Latest Posts by classpect-reblogs - Page 3

Vriska Serket, whose lusus constantly demands she feed it, received Cetus as a denizen, a monster known for eating every single fish on the Land of Light and Rain.

More obviously the number 8 is homophonic with the word ‘ate’ (and also takes the shape of the infinity, related to the ouroborous symbol depicting a snake eating itself), and in Homestuck’s symbology the sun - the symbol of the light aspect - is something that is meant to be ‘eaten’ by black holes.

offensive vs defensive

my mage of life friend mentioned something off handedly that i had never noticed before, and i’m pretty sure it puts a hole in the “but passive classes fight stuff!” rebuttal i usually get when talking about -/+ classes.

they DO fight… just not using their powers!

how does john egbert attack?

with a hammer!

but what happens when HE’S attacked?

he uses breath! or rather, he’s supplied with breath. you get the idea though.

when compared against vriska, an active class, john primarily uses his powers for defense.

while vriska’s specibus itself depends on her using her powers primarily for offense!

like everything involving the passive/active dichotomy, this will be based on inclination/preference rather than an absolute rule. and there are definitely things that go against these guidelines, like roxy mostly using her void powers during [s] collide and rose continuing to use her wands after god tiering (though they’re echidna’s quills, so they might be different? i’m pretty sure they channel light though?). but it mostly holds up i think.

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

Breath and Blood: Hands in Spirit and Flesh

(p. 6094)

John’s retcon arm event toward the end of Homestuck is often compared to MS Paint Adventures’ recurring “retrieve arms” gag, but it also forms part of a repeating pattern surrounding John Egbert and the concept of ghostly hands.

Out of sympathy for John’s perceived lack of arms, you pick up the CAKE for him and put it on his BED.

Page 6 is an oft-talked about example of this phenomenon, largely because it doesn’t seem to really have any place in the rest of the story. Despite frequent claims that the fourth wall is being broken, the “YOU as READER” character essentially does not interact with the story ever again after this.

Notice the cyan-and-blue colour scheme the cake takes on while being carried by the “reader’s” hand.

You make a LEFT HANDED REMOTE GHOST GAUNTLET to complete the pair.

An uncannily similar concept crops up over a thousand pages later with the ghost gauntlets, which John alchemises from slime left over by Nannasprite. This explains their colour scheme, but it’s important still to take note of the similarities to John’s iconic god tier colour scheme that appears a whole lot later, as well as to the colour scheme of the cake picked up back on page 6.

Also take note of this line used to describe the ghost gauntlets’ power:

The GHOST GAUNTLET appears to have a considerably higher lift capacity than your own puny arms.

This is because all of these ‘ghostly arms’ around John are actually manifestations of his powers as a Hero of Breath, if not literally - though we know alchemised items often do literally channel a player’s internal powers - then symbolically.

The Breath aspect is one of freedom and separation from that which binds. In the heavily Gnostic context of Homestuck, this especially relates to the soul breaking free from the chains of the flesh. As such, the Breath aspect is one that connects heavily to the spirit. Consider the biblical story in which God breathes live into the clay Adam through his mouth (which also ties into John’s role as the a creator father figure, and the association between ghosts and fatherhood).

When the comic says that the ghostly arms John uses as an extension of his physical form are stronger than his flesh arms, this is a comment on his powers as the Hero of Breath and that his soul will always be stronger than his body.

(p. 2303)

Compare this to the Blood aspect’s association with hands. Jack’s offered “blood pact” with Karkat on page 2303 is often considered a precursor to the Blood symbol, and importantly takes place in the joining of two hands. The Blood aspect is not concerned with separating the spirit hand from the hand of flesh, but rather by making the flesh stronger through bonds.

Take note of another phenomenon that frequently befalls Jack Noir; almost every iteration of him loses one of his physical arms. This is another occurrence often connected to the “retrieve arms” gag, but we can also contrast it with the ghostly “removal” of one of John’s arms.

