#technically i still have a makara (and thus a clown) in there but fuck you fight me i need and escape

[clownculler]

ok so I think I’ve got a new idea as for what a mage is. the way I’d define it is one who is haunted by their aspect.

now, obviously, it is incredibly difficult to work with just two data points, a fact that has plagued homestuck classpecting for years, but if we look at what we know about heart and doom from dirk and mituna respectively, we can draw a few conclusions.

the heart aspect, in its simplest form, deals with one’s identity. for dirk this was a tendency towards self-destruction, and for nepeta it was a feeling of inadequacy with herself, and subsequently leeching off of other characters’ personalities (or physical form later on in the comic.)

the doom aspect is difficult to work with for the same reason as mage is, but we can actually gain quite a bit of understanding through mituna. as the heir, he inherits his aspect, much as egbert inherits breath (freedom and inspiration) and equius inherits void (emptiness and irrelevance). if we view doom through that lens, mituna’s story reveals doom to be, in it’s simplest form, misery and misfortune.

looking at sollux, we see that he is plagued constantly by both misery and misfortune, and yet it never consumes him completely. any relief from these things also quickly reveals itself to be temporary. alternia sucked hard for everyone. this is irrefutable and would serve as the definition if planets could have such things. sollux specifically suffered through more physical pain on a daily basis than any other character as a result of his migraines. it’s never explicitly stated how severe they got to be, but it is entirely possible that they got to be debilitating at times.

now, while characters such as tavros and terezi display that disability is not 100% a death sentence on alternia, especially since the twelve are cosmically destined to survive at least until the game begins, but the threat would have been constantly looming over his head. but it never comes.

not until the vast glub, and at that point feferi has the opportunity to save him. he never complains about his migraines after this point, which leads me to believe that his dream selves don���t have the same brain mutation (it should be noted that psychic abilities are tied to the spirit and not the body) and offers him relief. but it does not last, as the session eventually stagnates.

this theme continues for quite some time, with sollux consistently being offered relief in one form or another, only for old arms of misery and misfortune to pull him back. he wait to die on alternia, he waits for them all to die in sgrub, he waits for the universe to collapse in paradox space. he is unable to heal and unable to die. he is perpetually tailed by his aspect like a shackle.

meulin has less evidence going for her on this front, as she is almost completely irrelevant by the time of the comic. but from what we do know, she is acutely aware of the personalities of everyone around her. she understands them to the point of being able to effectively play matchmaker. and yet she cannot have this for herself. she is noted as having terrible luck in her own relationships, and even kurloz is using her to an extent by the time we see her. she finds herself unable to find fulfillment in her aspect, and unable to escape. in this way her ability to understand others acts not as a a boon, but another layer to her aspect’s hold over her.

in closing, sollux, the mage of doom, is haunted by misery in it’s various forms throughout the comic, and meulin, the mage of heart, is haunted by her own and others’ self actualization throughout her (un)life. neither can escape, and neither can reach their full potential because of it.