#dsmp lore analysis

[bleue-flora]

Something that I see a lot is the reasoning that Dream’s motive is unity. That staged finale was about uniting the server against him to bring them together even if he couldn’t be apart of that. And honestly I’m just not sure that’s the case. For starters, in the big moments when he talks about his reasoning he doesn’t mention unity he mentions together, he mentions family, he mentions team.

[from early days]

“We just wanted to have a good, safe, productive team. And when one person has a tyranny over everybody else—that keeps killing them, then you can’t have a team.” [clip]

“Listen, from now on we’re going have a civilization, okay? That lives in harmony and… and there’s no ruler. Not even me—not even anybody.” [clip]

[Punz and Dream planning]

“Always, the goal has just been that—it’s all one united server that everybody follows the same rules, there’s no countries, there’s no—you know, any of this. It’s just… One giant like—family, right?” [clip]

[prison]

“I just wanted to… I just wanted to bring the server together. Have it be a happy family, you know?” [clip]

[finale]

“Once we know everything, we—we’re able to live and everyone can be invincible and everyone can live together and be in harmony and—and not have to worry about death or pain or anything, then it’ll be worth it. The ends justify the means.” [clip]

“I want everyone to able to live and be happy and together… and you’ve—you’ve ruined that—you’ve ruined that yourself. You’re the one who separates everyone!” [clip]

And I know for some people unity and together might seem synonymous, but in this context I don’t think they are. I think it’s important to realize that Dream wanted people to not be divided, he wanted them to be a happy family, but families aren’t always united. They don’t always agree, they aren’t always peaceful, they don’t always have the same goals or agenda or beliefs, but a close family always makes up in the end and when all is said and done, generally gets along and is there for each other.

Additionally, the way I’ve always understood it was that Dream didn’t want peace, he wanted people to do the right thing [clip] and he wanted people to be happy which means that conflicts where people are getting upset opposes that. Dead pets, items not being returned, houses being burnt, people being insulted, and offenders refusing to simply apologize [clip] that tends to cause a conflict without resolution that leaves a lasting divide and unhappiness, which goes against Dream’s goal. But I don’t think he was against violence or wars as a whole, after all those happen at the beginning, when things were still simple. The point was that people stayed as a whole happy or content and as long as no one got too upset it was fine.

To keep people happy and safe, Dream also needed to prevent any one person from holding the power, because they would abuse it and use it against people, which we see happen over and over again. This is one of the reasons why he had a problem with Wilbur’s self appointed presidency, it’s why he kills George early on and takes his stuff when he became op before everyone else, it is why he kills Tubbo’s villagers. He didn’t want anyone to be too overpowered and then use that power to harm others. Dream considered himself the mediator and one to balance out the sides, the one to make sure people had their stuff back when all was said and done, the one to help people get revenge for their dead pet. Yes, he broke the very rules he made, which people love to point out makes him a hypocrite and therefore his gripe with Tommy has no footing, but notice what he says in the finale:

“You break all the rules. Tommy, there wasn’t even that many rules. They were simple things: respect others, don’t destroy things. You broke everything—every rule.” [clip]

“Respect others,” that’s the first thing he mentions, because that’s the most important. That’s the one that Tommy broke that bothered Dream the most. It wasn’t really about the stealing or the killing or griefing, after all George and Sapnap did that too. No, it was the lack of respect he had for the people he hurt that bothered Dream the most. It was that lack of respect which led people to be unhappy even when the war was over and sustaining that divide even after the war, which goes against the civilization Dream strived for.

It’s not about unity, it’s about the opposite of exclusion. It’s about Sapnap and Punz who were both friends with clingy duo, but not able to join L’manberg because they are American. It was the divide and separation. Like Ranboo who because of nations and politics struggled to be friends with both Techno and L’manberg.

Dream didn’t want people to be truly united in a cause nor did he want true peace - the absence of conflict and chaos because you only truly get those by enforcing them through dictatorship and oppression when you force everyone to have the same opinion and obey. But Dream didn’t want to be a tyrant, that’s one of the reasons why he kept handing the power to a king. He wanted everyone to live in harmony by doing the right thing themselves and he thought that if he could keep the server from splitting that they would.

So then, the reason I think he put himself in prison and planned staged finale, wasn’t about uniting the server even if that’s against himself, but because it was the only way he could see a path to be allowed and accepted back into society. That if he served his time in prison maybe they would see him as a person again and think he got better and let him out, which I’ve talked more about [here] and [here].

