[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.