#also i headcanon what 'water rising' and 'lava rising' videos of schlatt and wilbur are the in-between part

[fridgrave]

i want to hear your headcanons about slime's "birth" in dream smp, especially knowing what scu is a canon prequel for him

in my head charlie as a god always wanted to know humanity more. to be a part of it, to be human. so he intentionally erased his whole god memories to have a full experience (but his powers are still with him). schlatt aka his doubting friend was against it and multiple times tried to make charlie remember his true nature with an apple (which charlie gave to schlatt himself explaining what this will bring memories back). by creating natural disasters and investing in zombie apocalypse (drugs for a mad scientist) schlatt wanted to show charlie what being human suck, and charlie's true nature would make it worse for everyone as well (zombies appear close to him not because of schlatt, charlie always magnetized 'em). but no matter what charlie refused to take the apple, because deeply inside he still wanted to be a part of humanity, and in the end of 100 days he showed schlatt what he won't go back (even when he didn't know what this "back" really was). and schlatt let him go. charlie was torn apart by zombies, but didn't die, because he can't. ground took his body, rotting it to the musk what turned into slime, while almost every signs of zombies were erased from the face of earth by the grieving ram, who decided to join his friend after all (he never wanted to be alone, as a god nor as a president). charlie forgot everything again, rebirth as a slime hurted his memory even more — as so his powers, but for millennials he looked after people, great and simple ones, after empires which rised and fell, for new catastrophies what always reminded him of someone he wished to remember, but never was able to find. and one time, charlie thought to himself "i want to be a part of this. i want to be human!" — and then he climbed out of the ground in the restaurant in las nevadas

[lazyliars]

Schlatt for the character breakdown, please!

How I feel about this character

c!Schlatt is, IMO, one of the most solid villains on the SMP. He’s got the trophy for most consistent arc across a season, with a clear progression from point A to point B.

He starts out at a “high point,” power hungry but never exactly ambitious in the way that characters of his archetype usually are; he wants power, and he wants the presidency, but once he has it? He really just shapes the country to be what he likes, and then throws a big, hedonistic party.

He’s an excellent example of the phrase “Power Reveals;” once Schlatt has the power to do what he always wanted, we see him do just that; afford himself luxury creature comforts and excessive control of the people around him.

It also aligns well with his eventual decline - the “low point” coming when people realize that a hedonistic, controlling asshole doesn’t make for a good leader, actually, and they start challenging his power.

The paranoia sets in slow, with slight irritants and aggravations coming from the newly forming Pogtopia, and from internal strife caused by agitators like Niki and from his (husband? boyfriend? booty call?) Vice President wanting more of a say in the decision making.

It then ramps up drastically when he learns about Tubbo’s deceit, and crescendos when he drives the final nail in the coffin by pushing away one of his most loyal supporters in Fundy.

All in all, Schlatt is one character who just makes sense - there is depth to him, but it’s a clear depth, not made muddy by any “good intentions” like a lot of other, more ambiguous characters. Schlatt wanted what he wanted, and he wanted to rule the world and drink a lotta booze.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I don’t really ship anyone with Schlatt romantically. I appreciate the dynamic he brought to the table with Quackity, and I especially enjoy the way Q has built off that, but It’s less about the actual romance they had and more about the way they dealt with the fallout.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

One of my favorite headcanons is that the dynamic (not necessarily the videos themselves) of the “Minecraft but Lava/Water rises every minute” videos is part of Schlatt and Wilbur’s pre-dsmp lore.

I like the idea that they had this fun, somewhat antagonistic friendship-turned-rivalry, that got absolutely warped by the Elections. It adds a slightly different note to the tragedy of it all.

(I vaguely remember Wilbur canonizing it that they didn’t know each other beforehand though? idk)

My unpopular opinion about this character

I can’t think of any off the top of my head, really? Again, I think that’s due to Schlatt being such a consistent character, there aren’t a lot of holes in his characterization for diverging readings to really plant their roots.

If I had to pick something, uhhhhhhh I think Fundy and Niki both should’ve had more scenes with him I guess?

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Kinda said this already in the “non-romantic OTP” section, but I do have more, sooo....

I wish that he’d had a bigger influence on Tubbo. I wish that they’d had a more... “intense” mentor-and-student dynamic, I guess? I would’ve liked to see Tubbo actually either

A) Start to have a genuinely positive relationship with Schlatt that would result in a crisis of faith with regards to his allegiance to Pogtopia - one that would be resolved fairly quickly in Pogtopia’s favor, but one nonetheless, that would’ve been nice foreshadowing that would make his arc in S2 a little more convincing; I never felt like Tubbo was ever really at risk of “turning into Schlatt” as it were. It would also bring up some nice parallels with Fundy, who also deserved to have this arc explored a little better, and could have resulted in some real drama between the two of them, to the benefit of both their characters.

B) Really start to foster some hatred for Schlatt. This could be placed either before or after the festival - either Tubbo getting fed up with his treatment as a “yes man” (again foreshadowing S2) or after the festival, Tubbo projecting all of the vengeance on Schlatt that he can’t on Technoblade - both because it’s not fair and it’s not practical to do so. 

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Schlatt’s an interesting one, thanks for sending me this Luc!