#chromaticroses

Sure. Though I don't know if I'd say I "disagree with canon" so much as I think the more someone tries to give us a straight up, clean answer on it, they're probably an unreliable source. My source is canon, but more holistically.

For me I think this started two places. First: I just..... don't really buy the idea of Pages being the Slow Burn class. I never bought it, honestly? As soon as I figured out how Jake English manages people and their expectations of him to get what he wants, it threw into question the whole concept of the class. Because Jake is the second most emotionally intelligent character in HS after Karkat, but he uses it for himself rather selfishly instead of for a greater cause. When Jake subtly or subconsciously tries to bend the story to his will, he's remarkably effective.

So, of course, I looked at Tavros. What does Tavros Nitram want? Well, he wants to have fun, to progress at his own pace, and to kind of do his own thing. I found it very interesting how the people around him sort of bent to what he wanted. No one stopped Tavros from dreaming on Prospit. He didn't do anything to get those mechanical legs, which he textually wanted, other folks took care of that for him. No one really stopped Tavros from playing the game (both FLARP and SGRUB) the way he wanted to. Aradia enables his allegedly bad class choice, Karkat orders Vriska to save his life, and when Vriska wants to force Tavros to play her way, Kanaya interferes. It's all very cohesive to me in a way that I genuinely do not know if the creator intended, but the pattern is absolutely there.

So, whoop, Pages Are A Slow Burn gets tossed into the garbage where it belongs.

The other one that really made me go "huh" is Calliope's Active/Passive thing. From the moment I read it the first time, I was like "i'm........ not sure that's a thing" and on every subsequent reread and relisten, I became even more certain she's just theorycrafting and its not borne out in the actual text. Which, frankly, fits into Calliope's whole thing of being a proxy for fans, particularly their speculation. She outright says to Dirk she gets carried away with her theorizing.

Like... for me its the Prince thing. I flat out don't think Princes are "The Most Active Class," at all, full stop. The idea is kind of silly to me. Eridan wasn't fucking Super Active, he just became extremely potent when he finally went off. And Dirk, similarly, is the king of Hurry Up And Wait. When shit pops off, he acts with incredible effectiveness, but the rest of the time he's zoning the fuck out, white lying about how cool he is, and fishing.

Same with Seers on the opposite end. Am I meant to take seriously the idea that Rose Lalonde and Terezi fucking Pyrope are the most passive class, nah. No sell. I literally and actually think I could make a better argument that Witches are more passive than Seers.

And then I just... don't agree with Calliope's verbiage of the classes. Dirk was not a destroyer of heart/soul, his most dramatic and effective moments in the story are harnessing his aspect, and in the conversation where Calliope tells Roxy her verbiage, even she says its a little esoteric and hard to grasp.

Calliope's trying to apply very firm wording and delineation to something that Terezi much earlier calls a "hyperflexible mythology." That reading of classpect frankly bears out a lot more, imo.

Which just led me to the conclusion that: all the stuff Calliope says, its her opinion. What I am interested in is action. What do these people do, what do they think of their aspect, how does it manifest.

Thank you!

Carolina will try so hard to be SERIOUS and PERFECT, that she stresses herself into snapping... on the other hand, when she learns how to chill and have a little fun, she'll kinda go bonkers in a different way; she gets to be weird, and annoying, and wild! Less of a breaking point, and more just about being free (which means she won't feel burnt-out later, but genuinely at ease). She deserves to be just as much of a monster and a goober as the rest of the guys! Carolina is both autistic and badass, and the badassery is enhanced by the autism. She's definitely found herself some therapeutic outlets, which has helped (and man, it was such an amazing thing to see her and Epsilon bond; like, at first she was dismissive and he was just confused and irritated, but no matter how many times she told him to shut up, he WOULDN'T. She eventually HAD to talk to him, and they found they had a common goal, but more than that... he wasn't afraid of her, and she allowed him to figure out what it meant to be himself. Carolina had been alone for so long, used to pushing people away, or being tricked into thinking that asking for help was a sign of weakness, and weakness made you worthless. Epsilon helped her, and she finally allowed herself to accept both the help and the friendship. Epsilon made it possible for her to turn to the others later, finding comfort in them after losing Epsilon, and trusting people again. also, Grif is her relaxation-mentor!). She has... so much ANGST. Do I even need to say it? I mean, some of this probably IS her blood... she'll just keep punching until her knuckles get scrapped. Carolina is perhaps not a "conventional Mary-Sue", but I give that to her as a COMPLIMENT; she's one of the most powerful fighters, she could darn near kick everybody's butt in the right situation, she's smart as heck, she is incredibly talented and amazing, she has a tragic backstory, she's a disaster and she's PERFECT, she makes sure her mascara and eyeshadow are just right before going on a revenge mission to kill her dad, she has long fiery red hair that burns with the intensity of a thousand suns and eyes so green they glow like radioactive neon (she's Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, and she will put her middle finger up at you), she got to be the ONLY Carolina (despite two states having the name, while North and South Dakota had to share), she's a war criminal, she's rebel princess, she is all of the things! She's freaking CAROLINA!

