#dsmp analysis?

[bleue-flora]

Do you have any analysis on c!techno I have always struggled understanding him

Not sure if this counts as a take or analysis, but here are some Techno and Dream thoughts I’m having this morning after watching old streams the other night. (In general, just as an aside, I don’t often do just blatant character analysis without a jumping off point or angle so giving me something specific about Techno you are curious about is often easier for me to answer :) … ya know, too many thoughts, gotta narrow things down lol <3)

What’s interesting between Techno and Dream is that while both are against oppression and abuse of power, and strive for a society of harmony, Techno is for absolute freedom versus Dream who wants people to be free to do what they want as long as they are being reasonable and respectful to others. What’s interesting too is I think part of what Dream strives to do especially more so in the beginning is counter any power imbalance, but he ironically does so by projecting an authoritative position therefore being part of the power dynamic. (Hopefully, that makes sense…) I believe Tubbo and Sapnap are ones to point this out, that Dream’s means to remove the tyrant end up with him more so resembling a tyrant. Perhaps this is why he made a king in the first place to shift the heat off of himself but note the king is never given all power sort of preventing him from becoming a tyrant…

Additionally, it is worth noting that Dream is not anti-government like Techno is even if he is anti-tyrant and abuse of power, he even suggests an election back in the early days before they even made a courthouse to settle the disputes [clip]. LIkely some of the reasons he is anti-L’manberg is that they 1) built a their nation on the foundation of pissing off the green boy and 2) their separation as well as the the power they gave Wilbur to enact rules for everyone to follow no questions asked. Had Wilbur wanted to run an election for the whole server then Dream might not have liked it but there wouldn’t have been as much of a problem, unlike the country barring people from entering due to their race. In fact, with Wilbur’s policy of no armor, Dream would have probably been more or less fine with him being the president (if it was more like Eret was as king) because his power is only that which they give him, the moment he starts to abuse his power it can easily be revoked by the people whether via a coop like with Schlatt or just abdication like Eret.

Techno on the other hand is for anarchy and a world without government, where people have freedom to govern themselves. What I think he perhaps realizes after the war of Pogtopia though is that that freedom should perhaps extend to people’s right to form a government. Something he doesn’t agree with, but again he is for people’s right to do as they please even if that is to do something he disagrees with. I think that’s perhaps why he lets Las Nevadas and Snowchester form even though they are nations and he vowed to dismantled any government. But wanting everyone to have freedom for themselves even if it’s to form a government, does not extend to governments taking away people’s freedom like L’manberg did to him by not allowing his retirement.

Though I think when it comes to Doomsday a lot of that was also self protection. I think Dream knew about the plot they had to kill him at the green festival and there’s the attempt they made to kill Techno, so the pair had to take down L’manberg as self defense otherwise what’s to stop the country from continuing to come after them. Though both things can be true, I think going after L’manberg was both self defense as well as destroying something people continued to use as an abuse of power against their citizens as well as others…

[kozzax]

It had to be Jack. Putting aside that the epilogue stemmed from a joke, it had to be Jack. It couldn't have been anyone else, not if we were going to get this much weight out of it.

Yeah, anyone asking Tommy if he was happy would've gotten the same 'getting there' response, but coming from Jack, specifically, makes it feel so much more heavy. There's a finality and a strength and a sheer power to it. Asking if Tommy's happy means so much more when it's coming from Jack.

Jack, who was once such close friends with Tommy, such close allies.

Jack, who hated Tommy and blamed him for so much and tried to kill him.

Jack, who is the only other person still alive on the server to have seen purgatory?

Nobody else on the server has this same dynamic, has this same complex and nuanced relationship that's built on so many layers of love and hate and friendship and enemyhood and understanding. Only Jack can truly and fully understand how much everything messed Tommy up, and how much Tommy misses it anyways, because he's the only other one left who's lost all three canon lives.

It had to be Jack, because anyone else asking how Tommy is would come across as either teasing or normal behavior or pity. But with Jack, it's a profound question. With Jack, it's not 'are you happy?' as a common statement, it's 'are you happy?' with years of baggage on both sides and an underlying current of was it worth coming back.

