I think I might understand alchemy? Please, tell me if I'm wrong, but, && is like, a perfect fusion of things while || is more of adding an items attributes or powers onto the other item(s).
I think it’s actually arbitrary to suit the needs, the only difference is that && make cards with less holes and || make cards with more holes.
I wonder what was the colour of the Sgrub logo for the Alpha trolls?
Gold. If we have the red-green duality for the Kids, the purple-gold duality likely goes for the Trolls. Maybe also to do with the Doom Mituna prevented.
There's a theory going round that Boldir's a secret surviving limeblood because her horns and card background are the wrong colour for an olive, her teeth aren't a standard shape, and she knows about Doc Scratch. I'm wondering if she might not even be a troll. I don't think she's a human or cherub but there have been comments about other alien races conquered by the trolls...
All of the cards are kind of color-divergent, I did a study of the color sand came to the conclusion their colors aren’t set in stone for each caste, they sorta vary from case to case and, as we know from Lanque, the team even made a few mistakes when choosing the cards and stuff.
That being said, we don’t KNOW that she knows about Scratch! She’s out to expose the deep-state Luancracy- We do know that this is real, Doc really pulls all the strings behind the scenes, but it’s likely she’s just going to be a conspiracy theory joke and say that like, the moon is hollow and Limebloods didn’t go extinct, they actually control the population from their secret base, also Alternia is Flat.
Also her teeth aren’t a standard shape- Have you seen Konyyl? Or Cirava. Or Vikare. Fangs and tusks of all kinds seem to just be a thing that happens.
Hey! So I decided to maybe start giving a bit more thought on what the Classpect of the characters in Hiveswap and Friendsim may be, so expect me to post a bunch of those soon.
Now there’s some heavy debate on what Classpect may fit Joey Claire, and while I have gone on record saying that the Maid of Light could fit her quite well, I do believe her true Classpect is the Heir of Life.
See, Joey has a bunch of references to Maidenhood, and a lot of references to Light. Not only that, but she’s being contacted and helped by Doc Scratch, who’s shown he favors Light Players. Her symbol is a star! There’s a lot binding her to Light, from the puzzle solving to her weapon of choice. Rather than her being a Light Player, however, I am starting to really think this is the way A. Claire has influenced Joey, and that A. Claire is a Light Player herself.
Joey idolizes her mother, and her influence is so great and positive in her, that she has been perusing the recordings of her mother’s dances only in special occasions, so that she has something left to check out. Her mother gave her the sign of the star, her mother gave her the inspiration to dance and practise Ballet and Tap-Dance, and this Light Influence is incredibly noticeable in everything she does. However, there is more to it than it meets the eye.
One of Joey’s draws towards Light could be seen as her craving attention, relevance. Being abandoned by her Pa, she has grown resentful of him, and wants that validation, that attention, and it makes her pursue being more like A. Claire. Joey has to draw attention to herself during the game, she has to restore the light, she has to power up a flashlight, but ultimately? These are obstacles she’s pushed to overcome. It can be an interesting way to see her interact with her Mother- That at her lowest and when things are going the worst, the solution she sees to push herself out of trouble, is to evoke her mother’s Classpect.
But a big, big part of Joey’s character is tied to Life. The Heirloom she holds has a symbol of Life on it, her desire to be a veterinarian, to heal others. When challenged, she may look up to someone she loves dearly and try to be like her, but at the core of Joey’s character, her love for animals and healing, her desire to help, hell even her relationship with Pa! After all, this would tie Joey with yet another Life Player whose feelings were disregarded due to his own way of being, and led to someone he loved dearly being hurt.
This leads me to the second half of her Classpect- The Heir. First of all we have the obvious tie of Joey and her Heirloom, but on top of that you could say that Joey is inheriting her mother’s Life. She’s playing the role of a Light Player like her Mother was, with the Dance and the references to Light, and her mother obviously had something to do with the Portal, so perhaps even the situation in which she’s going to Alternia mirrors what may have happened to her mother in the past. On top of that, Change is a big thing with Joey- From literally having her Life Changed by being sent to Alternia, Changing Xefros’ Life, trying to bring a positive Change to Alternia by empowering and giving agency to Xefros and the rebel group, Changing the Health of animals for their benefit- She even feeds Byers to make him calm down, tying her back to Life again with consumption!
