#also i have a feeling that while rose is witch of void only in inversion chanid be a good example of healthy witch of void

[gejnialnie]

it just hit me, chani is like rose lalonde but with different type of edge...

[autumnblogs]

Day 4: You eat a weird bug and don’t even care.

Starting later than usual today because I’ve been absolutely swamped with work. Let’s get down to business to defeat the Huns.

https://homestuck.com/story/644

I’ve never really gotten why John falls asleep here. Seems an odd place to fall asleep, especially with the adrenaline rush that must have been. Maybe he’s passing out from exactly that? Alternatively, maybe Vriska is putting him to sleep.

 I also forgot that John Sleeps/Skaian Magicant is split between two flashes.

https://homestuck.com/story/651

Ah here we go. John has what are, if Jade is to be believed, lousy dreams. He dreams of his Dad, of clowns, of baked goods, of Fruit Gushers, of his own symbol, the weird knock-off slimer, and Harry Anderson, before finally Jade appears.

I am not a psychologist or therapist. I am not even anything more than an amateur literary critic. But let me give you my take on that. It’s clear that John is dreaming about all kinds of things that are giving him anxiety here, if Jade’s assessment about his dreams being lousy is true.

Harry Anderson is, as he’ll say later, kind of a weird mutual father figure for him and his Dad, and as a stage magician and comedian, he represents John’s aspirations.

John wants to grow up to be a great stage magician and comedian, and if there’s anything we’ve seen about the Heir of Breath so far, it’s how extremely self-critical he is of his abilities - he’s screwed up every disguise and magic trick he’s tried so far. 

The other things are pretty self-explanatory - he’s anxious about his relationship with his Dad, he’s anxious about his Dad’s identity, he’s anxious about his own identity - with the exception of the gushers. Are gushers just symbolizing Sburb for John? Does he have a premonition that the gushers are tainted by the hand of his archnemesis, Betty Crocker? Maybe that one’s just silly.

Maybe they’re all just silly!

https://homestuck.com/story/652

I promise I will have more to say about Jade’s conversations once she is actually introduced, but until then, she is too enigmatic for me to talk about :^)

I will say, if the fact that John is stressing out about everything in his life and just not vocalizing his anxiety, it’s probable that he thinks Jade is just as mysterious as his pals think she is, and is just not talking about it.

I think John, like Jake, is way more intelligent than he lets on, and probably just keeps a lot of things on a simmer, thinking about them without necessarily opening up about them. He talks a lot about surface level stuff for sure, but he seems a lot more hesitant to talk about emotions, theories, that sort of thing. It actually reminds me a lot of how Kim Kitsuragi from Disco Elysium, far from his highly imaginative partner the player character, writes his thoughts down in a notebook to keep track of his through processes, hunches, case details, etc, whereas the Detective organizes everything in an interactive Thought Cabinet that serves as one half of the game’s Inventory and Progression System.

For example, John’s ability to describe and his ability to theorize is on full display in the FAQs that he writes, but when he talks, he’s often just as disorganized as he is everywhere else. Maybe John needs to take up journalling.

Huh. I wonder if Kim is a Prospit Dreamer and the Detective is a Derse Dreamer? That would make a lot of sense. Once @bladekindeyewear finishes playing Disco Elysium (which he is playing at my behest), I’ll see if he’s interested in assigning Lunar Sway, Classes and Aspects to the two of them.

https://homestuck.com/story/665

Dave Owns. The Narrative switches between character perspectives often right before there’s a major climax so that lots of characters can all have climactic encounters in sync with one another.

Eye imagery is on full display here as Dave ascends to the highest point in the building. The Sun over Dave’s house is drawn differently from other abstractions of the Sun in Homestuck, and this particular drawing of the Sun will later be juxtaposed against Terezi’s eyes as Alternia’s Sun burns them out.

The Sun as the Symbol of Light is also juxtaposed with Rose’s eyes later when she uses her seer powers, strengthening the connection between the Sun and Eyes. Near the very beginning of the comic, Rose compares the Sun moving on from the east coast to the west as him casting his lurid gaze on younger parts of the world, or the country. I’m not recalling the exact phrasing at this time.

