#dream smp essay

[give-grian-rights]

i forgot about this post but i was based and true .

There are. a lot. of miscommunication, and misinterpretations, of c!Wilbur.

people are literally fucking villainizing Wilbur for what? committing suicide?

"abandoning" the son who never spoke to him about his intention, burnt and destroyed the flag in-front of him, and supported Schlatt, seemingly without hesitation?

Wilbur never stopped caring for his people. he grew afraid of them. He grew fearful that they're traitors. He became paranoid. He was afraid, he was not hateful.

Eret betrayed him.

Schlatt, who was on friendly and good terms with Tommy AND Tubbo, exiled and is responsible for multiple deaths between the three.

Techno killed Tubbo.

Could Wilbur have stopped the execution, and backed up Techno? Possibly. But remember the last time he allowed Tommy to fight? It was the duel against Dream.

Wilbur allowed Tommy to make the decision of what to do, and Tommy lost a life because of it. He wasn't thinking of the life that Tubbo would lose. Techno was in the better position to stop it than either of them were. Tommy and Wilbur both had few items, few supplies.

Wilbur did wrong. He was angry, and he lied to Tommy, and he broke the trust of everyone. But he was SCARED. He wasn't vengeful, or power-hungry. He was full of regret and dread.

After he lost L'manburg, he stopped wanting power. He didn't want to take it back. He saw what power did, what it did to him and Schlatt both. What it had Eret do. What Dream did to keep his power.

Wilbur didn't want a stepping stone for power. He wanted his legacy erased, he could no longer see the good in it.

It was cruel to appoint Tubbo was president. It was cruel to attempt to make Tommy president. But if he didn't, he wouldn't have been able to sneak away. His legacy of death, L'manburg, would live on.

He didn't care what it made the others think of him. He didn't even think much of himself.

His L'manburg was gone; his legacy erased. And along with it, was his life.

[liauditore]

do NOT watch "x-life" whatever you do do NOT watch "x-life"

[appleflavoredkitkats]

sometimes i think about l'manberg as meaning-makers.

they are what made the dsmp transcend minecraft as a statistical, skill-centric game into something where meaning is arbitrary. this works in both an in-narrative and meta angle. on one hand, power in the dsmp before l'manberg was centered on pvp and resources (and ultimately, that also dictated how power is gained and lost for the rest of the dsmp's lifetime). that's the main thing they were fighting against, yeah? that people in l'manberg were not as physically skilled in a more strategic, game-like minecraft sense compared to the dteam and their allies.

l'manberg is literally the introduction of power derived from personal meaning and interests, something more supposedly "arbitrary" than, let's say, being able to pvp like techno or dream. it's the one thing you cannot measure compared to physical power (like dream's insane pvp skills) or resources (dream's ability to build the prison with sam, or dream and the emerald duo being able to blow up nlm). l'manberg literally sets the precedent of the dsmp being controlled by! arbitrary means!

it works in good and bad ways, because i mean like. defying the status quo of power is one thing, but how is a completely other thing. how every l'manbergian viewed l'manberg isn't the same with each other, especially wilbur. besides all the principles he designates to the idea of l'manberg, we can't ignore that he literally brings up geopolitical constructs into the dsmp like discussions of economy (salmon being their main produce) or police (his answer of what they'll do abt pet deaths). but of course meaning-making isn't bad, because, i mean, look at the discs! at the pets everyone owns!

i joke about everyone needing to apologize to the dsmp after the minecraft movie trailer dropped because. the dsmp will forever encapsulate the meaning of minecraft better than that movie ever will. there is always a constant discussion of power - entertaining that this game, this server is winnable. the closemindedness people can have when dictating how minecraft should be played (ie. dream on the pvp side, wilbur on the narrative side) versus minecraft being something entirely up to your decision, something that is a shared space of people with varying opinions and thought processes.

yeah i'm crazy about l'manberg actually, and the precedent it set in the dsmp. what it challenges and what it's caused. what it challenged and reinforced. what a crazy nation

[chocolatemoneyrascalparty]

