Finally after years of wandering I encounter someone talking about classpects even the briefest amount...with this I can withstand another ten years of deprivation.
I'm interested if you've read any analyses of the classpects system? There's a huge series on YouTube from optimisticDuelist, which I loved and would evangelize to everyone if talking about classpects and homestuck wasn't inherently a conversational dead-end.
Good to see a person of taste! I was a Bladekind Eyewear guy, mostly, in terms of theories and classpect discussion, though I think I dabbled in duelist, those many years ago. I think that much like with enneagram, I kinda just took my own stuff from it, and applied it gleefully to my life without worrying too too much about how "canon" my interpretations were.
Since someone is classpect-interested here, actually, I'll try to say from memory. Though some of the less-used ones are fuzzy.
ASPECTS
Blood - Obligations, bindings, things that restrict freedom. can be negative e.g. bondage/chafing social obligation or positive e.g. warm family/friendship/kinship ties
Breath - Freedom, going where the wind blows, "kissing the joy as it flies", but on the negative end hard to commit/rely on/trust
Space - Uhh space. Just space. I dunno. The stuff you'd associate with empty space, and having space, and needing space.
Time - Same but for time. Change where space has relative constancy. These ones are hardest to describe but sometimes someone is just OBVIOUSLY time/space anyway.
Life - Vivaciousness, but also a sort of "nature abhors a vacuum". Overflowing. Not particularly respecting neat boundaries. Think about all the wacky biology stuff where cell structures are optimized such that everything bumps into each other constantly.
Doom - The rules. Taxes. Computers. Javert.
Heart - Identity, specifically what's held fixed about one's self. Solidity of purpose, unwaveringness. But relatedly brittleness, a propensity to fall apart/shatter/splinter under pressure, rather than bending. Simply being a Type of Guy, quite Firmly. (Too firmly?)
Mind - Opposite of that. Going with the flow. Nuance. "It depends." Code switching. Different facets with different friend groups. Not disingenuous necessarily, but a little hard to pin down in the limit.
Hope - Possibility! Especially sexual possibility, specifically in terms of - ah, geez - the explosive possibilities of genetic reproduction. Kind of like, too much. The quintessential "hope thing" for me is how there are just so many sperm, and each one could be half the ingredients for a person. So many potential people! But also hope isn't sexual per se, that sort of sexual explosiveness is just part of the lens to see like... a simply uncontainable, dazzling array of what could come to pass.
Rage - No. Idiot. Only the thing that happens happens. Chill out. Lighten up.
Light - Truth, facts, knowledge, luck. The stuff you generally want to look at, or that you might see up in an ivory tower.
Void - What's tough to fit in boxes, not of "the rules" but of epistemology, or fortune. Things where it's hard to say if they're good or bad, or where their boundaries are. Ineffable feelings. Ennui. But also, relatedly, a certain joie de vivre.
CLASSES
Prince/Bard - Active destruction and passive destruction. Just straightforwardly canon. Definitely not all bad, though, and notably it can destroying the thing their aspect represents (sometimes), or using what their aspect represents to destroy other stuff (sometimes). Like a bard of blood is a good person to talk to in the midst of a divorce, to help you learn how to like, dissolve some of your, ahem, bad blood. But a bard of blood can be a great spouse, because they can dissolve relationship hangups or problems, or use the relationship to overcome obstacles in their partner's life. Or so I tell myself. (Hi, Lauren!)
Thief/Rogue - Steals the thing, or uses the thing to steal. Actively and passively, respectively. A thief just like, makes stuff happen. A rogue has, well, roguish charm. Subtle difference.
Knight/Maid - Just kinda like... is a vassal of the thing? Serves the thing? Maid in a more self-effacing way, subsuming into it somehow, and knight in a more active, another day another dollar, but also with HONOR, way.
