Nah, I think that's exactly the amount of reading you're supposed to do! Dewey's confusion and fascination with things like peaceful family meals and games (that aren't sadistic or meant to harm anyone else in any way), etc. are all supposed to show us this is a departure from his normal, which was anything but.
[CW implications of CSA? Only implications, but.]
(Also, I'm glad someone else sees the completely messed-up dynamic with Buros, the way he cowered, legs trembling underneath him, like a frightened child, when he thought Buros might punish him was so sad--and the messed-up implications and, uh, imagery of that sword and Buros telling him to accept the last of his love. The blowing a kiss gesture. All of it had DARK implications and possibly only flew past the censors because Buros was given such, well, camp mannerisms that it could be seen as just his personality, but while he adores his own beauty and Ririka marring it was a deeply personal insult, he didn't talk so suggestively or flirtratiously with anyone other than Dewey.
Also, the way his voice switched? The way he sent Dewey to his death, but Dewey was first under the impression Buros was being kind and merciful and even gifting him with greater power, rather than stripping him of his body natural alarm system to alert him that he's taken too much damage?! HORRIFIC.
Ahh, thanks! I'm glad to see people enjoy my rambles :D
And yeah, there are some very unsettling implications there. I'm not sure how far it went, I probably don't want to know, but there's definitely some nasty stuff going on in Dark Joker. And while you're right that he didn't talk as suggestively with anyone but Dewey, his interactions with Evil!Kanon, especially while brainwashing him further, seemed to sometimes ring with similar intent, though not as much as with Dewey. If we think back to the episode where Buros first "acquires" Kanon...it's the same episode where he sends Dewey off to die. Dewey and Kanon are similarly aged -- Dewey's 13 and Kanon's 12 iirc -- and it seemed to me like Buros was okay with sending Dewey out to die killing Ririka because he knew he could just replace him with Kanon.
Also, look at Buros's behavior towards Keto, the other minion he's shown interacting with -- he's sterner with him, more demanding, more threatening. He praises Dewey more, offers Dewey a promotion (this "promotion" could very well have been the upgrade that nearly killed him) while simultaneously threatening to behead Keto for repeated failures, even though Dewey's also failed to kill Nurse Angel... I gotta note that Keto, unlike some other Dark Joker members, is most definitely a grown man. Of course, we don't know how long he's been in Dark Joker, how old he was when he joined... Given that Buros was around in the time of the first Nurse Angel, he's been at this planet-killing thing for a long time. Maybe Buros is more dismissive with Keto now because Keto's grown up? That's pure speculation on my part, of course, but it would add another messed up layer to Keto's rivalry with Dewey, as well as how he snaps in episode fourteen.
And meanwhile, Dewey's watching all this go down, he knows he has to stay in Buros's good graces, he knows that Buros can be terrifying when angered, he'll avoid punishment at any cost, and as Buros does some of these creepy things, he's also praising Dewey, telling him he's doing well, could be promoted, that he can rest, he can try again, it's okay...
I'd really like to write some stuff about Dewey learning some normalcy post-series, or during the time when he's part of the squad. I wanna write more stuff about NARSOS in general, tbh. Some stuff exploring the ways moments and characters could be interpreted. Hell, I could do one of those whump bingo cards and make a bunch of NARSOS one-shots, idk
