#nightmare dreambert

[arandompersontravelingtothevoid]

ok hear me out

[nuctoria]

Nightmare Cycle Chapter 5

@istadris @itsavee4117 @darknadaworld @noddynods @keakruiser @fruitytiff @billinshoes @amybizarre

I'm on a writing spree and I'll use this energy to its fullest before I get burnt out and lose motivation again.

[darknoverse]

a long Antasma analysis and why I think he's misunderstood as a villain

about time i made this one ngl. took me long enough but looking into DT more really gives me a different prespective on Antasma .

i'll be first of all going with what we know based on what the Pi'illos and pi'illoper say (cuz basic informations)

based on what the Pi'illos said:

simply the basics. he was a normal bat, ate a Pi'illo's nightmare once, turned into a monster motivated (possibly) by hunger for that . eventually laid his eyes on the dark stone. started a WAR after stealing it. lost the war and got sealing away by the Zeekeeper into the dream world. but before he did, he shattered the Dark stone. its bits petrified everyone on the island . making this a fight where nobody won.

now what Pi'illoper wrote in his books:

basically Pi'illoper sliiiightly gave more details but , still more into the pi'illos pov .

so not much is added aside from calling Antasma a mage king of bats and adding this slight assumption that it's possible that Antasma ,possibly, isn't actually ORIGINALLY from pi'illo insland

(but again the pi'illoper isn't a reliable source much in that matter but yk had to add it .)

So regardless , in both takes , Antasma is hungry for both power and dreams .

now aside from these facts, i'll go right into the interactions with the rest of the characters (and why i think people maaaaaaybe looking into his motives and all a bit from a wrong direction)

first of all his interactions with the Mario Bros:

now not ONCE did Antasma bat an eye on the bros specifically. he was always interacting only with bowser and DREAMBERT. he's ALWAYS adressing dreambert.

the only time he adressed the bros was as "these creatures" . he doesn't care about them at all, he doesn't see them much as a threat seemingly, or even as equals. he's merely focused on Dreambert and Dreambert ALONE .

so, he's so arrogant and full of himself . he thinks they are NOT on his level .

now, with Dreambert:

it's obvious how much rivalry and bitterness he holds against Dreambert yk? he only adresses HIM he only has a grudge against HIM (for now . before Bowser's betrayal). but even so he still has that bit of arogance and pride regardless

especially when he gets apparently stronger by the end of the game . he's deadpan like "if you even DARE i will hand you pillow butt back at you " . (and he did lol)

nooooooow then next part is

Antasma's dynamic with bowser and why i think he did not give two dangs about him from the starts aside from his power and dream energy.

from the START of their interactions , Antasma made it so clear that he only wants Bowser on his side because:

1- he's stronger than Peach (both brawn wise and dream energy wise) also gotta stop here for a sec cuz i do wonder how it would've been like if he kept on with kidnaping Peach instead but oh well.

2- he is evil. he will cooperate better if treated right into the situation.

as the game goes on we get MORE hints that Antasma isn't much of a loyal dude himself but he DOES demands loyalty from others .

how he's OBVIOUSLY not very loyal and totally plotting something :

ok THIS part specifically, to almost everyone in the fandom, interepts it differently which is ok and very understandable!

but the way i see it is that Antasma is clearly LYING about sharing his powers. because he really went "i wish to conquer THE WORLD" but IMMIDEATLY changed that wording to "i wish i can do whatever i want actualluy! just fly around you know!"

but like, sure , do anything he wants , which still can imply yeeting Bowser aside ANYWAYS when he doesn't need him anymore , because by that time antasma is free to do whatever, correct?

ANOTHER hint to why i believe doesnt bat an eye about Bowser aside from the benefits (get it? bat an eye? cuz he's a bat king-)

is this scene specifically:

it might not sound much but it sorta is . basically right before that Bowser suggests taking that dream energy from his minions instead but Antasma is like "mmmmm no you're more evil and stronger idc"

so another trait Antasma has is that he's glutton . as HELL. both for power and Dreams .

you know what that reminds me of? Parasites. in which, parasites pick a specific host and just takes whatever benefits and gives nothing in return . because based on everything before that he's clearly using that "ah yea sure WE- of course we. you're there of course." excuse just as a big lie. he aint sharing any of that power he gets.

