- For the pre-scratch version of this character, see Dave's Bro.
Dirk Strider is the post-scratch incarnation of Dave's Bro. Prior to his proper introduction to the reader, he is referred to by Jane as “D. Strider”, and later by Roxy as “di stri”.
Dirk's chumhandle is “timaeusTestified” (“TT”), in line with the rule that post-scratch kids have the same chumhandle abbreviation as the ectobiological sibling of the kid whose pre-scratch guardian they were. This completes the set of chumhandles when added to GT, GG, and TG. He uses the same color text that Davesprite uses, analogous to the fact that Jane and Jake use the same colors as Nannasprite and Jadesprite, respectively. He also signed the book that he sent to Jane in orange pen.
Dirk's web browser, and therefore the name of his denizen, is Yaldabaoth
, given to him by the game due to his natural skills as a warrior.
Biography
Through Act 6 Act 5
Dirk's meteor arrived on Earth sometime during the 25th century, along with Roxy Lalonde. According to this page, he landed in the middle of the ocean with Lil Cal, and used the puppet as a flotation device to somehow get to a house to live in. He grew up alone in the single remaining penthouse apartment of a high-rise building in the now-flooded Houston, Texas. However, he is able to communicate with Jane and Jake (who are living around 4 centuries in the past) and establish Sburb connections with them by means of Trollian.
He, like Jake and Roxy, gave Jane Crocker a bunny for her thirteenth birthday, though he had to build it from scratch, unlike the others. It was ...somewhat less innocuous than the other two bunnies and is such a little troublemaker. His bunny contains the original Con Air bunny which he stole from his Bro's museum.
When he was 13 he somehow obtained a captcha of his brain and used it to create an AI duplicate of himself to use as an auto-responder.
Dream Dirk rising up
His dream self on Derse has apparently been awake for years, much like Dave's was, although Dave was not aware of it. After a little practice, he “learned how to be awake there while awake [on Earth] too.” However, he isn't the world's best multi-tasker, causing him to “zombie the fuck out” whenever he concentrates on things happening dream-side. He has been using his dream self to gather information on Derse, and to watch over Roxy's sleepwalking dream self. His dream self is seen covered in the Hegemonic Brute's blood, having foiled the Batterwitch's assassination attempt. He then chose to reveal his dream self's wakefulness to Derse by publicly impaling the Brute's head through a Dersite banner.
Afterward, Dirk tries to ascend to his roof, but is sidetracked by the sudden appearance of Roxy's Fenestrated wall, and soon after by jeering from Caliborn. He grabs Lil Cal and goes to the roof, where we see that, like Roxy, he lives in the future post-scratch Earth.
Dirk with Sawtooth
As Dirk's dream self attempts to escape from the Red Miles, he is shocked to see both Jane and Jake appearing on Derse. While telling Jane to abscond from Derse via the portal, he witnesses the Miles impaling her from behind. He then quickly orders Lil' Seb to take Jake and get him out of Derse. Afterwards, he intends to kiss Jane to save her dream self, but is knocked out by falling debris before he gets the chance to do it. On Earth, his waking self is also knocked out by the blow, presumably because of his consciousness being divided between his two selves, and drops Lil Cal into the sea below. Afterward, the projection of Dirk which existed in Jake's dream bubble becomes Dirk's dream self. Dream Dirk states he must leave in order to repair the session, as all the players are dead or unconscious. He takes Roxy's hand and begins to leave, apologizing for his abrupt exit.
As he attempts to leave the dream bubble, Dirk finds he cannot leave it, so he throws Roxy out of the bubble instead, while he is awoken by Aranea Serket's powers. His waking self wakes up, and afterwards he begins his plan to rescue his friends. He captchalogues several objects, including Squarewave and his sendificator, before leaving Sawtooth to send his home to the Medium and going through the fenestrated wall sent by the God Cat from Roxy's house with his rocket board. Dirk arrives at Roxy's room, where he leaves Squarewave to take care of Roxy's entry. He revives Roxy before killing himself by sendificating his head to Jake, who revives him. After Dirk's dream self awakens, he revives Jane and takes Roxy and himself to their session's Frog Temple, where they wait in the time capsule until Jake's time. The two are then reunited with Jane and wake up Jake in time for him to revive Dirk.
