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appleflavoredkitkats · 3 years

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Manipulation of the Most Vulnerable

An Analysis of Fundy’s Dream in Las Nevadas Episode 3

i. INTRODUCTION

This essay is going to be analyzing the entirety of Fundy’s portion in Las Nevadas’ third episode. Like always, do not view this essay as gospel as I am not a flawless human being; I am merely giving my own personal opinions and thoughts about the scene. Additionally, all the people referred to in this essay pertains to the content creators’ fictional counterparts on the Dream SMP.

If you enjoy the essay, or just want to support me in general, reblogging the essay will mean so much to me! I work hard on these essays, so I do hope you get to enjoy them.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: manipulation, mentions of past violence, terrible mental states, possibly c!Quackity critical, insecurities, and self-worth issues

ii. QUACKITY’S BLATANT MANIPULATION AND THE DREAM SEQUENCE

What is a Legacy?

Legacy (ˈle-gə-sē)

“Something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.”

As we begin discovering one’s purpose in life, naturally, we do anything in our power to fulfil them. But as we begin to do more, to get closer and closer to achieving our sense of purpose in this world, sometimes we have to ask ourselves: Is it enough? How much have I truly changed and impacted through my life’s purpose? Will what I do be deemed worthy enough for people to remember me by? Is this my legacy?

What is a legacy?

If you are a Hamilton fan like me, you might look at that and respond with “it’s planting seeds in a garden we never get to see.” But truly, what is a legacy? Can our legacies simply be defined by everything we’ve achieved in our lifetime no matter how big or small they might be, or is it defined by creating notable shifts in society that people will remember you by for centuries and centuries?

[full essay is under the cut! it’s 7k words :0]

To Quackity, your legacy is what something history remembers you by. Quackity is a very caring man, and at first, he believed he could guarantee his safety through pacifism. But after his conversation with Wilbur, he realized that the only way he can gain peace is through power, and to gain power, one has to be violent. That is the only way he could make a change in the Dream SMP, to guarantee his safety. He has to make as much noise as possible before he can finally lay low and rest.

And if his plans do succeed, if he can finally bring peace in the SMP despite achieving it through very torturous means, then he can have a wondrous legacy people can remember him by. To me, I’m not exactly sure if he prioritizes his safety through gaining power or his legacy more, but either way, a great legacy may be a byproduct of his plans for peace if executed correctly.

If he succeeds in creating a positive legacy for himself, a positive legacy for Las Nevadas, then there is a chance that he may guarantee that other people who join him may have a similar legacy as well.

This is what he promises to Foolish, Purpled, and Fundy. These three, in Quackity’s eyes, are people with the potential of being something, but have stayed on the sidelines for too long. So, knowing that the entire SMP has lacked recognition and respect for these three members, Quackity gives them a misleading ultimatum: Join Quackity and have a chance to finally be highly recognized in the SMP, or deny his request and become nothing.

The truth is, our legacies as human beings don’t have to be defined by how remembered we are if we don’t want it to be that way. But with Quackity’s charm and with how vulnerable Foolish, Purpled, and Fundy are, it’s easy for Quackity to make them believe whatever he tells them to believe.

Fundy’s Low Self-Worth

Out of the three, I think Fundy established his low sense of self-worth for the longest time. Ever since L’Manberg, it’s evident that Fundy didn’t like being infantilized by anyone. Despite this, Fundy is seen to appeal to any bout of recognition he can get. Whether it’d be Quackity giving him more recognition than Wilbur during the Elections, or Schlatt complimenting him on his hard work for Manberg, or him appreciating anyone who claims they want to adopt him, Fundy will easily appeal to recognition and praise. I’d even argue that he dictates his own self-worth depending on how much people give him recognition.

And now, with Fundy being the most isolated and alone he has ever been, he is very much vulnerable to, well, anything, really. If Quackity decides to manipulate Fundy to join Las Nevadas, he doesn’t have to do much. Even the smallest bouts of recognition, the smallest threats, the smallest anything can be enough to push him to do whatever Quackity wants because, again, Fundy is currently at his lowest state possible.

While I’ll discuss more on Quackity’s manipulation tactics later, we can easily denote how little Quackity did to make Fundy feel pressured enough to agree to his request. Fundy’s entire portion was literally thirteen minutes long. As much as Fundy stuttered and protested a bit when Quackity told him he didn’t matter, Fundy was mostly silent during the last few scenes.

Fundy depends on other people to dictate his self-worth, so when he’s the most alone he’s ever been, of COURSE he clings onto the first opportunity he gets to finally be remembered once again. No matter how many times he’s been warned by Phil and his dreams, no matter how much he can protest against Quackity, Fundy realizes that this is the best opportunity he can get to receive even an ounce of recognition.

Even if it is, well, fake. It’s better than nothing, he supposes.

Was the Quackity We Saw Real?

From what I’ve understood, I think that it is heavily implied that Fundy’s dream sequence will become a reality. At 1:16:42 of Quackity’s stream, Dream!Quackity says, “Fundy! My good ol’ friend, how’ve you been?” which is exactly the same thing the real Quackity says in 1:25:57.

Additionally, a lot of Quackity’s word choices in Fundy’s dream sequence make so much more sense if you applied them in real life. This is how I believed the entire dream sequence could be applied to reality: Fundy wakes up in the same home with Quackity outside of his door. They stroll through nature for a while before approaching the remains of L’Manberg. While their conversation about the decorations might’ve been done above the crater, I think that the entire Camarvan scene was set in Eret’s museum, something not too far away from the crater. Afterwards, the last scene takes place they return back to L’Manberg, entering Eret’s abandoned tower.

I’m going to list down everything said that could possibly hint that this dream sequence will happen in real life. There’ll also be some additional notes for certain quotes I’d love to expound on.

“Take a walk with me, take a little walk with me. Don’t you enjoy the fresh air? Don’t you enjoy the beautiful outdoors? I sure do.” - Quackity, 1:16:52-1:17:01

If we substitute the current scenery with where Fundy’s home actually is, I do think it makes a lot more sense as Fundy kind of lives in the middle of the woods.

“What do you mean ‘how am I here’, Fundy? I found you! It’s exactly what I wanted to do- was to find you. And you know- you’re a hard person to find. But I’m glad I found you!” - Quackity, 1:17:16-1:17:27

Fundy has recently built a new house in the middle of the woods and has not told anyone in the SMP about his whereabouts. Again, if you substitute the current scenery with Fundy’s actual home, then what Quackity’s saying makes a lot more sense.

“Fundy, don’t you enjoy the great outdoors? It feels so free! It feels so full of life, full of energy, don’t you think, Fundy?” - Quackity, 1:17:37-1:17:49

Something something, substitute the scenery with the forest Fundy lives in, something something.

“What is this place?”

“Fundy, you should know this place better than anyone. You should know it better than anyone, Fundy, what do you mean ‘what is this place’? You should know it better than anyone else, Fundy. You and me, actually! You don’t remember what this place is, what it means? Come on, don’t tell me you already forgot.” - Fundy and Quackity, 1:18:03-1:18-26

If this was set above the crater, this piece of dialogue also makes sense.

“What is all of this doing here? It was gone, it was blown up-”

“This was home, Fundy, it was home! No, Fundy, it’s always been here, we’ve always been here. You and me, we’ve always been here.” - Fundy and Quackity, 1:19:48-1:20:01

To explain the Camarvan- I do think that there’s a possibility that they entered Eret’s museum and viewed it from there. Additionally, Quackity’s response can still be applied in the real world if you interpret his statements as “Well, it’s blown up, but we still consider this place as home! ‘Home’ still exists, you know?”.

While we can’t fully confirm whether Fundy’s real meeting with Quackity went as it did in the dream, I do think that something would have happened in a similar fashion. After all, we did see Fundy at the end of Foolish’s stream “Las Nevadas - Dream SMP (LORE)” at Las Nevadas. Maybe he was also manipulated and offered the same thing Dream!Quackity offered in real life?

Quackity’s Manipulation

Here comes the juicy bit. If we assume that what Quackity did in Fundy’s dream will also happen in real life, then I will refer to everything in that dream as fact, okay? Now, I think it’s clear to everyone that Quackity is a really good manipulator. He is meticulous with his word choice and can make his statements sound believable through his charm.

I’ll try explaining all the tactics he uses here, then later, I’ll list down everything Quackity says and try to connect it back to different manipulation tactics I’ve mentioned.

The tactic Quackity uses the most is how he uses pronouns. When Quackity refers to himself with the “I” pronoun, he always seems to present as a good friend to Fundy, as Fundy’s savior. This can also be applied when he uses the “we” pronoun as he implies that certain accomplishments were only achieved when Fundy did it WITH Quackity. When he refers to Fundy using the “you” pronoun, he always does it to remind Fundy of certain mishaps and mistakes. As if to say that these awful situations were Fundy’s fault, not Quackity’s. This tactic is mostly used for victims of manipulation to believe that their manipulators are their saviors, that their manipulators can do no wrong. At the same time, they begin to doubt their own selves as their manipulators continuously associate these victims with negative words.

Another tactic Quackity uses is praise and speaking on behalf of Fundy. It doesn’t happen as much as the first tactic, but at certain parts, Quackity seems to be instructing Fundy what he’s feeling. That he doesn’t matter, that he won’t be remembered; you don’t even notice that Fundy barely even spoke in the dream sequence because Quackity mostly spoke on his behalf. Additionally, during the L’Manberg scenes, Quackity continuously praised Fundy. Not only does the constant praise butter Fundy up, but it also preys on Fundy’s insecurities. If Fundy depends on others to dictate his self-worth, then of COURSE Quackity praising Fundy could be easily seen as manipulation as Quackity uses Fundy’s insecurities for his own advantages.

Another tactic Quackity uses is that he constantly brings up their past of working together to make it seem like it’s them versus the rest of the world. Never has Quackity looked like the flawed person in the conversation. Never has Quackity brought up the fact that they’ve fought multiple times in New L’Manberg . Quackity made it seem like that the others were in the wrong, that they were both victims of unfortunate circumstances, but Quackity always remarked that they were able to make it through everything together.

Lastly, this is less frequent, but at certain parts of the sequence, Quackity outright ignores questions uttered by Fundy and changes the subject to talk about something else. Literally just ignored him. Do I even have to explain why Quackity ignoring Fundy could possibly be a manipulation tactic to make Fundy feel more inferior?

Now, there are probably more manipulation tactics I’ve missed, but granted, I am NOT in any way an expert and wouldn’t know the specifics when it comes to gaslighting. Even then, we can all agree that Quackity is, indeed, manipulating Fundy, and to further expound on this, I’m going to list down every single line or action done by Quackity and explain why they could be considered as manipulation.

