I was having an interesting classpect speculation conversation with my moirail audialcurrent. We agree that Heir is the passive class to the active Page, but what does it mean?
Thief = Steals their aspect and uses it for themselves
Rogue = Steals aspect and gives it to companions
Prince = Destroys their aspect, or destroys with their aspect (or in Eridan's case, both)
Bard = Lets their aspect be destroyed, lets their aspect destroy
Lord = Has complete mastery over their aspect
Thief: In addition to the above, can be stolen by their aspect? (Hence Meenah's worries about stealing John's ring. I guess she was afraid that being brought back to life would steal her away from her friends. Like Aranea. Yeah, that didn't end up working out very well. welp)
Rogue: In addition to the above, lets others steal their aspect? (Nepeta's heart was stolen by Karkat, albeit unwittingly. If Breath represents freedom, Damara discovered the freedom of destruction by taking away Rufioh's freedom. In this case that meant paralyzing him.)
Muse: Probably something about inspiring. Perhaps "Brilliantly inspires their aspect in others"? In addition to just generally being inspiring, that is. Calliope, after all, inspired Aranea's original plan, and will probably be the inspiration for the B2 kids to defeat Lord English, once they find out Calliope's brother and Lord English are one and the same.
Witch = According to one of the blogs I follow, titleaspectexplanations, Witch and Mage revolve around manipulation. This would make Witch "someone who manipulates their aspect, or uses their aspect to manipulate others". According to a chart audialcurrent found somewhere on the internet, it might revolve around commanding? In that case it would be "someone who commands their aspect, or uses their aspect to command others/uses their aspect to take command". Both "command" and "manipulate" apply to Jade. As the Heiress to the Alternian throne, Feferi could be said to "command", and as the caretaker of Glb'golyb, she certainlly could have commanded an end to the lives of every other troll bar the Condesce herself (though it would have been vastly out of character). Whereas Damara seems more like someone who "manipulated" time, and later her former teammates.
Mage: Again, the issue of commanding versus manipulating. The definitions would therefore either be "Someone who is manipulated by their aspect" or "Someone who is commanded by their aspect". Sollux certainly fits the latter explanation. Meulin would fit "manipulated" later, as she allows herself to be manipulated by her former matesprit , Kurloz (matespritship being symbolized both in human and troll culture by a heart, and Meulin's aspect being Heart) as well as being manipulated in general by chucklevoodoos. However, it could very well be said that by possessing her with chucklevoodos, Kurloz is commanding her and possessing her soul (Heart can mean "soul" or "self"). It's also possible Mage has to do with understanding, as an active version of Seer. See the paragraphs after "Seer" for more thoughts on this.
I'm going to go with "Commanding" on this one.
Knight - Protects their aspect. Uses their aspect actively for protection, which may manifest as "weaponizing" their aspect. Active, but unlike most classes, tends to use their powers to help others (protects others). It's also possible that in sessions with knights, they are required to help either the space player with frog breeding, or, in the case of a Knight of Space, do the frog breeding themself. Dave has certainly showed his willingness to protect others (at least, others he cares about - so as long as Lord English doesn't directly threaten his friends, he won't be motivated to fight him. I'll make a separate post detailing my fears about this topic), and a doomed Dave traveled back in time before becoming Davesprite in order to protect John and Jade, as well as protecting his aspect by ensuring the continual flow of the alpha timeline (which is why Davesprite, in Act 6 Intermission 1, takes credit for John's existence, and why doomed!John in the Scratch Intermission also credits Davesprite's doomed timeline with facilitating the ectobiology session). Karkat has also shown his willingness to protect his friends, despite some...lapses (standing by slackjawed during Eridan's rampage, accidentally abandoning Sollux to Gamzee while panicking). If the aspect of Blood refers to bonds between friends, then he certainly has gone above and beyond with protecting his aspect (would YOU have become moirails with sober Gamzee rather than see your and your friends die? As of the latest pre-Gigapause updates though, looks like his patience with Gamzee has worn thin enough to break, although that's also related to his desire to protect his friends). I guess protecting Blood could also refer to Hivebent and him trying to hide his blood color from everyone. That leaves Latula to protect other people's minds, which she must feel really damn guilty about, considering that she wasn't around when Mituna needed his mind protected (either from himself or from Kurloz's chucklevoodos, it's left ambigous) the most.
Maid is a passive Knight, which means it's definition is "someone protected by their aspect". If a Knight uses their aspect as a weapon to defend others, a Maid uses their aspect as a shield to defend themself.
Jane perfectly fits the definition of Maid of Life - she was, if not precisely protected by her aspect, revived by it (and thus protected from perma-dream death). Then we have the Maids of Time and Space. Aradia's time powers protected her from Bec Noir. Porrim's space powers have not been seen. In addition to "someone protected by their aspect", Maid is also a pun on made, and thus has an additional definition of "Someone composed of their aspect". Aradia, out in the dream bubbles, has "all the time in the universe" (I believe that's the phrase she used) - as per that phrase "made of time", aka what Dave says he isn't. Her army of Aradiabots were also created out of 1000 doomed timelines, and could be said to be made out of time as much as they are made out of metal and spirit, at least once they were in the alpha timeline. Jane, besides being a very lively person, is made of enough life to be able to revive when killed. Porrim is the Maid of Space, who indeed made space for everyone in her quadrants.
