#also cc!wilbur is not the be all and end all of your fandom experience

[antimony-medusa]

hi saw your daddy kink post discussing the phenomenon of giving grown characters surrogate parental relationships, and I understand where you’re coming from, but i really feel like it’s just a matter of the circles you run in, and the assumptions that you might make because of that. you mention how platonic reads of these dynamics are more uncommon than kinky reads, which i just don’t think is the case, and I think that arguing that people don’t even realize that they’re writing a kink is a little bit bizarre, and sort of assumes that you know more abt them than they do by projecting your own experiences onto them.

it isn’t inherently sexual to crave protection or a parental relationship that you may have missed out on, and it is certainly not universal. in my own family, my “grandpa” isnt my biological grandfather (nor do I really consider him to be my grandfather), but he’s my mother’s surrogate father and has been since she was in her twenties. an adult. he sees her as a daughter. she sees him as a father. there’s absolutely nothing kinky about it. and anybody who automatically assumes that must have their mind deep, deep in the gutter and/or the stranger side of the Internet. really, i find it a bit of a strange argument to randomly post in the first place—as if it’s a problem that so many people enjoy non romantic and non sexual relationships, and that these people must, in fact, have a daddy kink that they are unaware of.

that said, i do absolutely agree that fans bringing any part of that into phil’s chat is weird and they should Not do that, and that infantilizing characters is also very weird, and personally i dont even see him as being father figure to anybody on that island except his eggs, wilbur, and MAYBE an argument could be made for tubbo (which other cc’s on the island have joked about), but to each their own and all that.

sorry this is so long. TLDR, i get where ur coming from in terms of “warning , some people might read your stuff differently than you want here” but really not everything is a kink and paternal dynamics can easily happen in regards to adult characters, particularly young adults, without there being any inappropriate connotations. i know nothing i said will change your mind, obviously it’s set, but ykno diff perspectives and all that. hope ur doing well

Thank you for the ask! I see you were on mobile, I believe. :D I am also going to push the character limit with this response, I fear.

I agree that it isn't inhernetly sexual to go after a parental relationship that you missed out on, and there are many such cases. I'll even go so far as to say that it's not inherently kinky to go after a parental relationship that you missed out on, because there is such a thing as non-sexual kink, and heaven knows that MCYT writing is full of non-sexual kink. Lots and lots of stuff that is platonic that is kinking on fear, or being drugged, or kidnapping, or hypnosis, or familial relationships, etc— there's lots of people who aren't doing that. There are tons of people out in the real world (and in fiction), who are simply just expanding their family as an adult, and that's awesome. When I was in college there was this older couple who kind of adopted me and invited me over for thursday dinner, and they were awesome. There was nothing untoward going on there.

But look. I am an emduo fan who likes to see my guys be murdery, and because of that, I've ended up reading a bunch of Dark SBI. I've ocassionally gone "this cannot be what everyone is doing" and I've read stuff tagged as "family fluff" that I find recommended. I am aware of where the genre is going, particularly with the rise of "dadbur" and "dadnoblade" interpretations.

And look, you have just got to trust me on this one. People are writing stuff that in any other fandom I would be recommending they put kink tags on the work so that people who liked that trope could find it and people who didn't like it would avoid it, but that comment in DSMP would just lead to people getting doxxed, so I just grit my teeth and go "i guess that's baked into Dark SBI or Tooth Rotting Fluff now, I sure hope that doesn't hit anybody's triggers".

Like I PROMISE you. The first draft of this response included excerpts of fics that I've read and I was like "can YOU pick the ship fic from the /p fics here"? But I have a horror of ever leading to someone getting cancelled on twitter, so nothing that could possibly be identifiable of these writers. But like—

Some of the ways that Tommy gets treated in the narrative are almost indistinguishable from a bodice-ripper romance. Some of the tropes being used— within DSMP we've all clasped hands and agreed to interpret it being platonic, but in any other fandom, you are going to start getting comments that you might not want to get. The tag is FULL of stuff that is DD/LB in everything but name. Maybe my mind is in the gutter here, but if you move out of this fandom, you are going to move into circles where a lot of people's minds are in the gutter, and you are going to get a very different response from your comments!

