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🚀 Opaque Blue Mouthwashing Charms 🚀
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Hanging Balloons: Suicide With Your Face
In Hanging Blimp, Junji Ito uses surrealist horror to explore suicide not as a desire for death, but as the psychological consequence of unbearable suffering, isolation, and inescapable suicidal ideation. Floating giant balloon heads are depicted flying through the sky to hang the people whose faces they bear. While on a surface level these balloon heads function as monstrous agents of death, they are metaphors for suicidal thoughts that feel external, deeply personal, and ultimately inevitable.
The story originates with Terumi Fujino’s highly publicized suicide, which immediately leads to copycat deaths. This reflects the real-world phenomenon of suicidal contagion, where exposure to suicide—especially through media—can increase suicidal ideation in others. Ito visualizes this spread through the appearance of floating heads, turning an internal psychological crisis into a visible and nationwide threat. Each balloon has the face of its victim, as suicide is not random violence but something deeply personal, shaped by one’s identity and mental state.
This idea is first made explicit through Shiroishi, Terumi’s boyfriend. He claims to see Terumi’s giant ghostly head every night in his garden, watching him. When Kazuko later witnesses Terumi’s floating head herself, it lures Shiroishi into hanging himself beneath a tree so that he can join her death. After his death, Shiroishi gains his own giant balloon head and the two heads kiss in the sky. This scene demonstrates how suicidal ideation can take the form of longing and love rather than solely despair. Shiroishi does not appear driven by a desire to die, but by the promise of reunion and relief from grief.
Kazuko’s school friends further reinforce the metaphor. They are each hunted down and hung by balloon heads that match their faces. When a man attempts to shoot one of the balloons to save a girl, the bullet instead kills the girl herself. This moment reveals that the balloons are not independent monsters but extensions of the victims themselves. Any attempts to destroy the external threat only results in self-destruction, as suicidal ideation often worsens went dealt with force or denial.
Kazuko’s experience reveals the metaphor most clearly. As society collapses and people hide indoors, isolation becomes the dominant condition of survival. Kazuko is not immediately suicidal but she is slowly stripped of every support system. Her friends are dead, her community has vanished, and eventually her family leaves in search of food and never returns. Her suffering mirrors depression, which does not begin with a desire to die but with the exhaustion of continuing to live in constant suffering. The longer she remains alone, starving and clinging to life, the louder her balloon’s presence becomes. This is symbolic of suicidal ideation intensifying as her pain goes unresolved.
The balloons do not simply kill people at random; they pursue, wait, and lure. This aligns with the idea that suicidal thoughts are not sudden impulses but persistent intrusions that cannot be escaped. Kazuko’s balloon calling to her with her own voice as she hides in her away from the world reinforces the idea that suicidal ideation is self-generated, even when it is driven by external suffering. The person becomes both victim and target, trapped within their own mind.
The final scene with Yousuke’s balloon is where the metaphor finally tightens its noose. Unlike the other balloons, he speaks of bringing her food and reunion. Kazuko does not respond in fear but in happiness and relief. The psychological reality that suicidal ideation’s final moments are not experienced as terror, but as comfort. An end to pain, a return to connection with lost loved ones, and a final peace. Suicidal people don’t want to die, they want their suffering to end. Ito underscores this by making love and hope—not despair—the mechanism that finally draws Kazuko out.
By ending the story at the moment of emotional surrender rather than the act of death itself, Ito emphasizes that the true horror lies in the process, not the outcome. Hanging Blimp ultimately portrays suicide as something that emerges when the mind can no longer imagine relief within life. The giant balloons are manifestations of suicidal ideation—inescapable, intimate, and most dangerous when they offer relief from suffering.
I have created keychain artwork featuring Kazuko’s balloon form on my Etsy. This piece is meant to visually represent themes of psychological isolation and is not intended to glorify or trivialize self-harm or suicide.
Troll Ancestors: Inheritance of Blood
In Homestuck, troll ancestors are figures who lived long before their descendants were born. The Condesce, Feferi’s ancestor, remains alive and in power during her descendant’s lifetime, yet she is still a distant and inaccessible figure who never directly engages with Feferi. Feferi experiences the Condesce not as a person, but as a political force as the ruler of the Alternian empire. All other ancestors exist only through records, legends, and their influence is inherited expectations rather than direct interaction. For most trolls, ancestry is not a relationship, but a legacy imposed after death.
Trolls are born with genetic material drawn from multiple ancestors, with one ancestor often exerting a dominant influence. Eridan notes that trolls have one ancestor contributing more genes than others. Aranea—Mindfang as a teenager—later clarifies this concept when she claims herself as Vriska’s ancestor, as well as Terezi’s ancestor “in a way,” emphasizing that ancestry not only about direct lineage but also symbolic inheritance. Ancestors act as prior incarnations of a troll, shaping not only genetics but the narrative expectations imposed upon their descendants. To inherit an ancestor is to inherit a story already in motion.
Alternian culture teaches that descendants are meant to follow their ancestors’ paths and complete their unfinished business. This belief is most strongly upheld by highbloods, who treat ancestral legacy as destiny rather than influence. Lowbloods are repeatedly shown questioning or rejecting this ideology—most explicitly in Karkat’s denial of single-ancestor descendancy as meaningful at all. For trolls unresolved conflicts—particularly revenge—are not meant to end with death, but to be inherited. Ancestral legacies are treated as if they are continuing lives already lived: death does not resolve conflict, it merely postpones its resolution until the next generation.
Mindfang, Vriska’s ancestor, is a cautionary figure whose actions make her a model no one should imitate. In her journals, she presents herself as tragic, passionate, and wronged, yet her narrative consistently reveals a profound lack of empathy. Her treatment of the enslaved woman she abducts—never named, never thought of beyond how Mindfang can control her—demonstrates how thoroughly she dehumanizes others. This slave exists only as an object of desire, control, and validation. Not as a person.
Her unreliability is further evident in her claim that Dualscar assassinated the enslaved woman that she openly abused in front of him. She provides no evidence, description, or reflection beyond her own emotional reaction. The encounter took place in a room too dark to prick her to see what “vulgar hue she 8leeds,” raising serious questions about how Dualscar could have identified and targeted this specific slave. Mindfang never explains why he would target only this one individual rather than the others she admits to abusing, suggesting her accusation is less fact than a narrative that conveniently absolves Mindfang of any responsibility over this poor, abused woman’s death.
