#….ITS ALL GOING TO BE FOR NOTHING. IT IS HIS WORST POSSIBLE OUTCOME. HIS DETHRONING. HIS FALL.

[lotus-pear]

guys idk about you but i am NOT ready to delve into uncharted waters as we move into new content with bsd in the upcoming chapter.

this new chapter could include anywhere from ada reunion and a return back to yokohama OR to a new horrible twist after fyodor’s death, ensuring that if he lost then dazai would too. taking dazai down with him.

not to mention if we return back to yokohama that’s a whole other gut wrenching story as one ada member is selected to go to the port mafia. i am not ready to see the futile and tragic looks on the other agency members as they grit their teeth and watch one of their own step into the world of darkness. the tragedy of letting someone go after they have all reconciled. being separated again, but for good this time

[mnemomnemonomi]

Zoro x Fem Reader x Sabo : Rivalty In The Air

Hello everyone ! I finished translating another One Shot I wrote on Wattpad. This one was a request I received on Wattpad It’s still in third POV, I might change after finishing all the translation of the “old OS”.

Synopsis : Y/n is from Wano and has joined the Revolutionaries to be stronger while helping them. Her goal : kick Kaido's ass. Hearing about Luffy and Law's alliance, she decided to join them at Dressrosa to be part of Kaido's downfall.

Content : Sabo and Zoro may be a bit OCC but i really tried to keep their original personnality, Zoro still need a GPS, a lot of bickering, friendly rivalties between Zoro and Sabo nothing violent.

Words : 2.7k

Rivalty In The Air

They had finally defeated Doflamingo and his damn family! Dressrosa could finally go back to living normally, without the oppression of the blond Warlord. At the same time, Kaido had taken a pretty big hit! And Y/n couldn't help but appreciate that, being originally from the Country of Wano, she knew the situation there perfectly. Everything was that damned Yonko's fault! She was ready to do anything to bring him down, but she wasn't blind; she knew very well that she wasn't up to the fight...

However, seeing the Straw Hat crew and the Heart Pirates defeat a Warlord gave her hope. She was perfectly aware that they had individually no chance against a Yonko, but... maybe by forming an alliance with them, by uniting their strengths, they could dethrone the Emperor and thus restore Wano to its former glory.

She had only one regret about this alliance...

She had to leave the Revolutionary Army, with whom she had spent most of her life. They had been so welcoming, open, and adorable to her. She had told them everything about what was happening in her country, why she had fled, and how she had ended up with them by chance. Even though she had other goals than the Revolutionaries, she decided to stay with them for a few years, to help them, but also to strengthen herself for her initial goal.

It was there that she met Sabo, a young blond man with a scar over his left eye. At first, she didn't feel like she belonged, not really sharing the Revolutionaries' ideals, but the blond had welcomed her with open arms and a huge smile.

It didn't take long for the young woman to fall under Dragon's right-hand man's charm. Through missions together, they had gradually grown closer, even sneaking away together to talk about everything and nothing. Just when Y/n had gathered the courage to confess her feelings to the blond, she learned from her colleagues that the Straw Hat crew and the Heart Pirates had formed an alliance. And together they had kidnapped Caesar, who was the inventor of the artificial Devil Fruits known as Smiles, which Kaido desperately needed.

She didn't have to look far to understand the goal of the two Supernova captains: to eliminate Kaido. She knew these two crews very well, one being the crew of Sabo's younger brother and the other still a member of the Worst Generation, just like Luffy. It was hard not to know them... After thinking about it for a long time, that same night, she decided to leave the Revolutionary Army and propose an alliance to these two pirates. If Kaido was going to be overthrown, she wanted to be part of it, if only to get revenge for what he had done to her homeland!

With a heavy heart, she said goodbye to her precious friends and especially... to Sabo. There were not many possible outcomes: either she succeeded in the alliance and managed to kill Kaido, or... Well, they would all be killed, or she would be killed by Law, thinking she might be a spy or something... He seemed like a paranoid guy to her but well, she didn’t have a choice. She just had to convince him.

