A. CLAIRE...A CLONE? Joey...the Heir of Life!? 

Being a prince of space is like swinging a wii remote without the wrist strap.

Hi. Here’s a fun linguistics fact about A.Claire In french, the word “Claire” means bright or pale or clear, all depending on context. But also! Éclaire (witch is pronounced A clair) is the the word for lightning and also the verb for bringing light in a place/room!

One more note about the Anna thing - it's a letter away from Nanna why is the rabbithole so deep

It's also really Ironic that Joey could potentially stop the condescension's endless tyranny since it would sort of carry the will of her father, Jake/grandpop since his goal was take down the empress and LE

The relation between Jane and Jake in all instances (Beta timeline, Alpha timeline, Hiveswap timeline) is super tragic tbh

This actually makes total sense. I'm more than willing to accept this as legit canon.

Heir of life is such a appealing classpect for her

Like someone else pointed out, “Anna” sounds like a good name for Jane because it’s a letter away from “Nanna”, her nickname in the Beta Timeline.

Personally, I prefer the version where Joey is an Heir of Life for the same reason, the two main leads of Homestuck have ties to it and the fact that I do feel that she is sort of a “good leader”. With the A. Claire part, I’m kind of trying to tie up some ends with the Jake Harley video. Jake, as shown, has many ties to his alpha part in terms of memories and crud like that. If that we’re the case, would A. Claire, as a somewhat clone of Jane, have ties as well? Idk

This feels pretty plausible to me, but that's probably because you're just incredible when it comes to discussions. I have a hard time delving past the surface level of things because a lot of details tend to go over my head, but with you explaining this sort of stuff in such a thorough way... it's just fucking great!

It's just a theory,a Hiveswap theory!

I think dirk says that "Anna" is a good name for Jane because it sounds like the "nanna" in nannasprite... But I LOVE the idea that it is also the name of A Claire and hints at her being a Jane clone. This vid is awesome, thanks for sharing!