And I was talking about daddy kink here specifically, because I see that one come up a lot and it's gotten egregious lately, but this also applies to dehumanization, and fearplay, and predator/prey, and "instincts" (in every other fandom that's gonna get people in a mashup of A/B/O, Hypnosis, and sometimes Agere responding to it), and kidnapping/drugging, AND the way a bunch of "piglin instincts" stuff is just a BDSM au now where the Brute (dom) needs to be callmed down by their Runt (sub). The SBI tag is super kinky right now. And I don't have a problem with that idealogically, write your truth, but a) please don't bring that up in front of the streamers, b) if you move to another fandom you have got to be prepared that not everyone is doing their kink platonically.

Like I'm assuming that people don't know what tropes they're playing into, they're just building them from first principles, because the other alternative is that they are deliberately and knowingly writing kink and posting it in the & relationship tag with insufficient trigger tags, and I prefer to believe that people don't know.

I'm glad we agree about people bringing that into Phi's chat, or Pol's, or Luzu, or any of the other streamers that people have decided is So Old. A lot of people aren't comfortable even being assigned dad, as we saw with Felps, so bringing it even further is just— uh oh, no.

I do not have a problem with people liking non-romantic and non-sexual relationships. I find it a bit odd that much of the fandom can't concieve of a non-romantic and non-sexual relationship without making it familial and specifically lately father-son— don't you have close friends?— but I am fully in support of gen writing. I primarily write gen! I'm an avid commentor on gen fics!

But some of the tropes at play in the fandom are kinky, there is no way to avoid that. The fact that they are set in a familial relationship doesn't negate that. Some of the ways that the DSMP characters get treated would be distinctly non-familial if you ever brought it out of that context. And I am just warning people, if you bring it out of that context, be prepared for the response you get.

You cannot take DSMP tropes and apply them one-to-one in other fandoms, with other streamers swapped in, and expect them to be read the same way. Like i'm sorry, but that's just true. If you are posting the same sort of stuff that for Cellbit & Phil that you would post for Tommy & Phil, people will assume that you have a daddy kink, because usually when a relationship between a adults that are actually similar in age is refered to with paternal language it's a kink thing. That is how the broader internet works. (And anon, if I had a daddy kink, would I be complaining about the fact that I can open any SBI fic and have about a 40% chance of hitting it and I'm seeing signs of this appearing in QSMP? I assure you I'm not "projecting [my] own experiences onto them" here.)

[bonesandthebees]

The end:(( sobs cries wails

Time to loop bittersweet symphony

Oh yeah i forgot about the surprise bday jdsvfkgkf tommy is so SWEET i hate him sobs hes sooo<33

I LOVE THEM SO MUCHDHFJDKDF

the fucking fire IM LAUGHFOGNGKG i loved this bit so much its so funny ohmugod

CRIMEBOYSDSS AAAAA SOBS CRIES WAILS

THEY MAKE ME SOOOOOFFGOFUAVEKFKGJDKS

Its sooo lovely:( this fic is so lovely i want to cry picturing the house they live in :( they mean the world to me :( i love hats so much

Petition for u to write a chat fic /hj

The texts are some of my fav parts of this fic 😭 theyre so fucking hilarious bee, I'd consume the shit outta a chat fic if u wrote one

THIS IS SO CUTEEEHDISOFJG IM GOING TO CRYYYDHFJGJ AAAAAA

I love techno shfkgklgf

I FORGOT ABOUT PLAN B IM SCREAMIGNGKDHSIFOFODGKFOSHF HELPPPPP

OMG CIDERRR

When i first read this fic I'd never had cider and was against alcohol bc i thought it all tasted like shit 😭😭 but then once i turned legal age i had cider and DAMN BRO i love cider sm...

