So everyone has always sorta been confused by the Derse/Prospit distinction, and what exactly determines which moon you dream on. It always seemed really arbitrary, but this morning I noticed a pattern: Prospit dreamers’ mythological roles (AKA god tier titles) represent something they aspire to, whereas Derse dreamers’ roles represent something they are insecure about, perhaps even their greatest fears. And their success in following through with these struggles is literally the same thing as their success in the game.

There have actually been a bunch of hints that the pattern is something of this kind. I’ll start with Dave and Rose, who are the clearest examples so far of “doing it right.” Dave initially made a deliberate effort not to be the kind of guy who would save his friends. Rose tried to maintain control over all her plans without leaving things to chance, and freaked out when this approach backfired. At the end of act 5 they both overcame these flaws… and promptly achieved godhood.

Vriska always loved stealing opportunities from others, just like her pirate ancestor. She pursued that lifestyle with abandon, and hit god tier in the trolls’ session before anyone had time to blink. And of course Jade’s ascension was synonymous with becoming a cute little bug-eating werebeast.

Okay. So that’s four people doing their quests according to their character arcs, and hitting god tier. (You probably already heard about this part from other theories anyway. It’s kind of a theme in Homestuck.) But what if you don’t go through with your character development? What if you don’t pick up on the hints the game is dropping for you, and you never heed the call of adventure?

If you don’t do any of that stuff, you lose the game. Naturally.

Tavros was content to let his metaphorical dream be a literal dream. He turned his back on his quest, and for that he died pointlessly. Nepeta couldn’t bring herself to confront her beloved, much less steal his heart (I guess). Equius had one job. One job. Physically, he was more than equipped to succeed with flying colors, but he blue it anyway.

There are a bunch of people whose classes or aspects we don’t know enough about to discuss in any useful way at all, but it’s clear how some of them sort of fall in the middle. Karkat made a lot of noise about being a great leader, and as well as he’s done he still thinks he’s shitty at it. Terezi just last month discussed her own doubts at great length. Kanaya is on her way, but Sylph is a healer class, and whatever she’s supposed to heal, it hasn’t happened yet. I think what progress they’ve made has sort of given them a second chance, but if they neglect to finish their quests once they’re “in the game” again, they’re toast.

(By the way, it’s interesting that both Jade and Kanaya aspire to (and eventually undergo) physical transformations. This is probably a Space thing, given Feferi and Aranea as points of comparison, but it’s hard to say for sure until we know more.)

Almost everyone I haven’t mentioned confuses me somehow, but the biggest case is Eridan. Prince is a destroyer class, and we know he used his Hope powers to wreck everyone’s shit in act 5. Did he acquire those powers by accepting that he would only ever ruin things for everybody? Was that his aspiration, or his greatest fear? Was it just his destiny to be a total fucking douchebag?

Maybe it was.

Maybe we should be proud of him.