Literary Devices

Anonymous said:

(Me: sees your aspects as facets of reality theory and raises this: Aspects as elements of the story, Light as thematic importance (see aranea being aranea, vriska stealing importance and luck) Time as well pacing but also the timeline of a story. Ect ect

YES!

YesYes!! YesYesYes ^u^ ^u^ ^u^

This is another Wonderful Frame for analyzing Homestuck, or thinking about the Aspects ^u^ The one thing I’d say is that while some –like Light, Time, Space, and Heart– are pretty directly and clearly related to literary concepts by the text, others are a bit more difficult to figure out; either because their representative characters get less “screen time”, or because the Literary Concepts the Aspect embodies are more esoteric and vague.

Like: I’ve always had a hard time figuring out what Life could represent in a Literary sense. Fef’s story is surrounded by all sorts of Fairy Tale tropes that she’s laser-focused on either escaping(her role as Princess) or subverting(bringing Sollux, her “Hero”, to life with a kiss, rather than the other way around), and Meenah was also focused on escaping and subverting the life planned for her, so THAT could possibly be Life’s Literary side: either subverting narrative, or the way characters can take on “a life of their own” when the author realizes they’d do C instead of the A they had planned for them, and how that can lead the plot in a whole different direction.

Blood’s another stumper for me in this regard …Though… taking a minute to think about it maybe it’s self-criticism? Like: Karkat is obvsl VERY self critical(in a way Kankri very much is not) but both of them are super-critical of the story-itself and the world Hussie, as author, has set it in. So you could think of Blood as being the Critical or Editorial Impulse? MAYBE??

And Breath’s a good example of an esoteric one. While John’s the protagonist, people are constantly telling him what to do in the narrative, and outside of it through the prompt(at least early in HS), so he’s rarely ever deciding anything for himself. His actions drive the story, but his actions aren’t “his”, so what exactly would that make Breath? Plot? Protagonists&Characters?? Is it something simpler and more obvs like Adventure Game Narratives??? Does it include all of these, or is it one thing that covers all of them?x4 Considering Rufioh with John, something you might call “The Irony of Protagonists” seem rather central to whatever Breath is: on the one hand they’re the “hero” of the story and their actions drive the plot; but on the other that also makes them the most controlled, puppeted, plot-significant, and thus least realistic&”free”, of all the characters in the story.

Rufioh(through many years of bad memory, obvsl, so maybe I’m misrepping this) was the center of the primary romantic drama in his Session(which in turn drove the Session), and many of his fellow Players either pursued him, or openly professed their attraction to him. In this respect, they saw him as sort of like the Protagonist of a Dating Sim. Seeing him as attractive they saw him as confident and a player; they cast a particular narrative and identity onto him based on their perspective of him. But that’s not how Rufioh experienced any of those events, or indeed his life. He felt powerless and disrespected throughout; pulled one way then another by both Horuss and Damara, constantly uncomfortable with the desires others expressed for him(and the disinterest of everyone in what he wanted), trapped by his social situation into conditions and roles he never really wanted, and always betraying himself and his own feelings through his lack of confidence, and the inability to take a stand it created. Even thousands and thousands of years later his friends are STILL giving him agency for events he felt were forced on him against his will, and casually hitting on him despite his clear discomfort with it seen in Meenah’s walkaround. So, while he is defined as the “Protagonist” of his story according to those “reading” and telling it, he felt like all he ever did was just what other people told him to do, and chafes against the identity others have forced on him, which he has no control over. In this respect, he experienced all of that as a “Target” of a Dating-Sim; to be dated and wooed, but with no agency of his own.

While much more extreme(and negative), that experience shares some notable qualities with John’s. It suggests that Breath might be “The Illusion of Freedom” literary characters have, and Rufioh’s story suggests audience collaboration is a pivotal aspect of this illusion.

Wow, that kinda got a bit grim, didn’t it |:T |:T

Heart Player Weapons

Actual Weapons

Heart players in Canon (Nepeta, Dirk, (kinda Bro?)) tend to use sharp weapons, weapons used to pierce and cut and tear. I’ll get more into this when talking about themes, but the use of these sharp weapons is very interesting due to phrases like “those words pierced my heart, my very soul” and other such phrases, which I think is fun.

Other weapons that might be appropriate would be Piercing weapons (like needles or lances), again because of their references to certain phrases, Weapons related to those who use their souls to further their goals, I.e. staff weapons due to their relation to monks (people that use their souls to strengthen themselves), candles due to their relation to mediums (people that channel souls), and books, specifically religious books due to their relation to priests (people that use these books to help strengthen their soul).

I suppose you could also use weapons with relation to romance (like chocolate boxes and stuff shaped like hearts, or maybe a bow that shoots heart shaped arrows).

Weapon Themes

A common theme in heart player weapons is of course having romance/love/valentines heart related weapons. While not shown in Canon, it’s like…. Obvious????? I mean, heart players are generally associated with shipping (Nepeta and Meulin are the most obvious, but Dirk has all the romance problems with Jake) and like, why wouldn’t that be reflected in their weaponry?

Anyway, moving on.

Another theme is related to emotions, and phrases involving the heart. Broken hearts might be related in like, the usage of broken weapons, or, non breaking weapons like Dirk’s katana representing his supposedly unbreakable heart (both of which break in Canon funny enough). Or piercing weapons like when something cuts deep enough to touch your soul or someone’s words pierce through your carefully constructed emotional shield.

Heart players are all about that stuff.

Finally is weapons and the soul.

