Sup! mostly a dsmp thing :)
31 posts
Gogykinnie - George Kinnie Named Georgie - Tumblr Blog
Yo remember when that "stop judging characters because of how nice they are to c!Tommy" pic got spread around bc people were upset c!Tommy sympathisers were frustrated w their fav characters for trying to kill him / actually killing him / celebrating his death / treating him like garbage in general
It spread so quickly after c!Techno said "pog I hated that guy" to his death and was posted by Techno n Dream pfps a Lot and its Absolutely No Coincidence lmao. We Know it wasnt about characters simply Disliking Tommy, it was about ur Fav Characters getting a bit of Heat for treating him as Less Than a Person and you not liking that
That still baffles me like sorry we wanted the characters to treat c!Tommy like an actual human and not a punching bag?
Someone put the post in my notifications again and it just got me thinking
the dream team and tommy brotherly dynamic compilation inspired by this post and because i miss those vibes.
they don’t say it or anything, but it’s sapnap’s voice immediately getting more animated once tommy joins his speedrun. it’s dream laughing fondly when tommy genuinely asks for his help. it’s george going along with tommy’s dumb bit even in front of six women.
timestamps and transcript under the cut:
Czytaj dalej
At this point I dont Care how justified it is for c!Jack to be mad at c!Tommy (though if c!Tommy has to apologise for the lava spleef then c!Jack has to apologise for using his best friend to nuke him (and also apologise to Tubbo for that)) I just cant be Assed watching a traumatized kid be freed but have his life STILL in danger bc someone he doesnt realize he hurt wants him Dead and he thinks he's comparable to his abuser (I'm aware c!Jack doesnt have the full story but it's the ppl in the fandom agreeing w him that annoys me)
Jack was fuckin. Moving on from the murder thing. He was moving on. Why was his healing arc just Trashed like that bc Tommy dared to be alive again. This is just sending the message that for other characters to be happy or heal Tommy has to remain dead or locked up
Man I love the “games” that the dsmp characters are playing
We have:
Dream who plays CHESS
Wilbur who plays SOLITAIRE
Quackity who plays POKER
and Tommy who plays ANIMAL CROSSING
(this is all /rp and unless i specifically use cc! assume i am talking about the character)
when i watched the ending roll for quackity’s latest stream (03/16) i was struck with something that i just couldn’t articulate. there was just an air to the entire episode, especially in those last 10-15 minutes, that really hit me. it felt almost like how i felt watching wilbur’s “let’s be the bad guys” speech.
but after rewatching the clips, seeing some analysis and reading different opinions, i realized what i was feeling was just genuine sadness for quackity. what we all watched yesterday was a tragedy.
no matter your opinion on whether or not dream deserves torture, if you think george, karl, and sapnap left quackity for kinoko or quackity left them from las nevadas, if quackitys means justify the ends; this stream was a turning point for quackity that is the culmination of hurt and loss. this was us seeing quackity finally crack under it all and stoop to new moral lows (because no matter if dream deserves it or not, resorting to torture is undeniably a moral low for a character). it felt like wilburs speech because in a sense it was. both were moments where we watched characters that have given and loss too much finally loose themselves too.
quackity has always been a very conniving character. the deal with schlatt to win the election, switching sides to pogtopia when it became clear that schlatt was keeping all the power for himself, talking tubbo into executing technoblade, using tommys death to convince sam into letting him torture dream, making el rapids (as much as it seemed like a joke) to be able to directly speak out against dream without hurting lmanberg. quackity might not be great at pvp but he is really good at getting what he wants.
he’s also a very deeply hurt character. whether you see quackitys relationship with schlatt as romantic or purely business, it’s a canon relationship and it was toxic at best, abusive at worse. he was refused entry into lmanberg when he arrived. he’s died once or twice (which of his deaths are canon are up for debate but at the very least his death to techno in the final control room is canon). he genuinely sees tommy as a friend and had to grieve him, for about a week he believed that the man who he has been actively fighting from the beginning beat his friend to death. he cared for lmanberg and has seen it fall twice, the small semblance of any home destroy. he might not have “as much” trauma as say tommy, but that doesn’t invalidate it in the slightest.
