β | Well, I think maybe the lesson was about kindness. You know, being nice to strangers, even if those strangers weren't very nice to you, or even if they hurt you. It doesn't matter, because... you never know when a little kindness can come back around when you - when you need it the most. | β |
—"The Forest" |
David is the deuteragonist of Camp Camp and one of two counselors working at Camp Campbell. He is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky guy who would do just about anything to show people the bright side of camping. His personality clashes with that of Gwen, his former co-counselor, but most of all Max, a camper at Camp Campbell who despises virtually everything about camping and Camp Campbell.
Appearance[]
David has a thin, lanky build, short auburn hair, and blue-green eyes. He wears a long-sleeved, dark green Camp Campbell counselor T-shirt with rolled-up sleeves and olive green shorts, as well as white socks, brown shoes, and a yellow Camp Campbell t-shirt tied around his neck and a brown vest, much like camp founder, Cameron Campbell.
Back when David was a camper, the tuft of hair above his forehead was more rounded. He wore a yellow shirt, a brown vest, olive shorts, and white socks with brown shoes.
Personality[]
David is shown to be upbeat, enthusiastic, and happy-go-lucky to a nearly-obsessive degree, particularly when it comes to the camp. Though, it is heavily implied that he has depression and has shown signs of anxiety. He constantly tries desperately to put a positive spin on any situation he can, much to Max and fellow co-counselor Gwen's ire. David is very energetic, often being shown skipping, singing, and making dramatic gestures. In "Scout's Dishonor," David even says he lies awake at night in eager anticipation for the next day rather than actually sleeping. He actually does sleep however, and often mumbles the names of tree species while doing so ("Cult Camp", "Dial M For Jasper", and "The Forest").
David is rather high-strung and often prone to panicking when things go wrong. Upon seeing the empty pantry in "Culture Day", he immediately curls into himself and starts rocking back and forth over being a failure, and in "Attack of the Nurfs" his only response to seeing a bunch of Nurf copies running around is a crippling fear of Campbell's loud voice when he gets angry. In "A Camp Camp Christmas, or Whatever", he was obsessed with creating a perfect Christmas experience for the campers, going above and beyond to get them exceptional and unique gifts (including a BB gun for Max, despite the inevitable and immediate bullet shot in his eye). He is a hopeless romantic ("Bonjour Bonquisha") and believes that love conquers all ("Quartermaster Appreciation Day"). In "David Gets Hard", he is aware that he isn't tough at all, yet in "Preston Goodplay's Good Play" he believes the campers see him as having a tough-guy exterior despite being a vulnerable cat underneath.
He is extremely non-confrontational and will often try de-escalating conflicts with extreme prejudice; his way of doing things is with "aggressive pacifism" and says that hugs always make him feel better ("David Gets Hard"). He tries to minimize an argument between Campbell and Max in "Cameron Campbell Can't Handle the Truth Serum" by making excuses for their unkind words to each other, and in "Squirrel Camp" he readily gave up on getting the camp back from the invading squirrels despite having a lengthy history and a deep love for the camp. He frequently turns a blind eye to Campbell's shady behavior and urges everyone to do the same, such as telling the campers to appreciate their completely inedible breakfast (due to having basically no money to run the camp at that particular moment in time) in "The Candy Kingpin".
David also takes things at face value in spite of them being questionable. Despite having a stopwatch to help him solve mysteries as fast as he can in "After Hours", he does not ask Quartermaster for clarification on anything he just witnessed in that episode, despite the fact that it upset him. He also turns a blind eye to the magnificent feast that supposedly was made with a single can of "sham" in "Culture Day" "with no shady appearance to get to the bottom of" whatsoever.
In "Reigny Day," David proves that he can be rather inconsiderate in the face of obsession; he was obsessed with obtaining the "Camp Counselor of the Year" award from the Camp Critic Committee. In addition, he rudely ignored his co-counselor Gwen, who tried to inform him of the bad weather. Another such occurrence took place when Neil was briefly believed to be murdered; he simply sobbed, saying, "There goes my award!"
