dreamteamfanblog - Tumblr blog

[dreamteamfanblog]

Hey! Op of the original post here, and oh boy is there a story behind this post.

(disclaimer that i'm not trying to call out or reignite old drama, lol, it's been years and we were mostly teenagers, i just wanted to provide behind the scenes context)

While this on the surface may seem like normal fandom discourse about how to engage with content creators, that wasn't the real intent of this post.

Basically, I was vetting and testing the waters with this post to see if anyone else in the fandom was growing uncomfortable with a certain clique of blogs (who also ran the biggest dteamblr fandom discord server at the time, i believe) and their general mean attitude, not just to cc's, but to other fans and mutuals.

I knew multiple other people in the discord server who felt uneasy around them but didn't have any other community spaces to go to, and I wanted to potentially make an alternative space, but was scared of the backlash from this clique of popular blogs.

..So I made this post (which had a lot of disclaimers about how obviously real critique and jokes is okay, specifically so if this clique tried to retaliate against me i could deny it was about them), knowing that a good portion of the people interacting and in our circle would be able to read between the lines, and whenever people would react positively in the notes, I'd privately dm them and quietly offer them the link to my alternative discord server if they weren't comfortable in the original one.

I'm pretty sure I got like 100 people through secret dm's to folks in the notes of this post, and it's so weird (not in a bad way necessarily) to see it now analyzed on its own merits as discourse removed from the scheming and drama originally surrounding it.

I get the distinct feeling that most of the Dream Team fanbase on Tumblr doesn’t even actually like the Dream Team.

I notice that the opinion of the Dream Team as people seems very low among their fanbase. To the point where I can’t tell how many of you just hate follow them.

Some of it is jokes, I know that. Some of it is constructive criticism. 

Most of it isn’t.

Jokes have a basis in reality. Always.The harsh jokes directed at the Dream Team are strongly grounded in people’s actual views and opinions of them. Attempts at meaningful, constructive criticism take on a tone of bitterness. 

When one of them messes up there’s this immediate jump for everyone involved in this mass of harsh jokes and cold criticism to jump in with “I knew it, they were rotten all along”. This tendency of people to reaffirm previously held bitterness, already born from small infractions, with more minute mistakes, and to block out any good done that could balance out this view.

Moments where these people are soft and kind and genuine, like all people have the capacity to be, are seen through a lens of distrust. Friendship between them is a marketing ploy. Gratitude towards us is a grab for attention and nothing more. Any room for improvement must be pounced on, any promise to learn picked apart until we can deny it’s sincerity completely.

And when I frown at this and question the validity of this strategy. The need to cherry pick every little thing until you find some long sought after thing to criticize and block out the rest? I’m laughed at for it. When creators are left unchecked, they say, they can get away with horrible things. But criticism and pessimistic distrust are different things. The refusal to believe anything good is very real, and the tendency to blow up anything bad is just as common. And it’s easy to think, when you hold on to every bad thing and distrust every good thing, that you’re right. That anyone who doesn’t see these people as the horrible capitalist villains you’ve concluded they are is wrong. That anyone who points out that your level of pessimism borders on being unrealistic is wrong. They’ve seen it in the past. Some fans don’t want to criticize their favorite creators. Some fans would let literal nazi’s get away with murder and turn a blind eye to it. So they’ve taken these literal nazi’s and they’ve made every content creator into that horrible human being, and  they’ve taken these blind fans willing to bend their senses of morality to excuse and forgive these people, and they turn anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their views of certain content creators as some sort of super villains who need to have their every action picked apart relentlessly lest they succeed in their plan to manipulate everyone and destroy all common morality into that fan who’d let a creator get away with being a literal nazi.

I firmly believe we need to remember that these creators are real people. There is a parasocial relationships between fans who think these people can do no wrong, have no flaws, and are all around perfect in every way. That’s a very dangerous view to have. But there’s also a parasocial relationship between ‘fans’ who look over everything creators do with a hyper critical, unrealistically pessimistic lense. Who think every good action is meant to deceive you and that every bad action is just their ‘mask slipping’ instead of a mistake, you know, mistakes, something that most people do, as opposed to them just being a horrible human being, which is honestly much less common. That’s a delusion just as much, and can be an equally unhealthy one for the people involved.

