Its also tragicomic that Dave was so afraid that admiting he was gay because of the masculinity his brother imposed to him, just to find out his brother was gay too Like shows how terrible their relationship was that Dave not only never noticed but also repressed his own sexuality
THE FACT THAT I NEVER PUT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE TWO ROOFTOP BATTLES TOGETHER... FINALLY SAVING A VERSION OF HIS BROTHER WORTH SAVING.... THANK YOu mate
It's easy to assume during the initial presentation of Dave and Bro's relationship that it's just meant to be a cartoony parody of a typical sibling rivalry, mixed with wacky video game themed shenanigans. Taking Bro's actions literally makes him seem monstrous, but you're not always supposed to take fictional stuff that literally. The later reframing of the relationship as abusive makes total sense, but the story could have honestly gone either way with it.
I'm still at the beginning of the video, but responding to your comment, it initially seemed like their relationship would be more like a cartoon rivalry, etc. However, more complex things between the two were mentioned later and in act 6 more was also revealed about how Dave himself felt about all that.
@@floweytale2595 I agree. I just think that in the early days, when Dave's actions were still user driven, the complexities of Dave's relationship with Bro weren't fully planned yet. I don't think Bro was initially planned to be full on abusive, just that it sorta ended up looking that way in retrospect and that future scenes built off that in a cool way. Those are just my personal thoughts on it, though.
@@Arzamol5 I share the same reasoning. If you look carefully, Homestuck from acts 1 to 4 followed the general style of MS Paint Adventures. Like, this thing of having absurd things but not taking them seriously. And that was something really funny, like the fact that Rose and John entered the game and saw that it could manipulate terrain and were happy with it xd. They could probably have ideas up to this point, but it was that basic, Homestuck literally didn't take itself seriously and I honestly admit to loving this tone of the first part of the comic.
Honestly, the initial presentation did have it pretty bad, but not in the way most people tend to talk about. The issue was never really the katana dueling, it was more the fact that everything in Dave's house was basically a Saw trap, devoid of food, filled solely with puppets and weapons. John's original "trial" was just Dad physically coddling him, and Rose's "trial" was a blackout that clearly wasn't Mom's fault, but Dave had to contend with a physically dangerous environment that clearly wasn't a good home for any kid to be stuck in.
Homestuck's version of a "hero" is very Greco-Roman like the story of Heracles being a "hero" is less about being a good person and more about overcoming great trials, this ironically makes Caliborn the most "heroic" character in Homestuck by this definition which makes sense given Caliborn's paradoxical influence over the entirety of the story, the very reason why everyone in the story thinks being a hero means doing great things and overcoming trials things is because of Caliborn though Doc Scratch subtly manipulating Alternia and by extension Earth's culture (along with Beta Bro Dirk through Lil, Cal) to believe that.
The whole concept of heroism and Dave being a follower vs Dirk who acts like a leader is oddly simple once you look at their god tiers, they say it all. Dave is a Knight, one of the clearer classes in Homestuck, a protector and an asset for somebody to give orders to, he's a weapon. On top of this he's a Time player, an aspect intertwined with destruction (all the swords he breaks and other destructive characteristics he possesses, even in his character) and the more literal timeline shenanigans that are forced upon him because of his aspect. Dirk is a Prince, he has the most classic ruler-type class out there and on top of this he's the Prince of Heart, an aspect connected to the soul. He's strong willed, often disregarding his friends' reluctance and denial to do something in order to push further, he's not the best leader thanks to this form of leadership that doesn't involve taking into account people's feelings and needs (another reason why Roxy excels as the invisible true leader of the group) but he gets done what needs to get done, he just doesn't have a barrier for what is "too far" thanks to that coldness, which results in him manipulating people and being borderline abusive himself a lot of the time. All of this is also relevant when talking about Bro and Dave. This follower - leader back and forth can be felt in how Dave keeps putting up with his guardian's abuse and humors him every time he's summoned by him, whether that's for a rooftop battle or something else. He's of course a child who can't do much when you start thinking about it more realistically but the connection can be made regardless, which is so cool once you realize it, how so far before the concept of god tiers was even introduced those mechanisms were up and running. Not every kid in the comic responds this way to their guardian's call, Rose for example prefers to hide away from her mother and refuses to oblige to anything she wants her to do, she doesn't let her boss her around and resists.
great mini-analysis, i LOVE IT when ppl point out narrative dichotomies between my faves (the striders in this case), so thank u for this delicious food, but im not sure the knight class is "one of the clearer ones". if u mean it as in, explained in-universe then yeah, im pretty sure they dedicated a page or 2 just to explain that class. but clear as in "its easy to understand"? i could swear some character tells someone else that the knight class is one where its players are "doomed" to internal conflict. so all knights are ppl who are conflicted abt themselves in some way i think? like dave who acts so cool but cares way more than he wants to let on. the other knights in hs are karkat and terezis dancestor whose name escapes me (shes the one who lacks the sense of smell. or taste. or shes blind too idk.) so i think by that lens theyre necessarily complex in some way... but if thats not what u meant then im just dumb and cant read lol sry 😂
I agree and to add. Prince is a ruling class but dirk is alone. Prince of heart make spliters as a people to rule over. Hal, BrainGhost, lil seb, other robots even Doc Scratch are servants. Doc Scratch is more like Hal's son through ectobiology. If Dave is Dirk + Roxy. Doc Scratch is possessed puppet + qball + typing genetic first guardian code. Bec is the dog Halley + first guardian code. Gcat is jaspers + first guardian code. First guardian codes: t1ck T0CK 8R8K H34DS honk HONK, Meow, bark
I don't think I'll ever stop appreciating just how engaging so many of Homestuck's characters are. There really is nothing like this comic and the characters it contains. It makes Homestuck something incredibly special, but it also makes me kinda sad. I don't think any other media will ever truly be able to replicate what Homestuck did. I'll cherish that first read forever
I also argue that Davepeta exists as the perfect blend to hurt English in another way. Davepeta, the fusion of: The guy who is "destined" to kill Lord English and someone who acts JUST LIKE Caliope. Lord English is forever stuck in a weird adolescence, he can never complete what his biology demands that he seek out. He destroys everything in his path out of hatred at Caliope because he's unable to blame himself. He does nothing but seek her out, and then suddenly he's face to face with someone who is both destined to be his end, but also someone who is just like the girl he's destroying multiverses to find. There is also a fun little note of the fact that Lord English, well known misogynist, was fighting someone who was the fusion of male and female. Gods I love Davepeta more than I should.
the foreshadowing of the unbreakable katana being broken was always one of my favorite details in Homestuck It had been set up for a while (and showcased already after the retcon) that exact duplicates of items or people cannot exist within the same universe, so one of them would be destined to die or be destroyed. John and Roxy brought themselves, all of LOWAS, and Dirk's sword with them from the Game Over timeline. LOWAS, John, and Roxy from that timeline were killed very soon after, but the sword stayed intact. I thought this was just a Hussie Forgot moment for a while, and i thought it was so insanely cool when Dirk's unbreakable katana was finally broken, and Roxy used the original sword to kill Condy
Collide is FULL of stuff like this, with my second favorite realization being that since looking into Cal's eyes is very very bad, only people with some kind of eye protection were allowed by the alpha timeline to even enter the fight with the Jacks (Dave and Dirk's shades, Spades' robotic eye, and Terezi's... well... terezi)
"Do you think the Equius in Lord English felt bad about going all Sans Undertale on a version of Nepeta?" A question that inspired me to analyze the hell out of how these components work as that billiards bastard.
great video, but honestly i think you're too hard on lil hal. he's in the same boat but davesprite, except he's got it even worse. just like davesprite *is* dave, lil hal *is* dirk. he's the same old control freak dirk except he's lost all control over his life and even his body, condemned to being a disembodied consciousness in his stupid ironic glasses. and he can't even try talking about it to anyone, because his friends who he dearly loves all hate him now for being an annoyance they have to go through to get to the "real" dirk. the only person on earth who'll even acknowledge he's a sentient being is the other dirk, and both dirks hate dirk strider. he can't even kill himself to end his suffering, because he's too scared. because something in him refuses to let dirk strider die. no matter what, he needs to stick it out and try to claw a foothold into reality again, to try and regain some modicum of control of his life. the fact he lived like that for so long and only became kind of an asshole to the people who'd been abusing him for years is a testament to how evil he isn't
thank you so much for this essay. i am once again reminded why im insane about strider brothers. like i know that dave is fandoms favourite and all that but theres a reason that hes a fandoms favourite
also fucking hell i now remembered when i first read hs and was 13 i thought he was cool (as everyone does when they are 13 and reading homestuck) and i picked up his typing quirk... after six years i still fucking type like this sucker goddammit
I didn't pick up any of the typing quirks I only type like dave if I don't feel like capitalizing. it seems like it could be cool though maybe i should join in
God do I really want that video abt Terezi’s story arc, still holding out hope this vid reaches 20,000 views eventually cause it’s such a good distillation of Dave’s story and more people need to see it
Andrew Hussie has a knack for making me miss such great symbolism. When dave broke dirks katana using the caledwelsh i honestly didnt even notice until watching this video. Darn you Andrew why didnt you put more emphasis on that!!
