#c!badboyhalo analyses

[justapitcherofwater]

oh boy oh boy analyses time :DDD

So I think I’m just gonna start with this; I think c!Badboyhalo may just be the most interesting villain I’ve ever encountered.

And he is definitely a villain, they make it abundantly clear that he is some sort of villain on the dream smp (at the very least he is a local menace with generally selfish intentions). He hardly ever gives anything without gaining something in return, he has all the aspirations for power and control and chaos, heck, that was the reason for the badlands in the first place, that was probably the reason why he originally followed the egg (before the thing with skeppy), because it promised all those things to him! A lot of his actions and motivations could actually be compared to c!Dream if it wasn’t for one small yet incredibly significant detail.

c!Badboyhalo is very very empathetic and compassionate.

Empathy is not a common villain trait. At all. In the slightest. It's actually usually associated with the hero, and seen as a weakness by the villain, and the only times you ever really see empathy in a villain is when the villain is using their empathy to manipulate and generally hurt the people around them, and you practically never see a villain who is in any way compassionate. “You care too much!” In many narratives is used as an insult and is framed by the villain as a fatal flaw, until our main character and all the friends they made along the way come together to defeat the bad guy using teamwork and determination, and it turns out it wasn’t a fatal flaw at all, it was their greatest strength. 

I think this is what makes c!bbh such a weird character. He wants power, he wants to create chaos and discord among others for his own benefit and he would probably succeed if he didnt keep fucking himself over with his own empathy. He is literally the definition of “you care too much”, because he does, he cares way too much for his own good and it keeps getting him hurt. He knew that the egg was manipulating and brainwashing him, and yet he still went back to it off his own accord when it took Skeppy so that he could be with him. He knew that he would get in trouble if he let Dream escape from the prison, it was his job to keep him in the prison, but he also knew that Dream was getting tortured, that he was suffering and that there was little to nothing that he could do about it. So he let him go. He gave the blueprints to Ranboo for the same reason he let Dream escape. Because he felt bad for him. Because he wanted to help and not let Dream suffer but there was little else he could do (even saying outright in one stream “I thought it was the right thing to do,”).

And where did all of this get him? Did it further his goals of monopoly? Did it gain him more power, or followers, or allies? No. He pushed away and hurt all of his friends. He accidentally killed Skeppy. The Eggpire fell. The Badlands fell along with it. Dream got out, and now he’s going back to terrorizing the smp. Because of this, Sam threatened to kill Ranboo to try and make him come back, and subsequently went through with it when it didn’t work, which would, indirectly, be Bad’s fault. He lost his job. He lost everything. As of currently in the Dream smp, c!Badboyhalo is a complete wreck of paranoia and using unhealthy coping mechanisms in a poor attempt to deal with his extensive trauma. 

He really is a tragic character, because every single time he tried to do something for other people it blew up in his face.

It really puts that “You care too much” view that a lot of villains have in media into perspective, because as we can see through c!bbh, for them it would be a fatal flaw. You can’t be compassionate and still succeed as a villain, or, you can, but it’s damn near impossible. Most villains that even have any empathy or compassion either gain it over the course of the story, or they already have it and they end up being closer to anti-heros than villains. In either situation the villain usually ends up turning to good and joining the heroes. You can’t have empathy as a villain, it's not sustainable, it’s not productive, and it will lead to ruin. c!Badboyhalo’s intention in those moments was to help, but due to his goals and plenty of his actions being conflicting, it ended up with everybody getting hurt.

I mean, I’m sure it wasn’t all because of his empathy, he’s not exactly the brightest bulb in the box, and that factor certainly didn’t help, but my point still stands.

[demodraws0606]

I need people to stop saying q!bbh and c!bbh are "the same" cause it's getting annoying and ignores how different the two are.

q!BBH specified that he was stuck in a timeloop where he probably was reborn into different people (explaining the different characters cc!bbh may have played) or at least there was a decent enough difference.

Trust me, I spent way too long analysing c!bbh and there is a clear distinction between him and q!bbh. Their attitude towards torture for exemple is a huge one, c!bbh was explicitely against torture and felt bad for c!dream.

c!BBH is also just a lot more cowardly than q!BBH, I could go on and on.

They may be the same conciousness but they're not "the same".

