Latest Posts by wislawa1 - Page 5
I always remember Dream’s confrontation with Tommy after the prison break being so interesting because he comes with a much more eerie vibe, if that makes sense. But then I realized he was mimicking a lot of what Quackity had said to him.
yeahhhh honestly like. i made a comparison post when that happned too maybe i can find it lmao. but it really is just about everything he said it was crazy
part one because it exceeded the character limit
Thank youuu for the ghostbur response. It read my mind (or my notesapp, rather)! I anonymized myself because I didn't know how ghostbur criticism would be received (since he is VICIOUSLY defended sometimes) but you share my opinion!!!I think that Ghostbur kind of facilitated the polarization of Wilbur Soot after his death, especially for Tommy. In truth, L’manbur was no saint and Pogbur was no villain, but it’s hard for Tommy to view it that way after Wilbur’s down spiral and death. He would have already deified L’manbur because he’s already associated with much more positive memories, and Wilbur's drastic change in Pogtopia* would have left him a little traumatized at how different his family member/close friend had become, leading him to shift his focus more on happier times (and try to reclaim them, through trying to win back L’manburg and the version of Wilbur he seemed to have lost). Compared to Pogbur, L’manbur seemed like a saint. L’manbur began to symbolize that safety, that kindness that had suddenly “vanished” from Pogtopia Wilbur. And then, of course, that “new” version of Wilbur blows up L’Manburg and any hopes of reclaiming that stability. Tommy would not easily accept that the Wilbur who did all of this is the same as the beloved President Soot. *Pogtopia WIlbur’s change wasn’t that drastic, actually. Wilbur was canonically a little unstable/stressed during the presidential era, but never opened up to anyone– especially not Tommy, who looked up to him. So to an outsider, Wilbur’s descent looked like an almost sudden collapse. But then Ghostbur is added to the mix. He isn’t L’manbur, not at all, because even L’manbur had suffered and grown as a result (Eret’s betrayal, etc etc), but he’s the closest thing to the Wilbur from the happier memories. He isn’t Wilbur BEFORE the suffering, but he’s Wilbur if the suffering never happened. And Tommy, having just lost a brother figure and been exiled a second time, isn’t going to try to make that distinction. When he or anyone else asks Ghostbur why Alivebur did what he did and Ghostbur can’t answer, Tommy relents– and at that point, Ghostbur no longer is a way to heal from Wilbur's death, he becomes a means for escapism. It’s not Ghostbur’s fault, he doesn’t mean to have this effect on anyone, but it doesn’t mean that he didn’t cause it. You hear this polarization in what Tommy tells Tubbo when they’re going to attack Dream for the last time (in the Final Waltz SAD-ist animatic): “ You know the OLD Wilbur? Let’s make him proud.” ...But there really isn’t an OLD or NEW Wilbur at all. Wilbur has always been Wilbur, yet everyone seems to subconsciously separate “L’manbur” and “Pogbur” into two completely different people. The Saint and the Devil. When Revivebur comes back, he isn’t L’Manbur OR Ghostbur. Revivebur is different, different from what Tommy remembers L’Manbur to be, and Ghostbur is gone because of his return.
this is such a good analysis
i will say i dont think ghostbur ruined c!crimeboys, i think he was more of a symbol of one of my favorite themes in c!crimeboys which is change:
c!tommy as you mentioned does not like change, so much of his arc is surrounded by this air of things changing before he can really process them, and being forced to pick up the pieces, even though he wasnt the one who caused the change in the first place (this is where a lot of the parallels between him and jesse from breaking bad come in for me, because while he is not an innocent, he suffers the consequences of other people’s actions far too often, with barely anyone actually recognizing that he’s allowed to be upset over how unfair it is)
meanwhile c!wilbur wants change, but only change he can control. control is such a big thing for c!wilbur, and he wants to have control over as much as he can in order to protect those he loves, and often he has to change things to do this. however, change does not listen to someone in charge, which is the major struggle c!wilbur has, and often he creates consequences that tommy has to deal with (especially in the case of when he blew up l’manburg) and in the end, its not something he can learn to accept, and thats why its his downfall (this is a big part of why he blew up l’manburg. he wanted the change, he wanted the control over what he created, but the change wasnt the change he wanted and controlled
so this is the constant strife with c!crimeboys: they are always moving in different directions. c!wilbur embraces change that he controls while c!tommy tries to deny change because its how he feels in control. neither of them really have control over anything, but tommy is the only one who can really accept this, even if he doesnt want to.
