(no subject)

[landofspaceandrainbows]

 hellstobetsy asked:

You say mental clarity is the most important thing a sylph can heal. But Aranea can’t heal Mituna. The healing power of sylphs as shown in the comic is that Aranea can heal blindness, blindness, and only blindness. Because she’s letting other people see the light, or *sharing* her aspect with them. Sylphs being healers is a much more narrow role than the other classes. Aranea’s biggest character trait is sharing information, and Kanaya’s never healed anyone.

Ahem:

AG: My perspective is informed 8y my class and aspect. It was to my advantage as a healer to see things a little differently. To find equanimity across many different outcomes. 
GC: OH? 
AG: There’s more to the realization of our roles than gaining flashy powers. 
AG: And there’s more to healing than repairing 8attle damage. 
AG: You killed a friend and you understanda8ly feel regret. 
AG: 8ut it’s done. She is gone and you are still here. 
AG: Now what? 
GC: …

Taking such a narrow view on things is missing a large point in Homestuck:

AG: You could look for a8solution through rationalization. Everyone would have died if you didn’t take action, so why trou8le yourself with guilty emotion? 
AG: 8ut there is no real healing power in 8elieving that. And I don’t think it’s what you wanted to tell yourself anyway, is it? 
GC: NOT R34LLY 
AG: Or what a8out through renunciation of responsi8ility? If you were just a tool used 8y reality to perpetuate itself, where is the 8lame? 
AG: 8ut that would 8e another empty idea that has no power to heal. 

AG: Violence was respected and cele8rated on your world, 8ut remorse was rarely felt and pain could never heal due to such empty justifications. We died out a wounded race, and you are all that’s left.
AG: The process of healing first involves sifting through what it isn’t, which happens to 8e almost everything your trou8led mind has to offer. 

That the Doom-based sacrifice Mituna made, the heavy brain damage that resulted, can’t be healed under Light’s purview does not make a Sylph of Light a useless eye-healer.  Aspects are NOT just literal flashy powers, and the player roles which channel them aren’t just a set of spells like a League of Legends hero loadout.  They also have to deal with the segments of personalities, people’s inclinations, their mental states, their willingness to act and the bonds they share.

In fact, these glitzless, personal role traits are not just important side-qualities of the powers one is given.  In the context of causing changes in the course of reality, they are arguably the most important!

Kanaya certainly did heal through Space.  What do you think she was doing when she took a notoriously imprecise Sgrub cursor:

EB: rose my piano!!! 
EB: :C 
TT: Sorry. 
TT: No nuance to these controls at all. 
TT: I was hoping to bludgeon the imp without letting go of it. Guess I can’t really do that. 

And managed to do THIS:

GA: These Events Are Inevitable And Regardless Of Whatever Emotional Entanglements Obfuscate Their Significance They Will Ultimately Serve An Important Purpose 
GA: The Curse Had Nothing To Do With It 
GA: And Karkats Notion Of A Curse Is Inseparable From His Perception Of Events As Intrinsically Negative And As Tailored To His Personal Dissatisfaction 
GA: And Your Bad Luck Is The Same Way 
GA: I Believe Anyway 
AG: Uh. Ok. 
GA: What Would Happen If You Just Cleaned Up A Bit 
GA: Dont You Think You Would Step On A Few Less Hard Triangles 

Or as another, even more literal example, what about THIS:

HMMMMM????  :)

Cleaning, redecorating spaces with fabric and furniture, people with dresses… does that not count as a form of healing Space?  And cleaving through someone with a chainsaw so they can have new legs installed, is that not a form of healing through Space?

GA: I Thought Id Be Friendly Though 
GA: And Remind You That You Do In Fact Have A Hand In All The Terrible Things That Are About To Happen 
GA: Because Thats What Friends Are For 
GA: And The Fact That What Ensues Will Be Terrible 
GA: Is An Immutable Fact I Am Stating For The Record 
GA: And The Fact That We Will Not Be On The Same Team Is Similarly Immutable 
GA: It Does Not Mean That Teamwork Is What Isnt Taking Place Here 
AA: s0rry i didnt f0ll0w that 
GA: Ill Be Here To Help 
GA: If You Need Me 
AA: 0k 
AA: thanks

Kanaya helps others, mentally and physically.  It’s what she’s driven to do and part of how she identifies herself, even down to her screenname, grimAuxiliatrix.  When friends like Karkat or Vriska had misconceptions about the status quo, she stepped in to provide an alternative explanation, to state that things are going to be how they always were, to ease their minds.  And when friends like Aradia used that fact as an excuse to flee from culpability and cause destruction, she offered advice in the opposite direction, seeking for people to secure their mental health through an understanding of the reasons for that which IS.

And we need not explain her constant affairs in the ashen quadrant:

ROSE: This could create a schisasm in our group, that we could all be torn apart. 
ROSE: And I don’t wand that!!!!! 
ROSE: I want us all to stay friends, and jus be… peaceful togehter. :( 
KANAYA: Me Too 

KANAYA: Where Two Parties Are Highly Drawn To Each Other Through Animosity 
KANAYA: They May In Fact Be Perfect For Each Other In That Tumultuous Quadrant 
KANAYA: But To Pursue The Relationship Would Be Chaos 
KANAYA: Much Like The Scenario You Laid Out The Two Kismeses If Left Unchecked Would Devastate All Their Other Relationships 
KANAYA: Those In Their Own Quadrants And Even Those In Other Peoples 
KANAYA: So It Is The Job Of An Auspistice To Make Sure That Doesnt Happen 

Which puts space between two individuals to quench their contention for everyone’s benefit!

Kanaya has fit snugly into her role as a Sylph of Space all along.

2012-10-28