#or something idk I’m not a redditor

[chirpsythismorning]

The way they framed surfer boy pizza with Mike in s4 makes me optimistic about the prospects of smalltown boy agenda actually

[ronniaugust]

How To Write Good Dialogue (Part 1)

I'm gonna start this by saying I'm not trying to sound like a know-it-all. I am just tired of posts like these being absolutely fucking useless. I am aware this is basically me screaming into a void and I’m more than okay with that.

This guide is meant for intermediate screenwriters, but beginners are also absolutely welcome. :)

(about me)

-♠︎-♠︎-♠︎-♠︎-

I've noticed a rise in film students who want to make films that have no dialogue. Probably after your professor showed you Doodlebug, right? Fuck that.

I'll make another post about writing a short film, but all you need to know is: Don't waste the audience’s time. Most of these no-dialogue shorts have very little substance and take way too long to tell the shortest possible story. Not a good idea.

Useless Dialogue

Plain and simple, don't write useless dialogue. Useless dialogue is dialogue that just doesn't fucking matter. Dialogue matters by having ✨subtext.✨

What is subtext? Subtext is the meaning behind the action. That's it.

If I tell you that I love you and I got big doe eyes while I say it, it means I love you. If I tell you I love you through a clenched jaw without looking at you, I don't necessarily love you right now.

Simple, right? Great.

Now think about the subtext behind every line. Does your character mean what they're saying? Are they doing it to get what they want? What is going through their mind as they say it? As long as you know your character, you’ll have these answers ready to go. If you don’t, you’ll figure it out eventually. Just keep writing.

When you write your character walking into a Starbucks and saying, "One venti iced coffee," does that do something? Why do I need to see someone's boring Starbucks order? Do I need to know that your character's boring? Why are you writing a boring character? [Of course, in the rare situation where this is some revealing clue to the massive crime investigation, then it makes sense.]

Useless dialogue is any dialogue that has no meaning or purpose in your script. Delete and move on. You don't need to write entire conversations or scenes that bore us, just write what we care about.

I took a class once where my professor called a version of this "trimming the fat." Get us into your scene and out of your scene in as little time as it takes to have it achieve its full purpose in the script.

[P.S. You don’t “inject” subtext into your lines. Idk who started that vernacular in subtext teachings but I hate it.]

Show vs. Tell

I remember a glorious fight I got into with a Redditor last year about show vs. tell… TL;DR: Dialogue is “show” if you write it with intention and subtext. If someone says that dialogue is inherently “tell,” they’re wrong and can go fuck themselves.

Dialogue that is “tell” is expositional dialogue. But, hot take: Exposition isn't just in dialogue. It’s also those annoying clichés that make you roll your eyes in the theater (which we just call clichés and not exposition). I’m sure every professor I’ve had will disagree with this and then get me into a long conversation about it, but let’s ignore that for right now.

Have you ever seen a movie where a character rubs an old, worn-out photo of a young girl while looking depressed? That's exposition. That character has a dead daughter. No shit.

Clichés are incredibly annoying. We all know that. Assume that any cliché you see - in this context - is exposition and try your best not to write it. (Tropes are different and sometimes necessary, so I’m not talking about that.)

Point blank: When you have subtext in your lines, they are "show,” not “tell.”

Before moving on, I'll bring up that while technically the dead daughter photo is subtextual, it is as close to the character saying “My daughter is dead,” as you can get. Don't treat the audience like we're fucking stupid.

The First 15

If you don’t know what the Inciting Incident is, please look up “3 Act Structure” before reading this.

The first 15 pages of your script is the part that comes before the Inciting Incident. This is the part you want to get right because, although people probably won’t leave the theater, they will absolutely find something else on the streaming service they’re using. The people making said movie will also just toss your script in the trash before it’s even produced, so it's best to get it right.

Dialogue in the first 15 generally follows the same rules, but carries a heftier additional rule. All dialogue in the first 15 minutes must, must, must tell us something about your character.

Remember when I talked about that boring Starbucks order? Why is your character boring? Don’t write that. Don’t write nice characters. Or pleasant characters. Or friendly characters. No one cares.

You want empathy. This does not mean “relatable.” It means “empathetic.” There is a difference.

I personally relate to Vi in Arcane, but I empathize with Theo in Children of Men. Both are excellent, but one personally resonates a bit more with me. You cannot write a character that deeply resonates with every single person, it is impossible.

With each line of dialogue, you must be saying something about your character that generates the empathy. Instead of telling you how to do this, I’ll direct you to a movie that will do better than an explanation: Casablanca.

Watch how Rick interacts with the world. What kind of man is Rick? Watch what he does, what he says, and how he treats people and himself. Watch that empty glass on the table. Watch his contradictions. Everything. Those things matter and it’s what makes you want to watch Rick for the entire duration of Casablanca.

“Realism”

This is maybe more directorial, but make your characters human enough, not too human.

Too human is when you’ve tried your best to capture all those little life-like speech patterns. You know, the ones that no one fucking cares about.

If your character coughs, they’re sick. If they clear they’re throat, they’re uncomfortable. If a bruise isn’t going away, they’re going to die. Simple.

Every moment on screen matters. Everything the audience sees is meant to lead them to a conclusion. Not the conclusion, just a conclusion.

The realism you want is in the choices your character makes, not how many times they say “Uh,” in a sentence.

Conclusion

Dialogue matters and should not be treated lightly or without care. Once you have this all engrained in your mind, dialogue should become effortless.

If you want an excellent way to think about this, Robert McKee's Story has an excellent chapter that helped clarify this all for me. Here's an excerpt and the context.

Warning, spoilers for Chinatown.

"If I were Gittes at this moment, what would I do?"

Letting your imagination roam, the answer comes:

"Rehearse. I always rehearse in my head before taking on life's big confrontations."

Now work deeper into Gittes's emotions and psyche:

Hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel, thoughts racing: "She killed him, then used me. She lied to me, came on to me. Man, I fell for her. My guts are in a knot, but I'll be cool. I'll stroll to the door, step in and accuse her. She lies. I send for the cops. She plays innocent, a few tears. But I stay ice cold, show her Mulwray's glasses, then lay out how she did it, step by step, as if I was there. She con-fesses. I turn her over to Escobar; I'm off the hook."

EXT. BUNGALOW-SANTA MONICA

Gittes' car speeds into the driveway.

You continue working from inside Gittes' pov, thinking:

"I'll be cool, I'll be cool ..." Suddenly, with the sight of her house, an image of Evelyn flashes in your imagination. A rush of anger. A gap cracks open between your cool resolve and your fury.

The Buick SCREECHES to a halt. Gittes jumps out.

"To hell with her!"

Gittes SLAMS the car door and bolts up the steps.

Story by Robert McKee, pg 156

The context of this page is McKee's way of explaining how to write characters. I found it very helpful.

-♠︎-♠︎-♠︎-♠︎-

Thanks for reading! I probably forgot something, so I made this a “part 1.”

I hope this helps someone since I’m really tired of finding short films on YouTube that are all fucking silent. The few who have done it well have been copied to death, so please write some dialogue. I promise you it’s so much better if you do.