This pattern continues with Mindfang’s murder of Redglare, a troll who sought to bring her to justice and refused her black-romance advances. Mindfang quickly becomes attracted to Redglare after Dualscar ends their kismesissitude, yet she orchestrates Redglare’s death by mind-controlling lowbloods to hang her, all while claiming it was necessary for her escape—even though she clearly had the power to incapacitate Redglare instead. Though she claimed she would not “sink to [Dualscar’s] tactics” by allowing others to settle her scores, directly contradicting her own actions. In each instance, Mindfang recasts her choices as inevitabilities or betrayals inflicted upon her rather than deliberate acts of cruelty.
Mindfang’s unreliability extends beyond Redglare to her portrayal of Dualscar himself. She portrays herself as the perpetual wronged victim, yet she never acknowledges that Dualscar’s anger and retaliation—reporting her to the authorities, placing a bounty on her head, and actively pursuing her ships—could have been direct responses to her sexual abuse of slaves. An "a8asement" that Mindfang admits to knowing that he is disgusted with. It never occurs to her that Dualscar may have been justified in attempting to stop her. By presenting herself as a constant victim while ignoring the consequences of her own actions, Mindfang further demonstrates her sense of persecution is constructed entirely through her own biased perspective.
Even her account of Dualscar’s death is suspect. Mindfang implies he was humiliatingly killed by the Grand Highblood for failing to entertain him, framing his death as inevitable and deserved. Yet she admitted that she knew Dualscar harbored romantic feelings for the Condesce—a secret that, if revealed, would have lead to the Condesce executing him. The revenge dynamics surrounding Dualscar’s fate further complicate her narrative. Eridan, Dualscar’s descendant, kills Feferi rather than Gamzee, the Grand Highblood’s. The inversion of expected revenge suggests that Mindfang may have stooped to the very tactics she claims to disdain by reporting Dualscar to the Condesce and causing his death, heavily implying that her claims about his fate and motivations are guided more by resentment than by truth.
Despite portraying herself as a daring and wronged adventuress, Mindfang indeed knows that she is the villain among heroes. In her final journal entry, she reflects on the Summoner—prophesied to be her future matesprit and killer—as an extraordinarily heroic figure: a lowblood who rises through merit, has a pair of wings, inspires rebellion, and nearly overthrows the Condesce. For much of her life, she refused to speak of this prophecy out of contempt, unwilling to accept her side role in another's story. In her final reflections, she decides to confront the truth, recognizing that her failure was believing the future and others were hers to control. Even then, she still contemplates how she might influence the Summoner—whether by “taking his will, or winning his heart”. By accepting that the Summoner’s legacy will be her death, Mindfang implicitly admits that her story ends not as a triumph but as a conclusion to someone else’s liberation.
Taken together, these inconsistencies mark Mindfang as a profoundly unreliable narrator—one who reshapes events to center herself as the wronged party while minimizing or erasing the suffering of others. Vriska’s tragedy lies in her uncritical embrace of Mindfang’s legacy. Instead of seeing Mindfang as a cautionary figure, Vriska idolizes her, attempting to emulate her actions despite the warnings in Mindfang’s final journal entry. Feferi represents a deliberate rejection of ancestral inheritance despite the Condesce exercising the most influence over her. Where the Condesce perpetuates imperial violence and caste oppression, Feferi actively seeks reform a compassionate governance toward lower castes, demonstrating that trolls choose their paths. The divergence between Vriska and Feferi underscores that what is inherited by trolls is not destiny, but the choice of whether to perpetuate or resist it.
Inherited ancestral conflict is further explored through Karkat and Gamzee. Their ancestors, the Sufferer and the Grand Highblood, were locked in a violent ideological conflict that resulted in the Sufferer’s execution. While the Grand Highblood’s other implied targets—Darkleer and the Disciple—escaped their executions. Karkat and Gamzee are given the opportunity to diverge from this inherited history through their friendship. Gamzee ultimately refuses friendship, choosing religious devotion to Lord English over his friendship with Karkat and reenacting the violence of his ancestor by killing Equius, Darkleer’s descendant, and Nepeta, the Disciple's descendant.
Gamzee does still feel emotional attachment to Karkat despite choosing to turn against him. Before his fanatical conversion, he openly calls Karkat his best friend, comforts him after Sollux dies, and traces of that attachment persist even after his descent into violence. When Karkat offers him comfort rather than confrontation, Gamzee briefly responds by returning Karkat’s embrace, and the two form a moirallegiance despite everything that has occurred. During the meteor journey, Gamzee hides from Kanaya—who seeks to kill him and refuses forgiveness entirely—and isolates himself from the others. He shows himself only to Karkat, whom he allows to protect him, and to Terezi, with whom he develops a kismessitude. Gamzee’s selective vulnerability underscores that he is capable of choice; he simply chooses where to place his loyalty. These moments show that Gamzee is capable of loyalty and friendship, but he consciously chooses the path of violence and service to Lord English over his bond with Karkat and the other trolls.
That choice ultimately exposes the limits of forgiveness without accountability. In the Game Over timeline, Karkat’s continued protection of Gamzee enables him to inflict further harm. Which leads to the deaths of himself, Kanaya, Terezi, and even Gamzee. In the retcon, Karkat withdraws that protection, as mercy without accountability only perpetuates harm. The narrative reinforces this balance through the resolution between Eridan and Feferi’s sprite incarnations. Erisolsprite expresses genuine remorse to Fefetasprite, and the two are able to move forward. Unlike Gamzee, Erisolsprite acknowledges his wrongdoing. Unlike Karkat’s earlier approach, forgiveness here is paired with accountability.
It is the individual who chooses whether to follow in their ancestors’ footsteps or forge their own path. Aradia, descendant of the Handmaid, initially exhibits destructive tendencies as a ghost and a “lifeless” robot, carrying on the Handmaid’s violence and despair. Yet upon reaching god tier, she embraces a more constructive role by becoming a guardian of the dream bubbles. Sollux, descendant of the Psiioniic, likewise diverges from his ancestor’s path: the Psiioniic was a loyal follower of the Sufferer until their rebellion was crushed by the highbloods and he was made into the Condesce’s favored slave. Sollux chooses not to follow Karkat to Earth C, instead remaining with Aradia in the dream bubbles and shaping his life by his own decisions by moving on.
Neither Aradia nor Sollux engages in any conflicts with Feferi, despite the Condesce having enslaved the Psiioniic and killed the Handmaid. Sollux even develops a romantic matesprit bond with Feferi, symbolizing a rejection of ancestral grudges by choosing love over hate. Terezi, Redglare’s descendant, first chooses to kill Vriska in the Game Over timeline to prevent her from fighting Bec Noir and doing so avenges Redglare’s murder by Mindfang. But Terezi later regrets the murder and in the retconned timeline spares Vriska and the two become moirails, showing that descendants can break cycles of violence rather than repeat them.