To avoid worrying her friends, she lied about her motivations and simply announced that she was taking a break, just to rethink her main goal. Of course, Sabo, who already knew the story between Kaido and Y/n, immediately became worried, but he only had time to panic before the young girl had taken him aside and planted a kiss on his cheek as a farewell.

That's how she sailed the seas, gathering information about the alliance between the two Supernova captains, and eventually arrived on Dressrosa Island. There, she met the famous pirates and explained the reason for her visit. Of course, Law was not very happy to hear this; he even kept his hand on his precious nodachi, Kikoku.

Quite the opposite of Luffy, who welcomed her without any suspicion and with a broad smile. Apparently, that 10,000-Watt smile ran in the family! Well as a matter of speaking. She didn't mention Sabo to Luffy, remembering that Sabo would soon see him for himself. She wouldn't want to ruin their reunion! From then on, she was officially welcomed into the alliance between the two pirates and the samurai.

The alliance was divided into several groups, and Y/n ended up in the group responsible for destroying the Smile factories. She tried to be useful to her group, but Zoro made a point of arguing with her every time, claiming she was up to no good. That's when someone took one of Zoro's swords, Shusui.

"Damn it, Shusui! Hey! Give me back my sword!" the swordsman exclaimed, rushing to chase after his katana.

"You're quite the great pirate," the young woman laughed, staying still along with the rest of the group, except for Kinemon, who followed Zoro.

"This is all your fault!" Zoro retorted, still managing to hear the young woman.

-"How is it my fault?!" she replied angrily, running towards the swordsman to confront him.

-"You distracted me!"

-"What? That's ridiculous, do you realize that?"

-"That's enough, we need to catch that thief and get Shusui back-de-gozaru!" Kinemon interrupted, redoubling his efforts in the chase.

It took several minutes for Kinemon to get lost during the pursuit, while Zoro and Y/n resumed their bickering. Despite their less than favorable condition, they managed to catch up to the thief and retrieve the katana. They met Wicca, a dwarf or fairy belonging to the Tontatta Kingdom. She explained that the situation was getting worse, and the Don Quixote Family was preparing to attack the Sunny, which was guarded by a group from the alliance.

Despite this, Wicca begged them to take her to the Flower Field, where she could inform her so-called "Commander." This took longer than expected due to Zoro's legendary sense of direction and the pointless quarrels between the former revolutionary and the swordsman.

"For goodness' sake, we should have been there already! And can you two please stop arguing? You sound like an old married couple! Oh, but maybe you are married..." the fairy exclaimed before taking a curious look at the two humans.

The reaction of the two young adults was immediate, and both blushed instantly, although the young woman with e/c eyes had a more intense blush than the swordsman.

"What nonsense are you spouting, dwarf?" Zoro retorted, lowering his head to look at the fairy nestled in his costume.

"That's right! Me, with this... swordsman... Nah."

"Was it supposed to be an insult...?" the confused fairy muttered.

"What do you mean by that, huh? You... you woman!"

"Their insults make no sense!" Wicca thought, completely overwhelmed by the idiocy of these two humans.

As Y/n tried to respond, she stumbled during her run but was quickly caught by Zoro, who pulled her towards him with one of his arms. They remained close for a few seconds, but it was long enough for everyone to understand that they should have moved apart sooner. They quickly pushed each other away, and Zoro, slightly red, raised his voice.

"Don't get close to me, I already have the dwarf for that!"

"You dare complain when you were the one who pulled me towards you?!" Y/n replied.

"Don't you complain either! You were about to fall headfirst, you idiot!"

"As if I needed you to regain my balance, and I wasn't going to fall!"

"Yeah, well, next time, I'll let you fall and laugh at you with your broken nose!" the green-haired man continued.

"Like that's ever going to happen! There's as much chance of that happening as you are finding your way on your own!” the young woman with e/c eyes replied.

Zoro's face turned even redder, but it was Wicca who eventually stopped their "dispute" and sighed.

"Seriously... These two really think they can't stand each other... Attraction really makes people stupid," the dwarf thought, then resumed giving directions to Zoro, who grumbled.

