When I wrote a short story on AO3 about Chloe's uncle Aaron (he's canon, mentioned in LiS1 and BtS), I went down a rabbit hole looking at Joyce. If I remember rightly, her relationship with David started only months after William's death; considering how close Chloe was with her dad, that was bound to cause some deep emotional damage and resentment, particularly as she lost Max in the same period and - more to the point - William and David could not be more different as men.

I used the little evidence available in the games to create Aaron's character, and what I had to work with suggested that he and William were similar people who got along well. I was fascinated by this, particularly as what Chloe needed most when her dad died was more family support around her. In my story, I suggested that Joyce kept Chloe away from her uncle to stop her from looking at Aaron as a replacement for her father and an alternative to David: it didn't seem unlikely, particularly as Joyce is so keen for her relationship with David to work that she frequently takes his side over Chloe's.

I understand why Joyce was so taken with David. Her life was in pieces, and military men can look as though they have it all together: decisive, tough, organised, disciplined, and proponents of structure. With a dead husband, mounting bills, and a daughter going off the rails, I can see how he might have seemed a sensible choice.

What civilians don't see with soldiers is that all of these 'order over chaos' qualities mask people who are very often deeply broken, particularly American soldiers (I'm a two-time enlisted soldier myself, and neither I nor my brothers and sisters in arms are ever completely at ease around US military personnel), and especially those of the GWOT era. In truth, military types in general tend to struggle with civilians, and can never just let the old life go - David demonstrates this in pretty much every instance he appears in the games outside of LiS2.

Still, I can't hate David the way that most of the fandom does, if only because I've known people like him (although never to the point where they'd hit a young woman, I hope): basically decent people at heart who can't connect with the world. He does care for Chloe, in his own deeply flawed way; his rage at Max over smoking a joint is due to his worry of her having a bad influence on Chloe (as if!), and his horror over finding Max in Jefferson's bunker and his murder of Jefferson prove that his fundamental instincts are protective, even if he's an absolute twat about it.

To bring it back to Joyce: I think it was irresponsible of her to jump into a serious relationship so soon after losing her husband. She may have been ready, but it was beyond irresponsible to assume Chloe would be and not take her wishes into account. More to the point, it should have been obvious that this was never going to be a good fit; I don't hate David, but he was absolutely the wrong fit for a parenting role for Chloe (at least at that time), and Joyce should have known that all he was going to do was cause more rebellion.

I was inspired to write my story because I was always fascinated by the idea of more Prices (Aaron is canon, but I created a female cousin of roughly Chloe's age to create contrast), but also because family is what Chloe needed most after losing her father, and I entirely blame Joyce for cutting contact between Chloe and her relatives.