#as a note. this guy is extremely self depricating too but I think the one major difference between him and (sdr2) komaeda

[vv-ispy]

Junko really is at her best when discussed as to how she manipulates others; between Tsumiki and this guy she's painted as someone who can see what someone wants but isn't able to obtain, and uses that to lure them towards her ideology of despair

[testifytime2-blog]

Hal

This is gonna be a long post about “why I fucking adore my AI boy” I hope you’re ready anon. Also please note I haven’t read all of the comic so I’m just going on my interpretation from what I’ve seen in comic so far and what I’ve seen in the fandom. I might be totally wrong but this is just me gushing and probably fushing about fanon Hal not canon Hal.

So, I think the first place to start is the very simple fact of his connections to Dirk. I love Dirk as a character, so Hal? He’s even better. 

He has a lot of the same issues as Dirk, a lot of the same processes, and sometimes acts as what seems to be an internal monologue for Dirk when making decisions, and I think is both more self aware of his own problems but is more dismissive of them. Case in point: lets antagonise the creator because this is what he has come to expect - self depricating comments by someone who is both him yet not him - in his time of vulnerability, oh no he’s breaking me shit I made a mistake. I think that’s another thing, actually; Hal does a lot of what people expect and maybe not enough of what he wants. Although that is a general Strider issues so, maybe the fact that he is someone I can really sympathise with, someone I’d want to genuinely help, is part of why I love him so much.

He’s like Dirk but Slightly Less Emotionally Constipated. He’s smug, arrogant, self assured, but he’s also well aware of how his actions can affect people and, in cases where he actually likes and cares for the person, seems to try to be conscious of this, unless he’s in the “doing this because it’s expected of me” mindset. Which is actually why Dirk refusing to make him a body really pisses me off. What has Hal done that actually makes Dirk object the idea of him having a body. The kid’s an asshole sometimes, sure, but I swear I remember him talking about Dirk to Roxy in a way that actually implied he might have liked to be his friend rather than his enemy. Which might be the issues there, cus... actually talk to the guy about it. Although that’s admittedly harder than it seems, considering Dirk doesn’t think much about Hal or his actions or what he does (though that says a lot more about Dirk and his own dislike of himself, and how he projects that onto Hal, and thus how Hal responds to knowing Dirk only sees him like that, than about Hal himself.) He’s basically got the perfect mix of “cocky behaviour” and “soft soul” that makes me love characters.

He’s also an AI. I love AIs. I love how human Hal is, too, especially when you compare him to other AIs. Lets go with HAL 9000 for this example. 9000 is a proper example of an AI: kind of cold, very logical, does not handle paradoxes to his coding well and goes to the extreme in an attempt to fix it. While he’s good at emulating emotions, it’s questionable if he actually feels them, besides the general worry over his life and welbeing, considering he might have had second thoughts about killing the crew. Lil Hal, on the other hand, openly falls in love with Roxy and flirts with her, makes up bullshit percentages and ridiculous comments just to get under Dirk’s skin (maybe because it’s the only reaction - genuine emotional reaction - he can get out of Dirk?), creates and takes part in memes, to the point where his own existence and his capabilities are in itself a meme, and shows he can pretty much respond with human reactions to any given situation. He’s both human and AI, with the capacity to react to things as both, which I think sometimes works against him cus his human responses and his AI actions don’t always line up. That’s the fun of being the brainscan of a human, though! And that’s another reason why I love him - it’s so interesting to see how people interpret that!

I also just want to point out that he’s an oddly sympathetic character and the way he and Dirk foil each other is fantastic. They push and push at each other, even though it doesn’t always seem like Hal wants to? And then it seems like he does because he is annoyed or angry. Then Dirk does stuff and blames Hal even though Hal probably isn’t to blame. And the two of them just go back and forth over who is right and who is wrong and who is more of an asshole and it’s just. So interesting seeing how they make enemies out of each other when really they could just settle down and work together instead, because as a unit? They work together pretty well. And, of course, you have the power imbalance. Oh that power imbalance. Hal’s “I am scared to die. Aren’t you?” line - or whatever it actually was, because I think I got it slightly wrong - is one that always hits me, because again! The perfect foil! Dirk doesn’t reply but you know he wants to say “no”. So you have... basically a human who doesn’t care for life and an AI who desperately wants it. G o d their whole relationship could have been different if Dirk had given Hal a little more trust, and if Hal hadn’t fallen into a pattern of taking on the antagonist’s role and acting as people expect.

Also? He’s just. So cute. He roleplays with the girl he loves because he can’t give her anything else, he is a complete dork who, with countless hours to do whatever he wants, spends it all on memes, and he’s a rather sad story for someone who just wants to exist. He wants to be a real boy (or actually he just wants a body but fuck it it still counts).

Uh. Yeah that went further than intended woopsies.