[gold-eye]

another gold-eye analysis: wither roses

finals have ended, and hence my analysis resumes. obligatory prefaces: spoilers for Dream SMP lore, and I’m referring Only to characters. 

okay, I've been thinking about this for about a year now. let’s talk about wither roses. of course, there’s its obvious ties to the wither, which in turn links it to so much other violence - certainly, we’re all aware of the role withers have played throughout the lore. but i want to look specifically at the wither rose.

Roses, in general, are linked to love - be it the scarlet rose for passionate love, a white rose for innocent love, or a blush pink rose for blossoming love. When we turn to a black rose, things get a bit more complex. Depending on the period when the flower appears, it represents birth and renewal or death and tragedy. The simplest combination of those two is change, be it positive or negative. Referring back to the rose’s origin of love, it could be turned into “a love of that which changes��� or “a love for change itself.” 

Within the scope of Minecraft mechanics, the wither rose gives the withering effect. It drains one’s life, making it difficult (if not impossible) to know how much health you have left. In the simplest of terms, it is a corruption of the life that players have come to know.  

Knowing that there is also a regular rose, one can’t help but wonder what must have happened to create the wither rose. Perhaps it was once a rose as we would recognize it, but something must have changed. The wither rose is a twisting of life until it is almost unrecognizable, save by name. 

What catches my eye is Kate Greenaway’s Language of Flowers, wherein she refers to white withered roses as “transient impressions.” Greenaway doesn’t mention black roses at all - the above definitions are pulled from other references - so we are left to make our own conjectures. personally, i take interest in the black withered roses being the inverse. the white withered rose indicating a lack of permanence would imply that the black withered rose indicates a damning permanence. factoring in the black rose’s symbolism of death, it becomes an extended death that never leaves you. as the name implies, it could simply be death with reference to losing all canon lives - or it could be a state of limbo. not quite dead, not quite alive. continually in the process of dying.

Now, you may be asking - where do wither roses tie into the lore? 

We don’t see wither roses often on the DSMP, and when we do, they seem to be intentionally placed. Here are some brief initial thoughts, from which I invite you to make your own hypotheses. 

Dream XD’s lore video: In the background of the room where Punz and Dream stand, we see a handful of wither roses. From my perspective, this hardly needs more explanation: Dream keeps Lazar and Vikkstarr in a perpetual state of undying - reviving them over and over. I’ve already talked a bit about this - you can see my post about the deaths in Dream XD’s lore video for more. 

One more thing of note on this: there’s a distinct camera shift in the video from Dream and Punz to focus on a wither skull in the background. It takes three wither skulls to spawn the beast: Dream and Punz make two, with the third in the background. Driving the wither symbolism home, aren’t we? 

The Banquet: Wither roses appeared on the table of the Red Banquet, just a few blocks away from the Egg itself. The Egg is another marked instance of a corruption of power. Hell, the Egg is known for making its way into people’s minds and corrupting them. In my mind, the presence of wither roses marks the Egg’s corruption as something greater. From the Red Banquet stream, we know that the Egg requires energy from deaths to hatch. Perhaps some of that energy is taken from BadBoyHalo and Antfrost, as well as other members of the Eggpire, but the Egg still needs them to further its own goals. So it leaves them in a state in between - their life being drained away, but their death is unreachable until they are no longer of use to the Egg. 

Later on, Tubbo and Ranboo return to the banquet room. Tubbo takes a wither rose from the table. I haven’t had the chance to watch the VOD to know exactly where it goes, but it does suggest the potential for a darker path in Tubbo. Personally, I think Tubbo deserves the chance to move past any previous inhibitions and fucking assassinate someone - Sam would be my choice, given his recent actions. (Edit: I mean, he did a little bit. But still. Let Tubbo go batshit. He deserves it.)

Tales from the SMP - The Maze: Everyone received a wither rose at the start, and they played a prominent role throughout the stream. When they’re sent back to the beginning, and the gamemaster reveals what happened, the meaning of the wither roses becomes clear. Life in the maze is a rose - it has an ending, even if it has thorns. When the gamemaster sends them back to the end, it transforms and reveals itself as a wither rose. It’s not a life, nor is it a death, and the harm is real and painful. 

The Inbetween: (Written before The Maze.) This one ties in almost directly to the idea of the wither rose being an extension of death or something in between. The Inbetween is exactly that - it’s not quite death, nor is it life. When we finally see Karl make it to the Other Side, he is greeted by a white tulip, which often symbolize forgiveness. It’s almost sweet, in its juxtaposition: the Other Side greets him immediately with forgiveness after the In Between spent so long threatening Karl and the people he cared about if he strayed even slightly. 