(Oh, I actually have an interesting one for that!)

"What do you think about... a re-match?"

Carolina paused her stretching, and looked at Tex; it was like she was calm and excited at the same time, not at all confrontational or angry. She smiled at Carolina in a way that was almost hopeful.

"A re-match... just you and me, no armor, no AI, no equipment, no weapons?" Carolina asked, dropping her arms and taking a few steps so she stood directly in front of Tex. She found that she was beginning to smile herself, and it was both surprising yet expected to feel it happen.

"That's right," Tex nodded. "Just you and me. And we don't have to go for a knock-out, or be all TO THE DEATH about it. We can take a break, catch our breath, then keep going or just stop whenever we feel like it. How does that sound?"

"Sounds good to me," Carolina agreed, and just like that, both of them shifted into a fighting position.

Just before she surged forward, Carolina's thoughts were a mix of previously known facts about Tex's abilities in battle and potential strategies for combat, and then the sudden realization that a lot of that would be useless... Tex wasn't in the body of a sophisticated robot. They were both flesh and bone, and Carolina herself was a little out of practice when it came to hand-to-hand combat outside of armor. This sparring match would be... something new.

Then they were both movies, and Carolina had to think less and react more. At first, both were simply giving each other little "test-taps", hits that weren't too harsh, meant to get a feel for what they were both capable of. It became clear that neither of them were made of glass, and that was when each began to put some POWER into their movements.

Carolina was quick, and Tex was sturdy. More than once, Carolina had to dodge a holy-hell of a hay-maker that would have sent her sprawling, and Tex found herself needing to constantly block and recover from Carolina's rapid strikes. At one point, they both stumbled apart, paused a moment to look at each other, and let out short huffs of laughter; this wasn't a grudge-match, or a fight with negative repercussions; it was a test of strength and skill, and it was actually kind of... fun.

Oh, Sigma... just, all over the place with these thoughts. For starters, me likey flames, so obviously I think Sigma looks cool as heck! Also, why? Why are you on fire, bro? I guess it is a theme of "burning ambition" and such, but... did Alpha make him out of fire? Did the Director re-design him that way? Did he do it himself on purpose, or was it just a randomized glitch, and he rolled with it? The world may never know! I would be a little worried about Sigma during the Freelancer times, because he kinda had this... hidden desperation going on under the calm surface. Like, I'd get into a screaming match with Omega, no fear, but Sigma would figure out exactly how to hurt your feelings! Sigma would try to make you cry! Despite all that, Sigma is still a blorbo. In terms of depth, I kinda feel like the series is very open about how Sigma has a lot going on, but we never get a conclusion on certain things... it is pretty easy to just call Sigma "bad", see the "horrible person" spot, for example. The thing is, he's a lot MORE than just "bad". He isn't the "Evil Fragment", he's ambition and creativity. I keep thinking about the rant Epsilon had, where he and the other AI mentioned how much they trusted the Director, and the way it hurt when they were betrayed/tortured by him. They looked up to the Director. What kind of example did he set for Sigma? A man willing to burn down the world to get what he wants... the AI Fragments are MEANT to work as a dynamic, but even outside of that, Sigma is good at connecting with others. I really do think that he saved Maine's life... not just in battle, but internally, emotionally. Maine wasn't brain-washed into helping Sigma, and Sigma could have just taken a robot body or something if all he needed was a physical form; they both wanted to understand being human. There was almost this theme of "not knowing what you had until you lost it" with Sigma, and I like to imagine that if things had been different, after all he experienced, all the pain, all the struggles... Sigma would make the choice to STOP trying to attain "perfection" at the cost of others (Epsilon once told the Director "I'm better than you", and you know what? so is Sigma)

we’re definitely not the same person, man. i’m sorry people keep fucking. acting like we are. both in this world and in source… i kinda resented you at times for taking my identity but, it’s not like you asked for it.

sorry you got stuck with all those memories, too. they weren’t exactly. fun. i kinda wish i’d been able to, yknow. handle it. not burden someone else with all that bullshit. but it’s not like either of us really had a choice in the matter.

we just got dealt a pretty shit hand. at least the time with the guys was. decent. thanks for looking out for them, or whatever. hope the hand you got dealt this time is a little bit less shit.

🥺🥹💜 ask dragon age for me.... 💜💜💜💜

well my favorite of all time is a pc/canon ship but not a canon romance but i did think of a niche npc/npc ship that has recently made me feel like eating glass lmao so i did two

i attempted to give some context but not completely infodump >< idk if that was achieved lol

(dark blue is for alpha, light blue is for epsilon)