the-unaligned-player

[the-unaligned-player]

Everyone in Project: Eden is a hypocrite

and I adore it so much because it adds a level of depth to the story that I haven't seen done in any Dangan game before.

Spoilers for chapter 1 of Project: Eden's Garden

The reason I say everyone in Project Eden is a hypocrite is simply because of the way they act in regards to the Killing Game. In the beginning, when they do the mock class trial over the fake dead body, at the end when Tozu reveals that they will have to do this for their own classmates in the future, they make this bold stand against that and say they won't even participate in the Killing Game.

Damon and Eva are the only two to point out how it's a bit naive to just go blindly trusting that nobody here would ever murder someone, and that everyone has the capacity to commit a violent act, all they'd need is a motive. This sows distrust throughout the group, but everyone keeps their distance from both Eva and Damon afterwards and basically give them the cold shoulder.

HOWEVER

During Chapter 1 you can clearly see through their actions that many of them took what Damon and Eva said to heart, they just don't have the guts to admit it out loud, which is that they don't actually trust anyone in the class to not kill someone. In the prologue they make it a point to just say they won't kill anyone, and that they'll just exist in the school and wait until someone comes to help. And in Chapter 1 they're already making "precautions" against a game they're supposedly not playing.

They "trust everyone" so much, but they're also investigating the Pharmacy they found so everyone can know whats inside of it and there's no secrets to be uncovered.

They have so much 'faith" that no one would murder anyone at night, but they propose a bunk buddy system so that everyone can always have a partner with them.

They would "never kill anyone ever even with a motive!", but some of them have serious reservations against sharing their blackmail letters with anyone and don't want that information getting out.

Do you see what I'm saying? Their actions are different than what they're saying. They are actively participating in the Killing Game but won't admit that THAT'S what's happening here. They are hypocrites because they judged Damon and Eva for being honest from the start about not wanting to trust anyone, only for them to have that same level of distrust for each other the next day. They would never admit that Damon and Eva were some what correct in what they said that first day.

And I think that's why the 1st chapter is called "Beneath the Veil of Hypocrisy" because it's not just referring to Damon and Eva, but EVERYONE who is participating in the Killing Game.

[the-unaligned-player]

Eva's isolation from the rest of the class and the status quo

I want to talk about how the other students ostracized Eva the most out of anyone in the class in Edens Garden so spoilers down below

I think out of any Dangan game, Eva was the most isolated and ostracized. I've seen some ppl compare her to Sakura in THH however the circumstances surrounding Sakura's isolation were vastly different than Eva.

Eva lied *once* about her Ultimate Talent which isn't something new since it's happened before in Dangan games, and she tried to hide that lie from the others in a pathetic attempt to make them not look at the watches and check the report cards.

Granted, they were right that maybe Eva lying about her Ultimate Talent, and then trying to make it so nobody looked at the watches could've potentially caused more harm than good, since they're in a killing game. However, I will remind everyone that this same cast has stated that they're not going to participate in the killing game at all and will just wait for their rescue. Why would they need to "make precautions to keep everyone safe during the game" if they're supposedly not going to be playing the game at all? It's hypocrisy because they hate Eva for lying, while also lying themselves about participating in the game.

And all that aside...what Eva lied about wasn't that bad. She only lied about her own talent and didn't want others to know about it more, and when everyone found out about it they began to mock her for it. Pretty relentlessly too, almost like they're still upset about her calling them naive in the beginning of the game. Or for being outwardly distrusting of other people.

When the motives are revealed, they blame Eva for Tozu's own actions and decisions because Tozu claimed that she inspired him by what she said about the watches (she said that any one could use the watches to learn secrets about other people which was true and exactly what people used the watches for, and then Tozu introduced the motives.)

It's unfair of them to blame Eva for something like that especially since Tozu admitted to Damon that all the secrets were all secrets that everyone had already revealed unknowingly, meaning that Tozu was just being an ass when he said Eva gave him the idea. He knew everyone disliked her, and just said that to add fuel to the fire.

The way the rest of the cast treated Eva aside from Damon and Diana is gross and bad. There was no reason for Wolfgang to try and keep them from investigating, nor was there a reason for him to suggest they were untrustworthy because of their difference in opinion about the Killing Game.

The truth is that the rest of the cast would much rather lie to one another about their intentions and how much they trust one another, than simply be honest about how they really feel. When Damon and Eva call them out in the prologue they're met with coldness and open distrust from everyone else.

