AO

[Tumblr User Asked]: hi AO!! i would love to hear ur take on the life aspect, and maybe some of the ways it can ghost other aspects!

---

Certainly! The Life Aspect is very interesting. There's quite a bit to it that I feel gets misunderstood or overlooked.

Life is another aspect that I feel gets flattened down into something misunderstood, and I think this might partly be because its inverse is poorly understood. Ironically enough, I did not understand Life until I understood Doom. Where Doombound are commiserators of suffering, Lifebound are celebrators of comfort, joy, and pleasure.

From The Extended Zodiac, I pulled these keywords from the Life Aspect description. These would be the "canon" traits; they are what I adhere to when analyzing, but it should also be understood that this concept encompasses much more to do with than these keywords. Its "vibe", if you will, is much more than what is written.

TEZ Life Keywords: Healers, betterment of everyone, growth, progress, empathetic, medicinal, therapeutic, advisors, listeners, caretakers, nurturers, (passive aggressive, pushy)

The keywords I chose to represent Life are "Growth, Perseverance, Empathetic, Healing". This aspect, like all the other aspects, is inherently neutral. It is not good or bad, but has the potential to be either.

Life is about celebration, and finding the joy in being alive. It is euphoria in existence. It can be the joy children feel just going out into the world, or it can be finding a safe space and finally feeling comfortable enough to exist. It is allowing yourself to grow, acknowledging the wrongs and mistakes of yourself or others towards you and healing from them to grow. It is persevering onward into a better version of yourself, or a better version of the world for yourself and for others. Something that comes to mind are Pride Parades, in that they are a celebration of everyone present and pushing for the positive progress towards acceptance. This example will not apply to everyone, but I feel as though Life is also the euphoria of being transgender in some way and hearing your correct name and pronouns be used to refer to you.

This is why Lifebound "grow bitter when they feel their own self-care has had to be shunted aside"; they will push for the growth of not only others, but themself as well. If they are not allowed to grow because they are busy healing and helping everyone else and receiving no breaks to themself, they will most certainly become unpleasant to be around, as I'm certain most people will when their boundaries are not respected.

We can see this very much in canon with Feferi, Witch of Life (Active Changer), who repeatedly has her boundaries disrespected by Eridan, and ends up snapping at him. Feferi is also often referred to as a bubbly and excited character; she celebrates life all around her by taking care of her cuttlefish and her Horrorterror lusus equally. We don't very much get to see this with Meenah and The Condesce, who are Thieves of Life (Active Allocators), nor with Jane, who is a Maid of Life (Passive Enhancer), and I am inclined to blame it on their classes. Thieves don't understand the value of their aspect, but they lack it and fiercely want it despite that, while Maids rely on others for their aspect. Meenah and The Condesce do not understand the value of Life, but take it anyways; this is why Meenah is obsessed with money (a very surface level metaphor for Life, growing wealth, money can buy many things required to live, etc.), and why the Condesce's Alternia positively reeks of Doom; she stole all the Life from it. Jane, meanwhile, is trapped, controlled, and forced to rely on the Life others have set out for her; she doesn't get to figure out what Life means for her until much, much later.

[Tumblr User Asked]: i love your talks of aspects what can you say / your opinion on doom aspect?

---

Certainly, I can do an overview of the Doom Aspect for you. I feel as though it is often that Doom is characterized by its inverse aspect the most, as people tend to better understand the intricacies of the Life Aspect than they do Doom (this can be due to personal bias, environment, culture, ect). I also personally feel as though the Doom Aspect is overlooked or simply not understood and thus forgotten about, but that's just the general feeling I have picked up from perusing tags here and there.

Doom is an extremely interesting aspect. The remaining 11 aspects are about growing into your aspect through your class, but "growth" is one of the keywords of Life, Doom's inverse. How does one approach Doom and expect to grow?