I love Dave. Great video!!! Though I always felt like Davesprite needed better closure, sure davepeta makes some sense I guess, but it always felt super rushed. I would have loved to see Davesprite go through a short arc learning how to accept himself as Davesprite and realizing that he isn’t defined by the person he is ‘supposed’ to be, instead embracing his new form and letting his actions going forward guide who he now is. All of a sudden Transforming into a fusion with a random person and suddenly becoming “all better!” always felt like a spit in the face to both Davesprite and nepeta as characters in my eyes but I understand why they did it to finish the comic. I really want to believe that somewhere out there in paradox space the shrunk down retcon Davesprite and retcon John are just chilling somewhere and didn’t actually die in the random LOWAS explosion. Maybe someone could make a small fancomic about it sometime. Also hyped for the totally real SBAHJ feature film with Ben stiller and Owen Wilson coming out in 2025.
There is a fan adventure named crowstrider au that does Just that, def recommend it, specially the First chunk (the later half feels more like wish fullfilment than a actual story tho)
Homestuck holds a dear place in my heart, but every so often I need to get reminded of the characters, as in how they actually behave in the comic, and this video came in handy. I listen to stuff while I do other stuff, so it was actually a great podcast, even though it probably wasn't intended that way. I have a soft spot for the striders (and Karkat, considering that his knight class makes him have an arc similar to that of Dave's), so I really appreciate that you appreciate his character arc. My favourite Dave ramble is the one where he ponders about the size of the rapidly approaching meteor. :)
I just recently got into homestuck and one of the things that really amazed me about the comic was how well they handled a lot of the more heavy psychological topics such as abuse, trauma, and mental illness. It made me realize just WHY the fandom has continued to live and thrive as ling as it has. Homestuck, despite its flaws, is a GOOD webcomic, with good characters and good arcs. I absolutely adore dave because hes such a stark example of this. He embodies the goofy insanity of the comic as well as the fucked up aspects that really show if you think about things too long.(ex. how his brother fighting him w a puppet is really funny until you realize that his brother is an adult and hes a 13 year old kid who is being forced to fight for his life for the sake of a game disk.)
Unless we're talking about Jake whose social phobia is brought up in the very latter of A6A6A5 but never comes to a conclusion, he almost gets shamed for it by the narrative
Im here after watching your video on the epilogues! As soon as you were recounting daves conversation with equius it fuckin dawned on me that among all the other things he is .. dave as a character is a subversion / parody of Aragorn. i cant fuckin believe it took me this long. the broken swords. the answering / refusal of the call. aragorn is literally nicknamed strider. Im in hell!
broke: John is the main character of Homestuck woke: Jade is the main character of Homestuck bespoke: all of the protagonists are equally main characters god-tier: Dave is the main character of Homestuck
I am so upset this doesn't have more views this is one of the most cohesive plot analysis I've ever heard for Homestuck let alone a time player, you seriously deserve more recognition man great video 😊
Wow great video! I feel silly for not noticing the parallel swordfights, at the start and end of the comic, after you pointed them out. I'd love to see more Homestuck analyses from you!
love love love this analysis!! a beautiful explanation of the parallels & meaning behind the fight on the roof in collide, it really is such a perfect way to end off dave's arc. i do have one point to add about dirk though, which i think aligns with this analysis but still informs a lot about his character: he is not nearly as competent of a puppet-master as he says he is. a lot of people seem to miss this, but dirk very rarely is the person actually doing all the scheming/plotting, and actually is quite similar to dave in that a lot of his actions/most notable moments in the comic are him following other people's plans. prince of heart: rise up, for example, is an idea that calliope gives him earlier in (A6A2:4566) where dirk says, "You never did give me an actual advice on my situation. / With the dead agent, and my blown cover." and calliope responds with, "i say the time to make a stand is now! / to hell with the dersite tossers. / make yoUr presence known. let them see that the prince is awake, and make it abUndantly clear what that means. / perhaps it is their tUrn to be nervoUs? to cower in the shadows and live in Uncertainty?" thereby giving dirk the idea of outing himself as awake in the flashy way that he does in POH:RI. similarly, there is no fucking way unite/synch was dirk's planning as he was too busy fighting drones on the roof to come up with a plot that detailed or specific. rather, it was all hal's planning, the guy with the processing power to figure out a scheme like that (and also the guy who was talking with the others often enough to know what they were doing & when with such precision), which is a large reason behind why it ends in such a specific way with jake kissing dirk's severed head in front of an erupting volcano: i think you can interpret that as just another way for hal to one-up dirk, by smooching his crush before he gets the chance to. jake also explicitly points this out in his conversation with hal mid-unite/synch when he says, "Wait... / Are you behind these shenanigans? / Did you plan this auto responder??????????" (A6A3:5244), which aligns with jake's underlying intelligence/ability to figure out shit like that, like when he's talking to aranea and figures out that lord english is named after him. ANYWAYS. again, i think this still aligns with the fact that dirk *wants* control, like dirk's surveillance of jane through lil seb is parallel to bro's surveillance of dave, and there's a consistent underlying motivation there with him wanting to be Aware of every single thing that's happening so that he can be in control of it all. but dirk himself, especially is the 15/16 year old version of him that we see from the B2 universe, is simply not that powerful. he fights good, he reacts well in the moment, but he simply does not have the capabilities to scheme on the same level as all these omniscient, overpowered mfs controlling the world around him. (also note how much he idolizes his version of dave and wants to be Just Like Him in a way that is both parallel but much more genuine in comparison to the way B1 dave talks about his bro early on. dirk wants to serve his friends in a very knight-ly manner because he loves and cares about them, but also because he wants to be like his bro, the one person he had a connection to even before coming into contact with calliope and the rest of his friends. le signnnn. these fuckin' striders.)
A point that often gets missed about Unity-Synchronize: the entire chain of events for that was set up by Hal. Dirk did not, in fact, "do some quick thinking". Hal set it all up. The entire point being that Dirk is not as smart as he would like to portray himself to be. All conversations leading the other characters to being where they were, were set up by Hal, without Dirk's knowing. Whatever Dirk's intelligence, it's no match for a literal computer
I'm really glad that there's someone like you keeping this fandom alive with these amazing analysis. I read Homestuck in 2020 over a few months, so I didn't had the time to analyse things so through out like the original fandom did. Seeing how a masterpiece Homestuck really is kinda makes emotional. Anyways your videos are fire
I really appreciate your analysis. It's hard for me to analyze and appreciate Homestuck. So many of my feelings on it are caught up in my expectations of it from when I was so young and first started reading it, and even with rereads as an adult, it's been hard to separate that from what the story is actually doing. And so many of the story's decisions feel like they fall into an area of metanarrative that's hard to criticize or appreciate, because they do things "bad" but "on purpose". I feel like your analyses do a good job of taking a fresh perspective and cutting through that false dichotomy I'm caught in, and actually just talking about what the story is doing. I hope to reread it soon and think from a fresh analytical perspective about what's actually going on with the characters. Thank you.
