#Dream smp analysis

[appleflavoredkitkats]

there's something so meta abt the dsmp's narrative theme of legacy and how, slowly but surely, a lot of the fan content that helped develop the dsmp as a piece of media is disappearing. about how many of the characters in the dsmp do not remember where they came from, at the same time posts of what helped others understand the dsmp are being deleted one by one.

[clingyduoapologist]

The thing that will always stick in my mind about November 16th is that Wilbur wanted to hurt them. He wanted them to scream and feel betrayed and to curse his name and forget about him, because he didn’t want anyone to mourn. He wanted Tommy to hate him so much he forgot him. He wanted Tubbo to be president just long enough for the loss to tear him up. He would finally be slaying the beast, after all. He just had to make sure that they were all on the same page, that they knew that he was doing them a favor. He wanted to hurt them so badly, all because he didn’t want them to miss him…

[yasminthespiritfaninnit]

I have one theory on why Tommy gets to be a damsel in fanfics a lot. (And why that is not stopping any time soon, thankfully.)

In canon, Tommy was a damsel. But he was never saved. Instead, he had to save himself *and* others. He was the one to reach out. He was the one who helps. He was the one who fought for others and tried his damn best to make sure they were safe.

Now, you might be thinking; *Didn’t Techno save Tommy from exile by taking him in?*

And to that, I say no.

Techno did provide shelter and defend Tommy from Dream. That was amazing. But that was always transactional. Techno offered Tommy (as the latter was walking away, I might add) a place to stay *if* he helped Techno with this plan to get his stuff back and do some “minor” terrorism.

Techno did not save Tommy. Tommy saved himself and then he and Techno made a deal.

Tommy was always the one who did the saving, even in the finale. He made the plan to use the discs to save himself and Tubbo. He made the plan to sacrifice himself to kill Dream and Punz. He extended a hand to Dream of all people.

He was a damsel who was forced to save others when he needed saving himself.

And that is why a lot of fanfic writers write that he has someone to rely on. Someone who steps in for him unconditionally when he needed help.

[pigeonstab]

I think reading people's explanations and representation of Killer's conditioning recently has given me a better understanding of c!Tommy's conditioning in the DreamSmp. (I won't speak too much on Killer's story simply because I don't know it enough and I don't feel confident to speak on it, if someone does and wants to add to thsi though I'd be happy to hear that take)

I think my problem at the time of the DreamSMP was that I didn't really understand how that conditioning worked. I found it weird that Tommy would be changed to the extent that he was with what "little" Dream did to him, but in hindsight I do think it was a given.

Tommy's whole exile arc starts with a complete uprooting. Dream gives Tubbo, the new president of L'manburg an unfair ultimatum. His best friend Tommy has to be exiled from L'manburg or he'll cage the nation in.

And Tubbo has been run ragged by his recent presidency. He has so much responsibility weighing on him when he's only sixteen or so, all the adults around him are expecting him to lead and to care of the nation while no one is helping. And this is right after not only his own first canon deathbut the destruction of L'manburg! Both extremely traumatic events that he's had no time to recover from. And there's so much pressure weighing on this decision. Tommy's life means little to those in L'manburg at the moment. With his aggravating personality— (born I think from a need to be seen, to be acknowledged, to be loved) —has already caused problems for Tubbo with the adults that are relying on him. People expect him to keep Tommy in check and Tommy is not helping. Their relationship is getting more distant and strained. So when it comes the time to choose, Tubbo feels he has no other option than to play into Dream's game. He has to exile Tommy.

This first element is decisive for what the rest of Exile is going to be like. Because it puts doubt into Tommy's head. Because Tommy lives in absolutes and to him his best friend was forever. (This thought of his is exactly in the same vein as his need to preserve the past). Because if Tubbo can exile him then what else is he wrong about?

And this is exactly what Dream needed, the chips fell exactly where he needed them too and I'm so insane about that. Everything was in place so that Dream could make Tommy doubt Dream's identity as "the bad guy" as the antagonist who was the first to try and rip the L'manburg dream apart.

—

Dream uses multiple tactics to dismantle Tommy and the way he goes about it is so interesting too and the first thing he does is so specific:

He makes a hole. He tells Tommy to put his stuff in it. He blows it up.