so to me, this is what ghostbur symbolizes. he symbolizes the opposite of what c!wilbur is because he can never change, and he cant feel in control of anything. so c!tommy gets a very altered view of c!wilbur because of ghostbur and the way he allows him to cling onto a past that doesnt actually exist, and it largely symbolizes this constant fight they have. they’re brothers, but they’re destined to be each other’s downfall if they actually remain with each other
Day 5 of cprimetober
A part of him is forever lost in the ocean
Keywords: "Life by the sea" Drowning | Puking | Sick Fic
/dsmp /rp I’ve been rewatching a lot of lore streams lately, and there’s a few things I’ve noticed about Dream’s reaction to being called evil, a villain, the bad guy, a monster, a psychopath, etc.
I’ve compiled all relevant clips in the video below, but I’ve also linked to each individual stream for additional context.
Firstly, there’s Dream’s own view on evil. He tells Sam that people who do bad things for no reason, or who just do them because they like them, are the people who are actually evil. Having no reason is what’s truly evil. Dream repeats this during the snake monologue as well. The snake that just bites without reason is pure evil.
Dream doesn’t see himself as evil because he believes he has good reasons for everything he does. During Tommy’s second prison visit, Dream says that he did bad things but that he did them for good reasons. He later admits to Sam that he doesn’t think he’s a good guy, but that he isn’t evil because he had his reasons.
And not only that, but one of Dream’s strongest convictions is that morality is a matter of perspective. Everyone is a good person in their own story, even when other people don’t see them that way. He brought this up during the staged disc finale, where he says that evil is in the eye of the beholder. He says it again when Tommy gets trapped with him in prison, then when Sam finds him after Techno’s escape, after Sam gets locked in prison, and lastly while speaking to Foolish. This is something that Dream deeply believes in.
What frustrates Dream is that nobody else has this view on morality. Nobody wonders whether Dream has any reasons for what he did and nobody sees their own part in conflicts. They just label Dream as evil and that’s it. This is most clear in the snake monologue:
“Oh, Dream exiled you, Dream blew up your country, Dream built a prison… And… we were just walking down a path. He’s evil.”
Sam says that he believes Dream just does bad things because he enjoys them, which Dream adamantly denies. Right before killing Tommy in prison, Dream gets angry about how Tommy is “annoying and disrespectful” only to then complain to Dream and accuse him of being a liar and of being manipulative.
Even before Doomsday, Dream is already getting irritated that many people portray him as the villain without seeing their own part. After George’s dethronement, George, Sapnap, and Quackity try to do a hostile takeover to reinstate George as king. In the discussion following this, Dream points out how George acts like Dream is a bad guy in that situation. When Tommy gets exiled, Dream thinks that Ghostbur is saying that Dream is the bad guy even though Tommy threatened Dream with burning Spirit’s remains. He also calls out Mexican L’Manberg for trying to paint him as the bad guy and a tyrant after they griefed Eret’s castle and set off TNT.
Dream sincerely dislikes it when others call him evil or a psychopath. Tommy says this to him many, many times. Sometimes, Dream doesn’t react at all. After the Manberg vs Pogtopia war, Tommy calls Dream, “the villain”. Dream does and says nothing, while Punz goes and attacks Tommy. During Doomsday, Tommy says that Dream is a monster; Dream just replies with “okay.”
Other times, Dream does defend himself. In the staged disc finale, before going down the attachment vault, Tommy calls Dream a psychopath. Dream then says he “wouldn’t say that.” Inside the vault, Tommy says that Dream is a psycho again, prompting Dream to say that he is not a psycho and that everything he does is deliberate. Tubbo also calls Dream and Punz psychos when he and Tommy are taken to the prison, and Dream replies that it’s Tubbo and Tommy who are psychos for breaking in and murdering him in his own house.
Tommy calls Dream evil after he gets locked in prison with him. Dream then asks how he is any more evil than Tommy is. While explaining the staged disc finale, Dream is particularly angry that Tommy made the server turn against him by telling everyone that he was an “evil maniac” who was ruining everyone’s lives. He derisively says that he and Punz can’t test a selfless death limbo because they are “evil”, they are “so bad”, they’re “murderers”, and “blah, blah, blah, who cares.”