From The Extended Zodiac, I pulled these keywords from the Doom Aspect description. These would be the "canon" traits; they are what I adhere to when analyzing, but it should also be understood that this concept encompasses much more to do with than these keywords. Its "vibe", if you will, is much more than what is written.

TEZ Doom Keywords: Suffering, wisdom, empathy, listeners, commiserators, wise, kind, non-judgemental, (bitter, resentful, fatalistic)

I'll admit that I had trouble understanding what the Doom Aspect was supposed to be at first. But as I analyzed it further, it occurred to me that this may be the aspect of those who have trauma, or those who have learned to cope through the bad circumstances they've been given and what they've experienced in life. This aspect may be best understood as an outside force that acts upon the player, or a force that the player themself uses upon others. (See: The Condesce's Alternia; the entire thing reeks of Doom). This is not also to say that if you have trauma, you are automatically Doombound. There is nuance involved, and it is important to keep in mind that an Aspect is the force that is most important in a person's life, whether lacking or abundant, whether good or bad, whether they want it or not. Another aspect may be stronger for an individual, even if trauma is a big part of their life.

It is the aspect of tragedy, but it is not necessarily tragic. It is very easy to fail the Doom Aspect, but those who hold onto it are often extremely steadfast, even if they're only hanging on by a thread. The Doombound may be irate about it, but their suffering matters because they deserve better. As in tragedies, we cry because we know it can be better. For others, it can be spite, spitting at the lot you've been given in life and making the most of it anyways, for what else can you do? Commiseration is quite possibly Doom's biggest theme.

The keywords I chose for Doom are "Acceptance, Compliance, Wisdom, and Sympathy". Acceptance and Compliance may be better understood as "coming to terms", accepting and complying with what is there because it's the only choice you've been given. As well, Acceptance isn't necessarily complacency, but rather an acknowledgement of the reality of a situation, and navigating through it as best as one can from what they have. Doombound are able to offer Wisdom when they see others in similar experiences, Sympathetic because they too know what it's like, but how they go about offering their Wisdom and Sympathy can vary. The Doombound are not growing the way the Lifebound are, often trapped or restricted from doing so.

Doom, being Life's inverse, is also given the symbols of illness, rot, stagnation, decay, and we can see this in both Sollux and Mituna in canon. As poorly as Mituna was handled, he as an Heir of Doom (Passive Embodiment), embodies a lot of mental illness. Sollux as a Mage of Doom (Active Knower) had too much experience with Doom as a whole, and he stagnates heavily because of it, later becoming a ghost, which is quite a literal symbol. I will admit that Doom is one of my weakest understood aspects, and it has been a while since I read Homestuck, so I am unfortunately not as familiar with the Captors' character arcs in canon as I would like to be. I'm very happy to invite discussion! I enjoy hearing other perspectives.

[Tumblr User asked]: hey! i just started classpect researching to better understand the system. do you pull any of your sources and understanding from homestuck canon itself? if so, how do you separate class influence from aspect influence from general character traits? i know that the characters/classpect system were catered to eachother, but do you have any thoughts? sorry if this doesnt make any sense

---

I love this question, I think this is one of my favorite questions I've ever received. Yes, I do pull a basic understanding of the classes and how they interact with the aspects from Homestuck canon! I try my best to keep my understanding and research of the classpecting system true to what is shown to us in canon and what comes from canon sources, with a little dash of what makes sense in real life. We are given canon explanations for the aspects from [The Extended Zodiac], so I pull my understanding of the aspects from the canon summaries that are given and what we are shown in Homestuck canon.

We are not given canon class explanations, so that area will always remain nebulous ranging from classpector to classpector (unless we suddenly are given canon explanations). As such, how I've been able to separate class from aspect from character traits in regards to canon is based almost entirely on my understanding of the aspects, then comparing two characters of the same class to see what is similar and what is not.