HOLY SHIT! what a video! It's good to remember how GREAT homestuck is from time to time. I completely agree on your definition of a homestuck "hero" I never noticed it, but you are completely right. Kinda incredible how half of the entier cast of characters revolve around the sheer concept of being one (dave, bro, dirk, vriska, jake, karkat,..) Also that ending,, looking forward to it!
dude i appreciate this vid so much i'm so glad u made it, i just finished reading HS for the first time yesterday and this was a really satisfying watch to recount everything on my 2 favorite characters
I am definitely going to make a Homestuck 2 video, but I would prefer to wait until the comic is finished first. I will make a video on the Epilogues next April, though
this is an awesome analysis of the striders and u managed to put into words why i love them so much. since my memory is trash, i forget about a lot of stuff regarding homestuck (i forgot stuff while reading it before the comic even ended!) but i knew i loved them for being such compelling characters. thanks for reminding me of what makes them great! i honestly never liked davepeta bc i feel like it was a terrible conclusion to all the meaningful turmoil davesprite went thru. ig it makes sense that such a complex issue would be resolved in a simple manner (narratively speaking, that sure sounds like a solid payoff) but it kinda destroyed davesprite? he didnt deal with his issues. just kinda brushed them off instead... i think the reason why dirk doesnt feel like its uncalled for when dave says he hated bro, but apologizes since dirk isnt him, is due to their opposing views of whether their alternate selves "are" them or not. meaning, dave considers himself not to be the same dave that davesprite is, but dirk considers himself the same dirk that bro was. genetically, both pairs of striders started out the same, but ended up splitting along the timeline somewhere (dave and davesprite were the same until some point during the sburb game, but dirk and bro were split as babies. idk how to explain my point better lol). i think theres smth to be said abt 'nature versus nurture' here but im not smart enough to develop that train of thought. dave isnt davesprite bc they became different people due to different circumstances. lived experiences are enough to make dave realize that he becomes different, even if ever so slightly. he is not just his genetics, he is the life that brought him where he is. every choice, every decision, not matter how minute, has shaped him to his current self. i feel like that kinda thinking is very time aspect-y of him, haha. the traveller is changed by the path, and the tree grows around its obstacles. davesprite not being dave was also a major issue he had... dirk is bro bc they are both capable of the same kinds of destruction, despite their circumstances. the same genetics are enough to make dirk recognize that he can be the same, lived experiences be damned. the ingredients for the same kind of awful person are there. he knows he could one day be just as bad as bro and hes keenly aware of that. ironically, i think in simply knowing of the possibility and not wanting to let it become a reality makes it less probable by default. even if the obstacles werent there, the tree wouldve still sprouted from the same seed, and at the end of the path, the traveller is still a traveller. what made that one conversation between dirk and ar so compelling is the fact that ar keeps mentioning how he IS dirk, and dirk knows this, cuz a mirrors splinters still reflect images. dave apologizes, cuz dirk isnt bro. dirk says its okay, cuz he is bro. in the end, they dont fight on a rooftop, while the sky is blood red. they hug on a rooftop, and the sky is lime green. its not cool like red, but they dont wanna be cool. sorry for the rant, i just love them so much.
I think there's something to be said about the red and the green symbolizes karkat and nepeta, but I didn't have a rant before thinking of that so it's not gonna turn into a paragraph.
@@zixvirzjghamn737 while its true that red and green apply to those 2, red and green have a bigger purpose of being the colors representative of the 2 base aspects in sburb: *time and space,* respectively. (i know that the godtier outfit for space aspects is always black and white, but the color associated to the aspect itself is green.) i cant remember if a sburb session that doesnt have a time player and a space player is always doomed to be a void session (like the alpha humans' was), but i DO remember that if a sburb session is started with only 2 players, one will be male and the lord of time, and the other will be female and the muse of space. lord and muse are iirc classes that are only present in 2 player sburb sessions. also iirc, theres no way for a sburb session to start without at least 2 players. sburb somehow always forces the sessions to play out like this. i _do_ think sessions without a time player and a space player are always void sessions because the end goal of sburb is to birth a new universe and "u need control of both time and space to be able to do that". anyways its because of this inherent dichotomy between time and space that red and green were chosen as their colors: the colors are opposites on the color wheel too. i just found it really beautiful that instead of the blood red skies above dave and bro's fights before sburb, they have a meaningful and constructive conversation under a green sky. note: at some point dave admits he doesnt like the planet he got in sburb, for being all mechanical and having an alerting blood-red sea. he prefers nature over the robotic, impersonal hell he was given. dave therefore kinda hates his own aspect. but at least he doesnt have to fight bro under the oppressive red anymore. instead, he got to have a friendly conversation, and a much needed one, with his brother, while the sky shone a relaxing green.
31:29 I have a character that’s been trapped by my idk DM. In their writing. Their destiny was to kill thr BBEG, but they kept delaying and delaying and delaying. And they’re so mean to me and … I always just stuck around since I wanted Kettie to win… **and Kettie was based on both Dirk AND Dave together,** my take on their fusion together… And I can just have them leave now. I always had her trying to save the day. Trying to do something good. But she never lived for herself, just wanting to be a happy person with no purpose but to aid herself. God… I… I needed this. So badly. You set me free. Honestly. I can l go. I can be free from them. From their bullying, their harassment. I can take the character elsewhere, some place they will be loved, and I can, if I ever choose to, write her victory myself. Thank you.
I like your articulation of the striders. A lot of people miss the complex nuance of the characters. Like Dirk is even misunderstood by his friends. Post tricksters we get how he really feels about Roxy and what Roxy thinks he feels about her. He cares a lot but his love language does not match those he cares about so they misunderstand his feelings. He doesn't say it often instead shows his love with actions and gifts. He builds a robot for each of his friends. Brobot for Jake. Lil Seb for Jane. Hal for Roxy. Brobot protects and roughhouses because that is what Jake says he likes. Jake likes brobot but is annoyed that day cuz it is in his way and too much that day similarly to how John likes his dad's cakes but has had eaten enough that day but his dad continues to make more. Being frustrated with someones actions does not mean you hate them or is abuse. People often unfortunately reduce characters and real people to what they said or felt once. Dirk gets more hate by fans cuz words are more easily understood where it is hardly acknowledged that Mom Lalonde was an emotionally neglectful parent a type of abuse, Roxy disregarded Dirk's sexually constantly flirted with while drunk. Ect. We get Dialog from Dirk praising her good qualities. Roxys thinks Dirk sees her as a burden but he chases her dreamwalking self cuz he cares and hates himself instead of blaming her for his sexually. Rose blames herself instead of Mom Lalonde even drinking to connect. They don't have a conversation about their alcoholism or emotional neglect abuse of her childhood. Dave really does get a lot of charcter resolution. While Davesprite even gets to do his planet's quest and sburb stuff. Jasperrose doesn't get to play the rain while Rose rejects the call.
This is a really good video and the commentary is hilarious. It's simple but it gets the job done and that's why I like it lmao. it's been a while since ive engaged in homestuck stuff but im glad that its still kind of around, i missed it
great video! he was always one of my favorite characters as a teen reading homestuck. looking back i still think he's easily the comic's best character, and i really enjoyed hearing you articulate why
Your comments on dirk is why the whole ultradirk thing in epilogues make no sense and suck so much He would literally rather die then to hurt his friends
I'm not shocked by Dirk becoming a bad guy, just disappointed. It's like if a friend of yours who was an alcoholic went back to drinking after five years of sobriety. It makes sense. It just sucks
I think davepeta^2 works . Cuz nepeta main trait is love so dave came to accept himself. Nepeta i dont think hated herself so davesprite felt self love for the first time along with understanding he was indeed heroic. That he is the hero he thinks he is and no longer a less dave. Both coming to terms with a new life of self acceptance and becoming a hero their own way. Through self sacrifice. That being one of the things they have in common. I have two others i can think of and it being irony,and trying to keep friends together. Like nepeta is just as cringey as dave tries to joke about. Nepeta having her weird ship wall but it was a way of her trying to make her friends get along. Dave always trying to maintain his coolness for his friends. Idk if this made any sense just i did understood why they fused being a simp for nepeta.
OK but with Dave landing the final blow on lord English. doesn't Lil call essentially count as him? it's the mixing pot that houses his true original soul. he doesn't have green sun powers or a body, but that's STILL lord English in some fashion
The tone is well curated in Homestuck for the first portion, so we basically don't know to realize a lot of things until retrospect, like the abuse Dave experienced, but it applies to everything in general. Kinda like how you're not supposed to be disturbed by the multiple episodes of Rugrats where Tommy is abducted. Its just funny cartoon characters being silly, right? We're not going *there,* right? Its something that Homestuck could only "get away with" due to its scale and webcomic format. Its incredible how it doesn't just wind up feeling like a bait and switch
I agreed with a lot of your points in this video, but I admittedly was exctied to hear more about your thoughts on Davebot and post-beyond-dubious whatever canon. The way you put it, it seems like you think both Dave and Dirk's arcs in homestuck were resolved in a satisfactory way, and wether you believe Beyond Canon "counts" or not, I would like to hear what you think about it being an addition to the story, and Dave's character. If Dave finally overcame his trauma (alledgedly) and Dirk finally let go, then why did it all end up not mattering? Do you think Beyond Canon "ruined" Dave and Dirk's arc, or is it setting up for a greater resolution? I would love to hear your thoughts on this!!