You KNOW it's such an outrageous theory on the face of it and you make a couple strong points, but in the end I think this reality would do more harm than good to the characters and the plot at large. There are a couple pretty big obvious hurdles to start with. For a clone, A. Claire doesn't really physically resemble Jane, even by Homestuck standards. And her life's passion, from what we're told of her, is dance and performance, something I don't think we ever see Jane show even a slight interest in. Then there's the Condesce's motives. In the very text you cite, it's stated plainly that the Condesce specifically wanted to PREVENT the prophecy, so going out of her way to ensure it seems terribly sloppy of her. And considering she was packing up most likely to move to Universe B2, I doubt she had any lingering interest in raising an heiress in this universe, hence dumping her stuff with Jake. I'll admit, that prophecy is pretty alluring, but I think that could be chalked up as something of a fairy tale, a simplification of the more complex truth, distorted in its telling either by Nanna to fedorafreak (to whom she is telling the story), or by the Condesce to young Nanna, or both. Perhaps not unlike the way Jake came to misunderstand Lord English as an "evil husband" to the Condesce. And that aside, I think the clone revelation somewhat delegitimizes her as a character. Such a convoluted origin mostly serves to undermine her ability to stand as her own person and, somewhat symbolically, for Hiveswap to stand apart from Homestuck's lore. Thus it effects Joey as well, and to a lesser extent, Jude. It MIGHT be cool that a sort of heiress spawned from the Condesce's own (future) machinations would go on to rebel against her own empire but, and especially because we know it can't bear much fruit if Hivebent comes to pass, it feels to me like too little earned in the name of sabotoging some of this storyline's independence. Bottom line is, it feels to me like something too unnecessary and too unlikely to be the case. A. Claire is probably just someone who happens to be alike with Jane in various regards. Maybe her aspect really is Life, even. This could be why Jake was drawn to her in the first place. But she doesn't need to be a literal clone of another established character who may yet show up in this story (or a parallel, closely related one) to serve her purpose as an inspiration to those around her. Actually, as I think it over, maybe Joey is neither of the Class/Aspect pairs you suggest. Maybe she's not an Heir of Life or a Maid of Light, but an Heir of Light. It's hard for me to be certain because the symbols and themes for Life aren't as clear to me, but I think Light runs strongly through everything about her, everything around her, and everything she does, far too much I think to be roleplaying even if it her mom's aspect. And as for her class, there's evidence enough to go either way, but consider this: Like you say, she's not driven to accomplish her own ambitions. At least, not in a way that results in taking action. And when she does take action, she's generally doing so on the instruction of others, or to aid someone. And she does this, all throughout the first Act, with and through enlightenment, both literal and metaphorical. I don't know if you've said this before and it's where I got the idea, but I have this whole arc in my head about the Heir and the journey they must take to realize themselves. At the start of their arc, they are naive and perhaps somewhat brash. When they try to do something of their own volition or for self-interest, it tends to be against their own benefit, ironically. Their aspect may sort of shephard them along on its own will, or subconsciously through them. Yet is essential they eventually mature enough to be able to take command of their aspect. You mention that the path of the Maid involves learning to overcome ones own aspect before it threatens to consume or destroy them. For the Heir I believe it is similar. Eventually, whether they are ready or not, the "inheritance" will bestow itself upon them, and if they are not ready the consequences can be disastrous, for themselves or others. In the first half of Act 1, I notice Joey is constantly deprived of Light. The sun is setting. Her flashlight has no batteries. The power to the house goes out. Also, she's not even able to access the hint function. When she gets to Alternia, the tables are turned. Now, exposing herself to the symbol of Light is dangerous, as Alternia's sun will most likely roast her, so she's forced to keep away from it. But she is drawn to Dammek's lusus, a type of creature which, as the Friendsims reveal, are one of the few on the planet which can withstand it, and she quickly finds a book, arming herself with knowledge of these creatures. And then, as mentioned before, there's the hint function. Despite what I said earlier about ties to Homestuck, to me it makes more sense if Joey is a Light player, because it gives her common footing with two other major targets of Doc Scratch's manipulation. While his is no short list of unwitting accomplices, those with a predilection for Light, for knowledge, seem to be the ones most drawn to his dubious assistance. Thus he also represents Light's potential to overwhelm her, as in her pursuit of answers through him, she will be decieved, her understanding and her relevance sabotaged. And considering Scratch has a heretofore flawless record of achieving his own goals, I think that may spell unfortunate things for Joey's confidence in herself when she is inevitably misled into doing something terrible while trying to do good. Anyway, I've gone on long enough and stayed up way later than I should have typing this up, but I don't get the chance to dive into it that much these days so there you go.

I'm watching the entire thing before drafting out a comment this time, since there's a fair bit you're going to have to sell me on this time. Okay, I do have to say in the middle: "Those of you who have only played Hiveswap." I think we lost most of that part of the audience some time during or before "Rose is roleplaying a Witch of Void because [8 different examples from throughout Homestuck]" or, failing that, when we started getting into ectocloning. Anyway... Joey as Heir of Life: you know, I can absolutely see it even without this complicated explanation for who A. Claire is. It fits as a John/Jane combo, it ties her into the family history, and she's an easy 50/50 on doing "Lighty things" as a performer and "Lifey things" as a healer (by the way you went the entire video without mentioning her twin ambitions to be a dancer and a *veterinarian*). I'm biased in favor of Light, but I'm not passing judgement until Act 2 at least. And I'm also fortunate enough to think of Maid and Heir as paired classes myself so the fact that Joey is on the borderline between the two is expected, to me. A. Claire as a (mutant) Jane Clone: You know, I can see it? And I agree that Condy's clown squad is probably involved here somewhere, to the point of being likely antagonists in Hauntswitch. But all the evidence is hyper-circumstantial to an even greater extent than we normally go for this Class/Aspect theorizing. We know next to nothing about where A. comes from or who she is outside of "Joey and Jude's mom" and "epic dancer". Also pretty sure that the Detective Pony gag comes from Anna rhyming with Nanna. But...I can't *disprove* any of this either, so I guess we'll see. The Spiral symbol: yeah, I see where you're coming from, but I'm not convinced it's a Life symbol. The whole symbological ancestry there is specifically Calliope and Caliborn, from the shape, the colors, and how we've seen it used before. Even the symbol of AURYN is specific to Cherubs in Homestuck's context, representing their good/evil and active/passive duality, while the red-green spirals represent the duality of Space and Time (or, to put it another way, space-time: the entire scope of the physical universe, which is ultimately a game between Calliope and Caliborn themselves). tl;dr I don't disagree with your thesis but I think you may be stretching a little further than you have to to justify it.