When the betrayal happens later on, Antasma is obviously as surprised as everyone else . Not because he's like loyal to Bowser or anything but either becausehe betrayed him FIRST or because he expects his pawn to be loyal to him anyways .(Cuz as I said before, Antasma is Arrogant and very prideful .)

The one take I see from most of the fandom is that in that moment he reconsidered NOT betraying Bowser and actually keeping the alliance which . .. would be possible but we get no hints to that really other than, what I said before, subtle hints that Antasma is simply manipulative towards the koopa king.

Sooooo lemme conclude all this long essay :

1-antasma IS evil . Very evil.

2-he's very prideful and arrogant .

3-he has this hunger for power and dream energy.

4-he sounds veeeery manipulative through all of his screentime.

5-geniunely has this parasitic behavior

6-he would take everyone down with him if he's not winning. Not because he's desperate but because he believes nobody is on the same level as himself .

7-he doesn't give a darn about the bros but still used Luigi's dreams to escape to the real world (idk might be cuz Weegee is a perfect dream host if that made sense)

8-he doesn't get much screentime but when he does there's a lot going on but I wish it was explored better .

But again this is just my pov of it!anyone can have a different take I suppose

That's all I suppose lmao until next time when I hyperfixate!

[rainbogen]

So. This guy. The purple guy on the right. I have many thoughts about him.

First off, let's do a quick recap: Luigi opened a portal to the dream world by accident (as you do). Antasma, who had been imprisoned there, used Peach standing too close to the portal to kidnap her. Mario went into the dream to save her and met Dreamy Luigi along the way, who has been a big help to him so far. They caught up to Antasma, who summoned an evil copy of Mario to fight the bros.

But this whole ordeal is strange.

Antasma hasn't interacted with Mario before this point. All he knows about Mario is he's a guy chasing after him while he keeps dragging Peach deeper and deeper into the dream world.

Why would Antasma make Dreamy Mario in the first place? And how could he make such a life-like copy of a guy he knows nothing about? One who runs, jumps, and turns invincible just like the real deal?

Remember, Antasma was sealed away in the dream world for centuries. There was no way he could have learned about Mario.

Or is there?

Think back to the beginning of the game.

Antasma attacked the group as they were taking the blimp to the island. Mario was the brave hero and fended him off, doing his signature jumping and dodging.

But take a look both of them.

Look at Antasma. This isn't the weak cloud form the bros met him as. This is Antasma in his final form at full power. Doing the same attacks as in his boss fight, playing the same music as in his boss fight.

Look at Mario. He only needs 2 Excellent jumps to defeat this powerful foe. The nightmare king was just a warm up to him. And he did it all by himself. No bros attacks, no power-ups, just his basic jumps.

As strong as Mario is, this one-sided of a victory is unreal. And for good reason. The Mario here isn't real either. This is all Luigi's dream.

Dreambert explains that all the people in the dream world are created by the person who is having the dream. Dreamy Luigi is described as being Luigi as he sees himself.

With this everthing makes sense. The Mario Antasma met wasn't Mario, but Mario as how Luigi saw him: the perfect hero who always comes out on top no matter what threat he faces.

He was formed by Luigi's many, many memories of Mario, so of course his movement and mannerisms would be the same as the real deal.

The Mario on the dream blimp defeated Antasma so soundly, he was reduced to a mere cloud. So did Antasma, when the real Mario caught up to him, create an evil Mario clone based on the dream Mario from the blimp?

Well, there's a few holes in that theory:

Specifically, these two abilities Dreamy Mario has: Making clones of himself and using Super Stars to turn himself and the clones invincible.

For the latter: Antasma had never seen Mario use Super Stars in any capacity, so how would he even have gotten the idea to have Dreamy Mario do the same? And Antasma was heavily weakened; how could he make a creature that was not just really strong, but flat out invincible?

For the former: Even though Antasma has the ability to duplicate himself, those duplicates were always in his own image. Never in the image of others.