And so, the mission on Dressrosa continued. Everyone had a role to play, and Y/n helped the crew eliminate the Don Quixote Family. After all the chaos, Luffy's victory over Doflamingo marked a new era for Dressrosa. The pirate alliance was then welcomed into Kyros's house, where everyone rested. For once, Zoro and Y/n weren't bickering, too busy trying to find sake for one, and the other was trying to recover their strength.

Indeed, Y/n had returned quite battered, covered in dust and debris on her clothes. She hadn't bothered to clean her face, as she was too tired. Zoro, unable to find sake, complained once again before taking Wado Ichimonji in hand and staring out the door's window, casting a shadow. Everyone's eyes were on the door, which slowly opened. After a few seconds, Y/n stood up and rushed toward the newcomer. She embraced the silhouette, which could finally be identified by the rest of the pirates, especially Robin, who smiled as she pronounced the name of the newcomer.

"Sabo!"

"Sabo? Who's that?" Zoro asked, squinting while watching the young man held in Y/n's arms.

"He’s Luffy's brother." Robin replied.

"Another one...?" thought the swordsman.

"Sabo, are you okay?" asked the young woman with h/c hair, releasing the blond just after.

Sabo smiled at her before looking surprised and then tender. A slightly tired Y/n didn't understand why until he raised his hand to her face and gently placed it on her cheek. The young woman blushed easily while looking at the blond. He then gently rubbed his thumb on her cheek, removing some dust from her face.

"You had some kind of stain on your face," he said with a gentle smile.

"T-Thank you..."

"Tch!"

"Sabo, what are you doing here?" Robin asked after smiling at the swordsman's behavior, who seemed to be irritated.

"Oh, I just wanted to see Luffy before leaving. Some troublesome people will be arriving soon. You should also leave while you can."

"Troublesome people?" repeated Franky.

"The CP0. They're not innocent in Doflamingo's downfall, they played a role in the shadows."

"CP0?" repeated Y/n, starting to doze off and sway towards Sabo.

"Hey, you idiot, don't fall asleep, you'll fall. Come here, just stay there. I mean, stay over there and fall, maybe I'll see your broken nose after all," Zoro announced with a smirk.

"Dream on, I told you... I told you it wouldn't happen," she replied, yawning between each part of her sentences while moving closer to Zoro to point her finger at him reproachfully.

She paid no attention to the arrangement of buckets filled with water on the ground and stepped into one, causing her to lose balance and fall towards Zoro. She managed to catch herself and fell on all fours while framing Zoro's bent legs with her arms.

In the end, Zoro, sitting cross-legged, saw Y/n's face up close as she used her arms to catch herself beside the swordsman's legs. He smiled arrogantly before saying,

"You see, I was almost a witness to your fall," Zoro teased. "It's like you enjoy falling when I'm around," he added more softly so that only Y/n could hear.

She blushed before trying to respond, sitting back in the Seiza position (kneeling, sitting on the legs, like in Japan). Zoro eventually smiled kindly and gave Sabo a smug grin. Sabo wasn't as happy to see Y/n so close to the pirate so quickly, to the point that he didn't realize he was frowning until he saw Zoro's smirk.

Sabo felt a wave of jealousy, but he restrained himself, wanting to avoid letting his flames out and burning down the house and its residents. He finally smiled kindly, approached his former comrade, placed his hand on her shoulder to gain her attention, and asked,

"Y/n, we should go, the others are waiting for us."

"Hmm?" responded Franky and Robin, who were watching the scene unfold with satisfaction.

"Why would Y/n follow you?" Zoro suddenly asked seriously.

"Well, because she's done what she wanted to do. Now it's time for her to return to the Revolutionaries, with me," Sabo replied with a forced smile.

"In what way is she done? She said she wanted to kick Kaido's ass. He's still in Wano, as far as I know."

"Did you tell him everything?" Sabo asked, slightly disappointed that he wasn't the only one who knew Y/n’s goal.

"Well, actually, they all know," said the woman with h/c hair.

"Yeah, and so what? Does it bother you that I know?" Zoro interrupted.

"I don't see why it would 'bother me.Y/n can do whatever she wants. After all these years together, I don't see why I shouldn't trust her. I'm more doubtful about the others," the blond replied.

"It's funny to hear that from the guy who wants to take her against her will. It gives the impression that he's afraid of something or... someone," Zoro retorted.

