#mind aspect

This felt like a good idea for something to put out before I put my Knight & Page analysis out there, since I plan on making this a 6 part series. (Potentially 7 if demand for a Lord/Muse addendum is high enough).

So, I'll be laying out my most important philosophies on the subject here for future reference.

Classpecting is...

Point A. Classpecting is malleable.

There is not one rigid, set definition for any Class pair, or any Aspect pairing. The freedom of the author is that they may assign any symbolism to a concept that they may like.

What I mean by this is that people often seem to think that manifestations of an Aspect within Homestuck's narrative paint that object or idea as a concept inherently tied to that Aspect.

Example: Pumpkins & Void. You would not believe the amount of people in the early fandom who swore by the idea that pumpkins were inherently just Void constructs because of their role in Homestuck's narrative.

No? Pumpkins symbolise Void in Homestuck itself and Homestuck itself only only due to a running gag inherent to Homestuck itself.

Anything, with enough narrative basis and existing thematic ties, can serve to symbolise an Aspect. Furthermore, two different authors may have different ideas of what Aspect something represents.

Some authors may see alcohol, for example, as a Void-bound concept owing to its obfuscation of fair judgement. Some may see it as a Light-bound concept owing to the idea of 'in vino veritas' and the tendency of drunkenness to induce truthful confessions. Some may see it as a Life-bound concept owing to its associations with hedonism and impulsive behaviour.

With enough narrative consistence, anything is possible. Homestuck's narrative is not as rigid of a point of reference as some people would swear by it being. This is deeply important.

Point B. Classpecting is not the whole of a character.

I can't exactly phrase this in a satisfactory manner, but... a Classpect is not a personality type in of itself. An individual being a Prince of Heart does not instantly make them Dirk Strider. It merely means that their core value is identity & selfhood, and they interact with it by destroying it. It is that simple!

I see, time and time again, Classpecting blogs acting as if a Classpect is indicative of a character's whole personality and giving guides as to the exact behaviours & quirks a character with that Classpect should have.

I am imploring you to explore wider possibilities when it comes to this. Even if it means sharing a title with a canon character! It doesn't mean you have to just rewrite that canon character because that's not how Classpecting works.

I've seen fanventure characters share titles with canon characters. (Sovereignstuck's Annomi Errata & Dynama Zarrow sharing titles with Dirk & Porrim respectively, and Porrim herself is also a player in that narrative, mind you!)

I've seen fanventure characters share titles with eachother. (Vast Error's Dismas Mersiv is a Rogue of Mind. One of my fantrolls is also a Rogue of Mind!)

In every instance, they are fundamentally different people. I cannot put it any simpler than this.

Point C. Classpecting is always applicable.

That is the perfection of the Classpecting system. You can give a title to any character, from anything ever made. It's not even that difficult if you're half-decent at media analysis!

Quite literally all you need to do is ask yourself two questions.

"What's this character's core value?" and "How do they interact with that?" Do that, and you've got yourself a Classpect.

That's the beauty of it! It's obviously not going to be as airtight as a story that has the Classpecting system baked directly into the narrative, but it's still going to work out!

Hell, do it to yourself! Do it to your friends! The world's your oyster. You can do anything you want, forever, for the rest of time. I'm a Seer of Life! My best friend is a Page of Blood! My mother is a Witch of Hope! Go wild.

Post formatting

For my Classpecting posts, I'll aim to give two related definitions for every Class.

Definition A is the narrative function, what the Class says about the person and how they interact with their Aspect as an abstract concept.

Definition B is the practical function, what the Class says about their role in the session and how they interact with their Aspect as a SBURB construct.

Therefore, we get an idea of both the abstract, personal definition of a Classpect, and the functional, game application of a Classpect.

I'll also aim to give about two or three examples for each individual title about how you could write a character with them, since there are always going to be multiple directions you can take with a Classpect.

Conclusion

tl;dr - what I'm trying to say is this. Classpecting is malleable, easily applicable & capable of saying any number of things, and my posts will aim to give two concise definitions of both narrative and practical function for every title.

I'll get the Knight:Page analysis done either today or tomorrow, and the rest of the Class posts will be staggered releases in order of poll results. Thus, the order is going to be:

Knights & Pages, Deficiency and Exploitation.

Mages & Seers, Experience and Comprehension.

Witches & Heirs, Adherence and Manipulation.

Princes & Bards, Instability and Destruction.

Thieves & Rogues, Inundation and Redistribution.

Maids & Sylphs, Maintenance and Generation.

And, potentially...

7. Lords & Muses, Absolution and Dominion.

And then, subsequently, the order for the Aspect posts, which I've decided based on relevance to the canon, roughly speaking anyways...

Space & Time, Genesis and Terminus.

Breath & Blood, Fluidity and Stability.

Light & Void, Potential and Simplicity.

Heart & Mind, Instinct and Dialectics.

Life & Doom, Progress and Stagnation.

Hope & Rage, Conviction and Iconoclasm.

