Breath Aspect - Blog Posts

Breath as Influence and John in the Epilogues

Breath is probably one of the better understood aspects. “What is it?” someone asks – and the whole fandom is like, “Oh, Breath is about freedom and wind and detachment.” Which I don't disagree with. But I think most people miss a key piece of it – Breath as influence.

I'm no seasoned classpector, but I am a Mage of Breath, so I feel like I have a deep and personal understanding of Breath, particularly because of how it has manifested in my life. Yeah, I know, claiming I'm an authority on the subject because of my self-imposed alignment within a fake typology system makes me sound like an asshole. But I'll have to ask you to trust me, because if I start talking about my own experiences, I'll sound like even more of an asshole.

Anyway, let's kick this off with the official description of Breath, per the Extended Zodiac:

In summary: the Breath-bound are flexible, driven, detached, and maybe a little self-centered. Also, other people tend to get caught up in their personal development, which tends to make them good leaders. But the most important thing here for the point I'm making is this:

others ... feel inspired by them.

This word, inspired, has been rolling around in my brain for the past few weeks, because of its connection to Breath. Hey, did you know that “inspire” comes from Latin spirare, meaning "breathe"? And if we include the Latin prefix in-, it becomes "breathe into."

The Breath-bound have an ability to breathe into, or inspire others. They're not aware of it – after all, they are just living their lives for themselves. But wherever they go, they are inspiring people. Or, more accurately, they are influencing people. Actually, the influence of Breath goes beyond just people. I could even get meta with it (and I will. I apologize in advance). But let's start small for now.

Tavros Nitram

So, Tavros. Page of Breath. Pretty much all of Tavros's contributions to Homestuck as a story happen as a result of someone doing something to him. Vriska paralyzes him, which kickstarts the whole FLARP cycle of revenge arc. And again when the truce is broken in Act 5 Act 2, it is because Vriska kills Tavros. If this doesn't sound like influence to you, you're right. Tavros has very little influence. He's a Page, after all, and if there's one thing I know about Pages, it's that they're weak as shit until they reach their "true potential," which is pretty much always something stupidly overpowered. Y'know, like Jake overpowering Jade's first guardian powers. That was pretty batshit, I'd say.

But Tavros's contributions don't end there. He actually does reach his true Page-y potential right at the very end of Homestuck, when he gathers an army of ghosts – honestly, probably every single ghost in the furthest ring – by just talking to them. Was this something of a punchline to a very long joke? Probably. But it is also a pretty good example of the kinds of things Breath players typically do.

On a meta level, though, this argument kind of falls apart, because... As far as I can tell, the army of ghosts doesn't really do anything. Nothing important, anyway. Lord English's defeat is pretty much entirely at the hands of John, Dave, Davepetasprite^2, and alt!Calliope in the body of Jade, as described in the Epilogues. The ghost army just isn't relevant, in the end.

But you know what is relevant? Vriska.

Half the people reading this just groaned, I can feel it. Why are we talking about Vriska, a Light player, on a post about Breath?? I hear your question and I raise you this: Why the fuck is Vriska so obsessed with Breath players???? Personally, I think it's because she has an innate sense for their passive ability to decide what's relevant.

But before we get into Vriska, let's talk about John.

John Egbert

John, Heir of Breath. The protagonist of the story. In the context of my thesis of "Breath as influence," isn't it interesting that the protagonist is a hero of Breath? And even beyond that, he's an Heir, a class typically interpreted as "becoming" their Aspect, or "inheriting" it. If you find my argument compelling, you could even say John is the influence that drives the story. Which is exactly what a protagonist does - after all, what is a story without a protagonist?

This question is actually addressed in Homestuck, kind of. At some point in Act 4, Terezi manipulates John into visiting his denizen early, which gets him killed. The story is left without its protagonist, and progress grinds to a screeching halt. Jade doesn't enter the Medium and presumably dies. The reckoning never happens. Dave and Rose are trapped in a doomed timeline. They lose contact with the trolls. For what is a world without the breeze, without air, but a place of complete standstill? The story needs John to continue. Okay, it needs Rose and Dave and Jade just as much. But it's interesting that the story makes a point of John's death being the turning point that makes this particular timeline doomed.

Okay, sorry for the wait. It’s Vriska time. Vriska's driving motivation is to be relevant. She does everything in her power to steal the spotlight, which may or may not be related to the fact that she's a Thief of Light. Again, I'm not an experienced classpecter. I only really have a surface level understanding of Light. But I'm getting off topic here.

