18.7.2022

Hiveswap Act 3 Reveal Theories

My drawing of Fiamet. Fiamet is a young troll girl with three pairs of horns and an eel like tail. She is wearing a black t-shirt with an Aquamino sign on it, grey shorts, a gray lime-ish backpack, white socks with a lime stripe, black sneakers with a violet strap. She is smiling with her kitty mouth and waving her hand.

I was probably the first person to draw and post fanart of her after she was first shown. My hands were shaking so much.

2 days ago, Sahcon happened. I wasn't originally even planning on attending (it's an online event). But I ended up watching a few things from it, and more importantly, being online at the time a certain mystery panel appeared.

Act 3 is real!!! Fiamet is real!!! And we have an official full design of Cridea also!

OK I am a little reticent to be hyped about it too much considering the uhhhh unsatisfying state of the 2nd act. But I am hyped about seeing Fiamet real because I have been imagining her for so long so I am excited to see what she is actually like.

I also have a number of theories.

Cridea and Fiamet's connection

At one point, I had a theory that her and Cridea are actually split personalities, mirroring the cherubs. They definitely have a kind of duality between them – with Cridea being an Instagram type influencer and Fiamet sort of representing the old fanfiction culture. (I guess the kind of influencer Fiamet is is outdated now too? Or maybe I just curated my web experience to avoid them too well.) ~~And I think one of them only talks to you while the other one is offline.~~ This is definitely disproved now. But I still assume they are related. I also can see them as associated with Alternia's moons, although one is pink rather than violet.

They could both be limebloods too, considering that Fiamet is widely theorized to be one and Cridea acts pretty mysterious too. I need to replay or maybe watch a playthrough of act 2 because I think there was some evidence for that there?

Art of Cridea sitting on some rocks in the ocean. She is backlit by Alternia's green moon. Cridea is a long haired female troll wearing a violet cardigan over a black mini dress, flip flops, and a bunch of gold jewellery.

A fanart of Cridea I drew ages ago that is meant to symbolize this theory.

I guess it is actually not confirmed if Fiamet even is a limeblood. It is just a common fan theory. Another theory was that she was dead, and in the sprites she looks very much alive.

A concept art sheet of Fiamet. The final design is at the top labeled 5. Around it are sketches: A vague version of her design drawn by Hussie, Fiamet squatting and looking at a frog, Fiamet looking happily at a boxy computer, Fiamet turning around to show her backpack. Below that is a row of alternate designs. The first one has a gray t-shirt, black shorts, no backpack, and all the colorful parts of her design are gray. The second one is the same as the final except with gray shoes and gradient horns. Then there is a Joey sprite for scale. The third one has a gray shirt with a weirdly drawn Aquamino sign on it and black shorts. The fourth one has a pure black t-shirt and the backpack has violet straps.

Not actually Fiamet

An HD recreation of Fiamet's sprite be Saeronovace on Tumblr.

This leads into a major and unlikely theory I have – that this is not actually Fiamet.

The character we see in the sprites is definitely very mutated for a violetblood. She has an axolotl-like tail. And doesn't have visible face fins...

And the artists do call her Fia at 4:17 in the video. They also call her axolotl girl later on, and obviously the axolotl is what most of the Fiamet theory has been based on so far.

But... Homestuck and Hiveswap have a long history of misleading fans. And it even happened with a character from Hiveswap who was assumed to be Fiamet before. When Tirona's silhouette first appeared in Troll Call, there was a lot of theories she was the axolotl limeblood because of her hair shape.

Tirona's silhoutte with a limeblood drawn in, from Wakaraya's Troll Call predictions.

So I would wait for more clues confirming "Fia" to be the actual Fiamet. Her tail is also reminiscent for example of an eel. And associating her seadweller caste with her kitty mouth + whiskers also make me think of a catfish – someone who pretends to be another person online.

Similar tail and colour.

Classpect implications

I am not a classpect girl. I think a lot of people read way too much into them.

It was theorized that Fiamet's sign will be Canra, because it looks like an axolotl and also because it was theorized that the main characters of Hiveswap will have aspects that none of the alpha or beta kids had.

But the Fia we saw had the sign of Aquamino – sign of the Tilted (Tilted Towers Fortnite lol). So Doom and Prospit. This was not theorized by anyone who I saw tbh. It was usually assumed that Jude or even Joey was the Doom player.

Cridea's sign was very difficult to see but it is likely Aqualo. This means she is a Prospit Heart player. And sign of the Puppeteer, which is certainly fitting.

It is strange that Fiamet would be using a copletely unconnected sign to her "true sign" if she really was a Canra in disguise. And using classpect inversion (something I know classpecters love, but I don't really think is legit) heart turns into mind. This might play further into Fiamet and Cridea's duality, or even the theory that "Fia" isn't the real Fiamet.

Other stuff

I have been talking so much about Fiamet and Cridea, but so much more exciting stuff was revealed.

For one, there is an adult troll! Very cool. I guess we saw some adults in Friendsim, but they are so spooky. I wonder what significance she could have to the plot. I am reminded of an awful theory about E. Claire. But maybe she is some sort of monster. That would be pretty cool. Her sign looks to be Scoricorn. And her pauldrons kind of remind me of Mindfang. Maybe she is associated with her somehow?

sprite of a deteriorating looking adult troll with long wild hair, overgrown claws and horns, wearing falling apart clothing with shoulderpads and blue pants

Is she a shadow dropper (Alternian zombie)? Is she E.Claire? Who knows.

Scoricorn sign – cerulean, Prospit and rage

Her possible sign – sign of the Destructive.

There is also a little boy with a lollipop. Someone on the Sahcon discord joked that the lollipop is a juju. It probably isn't but it is interesting he has an item so heavily associated with trickster mode and cherubs. Maybe he is sort of like Boldir in that she has deeper insight into the plot structure and is semi-canonically a Muse. Maybe this boy is Lord.

gif of a sprite of a very young rust blooded troll in an old timey children's sailor outfit licking a red lollipop

Noo little troll German boy, don't lick that juju!!!

There are also other cool trolls and backgrounds revealed, but I don't really have anything interesting to say about them.

Hopes for the Future

So what do I hope for in Act 3? Well I am not sure. Less K-Pop.

I hope they don't do another Friendsim, because then I will be less dissapointed when they're just flat background characters in game. Ok that's not true. Friendsim is kind of more satisfying to play than actual Hiveswap Act 2. So I actually want another Friendsim. I also want to see more of some of the characters we met on the train, since I am already invested in them.

I would also like if some of my other theories, like for example that this is all leading to the downfall of the clown church, were confirmed.

I want to finally get a resolution to the Fiamet stuff for sure.

And most importantly, the game to be more like Act 1 and less like Act 2. But with more Xefros moments.

And maybe to see Dammek and Jude but I am pretty sure that's outside of the scope of this game.