#lucem ferto scripts

[lucemferto]

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PH1LZA (or Why Philza is a Victim of Narrative Circumstance)

Heyo! Per request I am posting the script to my video of the same name here on tumblr. I must warn you that just reading the script will probably not give you the full experience, so I would encourage you to watch the video (linked above).

There might also still be a lot of grammatical errors in the text, because I don’t proofread.

Intro

LAST TIME ON LUCEM FERTO

Okay, so! I don’t want this to turn into a reaction channel OR a Dream SMP channel for that matter! [echo]

Well, I lied.

[Intro to “Luc is pretentious about the funny blockmen. Episode 2”]

I swear, I’m working on other stuff. It’s just that my dumb lizard brain has only capacity for one interest at a time!

So, something you might not know about me, is that I am on tumblr – who am I kidding, most of you will know me from tumblr. Before starting this whole YouTube thing, I thought that website died years ago – but as per usual reality proves me wrong. I’m also on Twitter and Reddit, but I get the most engagement on tumblr – by far! – and I need those sweet, sweet numbers for the serotonin!

Anyways, one of my favourite past-times on tumblr is to razz Philza Hardcore Minecraft – that’s his full name – for being a frankly awful father [clicking away] – wait, wait, no! Philza fans, this isn’t a hit piece on him, I promise! Please come back!

This is video is meant to be a companion piece to my previous video about Technoblade and the Doomsday event – you can tell by the shared nomenclature – so you should probably watch that one before you proceed. Unless you don’t want to, which is also perfectly understandable.

DISCLAIMER: This video is mostly about the character Philza plays on the Dream SMP. Whenever I talk about the content creator Philza, I will say so properly. Also, Spoiler Warning for Dream SMP Season 2.

… What is that? You’re wondering what the Dream SMP is? Well, if you had just watched the other video like I told you to do, you would know, because I explained it pretty well there. But in case you don’t know, here’s the cliff notes.

Dream SMP is the hottest New Media Series on Twitch right now! It has it all: gaslighting, child soldiers, Machiavellian political intrigue, Hamilton roleplay, desecration of the dead, shounen protagonists, SO! MUCH! AMNESIA! Filicide, furries, a red egg that’s definitely homophobic and teenagers inventing nuclear warfare. And it’s all done in Minecraft – yes, the funny block game where the only way to emote is to crouch.

And you say the perfect brief doesn’t exist!

Now, you might be wondering, why do I want to talk about this? Well, it’s because Content Creator Philza is one of least controversial internet personalities that I can think of. That man exudes pure comfort. So, it’s just very, very amusing to me that his character became one of the most controversial figures on the SMP, only outshone by Tommy and Technoblade.

And it’s not just amusing, it’s also extremely interesting! I want to dig deep to uncover and discuss the dynamics behind why that is. How did it come to this point? How did a man who appears genuinely so pleasant create a character that inspires so much discourse!

Now, if you watched that Technoblade video – like I told you to twice now! – you might know, that I am the resident character analyses hater of fandom! And that impression is false and slanderous! Don’t tell other people that I hate character analyses! I love them!

It’s just that, in the Dream SMP in particular, there is an abundance of character analyses! Every streamer has at least two very good essays written about them, exploring every possible angle to view their characters and backgrounds and everything. All I’m saying is: I don’t have anything to add on that front.

So, instead I want to pursue a different approach – something, that I feel is a bit underrepresented in the fandom! And I’m not just talking narrative analysis – that’s right, this episode we’re going even more pretentious! – I’m talking Transtextual Analysis!

Now, what is Transtextuality? Well, unfortunately it has very little to do with actual Trans people – #transrights, just in case that wasn’t obvious – but instead describes a mode of analysis with which to put – to quote French literary theorist Gérard Genette – “the text in a relationship, whether obvious or concealed, with other texts”.

Basically, you know how the L’Manburg War of Independence heavily quotes and borrows from the hit musical Hamilton? That’s transtextuality! A lot of the analyses surrounding how Tommy mirrors the Greek hero Theseus, who was invoked by Technoblade multiple times in the series, are already doing transtextual analysis! So, it’s really not something that’s new to the Dream SMP fandom.

But how does this apply to Philza and how he is looked at and judged by his parental skills? Well, there are multiple forms of transtextuality, two of which we will discuss today.

But before we continue, I gotta do that annoying YouTuber thing. I know these videos don’t look like much, but I spend a really long time making them. I work fulltime and I try my best to keep up, but sometimes I can’t. So please, like, subscribe, comment to give me some algorithm juice – I really need it – and most importantly share it! Share it with your friends, share it with your family – I’m sure Grandma is very interested in what I have to say about Philza Minecraft.

And I’m trying to be better! If I sound at all different for this video, it’s because I finally bought a new pop filter, so I can hit my plosives without it sounding like there’s a thunderstorm in my room. I hope it makes a difference; it was a very cheap pop filter, so maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it sounds worse – that would be bad!

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, CHILD NEGLEGT!

 Intertextuality: Why is Dadza?

You know what’s really interesting about the Dream SMP – aside from, you know, most things about it? Very few of the characters have concrete, fleshed-out backstories – and that’s pretty weird! In no other medium or genre could you get away with something like that – at least for long-form storytelling!

So, how does Dream SMP get away with this? Well, it’s because every character on the Dream SMP is basically a self-insert – and I don’t mean that in the “This character is based on me”-kinda way, but in the “This character, for all intents and purposes, is me!”-way. This, like many things that are fascinating about the Dream SMP, is owed to the fact that this series didn’t start off as a continuous drama – it started off as a Let’s Play.

And while we can talk about how someone’s on-camera/on-mic persona is in some ways a character, it’s still miles off of being an actual, fully-realized, separate character in a storyline.

This is where Intertextuality comes in.

Intertextuality is a subset of Transtextuality. It describes how the hypertext, which is the text, you’re currently engaged with, uses another text, the hypotext, to supplement itself. The interconnection the hypertext establishes with the hypotext, through stuff like allusion for example, uh-hum [Hamilton], can colour how an audience interprets the hypertext. Basically, Hamilton and Theseus are the hypotexts; the Dream SMP is the hypertext.

So, what does this have to do with backstory? Simple: The backstories of the characters in the Dream SMP consist basically of nothing but intertextual references. Through intertextuality their content effectively substitutes their character’s backstory.

You can see it everywhere. Wilbur’s and Schlatt’s relationship and rivalry is hugely enriched, if you are aware of their shared history like SMPLive, for example – I think anyway. I haven’t watched SMPLive, because … there’s only so many hours in the day and I cannot keep up with the Dream SMP and catch up on SMPLive and live a healthy life – which I already don’t do, so…

BadBoyHalo’s and Skeppy’s relationship, which has become the crux of the Crimson-Storyline of Seasons 2 and 3, is hugely supplemented if you know that they’re also very close as streamers and in real life.

Another great example of intertextuality is basically Technoblade’s entire deal. If you just look at him completely within the text of the Dream SMP and try to transplant his entrance to any other medium: It would be extremely weird! Like, he’s just this guy that comes in in the middle of a very climatic arc, no build-up, no explanation what his deal is, and he’s treated like he has always been there. In any other medium that just wouldn’t work – at least not without a flashback or some sort of exposition!

But because of stuff like Minecraft Mondays, the Potato Wars, his Duel against Dream and SMPEarth, we understand that he is a Big Deal!

Anyways, to bring all of this back to Philza Minecraft: What kind of hypotext informs how the audience sees his character? Well, this is where I will have to talk about SBI.

SBI is an acronym that stand for State Bank of India, the 43rd largest bank in the world and…

It also stands for Sleepy Bois Incorporated. Sleepy Bois Incorporated is a loose assembly of content creators, consisting of Philza, Wilbur Soot, TommyInnit and Technoblade. It is most well-known for its very endearing family dynamic – a dynamic that is frequently acknowledged and played up by the creators involved. Tommy is the youngest brother, Wilbur and Techno are the two older brothers and Philza is of course the dad. And when I say, it’s played up, I really mean it! Wilbur seems to be especially enamoured with the idea and leaves no opportunity untaken to bring it up – which we will come back to.

And I’m not saying that they’re faking this and this is somehow an act. While I know none of these people personally, it appears to me, that this is genuinely how they interact – if a little exaggerated for the streaming experience. Even when they’re not consciously playing into the family dynamic, their interactions still very much lend themselves to that interpretation by the viewers.

Philza especially just radiates Dad-Friend energy – so much so that it has become a huge part of his brand identity – yay, I can bring that back (check out my Christmas video if you want to hear me ramble about that). The nickname Dadza stuck even before SBI was a thing.

