#hog hunt analysis

[rotten-vivs]

hi, dsmp fan who’s been in the trenches since October 2020 here! it was fun, lore was always really really enjoyable and the fandom generally was too. but id say after November 16th the fandom started to pivot away from memes and art and such and focus more on like…character discourse

a LOT of it was “is this character a good person or not”, which is. kind of dumb because most of the characters are morally gray. but it was still fun! those who liked doing analysis would make long posts arguing their case, often picking out details and things like that. and it definitely depended on who you followed/where you looked, because some parts of the fandom were ABSOLUTELY furious and deranged about some things.

so tldr; characters started to get more depth and the story got darker, so analysis posts and/or arguments would start appearing. but it was mostly still fun (at least for me) :D

honestly im a big sucker for character analysis, especially for media like minecraft roleplay were so much is up to interpretation. this blog was made specifically to talk about life series smp characters and their motivations

from a (barely) outside perspective, i can see multiple reasons why dsmp discourse was always so heated when it really didn't seem that big of a deal. morality discussions tend to get more controversial and subjective (since they can reflect your beliefs outside of fiction), a younger fandom may not have many with fully developed critical thinking skills (it is a learned skill gathered through practice), social media (especially twitter and tiktok) content is fueled by engagement-based algorithms and people are more likely to react and respond with negative responses than positive (especially being a big fandom, if 5% of fans have bad takes that is still thousands of people, and the 95% are more likely to interact with those bad takes, boosting that 5% to trending), parasocial relationships that were created in this fandom affecting how people viewed and defended the fictional characters (even when specifying c!, talking negatively about them felt like a personal attack to the cc), and many other things i dont really know much about. and all of these factors affected the way the ccs made their stories, which affected the way fans reacted to them, and the cycle continues

i do want to clarify that i have a lot of respect and admiration for the fans, the ccs, and the stories they told in the dsmp. i have said before that i never fully got into the story, but i did watch most of the dsmp content creators outside of it and interacted with the fandom. even with their faults (which no piece of media or fandom is flawless), i could tell that there was so much love for the story being told. i mean, the sadist hog hunt animation literally changed my brain chemistry, that is just one of the thousands of people that took part of the community and made a positive impact in the internet (by making art, making character analysis, or simply making long-lasting meaningful friendships with someone they wouldn't have met otherwise)

[kozzax]

im still not over the expressions in the new sad-ist animation.

i know everyone keeps talking about like... the symbolism and the totem scene and the fact that the entire thing is So good and genuinely amazing to watch. but i dont think i’ve seen anyone really talk about the one thing that just. from my first watchthrough has stuck out to me as so incredibly powerful.

this post is a lot messier than my usual posts i’m just infodumping here apologies in advance! its also long so most of it is under the cut tl;dr sad-ist manages to make characters emote in distinct ways and thats such a hard skill to work with and i’m amazed by it

so like... for some background: i’ve prided myself for a very long time on being able to get the expressions in faces just right. it’s one of my favorite things about drawing and its one of the things that i never look for but always subtly notice in others’ art. there are so many subtleties that can be shown on a drawn face that nobody even really notices because they feel so natural.

the way sad-ist does expressions has Always stood out to me. every time i see one of her videos i get really fixated on one or two particular frames and talk about them to everyone i talk to because of the expressions. and i think with hog hunt i’ve figured it out.

sad-ist has managed to capture something i don’t think a lot of artists even really... think about. and that’s the difference in how different characters emote.

because you can get really good at expressing subtle facial expressions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re gonna be able to express a character’s personality through those expressions.

i’m gonna use two of my favorite expressions from hog hunt as an example here: one from tubbo and one from techno.

(roughly 1:37)

this face conveys SO MUCH EMOTION. so many different emotions all at once. he’s angry and that’s the emotion at the front. you can see that one the clearest. but there’s also worry here, and exhaustion, and resignation to the fight that’s to come. you can see in this scene and expression that techno had Wanted to retire. Who was right and wrong in this instance is Irrelevant. the point stands that techno here is displaying four or five emotions all in incredibly subtle ways-- something that helps convey c!techno’s habit of keeping his cards close to his chest and only letting a Few people in. 

Compare to tubbo.

(roughly 1:03)

There are just as many complex emotions in this expression, but they’re masked in a completely different way. tubbo, in hog hunt, masks his expressions with an air of indifference. there’s resignation and anger and hurt and betrayal in this look, but they’re all covered up by this air of nothingness. where techno masks his expressions with anger and aggression, tubbo masks his with calm collectedness. similarly; they have different emotions more likely to break through: tubbo wears more distinct and expressive joy [as seen in the scene where he finds the compass and in dawn of the sixteenth around 1:33 when he steals all the emeralds]. he gets these big smiles and these distinct joyous looks that clearly break out of his mask of indifference. 

techno, meanwhile, breaks expression for worry. you can see this in the “phil what did they do to you” scene and in both carl scenes-- the expression that takes over his face on both of those occasions is genuine worry that the people he cares about are hurt. they’re the few times when his face isn’t coated with his mask of arrogance and anger and aggression.

they emote in legitimately unique ways and thats so cool to me.

this is a really long post and i doubt it makes any sense i’m so sorry i just. hhh.

[egopocalypse]

Y'all, this is the first major animation where SAD-ist doesn't start with Wilbur

Instead, she starts with Dream

[tales-from-the-amigops]

One thing I really love about SAD-ist’s animations is how Dream becomes less and less human with each video

In the Dream SMP War animatic, Dream always has the mask connected to his face, but there’s multiple scenes where you can still see his facial features, especially his mouth. In fact, in the first 2 pics, he’s got a mischievous grin; it’s when SAD-ist finally reveals Dream’s eyes that you see the malevolence of his character. His whole face is shown, but it’s contorted and angry, foreshadowing the darkness that is to come.

The Fall animatic is similar in terms of Dream’s face reveals; there’s a couple of scenes where Dream’s face can still be seen. It’s only when he threatens other characters that SAD-ist illustrates him with the mask fully covering his face. Dream is also shown wearing the mask when he interacts with the other characters- when he’s alone and observing the outcome of the L’Manberg election, he doesn’t feel the need to hide his face. In all of the scenes of Dream, though, he’s ominous: he’s not mischievous or goofy anymore as he was in the Dream SMP War video: now he’s methodical and cunning.

The Dawn of 16th animation is actually the last video in which SAD-ist ever shows Dream’s face or any part of his head. Although Dream is obviously threatening Eret in the first scene of the video, a little tuft of his hair is still visible at the top of his mask. Additionally, in the side view of the same scene, Dream still has his mouth and freckles. It’s these little details that keep his human qualities, otherwise he’d just be a mask. Unlike a similar shot from The Dream SMP War animatic though, Dream isn’t smiling- he’s still in deep thought about how to cause chaos. The last scene of Dream is the final shift in Dream’s maliciousness. The cracked mask and the maniacal laugh emphasize that he’s too far gone; Dream is no longer the plucky leader of the Greater Dream SMP, now he’s hungry for chaos and power. This is the expression of a man who has triumphed in his evil plans.

And finally, in Hog Hunt, Dream has no real face. It’s gone. Dream has no dialogue and hardly any indication that he’s a real person. All that he is is a mask and cloak. No hair, no mouth, no freckles, and no eyes. No human qualities, Just a simple, ever-staring mask. Dream is past the point of no return. In Hog Hunt, Dream is just an agent of chaos.

It’s a completely different character design, and I think that SAD-ist is brilliant for doing this. It’s such a small, niche thing, but it’s one of the many artistic and stylistic details she uses that makes her animations stand out from all the rest.

