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Post by Testbug on Jun 21, 2013 8:28:48 GMT -5
So, I've been reading a lot of Homestuck theories, and idle hands have led to me shifting my analytic gaze at our own session. And since doing that, I've become surprisingly entranced with deeply analyzing the session itself. In an effort to better myself, I analyzed my own character, and came up with some surprising results. After sharing with Pohatu, he said that I should share it with the group at large. So, in an attempt to create some broad understanding, I'm gonna share a little bit about Shiro as a character, and what his symbolism means. A few notes on formatting: Like any good AP English student, I will be backing up the more outrageous claims with some textual references. So if this post looks daunting, you should know that you're probably just re-reading things you've already read. For any longer sections, I'll be bolding the significant sections of text. While quoting text, I will be putting it in blockquotes, like such: TG: basically robots are in control now TG: which is good news and bad news TG: the bad news is theyre all pornbots and theyve got LOADS of provocative material theyre just dying to share with us GG: whats the good news? TG: thats also the good news To combine the two rules: TG: basically robots are in control now TG: which is good news and bad news TG: the bad news is theyre all pornbots and theyve got LOADS of provocative material theyre just dying to share with us GG: whats the good news? TG: thats also the good news Oh, and one more thing! I know a small number of you take arms to the idea of character definition, so I am going to encourage you to counter my analysis! I played a lot of Ace Attorney during my formative years, so I believe that truth is the ultimate result of discourse, even if the result isn't in my favor. Also, this is going to be a long one. Buckle up. So, to begin, let's analyze John "Shiro-kun" Whitehearst. Shiro is our Hero of Time. Heroes of Time are supposed to, very literally, master the element of temporal progression. Understanding stable time loops, comprehending the complex relationships of ideas spawning themselves, and also coming to terms with the finality and necessity of death. But... We haven't seen much of that, have we? We saw his entry being the beginning to this, but that can be discussed later. And yet, his quest seems to be completely off track. Shiro's quest, as I've hinted at, is one about his Self. He needs to discover his individuality, stand separate, stand apart from his idols and his copycat tendencies. And if I may toot my own horn, Shiro's theme is one that illustrates those themes perfectly. Shiro's color is white. He's a blank canvas, an empty page ( Opportunity missed, it seems.), something to be altered over time and become something different. But the way Shiro is handling it is like placing stickers on a laptop case. He's making himself different, sure, but unless he's hand-crafting the stickers, his differences aren't unique. They're nothing substantial, and are easily imitable. He copies his favorite anime heroes (we've already seen this with his creation of-as Collin puts it-merch.) and I intend for him to show more obvious references later on. (In the Strife! with his father, I fully intend for him to Substitution-no-Jutsu out of the way.) Shiro's blank-slate and obvious need to break away from the things that are hiding his true self seem more reminiscent of a hero of Heart's journey, or a hero who must walk the path of self. So why, then, is Shiro's quest a path of Heart when he is a Time player? Well, that would be due to some outside influences. I am willing to share this much with you now, mostly because to get to any sort of meat of discussion surrounding Shiro, a few plot points must be made clear. MA is going to guide Shiro by the hand along his path. He's going to stick both fingers up Shiro's nose, and pull him kicking and screaming through the path that MA thinks he should be following. In fact, this is already being foreshadowed heavily by his server player. Collin is spoon-feeding Shiro his information about his session, and helped him every shaking step of the way from cruxtruder to entry. Collin's approach, however, is one of necessity only. Shiro couldn't have learned everything there is to learn about entry in under 6 minutes, at least not without the help of a friend who knows how this part of a session works. The only problem is when Shiro is left without that help, (Collin being distracted by his own thoughts) he attempts to take his own life out of fear. Shiro wasn't able to understand the machinations of entry, because he wasn't able to disentangle their meaning first hand. He wasn't poking and prodding at the cruxtruder, he wasn't running around with cruxite under both arms and a pre-punched card jutting out of his mouth as he rushed to the alchemiter in a desperate attempt to make this thing work with this thing. He just put his faith in Collin and did everything that he was told. He was handed a short katana-one used