Vriska’s connection to this phenomenon could be read in two ways. It acts as a symbol of her connection to the Blood aspect when she antagonises Tavros, a Hero of Breath; but it also connects her with a “blood fued” shared with her “blood” ancestor Mindfang as well as Jack Noir himself.

this suicide squad shirt they're selling at hot topic is absolutely killing me

soooo, with the new aspects descriptions and the traits they are focusing on and putting in the spotlight as major defining traits of those aspects, do you think you'll reconsider Joey as Life now instead of Light? (and Jude as Light instead?)

I hadn’t really gotten to Jude yet at all–he still seems like a Doom player, but now I’m more uncertain about all of them.

I have been reconsidering Joey as a Life player pretty heartily, actually, BUT…I think in the end, at least so far, it’s only left me more sure she’s a Light player. 

But the reason why, I think, suggests some new infomation relevant to how the Classpect system works. I’m curious to know what you’ll think about it! And since I’m about to record this in video form and it’s pretty overwhelming and difficult to talk about, I think it’ll help to get my thoughts in order somewhat, so I think I’ll do some prep here. 

My logic goes something like this: 

Keep reading

Classpect Fanmix Collection

“But Momo!” says no one, loudly and in the hypothetical; “I want to reblog your bullshit mixes, but six posts is TOO MANY!” Well, I agree! At your convenience, this is the final release of the collection of aspect mixes in one handy place, one handy post. Featuring a new bonus track on each mix. That’s 54 songs in total!

On 8tracks, in order; Blood & Breath, Light & Void, Life & Doom, Space & Time, Heart & Mind, Hope & Rage.

For lyrics & tracklists, check the classpect mix tag!

This time we dig into Gamzee’s recurring links to the masks of Comedy and Tragedy, historical worship of the Greek god of Theatre, Dionysus, and what all of this tells us about Gamzee’s arc and, potentially, even the Rage aspect.

Today’s question is: Can you think of other trolls with strong ties to figures in Greecoroman/Egyptian/Judeo-Christian mythologies?

You can find links to sources & support the project at: https://www.patreon.com/optimisticDuelist

Keep reading

(Blood: To draw their power from the bonds between them and others, along with getting strength from leading others in the right ways.)

(Light: To seek knowledge above all else, and will venture out and stop at nothing to gain the information they want.)

The Blood-Light bound is smart and knowledge driven, so they would probably be that kind of person that you could find in a library at lunch or researching weird topics at 2 in the morning.

They’re also very social people, regardless of if they’re extroverted or introverted, and they care deeply about their friends and family.

They love to learn about things that could help somebody they care about, and if there’s a hope of helping someone dear to them, they’ll stop at nothing to achieve it.

The Blood-Light love going on adventures with their friends and family if it’ll give them more knowledge about something, and they are super good listeners if you want to talk to them.

Although they’re great listeners, they’re not too good on the empathetic half but they still love to learn niche details about you because they find it super intimate to share small details with someone you’re close to.

If Blood is the stronger aspect in the dual pair, then the Blood-Light bound person is sociable and caring, but with the tendency to be a little bit overbearing at times when you show them affection.

If Light is the stronger aspect in the dual pair, then the Blood-Light bound person is knowledgeable about a lot of different things, is a great listener, and is very ambitious and drawn to a learning adventure.

a chart of all the fused aspects

(we’ll be opening up classpecting description requests soon!)

- mod of Chance

all the sprite^2 moon+aspect mashups as bases

I didn’t really do bases since there’s a lot of different sprite^2 outfits that can be created, but here are all the moon+aspect mashup signs!

It’s kind of no surprise that Dualscar was meant to be this Christian Crusader character, actually, given everything Eridan represented.

Eridan’s the embodiment of the ‘English’ aspect of Lord English; he’s the racist, explicitly genocidal military commander, associated with English wizards and obsessed with all the things one might associated with some nasty English coloniser.

