Sollux Captor, also known by his Trollian handle, “twinArmageddons”, is one of the trolls. His associated zodiac sign is Gemini (♊), and he has two horns on each side of his head, as the number two and duality are a theme for him, due to his relations to Gemini. His duality theme is also a reference to binary code, because of his talent at computer programming. He also has very strong psychic powers.
His typing quirk is meant to convey that he speaks with a bit of a lisp, possibly a reference to the programming language Lisp. He often combines two sentences into a single line, but with no punctuation apart from a single period at the very end. When his teeth are later knocked out, he begins to talk like Aradia (zeros replacing selected Os) due to losing his lisp.
His username, “twinArmageddons”, reflects two meanings. The first is the fact that he will die twice, (due to his dream selves on both Derse and Prospit), and the second being the end of the two universes. He mentions to Terezi that this will happen before he goes blind, which also may be a reference to his title as the Mage of Doom, as he is able to predict unfortunate events. Incidentally, the word "mage" is in the word "armageddons".
Etymology[]
"Sollux" rather transparently divides into "sol-lux", the Latin words for "sun" and "light", respectively. Together with the Latin word captor, this implies his name would literally mean 'Sunlight Catcher'. This in turn may be a reference to the Comb Rave Fill 'Em With Daylight, the result of which is the bifurcation of the universe. This association is reinforced by his bee motif and association with Mind Honey.
If one switches the S and P in his name it becomes "Pollux Castor." Pollux and Castor are the two brightest stars in the constellation of Gemini. It is also worth noting that Pollux is a red giant, while Castor is bluish white, complementing the red/blue duality theme. Castor and Pollux were famous mythological twins, which is where Gemini—Latin for "twins"—gets its name. Pollux and Castor were also the names of two characters in the movie Face/Off, a Nicolas Cage flick that came out the same year as Con Air and one that John has a poster of in his room. Additionally, Pollux and Castor is an archaic name for St. Elmo's fire, which, like Sollux's psionics, is an electrical emanation that appears as a colored aura around the affected object. It is also the phenomenon over which, by mythology, the twins preside as gods.
Sollux Captor was most likely named from "Castor Pollux" as suggested by Avi. One of the twins being named Castor is possibly the reason why his class is Mage (Castor --> Cast).
Biography[]
Pre-Hivebent[]
Sollux lives in a large city filled with skyscrapers known as “COMMUNAL HIVE STEM”s. This is probably the Alternian equivalent of an apartment building.
He hears voices of the imminently deceased that warn him of the annihilation of Alternia. He believes that the trolls are “all goiing two diie”. It turns out that he apparently included dream selves in this (which is supported by his prediction that he would die twice). He also claims that he is destined to go blind before dying. This may have been part of the prophecy, or just an assumption he made since all prophets are destined to go blind. Either way, he does indeed lose his sight later.
Hivebent[]
Sollux, working alongside Aradia, is the one who introduces Sgrub to the trolls and creates two teams of six with the twelve trolls using the data Aradia salvaged from the ruins. He makes himself the leader of the Blue Team and Terezi the leader of the Red Team (but Karkat becomes its leader later).
He gives Karkat the Mobius Double Reacharound Virus, which blows up his computer when he runs it in a fit of rage. The two of them believe the virus to have caused the deaths of all the lusii.
When he wakes up from a much-needed nap induced by Aradia, he realizes he has inadvertently eaten some mind honey, causing his eyes to emit gigantic blasts of red and blue psychic energy, vaporizing his lusus as well as destroying a part of his hive complex. The narration implicitly notes that by the time he wakes up all other trolls are in the Medium, which is false- Feferi had not yet entered at that point, as she was waiting on Sollux.
Sollux is gruesomely killed by the Vast Glub, a galaxy-wide psychic shock wave emitted by Feferi's lusus. Before his death, he attempted to contact Karkat one last time, but ended up just typing about how much pain he was in. Karkat assumed he was just being an idiot and ignored him until seeing him dead. Then, Feferi awakens his Dersite dream self by kissing his body, and he uses the opportunity to return to his hive, now in the Land of Brains and Fire (LOBAF), where he joins forces with Feferi. His Prospitian dream self wakes up when Aradia forces him to sleep.
His exile is Clubs Deuce, although Sollux unfortunately destroyed his terminal with psychic energy soon after being contacted, believing it to be another of the voices in his head. At some point Eridan and Sollux have a match on LOBAF.
When Jack Noir appears shortly before the trolls can claim their ultimate reward, Aradiabot transports the trolls into hiding in the same meteor in which Karkat had created them, where they find a computer lab.
