#much work

there are 3 main parts: mask, angel, and weird guy for short. this is all through the lens of popularity, and i am in no way trying to say that guy designs are better or tighter or more evolved from angel designs. i've observed that over the year+ that dream has been a character, his popular conception has morphed! he began as a human dude with a mask on, in accordance with his regular dude antics.

but as time went on and fanartists got more secure in their character interpretations, as well as more willing to diversify, there began more obscure designs. at the same time, the overall fandom started getting tired of mask designs, and started seeking out dreams in almost the complete opposite directions. i couldn't place this during a specific arc, but if i had to, i'd say just around through exile - pre-imprisonment for sure.

then two things happened: we got dxd lore and dream was put in prison. dxd lore filled the desire niche for angelic designs almost by necessity, leaving many itching to redesign their dreams to differentiate the two. with dream getting put in prison and a new primary debate focusing on the ethics of imprisonment, a lot of fans started gravitating towards more human-shaped designs. this also came several weeks after exile, when people had had time to process and develop their own ideas and interpretations from it.

this culminates in what i'm calling weird guy dream's popularity, where he's not really a human but he's definitely dude-shaped! ive heard several artists (myself included) say that having a human-shaped dream gave his actions more gravity. that's a fairly new, shiny design interpretation considering the previously almost inescapable widespread aversion to any human dreams post-mask designs, which is attractive to people! there's probably going to be another wave of dream designs once people start getting tired of weird guys - i'm guessing they'll bounce back in the opposite direction, and get a little weirder for a while.