[mt-words]

All names are in reference to the rp characters. I’m not trying to address morality here, just reasoning. Feel free to add on if you think I misinterpret or just straight up miss anything!

I am once again thinking about Techno’s execution and its relation to Doomsday, and slightly reevaluating a post I made before.

The TLDR of that post is that Techno’s actions on Doomsday were centered on his ideal of absolute reciprocity (over anarchism and anger from perceived betrayal). Quackity promised Technoblade that he was going to kill him at all costs regardless of his actions in order to consolidate power (Showing the server that New L’manburg had the power to kill anyone who messed with them). Technoblade proceeded to “kill” New L’manburg to remind the server why trying to use him as an example and threatening his friends was a bad idea (for additional context he gave the reciprocity speech on his way home after escaping execution). There are some parallels there, right?

So here’s my recent thought. The members of the Butcher Army were coming after Techno, not his ideals. “This is not a simple anarchy thing.” So by Techno’s standards of reciprocity the retaliation would be to go after the individuals. I think his motivation was reciprocity, but Technoblade’s anarchistic principals were a huge influence on how he acted.

There was a post from either @/considermygenderminecrafted or @/blockgamepirate that explains this part better and I’ll add here if I ever find it, but Techno’s concept of friend vs enemy is very based in anarchism. Technoblade rarely targets individuals. He’ll argue with individuals but he doesn’t really take action against one person unless it’s in self defense or under coercion. Instead, he views his “enemy” as the principles and institutions behind people’s actions. In the case of the Butcher Army this principle is executing opposition to gain respect and power for New L’manburg so they can’t be pushed around as easily (as with Tommy's exile).

His admission to Tommy supports this, he thinks Tubbo is probably a good person but because of his governmental office he makes decisions like exiling Tommy that he wouldn’t otherwise. So Techno goes after L’manburg. Not after Tubbo, who lead the country. Not after Quackity, who lead the Butcher Army. Not after Fundy and Ranboo, who helped follow through with his execution. L’manburg, their primary motivation to kill him.

Technoblade is certainly willing to cause harm to get rid of his chosen target, but doesn’t canonically kill anyone during Doomsday. When the only thing that can not be replaced is life this is a less destructive path of reciprocity.

Again, I'm not making moral judgements here. This isn't meant to say the people of New L'manburg didn’t lose anything important, that the events of Doomsday weren’t traumatizing, or that Techno's actions were correct, only to explore based on his principles why he acted as he did.

I do think this emphasis on attacking institutions and not individuals is one step closer to open communication and breaking the cycle of violence, and it gives Techno some interesting room for progression as he moves into the syndicate plot line.

[de-ambrosius]

Nothing and i mean nothing will ever make me as excited to write an analysis on something as the moment i was talking about some of my main thoughts about an animatic with a friend and mentioned i wanted to go into more detail to which my friend replied "please go into more detail it makes it even more better" and asked me to share my analysis when I was done

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

November 14, 2023

GLOBETROTTING A.G. SEAN REYES GOES ON WILD HOG HUNT

You just can't keep a good man down — especially if that man is Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes. In 2022 alone he spent $491,206 on travel, according to Tribune ace Tony Semerad. Just imagine the frequent flyer miles — a bonanza on top of a real chill gig. Good work if you can get it. The cash came from Reyes campaign account even though he was not up for reelection in 2022. His contributors must be digging it. And hey, we need an attorney general who gets around, going on luxury wild hog hunts in Texas, World Cup soccer in Qatar, beaching it in Acapulco and anywhere he can build contacts and connections with important people — especially on hog hunts. Reyes has been on a roll lately. His links to Tim Ballard, formerly of Operation Underground Railroad, an anti-child-trafficking organization, got him some bad ink when five women filed suit against Ballard alleging sexual misconduct. Ballard denies the allegations. They also say that Reyes intimidated people who complained about Ballard's actions. Reyes denies that. Some frowny faces on Capitol Hill wonder how Reyes finds time for his real job. It's the internet, stupid. The A.G. can easily work on his laptop at the soccer matches or on the beach. Don't they know big shots can walk and chew gum at the same time.

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING AND A DAY OF MOURNING

Well Wilson your favorite holiday is coming right up. No stupid gifts, no damn wrapping paper, just good food and plenty of it. We all learned the story in elementary school. The Pilgrims came to the new world seeking religious freedom. As winter came on in 1621 they got hungry and depressed. But then some nice red people showed up with feathers in their hair carrying big turkeys; they brought mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, dressing and gravy and pumpkin pies and everyone had a great time. Later on, they watched a little football. Plus, there were plenty of leftovers for turkey sandwiches. Well, there is no Santa Claus and Native Americans think our story of the first Thanksgiving is a lot of bull. T-Day for many American Indians is a day of mourning. It's a reminder of the theft of indigenous lands, the killing of millions of indigenous people and a relentless assault on their native culture. Here's something you didn't know, Wilson — the day after Thanksgiving is Native American Heritage Day. It celebrates “Native American spirituality and emphasizes gratitude for creation, care for the environment, and recognition of the human need for communion with nature,” according to the publication “Native Hope.” Ever wonder if us white Americans could learn something from the first Americans. Nah.

VERY PRESIDENTIAL: HALEY IS TOAST, RAMASWAMY IS SCUM

Nikki Haley has cut her own throat. Yep, the one-time South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the U. N. is toast. According to Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham, Haley's performance in the last Republican presidential “debate” (read sideshow) got plaudits from The New York Times and Politico and therefore she is not right (read too sane) for the Trump GOP. “Politically this is suicide for Nikki Haley,” the blonde gutter-mouth blabbed. If you're not completely whacked-out you don't cut it in MAGA-world. Meanwhile Vivek Ramaswamy, the self-styled genius businessman, commanded the debate stage by calling Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “Nazi.” WTF. It may be a popular epithet with MAGA folks but Zelenskyy is Jewish. Perfect timing coming on the heels of the slaughter of some 1,400 Jews by Hamas. Vivek then ripped Haley for her daughter's use of Tik-Tok, aka Satan's video app that Republicans say turns people into communists or Democrats. To which Haley responded: “You're just scum.” It was all quite presidential. The staff here at Smart Bomb still can't figure out what the side-show is about — Trump, who doesn't participate in the “debates,” is a shoe-in for the GOP nomination. And you thought the Dems were dumb.

Post script — That's going to do it for another strange week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of the polls so you don't have to. Every day it seems there is an new avalanche of polling. Some of these polls have Trump beating Biden even though the Big Orange One has been indicted on more felonies than John Gotti. You're right Wilson, a year out from the election these polls are meaningless, so why do they keep doing them? Wouldn't it save a lot of time and money if each political party just hired a psychic medium to peer into the future. It could be more accurate, too. As an aside, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel says it matters not whether the former president gets convicted in one or all of his four criminal trials. She added that everyone knows there is a two-tiered justice system: One for Trump and other fat people with orange skin and hair and one for everybody else. For the MAGA folks Trump is a Christ-like figure who just happens to grope women, get it on with porn stars, cheat on his taxes and suck up to Vladimir “Beelzebub” Putin. He's never committed a crime in his life. But if he has, so what? Sorry Wilson, we know the band is sick and tired of hearing about Trump. Wouldn't it be great to live in a Trump-free world. Dream on.

