#and none of the ADULTS they're protecting are helping to further their education???

[nyxypoo]

where are these boys parents and teachers

[violinios]

kind of a Dream analysis?

i don't know how to start this without saying "sorry for my bad english". i'm not confident when writing long texts in english. will include personal visions/headcannons.

i want to talk about Dream's childhood and adulthood more, and how he was also abused by the villagers, yet people think Dream was extremelly loved by them. not only that he was loved, but also that he was one to blame for the events that happened during the apple incident.

there's a difference between Dream feeling guilty for not being able to do anything and him actually having blame for what happened in the village. (cof cof, survivors guilt.)

first of all, can we talk about how Dream and Nightmare were BOTH suffering on the villagers hands, but in different ways? Nightmare wasn't the only victim of the malicious people. let's start with the fact that both carried a burden since they were young. two 6 year old children aren't capable of protecting anything from those who are older and are susceptible to being manipulated by adults.

they took advantage of Dream's naivety, they exploited him and that was extremelly overwhelming. there was no adult in who Dream could actually trust besides Neil, because Dream was the one who had to support everyone else with his help, including the adults, and ended receiving no support back at the end of the day. he is seen as nothing more than an extension of that tree: it only serves to offer you fruits and satisfy your needs. people forget that this tree also has its own needs and act as it will survive and serve them forever (this kind of neglect will be further explored in my second point). this burden they carried on their shoulders made them mature in a younger age than they should actually have matured, but they're still childish enough to not being able to know how to deal with a situation like that. you can't give a child the responsabilities of an adult and expect them to not grown up way too fast, but you can't also expect them to fully understand the task they received and do it correctly.

they both were neglected as children. yes, even Dream was, don't leave him out of this topic. they had no proper education, never had a childhood a normal child would have and were never given anything unless if the villagers wanted to manipulate Dream somehow with gifts and stuff. they didn't actually cared about none of their needs. the only ones who cared about Dream and Nightmare were, well... Dream and Nightmare. yes, Dream DID cared for Nightmare, he was worried for his brother, but as Nightmare got extremelly depressed, he started to isolate himself from Dream and didn't knew how to express his emotions/was trying to protect Dream's feelings. he was naive, yes, but the fandom acts as if he was completely ignorant about Nightmare's suffering, when Dream TRIED to help him, he noticed something was wrong but Nightmare hid it from him. i just don't understand how people are blaming a 6 years old for what happened in that day. i wish people understood that Dream didn't had a good childhood either, and tried to understand his side.

Dream's traumas/the effects the traumas gave Dream during his adulthood are also extremelly overlooked. the neglect from the villagers makes Dream suffer in the future with self-neglect instead as some kind of self-punishment. he has a self-forgetting mindset. the only way he seeks pleasure is by making others feel pleasure too, and the only way to feel satisfaction is through connection with other people. he might feel guilty when he allows himself to feel pleasure, as if he doesn't deserves happiness. why be happy when there are people who need it more than i do? he "forgets" to connect with himself, as if he has no identity when he's alone, as if there's no 'himself', no 'Dream', only the 'guardian of positivity', and this leads him to not knowing how to access his inner self. merging with groups or individuals is the only way he can feel like he's an individual too, because they NEED him, but they don't need Dream by who he trully is, they need a idealized version of Dream. the one that can handle anything and serve them without receiving anything back (that's basically how his relationships with the villagers worked). that's why he doesn't investigate his own feelings, and instead, uses unhealthy coping mechanisms to scape reality on his free time, and i think those are one of the rare moments where he feels like he's getting in touch with himself (even if this is unconciously making him run away from his own feelings and scape trauma).