And it couldn't have ever been from Tommy's point of view. If it was from Tommy's point of view, he'd be back in the narrative. He'd be presenting his own epilogue, and he'd be the vessel for it all again, and more than anything what he's earned is the chance to leave it behind. It couldn't have been from Tommy's point of view, because that would've taken away the softest parts of it.

"I might not see you again" "that's okay. i can deal with that knowing you're happy :)"

[phoibos-querella]

cquackity kept on incessantly picking on qquackity, belittling him and his experiences, and it's important to remember that qquackity looks almost exactly like how cquackity looked when he first joined the dream smp. the experiences in qsmp broke his heart and made him fragile and vulnerable. in dsmp cquackity had experiences where he was able to gain some upper hand through cut-throat and manipulative decisions. cquackity sees qquackity as a reminder of how weak and childish he was when he first joined dream smp. "so you killed yourself over an egg?" and "so you were so incapable that you didn't know how to swim?" it's almost as if he's giving qquackity the same treatment he got from people like cschlatt and cwilbur to show him that weakness doesn't work. cquackity entered this purgatory space with the opportunity to meet someone who's like his past self, qquackity, and someone who may be closer to who he would've wanted to have been, kquackity, and didn't treat his past self with any kindness or sympathy

[appleflavoredkitkats]

there's something so meta abt the dsmp's narrative theme of legacy and how, slowly but surely, a lot of the fan content that helped develop the dsmp as a piece of media is disappearing. about how many of the characters in the dsmp do not remember where they came from, at the same time posts of what helped others understand the dsmp are being deleted one by one.

[a-moth-called-mof]

You know the dsmp fandom had its several negatives but it's still one of my favourite fandom experiences of all time. It was so chaotic but it was so earnest. It felt like everything was some big fandom inside joke. It was so silly. It was poetic at times. I don't think I've ever seen a fandom with so much literary and metatextual analysis (though some have gotten close). It honestly is what got me into narrative analysis. I just love how some of us made jokes and we all ran with it. It was a mess at times but God it was so fun. DSMPblr. I will always love you.

[cupcraft]

I really think it shows the maturity and healthiness that cclingy are like together but separate. Like tubbo does his own thing but this time hes not isolate (like snowchester). Tommy does his own thing but hes not isolated (like turning tubbos prime church area house into a fortress). They see each other, theyre friends, but theyre not clinging to each other to survive so much so its a thing that can be torn apart. They're just okay. They see each otehr sometimes.

[charles-simmons]

If there's something I love is seeing how people draw c!Tommy. Especially about his age.

Some people draw him with more childlike features. He looks younger, more "helpless" in a way. You can really see it's a child soldier. Someone who is not ready in any way to be in those situations, but is there anyway with a confident face and a loud voice. It's very visible he should not be there and how wrong it all is.

But other people draw him looking a bit older, looking more like someone who's soon to become an adult. In a way he looks less innocent, even when he's still the victim. He resembles Wilbur a bit more, and he doesn't look as helpless when next to Dream. But here's the thing, he's still a child soldier. He might act like he knows what he's doing, use big words, and act all powerful. And it's not that visible how wrong it all is, but it's still there.

You'll look at him and see this seventeen-ish years old guy, and, in a first glance, it won't feel as wrong. But when you really look at him, that's when you notice how vulnerable Tommy is. Surrounded by people who are more mature, more powerful, and who hate his guts. And you'll start to notice how easily influenced he can be, which seems unlikely for someone who always expresses what he thinks. And you'll start to notice he was never as ready as he says he was. And you'll start to notice how most of the messes he got himself into had completely disproportional consequences to him.

And after all of that, you'll look at him again, and maybe he even looks a bit older, but you can still see it. The child behind the loud voice and the bright smile, holding a sword that is just his size, but will always feel a bit too big for him.

[killin-kel]

second part of my Dream SMP character design analysis because a lot of people liked that in my animatic. and now it's Tommy's turn!