Well Wilson, maybe the band should do a little something for Sean “Frequent Flyer” Reyes. The guy has run into a stretch of bad luck. It's going so poorly that even The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board call him “an embarrassment.” The worm has turned for Sean, these days if he didn't have bad luck he wouldn't have any at all. So hit it, Wilson:

You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast Yonder stands your orphan with his gun Crying like a fire in the sun Look out the saints are comin' through And it's all over now, Baby Blue The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense Take what you have gathered from coincidence The empty-handed painter from your streets Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets The sky, too, is folding under you And it's all over now, Baby Blue All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home Your empty-handed armies are going home Your lover who just walked out the door Has taken all his blankets from the floor The carpet, too, is moving under you And it's all over now, Baby Blue Leave your stepping stones behind, there something a-calls for you Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you The vagabond who's rapping at your door Is standing in the clothes that you once wore Strike another match, go start anew And it's all over now, Baby Blue

(It's All Over Now Baby Blue — Bob Dylan)

[tobi-smp]

Hey, hello, hi, you don't know me!

I'm anonymous cause my main blog is empty and I cant hop into an ask with a side block. But I read your C!Techno post about how he interprets his character and how that kind of clashes with the general lore and so on. In it you state that he misrepresented and mischaracterized what happened on the Tommy stream. I've never watched that stream. I started watching Dream SMP purely from Technos Pov, because I wanted to see more of the Funny Pig Man Who Farmed Potatoes, so I only started watching other peoples POVs way later down the line. Would you mind explaining what you mean by him misinterpreting and misrepresenting that stream? I'm not asking cause I disagree or wanna start a discussion, I'm just genuinely curious

- Fidget

context: [Link]

the first thing I do in that post is link to This post [Link], which is full of links to other posts I (and other people) made breaking down why techno's analysis of the situation is wrong! that's why I called it required reading, it put everything that I was saying in context ^^ I would Highly recommend digging through the posts in that link dump if you haven't already.

that said, here's another breakdown because I can't be stopped:

firstly, none of what he said addresses the Impact his actions had. canonically, tubbo was permanently scarred from this, physically And mentally. burn scars on his face and body, ptsd from the event itself. he has continuous nightmares about this, he's triggered by fireworks and by festivals, he projected his fear and anger and distrust onto quackity Despite quackity not wanting him to get hurt at the festival just because quackity had Been There. this even had a Profound impact on tubbo's long-term well being. to ignore that when discussing it is a mistake.

this is The Event that made technoblade a threat in the eyes of quackity and fundy as well. it featured heavily in the motivations behind the butcher army (quackity and fundy who were friends with tubbo and didn't want him to die, and tubbo who'd been killed). it was even brought up To Technoblade during the hog hunt event when they were asked Why they were doing this. so to have cc!techno not acknowledge it at All shows a clear lack of understanding behind the characters that are Extremely Important to his own character's arc and motivations.

secondly, cc!techno tried to present the situation as both c!tommy and tubbo trying to kill his character/put other characters in danger because they were made aware of wilbur's plan while he wasn't (particularly putting the onus on tubbo above wilbur and schlatt). this is, a very strange take if techno had just watched tommy's festival stream and even stranger in the entire context.

1: assuming for a second that cc!techno is right about the basic set up (that c!wilbur told tommy and tubbo about the plan for the festival while he didn't tell techno), his conclusion doesn't really make sense in context. wilbur explicitly told tubbo and tommy that technoblade was a part of the plan, that he had a specific role, Multiple Times. there was no Reason for either of them to believe that techno didn't already know and nothing about their streams indicated that they came to that conclusion, so the onus would be on Wilbur for lying to them under techno's version of events.

2: while it's Possible that there was a miscommunication behind the scenes back during the pogtopia era or it's just been long enough that cc!techno forgot, the idea that c!wilbur Would Have withheld this information and lied to the other two about it just, doesn't make sense from how his character was actually Played. this is the second post in the link dump [Link] which goes over quotes from wilbur that illustrate exactly what I mean.

he told tubbo and tommy that techno would be there to drop withers down after the blast (Fully indicating that he intended for Techno To Survive), while alone he indicated that Techno Was The Only Person Who Was Fully Receptive To The Plan and that this specifically meant that he Trusted him more, and on the day of the red festival techno Brought Withers and wilbur said outright “Techno, when I set it off next time, you ready to pop some withers in there as well?”

there is no way that wilbur played his character under the impression that he was meant to be withholding information from techno or lying to tubbo or tommy. which makes cc!techno insisting Otherwise a retcon of c!wilbur's intentions in a pretty severe way. obviously wilbur isn't doing the right thing right now, he's lashing out because of his own hurt but (like cc!techno says) when push comes to shove he doesn't Actually want to see anybody get hurt. he couldn't go through with it.

when schlatt used the chaos to target niki he jumped down with no armor and nothing but gravel in his pockets to try to save her because he thought she was next.

changing this to wilbur Lying to intentionally hurt the few people that he Trusts and feels safe with, particularly when cc!wilbur isn't here to defend himself (and the man missed c!dream escaping prison, he's not seeing this to defend himself), retroactively Worsens the perception of wilbur's character. which isn't really fair and isn't something that cc!techno has the authority to do.

3: putting the blame on tommy and tubbo Over wilbur (who set up the plan) and schlatt (who is the murderous dictator) feels, like he's intentionally trying to make their characters look Worse (changing the context so They're the ones victimizing His Character) to retroactively make c!techno hurting them look better.

tommy's entire arc in pogtopia was Defined by trying to prevent people from getting hurt. he didn't Want wilbur's plan, he didn't Want the tnt to go off, he didn't Want people to get hurt, and he told wilbur this much. but he didn't want to abandon wilbur either, didn't want to leave him alone when he was spiraling even if tommy didn't know how to help him, so he agreed to come under the condition that they'd be using the tnt as a Threat rather than blowing it up. that they'd Scare schlatt into stepping down from l'manberg. to claim that he wanted techno to get hurt in this moment is to miss essentially his core defining motivation as a character throughout the entire two month arc. it's actually impressive how off the mark it is.

during the actual execution itself tommy wanted nothing more than to jump in, he was only holding back because wilbur was reassuring him that techno was gonna save tubbo, he was literally Yelling for techno to kill schlatt. and the Moment that tubbo had been killed, the Moment he realized what'd happened, tommy pearled directly into the fray. he is an Incredibly emotionally driven character who would do anything to protect the people he cares about.

likewise, tubbo was the Victim in this situation. he didn't Want anybody to get hurt but he was working Directly under schlatt and knew exactly how bad he was. people who didn't watch any of the manberg povs might not realize this, but schlatt was Genuinely played as abusive to his entire cabinet party. this on top of a Laundry list of crimes (having wilbur shot and killed while he was being exiled from manberg, killing the wildlife around manberg to intentionally starve his people, taxing and hurting Niki In Particular because she stood up to him, etc).

tubbo's character is defined by self sacrifice, defined by weighing the pros and cons and accepting losses when it's necessary (like exiling tommy for instance, he Loved tommy but at the end of the day it was everyone in l'manberg vs one person no matter how much tubbo Wanted to make the selfish decision and save his best friend). at the core of this situation this was a 16 year old being actively abused by a dictator who had already killed and hurt people close to him, who was bad for everyone around him, and who wanted to hurt people even more. tubbo was Already risking his life to be a spy, and he knew this.

he still wasn't sure of himself, when he told the speech he intentionally Didn't say the code phrase until Schlatt pushed him to say more (calling him out for not finishing the speech), which is when he finally relented. to call this tubbo Intentionally trying to damn techno to death when Tubbo was the one on stage (closest of the four of them to the blast), when he'd been told techno knew and been reassured that techno was supposed to Survive, when he was scared and unsure, is a bit fucked up considering what it's being brought up to Excuse.

