Titles and Theories and Things

Greetings and salutations Never you mind me. I have no idea what I'm talking about. God tier titles are just so fun to theorize about.

And I don't think they ought to be called god tier titles. Because the players don't become their titles upon reaching the god tiers; rather, they are always their titles. In a way. Like. Uh. Both Vriska and Terezi! They're referred to as Thief and Seer, respectively, and Terezi never god tiers at all. It's always there; titles are so woven into the personality and actions of characters that it doesn't make sense, calling them god tier titles or anything like that. But this is a whole different ramble so I'm just going to stop right about now.

Oh, yeah, and this is going to wind up overly, stupidly long, so tread carefully. Much theorizing and vague exposition will occur. Nothing will be spared. I'm writing a goddamn essay.

REGARDING ASPECTS AND OVERLAPPING

I think there's a lot of overlap between the aspects of Light and Heart (that sounds... lighthearted? I'm so, so sorry), and by proxy Void and Mind (assumed to be the opposites of the aforementioned aspects by most).

I'm going to put it like this:

Light so far has been associated with fortune, luck, knowledge, and symbolism. Relevance. Importance. Meaning. Okay, so the last one is my interpretation, but that's important! I mean, it's kind of my point.

Heart has associations with souls, emotions, shipping (I wouldn't latch too much onto that one--I came across a lovely description of a Seer of Heart once that, despite being lovely, focused entirely on romance. I think this is beyond stupid. Also, I don't think there is ever just one meaning. That too would be strange.), selfhood, identity.

Google, please define "identity."

i·den·ti·ty
īˈdentitē
noun
1.
the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.
"he knows the identity of the bombers"
synonyms: name, ID

I think that particular facet (is that a good word? I've seen it used before. It's probably a good word.) is what ties into Light. Light is about what things mean, what they symbolize. Heart is about what things are, and the idea that there's some unshakable essence to said things -- mostly people -- that can't be removed. (That last sentence was pretty redundant.)

It's basically pretty similar to what Vriska says to Terezi right here:

AG: Cause even though you got all these highfalutin morals and fancy reserv8tions, you know as well as me that a killer is a killer is a killer!

And this is part of what held Terezi back! All our Seers have had tendencies toward the aspect opposite theirs--Rose is really the obvious example here, what with the grimdarkness bit and the whole other can of worms that is inversion theory (supposedly she inverted to a Witch of Void?). But I don't want to talk about that, and I don't really care at this point. Because I'm on another tangent and oh god why can't I stop. I need to get back on topic.

Anyway, Vriska is right when she pins that down as part of Terezi's mindset, and it's kind of a Heart-y thing, rather than a Mind-y one. Mind is about choices and consequences. About how people are defined by choices, not who they already are (Heart).

But I'm talking about connections here, so let's get back to Light. Rose, as the Seer of Light, sees the most fortuitous path, etc., but should also see the meaning and symbolism behind things. Similarly, a Seer of Heart would be able to see what things are -- the identity and meaning imbued in them by something -- as well as the emotions and relationships that go along with the title.

We can even bring this meaning nonsense around to Void! Void is about obfuscation, secrets, taking away the Light, in some ways. And it's related to the more scientific, technical approach, if the hobbies/skills of known Void players are anything to go on. Not sure where I'm going with this.

I guess a Seer of Void (so many Seerly examples here! It makes things easier, though) would have a lot less trouble reproducing apple juice as Rose does on the meteor (while drunk, of course). See, she's concentrating on the idea of an apple and what it means (something she may not have done had she not been so drunk, but I'd like to think she'd still have a little trouble), while a Void player might strip away the symbolism and make a round, thin-skinned fruit with red or green skin produced by a sort of tree from the rose family. Or something like that. An apple doesn't have to be "an indivisible unit, uf fundamenetal knowledge." From a Void-ish/Mind-ish perspective, one would be holding oneself back with that kind of thinking! But you could argue it the other way around, etc. And Rose is incredibly drunk.