So, even if we completely disregard SBI – which we shouldn’t for reasons I’ll get back to – Philza has cultivated an image of strong paternal guidance. He is, in my opinion completely deservedly, regarded very positively. He is highly respected and in turn seen as a voice of reason.

All of this would eventually inform the hypotext of the character Philza within Dream SMP.

 Interlude: Before Dadza & November 16th

Okay, so now we have established that a) Dream SMP heavily hinges on intertextual readings by the audience to supplement character backstory and b) that Philza’s entire deal is that he’s the dad-friend – more specifically that he’s the dad of SBI (not the bank). I think you know where this is going.

So, yeah, ever since it was on the table that Philza could join the Dream SMP, it was immediately assumed that he would take on the paternal guardian role all these traumatized people on that server so desperately needed – and with good reason! Like I said before, the audience at this point was trained to take intertextual interpretations as basically canon or at the very least canon-adjacent.

I want to emphasize that this is most likely not done deliberately. I’m sure content creators Wilbur and Philza didn’t sit there and said: “Yes! We will rely entirely on the audience’s inclination to interpret our characters intertextually to define character Philza!”. Like, obviously that did not happen.

But it’s also important to remember that unlike with traditional media and the fanbases cultivated there, the separation between the Dream SMP and its audience is almost non-existent – and purposely so. The story events are streamed live, Chats are acknowledged in canon and even outside of livestreams creators are extremely involved with the fandom. So, the weight of fan-expectations is equally amplified and will more likely be incorporated into the writing process. Case in point:

[Wilbur “I miss Philza”/Philza about Wilbur]

During Wilbur’s villain arc, even before his official involvement, Philza became a prevalent point of discussion. The hope that he would be the one to snap Wilbur out of his downward spiral was not only wish-fulfilment on behalf of the fans; it also very much played off of the intertextual reading of the SBI-dynamic in relation to the Dream SMP.

Of course, this still doesn’t make Philza and Wilbur canonically blood-related – but it definitely used the “paternal”-dynamic of SBI to build-up tension and drama.

And that ultimately brings us to November 16th. The Grand Finale of Season 1 and Philza’s first canonical appearance on the SMP.

Now, for this I want to pull back from the transtextual analysis and talk about simply narrative analysis: What is Philza’s narrative purpose on November 16th?

Philza serves as the last threshold on Wilbur’s Villain’s Journey – to appropriate Vogler’s version of the monomyth for a minute here – he is what Vogler calls the “Threshold Guardian”. He is the last enemy the Hero faces before completing his quest – in this particular case Wilbur’s quest is to blow up L’Manberg. Multiple people have at this point tried to dissuade him from this course of action: Tommy, Quackity, Niki and others. So how come this Philza moment is not redundant in terms of dynamics compared to these prior scenes?

Well, it’s through our intertextual understanding of Wilbur’s and Phil’s relationship. Because Philza does not just occupy the role of the Threshold Guardian – he is also implicitly the Mentor. Before Phil there was no character in the storyline that held a higher position of moral authority than Wilbur – Dream and Schlatt, while at points more powerful in terms of actual authority, were never positioned by the narrative as Wilbur’s superiors in the same way as Wilbur was to Tommy, Tubbo or even Niki.

Before November 16th all challenges Wilbur faced were from people narratively subordinated to him. But that trend is broken with Phil. That is why he is the Threshold Guardian, why this confrontation is at the climax of Wilbur’s arc. Because Phil is the last thing tethering Wilbur to whatever morality he held before his villain arc; Phil is the last, moral obstacle Wilbur has to discard before gaining his reward.

And, just a quick sidenote, because I’ve seen it around the fandom a bunch: When I’m referring to Wilbur denouncing his morality, I’m using that in terms of narrative analysis. I’m mentioning it, because Wilbur’s character can very easily be read as mentally ill or neurodivergent and some people have – rightly! – pointed out that the excessive vilifying when talking about his character is … problematic, to say the least.

So, I just want to make clear, this isn’t a character analysis, I’m being purposely broad when talking about Wilbur and Phil.

In the end, Wilbur takes that final step and gets his “reward”: As his final request his mentor takes his life and vanquishes the evil – the dragon of Wilbur’s story slays the dragon of L’Manburg. It’s very Shakespearean in its tragedy – but beyond the larger theatrics it’s not really used to further characterize Phil – at least in the context of Season 1. There’s not a lot of focus on his characters internal conflict during November 16th.

Phil, like Techno, is very utilitarian in how content creator Wilbur writes him: He serves as a moment of hype; an obstacle Wilbur has to face; a participant in the tragic climax of Wilbur’s character and ultimately takes on his implicit and expected role of mentor and guiding figure to the rest of L’Manburg.

I think not a lot of people talk about how Philza does not join Technoblade during November 16th. He takes the side of L’Manburg – he fights against the withers and he joins Tommy, Tubbo and the others at the L’Mantree, thus framing him as loyal to the L’Manburg administration – even though Season 2 would make his loyalty to Techno central to his character. But more on that later.

What’s also important about November 16th is that this is the day when the general intertextual interpretation became canonized text.

[You’re my son!]

Wilbur is made Phil’s canonical, biological son. The intertextual interpretation of SBI as it pertains to these two characters on the SMP was completely reinforced by the narrative. Or to put it in Fandom terms: The headcanon became actual canon. At least when it came to Wilbur … but what about Philza’s “other” children?

Well, that leads to our second form of transtextual analysis:

 Paratextuality: Is Dadza?

These titles are just getting better and better.

The Paratext is defined as all those things in a published work that accompany the text. It comes in two forms: One of them is the Peritext, which are non-diegetic elements directly surrounding the text – like chapter titles, author’s notes, and stuff like that. Translated to the medium of the Dream SMP, it would be stuff like this:

[Examples]

And, trust me, I could make a whole separate video about how people on the SMP use their peritext as a tool for storytelling – I’m looking at you, Ranboo – but that’s not what we will talk about in the context of Dadza.

Instead, we will focus on the second form of Paratext, the Epitext, which consists of all authorial and editorial discussions taking place outside of the text. That’s stuff like interviews, private letters or J. K. Rowling’s Twitter Account – you know, before she decided to become a full-time asshole.

[Wilbur: Transrights]

After Season 1 ended, Wilbur indulged pretty heavily in providing epitext for the Dream SMP, something he had not done prior to November 16th. His paratextual additions ranged from the playful, like assigning DnD alignments to various SMP members, to the extremely impactful, like the whole three lives system!

You probably think, you know where this is going. Wilbur provided some epitext about how Tommy and Techno either are or are not biologically related to him … and I have to be honest I thought that too. But then I began looking into the impenetrable web that is the SBI-canon on the Dream SMP and found this!

[Ghostbur explains family]

So, it wasn’t paratext, it was just straight text. Said in character, in canon, without any implication that we the viewers should question this. The text of the SBI family dynamic was explicitly linked to Dream SMP-exclusive lore, namely Fundy being Wilbur’s and Sally the Salmon’s son. This is as clear as Philza’s anguished declaration on November 16th in establishing the intertext as text. And because Wilbur also had a very heavy hand in the discussion of paratext around that time, it gave his character’s words even more “canonical” weight. Metatextually speaking, this very much read like the author giving exposition through his character – exposition that we should understand as reliable.

And, by the way, before I continue, I need to give a huge, huge shoutout to kateis-cakeis on tumblr, I hope I pronounced that right, who was just so quick in providing me with these crucial clips. Without him I would have looked for days because these people don’t archive their shit! And the Dream SMP Wiki was NO help, by the way! I love what you guys do, but stuff like this belongs in the Trivia section on characters’ pages!

Anyways, basically during the entirety of early Season 2 the SBI family dynamic was basically canon to the SMP. Sometimes it was only alluded implicitly, again letting the intertext fill out the rest.

[Philza clips]

But just as often it was just explicitly talked about – both in the text and in the paratext.

[Fundy clip/Wilbur “Twins” clip/Tommy clip]

So, I know what you’re thinking: “Why is this part called paratext, if the entire family tree is just textual”. Well, that last clip might give you a hint, as to what I will talk about. Notice how Tommy, one of the people most directly impacted by the canonization of SBI lore, is both unaware of and seems generally unenthused about it, to put it nicely? Well, that would soon turn out to be a much bigger deal than anyone could have imagined as he wasn’t the only one.

[Technoblade decanonizes SBI]

Yeah …

This happened on 20th of December. Regular viewers of this channel will remember that I put out a 90-second joke video, where I complain about this very development. And while I was mostly kidding around, the core idea is still true. The paratext provided by Technoblade and established text were in direct contradiction with one another – and that brought a lot of confusion into the fandom. Confusion, that would soon be followed by frustration.

