Ngl I think being a ex-dsmp fan is not a red flag, but desperately trying to hide it or demeaning yourself for it is.
Oh you were so cringe and stupid for genuinely loving this thing in the past? No I love how "self-aware" you are. Just wondering how you'll react when this new story you're enjoying right now goes in a direction you didnt expect, or when this new creator says something you even mildly disagree with about their own story.
Yeah this new thing is so much better and purer, Im glad you're having so much fun. Just wondering what you'll do when the humans involved commit any kind of error, the kind humans do you know. Yeah just wondering how long you've been whipping yourself for, Im sure the scars are going to look dashing.
I was thinking about how large the age range was for DSMP fans and got curious if that had any effect on what character you chose to support! I figured it would be fun to do a poll to see if my fellow c!Dream apologists were similar to me or not!
c!Dream Apologists: What period of life were you in during the peak DSMP days?
Thank you for all the love on this it’s so fun! By popular demand I added more options + ranges! (P.S. This is based on US school system and college onwards it really varies so they’re just estimates)
c!Dream Apologists: What period of life were you in during the peak SMP days?
I love the Dream/Techno ship because of the intense dynamic between their characters. Dream's mysterious persona and Techno's rebellious nature create such a compelling contrast. Their interactions often highlight themes of loyalty and conflict, which adds depth to their relationship. Plus, there are so many great moments in the content that showcase their chemistry, making the ship feel really alive within the fandom.
Look at them. They are both terrors in their own right, widely loved and hated both as characters and as CCs. Their mere presence tips the scales in any story or event, promising that whatever comes next will be exciting and perhaps even legendary. And despite all of the mythos around them--all of the pedestals and paranoia--they grow close. People once pitted against each other, who found in each other a kinship that few people could ever provide them, and so became close in defiance of the people and forces who opposed them. They can be terrifying, but they also have these tender moments of affection, where they're just completely on the same wavelength. They have running jokes! They get distracted and wander off to look at things! They can't read maps! They adore their pets!
Why Gempearl is great:
To misquote tumblr user periwinklepaint, "they both think theyve "cursed" the other and blame themselves whenever something goes wrong in their relationship, but they have different ways of coping with it. Both are equally harmful to themselves and the people around them." Aka. TOXIC YURIIIIIIIIII
Yall we gotta start factoring in that Sapnap and George became incredibly suicidal when Dream went to prison. Like. Sapnap is the most explicit one about it in-between the two of them, but to them both killing Dream is the same thing as killing themselves. There is no world without Dream because if there is then they won't be around to see it.
No matter what they say or their posturing around other characters the truth we see when they're alone is that. Dream's death is the death of all three of them, not as a metaphor, but as solid fact
Something that's incredibly important to internalize about disc duo is that c!Dream did not "target Tommy from the beginning". c!Tommy painted a giant red target on his chest and screamed "hit me!!!" really really loud and then when Dream gave him some bleach to get the paint out Tommy threw it at him and Dream then proceeded to beat the everloving shit out of him.
I think something that also gives me the impression Dream’s drive was more so about fear than power hungry ambition is his final confession. Because it’s not ‘I want a family,’ it’s not ‘I want to be loved and cared for,’ or ‘I want to have friends’ or ‘I want my friends back’ or ‘I want things to be simple’ - but when it’s all stripped away, at his very core it’s
[42:27] Tommy: “But you know that first day. Those moments. You can have that… And we’ll all grow old together. That’s enough. Right?”
Dream: “I—I don’t know if it is enough.”
Tommy: “Why not?”
Dream: “… I—I just…”
Tommy: “Come on, man, tell me why not?”
Dream: “I don’t want to… ever be alone.”
