#heir analysis

Hallo! I have not been active on the internets from my computer in multiple days because my internet died and I wanted to give you a proper answer with correct grammars :33

... Ok so I really am sorry for not answering my internet has been spotty at best for like a week but it’s pretty good now so I can finally actually answer!

Well, heir of hope... let’s start with heirs, shall we?

Heirs, as far as I interpret them, are more literal versions of pages; while a page would channel the spirit of their aspect as part of their personality, a heir would become their aspect physically (which is a fact that’s supported by canon! I love having theories and then remembering that they’re actually entirely canon ^^”). So heirs’ personalities tend to reflect their aspect more literally as well, being almost archetypes for “this is what being X aspect means”.

I’d say they’re a simpler class, but that might not be entirely accurate, because aspects have a lot in them, if you’re willing to look. Like how void may be about mysteries and things hidden in shadows, but also includes contradictoriness (is that a word? It feels like it should be a word), or how breath can be wind but also scatterbraininess (never let a breath player build their own schedule, it’s like a hurricane went in and messed all their meetings up... which, I suppose it is.. but that’s a tangent for another post, maybe). There’s a lot of room for exploration there, finding where you fit into your own aspect, and whether there’s traits there that you wish to change, or improve upon, and whether you’re willing to put in the work (you’ll find that, if you’re willing, it may come easier than you expected to start the change you want to see in yourself, though it’s still bound to be difficult.. as is any change one should make. The key is being truly, actually willing and eager to better yourself, and know that sometimes you should ask for help, and that regardless, things take time...)

So. If a heir’s personality is built on existing within the space of their aspect... what about hope?

... You know, hope is surprisingly hard to figure out. Though, the same can be true for rage, since both of them have two players that destroy their aspect, making them act inherently unlike said element... so we literally only have Jake to go off of and saying “you’re like Jake English but your personality is more hope” wouldn’t be particularly helpful... not to say kind of inaccurate.

I found (through two hours of research, god, apparently I’ve been sitting here trying to not get confirmation bias over theories for two hours... Then again I have been thinking about heirs for a while anyways, so it would’ve been longer if I had been putting off answering any longer...) that hope is one of those aspects that are dreadfully unclear. It’s pretty difficult to take hope literally, as even in its literal sense it’s not tangible like void and breath are, so, how do you become hope?

Well... I’m sorry to disappoint, but I believe that’s up to you. Hope’s one of those aspects that are, in essence, whatever the player makes of them. Like most others, actually, I just find that the players we follow happen to be wholly uncreative in their use of their aspects... Except those that use it subconsciously, in which case it’s more that the game looked at them and probably said something like “wouldn’t it be really funny if I made Dirk Strider a Prince of Heart?” which, well. I’d say “sad” is a better word, but the game’s got a weird sense of humor and is also wholly irrelevant to right now!

Hope can mean a lot of things, but literally it’s more... well, the way my brain tried to put it together is kind of like how determination works in Undertale (… without the space-time shenanigans, since those are both elements in actual Homestuck). You don’t give up, and there lies your power. By believing in yourself, you have power. By trying hard you can do.. whatever you want. At least, that’s the literal way to see it (which is the only way we see it in actual Homestuck, but, again, aspects contain so much more than just their literal definitions, and the players we meet during our time reading are dreadfully unimaginative). We never see any other definition, though I’ve seen some people mention that hope may also have to do with the literal definition of light, or holiness, because.. magic. Or something. Not sure I buy that, but also visualizing “hope”, which is a wonderfully grand concept is probably hard, so, glowing it is, I suppose.

What all of this ends up meaning is.. Well, the Heir of Hope is someone who is embodied by their hope. I usually suggest stuff like a horoscope but it’s getting pretty late here and it’s also 10 degree weather, and saying “don’t give up” feels awfully tacky of me... So I’ll say this, instead; stay true to who you are. I’m not implying you’re perfect, or anything, but more that your true self is a wonderful person who, had I not been a Mage of Mind who dreams on derse’s moon and therefore an expert in overanalyzing social interactions before I even know the other party’s name, I’d love to talk to. I feel like you can be an uplifting person, if you let yourself be, and that you’re an inspiration to be around once you start talking about stuff you’re passionate about. A presence to light up a room, maybe, or at least one that people notice when it’s missing (because you only notice the absence of light in the darkness).

Again, sorry this came out late, I hope me working on this post for... three hours (yeesh, how the time flies when you double check against confirmation bias that the third heir we meet is, indeed, Mituna Captor, and that he did indeed “become” doom by accidental brain deletion) makes up for the three days where I was looking at this question from my phone and going “I should start writing” and then instead made my trollsona art and also read fics I have memorized because I tend to procrastinate (and also I spent 10 minutes just now trying to remember the word for procrastination and googled it as “word for not doing thing”. It was not there. I'm in agony/j).