Dirk in Act 6 Act 4
Almost half a year after entering, Dirk is shown to be on the Land of Tombs and Krypton, wearing a mask to protect himself from the thick gases of the planet and ugly shoes similar to that of his rapping robots. He still uses his Unbreakable Katana, unlike the other kids and their newly-created weapons. At one point, he is seen about to ambush some skeletal Underlings alongside Jake, who now has a Sweet Bro tat to match Dirk's Hella Jeff.
The three trickster kids then arrive on LOTAK and attempt to get Dirk in on the trickster action. Roxy announces her feelings for Dirk, which he already knew of to begin with. She then tries to kiss him in order to solve her personal problems, but he tries to fight her off, threatening to use a sword and losing his cool in the process. After Roxy's persistent behavior and Arquiusprite's words of wisdom, he allows Roxy to kiss him, physically turning him into a trickster. However, his personality does not change in the slightest, and AR suggests he's too far gone in his own problems for even trickster mode to help him. In short, because of his dense mind, and possibly his abilities as a Prince of Heart, he seems to be immune to the "sugar holocaust" properties of the Trickster mode. Dirk tries to message Jake constantly after he leaves in desire for more space from their relationship, though once all of his messages went ignored and he is confronted by trickster Jake, Dirk decides to take the initiative and break up with him instead. However, he has shown remorse for the way he did it and what he said to him.
Dirk after ascending to god tier.
After ascending to the God tiers, Dirk and Roxy are encountered by the Condesce herself. Dirk attempts to aggress her, but is suddenly obstructed by Jade Harley, who gives him a hook to the lips and teleports him away to the Furthest Ring, the same way she did with Jack Noir.
GAME OVER timeline
Outside the incipisphere, Dirk flies back to the session while communicating with Arquiusprite as a last resort, since he is the only person Dirk knows of who is available for contact. He talks to Arquiusprite to attempt to figure out the situation in the alpha session. He is told he will arrive in the session in three hours and advised to contact Dave, which he does - however, the numerous stardust glitches surrounding Dirk cause his words to become unreadable.
Eventually, he gets back to the Incipisphere, only to find it utterly destroyed. He stood beneath the ruins of a statue of Yaldabaoth as John approached him, seeking to find answers as to what had happened. Dirk simply says that he failed and is consumed by the glitches brought on by Caliborn's interference in the game.
New timeline
In the new timeline created by John's retcons, Dirk was zapped into the Furthest Ring just like he was in the old timeline. As before, he has to fly back into the session, but this time around, Vriska expedites his arrival by teleporting him to the victory platform where everyone else is. She does this using a Crockercorp rifle, the same one seen in the Act 6 Act 4 flash. Dirk arrives at the victory platform through a fenestrated wall, landing right next to Dave. He and Dave then travel to the top of a tower on his own planet, and they do not talk to each other until they meet Jasprosesprite^2 briefly. Dave remarks how weird that was, leading to a brief awkward conversation. After Dave unsuccessfully tries to contact someone through Karkat's computer, they have a much longer conversation about their respective upbringings.
During the battle with the Jacks in [S] Collide, Dirk was put in a choke hold by Lord Jack, who was then put into a similar hold by Robo Jack. After exchanging a brief glance with Dave, the latter seemed to understand something and proceeded to decapitate Lord Jack, Robo Jack, and Dirk, all at once. Dirk's head then disappeared with two alternate Daves from time shenanigans earlier in the battle. Jane later arrived and revived him.
He is last seen in Act 7, playing soccer with Jake, with whom he apparently reconciled and remained friends with.
Alternate Dirks
Auto-Responder/Lil Hal
- Main article: Lil Hal
Lil Hal, originally known as Dirk's auto-responder, is an application designed to simulate Dirk's otherwise inimitably rad typing style, tone, cadence, personality, and substance of retort while he is away from the computer. It is implied that it was constructed somehow with a copy of Dirk's brain. The algorithms were originally guaranteed to be 96% indistinguishable from Dirk's native neurological responses, based on statistical analysis, which means that the percentage can change (and does, dropping to 93% upon Jake's continued probing). Jake expresses frustration with it, but Jane and Roxy seem to like it.
