#daedalus arc

[theminecraftbox]

Thinking today about how Daedalus wasn’t c!Dream’s revenge fantasy, it was his closure fantasy.

In his heart of hearts, he was fantasizing not about destroying Sam, but about Sam understanding. Sam acknowledging what he did. Sam conceding that what he did to Dream was…

(Sam apologizing? Did a tiny, shameful piece want that, picture it, what it could look like?)

#dreblr #c!dream #c!sam #Daedalus arc #c!Dream and c!sam

[nekioe]

Does anyone know which one of the daedalus streams is the one where Dream says "unless of course, you're saying im not human" or something along those lines? Cause that clip makes me go insane and I need it

#daedalus arc #c!dream #c!sam

[bleue-flora]

Welp, I think it’s time for some brain rot don’t you?

So, I noticed in my rewatching, I think awhile ago but I kinda forgot about it until recently, something interesting. After prison, most notably right after with Punz, Dream mentions an island -

[5:35] Dream: “I would have had us go to the island to be fair but I just thought it’s a little too far so…”

And like, what? What island? Do they have a secret island? Is that where the lab is? Is that where Dream’s house is? Has anyone else picked up on this line, like am I crazy or did he just mention a staged duo hideout?!

Then in Daedalus he mentions going to an island again, this time saying ‘metaphorically’ -

[12:30] Dream: “I was you know on an island you could say.”

Sam: “On an island?”

Dream: “Well yeah just you know—metaphorically”

Sam: “What—what? What island were you on?”

Dream: “I wasn’t actually on an island. I was just metaphorically I was on an island but.”

Which… what does that even mean? And why would he tell Sam that?… Unless he didn’t mean to answer Sam but did out of ya know… habit and then had to cover up by saying it’s metaphorical so Sam doesn’t go out looking for the island. I mean like, otherwise why mention a metaphorical island in the first place and then fail to go into it any further?… like… Dream, what island?!

#I have so many questions… so so many… #and the picture of Dream sitting on the beach with his crooked toes and scarred feet deep in the sand as he sunbathes at the beach #gives me so much brain rot…. your welcome ;D #The Island aka his vacation home XD #lol staged duo and all their secret lore we never got… cries #dishing up lore #dreblr #c!dream #dsmp #c!stagedduo #dream smp #c!punz #dsmp dream #dsmp lore #staged duo #c!sam and c!dream #daedalus arc #c!sam #look I’m not gonna say I’m the only one who’s picked up on this but I haven’t seen anything about it… #🏝️ #ok also in the blueberry prison break video at the 40:46 mark - the way Dream says “Phil’s helping?” with a such surprise breaks me : #:’( oh it hurts. #anyways… in light of things I thought I could provide a fun distraction and topic… hope it helped :)

[swordfright]

c!Sam, Pandora’s Vault, and the Abject

In light of the recent c!sam lore, I wanna ramble about something that’s been on my mind a ton recently, which is that all the stuff that plays out during the imprisonment arc (and its aftermath!!!) reminds me so much of The Abject, which is this theory of psychological horror that basically claims the impetus behind much of what we call horror is the breakdown of our understanding of where the Self ends and the Other begins. I realize this already sounds wack but so is dsmp as a piece of media so like, hear me out.

Sam demonstrably struggles with issues of control and autonomy, and especially with understanding himself in relation to them. But also, interestingly, a secondary definition of the Abject concerns the recognition of desire: when the individual's relationship to its objects of desire (id/the Other) and of representation (ego/the Self) breaks down in a way they find too disturbing to confront, horror is elicited.

I don’t think it’s a crazy stretch to say that c!Sam is a character who is constantly teetering on the brink of confronting the Abject. He prioritizes his job as warden over everything else in his life (there’s so much text evidence for this idek where to start) because being the warden is an important outlet for him. It’s a role he steps into that, over time, helps him understand himself - not in a way that’s necessarily accurate, but in a way that is agreeable to him! Sam’s relationship to his object of representation (being warden) is supported and maintained via the structure of the prison itself: the existence of a prison necessitates the existence of a prisoner (without which, the prison is just an empty building), which in turn necessitates the existence of a warden (someone to guard the prisoner.) Pandora’s Vault is a place where Sam’s worldview makes sense and his life has meaning and purpose.