"That's enough, both of you! I'm tired of hearing you talk as if I'm not here! So now, the three of us are going to get out and have a talk. Robin and Franky don't need to endure your childishness!"

Both young men widened their eyes and turned to Robin and Franky, who were smiling. They both felt somewhat embarrassed that their friends had witnessed their not-so-subtle dispute. Zoro, Sabo, and Y/n left the house and walked away a bit so that prying ears wouldn't hear them. Even though Robin could easily listen in if she wanted...

"Alright. I'm going to be very clear, okay? You two are going to stop bickering by talking about me as if I'm your property!"

"What? No, that's not what I meant, Y/n!" Sabo immediately apologized.

"I didn't say that either. It's not my fault if you don't understand," Zoro replied, avoiding eye contact with Y/n.

"I never told either of you what I was going to do now. So, speculating like this is pointless! Besides, you're on the same side; it's really stupid to argue like this!"

"... It's true... You're right," Sabo acknowledged while sighing.

"Zoro?" the young woman called.

"What?"

"I'm waiting," Y/n added with a somewhat stern look.

"... Aaah, fine, I get it! I may have been a bit... protective..."

"Protective? Are you kidding? You were clearly je—" retorted th blond man.

"Sabo," Y/n cut him off.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"Now that it's settled, I'm going to bed, and I don't want to hear from either of you, understood?"

"Of course, Y/n," Sabo confirmed with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah," Zoro replied evasively.

With that, Y/n dropped her serious expression and gave them a tired smile. She approached the two young men, kissed each of them on the cheek, and then turned around to head back to Kyros's house for some rest. Not only were the battles exhausting her, but their argument had literally drained her. Those two were like children...

On the other hand, Sabo watched Y/n with a surprised expression, blushing. Y/n certainly knew how to push his buttons. He eventually smiled and then looked at Zoro. He was blushing slightly too and stared at Y/n with his sullen expression, which, in his opinion, made him look constipated, but well, he wasn't very objective...

"Don't get carried away, she just kissed you because she did it to me," the blond announced, now looking at the swordsman.

"If it makes you feel better to hear it, go ahead," Zoro replied, starting to head towards Kyros's house.

"What does that mean? And what are you doing?!"

"Use your imagination, you saw that Y/n and I were... close. And now, I'm going to sleep, not that it's any of your concern," Zoro replied.

"That concerns me when YOU sleep in the same room as Y/n!"

" -"I won't jump her, okay!" Zoro replied, slightly exasperated. "... At least, not with others in the room," he added with a predatory grin.

"I don't like that grin! How about we both sleep outside so that no one takes advantage of the situation?" Sabo suggested, slightly panicked.

"You're really getting on my nerves, but yeah, if it'll shut you up and let me sleep, fine. Anyway, I don't need an advantage."

"Ah, you'd need one though," Sabo teased. Zoro turned around and started raising his voice, prompting Sabo to retort. After only a few seconds, they heard a loud crash, and both understood that it was time to be quiet, or Y/n would come back and kick their butts. Even though they weren't afraid of her, it was more the fear of "losing points" for her affection.

[rnelodyy]

C!Dream, the status quo, and why conflict is okay sometimes.

In this fandom, there is a lot of talk about conflict, who causes it, who avoids it, who is to blame for it, et cetera. An argument often heard from c!Dream apologists to justify his abysmal treatment of L’Manburg in general and c!Tommy in specific is “He was just trying to stop people causing conflict! He was protecting the server by stopping these conflict-causing maniacs!”

And it’s not hard to see where they get this idea from, because c!Dream repeats this sentiment a lot, from his “happy family” speech, to the speech during the final disc war about how c!Tommy causes constant conflict, to the fact that he always portrays himself as a reasonable authority figure trying to calm down these feral creatures always fighting with one another (and we’ll get to that idea…).

My reasoning for explaining how c!Dream’s worldview is deeply flawed may be a bit controversial, so I decided to write this essay to explore the following idea:

Sometimes, conflict is good actually.