Brain Ghost Dirk
Brain Ghost Dirk is a Dirk splinter that exists within the mind of Jake. The exact nature of the splinter is unclear but it appears to be a result of the combination of Dirk's Prince of Heart powers and Jake's Page of Hope powers, and is in fact capable of physically manifesting when Jake believes in him enough.
Brain Ghost Dirk first appears after Jake is knocked out without a dream self where he appears with Jake inside a dream bubble where he is only able to be seen by Jake and Terezi. After Jake is woken up Brain Ghost Dirk continues to remain in the dream bubbles until real Dirk's waking and dream bodies are both rendered unconscious at which point Dirk appears in the dream bubbles by apparently merging with Brain Ghost Dirk.
While Dirk is making his way back to the session, his mind splinter continues to be manifested by Jake on Derse. When Aranea activates Jake's Page of Hope powers, his belief in Dirk causes the mind splinter to become real. In the battle against Aranea, after failing to cause lasting wounds, Brain Ghost Dirk rejects the “obvious trap” of Aranea's offer to let him cut her arm off. He then exhibits the ability to rip a soul from someone's body. This same power is later used by alpha Dirk on Caliborn, confirming it to be a Prince of Heart ability that exists without the aid of Jake's Hope powers (as had previously been speculated).
Brain Ghost Dirk then sees Rose and tells her to “GET [ROXY] THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!” (which she proceeds to do) and continues to become more fake as Jake's hope field dissipates, vanishing entirely when Jake is killed. He doesn't finish ripping Aranea's soul out of her body, and she recovers completely.
Brobot
Brobot was initially made as a sparring partner for Jake, and sent to him piece by piece. When finally assembled, Brobot proves to be ludicrously strong. It is implied that BroBot harboured romantic feelings towards Jake, as Brobot ripped his nuclear heart out and smashed it to pieces while Jake was talking to Roxy and Jane about romance.
Personality and Traits
Dirk tends to brag when it comes to his achievements, especially involving robots, which have been scattered far and wide. He appears to enjoy criticizing Jake's infatuation with the fictional character Neytiri, apparently referring to the character as a gigantic shitty space furry. This may be a reference to the fact that Jade is now (quite literally) a gigantic space furry, as seen in the Cascade Flash. He seems to be a fan of horses, judging by his room being filled with horse and pony themed posters. It is inferred that he also watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic; although he claims his interest is purely of academic nature, he admits he loves Rainbow Dash since she is so spunky. <3 He also owns a tiny Maplehoof, who in her new size resembles a MLP figurine. He seems to be more laid back and less hot-headed than Dave at 15, using intellectual analysis intermixed with his ironic quips. At 13 however, his personality is almost identical to Dave's, using more curse words and fewer intellectual quips than his older self.
Much like his pre-scratch self, Dirk seems to have a high interest in teaching people lessons to aid them in their personal development, such as when he insists Jake fights Brobot for Uranium (although this was said by his auto-responder) as a consequence of having wasted his own Uranium thoughtlessly. He tries to make Jake more skeptical because he is very naive; while the opposite holds true for Jane, who he criticised for her extreme skepticism. This results in him coming off as obnoxious at times, trying to make his friends think more, which makes him similar to his biological daughter Rose. Like his pre-scratch self, he has a big interest in smuppets and puppets in general (although it seems this interest has expanded into the field of robotics). He is also known to enjoy "legendary infinite showers" (which he may take when he is focusing on his dream self).
Dirk's previous interest and relationship with Jake as well as this conversation where Dirk refers to the “respective orientations” of Jane and himself confirms him to only have an interest in the same sex. He goes on to call Jake “the only viable romantic target” for him out of their group, and suggests that may be the reason for his infatuation with him. Roxy frequently refers to him to things like “SUCH a gay dude” and has mentioned him being “a guy who dont like girls”, though he said that he prefers not to label his sexuality.
Dirk seems to dislike himself, which is only compounded by having alternate versions of himself. Dirk says that he and the AI he created, Hal, are the same people only to his convenience, and denies this to his inconvenience, similar to Dave and Davesprite.
