This post is going to be Epilogue discourse. I've dropped arguing about verbs entirely and am pursuing the active/passive hat switch. Distractions are just distractions. I command you to throw that line of thought away.
What is Eridan's motivation for killing?
From
page 6/005221, [S] Kanaya: Return to the core.
ERIDAN: as the prince of hope im uniquely qualified to recognize wwhen all hope is lost
ERIDAN: and im tellin you there is no hope not evven a little bit
ERIDAN: only thing left to do is servve him and hope he spares us
He's not destroying hope. According to him, it's already gone. As an authority, he's informing us of his assessment of the situation. He's not right, and his plan is dumb, but he's pretty close. His actions may seem destructive, and although the results weren't something he planned on, unlike Gamzee, who killed people who didn't need to be killed (unless you count nonsense about Lord English being already here, which I sure don't) and Vriska (who killed Tavros for criticizing her bad decisions), his actions put the meteor at a tactical advantage.
Feferi, no longer too busy kissing Sollux, communed with the Horrorterrors to make the dream bubbles.
Sollux went blind and stopped spouting fatalism.
Kanaya came back as a Rainbow Drinker with vampire speed, vampire strength, and glowy powers.
The destruction (while we're still calling it that) benefited the people around him.
Gamzee's destruction makes other people bend over backwards to pity the fool. He kills Equius and Nepeta and pins it on Vriska. Nobody will suspect Gamzee. He is an innocent babbu. :'o(
The active-passive shitty twist is easier to find justification as a specific Thing. Caliborn and Calliope play a game of chess, but with the king and queen "switched." Calliope puts Caliborn into checkmate. Caliborn takes off the hats. She had been targeting the wrong one this whole time.
In a way, she had actually been doing impossible maneuvers, but now that the ruse is up, the piece she used as her queen is now in a place of vulnerability. This is a summary from my recollection rather than looking at the page.
Gamzee is the true King, sticking to his
paradise planet, rather than moving across the board. But his brain is so broken that his utopia turns into a
joke of a pity party planet. In part because not everyone knows what they want, in part because people want different things, but it's bad for him in particular because he knows that he didn't actually earn this. He cheated. He groomed one child into being the Most Evil Guy, and he groomed another into thinking that he is a harmless, trustworthy person. It doesn't really matter what sort of shit he's actually up to. His victory, if he attains it, will ring hollow. It is Fake.
I have a feeling that Gamzee's death is not the last we'll see of him.
I'm assuming Gamzee is an ultimate self because, although the Gamzee shown with Caliborn is, by necessity, from the Post-Retcon timeline, he reacts to seeing
Trickster Mode as if he had been there, and that it's something he regrets. It also explains why he doesn't have any ghosts even though he's been shown dying. His gambit wouldn't be possible if he couldn't co-ordinate his actions this way.
Ultimate Self Dirk may or may not be working for Gamzee. That I don't really have an opinion on.
In conclusion, here is what Calliope's exposition looks like with the hats in the right place:
UU: a [bard] is a destroyer class.
UU: it is very far on the active side of the scale. its more passive coUnterpart woUld be the [prince] class. both of these are [GENDER IS A THING SOMEONE MADE UP FOR FUN]
UU: to Understand a hero's capabilities, it always helps to search for the right way to parse the class/aspect pair into a more explicit statement.
UU: for instance, being active, a [bard] coUld be viewed as "one who destroys x, or caUses destrUction throUgh x," if x is the aspect.
UU: while the more passive [prince] coUld be seen as "one who allows x to be destroyed, or invites destrUction throUgh x," as if by the will of the aspect.
And this describes Princes:
UU: maybe! it's a qUirky class.
UU: somewhat like a wildcard role for a hero. very Unpredictable.
UU: they are typically known for their spontaneoUs and dramatic story-altering inflUence on the fate of a party.
UU: some of the more remarkable tales involve sUch parties, where the [prince] is single handedly responsible for their spectacUlar downfall or improbable victory. or both!