Asks are open! :)

[nonasbirthday]

wait it’s actually crazy to me that people liked harrow’s book better than gideons because i’m the opposite 😭 don’t get me wrong I love both but sometimes harrows ends up being a slog for me halfway through while i’m seated for every part of gideons pov idk

I'm with you there. Same deal, I *love* HTN, but I've made no secret of the fact that I almost DNF-ed it the first time I read it and I think its structure is a barrier to entry for people who would otherwise be into TLT.

A handful of redditors aside, I think the far more common experience (more common than someone who had to force themself to finish GTN but enjoyed the other two books) is a reader who enjoyed GTN, picked up Harrow, found it confusing and slow, and put the series down permanently. Judging strictly by the number of Goodreads ratings (since I can't find # of copies sold), readership halves between GTN and HTN. I'm sure this drop is a pretty typical pattern for books in a series, but given the giant cliffhanger GTN ends on, I'm surprised that more people who enjoyed GTN don't go straight from the first book into the second. Like to me, GTN does not read as a stand-alone. So again, to me, such a steep drop in readership between books indicates that something about HTN is keeping people from continuing with the series.

And if you've opened the book, it's pretty easy to tell what that something is! HTN is tonally a near about-face from GTN. It's trying to gaslight you about a book you already read. And, crucially, it is (mostly) missing Gideon.

Anyways idk what this whole long rant was for except to say that I agree with you and am in the same boat and I think our experience is a lot more common than the reverse. I think more people quit reading for lack of Gideon than breathe a sigh of relief when she's gone. Like, a LOT more. And I actually wish they would have a little more love for Harrow and stick it out lol.

[daenystheedreamer]

Ok this is a dumb question but do you understand the grand maester conspiracy? It’s popping up again and maybe I’m just an idiot but like all the things listed about killing dragon eggs and lying about shit, I just think like why would they be doing that tho? I know it’s like an intro to asoiaf theory and it’s also just regarded as not true. Idk am I just not getting it or is this why people say it’s bs

Grand Maester Conspiracy is one of those theories like Grand Northern Conspiracy where there's truth to it - the Northerners have their own agendas, and the Maesters have their own agendas (eg pycelle the tywin meatrider the lannister glazer the dj akademiks of asoiaf) - but it's not the blown out big dick illuminati conspiracy certain sections of the fandom act like it is.

The conspiracy literally sounds like something a coked-up Targaryen dickrider like Bloodraven would invent. "Maesters have spent 300 years possibly longer destroying the targ dynasty because they're r/atheist and hate magic" it honestly sounds like the asoiaf version of an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. it's illogical and totally impractical and sounds nothing like what GRRM would write.

to be mean. it's for targ stans. and especially ones who've only watched hotd and read den of geek articles where the authors drag up some forum theory without context and since they haven't even read asoiaf they don't even have the actual context of the actual main fucking story. cringe!

r+l=j created a generation of the most insufferable forum redditors all desperate to create the next wide-ranging conspiracy theory and since its been 13 damn years without that damn book they had to get bigger and more wide reaching until literally 300 years worth of tens of thousands of maesters all with the same anti targ agenda have to all be working together for this to a) work and b) be so secret its even secret to the reader. also all the evidence is BS i hate when they use the barbrey grey rats quote cos that's pure barbrey crazy that's her own thing.

[godzillabreath]

Clone High S2 thoughts

Discussion/spoilers (if you can spoil a situational comedy lol) under the cut

I first watched the original Clone High when I was in high school, so it’s a little wild to be watching and getting really invested in season 2 15 years later. It’s something I probably never even considered at the time.

I rewatched the first season recently as well, so I would have some context for going into the second season after so long. And the first season is still reliably so funny, so sharp and biting in its commentary. I feel like there is not a single joke that doesn’t still land today. The characters are so hyperbolic and chaotic that every scene is fresh and you never know what to expect from the plot. The geometry of the character design and the backdrops are simple but so effective and stylish, too. Season 1 really is just a good comedy you can watch again and again, and every character contributes to the laughs and momentum of the episodes. Gandhi is especially missed, and I think you can really feel his absence in Season 2 ),:

Okay, so Season 2. I’m gonna be upfront, I don’t think it is written very well. It feels very much like a fan facsimile of the original biting humor. I think I only laughed at a handful of jokes over the course of the entire season, which was definitely disappointing. It falls into the trap that so many reboot adult cartoons fall into in that it devotes so much of its time to rehashing cancel culture and social media as buzzwords, but not actually saying anything interesting or meaningful about them. The show no longer pulls from teen media tropes and contemporary television drams to inform its over-the-top “melancholy adolescent” humor. It feels like the extent of what they brought to the table was “Tiktok exists, isn’t that funny” and “you can’t be problematic!!!!” humor, but without really exploring the ludicrousness and the discourse cycle of the modern internet. It very much feels like the writers didn’t know the topics firsthand, but still wanted to comment on them in a shallow and cursory way. 

Let’s look at the new characters they added. Frida has an incredible design and conceptually I adore her. A mellow artist that skateboards and is hugely gay? All right, I love that. I wish there was a little more to her, though. I wanted to see more of the hyperbolic personality traits that each original character had in season 1. Make her outlandish, make her weirder with regards to her art, I don’t know, you could have gone in so many directions. I just wanted to see MORE.

 And this is an issue I have with all of the new characters and even to some extent the returning characters. I feel like Joan especially lost her weirdness and her edge in the reboot, with only the end scene of her freaking out and sabotaging her friends being something fun and true to her vindictive streak that she had in the original season. Confucius feels like he adds nothing to the plot other than to inform JFK and the audience that the internet exists. He should have been a bombastically internet-addicted clout goblin, constantly cutting content, and as he is now, he’s just falling extremely flat. I wanted the writers to crank the dial to 11 with Harriet and really explore her fear of being incredibly basic, like maybe she has Live Laugh Love text art in her room or her favorite tv show is the Office, idk, but as is she just seems like a Normal, Nice Person. Which is Fine, but it doesn’t make for great comedy. 

Topher is the only character I feel really channels the chaotic core of the original Clone High season, and he’s not even there for many scenes. I love the idea of a manipulative little mentally ill Redditor whelp. It’s relatable, it works well in commenting on modern internet culture, it’s freaky, I like it. I’m surprised they didn’t have Confucius and Topher interacting more because they both are chronically online and I feel like there is so much potential there.

I guess my takeaway opinion is that I’d like to see them amp up the personality of each of the characters by like 200%. And it’s a little late for this now, but I wish they’d have done more of a slow burn on Cleo and Frida’s relationship. It would’ve been cool to see Cleo contending with the fact that she wasn’t the most popular girl in school anymore and what kind of schism that would have created between her and Frida initially. More of an enemies to lovers dynamic would have been fun. 

So those are my thoughts. I could have gone on longer, but... I think this is already getting too long haha. I think I feel so opinionated on it because I can really see the latent stellar potential in the characters, and with a few exceptions, they all feel so underutilized in this season. 

Looking forward to season 3+ to see what they do next, though! 

[mod-doodles]

Quick rant but i‘m struggling with the bear fandom and cast/show runners response to sydcarmy or in general romance? why is everyone so pretentious i saw someone on twt say people who ship sydcarmy need to get out because this is not riverdale and it pissed me off so much what’s with this assumption of two main characters falling in love makes the show less serious or something. Ayo‘s interviews are also still a bad taste in my mouth because i feel bad openly shipping them now idk i don’t want this to be one of those shows were the actors/creators hate their fans/fandom :/

Firstly confession I never watched an episode of Riverdale I tapped out that YA genre when I stopped watching PLL, TVD and the originals, so I don’t get the reference.