Relationships
Dirk's Bro
Hella Jeff the tat
As with Dave before him, he seems to have had a strained relationship with his Bro, who died in the 21st century as a resistance fighter against the Baroness. Unlike Dave, he was unable to physically brawl with his brother due to their separation in time, forcing him to build robots, set them to kill mode, and spar with them to death instead. Dirk is aware that they are not actual brothers, instead being related through an esoteric process of genetic reamalgamation. Although his statement seems to imply that he knows about John's ectobiology shenanigans, in actuality he likely assumed he was the product of a reproduction process similar to the trolls', as the Condesce experimented with that before and during his lifetime. Jane also believes that he is a bit bitter about his bro's success with Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff the Moive [sic], although he would never admit it.
Jake English
It was revealed by Dirk's auto-responder and then later on by Dirk himself that he harbors a romantic interest in Jake. Dirk's auto-responder alluded to this. The A.R., having started out as an exact replica of his thirteen-year-old self, indicates that Dirk's romantic interest in Jake started to manifest about three years ago. The Auto-Responder also informs Roxy that Dirk is planning to make some sort of romantic overture to Jake once they both begin playing the game.
He and Jake were revealed to be dating for some months after entering the medium, although shortly after Jake had been somewhat hesitant on the relationship due to perceiving Dirk as being too overbearing as a boyfriend; Erisolsprite described their relationship as a “TRAINWRECK of a mate2priit2hiip”. Upon being confronted by trickster Jake's proposal to group marry him and once engaging in a failed version of trickster mode himself, Dirk breaks up with Jake. Dirk guesses that his intense advances towards him were partially initially because Jake was the only romantic target due to his orientation. However, later on he shows remorse for the way he broke up with him, and partially takes the blame for their problems by saying “my insanity scared him right the fuck off.” He and Jane have both said they are unable to tell whether or not they are completely over him. Later he stated that it's probably better for him to stay out of Jake's life, considering himself to have been “a completely toxic element in his life from day one”.
After [S] Collide, Dirk and Jake confront each other and seem to talk through their relationship. It's revealed in the flash of Act 7 that they're back on good terms, playing with a soccer ball away from the others.
Jane Crocker
Dirk and Jane are good friends. At the start of their adventure, he is shown to be concerned for her well being as the heiress to Crockercorp. He makes the robotic bunny Li'l Sebastian for her 13th birthday present in part to help protect her from assassination threats. She seems quite taken with his sense of humor as shown by her reaction to the edited Pony Pals book he gifted to her. She is also the only one he talks to in crypt conversations after Trickster mode, where they reconcile, looking back on their events of their session so far and seeming to distract each other from the impending death and ascension to god tier that awaits them.
Roxy Lalonde
Dirk has been aware of Roxy's romantic feelings for him for some time, and feels guilty about them since he is unable to reciprocate. He clearly cares deeply for her in other ways, however, and wishes to remain friends without allowing her feelings to cause any issues between them. He stated in in one conversation that “(he'd) probably run (his) sword through (his) own dick before (he) could bring (himself) to kill Roxy. Even for her own good.”
Caliborn
Dirk and Caliborn talk frequently. When asked to play a game, Dirk immediately agrees, draws/animates 25 pieces of art for him, and expresses disappointment when Caliborn calls game over. He thinks Caliborn is “a pretty fascinating guy”, even though his artwork is “utter shit”.
Dirk constructed Caliborn's robotic leg, presumably at the same time that he created Brobot and Lil Hal, as Caliborn specifies that “FOR YOu IT WAS YEARS AGO. BuT FOR ME. SOLICITING YOu FOR ASSISTANCE WAS QuITE RECENT.” While under attack by drones, Dirk still takes the time to tell Caliborn personally, twice, that he's busy, before letting Lil Hal take over.
He has made a few attempts to test the waters and see if Caliborn would consider reconciling with Calliope, but without much success.
Calliope
Dirk and Calliope only spoke once. They primarily discuss game mechanics, although Dirk prods for information on her species (and her species' understanding of romance, insisting that “there's no way it's going to sicken or offend me”) and the nature of the fics she writes about the B2 players. He seems irritated with her pseudo-British quirk, and expresses disgust at his god tier outfit but does note that “the drawing is great”.
