#skeppy just gets it and understands that he can be his own cc and have his own merit

[xomoosexo]

munchymc crew will have each other’s backs forever, regardless of how close they may or may not actually be….dream and skeppy go way back he used to edit for skeppy before he did youtube himself, he literally bought out skeppy’s failing merch company, skeppy being a drolo is my favorite thing ever

LITERALLY!!! THEY SUPPORT EACH OTHER BECAUSE THEYVE BEEN THERE FOR EACH OTHER!!!!

[bunybunn]

hey i partially agreed with your last post so i really don’t wanna start some crazy debate here, but you said that dream not being a one dimensional villain is good or whatever idk and while technically i agree that one dimensional villains are usually not great, i do think in this case it doesn’t apply

c!dream was entirely supposed to be just plain evil, dream said that himself some time after the battle for the discs i think ? so ages ago, but still

he never had those motives if you look at his history, he „gave up his attachments“ or whatever on purpose because he wanted to not be bound to anything, making him allpowerful in his mind (a quote that comes to mind here is the whole „i don’t give a fuck about spirit“ monolog)

but tbf i’m not 100% sure what was even said last stream because i do not plan on watching it properly but i am interested to hear what you think ok have a good day

Ah you see the fun thing about c!Dream is technically he never was or was meant to be one dimensional villain. The thing about him is that more often then not you don't see his perspective and you don't really know his reason beyond what you saw on stream you were watching and if that stream was Tommy's you usually don't get much from that. However on other streams you could get some interesting bits, for example Skeppy joining the smp stream gave us nice insight why c!Dream was against L'Manberg (basically making place where only few choosen can join breaks the community and is pretty rude and useless) or a lot of c!Punz lore streams. Also you have cc!Dream literally talking about his character. All that was there but during this final lore stream it was finally said to us very clearly. With that in mind and with the fact that c!Dream is the The End Justifies the Means person you can probably better understand why he was willing to go as far as he did.

All characters on dsmp are extremely human they are not fully good people but they all have their own reasons and depth.

[itsfeckinwimdy]

Camellia - Part One

Pairings: Mcyt's + characters x reader (Separate) (Romantic + Platonic)

Included: c!Awesamdude, c!Badboyhalo, cc!Dreamwastaken, c!DreamXD, c!Foolish Gamers, cc!GeorgeNotFound, cc!Jack Manifold, cc!Karl Jacobs, and cc!Niki Nihachu.

Reader pronouns: n/a (They/Them).

Summary: How Mcyt's/dsmp characters would hold your hand.

Word count: 1.0k (1095 words)

Warnings: Mentions of a fear of crowded spaces.

DSMP Masterlist / Part Two

Published: 16/09/2021

A/n - this is formatted slightly different to usual as I really don't have much time or motivation to write at the moment, sorry.

Awesamdude:

Sam was a big fan of holding hands.

He tended to grip your hand tightly in his, not too tight that it was cutting off circulation or hurting you, but in a firm grip so that either of you could accidentally let go.

Sometimes he would mess with your fingers as well or simply bring your hand up to place a chaste kiss on the back of it.

Holding your hand helped to ground him and focus on you rather than the negative thoughts that came with being the warden of the prison.

Badboyhalo:

With how excited the demon could get sometimes, you had to choose your moments of when to hold his hand because otherwise, you might just end up being accidentally dragged or lifted off the ground.

This led to the two of you deciding that linking your pinkie fingers would be a lot easier than the full-on handhold.

This would mean that you didn't have to worry about Bad waving his hands in excitement as it was easy to slip your pinkie out of his.

During the night though, Bad would always hold your hands in his wholly as a way to make up for the daytime compromise.

This demon boy was soft for you and would do anything to keep you happy.

And Skeppy of course.

Dreamwastaken:

Dream likes to grip your hand tight in his.

He likes to entwine his fingers between yours and absentmindedly stroke his thumb across the back of your hand.

He tends to mess with your fingers as well and if you wear rings that can spin, then he ends up spinning them around.

If he doesn't thread his fingers with yours and instead holds your hand 'normally', he ends up squeezing your hand, well mainly your knuckles, causing them to sometimes click or for you to let go of his hand. Sometimes he can squeeze a bit too hard which he always apologises for.

He finds it reassuring to hold your hand. Whether that be in crowded spaces so he doesn't lose you or in the comfort of your own home as a reminder that you're there for him and he's there for you.

Dream XD:

Dream XD didn’t understand the concept of handholding at first, just like other human concepts.

This just meant you could show him multiple different ways to hold his hand.

Because this man is so tall, you tended to hold one of his hands in both of your's because his hands are so big. I mean, he is a giant god.

This would lead to you holding onto his fingers rather than trying to grab his full hand because you simply couldn’t.

After a while, the god began to understand the gesture as a form of affection and started to offer his hand to you for you to hold all of the time.

If this immortal being could blush you bet he was.

Foolish Gamers:

Foolish was never big on the whole holding hands thing, but then again, he was a 20ft giant whose significant other was at a mere mortals height.