But the rest of the class is more covert about how little they actually trust one another, proving that they know Damon and Eva were right the whole time.

In a way, they ostracized Eva the most because she questioned their status quo the most out of anyone, and it was easier to mock her or not take her seriously because of her talent.

AND they're hypocrites for mocking her talent because Damon was the one who claimed "not all talents are equal" in the prologue, not Eva. They all disliked Damon for saying that, but when Eva was revealed to be the Ultimate Mathlete instead of the Ultimate Liar, they resorted to treating her talent as lesser than their own. You know, exactly what Damon was doing in the prologue. But the difference is that Damon had the decency to be honest about how he felt then even if it made the others not like him for a short while.

In short, yes Eva is a bad person, but nobody else in the class are exactly "good" either. You can even tell their masks are all slipping by the way they all cringe at the end of the trial when Diana gives her speech about adapting.

These people don't want to "adapt" and change to the circumstances, they want things to have a steady pace and anyone questioning that steady pace gets shut out.

[the-unaligned-player]

[the-unaligned-player]

Hi! I just wanted to Say that I loved your essay about cdream being autistic bc it's been a hc for me for a while and i apreciated seeing someone else who not only shares it but also makes analisys on it.

Like cdream strong sense of justice, how he struggles sometimes with empathy not bc he doesn't have it but bc he feels it differently, how he uses himself as the comparision point with others in sense that if he can with something he thinks others could too, how he can close himself to the world bc he doesn't know how to communicate what he wants in the begining+not knowing how to react when people don't listen to him not matter what he tries or Even if he plays their rules, how he seems to need to move all the time, etc. It's all stuff i identified within myself.

And i liked what You said bc yeah very probably Even if it wasn't intentional cdream was written in a way that can be pretty neurodirvergent coded like ctechno too and their creators being neurodirvergent themselfs very probably had influenced on that. And idk it makes me very happy to think about it :D

I’m so glad you liked it(them) [essay]. :) Honestly, it’s hard for me to even consider it a headcanon and not just canon because it just makes so much sense. And as you pointed out, the neurodivergence of the creators would make sense if their characters were too, given the close connection between both in the dsmp. After all, these creators are not professional actors and a lot of it is improv, so it makes sense that the characters would be neurodivergent if their creator is. I also think it’d be hard to make and play a character like they did with so much improv as neurotypical if they are neurodivergent (and vice versa). Because it’d take lots of extra care to go against your natural self which would be rather hard to do while also improving, so I’d say it kinda is canon in that sense. In other words, assuming Dream (and Techno?) are confirmed neurodivergent, (which I don’t know if that’s for sure) then it makes the most sense for their cs to also be neurodivergent, since it’s unlikely that amateur improvisers making characters linked to themselves and their brand would make characters that don’t align with how they think and see the world…. Anyways I’m glad I’m not alone in my madness. I’ve been thinking about writing some more about it since I did cut quite a bit of my essay(s) that was in my other drafts like more about how autistic people tend to struggle with change, which we see in Dream as he pushes back against L’manberg…

[the-unaligned-player]

I've been thinking about, what do you think it's the type of trust cdream has with his allies? I've seen people talking about it and I've always thought that it isnt like cdream trust more or less any of his allies but that it's different kinds of trust and trust with different things that are affected by how the relationship is and how it ended up

Trust is an interesting topic choice, though I’m not really sure what you mean by “type of trust” as I more so see trust as a fragile onion with many layers that are rather complex in my opinion. Trust in regard to Dream is even more so. Because Dream’s trust is tied to predictability, he trusts that people will act like he assumes they will. This is one of his fatal flaws, because what he doesn’t really realize is that people don’t follow the same rules and train of logical thought as him so he can never truly predict them.

Anyways, Dream’s trust relies on the concrete, not on the person themselves but of their behavior in the past and present. Dream trusts Punz in part because he pays him, he trusts the money not Punz. He trusts Techno in part because of the favor between them. He trusts the circumstances, the facts, the truth and his own actions. He trusts that Sapnap will listen to the facts of why he escaped, not of Sapnap’s empathy or their previous friendship. He trusts that Sam will keep him alive as his duty not because of Sam’s care for him as previous friend. In this way, he can trust but does not have to trust the other person only that they will act accordingly. It’s not a blind trust, it’s a calculated trust. It’s a detached trust.