Very interesting take on this! I never would've thought that A. Claire would've been a clone. All of this might be just us grabbing at straws, but who knows? Act 2 is still on its way and we'll see in due time.

It’d be really cool to see a video on the kids guardians, how they reflect their Classpects and what they say about their player counterparts.

He should have gone the PBS route with the intro, "to viewers like you, thank you!"

I was very happy to see the beginning portion on classpect, role-play, and manifestation forms given our last conversation. This is also a cool speculation, hopefully we'll see more as the other acts come out.

when "HEIR-loom" popped up i had to pause to give myself a chuckle break you make it make so much sense you always show us how well every element fits together

Anna and nana are anagrams

I gotta say the prophecy from Condy is a really strong case, this theory certainly holds water and I'm open to the possibility seeing as we just do not know enough yet

The more I watch your videos, the more I realize how insanely good and consistent homestuck is.

I do find that theory intresting, I'd like to point out in the second part of Joey's room on the roof their actually is a light symbol maybe hinting at that fact she maybe the light aspect or maybe just a decoration choice , maybe you could shed some light (pun not intended) on it.

"Man, I wish homestuck would have more foreshadowing and secrets, I just can't find any interesting secrets there!" - me, 10 minutes ago. touche, Hussie, touche.

What makes me doubt this theory the most is how homestuck-verse is consistent with visual representation of a character. So seeing A. Claire lacking both Jane's teeth and Jane's glasses, makes me think that they shouldn't be the same person. Like, everything else matches up, but the looks. The looks makes it feel wrong.

If you think about it, the magician part might actually come from Roxy, considering Roxy's obsession with wizards and probably having a much better relationship with Joey than her own daughter, not seen as some unknown individual to Joey or Jude.

I think you are hitting the right vein here. My own theory on this (which I am waiting for the friend sim to finish and get the first part thought through. But if I am right that would mean that joey, Jude, the Hiveswap trolls all are the original Genetic template for the A2 trolls and B1 kids. Leading to the creation of them paradoxically speaking. Because I am sure when haunt switch comes out we will have 2 other kids introduced and likely one of them being Joey's crush. (But that chance is low) ideally they would have classes corresponding to heir seer maid prince rouge knight page and witch. With life light space breath time heart void and hope for aspects. Because if A.Claire is a clone either made by the empress or sent back in time. Both thoughts are possible and just as likely.

At first i was like: "nope, can't be right." But then when you went to Detective Pony, and with Dirk saying 'Anna was almost a good name for Jane' , i flipped the switch. Great theory as always!! can't wait to see what will happen next!

Super interesting! You're legit the best Homestuck RU-vidr!

this was a really interesting video to listen to while drawing! your analyses and theories are really cool!

hey i know im really late but i feel that hiveswap might be Nana's story from homestuck but an alternate version where the two do get married and have jude and joey who will eventualy save the world

