Really, how I describe Tommy and Dream's toxic relationship:
- Tommy says/does something provocative and Dream either takes the punch or not
- If he takes the punch, Tommy keeps going because he's trying to get Dream to react
- If Dream doesn't take the punch he will retaliate in a sliding scale based on how egregious he thinks the crime is and not how bad it actually was.
- This becomes a game of chicken that neither are willing to back away from because their own pride will be the death of them. God forbid someone is the bigger man. Tommy has something to prove, whether it be besting the Admin Dreamwastaken himself or just to show that he could do it. Dream refuses to be bested and is more often than not being a creative little shit. His prowess in strategy and war serves him and his mentality will fucking kill him because he is almost always the one to crank it up to 11.
TL;DR Tommy provokes but Dream takes it to a whole other level. That's where the imbalance comes from. Tommy doesn't realize what Dream is willing to do in order to achieve his goals. Tommy has diluted himself into thinking that the server revolves around him and Dream because he made it about him and Dream.
I think this is a very accurate description of their dynamic! They're both prideful bastards who hate it when someone else has the upper hand, which is what the whole premise of the Disc War is. Tommy wanted to kill Big Man Dream himself, Dream's pride got hurt as a result, and it just escalated from there.
Thanks for putting it into words!













