A guy/gal/person who calls themselves "Just One Problem" had pointed out a flaw in my argument and we talked about it, they were pretty chill about this entire thing and we agreed that we in need of A PART THREE! So yeah that's all there is to say on the matter.
Okay so what was this issue that Just One Problem had pointed out well they said and I quote:
There's just one thing. I'm not done reading Chapter 2 yet, but there's already one BIG flaw in your argument. You only used YOUR headcannon class definition for Witch, Page, and Knight. Yes, you did have proof, but think about this: what if Hussie were to out-of-the-blue confirm something other than what you said? It would throw off your whole argument against Feferi. If you are using classpects as evidence, at least use all possible definitions, not just what you think fits.
(Also, Eridian couldn't have even laid a single hit against Lord English. Green Sun or no Green Sun, English is immortal. Vriska had "All the luck" and even then she needed a powerful juju to defeat him.)
On a different note, I have my Eridian ideas, and you have yours, but I still respect you for trying. If you fix the holes in your arguments, you would have a very convincing essay.
They brought up a lot of good points except the whole 'Eridan isn't able to defeat Lord English' bit I debunked that part real quick. Here is my response to them:
This is rather true but remember Hussie said "Everything is Cannon" so there is no true sense of the scale after all the whole Multiverse is a thing kinda like Pokemon however that right there is a loose defense on my part so let me give you a better defense, i just couldn't help it, sorry. But yes, I might have to do a bit more digging on the meaning of a "Witch" but you cannot deny that the title of "Prince" was one big lie, I did bring up Calliope's evidence to back it up, so when I have the time I will in fact give alternate definitions for the classpects.
As for a fight against Lord English; Caliborn stated he was paralyzed by Jake English. Say that Eridan and Jake English went to fight Lord English, Jake English would simply paralyze Lord English and Eridan would finish him off. As I stated before Hope defies all logic. Hope can kill the un-kill-able in every form of media ever. HOWEVER, say that in this case it can't Eridan could still cripple Lord English; destroy his Hope so badly that Lord English is in a state of never ending despair. Also, Lord English can be killed, Hussie said so in right here: story/4802 Yes Lord English has weaknesses and can be killed. For all we know that that bullet is made out of pure Hope and remember that that bullet killed the universe because Jack used it to kill Snowman aka the Black Queen from the Troll's session.
Just a thought.
And thanks for reading. I'll be sure to fix those mistakes in a third part. If you find any more holes please tell me and I'll be sure to make some updates to do so.
Our conversation went on a bit longer and they brought up a lot of points and a such and I brought up some good ones as well (though I'm not sure if I changed their mind about Eridan or if they agreed with my points because…. Did they change their name to "Nope. No Problems" or did another person jump in?... curious…) Anyways this conversation caused a part 3 to my Eridan Defense Essay.
So, the problem that they pointed out and I'll be addressing here is that I did not address all the possibilities for the meanings behind the Classes, mainly Witch. Well if I did that we'd be here all day, now wouldn't we? HOWEVER, I will dive a little deeper and I'll give my reasoning as for why I connected them to certain words and such.
But first let me make a correction in the first chapter I mistakenly called the Witch Class a Passive Class, I was mistaken, the Heir class is a Passive Class the Witch Class an Active Class. So yeah, sorry about that.
Now I connected the classes with Verbs because of the fact that telling by Calliope's conversation with Dirk when they were talking about Classes and Aspects it sounded like the way one would talk about words in general and how depending on the sentence, word combination and the way one says a word it could change the meaning to the word entirely, especially when it comes into nouns in conjunction with a verb.
For example, the Japanese word "Baka". Depending on how you say that word you'd get either:
Dummy, idiot, stupid, or dumbass.
For English Language however, we have a very and do mean a VERY complex language structure and millions of words in our lexicon and multiple definitions for those words, abbreviations, words with the same meaning and same pronunciation but different uses and meanings such as: two, to, too. and much, much, MUCH more.
So yeah, this little course I'm going to take you on is going to be a little bit of a hell.
