LIGHT: The aspect of relevance

Includes: Rose, Vriska, Aranea, Alpha Rose, Mindfang

In this dichotomous whirlwind of classification and assignment, a recurring touchstone is how each class and aspect views the system they are locked in. And to Light players, all the world is a stage, and their connection to everything should be seen in that lens. They see the spotlight and they want to control it, control the narrative. The currency they deal with is luck, certainly, but more specifically agency. They want to control who is relevant and when. They want to have the stage directions in their hands and a bullhorn to call them out. And a big red pen to revise them as needed.

As such, Light folks are dramatic. They are here to win in no uncertain terms and are driven by a lot of personal ambition. This does not mean they aren’t personable; in fact, Light people are almost exclusively extroverts who can and will happily talk someone’s ear off. They really enjoy leading a conversation and are happy to bring people along the dialogic hikes. Others may have trouble scaling the same mountain as they do.

Given their realm of influence and interest, Light players are often masters of hyperfixation. They have extremely thorough knowledge that they have put in a lot of effort to study and research. The amount they personally want to share varies, but they would be remiss not to make their expertise crystal clear for everyone around them.

It’s great to have a Light player around because they can be depended on for a certain amount of inertia and planning. When everyone in the party can’t decide where to go for lunch, the Light player is there with the concrete choice to save the day from everyone else’s indecision. Thank goodness.

All our Light players have direct influence over the Spotlight of the story. Rose prefers to remain in the shadows and hand other people their lines and cues; Dave himself complains that all she seems to do is send dudes on quests and he’s right. Aranea torpedoes the game session in her desperate grasp for power, when her good intentions seem to fall to the wayside in favor of her ego. The mechanism she uses, in fact, is essentially injecting Jake with an overdose of relevance that sends his game-breaking abilities into overdrive. Mindfang as well seems to summon and discard people as if they were mere characters in the play of her life she is directing, and her tenor of retelling her story is drenched in overdramatic Light bullshit as well. And Vriska is perhaps the most triumphant example of a Light player, as the Retcon operates by taking everyone’s agency and relevance in the story and redirecting them onto her. She is the platonic ideal of a Thief of Light.

And being successful in the realm of Light often means controlling it for others. In the context of Homestuck, Light seems to be a finite resource, a narrative zero-sum game. No wonder Light players are prone to min-maxing everything.

Talismans: The world as stage, books, writing, going on too many Wiki Walks, high grades, already did the reading, seeing the big picture but rarely the small picture of how people around them feel. Having that One Friend they trust to keep them from being jerks.

You may be Light if… you’ve ever considered starting a podcast.