On top of that, Byers, the Deercat, in a way even her Heirloom, these may be seen as her Familiars- Heirs being part of the Magician Classes, they have been tied strongly to things such as Familiars. Besides, with John as the protagonist of Homestuck, it’d be interesting to have another Heir be a protagonist.
Either way, Joey shows an affinity for Light, but seems to mirror her Mother’s affinity for it rather than her own. I feel the Heir of Life not only fits her personality and role in the story quite well, but it also explains why she seems so tied to both Light and Life- Not only because she’s emulating her Mother, but because as one whose life is Changed, and who may Inherit Life, she’s literally taking all the positive she sees from her Mother and applying it to herself, leading to this intricate scenario.
And while some could consider her to be more Active than Passive… Honestly, being directed by Jude, then getting stuck when it comes to freeing herself, but finding the way out when she’s out to help Xefros, the healing of Lusii and her outburst to try and get Xefros out of what seems like a toxic relationship- I don’t think many would argue that her Selflessness definitely comes through as well.
Unlike Joey, whose Classpect seems to be more up for debate, Jude shows way more clear signs of his Classpect being that of the Seer of Doom. Literally the first thing we see him doing is looking out for danger, spying on his neighbours suspiciously, even while his sister carefreely and happily messes around with their dog.
A big part of Jude’s character is paranoia, the constant feeling of dread, of being in danger. He’s gathered resources and been looking out for the neighbours he’s certain have been up to something bad, and in the end it’s paid off! His fears are realized once they are assaulted, however he’s actually prepared for the eventuality, and uses this knowledge to guide Joey somewhere safe. The fact he’s on the lookout, his puzzle involves two sets of eyes, it easily sets him as one of the two Prophet Classes, and while Mage may work as well, he takes on an extremely passive role, by hiding up on the Treehouse immediately and merely guiding Joey through her adventure, from afar.
The danger, the paranoia, easily tie him to Doom, as well- But on top of that there’s a lot of extra imagery regarding Doom. From Fire, to his loss of pigeons and suffering because of it- Which may as well foreshadow the fates of his family members as well- Can be seen to tie him to Doom.
Also I am a Seer of Doom so I may be biased, sue me.
In the end, the last thing we see of Jude, is his attempt at Guiding Joey away from what seems to be the same Doom that befell A. Claire, before Seeing, in horror, as she’s Taken Away from him. If that’s not heavy Seer of Doom imagery, I don’t know what is.
Another point for Joey's Light influence coming from A. Claire instead of her, which I think a lot of people are missing; Jude has it too. The symbol on his shirt is a beam of Light, he uses a flare gun (a thing specifically designed to create Light more than damage, as is the flashlight), and his main focus is information and bringing secrets to Light.
In a way yeah but it’s not as easy to pin-point Jude’s own attachment to A. Claire, Joey’s is very explicit, but while Jude does also seem to have taken her loss really heavily, his relationship to her is not explored enough. I kinda wanna see more about him in Hauntswitch!
If Hope is linked to sexuality, and that link is seen in most Hopebound, what about Chahut? Doesn't look obvious with her
Yeah, she IS surprisingly tame in her route given what I thought, but there’s a few things to have in mind.
First, she is taking on Hope as Faith more intensely than anything else, her belief and trust in her religion is absolute. It’s also interesting to note that Hope and Rage are counterparts, making her more attuned to the ways of her Caste, which may lead to Rage muddling her Hope-ness a bit.
Then, while she herself doesn’t seem too sexual, she’s the first character that has made the MSPA reader have a moment of self-awareness about how they’re likely going to end up fucking an alien. I believe Chahut is a Seer, and as a Passive Prophet, it may be that her ties to sexuality is that everyone wants to bang the big murderclown girl now.
