Random little thing about the c!dsmp, from the perspective of a writer!
(Please note: THIS IS ABOUT THE MEDIA/ROLEPLAY! I do not support any problematic content creator involved. I am treating all individuals named in this post as their respective characters.)
I know the dsmp is over and it lives on through fandom content. But one thing that kinda irks me a little is the people who say "c!Ranboo is the protagonist" and leave it at that, and keep it that simple--well, they interest me more than anything else.
Listen. Maybe he was meant to be the protagonist. Maybe he wasn't. But one thing I do know is that one thing that made the dsmp unique is that there really wasn't any main character. Sure, there were some characters that were more side characters than others, and some characters who were the main players, but ultimately there really wasn't any main character in the lore to begin with! Everything just happened by itself and I can even suffice to say that, if there was an mc, it may have changed from arc to arc. It can all be based on interpretation, honestly. That said, if there WAS a singular mc throughout every single arc, it wasn't Ranboo. Yes, while a lot of main character jokes were made and he had a lot of close encounters with c!Dream, but from an outside narrative perspective it definitely isn't him. He wasn't even present in the smp for the first few arcs! If it's anyone, it's c!Tommy. c!Tommy is LITERALLY the character that started it all and was the person who turned the dsmp from "funny random server that we made during quarantine because we're bored" to " lore filled epic of massive proportions". Everything started when HE joined, and most of the arcs happen because of him. "But Iri, isn't it the same/ similar with c!Dream?" That's different, actually--c!Dream gives c!Tommy an obstacle. He antagonizes him and bounces off of him and consequently the rest of the server. No matter what arc it is, c!Tommy is almost always in the middle of it all. He's always caught in the crossfire and strongly related to the current arc. While other characters may be focused on for certain arcs and get more of the spotlight sometimes, it all ultimately circles back to him. As a writer, THAT'S what a main character looks like to me.
C!Tommy was pretty clearly the main character, if there was any at all. As much as I love c!Ranboo, he really doesn't qualify to me! As for c!Tommy's actions, Tommy isn't a hero but he isn't quite a villain either. Every character in the dsmp is very grey (phenomenally so). But Tommy is at the center of the plot. And the way he IS, his personality, and his arc, fundamentally reflects the nature of the dsmp as a whole, how his chaotic innocence turned into bleak cynicism with extremely careful optimism. He's affected by almost every major arc in the plot, and experiences the brunt of the conflict across the server. He was the one who initially owned the disc's. He's directly related to the man who blew up l'manburg, the blood god himself, and a personal enemy of the literal god of the server who is chasing him for his disc's--his disc's literally started a whole war. He IS the reason that the server is the way it is.
That said, the perception of who the protagonist is could differ depending on the viewer. Specifically, I'm talking about the exact medium of the dsmp. It's via roleplay in live twitch streams--as such, depending on how you first experienced any given event, and from what perspective you quite literally watched it through (i.e., Ranboo's streams, Tommy's streams, Punz' streams), you might view the dsmp very differently and understand the plot and its innerworkings with various nuances. I personally bounced between content creators and gave a lot of different ones the time of day, and watched a lot of clips, so I have somewhat of a detached view of it-- however, it can easily differ to other people.
I'd absolutely love to hear you guys' interpretation on who may have been the protagonist, who could've been the antagonist, who were the main characters, who were heroes, and who were villains, and more. In fact, I'd love to hear your opinions in the replies. That being said, this is all my two cents from a narrative perspective.
Okay, I'm done.