(all /dsmp /rp, names refer to characters, not content creators)

Conflict, in itself, is morally neutral. It’s the context surrounding the conflict that allows us to ascribe morality to it. This fact makes this topic a LOT harder to discuss, because morality is subjective. What I’m writing here is all my own opinion, you may agree or disagree on some points, I just ask that you read it through and please don’t start shit over this.

Anyway, the context. It’s dependent on a number of factors.

Justification. Why was the conflict started?

Intent. What is the desired outcome for either party?

Proportionality. If the conflict is started out of revenge or punishment, is it proportionate to the wrong committed?

Power Dynamic. Is the person on the receiving end more, less, or equally as powerful as the person starting the conflict?

For example, let’s compare the L’Manburg War for Independence with the intervention during the Final Disc War.

Justification:

Dream declared war on L’Manburg because he saw them as traitors, and the land they occupied as rightfully his. Therefore, them making a country of their own where his rules didn’t apply was a violation of the status quo he wanted to uphold.

Punz and the others intervened because they didn’t want Dream to kill Tommy and/or Tubbo, and were tired of his constant meddling in their affairs.

Intent:

Dream’s intent was to attack L’Manburg until they surrendered, no matter how much hurt he’d cause or how many lives he’d take.

Punz and the other’s intent was to stop Dream from killing Tommy and Tubbo, and stop whatever plan he had to keep the server under control.

Proportionality:

L’Manburg declared independence in response to brutal violence as retribution for clumsy attempts at crime, on land nobody except Wilbur was using, were explicitly pacifistic and invited Dream to make an embassy in their land to discuss trade. Dream responded by declaring war, destroying their land, luring them into a trap and killing them, and continuing to beat them down until they surrendered.

Punz and the others intervened after Dream dragged two teenagers out into the wilderness to fight him, with little chance of them ever returning. This was after months of Dream’s meddling in conflicts he had nothing to do with, trying to control people’s actions, ripping Tommy away from his home and abusing him in secret and, in the end, destroying the place most synonymous with freedom from his rule. They intervened by getting Tommy and Tubbo to safety, letting Tommy (the kid who arguably suffered the most at Dream’s hands) take his items and beat him to death twice, then locking him up in prison.

Power Dynamic:

L’Manburg was significantly less powerful than Dream and his goons, with less skilled fighters and heavily inferior gear. They held their position fairly okay at the start, but after the Final Control Room, they were basically defenseless against Dream’s assault.

Dream had always had unprecedented power on the server. He’s leveled entire countries, crowns and dethrones kings when he feels like it, overruled the decision of a court of law, and in the end, had Tommy and Tubbo completely at his mercy before the intervention. Even beating Dream was seen as such an insurmountable task that it took fourteen people (excluding Clingyduo) to take him down.

The thing about conflict, even violent conflict, is that it’s not always negative. If your sister is being abused by her boyfriend and refuses to report it out of fear, you’re gonna be hard-pressed to find someone unable to sympathize with you if you go over to his house and break his nose.

What is a defining feature of conflict, is that it disrupts the status quo.

That’s not to say that some characters are always disruptors and others always preservers of the status quo. For example, during the Disc War, Tommy is the one trying to preserve and Dream the one trying to disrupt (the status quo being: Tommy owns the discs), and during the L’Manburg War for Independence, Tommy and Wilbur are disrupting while Dream is preserving (the status quo being: Dream has absolute power and the entire server needs to follow his rules).

It’s ALSO not to say that this disruption is always bad, because sometimes, the status quo fucking sucks, and throwing it on its head is the right thing to do. Overthrowing Schlatt is seen by everyone on the SMP and pretty much every fan as morally correct, as while Schlatt being president was the status quo, it meant he was ruling as a dictator, exiling his political opponents, imprisoning and heavily taxing dissenters, being verbally and physically abusive to his cabinet members, and forcing a guest at his festival to execute a sixteen year-old boy for spying for the political opponent he exiled.

Conflict being a genuinely good force of societal change isn’t usually brought up in the fandom though, at least not consciously. A lot of people, both on the server and IRL, see conflict only as a source of hurt and pain, and try to prevent or avoid it as much as possible.