This is playing into one of Tommy's biggest weaknesses, this is ripping his belongings away from him, this is making him lose his progress. It's touching that part of Tommy that feels just like having L'manburg taken away, or his brother etc. And Dream sets up this expectation day after day, he comes, he makes a hole, he blows up Tommy's stuff. And Tommy's always been a spitfire, at the start he keeps fighting it, fighting for what's his and for respect and that's always met with violence. That's met with punishment.

In this way Dream sets up the expectation that taking away Tommy's things is normal. That letting him keep things is generous and he shifts the scale of what's acceptable to do.

The other big part of this is guilt tripping, and Tommy makes this extremely easy because so many people already hate him. He's got a big personality he's alive and he likes to prank people and insult them and he's annoying. He creates problems for the people he loves. And Dream takes that and he uses it. To make Tommy believe that he's an awful person, that he deserves nothing, and so Dream taking away his things is simply retribution, it's Dream making him into a better person, this is improvement. "This will show Tubbo that you've changed, that you're a better person" and since there's that doubt. He believes this.

On top of this Tommy's starting to lose himself. Firstly because all of what he knows has been turned on its head but also because he doesn't eat enough. His food keeps getting blown up. He's got almost nothing but seawater. He's seeing the ghost of his brother on a nearly daily basis, a pale copy of the great man, the visionary Wilbur used to be, acting upbeat and silly, unable to feel sadness as he keeps extracting it from himself, this unable to empathize with Tommy. (Ghostbur is really tragic. But even with how bad it was for Tommy's mental health to have him around he was probably the most helpful thing Tommy had. Ghostbur made him logstedshire, with a little cabin. Not just the shoddy tent he'd been sleeping in. He gave him the compass that pointed to Tubbo. The one thing he felt was his own once again, and a permanent reminder of his best friend. Maybe the care of a big brother transcends death and madness. Or maybe it was just a lonely ghost whims.)

And at some point Dream becomes the only constant in his life. That's what makes his visits become something Tommy looks forward to. And Tommy starts to believe the things that Dream repeats to him that "Dream can't be the bad guy because he's trying to make him a better person. One that's loveable. That's not annoying". And if Dream says to Tommy that they're friends then... Isn't it true? And boom now Dream is using Tommy's isolation and need for human contact to control him. He lets Tommy keep some things to gain his favor, and he even twists his punishments as something that are in Tommy's best interest.

Dream makes sure that Tommy understands that he has control over Tommy's life. When Tommy is in the nether ready to jump into lava Dream catches him. 'it's not your time yet' because he gets to decide that. He decides whether Tommy lives or dies.

And for all of this Dream's been playing keep away with the people around Tommy. Because the only Reason Tubbo didn't visit Tommy wasn't because he hates him like Dream said, it's because Dream has never allowed visitors. And when Tommy sets up his beach party. Inviting all the ones he loves Dream is delighted to intercept the letters from ghostbur. and god, after all Tommy's been through. He set up tables and chairs and parasols, he made cake. And I cried when no one showed up. But Dream showed. And Dream sweet talked Tommy into obedience again.

But that's where Dream made a mistake though. He had a careful balance of praise and punishment and tactic after tactic until then. And it was a stupid, easy mistake. He just pushed too far. Tommy taking the time to build the long tower to jump off of, taking a literal look down at the bigger picture and at the ground at the bottom is what allowed him a moment of clarity. A moment to decide that he wanted to live but not like this. And it's what led him to aim into the water and then run away from his place of exile.

There are so many aspects of Dream's manipulation that make this work. It's a gradual increase, so gradual that Tommy can't see what's wrong until he's almost ready to give up on living.

[conarcoin]

i wrote a big thing for the dream smp analysis page on tv tropes about c!schlatt and c!connor

[mellorphic]

Tommy was the heart of L’Manberg.

He lived and died for it. He loved it longer than anyone else and was loyal to it regardless of the ways it failed him. He inspired the anthem and everything L’Manberg stood for, Tommy stood for too.

Tubbo was the body of L’Manberg.

He built L’Manberg. He built Manberg. He built New L’Manberg. Everyone else could give the nation everything they had, but it wouldn’t have existed without Tubbo. Not in the way that it did.

Wilbur was the mind of L’Manberg.

Without his ideas and without his dreams, L’Manberg never would’ve existed, and it never would’ve been a synonym for freedom or joy. There never would’ve been a deceleration or a war or an election or a nation without Wilbur to think of it. And he blames himself for its downfall because of this.