Let's start with Verbs.
I connected Classes with Verbs and the Aspects with Nouns, you'll see why in a moment but let's start with the Classes.
Now I connected Classes with Verbs because like Verbs, the way a Class acts depends on the Aspect its now linked to. So essentially an Heir of Breath is not going to be the same as say… and Heir of Void, or an Heir of Doom.
The word "Verb" means a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence.
Predicate means the part of a sentence or clause containing a verb and stating something about the subject.
The verb that Witch is connected to is the same as the one that Heir is connected to and that is Change.
Now the Verb is only so much, you can be linked to that verb, but your class is determined by whether or not you're on the Active or Passive spectrum.
Let me list the Active Classes and the Passive Classes along with their Verbs.
Active:
Maid (Create)
Page (Serve)
Witch (Change) [Remember I was mistaken on this, but I corrected it on Archive of Our Own! And I shall also do so on Fan Fiction! Witch is actually Active, and Heir is Passive, I'm sorry!]
Mage (Know)
Thief (Steal)
Prince (Destroy)
Passive:
Sylph (Create)
Knight (Serve)
Heir (Change)
Seer (Know)
Rogue (Steal)
Bard (Destroy)
Calliope has proven that the Rogue Class steals and is a Passive Class she explains here on page 4514:
TG: ok well since youre so nice
TG: ill promoise not to use my wicked void powers re: basic common sense + skills of deduction to bust you up so bad
UU: i'd be ever so gratefUl. :u
TG: then w.o givin you the whole 3rd degree
TG: what is safe to tell me?
TG: like what does it mean to be a rogue of void
TG: thats what i am rite
UU: yes! i can tell yoU plenty aboUt that.
UU: a rogUe is a passive class. yoU see, there are passive (+) and active (-) classes. some more strongly passive or active than others.
UU: the +/- distinction can mean many things, bUt coUld be qUite roUghly sUmmed Up in this way: active classes exploit their aspect to benefit themselves, while passive classes allow their aspect to benefit others.
UU: bUt of coUrse there's plenty more to it, and that rUle is in no way absolUte. only a starting point for Understanding the dichotomy.
TG: you mean kinda like
TG: offensive vs defesive magic in an rpg
UU: sUre!
UU: that's another fine way of looking at it.
UU: classes always come in +/- pairs, with significant disparity between them.
UU: while a rogUe is passive, a thief woUld be its far more active coUnterpart.
UU: the rogUe and thief classes tend to be assigned to females. not exclUsively, bUt commonly!
UU: other classes lean more toward male assignment, while others are exclUsively male, and jUst as many are exclUsively female. like my class. ^u^
UU: that's a bit of a tangent thoUgh. to answer yoUr qUestion aboUt being a rogUe, i shoUld tell yoU both classes in +/- pairs tend to have very similar descriptions.
UU: in this case, a rogUe or a thief is "one who steals." qUite simple, really!
UU: bUt whether the class is + or - makes all the difference. it is a great indicator as to how a hero will make Use of the aspect.
TG: so basically
TG: a thief is like the asshole class
TG: the player who says step off shits mine suckas
TG: whereas
TG: a rogue
TG: is bascially robin hood
UU: if that reference to yoUr cUltUre provides a sUitable comparison, then absolUtely. :U
TG: so im essantially the robin hood of void
TG: im still not sure
TG: wtf that actually means
UU: Understandable.
TG: i guess robin hods p cool tho
TG: thiefin up loot from peeps who got too much
TG: then all sugardaddyin it out 2 the needy like a boss
TG: just dont have a clue how that works with void
UU: yes, it is one of the more conceptUally nebUloUs pairings, i agree.
UU: and i can't say i know a smashing good deal aboUt the natUre of the void player's path, since the aspect is by definition inscrUtable to those it does not choose.
UU: bUt i can at least tell yoU this.
UU: if yoU are ever to enjoy fUll ascension as a rogUe of void, yoU will be able to do some completely astonishing things!
As we also see that there are in fact Passive and Active classes. Now let's look at Nouns.