for sepukku by old samurai-and told a meteor was going to kill him. Seeing this Japanese symbolism laid out in front of him, Shiro did the only thing he understood, and that luckily saved him. That blind trust in his own instinct, however, is the start of his ascension as a Hero of Time. Dave eventually learns how to be a Hero of Time by trusting his gut. TG: i just figured when the time came to sort it out the right thing to do would be obvious TG: like it is now TG: managing the loops is a balance of careful planning and just rolling with your in the moment decisions TG: and trusting they were the ones you were always supposed to make TG: by now im pretty used to having my intuition woven into the fabric of the alpha timeline Similarly, Shiro's entry is the beginning of his quest to understanding his intuition's role in the fabric of time. He has to both trust that the Katana won't kill him, and that he can face his mortality. These are both crucial to his ascension to power, and are paving the road for him to face his own death (a repeatedly stated crucial component of someone achieving god tier!). With better writing, my accidental inclusion of these particulars can be more obviously part of his quest, as opposed to just "this cool thing I threw in." On a final, extra note which I didn't discuss with Pohatu already, Shiro has one more motif going for him that we haven't explored. Chess. While I hate to make Shiro this rolling ball of symbolism, I will gladly take an opportunity to talk about this association. Chess is a game of understanding the moves and motives of your opponent, very much an understanding that a Mind player would need to take. But, more importantly, it also requires some serious spacial awareness. You need to understand where everything is, and how the pieces can move across the field. It's very much a game for either a hero of Space or a hero of Mind. Shiro's quest is seemingly mismatched all over the place. He's being thrown in all of these directions all at once, further enforcing the idea of a hero of Self, needing to deviate and find his own Self in order to gain his strength. John "Shiro-kun" Whitehearst. The boy of a thousand quests.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Jun 21, 2013 18:53:59 GMT -5
I love this but I have to ask for some more elaboration on the connection between MA's influence and the aspect of Heart. Or is that something you can't get into?
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Post by Testbug on Jun 22, 2013 14:39:07 GMT -5
Sure! I can get into a little more dialogue about MA. I can't get into any of the really meaty bits without major spoilers, but I'll try to examine mostly what we've already seen of MA. Our first introduction to his character is one of nothing less than a stream of profanity vaguely sewn together by the strings of "conversation". Shiro points this out, and we're left with an impression of the character which we've probably dealt with in our own lives. (Well, you've probably dealt with him if you've ever played a PvP game of League of Legends or been struck with the desire to play Free-For-All Call of Duty.) His immediate effect? Shiro: fuck shit up.
Stupid lousy no good rotten administrators!
Stuipd lousy no good rotten threats!
AND YOU ARE TIRED OF ALL THESE MOTHERfuckING IMPS
IN YOUR MOTHERfuckING MEDIUM. He causes a dramatic split in Shiro's personality, almost instantly. He makes Shiro so mad, and makes the kid run around and kill imps just to get the feelings of anger off of his mind. He splinters Shiro's personality, if you will. We know Shiro is prone to outbursts of anger, evidenced by his "special Kitten spot" where he's prone to slam his head when Kitten has one of her "technology issues". But the one caused by MA seems to bother him more than that. He ends up running to Colin, talking about just how furious MA makes him. And in fact, the next time we see Shiro break his normally happy attitude, it's after MA talks to him and makes him fight. It's this sort of effect that MA has on Shiro that lends itself, in a way, to the path of a hero of Heart. It's a journey through his self that MA sort of invites. This exploration of his emotions, and a deeper understanding of the effect that others have on him. While he's no auto-responder, I think he still provides a valuable insight into who Shiro is, as well as hinting at a misplaced personal quest.
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Post by Lady Kara on Jun 25, 2013 23:20:14 GMT -5
OMG... this is sooo good. Damn good. Makes me highly eager to see where Shiro's multi-faceted quest is gonna take him... and the complexity of it all is just fantastic. <3
(and of course, makes me wish I was able to freakin be a part of it finally; soon as a troll session is a definite thing, I can get my best friend in on this with his 4 fan trolls and the 2 that I've got)
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Post by Tout-Perd on Jun 26, 2013 12:10:01 GMT -5
So he's a player of time, in a quest for self... Could it be said that Shiro is in need of some "Me Time"?