and rather than being able to come back from these losses and rebuild he finally snaps; just like wilbur. it hurt to watch because we saw a character who’s faced hardships not come back from it. quackity ripped up his relationships with his close friends and fiancé’s, destroyed his country, tortured dream and manipulated a grieving and guilty sam into getting what he wants. it was tragic to watch in the most well executed ways.
the last scene, the IRL one with the calendar and poker chips, is what really sold it. the desperation in that scene, quackity throwing the calendar filled with a manic “visit dream” on every single day, the notes of “torture him” and “retrieve the book” showing just how dedicated he is. the forceful throwing up the poker case, his business venture yet another attempt for some kind of power that doesn’t come from pvp to keep himself afloat.
cc!quackity made a tragic masterpiece with yesterday’s stream. it was so well executed and perfectly thought out, discreetly tying into the rest of the servers plot while being distinctly his own story, and im literally never gonna shut up about how amazing it is.
I’d like to share a quote that keeps coming to mind when I think about Quackity:
“People don’t understand the word ruthless. They think it means ‘mean.’ It’s not about being mean. It’s about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end. It’s about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it.”
― Marco (Animorphs #30: The Reunion)
Quackity is ruthless. Quackity doesn’t do things by halves. Quackity sees that bright clear line.
People talk about how much Tommy and Wilbur and the rest have lost, but Quackity has had everything he worked for torn from his hands time and time again. He’s been powerless more often than anyone else on the server. Ever since his running mate abandoned him at the podium, control has been slipping from his hands. Struggle for control has been the main theme of Quackity’s character.
Mexican L’Manburg, the Butcher Army, trying to get Tubbo to execute Ranboo, all of those were desperate bids to gain control, to gain any sense of security, in a world that’s brushed him aside like an insect over and over again. And on Doomsday, like so many others, he was deeply, horrifically powerless to do anything but stand there and watch as his home was reduced to so much ash and smoke.
After Doomsday, Tubbo ran away and built nukes to make sure no one could ever threaten him again without consequences. And Quackity let the last of his moral reservations go. We don’t know the details of his plans, but we know his overall goal - control. So many people - Quackity included - have tried to bargain, to persuade, to bluff, all to bring that mythical creature “Peace” to the world, but they all failed because none of them were playing from full hands. Even Dream failed.
Quackity is done with that. He’s done being desperate. He’s done relying on other people. He’s done bargaining from a position of weakness.
Quackity sees what’s wrong with the server. He sees the way to fix it. He sees that bright clear line, and if he has to do things that would have made him sick half a year ago in order to follow it, then that’s just what he has to do. Because there will never be another Doomsday. There will never be another War of the 16th.There will never be another moment when he stands helpless and ignored and objectified as the leader he brought to power twists his nation into something rotten and corrupt. He will never watch another lover drink himself to death.
Quackity will do what has to be done, because he will never be powerless again.
the tension between me and the mutual scrolling through tumblr at the same time
im sorry, but ranboo recounting all his history has made me realize he's wronged tubbo so many times. betraying lmanberg? not telling him when tommy was alive? giving techno all his armor back? and yet through all that, tubbo STILL defended ranboo when big q said he wanted to hurt him. tubbo is the literal embodiment of "dont choose sides choose people"
Something I don't see being talked about enough is how Tommy was just as bad as Dream was before the Exile arc.
Tommy attempted to emotionally manipulate Dream long before Dream ever tried to manipulate him. Remember Spirit? Remember how Tommy said he'd burn the leather unless Dream did what he wanted?
Tommy also LIED to Sapnap and told him Dream said he didn't care about him, and Sapnap BELIEVED him. Sapnap took the word of the enemy as 100% fact.
