by @dialmformara

Warning: The content of this post includes child abuse and multiple beheadings.



Dave and Dirk Strider both have Bladekind in their Strife Decks. At a glance, that just means they fight with swords. Of course, nothing is ever that simple, and Dave and Dirk use their respective swords very differently, and in ways that tell us a lot about their personalities and how they fit into the world of Homestuck.

Dave’s Strife Specibus has been Bladekind since before we met him, in contrast with Rose and John, who decide on their Strife Specibi in their introductions. This is because his entire life has been planned out by his sword-wielding Bro (pre-Scratch Dirk). Bro holds Dave to impossible standards of manliness, and used those standards to dominate Dave’s life. (Insert sword/penis metaphor here.) Bro’s dominance is made clear in their Strife, in which Bro breaks not only Dave’s sword–forcing him into ½-bladekind–but also the emblem on Dave’s shirt, metaphorically breaking Dave’s spirit.

After that, Dave starts breaking swords intentionally because he sees himself as broken. Once he’s internalized his apparent brokenness, though, he accepts it and turns breaking swords into a means of rebelling against Bro’s ideals. When Dave has a broken sword, he doesn’t have to be manly or heroic. A hero pulls swords from stones; Davesprite suspects that’s how John would do it. Dave (Edit: and Davesprite) gets Caledfwlch by breaking it instead, rejecting the opportunity the Game has given him to be the hero it wants him to be.

Dirk, meanwhile, takes on the hero role very publicly and dramatically, perhaps to live up to the heroic legends about his timeline’s Dave, or to his friends’ expectations about his competence, or simply to satisfy his need for control. He takes on the leadership of his team, making complicated plans to get everyone out of danger and into the Game. His sword, an Unbreakable Katana, reflects his persona–its pre-Scratch version is even able to damage Scratch Constructs.



Dirk’s sword has always broken Dave’s sword, but things that are broken can be fixed. Dave starts to find a way back to understanding and being okay with himself through his time travel powers. This journey begins when Davesprite gives Dave Caledscratch, a version of Caledfwlch that can be wound forward and backward in time. Dave can use it as a heroically whole sword when he needs it, and keep it broken when he doesn’t want it. He has that choice now, and he tries both ways–the active, time-travel-filled way, and the passive linear way. By the time he reaches the Alpha session, he’s settled on the passive way: he’s not a hero, and he’s begun to resist other people’s efforts to make him more active.



Meanwhile, Dirk’s power and leadership and ability to make things right start to slip away from him. Squabbles between his teammates put more and more distance between him and them. Jake in particular becomes distant as he grows tired of Dirk’s control over their relationship. Even his artificial intelligences, who Dirk has abused almost as badly as Bro abused Dave, start to stand up for themselves and challenge his authority. And then Trickster mode turns everything upside-down, pulling the rug out from under Dirk’s tightly controlled idea of what his session should be like. As Dirk loses control, he becomes terrified that he will die without achieving anything, that he will simply fade out of existence as the useless leader of a void session.

He resists this loss of control, and it shows in his swords: while his teammates give in to the Trickster majyyks and alchemize fantastical juju weapons out of cherub myth, Dirk creates…the Unbreakable Katana. The same sword he’s had all this time.

Dirk and Dave’s meeting before the final battle changes everything. For the first time, the Striders are able to talk to each other as equals. Each learns that the other is not some invincible god-hero, that each has lived too long in the other’s shadow, that Dave is afraid to act and Dirk is afraid to not act. Together they set aside Bro’s toxic masculinity and ironic facade. And they hug. And it is glorious. And then, and only then, are they ready to fight.

Over the course of the conversation, and the battle that follows, Dave learns that it’s okay to act, to be a hero, to use his powers and be responsible for the consequences. Dirk learns that it’s okay to not be a hero, to not be strong all the time, to trust other people and let them take responsibility for some things. And at the moment they both really get it…

Dave’s sword breaks Dirk’s sword.



Dirk has accepted that it’s okay to die. Dave has, in a way, finally defeated Bro. When Hussie brings things full circle, he really brings things full circle.

[Thanks to @krixwell for pointing out that Davesprite also had to break Caledfwlch.]