Because Techno only decanonized himself as part of the SBI family dynamic – but what about Tommy and Tubbo, the latter of which was incorporated into the dynamic exclusively within the lore of the Dream SMP. Was this still canon or wasn’t it?

What followed was a muddled mess of contradictions, intertextual implications, text and paratext in conflict with each another. It was for the most part inscrutable to figure out how Tommy and Philza related to one another. I’ll spare you every comment made about this – mostly because I want to spare myself from looking for all of them.

In the end, the current status is that their familial relationship is … unclear. Philza said, again in paratext, that it’s ultimately up to the writers to decide, whether or not Tommy is his son … which, I personally think he and Tommy should be the ones to establish that, but I’ll come back to that later.

But why is all of this important anyway? Why would this ambiguity create such an uproar, such controversy – especially when it comes to Tommy’s character? What makes Tommy’s and Philza’s relationship such a target for discussion in the fandom?

Well … this is where we will have to talk about the storyline of Season 2.

Interlude II: Tommy’s Exile and Dadza in Season 2

Okay, Season 2. This is where the spoilers are, so I will just sneakily drop this again. It took me five seconds to google this gif and I will milk it for every penny it’s worth!

At the beginning of Season 2, Philza’s narrative role has not changed much from where Season 1 ended. He is in L’Manburg dispensing earthly wisdom, being a paternal figure to Fundy, Ghostbur and Tubbo, helping with the nation’s rebuilding efforts; just generally occupying the role of the mentor.

[clips]

And then came … the Exile. The Exile Arc took place between December 3rd and December 15th during Season 2 of the Dream SMP. It revolves around TommyInnit getting exiled from L’Manburg and slowly getting psychologically tortured and broken down by Dream. It’s a really great arc, at least in my opinion, that explores and deepens a lot of Tommy’s character relationships, whether that be Tommy and Dream, Tommy and Tubbo or Tommy and Ranboo. One relationship, however, is noticeably missing.

So, yeah, Philza spends basically the entirety of the exile doing pretty much nothing of consequence. And that’s not a problem specific to him – One big criticism I would levy against the Exile Arc is that a lot of characters are left spinning their wheels. Which is why we get zany stuff like El Rapids, Drywaters, Eret’s Knights of the Roundtable, Boomerville – anyone remember Boomerville, that was a thing for 5 seconds, wasn’t it? – basically a lot of storylines are started and then unceremoniously dropped. Now, I will talk more about this, when I make a video about Season 2 of the Dream SMP … in ten years, look forward to it.

In the case of Philza, this inaction was especially damning, because at this point it was still a considered canon that he was Tommy’s dad. So, the fans were left with a situation, where just a few weeks prior Philza was occupying a paternal role for Fundy and Ghostbur … but now, that his youngest son was in a very concerning predicament – to put it lightly – he was nowhere to be found.

So why is that?

Well, the most obvious answer is that Dream and Tommy didn’t write him into the storyline. We’ve seen that Tommy wasn’t particularly interested in exploring a familial relationship to Philza, at least at the time. And it would just not fit in with what Dream and Tommy tried to do with the Exile Arc: they wanted to tell the story of Tommy being isolated, completely under Dream’s mercy, slowly worn down and manipulated. If Philza had been constant presence for Tommy during that time, it would have definitely shifted the narrative focus. That doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have done that, it’s just a matter of fact that they didn’t.

This also reveals another truth about content creator Philza’s character work, that I think is extremely crucial: He takes what the writers give him. Outside of a few choice moments, he doesn’t seem particularly interested in expanding or even solidifying his character on the SMP.

What I’m saying is that he is very go-with-the-flow: Wilbur wants to enact a Shakespearean tragedy? Philza’s up for it. Fundy wants him as a parental figure and mentor? Philza’s here for him. Tommy, conversely, doesn’t want him as a paternal presence, even though it would make sense for Philza’s character, as it was established so far, to be there? Philza will oblige.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because, while Tommy and Dream were unwilling to utilise Philza in their storyline, someone else was more than happy to. Which leads us back, like it always does, to everyone’s favourite Porky Pig-kinnie in a crown: Technoblade.

Technoblade and Philza, from everything I’ve seen of them, seem to be very good friends – and they share a lot of history even outside SBI. So, it’s commendable that they would collaborate on a storyline together.

A consequence of that, however, is that Philza’s narrative purpose shifts completely with very little transition. His entire character changes from being the Mentor-figure of L’Manberg to being pretty much exclusively defined as Technoblade’s ally; his man on the inside. It is a very sharp turn from the end of Season 1. Their relationship is once again informed via intertext – this time the Antarctic Empire on SMPEarth serves as the hypotext – but there isn’t a huge effort made to smoothly integrate that aspect of Philza’s character into the larger narrative framing around him.

How much the narrative utilisation of Philza has shifted can be very easily observed through the Butcher Army event on December 16th, a story event that I like less and less the more I think about. Here Philza is used to show just how corrupt and violent Tubbo’s administration has becomes. He is no longer the respected mentor, he is now the stand-in for the oppressed populace, similar to Niki’s role in Season 1. On a narrative level, he is here to prove a point.

If you’ve seen my Technoblade video, you know how I feel about … just that entire storyline, so I will not reiterate too much on it. I just want to make clear that I’m not principally against this development – if they wanted to truly explore Tubbo going down a dark path and getting corrupted by power, so much so that he would even treat the person who effectively raised him like a prisoner, I would be extremely here for it, I cannot stress that enough.

The problem I have is that it’s just so sloppily done. It is not coherent with how these characters behaved and, more importantly, how they were narratively framed prior to the Butcher Army event. Fundy gets one token line about Phil being his Grandfather – a far cry from the very emotionally complex relationship they had established at the beginning of Season 2 – and Phil then callously disowns him.

The major problem simply is that we don’t see how Philza changes from Mentor-figure to embittered, oppressed citizen. And there was enough time to build to that. During the entirety of Tommy’s exile Tubbo was pretty much spinning his wheels and Quackity and Fundy were opening up plot cul-de-sacs that didn’t end up going anywhere. This is time they could have spent on developing their relationship to Philza and the dark path they were going down – but again, Season 2 video.

There is not much to say on Philza’s narrative purpose and framing beyond the Butcher Army event. He remains pretty much exclusively Techno’s consigliere with his role as Mentor to L’Manburg a distant memory. He has some cute character moments with Ranboo, because content creator Philza is just big dad-energy whether he wants to or not, and whenever he and Ghostbur share a scene suddenly the narrative remembers that there are people other than Technoblade that should exist in Philza’s inner world. But aside from that, Philza’s storyline in Season 2 remains … pretty definitive is the nicest way I can put it.

Most importantly his relationship with Tommy continues to be completely unexplored – whether by chance or choice – and that combined with ever vaguer paratext leaves “Dadza” in a very peculiar situation.

 Conclusion: Is Dadza a Good Dadza?

So, the question to end all questions. The big, obnoxious text, that I will probably have put in the thumbnail – I haven’t made it yet, but I know myself. The honest answer is: I couldn’t tell you.

I have, in the past, been expounding the virtues of narrative analysis. That is because I feel that Narrative Analysis and Textual Analysis, like in this video, can provide certain tools that Character Analysis lacks. Often times I see people trying to get at a writing problem or query and getting frustrated because they’re not using the toolset, they need to figure out what they want to figure out.

But I’d be a hypocrite if I pretended like everything could be solved through the modes of analysis I prefer. And I think the Dadza-issue is exactly such a case.

I set out to explore why the Philza-Tommy-“Dadza”-relationship has become so controversial. It’s a combination of expectations build up through intertextual readings, that were partly canonized – something that is very common for the Dream SMP – conflicting pieces of paratext, which only serve to muddle the issue further and a text that is not only completely uninterested in actually exploring Tommy’s and Philza’s relationship – as it stands right now they might as well be strangers, narratively speaking – but also completely changes Philza’s narrative purpose as it relates to characters like Fundy or Tubbo about half-way through with little to no transition.

That is why I say, that Philza’s character is a victim of narrative circumstance. Because unwittingly, through all of these factors and decisions, there is not coherent reading of Philza that frames his parental skills in a particularly kind light.

The question of how we can judge Phil as a paternal figure ultimately falls within the purview of the character analysis – and that’s a very multifaceted issue, highly dependent on which POV you focus on and how you interpret the other characters in that POV’s periphery.