Dream is not justified in hurting Tommy, I'm not saying that. What I am saying is just because we see Tomny as a 'hero' does not mean he is one. Dream is as broken as Tommy is. They just show their cracks in different ways.
lotta discourse about quackity right now, and that’s fair. “actual torture” is Unsurprisingly a controversial topic. but one thing I’ve seen is people take for granted that quackity is only doing this for his self gain. which, while that’s definitely True to an extent, I don’t think people are taking the emotional lead up to this moment into account. so I’m just gonna lay this out there
- quackity first got the idea for the butcher army after dream strong armed them into exiling tommy. quackity completely recognizing that dream was manipulative and controlling, And that he’d been targeting tommy (even if he didn’t have the context of their history together). he didn’t propose the butcher army or anything like that when he first recognized what dream was doing, he proposed it After tommy had gotten hurt.
- quackity is the only person outside of tubbo who was there to hear tommy and dream’s confrontation at the top of the obsidian grid on doomsday. he Heard dream admit that he hurt tommy for fun, he Heard dream admit that everything that’d just happened was a game to him, he Heard dream say that he had no intention of stopping what he was doing to tommy any time soon. it was after this that quackity warned tommy not to trust anyone and it was after this that he tried (and failed) to rally people up to stand up to dream, recognizing him as the problem.
- the clearest example of quackity outwardly burying his emotions behind his ambition was when he learned about tommy’s death. he was quiet and disbelieving and could hardly form a response at all. someone famous for his words couldn’t figure out what to say. some people took him saying that they had to focus on their work at the end to mean that he didn’t care about tommy, but we don’t have to speculate about whether he really cared or not Because-
- when quackity first saw tommy alive he was angry at the idea of someone dressing up like him to disrespect his memory. which says enough on it’s own, but when he realized the truth he was A: absolutely Elated, one of the only people who were just purely happy to see tommy alive the entire stream (not to say that other people being shocked is a bad thing, but it’s what tommy needed to see) and B: absolutely Furious at dream from what bits of what’d happened that tommy was able to get out.
none of this culminates in “well torture is okay actually,” but I think it’s important to remember that while quackity tries to Present himself as a purely ambitious character, someone who puts his work and power above all else, that’s not true just because he says it is. he very clearly and obviously cares deeply about the people close to him and is angry on their behalf, especially tommy as of late because of just how much he’s been hurt and targeted. ignoring that quackity’s hatred of dream has been tied into his anger on tommy’s behalf is just like, Weird? it paints an Extremely incomplete picture of quackity’s motivations and characterization.
and again, this doesn’t excuse what quackity did (while I’m personally not sorry for dream, torture is not pogchamp), but it was as extreme as what it was because of how dream has hurt people (again, particularly tommy). like, beating someone to death and bringing them back from the dead and explicitly saying that you want to do it over and over again and holding it over their heads for days would be tagged as “torture” and “psychological torture” if it was posted on ao3.
quackity is definitely leaning towards to the blacker end of the gray morality spectrum (though whether he lands on anti-hero or villain or somewhere in between will be up to where his character arc goes from here), but he isn’t motivated Solely by ambition and self gain even if that’s a part of it
dream apologists: haha he killed tommy but he looked hot while doing it lol quackity and tommy apologists, after this stream:
if you know what this is from, i apologize. something possessed me to make this
to be fair, she and quackity share a lot of traits- even the bracket smile! >:]
I feel like Tommy’s shitty little brother dynamic with the dream team is often overlooked in favor of his dynamic with SBI and I wanna talk about Them™ so here are some good interactions I remember off the top of my head:
- On Sapnap’s stream: Tommy was looking for Sapnap on the DSMP while the two of them were very sleepy on call. Sapnap saw Tommy’s character in the distance and when Tommy got like 20 blocks away he murmured, “Sapnap. My long lost brother. I finally-” before a skeleton shot him to death, causing both to burst out in tired giggles
- On Phil’s stream: Tommy was trying to convince Wilbur to leave the stream call and have a serious conversation with him, but Wilbur was being a lil shit and refusing to have the conversation unless it was in that moment. So when Tommy got frustrated he just exclaimed, “Where is Dream?! I need him right now!” as if calling for the more reasonable sibling to mediate
- On Tommy’s stream: When Tommy decided he wanted to speedrun live and apparently asked George for advice? He started calling him “Sensei Gogy” and was reading from notes he’d taken off of his advice
- On multiple streams: Whenever Tommy has that shitty inflection in his voice when he says Sapnaps name which causes him to respond “Stay away from me Tommy” every time without fail
- On Dream’s stream: That bit where Tommy left the call and Dream + Sapnap started fake shit talking him. Then when he came back they started being normal again but Tommy just went “Wilbur messaged me saying you were making fun of me while I was gone :(” to which Sapnap went “Who do you trust more? Us or Wilbur?” Which. Obviously Tommy said Wilbur. But also Dream muttered “Yeah, that was a stupid question” and Sapnap just went “That’s fair.”
