also I typed and formatted this all on my phone and it took way longer than it should have so please appreciate it. The size of the text doesn’t matter I was just struggling to fit everything and it all turned into a weird game of Tetris idk roll with it.
(I re-typed it all below in case it’s difficult to read on the photo)
both:
Loser
corruption arc
unreliable narrator
”it was never meant to be”
tragic
good at reading people
misinterpreted by the fandom
desire for validation
Cosmic amount of bad luck
Absolute shit at fighting
badass angsty villain outfit
Traitor
Delusions
Fire symbolism 🔥
trust issues
lost idealism
strong will power
stubborn
strong sense of justice/moral code
self Destructive
black and white worldview
c!niki:
Mainly villainizes/blames other people to cope
struggles to get other people to notice her worth
self pity
loyalty vs rebellion
failed at murdering a guy (L)
”I hope you starve”
Color changing eyes(?)
aware of her own competence thank you very much (her struggle has always been with getting other people to see it)
syndicate member
overlooked rebellion
Immediately speaks up when there’s something she believes is wrong, very headstrong
Anarchist
follower (this doesn’t mean she doesn’t stand up for herself, she just usually isn’t the one calling the shots)
very compassionate
treasurer
pet war
didn’t fight in the independence war
not very politically minded
Baking and healing symbolism 🍰
c!wilbur:
revolutionary/rebellion leader
romanization of self destruction and his own suffering
Neurotic
Charismatic
mainly villainizes himself to cope
obsessive amount of self hatred
FCR trauma
supernova symbolism
Literary terms
terrorist
ambitious politically minded leader type
would rather die than be open about his feelings
✨Showman✨
attaches his self worth to his external achievements
Took a shower (canonically)
personas/identity issues
struggles to recognize his own worth despite other people thinking well of him
In Defence of c!Niki - a Four Part Analysis of Every Arc
People who didn’t watch C!Niki see, in the fandom, a big sister type character with girlboss energy who wants to kill a child. Niki isn’t that. She has a well-written narrative which focusses a lot on her relationships with others. Here is me breaking it down!
PART ONE: c!Niki’s Early Days (you are here)
PART TWO: c!Niki’s Rebellion
PART THREE: c!Niki’s Disillusionment
PART FOUR: c!Niki’s Healing
Niki joined the server a little while after the L’Manberg War for Independence and she immediately joined the nation as Wilbur invited her to it. Of course, Niki was close with Wilbur from the beginning and quickly she got close to Tommy and Fundy too. But a relationship that I find interesting was her bond with Eret.
From the get go, Niki is told by L’Manberg (read: Tommy and Wilbur) that Eret was a traitor and wasn’t trustworthy, and while she understood their apprehension, she remained friendly with Eret as they were nice to her. She had no real reason to dislike him because she had not been there during the war and therefore wasn’t betrayed by her.
Wilbur ends up talking to her about this.
N: you know I’m loyal to you, Wil! You know I’m loyal to you.
W: I don’t- I want you to be loyal to L’Manberg.
N: and to L’Manberg! I am!
W: […] just stick with L’Manberg! That’s all I’m looking for- that’s all I look for in- in a woman- <laughs>
N: I promise, I promise I will
W: okay..okay, I’ll trust you..
N: I mean, y’know, that is why I joined! I joined to join the independent nation, didn’t I?
W: you did.. you did. You did. And just not their independent nation.
N: no. Our independent nation.
I think this is the first really important bit of Niki’s character - she is loyal. But she won’t take what people tell her and trust it blindly. She wants to form her own opinions on things and on people rather than listening to what others tell her about them. And yet, even when she ends up disagreeing with someone on something it doesn’t affect their relationship. Niki quickly begins to trust Eret a lot and Wilbur doesn’t trust him at all. Despite this Niki remains loyal to Wilbur and assured him she’s loyal to L’Manberg too.
That’s another thing - she promised Wilbur she was loyal to L’Manberg. And she kept this promise for as long as she could. Throughout this analysis I’m going to reference this promise a lot because while it’s a mostly forgotten piece of lore I think it has a lot of potential to be bigger and to be talked about a lot more often.