I do want to mention that, when viewing some of these lines alone, they may not SEEM to be manipulative, but we also have to consider that successful manipulation and gaslighting is a gradual process. A single, harmless-seeming line can be damaging when you view the full scope of things.

“Fundy! My good ol’ friend, how’ve you been?” - Quackity, 1:16:42-1:16:46

A lot of the quotes here are going to follow the first tactic I’ve mentioned where Quackity continuously uses first-person pronouns to make Fundy think positively when it comes to Quackity, but uses second-person pronouns to antagonize Fundy.

“What do you mean ‘how am I here’, Fundy? I found you! It’s exactly what I wanted to do- was to find you. And you know- you’re a hard person to find. But I’m glad I found you! I think that’s the most important thing: that we are here together now. And I am finally speaking to you- I think that’s the greatest thing!” - Quackity, 1:17:16-1:17:35

This, I think, is the first comment from Quackity that screams “SUS.” While we can interpret it in a literal sense, we can also view it in a metaphorical sense. Quackity is claiming that Fundy is hard to find, but despite the difficulty, Quackity found him! Amongst everyone in the SMP, it’s Quackity who is the first to find him! That’s what Quackity wants Fundy to believe: that Quackity is his savior for finding him, that it’s better for Fundy to even be here WITH him. The “greatest thing”, apparently, is Quackity being able to speak to Fundy, and nothing else.

“Fundy, don’t you enjoy the great outdoors? It feels so free! It feels so full of life, full of energy, don’t you think, Fundy?” - Quackity, 1:17:37-1:17:49

While I’m not sure if this counts, I do think Quackity’s insistence that Fundy enjoys the great outdoors kind of implies that Quackity is speaking on behalf of Fundy. Additionally, he doesn’t even let Fundy reply to his question? At the beginning, he repeatedly asks Fundy how he is, but he never gives Fundy an opportunity to reply. Either Fundy seems too dazed out of thought, or Quackity immediately interrupts Fundy and says something else.

Now we get to the “you” pronouns. Quackity repeatedly insists that Fundy should have known better, or Fundy should have had better memory. This adds onto the idea that Quackity attributes positive ideas to himself, but whenever something’s wrong, he blames it on Fundy.

“You’re telling me you don’t remember that place right there? When we had the huge elections? Or how about… Fundy, do you remember when we tried to kill Technoblade and we failed? That’s where I got my scar! What about the festival? Do you remember the festival, Fundy? The balloons and the decorations. I never had anything to do with the decorations, Fundy, I- I just… sat back and watched people do it because I’m not good with decorations but… you know.” - Quackity, 1:18:29-1:19:05

Now, Quackity begins to remind Fundy about their joint past together. While not seemingly manipulative, Quackity is basically trying to remind Fundy that there are multiple instances in the past where they were allies, implying that now, they must still be allies. Quackity is trying to remind Fundy that they worked best when they were together, giving Fundy the impression that Quackity is someone to be trusted. It doesn’t help when later on, we realize that Quackity is doing all this sweet talk only for him to convince Fundy to join Las Nevadas. Additionally, during Quackity’s spiel, he continues to ignore a lot of Fundy’s remarks and questions.

“What about the elections? You were part of the elections, do you remember? You were- you ran for president too!”

“I did! And I got the worst votes. I did not even get close…”

“But you tried and I think that was the most important thing. You ran with Niki and you made the Coconut party.”

“Yeah! We tried.” - Quackity and Fundy, 1:19:14-1:19:36

Quackity’s buttering him up. Most people tend to ignore Fundy and Niki’s party in the elections, and I think this is the first time I’ve seen someone acknowledge it in a positive manner? Again, Fundy thrives when receiving recognition, so complimenting him is an easy way for Quackity to get Fundy to trust him. But of course, he has to keep compliments to a minimum because he doesn’t want Fundy feeling too confident about himself.

“Is that what I think it is? It’s the van, Fundy! Do you remember all the great memories we had in the van?”

“What is all this doing here? This is crazy!”

“No, this is home, Fundy! This is home.”

“What is all of this doing here? It was gone, it was blown up-”

“This was home, Fundy, it was home! No, Fundy, it’s always been here, we’ve always been here. You and me, we’ve always been here.” - Quackity and Fundy, 1:19:41-1:20:02

Quackity is asserting that a lot of good memories were born from the van. Granted, he does acknowledge that they’ve had some arguments in the van later on, but their conversation seemed too… optimistic. Quackity convinces Fundy that they’ve shared a lot of good experiences when they were in the van together even if we KNOW that in NLM, most of the time, they only used the van when they had to discuss an awful issue. But Quackity here is convincing him that them working together in this van was HOME to Fundy. He’s convincing Fundy that he can always find a home in their friendship when we know that’s probably false.

“The amount of times we came here when we were incredibly stressed, but we always- we always figured out a way, I mean, I guess.”

“We always figured out a way, Fundy, we always figured out a way.” - Fundy and Quackity, 1:20:15-1:20:26

And see? The manipulation is working. Fundy’s beginning to look at his past with a positive light because Quackity’s trying to convince him that all the experiences they’ve shared together are great. And Quackity agrees to Fundy’s statement! Again, he’s building up Fundy’s trust in Quackity by convincing him that their moments together in the past were all sunshine and rainbows.

“Oh that brings back memories- I mean, I don’t know if they’re good memories- It’s literally a drug lab, but… yeah, you know-”

“Everything is good memories, Fundy. All the experience and everything we did together. You know I wasn’t here for the start but I was sure part of everything, you know, towards the end, when it was all, you know, just blatantly destroyed. But it’s here now! That’s what matters is that it’s here, and that it’s never actually gone.” - Fundy and Quackity, 1:20:41-1:21:09

And here’s Quackity reaffirming that yes, every experience we had in the past is good, and that we should acknowledge them as good memories. Fundy seemed like he was going to doubt the goodness of his memories, but Quackity immediately interjects, convincing him that it is. He tells Fundy that their moments together is really all that matters. These so-called “good memories” still exist, and Quackity implies that these memories can still live on because their friendship is still as stable as it was in the past. Something something, Quackity convinces Fundy that their friendship is good so he can build trust and get Fundy to do whatever he wants later on, something something.

“Fundy do you remember when- when L’Manberg was destroyed? It was blown up to pieces!”

“Everything was gone. It was done multiple times. Every time it was reb-”

“There was nothing we can do about it. There’s nothing we can do about it- unless you can do something about it.” - Quackity and Fundy, 1:21:22-1:21:41

Now here’s where Quackity begins to ask something from Fundy. Here, Quackity’s seen leading Fundy to Eret’s tower, so you know things are about to go down. Here, Quackity implies Fundy can do something about this cycle of violence, but what Quackity wants Fundy to do seems kind of… vague. He’s leading Fundy on, motivating Fundy he can do something, but not mentioning what he can actually do. This is so that afterwards, when Quackity presents his plan, Fundy may believe that it may help stop the cycle of violence in the SMP. Additionally, Quackity implies that all of this depends on Fundy, so Fundy may feel obligated to accept the plan, but in reality, Quackity may be possibly recruiting Fundy for his own benefit.

“Look, look up! It’s a tower.”

“The amount of battles we’ve fought from up here… down on Dream and Technoblade as well.”

“Yeah, Fundy! You remember that, right?”

“Yeah, I do!”

“Remember all these things we did for our country. It was great!” - Quackity and Fundy, 1:21:52-1:22:13

This is like the millionth time Quackity asks if Fundy remembered a certain “good” experience they had, as if he really wanted Fundy to believe that they were genuinely good memories. And here, we finally see Fundy respond positively, now fully believing that these memories were, indeed, great. It seems like Quackity has finally gotten Fundy to trust him completely by this point.

“But you know what, Fundy? Those memories don’t matter. None of that matters, Fundy. All these structures, all these things we’ve built together- it’s here now, but it’s really gone! And none of it matters, nor will it ever matter. Fundy, if you think about it, YOU don’t matter.” - Quackity, 1:22:18-1:22:46

Here we go, boys. Quackity begins to reveal his true intentions to Fundy. Here, he practically confirms that he doesn’t actually think highly of those past experiences as much as he claimed he did earlier. Again, all of it was a ploy for him to get Fundy to trust him, and now, Quackity begins to reveal his true plans. Additionally, Quackity begins discussing legacies again, or I guess, his perception of what a legacy is. This view on legacies is honestly quite an awful perspective for Fundy as he already has trouble finding a sense of self-worth on his own. Now that Quackity is telling him that he’s nothing unless he does something about it, Fundy’s perception on self-worth will become even more skewed.

“Along with all these structures and everything in ‘em, you’re gonna fade away just like it. Do you see how the sand in the winds slowly deteriorates the structure that we stand upon right now? That’s what’s gonna happen to you, but it’s not gonna be sand and wind, it’s gonna be time, Fundy. It’s gonna be time. You don’t matter, Fundy, that’s what you have to realize. You WON’T matter if you don’t change things up. That’s why you’re in the position that you’re in right now.” - Quackity, 1:22:49-1:23-26

Again with the same legacy talk. As much as we know that Quackity is a master manipulator, I still wonder if he genuinely wants to provide Fundy a real legacy, or is trying to use Fundy to benefit his own legacy. Either way, no matter how genuine Quackity’s concerns are, this perspective on self-worth is still a toxic philosophy for someone like Fundy who needs to learn that self-worth depends on yourself and not some other factors like other people and legacies.

Also, gotta mention that he’s doing the pronoun switch again. He didn’t say “I think you don’t matter,” he says, “YOU don’t matter”. It’s very subtle, but Quackity switching pronouns means he’s trying to emphasize that these horrible things Fundy is experiencing is Fundy’s fault entirely.

“But, you know what? It doesn’t have to be that way, and I can help you. I have big plans, Fundy. I have big plans… and, you know what? As a fellow cabinet member, I wanna bring you in on these plans because I know the experience you have. I know what you’ve been through because I’ve been through it as well. You can change things and be something. You don’t have to end up like this structure: alone, destroyed, nothing else to it. Fundy, Fundy, all you have to do is join me. Join me in my projects. I’ll give you the tools to succeed. I’ll give you the tools to finally be someone because you’re nobody right now. Nothing’s gonna happen if you let time take you away, Fundy. I can help you be someone. You can join me, Fundy. You can join me in the things that I’m doing. And I know you have the capacity to do big things, but the way things are right now, you’re not gonna be anything. You’re never gonna be anything. You’re gonna end up just like this building. You’re gonna end up alone. You’re gonna let time take you away. You’re going to die, and no one is going to remember you… just like it happened in L’Manberg. You understand now what I’m saying Fundy?”

“What do you expect me to do? What do you expect me to do?”