He has a blind admiration for Camp Campbell, to the point that he puts all his effort into trying to uphold the legacy of the camp to the best of his ability. In "Escape from Camp Campbell", he speaks the highest of praises of the camp's founder, and tries to perpetuate the tradition of "The Order of the Sparrow" in the episode of the same name. Despite showing a stunning amount of naΓ―vetΓ© around camp, David is fully aware of how the world works. In that same episode, after Max's declaration that David should just give up, he replies that despite Max having a point about camping, how times have changed, and how no one seems to care, he's still going to try because, as he quotes, "somebody fucking has to." This is the one and only time he's ever sworn in the series, which only serves to highlight the importance of how this speaks to his character. His optimism is only matched by his determination, which in the end paid off. Even when pushed to the absolute ends of his limits in "The Forest" after being mauled by a wolf and breaking his leg in two places, he ultimately spares the wolf who did him so much harm, opting instead to live out in the wilderness to care for her wounds. His kindness to her was repaid when she saved him from a bear attack, and he left a grave of rocks to remember her by. At the end of the day, he says "you never know when a little kindness can come back around when you need it the most" and seems to live and die by that statement outside of this episode.
History[]
Despite being a Camp Campbell camper alumni himself, David is shown to have hated the camp when he was young - much like Max when he was first starting out - and was clearly looked down upon by some of the campers. After going with Jasper and Mr. Campbell on a hike through the woods, he was forced to use his own wits to find and save Jasper, which caused him to develop a love for the camp after being awarded a "best camper" badge. In fact, he loved the camp so much that, as a child he wrote a letter contained in a time capsule that stated he wanted to grow up to be a camp counselor, which is revealed in "Time Crapsules". However, at some point between finishing high school and working at Camp Campbell, David attended a clown school in Paris, as revealed in "Preston Goodplay's Good Play", as well as the mention that he can speak French. Since he's now working as a camp counselor and refers to his time in Paris as "the dark years", it's safe to say that David totally flunked out of clown school. It is currently unknown as to what else he may have gotten up to during this time frame.
As of this point, David remains a permanent fixture around the camp, and an obnoxiously happy ray of sunshine towards everyone around. Campbell finds David's "grating optimism" to be irritating, and plainly informs him of it in the episode "Squirrel Camp". Despite this, David has openly declared that Campbell is like the father he's never had, and thinks of him as such ("Camp Cool Kidz", "The Order of the Sparrow", "Cameron Campbell Can't Handle the Truth Serum").
Despite his blindingly fierce loyalty to Cameron Campbell, David will always put the needs of his campers first, even Max. In "Parents' Day" he and Gwen disobeyed Campbell's orders to pretend to be Max's family for the talent show so they could instead cheer Max up with some pizza after learning his parents had essentially abandoned him at the camp. Yearning for revenge, Campbell attempted to frame David for his own crimes, and mentions these events among others. David is strangely quiet upon hearing this, although he is disappointed that Campbell only came back with the intention of hurting him over something he said as a kid. Despite this serious blow from the man he so deeply idolizes, he does agree to give Campbell another chance as part of Max's plan to take back the camp in "Camp Corp." Campbell predictably backstabs them but ultimately turns himself in to the FBI, and is placed directly under David's supervision to complete his community service hours in lieu of jail time.
To no one's surprise, David is the only one who openly supports Campbell's attempt to reform, and actively reminds him that personal growth takes time. That being said, he can be a bit presumptuous and stubborn over it, even though his heart's in the right place. David's attempt to "give Campbell a push in the right direction and help him grow" severely backfired in "Keep the Change", when he pulled an underhanded setup for Campbell to save the camp from a "robber" by having said robber come to a children's summer camp and wave a gun around. The campers call him out on this and add that some of Max's personality has rubbed off on him for having stooped that low. Later on, Campbell attempts to create his own holiday in "St. Campbell's Day" which David sees as both a scam and a relapse into his old ways. His Grinch-like tactics almost put a stop to the kids' festivities, and Max even points out how David would have typically behaved; being happy and eager to participate, rather than trying to screw them over, since Campbell was planning to use the funds raised by the general public to install a toilet with actual plumbing. David feels quite guilty for his actions and (with the help of Gwen and Quartermaster) pulls an all-nighter to set up the intended celebration for the kids, and even confesses his concerns to Campbell in his apology, which Campbell accepts.
Affiliation[]
- Main article: Affiliation
Trivia[]
- Max and David are the only characters whose ages have been clearly established. With Max's age (10) being revealed by Gwen in "Gwen Gets a Job", later confirmed in "Parents' Day". And with David's age (24) revealed in his Tinder profile in "Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected".
- His biography on Tinder is just the full list of activities rattled off in the show's theme song.