In fact, his hand is the entire height of your body when he is his usual size.

On the occasions that he has a mortal size for a long enough period of time for the two of you to actually hold hands, Foolish tends to just like pinkies, or two fingers rather than your entire hand.

This is usually because he is trying to carry lots of stuff at any given time. Just because he's human-size doesn't mean that he'll stop working or building.

On the off chance that he's not pushing himself too hard, he will hold your hand fully in his for about 5 maybe 10 minutes at the most before complaining that his hand was too warm and sweaty and ultimately letting go.

Georgenotfound:

George loved holding your hand.

Because of how constipated with feelings he could be, George liked to show you that he did care about you by holding your hand whenever he could.

It didn't matter to him how you held hands, just that you did and that you knew that he was trying to tell you that he care about you.

A lot of the time, it would end up with George lacing his fingers with yours so that if you were busy typing or editing, you could still sort of use that hand on the keyboard.

Also, it was his favourite way to hold your hand.

Jack Manifold (platonic):

Jack doesn't have an aversion to holding hands with his friends, but he just prefers not to.

However, because the two of you had known each other for so long, Jack knew that you liked to hold someone's hand as a comfort thing.

Also so you could try and steal the person's rings or bracelets they had on. Well, ‘borrow’ because you would always end up giving their belongings back.

Anyway, Jack would just let you grab onto and hold his hand.

Whether you would lace your fingers with his, or hold his hand fully in his, grab onto his arm with one hand as well, or just slippy lace a couple of fingers together.

Jack was okay with holding your hand.

And as long as you were happy then Jack was happy.

Karl Jacobs:

This man's love language was touch so you bet he would take any opportunity to hold your hand.

He would try to hold both of your hands at any point in time, even placing his hands over the back of yours and lacing his fingers if you were working on anything just so he could hold onto you.

Karl’s favourite way to hold your hand was to lace his fingers with yours or to hold it normally so that he would mess with any rings or bracelets you were wearing that day.

He would always bring the back of your hand up to his face and kiss on the back of it to show his appreciation for you.

Niki Nihachu:

Niki loved to hold your hand. It was one of her favourite things to do.

She would always lace her fingers with yours, letting you mess with her fingers or vice versa.

She tended to wear rings on her fingers and would always let you mess with them, whether it was just you wanting something to play with or if you needed to fiddle with something because you were too anxious or overstimulated by your surroundings.

Niki knew what it was like and would always give your hand a comforting squeeze in so that you knew she was still there.

[mellointheory]

The Eggpire, and why they are the coolest villain group in the SMP

The Eggpire is personally one of my favorite groups of people on the entire smp. The Eggpire I’m currently referring to consists of Ponk, Bad, Antfrost, Punz, and Skeppy. They’re the ones who are clearly working for the Crimson, and are generally percieved by others in the SMP as corrupted. 

Part of why I love them so much is their clear alignment. They are perhaps the most obvious ‘villains’ in the current season. There’s no moral greyness with them, only the tragedy of the consumed as they serve their master. They’re predictable, and you can tell others view them as a threat. Don’t break the vines, don’t disrespect the egg, avoid them at all cost.

The Eggpire is also currently winning in the “group” part of “group dynamic”. There are other alliances on the SMP, but it has been a while since one solid group of people were working together to defend or protect something. Even in the Doomsday War the defenders of L’Manburg were conflicted--Niki burned the tree herself, Eret was working with people who he had betrayed once before, Punz was an active spy. The Eggpire has a solid foundation of people working together, and their internal workings are interesting. Every member has their own specific role.

Badboyhalo, the Corrupter

Bad, despite what he says about there being no hierarchy within the Eggpire, calls all the shots. He is the largest threat and the start of the Crimson’s spread. He found the Egg, brought others to it, protected it when the vines first began to surface. He takes the most active role in the corruption of others and trying to further the Eggpire’s goals. He’s one of the main three fighters in the Eggpire, and the other two tend to follow his lead and let him speak.

Bad being a demonic creature himself adds an extra layer of awesome to his character. While he was uncorrupted his soul jar (Skeppy) was taken by the Egg, and the...bathwater stream happened. That was a hot mess, HOWEVER, afterwards it actually became kind of cool. Bad saying that “no matter what he could do, he couldn’t fix Skeppy”, implies that his character is in fact capable of magic and was trying, over and over, to return his best friend to who he was originally and kept messing up. Only after his actions failed did he willingly corrupt himself and become the main villain of the Egg arc.

Antfrost, the Caretaker

Antfrost...I absolutely adore corrupted!Antfrost. He was the first person, after Bad, to become attached to the Egg. He was ruthless before he was turned--he even suggested killing Skeppy in order to remove the corruption from him. Now he’s actively serving an eldrich abomination. He follows Bad around silently and writes messages to people in languages they can’t understand. He’s a “professional hunter” (that scene gave me chills) and Bad’s righthand man.