These examples show that ancestral legacy is not deterministic. The Handmaid is a tragic and destructive figure shaped by abuse and despair, yet Aradia channels her inherited narrative toward care rather than destruction. The Dolorosa had followed the Sufferer and supported him in his unwinnable struggle against the highbloods that led to his execution. Kanaya, descendant of the Dolorosa, instead chooses to protect Karkat by preventing him from engaging in a similarly impossible fight.
The Disciple, the Sufferer's greatest love, never moved on from his death and retreated into isolation and devoted her life solely to preserving his teachings. Nepeta carries forward her ancestor’s love for the Sufferer by developing feelings for Karkat but does not remain trapped by it. Though she never confesses her feelings to Karkat, after becoming Davepetasprite^2 she moves forward and confidently pursues a romantic connection with Jade. In doing so, she transforms inherited longing into growth rather than fixation.
Vriska, in contrast to all the other trolls, chooses to repeat her ancestor’s mistakes rather than learn from them. She kills Tavros, the Summoner’s descendant, despite having the clear option to spare him. Doing so she avenges Mindfang’s death, yet even she admits that killing Tavros leaves her feeling horrible rather than fulfilled. When Vriska and Tavros later reunite in the dream bubbles the two let their past conflict go and they enter a deeply toxic and abusive relationship defined by Vriska’s control and cruelty. Instead of treating Tavros as an equal, she pulls him into a relationship where she reduces him to a subordinate—someone to validate her self-image, absorb her cruelty, and support her ambitions without question.
This failure directly undermines her ambitions. When Vriska attempts to raise an army of ghosts to fight Lord English, she fails to inspire ghosts to join her so she turns to mind control. Following Mindfang’s belief that others exist to be used rather than respected. The result is predictable: the other ghosts abandon her, her army collapses, and she is left alone. Tavros also leaves her, choosing self-respect and autonomy over her continued abuse.
By going on his own path Tavros succeeds where Vriska fails. After leaving her, he independently convinces ghosts to join the fight willingly, demonstrating that leadership grounded in respect and cooperation is more effective than domination. By treating Tavros as a subordinate rather than a partner, Vriska sabotages both her relationships and her cause. The narrative makes the lesson unmistakable: Vriska’s failure is not a lack of strength or vision, but her refusal to abandon Mindfang’s philosophy of control.
Ultimately, these divergences illustrate that ancestry offers opportunity, not obligation, and that trolls are capable of choosing morality, compassion, and personal growth over blind repetition of inherited patterns. While trolls may follow their ancestor's paths, they still choose their own. Revenge, though portrayed as a destiny for trolls to inherit, offers closure but it only causes emptiness and isolation Trolls can choose to reject inherited violence and move forward, but such liberation cannot be sustained unless all parties are willing to change. Those who refuse to abandon inherited violence remain trapped by it.
Besides analysis, I also create Homestuck character keychains and charms. The ancestors—the lowbloods, midbloods, highbloods, and the Condesce—and are available for purchase on my Etsy store.
Hatched This Way: The Eugenic Subtext of Homestuck
The trolls of Homestuck and Hiveswap are written as a commentary on human society, particularly on how hierarchy is justified and internalized. While the text frequently insists that trolls of differing blood colors are not inherently superior or inferior to one another, the subtext of Homestuck uncomfortably does. Blood color determines a troll’s lifespan, psychic abilities, and social status, shaping both opportunity and personal relationships. This biological hierarchy fosters bigotry and self-loathing among trolls, producing a society in which inequality is not merely enforced, but is genetically inevitable.
A troll’s abilities are determined almost entirely by blood color. The lowest blood colors—rust, bronze, and gold—tend to possess psychic powers, while higher blood castes majorly do not. Olive, jade, and teals are never shown to have any psychic powers, but they are implied to be physically stronger than lowbloods. Xefros, a rustblood, explicitly acknowledges that he would never be able to outfight a jadeblood.
Cobaltbloods occasionally have psychic powers, such as Vriska and Ardata who can read minds. However, most cobaltbloods do not appear to have such abilities, as characters like Elwurd, Mallek, and Remele never display psychic powers. Indigobloods are known to be among the most physically powerful yet none are shown with any psychic abilities. Vriska, as well as her ancestor Mindfang, can go so far as to mind-control lower-blood trolls.
The only highblood caste that consistently demonstrates psychic abilities is the purplebloods. Purplebloods are said to possess “chucklevoodoos,” a poorly defined set of psychic powers that appear to involve fear-based influence and dream-related mind control. Gamzee uses his psychic powers to poison dreams and destabilize others’ mental states. His ancestor Kurloz is able to mind-control Meulin in the dream bubbles without her remembering, though he does not seem capable of exerting psychic influence outside of them. Xefros additionally claims that purpleblood clowns can smell fear, further emphasizing their association with psychological domination.
Seadwellers—comprised exclusively of violetbloods and fuschiabloods—do not appear to possess psychic abilities at all. Except for the Condesce who was able to gain the powers of telekinesis, laser eyesight, animal communion, and mind-control. But she only gains these powers after becoming the servant of Lord English, no other fuschiabloods seems to have ever developed any of these powers. Aside from a universal psychic link to Gl’bgolyb, fuschiabloods appear to lack psychic powers. The Condesce is also able to extend the lifespan’s of other trolls, which does not seem to be a standard ability as no other fuschiabloods seem to have the same power.
Despite claims from characters like Feferi that seadwellers are not inherently superior to land-dwelling trolls, their vastly extended lifespans contradict this assertion. In Hiveswap Friendsim, Diemen Xicali explains that rustbloods like himself naturally live short lives, that lifespan increases progressively higher along the hemospectrum, and that seadwellers effectively live forever. He chalks it up to life being unfair, but when a peoples’ lifespan and abilities are determined almost entirely by blood color the issue goes beyond simple unfairness. It enforces a deterministic world in which one’s life is fixed at birth and cannot be altered through effort or circumstance. No lowblood could live as long as a highblood even if they maintained a healthy lifestyle and received better healthcare, they are as a group are simply fated to die earlier by their biology.
These differing powers and lifespans across blood colors, while very interesting and make trolls seem truly alien to us humans, subtextually imply genetic superiority and inferiority between blood castes. Among humans, differences in lifespan are largely attributable to socioeconomic factors such as access to nutrition, healthcare, and safer working conditions. Not because upper-class individuals are genetically superior to lower-class individuals. Yet the vastly different lifespans among trolls imply that higher-blood trolls are biologically superior to lower-blood trolls.
