gothicdreamon

[gothicdreamon]

gay

\ˈgāɪ\

adjective

: of, relating to, or characterized by sexual or romantic attraction to people of one's same sex—often used to refer to men only

: of, relating to, or intended for people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, etc.

I bring these definitions up because the differences in response between Dream’s and Ranboo’s coming out really bothered me and it seems that the usage of this word was the biggest difference in why one received support and the other received gross harassment and still has his identity invalidated.

They’re both young man who decided to come out in a rather humorous way after being mass qrt-ed on a gay joke they made. They both had previously stated that they were straight and later rectified their sexuality is not for disclosure and told people to mind their own business. Now both of them have acknowledged some sort of attraction to the same gender. And finally, it has been explicitly stated that they’re both unlabelled.

Yet, the reaction between both coming outs was so wildly different it fills me with rage and hurt, because a lot of the negativity came from the community that was supposed to accept all kinds of queer people, not only those whose experience was deemed “queer enough” according to who-knows-what set of rules.

The biggest difference was with how the two of them used the world “gay” to better explain their experience. Ranboo said that he identifies as unlabelled, but he’s okay with being referred as “gay” as he claims it as an umbrella term, the second definition. Dream, in the other hand, referred to the first definition (mlm exclusive) to better describe his experience, as he has been, and still is, attracted to women; he has refused to claim any label —and that is valid and doesn’t automatically make him straight (as some people try to claim).

And that’s it, that’s the biggest difference: one is okay with an umbrella label and the other doesn’t want a label at all. Does it even get more unlabelled than that?

And yet, even though they were in the same situation coming out as the same thing, Dream got zero celebration, zero welcoming and zero understanding, Instead, these weeks have been full of harassment, homophobia and lots of invalidation. He had to celebrate quietly by himself in the likes of his fanart account of the artists in his community that depicted embracing his queerness. He had to find validation through Ranboo’s coming out that was received with so much love, not only from fans, but from their friends and other content creators that rushed to celebrate him and tell him how proud they were of him but didn’t extend that same welcoming to Dream, or worse, some even mocked him.

I’m truly happy for Ranboo, he deserved the support he received and I’m grateful beyond relief he got such positive reaction, I’m so proud of him too. But it hurts. It truly hurts watching the cold reaction to Dream. And it was not only him, so many unlabelled people that identify the same as him and have a similar experiences have also been invalidated non stop. What even is to be “queer enough”? What’s the point of making such “rules” to dictate who can be lgbtq and who can’t?

#// discourse #// neg #// rant #to all my unlabelled people: you are so valid and i love you #you don't need to have the same experiences of a recognized queer for your queerness to be accepted and embraced #you are good just the way you are and have a place in the lgbtq community #the queers (me) will always welcome you

[gothicdreamon]

in construction...

[gothicdreamon]

this was sitting in my drafts actually but i felt like posting it today in light of… everything. i just want to say that when it comes to dream and how he acts on twitter it’s really easy to sit on your high horse and say “well i wouldn’t have done that” and “he should behave in [x] manner because i think it’s a better way to react.”

stop putting yourself in the middle of a situation you can’t ever fucking possibly relate to. dream has faced more harassment online than any other content creator i can think of. every single day his qrts are full of doxxers, death threats, gore, and shit i don’t even want to name. it is absolutely vile. he cannot make a single move without getting swarmed and attacked by literal hate mobs who spend hours dedicated to trying to defame and provoke him. no fucking shit they get a reaction out of him sometimes - there are thousands of them trying to do so! obviously dream is going to come across what they’re saying, especially when he’s been fucking locked in his house for two years because he’s terrified of being recognised before he’s ready to face reveal (because we all know exactly how much fun the people who hate him are going to have when that happens).