Before the Crimson Antfrost ran an animal sanctuary. He’s still keeping an eye on the animals, but now most of his attention seems to have transferred to the Egg. He seems to have the most active affection for the egg, making sure to feed it and even kissing it once. The aesthetic of a chaotic evil catboy in a nice suit who has no moral compass but does have an undeniable fondness for the Bloodvines growing everywhere is just... *chefs kiss*

Punz, the Guard

Punz, as a character is very well done. He’s been one of the most chill on the server for a while, only actively involving himself in conflicts when A) one of his pets has died, or B) Dream told him to. He’s loyal; once he has a directive he will accomplish it. Dream himself knew if he hired Punz to guard L’Manburg, Punz would guard L’Manburg and kill anyone who left the walls for as long as Dream wanted him to.

Now Punz is guarding the Egg itself. He isn’t as actively threatening as Bad and Ant--he was able to have a completely normal conversation with Tommy, for example, while Tommy is actively terrified of Bad and Ant. Punz is only a danger when he’s called to be, otherwise he’s just a chill guy who doesn’t seem concerned that he has red eyes, or that the thing he’s working for is actively spreading across the entire server.

Ponk, the Voice

Ponk spent a lot of time around the Egg. He even planted a seed in his own casino, named it, and yet managed to turn it into something else. He was left on top of it for days, and came out completely unscathed. He originally began working with the Eggpire purely for pain au’ chocolate and bought contacts from Amazon in order to blend in with them. He doesn’t give a shit.

Correction: he didn’t give a shit until his boyfriend cheated on him. Ponk got corrupted purely out of spite and facilitated the beginning of a war between the Egg and the server’s local builder god. He’s a semi-psychic amputee and the caretaker of a graveyard. He has the most unique interaction with the Egg.

Skeppy, the Heart

Skeppy is Badboyhalo’s living soul jar and probably the most wholly corrupted in the entire server. He spent an entire day inside the Egg and came out with no desires except for it. We’ve seen him the least out of every Eggpire member, but he’s had the most effect on the plot. He’s the Crimson’s leverage over Badboyhalo. If being logged out means a character is canonically asleep, then Skeppy has been sleeping for months. Practically in a coma, until the Egg needs him.

cc!Skeppy says that they have more planned for his character, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing what will happen when the Egg decides it needs him. He was probably the weakest Eggpire member, but who knows what he’s capable of now?

The Crimson Itself:

The Crimson is a problem you can’t get rid of. The bloodvines spread without anyone being near them; they grow back as soon as they’ve been cut. Just hurting the Egg can kill you, although they retconned Sam’s death due to Crimson damage. To quote Badboyhalo: “If you break the Egg, it bites you back.”

The absolute coolest thing about the entire Egg arc, in my opinion, is how hard it is to keep an eye on the big picture. We as viewers get wrapped up in what’s happening right now. Hannah was trapped in the Egg, now she’s escaped. There were vines in Sam’s base, now they were broken. The Eggpire attacked Foolish’s base, then he scared them away. Then you pull back and remember, it is just a an egg. We have no idea what its plans are, or what it’s capable of. Someday comes the Red Banquet, and that’s when the real storm breaks.

[comradeboyhalo]

the 2nd pet war, aka a goldmine for sapnap, punz, and badlands analysis

The stream can be viewed here (Sam’s pov, starts 3 hours in). Full disclaimer, I made this originally to talk about the Badlands, but added bullets about Sapnap and Punz after rewatching the stream. The war occurred during the Pogtopia arc, so it’s pre-nov 16 and pre-egg arc. Also, this is insanely long under the cut.

The war starts when Ant steals a panda from Punz, which Sapnap and Sam were helping to escort. The panda then accidentally dies from Punz’s thorns, and it escalates to a war.

Sam’s loyalty to the Badlands is established right off the bat. He switches to the Badlands’ side quickly, despite being very upset that Ant and Bad engaged in a war while underprepared. The moment Sapnap starts attacking Bad, he runs for pots.

This loyalty is even more impressive considering Ant and Bad didn’t trust Sam to help initially. Sam barely holds a grudge against this, and helps anyway.

Ant gives the panda immediately back when Sapnap starts killing Bad and types “leave Bad alone” in chat. During negotiations, he also hits Punz away from Bad simply because he looks threatening.  (#1 bbh shooter)

Bad goes on the warpath the moment the Skeppy statue gets griefed. This is when Punz hesitates, but ultimately goes along with war. 

Also the way Sapnap just pushes all the blame on Bad instead of Ant….egg lore, anyone?

Ant: Punz killed the panda, they’re just dumb I guess

Punz is MUCH less bloodthirsty than Sapnap. It’s pretty clear that Punz is more upset about the panda’s death, while Sapnap is just eager to get revenge and kill people.

This battle also has copious amounts of stream sniping (from both ends) and combat logging (from everyone but Sapnap, who can’t combat log on the server).

Badlands are wayy less geared but Sam’s trident is so OP that it distracts Punz for majority of the battle. This will later spark Ant and Bad to get their own tridents, which leads them as the only people besides Techno to own tridents (hence their official flag having a trident). Now, of course, pretty much everyone has one.