The Syndicate: This one will depend on how you feel about the Syndicate. Some will say that the syndicate is corrupt - they’ve taken power on their own terms. Personally, I prefer to think of it this way: by the very nature of the Dream SMP, their work will never be done. Destruction will follow in their wake for as long as the server exists, because the very evils that they seek to destroy are what make the server what it is.  

Hannahxxrose: Hannah has always been connected to nature.  Hannah’s house used to be surrounded by roses. Over the course of many lore streams, we see wither roses begin to appear amidst them, harvested during a time of peace. This is strange, in many ways - why would she intentionally surround herself with roses that give her a weakening effect? The answer lies in her potential. Perhaps she is beginning a route down a darker path. Perhaps she is still suffering at the hands of someone else who has twisted power for their own means. Or perhaps she has grown tired of her passive growth and has decided to wield her roses - red and withered alike - for her own means.  

The commonality between all of these instances: power. These are instances where people have taken power into their own hands. One could argue that this is a corruption of the game itself - Minecraft is designed to allow the player freedom in what they choose to do, from speedrunning to storytelling. When certain players take such power into their own hands, it changes the way that the game is played, and over time, it can change the player as well. 

Only time will tell where the next wither rose will put down its roots. 

[raspberryberyl]

Dsmp Lore thoughts 1/30  “Hunting Dream....”

Sapnap lore analysis

- First, this is about the characters, I don’t know what's going on with the cc’s right now. I’m simply an enjoyer of lore.

- second. There is a lot of streams going on that I want and plan to cover, but school is real busy so I haven’t had time to watch and write up all my analyses.

This was a about hour stream from Sapnap’s pov, which is very important because..... He found the Death Book.

Tw: Lots of mentions of Death

      The Stream begins and c!Sapnap says that he is going to step up and continue to search for Dream, cause no one else is doing it. He searches several locations for Dream, saying he and Dream used to play hid-n-seek when they were kids. Sapnap says he knows that Dream wouldn’t hide somewhere that didn’t have meaning or purpose. So is was more likely to be hiding like under the community house, then in a random cave.

      After checking several locations, Sapnap decided to check Dream’s old house. His base in the mountain during the early L’manburg era. He goes in, and doesn’t find Dream or anything unusual. He passes by a singular book sitting on bedrock, but decides not to question it. Then as he’s leaving he decides to give it another glance, and opens the book to see “BOOK OF DEATH”. He reads it aloud and laughs at it, “what a weird prank” Is it real he questions after a few minutes.

What the book of death says: (Note I haven't seen Death Note so this might literally just be Death Note -_- )

“BOOK OF DEATH

- Summon god by writing a name in this book.

-  God will kill both you and them

- God will tell them before death who it is the courtesy of.

- This book Cannot be replicated.

- If the owner of this book completely dies then the book vanishes.

- If the target or owner of this book completely dies, they do not have a ghost. They do not go to limbo. They cease to exist.

- use at your own risk. Each name on a new line.

- Names:”

Once again Sapnap wonders if it is real? He decides (kinda stupidly) to test it. First he contemplates testing it on Badboyhalo (Who remember is his father in cannon. He may have also considered Bad due to Bad not having regular lives, and being linked to Skeppy.) He decides not to though, and so makes up and puts a fake name.

      It takes a moment, but then Dream XD shows up. Sapnap gasps and asks if he’s god? and of course XD says yes. XD also sounds surprised and annoyed when he appears, and says he is surprised that Sapnap of all people found the book. Sapnap then starts asking questions about the book, if its real, yes it is. He laughs that he “tricked god” into coming here by putting a fake name, but XD says it doesn’t matter. Sapnap put a name and so now he has to die, doesn’t matter if its real or not. 

Sapnap doesn’t seem to understand this. He then goes on to test it Again, by putting MICHAEL’s name. He then makes a side comment about Michael McChill being the only Michael he knows,, but that he didn’t write McChill, so it doesn’t count. XD calls him an idiot, and says yes it does count, and that now Sapnap has to die twice.

Sapnap then decides to ask more questions, ok he can’t put a fake name, and he can’t put a pets name. XD decides to offer him a deal for his incompetence, if he writes one new name, and kills someone, that will take away the previous two Deaths, but he has to kill someone now, and it has to be a real person. Sapnap thinks he understands and so decides to put Dream’s name. 