- Assuming the show takes place during 2016 (Which would line up with Gwen being 25 and being born in 1991) his birth year would be 1992.
- As of the season 5 premiere "Welcome Back, Campers!" that takes place during the next summer following the end of the 4th season, this now puts David at 25 years old.
- David getting injured is a running gag in the series. He has been run over by vehicles multiple times, stabbed, attacked by wolves, and even set on fire.
- Another running gag with David is him mumbling the names of tree species in his sleep. This can be seen in "Cult Camp", "Dial M For Jasper", and "The Forest".
- David says he can't help but salute the Camp Campbell flag every time he sees it ("Escape from Camp Campbell", "Ered Gets Her Cool Back", and "Foreign Exchange Campers").
- The bandana David wears is actually his Camp Campbell camper shirt from when he was a young camper himself. This is revealed in "Camporee."
- As a kid, David was called "Davey" as revealed in "Jasper Dies at the End."
- Mr. Campbell still addresses David as "Davey" even as an adult, up until the end of season 3. As of season 4, he has only been calling him "David" so far, potentially implying some form of recognition of age, or personal respect.
- In his younger days, he was actually very similar to Max (being somewhat of a troublemaker) but to a much less severe degree. It could be implied that David believes that Max will turn out like him someday.
- In "Camp Corp." David says he always knew that Max would realize his love for Camp Campbell, just as he did as a child. He had even created a trapdoor on the ceiling of the counselors' cabin, loaded with balloons, confetti and live birds for the occasion. Upon finding the birds dead in his celebration, he sheepishly says that he expected this day to have come a lot sooner.
- In the season 4 premiere "Keep the Change", Nikki states that Max has lightened up a bit, potentially thanks to David's happy-go-lucky influence. Conversely, she states that David has changed, as his method of "pushing Campbell in the right direction" to show him becoming a better person was to get a robber to come threaten the camp. At the end of the episode, Nikki states that David and Max are really rubbing off on each other. Their response is a synchronized, "oh my god" and staring down at their own hands in disbelief.
- Oddly enough, despite Max having an arc across season 4 about learning to accept change and recognizing his own improvement, there was no follow-up for David. Aside from stooping so low as to hire the robber in the premiere, there has been no indication whatsoever of David's attitude getting worse or more "Max-like".
- David has only been absent from two episodes in the series thus far; "Cookin' Cookies" and "New Adventure!".
- He was almost entirely absent from "Who Peed the Lake" but is very briefly shown in a flashback, holding a clipboard and talking to Gwen, as Max was monologuing about the events that took place at breakfast. This is the first time he's made an appearance without having any dialogue.
- In "Quartermaster Appreciation Day", the Quartermaster reveals that if he were ever to betray the camp someday, he'd go for David first.
- David has only sworn once throughout the series (near the end of the episode "The Order of the Sparrow").
- He likes trail mix, as revealed in the episode "Anti-Social Network".
- To no one's shock, David doesn't like the city. In "City Survival", David pities the workers of Camp Corp. for being locked away in their "concrete prison" of an office building. He also openly has negative opinions on most of the citizens they encounter, such as judgmentally declaring a costumed couple was on the way to a drug convention, and immediately surrendering his briefcase to a random passerby in the belief that he was being mugged.
- He later does get mugged for real, which is based on an experience that his voice actor Miles Luna had during his stay in New York.[2]
- He also learned to juggle while at the Parisian clown school, but can't do it for more than a few seconds before the angry French words of his old classmates begin haunting him and psych him out.
- Additionally, he later tells Preston that he was voted "le plus susceptible de jongler avec ses balaises," which roughly translates to "the most likely to juggle with their brooms." Broom handles are often used for juggling newbies due to their larger size, so he was essentially voted "least likely to succeed" at clown school. Despite this, and being able to speak French fluently, he agrees with Preston's statement that fame is fickle, which means that he either didn't understand their criticism or chose not to take it that way.
- Since he and Gwen share the same Cabin, David sleeps on the right side of the room, while Gwen has the left side. His side has a corkboard labeled "Memories" hanging on the wall, a mug that says "#1 Counselor." His two drawers are labeled "David" and "Knee High Socks," and has a "morning wood" that he sleeps with. He also has a DIY Guitar Repair Kit, as seen in "Cult Camp".
- David writes "Max + Positivity = Success" on his clipboard in the episode "Mascot". In "Cult Camp", we see that the paper has been tacked onto the Counselors' Cabin's wall beneath his corkboard.