“Maybe—maybe I’ll be better and then you’ll let me out.” [clip]

He wanted a family. As Tommy points out in the finale: he just wanted to have friends. He didn’t want to ever be alone. So it doesn’t make sense for his goal to be a self sacrificial move to unite everyone against him for the sake of unity, he wanted to bring people together into a happy society again, where they spend the afternoon fishing and playing hide and seek, not wars and executions and politics. But he wanted to be apart of that society and family too, because he didn’t want to be alone. Honestly, he probably wanted to be friends with everyone, but the division was preventing that, the propaganda was preventing that, and so prison became the only option he could see to undo that. To allow him back into the family that he was trying to keep together. That’s what staged finale was about - protection for him and Punz and the opportunity of reconciliation [post]. If he really just wanted unity then he would’ve have been fairly pleased with Doomsday, where most everyone sided against his side. If he wanted the whole server against him, then staged finale was an abysmal success, as he points out to Sam in Daedalus plenty of people like Techno weren’t involved. But of course it was never about unity because that doesn’t make sense, it was about friends, and family, bringing people together so that no one was alone and excluded, forming a simple happy community again…

[starlit-bawka]

One of the many reasons I love dsmp is for all the worldbuilding potential it has

We’re given so many places and countries and CHURCHES like there’s religions in this server!! And future generations!

There’s so many different ways you could interpret everything there, so many different cultures you can explore and create and I think that that’s really special

[sakurasuu]

You know I'm glad that as a fandom we all agreed that c!Dream has the most CHOPPED haircuts humanity has ever witnessed

Dude can afford a mercenary but not a hairdresser smh

[pizzainator]

I watched Jacks stream oh my gosh...

I thought I could handle a Dsmp stream in 2024 but nope. just- that felt SO much like just a stream that would happen in like 2021. the wandering around falling into random creeper holes, chat telling jack to get philza to help him, and to find michael, the mobs interrupting and how unplanned it all was. unscripted lore my beloved forever and ever.

the way that it's like in tommy and jacks conversation- they're talking about things in character that also relates to (presumably) their feelings in real life. just gosh...

when jack and tommy said their goodbyes and jack looked back at technos house to see the sun rising- like its so perfect in a way that the incidental roleplay always was. Like in the way I know I'm reading into it but it still works and it feels like real life when something happens and you find yourself in that moment and life looks almost like a movie- everything in it's proper place for the scene- but it's all just coincidence. the sun didn't rise because a writer wrote that it would. the sun just rises and falls and the conversation just happens to end at that exact moment.

idk just- I really felt it. It captured the feeling of peak dreamsmp that I've missed so much.

I don't even have a problem with nuke ending personally I think it's perfectly fine as an ending. How I've always seen it is: Everyones been hurt by everyone and violence begets violence so the great final act is nukes that will kill everyone that have all ready been launched so it can't be taken back. Then in the prison tommy sees the early parts of the server through Dreams pov and sees the good that was there at the start and how much that has been corrupted since and he wants that simplicity again (he and dream were even friends at one point) before everything went terrible for everyone. Dream turns his back on his plan that he's been building up to for so long cause what he really wants is the same thing as tommy. for things to be simple like at the start. but it's too late- its too far gone. the nukes have already been launched there's no going back. just the hope that maybe in another world things could've been different.

(also the added context of nuke ending being an elaborate character/relationship/map reset to setup a season 2 that never happened.)

So there's my nuke ending defense lol. I know it wasn't very popular with a vast amount of people and that's okay too.

I think ending something like dsmp was never gonna be easy or satisfy everybody, with how many individual povs there are and storylines. I always expected there to be things left unfinished. (unfinished symphony ;) Even if that's pretty unsatisfying for us viewers. (there's a particular stream I really wish had happened with foolish, dream, and eret)

idk there's a post I always remember when thinking about the ending that was like: "Maybe they couldn't write a happier ending at that time in their lives." (super paraphrasing) obviously talking about techno's passing. it's a bit assumptive but the CC's have talked publicly about how much that has affected them (of course it did). With something like that I imagine giving your minecraft server/roleplay character a happy ending is the last thing on your mind.

Todays stream felt like grief and nostalgia and complicated feelings for a time that has passed but still left it's marks on you:

“are you happier?” “I'm getting there”

like, that just says it all.

