#lazytexts

[lazyliars]

i'm gonna say it. tumblr peaked with character ask blogs.

[sorahana]

Robbie, down on one knee, with a ring in his hand: Sportaflop, would you do me the honor of foiling my plans, of annoying me every single day for the rest of our lives? 

Sportacus, tearing up: Yes

[woodlenelf]

Sport ended up stopping and getting Robbie a cake, though he had to make sure it was in a container so he didn't get sugar on him

[lazyliars]

Hey, I'm 3 days late but I'm also in this! It's a nicely put-together piece. Also voice reveal or something, blah blah blah. Go watch it!

Yo! This video about the Dream SMP is very good (and I don’t just say that, because I feature in it). Check out Em and leave a sub!

[lazyliars]

In toxic doomed yuri with my knees the way they’re killing me

[lazyliars]

to purchase plane tickets is to brush shoulders with the devil

[lazyliars]

I feel like it’s often understated just how much of a hard counter to Dream was lost when Wilbur went mad. Wilbur was basically the only person perfectly suited to shut Dream down because he had unparalelled control over the narrative - and I don’t just mean that he was writing the script.

He knew how to win a fight without winning a fight. L’manberg was able to hold the narrative high-ground throughout Wilbur’s presidency for this reason; both as the “young, scrappy and hungry rebels with a cause��� and the “noble nation of persecuted people who just want freedom from the evil americans.”

Wilbur was excellent at keeping L’manberg firmly in the moral right, even when they technically weren't, and it absolutely rallied people to their side. He could turn a pitched battle in Dream’s favor to a win just by re-framing it in a better light.

He was also willing to mock Dream, fearless of the consequences, a trait he shares with the other SBI, but coupled with his unique status as “narratively powerful” he could do actual damage. (very d&d bard of him.)

When he decided to work with Dream instead of against him, it’s that same power that ultimately kept him from recovering. He had convinced himself that he was the villain, and he couldn’t escape that self-assigned archetype until it killed him.

It’s also worth mentioning that Tommy has been desperately carrying that flame - trying to rally people, trying to fight Dream the same way Wilbur did, trying to be Wilbur. But Tommy’s strength has always been his ability to crash through the narrative, ignorant of it. He is himself first and what people want him to be second, always, even when he tries not to be. He can’t be Wilbur, and he shouldn’t have to be.

So um. Yeah. Bring back general soot who body slams c!dream pls

bringing this up again; bring back general soot who bodyslams c!dream upon sight in tommys honor or bring me death

[sorahana]

Sportacus: I lost my villain. Have you seen him?

Stranger: What does he look like?

Sportacus: *tearing up and choking out* Beautiful

[lazyliars]

Okay but the funniest, FUNNIEST thing to me about the SMP is that Techno lowkey treats Tubbo like his arch-rival.

He kind of treats Tubbo like an icon for Government as a whole, which is hilarious considering Tubbo was the third choice for leadership after the other two rejected the position, like--

Techno will be preparing for every possible angle of attack when raiding L’manberg and Tubbo will be getting yeeted 40 feet in the air trying to make a ravager teleport him for no reason other than to see if he can

It is LITERALLY JUST:

Techno: Ah yes... My nemesis, President of L’manberg, Government embodied, my Literary Foil; Leader of the Butcher Army, He who grounded the Angel of Death and survived, My true Arch-enemy... Tubbo.

Tubbo: i likeda bee :)

[lazyliars]

c!Ranboo is in the wrong.

He's treating this conflict like there are no stakes - and there are none for him, but there definitely are for Quackity and Las Nevadas.

If the Ranboo and Tubbo miscalculate this conflict and lose the Cookie Outpost - they lose a build. They lose something they've worked hard on. And it sucks.

But if Quackity miscalculates this conflict? He stands to lose everything.

He has repeatedly stated that Las Nevadas is everything to him. It's his proverbial (and potentially literal) last chance, and he said that if it dies, he does too.

So while the it's true, he's overreacting to a perceived threat, he's almost certainly aware that it's an overreaction, but he has no other options; he can't afford to be wrong.

If there's a 99% chance that the box has an apple, and a 1% chance it has a bomb, Quackity has to operate on the idea that it's a bomb, because even if it's extremely unlikely, he won't survive the bomb.