Finally, the Maenad themselves are a tie with her and Sexuality! The Maenad were followers of Dionysus, and there’s a lot of tales about them and. Violence and sex. I’ll let you look it up.
Either way, there are some themes like those in her route.
What Strife Specibi would be able to hold any kind of weapon besides Jokerkind? (I think Jokerkind only uses items that look funny anyway.)
I think Jokerkind really is just the one ‘anything goes’ specibus, if you want to go for any other ‘anything goes’ you may want to go with the God Tier Badge that lets you wield anything.
With the Human Characters off the picture, we can move to the meat of Hiveswap- The Trolls. I will not be analysing Dammek just yet, although he seems like a Thief of Blood so far, we haven’t even officially met him, so I will refrain from actually looking too deep into his character. Xefros, though, does have a lot more direct screentime, hell we even control him for a good chunk of the Act! And his Page-y-ness definitely comes through.
He has a very… Mild and soft attitude, mellow to the point of concern, kicked and pushed and battered by society, and somewhat taken advantage of by his Moirail, while he casually goes like “haha guess that’s just how it is :)”. This sweet and almost helpless attitude seems to be a staple of Pages- They wrap themselves in their own worlds, and seem to kind of push reality away from them. Tavros daydreams a lot, Jake tries to believe what’s most convenient to not face the many romantic issues he’s facing, Horuss straight-up is as oblivious as they get to similarly push away the reality that Rufioh is trying to break up with him, and uses his inability to understand Damara to parry her obscene advances. Xefros, similarly, wraps himself up in Dammek’s rebellious little schemes and follows his orders to a T trying to make himself useful, escaping the reality of the unfairness he faces for being a Rustblood.
This is where things get a little bit more complex. Because through the entirety of Xefros’ route, the Aspect he seems most attuned to is Time, not Rage- But we know for a fact it is Rage thanks to the Extended Zodiac! If it wasn’t for his Sign, we would’ve likely kept thinking of Xefros as a Page of Time for a long, long time. And this is because every single Troll, regardless of what their Classpect may be, seems socially bound to the stereotypes and ideals of the True Sign of their Caste. You can see this with most Trolls in Friendsim, with both their own Aspect and their Caste’s Aspect becoming quite prevalent in their ways of being and their roles in society.
As such, Xefros, a Rustblood, is predisposed towards Time. And not just him, every Rustblood seems to be pushed towards the concept of Time- And with Time’s ties to Decay and the End, it definitely fits they are the caste with the shortest time to spend alive and the constant threat of death and slavery. But Hiveswap doesn’t just show us Xefros’ ties to Time, and forget about the Rage, oh no. Even if we would have seen him as a Time Player for a while, we would’ve eventually guessed his ties to Rage, because they are definitely there.
Society may want Xefros to be an obedient Rustblood and push aside his own ideals in favor of the state-issued Timebound Role, but beyond the superficial, lies a Ragebound through and through. Not only is him being Moirails to one of the Tetrarchs of the Rebellion definitely something that ties him to the themes of Anarchy and tearing down the falsehoods and unfairnesses of Trizza’s regime, from having Dammek make him follow training regimes meant to make him more resilient to Chucklevoodoos, which are heavily Rage coded, to the fact Joey becomes his friend through Rage- First directed at his obliviousness of the situation and the confusion of what is even going on, and then at Dammek and the unfair system set in Alternia.
Of course, though, Xefros has just come into the picture. While we don’t know all there is to know about Dammek, he has been holding back Xefros in a similar manner to how Alternia itself has been holding him down. But now, the Tetrarch is gone, and he has an Alien helping him get through whatever adventures they’re going to go on for the rest of the story. He’s cast the shackles of Time behind, and with any luck, he will be developing into a more confident and powerful member of the Resistance.
