Rogue of Light

Witches are playful free spirits, guided by intuition and instinct. The active counterpart to heirs, they are more independent and self-driven, forging their own path with a cherry ambivilance. But these traits have a dark side. Witches have a lot of subtle bad qualities. They're often inconsiderate of those around them. They have a fierce temper that comes out when it's least expected. And with all of these qualities, they're never bad enough to be called out on publically - they survive on being small enough to avoid being stomped out completely.

Witches have a similar heir autopilot when they're talking to people. Except with heirs, this autopilot is specifically calibrated to be receptive to others ideas. With witches, it's just about continuing a conversation. They will change the topic if they find it boring, or just talk about themselves. All of these are fine, but a witch isn't likely to ask anything about you unprompted.

It's not even that they're bad to talk with, if you can get past it being one-sided. Like a lot of things, it does depend on the person, but if you find a witch who is really into conspiracy theories or welding, you're going to have a fun time. Otherwise, they'll just talk about the same 5 tumblr posts they remember seeing earlier.

While witches are generally agreeable, they can have a fierce temper, although it's never set off by just one thing. A witches anger will cascade, with multiple fuck-ups in a row triggering it. They go from their nice, agreeable facade, to lashing out at anyone unfortunate enough to get close. If you don't know the signs, it can seem random.

Jade had a breakdown like this after entering the game, and having to deal with Feferi and Karkat's bullshit. Although it was Jadesprite that ended up triggering it. Feferi had something like this with Eridan, ironically, after entering the game as well. Although that was built up over a few years or so.

Witches often find themselves in shitty situations. Abusive relationships, messy group settings, or even just the company of bad people. It's similar to a page, where they have this inability to understand not everyone else is like them. Even after whatever shitty experience is over, they have this strange ability to not let it affect them. They will recount stories of trauma with an air of nostalgia.

Resilience in the face of adversity, or denial? I'll let you decide.

All of this stems to the core of being a witch - an inability to deal with heavy topics. Sure, it's fine to talk about philosophy, and how we're all ants on a chunk of rock flying through space, but when it's time to reflect inward, and confront things about themselves, witches shrivel up. It's a mini-page arc. An inability to confront their own shortcomings.

Prospit Witches

If you're thinking of a stereotypical hippy, you're not far off. The vague plans, and living on intuition and instict are there. Lots of emphasis on the self, in a way that lets them think is not selfish.

Jade Harley is a great example. Especially as we get into act 5, and Hussie settles on her personality a bit more. Her parlay with other characters is pretty well done, the relentless positivity is absolutely part of it.

Derse Witches

"Playful, free spirit" has a lot of wiggle room, and doesn't necessarily mean "positive." The manic pixie dream girl archetype has it's origins here, although that's not a very realistic depiction. Weird loners, comfortable with who they are and ignore other's judgement. Hitching late at night. Long, philosophical discussions.

Feferi is fine, we just don't see too much of her in Homestuck proper. An example I like is Tulip from Infinity Train. The sarcasm and anger is really characteristic, and a pretty grounded depiction, all things considered. She's pretty angsty, but that's part of being a teenager. The whole "spontanous running away" is very derse witch.

Closing Thoughts

Witches are pretty weird, despite being so low in terms of intensity. They're so often misrepresented, or exaggarated in media, it's hard to get a nuanced perspective of one. It's not even the fault of the writers (most of the time (manic pixie dream girls)) it's just a hard personality type to nail down. Even Hussie struggled with Jade at the beginning, and poor Feferi only has about five pesterlogs in the entire comic.

If you are a witch, you probably don't really care that much about this shit. Like, you might get into it for having a cool title, or making a god tier outfit or something, but as far as using it for serious life advice, yeah, that's not really your speed.

And that's cool, honestly. Like you do you. Realistically, it's another heir situation. You're probably happy with yourself, and as long as you're not malicious or anything, it's fine. Worst case scenario, you might want to be more conscious about taking up space in a conversation. But if you're good, I'm good. Have fun, share some good vibes, and enjoy your life.