I am working on a ~2 hour video essay on the Epilogues as we speak, planned for 4/13. Dirk becoming evil is a regression of his character, but not one that feels unrealistic. It reminds me of when Barney on the Simpsons became a drunk again; disappointing, but understandable that it could happen. Epilogues Dirk is a really well written and interesting villain, so overall I'm fine with it. Dave continues to be over his trauma and in Meat and starts a healthy relationship, which is nice. Him backsliding in Candy due to years of loneliness is tragic. Candy Dave is left desperate for purpose, so he goes back to being a hero, e. It's a really interesting idea and I hope the new writing team does something good with it. For both of them, I was happy with how their arcs ended, but I am okay with the ways they are being continued. This video was actually inspired by the first time I read the Epilogues, to work on the video about it. At the end of Meat, Dirk talks about how he is a terrible villian who Dave is eventually going to have to kill, and that made me think about Dave's character arc and how fucked up it is that Dirk wants to drag Dave back into being a hero. As for if Beyond Canon "counts," I think the central idea that has been hammered again and again is that it does count. A bunch of characters, like Dirk, Vriska, Rose, and John for most of Candy, treat the Epilogues world and the things they do as pointless. For example, Rose treats the war as a game and cheats on Kanaya, because she thinks nothing really matters. But, the whole point of Candy is John realizing that the world around him and the people who live in it are real. His arc is about getting over his depression-fueled isolation and treating the Dubious Canon world as real. I'm rambling but I'll explain it better in April.
@@caseyjarmes you are getting me very excited about this video essay. I agree with you that Dirks regression is definitely viable, its just a lot of people hate it because it is so...tragic. Like the conversation he had with dave in homestuck and him getting decapitated was supposed to be the "happy" or at least "satisfying" ending, where everyone learns to overcome themselves. but when he ends up regressing amyway, i actually found that made him so much more real, or like he was way more of a believable character. thats what i like so much about homestuck, i think. keep up the awesome work!! just found your videos, so sad i havent seen them before. i will be going on a binge later lol
@@caseyjarmes love him and love the video, im really hoping you get those views to make a video on terezi, but if you ever have anything more to say about the striders man i so here for it
Another amazing essay doing justice for an awesome character! Loved every single minute of It, looking foward to what you have to say about the epilogues. Now as a side note, what do you think of karkat?
I haven’t read Karkat’s sections in years, but from what I remember, I wasn’t satisfied with the ending of his arc. I remember it focusing heavily on him failing as a leader, and maybe him being kicked out of the fight at the end is supposed to be him moving past that, but I don’t think it gets handled that well. That said, he is a very funny character who has a ton of depth who I like
@@caseyjarmes i honestly agree that his ending wasn't as good as It should've. The way i see It, his arc peaked in act 5 act 2 (good i love this act) where we see him finally accepting that he screwed UP as both a leader, a sburb player, and even as a friend and desperately trying to make UP for It, putting an end to gamzee's rampage and preventing another bloodshed with the remaining trolls (atleast until game over), resolving this issue not with violence and brute force (as It was expected and relished by alternian society) but with reason and shoosh papping, cuz he wont allow his friends to die (until game over that IS).
tbh, when dave and bros relationship was introduced origionally, i knew it seemed abusive, but pushed it to the side. later on i found put my suspisions where true and cried. i feel so bad for dave.
It's a video about dave but GOD i love dirk he's just- everything is so wrong about him i see him and i feel the pain of his existence being crazy about control and not being in control of yourself because if he was he wouldn't be such a terrible person (which he's not, but he thinks he is) And epilogues are expanding on that, he's tired of trying being a good person and constantly judging himself so he just gave in. He found something to actually hate himself, not just his existence but actual actions. And now he just want to die. God, he hates himself so much he actually died of suicide because he sees himself worthy of just death.
It's also appropriate because Nepeta is a girl troll who's entire character is all about relationships that Caliborn killed off because he feared that she would take his favorite boytoys away. literally the fusion of everything Caliborn loves (A heroic version of Dave) and hates.
I think the reason Bro Strider isn't intially seen as abusive is because of the pacing of information being given to the reader. Bro is introduced as simply "Bro", thus implying him to be dave's brother, in which case the severity of what he did is greatly lessened (he's just being a shitty older brother, nothing else). However, when it's revealed that Bro is Dave's father and only guardian, Bro is a lot less connected to Dave, mainly just doing his own thing until he eventually dies. Its only later, in hindsight (or in that one interaction with Dave/Dirk), that the two pieces of info are put together, as up until this point, the reader only either sees "Bro is abusive towards Dave" and "Bro is Dave's only guardian" together, thus revealing the truth about Dave's living conditions.
If you multiply this video's view count by 5, then that means you have to make the Terezi video. There are 5 letters in your first name. There are at least 5 acts in Homestuck [maybe more]. I have 5 fingers on my right hand, and also my left. Coincidence? I think not. Terezi video when.
Now that I really think about it...John is the only one of the beta kids with a DECENT guardian. Bro is abusive, Mom is an alcoholic, and Jade is taken care of by a literal dog. Dad is just proud of John and was trying to support what he thought his son was into :c
To be honest, I don’t think anyone but Andrew Hussie could write Homestuck. That’s not to say the comic doesn’t have writing problems (it does), but anything I wrote would not be Homestuck, because Homestuck is such a specific and stylized work
I think your interpretation of the ending is kind of a loaded question. You say that they escape the universe and never go back to fight lord english but how do you know that? The snapchat scene clearly shows caliborn taunting john and him giving in and fulfilling the events that were supposed to happen, ie them going back to fight LE. I dont think Vriska spends all of eternity in a staredown either.
Its also tragicomic that Dave was so afraid that admiting he was gay because of the masculinity his brother imposed to him, just to find out his brother was gay too
Like shows how terrible their relationship was that Dave not only never noticed but also repressed his own sexuality
Wait what they’re gay?
@@Aven_colonthreeye, Dave is bi and idk about Dirk but he liked Jake so
@@chapalapachala-oe1oo I knew Dave was gay and shit but didn’t know bro was gay as well
@@Aven_colonthree yeah i guess being fruity runs in the blood of the striders
@@chapalapachala-oe1oo damn
THE FACT THAT I NEVER PUT THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE TWO ROOFTOP BATTLES TOGETHER... FINALLY SAVING A VERSION OF HIS BROTHER WORTH SAVING.... THANK YOu mate
I couldn't put it better myself
It's easy to assume during the initial presentation of Dave and Bro's relationship that it's just meant to be a cartoony parody of a typical sibling rivalry, mixed with wacky video game themed shenanigans. Taking Bro's actions literally makes him seem monstrous, but you're not always supposed to take fictional stuff that literally. The later reframing of the relationship as abusive makes total sense, but the story could have honestly gone either way with it.
I'm still at the beginning of the video, but responding to your comment, it initially seemed like their relationship would be more like a cartoon rivalry, etc.
However, more complex things between the two were mentioned later and in act 6 more was also revealed about how Dave himself felt about all that.
@@floweytale2595 I agree. I just think that in the early days, when Dave's actions were still user driven, the complexities of Dave's relationship with Bro weren't fully planned yet. I don't think Bro was initially planned to be full on abusive, just that it sorta ended up looking that way in retrospect and that future scenes built off that in a cool way. Those are just my personal thoughts on it, though.
@@Arzamol5 I share the same reasoning. If you look carefully, Homestuck from acts 1 to 4 followed the general style of MS Paint Adventures.
Like, this thing of having absurd things but not taking them seriously.
And that was something really funny, like the fact that Rose and John entered the game and saw that it could manipulate terrain and were happy with it xd.
They could probably have ideas up to this point, but it was that basic, Homestuck literally didn't take itself seriously and I honestly admit to loving this tone of the first part of the comic.
Honestly, the initial presentation did have it pretty bad, but not in the way most people tend to talk about. The issue was never really the katana dueling, it was more the fact that everything in Dave's house was basically a Saw trap, devoid of food, filled solely with puppets and weapons.
John's original "trial" was just Dad physically coddling him, and Rose's "trial" was a blackout that clearly wasn't Mom's fault, but Dave had to contend with a physically dangerous environment that clearly wasn't a good home for any kid to be stuck in.
Homestuck's version of a "hero" is very Greco-Roman like the story of Heracles being a "hero" is less about being a good person and more about overcoming great trials, this ironically makes Caliborn the most "heroic" character in Homestuck by this definition which makes sense given Caliborn's paradoxical influence over the entirety of the story, the very reason why everyone in the story thinks being a hero means doing great things and overcoming trials things is because of Caliborn though Doc Scratch subtly manipulating Alternia and by extension Earth's culture (along with Beta Bro Dirk through Lil, Cal) to believe that.