Now Ardata presents us with a problem unique only to her and another one of the Trolls shown to us so far, Marvus. This problem is that their Signs seem to be obscured or hidden in some manner. Paired with the problem I described with Xefros, about Trolls’ tendency to be pushed towards roles fitting with those of their True Sign, it makes for a difficult to decipher puzzle. With her kidnapping of Trolls and streaming the feeding of her Lusus, you can see the influence the Thief of Light’s role has on her. Taking them away, streaming it, gaining fame through these bloodthirsty shows. But as we know, this is not the life for Ardata, she suffers because of this role she’s been made to follow, even if she definitely has it better than most other Trolls on Alternia, she has a big identity crisis.
I thought she could be a Heart Player, given the struggle with her Self, with her Identity, but I wanted to look for clues in the actual text. Friendsim’s exposure to each character’s personalities is more limited than what we get in Homestuck by far, we only interact briefly with each of the Trolls, with some few exceptions, which makes them that much more difficult to pin-point, but that’s exactly why even the slightest implication we can get from the text is invaluable. There’s some implication about Ardata thinking about her self, her place on Alternia, but identity crisis aren’t exclusive to Heart Players. However there is one thing in her route that seems oddly consistent.
Food.
She kidnaps the Trolls to feed her Lusus for the camera. She beckons the MSPA Reader into her Hive telling them they seem hungry, and that she’ll give them something. We first see the Kitchen, before heading downstairs. We feed her in the Good Ending- And hell, she even worries her superiors will ‘eat her alive’ if she were to scale down on her bloodthirsty content. This made me think about Life, and beyond food, what it represents. Wealth and power over others is something she even talks about, with her being ‘so superior to others’, and Life as Agency, as Growth, ties in to her identity crisis, being forced onto a role, with no agency to stop doing what she’s doing, with no ability to grow. Paired with the lack of Life Players in Hiveswap, this seemed like a perfect match.
The issue then would be finding what Class matches her the best, and I had some ideas, but ultimately it seemed to come down to the Maid and the Witch. Maids usually struggle with their Aspect, bound by it and having to push past it- As we see with Aradia’s Fatalism or Jane having her agency stolen by Condy, or even before that, struggling against Jake’s romantically oblivious nature forcing her into a position she doesn’t enjoy being in. However, while she technically does create content for her followers, she doesn’t seem to Create more than she Manipulates. Then again it could also still be just a trait of her being influenced to be a Thief!
But then, the Witch. Control, Manipulation, definitely fits her schtick of subtly manipulating and pushing the MSPA reader to do her bidding. While she could easily control their body as she does when going up the stairs, or when stabbing her own hand, she only completely takes them completely during extreme circumstances, and otherwise subtly pushes, nudges at them. Takes away their agency, tries to make the MSPA reader become a servant for her. And while Witches do struggle too, they struggle in a different way than the Maid does. As you may remember from my talk about Joey being a Heir of Life, Heirs and Witches are often related to Magicians and have Familiars.
While there’s no in-text comparison between Ardata and a Magician, her sign is covered by a cape, a cloth of sort, almost emulating the way a Magician would cover an item they’re about to make disappear as an act. She does, however, have the tie to the Familiar. Or, Familiars in her case. We could just list the Tick Lusus and be done with it, but as we see with Vriska, being made to feed your Lusus does not a Witch make. No, there’s something more. Two something mores in fact. The MSPA Reader could be seen as her familiar in training, with her trying to push them to be a perfect little servant, pushing the role of a Knight on them to Serve her, manipulating their agency to make them a Familiar, seems like a big red flag, but there’s something more, the tug-of-war, the back and forth between a Witch and their Familiar! She doesn’t seem to struggle too much with her Tick after all! So… What am I getting at?
Her viewers. Her stream. The people watching her video, they are the Familiars. They are the ones who make assumptions about her that take away her agency to express herself in different ways. They are the ones wanting more material of the Tick feeding, which forces her to keep going on and on. They provide her with fame and recognition, at the price of her own ability to express herself.
And that, to me, completely sets Ardata as a Witch of Life.