The “breakdown” stage happens whenever Sam is forced to confront his object of desire, which is of course, control over the prisoner. Sam wants to control the prisoner at all costs (again, so much text evidence idk where to BEGIN). Sam tells himself that the warden is necessary for protecting the server, but ultimately his words and actions show that his true motivation is not protecting others, it’s controlling the prisoner. During Daedalus, all it takes is a couple days in the maximum security cell for Sam to start panicking and questioning his own actions/worldview, because suddenly the roles of prisoner and warden are reversed and c!Dream is forcing him to experience a small fraction of what dream experienced under Sam’s watch. the reversal is horrifying because the thing that gave Sam’s worldview structure and meaning (his role as warden in relation to both prison and prisoner) is being turned inside-out. He is not enjoying the Abject, and this is part of why i personally think he doubles down on defending his past actions as warden after dream kills him and lets him go - his only option is to repress.

Another definition of the Abject is “a place of immemorial violence where meaning collapses,” so i’ll leave y’all with my final thought on the subject: for Sam, the Abject is his own desire to control the prisoner. But for Dream, the Abject is the Pandora’s Vault itself. It’s the place where Dream was forced to confront the fact that he fucked up, that his trust in Sam (a former friend) was dangerously misplaced, that the person he thought would protect him is instead enabling his torture, that he may never escape the prison he designed himself. And he designed it to be a home! He wanted the prison, it exists because Dream wanted it! And now, post-jailbreak, it occupies this liminal space: at once a home and a hell. If that’s not the Abject, i don’t know what is.

#and the difference between c!dream's vs c!sam's reactions to the Abject #is that dream embraces it and returns to the prison to reclaim it as the home it was always supposed to be #whereas sam represses it and doubles down on his worldview #claiming that his actions were justified and the ppl he hurt should just get over it #lmfao sorry guys #dont ever take me seriously #this shit do be driving me to madness tho #dreblr #cawesamdude #pandoras vault #dream smp #dsmp #dsmp analysis #goddd i hate hashtags #cdream #cdream meta #dsmp meta #vault duo #daedalus arc #csam armchair psychoanalysis #yes i deserve to be mocked #this is about characters not content creators

[cantbelieveivedonethis]

Aww you gonna cry? - a mini-playlist

Girl Anachronism - Dresden Dolls

Don't call the doctors 'Cause they've seen it all before / They'll say just / “Let her crash and burn / She'll learn / The attention just encourages her”

Whose Eye Is It Anyway??? - Jhariah

An arm and a leg, my friend, les yeux d'la tete / I never give as much as I get / This path of heart attacks is paved with folks who only / gave their enemies what they had coming / I don’t know if it’s worth it

#i will never be over the prison arc #dsmp #dream smp #c!dream #c!dream fanart #dream smp fanart #dsmp fanart #dsmp playlist #kinda? #it’s only 2 songs but still #prison arc #daedalus arc #i love that name #anyways im super proud of this drawing #i love love the vibes #the works

[llitchilitchi]

tonight has been such a great show of how the fans see c!Dream. the language surrounding him is dehumanizing, in the story, he is the book, he is kept in a vault, he is a monster - c!Q and c!Sam are seconds from calling him it, and the fandom reflects so many of these views. he is not a person with feelings, he is a monster, a predator stalking its prey, an obssessed beast. not human, never human with his very own motivations and goals and dreams who plans for something more. he never wans things for a reason that could not be seen as selfish desire, he is evil personified.

but the moment the language around him, by others in the story, the people who hold power over him reflect the lack of humanity that he should be granted, suddenly it is impossible to strip him of this human side. no, he cannot be in a vault, vault is for objects (like the revive book that everyone sees him as).

he is granted only as much humanity as people think he deserves to be punished further

#litchi.txt #dreblr #am i making sense i am still kinda insane about all this #prison arc save me #it makes the metaphor so much more fucked too #c!Tommy. Theseus. the man who slew the Minotaur #c!Sam. Daedalus. the man who built the labyrinth that the Minotaur was trapped in #does that make c!Dream the Minotaur? #he's a man eating beast that devours any who come close but what is the Minotaur if not a child taken from its mother after the father #broke a promise to a god? #a divine punishment on the world for a sin left wandering halls of cold stone while the people cower in fear and the architect rots away

[dr3amofagame]

