OK fuck it I'll post it
C!Ranboo and the Tragedy of Belief
Note that I had an hour to write this so it may not be very cohesive.
Full thing under the readmore but tldr: c!ranboo is intwined so closely with the concept of faith and hope that it is impossible in dsmp lore to speak about one without speaking about the other.
Everything is obviously /rp, this is about the CHARACTER on the DSMP
Full disclosure this will be very poorly structured if at all
Ranboo's character is a walking talking example of a slave to faith. He represents hope (and the loss thereof) on the dsmp first and foremost and I think that's why he's such a hard hitting character
Now I do not claim to be a spectacular cranboo understander but I've had this idea boiling in my brain for a while and now I will share it.
We see it from the MOMENT he joins, seeking sanctuary from dream in a literal place of faith, but that exchange was granted mostly comedic so I should get down to brass tacks
Ranboo's centrism, his ideals of people not sides, everything he loves and everything he has, it is all based on faith. Literally all of his actions are based off of blind hope. A central point to his character is trust- in himself, in others, in the world. He admits to robbing George's house (after Tommy took all the blame in court mind you) because he believes it will help, because he has faith that tommy is not selfish, because tommy has given him reason to believe it. He goes along with the butcher army because he believes that tubbo is doing the right thing. He escapes doomsday because techno believes that it wasn't his fault. The panic room, and events within it, are based entirely on belief
We know that the dream voice is not actually dream himself, but rather ranboo's psyche taking his form as a stock "bad person", as someone who ranboo wholeheartedly believes to be The Villain. Trust is a HUGE theme in their conversation, it even all boils down to ranboo realizing he cannot place his endless faith into himself, but he KEEPS HOPING.
Despite everything, despite the horrors and the conflicts and the server falling apart, ranboo NEVER loses hope. He seems hopeless at times, but then he's faithful again- because that's how he survives. He can't believe in himself, so he finds people that he can have faith in instead, and those people can believe in him when he cannot. He survives off of faith, he lives and breathes belief.
And those people who he chooses to believe in... Unless they super duper fuck up, his faith in them is UNSHAKEN.
He puts his faith in tubbo in New L'Manburg and watches as tubbo exiles the man who took the blame for ranboo in a COURT OF LAW. sure, he visits tommy in exile, he KNOWS that was the wrong decision, but he unshakably believes that tubbo did what he thought was best. almost instantaneously afterwards, that faith leads him to assist in detaining philza and hunting technoblade, and even when that ends up biting them all in the ass, does he stop believing in tubbo after doomsday?? NO!
He MARRIES tubbo, someone as transient and listless as tubbo, and he puts his faith in his husband and in their child and in snowchester, even as tubbo compulsively moves to the next project and the next, even as tubbo drowns himself in his work
Emeraldduo put faith in him, allow him to live with them, and he puts his faith in them and in the syndicate and in that mission to prevent governments from rising again, even as he's MARRIED TO THE PRESIDENT. he goes with them to snowchester, guards tubbo's secrets, does everything he can to keep these people he believes in from fighting each other.
Even his refusal to choose sides is a blind, foolish hope - A vain faith in the goodness of his fellow players, that they will all realize that sides are useless, that it should be all of them against dream. And this faith gets spat on and trampled again and again, over and over, and still this noodle-spined coward continues to hope. He puts stock in the goodness of his fellow player even when that faith is betrayed CONSTANTLY
He lets Sam write in his book in big bold letters, "TOMMY'S DEATH IS SAM'S FAULT", and we know he doesn't believe it but he HAS to. He has to believe it to keep going, and keep going he will, because he has a husband and a child to come home to at night and a mansion for them being built that he blindly hopes tubbo will move into, even knowing how tubbo hates to stay in one place
They make the cookie outpost. Tubbo tells him about the green festival and tells him he doesn't trust Quackity. Tubbo sells the cookie outpost. Tubbo then tells him that he now trusts Quackity. Ranboo thought of that fort as something special that he and tubbo made together! Tubbo offhandedly signing it away to someone he told ranboo NOT TO TRUST should be a MASSIVE breach of that faith but does he stop trusting him? No! That's his husband! Of course he trusts tubbo.
Even when Wilbur came around, Wilbur who originally hated ranboo for not taking sides on anything, he decided he'd trust him. Against the history of everyone he cares for, he puts his faith in Wilbur because SOMEONE has to be there when he gets better. SOMEONE has to vouch for his improvement. SOMEONE has to believe in Wilbur when he can't believe in himself.
Someone has to believe in ranboo when he can't believe in himself.
Against the trust he put in Sam, against the words Sam wrote IN HIS BOOK, he's put in jail for conspiring with dream. Put in there because Sam needs leverage against dream. Sam who he trusted. Sam who trusted him. And when the breakout happens, and the leverage DOESN'T WORK, does he stop hoping?
No.
Ranboo hopes to his last breath. He is full of hope as he falls to the ground, as he presses Michael's photo into Technoblade's hand. He trusts technoblade to find his son. He trusts technoblade to care for his family. He dies hoping. He dies faithful.
And on that grass block in the middle of that ocean, he is still hoping. Cowering and despairing but still believing. He has faith that the people he loves will come for him. He has faith that Mexican dream will tell his son how much he loves him. He sits on that grass block and hopes.
He writes in his book, and he hopes.
This turned out a lot more emotional than I intended ngl but those r my thoughts on the matter. Cranboo is all about faith and belief even after it lets him down time after time, and he keeps hoping because it's all he can do. That's it :P