I don’t know much about various themes of the soul in heart weaponry, other than the fact that various interpretations of the soul from various cultures (i.e. the Ba from Egyptian culture or the spirit in more western cultures, possibly even ghosts and stuff like that if you can logically connect the two)

Think about it, having a weapon that summons all the ghosts of failed marriages past, or splitting a foe into all the separate parts of their soul with one sword strike; heart players can incorporate various ways of messing with their foes metaphysical presence with their weapons.

~Weapons Master Blu

Heir of Doom

PRIMARY: CONCEPTUAL

SECONDARY: PHYSICAL

Primaries and Secondaries are how a player’s powers manifest. Conceptual primaries mean they manifest conceptually and manifest physically as a secondary.

ABILITIES

INJURY SINK

Not so much an ability but a physical feature (or a bug, depending on who you’re talking to) - Heirs of Doom, due to their nature of inheriting demise, often have frail health. They bruise easier than most and break bones faster, but because of a lifetime of having to deal with constant pain, they have a ridiculously high pain tolerance which cancels out their injurious nature.

CHEMICALBLOOD

Also due to the inheritor nature of the Heir of Doom, they often have a high tolerance of drugs, alcohol or other substances that may dampen or enhance their senses. Their body immediately begins to break down the substances in alarmingly fast speeds, which means that while they’re not immune to these things, they have to consume/be dealt with large amounts of them.

IMAGINE DRAGONS

When in danger, or when afraid, an Heir of Doom can go radioactive in order to eliminate surrounding threats. As such, they themselves are immune to radiation. It is still not recommended for Heirs of Doom to go around eating glowing radioactive rocks despite the fact that it will do nothing to them.

RACCOON

If the Heir has to resort to physical violence and feels as if they are in danger, they can go rabid and infect someone if they bite them. At any other moment, however, they will show negative in rabies tests.

AMBIENT ABILITIES

As an Heir, this class has ambient, uncontrollable abilities as every other Heir does. This is because Heir classes are served and protected by their aspect, meaning Heirs of Doom are naturally protected by Doom.

MISFORTUNATE

As Heirs of Doom inherit Doom, they have unnaturally bad luck and tend to attract danger, both in the form of people and coincidence. Their high pain tolerance helps them get through their accidents / physical injuries, while their Cosmic Monster helps ward off their physical threats. Their Danger Sense helps them minimize and survive their bad luck.

DANGER SENSE

As Heirs of Doom are naturally protected by Doom, they often have hunches of where and when something bad will happen. It doesn’t always work - often only coming up when the danger will result in their death - but it is always right. The specificity of this sense gets more precise the closer and worse the danger, and the higher the Heir’s level is. Their Danger Sense is the conceptual manifestation of their ‘protected by Doom’ clause.

COSMIC MONSTER

Due to the fact that Heirs of Doom are protected by Doom, the most dangerous person in their session is often metaphysically linked to them and forced to protect them, drawn in by hunches and an emotional attachment manufactured by the cosmic bond. If there is no person dangerous enough, then their classpect will attempt to find something else, like an adversary. If this is also unavailable (especially while the Heir is still progressing through the ranks and hasn’t encountered anything sufficiently dangerous), their aspect will generate its own Cosmic Monster creature, often reflective of the Heir’s personality. The sentience of this Monster depends on the Heir’s personality.

If an Heir’s protector is eliminated, Cosmic Monster will immediately look for a replacement. If the Heir is continuously exposed to danger and cycles through protectors too quickly, a creature will be generated for their own safety. This creature is linked intrinsically to their magic.

KINETICS

When taking physical blows, Heirs of Doom have the natural ability to convert damage into strength. The stronger the hits, the stronger the Heir gets.

STARTER SPELLS

Any spell this class can use at Level One, including but not limited to:

NULLIFY - the ability to nullify magic. At level one, the range of this nullification is localized to the Heir, but at higher levels, they can expand their nullification field.

TECHNOKINESIS - since Doom governs processes, technology and systems, Heirs of Doom have technokinesis. At low levels, this technokinesis manifests as being able to manipulate software or machines without touching them, but at higher levels it allows them to fully link themselves with the machine or software, similar to being Drift Compatible with it.

DECAY - the easiest spell in the Heir of Doom’s repertoire. If the Heir touches an object, it rots and decays, making it an effective combat spell, with the downside of needing close contact.

REAPER

Similar to how Heart Players have Stands, and Rage Players have Berserkers, Doom Players have a magical state unique to them called Reaper, which is essentially a power-up state that physically changes a Doom player’s appearance alongside the massive rise in magical power. Reapers differ from player to player, and though some classifications share names, they often look different due to player personalities and magical level.

Some Reapers are class-locked due to their nature.

AZRAEL Archangel of Death

In this state, an Heir of Doom can curse / condemn targets to death, which will result in misfortune after misfortune until death catches up to them. They can attempt to outrun it, but it will keep hounding them Final Destination style, and eventually catch up to them. The danger of this ability is that it is not only limited to the current fight but will last until the end of the targets’ life. This state also opens the Heir’s senses to Death, which makes them sense if someone is injured or ailing, who’s dead or who is close to death.

Please do not touch the Azrael reaper mode, as their body is made of pure death and touching them would either make your limbs decay or kill you on the spot. In this state, any spell or object that hits the Azrael reaper mode automatically decays said spell or object.

Please note that Azrael is a classification, not the name of a person’s Reaper. Players often name their Reaper based on personal preference.

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classpect-reblogs

3 years ago

of course it could just be that Lord English is using his vast network of recooperacomputers to mine for calcoins

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classpect-reblogs

3 years ago

i think that all stories are about consumption, performance, and/or narrative, and the best combine elements of all three

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