So I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there are lots of similarities and overlaps between aspects, probably? Yeah. And I think that this goes to show that having both a Seer of Light and a Seer of Mind is most likely a really good thing! A Seer of Light can see the most fortuitous path, but it's the only one she sees. A Seer of Mind, on the other hand, can really see options. Provided that both are fully matured and not drunk/hungover/blind with rage/emotionally compromised in some way/et cetera, together they could be quite the strategical superpower! Something like that.

And it is completely confirmed that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. However, I fail to learn from this as chances are I'm going to come back here eventually and start talking about class pairings and Maids and Heirs and Witches and Sylphs and more Seers because why not.

It's all just too interesting.

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I'm going to add this now, for the sake of reference and things. It'll probably help me later should I return here to go over past thoughts. I'm that lazy.

THE AMAZING INDEX OF SLIGHTLY LESS AMAZING STUFF AND TEXT WALLS:

THE GREAT TITLE SUMMARIZING EXPEDITION

What it says on the tin:

I also think about god tiers too much, there is tons of overlap, Especially when class gets involved, I rather like the way you think.

As an aspect, I always just saw Light as fortune. I've never really thought of it as meaning. I like that interpretation, though. ^^

You have flattered me so, if perhaps unintentionally! Thank you! :) I'm always happy to type walls of text regarding the fictional! (All detectable sarcasm is directed at myself, because I'm never very nice to that girl. Other people are genuinely adored and appreciated.)

I've always thought that the overlapping of classes and aspects made the whole system pretty fascinating! Because that somehow makes the details so much cooler and oh darn I'm not sure what point I'm making again.

Oh, and about Light! Light is fascinating, you know, as far as aspects go! So many excellent, god-tiered examples. I mean, ALL the alpha versions of the canon light players have reached the god tiers! I think the best example of Light-not-as-fortune is Aranea, really, although her current attitude in-comic should be examined with care. She adores talking and talking and talking and handing out knowledge to those in the dark, so to speak, and (this part I forgot to mention before!) heals physical sight in the case of Terezi! And both the Serkets find relevance and importance itself extremely important. A lot of their actions have been motivated by the desire for relevance. And a good example off the top of my head on the "symbolism" bit comes again from the drunken Rose: "Bust in spite of themseleves they would for howefer briefly cross through a ray of light regarless. Becuss of the sbymbols. Dave.. The symbols hol dall the power."

I dislike referencing Rose in that state, though. She's not at her best. I'm never sure how representative of her title she's being. But yeah. Light is fun to talk about.

Anyway, I'm going to take this time to expound heavily on my thoughts about class pairings for no reason whatsoever. Well, actually, it's sort of an excellent way to avoid doing anything remotely useful. Unless this is considered useful. It sort of is by my standards, but all of this is besides the point and I think this has become a CONFUSED TANGENT 2X COMBO. Onwards, I say!

According to some fancy calculations, the Sylph is most likely paired with the Maid or Witch, and is also most likely exclusively female.

I am a staunch supporter of the -Witch/Sylph+ option. Actually, not so much a staunch supporter as a firm relatively certain just plain hesitant supporter, but I'm generally pretty wishy-washy so this is me being extraordinarily decisive here. Yes, that's it. And I have reasons. Reasons are important, and give me a false sense of fulfillment because I'm not really arguing the point with anyone besides myself. (Awkward paragraph ending 3x combo?)

Something I think is curiously overlooked is Kanaya's statement about the Sylph in respect to the Witch. Here:

GG: what is a sylph?
GA: I Think Its Sort Of Like A Witch
GA: But More Magical
GG: a magical witch???
GA: Yes Im Completely Certain Of That Suddenly

And she actually repeats this, later on! So, you know, she probably continues to be completely certain of this. Kanaya is generally pretty deliberate when she says things. But I know this isn't the best evidence. I just find it worth noting.

