Davebot and Rosebot are fascinating because despite being Ultimate, there's still a splinter version of each. Does Ultimate Rose include the fatalistic mom she's become in Candy's Earth C? Does Ultimate Dave include the kinda regular dude he got to be in Meat? Or are the bots incomplete in some way; with Dirk intending to sever the parts of his children that he doesn't care for? And as ascended as they are, they remain under the Prince's thumb.

Plato's argument is that willingly leaving the cave is mark of proof of the Philosopher (or somebody who is capable of being a philosopher). At the risk of turning this into a philosophy thread, I think Nietzsche has a relevant spin on the thesis with his vision of the New Philosopher. Nietzsche puts an emphasis on denouncing popular assumptions and opinions in order to find what might not be an essential, universal truth, but rather to ensure that you are not limiting yourself with falsehoods. Dirk is a very self-serving person, and where I will be pissed/disgusted by some of his actions, I will not find fault in that motivation. He'll be the first to admit that he's made his own cave. But if it's a better cave (maybe even a perfect cave), what's the problem?