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Post by Testbug on Jun 26, 2013 13:55:40 GMT -5
Lee I hate you for that pun, but I begrudgingly accept it because it is too damn clever. hey why dont you talk about flynnDID SOMEONE SAY TALK ABOUT FLYNN Flynn Sostenuto. Flynn is inverting his title hard, but also showing tremendous talent in his given aspect. Let's start with that. He is looking at his life, and his vision of himself, and selectively obfuscating or outright ignoring aspects of his life for the sake of his own personal image. As something which "homestuck scholars" have discussed at length, the aspect of Void is the obfuscation of knowledge, or its outright destruction. Roxy's current powers are a little more literal with Void, but I favor the idea that she's taking away their hidden nature. (I have a decent theory on that, but that's an entirely different, albeit shorter, conversation.) Flynn, right now, is doing nothing short of turning a blind eye to his own self. He is intentionally being blinded for the purpose of maintaining a healthy state of mind, which is critical. Flynn does not appear stable in the least, in fact breaking into tears at the THOUGHT of destroying his sister's frog statue.
And anyway on another note you also cannot bring yourself to smash the CRESTED GECKO STATUE because it belongs to your SISTER and even though you might not think much of her two unrelated OBSESSIONS, and though in fact they might cause you a SUBSTANTIAL DEGREE OF AGGRAVATION AND UNEASE, you're still her little BROTHER and that means you need to show SUPPORT for her interests no matter your feelings about them because your PARENTS are long gone and all you have left in the world is EACH OTHER now bluhuhuhuhhhhhhhhhhh
Interestingly enough, here he also avoids using his powers of destruction or removal for the sake of others, which is an amazingly interesting character aspect. Flynn has significant delusions about himself, and won't allow anything to penetrate that void. There's a conversation drafted up somewhere between MA and Flynn, and he eventually loses interest in talking to the asshole. Flynn actually makes some of the most obvious and opaque statements regarding Void that a Void player can make! FH: Tell you what, propeller head: for your next trick, how about hacking into my brain? You think you can cleave your way through enough passcodes and firewalls to run the "FLYNN DESPERATELY ATTEMPTS TO GIVE A SHIT" program?? FH: I warn you. It is well encrypted.
Flynn was being shown light and refused to even acknowledge its presence! He blocked it out entirely, and then didn't even let ANYONE talk to him. He logged out, further enshrouding himself from any sort of knowledge affecting him. I'm going to take a small handful of logic leaps here, but trust me, they will be well-founded. The mission of Flynn, and in fact our whole session, is one of destroying a series of other sessions. The mission could be described as resetting a session, or as wiping a document or canvas clean. Flynn is, effectively, clearing out all lasting impressions of any past sessions so that new ones can come in and settle down. He is taking his aspect of Void and cranking it up to eleven, for better or for worse. Because of the nature of the mission he is going to undertake, his class is heavily implicated to be highly active. He isn't spreading void to others, he's specifically voiding out other sessions. Prince of Void would be an extremely fitting title, and Duke rather cleverly matches thematically with Prince. And the power to destroy-hell, to outright obliterate-through an Aspect which is defined by its own destructive nature is a shockingly powerful combination. Flynn is given a unique and powerful set of tools in order to achieve his goals, and a call-to-action is being established, but we should be scared of Flynn. Right now, Flynn is inverting his powers in one way, and over embracing in another, creating a beautiful dichotomy. Flynn is doing everything in his power to unite the group as a leader, and to guide them as best he can. He sent out a message to everyone indicating that there would be serious implications to go along with the game, and that everyone needed to be as prepared with knowledge as they could. He was shedding Light in place of Void, and was in this way, trying to ascend to a role which was opposite his strengths. Think of Rose's later attempts as a realized Light player. She went tearing through Sburb to find truths, and even found an object containing nothing but absolute truths and consulted