And to be clear, he is not the only one who felt threatened by the outpost. Foolish, Purpled and Fundy all seemed to be intimidated by it, and considering that Las Nevadas is all they have left too, it makes sense that they would be defensive. The scale of what each member of Las Nevadas has to lose is breathtaking.

And yes, it's sad that Ranboo can't make cookies, but again, the stakes for him are nothing. He is sad about not being allowed to build his farm out further. He is sad they misinterpreted his actions and that he couldn't make it better by just talking it out.

But Las Nevadas doesn't have a barrel of totems and powerful friends to fall back on if things go south. This is it for them. If they fuck up, it's over.

Kindness, open-heartedness, understanding? Those are luxuries on the Dream SMP. Luxuries Ranboo can indulge in happily.

Quackity cannot. Purpled cannot. Fundy cannot. Foolish recently learned what happens when you try to extend a kindness when you don't have the power to pull it back if those you're offering it to abuse it.

They cannot afford to be kind.

[lazyliars]

That was short but that was some of my favorite content we've gotten in s3 so far.

That was like. Pure payoff for some of the oodles of set-up we've been sitting on for MONTHS now.

And it was so good. It furthered some seriously important plot points. It gave the characters active and passive information to chew on and develop with.

And it's obvious but oh my dear god, Tubbo. Mans killed it. I haven't felt emotionally engaged like for a long fucking while.

It's extra nice too that it wasn't purely negative emotion fueling his feelings - it was hurt, it was sad, it was angry, it was depressed, but it was also hopeful.

Tubbo's character? Was and continues to be one of my absolute favorites. When cc!Tubbo sets out to give a performance, he fucking delivers.

My hope is that we get some follow up with Ranboo and Tubbo talking alone. I wanna see Ranboo coming to terms with what Wilbur told him and how it reconciles with his own world view, I want Tubbo to get the chance to express his own feelings about L'manberg, good and bad, and I want them to do it together.

[sorahana]

Sportacus: Hey Robbie

Robbie: Yeah

Sportacus: Well, um, do you ever like, you know, consider us adorable?

Robbie: No. 

Sportacus:

Robbie: We’re adults. We’re *holds hands* mothereffing cute 

[lazyliars]

I think I've finally settled in my mind why Wilbur saying "I never cared about L'manberg" doesn't ring true.

It's not that I don't believe him, because, with that line as context, looking back, it's very believable; it makes sense that he was interested in it as a way to "stick it to the man" during the rebellion, It frames his desire to call an election as a certain dissatisfaction and insecurity with his own power, and It puts his blowing it up into a new light.

However.

Wilbur also loved L'manberg.

He loved it. He wrote to Phil with designs for the flag. He wrote an anthem. He risked his life and fought a war.

"L'manberg, my unfinished symphony--" is not the anguished declaration of a man who does not care.

And the disconnect that both the audience and Tommy are having with these statements, is in the fact that Wilbur isn't lying.

But he is omitting something crucial; Why.

And the answer is, ironically, people.

Wilbur didn't care about the nation he was creating, it could've been anything, anywhere - but he cared about the fact that he was creating it with Tommy.

He cared about the fact that Tubbo jumped at the opportunity to help them and supplied the materials for the first incarnation of their walls.

He cared about the fact that Eret spent hours refining and building the walls out taller and more beautiful.

He cared about the fact that Fundy was born within those walls.

The walls didn't matter. It wouldn't matter if someone built them back up overnight, and restored L'manberg to it's former glory and served it on a silver platter to Wilbur.

So, so similar to Ranboo, but also fundamentally different, is how much Wilbur believes in people, and how he sees them as inextricable from sides - he knows how powerful the allure of a cause to believe in can be, and he's been on both sides of the dangerous fallout when people stop believing.

A side is, ultimately, a way to find your people. If you're on the same side, those are your people. The L'manbergians may have been brought together by a man who didn't care about the land, but they didn't join for the land. They built the land. They joined for Wilbur, because they wanted to be on his side, and he was on theirs, and the form that took was a nation.

And likewise, the thing that destroyed Wilbur wasn't the loss of L'manberg - it wasn't losing the elections that got him in the end, it was his people; abandoned, betrayed, forgotten.

L'manberg is his unfinished symphony not because the walls fell, but because Fundy tore them down; not because Schlatt was on the podium, but because Tubbo was killed there; not because Tommy didn't want to follow him anymore, but because Tommy didn't believe in him anymore; because Eret (wilbur) pressed the button.