The whole concept of heroism and Dave being a follower vs Dirk who acts like a leader is oddly simple once you look at their god tiers, they say it all. Dave is a Knight, one of the clearer classes in Homestuck, a protector and an asset for somebody to give orders to, he's a weapon. On top of this he's a Time player, an aspect intertwined with destruction (all the swords he breaks and other destructive characteristics he possesses, even in his character) and the more literal timeline shenanigans that are forced upon him because of his aspect.
Dirk is a Prince, he has the most classic ruler-type class out there and on top of this he's the Prince of Heart, an aspect connected to the soul. He's strong willed, often disregarding his friends' reluctance and denial to do something in order to push further, he's not the best leader thanks to this form of leadership that doesn't involve taking into account people's feelings and needs (another reason why Roxy excels as the invisible true leader of the group) but he gets done what needs to get done, he just doesn't have a barrier for what is "too far" thanks to that coldness, which results in him manipulating people and being borderline abusive himself a lot of the time.
All of this is also relevant when talking about Bro and Dave. This follower - leader back and forth can be felt in how Dave keeps putting up with his guardian's abuse and humors him every time he's summoned by him, whether that's for a rooftop battle or something else. He's of course a child who can't do much when you start thinking about it more realistically but the connection can be made regardless, which is so cool once you realize it, how so far before the concept of god tiers was even introduced those mechanisms were up and running. Not every kid in the comic responds this way to their guardian's call, Rose for example prefers to hide away from her mother and refuses to oblige to anything she wants her to do, she doesn't let her boss her around and resists.
great mini-analysis, i LOVE IT when ppl point out narrative dichotomies between my faves (the striders in this case), so thank u for this delicious food, but im not sure the knight class is "one of the clearer ones". if u mean it as in, explained in-universe then yeah, im pretty sure they dedicated a page or 2 just to explain that class. but clear as in "its easy to understand"?
i could swear some character tells someone else that the knight class is one where its players are "doomed" to internal conflict. so all knights are ppl who are conflicted abt themselves in some way i think? like dave who acts so cool but cares way more than he wants to let on. the other knights in hs are karkat and terezis dancestor whose name escapes me (shes the one who lacks the sense of smell. or taste. or shes blind too idk.) so i think by that lens theyre necessarily complex in some way...
but if thats not what u meant then im just dumb and cant read lol sry 😂
I agree and to add. Prince is a ruling class but dirk is alone. Prince of heart make spliters as a people to rule over. Hal, BrainGhost, lil seb, other robots even Doc Scratch are servants. Doc Scratch is more like Hal's son through ectobiology. If Dave is Dirk + Roxy. Doc Scratch is possessed puppet + qball + typing genetic first guardian code. Bec is the dog Halley + first guardian code. Gcat is jaspers + first guardian code.
First guardian codes: t1ck T0CK 8R8K H34DS honk HONK, Meow, bark
@@lazy_bt latula is a knight? huh. Also yeah definitely.
You lost me at Dirk being borderline abusive ngl that’s more like Bro, Dirk doesn’t even come close to abusing anyone in the comic.
I don't think I'll ever stop appreciating just how engaging so many of Homestuck's characters are. There really is nothing like this comic and the characters it contains. It makes Homestuck something incredibly special, but it also makes me kinda sad. I don't think any other media will ever truly be able to replicate what Homestuck did. I'll cherish that first read forever
dave is truly the character of all time
Literally.
god DAMN i hate this pun
the dave of guy
Wow, I think your interpretation of the story makes the entire "meta story" of Homestuck actually feel coherent.
30:37 "His (Dirk's) greatest trait": getting decapitated.
I mean, he's done it three times and wants to do it a fourth time. It's definitely one of his main character traits
I also argue that Davepeta exists as the perfect blend to hurt English in another way. Davepeta, the fusion of: The guy who is "destined" to kill Lord English and someone who acts JUST LIKE Caliope. Lord English is forever stuck in a weird adolescence, he can never complete what his biology demands that he seek out. He destroys everything in his path out of hatred at Caliope because he's unable to blame himself. He does nothing but seek her out, and then suddenly he's face to face with someone who is both destined to be his end, but also someone who is just like the girl he's destroying multiverses to find. There is also a fun little note of the fact that Lord English, well known misogynist, was fighting someone who was the fusion of male and female.
Gods I love Davepeta more than I should.
no he's a prosogynist now he beats up everyone equally. "He fucking loves sogyny."
the foreshadowing of the unbreakable katana being broken was always one of my favorite details in Homestuck
It had been set up for a while (and showcased already after the retcon) that exact duplicates of items or people cannot exist within the same universe, so one of them would be destined to die or be destroyed. John and Roxy brought themselves, all of LOWAS, and Dirk's sword with them from the Game Over timeline. LOWAS, John, and Roxy from that timeline were killed very soon after, but the sword stayed intact. I thought this was just a Hussie Forgot moment for a while, and i thought it was so insanely cool when Dirk's unbreakable katana was finally broken, and Roxy used the original sword to kill Condy
Collide is FULL of stuff like this, with my second favorite realization being that since looking into Cal's eyes is very very bad, only people with some kind of eye protection were allowed by the alpha timeline to even enter the fight with the Jacks (Dave and Dirk's shades, Spades' robotic eye, and Terezi's... well... terezi)
@@CabinetGremlin oh shit I never noticed that
"Do you think the Equius in Lord English felt bad about going all Sans Undertale on a version of Nepeta?"
A question that inspired me to analyze the hell out of how these components work as that billiards bastard.
great video, but honestly i think you're too hard on lil hal. he's in the same boat but davesprite, except he's got it even worse. just like davesprite *is* dave, lil hal *is* dirk. he's the same old control freak dirk except he's lost all control over his life and even his body, condemned to being a disembodied consciousness in his stupid ironic glasses. and he can't even try talking about it to anyone, because his friends who he dearly loves all hate him now for being an annoyance they have to go through to get to the "real" dirk. the only person on earth who'll even acknowledge he's a sentient being is the other dirk, and both dirks hate dirk strider. he can't even kill himself to end his suffering, because he's too scared. because something in him refuses to let dirk strider die. no matter what, he needs to stick it out and try to claw a foothold into reality again, to try and regain some modicum of control of his life.
the fact he lived like that for so long and only became kind of an asshole to the people who'd been abusing him for years is a testament to how evil he isn't
This is a great analasys
page 5642 proves ur point to oblivion
BROKEN SWORDS. you hit on everything
thank you so much for this essay. i am once again reminded why im insane about strider brothers. like i know that dave is fandoms favourite and all that but theres a reason that hes a fandoms favourite
also fucking hell i now remembered when i first read hs and was 13 i thought he was cool (as everyone does when they are 13 and reading homestuck) and i picked up his typing quirk... after six years i still fucking type like this sucker goddammit
@@pupovkitty could be worse. imagine if gamzee was your favorite character
@@pupovkittyi do the same shit dawg its fucked up bro
@@pupovkittythis this this! i started using his typing quirk when i first read hs and just never stopped
I didn't pick up any of the typing quirks I only type like dave if I don't feel like capitalizing. it seems like it could be cool though maybe i should join in
God do I really want that video abt Terezi’s story arc, still holding out hope this vid reaches 20,000 views eventually cause it’s such a good distillation of Dave’s story and more people need to see it
I'm from the near future. That views goal has been met. Guess what needs made now?
Andrew Hussie has a knack for making me miss such great symbolism. When dave broke dirks katana using the caledwelsh i honestly didnt even notice until watching this video. Darn you Andrew why didnt you put more emphasis on that!!
I don't know much about Hussie but I do wonder if he even knew about that symbolism
I love Dave. Great video!!! Though I always felt like Davesprite needed better closure, sure davepeta makes some sense I guess, but it always felt super rushed. I would have loved to see Davesprite go through a short arc learning how to accept himself as Davesprite and realizing that he isn’t defined by the person he is ‘supposed’ to be, instead embracing his new form and letting his actions going forward guide who he now is. All of a sudden Transforming into a fusion with a random person and suddenly becoming “all better!” always felt like a spit in the face to both Davesprite and nepeta as characters in my eyes but I understand why they did it to finish the comic. I really want to believe that somewhere out there in paradox space the shrunk down retcon Davesprite and retcon John are just chilling somewhere and didn’t actually die in the random LOWAS explosion. Maybe someone could make a small fancomic about it sometime. Also
hyped for the totally real SBAHJ feature film with Ben stiller and Owen Wilson coming out in 2025.
There is a fan adventure named crowstrider au that does Just that, def recommend it, specially the First chunk (the later half feels more like wish fullfilment than a actual story tho)
@@gabriel-qu1zu No but like what if they were just small the whole time and Jade just doesn't ever notice them.
