Thieves, beneficial to their team?

homestuckfantheories:

Okay, so we all love our thieves and rogues, and like to classify them according to what Callie told us. The problem with that is Calliope isn’t always right. Our thieves are Vriska and Meenah, who share something in common other than the class. Now, there are some things to remember:

-There is more to passive/active than just offence/defense and self-benefit/others-benefit.

-This theory is based on the assumption that The Ultimate Reward corrupts the group claiming it. (Caliborn, Squidles) Basically, if the Squiddles made the trolls’ universe, then they were changed into Horrorterrors (48). Also, Caliborn and Lord English are quite different, despite the age difference, it just makes sense that the power or something changes them somewhat.

With that in mind, thieves are rather active. Except for one thing we overlook, both thieves have (pretty unintentionally) shared. Vriska, technically, stole victory for herself by landing the last blow on the king, but Gamzee did most of the work. Vriska also stopped them from claiming the reward by putting John to sleep to cause Bec to be prototyped. And then there’s Meenah, she stole her friends lives. The Condescension killed a lot of things. Each of these events, while benefiting the thief, benefitted others too. I know, it sounds crazy, but let me explain each one.

-Stole victory. They still won, y’know Their team as a whole, it’s not like Sgrub gave more points or more of the reward to Vriska because of it. It was really just the joy of killing that thing she stole. Look, you’re tired, you’ve been fighting this beast for a while, and haven’t ended the fight yet. It doesn’t help that Vriska hasn’t dealt much damage. And then, she deals a final blow. If she had exerted herself like them, nobody knows if someone would of had the energy to deal a final blow.

-Put John to sleep. Chain reaction right here. A ton of stuff happens because she stopped him from prototyping, which led to their claiming of the reward being stopped. Clarification, the universe was made, but they didn’t claim the reward. That reward would have corrupted them. Accept it. They probably would have become power-hungry and started killing each other anyway, but no, Vriska stopped it. Sure, she didn’t know she would, she just wanted to be able to kill Jack, but she did. She knew ahead of time she would stop them from claiming it, and she benefitted them by preventing them from going all reward-crazed corrupt.

-Killed the pre-scratch trolls. Yeah, Meenah benefitted them by stealing their lives. If she hadn’t they’d be worse than dead, they’d be nonexistent. She didn’t even care if it worked for the others or not, as you could tell by her not leaving her dream-bubble palace for a loooooooooong time, all that mattered was her continuing to exist.

-Killed a ton of people. Okay, even I have a tough time with this. The  Condescension definitely didn’t care about benefiting others. But she did. She stopped their suffering, haha no sufferer pun intended. But she killed them, yes, many, but by killing them they didn’t have to live under her tyranny anymore. Which is enforced by the fact that she forced the helmsman to suffer more, by making him live longer. Really unintentionally, the Condense was doing a favor to all those she killed/shortened the lifespan of.

Now, use this evidence as you will, but to be clear, here is what I conclude from this evidence. Thieves are the solution/benefit of the problems they cause, or they cause problems to benefit them and others. Vriska stopped their corruption by bringing in Jack. She also insured victory by saving her energy and dealing a blow when it was needed, but made it slower by not contributing along the way. Meenah killed them, but did so in a way that kept them existing. The Condense killed people, which ended the pain they went through by living under her rule. Solution/benefit of their problem. Or problem from the benefit. None of these benefits to others were intentional, except for when it benefitted them. So yeah, all these coincidental times where the “active” class shares. And another possible definition for how the thief class interacts with their aspect. Yay.