I had this delicious berry flavoured one... somersby... so good FHGKKG

I honestly was shocked that i liked cider considering that apple flavoured things normally make me feel nauseous, but cider tasted diff enough that i was able to enjoy it !!!

AAAAAAAIFIVPDUWROFHSBFKFJDFJKDB SCREAMING CRYING PISSIGN MYSELF OHMGUDODHFKGJD OHMGUDOFOD FANS FACE SHFLGOFN I CANT DO THIS OHKHUDOAHDFKSHF FOGMYHUDODDFOAGDOFGSKDHSKFJD THEYRE BROTHERS THEYRE ACTUAL BROTHERS KHMGYDODHDKFMS

"I love you"

NOBODYYYYY MOVE NOBODY FUCKING MOVE OHMYFUCMINGOGDKFHSKFJSOSJFMF

U are SO good at writing music into fics man... ur so good at describing it

ANGELDUO HUG NOBODY MOVE

Youre such a talented author bee, i don't think I'll ever get over just *how good* u are at writing

The way you describe stuff... sk well so pretty rahhsss

AAAAAAAAAAAAA

;-;

I love this fic so much

It is 2 am whoops... worth it tho ❤️

This fic makes me feel so whole i adore it with everything i love ti sosoososo much:( i think it gen might be my fav fic by you... it is so lovely:( it means so much to me

eueueueueueueudufufjgigkg

Also damn yeah bittersweet symphony fit this fics vibes sooo well, its just been on loop for half n hour shfjgkg

Okie i go sleep now, thanks for being the best author ever ❤️❤️

I loved writing the surprise birthday party in this for many reasons. for one thing it felt natural after I wrote about wilbur throwing tommy a birthday party in nocturnal animals, and also I wrote honey and tangerines over the course of the summer. in a way that timeline of tangerines followed real time, because I wrote the wilbur surprise birthday party in mid to late september which is roughly around cc!wilbur's actual bday (yes yes I know he could be lying about his birthday but it's the one we all go with) so it just felt very fitting time-wise

the fire 😭 I love writing tubbo's antics so much

"petition for you to write a chatfic" you do not know the war flashbacks you just gave me with that

you wanna know why I'm good at writing funny texts? it's bc I have experience. I'm never going to publicly reveal my old ao3 (not really out of embarrassment but bc I don't want people I know from that account to find out I'm writing mcyt fic bc I will legitimately lose friends), but on that old ao3 when I was 16 I wrote a voltron chatfic. and it got somewhat popular. not super popular or anything, but it was my most popular fic up until I started writing for mcyt and it's how I really learned how to write humor. anyway the voltron fandom was the worst fandom experience I've ever had and I hated the ship the chatfic was centered on by the time I finished it bc the fandom was just so goddamn annoying about it. anyway yeah I can't write chatfic anymore it brings back war memories LMAO

I love cider man I love going to a bar and getting a nice cold cider if there isn't any beer I want. it's just so refreshing! and yes not all of it tastes like apples! I had a pineapple cider at a bar recently and it was so good

god I had so many emotions writing the card scene between crimeboys just waaaaa tangerines crimeboys i miss you

I'm so glad I write the music in my fics well, I try so hard to integrate it in a way that feels natural and doesn't pull the reader out of the scene

bittersweet symphony is a song that means a lot to me for many reasons so I usually have a rule to never include it in anything I write so it just stays as something for me, but it fit too perfectly for this fic for me to not throw in there and I'm so glad I did

thank you icy you're so sweet I'm really proud of how I wrote so much of honey and tangerines it's definitely one of my favorite things I've done. I'm so glad you enjoyed your reread :D

