#I also say this as someone who was a sbi main for the longest time
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There are more tallulah & tommy fics on ao3 than there are pac & mike fics
#fae.txt#mcyt#qsmp#Idk if this counts as discourse#No hate to dsmp fic writers and crossover fic writers in general#I just find it super annoying how often these fics are just the dsmp with like one qsmp element added and are only tagged qsmp#Like if youâre writing a dsmp fic please tag it as such because some of us arenât looking for that#I also say this as someone who was a sbi main for the longest time#Itâs just rude#Also itâs not just sbi mains who do it btw Iâve seen a lot of dt fics in there too#I hate these fics for the same reason I hate x reader fics: theyâre untagged and annoying to filter out
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Why the Dream SMPâs way of storytelling is IMPOSSIBLE to recreate in any other medium.
This has been in the back of my mind for the longest time. I think I finally got it.
People have talked about this before, and theyâve put forward some good points, and good for them â most of them are correct. Itâs the way the ccs interact with each other, itâs how plot is mixed in with banter, thatâs all good! I wanna put more out there.
So you know how you open a book to read, you start a new show, you sit down to watch a movie â thatâs all produced by some sort of company, someone who made it specifically for you to enjoy. You expect a certain dramatic flair to it, certain cinematic choices, certain ways of writing, certain camera angles, certain reactions to things. Thatâs just ingrained expectations of things now.
The DSMP? Doesnât have that.
The low expectations work very much in its favor. Itâs a Minecraft role-playing server with a bunch of famous youtubers/streamers, who are all good friends and have great dynamics with each other. So when you expect âjust another Minecraft videoâ but in stream form, or you watch the videos because there are certain people in them, you donât expect to be dropped into extreme lore and sensitive topics, realistic situations proposed in game form, a combination of serious stuff and just fun times with friends goofing around â and youâre pleasantly surprised.
We, the fandom, are used to it a bit more now. How excellently they manage to make a serious story in such a âridiculousâ medium, how much it affects us all and gets our creative juices flowing. But even the ccs canât predict some of the things that happen. And thatâs fun.
The whole election ending the way it has? That was on us. And it made some of the most angsty content there has been in the DSMP. People still theorize about the arc and make connections to now â thatâs pog!
Fundy being adopted by Eret â that sparked the whole âFundy just wants a dad â letâs get him some loveâ thing that made FundyWasTaken and other Fundy+someone ships happen. I see a different person paired with Fundy every week, and somehow, I agree with all of them. I really got into Fundy because of that stream where Eret âslept through the adoptionâ and Fundy confronted his real dad and spent time with his granddad. That little stream gave us more insight into Fundyâs whole character (Nevermind Fundy showing off his acting skills â you go you funky little fox), but also justifies some of his actions now. DryWaters? Wanting to kill Technoblade? Fucked up reasons, but we still love him.
Phil being broken out of house arrest ahead of time â still made a great stream and Phil agreeing with Technoâs want for revenge â that made us all very happy. The SBI!!! The AE! And thatâs also a thing!
That even if we do know or have predicted whatâs going to happen, begged it out of the ccs basically, it is still incredibly fun to watch. Where some books/shows/movies fall short and reveal too much and end up being âtoo predictableâ, theyâre not fun anymore. I read this somewhere before, that sometimes holding back EVERYTHING from the reader, and relying on shock value to make a good story is just bad. Whereas if you progress the story naturally and let the reader make some predictions of their own and then they end up being right â thatâs a lot of serotonin right there. Itâs the re-readability that makes it slightly better the second time.
The DSMP takes this concept and fucking yeets with it. Letting fans engage in the story, letting them theorize and then be right, even acknowledging the fanart that was made, just engaging with the community that their roleplay created â that makes it so much more fun. I bet that even if the whole script was revealed to the fandom we would still watch every plot stream. Even if we knew vaguely what happens in the stream, we would tune in and enjoy every second of it. Because the ccs are just that good, we love them that much, we love this plot that much.
Oh and the unpredictability helps too. Tommy in exile was the vague concept of a lot of the streams â itâs taken that and ran with it in a lot of different directions. All quite enjoyable.
Having said all of that⌠The fact that this type of telling a story is impossible to recreate in any other medium is⌠kinda saddening? It is incredibly unique, and Iâd say has things that not a lot of the people that produce mainstream media would even consider. âJust friends hanging outâ â how would that make the script progress? âEngagement with the fandom, even considering their wishes for the charactersâ â but weâre telling a story here!
The only thing I can think of that would come close to the vibe, would be just a bunch of writer friends coming together, thinking up a universe and general plot, and then each deciding to write a few of their own characters in that universe. When one author focuses on their main characters, the side ones can feel left in the dust, or not fleshed out. The DSMP is just âevery character can write their own storyâ, which takes a lot of the strain from the âmain writersâ. But the general thing of âjust friends hanging outâ would be taken away from it. Weâre being serious here, why would we change the tone so quick?