A Noun is, by definition, a word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things common noun, or to name a particular one of these proper noun.
The Aspects are the Nouns in our little Classpect sentence. Since we are talking about Feferi here, her Aspect being Life. Life has many meanings as a Noun but the main meaning that we see being used throughout Homestuck mainly being utilized the Maid of Life – Jane Crocker – and by a dead Ascended Feferi is this one:
Life - the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.
The word Witch means a woman thought to have magic powers, especially evil ones, popularly depicted as wearing a black cloak and pointed hat and flying on a broomstick. A follower or practitioner of Wicca or of modern witchcraft.
So, putting these together – Witch of Life – we get:
A woman who has powers to change life and/or lifespan, growth, functional activity of a living being.
Now that we got that out of the way its time to dig a little deeper about what Witches are.
There are several, and I do mean several kinds of Witchcraft and several kinds of Familiars depending on the time period we're talking about. The one I used for the first chapter was from the Dark Ages. In the Dark Ages Familiars weren't just your mere Spirit guide or totem animal or fairy you see for today's Witches or any time after the Dark Ages. No. In the Dark Ages you see, often times that Familiar was either a Demon or an Evil Spirit that wants to for their will upon a local Witch so that way the Witch would use her magic for evil. The Familiars were extremely demanding and were very sinister when their demands were not met and if it was not satisfied.
Often times the Church would kill the Familiar and the Witch because they were not sure if that Familiar got what it wanted out of the Witch and if the Witch was corrupted or not. Thus, both were often killed together.
Why did I pick the Dark Ages? Simple.
GG: anyway i have to go!
GG: i have to feed bec which is always a bit of an undertaking
TG: man
TG: if i were you i would just take that fucking devilbeast out behind the woodshed and blow its head off
Oh and let's not forget:
GG: sorry ive been so scarce ive just been so busy running around like crazy and looking after my dog and stuff all day!
GG: i think he just locked me in my room actually :\
EB: oh man.
EB: he sounds like such a handful.
GG: yeah
EB: but it's ok, i think he is mostly just looking after you.
EB: like a guardian angel or something.
EB: if i were you i would take him out behind the woodshed and give him a big hug.
So, if Bec is a "Devil beast" and we could likely classify Gl'bgolyb under this as well, but I wonder, do we know of an "evil spirit". Of-course we do.
Lord English.
The combination of Caliborn, ARquiusprite, and half of the soul of sobor Gamzee!
Caliborn and Gamzee's souls in one being with the strength and brilliance (in mind) of ARquius. That is horrifying! And remember this is Damara Megido's Familiar (The Witch of Time)!
In many different cultures even ours, Witches changed and as did their Familiars and all were about the same. Either the Familiars were just totem animals/fairies/demons/spirits who help the Witch or protect her or both. Or the Witch doesn't have a Familiar or she does. Or the Familiar grants her power. Or the Witch just straight up gets her magic by screwing the Devil or some demon.
Yeah.
Fucking weird, I know.
Now as pointed out, obviously the Dark Ages kind of Witch and Familiar matches the Homestuck version. After all, Bec, Lord English, and Gl'bgolyb are extremely problematic and high maintenance.
Bec is a dog who also happens to be the Earth's First Guardian.
A good portion of Homestuck is strictly Karkat telling off John, Dave, Rose, and Jade all because of the fact that they allowed Bec to be prototyped! And we all saw the powers that Bec has and how controlling he was when it came to Jade but due to the fact that she actually took care of him and won over his loyalty. Remember she is a Witch and as I corrected, Witch is an Active Class – if a Passive Class like Muse can create blackholes, I'm damn sure that the Active Class of Witch could probably do something similar or just out right force a star to go supernova and both are nothing to sniff at. Even if she couldn't who says she can't just shrink you down and step on you!
