ʜᴏᴍᴇꜱᴛᴜᴄᴋ: ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴡᴇʟᴠᴇ ᴀꜱᴘᴇᴄᴛꜱ

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More Posts from Classpect-reblogs and Others

classpect-reblogs

3 years ago

Thinking back on the idea that sprites represent the Platonic “geists” of their associated heroes, when we consider that both Roxy and Calliope contain “Nepeta-ness”, it starts to look a lot like the theory put forth in Plato’s Symposium that humans, having been created with two heads and then split into two, search for a romantic partner who literally completes them; Roxy and Calliope both contain different parts of Nepeta, and they attract each other because these different aspects of Nepeta-ness want to join together into a whole Nepeta.

Which makes complete sense in Homestuck, because that’s exactly what the cherubs are: “two-headed” beings who split in two upon reaching maturity, and spend their lives seeking out a mate who matches their missing half!

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classpect-reblogs

3 years ago

“For the very essence of a troll becomes sallow when devoid of love and of truth, which are often the same spiritual element,” Exodus said, gesturing emphatically with one hand as his other trembled against the podium upon which he leaned, projecting his rich voice to the very back of the slim and somewhat stuffy room he had managed to transform into some approximation of a church. The air was made stuffier by the excited breaths of his followers, gathered en masse on benches and below his feet, and he felt sweat or condensation cling to his brow and seep under the bridge of his glasses. “It may not seem readily apparent, but love is the pursuit of truth. Truth is the expression of love. While not inextricably linked, it is improper- or, rather, inadvisable to deny that in the absence these two gleaming facets, life loses its meaning and its justification. One must recognize the relation between truth and love, and their pertinence to life itself.”

Exodus’s sermons were improvised nearly every time he gave them. While he was finding it harder and harder to sift through the dichotomy between what he truly believed and what beliefs he had fabricated for the sake of others, he did find it somewhat amusing that when he stood in front of the slick wooden podium, it truly felt as though a spirit compelled him to speak. The words were delivered to him, and with surprising competency - they had to come from some outside source, he thought, because rarely what he said he agreed with. That, or he agreed, but he could never realistically apply his tenants to himself. He was utterly contradictory, but of course this needed to be kept under wraps to stave off his doomsday, when it all would come crashing down.

What strange things he was saying today. Utter drivel. He was making himself sick, describing some hypothetical state that was his direct opposite. Truth and love - he wanted to scoff, to spit at himself, as he lacked both in equal measure: untruthful, loveless, a contradiction of all he claimed to stand for. No more than a living lie.

“It… ah.” He faltered. That wasn’t good, he wasn’t supposed to falter. He lowered his hand and clung to the structure before him, looking down. Long, heavy seconds passed.

“Why are you crying, my Lord?” Someone said. Similar inquisitive, adoring murmurs rose from the crowd he had assembled. It sounded like birdsong to him: “Why? Why? Why?”

Quickly now. Make something up; truth isn’t an option, it never has been.

“Fear not,” he said, trying to keep the thickness in his voice at bay. “I have simply thought of a troll I intimately know, an unfortunate soul, who I have known to lack the virtues I just described. I have become emotional, thinking of his life and the consequences of his deficiencies, and I… I weep for him.” He performatively wiped away a tear, though his anguish was real.

He did something he knew the crowd would appreciate, and stepped out from behind the podium. Wide eyes searched his entire body.

“Will you join me in prayer?” He asked them.

“Yes, Lord,” was the resounding response. He continued to walk forwards, down the few stairs of the stage, into the thrum of his following. They crept closer to him with a shy reverence.

“Together we must tell him, and all trolls like him, that we forgive him. Through this we will deliver him peace. Please join me.” He took a deep breath, and the collective did the same.

“I forgive you.” He heard their parroted response echo, amplified by the high ceiling, and he felt the sound hum in his chest. He willed himself to glow, tears spilling onto his uniform, and the open faces that surrounded him were alight with a rose wash, petal-tender and hushed. The Heart symbol appeared, shimmering close to the rapid thumping of his own blood-pump adrenaline, and tentative hands ran over him, pressing palms to the pink curved sign, shaping themselves to his warm body. His shaking legs gave out, and, taking this as yet another sign, his collective supported his weight, lifting him above their heads, safe in their arms.

“Say it with me,” Exodus whispered to their eager ears.

“I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you,” they said. It was all he had ever wished to hear.