Fundy was the spirit of L’Manberg.

Fundy had lived in L’Manberg through all three of its administrations. He was born there. He pulled pranks on the nations people which made it what it was. And Fundy believed in L’Manberg and it’s message until the end of schlatt’s presidency. Then he lost all trust in it.

Niki was the soul of L’Manberg.

She fed the nation. She fought for it. She understood the vision of it. She loved the people inside of it for so long. She broke when it did. Niki gave up it lost its final life. Eventually she did move on.

All of them were L’Manberg. All of them lost L’Manberg. The country died, bit by bit, every time one of them lost faith in it.

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

The number one thing that stands out about the finale to me- as in, the actual ending where everything is reset, not the four streams or even the last stream as a whole- is that… there’s absolutely less than zero reasons to assume that anything is better. Unless their personalities were wiped along with their memories- which is a fucking horrifying ending anyway- c!Tommy is, logically, in a situation where he will be abused again, only this time without a support system at all.

Because… c!Dream’s memories have nothing to do with why he abused c!Tommy, and the finale as a whole proves this because the reasons he gives are objectively incorrect. c!Dream assigned c!Tommy as the sole instigator to events he either was one of multiple participants in, or wasn’t even involved in. c!Dream either misremembered those events because of how he later grew to see c!Tommy for other reasons, or he was, y’know. Fucking lying. To fuck with c!Tommy. Which is, y’know, something he enjoys doing.

And, while c!Tommy might not know why c!Dream targeted him, since he refused to actually tell him that and give him any closure, we as an audience can figure out what the most likely reason is, from c!Dream’s actions and words he repeats multiple times in multiple situations where they won’t specifically benefit him, and that seems to be because of c!Tommy’s defiance. Y’know, an intrinsic part of his personality that was only snuffed out due to trauma? The trauma he no longer has?

Logically, in this situation, c!Dream is going to want to control c!Tommy again. Being friends isn’t going to change it because they already were good friends towards the beginning of the server previously. c!Dream towards the beginning of the server did this, with the discs! And now c!Tommy doesn’t have anyone else looking for him. Once c!Dream realises that won’t work, there’s nothing preventing him from Literally Just Doing Exile 2. And we know Exile was preplanned, presumably back to when he and c!Tommy were friends, so it’s not like it was a rash, impulsive, out of character decision, it’s something he was planning to do since at least Nov 16th or so. Before any seriously traumatic events had happened to him that could have warped his views to THAT extreme lengths.

Like, there are such heavy implications here considering the past two years of lore that, if this is intentional, that’s smart, but if it’s not, it would require literally not thinking five fucking seconds about the literal foundation these characters were built on. 

[pinklemonade333]

“I’m looking at you!” C!crime and Authority:

I was watching some old L’Manberg vods, and I came across a moment that is really interesting to look back on after Wilbur’s finale.

(All c! btw)

In Wilbur’s vod from September 3 2020, Wilbur and Tommy are standing on the wall, just talking casually about the events of the sever, when Tommy says, in a teasing way “Look at me when I’m talking.” to which Wilbur responds “Don’t tell me what to do.” and knocks him off the wall. Tommy rants at him while Wilbur just keeps repeating “Who’s the president?” over and over until Tommy relents. Notably, this is the same vod where Wilbur laments that nobody listens to him, calling back to the moment where Tommy ignored him when he was trying to negotiate with Dream, causing the duel to take place. I think it’s pretty cool that this silly little action at the start of the stream ties so seamlessly into what Wilbur has been feeling about his role in L’Manberg.

This dynamic isn’t confined to this moment either, Wilbur constantly, especially throughout this vod, but also at earlier times throughout the formation of L’Manberg, will order Tommy around, and Tommy usually ends up going along with it, even if he complains. Don’t misunderstand, they’re still on good terms and enjoying each other’s company, and a lot of this is very lighthearted, but their dynamic seemingly makes it harder for Tommy to get Wilbur to listen to him, as Wilbur often acts as the authority in the relationship. For someone as supposedly uncontrollable as Tommy, Wilbur seems to be pretty good at controlling him.

