It’s so strange how many young people on this website there are who would probably consider themselves to be progressive/liberal but who are constantly touting very conservative, reactionary, and reductive rhetoric, who balk when they’re called out on it and react violently when anyone disagrees with it.
There are so many young people who are pro-censorship to a frightening degree, happy to shame people for not meeting their impossible and subjective standards of morality, who seem to be almost incapable of thinking critically rather than in black and white, emotionally rather than factually based terms, who consider thought-crimes worse than actual actions that people take against others, and who—quite frankly—seem like they’d be absolutely thrilled to live in an Orwellian dystopia because they’re under the ironic belief that if everyone around them is corralled and controlled and forced to live lives based on what they think is pure and wholesome and good then the world will be a perfect place.
There’s such a lack of critical thinking, unwillingness to see nuance in any argument, and just a lack of the basic human understanding that people are different from one another and that one individual experience is not the end all/be all of all experiences on this site that it’s just honestly disturbing and, in many cases, basically cult-like.
And I get that this is a positivity blog and this post might not ‘fit’ here but positivity isn’t just “uwu you’re valid” text set against a pastel pink background, it’s also encouraging people to think and to act and to live in a way that is understanding of other people, to be an open-minded observer to the world and to think critically and be willing to listen and to learn, and there are many, many people on tumblr who not only do not want to do that but who happily embrace their ignorance, their hate, and their refusal to even consider that they could ever be wrong about anything even when the facts are shoved directly under their nose and…that is seriously not a good way to live as an individual and it’s an absolutely harmful impediment to any kind of community or society that people may try to build.
If you want to do something positive in your life and the lives of others and you take any piece of advice from this blog then take this: listen more and talk less, think before you react, try to understand other people and where they’re coming from even in cases where you feel like you’d rather bash your head against the wall than put yourself in their shoes, and try your absolute hardest to unlearn your black and white/all good or all evil thinking (or at least learn how to recognize it and think past it) because I promise you that it’s going to be complete poison to every single aspect of your life if you don’t.
And more than anything don’t be so utterly obsessed with yourself and your opinions and your own certainty that you’re right that you’re unable to ever listen to anyone else or even consider that you might be wrong. Everyone is wrong about something, is ignorant about someone, is an asshole at some time of the day, and you’ve absolutely fucked up the second you think you’re an exception to that.
I want to start this off by stating my perception of Knights. There’s a big discussion over which of the Knight or the Page is active or passive. I see a lot of stock in both of the interpretations that say Knights are active/passive and I’m unwilling to completely disregard either interpretation, especially seeing that there could very well be a Class test with canon information on them a la the Extended Zodiac. Instead of listing out the generic abilities like ‘Exploits/Serves Hope/through Hope’ etc, I’ll instead talk about a specific thing about Kilius’ Hope powers.
Professional Wrestling is the most Hope thing ever, period. It’s completely built off having the audience suspend their disbelief. This lets the wrestlers smack each other with fake weapons, go through tables that could barely support a grilled cheese sandwich and have it all played completely straight. A man puts a snake glove on and the other wrestler is now being attacked by a snake. This shit is normal and intrinsic. There’s a name for this concept, Kayfabe.
With that in mind, combined with Kilius’ absolute zeal for it, the Hope-powered Cerulean, if he develops nicely and gets enough power, makes wrestling real. As in, he will impose wrestling logic on you and you are forced to comply.
Let me write out an example. The move that best shows off Kayfabe is the Irish Whip. It’s not exactly a move, more of a transition but it makes my point well. The Irish Whip involves taking hold of your opponent’s hand, pulling them and flinging them in a direction, usually to bounce them off the ropes and into the corner.
The thing that completely destroys Kayfabe is the simple fact that the opponent can easily negate the move by just… not running. Seriously, it’s not like the creative team or the wrestlers are disguising this fact and even poke fun at it.
So picture the scene; you are an imp facing off against this glistening player who’s wearing some golden kilt. He approaches you, grabs your hand and just… pulls you in a direction? Only you can’t stop moving. He has long let go of your hands but you just. can’t. stop. Kilius’ faith in wrestling has made it so you can’t just simply stop moving your feet because that’s not how wrestling works. It’s part of the illusion, the illusion that Kilius has so much faith it.
Here’s another example, you’re a separate imp and after seeing your buddy be compelled to endlessly roam the lands until he hits the great rung corner called death you’re reasonably wary to face off against this guy. He kicks you in the gut, not really, the kick was clearly off by a good few inches but you still feel the impact. You feel your head get placed between his legs and you feel him flip over your body, only for your entire body to backflip and then you only partially feel your head impact the ground before the part of your brain responsible for registering what the fuck just happened is crushed between the ground and the soft, muscular legs of this glowing twunk.