To put my cards on the table, I think that Philza is a very flawed father/father-figure – and I find that absolutely okay. Flaws are the spice of character building. He is not Cinderella’s Evil Stepmother – but he’s also definitely not Mufasa. If we were to read Philza as a paternal figure, then he would have made a lot of mistakes and decisions to the detriment of his “children” – least of all everything that happened on Doomsday.

But I also have sympathies for Philza fans who are tired of the Dad-Debate and would like to have his character judged independent from his relationship to Ghostbur, Fundy, Tubbo and Tommy.

Ultimately, to bring it all to a point, I’d like to end with saying, that I think that Philza, out of all the characters on the SMP, has the potential to be on of the most intriguing, multifaceted ones. There are all of these different patches of story, character moments and narrative and transtextual implications, that, if brought together, could create a beautiful tapestry of the character Philza.

You have his relationship with Techno, which holds the potential for so much emotional conflict and vulnerabilities, you have his time as mentor of L’Manburg, which is just criminally underused; the complex relationship between him and Ghostbur/Wilbur; and – for me, personally – most intriguingly this weird, almost uncomfortably distant non-relationship with Tommy. That last one is intriguing to me, because it contrasts just so much with our intertextual understanding of the characters and streaming personas – and it just holds the potential for so much conflict, so much drama, so much angst. Which I live for!

And, yes, I do believe that most of this is narrative happenstance, that this was largely not intended by Philza or really any of the writers. It’s just what happens when hybrid-roleplay-improv a long-running, livestreamed storyline in Minecraft.

But I want them to realize the potential they have on their hands, because it could – with barely any adjustments – turn Philza from a victim of narrative circumstance to a champion of it!

 Outro

Thank you so much for watching this video. Usually, I don’t record outros this standard, but after this beast of a video I felt it necessary. I hope that whether you’re a Philza fan or a Philza critical or just completely uninvolved in the whole thing, there is at least a little entertainment you could get from this.

I want to take this opportunity to say that my next few videos will probably not be Dream SMP related – a sentence which undoubtedly lost me a bunch of subs – simply because I don’t want to burn out on it. I genuinely enjoy watching the SMP and being exhausted by it would be something I wouldn’t want to force on myself.

But who knows what will happen? The Karl Jacobs video was something I did spur of the moment because the idea just came to me – so I can’t guarantee that the next video won’t be a three-minute joke about Purpled or whatever.

Anyway, my concrete plans for future Dream SMP videos are essays on Season 1 and Season 2 as well as one for Tales from the SMP.

Before that I have a longer video in the works, which I’ve already teased a bunch, so I hope it will finally be finished sometime. And I also may be working on something … eboys-related? Maybe. I’m not making any promises!

[lucemferto]

Reblog with the script under the cut! (If you want to read, though please still give the video a like and a comment, maybe!)

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT TOMMYINNIT

(or, An Exploration of Conflict in Stories)

By Lucem Ferto

Intro

[Establishing Shot Lucem Ferto Offices]

Luc with Beard: So … I called you into this meeting to discuss our future plans for the channel.

Luc: Hm-Mhm

Luc with Beard: We’ve gotten a few notes from Technoblade-fans: First of all, it’s been decided that you should watch all of Techno’s Dream SMP-videos, front to back.

Luc: But that’s like … over 40 hours!

Luc with Beard: Put them on two times speed, then it’s only a little over 20.

Luc: Fun …

Luc with Beard: Listen, pal, this comes straight from … the Producer.

Luc: [gasp]

Luc with Beard: Also, in the interest of feigning balance she wants you to do a TommyInnit video.

Luc: But … I’ve been working on this Kingdom Hearts-video for months now! I need to diversify my audience!

Luc with a Beard: And how far have you gotten in these months?

Luc: … Like 5%.

Luc with a Beard: There. Point proven.

Luc: I guess you’re right! Thank you, me with a moustache! I really needed that!

Luc with a Beard: You’re welcome, buddy! Cue Intro!

[Intro to “Luc is pretentious about the Dream SMP Episode 3]

Well, this is embarrassing. After I made that whole song and dance about how I want to do other stuff in order to avoid burnout. But, funnily enough, the only time I experienced burn-out was when I tried to force myself to work on a script about something other than the Dream SMP. Because my mind just kept wandering to those funny blockmen.

I have Dream SMP brain worms! It’s an affliction!

It doesn’t help that I still get comments under my Technoblade video – which you should watch hint, hint, nudge, nudge – reminding me of my greatest mistake. No, it’s not my actual analysis – I stand by most everything I said in that video! Emphasis on most. No, it is because I made the enormous blunder of saying the words “meaningful conflict” and just expecting everyone to … know what that means. I’m not even joking about that, looking back, I explained my complaints pretty badly.

So, today, I’m here to rectify this. You know, I’m two months older – at the time of writing – and had some time to glance over a few scientific articles about narratology.

And by glancing over, I mean that I read the headline and the abstract before coming to the painful realization that I’m a big ole idiot and that there’s a reason I dropped out of uni.

One of the biggest mistakes that I made was sectioning the conflict off into the physical, emotional and narrative. That’s not a model that’s applicable beyond surface-level analysis. So, I did a big think – I sat on the toilet for hours upon hours on end – and I’ve come up with a new and improved model of defining conflict – one that I definitely haven’t frankensteined together from a bunch of half-remembered articles I read on the subject.

Presenting to you the Lucem Ferto conflict model 2.0: Here we don’t do three boxes, but instead do … this. It’s like if a 4-quadrant-image folded in on itself. You know the ones, like how nerds decide political leanings like they’re sorting themselves into Hogwarts Houses. Something I certainly haven’t indulged in constantly, relentlessly, every day of my life …

Okay, just for the record, I’m a Ravenclaw, an INTP and my idol was Dream! (Actually, my idol would be Schlatt, but the quote worked better as a punchline)

On the x-axis you have external conflict vs internal conflict, and, on the y-axis, you have personal conflict folded into thematic conflict – so every character-specific conflict is, ideally, part of the larger narrative conflict. If that isn’t the case … then you have a problem.

And now we will explore this conflict-model by talking about a character that has a lot of conflict going on – arguably the most conflict – and that’s, as eagle-eyed readers of the title might already know – TommyInnit. Our favourite British shouty boy and teenager that will accomplish more than you and your entire extended family ever will – no, I’m not jealous!

Speaking of which: YouTube time! The last time I asked for algorithm juice you guys delivered and then some! I reaped a plentiful harvest of comments … but I hunger for more! Feed me! … Is this a good sell? Do you guys feel incentivized to comment?

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is: Like, comment and subscribe. Share it, ring that bell … like Tommy rings the prime bell. Reference! Dream SMP! Let’s do this!

I’m the worst YouTuber in existence.

Chapter 0: The Discs

Now, when talking about TommyInnit and conflict, I have no other choice but to talk about those often beloved and beloathed music discs – one of the most controversial topics not just within the narrative of the Dream SMP but certainly also within the fandom itself.

Those discs are Cat and Mellohi, Tommy’s two most prized possessions. Now, you might be wondering “Why are these discs so special?” … and, well, if you look at them completely within the context of the world, they’re … not.

Cat and Mellohi hold no special power in and of themselves and are only used to kickstart and further the plot. They’re literally just pieces of plastic that play music – nothing more. What’s interesting is that they’re not just regarded as useless on an extratextual level – so by some of the viewers of the Dream SMP – but that there has also been a sort-of metatextual story emerging on an intradiegetic or character level – as the characters themselves have pointed out how utterly worthless the discs really are.

In a world of political turmoil and red voodoo eggs, two random music discs should be at the very bottom of everyone’s priorities. So why then are they at the heart of every single one of Tommy’s conflict?

Well, the first thing we need to know about the discs is that they’re not at the heart of every conflict – even for Tommy. For the majority of the first Season of the Dream SMP – which I define as beginning with the L’Manburg War of Independence and ending on November 16th – the discs almost never (this is an oxymoron) came up. Season 1 was mostly focused on the power-struggle between Wilbur and Schlatt as well as Wilbur’s fall from grace.

The discs only came up in two instances: They were used by Tommy as a bargaining chip in order to secure L’Manburg’s independence after he lost his duel against Dream – and don’t worry, we’ll get to that – and then were Tommy’s reasoning for declining the presidency after Pogtopia reclaimed Manburg.