Musing on Rogues and Knights

While the Thief is inspired to take what’s around them for themselves, the rogue is inspired to share themselves with others. This selflessness affords them a veneer of morality and care from others, no doubt. I mean, who doesn’t love Roxy? Or Nepeta? Of the two “stealer” classes the Rogue appears to be the most well adjusted. Yet, like their counterpart they are infected by a feeling of incompleteness. As though their aspect is an unrequited lover they are constantly pursuing in the form of the people around them. Nepeta desires the pure heart of Karkat, but her feelings are largely ignored. Roxy idealizes the physical reality of Dirk and his “manliness”, but his identity prevents him from being in a relationship with her. it as though the rogue is invisible to their own aspect at times. This is the fatal flaw of the Rogue. Like the thief they have locked their powers outside of themselves. Except, their power is not just outside of themselves but inside the hearts of others in the form of ideals. And so they relentlessly attempt to pick the locks of the hearts of those around them. They are in a constant battle with their greed for love which results in them doing amoral things in the pursuit of it. Whether that be enabling a facist dictator to rise to power, or unwanted romantic advances. However, this is balanced by their innate sense of empathy and responsibility to those they love. Transgressions lead to guilt and their guilt ultimately leads to them growing as a person and doing the right thing. The Knight, like the page, is complete in and of themselves. They perceive a lack in themselves because society tells them that their uniqueness, their eccentricities, their empathy (the part of their aspect which humanizes them) makes them deeply flawed. Seeking comfort in others they remove the parts of their aspect that are ridiculed and criticized at worst and obscure them at best. Of course this is false knowledge acquired by being caught up in the lies (void) of society. Dave’s empathy and giving nature is not any more of a weakness than Karkat’s ability to deeply connect with those around him. But this feels like reality to them. Karkat and Dave both ignore the empathetic components of their own aspects in favor of the “powerful” elements. They see themselves as tools that need to be refined. Beings somehow broken. And so the Knight pursues an ideal just as the Rogue does and live in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction until they learn that they are whole and it is society that is incomplete. Like the thief, they are pushed for more, but rather than acquiring more they seek to become more than what they are.

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classpect-reblogs

2 years ago

*rubs my greasy little hands together* time to get my ip address banned through sharing possibly my most disturbing headcanon heheheh

For a while, I was thinking about the jades. Specifically how damn weird Hiveswap's lore about them is. From very young, they're condemned to the caverns to help raise grubs... But only certain, arbitrarily selected jades are picked to be cloistered? So that means there are other jades allowed to do whatever. And instead of joining the workforce like literally every other troll, SPECIFICALLY the cloistered jades are sent to be space nuns, hidden from everyone. It... Doesn't really add up if you think about the kind of place the Alternian Empire is. They're all about making as many warriors as possible, why bother with a tradition like that? Doesn't help anyone. Just seems hard to imagine Meenah coddamn Peixes tossing funds to a useless sisterhood, is all I'm saying.

So! Mothergrubs. There's the headcanon that they share an evolutionary root with trolls to explain how they can produce grubs, but what if we go one step further? Let's say the trolls are neotenies (an "adult" species that actually has another stage of life past the one they're in, like axolotls). Perhaps once upon a time, they could turn into mothergrubs naturally, but for whatever reason, they can't now.

Or so it'd seem.

Uhh yeah tired of the suspense: the cloistered jades are "special" because they actually might possess the rare gene that turns trolls into Mothergrubs. So the space sisterhood? It's actually some Bloodborne shit. Horrific cult antics that literally strip away all personhood, in all meanings of the word, turning them into nothing more than slurry-processors to be sent back, furthering the troll race. Possibly a fate worse than death to some.

Idk. Figure it makes sense the Empire would keep that under wraps from the jades, y'dig

Blocked blocked blocked blocked i hate this

but honestly that's a really really interesting perspective because I do agree that the mothergrub is a troll. Just a different type of troll (much like if you were to look at the life cycle of a fern) so I think you hit some interesting points especially with the de-trollization of the mothergrub into something to be revered but never considered a troll, an equal

also here is the lifecycle of a fern for funsies (where the mothergrub is essentially the diploid phase and normal trolls are the haploid

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classpect-reblogs

3 years ago

The recent discussion of the-character-sheet-as-a-soul led me down a very strange mental rabbit hole which ended with “could the character sheet be a piece of origami?”

