Someone pointed out recently that my reasoning sometimes seems to be primarily shaped by the early days of the narrative and then the stuff towards the end. And I think thatās fair. Iām okay with admitting that. Honestly, the reason that likely is is because thatās the lore Iāve rewatched the most recently and itās been like 5ish years so itās not like Iām gonna remember everything that happened and so my examples come from whatās fresh on my mind. Which is especially problematic when considering other characters during the time period of Dream being in prison because Dream isnāt there so I havenāt watched those streams in a while or for some ever. Which yeah makes for a skewed perspective, though no less skewed I think then people misremembering or who havenāt watched at all, but nonetheless Iām okay with admitting that flaw. Though that goes both ways, just as my reasoning is flawed by not utilizing every part of the lore, others are often the same by only considering Exile or Pogtopia or whatever era they like the most thatās freshly on their mind. Not to say those skews arenāt problematic but just that itās been many years and itās not like we are going to remember every single detail especially if we are new to the fandom, which is why I often provide links and such so you can see for yourself.
However, despite my sometimes lack of middle lore support, I think generally to understand a character itās vitally important to consider them at their rawest form in the beginning and their final form in the end. You wouldnāt analyze Tony Stark and ignore the first movie just because there is a different actor for his best friend. In the same way that if you analyzed Loki as a character only using The Avengers and not the Thor movies before and after then your opinion of him is going to be rather skewed as if trying to analyze a curve but only observing the points at the top. But also to retcon or not consider the TV series perhaps because itās not a movie would be to cut off the impactful revealing of his true motivation and destiny. Like taking a cake out of the oven too soon and then judging it when itās still underbaked.
After all, I think a well written character should ideally change throughout the story so to analyze them only by a few middle points often of them at their worst does them a disservice. This is what I think often happens to Dream for example as well as many other characters like even Tommy with people using Exile as a representation of their entire dynamic even when you wouldnāt look at Captain American: Civil War as a representation of Captain Americaās relationship with Iron Man, itās a point in time, yes a big tipping point and because of that itās very influential in the narrative but it still doesnāt depict their whole story, neither of their relationship nor them individually as characters.
So I guess what Iām saying is yes sometimes my perspective can be skewed, though I think even outside of retconning probably all of ours are as we get further and further from the streamsā origin, but at the same point I think itās so important perhaps the most important to see where the characterās end and began. The early days of the dsmp so often get dismissed but in some ways, I think because they arenāt as scripted (and we get Dreamās pov) that makes them the most telling of these charactersā true nature and motives. Firstly because there are less influences and dynamics and secondly because they are making their own choices not influenced by writers or even fans. And we know the early days are canon because they get referenced throughout the story and in the very end. Plus story wise the script doesnāt exist for the characters themselves anyways so the beginning is just as much their actions as the middle and as the end. And I think the end is also so crucial to understand the characters and just because you donāt agree or like the end doesnāt make it any less a part of the story, so to overlook it is to ignore a huge piece of the characterās development. Especially because ideally you are missing their final form, the result of the change that was taking place as the story went on.
To me, I find it interesting to understand and look at the story in its raw form considering almost everything as if intentional. Taking the story as it is and not as I want it to be by retconning or dismissing things, even if I do sometimes forget about things. Itās then that I can have fun trying to fill in holes and inconsistencies and see what possible ways the story could or does exist even with these scuffed elements. But thatās just me, to each their own. Iām okay with admitting my bias, but I think itās also fair to say that the middle sections of the story where things were more scripted isnāt the only or even the most important parts eitherā¦
