I want to see the rant - yellow
Wilbur wasnt evil, he was naive.
Wilbur didn’t create his nation to create division, there was already division between his side and dreams side, there was just a lot more overlap at that point. But due to the cruelty and injustice wilbur experienced at the hands of dreams side, he chose to protect himself from them, and discouraged his side to interact with them,. It wasn’t to create conflict, in wilburs mind, it was to avoid it. and risking your life for a cause or a movement you believe doesn’t inherently mean the cause is evil, but it is important to acknowlege that lmanburg was a flawed and overambitious project from the start, started by a leader who didn’t think things through. the requirement for joining wilburs side was absolute loyalty and commitment, which was dangerous since their movement was so incompetently planned, and the outside forces were so merciless and cruel.
a thing that Wilbur values is history and nationalism. Every single part that links L’manburg back to it’s roots strengthens its identity. The citizens of L’manburg and their part in the nation were also interconnected, but especially Wilbur. And a lot of people believed in this movement and wanted it to fulfill it’s vision.
Tommy though has never really had any other motive than having fun with his friends on the server, he’s never had any greater goals but he trusts Wilbur and he involves himself in the lmanburg conflict. He never sees lmanburg as a great nation for the same reason wilbur does. To tommy, lmanburg is an extension of wilbur, and he’s ultimately loyal to them both no matter how naive and how loose their grip on reality is.
It’s also important to not strip dream of agency and responsibility, he and the people who were close to him were treating the l'manburgians unfairly, -and the l'manburgians were in the right to want to protect themselves from them (even if they had no good plan to do so). And dream especially had an entitlement to the infinite land of the server , and also strongly opposed the idea of not getting to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted (even if he treated others this way). Dream obliterated any growing power who threatened his authority and who disobeyed him. They were right to see him as tyrannical. And Dream was cruel to people who werent on his side.
L’manburg was a promise of safety and shelter, a place where they would be free to do whatever they wanted, and not be bossed around by Dream and Dream’s friends. And it also was a promise it could never fulfill because it was founded on a fantasy, led by a naive man with little grip on reality, who didn’t think this through, who believed in the inherent goodness of everyone. He believed in the mercy of Dream, the loyalty of Eret.
And there was a reason people fought for it, they believed in the promise of shelter from the cruelty, and they trusted Wilbur and his alleged competence (which he did not have).