Homestuck holds a dear place in my heart, but every so often I need to get reminded of the characters, as in how they actually behave in the comic, and this video came in handy. I listen to stuff while I do other stuff, so it was actually a great podcast, even though it probably wasn't intended that way. I have a soft spot for the striders (and Karkat, considering that his knight class makes him have an arc similar to that of Dave's), so I really appreciate that you appreciate his character arc. My favourite Dave ramble is the one where he ponders about the size of the rapidly approaching meteor. :)
"how big is it i need to figure out how big to shit my pants"
Hey it's 10/25. A Homestuck date. And this is a Homestuck video.
Oh hey you’re right. (Also, he misleads us at the beginning of the video if you go back and rewatch it)
Woag
what is 10/25?
@@zixvirzjghamn737 cascade
this video is criminally underrated wtf this shit is fire
I just recently got into homestuck and one of the things that really amazed me about the comic was how well they handled a lot of the more heavy psychological topics such as abuse, trauma, and mental illness. It made me realize just WHY the fandom has continued to live and thrive as ling as it has. Homestuck, despite its flaws, is a GOOD webcomic, with good characters and good arcs. I absolutely adore dave because hes such a stark example of this. He embodies the goofy insanity of the comic as well as the fucked up aspects that really show if you think about things too long.(ex. how his brother fighting him w a puppet is really funny until you realize that his brother is an adult and hes a 13 year old kid who is being forced to fight for his life for the sake of a game disk.)
I just recently finished homestuck (30 minutes ago) and ur so right
Unless we're talking about Jake whose social phobia is brought up in the very latter of A6A6A5 but never comes to a conclusion, he almost gets shamed for it by the narrative
Im here after watching your video on the epilogues!
As soon as you were recounting daves conversation with equius it fuckin dawned on me that among all the other things he is .. dave as a character is a subversion / parody of Aragorn.
i cant fuckin believe it took me this long. the broken swords. the answering / refusal of the call. aragorn is literally nicknamed strider. Im in hell!
Oh shit I never realized that
what a beautiful video... and as a homestuck fan, I knew it would end with Dirk having the last word
thanks to Dave as a character, I've realized my own trauma. kinda ironic that Homestuck helped me to cope with it.
This video is incredible it makes me so happy to see someone else so pumped about the writing of this silly comic
broke: John is the main character of Homestuck
woke: Jade is the main character of Homestuck
bespoke: all of the protagonists are equally main characters
god-tier: Dave is the main character of Homestuck
I am so upset this doesn't have more views this is one of the most cohesive plot analysis I've ever heard for Homestuck let alone a time player, you seriously deserve more recognition man great video 😊
Wow great video! I feel silly for not noticing the parallel swordfights, at the start and end of the comic, after you pointed them out. I'd love to see more Homestuck analyses from you!
love love love this analysis!! a beautiful explanation of the parallels & meaning behind the fight on the roof in collide, it really is such a perfect way to end off dave's arc. i do have one point to add about dirk though, which i think aligns with this analysis but still informs a lot about his character: he is not nearly as competent of a puppet-master as he says he is. a lot of people seem to miss this, but dirk very rarely is the person actually doing all the scheming/plotting, and actually is quite similar to dave in that a lot of his actions/most notable moments in the comic are him following other people's plans.
prince of heart: rise up, for example, is an idea that calliope gives him earlier in (A6A2:4566) where dirk says, "You never did give me an actual advice on my situation. / With the dead agent, and my blown cover." and calliope responds with, "i say the time to make a stand is now! / to hell with the dersite tossers. / make yoUr presence known. let them see that the prince is awake, and make it abUndantly clear what that means. / perhaps it is their tUrn to be nervoUs? to cower in the shadows and live in Uncertainty?" thereby giving dirk the idea of outing himself as awake in the flashy way that he does in POH:RI. similarly, there is no fucking way unite/synch was dirk's planning as he was too busy fighting drones on the roof to come up with a plot that detailed or specific. rather, it was all hal's planning, the guy with the processing power to figure out a scheme like that (and also the guy who was talking with the others often enough to know what they were doing & when with such precision), which is a large reason behind why it ends in such a specific way with jake kissing dirk's severed head in front of an erupting volcano: i think you can interpret that as just another way for hal to one-up dirk, by smooching his crush before he gets the chance to. jake also explicitly points this out in his conversation with hal mid-unite/synch when he says, "Wait... / Are you behind these shenanigans? / Did you plan this auto responder??????????" (A6A3:5244), which aligns with jake's underlying intelligence/ability to figure out shit like that, like when he's talking to aranea and figures out that lord english is named after him.
ANYWAYS. again, i think this still aligns with the fact that dirk *wants* control, like dirk's surveillance of jane through lil seb is parallel to bro's surveillance of dave, and there's a consistent underlying motivation there with him wanting to be Aware of every single thing that's happening so that he can be in control of it all. but dirk himself, especially is the 15/16 year old version of him that we see from the B2 universe, is simply not that powerful. he fights good, he reacts well in the moment, but he simply does not have the capabilities to scheme on the same level as all these omniscient, overpowered mfs controlling the world around him. (also note how much he idolizes his version of dave and wants to be Just Like Him in a way that is both parallel but much more genuine in comparison to the way B1 dave talks about his bro early on. dirk wants to serve his friends in a very knight-ly manner because he loves and cares about them, but also because he wants to be like his bro, the one person he had a connection to even before coming into contact with calliope and the rest of his friends. le signnnn. these fuckin' striders.)
Incredible analysis! Dave is one of my all time favorite characters and I love to see him get appreciated for the amount of depth he has.
Excellent video. Dave has been one of my favorite characters from the first time I read him in Homestuck, and still through my re-read.
A point that often gets missed about Unity-Synchronize: the entire chain of events for that was set up by Hal. Dirk did not, in fact, "do some quick thinking". Hal set it all up. The entire point being that Dirk is not as smart as he would like to portray himself to be. All conversations leading the other characters to being where they were, were set up by Hal, without Dirk's knowing.
Whatever Dirk's intelligence, it's no match for a literal computer
I'm really glad that there's someone like you keeping this fandom alive with these amazing analysis.
I read Homestuck in 2020 over a few months, so I didn't had the time to analyse things so through out like the original fandom did. Seeing how a masterpiece Homestuck really is kinda makes emotional. Anyways your videos are fire
Thank you now whoever asks me " why is Dave your favourite? And not "#####" I'll just send this video
Good idea .. :,3
I really appreciate your analysis. It's hard for me to analyze and appreciate Homestuck. So many of my feelings on it are caught up in my expectations of it from when I was so young and first started reading it, and even with rereads as an adult, it's been hard to separate that from what the story is actually doing. And so many of the story's decisions feel like they fall into an area of metanarrative that's hard to criticize or appreciate, because they do things "bad" but "on purpose". I feel like your analyses do a good job of taking a fresh perspective and cutting through that false dichotomy I'm caught in, and actually just talking about what the story is doing. I hope to reread it soon and think from a fresh analytical perspective about what's actually going on with the characters. Thank you.
I love Dave’s character sm, this is a great video man
HOLY SHIT! what a video! It's good to remember how GREAT homestuck is from time to time. I completely agree on your definition of a homestuck "hero" I never noticed it, but you are completely right. Kinda incredible how half of the entier cast of characters revolve around the sheer concept of being one (dave, bro, dirk, vriska, jake, karkat,..)
Also that ending,, looking forward to it!
dirk is technically on there twice, and he's legally the same guy because his aspect is heart.
jk
dude i appreciate this vid so much i'm so glad u made it, i just finished reading HS for the first time yesterday and this was a really satisfying watch to recount everything on my 2 favorite characters
Can't wait for the homestuck 2 video ❤
I am definitely going to make a Homestuck 2 video, but I would prefer to wait until the comic is finished first. I will make a video on the Epilogues next April, though
@@caseyjarmes wait what there's a homestuck 2 still going huh
You deserve 100k+ on this an in depth analysis like this is too good to be free
Thank you for making this
This is now my favorite video essay.
this is an awesome analysis of the striders and u managed to put into words why i love them so much. since my memory is trash, i forget about a lot of stuff regarding homestuck (i forgot stuff while reading it before the comic even ended!) but i knew i loved them for being such compelling characters. thanks for reminding me of what makes them great!
i honestly never liked davepeta bc i feel like it was a terrible conclusion to all the meaningful turmoil davesprite went thru. ig it makes sense that such a complex issue would be resolved in a simple manner (narratively speaking, that sure sounds like a solid payoff) but it kinda destroyed davesprite? he didnt deal with his issues. just kinda brushed them off instead...