I do not know nearly enough about origami to continue

(With reference to this post here.)

There's probably some design space to be explored in using flexagons as character sheets.

To illustrate, imagine a martial arts RPG where a character's stats vary depending on what stance they're in, with each of their stances' traits being written on one particular face of a flexagon, and some cost – probably an action economy cost – associated with changing stances (i.e., reconfiguring the flexagon).

Consider the traversal network of a hexatetraflexagon, for example:

Presuming a character's initial stance is represented by face 1, at the start it would be possible to transition to the stances contained on faces 2, 3 and 5, while the stances contained on faces 4 and 6 would be inaccessible.

Lots of fun tactical possibilities there, assuming you could find a way to express a sufficiently rich set of mechanical traits in such limited writing space!

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classpect-reblogs

3 years ago

Very good analysis I like it a lot

Split Interpretations Theory:

(Ever notice how lunar sway moons look like the :eyes: emoji?) The Extended Zodiac states that lunar sways are “a designation which says things about your perspective on life. “ In Homestuck, aspect powers are determined by thought, and thought is determined by perspective/how information is perceived. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that lunar sway plays a huge role in how aspect powers/movesets are utilized? I believe aspects can be split into two interpretations by a character depending on their lunar sways. A masculine and a feminine. I use the terminology masculine and feminine here because the respective dreaming moons are associated with the two heavily gendered cherubs, each of which strongly possessive traditional gender role traits. Caliborn (Derse): is proactive, forceful, and rational, logical, idealistic, traits heavily associated with masculinity. Calliope (Prospit): is adaptable, reactive, submissive, and intuitive, practical traits associated towards femininity. Of course, gender roles are considered bullshit in Homestuck (and ought to be IRL), so whether a character is female or male is actually irrelevant in possessing these lunar sways. An interesting dichotomy presents itself when viewing characters this way. Rose Lalonde, as a light player, is less focused on fortune and more focused on knowledge. Fortune permeates her life in not so subtle ways, such as living in a mansion with an ACTUAL OBSERVATORY.

However, Rose’s fixation is less on this fortune and her feelings of luck, but instead on the acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge, which grants her power and control and most importantly agency. (It also lets her shoot light rays out of some sticks). Knowledge, in this theory, would be the masculine element of light. It requires conscious thought and rational thinking to utilize effectively, especially as Rose uses it to determine probability. Rose’s affinity for light grants her theoretical knowledge which she then uses to provide agency for herself and others. Vriska, on the other hand, fixates on the feminine interpretation of her aspect, luck. Luck is a huge part of Vriska’s identity, and she believes fervently in it even though luck would generally be disregarded as bullshit by most. Luck is feminine because luck is reactive to the will of an individual as opposed to proactive, conscious thought. Vriska’s affinity for light grants her theoretical knowledge, to a lesser degree than Rose, but it makes up for this in it’s sheer practicality. Even the way that both use their powers offensively fits this divide. Rose shoots flash magic like she’d imagine a wizard would, as though she’s creating light ex nihilo whereas Vriska sort of just sucks out the luck that’s already there by looking at you hard enough. Both characters flow into active and passive states of their aspects to accomplish their ends, however it is Vriska who outstrips Rose in flexibility. Relying on luck requires a degree of intellectual submission and faith, which Rose’s ego is not inclined to allow. Vriska on the other hand, lets lady luck take the wheel so to speak, and if lady luck insists that Vriska gathers information to plan then she’ll do it. The downside is that Vriska becomes more easily manipulable and susceptible to the wills of others. The neutral element between both of these active states is “resourcefulness” which is the ability to look at your environment and take what you want/need from it. Luck would not work if one’s eyes are not open to opportunity, and you wouldn’t be able to acquire knowledge unless your eyes were open to it’s sources.

Tyzias and Stelsa both occupy a similar position as Vriska and Rose, both being blood players with differing lunar sways. Tyzias (prospit) interprets blood as camaraderie, bonds, and connections (community oriented/feminine things) and as such is blessed with the power of charisma, similar to Karkat. Stelsa on the other hand focuses on the masculine interpretations of blood, which is accountability, and social responsibility. Her connections with people are not ends, but rather a means to an end. And in this way, she very closely resembles the statement given about early session Karkat by Hussie himself. “As a Prospit dreamer, did Karkat struggle because he was actually passive in nature, but had a very active self image as a leader and conqueror?”