Okay, some explanation: I took drethelin’s “showdown/makeouts” line to be an oblique reference to Homestuck, a long and rambling webcomic saga which prominently features a number of character relationships that might be described in such terms. If this assumption is false, the comment doesn’t make much sense.
So I responded in terms of the “quadrants” used by Homestuck’s troll characters to describe their romantic lives. There really isn’t any simple explanation of these, but this is as good as any.
Some relationships (♥ and ♠) involve intense, romantic, sexual passion, whereas others (♦ and ♣) are quieter, more reasonable, and closer to friendships and other platonic relationships. Also, some relationships (♥ and ♦) are based on positive feelings, whereas others (♠ and ♣) are based on negative ones.
♥ (violent positive) is passionate romantic love. ♦ (quiet positive) is deep platonic attachment. ♠ (violent negative) is a love/hate relationship. ♣ (quiet negative) is smoothing things over between a feuding pair.
Point of order: the caliginous quadrant is not love/hate; it’s all hate, but in a sexualized way. You have to genuinely dislike someone to be ♠ for them.
You mean that the one time I try to rely on how vague English is about feelings and just use “love” for “fascination, sexual tension, importance in one’s life” it’s not proper usage? That’s it, I’m suing the Ingaevones.
I’ve read that, and I’m no more enlightened. However, I approve of in-jokes, so I’ve taken away my downvote. Also, now I know that I should never, ever read Homestuck, so that’s something.
That’s a shame. If there’s one thing that Homestuck does right, it’s time travel (and actually thinking through and writing what a world with casual time travel and timeline enforcement would look like.)
This is a reference to the webcomic/multimedia series Homestuck by Andrew Hussie, which features a species of timetravelling aliens known as the Trolls due to fact that the first ones that the protagonists meet were actual internet trolls. The Trolls have their own wierd system of romance built around four quadrants: the flushed quadrant (denoted with a ♥) which loosly aproximates what humans think of as romantic love; the pale quadrant (♦) which is sort of an intense platonic friendship wherein one partner serves as a stablizing force on the other, more unstable partner; the ashen quadrent (♣) whereby one partner attempts to mediate between to otherwise violently opposed partners; and the caliginous quadrant (♠), which can be described as “romantic hate”, and involve such things as “hatesnogging” and “murderfondling”. A more detailed description can be found here.
It should also be noted that this thread already contains at least on reference to a Hussie creation (cousin_it’s “HP: Punch AM in snout to establish superiority”), so it’s likely that fubarobfusco was primed to interpret things in that light.
Some of us are going to need a link explaining this system.
Let me tell you about quadrants.
That, if anything, makes the system less clear.
Okay, some explanation: I took drethelin’s “showdown/makeouts” line to be an oblique reference to Homestuck, a long and rambling webcomic saga which prominently features a number of character relationships that might be described in such terms. If this assumption is false, the comment doesn’t make much sense.
So I responded in terms of the “quadrants” used by Homestuck’s troll characters to describe their romantic lives. There really isn’t any simple explanation of these, but this is as good as any.
Yes there is a simple explanation.
Some relationships (♥ and ♠) involve intense, romantic, sexual passion, whereas others (♦ and ♣) are quieter, more reasonable, and closer to friendships and other platonic relationships. Also, some relationships (♥ and ♦) are based on positive feelings, whereas others (♠ and ♣) are based on negative ones.
♥ (violent positive) is passionate romantic love. ♦ (quiet positive) is deep platonic attachment. ♠ (violent negative) is a love/hate relationship. ♣ (quiet negative) is smoothing things over between a feuding pair.
Point of order: the caliginous quadrant is not love/hate; it’s all hate, but in a sexualized way. You have to genuinely dislike someone to be ♠ for them.
You mean that the one time I try to rely on how vague English is about feelings and just use “love” for “fascination, sexual tension, importance in one’s life” it’s not proper usage? That’s it, I’m suing the Ingaevones.
I’ve read that, and I’m no more enlightened. However, I approve of in-jokes, so I’ve taken away my downvote. Also, now I know that I should never, ever read Homestuck, so that’s something.
That’s a shame. If there’s one thing that Homestuck does right, it’s time travel (and actually thinking through and writing what a world with casual time travel and timeline enforcement would look like.)
Er, okay? That’s not my objection.
This is a reference to the webcomic/multimedia series Homestuck by Andrew Hussie, which features a species of timetravelling aliens known as the Trolls due to fact that the first ones that the protagonists meet were actual internet trolls. The Trolls have their own wierd system of romance built around four quadrants: the flushed quadrant (denoted with a ♥) which loosly aproximates what humans think of as romantic love; the pale quadrant (♦) which is sort of an intense platonic friendship wherein one partner serves as a stablizing force on the other, more unstable partner; the ashen quadrent (♣) whereby one partner attempts to mediate between to otherwise violently opposed partners; and the caliginous quadrant (♠), which can be described as “romantic hate”, and involve such things as “hatesnogging” and “murderfondling”. A more detailed description can be found here.
It should also be noted that this thread already contains at least on reference to a Hussie creation (cousin_it’s “HP: Punch AM in snout to establish superiority”), so it’s likely that fubarobfusco was primed to interpret things in that light.