At the same time, the unequal distribution of psychic abilities can also be read as implying the opposite: that lower-blooded trolls are superior to higher-blooded ones. Highbloods lack psychic abilities such as telekinesis or communion with the dead as these powers are concentrated among lowbloods. The ability to commune with the dead lies exclusively within the rustblood caste; every rustblood is implied to possess it. The rustblood caste is most closely associated with death—not only do they live the shortest lives, but their powers directly involve the dead. Xefros mentions that particularly powerful psychics can summon ghost armies, and Aradia herself remains on Alternia as a ghost after Vriska kills her.
The only rustblood known to have lived an unnaturally long life is the Handmaid, whose longevity was the result of a curse imposed by Lord English. Formerly Lord English’s slave before the Condesce, the Handmaid was granted great power at the cost of endless servitude. She was forced to assist in stirring class warfare and the perpetuation of bigotry across eras. Rather than contradicting the biological limits of rustbloods, the Handmaid reinforces them: her prolonged life exists only through supernatural coercion and is framed as a violation of what is natural for her life. Her life finally ends when the Condesce kills her after the Reckoning, a death she appears to welcome as a release from her eternal suffering.
The biological hierarchy of Alternia has clear social consequences. Equius, an indigoblood, is openly prejudiced against lowbloods and refers to Aradia—a rustblood he harbors feelings for—as “genetic filth.” His prejudice manifests most starkly when he constructs Aradia a robotic body filled with indigo blood, recoloring her to become acceptable for him to love. While deeply unsettling, this act functions as a form of romantic logic within a eugenic world. Because Aradia’s rustblood biology ensures a drastically shorter lifespan, she could never remain by Equius’ side throughout his life unless her body were altered to match his caste.
This logic is not unique to Equius. Jerann, a violetblood, explicitly discusses the biological incompatibility of highblood–lowblood relationships, stating that himself pairing with a lowblood would be confined in youth, when all trolls age at the same rate. Once adulthood is reached and trolls are exiled from Alternia, lowbloods inevitably die of natural causes long before highbloods, making long-term relationships effectively impossible. Jerann implies that his ex-kismesis was a lowblood and their relationship ended, while his partnership with his fellow violetblood matesprit Flyboi has endured. He further states that he would avoid partnering with a lowblood entirely after exile from Alternia. These views frame emotional bonds not as matters of choice, but as calculations constrained by biological lifespan.
Casual bigotry is widespread among trolls across the hemospectrum. Xefros expresses simultaneous disgust toward indigobloods and a desire for their approval despite him being part of a rebellion set on making all castes equal. Jerann claims to treat trolls by their character rather than their blood color and that his writing is meant to appeal to all blood colors, yet he casually refers to lowbloods as “dirtbloods” and “gutter bloods.” These moments illustrate how deeply normalized caste prejudice is, even among trolls who consciously reject it.
This pervasive prejudice also causes self-loathing among lowblood trolls. Xefros, as a rustblood belonging to the most marginalized caste, frequently speaks down to himself and internalizes the stereotypes imposed upon his blood color, describing himself as “slow and soft and stupid.” Xefros does not merely experience dehumanization from other trolls, he knows that rustbloods have shorter lifespans, that he is physically more fragile than higher-blooded trolls, and that his very biology marks him as one foot in the grave. Xefros’ self-loathing a psychologically coherent response to a world that repeatedly validates his lesser status through biology.
Bigotry and self-loathing aside, the biological structure of troll makes true equality between blood castes impossible. Highbloods possess an inherent genetic advantage in their lifespans that ensure that they will always outlast and outmaneuver lower-blooded trolls. Even without formal privilege, higher-bloods can vastly outlive lower-bloods which allows them to wait, plan, and dominate across generations. This imbalance is illustrated by Mindfang, who notes that her prophesied bronzeblood matesprit the Summoner—destined to one day kill her—has not yet even been born. She waits for his birth, claiming she hopes he will “breathe life into her embittered heart,” while unsettlingly wondering whether she will ultimately take his will or win his heart. The implication is predatory: Mindfang can anticipate and shape a relationship with someone who will be vastly younger and more vulnerable. She later reflects on the Condesce’s own prophecy to exile all adult trolls from Alternia, initially doubting that such a massive upheaval could be enforced until she acknowledges that the Condesce, with her unparalleled lifespan, simply has time on her side.
Yet many trolls across the hemospectrum genuinely believe that blood color does not determine inherent superiority or inferiority despite overwhelming social and biological conditioning. Feferi, a fuschiablood at the very top of the hemospectrum, explicitly rejects caste superiority even as her blood color places her above all others. Cridea, a violetblood, is actively part of a rebellion that aims to overthrow the caste system and to make all blood castes equal. Historically, similar movements have arisen, including one inspired by the Sufferer, who preached “forgiveness, compassion, and equality among all bloodlines”. As well as the rebellion led by the Summoner, whose near-overthrow of the Condesce resulted in the banishment of all adult trolls from Alternia.
There are apparent exceptions to Alternian biology, but these exceptions only reinforce the underlying system. Characters such as Aradia and Vriska who attain godhood through SGRUB, achieving power and continued existence beyond death. However, this transcendence is only possible through supernatural means. Similarly, the Condesce and the Handmaid achieve unnatural power and longevity through direct intervention by Lord English. In all cases, escape from biological limitation requires inhuman forces rather than inherent equality, reinforcing the comic’s eugenic subtext.
While this eugenicist subtext is uncomfortably apparent, it far from likely that it was intentional. Homestuck consistently frames low- and midblood trolls as its heroes, while its named troll villains—Gamzee, Eridan, and the Condesce—are all purple-, violet-, and fuschiabloods. Hiveswap continues this pattern, positioning rebels such as Xefros and Cridea as protagonists in opposition to figures like the tyrannical fushciablood heiress Trizza. The narrative thus repeatedly affirms equality as a moral ideal, even as its worldbuilding constructs a society where biology persistently contradicts it. Whether intentional or not, Homestuck depicts a society where equality cannot exist without defying its own biological rules.
Homestuck Troll Castes: A Future of Inequality
Trolls in Homestuck are a space-faring alien species from the planet Alternia, governed by a vast imperial regime that spans the edges of their galaxy. Despite their advanced technology and ancient culture, their society reflects humanity's oppressive tendencies. Blood colors are divided into twelve castes, officially named according to the Hiveswap Extended Zodiac: rust, bronze, gold, lime, olive, jade, teal, blue, indigo, purple, violet, and fuchsia. Rustbloods occupy the lowest caste, while fuchsiabloods reign supreme. The divide between lowbloods and highbloods falls between jade and teal: lowbloods (rust through jade) face oppression, while highbloods (teal through fuchsia) hold privilege.
