i wrote some bullshit on lunar sway i wanna share here. share your thoughts in your replies, i wanted this to be more like a forum to discuss abt prospit/derse
mostly focused it on the child-mind and how it affects a person further in their life. homestuck is about some kids and not some adults, in the end.
Dersites dont necessarily accentuate either of those negative/positive emotions, they often hide everything deeply personal, not out of fear of being socially rejected like the prospitians, but out of fear of being evaded, having taken away some of their liberty. Dersites usually have it tough in the comic, and even if they dont, they make it like that themselves. So they learn that the best way to hide away from a bad outcome/bad parental figure is by simply creating a personal barrier between themselves and, initially, the parent and that later becomes a barrier between them and the outside world, kinda like a safe-space. They learn to be more skeptical, mischievous or untrusting because of said bad parent figure, trying to test their liberty's limits. They can appear chill or down-to-earth but that is only because of the emotional restraint. So they feel threatened when that barrier is broken or taken away from them, and they would do a lot to protect it. When they lack the safe-space they created themselves, their world view crumbles. But even if it did, from that much emotional-inhibition, they wouldn't know how to react to it. They can appear cold or fake because of this. - if i were to give dersites an mbti and enneagram from the overall vibes id give them: ISTP-INTP 5w4 SX/SP
All of this can also be easily observed from the player's moon's culture and purpose, how the planets were described within the comic. Tho with Sburb you never really know if its nurture or nature that caused someones lunar sway; Is Dave a dersite because he hid most of his emotions under his cool guy mask or is Dave wearing that mask because he was a dersite to begin with? Is Jane a prospitian because she was fixated on the idea of doing what is expected of her or is she reacting like that because she was a prospitian all along? It is also to be noted that with the kids at least, the dersites beds were always undone, while the prospitian kids beds were always done.
A "good kid" or someone with a bigger consciense makes their bed everyday, somone who has bigger issues would not necessarily concern themselves with that. Its the litte things that help to show the bigger picture.
Hussie said at some point that dersites dont do their bed after they wake up bcz of the nightmares from the horrorterrors, he also said that dersites are more likeley to be psychopaths, but what did hussie NOT say in those old forums, right? tbh this only helps my theory more.
i personally diagnose lunar sway by how trusting or oblivious someone can be, the most being prospit. derse can also be tusting but theres that sense of mischeviousness that rises from their skepticism to it. lunar sway, in my opinion, is also about your upbringing, some parenting styles are more likely to create a prospitian or dersite child, its mostly how the child responds to it.
- Meds :)
i really like these points op and you put into words some things that i couldn’t describe before.
personally i’ve always assessed lunar sway based on how a person best processes things, whether they react directly/externally vs indirectly/internally.
as a broad rule, prospit dreamers seem more likely to take the world at face value and therefore interact with others at face value. they’re typically “what you see is what you get” types, because that’s how they perceive the world, or at least is how they believe the world is best perceived. that isn’t to say they can’t be skeptical or distrusting, or that they’re shallow. it’s just that they work best with this particular perspective, when they are able to “respond” or ”react” to something external. which i think is why a lot of prospit dreamers tend to seem very emotive and uninhibited. there’s not usually a “deeper meaning” with them. though they may be able to pinpoint one, their response usually remains direct and/or true to themselves as ever. and having such responses to things makes prospit dreamers dispositions range from being idealistic and having their head in the clouds to being quite down to earth. and the fun thing is that this manifests in different ways for different prospit dreamers, because each character has a different way of processing and responding.
for derse dreamers, it’s basically the opposite. they tend to process things on an internal level. they’re not usually the type to be in your face unless they themselves intend to make that impression, and what you see is usually not exactly what you get (or they TRY to present themselves like such) because they believe the world is not as simple as it seems. the world will show them something, and instead of immediately responding, they are more likely to send this information into levels of internal processing where they will decide what to do based on multiple layers of things that might as well just be between them and god. i think this is what makes derse dreamers look skeptical, cynical, and/or mischievous - they are more prone to thinking of “deeper meanings”, i suppose, and so instead of just reacting to the Thing itself, they are more prone to react to the deeper meanings of said Thing. and again this doesn’t make all of them brooding or super mega overthinkers or anything, because it’s just the way they process things + just like prospit dreamers they also each have a different way of responding to things.
it also goes without saying that im a firm believer that no sway is superior to the other, these traits could make great strengths if utilized well, or great flaws if not, and anyway not much can be said about Superiority here since the idea is based on two ways of processing situations themselves, and not one’s response to them.
i have no idea if any of that made sense but i hope my vision is conveyed? the distinction is somewhat akin to S vs N in MBTI, with a bit of wiggle room here and there since imo lunar sway assesses a person’s entire being
I like the idea of connecting lunar sway to a "childish" mindset, as it is deeply intertwined with the player's subconcious, which would be shaped primarily based on their upbringing and the values and morals they learn early in life. You make some god points regarding the made/unmade beds as well. That said, I do not think that Prospitans are always predisposed to being "like punching bags". Vriska is a prospit dreamer, for example, while Feferi and Nepeta are Derse, which would not fit this pattern. admittedly, these characters are already outliers on their moons, but Vriska is a strong enough example to make me question this. While Prospit as a planet does tend toward surrender, to me this seems to be a result of their prophecy-based society that lives under the shadow of an inevitable defeat. I don't think this would affect the dreamers, though, as their fight against the derse is separate from prospit's. Prospit plays a very small role in a typical session compared to derse. I do not have a particular method for diagnosing lunar sway, I mostly just go off of vibes.
This is some straight up delirious biznasty, Dawg!!
For most of the human kids, Prospit v/s Derse dreamers feels like a contrast between "open" and "guarded" personalities. The only one this doesn't ring quite true for is Roxy. Aaaaaand as soon as you look at the division of Troll dreamers, that idea breaks down completely.
"This is StuckUnderHell, nor am I out of it." - Mephistopheles
