I’m a big Roxygen fan. I’m kind of a very laissez-faire multishipper in my heart of hearts, and that’s especially true with John. I ship him with like half the cast don’t even look at me…
That said, I’m also huge on Callieroxy. And Janecallieroxy and Johncallieroxy. Also I kind of figure between Davepeta, Dirk and Terezi, everyone’s probably more likely than not to recover their memories about everything over time with like, fraymotif god powers and stuff.
Not that the “bound together by shared memory of trauma” concept is bad at all for John and Roxy, now that you mention it. I have a similar mindset about how Dirk and Jake deal with their shared trauma as the ones who experienced the brunt of the responsibility for/harrassment of HAL/AR.
Hm. Homestuck is good. I need to catch up on fanfic.
I’m still trying to figure out how the exploit/allow behavior works and how the scale is structured, exactly. I’m beginning to suspect some archetypes lean Active, ie: Both the Active and Passive Class tend towards behaving more Actively (Fairies, Outlaws, Magicians), while others tend towards behaving more Passively (Royalty, Servants, Prophets).
All on the individual though, of course, and it’s only a vague sense I currently have and haven’t really figured out in a way concrete enough that I’d be happy explaining/espousing the view. Just goes to show how much I’m still trying to figure it out, myself.
I think an Active class will tend towards exploiting, and a Passive class will tend towards allowing/inviting. If you’re looking for a hard rule, it seems to me like Active classes will almost always act to benefit themselves, while Passive classes act to benefit others. As such, they tend to be coded as Selfish/Selfless respectively.
Given the relatively recent nuances of roleplaying, I’m not sure my older reading of Utena as a straightfoward Prince of Light is what I’d go with now. It’s been a little while since I rewatched the show all the way through. I’m definitely going to do a video on Utena and Anthy through a classpect lens down the line, though, so keep an eye out for that!
Not in my view, but my view of the Classpects doesn’t generally have much to do with the popular view of them–I argue Pages are Active, after all. I pair the classes the way I do because they’re consistently linked to the same verb in the comic–Make/Create for Maid/Sylph, Change for Witch/Heir.
But on top of that, it’s my view that the classes are also tied by common Archetypes or symbolic motifs. Sylphs and Maids share the Fairy motif, while Witches and Heirs share the motif of the Magician.
John is coded as a “Secret Wizard” from pretty early into his session, and the references never really stop. Jane’s got a couple of references to being a Gnome and producing sparkle dust, so on.
At this point, contesting viewpoints would have to A) Present a common verb that is linked to both classes in the text of the comic, and B) Present a uniting symbol tying the two classes together thematically (or debunk the concept of Archetypes altogether) for me to be seriously swayed.
Which isn’t impossible–Homestuck contains so much content I will never be surprised to be told I’ve missed something. But it does set the bar pretty high.
I tried to express this point back in the Force & Flow essays, but I’m not sure I succeded, so I’m glad for the chance to revisit it! I think I can answer your first question with the second. The range of a “miracle” is essentially the same as the range of “magic”, a concept that canonically applies to Heirs, Witches, Maids and Sylphs.
Jesus’ story is imported into Homestuck in the story of the Signless–a Seer. When Jesus comes up, John describes him as magic–just as he later describes himself, Jade, and Rose in the midst of her Witch roleplay. (And yes, this does mean the Jegus meme had a payoff in the form of classpect exposition.)
Later on, Rose seems to more or less figure out how to roleplay a wizard. But when Dave thinks to ask, she makes it clear what she’s doing isn’t exactly casting spells in the typical sense.
Which makes sense, because Prophets aren’t typically thought of as being magic per se. If you think about it, the miracles Jesus performs aren’t really that different from what we might imagine wizards could do.
What makes them different is a matter of emphasis. Wizards are regularly linked to knowledge, just like prophets are. Hence the concept of the “wizard’s spellbook”. But for magicians, knowledge is typically a means to an end, it’s an answer to “how” the magic is performed.
Prophets also do magic, but for them the emphasis is on the knowledge itself as opposed to the spellbook. A Prophet like Jesus or Moses would typically claim their magic wouldn’t happen at all, but for their faith in and knowledge of their divine Source–God.
Just trade in the figure of “God” for the Seer/Mage’s Aspect (the Aspects are inherently divine-coded anyway, given that they’re basically Aeons), and there you go. Any kind of magic you can think of a Prophet doing through their Aspect is something I believe reasonably falls under their purview.
I’d simply put just as much of an emphasis on what the Prophet might end up saying as a result of their Aspect’s influence, which is probably even more interesting. Do their prophecies concern/affect/benefit primarily themselves or others? How does their Aspect influence what message they have to give, and how they deliver it?
A particular nuance to the pair might be a penchant for resurrections/raising others from the dead, particularly in ways that might otherwise seem impossible. Sollux pulls this off for himself by half-ghosting, while Terezi pulls it off for Vriska by guiding John’s choices.
Does this answer your question, anon? It’s a pretty dang good one, btw.
The next Homestuck Explained is gonna be on the Dreaming World (at least one Hiveswap video coming before that, though) so in depth analysis of that will have to be later and in video form, but I actually talked about this p recently here.
I don’t really think Jade is acting like a Seer at all. At least, I haven’t seen that referenced in the story so far. Roleplay is a way that players deviate from their native active/passive states, but it doesn’t seem to be the only way. Dreaming moons influence players to be more Active (in Derse’s case) or more Passive (in Prospit’s) on their own.
Jade *is* acting more Passive during that section of the story, but that’s explicitly due to her waking up early on Prospit, and Prospit’s Passive influence. I don’t really know that we need more of an explanation for her behavior there.
Similarly, I don’t really think Jade’s ability to see the future is dropped as an element of her character–it just stops being relevant as the timeline catches up to Jade and other characters start waking up.
Everything Jade does is, by Kanaya’s own admission, something Kanaya also does. So unless Seer roleplay is a thing all Space players default to early on (which I suppose is fairly possible–Skaia certainly qualifies as a divine influence), I don’t think that’s what’s up.
It’s important to note *why* I think Rose is roleplaying a Witch. It’s a byproduct of her interest in wizardry and an inability to really understand Mom’s true nature as a Rogue. She isn’t assigned the Witch roleplay from abstract, Skaian forces–she’s driven into it by her own confused admiration of her mom and desperate desire for power.
If Jade is roleplaying a Seer, I’d expect some similar impetus or drive or associated imagery from her. Along those lines, I think there’s *sort of* an argument Jade might be roleplaying a Page, though I kind of feel like Grandpa and Nanna’s relative absences mean there’s not a ton of ancestral influence from them. It’s hard to say.
I feel like I don’t really want to talk about late-game Jake because so much of how I feel about him is tied up in what the Epilogue seems to be leading towards, so I’ll abstain from the question for now.
That said, hit me up again once the Epilogue happens, and I might have something more thoughtful to say for you. It’s a good question!
my favorite troll is definitely Tegiri, with Charun and Maxlol sharing the #2 spot.
As for the ectobiology, not really, to be honest! There’s plenty of cool people looking into stuff like that, but the biological/genetic details have never really been my thing. I’m a lot more invested in symbolism and thematic reference at the time being.
Flying through Storytelling 