you've talked about Prince of Rage a few times, and seem to view the classpect as much more... energetic/aggressive than Kurloz, who seems pretty chill even when he's being ominous and chucklevoodoo-y. Why's this? Is Lord English's influence part of it, or were you referring to a different stage in the whole true/failed/realized thing, or am I misunderstanding something?
Princes begin their sessions lacking their aspect. For Kurloz, this is his Rage; he lacks doubt, he lacks anger, he lacks any sort of negative emotion entirely. But this doesnât mean that he doesnât actually use any of it himself; he still has his Chucklevoodoos, and that is a very obvious use of Rage in and of itself. But thatâs still not quite enough.
The thing with Kurloz is that, primarily, he is a Failed Prince of Rage. Whereas most are meant to be energetic, fervent, lively and almost horrendously stubborn when it comes to their beliefs, Kurloz is much more relaxed. He takes a step back in favour of Gamzee, who he sees as someone More Than Him. Kurloz never really gets that far with being a Prince of Rage, never does anything like Dirk does as a Prince of Heart, never reaches any sort of epitome of his power. He becomes passive rather than active, and that pretty much entirely goes against what he should be as a Prince.
I think youâre right on saying that part of it is LEâs fault. Kurloz serves LE devoutly, yes, and in a way I suppose you can call that his fervent belief, chasing after and serving his Lord even though it means betraying pretty much everyone else around him. Yet he never takes this as far as you would expect a Prince to - whereas Dirk tries to physically mould Jake into the person he thinks Jake should be through hours of rigorous training with a robot, Kurloz is a lot more sneaky, silent; pretty much everything he shouldnât be.
Princes have a âtake what I want because I make the rulesâ attitude, refusing to listen to anyone who doesnât agree with them and imposing their will on them instead. Yet, again, Kurloz never does this. I think the closest we get to seeing that is being told by I believe Aranea about his sharing of the gospel before he sewed his mouth shut.
Whatever made him release the Vast Honk changed Kurlozâs path as a Prince of Rage. He seems much more of a Realised Prince of Rage prior to his nightmare than after it; something I would assume is what leads to the ultimate failure of their session among other things. Whatever it was, it was enough to stop a stubborn, influential Prince from sharing and enforcing what he saw as truth onto those around him - and thatâs a pretty big something, if you ask me.
Basically: Kurloz being a Failed Prince of Rage, likely because of the nightmare he had, is the reason why he seems so out of character for what we would expect of a Prince of Rage. He acts more as a puppet himself than anything else, and that is something that an active classpect really just shouldnât be doing.