With fans of the show who hate the ship it’s layered: apparently people hate love, the romance genre, interracial love, Carmy being in love, Sud being the one he’s in love with and much more lmao. Some of these people have intersecting thoughts on this.

The articles from the cast and crew it’s a catch 22 situation, I’m a cynic so my approach to life is ‘expect the worst and be prepared for the best’. What they’re saying does not align with what I’m seeing and I’m aware that what I’m seeing is not say a stereotypical Redditor is seeing and that’s fine. I’m also aware that show runners need to keep viewer’s attention and want for more, hence cliffhangers and plot twists; they aren’t going to give us a play by play of the stories progression.

My suggestion is to do whatever you think is best for you and your mental health! That might be avoiding certain platforms where they engage in those conversations that might enrage you or it might be silent shipping.

For me it’s knowing what I’ll yet from each platform so if I go look I now what to expect

Twitter: is mostly a good time if you stay to the fandom tags, idk what anyone else is doing. I do know Twitter was fighting on the frontlines of the anti ship battle at one point and god bless them for their service.

TikTok: is great at helping you be delulu with all the fanedits lol but I know the algorithm is suggesting is anyone who is remotely interested in the show the the comments while mostly pro ship have some anti ship viewers as well.

Instagram: idk anything besides the official instagram for the show so you’ll get everyone’s opinions on everything.

Tumblr: is a safe space, all the ships have their own tags and mind their own business 🤍 that but also after having interacted with people who ship sydrichie / sydmarcus there wasn’t any animosity so great.

It’s a show, we’re experiencing escaping reality don’t let anyone ruin the fun for you. Be unbothered and delulu!

[catgirlforeskin]

That's it, snowflakes, you have fun worrying about some bullshit social justice issues that concern only some heathens on the other side of the globe, but what about issues that affect me instead?

- OP of the truscum post, I am not even angry at people who are afraid of trump winning, but this is just so many levels of entitlement and all phrased in a way like "being a big time egoist is actually much better than your SJW fantasies of other people's lives actually having worth" fucksakes we need PRC-EU alliance to balkanize USA and do forced re-education

I’m answering this one because I would like to be a collaborator with the PLAGF Occupation Forces but oh my god I am tired of these truscum anons there’s a bunch more in the inbox linking to various Reddit posts idk how many people are sending em but IM NOT CLICKING. I don’t care what redditors think let’s talk about final fantasy xiv or something

[catboydan]

tell me what the video Basically, I’m Gay means to you?

I think it’d be easier to list all the things it doesn’t mean to me than the things it does lmao

but fr, BIG was the video that got me here in the first place. I remember seeing it and all the hype—I knew who dnp were at the time, but all I’d be able to tell you at the time was it was a pretty big deal he was coming out. BIG is so well-written, well-presented, it drew me in right away. I clicked for the fact that a lot of people were talking about it; I came out of it wanting more.

So I got more. So I started with Dan’s vids, especially stuff similar to BIG like Trying to Live My Truth, and was pretty much hooked right away. Didn’t take long to end up on Phil’s channel too, +dnpg. Consumed it all like mad.

So I logged into my old unused tumblr for the first time in maybe 6 or 7 years and started following. That action alone has done me so so much good.

When BIG came out I was 20. I was knee-deep in the “trying to figure out who I am” shit. More specifically, I was trying desperately to ditch the younger version of myself, the fucking redditor since I was like 10, surrounded by misogyny, who “wasn’t like other girls” (even if I’d never say it aloud). I was trying to allow myself to be a woman in a world that despises and mocks anything woman-centric. I was coming out of a lifelong depression for the first time after a decade of almost total apathy, and frankly, I was learning how to handle emotions again.

BIG kicked me in the stomach. In a good way. I cried. I didn’t know this man and I cried. It helped me realize that I love learning about other peoples’ experiences, ones that I may never have, and how wonderful it is to be able to share our lives with the world in this way and learn about each other’s unique perspectives. I especially love (and relate to) the way Dan explains things so meticulously. I was rediscovering passion after having lost it for so long; BIG helped bring some of it back to me.

I got into the phandom here, something teenage me would have absolutely cringed at myself for. Even though I’d never dare judge anyone here for liking what they like, I didn’t know how to give myself that same grace. After what, five? years here, now I’ve finally been able to allow myself to enjoy what I like. The amazing community I’ve found myself in has been such a catalyst for this, and I’d never have gotten here without BIG.

So yeah. BIG’s pretty good. I used to watch it every day at work while prepping Pizza Hut pastas. I used to watch it as I tried to stave off a depressive episode, sitting in the bath eating candy, desperate for any happiness at all, before I got my ADHD diagnosis and meds. It never failed to make me laugh too cuz frankly, its funny moments are great. That bit where he looks at the tag of his jacket and it says HIGHLY FLAMMABLE gets me every single time. I live for dinof-related jokes. (And tbh, as aforementioned, being on reddit for so long, seeing shitty watercolour come so far puts a smile on my face too.)

idk. This is rambly and I’m not sure if I got everything across, but that’s because I kind of love that video so much it’s hard to contain it in one little post. Thanks for the ask, anon (and possibly the other asks recently too, if you’re the same anon) :)

[angellababyy]

As I’m writing this balling my eyes out, Jesus sometimes I’m so happy that I am at peace with myself, being by myself but it’s to the point where I’ve distanced myself from everyone, everything, due to people betraying my trust. It sucks because the people who’ve done me wrong, I always find something nice to say about them still. I somehow have this mindset where I think not all people are monsters — they just become them due to things happening to them in their own lives.

Hurt people hurt people… it’s a cycle a never ending cycle. I just wish things were okay, there are so many people that I miss and that I love so much but I’m scared to let them back into my life or the thought of them gets me nervous. I know I’m capable of forgiveness and I know my heart is big enough for that but for once I just want a sincere apology, reasoning, as to why. Why did they do it? the people who “had my best interest at heart” hurt me?

I think about this almost every night. It’s a mind trail I go down before I pass out into oblivion.

Idk I feel like a Redditor rn lol.

[mlchaelwheeler]

I’m so sick of that twitter ‘leaker.’ I know that she has been right about some things, but she acts incredibly smug, as though she knows everything that’s going to happen when she clearly doesn’t. She said that she gets her leaks from stand ins, doubles, and extras who have been right in the past, but you can’t get a full picture on what’s going to happen just from some doubles or extras hahaha, like when someone asked if Will is going to be vecnad she basically replied with something along the lines of no and I don’t care (I don’t believe it lol she can’t know everything). I do like to get spoilers, but the leaker that I go to (on reddit) isn’t biased at all and is super trustworthy bc he’s been right about everything in the past. He had the same spoiler about the bath, but he didn’t say anything about Mike confessing his love to El in his monologue during that scene, while the other leaker did, and I lowkey think she made it up lol…The redditor basically confirmed that while the tweeter isn’t purposefully lying and has been right about a few things, that she has been wrong about some things in the past bc she’s too gullible and just blindly believes sources. I also think she just posts what she wants to hear or the things she likes the sound of, if she actually was sent a very verifiable byler leak or leak about will, she’d either discredit it or just not post it. I’ve noticed too that when people ask her specific questions about the characters or ships she likes, she gives specific answers, but if people ask about anything to do with Will or Mike or any character she dislikes she gives the most vague answers, the same with some of the supernatural plots as well. like someone asked a question about a plot that has been theorized about and she goes ‘i guess so idk’. I think my problem is that people still see her as a reliable source. Even though some of her leaks have been correct in the past, her obvious dislike for certain characters and storylines color how she interprets things.