He doesnt have to trust that people love or care about him, he doesn’t have to trust that Punz wouldn’t back stab him for friendship because he pays him and they share the Revival Book immortality that requires both of them. He doesn’t have to trust that Techno cares about him, he trusts that Techno will repay the favor of saving his life after he saved his. He doesn’t have to trust the server to care about him enough not to kill him, he only has to trust that they are smart enough to want to not kill the Revival Book.

So it’s not so much what he trusts them with or what type of trusts he has in them. To me, it is about what he expects of the other person that he then counts on. Hopefully that makes sense.

Course that is more so towards the end, in the beginning he was actually very trusting. He trusted people to be fair and be kind. He trusted people and their humanity and good nature and honor, but I think that trust fractured the moment Sapnap and Tommy killed him and took his stuff, refusing to give it back. No longer did he trust them to do the right thing, so he took Tommy’s discs instead, trusting a concrete item instead and the care Tommy had for them. Another big moment where Dream’s trust was fractured is in the dethronement conversation as Sapnap trusts the words of Tommy and Quackity over Dream’s.

But eventhough he didn’t fully trust people after awhile, I think he still was optimistic and hopeful about them. That they’d stop Tommy from killing him, that Sapnap would become his friend again, that Sam would have human decency…etc he didn’t trust those things but I don’t think he didn’t hope for them. As the saying goes, “you hope for the best but plan for the worst.”

He trusted them all with his life: Sam, Punz, and Techno, and in a way they all both met expectations and let him down in the end…

As far as information goes, I think despite his lies and production, he does tend to be honest even amongst his lies, something I’ve talked about before. At least as far as his feelings and motivations goes, not his plans of course. And it’s hard to say how trusting he is to his allies with information and even physically and such since we don’t have many scenes of staged duo or rival duo to que us in. How close and how far into the onion does he let them in is hard to say, though I do think that some of the most honest and vulnerable we get of him is in that cell with Techno…

[the-unaligned-player]

It would be interesting if s2 had more modern technologies like film and a broadcast system and took place entirely from that pov, meaning that we didn’t have anyone’s point of view to go off of, and didn’t know anything past what Dream and Punz knew and were willing to share on television. We wouldn’t know if they were honest or lying, trying to shape a certain narrative, if they just didn’t know the truth, etc. Not only that, but would they ever talk about themselves? They could be doing something huge behind the scenes, and we’d never know. Do they have guest appearances, would Tommy or Sam show up? Would their guest appearances indicate their allies, or would they have a guest appearance for every character?

Indeed, that sort of set up would be an excellent framework for delivering a very unreliable narrative! Even if they never had any agenda at all, and are being completely truthful as far as they can manage, if we only see what they can see or hear what they think is going on, then it will be inherently unreliable and filtered through a limited POV. And this works for certain types of story-telling!

But yeah if S2 was delivered solely through what is essentially an epistolary narrative (epistolary = a story told entirely through letters that characters send to each other, often extended in modern understanding to include diaries, newspaper clippings, recordings, social media posts, etc. Examples would include The Magnus Archives or good ol' Mangoball) then it would be a very interesting approach. Not necessarily one entirely suited to co-operative roleplay on a Minecraft server, but definitely an interesting one.

[the-unaligned-player]

Hero Gonna prove my version of justice Is more just than yours

[the-unaligned-player]

Hero Gonna prove my version of justice Is more just than yours

[the-unaligned-player]

When C!Quackity said he had a specific reason for torturing C!Dream I felt the little respect he had earned from shamelessness die, as with his back against the wall he attempted to present his daily obsidian painting training as motivated by something rational and moral. After having admitted to the very man he used as an inkwell that that's not true.