L'manberg started as a drug van that got busted by men who were stronger than they were.

L'manberg started as an uphill battle against men who set their forests on fire after they declared they used words and not weapons.

L'manberg was a way to stick it to the man.

(The man had more of a problem with Tommy than he ever did Wilbur.)

Wilbur never cared about L'manberg.

[lazyliars]

"If you ever care about someone, do not give up on them, Foolish."

There is something so poignant about Tommy being the one to deliver this advice to Foolish -- not just because he's young and Foolish is immortal, but because Tommy doesn't know jack shit about Foolish.

Tommy doesn't know Foolish is a god. He doesn't know that he has a dark past, and likely has conflicted thoughts on the idea of "second chances." He probably doesn't even know that Foolish just died recently.

But Tommy feels so strongly about this, feels like someone has to let Foolish know, because it's the right thing to do.

It's an action utterly void of ulterior motives, freely given from the hands of a teenager to a god.

[lazyliars]

This stream has solidified one thing for me - c!Techno needs a goal.

It was most obvious when Bad was waxing poetic about how the egg could grant Techno anything he wanted, and Techno’s response was pretty much “I already have everything.”

Because that’s true! He does! And it makes for less interesting content! I mean, he ended the stream directly after the egg stuff was done, because he didn’t have anything else to do. C!Techno doesn’t want anything, whereas, almost every other character does. Puffy wants the Egg gone. Bad wants what the Egg wants, which is an ominous “everything.”  Tommy, who fulfilled his main arc when he got the discs back, still wants his hotel to succeed.

Even Ranboo wants to not be involved, which offers some very interesting scenes when he fails to get what he wants.

But Techno doesn’t want anything. He’s a purely reactionary character right now. He has nothing to work towards, no reason to interact with anyone else, and as a consequence, nothing to do...

Even with the Egg taking over the damned server, Techno doesn’t have anything at stake until Bad threatens Ranboo. And once that threat is gone? He heads home. He’d have headed home sooner if he could’ve, because he doesn’t care about anything in the Dream SMP lands. They can get Egged-over for all he cares, as long as they stay away from him and his.

Now, I don’t like pointing out problems without offering a solution, so in my very humble opinion.............. Eggza.

It’s just win win win. Cool, awesomely threatening angel of death dyed red? Return of the Redza skin, anyone? Phil getting to play a chaotic evil villain and drop lines as bone-chilling as the ones he did on Doomsday?

And maybe the Egg offers Phil the thing that he wants the most... his son back.

Most importantly, it offers Techno a reason to become invested in the current narrative, because he can’t kill Phil. The problem suddenly goes from very solvable, via stabbing it, to something that Techno doesn’t know how to deal with on his own. If Phil becomes dedicated to protecting the Egg, even with his one life on line, it forces Techno to think outside the murder-box. He’d have to work with outside forces to find a way to break the Egg’s corruption.

It could give him reason to work with Tommy again. Or even Quackity, someone who feels very pro-omelette ATM.

Hell, maybe they have to get help from Tubbo in Snowchester! Maybe nukes are the only way to stop the egg! The possibilities are infinite!

[lazyliars]

c!Tommy's relationship to violence is a pretty fascinating one.

Specifically I got thinking about this in regards to Techno, and his proclaiming that he only saw Tommy as useful once he had displayed a willingness to commit violence against others alongside Techno.

And I think a lot of the difference in analysis of these moments between c!Tommy fans and c!Techno fans is that this kind of violence means different things between the two.

For Techno, fighting for or alongside someone is a pretty important thing; for someone who feels like he is often dehumanized and viewed as a weapon, choosing who he fights for and who he lends his power to means a lot.

As I see it, It's why his feeling abandoned during the Red Festival has much more weight amongst Techno enthusiasts then Tommy or Tubbo enjoyers, and why his bringing it up during Doomsday is such a point of contention between the two groups.

For the people in Tommy and Tubbo's corner, it's a deep hypocrisy; Techno claiming to feel used as a weapon after he had admitted that Tommy's usefulness and status as a friend and/or equal was tied directly to his being willing to fight.

But for the Techno corner, that's not what it's about; For Techno, fighting for someone you care about is a big deal, especially for someone who ends up being a loner a lot of the time. The willingness to protect someone is something deeper, almost symbolic.