The hemospectrum, as this caste system is called, is not merely a fictional construct but a powerful allegory for real-world systems of inequality. It reflects how human societies often impose rigid hierarchies based on arbitrary traits, such as skin color, gender, or class, to justify systemic oppression. By examining the complexities of troll blood color and its societal consequences, we gain insight into the ways privilege and marginalization operate in human societies.
Blood hierarchy loosely follows a warm-to-cool spectrum, with lower blood castes also being referred to as warmbloods and higher castes as coolbloods. Yet, this categorization is imprecise. For instance, fuchsia is considered a warm color in traditional color theory, while both olive and jade are cool colors. Individual trolls' blood colors may also not fully match the standard hues used to define their caste, illustrating how these rigid classifications fail to capture the nuances of their world.
Even the official terms for the blood castes can be misleading. The purple caste, while officially named “purple,” would be better described as "violet," as violet is a shade of purple closer to blue on the color wheel, while the violet caste's color leans closer to red. Arguably, the labels for these two castes should be swapped. This discrepancy is highlighted by Karkat calling Eridan’s blood—part of the violet caste—as “purplier” than Gamzee’s, who belongs to the purple caste. These inconsistencies reveal the arbitrary nature of the caste system’s labels, which mask deeper systemic inequalities.
These dynamics parallel the categorization of racial identities in humans. Terms like “white” and “black” fail to encompass the full spectrum of human skin tones, which vary based on pigmentation. Similarly, racial divisions are largely social constructs rather than rooted in biology. Though certain genetic traits, such as the prevalence of the Duffy negative blood type among African-descended populations, exist. Both troll blood color and human racial categories reflect the imposition of rigid structures on naturally fluid realities.
Troll blood color isn’t merely superficial; the abilities and corporeal differences between trolls of each caste vary. Lowblood trolls are generally physically weaker than highbloods but possess psychic abilities that grant them unique mental strengths. Aradia, a rustblood, can commune with the dead, manipulate objects telekinetically, and induce trolls to sleep. Tavros, a bronzeblood, can psychically communicate with animals. Sollux, a goldblood, has laser vision, hears voices of the soon-to-be-dead, and telekinesis. These abilities vary in strength and variety depending on the individual troll.
In contrast, highblood trolls possess higher physical strength and resilience. Equius, an indigoblood, is so strong he struggles to hold glass cups without breaking them. Feferi, a fuchsiablood, can leap great heights from water. Vriska, a blueblood, can continue functioning after suffering severe injuries—such as losing an arm and eye—without immediate medical care. While these traits divide trolls, the boundaries of these powers between them are not absolute. Physical strength and psychic abilities intersect with each other regardless of blood caste.
The abilities of trolls—both psychic and physical—are fluid across castes, yet the higher castes still maintain systemic power over the lower ones. For example while Sollux is technically the most powerful psychic among his peers, he is vulnerable to Aradia’s ability to make him fall asleep, despite her being lower-blooded than himself. Aradia can also physically overpower higher-blooded trolls like Equius and Vriska with her telekinesis. Kanaya, a jadeblood with no psychic abilities, is also able to outfight and kill higher-blooded trolls like Eridan and Gamzee. These examples show that while powers can vary between castes, highbloods still dominate Alternia due to the systemic oppression.
While highbloods are less likely to have psychic powers, exceptions like Vriska exist. Vriska can read minds and mind-control others, though her abilities cannot affect every troll. She is unable to invade the minds of Equius and Aradia, though she can with others like Tavros, Sollux, and Karkat. Her mind control seems more effective on lowbloods than highbloods. It is implied it is not blood color that makes a troll vulnerable to her psychic manipulation but the vulnerability of their mental state. Sollux, who has bipolar disorder and so swings from manic highs and depressive lows, can only be controlled by Vriska “half the time".
Karkat, whose candy-red blood lies outside the hemospectrum, suffers marginalization on Alternia. As a mutant, his blood color makes him a social outcast; its discovery on Alternia would result in his execution. While Karkat’s friends do not treat him as an outcast, he struggles with internalized self-loathing and is in constant conflict within himself. Despite Karkat being neither lowblood nor highblood he is still vulnerable to Vriska's psychic control, suggesting that mental state rather than blood color determines susceptibility.
These dynamics mirror real-world systems of oppression. Lowblood trolls’ psychic abilities symbolize the mental resilience and strengths cultivated by marginalized groups in response to systemic abuse. Yet this same abuse erodes their mental health, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation. This pattern is mirrored in human societies, where marginalized groups often experience disproportionately higher rates of mental health issues due to suffering systemic inequality.
The Alternian Empire systematically exploits lowblood trolls with psychic abilities, targeting them in ways that are not applied to their highblood counterparts. Lowbloods are more likely to develop telekinesis, a power the empire harnesses by conscripting the most powerful as 'Helmsmen'—living engines and batteries that power its space fleets. Their telekinetic abilities are harnessed to enable interstellar travel, ensuring the empire's expansion while subjecting these trolls to a life of exploitation.
Oppression in Alternia is not confined to lowbloods. Vriska, a highblood, also suffers under the system. She is forced to kill other troll children—primarily those of lower blood castes, as depicted in Pesterquest—to feed her lusus, a monstrous caretaker that serves as a troll's parental figure and is essential for their survival. Alternia mandates that any child without a living lusus be killed, regardless of blood color. This system compels highbloods like Vriska to participate in preying upon lowbloods, harming them even as they benefit from privilege. While Alternia does not directly exploit Vriska for her mind-control powers, it forces her to use them for survival, molding her into a tool to subjugate lower-bloods.
Physical strength, while beneficial for survival, also reinforces the oppression of lowbloods. It mirrors the way physical dominance has historically been used to enforce male superiority in patriarchal societies. As men’s physical strength allows them to overpower and control women. While men may not need to physically dominate women, the power to do so remains a central aspect of upholding patriarchal structures. In both troll society and human patriarchy this physical advantage becomes a tool to uphold systemic inequalities, perpetuating the dominance of those at the top.
Troll society is divided not only by blood color but also by two distinct races: sea-dwellers, who can breathe air and water, and land-dwellers, who can only breathe air. Sea-dwellers belong to the highest castes, from violet to fuchsia, while land-dwellers span from rust to purple. This division is more than just social; it’s physical, as sea-dwellers live in or near the sea, while land-dwellers inhabit the land.