- In "The Fun-Raiser", it is shown that he has kept track of the times wherein he and Gwen have caught Max smiling, which was 1.5 times (with the 0.5 being a smirk).
- In "Arrival of the Torso Takers", Daniel says that Max is David's favorite camper whilst detailing his plan to live stream Max's murder to David.
- David plays the guitar frequently, and can often produce it from behind his back to be able to sing songs ("Escape from Camp Campbell" and "Cult Camp").
- He can also play the trumpet, as shown in "Camporee".
- Max stole David's phone to message women on Tinder in "Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected", and matched with Bonquisha. She showed up near the end of the episode with the intent on taking David out on a date, who was unaware that Max had done any of this. He wasn't too keen on it, asking if they could just be friends as she picked him up and walked away. They wound up dating from that point on, up until "Bonjour Bonquisha", in which she breaks up with him for not being 'man enough' for her.
- In "Bonjour Bonquisha" David reveals that he is a hopeless romantic, and says in "Quartermaster Appreciation Day" that he believes that love conquers all.
- He also has a surprisingly mature take on breakups, making a very heartfelt speech at the end of the episode about how healing takes time and that there is some good to be found in these situations.
- That being said, he did punch Bonquisha's new lover Jacob in the face right after he introduced himself, and was then shown to start swinging a chair at him before the end credits started rolling.
- Interestingly enough, he seems to have kept one of her muscle shirts; a pink one with "NO GAG REFLEX" written across the chest. Max is shown flinging it off to the side while looking for evidence to explain "David's" odd behavior (who was really Daniel in disguise) in "Arrival of the Torso Takers".
- David is aware of the fact that Max often steals his phone, shown in "Camp Corp." Upon the start of unveiling his plan to get the camp back, he says, "someone get me a cell phone" and David replies, "I'm pretty sure you stole mine." At the end of the same episode, Max's pocket starts ringing, he then takes out David's phone and hands it to him. He didn't make any demands for his phone back, or even scold Max for taking it.
- Max has made use of David's phone to mess around with his Tinder account in "Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected", using it to order himself a pizza in "Parents' Day", used it to take a picture of the stolen Quartermaster's hook Gwen was hiding in her shorts in "The Fun-Raiser", and to take a picture of the other kids' attempts to be cool in "Ered Gets Her Cool Back".
- He has also asked for David's Social Security Number in exchange for helping him with the behavioral boot camp in the episode "David Gets Hard", using David's credit card in order to pay for his pre-order of 500 cookies from the Flower Scouts in exchange for their help getting David and Bonquisha back together in "Bonjour Bonquisha", and stole the money out of David's wallet in "The Forest" and left a note indicating he'd done so.
- David has spent a portion of his summer giving swimming lessons to Space Kid, on dry land, as revealed in "Who Peed the Lake". He is currently unaware of the fact that Max is unable to swim, though that may change in the future.
- The recurring villain Daniel uses the same character model for David but with different colors. He is meant to resemble an evil counterpart of David.
- During an RTX Panel, when asked if the animators got lazy in designing antagonists for the show, Miles simply replied that it just looked cool for a recolored David to be the villain.
- David is aware of two foreboding incidents that have happened in his time as a camp counselor; one camper who was severely injured (mentioned in "Reigny Day") but did physically survive, and another camper who was swept away in the water in "Who Peed the Lake" when he heavily warns Gwen about "losing another camper to the sea."
- In "Space Camp Was a Hoax", Gwen also tells Max she's had to fill out paperwork for a dead camper before.
- David is unaware that Jasper is dead; in the episode "Dial M For Jasper" he simply believes that his parents came to pick him up in the middle of the summer, when the actual truth is that Jasper died in an explosion on Spooky Island. He feels great remorse over not being able to patch up their fight before he "went home", and although Max, Nikki, and Neil are aware of the truth, they opted not to share it with David to protect his psyche. Whether or not David eventually learns of Jasper's fate may be part of a future episode.
- Similar to Darla and Gregg, David and Gwen both have the same initials and both are working hand in hand as co-counselors of Camp Campbell.
- In s4 ep11 David refers to Mr Campbell saying "he's like the father I never had" implying that he grew up without a father.
Gallery[]
- To see the full gallery, go to David/Gallery.
Concept art[]
References[]
- β shown in David's Tinder profile in "Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected"
- β https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlXjqeu6Dgc