Equius and Dave both have a thing about being emasculated - Equius through deliberately trying to be dominated, and Dave through the trauma associated with his Bro’s macho guy training - and the symbolism behind both of these characters wielding ‘broken weapons’ is obvious.
I think Equius tries to appeal to Dave’s sense of masculinity because he feels that since they were raised under similar toxic conditions - Equius on Alternia, and Dave by his Bro - they have shared experiences and common ground between them.
And their brief rap battle indicates that thanks to their respective upbringings they DO have some similarities, but when Equius tries to tell Dave they both break weapons because they’re ‘strong,’ Dave rebukes him: “I don’t break things because I’m strong…”
TG: im not that strong ok
TG: just cause i broke a cheap ass sword doesnt make me the fucking hulk“…I break them because I’m fucked up.”
This difference in outlook between the two is made very clear by this exchange between them just a bit earlier in the same conversation:
Dave is well aware that Bro’s training did him more harm than good. He’s just very lowkey about it until it’s addressed directly.
It’s interesting that Dave brings up ‘the fucking Hulk’ specifically here given that the radioactive green giant is one of the aspects of Lord English. One of Dave’s lines in his rap just a few pages earlier actually made me think of Lord English in the same way;
Surly actually comes from an obsolete English word ‘sirly,’ as in ‘similar to a sir,’ which was used to refer to Lords and other nobles.
This is relevant because we now know that the reason Lord English is so jacked and sirly in the first place is because he is part Equius; so this whole conversation is actually Dave unknowingly comparing himself to Equius. It’s likely Equius acts as a stand-in for Bro himself in this conversation, given the similarities between the indigoblood and Dirk.