[qpenpals]

i’m having thoughts about c!tubbo in 2024 and we love that for me

tubbo has been so many things he was a soldier, a revolutionary, a spy, a president, a husband, a father, a friend and something came of that, tubbo had power, something so many people on the server yearned and fought for and tubbo had it because of those people,

he learned and it came from the his under schlatt, the abuse he had to endure, it came from the wars he fought against dream over and over, it came from listening to the obsessive ramblings of wilbur, from the final disc fight, and from the green festival mimicking his own execution,

tubbo learned from his experiences and that is what made him powerful because while he held on to the past he also moved forward, he allowed the lessons taught from the past to guide him, and while they might have guided him in questionable ways at times he had power because his experience caused him to know how to hurt others as and/or even more than he had

anyways take a c!tubbo doodle

[nomsfaultau]

RELIGION? IN MY DSMP? MORE LIKELY THEN YOU THINK

Anyways would you like to have a debate like Ancient Greek scholars about religious imagery on the DSMP

“…and every revival only births a perversion of the original, and yet a return to form and renewal of the mission. Wilbur brought back to ambition, Tommy to fear, Techno to anarchy. This is because they were not properly revived through holy means, instead in symbols associated with satanic imagery; a grimoire, a totem. The revival book’s association with Dream echos ideas of Satan offering power that ultimately corrupts. Other symbols of Christianity show up beyond souls, revival, and satanic imagery, likewise tied to Dream. In the garden of Eden—”

“Golden apple as a symbol of the temptation of power! Of course of course! Knowledge as power, the fall of man from grace. This shows particular on the summit meeting between Techno and Dream, wherein a god apple is given by Dream. This falls neatly into parallel with Eden, where Eve is lured with the promise of having the same wisdom and thus power as god. It is the temptation presented, power promised in the same breath as suffering and conflict…”

[cloffmoff]

did anyone else get full body chills when tuning into tommy's last dsmp stream and he was playing 'It's All Over But the Crying'? it was a crazy good song to play in that moment because it's so accurate to c!tommy's character and his relationship with dream and the rest of the server

'Friends all over know I'm trying, to forget about how much I care for you' this could be applied to wilbur and how tommy spiraled after he left, it could be about how he was willing to sacrifice himself for tubbo, and (my favorite) it could be about how everyone on the server knows tommy is trying to get away from dream, but it's like a train wreck watching him fall back to this 'I need to kill dream' mentality that ultimately ends the server's storyline, because what else could but this guy's insane passion? Really?

'It's all over, but the dreaming...poor little dream, that keeps trying to come true' I LOVED this line of the song because it makes you realize that the life you wanted for tommy and his friends is probably never going to be actualized except for in your mind (also the tsmp lol we stay winning), which is why it's a dream- but I also love the phrase 'poor little dream' because if you're thinking about the song from c!tommy's perspective talking about c!dream, he often refers to c!dream as a 'sad, insecure little man' even though tommy is terrified of him, the way he's a 'poor little dream' that will never 'have' tommy again. This line felt like a little 'fuck you' to c!dream and we take those when we can get them 😔

And finally, the line 'it's all over but the Crying, and nobody's crying, but me' is such a profound look into c!tommy and how the fans that love his character act about the story. The entire DSMP only works because people assign intense value to otherwise meaningless things (a british nation on a minecraft server, music disks, a traumatized fictional minecraft block boy) and c!tommy's drive to his character is partially because he wants, needs, to have things that only he has assigned value to, and we as the audience want these things with him. Essentially, the dsmp is over, 'It's All over', but we the fans are the only people crying because we have assigned such weighty value to this server and I think that's SUPER cool. /srs

TLDR, cc!tommy is an evil genius for picking this song featured in fallout to represent the last ever content of his character, listen to It's All Over But the Crying by The Ink Spots, the dsmp is one of the most unique fanbases out there.

[cearthduo]

Decoding c!George: Discussing the fandoms mischaracterization and disregard of Gnf [Explaining George's character.]

Note : I will not be using "c!" because i find it tedious, but this is about the dsmp characters. I will be using she/her pronouns for George throughout this blog and all of the following ones. If this bothers you, feel free to read this using whichever pronouns you prefer. Enjoy.

I couldn't count on seven hands the amount of times i've been hit with "Does George even have lore??" in response to me mentioning her at all. Due to how obnoxiously genuine I find that question usuallyis, I decided to start a little series! In it, I'll be going into depth about George's lore whilst critiquing, hating, and debunking common potrayals/headcanons for the character.

This post will focus on George's general character traits, while the next ones will go more in depth on specific arcs, details, dynamics and theories. The next planned posts will be about George's lore and Dnf.

Alright, now that the introductory portion is out of the way, I can start with the analysis. The first step to understanding a character is figuring who the character is. So our first section will be talking about the basics of c!George as well as common potrayals, misinformation and more below the cut.

The bones of c!George ))

Let me also get this out out the way first and foremost: George a fully developed character. Traits of ccGeprge should Not impact your portrayal of her AT ALL.