We do not talk about pogtopia and the pit and the explosion of l'manberg enough in this fandom!! Philza Minecraft stabbed his son after the most dramatic speech ever??? L'MANBERG GOT EXPLODED BY ITS CREATOR!! Tommy got so furious after the red festival that he straight up fought TECHNOBLADE who had killed his best friend and almost got beaten to death himself?? Wilbur let that happen?? Imagine how Wilbur and Tommy and Techno must feel seeing the sunlight for the first time after spending weeks in a ravine? How cold that ravine must be and how, no matter their attempts on making it homey, it will still be stone and cold and uncomfortable because they are literally in a cave?? How Wilbur must feel after seeing Schlatt and Quackity win the election and instantly changing the name of L'manberg, the country Wilbur fought so hard for? How he felt after getting exiled the minute after? Exiled from his country, that HE founded?? Pogtopia arc is the best arc of the entire dsmp

[bleue-flora]

What’s funny to me is that green is commonly known as a villain color, but while green can symbolize envy, jealousy, death, poison, toxicity, evil, greed, it is also often life, security, soothing, tranquility, peace, rebirth, renewal, hope, happiness, goodness and more. It is both goodness and evil, both life and death, and yet it is commonly the color of villains not heroes, who often wear red which is commonly the color of passion, emotion, anger, power, war, desire, aggression, warning, danger, hatred, courage, sacrifice, energy, romance, confidence, and dominance just to name some main ones. And isn’t that interesting that the color of villains represents peace vs the common color of the “good guy” can represent aggression and war, you’d think it’d be the other way around, and of course there are stories where that is true (Star Wars for example), but I do feel like it happens a lot that you have green as the “bad guy” color and red as the hero: Voldemort vs Harry Potter, Superman vs Lex Luther, Loki vs Thor, Maleficent vs the Prince, Spider-Man vs Green Goblin just to name a few big examples and of course Dream vs Tommy.

And I don’t know, after seeing this [post] and Wicked I was just thinking about green and thinking about how the Grinch, and the Wicked Witch really are easily labeled as evil and terrible and such because of the green, even when green can and is often symbolic of good things. And that even Dream, while not persecuted because he was green was called a snake by Wilbur and Lucifer, The Serpent, by Tommy [post about Dream & labels], creatures that are commonly associated with green. But isn’t that fitting. That these characters are good and can be good, that the propaganda is misleading.

Even further, when it comes to Dream specifically it’s interesting because Dream wanted peace when Tommy continued over and over to cause war. Their color associated with them is fitting, even if not in the way many see it, even if instead of an outward appearance of wickedness it is the reflection of goodness in them that people miss…

[sootsz]

the cwilbur moment of all time that i think about So Much is after the red festival, after tubbo was kapowed by techno, schlatt started threatening niki and That was the thing that made wilbur "i totally dont care who lives and dies today" soot reveal himself and run through the crowd to protect her and say "if youre going to kill anybody else, kill me", he offered his own life for hers and for everybody there and he was Desperate and techno came with him and blocked arrows with his shield and wilbur refused to leave until niki was running and safe and then he offered himself up Again as a distraction because he will always offer all of himself to others until theres nothing left of him oh i am unwell

[pinkelotjeart]

Seeing this post make the rounds on Twitter, AND DO I GOT THE VIDEO ESSAY FOR YOU. Shameless self promo, I’m not THAT harsh on the fandom, but I think I give a pretty good overview

[melissa-s23]

I think we should give tom simons some c!tommy analysis ad a form if rétrospective therapy

[nomsfaultau]

The Lambs Wolves Wear!Philza and Gendered Horror

This is an essay detailing my thoughts on gendered horror in my fic The Lambs Wolves Wear, wherein Philza’s children are replaced by monsters and he’s forced to maintain the mask of a family to survive. And I’d just like to put a disclaimer for tumblr “reading comprehension” dot com that I’m not a raging misogynist that believes men and women are separate species with no experience overlap, but instead observing societal expectations.