Additionally, I think this shows that Niki is pretty good at reading people - she obviously knows Wilbur very well and can read him because of this, even starting to say ‘and to L’Manberg’ before Wilbur had even finished saying he wanted her to be loyal to it. At the same time, she’s able to figure out from Eret’s behaviour that he’s trustworthy. Analysing motives and behaviour is how Niki figures out who to trust and it’s important to remember this for the Manberg era when suddenly the behaviour and motives of people around her didn’t match up.
Niki showed her loyalty by making the nation’s flag, by telling Wilbur her fox Fungi was the mascot of L’Manberg, by creating her bakery, and by giving everyone lots of gifts. I’ve said it before that she was the soul of L’Manberg. She loved that nation and she lived and breathed its ideals. C!Niki was an idealist. I truly think she would’ve been happy to remain in L’Manberg forever, if it hadn’t changed. Unfortunately, though, change is inevitable and attachment is a main theme on the Dream SMP, and there were many people attached to L’Manberg. It wasn’t ever going to remain the same.
The first pet war was the first time we really saw how strong of a moral code c!Niki had, and it’s something a lot of people think she only developed later on. While she was initially angry at Sapnap, Niki only wanted an apology (but she refused to beg for one). She never wanted revenge like Tommy and Fundy did.
Early Niki is often regarded as naive, but I genuinely don’t think that was ever the case. She was kind and compassionate but she was never a pushover and she’s always been headstrong.
Niki joined Coconut2020 in the elections as Fundy had told her they could bring peace to the Nation and make it better. It’s important to note that she was extremely upset when she learned he had committed voter fraud. Niki cheered despite coming in last place and this made it clear she’d be happy regardless of whether or not she won, as long as the people were happy.
My whole thing with c!niki right now is that I'd like her more if she had an actual arc, instead of everything being implied.
There's hints that the Syndicate is toxic for her. There's hints that she truly doesn't hate c!wilbur. There's hints that she actually does miss L'manburg.
That's not enough though. I want more.
She doesn't really need to have lore with other people in order to have this sort of arc. Like if scheduling is an issue, she can decide to not hole up in her underground city, and actually take a day to wander the SMP and think to herself. Wouldn't that be compelling? Wouldn't that be interesting?
Like yes I'd like it if she spoke to other characters (esp any of the Revolutionaries, bc those ppl were her family) but she can go solo for a bit. I want to see her reach that realization that the Syndicate is toxic for her and is more of a fabricated, blank connection than the real one that she's been missing in her life.
I think it'd add a bit more to her character if she reached some of these realizations on her own instead of the other characters basically spelling it out for her.
Hell, if c!jack said straight to her face that she's a Bad Friend (like that scene in She-Ra between Scorpia and Catra) than that'd be amazing!!
I don't know, I don't hate c!niki, but there's so much out of her story can be made into something and can be compelling and great if there was time taken for it.
Please tell me everything you know about c!niki xD
THIS IS GONNA BE HELLA LONG SO HERE YOU GO
so niki first joined l'manberg - contrary to popular belief - AFTER the revolution, along w jack manifold. she joined bc she was good friends with wilbur and tommy.
she opened up a bakery after consulting her diary/chat, and it ended up being pretty successful. not too succesful, but successful.
during the elections, she decided to support her friend (childhood friend? the timeline is fucked up bc of c!fundy existing lbr) and together she and fundy made COCONUT2020. she didn't think she'd win, only really did it for fun, and supported wilbur even though she didn't join his party
then her best friend and friend got exiled, and so she was understandably distraught and angry
schlatt's reign was one of her low points. not her lowest, but pretty damn low if i do say so myself.
she was tormented during this time by schlatt himself, and he made fun of her for her relationship with wilbur, called her things like a "wrench", he taxed her (to the point where she had to run away!), and he imprisoned her.
it doesn't help that her childhood(?) friend betrayed her burnt down the flag that she had made for l'manberg (its so sad actually, listen to it)
she had a birthday party that while i didnt watch ive heard that wilbur threatened to blow up l'manberg so yeah
then she saw her younger brother-like figure get executed onstage, then almost got executed herself, when wilbur managed to get her away
then it is DEVASTATING as she finally finds out abt how things have been going in pogtopia (especially for the viewers who only watched niki's pov). she had thought that they had a plan, that they were working things out, when really they haven't even got a semblance of a plan
the pit fight happens, and then after she goes up to listen to one of tommy's discs with tubbo and tommy themselves
during the manberg v pogtopia war, she fights for pogtopia and watches schlatt die and the nation become wilbur's again.
