How Many More?

Those of you who keep up-to-date with Homestuck have noticed the current trend of Dave's emotions.

Dave fascinates me. I'm not entirely sure why but his cool badassery is definitely part of it. I'm also intruiged by characters who show chinks in that super-calm facade, showing that they are still human, that they actually do care, and so on.

So....let's recap a few things about Dave.

**WARNING: SORT OF SPOILERRIFIC IF YOU HAVEN'T CAUGHT UP. SO PLEASE IF YOU HAVE NOT READ ALL THE WAY UP TO THE CURRENT UPDATE BEWARE!! I AM NOT TO BLAME IF YOU WENT AHEAD AND READ THIS DESPITE THE WARNING AND GOT ALL CRANKY. KARKAT MODE OFF. Also, if you want to fast-forward over spoilerr-ish things, just jump to where it says END POSSIBLE SPOILERS in Karkat-style caps. Thanks. ^_^**

Back when he saw his first "doomed self" he had a bit of a BSOD, staring at the blood on his hands. Then he makes an immediate plan to cool the time-travel a bit.

He also has a definite soft spot for Jade. Rather than letting her see the above-mentioned Dave corpse and freaking out about it, he chucks the corpse out of his window. A Future Dave even helps as Jade's server player when John started that job and became derailed from it by his quest.

We've also learned that he can't kill one of his otherselves to become a God Tier hero. I suspect it's the above BSOD over his own doomed selves that leads to this. And I really can't blame him; but it makes him human. More human than he lets on.

And now.......the biggest spoiler.....we learn Bro has died, and that Dave is now, at the current update, at the site of the battle. The conversation he had with Terezi about it is....telling, to say the least.

SO, all that in mind, I get the distinct impression he is headed for a very character-developing emotional breakdown. All this time he seems to have been taught, trained even, to keep his cool no matter what the situation. He's usually got that deadpan expression, and hides his emotions behind that veneer of ironic half-poetry he spouts. But I think it's obvious - and most of you who are current on Homestuck - think it's obvious that facade he keeps up is starting to crack.

And why wouldn't it? All the kids have gone through one hell or another by now.

***END POSSIBLE SPOILERS***

Anyways I drew this a while back when I realized I had a developing Dave fandom, and had gone past the section where he's having trouble coping with the idea of alternate-timeline versions of himself dying.

Sooo, I spent probably three days off and on with this thing, trying to get it to a higher quality level than my usual stuff. I stuck to the limited MSPA-style color palette, and wanted to make the red, black, and white really stand out. I wanted to get it close to the caliber of some of the cutscene art we've seen in Homestuck already, if only to prove to myself I could make my style mesh with somebody else's.

(I also kinda ship Dave and Jade, which is why she's there hugging him.)

Anyways, there you have it. A friend of mine critiqued the WIP phases and helped me get it to this point now. I had hesitated for a long time on posting this due to the intensity of emotion in it, but after seeing the current updates' focus on Dave and his emotional status, I figured it was time to throw this one up.

3 days with Photoshop CS3, and a Cintiq.

Dave, Jade, and Homestuck are copyright Andrew Hussie

Give that man some love for such an amazing epic, please.

EDIT 4/8/11: Thanks to some awesome crit by ~Zenon1293 I've touched up the trolls' lineart and shading a bit. I think they should look a little better consolidated with the overall look of the piece.