RE: Joshless i think question 2 is a dangerous line of thinking to go down in this particular thread because it basically cuts to the reason why powerscaling just cannot apply in any serious way to Homestuck LMFAO. I mean really it highlights the central flaw with powerscaling as a concept, but Homestuck is a potent example of how it applies precisely because part of its job as a story is deconstructing these notions we have in our heads about how stories should work.

cus the thing is that Homestuck has a pretty obvious system in place that determines which character wins in a fight; it's just that only part of this system is clearly defined and has a proper name. that clearly defined part is conditional immortality: once you strip away all the fancy worldbuilding jargon, the point of conditional immortality, really, is that once the characters reach a certain level, they can only die under circumstances that hold a certain dramatic weight. they're never going to be killed fighting an imp (even an imp who has the exact same powers as jack noir - everyone always forgets those guys were there!), because imps are neither nefarious villains or valiant heroes - there are no stakes in that fight, so it would be stupid to expect one of the story's main characters to go down that way. a bunch of other corollary rules spin pretty organically out of this; the heroes alchemise powerful weapons because you need them to beat beefier underlings, but a human opponent can still be hurt by a very basic sword because that's still quite dramatic.

the case for Roxy just stabbing the Condesce in the back is far less well-defined than the conditional immortality of the god tiers, but it still has a clear logic to it; the Condesce couldn't die unless it was dramatic, obviously, but she also has extra layers of magical (plot-)armour on top of that given to her by Lord English - so even though we're not explicitly told that an especially legendary weapon like the unbreakable katana is needed to kill her, it makes total dramatic sense that that's how it happens. the comic even has a name for her specific kind of immortality - it's conditional mortality, because she's not allowed to die until Lord English (read: the story) decides that he's done with her.