Trans Dreamscape Sunny (PtA), Or Discussing How To Properly Change A Protagonist To An Antagonist

trans dreamscape sunny (PtA), or discussing how to properly change a protagonist to an antagonist

SPOILER WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS SPOILS ALL OF DREAMSCAPE UP TO CHAPTER 15!!! YES THERES A NEW CHAPTER!! GO READ IT!! NOW

I also spoil Omori, Danganronpa 2/Danganronpa 3: Despair Arc and the School for Good and Evil in my discussions. If you haven't read/seen these, I've tried to explain them enough so that they are understandable without needing to.

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF ABUSE AND IMPLIED SUICIDE

Strap in, this one is long.

Throughout Dreamscape, we can slowly see Sunny morph from the protagonist to the antagonist. Perhaps this is most prevalent in the latest Chapter - but really, it's been happening all along, and we just didn't notice it.

This isn't the most common trope, and when it does exist, it often isn't written well. Naturally, an author wants a reader to sympathise when their protagonist, follow them on their goals, and feel their emotions, which means they slip into writing a naïve antagonist, or some similar trait that downplays the villainous one.

While this seems obviously good from a reader standpoint - you get to suffer just a bit less - it makes for relatively repetitive writing. Every good guy has to remain good, regardless of the events that occur, even in potentially illogical situations, they remain chained to an obsessive moral compass.

A proper transition from a protagonist to an antagonist, regardless of whether their goals remain relatively the same or completely change, is a wholehearted switch in mindset and understanding of self.

I personally love this trope, I have an entire anime planned around manipulating the reader (as usual, it sits in my brain and I do nothing with it), and I think Dreamscape is maybe one of the best examples of this trope I've seen yet.

First, some slight historical backstory that I feel is relevant. There are several theories as to why the concept of Good vs Evil exists, and it's a big discussion within philosophy. Are human morals innate, or taught? Some speculate religion started this, but some believe morals were taught within society, and some think they were innate to humanity, logically formed from evolutionary group survival.

In classic Greek tragedies, the "hero" exists as a tragic hero with a fatal flaw, often existing as the antagonist to their own story. These acted as moral warnings for their audience, an understanding of how a single villainous trait can cause mass death and destruction. Here we can see the existence of a protagonist and antagonist within the same character, greying out their moral compass.

As time goes on, we begin to understand that humanity itself is morally grey, artists will continue to write this into story. Good works can make us question morality itself, tackling loopholes in our understanding of the world.

why do characters make that transition?

There are several understandings a protagonist can make in order to transition to an antagonist, and typically it's a change in their understanding of self. Whereas protagonists are often fighting against a major power or the world around them, to become an antagonist means to discover something about yourself that likens you to evil.

For example, in The School for Good and Evil, we see Sophie, who's demonstrated to us that she is 'Good' over the opening chapters, immediately reject her set role as "Evil". With the status as "protagonist and antagonist" being known to the characters, it allows them to react to their own true nature and respond accordingly.

In the second book, Sophie attempts to reject her status as antagonist yet again, only to be abused into embracing it and setting out (with her shitty wimp husband) to destroy morality itself. Here, Sophie comes to a realisation about her own existence - her mother was never truly a good person, but rather, a horrible woman who abused magic to have a child with her father. Sophie learns she was an unwanted child from the beginning, and her mother was never the idol Sophie needed her to be.

In the Despair Arc of Danganronpa, Hajime Hinata is talentless in a world where talent means everything. He hates this about himself, and chooses to undergo human experimentation in order to feel good enough about himself. During this, he completely loses his personality, and becomes a weapon of a human who is used to completely destroy the world - Izuru Kamukura.

Unfortunately, Danganronpa 2 falls Hajime into the naïve antagonist trope at the end, where he is unknowing of everything his alter ego did to the world. As is the nature of these tropes, the ending implies him and the group attempting to fix everything they broke with the second chance at life they were given.

As an antagonist mutates, a protagonist must also develop to move the plot forward. In the School for Good and Evil, this is Agatha, who must learn to embrace her "set" role as princess; and as a doomed narrative, the Despair Arc has no true protagonist, since no-one was ever going to win. Instead, Hajime himself redeems his character in the second game, going against Izuru Kamukura.

