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A self-made god invites a nonbeliever to prayer
The interaction Iâll be analyzing this round takes place on 11/16/2020, between c!Tubbo and c!Dream, who Iâll refer to as simply Tubbo and Dream from here onward. Prior to the beginning of the war, Tubbo spends time running around gathering supplies for the approaching battle. He and Dream interact at the Holy Land and then briefly engage in armed combat. Dream kills Tubbo and the interaction ends. The full clip spans about 35:58 to 48:02, though the bulk of what Iâll discuss takes place roughly between 42:00 and 47:00. When cc!Tubbo uploaded the VOD of this stream, he cut the first hour (approximately), so as far as I know the clip I refer to is only available through third-party recordings of the original stream. A recording of the full stream can be found HERE. All timestamps that aren't hyperlinked occur within this stream.
Essentially, my argument is that this clip reveals a lot about both Tubbo and Dreamâs attitudes towards religion (prior to the introduction of DreamXD months later, which I donât have room to discuss this round.) The interaction expresses Tubbo's and Dream's specific theological perspectives, which are diametrically opposed but, strangely, not incompatible.
The actual clip is quite brief. It starts around 35:58 where Tubbo says aloud to himself, âIs anywhere safe?â At 36:46 Tubbo decides to go to the Holy Land, because Dream presumably canât hurt him there. When he reaches the Holy Land a minute later, he expresses comfort: he thinks heâs safe, he thinks heâs âin the clear.â At 39:20, Tubbo catches sight of Dream lurking nearby but when he addresses him directly, Dream vanishes, leaving Tubbo in a state of panic. He reappears moments later and offers Tubbo a shield banner which Tubbo accepts but then immediately returns, fearing itâs a ploy to misidentify Tubbo as the traitor. Tubbo remarks that he finds Dreamâs body language â his stillness specifically â creepy. At 42:12, Tubbo accidentally steps outside the boundary of the Holy Land and Dream sets him on fire. Tubbo douses himself in water and steps back into the Holy Land. Dream leads Tubbo into the church and types a message, âLetâs pray before todayâ at 42:47. Tubbo responds, âYâknow what, sure. Enemies on the battlefield!â Tubbo gets behind the podium, saying he will deliver a âseminarâ (bless him, Iâm 100% sure he meant âsermon.â) At 43:00, Tubbo receives a donation telling him that his enemies âhave a secret base near the Twitch Prime church,â which he acknowledges with a âWhat?!â At 43:04, Tubbo begins his sermon.
Abridged sermon transcript:
Right! Weâre gathered here today. Dream, even though weâre enemies, youâre here. (He evangelizes about Twitch Prime. Itâs an advertisement. Dream rings the bell rhythmically as Tubbo speaks.) Worship and pray. Every prime is a bell ring, you know the drill. Welcome to church, everyone! (With manic humor) Iâm not a sellout! Who said sellout? That is just not true. âŚRun an ad, why donât you? No, no that crosses the line. (Tubbo reads some names from donations and subs.)
Dream rings the bell for every incoming Prime from viewers. At 46:25, Tubbo announces that heâs broken his sub goal and he and Dream exit the main chapel room of the church. As they pass through the church lobby, Tubbo jokingly asks whether he and Dream should âbatheâ in the pool of holy water near the entrance. Dream doesnât respond, leaving the church in silence. At 46:35, Tubbo (again, with a joking tone) says heâd like to âtake a dipâ and walks through the holy water fountain. Then, Tubbo follows Dream out of the church but walks within the border of the Holy Land, stating that once he crosses the boundary he will be âin peril â immediate dangerâ (47:00). He loads and readies his crossbow and attempts to make a âquick getawayâ but is immediately chased down by Dream. He fires arrows at Dream as he runs away, but his shots miss their target. He jumps into water to swim away and is slain by Dream. Interaction ends at 48:02.
There are a couple of interesting ways this interaction might be interpreted, but the questions that intrigue me most are: 1) Why does Dream bother following the rules of the Holy Land? And 2) Why does he suggest they pray together? In order to answer the first question, we must determine whose rules they are; in order to answer the second question, we must determine who/what the characters believe they are praying to.
