#dreams are weird and funky like do you blame writers for doing these things?

[queriesntheories]

i love you dream realisations, i love you shared dreams, i love you dream fights, i love you dreams that physically affect the dreamer, i love you dream people based on memories of lost loved ones <3

a trope being a trope isn't bad, it's how you use it to tell a story that defines it

[quipxotic]

A couple of thoughts about c3e78; spoilers below, obviously:

First of all, I loved it so much! Story is always the thing that hooks me, which is why, even though I like fights in D&D, it's RP that lights me up. 4 hours of professional actors leaning heavily into the angst? Yes please! Sign me up. (As an aside, this is also part of the reason I love Candela so much.)

So many people have said it, but I missed Orym. It'll be fine, Liam will slay us all when he comes back and in the meanwhile it's free space for fan fiction writers to dream up conversations as much as they want. Still, I wish he'd been able to be there.

I've always wondered why I identified so hard with Ashton because on the surface we are nothing alike. But this episode? It made it all clear. The low self-esteem, the intense love and care for other people without the ability to express it in a way that anyone could understand, the awkwardness, the being misunderstood by the people you love most and not even fighting it because of course it's what you deserve, the burning all-encompassing desire for a family who loves you coupled with the knowledge that you may never get it, the suicidal ideation - it's not an exact mirror of a younger version of me, but it's close enough. And it's so cathartic to see it outside of yourself in a fictional space.

And that is part of why some of the fandom's reactions to Ashton are so painful. Look, I don't care if people don't like Ashton - they're a complicated character and people can like or dislike whoever they want. I don't have a problem with characters I like experiencing the consequences of their actions, because that makes for interesting storytelling. I don't have a problem with the reactions of the characters in-world to Ashton's choices. I don't think they're all healthy reactions, but I also don't think they were meant to be. What I do have an issue with is folks being so gleeful about another person's pain, particularly given Ashton's background and mental health issues. And yes, Ashton is a fictional character, but so many of us in the fandom also share those feeling and qualities, if not the same choices, in our real, actual lives. It feels like people punching down, rather than punching up, if that makes sense.

I rarely cry at anything Critical Role, the notable exception being EXU: Calamity which makes me bawl no matter how many times I watch it. But that scene with Laudna giving Ashton the doll completely blindsided me. It was so well done.

So many juicy narrative choices in this episode, I can't wait to see how they cause ripples (or tidal waves) through the rest of the campaign. Laudna's conversations with Delilah. Imogen confessing to FCG (but no one else) that she and Fearne had seen Delilah manifest. Chet comforting people and challenging them in a mix of endearing uncle and manipulating asshole energy. Fearne's anger, at herself as well as Ashton, and her praying at the Raven Queen's temple. Gwen breaking windows! Ashton and Percy's talk. Just so many good moments.

Getting to visit Nana Morri again feels like a present just for me. I love her weirdness and her funky house, it's all just the right kind of creepy to delight me. And the fact Allura is there with Bell's Hells is a bonus.

I'm also thrilled because I think Ashton taking the shard, it rejecting them, and the aftermath has defused one of the potential time bombs that Taliesin's been hinting at for months, mainly Ashton trying to take down the gods as a means of finding someone to blame. I am not particularly attached to any of the gods of Exandria, but that wasn't a plotline that interested me at all.

I'm sure I'll have more useful, detailed thoughts later, but for now I am just so pleased.

[exhaling-dust]

dealing with some weird funky thoughts about destiny before beyond light and after beyond light.

disclaimer: these are my thoughts only and i don't want anyone else adding unnecessary hate. if you seek to do that, go bother on someone else's post, not mine. thanks.