[te001e]

idc i need to talk about the dsmp ending

this meant so much to me. i found the dsmp in summer of 2020, cause i was curious about the clips i saw that kept going viral. i found animatics made by Amblerose Moon that astonished me. i needed to know more. and what i found was the most messy, chaotic storytelling i’ve ever seen, but also the most earnest, genuine, funny, inspiring media i think i’ve ever seen. truly homemade, no producers or meddling in the process, just passionate people wanting to tell a story. it is something truly so unique. i don’t think i’ll ever see anything like it again. the dsmp changed mcyt, fandom, minecraft and the internet forever. it elevated roleplay and storytelling like never seen before. it actually changed me as a person. not to get too personal, but i loved c!tommy a lot, and when the exile arc happened, through it i came to know about emotional abuse, and i came to terms with real emotional abuse i had suffered, and had no idea it was abuse until i went online and saw people saying c!dream was abusing c!tommy. so when i say dsmp changed me, i mean it so truly. it made me come to very real truths about my life. and it was all coming from honest, loving, and genuine people wanting to tell a story. every person on the dsmp put so much love, passion and heart into it. again, i must say, i will never see anything like it never again. it’s truly unrepeatable. not only from the cc’s who put so much effort and work into it, but the fanbase that truly carried it. the art, the theories, the passion and love put into something as simple as a minecraft roleplay is purely astonishing. from the highs of the pure amazing story telling of c!wilbur blowing up l’manberg, to the lows of the one and only technoblade passing, it truly has been some of the most important things to happen to me. things that have changed me as a person, changed people around me in mourning and in celebration. i appreciate and honor what it was and what it will continue to be to me and so many people. thank you to all the cc’s for putting your heart and soul into this story, thank you to tommy for starting a story that was one of a kind, and thank you to techno, who will always be remembered as a brilliant, talented, and gifted storyteller, who’s loss will never leave me. through the loss and joy felt through all of the dsmp i am truly grateful. i cannot state enough that i don’t think i’ll ever experience a media the same way again with such honesty, effort, heart and love. thank you, dsmp. for everything

[hamletteprinceofdenmark]

Even though I will be making fun of Wilbur for saying “psycho competitive” for the rest of time, I do want to emphasise that what he actually said was that c!tntduo were in a “psycho competitive relationship that can be construed to be romantic but it's not explicit.”

That’s not actually shutting down a romantic interpretation of their relationship. In fact that is acknowledging the romantic undertones. What I would interpret that as - and I agree with cc!Wilbur if this is the case - is that you can certainly read c!tntduo as romantic but that that is hardly the most interesting or rich angle to analyse them from.

Personally, what makes c!tntduo so engaging to me is how they have this incredibly complicated history with each other, hate each other, love each other, and still choose over and over again, to connect. They are irrevocably entwined as self made foils for each other. They have chosen again and again to deliberately mirror each other, in action, in dialogue, in theme, despite everything they both do and don’t agree on.

For me, c!tntduo is about them being all levels of fucked up together. Persuing a serious romantic relationship would be super bad for both of them actually. They’re not healthy together. But they do need each other. They can’t escape each other now.

That’s where the appeal of the duo lies. Which, at least to me, is a far more interesting character study and exploration of what people can mean to each other than whether they kiss or not.

[mcmoth]

Dream SMP fandom etiquette

So. This post is probably too little, too late, considering the fandom and the issues I'm about to talk about have existed for so long now, and a lot of the people who need to hear this probably aren't on tumblr anyways, but I just wanted to dedicate a quick post to talk about fandom etiquette. Mostly pertaining to discourse, and interactions with people outside of our circle. These are just going to be my own personal thoughts, of course, but I felt it could be good to bring some of this to attention. So without further introduction:

Where to (not) talk about discourse:

Don't go into other streamer's vods to only focus about a different character. If you want to analyse, for example, c!Techno, do it in Techno's stream. Don't go into unrelated streams, like Tommy's, Tubbo's etc. to do it, even if they were a part of the event in question. This is, of course, with the exception if the character in question didn't stream their own pov. But otherwise, stay in your own space. This is to prevent cluttering a streamer's comments about unrelated discussion. To give further example: Tubbo's vod comments should primarily focus on Tubbo's character. Not Tommy's, Ranboo's, Techno's or whoever else's.