He puts Dreams name, and XD laughs. Sapnap asked if Dream will die now? XD says sorry, but the death book can’t be used on Dream, because Dream is the holder of the revivebook. “Can’t kill the owner of the revive book” (XD later better explains, that Dream is the revive book now, and you can’t kill the book with his death magic. The revive book itself is destroyed, it only exists in Dream’s mind now.)

Sapnap is annoyed by these rules, and asks XD is this is all just a game to him, XD says it is yes. He was bored, he watched Death Note, thought it was cool, and so wanted to try it IRL. XD also, just like to Foolish, explains his love of death and chaos. Sapnap says he doesn’t want to kill someone, and wants to help people. XD says he liked the bad guys that bring him souls, so he was really hoping someone else would find the book.

So Sapnap can’t write Dream’s name and kill him with the book, he still needs to kill someone, and he wants to beat Dream. (XD this whole stream just keeps asking him to kill BBH) He asks XD if he can please get a different deal, and XD sighs, accepting.

The new Deal: XD will tell Sapnap where Dream is hiding. Then IF Sapnap kills him, Sapnap will permanently die, all three lives gone, and he will have no ghost, no existing. 

Sapnap contemplates it for a moment, but then accepts. He says it’s worth it to free everyone of Dream. The only issue then would be Dream’s ghost. XD tells him that the book CAN in fact kill ghosts, but still not Dream cause he is the revival book. XD then tells Sapnap that Dream is hiding out in the prison (Which we already knew because of Sam streams).

Sapnap says he is going to make “A safe world with no bad people in it.” and XD laughs saying that almost everyone says that, but then they get killed, then that person killed, and it’s just not possible. XD then says he can’t be a good guy with the book, its a death book, he’s a killer. Sapnap then goes on to explain his history with pets and the pet war, and how he doesn't want to hurt or harm anyone.

A lot of this is XD trying to explain stuff to Sapnap but Sapnap just doesn’t understand. XD mentions the multiverse that using a fake name will surely kill someone. XD continues to try to get Sapnap to use the book on BBH, but Sap doesn’t want to use it on anyone. Sapnap asks XD what he wants to do now, and XD gets annoyed saying “The have a literal Death book, and your going to go frocking in the flowers!?” XD sarcastically tells him to burn Puffy’s sheep statue, calling him “the King of Chaos” and Sapnap does so not hearing the sarcasm, and liking the title. (Mixed messages man)

XD the goes on about how, maybe Sapnap doesn’t want to kill Dream, maybe they could be partners? Imagine the pain. Sapnap killing people, Dream reviving them and Sapnap, for Sapnap to kill again. An endless all powerful cycle. Sapnap says that does sound pretty cool, maybe in another world, but he can’t. He has to stop Dream. (XD also sarcastically adds that yeah it would be pretty cool, and definitely wouldn’t have consequences to Sapnap if he continued dying with the Death book.)

XD is getting really annoyed at Sapnap, and says again he really wishes that Foolish found the book. Sapnap remembers Foolish, and that Foolish has god powers now that make him unkillable. Sapnap asks if this book can counter those powers? and XD says yes. XD then tells Sapnap that Foolish knows the book exists. but not that Sapnap has it. For some reason Sapnap takes this as a threat to himself, and decides he’s going to need to kill foolish. Maybe he could kill Foolish all three times and get Dream to revive him?(why would Dream do that.)  Maybe they could team up just this once to get rid of Foolish, maybe Dream wants him gone too.

XD then also mentions that having Dream find the book would also have been amazing, imagine that ultimate power, or even Punz getting the book.  He is annoyed that people kept just passing the book and not paying it any mind. XD’s top three for getting the book would be 1. Dream, 2. Foolish, 3.Punz.

XD’s least five people he would want to get the book would be.

1. Bad. (He finds bad really annoying. Doesn’t like Bad’s kindness, or his “trolls” I think he also probably doesn’t like Bad because Bad is technically unkillable unless you kill Skeppy. Meaning this Death book is the only way to kill him besides killing skeppy.)

2. Skeppy. (He is a lot like Bad, they’re always together. and XD is tired of seeing Skeppy due to him appearing in all Bad’s dreams.)

3. Tina (because she’s a pacifist)

4. George (because George is always sleeping. He’d never get out of bed to actually kill people. XD says he is mad at George for George's latest Dream where he destroyed the server and killed XD. It’s insulting, he can’t be killed.)

