(no subject)

[landofspaceandrainbows]

 If Hope and Rage are "possibility" does that mean they only make it easier or harder for other people to do stuff they were going to do anyway?

Anonymous

What are you talking about?

You know what?  Let’s try a thought experiment:

You hear a sudden crash!  Your house is under attack by an intruder.  What do you do?

• Call 911
• Confront the intruder
• Grab a weapon and advance
• Grab a weapon and hide behind something
• Hide completely
• Flee the house to escape
• Flee the house, after you’ve grabbed the nearest valuable things you can to keep them safe
• Flee the house to find help or call 911 at a neighbor’s

These are a bunch of eminently reasonable possibilities that might occur to you.

Now, let’s change the scenario slightly, adding a dash of Rage.

You hear a sudden crash!  Your house is under attack by an intruder… but upon examination, said intruder is a GIANT MECHA TWICE THE SIZE OF YOUR HOUSE.  What do you do?!

• Scream like a little girl
• Hide
• Call 911 nobody would believe you!!!
• Flee like shit!!!

Notice that your options have narrowed substantially.

But… why?

You could still technically call 911, or grab a weapon, or turn allies against the intruder.  But all that’s stupid, impossible!  The possibilities don’t even occur to you, because you’re intimidated both logically and emotionally by your opponent.  That’s the effect of Rage: closing off and narrowing your perception of feasible options.

Now, what happens if instead, you have Hope?  What if you were a Knight of Hope, like Kamina?!

KAMINA:  ”Whether it’s impossible or laughable… great men open up paths of battle!!!”

SIMON:  ”If there’s a wall, we break it down!  If there’s no path, we make one with these hands!”

• Call 911  AS IF!
• Confront the intruder  Good, good…
• Grab a weapon and advance  Great, but let’s do one better!
• Grab a weapon and hide behind something
• Hide completely
• Flee the house to escape
• Flee the house, after you’ve grabbed the nearest valuable things you can to keep them safe
• Flee the house to find help or call 911 at a neighbor’s
• Attack with your weapon, tear the pilot out of the mech, AND TAKE THE ROBOT AS YOUR OWN!!!

(Disclaimer:  Crossed out items are still perceived as possible, I’m just getting into Kamina’s mindset, here.  Do not try this at home.)

See?  Hope broadened your view of the possibilities to see an open path - yes, a doable one - that you never would have otherwise realized!

—

(By the way, since I can’t find anywhere else I’ve listed it right now…)

In terms of Homestuck Classpects for Gurren Lagann characters:

• Kamina — Knight of Hope
• Simon — Page of Space
• Princess Nia — Sylph of Heart

Kamina has a supernatural notion of… well, I’ll just paraphrase a youtube comment that summed it up nicely: What’s surprising isn’t so much how Kamina thinks the world works, but that the world happens to work exactly the way Kamina thinks it does. His perception of ridiculous, impossible-seeming possibilities and urge to thrust himself headlong into the fray to reach for them, even if it’s all bluster to mask his insecurity, manages to inspire everyone to go up against the literally colossal foes presented to them. (He’s constantly refraining to Simon: “If you can’t believe in yourself, believe in the me who believes in you!”)

Simon is one of the ones inspired by his Hope, and in fact (despite his smallness and youth) is the one Kamina looks to for strength above all others. As Kamina confides in another, there was a time where Simon, Kamina, and some others were trapped in a cave-in. Kamina was freaking out inside, thinking they were all going to die, but Simon just kept turning his drill: bit by bit, he always managed to move forward, one inch at a time. Using the mech Lagann, “Simon the Digger” manages to arm others with Space even more readily than he can use it himself: his mech is designed to integrate itself with and hijack other mechs, combining with them to create wholes stronger than their parts and generating unlimited, huge drills to fight with fueled by Simon’s fighting spirit. There are even epic moments where others use a broken off drill of Simon’s to immense effect; he arms others in every sense with his ability to move forward despite the odds, the best stealth protagonist imaginable. A Page of Space indeed, carrying along the Hope that Kamina gives him!

Princess Nia is a great example of a Sylph of Heart:  one who repairs and boosts individual uniqueness. She serves this role for Simon in particular:  When Simon has doubts about his usefulness, about what he amounts to when considered apart from Kamina, she’s able to reassure him that “Simon should just be Simon”, that he has strength within him all his own, placing her hands on the handles underneath his to ease his grip on his mech. (Bonus: inversion??)

2012-11-12