That last one served as a lead-in to Season 2, where the discs would take on a much more prominent role – much to the frustration of some of the fans. As Season 2 focused on the relationship and struggle between Tommy and Dream, the discs, which had been a central component in that rivalry since even before Season 1 – again, we’ll get to it – soared in importance. It was a major factor in not only Tommy’s and Technoblade’s partnership but also one of the most important plot points during the Green Festival (may not be a colloquial fan term, might consider elaboration on this). This culminated in the Season 2 finale aptly titled the Final Disc War – though seeing as it really only involved 3 people, Disc Skirmish might have been the more appropriate appellation.

This focus on the discs lead to some heavy and heated discussions in the fandom. Not only, because they’re – to put it pointedly – worthless pieces of plastic, but also because Characters like Technoblade, Niki Nihachu and Jack Manifold point that out. So, the dissonance in value is baked into the text – if the characters are this divided about the importance of the discs then how can we expect the audience to fare any better?

Simply put, there are people who watch and empathize with TommyInnit, who value the discs because of their parasocial investment in the character; and people who watch the others, don’t value the discs, because their viewpoint characters don’t.

So, that’s it. Mystery solved. The discs are controversial on an extratextual level because they’re controversial on an intradiegetic level. Who would have guessed it was this easy to explain?

Well, anyways guys, that was the video. Like, comment and subscribe and look forward to when I’ll make a video explaining to you why Callahan is actually the most powerful character in canon!

Did I fool any of you? No?! Good! I’m the guy who spoke about the intertextual connections between content and characters, do you really think I’d be satisfied with providing such a meagre, such a shallow interpretation? No!

Because the problem with how the discs are used as the cornerstone of Tommy’s story in Season 2 goes much, much deeper than that! We have to do some good, old narrative analysis to get to the bottom of this one, boys! So, strap in as we’re delving deep into conflict and character development and how it does and doesn’t work. Let’s go!

Chapter 1: … Don’t Matter – Personal Conflict

So, now that we have redefined conflict, let me tell you about how we portray and construct that conflict effectively – and for that we’re gonna learn the tools of trade when it comes to analysing conflict: Want vs. Need. That’s right, we’re doing the most basic bitch literary theory, none of that fancy-schmancy narrative psychology. I mean, that would be crazy, if I did that for one of these Dream SMP videos, I would have to read so many articles about this and waste my time on something 90% of my viewers wouldn’t even appreciate. This isn’t a set-up!

So, Want vs. Need is actually pretty easy to grasp but it’s very important if you want to understand how to make character conflicts and character arcs meaningful. There are five terms that you need to keep in mind and that I will explain using Tommy’s quest to regain his discs: These terms are the eponymous Want and Need, as well as the Character Flaw, the Character Wound, and the Character Truth. Most of these are pretty self-explanatory, but we’re still gonna go through them, no worries!

Let’s start from the bottom (From the bottom of what? Usually the phrase is “from the top” so a subversion would usually require a direct reference). The Character Truth is basically the Goal the character works towards on a larger narrative level – it is the unification of the conscious and the subconscious. Sometimes it gets stated explicitly in the text and other times you’ll have to do the legwork. So, with Tommy, the conscious part is pretty clear: Get the discs back, because he thinks that they belong to him. But what about the subconscious? This one is a little trickier, but I think if we look at a few of the clips discussing the importance of the discs in Season 2, it becomes clearer.

[clips]

Fundamentally, beyond just the matter of rightful ownership, I think Tommy wants to regain the discs as a way to return to a simpler past. The discs are his metaphorical connection to a time before Wilbur spiralled and the fate of nations rested on his shoulders – a time when it was just him and Dream playing a harmless game of cat and mouse. It is an irrational belief, but it’s still what subconsciously motivates him to go after the discs as ferociously as he does – and this is especially apparent during his exile.

Here, Tommy has not just lost his connection to Wilbur, but also to Tubbo, Fundy and all his other friends in L’Manburg. It is here, during his time with Technoblade, when he most clearly expresses that once he got his discs back, everything would be “over” – the conflict in his mind would be resolved.

[clip]

So, Tommy operates under the assumptions that him regaining the discs would somehow restore the status quo, that he wishes for – making the metaphorical connection to this ideal past a quite literal effect of causation in his mind.

Oh, what’s this? Can you hear that? Beep, beep, beep – it’s the parallelism alert!

[Dream talks about one happy family]

Yeah, Tommy’s character truth is pretty much directly paralleled by Dream’s character truth – which he spells out in explicit detail. And it makes sense, seeing as Tommy and Dream are framed as Season 2’s protagonist and antagonist respectively. The dramatic structure of their arc mirrors the dramatic structure of the overall narrative – and as such Tommy and Dream mirror each other as characters. Just a fun little thing to note – I’m sure that’s not going to come back later.

The Character Truth is in large part derived from the Character Wound – a traumatic or otherwise hurtful event in the character’s past that leads them to pursue their truth in the current story. Now, the character wound also isn’t always made explicit – sometimes it’s just shown as part of the backstory, sometimes it’s not even mentioned and just implied. Basically, the character wound makes a character more understandable and palpable for the audience – but it doesn’t necessarily need to be spelt out.

For Tommy it’s a little hard to identify his character wound – not because there’s little to go on, but because his entire storyline is basically just a series of character wounds. Like, this child is just browbeaten by the narrative until he’s a bloody pulp – and then he gets resurrected to suffer more, I guess. That’s a Season 3 joke – how topical! – but we’re not talking about Season 3, we’re talking about Season 2.

So, what I’m trying to say is, if you want to look for a character wound for Tommy – something that motivates his wish to return to a simpler past – take your pick, you find before yourself a rich buffet of trauma.

Let’s move on. The Character Flaw is … pretty self-explanatory. It’s the major flaw that prevents the character from achieving their goal. Now for Tommy – and this might where this video gets controversial, but I’m going to say it anyway, because I’m a brave man – Tommy’s flaw, as it is portrayed throughout the majority of Season 2, is that he values the physical discs more than what they stand for. He conflates ownership of the discs with control over his fate and circumstance.

Now, stop! I see you typing! I see you typing your angry comments! And I know! I know that later plot developments in Season 2 may disprove my analysis – but please be patient, I’m going somewhere with this! You need to trust me! I’m like Aladdin and this video is my magic carpet with which I will sweep you away into a whole new world … of analysing Tommy’s character. Okay, this metaphor didn’t stick the landing …

Anyway, now that we spent so much time setting up the table, let’s get to the main course, the actual terms: Want and Need.

Now, want and need have been defined a bunch of times – predominantly as the external and internal struggle or as the conscious and unconscious desire. To put my cards on the table, I don’t like either of these definitions, because they each have blind spots when it comes to applicability. So instead, I’m going to go with the definition of Patrick Cattrysse, screenwriter and professor for narrative and adaptation studies.

He proposes that we should look at the “Want” as the main way the character pursues his Character Truth. The Want is deeply influenced by the Character Flaw – it’s basically the wrong way to go about things. The “Need”, on the other hand, is the correct way for the character to go about achieving their goals. It is what the character “needs” to do – you know, pretty self-explanatory.

Now, we will get more into the mechanics behind how the need in this revised definition works a bit later. First, I want to actually apply this to Tommy’s character conflict in Season 2. Now, just to recap: His truth or goal is to return to a simpler time – a time when he was happy and free. His character wound is all the losses and hardships he suffered throughout the storyline – most pressingly, losing Wilbur both metaphorically and literally, and being exiled from L’Manburg. His character flaw is that he puts too much value onto the actual physical items of the discs.

So, that leads to his Want: The thing that kickstarted Season 2’s plot and was a major driver for Tommy during his time with Technoblade. He wants those discs, no matter the cost. Whether that be minor and not-so-minor acts of terrorism, “forceful interrogation” – that one’s said with big quotations – or, you know, waterboarding of hostages. Just Dream SMP-things.

This all culminates during the Green Festival. Tommy and Tubbo have a big, dramatic fight, when Tommy yells the following line:

[The discs were worth more than you ever were]

This is a perfect representation of what I talked about previously. This is the entire character flaw and character want condensed into one singular line. But it doesn’t stop there. Let’s let the clip play on for a bit.

[continued]

And there we have the “Need”. Tommy realizes that the actual discs aren’t worth as much as the people and the friendships they represent to him. So, he tells Tubbo to give the discs away. His “Need” is to let go of the physical items and realize what he always truly wanted and cherished are the people that matter to him – and they’re not part of some forlorn past, but stand right before him and are hurt by his actions. The power of friendship, it’s a classic.

Now, the Green Festival is one of my favourite events in Season 2 – which is an accomplishment seeing as it’s sandwiched between the Butcher Army event and Doomsday, both of which are absolutely awful – and that is because, among other things, this Want vs. Need is just so effortlessly and cleanly integrated and resolved. It provides Tommy with a dynamic conflict, that is tied in to the other themes and conflicts of the Season – such as becoming like your predecessors, when do the ends no longer justify the means – as well as his relationship the other characters like the deeply personal struggle between him and Tubbo. In my opinion, it works perfectly.