Gendered horror is about who is allowed to experience fear. The archetypical example being a final girl, as women are allowed to be emotional and scared and crying when being murdered, but men are often not afforded that. Because of societal pressure to repress their emotions, men are allowed fear but not allowed to show it. Furthermore, gendered horror is about what types of fears are narratively allowed to be done to different genders. This is blatant in topics like sexual violence, but it goes far deeper into the themes horror explored through different genders. Thus, I see merit in examining the types of horror Philza experiences in The Lambs Wolves Wear through a gendered lens, particularly as it pertains to his role as a father. This essay is going to be centered on the traditional Western paradigm of fathers as bread winners/protectors and mothers as nurturers/homekeepers, and how that pertains to gendered horror.

At the start of the story, Philza does not fall cleanly into the false societal dichotomy of father/mother roles. He can’t, given his status as a single parent, forced to provide both physically and emotionally, and excelling at both. Thus, he is in a position to explore horror from both the roles of father and mother within their societal archetypes.

Philza’s story is about the horror of failing to be a father.

Imbedded within the very premise of The Lambs Wolves Wear is Philza’s failure as a father to protect his family from external threats. He has already lost. He could not prevent his children from being taken, either through violence or threat thereof. Finding himself within the archetype of a vengeance hero with a classic slaughtered family, Philza naturally seeks violent retribution as is expected of him. However, it is not something he can deliver. Every second is a constant pounding reminder that he’s both too weak to protect his family and too weak to avenge them. Even worse, as time goes on he finds it increasingly difficult to even want to fulfill this expected violence in a deep betrayal of his missive to protect. Not only is he physically weak, but morally so as well. It’s an incredibly emasculating experience for him.

Second, as the damage the monsters inflict mounts, Philza loses the ability to provide sustenance to his family due to the razed cropland and slaughtered livestock. He is cut off from his work and left without a way to fulfill his family’s needs. This represents a second failure in protecting his family, albeit from a non physical threat. This aspect of fatherhood he weaponizes against the monsters, admitting his insecurities to manipulate them. It is the only grief that Philza is actually allowed to express, becoming an outlet for some of his fear. But not much, because men are expected to be unwavering and shoulder the responsibility without appearing weak. As a father he is not meant to be scared. But Philza spends the entire story so deeply, harrowingly afraid. This is the only place he succeeds as a father, in suppressing his emotions so others don’t know how badly he’s doing.

Still, Philza ultimately fails his duties as a father, unable to provide safety, physical needs, or vengeance.

Philza’s story is about the horror of being a mother.

First, establishing he fills an archetypal female role. While Philza outwardly suppresses emotional displays of fear as is expected from him, as the reader we’re privy to his harrowing terror and imposing sense of helplessness, which means from a narrative standpoint he’s still failing to hide his emotions. This emotional vulnerability is more permitted with women. Next put a check mark next to physical weakness compared to giant hellbeasts and undead armies. While male weakness compared to a foe is often explored given the aforementioned duties of protection, as a man Philza is still expected to try to fight back. He doesn’t. This emphasizes his powerlessness. And lastly, he is expected to preform massive amounts of emotional labor and other duties associated with motherhood. So, he is well positioned to explore certain (societal) aspects of female horror (though obviously not all).

The sole thing Philza can provide is emotional comfort, which falls within the traditional motherly role of nurturer. It becomes his only use, stripped of independence from the loss of his livelihood and the strict expectation that he will be a good parent (or else). He is put on a pedestal, expected to have no flaws, to never get angry or frustrated or overwhelmed, to have desires or ambitions outside of a motherly role. The wants of his “children” always comes first, even when it’s destroying him by violating what he needs. His only use is as a mother, and so he must be a perfect one or die. This aligns heavily with classic females roles in fiction (Being thus: Mother, damsel, whore, witch). Mothers in fiction are typically defined exclusively by what they provide for their far more important children, or what they fail to provide through their death. They are not people outside of their defined role. Philza is allowed no identity outside of nurturer.