then, of course, comes the part that all old school c!niki fans will remember...
during the celebration they had just after tubbo gained presidency, she accidentally uncovered a small part of the wall and saw tnt. she went still, then covered it up, on the assumption that wilbur wouldn't blow it up
BOY was she wrong
her home gets destroyed (watch this and skip forwards until niki's pov), and she doesnt find out that wilbur dies until much, much later.
to honour him, she starts wearing his coat.
everything goes fine for a little while, and she yknow dates puffy (*SOBS* im unbiased im unbiased.... *sob*), and then doesnt find out abt tommy's exile until much later AFTER that.
she doesnt really get in on the lore much during the inbetween period of tommy's exile and doomsday except for her city being built more.
then, during doomsday, she gets angry at tommy and says that he couldn't just walk in there and assume everyone would be on his side, she also shouts at ranboo abt sides and stuff.
later, she apologizes to ranboo and says that if ranboo fights for l'manberg, she will too.
ranboo ends up doing nothing except watching everything unfold, and so niki does the same, except for one thing.
she burns down the l'mantree, also known as her canonical lowest point.
after that, she hears ghostbur speaking and has a panic attack, trying to reassure herself that "he's gone, he's gone, he's gone" and because shes too flooded w memories, she ends up blowing up her bakery.
afterwards, however, she goes down into her secret city and isolates herself from everybody except for jack, who she plots to kill tommy with.
she takes tommy to a nuclear test site and almost manages to kill him, but JUST misses him, somehow
after this attempt, she scurries back to her little hole like a cryptid and (this is, in my opinion, her lowest point) isolates herself even MORE.
she has contact with exactly 1 person during this whole period of four-five canonical(??) months, and it results in her mental health getting worse.
technoblade visits her at the start of this, offering her a position as an anarchist to which she gives him a "maybe, after
i kill tommy"
she gets night terrors, and keeps herself in a literal CELL so that she doesnt go anywhere when she sleepwalks, also punches the walls whenever she wakes up from a nightmare, which is often.
eventually tho, she accepts techno's offer and joins the syndicate, naming herself as nemesis as a reference to her past self
she manages to heal a substantial amount, finally having: a) a group that lets her speak (which is SO important for her, its actually the key to her entire arc) and b) socialization!
however this takes a big turn, when she hears that wilbur's back she tries to play it off, then goes the l'manhole or l'crater, reminisces about wilbur betraying her (may i note the rocketduo where she looks pointedly at manifoldland and says "and GOD you deserved so much better dgsayufasyufgasuy)
she grabs wilbur's diamonds, some of the first ever items she got in the SMP, then hides them in the wall, as a sign of her closing off from wilbur
PHHOOOOOOEEY THAT WAS A LONG ONE
okay so imma go with this writing cause its fun.
so, you asked a few questions in response to the ask you gave me!! so lets go
1) why does she feel betrayed by wilbur?
because she was one of the first people she met (canonically) on the SMP.
he promised her that it would be a land of peace, prosperity, but she started loving it BECAUSE of wilbur.
case and point: when wilbur asks whether she's loyal to l'manberg, she goes "yes, i'm loyal to you, wil." "no, no, not to me- to l'manberg"
she quite literally wore his coat around the SMP as a symbol of her friendship and dedication towards him, because they were honestly the best of friends, and she THOUGHT she knew it.
points out) and its the way she's learnt to do things.
also remember: c!Niki is an unreliable narrator, that's the whole point of her character. it's a response to trauma (as @tubboblr pointed out)
you're also probably wondering why she burnt down the l'mantree. and it's not because she "finally realized that l'manberg was bad" it was actually really simple: she wanted to be heard.
she had been beaten down and talked over SO much (aka the BASIS for her arc) that she's so desperate to be heard she'll take desperate measures.
another reason is because she finally loses hope in l'manberg. she loved it, loves it, but she just lost hope in it. she never hated it. she LOVED it, with all her heart. she just didnt believe it had any hope to be the place she had thought it was.
if you have any other questions, let me know!!