With that out of the way, how do you portray George correctly? Who is this character? What are her motivations?

At her core, George is actually a very similar character to Dream. George also craves power and control. They have the same aspirations (that being the servers reunion and a return to the early days of the smp), the same opinions on L'manberg and Tommy (George's takes during the pog v swag debate seem to parrot Dream's (or rather, Dream parrots George later)), the same violent outbursts in response to a loss of control or respect, and the same belief that they are above the rules of the server.

A big part of c!George's character is her obsession with strength and power. This has been a core part of her since the very beginning of the server. Prior to L'manbergs existence, George spent the majority of her time maxing out her armor and weapons. She was the first member to have fully enchanted gear, and it was op. To the point that Dream and Sapnap wanted to strip her of everything because she was using her power to terrorize the server and they couldn't fight back. Due to this, George was the first character to ever be labeled a tyrant.

George also tends to cling to titles that represent power. The most prominent example of this is the dethronement conflict, where George tries to keep the title of king. It's to the point where she plans a takeover of the entire smp in order to reinstate herself as leader. George also seems very keen on taking control of L'manberg, saying at one point that "It could've all been [hers]" had she made it to the election. In the godhood stream, George continuously refers to herself as "God" even denying XD's divinity. When Karl says there's already a god of the smp, George replies with "I am God." She even has the confidence to call herself God to XD's face. She seems to see herself as powerful even when she lacks power. A good example of this is her telling Eryn that she's king of the smp, despite having lost the title an entire year prior.

Contrary to most potrayals, George is a very social and energetic character. She'll talk to and hang out with anyone on the server, despite any negative relations. People typically portray her as being constantly sluggish or lazy, but this portrayal is incredibly inaccurate. George doesn't sleep for long periods of time because she's tired, but because she lacks the ability to wake up. This is shown during the elections where George is genuinely upset and bothered by the fact she wasn't able to attend. Whenever she's actually active on the server, she stays in action; running around, building things, pvping, gathering resources, etc. Her constant sleeping/dreaming does not define her character and is instead something that's seen as negative by George herself.

So George isn't apathetic towards events, but what about towards other characters? For the most part, people who portray her as not caring for others is completely accurate. George doesn't care about other people being hurt/dying or about countries exploding. Especially if these things are in her interest. George only reacts negatively to her own countries and friends being hurt or threatened. This is most noticeable during the godhood stream, where George becomes panicked when Dream talks about destroying Kinoko. George also worries when Sapnap and Dream get in an argument during the dethronement, repeatedly asking them why they're fighting. She also tends to defend her friends from mobs, showing that she has care for their safety.

It's very common for people to lean into George's "apathy" in their portrayals. Although it is a part of her character, it's commonly over-exaggerated or misplaced. Usually, George's lack of awareness is accidental. She lacks a lot of facts about the server and its members due to her sleeping for so long. Many people seem to think this is on purpose, as if she purposefully avoids events. This is incorrect. There are many examples of George trying to be a part of the main server. Some examples include: George wanting to build her house closer to the action and refusing to live with Sam because his home was too far away, clinging onto the vice president title despite easily being able to drop out after missing the elections, trying to help blow up parts of L'manberg after the war, and her asking other characters for tours and updates. I could list a million more instances of George actively trying to join in on the lore despite not actually being able to contribute much, but it would take up too much of the blog.

There are, however, instances of George having a strange care for L'manberg. She seems upset about it's destructive, which is likely because she blames herself (at least partially) for it's destruction. That being said, she seemed to have a dislike for new L'manberg and only cares for the Manberg era of the country (likely because she was in power.)

So far, you have a character who is obsessed with power, strength, and titles. One who's very social and energetic, who tries to be a part of the server despite never being able to, who cares for her friends and property, and who wants to return to a more peaceful era.

Is that all there is to George's character? No, of course not. George is a very complex character and these are only her base characteristics. Unfortunately, this is getting long and probably hard to understand. So, I'll leave it here for now and in the next portion I'll talk about the dream lore and what it tells us about her character.

Also

I hate writing my thoughts down. So I actually might not ever speak again. Especially because nobody fucking cares about this character. UGH.

[hopalongfairywren]

Also I've said this a bunch of times but I'm just... c!puffy's reaction to her friends betraying her and slaughtering her son in front of her is immediately labeled as a villain arc by the fandom. Coupled with one of her next streams being titled 'from mother to monster' even though... she never really ends up doing anything worse than being a dick to c!Ponk a couple times later. I honestly think now that it was never meant to be a 'villain arc' or at least I hope not, but instead how Puffy percieved herself after the banquet, and after her hero complex got wounded. Her post banquet ranting is more of an angry, traumatized and grieving parent venting than some epic plotting revenge girlboss moment. Even if the fansong made about that was so fucking cool.