Lil Cal’s creepy eyes are also highlighted by the Camera here. Through the vehicle of Lil Cal, Lord English is watching and quietly giving approval to all of this.

I choose to interpret the camera’s focus in this flash as giving us a glimpse into what Dave is paying attention to. And boy does Dave notice all of these eyes on him. Between seeing the sun as a malevolent eye watching him, to Lil Cal’s glassy gaze, to the Cameras bro uses to surveil him 24/7, Dave feels like he’s constantly being watched, and I think it’s safe to say it gives him the creeps.

https://homestuck.com/story/673

WV’s self-estimation isn’t much better than John’s.

https://homestuck.com/story/678

I wonder if we can get some insight into the strange minds of the Carapacians in the way that before he’s even finished receiving the commands, WV acts on them. WV is even more impulsive than John.

https://homestuck.com/story/684

Oh yeah, WV’s self-worth is way worse than John’s.

https://homestuck.com/story/685

Luckily almost as soon as his thoughts come, they go. He doesn’t spend too much time brooding over his self-loathing and survivor’s guilt, so good for him.

https://homestuck.com/story/688

A whole bunch of things that are symbolically related to the cast!

While WV’s can town playtime functions as foreshadowing for us, it serves as a replay of the extremely recent past for him, at least in terms of events that we know about.

https://homestuck.com/story/694

The light on Serenity’s belly looks a bit like the Sun, and therefore, an eye.

https://homestuck.com/story/699

The Blue Trees of Can Town call forward to Terezi’s forest, but I don’t think this is probably more substantial than something fun Andrew decided to call back to when he was writing the trolls.

IDK. Maybe Blue Trees = Democracy = Justice?

But Terezi’s brand of justice has nothing to do with Democracy.

https://homestuck.com/story/709

Tab, like GameBro, is an artifact of a bygone age.

https://homestuck.com/story/711

It’s a lot easier to become a citizen of Can Town than it is to become a citizen of the United States!

https://homestuck.com/story/714

I wonder who input all those commands before WV got on board? Maybe whoever was in charge of building these contraptions in the first place - a Carapacian Lab Rat in the Veil.

Always felt like the unseen actors making Sburb run behind the scenes were one of the nicest touches, they lend an air of sinister mystery even beyond the Guardians.

https://homestuck.com/story/721

I am not good at chess.

Maybe sometime, I will have my friend who is good at Chess analyze this game, and see how he feels about it.

https://homestuck.com/story/735

WV’s Self Esteem is very, very bad.

https://homestuck.com/story/752

Our first introduction to the laws of time travel in Homestuck - the past is a place that materially exists, and in only one specific configuration that can be interacted with. You can only bring things forward from the past if nobody else got to them before you. You can’t go back and undo things that somebody else (or you) has already done according to the canonical configuration of events.

https://homestuck.com/story/757

This is ridiculously cool.

Homestuck’s huge climactic story events are arguably one of the things that makes it so special as a story. I can’t think of a story that does such a good job of building up tension in multiple storylines before having them all converge.

https://homestuck.com/story/760

:D

https://homestuck.com/story/765

I wonder what the exact mechanism is by which Jade is aware of the gaming abstractions and commands to the degree that she is? Is it just her Skaian dreams? This could be a one-off gag, but it could also be an indication of a degree of clairvoyance greater than that which I feel like the visions she has as the Prospitian Moon passes through Skaia.

https://homestuck.com/story/768

Jade loves to watch things grow.

It’s a Space Thing.

https://homestuck.com/story/777

According to BladeKindEyeWear’s Inversion Theory Jade’s complicated and carefully orchestrated time loops, which she uses to connect people with possibilities, is an example of her inverting under extreme stress, acting more like a Seer of Time, her opposite, than like a Witch of Space (in much the same way that Rose acts an awful lot like a Witch of Void for much of the comic’s first half!)

