For fucked up shit

Dirk never actually treats her as an equal, but the difference between how he treats her and everyone else is just that big. He's so needlessly cruel to every other character, but with Rose he switches from this poetic reverence when she's interacting with him, to bragging about how much she loves him and making sex jokes about her when he talks about her with others. I think she might be the only character he never directly insults?

Also I will forever love how this line makes no fucking sense unless you are huffing the same "I need to justify abusing my daughter" fumes as Dirk.

In what world but his is a daughter and her father equals? But thats the thing, he wants to believe they are, because if she isn't then he is doing the "wrong thing" and it isn't "her choice". It's miles upon miles of self justifying bullshit for why grooming his daughter is fine actually and it just so happens his daughter is the type of person to justify this all to herself in equal measure.

Rose equally convinces herself that she is in control, that all of this is her choice, it's something she has been doing at least since she was 13 with Scratch. A belief that if she acknowledges the dangers present, she can't fall victim to their manipulations. But she does fall for them, really, really fucking hard, but acknowledging she doesn't have control would mean giving up the illusion of autonomy and I think the cliff side scene in HSBC is a key example of this.

We don't know yet whether Rose can "hear" his "narration" yet or not but regardless there are many ways she could have noticed him preparing to "take control away" again and thus fawn response kicks in, because if she has to do it either way, she would rather it be of her "own choice" then not.

It is very important to Dirk that he is a "good father" (a provider and protector) and its very important to Rose that she is a "good daughter" (obidient and parentified). I'm not trying to say that they're ""wholesome"" but that the whole point of their relationship is to show that wholesome incest cant exist and to do that, they blend romantic and familial moments in a way that for some reason gets left out of ship content.

No matter how Rose would act with literally any other person, Dirk is her father so she wants him to approve of her. Rose is usually an independant person but when she was at her weakest she wanted one of her parents to be there for her. She lets down her guard around him because she feels bad about thinking bad about her mom. Because she thinks its her duty to help him she puts a lot of effort into comforting him (something her other loved ones think shes bad at, but shes fine doing for him)

Dirk is openly vulnerable around Rose, which is huge. He talks about being lonely and about how much he needs her when he doesnt have to do that at all! Hes complimentary of her and is casually physically affectionate in a way he's never been with another character. Like... obviously he is not good to her or for her but an extremely important part of their relationship is that he is in fact nice to her, in a way he's not for anyone else.

rose, your father is a

caliborn is the literal embodiment of toxic masculinity to the point where you could plausibly argue that all toxic masculinity in the entire homestuck universe can be traced back to his influence

caliborn has no idea what a penis is and is actively hostile to the idea of ever finding out