In both of these examples, the characters discover or inherently have a self-loathing trait, which is the trait that they embrace when they become "evil". They try to change this, but either get more than what they ask for, or the truth comes out eventually.

why is Sunny a good character to abuse this for?

Perhaps the main reason why Sunny is a good character to use the protagonist to antagonist transition is because this exists in the original game, where Omori morphs into the ultimate antagonist, from the original "good guy" he was at the beginning.

Being in a game format, Omori has the ability to win, which differs it from the previous examples. SGE has no player choice in the events, and you can't really "lose" Danganronpa 2, at least not in the way where the protagonist-to-antagonist wins the scenario.

However, Omori's goals can be completely understood and also succeed. I wrote about this in my analysis of the game endings, Omori is acting as any brain does under that amount of pressure - despite being counter-intuitive, it is a self-protective measure. You can understand why he has become the final boss, why he does the things he does, because he's a reflection of severe trauma and guilt.

Like the previous examples, Omori is not only inherently self-loathing, but the personification of self-hate. He isn't the manifestation of everything Sunny hates about himself, but rather, the manifestation of what Sunny could be, who loathes the real Sunny for everything he did.

Sunny himself, however, is the protagonist who takes Omori's place, as the player loses touch with Omori's goals. This leaves him open for further destruction of mental state. I've always liked the concept of headspace "coming back", or existing in a different form that allows Sunny to make that antagonist transition.

Well, here we are.

why does Dreamscape do this well?

Within Dreamscape, Sunny's goals were made somewhat known to the reader, but the extent of them isn't until the most recent chapter - where we also discover a major player into why he wants this, which is his father's physical and emotional abuse, all because he isn't Mari, and isn't perfect.

It's true that the existence of "reviving Mari" has been known to the reader since about the beginning. You can read between the lines in the first chapter and understand what he wants from there, but the narrative tricks you into believing Sunny simply wants to apologise to Mari, when in reality, that wasn't his goal at all.

Over time, we have seen a slow shift in the way narrative perspective is used in the fic, which subtly foreshadowed Sunny's transition. As the reader became less and less able to empathise with Sunny's goals, we lost the ability to see the world from his perspective, and understand his thoughts and feelings. Sunny is unreachable - both by the other character perspectives, but also the reader themself.

It was possible to see the signs that Mari would take over Sunny's body, but I falsely believed that this would be from Mari's control alone, not considering the idea that Sunny might have wanted this all along. The reveal about Sunny's father was a jaw-drop - but it made sense within the context of the narrative.

Hero exists as the current "protagonist", at least to some extent, but Aubrey-Kel-Basil also exist as a hero, when composite. Both parties have different purposes for wanting to save/destroy Sunny - Hero has to hold up his deal with Candace (although I believe his goals are changing, to what I'm not sure), whereas the Sunny Simp Squad just want their friend back, regretting their neglect of him.

Now, where is this going to lead us? Sunny/Mari is likely going to become a "main boss" of some sort, and the Sunny Simp Squad are in the process of trying to shut down the virus from inside the game. However, considering the fact that we are barely halfway through the fic, the chances of the goals of the characters changing are incredibly high.

There's been some implication that Basil is the focus of Arc 3, which possibly changes where Arc 2 is going to end. Hero is in an incredibly unstable state at the moment, and due to his attachment to Mari, he might genuinely slip into a supporting antagonist - it comes down to whether or not his morals and care for Sunny outweigh his love for Mari, and I'm starting to think they don't.

didya like my trans joke in the title?

omori dreamscape au by @omoriboii, tis very good.

anyyyywayyy, song i wrote this to: villain by Teniwoha

"XとかYとか~", such an iconic gender song. i felt the title and trans themes were fitting for this analysis.

reviewing chapter 16 of dreamscape, or finally, happiness for the children!

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF HAPPINESS, PEACE AND SUNFLOWER CANON

Alright! Finally, some good news for the Dreamscape cast!

We've been waiting on this for a while, as the fic is tagged, "It gets worse before it gets better," and it looks like our better has finally arrived, after the Great War!!!

To give a short runthrough of what the Dreamscape AU is, it's a canon convergent post-game fluff fanfic which follows Sonny, Basil, Aubrey, Kel, Hero and Mari living in a house together (with Mewo of course!!). They're all obsessed with this cute little game called Dreamscape, and the fic follows their daily activities (with a dash of romance!) as they work to live a happy and normal life after the Great War.