Thank you for making the wait for this hecking game a little more bearable

These videos are always really cool, i get so hype when i see theres a new one

Generally when it comes to all the cherub symbolism that goes on in the harley manor, i have suspcioins that in fact, it is not lord english in direct involvement here. Basically lord english despises the duality of his lineage. Nothing he uses has any semblance to cherubs at all let alone the duality of their nature. He focuses on himself and his separation from others, short of those he enslaves for his purposes. Throughout Harley manner are representations of cherub duality. Even the deer and lion head puzzle is a symbol of that duality. The wisdom fo the deer and the blind fury of the lion. But more so, you give the lion sight in order to progress in the story. Also there is an absence of direct Green sun symbols in their manor too. The symbol of joey's shirt and on her cieling are the closest we have to a green sun, but whenver it has ever been styled in homestuck it has always been a green circle. not a stylized star of this nature. Oddly enough the weirdest and most particular forshadowing i have seen in the manor was that skull castle sitting in the hallway near jude's room. while it had one of its 'teeth' painted gold, the castle is winking with effeminate eyelash marks on it. much like when callipe ended her conversations with a 'smooch'. Here are a few things i noticed about joey. She is pacifistic to a fault. Whole house swarming with monsters, she rarely tries to attack or harm any. In several rooms of her house she has legitimate means of fighting off enemies, but does not claim them. She refuses to touch anyhting with lethal potential especially not guns. But more so she had a very gollum like obsession with the Key she got from her mom. its beyond jsut an heirloom and more it almsot compels her. More than likely it is a juju. Jujus can have a strange effect of influencing the behavior of people who acquire them. Lili cal is a juju that brought ruin whever he went, probably in part because of caliborn and gamzee's presence in it. But one thing that is known about jujus is that all cherub covet them. I think someone once explained it as almost an instinctual obsession over them.... much like how Joey covets the key despite how weird looking it is. it is never "I keep it because of my mom but it sure is weird." its "This is such a beautiful heirloom." You might be getting what i am going at here. I have suspcions that Joey is part cherub herself. Probably has her cherub nature repressed somehow.... Its a bit of a crackpot theory Xd. There is no way that they could biologically produce joey if jake harley ended up dating a cherub.... But it may be possible with paradox cloning. Someone could theoretically take the paradox goop of a cherub and a human and mix it together, create a hybrid that otherwise would be biologically impossible. An aberrations indeed. Honestly part of it is because i am wondering what the hell can a fourteen year old non sburb player can do to help the trolls in a reasonable fashion without totally relying on jack chan esque environmenta hijinks. It worked on the dumb monsters but that would not mean it would work on barbaric trolls that are as brutal but smarter. No one is jackie channing Chahut into submission.

joey being a heir of life as a combo of the titles of both leaders of the human sessions makes it very fitting for dammek to be a thief of blood as the combination of the titles of both leaders of the troll sessions

I wonder why classes are so unimportant? They allow the aspects to be channeled. And the classes change up the powers a ton. Like the princes, who destroy their aspects. If Eridan was just the person of hope, then he wouldn’t set up the issue of the Matriorb being hopesploded. Or Jake, he wouldn’t be so super godly powerful if he weren’t a page of hope. The only real power Jade would have would be generic space powers and Bec’s powers, so I can presume she wouldn’t be able to shrink the asteroid, grow the Yellow Yard and the Fenestrated Wall, etc.

man, ur videos make me want to make videos! im so in love with hiveswap, and my favorite part abt homestuck in general is the classpects!! its so fun to analyze :o so keep doin this cool stuff cuz its satisfying my curiosity and imagination

One question: You mention the lollipop juju as Jane's inheritance from The Condesce, but weren't the alpha kids given the codes for it's halves directly from the cherubs?

I genuinely hope this is cannon, it makes so much sense! Thank you for your hard work, amazing as always!

Notification gang where are you?!

Thanks, I’ve been craving homestuck content

While I'd be sad to lose a canonical polar opposite, an Heir of Life is very fitting and aesthetically pleasing for a lot of reasons!

I think there is one tiny detail that I think you might have to readily assumed but yet opens another can of worms if true: You assume that if A. Claire is a clone of Jane that she also shares Jane's title; Maid of Life. However if A. Claire is a clone, it would appear she is a mutated / non-exact clone, which could mean that A. Claire could potentially have a different title. Of course it could be possible the mutation/change would actually lie in the lunar sway; i.e. Jane as a Prospit dreamer Maid of Life and her mutated clone (A. Claire) as Derse dreamer Maid of Life.

Well looks like nobody has a Claire picture on all of this

Thanks for the video

Hold on, I love these videos and I especially love how well researched you are on them, but as I always understood it, Roxy was the leader of the Alpha kids' session. She kind of always was as apposed to Jane. I mean, she kind of took to that role slowly throughout the comic (something that makes sense for a Void player, like she's the session's "hidden leader") but it ended up sticking with her as the story went on.

But as to nail joeys aspect. I think she is stuck between light and life honestly. She has both traits naturally likely to try throwing us off. I do believe she is more a Heir of Light. But life is just as likely as her interest in dancing while being a veterinarian are halved equally at her age. So they are wanting to have us lean one way or another. But with her flashlight it gives it a tick one further to light. As she is inheriting her mother's gift, and Joey sees her as a star a body of Light.