These are both toxic views to have. Thinking someone can do no wrong and thinking someone can do no right are equally bad, equally unhealthy reactions. And they both rely on this delusion that the content creators they watch aren’t really real people. That they aren’t a human being, they’re a symbol, they represent something, weather that something be good or bad. Blind optimism and blind pessimism are both fucked up and it’s infuriating for me to come into this fandom dealing with both these types of fans. Having to tell some people that yes, the Dream Team is capable of making mistakes, yes they are flawed people, and yes sometimes they do bad things that they need to apologize for is annoying. Having to tell people that yes, the Dream Team is capable of doing things with good intentions, yes they do seem like decent people, and that yes, they are capable of feeling remorse for their actions when they mess up? That’s equally annoying. If you only look for the bad in people you’re only going to see the bad in people. If you only look for the good in people you’re only going to see the good in people. Both are deluded ways of thinking!

So basically, take a moment to think. Do you even like these people? Do you think they’re good people? Is that a fair assessment or is that your dark worldview? If they’re really bad people who you don’t even like and who give you more bitterness than joy, why are you in their fanbase at all?  And I think the most important question is, if they got tumblr accounts, would you mind them seeing what you’ve said about them? I wouldn’t. Any criticism I have of them here is fair and i’d want them to see it so they can improve. Any positivity I have of them here is fair as well and I don’t think there’d be anything wrong with them seeing that either. But if the idea of them seeing your blog makes you wanna delete it, then there’s probably something seriously wrong with your portrayal of them. If you’re only saying and doing the things you do because you know these people will never hear it, you’re wrong. Don’t say anything you wouldn’t want whoever you’re talking about to hear, it’s that fucking simple.

(Reminder that this isn’t aimed at people who give fair/constructive criticism or who are actually genuinely just kidding with the stuff i’m referring to, but to those of you who this is directed at, I think you know who you are)

[dreamteamfanblog]

To put my thoughts into more detail (because i only just finished reading hitting on sixteen...or...the wilbur van)

It actually caught me off guard just how much good will Quackity extended to Wilbur there. He stayed relatively civil throughout their first discussion up until Wilbur started hitting as low as he could go, he offered Wilbur a government position very respectfully because he had a seemingly genuine faith in Wilbur even after everything, despite the harsh way their initial discussion ended Quackity was still hospitable to Wilbur the next time they saw each other- offering him a seat and a drink- and even told Wilbur that the offer to be part of the government was still open, hell, even as Wilbur led him into an obvious trick..Quackity seemed to trust that Wilbur meant no harm...I mean..his first assumption was that Ranboo was gonna do a little graffiti while Wilbur was distracting him!

Meanwhile it's Wilbur who spends the entire story acting completely entitled and deranged. He starts yelling the moment Quackity asks him to meet before he even knows why he's there, he makes it clear that he thinks Quackity's respectful offer of a government position is beneath him and that Quackity is beneath him, he devolves the conversation into screaming and unacceptably low blows while the worst Quackity actually does is tell Wilbur he doesn't return his obsession and imply Wilbur should be embarrassed by his behaviour, then Wilbur decides to brutally murder Quackity's horse in front of him via detonation and laugh while Quackity cries because Wilbur found an invitation to be vice president of an entire fucking nation insulting somehow?!?!

This....rivalry....doesn't even feel equal to me at this point??? Like, Quackity wasn't trying to hurt Wilbur. Quackity tried to stay calm even when Wilbur immediately jumped to causing a scene. Quackity gave Wilbur an offer that any normal person would find flattering and kept it open even after Wilbur's response to said invitation was "Quackity, you forget where you stand next to me. You are in my shadow. Act like it. Maybe it’s not a coincidence that every single idea you’ve had has failed under your guidance. You are a walking second place medal". Quackity smiled at Wilbur and offered him a drink while Wilbur was getting ready to blow his beloved pet's guts out in front of him! Wilbur's obsession genuinely honest to god feels one sided and all Quackity does through most of this story is act hospitable and in good faith to the best of his ability even through Wilbur's insane arrogant tantrums.

The only time they seem to go at each other in equal measure is at the end when Tubbo's locked in with the bomb. Which, quite frankly, feels less like Quackity ~giving in to the petty rivalry~ and more like Quackity finding out one of the people he cares about most was locked in with a bomb primed by Wilbur to blow at any moment. I mean, if you look at that scene, Quackity is frantic. Quackity doesn't even seem to process that Wilbur's genuinely trying to help Tubbo, he keeps dropping lines like "I won't let one of my citizens die to a terrorist!" and "He's my friend as much as my citizen, I'll protect him at all costs!" as he fights Wilbur, like, it fully seems that Quackity doesn't realize Wilbur's actually trying to help. Which makes his decision to attack Wilbur decidedly not petty and decidedly necessary from his perspective as he believes Wilbur's actively trying to kill someone he loves.