The use of potions and communication through in game messages is very much a Badlands style of fighting. 

Sapnap: “Punz, you’ve always been my most powerful ally. well, you and Dream” 

Punz canonically grieves by being the cameraman for Sapnap’s destruction ???

Sam’s threats when Sapnap held Fran hostage is the first time we really see a darker side to him and he is dark with those threats.

Bad takes the de facto leader position in negotiations and, in typical Badboyhalo fashion, is both eloquent and extremely stubborn. 

Bad’s negotiation is actually really fun to listen to, because he’s really saying the same things as everyone else, but just in a calmer tone and with professional words. It brings back the “words have power” argument of early L’manberg and c!Quackity. Sapnap and Punz’s argument is solid and honestly a lot of fans agreed that they were in the right, but they just ended up letting Bad lay out the terms for everyone.

“It’s so dumb to argue with you, Bad, you never admit you’re wrong” sibling moment, cc!Sapnap just made this REAL 

They broke character a lot during negotiations and it’s honestly nice to see because during the early improv rp days, the lines still blurred a lot between character and cc.

Sam betraying Sapnap/Punz for the pet war and betraying Tubbo for the L’manberg war feels very much in tune for his character. He still views these people as friends, the Badlands just have to come first.

Punz was very much trying to distance himself from Sapnap’s actions to defend himself. Tbe Badlands, on the other hand, covered for each other even when they disagreed with their actions. Bad calls Punz out on this, actually, for not taking responsibility for his allies.

Bad views the Skeppy statue as the same value as Fran’s life, mainly because he built it together with Skeppy.

Sam  views the entire server as collateral damage for Fran, which has definitely changed in light of the prison and his survivor’s guilt.

Pretty much everyone thought Bad was overreacting over the statue, which is completely understandable, but it really stands out now since everyone thought Bad was overreacting over Red!Skeppy as well.

Bad ends up fixing Punz’s beacon that he broke out of revenge for his statue. While they fix it together, Ant and Sapnap just start whaling on each other as Sam/Punz/Bad watch in confusion. (Sam and Bad still end up helping Ant despite this bc Badlands are loyal yknow)

Ant is the most distrustful out of the three, as well as the most vengeful, which is a great contrast from the person who is building an animal sanctuary. 

Also, the fact that Ant is building a sanctuary for animals, but ends up stealing an animal for the kicks, which leads to its death is perfect irony.

at one point, Techno afks by the spider spawner and lags the server

Bad, after Sapnap claims Techno is on his side: i don’t think you understand what side Techno’s on. I dont think anyone understands what side Techno’s on

the Badlands come out as the winners, and it’s counted as the Badlands’ first win as an official faction.

At the end, the Badlands promise to get Punz a new panda, which leads to this stream I highly recommend. It contains the “Manburg, Pogtopia, who cares?” line as well as just god tier vibes

[pinkseas]

bads frustration with the vines being cleaned up, “so disappointing, its all in preparation” god you can HEAR it and how upset he is im so. im so. im Not sane

the red banquet advertising LMAO was nervous but  i feel better now. 

no but the way bbh is still borderline fond of quackity even while corrupt. the way he shows little to no mercy to ANYONE he used to care about, towards his own friends, especially those going against the egg, and comparatively he’s so much easier on quackity, trying so hard to make him understand, really trying not to hurt him. god

remembering what the basement used to look like is SO jarring. one of my first ever streams i remember seeing it virtually untouched, i think one statue mightve been red ??? and NOTHING else. its so. its So.

i know the whole thing with nether blocks being used is mostly because of how well the colors all work and the lava but MAN does it make me think. especially considering my favorite nether worldbuilding has to do with the nether itself being one massive sentient being netherrack flesh walls etc etc idk !!!!! makes me Think. love it so bad

they built it all so nicely starts crying. “i wonder if we have enough seats for everyone” i know they literally murder bitches but STARTS CRYING

egg please dont speak backwards when i dont have access to what youre really saying Thank You

bads frustration the way he cows with whatever its saying “I know! i know. you dont have to say it anymore” WHAT IS IT SAYING IM SOOOO. im so.

i still swear the shroomlights around it make it look like petals unfurling

“eggactly according to plan” i hate it here. god it really is still them. like i know thats mostly cc bbh but im Choosing to interpret it as the characters still being themselves even with the eggs influence. Man.