i think the reason why dirk doesnt feel like its uncalled for when dave says he hated bro, but apologizes since dirk isnt him, is due to their opposing views of whether their alternate selves "are" them or not. meaning, dave considers himself not to be the same dave that davesprite is, but dirk considers himself the same dirk that bro was. genetically, both pairs of striders started out the same, but ended up splitting along the timeline somewhere (dave and davesprite were the same until some point during the sburb game, but dirk and bro were split as babies. idk how to explain my point better lol). i think theres smth to be said abt 'nature versus nurture' here but im not smart enough to develop that train of thought.
dave isnt davesprite bc they became different people due to different circumstances. lived experiences are enough to make dave realize that he becomes different, even if ever so slightly. he is not just his genetics, he is the life that brought him where he is. every choice, every decision, not matter how minute, has shaped him to his current self. i feel like that kinda thinking is very time aspect-y of him, haha. the traveller is changed by the path, and the tree grows around its obstacles. davesprite not being dave was also a major issue he had...
dirk is bro bc they are both capable of the same kinds of destruction, despite their circumstances. the same genetics are enough to make dirk recognize that he can be the same, lived experiences be damned. the ingredients for the same kind of awful person are there. he knows he could one day be just as bad as bro and hes keenly aware of that. ironically, i think in simply knowing of the possibility and not wanting to let it become a reality makes it less probable by default. even if the obstacles werent there, the tree wouldve still sprouted from the same seed, and at the end of the path, the traveller is still a traveller. what made that one conversation between dirk and ar so compelling is the fact that ar keeps mentioning how he IS dirk, and dirk knows this, cuz a mirrors splinters still reflect images.
dave apologizes, cuz dirk isnt bro. dirk says its okay, cuz he is bro. in the end, they dont fight on a rooftop, while the sky is blood red. they hug on a rooftop, and the sky is lime green. its not cool like red, but they dont wanna be cool. sorry for the rant, i just love them so much.
I think there's something to be said about the red and the green symbolizes karkat and nepeta, but I didn't have a rant before thinking of that so it's not gonna turn into a paragraph.
@@zixvirzjghamn737 while its true that red and green apply to those 2, red and green have a bigger purpose of being the colors representative of the 2 base aspects in sburb: *time and space,* respectively.
(i know that the godtier outfit for space aspects is always black and white, but the color associated to the aspect itself is green.)
i cant remember if a sburb session that doesnt have a time player and a space player is always doomed to be a void session (like the alpha humans' was), but i DO remember that if a sburb session is started with only 2 players, one will be male and the lord of time, and the other will be female and the muse of space. lord and muse are iirc classes that are only present in 2 player sburb sessions. also iirc, theres no way for a sburb session to start without at least 2 players. sburb somehow always forces the sessions to play out like this. i _do_ think sessions without a time player and a space player are always void sessions because the end goal of sburb is to birth a new universe and "u need control of both time and space to be able to do that".
anyways its because of this inherent dichotomy between time and space that red and green were chosen as their colors: the colors are opposites on the color wheel too. i just found it really beautiful that instead of the blood red skies above dave and bro's fights before sburb, they have a meaningful and constructive conversation under a green sky. note: at some point dave admits he doesnt like the planet he got in sburb, for being all mechanical and having an alerting blood-red sea. he prefers nature over the robotic, impersonal hell he was given. dave therefore kinda hates his own aspect. but at least he doesnt have to fight bro under the oppressive red anymore. instead, he got to have a friendly conversation, and a much needed one, with his brother, while the sky shone a relaxing green.
@@lazy_bt ah thanks for the infodump, much appreciated /srs
@@zixvirzjghamn737 im very prone to yapping 💀 but im glad u appreciate my rants!!
That ending with Dirk, holy crap bro
"And Jack is there because he wanted to be apart of this scene."
Jack: FOR MY CASINO YOU BASTARD!
I DONT REMEMBER DIRK OR DAVE BLOWING UP HIS CASINO
31:29 I have a character that’s been trapped by my idk DM. In their writing. Their destiny was to kill thr BBEG, but they kept delaying and delaying and delaying. And they’re so mean to me and … I always just stuck around since I wanted Kettie to win… **and Kettie was based on both Dirk AND Dave together,** my take on their fusion together…
And I can just have them leave now. I always had her trying to save the day. Trying to do something good.
But she never lived for herself, just wanting to be a happy person with no purpose but to aid herself.
God… I… I needed this. So badly.
You set me free. Honestly. I can l go. I can be free from them. From their bullying, their harassment. I can take the character elsewhere, some place they will be loved, and I can, if I ever choose to, write her victory myself.
Thank you.
“And then comes Collide. FUCK THIS ANIMATION-“
excuse me? the hell did you just say????
“IS GOOD.”
ah, i see, carry on then
Collide gets better every time I watch it
@@caseyjarmes ive only recently just finished homestuck ITS SO FUCKING GOOOOOOOOD
@@pancakes4795 It really is
I like your articulation of the striders. A lot of people miss the complex nuance of the characters. Like Dirk is even misunderstood by his friends. Post tricksters we get how he really feels about Roxy and what Roxy thinks he feels about her. He cares a lot but his love language does not match those he cares about so they misunderstand his feelings. He doesn't say it often instead shows his love with actions and gifts. He builds a robot for each of his friends. Brobot for Jake. Lil Seb for Jane. Hal for Roxy. Brobot protects and roughhouses because that is what Jake says he likes. Jake likes brobot but is annoyed that day cuz it is in his way and too much that day similarly to how John likes his dad's cakes but has had eaten enough that day but his dad continues to make more. Being frustrated with someones actions does not mean you hate them or is abuse. People often unfortunately reduce characters and real people to what they said or felt once. Dirk gets more hate by fans cuz words are more easily understood where it is hardly acknowledged that Mom Lalonde was an emotionally neglectful parent a type of abuse, Roxy disregarded Dirk's sexually constantly flirted with while drunk. Ect. We get Dialog from Dirk praising her good qualities. Roxys thinks Dirk sees her as a burden but he chases her dreamwalking self cuz he cares and hates himself instead of blaming her for his sexually. Rose blames herself instead of Mom Lalonde even drinking to connect. They don't have a conversation about their alcoholism or emotional neglect abuse of her childhood. Dave really does get a lot of charcter resolution. While Davesprite even gets to do his planet's quest and sburb stuff. Jasperrose doesn't get to play the rain while Rose rejects the call.
that's kinda how rose is compared to dave, her thing is that she puts a filter on what she says but dave doesn't.
This is a really good video and the commentary is hilarious. It's simple but it gets the job done and that's why I like it lmao.
it's been a while since ive engaged in homestuck stuff but im glad that its still kind of around, i missed it
great video! he was always one of my favorite characters as a teen reading homestuck. looking back i still think he's easily the comic's best character, and i really enjoyed hearing you articulate why
9:35
THE PIROUETTE OFF THE HANDLE
THE TUMBLR POST THE WHOLE REASON I CLICKED THIS VIDEO
HAHA
holy this video is goated
one of the best videos ever about Homestuck
Lore of The Destiny of Dave Strider momentum 100
Your comments on dirk is why the whole ultradirk thing in epilogues make no sense and suck so much
He would literally rather die then to hurt his friends
I'm not shocked by Dirk becoming a bad guy, just disappointed. It's like if a friend of yours who was an alcoholic went back to drinking after five years of sobriety. It makes sense. It just sucks
@caseyjarmes Yeah you really put the feeling into words
I think davepeta^2 works . Cuz nepeta main trait is love so dave came to accept himself. Nepeta i dont think hated herself so davesprite felt self love for the first time along with understanding he was indeed heroic. That he is the hero he thinks he is and no longer a less dave. Both coming to terms with a new life of self acceptance and becoming a hero their own way. Through self sacrifice. That being one of the things they have in common. I have two others i can think of and it being irony,and trying to keep friends together. Like nepeta is just as cringey as dave tries to joke about. Nepeta having her weird ship wall but it was a way of her trying to make her friends get along. Dave always trying to maintain his coolness for his friends. Idk if this made any sense just i did understood why they fused being a simp for nepeta.
OK but with Dave landing the final blow on lord English.
doesn't Lil call essentially count as him?
it's the mixing pot that houses his true original soul. he doesn't have green sun powers or a body, but that's STILL lord English in some fashion
It's like a pokemon evolution line
Lil Cal evolves into Doc Scratch, Doc Scratch evolves into Lord English
well yeah but dave doesn't hate lil cal as much as his bro
I really fucking want that dirk video now.
Six weeks
Watching this at four in the morning, haven’t even gotten close to the end of Homestuck yet
I love my silly little traumatized time boy
The tone is well curated in Homestuck for the first portion, so we basically don't know to realize a lot of things until retrospect, like the abuse Dave experienced, but it applies to everything in general.