4: speaking of what it's being brought up to excuse. pretending for a second that the other three points didn't just happen, let's look at what techno's version of events actually does for his character.

so technoblade doesn't know that there's a plan to blow manberg up, he never learns about that plan throughout the course of the red festival which means that at No point does he stop to think that tubbo, tommy, or wilbur put his character in danger. how could he when he wasn't allowed to know?

so he decides to go to a party right. he brings withers and rocket launchers to a festival unprompted in crowd of innocent people, the Same people that he was just playing party games with. not his sword and shield, weapons of mass destruction that at this point he didn't just have lying around. it would've been an Effort to get his hands on them. he has a stack of enderpearls and full netherite armor like he's prepared to escape at any moment.

then we have the main event. he doesn't know about the code phrase, what he knows is that his friend and ally is up on stage and suddenly schlatt's laughing. and suddenly tubbo's in a cage, and suddenly the murderous dictator is ordering him to kill him, and suddenly quackity is begging for them to stop, and suddenly niki is screaming at him that he has a Choice that he doesn't have to listen to schlatt, and suddenly he's firing, and suddenly tubbo is dead, and suddenly schlatt and quackity aren't yelling anymore, and suddenly he's firing on that horrified crowd, and suddenly and suddenly and suddenly-

you see the problem here? without the context of this being Active war, techno Took Orders From The Government to kill his Friend and Ally when he was fully equipped to make a rescue. it means he Wasn't willing to stand up for his allies, which is the direct antithesis to everything his character is Supposed to stand for after this point (loyalty, giving back what you give, friends being Required to stand up for each other or else it's betrayal, "I would've fought all of them for you tommy").

it means that he went into what was supposed to be a Peaceful Situation fully prepared to not only hurt but Decimate the people around him. he wasn't going into this situation prepared to see the crowd potentially get hurt, but he made damn well sure that he was capable of doing exactly that and followed through unprompted. cc!techno recognizes c!niki as an ally, and yet c!techno shot her.

this Reframing of the situation doesn't make technoblade's Choices at the red festival look better, it makes them Worse. the only thing it Actually accomplishes is trying to demonize every other character involved so c!techno looks better by comparison. but it doesn't work that way.

5: the, """age arguments""" thing.

techno presents the situation as if the "age arguments" is like, "that character is a Child so automatically they win the morality contest by default. anything anybody does to hurt them is automatically bad no matter the context and anything they do to hurt anyone else doesn't matter because They're Young." which like, obviously that doesn't Apply here.

this is a plainly ridiculous thing for him to have said. if the roles had been reversed and it was wilbur in the cage and techno had shot him That Would Still Make Techno's Choice Here Villainous. he would've still murdered an ally, he would've still gone against his every moral that we know him to have, he would have still pulled weapons on an innocent crowd. the "age arguments" is completely irrelevant to the entire conversation. Except for one detail.

what the Actual point of bringing up the ages of the characters does is highlight the power imbalance between them and the change in dynamics in their relationships. techno was the only stable relationship that tubbo and tommy had with an adult right now, wilbur was spiraling, schlatt was abusive, and quackity and fundy were trying to be there for tubbo but were ultimately trying to survive just as much as he was. techno was a stable presence that had promised them that he would be there for him, that he would Help them, brothers forged in blood.

so when he betrays that trust, when he chooses to hurt them, it plays into that dynamic. it's not Just "techno shot a kid so that's bad" (though to be clear that is also true no matter how much cc!techno tries to make fun of it), it's "techno was supposed to be there for the teenagers he'd sworn to look after, who had nobody else to turn to, and he wasn't. he hurt them and he wasn't sorry about it."

it also plays into the situation of cc!techno trying to blame tubbo and tommy for schlatt and wilbur's actions. obviously anyone put in their position would've been stressed and overwhelmed, but it Matters that they were 16. tommy didn't know how to help wilbur Because He Was A Kid, he idolized and trusted wilbur through red flags Because He Was A Kid, he went along with wilbur's plans so he could watch over him and Be There Because He Was A Kid.

likewise, anyone in tubbo's position wouldn't be blamed for not knowing what to do. but the fact that he was a 16 year old facing abuse and war and politics he didn't understand Matters when we assess his actions. the festival may have been stressful, but killing tubbo was easy for techno. giving the code phrase was not.

that's why the "age arguments" were actually popularized by and in response to c!dream apologists. they don't want to accept the uneven power that dream has over tommy (among many Many other things) so they particularly hate it when people point out that tommy is a teenager because that's one imbalance that they can't deny through Plot. it got to the point where people were Genuinely trying to argue that tubbo and tommy were intended to be adults despite, literally everything. that particular talking point lasted months, though it's down now that tommy's age has been emphasized so hard in more recent lore (not that his age wasn't already stated outright in canon multiple times, because it was).

6: everything that came after.

technoblade talked about the shooting itself, but arguably that's the part that gets excused the most. even people who acknowledge that techno could've easily saved tubbo, that he could've easily overpowered the crowd (because he did, canonically he did), recognize that the situation was stressful. that he could've made the wrong choice because he Wasn't thinking clearly. the problem is what came after.

techno did say, the exact words, "I'm sorry tubbo, I'll try to make this as painless and colorful as possible," but that's not Really an apology. (I mean, for one thing he didn't do that, he hit tubbo with a pickaxe a few times and then shot him twice. and for another thing, "colorful" is a joke in this context and a poor one considering tubbo is now triggered by those exact colors.)

he didn't explain his actions, he didn't recognize tubbo's emotions, he didn't do anything to try to fix the relationship that he was actively shattering. if anything it was meant to sound cool, because he wasn't sorry. we know he wasn't from what came next.

tommy was angry at him, of course he was he just watch someone he trusted murder his best friend and then let the man who killed his brother and Ordered that best friend's execution go free. meanwhile techno kept insisting that it Did Not Matter, that tubbo's Death didn't matter (which is, of course, even worse in retrospect because of the introduction of the lives system and because of tubbo's burn scars. techno would've known what he did to tubbo the moment he saw him).

tubbo just got Murdered and had to listen to his very Life, his worth as a person, be called irrelevant. and still he chose to say that it was Fine to try to cut the tension (that same self-sacrificial nature we see in new l'manberg, in doomsday, in the dead man's switch, in the disc war finale). but all that served to do was hurt him more.

tommy wanted to know Why. he can forgive almost anyone if he gets a Why and an Apology. he forgave philza for doomsday and for letting his abuser out to Torture him after a single conversation. but techno didn't give him that much. he just kept insisting that he was Peer Pressured when techno was Fully Physically Equipped to save tubbo. if the answer had been that he was Scared, that he didn't know what to do, that he was Sorry tommy might not have accepted it that night, but he would've eventually. but the answer was that technoblade didn't think it should Matter.

and then of course, the pit.

now obviously, this was one of wilbur's darkest moments. he was the one who instigated the pit, he taunted the both of them (tommy especially) throughout, and I'm not overlooking that.

but wilbur was someone in a suicidal death spiral who just watched the Only person he thought was fully on his side murder a kid he was supposed to be responsible for (a repeat of the Exact Thing that started his down spiral in the first place). he was on the cusp of shifting from pointing his anger outwards to pointing it fully inwards, from blowing up manberg to hurt the people he felt hated him to fully accepting that he was a horrible person that didn't deserve to live. this was that push, wilbur was not in a healthy or stable mindset. that doesn't excuse his actions or the effect that they had on other people, but it tells us that this isn't the choice he'd make under any other circumstance.

technoblade was Not emotionally affected by this situation. he repeatedly and Continuously asserted that he didn't do anything wrong, that what happened didn't matter, that tommy was overreacting. he agreed to this fight Solely because he thought he could wiggle out of accountability if he won. he made this decision as a stable minded Adult with full agency. the fact that wilbur wanted the fight doesn't change the fact that technoblade Had the ability to say no and chose not to. he buffed his stats by eating soup before he entered the pit. tommy had no chance.