“I don’t want to ever be alone.” A vulnerable statement of fear. The fear of being alone. Which yes, implies a yearning for all those mentioned things, but the statement itself is defined as what he doesn’t desire not what he desires. And if it’s that deeply embedded fear that drives him, then it makes sense for all of his goals and actions to be derived in fear rather than ambition, the fear of death, the fear of abandonment, the fear of losing those he loves. So then it’s not power that drives him, but the fear of not being powerful enough to prevent him from losing everything and being left alone…
Something I found interesting in my rewatching of the exile arc the other day is the fact that c!Tubbo tries so hard to protect c!Tommy while also trying to keep the nation’s best interests in mind. He offers probation, court trial, stripping c!Tommy of his title, anything to avoid war, walls and losing his friend, but c!Tommy makes things worse every step of the way. The fact that c!Tubbo catches so much slack is sad because he tried so hard to save c!Tommy and yet there’s only so much he can do when c!Tommy outright confesses to his goal of provoking Dream.
[44:53] Tommy: “Now I’ve done—now I’ve had my big war, I want my discs back. I’m out to piss off Dream. I’m out to get my discs back.”
[46:47] Dream: “But listen, Tommy is Tommy. He’s never gonna stop he already said his goal is to piss me off and if you want that as somebody in your nation that—that—even if he doesn’t have power. You know, there’s not that many members of L’manberg, like he’s one of them.”
Because at that point he becomes a liability to the safety of the people and buildings of L’manberg. Even if this conflict can be resolved he has admitted to planning to seek out more. And while c!Tubbo has been by c!Tommy’s side for these wars over and over again like for example the disc saga, I think it shows a great amount of not just logic but compassion for not wanting to drag everyone into wars they didn’t sign up for just because c!Tommy wants to keep acting out. Because while c!Tubbo will always chose to risk his life for c!Tommy’s wars it is unfair to make the people of L’manberg do so. (Yet again an example of nations dividing friendship because if c!Tubbo wasn’t president and things were simple like in the beginning he totally would rush into battle alongside c!Tommy.) Which is such an admirable respect for people’s lives and creations that c!Tommy has rarely shown c!Tubbo.
And I think the fact that so many people see this situation as a betrayal of L’manberg versus recognizing the complicated politics at play shows just how persuasive c!Tommy’s pov is. Because c!Tubbo summarizes it perfectly.
[48:37] Tubbo: “Tommy, there’s one big difference between you and Dream. Dream can go around and kill people, cuz guess what? Dream isn’t vice president and you are. Actions have consequences.”
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what c!Dream does or did or whether c!Dream tried to frame c!Tommy with explosions he did with c!Puffy, it only matters what c!Tommy did because of his affiliation with a nation, and not even just what he did but what he himself promised to continue to do…
Clouds obscured the white land, murky and dark, prowling above the bleak snow as if readying to pounce. The air fared no better, running as if chased outside, cold and cutting and damming. A storm was brewing, a big one, and he was more than happy to just stay inside and watch it pass.
Techno hummed and closed the window tightly. Hooves tapping softly to the slowly screeching teapot, taking it off the fire and pouring the boiling water onto his cup. Sweet honey smell rose immediately, fresh chocolate dancing in the steam.
He placed the teapot down and held onto the mug. Hands warm, he stayed and waited, blowing calmly into his cup.
The voices had warned him before, as he placed the teapot and lit the fire. They chanted about a man, a green one. He had to be expected. So Techno did.
A pair of boots soon waddled on the snow outside. Heavy and relentless as the storm to come. Techno waited and listened. Netherite on dirt, on stone, on wood.
A knock on his door.
He didn’t move to open the door, as comfy as he was standing by the lit fire with a mug in his hands, so he just voiced aloud. “Come in.” The voices cheered.
The door opened without hesitancy, and the man stepped inside as such. At least he had the decency to kick the snow off his boots outside the door before walking in.
“Been a while.” Techno simply said in lieu of a greeting.
Dream just nodded, hardly covering a shudder. “It’s warm in here.” He said, hurriedly closing the door behind him. His armour clanked loudly despite the gale outside, sharp corners clashing with almost every move.
