Force and Flow — Know and Change – optimisticDuelist – Medium

Here’s the last one of this Classpect essay series! This is on the Know and Change pair, the quartet of classes closest to the Spectrum:

Mage and Seer & Heir and Witch

Coming soon will be:

More Homestuck Explained videos, covering Homestuck’s core themes from beginning to end
Writing about Jane Crocker, Davekat, the Alpha Timeline… .
Hiveswap lore and analysis, linking the game to Hiveswap once it comes out and probably handing streams and such if all goes well!
And more stuff as I think of it, too. Really, figuring out the Classpect system made me realize we’ve only scratched the surface of Homestuck (it keeps happening), and this is only the beginning of a new extreme.

If you can spare me a buck a month you can help me make all this content and, like, not die and stuff– and get your hands on it earlier, too! Higher reward tiers will let you invite friends to the Discord so they can access this stuff and talk about it, too!

Feel free to @ me, reblog or send me an ask with your thoughts on these first two essays. There may be some things I can’t answer as they will be answered in later posts, but I might use those as inspiration for what teasers to release from sections of the next two essays over the course of the week.

You can also feel free to talk to me in the Hiveswap Discord where I moderate and cry about Homestuck. I’m very interested in seeing how my thoughts stand up to scrutiny, so don’t be shy!

[Patreon] [Hiveswap Discord]

[Active/Passive Masterpost] [Destroy and Create] [Serve and Steal]

Force and Flow — Know and Change – optimisticDuelist – Medium

Here’s the second tear for the Know/Change pair, talking about some cool stuff re: John’s relationship with his Magic trick books 😉

Not gonna lie, this is the essay I’m most excited for, and the Change/Know classes have ratcheted upwards to become what are likely my favorites.

You can access this essay early by hooking up with my Patreon–otherwise you’ll be able to read it tomorrow, when I post it here! You can also talk to me about it on the Hiveswap discord and on the r/Hiveswap subreddit. And here on Tumblr, obviously 😉

Keep rising,

[Patreon] [Hiveswap Discord]

[Active/Passive Masterpost] [Destroy and Create] [Serve and Steal]

Here’s the first teaser for one of the next essays, on the Steal and Serve classes! Just a little morsel on Knight’s relationship to Pages–or anyone they view as such.

You can access this essay early by hooking up with my Patreon–otherwise you’ll be able to read it on Thursday, when I post it here! You can also talk to me about it on the Hiveswap discord and on the r/Hiveswap subreddit. And here on Tumblr, obviously 😉

Keep rising,

[r/Hiveswap Subreddit]

[Youtube] [Patreon] [Hiveswap Discord]

[Active/Passive Masterpost] [Destroy and Create]

Dirk Strider is made out of love, prince of my heart, i love him so much.

You didnt ask for this but you put Dirk and love in the same sentence and this is what i’ve been thinking about so lets go

Im gonna ramble about how much Dirk would love John Egbert and Jade Harley like, instantly, he did conceptually before he even met them but the instant they meet Dirk is permanently owned and has that many more people he’d happily die for because: Dirk loves Jane and Jake more than life itself, and John and Jade are…their kids basically. And early on Dirk cannot unsee that.

The biggest treason this fandom has ever committed to my person is ignoring the fact that Dirk Strider would fucking melt himself to death even looking at John Egbert or Jade Harley and deconstructing all the little ways they’re like Jake and Jane and thinking about his typical self-loathing shit like “god those two would’ve been so happy together I’m such an ass for getting in the way look at them their kids are perfect they’re so good–”

before Jake like puts his arm around Dirk’s shoulders and all thoughts immediately stop if they’re dating again, it’s probably a source of great angst for Dirk before they are and one of the bigger reasons he stays away. Maybe Jake and Jane will get the idea and be happy together. Someone write this for me thanks.

Anyway that got too sad so back to Dirk’s relationship with the ectokids.

Early on in Earth C John gets the impression Dirk hates him early on and pranks him pretty hard and often but while it kind of annoys Dirk when all his meticulously set up horsecam figurines get their heads swapped (and john breaks some of them in the process) he’s mostly just reminded that things with him and Jane are still awkward enough that he hasn’t gotten this from HER and he’s a torn up bag of “Fuck I miss her” and “Fuck I can’t believe how much I care about her goober ecto-son already” and NONE of this gets across his stoic demeanor so all john gets is that poker face. It takes them fucking forever to be actual friends and I’m not sure what does it but its probably the formidable teamwork of Jake and Dave who get sick of the awkwardness eventually.