Also, we have the physical manifestations of powers in respect to class pairings--the Thief and the Rogue are a confirmed class pairing, and it's the only one where both the active and passive counterparts have been seen using their powers. Unsurprisingly, in this case, it all looks rather similar. The Thief/Rogue just seems to concentrate and WHAM. Stolen. A lot of focus on the eyes--closing them, aspect symbol shown in them. But that sort of thing is pretty minimal. The thing is, none of the other classes seem to work this way! Maids and Heirs get pretty obvious, direct shows of their aspect. Flashy stuff with forceful hand movements, like they're pushing stuff around, in a way. Seers have been entirely about visions. Princes appear to channel concentrated amounts of their aspect/aspect-related power through a weapon or hand.

Sylphs and Witches both just hold their hands in a certain way, maybe incorporating subtle movements, and get some kind of glowing deal around aforementioned hands, sometimes. Lots of hand focus, actually.

(Did what I just said also support -Maid/Heir+? Wait no I don't want to talk about that this post is already too long)

I won't go into the verbs, though. I've heard "create" and "heal"* and "fix" attributed to the Sylph, but I'm reserving judgment, I think. And there are so many verbs in the English language to choose from, too!

* Didn't Aranea refer to herself as something like a healer somewhere, though? Multiple times? So I think that one can be taken with a grain of salt. But what would one then pair with the Sylph, exactly?

I definitely agree with the Maid/Heir pairing belief. I do think the Witch/Sylph makes sense, but I've also seen Witch/Mage, which also makes sense. I believe in Witch/Sylph more, but I find it odd/interesting that both are pretty much female exclusive classes. You bring up a lot of good points, and I, too, think all the overlapping classes and aspects really fascinating. (:

Since we are all talking a whole lot anyway, I've always had the theory that your powers as a god tier could vary drastically based on what your aspect means to you, so if two people had the same tittle they might have different powers.

For example, I have a bard of doom, and what that means to them is "Destroys the death of others" Causing two of the most (Thought to be) negative tittle pieces to act positively

@goldenCrown: Regarding gender exclusivity and that stuff: It's never really been my thing, but the math is somewhere. I'd go and dig it out, but it's buried in some forum posts I saw somewhere. Uh. Think of it like this: -Prince/Bard+ is male exclusive, implying that a female exclusive pairing exists. The Sylph is usually included in this, be the pairing with Maid or Witch.

Mage is hard to work with just because so little is known about it! Sollux is hard to judge separately from his powers and all that, and most of the A1 trolls don't appear enough to be looked at properly. Well, Meulin doesn't. Seer/Mage is popular, though, on account of Sollux's visions and Meulin's seeming intuition. I don't think it's good enough proof, though.

@TheChaotic1: Exactly! Aspects all have double/triple/n-tuple meanings. Doom has been connected to sacrifice, stuff like that, and death, sometimes, and I've heard inevitability, which I think really ties into Time. (Although Doom is hard to say much about, too! Dammit, Captors.) And there's the whole flexibility of the syntax: invites destruction through x or allows x to be destroyed. And the wildcard nature of the class makes it especially hard to pin down.

Right. And let's say there's a non-canon Seer of Light. He/She could differ from Rose by focusing on symbolism and knowledge rather than fortune. Although the powers themselves... I'll have to think about that more.

But I don't think that any title is necessarily negative, just on account of all the interpretations!

I've always felt that what you think your powers should be ends up being your powers half the time, a seer of light might take their aspect more literally and get the ability to see in the dark

But the thing is, S___b has a lot to do with growth and maturity. So what a player thinks their title is about is going to change, and I sort of agree with you; it's just complicated. Look at Vriska. Prior to Sgrub, she believes she has terrible luck, or no luck at all. She turns out to be the Thief of Light, and her powers seem to be about stealing luck. But she can also steal the spotlight/relevance, albeit in a slightly less... magical way. And it turns out that stealing isn't really the important thing, you know? There's a bigger picture, I guess.