Don't start discourse in the comments of animatics. Seriously, stop that. Animatics aren't discussion boards. The comments are there to analyse and appreciate the video presented, not argue. It's especially rude if you pick a small detail, that wasn't even the focus of the animatic, or even a completely unrelated issue to rant out your frustrations about. To give examples: starting disc discourse in an animatic of Tommy talking to Wilbur, or rambling about how tragic Techno's character is in an animatic focused on clingy duo, etc.

This applies to fan songs as well.

Video essays are the exception to these rules. I think it's safe to say they're the place to bring your hot takes, if you really feel so inclined to argue in youtube comment sections (Though I'd personally advise to still keep the topic relevant).

Keep negativity out of fanfic comments. This isn't nearly as big of an issue as the last points, but I've seen it happen a couple times, so I'm deciding to mention it. Fanfics are written for fun. Even if you disagree with the characterisation or something else, unless the author is clear in accepting critique, keep criticism to yourself. And definitely don't rant about how you dislike a character unrelated to the fanfic. Sharing your thoughts on the fanfic itself is of course fine and welcomed, but when it turns from discussing the author's story to talking about how you dislike a character in canon, that's when it crosses a line. Example: comment talking about what you don't like about c!Tommy on a Bench Trio fanfiction.

When commenting on art, keep the feedback positive. Even if you dislike any presented character, keep that to yourself. Example: Don't say things like "I hate x character, but this art is good". You might think the author would feel honoured, but it's actually just hurtful.

How to deal with discourse:

This is gonna be a shorter section, because I think we all chose to do it in different ways, and that's valid. Also, it's just that I, myself, am still learning how to do this well, but I thought it could be good to try to lay it out anyways.

Try to scroll past takes you disagree with instead of arguing if you don't think you'd be able to keep your cool. Noone likes a random person yelling at them through a screen, and if you rant, you'll get an equally frustrated reply back, and noone will be happy. Either explain your point in a calm manner, or scroll past/ unfollow/block.

On the keeping cool thing, remember to just step away. Take a deep breath and calm yourself down before proceeding. To minimize the frustration you feel on a daily basis, filter tags, block people, avoid videos and youtube comment sections that you know will upset you, and leave certain internet spaces if you find yourself unable to escape negativity even with all those steps. Remember: in the end, it's all a game played by friends, a story, and your enjoyment of it lies in what you take from it. Abandon what makes you unhappy. Marie Kondo your fandom experience.

Also, here's your reminder, to whom this is relevant, to take care of yourself. Hydrate, eat, sleep, clean up, get fresh air, remember the things outside of all this. There's plenty to do outside of this fandom, and what you can do here can wait. There is no pressure, or obligation. Not for the content you create, not for the discussions you bring, not for responding to discourse, not for anything. Fandom is meant purely for fun, so take care <3

Interacting with people outside of the fandom:

This is something that I've seen a bit of talk about, and I thought I'd drop in my own thoughts on this as well. No matter the differences, we're all just trying to vibe, and I think these are important things to keep in mind to leave both sides better off:

Don't interact with hate posts. Just don't. You don't want to see them, they don't want to see you. Even if your response is lighthearted, their animosity is not. They will feel frustrated regardless, and the grudge will only grow. And if they're being agressive, calm discussion most likely won't happen even if you're being polite. Just leave it, please.

Correct misinformation calmly. I completely get how it can be frustrating to see blatant lies and all, but with our reputation, people will not listen if you're being antagonistic. Provide sources, explain, and leave it at that.

Don't be hateful, send death threats, or assume privilege or whatever else. That's stepping into the same shoes of the people you hate. Misunderstandings go both ways, and the fact of the matter is, I think most people who dislike DSMP, even the ones who are agressive about it, don't have their stance rooted in maliciousness. To expand on why the situation became what it is today, taken from a discussion on discord:

I think it's just a combination of Dream growing so insanely quickly + how internet spaces have changed over the years. When ccs like jackstepticeye or pewdiepie etc. grew popular, activism wasn't as prevalent and held to such importance. Now it's thankfully more talked about, but that also leads to Dream being more scrutinized in comparision. Add twitter trends and the general prevalence of the fandom, and you've got everyone feeling tired and frustrated and paranoid. People also tend not to fact check stuff, especially when it comes to celebrities and stuff they're not really interested in, so rumors spread fast.

