#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…

[stellocchia]

Does anyone remember that time cWilbur tried to weaponize the pit against cQuackity in the custody battle stream and he said something along the lines of "Don't trust someone who would have fought you in the pit" to cTommy?

Because I do.

That was fucked up.

Like, straight-up, not only incredibly manipulative, but also fucked up on a fundamental level. Wilbur is the one who dug up the pit all the way back in Pogtopia. He's the one who came up with the idea of Tommy and Techno fighting in there. He's the one who pushed Tommy and Techno in. He's the one who kept goading them on.

The only person who thought it was appropriate to get Tommy beaten to a pulp because he dared being angry at the guy who executed his best friend on the orders of a dictator is Wilbur. No one else thought of it. No one else orchestrated it. Even Mr. Techno "The only universal language is Violence" Blade was hesitant. Not Wilbur though! Motherfucker cheered throughout!

And then, after the brutality and cruelty of that situation, he had the GALL to try and use his own actions to discredit someone else. Because the way he phrased it cannot be spun around into a self-deprecating "you can't trust me" moment, there was none of that. He was straight-up just being a dickhead.

And then people wonder why Tommy didn't trust him after he came back to life and treated him like a ticking time bomb. Maybe Wilbur shouldn't have gaslit, girlbossed, and gatekept so close to the sun constantly!

[dsmpanalysis]

DSMP Analysis Archive: Reopened!

Flowery words aside, hello and welcome back! This is Ame @appleflavoredkitkats, one of the creators of this blog. In truth, I've been thinking about reopening the for a while, especially since the Dream SMP is officially over. One of the main issues we had when the archive was still open was that keeping up with all posts was virtually exhausting. Now that we don't have the stress of reading thousands of words a day while accommodating other things in our lives, we think we can have a smaller and calmer approach to updating this blog.

The team behind this blog will be much smaller now— think of it as a small side passion project of the original creators of the blog rather than something we want to bring back in full force. We'll do the same things as always, trying our best keeping up with all the posts we've missed since we've closed, but take note that we will be taking our time with this.

(Just a reminder for admins of this blog that do not want to be involved anymore, you are allowed to leave this blog by opening Tumblr on desktop, selecting "Members", and clicking the option to leave the blog. I cannot remove people myself. But if you want to stay, I'm definitely not against that either.)

We understand that a lot has changed within the DSMP community, and we want to assure everyone that this blog will solely focus on the DSMP alone. We do not want to comment on discourse on CC's behind the SMP (although, rest assured, we do not support those who've royally fucked up). If we reblog an analysis post you've made back in the day that you don't want to associate with anymore, you are free to tell us. We will delete reblogs asap.

For the blog itself, we have little changes:

Do not contact any of the mods listed about this blog if they are listed as inactive.

Instead of tagging all the potential trigger warnings for posts, we believe the responsibility of tagging triggers should be the OP's alone. If a trigger warning is missing, contact the OP instead of us.

Character Relationships and Character Analyses will be removed from the spreadsheet, but will remain as tags. We believe it to be redundant when the sheet has hundreds of different characters, making navigation difficult.

Speaking of, we are trying our best to add a better navigation system in the spreadsheet using the Filter View option. Additional columns have been added to reflect the characters, factions, and plotlines detailed in each post. This will take a little bit of time to complete, since we have to go through every single post.

In line with the previous bullet point, we've added a sheet purely for navigation. It also explains how to use the Filter View option. It will be the first sheet you see when you open the Master Spreadsheet.

Anyway, glad to be back, and hoping to reignite discussions about the DSMP again!

[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.

[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.

[give-grian-rights]

btw im still SO FUCKING PISSED about how the dream smp ended it. if you were a summer-fall of 2020 dream smp fan. fucking. watch the last tommyinnit vod because it is BULLSHIT

i am watching fan animatics and shit right now and just. i think if you fucking grabbed ten randos who have wrote atleast one thousand words of fanfiction in their entire life, they could've put together a better ending

you're telling me this entire time Dream was a fucking. PHILOSOPHER? who was doing alllll of this in the name of SCIENCE? because people he DECIDED were disruptive and useless and were gonna kill anyway, fucked off and said "lol leave us alone!! we sell drugs to eachother now", THAT SOME HOW CAME IN THE WAY OF YOUR DEATH EXPERIMENTS?

what about the fucking prison?? what about wanting to collect every beloved item everyone ever loved? you're telling me he went to war with tommyinnit like two or three times because he just found him ANNOYING and we're supposed to ACCEPT THAT?

the entire thing FELT like gaslighting but we KNOW. WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. when c!Dream does that. and we know how cc!Tommy ACTS and breathes and talks when he's being manipulated and pressured by Dream. AND THAT WASNT IT.