none of us can ever fathom what it’s like to have the fame dream does. the spotlight dream does. content creators with a millionth of his view count will SPRINT to call him parasocial and weird for the relationship he has with his audience, but if we think critically for a second here (which i understand can be hard for some of you) let’s consider just how and why a man who knows how much of the wider internet openly despises him wants to show appreciation for the fans who have his back. deny it all you want, but dream is one of the internet’s favourite punching bags, and has been for the better part of the past year or so. because so many people love to forget the fact that there is a man behind the screen - a 22 year old man, who got famous nearly overnight, who broke away from the conservative upbringing he had and took every opportunity to educate and better himself, who vocally and consistently tries to make his community as welcoming as possible for everyone.

i truly don’t care if you think i’m biased, because yeah i can readily admit i am. but it is just baffling to me how people can behave so condescendingly and be so thoroughly callous towards dream. i’m not saying you have to support him, i’m not saying you even have to like him. but grant him the basic level of fucking respect you guys will give to people with much “murkier” pasts than his.

#discourse #i have so much to say about the recent stuff but i just feel defeated #maybe one day #right now i wish i could shower dream with appreciation

[gothicdreamon]

i feel like if you’re not in a computer science or engineering it can be hard to understand how insane fundy is at coding. like it’s beyond just “wow this is cool that he can do this.” for his last video, fundy coded and trained a fucking neural network to detect movement and then translated those movements into minecraft. this is on par with some of the projects that were cleared for my senior design course last year (which students were given two semesters to complete). fundy completed this in less than two weeks. like the things he creates are impressive to anyone watching but it’s also impressive by an industry standard. i truly do believe fundy is one of the most skilled programmers in the mcyt sphere and that’s why all his videos are so fascinating to watch.

[gothicdreamon]

There has been so much discourse about Big Sales at Build Mart and suggestions for other building games, so here is mine...

Disclaimer: This is me imagining what would be the most fun for me to watch, I don't think my idea is the best nor that Noxcrew should change it for this or anything similar (Or anything else actually, it's their tournament, they can do as they please!)

So the answer for me is Minecraft Monday. Yes, really. Remember the building game that it had? Built Battle? Players had access to Creative mode, they were given a prompt for their builds and at the end all the contestants voted on their favorites. It was EXTREMELY scuffed but I think MCC can do it way better and, in my opinion, the charm of Minecraft building is the limitless options.

So first, I think the prompt should be announced at the update videos just like they announce what maps are going to be played, that way teams know what to expect and can decide if they want to prepare something or just try to wing it at the event.

Secondly, they could add small fast mini-games to unblock materials. For example, "Spawn a chicken on the target to unblock the Woods" or something similar (I imagined stepping on a pressure plate that teleports the player to a room with the challenge, Grid Runners style but easier). This way even players that can't build because they don't know how or just don't like it can still play and be useful for their teams. The mini-games or mini-challenges can also go progressively harder the rarer the object (like getting woods is easy but it's a little harder for ores and then harder for plants and so on). And this is a bit side-tracked but imagine a special room with a super hard and time-consuming challenge, but if you complete it you can use the heads of the contestants, it isn't necessary but it could be pretty fun!

And finally, for the voting all builds should be at display at the same time (MCM did it one by one, but that's quite unfair as the last builds shown usually get more points) and it should be completely anonymous, that way people can't be biased towards their friends. There should be a rule that teams cannot give a clear indication of what build is theirs (like writing the team name on a sign or building their mascot), and if they break it they will be penalized. This one is kind of tricky because it does rely on the participants keeping their word of not cheating (two or more teams can easily make an alliance before the event) but I guess one can only trust the contestants to keep the MCC spirit. I would do it so each contestant can vote for a build only once and they can vote 3-5 times overall, each vote is X amount of coins and you can vote for your own build (so no one ends empty handed, but that's a preference).

I would love to see a competition like this. Teamwork would still be necessary as they have to make something from scratch really fast, so communication would still be the key. The builders would still have an advantage and the viewers can actually see what they are capable of with their skills, but even teams without build expertise can do well if they are witty/funny with the prompt. And, unlike Build Mart, it actually encourages leaning how to build, building tricks and even redstone if they dare! (Just like other games encourage becoming better at other certain skills). It'd be a game where people battle with creativity instead of memorization. Also, it'd be so exciting to see what everyone creates! Image the prompt being something like "Farming in the spring" (i'm not good at it, i know) and some team made a beautiful barn with flowers and animals and there's an armor stand that looks like a farmer harvesting the crops... And then next to that build there's a statue of a giant cock from another team. It'd be amazing.

