- For the post-scratch version of this character, see Dirk Strider.
- Not to be confused with Sweet Bro.
Bro is Dave Strider's genetic father, adoptive older brother, and guardian. He shared a fierce sibling rivalry with his younger brother and raised him harshly, to the point of his behavior being confirmed as abuse by Andrew Hussie. Though Dave imitated him and never questioned his methods, this idolship is broken as Dave matures and realizes Bro'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, Bro 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 and Rose, which was combined with Rose's Mom'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, holding a small pair of outrageously awesome shades. This has never been explained, but may have some connection to Grandpa's appearance in The Medium.
Bro 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 users
on it and the fact that it's been described as a multi-billion dollar business. Dave far later elaborates, 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"”.
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. Bro has shown incredible abilities in combat both with Lil Cal and his own katana. During both rounds 1 and 2 of Strife with Dave, Bro 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. Bro 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. Bro 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. Bro 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. Bro 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 Bro buys him time by cutting the giant meteor heading for Dave in two. As Dave falls he is saved by Bro's hoverboard and the egg hatches, sending them to the Medium.
In the Medium
Within the Medium, Bro 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. Bro plunges his sword into the platform, causing it to crack. It is later revealed that he most likely attempted to initiate the scratch.
Dave's Bro fighting Jack Noir on the Scratch construct.
Davesprite notes that Bro is impossible to keep track of, and Terezi says that Dave never sees him between his entry to the Medium and the scratch. Bro uses Dave's second gate to get to John's house, stealing back his rocket board. Jack removes Bro's sword from the platform and returns it to Bro in the Land of Wind and Shade. The two of them begin to duel, but to Jack's surprise Bro 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.
Dave's Bro and Lil Cal.
After Jade's entry to the Medium, Jack Noir's fourth prototyping unfortunately allows him to kill Bro and injure Davesprite with ease. He puts on Bro's shades and takes Lil Cal. Interestingly, Bro 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 Bro's previous actions where he absconded with his sword impaled in the Beat Mesa. Dave later told Jade he knew about Bro'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 Bro'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
Dave's Bro giving Dave his first pair of sunglasses.
Bro 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 Bro'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.
Bro seemed to lack any sense of self-awareness or empathy in his methods in preparing Dave for Sburb, such as his tendency to deprive Dave of food and deliver constant physical abuse, which Dave later describes as totally sociopathic in nature and believes he saw raising a child as a game. 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. It's also implied that Lil Cal's influence played some factor into his behavior.
Bro's sweet shades are, according to John, "dumb pointy anime shades". As stated by Hussie his sunglasses are a "retroactive reference" to the famous shades worn by Kamina from the anime Tengen Toppa 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 Bro also both use Japanese swords; Bro uses a katana while Kamina uses a nodachi. However, Hussie has said that he has never actually seen the show. His shades also resemble the ones that Ash's Squirtle wears in the original Pokémon series, which Ash's Squirtle would only put on when dealing with "personal" business. The shades also resemble those worn by Mama from Johnny Bravo, who himself wears shades very similar to Dave's. Fingerless gloves are also an overused design element in many anime (including Pokémon), furthering the perception of Bro as being "anime themed".
Trivia
- At one point, Dave's bro 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 text currently reads “a white guy who is a rapper”
.
- The text currently reads “a white guy who is a rapper”
- The password for Bro's computer was confirmed to be "lilcal".
- Bro's desktop background 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.
- Bro is the "Knight of Swords" in the Homestuck tarot card deck.