Karkat is a good example. At first glance, we can see he is an extremely angry character. He yells a lot, curses a lot, he's full of rage, and yet, he is not a Ragebound character. Why that is, has everything to do with what an aspect is. What does an aspect mean to a person, or what does it mean to have or be an aspect of something?

Aspect is the force that is most important in a person's life, whether lacking or abundant, whether good or bad, whether they want it or not.

Karkat is not Ragebound because Rage is not his driving force. [Rage as an aspect is about fighting and tearing down the system, rebellion, and discovering the truth.] It is activism and change. Karkat is a very stubborn and angry character, but the Rage aspect traits are not what drives him forward. In fact, Karkat is actually the antithesis of a Ragebound; he loves Alternia's empire, and it's one of his dreams to serve as a part of it as a Threshecutioner! He doesn't question the empire, despite its rules regarding the hemocaste that tell him he will never belong to it. That's actually more of a Hopebound trait than Ragebound trait.

So, he is not Ragebound despite being an angry character. What drives him forward is Blood, both in a literal and metaphorical sense. His own blood color is what drives his entire character, but aside from the literal symbolism, Karkat's driving force is his friends. [Blood as an aspect is about the ties that bind, the weight that promises hold, the value of relationships and keeping everyone together.] It is unity as a group, camaraderie within, the relationships you make and the responsibility you have to maintain those ties. I do talk a bit about Karkat and Kankri in my post about the Blood aspect; I've linked it in the brackets above.

So then, what is class, and how do we separate it from the aspect traits and just plain character traits? We hear a lot about "active classes" and "passive classes". Some class mechanics are even explored and explained in canon, but we never get a concrete definition; only pieces of a bigger picture. From these little pieces, I defined it down to a single sentence.

Class is how a person interacts with or is shaped by their aspect, either actively (directly) or passively (indirectly).

To separate class traits from aspect traits and character traits, I compared the two Knights in canon who get a lot of screen-time; Karkat and Dave. Being Knights of different aspects, I figured that, theoretically, if I subtracted their known aspect traits from their characters and then compare what is the same and what is not, I could find a pretty good ground for the Knight class to stand on. Whatever was not the same between them would be character traits. Whatever was the same could be a class trait pertaining to the Knight.

What I got was this:

• Knights are extremely adept with their aspect, their driving effort to protect it and others through it. They are loyal to their aspect's cause and naturally gifted with it, using it as a tool to achieve whatever they set themself to. Their challenge is to learn how to be less harsh on themselves, to accept and learn from failure, and to accept the assistance of others when they need it.

Knights are an Active Utilizing class; they have a direct relationship with their aspect and make use of it, and with Karkat, this is very true! He's the self-proclaimed "relationships guy", and honestly, when he actually shuts the fuck up and gets to his point, he's pretty spot on with a lot of his stuff. He uses Blood because he has an extremely direct relationship with it (his own blood defines how he sees himself and what he strives for, after all). He's very gifted with Blood; it's how he was able to bring twelve very different and very difficult people (himself included) together for long enough to succeed at an extremely long and convoluted game where the mechanics aren't exactly explained to you. In fact, I might even argue he was so good at Blood that him "giving (the Beta Kids') universe cancer" was him accidentally forging a tie with them (perhaps that's why they all have mutant candy red blood like him). Of course, the other trolls affected the kids' universe as well, but it was through Karkat's leadership over the trolls that the Beta Kids crossed sessions and came together with the trolls as one big group.

Anyways, this kind of became a love letter to how Karkat's character is written, my apologies.

Though the dancestors were written quite flatly, we are given at least three of each class in canon between the Beta Kids, Alpha Kids, and the trolls (except for four; the Thief, Mage, Sylph, Bard). The dancestors are caricatures, which made analyzing them harder, but it was extremely interesting to subtract their aspect traits and parse out what was similar between the classes of the dancestors and characters who were written with more thought behind them.

