#c!tommy analysis

the fact that this country physically represents tommy. it represents his hopes, his dreams, his childlike wonder, and the fact that people want to protect him.

and then it’s blown up. it’s blown up by the older brother figure who swore that he’d protect him; by the closest thing he’s ever had to family. mere moments later, it’s further decimated by c!techno, the guy that he looks up. the guy that he fears. the guy that killed his best friend on a stage. it’s blown up while he’s being yelled at to die like a hero.

and then the presidency falls to c!tubbo, representing how tommy’s entire trust is founded IN TUBBO. there is no one else. just him.

and then he’s exiled. tubbo betrays that trust, stages an execution, caves to c!dream’s wants.

and then, after thinking that he can maybe trust techno again, l’manberg is blown up AGAIN, for the final time.

blown up by the man who abused him, who manipulated him, who made him feel suicidal and worthless and so angry (“i never used to be this angry”).

blown up by the man who housed him from said abuser, who he formed a bond with, a partnership that was doomed from the start because they were always too different to last.

blown up by the man who killed wilbur, who laughed while he cried over tnt falling, who would always and will still always choose techno above all else.

l’manberg’s land and its repeated desecration represents the repeated disregard that tommy was given by every single person who failed him. it was the most explicit representation of how tommy felt towards the end of the server, before everything ended and he finally was given a chance to rest.

I have not met a single person in this fandom who is able to equally and fairly appreciate both of these characters. Not one. It’s frustrating interacting with people from both ends because I like c!dream (a lot) and the rampant mischaracterization of him from c!tommy apologists is annoying. But then c!dream apologists who actually understand him turn around and belittle and mischaracterize c!tommy.

And neither groups realize what they’re doing. They criticize each other for “not watching the source material” and “having no media literacy” and “harassing people of differing opinions” and then perpetuate those behaviors just targeted at different characters. C!dream fans that constantly shit on c!tommy and c!wilbur are no better than c!tommy fans that constantly shit on c!dream. Both of you are wrong!! The beauty of the dream smp was that everyone’s the hero in their own story and no one is entirely good or bad!! The unique medium of storytelling gives us access to (almost) every character’s specific point of view; why are we not utilizing this more?? The source material doesn’t have one ‘true’ opinion or stance because it’s not just one source. It’s many. For example, the themes and morals of c!quackity’s lore is going to be vastly different from c!techno’s because they’re not the same source. Really, I think as a fandom we could benefit from treating each character’s lore as a separate story that overlaps in places instead of trying to weave together the broken and scuffed dsmp into one, full canon. Because it’s not. It’s not even close.

And the way that dark academia kinda can romanticise a certain kind of self destruction with like caffeine addictions and all-nighters and things like that. The way dark academics sort of dedicate their entire being to studying and the way that c!wilbur dedicated his entire being to L’Manberg. Literature in dark academia and c!Wilbur’s Chekhov’s Gun - the way it all comes back to self-destruction.

And then there’s cottagecore. A simple way of life which values self-sustainability with things like sewing and baking and farming. Away from all the drama. Tommy wants nothing more than safety with his pets in a little house and he whole-heartedly believed that was achievable because he had lived it, hadn’t he? In L’Manberg?

Tommy didn’t want to kill. He didn’t want revenge. He only committed to it because he was convinced it was the only solution, the only way to find that catharsis and peace. Tommy’s happy ending was never about murder or revenge, but about healing from his trauma. Understanding Dream gave Tommy the catharsis he wanted. For him, it made it make sense. Does that mean he forgave Dream? Probably not, though it’s hard to know since the nuke came so soon after. But when Dream asked if it was too late, when he expressed for the first time a willingness to change, Tommy realized he didn’t have to kill for the catharsis & peace he wanted.

dream is the sun. he’s bright, he’s the one you think of first, he has a tendency to flare up and there’s always something going on with him. you can’t get too close to him otherwise you’ll be burnt, and even from a distance, you aren’t safe from his flames because he hurts people both directly and indirectly

“I wanna start from the top, maybe like a do-over. Replace the voices in my head with blind innocence”

So this line makes alot of sense for me. Tommy’s life was absolute *shit*. He didn’t have the greatest life so it make sense that he would want a ‘do-over’. Tommy was a kid when he joined the smp, he was childish and impulsive. He was largely innocent of how shitty the world was. He wants that innocence back, he wants to be able to be a kid again. The ‘voices’ in his head could be chat, but thats more of technos thing. I think the voices he’s talking about is his internal thoughts. His suicidal ideation, his impulsive things. C!tommy once said he was everything he didnt wanna be and that really reminds me of this line.

