#and i just had thoughts about how like. phil wouldve been YOUNG when wilbur was born/adopted/what have you

[autistic-ranboo]

/rp

tonight we are thinking about reclutant dad!philza, who didn't get to choose whether or not he was going to become a dad and who wasn't necessarily a bad dad but who also desperately did not want to be.

some more thoughts under the cut. some of these might be triggering but i'm not sure exactly what to warn for so proceed eith caution if this is a sensitive topic for you.

(also, inb4 someone tries to start shit: phil doesn't ever let wilbur SEE any of this. i make that pretty clear under the cut, but just in case y'all don't catch it, phil and techno are Very Careful to conceal all of this from wilbur even as he gets older. )

i am thinking about philza coming home to their house (because it was always going to be "their" house, his and techno's), only to find someone there with an apologetic look on their face and a small hand grasped in theirs. i am thinking about phil inviting them inside because he might be brutally pragmatic and have a vicious streak a mile wide but he's still polite, and he's not going to leave a CHILD out in the cold, don't be ridiculous. i am thinking about them sitting around the table, all on edge, as the person explains that, by some series of events, phil is the last available guardian for a young wilbur soot, and i am imagining phil, still barely out of childhood himself, looking at this child who's scared and lost and lonely (a feeling philza knows intimately) and knowing that he can't turn this child away with the same level of certainty as the knowledge that he's going to break this child by accident.

i am imagining techno, who's coming back from something, doesn't really matter what, when he stumbles into the conversation and sees phil looking more terrified than he was facing down the ender dragon, and i am thinking about techno unsheathing his sword, expecting a threat of some kind, only to find a child and the person who brought him to them, and i am thinking about techno putting on a joking smile to try and get the kid to loosen up.

i am thinking about that night, the first time techno sees philza cry.

i am thinking about the years after, about a philza who does his best to care for his son, letting techno fill in the gaps (and there are so many gaps). i am thinking about a philza who does his best to care for his son, and who loves him, in a way, but who did not choose him. i am thinking of a philza who lives in more fear of the pitterpatter of tiny footsteps on the hallway than an invading army at the door. i am thinking of the long nights, the frustratinng ones where phil wishes that HIS consent had mattered, too. i am thinking of the even longer nights, the ones wracked with guilt when phil cannot be what wilbur needs, his face pressed into techno's chest as he almost cries, listening all the while for footsteps in the hallway. i am thinking of how, the second he hears those footsteps, his face morphs into a smile and his tears dry and he prepares himself to hear a knock at the door, for wilbur to come in and ask to sleep with phil because his room is big and scary and for phil to relent, always, even though it means he'll get no sleep that night. i am thinking about phil stroking wilbur's hair as techno sings him a piglin lullaby in that scratchy, deep voice, and i am thinking about phil understanding that what techno means is: "you're not alone. i'm with you. we will survive this"

anyway. reluctant dad!philza >>>> just straight-up bad dad!philza imo and is how i'll probably be writing phil in the foreseeable future.

[schlaggot]

OKAY you seem to want to hear more so i will provide :] i am so sorry the formatting is so fucct i wrote this in apple notes and pasted it here LMAO

PLEASE BEAR WITH ME ON THIS

philza is a god. this is a popular fan theory and i know a lot of people subscribe to this!! its very good. we also know wilbur and likely tommy are his biological children, and techno is adopted. heres where my headcanons come in! im putting it under a cut cuz its a lot

wilbur and tommy weren't born like normal humans were. they were created from something existing, as philza had the power to do so. but, said power was draining, and difficult to do. the way that zeus created athena from his head and dionysus from his thigh? thats how wilbur and tommy were born.

wilbur was born from a fish. PLEASE STICK WITH ME,,. phil had caught this fish in a bucket, intent on starting an aquarium in his hardcore world. he decided to name the first fish wilbur. it was just supposed to be a joke- a small aquarium in his base with a single fish. when he'd pass by to get materials he'd greet said fish. interact with it, feed it, talk to it when he was feeling particularly lonesome. then, something happened. he mightve broken the glass, something might've gone wrong with a creeper explosion- but the fish got out of the water, and there was no realistic way for philza to save it.

so, using his powers, he incorporated the fish into his body. id imagine it was either his chest (because he was so attached to this fish that he wanted it close to his heart) or his throat (so that it could finally have a voice to speak to him). using his power, he was able to (please dont kill me for using this term) 'birth' the child using his god powers. no i wont elaborate <3. this would explain wilbur's whole. um. fish theme. (i know milo and new milo arent canon but also please give me this. also sally.) wilbur was born with a voice meant to lead and comfort, a voice he didnt have before.

techno was a piglin from the nether. a baby piglin, training to become a piglin brute. when phil got to the nether, he found a baby piglin all alone. deciding to care for it wasn't really his first thought, but it was curious of him, and he'd see it every time he entered the nether. eventually, they started interacting. philza would bring it some food or gold from the overworld, and the piglin would give him small gofts in return. a broken sword, an ender pearl, a glass bottle- little things the baby piglin had found while scavenging. phil would realize after a bit that this piglin had been abandoned by the rest of its clan, and he figured he'd take care of the little guy when he'd see him. getting bolder, philza would eventually venture further into the nether. he'd come upon a bastion, and the piglins inside obviously weren't too happy about seeing someone from the overworld there. they attacked him, and funnily enough, this little piglin, brandishing a dull golden sword, tried to defend him. philza likely wouldve died without the little guy's help, so he decided to make a plan to bring the piglin to the overworld.

