How Strong is Dirk Strider?

This video project kind of got away from me, but I wanted to do a How Strong is Dirk Strider, but since I'm too engrossed in Homestuck lore I tried roping some of my fellow tidepool orchestrators in to see if I could explain Homestuck to them in a way that makes sense, because only then could I explain why Dirk is the most powerful.
Unfortunately, I only had access to the most distracted member sof our guild.
Oh well, hope you like it anyway!

[@FunkMcLovin]

dirk strider might be strong but can he order a pizza on the phone without crying? i think the fuck not

[@TidepoolOrchestra]

my eyes are open from reading this comment

[@PrinceofMilk]

As strong as a handsome homosexual who I love can be

[@TidepoolOrchestra]

he sure is both of those things

[@PrinceofMilk]

@@TidepoolOrchestra A man with right opinions you are.

[@DoctorTopper]

For a conversation that went off the rails... it's actually a pretty good summary of Homestuck. It is CHALLENGING to describe Homestuck concisely. I am subscribing to you now, hoping you will make another video doing that purposely.

[@TidepoolOrchestra]

I think I will do another homestuck video soon, but I need to seriously think about how I will do that. Thank you for subscribing!

[@avie828]

couldn’t be a discord call without one guy eating at an obscene volume

[@weevils]

do they know megalovania is from homestuck ... .. .

[@DoctorTopper]

It was in 1 more thing before homestuck or undertale: toby's Earthbound Halloween romhack.

[@jonahamosbuzzard-roberts5963]

Lord English doesn't die in act 7, he is sent back to the land of Colours and Mayhem along with his Green Sun through a black hole created by doomed predominant Calliope Edit: Also, Dirk kills himself in the Candy timeline because he became a part of Ultimate Dirk and realized he wanted nothing to do with the Candy timeline because it wasn't 'Technically" """""""""""Canon""""""""""" even though it was but whatever, he didn't really die I think his personality just kind of joined the collective.

[@peanutpockerman4864]

doomed calliope does eventually kill him inside the black hole iirc

[@jonahamosbuzzard-roberts5963]

@@peanutpockerman4864 It never shows or says that explicitly, and if the epilogues are anything to go by he's definitely still alive just dicking around in the swirling mess of debris or in LoCaM

[@lovelysunshinee6646]

4:34 pov: youre me listening the absolute beat drop in sburban jungle and not hearing a single fucking word this dude says pffft-

[@cracktoon_powerscaling]

As strong as an Epic gamer can get

[@FrostyMac]

This is exhibit A of why you should never try to explain Homestuck beyond just saying “it’s a creation myth about kids who play a game” That being said, this is hilarious.

[@NemFX]

The thing is, narrative Dirk is overpowered because he can just remove other people's choices. But Bro literally cut a meteor in half, and it physically made no sense, but that kind of raw power would be god tier. Everyone says Bro is abusive, but I don't think so. He's trying to train the literal saviour of his world. He trained Dave with a sword, trained him to think fast, move fast, and ingrained a deep hatred of puppets into him. If you remove emotions from it, it all makes perfect sense.

[@chrishansen1842]

That's kind of the problem isn't it? Remove emotions from it I mean. Dirk just kind of did things without stopping to think about how traumatic or hurtful it can be for other people including himself. If it made logical sense to him it would just be done and you don't get a say in it. Sure Dave is A "savior" in one view but in another. He treated the kid who he raised and sees him as not only an older brother but someone to aspire to be and treated him like shit. Not ever showing a hint of remorse or emotion at all for that matter. It's like living with your only parent being a robot that just knows to do enough to keep you alive. It's horrible and leaves Dave with issues he'll probably never resolve by the end of the original comic. Abuse is abuse even if it had "good outcomes" which arguably it didn't. Edit: Also your comment is at least a month old so sorry for the reply if you don't wanna have to deal with it. That's just my thoughts and if you don't agree that's cool too but honestly I can't see Dirk or Bro as anything other than a horrible person because of how he does things. (I haven't read the Epilogues or HS2 yet if there's anything in it that would make me change my mind but it doesn't seem like)

[@NemFX]

@@chrishansen1842 Trauma doesn't matter if you're dead. Dirk has always been an Ends Justify The Means character. Homestuck 2 tries to paint him that way, same with the friendsim. Did Dave get messed up? Sure. But you only have so long to train sword wielding time Jesus, so.. Yeah, I can see it being justified. If Dave doesn't survive, then the entire planet gets wiped out. As the time player, he is the most important player in the human game. To use a variant on an old gem, Bro did nothing wrong.

[@chrishansen1842]

@@NemFX he's kind of biased though. He's a heart player so he's inheritly very passionate about his own views and doesn't allow for others. There could have been other solutions. Hell if his training of Dave was intentional in the first place he could've maybe given him a heads up first? Tell him anything that might make him understand or at least Dirk could have been more direct about the situation. Instead Dave's gotta walk around his house wondering if the next step he takes triggers some kind of trap or if he's gonna have to get his ass kicked. That's Dirks problem and he knows it but he doesn't do anything about it other than agonize by himself about how horrible he was retroactively. Ends May justify the means but he never attempted to try anything else in the first place. That's where not allowing for other views places you.