I expect a real Seer of Time wouldn’t need quite so many contrivances to keep track of everything going on in the past and future. Eventually, Jade stops using her colourful reminders, which is probably an indicator that she is no longer attempting to play outside of her lane.

https://homestuck.com/story/789

Pretty much all of Jade’s interests cast her immediately as someone with a pretty strong maternal instinct, something that she shares with other heroes of Space. Jade is a caretaker. 

Her playthings are dolls so she can roleplay the part of a Mom. She grows oodles of plants, and seems to have a knack for it. She likes animals, and though the only animal in her life takes care of her, she puts in some work to take care of him too.

Her interests definitely mark her as the more classically girly of the two between her and Rose, and like her brother is preoccupied with manhood and Dadliness, Jade seems to preoccupied with Momliness - which is odd, considering that she doesn’t have a maternal figure to aspire to! (Maybe the White Queen?)

https://homestuck.com/story/790

Jade is not of course, only girly. The same way that Dad’s culturally out-of-place baking hobby marks him as transgressively feminine to John’s dismay, Jade’s scientific and artillerist hobbies are transgressively masculine.

Although it’s tempting to say that Jade loves the sciences because Grandpa raised her to, or because she’s aping him after he died, she’s clearly born to it. I think about the question of nature and nurture a lot in Homestuck.

I think on the whole, it falls pretty far to the side of Nature. Characters who share a common ancestry also share common character traits more often than not, even in the absence of shared cultural touchstones, shared geography, shared timeline. The same character only has a limited number of possible choices that they could have made, as Aranea will later say.

On the other hand, some characters turn out very different in one life than they do in another. Dirk doesn’t turn out nearly the psychopath that Bro Strider is by the time that Homestuck Proper concludes.

https://homestuck.com/story/795

Squiddles are, as everyone knows by now, a manifestation of the Dark Gods of the Furthest Ring, but I think there’s more going on with them too - they have kind of a horny energy that I can’t quite place. I’m going to come back to that. Any case, they seem to be one of the symbols that Rose and Jade share in common, although Rose subverts the colorful and cute squiddles into icons more of the extradimensional beasties that they actually represent.

Maybe I think Squiddles are a symbol of horny for the same reason that snakes are lewd to Cherubs - there’s definitely something phallic about tentacles, and definitely something intimate about the idea of becoming someone’s tangle buddy. The very first time I read Rose’s handle, I thought it read Tentacle The Rapist, which I suspect is kinda the point, and some of Andrew’s other works have variously described the process of interacting with tentacles as being molested and so on and so on.

Rose and Jade actually share a huge number of symbols in common between the two of them, which I think is great, but also sad - Rose and Jade clearly actually have quite a lot in common, and the two of them don’t really interact very much.

https://homestuck.com/story/797

I’m going to eventually decode Jade’s fascination with animals too, but for now I want to remark that it’s not just the idea of looking like an animal that excites Jade - it’s the idea of being  like an animal that excites her. The exact same little poem is later reiterated by Serenity in WV’s nightmare, as he dreams of losing control of the power of the Ring of Orbs Fourfold and killing everyone he loves. What would be a nightmare for WV though is a fantasy for Jade. The idea of being out of control is thrilling for her.

Dave is also a furry.

https://homestuck.com/story/798

The trappings of a proper gentleman. Monocle. Pipe. Top Hat. Little White Gloves. A proper gentleman without these is a piss poor excuse for a proper gentleman indeed.

SYMBOLS.

https://homestuck.com/story/800

Another spot where Jade is able to interface directly with the audience, in some form or another.

https://homestuck.com/story/802

Jade may have fantasies of transforming into something more animalistic, but she’s not willing to indulge them.

https://homestuck.com/story/803

Jade completely rejects the symbols of witchcraft that Rose so readily embraces.

https://homestuck.com/story/804

Jade contemplates engaging in some Vriskaesque behavior. Is it just because Vriska is watching her? Maybe she’s picking up some Vriska-esque vibes through the feed as the Thief of Light practices her mind control. 

https://homestuck.com/story/808

I think it’s safe to say one of two things is going on here.