- On George’s stream: T- “Do you wanna know how much of that was comedy based?” / G- “None of it was comedy based. It wasn’t funny.” / D- “Yeah George. I mean Sap- I mean. Tommy.” / (dead silence for like 10 seconds) / T- “Okay Dream 🙄” followed by all three wheeze laughing
- On Twitter: All the times Dream just starts hyping or backing Tommy up in the replies of his insane tangent tweets towards Tubbo, Ranboo, and various celebrities.
- On multiple streams: Whenever Dream and Tommy just go off about how cool/talented/etc the other is. It always makes me smile :)
- On Tommy’s stream (i think): There was this one bit where Tommy made a joke about how all he and Dream ever privately message about is how cool they think George is and it was very sweet
So, the encounter between c!Dream and c!Tommy in the prison was really interesting and I wanted to delve a bit deeper into it
So, we know Tommy is the first person to visit Dream (this is confirmed by both Dream and Sam, so I'd say it's accurate), which means Dream spent around a day alone in the cell, which is quite a bit.
Immediately when starting the conversation Tommy asks him if he missed him specifically, to which he immediately answers no, which contradicts something he said later on, when he listed Tommy among the people he missed when answering a more general question. Why is this important? Because Dream has been characterized as someone who mostly lacks empathy, he sees everyone as a pawn or a plaything, they aren't people to him, that said being in the prison is clearly a hindrance and the only person who visited him is Tommy. To convince Tommy to help him get out he needs to convince him he changed and regrets his actions, but he doesn't. He doesn't even know specifically which actions he's supposed to regret or what he's supposed to miss, which is why he does just fine when he can answer vaguely, but either his answers result unsympathetic or he gets upset when asked more specific questions.
Of course another thing we can understand from the first interaction is the tone this conversation will have: Tommy is trying to prod and provoke Dream and he's doing it because he needs to prove to himself that Dream doesn't have any more power over him, while Dream in response is trying to manipulate Tommy into believing he's a changed person so that he may be released in the near future.
They then have some general conversation and talk about the spawn trap mechanism that's keeping Dream trapped, but it's of little importance. Then Dream at one point says "Well I'm in prison now, so there's no reason for them to hate me anyway" which is quite important to, once again, showcase his lack of empathy. Because of course everyone has every reason to hate him after what he did to them, especially Tommy and Tubbo, but everyone else as well! Him getting a just punishment for his actions doesn't mean he's owed forgiveness by anyone. Dream though doesn't understand this because he can't empathize with the people he's hurt, he can't understand them.
Then it's Tommy's turn to say exactly why he's there: "Turns out I've had all the power over you all along, I just didn't know it" this is what he's trying to convince himself of. This, confirming this belief is the reason why he's here in the first place. It's the reason why he's taunting Dream and trying to annoy him to see if he'll retaliate, to see if Tommy really is free and in control now. But Dream of course doesn't concede, not once. Tommy went in with the idea of getting control back over his life, but now he has to go back again because Dream never once gave in.
Also one thing to notice is that multiple times during their interactions Tommy does sympathize with Dream. He has to remind himself out loud not to feel bad for him (with things like: "deserved... you deserve it") because Dream fully intended to do this to him after murdering his best friend in front of him just the day before. To further compare the two of them Tommy goes on a whole tirade repeating what Dream used to tell him in exile, clearly trying to get an emotional reaction, maybe an apology now that his abuser is in such a similar situation to what he was into, but Dream only repeats multiple times that he wants Tommy to visit him and ends it almost like an order: "Just visit me!". Once again Tommy is the one pushing and trying to make him empathize, but Dream doesn't, he has no empathy.