The only problem is … this isn’t where the story of the discs ends. Because while the “Want” vs. “Need” was at the forefront of everybody’s mind, another … theme started to emerge in the background.

Chapter 2: … Do Matter – Thematic Conflict

On the day of Tommy’s exile, just after Tubbo made his decision, the following exchange took place:

[Tommy: “If you don’t have any attachment to things …”]

This was the follow-up to an earlier scene where Tommy tried to use the leather of Spirit – an item that Dream was deeply attached to in the past – as a bargaining chip in the ongoing, tense negotiations between L’Manburg and the Kingdom of the Dream SMP. Unfortunately for Tommy, this strategy did not reap the rewards he had hoped for.

[Dream: I don’t give a fuck about Spirit]

The concept of attachments and having special items or things that you value above all else is deeply ingrained into the Dream SMP. It is something that grew out of its past as a normal Minecraft Let’s Play, where these special items or builds were often used to provide a point of tension or conflict for YouTube or Twitch content.

And as the stakes grew and storylines began to formulate, the content creators began to incorporate these items, mobs and builds into their character’s arcs and plotlines. Whether consciously or unconsciously, the importance of these items – which was largely, if not at all, a product of the attachments characters, content creators and viewers had established with them – was building up to become a central theme of Dream SMP Season 2.

It all culminates in the Season 2 Finale. After Tubbo and Tommy suffer a devastating loss against Dream, he reveals to them his endgame: To gather everything that the people on the server are attached to in order to gain absolute control once more and restore the server back to a time when there was “no conflict”.

[clip with quote]

These things include among others Tommy’s discs, Technoblade’s horse … or Skeppy. Just the whole person.

Dream, of course, has let go of all of his attachments so that no one could use them against him the way he plans to use them against others. All of this leads up to the thematic and dramatic climax of Season 2. As Tommy and Dream clash on a personal level, their ideologies provide a larger, thematic conflict that is explored on an extradiegetic level.

To Dream, attachments are a weakness to be exploited – and this mindset is something that’s not just shown through him but also through Quackity. After all, it was Quackity, who took Techno’s horse hostage and forced the unbeatable warrior to fully surrender himself to the whims of the Butcher Army.

To Tommy, attachments are things that allow us to experience empathy and humanity not just for ourselves but for each other. The things we are attached to serve as an important point of connection – the discs connect Tommy and Tubbo, Beckerson connects George and Sapnap, etc.

And these connections aren’t just immediate, but transient. Tommy doesn’t particularly care for Sapnap’s fish Mars, but seeing how attached Sapnap is to him and linking that sense of connection back to his own attachment to the discs allows Tommy to empathize with Sapnap and makes it possible to recruit him to fight for L’Manburg. Unsurprisingly, this is also one of the few good scenes on Doomsday.

Ultimately, Dream is proven wrong in his ideology – as is expected, he is the villain, after all. Though he manages to overpower Tommy and Tubbo, thanks to the connections they established with everyone else on the server, they’re not forced to stand alone. In one of the best moments of the Season – even if it is just transplanted straight from Avengers: Endgame –the entire server unites against Dream; Dream, who, having severed all his attachments and connections, stands alone. Even as one of the best PvPers on the server, the power of friendship brings him to heel.

It is a good, clean conclusion that delivers on all that was set-up throughout the Season. It is one of the reasons, why the Season 2 Finale is one of the most beloved events of the storyline.

There’s just one little problem: The resolution of Season 2’s thematic conflict runs completely counter to the resolution of Tommy’s personal conflict.

Conclusion: A Conflicting Dissonance

[on the y-axis, you have character-focus folded into narrative-focus – so every character conflict is, ideally, part of the larger narrative conflict. If that isn’t the case … then you have a problem.]

Wow. That was very prescient of me. It’s almost like … this is a script. And that was foreshadowing.

So, yeah, I think the major reason why the discs are so controversial, is because they’re used in two conflicts that demand complete opposite resolutions. Tommy’s personal conflict – his Want vs. Need – demands that he lets go of the discs, that they’re discarded, in favour of what really counts: his friends. But the larger thematic conflict between Tommy and Dreams demands that Tommy holds on to the discs; that he doesn’t let go of them, because his attachment to these discs is important and letting go of them – the way Dream let go of Spirit – would rob him of his humanity, metaphorically speaking.

And once these conflicts are … well, in conflict with one another, things start to get hairy.

Now, this problem isn’t as bad as it could be. The resolution to the Want vs Need is never subverted – if anything it’s constantly reinforced throughout the Season 2 Finale. To the point where it honestly becomes redundant, because there’s only so often you can pull the “The Discs or Tubbo”-cards without it becoming laughable. Like, at the end of the Finale that conflict has lost almost all emotional or thematic weight.

But yeah, the fact that Tommy is willing to give up the discs but still gets him back at the end anyway is kinda a wishy-washy solution to his personal conflict. It feels like having your cake and eating it too.

So, I could just end the video here, because I answered what I set out to explore: “Why are discs controversial?”. But I wanted to go as little bit farther than that. Because unlike with Technoblade and Philza, this Disc-story is a done deal. It’s finished. The discs have not come up once in Season 3 – and thank God for that, because I couldn’t handle anymore disc-conflict.

So, I thought it would be nice to not just leave you hanging, but instead explore some pros and cons of the personal and thematic conflict and ultimately come up with a way I would resolve this. You know, do a little bit script doctoring (hah).

Also, you know all those times where I said: “I’ll deal with this later?”. This is later.

Firstly: Let’s discuss how the “Need” works in detail. Now, I said that the Need is called Need, because it’s what the character “needs” to do. But who decides that? Well … this might be an obvious answer, but … the audience does. The audience, on an emotional and subconscious level, knows what the character “needs” to do. That drives intrigue and tension for them.

But now you might ask “How can we possibly quantify this?” – well, there’s a bunch of different factors such as dramatic and narrative structure, framing, mood, etc. But one of the most important factors is something called the “endoxa”. Endoxa is a concept formulated by the little-known Greek philosopher Aristotle – maybe you’ve heard of him – and describes the predominant consensus of opinions that exist in a given group, society or culture. Basically, the need is heavily influenced by the commonplace morality of the audience.

So, for example, the endoxa of a Chinese audience might differ from the endoxa of an American audience, therefore if the Chinese audience consumes a story, they expect a different “Need” to be met by the characters than the American audience would consuming the same story.

Now, the Dream SMP is deeply steeped in western culture – as such the endoxa of the audience is shaped by western values and viewpoints. And in western culture giving up one’s physical possessions for the sake of a greater good is generally seen as a good thing – you know, Christian virtue of Charity vs. the sin of Avarice.

Now, I’m not here to discuss whether or not that’s a good moral standing or the deeper societal problems that are ingrained in this kind of mindset, because that would … far exceed the scope of this video. All I’m trying to say is that the resolution of Tommy’s personal conflict – giving up the discs for the sake of his friends – is a much easier sell than the more esoteric resolution of the thematic conflict. It is a well-tread road … perhaps even a bit too well-tread.

Because now we can talk about how the discs were used during the L’Manburg War of Independence as that was effectively the same thing.

Now, the War of Independence is interesting as it is not only the opening of Season 1, but also serves a sort-of Finale to the unscripted, unstructured character bits of pre-L’Manburg – or as I like to call it Season 0. I will go more into that, when I do my big retrospective on Season 1 – what’s important for now is the narrative function of the discs during the War of Independence.

One of the strongest through lines of Season 0 was the Disc-War between Dream and Tommy. And the pseudo-finale to these unscripted bits, the War of Independence, pays of this conflict between Dream and Tommy by having Tommy give up his discs for L’Manburg’s Independence. This is, in the moment, framed as a major character development for Tommy – he gives up his physical items for the sake of liberty, freedom and independence. It echoes the disc conflict of Season 2 very closely – at least on a superficial level.

That lead to the complaint that Season 2 rehashes too much of the War of Independence. That Tommy suffers some major character regression only to learn the exact same lesson he already learned at beginning of Season 1. Now, I don’t quite vibe with these complaints, because – to me – the mechanics behind his Want vs Need in Season 2 and his Want vs Need during the War of Independence are different enough to not make it feel too redundant.