Meanwhile Dirk is 100% in awe of and terrified of disappointing Jade Harley who he A) cannot stop thinking about as JAKE’S GRANDMA and “OH GOD WHAT IF SHE DISSAPROVES WHAT IF I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH WHAT IF-”- and B) Cannot stop thinking about as SO MUCH like Jane it kills him. She’s so no-nonsense and down to business and whenever he starts rambling too much about philosophy or some bullshit she just looks at him like … and he’s like “Ok I’ll shut up.” The way Jade moves in a science lab is EXACTLY like Jane moves in a kitchen (or later, a business meeting) and Dirk knows because he learned the ins and outs of that movement by heart across so many video cam sessions growing up. Everything about Jade Harley destroys Dirk and he thinks she’s the fucking coolest and there’s basically no part of him that didn’t love her from the word go

Dirk manages to work up the will to keep everyone else (but Jake) out of his private garage but not Jade, Dirk’s got all this futuretech practice and as SOON as Jade catches wind of this she’s like “Hey dirk! Alt!Callie handed me the secrets of the universe and basically i need a bigger workshop and better science can you help me out” and that’s basically his main project for the next two years is catching Jade up on 400 years of scientific progress (Jake tags along) and having to work on his weirdo animatronic shit that he was GOING to use his garage for originally in like, one of the cramped floors of Jake’s jungle globe instead

But it’s fine cause it makes Jade happy and getting to be helpful to Jade is like a dream come fucking true and Jake is so happy whenever he and Jade get to talking about some interesting intersection of philosophy and science or furries or whatever. The first time Jade gives him a friendly smack on the back Dirk jumps so hard he hits the roof.

Give Dirk Strider love thanks

So I’ve seen your mettas on a number of relationships and characters, but I was wondering if you felt any special type of way about John? Maybe about how he processes emotion and expresses himself?

I DO have thoughts about John but–like with Vriska and Terezi–I don’t think they’re going to fully consolidate into something I feel confident writing about in detail until the Epilogue hits. The three of them could go in too many different directions at the endpoint from my perspective, and I try pretty hard to avoid theorizing or speculating more than I absolutely have to. Trying to draw any conclusions about the three of them is trying to draw a conclusion about Homestuck as a whole, though, and I’m just not 100% EXACTLY what kind of story homestuck is ultimately going to be.

I have some guesses. That I generally don’t want to put in public willy nilly. For now I guess stay tuned and I’ll definitely post about John in detail as soon as I feel confident that I have a unique and interesting reading of him that I can make a compelling case for, at the very least.

heir-of-puns:

Honestly though every time John talks about how “oh I guess we’re meant to be together” Hussie makes a point of him being noticeably uncomfortable and unsure about it. So all I’m sayin is that John probably never actually wanted to be with Rose or ever thought of her in that way, he was just pulling a normal John and assuming karkat knew what he was talking about against his better judgements. Maybe less so with Roxy but tbh I can’t see him being anything but super happy for her and somewhat relieved when he finds out she’s with Callie and Jane. Idk I always saw John as very aromantic (and probs ace) and I think there’s a good amount of in-canon evidence for it. I can definitely relate to his feelings of thinking he’s supposed to be in love with someone cause of their situation regardless of his actual feelings.

Anime Dirk would watch with his friends

Rose & Kanaya: Revolutionary Girl Utena. Dirk and Rose have ridiculously in-depth conversations about visual symbolism and growing up queer and toxic masculinity and predatory manipulation. Rose has to reassure Dirk he isn’t like the dudes at least twice but through subtle passive-aggressive barbs. Kanaya is sipping tea and sure there are great storms brewing in this conversation but it’s not gonna stop her from sewing this Rose Bride cosplay and having fun.

Jake: Hunter x Hunter. Dirk sees himself in Killua too much and cries a few times. Jake is floored and pokes some fun at him but then realises Dirk relates because of how much Killua loves Gon and figures out he’s the Gon here, then he’s crying too. They kiss and wear flower crowns and do couple cosplays. Jake loves the tiny shorts. Dirk does too.

John & Roxy: Gurren Lagaan. Dirk complains a lot. John sprains his eyes from rolling them too hard. Roxy loves every second of it. They get so mad at each other it turns into a wrestling match and Roxy snapchats the whole thing for everyone and later asks Dirk if it’s weird she thought it was hot. Dirk grins and says ‘You can look but don’t touch.’ They hug and it’s great and John d’aws.

Jane: Evangelion. He spends about equal amounts of time complaining about the meaningless religious bullshit and trying not to cry about people loving each other but not knowing how to connect. Jane understands him perfectly on both counts just like she knew she would but he wasn’t expecting it would hit close to home for her too. They hug and it’s great and Jake cries when he hears about it later.

Dave & Karkat: Karkat won’t watch anything thats not a high school romance shoujo, Dave only likes anime that’s shitposty, and Dirk only wants to watch sbahj with Dave anyway. They try to find some middle ground but it never happens. Then Rose sets them up with the Sailor Moon dub and they never stop referencing it for the rest of their immortal lives.

Jade & Calliope: Dirk wants to get closer to Jade but he’s incredibly intimidated and worried about being weird because she’s Jake’s grandmother, so he’s super psyched when she corners him and is like “Hey I heard you’re a furry too” and he’s like “AM I” and she wants to show him this great show about furries is he free this afternoon.

He says he is and then suddenly he’s sitting on a couch and he’s psyched Jake is gonna be so happy with him and maybe he’ll break the awkward ice with Jade for good and then she loads up the show and it’s Sonic X.

Dirk looks sideways and Jade and Calliope look so earnest and happy and they already have drawing tools out because they like to draw fursona designs while they watch and Dirk has just committed to an afternoon marathon of Sonic X. He wonders if theres any horses in the sonic franchise. There’s not.