But despite all of Dream’s contempt for being labeled evil and a villain, he does seem to have internalized this idea somewhat. He jokes with Techno after the Green Festival that it’s “an evil villain thing” to give their enemies time to prepare. When Sam is locked in prison, Dream calls himself “the evil that was released from Pandora’s Box” and questions whether Sam even considers him a person. In the snake monologue, he compares himself to the “pure evil” snake that bites without reason until it gets put down.
And when Tommy finally realizes that Dream is not a villain, Dream immediately says that he is. The main instigator of the server’s hatred recognizes Dream’s humanity at long last, but Dream can’t seem to let go of the villain label just yet.
c!wilbur in inconsolable differences justifying being cruel with Doing It For Tommy vs c!wilbur in the elections literally taking mellohi his own damn self to force c!tommy to do what he wants
How wars are like chess; how this game predicted the events leading up to "doomsday."
(please go look at this post by @maagee first)
Tubbo: "I'm not thinking that many moves ahead."
Dream was the first to take a piece.
Dream built the obsidian walls around L'manberg after Tommy griefed George's house, the first direct action taken against a faction since the war.
They traded knights (each taking the other's piece).
Tubbo and Dream agreed to a compromise at the subsequent meeting. Tommy would not be exiled and the walls would not be taken down, but they also wouldn't grow and Tommy would be punished.
Tubbo blundered (moved to where Dream could take).
Tubbo didn't hold Tommy back enough. Tommy provoked Dream, causing the compromise to be broken and the walls to be built higher. Dream presented the ultimatum that Tommy needed to be exiled else L'manberg would be encased.
Dream: "I'm pushing your queen back and you have no choice but to do it."
Tubbo made a "tactical retreat."
For the good of the country, Tubbo decided to agree to Dream's demands. He declared Tommy exiled so that the walls could come down and L'manberg could be free again.
Dream let Tubbo fix a mistake (he left his queen unprotected).
Dream played nice with Tubbo after the exile. He praised Tubbo's presidency and abided by the L'manberg laws for the first time ever, taking off his armor within its borders. It looked like an actual gesture of respect towards Tubbo and the country.
Fundy said that Tubbo was better-placed, having misread the board.
The Butcher Army decided to hold a festival as a cover for execution. Dream would have his armor off and they would take that opportunity to kill him. Fundy specifically helped put everything together as decorator and they all were very (mistakenly) confident in its success.
Fundy: "Dream severely has the advantage."
Tubbo moved to threaten Dream's queen and put himself in danger.
The festival was a massive, immediate failure and by extention, so was the plan. Instead of doing as they'd predicted, Dream led them to the destroyed community house and demanded that if Tubbo truly had no ties to Tommy, he would give up the disc. Tubbo complied.
Dream won.
Extras:
Dream played white.
White always moves first and thus begins the game with an inherent advantage. Dream has always had the upper hand.
Tubbo was repeatedly surprised by Dream's moves.
The walls being built didn't make sense to him because Tommy had gone behind his back in destroying George's house. Dream's agreeable-ness after the exile came as a shock and made Tubbo believe they were closer to friends than enemies. Dream started doomsday itself 20 minutes early when no one was actively at the ready.
Ranboo watched the game from Tubbo's side and didn't know what was going on.
'Tubbo's side' - Ranboo was in the cabinet, he was the minutes man at the meetings. On doomsday, he decided to choose a side only to not let Tubbo down; his loyalty to L'manberg was just loyalty to Tubbo.
'Watching' - He didn't actually really participate in doomsday, simply observed the destruction. He also was greatly unaware of the days prior - he forgot both Niki yelling at him and (we learned later) destroying the community house.
Fundy stood by Ranboo, then alone.
Ranboo gave a speech on not picking sides and Fundy decided that he agreed, attempting to ally himself with others away from both L'manberg and Dream. Ranboo was not interested, and Fundy single-handedly destroyed all of L'manberg's gathered supplies.
Philza left the game halfway through.
Phil was put under house arrest for not helping the Butcher Army reach Technoblade, even though he was a citizen of L'manberg. He ended up disowning Fundy and escaping, joining up with Techno after Techno's execution with no more ties to the country.