Post Hivebent[]
Sollux chooses not to participate in Karkat's plan to troll the kids, believing that they are all doomed anyway[citation needed] - though like the rest of the trolls he did somehow come into contact with Jade Harley at some point before her 13th birthday. He helps decipher the code for the rocket pack, but only because Terezi asked him to. He maintains the trolls' computers and their Trollian accounts, opening the viewport option when asked. He has a brief conversation with Aradia before her robotic body explodes. Afterwards he spends most of his time with Feferi, “glubbing” about his feelings, until his dramatic rematch with Eridan, getting KO'd and blinded. His unconscious body is dragged around by Karkat, to protect him from the various killers on the loose, sending them both tumbling down a flight of stairs and also knocking out Sollux's teeth.
When he awakens, he finds himself in unusually good spirits, having lost the voices of doom in his head along with his eyes, his hated lisp, and his teeth. He replaces his own typing quirk with Aradia's, symbolizing his new, more balanced, personality.
When the creation of the Green Sun hits the Trolls' incipisphere, Sollux uses his powers to pilot the meteor towards the Sun, away from Jack Noir. He overexerts himself, however, and dies when the meteor reaches the Sun, where his half-ghost is waiting with Aradia, Rose, and Dave.
He chooses to stay behind with Aradia, as he is capable of leaving his dream bubble and flying around with her. Because Jack Noir was preoccupied with the fully-prototyped Peregrine Mendicant, Sollux survived the battle.
Sollux's half corpse is preserved by Gamzee Makara, and is later revived as half of Erisolsprite. This causes the ghost half of his half-alive self to be pulled out, leaving him completely alive again, but also completely blind in the Furthest Ring .
He becomes involved with Vriska's treasure hunting plan, boarding on her ship in the furthest ring along with other trolls. However, he later departs with Feferi, Nepeta, and possibly Tavros. This Sollux hangs out with Aradia in Collide but does not fight Lord English with her.
New timeline[]
Like in the old timeline, Sollux piloted the meteor, became half-dead, and stayed behind with Aradia in the dream bubbles. Being not prototyped into a sprite, this Sollux remained half-blind. This Sollux last appears with Aradia in Tavros' ghost army.
Personality and Traits[]
Sollux seems introverted, being reluctant to talk to Kanaya, and is the last troll to talk to the kids, as he saw it as juvenile. More evidence of this introversion is his shame at having once had an extremely immature argument with Karkat, which they both chose to delete from their chat logs out of embarrassment.
As a lowblood, Sollux possesses an incredible psychic diversity. He has been seen using telekinesis, using psionic blasts, having visions of the future, hearing the voices of the soon-to-be-dead, and putting bees to sleep.
He is a well-known hacker, having a lot of experience with computer programs and programming, and is also a master of Apiculture Networks, using bees and their hive as a computer . He also is a high-level psionic, which gives him the power of telekinesis, and makes a strife deck utterly redundant. His weapon of choice for the time being appears to be the throwing-star.
Sollux is said to have bipolar disorder (as stated in his introduction page). The bipolar mood swings can be noticed in how Sollux changes his mind about subjects (being really into some things that he previously didn't care about or no longer caring about things he seemed to be excited about before), his impulsive destructive behaviour and his impulsivity in general (getting mood swings to the point of sending the player away before naming him just to change his mind after the scene switched ). He is also self-deprecating and beats himself up about little things such as how he doesn't think he is good enough as a hacker even when he is apeshit bananas at computers.
Because of his zodiac sign of Gemini, he has a penchant for bifurcation and duality, often splitting things into red and blue. In keeping with his zodiac theme, his appearance emphasizes duality. He has two sets of horns instead of one, glasses with hetero-chromatic lenses, and two mismatched shoes. In addition, the trolls' and kids' universes are seen in his shades. Strangely enough, his actual eyes seem to be the same color as his glasses , and he is gifted with "vision twofold", the ability to see the future and the present.
According to Terezi, he “H4D SOM3 UNFL4TT3R1NG TH1NGS TO S4Y 4BOUT TH3 1NT3LLIG3NC3” of humans for being unable to hack the PCHOOOOO rocket code, merely because it's ambiguous to undo a complex binary OR operation on three codes.
After losing his eyes and teeth, changing his typing quirk, and getting blood on the Gemini symbol on his shirt, it seemed like he had decided to abandon his duality theme. He also seemed generally calmer and happier than he was previously, due to not hearing the voices anymore. Aradia convinced him to get over his hostility towards the kids, and he seemed to follow what she said. He seems to have normal conversations with Rose and Dave .