Ok but come on guys the real girlboss era for c!Niki was Manberg idc what you say. That girl was slaying during Manberg, she was standing up to tyranny and being LOUD about it too. Everyone else in Manberg rebelled from the shadows but Niki Nihachu made a scene about it and I love her for that.
The girlboss Niki is NOT the one who was lost, broken, desperate and lonely, clinging to ideas of revenge because she had nothing else to cling to. Taking out all her anger on the wrong people. There was nothing about her pain that was cool.
Niki was always a girlboss because she cared. And because she lived by the ideology of words over weapons that the country she loved stood for. The disillusioned version of her who didn’t know what to believe in and was too exhausted to love things was not a girlboss.
The story of the dream smp valued attachment and post-pogtopia Niki did not have any, and it made her vulnerable.
She started girlbossing again when she started baking again. Btw.
In Defence of c!Niki - a Four Part Analysis of Every Arc
People who didn’t watch C!Niki see, in the fandom, a big sister type character with girlboss energy who wants to kill a child. Niki isn’t that. She has a well-written narrative which focusses a lot on her relationships with others. Here is me breaking it down!
PART ONE: c!Niki’s Early Days
PART TWO: c!Niki’s Rebellion (you are here)
PART THREE: c!Niki’s Disillusionment
PART FOUR: c!Niki’s Healing
Unfortunately Niki’s pov of Election Day is one of the vods we no longer have and I’m devastated because I think it’s so important. When Schlatt was exiling Wilbur and Tommy, Niki was the first one to protest. While everyone else was stunned, making shocked remarks, or joining Schlatt’s side and going to attack Wilbur and Tommy, Niki shouted at him. Others laughed or were just silent. But not Niki. Never Niki.
And this becomes a running theme for her character, the only one willing to stand up against Schlatt out in the open. Of course, Tubbo and Fundy were going against him too, but they did so from the shadows. From the get go, Niki was different. She stood up for her country and remained loyal to it and to Wilbur like she promised she would.
These were her messages to Tubbo while he was taking up the role of Schlatt’s VP. Of course, we know he wasn’t actually on his side, but Niki didn’t know that. He did not answer her first few.
Because of this, Niki felt alone, not knowing who to trust. And this was the first time that had happened to her on this server, because she had always known who was on what side. Suddenly Niki couldn’t rely on her innate empathy anymore, because being kind wasn’t going to bring her friends back, and she couldn’t understand anyone’s motives because everyone was deliberately hiding them. She was desperate for an ally, and this was the first time she didn’t feel at home in L’Manberg.
This is something that needs to be kept in mind, that Niki had been feeling lonely this early on. A lot of people look at her doomsday arc and think it was a sudden change of heart with no build up or reasoning. But the seeds of that breakdown had been planted as early on as Election Day.
Still, she stayed loyal. She kicked up a fuss, refused to do as she was told, knowing the consequences. She refused to tear down the walls. She screamed that Schlatt had no right to do what he was doing. She yelled at Fundy as he tore down her flag. She would later get taxed, imprisoned, and chased down out of the nation. But she didn’t back down regardless.
S: I’m dying of hunger
N: you shouldn’t have betrayed the only baker in this-
S: oh my god, can you be quiet?
Q: Niki! Niki! You know how to bake, would you like to bake for us?
N: Not for you.
<Eret laughs>
N: Not for this government
J: that’s quite the catering gig you’re turning down, but..
Q: yeah- listen! Listen! We are very hungry people, we are very hungry people
N: I hope you starve.
This is a turning point for Niki, as she abandoned her bakery after this. She did not bake again for a very, very long time.
Her only allies were Eret - who couldn’t do much as they weren’t a citizen and many people didn’t trust her. And HBomb - who helped her gather resources for her resistance but ultimately operated in the shadows. It was support, and her gratefulness for those two characters is proven time and time again after this, but it wasn’t that much. And it had little weight compared to all the betrayals she was soon to face.
One of those betrayals was Fundy. Niki would later be told he didn’t mean any of this, but I don’t think she was ever able to get over it. Partly because there were some things he genuinely meant, when he said them.
F: Schlatt has risen on top of everything.
N: he will fall. He-
F: why resist?
N: because he is not the-
<Schlatt joins the game>
N: oh my god..
F: my leader! My leader!
N: I think I need to leave. Because today is tax day and I don’t- I’m not going to pay the taxes.
F: im about to refurnish the flag, Niki!