The biggest downsides that I can see are the time restrictions: 10 minutes could be too little time to do something but upping it could feel too long for the viewers. And it'd also be a pain in the ass to code.

Anyways, these are my two cents since I saw a lot of people brainstorming ideas for another building game. Overall, I think what could be improved for another building game or revamping Build Mart is the way contestants gather the materials, something more fun.

#Minecraft Championship #MCC #Big Sales at Build Mart #build mart #buildmart #mcc discourse #build mart discourse #buildmart discourse #discourse #mcc suggestion #i didn't proofread this so sorry if i made wording mistakes #long post

[gothicdreamon]

I feel like there should be a list of the moments when the stars aligned for dsmp and something happened that was far too symbolic and thematic for minecraft roleplay but also couldn't have happened in any other format, here I'll start:

ranboo gives tommy an allium he happened to pick up on the day they met; later, when ranboo is grieving tommy and trying to figure out whether tommy actually cared about him, he finds out that tommy kept the allium, confirming that they were friends

eret builds his museum, adding a recreation of the final control room and breaking her aim of historical accuracy to add a note of apology; when tommy is trying to confront his fears, eret offers the use of the recreation. tommy panics but snaps out of it when he finds the apology note and overcomes the fear

l'manburg (the country itself) has three lives, all of which were taken by explosions. the Xs on the first flag represent l'manburg's three lives; the life lost during the revolution is represented by an X of a different colour, surrounded by black. the new l'manburg flag has a single heart replace the Xs, representing how l'manburg has only one life left

#dream smp

[gothicdreamon]

A Syndicate Analysis: Anarchy or Ogliarchy? (And what happens when the "underdogs" are not really that far under)

Written by somebody who actually knows about governments and subversion of media tropes

I think the reason that people often discredit the syndicate for actually being anarchist is because they're too powerful. At least physically. They're faction is a powerhouse who have some of the richest and strongest players. Which means that they are a subversion of the typical extremist trope. I get it you're used to seeing small united groups as the underdogs and virtually powerless when they start and then rising up to the top. But now the narrative is flipped where the underdogs aren't actual underdogs and they can actually make real change if they wanted too. Each member brings in their own power. Techno and Philza can do so much damage physically ie.. Ranboo is the richest person on the server and not necessarily enemies with anyone. And Niki can actually talk to people (trust me she's the most important asset/gen but more on that later). They don't have to fight to be listened too, and that scares people. Scares fans because that is easily corruptable. They are an ultimate force to be reckoned with. So obviously the conclusion is....the Syndicate is not the oppressed but rather the oppressive. But that's bullshit, being powerful does not mean they don't stick with their ideals. They did not form a group to seize power. They did not form a group to enforce rules. And they especially did not form a group to just be called a hastily thrown together government.

I saw someone once call em an oligarch. There's so much wrong with this.

Ogliarchy- 1 : government by the few 2: a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes

Now before we take a deep dive into what that means and why it's been used incorrectly let's talk about why the Syndicate is Not A Government (cause heavens know some of y'all still think it is.)

I am so tempted to link the video of Techno saying the syndicate was more of a book club than a government and leave it at that.

First let's look at the definition of a government.

Government- The governing body of a nation, state, or community

That is the simplest meaning of a government. A governing body. A political power that rules over an area. Name me one place the Syndicate has political power over. I'll wait.

Hey while you're doing that do me a quick favor and look at this please

Oh what's this The Communist Manifesto it's the Syndicate Manifesto!!