Now there’s Boundless Sands, where the dynamic is reversed, but in a less lighthearted way. Tommy is the one telling Wilbur off, specifically getting angry and yelling “Look at me!” Wilbur tries telling him to “calm down” but it’s not until Wilbur relents by saying “I’m looking at you!” and agreeing to talk that Tommy stops. That’s the line that came to mind after watching this earlier interaction, and thus inspiring me to make this post. Wilbur, in that moment, is listening to what Tommy wants. The implications of the fact that Tommy needed to pull out a sword to make that happen isn’t lost on me, but I think it’s a step forward for Wilbur that he stopped, listened, and did what Tommy asked him to, even when the threat had passed. I wonder if he realized in that moment just how much Tommy had changed. He wasn’t his right hand man anymore.

It’s... probably unintentional parallels, but it’s a sign of good storytelling regardless, I think, how their dynamic has realistically transformed through the years.

[cdreamscumrag]

My favorite thing about c!dream is how people used to always be like “ugh this is his plan it’s all playing into his hands he’s a schemer” when like… do you know this guy? It’s cdream. He couldn’t scam his way out of a paper bag. “Oh he’s a master manipulator” ur litterally being more manipulated than anyone he ever talked to. “Oh exile was him trying to make Tommy his friend” dream was litterally just holding him there until the prison was done and it just so happened that Tommy is a freak who is obsessed with roleplaying disorders he doesn’t have for clout really wanted a sad boy arc was drawn in despite dream just trying to get him out of the way and dream was like “ah yes… surely this all informs my master plan.” Like he’s so stupid but he’s the narratives favorite so everything ended up working out anyway

[katyon2020]

Am I the only one who thinks c!Drean genuinley gives off mentally stunted vibes?

•As other people have pointed out, he at times acts less like a manipulative chessmaster and more like a middle school bully.

•I've mentioned in a previous post, but Dream could have genuinley thought that his and Tommy's ''''friendship'''' during Exile was what friendship actually is or at least what ideally works for him. Which you can absolutely link to some form of anti-social personality disorder but you can also link to his worldview being so self-centered that he doesn't even consider the fact while he's perfectly content with their dynamic, Tommy is just straight up not having a good time to put it lightly, like a kid who doesn't at all understand the consequences of their actions.

•Stretching this one but I can't help but notice that he obviously sees Tommy as a toy and was making sure no one else got their hands on him during Exile, in other words

he doesn't like sharing his toys.

•He has a very simple outlook on the concept of ''Nobody dying EVER'' to the point it's so obviously childish.

•Just.........the way he says how he just wanted friends in the finale.......idk just rreeeeally gives the vibe of a kid who has no idea wtf he actually wants either that or cc!Dream had no clue wtf his motivations were.(*checks off ''obligatory cc!Dream slander so people know that yes, I don't like him at all''*)

•He seems to overreact to minor offenses *cough*Tommy*cough* a lot.

This could 100% be me overthinking things or misinterpreting them as I was a pretty sheltered kid with badly developed social skills so please PLEASE let me know if you think something else is going on but all these oddoties make me can't help but think he might be even somehow more mentally immature than c!Tommy.

And just to be clear, I am not at all using these as a way to somehow justify all the horrible, terrible shit he has done. The green cunt has tortured bitches people, ''I have the emotinal maturity of 7yo'' is not a good excuse. I just really like character analyses.

[appleflavoredkitkats]

i know we can all argue that any l'manbergian embodies the essence of l'manberg itself but there's a specific sense of poetry that comes to fundy's own toxic connection to l'manberg. i've mentioned before that he literally is meant to represent the ideologies wilbur had when founding l'manberg— peace, no violence, camaraderie— but if it were cranked up to a toxic level.

like. as violence becomes more prevalent and practically status quo in the dsmp, the more fundy fades into the background. quackity literally compares him to the structures in l'manberg fading away. and! and! he's the only one referred to as "from l'manberg" by charlie. not even wilbur or tommy gets referred to as l'manbergians!

and more! the last we see of fundy in general is 1.) when he kills himself by jumping into the l'manberg crater, and 2.) when he pops up in eret's stream donating schlatt's sword to the museum. after, he disappears. we don't know what happens to him!

like you guys. this man has been doomed by wilbur's promise of giving l'manberg to fundy. he will never be severed from it as long as he harbors that blind need for nationwide camaraderie that can never be achieved because no one but him believes in such anymore. fundy's l'manberg! he's always been l'manberg!