Dreamscape as a game is not particularly symbolic - it's just a MarioKart replica with character creation - but the way the characters use the game provides a catalyst for their development. For example, we know that Sonny and Basil have something going on, and this is because Sonny is always requesting that the two play Dreamscape together, and his character in the game is bright rainbow. Colours are easy to access in the game - in fact, it's much harder to go fully monochrome because of the Great War.

Donut is my personal favourite character in the text, but Jude comes a close second. Donut is a tall, clever ftm top who never gets flustered over praise, and Jude has a large peniThey live on a houseboat along with Kouta, their very very active track runner friend. He's always running laps around the house. The group contrasts to Pianoboi's clone, Sonny, as well as the main group, mean they serve as useful secondary characters, juxtaposing with the contrast of comparison. The group were all present during the Great War, and they love playing the Sims 4!!!

Let's look at where our characters are. Mari is perfect and flawless, just as she should be in canon. Basil is a recovering alcoholic, and Sonny is not traumatised. Kel has a clue, Aubrey is as bubbly as ever and Hero lazes around with Mewo all day. This is hugely different from before the Great War!! Look at how far they've come :)

If you remember from before (I barely did, it's been so long!!), Chapter 12 was an incredibly obvious and normal chapter which introduced nothing into the text!! Except the Great War.

Overall, ten stars. No plot, but pure, pure fluff. Exactly what @omoriboii aimed for :)

We ALL know Hero is emotionally (and physically) the same consistency as that cookie dough in the bowl he is baking 😭

He cring

shoutout to somekindofsentience the realest dailyvincharles follower

chapter 15 review:

enjoyed the inclusion of a "Black Space", even though allusions to the game aren't really necessary, i’ve always liked black space. enjoying more explorations of Sunny/Hero parallels and turning Sunny into an antagonist. surprised by the presentation of Sunny’s father, but equally intrigued about his past, especially with mari. 

analysis brain wants more death but pissbaby brain would have a meltdown.

overall 15/10 would kiss Mari and Aubrey and Basil and Hero and Sunny and Kel

More death more death more death!

Nothing bad ever happens in DreamScape.

I'm so glad you like my fic..ough.. ;;

Tell me about yourself! :D

what do you wanna know that isn't already on the me post?? jsjsjhshjshj

i'm really not that interesting. my motivation for writing is purely "i can't draw, but must express my batshit insane levels of creativity".

i like biology and chemistry! i'm particularly interested in therapeutic gene editing, but i can speak on a lot of biology and chemistry topics because i have godlike high school notes. if i can't speak on something, i'll research it until i can. i am interested in psychology, but find the levels of uncertainty in the space unstable.

i'm currently doing a research project on S. aureus bacteria and its high salt tolerance, that's been fun. got to pour nutrient agar recently, waiting for bacteria shipment so i can swab it.

i'm australian, which is a jumpscare for some people. i say 'bah-sil'.

i have OCD, at least speculated OCD. i like to refer to my intrusive thoughts as twitch chat (stole that from a twitter meme) because it makes things even slightly more bearable, but otherwise it's a nightmare. i try my best to talk about my real experiences with OCD, because there's a lot of misinformation and public stigma about the condition. i experienced a lot of "non-stereotypical" symptoms (mental compulsions and avoidance behaviours, for example) as i was growing up, and it really felt like i was going insane a lot of the time, so if i can talk about my experiences and maybe help someone even a little, then maybe things will be a bit better. i dunno.

i was a natural at english (the subject) as a kid, which is probably why i can do analyses well. i used to be quite a bit better at being creative, because i could actually write down my little ocs and such, these days i daydream about them doing things to songs and make the very occasional picrew. (maybe i'll introduce them sometime)

i have an anatomically correct model of a heart? it's from my late grandmother.

i play a lot of switch games, so i've got zelda (botw and totk), splatoon 3, omori, pokemon violet, other stuff. i've played all the etherane games, as well. big gamer. i used to be an anime person, but i kinda ran out of steam to watch anime? i occasionally read manga - i'm trying to keep up with oshi no ko and liar satsuki can see death. i also like yoarashi ni warau. i get all my obscure lesbian psychological thriller from a close friend of mine who is very cool.