It’s all there in their myth roles, too. Hope’s the aspect associatated with Westernism and Euro-Christian religion. Eridan, as the Prince, is an active destroyer; as soon as he lands on LOWAA, he’s killing the natives (whose noted resemblance to Quetzalcoatl could well be very deliberate) despite zero indication that they drop anything or were meant to be killed. Cronus does the same thing - but as a Bard, he’s passive, and instead of being the one to do the deed, he invites destruction by calling upon the land dwelling authorities to commit genocide for him.

Boom, there, final classpect take, forever, final word, this is the 4th time I say this but this is IT.

The heart aspect is clearly connected with lions (the trolls’ heart player being Leo the lion, and the Prince of the aspect having the lion-headed God Yaldabaoth as a denizen), but I wonder if that means anything for any of the other aspects?

Maybe it’s lions for heart and dragons for mind?

The lion is the symbol of God, and is king of the land animals, while the dragon is the devil and the king of the skies. Nepeta is a lowblood who uses her physical strength instead of psychic powers, and Dirk is Homestuck’s resident manly dudebro machofighter, and Yaldabaoth is the God of the physical realm; meanwhile dragons are capable of a whole bunch of powers associated with psychics (laser eyes, telepathic communion) and Terezi was a master manipulator.

(of course, heart is the aspect of the soul, not the body, so part of a heart hero’s quest must be rejecting some of this focus on the physical aspect and becoming more spiritual; so I wonder what the equivalent of this is for mind heroes?)

Active and Passive Aspects

So now that the whole notional and material idea has been established, that leaves the question, is there another axis to the whole thing? In other words, what separates, say, Mind from Light, or Void from Heart?

I pondered this question for quite a while before coming up with an answer I found satisfactory, and I’m still far from sure I’ve got it right. But I believe the answer might lie in a slightly different perspective on the dichotomy of Active and Passive.

Keep reading

The Lands kind of stick out as an anomaly in Homestuck’s cosmology. They’re not constant, like Skaia and the Veil are; they’re not evolved through prototyping like imps and carapacians; they’re not drawn from mythology like the Denizens; and they’re not made from Thoughtstuff like Prospit and Derse. On a cursory glance they seem to be the one example of something being created ex nihilo in paradox space, a realm that is supposed to contain “essentially nothing new”. So naturally, figuring out the genesis of the Lands would be a great stride toward unlocking Homestuck as a whole.

Obviously the logical first assumption is that the Lands are generated from the players themselves somehow; grinding metal for the swordsman, industrial pipeworks for the pipe smoker’s heir; and this makes perfect sense for as long as we see Sburb as a game whose goal is to guide players into adulthood. But that’s only one side of the coin; every aspect of the game, from frog breeding to prototyping, should also serve the game’s other primary purpose, which is as reality’s method of reproduction. So the question “why are the Lands the way they are” is just as important as the “what are they” question.

My first hypothesis was that if every one of the Lands in the Medium has its own breed of frog, then this could be a means of introducing genetic diversity to the Genesis Frog; a frog with lava-resistant genes, for example, might make a very different to a frog with genes from the Land of Dew and Glass. But I realise now that we don’t even need to introduce this new idea; the grist hoards in the center of each planet already act as a unique genetic code for each session’s Frog.

And since the grist essentially acts as the “essence” of each planet - oil grist for an oil world, chalk grist for a chalk world - we can also view the grist as the “essence” of its associated Hero. This is more pronounced in the trolls’ grist, with Tavros’ grists being brown-orange and Vriska and Gamzee having blue and purple respectively in [S] Make her pay. (We also observe here that Karkat has green grist, but you can make of that what you will.)

And I think this sheds some further light on how the Ultimate Alchemy ties into the alchemy of the self; the process of creating a universe involves the very alchemical components that make up a person. Using one’s inner essence to create an entire world could also be seen as a way of making the internal, external?

So the genesis of a new universe is the contribution of several individuals’ essences to be mixed in one central subterranean hub… i.e. exactly how troll reproduction works, indicating that the jadeblood is suited to the role of frog breeder even moreso than may have originally been thought.