Seer: "One who comprehensively understands their aspect". Pretty evident. Do I even need to address how god-tier Rose fits the bill (when not drunk, that is)? Comprehensive knowledge, and a pretty good understanding of how to achieve the best outcome in situations, aka the luckiest ("most fortuitous") path. Well, OK, maybe it's actually what SBURB and the alpha timeline consider the most fortuitous path, which might not exactly be what Rose herself would consider the most fortuitous path, but close enough. See also: Terezi's innate understanding of minds (and how to manipulate them without psychic powers - she'd have made a terrifyingly good Witch of Mind, you know), Kankri's obsession over and "scholarly" (haha not really) understanding of social issues (which is pretty much what the Blood aspect is, social issues).
A passive Seer fits with what we've seen and heard about it in the comic, though this chart here lists it as active. I thought the comic had made it pretty clear that Seer is a passive class, so I'll stick with that.
That means Sylph, Heir, or Page, or possibly Mage, is the active counterpart. Heir and Page are probably paired up together. I always thought of Sylph as a healing class. Sylph has also been described as "A Witch But More Magical" by Kanaya, leading some to label Sylph as a passive Witch, and then Mage as an active Seer, which makes some amount of sense. The definition of Mage then becomes "One who understands their aspect through experience". Sollux would then be "One who has experienced Doom". Meulin is "One who experienced feelings of the Heart" (Her love for and break-up with Kurloz, pre-game) as well as "One who has experienced 'being'" (She's...self absorbed, what with her shipping fanfics and all? I dunno).
The word "Heir" implies that you're passively inheriting something from someone else, whereas a Page has to actively work to reach their title's potential. But John is a very active character, as befitting the main character. At the same time, he's also passive in many respects, letting the Breeze or Vriska or successive events or the plot hole take him from place to place, and not having control over his own situation. And Equius, while also seemingly a very active character, ended up having a weakness for being passive - to Aradia/Aradiabot, to Gamzee, to Lil' Hal/Autoresponder. Finally, the third Heir introduced is Mituna, who preached of the A1 party's impending doom, but as far as can be ascertained let his fellow party members take the actions to avoid that doom. After his accident he only became more passive, to the point where Latula may as well be not just his matesprit, but his caretaker. He can't even dress/undress himself without help (source: Openbound part 2, when Meenah asks him to take off his shirt so she can see if he's god-tier).
Page, while seemingly passive, has the potential to be either as active or more active than a Prince. However, one needs to work in order to achieve that potential. Tavros, who always sought an easy way out and never tried to get stronger on his own, was barely able to manifest his Breath powers (when he tried to revive Vriska after Aradiabot fatally wounded her). Jake, who outwardly believed in everyone, never really believed in anyone, let alone himself, thus he couldn't use his Hope powers and Aranea had to basically mindfuck him to temporarily unlock his potential. Horuss actually attempted to achieve his potential as a Page, but was stymied by his aspect being Void, as well as his rather unrealistic notions of what it meant to build himself up as a person (including the notion that building himself up as a person involved claiming his spirit was not in fact that of a person, but rather that of a musclebeast? idk that guy was weird).
Assuming Heir and Page go together, that leaves either Sylph and Witch, or Sylph and Seer. (Or Sylph and Mage, and Seer and Witch? Hmmm.) Either way, Sylph is the only thing that we haven't covered. Either way, they would perform much as my descriptions of Mage listed a few paragraphs up and a few paragraphs before that, respectively.
If an active Seer: Sylph's definition would be "One who understands their aspect by experiencing it, or from experience". Kanaya experienced a space in her torso. Aranea's knowledge is greatly helped by the things she experienced during the literally immeasurable time she was a ghost.
If a passive Witch: Sylph's definition would be "One who is commanded by their aspect" or "One who is manipulated by their aspect". This...doesn't seem to really fit either Kanaya or Aranea? Unless Witch is "one who is healed by their aspect"? In which case Feferi probably would have revived after Eridan killed her, like Jane later did, and the passage of time would have calmed down Damara, and neither of those things happened, and I don't even know how that would apply to Jade?
If Seer and Witch are counterparts (I only vaguely remember bladekindeyewear's arguments involving classpect inversions arguing that this was the case, but I could be wrong), then a Witch is someone who experiences their aspect, I guess? Would Jade becoming a First Guardian count as experiencing Space, since generally speaking First Guardians have Space powers? And Mage and Sylph...uh...Mage is someone who is healed by their aspect and Sylph is someone who uses their aspect to heal? Explains Aranea and Terezi's eyes, and foreshadows Kanaya somehow undoing the damage that LE is doing to the Furthest Ring, but Meulin and Kurloz breaking up and Kurloz possessing Meulin doesn't seem to indicate Meulin being healed by Heart at all, and if Sollux's Doom aspect helped heal him of anything I will be a muslcebeast's uncle.
In the end, I'm really not sure where a Sylph's healing powers or "More Magical"ness come into play here!
As for my original question about Heirs and Pages...uh...Page would be "someone who works to achieve their aspect" and Heir would be "Someone who has a natural talent for utilizing their aspect"? Or, "Someone who works for their aspect" and "Someone whose aspect works for them".
So, as far as I understand, with - meaning active and + meaning passive for reasons I don't understand (shouldn't it be the other way around?) but presumably made sense to Calliope when she was explaining it...(also I'm still not too sure about Mage and Sylph)
Knight (-) Maid (+) "Protect"
Witch (-) Mage (+) "Command"
Sylph (-) Seer (+) "Understand"
Thief (-) Rogue (+) "Steal"
Prince (-) Bard (+) "Destroy"
Lord (-) Muse (+) "Master" and "Inspire" respectively
My best guess as to the ACTIVE to PASSIVE scale, with a bit of uncertainty as to whether Heir or Mage would be more passive:
And finally, my take on gender based classes:
I hope my thoughts proved even a little bit enlightening.