like, everytime i have to go out for some research on cutscenes and so, i get hit with the unexplainable feeling of "this was better" and "i could not get tired of it". maybe i am blending my personal feelings on it too, as always happens, but nowadays i feel... tired. disappointed, perhaps. no experience of this game nowadays is as hitting as it was - meaning, i can fondly remember the tidbits of running adventures through io and titan and how fun it was to fight against xol, even if i didn't know who this big worm was, or mercury (my favorite destination) and its infinite forest who, to this day, i deeply miss getting on it during festival of the lost. the first time i landed on the edz............. my first event on mars and how someone reached out to me and asked if they wanted me to teach me how to play it. so many little things..... crashing against what i feel like it's nothing now. no memory feels dear to me, save for lightfall's campaign - yet even lightfall has its problems. even there i find myself troubled, because lightfall is so often the center of discussions i am often avoiding and yet it reaches me.

and, well, since i'm here complaining about it....

i feel like my thing with destiny turned out to be a massive roll of ups and downs, but mostly downs. i can blame it on the fandom and its unrelenting discourse and the times it becomes an insufferable polarity between Those Who Complain (criticizing so badly it's becoming lowkey toxic to stand near as nothing productive ever comes out of it) and Those Who Love It So Dearly That Cannot Allow Criticism (loving it enough you'll punish anyone with fair points). i can speak on the writing and how it's not the same, but it's fine to not be the same, just... not what it is now; how plot points are based on vague and unreasonable arguments, how potentials are so easily lost because you cannot grasp (anymore) the strangeness and the uniqueness that made destiny so distinct from others, and, i'm really sorry on this one, the tropes. the blatant... misogyny, the difference of treatment between a lesbian couple versus a gay one, and flattening of character. i can, too, go on the shit behind the curtains at bungie and how it made me feel upset enough that playing it just doesn't has the same magic as before. i don't know, honestly. i don't.

see, those things are tricky. if talking about narrative, i will forever defend the writers from people exclusively saying "it's their fault" or "they aren't competent enough for their work and therefore deserve being laid off" or diminishing them in any way, but i'll still feel like criticizing the narrative itself. if talking about fandom... fandom will always be the same, whatever, i'll feel angry regardless. and bungie? aw, man...

i still wish to move on with this. there are some concepts or so i want to explore and create, but when it comes to wanting to continue for the next episodes? when i'm not having any fond memories anymore, when i'm often finding myself weirded out by its fandom, when i keep thinking that the silly little dream of working at bungie is just Not It Anymore and bad things keep going on in there, it's just hard. really hard.

honestly? i really miss what i had in the past.

[littlefoxwithbighat]

Hi! This is talking about the plot of the dream smp in a meta sense and its a bit negative. The person behind this blog wants to remind you that you can skip if it's not for you and they still love the SMP. :)

ALL DISCUSSION IS ABOUT CHARACTERS. DON'T ATTACK CCS OR I WILL STEAL YOUR KNEECAPS.

I can't lie; I'm really annoyed and worried at the way the writers are handling Tommys character at the moment, and am increasingly concerned about it messing up the plot.

I wasn't very happy with the finale. I don't think that means all is lost, I think they can pull it back but it's going to take some work. I was worried about the way that things were handled before but the green festival was actually very well handled, so my worries were mostly assuaged. But yesterday? I don't know.

The fact nobody lost a cannon death is kind of disappointing. The weight of blowing up an entire city/ (country?) brutally is somewhat lost if there is no human loss. Nobody was hurt physically and the only people this had a big mental impact on was Tommy and Tubbo, everyone else wasn't very attached to L'manburg or had gone rogue, or were detatched from the while situation. And maybe it's the fact it's happened to them before or that they still have each other or that it seems odd/ frustrating that they still care so much about this place or that it was always a losing battle and they knew it, but I dont find myself really pitying them like I probably should. And I think that comes down to character growth or lack thereof, which I'll discuss later.