And now it's Dream's turn to reveal his intentions: "Maybe I'll be better and you'll let me out". Dream, for all his faults, tends to always be quite direct with Tommy when it comes to his intentions, though he does cover them up with layers of manipulation, he still does have a tendency to tell him out loud at the start. He did this during the exile as well. Everything he does in this meeting, especially from here on out, is in function of his objective. Tommy answers no at first but then, as soon as Dream insists a bit, he's suddenly confused, there is quite a bit of hesitation before he changes subject without responding. And Dream knows then that there is a possibility, he knows Tommy still cares and he can use it in his favour, because, to Tommy, their relationship is still incredibly confusing. Probably he still cares about Dream to some extent, which is perfectly fine and normal, it's actually very common for abuse victims to miss their abusers in some regards, but that's the reason why he really shouldn't be left alone with Dream.
We can see Dream immediately making use of this confusion he noticed as he doesn't loose a bit and apologizes right after that. And Tommy at first believes him, he utters the softest "really?" ever... but then he actually do a very smart thing and asks Dream to be specific, because if he really was sorry he could find at least one example of something he's sorry for. And here Dream falters, he gives the most general answer possible "I'm sorry for everything I did to you"... which means nothing and Tommy immediately starts to realize that, he actually fully realize it after he starts saying: "yeah but you could have said that last..." and realizes that it was just the night prior that Dream wanted to kill Tubbo and imprison him. This time Dream's manipulation doesn't work because Tommy realizes what he's doing.
"I can only help but not forgive you completely" the fact that Tommy still feels like he should help Dream really speaks volume about what kind of character he is. He's done some bad stuff in the past but he's most definitely one of the most empathetic and forgiving characters in the story, and, of course, there is the down side to that that he doesn't feel like he can completely abandon Dream, even after everything he's done to him. I mean, he said he wouldn't visit him every day because it took almost 50 mins just to get in, but he still planned to go in again 3 days after. Where Dream is incapable of empathy, Tommy has definitely too much of it.
Then there is the small bit with the books that Tommy says will help him forgive Dream, but, at this point, it's obvious he's just taunting him. Though it's very light hearted and Tommy can't bring himself to be too mean to Dream even in this situation. He does however realize that Dream is the one who needs to fix himself before anyone even starts thinking of forgiving him, so it's pretty good that he realizes that he doesn't have to forgive him immediately (he's not really under any obligation to ever forgive him, but Tommy tends to want to give people second chances).
And here we have the part with the biggest contradictions. Tommy offers Dream help (again, I don't think it's a good idea for them to be alone together) and he asks Dream how he's feeling, and Dream immediately starts contradicting some previous statements. At the beginning Tommy asked him if he was feeling sad, to which Dream answers no. Now, when the question is repeated, he immediately says he's feeling sad. He now has an objective and knows what he wants from Tommy and he's appealing at Tommy's extremely emphatic nature. Immediately after that he contradicts himself again by listing Tommy among the people he misses, contradicting his earlier statement. Also, once more, he's very vague in his answers (listing his friends, his things and the server as what he's lost, without being specific in any of the categories) the only thing he's specific about is Tommy who, coincidentally, just so happens to be the person he viewed as the key to get power. He doesn't care about any of the categories, he spent almost half the stream from yesterday explaining how he got rid of all his attachments, of course nothing changed in 24 hours! And we can see immediately that he doesn't really care as soon as Tommy asks a more specific question again: "Who do you miss the most?". Dream can't answer that question and he actually forces Tommy to leave after asking that. He can't answer because he doesn't miss anyone, he doesn't care about anyone. It's actually quite interesting that he has so much trouble with any of the specific questions, you'd think he'd know how to lie his way out of them, but no, he just finds himself with nothing to say, even when Tommy tries to give him an easy way out by mentioning Sapnap and George, Dream still doesn't know what to answer, because he doesn't care about them! He hasn't cared about either Sapnap or George in a very long time!
