[...] I’m perfectly aware of what I’ve become in all practical ways. I am the villain now. It’s gotten impossible for me to see this result as anything but inevitable, from the day I was spawned from a puddle of slime. I want to be a good person. I believe I am a good person. But when you’re someone like me, good is never going to be quite good enough.
The problem is, I think power like mine can only make antagonistic intent unavoidable. Who could wield such control over people’s choices and the course of events without ultimately becoming the enemy of anyone who notices? Maybe only a stronger person than I could manage to pull it off.
— The Homestuck Epilogues, Meat 41
I've been thinking a lot about this passage lately because I feel like it's really telling, but not for the reasons Dirk thinks it is.
Because I actually agree that Dirk becoming a villain was a fairly probable outcome — but it's not because of anything inherent to his personality or powers. It's because Dirk himself thinks it's inevitable and acts accordingly.
He can't see any path forward for himself where he's good, so instead he settles for being useful. And if one way he can make himself useful is by becoming the villain the story needs to drive the narrative forward, well. That fits right into his view of what he's destined to be anyway.