So how does Dreamy Mario have those ablities?

Simple, Antasma didn't create him. Luigi's subconscious did.

Luigi has seen Mario use Super Stars to save the day who knows how many times. Dreamy Luigi has the ability to duplicate himself and use those duplicates in combat. Obviously in Luigi's mind, anything he can do, Mario can do too (aside from ghostbusting).

But Luigi would never picture his big bro helping a villain. So why is Dreamy Mario helping Antasma? Well, let's go ahead a bit to his boss fight.

One of Antasma's abilities is to rip out Dreamy Luigi and stick him into an Antasmunchie. If Antasma eats said Antasmunchie, he gains all of Dreamy Luigi's stat boosts until he gets spat back out.

My theory is:

After the incident on the blimp, Antasma did something similar to Dreamy Mario, using his nightmare powers to convert the dream of a hero into a mindless servant of evil.

A powerful figment of a dream is still a mere figment of a dream. And this one didn't even have the benefit of having a real person's consciousness directly linked to it.

Even if Dreamy Mario couldn't enter the real world, having such a strong fighter within the dream world would still be a huge boon.

With all this in mind, there's still one more thing I want to talk about: His defeat.

Something that with Dreamy Mario's theoretical power level shouldn't even be possible. Luigi greatly admires his big bro. He believes Mario can win any battle. And Dreamy Mario was demonstrably born from this belief.

So how did Dreamy Mario lose?

Well, if there is one thing stronger than Mario, it's Mario and Luigi. That's just basic logic.

Dreamy Luigi knew the person he was with was the real Mario and he knew this was the person he wanted to help. So he was giving his power to Mario, not Dreamy Mario.

Plus, fighting alongside the real Mario again must have altered Luigi's perception of him a bit. He remembered that Mario is not so unbelievably strong, that he can get hurt and if he gets hurt enough he can lose.

Luigi's love for his bro hasn't diminished, but his view of Mario must have subconsciously been altered to a more grounded and realistic level.

So that's why Dreamy Mario was just a beginner fight. His power had been cut off at the source before the bros even got to him.

As for why we never see Dreamy Mario again after his defeat...

Seeing someone you know die in a dream doesn't change your view of them. Especially if you know they're still alive and well. So that can't be the reason.

We've only seen Dreamy Mario in two dreams, the one before Luigi got to the island and the one where Luigi first opened up a dream portal.

In both of those instances, Luigi didn't know Mario would be entering his dreams, or that he has the ability to open up dream portals at all. After that point, Luigi always knew the real Mario would be present.

His subconscious mind must have taken this into account and not spawned another Dreamy Mario.

[fizzysartplace]

listening to mario and luigi dream team, antasma's theme specifically gave me an idea

what if he has a dream counterpart?

meet Syntasia, The Swan Princess!

more info under the cut

like how Antasma's origin starts; "As told by a Master Pi'illo in west Somnom Woods, at one point, many years ago, Antasma was a normal bat living on Pi'illo Island. However, he once fed on the nightmares of a Pi'illo, and continued to feed on nightmares afterward, slowly turning him into his current self." she was raised by the Zeekeeper. as a cygnet, she swam in dreams and slowly became her current self as she grew up protecting pi'illos and made herself ruler of the dreams despite being beautiful, she is capable of kicking antasma's batty ass like an actual swan's behavior! her eyes are almost always closed due to "her eyes aren't meant to be seen by waking mortals" and in return of her protection, Dreambert protects her unless she chooses final resort.

bonus when Syntasia and Antasma cross paths

[kirbycabbit]

A Klonoa in Mario and Luigi Dream Team kinda AU.

Kinda tried replicating the Mario and Luigi Dream Team artstyle for this one lol-

For some totally not half-assed lore, out of the blue as the Mario Brothers explore the Dream World, they run into a confused cabbit. The Cabbit calls themself Klonoa, he does not know how he got here. When Dreambert checks on the cabbit they realize he is not from either the Dream World or the Real world. After some discussion they agree to let Klonoa tag along when he mentions that he's stopped nightmares in his previous adventures.