Kinda like how you're not supposed to be disturbed by the multiple episodes of Rugrats where Tommy is abducted. Its just funny cartoon characters being silly, right? We're not going *there,* right?
Its something that Homestuck could only "get away with" due to its scale and webcomic format.
Its incredible how it doesn't just wind up feeling like a bait and switch
This video is pretty Cool B)
@@FunkMcLovin it would be better if I just started talking about shrek 2 for ten minutes B)
@@caseyjarmes Casey do you think Shrek 1 or Shrek 2 is a better film
@@FunkMcLovin any sensible person thinks shrek 2 is better
@@caseyjarmes 🤝
playing heir of grief at the end did not make me feel any better god damn 😭💔
thank you man seriously
no, you cant get me into homestuck, no, no, NOOOOO
you can’t fight the homestuck bro
I agreed with a lot of your points in this video, but I admittedly was exctied to hear more about your thoughts on Davebot and post-beyond-dubious whatever canon. The way you put it, it seems like you think both Dave and Dirk's arcs in homestuck were resolved in a satisfactory way, and wether you believe Beyond Canon "counts" or not, I would like to hear what you think about it being an addition to the story, and Dave's character. If Dave finally overcame his trauma (alledgedly) and Dirk finally let go, then why did it all end up not mattering? Do you think Beyond Canon "ruined" Dave and Dirk's arc, or is it setting up for a greater resolution? I would love to hear your thoughts on this!!
I am working on a ~2 hour video essay on the Epilogues as we speak, planned for 4/13.
Dirk becoming evil is a regression of his character, but not one that feels unrealistic. It reminds me of when Barney on the Simpsons became a drunk again; disappointing, but understandable that it could happen. Epilogues Dirk is a really well written and interesting villain, so overall I'm fine with it.
Dave continues to be over his trauma and in Meat and starts a healthy relationship, which is nice. Him backsliding in Candy due to years of loneliness is tragic. Candy Dave is left desperate for purpose, so he goes back to being a hero, e. It's a really interesting idea and I hope the new writing team does something good with it.
For both of them, I was happy with how their arcs ended, but I am okay with the ways they are being continued.
This video was actually inspired by the first time I read the Epilogues, to work on the video about it. At the end of Meat, Dirk talks about how he is a terrible villian who Dave is eventually going to have to kill, and that made me think about Dave's character arc and how fucked up it is that Dirk wants to drag Dave back into being a hero.
As for if Beyond Canon "counts," I think the central idea that has been hammered again and again is that it does count. A bunch of characters, like Dirk, Vriska, Rose, and John for most of Candy, treat the Epilogues world and the things they do as pointless. For example, Rose treats the war as a game and cheats on Kanaya, because she thinks nothing really matters. But, the whole point of Candy is John realizing that the world around him and the people who live in it are real. His arc is about getting over his depression-fueled isolation and treating the Dubious Canon world as real. I'm rambling but I'll explain it better in April.
@@caseyjarmes you are getting me very excited about this video essay. I agree with you that Dirks regression is definitely viable, its just a lot of people hate it because it is so...tragic. Like the conversation he had with dave in homestuck and him getting decapitated was supposed to be the "happy" or at least "satisfying" ending, where everyone learns to overcome themselves. but when he ends up regressing amyway, i actually found that made him so much more real, or like he was way more of a believable character. thats what i like so much about homestuck, i think. keep up the awesome work!! just found your videos, so sad i havent seen them before. i will be going on a binge later lol
dave strider
Yep that’s his name
@@caseyjarmes love him and love the video, im really hoping you get those views to make a video on terezi, but if you ever have anything more to say about the striders man i so here for it
This is some good shit. Thank you for the video.
Another amazing essay doing justice for an awesome character! Loved every single minute of It, looking foward to what you have to say about the epilogues. Now as a side note, what do you think of karkat?
I haven’t read Karkat’s sections in years, but from what I remember, I wasn’t satisfied with the ending of his arc. I remember it focusing heavily on him failing as a leader, and maybe him being kicked out of the fight at the end is supposed to be him moving past that, but I don’t think it gets handled that well. That said, he is a very funny character who has a ton of depth who I like
@@caseyjarmes i honestly agree that his ending wasn't as good as It should've. The way i see It, his arc peaked in act 5 act 2 (good i love this act) where we see him finally accepting that he screwed UP as both a leader, a sburb player, and even as a friend and desperately trying to make UP for It, putting an end to gamzee's rampage and preventing another bloodshed with the remaining trolls (atleast until game over), resolving this issue not with violence and brute force (as It was expected and relished by alternian society) but with reason and shoosh papping, cuz he wont allow his friends to die (until game over that IS).
tbh, when dave and bros relationship was introduced origionally, i knew it seemed abusive, but pushed it to the side. later on i found put my suspisions where true and cried. i feel so bad for dave.
It's a video about dave but GOD i love dirk he's just- everything is so wrong about him i see him and i feel the pain of his existence being crazy about control and not being in control of yourself because if he was he wouldn't be such a terrible person (which he's not, but he thinks he is)
And epilogues are expanding on that, he's tired of trying being a good person and constantly judging himself so he just gave in. He found something to actually hate himself, not just his existence but actual actions. And now he just want to die.
God, he hates himself so much he actually died of suicide because he sees himself worthy of just death.
Tbh I kinda think Dave is cool for real.
Pretty cool video!
But i can only think about poor innocent Spades Slick now.
It's also appropriate because Nepeta is a girl troll who's entire character is all about relationships that Caliborn killed off because he feared that she would take his favorite boytoys away. literally the fusion of everything Caliborn loves (A heroic version of Dave) and hates.
Welp, looks like we made it to 20k views!
Looking forward to that Terezi video 👌
same
Amazing analysis!
great vid
Damn, Dave is literally me
Great essay!
Great video!!!
I think the reason Bro Strider isn't intially seen as abusive is because of the pacing of information being given to the reader. Bro is introduced as simply "Bro", thus implying him to be dave's brother, in which case the severity of what he did is greatly lessened (he's just being a shitty older brother, nothing else). However, when it's revealed that Bro is Dave's father and only guardian, Bro is a lot less connected to Dave, mainly just doing his own thing until he eventually dies. Its only later, in hindsight (or in that one interaction with Dave/Dirk), that the two pieces of info are put together, as up until this point, the reader only either sees "Bro is abusive towards Dave" and "Bro is Dave's only guardian" together, thus revealing the truth about Dave's living conditions.
I mean Bro would still technically be abusive it's just that the parents would be there still if he weren't the only guardian
If you multiply this video's view count by 5, then that means you have to make the Terezi video. There are 5 letters in your first name. There are at least 5 acts in Homestuck [maybe more]. I have 5 fingers on my right hand, and also my left.
Coincidence? I think not.
Terezi video when.
dave strider my close good friend
This was very good
2:02 YOU DONT DISS LIL CAL LIKE THAT!!
“So they can become happily ever after” *checks time*
*Its not even half of the video*
Oh.
Aw yeah it's Terepi time!...in a few months...
so basically, dave is gohan?
I mean kinda?
loooved this
Now that I really think about it...John is the only one of the beta kids with a DECENT guardian.
Bro is abusive, Mom is an alcoholic, and Jade is taken care of by a literal dog.
Dad is just proud of John and was trying to support what he thought his son was into :c
Hey so how would you write homestuck I wonder this because you seem very know about homestuck more then me
To be honest, I don’t think anyone but Andrew Hussie could write Homestuck. That’s not to say the comic doesn’t have writing problems (it does), but anything I wrote would not be Homestuck, because Homestuck is such a specific and stylized work
lol that ending
Are you making a video about ultra dirk or are gonna wait until they finish homestuck beyond canon and see what path they decide to take
I'm going to talk extensively about Ultimate Dirk in my next video, although my analysis will be incomplete until BC ends
28k views later i need that terezi vid
@@georgebrown319 currently writing
Bro is abusive? In the same comic were John is attacking his dad with a hammer, and rose keeps saying she'll kill herself?
4:13 I mean mom is still an alcoholic she's not as bad as bro but she's far from as dad. (She was pushing gin into roses face for goodness)
Yeah that’s fair
hell yeah
there's a world were nepeta replaced vriska
What a tragic world
Yay dave
I think your interpretation of the ending is kind of a loaded question. You say that they escape the universe and never go back to fight lord english but how do you know that? The snapchat scene clearly shows caliborn taunting john and him giving in and fulfilling the events that were supposed to happen, ie them going back to fight LE. I dont think Vriska spends all of eternity in a staredown either.
FUCK this video is amazing!
Sooooooo terezi video when????
25 days remain...