And just to remind Tommy that indeed he still isn't free of Dream's control, the last thing Dream does is telling Tommy to "get in the hole" knowing perfectly well that that will trigger the trauma he's caused him. If there was ever any doubt that he, in fact, doesn't actually regret anything, this clears it. Dream still has power over Tommy to a certain extent, be can still hurt him, he knows what his triggers are and knows how to use them and he's still trying to manipulate him. And if you're wondering if the phrasing was deliberate: yes, yes it was, he could have simply said "get in the water" like Sam did, but he didn't, because he's an ass.
So, in conclusion, neither Tommy nor Dream got what they wanted out of this encounter. Because, like Dream never gave Tommy control of the situation, Tommy didn't actually fall for Dream's manipulation. He didn't believe nor forgive him. Dream however did get Tommy to go to visit him again which is a partial win, maybe he'll be more ready for those specific questions next time.
Also can I just say I'm very happy that Tommy called out the clowns in chat who where sympathizing with Dream? You go child!
“If Tommy just gives up the discs, all the conflicts will be solved!”
Are… are you sure about that one, my dude
/roleplay
so, tommy is obviously my favorite character in the dream smp atm. but all across the board, i’ve seen people frustrated and confused about his seeming lack of growth throughout the story. this response over the last couple weeks stunned me, because i just couldn’t understand it at all. but after thinking about it for a while, i think i may have had an epiphany on why a lot of people don’t Get tommy’s character arc, especially if they aren’t paying close attention to his pov. a lot of it has to do with the audience’s expectation of a typical hero’s journey and common routes for character development in media.
this is because tommy is actually going through two entirely different character arcs at the same time. sometimes they compliment each other, and sometimes they contrast each other. without a comprehensive understanding of these arcs and how they balance each other out, an audience member is likely to become frustrated, as they’re expecting more from one arc over the other.
Keep reading
I’m going to put a finger on one of the reasons I think c!Technoblade has been frustrating me lately, and it’s a sentiment I think I’ve seen around dsmpblr quite a bit, but I want to elaborate on why I also think it is a thing.
I will preface this by saying that Technoblade is my favorite minecraft youtuber and streamer, and that I really enjoy his character. This is not a critique of Technoblade himself, but rather the writing of the Dream SMP. Now onto my critique.
Simply put: c!Technoblade is consistently narratively rewarded for his actions.
By this, I mean that c!Technoblade, along with c!Dream, is one of the few characters who the writing favors in every situation. You could say that the Butcher Army was a ‘punishment’ for him, but narratively speaking, it was actually a win for Techno. He came out of the situation not feeling defeated, but looking even more like a badass than he did before (see: the pickaxe scene with Quackity) and gaining even more potential justification in a meta-narrative sense (aka a greater reason for the fandom to sympathize with him when he destroys L’manberg).
In contrast, all the other major characters have had either in-story defeats or meta-narrative defeats, often times both. C!Wilbur was defeated in a meta-narrative sense by painting himself as a villain when he blew up L’manberg. C!Tommy has been defeated time and time again — November 16th, exile, Doomsday, etc. C!Tubbo was defeated by Dream when he was forced to exile Tommy, and again when Techno escaped execution; and both defeats gave him a more negative meta-narrative of being a dysfunctional president. C!Quackity was defeated by Technoblade by a pickaxe and came out of the situation seeming like a budding tyrant.
I feel like c!Techno has yet to face any major defeat. He was not defeated on November 16th. He was not defeated by the Butcher Army. He literally crushed his opposition on Doomsday. And throughout it all, he has been gaining a stronger, more positive meta-narrative so that all his wins are justified by the story — Phil’s house arrest, Carl’s capture, his attempted execution, Tommy’s ‘betrayal’, etc.
(Note: I am aware that as a fandom, especially on Tumblr, we have been critical of c!Techno. But I am looking purely at the writing of the story itself, and not our fandom reaction to it.)
Now here’s the question: Why has c!Techno yet to face any narrative punishment?
Well, I’d argue that there are meta reasons for this that have to do with the writing of the SMP.
Firstly, Techno the youtuber has a reputation to keep up.