(I don't feel like I have to explain why tommy, an upset and powerless teenager, would be willing to fist fight over his Best Friend's Death and how that doesn't reflect poorly on his character.)

after he beat tommy to a non-canonical death ("to a pulp" tubbo said at the time), he made his Speech about violence being the only universal language. he tried to push the blame for the pit onto tommy ("you threw the first punch" as if he hadn't thrown the first rocket), he tried to insist that everything was resolved in the pit, "it's over tommy, on to a new day, a new plot to destroy manberg." (awfully convenient that. techno wanting to burn manberg to the ground in the scene that cc!techno didn't acknowledge at all. speaking of, here's techno saying that he wanted to turn manberg into a crater that same stream as well: [Link])

it's This decision that marks the red festival as a Villainous turn for techno rather than just a Mistake. because he Doubled Down and Refused To Care. because he Hurt Tommy And Tubbo More when tommy wanted an apology. because he Cemented himself as being Unreliable and Uncaring to his allies when they haven't Wronged Him. and he would Never, Never walk back on this decision.

not when he was in his supposedly peaceful retirement arc, not when the butcher army brought it up while they were on his doorstep, not when tommy brought it up while refusing to join techno, not during Doomsday when tommy pointed out that it was a betrayal (killing tommy's best friend doesn't matter, it was Ages ago, but Tommy's the person who needs a lesson on loyalty according to him), and not in his Will (the thing he wrote in case he died and would never get to say anything to anyone ever again) where he mentioned Tommy but not a Word on tubbo.

and we know now that this is because cc!techno doesn't see this as a mistake. he sees His Own Character as the one who was victimized based on False information about the other characters and a lack of reflection on his character's choices and the consequences of them. it tells us that these Aren't intentional character flaws and that therefore we can't expect them to be addressed or for c!techno to grow passed them.

and perhaps more importantly, c!techno and tubbo have just set up an arc where they're going to grow closer to each other looking for michael. tubbo's character is Defined by his trauma that Techno caused (the red festival, doomsday), but they aren't going to be able to address this fact because cc!techno doesn't see himself as responsible. tubbo's Already bent around this by having his character Falsely shift the blame from techno to quackity (misremembering the festival as quackity pushing techno to kill him) so he could dig into his trauma with the festival in the first place. they're going to have tubbo forgive the man who killed and scarred and traumatized him without that man ever recognizing that he may have done something wrong. and that's going to kill me.

so in conclusion ! cc!technoblade made a decision based on what he thought would Look Cool unprepared for that decision to have lasting consequences. he tried to mitigate this by insisting (in character) that it didn't matter and trying to insist that Everybody Else should drop it and stop caring, but that only made his character look Worse and the discourse itself even more volatile. he's now tried to "fix" this by reframing and retconning the event over a year later to make the characters he hurt look worse and turn his character into the victim. this, unsurprisingly, did not assuage the people who have criticisms for his character's actions or give people confidence for his arc to come.

I can only hope that he Genuinely considers the backlash that happened and reaches out to the other streamers to get everything sorted out (or at least digs through my blog, cc!technoblade you may interact but carefully).

[lucemferto]

Hot take: a lot of people on the DSMP (or at least several of them) have a bad habit of declaring their character has had offscreen character development. Because Techno’s done it more times than I care to count, Niki’s done it a couple times, the Syndicate had a whole found family arc that no one got to see, Purpled got hired by the Eggpire and betrayed them in his very next appearance with absolutely no buildup (although that’s less character development and more plot development, my point still stands that there should have been at least one stream explaining where that came from)… like, call me crazy, but I’m starting to see a pattern. I know sometimes the CCs are busy, but please, for the love of God, do at least one lorestream before announcing your character has made a major change in their life!

Yeah, it's a huge problem.

One of the first things you learn in script writing and story analysis is that you should tie your character development to your plot development. That's how you get the maximum effect for the audience. Big plot stuff happens and is mirrored by big stuff happening for the character.

The external journey should run parallel to the internal journey as Vogler and Campbell would put it.

That's why the Green Festival works as well as it does. We got some big plot movement (Tommy and Techno's break up, declaration of Doomsday, Quackity and Tubbo having their spiff) tied into some big character development: "The discs were worth more than you ever were" followed by the resolution of Tommy's Want vs. Need.

It's also one of the (only) things that works about Hog Hunt. Techno doesn't return to violence because he thought about it off-screen, he returns to violence explicitely in conunction with Quackity's actions.

It works.

But nowadays a lot of characters just really on really subtle moments - like two sentences that are dropped at minute 47 in their 3-hour building stream - or just declare after the fact that they had character development.

It's never tied to any big plot movements. And it robs a lot of these character moments of the punch they otherwise would have had.

It's quite a shame.

[flamencodiva]

A Different League 1 - Walls

Description: Y/N never experienced the life of luxury. Being the daughter of a hunter never gave her that experience. But what happens when she finds a job working for one of the most prestigious hunting companies in the world?

Word Count: 1960

Beta: @wonder-cole

Warnings: Language, Violence, Angst, Fluff, Smut, Slow Burn (yes, that's a warning), Rivals to Idiots, Idiots to Lovers, Lovers to Idiots.

Main Masterlist 

Series Masterlist

<< Prologue 

Code Red! Code Red!’

The red lights and alarm sounded throughout the building.

‘Level 10 monster detected.’

Y/N Y/L/N made her way through the hall towards the locker rooms to suit up. As usual, she was part of the ground team, which did all the messy work when hunting monsters for Hunter Corp.

Marching down the hallway, she made her way to the briefing room, grabbing the folder handed to her and reading it right away.

“Think this is the one?” Benny asked, standing by her with his folder.

Y/N shrugged her shoulders, “don’t know. Maybe it is. But according to the data recon has gathered, not likely. If it’s a level ten, then--”

“It’s most likely an Alpha monster,” Ketch interrupted. “Y/N, darling, when are you going to take me up on that offer to wine and dine you?” he asked, trying to flirt with the huntress.

“When hell freezes over, Arthur,” she sighed, “I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, my focus is on work, not my--”

“Libido,” Benny and Ketch echoed with matching smiles.

“We know, Cher,” Benny chuckled, “then again I did see you eyeing--”

“You say it, and I hog tie you and castrate you,” Y/N growled, “I lived on a ranch for a good amount of years while dad was taking care of a pack. Don’t think I won’t do it, Benjamin.”

Benny lifted his hands in surrender and chuckled, walking toward his seat on the conference table. Other squad leaders filtered in as they were ready to talk about the Level 10 monster that had appeared. This included the two sons of the CEO, the eldest of the two, Dean, taking a seat next to Y/N.

“Units 1 and 2, you will take the lead on this, “ John Winchester said as he walked into the room, taking a seat at the head of the table. “These two units will oversee operations and capture. I will repeat that,” he said, looking at each unit leader in turn, “capture the target. Our goal is to learn as much as we can before eradicating their species.”

“Do we have the special equipment that I had made for occasions like this?” Y/N asked as she flipped through the different pages, analyzing the data collected. “Do we also know what kind of Alpha we’re dealing with?”

“As of right now, we just know it’s an Alpha. I’m waiting on relay team Gamma to get back with the complete analysis,” John announced, impressed with his top hunter. “But I do want my best teams there in case something goes wrong.”

Y/N simply hummed as she let her mind process the strategy the boss set up. Her boss wasn’t wrong. Her squad, along with Snob, as she liked to call Dean, would be a formidable force. That is if he wasn’t trying to talk about his exploits on a private jet.

