This question hits upon a lot of nuances that I’m not sure about myself, so I want to be clear that I don’t have this system figured out by any means. I think it’s consistent enough now that it’s worth talking about, just because there’s so many cases built up, but I don’t understand everything about how it works and I don’t want anyone to regard me as being particularly In The Know, here.

I’m figuring this out as I go along with everyone! And tons of times stuff that other people say sets off a cascade of new startling revelations. This is at least a weekly occurence lately.

So first up, as to Jade:

It’s a possibility that Grimbark is just a joke/parody, so it’s hard to tell if this is just a joke/comment and she’s really only acting like a Witch. Which means I’m not sure, but if she’s roleplaying at all, I’d say her acting like a thief might be a solid bet. It’d mean she’s acting More Active than usual, which does line up with her behavior.

Gotta stress though: I don’t really know if this is a case where roleplay applies.
Rose got way longer, so she’s under the cut.

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As for Rose, I’d say: In my view, not exactly, with the caveat that I’m honestly not sure here either?

I think Rose is roleplaying as a Witch, and I think she’s doing so partly because she imagines her mom as a Witch (Rose’s inability to really understand Mom is a key part of their conflict, after all). But there’s two important nuances I’d like to clear up:

1) It’s important to understand that Rose trying to be a Witch doesn’t mean she’s not being a Seer! It’s easiest to understand Roleplay as the characters adding Verbs/Archetypal symbols to their behaviors, with their true classes as intrinsic verbs they can’t change.

So Vriska can try to Make stuff and gets associated with Fairy-dom. She can discard that behavior, eventually. But she can’t discard her instincts to Steal/Take things, nor the associated outlaw/pirate imagery.

The same applies to Rose. She’s still a Prophet, and in many cases her Witch behavior acts in service to her prophetic behavior (using magic to tear the prophetic text she wrote into the Void, for example.).

And as she’s also behaving more like an Active class, this also makes her more like an active Prophet. Indeed, Rose is also referenced as a Mage at least once.

I’m not sure what parts of this are actual references and what parts are me reading too much into things, though. I’m just saying the symbolism surrounding this stuff can get muddled, and I’m not enormously sure where the lines get drawn.

2) I don’t think she’s roleplaying a Witch of Void specifically. I think the Void stuff surrounding Rose is likely a side effect–the more she commits to the Witch persona, the more her powers manifest “in defiance of her true Aspect”.
And in Homestuck, powers manifesting that way generally tend to default to manifesting as the “opposing” Aspect.

In other words: Rose is just roleplaying a Witch, and aspect switching is what happens with any case of roleplay that’s unhealthy enough. Aspect “inversion” just seems to be the default, when that does occur.

At least, that’s the way I usually feel.

But because of Xefros, Dammek, and Joey, I don’t really think that’s
necessarily the rule. So maybe the Void part is also Roxy’s influence
after all???

It wouldn’t quite be unprecedented. Hal–A Prince of Heart’s– emulation of Dave–A Knight of Time– includes him trying to take over the temporal logistics. So maybe that’s the case after all.

What I will say is that in one respect, it’s crucial to understand Rose as both a Witch of Light and a Witch of Void.

A Witch always has a Familiar, intrinsically linked to their Aspect:

And how succesful they are at self-actualization is linked to how well they take control of their lives from their Familiar, which will protect them, but also try to  control them. Jade has Becquerel, a Space Familiar. Feferi has Gl’bolyb, a Life familiar.

In Damara’s case, that Familiar is literally a Patriarch–Lord English, an embodiment of Time itself. And unhappy, miserable, isolated Damara decides she wants to serve him completely.

That’s why the Damara God Tier in the final army against him is such a
big deal, because it means a version of her succeeded in rebelling
against her familiar and asserting her true feelings.

Rose, then, has two Witch familiars, who work together to manipulate her.
Her familiars of Void are the Horrorterrors, of course. Interesting that to Feferi, Gl’bolyb is just a fact of life, a reality she has to deal with. To Rose, the horrorterrors represent the absolutely unknowable and unimaginable.

Her Familiar of Light is Doc Scratch. It’s easy enough to say the Cueball represents omniscient knowledge, information, and so Light. But Scratch’s light coding goes quite a bit deeper.

Doc Scratch is an alias for the Devil, or Lucifer. Lucifer is a fallen angel, known as the “Morning Star”, or “Lightbringer.” There are also a decent amount of historical references to Lucifer as a Prince of hell. And Scratch, it so happens, is predominantly made from the soul of AR–a Prince.

He’s also Rose’s literal Patriarch, since being Dirk’s clone, he is technically her uncle. So yeah, I think  Rose’s relationship to Scratch and the Horrorterrors is more visceral and understandable that way, and I wouldn’t want that nuance to be lost because we’re still reading her exclusively as a Witch of Void.

There’s actually a LOT MORE nuance to Scratch’s presentation than I’m expressing here,(surprise! Scratch is also roleplaying!) but this post has to end sometime. So that’s it for now.

Everyone can feel free to send me whatever insights they have one way or another on either point, I just can’t say I have all the answers. I think I’m onto something here, but if I am we’re more than likely gonna uncover most of it together.