Where once Philza had a role as a breadwinner, he is quickly stripped of that work, his domain becoming the household. He cannot leave, because why would he need to? That would get in the way of always being present and emotionally available to help his “children”. This cuts Philza off both from his community and from independence, as he is now reliant on the “children” to bring in food and water. Furthermore, the “children” are questionable providers yet Philza doesn’t have any other means of securing resources. This reflects the financial dependence that many women have been trapped in due to societal constraints limiting/forbidding jobs, bank accounts, being single/familyless. With no other option of survival, Philza has to pretend to be in love or be destitute (or murdered). The domestic abuse he experiences is endured because he is utterly dependent on the “people” abusing him, much like many, many, many women. And even should he escape, Philza was a subsistence farmer dependent upon his land, now the territory of the “children”. Razed as it is, it’s still the only means of survival he knew before he was forced to become a stay at home dad. So he stays. Home is a prison, but it is the only way he can survive.

Philza is forced to be responsible for the emotional state of others at the cost of his own mental health, and is expected to be perfect and exclusively dedicated to nurturing. He is controlled through dependence, isolation, the thin veneer of a family unit, and physical intimidation/abuse, which are themes deeply related to the horror of motherhood.

Closing thoughts:

In general media, there is a trend I’ve noticed in one gender adopting the role of another, specifically not in a trans context. A woman adopting a man’s role is empowerment. This is the marvel action girl heroes, the girlbosses, the ‘I learned to fight from my brothers’. But a man adopting a woman’s role is horror. It is the fear of the oppressor that they could be oppressed. Male horror is becoming dependent, the assumption dependence is inherently horrific because it can be abused so readily. And so in male horror, being a final girl is not just the horror of the experience, but of physical and EMOTIONAL weakness. Becoming a final girl -becoming a girl- is an unimaginable horror. If and only if you define womanhood as weak, crying, fragile, dependent, and identity-less outside their singular archetypal role.

The Lambs the Wolves Wear concerns itself with exploring those power inversions, a parent being abused by children, a father discovering the horror of motherhood. And. Well obviously I’m trans, so the message isn’t preventing said gender role transitions (well perhaps dismantling the roles into something healthy each individual decides but! Not the essay for that!). Similarly, children become caretakers for their elderly parents, or become parents themselves. It is a hierarchy that already naturally subverts itself. The horror is not from change, it is from power and lack thereof.

Crucially, as Philza desperately reaches for the vengeance hero archetype, we will likewise explore the horror of trying to maintain the man>woman and parent>child power hierarchy/expectations. The question becomes not forbidding these dynamic shifts, but how to facilitate them. How to REMOVE the horror, remove the abuse of said power dynamics both in their status quo and in their subversions.

So yeah. the gendered horror of Philza Minecraft, everyone.

[bluesky42]

MINECRAFT SMP FANS!!! I am calling on you!

I’m working on a video essay about Minecraft SMP’s and there effects on people and am looking for more insight. I’ve made a google form for this and would be incredibly pleased if people would fill it out.

It would also be super helpful if this could be spread to non-Minecraft communities as well. I would like a bigger sample size then just people who know they like Minecraft.

Here it is! Thank you so much for your help.

EDIT: So it’s not letting me see who wrote what answer, so just know that if you write a written answer that will be shared anonymously.

[voidwizardwholikestheshadows]

please please talk about pogtopia era c!discduo I would love to know what you think about their dynamic and why c!dream had this sudden shift and started being really cruel to c!tommy in exile or maybe you think he didn't shift. I just am collecting as many opinions for this as possible

Sorry for getting to this so late but let’s crack in lol.

Let’s start with this, I Definitely think that c!Dream’s behavior changed when it relates to Exile. Something I feel like a decent amount of people don’t note is that Dream and Tommy used to be pretty close friends. Plus he even left a letter explaining his motivations and such to Tommy during Pogtopia. Even left Tommy his weapon.

“I have trusted you with my most prized weapon which was used to kill you by Schlatt on the day before the election. Only fitting that it be used on him in retaliation.” This is part of Dream’s letter to Tommy. Here is another part where he recognizes that people saw himself as the villain and he wished to stay out of it.

“Last time I tried to take a stand on behalf of the Dream SMP, I was touted as the villain. This time, I can not involve myself. Schlatt is technically a democratically elected president and I can’t overthrow him. If you need my help, I am here but it must be from the shadows. I can’t be caught breaking the peace treaty even if the people I made it with are no longer involved.” This is definitely not the Dream we see after getting the Revive Book and cutting off everyone he cared about. This is not the Dream who has his guard up constantly. He has shown that he truly does want to stay out of it.