Funny thing actually. Anna could be seen as an anagram? You take Nana and rearrange them to Anna. I think it's funny because an anagram uses the same base words but in a different pattern...A different result. And the best part is that most if not all would not be able to see it..unless there is something that links the two words or in these case people together. Being in the same story is not enough for all we know Anna could just as well be another completely unrelated character to homestuck, but I don't think that is the case. Homestuck has more than once shown that everything it presents to us had purpose and above all connection, every character, every important event, everything is connected to make or show a greater hole.

Jumping from the life aspect into hypothesis’s on ethics felt like grasping for a needle in a straw-stack. Especially with Hussie’s genuine Nuance in depictions of ethical conundrums throughout the comic

I always enjoy watching your theories about the Homestuck, and Hiveswap classpects, I always learn something new about every class, and aspect while watching your videos. I take this knowledge from your videos, and other articles I've read online, and I try to use them to help me find what my classpect is. Right now I'm debating between if I'm a Witch of Doom or a Witch of Light. I've also been questioning if I was apart of the Life class. Anyway what I really wanted to say is Thank you for making videos like these, and keep up the wonderful work

anna claire would be a good name because it doesnt break the eclair pun presented by a. claire

I agree with Joey being the Heir of Life. All of the reasons ring true for me. I think A. Claire is the true Maid of Light and that after her death Joey’s powerful desire to *inherit* her legacy and emulate her incorporated her mother’s class and aspect into part of her identity. Hence why it’s so hard to separate Joey’s Life imagery and her Light imagery. It may also allow her access to Heir of Light stuff too. As for A. Claire being an imperfect clone of Jane... it’s plausible. Despite the Condence’s history with genetic manipulation, that same history has a lot of failures too in that she didn’t often get what she wanted. To the empress, Jane was pretty much born with the wrong class. If A. Claire was a clone of Jane, then she would later be deemed a failure once it became apparent that she got both the wrong class AND the wrong aspect. Plus her conquest of Beta Earth wasn’t meant to be so she pretty much went “screw it” and left her pre-scratch baking empire to A. Claire due to not caring about it anymore.

A. Claire *made* that mural on Joey's ceiling, was famous in a way that inspires most if not all of her aspirations for the spotlight, and created a fortunate situation for Joey by leaving the Heirloom in her jewelry box. What's more, it seems she was essentially uninterested in the key itself, and it would be more appropriate if both A. Claire and Jane Crocker were Maids of Light and Life, respectively, as their Classes would be the same while their Aspects would be adjacent (just 1 step from each other on the wheel). That would align well with the Janus symbolism that seems to tie them together, as they would represent two faces of the same part of the Aspect wheel; one facing counterclockwise and the other clockwise Also I think what you mention here about Joey being the Heir of Life is much more important to her arc and symbolism, and all her Light imagery seems to be associated with a form of role play specifically involving her mom

This theory has me very curious about the truth. Good job!

For me, the most valuable part of this video was the examination of the Maid class (And by extension it's comparison to the Heir class), because it got me to reconsider and re-examine the Maid characters in my current roleplay groups.

You mentioned in an earlier video how love can be closely associated with light, and the creator classes(maid/sylph) often heal with/through their aspects, one of the readings of Maid of Light could be "one who heals that which she loves", explaining her ambition for being both a veterinarian(she loves animals and wants to heal them) and a dancer(she loved her mother and wants to heal/be healed of her emotional wounds due to her absence by impersonating her(her mother a famous dancer iirc))

As a Mage of Light I live for your videos good sir

good job, i'd be stymied if this were true but i don't apply very much energy to analysis anyways - which is why i find this kind of thing very interesting

ooohhh excited!

Good work

completely crazy and i LOVE IT

those tactical omissions miss when jane slams the keyboard lol

I don’t know why but the way optimistic duelist pronounces the ch sound is so pleasant to me Oh heck I just realized he pronounces the sh sounds as ch a little I this my imagination or something that is actually happening....

I don’t think anyone will argue with you because it’s homestuck. Timespace shenanigans.