Bro literally wakes up inside a Dream World within a Dream World. They don't call Klonoa the Dream Traveller for nothing-

[fruitytiff]

THEORY: WHAT IF THE ANTASMA WE SEE ISN'T THE "WHOLE" THING

Ok ok, lemme explain what I meant. A few weeks ago, me and @noddynods made a joke about how Dreambert was secretly fanboying over Antasma because his the only person to actually title him king, like in the games, Antasma never referred himself to king. He did say he wanted to be king, but wanting to and already being one is completely different. Now recently, my Exam-illed mind wandered back to that random ass convo because I was so sick of studying and actually began to dwell on that. What if...the Antasma we see in the game...is only half of what he actually is. Lemme explain some more, Antasma, as portrayed in the game, isn't exactly a bright cookie (Dawg got betrayed by BOWSER of all people). He isn't stupid either but his farrr from intelligent, in fact his very emotional in all sense, he often screeches loudly whenever he gets angry, happy, or sad???? And just generally expresses his feelings openly a lot. Now what do I meant by this? I meant that this verison of Antasma...might be his right brain. I theorize that the Antasma we see isn't actually who he really is, its only half of him. Ok now this is a little bit headcannon-y but hey, what the fuck, lets go. I need a explanation, a theory, so here we go.

You know how in the Dream World, theres Dream's Deep. Like a really deep pit of where the..un...deepest consciousness resides, like thoughts or some shit. I dunno, that's what I think anyways. We also do see that there's a Nightmare World, now, we don't know if the Nightmare World is a completely different realm then the Dream World or just a extension of itself, but assuming that the Nightmare World is a different realm that only produces nightmares, we can assume that the Nightmare World also has it's own Dreams Deep. Now we don't know what Nightmare World's own version of Dream's Deep is called, or even if it exists at all depending if the Nightmare World is a extension of the Dream World and not it's own thing. But if it is. I would like to guess that Antasma's other half, his Left Brain was trapped in there. His intelligence, his cold cunning calculated side was locked away in a even more deadly and dark prison. Which makes sense, high intelligence has the risk to yield incredibly dangerous people. Especially when given to one without any moral standards. Now why did I specify Antasma's Right Brain being more emotional and creative while his Left is more intelligent and cold? Because science lmao, it had been recorded that people who are more in the creative fields has a more responsive right hemisphere compared to the people in the analytical fields. Now obviously this has been debunked as it shows creative people also using the left hemisphere of our brain to do creative stuff, but our right hemisphere still "drives the wheel."

So I'm not exactly being completely scientifically right right, but its a generalization of how the human brain works. And why I think this is applicable to Antasma. I mean, just look at the current in game Antasma, he does prove to have skills in planning even though I had said that his not as smart cuz his the right brain and all. So it doesn't disprove my theory. Now...lets think, assuming that the Nightmare World is it's own realm. what would it's own version of Dream's Deep be? I think....It's a completely opposite to the Dream's Deep in the Dream World.

A World of WHITE

This image of 7-1 from Ultrakill was just a concept or idea of what the Nightmare World's Dream's Deep looks like. And trust me, I have a good reason to think why the Nightmare World's Dream's Deep would look like this. There is a well known psychological torture method called The White Room. Where the victim is dressed from head to toe in white clothing and forced into a bright spotless white room that is constantly blowing cold air, illuminated by blinding white lights, and forced to eat white rice and drink milk for as long as they would stay there. The room is also outfitted to be completely quiet too, which would leave you in isolation along with intense sensory depravation. Victims who are reported to be tortured with this method become depersonalized by losing personal identity and suffers from hallucinations or psychosis. The torture basically turned your brain against you.

And it's one of the worst things for a human being to experience, no matter who they are.

