vienna-olive

[vienna-olive]

sometimes the dream smp feels like a small fandom. sometimes it feels like a small, little cozy place for just us, the people that like it, and the streamer. sometimes, in the middle of a chill alt stream where alex and karl are talking about how they first met, it feels like our own little nook of the internet.

then i see cody ko get trending on twitter for quackityhq — the reddit and discord’s got talent guy — merely saying his name once, accidentally.

then i see fucking dwane johnson reply to tommyinnit — a kid that still lives with his parents and gained 3 million subscribers in one year — wishing him happy birthday.

then i see matpat & fuckin game theory make a video on wilbur soot — a man that wrote a little hamilton inspired story for him and his friends to have fun with — and talking about his writing in depth.

then i see the rolling stone make an article on the dream smp.

then i see pewdiepie, the biggest youtuber ever, defending karl jacobs — best friend of another one of the biggest and most successful youtubers ever — and saying not to send him hate.

then i see lovejoy, wilbur soot’s band, hit #1 on the uk and #2 on the us itunes charts, the day after their debut.

then i see lil nas x, the fucking horses in the back guy, the same guy that performed at the grammys with worldwide hit boyband bts, join the dream smp and play with ranboo — a kid that isn’t even allowed to order pizza to his house — karl jacobs and corpse husband.

then i see a woman on fucking fox news, on live national television, talk about her pet chicken she named after badboyhalo, a lighthearted minecraft streamer that pranks his friends and doesn’t ever swear.

then i realize, it’s The Dream SMP.

then it hits me.

then it all hits me.

everybody knows what the dream smp is.

everybody knows who these people are.

and any post of yours could end up on an article.

any comment you make could be their next ongoing joke in all their streams.

these people get trending across social media everyday.

these people are fucking celebrities.

and what do they do?

play Minecraft.

[vienna-olive]

Idk Welcome to Las Nevadas or Something

this came to me suddenly and I had to create it

[vienna-olive]

i cant tell if captainsparklez is oblivious to dnf and what they have going on or he’s like super knowing and just quiet about it

[vienna-olive]

aha, you guys are overthinking this!! it's minecraft roleplay, haha!!

...

have you guys considered how none of the original eight members talk anymore and how they all split apart from each other, except for callahan and alyssa, who straight up don't appear anymore, instead staying in the background and in their friends chats instead of hanging out like they used to? the community house was more than the first landmark on the server, it was their house, and dream blowing it up meant so much more than just 'oh no, he's cutting attachments', it was him ending their friend group's bond.

haha.

[vienna-olive]

are you alright feels like a spiritual successor to your city gave me asthma. both talk about love and unrequitedness and feelings, but one album is lonely, played with a single guitar and a simple backing track and so full of dread - one consistent theme in its songs is that things wont get better. the other is loud, bright, and bold and even though theres still problems in the singers life, he has people around him and is living while taking the punches thrown at him. i think purposely or not, the transition between the two shows that your mental state is the number one thing that shapes how you view the world.

[vienna-olive]

this whole john cena situation where he followed a bunch of mcyts and mcyt stan accounts was so vaguely familiar to me until it clicked that the same thing happened in 2018(?)where he followed bts and a bunch of army accounts and then on an interview was like “yea i really like bts my favorite member is jhope”

cant wait for the next episode of jimmy fallon where john cena spends the entire show length explaining the lore and why he’s a c!tommy apologist

[vienna-olive]

Dream SMP: Using Minecraft as a Vessel for a Storyline

With viewers worldwide, members of a popular Minecraft server known as the Dream SMP have drawn in viewers through their original roleplay content, using Minecraft as a vessel to tell a story and have fun with each other outside of the plot line. Over the past couple of months, members have broken some of the highest viewer counts on the live streaming platform Twitch, with long time member TommyInnit having a record high live viewer count of 650,237 and other long-time Dream SMP member, Tubbo, with 332,671.

THE ORIGIN OF THE SMP

The Dream SMP is a private and whitelist survival multiplayer (SMP) server in the game Minecraft created by the content creator known as Dream. The server’s beginning was streamed on Twitch April 24, 2020 and featured members of the group known as the Dream Team composed of content creators Dream, GeorgeNotFound, Sapnap, and BadBoyHalo. At the time the server originated, all members (producing content and not just friends of the cast) were at or less than 1 million subscribers on Youtube. According to Youtube, 1 million is a great milestone: “We’re honored to celebrate them when they reach Creator Award subscriber milestones,'' 1 million being one of those milestones. Its initial rise to popularity, however, began around July and August of 2020, when seventeen-year-old Minecraft livestreamer from the UK, Tommy “TommyInnit”, joined the SMP and began a series of arguments and banter with other members of the SMP. It would also ignite what is known as the Disc Saga: music discs acquired by Tommy that he and Dream would continue to fight about until January of the next year. TommyInnit didn’t just bring bickering, though, he also brought along many more members that would later become some of the most statistically large names of the SMP and the Minecraft community in general: Tubbo and Wilbur Soot. Wilbur Soot, particularly, played a critical role in the growth of the SMP.