And it's a good thing you read that second point very well. They're not even obligated to help each other what???? It's almost like they're a group of people who just so happened to have similar ideals and have separate things outside of that and understand that a mutual principle is what is bringing them together and not the desire to rule over others🤔

Yet some of you will call them a government just cause they have physical power with your full chest and a lack of understanding how politics actually work

To paraphrase some quotes of the main man himself, "Not every group of people is a government" and "Do you guys not think that anarchists have friends in real life????" -Techno "I ❤ Authority" Blade

Anyway back to ogliarchy statement. Please read both definitions again

1. By first definition we just established that The Syndicate is not a government so we can cross that out

2. "A government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes." Now this is where the lines of morality blur. You can argue the syndicate was created for selfish purposes or you can argue the opposite. I don't care much for that aspect. But the going back to the manifesto that was written above. They just wanna pursue anarchy and fight against tyranny. That doesn't sound very corrupt to me.

"Oh but Alex aren't they technically tyrants themselves-"

Sit down. Shut up. Close your mouth.

Which group of people are they ruling over again? Where are they're followers? To be a tyrant you MUST be ruling over something. And what are they ruling? The snow???

But yes I know what you mean. They use their "power" to oppress others and get them to listen to them. Here's why it's not tyranny though. Anyone can have their power.

That's it.

That's the hugest reason why it's not tyranny.

To be a tyrant you must have had to take advantage of the system and have access to resources that others don't have so you can rule over them. Tyranny is backed by injustice and unfairness.

For those of y'all who still don't get it- THEY CAN'T BE TYRANTS CAUSE IT'S MINECRAFT AND EVERYONE HAS ACCESS TO THE SAME FUCKING RESOURCES. (Except maybe Dream and co from early days) NONE OF THEM ARE EVEN CODERS SO THEY CAN'T EVEN CREATE THAT ADVANTAGE IF THEY WANTED TOO.

Yes I said it! The only reason why the Syndicate is a powerhouse is because it's basically 3/4 tryhards who grind so much that they have become virtually *indestructible.

*I use the word indestructible very loosely here for lack of a better word. I am not saying these characters are invincible at all

"But Alex they're not even doing a completely accurate representation of anarchy?"

1. It's a Minecraft rp :D

2. I've said it before but point me to a dream smp faction that is doing or has done an accurate representation of government and then I won't laugh at you

"The Syndicate makes anarchy seem only about violence"

1. There was a whole conversation between Niki and Techno about this in which Techno admitted that he had been given anarchy a bad name because of said violence (Also the Syndicate is not an extension of only Technoblade so do not treat it like it is. Y'all tend to do that a lot)

2. Also they've done 3 streams so far all nonviolent and 1 of them was to throw a birthday party so you can chill

"I just don't think that it's fair for them to decide which governments are good and should exist or not."

That's valid. Still doesn't make them a government themselves though. Just a group of people who have the power to make changes through sheer force and will. They aren't stopping anyone from creating a government. Just saying that if they see it as oppressive structure they'll do anything in their power to remove it. Once again that is a characters/moral dilemma and I don't care about that right now in this analysis.

Point is the Syndicate is not a government in any shape or form. Not even close. But they are not the underdogs you expect either and they can and will bite. Hard.

TL;DR: The Syndicate has no political power but only physical power that they have fairly worked for. Therefore not a government.

Last but not least!!

Tag :D Your :D Critical :D Posts :D Please :D This was mainly written because I had go through too many untagged crit posts

@simplepotatofarmer you wanted to be tagged :D

#the syndicate #dream smp #dsmp #meta #long post #technoblade #philza #ranboo #nihachu

[gothicdreamon]

Between Ponk saying she wouldn’t want to interfere with the main storyline, Michael saying he feels like a guest to the dsmp story and Eret saying huge expectations for lore have made it hard for them to come up with things, I think it’s time for us to understand…

Every stream is a canon stream. If we Want improv lore, we can’t just pick and choose. Yes, you’ll get cool epic moments like the betrayal, but you’ll also get things like c!George being turned into a pig for some reason, or Bad, Ponk and Foolish making a toll gate company and never speak of it again. That’s more fun.

