Genuinely curious about you c!Dream apologists (respectfully). Ofc different individuals gotta have different opinions, but as someone who seems to be in this fandom corner could u perhaps please explain what y’all generally believe and why? I’ve seen multiple posts and things in the past from self-proclaimed c!dream apologists where they lowkey didn’t sound like apologists at all. Do y’all actually often defend/condone c!Dream’s actions as forgivable given his circumstances and think of his moral relativism as valid/excusable? or do u guys more just have, without condoning his bs, a different opinion on his internal world—like about his characteristics and your understanding on how he ends up getting himself into doing the evil stuff he does? what sentiments are generally most dominant among you guys? I don’t understand y’all but I am curious. Sorry I targeted u for asking this bc you say you enjoy asks lol.
I do enjoy asks, anonnie, that is true lol
It's hard to give a general consensus because a lot of people use the c!dream apologist label, and, just like any big group of people, everyone's gonna have differing opinions. I think in general apologism in fandom is used colloquially as less of a "I personally condone every single action that this character has ever done" way and more of a "there's often nuance in stories, actually" way. Obviously people are gonna have their jokes of "oh [character] has never done anything wrong," but it's usually a joke. (Unless it's c!techno because I stand by my "what's there to apologize for?" words, but I digress). I have seen some takes from c!dream apologists that I very much disagree with, usually pertaining to c!tommy and re-creating the false idea that one is wholly good and the other is wholly evil. But I don't think they're the majority.
I mean, c!dream is a really complex character. He's by definition a sympathetic villain. He has reasons for doing what he does, and that's not an excuse, per se, but he's certainly not the two-dimensional caricature of evil that certain parts of the fandom like to paint him to be. And like sure people can interpret him that way, but that interpretation is not well backed up by canon at all. There is overwhelmingly more evidence that shows he is complex.
Some general things c!dream apologists believe (though again, you're always going to have differences in opinions and interpretations) include the fact that staged finale was, well, staged (canon), that c!dream has more reasons for what he does than chaos (canon), and that c!dream is complex (also canon).
He's not obsessed with c!tommy, first of all. He does (falsely) blame c!tommy for everything bad happening in his life, but his actions don't solely revolve around c!tommy. He is an extremely paranoid man (though is it paranoia if they're actually out to get you?) who is motivated primarily by fear. Everyone is against him, death is suddenly permanent (and people don't care?), people are randomly appearing on the server, and also he has this book that completely flips his understanding of the world on his head. He's spiraling bad. And that's not an excuse, but it is a reason for his actions.
I guess other things c!dream apologists acknowledge is that c!dream himself is an abuse victim. The prison is awful, and no one deserves that. Oh, speaking of the prison, it was not built for c!tommy. Most likely, it was built for some nebulous threat that a (again, very paranoid) c!dream couldn't really name before he decided that actually he was gonna put himself in it.
Behind all the layers of jumbled, complicated thoughts, his goals are actually quite simple. He doesn't want to be alone. He wants simplicity. He wants his home and family back. I actually have a post about the og 8 and how important they are for understanding c!dream's motivation, if you wanna check that out. He is a character who is unable to let go of things, which is literalized through the revive book. I mentioned that in a short other post, but there truly are few allegories for an inability to let go that are stronger than necromancy.
In general, I'd say that c!dream apologists push past the narrative c!wilbur built around l'manberg. c!dream wasn't a tyrant before l'manberg was built because before l'manberg there was no form of government on the dsmp.
I don't know how else to answer this question. Again, c!dream apologists aren't all the same. In general, I think most would agree that exile was fucked up. I mean, it's basically the one thing that c!dream can't even justify to himself. Some part of him, even if he won't apologize to c!tommy, knows that he went too far. Everything else can be explained away as the ends justify the means (which is something c!dream believes in), but exile just... he can't justify it.
I don't know. How do you define character apologism? How does anyone else? I don't have an answer. Does apologism mean saying every action a character took was justified?
I think it's just colloquial fandom terminology. You can't actually apologize for a character's actions because there's no need to. They're fictional characters. They're not people, they're a plot device. There's no need to apologize for something that has no real life tangible harm. Bringing irl morality into it isn't really useful. Just because someone enjoys something in fiction, doesn't mean that says anything about their irl morality. In my experience, character apologism tends to just be shorthand for "I like this character" and/or "I acknowledge that this is a complex character with nuances" (as most characters are).
I don't know. In your side of the fandom, what are apologists like? I wouldn't know.
If you want more of my thoughts. Um. I think that c!tommy is also a complex character who does undeniably fuck up sometimes and makes shitty decisions. However, I think I'm kinder to him than some other c!dream apologists because I think he's still undeniably a better person than c!dream. I think there's a reason it had to be c!tommy who broke the cycle of violence between him and c!dream. However c!dream is still my guy. He's tragic and painfully human and acts in the way that a wounded person who has lost everything would act. His life is falling apart and his attempts to keep it together just serve to break it further. He's self destructive and suicidal while also fearing death and he makes me so sad :((( my eebie...
But I digress. I hope this answered your question somewhat at least lol. If you have a genuine desire to learn more, then I'm happy to answer more questions as long as you stay respectful about it lol
(sorry, here's another thing about dreblr as a space for c!dream apologists—it's the part of the fandom that got literally run out of the wider fandom space through harassment, so people even now are still a bit jumpy. though you'll find that your favorite character doesn't even have to be c!dream to be here, but I digress)