“Take the tools that I’m giving you, Fundy. Take the tools and do something big. I’m offering them to you right now. You can have ‘em. You can be someone else. You can be someone big. Fundy, I’m gonna give you ten seconds to decide.” - Quackity and Fundy, 1:23:46-1:25:31

And this is quite long, but notice the shift in pronouns. When using “you” like in the previous quote, Quackity attributed it with something negative, but now he’s using “I” and he’s attributing it to something positive. He claims that while Fundy might be in a terrible position, Quackity can save him, can help him.

Additionally, Quackity is trying to speak on Fundy’s behalf once more. He claims that he understands, describing what Fundy might possibly feel like in thorough detail. Now that Fundy trusts him, Fundy can’t protest. Sure, he did utter a few murmurs, but by the end of Quackity’s spiel, he somewhat agrees.

And he offers him the misleading ultimatum: join Quackity, or you will be nothing. With the amount of times Quackity has planted that Fundy is the cause of his own demise and the amount of times Quackity poses as a solution to Fundy’s own problems, of COURSE Fundy feels pressured to accept the offer. Even if he was warned by the book, even if Fundy is possibly smarter than what he leads on, Fundy was extremely gaslit to the point where he thinks accepting the offer is the most ideal choice. And that’s what he (presumably) does. He accepts it.

iii. POSSIBLE SYMBOLISMS

Just like Fundy’s first Las Nevadas lore stream, this stream is also littered with possible symbolisms. So, I’ll try my best to explain them all.

Experience Points and Numbers

Now, I want to emphasize that as much as I am a mathematics nerd, I may be calculating this incorrectly. But anyway, Fundy is seen to have two different levels: 3 in the overworld, and 7 in his dream.

Let’s focus on the overworld first:

So, as much as I’d like to dig into the number 3, I do think we have to take note of the EXP more than the level Fundy’s on. To get to the third level, you’d need 27 EXP. To calculate for the remaining, we have to denote that he needs 13 EXP to get to the next level. We have to note down that approximately 15/18 bars are filled, so 15/18 of 13 is approximately 11. I can get more into detail about the extra few bars filled, but trust me, it results in the same number when we round it off anyway, so we don’t need to explain that. Anyway, 11 + 27 = 38. 38 is a very familiar number, don’t you think? It’s the number of potatoes Fundy had in the “Fundy’s Mind” stream!

According to angelnumber.org, the number 38 means the following:

“The combination of these two numbers makes the number 38 a number which signifies joy and optimism, courage, finding creative ways to materialize abundance, reality, etc.

The essence of the number 38 in numerology are different kind of relationships, such as romantic ones, business partnerships, teamwork, cooperation, diplomacy, etc.

Number 38 people have a talent for dealing with people in a caring and creative way. They are born team-workers. They need interaction with other people to fully enjoy their lives. They are usually optimistic and have a gift of inspiring others to action.”

Needing interaction from other people, they say? Interactions that even come from people like business partners? And afterwards, they can materialize abundance, like financial success?

Besides that, if we connect the number 38 to gambling, 38 is very prominent in a game of roulette as in the American style of roulette, there are thirty-eight pockets in one wheel.

Now, what about Fundy’s level in the dream?

We can think of 7 as somewhat of a lucky number when it comes to poker as it connects to the lucky number 7 in slot machines.

If we want to look more into this, we gotta calculate for the EXP. To get to the seventh level, we need 91 EXP. To calculate for the remaining EXP, we have to denote that we need 21 EXP to get to the eighth level. Approximately, 8/18 bars are filled up, so we have to find the 8/18 of 21. 8/18 of 21 = 9.33333, or rounded off, it’s 9. Add 9 to 91, we get the perfect number 100.

According to angelnumber.org, the number 100 means the following:

“The angel number 100 signifies infinite potential, self – determination, isolation, wholeness, self – sufficiency and independence.

People who resonate with this number are very independent and self –sufficient.

They enjoy exploring new things and gaining knowledge. They don’t mind being alone and doing the things they enjoy. This number brings them leadership qualities and openness.”

This is interesting because the meaning here completely contradicts the meaning of the number 38. To me, I feel like this represents how Fundy is able to heal and to overcome his self-worth issues. He may feel like he needs to depend on other people, but in reality, Fundy’s self-worth can completely be honed by himself. This represents a Fundy who is finally able to find the true worth in himself without depending on other people’s input. But for now, this reality remains in Fundy’s head, in Fundy’s dreams, and he needs to find a way to make this become his true reality.

Additionally, going back to the gambling motif, 100 is the highest possible poker chip one can have when gambling. This can direct back to Fundy’s connections to Quackity, the person with the highest authority in Las Nevadas.

Color Symbolism (The Importance of Orange)

I’ve established this in an essay in the past, but orange is an important color to Fundy. If I remember correctly, cc!Fundy’s favorite color is orange, so I’d like to believe that, for Fundy, orange would represent “happiness” or “safety”.

The first time we see orange in his portion is actually outside of his dream: his bed.

And it’s quite interesting because in Fundy’s “Fundy’s Mind” stream, these three beds all used to be orange. From my understanding, these two extra beds were meant to represent two other people Fundy may consider as friends. In the “Fundy’s Mind” stream, Fundy showed that only Ranboo and Niki were online, implying that the two extra beds were for them. If orange is meant to represent happiness, then it's implied he viewed Niki and Ranboo as his source for happiness.

But now, the two beds next to him are white, implying that he lost his sources of happiness. As if he had stopped communicating with Niki and Ranboo entirely.

Other places we see orange are in the dream itself.

Instead of the typical yellow sand desert we expect from Fundy’s dreams, we see a badlands biome. Yes, the name of the sand is “Red Sand”, but I don’t care because it just LOOKS orange, okay? It’s interesting that instead of yellow, the desert poses as Fundy’s favorite color. Orange is a safe color for Fundy, but we also have to remember that this is still a desert. Under the guise of Fundy’s favorite color is something that represents isolation and loneliness - fitting for a stream that’s about manipulation, no?

Additionally, on the way to the ruins of L’Manberg, Fundy and Quackity are guided with blue lanterns.

Blue is orange’s complementary color. We can think of it as orange’s opposite, representing everything that orange does not represent for Fundy. So, if blue can represent something that isn’t happiness and safety, and Quackity is leading Fundy to follow these blue lanterns, then these blue lanterns can be seen as a sign of deceit, of danger. And Fundy follows them anyway.

Entering the Camarvan

This was incredibly subtle, but I find it interesting that Quackity was able to open the Camarvan’s doors when Fundy has mentioned he was never able to do it in his own dreams. This can lead back to the idea that Quackity wants to present himself as someone great, as someone akin to a savior to Fundy. Because if Fundy can’t access the Camarvan in his dreams, and Quackity can, then he might view Quackity as superior in some way. He’s weak, he can’t do anything, but Quackity can, so naturally, he thinks of him as superior.

In the Shadows

This one is the most obvious, but by the end of Fundy’s portion, Quackity is seen slowly inching closer and closer to the shadows. To me, this represents that Fundy isn’t going to be uplifted by Quackity’s offer at all. Quackity is literally dragging him into the shadows even more, which is ironic considering the fact that he stated that he will help Fundy become more recognized. But the metaphor speaks volumes: Quackity is going to pull Fundy into a dark, dark place. His offer isn’t as nice as it sounds, and Fundy needs to be incredibly careful.

Hiding His Inventory

When Fundy wakes, he completely hides his inventory. He does this a lot throughout the stream, and while I don’t want to overanalyze since I know this might just be a cinematic choice, I can’t help but feel like this is a metaphor for Fundy losing himself. We don’t see his hand, we don’t see his inventory, his health or anything, we just see his surroundings, and most importantly, we see Quackity. Only Quackity.

iv. HARKENING BACK TO THE “FUNDY’S MIND” STREAM

As much as we still have many questions about the semantics of Fundy’s dreams, I do think there are a few things from this stream that did clarify certain aspects of the first stream. If not, there are at least certain parallels that we can’t exactly ignore either.

Quackity is the Forewarned “Him”

Do not join him.

Whatever he asks of you.

Do NOT join him.

his plans aren’t as nice as they sound.

his intentions aren’t what you think they are.

he will use you

he will destroy you

everything you ever loved

everyone you ever cared about

do not join him

This one is pretty self-explanatory. At this point, I do want to think that Quackity is, indeed, the “him” being referred to here. I do want to keep my mind open for future possibilities as the Dream SMP is littered with red herrings, but for now, it just makes the most sense that the book is referring to Quackity.

Additionally, from what the book mentions, it seems like Quackity doesn’t genuinely want to help Fundy. To be fair, we can’t fully be sure that Quackity’s intentions are purely evil, but the book does imply that Quackity only views Fundy as another pawn.

The Dangers of Sleeping for Too Long

The signed book in Fundy’s first dream seems to imply that there are consequences to staying in the dream world for too long. In my opinion, Fundy’s dream in Las Nevadas’ third episode shows what might possibly happen if Fundy stays for too long. The more Fundy uncovers the truths about his future, the more he gets exposed to traumatizing experiences like the one he had with Quackity.

Additionally, it’s been hinted by Fundy that when he wakes, he can’t exactly remember what his dream is about, but he can recall the emotions he’s felt while having them. So, if Fundy can only remember what he felt while dreaming, then the dread and horror he felt while witnessing nightmares pass over. The main con of this is that even if Fundy witnesses these future-predicting events in his dream, he won’t be able to avoid them when he wakes because he can’t remember them. So, all his dreams can do is literally traumatize him. No matter how many times it can warn him about Quackity, Fundy won’t even remember them. All he can remember is a sense of dread which only makes him more vulnerable in real life as his mental state worsens.

Hooded Figure

This kind of fits under the symbolism category, but to me, it’s interesting that both the hooded figure in the first dream and Quackity in the most recent dream kind of have the same blocking. Fundy goes outside and a figure waits for him, standing directly across Fundy’s door.

If the hooded figure is Quackity, it is interesting that they chased Fundy as if intending to murder him. Again, another warning for us to not trust Quackity.

v. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR FUNDY?

In the middle of writing this, Fundy decided to do a lore stream where he finally joins Las Nevadas, so we kinda know what’s going to happen. That lore stream was pretty interesting because a lot of the manipulation tactics I’ve mentioned earlier were used by Quackity once more to further convince Fundy to stay in Las Nevadas.

That’s not to say Quackity doesn’t genuinely believe in all the words he’s said to Fundy. I do think Quackity does believe in his statements on legacy and loneliness, but the thing we have to question is whether Quackity genuinely cares about Fundy’s wellbeing wholeheartedly. Because, let me be frank: if Las Nevadas ever gets terrorized, and Fundy’s life would be in danger, I don’t think Quackity would genuinely want to save him. It’s already heavily implied that Fundy is going to be used by Quackity, but I’m genuinely curious as to why. We know Quackity does want him to work there, but what are the specifics? What specific role does he want Fundy to play? Why is he going so far as to give Fundy a plot of land just for him to stay? What does Quackity specifically want from Fundy?