Jade is either literally cognizant of the audience and interacting with them, putting her on a layer of the story that is quite a lot closer to us than you would expect of someone as innocuous as Jade (maybe the immediate presence of the Fourth Wall upstairs could facilitate that relationship?)

Or Jade has an active imagination, is extremely lonely, and likes to interact with her imaginary audience as a way of projecting a friendly and hospitable demeanor onto the world around her in sort of the exact opposite way that Rose imagines the worst of everything and everyone?

Or, as it often is in Homestuck, it could be both motherfuckin’ things.

https://homestuck.com/story/829

Did I mention Dave is a furry? Dave is totally a furry.

If we read Squiddles as a symbol of intimate contact with living things, Jade’s computer having Squiddles front and center is appropriate - it’s her point of contact to all the people in her life.

Tune in on the morrow to watch Dave’s Bro beat the shit out of him.

Until then, this is Cam signing off, alive and not alone.

[ask-the-page-of-space]

Anonymous said: Hello, I'm sorta confused about being grimdark. From what I understand, Rose somewhat resembled a witch of void (her inverse self) when she went grimdark; on the other hand, Jade resembled a seer of time during the early stages of SBURB, Dirk was more mindy than hearty, Vriska was more voidy than lighty, etc. So wouldn't that mean that being grimdark means you're just fully embracing a part of who you are who is apparently not yet fully realized? I just kinda want your opinion on the topic ^o^

So, the actual in-canon info we’ve got on going grimdark is rather limited. We’ve only seen it happen to two (arguably three) characters, and in all cases, nobody really talked about it afterward. I can sort of see where you’re coming from with the inverted classpect thing, but I feel like that’s sort of a stretch, especially since I don’t really subscribe to the notion of classes and aspects being in direct opposition to each other. For instance, I don’t really see how a Witch and Seer, as I know those classes, are opposed to one another.

It’s been suggested that going grimdark is like a mirror version of going “trickster”: Both raise the player to a level of power they have yet to obtain while also sending them somewhat out of control of themselves. Difference is, whereas a trickster player is zany and overwhelmingly positive, a grimdark player is brooding and full of spite. Generally speaking, neither is looked back upon as a good time...unless you’re a cherub, I guess.

[mxgeclasspecting]

Session with a Sylph of Void , Rouge of Rage, Knight of Blood, Seer of Mind, Witch of Space, Mage of Time, and Maid of Light please! The Sylph, Witch, Mage , and Maid are sisters (youngest is the Sylph and the oldest is the Maid and Mage who are twins). The Sylph and Rouge are morails. And welcome to Tumblr as a new aspect blog! Hope you have fun!

I actually miscounted, and this is the last thing left in the inbox! I’ll open requests again, and after I get 20, I’ll close them. Feel free to ask me questions, though, just don’t send in requests.

Seven player session: Sylph of Void, Rogue of Rage, Knight of Blood, Seer of Mind, Witch of Space, Mage of Time, Maid of Light

# of players: 7

Required aspects: Covered, Witch of Space/Mage of Time.

Breeding the Genesis Frog:Witches of Space are sort of an odd case? As long as they focus and are past the part of their development where they don’t really pay much attention to Space (see early Jade), you should be good.

In Case of a Scratch:

Given their knowledge of and experience with Time, scratching should be relatively easy. The only thing I would recommend watching out for is that it could be difficult for the Mage themself to leave the session with a scratch, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Players (Active to passive)

Witch of Space, the third Witch of this blog! Jade is a pretty clear example for this title, both pre and post development. Whether or not they choose to use their partial association with Time, their powerset is pretty large. They could manipulate physical properties of things a la Jade shrinking the beta kids’ planets, change the action necessary that’s being taken (though this may overlap a bit with Life), or change the present itself! They could motivate people into taking action and making things happen, which may be best applied, taking the nature of SBURB into account, with game constructs such as breeding the Genesis Frog (see the Mage as their normal assistant, or convincing people to take other action so they can complete this task undisturbed), finishing personal quests, and perhaps leading the charge against the Black King. An all-around player who’ll be instrumental for ensuring the session goes smoothly on a technical level.

