  The structure of the dark energy equation of state phase plane holds
important information on the nature of the physics. We explain the bounds of
the freezing and thawing models of scalar field dark energy in terms of the
tension between the steepness of the potential vs. the Hubble drag.
Additionally, we extend the phase plane structure to modified gravity theories,
examine trajectories of models with certain properties, and categorize regions
in terms of scalar field hierarchical parameters, showing that dark energy is
generically not a slow roll phenomenon.
