#tbh i have a lot more to say about dave's gender and enforced masculinity but it was starting to get convoluted so i stopped

[the-troll-book-of-mormon]

i wanna add that as soon as davesprite becomes davepeta and loses the sword of forced heroism/masculinity, they are immediately ready and eager to jump into action. davepeta being the one who ultimately brings down lord english in the epilogues really solidifies that the issue is not heroism or masculinity itself, but being forced into it. as soon as they were free from expectations/destiny and allowed to be whatever they wanted, davepeta chose to be a hero. they could have been irrelevant like most of the sprites were, and nobody would have cared, but they didn't. davepeta wanted to fight lord english, and not because they were "supposed" to.

what it says to me is that dave likely would have become a hero independently, if he'd been allowed a choice, but because he was violently forced into that role, it ultimately destroyed him. notably, the version of dave that did fight lord english had his head bitten off, before the villain who is the embodiment of toxic masculinity was finally defeated by the first nonbinary character in homestuck. like holy shit.

anyway, i think it says a lot about dave's relationship with his gender. maybe dave's Cool Guy presentation is what he'd choose in a different environment, but because he had no choice and was forced to perform masculinity for his survival, it's destroying him.

Pondering the sword as a symbol, in the context of Davepeta's arc. In the author commentary, it is said that the unbroken sword is representative of "The fully manifest, wholly embraced heroic arc. Suppressing reservations, answering the call, putting the tough training to use, despite the cost to oneself."

How fitting then, that Davesprite is impaled with one. This is an extremely obvious cost but also presents the question: what does all that really mean if you aren't the hero anymore? Post-retcon, they become part of Davepeta, their life and self are again irreconcilably changed when they become themself. I have an angle to look at this from. Dave connects their relationship with heroism, and thus the sword symbolism, to his relationship with masculinity.

"living up to the storybook idea of what a hero to me feels almost interchangeable with living up to societys snapshot of what a hard manly dude should be"

Fascinating in the context of Davepeta being nonbinary, and additionally, not wielding a blade. The dichotomy of broken/unbroken swords left behind for something new.