The War of Independence played more with the concept personal pride vs the greater good, whereas Season 2 deals with the illusion of importance vs what is actually important. It’s a subtle difference, but I think it has a major impact on the emotional stakes of the conflict resolution. Overall, I have to say, I prefer the Season 2’s Want vs Need, because while it’s not as grandiose as the Want vs Need in War of Independence, it goes deeper into Tommy’s psychology and thus pays off in a more cathartic way later on.

Now, if we want to keep this Want vs. Need, how do we go about fixing it. Well, I think the simplest solution is to do away with the discs. After the Green Festival, they have served their narrative purpose – there’s no need for them to be a part of the story anymore. The conflict has been resolved; it’s done. We know that Tommy will always choose his friends over the discs – there’s no tension in relitigating that decision again and again and again.

I am honestly so baffled that they decided to frame the Season 2 Finale around the discs – it retroactively weakens the resolution of Tommy’s personal conflict during the Green Festival. And they must have known that on some level, because the discs are not used to drive tension – the tension lies in whether or not Tommy and Tubbo will survive the confrontation. The ownership of the discs means nothing to the viewers at this point.

And narratively discarding the discs wouldn’t even necessitate changing the larger thematic conflict and resolution. Like, Dream still loses because he rid himself of all his attachments and friendships, while Tommy wins because he kept his attachments – the ones that truly matter aka the attachments to his friends. See, basically nothing changes.

Having the discs be destroyed or discarded in some fashion would bring a sense of finality to the resolution of Tommy’s Want vs Need.

Now, if we want to keep the theme of physical items being important in establishing connections and attachments, we need to rewrite a pretty substantial amount of Season 2. Like, part of the reason is – as discussed – the viewers’ endoxa is more aligned with the idea of giving up physical items in order to fulfil emotional needs.

An easy solution to that would be to just completely rewrite Tommy’s personal conflict. Instead of Tommy’s Want being “I need the discs no matter the cost” it becomes “I will discard every attachment I have if it means defeating Dream”. That would of course lead the Need being “No, attachments are important! You need attachments and the connections you build through them in order to become stronger than you yourself can individually be”.

Basically, Tommy’s personal conflict would have to mirror that of Dream much more closely. This change would have a bunch of ramifications, because you’d need to change the inciting incident of Season 2, Techno’s and Tommy’s relationship would have to be adjusted accordingly in order to fit this new personal conflict.

It would bring about a whole host of changes, that I can’t get into in detail, because otherwise this video would be an hour-long epic! (might I suggest a fly-in clip or image of a Greek epic?)

Ultimately, while the dissonance between Tommy’s personal conflict and the season’s larger thematic conflict brought about a lot of discussion, in the grand scheme of things it’s just a minor problem. It’s not an irreparable mess like Doomsday. It’s just a writing inconsistency that provides a good case-study for some exploration of conflict in narrative.

Hey! That’s the title of the vide--

Outro

So, there you have it. A video where I rip TommyInnit to shreds! I hope you’re happy now, Technoblade fans! See! I’m not biased.

Okay, I am biased, but I’m still willing to complain even if it involves one of my favourite characters! Because that’s how I show love!

Anyway, if you enjoyed this video, I must once again ask you to like, comment and subscribe, please! If you want to follow me on Twitter, Reddit or Tumblr, the links are in the video description.

To close it off, this is definitely the last video I’ll make on the Dream SMP for a good while! I know, I said this before, but this time I mean it! I’m sure this section is not just a set-up for an inevitable subversion of expec—

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT WILBUR SOOT (or Is It?)

Well, here we have it! The TommyInnit video! Like with the Philza-video, I hope that whether you’re critical or appreciative (or both) of Tommy’s character, you will find this vid entertaining and maybe even insightful.

I spent a long time on it, so I would be so, so grateful if you could reblog this post so that others might find it as well!

Thank you!

[lucemferto]

Script under the cut.

There is a scene in Heartstopper that really resonated with me in a way that I don’t know was intentional. Nick Nelson, one of the main characters, is looking for movies with LGBTQ characters and themes to watch with his mom during a movie night. Important to note here is that at this point of the series, Nick is still in the closet.

During the show, Nick’s anxiety about coming out is one of the driving conflicts for him and the other main character, his boyfriend Charlie. It all culminates in Nick coming out to his mom in the second-to-last scene of the season finale – the emotional endpoint.

As such it’s not unreasonable to interpret this scene – the movie night scene – as being about Nick’s relationship with his mom and his road to coming out. That he wants to watch an LGBTQ-movie with her to hint at or prepare her for the truth of his sexuality. Ultimately, Nick doesn’t choose any of the movies he looked for and instead they watch Pirates of the Caribbean to show how Nick is attracted to both Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley – thus making it explicit that he is neither gay nor straight, but bisexual.

That’s a perfectly valid and perhaps the most straightforward takeaway from this scene. I, however, read it differently. It reminded me of a time when I was a closeted queer teenager without really having the courage or state of mind to come out to anyone and looking for movies and shows with gay romances.

Fiction has a special power for me, in that it can evoke very powerful feelings through a 100% constructed narrative, something that is unreal and thus allowed to be so much bigger and more than life. It can be more colourful, it can be more bombastic and it can be more dramatic – but in all the archetypes and tropes, in the shorthand and arcs, I always looked for myself or my fears, my desires and my aspirations.

Now, as a white cis man, I cannot claim that I am in any way underrepresented in most aspects of my life. I can find myself pretty easily in most things – it’s almost like that’s a systemic issue; and we should be glad to see any and all diversions from the “norm”.

But something that I never managed to find was a gay romance fiction that connected with me; that spoke to the specific circumstances I found myself in, that spoke to the questions and issues I found myself in and were presented in a style that I enjoyed.

A lot of the media I found back in my day was very dreary. Filled with tragedy and longing. It was historical dramas or documentaries. The characters were stereotyped or pushed to the side in media that more aligned with my tastes. And a lot of it was about adults; or predatory relationships; they were extremely artsy and out-there and so big and different as to be completely unrelatable to my taste in fiction.

Now, all these types of gay stories are very important to tell! Every gay story, the tragic ones, the historical ones, the artsy ones, the ones about adults; these are all stories that someone somewhere can connect with; the piece of media that will help them out of a place that’s dark and isolating.

But none of them connected to my teenage self. Perhaps I didn’t look in the correct places; perhaps I should have been more open-minded. Whatever the case, I never found the one piece of media that connected to my specific struggles; and in a way I never got over it; I never learned to engage with that part of myself. I stagnated and swallowed it all down and grew more miserable and more miserable with each passing year – graduating, making adult friends, getting a pretty well-paying job, starting an online presence – and still, on some level, I felt like I was trapped in my high school self.

That I was unaccomplished; unworthy of love, unable to ever find love and alone. And most importantly that I had missed my chance. It was too late.

Which brings me to the 5th of May 2022, the day I started and finished the series Heartstopper.

[LUCEM FERTO]

Heartstopper is a 2022 eight-episode Netflix series based on the graphic novels of the same name by Alice Oseman. Originally posted as webcomics on tumblr in 2016, before being collected and released as volumes in 2019, Heartstopper tells the story of high schoolers Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson as they navigate their teenage years, friendship and eventual relationship.

Before I go into a summary of Heartstopper, I want to give my honest recommendation to watch the series if you can! Heartstopper is delightfully heart-warming, well-acted, well-shot and while it’s times a bit too twee, a bit too overbearing with teenage sweetness, that is also a great part of its charm! If you enjoy fluffy, light coming-of-age stories, I cannot give a warmer recommendation!

In the following summary, I will spoil the entire first season of the series, so if you care about that, I would again strongly recommend watching it!

Charlie Spring is a Year 10 at a Boys Grammar School. After having been outed and subsequentially bullied the year prior, Charlie has started secretly meeting with Year 11 Ben Hope. Ben, however, treats Charlie like a secret shame, belittles and ignores him outside of the make out sessions.

In Form, Charlie is sat next to Year 11 and rugby star Nick Nelson, immediately developing a crush. The two strike up a quick friendship and after witnessing Charlie’s sprinting ability, Nick invites Charlie to join the rugby team. Charlie breaks up with Ben, but gets sexually harassed by him after rugby practice until Nick intervenes.

As Nick and Charlie grow closer, Nick starts to question his sexuality as he becomes aware of his attraction to Charlie. Charlie’s friend Tao is none too pleased as Nick is a part of a posse led by rich bully Harry Greene, who is known to harass people like him and Charlie.

When Harry throws a sixteenth birthday party, Nick invites Charlie. While his friends plan to set him up with a childhood crush, Nick ultimately spends the time with Charlie, resulting in a kiss. After a misunderstanding leaves Charlie devastated, Nick visits him the next day at his home to reaffirm how he feels for him.