Before joining the Dream SMP, Techno’s fandom catchphrases have been “Techno never dies!” and “Only coming 2nd? L”. Even if these catchphrases are jokes, there’s no denying that Techno the youtuber has cultivated much of his Minecraft fanbase by being good at Minecraft — destroying nerds in Skywars, crushing famous youtubers in Minecraft Monday, beating squidkid in the Potato War, etc. Technoblade’s fandom will make fun of him if he loses a fight.
In contrast, most of the other streamers on the SMP did not gain their initial, pre-SMP fame by being good at Minecraft PVP. Tommy became famous by scamming people in Skyblock. Wilbur did 100 player and YLYL videos. Quackity was a meme channel. Tubbo also made Skyblock videos.
This isn’t helped by the fact that Techno can easily combo most of the other players on the SMP to oblivion. The only person he’d probably struggle in that front is Dream, and— oh wait, they’re allies. Shoot.
Techno’s fanbase migrated to the SMP when he started making SMP content because it is extremely loyal to him. I mean, I was one of them, I would know. And Techno’s fanbase is accustomed to watching him win. This is probably one of the reasons why so far, he has yet to be narratively defeated.
Along with that, the writing of the SMP’s second season has trended towards shows of power.
The writing of the first season had wars, yes, but whoever won the actual fight was never the centerpiece of it. I think this has a lot to do with Wilbur being a non “minecraft for minecraft’s sake” youtuber in comparison to Dream. The L’manberg war ultimately decided by Tommy trading his discs, even though he lost the arrow duel. The election saga and the Schlatt fallout had minimal PVP conflict (no, I do not count Wilbur and Tommy running away from arrow fire as ‘PVP’). There wasn’t any real PVP fighting at the festival. Even the final war was light on the PVP — the central drama of that came from Wilbur pressing the button and Techno setting off the Withers; and that did not end up as an unequivocal victory for either of them.
In contrast, the second season has had a greater focus on who wins the straight-up fight. The Butcher Army loses because Techno beats Quackity in a fight. Techno, Dream, and Phil win Doomsday because they are clearly more powerful in a fight. Tommy’s recurring saga with Dream has yet to reward Tommy — it always ends with Dream beating Tommy down more; through emotional manipulation tactics, yes, but also because of the implicit sense that Tommy can not win against Dream in a straight-up fight. Tommy is focused on winning that fight with Dream on Wednesday.
The narrative has stopped rewarding people like Wilbur and Tommy, who can’t win straight-up PVP duels against Techno and Dream. There are exceptions to this — El Rapids, for example. But El Rapids has faded into narrative insignificance, and as such it has done nothing to reverse the narrative trend.
Now, I don’t think this problem is unfixable. Quite the opposite, actually — I think it’s easily fixed, as long as Techno suffers a canon death and is criticized for his actions on a meta-narrative level, the way most of the other characters have been.
Because simply watching a character win all the time is not narratively compelling. I really enjoy Techno’s character, and as such, I want to feel compelled by him. This is why I’m not criticizing his character here — rather, I am simply expressing my frustration at the way the narrative has interacted with his character.
for dark, twisted and evil purposes, here's a list of all of the traumatic events c!tommy has witnessed, experienced or has been a part of:
- has had his life taken twice by dream during the war for independence, and the instance in the control room led him to having a panic attack upon his return there.
- has fought in multiple wars, including but not limited to the initial disc war, the war for independence, the manberg vs pogtopia war, and doomsday (if that's counted as a war and not just the server's version of an intentional chernobyl)
- has witnessed his best friend's death twice, once at the hands of someone he looked up to who proceeded to claim that he was peer pressured into it despite literally massacring a crowd of innocents just following that.
- was gaslit and abused by dream during his exile, and then was radicalised and never properly healed from his trauma when he was with techno.
- has watched the country he founded and died for get blown up not once, not twice, but three times.
- on the second occasion, he had to watch his older brother and role model get stabbed by his own father per his request.
- had a front row seat to techno's encouragement of wilbur's downward spiral in pogtopia, and couldn't really do anything about it. had to spend months in a ravine with someone who wasn't quite wilbur, but someone who looked like the brother he remembered fondly.
- following his very justified outburst at techno following one of the deaths of his best friend, wilbur told techno to beat tommy to death in a pit.