it. (However, she was trying to accomplish her light tasks by utilizing void, and, well, the results weren't exactly stellar, were they?) Her search for truth and deliverance of said truth sounds similar to Flynn's intentions, doesn't it? In fact, late-game Rose sounds a lot like early Flynn, doesn't she? Flynn is embracing Light, but he's embracing passive light. He's not learning for the sake of learning, he's learning for the sake of educating others. He's even going as far as to take advantage of his fellow players' positions within the game to gather information. Just after communicating with an in-game Shiro, Flynn has this to say: FH: /gɒ/ I can't believe this! Here's one of my teammates running off and jumping right into the game before checking in with me. Hogging all the glory! Man! FH: I thought I was going to be the FH: Wait. FH: Never mind, I've got it. You're like... the vanguard! Blazing the trail ahead, scoping out the horizon with your hawk-like eyes, mapping it all with impeccable detail in your mind and relaying this vital information back to the rest of us as we prepare to advance. FH: Yeah, that's perfect! It wouldn't make any sense at all for me to start playing first. What was I /θɪŋkɪŋ/?? You're totally doing the right thing! FH: So, bold scout, what else do you have to report? What's the interface like? I can't tell from your screenshot. But the graphics look amazing! Watch my shitty computer end up choking on processing all that RAM or whatever, ha ha. He's even turning his friends into mere extensions of his own craving for light, and in fact suggesting that Shiro himself should assume a role as a Seer of Light! This is Flynn's M.O. right now, and it's proving already to be a blatantly bad idea. He's got a talent for Void, clearly. His ability to hide information from himself (who the fuck loses their charger???) and to have his own meanings obscured (by his typing quirk itself!) are both indicators of their inherently conflicting nature. In fact, when Flynn started freaking out and trying to communicate his knowledge of Sburb and his warnings of death to Bicé-when he is exploiting passive Light as hard as he can-his warning becomes garbled by power issues. forteHolder [FH] is offline.
forteHolder [FH] is online.
FH: /fʌkɪŋ/ FH: Sorry! My computer keeps blacking out on me. FH: It's really
forteHolder [FH] is offline.
forteHolder [FH] is online.
FH: Augh /sɒri/ /sɒri/ !! FH: Hey but listen, are you okay where you are? Like, I mean, there isn't a meteor bearing down on your house or anything, right?? DV: Meteors, huh? DV: You know I was wondering what that was.
forteHolder [FH] is offline.
forteHolder [FH] is online.
forteHolder [FH] is offline.
forteHolder [FH] is online.
This is an early precursor telling us both how weak Flynn's attempted abilities are now, and how strong his honest, actual abilities will be come. Flynn, once he stops completely inverting his role, will find a way to bring about some grand abilities. His established moment of true characterization, as we've discussed, comes when Flynn is shocked out of his self-ignorance and is made to comprehend how little he's known about himself. This is a dangerous forecast, however. The implications of shocking a player into their role indicate that the push must come from an opposite direction than what they will be pushed into. But what if a moment like that just pushes Flynn further into the Light, all but rendering his powers of active Void worthless? Skaia isn't equipped to reward Flynn as a hero of Light. Any Void boons given to him at that point will actually render him even weaker, as an unfitting weapon does a soldier no good. His quest is indicating several different paths that Flynn could travel. In fact, it almost seems like his quest is hiding itself! (And isn't a quest that hides itself just perfect for a void player?!)Flynn is set for a personal quest of discovery, acceptance, outright loss, or worse, a personal refutation of his powers entirely. And those are my unsolicited thoughts about Flynn. This is fun! Seriously, if you guys want me to give some characters a good hard looking, please bonk my noggin and tell me to get to thinking! I'm also super willing to elaborate on anything you see above that isn't horribly spoilery.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Jun 26, 2013 14:03:15 GMT -5
I... I think you should look at Mark, but I'm so shamed by the amazing analysis of things I didn't consciously intend in Flynn that the *** OBVIOUS DOOM FORESHADOWING *** in Mark's topic would just be silly.