And here’s where Dream differs from someone like Ranboo. Because while both Dream and Ranboo operate on the assumption that all conflict is bad all the time, Ranboo shows this by becoming conflict-avoidant to the extreme, to the point where he refuses to pick sides in pretty much any conflict, no matter how obviously good or evil one side is. Meanwhile, Dream shows this by becoming controlling to the extreme. Mitigating conflict isn’t enough, he needs to control everything to prevent all conflict ever.

In Ranboo’s case, this is less due to ideology and more due to personality. Ranboo is a deeply anxious person, and hates being in the middle of fights. He’s also… not very self-critical? He has issues with self-worth, but he very rarely takes a look in the mirror to inspect what it actually is he believes and says, making him very gullible and convinced of his own righteousness. But while that’s a VERY interesting character trait, Ranboo’s conflict-avoidance doesn’t make him a very good character to examine in the context of conflict and what it means.

So let’s look at Dream. Because, despite claiming to want to stop conflict, Dream CONSTANTLY starts conflicts or escalates existing ones. The L’Manburg War for Independence could’ve been entirely avoided if Dream hadn’t lashed out so heavily at a nation of pacifists who made their own area to avoid violence from authorities. As I explored in my George Vod Analysis, the griefing of George’s house would’ve been a lighthearted dispute between two people if Dream hadn’t taken over the entire thing and turned it into one of the biggest diplomatic crises in the server’s history. Mexican L’Manburg hadn’t even existed for an hour before Dream came by to kill its residents and destroy its land.

So why is Dream so focused on stopping conflict, despite constantly starting it himself? Why is THAT his hill to die on?

Simple. Dream wants to prevent disruptions to the status quo. That status quo being “Dream is the one in power and everyone has to listen to him.”

But you can’t say that out loud. If you say “everyone needs to listen to me otherwise it’s not fair”, you sound like a whiny five year-old at best, and a tyrant at worst. So, instead of saying that, Dream says “I just want to prevent conflict, keep the server peaceful.”

Remember what I said about one party being the disruptor and another being the preserver? Well, Dream’s status in the early days of the server is almost always preserver of the status quo. The only times he’s the disruptor is if disrupting that status quo serves to strengthen the status quo of him being in power. For example: Stealing Tommy’s discs is a disruption of the “Tommy’s discs are his and his alone” status quo, but strengthens the “Dream is the most powerful dude on the server” status quo, because the discs give him power over Tommy.

By fighting L’Manburg, he was trying to preserve the status quo, because having a government on the server meant he no longer had absolute power. Hell, REALLY early on, he decided to kill George and burn all his stuff because George had full diamond while everyone else was still running around in iron armor.

However, after L’Manburg’s independence, Dream’s focus shifted. Instead of preserving the status quo, he’d disrupt it in order to return to the status quo as HE wanted it, with no nations, and himself at the top.

But again, that wouldn’t look good. Making yourself the undisputed ruler of the entire server is not good for optics, so instead, Dream hides behind the excuse that he’s just trying to stop conflict, or seeking retribution for slights against his nation.

By this point, Tommy, the only person who CONSTANTLY refuses to bow to his demands, becomes his scapegoat. Tommy is loud, enjoys chaos and getting on people’s nerves, and causes, admittedly, a LOT of conflict. Lighthearted, non-serious conflict with very little actual consequences, but conflict nonetheless. It’s not hard for him to start smearing Tommy’s name, painting him as this feral child at fault for every conflict ever, mostly because a lot of people already believed something like that to be true.

The idea that Tommy is uniquely destructive or chaotic is complete bullshit. Tommy is definitely on the more chaotic side, but he’s not that much more chaotic or destructive than your average server member, he’s just really loud and annoying about it, which makes the things he DOES do stick out more. But Dream, especially during the Exile Conflict, continuously pushed the idea that Tommy is the only one creating conflict on the server, that Tommy is responsible for all conflict ever, and that without Tommy, everyone would be at peace.

And at some point… Dream started believing this himself.

His speech during the Final Disc War illustrates this perfectly. He tells Tommy that ever since he joined, there’s been nothing but war and terrorism and conflict, and that those originated from the attachments Tommy brought to the server. That, by cutting off his own attachments, exploiting everyone else’s, and getting rid of Tommy, he could restore the old status quo, before L’Manburg, before Tommy, when everything was peaceful and no conflict existed. Except, Tommy is too fun to fuck with, so instead of killing him, Dream was going to lock Tommy up in Pandora’s Vault, probably for the rest of his life, to continue breaking him.