And actually, I think there's absolutely valid reasons to be made uncomfortable by Dream SMP, either in it's creators, content or fandom, and there is, of course, stuff to criticise in general. The problem is the hate and misinformation and overexposure, but we are not going to solve any of that by being aggressive in return.

(This is, by the way, not talking about more serious cases. Like doxxing, or leaving gore images in hashtags, or similar instances. That's a whole different complicated issue that I don't feel qualified to tackle.)

And finally, don't overwhelm outsiders who merely mention the Dream SMP. Don't send asks asking them to watch it, don't write paragraphs explaining the lore, don't confuse them with inside jokes, just... Don't jump on people like that. Unless they're explicitly clear in wanting interaction and getting into the fandom, that kind of thing will just drive them away. This is in no way exclusive to the Dream SMP fandom, pretty much every fandom has people enthiastic to have more people involved, but since there are so unbelievably many of us, it's especially easy to go overboard with this stuff. Just... be polite, and don't pressure anyone. Be nice, please.

So.... ya! This would be it for this one, I think. Sorry that it's kinda long, thank you if you read it at all. Hope y'all have pleasant days ^^

[cartoonrival]

I understand that you're arguing in good faith on behalf of all lore being canon and not just stuff that cc!wilbur's touched, and I agree with it completely, but the reason wilbur's so dominant is because he- literally made the dsmp an rp server.

when wilbur started the 'l'manburg revolution' story he was getting mocked by pretty much every cc for trying to rp in minecraft, until it started getting views of course. he pulled tommy into it, and it became a massive hit, after which he wrote the entire draft of s1. at the time, he was the only experienced rper/writer on the server (and pretty much still is), and probably didn't think anyone other than his immediate friends and people already involved would want to join.

he wound up as the head writer because he was the only person who wanted the job at the time, and by the end of s1 he was "carrying the whole server" (techno's words) and writing for literally anyone who wanted him to. his rules, traditions, and character foundations are present in literally every dsmp plot with or without him because without him the smp wouldn't exist, y'know?

he literally had to stop writing on the dsmp in order to focus on getting your new boyfriend released, like it was a huge time commitment.

now, it's kind of blatantly clear looking at people like tubbo and phil that they want help from him and ask him for guidance, which makes sense bc he's the only one with anywhere near the experience you would expect for handling a project like this. ranboo said wilbur was the only one to be able to make concrete plans with him to do the lore they did yesterday, too.

sorry to just dump a ramble on you but it makes me sad to see stuff like "he didn't do anything more than anyone else" or "idk why he's so dominant on the server" because mans put in so much work for literally everyone around him and as much as other people's writing is valuable and should be respected as canon, ig I get why people hold him up on a bit of a pedestal because the smp was his life for a few monthes.

basically: respect other people and if they say it's canon it's canon! but also, wilbur soot went fucking insane and accidentally created the foundation for one of biggest the biggest fandoms of 2021 and can't be given enough credit for it.

also no obligation to answer this I understand if this sounds like really annoying and preachy I promise I'm not trying to come off that way

genuinely godbless all the work he’s done and i’m not disagreeing with what you’ve said here. i’m just saying that giving wilbur credit shouldn’t mean taking credit away from other people. /nm

[redwinterroses]

I totally get you! The only reason I said my age was because I was on anon haha being old enough to remember when you told nobody anything about yourself online is a curse

For me, I was into mcyt back in ye olde yogscast and mindcrack days, fell off for a bit, and came back into mcyt around 2 years ago! These block people make my neurodivergent brain go nuts as well lol

But as I stuck to mainly hermitcraft, it's been really interesting to see the bleed-off from the dsmp side when they come over here and see these "old" creators. Especially because dsmp wouldn't be as popular as it got without an older CC like Wilbur, who had the life experience and knowledge to pull together a semi-coherent narrative.