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Post by Testbug on Jun 26, 2013 19:50:40 GMT -5
(LOOKING BACK: Wow, I had a lot to say about Mark, apparently. Ah well, enjoy!) My initial post was something along the lines of "Oh, I think it might be just TOO obvious, Pohatu." as an obvious sarcastic comment on the lack of analyze-able material which Mark's topic contains. But then... Then I got to thinking about the Doom aspect. I really began analyzing the characters that we had to work with, and what Doom's place within the fabric of reality is. We only had two people to work with by example (Sollux, and his dancestor Mituna), but as it turns out, that's more than enough for me to work with. In fact, I ended up doing some really solid, really evidence-based prediction and exploration. So, without further ado... Mark Roh- woops, hold on. Mark Rohr. The Legate of Doom. What's a Legate, you ask? Well, according to the internet, a Legate is: 1) A member of the clergy, esp. a cardinal, representing the pope. 2) An ambassador or messenger. Thanks, Google! Wow. That's a title for analysis right out of the gate! Think about the first definition specifically. A member of the clergy, representing the pope. When combined with doom, that makes the definition something like... A member of the clergy, representing Doom. Which is already a badass image, maybe even reminiscent of a shadow priest. Next, let's take into consideration the second definition. An ambassador or messenger of Doom. Both interpretations imply (or outright state) representation. In short, the title translates to... A representation of Doom. Wow. I hadn't given Mark much thought at all, but when I thought about giving him a bare-bones title analysis, the thought struck me that I never really analyzed his title. Before googling it, I had NO clue what a Legate was. And then... Then I got that piece of work. And then, Mark's story became a little bit more interesting. I don't have much to work with in terms of Mark's characterization, or his personal struggles (being not only excluded from the inner workings of his mind, a la Shiro, but also from a significant body of work to analyze, a la Flynn.), but I will try and shed some light on the subject of Mark as a character for the sake of deeper understanding. Any title meaning "a representation of Doom" already strikes me as passive. And not in a Bard "oh i'm definitely passive wink wink nudge nudge hey where's your everything whoops silly me" kind of way. But, think about the title. It refers to the person who wields Doom, and talks about it as though the aspect is infusing itself into the wielder of the title. Using it to bolster its bearer's defenses, or to potentially turn the player into an envoy of the aspect itself. An envoy of Doom? Jesus, Mark. Put your OPness away! You'll poke someone's eye out with that thing. Next, we have to look at the aspect of Doom itself. Doom can be interpreted a number of ways, so let's start with the most obvious. Doom is the absence of hope, a sort of destitute feeling that the future is inevitable, but it is inevitably bad. The antithesis of Hope, and it comes with all of the control and command of such a feeling you would expect. For a literal interpretation of that, just look at Sollux. He waxes doomed all the time! Your mutant mind is hounded by the psychic screams of the IMMINENTLY DECEASED. Your visions foretell of the planet's looming annihilation, and yet unlike the typical sightless prophet of doom, you are gifted with VISION TWOFOLD.
TA: ii am goiing two diie. TA: ii mean we all are. TA: but e2peciially me. TA: ii am goiing two get my a22 2erved two me twofold. TA: double the 2erviice. TA: liike two dude2 on doublebutler ii2land. TA: gettiing worked over by a 2iiame2e twiin ma22eu2e. TA: but before ii diie, iim goiing two go bliind liike you. TA: iit ha2 two happen liike that. TA: iim not 2ure why, but ii thiink iit2 liike... TA: fulfiilliing 2ome requiirement for a true prophet of doom. TA: iin order for the vii2iion2 two be riight, that ha2 two happen, and the uniiver2e wiill make 2ure iit wiill.
TA: 2o anyway, ii thiink even though ii quiit a2 leader iim 2tiill goiing two play the game now. TA: becau2e iit2 eiither that or get totally creamed by all the2e fuckiing 2pace boulder2. TA: hey maybe we can make the be2t of the game anyway, even though ii guess we are goiing two lo2e. And to draw a few more references to our only examinable Doom players, their stories themSELVES are horribly doom-filled! spoiler'd for superfluous captor analysis Sollux just can't catch a break. Even from the outset. The screams in his head, the killing his own girlfriend, the killing his own PARENT, the dying the MOMENT before he would've been safe, running a gambit on life, death, blindness, and everything in between, until eventually he finds himself wandering the realm of the dead for what we can assume is eternity... Just a poor guy.