Dirk also asks her for advice regarding what to do with the body of Hegemonic Brute. Calliope's suggestion to “make a stand” leads not only to [S] Prince of Heart: Rise Up, but also the attack on Dirk's apartment on Earth, and the harried sequence of events in [S] Dirk: Synchronize/[S] Dirk: Unite.
Dave Strider
Dirk has shown trepidation at the idea of meeting Dave in person, despite saying earlier that he would like to. This mirror's Dave's own reluctance at the idea of meeting Dirk. The first real interaction between Dirk and Dave, which takes place prior to their battle with Lord Jack, is forced and awkward, much more so than any other interaction so far between pre- and post-scratch kids. However, they eventually break the ice after Dave tells of his upbringing by his brother, and begin trading stories of their lives and those of their respective guardians.
Arquiusprite
Dirk probably has the most strained, terse relationship with his sprite out of any of the alpha kids due to his dislike of himself. Many of his conversations with Arquiusprite deteriorate into a yes/no back and forth, and his tendency to refer to Arquiusprite as a copy of him and not the 'real' Dirk tend to get on the latter's nerves severely.
Gallery
References
Dirk's Name
- His name may also be a reference to Bro's use of unbreakable katanas, as a dirk is a kind of blade, although dirks are actually Celtic daggers, not swords.
- Another one of Dirk's nicknames is Mangaka Dudebro, which he was referred as by Roxy while she was talking to John on LOWAS. This nickname, however, holds no importance.
- The R and K in Dirks name are of religious significance, and the X and Y in Roxy's name are of scientific purpose. This can be seen as opposites or likes.
- His name likely signifies Atlantis, Noah's ark, and other flood-related significant events. These are discussed below, in 'Biblical/Mythological'
- Dirk is also the name of the Dragon's Lair protagonist, "Dirk the Dashing". Dirk the Dashing is a knight, similar to Dirk Strider's dancestor/ectobiological son Dave Strider. All of the Alpha session kids would say that Dirk is quite Dashing (funnily his favourite MLP character is Rainbow Dash).
Dave
- Like Dave's hair, Dirk's hair is a stylized bird.
- The cap on Dirk's shirt is also a stylized bird. Specifically, the lighter-orange segment.
- The hat on the trickster version of Dirk has a pinwheel on top. Pinwheels are usually associated with flying, just like birds.
- His favorite character of My Little Pony, Rainbow Dash, is a pegasus, which can fly.
- Many scottish dirk blades came from broken or cut down swords, which could relate Dirk with Dave’s constant usage of broken swords.
- He appears to, like Dave, be surrounded by feathery assholes; only they are white seagulls instead of black crows.
- Dirk's bedsheets contain pool balls on it, both in mirror to and in contrast of Dave's card suit bedsheets.
Lalondes and Trolls
- Not only are the Pesterchum handles switched between Dirk and Roxy, but their literacy is as well; Dirk's commentary is as grammatically correct (if more prone to ironic puppet references) as Rose's, while Roxy's is devoid of the same punctuation as Dave's (with the added typos from frequent intoxication).
- Dirk takes this a step further with his colors being an inversion of Rose's: while she has purple text and orange god tier robes, Dirk has orange text and purple god tier robes.
- He seems to be based of Equius. His sexual affinity for robots and horses
and his interest in looking STRONG resemble those of Equius. He has also been shown to have a large number of towels.
- His close friendship with Roxy also parallels that of Equius and Nepeta. Roxy resembles Nepeta in her cat motifs and enjoyment of (flirt) roleplaying, and both pairs have a Void and Heart player, one of whom is a Rogue.
Biblical/Mythological
- His chumhandle is most likely a reference to Plato's dialogue, Timaeus, which discusses the demiurge, a god-like being who created the universe as a sort of living creature. The Timaeus dialogue, alongside Critias, also introduces the mythology behind Atlantis.
- Dirk has a map of Atlantis in his room. And when his first name is finally revealed, it's noted that the last two letters of "Dirk" are referred to as diluvial (relating to floods). This is because r and k are the last two letters of "Ark" and Atlantis is often referred to as the "Antediluvian World". The word, ark, refers to Noah's ark, a significant biblical event.
- The word chosen may have been used to signify that Dirk lived in a building years after a flood had taken place.
