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I wanted to talk about at least some of the Friendsim trolls, so for now here’s a look at my favorites: Folykl and Kuprum. I’m really only hazarding guesses as to what their Classes might be, but this feels like a good match considering what we see in Homestuck.

Linked below are also some longer articles I’ve written about Knights, Witches, and some other stuff you might like to check up on.

PS: I decided to forego censors on this episode since it would be pretty hard to convey Folykl and Kuprum’s personalities while blocking out every other word they say.

Knights & Witches:

https://medium.com/@RoseOfNobility/fo…
https://medium.com/@RoseOfNobility/fo…

Jade Harley & Davepeta:
https://medium.com/@RoseOfNobility/wi…

BGM: “tfw another james roach track”, by James Roach:
https://soundcloud.com/jamesroachmusi…

Buy James a coffee if you like the song! https://ko-fi.com/A3222BCR

overall, what do you think of kuprum and folykl + their dynamic? I know that some people got super uncomfortable at the ‘kissed to death’ end due to it feeling rather unconsenty and out of nowhere, so I’m interested in your take on it. so altogether, did your personal feelings on them as characters change? you like them more, less, the same amount?

They’re fucked up assholes, and I like them a lot anyway because they’re also pretty kind people to those they deem true friends. Sounds a lot like the Captors and Cirava tbh.

If the energy transfer thing struck anyone as out of nowhere, they weren’t paying attention. Neither Kuprum or Folklyl were shy about the somewhat sexual connotations of Kuprum literally feeding Folklyl his life force to keep her alive.

more rambling under the cut

I find it kinda weird to call them codependent in this context, too, since again–Folklyl needs energy to survive. Kuprum cares enough to give it to her. Alternia does not. She’d be dead without him, and he’d be purposeless and lonely without her. They talk a lot of shit to each other, but the foundation of their friendship is that simple fact.

They’re broken people trying to survive and make the best of a broken world much bigger and stronger than they are. This is Alternia 101. I keep being surprised that anyone’s surprised by this stuff.

The MSPA Reader volunteered to take over a role they didn’t understand, to try and break Kuprum and Folklyl up because they failed to pass their own standards of good behavior. It is not exactly a surprise that the 4chan trolls took that moralizing gesture and milked it for all it was worth.

And like, I get that the noncon element of the energy transfer thing gave it an uncomfortable edge, but…guys…they were basically leaving the MSPA Reader to die. The readers well-being and comfort was quite obviously out the window.
It was supposed to be uncomfortable, not just because it was non-con but because it was attempted murder.

All that aside, their friendship is still really genuine and heartwarming, as the drone path shows us. Kuprum deeply, genuinely cares about Folklyl’s well-being. It matters to him whether or not she’s alright. And both of them are victims of Alternia and targets to Trizza’s drones, no matter how much Kuprum kisses her ass. This is important context.

Anyway, How morally ‘good’ a character is has precisely 0% to do with how interesting I find them. I only really care about how much I think they add to the narrative.

Folklyl and Kuprum are very interesting, and add a lot. To our understanding of the conflict between lowbloods and highbloods, the condition that made Sollux’s eyes black (we have a name for it now! Voidrot!), and goldbloods in general.

Psiionics got so much more interesting as a result of that energy transfer beat, even though the noncon element did make it uncomfortable.

In light of all that, honestly, who caaaares about how good or nice or likeable they are. Characters can be flawed and mean and fucked up and still interesting. Hopefully they’ll get a chance to grow up and learn to treat people better. Also hopefully, they’ll get a chance to grow up at all.

What do you think Elwurd, Kuprum and Folykl’s classpects are?

Honestly vol 6 blindsided me, to the extent that classpect stuff isn’t even what I found most exciting about it. It ended up not being at the forefront of my mind while playing and I def missed stuff. I’ll have to replay them eventually. anyhow

MAXLOL & FOLKLYL

This is just a thought, but Kuprum and Foklyl both them seem to echo a Mage of Doom-they know how each of them are doomed, just like Cirava did, and this awareness lends to a self-serving nature and a sense of self-assured arrogance. Starting to remind me of how all indigos seem to evoke pages.

I’m not sure about Folklyl’s Class. I kinda feel like Thief, kinda feel like Page, could go either way if she’s a creator class. Rogue almost makes sense but I consider it less likely since we have a Rogue of Void in Roxy already.

Maxlol I suspected was a Knight of Hope as early as Troll Call, and everything I saw confirmed as much for me. I suspected he’d believe in the empire a lot and serve “through Hope” that way

And Maxlol DOES turn out to rationalize his service to the empire through Hope…but it has nothing to do with faith in the empire or Trizza. It just goes through the Hope player sexuality filter. Which is. hilarious, frankly.

He uses his powers to serve (help, give, protect) his friends Hope, or serve (totally own/defeat/beat) his enemies through Hope–literally, through his Hope and Rage colored psiionics. Goldbloods’s duality motif manifests as Maxlol seemingly using both his primary aspect and its complement.

Bonus points for the fact that even in a situation Maxlol might have interpreted as him getting cheated on or w.e, his instinct is to help the MSPA Reader give Folklyl power–Folklyl has to literally tell him to “stop helping”. An event that’s pretty Hope coded–kisses, shows of affection, the general nsfw-y nature of it all.

ELWURD

Strikes me as a witch of hope, mainly because she seems quite disappointed at her inability to Change bronya into a bad girl. The MSPA Reader quite gleefully parses as someone who tries to become her familiar figure, joining them in Hope-fueled pretense, moving the Reader to lie to Elwurd directly or to lie to Bronya with Elwurd.

Either way, the ability to commit to a lie remains a powerful Hope motif. As does horniness. Elwurd’s true “familiar” figure in this paradigm would likely be Bronya, who Elwurd can’t get over and also can’t stop lying to.

Elwurd’s biggest romantic obstacle is her overly inflated self-Importance(Light) which holds her back from being honest about her feelings. This culminates in an act of theft that Elwurd denied ever happening, to force continued interaction with Bronya. So i think its reasonable to suspect shes roleplaying a Thief of Light, and its not doing wonders for her if so.

Rather than a Witch, its also possible shes a Rogue with their particular fixations on romantic partners. Heir is a possibility, though I feel pretty strongly Cirava’s an Heir of Hope, so I think its likely she’s a Witch if they’re both change-classes. I may just be overstating the Change references in either of their texts, but I don’t think so.

Guess we’ll learn more later, but those are my thoughts right now!