Theorystuck: Equivalent Exchange

In hindsight, this was so obvious, how did I miss it?

In terms of Classpect, a title is given to the Player who checks off all the requirements for the narrative and game-based mythological role, but I think it's more than that. After reading through this articulate piece of Homestuckery for a second time, it hit me: it's not just about the Player getting nifty powers with side effects, it's about how the Player affects the Aspect and how the Aspect affects the Player in turn.

Both are working together to make the function work.

Let's think about it, shall we?
Karkat is a Knight of Blood: a Knight is usually someone who puts on a 'cool guy' facade to hide their 'nice guy' personality, who intuitively knows how to use their new powers, and can do the impossible with it at their disposal (like how Dave helped Jade with Frogbreeding in just 24 hours). For Karkat, he led a ragtag band of friends from a war-like race, who don't all like one another, through a harrowing Session without anyone trying to kill each other or go rogue (a band that includes Vriska, Eridan and Sollux constantly fighting over Fefari, not to mention Gamzee in his stoner days). And it worked!
Kinda.
Look, the only reason it all went south on the meteor is because 1) everyone - especially Karkat - was depressed in believing they lost, resulting in 2) Gamzee going sober, discovering some upsetting truths, and awakening his Bard Powers in full without even God Tiering, which likely triggered Vriska and Eridan's mutual coups. By the time Karkat realized what was happening, it was too late to save half his friends, but he managed to get Gamzee to stop before he lost the rest (with a little help from Kanaya and Terezi). Of course, Bards are classified as a Passive Destroyer Class for a reason; just being on the meteor in his newly altered mental state was enough for Gamzee to cause damage.

....okay, I may be rambling at this point, but let's use it to segue into how both Karkat and Gamzee's titles are an equivalent exchange. As a Knight, Karkat takes up Blood and uses it to bind friends/allies together, to lead them on the track they all need to be on to win the proverbial race, to be there for them and help them keep their shit together when the chips are down. As a Bard, Gamzee applies Rage to something that needs to be taken out of the picture, be it the Aspect itself or the enemies of his one true God, a subtle poison that acts as a very effective pest control.

Okay, so, how do their Aspects affect them in turn?
Well, first off, all Aspects are a part of their Player's lives, but the depth of that connection varies.
Blood ties itself to Karkat in terms of his own blood disorder, which has caused Karkat to fear for his life and put up a 'grouchy guy' act to look like everyone else on the planet, when he's actually a really nice guy who enjoys the romance genre, loves his friends, and wants to be loved by them in turn. Rage ties itself to Gamzee as his bloodcaste's natural insanity, but due to his irresponsible upbringing, Gamzee indulged in eating sopor, which numbed said insanity and allowed him to be a nice guy for a good chunk of his life....until the sopor ran out....and said truths made him realize that it was all just one big joke and he was the punchline, which broke his mind all over again and, well...

Blood gave Karkat the strength to live in an unforgiving world. Rage gave Gamzee a very nasty wakeup call to the reality he tried to ignore.
As a Knight, Karkat used this strength to take care of those he cared about. As a Bard, Gamzee spread the nastiness to make everyone just as miserable as he very likely felt.
Knights adapt, Blood connects. Bards are toxic, Rage is the School of Hard Knocks.

I could very probably keep going in terms of how this process works for everyone else, but I know that I'll bore everyone to death if that happens I think you guys get the idea, by this point, but if you want me to do the others, I will. And I really do recommend checking out Opacifica's thesis. I mean, I don't agree with everything they say (regardless of what the quiz says, I'm still fairly certain I'm a Page), but it's still an enlightening work of art and helped broaden my Homestuck horizons, as seen here. Maybe it'll broaden yours, too. Plus, it's fun