And this is just coming from previous fandom experience here, but if you don't have a wide range of ages within the fans, the fandom tends to die as people age out and move on. So having older fans is just as important as younger ones, but people act so weird when it's mentioned that older people exist in the mcyt space.

In regards to your tags, oh boy don't get me started on the infantilisation of older, more popular CC's! Like these are grown-ass adults and it's so strange to see them constantly represented as teens or young adults. I get art styles are all different and some stylizations lean younger but I don't know, I'd love some older hermit representation.

But I suppose that's just an experience thing that happens when you get older, and you realise that people that you relate to (like a fav CC) aren't going to be the same age as yourself.

Look at me still ranting haha I think I might need that rocking chair actually :P

I'm just posting this mainly without comment because YES all of this. Look at the most long-lived fanbases -- Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, Star Wars, Marvel... you know what they all have in common? A wide age-range of fans. Parents who love it passing it on to their kids. Young people discovering the massive backlog of content that fans before them have created. It's beautiful and a self-sustaining fandom ecosystem needs all ages to survive and thrive.

Honestly age-segregation is stupid. Obviously there are limits, let's not ignore that, but kids should be able to have friends who are adults -- "mentors" are just "friends" who also happen to be able to impart life advice lol. It's very healthy to interact with people who have more life experience, rather than just your own peer group who's all trying to figure it out together, and from the opposite end it's very healthy for "grown ups" to remember what the heck being a kid is like. Good luck trying to maintain a childlike sense of wonder in the world if you never actually interact with real kids lol.

...okay anyway, happy Thanksgiving to all my American followers; I'm getting off the internet and letting the queue take over for the rest of the day. XD

[dyketubbo]

okay so. some thoughts on recent lore. disorganized bc my thoughts are disorganized but i want to think about this as rawly as i can rn (all /rp of course) this is very niki and wilbur (mostly niki) centric because i'm sorting my thoughts about techno still and i'm taking tubbo's stream in bits and pieces (i'll catch up on others later)

niki is exaggerating about how terrible wilbur is because she's spiraling and hurting. fans should not take her word as gospel, yes, but she does have points in some things and the fact that wilbur and others have impacted her this badly should be noticed by the fandom as a sign that niki needs *help*.

its okay to want to defend that wilbur was not always a terrible person especially because of how horribly his mental health is treated by the fandom, but please remember to still emphasize that niki is saying this because she herself is mentally ill and traumatized. niki is processing wilbur as a terrible person because not only does she not have his full story, but also because she's undeniably been hurt by him and his revival came at a time where she was recently recovering from misdirected aggression towards others (tommy) and herself.

it's hard to take it all in and it's scary to think about whether or not the characters recent thoughts on wilbur signifies a villanization of him by the writers and narrative, signifies a villanization of mental illness. but these are the same writers who wrote a realistic depiction of abuse, cc!tommy is actively involved in the story and we all know how well he's handled his character's shaky mental health. cc!ranboo is actively directing his story in a direction that disproves the idea that his dissociating and memory loss mean that he's a bad person. cc!wilbur has confirmed bits and pieces of outside things that signify that his character is not a bad person, but is unstable and has hurt others for misguided reasons.

it's understandable to want it all to go quickly already, to want an obvious sign of redemption and a happy ending, but a lot of bad things are happening because unfortunately, recovery is rocky as fuck and sometimes what happens is that triggering things and people are reintroduced into your life and you can't process it correctly. it's hard to see people who have hurt you as good people or people with virtues when you're still going through the effects of the trauma they have inflicted on you. niki was healing and then had to deal with a secondhand announcement about wilbur *not even directed towards or for her* being back when she only recently got done with not blaming tommy for it, now all she has to blame is wilbur and it's understandable that she's blaming it all on him. niki needs someone to help her and talk to her, and she's not going to recover or heal by hurting wilbur, she's not.