Again, I’m not sure, and all will be revealed in the future, but just know that I do not trust Quackity at all. He may have some true intentions but we know Quackity will do anything as long as it benefits whatever plan he has up his sleeve.

And I have to emphasize that if Fundy ever has a breakdown or experiences a traumatic event, it is NEVER going to be his fault. Because as much as we can say that “Fundy is bringing his own demise,” we have to remember that Quackity is the real mastermind behind anything that happens in Las Nevadas. Believing Fundy or any of Las Nevadas’ coworkers are at fault for something Quackity enabled is exactly what Quackity wants us to believe.

Again, if any of the Las Nevadas members ever have a mental breakdown, or lose a canon life, there’s a good chance that Quackity knew this was going to happen and allowed it to happen in the first place. All coworkers at the moment are victims of Quackity’s manipulation, and we always have to keep that in mind.

vi. CLOSING REMARKS

Like I mentioned earlier, I am not a saint, so please do not view this essay as gospel. If you do enjoy it, feel free to like, reblog, and share it to other people! I’d appreciate any amount of support I get! If you want to discuss this topic further, feel free to message me or reply to this post!

Special thanks to Fundy, Quackity, and everyone else who participated in this lore stream. Additional special thanks to Alyssa for beta reading! :D

#fundy #dream smp #mcyt #quackity critical #long post #dream smp analysis #dsmp analysis

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netheritenugget · 3 years

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The Dream SMP Mind Control Problem: How Mind Control Sucks But Also Doesn’t

I like the theory that the reason Technoblade is violent is because the Egg is the Blood God, and he can always hear it demanding to be fed. But only to a degree. I like the idea better that his disdain for organized government, and his desire for freedom, is a completely different character trait unrelated to The Egg.

Because his character's deepest wish has always been absolute freedom from the control of others. And to blame his violent efforts to achieve it on the Egg’s mind control kinda cheapens that (not to mention it also retcons Chat being the canon reason he’s violent, which was much cooler). Especially since The Egg has entirely different values than Technoblade does. It’s definitely not in favor of individual freedom. I want to see Technoblade change his ways by his own choices, not get de-Egged and suddenly say "The Egg made me do it. Heated gamer moment ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ " It would be much more compelling to watch him vanquish his inner demons of his own will.

Likewise, having a character, through his own agency, reduce a nation to a smouldering crater in the ground in revenge for an attempted execution, is far more interesting and compelling to me than just having his excuse be "Egg bloodlust" and then have everyone forgive him. It’s a cheap way to make him everyone’s friend again. I don’t think content creator Technoblade would appreciate this decision being made for him in the narrative.

Which is also basically my opinion on whether or not I like the theory that Dream is still possessed by a Dreamon. It kinda pulls the rug out from under the story, because it's always been about black and gray morality, and people being the cause of conflict, not the supernatural. Adding dreamons to the mix changes the biggest moral from "power corrupts and nations fall, the only universal language that can save us all is love" to "we just needed to yeet the Dreamon out of the Big Bad and we achieved world peace. Poggers."

Let's talk about the narrative can of worms that is dreamon possession, while we're at it, because I have similar opinions to the Technoblade Egg Theory: mind control as an excuse is cheap, if used to solve problems.

Perhaps the writers found a way to write this anyway that made sense. Perhaps Dream really is possessed, and Good Dream is still in there. Perhaps every single evil action he's done since the Dreamon Hunters episodes Fundy and Tubbo made was because of the dreamon. Perhaps Dream didn't want to break Wilbur, gaslight Tommy, manipulate Tubbo, threaten to kill Tubbo, and do... Whatever the heck he's doing to Ranboo's poor brain at the moment.

What then?

If it's done right and Dream gets a sufficiently difficult redemption arc, (🤢 Ew, Dream redemption arc...) it's still kinda... Awkward to expect other people to forgive him immediately. How is everyone going to feel about the trauma he caused while possessed? Even if he’s a genuinely nice person, that won’t bring L’Manberg back, and he shares a face with the dreamon that did that to them. Being nice won’t fix what he did to Sapnap and George, Tommy and Ranboo, and poor Wilbur Soot. Are we ever going to be 100% sure he was never in control over himself? Are we, the audience who hated him, supposed to pretend nothing happened and let it go just because Dream is good now? That sounds suspiciously convenient and unfair, and I think the other characters would think the same thing. It sounds like it could be an interesting source of drama, having them try to blame exorcised!Dream for the things his dreamon did, much like how people projected their frustration onto Ghostbur in the beginning. I kinda want to read a fanfic about that. But I don't want to watch it in canon.

So I'm gonna assume you think I hate mind control. No. I do not. I actually quite like the version of mind control that Badboyhalo has been writing so far, because it's really interesting in how it meshes with the previous storyline.

Badboyhalo is a very different villain than Dream and Technoblade. Because in some ways, this is an entirely new storyline. It is allowed to have a completely different antagonist and moral to the story.

Bad as an antagonist and the main script writer, is still managing to carry over some of the same "power corrupts, love is stronger" message while also being brainwashed, because he’s managed to choose both sides of the coin. Bad himself told Quackity that after he shook the initial brainwashing, he didn’t want to go back to the Egg, he hasn’t wanted to be the Egg’s minion since he figured out he was being manipulated. But he made a conscious decision to go back to The Egg, in hopes that it can help him save his Skeppy. Because his love for Skeppy was more important than the SMP, his own humanity, and himself.

Which means his current mind controlled state is not being used as an excuse for getting him back on everyone’s good side, it’s a consequence of his frantic attempts to get Skeppy back to normal again. He is choosing to hurt people because Skeppy and what The Egg promised him are fundamentally more important to him. And even if he were theoretically no longer brainwashed, he might just go right back to The Egg anyway if he still thought it could get him Skeppy back. Now that is some tragedy!

Is what I’m saying clear? That the way The Egg operates with Bad’s core values as a character is more narratively compelling because of how it was set up, instead of being used as an excuse for villain insanity? How Technoblade and Dream's characters are people with their own free will, and it's more interesting that way?

Food for thought I guess.

#dream smp #dream smp character analysis #dreamons #technoblade #the eggpire #dreamwastaken #badboyhalo

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dreamdefencesquad · 3 years

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Mexican L’manburg vs Dream & Eret

(The things being said here are explicitly towards the characters and lore that the DSMP members are acting out for us. This goes over the fiasco on the Mexburg vs Eret and Dream situation)

First we start off with a brief summary of events.

Mexberg planned on staging a coup against Eret's kingship because george wants kingship again and quackity is power-hungry and doesn't want to be a puppet under Dream.

They eventually set up a plan where Karl had to sacrifice a canon death by getting blown up by TNT in front of eret's fortress so they could frame eret.

This didn't turn out well for them as the plan was far too obvious and DSMP had many evidence of Mexberg having been the ones to cause Karl’s death such as george running in from the right side.

DSMP then chased down the Mexbergians when they heard they ran to Mexberg. Dream, being the all knowing knew exactly who was at fault here and by the time Mexbergians got there Dream was already blowing up Mexberg land. All is fair in a grief war especially when you go against the king appointed by Dream.

The Mexbergians had invisibility on and decided to run to the holy lands. While the DSMP worked on further destroying Mexberg. They then chased the Mexbergians to the Holy Land.

Dream began a convo with Quackity and they had a very long argument/debate on what happened and what Quackity is trying to play the story as.

Quackity had a very hard time convincing Dream that he was in the right and that Dream knows that what Quackity and co did was a terrorist act.

They eventually bring Eret into the convo and Quackity again tries to spin the story. Obviously, the story is dumb and Eret knows that Quackity is lying through his teeth.

Eventually a deal was settled with the terms of Quackity owing an apology and Mexberg had to fix Eret's place and on Eret’s end, he had to recognize Mexberg. Quackity refuses to apologize to Dream which Dream is exasperated but fine with.

Quackity somehow thinks that Mexberg has won but in reality, they lost way more than they gained cause Mexberg is now forced to recognize Eret's kingship

So the main points to address here involve:

Quackity’s plans

Dream and Quackity’s Debate

Quackity’s goals

Quackity’s stream starts off with him telling chat that “no one respects Mexican L’manburg” [TODAY MEXICAN L'MANBURG GOES TO WAR IN DREAMSMP; 00:07:10]. However, I must redirect you to the fact that when Mexican L’manberg was first introduced to Tubbo, he introduced it in a way that can easily make it hard for Tubbo or anyone to realize that it is an independent nation. The first few things Quackity said was that he “had a child last night.” Tubbo was obviously in disbelief because as Tubbo said, Quackity “had a baby, he got to 9 months and then he had it all in one night” [Tubbo’s Stream: MEETING WITH DREAM starting from 0:08:00] (though back before the Manburg vs Pogtopia war, Quackity has mentioned that he was pregnant).

This causes a huge suspense in disbelief and is quite clear that it is a diversion tactic from the fact that Mexican L’manberg is going to be its own independent nation.

“In order to increase the land, price and value of L’manburg, I’ve decided to have a baby.” [00:08:38]. Quackity here sells the existence of Mexican L’manburg out to be a beneficial addition to L’manburg which, if you are to create your own nation, wouldn’t really be something you say.

Quackity also calls Mexican L’manburg a DLC [Tubbo Stream: 00:09:34]. When he also calmly says that he’ll allow ads on his baby, all of these make Mexican L’manburg a joke. It is clear with the way that he presented Mexican L’manburg as a joke that it would be hard to take Mexican L’manburg seriously. Of course either way, Tubbo was okay with it. In fact, Quackity even made Tubbo the Secretary of State of Mexican L’manburg [Tubbo Stream: 00:10:50]. So by all means, Tubbo had a right to stand on top of Mexican L’manburg which was one of the points that Quackity in his stream brought up when he said that people weren’t respecting Mexican L’manburg.

On Quackity’s stream at [00:07:44], Quackity clarified to chat that Mexican L’manburg has no affiliation with L’manburg, that is clearly not how he phrased it to Tubbo. He also made Tubbo, who was the president of L’manburg, the Secretary of State of Mexican L’manburg so why would he state that there is no affiliation when the leaders of the nations are clearly in affiliation? In addition, if you are in a government position, you must define your loyalties. Most nations do not allow for dual citizenship and if you happen to get yourself into a position of power for one country, then you must revoke your citizenship in the other [https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2017/07/31/mikheil-saakashvili-and-the-problem-of-dual-citizenship/?sh=78e953f92c76]. Tubbo and Quackity really need to have a talk about their government systems and set up exact boundaries between Mexican L’manburg and L’manburg.