Heir/Page - Heir inherits the thing, receiving it, letting it flow toward them in a generally pretty comfortable way. Also heirs tend to be pretty good at stuff right away, like their aspect just kind of naturally comes to them and they know what to do with it. Pages spread their aspect, it radiates out from them to everyone around them, which can be EXTREMELY POWERFUL, but it's very hard to master. The reservoir can be tricky to fill in the first place.
Seer/Mage - The eggheads. Seers study assiduously, learning the ins and outs of their chosen aspect. Mages learn more by experience, but still value knowledge a lot. Like when Mew2King as a kid shot various Metroid Prime beams at a specific wall to see how many times they bounced back and forth to determine their relative ranges? Mage shit.
Sylph/Witch - Healers. Sylph straightforward restoration (can in fact be too straightforward), witch, you know, potions, vibes, indirect and oblique. High ceiling, though! I'm not totally sure about this, actually, some of these ones near the end my thinking has drifted and I'm not totally sure which are opposites of which.
Lord/Muse - Shhhhhh.
So yeah, vague and from hazy memory, but that's basically where I came to, with classpects. I mostly thought about the aspects, with class being sorta a flavor.
ah, classpect theorizing. feels like coming home :')
I like that you center the aspects over the classes, an interesting take! my duelist indoctrination has left me with a kind of dualistic view of it - sometimes people are so obviously their aspect but other times I feel like they're so obviously their class, and pointing to the right aspect ends up being the harder part. but aspects are the way cooler part of the system so fair shout centering them more.
Your hazy recollection of the aspects seems basically in line with my understanding as well, but - only for the sake of fun disagreement - I will ruthlessly nitpick it according to my own personal taste anyway.
Space/Time: you're so right bestie and it sucks that these two are bullshit and yet also apparently required for a session to work. at least you get cool powers
Life/Doom: Doom is spot on, but for Life I liked duelist's take on this one as like...the opposite of Doom in terms of the locus of authority. Doom is about external, "hardcoded" authority, the cruel and unforgiving universe etc, but Life is also about Authority- just internally, instead of externally. Think of Jane being an heiress/empress, as well as Feferi and Meenah(?) being royalty. I like the idea of Life as a bright and cheery class, and at least Feferi fits that mold, but I do think of it more as being like the "internal power" aspect. Doom is like "I am doomed to fail" and Life is like "I am born to succeed". A winner class for winners. This then does lead to like, positive energy versus doomer negative energy, which I think ends up dovetailing nicely with the classic idea of life as vivacious and, well, lively.
Heart- you forgot about LOVE AND ROMANCE DUH. Being a hopeless romantic, being interested in other people and relationships and corny sappy lovey stuff.
Mind- you forgot about BEING A NERD DUH. I would say it's like an intuition vs cognition split between Heart and Mind, exactly captured by the (far inferior) myers-briggs Thinking/Feeling dichotomy.
Hope- keep it in your pants dude. but also you're totally right. but also like...Hope also encompasses yearning and coping and daydreaming.
Rage- I never had a good read on this one, since Gamzee is the only example we really have and like. what even was his deal??? i guess "passively destroying the idea that Nothing Ever Happens" kind of does describe his vibe. I do think Rage could also captures a sort of "realist" or cynic vibe that's opposite to hope. Idk.
As an aside I find it interesting to compare Hope vs Life and Rage vs Doom, since they have very similar vibes. I would locate the difference in like, personal vs external forces again. Doom is like "I am doomed to suffer because of my fundamental weakness and limitations, this flesh prison" etc whereas Rage is like "The world is fixed this way, so get used to it buster." (and subsequently "Rage Against the Machine!") Similarly Hope is like "gosh imagine if something nice happened :)" and Life is like "I am going to use my Free Will to make everything I want happen."
classes~
Thief/Rogue - duelist also associates these with comraderie and agency and "masks" - I am gonna do the thing to prove I'm great / make my friends love me. But also no one can see the real me. But also everyone has to love me.