[the-unaligned-player]

tbh to me c!sapnap is on the same level of betraying c!dream as c!sam. It may seem far-fetched considering what c!sam did and considering we don't have much real lore content with c!sapnap or c!dreamnap, but when you look at what we DO have, it's kind of a picture

like, he's not just some stupid or short-sighted character, as it might seem at first glance - we have a ton of evidence that he understands perfectly well that prison makes c!dream physically and mentally ill, but he agrees with it. In the dialogue with c!michael he literally says "dream fucked up, prison fucked him up in another sense, but it doesn't matter, cause dream has to get better and become *my* dream again, let him stay in prison and improve, even if it breaks him idc", like wtf is this? funny, but at the same time, c!sapnap doesn't visit dream more than once, how will he know that c!dream is making progress? In c!sapnap's head, prison is supposed to be a rehabilitation for c!dream, only no one checks his progress in stopping being a "fucked up", he either sits there completely alone or people go there to hurt him and c!sapnap understands and acknowledged it, but he doesn't give a shit. I'm sorry, but this gives off sam's "I thought I broke his will to do something like that". He obviously doesn't care about c!dream and just wants his good old *convenient* friend, and he doesn't care about the consequences.

But he's not just passively harming c!dream, he's doing it actively. If the threat could still be interpreted as an emotional outburst, something he could say and regret, then his other actions clearly say the opposite. Like, the dude literally stalked and harassed c!dream for months after he found out where he lived??

The revival book was more important to him than torture. Even in the beginning, he didn't care about c!dream's reputation, when c!wilbur and c!tommy dragged it into the dirt for no reason, and he repeatedly went against c!dream or supported things that directly harmed c!dream. For me, one of the most telling scenes is c!sapnap and c!george's meeting with mexican dream's ghost, where c!sapnap, without any reason, pins the explosion of El Rapids on c!dream, and then, when he finds out that actually c!quackity was the one who did it, c!sapnap immediately says that they urgently need to go and find out why he did it, to check if he's okay and all that. This is literally the attitude you'd expect from c!tommy, to attribute every bad event to c!dream, but no, this is his so-called best friend! And of course, he only wants to know the reasons for an action when someone else does a bad action, but not c!dream - well, of course, cause it's clear that c!dream reasons are "being evil" or smth.

So, I've been in my c!sapnap hate arc for over two years now and you all should join me lmao

I didn't think I'd write SO much, but emotions took over after reading the new chapter of your fic and some of your posts, sorry abt that :"^

[context a & b]

Honestly, in my opinion his betrayal is almost worse than Sam’s, which is saying something since he literally enabled and facilitated daily torture. But like Sam wasn’t Dream’s self proclaimed brother, and at least Sam’s delusion kinda makes sense. Sapnap is just like - the chicken tastes rubbery and overcooked, so I put it in the oven and then it tasted burnt, so I put it back in the oven to help the taste and at some point I’ll take it out of the oven and then it’ll taste good again. No idea how long that’ll take, and no don’t be ridiculous I’m not gonna check on it. I swear though if anyone touches my chicken before it tastes good again like so much as removes it from the oven or seasons it I’m gonna throw it in the trash… vs Sam who’s like - the chicken tastes rubbery but I spent money on it so I’m gonna put it in the oven and turn it to charcoal so at least then it won’t be a complete waste…

ya know? Like at least Sam was corrupted by power, financial benefit, manipulated a bit, and had the blood of a “child” on his hands. Sapnap doesn’t even have that, he has a life long best friend who he heard made a speech about not caring about anything and then later a speech about wanting to control everyone, a fish in a item frame and a letter saying “thanks for visiting”…

Well I don’t know about the “even if it breaks him” I don’t think he is thinking that directing about Dream’s suffering if that makes sense, but Sapnap is delusional no doubt. I also don’t know if he even cares that much about the book in general, he just doesn’t seem to given a damn about the torture. He seems to really just be about the fear of what Dream might do and how he needs to be stopped before that.

And you do have a point, in the beginning even as his “brother” he on many occasions went against him, down to the very first disc war where they killed him multiple times. I mean if Sapnap weren’t American, he’d have probably been right alongside clingy duo in L’manberg and stuff… oh I had no idea about the El Rapids thing but am also not surprised…

What do you even mean, I am literally an engineer of this Sapnap hate train 🚂 choo choo! I be shoveling coal to keep this engine running ya know. like literally the more lore I watch the more he actually just kills me.

but anyways, I mean you read the chapter (and presumably the one before) so you know my thoughts on Sapnap lol. ;D

[the-unaligned-player]

I Saw one person Said on twitter that cdream probably doesn't hate attachments bc the speeches when he said it/implied it were staged and wow they kinda have a point. While tbh i do think there's a bit of true in what cdream Said in those, it does get one to think, what we know of this guy that isn't a lie to make everyone think he's a crazy enough to be locked up? Like cpunz and cdream evil Disney villains moments on the final streams were most probably an act for cclingy so how much of what we know about the guy is a lie just trick us? Cdream can be a manipulator bc he manipulates people into believing the worst of him, using their already hate for him agaist them and it's interesting how it can trick Even us sometimes. We could never know what was on that guy mind the same as the other characthers and make our own assumtions of it and give him motovations that arent his. And when the final came he had the oportunity to Said the others which is his real motovation and not a theory created based on assumtions miscontructed or theories or líes

lol yea that boy is more attached to his attachments than anyone on the server and that’s saying something considering ctommy fought wars just for the discs, the difference is that cdream does not put the value of an item above all else.