In Act 5 Act 2, Vriska starts talking to John. Why? Well, partially because she wants to compete with Terezi, who is talking to Dave. But there's also the fact that she wants to be the force responsible for Bec Noir. And also for John reaching god tier. And everything relevant really??? She's really fucking good at being relevant, I'll give her that. Or at least presenting the illusion of relevance, but that's a big topic that I think I should save for another day. Another essay, maybe. The point here is, John has a tremendous amount of influence over Things That Happen just by existing, and Vriska knows it. Maybe she torments Tavros because she senses the same sort of potential in him, but that's probably a stretch.

In any case, this is baby shit. There's better evidence than this. Let’s talk retcon powers.

You could argue that the retcon powers are separate from John's abilities related to his classpect, and on some level you'd be right. But in a game that "knows" everything that is going to happen, I have to question if extraneous powers like this are taken into consideration when Sburb "decides" what classpect it gives a player. I feel similarly about Jade's First Guardian powers. Teleportation is a pretty space-y power, in my opinion. And definitely one that... "breaks rules," I guess. Among all the other things First Guardians get to do. Once again, I'm no classpector. But Jade getting access to First Guardian powers upon reaching God Tier strikes me as very Witch of Space-y. I feel similarly about John's retcon powers - they strike me as very Heir of Breath-y.

And not just because I view Breath as influence, though that is definitely the most obvious way the retcon powers could be interpreted as Breath-y. Even on a surface level, they're pretty Breath-y. When John first talks to Roxy, he gives a whole spiel about everything he's been to up until this point, most of which is obscured by "blah blah blah." But little phrases come through occasionally, and when he starts talking about his brand new retcon powers, he uses the phrase "UNSTUCK FROM CANON." Which sounds a lot to me like "freedom from the narrative." But maybe more telling is the fact that John's quest as an Heir of Breath requires that he use his retcon powers. Getting rid of the oil, freeing the fireflies - his quest as established at the very beginning was always intended (in universe at least; I can't speak for Hussie's intentions) to be solved by his retcon powers.

So retcon powers are at the very least Breath-adjacent. What’s that got to do with Breath as influence? I’m sure you see where I’m going with this. Retcon powers are basically the ability to do whatever the fuck you want to any point of any timeline. I’d call this influence but I’d sound silly, actually. It goes way beyond influence. It’s way less subtle. I guess you could call direct intervention like this influence at its most powerful. Well, almost. There’s one step above this that John never really taps into. Which brings us to...

The Epilogues

For better or for worse, I fucking love the Epilogues. I think Candy, on its own, is a fantastic and surreal deep dive into a mind high on depression. And as for Meat, I’m an absolute sucker for metafiction and narrative fuckery. I eat that shit right up. My favorite anime is Princess Tutu, etc., etc. This is your warning: Yes, this section will contain evidence toward my claim that Breath is influence. It also doubles as an Epilogues analysis. It kind of turns into one at the end. Sorry, but I needed to get it out of my system.

So, in case you missed it, the step above retcon powers that John never taps into is direct narrative control, like we see Dirk engaging in throughout the Meat side of the Epilogues. The fact that Dirk is revealed to be the narrator of Meat begs the question: who is narrating Candy? It’s never outright stated, but it’s probably alt!Calliope. Unlike Dirk, alt!Calliope doesn’t have an agenda, as far as we’re aware. So why is Candy so fucked up and weird? Why is everyone out of character? I know this comes as a shock, but: it’s probably John’s passive influence over the narrative.

Before the Epilogues even begin, John’s been wasting away in his house all day, every day. He’s depressed as hell. Sort of dissatisfied with how artificial and "perfect" Earth C is. Some have suggested he also feels disconnected from the post-retcon versions of his friends, and I think this holds some merit. It would explain why he feels disconnected from reality in Candy.

(Candy, 11)

Depression colors your view of reality. It darkens some parts, brightens others. People who look happy will appear so to an unsettling degree. Fucked up things will appear even more fucked up. Depression ups the contrast, if you will. And that’s pretty much what happens in Candy. Jane’s pretty bad in Meat, but she’s like a billion times worse in Candy. Jade causes some awkward moments in Meat, but she is pretty much a sex pest in Candy. The positive parallels are a bit harder to find, since Meat pretty much sucks too, but you could speculate that John perceives Rosemary to be happier together than they actually are, so they’re, like, uber happy together in Candy and raising a daughter and shit. It is John’s warped perception of reality that in turn warps it beyond recognition.

This isn’t just me theorizing, by the way. There’s pretty compelling evidence to suggest that this idea is accurate to what is happening. It’s pretty clear in a conversation between (Vriska), who has just arrived on Earth C via the black hole in the furthest ring and her descendant/clone Vriska (aka Vrissy in HS:BC). The two of them stare up at the sky, pointing out clouds and what they are shaped like, when (Vriska) has a realization.