“theyre gonna have no other choice but to love it!” hmmm. 

bad exasperation with skeppy. crying in a different way now

officially pausing my quiet bloodvines playlist in the background to really hear this god help me

“i wanna be next to the egg” NO inflection, completely monotone. everyone was affected differently but for the most part they kept their personalities and emotions- skeppy is just. almost gone. no emotion, no care, nothing but wanting the egg. it makes me SO curious about how the egg works and what it does i swear

“we both know theres nothing wrong with the egg and the eggs great and all” the way bad is literally only here for skeppy i am GOING to cry. i cant even remember what extent is or isnt canon i just know in my mind bad broke free of its influence, is probably far more resistant to it now, and is still there because his best friend loves the egg and he wants his best friend back. god.

still caring for and being worried about skeppy but at this point its so far in and hes starting to get more frustrated/give up hope

“lets go for a walk” literally just wanting to spend time with him GOD. how is there another 20 minutes im gonna Die

skeppy being so far gone and just. not giving a damn. its so jarring but also ive only seen skeppy like this? my 2nd or 3rd stream was BBH and puffy trying to get skeppy back to himself after he’d first been corrupted, the one where they had that little underground house and the big skeppy face in the wall and bad was upset because skeppy wasnt his best friend anymore. but i think i vaguely recall him at least pretending to be a bit more emotional or cheerful, in a cynical sort of way ?? and now its. total carelessness and apathy.

“all of this, all of this is for him, and its so frustrating. i know that egg is not evil and everything and everyone is just misunderstanding it” GENUINELY cant tell if this is genuine or just him convincing himself. like obviously the egg is awful but we never learned its actual intentions. obviously the banquet was mostly death but i really, really have to wonder. there are SO many things 

“i dont like how much time he spends by it now, he literally just hangs out by it” implying the slow build of him hanging around the egg itself more and more and how its making him worse. obviously being physically close to the egg is REALLY bad and corrupts you much faster but i have to wonder if part of it is also skeppy becoming more corrupt the more the others serve the egg ??? idk idk idk thats NOT a full thought

SKEPPY ABLE TO REPAIR IT i did not know that. holy shit

the skeppy “do you wanna take a picture? i mean you keep looking at me” its cruel but god. he’s really still in there too its not full apathy hes not fully gone just wildly fucking corrupt. GOD.

bad sounds So Sad he cares so much more about skeppy than the egg holy shit. step aside c!clingyduo 

skeppy being VERY aware of the egg and area and what has and hasnt been touched.... so in tune with it.... i love it here

NOT THE OLD STATUES BAD PLEASE. “yeah. i look good.” SKEPPY.......... ohhhh my god and bad saying it looked better before. fuck. Fuck. 

i have a weird thought/hc about the egg running off of wishes or willpower of those corrupt or something and skeppy wanting his friends to be safe and abandon him so the egg can die vs bad just wanting skeppy and it working horribly. skeppy being more and more cold and corrupt as hes trying to drive bad to abandon him, bad pushing closer JUST wanting his friend, both fueling the egg up until bad finally gives up, decides its not worth it, and inadvertently frees them both. and it REALLY doesnt have much ground in canon but this is fueling it just a little bit. skeppy REALLY doesnt want bad talking to him.

 bad not giving a damn or even flinching or moving anytime he gets burned

BAD SHIFTING AND BEING SO EXCITED WHEN SKEPPY MIGHT TAKE THE WALK EVEN THOUGH ITS JUST TO GET LEFT ALONE. NAURRRRRRRRR. JUMPING UP AND DOWN AS SKEPPY ACTUALLY MOVES. FUCK.

bad literally praising the egg vs telling it to shush when he just wants to be around skeppy GODDDDD

okay skeppy interrupting the egg made me assume he couldnt hear it but that solidifies it i think. he couldve been doing the threatening “who are you talkign to” as in who are you daring to shut up but i genuinely think he cant hear it, it doesnt seem like he was being more threatening until he realized bad WAS talking about the egg

skeppy also not giving a damn about the burning in spite of having No armor and definitely taking damage, “i like how it feels” ohhhh my god. bads tired, quiet “of course you do” FUCK ME

skeppy getting all dramatic about the dance and bad shutting him down LMAO

bad REALLY trying to get skeppy to spend less time around the egg, “do you think thats like, good for you?” its all for skeppy everything is for skeppy fr. 

TELLING THE EGG TO SHUT UP AGAIN. 

“okay done come back” no hesitation, bad still arguing every time because hes still fighting for him in any way he can

“It’s not about power, it’s not about control, I’m your FRIEND Skeppy” “I mean, you can think that” holy SHIT. cant tel if skeppys voice sounded more apathetic or more sad. it almost sounded sad but i might be imagining things 

“What, that egg, that egg is gonna be your FRIEND?” GODDDDDDDDDD

“The egg is more than life itself, dont you understand? dont you feel it? no, you wouldnt understand” eyes WIDE open

“youd rather hang out on this egg than on me??” giggling thank you bbh for the slip up i once again feel better now

“Skeppy, tell me im your friend right now” the way theyre arguing i have NO clue whats in skeppys head right now but bad being so furious and fed up and desperate, EVERYTHING hes done with this egg has been for skeppy, every bit of it for their friendship, and now skeppy is saying every bit of that effort and everything hes done has been for nothing because they arent even friends.

 the talk of sacrifice ohhhhh my god. oh my god. oh my God. this whole conversation is so. holy shit.

“i just dont want you next to THAT” the way hes willing to spend so much time with/around the egg but even now doesnt want skeppy near it. fuck.