Niki and Fundy have started a villain arc, or at least a violent nihilism arc, and I actually don't mind it, in fact I'm a fan but it wasnt really foreshadowed, or really just showing them cracking as much as it should have been. I would guess this has mostly been started for both of them to tie Niki into the plot and I can't blame her for wanting that. Fundys acting is very good, and I REALLY hope the writers handle this well. For Fundy, regarding the fact that his father is going to be resurrected and that Fundy is following in his footsteps... If the writers don't realise that connection and make this a big step in Fundys narrative I will scream. Also Funboo bros are very interesting character foils and I hope their relationship is maintained so that they can play of off each other and also man I just really want them to keep being friends, it's a generally positive healthy relationship that makes both characters sympathetic and we need that right now. As for Niki, her character motivations seem to be mostly centered around Tommy and on the one hand I'm like ehhhh, because Tommy's character already gets a disproportionate amount of attention in terms of narrative, and I get it, but recently he's been a bit TOO much of the protagonist for a multi-person POV improve server... and I'm apprehensive. However on the other hand this has potential for a nice confrontation between Tommy and Niki. If that happens I want Tommy to be aware that this is going to happen and not talk over Niki, and I don't want it to be brushed over. I think it would be best if it was just the two of them. This also gives a nice chance for Tommy to examine his trauma with Dream and explain his motivations and Niki to get her anger out. I also want it to end positively, because it absolutely can and lack of communication when the viewer knows how to fix it is OK as a plot device sometimes but incredibly frustrating if it keeps happening (cough, Tommy and Techno).

Ranboo is reacting to the plot amazingly and I have as usual only praise for him, go, you funky enderman boy, go.

Wilbur is getting resurrected which is a thousand percent because Will wants the plot back and honestly I don't really mind, I think he'll do a good job. However I really hope he speaks to everybody about their characters, particularly Fundy, Ranboo and Niki because I don't want their characterisation and arcs to be thrown away.

Tubbo is doing very well, and I don't have many complaints to be honest. I hope he continues to get in with the acting with no shame, because he's an amazing VA when he wants to be, but sometimes he undercuts serious moments a little too much by laughing. Same criticism for Phil actually. But both are doing good.

On the theme of that, while I don't mind tension relievers or humour in serious moments there are sometimes too many. It was a lot worse about a month back and it was improving, but it seems to be creeping back in and ehhh. It's kind of Marvel-esque and not in a good way? I think it has a lot to do with bloopers and for some reason there are loads at the moment? Like Wilburs arc had almost none and this arc there's at least 2 every moment. Which isn't always their fault but maybe they need to take more steps to prevent them.

Techno is doing OK, he's quite a meta character so I'm not too mad about him undercutting serious moments but sometimes he does do it too much or in the wrong place. Like making jokes about Connor completely over the top of Tommy and Tubbos reunion, you know an event which has been foreshadowed for yoinks, prevented them from getting a proper flow going and kind of ruined it. And that made the reunion really dissapointing, which is a shame because it could have been so cool. However his characterisation is consistent and dedicated, his goals and relationships are clear and he's getting humanised more which is nice, and his monologues are great. I'm curious to see what he does now NL'M is gone but I have total faith in him.

Now Tommy. Oh Tommy. His character is such a mess at the moment, which is a shame because there were moments I saw people doubting his character choices and I was behind him.

Firstly the relationship with Techno fell apart. That was inevitable. Tommy didn't care about anarchy and Techno didn't care about the discs and both of their goals would impede the others. But the way Tommy talks about Techno is so... No? And now I understand that Tommy is going to have a biased perspective on the whole situation, and that's fine and good, but his character is so wrong about Techno it feels weird and painful? Like even from his perspective it went down differently to how he talks about it. They don't listen to each other and it's like watching two people scream at a wall.

