do you know what this means though ?? listen. listen
dave spends three years examining the ways he’s internalized homophobia and toxic masculinity and explicitly ties those things together and connects them to his fucked up ideas about heroism and how it was keeping him from realizing he was attracted to guys
and bro was a huge factor in that, bro encouraged this exact bullshit by being dave’s primary example of heroism and masculinity and also actively forcing a hypermasculine + hypercompetent persona on him and making him feel inadequate and it fucked him up so bad
this is not to discount societal influence of course but listen. bro, however unintentionally, was instrumental in dave repressing his sexuality. and dave knows it.
and what this means is there’s no way. after that monologue. there is no way dave knew bro was gay.
this WHOLE TIME. HE HAD NO FUCKING IDEA.
he might have suspected but he would have dismissed it when he was younger, and he might have figured it out on the meteor but christ can you imagine if he didn’t?? he’s gonna talk to roxy and she’s gonna casually mention dirk is gay and dave is going to fucking explode
he spent the better part of 13 years fucked up by this and then 3 years working through it and he knows bro is partially to blame for that and bro was gay this WHOLE GODDAMN TIME AND IT’S SO OBVIOUS NOW AND HE’S GOING TO BE SO ANGRY HE NEVER KNEW
(I just wanna add on a slightly different note that bro’s behavior, especially the facets of it you touch on here, are really reminiscent of caliborn and I’m reminded strongly of that post going around about li'l cal’s theoretical influence on bro)
not sure how i feel about the upd8….i think like john i feel like there were too many ‘deep’ conversations in what was meant to be a friendly bro meet up. too much at once, methinks
I think we can all agree this isn’t Terezi at all. Terezi doesn’t stutter or stall for time. Terezi isn’t hesitant. Terezi doesn’t accept Vriska’s words just like that.
If this Terezi hasn’t been through three years of a bad relationship with Gamzee, then she’s gone through three years of something different that’s left her a bit too compliant to my liking. :/
it’s so hilarious to me tho that like. a lot of the reason that shit went badly on the meteor was due to puberty and everyone’s self-imposed isolation of themselves that made for a huge lack of communication that allowed for things like rose’s alcoholism & gamzee and terezi’s relationships to slide under the radar and fester but like
vriska doesn’t have those issues?? she’s so self obsessed and in love with herself that she doesn’t spiral into self loathing like everyone else and no one can isolate themselves because vriska believes that her presence is always wanted and ends up inserting herself into everyone’s lives
and i just. i can’t believe vriska’s insufferably huge ego ended up helping everyone instead of putting them all on a path marked for certain doom
hussie needed to get a bunch of different artists to help in that flash because hes physically unable to draw people being happy and living worthwhile lives
Caliborn’s weird homogay crush on Dirk. Is a thing.
And then he got to spend years, years with Dirk.
And part of Cal’s personality knew
EXACTLY
how to fuck with him.
I take back everything bad I’ve ever said about Bro. The fact that Bro didn’t outright molest/murder Dave is a FUCKING MIRACLE.
Magnets and rainbows all up ins.
The implications. I cannot deal with this. No wonder Bro wanted to train Dave so hard. No fucking wonder Bro was always drawing creepy-ass comics about “wanting to play a game.” No wonder when Davesprite prototyped him, all Calsprite did was laugh.
Caliborn was finally able to get Dirk to draw whatever he wanted for him. Whenever he wanted.
I am now and forever creeped out by the idea of Lil Cal compelling Bro to flash step him everywhere. Like Cal’s living some kind of fucked up half life through Bro/Dirk. His very favorite person and weirdo crush. The guy who he just happens to have a soul shard of sharing his creepy puppet body. *shudder*
Just look at their apartment and the things Dave goes out of his way to voice his desperate, brittle acceptance of. The puppets, creepy comics, and mind games scream Caliborn. The barrage of phallic imagery that was wildly inappropriate for a child is pretty Eq, not to mention the creeping miasma of sexuality that was just… urgh. Then add the sticky film of fear (chucklevoodoos) and anger/rage trickling from Gamzee. Finally, the way it all meshed perfectly together with Bro since AR would know exactly how to get in Bro’s head (BEING A SHARD OF HIS SOUL AND ALL) and you’ve got a perfect storm of the worst thing I’ve ever had the misfortune to think about. The training and the physical abuse ramped up to 11 and done with a totally unequal power dynamic (unlike the also uncool but not nearly as fucked up Dirk and Jake situation) also seems very AR/Caliborn-like. That’s not even to mention both Eq’s and AR’s thing for control, and the issues ALL FOUR (well, three and a half, haha) people in there have with the color red and fuck, Dave is amazingly lucky to have made it out of there alive.
And UGH. Caliborn’s thing for platonic affection, the normal kind
of affection you’d give a child so that they grew up healthy. No wonder
Bro has minimal contact with Dave, Lil Cal’s influence would get all
kinds of wires crossed. The only non-evil solution would be to forgo
physical affection all together.
Also, lets consider, Caliborn’s first and foremost talent has always been his dominating personality. I have no doubt he would have been the dominating presence in Lil’ Cal. With just a touch of Gamzee’s ability to get in people’s heads… I’m upset just thinking about it. After lord knows how long of being exposed to him it’s amazing that Bro wasn’t a shambling husk that existed to do Cal’s bidding. The biggest, strongest, prettiest (that crush is still a thing) puppet ever, just for Caliborn. Bro was kind of half way there, but he somehow managed to mostly protect Dave from it which… I’m crying. Maybe Caliborn didn’t want to influence Dave so much or maybe the shades helped. Maybe Bro had a kind of subconscious idea of what was happening to him, I don’t know.
But he wouldn’t really have any way to fight it, not with Gamzee’s powers and Caliborn’s force of personality. It’s so messed up and sad, and it explains SO MUCH. And the way everyone just… desperately didn’t notice Cal was KILL IT WITH FIRE levels of fucked up speaks to a touch of voidy don’t notice don’t look magic.