For some background context --- Dream and Tommy founded the religion of Church Prime together a few months prior on 08/23/2020. On that day, Dream declares himself a âgod,â comparing himself to both a prophet, a divine spirit, and a messianic figure (2:05-2:16). The church building itself was later constructed by Punz, Eret, and Sapnap, who stated that it was âa peaceful churchâ that he did not want associated with violent acts (29:25-29:30). Dream threatens to execute other characters for breaking the no-killing-on-holy-ground rule, notably when George injures Ponk on Ponkâs baptism day (1:02-1:08). While Dream is responsible for conducting baptisms in the churchâs early days (ex: baptizing Ponk), worshippers eventually assume that duty later on (ex: Sapnap, Karl, Punz, and Callahan baptizing Tina). Interestingly, Sapnap asserts on one notable occasion that a religion isnât a true faith without worshippers, and therefore worshippers actually constitute the greater authority, asking Dream with mild bitterness at 00:00-00:07, âWho built this church, Dream?â Itâs a rhetorical question. Sapnap built the church and is invoking his own authority. So overall, weâre presented with a somewhat contentious view of church authority: Dream posits himself as a divine figure and clearly draws a sense of authority from that declaration, while members of the congregation (Sapnap in particular) are quick to voice and exercise their own clerical authority. All of this begs the question: to whom do the rules of the holy land belong? The answer is: the rules belong to whoever is willing to enforce and respect them â which, as I hope Iâve demonstrated, includes not just Dream but a number of others as well.
This leads into the next question: if church authority is derived both from its founders (i.e. Dream and Tommy) and its congregants (Sapnap, Karl, Ponk, Tina, Callahan, Punz, etc etc), who/what divine force does that authority serve? In other words, when Dream and Tubbo pray together before the 11/16 war, what do they believe theyâre praying to?
Tubbo, Iâd argue, is praying to nothing. This is all a joke to him, and a grim joke at that. Earlier in the stream, he expresses despair and even nihilism in the face of Dreamâs combat prowess, saying, âHe literally doesnât even care. Thatâs how powerful he is!â at (30:42-30:45). Tubbo also expresses premature defeat, asking, âItâs overâŚWhy bother fighting?â (30:37-30:52). Tubboâs tone throughout the whole encounter is morbidly jovial, bordering on hysteria. He suspects he will die the minute he leaves sacred ground â Dream demonstrated this when he set Tubbo on fire after he accidentally stepped outside the Holy Land at 42:12. He doesn't even know what a sermon is called, and he doesn't care to! He is a man marked for death. He steps into that church with the foreknowledge that his prayers will not be answered, so why bother praying with sincerity at all?
So what does Dream believe heâs praying to? At first glance, itâs hard to say. Aside from a few cryptic chat messages, Dream remains nonverbal throughout the entire exchange, silent as the grave. He is without a doubt weaponizing the laws of the Holy Land (and by extension, the religion it represents) as an intimidation and entrapment tactic. He follows Tubbo closely (as Tubbo says around 33:22-33:25, âDream makes such a badass stalkerâŚHeâs just unsettlingly good at itâ), threatening him with violence at every turn (27:30-29:47) and killing him once already that day (29:47), essentially herding him into the only area where Tubbo can reliably take momentary shelter, guiding him like a shepherd leading a lamb to slaughter. Dream doesnât have to obey the laws of the Holy Land (there is no force physically preventing him from harming Tubbo) but doing so works in Dreamâs favor because it reinforces the illusion of safety that makes the Holy Land easy to weaponize. As Tubbo acknowledges, his adversaries have a secret base nearby. Though itâs never stated outright, thereâs evidence to suggest that the base is located nearby specifically so Dream and his allies can use the Holy Land as a trap. People fleeing combat will come there seeking asylum, and in this way the church (ironically, given later events in the server) becomes a prison â and a death row prison at that. But using the church as a wartime entrapment strategy doesnât necessarily mean that Dream doesnât pray here with earnestness. On the contrary, Iâd argue that Dream wouldnât have suggested the prayer if he didnât think it mattered. What is he praying to? Heâs praying to him. Dream is, as he says on 08/23/2020, âa god.â God invites his enemy into the church that he founded, invites his enemy to pray to a divine authority he views as himself, and slays that same enemy immediately afterwards. Dream is sacrificing Tubbo on the altar of his own ambitions. Dream here acts as both deity and officiant.
In this paradigm, we have holy ground as a symbol representing diametrically opposed (and yet not entirely incompatible) theological perspectives for Tubbo and Dream respectively. For Tubbo, the Holy Land is a place where injury and death are not possible but doom is. For Dream, the Holy Land represents a set of rules that arenât worth breaking and, conversely, an opportunity to enact the doom of his opponents. Tubboâs perspective is an inherently nihilistic one: nothing matters, so he might as well pray! No god will save him anyway. Dreamâs perspective is that there is power in ritual, the same way there is power in strategy. What is strategy if not a kind of ritual? Note that both these perspectives posit the self as the ultimate arbiter of fate: as far as Tubboâs concerned, he will only survive if heâs quick enough to escape (he isnât.) And as far as Dreamâs concerned, gods are real insomuch as he himself is one, or at the very least he can be if he commits to the theological bit hard enough; he decides his own fate and the fate of those around him.
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