THE SELFISH TALK... STEP ASIDE C!CLINGYDUO

the way selfish prob hits so hard because in his mind he PROBABLY hates this is hurting so many people making so many sacrifices ALL for skeppy and their friendship, not at all for him, ohhhh my god. theyre both right and theyre both a little wrong and i hate it im soooo

“IT’S JUST A STUPID EGG SKEPPY” he literally does not like the egg he literally hates the egg he doesnt care for it every single thing has been for skeppy hes not FULLY under his influence he does it for skeppy. THE FUCKING HORROR IN HIS VOICE AS HE GASPED AND SKEPPY DIED IM SO. IM SO. IM SO.

the “what happened, what did i do” the way THAT in itself was so influenced by the egg, maybe consciously maybe not but definitely by the MONTHS of serving bad did all for skeppy im so. im so. im sooooo. 

i cannot for the LIFE of me tell what is going on in that ending 

“please actually answer me. bad?” holy shit.hjoly shit. holy shit., 

[n3s0]

hi i’m going to discuss the doomsday war streams and overall the conclusion of what i’d consider season 3 of the dream smp because hyperfixation go brrrrr 

(for clarity sake: season 1 is from when l’manberg defects from the dream smp to when wilbur decides to host an election. season 2 is from swag2020 vs pog2020 to the manberg vs pogtopia war on nov 16th. season 3 is from the start of tubbo’s presidency to the jan 6th doomsday war.) 

tldr: i definitely think the cc’s can look on what happened this season and improve greatly. that’s not to say this wasn’t a good season, there are a lot of things they’ve improved since season 1, but there are also things they can improve on in the future. this season was lacking a connecting thread or goal and it made it feel disjointed and left character’s in limbo. a way to fix that could be either scripting the story more strictly, fixing communication problems and/or making the plot into more self contained but slightly overlapping stories.

i think my biggest problem with this season was the fact that it felt so disjointed. one of the best things about the first season is the consistent plot line: l’manberg is trying to win independence. you had eret’s betrayal, dream’s tyranny, wilbur and tommy’s whole dynamic, and an underlying subplot with the disc war, but it all ultimately connected to l’manberg’s fight for independence. it’s what makes the first season so good and that kind of consistent plot is missing in this season. 

even the second season had the main plot of taking back manberg. there was wilbur’s insanity, but that tied back to the elections. there was tension between tubbo and tommy, but it tied back to the elections. even the badlands tied back to bad, ant, skeppy, and sam deciding they’re done with manberg AND pogtopia and deciding to stoke the fire. it all tied back and character’s had weeks to slowly develop with the setting. 

this season you had techno retiring, ghostbur reconciling with fundy, tubbo’s presidency, whatever was going on with schlatt and quackity?, george is king?, el rapid mexican l’manberg that whole thing, tommy’s exile, el rapids fighting dream smp/eret’s kingship?, the butcher army, techno UNretiring and teaming with tommy, tommy using techno to get his discs back, techno using tommy to destroy l’manberg, the prison, the bloodvines, and probably more im forgetting. there was a LOT going on, even techno and wilbur have ooc acknowledged this. and in my opinion it was just too much. character’s weren’t given enough time to develop naturally and the pacing had to go fast enough to fit all the plot into it, leaving little time for the character’s relationships to develop with the plot. 

most notably this is a problem with character’s like niki, fundy, ranboo (though not too bad with his character) and eret. eret had worked hard on a redemption arc and then had to go back to being king because george didn’t want to be involved (then changed his mind which...okay) which really fucked up all of the development he spent a LOT of time on during the second season. niki had to jump from siding with tubbo and tommy against wilbur’s insanity to suddenly tubbo’s president and her character just...can’t know that wilbur is dead for some reason? and now she needs content so she has to scrap together an anti-hero plot for herself. fundy’s works a little better i feel, with his lowkey insanity arc he’s having as of now, but the problem with him is he didn’t get enough lowkey plot moments to show his character’s devolution from neglected to vengeful. ranboo was thrown head first into the plot and while he’s doing an AMAZING job of keeping himself afloat, he just hasn’t had enough time to make his character’s mental decline seem believable, at least to me. not enought has happened to his character for it to work out, due to pacing. all of these character’s are AMAZING concepts but the fact that they feel so inconsistent can be related back to the fact that there really wasn’t any time given to let character’s slowly develop and change, and instead they had to cram all of their character development into the first 30 mins of a plot important stream.

and i will offer a counterargument here of the fact that season 3 is when wilbur’s writing stopped and also was when it really started catching a large audiences’ interest. so naturally more people wanted to be involved and due to the nature of the way this story is told, where each character is an actual CC who needs content and can’t just be a background support character, there HAS to be a lot going on for everyone to get their slice. and i think that’s the ultimate downfall of using this medium to tell a story. you NEED those background characters, the characters that don’t have to be 3 dimensional, the characters that don’t need to be there for everything and get their lines in. so i can’t fault them for having a clunky story when it has to be that way to be fair. 