Like I said before in the first chapter, Lord English can kill ghosts and is the ultimate jackass, he is also a thousand times worse than any killer you can think of – this guy makes Johnny the Homicidal Maniac look like a cuddly puppy, and if it wasn't for fucking Meenah – I swear the Peixes just love fucking people over – Damarah snapped and started fallowing Lord English and doing his bidding. She can pop up anywhere in time and just tweak it to Lord English's liking and boom you my dear friend are in hell, congratulations.
Then we have Feferi…
Mother.
Fucking.
Feferi.
If its not clear enough for you, I strongly dislike Feferi, don't get me wrong I liked her at first, she seemed like a great character, but you see my reasoning is simple:
The Peixes seem to love screwing people over!
Feferi had neglected her responsibilities and had Eridan do them! Now like I said her lusus must eat a lot! A thing like that has to eat well over a ton, yes, I mean the weight, a TON of food. That is pretty fucking demanding because here is a fucking question for you:
How likely are you gonna find a Lusus that will sedate it so you don't have to go around hunting for more?!
But we saw Eridan shoot down a Sky-Whale and feed it Feferi's Lusus when we first met them! I hear you exclaim finally having something to throw at me that ISN'T just having me go on a fucking goose hunt and throwing the possibilities my way and your lack of the history of Alternia which we practically had a good fucking chunk of an Act about it!
Yes. We did see Eridan shoot down a Sky-Whale down.
But… here is a little fact for you.
IT WAS DURING THE FUCKING DEAD OF NIGHT AND A THUNDERSTORM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING SEA AND HER LUSUS WAS WELL OVER 400X BIGGER THAN THE SKY-WHALE AND THAT ISN'T EVEN A FUCKING EXAGERATION!
It was likely Eridan's last kill of the day! And this is some fucking life-threating shit he is doing, one fuck up and an entire Caste could be wiped off the face of his planet OR if he isn't careful, that lusus' troll could hunt him down and kill him Or that lusus could turn around and kill him!
This this right here is supposed to be Feferi's job! She is the Witch of Life, the fate of her entire race is supposed to be in her hands but she decided to have Eridan take her place! Feferi didn't want the fucking job, and she got away with it nearly scot free, but she cheated the system and decided:
"Hey, let's just live in the dream bubbles for the rest of eternity there's no such thing as a double-death, so I'll rule this instead!'
Oh, hey to burst your bubble sweetie but LORD FUCKING ENGLISH says otherwise!
Sure, Eridan wasn't forced into it, but that doesn't mean that he wasn't silently suffering in the background just to make Feferi happy! If her head wasn't so stuck in the clouds she could've put her big girl panties on and fucking take charge of her responsibilities and give Eridan a fucking break!
Also lets just analyze Moirails for a bit shall we!
A Moirail is not just a "best friend role" it goes way fucking deeper than that is far deeper than just doing small or big favors or being a bodyguard. It's all about balancing a fragile system. Hussie outright said that Eridan and Feferi were made for each other see page 2402 if you need a little refresher because apparently less than 1% of the Homestuck Fandom ACTUALLY REMEMBERS THIS LITTLE FACT.
Its all a balancing act, like a nice tomato soup, if you don't get the spices right, you're just get heated up ketchup, and that is not good in any way, shape, or form.
To point out the most well-known (that is not second worse Troll and a cinnamon roll) Moirallegiance out there is: Nepeta and Equius.
As we all know Equius is a rather demanding guy, strict really in the way he operates and the way he thinks. He himself expresses quite firmly that he fallows the Caste-system and is almost unmoving when it comes to the idea of it no longer being a thing. He even out right demands to hold command over Aradia and for Gamzee to hold command over him and is out right almost enraged that Gamzee doesn't fallow the Caste-system and doesn't command Equius like a grunt; though Equius does get off when he finds out that Aradia had complete control over his surrounding (to a point) when they were in the game. He even out right gave Aradia's robot body the same blood color as his own because of the sheer fact that he wished her to be his matesprit/kissmesis but didn't like her blood-color because of how low it was on the spectrum.
As for Nepeta, she just doesn't give a shit about the Hemospectrum at all. All she cares about is relaxing and having fun, she doesn't seem to even acknowledge blood-color, she was still head-over-heels for Karkat despite knowing that he's not even on the Hemospectrum. She is over all lax and has a carefree nature.