Knight of Blood, I believe our second Knight? I don’t see too many potential problems based on titles alone that may need this Knight’s interference, but it’s still useful to have. Applying Blood might make them the best ‘friendleader’, given that not unlike a Mage, they can use the Blood they’ve observed in their session so far and use it to their advantage, whether that’s helping their teammates resolve an argument, dividing up tasks according to who’s best suited for them, or possibly helping the Sylph or Rogue destabilize the Dersite authority. Taking Blood literally, they may be good with knowledge of flesh wounds, though that crosses more into Life and possibly Space territory. While likely more of a strategist, this Knight should not be overlooked when it comes to full attacks, and will be a useful ally.

Maid of Light, a title I’ve actually analyzed on its own. In the beginning, they may be at odds with the Sylph, considering their possible rejection of (or full inversion from) Light. However, like the Knight, they should be a good strategist/support player, providing distractions rather than being the main heavy hitter- if I may make a comparison, something like Boney from Mother 3, who’s fast and has many useful tricks but not too much physical strength. They could also fulfill a tank role in combat, creating relevancy/attention for themself instead of a teammate so said teammate can do the real damage. Creating unnatural information, which is just manipulation in kinder words, would likely do a lot for the team’s success as long as it isn’t directed at the team itself and instead at their opponents. A key player for behind the scenes work, you’ll want them to realize their powers and get past the first part of their development.

I analyzed a Mage of Time in my last session, so a lot of what I said applies here too, but I’ll reiterate. Personally, Mage and Time is a good combination so long as the Mage themself doesn’t get worn out by how much there is to experience about Time. They may have some sort of glitch in SBURB which allows them to experience their place in doomed timelines, therefore letting them know what not to do so that they can avoid their timeline becoming doomed. If they’re in a doomed timeline, they might be able to pull a Davesprite and give some crucial information to the alpha version of themself. They would likely be an incredible partner for the Witch in terms of frog breeding, especially if their knowledge of doomed timelines has encompassed failed attempts at searching for or actually breeding the final Genesis Frog. Their knowledge of what things have what effect on the timeline or series of events would make them a wonderful secondary leader to the Knight, but they could also make a capable fighter. Keep them alive and, well, sane–Time is a hard aspect to have for any class–and they should be an instrumental player even beyond their status as one of the cardinal players.

While I don’t believe I’ve ever covered a Seer of Mind, combining their knowledge of the path of decisions, analysis, and the collective with the Mage’s knowledge of the end result of, well, Time would make a wonderful pair. Because they can really only see the path, though, they would have to either learn to trust their instincts about how a certain thing would end or trust their teammates, especially the Mage who only really sees the end. They and the Mage could make a good strategy team for the main party, using their collective half-knowledge to figure out the best route for the best outcome. They also might be the session’s idea fountain, though their ideas may not always be the best. Maybe they could use their knowledge of the outer self and facades to become a spy or assist someone else, like the Sylph, in that task? Their powers aren’t necessarily suited to combat, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be a good offensive player, see Rose. It just means that they’d probably have to use their own ingenuity and not their powers for their attacks, though they could be useful in knowing what possibilities to act on. Wonderful strategist and a relatively good match for pretty much every member of the team.