The scene before the Event seemed like Tommy GENUIENLY remorseful. shit like "i think in a different life we could've been friends" (i dont think thats an exact quote i was blinded and deafened by fury at that point) IS NOT WHAT YOU SAY TO YOUR ABUSER

Punz being a villain is COOL we KNEW ABOUT IT already for a while and it made for a good plot twist from the other's perspectives. HOWEVER what the fuck compelled his character to CALLING BEING SUICIDAL SELFISH? ? ? WHAT THE FUCK

and tommy JUST ACCEPTED THAT? WHAT THE FUCKKK

i think a ten year old could've characterized all the guys in the finale better. letting a suicidal character, fucking end in self sacrifice, SECONDS after forgiving their abuser. is bullshit. and i dont know WHO to blame. but i just started thinking and i NEEDED to say this.

[blockgamepirate]

Looking for media that inspired Dream SMP themes & storylines

Maybe a bit of a weird request, but I’ve been thinking of doing some kind of a retrospective on the Dream SMP season 1 once the last finale comes out (if it ever actually comes out I guess...) which got me thinking about all the metatextuality and references and sources of inspiration for it

Things that I’ve already got on my list:

- Hamilton, obviously

- Breaking Bad

- I’ve heard people say Heathers for Wilbur’s Pogtopia arc but I haven’t seen Heathers so idk if this is true? Will check it out either way though since I’ve been meaning to watch Heathers anyway

- Ozymandias (although looking into this it seems like this might also be a Breaking Bad reference?)

- Greek mythology (Techno in particular)

- Avengers Endgame (Tommy)

- Kingdom Hearts (Karl)

... I can’t think of others right now. I’m sure I would come up with more eventually but I’m also sure I would miss a bunch of them anyway

Also please let me know which POV or which storyline the reference or inspiration relates to. I do want to hear about all of them, not just the popular storylines

[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

[stellocchia]

I've talked about this already in a reblog [LINK] but I do find it fascinating how every time, without a fail, when cTommy would start getting close to someone they would immediately register as a threat to cDream.

cWilbur is the most obvious one. He was cTommy's big brother, his protector, the person he arguably loved and relied on the most. And cDream was very very obviously jealous of said fact. And he'd been jealous from the beginning. And he tried to weasel his way into the big brother role from all the way back in og L'Manburg.

I will never get over the fact that he only ever tried to change cTommy's mind on even being in L'Manburg [LINK because this is fucking funny]. And then later in Pogtopia that he left a special gift basket which included his treasured crossbow as well as the book Tyrant and a bunch of other stuff to cTommy when he only gave Techno (Pogtopia's most skilled fighter) one single either gold or god apple. The fact that, despite saying he would help from the shadows only, he still very much fought the pet wars by cTommy's side. Or that, after confession he was actually on cSchlatt's side and being against cTommy going to retrieve his stuff from his old house in public, he still allowed him in private. And then spent the whole pre-war hanging with cTommy.

He was always trying to get in cTommy's good graces. To sorta take him from under cWilbur's nose. And it didn't work because cTommy has always been about as loyal as you can get, so he went with the best possible alternative and encouraged cWilbur's self-destructive behaviors until he did the job for him. And then he just never brought him back until he was certain that he was no longer a threat to his big brother role [LINK to Tommy literally saying that cWilbur was worse than cDream].

But cWilbur was so SO far from being the only threat to cDream's fragile attachment. And, in fact, I would argue he wasn't even the biggest threat in cDream's mind.

After all, cDream never put that much effort into getting rid of cWilbur. Partially because cWilbur was already spiraling and distancing himself from cTommy, but I also think that he just didn't respect him all that much as a rival. Though that's mostly speculation.

No, the biggest threat was always cTubbo. The best buddy, best friends forever. There is a reason why during exile, while the role he was trying to cover was more akin to cWilbur's role in cTommy's life, his wording wasn't. He never used the term "brothers" always "best friends".

There is a reason why he went through the trouble of utterly destroying cClingy relationship far more than he ever did for cCrime, by framing cTommy, by demanding harsher punishments at the trial, by taunting cTommy and escalating the situation over and over again. And then still by discouraging cTubbo from visiting and by lying to cTommy about cTubbo just discarding his 'my Tommy' compass. And then, when none of that worked, he went for the ultimate betrayal, because he knew it would hurt cTommy immensely if cTubbo gave up the disc he'd been given as an ultimate act of trust, and he knew that he could break cTubbo's trust in cTommy even more. And when EVEN THAT didn't work he straight-up went for murdering cTubbo because my man was fed up (at least if we assume that the staged finale didn't completely go according to plan, but if I go on a rant about how UTTERLY MORONIC the staged finale was here I'll never stop).

cTubbo was always cDream's biggest enemy, and it really goes to show how single-minded he was as a villain that cTubbo being his nemesis wasn't even about cTubbo.