You said everything I'm thinking!! In light of the recent freak out on the byler tag, I'm just gonna leave this here lol <3

[hms-no-fun]

what's your opinion on fictives of characters in godfeels who haven't really broadly been definied yet? obviously i doubt you'd be judgmental based on other opinions you've expressed but id really like to hear your perspective on this

it's been interesting, that's for sure! i was fully prepared for folks to either be disinterested in or actively dislike my OCs, so for them to not only be broadly liked but also introjected to multiple systems frankly came as a really vindicating surprise! one of the reasons i parceled out info about the upsilons so slowly over 3.1 was to give them a psychological presence in the reader’s mind from a distance so that, when they became an actual narrative presence, they’d have a context within which to understand and theorize about them. apparently it worked! so that’s cool.

i’ll start by saying that my approach to fictives across the board is pretty much the same as my approach to any other fan in the discord. i may have written the source material, and i may know things about these characters that no one else will for a long time, but the characters i’m writing aren’t the fictives in my readership. does that make sense? my knowledge of Edie, for instance, doesn’t have much at all to do with any given Edie fictive because said fictive already exists; and if that Edie fictive exists, i have to assume it’s because something in the text resonated enough to allow for her introjection; thus that fictive, IN MY NON-AUTHORITATIVE OPINION, is a snapshot of that particular system’s (or someone therein’s) conception of Edie at the moment of her introjection. and that’s really fucking cool actually???? like, just from a purely practical standpoint, you have NO idea how useful it is for me as a writer to have such direct barometers of the audience’s perception of a character at any given moment in their story! the fact that there are so many upsilon fictives running around makes me really happy & excited to finally get to 3.2, not least because generally y’all aren’t too far off characterization-wise. which, you know, is one of those things that tells me i’ve done my job well and that i’m on the right track with my schemes and machinations... and that’s the least important thing i get out of the arrangement!

sure, it can be surreal reading back over a server channel where one Lenore, two Edies, two Danas, and half a dozen Junes are all theorizing about Silverbark’s behavior amongst themselves, but would it really be a materially different circumstance if they weren’t fictives? i don’t blink when a bunch of furries start awooing in a server i’m in. i don’t even blink when furries start awooing in real life! i mean, god, what’s the alternative? redditors?? fuck that shit, i’ll take the plural homestuck queers any day of the week.

there have been times when i’ve seen a fictive just be completely outright wrong about a characterization or detail, and i’ve really had to resist the urge to correct them. like what am i gonna do, say “you’re wrong about who you are”??? it wouldn’t just be a spoiler to correct them in most cases, it’d also be... idk, insulting? at least it seems like it would be insulting. i’m certainly insulted when cis people tell me i’m not performing femininity correctly! and there is a part of me who finds that worrisome. the truth come out eventually, you know? and there’s some stuff we might not be getting to for another year or more. what happens when a fictive solidifies their sense of self around a misconception that doesn’t get disproven for months and months?? what do i do if a fictive insists that my interpretation of their source character is wrong when they’ve lived as that character for a while?????

these are the kinds of breathless paranoid questions that always come up among artists with or in a fandom. and there’s a reason for that, you know? when i first started the godfeels fanserver, i was EXTREMELY wary. plural folks, kinnies, obsessive fans, they’ve got a bad reputation for causing drama! or well, they do among artists who consider themselves Normal wink wink nudge nudge. but what i found the more time i spent in the fanserv was that, like every category of identity, there’s nothing inherent to plurality or fictivity that guarantees immaturity or emotional volatility. there’s a part of me that wants to point at how many plural folks in fandom circles are teens or in their early 20s, and that generally online drama is a result of adults and children being expected to share all of the same online spaces... but that youthfulness holds true for the godfeels community and i’ve found y’all to be a remarkably mature readership!

it’s not helpful to point at circumstances outside of one’s control as the reason somebody is “bad” or whatever. if the problem is cultural conservatism, or artistic malnutrition, or an individual trauma response, or a simple misunderstanding, or just outright vindictiveness, you address THOSE things. and it’s my responsibility as an artist who chose to create a central community hub for my readership to do my best in addressing any situations that might arise with empathy and compassion. frequent users of any community hub like a discord server develop habits based on the rules of the space and how they are/aren’t enforced. if for instance you go to the HSD [do not do this under any circumstances even as a joke], you’ll find that positive discussions about most fandom projects get swallowed up by ridicule almost immediately- and not just ridicule of the project in question, but often of the person who posted it too! this creates a self-perpetuating environment of hostility where the best way to get in the good graces of community leadership is to be an edgelord. for my money, that’s why the homestuck fandom is Like That.

i’ve tried to encourage the exact opposite of this, as inspired by the success of the late Perfectly Generic Podcast server (where the godfeels fanserv’s vibes-based rules are largely taken from, may she rest in peace), and i think that’s worked out well overall? because now when an issue arises within the community, more often than not the consistent users naturally de-escalate the situation! granted, the godfeels fandom as such isn’t particularly big, and the necessary wordcount buy-in to even GET to my OCs is high enough that it naturally selects out a lot of folks who might have caused problems, so this level of community stewardship is a whole hell of a lot easier to accomplish than it might be otherwise.

wow, this answer went way off the fucking rails. what the hell was i... oh yeah! you asked me my thoughts on fictives of characters we don’t know very well yet. here, let me answer that for you.

i think fictives are beautiful, and i wish them the world. my dearest hope for any fictive, regardless of what is Known about their source character, is that they grow beyond their lateral connection to the source material. not abandon it, necessarily! but what i find so existentially fascinating about fictives isn’t really all that removed from one of the major driving forces of godfeels: one’s capacity to become Yourself. who is Edie, or Dana, or Lenore, or Alphi? who were they at 13? at 21? at 29? compare the youngest self with the oldest self and you might not even be able to tell that they’re supposed to be the same character. one reason godfeels has become such an ensemble production is precisely because much of said ensemble has undergone some amount of change, and given homestuck’s obsession with The Ultimate Self i just find that too compelling to not explore at length.

so like, if a Dana fictive is out of character from my perspective, that’s great! in case it wasn’t clear from the text of chapter 8, i am Not A Fan of unchanging & all-consuming character archetypes. in point of fact, i believe that divergence is a virtue. i believe that identity is a buffet at a playground for everyone. i believe that any person who chooses to live truer to themself than they were raised to do is braver than every cop and every troop on planet earth. i believe that human culture is an ecology of change. i believe that deciding you are a Finished Person who has learned every important lesson and acquired every necessary skill is tantamount to taking up early residence in your own grave. so really, my dream is to live in a world where EVERY fictive is as spectacularly in or out of character as they like! the hope with the Risk/Dare & Angel Dirk chapters was to give all readers, but especially fictives, a context and toolset for handling divergence conceptually, philosophically, narratively, emotionally, personally. because i don’t think it’s just the characters of this story who compel introjection, but the nature of the text itself- so, by extension, all i want is for any given fictive to feel permitted to become whoever it is they might be now that they’ve left the source text. i would vastly prefer a legion of singularly feral Edies over a well-reasoned community consensus on what Is or Is Not in character, you know?

which isn’t to say that the facts don’t matter or that i dislike reasoned community discussion btw! i love close analysis and eager back-and-forths trading text snippets and piecing together the godfeels mysteries pepe silvia style. but i believe there is room for both. there must be.

so, uh, in short i guess: you’re doing great and i’m very proud of you. keep up the good work.