So there! With his Hope powers, Kilius essentially makes his opponents and allies run by wrestling rules and logic. His punches and kicks carry their full weight and impact even if they miss their mark or Kilius holds back his strength. When he stomps the ground, the punches he launches land with even greater impact and force. If Kilius truly believes, which he most certainly does, that he can suplex you, you’re gonna be suplexed.
Anyone’s free to inqure, add their own take or simply make a vague reaction to this post!
man stuff like this is one of my favorite ways to talk about classpects/aspect powers. like, using the framework homestuck provides to provide context and insight into an otherwise seperate passion/interest and help sell the appeal of it
anyway i love this concept, this is a cool idea for a character :B
page of rage idea!) seem like avid followers of their own faith/religion/cult. in the true zodiac test, the questions that seemed to relate to hope and rage seemed to put them in a clear dichotomy as well – so ive just been meaning to ask u what do u think about this?? is the dichotomy about something other than faith/doubt?? (2/2)
The main thing is that the Rage players’ religion doesn’t actually require faith, at all, because it’s simply true. The Mirthful Messiahs worship Lord English/Caliborn, and, well…he exists. He’s right in view of all the ghosts and stuff, blowing them to smithereens.
I think the dichotomy involves a lot more than faith/doubt (coherence vs. contrivance, for one thing). But as far as the Rage players’ religions go, I don’t see much of a conflict, currently.
from what the canon classpect test indicates, it’s not so much “faith vs. doubt” as it is “loving truths vs hating lies.” hope players have an intrinsic need to believe in something, and their power comes from that intent belief, whether it’s jake’s beliefs that he can save his friends (masterpiece) or that dirk can help him (game over timeline), or eridan’s belief in “white science” ultimately giving him his abilities.
rage players, meanwhile, are hellbent on disproving lies and making sure everyone knows how full of shit they are. the most obvious canon for this is when gamzee loses his absolute shit about icp, because their version of juggalo-ing runs super counter to the truth he knows. it’s a gigantic lie and he fucking hates it. this is why caliborn/LE, through lil cal, is able to speak to him and influence him so readily: LE offers the absolute truth. he is already here. gamzee is already part of him. gamzee embraces that truth, but it’s not what gives him his power. what gives him his power is the hatred he has for what he sees as lies.
rage players, according to that test, bring doubt and confusion, but how that happens is because they are tearing down what the rest of the world may perceive as true because to them, it is flawed and not worth saving. both hope and rage involve commitment to an idea, but rage is about commitment to destroy what is false, and if doubt is sown along the way, the ends justify the means.
Yeah, I agree with this pretty much completely. Pretty useful nuance, too–I’d never verbalized the relationship between them quite this way. Thanks!
page of rage idea!) seem like avid followers of their own faith/religion/cult. in the true zodiac test, the questions that seemed to relate to hope and rage seemed to put them in a clear dichotomy as well – so ive just been meaning to ask u what do u think about this?? is the dichotomy about something other than faith/doubt?? (2/2)
The main thing is that the Rage players’ religion doesn’t actually require faith, at all, because it’s simply true. The Mirthful Messiahs worship Lord English/Caliborn, and, well…he exists. He’s right in view of all the ghosts and stuff, blowing them to smithereens.
I think the dichotomy involves a lot more than faith/doubt (coherence vs. contrivance, for one thing). But as far as the Rage players’ religions go, I don’t see much of a conflict, currently.
You might be right–though Jake being able to summon them makes it kind of murky, its not like they were presented in a very nice light then, either. I honestly don’t feel I have the angels “Figured Out”, and I’m not even quite sure I’m supposed to. Jake’s arc is, after all, rather incomplete–his big showdown with Caliborn in the Masterpiece is still ahead of him.
Maybe we’ll learn more about angels in the future, or, frankly more likely at this point, i’m missing some gnostic myth or other source that contextualizes them really well. Hard to say.
Jake didn’t summon a single Angel during the Masterpiece – only during pre – Game Over sequence, when he was forcefully enlightened by Aranea and wasn’t in control of his powers as a Player of Hope.
Sure, but he’s still able to summon them. And I’d say Jake’s summoning of the angels is, if anything, informed by his relationship to Abraxas, not anything related to Yaldabaoth.
So I don’t really feel like I can really make a call one way or another, just yet.
hot take: the capitalist cultural construction of “humans are naturally greedy and self-centered” is just an attenuated version of the feudal christian construction of “humans are inherently sinful”; both are designed to make people internalize cultural problems and externalize morality.
wait, what was that? creepy men are saying rape culture is natural? white ethno-nationalists are saying humans naturally organize into ethnic identity groups hostile to those unlike them? abled people are saying that humans naturally ‘abandon the weak to die’? what could it all possibly mean?
Flying through Storytelling 