#the way tommy does lore is simply my favourite though what can i say

[zeta-in-de-walls]

Hey, so I think my fondness for Tommy’s style of lore might’ve made it a touch harder to enjoy Techno’s style of SMP content. I’m feeling like its a preference thing anyway... it’s hard to articulate the issue but I’m gonna try. xD

Techno’s latest stream didn’t feel immersive enough basically.

i think some people have complained about Techno’s tendency to joke and break the fourth wall even in tense moments but as a fan of Tommy ‘there’s a reason I gave up my discs and you spent £200 on Etsy for a suit’ Innit, I can’t say cracking self-aware jokes is a problem in itself. But I feel as if Techno’s stream lacked gravity for me, failing to create tension and uncertainty in scenes which needed them.

While Tommy jokes a lot, it feels like part of his character and his character’s use of humour as a shield when he feels scared means it can still help to display his character’s feelings so it doesn’t break immersion for me but helps to give him more character. Tommy’s character is openly vulnerable enough that I feel like the audience can always read into his feelings and the motivations behind his actions.

With Techno, I struggle more to read him. I find myself uncertain if his humour is part of his character or if its really the CC joking. To what extent is his humour a way to cope with stressful situations and hide his inner turmoil? Or is it more a way of showing he is relatively composed, able to joke about because he still feels in control of the situation.

I feel like there’s two ways to read this latest stream and I find myself slightly dissatisfied with both. Either the prison was a trap he was not prepared for and he’s out of his depth and is genuinely distressed. Or he’s not that worried because he had a plan all along and the developments were not outside his expectations. (Note that he doesn’t need to know exactly what might happen or be certain of everything, what’s important is that he is confident in a way to escape thus he’s still in control.)

Either option would be fine with me in terms of story and Techno’s arc. (I think him being genuinely out of his depth would be slightly preferred for me as I think it’d be cool but it also suits him to be ready for anything) What dissatisfies me is instead the execution. I’m not confident in my reading.

Techno’s performance - the way he joked around and gave indications of a plan - lead me to prefer the reading that he does indeed have a plan. The issue is then the structure of the stream. It felt like it was all leading up to a twist where Techno gets trapped in and things go wrong. If Techno has a plan, I would prefer he share it more with the audience, share that he’s suspicious, that he is really looking into thinks, that he’s here to gather information no matter what. I dislike it when the audience is more in the dark than the viewpoint character. Also, even if he has a plan, he can still show lots of doubt and worry and hope that his worst expectations won’t be realised. I want to really get into his head. Again, that’s probably my preference towards Tommy ‘chat if I was the traitor I’d tell you!’ Innit who very very rarely hides stuff from his audience. We get surprised along with his character when things go wrong.

I’m sure one might think it could spoil things, knowing to expect things to go wrong and the twist might be less thrilling. But the trade-off for really leaning into sharing what Techno’s thinking is more than worth it. Assuming Techno’s plan means relying on his friends to save him means that Techno is putting himself in a position of extreme vulnerability and is entirely dependent on someone else helping him. He’s never done anything like this before and it would be a big step for Techno who finds is hard to trust people because he’s been betrayed before. Surely if betrayals hurt him so much, he would struggle to come up with this sort of plan? I would love to dig into that more. This would really demonstrate what a huge sacrifice it is trying to help Dream. It’s just really, really interesting. But I’m not really given anything to work with here, I haven’t seen Techno display any conflict about this plan or what a big thing it would be to trust his friends. If there was a period between being betrayed and learning to trust others again, it happened off-screen. Which means its all theory, not canon.  

And if it was the other option - that Techno was genuinely caught off guard with the audience, then I’d really expect a little more expression of vulnerability. Just a little more panic and alarm to sell me on this being unexpected. Maybe some regret, some anger, there’s a lot he’d feel and I’d like it if more of it was displayed. It doesn’t need to be super extreme and jokes are still fine, but I would want to feel like he’s joking to hide his distress. (And gosh you know I’d really love to see his character display vulnerability - it would be such great development. My issue with Techno having a plan is that it means he’s not really being defeated and experiencing a low-moment here - which is something I’d love to see.)

[mc-slowwalker]

sorry for the late reply I was sleeping and then busy

c!puffy’s therapy arc is super interesting to me as well especially with what you said about who she deems “deserves” that help because everyone does really and because of this plus her biased views plus her own trauma she’s not fit for the role in the slightest. I’m interested to see where it goes especially with c!tommy actually going to her for therapy. ah yes sam nook out beloved where are you :( and like everyone on the server does need that kind of help but there is currently no way to get it especially with all the conflict going on. hoping, of course, that it does get better for them all I love a good healing arc just as much as I love some fun conflict

being an every character apologist is totally the best tho yeah it can be difficult to interact with the fandom because people tend to hold strong views regarding a single or maybe a few characters and tend to be very black and white about it a lot of the times. c!dream is also my favourite character so I interact more with c!dream apologists but I also love every other character and would love to interact with other people who enjoy those characters too because hearing different points of views is so interesting. I would so love to interact with c!tommy apologists is they didn’t have such decisive (does this word fit here? idk) views on c!dream. like even with c!dream being my favourite character, I’m a c!quackity apologist too and find his character and his downfall super interesting as well and would love to discuss it. I also find it interesting how c!quackity, c!sam and c!wilbur and their apologists don’t get nearly as much flack as c!dream apologists. like I find the character plus the fandom interesting to look at lol

trueeee there’s so much room for fun and interesting analysis cause of discrepancies and inconsistencies and even long breaks between and in lore. it’s really cool!!!

also if there’s really long gaps between the paragraphs idk why just tumblr being tumblr

Don’t say sorry I actually passed out and made you wait like 12 hours for a reply akdhkfjf

I agree I think that’s another really fun part of the dream smp therapy stuff is that they for sure all need professional help but they also physically can’t get it? A 3rd party needed but they’re never going to get which is where fics come in so nicely? I’m starting to see a pattern in universes I like and it’s purely everyone is hurting but lack of professional help requires that they heal as a group or fall apart

I feel like age makes a huge difference in the case of amount of flak each apologist gets if that makes sense? So adult on adult violence isn’t held to the same standard that adult on minor (or minor on adult or minor on minor) violence is. There also seem to be “acceptable” crimes like abuse is worse than straight up murder in fandom/fiction terms. There’s a super interesting conversation to have there about real world stuff but that’s a whole different story. It probably helps that all other characters have povs we can watch while cc!dream never streams even though we’re all waiting for that pre-recorded lore pspspsps

Honestly I like the gaps between paragraphs because if paragraphs are too close together I simply will not read it