Classpects Dahni - Knights

Homestuck Class Guide: Knights

Knight: One who Exploits with (Aspect) or Exploits (Aspect)

Knights are truly skilled with their Aspect, but wrongly fear they are actually useless and just not trying hard enough. So they hide their perceived failure behind a mental shield in order to appear competent to others.

Good Example: Karkat Vantas, Knight of Blood

BLOOD: Flesh, Flags, Metal, Shackles/Chains, Rings, Dependent, Commitment, Experience, Obligation, United, Grounded, Material, Rigidity, Stability, Meaningful, Connection, Loyalty and Bonds

Karkat is a pretty good example of a Knight, he had the low confidence in himself due to his blood color, and effectively hid the color for the longest time, he also had low confidence in the unity and bonds tied to himself and his friends, secretly wondering if they could all ever work together, he used a grey shield to hide his bright red. but he eventually powered through these notions, he tried to stand up and become a leader, uniting himself and his friends and he revealed his blood color. Even his obsession with romcoms, the intricate relationships and bonds between others, at first he was a little bit embarrassed  but then unabashedly was open about it, even trying to explain quadrants to the kids. He came out from behind his shield and acknowledge his strengths.

Struggling Example: Dave Strider, Knight of Time

TIME: Moments, Velocity, Clocks, Sound, Music, Mechanical, Destruction, Endings, Terminate, Destiny, Ambiguity, Inevitability, Patience, Repetition, Past/Future Tense, Masculine Instinct

Dave Strider is definitely struggling right now as a Knight, but I believe he will eventually succeed as a Knight. Not a lot of people catch this, but Dave is not actually a “cool kid” he hides behind that facade because hes actually very insecure with himself. Especially most recently in the comic with him crying over his selfies, he wasn’t laughing so hard that he cried, he was crying so hard that he laughed. He thinks people expect him to be this huge hero tough cool guy, so thats how he acts most of the time, but now his shield is finally starting to crack under the pressure. The best way to explain Knights is that they start out with a shield that they hide behind to protect themselves from their opponent with a sword, they need to find their sword/aspect within them and come out from behind their shield and attack! learn to stand up and fight! Dave needs to look within himself for his Time, his Fate, his Uncertainty and his Inevitability, acknowledge that it exists and start fighting back! (to go back to Karkat for a quick second, Karkat also looked within himself for his Blood, his Loyalty, his Dependence and the Bonds that he shares, and he came to terms with it! and he is slowly learning to use it as a weapon against his enemies! Friendship is magic and all that kinda thing, we can do this is we stand together!)

Failed Example: Latula Pyrope, Knight of Mind

MIND: Thoughts, Personas, Glasses, Coins, Morals, Rational Decison, Human Reason, Justice, Uncaring, Logical, Impersonal, Indifferent, Intellectual, Apathetic, Hidden, Trickery, Choice, Outer Self

Latula is the failed example of a Knight. She hides behind her “Rad Gamer Girl” facade because shes insecure about her disability and also because she wants attention, as noted by Karkat. She stayed firmly behind her shield never looking within herself for her own Aspect/Sword to fight with, never acknowledging her own choices or mentality. She has a wealth of Mind hidden inside her, but never lets it out, instead she wanted to be liked for what she wasn’t  rather than risk being hated for what she was. She failed as a Knight because she never even picked up a sword to learn how to fight.

all in all, I think my Sword and Shield metaphor works really well for Knights. A young Knight doesn’t start out knowing how to fight, all they have to protect themselves is some facade or shield. They need to look within themselves for their Aspect, acknowledge that its good enough and come to terms with it, so they can wield it as a weapon, like a Knight should. Not every knight will pick up a sword as fast as others, and not every knight will learn their sword as well or as fast as others, but as long as they have picked up a sword, a weapon, something to fight with, and they are fighting, then they will eventually succeed as a Knight.

Knights, being the Active Exploit class, would Invert to Rogues, the Passive Steal class.
For example: A Knight of Mind would invert to a Rogue of Heart or a Knight of Breath would invert to a Rogue of Blood.