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For the post-scratch version of this character, see Dirk Strider.
This article refers to a character often simply referred to as Bro. He is not to be confused with Sweet Bro or Dirk's Bro.

Dirk Strider is Dave Strider's ectobiological father and adoptive older brother. He shared a fierce sibling rivalry with his younger brother and raised him harshly, to the point of his behavior being considered abuse by Andrew Hussie. Though Dave imitated him and never questioned his methods, this idolship is broken as Dave matures and realizes Dirk's faults, especially in raising him. In this respect his relationship with Dave is inversion of those of John, Rose, and to an extent Jade Harley with their respective guardians.

Biography[]

As a Guardian[]

While initially introduced as Dave's brother, Dirk is actually a paradox clone of himself sent back in time as an infant from the present. He also provided half of the DNA of both Dave Strider and Rose Lalonde, which was combined with Roxy's through Ectobiology. As a twist, he was waiting for the arrival of his cloned infant brother at the remains of his favorite record shop,HS holding a small pair of outrageously awesome shades. Dave described his brother as having been on Earth with Lil Cal for 30 some yearsHS, making him likely somewhere between 17 and 26 years old, when he first adopted his ectobiological son.

Dirk runs many "ironic" websites, including a paysite for implied pornographic material involving puppets. His apartment has many hidden webcams in it, which seem to be set to record any disconcertingly erotic event involving puppets in the area. Interestingly, not all of bro's puppets are hip-hop-based and a good number of them seem to have more to do with sex than rapping; many are nude, except for skimpy leather clothing, and a lot of pictures feature oddly censored out areas.

His websites are very popular, at least the pornographic ones, as implied by the many chat usersHS on it and the fact that it's been described as a multi-billion dollar business. Dave far later elaboratesHS, however, that Bro had made porn bots to just talk to each other in a chatroom endlessly, and that he made similar bots to help prop up his various "enterprises". Such bots in real life are often referred to as "sockpuppet accounts", which coincidentally reflects Dirk's interests.

He seems to have multiple strife specibi in his strife portfolio. It appears as though he uses his blade when he's seriously bringing the pain, but when he absolutely has to represent in a display of sheer dominance he uses Lil Cal to ruin his opponent's shit. Dirk has shown incredible abilities in combat both with Lil Cal and his own katana. During both rounds 1 and 2 of Strife with Dave, he manages to not only dodge but counter most, if not all, of Dave's attacks, appearing to never get hit once while landing almost all of his attacks. Dirk also shows a higher degree of ninja speed than previously expected, as he is able to not only predict but counter all of Dave's attacks ahead of time at one point, making it appear that he is fighting when it's really just an after-image that Dave battles while Bro waits safely on the sidelines. Dirk is the only guardian to blatantly attack his charge. During the Final Round of his battle against Dave, he defeats Dave in one slash, cleaving Dave's cheap piece of shit sword in two as well as destroying Lil Cal in the process. He owns a red, flame-patterned Rocket Board that is propelled by small rockets. It has a similar design to John's Rocket Pack and other rocket equipment in the trolls' session. Dirk flies away on the board after defeating Dave. Later, the board rescues Dream Lil Cal and travels to the ectobiology lab. John is sent back to the Land of Wind and Shade on the board by the Authority Regulator as the Reckoning begins.

Bro helps Dave with his entrance to the Medium. As Dave tries to get back the Cruxite Egg, Dirk buys him time by cutting the giant meteor heading for Dave in two. As Dave falls, he is saved by Dirk's hoverboard and the egg hatches, sending them to the Medium.

In the Medium[]

Within the Medium, Dirk has been seen taking on and presumably wrecking the shit of a massive tentacled underling. He later battles with Jack Noir after Jack slaughters The Armies of Light and Darkness and destroys the chain that attaches Prospit to its moon. They battle upon the giant Beat Mesa, and they seem almost matched in power. Dirk plunges his sword into the platform, causing it to crack. It is later revealed that he most likely attempted to initiate the scratch.

Bro jack noir turntable fight battle

Dirk fighting Jack Noir on the Scratch construct.

Davesprite notes that Dirk is impossible to keep track of, and Terezi says that Dave never sees him between his entry to the Medium and the scratch. Dirk uses Dave's second gate to get to John's house, stealing back his rocket board. Jack removes Dirk's sword from the platform and returns it to him in the Land of Wind and Shade. The two of them begin to duel, but to Jack's surprise he attacks him with Lil Cal, and Davesprite joins the battle. Jack is enraged, possibly due to being denied a proper duel, and proceeds to set the oil rivers of LOWAS on fire.

Bro and Cal

Dirk and Lil Cal.

After Jade's entry to the Medium, Jack Noir's fourth prototyping unfortunately allows him to kill Dirk and injure Davesprite with ease. He puts on Dirk's shades and takes Lil Cal. Interestingly, Dirk is impaled with his own sword, which goes through his chest and into the floor of the platform he was on, indicating Jack killed him while he was already down as well as echoing Dirk's previous actions where he absconded with his sword impaled in the Beat Mesa. Dave later told Jade he knew about Dirk's demise, explaining that he always felt like he had a really strange relationship with his Bro/Dad, but it amounted to a kind of kinship in a way. Dave also said when he found Dirk's body, he thought about taking the sword, but felt it was too weird and decided to leave it where it was. Although later, in a conversation with Terezi, he claims it would be easier and cleaner to take out horizontally and launches off of it in a attempt to prove it and then just lays there with his shades aside, presumably in his form of mourning.