After being revived as a half-ghost and having no more blood on his shirt, it seems like he has decided to return to his duality theme once again. This is further proven after he returns to being fully alive (and blind): he is seen wearing red and blue eyepatches similar to his normal glasses on the pirate ship.
Relationships[]
Aradia Megido[]
Sollux seems to have had a close relationship with Aradia for a long time. It is popularly believed that they were at one point in a romantic relationship; although this has never been confirmed, Nepeta's shipping wall tells us that at one point, she wondered whether Aradia and Sollux were in a flushed relationship. This is not enough to definitely pin down their relationship, and when a reader asked Andrew Hussie on his Formspring what kind of relationship they had, he said, "maybe it's more interesting if it's not spelled out".
After Aradia caused the spirits of Vriska's victims (whom Vriska had fed to her lusus) to haunt her, Vriska psychically forced Sollux to eat the mind honey in his hive to strengthen his psionics, and to fly to Aradia's hive. (Unsurprisingly, he is only vulnerable to her control half of the time, but this is still long enough.) Vriska lured Aradia outside her hive, and forced Sollux to use his psionics to kill Aradia.
After her death, the two continued to converse as before; however, it is hinted that Sollux may not have at first realized that Aradia was dead. The two later cooperated to begin their session of Sgrub, but becoming increasingly troubled by her doomsaying, Sollux eventually attempted to rebel when Aradia revealed that the game would destroy the world.
Aradiabot chose to spend her last moments offering him reassurance about the future, apologizing to him for not talking since becoming Equius's “2moochbot”, and hugging him. After her "death", he was apparently depressed about it and shared his feelings about Aradia openly with Feferi in the horn pile.
Since reviving as god tier, Aradia and Sollux have continued as before with their conversations about everyone's fates, except with the sunnier changes to their dispositions. She led him back to his friends after meeting up with his half-ghost self, and he opted to stay with her after she decided not to proceed to the new session with their friends' on the meteor. The two were later seen together on Vriska's ship as their “a8ilities [would] 8ecome useful once [they retrieved] the treasure” .
However, claiming that the adventure made him feel dirty, Sollux decided to leave the crew shortly after Tavros did, while Aradia went on ahead with Vriska and her crew. However, he did offer to catch up again later, “ h0pefully when [it was] all 0ver”, with Aradia eagerly responding in agreement.
After Game Over, it appears that Sollux and Aradia remain together in both the pre- and post-retcon timelines. Post-retcon Sollux is seen holding hands with Aradia in Collide.
Karkat Vantas[]
Sollux's best friend seems to be Karkat, with whom he shares a friendly rivalry. Sollux refers to Karkat as “KK”, the two Ks in his name appealing to Sollux's love of duality.
They easily get on each other's nerves and argue, but always reconcile and label their arguments immature from both sides. Karkat has referred to Sollux as his best friend multiple times, although it's not stated if Sollux thinks of him the same way. Although Sollux does seem to care for Karkat, he doesn't verbally state that they are best friends.
Kanaya Maryam[]
Kanaya is seen spending time with Sollux in The Veil as well. Kanaya alluded to them having a friendship similar to that of Dave and Rose, and she has been shown leading him by the arm due to his current blindness, he himself sporting a patched up bitemark, showing that he gave her some of his blood.
Terezi Pyrope[]
He is friends with Terezi, and initially chose her as the leader of the red team, since he respects her abilities. He has also helped her with various computer issues. When Sollux went blind, he talked with Terezi about it, and asked if she had any tips.
Vriska Serket[]
He doesn't seem to like Vriska that much, having been somewhat hostile towards her in Alterniabound, which is to be expected, given what she made him do to Aradia. He and Vriska have a rather rival-like relationship, as he is seen being rude to her a few times. He avoids her if at all possible.
After meeting her again in dream bubbles, he still dislikes Vriska and her plans of feeding offshoot ghosts of trolls to Lord English, even though he previously heard rumors that she may have become a better person.
Eridan Ampora[]
Eridan had long possessed a desire to move from moirails to matesprits with Feferi. He was ultimately rejected, and his being one of the few trolls who placed any stock in the caste system only worsened the situation when Sollux began a matespritship with her.
He picks fights with Sollux, which Feferi interpreted as trying to get her to auspisticize and end the matespritship. He only stopped massacring angels to go to LOBAF for a duel. Sollux's powers defeated Ahab's Crosshairs, and Eridan returned to his planet.
In Kanaya: Return to the core, Eridan initiated a rematch with him where he used his wand to KO and blind Sollux. Gamzee later combined the two into Erisolsprite, a sad, conflicting creature full of misery and self-loathing.