This is a prime example of Dream falling for his own bullshit.

First of all, Tommy didn’t cause all those wars, he was actually on the receiving end of most of them. A vast majority of the wars and terrorism Tommy got caught up in were actually started by Dream, or Dream was actively helping the guy who started it.

Second, Tommy didn’t bring the concept of attachment to the server. He gets very attached to things, true, but attachment is a very basic part of the human condition. Even Dream, the guy openly shunning all attachment, isn't immune to it, in the end, he’s attached to the server as a whole, and Tommy, who he gave almost biblical importance in his narrative. Like Tommy said, if you have no attachment to things, why does anything matter at all?

Third, getting rid of Tommy and controlling the entire server with their attachments… that wouldn’t have restored the status quo, because the status quo exactly as Dream envisioned it never existed. He’s not chasing a past that was ruined by Tommy, he’s chasing an idealized fairytale version of the past where everyone was friends and frolicked around in the fields and there was never any conflict, before Tommy came along and ruined everything. Before Tommy joined, there was a SHIT ton of conflict, from minor disputes over theft, to the above-mentioned incident where Dream destroyed George’s stuff, to the lemon tree conflicts that wound up being taken to court!

Except, even this idea of Dream wanting to restore an idealized, made-up past is only partially true. What Dream is looking to return to and uphold is a world where he was the only authority and nobody questioned him. The status quo he wants to return to, no matter how much he denies it, is the one where everyone was at his mercy and he could do whatever he wanted without impunity. However, because he’s convinced himself that conflict is the issue, not disobedience, even if his plan succeeded, he’d have to keep the entire server in a chokehold to get them to follow his ideal plan.

Because conflict is inevitable. Anywhere where there’s two or more people sharing a space, you’re going to run into conflict at some point. People will have disagreements, they will fight, they will have miscommunications, they will have a bad day or accident and antagonize someone else.

Resolving these issues through conflict, whether it’s verbal, physical or legal, will result in a healthier community in the long run, because people’s pent-up frustrations will get an outlet, and people will try to hash out compromises or accommodations based on the reactions they get. It’s not always the ideal solution, but it’s better than just sitting everyone down, telling them to play nice, and smacking them over the back of the head as soon as they start complaining.

But conflict threatens the status quo. And as Dream involves himself in more and more conflict, they increasingly start threatening HIS status quo. So in order to maintain his status quo, conflict needs to be stomped out as soon as it crops up, no matter how minor it is.

So, now to paint a timeline through this lens.

Dream started off as the ultimate power on the server, able to do whatever he wanted without consequence. Tommy joined and threatened that status quo, but he was just one guy, so keeping him away and occupied wasn’t too hard. It was fun, even.

Then L’Manburg came, and posed the first substantial threat to Dream’s rule. Dream tried crushing this rebellion before it had a chance to take root, but in the end, Tommy traded his discs (the things Dream was using to control him) for L’Manburg’s independence. The status quo changed, L’Manburg was here to stay.

However, L’Manburg still posed a threat to Dream’s rule, so manipulating events to destroy it became Dream’s next priority. He supported Schlatt during the election in the hope he’d destabilize the nation, then sided with Pogtopia in secret to help overthrow the government, then helped Wilbur with the TNT to blow L’Manburg sky high, then betrayed Pogtopia for Schlatt’s side for the revival book. When Pogtopia won, Dream was egging Techno on through whispers to try to get him to go ape shit, so with Techno’s withers and Wilbur’s TNT, L’Manburg was gone, and the old status quo had been restored.

Except it hadn’t been. L’Manburg was rebuilt, with Tubbo at the helm this time, and a new status quo was put in place, with L’Manburg still there and still a threat. However, with Wilbur’s death, Tommy was left almost completely unprotected, and Dream took his chance to get Tommy thrown out of the country, hoping to get his biggest threat out of the way, as well as being able to sink his claws into the L’Manburg Cabinet.