Personality and Traits[]

Bro adopting Dave

Dirk giving Dave his first pair of sunglasses.

Dirk is obsessed with puppets and has decorated his apartment with them. His collection includes both paintings of them and various marionettes, dressed in super cool gangster/pimp clothing. In contrast to John and Rose's disgust for their guardians' obsessions, Dave thought his Dirk's puppets were very cool, but has mentioned to Rose that they're starting to unsettle him. Bro has one signature ventriloquism puppet he uses to rap and is never far from: Lil Cal. He enjoys playing mind games and is stealthy like a ninja. He is a master of different kinds of Modi. He knows how to weaponize a Sylladex, and according to Dave, the two brothers often have "hashrap" battles, where they insert keywords into rap to launch the contents of their sylladices at each other.

Dirk seemed to lack any sense of self-awareness or empathy in his methods in preparing Dave for Sburb (or whatever he was preparing him for exactly, if anything at all), such as his tendency to deprive Dave of food and deliver constant physical abuse, which Dave later describes as totally sociopathicHS in nature and believes he saw raising a child as a game, or some form of top-tier irony. He holds martial prowess and fighting above all else besides puppets, as he started Dave's training when he was just a baby. Many of his interactions with Dave only involve violence and his constant poker face is never broken by body language, to the point that Dave likens him to a robot. He never shows anything resembling remorse for his parenting methods, which correlates with Dave taking years to realize exactly how bad his situation was. It's implied that Lil Cal's influence played some factor into his behavior; considering that Lil Cal has been able to mentally destabilize other people in mere seconds and Dirk spent over 30 years with him, this is practically confirmed.

Aside from rapping and over the top violence, Dirk also took to creating chatbots that he would have autonomously bid for his obtuse smuppet pornography as a means to generate money. According to Dave, these chatbots would always be almost, but not quite at the precipice of becoming self-aware. His post-scratch self likened the hobby to taking care of a flock of pigeons. This predilection towards creating intelligent programs is not dissimilar to his post-scratch's own vested interests in robotics and artificial intelligence, as well as his creation of his self-aware Auto-Responder.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • At one point, Dirk was addressed as a "white rapper" by John. This was temporarily changed to glitch characters in an effort to promote the idea of araciality in the comic, similar to the retcon of Jane saying she felt "peachy" instead of "Caucasian."
  • The passwordHS for his computer was confirmed to be "lilcal".
  • Dirk's desktop backgroundHS is part of a panel from And It Don't Stop.
  • His sewing skills are functional, but poorly executed in comparison to other professionals, as shown with his repair job on Cal.
  • Dirk is the "Knight of Swords" in the Homestuck tarot card deck.
  • Dirk's sweet shades are, according to John, "dumb pointy anime shades"HS. As stated by Hussie his sunglasses are a "retroactive reference" to the famous shades worn by Kamina from the anime Gurren Lagann, who is considered a brother and role model for the show's young, heroic protagonist Simon, who frequently calls him "bro", although they are not biologically related.
    • Kamina and Dirk also both use Japanese swords; Dirk uses a katana while Kamina uses a nodachi.
    • Fingerless gloves are also an overused design element in many anime (including Pokémon), furthering the perception of Dirk as being "anime themed".
    • However, Hussie has said that he has never actually seen the show.