BEGINNING OF THE STORYLINE

Originally, nobody had planned on the SMP becoming what it is today: whether that is from a high viewership perspective or how unexpected the creation of a plot line was. As far as plot, it was Wilbur “Soot” Gold that created it. He tells in an Insider interview that “I was invited into the Dream SMP near its inception but I only joined fully when I had an idea for building a country in Minecraft”. In the SMP’s infancy, Soot began creating an “illegal potion shop” that would spin off into a nation of non-American members called L’Manberg. He further tells Insider how he writes for the SMP, saying “I write up a series of plot hooks and points that should tie together, however we improv dialogue and comedy throughout to take us from point to point”. As Soot mentioned, these streams and videos that take place aren’t simply the players getting in-game achievements; the lore functions as would a television show, with some episodes holding more relevant pieces of plot and some just being the in-between pieces to help the plot develop. Another early member, Fundy, mentioned that the server went from “a casual survival game to a whole story-line filled with plots and twists,” and that “role-playing is a key feature of the Dream SMP, some parts are scripted, some parts are improv, and some parts are ‘non-canon’, where it is just counted as a standard Minecraft server”. The unique nature of the Dream SMP makes it viewable for people who may not be as invested in the lore as others. Additionally, moderator of the popular “DREAMSMP UPDATES!” account on Twitter with over 205,000 followers, NotAlex, told Insider “The Dream SMP did something really special--taking an original idea, creating new things that have never been seen on Minecraft and incorporating them with humor and characters that you can become easily attached with”. This statement is backed up by Youtube statistics: little over a year ago Dream had 1 million subscribers and currently has over 21 million Youtube subscribers, boasting over 1.8 billion views on his main channel. The numbers speak for themselves, and this is what people appear to like. In addition, there have been other SMP roleplay servers such as SMPLive or SMPEarth, but none of them have pertained to as large of a demographic as the Dream SMP has.

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE PLOT?

The SMP can be mapped into two different sections: Before Tommy, which was non lore-based streaming, and After Tommy, where he started an initial piece of lore and his friend Wilbur Soot created a storyline that would play off of that. The depths of the SMP can be broken down into many different smaller sections with different character analysis and connecting different plot points to each other, however here are is the most basic ideas of the plot:

Note: This is all roleplay and none of the malicious attitudes portrayed by the characters are that of the players themselves

*Indicate ongoing pieces of plot

1.Disc Saga: Tommy obtains music discs that become his prized possessions. Dream picks on Tommy and tries to steal them so he can have power over him. Tommy recruits his friend Tubbo to help him retrieve them. Ultimately, the Disc Saga ends January 2021 after Tommy and Tubbo retrieve them and send Dream to prison.

2. L’Manberg War: TommyInnit and Wilbur Soot create a new country entitled L’Manberg in hopes to create something “better” than the world of the basic Dream SMP. Upset with this, Dream declares war on the few members of L’Manberg against his own forces. L’Manberg seems to be winning and their ally, Eret, brings them to a final control room where it seems as if they were to get powerful gear to fight against Dream. However, Eret instead reveals to be a traitor and all members of L’Manberg lose one of their three lives. Here, the infamous phrase of the SMP is coined by Eret: “It was never meant to be'' and L’Manberg is blown up for the first time. It is also here where Dream and Tommy have a duel to decide the fate of L’Manberg’s independence. Dream wins, however Tommy gives his discs to Dream in order to give L’Manberg independence.

3. L’Manberg Election and Electoral Fallout: Wilbur Soot and Tommy run as President and Vice President of L’Manberg under the name POG2020 in order to show their citizens that it functions like a democracy. They have two main opposing sides: SWAG 2020, Quackity and GeorgeNotFound, and SCHLATT 2020, JSchlatt, who pool their votes together. The creators of L’Manberg, POG 2020, won the majority of votes, but because SWAG and SCHLATT pooled their votes, SWAG/SCHLATT 2020 won the election. As the new president of L’Manberg, Schlatt revokes the citizenship of Wilbur Soot and Tommy and they are forced into exile where they begin to work with long time Minecraft player Technoblade in an underground commune known as “Pogtopia''.