Just like the Mage, I did have a Sylph of Void in the last session I analyzed! Overall, they’d likely work incredibly well with the Maid based on power set alone: where the Maid could give something benign relevance, the Sylph could create irrelevance for themself and their team, allowing for easier attacks. They could take away the meaning from ideas/information by giving whoever has it ignorance, indirectly destroying the information. While they’re very good as a support/defensive player, they could use their powers to their benefit in offense by becoming almost a trickster, weaponizing their ability to ‘heal’ with irrelevance and nonexistence by making it appear that something doesn’t exist, or popping in and out of an enemy’s ‘vision’ to confuse them while attacking. They and the Seer could make a good pair for potential espionage, or if the Dersites are planning anything against your Prospit dreamers, their powers could help make it seem as though everything’s fine and there’s not even anyone to attack. They could be very good at protecting your two cardinal players during the process of searching for the frogs, especially if anyone, native to SBURB or not, is trying to hinder their progress. While the role may seem to be meant for support or defense, their powers are so versatile that a creative player could do really anything with them!

You said that the Sylph and the Rogue were moirails? Well, Void and Rage are relatively similar aspects, and these two could definitely help each other. Speaking of just your Rogue of Rage, though, they’re another member who seems more to be a support role. With Rage being anger, negative emotions, but also strength and the ability to be a hard stop, taking that to give to others could be wonderful! In combat, this Rogue could simply steal the strength–the will to fight–from the enemy and give it to themself and their teammates, which has the potential to make it more of a one-sided curb stomp battle. Rage as disbelief could make your Rogue the main reality check, especially to your more… airy players, like possibly the Witch and the Maid. If something seems too good to be true, they likely know that it is, and they could give that quality to, say, an enemy leader to make their own subordinates not trust them! That, along with possible assistance from the Knight or Maid, could tear any opponents’ unity and, really, strength apart! Like the Sylph, they would likely have to be a bit more creative in terms of how to use their powers in battle, but it might be easier to structure the usage of their powers around how they or others fight. Still, though, a great combination which, used effectively, can make or break the enemy team.

Final Thoughts: I really don’t see any problems here! Except for possible sibling rivalry, the titles don’t really pose too many obvious problems, and unless something I couldn’t know about comes along, you seem like you have a good balance for a session! Congrats!

[roachliquid]

OK, this is gonna be a hot take, so hear me out.

(Also, this is Homestuck, so if you’re not into that or don’t want spoilers, you’re gonna want to skip this one.)

I’ve noticed that bladekindeyewear’s model of classpect arrangement seems to be pretty much universally accepted (or at least, accepted enough to be given considerable credence on the Homestuck wiki), which makes a lot of sense.  It’s tight, it’s well thought-out, and it actually answers more questions than it raises, for the most part.  Which is why I’m bringing it up - I’m actually operating on the assumption that most of his conclusions, including the majority of class pairings and inversion theory, are correct.

But (and this is a pretty big but, so get comfy) it’s missing out on a key clue to the puzzle, specifically: Karkat.

Karkat is effectively the troll sessions’ counterpart to John.  He’s crabby where John is calm, cynical while John is almost brainmeltingly openminded, obsessed with romantic fulfillment whereas John is ambiguously asexual, etc.  He’s even got the counterpart aspect to John’s - Blood vs. Breath.

So that got me thinking... why would he have the aspect counterpart, but not class?

I want to clarify here that I don’t think Karkat is an inverted John.  Knight doesn’t invert to Heir no matter what system you’re using.  An inverted John, I believe, would actually be a worse person than Karkat.

(Karkat’s not a great person, but there’s a reason his nickname is Nubs McShouty, and not, IDK, Prongs McStabby.  As far as trolls go he’s practically a cinnamon roll.  Anyway.)

So, rather than having the inversion of John’s class, I’m proposing that Karkat simply has the counterpart.  That Heir and Knight are a pair.  And I’m going to explain myself.

So, the first thing to address is one of the popular justifications for pairing up Knight and Page - that they have thematically complementary names.  This isn’t the worst reason to put them together, particularly since the counterpart pairing - Thief and Rogue - have a similar rhythm going on - but I am going to go out on a limb and say that’s not enough justification.  You also have to argue that they’re “two sides of the same coin”, and when you look at them, they’re really not.

BKEW argues that Knight and Page are both “exploiters”, characterized by a lack of their class and a need to carefully utilize what they do have to produce a greater result than it ostensibly would have been capable of.  And BKEW, I have to apologize in advance, because I love your work, but:

This is stupid.