But man did you see the way he stands in front of the cat and takes ctommy’s punches to protect it, and how he killed ctommy after already being in prison with him for weeks right after ctommy killed the cat. Did you see the way he snatches spirit from ctommy in the finale or the way he yells about it while being blackmailed, or the way he responds to csam in Daedalus about bringing animals back to life. Did you hear the way he won’t name the dog in prison after ctechno keeps asking him, almost like he’s afraid if he names it it’ll be taken from him just like everything else he’s named. Did you hear the way he screams at csam to get cquackity to stop killing ctechno, the way he tells ctechno he doesn’t want to experience death, and the way he stands in front of ctechno trying to take the hits for him. Did you see the way he not only helps ctechno get totems to dodge death (after he knows he can bring him back with the revive book), not only provides the distraction to help him escape and give him items, but saves his horse Carl. Do you hear the way he tells cpunz they need to separate so he can stay safe from the server coming to kill cdream (right after they save Carl who was used to kill ctechno). Did you hear the way he begs and explains in the dethronement conversation how he’s just trying to protect them, how dethroning cgeorge keeps him safe, how when he crowns him originally he promises to keep cgeorge safe but already begins to worry that he cannot because he can’t be everywhere all the time. Did you see how ctommy gets exiled after he burns down cgeorge’s house. Did you hear the way he comes and asks csapnap for his armor after the jailbreak while he’s already in full netherite, the way he practically begs to have what’s his back for sentimental value.

Cdream is so very attached, even his denial and adamancy of not having attachments proves as much. Of course, he’s going to claim he doesn’t care in front of his biggest enemies right after his dead horse’s leather is threatened to be burned and he’s blackmailed into tearing down the walls while they ruthlessly mock him, after they burned down cgeorge’s house because they know he cares about cgeorge. Of course, he’s going to say he has nothing to lose as everyone rallies to take him down. Of course he’s going to yell how he has no attachments - no weaknesses - nothing they can use against him - nothing they can hurt to hurt him.

He’s so freaking attached it’s why he knows the value of attachments. It’s why he knows the limits of what ctommy will do for his discs, it’s why he gives back their armor after the battles and wars. He values and respects people’s care for their attachments. That’s why he knows the items on the walls will piss them off to the point of imprisoning him, because on the outside it’s the most ridiculous nonsense, he didn’t even steal those items, besides the discs he’s not really been one for blackmail before - and honestly like come on now, the skeppy cage? Showing ctommy all the things he has and what his plan is when he intends to let him live. - He knew attachments would make people blind to how crazy it all was, blinded by their love and fear.

Honestly, one of his funniest lines in the disc confrontation is how people didn’t really have attachments before ctommy and how ctommy creates attachments. Like heh? I’m sorry I don’t remember ctommy being there for bekerson or mars or spirit or cponk’s first lemon tree… people had attachments before ctommy, he didn’t influence that. He didn’t even form L’manberg one of the bigger attachments to begin with. What do you mean ctommy is the instigator of attachments so you can control people — Dream, babe, you make no sense…

I digress, as far as him lying to us and can we even believe anything he says, is it all a trick…etc. I will say that there is a reason the cdream apologists were not surprised by what he says in the finale. It’s because we already knew it was true even before the words left his mouth. Because within his lies there is a thread of truth, the best lies always do. And when he’s not preforming as the big bad villain in front of his enemies, he’s actually very honest with people. And we can determine this by what his actions and logic say versus his words. Where are the contradictions. Where do things not line up quite right or make sense. How does his voice sound. Who is he speaking to, his enemies or his friends. The finale is the most honest we see cdream be to ctommy but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been honest and said his motivation before. In fact, in his conversation with cpunz alone we see him spell it out and I’m fairly certain that’s not the first time either. Needless to say, yes we don’t get to see in his head but even cpunz kinda mislead us leading up to the disc confrontation, and it’s not like other characters are always upfront with their motivations (perhaps they themselves are not even aware of what they are), the reason things get misconstrued and poor assumptions get made aren’t just because we don’t get to see his pov (though that certainly is a big reason), but also because they are based on the actions and words of cdream when he’s around his enemies versus when he isn’t.