Aspects are weird and complex and all over the place. And even if a player focuses on a particular facet, the others are still there; they usually apply even if the character doesn't notice it!

I think similarly but in less words because I have only one rank in text-wall

In response to your response to me ((RESPONSE-CEPTION)), I totally forgot about Prince/Bard. >_< Meh, silly me. It would only make sense, then, if there was a female exclusive pairing. And I do think Seer/Mage is another pairing that makes a lot of sense. There are so many different possibilities, it's so hard to pick one to solely believe in!

I'm glad we all agree! But I am without additional comments on that subject, and am also afraid that, when let loose upon the helpless, swarming masses of the internet, I tend to start piling on the text walls. My text walling stat is off the charts. I am the God of Text Walls. The Lord of Talk. The Muse of What. I will talk forever and ever and ever for no apparent reason and will never actually reach the point. This is, perhaps, because there is none. But maybe that's the essence of the entire thing! We will never know.

And now it's exposition time because I need to put this somewhere in greater depth, more detail, and excessive length. Er. Okay, let's go.

Life! Life is a really cool aspect. Witches and Sylphs and Maids and Heirs and Knights and ____ of Life appear to be a great addition to any session, mostly because of the constant death that seems to just happen all the time and it balances out. But it's got associations with growth, too (see Jane), and baked goods (Jane and Meenah). Maybe candy. So sugar. This makes me think of energy. Vigor. Excitement! Fervor. And money, of course (Meenah again?). All canon Life players are heiresses of some kind, and there's a lot of things that go with that. Including money. But maybe that's just part of the inheritance bit. (Does that mean the Heir of Life would be similar to the idea of a Seer of Light? As in the Seer of Sight and the Inheritor of Inheritance?)

And the stuff Meenah and Jane have said and done in recent updates have made me think about their mindset! They're really, really results-focused! I'm going to quote Meenah here. Be forewarned, I guess, if you're not up to date on the comic. Spoilers ahoy, maybe? I myself never worried too much about that sort of thing, but I'm just going to tread sort of carefully? Oh, whatever. I never thought about that stuff before. Let's just keep going.

MEENAH: but thats not how i rolled
MEENAH: i just
MEENAH: did shit
MEENAH: and the shit i did
MEENAH: meant only the things the shit accomplished
MEENAH: and if that shit accomplished a dumb thing that sucked
MEENAH: then i guess thats what you call a mistake and oh fuckin well
MEENAH: mistakes aint make me feel too bad since i dont really connect results with my shelf worth
MEENAH: ya feel me

What they did was what they did. They do these things to accomplish results.

And these results are just what they are. Results. It's over, done. Sorry if that wasn't the best thing, but what's done is done! I think Jane reflects this, too, when she spears Jake with that lovely red trident of hers. She didn't necessarily feel good about what the action was, but the results take priority. She did what she thought she had to because she wanted the results.

That's all I got for now. Was this text wall slightly smaller than the others? It seemed like it. Hooray.

I lost it at "Muse of What." I think I started crying with laughter. XD Text walls are the best, by the way. And I always took the aspect of Life quite literally. You know, just... life. Everything associated with life. At times, I kind of thought of more as living, the verb, than just life, the noun. But at other times, I was just like "Life, man. Whataya gonna do."

I'm always happy to bring mirth and gaiety to the world. There is never enough mirth and gaiety. This is a fully established fact, you know. Fully established.

I've been thinking another good way to think of Life is in the context of the opposite of Doom. As in the opposite of sacrifice/loss/poverty/decay (kind of a Time thing, but that's okay). So I guess you could say that Life is about gain, and perhaps selfishness. But mostly I'm thinking gain. Which ties into growth and wealth and inheritance, so that's all cool. Gain and growth and progress.

Wait, haven't people been saying that Meenah's responses to Vriska's introspection weren't helping the latter grow/mature, though in death?