[sour-n-salty-citrus]

Do you like the backstory for rick? Idk I kinda preferred it when Rick's past was a complete mystery and i dont really care about diane at all. I didn't expect the writers to actually write a canon for him either but I guess they realised how much the audience wanted one for him

Ajdjdjeidjs ack, I'll be honest I'm not... keen on it.

(Bolly-quinn actually puts it into words well how I feel about Rick's backstory here)

I liked the mystery element of his backstory! I know it's always exciting to have things in canon, but like... it being open to interpretation was something I always appreciated.

And... ugh, hoo boy. I'm torn. I mean, I love that Rick is completely different from what dudebros and like- "high iq" redditors present him as. He's a man who loved his wife and daughter, loved them so much he would rather give up travelling the multiverse, becoming a genius scientist, just to stay with them. He was vulnerable, soft, and caring. He wasn't nihilistic and reckless and selfish and some "alpha male who wouldn't let anything tie him down". He was ridiculously romantic, optimistic, sweet and loving, and maybe even kind.

And I don't give a shit.

I don't! I don't care. This might sound incredibly cruel and unfair, but I don't care that Rick lost his family.

Ok- let me explain.

I'm... disappointed. I'm disappointed that losing Beth and Diane is all it was that made Rick into the complete and utter monster he is today (or the start of the series anyway). I don't mean to undermine his loss and grief- at all! It's just... for him to go on a (seemingly decades long) killing spree, slaughtering any version of himself he seemed to come across... christ. Maybe in his eyes, they were all as bad as that One. Which is understandable. I'm very lucky to have not experienced that kind of loss. I haven't had to Grieve the way Rick did. Maybe I just don't get it, because I've never felt it. That's fair.

It just felt... god, I don't want to say excessive. I know, people process grief in different ways, and for some it manifests in unhealthy ways, some lash out at the world, fixate on trying to find an explanation, to find justice, etc. And I like how Rick was an absolute inconsolable wreck at first. Something like that, it needs time to process and overcome before you can start moving again.

I just- I don't know. Something rubbed me the wrong way about it all.

It's like- it's not that I wanted Rick to have spent all that time partying or something. It's just- argh, i don't know! Maybe someone else can put it into better words lol.

I hate that he immediately jumped into not giving a single shit about other people (save birdperson and squanchy!). Like- when he blew up those aliens who gave him whatever it was he needed. Ah- ok, they probably weren't exactly innocent or anything, but still. I think it was just I felt if we ever saw Rick's backstory, I'd want it to be a slow decline into who he is, show him gradually losing so much of his morality and becoming so jaded. Idk i guess i just wanted it to be like, a series of significant (and lesser but still important) events that lead to him going down that path rather than- this ONE thing that just apparently completely ruined him? And yeah ik ik it was a BIG thing, but like- i guess i was expecting.... more? Maybe something like idk Rick trying to save all the other Beths and Dianes and failing, idk, just... something more.

I actually would have preferred it if Diane lived. I dont know, I just- man I really hate the dead wife/daughter turns ordinary man into callous asshole trope. I agree, it's hard to really care all that much for Diane, and for a while I couldn't understand why. I thought, idk, is it internalised misogyny? Do I just not like Diane because I want to ship Rick with someone else?

I think I get it now. Diane, for all her significance in Rick's backstory, just... isn't a character. She's just- the motivation Rick needed to kick off the story. You could replace her with literally anybody else Rick could have loved and it wouldn't feel any different. She just doesn't feel special. She's no more unique than any other Dead Wife. We get nothing, literally nothing of her. I kept thinking, why? Why does this just not hit that hard? Rick's had emotional moments with Beth, with Birdperson, even with Summer and Jerry. And then I got it- it doesn't feel earned. It felt like how you feel when you see side characters or extras in the background of an action movie die. Maybe some faint sadness, but mainly nothing. We as an audience get nothing from Diane, we don't know her, don't get to see how she matters to Rick, don't get to see her relationship with Rick, we don't get any chance to connect with her character. So when she dies and Rick gets his montage of seeking revenge, it doesn't feel earned. It feels more like I'm being told about how this guy suffered than really seeing it (which i believe, may have been the writers intention actually...). It's kind of like a feeling of "damn that sucks bro... and?". There's no real heavy emotional response that I could really get from it...

I actually would have preferred if Rick and Diane broke up, divorced. I feel like that would offer so much more for them BOTH as chatacters. Instead of their relationship being happy and sunshine and rainbows until a Big Bad came in and took that away, I'd prefer it if Rick's downfall was just... his fault. (Actually His fault.) If his marriage fell apart because he couldn't make it work. If he estranged his daughter because he couldn't properly handle fatherhood, despite loving her. If he was flawed, terribly flawed, because of his own misjudgement and shortcomings. I guess my biggest problem, is that this is presented as someone having the perfect life, which is then taken away as a result of someone Else. It's too easy to then say, oh, it's not his fault he's like that! He had his heart broken, his life ruined! He lost himself in a revenge spree, poor thing... I'd have rathered if it was just a little bit more... realistic? If Rick had been the root cause of his own problems. If he'd experienced tragedy, but also been the cause of much more. I just wish there'd been more of a balance? It just felt so rushed. And not because of the montage- it just like Rick became completely apathetic way too fast. I just hate hate HATE the "he was a good guy with the perfect little life until tragedy struck and he was never the same". Rick never made the effort to improve his life, to do better, to be better. He's actively a cruel, callous, unkind person (complex, yes, but these are traits no one can deny he harbours). He's done far worse than was done to him, and that will never be justifiable to me... it just all feels so very cliche and out of place, and out of everything, this was the one thing I had hoped they wouldn't do.

I think the writers are aware of this, strangely enough. I mean, Rick even calls it his "crybaby backstory". I think they didn't want to leave it open any longer, and just got it out of the way. I don't think they really want to elaborate on it anymore. From what I predict, they want to focus on the here and now of Rick (and Morty, haha), and the development of who Rick is NOW, instead of who he WAS. I think they kind of just went, here's your gut-punch, your tragic backstory, now leave it alone. Diane is dead, Rick had a hard past, the series is about moving on and change. Now can we PLEASE get back to the sci-fi shenanigans?

(There was something I LOVED about the backstory though, and that was the soundtrack! Like the music for the Battle of Bloodridge, it fucking SLAPPPEDDDD. I can't imagine making synthwave emotional, but it actually kind of worked! The swell of the music actually did a lot more for getting a reaction out of me than the content lmaooo. It kind of reminded me of Kurzegast's "optimistic nihilism" for some reason... I actually liked the Bloodridge track so much, it got me a little into synthwave, which i never listened to before! The music producers this season have just KILLED IT!)

