LIVE-ACTION ROLEPLAY and
the IMPACT OF ANCESTORS

Pt. 2 – Horrorstuck & Active-Passive Shifting

Alright, the key thing you need to know here is that Classes’ Active/Passive alignments borrow heavily from the concept of Yin/Yang. 
Yang is the Active principle, and describes the White swirl with the Black dot. Yin is the Passive principle, and describes the Black swirl with the White dot. 

To quothe the great source, Wikipedia:

Yin 陰 or 阴 Noun ① [philosophy]
negative/passive/female principle in nature 

Yang 陽 or 阳 Bound morpheme ① [Chinese philosophy] positive/active/male principle in nature 

Homestuck inverts the polarities, making Passive classes Positive (+) and Active classes Negative (-) for mysterious reasons. Other than that, the connotations are identical. 

Now, Homestuck’s imagery will sometimes fall into this Two-Color character conflict style, and it will serve as our guide for this section. Notice that PM, who is colored in White, is the Active (or Yang) party in this shot–she is preparing to attack Bec Noir. Bec Noir, who is colored in Black, is the Passive (or Yin) party–he is hesitant and uncertain, stunned into inaction by shock. 

So we can roughly understand these color-contrast shots as follows:

If the character is colored in White, they are being Active.
If the character is colored in Black, they are being Passive.

Now let’s apply this logic to the trolls as the chaos of Horrorstuck plays out, and see what it tells us when combined with the concept of Roleplay.
Starting with this: The moment that Eridan kills Kanaya.

Things start off pretty simple here. Eridan, the Prince, is in White.
Kanaya, the Sylph, is in Black. Prince is Active, Sylph is Passive, and as we all know, Eridan wins this round decisively, with a simple magic blast.

What’s more interesting is how we got here. Eridan seems to be roleplaying a Magician for this stint–in particular, a Witch, influenced by his interest in Rose and Jade and said to be a “highly Active” Class. He tells Jade he’s moved on from following Dualscar’s destiny, just before trying to get Feferi to betray the team.

Dualscar is a Bard–a Passive class. This means that relatively speaking, Eridan is playing to his strengths as an Active Destroyer more by channeling his energy into a more Active role, explaining his firepower buff. But is it really that easy for Eridan to leave his ancestor behind…?

Let’s come back to that question. Now let’s look at Gamzee, who for this stretch is living up to the image of the Grand High Blood–a Prince of Rage. 

This section begins in earnest with Gamzee killing Equius, and–yup. There it is.
Gamzee, the Active party, is in white. Equius, the Passive party, is in black.
Equius submits to Gamzee’s will, and dies at his hands.

Gamzee is terrifically effective at roleplaying the Grand Highblood–he goes on to set Terezi up to kill Vriska in a grisly re-enactment of Redglare and Mindfang’s showdown at the Grand Highblood’s order. But this rampage comes at a personal cost. 

Gamzee is incredibly unstable during this period, with the whole loud honking and red eyes thing. Insofar as we’re allowed into his head, Gamzee does not seem particularly comfortable or at ease in this role! It’s only once Karkat calms him down that he reverts to his more Passive role, and begins acting like his normal self again.

So we’ve got two instances of Active behavior linked to White, and Passive behavior linked to Black. We’ve also seen that roleplaying can explain how Gamzee changes from his traditional role of Passive destruction, to one of Active destruction–at a personal cost.

Now let’s look at an example that incorporates both Yin/Yang and Roleplay for both parties, in the conclusion of the 3x Showdown between Eridan, Vriska and Gamzee.

Of course, we’re actually interested in Kanaya, who turns out to dominate this fight utterly. Kanaya is one of the few highbloods who seems completely uninterested in roleplay. But then, in this context, maybe she doesn’t have to be.

Vriska suggests that a player’s destiny is tied to their Ancestors’, and while this definitely involves an element of “choosing to take on the life they left for you”, it also seems to have Karmic implications.

The Dolorosa, after all, is interwoven in the story of The Grand Highblood, Mindfang, and Dualscar–she becomes Mindfang’s slave, and is murdered by Dualscar.

Despite his claims to having moved on from Dualscar’s legacy, in this flash, Eridan is cast in his shadow. Meaning he’s being placed in the role of a Passive player, in the context of this sequence.

So Kanaya isn’t just getting revenge for Eridan’s crimes–there’s an implication she’s making up for Dualscar’s cruelty to her Ancestor, as well. Finishing what Dualscar started, so to speak. The Dolorosa being a Maid, we can understand Kanaya as roleplaying a Maid of Space.

And a Maid of Space is one who Makes Space…

For her own benefit. 
Bard is Passive is Black.
Maid is Active is White.

A couple side notes:

1) Kanaya, like Gamzee, seems pretty drained after her spurt of intense Active behavior. Roleplaying as a more Active class can be effective in the short term, but it also seems pretty exhausting, as a general rule of thumb.

2) Given that Kanaya is revived as a Rainbow Drinker–a creature of fantasy–and that she glows pure Hope-White, we could even read Eridan here as inviting his own destruction through Hope. Just one of those little things I find so satisfying with Homestuck.

3) Relating Kanaya with the Dolorosa like this gives us some extra nuance with which to understand Vriska’s flash of red feelings for her. She related to Eridan and Tavros primarily in the terms set by their ancestors, after all–small wonder she’d find Kanaya more exciting as she completed her own Ancestor’s work, as well. 

I found this pretty exciting once it came together for me, so I hope it does for you too. Let me know what you think! That’s all for now. 

[Patreon] [Hiveswap Discord]

Til next time, keep rising.