(you can find first part with Wilbur's design here)

[omegamoo]

one of my favorite parts of c!niki’s arc is manburg era because she was the person living in manburg who was most outwardly rebellious. she never stopped fighting - she made it clear that she hated the schlatt administration and everything they stood for, and so she fought back. she didn’t screw around with a “will-i-won’t-i” she just did. and i think people undersell that a lot, especially in favor of the pogtopian rebellion. but c!niki refuses to pay taxes, she sets fire to the manburg flag, she refuses to cater for schlatt and co. she doesn’t stop! when cschlatt exiles ctommy and cwilbur, she’s the one shouting about it. during the festival, she’s the one who shouts while ctubbo’s getting blown up and says from the beginning how much she hates the new country.

also the festival - if you watch the vod from your pov (which you totally should!!!!!) she just sits there and looks So Pissed Off the entire time. like she doesn’t hide how pissed of she is. she’s downright furious during that entire discussion!

and i think the most crucial part of all of this is what happens to her because of this. she is consistently belittled by c!schlatt - frequently in a “omg shut up”/“would somebody shut her up” in a way that feels like how somebody talks about a bug in the house. it’s misogynistic in many ways, i think - she’s consistently invalidated and overlooked, like her rebellion doesn’t even hold weight.

and then when she finally does more - i.e. the taxes - she’s literally hunted. and she runs, and calls c!wilbur, and she is terrified. and he says “can you just hold out a bit longer? pogtopia’s kinda full right now and we can’t take more people” and she’s like, actively unsafe in manburg and has nowhere to go and can’t go home. and she is told “just hold out a bit longer”

and then. the festival. again, she’s in the audience and watches tubbo get blown up and she’s shouting about it! like screaming at him! and finally c!schlatt is like “you’ve been a thorn in my side for too long” and he has ponk kill her! and she runs and he chases her and nobody follows to help, they just tell her to run. and she’s in the call w all of them and the conversation just moves on while she silently runs and silently gets killed. and that’s when she leaves for pogtopia.

anyways. point being: c!niki and overlooked rebellion.

[ctwinsduo]

woe cwilbur be upon ye. as promised here are my designs for every cwil era/stage/what have you + my reasons behind each design. design breakdown will be under the read more :>

as a disclaimer going forward: these designs are heavily informed by my own headcanons (namely the nature spirit headcanon, which i will only briefly explain here- if you want more of a background on that here's where I first shared the hc and explained it a bit) i'll be honest idk how much of these hcs/analysis abides by canon? so if you prefer to closely abide by canon this may not be for you. having said that, let's get into this. So one question that may initially come to mind when looking over this is "Why a nature spirit?" which is a reasonable question all things considered. I've already gone over the Watsonian explanation in the past, so instead I'll cover the Doylist take- which is more interesting as it pertains to these designs. Wilbur, as I see her, is a character that has many faces- she warps and changes to embody the view of herself she sees as necessary for the situation, whether that be the revolutionary or the villain. Simultaneously he has this core that's deeply eccentric and often difficult for the characters around him to grasp- this can come in the form of benign weirdness to the struggles with mental illness we see him go through throughout his various arcs. There's this push and pull between the person they want to portray and who they are fundamentally that's always at play.

Them being a nature spirit embodies this to an extreme. As a nature spirit their physical form is informed by their self perception (the one that's warped by the role they feel they need to take) and their own mental state, both aspects of the character that are foundational.

Another question that may arise upon reading all of this is "Why not just make him a shapeshifter?" which is also a valid question. Truthfully this one is rooted heavily in my own ideas of the character, so you'll have to take that with a grain of salt. I am, unfortunately, prone to making shit up /lh With that in mind however, the reason I choose nature spirit over shapeshifter is that, the way I interpret it, it's much more... animalistic? Let me explain: the way I tend to see shapeshifters portrayed is either a. having a base form that's relatively humanoid and then multiple other forms or b. having no base form but still presenting as generally humanoid. As a nature spirit Wilbur has a natural (ba-dum-tsss) tie to well... nature, and all that lives within it.