With all of that in mind⌠I kinda wanna make some predictions? And I donât know if theyâre correct, but itâs fun to theorize. See?
1. Lâmanburg will die.
And not just because Techno has 54 withers. The country is cursed â it definitely is. There is little sentimental value that can be felt for a few flimsy stilts built on top of a crater. It might go out in a blaze of glory, with the withers (Is history repeating itself an interesting enough plot point to recycle a whole arc?), but it might just be forgotten. Yeah there have been some angsty headcanons about how âno one cares about Lâmanburg anymore, save for two peopleâ and it just gets abandoned, but how about it just becoming irrelevant?
This all comes back to Dream, it always does! His want, need for the server to be âone happy family againâ, it just means one thing. He wants the server to return to the peaceful anarchy that it was before Lâmanburg. No rulers, no factions, no nothing.
Thatâs never going to happen.
Try as he might, Dream cannot affect that change that Lâmanburg did to the server. The introduction of a faction, one that can exist without the interference of a higher power â why do you think so many factions have sprouted up since? And itâs not even serious factions a lot of the time, itâs just a few friends deciding to build their bases on a plot of land that they claim is a nation now. Lâmanburg has changed the mindset of these people, now an alliance with somebody is a political move. An alliance doesnât exist if it doesnât have a faction, and that faction can remain neutral for only so long.
Basically, Lâmanburg introduced the factions mod into the server.
And the fact that every faction now has enough relevance to hold weight in a war also means that every nation on the server is doomed to follow the downfall of Lâmanburg. Eventually, they will get into a fight they canât win, go up against the wrong people, anger someone they shouldn���t have. All factions will either be destroyed, or lose relevance, until their creators, residents and such just⌠move on.
(And really you can go into meta and talk about real governments and compare them, but itâs far more simple than that. The server isnât built for peace, it isnât meant to be a relaxing place where you can just vibe, it may have been made for a few friends to play Minecraft together, but it has turned into An Authorâs Curse. The curse that follows any kind of story being told â the fact that peace is boring. People watched the first streams of the DSMP because they liked the ccs, and thatâs valid. But how many more people tuned in to watch the war streams because there was PLOT and there was CHAOS and there WASNâT CALM PEACE ANYMORE â thatâs the curse of every writer. That you can write about someone just living their life drama-free, you can make interesting peace with characters or circumstances, but itâs always leading to one inevitable conclusion â war, drama, because people read that. And at this point, itâs just a predictable outcome. No matter how much you say that you are retired, that youâre done with violence (Technoblade), something will happen that will prove to you that you believed in people too much. No matter how âneutralâ you may be in the matter, no matter how much you claim that you have no allegiance (Philza), you will be forced to pick one, because out of all the bad things, you pick the least worst one, the most appealing to you, the one that can benefit your want of revenge.
And I can go on, but this is far too deep for one simple reason â The Authorâs Curse is so prevalent here because THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO STAKES. Itâs a video game â you die? You respawn. Something gets destroyed? You can just rebuild. Sure, youâll want to kill the person who did wrong to you, but whatever they did wrong can just be replaced, remade, recreated. So why not have wars? Why not cause massive amounts of destruction âfor the plotâ?
Itâs literally a playground. How all authors have their little playground with their characters that they meticulously plan out, the DSMP is that playground for all of these people.
And itâs fun! Sure! I like it! Iâm just really skeptical whenever someone in character says that they âjust want peaceâ, âare retiredâ, âswear off violenceâ, âare building just a little city for themselvesâ. Because you can do that, nothing wrong. But eventually, no matter how much you distance yourself from all of the chaos happening, all of the wars, you will return.
Because it is just much more fun.
Itâs the curse. A cursed cycle.
And everyone is in it.)
2. The prison.
I donât have anything on the prison because I donât have anything on the book. Yeah Iâve done a whole post where I overanalyze what it could be, but it doesnât make it any clearer. Whatever it is, itâs made out to be a huge plot point, something that can only be revealed when the prison is finished.
Cursed. The prisonâs reason for being constructed is the book, but the book is only relevant when the prison is finished. We can only wait, and theorize, as we do.
(My only theory is that the book is information about another op on the server. Or at least something related to op or creative mode. Dream only fears one thing on this server, and thatâs Technoblade, so if his one fear is the most skilled player on the server, what else could give him existential fear?)
3. The SBI.
Again, I donât have anything! Yeah the reunion seems to be going smoothly, one member at a time, but there is already conflict in their beliefs among each other. And all thatâs happened is a vague âmaybe one day weâll strikeâ.
Is history repeating itself an interesting enough plot point to recycle a whole arc?