(Candy, 37)

John’s influence over the reality is so absolute, even the clouds bend to his will. I think Vriska only notices it because she’s a new arrival to Johntown. It isn’t long before she’s absorbed into the John-ness of the timeline. And then, she goes on to say exactly what I’ve been saying this whole time. Remember earlier, when I said Vriska knew that John had an incredible amount of influence over Things That Happen?

(Candy, 37)

Yeah. That wasn’t speculation.

The last thing she says, though, that he’d be relevant even if he was dead, is actually a reference to Meat. So let’s talk about it!

As we know, Meat is narrated by Dirk. Dirk’s narrative style is a lot of fun for me, personally. He’s sassy, kind of an asshole, and has no time for bullshit. The second John puts that meat in his mouth, he gets to work, pulling the strings of his little puppet show.

(Meat, 1)

He wastes no time putting words in John’s mouth, writing him out of the story of Earth C as quickly as possible. It’s almost with a sense of urgency that he pushes John to complete his mission. Which is probably necessary, seeing as the sanctity of canon relies on him going back to tie up the loose end that is Lord English. But I think Dirk has ulterior motives. I don’t think Dirk has the ability to impose his will so overbearingly with John around, because for some reason, John’s power of passive influence prevents him from doing so. Is John more powerful than Dirk, even after his ascension to Ultimate Selfhood? Maybe. I certainly think so.

But John’s pretty gullible. He’s easily influenced. He doesn’t have the same safeguard around his own mind, for some reason. Or maybe he does, and it’s just taken Dirk this long to crack him? This is speculation at this point. Not important.

So Dirk eventually kills John. Why? Well, first of all, it’s harder to control the narrative with him around. Though I speculate that’s not very important to Dirk anymore since he fucks off to who knows where around when John comes back. I think, more likely, Dirk finds John’s influence on the narrative unsavory. I mean, just look at Candy. What an absolute disaster of a timeline. Maybe his awareness is such that he knows that letting John live will result in a similar degradation of his friends’ personalities as he knows them. I can’t really say one way or another. It’d explain why he wants John’s body on the ship with him, though. Y’know, to make sure he never gets revived. And yes, he wants him on that ship. He pretty much tells Terezi outright to captchalogue his body before convincing her to join him.

(Meat, 35)

There’s one problem, though. I don’t think John being dead even erased his influence on the narrative?

(Meat, 36)

Right there at the end:

The gentle breeze is all she can hear. It’s louder than my voice, and in some understated way, makes my case for me more persuasively.

I don’t think there’s any other way to read this than the breeze representing John. This is a literal manifestation of John’s influence. I guess it could be symbolic – like Terezi doing a “what would John do?” kind of thought process. But I dunno, Dirk doesn’t strike me as that kind of narrator. Besides... It’s a little too on the nose. Say what you will about the Epilogues, but I believe a great amount of care went into them. This certainly isn’t a throwaway line.

Conclusion

Okay, sorry. I really went off the deep end into Epilogues Analysis Land there. You may have noticed that I didn’t talk about Homestuck: Beyond Canon. That’s partly because I haven’t gotten there in my reread, but mostly because I’m not yet convinced that it has – or will have – nearly the level of plot consistency of its predecessors. We’ll see, I guess.

In any case... Breath as influence, huh? There’s probably more evidence for this hidden away somewhere. I probably could have talked about Rufioh. I didn’t want to though. I also probably could have pointed out the word inspire from the Extended Zodiac thing and called it a day, but instead I blacked out and wrote this. Weird!

If you read all, uh... *checks word count* 2.7k words of this??? Jesus fuck. If you read all this, thank you for reading. I’m open to feedback! I’d love to discuss some of this more! Especially the Epilogues stuff. I have a million thoughts. Bye!

Also in addition to that last ask,

I just realized if you also want a combined class then it would be "The Contributor of Expression (knight+heir) (breath+space)"

So if you want you can do both or either ^_^ thank you again for the DoH analysis! - DoH anon 🔆🌌

YEahhh just finished the last ask a few hours ago, gonna keep them as two separate posts so its easier to find individual classpects :3 BUT THANK YOU SM FOR YOUR ASKS IT'S SO FUN FOR ME AND AAAAA /pos

---------Contributer of Expression---------

The contributor changes an aspect through serving an aspect or serves an aspect through changing an aspect.

woagh John Egbert?!?! ,':3

two passive classes. wowww they must give themselves away quite a bit, especially when they are a breath player. but breath is all about smaller details, people as individuals, and freedom. Space is all about what is and what isnt, choices, what and where you are, and creation. (sorry i didn't clarify this in the last ask, I was really stuck on the fact they need therapy and stuff)

So like in the knight of expression post, they really know where they need to be to have the best case scenario, they are great on looking at the details, and positioning themselves where others or they find necessary. Their personality isnt too different from the knight of expression, buttt they are a lot more serious and may not fully understand why they need to be somewhere, they just know they need to be there. :3

The Contributer of expression's powers would consist of the windy thing (controlling the wind), making pocket dimensions (like the dream bubbles?), and teleportation :3

close range weapons, medium to large in size. hammers, swords, axes, maybe guns or chainsaws.