Dream isolated Tommy in exile and tried to break him to the point where he wouldn’t put up any resistance. During this time, he also commissioned the prison, which he claimed to only be for the most dangerous members of the server, but is a pretty transparent attempt to enforce his rule by making a place where he can stick anyone who disobeys him. The server is slipping more and more out of his control, with more factions popping up and more people outright defying him, so like any dictator, he takes harsher and harsher measures to stay on top.

Tommy escapes exile, and while Dream is keeping tabs on him, he can’t directly control him anymore. So, to prevent Tommy from returning to L’Manburg and stopping his plans at disrupting the status quo, he blows up the community house, frames Tommy for it, and goes to Tubbo to demand Tommy’s disc, the only reason destroying L’Manburg was disadvantageous for him. Tommy jumps in to defend himself and takes L’Manburg’s side, but in the end, Dream takes both the discs, then destroys L’Manburg with Techno.

By this point, the status quo Dream wanted to craft is almost complete. L’Manburg is gone, there are no other major factions threatening his rule, and he’s pretty much set a precedent for what happens to dissenters. All he needs to do now is get rid of Tommy.

Except he can’t kill him. Over time, Dream has become obsessed with Tommy, to the point where he’s started seeing Tommy as the lynchpin of the server that everyone else gravitates around. Tommy is almost a living MacGuffin: he brings chaos and attachment which gives him power, but in the right hands, that power can be harnessed to create order.

(This is absolute nonsense of course, Tommy is just A Guy, his presence itself doesn’t create chaos, and controlling him doesn’t mean controlling the entire server because a lot of people just plain don’t give a shit.)

So instead of killing him, Dream tries to put him in prison. He even outright says that he wants to finish what he started in exile, this time with even tighter control and no possibility for escape.

He goes to kill Tubbo for multiple reasons: Tubbo is no longer useful to him, Tubbo can be used as leverage to keep Tommy compliant in prison (the possibility to revive someone’s best friend is a pretty valuable bargaining chip), and Tubbo would absolutely raise hell if Dream threw his best friend in jail for no reason.

If Dream had gotten his way, he’d be able to blackmail everyone on the server into compliance. Tommy, his scapegoat, would’ve been in prison, so now without a scapegoat, he could’ve probably gone one of two ways.

He could’ve created a new scapegoat to blame all new conflict on. Quackity would’ve been a good candidate, he’s VEHEMENTLY anti-Dream, and would’ve had no qualms about starting shit with him. Whether it was with El Rapids or with Las Nevadas, Quackity would’ve been the biggest anti-Dream voice in Tommy’s absence. So c!Dream would keep Quackity around, blaming him for everything that goes wrong… Until Quackity would get too uppity and either gets murdered or put in jail with Tommy, and the cycle repeats until either people rise up, or everyone who isn’t completely subservient is in prison.

Or, he could’ve cracked down EVEN HARDER on conflict. Anyone creating a new nation gets stomped into the dirt, anyone fighting over resources gets murdered, anyone squabbling over griefed property gets thrown in prison for weeks at a time, all the while their property and pets that they care about more than anything else get dangled in front of their noses. Anyone who’s ever read any more than five pages about the dynamics of dictatorships can see that this kind of repression is basically ASKING for revolution, especially since Dream has shunned all friendships at this point and his only ally is only there because Dream pays him.

(this is all speculation, we don’t know what would’ve actually happened, dont yell at me)

The status quo Dream is trying to return to never existed, and the one he creates in the process isn’t sustainable. Stopping every conflict ever is completely unsustainable and detrimental to the larger community, which Dream knows, because he uses conflict CONSTANTLY to get his way, while still presenting himself as a peacekeeper. What he’s really against is disruptions of the status quo, because the status quo allows him to do whatever he wants and control the server as much as he wants.

Conflict isn’t inherently bad. Some conflicts are harmless, some are necessary disruptions of the status quo. Conflict itself is morally neutral, and trying to prevent all conflict ever leads into some… iffy territory. Remember when Ranboo yelled at the L’Manburgians for participating in conflict the day before Doomsday?

Anyway. Please examine situations with more nuance than “conflict bad”, it’ll make for much better analysis. Trust me. /nm