At Quackity’s stream [00:19:50], Quackity begins detailing the plan to George and Karl. Quackity’s main goal to this is that he wants to put Mexican L’manburg on the map by causing “conflict and chaos” [00:20:47]. This, to be fair, is a valid way to get attention from everywhere else as many countries have been recognized officially during or after a war. Dream however, has already acknowledged presence of Mexican L’manberg as after the exile, Mexican L’manburg was included in the line “As long as L’manburg and Mexican L’manburg don’t cause trouble, we’ll be fine.”[tubbo/quackity tommy exile stream].

This plan of quackity’s involve staging an assassination which kills the people striking Eret’s kingship. At first, Quackity reassures that the ones that are striking won’t die as well as George not being one of the ones that can be striking. Then when Sapnap is told the plan, Sapnap says that he wants to “kill them all”. The goal with this assassination is that they will “frame Eret for murder” [00:24:23]. That they plan on framing Eret as a tyrant and a violent warmonger. They thought that this plan would force Dream to give the throne back to George. As they talk, they also convince Karl that his death won’t be in vain. Those of Mexican L’manburg are willing to SACRIFICE the life of one of their own. And let us not forget that Karl is still Sapnap and Quackity’s FIANCE. For those who have watched the stream or have watched clips of it, it is clear that this plan didn’t exactly turn out well. Not only did Karl lose a canonic life, but part of Eret’s castle was blown up and stolen which counts as griefing (Quackity actively said that they will be griefing the castles at [00:37:21]). Mexican L’manburg retreated in which they first ran back to Mexican L’manburg. Once there however, they find that Dream has already started blowing up the land which forces them to retreat to the Holy Lands which are “neutral” territory and one cannot be killed in the Holy Lands.

Funnily enough, at [01:04:48], you can see a message from George asking Dream for food. Which in a way has a huge, “excuse me?” In what right does George have that makes him think that Dream should give him any food when he clearly is doing everything against Dream.

In the holy lands, Quackity tells the rest of them that everything went “exactly as he planned” and that they are “on the map.” [01:05:05].

So Quackity and Dream have a very long conversation that will be transcripted below. Some of the most repeated terms that they use is the word tyrant. Now what exactly does tyrant mean? From the merriam-webster dictionary a tyrant would be along the lines of an absolute ruler who uses his power to be cruel and oppressive (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tyrant). Is Dream an absolute ruler? By default of the way that the SMP works, yes, he is the leader of the Dream SMP just like how the creator of a discord server can be seen as the leader of the discord server. Is he oppressive? Well think about it, would you call the person who set up the rules of a discord server to be oppressive? Is he cruel? He has more often than not played the mediator and ensured that the rules are followed (we will be going back to older vods to further nitpick actions that Dream has done but this will take time). If these rules are not followed, then it is expected following the guidelines of the main three rules "No stealing, no griefing, and no murder." [https://dreamteam.fandom.com/wiki/The_Courthouse#The_First_Trial]. And of course, those who griefed would be griefed back as appropriate. (By this point, a majority of the people has stolen and killed which is a rule that is very difficult to regulate). Is Dream humanitarian? His goal is for the SMP to thrive this is a humanitarian action as a humanitarian as defined by the merriam-webster dictionary is someone who “promotes human welfare and social reform” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/humanitarian). The process of how he goes about it can lead to more scrutiny but his overall goal has always been for the SMP to do well.

Another issue to be brought up is, what exactly was Quackity’s goals throughout all of this? As we have seen, Quackity has shown to have a large issue with those who are in power ahead of him after Schlatt’s death. Dream being one of the biggest thorns in his side. This was clearly shown in his reactions to whenever Dream would speak as well as his admiration for Tommy.

If his goal was to show that yes, it is possible to fight against Dream? Then it could be said that yes, he has somewhat succeeded in that even if minisculely. This is most clear at the lack of apology that Quackity is willing to give Dream. However, if this was the goal, then it was one with more losses then gain. Karl lost a canon life, Dream gained actual allies in the monarchy of Dream SMP and Mexican L’manburg was blown up. In addition, if Quackity is the only one who has this knowledge, then there is a huge lack of communication between him and the rest of Mexican L’manburg. If his goal was to actually just put Mexican L’manburg on the map, then well, he could have just done it peacefully instead of committing violence because Dream is someone who is willing to negotiate.

Quackity Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/828406003

Tubbo Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/823374754

-extra thoughts on Manipulation of the younger members of the DSMP Lore

The overall manipulation of children by the adults. As we all well know, many people have been calling Dream a manipulative bastard. Which we will not deny that he does manipulate things to his benefit. He is not the only adult on the server (if you can even truly call him an adult if we go by the timeline we have developed for the SMP) who have manipulated the teens. No one has said anything of Wilbur who not only brought Tommy into a drug cartel development but also has brought Tommy up on a pedestal as a hero. No one has talked about Fundy who has been leading Ranboo around the SMP trying to cause havoc amongst the citizens. Heck even Quackity and Fundy together has spoken over Tubbo, undermining Tubbo’s authority as PRESIDENT OF L’MANBURG. So if Dream is being called a manipulative bastard, then so should the other adults because THEY AREN’T ANY BETTER .

The following is a loose dialogue script of the Dream vs Quackity debate. (Goddamn these men do not chill)

Quackity: We are doing a peaceful protest- Dream cuts in: I don't think raiding a castle and taking- literally ripping off (unintelligible due to Quackity and the others taking over)

Quackity: We were doing a peaceful protest and Eret for whatever reason decided to attack Karl and Sapnap so I don’t know what's going on here

Karl: I lost a life because of Eret!

Sapnap: He killed Karl, Dream

Dream: You guys- You guys are raiding the castle-

(Karl, George, Sapnap, and Quackity start speaking simultaneously)

Quackity: We raided the castle in retaliation, you did not see what he did to us. He killed Karl. He literally killed Karl

George: Karl and Sapnap were having a peaceful protest on the castle property and Eret killed him.

Quackity: Easy as that.

Dream: Listen- Listen Quackity, you- you taking-

Quackity cuts in: What we want- What we want- Listen I don't understand, this should be against Eret and me, I don’t know why you are getting involved. Listen we will give back the throne-

Dream: It’s- you just- you just took the throne

Quackity: We will give back the throne- We will give back the throne-

Dream: Then give it back otherwise Mexican L’Manburg is not existing, ever again.

Quackity: Ever again. Ever again.

(Karl hits Dream once and starts to call names such as Terrorist and Traitor, Quackity tells him to chill)

Quackity: Dream listen, we were doing a peaceful protest and whatever Eret did is what Eret did. You understand, okay. We are willing- We are willing to give it back, but we are not giving it back without a little bit of negotiation, because Karl lost a life-

Dream: No no listen Quackity you're not-

Quackity: Karl lost a life!

Dream: Like- who do you think you are to be in negotiation power? (hear Dream raises his voice a bit) We could kill you, all of us easily, without even a-

(Once again everyone talks over each other and are loud ending in unintelligible dialogue)

Dream goes on to say how they’ll have to leave the holy lands to be killed, saying that if they don’t they have become hostages, that when they are killed they’ll lose all their stuff as they will burn it.

Dream: If you guys wanna destroy, grief a kingdom, that is called a terrorist (here Karl starts to scream over Dream, who responds saying he doesn’t give a crap if Karl died since that is his own fault)

Quackity: We were having a peaceful protest, why aren’t you punishing Eret for this? Why aren’t you punishing Eret for this?

Dream: Eret for what? For killing Karl?!

Quackity: For killing Karl! For trying to kill a peaceful protest! What is that- is that what we're gonna base off of now? That the entire server can be run by one goddamned person, we can't even, we are not allowed to voice our opinions now what’s going on?! As far as I remember you’ve been taking all the shots in anything, no one has free speech anymore!

Dream: You’re becoming like a terrorist- I’m not even kidding, you are right now as of this moment your character is a terrorist

Quackity: I disagree. You are out of your mind, you are out of your mind, you are out of your mind.

Dream: Quackity, what are you a citizen of? What are you a citizen of? (at this point everyone is trying to talk over each other again)

Quackity: I am a citizen of Mexican L’manburg

Dream: okay and of L’manburg-

Quackity: which was destroyed by you

Dream: correct, so why are you, “peacefully protesting” a Dream SMP member, not even a member but the King of the Dream SMP.

Quackity: because we are peacefully protesting and injustice (Dream: You are a terrorist Quackity) No! It is injustice!

Karl: Can I step in? Can I step in?! Let me step in. let me step in (Quackity: That's what we're doing.) I got this. Dream, Georgenotfound when he got his kingship taken for absolutely no reason, so he joined Mexican L’manburg, and we as Mexican l’Manburg (Dream: Oh no he is part of mexican L’Manburg Karl-) WAIT! We as mexican L’Manburg stick together, okay? And when he says he wants to be king again, we want him King again. We were doing a peaceful protest, Eret killed me for no reason, we didn’t grief anything, he started it.

Dream: Karl I- I think you forget that I designated- (unintelligible due to low volume)

Karl: Oh so you're gonna- That’s a tyranny (Quackity: so you’re gonna kill us?) You are a tyrant

Quackity: Great! Great. You’re breaking the rules again as you always do.

Dream: you are under Quackity, who is griefing a castle with a king.

Karl: You're an absolute tyrant (Quackity: go check how much damage we did and something unintelligible) if you think it's acceptable to kill us here.

Dream: No I think it's acceptable to kill you anywhere because guess what? You're in the Dream SMP and if you’re part of mexican L’Manburg then be a part of mexican L’Manburg. I have no problem with Tubbo, who’s leading his country gracefully, you are a terrorist. (Quackity: I am not. I am not.) I will take care of you (Quackity: I am absolutely not.)

Karl: Explain- Explain what’s not graceful about a peaceful protest, what’s not graceful?

Dream: I wasn’t here. I have no idea, all I know is that what’s not graceful is even- literally- no matter what happened, unless we went and bombed your land, destroying the throne is not something you can ever do without being a literal terrorist by the definition.

Quackity: Really? (he draws the word out) Really. What you don’t understand- yeah, yeah Karl?

Here Karl ask Quackity to retreat to inside the Church to talk for a second in another VC, before doing so both Quackity and Karl and say this Karl: He doesn’t even know what happened

Quackity: Let us talk for a second, let us talk for a second.

In the other VC with Quackity, Karl, Sapnap, and George:

Quackity: No one admit to anything.

Sapnap: You know what Quackity, step aside (here he takes out his firework loaded crossbow and aims it at Dream) Step aside, I am bloodthirsty (Quackity: You’re gonna fuck this up for us. You’re gonna fuck this up for all of us. Don’t do it Sapnap, don’t fucking do it) I almost defeated him in a fight I can do it again.