Next level obsession there.

Of course, the two of them weren't the only threats, just the biggest. Bud cDream didn't stop at them. He tried to kill Ghostbur during exile just because his constant presence was too much of a comfort to cTommy and later on actually killed him to revive the version of cWilbur cTommy seemingly hated. He took two of MD's lives because he not only was willing to move in with cTommy, but also wasn't afraid to call cDream out on his bullshit which, if you rewatch that stream, seemed to really bother cDream. Also the fact that cTommy, as soon as he was offered an alternative to follow MD's orders and rules instead of cDream's took it with pretty much no hesitation probably didn't help cDream's dislike of MD. He also never revived cRanboo, and it is very possible that it's because he knew that he and cTommy were friends.

Murders aside, he also sabotaged cTommy's and cRanboo's communication more than once when he realized they were getting close. Which shows that he ether considered cRanboo only a minor threat or simply still useful, because had anyone else visited that much they would be dead.

He also immediately threatened to hurt cPhil when cTommy started relying on him post-prison break. And let's not forget that time cLazar was literally only going to visit with a present and cDream considered it such a big threat that he made cLazar take part in abusing cTommy so thoroughly that cTommy was sure not to want anything to do with him in the future. (also, kind of an interesting coincidence that cLazar was one of the unlucky two selected to be slaughtered for the sake of science...).

Every time cTommy has gotten especially close to anyone, cDream was always there, ready to intervene, ready to deal with the threat as swiftly as possible. Because ANYONE would have been a better choice for cTommy and he knew it. And he acted accordingly.

Curiously, the only one he never took action against was cTechno, though I do wonder if that was just because of how obviously doomed cBedrock bros were from the very start. cDream does know the extent of cTommy's loyalty very VERY well after all...

[dsmpanalysis]

As there is a sudden splurge of DSMP posts, I'd like to remind everyone again that you are free to send asks or submit links of meta/analysis DSMP posts you wish we should archive. We used to track the "#dream smp analysis" and "#dsmp analysis" tags, but we know a lot of posts don't use that, so we'd definitely appreciate additional scouting. :>

Feel free to refer to our rules for post critera.

[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.

[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. 

[dsmp-analysis-showdown]

The second round of Analysis Showdown is now open!

The prompt for the round is:

Analyze an ending on the Dream SMP.

This could be about one of the finales but isn't limited to them. An ending could be a season or an arc finale, the ending to a chapter in a character's life, a turning point after which nothing is the same, or other things which could be argued to be an ending of some kind. However, if you choose to write about one of those non-obvious endings, you should provide a justification as to why you consider the target of your analysis an ending in the analysis itself.

The analysis can focus on various things regarding the ending. Anything from what happened in the ending itself, to the implications of it, how it connects to the rest of the story, the meta aspects of the ending, how it influenced the rest of the story, what made the ending work/not work.

Don't limit yourself to what's popular and widely discussed as an ending! There is a lot to explore, so feel free to go wild. Creativity in the analysis and uncommon interpretations are very much encouraged!

Feeling stuck? Have some (completely optional) suggestions for where to begin!

“What did the ending try to achieve? How did it do so? Did it succeed?”

“What about this ending is final? What is the point of no return that means things can't go back to normal after it happens?”

“What does the ending tell us about the narrative it concludes? What does it say on the themes? Is there a plot twist which recontextualizes everything which came before it?”

“What was the buildup to this ending? Was there any foreshadowing towards it? Did the ending conclude the buildup well?”

“How does the ending affect the stories of the characters involved differently?”

“Analyze the ending through a more technical lens. For example, how is it shaped by the medium? Were there any OOC considerations that affected the way the ending unfolded?”

“How are different characters' perception of this ending the same/different?”

Submission guidelines:

Submissions must be between 300 and 2000 words.

The analysis must sufficiently answer the prompt.

The analysis must not have been published somewhere before.

The claims in the analysis must include sources.

No inflammatory language or overt negativity about a character. Being critical is fine, bashing is not.

Absolutely no negativity or hostility towards any group of fans.

Submissions for the second round close on December 19th. To enter the competition, just submit an analysis that meets all the submission guidelines to this blog.

Submit your entry here! Still confused? Check out our FAQ. The sourcing requirement seems intimidating? Join our discord where we’ll help you find the clips you need!