Now, the reason is that Dream wanted L'Manberg back was simply because of Schlatt threatening what power he held over the rest of the SMP.

I think Wilbur points this out another interesting piece pretty well. “Dream only gave you that gear, so that you could cause this conflict. You see?! That’s what this is all about! Dream- Dream doesn’t want us to win. Dream just wants both Pogtopia and Manburg to be weak! That’s it!” While I do agree that Dream wanted both Pogtopia and Manburg to be weak, I do believe that he would have preferred L’Manberg. He even states it in his letter that L’Manberg is not weapons or armor but just a group of people.

“Schlatt is ambitious and that’s a bad thing. He’s- He wants power, he wants land, he wants to expand… You guys, having your own little server where you just- You frolicked around in the flowers, that’s fine by me. I don’t care.” Dream clearly does care given that he had an entire war about it but Dream wants that more than he wants Schlatt trying to take more of his land. L’Manberg simply did its own thing and while Dream wasn’t Happy about it, it wasn’t his main concern.

Now we can move on to how he shifted. He threw away a Lot for the Revive Book, that much we all know. However, Dream was griefing builds with Puffy a long time before Tommy even touched George’s house. Plus even George Didn’t want Tommy exiled. Dream pushed and pushed for it. Dream even taunted Tommy within whispers to try and push Tommy into getting more angry.

“<Dream whispers to TommyInnit: :)>

<Dream whispers to TommyInnit: :)>

TOMMY:     Dream..? He’s taunting me. He’s sending me smiley faces. He’s being all…

DREAM:    No, no, I’m- I’m not… Oh, come on now. C’mon, Tommy…

TOMMY:     What’s a nice way to put this…? Um…Uh…. He’s being a huge bitch. And it’s just making me- I’m really-“

He even flat out denies it but he is clearly trying to rile Tommy up to make some more mistakes given that Tubbo was on the right path for a simple negotiation.

Tommy fucking loses it during this time which brings up to the Spirit debacle which then leads to Dream’s famous Spirit Speech. I won’t say that Tommy didn’t do anything wrong because he did. They were so close to a negotiation but Tommy really did just go a bit too far. However, Dream talks about how his only attachments left are Tommy’s Discs.

“DREAM:     I have an attachment to your discs.

TOMMY:     Why would you care- Why would you- Why would you-?! They are my discs! Why would you- Why do you even care about the-

DREAM:     No, nononono. Tommy, Tommy. They are my discs. I’ll get them, I will keep them, I’ll put them in my ender chest and I will keep them for the rest of the server.”

Which leads to Exile, blah blah blah. I’ll go on a rant about Exile later.

I won’t say that Dream isn’t an emotional person. In fact I think he Is a Very emotional character. However, I do think exile was a long thought at plan that was slowly put into action. It’s not just because Tommy was chaotic. All the things that Dream pinned on Tommy was things other people in the server has done. Plus we all know that Tommy is more of a follower than a leader. It’s quite obvious with Wilbur. But I think that once Dream got his hands on the Revive Book, something in him changed. I’m not entirely sure on that something since we don’t know his prospective. I think I’m going to end it here but let me know if you want to hear more or my thoughts on Exile.

[rouge-fauna]

Some people think that your take on c!Tommy having aspd is dehumanizing and/or stigmatizing aspd because you don't like c!Tommy and therefore are biased and this take is based on hating him or seeing him as pure evil or something. How do you comment on that?

[essay on c!Tommy having ASPD]

Well my initial thought, is - say it to my face or don't say it at all ;P... like I feel like I try to create a safe space to have discussions, like if you disagree with me that's fine, let's talk about it. I'd love to understand why. I wanna know your reasons, I wanna see your evidence, and maybe neither of us change our opinions but maybe we gained some insight or at least understand where the other is coming from more by the end.

Besides that... First I would like to say, I never claimed to be unbiased. In fact I've written multiple essays on the topic of bias and how we all have inherent bias in the dsmp and why that might be. I've even talked about how I am biased and the reasons why that might be. As well as how our inherent bias makes it sometimes hard to have good analysis or discussion.