After entirely too much ado, I finally finished my first two videos on classpecting. I'll be releasing a written essay format of this theory eventually as well, that'll go into more depth and nitty-gritty while this video serves as a proper and true first introduction to the concept. If you finished watching the first video, you can click here to watch my video on the Classes. Some of the art I used for both videos will be under the cut for ease of use and sourcing.

My views on Sburb's Aspects. I tend to analyze them more as metaphysical forces than in terms of "who gets this Aspect", as most of the fandom is wont to do. I will use my own custom symbols throughout, with notes on their designs.

reposting this as its own post rather than a reblog response to someone cause i think it should be its own post.

A lot of people say that heart is about who you are while mind is about what you do. And while Heart as the immutable self and Mind as the possible choices someone makes works great in theory...it doesn't so much in practice. Let’s look at the heart and mind players in base homestuck, for instance.

(this is hells of long by the way. sorry.)

There are three Mind players in Homestuck: Terezi (Seer), Latula (Knight), and Redglare (Knight).

And let’s look at what they do. Terezi seeks to understand the law. She talks about how Paradox Space has a sense of justice. When she kills Vriska, she does it not because she wants to, but because the wider system of the alpha timeline demanded it. When John was doing his retcon shit, he had no idea what he was doing, so Terezi systemized it and gave him a list of tasks to do.

We don’t see much of Latula. However, we know a couple things from her. She tells us that the karma cycle revolving around the Serkets and the Pyropes was an expression of Mind. And we know that she is a Knight—one who fights their aspect just as much as they fight through their aspect. Latula tries to present herself as this over-the-top rad gamer girl. Keep in mind that Latula can’t smell, and Beforus would ordinarily slate her for culling because of that. She doesn’t want to be coddled, so she tries as hard as she can to show self-sufficiency and identity. She fights against this system that would tamp down her individuality and autonomy.

Finaly, there’s Redglare, who is just an alternate universe Latula. Redglare is a Knight. She fights THROUGH Mind—she’s a legislacerator. The law is her weapon. But, again, as a Knight, she also struggles with imposed order and wider systems—she’s part of the cult of the Sufferer.

And then there’s the five Heart players. Dirk, Nepeta, Meulin, Bro, and the Disciple.

Dirk, as a Prince, one who destroys Heart, behaves much like a Mind player. I mean, he literally has an AI copy of himself. He hates himself, and while he loves his friends, he still tamps down their individuality—Jane remarks about how he regularly tells her to be more like Jake, and Jake mentions the opposite. He’s great at planning, being logical, etc. etc.. there’s also the irony, something he uses to not show sincerity (heart).

Bro is Dirk, so Bro is also a Prince. Again, the irony, the comparisons to being like a robot and a puppet master. He destroys Dave’s sincerity and ability to be vulnerable. Interestingly, he also has a whole thing with masculinity, with this toxic ideal of being big and tough and never showing emotion and constantly doing badass stunts. Dirk has this too, but it’s less pronounced (until obv. he becomes part of LE). He’s kind of the opposite of Latula in this way, because Porrim points out that part of Latula’s over-the-top-ness stems from a desire to stick it to misogynists, while Bro is the misogynist in question. Misogyny and toxic masculinity are (part of) Mind—they’re relentless systemization that reduces people to stereotypes.

Nepeta, the Rogue! Rogues steal for others—she, in theory, steals Heart and redistributes it. Now. Doesn’t that sound…like shipping? When you steal someone’s heart, that means they’re falling for you, but Nepeta wants to redistribute Heart. She doesn’t have much success in her own romantic endeavors—Equius, as much as I hate to say it, doesn’t stand up for her when it really matters, and Karkat is wholly uninterested in her---but she has a lot of interest in the relationships of others. She also just portrays some general Heart characteristics—she lives alone in a cave pretty much completely disconnected from society.

Meulin…doesn't have much going for her tbh. she's a dancestor. you know how it is. she likes shipping. she's being kind of mind controlled by kurloz? i have kind of a pet theory that mages and seers are more susceptible to manipulation than other peeps because their classes are about taking info in, but that's not really relevant right now. she's a deaf nepeta that smokes catnip like weed and that's really all there is to say on the matter.

the Disciple is a mage, since she's meulin. She was the closest follower of the Sufferer's teachings. She understood the rebellion against the system, and her love with the Sufferer transcended quadrants. (The sufferer was still a Blood player, though, because the rebellion was based on visions of the past.)

Anyways. Based on all that, my conclusion is largely that Heart is about the self, and Mind is about the non-self. Frankly the fundamental way I understand the two is that Heart is crackships and Mind is responses saying that you shouldn't ship that because it's not canon. Mind is the law, systems, logic, and Heart is individuality, desire, random idiosyncrasies that are hard to reconcile with larger systems.

People say Mind is the what-if, but like...look at Nepeta. Look at her shipping wall in her cave. There's all sorts of random shit on there. And you say Heart is about what the character is locked onto and can't unbecome, but look at Dirk (prince). He was the first to ascend to his ultimate self, the first to subsume to this wider "Dirk".