unfortunately, piglins do turn into zombies when they enter the overworld. its an unfortunate fact. and philza knew this. so, in order to stop this from happening, he gave the piglin a vial of his own blood. the blood of a god. it would keep him rejuvinated for awhile- but it came with an unfortunate side effect. if the piglin didn't consume the blood of a living being for long enough, he'd begin to rot, starting the process of becoming a zombie all over again. he could always recover from this if given blood fast enough, but once he was fully transformed, it would no longer be possible for him to recover. so, philza was thankful that this piglin had an innate instinct for killing. named him technoblade since he thought it sounded cool and fit the little piglin. taught him english, sparred with him, and provided him with enough blood to keep him healthy until techno could reliably hunt for himself. blood for the blood god

now, for the youngest. tommy was born from something not physical, but a song that philza and wilbur had come up with off the top of his head. wilbur was only 7 or 8 at the time, but had a talent for coming up with tunes that philza would hum throughout the day. one particularly nice one was actually a bit of an earworm. philza found himself humming it regularly, patting out the rhythm to it when he wasn't paying attention, and singing nonsense words in place of actual vocals when he was preoccupied with building. "what's the name of the song you sung the other day?" philza'd asked the young wilbur. wilbur hadn't named the songs he'd made before, and didn't quite understand what 'naming a song' meant.

"tommy!" he'd replied.

it was endearing, a human name for a tune he couldn't get out of his head.

it had him thinking for awhile. it took a lot of effort. a redstone contraption, noteblocks, a blank music disc he'd happened to procure from a creeper. wilbur's musical knowledge was especially handy when philza was trying to get the notes just right.

in the end, he'd created what he'd set out to- a recording of his son's song onto a music disc, named Tommy.

creating another life with it like the one he'd created before was even more difficult the second time around- but in the end he had a healthy baby son. tommy. tommy's discs aren't just some useless pieces of music- they're part of who he is.

[shoezuki]

Tommy's prison/revival arc isnt well written actually

Anyways ive been wanting to talk on it a while for a bit here but havent had the Time or like. The thought to. But im gonna go off now.

First off im gonna say im ASSUMING this stream and plot of tommy being in the prison with dream is written entirely by tommy and dream. Wilbur May be involved in the latest stream but im not sure.

Bringing tommy back to life after only three days of him being dead did practically nothing to progress plot, the characters, or audience's understanding. In fact i feel that it damaged Other characters' potential and plot and already established plotlines.

The 'development' aspect

A really, really easy way to see if anything has changed or developed through an arc or plotline is to straightup just compare the 'beginning' to the 'end' in terms of the barebones situation. So;

Beginning: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream, his own abuser who has hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. He's terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

End: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream after being killed then revived by him, his own abuser whos hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. Hes terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

Okay. This is simplified obvious. But the point stands. ALTHOUGH the troupe of 'going back to the beginning' is common in the heroes journey its. It doesnt work here. Has tommy learned anything? Has he changed as a character? Is the severity of their situation any different? Have we, as the audience, learned anything new?

Im going to expand on that last point because i think it has the strongest potential argument. Technically for progression in literature and development of plot/characters, things can Change without them being Aware as characters. It can change just by the audience's perception changing or being challenge.

Slight example: i've been reading a webcomic called Your Throne. Its a fantasy/political drama about a noble lady who entered a competition with another noble lady to become the empress. The main lady lost despite her being a better fit, and the comic starts with the main lady trying to assassinate the empress. Its assumed and stated by the main lady that she 'ruined her life' and so thats all the readers know. However, later in the novel we see flashbacks to the competition itself and find that the two ladies were extremely close friends, neither wanting anything bad for the other, but it was the emperor himself who manipulated both of them for his own agenda. Those flashbacks gave us an entirely different idea of who the real antagonist is and completely changed the two main ladies' relationship. THAT is how the audience's understanding of the plot and novel can be used to change the entire story. We dont get such here though

Some things that were brought to light during tommy being dead/revived:

Dream is capable of reviving people infinitely

This was already implicated and assumed. The book dream has being a means of reviving people has been around Technically since schlatt's death. This just 'confirmed' what was known

Time works differently/feels longer in the afterlife

This doesnt really impact much beyond emotions and implications. If we had more insight into what the 'afterlife' is like beyond nothingness perhaps so. But really it just makes it so wilbur being dead for what feels like 9 years and tommy having been dead for 2 months appeal to emotions.

Wilbur is evil

This one fuckin sucks i cant lie HSKSHSISSGEGDV. Like i was gon go on bout it and i will but it jus sucks. We have nothing to go on besides tommy's word, no examlles of what Horrible things wilbur said could make tommy assume this, etcetc. Ill most likely make a seperate post on how this feels like we're just going to get 'wilbur is a horrible villain' type with him. But still. I feel wilbur Not Being Good isnt a new development.