The issue is the relationship was fairly well developed. I struggle to see Tommy saying he saw Techno as a friend but Techno never saw him as a friend because hold on, what? Techno, here's a respiration helmet because of that one of thing you told me about your trauma, a disc because those make you happy, plus top tier armour and weaponry, plus I'm going to spend time with you, calm you down from panic attacks, hide you and protect you from Dream, let you wander around L'manburg and achieve your own goals and help you plan things out Techno and Tommy didn't get ANYTHING from that? Plus after Techno opens up about his goals and his trauma, do the one thing that would hurt him the most, (use and then betray him) and then directly oppose his goals after he helped me? Ugh. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I know he would never let Tubbo get hurt and thats fine, but there were ways around that. If you're framing this character as the protagonist, then he needs to be sympathetic or at least grow and Tommy using Techno again without remorse and then refusing to listen to his perspective or show any gratitude for anything makes it difficult for viewers to empathise with him in my opinion. Have him betray Techno and then listen to Techno when he explains why Tommys betrayal hurt him and apologise, fine. Have him listen to Techno and try and find a way to keep Tubbo safe regardless, fine. Have him betray Techno but apologetically and still trying to avoid Techo getting crushed or killed, fine. But THIS? Im sympathetic towards Tommys character but this throws away so much potential character development for Tommy, where at least he saw Techno as a person, and not only that but a nice person who despite everything has set aside everything to help him? And then for him to be exactly where he was at the end of season 1, both literally, and emotionally ? I understand this is a child soldier with trauma but this is supposed to be our protagonist and if he doesn't grow, and isn't sympathetic and destroys someone we care about, how can we root for him?

Now all of this could be forgivable, not great, but forgivable, if Tommy had moved on from the discs. The Goddamn Discs™. And the worse part is all the dominoes were lined up to suggest he had! We had his moment of "he watched me" where he realised Dream was the villain and controlling him, "I've become worse than everyone I hated" good, amazing, I see where this is going, "The discs were worth more than you ever were!" and then he retracts and apologises and you think horray! Tommy has realised the discs were being used to control him and if he doesn't care about them, they hold no value! Now he's going to realise that his friends are more important and he's going to stop going after the discs. His new character motivation can be killing Dream and protecting his friends, especially Tubbo. It's clearly angled this way, and this way the plot progresses and Tommy with it. What marvellous character development. Look at him go.

And THEN, after everything that's happened he says the most important thing is the disc and I want them back!?!? EH !!? Why... Who... Who gave the OK on that writing decision? That's so static and boring and unsympathetic! And then he's back to asking people do fight for L'manburg? What?

I'll be honest I was kind go hoping either Tommy or Tubbo would die with L'manburg. I didn't mind it they didn't, there are a thousand ways to make the plot work without them dying, but this was not a great one.

PLEASE let Tommy have some growth. Yes he's had some from not caring about L'manburg to fighting for it in season one, but that was ages ago and he doesnt seem to have changed since then in any way that really counts. And I know this is harsh and he's traumatised but you have to understand I am talking about this in a sense of characters and narrative and NOT in terms of real life. Tommy needs to be better and dynamic because he is a charcacter and I want him to be a good one.

Having said all that, here are my thoughts on the future of the SMP.

Firstly, I am worried that becuse it is such a good source of content, especially for Tommy that they will never ever kill his character and leave him fighting with Dream for eternity. And I love the Dream SMP but I've seen stories that get dragged out for plot or content, and however much you think you want it to never end, let me tell you, yes you do. It will get stale and repetitive and I want the dream smp, or at least Tommys arc to go out with a beautiful and brilliant and fabulous plot ending instead of being dragged into the dirt. And then maybe new characters take the spotlight. Just please god give it a goode ending.

I also really hope they don't throw other things away to make Tommy the centre of attention, especially if it's destructive to the plot, or kind of weird and obnoxious.

Secondly, I am intrigued about the prison and Schlatts book to Dream and Technos favour and the egg and what that entails and I hope they really think through those plot points carefully and make them work, and don't forget them or throw them away.

Thirdly, I am intrigued for Wilburs return and hope that he manages to fix it cohesively without too crazy a change of pace and style and keeping characters (especially Ranboo and Fundy and Niki) consistent.

I hope they prep for the future and think things thought and communicate with each other.

It might be interesting to see other countries finally discussed but I don't know how much that would intefere with other plot points so we'll see.

That's all! Reminder that this is about characters and plot and this is just a few criticisms. I love the dream smp, but there are somethings I wanted to get of my chest. Please be respectful and feel free to discuss in the notes. Also, again, no hate to any CCs!