Likewise, we can’t go “no you Can’t do that!” any time a streamer might plan to do some mischief that could affect someone else. Things not always going As Planned or without a hitch brings interesting conflict and allows people to be more free.

#dsmp #dream smp

[gothicdreamon]

Minecraft Enchantment Symbols

So in DSMP fanon, one of the popular methods to represent enchanting something is by carving runes into it (bigbrain)

Today I was sketching some potential character designs when I started thinking about this hc and whether I could turn Standard Galactic (Minecraft enchantment table language) into runes

Anyway, I ended up doing it

My process was basically to take the names of the enchantments, shorten them to 3-4 letters, and then combine them to make a symbol (notice fire prot has the same symbol as fire aspect, its symbol - along with the other prot symbols - would be combined with regular prot)

I'll still probably workshop them a bit more but this is where I'm at. Feel free to use them if you want!

(process under the cut)

I want to shoutout Luck of the Sea specifically because the symbol ended up looking kinda like a trident which I thought was pretty swag

ignore my cringe handwriting btw

#dream smp #dsmp

[gothicdreamon]

It’s been one year since Tommy performed Hamilton and Macbeth, c!Quackity got out of juvie, Skeppy stole Spirit, Tommy organized a flash mob with Fundy and Tubbo to perform Blitz by Technoblade, Jack and Fundy stole the throne of Dream SMP and the birth of the legendary Big Law himself!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

#dream smp #dsmp #tommyinnit #quackity #skeppy #fundy #tubbo #jack manifold #roleplay #rp

[gothicdreamon]

/rp /dsmp

Is this the arc where Ranboo gets a little bit of consequences for his actions? I love him to bits but he hasn't actually gotten in trouble for anything. He didn't get in trouble for setting on fire George's house, for hiding the Discs for Dream while being Tommy's friend, for exploding the Community House, for lying to Tubbo about the Syndicate, for trapping Tommy with Dream in prison, for doing whatever Wilbur tells him to do, for being a fucking centrist…

Like I know he suffers a lot emotionally and I think in some aspects he deserves way better than what he gets from the world, but I also think it's time some of that disapproval towards him is expressed by someone external. He is beginning to stand for himself, I think he can face some of his actions, specially now that we know that the Ederwalk is just him with all his memories and not a "brainwashed, easily manipulated evil side".

#c!ranboo critical #i'm so excited for his character this new arc #roleplay #dream smp #dsmp #rp

[gothicdreamon]

On the Internet, there are spaces that are moderated and meant to be safe for kids, and spaces that aren’t. Nintendo has very strict content rules and adults that play games like Splatoon are expected to follow those rules. When I was 10, my Mom found a lovely Animal Crossing fan forum that was run by a dedicated team of moderators who kept all content safe for kids. These kinds of spaces are deliberately carved out to create fannish spaces that are safe for child fans where adults are welcome to participate but must follow the content rules.

Tumblr and Ao3 are not spaces like this. Adults are allowed to post what they want so long as appropriate content warnings are attached. While Tumblr desktop is open for teenagers under 18 (the mobile app is still 17+) it’s a good opportunity for them to learn how to police their own consumption of content, respect the boundaries that adults set for that content, avoid things that bother them, and start to see people in different age groups as peers rather than authority figures. Don’t like it? Go back to a forum where there are adults who are willing to filter content for you. Think their content rules are too strict? Well, learning to moderate your own fannish experience is part of growing up and handling the maturity required for having your own freedom.

[gothicdreamon]

Rewatching Ponk's torture scene is ... hard. It is one of the most brutal and crushing things ever in the dsmp. I mean it IS the second darkest thing to happen besides what is happening to Dream in the prison arc. I heard some takes that "Ponk shouldn't stay mad because Sam likes him!" And like the torture scene is just completely brutal and crushing even without the arm taking. I think the Fandom probably is underestimating how traumatic this is and how traumatized Ponk must be

But what do you think?