Secondly, while I do dislike c!Tommy in the same way I also dislike c!Quackity and c!Wilbur, I don't think I have ever reduced them to pure evil or dehumanized them or at least I have not intended to do so. They are very complicated characters, who are people and I hope that while I have talked about them not having empathy, I haven't reduced them to just evil. Especially in regards to Tommy, who I have somehow talked a lot about, I feel like I have covered a lot of other facets of him then just noting him as a sociopath or having ASPD (Antisocial Personality Disorder). In addition, for Tommy I have used sociopathy to note how his behavior isn't inherently malicious. I don't think he is trying to just go out and hurt people, but instead I think he does things without the consideration for other people because he lacks empathy. (Besides c!Quackity's confessed sadism) I don't think there are really any characters in the dsmp out to just hurt people on purpose, for the sake of hurting them. I think instead, some characters seem to do things for their own benefit and themselves without any thoughts for other people and any remorse for the hurt they cause. This does not make them any less of a person, but also certainly isn't going to pull any sympathy from me if they themselves don't have any...

Anyways, now about ASPD, I may be far from an expert and certainly don't personally struggle with it. However, I did have conversations about it with three different therapists including my grandfather who worked with people who needed someone bilingual, my sister in law who works a lot with couples and people recovering from substance abuse, and my own well accomplished therapist. Also, in addition to doing my own research looking at reputable sources, my best friend has a younger brother with ASPD. So, I have tried to be knowledgable as I can before talking about it, though it is also a highly complicated diagnosis process that is not agreed upon across the board of psychologists, with many having varying opinions on the matter. Not only with there not being a lot of treatment options, but also a struggle of how to diagnose someone as not having empathy if you are not in their head.

ASPD is very complicated, something I think I have tried to highlight. So much so, that from what I have gathered more recently, it has been confused with other diagnosis such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Something I actually talked about in my essays about why I think c!dream is autistic [post]. Because for a long time when I was younger, I thought I was a sociopath, but as it turns out I do have empathy it just looks a little different than neurotypical's. And I almost wonder, even though it's not my place or area of knowledge to even say so, if these people coming forward talking about how ASPD and sociopathy can be so dehumanized or stigmatized, if they perhaps might actually have a different diagnosis, because the way I understand it they generally shouldn't care about what other people think of them anyways. And since I came across somebody recently bringing up a diagnosis that isn't even a thing recognized by psychologist [post], I am beginning to wonder how warped the Internet is making our perception of mental illness and diagnosis...

Finally, I would like to also just add, that ASPD is a personality disorder, which as far as I understand it, means it is describing patterns of an individual's thinking and specifically behavior. Therefore it doesn't seem unreasonable or stigmatizing to me to take a character, not a real life person, and the actions that happened in canon and classify them as falling into the pattern of sociopathy/psychopathy/ASPD. Not to say the character then represents ASPD or is what it always looks like, but just that it fits them and helps explain why they did what they did...

[ashbeanss]

I’d never heard of precious jewel armor before reading your post talking about c!wilbur songs and now I’m listening to these songs and doing a thousand yard stare into the distance coping with all these emotions, GREAT artist thank you for the inadvertent recommendation!

ofc man! there are a few other dsmp musicians that i always think about: (this will be long check under the cut)

amanda fagan made some of the very first songs for a few characters, most notably her ‘take you down’ for quackity, ‘bittersweet’ for jack manifold, and ‘promises you couldn’t keep’ for niki. i will be very blunt, i do not like how she writes wilbur, and i would not recommend her wilbur songs, but ‘take you down’ is still the best written quackity song out there, and ‘bittersweet’ is incredible. do check out her work.

kanaya is a name most people have heard before but i need you all to listen to a song that is not marionettes or violence because guys. guys my god. yeah ‘i’ll let it burn’ is alright whatever have you heard ‘november 16th’? have you heard ‘us against the world’? please. i love her work. she did a collab with precious jewel amor where she wrote tommy’s song and precious wrote tubbo’s, they’re both great. ‘little hero’ is gorgeous. if i don’t think about ‘no reprise’ it can’t hurt me.