Hi! It's the Doctor of History anon and I wanna say you hit the nail on the head on that analysis, and it's very accurate for me.

I'm VERY tempted to ask you to analyze my oc sburb session but it'd be handling 5 characters at once (and that's for the pre-scratch session, lol).

Unless you're interested in that, may I ask you instead to do the Knight of Expression (breath+space), please ?

Thank you so much and have a good one! :) - DoH anon 🔆🌌

hi DoH anon ^^ I have NO CLUE how to do session analysis, but I can figure it out over the week and work on that if you want, but warning if you DO want that, it might suck and/or be inaccurate (;^w^) but it's ABSOLUTELY something I am willing to try if you decide you would not hate if I were to accidentally butcher it (alsoo thank youu)

------------Knight of Expression------------

(og combined classes by @superxstarzz!!)

The knight of expression serves and aspect through an aspect for others

Knights (in general) are people who just cant leave things as they are. The expression bound part might mean they wont let their friends get stuck in situations that might not be the safest, or might put themselves into situations that they could easily avoid all because they see someone being pushed into something they clearly don't like.

The Knight of expression really doesn't like the spotlight, even if they might be forced into it by friends or anyone trying to give them the attention or recognition they might deserve. They prolly are everywhere, trying to help as many people as they think necessary. Basically, they deserve a break to take care of themselves and figure their own stuff out. There's a good chance they have some kinda inferiority complex, always trying to prove to themselves that they deserve the good things they have, and accepting that they deserve bad things for literally no fucking reason (THEY DESSERVE SO MUCH AND THEY REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT LIKE DUDEEE)

These guys are a lot smarter then they might try to claim. they know who they are, and where they need to be to be the most helpful. They are aware of social issues an social standing, how things need to be changed for the best case scenario as long as everyone cooperates with them, and they are willing to take action (as long as they aren't burnt out. it will happen if they don't fucking stop and take care of themselves. I'm begging. go to therapy, or at least fucking talk about your issues with SOMEONE)

powers will include teleportation, or portals, maybe even the ability to make their own little pocket dimension so they have the upper hand in battle like the dream bubbles, absolutely will have the ability to control the wind, or at least manipulate it.

weapons are gonna be things that keep themselves at a safe distance, but still have to be pretty close to hit accurately. so medium sized weapons, i think. swords, spears, pistols, hatchets, stuff like that.

ANOTHER COMBINED CLASSPECT ANALISIS!!!!!!

Annihilator of Growth

(prince + bard & breath + life) (classpects by @superxstarzz!)

(yooo my brother would be a bard of life)

A bard destroys their aspect or through their aspect for others.

A prince destroys their aspect or through their aspect for themselves,

the breath aspect is all about independence (in a different way then blood, which is more about groups of ppl than a singular person).

Life is about quite literally life and health, lmao.

Okay, so they are 100% a destruction class, which could make this a little easier for me. They'd probably be very helpful in a fight X3

They either they destroy life through breath, or destroy breath through life.

they'd be very difficult to keep track of, but can be very helpful if you can get them to work with others. They might have a bit of an ego (and self deprecating at the same time), and they would likely have a set moral compass, that might be a bit concerning seeing they destroy life and breath. They might think what they're doing is super helpful and good just because it's them who did it, but internally they will prolly be overly aware when they fuck up. They would prolly be an anarchist of some kind, or at least hate the rich; If they're a troll they might not like others higher on the hemospectrum.

before their team's session starts, the Annihilator of Growth will likely be someone most people agree sucks as a person. They will try to impose their ideas of good and bad onto others, which could be annoying when no one asks. During their session they would distance themselves, and be difficult to pinpoint exactly where they are or what they're doing. Annihilators are prolly a lot more likely to screw over their session than any one else.

they might not intend to destroy life or breath, but the destruction definitely is caused by them, which they are very aware of.

They might literally get rid of someone's ability to breath away, which obviously would kill them, or they could destroy someone's agency and freedom by destroying their life, making them sick or at least very weak, which makes it so others have to pick up the ill one's slack.

They're powers would consist of controlling wind, causing illnesses, floating, and maybe some kind of weird overcomplicated version of mind control(?)

they're strife specibus would consist of medium, to larger weapons that require a lot of precision, like swords, clubs, hammers, axes, and other things like that.