And this...is the perfect set up for the Nightmare World to create, a suffering of your own mind, the brightest torture method to exist. And this place would also be where Antasma's Left Brain is trapped in, desperately trying to find a way out of this place that he had been stuck in for the past 1000 years. Now why do I think that Antasma has a split brain personality? Mainly because of the Pi'illo's vagueness, even though they said that they don't know where he came from...how did they know his a Dreamy Bat in the first place? Like, Antasma could've previously been something that's probably not a Dreamy Bat, maybe a different species of bat all together. So why do they know what he was before? My guess? They're LYING Why did Dreambert refer Antasma as King even though he had literally never called himself that, why did the Pi'illos' all insist that his a Dreamy Bat even though they clearly stated they don't know where he came from??? Questions QUESTIONS!!!!! Why does Antasma holds a grudge against the Pi'illos? At first it could be assumed that its because they trapped him for a thousand years, but the way on how fiercely he fought Dreambert suggests that his rivalry with him lasted WAYYY longer than just him eating nightmares and being evil.

Maybe...It's because the Pi'illos' was the ones that screwed him over in the first place...

Remember when I said that I was confused on why Dreambert calls Antasma a king when he himself doesn't call himself one? Yeah...that...

Perhaps...Antasma was actually a king before, a King of the Nightmare World. Maybe he was actually a Dreamy Bat turned Nightmare....but he only resided within the Nightmare World. Cuz like, how tf was there only one species of him when bats are known to have a habit of pooping out babies faster then you could say: Ey patoto tser matata. On puenes corron brangar coram brangan yaay geigoronama todoro nomonam sugoro bravo and congregay. Postono tunitena tuna na sena tona gamama brrrr senanana seradenanana raba tane e. Ano no no no see vetera el borocone teno done de. Atono coro todei trae bosto arapa to to de seca dota. Deya toma todo ropo tuno ge arapa to. Arapada ohto otro es ey su otro apada veh ito. Amos traedo roho serapade toro o or na paed poro. Amarato toro sorei baro. (Luigi's Italian gibberish) Which is where this theory that I had comes into play, Antasma most likely devoured other wannabe species of himself before he began building his kingdom in the Nightmare World. Which suggests that Antasma probably only resided and existed in the Nightmare World, until the Pi'illos' came around and found out.

There's a very high chance that the Pi'illos grew fearful of the kingdom that Antasma build, so they most likely infiltrated his kingdom through various diplomatic means, (his kingdom was probably very powerful). And attempt to kill him from the inside because of the power he has.

Now obviously this did not work and only succeeded in splitting his brain/body apart. Which explains why Antasma does not wear a crown in game, it most likely got split in half from the attack or completely destroyed.

This most likely lead to a series of disarray in his kingdom, resulting it being torn down by the panic masses and the Pi'illos. Obviously, the more emotionally and feared driven side of him immediately went into revenge mode. Leaving his weakened intelligence side to be captured and trapped into the Nightmare World's Dream's Deep.

The emotional side probably stole the Dark Stone and shattered it like how Dreambert said he did, but out of revenge for his fallen kingdom, and for the Pi'illos' betrayal.

[ask-dreambert-and-antasma]

Does Antasma get nightmares of his own when he sleeps? What about Dreambert? Also would Antasma like a plushie?

usually.

[noddynods]

It's surprising to me how little content their is about Antasma and Dreambert's relationship,

(but also not so much because there is very little content about them at all)

Because like

- First of all it's Very Easy enemies to lovers it's almost not even funny. Like when I saw them interact together i automatically thought "ohhh people are so gonna ship them" and they didn't ???

- second , the angst potential with these two is so immense. You know that headcanon that they knew each other before the dark stone incident ? Well i noticed that the deeper the bond you hc they had at that time, the more painful it is, have fun with this information

- third, the more i look at them and think about it, the more similar they become while also being polar opposites, from their names (litterally "dream prince" and "nightmare" in the original version), their color palettes (light/dark), their role in battle (antasma can boost attack power while Dreambert can heal), one smiling all the time while the other is frowning all the time, to their design as a whole (dreambert is tiny and round while Antasma is fockin long and pointy)

But they still have similarities like, the cape, antasma's tie thing and dreambert's zipper, they both float, they're both royalty, and there's probably lots of other things I'm forgetting

That being said, my point is

These two have so much potential for stories or fanart or whatever

You don't even have to ship them to find potential because, even if they were just friends in your headcanons, you can still play on, say antasma's betrayal for example, how it affected dreambert i don't even know just

Think abt it yknow?

