safersaviour replied to your post “This “Soft Dirk” bullshit being treated as people wanting to soften...”
DirkJake in canon was unhealthy on both sides. For his part, Dirk did smother and pressure Jake until Jake basically fled the relationship. Dirk, of course, took this as validation of his own warped idea of who he was, which led into him jumping at the chance of a fight and the long convo with Dave. Fyi. Dirk Strider is my second favourite character in Homestuck (Dave edges him out). I adore him. And all his flaws.
I try not to doubt people’s feelings about Dirk, no worries- like I’ve said in my writing, I don’t think Dirkjake’s narrative would be outright lesser if Dirk was abusive or Dirk was controlling, and there’s absolutely a powerful narrative to draw from him that way, sure...
It’s just not the one I’m seeing in the story, and I want to bring the one I see to light--if only to be questioned.
Here’s the problem from where I stand:
I’m not sure what you mean by Dirk smothering Jake.
Do you mean the Brobot? If so, Dirk wasn’t trying to control Jake or impose a training regimen on him. He was trying to give Jake what Jake kept saying he wanted--an adventure--and to do so in a way that kept Jake safe. It blew up on him, but at that point it’s not clear Dirk could actually do anything about it. So: not motivated by Dirk as an act of control, but rather one of service.
If you think it’s really about training Jake rather than this motivation, then the question has to be asked: If he’s that ruthless and overbearing, why isn’t Jane getting trained? She’s even more unprepared than Jake, and in pretty much as much danger. The session will challenge her just as much. And yet Lil Seb has none of this Strife functionality.
Jake, by the way, goes on to say he finds the Brobot exciting to Jane in confidence, and BGD later demonstrates Jake came not only to rely upon but believe in Dirk specifically as a protector figure, implying the Brobot itself was a better gift than it initially seemed to either.
Are you including the AR? If so, Dirk had no agency and no moral means of controlling the AR’s behavior, and he actively seems to hate the AR for what it’s doing to Jake.
Do you mean his suffocating behavior in the session? Yes, Dirk fucked up there. Dirk ain’t perfect, and I love his flaws too. But knocking those former two puts him on the level of the other Alphas, not somehow uniquely damaging to Jake.
And it’s notable Dirk was so frantic and stressed BECAUSE of the AR’s behavior, combined with Jake toying with Dirk’s heart by presenting himself as straight and suggesting he and Dirk would be good if Dirk was a girl...and never bothering to clear up the lies with the guy.
Jake didn’t flee because Dirk is Just That Bad and he felt pressured into being with him in the first place. Jake fled because Jake is trying to avoid any possibility of confronting the fact that he might have hurt any of his friends.
And Dirk is too in love with Jake and terrified of hearing the truth (in his mind, that Jake is straight and with him because the AR--who he conflates with himself--bullied him into it) to broach the subject either.
