rewatching twin peaks. its central mythology is an immediately familiar gnostic story; a “white lodge” (read: white house) exists a plane above our world, and is where the soul hopes to go when it leaves the body, and a “black lodge” (read: black house) acts as a purgatory where the soul suffers on the way. for all intents and purposes the black lodge could simply be read as the world of the flesh. (jesus, now that I think of it: a magazine literally called “flesh world” in the show seems to represent a catalogue of earthly delights available to spirits from the white lodge).
the more day to day symbolic minutiae of the show still kind of elude me, though. a majority of the extended cast seem to represent a facet or manifestation of another character in some form (the two distinct sets of “mike and bob”, just to name a more obvious example). a TV show within a TV show seems to obviously parallel events taking place within the main narrative, but why? the log lady’s introductions pendulum between outright descriptions of the events of the episode and vague metaphor that seems to have no meaning whatsoever. it definitely seems to be inviting me to build an understanding over multiple watchings.
the Heir is a hero who reviles what he reveres. an Heir in fairy tales is one who wants nothing more than to attain his father’s station, but hates his father for not giving it to him; or one who loves the privileges of his rank but hates its responsibilities, wishing for the freedom of a commoner.
Equius wants to be dominated by what he hates, and loves what is beneath him when he should be exercising dominance over it. he hates meat - implying to Nepeta that he doesn’t eat it - but values his own “meat” or flesh over his spirit. Alternia’s indigo caste - its Heir class - is entirely a caste of walking contradictions. they treat the planet’s musclebeasts as creatures
“meant to be 100ked upon with adoration“, but treat another race of man-beasts as inferior, fit only for the role of being part of a “butler genus”. though they exist to serve those above them, they reject the sea dwellers for being “EVEN PURPLIER“ than the subjugglators, in fact considering themselves
“obligated to be at odds”. it’s only fitting that Equius is the one to discuss the difference between friends and enemies with his superior only a page after we’re told that
“in troll language, the word for friend is exactly the same as the word for enemy.”
naturally this makes the Heir a class closely tied with the concept of masculinity, because the complex dual nature of masculinity is such a strong theme in Homestuck. the indigoblood’s power comes not just from his position on the hemospectrum but his position in a patriarchal society, and when Equius starts to lose his grip on the saddle of his high horse it’s not only for a lowblood, but for a lowblooded woman.
the successful Heir is a hero who successfully overcomes masculinity’s trappings and, like all heroes ultimately must, reconciles the contradicting aspects of the masculine and the feminine. John matures as an Heir by overcoming the side effects of being brought up in an all male household, under a father who valued his strength of the flesh above all else, and mastering the spirit and the feminine - represented by spirit arms and the feminine blue slime of his ghostly mentor. Equius’ fate is instead to succumb to masculinity altogether, allowing the male superior in his life to cut off his connection to breath entirely.