5. Sapnap (Because he’s an idiot, and is refusing to kill people.)

Sapnap says if XD doesn’t cooperate he’ll just use the book on himself and rid it from the server.  Sapnap mentions that maybe George would even be willing to help him with the death book. That Sapnap could do the ‘killing Dream Deal” that results in his instant death, and then George could kill Dream’s ghost (despite XD saying that wouldn’t work) and Then George could use the book on himself, and then all of the Dream Team would be dead together. (But they wouldn’t be together because they would all cease to exist) Sapnap smiles and says this server would be better without them.

XD also comments that George would never kill himself with the book, that George won’t mourn Dream, because George is happy in his dream world. He has everything he needs there, it’s just like living, he doesn’t need the real Dream or anyone.

With that (and a little trolling of BBH without the Death book, the stream is over with Sapnap making a plan:

1. Kill Foolish at least once( get Dream to help him get all three. BUT he doesn’t know that Foolish only has two cannon lives left, so Sap would only have to kill him two times, meaning he wouldn’t actually need Dream to revive him.)

2. Find and kill whoever is working for Dream

3. Kill Dream(without the Deathbook) They are connected through these books now, and will go down dying together. 

__________________________

And that concludes the Stream.

Takeaways:  

-We have the Death BOOK now, and Sapnap has it.

- Sapnap knows Dream is hiding in the prison and can tell others.

- Sapnap intends to die taking Dream down

- Sapnap might be killing Foolish, Punz, and BBH if he finds out he helped. Also there are the people like Eryn who are sorta on Dream’s side.

- Dream can continuously revive people, but Sapnap can only use his book three times.

- XD really really hates BBH and just wants someone to kill him. apparently God can’t just kill people, or at least not Bad. He can only torture him in dreams.

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

Ahhhh if you could talk more about the detective or fae au, I would simply explode from joy.

Sure! Here’s both of them!

DetectiveAU:

Dream is stalking Tommy, but for the time being he doesn’t suspect that he’s the theif- after all, he’s a skinny little street kid. He just thinks that he’s involved in some way- that he was set up as stealing some of the jewellery by being given some of it to sell. He’s seen Tommy with a piece of jewellery, but only one, and that’s why he suspects he was given it and isn’t the thief.

Tommy kept it because it’s a locket that has a picture of the mysterious wandering musician he met long ago inside it, a bit younger and in school uniform besides Niki. He’s desperately trying to analyse it for a lead.

The musician is Wilbur, obviously. He grew up in wealth, with his father Phil growing up in old money and his godfather Techno having managed to shoot up the ranks of the army incredibly fast, after Philza took notice of him. Still, he’s a free spirit at heart, and spends a lot of his time wandering the country, playing his guitar, and helping people, because he’s seen the tyranny of the system and he doesn’t know what else to do.

Tubbo and Ranboo are also street kids. They’re Tommy's only friends.

George and Sapnap, likewise, are Dream's only friends, and his conduit to the outside world.

Dream’s concealed and forged evidence before. He’s currently considering how hard that’d be for the evidence someone ever existed, so no one would notice when the robberies stopped and Dream had his little thief trapped where he wanted him forever.

FaeAU:

I’m going with my own headcanons/interpretations so it’s a bit different than Heart's wonderful fic. I did intentionally keep things open in the AU description to allow any interpretation though!

Philza was one of the previous mortals who entered the forest, and was the only one to escape, aided by a fae (Technoblade) that found him interesting. In return, Philza was made immortal so the two of them shall never leave each other’s side no matter the age.

Philza got his wings as a “gift”, in a trick to get him to stay. He managed to weasel his way out of the spirit of the deal- it was that he could never leave the forest, and technically the few abandoned, unenchanted areas of the forest were still part of the forest.

Wilbur was, like Tommy, abandoned at the edge of the forest. He was slightly older, though, and very nearly wandered into fae territory before Philza found him.

Philza's true name is Phil, Technoblade's true name is in the fae tongue and vaguely translates to “Techno” and “Blade”. Wilbur's true name is Wilbur Minecraft, sharing a last name with his father. Tommy's true name is Theseus.

BadBoyHalo and Sapnap are fae too, both imps. Skeppy is a homunculus created by BadBoyHalo.

Purpled is a pixie, and helps protect Hannah's grove.

Dream's true form is DreamXD! He tricked George into giving his true name basically in the same way he convinced him into being his friend in canon.

Heart's idea of Foolish being Eret's “mortal” is the cutest thing and I’m stealing it. Eret's nice, but still a fae, btw. She’s not… moral, and cares only of her own self interest, but she finds seeing people happy interesting and seeing them sad or in pain distasteful.

