Pixel art by Romain Courtois
i know morality and c!dream can be a sticky subject especially bc of how like, unreliable this guy is when he talks abt himself, but as much as we repeat lines in daedalus i do think that it's worth remembering that his whole ... "oh evil is in the eye of the beholder" "everyone is the hero in their own story" "they're not excuses theyre reasons" "im evil but the ends justify the means" ETC of it all is like. self protective?
like no, c!dream isn't a character that is all that occupied with morality from the beginning, obviously. but at the same time this is also a character where the crux of the damn matter when c!tommy finally gets through to him is you know, no, dumbass, you aren't Just Irredeemable Evil you're an idiot asshole that chose to do shitty things and there are, in fact, other paths you can choose. this is also a character that has a whole breakdown on his own about the "thin line between good and evil" where he wrestles with his own morality and humanity in comparison to a fucking snake. this is a character that is SO FUCKING BOTHERED by c!sam's like, everything, c!quackity's sadism, c!wilbur confronting him over lmanburg (i'm a tourist. not a terrorist.) (like ,,,)
like no matter how much c!dream tries to beat his conscience into the ground, no matter how much he says that ohhh he's just evil look at his evil lair and evil speeches and evil villain plan to give warning before he attacks and evil giving people primes (what???), no matter how much he repeats the fact that ~the end justifies the means~ and it's all worth it in the end so the middle doesn't actually matter...uh, it kind of does matter to him. c!dream might've always been ruthless and a bit of a jerk and capable of a heck of a lot of damage, but he doesn't go into this on day one thinking that abusing a teenager is A-okay. he doesn't go into the damn end of this thinking that abusing a teenager is A-okay, for fuck's sake. when pushed to the wire all he could say to c!tommy is that he tortured him, because he deserved it, like that's at all about ends justifying means and goals and whatever. like that's not the same thing that his own torturer said to him just weeks ago, in those few minutes before he was sent running.
like yeah, part of this is for show. also the other evil ass guys on this server don't exactly go around adding "evil ___" in front of everything they do, do they? you don't see c!quackity calling his casino "EVIL CASINO !!!" or c!sam calling his bank "EVIL BANK!!!" (c!sam, of course, Isn't A Bad Guy) (well, that whole Thing is also self-protective, but you know) like /?? c!dream is Weird about morality and fixated on the whole evil villain whatever of it all in a way that is just too obvious for him to not care about morality nearly as much as he claims to.
Ummmmmm…. What?!?!! Omg!… I was rewatching Bad’s visit to Dream in the prison and what do I find but a conversation about living conditions and torture with Quackity! Wtf?!!
It’s too long of a clips, so here’s the time stamp 33:34-36:06.
And I did my best to transcribe it (but dang it’s hard when they talk over each other):
B: “I’ll talk to Quack—oh Quackity he’s studying to be a lawyer! We can get Quackity’s opinion.”
Q: ”Hi Bad.”
B: “Hi. Umm question for you. So you—you know Deam right?”
Q: ”Yeah…”
B: ”Yeah you know how he’s like in jail right now.”
Q: “Mm—hmm”
B: “Do you think it’d be too much to ask to go around and like try to improve like his living conditions in the prison? Like what do you think?”
Q: “Improve his living conditions?…”
B: “Yeah like I went and visited—have you visited him in the prison yet?”
Q: “Yeah yeah. no I—I haven’t—I have no reason to visit him right now… Oh, let me get this straight: improve his living conditions as in maybe like add a wall around him uhh probably bully him for awhile you know—”
B: “Na—noo!”
Q: “You know kind of like how he did with L’manberg?”
B: “Nooo!—that’s the opposite.”
Q: “Because that’s exactly what he did with L’manberg. You know what? You know what? You’re right—”
B: ”Oh my gosh…”
Q: “I could improve his living conditions—”
B: “Quackity—no!”
Q: “By boxing him in a goddamn box!”
B: “Language! Woah woah—woah.”
Q: “Yea I—I probably could do that.”
B: “Language. language. language.”
Q: “Sorry…”
B: “That’s all right.”
Q: “Maybe I could improve his living conditions like that. Maybe I could do that—”
B: “No no no-No no no.”
Q: “Maybe you’re right.”
B: “Listen, you gotta go visit him. Okay? You know what? I’m not even gonna say it I’m just saying you gotta go and visit him on one of your streams. Okay? Because—”
Q: “Oh I am. No no no believe me—believe me I’m going to.”
B: “At some point go visit him cuz—”
Q: “Oh I’m going to.”
B: “And you’ll see exactly what I’m saying then we can like discuss it. Okay?”
Q: “What—what is this? Did he—did he manipulate you? What—what did he tell you?—”
B: “No!”
Q: “Why are you acting all of the sudden so nice to him?”
B: “Look obviously Dream deserves to stay there cuz he did a lot of bad things, right?”
Q: “Mm—hmm.”
B: “But—doesn’t mean we should like—keep him in there and just have him like tortured all the time like even—”
Q: “No no, not right—not right—”
B: “No, that is right!”
Q: “No, I think that’s exactly what he deserves.”
B: ”Oh come on—”
Q: ”No no I think that’s exactly what he deserves.”
B: “Even Dream has rights as a prisoner. Right? You’re a lawyer.”
Q: “I’m sorry I’m sorry but I don’t recall Dream having any mercy on us when—”
B: “Well, yeah he didn’t but—”
Q: “He put that wall around us—”
B: “Okay..”
Q: “And he pulled all those things to Tubbo and—”
B: “Okay…”
Q: “W—why do you want to release him?”
B: “No one’s talking about releasing him!”
Q: “Okay.”
B: “I’m talking about giving him like a potted plant! Just don’t torture him while he’s locked up—he’s been locked up enough…You feel me?”
Q: “No, Bad—”
B: “Like he’s been—he’s suffering.”
This is from chapter 68 of the Dream SMP fanfic Rewind by @a-non-ymouswriter.
I wanted to color this but I suddenly forgot how to draw. The words are an English translation of the Spanish translation of "Colors" the first opening of Code Geass (sorry if that sounds confusing). Some of the lyrics reminded me of the fanfic, so I had to do this.
I was going to draw Theo with his mask but I want it to be a little more meaningful looking at his face.
c!Dream always told himself he was objective, but he wasn't. He couldn't be. Perfect objectivity doesn't exist; there will always be biases and preconceived ideas about others, and these ideas threw Dream off more than I think he'd like to admit. He was wrong about Sam following their rules (he was wrong about Sam caring). But he was also wrong about Tommy, when he was so sure that Tommy only ever wanted to cause him harm.
we dont talk baout ctubbo giving away the cookie outpost without telling cranboo first like we dont talk about how thye dont talk about it you know, why ctubbo is doing all this in the first place, the isolationism, how the missing nuke was meant to be single use because it was meant to kill him, and how ctubbo is still spying still investigating because thats the only way he can feel safe, how hes spending more time doing this than at the unfinished mansion that was meant to be a family home. Can we talk about how he gave it away and cranboo never knew what that meant. can we talka bout it.