No matter where they were, he always had some way of interjecting how nice it is to have money and experience things. Y/N has never had the pleasure of doing. Sure she had the money to do those things now, but she never saw the big deal. It only spurred her annoyance at Snob when he would try to make conversation with her. They had nothing in common, yet he continued to try to talk to her while she ignored him.

After the meeting ended, Y/N made her way back to her room. She was the only one of the squad leaders not to have a place of her own. It was something that didn’t go unnoticed by the other leaders, especially John. Y/N would brush off the comments of her not having a place to unwind away from work. In all honesty, she didn’t know what else to do. She grew up hunting, and she figured living in the facility would give her faster reaction time to save more lives.

As she packed her things, she could feel a pair of eyes on her.

“What do you want?” she called out, never facing the person who stood at her doorway.

“I was wondering--”

“No, Dean. I will not go to whatever fancy place you want to take me to,” she sighed, moving around her room to collect what she would think she would need.

“I’m not, Ketch,” Dean grumbled, “And I know for a fact that you barely leave the compound. You don’t even have your own place.”

“Why do you care, Snob,” she hissed at him. “To someone like you, I’m just a worker. Why do you care that I live in the compound?”

“If this is about the gala, I already apologized,” Dean whined, “What more do you want from me?”

“To let me do my job,” Y/N huffed, slinging her bag over her shoulder and pushing past him, “and right now, my job is to make sure we know what we are dealing with before we go in blind and kill good hunters on a hunch.”

“The recon team--”

“Has been wrong before,” she pointed out, “Your brother has been wrong before and at my expense!”

“Samuel would never-” Dean began.

“He has, and he did, Dean,” she argued. “That scar on my back was not because I thought it would be fun to ignore that there was another Rugaru.”

She glared at him, “It was because I was told by your brother that there was only one when there were, in fact, three of them.”

Dean stayed silent as she walked away from him and towards the garage. Never in his life had a woman angered and enamored him before. The minute he had laid eyes on Y/N three years ago at the gala, he could feel his heart pound in his chest. His insecurities had gotten the better of him, and he had to play the millionaire asshole. When she didn’t bow down to his charm, he was intrigued.

After a year of training, moving up the ranks, and being her partner, Dean learned that Y/N was all business. Not like any of the girls he ever dated or bedded. Y/N had a drive, but what it was, she wouldn’t say. Y/N began to distance herself more from him for every case they had, only communicating if it had to do with the hunt and to turn down his invitations.

Dean made it to his dorm with a deep sigh and began packing his things, hoping he could try to break through the walls Y/N built with this hunt.

Looking at her watch, Y/N wondered where Charlie was? Usually, Charlie would be her research partner on cases like these. Well, Charlie is always her choice as a research partner. The woman was a genius when it came to technology and making her way into security footage to search for monsters.

Y/N didn’t notice as Charlie walked up behind her. Most of Y/N’s attention was on the recon folder. She was trying to assess what the team had found.

“You know,” Charlie said as she approached Y/N, “You’re really taking this not thinking with your libido thing a bit too far.”

“I am focused on my work,” Y/N replied, never taking her eyes off the file. “I have a feeling we’re dealing with a Shifter-Alpha.”

“What gives you that idea?” Charlie asked as she sat down next to Y/N.

“It’s the fact that in every house reported, Mom and Dad are dead,” Y/N pointed out as she pushed the folder towards Charlie. “But the baby goes missing,” she pointed to the details in every story.

“Huh,” Charlie let out, tilting her head to the side as she looked over the notes, “I guess that means we’re heading out early?”

“No,” Y/N sighed, “going to talk to John first.”

“Really?” Charlie gasped, “you’re usually gung-ho about going when you have a hunch like this?”

“Okay, I’m a hunter, not suicidal,” Y/N drawled.

It didn’t take long for Y/N to point out the details in the story and voice her suspicions to John. Of course, when John agreed with her suspicions, he organized all quad leaders and put his plan in motion. Nearing the next house that Alpha would attack, Dean and Y/N placed themselves in charge of moving in to capture the monster.

‘Leader 1,’ came Dean’s voice through the walkie-talkie, ‘we have movement inside the house. I repeat, we have movement inside the house.’

“Copy that, Leader 2,” she responded before taking a breath, “Red-Recon, Red-Recon, what do we have on the video feed?”

‘Can’t I have a cooler nickname?’ Charlie whined through the intercom, ‘like Red Hawk!’

Y/N rolled her eyes, letting out a chuckle before responding, “Okay, Red Hawk, can you just tell me what the video feed shows?”

‘You were right, Leader 1,’ Charlie confirmed, ‘glowing eyes in the feed. We’re dealing with a nest of shifters. We also are seeing a large nursery through the micro-cam footage.’

“Shit,” Y/N cursed, “we might need to abort and come up with--”

‘You are going to do nothing of the sort, Leader 1,’ Samuel’s voice came through, ‘we’re here to do a job. We will kill every last one of them if we have to.’

“Samuel, there are kids in there. No matter what the species, kids are kids!” Y/N argued.

‘That’s Recon-Leader to you, Leader 1,’ he barked.

‘Recon-leader,’ Dean’s voice came through, ‘I agree with Leader 1. We are only here for the Alpha. We need this to be a quick and clean operation.’

“I don’t need your help, Leader 2,” Y/N growled. “If Recon-Leader wants us to go through the paperwork explaining why the squads changed Leader Prime’s plan, he can do it himself.”

‘What are we going to do, Leaders 1 and 2?’

Y/N closed her eyes, knowing full well the consequences of her actions, “we are going to go as planned, capture the Alpha, take down as many shifters as you can.”

‘Y/N,’ Dean called over the com, ‘I think your instincts were--’

“I’ll deal with the fucking consequences,” she called back, “we move on my mark.”

To say the operation was easy was a big fat fucking lie. Just as Y/N predicted, getting to the Alpha with all the other Shifters in their way was a challenge. So much so that they had to call Squads 3 and 4 for backup. It took longer than it should have for the team to capture the Alpha, and that was after Y/N was full of bruises and deep scratches. The nursery with the children was empty when they searched it. Some Shifters made it out with the abrupt change in plans, while others were killed trying to let them escape.

Once Y/N was patched up, she prepared herself for the yelling she knew John would give her. Even if they got the Alpha, the method they used almost cost the lives of good hunters. Y/N had made sure to try and save as many hunters from death as she could.

“Y/N!” she heard as she walked out of the medical tent.

Rolling her eyes, she turned away from Dean, who was jogging towards her.

“Thanks, Jess,” she called to the doctor on staff that stitched her up.

“Damn it, Y/N. Please wait!” Dean called out to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I talked to Samuel and--”

“Save it, Snob,” Y/N growled. “I am going to head to my room in the hotel and write up the report. Don’t worry about Douchebag. I will take all the heat on this.”

“Why do you do that?” Dean growled, “Why can’t you let me tell Dad about--”

“Leader Prime,” Y/N barked, “when we are on the job, you address him by his title.”

Dean let out an audible groan, “can you take the stick out of your ass for just one fucking minute!”

Y/N turned to glare at him, “what could you possibly say to me? That you’re going to use your privilege to get Daddy not to punish me because your brother was being an ass? Please spare me. I’m used to this. You and Samuel get away with everything while the rest of us have to struggle!”

“You are such a bitch, Y/L/N. No wonder people don’t want to hang around you,” Dean spat, his eyes widening at the realization of what he said. “Y/N I’m--”

“At least people don’t hang around me for my money,” she spat, “leave me alone. Why are you even talking to me, Snob? We have nothing in common, you live in an ivory tower, and I live in the mud. You stay with your people, and I’ll stay with mine.”