Homestuck Characters
Pre-scratch
Kids
Heir of Breath Breath Aspect Seer of Light Light Aspect Knight of Time Time Aspect Witch of Space Space Aspect
JohnLogo John Egbert RoseLogo Rose Lalonde DaveLogoSlashed Dave Strider JadeLogo Jade Harley
ectoBiologist [EB]
ghostyTrickster [GT]
tentacleTherapist [TT] turntechGodhead [TG] gardenGnostic [GG]
Post-scratch
Kids
Maid of Life Life Aspect Rogue of Void Void Aspect Prince of Heart Heart Aspect Page of Hope Hope Aspect
JaneLogo Jane Crocker RoxyLogo Roxy Lalonde DirkLogo Dirk Strider JakeLogo Jake English
gutsyGumshoe [GG] tipsyGnostalgic [TG] timaeusTestified [TT] golgothasTerror [GT]
Post-scratch
Trolls
Maid of Time Time Aspect Page of Breath Breath Aspect Mage of Doom Doom Aspect Knight of Blood Blood Aspect
Aries Aradia Megido Taurus Tavros Nitram Gemini Sollux Captor Cancer Karkat Vantas
apocalypseArisen [AA] adiosToreador [AT] twinArmageddons [TA] carcinoGeneticist [CG]
Rogue of Heart Heart Aspect Sylph of Space Space Aspect Seer of Mind Mind Aspect Thief of Light Light Aspect
Leo Nepeta Leijon Virgo Kanaya Maryam Libra Terezi Pyrope Scorpio Vriska Serket
arsenicCatnip [AC] grimAuxiliatrix [GA] gallowsCalibrator [GC] arachnidsGrip [AG]
Heir of Void Void Aspect Bard of Rage Rage Aspect Prince of Hope Hope Aspect Witch of Life Life Aspect
Sagittarius Equius Zahhak Capricorn Gamzee Makara Aquarius Eridan Ampora Pisces Feferi Peixes
centaursTesticle [CT] terminallyCapricious [TC] caligulasAquarium [CA] cuttlefishCuller [CC]
Pre-scratch
Trolls
Witch of Time Time Aspect Rogue of Breath Breath Aspect Heir of Doom Doom Aspect Seer of Blood Blood Aspect
Aries Damara Megido Taurus Rufioh Nitram Gemini Mituna Captor Kankri Vantas
Mage of Heart Heart Aspect Maid of Space Space Aspect Knight of Mind Mind Aspect Sylph of Light Light Aspect
Leo Meulin Leijon Virgo Porrim Maryam Libra Latula Pyrope Scorpio Aranea Serket
Page of Void Void Aspect Prince of Rage Rage Aspect Bard of Hope Hope Aspect Thief of Life Life Aspect
Sagittarius Horuss Zahhak Capricorn Kurloz Makara Aquarius Cronus Ampora Pisces Meenah Peixes
Cherubs
Muse of Space Space Aspect Lord of Time Time Aspect
Calliope symbol Calliope (Alt) Caliborn symbol Caliborn
uranianUmbra [UU] undyingUmbrage [uu]
Guardians
Dad Roxy Lalonde
(pre-scratch)
Dirk Strider
(pre-scratch)
Becquerel
God Cat Rose Lalonde
(post-scratch)
Dave Strider
(post-scratch)
Brobot
Supporting
Characters
Jane Egbert Jaspers Lil Cal Jake Harley
John Crocker Mutie Lil Hal Jade English
Sprites
Nannasprite Jaspersprite Calsprite
Davesprite
Jadesprite
Tavrisprite
Gcatavrosprite
Fefetasprite
Jasprosesprite^2
Arquiusprite Erisolsprite
Davepetasprite^2
Carapacians /
Exiles
Wayward Vagabond Peregrine Mendicant Aimless Renegade Windswept Questant Writ Keeper
Agents
Jack Noir (B2) (Dead Session) Draconian Dignitary (B2) Hegemonic Brute Courtyard Droll
Midnight Crew
Spades Slick Diamonds Droog Hearts Boxcars Clubs Deuce
The Felt
Lord English Doc Scratch Snowman
Denizens
Typheus Cetus Hephaestus Echidna
Hemera Nix Yaldabaoth Abraxas
Consorts
Salamanders Turtles Crocodiles Iguanas
Underlings
Imps Ogres Basilisks Liches Giclopses
Other Black QueenBlack KingSkaian armiesGenesis FrogLususAncestors (The Condesce)HorrorterrorsBetty CrockerColonel SassacreCaseyGuy FieriInsane Clown PosseMaplehoofRambunctious CrowHalleySerenityMSPA ReaderMs. PaintAndrew HussieSawtoothSquarewaveHis Honorable TyrannyCalliope and Caliborn's parentsAngelsFantrolls
Pesterquest
The Player Mspa icon MSPA reader
Pesterable Homestuck characters
Volume 1 JohnLogo John Egbert
Volume 2 RoseLogo Rose Lalonde
Volume 3 DaveLogo Dave Strider
Volume 4 JadeLogo Jade Harley
Volume 5 Cancer Karkat VantasVirgo Kanaya Maryam
Volume 6 Capricorn Gamzee MakaraScorpio Vriska Serket
Volume 7 Sagittarius Equius ZahhakLibra Terezi Pyrope
Volume 8 Taurus Tavros NitramAries Aradia Megido
Volume 9 Leo Nepeta LeijonGemini Sollux Captor
Volume 10 Aquarius Eridan AmporaPisces Feferi Peixes
Volume 11 JaneLogo Jane Crocker
Volume 12 JakeLogo Jake English
Volume 13 RoxyLogo Roxy Lalonde
Volume 14 DirkLogo Dirk Strider
Supporting Characters DadRose's MomCryptid McWhiskersDave's BroBecquerelLusiiBoldir LamatiKarako PierotMarvus XolotoDoc ScratchThe CondesceBrobotRoxy's MomThe Director
Earth Locations Egbert and Crocker homeLalonde homeStrider homePacific islandHalf-Harley Manor
Alternia Locations Karkat's hiveKanaya's hiveGamzee's hiveVriska's hiveEquius's hiveTerezi's hiveTavros's hiveAradia's hiveNepeta's hiveSollux's hiveEridan's hiveFeferi's hiveOutglutDoc Scratch's Tower
Related Concepts HomestuckThe Homestuck EpiloguesHiveswap Friendship SimulatorTrollPesterchumThe TreasureChumroll
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