She's this manifestation of the wilderness whose form isn't even naturally human, yet she shapes herself into something presenting as such. As a nature spirit Wilbur occupies this weird nebulous space between human and beast, never fully embodying either. I find this incredibly interesting for a character that wants to feel and to be treated as human so badly, one that also clearly resents being seen as monstrous (despite leaning into that perception of themselves)

TLDR; Wilbur's 50 contradictions in a trenchcoat (literally) and being a nature spirit gives these contradictions/masks/ect. a physical manfiestation Now that we're 500+ words of analysis in, let me breakdown each individual stage :3 /lh

Pre-SMP + L'manburg

The most "human" Wilbur ever gets here- technically these two are different designs/eras but they have similar design notes so I'm lumping them together here

During this stage of his life Wilbur has a fairly good handle on his shapeshifting and is consciously choosing to look more human

Small details like the fangs, pointed ears, claws, and pupils allude to an inhuman nature. I like to think there's something uncanny valley about them- they look human but the longer you look at them the more small discrepancies you notice

Both look relatively generic appearance wise, if you can't tell this was Wilbur's "I am a Normal Human Man era" but with slightly more gender /lh

Decided to stick Wilbur in a different outfit Pre-SMP than the actual skin most people reference, mostly because I thought it'd be fun. The trenchcoat follows her throughout her development

Lots of goofy ass patches and pins on the coat

I personally hc that Wilbur always has some sort of oversized clothes on because it's a bit like a security blanket for him, very grounding and all that- anyways that's what the trenchcoat is here

Limited notes on L'manburg era- main thing is the glasses; they got cracked in conflict and they just never bothered to fix em

Pogtopia

As a result of stress (and personal perception) Wilbur lost control over his shifting entirely

Wilbur views their nature as inherently monstrous, thus when they think of themselves as monstrous or evil they lose most of their human appearance

Much taller in this form than usual, this reflects both how she feels she's perceived and how she perceives herself (monstrous, scary, inhuman, ect. ect.)

Their height also serves to emphasis the claustrophobic nature of the ravine and especially the button room

Eye color changes from brown to red, yet again another thing which reflects his self loathing

Coat is the same one worn pre-smp, just with some adjustments

Pins & patches removed from the jacket (my friend suggested it saying that he "ripped them out because they were too happy" and I find that mental image particularly silly so it stays)

Covered in stains, partially because the ravine is just. awful. and partially because this thing is not taking care of herself even a little bit

Lenses are even more cracked than they were during the revolution

Ghostbur

This section has a lot less points then the others on account of Ghostbur being fairly self explanatory, but shhhhhh

Reverted to "base form" post death, form is extremely fluid as a ghost- she tends to shift depending on the topic of conversation or the person she's speaking with (Explain being: whenever she talks about "alivebur" she becomes more human)

Less of a note and more rambling: fox ghostbur is especially fun to me given the hatred Wilbur has for Ghostbur. Ghostbur physically reflecting the parts of Wilbur that they hate the most in themselves

For Wilbur their base form- just a normal widdle fox- represents vulnerability. It is quite literally a small, fuzzy animal with little means to defend itself and it is also the culmination of everything Wilbur is running from. Ghostbur embraces this form fully yet is seen as more palatable by the people around her than Wilbur ever was

Constantly leaking a jammy, blue substance from his eyes and the cut in his chest, yucky

Especially long sections of "fur" like their tail and the back of their neck are constantly "dripping" little wisps like rain

Post-Revival

Post-revival his shifting is still fucked up (thank the mental illness for that) but he's got a slightly better handle on it, enough to look semi-human

Eyes have reverted back to brown but their lenses are tinted red anyways (often looks red)

The coat makes a comeback, edges are all fucked up from the explosion

That funky little overcoat/cloak/ect. got yoinked by Niki

Disheveled appearance meant to reflect her rancid ass mental state- namely the hair and the facial hair. Hair is grown out because she can't be bothered to cut it (you bet that shit is full of knots)

Nasty awful smeared eyeshadow as a treat <3 (I just think he deserves to be a little cunty yk?)

Got a little tired near the end here which is why the points got a bit sloppy, maybe I'll add more at a later date who knows. If you made it this far I hope you at least enjoyed reading all of this :>

[mcytmetazine]

What's this? A new zine?! That's right! :D

Welcome to the MCYT Metazine! This project will focus on analysis across MCYTblr, with the aim of celebrating the work people have done within the fandom. There's plenty more to come, so stay tuned and give us a follow!

But for now...

OUR INTEREST CHECK IS OPEN!

(It'll be open until the 1st of February!)

