#4354

Rose I completely agree with - but Dave? I don't know if he's really the leader type.

I guess he does share a Class with Karkat, who was fairly effective as a leader, albeit a little unorthodox. Perhaps Dave has the same potential, and we just haven't seen it yet.

ARADIA: tactically speaking a knight of time and a seer of light is a nearly unbeatable combination

Well, if this isn't a fucking rabbit hole of a line. As always, new Title exposition is delivered in the most cryptic manner imaginable - but it still might be possible to glean some new insight from this information.

We know that Rose is some sort of clairvoyant. We've never been told anything about what Knights do, but we have just learned that Dave's powers work extremely well in combination with Rose's. What sort of role would synergize this well with a Seer of Light?

Well, since Rose provides information, then maybe Dave's role is to turn that information into a plan of action, converting raw data into something that's tactically useful. Such an interpretation certainly fits Karkat, a fellow Knight - but I don't know if it fits Dave.

ARADIA: the knight of time is not necessarily the tactician

Oh.

Never mind, then.

ARADIA: he is a powerful warrior class which exploits the flow of time as a weapon

...do mine eyes deceive me? Is a Homestuck character just straight-up explaining a Class to us, with zero ambiguity?

I never thought I'd see the day - but neither will I be looking a gift horse in the mouth. Let's analyze.

Knights weaponize their Aspect.

Dave, the Knight of Time, fights with a time-shifting sword, exploiting his own temporal duplicates to overwhelm and outnumber his opponents. He is, in fact, the only member of his team to wield his Aspect in a fight - at least, prior to John's ascension - and now we know why. In the hands of a Knight, an Aspect is a sword.

Weaponizing time doesn't have to mean 'using it in combat', either. When Terezi attacked the kids' timeline, Dave 'fought back' with his time machines, sending himself into the past to undo the damage she'd done. He's actively adversarial towards Terezi while doing this; it really does feel like he's fighting her, rather than merely resolving a problem she's caused.

Karkat, then, weaponizes Blood - and I think I'm beginning to understand what that means.

I initially pegged Blood as the aspect of genetics, since Karkat's a geneticist, and people who share DNA are said to be 'blood relatives'. Karkat doesn't really 'weaponize' genetics, but there is a concept he's closely tied to - one that I do think he's been wielding like a sword.

Leadership.

Through sheer force of belligerence, Karkat assembled twelve highly dangerous teenagers into a single, relatively cohesive unit. Vriska was pretty sure that without their glorious leader, the trolls would have devolved into infighting - which she, being Vriska, viewed as a good outcome. Classic.

Karkat saved these trolls - and he did it by turning them into a ruthless force of destruction, with him at the helm. This is the essence of Blood - its meaning is in the general area of leadership, teamwork, and people skills.

After all, the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

ARADIA: the seer class knows her aspect comprehensively ARADIA: as a knower of all fortune she can see the circuitous path that will lead to the most favorable outcome for everyone

She can? Jesus, that sounds much, much more powerful than my own interpretation of her powers. It almost sounds like...

TEREZI: TH4T SOUNDS 4 LOT MOR3 US3FUL TH4N MY S33R POW3RS >:[ ROSE: Illumination of the road to victory for all is an asset considerably different from command over the outcomes of decisions made by individuals.

...so, for those unaware, there's a character in Worm known as Contessa, who happens to have one of the most hilariously powerful abilities in the setting: the infamous Path to Victory. Basically, Contessa can specify any arbitrary goal, and her power will inform her of the exact set of actions that will cause her to achieve that goal - and, yes, that's exactly as broken as it sounds.

For example, if her goal was to gain access to an encrypted computer, her power would simply tell her what password she needs to enter to unlock it. Similarly, if her goal was to win a debate with someone, her power could tell her exactly what arguments her opponent would be most receptive to. There aren't really upper limits to this ability, either - even if Contessa's goal is as ambitious as 'legally obtain a quadrillion dollars', or 'take over the world', her power will always be able to find a workable Path - provided there's at least one possible timeline where she can achieve this goal.

Anyway, Rose's new power sounds a hell of a lot like this ability. The only real difference seems to be that, while Contessa can see the Path to any arbitrary goal, Rose can only see a Path to the most 'favorable' outcome for the party.

Even with that restriction, this is still an astoundingly powerful ability. If Rose knows the most optimal actions to take, then she should be practically infallible, even more so than Doc Scratch - assuming, of course, that she's not blinded by the same 'dark pockets' that he was.

... although, that would be a good way to nerf her power down to a reasonable level. My theory is that those dark pockets are parts of Homestuck's plot that Hussie hasn't finished writing, so maybe Rose can only see Paths involving Homestuck lore that Hussie has thought of; in other words, she can't plan around future events that the author hasn't drafted yet.