Is Lâmanburgâs destruction AGAIN really necessary to hammer home the idea that no one likes that place anymore?
I donât know. Whatever happens, no oneâs in the right. No oneâs in the wrong either. Theyâre all not good people and thatâs that on that.
4. The Clingy Duo.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
Thatâs all.
(Okay seriously? All of these arcs are connected. You know what happens when everything seems to be connected to one another?
A giant, dramatic final showdown between the two opposing sides.
Cause itâs just Chaos vs Lâmanburg. Those are the sides. People that want Lâmanburg to exist and people that want it gone. There are no other sides, there isnât someone whoâs like âWell maybe it can exist if we do this and thisâ cause no one wants to put in anymore effort into this cursed country. The only people were the clingy duo and now theyâre separated and everyone is just leaving and Tommy is on the Chaos side like at this point he doesnât care about Lâmanburg he just cares about Tubbo but he has to convince Tubbo to leave Lâmanburg but will Tubbo be convinced but will Tommy even consider leaving Lâmanburg and breaking free from its curse AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
Goddamit.)
5. The Egg?
Dunno shit about it. Like the prison â it seems important, but weâre just not being given enough information. Is it a coincidence that the moment Dream commissioned the prison the Egg popped up? Or are the two directly related?
I donât know. But as long as someone is finding ways to fight the Egg, thatâs fantastic. Bad juju indeed.
6. Oh the Butcher Army want to kill Dream!
Hah.
Okay Iâve seen people make the case that the Army is just a bunch of people with trauma repeating the cycle of ab*se that they went through and yes.
Just yes.
And the fact that no one is actually looking at it that way and no one is there to like.. help them or even help them understand that what they are doing is just irrational, even though their reason for doing it and the result they hope to achieve is YES and the only thing that a lot of the people of the server who want peace should try to go for as well, they cannot stand up to Dream on their own. They just canât, they will get punted into exile. They need allies, and they need powerful ones, people that have also been wronged by Dream and want him gone.
But the cycle continues, and no one knows where it ends.
(Okay but from a writing perspective? Getting rid of Dream is the end goal. It is the be all end all of all conflict, well⌠most of it, at least most thatâs related to the supposed âgood sideâ, or âthe side thatâs been most victimizedâ. But from the same perspective, that side is just⌠no longer. It has proven that is just as bad, if not worse than the final boss. I have to agree that Techno has to pay for his crimes, even though I like him a lot, but Techno did in fact cause insane damage. Yeah Lâmanburg rebuilt, yeah Wilbur probably caused more â still he isnât completely free.
But thatâs a discussion on morality more than laws.
Lâmanburg is doomed to die. Dream is doomed to be fought, and probably won against (simply because he has won far too many times already, you know how everyone seems to hate OP charactersâŚ). But the Butcher Army is doomed to fail against Dream. So how does that work?
Welp.
Is history repeating itself and interesting enough plot point to recycle a whole arc?
The answer is no.
Iâve repeated that question three times now, and the answer to it is no. No it is not. Lâmanburg can be destroyed again, and it can be rebuilt again, but the sentimentality that people feel for it will not remain. The cycle of history ends somewhere, and itâs not too far a fetch that it ends here.
So what happens when Technoblade, Philza and Tommy roll up to Lâmanburg with withers and a destruction wish, only to be met with a bunch of traumatized children with axes and a death wish?
Well, Iâll spare the details, but from a purely writing standpointâŚ
The two sides team up.
Think about it â The Butcher Army doesnât care about Technoblade anymore. Theyâve seen that Dream is the one pulling the strings, they know that even if they do care about trying to eliminate Technoblade again, they have to get rid of his strongest ally â Dream. But through their anger, theyâve lost their fear. You should fear Dream, heâs a fuckin op. Techno is correct in not wanting to go against him.
But after Tommy? After seeing the Butcher Army at their lowest, screeching about Dream being the villain?
Will Techno finally go past his thinking of âgovernment is evil, always government is source of problemâ and realize that Dream has the most evil government in mind for his rule?
Iâm still kinda sad that Techno isnât making the conclusions he should about Dream. But heâs starting to â and really, the SBI-Butcher Army team up is the most logical thing that could happen.
Watch me be completely wrong or miss something and Iâve got ALL of it wrong. I would love that.)
(Also itâs very funny to me that Dream is literally simping for Techno while heâs just here like âListen bud I would stab you on sight if you didnât have creative modeâ. Dream KNOWS that Techno can and will kill him given the opportunity. Techno knows that that opportunity may never arise.
Itâs a weird type of stalemate, to be sure. But goddamn is it interesting.)
Anyway... if you read through all of this... I could bake you a cookie? Thank you! I like to ramble.
#dream smp#gooood its just a block game#ITS JUST A BLOCK GAME#...dammit#anyway#debate me#on everything please
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