Wake Up, You’re Dreaming Again.

so i was watching tommys stream right? and wilbur, like real life wilbur the person, brought up an interesting point. and that’s why is tommy lonely?

and i found that interesting because its a fair point. why is he lonely, especially from a writers perspective, which is what wilbur was asking from

because tommy is sad, theres no arguing about that. and he has ample reason to be sad, but to claim hes lonely is a different story. hes been visited by people almost everyday (mostly dream, but the others visit too, and also PM him) and also he keeps getting presents from people whenever they come and visit him

tubbo is basically the only person who hasn’t come to visit him, but wil also pointed out thats kind of a vapid reason for this extreme loneliness hes feelling, which is true

but i think its more the sudden lack of attention that tommys feeling. he, as a character, has essentially been the Main Character for the majority of the smp lore. yes, other characters have been important, but tommy has gotten used to being the centre of attention. hes gotten used to and dependent on the power of being ‘important’, and now that hes an option, for tubbo and for everyone else, he doesn’t know what to do (dream also fits into this in a way, but ill have to get into that in a different post lol)

hes realizing hes not the priority to other people, and im pretty sure thats just completely upended his worldview (remember, hes the “hero” that always comes out on top, that everything works out for) because hes facing consequences for his actions, and they suck. like they’re not fun

and its different from the first time, because now hes being exiled by himself, by his best friend, as a direct response to his actions, and people are just kinda going with it (its also a much more thorough exile than last time)

so its not that tommy doesn’t have friends, or that he is lonely because no ones isn’t visiting, or that people dislike him (which is an idea that he believes at this point), its that his ‘normal’ for how people treat him, and how they interact with him is so skewed that he only thinks people like him if he gets all of their attention and is their number one priority and is special. 

hes not used to this feeling of being by himself, and because he doesn’t know what it is, hes labelled it as loneliness

“ur so chill” thanks i am completely disconnected from reality right now

tw// suicide

(want to note that this is about the CHARACTERS on dream smp, not any of the actual creators. the fact that anyone feels strongly about this proves that these people are telling a good story. I am also not genuinely angry/upset at any fan, even though this rant may seem like I am. I promise it's all good; this is just silly little minecraft roleplay and not something to be genuinely upset over).

i think the fact that people feel sympathy for c!dream is very interesting, especially considering the fact that many people seemed to feel absolutely no sympathy for c!tommy.

dream is a manipulative motherfucker on purpose. that's his job as a complex villain, and he's doing it very well. he's acting all sad and dejected over losing his friends and items (even though he previously stated that he never cared about any of those things) to make tommy feel bad for him. he's doing it to pull at tommy's heartstrings, but not just tommy's. dream is also trying to guilt trip chat. to make the viewers feel bad for him. to sympathize with him, even though he's in no way deserving of that sympathy. there are pleanty of things I can list that dream has done wrong, but one, I believe, is most important: dream abused tommy so badly that he considered suicide.

how could one possibly feel even an ounce of sympathy for someone who drove another person, a CHILD, to off themselves? dream hurt tommy so badly that being dead seemed like a better option. a way out. how fucking sickening is that?

tommy has fucked up on many occasions, no doubt about that. but to say that the punishments he's received fit the crimes he's commited is completely untrue. no matter what you've done, you don't deserve death, and you CERTAINLY do not deserve to be beaten down to the point where death seems like a better alternative to being alive.

unlike tommy, dream is an unfeeling character. he cares about nothing other than himself. he had pleanty of opportunities to be a better person. he could've learned from his experiences and grown from them. but he didn't. he never did, because he doesn't care. tommy, especially as of late, knows that he's messed up, and is learning from that. he's apologizing, acknowledging his mistakes, and making an effort to be a better person.

unlike tommy, dreams crimes do fit this punishment. he deserves to be in that prison, and he deserves to feel bad, if he truly does. he should. that's the point.

this kind of sympathy that I've been seeing float around in tommy's chat today and generally online baffles me. where was this sympathy when tommy was exiled? when he described how poorly he was doing? when he physically looked worse? when he was having visions of tubbo? when he was so irrational that he rejected help from ranboo, the only person who visited him? when he almost killed himself on multiple occasions?

was it "too hard" to sympathize with tommy because of his brash nature, which is normal for a kid his age?

or was tommy "too hard" to sympathize with because he displayed, and continues to display the "ugly" symptoms of mental illness and abuse?

dreams tone and word choices are deliberate. don't let this facade blind you from the character dream really is.

Sentimentality

As much as Tommy giving up the discs would make things so much easier for everyone, to have him stop caring about the discs, unless it was for the right reasons, would be a really narratively depressing decision in my opinion. 

Dream and Tommy are similar in a lot of ways. They’ve both been involved in most of the server’s conflict, arguably even the ones who cause the conflict, they’re both pretty much alone right now, they’ve both pushed everyone near them away in pursuit of the same thing: the discs. And we can argue for ages if Tommy’s quest for the discs is selfish, or if he deserves to have something for himself, or that they don’t really mean anything. But at the end of the day, what makes Dream and Tommy’s desire for the discs different is this: Tommy cares about them, because he gets sentimentally attached to things, and people, and places. He’s emotional, and he’s put his heart into so many parts of the server. His issue is that he got lost in caring about the discs themselves, and forgot that what he really cares about is what they represent: early days of peace, the ideals of L’Manberg, and most importantly, his relationship with Tubbo. So when Tubbo tells him the discs aren’t important, to Tommy, this is Tubbo telling him that the way he cares about things doesn’t matter. 

On the other side is Dream. Again, we can argue for ages if Dream actually cares about anything or anyone at all. But he told us himself that he only cares about the discs because they give him power over Tommy, and by extension, all the people around him. The thing that makes Dream so terrifying to fight is that he really seems to not care about anything at all. He’s not attached to anything that Tommy can hold against him. If Tommy were to follow that path, and give up the discs because he doesn’t care anymore, that would only bring him closer to being like Dream. The message would that caring makes you weaker, that it’s something you must rid yourself of and avoid at all costs. And that wouldn’t be a very good message at all. 

In the end, the difference in their desires are what makes Tommy more of a hero, and Dream more of a villain. Dream doesn’t care, he’s willing to manipulate and use people just to gain power and control. Tommy cares about the discs because he’s passionate and cares about his friends and the original ideals of L’Manberg. He’s just gotten so focused on the discs that he’s forgotten what they represent. And I think he could give up the discs if he remembers, but not because he doesn’t care. 

Sentimentality, loving things and people and caring and having passion, those are the things that give life meaning. That’s what Tommy has that Dream doesn’t.

TIL Filipino officials stopped illegal fishing techniques using dynamite by placing underwater statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary which no one would dare damage.

via reddit.com

Highly recommend reading this thread in regards to the Simu situation.

Long story short: everything was taken out of context and made to look worse than it actually is.

developing fixations is so funny i’ll watch something and be like yeah i’m normal about this. and then three days later i’m

the dubious philosophy of salmon