/rp

i know i joke about being in denial and what not but it's COMPLETELY fucked up what ponk had to go through with sam, and it wasn't deserved at all!! there are a lot of layers when it comes to that scene: the torture itself with the lava and the poison, the fact that it was sam who did it, the reasoning behind it all, the true intent and purpose of why this happened, and amputating ponk's damn arm. when you consider everything that went into it, it's heart-wrenching and disgusting.

i think the part that hurts the most is the fact that it was sam who did all of this. people in the fandom may say "warden!sam" but that's still sam. that's still the sam ponk knew and loved... and i think that ponk is still, to this day, in disbelief that sam killed, tortured, and mutilated them! it was sam, it was awesamdude, it was sammywammy123. and for sam to just flirt and minimize the severity of his actions is despicable and must feel like torment to a certain extent on ponk’s end. sam is able to acknowledge his actions but not the impact. he’s on his “the ends justify the means” bullshit and it makes me wanna kick him in his shins. i believe that the scene will hurt more once ponk’s backstory lore comes out because we’ll be able to compare pre-dsmp awesamponk to current day awesamponk.

ponk is a tragic character and has been heavily influenced by this incident. the march 24th scene is actually one of the most cruel things to happen in the dream smp and will probably remain one of the most cruel things to occur. 

#c!ponk #c!awesamdude #character analysis #character relationships #dream smp #roleplay #dsmp #rp

[gothicdreamon]

Thinking about how c!dream wasn’t left alive out of mercy, but because he was useful. Everyone watched two canon lives taken from him- one after he’d surrendered (which is a war crime btw) and no one said anything. They were perfectly willing to see him perma killed.

Dream knowing his attachments and relationships weren’t what saved his life, but his last remnant of power.

#c!dream #dsmp #op that last line hits hard #like really fucking hard

[gothicdreamon]

Two years ago today Dream posted his first video on YouTube under the Channel name Dream. Since then he has gained over 25 million subscribers and followers over multiple platforms. He also started the Dream smp which has changed the face of the gaming community over an about one year span.

Dream has consistently uplifted smaller creators, fanartists, and minority communities through his platform. This is through a multitude of promotions and donations.

He is one of the most outspoken ccs (who’s platform doesn’t mainly focus on it) about mental health and awareness, speaking about his own struggles with anxiety, adhd, and depression.

He has helped change the face of the gaming community for the better. He has turned the norm for a usually toxic online space into one that openly welcomes the lgbtq+ community, female creators and fans, and poc.

Dream is described as one of the most genuine creators out there, because of the continue support of his own community.

He got some people through probably one of the most difficult times in their lives. With his humorous and light content, he distracted people while the world fell apart around them.

His laugh is so contagious and heartwarming, his love for his friends is absolutely boundless. He shows his love for them through small gestures and gifts. Ranging from money to tips on how to improve their content to the best it can be.

He has grown so much as a person, through toxic and constructive criticism, and had left a mark on thousands of peoples lives.

He’s considerate, he’s kind, a lil dumb sometimes, and most importantly, he’s human. He’s given so many people validation and a small escape from the world. He’s not perfect but he’s pretty damn cool <3

#dreamwastaken #dwt #happy two years green man :)

[gothicdreamon]

anyways, twitter sucks and hannahxxrose deserves better

#discourse

[gothicdreamon]

okay i don’t know what finally made dream snap but i am so proud of him! he removed the dream stan supremacy from his alt twitter bio, he posted an up to date version of his boundaries that talked about everything from shipping to racism, he’s learned to correct stans firmly when they’re out of line through dm’s instead of replying to tweets directly (sucks he has to do that in the first place though - mcyttwt my beloathed), he unfollowed a toxic stan, he deactivated his private twitter and has barely been on twitter except for his fanart account that doesn’t follow ‘stan accounts’ per say, and that we know brings him joy. i don’t know if he hired pr or has just decided to make a change, but either way i am so happy for him because it looks like he’s cutting a lot of negativity out of his life, and in doing so has also addressed a lot of the problems within his community. bravo.

#dreamwastaken #proud of him