kroh made the ranboo song of all time and i will forever be greatful for that. go listen to ‘typical me’, amazing song, ‘hush’ is cool too. oh yeah kroh also made ‘mr bones’. i guess. but who gives a shit about ‘mr bones’ when ‘typical me’ is so good, you have to believe me. ‘home’ is also really good and way more underrated than ‘typical me’ so you should listen to it as well, more even.

candlebard only made two dream smp songs. and one of them is a dream song. that i haven’t listened to. but i would be fucking wrong if i didn’t tell you about ‘disappear’. oh my god ‘disappear’. i could write essays on this song. i love it so much. it is the c!wilbur song of all time, nothing will ever get him like ‘disappear’. it has everything, seasonal metaphors, an empathetic perspective on wilbur’s fall into destruction, incredible music. that’s all you need to make me happy really. this song has less than 200k views and that’s a crime. go listen to it please.

cjack, like candlebard, only made two dream smp songs, and i have only listened to one of them, but i physically couldn’t not bring up ‘phantom feelings’. it’s so important to me. no ghostbur song is like ‘phantom feelings’ i’m telling you. go listen to it, every other ghostbur song will be ruined for you forever. you will never be able to appreciate ‘blue’ by derivakat again because you will know there is better. and you have heard it.

hatorbee is a musician i’ve literally never seen anybody talk about but i needed to bring them up because they’ve made? so many songs? and to be very frank with you, are they all great? no. like musically some of these songs are not the best, but fuck damnit they should write poetry. also they get these characters more than some songs that sound amazing so. you win some you lose some. ‘one more dance’ was a core part of my dsmp phase and also the only skephalo song i’ve ever heard and the only reason i gave a shit about them. the timing is weird, the vocal performance isn’t perfect and is mixed strangely, but you can feel the passion oozing out of it. they also made the only karlnapity song with precious jewel amor and winks, and it’s kind of incredible? i might cry? also lies in the letters is very good wilbur characterisation. i’m giving it a strong stamp of approval.

bonus: ‘the mad king wilbur’ was deleted in it’s original video form recently but the topic reupload and an animatic still exist. watch one of them, the song is incredible and gorgeous. also not fansongs but cyborg blood’s crimeboys animatics make me very emotional and you should watch them specifically their ‘by your hand’ wilbur animatic.

thanks for reading my essay. have a good day. listen to los campesinos!

[same-picture-of-benson-every-day]

Follow if you want the same picture of Benson every day

[snailsnfriends]

I think ccwilbur's comment on utah being an allegory for death was said too casually for me to really believe it. but if we want to play devil's advocate and believe that it's an allegory for death, it's a failed one, because his finale goes directly against that allegory.

for starters, the whole "gotcha!" of the stream was that wilbur wasn't going to kill himself, so if utah is an allegory for death, it defeats the point of the "gotcha!" and removes the absurdity of the finale. secondly, tommy would have never let him leave if he truly and honestly believed that utah was just another way of saying "I'm going to kill myself." it was the entire reason why they even began fighting in the first place; tommy was deathly afraid of wilbur taking his own life again, and even resorted to psychical violence to intimidate him into staying, something that's very out of character for him. wilbur consoled him by promising tommy that he was actually going to utah, and that there was a possibility of him returning. other than the closure tommy received, these are the only reasons why tommy didn't throw an even bigger fit over wilbur leaving. at this point in the story, I don't believe that wilbur was capable of lying to tommy at this point; he wanted to leave everyone on good terms with less guilt than what he was already burdened with. lying to tommy would only add to this guilt. wilbur was being far too vulnerable and honest with tommy for him to lie about this giant thing. utah as an allegory for death fails here because all signs pointed to him not killing himself by the midpoint of the stream. there is no reference to this allegory in the tone, the dialogue, the cinematics, or the title of the stream. literally nothing here shows that utah was an allegory for death. his arc as a whole also cannot be an allegory for death because of how it ends; wilbur may have wanted to kill himself, but decided to take a different path, which was even established before the finale.

all in all, utah as an allegory for death fails if ccwilbur actually intended for it to be that way. there is too much genuineness and themes of hope and rebirth in his finale for the allegory to function. either ccwilbur fucked up with his execution of the finale, or he was just talking out of his ass when he called utah an allegory for death.