 “I wanna complete re-do, maybe change my name. Report the losses grab the claim, it's a shame it's such a shame” 

Nothing to say about this line besides the ‘its a shame, such a shame’. Tommy *could’ve* had a great life. He *could’ve* been great. Thats not me saying he wasn’t great or anything, i mean great in tommy’s standards. I dont think he regrets a lot of his impulsive actions (dueling dream/giving him his discs for lmanburg/ burning georges house down) but he’s not blind and he does see how they altered his life. He thinks its a shame that he never became anything of himself. He’s not obsessed with legacy or anything, he doesn’t *want* to be something, but he can recognize its a shame.

“We're pissing away our time 'cause we're pissing away these beers. No monumental moment ever came from saying ‘Come on dude, just take one more shot’.”

Nearing the end of the smp, when wilbur left, tommy really as just pissing away his time. He had no one really. He wasn’t *doing* anything with his life. He didn’t have anything to live for and he lived in paranoia and when it came down to it, he’d rather kill himself and everyone else around him than live with the idea that dream was still out there. IK the song is talking about beer when they say ’just take one more shot’ but i think it fits tommy more if their talking about giving something another shot. Tommy isn’t one to give up, he always gives things, people, objects all ‘one more shot’. Almost nothing good ever comes from it though. He’s said he doesn’t believe in second chances, that he believes in people. In not giving up on others. I think thats a bit of dangerous thinking on his part, especially with the people hes always around.

 “Try to, try to forget, that your bones will dismantle And the dreams you had, they'll collide with time”

Tommy wants to forget that he’ll die soon enough. He’s both terrified of and welcoming of his death. I think he wants to forget what limbo is. (btw I'm taking bones will dismantle as a ‘you're gonna die’ type metaphor idk man). Tommy had dreams, ofc he did. He mainly just wanted peace. He wanted a community. He wanted to be friends with so many people and do impulsive things. He wanted to see the good in people, even when there was nothing there. But when he does these things, when he makes friends, when he has a community, it all comes crashing down around him. He cant keep that peace for forever.

“Your unrequited love for life will surely- Halt that I'm thinking way too much at night”

Tommy loves things easily and hard. Including his life at one point, but ofc he hardly receives the same time of love he gives so freely. He doesn’t let him think about this though. He doesnt want to think about his life. He stopped going to therapy, he stopped going out. He started taking invis, so he could feel at least somewhat on the outside what he felt on the inside. invisible.

“Maybe I could just move away or go extinct like a triceratops, But I love loving, watching movies, sitting back and also breathing”

Tommy thinks about how he could just leave the smp like wilbur, he could just sail until he reached land, far far away from the smp. But.. he could also just kill himself. He could just die. C!tommy has made plenty of references to suicide, mainly during exile. He *could* do these things, but he still loves too much. Even with how bad he had it, he still loved doing things. He couldn’t leave without leaving the good things too.

“My family and friends would be crushed, but is it enough? (Oh no, it's not enough)”

His family and friends are not the reason he’s alive. He could say they are, but their not. What has any of them really done to keep him alive anyways? They are not the reason he’s not moving away or ‘going extinct’.

“Oh, the future freaks me out, but I guess I could just, Curl up in a ball and think”

At the end of the smp Tommy doesn’t have any plans for the future, he barely has anyone, he’s so caught up with the past he cant even begin to think of the future unless someone else is leading the conversation. (tubbo and him talking about L’Moonburg) 

Then its just the chorus again, twice but in the second time theres new lyrics in the back 

“Try to, try to forget (I won't be breaking any barriers) That your bones will dismantle and the dreams you had (so I'll keep thinking the future) They'll collide (future freaks me out) With time, your unrequited love for life (I won't judge you if you think the same) Will surely halt that (so let's keep thinking) I'm thinking way too much at night (well the future, the future freaks us out)

This feels like a conversation between tubbo and tommy, with the parentheses being tubbo and the normal part that i’d already analyzed as tommy. Tubbos more hopeful at the end of the smp, talking about L’moonburg, excited to start a new country with tommy. He’s not planning on doing anything new he’s not breaking any barriers. He’s just thinking about the future they’re gonna have together as co-presidents, as best friends. Of course, the future freaks him out too, but he doesn’t keep himself from thinking about it like tommy. He understands why tommy’s afraid though, he wont judge him for it. He knows it freaks both of them out but he wants a future together so he tells him to keep thinking. <3

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ANYWAYS! That was it ^^ I’m open to critism and i’d love to hear yalls thoughts too! sorry for any typos tho ^^