This physical separation further entrenches the power dynamics between the ruling sea-dwellers and the subjugated land-dwellers. By living removed from land-dwellers, sea-dwellers not only avoid direct interaction with those they oppress but also ensure that their power is harder to challenge. Land-dwellers face significant difficulty in attempting to overthrow the sea-dwelling elites, as they would have to venture underwater to reach them. This makes it even easier for the ruling class to maintain control over the land-dwelling majority.
This mirrors how, in human societies, the wealthy often live in gated communities or secluded areas removed from the poor. These spaces are designed to consolidate wealth and influence for the wealthy, preventing the poor from accessing the resources and opportunities that might allow them to challenge the status quo. By keeping their living spaces separate, the rich reinforce their dominance, creating a physical and psychological divide that sustains them.
The sole rulers of Alternia come from the fuchsiablood caste, who are some of the most physically powerful trolls. However, their dominance stems not from their strength but from their lusus, Gl’bgolyb, a creature whose voice grows more destructive with volume, killing trolls starting with the psychically vulnerable lower castes and onwards. To silence Gl’bgolyb she must be fed the lusii of other trolls, orphaning countless and perpetuating a cycle of exploitation. While this process averts immediate catastrophe, it ensures that future generations remain at constant risk of extinction.
This dynamic mirrors environmental destruction in human society, where the elite maintain power by exploiting resources at the expense of the planet's future. Resource exploitation may enrich humanity in the short term, but unchecked destruction poses long-term threats to everyone. Many humans are forced into exploitative practices to sustain this system, ensuring the elite’s continued dominance. Similarly trolls are compelled to sacrifice their lusii to feed Gl’bgolyb, a necessity for their collective survival. Marginalized groups bear the brunt of these environmental consequences, much like lower castes suffer the worst from Gl’bgolyb’s wrath.
There can only be two fuchsiabloods alive at any given time: the empress and the heiress. The current empress, the Condesce, rules all trollkind, and Feferi is the heiress. Upon reaching adulthood, the heiress is expected to fight the empress to the death for the throne. However none have succeeded in dethroning the Condesce since her rise to power, as she has eliminated generations of potential successors. This system ensures that authority is never shared and remains concentrated in a single ruler.
Lifespans among trolls vary by caste, with rustbloods living up to 50 years and fuchsiabloods thousands or even millions of years. Highbloods, while not as long-lived as fuchsiabloods, may outlive generations of lowbloods which allows them to consolidate power across centuries. Similarly, in human societies, elite families use inherited wealth and influence to entrench their dominance across generations. Troll highbloods can leverage their longer lifespans to exploit laws and accumulate resources, maintaining their dominance over shorter-lived lower castes. This is also among highblood castes as purplebloods, who can outlive bluebloods, can devise strategies so far-reaching and long-term that they are beyond the comprehension of bluebloods.
However, the deadly violence ingrained in troll society prevents most trolls, regardless of blood color, from reaching their natural lifespan. For fuchsiabloods survival past adulthood is virtually nonexistent due to the Condesce’s killing them off. Her longevity symbolizes how authoritarian regimes endure for so long, staying in power until forcefully removed. Her reign can only be ended by the death of the ruler, as her dominance will persist until violently overthrown.
The Condesce has enforced her will upon all of trollkind, but not without resistance as there have been rebellions aimed at dismantling her system. The most notable rebellion, led by a bronzeblood named the Summoner, nearly succeeded in overthrowing her. To prevent any further challenges to her rule the Condesce exiled all adult trolls from Alternia, forcibly drafting them to become soldiers in her fleet of space battleships to wage wars against alien species in the name of Alternian glory. By doing so she stripped trollkind of its collective power and leaving behind only the young to be easily indoctrinated to become new generations of soldiers for her regime.
This strategy ensures that any threats to her reign—whether from rebellion or usurpation—are neutralized. Exiled trolls, now fighting external wars, serve as tools for the Condesce’s imperial ambitions. This tactic of exile is both a punitive measure and a way to keep the castes in constant conflict, preventing them from focusing on dismantling the oppressive societal structure.
The Condesce’s methods mirror those of real-world human powers, who maintain control through displacement, militarization, and the subjugation of their populations. By forcing all trolls to engage in external conflicts with aliens, she keeps their internal struggles suppressed, allowing herself to retain power with less challenges. In the same way, oppressive systems throughout human history have used external wars to distract the populace from internal issues and onto a foreign enemy.
The tragedy of troll society lies not only in the suffering of lowbloods but in the destruction of potential across all castes. Even fuchsiablood heiresses, at the pinnacle of the caste system, are trapped in a system that forces them to serve the Condesce's interests. As Feferi is compelled to feed lusii to Gl'bgolyb—not only to maintain the power of the fuchsia caste but also to protect trollkind from extinction. Though she longs to reform Alternia, her position as heiress leaves her powerless to change the unjust laws that govern the planet. Even if she were to overthrow the Condesce, the system would still enforce a new fuschiablood's will upon trollkind. While Feferi might be a more benevolent ruler, she would still wield power over the castes by force.
Alternia doesn’t need a change in ruler; it needs the dismantling of the caste system to create a more equal society. The Condesce’s power is not inherent but sustained by the complicity of others. Trolls are conditioned to uphold oppression, with highbloods using their privileges to maintain dominance—yet even they are trapped in the same cycle. If all trolls—highbloods, lowbloods, sea-dwellers, and land-dwellers—united to eliminate Gl’bgolyb, they could dismantle the Condesce’s grip on power. Instead, division allows her tyrannical reign to persist.
Trolls have the potential to build a society rooted in cooperation and mutual support rather than oppression, creating a future where all can thrive. Despite trolls having evolved beyond human capabilities and technological advancements, troll society remains plagued by systemic inequalities. Much like human societies, for no matter how advanced a people may become, the flaws of inequality can and will persist if nothing is done to prevent them. Ultimately, Homestuck reminds us that without addressing the root causes of systemic oppression, societal progress will always remain incomplete, harming everyone within it.
Beyond analysis, I also make Homestuck character keychains and charms out of rainbow acrylic. My art is available for sale on Etsy here: warmbloods and coolbloods.
Hiveswap Foils: Xefros and Marvus
The parallels and contrasts between Xefros and Marvus in Hiveswap are striking. It’s surprising this has little discussion, as they both serve as narrative foils, each reflecting aspects of the other’s characters. Marvus embodies the type of person Xefros aspires to be: famous, powerful, and adored by the masses. On the other hand, Xefros represents who Marvus likely once was—a boy dreaming of stardom, uncorrupted by the violence it takes to achieve it on Alternia.