[mariaiscrafting]

ahhhh ty ty ty <3

ok, so I think that what makes Dream act this way (iykyk) is how dreamwastaken became so big so quickly. and by quick I mean fucking lightning speed.

he didn't have enough time to learn enough about cc etiquette, especially in these three aspects: influence, boundaries and fanbase/stans/whatever you call it. I'll try to explain it:

• Influence: Does he know the influence he has? Like, when he hears that he is the myct with the largest fanbase, does he really process that? I remember he talked about not being able to control all of his fanbase and there's bad apples everywhere -- which is true, and that only like 1% of his fanbase breaks his boundaries (that include sending hate for him, harassing, doxing, etc. yk, basic twitter culture lol) but, honey, with your big ass fanbase, 1% is still a lot of people. As a content creator you *have* to be aware of that.

let's take the hbomb situation. First off, as a streamer, it's you that set the mood of the stream. Even if he was only messing around with his pals, even if they did say to do not send hate to hbomb, dt dunking on him created a toxic environment, which caused his fans being toxic towards hbomb and you know what happens next. Hell, when this happened, I was watching Tapl and he was watching them and he was crying laughing over them screaming bc they were just. so loud and so aggressive that it was kinda ??? Sirs, this is literally a Minecraft Stream lmaooo

my point is, that was not the road that dreamwastaken, 21M fans, should've taken. he don't condone his fans actions but he knows his fans are diehard and will always be on his side, he should be more careful before stating negative opinions, especially if its towards another person.

• Boundaries and Fanbase: He posted a list of his boundaries a while ago, idk if you know or seen it (btw please george copy your bestie for the love of god <3) but I'm not talking about those boundaries, I'm talking about the basic boundaries between cc and viewer. boundaries that, in my opinion, should exist between cc and viewer. I get that Dream is an open person, an oversharing type of open person if I may add, but I think he should take a step back regardless. When I heard that he was taking a time from twitter, I genuinely got so glad, not because he couldn't start any drama then, but because it would do so so good for his mental health. I'm not even that fond of him, it's just that for me, any cc taking a break or outright leaving twitter is a win for me. I know how RSD is hard to deal and honestly letting shit out it's better but dream you have dt you have bbh so please don't make things worse online 😭 I know how good can be to feel validation from millions of people but. it's not a good idea, especially in the state that his fanbase is on rn (this topic is kinda sensitive to talk abt for me bc people be outright ableist and hide it as criticism like. say that shit's not helping his reputation and whatever without acting like he's fucking. manipulating his fanbase for being affected by his rsd💀 or, on the other hand, don't say that hes just being adhd🤪 when he's just being an asshole like damn that's a Him thing bro lol)

(omg it's so big I'm so sorry and theres a part two I'm so sorry tumblr user messed-up-gal ToT) - morango 1/2

pt. 2:

Dream is the proof that the people who loves you can be your downfall. istg. Have you noticed that every drama that Dream enters, people usually get more mad abt how his fanbase reacts (85% they'll react in a bad way) than Dream himself? it's not always, but its definitely more likely. I'm not saying Dream is saint, he Is petty and his ego does him dirty and made him choke multiple times before,, But! i dont think hes a bad guy. he's literally just a dude. ok, he's a 21yr old white gamer man that has a trumpie past (maybe?? idk. I think hes cured now ig lol) so he's bound to do some shitty things but he still tries to get better and hopefully he'll mature. 21 is old enough but it's still so young, yk? I kind of lost my mind during the end and my eyes are literally begging to be closed so tl;dr: Its gonna be hard for him to become a better cc bc his fans don't let him be criticized (by infantilizing his adhd symptoms or the mob mentality as soon as someone says anything abt him), the honest criticism get lost between lies from antis that don't know shit, he still has a lot of growing up to do and overall he became famous too fast and he needs to learn things even faster bc as soon as there's not a single one dream hater on sight they'll turn their back and attack him instead lmao I hate twitter i definitely have more to say but I'm tired and my memory is shit. just-- hate dream if you want, love dream if you want, nobody is obligated to have an opinion but I wanted to express mine. have a lovely day! -morango 2/2

Aight, there's a lot to unpack here, so Imma try to only go into the points I have something to add to (here's what I talk about in each paragraph, if you want to jump to a specific point):

Speed of Dream's rise to fame

The "bad apples" in the Dream fanbase

Post-MCC HBomb stream

Not condoning versus actually condemning his fans

Manipulation & RSD

Criticism of Dream, his fanbase, and his brand

The “just a dude” argument, flipped

First, I agree that one of the many factors that has resulted in the current image Dream has set up for himself, the way his fanbase functions, the ways people hate on him, and the way the Dream brand functions, is the speed of his rise to fame. It's unique, and there are probably a hundred social/psychological angles that could be used to examine the exact effects of that speed upon all of these facets of the Dream Name; did rapid fame beget the rapid rise of unrighteous hatred, did those waves of hatred then instigate the rise of a surprisingly overdefensive fanbase, did that rapid fame get to his head and/or result in an inability to appropriately handle all the after-effects of rapid fame, etc.? That point you bring up, about how the speed of his rise to fame requires him to learn even more quickly, is so interesting to me. I think that maybe Dream expected to get pretty famous pretty quickly, hence the preparedness in regards to some mechanics of influencer fame- merchandise, business-building, networking, knowing how to manage his fanbase to best benefit him. But I don't think he expected to get this famous this quickly. This is all speculation of course, as are this entire post and your ask, but I think that he just couldn't anticipate having to learn how to handle enmasse controversy, waves of antis, or every Youtuber speculating/knowing about him; and yeah, that results in him having to learn all of these things very quickly, lest he allow his whole brand and fandom to fall apart.

Second, I disagree with the frequent argument that Dream's fanbase is only marginally toxic. Personally, I think that the circumstances of Dream's fame, his personality and management of his fanbase, and his brand of content have resulted in the very specific kind of stan that Dream stans are. I don't think this is simply a case of "all fandoms have a small percentage of assholes who take it too far;" rather, the nature of the community itself breeds the kind of mentality of "an asshole who takes it too far." I only even know this because I was a Dream fan (kinda a stan, I'm ngl). At one time, I watched every single Dreamwastaken & Dream Team video multiple times; I listened to the Manhunts on repeat, as though they were podcasts; I followed mostly smiletwt and dttwt accounts on mcyttwt; I had upwards of 10 tabs for AO3 DNF fics open on my phone at a time; I watched DNF and Dream Team Being A Family-esque compilations on repeat; I watched every George and Sapnap alt stream I possibly could; I went out of my way to defend Dream against Redditors and Twitter antis regarding the cheating scandal. For the latter half of 2020, and a couple months of 2021, I lived and breathed this part of the fandom; so when I say that Dream stans are a whole other breed than any other kind of mcyttwt stan, I say that because I used to be like that, too. I usually use parasocial very loosely or ironically, but Dream stans are genuinely one of the most parasocial fanbases I have ever seen or been a part of. The level of investment Dream stans have in this man's life, the lengths they will go to to defend him, the amount of psychonalysis and digging they do on his life and character, the amount of emotion he can evoke in them- it's taken to another level, man. This isn't just characteristic of a fraction of his fanbase; this is what the fanbase is like as a whole.