Huh… as an aside I’m pretty sure I’ve referenced this in most of the fanfic I’ve written… maybe I should just let Dream and Punz explain ;D (sorry my quotes live rent free in my head so uh enjoy angst I guess lol XD…)

[Misery Loves Another Idiot - Dream]

“It was out of kindness, mercy and attentiveness that he severed his relationships. A form of twisted protection to distance himself. It wasn’t supposed to be this real. He didn’t want them to hate him. He did say he didn’t care, but did people honestly believe him? He should be glad. He should be glad they fell for his lies. But he can’t help but feel betrayed by their incredulity. That no one bothered to consider. To ask questions. To listen. Was he so far gone already that doubt wasn’t viable? He’s a ‘liar’ after all, why was the assumption then that he was telling the truth?”

[Dreamcatcher - Punz]

“He still can’t believe they trusted Quackity and Tommy over Dream’s own words. He remembers so vividly the way Dream pretended it was intentional. Like he wanted them to leave. Like he wanted to keep them safe by not caring. It was easier than facing the rejection. Easier than knowing that his words and actions were meaningless. Easier than confronting the fact that they trusted others and the lies he tried to use to protect them. It was so much easier than facing the fact that even his close friends saw him as nothing but a power hungry tyrant (just like everyone else).That was the moment Dream’s paranoia increased and the line between his villain fascade started to become less obvious. That was the moment Dream learned that he’d have to scream to be heard and lie to be listened to.”

[Hell in a box - Dream]

“Sure, Punz has always been there by his side, through every war, but Dream can’t let go of paranoia and fear. The fear of losing him. Of losing everything. Of losing everyone. The fear weighted by every attachment that gets taken from him. Everything he loves torn from his grasp for others to rub in his face that he lost something yet again. And it hurts. He wishes it didn’t. He wishes he could be the cruel, cold, attachment-less devil they think he is, but he can’t help but get attached. To love a cat or a suit of armor or his ally. To care about the things that allow him to at least feel human. Punz is the only one left. And as much as he wants revenge, he doesn’t want to risk exposing Punz. To risk exposing his key to immortality. To risk having everyone know he does have a weakness. He knows the game, he’s played it before, but unlike Spirit, Punz is alive. And the moment he reveals his attachment, his ally, he’ll be killed mercilessly, just like Hope was.”

[Hell in a box - Punz]

“He still remembers when Dream held attachments, had pets, had a home. When Dream cherished his horse before it was ruthlessly murdered. When Dream spent days upon days making sure his armor and weapons were perfect, before they were stolen again and again. When Dream fought wars and collected items for his friends all the while making them laugh, before they abandoned him. When Dream proudly crafted his secret base, the smooth wood giving it a welcoming warm vibe, before it became a deep hole for a trap.”

[the-unaligned-player]

This man is the villain, everyone…

I mean just look at him all by himself, up there on his evil little perch… plotting - scheming - spying - planning his next kill - rebuilding Tubbo’s house… after Tommy burned it down… so villainous indeed…

For real though, while streaming Sapnap finds Dream up there by himself fixing the house and starts helping him. They spend over an hour painstakingly fixing Tubbo’s house, block by block, checking and rechecking the vods to make sure everything is placed correctly [clip]. They even get Tubbo a new bee to replace the one Tommy killed [clip] [Sapnap's stream].

And then they burn down that very house at the start of the L’manberg war and Dream shouts full of venom and anger, “I wanna see white flags! White flags!—outside your base—by tomorrow—at dawn or you are dead!” [clip] not as a tyrant but as a betrayed friend. They could have burnt down any house to send a message of war, they could have blown it up. But they didn’t. They burned down the one they had spent time arduously rebuilding, because it was a symbol of their friendship and community, where they help eachother and they take care of the land everyone shares. The society, the people of L’manberg decided wasn’t good enough for them.

[the-unaligned-player]

Staged Pokemon

C!Dream

Gallade (The Knight, serving the kingdom.)