ultimately i still really enjoy the story, and i hope this doesn’t sound too nitpicky. it’s downfall, of everyone having to be an important character, is also what makes it so good! don’t like the “main character”? go watch someone else, who’s the main character of their own POV of the story. every single character is incredibly complex and has their own unique set of motivations, goals, and traits. it works really well with the running theme of history, and how not only does it repeat itself through miscommunication and ignorance but also how the opinion on events changes from who’s telling the story. the fact that you can tell every CC genuinely cares about their character also really does show in the acting and writing and just everything about the server and story. the flaws of the story are very easy to look over because of just how much time and care all of them put into this server and it really helps the story. an okay story written by passionate people with always be better than an amazing one written by apathetic storywriters; and the smp’s story is definitely more than just okay, at least to me. 

i didn’t want to write this just to complain and then offer no solution, so i do have a few ideas on how i’d like to see this fixed or at least improved. they actually already somewhat do this, but i feel like they could start breaking up the plot more. similarly to how there was the bloodvines plot going on at the same time as tommy’s exile plot, i feel like they could take a chunk of say 5-10 members and they each have their semi-contained plot. especially with l’manberg now destroyed, the thing that way tying a lot of the members together, it would be easier to do this. there can be connecting threads through the stories, like how tubbo and fundy would see the bloodvines or bad would visit tommy in exile, but ultimately not every character has to be involved in everyone else’s story. 

say you have tubbo, tommy, quackity, fundy, ghostbur, and dream for one plot of trying to get the discs back and making dream revive ghostbur. at the same time you can have techno, phil, ranboo, dream, and sam dealing with the prison and techno or someone being put in the prison with dream manipulating ranboo through his memories. bad, ant, sam, puffy, and skeppy can continue with the egg. eret, fundy, niki, and ghostbur work through the trauma they’ve gained from everything with l’manberg and their interpersonal relationships. similarly to how karl is doing the tales of the SMP right now, these storylines are self contained but characters can overlap and therefore so can relationships. 

my other solution would honestly be to just work on the seemingly lack of communication. make sure everyone is getting the content they need (with people having to understand that not everyone is going to get the animatic worthy lines every stream, and not everyone gets to play a huge part in each event.) however this entails having a much more concrete script, which highkey removes the charm of the smp. it also means that inevitably someone is going to not be getting good content, or content at all, and that’s not fun or good for anyone. ultimately i’d like to see an improvement on the communication for the plot (niki feeling excluded, george and eret not being told about important events, communicating when people are trying to have genuine canon important speeches and not BMing them (cough cough tubbo at niki about her taxes cough cough techno during tubbo and tommys reunion)) and that doesn’t necessarily have to mean a fully fleshed out script. 

in the end, what everyone on this server has managed to do with this storyline is something that’s genuinely impacted me! it’s opened my eyes to new ways stories can be told and this fandom is the first big one i’ve been in since probably fucking voltron or homestuck in the mid-2010s. i love what the CCs have managed to do, and while i think this was a healthy amount of criticism for the story i in no way want to demean just how much passion and effort the CCs put into this server. none of these people are professional story writers or actors so the amount of talent we’ve seen is astonishing. this is simply me expressing what i think the problems are, because every story has problems, especially one that’s being made with such a unique medium like improv roleplay streaming. if you have anything you wanna add please feel free to add to this post or reply! i’d love to see :) thank you for reading if you made it this far lmao

[mariaiscrafting]

What if I’m Latino and want to draw sapnap as Latino as well? Is neurodivegent headcanons for the dream team okay but this isn’t?

I’ll admit, the lines are blurred with Dream SMP characters because they are both characters and representative of real people. If you want, I can talk about the various levels of Problematic™ that are involved in this question, and since I’m bored and procrastinating, let’s get into it:

First off, there is, actually a history of Tumblr fanartists in particular drawing traditionally white characters as POC and getting backlash for it, so honestly, I’m not totally agains the practice. Frankly, drawing classic characters as POC when they haven’t really been confirmed as any race - just assumed to be the default of white - isn’t a bad thing. One such example is Hermione, who many fanartists have depicted as black, with curly hair or an afro. Because Hermione’s character and story are not intrinsically tied to any particular cultural or explicit details that would make it logically flawed to hc her as non-white, there’s really nothing wrong with this.

This is different from the opposite because it is a way for non-white audiencemembers to drive home the point that non-white Americans/Europeans are, in many ways, just like their white counterparts. That is to say, whether Hermione is black or white doesn’t change who she is; she can be a white English lady or a black English lady, but being black doesn’t necessarily mean she would act any differently or be a totally different person. It is a means to combat the assumption that any American/European character whose culture isn’t explictly brought up by the creator of a work is white.

This isn’t the same as the opposite - portraying POC characters as white - because the latter is a form of whitewashing. When you portray assumed-white characters as POC, you are not erasing anything from that character, while portraying POC characters as white erases their culture, the visibility of that ethnic group/race, and any details the creator of the content might have included in their story about that character. That’s why films are criticized for casting white actors to play POC characters, and artists are criticized for lightening character’s skin tones or erasing physical features of theirs that can be attributed to their ethnic/racial identity.