Third, I partially disagree with your take on the HBomb thing, but not in the way one might think? I actually empathize with the way they reacted much more than I thought I would, simply because I suspect I have RSD (also suspect I have ADHD, have for several months now) and I can see myself getting insanely frustrated because of something like that. Like yeah, it was "just a MC stream" or "just an MC game," but that's kinda disregarding the fact that something that might seem like "just a [insert inconsequential thing]" to a rational mind might have a major emotional consequence/take a major emotional toll on someone with RSD, or really anyone who gets easily impatient/angry about video games (Sapnap reminds me of many of my friends, in that way). The issues I, personally, had with the way they handled the HBomb situation is that these are simply explanations and reasons for my empathy; they are not excuses. I have no excuse when I get irrationally angry about something inconsequential in my own life, for a couple of reasons. One, because I am an adult and I need to learn how to handle my reactions and manage my own anger. Two, because as someone with many mental problems, it is my responsibility to learn coping mechanisms to ensure my own emotional stability and livelihood; this includes learning whatever I need to handle RSD- whether that be isolating myself from others when I know I will become violently/passionately angry about something, creating and sustaining a support system that can get me through bouts of extreme emotion, finding healthy emotional outlets for my negative emotions that won't harm myself or others, or a combination thereof. I don't think what they said about HBomb post-MCC was an irreversibly horrible thing, or anything. I think there were errors committed by two men who should be fully capable of foreseeing and preventing those errors, but I don't unconditionally hate Dream or Sapnap for the post-MCC stream or comments. I just wish they had made amends quickly, publicly, and sufficiently, because the greatest consequences from the whole thing weren't even from those two criticizing HBomb themselves; they were from the waves of backlash because of their immense influence on the MCYT fandom, which could've been prevented, if they had acted maturedly and responsibly after the stream.

Fourth, you’re right, that he doesn’t seem to condone his fans’ behavior. I detest the frequent anti argument that one of the reasons Dream should be criticized is because he explicitly uses his fanbase to attack others, or something of the sort. Personally, I think he created his fanbase in a very specific way and interacts with them in such a way so as to benefit him as much as possible, yes, but he never actually tells his fanbase to go and yell at or harrass anyone. Still, there is a significant difference between not condoning something and condemning something. It might seem unfair, and it might be annoying of me to say this, but I truly think that someone with this large a fanbase, especially one as overzealous as Dream’s, needs to be condemned every single time it goes on some kind of rampage/harrassment campaign. Either that, or Dream needs to make a definitive, permanent statement against any kind of harrassment of others on his behalf. I know he’ll occassionally make the odd tweet or serious stream addressing something his fanbase did, but one of the many reasons his fanbase keeps doing the same damn thing is because he’s so lukewarm and spotty about this condemnation. A fanbase like his needs to be given explicit guidance and boundaries for the numerous things they do in his defense- harrassing/doxing antis, harrassing people who criticize him who aren’t antis (respectful criticism, other CCs, other MCYT stans, etc.), harrassing the people he critcizes (i.e., HBomb), speculating about his personal life (his relationship with his gf, his mental health/ADHD, his romantic life, his childhood, etc.), and speculating about his relationships with his friends and colleagues.  My personal ideology is that, if you have significant influence over someone or a group of people, you are at least somewhat responsible for the things those people do or don’t do, if it at all relates back to you. I’m so fucking tired of the argument that CCs aren’t responsible for what their fans do. Obviously they aren’t responsible for every single one of their fans, and obviously they can’t fully control their fans at the end of the day. But I think there are certain things that reach such a level of extremity that does make those CCs responsible. This can be measured by either scale or intensity; that is to say, if a CC’s fanbase does things on an extremely large scale, or one person from/a fraction of the fanbase does something really extreme, then the CC is made all the more responsible. Another CC I’ve always had trouble discussing with other people on this subject is Pewdiepie, in particular, about the extremists in his fanbase. Because the things a small handful of his fans have done in reference to him and/or in his name were so fucking extreme, I thought Pewdiepie had to take at least some responsibilty. Along a similar vein, because the things Dream’s general fanbase does are so widespread and on such a massive scale, Dream has to take at least some responsibility.

Fifth, okay. Hmmm. I want to tackle this point you made about the ableism he faces in some criticism of him carefully and with empathy, but not coddling. One, I do think a lot of the criticism he receives for the ways he handles criticism (post-cheating Tweets, reactions to John Swan, post-MCC HBomb stream, etc.), disregard his RSD and can be oftentimes ableist. I’ve actually encountered people irl who criticize this aspect of Dream’s character, and have had to explain to them their disregard for how ADHD/RSD affect neurodivergent people’s reactions to criticism. But - and this is a big, and very controversial but - I think mentally ill/disordered people can 100% leverage their mental illness/disorders for the sake of manipulation. This is actually something I’ve learned from a psychiatrist, regarding the ways people I know and I handle our anxiety and depression. This manipulation can be unwitting or intentional, but it is entirely possible, and the possibility shouldn’t be entirely dismissed as ableist. Living with a mental illness or disorder that others know about/that you are very public about puts you in an interesting position to receive frequent sympathy, empathy, and/or pity. I’m not saying that empathy for Dream having ADHD/RSD is entirely unjustified; on the contrary, I have frequently expressed how I can relate to his ADHD symptoms and have defended him for expressing those symptoms, both on mcytblr and in real life. I am saying that Dream fans tend to use his ADHD as a kind of shield for a lot of criticism levied against him, including the supposition that he could be manipulating his fanbase to defend him because of his public expressions of RSD. So yes, my theory is that Dream knows how to levy every aspect of his life for his personal gain and for the growth of his brand, and that includes his ADHD. I think he has courage for his openess about his ADHD, I think his openness has contributed to the rise in awareness of mental health and empathy for neurodivergent people within Gen Z, and I think at least some of his expressions of RSD publicly/online weren’t intentionally made public. All that being said, I also think he has to know just how much his fanbase cares about defending him for his ADHD, and I think he has to know that some of the things he does related to his neurodivergence endear him to his audience, in a coddling, baby-ing, mildly ableist sorta way.  Maybe this is all incredibly presumptuous of me. Of course, I can never know the real intentions behind any Dream video, Tweet, or stream. Maybe I’m just projecting, because I can see myself doing just this, if I had the maturity I had circa 2018-2019. Idfk know, man.

Sixth, I actually agree with you here, people probably do get more mad at his fanbase than him. Dream puts out content pretty seldomly, considering the frequency of content output for other Youtubers/streamers in his field/at his brand size. And yet, he has received masses of criticism. Considering that the things Dream himself does/says do not entirely correlate with the amount of criticism he receives, I think it’s a logical assumption that a lot of that criticism actually goes back to the size of his presence online, rather than the man himself. That is to say, because of the massive community he’s amassed, the exponential growth of his fanbase, their presence on every single social media site and in virtually every single Internet space/fandom, and the size of his metaphysical presence in his fields, Dream is much bigger than the man himself, so the criticism he receives will, at least in part, be a direct or indirect result of all these other aspects of the Dream brand.  Something I don’t think many Dream fans/stans, or even most MCYT fans in general, understand, is that Dream isn’t just “one guy” in the eyes of the Internet- at least, not anymore. He hasn’t been for nearly a year. Like Pewdiepie, Mr. Beast, and other CCs who have amassed similar levels of fame and wealth via Internet content creation, Dream is a brand now, and most people will treat him as such. He isn’t just some uwu soft boy playing Minecraft anymore. He is on a whole other level from any other MCYT in his friend circle or colleague interaction bubble. His words will never again live in a vaccum or private bubble, his friend circle will never again be under anything less than intense scrutiny, his past actions will never again be simple mistakes or silly errors, his words will never again be casual tweets or streams for laughs among a couple thousand followers. Dream’s name represents something much bigger than just the one man. As such, all aspects of his brand, including his fanbase, will tie back to him and, ultimately, to any general criticism of him.