N: no you will not! Fundy, leave the flag alone, you already destroyed everything! What do you want more?! What do you want more?!
F: what I want? Is total domination
N: i trusted you.. I trusted you, I thought we would bring peace! […] we worked so hard for the independence of this nation, and you just-
F: Oh, independence you keep!
N: theres no independence with a tyrannist!
Niki felt Fundy had lied to her and later said she was glad that Coconut2020 hadn’t won, if this was what Fundy did with power.
Within the same conversation, this.
N: Wilbur is your father!
F: Wilbur ridiculed me. Wilbur patronised me for years.
N: he just wanted to keep you safe!
F: Wilbur.. was a powerless fool.
N: don’t you dare say that!
I hate to be a broken record, but she kept her promise, didn’t she?
Speaking of Wilbur,
W: we’re in too much of a hot position right now to take in everyone from every sort of- like- person we need into our new, sort of, cave.. so you’re gonna have to hold out in Manberg a little bit longer, is that okay?
N: .. of course.. I will. Take- take care, Wil..
W: thank you.
She sat in silence for a few seconds after that. Now, Wilbur was not abandoning Niki here. He was trying to keep himself, Pogtopia, and Niki safe. But what is she supposed to do, after believing he’d get her out of there? Niki had been feeling abandoned and lost and alone and betrayed, the fact that he couldn’t help was rubbing salt in the wound of everything else that had happened in Manberg already.
After, she moved out of Manberg into Tommy’s holiday home where she found Henry.
N: im not gonna be that lonely.. Henry- I will do everything to protect you, okay? We have each other. We’re- I don’t know who is on our side Henry, I don’t know who is on our side right now, but- <laughs as Henry turns> don’t turn away from me! Tommy is fine. Tommy is okay. And you will get back- get back with him. Soon. Very soon. Okay, Henry? <Henry looks around> I know you’re looking for him! I wish I could lead you to him and I wish I could show you, but we have to- we have to stay here for now. We have to stay here for now. You and me. We’re strong, okay? We’re strong.
It’s obvious Niki is trying to reassure herself. She telling this cow everything she desperately needs to hear in that moment. ‘I will do everything to protect you’ is something she wants someone to tell her. And ‘you will get back with him very soon’, which is what she wants to happen. And of course, ‘we’re strong’. It sparked a new hope into her. A new life. She felt safer.
This is when Niki wrote Dear Friend, and if it is wanted I can write a full analysis of that, but the main thing is that it was a cry for help. Niki was beginning to get incredibly burned out being the only one continuing to fight, having no idea what else she could do, and terrified for her life in the place she used to feel safest in. I wish we knew who ‘Dear Friend’ was. If anyone has theories I’d love to hear them.
She was scared, she felt alone. This marked the beginning of Niki’s darkest point in her life, and it marked the beginning of her losing herself.
I have an art piece of everyone’s L’Manberg uniforms that Tumblr won’t let me link, but the general gist is that anyone who joined post revolution got to choose the shade of their coat, and got a light blue sash instead of a red one. They also don’t have the lines on the boots.
Elections
She dyed parts of her hair orange to match Fundy for coconut2020, and a lot of her outfit was styled to reflect to the people that she was loyal to L’Manberg - keeping the same collar shape as her uniform, wearing the same turtleneck, wearing the shoulder pads
Manberg
She dyed her hair! Niki tied the sash from her L’Manberg uniform around her leg as a sort of rebellious act against JSchlatt (which she did a lot of), showing she was loyal to Wilbur’s nation rather than his. She also tied the hairtie around her wrist. Her sweater is the mental-breakdown shade of pink that she dyed her hair later, showing that this was the start of her mental decline and that this was a massive period of loneliness.
Pogtopia
She cut her hair and put it up into pigtails so that it was out of the way while she was in the ravine. I headcanon that this was when she got Wilbur’s cloak and that he gave it to her once she joined. Also, despite not participating in a war yet she has a scar on her leg from being chased out of Manberg and murdered by Ponk on the day of Tubbo’s execution, which is what led to her joining Pogtopia. The L’Manberg hairtie is still on her wrist but the ones in her hair are the mental breakdown colour, however there is less of that pink on this design than the Manberg one as joining Pogtopia reunited her with many of her friends, so she didn’t feel as alone even if she was still scared.
