The Quadrants Explained: All You (N)Ever Wanted to Know About Troll Romance

If you have ever heard of the webcomic, Homestuck, then you have probably also heard of the trolls. 

NO, not these trolls

These trolls:

The trolls not only look drastically different from humans, but also live in a very different culture.  There are overarching similarities between human and troll culture but this post is focusing on the differences so I'm not going to get into that.

One of the most confusing differences between human and troll culture is the trollian understanding of relationships.  To humans we really only care about romantic relationships (yeah, platonic relationships are super important too but bare with me).  To the trolls, there are two different types of romance: red romance and black romance.  Within these two types of romance, there are four different relationships.  These four relationships are called the quadrants and are symbolized as the four playing card suits.

The first quadrant, the red (aka flushed) heart, is the quadrant that we humans understand most.  When a troll has "red" feelings for another it means that that troll would like to date that person.  A red relationship is called a "matespritship" and one's partner would be called their "matesprit."  Within a matespritship, the two trolls would act like any other human couple and could potentially reproduce.

The second quadrant is the pale diamond.  When a troll has "pale" feelings for another, it means that that troll would very much like to help that person through their problems, calm them down, and be their friend (although trolls do not actually understand the human ideal of "friendship").  A pale relationship is called a moiraillegience and one's partner would be called their "palemate" or their "moirail."  The pale quadrant is very close to the human understanding of platonic friendship but the relationship is much stronger and deeper than any human friendship.

The third quadrant is the black (aka caliginous) spade.  When a troll harbors "black" feelings towards another, it means that that troll has a strong hatred for that person.  The relationship, called a kismesissitude, can only be considered a real relationship when both parties exhibit the same hatred for the other.  One's partner in a kismesisstude is called their "kismesis".   This type of relationship is similar to human rivalry but is felt much deeper as in a kismesisstude, reproduction is not uncommon.

The last quadrant is the ashen club.  If there are two trolls who are in a harmful relationship (usually red or black), a third party may harbor "gray" feelings in which they would want to step in and mediate the relationship and give each party advice on how to continue into a less harmful relationship.  This relationship between the three parties is called "auspiticism."  The third party that steps in is called an "auspistice."

In troll philoshy, each quadrant must be filled in order for a troll to live a healthy and happy life.

The relationships can lead to break-ups just like human relationships but in troll culture, trolls may find that their feelings for each other shift from one quadrant to another.  This is called vacillation.  For example, a troll might enter into a kismesisstude with another troll.

One party might start to have red feelings for their kismesis.  Their kismesisstude would eventually vacillate into a matespritship.  As one troll vacillates, their partner would normally follow just to keep the balance. Here's a gif of it:

So yeah, I think that about does it for troll romance. I always find it fun to try and apply troll romance to my own relationships.  Are your quadrants filled?

-René

Cosplay Line-up Change (AGAIN 0:)

I did say that my cosplay plans would probably change again and guess what? They did.  BIG surprise there, am I right?

Sigh. So most things have stayed the same - thank god - but my lineup for Anime Boston has changed a bit as of a small argument my cosplay buddy and I had. 

The argument was over our planned cosplay group for Saturday which is the day we spend at least 10 hours at the convention.  We had originally planned to go as Clear and Usagi that day as we both really liked the cosplays and were really well received at Another Anime Convention last October.

But recently I have had some mixed feelings.  Sure the cosplays are great and I do love how many compliments we received but I realized that 4/13, the great Homestuck holiday, is the week after Anime Boston.  So of course I wanted to switch gears and do our Kurloz and Mituna cosplays on Saturday instead of Clear and Usagi.  Kurloz and Mituna were just as well received as Clear and Usagi so I thought that it wouldn't be hard to change our original plan.  

But I was wrong.  It turns out that my cosplay buddy really didn't like their Mituna cosplay.  They said that it just wasn't good enough.  I kept trying to get them to change their mind about it but they wouldn't budge.  It was starting to look like our group was going to have separate.