Techno had taken his off. This late in the night hardly anyone was around these parts, even less without alerting the dogs. Also, metal saps heat, and Techno wasn’t as fond of the cold as one could imagine.
He shrugged and blew the mug again. “That’s how houses are, Dream.”
“I do have a–” Dream groaned then paused, raising his hands and shaking them away, as if he wanted to shrug the conversation over. “That’s not important. I heard you had connections to some traders. I wanted to see if you could trade me some stuff.” He paused, and Techno waited, patiently slurping his hot chocolate.
After a moment, Dream added, “And I do have a house.” He mumbled.
Got him. The voices laughed inside, he allowed himself a small smirk.
“Are you sure? I mean, I believe you.” He said with as much sarcasm as he could.” But you know, people talk. I’ve heard them, and they all say ‘this guy Dream has no house! He’s such a homeless loser. Let’s laugh about the homeless rich guy!’. He paused, taking a sip before continuing. He could see the other hardly keeping his dark and edgy demeanor. “But hey, I think that you surely must have one. After all, you’ve lived here the longest. At this point if you didn’t have a house, that would be just embarrassing.”
“Techno I do– I do have a–” And he knew what buttons to push, everytime, and everytime it worked and it was hilarious. “I do have a house! This is stupid, we’ve had this conversation before! And I didn’t come here to be- to be roasted!”
“And I believe you man! But then you went and proceeded to not have a house. Anyone would think you’re kinda lying, ya know?”
Dream paced towards his chests. “I have. a. house! I– I told you! It’s big- the biggest house in the server actually–”
Techno hummed. “Yeah, so big nobody can see it.” Dream paced back to the entrance, then back to the chests.
“-Listen. It’s-It’s a real hou–”
“As real as you can imagine.”
“I have a–”
“Maybe the house was the friends we made along the way.”
“Oh my gosh! Techno!” Dream finally exploded. His arms flying to his head in exasperation and rubbing at the helmet there as if trying to mess with his own hair. “I do not–”
Techno bellowed a laugh and stared at the ceiling, pointing with his mug at Dream. “This guy doesn’t have a house, chat!”
“You!” Dream screamed then stomped over to the door, slamming in open, walking out, then slamming it closed again. Techno could distantly hear mumbles and angry stomping under the wind.
The voices cackled around and Techno with them.
“I know, chat.” He answered to the murmur.
They knew all after all, and if they knew something, he did too.
The flame of his candles flickered. The breeze that had managed to slip in, disturbing them. It was humid and cold. It made him hold onto the mug tighter, glancing at the window somberly.
The door slammed open and Dream entered again, this time pointing accusatory at Techno. “What the hell is wrong with you!”
“I’m sorry man! It’s the voices, dude. They wanted to know, you know.”
Dream lowered his head, raising his shoulders in a clear sign of ‘I am about to lose it’.
Techno held in another laugh.
Even with armour on, covering almost every space of human Dream had, it was clear as day what he felt, what he expressed. As if sentiments poured from his eyes to the tip of his fingers, each movement showered in emotion. Techno couldn't do that most of the time, it was tiring in his opinion. Why do so much when his voice could express just as much. But he supposes Dream can’t really control it. If he could, Techno knows he would try to stop himself from doing it.
“What?” Dream asked in a controlled hiss.
With an uninterested tone, Techno shrugged. “I mean, the theory I heard was that you crashed at your friends’ houses every night–”
“I don’t have friends.”
Techno grimaced. “That’s… sad.”
Dream stood, quiet. Quieter than the petering rain hitting the window and the wind howling with it.
They stared at each other for a moment as Techno took another sip of his drink, feeling the warm liquid hug him inside. After a moment, and with more cheerfulness, he continued. “The other theory, on the other hand - and I gotta admit, the best in my opinion - is that you just break into people’s houses when they’re not there to sleep.”
“I am not breaking into people’s–”
“Now that’s just a lie, Dream.”
