Could you explain your definitions upon active and passive classes for me. I find that personally the Heir is thrust upon their aspect, and they learn through a Reactionary style (John said so himself in a talk with Roxy) and apply their powers from the whims of others and in a defensive situation. (John was told how to do his retcon by Terezi, and learned to do it when Tymorpheous almost killed him.) which lends to a passive style of class.
It’s true that John has a pretty passive personality. But that’s John. It’s partially due to the fact that his Aspect is Breath, giving him a go-with-the-flow attitude, and partially just his personality. If you look at our other Heirs, Mituna and Equis, they have a lot more self-determination.
Here’s the difference between Active and Passive as I see them. An Active class gains abilities which are direct; either self-buffs, or abilities which directly deal with obstacles - like John’s Windy Thing, allowing him to directly attack problems, or his ability to turn into wind to defend himself. Their challenge is usually to learn to do something - in John’s case, to learn to be a leader and to trust his friends, both Blood attributes he had trouble with.
A passive class gains abilities which are indirect; buffs and debuffs, powers which do not directly solve problems but affect the difficulty of them. Support powers, in other words, as opposed to the Active class’ front line abilities. Their challenge is usually to accept or inspire something - like how Rose needed to stop doing everything herself and accept that she didn’t know everything.
With all of that said, this is not perfectly accurate. No theory is, that’s why we call them theories. Passive and Active classes, in particular, are pretty mysterious, and we have very minimal information on what they mean (thanks, Callie. Would it have killed you to elaborate?). It’s entirely possible I’m completely off. But! This blog is my two cents, and that’s my opinion. People have been placing Heir as the passive counterpart to Witch for a while, which bugs me for so many reasons, only a few of which I mentioned here. If you disagree, that’s fine. But I hope you’ll still read my blog, if only to see a different viewpoint!