Are they saying that Meenah is STEALING Vriska's GROWTH?

Yesss. It's all coming together.

(Oh, and an afterthought! Maybe... Vriska is STEALING Meenah's ability to SEE all this! What a crazy thing that would be.)

(Also. Maybe I'm reading too much into this.)

I have always seen doom as "Inevitability/structure/fate" The death part just falls in with inevitability for me. I put in structure because of what we have seen, the more orderly people are connected to doom, sollux and his computer skills and all that

Inevitability ties in with Time, too, and there it gets interesting. I read something somewhere about this. Basically, both Time and Doom are related to this concept of inevitability, but react to it differently! (Unless this is just the characters. But it's the best example there is.)

See this pesterlog.

The way this person put the two points of view was like this, exemplified by Sollux and Aradia in the above pesterlog:

1. "If we do X, then Y will happen. Y is really bad. Therefore, we must avoid doing X at all costs."
2. "Y will happen no matter what. We cannot avoid it. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether we do X."

(I just found the link to the discussion about this, and more specifically, the bit I was referencing. It's here.)

Also, death is tied in with Time as well. Look at Dave. He's really, really scared about dying. And there's a reason for his collection of weird dead preserved things. Oh, yes. And Aradia kind of starts out dead. And is now floating around in the dreambubbles doing a death fangirl thing.

But Sollux has died an awful lot.

But you could say the same for Aradia!

And so it goes. Around and around.

The structure idea's pretty interesting, though! Sollux's hacking skills are the only thing we have to go off of, though. There aren't enough canon Doom players for me to say much with some level of certainty.

Yeah, I hate when there are these stellar aspects that are not fully flushed out, I wanna see what mind can really do, but no mind god tiers are around

Your statement is met with a resounding yes from me. Doom (along with a couple others) really does suffer from that! And...

Are you pointing me in the direction of Mind? I'm totally going there. You know that. Lack of alpha timeline god tiered Mind players be damned. Where doing it man. Where MAKING THIS HAPEN. (I had to well not really but I'm sorry) We're doing this. At least, I am. Because now I have ideas.

I may have mentioned this before (because even I don't remember what all those textwalls were going on about), but Mind seems a whole lot about consequences! And decisions. Because we do get to see some non-god-tier powers with Terezi. She looks at a decision, and sees the outcomes. That in and of itself is pretty simple. And we have the whole coin-flipping thing, which is also very supportive of this widespread interpretation. Coin flips make decisions. This is generally understood, I think.

And then we've also got Latula! She's actually said enough to be worth a separate paragraph. Stuff is happening with that girl. Basically, she's got the typical Knight facade. Rather than a coolkid, she's a rad girl, and that's basically all she's got. She's clearly insecure regarding something about herself, like Karkat points out at one point, but I can't really figure out what that is. Is Mind related to opinion and she's worried about what others will think of her? At this point in time, is she just afraid of the consequences if she lets the rad thing go completely? Because she can! She's dropped the entire silly charade a couple times already, if I'm correct.

I'm tempted to say that Mind, like a lot of other aspects, is both the decision/consequence/option stuff as well as the word taken at face value! Thoughts and logic and that kind of thing. After all, Terezi's land was the Land of Thought and Flow. I've been convinced that lands are constructed not only around aspect but also based on class, and Flow corresponds to her status as a Seer. (Flow and Rain are both water/fluid-related words. Coincidence? I think not! But, you know, it could be. I dunno.*) Thought is obviously dealing with Mind. So that interpretation does have some backing behind it!

Mostly, though, choices and consequences are pretty definitely important parts of Mind, and these things are broad enough to be interpreted in pretty cool ways!

I was about to start talking about that, but I thought better of it. That's for another day, I guess.

* But there are more cases like this! For Knights, we have Heat and Haze (Clockwork obviously being Time-related and Pulse screaming Blood), words dealing with the obscuring and that sort of thing. Heirs have Shade and Caves, which both hide, cover, and generally have to do with darkness. I could go on but this isn't really the point.