Dream is going to revive wilbur

This doesnt feel new either, part because phil had wanted to revive wilbur before (ill get to that more later) and that tommy had kept dream alive/initially imprisoned him with the idea of him reviving wilbur.

Dream believes wilbur will break him out of prison

Okau this makes no sense to me actually. I cwnt understand How exactly wilbur would be able to do this? Or why dream believes he even Could? Mans been dead for like 9 years and all we Know of the afterlife is that its black... nothingness. How would 9 years of that make wilbur capable of busting the prison open?

So. Yeah. All in all this plotline hasnt done anything new, developed things, or altered people's perceptions. We just ended up back at square one. Back to tommy being traumatized, dream being 'evil' and horrible and doing villain monologues, and them being stuck together.

Other characters and plotlines

Im pretty damn sure tommy's revival fucked up a LOT of other characters' plotlines and potential development. Honestly i feel this has a lot to do with the writers not communicating with other ccs well enough. But Ill talk about specific characters from least to most fucked over in my opinion:

Sam

He's the best off. He hqd been there during tommy's death, had been close to tommy, had majorly blamed himself and his own mistakes for tommy's death. His grief and self hatred was actually really heartbreaking and well done. The attached character of Sam Nook being unaware of tommy's death and simply waiting for tommy to return was a really good parallel to sam's own grief and anger. like it really snapped sam the guy who cares for tommy and wants to do Right by him back together with him as the Warden of the prison. Mixed personal life with 'just business'.

I feel it wouldve been nice to have him like. Have more time to grieve properly and come to terms eith tommy's death and his own involvement/influence over the events. Him finding tommy alive again Could be a means of him like. Facing his own grief head on if done well.

Ranboo

Mostly in the context of him and sam's argument do i feel it got screwed over. The weight of them yelling at each other and trying to find who to blame and the implications that Maybe ranboo was the one who caused the security breach that closed down the prison on tommy just.... doesnt hit so hard anymore. Because how can there be blame and arguments and a 'who done it' mystery when tommy popped up all fine again?

Puffy

I dony know much of her involvement or how she found out tommy died (besides metagaming shhhhh) but i saw her monologuing of how they 'failed' tommy and like. Her whole 'he was so young we the Adults failed him' spiel is like........... inconsequential? Now??? Like no dont worry he died but hes alright now.

Philza

BET YOU DIDNY EXPECT TO SEE THIS FUCKER!!!!!! But actually though i want to talk bout how this ties into phil. A LOT. for Zalbr ❤. But also because i see ppl tying phil to tommy's death n like nah shutup u doin it wrong. Ill go off more in a Wilbur Post. But essentially: i dont like that dream is now going to revive wilbur. I feel they arent going to tie philza into this Despite phil having originally been trying to revive his son and studying on it and Attempting and Failing. But now suddenly dream can just. Say some magic words and Poof wilbur lives? So we're just going to Kill philza's revival attempts plotline and leave that hanging? This made his efforts seem pointless and Wack like oh why didnt you just Say The Magic Words phil????

Niki

I feel really bad for niki. She hasnt been able to do a lore stream during tommy's 'death' (she tweeted she wanted to but her computer wasnt working) and considering her entire character.... that shit is important. We seen it with Jack Manifold how tommy's death impacted Him considering he literally wanted tommy dead. And since niki is in a similar boat to jack of trying to kill tommy and it being her Only goal...... thats extremely important.

BUT. i feel there wasnt any communication. Did she or anyone even know tommy would be revived? Did no one consider they could At Least let her do a single stream on it? Like jack manifold????

We couldve gotten a Really good niki lore stream. I genuinely was so excited for it and i dont regularly watch her. But we seen it with jack manifold which is why i dont feel he got screwed because mans genuinely did So Good he could pop off with anything n i think it works in His favour. But now........ for niki. Canonically she never even knew tommy was Dead. So its like nothing even happened for her. Is she just supposed to continue on trying to kill tommy with no progression?

What i think would work

This is more me being like 'hey @ the dsmp writers let me in' type speculation sbosegussgs. But i was thinkin on a Really easy way to 'fix' this without rewriting lore and the streams.

Dream should kill tommy again now that he's been revived and Leave Him Dead.

More development for the characters who are affected by his death Especially niki. More time for grief and self reflection and development

A chance for the audience to figure out what the 'afterlife' really is.

Dream is supposed to be smart and a master manipulator or something right? Why doesnt he use being able to revive tommy as a bargaining chip with sam for his own freedom?

The audience would now Know dream's intentions with tommy better, that this death isnt 'final', but we could still see other characters' grief and reactions and coping without it feeling cheap. Ive seen some 'but people dont know tommy is alive so hes still dead in their mind' but that sucks imo.

We'd know more on dream's ability to revive people and that he can just Do It on a whim (which i think sucks but hey im trying) but no one else would know this canonically

Okay. Im done. If you read this. Thankyou. I love you. Hmu.