They way certain groups would make up things and insisted that we “didn’t see everything that happened and it was worse off screen” yet would insist that we saw the entire extent of cDream’s torture on screen despite the use of a fade to black. It told me that media literacy was dead.

yeah the arc where every reference to everything that happened to it was explicitly on screen, the entire format had it in terms of a very explicit arrival and departure with no implied "additional content", where there is never any hinting at all of ANY off-screen content is the one that has the secret forbidden abuse lore (tm) off-screen...while the one that existed almost entirely in terms of what was NOT shown and had repeated references to things we never saw by all parties involved was the one that couldn't have gotten darker than we saw bc. [checks notes] twitch TOS. uhhh huh.

#am i talking abt exile or daedalus with the first example it's up to you #meanwhile the prison arc that had gatekept content not only from like an in-universe perspective #but like. [looks at the one-on-one roleplay sessions] ahem. anyway #my asks !! #disk horse #tw discourse #tw negativity

[apple-but-sour]

c!Tommy killing c!Dream twice and killing an innocent animal just to hurt him nobody cares about the cat anyway boo hoo is all fine and understandable since c!Dream is his abuser. But if c!Dream is mean about giving food to the guy who would starve him he's a terrible abusive person how dare he.

#discourse #gatekeeping daedalus arc why do people keep erasing all the context for it bro #tw abuse

[weird0strawberry]

Berry my dear... what was that comic 😨😨😨😰???!!! What Sam was trying to do exactly? And, what was the phrase "That's wrong"???

the idea is, with so much of the prison devoted to that visitation system, c!dream would ask about it/try to utilize it at some point post-Daedalus (especially after Wilbur and Tommy break in. that was avoidable, to him) in canon, c!sam has this step in the prison visitation system where he personally kills the visiter. but they call it a “pat down,” so c!dream assumes it’s just. a normal pat down.

now this parts a little hard to describe, as c!sam is a complicated, nuanced character, and I’m not the best at analyzing. c!sam’s initial actions are mainly fueled by a need to uphold the prison in The Way It Was Designed, “that’s wrong” being his choice of words cuz he views c!Dream’s obvious avoidance to physically touching him is insulting to the prison. he still feels like he has an Morally Righteous Obligation to make sure everything is done “right”

but the reason he immediately goes to grab c!dream like that is because he also still feels a deep rooted sense of entitlement and ownership of c!dream as well (or at least of what he is). and that feeling often overrides what would be logical in that situation. even after he’s lost, lost everything—c!sam doesn’t really regret it. he “would do it again.” thats also why it’s continued with “I’ll just show you,” it’s his need to have complete control

so, those 2/3 panels are really just c!sam going on autopilot. in the brief scuffle they had, c!sam manages to remove his mask to disarm him. his face sparks a memory, which distracts him, there’s a moment of stillness, and Dream pulls away. the rest are mostly metaphors for how c!sam is feeling/changing

I know I definitely should have devoted more space to the setup, but I was working on this for a while and at some point the concept just didn’t feel worth the extra page lmao :’)

#this is sort of the inbetween of the Daedalus arc and scrapped lore #in the sense that csam gains jus the tiniest bit more self awareness to recognize his actions weren’t just bad cuz he paid for them later #he won’t admit it to himself but it’s good emotional setup for when he decides to let him go (in the scrapped lore) #dreblr #awesamdream #c!dream #c!sam #weird asks #thenaiads

[tallbluelady]

16. What’s their favorite “domestic bliss” moment? Do they cook/clean together? Do they like to go out shopping together? - @littlelordalphinaud

I think the sweet thing about Minthe and Daedalus is that Minthe finds out that she really likes a lot of domestic things when she gets to do it with him. Minthe already liked cooking before she and Daedalus started dating, but it's definitely something she cherishes doing with him. With his view on time, he knows time is precious and he savors every moment with her. And that's kind of her general view on life is that it should be savored so it really clicks.

Thanks for the ask!