Xefros dreams of glory despite the dangers. His passion for arena stickball drives him to train for the Thrashthrust Snowglobes, even though the tryouts could cost him his life. Arena stickball is a bloodsport where players risk their lives not only to win but to survive the competition itself. This brutal sport mirrors Slam or Get Culled, a lethal reality TV show where rappers compete to the death for stardom. Xefros idolizes the star player and powerful psychic Xultan Matzos, aspiring to follow in his footsteps—a path that comes at the cost of others.
In contrast, Marvus has already attained fame by winning Slam or Get Culled. Both Marvus and Xultan pursued the perilous path to Alternian fame, where survival built on the death of others is as vital as talent. Xultan would have endured lethal tryouts to secure his position on the team, and during matches, other players would have been eliminated for him to succeed. That is how Xultan met his end: executed by the then-heiress when the opposing team mind-controlled him into behaving inappropriately towards her. Similarly, Marvus's rise to stardom as Slam or Get Culled grand champion required both talent and the deaths of his opponents. Funnily enough, even the names of Marvus Xoloto and Xultan Matzos sound similar when flipped.
Marvus serves as a dark mirror of Xefros, an older and more sinister purpleblooded counterpart. This comparison is not just figurative but also literal, as they both have similar appearances. Upon examining their trial sprites, they both have downturned eyes, pointed noses, and buff physiques—albeit Xefros is smaller with rounder features and Marvus is bigger with more angular features. Both use ‘X’ in their typing quirks: Xefros capitalizes ‘X’ while Marvus censors swear words with ‘x’; both spell ‘tickets’ as ‘tiX’ and ‘tix.’ Even their zodiac aspects reflect the other’s caste—Xefros’ rage aspect aligns with Capricorn, the true sign of the purpleblood caste, while Marvus’ time aspect corresponds to Aries, the true sign of the rustblood caste.
Both characters are outwardly friendly and altruistic, quickly befriending Joey within a single day. Xefros tries to help her during a drone raid, while Marvus helps secure train tickets for her. However, Marvus’ manipulative tendencies surface if Joey persuades Zebruh to give up his ticket. Marvus encourages Zebruh to audition for Slam or Get Culled by feeding him false praise—perhaps to silence a critic, as Zebruh is implied to have written negatively about him. Xefros joins in by assuring Zebruh his auto-tune mic will guarantee his victory. They both know the indigoblooded Zebruh has no chance; only purplebloods have ever won. While the audience may know of Zebruh’s history as an abuser (as revealed in Hiveswap Friendsim) and might see this as justice, Xefros and Marvus are oblivious to this having met him that day.
Why does Xefros participate in sending Zebruh to his potential doom instead of waiting for the next train? It is likely because he fears other trolls or drones may take notice of Joey being an alien while at the train station. His willingness to endanger Zebruh for Joey’s safety highlights his moral complexity. Marvus' manipulations—such as flattering Joey into acting as the defense legislacerator—mirror Xefros' own manipulation of Zebruh. While Xefros sees through Marvus' manipulation and disapproves of it, he is not above using similar tactics when it serves his interests.
Marvus’ darker inclinations surface during the trial mini-game to determine who brought the illegal book Fresh Teeth onto the train. The tealbloods organize the trial to entertain Marvus, whom they fear, and invite him to act as judge. While Joey views the trial as a harmless game, the stakes are deadly: the jadeblood found guilty is taken away by Marvus, and it is strongly implied he kills her—something he expresses disappointment over if a mistrial occurs. Though, given his past deception in Hiveswap Friendsim, he may have only pretended to kill her. Marvus refrains from pushing for a verdict, adhering to the game’s rules. His actions suggest he views death as part of the game, but with boundaries.
Marvus’ detached view of mortality is even more evident in the murder game he arranges in the purpleblood train car. The game tasks Joey with ‘killing’ a troll whose blood color is randomly chosen by a spinning color wheel, with her refusal leading Marvus to offer Xefros as a hostage to Chahut. His motives for involving Joey and Xefros remain unclear, but they seem to serve multiple purposes: entertaining his purpleblood peers, controlling their aggression, and shielding Joey and Xefros from escalating danger for their refusal to play. When the wheel selects purple, signaling that a purpleblood must die, the purplebloods laugh as they find their own potential deaths amusing. Marvus laughs at death like the others, showing that despite his survival-driven actions, he views his own death as part of the game.
This mindset mirrors Xefros playing arena stickball, where death is an accepted part of the game. Both characters navigate a society where violence is entertainment—whether in the form of a game between friends or in the brutal, high-stakes world of professional sports. Marvus orchestrates the murder game with detached amusement towards the death of others and his own. In the same vein, Xefros willingly steps into a deadly arena to risk his life and the lives of other players. Despite the violence central to the murder game, Marvus never directly inflicts harm himself. Instead relying on persuasion and calculated decisions to control the situation.
Rather than taking Xefros hostage, he offers him to Chahut—distancing himself from direct aggression while ensuring Xefros remains under his watch. Throughout the game, Marvus actively helps Joey maintain the illusion that she’s killing trolls to satisfy the others, even when her deception is obvious. If she confides that she hasn’t actually killed anyone, Marvus reacts with surprising gentleness—reassuring her and advising her to uphold the charade. Later, when Baizli attacks Joey, Marvus intervenes by freeing Xefros, giving him the opportunity to kill Baizli and protect her.
Marvus shows a clear protectiveness for Joey over Xefros, likely not only due to their closer friendship but also his possible awareness of her role in returning to Earth through the Cherub Portal—an event crucial to preventing Alternia’s destruction. Marvus has some foresight, anticipating their arrival at the purpleblood car despite them never sharing their plans. Marvus’ fourth-wall-breaking remarks, such as “This is just a game” and “No one who matters to the plot is gonna die” hint at meta-awareness of the game’s structure and future events. This insight might come from contact with the near-omniscient Doc Scratch, who is implied to have provided Xefros with the mysterious Scratchware. If Marvus has been in contact with Doc Scratch, his awareness of future events could explain some of his actions.
Despite hints of foresight, Marvus is not omniscient. When he notices Xefros clinging to Joey in silence, he teasingly asks if they are matesprits—only for Xefros to angrily correct him. If Marvus were truly all-knowing, he likely wouldn’t have tested the waters with such a question. While Xefros and Marvus serve as foils to each other, they have virtually no relationship. Xefros responds to Marvus with anger or silence, never initiating contact and rarely speaking directly to him. In turn, Marvus mirrors this treatment, speaking almost solely to Joey and never addressing Xefros by name.