Dean watched her walk away, unsure what to say or how to fix what he did. He hated himself for the way things went down. Dean should have talked to Samuel about his behavior, but Samuel was just as stubborn and headstrong as their father. Dean knew he could only do one thing, and that was talking to his father about what happened, whether Y/N liked it or not.

Dean stayed silent as he contemplated how to fix things with Y/N.ht--’

“I don’t care what Samuel says. The operation could have gone smoother if he had just listened to Y/N. You can’t fire her--”

‘Calm down, son. No one is getting fired. Especially not my best hunter,’ John interrupted. ‘Now, calmly, tell me what happened.’

Dean began at the beginning, telling his father all about how there were more Shifters than just the Alpha and how Y/N wanted to re-adjust the plan to lessen any casualties. As Dean continued to recount the tale, he never noticed Samuel walking in. The younger brother crossed his arms, scowling at his older brother.

“Yes, sir,” Dean said before hanging up the phone.

“You called, Dad?” Samuel let out, making Dean jump.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that, Samuel,” He scolded.

“Don’t, Dean,” Samuel huffed, “You called to tattle on me? You know as well as I do that you should be Leader 1 no matter what a stupid test said all those years ago.”

“Is that what this is about? Is that why you have this grudge against Y/N?” Dean asked, raising an eyebrow at his brother.

“She is nothing but a--”

“Don’t say it, Samuel,” Dean growled.

“A second-rate hunter with no class,” Samuel continued, towering over his older brother. “You need to forget about her, Dean, and learn to take her position from her.” he let out a huff, “besides, she dresses in nothing but second-hand clothing. Does she even know what designer clothing is? Does she even care about the clothes that she wears and how she presents herself?”

“Samuel, her choice in clothing doesn’t mean she is incapable of being a good Leader. Besides, what she wears is her business. And what good would taking the position from her by force do? How would being Leader 1 make me any more capable of running the company?” Dean crossed his arms, staring right into his brother’s eyes.

“For one, it would show Dad that you have the skills to lead,” Samuel huffed. “Y/N couldn’t even stand up to me after what I said. She could have tried harder to go over my head. She has no leadership skills.”

“No leadership skills?” Dean said, his voice rising in anger. “You call putting her life on the line to make sure no one dies, poor leadership skills?” Dean shook his head, giving his brother a disappointed look. “Do you realize that she didn’t go over your head because she feels you would use nepotism to get away with it?”

Samuel tilted his head in confusion, “what? Since when? I--”

“Dad spoils us, Samuel. You know he does, but it’s different in hunting and our lives, and Y/N doesn’t know that. She already thinks we’re pompous snobs.”

“So?” Samuel chuckled, “I love that we live a life of luxury. Someone like her is never going to understand us. Besides, why are you trying to get her approval?”

“I am not looking for her approval, but I am trying to establish a civil working relationship,” Dean said, turning away from Samuel.

“You had had eyes on her since the ball all those years ago,” Samuel chuckled, “‘if you want her that badly, woo her and leave her. Or you could take Bela Talbot on her offer.”

“Bela?” Dean shook his head in disgust, “she is nothing but a low-grade black market dealer. “

“One who has had her eyes on you for a while,” Samuel said, smiling slyly at his brother. “You don’t have to make a business deal with the woman, just bed her and be done with her. She also knows her way around good scotch. Let’s not forget that Bela also has better fashion sense than Y/N. ”

Dean contemplated the thought of having Bela in his bed. Bela had more than shown she wanted to lay with him, wanting to have Dean pleasure her in the ways he was taught. Shaking his head, Dean sat on the couch of the double room suite he shared with Samuel.

“I’d rather fuck a porcupine than Bela, Samuel,” Dean sighed, leaning back to place his hands over his face.

“Then at least go find a sweet lounge fly and bring her up to have your way with her,” Samuel said as he walked over to his bedroom, “I mean, we should put the skills Dad had us learn for a reason, right?”

Dean stayed silent as he contemplated how to fix things with Y/N.

Chapter 2

Tags in the Reblog

[starofroselight]

I waltz up to my balcony overlooking the wilds of the Internet. Sad-ist's Hog Hunt has been released with fanfare and will influence designs, fan theory, and the greater DSMP until the rest of its days, Fundy and Tubbo are working on character lore, Wilbur's podcast is out on YouTube, and Technoblade has posted his Mr. Beast Hunt video, currently at the top of trending.

The content is good. The future looks bright.

I look down and see the masses bickering about TommyInnit. I "accidentally" spill my vintage wine down onto the raving crowd and return to my slumber in my mink fur coat.

Perhaps another day for analysis, then.

[carpedzem]

anyway, if I might be sappy for a moment because I just love saying how much I love you guys. I genuinely have had so much fun during and after that animation and I've seen so little negativity it almost didn't bothered me! I just stayed on my dash and saw banger takes and analysis and fanarts and memes and it was so lovely <3 after hog hunt I had kinda rough time because I had to go to the main tag for any content and I was really upset and now I have FRIENDS and I didn't have to visit main tag! I love you all, all dreblr and all non dreblr friends, my dash made me so happy today and it's all your doing so thank you thank you <3 orz orz

[tsukikoindreamsmp]

Dream SMP, But Make It Hardcore

Aka. What if you only have one canon live

This is written before 30 Days SMP, I know there’s no connection with DSMP but just in case XD

Before we start, we need to lay down several rule.

There should be at least one player death for each war/arc, with possible some exception.

In this au, there are majority two ways to cheat death: using the totem of undying and the resurrection book. Totem of undying can only be used if the victim is holding it when they on the brink of death. The resurrection book can only be used with equivalent exchange: a life for a life. Any methods outside of this won't be acknowledged temporarily. Except one that we’ll discuss later.

Thirdly, the existence of ghost. As far as I knew, the only ghost characters are Ghostbur, Glatt, and Mexican Dream. All of them are formerly death people. But so far, at least from what I know, there is no actual reasoning of how the three of them came to be. So, temporarily, we will pretend ghost doesn't exist.

Fourthly, if the characters have crucial role in the Arc, the role will be passed on to someone else. This is still in the juggling process, so there will be possible contradictions.

Lastly, I'm not versatile in Dream SMP lore. I only join after Tommy resurrection, but I have a vague knowledge of the previous season. Even so, I haven't watch all the POV, so I might mot know which canon death is important and which is not. I'll try my best and follow the wiki, you any of you can argue with me. I'm open for discussion.

Now with that out of the way, let's begin the body count.

Acknowledged Death

Fundy

Cause of Death: The Final Control Room

There is no denying that Eret’s Final Control Room is one of the most iconic scene in all of Dream SMP, thus any death that happens here would have bigger meaning: they died because of a betrayal, they died fighting for the independence of their beloved country. If they die here, they die as a revolutionary hero.

However, if we look in the L’Manburg gang, everyone has importance in future role: Wilbur with the Season 1 finale, Tommy with the Season 2 finale, Tubbo with the Manberg Festivavl, Eret with the Final Control Room, Fundy with the Schlatt Administration. But, if we hae to choose one, unfortunately, we have to choose Fundy. Wilbur and Tubbo has bigger role in the narrative of Season 1 and Tommy is the central character throught Season 1 and 2. However, knowing the future and Quackity lore, we don't know how far Fundy would go in depth. So we'll put a pin on this.