Because Nick is not yet ready to out himself, the two decide to keep the relationship a secret. After a rugby match however, Nick is asked out by his friend Imogen. Too awkward to say no, he agrees to the date, which coincidentally also falls on the date of Charlie’s birthday party. Ultimately, Nick decides to go Charlie’s party and explains to Imogen that he doesn’t feel the same for her as she does for him.

Nick continues to reveal his and Charlie’s relationship to more and more of Charlie’s friend circle with the exception of Tao, who starts to stand up to Harry’s bullying. After a visit to the cinema goes awry, Nick gets into a fistfight with Harry.

Horrified and feeling like he’s ruining Nick’s life, Charlie thinks about breaking off the relationship with Nick. This only gets intensified, when his and Tao’s friendship is strained with Tao feeling he is being left behind and lied to.

Ultimately, Charlie and Tao make up on the school’s sports day. When Nick goes to Tao to find out why Charlie is avoiding him, Tao urges Nick to not keep Charlie a secret forever as that feeds into the latter’s inferiority complex.

When he spots Charlie cheering for him during a rugby match, Nick abandons the match to take Charlie away in front of everyone. The two kiss in the school’s hallway and Nick proudly declares Charlie his boyfriend.

The series ends with Nick coming out to his mother, who accepts him.

Now, this is by far not a comprehensive summary – it’s very focused on Charlie and Nick, for one – which is again why I would urge you to watch this series if it sounds like something you’re into. The reason why I mostly focused on Charlie and Nick in the summary is because I wanted to centre the rest of the video around them.

This script has taken a long time to write. I have struggled with deciding where I want this video to go; what the concept was going to be. I could have just written a narrative analysis of Heartstopper, look at the tropes, the conventions, the character arcs, perhaps even through an LGBTQ-lens. But ultimately, that didn’t feel right.

It could have been a good video, but it wasn’t the video I wanted to make. The reason this video exists is not just because of the series Heartstopper but how Heartstopper relates to my experiences as a member of the LGBTQ-community.

And even right now writing this I am very uncertain whether or not this is a good idea. You clicked on a video about Heartstopper not about the no-name loser behind the floating pink poop emoji. But I think – and hope – that in many ways my story is relatable to a lot of people. And that the way I connected to Heartstopper and how it spoke to my struggles will also reflect on the series’ appeal and relatability for everyone.

Like Charlie Spring for example, the main character of the show, whom I could connect to very quickly. As an ostracized nerd with an interest in men I could connect to his sense of isolation, the struggles he faces as he has to deal with people like Ben and Harry.

And when Charlie gets the attention of rugby star Nick, the show engages in a level of wish fulfilment that is rare for mainstream LGBTQ media, at least in my experience. It does, however, appropriate a lot of the tropes and conventions of teen comedies and romances, only that the two main characters are both men. It speaks to the Cinderella fantasy that someday a Prince will come and save you from your sad, grey life of repression and loneliness.

Of course, outside of the wish fulfilment, there were some things that I could not relate to as it pertained Charlie – for one the fact that Charlie actually has a very supportive LGBTQ-group around him. While there is some drama regarding Charlie’s and Nick’s relationship, his friends are supportive of his identity, many of them being part of the community themselves. Charlie even has a gay teacher that serves as a mentor figure and emotional support during the trying parts of his journey.

And of course, Charlie is out by the start of the series. That is something that is very different to my lived experience, as someone who is in large part still not outed to most of my friends and family. I did not have the luxury to grow up in an environment that was particularly conducive to being part of the LGBTQ-community.

This is where Nick Nelson comes into play.

It is, or at least has been, pretty common form for teen romances and teen comedies to cast the love interest not as a character but as a prize; an aspiration; a character goal. As such these characters are rarely if ever afforded any sort of depth or character arc. They either don’t have a struggle or in some cases they hold all the answers or are the answers to the Protagonist’s own struggles. They are framed as the ones who save them from their poor, sad lives without holding any struggles of their own.

It would have been very easy for Nick to fall into either of these categories – the prize or the saviour. After all, as I talked about, there is a certain measure of wish fulfilment inherent to Charlie’s and Nick’s relationship – but thankfully, Heartstopper does not go down this route.

Nick Nelson is just as important to the fabric and emotional core of the show as Charlie is as his character arc perfectly complements and mirrors that of Charlie. Where Charlie is out and able to live his life “relatively” freely – I’ll talk more about his struggles in greater detail later – Nick is repressed. Part of a friend group that, he realizes, is comprised of bullies and homophobes.

The decision to split the struggle of being out and being in the closet between the two main characters that way while also affording them both equal parts development and screen time was very commendable. It helps keep the show dynamic and allows us to empathize and sympathize with both Charlie and Nick.

Watching Nick’s struggle was just as rewarding as watching Charlie’s. What spoke to me particularly was his talk with Imogen after admitting to her that he didn’t have any feelings for her. The way he spoke about hiding an essential part of himself and warping who he are in order to conform to the expectations of others, burrowed to the very core of what makes being in the closet because of fear and not because choice so hurtful.

Feeling forced to be in the closet, I can say for myself, is a debilitating and torturous experience – and I believe both Charlie’s and Nick’s story very much speak to that fact. Not seeing yourself anywhere, hiding yourself away – it prevents you from living your life in the way that others might be able to.

You are never able to form genuine friendships, genuine relationships with anyone. Not even your own family. There is always something you have to hide away and repress, there is always the anxiety that whatever “wrong” thing you feel will get revealed and will make others see you different, will ruin your relationships.

For me, personally, I can say that living like that engendered in me some of the worst feelings imaginable, feelings that still haunt me to this day while typing this. Because being in the closet doesn’t just make you feel afraid and anxious in the straight community, it completely alienates you from the LGTBTQ-community as well. You watch as both straight and out-and-proud friends and acquaintances live their life to their fullest, find love and find inherent worth, while you are left alone and isolated.

It is a toxic and vicious mindset, that finds itself in its many facets in different characters in Heartstopper – particularly in Charlie’s relationship to Ben Hope. While Ben serves as an external challenge to Charlie, he is also the personification of that internal struggle – both by constantly invalidating Charlie’s feelings through narcissistic abuse while also clearly struggling with those same feelings himself.

His need for secrecy, for staying in the closet, is ultimately what hurts Charlie and himself so viciously. Where Nick and Charlie can solve their character journeys in Season 1 by Nick coming out, Ben is left alone, bitter and ultimately both figuratively and literally defeated.

Of course, when discussing Nick’s coming out, it’s important to acknowledge that the story engineers the act to be ultimately fully rewarding and – in the context of the first Season – as purely a solution the problems he faces. The scene where Nick comes out to his mom and she accepts him unconditionally is a beautiful capstone to his character journey throughout this season, that turns bittersweet when you remember that not everyone has the luxury of a family that is this open-minded.

There was one scene in particular that really spoke to me while watching the show. In the third episode, while on a party with Charlie, Nick meets a lesbian couple, Tara and Darcy, who would later join their friend group. While looking for Charlie, he watches them share a kiss on the dancefloor – a moment that would ultimately lead him to find the courage to kiss Charlie later on.

While watching Heartstopper, I had my own similar epiphany. Watching this story for some reason did what so many other LGBTQ-pieces of media could not – it made me think and reflect on my own identity and how I have lived my life.

Watching this fictional teenager struggle with coming out and ultimately find the courage to live his truth made me question how much of myself I have hidden away throughout the years. How much that decision suffocated me.

It may sound dramatic, but this show inspired me to be honest with myself and others.

After having watched Heartstopper, I took the step of confessing to someone I hold in very, very high esteem that I had feelings for them – for the first time in my life I could be brave enough to genuinely express that to someone I loved.

Similarly, I also took the chance to come out to some other very close friends of mine. It may sound trite and overdramatic, but even though I’ve been with that friend group for 7 years at that point, I still carried that fear inside me. That I was not worthy of their friendship. That I was an other.

There is still a long way to go, there always is. Gaining this epiphany while watching the show did not magically remove years of repression. There are still very, very hard times, lots of them. Over the month it took writing this script, I fell to some of my lowest moments in years.

But still, it’s never too late. It’s never over. You can always take a chance. You will find your voice someday.

And I am very thankful that Heartstopper helped me start to find mine.

Happy Pride.

A video I did on the series Heartstopper and how it relates to my identity. It is very different from what I usually do.

As it discusses pretty intimate topics and shows a lot of vulnerability, it may not be an enjoyable watch for some. Please be mindful of that.

Happy Pride