Quackity: What we gotta do- What we gotta do is talk this through, okay? No one has any evidence at all that it was us. Nobody. The explosion went off. We just pin it on Eret, okay? At the end of the day remember we are doing- this is politics Sapnap, okay? What you’re doing here that is actual terrorism. If you pull that fucking thing that is actually terrorism, Sapnap. We’re playing the politics game, that’s what we’re doing right now, now everyone calm down. This is easy, this is easy, okay? We have- We have an upper hand here, the throne is in the ender chest okay? Dream is a politician too. Dream owns the Dream SMP, okay? This is a power game, this is what we’re trying to do, so relax, relax alright Sapnap? George, you got dethroned very unfairly so- so let’s just push that narrative okay?

Sapnap: Dream- He’s never on our side anymore, you know i just think, George I just think we’re better off without him. He’s not- he’s not with us anymore. I say- I say we disown him.

Quackity: You know what, you know what at the end of the day- at the end of the day they destroyed all our land, that means we did something so you know what let’s play this easy, let’s ask him what he wants, let’s ask him what he wants

Sapnap: He wants the throne Quackity, but if we him the throne we lose all our leverage

They once again join a VC with Dream:

Quackity: Alright Dream, listen, listen what do you want from us, we were doing peaceful protest that’s all we were doing what is it that you want from us

Dream: Quackity, all I hear- you're not doing peaceful protests when all I hear is ‘hey, the throne- the castle- the Dream SMP castle has been sieged, the throne has been taken.’

Quackity: It hasn't been sieged that is not entirely fine.

Dream: It has been sieged, it was griefed. You did as much as you could before you were caught. That you still were griefing it, that you stole the throne, look I- you’re trying to paint me as this tyrant when I'm just trying to maintain peace. If Eret killed you’re right, if Eret killed karl then you can come and present that to me. I removed George from kingship because he was being too political. If you think Eret is being too political, come and talk to me. Don’t go and raid my castle and my throne. (Sap and Karl: your throne? Quackity: Your castle?)

Dream: Yes! Yes

Karl: Dream’s an absolute tyrant.

Dream: No! No, I'm not. I'm trying- Karl: Or you’re not a tyrant? Are we forgetting the fact that Dream literally said that it's his holy land, that he could take the no-kill policy.

Dream: I 100% percent could cause I’m the one who designated it the first place, the only reason-

Karl: That doesn’t make you a tyrant?!

Dream: the only reason it’s a no-kill policy in the first place is because I wanted it to be that way and it’s enforced by me.

Karl: Sounds like a tyrant.

Dream: It’s not a tyrant (Sapnap, Dream, and Karl start talking)

Dream: if anything I’m a humanitarian.

Sapnap: Dream if you're a tyrant, you are removing your own rules for your agenda.

Dream: It's not for my agenda it’s for the- my agenda, always since the very beginning has always been for the SMP to thrive. That has been my agenda. So if you’re saying for my agenda, it- it makes me a tyrant no it doesn’t. It makes me want the server to thrive and I want to be peaceful. Listen Quackity, you raided the castle, regardless of what you want to say-

Quackity: Because of an injustice, because Karl got killed.

Dream: that doesn’t- just because someone gets killed that’s not- that’s like- you can’t raid a castle, take the throne, and commit acts of terrorism. That doesn’t make it okay.

Karl: Dream, Dream, we care about human lives more than a throne

(I believe Dream hits Karl back since he did get in his face)

Quackity: Okay you know what, it’s as easy as this, it’s as easy as this Dream, we are willing to give back the throne, we’re willing- we’re willing to say-

Dream: I don’t- I honestly- I literally don’t care about the throne because the throne means nothing. It’s the place of the throne, it’s the fact that you attacked the throne that means something. You can keep the throne, it's a bunch of gold blocks.

Quackity: Okay. Then what is it? What are you going after? What are you going after?

Dream: You stopping. Otherwise, I will kill you, I will burn all your items, I will pillage your goods and I will destroy your entire land.

Sapnap: Sounds like a tyrant to me.

Dream: Sounds like somebody who doesn’t like terrorists to me.

Karl: Terrorist.

Dream: You are a terrorist-

(here Dream’s voice is drowned out by Karl who raises his own, and Quackity.)

Quackity: Dream, Dream, listen to me, listen to me. We have a society up there called Mexican L’manburg, okay?

Dream: No you’re not a society, you made a war with the Dream SMP essentially, we are way way way more powerful

Quackity: Then why did you go and destroy it. Why did you go and destroy part of land we have? We just want to be seen as a society, Dream. Dream: Well you are not. You’re not seen as anything, you know in my mind Mexican l’manburg does not exist in any way whatsoever. And you know what I’ll talk to Tubbo about it, I'll make sure he sees it doesn't exist either.

Quackity: Then what do we do? What do we do- How is that fair?

Karl: Dream said the same thing about L’manburg back in the day

Dream: No I didn't, I didn't actually.

Quackity: Can no one set new countries? Can no one set up new countries? We just want a country up there. We want to be recognized as a country. That’s all we want. Dream: Well you don't get to be recognized as a country by being a terrorist Quackity.

Quackity: That’s the only time you have ever stepped forward and actually tried to recognize all of us as something. You removed George and he’s gone. Sapnap, Sapnap doesn't identify with any country right now and Karl, Karl is never around. So how about this, just recognized that-

Dream: Karl identifies himself in the side that’s the easiest to choose. He was on Schlatt’s side, do you forget? And then when Schlatt lost-

Karl: No, no I was on L’manburgs side

Dream: oh yeah, you tried to act like that Karl but you weren’t. Listen, you can try and paint me as the bad guy because I know you’re griefing and being a terrorist.

Quackity: No, nono We are not painting you as the bad guy, that’s not what we are trying to do here.

Dream: yes, you are. You are 100%. You’re calling me a tyrant by saying ‘hey you need to not be a terrorist and go and blow shit up.

Quacity: I have not in any moment called you a tyrant. You on the other hand called me a terrorist. You have told me that I’m not abiding by the rules.

Karl: By the definition, you are an absolute tyrant.

Dream: What’s the definition of tyrant, what’s the definition of tyrant?

Quackity: Dream, Dream, let us have our society let’s be done with it.

Dream: A cruel and oppressive ruler. You think a cruel ruler is somebody who says ‘hey don't blow up and try to attack the king of this nation. You think that’s what a cruel ruler does?

(...and once again everyone starts talking simultaneously, Karl and Dream try to out talk each other. Dream is heard clearly saying “By definition, I am not a tyrant, by definition you are a terrorist. If anything I am a reasonable ruler.”)

Quackity: can I speak to you, can I speak to you, can I speak to you privately? Can I just speak to you privately?

In the end they enter a private VC, Quackity explains to Dream that all they wanted was for Mexburg (Mexican L’manburg) to be recognized as a society. Dream responds that he could’ve done so, should they have come to talk to him first, instead of doing a terrorist act against a Dream SMP member, especially to the current king. Then they get Eret into the Vc, Quackity trying to push his lie of how Eret killed Karl without prompting. Dream asks for Eret’s side of the story where the truth is revealed. Dream asks for an apology from Quackity to Eret and him. Quackity coincides but only says he’ll apologize to Eret but not Dream who responds saying “Fair”

In the end Quackity apologizes to Eret, Mexburg is renamed to El Rapids to start as a “Clean slate” due the violence Mexburg was involved in, and is officially recognized as a society of the Dream SMP by Eret.

{Can you tell how Moon just gave up in the end, they talked for so long, this was painful, listen this was taxing, sorry}

#dream smp #dreamsmp #is it a discourse or analysis?#dreamwastaken #dream mcyt #/roleplay #/r #this took for fucking ever #we are tired #quackity #georgenotfound #eret #sapnap #karl

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honkster · 3 years

Text

Yay meta

1. Ranboo compared to the other anarchists of the server.

2. C!Tommy’s mental health.

3. C!Dream as an immortal insane god.

4. Ghostbur’s resurrection.

5. Who betrayed who Techno vs Tommy edition.

A bit of an after-thought - everyone on the SMP is traumatized. Absolutely everyone, no one is handling everything in a mentally healthy way. That’s why it’s meaningless to try to say what’s wrong and what’s right, that’s why it’s all morally grey - everyone is doing things because of their own warped perception of the world, the right and wrong blur when everyone thinks that they’re right and everyone else is wrong. Trying to justify someone’s actions with logic and moral righteousness is inherently time-wasting, because everyone is acting how their feelings let them at the time.

Saying who’s right or wrong, trying to figure out villains and good guys <<< Analyzing characters by their actions and trying to understand WHY rather than SHOUD THEY HAVE.

Probably a bit of a backwards way to say that I don’t care if Tommy or Techno are wrong in their argument - L’manburg was destroyed, Tommy thinks Techno is bad. That’s the end of that story, stay tuned for what Tommy’s gonna do now.

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There is just a very huge difference between Ranboo and the other two anarchists of the server.

Ranboo, while being strong in his beliefs, is a non-violent person. Yes he’s stacked, yes he could fight, but he chooses to stay on the sidelines and just watch the action unfold. He’d rather listen in to people and then make conclusions about their actions and decide on things by himself. He’s hard to sway, Quackity may have softened his viewpoint slightly, and I genuinely hope that Ranboo follows through with that and decides that teams and groups is something that kind of needs to happen before the idea that all conflicts are a personal thing between two people can actually make sense. People are stronger together, especially those that don’t have good gear or pvp skills. The weaker people, the ones lower in the food chain, don’t have that many options for getting their point across. The server is already dominated by the strongest, most skilled, most geared people, and those are the people that matter, when it comes down to it.

Quackity is very much a unique case. He has managed to do with four people what L’manburg and all of its inhabitants didn’t manage for the longest time. He is very much a main player.

The other two anarchists are both very violent. Dream was always like that, he hasn’t shown a crumb of being able of change or considering a different opinion (extreme delusions or just extreme self-confidence? Either one makes him a prick), but Techno actually had an arc where he made the entirely wrong conclusions.

I don’t think I’ve talked about the Butcher Army much.

So Techno blew up Manberg, threatened to take down any government that sprouted up and then dipped. He made his little cottage, he went on a retirement arc, so on and so forth.

But then the Butcher Army formed.

And their one target was the pig.

And they went out of their way to track him down, to prepare to kill him, they arrived there and threatened him, and they said that it’s time for Techno to pay for his crimes, and they reacted how anyone else would when being attacked – they attacked too. They took his horse to get him to stop, they brought him up for execution, they didn’t manage to kill him, but they switched targets once they realized that they can’t actually kill him while literal god is on his side, helping him.

The conclusion there wasn’t that government is evil and abuses its power. It’s that violence is paid forward with violence.