[@NemFX]

@@chrishansen1842 oh, I agree, but I'm just saying that Bro did the best he could, given the circumstances. If Bro has to be hated in order to save the world, the human race, and his adopted brother? Small tradeoff.

[@chrishansen1842]

@@NemFX yeah. It makes sense at the end of the day and I can't dispute that but it still feels horrible. I suppose i don't really have the right to speak since Vriska is kind of my character in the comic? I feel like their situations are completely different but idk lol. It doesn't help I guess that it sometimes feel Dirk is frustrating on purpose. And Jake being Jake.

[@mr_jago2850]

All the kids (both beta and alpha) are pretty OP. I guess Jade is the strongest one.

[@mayday_maniac8563]

We need to right our own book like homestuck full of epic references and *religious themes*

[@TidepoolOrchestra]

you know they did that? It's called "homestuck"

[@mayday_maniac8563]

@@TidepoolOrchestra despite the fact i just mentioned it i have no idea what your talking about

[@TidepoolOrchestra]

@@mayday_maniac8563 cool

[@julianbello8376]

God this is just wow. I hate how accurate this is.

[@mouse1454]

if 13:34 isn't a accurate description of half the fandoms relationship with the epilogues i don't know what is

[@konankid2340]

Im gonna miss mr baseball bat this June This is a good video glad it popped up on recommend

[@teensierkitty4214]

Oh so this isnt a power scaling video

[@hotsauce3620]

Strong enough to beat me the fuck up

[@juliasz.1017]

loving this dude

[@juliasz.1017]

noo "nobody likes homestuck" same bro

[@TidepoolOrchestra]

@@juliasz.1017 hahaha that line gets better the longer its been

[@BigCheeZeMan]

You cant talk about homestuck to people who've never read it

[@asshat8892]

Pretty sure bro is possessed by lil cal

[@KingOpenReview]

Not stronger than the void.

[@TidepoolOrchestra]

True

[@tim3ausT3stified]

help i've been into homestuck since 2014 and i always was just like "WhAt If ThE AlPhA KiDS ArE ReLatEd tO ThE BeTA KiDs?? oOoOh So OrgiNal." but MY FRIENDS DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT IS AND THEY WANT ME TO DUMB IT DOWN BUT I CAN'T EVEN DUMB IT DOWN FOR MY FEBLE GIRL BRAIN. (i play pesterquest)

[@vivimocha123]

ur friends reactions are the funniest shit ever

[@17raysplays29]

6:48 Really? Did you really think that?

[@TidepoolOrchestra]

big brain time! Tell me what you think of the ending?

[@17raysplays29]

@@TidepoolOrchestra I personally didn't like it much. Almost everything was wrapped up, but then you have Lord English, THE BIGGEST BAD, and it ends of a cliff hanger! It's just "Vriska uses the super weapon! It probably has the Beta Kids in it or something! You may never know!" Not only that, but it felt so under done in the Epilogues! They almost all died instantly, and LE ate some hammers. Then, the biggest bad, the most hyped villain, is eaten off screen. It barely even describe him being eaten, he's just gone now. And *THAT* ends on *another* cliff hanger! Honestly, it's all very Homestuck, and in the most corrupted depths of my mind, I love every line of it. But mostly I hate it.

[@TidepoolOrchestra]

I'll go point for point on this 1. The ending of homestuck is based on a game of billiards, there's a blackhole behind lord english, his eyes turn to 8 balls, and you see vriska stealing his luck. This implies she knocks the 8 ball into the pocket, which is how you win that game, and it's heavily foreshadowed with the character Snowball, and how it has to be the last member of the Felt that Caliborn collects. 2. With the Epilogue, it's noted that the final fight scene was outside of canon, and this goes back to the fight between the trolls and their black king who they fought. Hussie has gone on record as stating that he doesn't like to depict the fight, but notes in the author notes of book 4 or 5 that there is a flash animation made by fans depicting the black king battle, and that he generally considers that to be canon at this point, so if there were a fan made final battle animation against lord english it would likewise also be considered canon. The epilogues even go into detail on how this fight most likely happened, which included as you said, LE eating a bunch of hammers, but generally the Epilogue was written by committee, and Hussie didn't think it was important enough to write a large outline for it. 3. "I love every line of it. But mostly I hate it." is generally my thoughts on homestuck perfectly encapsulated into a single phrase.

[@imwrongyoureright.3890]

@@17raysplays29 I liked how davepeta suplexed him into the hole, but didn't like how the beta kids pretty much got stomped.

[@I_SWEAR_IM_NOT_LYING]

8:34 I thought he used his transportilizer??

[@AlphaPizzadog]

I could recommend Homestuck. Do NOT read the epilogues.