And one could argue that Quackity should have calmed down enough to listen to Wilbur when Wilbur decided to help Tubbo, but throughout the book Quackity's done nothing but listen to and try to extend trust to Wilbur and it led to that absolute maniac building a bomb designed to kill! Like, gee, I wonder why Quackity wasn't interested in giving Wilbur the benefit of the doubt anymore at that point with Tubbo on one life strapped to a bomb WIlbur designed specifically to kill because he was pissed Quackity 'insulted' him by offering him a high ranking government position?!? We have the benefit of being third person viewers who don't have to deal with the emotions of the moment and who know that Wilbur honestly wants to help Tubbo, but Quackity shows no sign of fully processing that fact and it's absolutely reasonable that he wasn't jumping to step aside and let Wilbur do whatever he wants. In fact, it would have been LESS understandable if Quackity hadn't freaked out and tried to keep Wilbur away from Tubbo!

[dreamteamfanblog]

Damn. But like. If a terrorist known for detonating his own nation even with the possibility of the explosion hurting/killing people led me to his van and showed me one of the people I care most about tied up to a bomb ready to explode....I....would in fact also panic and refuse to let said terrorist anywhere near said person or bomb even if he said he was helping.

[dreamteamfanblog]

I know this is an old post but if I may add my two cents....

WHY has GRIAN, who in my opinion is not great at PvP, killed me at least 8 times in PvP games, yet I have NEVER finished ahead of him in buildmart. It is disproportionate to the rest of the games statistically.

Also I'm gonna say smth about the speedrunning drama?? Yeah this might get controversial :/ hope I don't get cancelled 💔

I don't give a FUCK about the speedrun drama,

okay?! I don't give a fuck about anything actually! I care about your disks. I care more about your disks than you do! That's the ONLY thing I care about on the server, actually! I don't care about Spirit, Spirit was my horse, died ages ago! I care about your disks, 'cause that's what gives me power over you and your friends, and EVERYBODY you care about! Because you care about your disks more than anyone else here, so if YOU ARE NOT EXILED from L'Manburg, I will build these walls until they reach this block.limit. I will keep EVERYBODY inside, I will hire guards, Punz and Sapnap, to patrol all around the entire walls, keeping them inside. No trade, no-one leaves, no armor, or they get slaughtered inside. DON'T TRY AND THREATEN ME! I don't CARE! I've lost ALL care for ANYTHING on this server! 

[dreamteamfanblog]

I am once again wondering how dumb the "Quackity is just powerhungry and has always been since the very beginning" crowd thinks he is.

I mean for starters why would he ever choose the L'manburg election as his gateway into power? First off L'manburg wasn't exactly the picture of strength and influence. They only had 'technical independence', by all accounts they lost the war by a huge margin, and their then six members was almost doubled by the broader Smp's then eleven members. Any intelligent person looking for a way to emass power would be much better off looking elsewhere, honestly. And what little there was to gain wouldn't even have been worth pursuing when you take into account that a purely power hungry Quackity would stand to lose more than he gains. L'manburg was entirely loyal to Wilbur and Tommy at that point and Quackity was a foreigner from the group L'manburg hated, the odds leaned towards a loss for him from the very beginning. Which would not only leave him just as powerless as before but with the bonus of a bunch of wasted time...it would also toss any hope of Tommy and Wilbur being allies out the window (which they had been before the election). By all means this would not be a good strategic place to start your power grab. And if for some idiotic reason Quackity in this scenario thought it was worth it, he'd have to be absolutely ruthless in his campaign to make sure he doesn't make a loss on that huge wager.

But uh. He didn't run a ruthless campaign. In fact, he was so civil that the other parties were throwing out underhanded tactic after underhanded tactic to make him look bad and he just didn't retaliate. The propoganda campaigns came solely from Pog2020. The voter fraud came from both Pog and Coconut. Intimidation tactics from Pog and Schlatt. But mostly nothing from Quackity. His campaign wasn't bad, but it sure as hell was clean! As I established earlier, the decision to enter this election from word go was almost guarenteed to negatively effect him if his main goal was power, and we're really meant to believe he thought it was worth taking that risk and then ran a clean campaign while everyone else undermined him with blatantly shady tactics?