[clingyduoapologist]

The thing about c!tommy that’s so insane to me is that, well, he isn’t especially brave? Like he is never opposed to just running from a fight, he will scream and cry and plead and sob if tubbo pulls out an axe for like half a second. He is really not a paragon in any sense of the word.

AND YET PROTECTION AND FIGHTING IS LITERALLY ONE OF THE WAYS THAT HE SHOWS AFFECTION like if there is a mob hitting you and ctommy loves you that mob is going to die. If you want to hurt his friends he will bite you and claw your throat out. He is not a brave boy but he is a loving boy and I can gonna be sick

[yasminthespiritfaninnit]

Hello everyone! I have something to say. I have seen some arguments that I didn’t like at all. But, I still respect everyone who made it.

So, Imma say my perspective.

Tommy didn’t deserve Exile or to be exiled at all.

Dream didn’t deserve to be tortured in prison or to be imprisoned without a fair trial.

I will detail what I mean the best that I can.

First, let’s start with Dream and the prison.

Dream was imprisoned, after Punz led the entire server to him, before he could kill Tubbo in front of Tommy.

Am I saying that he shouldn’t have been arrested? Hell no. His list of war crimes and atrocities against humanity at this point was and still is a mile long.

But the group failed to give Dream a fair trial to defend himself.

Instead, Tommy (after killing Dream twice as revenge for the two deaths that Dream committed against him. Note on that one, I completely understand Tommy’s rage. But killing Dream was not right, nor did it help anyone.) had Sam, (the warden) to imprison Dream after he claimed that he could revive Wilbur.

Neither Tommy or Sam or anyone here had the authority to imprison Dream. Especially not without a fair trial. But they did it anyways and that’s not right. Dream was unlawfully imprisoned against his will.

Now, the torture. Imma say it bluntly. It was 100% not Dream’s fault.

Quackity, who had no authority to do this, wanted the revive book.

Dream said no as he had the right to say that.

So, grossly abusing his rights as a visitor, Quackity started to torture Dream.

So, yeah.

And now, we get to Exile and Tommy.

Exile was an overreaction and rigged from the start. Plain and simple.

Was Tommy completely in the right for the conflict? No. (In order of least to most fucked up in my opinion.) He grief-ed and robbed George’s house, compared Tubbo to Schlatt, tried to frame Niki, and tried to use Dream’s dead horse against him.

But also, Exile was both a unfair punishment and one that was pushed so heavily.

Dream, (the main ring-leader for getting rid of Tommy from L’Manburg) provoked Tommy to make him look worse, pushed Tubbo into a corner about the topic, and tried to frame Tommy of many more griefing incidents (with the help of a unwitting Puffy.). He was pulling the strings when the real victim, George, didn’t even give two shits. Tommy’s damages were easily fixed and everything stolen was easily recovered.

Should Tommy be punished for griefing George? Yes. But he should have been put on probation and made to fix the damages (and recover the stolen property) to George’s house, not put through a rigged series of events that got him banned from his own home.

(And I have an extra argument for this part. Canon is canon. Just because nothing came of something doesn’t mean that it is not important. Tommy’s framing of Niki was immediately shut down. But he still tried instead of fessing up. Dream’s framing of Tommy didn’t seem to do much. But he still did that, showing that he was trying his hardest to get Tommy out of L’Manburg no matter what.)

And now, the exile itself.

It was 100% not Tommy’s fault. Nothing during exile was his fault and nothing was exaggerated by the fans.

Dream really did make Tommy throw his stuff down the hole to destroy it.

Dream really did beat Tommy with an axe if he mustered the tiniest rebellion.

Dream really did changed up his rules and the rules of Exile on a whim.

(For example, Tommy was only banned from L’Manburg. But when they got there, Dream told him that he couldn’t go *anywhere* that was established.)

Dream really did make sure that Tommy was dependent on him for everything.

And Dream really did all of this to control Tommy, to make him a protégé. (Cc!Dream confirmed this over Twitter.)

When people say that Exile was abuse, we didn’t exaggerate it. In fact, I think we didn’t do the horrors justice. Exile was torture as much as the prison was for Dream and Vice versa.

If anyone wants to discuss, please reblog this with your opinions or comment on this blog.