Here is where that whole balancing thing comes into play. They are like two components to a machine, Equius is the more critical one, taking things seriously and having Nepeta learn that sometimes you gotta take things seriously to get the job done, while Nepeta the more carefree and lax one has Equius know what fun is and learn that he can't take EVERYTHING seriously and that blood-color doesn't always matter.
This is strictly why it seems that Nepeta has a more down-to-earth nature and has realistic expectations of people and Equius has a bit more patience and relaxes a bit more than he likely would before he met Nepeta.
The way Eridan and Feferi were supposed to balance each other out is simple.
Feferi was supposed to remind Eridan that it's okay to dream and have unrealistic expectations sometimes, because life itself can surprise you like that.
Eridan on the other hand was supposed to remind Feferi that life is hard and sometimes history repeats itself, and that you have to be ready for it, because a culture doesn't change overnight, and not everyone will fallow her blindly.
Now I'm going to give a little bit of credit to Feferi since I got a lot of long winded defenses on her end.
She has a cute face a bit of guts for standing up for what she believes in.
That's all I'm giving her because – IF SHE WAS REALLY FRIENDS WITH ERIDAN, she could've told him "Hey I have a plan on how to kill the Condess" and we likely would've seen the best side of Eridan instead of seeing him at his worst. Sure, since Witch is actually an Active Class and manipulates Life selfishly like killing animals to eat them, but she still needed to be a little selfless AND DO HER FUCKING JOB.
That's it.
That's all I'm giving her.
Now let's talk about the Angels.
A person by the name of "some anond" said that Eridan attacked the Angels first and that it's cannon. However, they did not provide a link or a page number, so I dug around and saw no trace of this evidence.
That was a wild goose chase so if you happen to be reading this "some anond" please give me some hard-core evidence and have the links and the pages to back it up instead of sending me on wild goose chases. If you care about shitting on Eridan that much, give me irrefutable evidence to show me why he should be hated in the first fucking place!
They also had the balls to say that Kanaya and Vriska were abused by Doc Scratch, I saw no evidence of this being true, I even dug around. They were bull shitting me, and I knew this from the start. And since they have not linked me the evidence or gave me the page numbers that stated this, I know for a fact that they are just trying to find ways of making sure that Eridan stays for ever hated even though he doesn't deserve it.
Though the did give me an odd way of looking at the planets made by Sburb. They gave the idea that the "Land of Wrath and Angels" is just a reverence about the whole Wrathful God thing and that the word Wrath was supposed to be applied to Eridan and not the consorts.
Well does that make John Shade or Wind?
What about Dave? Is he the Heat or the Clockwork?
How about Jake? Mounds or Xenon?
Aradia? Quartz or Melody?
Karkat? Pulse or Haze?
WHY IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY IS ERIDAN THE ODD ONE OUT?!
TELL ME!
Simple, because he isn't!
It's all literal.
Then they pointed out that Eridan's arc is that like of a school shooter.
Dude. You just shot yourself in the fucking foot harder than you could've ever imagined.
School shootings, school stabbings, and such are all because of one thing and one thing only aside from people being mentally unhinged and sometime that head-meat was damaged from outside causes. Those outside causes are bullying nine times out of ten.
Let me use a video by AlphaOmegaSin, that video is entitled "Heavy Metal and Gaming Blamed for Recent Murder by Teen" (He has sources in the description in the video).
School violence on this kind of level is never because of likes, dislikes, its usually because of the fact that people don't stop poking the fucking bear.
If Eridan's ark is based on School Shootings, then that means that the Angels were verbally attacking him by pointing out his greatest insecurities or biggest flaws in his plans and such.
They were poking a fucking bear and expecting to get away with it.
Eridan was already stressed knowing that the Condess was still out there and Feferi was one of the biggest pacifists he knew and wouldn't have the heart to kill her, and thus will likely have to rely on another person to kill the Condess for her. Then he has to deal with the fact that he has to deal with people who won't even try to understand him all except for Karkat, and I highly doubt that Feferi even so much as glanced at Eridan's direction so let's toss her into the group of people who didn't even bother to understand him.