Feferi Peixes[]
Sollux and Feferi were at one point matesprits, although this was not explicitly stated until Erisolsprite refers to Sollux as “the part a [hiim] that u2ed twwo be [her] mate2priit” . Feferi seems likely to have tender feelings for him; spending one's last moments saving someone else's life does endear you to a person.
They are seen shipped as matesprits on a later incarnation of Nepeta's shipping wall, and have spent a great deal of time together in the horn pile discussing feelings, among other things. One of Karkat's memos implies that Sollux is starting to use her fishy puns, sometimes replacing 'fuck' and 'fucking' with 'glub' and 'glubbing', respectively.
Lusus[]
Sollux's lusus is a massive two-headed, horned giant called a Bicyclops. It has one eye on each head, one red and one blue, fitting with Sollux's red/blue theme, and a barely visible mouth below each eye.
It eats mind honey, harvested from Sollux's beehouse mainframes, to 'keep it from being such an idiot all the time' . Sollux chains him to the roof of his communal hive stem (the troll equivalent of an apartment building). It has been killed by the catastrophic release of Sollux's psionic energy that demolished the upper levels of his hive, as a result of inadvertently consuming mind honey.
Later, a Bicyclops-prototyped kernelsprite is seen staring, dumbfounded, at Sollux's bloody corpse.
Gallery[]
Merchandise[]
Sollux is depicted on the Homestuck tarot's "XIV:Temperance" and "Four of Cups" cards, along with the rest of the Acts 1-5 cast on "Five of Wands".
Trivia[]
While trivia sections are fine, it might be a good idea to merge some of this material into relevant sections of the main text, because this trivia section is bloated.
- Likely due to his aspect, Sollux is very closely tied to the concept of death. Such allusions to this association include:
- His ability to hear the voices of the imminently doomed, as well as being destined to die twice.
- His username, “twinArmageddons” is a generally obvious connection to death, but can be taken to the aforementioned destiny of dying twice.
- Sollux raises bees in his hive. In Egyptian culture, bees are closely linked with death. [citation needed]
- Sollux excels in using the ~ATH programming language, which functions around things that are imminently doomed.
- Sollux was the first and last troll to die prior to Act 6.
- Sollux has many quirks related to the Tumor. His eyes were red and blue, the colors of the two universes inhabited by the kids and trolls respectively. After going blind, his eyes turn white and black, like his shoes, both corresponding to the outer shell of the Tumor.
- He is close friends with Aradia Megido, who is a ghost at the start of Hivebent.
- Sollux's ancestor, the Helmsman, is not dead at the start of Hivebent. This is a characteristic he shares with Aradia and Feferi's ancestors: the Condesce and the Handmaid.
- Coincidentally, these are the two trolls for whom Sollux is likely to have had red feelings.
- The colors of Sollux's shoes and eyes have both swapped sides at some points in the story (not flip-wise, but actually swapped). His shoes are shown with the colours swapped when Sollux arrives at the asteroid, along with Aradia, Dave, and Rose. His eyes are swapped in Kanaya: Return to the core when he starts to battle Eridan.
- The strip of blood that runs through the middle of Sollux' shirt symbol after being blinded by Eridan () is probably a reference to the clothing design of the Ψiioniic, or his goggles while working as the Helmsman (which were similar to Feferi's goggles but with three lines instead of one), whose role he began to mimic after becoming blind.
- It may also be a reference to the letter Ψ (Psi), which has three prongs (the number of lines, including the blood) and is associated with the Ψiioniic.
- Sollux also wears Feferi's old goggles after becoming blind, another reference to his assuming of the role of Helmsman to the meteor.
- He is the fourth troll introduced in the series, possibly tied to his duality theme (2+2, 2×2, and 2^2 all equal 4).
- Sollux's two eyes are colored blue and red, while his blood is yellow. These comprise the three primary colors in pigmentation.
- Fitting in with this theme, when he becomes Erisolsprite, his glasses are red and blue while the rest of his body is outlined in green, a reference to the three primary colors of light.
- Sollux and his dancestor are the only goldblooded trolls whose internal horns are smaller than their exterior horns.
- Sollux' sign has a Derse sway despite his having dream selves on the moons of both Derse and Prospit.
- Other possible references to Nicolas Cage movies besides Sollux's name are his bee computers (which might reference The Wicker Man) and his precognition ability (which might reference Next).
- Sollux's full name is, apparently, Solluxander, although it is unknown if this is actually canon.
- Sollux's status as a Gemini and a Doom-bound is likely a reference to catastrophe theory, a branch of the bifurcation theory that studies sudden changes in dynamical systems, which also explains his sporadic mood swings.
- He uses the text editor vi.