Mituna is equally sad! Across all timelines, across every possible permutation of his story, Mituna saves the lives of his friends and fries his brains. No matter when, where, or what Mituna is, Mituna steps up and saves his friends from Doom. (Which could be an example of his outright rejection of his own class and aspect, and mean that the punishment for disobeying this cosmic inevitability is his own sanity and brain function. In essence, he bit the hand that fed him, and the hand knocked his fucking teeth out.) The two Captors are just... Sad. But, a second possibility! Rules and limitations. Sollux, our 1337 h4xxor, is a dude who has an intimate knowledge of the inner machinations of computers. He also has vision twofold, potentially meaning a serious understanding of most everything around him. Doom could even be interpreted as Death, meaning that he understood his own limitations, an understanding which he acquired by dying. There's a decent chunk of evidence for this explanation of Doom, and it's all very internally consistent. But it isn't my favorite explanation. Oh no no. My favorite explanation of Doom? Doom is the Aspect of sacrifice.If you read the captornalysis, then just look at Mituna to see this exemplified to a T. Mituna gave up everything for his team! Even Sollux found himself surrendering all kinds of things just to keep the game going, and eventually to keep his team going. He gave up his vision twofold, his lusus, and even his life. Twice. If any characters in homestuck truly understand sacrifice, those characters are the Captors. So. We have a Legate of Doom. A harbinger of inevitable defeat and sacrifice, if you will. So... Why is it fucking Mark? Well, let's take a look at some of the foreshadowing already placed in Mark's story. Mark has been shown sending the two young women home, and yes, as the narrative stated, he was effectively dooming them. The hopeless, inevitable destruction brand of pure doom. Mark was the messenger to their inevitable destruction. He's embracing his role here, but it's in such a passive way that it's almost laughable. ... Almost. Is such passiveness really a way to dismiss his effect on these women? From his point of view, maybe. From the scope of the narrative, I guess. But think about those two women. Fleeting characters they may be, this is probably their last night alive. Mark just threw them from what was probably the only house in the city that could have saved them. They're gone. That's hardly passive. So Mark possesses some of his own passive manipulation of his Aspect. Cool. Legit as fuck, yo. But... So what? What's engaging about someone already so clearly and already so inevitably on their path to understanding their aspect? Welll, what about the other part of Doom as an aspect? If you've been thinking while you read, you might have already guessed. Mark's challenge is the scale of the sacrifice he will have to make.Mark will probably get a handle on his Doom. By the end, we can imagine that he is just doling out the doom and gloom and death, burning out people's hope and killing what little light they have in their life. But even if he does all that, then he won't have truly understood his aspect. Mark will never understand what Doom truly means until he faces the other half. Until he faces sacrifice. He won't really be able to wield Doom until he has come to master the idea of relinquishing his possessions, or even himself to the universe at large. Imagine, a man with all the money, time, possessions, women, and friends in the world. Imagine what the universe would have to throw at him for him to truly understand the concept of giving for the greater good. Imagine just how much he has to lose. Imagine what Sollux gave up. Mark has way more than vision twofold and a couple extra dreamselves to give up. A man with all that money? With all that comfort? With all of that height and loftiness? Imagine how hard a man like that can fall once he's really started falling. Imagine the kind of internal havoc that would wreak. It would shatter Mark, down to his core. He strikes me as a man to keep his cool almost 24/7, but imagine what would happen if all of his ways of coping with defeat were taken away. Imagine Mark not only losing his cool, but losing it in the worst possible way. For a while he'd probably keep himself together for a little while, but he'd break. And he wouldn't just break. He'd shatter. He'd face his worst fears and darkest nightmares in the face, and then have to let them consume him. And then, imagine that despair weaponized.We should have no fear for a broken Mark. Doom has a way of weaponizing those breaks. Mark Rohr. The man poised to fall farthest, and bounce highest.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Jun 26, 2013 20:07:50 GMT -5
You didn't mention the big skull and crossbones looming over Mark's shoulder in the Blingee pic?
F
Nah just kidding.
A
I never even considered the sacrifice idea! Although, fun fact: I've already written most of a conversation in which Flynn's sprite makes a compelling argument to Mark that his title is actually all about learning to care about other people. Mark thinks that's a load of horseshit obviously, but some things you wrote like "He won't really be able to wield Doom until he has come to master the idea of relinquishing his possessions, or even himself to the universe at large" really come close to touching on similar ideas.
(Mark's sprite is less eloquent.)
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Post by Testbug on Jun 26, 2013 20:21:37 GMT -5
WELL THEN
also continue to suggest characters or ask questions i'm in an analytic mood
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Post by Ninety on Jun 29, 2013 1:20:41 GMT -5
FYI, this is the version of legate that I had intended when I grabbed that title. Your analysis was good though. I had quite a few ideas for Mark's growth that tie into and/or conflict with your analysis but potato has free reign with the character now so who knows where it's headed. I gave those ideas to potato but whether he uses them or not is up to him.