It doesn’t really matter that Techno misunderstood. Either way he would’ve returned to good old Blood for the Blood God Technoblade, but I fear that this event reinforced his very wrong belief that government is the source of ALL problems on the server.

If he would say that government is the cause of MAJOR conflicts that wouldn’t happen if government didn’t exist, yeah! Yeah, I agree with that actually. But he’s saying that EVERY conflict is because of government.

The disc war was not because of government.

The Pet War was not because of government.

Most of the rivalries of the server are not because of government.

Tommy was not… Actually (yeah Tommy was exiled because of government and the fact that the sentimentality for L’manburg seemed very important at that point. Things shouldn’t be more important than people, people you can’t just replace. But…) Dream specifically when he went after Tommy targeted L’manburg. If the country didn’t exist, Dream probably would have gone about it another way, probably one more difficult, but he wouldn’t have involved all these people whose only connection to one another is a flimsy city built on stilts. I still hate how Techno refuses to acknowledge that Dream WAS the cause of Tommy’s exile, not government.

But what if Techno was big brain?

Yeah, things shouldn’t be more important than people. Is that what he’s suggesting? That government favors power over giving up land/buildings/countries for their people, knowing that if they lost their country they would no longer have power?

That would be very interesting!… If his actions actually indicated this.

Techno didn’t chunk error L’manburg because he thought those buildings gave power to someone over another. He did it out of revenge, claiming that it still lined up with his anarchist beliefs and that he was doing good. Techno released withers, the most destructive and hard-to-kill mob available to the server, he stalled while Dream essentially set up nukes above the city. They didn’t do this out of kindness and want for the people to have freedom, they KILLED the people that they were so “graciously” “saving”.

Technoblade and Dream are both violent anarchists who misunderstood what the word means. They don’t seek order in the chaos, they don’t seek a peaceful anarchy, they just want blood.

Which makes me very worried for Ranboo. I don’t think that he will get influenced by the two, if the two ever come back together to stir up shit again. I don’t think Ranboo is going to believe Technoblade when he says that government is the cause of ALL problems, because Ranboo doesn’t just hate the factions of the server. He has said that Dream is the reason for a lot of conflict on the server, he understands what Dream is up to. If he will agree with Techno at the beginning, he certainly will find issue in Techno considering Dream a worthy ally.

I just hope that Techno LISTENS for at least once in his life.

(But I won’t be too sad if it’s Phil Ranboo manages to convince. Might actually be easier to get through to anarchist pig Blade that way…)

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I worry for c!Tommy’s mental health.

I know this probably is never going to get addressed rather than that one tiny little plot point where he got exiled for no reason but being as resilient as Tommy is, so constantly himself without apology, so constantly in everyone’s faces and just out there so much, so purposefully annoying just because it’s entertaining for him… I don’t think he’s alright.

The many times he has been beaten down, how many times people have battled him and won, how many times he’s told to shut up and just take it – it makes you wonder how come he hasn’t just given up by now and toned it down so people stop hating him.

Yeah, he’s resilient. Yeah, he’s annoying that way. But I seriously doubt that he can take all that he takes and still be perfectly okay.

One insult means nothing. One time can be just a made up thing to make you pissed off.

Same thing twice? Someone’s just mocking you.

Three times? Wow okay these guys must all be friends and they gossip about me!

Four times?… Hey how big is your friend group exactly?

Five times?…

Six times?…

Seven?…

How about 20.

No matter how ridiculous something that someone noticed about you may be, if repeated enough times, you almost sub-consciously start to believe it. Lots of people notice this – hey I can also notice it!

C!Tommy being annoying on purpose, saying that it’s just entertaining for him… Doesn’t that sound like a really depressing thing to enjoy? Something that garners you so much attention you literally get exiled?

And the fact that, even during Dream enforcing the exile, even when he escaped, when he appeared in Techno’s house and huddled under it like a raccoon, he was still so painfully annoying you just want to punt him?… Does that really sound like just a funny pastime for him and not a defense mechanism against all of the shit people put him through, something that he does out of habit because even though it gets him in trouble a lot of the time, it’s also the only way he can actually react to events and people threatening him, cause what is he gonna do, actually threaten them and get them to leave that way?

I dunno this may be dumb… I may be projecting slightly… Wondering where all of his resilience comes from when actual good things that happened because of him versus the bad things that people constantly blame him for… Sir where do you get that strength and how can I sell my soul for it?

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Oh I’ve written characters that think of awful, violent things as fun…

I actually really like those characters.

I don’t know why I always make them the most traumatized, split-personality, abused and manipulated victims-turned-absolute-monsters.

No wait I do know why.

BECAUSE IF YOU THINK THAT CAUSING PAIN TO OTHERS IS A FUN TIME AND YOU WANT TO DO IT AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN JUST TO SEE THEIR EXPRESSION OF PAIN, THERE IS SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH YOU.

Dream’s no different. We haven’t seen much of him, other than his motivation and the fact that he goes the wrong way about thinking of means to get to the end. He hasn’t revealed a traumatic past or any real reason why he targets only one person if torturing everyone on the server would probably be way more “fun”.

But he is called god.

And THAT lines up with one of my favorite things to talk about!

Immortals :D

You see the whole concept of a god or an immortal being is at its core something we shouldn’t comprehend. Death and the fact that it will happen can be counted as a reason for a lot of our motivations, so how does it affect one’s thinking if one of our core reasons for life is erased?

I can dump a whole philosophical essay here but I feel like it is highly unnecessary. Dream, as an immortal god on the server, has access to stuff that many people have to grind hours of their life for. This twists his perception of the value of certain items, and also certain actions. The fact that he cannot die also affects that perception, and in his long life he has probably had the same thoughts a lot of immortals have – few things are meaningful in life, few are worth sacrificing things for and few are just as immortal as they are.

This, of course, can cause a little thing called an existential crisis, and it can break an immortal, especially if they were once human and most definitely mortal. We don’t know for sure what Dream is, but assuming either scenario makes his pursuit of fun and drama valid.

If he was once a human and by some dark magic gained immortality, his want to see how humans react to things being destroyed, or how humans fold under torture, may be a twisted way of analyzing himself, trying to understand how he could be a part of them, trying to reconnect with his old self, attempts to return to the mortal plane, there are many options but all firmly lead into “this is just a fun experiment for him”. How people throw mentos in a bowl and pour coke over it just to see an explosion. That’s Dream with the SMP.

If he was always a god, then it gets even more interesting (and thematically relevant!). He never understood these creatures that run around and desperately try to prevent death while simultaneously causing so much of it. If Dream doesn’t understand mortals and death as a concept, then his view of them, based on what he’s seen of the SMP, is that humans SEEK violence, and drama, and pain, and harm. They purposefully create meaningless things to then give them meaning and then feel pain over them. He is utterly confused by humans, but he also understands them quite well.

Taunted, insulted? Retaliate with force.

A country that demands peace? Blow it to smithereens.

A sentimental thing that you could literally replace within a fraction of a life, a little thing of pride that you were able to acquire?

It can control people.

And he seems to understand THAT concept of humanity perfectly well. The want for power, the seeking of control, the simple want to somehow be above your equals, somehow stand out and be admired.

Dream grasps that concept so well he might as well be human.

I don’t know if this humanity side of Dream will be his hubris, if the weakness he acquired from humans – sentimentality over objects that can very easily be replaced and mean nothing in the grand scheme of things – may actually come back after he so rudely pushed it away.

We don’t know enough about this guy. We can make some conclusions, sure, but uh… The simple fact that he causes chaos for fun means that whatever we may think the reason for his motivations is, we will probably fail to understand him as long as we think logically.

C!Dream is an absolute prick. I want to punt him.

But I won’t until he explains why he chose to be a bad copy of the Joker with immortality sprinkled on the fucked up cake.

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Wilbur is coming back into the plot!

Not that Ghostbur isn’t important to the plot. His character is just stagnant because in order to give him proper char development you need to address some very serious mental issues and that’s not exactly something the SMP does often. (Most serious I’ve seen it is Tommy’s exile arc and maybe Fundy’s adoption stream)

So they’re bringing back Alivebur. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything. Literally everything.

I talked about it once, how if Ghostbur’s character wants to reach peace – finish his arc – firstly he has to confront his trauma. At the same time I said that if he was brought back to life, it could hinder his already done little progress of adapting to ghost life and probably reset him. Very certain conditions would have to be met in order for Ghostbur to gain something out of being brought back to life, and a lot of those conditions lean on Alivebur coming back as a certain “version” of himself, which cannot be predicted simply because there isn’t a resident ghost expert on the server. No one knows how these idiots work.

The worrying thing is that they are most definitely bringing back Alivebur. There wouldn’t be need for this plot otherwise. So they will definitely succeed, Alivebur will definitely be brought back, and he will be important to the plot.

What can we theorize about knowing those things?

Mmmm… Isn’t it weird that Ghostbur said he wants to quit being Ghostbur after L’manburg was destroyed? Is it a want to stop ignoring bad things that are happening, since he knows he is going to forget this and move on and he doesn’t want to keep escaping anymore? That’s a good motivation.

Or is it because Ghostbur is like the old spirit of L’manburg, both connected to it physically and mentally? Would Alivebur want L’manburg back, considering that was his only goal in his life, to destroy it, or is he finally going to feel fulfilled that it is over and his obsession with it can die?

I dunno! I have no idea what part they want Wilbur to play in the upcoming plot. It’s very unclear if Wilbur is going to be a side character that moves the plot in little ways or if he’s going to become the main character again or if, and this is probably my most likely theory, the resurrection fails at first and it leads the whole gang, with Ghostbur up front, down weird paths that somehow end with Dream.

(Cause we all know that guy is not going to just write himself out of the plot if he can instead continue being the villain)

It all feels like it’s going to connect, finally. All of the main people from the past getting back into the spotlight in a very convoluted plot to get one of them back into the land of the living.

Don’t really know though. Wondering how resurrection works, that’s all. Knowing that info, may be possible to make a better theory.

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There is no one right in the “Tommy betrayed Techno” vs “Tommy realized Techno is not a good influence on him” argument. Neither one is right, but neither one is completely wrong. Neither character is in the right, or in the wrong, and it doesn’t really matter who’s right or wrong in this scenario, fact is it happened and the people reacted how they did.

There is only one thing to say about Techno and Tommy, and probably the only thing I’m kinda feeling very strongly about.

Sometimes the refusal to be swayed to another side or believing in yourself gets you called selfish.

That’s both about Techno and Tommy.

And a lot of other people on the server.