[bleue-flora]

It never ceases to amaze me about how many different dehumanizing labels Dream is cast in. The tyrant, the green boy, the bad guy, the wrong’un, the villain, a psycho, psychopath (which tbh are already rather kinda extreme for his supposed crimes especially at the beginning when they started). But then they go further, calling him a snake thing, pure evil, a monster [clip], a freaking ghoul [clip], even to the point of calling him Lucifer in the finale - The Biblical incarnate of evil [clip].

And what’s really interesting is the inconsistency in which Dream reacts - because on one hand he should stand up for himself, but on the other maybe he should just lean into it and maybe they’ll leave him alone. Maybe the fear and label can be his defense instead of their offense. And that gives him control over it, turns him from the victim to the victor.

In the disc confrontation, Tommy calls him pure evil and asks “how do you sleep at night”, to which he responds “just fine” [clip] {oddly, directly contradicting his comment to Techno about no sleeping btw lol…}. Later, he talks about building the prison with a “little bit of evil” but then counters Tommy’s accusation of calling him evil again with “evil is in the eye of the beholder” and “you’re evil to me” [clip].

In the finale, towards the end, Tommy talks about how he saw Dream as nothing but The villain but that isn’t true, and surprisingly Dream disagrees by saying “I am. I tortured you” [clip] {also contradicting what he says to Sam in Daedalus…}. Which is interesting. In the finale, he also makes statements like ‘we can’t because we’re soo evil’ and “we have done plenty of evil evil things” [clip] (which Punz actually counters with “not for no reason.”) But in instances when they call him a psycho and psychopath he has a different reaction saying “huh, I mean, I wouldn’t say that,” [clip] “I’m not a psycho. Everything I do is deliberate” [clip] and, in the finale, “you guys are psychos. You broke in and tried—and killed me in my own house—the prison.” [clip]

One of the keys here I think is the distinction of having reasons - he’s not evil for kicks, he has a reason and motive and logic behind it. Something, in the finale, he questions whether Tommy has, first because he broke in and killed him unfounded and then towards the end of the stream asking about why he constantly steals and griefs and stuff, “why are you trying to ruin everything all the time.” [clip] - What was your reason? Because that mattered to Dream, someone can do evil things but they have their reasons, it’s when they don’t that they are more so truly evil.

He may have done evil things, he may even be the villain, but in his mind he’s not a psycho or pure evil, or a monster because he has reasons, there is a reason he did the things he did, there is a reason he ended up here. Not that those make his deeds justified and less evil (like Sam and Quackity more so believe) but that just makes him a person, who sure does evil, but also feels, and has reasons, desires, and motivations…etc. Just like everyone else. He doesn’t even see Quackity, who confessed to being sadistic and spent months torturing him, as pure evil or even a psychopath instead saying sarcastically in Daedalus, “like Quackity ‘cause he’s full of feelings… He’s totally not a sociopath…” because that distinction between sociopath and psychopath in Dream’s mind is important. Quackity is a bad person but he isn’t the embodiment of evil, he’s just a person who did evil things.

During the first war, Wilbur calls him a little lizard snake thing, to which Dream responds “I’m powerful” [clip]. Which is strange and kinda sad to me that despite being called an actual animal(s), one more importantly often representing evil like Lucifer the snake, he doesn’t counteract it. Maybe because he’s tired of Wilbur calling him similar dehumanizing terms or tired of arguing with Wilbur in general, since everyone believes him anyways. Regardless, he instead rephrases Wilbur’s words - maybe I am a lizard or a snake but you better not step on me because I am venomous and powerful. Which aligns pretty well with his monologue [transcript] where he talks about “Do snakes just bite?” or is there a reason. Because maybe he can’t change Wilbur and Tommy’s metaphor and maybe he can’t change the label of evil despite his attempts because everyone believes them instead, but maybe he can try and use their own words to defend himself. Maybe then they’ll see him as an actual person. {or not…}