Thieves & Rogues: Inundation and Redistribution
A day late, I'm aware; turning 18 will do that to a girl. I'm now older, and definitely not wiser.
The Thieves & Rogues are another contentious group; particularly the Thieves for various discourse-generating reasons - but the Rogues have their pitfalls and fall victim to mischaracterisation a lot more than you'd assume.
The Thief:Rogue dichotomy embodies inundation, redistribution and possession. It's the authority over who gets to hold their Aspect for themselves; whether it's them or somebody else, that's what being a Redistribution Class is about.
There's often some insecurity about their capacity to hold it in play as well - and they tend to use a lot of their opposite Aspect's forces; after all, what do you get when you take something but the absence of it, and therefore its opposite?
Canonical Thief players are Vriska Serket (Thief of Light) and Meenah Peixes (Thief of Life).
Canonical Rogue players are Roxy Lalonde (Rogue of Void), Nepeta Leijon (Rogue of Heart), and my arch-nemesis Rufioh Nitram (Rogue of Breath).
Point A - the narrative function of the Thief.
The Thief is the one with active distribution of their Aspect; and therefore the one liable to actively steal it. This, on paper, sounds pretty nasty - there's a reason why Thieves are lumped in with the nebulously 'bad' classes; but it's a neutral role with possible applications in either sense.
They often hold a deep-seated obsession with their Aspect; they think it's something that's out to get them and conflate an excess of it with an absence. Their perceived lack of it motivates them to hoard it, as much as possible.
Vriska Serket, the Thief of Light, is contentious for a damn good reason. Imbued with ungodly plot armour and fortune's favour, she seizes control of the narrative by force, all the while bemoaning her unlucky streak & employing the most unsubtle methods of manipulation she can think to use.
Meenah Peixes, the Thief of Life... does not understand the consequences of her actions; period. She thinks Life is out to get her, exacts every bit of free will she has out of spite and cultivates discourse and stagnation to try and encourage character development. (Oh, yeah, she also... kills people. Like, a lot.)
Their opposite Aspects are, therefore, pretty prevalent! By taking away their Aspect; they leave the inverse behind.
Vriska stealing Light leaves Void. Meenah stealing Life leaves Doom.
Often, it's almost as if they're using their inverse to cultivate their actual Aspect; Vriska uses offscreen events to justify onscreen developments - it's how she 'takes luck'. Meenah uses suffering and control in order to encourage growth - it's how she 'takes life'.
They care very little for their Aspect at the centre of it all, despite their perceived obsession; they don't seem to understand the value of it at all. That's the interesting part, I feel.
Point B, the practical function of the Thief.
Now, taking the Aspect is a very powerful ability in the right hands. We don't just see Vriska metaphorically rob fortune, she literally steals luck from her enemies mid-fight and utilises chance and possibility in order to get the upper hand.
Meenah takes 'taking life' about as seriously as you can get - not only does she really like killing people, but as the Condesce everything she did resulted in stagnation and decay in her wake as she robbed the worlds she ruled of the ability to develop; using control and hegemony to cultivate development and failing miserably.
The opposing Aspect, again, plays a prominent role! Vriska forgoes certainty and manipulates the absence of a definitive outcome to play around with luck. Meenah forgoes development and enacts control on the people beneath her to play around with change.
Point C, the narrative function of the Rogue.
I'm gonna use the Thief's concluding point as the jumpoff point for the Rogues; whereas the Thief devalues their Aspect, the Rogue puts too much stock in its importance. Their Aspect is too important to them; and so their relationship with it differs.
Passive classes tend to act without realising it, and the Rogues are no different - I'd argue their presence often leads to their Aspect being taken in a way they don't realise they're doing.
Roxy Lalonde, Rogue of Void, is desperate for attention, and yet obfuscates knowledge, is isolated from all society and would rather get drunk at the start of her arc than face the truth of her situation. I'd argue that she downplays her own importance as a person in the face of her friends' catastrophic communication failures. By being around, she takes the Void from her session and opens up ways to communicate whilst learning to give irrelevance to things.
Nepeta Leijon, Rogue of Heart, puts people into boxes. She makes them into little cariacatures on her walls, plays matchmaker in her stories; and yet she's also one of the most emotionally mature and genuine trolls in the story - she wears her Heart on her sleeve, and doesn't deny it. By being around, she takes the Heart from her friends by way of drawing out truer selves, as we see in her relationship with the insecure & disingenuous Equius.
Rufioh Nitram, Rogue of Breath, takes people's sense of purpose and direction and makes their agency depend on his presence in their life. He does Damara and Horuss dirty time and time again, and yet they can't cut him off because he's made himself too important. And yet there he is, spineless, giving away his own free will because he holds no security in his selfhood. He's trapping people in relationships without realising. I also want to drop an anvil on his head.
The common thread, despite the differing situations, is the indirect usage of the opposing Aspect to passively take away the true Aspect and the character development involving a realisation of their Aspect's value and the importance of keeping it for oneself. Roxy is the only Rogue whose development we see in full, unfortunately; but there's snippets with Nepeta and Rufioh Nitram changing isn't happening any time soon.
Point D, then. The practical function of the Rogue.
Once again, Roxy is our only point of reference by virtue of being the only God-Tiered Rogue; but luckily, she also gives us some really good demonstrations. Roxy literally takes the nonexistence away from something, bringing it into existence.
Inversely, she's capable of giving Void to herself, cloaking herself and by extension her whole session in a veil of invisibility. She's controlling the distribution of Void, letting it both be taken and given; after making her peace with the distribution of it.
So, the common thread is the central question of 'who gets to have my Aspect?'
A Thief would tell you 'me', and a Rogue would tell you 'anyone else'. That's what I feel separates them, and yet don't let that convince you that Thieves are bad and Rogues are good; look at Rufioh. A Thief may take for altruistic reasons, and a Rogue may give away for... not so altruistic reasons!
Get creative with it, that's what I say. How about a Thief of Doom who takes on everyone else's suffering because they're self-sacrificial to a fault? ...Okay, actually, that's my idea, don't take that one.
Anyhow, next week I'll be concluding the 'normal' classes with the Maids and Sylphs! Should be fun, I'll see you then - hopefully on time, too.