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Post by ch00beh on Jul 9, 2013 23:04:58 GMT -5
you should analyze Tweak because he doesn't get new content and thus will be easy to analyze.
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Post by Testbug on Sept 3, 2013 20:01:10 GMT -5
you should analyze Tweak because he doesn't get new content and thus will be easy to analyze. I thought for a good long while about this particular character. Mostly because my brain had such an outright rejection to the idea of his analysis. People throw a character at me,and my immediate thought is "is it really worth it? what even is there to analyze?" and then, with a touch of inspiration, I realized just what I was looking at with Tweak. I realized that even with just a little bit of analysis, Tweak is really a fantastic character to analyze. On a very meta level, he's a Space player of the coolest caliber. No, not the coolest. The most awesome caliber. Tweak Moustache, the Star of Space. As a Space player, Tweak's quest is significantly interwoven with the fabric of reality. Next to a Time player, a Space player is the most meta-conscious player in a session. They're inherently aware, or will come to be inherently aware, of all the rules of their universe. They can understand the curvature of the earth, feel the orbit around the sun, and understand very complex rules of reality almost instantly! Just look at Jade's explanation of the Green Sun if you need a text reference. So of the few things we know about Tweak, what can really be applied to his aspect? Well, his Specibus is specifically designed to only let him use objects that are "awesome", which is an incredibly vague term. Although, it appears to be flexible and nebulous, almost like the terms of immortality themselves. The other thing we know? By altering his clothes, AKA the physical things on his body, he can change how his narrative itself unfolds. By putting on a scarf or a coat, he immediately changes the way in which his universe communicates his existence. Although, that's a little English Major-y for me, so I'll try and communicate this in a more literal sense. When something changes physically for Tweak, something in the narrative changes, as well! This could lead to some sweet things. For example, if he starts to lose consciousness, his words could begin to lose opacity, or if he begins to slip out of reality and into dreams, maybe his images will lose their shape and border. Or, if he gains his Spacey powers, Tweak will manage to find himself able to control the shape of his words and images. In a sense, he would then be manipulating the narrative to impact his physical being! So, you think to yourself, Kalseng. What exactly does Tweak have to learn? He's already a well-realized Space player! Well, I reply as I casually begin strapping the dunce cap to your soft and malleable head, I would ask you to look at the example of Vriska. At the beginning of her story, she's documented as a previously expert Thief of Light. She has phenomenal luck, and skill at stealing people's will and manipul8ing everyone around her. Then, a terrible thing happens! She is hurt by a manipul8ed by Doc Scratch, a result of her own schemes, and loses her arm and eye. And with it, much of her luck, will and knowledge! (Those three things being core aspects of Light! Tweak is susceptible to the subtle swings of his narrative in relation to his physical being, meaning he has a decent understanding of his aspect. He isn't exactly sitting on the cusp of a great loss, a la Mark, but he is set up for one of two different outcomes, BOTH of which can be exemplified by Vriska! The other outcome, the non-progress-resetting one, is one where Tweak overdoses on his aspect. Vriska lost her life, permanently, because she was overdosing on her Class and Aspect. She robbed everyone of their will, of their freedom to make choice, and of their knowledge of her greater scheme. In fact, the only person who could stop her was a Seer, someone gifted with the ability to pierce the shadows and see things in spite of any attempts to blind or to obscure knowledge. And her punishment for overembracing her aspect? One of the first and few permanent deaths in Homestuck. We don't have a great example of an overmbracing Space player, except maybe Grimbark Jade. (Though she's more drunk on the Witch part of her title, with Space just being an indicator of exactly how far her reach spans.) So what is there to say about Tweak? What really can be theorized or analyzed about him? A) He's awesome, and will come to understand Househeld as a story better than most other characters if his character arc progresses as it has been hinted. B) He's set on a trajectory to become either drunk on his power, or to suddenly lose it all. And, upon giving it a second thought, maybe even both, by the time everything is said and done. C) He's awesome. So there. The long-awaited, long-deserved Tweak Appreciation Post.
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Post by ch00beh on Sept 3, 2013 23:01:07 GMT -5
Tl;dr
(Jk I read it)
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