Seriously though... c!Puffy my girl. You have so many unfinished plotlines and shunted narrative potential and I love you please take a nap ma'am.

[bleue-flora]

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

Specially this.

And this.

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

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

[dontcryminecraft]

wilbur's last words

i was rewatching the november 16 clip, and as phil picks up wilbur's things, right after killing him, wilbur speaks up again to tell him that dream had lied about the lack of a traitor and that technoblade had 8 withers in his inventory. phil panics, joins the other vc, and shares this information, and the clip ends. I want to completely rewatch the vod(s), but before i do that-

wilbur's last words. so, i'm taking his last words in this moment to be that message. and like, that imagery. phil, cradling his son's body as he breathes his last breath, and wilbur decides to happily tell phil that more destruction is to come. technoblade has more to offer. 8 withers worth of destruction, hidden away and only wilbur knew about it. The destruction of his nation, which phil had just failed to stop, isn't over.

he doesn't call himself a traitor, however. he tells the AUDIENCE earlier in the stream that he's the traitor. when quackity asks who the traitor is, wilbur looks at the camera and raises his hand. he's quiet, however, so nobody in the vc and "in canon" actually knows. he's admitting to the audience, breaking the fourth wall, to let us know the ending. But when talking to phil, he doesn't. Phil, who had just canonized that they're father and son. He still can't, when faced with a real person he's talking to, admit that he's betraying his nation. it's HIS NATION, after all. He's not betraying anything. THEY betrayed HIM. THEY cast him out. THEY changed. WILBUR is just making sure that it dies in his image, with no further damage done to HIS SYMPHONY.

he's like schrödinger's traitor or some shit. In his mind, he is both a traitor, where he embraces his role as a villain who is going against everyone, and the betrayed, where his nation cast him out and spit on him and changed. He is whatever justifies his actions at the moment, desperate to fit into the role he carved for himself and refusing to step out of it no matter how many people beg.

it's a very interesting way to interpret him, to me

[rat-rosemary]

I'm just saying his to make it obvious, but I'm not about to crucify people who continue to explore the dsmp character of Wilbur Soot from now on

[magpigment]

i just remembered something!!

some of the qsmp fans who were around in the dsmp might remember this one stupid bit that some people on the server did, with the posters the Eggpire left around. one of them, when you rotate the middle panel, makes it look like it says ‘GEG’, which people of course found hilarious.

now, the point of this post:

c!slimecicle canonically bore witness to at the very least every major event that happened on the server. he also canonically bore witness to rather insignificant happenings (the building of certain places, for example, that had little to no lore significance). the chances of him seeing that poster saying ‘GEG’ is pretty high.

NOW, i’m not saying that there’s any correlation to that bit and q!slime naming his alter ego, who’s a funky little egg, Gegg, BUT!

i do think it’s a very interesting coincidence that i’m positive was completely on accident since irl charlie slimecicle would’ve had no idea this ever occurred on the dsmp seeing as he logged on like four times XD.

[thecownamedcat]

Controversial opinion alert controversial opinion alert

Should also preface that I have not watched the nuke ending cc!dreams voice makes me sick

I think everything up until c!dreams death actually happened which is why the c!clingy make sense and don’t act like they were child abuse survivors written by a man who finds csa hilarious everything after dream is killed is c!dream bleeding out and dying him being revived by c!punz (since according to the damage control stream that users of the revive book can’t be revived) c!dream being saved by c!punz getting the upper hand forcing c!Tommy to destroy his disc (which in the story represents c!Tommys autonomy) and c!Tommy’s apology and season two world are all aspects of c!dream imagining an escape for himself while bleeding out in his cell hell from what I’ve heard in the last stream there’s a flashback to the beginning of the series which i read as his life flashing before his eyes

[ibithesnail]

me personally i think joker!zam’s worst sin is that he has destroyed and betrayed himself for nothing. but maybe that’s just me

[namehere-ro]

I know I’m reading too much into it

but when phil fit and the eggs talking to bob and they commented about his haircut and make over Q!Phil is first to point out the ankle bracelet (gps) and telling him about it that he being located all the time and saying “srry I didn’t how to tell you that” , that reminded me to c!Philza when he was put under house arrest he was given kinda the same thing ankle monitor , I think it’s was the first thing he noticed other than ofc bob hair(lol)