Marvus’ early interactions suggest that he initially sought to connect with Xefros alongside Joey. Joey attributes Xefros' silence to shyness to spare Marvus’ feelings, but it’s clear that Xefros deliberately avoids Marvus. During the trial, Xefros speaks freely to other highbloods but continues to ignore Marvus. This exclusion stems from Xefros’ deep distrust of purplebloods and his specific animosity toward Marvus. The exact reason for Xefros’ negative feelings is unclear, but it may relate to how Marvus gained his success in a contest rigged in favor of purplebloods. Xefros might feel Marvus’ success is undeserved, deepening his disdain.
While understandable, Xefros' shunning likely hurt more than Marvus lets on. His decision to offer Xefros to Chahut reads as both an opportunistic and passive-aggressive response. Despite his outward confidence and assurances that he is not offended, Marvus' tendency to retaliate against minor slights, like manipulating Zebruh after being criticized, suggests deeper insecurities. Marvus likely struggles with rejection, as it reinforces his feelings of worthlessness—insecurities that mirror Xefros' own self-worth issues and internalized rustblood stereotypes. Xefros’ and Marvus’ mutual cold-shouldering, further exacerbated by the murder game, keeps them from recognizing their similarities. If they were given the chance, they would likely see much of themselves in the other.
Both Xefros and Marvus suffer from the lack of unity within their respective blood castes. The other rustbloods fail to intervene when Xefros is taken hostage. Similarly, the purplebloods display a lack of care for their own. After Baizli is killed, neither Chahut nor Marvus expresses any mourning or attempts to prevent his death beforehand, despite their ability to intervene. This lack of camaraderie leaves both characters emotionally starved.
Xefros' isolation is compounded by his marginalization as a rustblood and the abusive relationship with his moirail, Dammek. His emotional starvation is evident in how quickly he forms a protective bond with Joey, whose genuine concern for him fills a void he's long lacked. His “best dream” was of becoming a champion arena stickball player, cheered on by crowds. Most tellingly, Dammek was the loudest voice in the stands, reinforcing that Xefros equates fame with love and approval. Having never been shown real care by others, he chases fame as a substitute for self-worth.
Marvus, too, is surrounded by indifference. His purpleblood peers treat life and death as a joke, showing no concern for whether he lives or dies. Although he is a celebrated performer, no one genuinely cares about him as a person. His craving for true connection is evident in how he shuns Zebruh—who seeks him out only for his status—contrasts with his quick attachment to Joey, who is unfamiliar with his fame and treats him without pretense. Like Xefros, he is trapped in a cycle of emotional neglect, surrounded by people who fail to value him for who he truly is.
Both Xefros and Marvus seem to seek self-worth through fame. Xefros does not play arena stickball simply for the love of the game—he craves the adoration that comes with fame. Likewise, Marvus, though a musical genius, does not rap simply for the artform but for the fame it brings. His repeated participation in Slam or Get Culled reveals his willingness to sacrifice the lives of others to build his fame, highlighting how his need for validation outweighs his empathy. By relying so heavily on the spectacle of death to maintain his status, he demonstrates that his self-worth is tied not to who he is but to the applause of an audience.
Music serves as a medium for both Xefros and Marvus to express their political beliefs. Xefros, the lead singer of the Grubbels—a garage band he formed with Dammek—uses his censored lyrics to denounce lowblood oppression and call for rebellion against highblood tyranny, specifically Trizza. Beyond his music, Xefros secretly collaborates with rebels to dismantle the caste system to achieve equality for all. While Xefros seeks equality, Marvus’ music—as Zebruh interprets it—focuses on purpleblood oppression, suggesting a self-serving political agenda.
Xefros’ deepest connection to Marvus lies in their shared friendship with Joey and their mutual protectiveness of her. Marvus appears to protect Joey not only out of personal care but also as a calculated step to maintain the storyline. In contrast, Xefros’ devotion is more personal—Joey is his first true friend. His loyalty drives him to drastic actions, including killing Baizli to save her. Afterward, he reassures both Joey and himself, “I know it’s hard the first time,” reflecting that he had already accepted he’d inevitably kill.
This loss of innocence marks a pivotal shift for Xefros. Though he killed Baizli to protect Joey—someone he would risk his life for—it was not purely selfless. He sacrificed another’s life for someone he values. His ambitions, whether in stickball or rebellion, may demand further sacrifices. With blood on his hands, Xefros could be pushed toward adopting the cunning and manipulations Marvus uses to carve a path toward his goals. Marvus too sacrificed the lives of others in Slam or Get Culled to achieve his success, discarding any innocence he may have once had, if it hadn’t already been lost.
Though Xefros’ kind-hearted nature makes it seem unlikely he would adopt Marvus’ cunning, subtle signs suggest otherwise. Having witnessed manipulation from his abusive moirail, Dammek, Xefros is familiar with such tactics. Dammek treats his underlings as “disposable lackeys,” a behavior Xefros is aware of. Despite discovering Dammek’s deceit—offering both Xefros and Chixie spots as tetarchs without revealing the offers to the other—Xefros still justifies the manipulation. This rationalization could pave the way for Xefros to adopt similar tactics, like Marvus, who blends manipulation with acts of kindness. Xefros might set aside his compassion when he believes manipulation is necessary, as he had done to Zebruh when given the option.
Though Xefros and Marvus share similarities, key differences make them foils. Xefros stands on the edge of corruption, yet to embark on his deadly journey for fame; while Marvus has already sacrificed others in his pursuit. Xefros has a true friend in Joey, while Marvus lacks any real friendships, sabotaging a potential one with Joey by forcing her into the murder game and surrounding himself with shallow relations. Paradoxically, Marvus seems drawn to Joey precisely because she offers him the genuine bond he craves. Both seek fulfillment in a world that isolates them emotionally, but their paths diverge. Driven by a desire for fame, Marvus has embraced evil, while Xefros remains innocent—though this may soon be lost.
Ultimately, Marvus and Xefros represent two sides of the same coin, shaped by the brutal world they inhabit. Marvus embodies what Xefros might become: someone who wields trickery to navigate the system and sees death as part of the game. Xefros, despite his selflessness, is gradually learning that on Alternia, achieving one’s goals—whether protecting loved ones or enacting change—is paid for in blood. His journey reflects the harsh evolution forced upon trolls by their world, where survival and ambition come at the cost of innocence, compelling even the kindest individuals to make ruthless choices. Their dynamic is both compelling and tragic, and I eagerly await their further development in future Hiveswap acts.
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