#dirk.pdf

Hey, quick question. What time portal did you fall out of? Why are you here in the year of our lord 2023 honest to god saying that if a man isn’t immediately attracted to the women around him, that means he isn’t attracted to women at all?

This is so painfully 2005. Dirk never once says he isn’t attracted to women. He just isn’t attracted to Roxy, because he sees her as a sister. Maybe he isn’t into Jane because she isn’t his type. We literally don’t know that. The only person to ever say he isn’t into women is Roxy, who said that because he kept turning down her advances… Which is… You know… A bad thing to do? Did you guys forget that calling someone gay because they aren’t accepting your advances is a common move that douchebags make to meter their own feelings of rejection? Are you, like, so afraid to admit that Roxy might’ve done something wrong that you started participating in the literal homophobic tactics of forcing a label on someone that they expressly said they don’t want or identify with?

My main opinion on Dirk is that Dirk does not function as a standalone character. There needs to be a secondary character for him to respond to for him to not fall totally flat. Sometimes that character is Hal, sometimes it's Roxy, sometimes it's Caliborn, sometimes it's Jane, so on and so forth.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's completely fine to have a character that works best as part of a dynamic... But that is not a limitation that Hal has, and Hal has a lot more going on with his character than "Suicidal Queer Teen". I don't have much interest in Suicidal Queer Teen. That was me. There's not even really an interesting twist on it, he's kinda just a regular Suicidal Queer Teen. Hal's got a lot of baked in philosophical questions about what it means to be human, though, and that's something I can actually work with.

Dirk not functioning very well as a standalone character also means that a lot of explorations of him as a character are more or less explorations of his relationships, typically with Jake, almost always romantic. Dirk being a Suicidal Queer Teen means that when an exploration is standalone, it's often bordering on fetishistic in its portrayal of queer suffering and poor mental health. Either way, the vibe is always downright voyeuristic, and I'm just not much of a fan. Voyeurism is a strong theme with the Striders, stemming from their ties to the Saw franchise. I don't mind that, that's intentional within the confines of the writing of the comic itself... But when fans are doing it by way of their fan material being like that, it's not an act serving a grand narrative purpose, because we are real people and not a part of the arcs of the Striders, nor are we set up as extradiegetic elements helping to carry the overarching themes of their characters. We are just human beings doing voyeurism through the means of fiction.

I keep seeing it in classpecting posts (which are years old tbf) and imo, splinters are a Dirk thing, not a Heart thing.

I mean, if Heart is the aspect of the True Self, then it makes sense for Dirk as a Prince to destroy it and have multiple selves. But Nepeta, for example, never struggles with this? Nor Meulin?

The only other self Nepeta has is her role-playing persona, which she doesn't really struggle with, and her Dream Self which I think was awake on Prospit before the start of the game.

Unless you count Fefetasprite and Davepetasprite, and she seems happy as both.

I feel like sometimes fans only look at Dirk to define Heart and forget that Nepeta also was a Heart player, or that Dirk had a Destroyer class.

What the hell?

Yeah, this is absolutely a problem caused by what I like to call “Strider Bias”. Dirk is very, very frequently used as the sole reference for analysis of Heart as an Aspect, with complete disregard for the fact that he is a Prince. It’s such an issue within Classpect Analysis that even the Official Extended Zodiac Site fucked this up.

Splinters are a Dirk only problem, stemming from his specific manifestation of him being a Prince of Heart. This is because Heart is the Aspect of the True Self, and Prince is a Destructive Class. He expresses this by fragmenting his soul- or his self- into “Splinters” and scattering them elsewhere. This is not something that other Heart players have to deal with, because the nature of their relationship with Heart is not inherently Destructive. Destruction of Heart is needed for Splintering. That is in the very nature and title of the ability.

Earnestly, Spriting does not count towards Splintering unless what was put within the Sprite… Was ALREADY a Splinter. Davepetasprite^2 and Fefetasprite are not Splinters of Nepeta. They’re just Sprites that happen to have Nepeta in them, who happens to be a Heart player. No one’s saying Erisolsprite is a Splinter of Sollux or Eridan, nor that Davesprite is a Splinter of Dave or the crow. That side of the argument falls apart when you consider that the Heartbound aren’t the only people that get Sprited.

Yeah, Dave's accent probably isn't too terribly strong. It's definitely there, but it's not cowboy thick. No one comments on it, and the most we get as far as implication that he has one is that he says "Y'all" when speaking aloud. He doesn't use it over text, but he does use it in verbal conversation. Strictly in verbal conversation.

I swear to God I don't mean this to sound mean, but... I don't think there's any profound "purpose", because I don't think they parallel in any profound way at all. Similarities between the two are incredibly surface level, and I'm not really of the opinion that Dirk and Jake own the themes/motifs "being paralleled" or anything.

Typically the explanation for DirkJake/RufUss paralleling each other is that they're both Gay Relationships that have Communication Issues, and there's something in there relating to Decapitation. That's... It, though? Sure, that's a parallel in the technical sense, but there's nothing deep to it. Plenty of other things in Homestuck share one of those traits, and it doesn't really mean much. Hell, I'd attribute Horuss and Rufioh being a gay relationship with communication problems to Hussie genuinely just not handling gay relationships and characters all that well, rather than them being some god-tier writer.

YOU UNDERSTAND. YOU UNDERSTAND COMPLETELY.

Saw is one of my favorite movies ever. It was my first hyperfixation. And let me tell you, I don’t think you can earnestly fully understand the Striders without watching Saw. ESPECIALLY Dave. It’s so intrinsic to their characters it’s terrifying.

A lot of people tend to skip out on watching Saw for the sake of the Striders because they think it’s just a gore fest with no breaks- I assure you it’s not. Saw (2004) is an intensely psychological indie horror film and it’s a brilliant fucking movie. There’s a damn good fucking reason why it was an absolute pop culture phenomenon in the 2000’s.

Honestly, this is doing Caliborn a disservice. At least when Caliborn writes retellings, it’s fucking hilarious in it’s awfulness. He isn’t exactly known as a writer of what I like to call misery porn.

Agreed on the victimhood aspect, though. It’s so cruel to Dirk and Jane as characters for no particular reason. I know with Dirk in particular it felt like such a huge slap in the face to make him a villain- after all, his entire function as a character was… You know, being deathly afraid of becoming a bad person? Fighting against becoming anything like Bro? Ult!Dirk is exhibiting Vriska behavior with his fear of irrelevance. Not Dirk behavior. I think Dirk would want nothing more than to just have a quiet existence. From my knowledge, anyway. Then again, I’m no expert on ult!Dirk or Dirk in general, that’s more @falsehood-rising’s job. (Give him a follow.)