With Ardata finally behind us, the rest of the Trolls, at least until we get to Marvus, have a huge advantage over her when it comes to determining Classpects, and that is, the fact we know every other Troll’s Aspect already thanks to their Sign. Although when it comes to Diemen specifically, it’s not like Hope is an obscure thing in his text. He’s got a certain sense of fatalism, accepting he doesn’t have much longer in general and is okay with that, it ties him to Time somewhat, but the way Hope presents itself in his text appears even in the way he speaks.
There’s the way he fantasizes about the possibility of being completely off the grid, the Hope that they will never find him and he will live off the land until the day he dies. But more blatantly, it’s… The sexual innuendos regarding hotdogs. They’re dumb jokes because ha ha, he really loves hotdogs, but it really is his heaviest tie to Hope, not only that, he’s also one of the few characters who’s actually tried to kiss the MSPA reader and bring their friendship to the next level.
Thief or Rogue would work for him easily, too. He lives off the grid, and is not against the idea of cheating the system to survive for as long as possible, it ties him to the idea of an outlaw, and he literally goes around trying to get Hotdogs from anywhere he can, stealing them for himself. Now, I believe he’s, specifically, a Thief, because of his more pushy demeanor and the fact he steals his scrumptious treats for his pleasure and gusto. I could see some argument on him being a Rogue, maybe the fact the ‘dogs remind him of his Lusus, or that he actually shares it with the MSPA reader, however…
Even he says he liked them before his Lusus died- And the time he shares it with the MSPA reader? It’s a trick to try to kiss them. Sure, he’s sharing his treat- But it’s only a little cheat to get some sugar, which ties once more to Stealing Hope for his own Benefit. In short, Diemen seems to nicely fit the role of a Thief of Hope, although if we see him being more Passive and Selfless eventually, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him turn out to be a Rogue.
There's also Diemen's name as evidence for a taker class - Van Diemen's Land being another name for Tasmania, where criminals were transported in the 1800s, and Mexicali being a city with a very high crime rate - and the fact that his hot dog synonyms are written in Hope yellow.
Oh that’s true! I should check the meaning of the names more I bet they have good connections here and there like with Chahut’s. Also yeah, I thought connecting his lewd Hotdog language with Hope was enough to make the color connection, specially since they’re also kind of mostly spoken as the Mustard.
The one in which for some reason Equius is wearing a full Maid Outfit.
a full french maid outfit. a maid outfit outside of the context of homestuck, just like an actual maid,, costume,
You know what, yes, thank you, I forgot I had to specify because him wearing Aradia’s God Tier would just have bedroom implication- You know what. Nevermind, full French Maid outfit likely also has bedroom implications.
What is your favorite thing about equius in a maid outfit
The fact he’s right next to God Tier Nepeta, implying their fully realized selves may just be Nepeta who went God Tier, and Equius who accepted his subservient nature wholeheartedly.
I've got two questions. What can one actually... 'do' in a dream bubble?? And also, what was the final outcome of the nepeta that was killed my gamzee? I always thought she like.. joined a oirate crew and was never seen after that?? I just wanna kniw specifically. Dream bubbled, still? Permadead?
Nepeta most likely lives on in Davepeta, but that specific iteration may have just joined the LE fight and ended up with the rest of the Ghosts sucked into the Black Hole, or wherever they may be now.
As for what you can do, relive and mix memories! Likely also make new memories if you’ve got good enough control of your Bubble? But mostly relive and mix memories.
What happened to the deceased characters from the GO timeline? Did their dream bubble break?
At the point in time where the GO Timeline happens, the Dream Bubbles are so torn apart that the Bubble stuff sort of spills everywhere- Ghosts are able to exist outside of the Bubbles, but it’d seem they’re all being sucked into the Black Hole.
Would Life be Energy? Or would that be a Light thing? And if so, would Life players be able to wield lightning at their fingertips?
Energy does relate to both Life and Doom as different sides of the same coin, with the energy exerted on the Universe, and the energy the Universe exerts over you. Lightning could be either Life or Doom, yeah, but you could argue about it being a Light or even a Rage thing.
If so many alternate timelines exists, could there be a timeline where nobody never died? A timeline where all the trolls lived? Or does it work differently than that?