Tubbo

Cause of Death: Manberg Festival Execution

Canonically speaking, so far, Tubbo has lost two canon life: in the Final Control Room to Sapnap and the Manberg Festival Execution to Technoblade. Both events are crucial in the DSMP lore however I chose the execution because it kick-started the Manberg vs Pogtopia War even further. Tubbo’s death leads Nikki and many others to join Pogtopia and Tommy vs Techno Duel at Pogtopia. Unlike Techno, Tubbo doesn’t have the Totem of Undying, thus his execution is inevitable.

However, as we know, Tubbo’s role at the end of Season 1 and beyond is important. He’s the president of L’Manberg, he exiles Tommy, the Butcher Army, and the Disc Confrontation. If he dies very early in the story, many plot will be lost. So, temporarily, unless by divine intervention his execution is stopped, his lore will be given to Lani or Ranboo.

JSchlatt

Cause of Death: Heart attack at the the end of Manberg vs Pogtopia War

This is probably the first ever canon permanent death, so we had to put in here. Schlatt other two death are during the Manberg Festival, having caught in Technoblade fireworks, and Quackity assassination at The White House. Since we already have Tubbo’s death during the Manberg Festival, that only leave with Quackity assasination and his heart attack. But, considering his heart attack death ends the Manberg vs Pogtopia War, I choose this. I’m sure anyone would agree in this.

My only worry is the potential of Schlatt’s resurrection by Quackity. In rule two, you need one soul to resurrect another. Who would Quackity kill to resurrect Schlatt?

Mexican Dream

Cause of Death: Killed by Dream during Exile Arc

Poor Mexican Dream. The best character always die too early. But, according to this wonderful analysis video, Mexican Dream is very crucial to Tommy descend to depression during the Exile Arc. With Mexican Dream being the few people who visit Tommy during exile, his presence becomes quite importance to Tommy. Which is why when Mexican Dream dies, Tommy is left with no one else (but Dream) which leads him down a harsher path to depression and suicide. 

Tommy

Cause of Death: Killed by Dream in the prison

We know that Tommy is the main character throughout Season 1 and 2, so why is he chosen for death? One reason: Wilbur’s resurrection.

All of Tommy’s death are actually important in the history of Dream SMP, but as we know, his role in Season 1 and 2 are too important that I can’t think of anyone else who can replace him. His death in the prison is a shocking moment and I’m pretty sure everyone remembers that. The main character is killed by the antagonist. Tragic isn’t it? And going back to Point 2, with Tommy’s death, Dream can resurrect Wilbur for whatever he’s planning for the future.  A soul for a soul; Tommy death’s for Wilbur’s resurrection.

Antfrost

Cause of Death: Killed by Puffy during the Red Banquet

The Red Banquet is once again a staple event on the server. Even if it’s count as a side-arc, we can’t ignore any awesome moments surrounding this event (plus, nearly all characters that Quackity recruit in Las Nevadas Arc were invited to the Red Banquet). Thus, any death happening here will effected the Eggpire gang and the guest invited there. Back then, Antfront was the one suggesting that Foolish should be sacrifice first, which made him being a bigger target for Puffy and for her to gain revenge for the death of her son. Plus, Bad mentioned that the egg required energy gained from death to hatch, thus Antfrost (and Foolish) death will fed the egg more... 

Survived

Quackity

Currently, we have Las Nevadas Arc with Quackity as the central characters, this there is no doubt that Quakcity is an important character. Heck, even before this, his role is very crucial in history. He challenged Wilbur in the election, becoming the vice president of Manberg and New L’Manberg, conducting the Butcher Army, and in Dream’s imprisonment.

Quackity has one canon death: his duel with Technoblade (the one death on the Manberg Festival by Technoblade has been retconned). So, knowing the imortance of his role in future Las Nevadas Arc, he didn’t die after the battle with Technoblade.

Jack Manifold

Jack Manifold probably had the most unfortunate deaths of all. He was killed by Wilbur because the dude just felt like it. He was killed by Tommy because he was too surprise. And he was killed by Techno during Doomsday. He’s like the SBI kids personal victim.

Now, out of all the death he suffered, I can only count his death to Techno to be the most crucial. However, Jack and Techno doesn’t have that strong relationship except Jack thinking Techno was an enemy because of Doomsday. Heck, even Jack isn’t written in Techno’s relationship list. Thus, I can’t make Jack to have a battle to the death with Techno. Compare this to Quackity vs Techno which already lit up during the Butcher Army incident, thus making Quackity vs Techno much stronger than Jack vs Techno.

Dream

Skeppy-BadBoyHalo

Originally I was going to count this as a canon death. However, their death happened before the Red Banquet, which was a bigger event. But I won’t deny that Skeppy and Bad’s fight is heart-wrenching in a way. Both of them are very close and it’s just sad to see them had a big fight like this. You can blame the Egg for messing with their head, but it lead to Skeppy’s death and Bad soon followed. You can’t deny how Bad and Skeppy’s lives are connected is quite cute.

Because both of them are the main players of the Eggpire Arc, we need to keep them alive until the end of the arc.

Cheated Death

Karl Jacobs

Origin Cause of Death: Manberg vs Pogtopia War

Method of Cheating Death: Time travel power awakening

Karl is an interesting character regarding the lore in Tales of the SMP. It had been confirm that Karl is a time traveler, however I don’t think we actually know when he got that power. Thus, if we want to incorporate this in lore we can take his death in canon and make it he could time travel for the first time, only returning when the war is over or before he was killed to avoid it. So, this is the only resurrections outside the usual methods I’m willing to acknowledge. 

Technoblade

Origin Cause of Death: Butcher Army excecution

Method of Cheating Death: Holding the Totem of Undying

Canon, this is the first canon cheated death in the series so I’m keeping this, there’s no really a further connection. The execution, along with the whole Butcher Army is the start of Quackity Villain Arc, Tubbo descend into mirroring Schlatt, Bedrocks Duo, thus marking this moment as an important staple. Also, SAD-ist Hog Hunt, my beloved. But also, Technoblade is possibly the strongest member on the DSMP, seeing that even the strongest need to cheat to avoid death is interesting.

Foolish Gamers

Origin Cause of Death: The Red Banquet Sacrifice

Method of Cheating Death: The embodiment of Totem of Undying

Foolish is a god, the embodiment of the Totem of Undying, thus he has a personal connection with cheating death and resurrection. Same case with Technoblade but with more sinister condition. Even a god like Foolish can’t escape death and need to cheat to survive. But also, his death only fueled the Egg into hatching, which wouldn’t be good in the long run.

Wilbur Soot

Origin Cause of Death: Season 1 Finale

Method of Cheating Death: Resurrected by Dream with Tommy’s soul in exchange

Wilbur’s death is definitely an iconic moment considering this is the peak of his madness. The only problem is the existence of Ghostbur. Going back to Point 3 of ghost doesn’t exist, this would means Ghostbur doesn’t exist in this au. Which leads to Point 2 where you need a soul to resurrect another soul. If Ghostbur doesn’t exist, then who should Dream kills to resurrect Wilbur? Dream had only ever kill one person, and that’s Tommy. A soul for a soul; Tommy death’s for Wilbur’s resurrection.

[soren1830]

I am sure that this has already been pointed out, but this comparison keeps hitting me as I watch reaction vids.

There is the obvious parallels in situation: Techno is showing a secret vault full of weapons, which is nicely paralleled with the visual similarities.

In both, Techno is gesturing, arms spread, with the vault glowing behind him

Interesting contrast:

Dawn of the 16th: Techno in cape, crown, and armor

Hog hunt: Softer looking techno making it clear he was not actively fighting before this point. TECHNO's BANDAGED ARM, calling back to this moment.

Honestly might do a full analysis later because this is awesome. All the Kudos to SAD-ist!!!!