Knight/Maid - they serve the thing, but importantly they also serve OTHERS, they're the self-sacrificing moms and workhorses of a group. To me knight is such a distinct kind of person, so many people are knights. As for maid, the prototypical example to me is actually Pearl from Steven Universe - their whole arc is struggling with the weight of their duty (or aspect), and either being crushed by it or totally integrating it, as you say. I wouldn't call it honour tho, so much as like, duty or obligation.
Heir/Page - I also like the framing of Pages as the late-bloomer idiot babies who need constant attention and care and protection, who need to friggin grow up already, but who, if they ever do grow up, are as you say EXTREMELY POWERFUL.
fwiw I like the duelist typology of Witch/Heir, Maid/Sylph, and Knight/Page.
Briefly:
Maid/Sylph - the most "magical" / aspect-dominated classes. Sylphs are naturally in touch with their aspect, in a way that distances them from society and people. They need to lock in and Be Normal about things. Maids feel the same affinity, but are crushed by it. They feel their alienation profoundly, and struggle to differentiate themselves from their aspect, to master it. They want to go back to being a normal person (but have to master their aspect first).
Heir/Witch - not "made" of magic, but deeply attuned to it. Heir has an easy way with it, but needs to actually Lock In and DO SOMETHING with it if they want to make the most of their gifts. Witches are active users of their aspect, but have an external relationship to it - they must chase it. This manifests as their relationship with a familiar, some kind of guide or representative of their aspect, a capricious figure who is not totally under their control (initially). Witches need to master their aspect and subordinate it to them, or risk losing themselves in it (see most especially: Rose LARPing as a Witch and getting absolutely Grimdarked)
Essentially, Sylph is made of aspect, Heir is just an easy user of aspect, both struggle to apply it. Maid is crushed by aspect, Witch is haunted by aspect, both struggle to "master" it.
Knight/Page - serving others with their aspect vs receiving service through their aspect. Pages have a strong sense of duty but are, as established, crybaby losers who draw in others to help them using their aspect. Knights are self-sacrificing servants of others, helping them by leveraging their aspect, usually at cost to themselves.
by the by, I like to consider myself a Rogue of Doom :3c
Finally after years of wandering I encounter someone talking about classpects even the briefest amount...with this I can withstand another ten years of deprivation.
I'm interested if you've read any analyses of the classpects system? There's a huge series on YouTube from optimisticDuelist, which I loved and would evangelize to everyone if talking about classpects and homestuck wasn't inherently a conversational dead-end.
Good to see a person of taste! I was a Bladekind Eyewear guy, mostly, in terms of theories and classpect discussion, though I think I dabbled in duelist, those many years ago. I think that much like with enneagram, I kinda just took my own stuff from it, and applied it gleefully to my life without worrying too too much about how "canon" my interpretations were.
Since someone is classpect-interested here, actually, I'll try to say from memory. Though some of the less-used ones are fuzzy.
ASPECTS
Blood - Obligations, bindings, things that restrict freedom. can be negative e.g. bondage/chafing social obligation or positive e.g. warm family/friendship/kinship ties
Breath - Freedom, going where the wind blows, "kissing the joy as it flies", but on the negative end hard to commit/rely on/trust
Space - Uhh space. Just space. I dunno. The stuff you'd associate with empty space, and having space, and needing space.
Time - Same but for time. Change where space has relative constancy. These ones are hardest to describe but sometimes someone is just OBVIOUSLY time/space anyway.
Life - Vivaciousness, but also a sort of "nature abhors a vacuum". Overflowing. Not particularly respecting neat boundaries. Think about all the wacky biology stuff where cell structures are optimized such that everything bumps into each other constantly.
Doom - The rules. Taxes. Computers. Javert.
Heart - Identity, specifically what's held fixed about one's self. Solidity of purpose, unwaveringness. But relatedly brittleness, a propensity to fall apart/shatter/splinter under pressure, rather than bending. Simply being a Type of Guy, quite Firmly. (Too firmly?)
Mind - Opposite of that. Going with the flow. Nuance. "It depends." Code switching. Different facets with different friend groups. Not disingenuous necessarily, but a little hard to pin down in the limit.