And then he chooses to pool his votes with Schlatt! And here's the thing. That makes no sense. At least not from the powerhungry perspective. If I'm Quackity, I'm obviously losing this massive election that was a huge risk to enter in the first place, I don't make a deal with some crazy drunk bringing in the lions share of the votes just to give him the presidency. Smart move is to try for presidency yourself, at least demand an even split of power if that's a no-go, offer the same to Coconut if that fails, if they reject it just pull out entirely and try to salvage a friendship with Wilbur. Being vice president under Schlatt wouldn't give him any more influence than being a good friend of Wilbur's would. In fact, it's likely to give him less. As I said earlier, L'manburg adores Wilbur. Quackity not so much. Schlatt definitely not. Vice president under Schlatt gives him no real power and leaves him as an obvious enemy of the leader L'manburg actually likes which tanks Quackity's popularity as well. President over Schlatt would be acceptable because that's a rise in power. President over Fundy/Niki even better because that's for sure gonna give him higher approval rates than Schlatt. Pulling out of the election entirely and claiming it's out of good faith towards Wilbur may be the best option here, even, because it mediates public opinion and opens the possibility of maintaining a close friendship with Wilbur which would still give him influence. No chance being Schlatt's vp is the play here.

Quackity's suggested policies were also super counter productive to emassing power. During his debate with Wilbur, Quackity argued three things. That L'manburg needed looser border policies, that they needed to focus on social policy rather than policing, and that the previous administration's war mongering was undesirable. None of those are power grabbing policies. In fact I'd say they lessen the state's power. Less control over who comes in and out of the country, less harsh responses to crime, less focus on outward conflict. These are, by all means, very liberal social policies which explicitly prioritize taking care of people over executive expansion. Literally everything about his ideal policy goes against the goal of emassing/consolidating power.

Then the entire Schlatt administration? There were two ways Quackity could have used this to get himself more power. Option number one is backing Schlatt's authoritarian policies to strengthen the administration and then turning on Schlatt to put himself in charge after using Schlatt to enact aforementioned authoritarian policies. Or, option number two, capitalize on the public hatred for Schlatt by becoming a vocal critic and riding the wave of unrest with the goal of ultimately replacing Schlatt. Quackity did neither. Quackity was civil and amenable. Quackity did the worst thing he could've done if the goal was to put himself in power here. Quackity tried to talk Schlatt out of his policies and very quietly went behind his back when absolutely necessary. He didn't take advantage of Schlatt's authoritarianism to push his own power, nor did he take advantage of the growing unrest. He just kept trying to mediate things and never took the opportunity to lift himself up.

Hell, look at what happened after Quackity joined the rebellion! The initial plan was to get Schlatt to sign over the presidency to him. Which makes sense considering he was the vp anyways. But then suddenly they put Wilbur in charge again. Then Tommy. Then Tubbo. And Quackity didn't do anything to question this. He literally just did not fight back against that decision. Even though they weren't formally elected. Even after he was made vice president again and as such the next in line if Tubbo were thrown out. Even when Tubbo's popularity started dipping due to his appeasements of Dream. Quackity challenged his decisions personally. Quackity did not challenge his rank publicly. Quackity did not make moves against Tubbo's status as presidet. Quackity did not take the opportunity to raise his own rank.

Consistently, Quackity's actions are so ludicrously ineffective if we're reading him as primarily motivated by greed for power that I really just wonder how dumb these people think he is.

[dreamteamfanblog]

Things Bad implied he may use all that tnt for:

- Kill Quackity

- Blow up DXD statue

- Mystery New Years Event

However he's been so vague about "his purposes" that I kinda doubt any of those were truthful suggestions (except maybe the last one?)

[dreamteamfanblog]

What The Fuck Do You Need Stacks Of Tnt For, Mr Halo?

[dreamteamfanblog]

Some people need to hear this.

Jack, Niki, and Quackity all became invested in L'manburg at basically the same time.

Jack stopped being a relevant figure in L'manburg by the election. He slept through Schlatt's reign and left the nation shortly after.

Niki and Quackity stayed relevant members of L'manburg through Doomsday.

Jack was not more important/devoted to L'manburg than Niki and Quackity. He was not even AS important/devoted to L'manburg.

Why does this fandom keep shoving Jack into L'manburg content and why do they simultaneously keep erasing Quackity from L'manburg content?

Canonically speaking it should be the exact opposite.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[dreamteamfanblog]

It's always "Religious c!Tommy" this and "Religious c!Tommy" that, but what about religious c!Tubbo and c!Quackity 😔

[dreamteamfanblog]

"People made Tubbo into Jschlatt's son just because they're the same species-"

No.

To all my post Manberg-Pogtopia arc Dsmp fans.

People started headcanoning Tubbo as a goat BECAUSE of the Dadschlatt headcanons.

Not the other way around.

[dreamteamfanblog]

So obviously I haven't watched very much Dreamsmp lore these past few months.

And can someone please tell me...

Does Quackity actually like Wilbur back?

Obviously Wilbur has a thing for Quackity beneath that "I can't stand you" attitude.