Nope, because any Alternate Timeline is Doomed by default, so one way or another they have to disappear eventually.
Contrary to popular belief, too, there’s not infinite Timelines.
Do the being sucked into the black hole become permadead? Or just trapped? Like, if a dream bubble got sucked into the black hole, are they permadead, or.. bubblestuck?
Likely they just disappear? Once beyond the Horrorterrible Furthest Ring Aspect Magicks that keep them bound there disappear into the Blackhole they likely just die for good, whatever the Homestuck Afterlife may look like.
Is the timeline we see in the end of homestuck a doomed one? Are they all fated to die? Or are they like... the 'main' timeline?
It’s hard to say. They’re not Doomed for sure, but at that point in the story, with all the Meta elements going on, they could also easily be outside of the Alpha without being Doomed. Let’s call it, a True End Timeline.
Hey I saw you discussing && and || and how they might relate to alchemy. That could be right, but I think what's more correct is that they come from programming language. Hussie majored in computer science I believe, and those symbols are the basics that programmers learn. They're called logic gates. You can add and subtract things in different ways with them, which was represented by the holes being added or subtracted
Yeeeeeah I know that, I am saying that the “And” and “Or” commands relate not to the items in the cards, but to the Punched Hole Patterns on the cards.
More or less at least! I decided to make a revised version of the old map I made for Alternia, since there were a few details that always bugged me. I think this one looks a bit better!
So this part about the whole Trickster debacle was always silly. It is the only hint we ever get of the possibility of some sort of ancient Cherub World, but that’s pretty much about it, there’s not much exploration of this at all.
After I made the first Map of Alternia, I tried to see if these landmasses fit anywhere, but there was no luck. Now that I remade it I decided to check again, however this time I noticed something. See, the compass is constantly spinning, so I wondered if maybe rotating the map would yield any results! And… Well.
It’s absolutely not a perfect fit by any means, and I am not claiming Alternia to be the Ancient Cherub Land- However, I could see Hussie paying homage to this dumb little gag by making the main Landmass where Hiveswap takes place reflect the Cherub World somewhat.
There’s the island to the left, there’s the island with a hook on the bottom-right, the fragmented usland on the top-right, and a few other water masses that seem to fit more or less with the general shape of the continent. And all I had to do, was flip the map Turnways. Food for thought?
Trolls' current views on mutations is ironic considering that they are already a mess of mutations.
They really are not though, it’s kind of simple! If your mutation is a detriment instead of an advantage in your given role, or disrupts the set system in place on Alternia, you’re just slated for culling.
Do any of the characters dislike their class and/or aspects
I’m not sure if any of them dislike their Class and Aspects. Dave dislikes his Heroic Role in general, but not because he doesn’t like Knights or Time, but because he just doesn’t want to be a big hero dude in general, so that’d be the same with any other Classpect. Some characters struggle with stuff related to their Aspect, but that doesn’t mean they hate the Aspect either. I’d say not quite?
Two questions: what would be the proper meta/canon level for hussies joke formspring answers (like vriska being fat)? And if the castes on Alternia are made to conform to the players does that mean cerulean women are stereotypically fat?
A lot of stuff Hussie says is jokingly, you can usually gleam what is serious and what isn’t. Body headcanons are up to the readers, so there’s very few characters who have more or less accepted set body types, but there’s no reason why she wouldn’t be fat! Even if she is though, Alternia pushes Castes to be like the CLASSPECT, not the Player, so it’s all psychological.
Wouldn’t you want to bring your dead pet-parent back to life?
Everyone had some attachment to their Lusus, with some exceptions- Feferi’s Lusus just died and floated into the Kernelsprite accidentally, for example, and it’s likely Vriska prototyped Spidermom out of a sense of duty rather than attachment, or… Kanaya prototyped Spidermon assuming everyone wanted their Lusii back.
To the anon, as to not spoil anything yet- I am not sure about Boldir not being an Oliveblood, but there’s something definitely interesting going on with her.