![[DC] Redrawing My Fave 1999 Anime Digimon Adventure But As My Fave 1998 Dc Comic 😚](https://64.media.tumblr.com/7c1e64d6bdc9bc0c388eb34831b0cba2/1b311bc0b403fdd9-5b/s500x750/c0f764d82c07fa59f2387799c04c630baf65546c.png)
![[DC] Redrawing My Fave 1999 Anime Digimon Adventure But As My Fave 1998 Dc Comic 😚](https://64.media.tumblr.com/310b110f3112472b4fed0ff930775a7c/1b311bc0b403fdd9-47/s500x750/af73498e7185cda3c57eea9b1f529335fda1d3da.png)
![[DC] Redrawing My Fave 1999 Anime Digimon Adventure But As My Fave 1998 Dc Comic 😚](https://64.media.tumblr.com/fb5939378b858439e4f77bdf91cf86b8/1b311bc0b403fdd9-a8/s500x750/d56bd651fb9f8d239414043e8289e23c55b2c2a5.png)
it never ceases to amaze me that there's still debate over what l'manburg was or what c!wilbur intended it to be when cc!wilbur's reaction to matpat's theory video [x] exists:
matpat: l'manburg started as an autocratic nation state with self appointed dictator—uh president—wilbur soot, with tommyinnit as his second
wilbur: YES!
matpat: the dictator for life thing didn't pan out long term, after all a ruler only rules by the consent of the governed, and despite the fact wilbur soot had declared himself supreme leader, the citizens weren't taking his orders all that seriously
wilbur: TRUE!
matpat: so what do you do if you want to secure legimitacy as a ruler? you hold a democratic election
wilbur: this is well researched!
wilbur in VOD: the reason im running as president i felt like it was unfair of me to declare myself dictator
matpat, sarcastically: well maybe if you want to believe the man its because he grew a conscience
wilbur, laughing: GOOD!
like, there's really nothing ambiguous about it. from the text, to word of god to post resurrection c!wilbur's characterization, one message is clear: the idea that l'manburg was made to fight tyranny and as a safe space for non-americans was and always has been a lie.
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.”
I felt like painting something with owls and cats again and suddenly this idea popped up in my head.
it’s incredible how i only have these thoughts when i don’t have the energy to elaborate, but here’s why i think the prison arc will be then followed by a reframing of c!dream, straight from the hero with a thousand faces:
Czytaj dalej
Ok there are a lot of things I don't understand about Wilbur and Dream's interactions, but one of the main things that I don't quite get is the whole breaking into the prison and burning the disks with Tommy , like ok why was Wilbur so convinced that by threatening to kill himself he was gonna make Dream do what ever he wants ( burn the disks)
And well we can say that Dream was just agreeing to whatever the hell the wanted because he wanted them out of his living room ( and because he didn't need the disks) but like ,Wilbur didn't know that, what made him so sure that Dream wanted him alive especially after the prison break ( Dream didn't need his help anymore) to the point that he thought he could use it ( his life ) as leverage
Did Dream want to keep Wilbur alive, if so, then why? I don't know man, seems like the only person that would be losing in this situation is Wilbur himself.
I got more questions but like this is what confuses me the most. Idk just don't get it
Honestly I'm going to assume you know about these reddit posts, but while like I think that people should be able to draw their own conclusions to a text without strictly subscribing to what is said by the authors, like, cc!Dream and cc!Wilbur did give explanations behind what happened in this stream that I think are worth checking out: x x
A lot of people perceived cc!Wilbur's comment specifically as speaking for c!Dream in a way that was uninformed and therefore dismissed the post, which I think is...unwise? Like, cc!Wilbur literally says that he's posting from the perspective of his character's thought process, not an out of character word of god on what c!Dream actually values and believes. Further, he literally clarifies that his character isn't entirely correct and is an unreliable narrator.
But looking between the posts and looking at c!Dream's behavior, I mean. What we can say, rather definitively, that c!Wilbur was right about is that c!Dream didn't want to lose that feeling that he had leverage over c!Wilbur. Like, he's pretty damn desperate not to lose it, actually. c!Wilbur "believes that Dream has nothing if not himself"--a perspective that obviously leaves out c!Punz, considering c!Dream's secrecy in terms of this one particular ally, but is otherwise I mean. Like. Correct? cc!Dream emphasizes repeatedly that c!Dream doesn't want to lose "that feeling of control over Wilbur," that c!Dream's power over c!Wilbur is "just in his head," that he's holding onto it even though "it's seemingly gone after the exile reveal." The rest of the server's story only throws this in sharper relief--c!Wilbur literally fucking leaves the whole damn server and c!Dream is cowering in the prison worrying about him A MONTH LATER.