#ask meme #azem minthe #azem daedalus #i melt with you #minthe's arc is going from wild isolation to domestic bliss and it's pretty soft if i do say so myself

[blue-is-a-sapphic-color]

i think i don't really get the seasons discourse cause i've never really used them?? i think using the name of the arc is just more useful to me personally

#for starters there's always debates on when the seasons actually start and end #then someone inevitably tries to apply narrative structures to them? #like the seasons were like. properly planned and not decided after the fact?? #and THEN you end up using the name of the arc anyway! #also depending on who's pov you're operating on the seasons can just be completed pointless or actually straight up annoying #if you're talking about the egg arc the seasons don't work at all lol #it's much more useful to talk about post possession pre banquet post banquet i think #lmanburg has it's own timeline with lmanberg manburg pogtopia new lmanburg doomsday you know #the prison arc by itself can be a good metric and it tends to be used for the seasons but also it spans 10 months lol? #also the daedalus arc is so important to it but i don't think the seasons take that into account at all so like #YOU KNOW! #it doesn't really make sense for me ;--; #to talk about cgeorge i'm going to mention completely different events than when i talk about csam like do you get me

[theminecraftbox]

Sixteenth Day Event Prompt:

Sam can't get to sleep in the prison

—

This is such a waste of time.

—

Sam likes Pandora’s Vault.

It’s a simple thought. It’s a more simple thought than it ever had any right to be in the months, now more than a year, since its conception.

In some of those months, that concept—the liking—was too difficult to look at head-on. Maybe Sam lacked conviction. But no, he’s sure that was never the problem. There was something else, some different tremble to his limbs and shiver in his gut, something else that twisted his stomach into knots, something that made Sam wish he’d believed otherwise. But he knows he never did, just like he knows that every day he looked forward to Quackity’s visits. Perhaps it’s because he’s a harder man now that he’s facing down the real possibility of his own death.

Sam stares at the obsidian. When he’s finished with his books, with his pointless notes, and when the sound of his own voice has petered out, there is little else to do. In some ways, it’s fascinating. Harder than iron, harder than diamond. He built this cell: he did that. Every inch in here, wrought by him, for its all-consuming purpose. Every imperfection has been varnished to an unyielding finish. Every chip where a pickaxe or sword was wielded with imprecision is just another a facet in a jewel. The cauldron is clean, but Sam can see the shadow of the stains, like an opalescent sheen.

He leans against the corner of the cell and tries to sleep. In this spot, Dream is nearly, achingly, tangible.

There is no routine to chain him to his purpose. He is without purpose, within purpose, buried in the belly of his own beast.

He is hungry. His own beast has come to gnaw at him.

—

I am not an idiot.

——

Sam has sharpened his regrets into a crystalline clarity. Dream is not among them. What lies he has told and what acts he has permitted, in these walls and beyond them, has sent a message and has been in the service of a purpose Sam can never regret.

What had Dream felt, in that moment of betrayal? What had Dream felt when he was led into the prison, Punz at his back, Sam at his front? It’s dizzying to consider. Sam's never thought of it before.

Today, Sam reached for Dream and Dream stepped back. It only took a moment. What was so close at hand is impossibly far. What was impossible is within his grasp. Dream has struck him, exactly once, like a chastisement, but to Sam it felt like a vindication.

——

I am not the bad guy. Dream is the bad guy.

————

Sam wishes that Dream’s visits were announced by more than the pop of a pearl. He’s just as grateful that they aren’t, though, that the mechanisms of his machine have not been suborned, that at least one thing remains loyal to him. No bargains there.

He wishes he could see the bed beyond the lava. He thinks he could actually get some sleep there. Something about the sounds from that side always calmed him. It was solitude and reassurance all at once. He couldn’t hear Dream over the lava—not when he wasn’t screaming or hysterical—but the knowledge was enough.

————

I’m gonna die.

—————

Dream has gained weight.

It’s the first thing Sam noticed: the spare lines of him filled out, the gaunt angles in his face blunted. Not a bad look, though the sharpness of him, like a wolf, was always something Sam appreciated.

Sam can still see the marks on Dream, in the unevenness of his gait, the missing fingers, the scars on his skin. He can still see the wolf under the surface, animal in its hunger. Sam can still see what the Warden has wrought of him, the sculpted shapes underpinning the image of a man who is now free.

He never would have left Dream to starve. He never would have left Dream to Quackity. He didn’t, did he? He’s saved Dream. Every day in this place, over and over, he saved Dream. Dream didn't need to ask. Plenty of times, he spurned Sam, spat at him, threw his food and his comforts into the lava, squirmed away from his hands, his potions.