If you don't I will anyway

[sonicasura]

So since there is no Bowser for the final Giant Fight, Antasma will be stepping in to confront Kafka and the Gang, E.Gadd and Broque Monseiur joined Kafla to stop Antasma and help save the island.

Kakfa and the Gang, are stopped by Antasma who had a nasty surprise for them, a Giant Nightmare Vampire in Antasma's image. To add to it's power Antasma infused some of the Dream Stone's newfound energy into it, leading to the toughest duel Kafka and Dreambert have had to face yet. Though unlike previous time were Kafka was scared or worried out of his mind, Kafka remained cool and tapped into his Giant form for the last Giant battle, this one being in the form of a massive dragon.

The fight is on

And imagine the wings being rainbowed colored like the Zeekeeper, even having their symbol on his wings

The clash was definitely epic with E.Gadd recording the entire thing through multiple drones. Although this won't be their last fight since Antasma will be a petty fuck once Kafka begins to purify him. His last wish before becoming a simple bat is for the Dream Stone to destroy them.

A hateful wish that turns it into a monster with this only purpose in mind. Something which makes destroying the stone make Kafka feel less guilty since it is a priceless artifact of his friend's people.

[snuffydoo]

Thanks for the art 🎭. What is Dreambert and Antasma's backstory ?

I just made them so I'm not sure yet

Since theyre swapped though Im assuming their backstories should swap

So like Prince dreambert was an ordinary pillow person (whatever his species is called I am too lazy to look it up)

Started feasting on nightmares

Became nightmare king

Antasma had to stop him

Yada yada yada

[nuctoria]

Dream Team should not have put Bowser as the final boss. Not saying he shouldn't be in it or play a big role in it but he shouldn't have been the main villain in it. Antasma deserved so much better and his potential was disgracefully disgarded.

Bowser is a big threat, yes. But be honest, to the bros he is no more than a Monday morning nuisance and it shows greatly.

Antasma on the other hand was THE threat of the game and should've continued to do so. He's a being who's far more dangerous than most give him credit for and he had the potential to be such an evil monster, turn him into Nintendo's actual boogieman for the Mario kids to look back on and remember actually fearing him.

I made up a scenario that could've worked in the game.

The game goes on as it does canonically; Peach is taken, Dreambert is shown, bros chase Antasma, Bowser works with him, yadi yada. But! Antasma only tolerates Bowser and works with him to a certain point. The betrayal happens way sooner than it should have been.

After the Dream Stone was taken and powered up, Bowser had no idea how it even worked. Antasma should have used this chance to wish to mind control Bowser and his minions, like how it was done in the other games. Antasma now has an army at his disposal, the Dream Stone and all the nightmares he'll need to grow more powerful.

Not only that, Dreambert's and Antasma's rivalry should be addressed more. Give the two more dialogue between each other. Show how deep it goes.

Lastly. GIVE ANTASMA A BETTER DEATH AT LEAST!

Thank you for your time and patience. Have a lovely day.

[moonknightproductions]

When Dreambert says he pities Antasma, I completely agree. Look, the bat ate nightmares! You know how sick that is? He could’ve been a force for good! Symbiotic relationship with the Pi’illos! Eating their nightmares so they could all live in peace! Even breaking the Nightmare Stone before being sealed for his greed could be seen as a final act of kindness… if the chunks hadn’t paralyzed the Pi’illos.

All I’m saying is, if Antasma was slightly less ambitious and world-conquer-y, he could’ve avoided this whole mess. Maybe he would’ve been Guardian of the Nightmare Stone while the Pi’illos were guardians of the Dream Stone. He wouldn’t have been betrayed by Bowser at the last second.