Breakdown
This design is for the entirety of New L’Manberg, Doomsday, and the rocket duo arc, up until the point where she stopped trying to kill Tommy and focused more on her secret city (where she locked herself up due to sleepwalking and night terrors). This arc lasted a long time and goes acrosss multiple eras her appearance remained how it did from NLM because she had no motivation to change anything, despite usually taking pride in aspects of her appearance such as her hair (which had grown out slightly between Pogtopia and now). There is no a single reference to L’Manberg in this outfit but she does still have Wilbur’s cloak.
Healing arc
Niki’s healing began after joining the syndicate but I think the appearance change would not come until at least a few months after joining as she was still trying to find her sense of self again. When she did, she went back to her blonde hair but dyed half brown, like a reference to Ranboo and Puffy. She continues to wear Wilbur’s cloak but is now in a much classier fit, having spent too much time with Techno (who definitely gave her the gold). The L’Manberg hairtie is back, this time with a braid, because I think Syndicate braids is an even cooler concept than sbi braids
In Defence of c!Niki - a Four Part Analysis of Every Arc
People who didn’t watch C!Niki see, in the fandom, a big sister type character with girlboss energy who wants to kill a child. Niki isn’t that. She has a well-written narrative which focusses a lot on her relationships with others. Here is me breaking it down!
PART ONE: c!Niki’s Early Days
PART TWO: c!Niki’s Rebellion
PART THREE: c!Niki’s Disillusionment (you are here)
PART FOUR: c!Niki’s Healing
TW FOR THIS SECTION: brief mention of sh, derealisation, a lot of discussion on grief and death. Let me know if I should add more tws
I don’t think c!Niki’s disillusionment arc started on Doomsday, randomly. I think it started on the day of the festival, when Niki watched her friend die, was chased out of her home, and saw how much her best friend had changed.
Despite her anger at Tubbo for his speech (which sounded very pro-Schlatt) she still told Schlatt to let him out once Schlatt and Quackity started to box him in. It still had not been revealed quite yet that Tubbo was a spy, yet Niki still stood up for Tubbo regardless of how she felt about him. That’s the thing about Niki. She is a good person with sound morals who will support people even if their views don’t align with hers, because she knows what’s right and what’s wrong and she won’t let ‘wrong’ happen to anyone.
Once Techno killed him, Schlatt literally fucking exiled her.
N: You killed him!
S: yeah, I did. I did fucking kill him, Niki.
N: you are so cruel- how could you do that? After everything he has done for you?!
S: he’s been a thorn in my side since-
N: I DONT EVEN WANT TO BE HERE.
S: he-
N: I DON’T EVEN WANT TO BE HERE!
S: […] you can leave if you want
N: ….Where am I supposed to go?
Manberg may not be Niki’s home but L’Manberg is and it always will be. That’s why the thought of leaving for good hurt her so much. Wilbur comes out into the open after she says this, and he defends her.
S: you really crawled up here on the day of my festival, celebrating my country. That you are not a part of. And you started- you started crying.
W: You sounded like you were gonna murder another person.
S: no, I was only gonna murder Tubbo.
W: you sounded like you were gonna go for Niki.
S: he’s the only person- well I mean, Niki..
N: what?
S: I might murder Niki, actually. I might murder her.
Wilbur tells her to run. Fundy gives Schlatt arrows but he and Quackity tell Schlatt not to do it, all the while Niki’s getting chased out of the country she used to love. This solidifies for her the fact that she truly has lost everything. Ponk chased her down and he killed her - Ponk, who a few streams before, Niki had called a friend. Earlier Techno had also killed her, when he shot at the audience after killing Tubbo. According to the wiki neither of those are canon deaths but I think they should be. At the very least, being killed by Ponk should be.
She joined Pogtopia that day, and Niki already had heard about Wilbur’s plans from Tommy. He, her and Tubbo had all vowed to get L’Manberg back and at this point in time, Tommy was the person she trusted the most. Her relationship with Tubbo had been ruined because of her thinking she was on Schlatt’s side - and even now that she knew he hadn’t been, it didn’t change the fact that he did not stick up for her while she was there. Her relationship with Wilbur was still a close one but she was scared for him and worried for L’Manberg’s future. But Tommy hadn’t wronged her, and she knew she could trust him to help with Wilbur.