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Here’s a cookie for reading all of that. I can also bake your favorite muffin if you want :3

#honkmeta #dream smp analysis #these block men make do big thinks #not always good thinks #but big #btw i get most of these ideas when im scrolling through tumblr #just people giving their opinions on things makes me realize hey i can talk about this #you go you funky little theorizers #keep giving me ideas please my brain fries every time i go on twitch

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daggryet · 3 years

Text

my thoughts on the characters right now, seen from their perspectives (5/01)

tommy:

his main priority is his discs, from the beginning till now he’s wanted the discs back

we have to remember what tommy has been through with dream during his exile - he had given the discs up for l’manberg to have its independence in the first place, making it very clear when they took l’manberg back that he wanted the discs back now - he started his quest to get the discs back and was, in his mind, betrayed by his best friend for doing what he always said he wanted to do - he was secluded, isolated, which he very clearly did not handle well. he thrives off company, and now he was alone, alone and betrayed - dream manipulated and gaslit him into believing he had no one but dream, and that dream’s lovebombing was him being a good friend - he was almost driven to suicide due to touch starvation and emotional neglect - he believed the punishments dream gave him were warranted, were normal - even after he escaped from dream, he had difficulty figuring out what the truth was, if dream was a friend or not, if techno was an enemy or not

tommy has had his world split apart and put together again, and when it was put together again, nothing was the same except for one thing:

the discs

the discs he gave up for l’manberg, the dream he and wilbur had of a country emancipated from the tyranny of their rulers, is the only goal that has stayed the same through everything

going through the trauma tommy has, has definitely made it harder for him to keep himself tethered and feel empathy to see where the lines between what is okay and what is not okay is

the discs are his goal, tubbo (and l’manberg as an idea) is his tether, his anchor, to who he was - and maybe even his empathy. when he doesn’t remember tubbo and the l’manberg he helped build, he doesn’t think of how much his actions hurt the people around him

prediction:

he said it himself: he’s not gonna actually join techno in destroying l’manberg - even though we as viewers, from an outside perspective, can see that he’s already been well on his way to do that - he has one goal right now: retrieving the discs, in that quest the goal justifies the means

he’ll use techno, once more, as a way to get his discs - the difference is, this time he’s 100% aware that he’s using techno. they don’t have shared goals

techno isn’t stopping just because tommy breaks loose from him, and technoblade was very clear in what he wanted: he wanted l’manberg gone forever - and as tubbo reiterated, l’manberg isn’t a physical place, it’s the people.

if/when technoblade does harm to tubbo, tommy will turn against technoblade completely

dream isn’t done with tommy: he’ll do what he can to get him back under his control - a disillusioned tommy who is betrayed by both techno and tubbo (more in tubbo’s section) is an easy target to manipulate into believing he truly has no one but dream

tubbo:

tubbo was a spy during the schlatt administration and got executed publicly for it, by technoblade

even though he ‘forgave’ technoblade for it - despite tommy not being willing to let it go, he’s obviously not forgotten

he was put in as president by wilbur and promised that he was going to have his term defined by peace and open borders, he wanted unity even if people were still split into dream smp and l’manberg

tubbo’s term was immediately kicked off with l’manberg being blown up by wilbur, and it being revealed dream had orchestrated it all, no matter the outcome of the actual war - essentially, that all their sacrifices had been nothing as they’d been pawns in dream’s chess gam

technoblade, the man who executed tubbo even though he’d been reassured technoblade wouldn’t hurt him, also ‘betrayed’ l’manberg and spawned withers into the already blown up l’manberg

he rebuilt an entire country, making l’manberg flourish for the first time since it’d originally been trying to get emancipated

his vice president commits essentially foreign terrorism and because of his status, he also drags l’manberg as a country into the fight - had tommy been a regular citizen, it’d have been the work of a rogue man, and the matter could have been dealt with as such - a vice president is the stand-in for the president, what he says should be an echo of what the president says and does, what he stands for

without warning, his country had been encased in obsidian walls, built as a punishment by the very god-like player who’d planned out l’manbergs explosion

tubbo tries, through what is l’manberg’s original idea: fighting through words, and actually makes a deal with dream where he gets to keep both a free-ish l’manberg and tommy at home

tommy, without tubbo’s knowledge - again, rebels against dream, crushing all hopes of a peaceful treat - he is subsequently given the dilemma: either exile your best friend or i will build the walls as high as they can go, and if any of your citizens think of even going close to the walls - they will be slaughtered

he chooses, with the help of the viewers, to exile tommy - his cabinet protests this, says he’s acting like schlatt by not communicating his decision to them - ignoring that they, with tommy, changed their attitudes and the entire plan the night before, planned to team up with the very anarchist who had murdered tubbo and attempted to remove the government forever - while also not even knowing whether or not techno would even want to help them, and he couldn’t sacrifice his country on the whim that techno maybe would want to help protect the government against someone he has a neutral relationship to

was manipulated by dream to think tommy hated him and that he shouldn’t visit him, that dream - the one who had made wilbur blow l’manberg up - was his friend

his own cabinet is scheming behind his back, his closest ally - ranboo - has betrayed him in secret by helping technoblade and philza

thought for a long time that the decision he had made to exile his friend had driven him to suicide

the friend he thought was dead, has now teamed up with technoblade (killed tubbo, betrayed l’manberg) and committed not one but several acts of terrorism and torture

through no means of his own, tubbo’s presidency has been defined by violence

predictions:

ranboo lost them their only leverage over technoblade they had left, either unwittingly or on purpose - but tubbo has one very big thing to leverage: tommy’s disc

he could 1) bargain with dream, give him the disc in exchange for help against technoblade and tommy, 2) bargain personally with tommy, threaten to burn the disc if he doesn’t give himself up

the festival, or the aftermath of it, could also be a set up for a quackity coup

technoblade:

helped pogtopia retake l’manberg, did lie by omission by not making it completely clear that he did not support them reinstalling themselves as part of the new government

for as much as he was clear in that he was an anarchist, pogtopia was also clear in that they wanted to overthrow schlatt and take back (l’)manberg - it was 1+1=2 to put together they wanted to return to the position they’d held before the election

after his failed attempt at removing the government, he went into self-imposed retirement under the guise he has steppped down from his violent ways - reveals to tommy that he has secretly prepared his revenge on l’manberg, showing him tens of wither skulls, making it very clear he’s not done wanting to destroy all governments

wants revenge over l’manberg for what they did to philza (either his dad or his long time friend through the wars, depending) and to him (attempted to execute him, would have succeeded if he hadn’t had a totem of the undying)

took tommy in and helped him through a lot of his trauma, recognised his anxiety and tried his best to accomodate - rephrased his “give me your armour, tommy” - reminds tommy what dream did to him - makes him focus when he panics so techno can find him and help him through his panic attack - continues to make clear that when he asks for something back, it’s only because he wants his things - not because he doesn’t want tommy to have it at all

used tommy in the beginning only as a useful tool, not as a valuable ally: cared for him, wanted him to be better (if, very cynically, it was only because a traumatised child soldier isn’t much help), but changed his outlook

as opposed to last time: when he decided tommy wasn’t just a tool, but an ally, he made it clear to tommy what he wanted, what his goal was. no sugar coating, no metaphors that could be misinterpreted

mirrored wilbur’s demand: join me or don’t, no matter what you choose, you’ll lose somehow, because i’m blowing l’manberg up with or without you at my side - either unwittingly or on purpose, to compliment tommy’s own wilbur-saying “l’manberg is my unfinished symphony”

predictions:

he’s going to attack tomorrow at the festival, possibly kill quackity (i don’t think so), tubbo (maybe, not kill, but definitely injure), or fundy (more likely)

he still owes dream a favour, and dream has been building the prison secretly with room for a lot of prisoners but mainly one, powerful player - the favour could be that he was asked to step into the main cell, where he’ll never get out - the favour is a genie’s wish: it might not turn out as dream wants it, even if what happens technically fulfills his wish

dream:

has one goal: wants the entire server to unite under dream smp as one biog happy family - ie. he wants them all as puppets that follow his directions and strings without resisting, a happy family just as he wishes they act

has the power of a god (*cough* creative) and is possibly also an immortal being - possibly a being along the lines of pennywise, the nogitsune (teen wolf), immortal beings who feed on something other people produce. be it fear, chaos - lack of free will

he knows he is the puppetmaster, ie. his speeches to king eret - “just remember what it is that gives you power, it’s no pretty little crown. i’m the reason you have power.” - as long as everyone dances to his tune, they can pretend to possess whatever titles. he’s the one with the power.

had never met resistance before tommy joined the server and started war and war again against him, and he even helped in ruining dream’s illusion of the united family by building l’manberg and asking for independence

l’manberg was a dream of wilbur and tommy’s, but the discs were still tommy’s most prized possession - which is why he allowed l’manberg “unofficial” independence from dream smp in exchange for both the discs

after the great l’manberg war and blowing everything up, something he’d planned, l’manberg had a president that wanted peace above anything else, even official independence - with no borders, no official recognition of the independence, dream could still pretend his happy family dream had come true

tommy then destroys the new king, george’s, house, making it clear that even though everyone else has fallen back into the ranks, tommy still rebels, ruins his picture perfect smp

getting tommy under control is top priority: - this includes getting control over his most prized possessions, the discs. that’s top priority. if you have the discs, you have tommy - and he wants tommy. he wants tommy to be the perfect puppet, as all the other people on the smp are

in exile, he does what he can to isolate tommy geographically, mentally, and gaslights him into believing he has no one but dream

gets tommy used to a routine where the prize, if he is good, is lovebombing, so he gets used to thinking that what dream wants him to do is good - and doing anything else, literally anything else but the routine, is bad

you can win the war even after losing a few battles, if you can get complete and utter control over your enemy: - either by having enough leverage over him to ensure he’d never go against dream - or by having him so dependent on dream as if he was a pet

he wants tommy back under his power

is in possession of knowledge that will make the entire smp hate him - possibly from the book schlatt left him? - will stage a fight with punz to ensure that he still has a spy within l’manberg to keep an eye on them

has commissioned awesamdude to build him an inescapable prison for someone whose power or influence or whatever is too important or big for dream to be able to kill this person, even with his godlike powers - this could be technoblade

technoblade owes dream a favour, a one wish for everything your heart desires wish

predictions:

dream will be going into hiding as everyone on the server will be against him, either because of him revealing a secret or he does something to someone (maybe puts them in prison)

he wants power over tommy again, this means he has to get both discs (he might have one? or he was bluffing), one from skeppy, the other from tubbo - and it also means he has to separate him from technoblade (even though that might solve itself)

captainpuffy built him a house very, very far away where no one knows where he is - when he gets his hands on tommy, he might somehow bring Tommy with him all the way out there, while he hides from the rest of the SMP’s anger

#long post #like long long #dream smp #manipulation tw #suicide mention tw #if this flops at least i'm now so tired i'll fall asleep immediatelu

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