- has had his home exploded.
- was disrespected and not at all listened to by techno when the two lived together briefly.
- had to lead a rebellion against a tyrannical dictator, who was being backed up by the server's version of god.
- had sacrificed his most prized possessions for his friend's freedom and safety, only for him to be regarded as a violent instigator, and not someone who actually often opted to resolve things peacefully when he could.
- techno has tried to kill him on multiple occasions, most notably when he spawned withers on l'manberg the first time. also has made many threats on his life and his country.
- was exiled by his best friend who was being manipulated by an evil 'deity'.
- has almost killed himself on multiple occasions.
- has been insulted by techno multiple times for wanting to be the hero, when all he wants is to live happily and without the fear of dying or without the fear of conflict anymore.
- watched the ghost of his older brother get stabbed in a failed resurrection attempt, and when asked whether or not it's a good idea, all he could say was 'Alivebur wasn't so poggers'. was visibly and audibly uncomfortable, and when it appeared as if even ghostbur wasn't coming back, lashed out at phil and had to leave to avoid an apparent anxiety attack.
- was told that wilbur's explosion of l'manberg was his fault, despite actively working to prevent it.
- has been blamed for the trauma that wilbur dispensed onto the pogtopians like a fucking gumball machine.
- has people actively planning to either take him down or murder him because of misconceptions.
- has been abused or traumatised by most, if not all of the adult figures in his life, who seem to only be capable of 'teaching him a lesson' by killing him, threatening him, or destroying everything he has, and are then suprised when he lashes out.
- has been betrayed multiple times by dream, wilbur, phil, tubbo and techno respectively, and while he can't physically make amends with wilbur, and he shouldn't make amends with dream, nor should he he forced to reconcile with phil and techno, he still tries to protect tubbo.
- has been the subject of vitriol from most characters and has become a scapegoat for war crimes and terrorism on the server.
- as a teenager, has become a war veteran and a political puppet.
- he is afraid to speak out about his trauma that he experienced in exile to others, even tubbo.
- is in the middle of training to fight god.
- has become too tired to continue arguing whether or not he's a war criminal and a terrorist, because it's happened so often, and he's trying to renounce the power that the perceptions of others have over him.
- has lost multiple emotional support animals, most notably henry.
and despite ALL OF THAT, he's trying to be a better person. he's milder in demeanor, he's polite in that he asks for things, will apologise to people even if they may not deserve it, he gifts people things, and he refuses to take apologies from the people that have wronged him - likely because of self-loathing.
i will protect this sixteen year old with my life, and i will enjoy mutilating his stubborn adversaries.
Tommy’s (and Tubbo’s) Character /rp /dSMP
This is a bit of a rant so like be warned. I have nothing against any CCs mentioned in this, this is all roleplay, lighthearted, and just a bit of fun analysis. Mostly this is a ramble about how I see certain people analysing Tommy’s character on tumblr and twt, and why I think they’re wrong. This isn’t directed at anyone specific, just a trend I’ve been seeing that kinda irks me. I don’t dislike the fandom, just a few ‘takes’ have been really weird for me.
TW for everything below: analysing the effects of trauma, abuse, manipulation, gaslighting, and lack of therapy.
Keep reading
/roleplay
so, tommy is obviously my favorite character in the dream smp atm. but all across the board, i’ve seen people frustrated and confused about his seeming lack of growth throughout the story. this response over the last couple weeks stunned me, because i just couldn’t understand it at all. but after thinking about it for a while, i think i may have had an epiphany on why a lot of people don’t Get tommy’s character arc, especially if they aren’t paying close attention to his pov. a lot of it has to do with the audience’s expectation of a typical hero’s journey and common routes for character development in media.
this is because tommy is actually going through two entirely different character arcs at the same time. sometimes they compliment each other, and sometimes they contrast each other. without a comprehensive understanding of these arcs and how they balance each other out, an audience member is likely to become frustrated, as they’re expecting more from one arc over the other.
Czytaj dalej
Betrayal.
JUST GOT MARRIED ON TUMBLR. FEELING GOOD 😌