I’m not saying I like any of this, and I actually think the evolution of influencers from people to a marketable brand with similar mechanisms, responsibilities, and liabilities as a corporation is some kind of late capitalism nightmare fuel; I’m just stating my own observations and theories as to why so much anti-Dream criticism seems to be directed at his fanbase, rather than him.

Seventh, he’s just a guy, you’re right, but I think a lot of the antis on Tumblr understand this more than you know. As I’ve seen it, the sentiment among much of the “DSMP stans DNI” crowd seems to be that of “Dream/other MCYTs are such ‘bad’ people, so why do their fans stick to these mediocre, racist men, when there are so many better people to watch/better content to consume?” We know this argument is flawed for many of the obvious reasons - the conflation of all MCYTs’ actions regardless of individual identity, the equating of a CC’s fanbase’s morality to that of the CC they enjoy watching, the exxageration of any error MCYT CCs have committed as bigotry/racism, the fundamental misunderstanding and misinformation that led antis to believe this exxageration of the facts, etc. But I want to focus on the general, underlying sentiment of, “why not watch someone better, when your creator is problematic?” Sometimes, I ask this of Dream stans. Yes, being mildly ignorant, getting involved in the scandals Dream has, and being a right-leaning/libertarian centrist in the recent past all seem like harmless things, all things considered. One could say Dream isn’t nearly as bad as many antis who are misinformed seem to believe, and that there are much worse CCs Dream stans could be watching and creating fan content for. But I think what Tumblr antis wonder is, aren’t there also much better MCYTs/CCs people could be watching and stanning? Because he’s just some guy, right? Is his content truly so exceptional or is he really so exceptional a person, that people have to stick by him, despite the things that spike up regarding his current or past actions? I think that’s what made me finally decide to stop watching Dream. I realized he was just Some Guy. The Dream Team was a comforting dynamic to indulge in, DNF was a cute ship to read and speculate about, and Manhunts were fun videos to watch; however, once the Reddit posts came out and I read them in-depth, the cost-benefit analysis tipped over to the “not worth it” side for me. I realized Dream’s content, while fun and comforting, was not entirely unique, and wasn’t worth sticking around for, given what I then knew about his past political leanings. If he is just Some Guy, then there are a hundred more like him out there. There a hundred more ships, a hundred more found family dynamics, a hundred more entertaining and skilled Minecraft players. So while I agree with you on the point of people being allowed to love him regardless because he is just a guy, at the end of the day, I think that, if we are to believe that sentiment or use that argument in such a manner, we should also understand the flip side- that, if he is just some guy, why is it worth sticking around? To that I say, maybe because people just enjoy the simple things they enjoy.

Anyways, I wholly agree with your tl;dr. Thanks for that insanely long ask, this was a fun thing to keep me occupied while I’ve been at work, facilitating Zoom sessions this whole morning.

[pollyjean]

women being like “i don’t understand stocks/economics bc i’m too sexy” just strikes me the wrong way idk. there’s something like... weirdly regressive and antifeminist about it. especially if they’re tacking on “but good for redditors for disrupting the stock market!” like firstly why are you just completely ok with a community of mostly men holding all the knowledge about how our current economic system works, and secondly if you totally uncritically think that r/wallstreetbets is peak anticapitalist praxis, i think it could do you well to look into it beyond the memes lmao. maybe that’s a nitpicky thing to bitch about but it worries me how common that line of thinking is and it IS mostly women saying shit like that.

[angeloncewas]

is it weird that i dont trust hunter_hhhh because once i went into his discord server and someone was talking mad shit about dream :sob: sorry hunter im sure youre cool

Honestly, it's understandable. He's kind of part of a crowd (either directly or distantly, idk) that either really hates Dream or really enjoys mocking him, both of which I'm not exactly a fan of lol.

That being said, if it helps, I've been pleasantly surprised in all the time I've followed him/watched his streams. I kind of expected him to be like a redditor? Like the kind of dude who thinks all this shit is cringe? And like maybe he is deep down, fuck if I know, but he's said tone indicators are cool (which is really small, but was nice to see considering some other peoples' attitude towards them) and when he said something about Dream he specifically added that he likes the guy too and it was a really valid bit of criticism regarding mcyttwt... idk. I don't keep up with him enough to say a ton, but I think he's worth checking out if you're looking for a new cc to support :)

[bemorekleinman]

a stupidly long list of oddly specific and irrelevant jared kleinman headcanons that Just Make Sense to me

SUCH a cat person. always gives cats shitty excellent names (such as Dog)

he unironically listens to bill wurtz’s music (the guy from the history of the entire world, i guess)

absolutely rages while playing any mildly competitive video game, to the point where evan has learned to just let him win if/when he gets to a place in between tears and insanity

is an active redditor, much like will roland! also has gotten into several fights with people on reddit over very random topics (which wrol hopefully has not done but it wouldn’t surprise me tbh)

hates cucumbers for some reason

remember that post on here about the couple that went on a date and watched the lobsters fight in the tank? yeah he does that with himself sometimes

thinks stonk memes are the PEAK of humor but also misses early 2000s memes (actually, the stonks one is just me projecting)

does finger guns way too much (me too)

played soccer when he was in first-second grade and literally has not willingly engaged in sports ever since

probably a slytherin?? idk I’m not sure actually I’ll get back to you later on that one

is lactose intolerant but still eats ice cream in small portions sometimes just to say “fuck you” to dairy

he puts noses in his emoticons :^D (shoutout to my favorite deh fanfic that I stole this hc from)

held a mock funeral when vine died

has stretch marks on his stomach and thighs and is super duper self conscious about it

cries at almost all pixar movies and only pixar movies

once shoplifted $40 worth of random shit he didn’t even need just to prove that the security was bad

really enjoys salt and vinegar potato chips and once ate a family sized bag of them in less than half an hour

has a blob shaped scar on his right leg that he claims was caused by shrapnel from some weird freak accident involving a grenade but actually he accidentally set fire to his front lawn when he was eight and burnt himself

makes youtube videos of him going through old tech shit in his garage or something (this is based off a video on the deh yt channel whoops)

is either ridiculously good at baking or completely dreadful at it; I’m conflicted on which one suits him best

perhaps the most controversial: novel!jared is probably straight (might have questioned his sexuality in high school though), previews!jared is gay as FUCK and has a crush on evan (listen to the fucking DC script and tell me he wasn’t crushing I dare you), and bway!jared is,,,, actually who knows what’s going on with him

this post got kinda long my bad