yes these characters need therapy, but there's only one therapist and she's going through her own emotional turmoils internally. it's implied that she is genuinely helping tommy and that's good, but it does mean that a lot of these characters are going to be processing on their own, and that's a raw and rocky experience. put some trust in the writers, there's a lot of things not communicated between them, but there's a lot that *is* communicated that we can't see. not to mention that they can see what we're saying, they know there's people who are rooting for their characters to heal. these people are very well versed in tricking us and leading us on red herrings, dream smp is a work in progress that's still developing. they know what direction they want to take this whole story. this is the same story that had a suicidal character save himself and assign his own self worth, who took steps towards therapy and healing and is still in the process of healing and understanding what happened and what is happening to and around him. they can write a redemption arc for wilbur, it'll just take a while.

of course there's going to be a lot of tragedy (l'manburg will never come back, there's a strong possibility that once they sort out what to do about dream ghostbur will move onto a proper afterlife in peace, there will be loose ends never tied up and secrets kept that won't be talked about in canon) because that's how life is. but i don't think it's going to end like a tragedy. these characters have a lot to deal with, and it's unfortunate that wilbur is at or near the center of many characters' troubles, but i trust that they won't suffer forever. niki's stream was scripted, the writers know what she's saying and niki chose the music she did on purpose, many of the people prominent in this main storyline are close friends with niki and it's very clear that they don't want her to fall behind. she's going to heal, we just have to keep in mind that she just got a huge setback in recovery and that it's okay if she takes a while to reconcile all of her thoughts.

niki buried the diamonds instead of getting rid of them forever. she's not burning her bridges completely, she's just trying to figure out if she wants to keep crossing them. eret's still clearly a good person with people who have forgiven him and care about xem, they make mistakes and have people who don't and may never forgive her. but we all know that even if the hurt she spread was big and still impactful, that the narrative treats them well. there's hope for wilbur, i promise. the story knows he wasn't always a big manipulative asshole, it's just going to take some time for the characters who've been traumatized by his actions to know that too

[xoxo-ren-xoxo]

Every day I want to post something about how awful mcyttwt (and adjacent twt communities) has become, using recent drama as a case study, but so many new things happen every day (that seem to get worse and worse) that I literally can't keep the post relevant.

So I might just talk about older stuff and how deeply woven some of these things go.

I'll briefly mention a few things here. Just random points I would love to talk more about in-depth. If you'd like to see me rant, shoot me an ask about it. I'm not even caught up on all the shit yet but ehhhhh.

Bad fandom experiences from a young age, just as you're developing your career, can cause horrible levels of distrust between creator and audience. Example: schlatts face reveal, subsequent multiple doxxings, developing into a strongly anti-twt mindset that could prevent listening to actual criticisms

People harassing CCs for things they said in the past which they clearly don't believe in now, expecting an apology, which is redundant and performative. Example: Philza, Technoblade, Wilbur Soot, Karl Jacobs.

Forcing CCs to respond to things as fast as possible or else they are awful and you hate them, causing them to make a rushed and poorly thought out response. Example: Karl Jacobs racism, Tommyinnit transphobia

Harassing CCs that you know are neurodivergent, causing them many problems that can end up being serious. Example: technoblade, minx, connoreatspants

Putting CCs on a pedestal, making them untouchable and feeding your parasocial relationships by making them your unproblematic fav. Example: dream team

Speaking over minorities. Don't.

Speaking for all minorities. Aka 'as a poc' or 'as a trans person'. You shouldn't have to state that if your argument is sound.

Expecting everything to revolve around twitter

Getting offended when people shit on twitter. Like babes. Go outside

And there's a lot more shit I'm forgetting. Just drop an ask about whatever drama you want to discuss. I also own a server for keeping up with drama and such. So. DM me if you like the sound of that shit.

Peace 😐✌️