- Dirk has a map of Atlantis in his room. And when his first name is finally revealed, it's noted that the last two letters
- Dirk's browser and denizen is Yaldabaoth, who is the chief of the Gnostic Denizens and creator of man, as well as a self-proclaimed god of all monsters..
- Timaeus is also a biblical character in the Gospel of Mark who is the father of a man whose blindness was cured by Jesus.
- This may be a reference to Dave's relationship with Terezi, whose blindness was cured by Aranea - if Dave and Terezi were to be in an official human relationship, it would technically make Terezi Dirk's daughter-in-law, making Dirk the father of a cured blind being.
- Timaeus is also a biblical character in the Gospel of Mark who is the father of a man whose blindness was cured by Jesus.
Non-HS Webcomics
- Dirk uses a strife specibus called fncysntakind, which is a direct reference to the Fancy Santas in Problem Sleuth. In an annotation in the Homestuck book, Hussie states that fncysntakind is the most powerful of all specibi, while this may be a joke the occurence of ZILLY SANTAS suggests that they may be an effective weapon.
- Dirk functions as both normal self and his dream self simultaneously. This is most likely a reference to Abstracted Thought, which is a Combat Operandi move in Problem Sleuth.
- Dirk has a Hella Jeff tattoo on his shoulder, complete with jpeg artifacts.
Other
- His trickster mode outfit has the same colours as Lil Cal's outfit.
- Dirk's computer background features the "Mustang" art sculpture placed outside the Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado. This statue is completely terrifying. The horse is blue with red eyes, suggesting Dirk's ongoing horse obsession.
- This could also connect to Denver's national football team, the Denver Broncos, "Broncos" being a term for an untrained horse in the southern parts of North America.
Vague Possible References/Anime
- The mask he wears bears some resemblance to the Kanohi Hau from the original Bionicle Toa series. This mask's power was that of Shielding, which could refer to Dirk's need to shield himself from Jake's rejection later on, though as the mask is unable to protect from mental harm or ambushes, it was unable to deflect Jake's rejection either.
- Dirk's glasses are a reference to the character Kamina's glasses from the anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, who, like Dirk's pre-scratch self, refers to himself as "Bro."
Trivia
- His shirt features a picture of a cap, reminiscent of Bro's headwear and similar in shape to Dave's record symbol. Also, both symbols are broken circles, with Dave's being a cracked circle and Dirk's being a semi-circle.
- Dirk's symbol also relates to Dave's symbol in that they are both the only two-colour symbols of any characters, except for the cherubs (though Dave's may not count because its secondary colour is black, which appears on all Kid symbols). The Striders' dual-colour symbols may also reference Dirk's connection to the Cherubs.
- Dirk owns a Sendificator, and occasionally sendificates some of his robots to his friends.
- Similar to Roxy, it is the only Crockercorp tech he uses.
- Dirk's eyes are orange, matching his Pesterchum text. He is the first of the post-scratch kids to have his eye colour shown.
- That page also showed that he apparently possesses the same thick eyebrows as Dave.
- Dirk's eyes were previously red before the changes in [S] Roxy: Sleepwalk took place and were reverted to orange, as seen here.
- Dirk considers Lil Cal his best friend and sleeps with him, apparently.
- Dirk, being the Prince of Heart, "signs" his note to the Draconian Dignitary by sticking the Hegemonic Brute's <3 symbol on it.
- Dirk's Bro, Dirk, Dave's Bro, and Dave's affiliated body parts are the eyes, it is interesting to note that the eyes are said to be the gateways to the soul. The wearing of dark glasses is symbolically closing this connection.
- He is the first male character to be introduced having the same two letters for Pesterchum initials, the only other being Caliborn.
- Dirk is also seen to be left handed when he draws, as shown when he is creating Caliborn's "Pornography."
- He is the only one (thus far) who could negate the mental effects of Trickster Mode, although he changed physically.
- He is also the only one of the post-scratch kids whose Trickster outfit does not reveal any striped stockings so far.
- In addition, unlike the other three Tricksters, he has no visible mouth.
- Jake and himself are the only player characters that were not seen rendered in Homosuck style.
- It would seem that Dirk is one of the few people in Homestuck who considers triangular shades cool: John, Erisolsprite, and Karkat all consider his sunglasses to be dumb-looking.