[pigeonstab]

Bedrock Bros lives on in my mind foreverrrrrr I love them so much. I love the mentor/annoying child duo it worked so well. And at that time it was exactly what c!Tommy needed. Fresh out of Exile where he'd been ready to give up on everything. There was so very little left of him, all of it conditioned out of him. (I'm probably gonna talk about the exile arc at some point just because it was my all time favorite part of the smp)

But it's his first act of rebellion (of maybe you could say anarchy) that led him to c!Techno. It's him choosing to disobey Dream that led him to the man (literal anarchy incarnate and if that doesn't work so well) that would help him reignite his spark and stoke the fire inside him once again.

And it hurts so much because in the end Techno and Tommy despite how well they work together differ in morals. Tommy thinks of the people he used to know, he believes in re-establishing L'manburg to get back what was ripped from him. And Techno believes only in the people he closely affiliates with, and his goal was to get rid of the establishment which twisted the people (the people Tommy is trying so desperately to get back) within it. So we've got two characters, one who seeks the order that once held his peers at their best and one who seeks to destroy the same order that changed them for the worst. It was bound to fail.

The worst was that they never spoke about it. Techno wanted to believe that Tommy was on his side so bad. He failed to see that Tommy was still so attached to the past. And then in destroying L'manburg a second time Techno sought to free them of that order (and also a bit of bloodlust and freebie terrorism in there but y'know it's Techno we're talking about here) but Tommy just couldn't understand. It left him with yet another gaping wound of loss. Maybe if they'd talked more. Maybe if Tommy was in better shape. Maybe, maybe, maybe. In the end the Smp was always about tragedy.

Discs analysis

C!Tommy analysis

[yasminthespiritfaninnit]

I got this. (Cracks knuckles)

C!Discduo- The older wants the younger to be his friend and protégé, no matter what. He also wants to be the kid’s only friend. Why? He finds the kid *fun* to torture and to be “friends” with. Healthy? What’s healthy! There’s no healthy parts of this relationship! The older clearly wants to control the younger completely. This is my favorite and I could go on for hours. But I will keep it short and sweet for the others. XD

C!Clingyduo: They would go onto the ends of the earth for each other. Bestfriends to the end. Mostly healthy but there were some parts where the slightly older one tended to ghost the younger one. But in the end, they stuck together.

C!Crimeboys: Difficult but I can manage. The younger sees the older as a mentor figure and as a friend who he wants to follow and protect. The older sees the younger as a person to guide and protect. This relationship is not very healthy. They are codependent as frick and the older in particular is so manipulative of the younger.

C!Emeraldduo: BEST. FRIENDS. THEY WOULD KILL FOR EACH OTHER HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!! Very VERY Healthy.

C!Fireworksduo: They used to be very close until the older killed the younger at the orders of a President. (It’s a long story. XD) Then the older blew up the younger’s country…..twice. (It’s an even LONGER story!) While the younger had executed the older without a trial. There’s unspoken resentment and anger on both sides but they are often having to get the other’s help on something. Co-workers without closure! Not very Healthy.

C!Rivalsduo: Rivals, as the title says. But they also tend to have similar goals and team up. But neither stick with the other for long because of their own goals. The younger also wanted to use the slightly older……a lot. Even had a favor over his head. They are co-workers. XD Healthy.

C!Bedrockduo: (Cries.) Very close bestfriends. They both wanted to protect and comfort about the other so much. They care so so so much. But their goals eventually…..tore them apart. The older wanted to blow up a country….like the younger’s old (and dead) mentor. The younger wanted to protect the older from the same fate. But doing so, the younger had to betray the older and break his heart. The older believed that the betrayal happened because the younger thought he was not a person and was so angry and hurt. Both were understandably angry. And unfortunately……they would never rekindle.

Hello, fandom blog.

In front of you, there are two fictional characters. You must describe a platonic relationship between these two characters.

If you use any variant of the word “siblings” a cartoonishly large anvil will be dropped on your head, flattening you into a 2 dimensional version of yourself, much like fandom does to platonic ships.

Good luck.

[a-moth-called-mof]

You know the dsmp fandom had its several negatives but it's still one of my favourite fandom experiences of all time. It was so chaotic but it was so earnest. It felt like everything was some big fandom inside joke. It was so silly. It was poetic at times. I don't think I've ever seen a fandom with so much literary and metatextual analysis (though some have gotten close). It honestly is what got me into narrative analysis. I just love how some of us made jokes and we all ran with it. It was a mess at times but God it was so fun. DSMPblr. I will always love you.