I think the consequences angle is more coming from her class not aspect, she is a seer after all, thats part of why I want to see another person with mind powers, so we can discern what parts are class and which are aspect.

I wasn't really pushing for mind talk, its just the example that came first because I fancy myself a mind player. Though I'm still happy to chat on it.

Yeah, I know. I just like to talk about... things!

But judging by Rose, the Seer basically sees or seeks some form of their aspect. She sees the most fortuitous path. She sees the path that is lucky.

She sees the luck!

And it turns out that Light is very connected to luck, and the canon Thief is very concentrated on this as well!

By that reasoning: Terezi sees the outcomes of decisions. This should mean that some part of Mind has something to do with decisions and/or outcomes! But that's just what I think.

Oh, and I'd just like to say that I find it kind of interesting when people talk about what title they believe they would have. Because that kind of thing is hard to say, and it's interesting how aspects and classes are interpreted in contexts more grounded in real life! Why do you associate with Mind, exactly?

(You don't really have to answer that. I'm just thinking and typing all at once here. Very stream-of-consciousness type of thing going on here.)

Personally, I've always felt rather tied to the Light/Void and Heart/Mind aspect... pairings. I don't think too much about it, though! I guess I can certainly come off as a Light person, seeing as how I'm writing so much and getting all enthusiastic about SYMBOLS and POSSIBLE MEANING and WORDS YES THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL. But it's all fictional, and huh that's kind of a Void-y perspective. See? If I keep analyzing myself (Heart Heart Heart), then I'm never going to get anywhere. (So pessimistic. Rage? Doom?)

Thats a complex question, I identify with the title "Maid of Mind" the most.

Because:
I'm a creepy genius.

Need/Want more? I know you don't but talking about yourself is human nature and I only get asked about myself every so often, I try not to be self centered because others doing it annoys me.

I am overly generous, I am devastatingly shy, literally can't talk to people unless they initiate or I feel like they are supposed to talk to me. I like to be thought of as quirky/weird, and rightfully so, I am a weirdo, not the bad kind though, and I love to love myself, I like to present myself in the worst way possible, probably to wall myself in or something? I am also, preeeeetty funny, if you are actually talking to me I'll have you in stitches, doesn't work typed out. I am bad with run-on sentences because I feel like I should type how I talk.

I am a creative person, I tend to think most people are exaggerating their skill until I see for myself, I'm creative but not talented, great ideas, bad art, not terrible art, just not great, but thats fine because I only draw to focus my thoughts.

Oh and sometimes I like to dress like a girl.

I really don't mind when people talk about themselves! In person, I'm never much of a talker--I'm more of a writer, so to speak. And I generally enjoy it when people talk about themselves, in a strange way. So it's all fine!

I do see how you might identify with Mind, though! There's something about the thinking, you know? It's hard to articulate. Probably because of the real-world context stuff that I mentioned before. When everything's about this fictional game and a fictional system with fictional characters, there's a more abstract feel. There's something of Latula, even, in all that about presentation. And your observations about yourself wound up being very tied to the external world of other people! Did you know, incidentally, that this is interesting? For example, I don't do that! I'm much more focused on my internal environment. It would wind up being me talking on multiple levels about myself, all at once! In a way, you're really more considerate than I am! Er. Just my thoughts on the matter, since I, well, thought them.

(Hey! You were talking about how you type in a manner similar to how you talk! I just realized that I tend to type the way I think, instead, although I'm sure for some/most these two things are probably quite the same! I suppose one tends towards whatever's most natural, most seemingly expressive to them. I do need to work on my physical speech.)

Give me a second. I have to figure out this internally-focused vs. externally-focused thing. This is cool. There's something here to connect to titles. Let me just place my finger on it...