It's a pretty nasty spot of miscommunication, tied with genuine misrepresentations of what Techno wanted from Tommy and a complete misunderstanding of what Tommy wanted from L'manberg and Tubbo, largely because during the Bedrock Bros arc, Tommy didn't know either.

Which ties back into how Tommy's relationship with violence works, and how it is pretty much the antithesis of Techno's.

For Tommy, not fighting someone is often a better indicator of his caring for them then his willingness to fight for them.

The best example of this is the scene in the community house; Tommy realizes that hurting his friends (specifically Tubbo) is not worth it - it's not going to get him what he wanted, and it's the turning point where he starts to understand what he always knew subconsciously; that what made the discs important wasn't entirely linked to the physical objects, it was the feeling of a carefree 'before time' that he wanted to return to.

It's Tommy's refusal to keep fighting Tubbo that is a transformative and inspiring moment for him, and a deep betrayal for Techno.

And it's why it hurts them both so badly.

Tommy doesn't want to fight Techno. He's genuinely apologetic to him and very obviously feels horrible for leaving him, and I imagine, had Dream not escalated the situation, Tommy would've been protecting him if the Butcher Army had tried to press the attack and finish what they started.

But for Techno, this is a brutal betrayal - Tommy used him, despite the fact that Tommy had just lost the very thing he had joined Techno to retrieve, because Techno was conflating Tommy's willingness to fight with his willingness to protect Techno, because that's how Techno shows that he cares.

To Techno, Tommy refusing to fight for him is a betrayal. For Tommy, it is a reclamation of his sense of self, but not an abandonment of Techno inherently.

Another example is Tommy continuing to follow Wilbur during the Pogtopia era, even when it was becoming more and more clear that Wilbur's spiral was endangering the people Tommy cared about.

Tommy refused, at every point, to get violent with Wilbur, or even to abandon him. He refused to believe that it would come to that, and he continued to believe in Wilbur's ability to pull himself back from the edge.

(It also makes Wilbur's beliefs on violence in his conversation with Big Q during the elections even more tragic. It was never a belief set that Tommy shared, even when Wilbur was being consumed by it.)

And again, when the cabinet was talking about killing Techno, Tommy was the one piping up in his defense because he was (at the time) just minding his own business. This is the foreshadowing to bedrock bros.

And we can see the reverse of this when Tommy is being violent. It's generally portrayed as something negative for his character, as a failing.

It's why Revivedbur goading Tommy into fighting him while they're doing the tour is such a dark moment.

It's why the scene in the pit and Techno's killing Tubbo is such a sticking point for Tommy and why Wilbur's giddiness at the brutality is so disturbing; Wilbur was aware that this was a devolution for Tommy.

It's also why I personally consider his killing Jack to be the lowest point of exile. It was a full refutation of the kind of 'silly' violence, AKA violence with no consequences. What would have been a dumb joke before suddenly took on this somber tone, as Jack tried to swim back up and save himself. This ends up being further compounded by Jack declaring this a canon death - Tommy, at his lowest, kills someone he once considered a friend.

This is why many Tommy enthusiasts view Bedrock Bros as the closest he ever came to a villain arc; Tommy hurting people for the sake getting what he wanted was a massive shift in his character's morality - it's why his declaration of being "worse than everyone I didn't want to be" means so much.

And while it's easy to think that "someone he didn't want to be" means Techno here, I'd argue he's referring to Wilbur. Wilbur, who gave in to his worst self and ended committing violence against all of his loved ones, precisely when he realized that he wouldn't be able to recover the thing he wanted most. Wilbur, who was the one who taught Tommy to fight with "words, not violence."

"The thing I built this nation for doesn't exist anymore," and "The discs were worth more than you ever were" are lines that parallel each other.

But where Wilbur follows his words up with an act of tragic, self-destructive violence, Tommy catches himself. Tommy stops hurting Tubbo. He stops trying to hurt L'manberg. He tells Tubbo to give Dream the disc, refuting Wilbur's idea that "if I can't have it, no one can," that poisoned his mind.

None of this is to say Tommy is a pacifist. He will definitely fight when he has to - he's a war veteran, after all.

But I do think there's a distinct difference in how he relates to violence when contrasted against other characters, and how he's failed and succeeded with regards to that.