As for the four classes who had one well written character to represent them and one flatly written character to represent them, I looked to their paired active/passive class. The Thief and Rogue are Allocators; while the Rogue is passive, the Thief is active. The Mage and Seer are Understanders; while the Seer is passive, the Mage is active. [The Sylph and Maid are Enhancers; while the Maid is passive, the Sylph is active.] Finally, the Prince and the Bard are Destroyers; while the Prince is active, the Bard is passive.

Since I had already constructed the other eight classes from analyzing the characters in canon and what little tidbits are given to us in canon, I figured I could look at how, let's say, the Knight (Active Utilizer) and the Page (Passive Utilizer) interacted as a fully analyzed class pair, then follow that pattern for the remaining four classes that needed a proper analysis.

[You can read my basic overview of the 12 classes here.]

Thank you so much for asking, this question was extremely fun to answer! So sorry I made it about Karkat, I just happen to love him.

[Tumblr User Asked]: would lovelovelove to hear ur take on the rage aspect in general.

---

You've actually asked me about my favorite aspect and I will GLADLY take this opportunity to ramble about it (and, I suppose, touch a bit on its inverse as well). I actually wish I was this aspect instead sometimes; I present as very punk in my offline life and every Ragebound I've met has always been the most delightful company I've ever kept. (I suppose that might also be a very Heartbound thing to wish for, to be of another aspect...)

Of the twelve aspects, I will argue that Rage and Hope are the most commonly and grossly misunderstood. When they are flattened into one dimensional concepts, they are flattened into words that are not even in the realm of correct. Because of what we see in canon, Rage and Hope tend to get flattened into the "angry aspect" and the "positive aspect". These are incorrect understandings. Hope is about ideology and the systems built by them (such as government, or organized religion). Rage is about activism and digging out the truth. It is a very active aspect.

From The Extended Zodiac, I pulled these keywords from the Rage Aspect description. These would be the "canon" traits; they are what I adhere to when analyzing, but it should also be understood that this concept encompasses much more to do with than these keywords. Its "vibe", if you will, is much more than what is written.

TEZ Rage Keywords: Chaos, contempt, truth-seekers, doubters, stubborn, volatile, unpredictable, original, revolutionary, fearless, (cruel, uncompromising, vicious)

The words I chose to represent Rage in my analyses of the classpects are "Skepticism, Truth-seeking, Rebellion, Stubbornness". Like the other aspects, Rage is not an inherently good or bad aspect; it is neutral in its purest form.

Rage is what brings change. It is rebellion against unfair government systems, it is breaking free of internal biases, it is going out and finding the truth outside of the propaganda you have been fed. Rage aligns with punk very well, and I would be willing to argue that many of those in the [punk subculture] are Ragebound or know several Ragebound, and this is because to be punk is to rebel against wider societal views. You'll find many queer people in the punk subculture, for example, even if they are not Ragebound, because of how wider society views queer people.

Not all punks are Ragebound, and not all Rage is punk (though, much of it is). Rage is also activism. It is organized rallies and protests. It is essays that carefully deconstruct internal biases and point out what is and isn't propaganda. It is not believing what you are told about something because you'd rather get first hand experience or research it yourself than hear it from the mouth of anyone else.

I cannot speak of Gamzee and Kurloz as they are presented in canon, because... their characters were either written very messily or just not written at all. They are both destroyer classes, which tends to skew the understanding of an aspect as well. However, I would think that Gamzee and Kurloz's arcs, if written out with intentions of having them be properly developed as characters, would include becoming aware that their beliefs were built on faulty premises, turning against their cult beliefs, and tearing it down; using Rage to destroy what had (passively or actively) destroyed them.

(I would like to joke that Gamzee and Kurloz had to be written poorly. If they were ever written as a fully realized Bard of Rage or Prince of Rage, Homestuck would have been over the moment they accepted their true aspect and began using it to destroy the Condesce and Lord English. Those two classpects are particularly powerful.)