“It doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter. I do have a house.”
“And where are you going to sleep off the storm?” Techno asked quickly.
He somewhat understood how Dream’s brain worked. Similar to his as far as he knew.
And as he thought, Dream didn’t have an immediate answer. Instead, he just glanced at the window and the rain pouring outside. Something akin to resignation weighing his shoulders down as he answered with a tired voice. “In my house.”
Techno hummed, drinking the last bit of honey off the mug and placing it behind him. “I believe you.” He said, despite it not being true at all.
After the blunder with the blown up house Dream had, he had expected him to at least find some kind of refuge. A hole in a wall hidden with bushes, an underground cave filled to the brim with traps. But then he watched, a night he spent trying to catch a hare for hide, how Dream tucked himself under a small tree and went to sleep - clinging to the dried leaves, crooked with hard armour - Techno saw him and knew there was no home to go back to.
Thunder cracked outside, the low static of the rain and wind rising in rage to a higher level.
“In any case.” Techno continued. “I will need you to do something for me in exchange for the trades.”
At that, Dream straightened. “I’m listening.”
“You and I are both very rich in everything we need.” Dream nodded. “So if you want those trades, what do you think about helping me with crafting some potions. You seem like the kind of guy that would know every type. I need some of those dark ones, you know? The weird posion ones.”
Dream breathed out. “Can I ask for what?” He wondered absentmindedly, not really expecting an answer.
“No.” Techno shook his head, then walked over to the chests. He opened one filled with bottles. “Here are the supplies. I think I got pretty much everything ‘cept carrots. Accidentally sold all of them away.” He shrugged.
Dream chortled beside him. “I got some. I can give them to you.”
His gloves came off and soon followed his helmet. Techno pointed with his head to an enderchest near the fire. Dream thanked him then walked over to it, placing the gloves and helmet inside. Then, after some hesitancy, took off his chestplate and put it in the chest too.
He stretched languidly for a moment, enjoying the warmth of the fire nearby.
“You can crash on my sofa too.” Techno spoke, and before Dream could cut in, added, “I would feel bad to throw you out into that storm. I don’t think I could even walk over to Phil’s house without catching a cold.”
He could see Dream heavily ponder his options. Glancing to the door as if it were to disappear. A flick of graveness passed through his face but ultimately he sighed and smiled. “I would actually appreciate that. Thanks.”
“Hey, no problem dude.” Away from the chests, Techno placed the teapot on the fire again. Two mugs this time waiting beside. “You keep chat’s retention up.”
He heard Dream laugh.
With a jar of honey in hand, Techno breathed in the calming scent again.
The storm ravaged the land, it would be a heck of a work to clean the mess afterward, but for now he could just relax. Listen to the fire crackle in the hearth, glasses and water slush in Dream’s hands and chat’s amused jokes Techno would have to repeat to make Dream laugh too.
like, regardless of what c!punz ACTUALLY believes, right, regardless of what his character actually values and how closely that aligns with what c!dream values, the heart and soul of c!dream's character has never been communicated through c!punz. which like, obviously? c!punz almost has less of a POV than c!dream? he's sure as hell harder to read than c!dream. if he was going to be our window into c!dream's character he was as useful as a one-way mirror.