Absol (The Prophet, bearing ill fortunes.)

Sableye (The Wizard, watching and planning.)

Lucario (The Warrior, controlled and brutal.)

Banette (The Scapegoat, cursed and pained.)

Arceus (The God, father and mother.)

C!Punz

Falinks (The Mercenary, looking for a payday.)

Houndoom (The Warhound, following its master.)

Gardevoir (The Companion, there to the end.)

Hisuian Zoroark (The Rejected, preparing to burn the village.)

Aegislash (The Test, hungering for the unworthy.)

Giratina (The Accuser, scorner of injustice.)

[the-unaligned-player]

I always liked how cpunz is actually a friend to cdream. In the end Even if he was still on the plan or acting as if he was still on the plan, he still didn't argued with cdream over his objetive. He still let cdream talk with ctommy without trying to make cdream go back to the plan and Even in the end where they're about to die they tried to escape together. Like i also Saw some putting cdream as not caring about them but i don't agree, he called for cpunz in the end and seemed truly happy when meeting him after prison break. I think cdream might be not be very Open with them bc he doesn't communicate well with almost anyone and that went worst after the Prison so it's complicated and yeah it wasn't a healthy friendship but the fact they cared for each other was there and was there since a long time

For sure. Oh, the way they sounded trying to escape the prison is so gut wrenching. And yea I’m also gonna have to hard disagree with the idea that cdream doesn’t care about cpunz like what? LITERALLY one of the reasons cdream had cpunz betray him and went to prison was to protect cpunz. He could have let them kill him in prison but I reckon one of the reasons he didn’t was because it would risk exposing cpunz if he brought him back.

More importantly we hardly got any content of them, so it’s truly hard to judge how close they were and how much they cared for each other. But given the things we do have I’d say they do care about each other.

His passionate and enraged speech to cpurpled about the torture. That conversation did not need to be that emotional, even the way cdream talks about it himself has been less outraged. That and the anger, shock and outrage cpunz has when clingy duo kill cdream in the prison. There’s also the genuine excitement cpunz has for seeing cdream after the prison break. And we know this is genuine because unlike cdream we get his pov and his thoughts after the fact where he had no reason to be disingenuous.

In addition, there is a clear trust between them. The most obvious being the revive book, the sole reason cdream didn’t get killed. Cdream trusts cpunz with his life, even further with the actual death experiments, which is alluded to in the finale.

So yea I feel people who think they don’t care about each other either having watched the lore or weren’t paying attention. But like that is what I found so funny about the ‘don’t touch dream’ in the first war, I mean… what more proof do you need after that.

As far as health of their friendships goes, I see that highlighted a lot and I’m gonna be honest, I’m not so sure their friendship is anymore unhealthy than other. Like they haven’t betrayed each other to our confirmed knowledge, they are clearly willing to die for each other, they don’t talk over each other, the fight for each other. How much communication and heart to heart they have is speculation, but still like I’d say their friendship is pretty healthy, even if they themselves aren’t very healthy mentally speaking.

Anyways good thoughts, they are so wholesome. :) Sorry for my delayed response turns out I wrote it and it got lost in my 40 something drafts. <3

[the-unaligned-player]

There’s something about Punz’s “You think I’m not his friend?” and Dream’s “Unless you’re saying that I’m not a person?” that just speaks volumes to me. Something about the questions that aren’t really questions but dares, calling out the unjust mentality at the root of their hurt.

A monster isn’t a person, nothing but inhuman evil. A mercenary doesn’t have friends, only loyal to money.

[the-unaligned-player]

I think it's partially an extension of his desperation to see some level of virtue in the people around him.

It's still kind of sad how c!Dream acts pragmatic about his torture but secretly does want people to acknowledge how messed up it was and that he didn't deserve it. With c!Sapnap, c!Tommy and c!Foolish, he brings it up to achieve certain goals and then drops it quickly once that doesn't work or the goal has been achieved. But then with c!Sam, he insists that he didn't deserve to get tortured and that it is evil and wrong to torture others or to allow it to happen. And then there's c!Punz who talks quite emotionally to c!Purpled about how the torture was not okay (so you can imagine what he said when Dream told him). As much as Dream tries to leverage his torture, I do think he desperately wants to hear others say that it shouldn't have happened, that not even he deserved to go through that.