But as much as I see the implication of those undertones being mutual, everything I've actually seen from them interaction feels less like mutual tension and more like Quackity thinks Wilbur's a fuckin' creep who genuinely needs to leave him alone.

But again, I haven't seen everything, so I'm outsourcing this question.

[dreamteamfanblog]

My headcanoned in universe explanation for why the hell the SBI family dynamic was canonized and decanonized off and on like twenty times:

- Wilbur is Phil's bio son. They are a father son duo, as they are in canon.

- Techno was Phil's apprentice but not his kid. They've worked and trained together since Techno was rather young, but I reiterate, not related. Wilbur spent a notable amount of time with Techno, given Techno was his dad's apprentice, and did think of him as a brotherly figure. But the idea of Techno being family was a sentiment that neither Techno or Phil shared.

- Okay so. Technically Phil was there when Tommy was found. But he was never Phil's kid. Wilbur wanted to take hin in and so Wilbur did. Tommy did not grow up being raised by Phil, he grew up alongside Wilbur's own- slightly older actually- son. Phil knew Tommy for maybe a few months when he was little but he did not choose to raise Tommy nor did he in practice. Wilbur got attached to saying they're like siblings and by association assumed Phil would be fine with being seen as Tommy's father but Phil just never had anything to do with Tommy and never wanted to. That was all Wilbur.

- It's basically all just because of only child Wilbur wanting siblings and latching onto anyone he conceivably could as a sibling even though Phil definitely didn't see them as his kids and in turn they didn't see Phil as a parent. Nor were they legally or biologically.

[dreamteamfanblog]

Some Dream Smp Members sorted into Cat Boy or Dog Boy because for some reason this was requested of me (both in character and out of character editions):

Dream - catboy in rp, dogboy oorp.

George - catboy for both

Sapnap - dogboy for both

Bad - dogboy in rp, catboy oorp

Skeppy - catboy in rp, dogboy oorp

Philza - catboy for both

Techno - catboy for both

Wilbur - catboy for both

Tommy - catboy in rp, dogboy oorp

Tubbo - dogboy for both

Ranboo - catboy for both

Niki - catboy in rp, dogboy oorp

Jack - catboy for both

Eret - catboy for both

Puffy - dogboy for both

Karl - dogboy for both

Quackity - somehow both catboy and dogboy

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[dreamteamfanblog]

That time c!Wilbur said he and Quackity were like Yin and Yang is symbolically very interesting though.

Not because of the overt "thet are two halves of a whole, can't be without each other uwu" idea or whatever.

Because of the individual character connotations that come from Wilbur specifically describing himself as the Yin to Quackity's Yang.

Symbolically Yin has been associated with negativity, darkness, secrecy, cold, stagnation, absorption, chaos, earth, decadence, weakness, pessimism, severity, and death. By equating himself to the concept of Yin, Wilbur takes on association with these themes as well.

On the flip side of that. Symbolically Yang has been associated with positivity, light, openness, solidity, warmth, effort, strength, movement, expansion, love, mercy, heaven and life. By calling Quackity the Yang to his Yin, Wilbur points out ties that Quackity has with these themes as well.

Which is a very interesting moment of characterisation via narrative symbolism.

[dreamteamfanblog]

For real this entire server kinda happened because George fucked around and found out.

George was a general source of chaos on the server and got into a back and forth with Dream because of it which lead to George inadvertently dragging Ponk onto the pranking scene which lead to Ponk pranking George and then they got into a back and forth which George dragged Sapnap into and Ponk dragged Alyssa into and Sapnap dragged Tommy into and-

Whoops Disc War

[dreamteamfanblog]

It will never not be funny to me that when you look up Michael Dream Smp Wiki, the page for the baby zombie piglin Michael_Beloved comes up before actual player on the server Michaelmcchill djejdjdjsjdjdj

Rip to Michaelmcchill I guess but Michael_Beloved is just built different.

[dreamteamfanblog]

The fact that any sort of lore from Skeppy and Bad is full of Very Important shit that's either obscured from our view or borderline inexplicable.

They allegedly share lives, is that true and if so h o w? Unclear. Why were they referencing the revive book before even Dream knew about it? Unclear. How did the disc which they very specifically were not going to give Dream under any circumstances end up in Ranboo's hands? Unclear. What's actually up with the mind controlling parasite under their territory? Unclear. What happened during the scene where Skeppy locked himself in with the egg from his perspective? Unclear. What happened for most of Bad's communications with the egg between then and when he reveals his infection? Unclear.

Usually purposefully unclear. But still VERY unclear.