At 11:23, you forgot to censor "Jane's WHAT THE F***?"

holy heck i really liked this theory

Im an heir of life lmao

I hear "A. Claire" always as "éclair", yum

love it!

I think this whole video really supports my interpretation that Maid is the active counterpart to Heir, as both revolve around earning or inheriting their aspect.

just a thought I had, could manifest dual 'true' classpects? I mean it's possible that as the homestuck / hiveswap shared universes expand the way classpects could also evolve. Another idea : due to the life influence its possible that joey could break the rules regarding role playing and be able to fully dive into it without understanding herself fully first or manifest 2 aspects at the same time.

Since John and them are related to )(IC through the Crockers, I would LOVE to see Joey strife with Trizza later on. Heiress who hails from Earth versus the heiress of Alternia. Hell yes.

I love your videos

I wonder what will happen in Hauntswitch XD But that being said, Joey... overshadows Jude... in so many levels.

How fortuitous that this video is uploaded today. My father could use the aid of someone with life powers.

Sliiight issue. While this is some fascinating speculation, the empress we see at the end of Hiveswap Act 1 isn't Meenah. Her caste symbol is that of a fuschia-blooded, Derse-dreaming Bloodbound. Much as Earth is several years away from the SBURB Beta, it seems Alternia is a different part of its history as well.

I originally rejected the idea of Joey not being a light player because of her "weapons" since they are all clearly light related, but thinking about it weapon choice doesn't seem to have anything with player aspects. Other than some trolls and some of them were technically imitating their ancestors.

A.claire being a clone of jane would make a funny koke/reference A. claire is phonetically similar to Eclair, a type of baked candy

5:55 Okay I never noticed that 'we're' was spelled 'where' in this panel. It's been so long since I read HomeStuck in it's entirety that I can't even remember if this was pointed out/intentional or not.

Do you think that the way life and doom are partially about how we mold the world, and how it molds us can be similar to other dual aspects, such as how rage and hope could possibly be about how the story molds the characters, and how the characters mold the story?

Im really interested to see if joey REALLY did turn into trickter mode and when meeting xefros and the trolls on hiveswap how would they react?

We know that trolls are capable of convincingly disguising as humans and I’ve been holding onto a theory about A Claire being a troll that came through the portal.

I think the original intent behind Dirk calling Anna "almost" a good name for Jane is because it's one letter off from Nanna. That doesn't mean it's not still good evidence, but if it is true, using Anna was probably a retroactive decision by the hiveswap team.

3:35 Was Jane really the leader of the Alpha session though? It seems like it would be a Strilonde (preferably Roxy).

Also a wise man once told me , go with your guts.

u are amazing!

A. Claire. Eclair. Food sounding name, dessert at that. Hmm, ok.. Nana. Anna. Hmm.. ok, ok... Yeah ok I can see the whole clone theory being plausible if not true. Like knowing homestuck, like how they did beforus and alternia, I wouldn't be shocked.

I took the EZ quiz and I'm a Prospitan player. I did a bit more research and I've come to the conclusion that I'm a Mage of Mind. Yay :]

Claire could be the Clone of Jane who chose to run away with Jake possibly changing her name to hide her identity from the Batterwitch

yes

maybe a old aspect from a horror terror session?

I always love your videos even if then “Seem outlandish” in your opinion but you always have good facts backing it up just do what you feel like and you will do some Awesome videos anyway Hope your doing good later

Honestly my first thought what that the name A. Claire was a spin on the pastry, an Eclair

Is no one going to mention that in [S] Credits, there is a clone of Jane(I assume) that looks exactly like A.Claire?OK

Anna is an anagram of Nana

I just figured out a pastry based pun that would go perfectly with A.Claire. But... I only have the punchline.

The whole "Anna sounds like a good name for you", thing could also reference the visual and auditory similarities between Anna and Nanna, being only one letter apart. Not to say this isn't valid, just implying that the clues seem to point in a couple directions at once.

Might i mention that the influence of void in rose is Similar to her extended zodiac sign, Sagipia?

I KNEW IT

I’m almost positive that her full name is Anderson Claire, but I’m not 100% sure, as I can’t remember where I heard that