some theories explain connections between classes well, but fail to provide a justifiable ordering along the scale from Active to Passive. Other theories can reason through an order, but don’t link the classes in pairs in a way that is truly supported by canon. This is my proposed solution.
Leaving the two ‘master’ classes of Lord and Muse aside, I believe they can be organized neatly along a scale as seen in the image above, with most Active at -6, most Passive at +6, and the scale moving around the circle in a counter-clockwise direction between them.
In textual form, placing Active at the top to Passive at the bottom, they would be organized as follows:
There are several reasons I consider this layout fairly solid as a concept. First, we know from Hussie’s statement on Twitter:
The most active class out of the 12 standard classes is female, the two most passive ones are both male.
This fits with Thief (which behaves in highly self-interested and constantly in-motion ways) occupying the position of most active role, while Heir and Page, both implied if not stated to be “male” classes, at the time, occupy the two most passive positions (and spend much of their time behaving in very passive and directionless ways, pushed here and there by external forces).
We also know that Witch is “said to be a highly active class”, and the third most active position out of 12 possible is pretty damn active. (1)
We also know from a dialogue between Calliope and Roxy:
UU: classes always come in +/- pairs, with significant disparity between them.
This would seem to argue that the distance between each half of an Active/Passive pair among the standard classes maintains itself, rather than lessening as the pairs near the ‘center’ point of the scale. The distance between Thief and Rogue is 7 steps–the distance between Witch and Sylph is also 7 steps. Both remain a ‘significant disparity’.
Another reason I argue for this layout is simply that I appreciate structure and symmetry. If there is one thing Homestuck loves to do, it is to flip expected narratives and connect things in unconventional but ultimately comprehensible and symbolic ways. I do feel that classpect inversion is a function that can be seen happening in canon, regardless of what one calls it. I am of the belief that if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and calling it a duck allows me to make certain generalizations and predictions about its behavior that prove to be accurate… well, let’s just say I’m not going to call it an invisible pony, regardless of whose girlfriend did or didn’t say that ducks don’t exist in a dispute online.
We can see from the above chart that inversions happen directly along a horizontal axis at any point in the chart, inverting the exact degree of Activity or Passivity. That aside, I’ll have much more to say about inversion and why I think it is a legitimate function in another post, in the future.
This brings us to the last possible way of connecting the classes, into three main groupings sorted along linguistic and conceptual lines, as follows: Commoners, Courtiers, and Magicians. In the chart at the top, these groupings are indicated with color.
In the chart above, the top and bottom-most class pairs in orange (occupying -6/+1 and -1/+6 respectively) are Thief - Rogue and Knight - Page– the Commoners. These individuals are the ‘ordinary’ heroes, the everyman/woman who may rise to surprising narrative heights and serve to drive the story forward, regardless of their degree of self-motivation, knowledge, or alignment.
Moving one degree inward on each side (to -5/+2 and -2/+5), we find the Courtiers in purple, as the Prince - Bard and Maid - Heir pairs. These are all individuals who would be found in and around nobility–either as nobility themselves, or assisting/serving nobility, frequently in disguise as servants while in truth nobility themselves (in a metaphorical or literal sense).
The two innermost pairs in green, Witch - Sylph and Mage - Seer (at -4/+3 and -3/+4), are our Magicians. These are all connected explicitly and intimately to the idea of magic. They are magic-users, magic-wielders, even innately magical beings–arcane and mysterious.
I will talk more about each of these groupings and the class pairs that belong to them in my next few posts.
Edit: Actually there’s one thing I disagree with in this set of pairings and that’s the Passive/Active alignments of Page and Knight. I am of the opinion that Knights are Passive classes while Pages are Active classes. I would go into detail, but I think @revolutionaryduelist has covered this subject in great detail on their blog, and I urge you to check it out.
I’ve seen what they’ve outlined on their blog and in various essays regarding Pages and Knights, at great length, have discussed it with them directly in the past (before I ever started this blog), and continue to disagree with that opinion quite strongly. I personally think that the language cues, keywords, dialogue and narrative actions that take place in the story simply do not weigh up in support of Passive Knights or Active Pages, on any level, and to insist on that arrangement requires completely ignoring a considerable number of major cues to the contrary.
This week has been absolute hell, scheduling-wise. Sorry I’ve fallen behind on the Friendsim posts, but more are coming.
In the meantime, I had a thought...
While Thief/Rogue and Knight/Page are both skill-focused pairs, the “I can” classes, Prince/Bard and Maid/Heir are power-focused pairs, the “I have” classes, and Witch/Sylph and Mage/Seer are knowledge-focused pairs, the “I know” classes... what differentiates the two pairs that each share a keyword?
It may be the level of aggression or rapid action vs defensiveness(?), potentially. This is separate and distinct from Active vs Passive behavior--where the Thief is self-absorbed and lacks awareness of others, the Rogue is preoccupied with others, and where the Knight is preoccupied with self, the Page may be so absorbed in others they lack awareness of self. Yet both Thieves and Rogues seem more aggressive and quick to act, at a glance, than slow-to-act Knights or Pages. Rogues will throw down on behalf of others, where Knights struggle to stand up even for themselves at times.
Likewise, Princes and Bards both lean more aggressive than Maids and Heirs, as do Witches and Sylphs over Mages and Seers.