4. Manberg/Pogtopia War: Schlatt renames L’Manberg to “Manberg'' and it begins to function similarly to a dictatorship. Wilbur is driven to insanity as he cannot stand his beloved country falling into the hands of someone else. Throughout this time period, many members of Manberg escape to join forces with Pogtopia. In a final Pogtopia conflict, the forces of Manberg and Pogtopia clash and Pogtopia takes the victory. They reclaim the land and Tubbo becomes the President. Everything seems to be going fine, however, Wilbur leaves the celebration and enters a small secret room that is presumably connected to 736 pieces of TNT under L’Manberg. Just as Wilbur is about to turn his back on his allies, his father finds him and asks “what are you doing”. Wilbur explains “the thing that I built this nation for doesn’t exist anymore... it’s over”. He repeats the infamous saying that happened before L’Manberg was blown up once before and reveals himself to be the traitor of his own nation: “It was never meant to be”. Destruction occurs and Wilbur forces his father to kill him. This is Wilbur’s last death.

5. Exile Conflict: After the war, citizens begin repairing the damages of the nation. Meanwhile, Tommy and, at the time, new member Ranboo set GeorgeNotFound’s house to flames. Tommy takes the fall for this as Dream pressures for Tubbo to exile Tommy, his best friend, as punishment. Ultimately it is decided that Tommy will be exiled, alone. Dream visits Tommy a lot during exile to manipulate him into thinking they were friends. Later, Dream blows up Tommy's exile home and Tommy runs away to live with Technoblade and tries to restore the allyship they once had. They stick together until Tommy and Tubbo forgive each other and Tommy leaves Techno. Tubbo accepts Tommy back into L’Manberg and at this point, Dream has both of Tommy’s prized discs.

6. End of the Disc Saga: Dream leaves Tommy a compass and tells him that only he and Tubbo are allowed to meet him where the compass leads, otherwise the discs will be gone forever. They meet up and Dream brings them to his lair where he shows his plans to collect prized possessions from every member of the SMP so he has control over them. Dream threatens that Tommy can choose between the discs or Tubbo’s last canon life. Tubbo tells Tommy to choose the discs as he says that Dream “described me as a pawn, and this is checkmate”. However, Punz, a merchant that Tommy paid in hopes to make amends, arrived with the rest of the SMP to Dream’s lair. They all discover the truth about how Dream wants to have blackmail on them all. Tommy takes 2 of Dream’s canon lives, all of his belongings, and sends him to an inescapable prison. Tommy secures the discs and the disc saga ends as Tommy and Tubbo listen to the discs at their favorite location.

7. Prison Arc*: Tommy has visited Dream in prison several times, but went to say goodbye to Dream for the last time before starting a new chapter in his life. However, while Tommy is inside, TNT goes off somewhere around the prison and it is forced into lockdown. Based on a contract Tommy signed, he had to stay in the prison until the guard figures out what happened. While they were trapped, Dream taunts him in a playful manner, but Tommy is still shaken about it as the prison reminds him of several traumatic moments that happened in his past (the L’Manberg final control room and exile). Tommy is told of a resurrection book that Dream supposedly has. Tommy is skeptical and lashes out on Dream questioning him on why Tommy should believe. Dream beats Tommy’s body and Tommy dies. His closest colleagues are told of his death and many blame themselves. Days later, Tommy is resurrected from Dream in the prison, however, nobody knows that he got resurrected. Dream and Tommy discover that 1 day on the SMP is 1 month in the afterlife, meaning Wilbur has been in the afterlife for 9 years also meaning that Wilbur is the most informed person on the SMP. Dream plots to bring Wilbur back to life as he thinks that he will get Wilbur to break him out of prison.

8. Blood Vines*: Mysterious red vines have covered the SMP and emerge from what they call the “Egg”. Member known as BadBoyHalo becomes closest with the vines as he can hear them talking to him. He tells many people that “the egg demands blood” and tries to get members to join the Egg’s side, yet many refuse.

WHERE IT IS HEADED

It doesn’t seem like any of the fans are going anywhere, especially considering SMP members continuously reach the top spots on Youtube’s trending page. The Minecraft community in general has begun to flourish during the COVID-19 quarantine, as it has brought back older players that need something to do while stuck inside as well as the new generation of kids consuming this type of entertainment. It is safe to say that the Dream SMP storyline will continue to captivate viewers through its original use of Minecraft at least until the plot ultimately ends. To find more in depth information about the Dream SMP plot as well as the players themselves, visit the Dream SMP Wiki at dreamteam.fandom.com.