Her birthday party was where she really saw the extent of Wilbur’s mental decline first hand and was completely powerless in stopping it. The day had been going so well, and she’d been having fun, until Wilbur went to blow up Manberg. Niki had to beg him to stop playing the anthem and Quackity talked him down from blowing it up, but Niki was terrified.
This is when Niki began working on her Secret City - intended to be a safe space away from the conflict, or a last resort for refugees if the war went badly.
On November 16th, Niki was hopeful, especially after Techno revealed his armoury. That day, Niki also defended Eret when they were accused of being the traitor, saying she trusted them and that they helped her. Once again, proving her loyalty and the fact she was grateful for people who stuck by her side.
We all know what happened later. After they got L’Manberg back, and were cleaning up, Niki found the TNT Wilbur had placed under the podium. She made sure nobody else saw it and she hid it again. Because after everything, Niki still believed in Wilbur. She was still loyal to him. She still saw the good in him and trusted that he wouldn’t. But he did.
She’d kept her promise, she’d been loyal to him and L’Manberg, and it didn’t change anything. She didn’t manage to help anything. And Wilbur, the one person Niki believed would always be there for her, no matter what, betrayed her. And she couldn’t even ask him why. So after that she was left hopeless and never wanted to let anyone in again. But as much as Niki didn’t want to, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
Tommy reminded the L’Manbergians that the L’Mantree was still there. And I think Niki found that comforting, at the very least. She asked Tubbo what they were going to do with Wilbur’s body and his only response was “let him rot”. She and Tommy were the only ones who didn’t laugh.
At this point Tommy became a constant, for Niki. He’d been there since she joined, he was the only one who understood that she still wanted Wilbur back, and in her eyes he was able to take on his role in the sense of inspiring them all.
So, of course it hit her hard when he tried to blame her for burning down George’s house. Then, he’s exiled and the next time she heads from him it’s because he blew up the community house - we know he didn’t, but Niki didn’t. She begins to see Tommy as someone who just causes problems on the SMP, nothing more. She thinks he’s arrogant and a nuisance and that he doesn’t care for anyone.
When it comes to Niki’s character it’s vital that we understand - she has been through so much pain that got overlooked by everyone around her. At this point, she was poor, grieving, and felt as if nobody in New L’Manberg listened to her. She was going through the lowest point in her life and nobody in that nation seemed to care.
And she couldn’t hate everyone for it so she needed someone to blame and that happened to be Tommy. He didn’t deserve it but he was an easy target. And it’s true that he wasn’t kind to her, but he wasn’t the only one, and he was obviously going through his own things. But Niki was angry and she needed somewhere to put her anger. Is that fair? Not at all. But it’s what happened.
N: L’Manberg has not been L’Manberg. For many weeks. Maybe even months, maybe even.. maybe even, I don’t know.. since the start? […] I want the people to realise L’Manberg is not what they think it is. I want them to open their eyes and stop being in this circle.. in this circle of fighting for it. Because that will not bring us anywhere.
Do I even need to say anything? She fought for it for so long, on her own, and lost everything and everyone anyway.
On Doomsday, she spoke to Ranboo.
N: Do you.. do you really think L’Manberg should be safe today? …Ranboo, I will- If you think that we should fight for L’Manberg today, I will fight with you. Because I believe in you. And I always believed in you.
R: I think we should. […] the thing is, if we don’t fight with them, then what are we showing them? We’re showing them that we never cared about them.
N: .. i care about them, I really do. But I got.. hurt by them… They always talk over me, Ranboo. You know how that feels.
R: yeah. But like you remember yesterday, sometimes you just have to get louder.
N: You’re right..
R: sometimes you just have to get louder until they have no choice but to hear you.
And good god, isn’t that exactly what she did? Something something, peaceful protest is ignored (striking at her bakery, not paying her taxes, verbally standing up to Schlatt). OSomething something, she got louder. (Burning down the L’Mantree, blowing up her bakery)
An underrated line from Doomsday though? Niki telling her chat that she needed to save Puffy. I think she was muted so you’d only hear the line if you were on her stream, but she tried to help Puffy after and seemed distressed that she couldn’t get to her. Puffychu crumbs.
