Reverse Dreamtale

An analysis on the strategy and characterization behind Dream’s canon weapons

I think Dream’s choice of weapons is very interesting. Each one provides insight into how he changes as a character and how intelligent he is at strategizing between fighting for and protecting others.

Staff and Shield

The first weapon Dream dawns with his new power is a staff. It’s his first act he takes against corrupted Nightmare, and many things are at play in this scene:

1. Dream doesn’t run away despite having already been badly beaten up by the angry villagers, and being overwhelmed by his new powers.

2. He takes a stand against a much greater, deadlier, vicious, and powerful opponent solely to protect the people who remain because he can’t stand to see the rest of them get hurt.

3. Dream doesn’t choose an offensive weapon because he’s still very much afraid of hurting his brother and has never fought someone before. He goes mainly on the defensive. At this point in his character, he’s never found fighting to be the answer to anything. He isn’t convinced hurting someone will help them. He would rather choose a defensive weapon then try to break through to the person he thinks is still his brother.

This is the starting point for his weapons. His staff (which can also be used to form golden barriers), is a defensive weapon. It’s an extension of his more pacifist way of thinking, when he’s younger and less experienced with fighting. It’s not a bad weapon and isn’t the sole thing that costs him the fight, it can still be wielded offensively, against Nightmare, but its main goal is to do minimal damage, and function as defence for his other forms of solving problems. He uses this weapon frequently even after his defeat with Nightmare, but as Dream grows older he learns when to use a more offensive approach, rather than solely being defensive.

Bow

Dream’s second weapon is his bow. This is the first change to a more offensive fighting style. It’s important to note he doesn’t shoot actual arrows with it, rather the arrows are made of positive energy and will not injure anyone that gets hit by them, other than Nightmare. This means he successfully created a long range weapon that only hurts the one person he mainly needs offence against. A long range weapon is extremely useful for him, as fighting close with Nightmare means he’ll be affected by Nightmare’s aura and become weaker, as well as be in the line of fire for his tentacles. His bow offers him the ability to damage his brother from a distance then escape without being at as high a risk as defending with his staff and barrier, and can quickly be reverted back into his staff if the opponent comes closer.

Knives

Dream’s knives are my favourite weapon for many reason. It’s important to immediately note Dream DOES NOT trade his other weapons for this one. Rather he simply add this weapon to the weapons he uses. He still uses his staff and bow more frequently. His knives are stated, by Joku, as strictly for dire situations. I interpret this as situations in which one has to be more aggressive with the opponent to avoid others getting hurt. (Think Nightmare or Killer).

We can also see from the drawing of him with him that he is much older when he gets them. Joku is very good at depicting Dream’s age through her art. He uses these knives when things get serious, when he’s fighting for his life and the life of others, where defence is no longer the best option. He does not use these knives whenever he meets someone dangerous. We can see Dream, over his time as a guardian, learns that sometimes a more offensive approach is more beneficial, but only when other options don’t work. He’s learning how to shift his response based on the situation, rather than solely lean on pure talking, pure defence, or pure attack. If an enemy refuses to listen, if they are putting your life and the life of others in immediate jeopardy, you can’t stand around and try to talk to them, you have to take a different approach, and that’s exactly what his knives are for. He’s not sacrificing his kindness, he’s not using them to purposefully try to kill or hurt anyone, he’s using them strategically to meet a dangerous force with a stronger resistance.

From here, I’d like to talk about the design of the knives, because they resemble a very real world example: falchions.

Important note: never have the knives been stated as falchions, I simply am drawing comparisons between the two due to their similarities in design .

Falchions were small one handed, single edged swords. They’re very thin, light, and were designed to be good at quickly slashing. Because they’re one handed, they could be double wielded like Dream does. This is the perfect type of weapon for Dream. He needs to be fast and efficient against Nightmare, while the ability to wield two at once means he has a better chance of defending against Nightmare’s tentacles (which as shown in the comics, usually get reduced to two when fighting Dream because of Dream’s positive energy). The bow string that connects the two blades ensures he quickly recover one if it falls, so long as he’s holding the other. He has created the perfect weapon for combatting Nightmare, demonstrating his intelligence and ability to strategize, as well as representing his maturity, responsible nature, and ability to adapt to different situations.