Okay, I think I've got it. Look at Blood and Heart. They both cover relationships, right? But Blood is about the relationships themselves and the bonds and the connections/unity coming into being as a result. On the other hand, Heart is about the individual and their emotions. So the way the relationship makes them feel, players' feelings towards each other.

So Heart, Light, Breath, Hope, Life, and Rage seem to be focused more around the individual, while Mind, Void, Blood, Doom, Time, and Space are more about what surrounds. Maybe? Kind of?

I still need to think about this more.

Maybe introversion and extroversion hold some sway over active and passive?

Side note, How do you interpret breath? I see it as freedom.

And one last thing. Doom and Light as opposites.

Maybe it's also about whether or not one believes that the environment affects who they are. Like. Is everyone intrinsically like themselves, or are they shaped by the world? Maybe. But I don't want to get into that. I'm not that big on philosophy.

Breath is most definitely associated with freedom, along with physical air and flight. It's also been interpreted as direction and individuality. But I'm going to break this side note down because I have the time.

The ideas of freedom and independence and flight and movement are rather tied together in the minds of the many. With one can certainly come the others! And we know that Breath is associated with literal depictions of wind and, therefore, flight/movement. John does a lot of moving things around (see GIFTS). Tavros really, really wanted to fly, but was handicapped physically and mentally on account of Vriska, mostly. Among other things. Generally Pages are pretty enamored with their aspect, but are kept from it by some force. Another troll, in this case. This is probably not an unusual case. I think? Anyway, to fly is to be free, and perhaps that's what Tavros had always really wanted: to no longer be held back by his self-confidence, or his friends, or, you know, gravity. To be able to do what he liked! And this is what leads to independence, I think?

The interpretation of independence is really best described through opposites, though. Assume Blood is the opposite of Breath. This is a pretty common assumption. Anyway, Blood is, as seen with Karkat, is related to unity, bonds, connections, and relationships. At least, that's basically how Karkat works. He wants to keep his friends together. He seems to put stock in promises. He's very interested in complex relationships between individuals. And friendship. The guy cares a lot about friendship, as I kind of said before. So, then, what would Breath be? The opposite of unity is separation, division, independence. Breaking away! Breaking FREE. Breath is breaking out of bonds, and all that. Moving and directing and being in control of one's self.

But the thing about opposite aspects is that they tend to kind of... blend together in certain areas. Sometimes you can UNITE in order to obtain FREEDOM. Connections are created in or after or around the destruction of others. So Blood/Breath could really be about connections and relationships and, uh, stuff. I was going to say something about motivation, but I can only spend so much time dedicated to a prompt introduced by the phrase "side note."

Basically my response to your side note is yes here are all my agreements all of them, except that there's even more! But I think freedom is at least a pretty big deal within Breath, so yeah.

Now! Doom and Light as opposites!

To talk about this, we have to consider the aspects both are usually paired with: Life and Void, respectively. (Would you pair those two with each other, or with different aspects?) Check out this page. Calliope quite literally says that "a hero of life and a hero of doom have aspects as different as can be." And Light is strongly hinted to be opposed to Void in the same conversation; Calliope is hinting to Roxy that the reason Rose's B2 counterpart had similar blackout powers was because of hugely different aspects! And there's some pretty strong evidence outside of this: Life's associations with growth/gain/prosperity vs. Doom's associations with loss/endings/sacrifice. Light's associations with literal light/knowledge vs. Void's associations with darkness (blackouts)/secrets/obfuscation. But that doesn't mean it's set in stone. I can still pick this apart.

I think a big, obvious reason that Doom-and-Light-as-opposites can be considered is the loss vs. luck thing. Doom has been related to inevitability and losses. Light has been related to beating the odds. But it's hard to say! Doom HAS remained in Voidlike (but unlike Void! Get it?) obscurity, and I certainly don't know all the facts. I guess an argument might be that Light has many other facets besides luck, such as knowledge and symbolism and literal sight/light.

What I did point out, though, does make me think! This idea is totally worth exploring some more. Maybe I'll do just that at a later date.