Now the question with portraying Sapnap as Latino is, is this wrong, exactly? I’d like to preface by saying that everything I’ve said about portraying Sapnap as Latino has been purely my opinion. At the end of the day, I’m not an expert on racial theory or art; I’m just a poli sci major who’s taken a couple courses on racism and has talked and learned a bit about POC in media. You can come to whatever conclusions you like, at the end of the day, and portray him however you like, love.

As I see it, there are several reasons portraying Sapnap as Latino is Problematic™. First off, Sapnap and other white members of the Dream SMP already have problems with recognizing POC and the implications of POC within the SMP. Sapnap has actually answered a donation before by saying that he’s not 100% white because he’s part-Greek, completely unironically and without recognizing why him saying that was wrong. Imo, this indicates a lack of understanding for what it really means to be a POC in Western countries that so many white people exhibit. Being a person of color in Western Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, etc., means functioning within a society where you have to battle with yourself everyday your own, multiple, and seemingly contradictory identities. It means functioning within a society where you have to navigate the crossroads of oppression within you must survive. White people who falsely claim that they aren’t white like this simply don’t understand or are even aware of exactly what it means to be shaped by the oppression of being a person of color. They believe that being a person of color, beyond occassionally experiencing explicit racism, is just a label and a tie to one’s ancestry, when it’s much more beyond that. And the thing is, Sapnap can’t claim that label because he simply hasn’t gone through the lived experience of a POC in the United States. And that’s fine. It’s fine to be white, and to just be a little ignorant to your whiteness. I’m not attacking Sapnap by pointing this all out, I’m just stating facts.

Secondly, this would mean that a 100% white person is essentially playing the role of a Latino character, which is already a far-too common practice in film and TV showmaking. Then again, I will admit that a counter-argument can be made here, in that, headcanons are not actually canon to the Dream SMP plot. For example, Ranboo has told his audience he’s fine with viewers headcanon’ing his character as nonbinary, even though Ranboo himself is cisgender. This is an ambiguous aspect of his character that can be manipulated however the viewers like since there has been nothing within the canon to refute it, so far. However, it would be a different matter entirely if Ranboo, a cisgender man, attempted to write his character as a nonbinary person and then act out that nonbinary character himself. That would actually be unjust and kinda fucked. Now, along a similar vein, one could argue that audiencemembers headcanon’ing Sapnap as Latino isn’t really a bad thing since it isn’t Sapnap himself trying to portray what he believes a Latino character would be like. So I get the potential counter-argument there.

Thirdly, my main problem with this whole drawing Sapnap as Latino ordeal is the hypocrisy of it all. Far too often within this fandom, I see fanartists and writers erase Quackity’s ethnic identity, whitewashing him in their art or completely disregarding his race in their work. And while one could argue that the lack of focus in this fandom on Skeppy can be explained by his infrequent streams and departure from the SMP lore, Ponk is rarely drawn or written about, and he streams regularly and always has something going on with his character, in side plots or otherwise. I just find it lowkey absurd that this fandom thirsts for a Latino character so bad that it has to portray Sapnap, who is played by a white actor, as Latino, when there are other POC whose identities are either disregarded or the characters as a whole ignored.

Fourth, my main question, at the end of the day, is, why are we not advocating for more POC in the SMP? Why headcanon characters as POC, when they could literally just make an effort to uplift more POC CCs, who are highly marginalized within the streamer and Youtube communities? I’m Latinx too, mate, and I’d fucking love more POC characters to fall in love with, but Sapnap isn’t the one to fill that hole.

Regarding other sorts of headcanons and how those relate to headcanon’ing characters as different races: my thoughts on this are way too complicated, at the moment. But to sum it up as concisely as possible: a) I am not neurodivergent, as far as I know, so I cannot do the subject nearly as much justice as a neurodivergent person could; b) my thoughts still kinda align with the same thought process as race - that it’s useful to hc characters as neurodivergent because it helps to break stigmas that ND people are so vastly different from neurotypical people that traditionally-assumed neurotypical people couldn’t possibly actually be ND; c) I would still advocate for more ND representation in the SMP, rather than try to warp the neurotypical people’s characters to fit into that yearn for representation that I so desire; d) there actually are ND people on the SMP - a couple of people with ADHD, as far as I know - who do exhibit ND characteristics in their characters/lore, as well, so frankly, why not give those characters ND hc’s?

Anyways, this was so much longer than I wanted it to be and I still don’t know if I fully articulated my take on the subject properly. It’s really just too complicated a subject to be applied to Dream SMP fanart, so my conclusion is: Imma diss people for drawing Sapnap as Latino when Quackity is RIGHT THERE, and you can draw him however the hell you like. At the end of the day, we’re both just people obsessing over block men, and there’s no significant harm  that will come from either of our opinions or your artwork. I hope this was a satisfying answer, and seriously, thank you for getting me to write this all out because it actually made me realize that I’m not as fully against the idea as I thought I was <3