Vriska and Terezi have essentially the exact same signature ability (as befitting of characters so deeply entangled). They take reality, the endless progression of events that make up the story of Paradox Space, and make of it what they want for it to be.
By merely choosing to, Vriska can turn chance into certainty, selecting branching points such as coinflips or die rolls and forcing their outcomes to align with her will. It is easy to assume that this is the theoretical limit of her ability, of “Luck”, but Homestuck features another wielder of the same power, one of far greater power, and he is not bound to influencing tools of gambling.
By merely existing, Clover causes all potentialities surrounding him to fall in line with his merest whim. Events that would hurt him are averted, guns jamming and sickles missing. Events that merely annoy him are swiftly disposed of as well, but not before benefitting him in the process. This, then, I take to be Fortune in its ultimate form. Clover always wins, and he always wins purely by the metric of his own personal desires, whether that means ogling a periodical or getting tied up and left on the ground. The universe is lucky he’s a harmless horndog, is what I’m saying.
Terezi, then, does, well, pretty much the same thing. She turns chance into certainty by beholding a range of possibilities and selecting one. There’s a couple differences, of course. Rather than operating by the trappings of the gambler, Terezi’s more comfortable operating based on principles of psychology, using a person’s decisions as her branching point. More to the point, where Vriska sees a singular goal and moves toward it, Terezi observes a variety of unfolding possibilities and uses the information gleaned from all of them to make her decision, on one memorable occasion even overlapping two possibilities to accomplish her goals.
Terezi’s Mind powers also largely operate on a distinct binary motif, signified by a coin flip, but this is not universally the case for Mind. Snowman’s abilities are also accompanied by distinct Mind symbology, apparently allowing her to perceive and traverse the various timelines of the universe to which her life is bound, realigning things to suit her whim. Indeed, Terezi herself is frustrated by the limitiations of binary possibilities, and eventually grows beyond them in both her major timelines, resulting in two of Homestuck’s greatest moments, interacting directly with the full breadth of Paradox Space and its possibilities.
Luck and Choice. Singularity and Breadth. The Light and Mind Aspects are extremely similar in some ways, and yet completely different in others. And this relationship is not merely something I stumbled on, but a natural outgrowth of the Aspect Zodiac.
Within the Aspect Zodiac, Light and Mind are both what I call weakly notional, placed just above the zero-line of Space and Time and thus dealing with decisions and possibilities which are shaped by physicality but primarily exist within the realm of thought. Where Light is strongly Active, and thus traces a single path of individual desire, Mind charts a wide universe of possibilities. I have chosen to term this connection along a cardinal axis Aspect mirroring, the connection of two Aspects as identical along one line, but reversed along another, like a mirror image.
But the mirroring of Light and Mind shows up in other places as well. Both Light and Mind players have shown an interest in abstract matters. Rose tries to understand her reality through Freudian psychoanalysis and Vriska believes quite strongly in the idea of luck. Both these ideas are largely considered bunk by the broader scientific community (hell, Rose herself even acknowledges as much), but as bearers of Active Aspects, this doesn’t particularly bother either girl. Terezi, on the other hand, studies law, which, while as abstract a notion as fortune or psychology, is much more broadly accepted and respected as a thing that isn’t nonsense (whether or not it actually is nonsense is honestly beside the point).
So with the tool of Aspect mirroring then established, let’s look at another pair whose Aspects sit across from each other on the Zodiac. Void and Heart. Equius Zahhak and Dirk Strider.
They’re quite similar individuals, really, and Hussie goes out of his way to link them together symbolically. Both are musclemen, both wear tank tops, both are initially painted more or less as amoral manipulators but ultimately choose not to bear out that role beyond their initial superficialities, both build robots, both are scholars of a sort, both seem to struggle with self-worth, although that is hardly unique to them, both own cracked sunglasses, both have a romantic relationship with a green-themed “innocent”, both appear to be some variety of horse furry and, of course, Hal, one of Dirk’s splinters, ultimately winds up permanently fused with Equius as Arquiussprite.
But the differences are equally striking. Equius’s robots are empty tin cans, all identical and devoid of personality. The one exception is Aradiabot, who is literally constructed as an empty shell for Aradia’s spirit to inhabit and pilot around. Dirk’s robots, by contrast, are fewer in number, but each is strikingly individual and representative of a facet of his own identity. Squarewave and Sawtooth are brother robots, one small, weak, seeking growth and validation; and one aloof, mysterious, and absolutely unbeatable. The Brobot is of questionable sentience, but bears a distinct similarity to Dirk’s own body and has a very particular history as an old birthday gift of Dirk’s. Hal is literally Dirk’s own personality splintered off into a mechanical existence, and has enough uniqueness and individuality that he essentially counts as a fifth member of the Alphas’ session.
Equius appears to be some flavor of engineer, having great skill in the construction of the aforementioned robots as well as mechanical limbs. He is a master of physical objects. Though Dirk has similar skills, it’s not really much of a focus for him. Rather, his passion lies in the study of history and philosophy, as well as various cultural touchstones, the unfolding of reality as it pertains to individuals.
Equius, for all his brilliance, finds himself often overshadowed, by both the narrative and his friends, something others have written far more about than needs be said here. Aradiabot, his girlfriend, chooses to spend her last moments reconnecting with a lapsed ex rather than saying goodbye to him. For all his efforts at being a helpful and useful person, he’s gross and a little boring, the last person one would expect to make a passionate declaration of love or a heroic last stand against a great opponent (indeed, the moment he tries the latter, he chokes and fails).
By contrast, being boring is the last anyone could accuse Dirk of. The man has an endless cavalcade of emotions, presentations, and appearances, overloaded on top of each other such that it can become very difficult to tell who the real Dirk is underneath it all. I’ve written on some of this mess before. Yet, whoever you think Dirk is underneath it all, he is that person with an intense passion, one he has had to train himself to restrain and control, and which his splinters constantly betray with their elaborate plans, impassioned declarations, and bizarre senses of humor.
Breadth and singularity. Passive and Active. By looking at the way their Aspects are mirrored we can see how the individuals who bear them are entangled, and learn something about the symbolic language of Homestuck as well in the process.
As a minor detail, the quiz, for reasons unknown, seems to somewhat single out these four Aspects as having a particular connection, since, according to this diagram, a tie between Heart and Light on the quiz results in Time, while a tie between Void and Mind on the quiz results in Space.