And the cell has been kept ready for him, and Dream has returned to it. It's almost enough to make Sam not feel lost. Dream is here. Dream is fine. Sam is fine too.

It’s coming towards a conclusion. Hurtling. Sam can feel it, maybe Dream can feel it too. The clock is inexorable. It’s his last night here: tomorrow this place will be Dream’s.

It’ll still be his, theirs.

—————

It’s almost time.

——————

#I wrote this super fast but thank god i've finally written SOMEthing #my fic #dreblr #c!dream and c!sam #daedalus arc #sixteenthdayevent

[eijiroukiriot]

i know that between just the enormous reputation and fanon bnha has gathered and how deep my own impressions of the characters run i shouldn’t even really care about what happens in canon but... :( 

#but that's my favorite mean and loud and brave boy who was just getting started :( #i was avoiding the chapter til it was actually out and i've been waking up super early anyway so i ran down to the lawson's 2 seconds #from my apartment to buy jump basically as soon as it was out this morning #i keep going back and forth abt what i think is gonna happen and what i want to happen but idk #i'm abt to sound so cringey like this is a real person but part of me doesn't want him to go thru another fakeout death #you know? imagine him having to live through that again #that'd make a whole new set of complications and like plotlines of him dealing with it so still a lot of sadness to read through #but also him being dead . idk. i guess ideally i would've liked for this not to happen #this scene but also like any of this. back to like the first war arc. why is this series written like this it's not good #that's an overstatement though i'm not totally trying to write it off or anything #i think on like a grander thematic level i don't hate it #i know i said this on twit too but it's kinda like icarus-like just if it were daedalus' fault #corruption of innocence (?) at the hands of the adult world or something #i think i had more eloquent thoughts abt it earlier but i'm just sorta sad now :( #i wanna care less about it bc we don't even know if it's real yet but you guys know how much i love that guy #thoughts

[salad-storm]

Lighthouse as a vast domain with a lighthouse keeper marked by the lonely and some guy chilling at the beach except they're an avatar of the end = ships will get lost and be very existential about it

#this exists a bit like the daedalus arc in my head. several seperate statements all concerning vaguely the same stuff #random person working on a ship experiencing the vast because of the lighthouse #person working in the lighthouse incredibly lonely getting increasingly servant-y #avatar chilling on the beach having their fun wrecking ships but also melancholic about it bc thats how it is #(they died there on a ship wreck which was their avatar decision. they keep making ghost jokes.) #and some random teacher taking their students on a trip there and noticing first the person sitting at the beach #then how Weird the lighthouse feels and Then how strange the keeper is and the teachers like. okay! interesting trip! #anyways uh. i totally didnt think about this a lot. im totally not gonna write anything about it #i literally dont have the time. that last point is true the other ones not so much #if i think about it more i will maybe have even less time at some point woopsie #tma #the magnus archives #stormy in here

[voidpidgeon]

Sixteenth Day Event Prompt:

Awe & Temptation

fashionably late, but I have completed my prompt!

Uhhm daedalus arc inspired, and it did not start out as awesamdream, but I think we got there in the end?

+ bonus close up :P

#my art #dreamwastaken #awesamdude #awesamdream #this drawing kicked my ass #wish i had given dream a different pose but it only came to me halfway through L

[elmhat]

potentially useful dsmp vod compilations!

I spent some time compiling related dsmp vods into youtube playlists! It's mainly for myself, but I thought I'd share with anyone who's interested.

Prison Arc — Tommy's first visit to Dream's escape. Vods are only included if they contain scenes inside the prison.

Daedalus Arc — Sam's imprisonment to his release.

Dream's Post-Prison Arc — Dream's escape to his final confrontation with Tommy. Vods are only included if they contain Dream. This is the playlist where I know for a fact I'm missing vods, so suggestions are appreciated! It's also the playlist where you'll probably have to do the most searching for specific moments.

Quackity's Las Nevadas Arc — The creation to the destruction of Las Nevadas. Vods are only included if they contain Quackity.

Just be warned: sometimes the part of a vod that's related to the playlist title is only a short moment from a much longer stream, so you might have to do a bit of searching. This is because I preferred to use the original vods over clips that might cut out important moments.

Let me know if you think something should be added or changed!

#dream smp #dreblr #c!dream #c!quackity #c!sam #lore thoughts #refs