She held it together until she saw Ghostbur, believing she was hallucinating and repeating to herself that Wilbur was gone and that he betrayed her. She doesn’t want to care, but she does. And the idea of Wilbur still existing terrifies her, because what does that say about her grief? And if her grief isn’t justified, then the things she’s done definitely aren’t. As long as Wilbur is dead, Niki feels like she has a reason for her anger.
During her meltdown Niki is rambling. ‘Wilbur is dead’ becomes ‘L’Manberg is dead’ which becomes ‘L’Manberg is gone’ which becomes ‘I am gone’ and ‘I am L’Manberg’. This reveals a lot about Niki, even if it may seem nonsensical at first glance.
I’ve made a post before about how for crime boys, L’Manberg is interchangeable with the other person (For Tommy, it’s Wilbur. For Wilbur, it’s Tommy.) And I think that this is the same thing for Niki. L’Manberg is Wilbur. Wilbur couldn’t live without L’Manberg, and L’Manberg isn’t the same without Wilbur.
Then, she is gone and she is L’Manberg. Niki isn’t the same person she used to be and she’s starting to think that she can’t live without L’Manberg either, not happily, anyway. But at the same time, she helps to destroy it because the memories are too much to bare, and all it does is remind her of all the times she’s been hurt there. She can’t see the good in it anymore.
Destroying her own bakery was somewhere between emotional self-harm and trying to separate herself from L’Manberg as much as possible. There could’ve also been a sense of survivors guilt? Everyone else’s homes and things were destroyed but Niki’s bakery was untouched, and she found that really unsettling.
She talks to Jack about why she burnt down the tree, saying it was because she’s lost everyone.
J: that’s not a very good way of going ‘hey, I wanna be friends again’, burning down their sacred tree.
N: i don’t want to be friends with any of them again! Have you seen them?
J: then why do you care?!
N: because it hurt me! […] we both have been ignored by all of them all the time. We walk behind them slowly and-and carefully because they will ignore us all the time but we wanna be part! We wanna be part- we’re like little puppies, aren’t we?! Like little puppies, just walking and walking. But they’re never going to see us. All we are for them is something to take something from. […] whats the difference between these people and us? When we lose something, we lost it. And we grieve it. And it will be a part of us. When they lose something? They move on and they find something new.
I feel like people who think c!Niki is badly written or don’t like her just watch this stream and think she is overreacting because they don’t know her lore. But none of this came out of nowhere.
The thing is, Niki was ignored throughout Manberg and New L’Manberg by Tubbo and Fundy and sometimes even Eret. Niki has had things taken from her by Schlatt and Tommy. She has seen everyone move on from Wilbur when she couldn’t.
I think the other characters did care about her - Wilbur definitely did and Tommy did too. Karl did, Eret did, Puffy did. But it’s so difficult for her to see that because the love is so quiet in comparison to everything else. She’s no longer an idealist, she can’t see it when it isn’t right in front of her. And that doesn’t mean she’s wrong. She’s not completely right, but she’s not wrong about being used and feeling unwanted. That did happen.
So why does this turn into hatred at Tommy? Like I said earlier - he was a constant. The only one she still had after Wilbur, but he didn’t seem like he cared about her. In Niki’s eyes he became just like the rest of them - he used her left, and then when he came back she thought he’d replaced Wilbur with Techno and was now replacing him with Tubbo.
(I’m not saying I think that’s what happened but it’s what Niki saw. This part of my analysis is also partly speculation and partly based on things Niki said after the fact, because I can’t find the vod where she and Jack decided to target Tommy specifically, I think there’s a missing one between Niki’s Doomsday vod and the one where Jack tells her about the nukes.)
She directs her anger at him also because it gives her an ally. Jack blames Tommy for most of what’s happened to him, because Tommy resulted in him losing his second life; if Niki agrees that it’s his fault then she has Jack. So unconsciously she starts directing her anger more towards him.
The thing about Tommy is that he’s loud. He’s annoying. He can be rude. He doesn’t take things seriously, especially when he’s being painted in the wrong, because he doesn’t know how to handle it so he just deflects.
That makes him a really easy target for anger. But the vast majority of what happened to Niki was never Tommy’s fault. She blames him for Doomsday, she’s angry that he used her, and she’s processing her grief of Wilbur through hating Tommy. That’s why she does what she does.