Look at the classes in Homestuck.  One thing you might notice about them is that their names TYPICALLY correlate in a pretty straightforward manner to what they’re about.  Witch is a powerful manipulator, Thief steals, etc.  Prince, Bard, and Lord are the only real exceptions here, and that’s because they operate on a separate level of internal Hussie logic that seems to really hate royalty (and understands the unmitigated chaos that invariably happens when you bring a bard into the room).  So based on how other classes work, the correct role for a Knight should be a protector, not an exploiter.  And I’d like to point out that “protect” as a core concept pairs very well with the “steal” concept behind Thief and Rogue.  Better than “exploit”, even.

Furthermore, THIS IS NOT EVEN HOW PAGE WORKS.  Page is characterized by a lack of something that they will later have in abundance, provided they can work through their personal issues.  They don’t have to scrimp and save their aspect - they just have to earn it, and then they’re golden.  Jake English, legendary Page of Hope, is the ur-example here - at his full power level, he is capable of a hopesplosion on par with what Jade demonstrated when she first rose to god tier.  And while the first demonstration of this power was artificially induced and arguably not healthy, it’s confirmed at multiple points that this is also the power level he would eventually reach by properly completing his personal journey.  (Cal’s puppet theatre is the obvious citation here, but there’s another conversation I don’t remember the details of wherein Jake and another character are talking about the event and he is told that he COULD get back to that level of functionality in a healthier way.)  Tavros is a lesser example - his personal journey ends with him getting over his reliance on Vriska for self-worth, recognizing that he is capable of exercising autonomy, and using it to recruit an entire goddamn army.  It’s not as flashy or all-encompassing as Jake’s hopesplosion, but as far as dead trolls go, it’s pretty fucking impressive.

Busting Page out of knight-pairing jail is only half the battle, of course.  With Knight’s counterpart slot open, this has the potential to throw the whole system into disarray - or half of it, anyway.  After all, we don’t REALLY know for certain that Mage and Sylph are a pair, what if one of them is actually paired up with Knight?  There are some interesting possibilities here.

But there’s also some information that will help us narrow those possibilities down.  For instance, we have information (mentioned in one of the posts I linked) that states that the two most passive classes prefer male players.  With that in mind, we know we can only pair Witch - the most active normal class, if we follow the trail of breadcrumbs Hussie left us - with Heir or Page.  And since this whole theory hinges on Heir being the counterpart to Knight, that leaves us with Page, and Maid & Sylph stay exactly where they are.

Page works well as a manipulator, IMO.  Jake’s example is pretty straightforward - he straight-up channels the element of Hope to get shit done.  Tavros, in a less literal way, employs his own freedom to great effect.  Again, it’s not flashy, but neither was Feferi’s negotiation with the Horrorterrors to produce the Dream Bubbles, but that was certainly an example of her manifesting her classpect, as it saved a bunch of dead characters from ultimate oblivion in the void.

Heir as a protector is a somewhat tougher sell, if only because the title doesn’t really indicate the kind of person who guards something - unless it’s a plucky young heir rising to power to protect his estate, IDK.  Role-wise, though, we DO see John doing just as much to safeguard his session and people as Dave does.  While Dave operates behind the scenes, setting up key events and harvesting important information from doomed timelines, John is keeping things together in the limelight - first by initiating the game, and later by performing the Scratch and the Retcon.  Hell, in some ways he feels like the active counterpart to Dave, which is making me wonder if it’s not Knight/Heir but Heir/Knight - but that’s probably a discussion for another time.

Anyway, that’s my dissection of S---bian mechanics.  I’m certainly not saying I’m objectively right - who knows what was going on in Hussie’s head when he designed any of this - but I do think there’s a good chance that Karkat was intended to be John’s counterpart in EVERY way, including his class.  I like this theory because it makes things just a little bit smoother on the character design stage, and also because pairing Knight with Page on the basis of names always felt cheap and awkward in comparison to how carefully planned out many of the other class pairings were.