Okay, so bringing up that video again, a kid had stabbed his teacher to death and the reporters only focused on the fact that he was a gamer – his favorites being Dark Souls and GTA – he was a part of Achievement Hunters, he wore a lot of black, and he had a picture of the Grim Reaper in his room. However, the real reason why he killed his teacher is because he was bullied constantly, he had suicidal tendencies, and he had done drugs on more than one occasion.
The kid snapped.
Those cogs in his heads finally popped out of place.
The lights are on, but no one is home.
Like I said from chapter one.
Some monsters are born, but there are a good few who are made.
You keep poking that bear eventually its gonna turn around and maul your face off, and who's fault is it?! ITS YOURS! You poked the bear! The bear just got fucking tired of your shit!
Eridan is still innocent kids! If he attacked first – which I highly doubt but will toy with the idea of – he did it to get the Angels to shut the fuck up because upstairs was already full of enough pessimism, possible suicidal tendencies, and fuck ton of other shit that weren't healthy for him LIKE BEING A HUMAN IN A TROLL BODY PERHAPS!
It was even stated that Cronus had threatened to commit suicide on multiple occasions!
It transgenders had committed suicide because of the fact that they couldn't change their genders; which I imagine is a lot to deal with and very hard to process emotionally and mentally.
Could you imagine not being the right species. Being a troll and having certain things that your correct species doesn't have! My god I can't even think of which would be worse to deal with!
Plus, Alternia is far more savage than Beforus so Eridan had FAR more on his plate than Cronus! Meaning that Eridan was holding a lot of shit in and when he got on LOWAA he just took it all out on the Angels who were the straws that broke the camel's back.
To quote myself in my discussion with Just One Problem:
It is also worth noting that the Hope players are the ones who suffer the most - a friend of mine pointed that out.
He brought up the fact that the Angels whispered to Cronus all about Lord English and if they were there on Jake's planet they'd probably do the same, however because Eridan was an odd case they rabidly attacked him. However, we also need to take into account that we don't know much about the Angels, so for all we know they probably attacked Cronus too and would've likely done that Jake.
Cronus and Eridan have to deal with being Humans in Troll bodies, Jake has to deal with an abusive boyfriend. Cronus and Eridan have to deal with neglectful and even abusive "friends" except for the Vantas of their respective groups. To say that Cronus and Eridan haven't suffered is like saying that Jake had a happy-go-lucky-life. Its not true and will never be true. Remember the Amporas took care of Peixes' Lusi. Eridan fed the Horror Terror probably losing COUNTLESS DAYS just to feed the damn thing (remember its the size of a city and thus has to have a meal to sedate it, a big thing like that has to a lot of food), and Cronus had to feed whatever Lusus Meenah had - remember Gl'bgloyb was given to the trolls by Lord English in the Alternia timeline - so god knows what she had. So yeah, give Eridan and Cronus SOME credit here on that part.
As one of my favorite animes once said many times, "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost, that is the first and most important law of Equivalent Exchange." (FullMetal Alchemist).
So, if 'some anond' is right that Eridan attacked the Angels due to bullying, then who knows what Cronus went through and thank god that Jake the cinnamon bun didn't have to deal with that shit because if they did who knows what would have happened.
Now just before you all leave let me tell you all one last final thing, FUCKING SUBSCRIBE TO OPTOMISTIC DUELIST ON YOUTUBE! I used this guy's evidence when I said that Xefros was the Page of Rage and Joey was the Maid of Light when I was showing you all how I was going to use the Classes and Aspects in my argument; and I forgot to give him credit! So yeah…. Hehe…. Go subscribe to "optimistic Duelist" or I'll beat you all over the head with a leek. The guy is a freaking genius and needs more subscribers in my opinion. NOW GO!
Also let's see if someone give me some better counterpoints or whatever, because I want better counterpoints.