c!ranboo, on the other hand, was someone who lived in introspectionville ALWAYS and would do things like. write out his ideology in his talking-to-myself-notebook or on signs on the wall. c!ranboo was the one that actually echoed "big happy family." c!ranboo gave us stuff like the lessons. hell, a very important part of his character was represented THROUGH C!DREAM'S VOICE. when it comes to ideological parallels, c!ranboo was UNQUESTIONABLY a major vehicle through which many of c!dream's core beliefs were communicated to the audience, and within the trio of c!dream's allies at the point of staged finale, the only argument you can make for c!punz being c!dream's closer ideological mirror compared to c!ranboo is the fact that c!ranboo decided to fuck off into the fucking ether halfway through the story i guess
this is so interesting. i never really got into endersmile lore bc it confused me and also ppl were disappointed in how it shaped up so it never seemed worth the effort but you’re convincing me otherwise
endersmile lore is both an exercise in frustration because you have to go down rabbit holes KNOWING you'll never get a satisfactory conclusion because by the time prison break happened cc!ranboo had evidently decided to give up on a lot of important plotpoints that they'd been setting up to start anew (and then never did much with ghostboo either but whatever) but also. genuinely, and i mean this completely seriously, one of the most important facets of c!dream apologism from 2020-2021 and absolutely essential to at least know the basics of when talking about c!dream as a character. many of the main thesis points of c!dream's character and his motivations are honestly much more accurately represented by enderwalk!ranboo laying out their motivations than anything c!dream says out of his own mouth after november 2020.
staged finale is only one part of the umbrella of what c!dream apologists were talking about pre-prison break, and while it was obviously the big reveal that everyone was really excited about, i would say that it's. not actually the most important part of c!dream's characterization by a long shot? staged finale tells the audience a lot about how c!dream does things, the obfuscation and the planning and the paranoia and how far he is willing to go with the lie that is the persona that he presents to the audience, but honestly the "staged finale-c!dream and c!punz-revive book-Plan(tm)" of it all has very little to do with why c!dream does what he does. and one must remember that while punz was the one to pretend to betray c!dream, c!ranboo was the one c!dream was staring at the whole time while he was being taken to Pandora.
the damage done to the story by c!ranboo's just fucking disappearing from it genuinely cannot be understated it's a miracle they pulled it together as best as they could. but like it leads to this phenomenon where people completely forget that "big happy family" was not only something that c!dream said to c!punz considering how c!ranboo conspicuously said something to that effect at around the same time as the c!drunz conversation in front of the prison, and how while c!punz, the cold, merciless mercenary has "always been on c!dream's side" particularly when he's embodying the villain mask he uses with the majority of the server, the heart of c!dream's desires and the ideologies of his charcter were communicated with the viewer largely through the OTHER member of his little trio of allies in much more private settings.
it's just with a character like c!dream where so much of the character was communicated through the lens of other characters (which obviously was a feature and not a flaw and generally something that the cc experimented with quite a lot, ESPECIALLY with c!ranboo) it's always unfortunate when certain important relationships for this character get undervalued due to outside factors. c!ranboo didn't really get a conclusion and disappeared from the story for reasons that don't have to do with the dream smp at all AND many of the most influential moments come from like the middle of 7 hour late night mining streams and therefore sources aren't nearly as easy to come by as one would like, but c!stagedTRIO and the THREE characters involved in planning and carrying out staged finale are extremely important and defining relationships when it comes to how c!dream is characterized from nov16th to the staged finale especially but also like, the entirety of c!dream's character, and the fact that one side of the triangle has kind of been forgotten leads to a lot of trying to shoehorn c!ranboo's narrative role into c!punz, which is a disservice to every character involved imo.
a very similar phenomenon occurs with c!wilbur, who gets deemphasized for again, reasons largely having nothing to do with the story itself, but ignoring him completely changes how one views c!dream up until november 16th (and onward, obviously) as well as his dynamic with c!tommy. c!dream's character prior to the 16th was very much often communicated through how he interacted with wilbur and tommy and the way that they pushed and pulled at him, and nowadays again the triad just often seems eclipsed by the duo, which means that people are constantly trying to pin stuff WILBUR did onto tommy and it's like. okay so. tommy actually didnt lead lmanburg like ever
DREAM IS SUUCHH-- AHHH it just makes so much sense.
He is so careful about keeping the fighting from getting out of hand and keeping things fair. George gets too OP and he and Sapnap plan to kill him and burn the gear. Bad and George plan to kill Sapnap to see if he has any of George's stuff still (he doesnt), and Dream kills Bad to make up for it and ensure he didn't swipe anything.
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