[astral-multiverse]

"Please allow me to enlighten you all... We Pi'illos inhabited this island long ago. Our people were blessed with the ability to travel in and out of the dream world... Now, in the island there existed two stones... The Dream and Dark Stones, both granters of wishes. The Dream Stone was formed of happy drrams... The Dark Stone, a solid manifestation of nightmares... The safekeeping of these stones was tasked to us... But ae grew lax, and one day the bat king, Antasma, stole the Dark Stone... He sought to fufuill his own wish! At great risk and great cost, we fought and cornered him... But just as Antasma was to be imprisoned in the dream world... He shattered the stolen Dark Stone! And then... our true doom came to pass. A black rain of nightmare chunks from the Dark Stone fell all over the island... As we were exposed to the chunks, we were all of us petrified..." Dreambert explained

Team Trinity and the Mario Brothers: The Ultimate Dream Team!

@astral-multiverse

For those in each world, nothing brings a long day of adventuring to a close like a good night's sleep. A way to escape from the dreary, yet exciting, real world and venture into a world of dreams...?

Sadly, there are those that would wish to harness the power of the World of Dreams, Such as Lord Wizeman the Wicked, the ruler of Nightmare....However, these particular plots would not be caused by them...instead, he would lend a hand to those that try, as long as he got what he wanted in return...

One such plot happened as we find Sonic and the rest of Team Trinity stretching, preparing to end the day they spent together.

"Phew...I'm beat..." Sonic said with a yawn

"Heh, I thought you were Sonic~." Rock chuckled as the Blue Hedgehog rolled his eyes.

[rainbogen]

People smarter than I have probably already analyzed the psycho symbolism in the text of Dream's Deep, so I'll just stick to the gameplay stuff.

Something I only noticed when watching others play this level was that the coins are arranged in a path leading Mario to the next area. You don't really pick up on it when playing normally, but it is there. Makes sense too, given that Luigi wants nothing more than to help out his brother however he can.

Same with the lack of enemies. The last thing Luigi would want is to hurt Mario. Even the bosses of this place weren't made by him, but are just outsiders who wandered in.

Luigi isn't kidding. Bowser + Antasma was my first game over in the playthrough. Man, that fight was brutal.

My advice: don't use Luiginary Ball on Bowser when he has the horde of Antasma bats out. Jumping normally is the much more effective crowd clearing tool in that situation.

So Antasma kidnapped Peach because he wanted her power? This raises so many interesting questions.

Exactly how was he going to go about it? Was it going to be like Fawful where he sucked the energy straight out of her? Or was he going to corrupt her psyche from the inside via her dreams/nightmares?

(Is it wrong that that part of me really wants to see fanart of that?)

Also, in the context of this game, wouldn't Luigi have been more useful to him? After all, he's the only known person who can open up dream portals. Even if it wasn't for Antasma himself, then to deprive his enemies of that essential power.

Dreambert, I did not need the Xenoblade Chronicles PTSD.

It's so intersting seeing that that model style used in Brothership technically originated fom this game. Just only used at certain points instead of the whole game.

When exactly do you move the stylus while jumping? Because messing up the timing each time made the Dreamdigger fight way more drawn out than it needed to be.

[fruitytiff]

Do Antasma :)

Finally, yes sirrr

—

Favorite Thing About Them:

Everything bro, from design to his shitty personality

Least Favorite Thing About Them:

It’s not even them specifically, it’s Nintendo screwing over their potential 💀

brOTP:

Dreambert and him, I do not ship them and think of them as like….err…friends turn enemies kind of stuff

OTP:

Honestly, I don’t have one lol, Bowtasma was a close one but I’m not like, super into it.

nOTP:

Peach, Luigi, and Cackletta

- Peach, consider this as the same as Bowser x Peach, it’s gonna end up as a toxic relationship

- Luigi, bro literally violated Luigi in his own head 💀

- Cacketta is a wavy one, on one hand I have a au that literally have them married while on the other they are most likely not an incredibly loving pair.

Random Headcannon:

If Antasma isn’t influenced by nightmares, he’s most likely a grumpy and funny man, kinda like a old ass tabby cat.

Unpopular Opinion:

Despite his inspiration, his not a vampire, his a talking bat.

Song(s) I associate with them:

Chonny Jash - Laplace’s Angel(Hurt People? Hurt People!)| Will Wood Cover

Or

Heaven Pierce Her - Danse Macabre(ULTRAKILL)

Favorite Picture(s) of Them: