More DSMP

Jul. 16th, 2022 07:21 am
schneefink: (FF Kaylee with umbrella shiny)
[personal profile] schneefink
I managed to get DD into watching Technoblade's videos and DSMP with me, only took me like two days, ngl I'm proud of myself xD She told me that the Potato Wars weren't a good entry point because they were so stressful to watch. Iirc next I showed her That Time I Conquered SMP Earth, and I don't remember what next but whatever, it worked.

About 3k of notes on the next couple of s2 DSMP streams by Techno (and two by Philza) under the cut. All names refer to the characters unless specifically designated cc!.


Revolution, Philza's PoV of joining the server (starting around 3:20):
It was cool to see the additional perspective. Phil was much quicker persuaded to kill Wilbur than I expected! And then seemed to disapprove of Techno sending withers on L'Manberg but also unwilling to oppose him directly.
Also interesting to see the almost immediate re-organization of the rebuilding effort and new government – sorry, not government, collective ^^ And then they knock out the one building that's still standing.
Also, Phil: Techno was born in blood, he is the embodiment of chaos, I expect him to just murder everyone… He also finds it hilarious when Techno tells him how many people he killed.
Phil about SMP Earth: "The moment Techno was in trouble I was, like, on." (I assume SMP Earth is, uh, dubiously canonical history on DSMP.)
Techno to Phil: "Aren't you tired of being nice, Philza? Don't you just wanna go crazy?" "And Chat says I'm the bad influence, okay." "Who says you're the bad influence? Okay you absolutely have a chaotic side, but you're probably the stablest of the four of us. The wise elder…" "Who dabbles in destruction from time to time." ^^

a new home:
Technoblade visiting New L'Manberg again after the Revolution to go see Philza and seeing his Wanted posted and being confronted with TommyInnit, and cc!Techno complaining that cc!Tommy is ruining his immersion of the planned sad scene he was doing, brilliant.
D said TommyInnit is basically "teenage Steve Dangle" and that seems very fitting xD TommyInnit deserves all the heartbreak that comes with being a Leafs fan.
Ghostbur reminding Tommy that Techno was against government from the beginning was also nice.
Tubbo to Technoblade: they don't hate you, it's just envy. Techno: and rage. Tubbo: yes.
Techno still has a "join Pogtopia" poster in his new house! "Fight Tyranny, I wish", next to an artwork of himself being sad. And later another fanart of himself in full king regalia standing there in the snow.
I had heard of the quote "for you the world, Phil," but I had imagined it in a more dramatic context than after a conversation about how Phil stole Techno's bookshelves xD Still, between Techno telling Phil that he can call on him whenever and giving him a compass, giving him one of a pair of friendship emeralds, and later when zombies attack Phil emphasizing that he doesn't know what he would do if anything happened to Phil, his only friend on the server, very good Techno&Phil friendship content.
I was also delighted to find out that both the secret vault and also him fighting everyone and spawning the withers at the end of the revolution were cc!Technoblade's ideas.

meeting new people:
Anarchy not through violence! Retirement arc – and yet Techno immediately volunteers to help out two people new to the server and shows them his super secret lair, I sure hope that doesn't backfire… Well, Vik and Lazar said "anything you need", so I wonder if we'll see them again.
Going to Logstedshire and messing with Tommy's village is mean. At least they didn't kill his cow.

It's turtle time:
Making a turtle farm with Philza! And Phil makes an automated bee hive – unfinished in this vid but when seen finished in the next one it looks really fancy.
Chat is canon now as voices in Techno's head, neat.
Techno being concerned about Phil's violent tendencies is great xD

A new quest:
Soo Dream tells Techno there are bounty hunters after him and gives him a map to a Woodland Mansion so he can get a Totem of Undying because Techno dying is not in Dream's best interest. If one were very suspicious of Dream and him being an agent of chaos, one might consider that this is all very convenient for him: bounty hunters being after him might get Techno out of retirement, and a totem might ensure that a) he survives it to cause more chaos, and b) owes Dream a favor…

Nothing goes wrong:
Quackity, Tubbo, Fundy and Ranboo formed the "Butcher Army" to execute Technoblade! He tells them he's a reformed man, that he's trying hard to resist the voices that demand blood, he asks them not to make him kill all of them, but they insist on trying to capture him, and so: "Then I choose blood!" And even though he had only a few minutes of warning thanks to Phil he still managed to kill Tubbo and Fundy and would have killed more, if not for Quackity taking Carl hostage.
Tubbo is so sad Techno only rated the kidnapping 2/10 xD
Techno just gets put into a cage to be executed without even a trial, what a great government.
Fortunately he goes free thanks to Punz and Dream and even gets Carl back and manages to kill Quackity (in iron armor and with a pickaxe! Not even sure if that outcome of the duel was scripted because he still had the second Totem of Undying.)

I wonder how the trial would have gone if it had happened? Techno had good reasons to disapprove of the new government being set up (it really was a hostile take-over with no legitimacy), and everyone did know he hated governments and took advantage of his resources/fighting skills anyway, but does that justify setting spawning withers and destroying the whole town, especially without warning? (Ok Wilbur started the destruction but still.) It would have been one thing if he'd given them, idk, a deadline to abolish their new government or something. I'm pretty sure they still would have arrived at the death penalty, especially without many alternatives (Phil is under house arrest but it seems they're aware it's probably not going to hold him for long) but it would have had at least some degree of legitimacy instead of just attempting to execute him without even given him a chance to speak. There is no legitimate government without a justice system. (I mean, this L'Manberg did actively deny being a government to avoid Techno coming after them – they're just a collective, yeah right – but they want to be one, and so they should behave like one, especially in the moment where Technoblade is not a threat.)
Also! I have since found out (spoilers) that apparently Techno only has one canon life, unlike almost everyone else but same as Philza. (Well he said that people only have one life where he comes from, which implies intriguing things about the server-multiverse…) How do executions even work when most people have three lives? Were they planning to take all three of his, or only one? And if they thought they would only take one of his lives as a punishment (which would mean a huge risk of retribution) would they have hesitated upon finding out it would be his final death?
…I have so many AU ideas about this event. I also kinda want to watch Tubbo from the election up to here because it must be a very interesting perspective, from a "sidekick" to president and immediately pressured by so many different sides up to the point where he exiles his best friend.

The more I think about it, the more questions I have about the three lives system. I assume people know how many lives they have left – I've seen it used in fic that people have heart tattoos on their wrist that denote their number of lives, for example. But what about non-canon deaths? Some of them, especially in combat, I would simply call grievous injuries in-world. Others are in scenes that can just be ignored altogether. That might be the easiest solution, to simply rewrite all scenes with non-canon deaths, but it might be tricky in some cases, especially because people spawn elsewhere when they die. (And sometimes lose items as well, though iirc in general they pay attention that after non-canon deaths people get their equipment back.) It would also lose all the dramatic moments of non-ideally placed spawn points, forced or not ^^
I think it might just have to be a case-by-case decision, especially because thinking of a world with non-"canon" i.e. non-real deaths is complicated.
Aanyway.

Unsurprisingly, on his way back, Techno concludes that non-violence didn't work…
And then he returns to find Tommy living underneath his house xD Tommy is so annoying, oh man. Techno offers to team up to destroy L'Manberg and get Tommy's disks back, which will include some minor acts of terrorism. Tommy agrees to team up to get his disks back but asks Techno to promise not to make Tubbo sad, and Techno just glosses over it saying they will finalize the details later… yeah this is totally going to go wrong. (Ranboo later: "If it's minor terrorism then you can really only terrorize Tubbo if you think about it" xD)
Reveal of the dozens of wither skulls! Techno hasn't shown Phil because he didn’t want to show Phil that side of him… Though I got the impression Phil not only wouldn't have been surprised, but wouldn't even have objected all that much. There might always be an emergency one day. Techno talks like Phil is less violent but I'm not really sure that's completely true? I think a lot of that are their respective reputations. But I like that Techno doesn't want Phil to realize the extent of how much trouble he has letting go of violence, with the implication that he doesn't want Phil to disapprove of him, aww.
And then Ranboo just shows up with all of Techno's armor, saying he followed Ghostbur ^^ He didn't think it would be that violent, hah. Techno is remarkably accepting of this and even asks if he wants to team up… Techno understands being peer pressured into uncomfortable things xD Ranboo, after Tommy is especially annoying, asking if Techno is now really stuck with him, and Techno saying he might have made a mistake ^^ Bonding over Tommy being annoying makes a lot of sense, yep.

Phil's perspective: when being confronted with the Butcher army: "I'm not loyal to this country," and that he and Techno go way back.
"I still love you grandpa" – "you're fucking dead to me." Heh.
So Phil went to watch Techno be confronted but didn't interfere first because he thought Techno would be fine and then because he knew Techno wanted Carl to survive. And then when Techno was set to be executed he said he can't interfere and has to stay neutral because otherwise the same would happen to him, he has to be Techno's hidden sword and play the long con; I assume he knew or at least strongly suspected about the totem of undying. I also assume he shot the arrow to maybe make the anvil miss Techno? Anyway I finally realized that Techno jumped out of the cage using the anvil, which is great.
Tubbo gets pissed at Phil telling the Butcher Army "sucks to suck" and cheering about Techno killing Quackity and shoots at him and almost kills him o.o that almost certainly would have had consequences.
Ghostbur singing the L'Manburg hymn and breaking the cage because L'Manburg is all about freedom…
Phil saying that after what happened to Techno he'll probably be next, and Ranboo first reassuring him that won't happen and he'll make sure of it and then saying he has no power. Ranboo explaining to Ghostbur that he doesn't have loyalty to places or countries, just to people who helped him, like Phil.
Phil sent Techno a message asking if he's safe, and then checks up on Techno and upon seeing he has Carl back and is with Tommy decides to leave and "let them have quality time together" because they haven't seen each other in a while, heh. (At first I thought it implied Phil knows they know each other and that it might be a non-canon reference to SBI from before cc!Techno clarified that SBI is non-canon in DSMP, but more likely it was just a reference to the time Techno and Tommy spent in Pogtopia together since I think Wilbur and Tommy were talking to Phil back then.)
And then after Phil comes back from checking up on Techno and Tommy he destroys Techno's Wanted posters, nice.

SAD-ist animation: Hog Hunt, absolutely amazing.


It's time for evil:
Techno: "I have to lead Tommy down the road to EVIL" xD
Comparing Tommy&others teaming up with Technoblade and ignoring that they have different endgoals with Technoblade teaming up with Tommy later and ignoring that they have different endgoals: I think Tommy&others just… didn't even consider that Technoblade's dislike of governments might also equally extend to their government, after all they're the "good guys", or that it's so strong that he might go as far as he did (they probably thought that at most he would get angry and prepare to fight them later, not blow up the town.) While I interpret Techno as being aware of the fact that Tommy has different goals, but hoping that the can either get Tommy on his side later or at the very least use him (and also not considering Tommy as big of a threat, though I think he's aware he could be a major nuisance.) But maybe I'm wrong, idk.
Their infiltration to L'Manberg fits very well with this too, Techno first just emphasizing that they're looking for his weapons and later when they don't find them in chests saying they'll have to take them from the others, including Tubbo.

assembling an army:
Techno removing "Destroy L'Manberg" from his To-Do list before letting Tommy read it – yep he definitely knows there would be trouble xD
Tommy is so conflicted about Dream… and then Dream shows up looking for Tommy and Tommy hides, barely successfully, telling Dream he hadn't seen Tommy. Dream seeing "build a girlfriend" on Techno's to-do list xD And when Dream tells him he owes him a favor, Techno says he believes in "absolute reciprocity," hm.
Wtf was that with the dogs and the llama xD

becoming unbelievably rich:
Techno reading out super-chats in the Church of Prime xD
Cc!Techno explicitly rejecting the headcanon that Techno is a family member of Phil, Wilbur, and Tommy in the DSMP – yeah makes sense, that's not at all the impression I'd gotten. It doesn't work for him that he'd be repeatedly backstabbing his family members, aww xD
Dream visiting and walking into that building with the big poster of Tommy and Wilbur xD
"Think of me like I'm a genie and you get, like, one wish…" And reading fake donations to bully Dream! Telling him they could only have a conversation if Dream cashes in on the wish… Dream says he knows Tommy is staying with Techno, Techno denies it: "That cobblestone tower was naturally generated!" xD And then Techno bullies Dream over being homeless xDD "My house is huge!" "Yeah right, your house goes to a different school…" So beautiful. "Absolutely no laughter, chat!" And then watching Dream build a dirt house! "Dream's evil lair." Which then gets tragically destroyed by creepers until Dream himself blows up the rest, so sad.
"I was just watching nature." "What nature?" "Human nature." xD
And then Techno sneaks into L'Manberg to check in with his hound army and ends up trying to frame Ranboo for animal abuse ^^ Techno and Ranboo are fun together.

spreading propaganda:
The propaganda posters are so beautiful. "Technoblade: I want YOU to destroy the government (you have no choice)" xD "Technoblade: down with tyranny", with the anarchy flag. "I want YOU to join the revolution," "Join the anti-government: fight for your freedom," "Down with the government; Blood for the Blood god" in Tubbo's secret base, even! Great work by the fanartists.
"I'm all about bullying infant children" xD
"This must be how Tubbo feels all the time, 'oh I'm just gonna execute this guy'…"
Ranboo showing up, right after seeing Techno in L'Manburg, and bribing Techno and Phil with netherite ^^
Techno, Phil, and Ranboo executing a villager by rowing him into a lava pool because he's incompetent – so many thoughts about the relationships between player characters and villagers in-world… ^^
Philza: "Hey Fundy, grandchild who I hate"…
Technoblade orphanage, uh-oh! "Yeaah, child exploitation!"
Ranboo: "I have a weak moral backbone so that worked"
"Phil get up here we're doing a war crime"
Yeeah I'm tempted to say the entire sequence with forming a mob to go to Punz' house etc. is not canon because it makes pretty much zero sense and cc!Techno was very clear it was only doing for audience retention ^^ (Otoh he mentions that often and explaining away scenes like that feels like making it easy for myself but idc.)
"You´re not hiding anything diabolical from me, are you Techno." "Would I do that. […] On an unrelated note, Philza Minecraft… […] how do you feel about revenge…" Finally showing Phil the wither skulls! "Actually diabolical, holy shit. This is going to be chaos. This is going to be the end of the world." "Yeeah, I love peace!" "This is cool, this will be interesting, I'm liking this." (I knew it!) "I think I'm with you on this. I've seen this whole government thing – tear it down. Everything to do with government on this server has been bad so far. I've seen it turn the nicest people into tyrants." Yeah, Phil is definitely not over killing Wilbur.

I also watched Phil's PoV of this. Heh, Phil talking about Techno saying he doesn't consider SBI to be a family on DSMP, basically laughing about the fact that everyone makes such a big deal out of it
Tubbo: "We're still friends, right?" Phil: "You tried to kill me!" Tubbo: "in my defense, it was quite funny."
Most of the stream is them, Wilbur, and Tommy being silly and joking around – though I might have missed something idk, I was only half paying attention. And then most of the good parts I'd already seen on Techno's stream.


I then watched one of a series of summary videos, Dream SMP – The Complete Story: The Reign of Manburg. It gave some very helpful background on the election. I was aware that Wilbur and Tommy only started it to solidify their power but I didn't realize quite how ready and willing they were to cheat… and I'd completely missed that Tubbo gave Wilbur the signal to detonate the TNT during his speech at the Manberg festival, which only didn't happen because Wilbur couldn't find the button.
It was also good to finally get a bit more background on Tommy's exile in the next video. I didn't know New L'Manberg almost decided to try and team up with Technoblade against Dream instead! But Tubbo decided that any kind of armed conflict would be a terrible idea and Tommy's disks aren't that important compared to an entire country.
I'll definitely have to watch the first two next (but the others only once I've caught up with the plot.)

Date: 2022-07-16 10:45 pm (UTC)
nonesensed: My cat is a happy cat (Default)
From: [personal profile] nonesensed
You definitely should be proud of yourself, because getting so quickly caught up on such long videos is very impressive! And I'm going to try out "That Time I Conquered SMP Earth" and see if I can follow it - always nice to know where other people got started with a fandom this complex, since I too have had trouble getting into more than a few of the videos my sister has tried showing me.

Date: 2022-07-19 07:08 pm (UTC)
nonesensed: My cat is a happy cat (Default)
From: [personal profile] nonesensed
A very apt likeness! I can sometimes get into fic for fandoms I'm unfamiliar with, sometimes I fail utterly at it. Though I think the biggest hurdle for me getting into Dream SMP is that it's taken me so long to understand what it even is XD

I've understood it takes place in Minecraft and that it's a kinda improvised RPG, but I've had a really hard time figuring out where 'canon' starts, exactly what counts at Dream SMP 'content' and what's just the players doing other things in Minecraft, etc. But I think that confusion mostly is due to me being old and encountering something new ^_^'

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