Finally we reached a compromise.  I told them that I would help remake their Mituna cosplay so that they would feel better about it and reached a compromise about Saturday.  From 8:00 AM-2:00 PM we would cosplay Clear and Usagi.  Then we would go back to the hotel, and change into Kurloz and Mituna and then go back to the convention for another 5 hours. We found that this plan works really well (in theory) as we don't have to wake up at 6:00 AM to start painting ourselves gray.  Instead we can wake up at a leisurely 7:00 AM and worry about the gray make-up later.  

I can't wait for Anime Boston but we still have a lot of work to do before then!

-René

Welcome to Welcome to Night Vale: Your New Favorite Podcast

Welcome to Night Vale is a rather unusual podcast.  It is done in the form of a local radio show set in the lovecraftian town of Night Vale.  The podcast is a product of Common Place books and is written by Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cranor.  The show is narrated by Cecil Baldwin who shares his first name with the show's main character, radio show host Cecil Gershwin Palmer.  

As described in the first episode, called "Pilot", Night Vale is "a friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious light pass overhead as we all pretend to sleep."  The town supposedly sits somewhere in the United States and is neighbored by their rival town of Desert Bluffs.  The people who live in Night Vale aren't exactly unusual.  Most of them lead relatively average lives while dealing with the town's strange situations. Angels, who are all named Erika, frequently visit the town to help out even though it is against the law in Night Vale to acknowledge the existence of angels. There is an underground city comprised of miniature people that is located in the pin retrieval area of the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex.  Megan Wallaby, the daughter of Herschel and Tak Wallaby, was born as an adult man's hand.  Her parents are very proud of her.  The Night Vale Public Library is full of municipally approved books for the citizens to enjoy, but citizens are warned to be careful of the bloodthirsty librarians and the faceless specter who haunts the biography section.  I could go on and on about the mysterious occurrences of Night Vale but I don't want to spoil too much.

One of the most interesting things about Night Vale is the sense of mystery it instill in its listeners.  Not only are the situations mysterious but also the characters.  We listeners don't even know what Cecil Palmer, the main character, looks like.  He has no canonical design and the only description we have ever gotten is that "he is wearing a tie.  He is not tall or short, not thin or fat."  That's it. That's all we know.  But this actually adds appeal to the podcast as the listener's own imagination can take over.  Here are few fan illustrations of Cecil:

Being able to create one's own personal version of Cecil allows the listener to become more personal with the podcast's story and its characters.  

Another interesting aspect about Welcome to Night Vale is its representation of the LGBTQIA+ community.  Cecil Baldwin has expressed in an essay about playing queer characters that Cecil Palmer's character is handled the best overall.  Baldwin expressed that other gay characters he had played in past theatrical shows were portrayed as the sassy, stylish stereotype and were mostly put in the show for laughs.  Whereas Cecil Palmer's sexuality is definitely not the central point of his character.  The listener does hear about Cecil's crush on the gorgeous scientist, Carlos, quite a bit but it's nothing more than what a straight man or woman would say about their own crush.  Palmer has no coming out moment. Rather, he just starts talking about his feelings for Carlos as if it were a normality (which it should be).  The citizens of Night Vale do not show overwhelming approval for Cecil's sexuality nor do they disapprove of it.  Cecil and Carlos are portrayed as any other couple.  They go on normal dates, eventually buy a condo together, and face real challenges that any other couple would have to face such as miscommunications.  Neither Cecil nor Carlos are completely enveloped in their relationship and both are able to express their own wants and interests outside of the relationship. Carlos is very dedicated to his scientific research of Night Vale just as Cecil is very devoted to his job as radio host.  Cecil and Carlos's relationship is portrayed as the most normal thing in Night Vale.  

So yeah, if you like to mix the normal with the weird than Welcome to Night Vale is the podcast for you.  And if you want to start listening then I would start now because you have got a lot of catching up to do!

-René