When c!Wilbur makes the assessment that c!Dream is going to hold onto the perceived leverage he has over c!Wilbur tightly, EVEN WHEN SAID LEVERAGE DOESN'T EXIST, to the point of doing almost everything c!Wilbur tells him to? He's 100% right. c!Dream doesn't want to break the illusion. When cc!Dream gives the two examples of what c!Dream wouldn't do, he mentions that c!Dream wouldn't "kill himself" or "give over the revive book," which, I mean. Is literally just saying the same thing twice. Which, again, just goes to show how far c!Dream is willing to go in order to keep holding onto a feeling of control, that--once again! Is emphasized by both ccs AND by the literal text (as we can see that c!Dream at no point is able to actually use the "leverage" he has over c!Wilbur from reviving him to do LITERALLY ANYTHING AT ALL) as not existing in any meaningful manner. This isn't a case of c!Wilbur having an inflated sense of self-importance or a case of him pushing his way into this conflict recklessly w/ a delusional belief that his pitch will work. This is a case of c!Wilbur (as is like, usually the case with him and c!Dream) reading c!Dream like an open book and getting exactly what he fucking wants by force, literally shouting down at c!Tommy and c!Dream until they both comply.
(And it's worth pointing out that like. This whole thing does have a visible toll on c!Dream. He's extra jumpy and defensive in the stream on the same day after Inconsolable Differences, says he went for a stroll outside the prison (something he basically Doesn't Do after he gets the prison back in Daedalus) explicitly to "keep his mind wandering," he bristles at the perception that he's being accused of a terrorist--the exact wording that c!Wilbur uses against him when he makes him write the book in the prison. c!Dream's behavior, while not yet pushed to the point where he starts lashing out in self-defense, was pretty obviously off as soon as c!Wilbur started making demands--he grows quieter, more still, visibly less comfortable--honestly, not at all unsimilar to certain behaviors that we saw in the prison arc.)
And I mean. At the end of the day. Why wouldn't c!Dream want some reason to believe that c!Wilbur would work with him? Why wouldn't he want some kind of leverage? The guy is pretty obviously worried about him, if not outright scared of him. He was ranking c!Wilbur with the likes of c!Sam and c!Quackity when he mentions him in the Finale, for god's sake. c!Wilbur was the person that first called him the tyrant that c!Dream ends up believing he has always been. c!Wilbur was the originator of L'manburg, which c!Dream blames for the literal loss of his home. c!Wilbur is like. Extremely charismatic, extremely good at convincing people that he's well-meaning, that what he's saying is right, that this-person-is-the-enemy and you-want-to-stand-for-freedom and that so-and-so is a cause worth dying for, isn't it. c!Dream was The-Man-That-L'manburg-Opposed from the minute that c!Wilbur decided so and this narrative would follow him literally for the rest of his life.
So yeah c!Dream wanted to keep c!Wilbur alive out of the delusional belief that doing so would mean he has leverage over him. Why he wants that leverage (even though he never uses it and the fact that it literally doesn't exist), I mean.
I personally believe that cWilbur was extremely jealous of what cDream had in the beginning. He was a well respected leader, a strategist and peacekeeper and despite the fact that the SMP had no government or ruler he was looked to as the defacto leader.
And c!Wilbur wanted that.
I mean, when he does L'manburg, he's literally not had a single conversation with c!Dream. He doesn't really know him at all. His original target was Sapnap, and he pivots to c!Dream both because c!Dream seems to be the guy on top and because after a single conversation with c!Dream I mean, it becomes pretty glaringly obvious that c!Dream is the one that's uh, easiest to work with (one minute in and he's already speaking on Wilbur's terms.) The revolution kind of solidifies c!Dream both as the one that should be his target from a leadership level + from a "will play along the easiest" level, which is kind of where we start seeing a specific focus on c!Dream from c!Wilbur (lizard snake thing, suck it green boy, calling Dream lord instead of Eret, etc.)
But I mean. Like, he doesn't really know c!Dream well enough to be jealous at first. And Dream isn't really his first target, either. c!Wilbur's whole deal with Being The Guy On Top isn't really about any specific person or jealousy, either, as exhibited by his towering to stand over literally anyone and everyone. Like look c!Wilbur literally just has control issues😭and the repetition of stuff like iconoclast and sticking it to the man and how he makes a point of wrangling control for himself or taking it more obviously like. This is not a man that likes to feel like he's under anyone or being controlled by anyone or being told what to do by anyone
this is formatted like a webweave only it's not really one bc i srsly couldn't make a webweave like for my life but at the same time i didn't know how else to condense the brainrot into a consumable form. anyway. something something things that changed and things that didn't, vassal drives me crazy bonkers insane and i think about c!dream in season 1a forever and ever and ever, holy fuck.