My vague idea for how it’d go would either be Tommy not taking the deal, and Ranboo and Tubbo helping him get the flower and escape the forest, or Tommy reluctantly accepting the deal and then we get the lovely angst lol.

If anyone else wants to send in some more AU ideas it’d be lovely and I will make them heavily involve c!primeboys no matter what and again that’s a challenge.

[relaxxattack]

so... a list of blogs you say? off the top of my head, most of them are analyses blogs, though not all (some are art blogs), and you probably follow a lot of them but here you go:

general?: quicksandblock, tobi-smp, f4c3, nixavia, hiveswap, novel-a, oh-lordy-lord-save-me, coolandcreativeusername, feelzing, solarspan-archive

dream: dreamsclock (genuinely good and interesting sympathetic takes on c!dream), dr3amofagame, angeloncewas

techno: simplepotatofarmer, blockgamepirate, considermygenderminecrafted, petre-talks-minecraft, lesbiantechno, starwither

tommy: rainbow-kitten-5, snailsnfriends, trickszie, painless-and-colourful

tubbo: khizuo

wilbur: kateis-cakeis

badboyhalo: comradeboyhalo, commieinnit, demonboyhalo (i'm slightly worried you may have some of them blocked because some of them (analyses blogs lol) sometimes post / c!tommy neg stuff, so heads up for that) - chaos anon

OH MY GOD, I WORSHIP YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH

[fandom-thingies]

@purpleflamed says: “I’d love to hear your thoughts, with the updated lore...is a Tommy about to pull a Pandora? While I wouldn’t say his motives are curiosity, there is a constant tension having the prison RIGHT there.”

(This was in response to this post I made a while ago about the prison arc and its parallels to greek mythology)

That’s a good question, honestly. I’m definitely Living In Fear (tm), but as far as whether I think it’ll actually happen...

Tommy losing his last life to Dream is probably (hopefully) the end of his tragedies. It’s a painful relapse into his trauma after he’d finally escaped it, but if the analyses are correct and it being a relapse metaphor is intentional, it’ll probably just end up being a quick last big bad thing before Tommy’s healing arc finally starts in earnest. Honestly, I’m expecting he’ll start dropping off from the main plot a bit in order to let his character recover properly before any more big stuff happens with him.

I could be wrong, of course, but that’s my current projection.

However, Tommy is not the only character currently in a position to pull a Pandora, and in fact there are several characters it would make much more sense for.

In order of how much I’m manifesting, my guesses are:

1. Technoblade

2. Badboyhalo

3. Philza

The reason why I’m guessing these characters specifically is because they’re all currently in a position where, A: Sam would likely be willing to hold them in prison, and, B: they’re clearly set up for some kind of big narrative punishment for their actions.

I’d say Techno is the most likely because c!Techno has faced almost no narrative consequences as of yet for the various things he’s done, as well as having motive to free Dream. (The favor)

Here’s how that sequence goes in my head: Tommy rocks up to the prison to kill Dream, and manages to get to his cell due to Sam being distracted by the simultaneous break-in from Techno. Dream is successfully broken out, and Tommy chases him, but Techno ends up trapped somehow, and someone (probably Quackity, let’s be honest) convinces Sam to keep him locked up.

I’d also consider Bad a likely possibility, as his current arc has been Skeppy whump after Skeppy whump, and now that their relationship has finally deteriorated visibly, as well as Bad being in the midst of a moral crisis due to killing Foolish, he’s in the perfect position to do one more really bad thing before starting his redemption arc.

Here’s how I’d write that: Bad, at the end of his rope, alone, hunted, and uncertain, decides to free Dream in order to simultaneously get back the one friend he knows won’t give a fuck about him doing murders, as well as to get one of the most powerful people on the server to owe him a massive favor. So he and Tommy break in at the same time, chaos reigns, and Dream escapes while Sam manages to lock up Bad. Thus isolated from the egg, it’s influence over him slowly fades and he realizes more and more how far he’s fallen, finally culminating in the eggheads breaking him out only for him to turn around and betray them almost immediately.

And as for Philza? Honestly, I just think it’d be awesome if, in an attempt to get his son back, he ended up fucking everything up real bad. I just think that would be an extremely pog amount of angst and would also give Phil more opportunities to develop his character.

In conclusion: haha bet you didn’t expect a fuckin essay lmao