[bleue-flora]

Ok, so can we talk about Punz for a second? Because like when I rewatched that stream the other day, not only did I notice that it was Punz who avenged Dream by killing Tommy and returning all of his stuff, after Sapnap and Tommy had ambushed Dream and refused to return it [details] (making him truly the mvp, who really doesn’t get enough credit). But I also noticed some other fun things.

Specially this.

And this.

Tommy punches Dream -> immediately killed by Punz [clip].

Like okay maybe we could make the point that Dream pays him to kill Tommy and reclaim all of his stuff [clip], but pretty sure Dream isn’t paying him to be so protective.

[dykecubes]

I really love the difference between dsmp schlatt and sdmp schlatt, dsmp schlatt is always depicted in fanworks as this menacing, evil figure, he's canonically an alcoholic and is only ever seen in a suit and shouting, on the other hand sdmp schlatt is so much more relaxed in comparison, he's depicted in cozy, warm clothing in fanart, his hobbies include fishing and checking his mail, he's a disgruntled old man, yes, but he's never actively malicious, while I dislike considering the dsmp as canon to any other servers former dsmp members join, I do kind of love how putting the two versions of schlatt's mc character side-by-side implies a sense of healing that his character on the dsmp didn't initially get

[phoibos-querella]

going to say smthn insane but cquackity totally had ideations before this stream even happened. when cquackity gave charlie the key to las nevadas, entrusting charlie with his legacy before leaving to see ctechno and cdream in prison, he did that because he knew the risks, but he intentionally trapped and antagonized techno, he did all this shit bc maybe the most ideal death to him WAS that he was killed by his enemies who wanted him dead. maybe he thought that way he wouldn't look miserable, desperate and lonely, maybe it's because of how he viewed cwilbur's death PULLING MY HAIR OUT

[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

[stemms]

I believe that c!Tommy’s kleptomania is one of the most fascinating and heartbreaking parts of his personality, as it adds layers to his character, and explains certain parts of the lore that some people seem to consider a simple bad habit and display of his childishness. I would like to elaborate on that further and explore the way it changed in the exile arc.

To begin with, c!Tommy has been suffering from kleptomania ever since s1, but contrary to popular belief, he had no malicious intentions. From the very beginning of the server, he was already severely traumatised to the point of having PTSD and lacked self-worth. So, understandably enough, he was craving something to make up for his self-hatred, and robbery became that thing. c!Tommy would mostly steal insignificant things because what truly mattered was the amount of things he possessed, not their value or rarity. After all, if he had a large number of objects in his possession, it meant that he was worthy, and nothing else truly mattered.

Since the very beginning of exile, despite his need to acquire items to stabilise his extreme self-hatred, c!Tommy adamantly refused to accept anything from his visitors because he couldn’t help but assume that the gifts in question were “pity items”, and being pitied was one of the things he hated the most. As his exile went on, the belief that no one cared enough to offer him a gift out of genuine care, only grew stronger due to c!Dream’s manipulation, c!Tommy’s severe loneliness, and the heartbreak of the Beach Party. However, with time, the blond has grown to trust someone other than c!Dream — c!Ranboo. Eventually, he allowed the enderman hybrid to offer him things, as long as he promised that his gifts came from the heart. As much as c!Tommy attempted to hide his true feelings, he cherished every single object received from c!Ranboo. These weren’t just objects, like the ones he’d often steal from people to feel worthy — these served as a reminder that there was something to live for, and at least, someone other than c!Dream genuinely cared about him.

Considering that c!Dream has been obsessed with c!Tommy ever since s1 (which included living in his walls and stalking him) and used his kleptomania and “destructive nature” as an argument to get him exiled from L’Manberg, he certainly was aware of the boy’s insecurity, and was looking forward to exploiting it to the fullest to break- no, shatter him :)

The daily routine of discarding his objects hurt c!Tommy far more than we could’ve imagined, because if we keep his deep self-hatred in mind, he didn’t simply find it upsetting due to being stuck in the cycle of obtaining and destroying his items — it was something more than that. Every lost item equaled a tiny shard of c!Tommy’s self-worth, and soon enough, there was almost Nothing left; he was nothing but an empty shell.

Understandably enough, with time, the teenager has grown to believe that he wasn’t worthy to possess anything valuable of his own — he was meant to earn every little thing, and his best friend tormentor couldn’t be more pleased :) :) :)