Hope - Possibility! Especially sexual possibility, specifically in terms of - ah, geez - the explosive possibilities of genetic reproduction. Kind of like, too much. The quintessential "hope thing" for me is how there are just so many sperm, and each one could be half the ingredients for a person. So many potential people! But also hope isn't sexual per se, that sort of sexual explosiveness is just part of the lens to see like... a simply uncontainable, dazzling array of what could come to pass.
Rage - No. Idiot. Only the thing that happens happens. Chill out. Lighten up.
Light - Truth, facts, knowledge, luck. The stuff you generally want to look at, or that you might see up in an ivory tower.
Void - What's tough to fit in boxes, not of "the rules" but of epistemology, or fortune. Things where it's hard to say if they're good or bad, or where their boundaries are. Ineffable feelings. Ennui. But also, relatedly, a certain joie de vivre.
CLASSES
Prince/Bard - Active destruction and passive destruction. Just straightforwardly canon. Definitely not all bad, though, and notably it can destroying the thing their aspect represents (sometimes), or using what their aspect represents to destroy other stuff (sometimes). Like a bard of blood is a good person to talk to in the midst of a divorce, to help you learn how to like, dissolve some of your, ahem, bad blood. But a bard of blood can be a great spouse, because they can dissolve relationship hangups or problems, or use the relationship to overcome obstacles in their partner's life. Or so I tell myself. (Hi, Lauren!)
Thief/Rogue - Steals the thing, or uses the thing to steal. Actively and passively, respectively. A thief just like, makes stuff happen. A rogue has, well, roguish charm. Subtle difference.
Knight/Maid - Just kinda like... is a vassal of the thing? Serves the thing? Maid in a more self-effacing way, subsuming into it somehow, and knight in a more active, another day another dollar, but also with HONOR, way.
Heir/Page - Heir inherits the thing, receiving it, letting it flow toward them in a generally pretty comfortable way. Also heirs tend to be pretty good at stuff right away, like their aspect just kind of naturally comes to them and they know what to do with it. Pages spread their aspect, it radiates out from them to everyone around them, which can be EXTREMELY POWERFUL, but it's very hard to master. The reservoir can be tricky to fill in the first place.
Seer/Mage - The eggheads. Seers study assiduously, learning the ins and outs of their chosen aspect. Mages learn more by experience, but still value knowledge a lot. Like when Mew2King as a kid shot various Metroid Prime beams at a specific wall to see how many times they bounced back and forth to determine their relative ranges? Mage shit.
Sylph/Witch - Healers. Sylph straightforward restoration (can in fact be too straightforward), witch, you know, potions, vibes, indirect and oblique. High ceiling, though! I'm not totally sure about this, actually, some of these ones near the end my thinking has drifted and I'm not totally sure which are opposites of which.
Lord/Muse - Shhhhhh.
So yeah, vague and from hazy memory, but that's basically where I came to, with classpects. I mostly thought about the aspects, with class being sorta a flavor.
ah, classpect theorizing. feels like coming home :')
I like that you center the aspects over the classes, an interesting take! my duelist indoctrination has left me with a kind of dualistic view of it - sometimes people are so obviously their aspect but other times I feel like they're so obviously their class, and pointing to the right aspect ends up being the harder part. but aspects are the way cooler part of the system so fair shout centering them more.
Your hazy recollection of the aspects seems basically in line with my understanding as well, but - only for the sake of fun disagreement - I will ruthlessly nitpick it according to my own personal taste anyway.
Space/Time: you're so right bestie and it sucks that these two are bullshit and yet also apparently required for a session to work. at least you get cool powers
Life/Doom: Doom is spot on, but for Life I liked duelist's take on this one as like...the opposite of Doom in terms of the locus of authority. Doom is about external, "hardcoded" authority, the cruel and unforgiving universe etc, but Life is also about Authority- just internally, instead of externally. Think of Jane being an heiress/empress, as well as Feferi and Meenah(?) being royalty. I like the idea of Life as a bright and cheery class, and at least Feferi fits that mold, but I do think of it more as being like the "internal power" aspect. Doom is like "I am doomed to fail" and Life is like "I am born to succeed". A winner class for winners. This then does lead to like, positive energy versus doomer negative energy, which I think ends up dovetailing nicely with the classic idea of life as vivacious and, well, lively.