(transcripts courtesy of @/dsmptranscripts on twitter, and artwork all done by SAD-ist)
(i tried colorcoding but idk how much it helps at all. green emphasizes how he sees L'manburg in relation to the Dream SMP, blue emphasizes his motivations re: L'manburg and how he sees its residents into and out of Pogtopia, and yellow specifically highlights him and Wilbur, specifically how he treats him and his words with authority.)
We as a society (fandom) do not talk enough about wilbur's first introduction to dream because it's actually hilarious, and we do not talk about the Minecraft dream cult enough
For context, this is from, like, April of 2020 (a solid few months before the whole pizza hut date fiasco). You can watch the video here, and the time stamp for this particular realm is around 19:25
If you don't know, essentially, wilbur did a video where he stole from his subscriber's Minecraft realms, and one of said realms ended up being a """cult""" (in heavy quotations bc it wasn't actually... it's Minecraft) for dream. wilbur goes in, he's on edge, and he has no idea what's going on—he just wants to steal and move on to the next realm.
Anyway, watch the video if you want. What's really funny is that wilbur had no idea who dream was at the time, so it was just some eerie Minecraft realm to him.
A few months later, tommy & tubbo join the dsmp, and wilbur via tommy asks dream on a pizza hut date, and you know the rest. I wonder if wilbur ever connected the dots between dream and the realm.
If you think about it, the idea of wilbur interacting with a creepy cult then meeting the figure of said cult, only to have his first reaction be to ask said person out on a date, is kinda funny.
Some bonus screenshots from the video:
Wilbur Soot has compared himself to the poem of Ozymandias countless times before. This is something us fans know.
He’s made reference to it on a handful of occasions, and has even had Fundy read the poem allowed. There was an entire animatic by Sad-ist about him as Ozymandias.
Ozymandias is this poem about this king, a supposed great ruler of a great kingdom, the king of kings. There’s a catch, and the heavy hitter of the poem. It doesn’t matter, no one remembers it. All that is left behind is a broken run down statue and a name with none of his greatness attached.
It’s easy to say that Wilbur compares himself and thinks of himself like Ozymandias, a man who may have been beloved by many, who may have had many greats, but left nothing behind that wasn’t wrecked or ruined. He has no legacy that will outlive him.
This is increasingly sad when you realize what c!Wilbur has done over the course of the last several apology streams. He is trying to make people’s last memories of him positive. Whether it’s because of their choice to never speak to him again, or his own. He keeps stating he wants to leave (whether it’s potentially him dying, or simply leaving off on his own), so he wants to leave the people he cared about and wronged the most with some positive memory of him, something that will remain of him, even if small.
He even says to Eret that he’s left behind and done one of the hardest & most important jobs of all, bringing people together.
Wilbur is still unable to see how he is the base, the one who brought everyone together in the first place, he’s the one who started it all, and the one that still manages to unite everything and everyone through one seemingly unbreakable thread that is him and his creation and belief in L’manburg.
I think then, c!Eret saying that he doesn’t want to be like Ozymandias, he wants to leave behind a legacy, something greater. He wants to leave behind some positive impact on future generations, namely through history and the telling of it and the preserving of it.
There’s some bit of bittersweet irony of Eret not knowing that Wilbur sees himself as Ozymandias, and how he speaks how he doesn’t want to do what Ozymandias had done, that he wants to be greater (doesn’t everyone?).
There’s something bittersweet about Eret often praising Wilbur for leaving behind something so great, L’manburg, and being such a large impact on everyone’s lives. Something that Wilbur can’t see himself.
i will never get over the way wilbur used his dsmp character to explore themes revolving around perceiving yourself through a narrative and projecting conventions of storytelling and media onto your own life out of a need to become part of something greater and more “beautiful” than yourself. the complicated relationship between life and art: which imitates which? the attempt to aestheticize your own suffering in the hope of creating a “masterpiece” that makes it all somehow worth it. convincing yourself that you are a character on a stage and must play your part so you don’t have to admit to yourself that you’re tired and hurting and it’s easier than putting in the work to heal. just. god. c!wilbur’s story means so much to me and wilbur soot is a fucking genius