Heart- you forgot about LOVE AND ROMANCE DUH. Being a hopeless romantic, being interested in other people and relationships and corny sappy lovey stuff.
Mind- you forgot about BEING A NERD DUH. I would say it's like an intuition vs cognition split between Heart and Mind, exactly captured by the (far inferior) myers-briggs Thinking/Feeling dichotomy.
Hope- keep it in your pants dude. but also you're totally right. but also like...Hope also encompasses yearning and coping and daydreaming.
Rage- I never had a good read on this one, since Gamzee is the only example we really have and like. what even was his deal??? i guess "passively destroying the idea that Nothing Ever Happens" kind of does describe his vibe. I do think Rage could also captures a sort of "realist" or cynic vibe that's opposite to hope. Idk.
As an aside I find it interesting to compare Hope vs Life and Rage vs Doom, since they have very similar vibes. I would locate the difference in like, personal vs external forces again. Doom is like "I am doomed to suffer because of my fundamental weakness and limitations, this flesh prison" etc whereas Rage is like "The world is fixed this way, so get used to it buster." (and subsequently "Rage Against the Machine!") Similarly Hope is like "gosh imagine if something nice happened :)" and Life is like "I am going to use my Free Will to make everything I want happen."
classes~
Thief/Rogue - duelist also associates these with comraderie and agency and "masks" - I am gonna do the thing to prove I'm great / make my friends love me. But also no one can see the real me. But also everyone has to love me.
Knight/Maid - they serve the thing, but importantly they also serve OTHERS, they're the self-sacrificing moms and workhorses of a group. To me knight is such a distinct kind of person, so many people are knights. As for maid, the prototypical example to me is actually Pearl from Steven Universe - their whole arc is struggling with the weight of their duty (or aspect), and either being crushed by it or totally integrating it, as you say. I wouldn't call it honour tho, so much as like, duty or obligation.
Heir/Page - I also like the framing of Pages as the late-bloomer idiot babies who need constant attention and care and protection, who need to friggin grow up already, but who, if they ever do grow up, are as you say EXTREMELY POWERFUL.
fwiw I like the duelist typology of Witch/Heir, Maid/Sylph, and Knight/Page.
Briefly:
Maid/Sylph - the most "magical" / aspect-dominated classes. Sylphs are naturally in touch with their aspect, in a way that distances them from society and people. They need to lock in and Be Normal about things. Maids feel the same affinity, but are crushed by it. They feel their alienation profoundly, and struggle to differentiate themselves from their aspect, to master it. They want to go back to being a normal person (but have to master their aspect first).
Heir/Witch - not "made" of magic, but deeply attuned to it. Heir has an easy way with it, but needs to actually Lock In and DO SOMETHING with it if they want to make the most of their gifts. Witches are active users of their aspect, but have an external relationship to it - they must chase it. This manifests as their relationship with a familiar, some kind of guide or representative of their aspect, a capricious figure who is not totally under their control (initially). Witches need to master their aspect and subordinate it to them, or risk losing themselves in it (see most especially: Rose LARPing as a Witch and getting absolutely Grimdarked)
Essentially, Sylph is made of aspect, Heir is just an easy user of aspect, both struggle to apply it. Maid is crushed by aspect, Witch is haunted by aspect, both struggle to "master" it.
Knight/Page - serving others with their aspect vs receiving service through their aspect. Pages have a strong sense of duty but are, as established, crybaby losers who draw in others to help them using their aspect. Knights are self-sacrificing servants of others, helping them by leveraging their aspect, usually at cost to themselves.
by the by, I like to consider myself a Rogue of Doom :3c