History WebVideo / DreamSMP

* [[AdultFear/DreamSMP Adult Fear]]

Currently, the server is split into several factions: [[VestigialEmpire the Greater Dream SMP]], [[WarForFunAndProfit the Badlands]], [[TeamSwitzerland Boomerville]], [[TheTheocracy The Eggpire]], [[NuclearOption Snowchester]], [[CallToAgriculture Kinoko Kingdom]], [[CovertGroup the Syndicate]] and [[TheCasino Las Nevadas]]. Defunct factions include [[LaResistance Pogtopia]], [[TheExile Logstedshire]], New L'Manburg (formerly [[TheEmpire Manburg]], and L'Manburg before then), [[SouthOfTheBorder El Rapids]], [[GhostTown Dry Waters]], the Arctic Anarchist Commune (unofficially), Manifold Land, and [[EagleLand Little Penis Land]]. See the [[Characters/DreamSMP character page]] for membership.

[[caption-width-right:350:I heard there was a special place...[[note]]From top to bottom, left to right: [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Dre]][[BigBad am]], [[CluelessBoss George]][[NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp NotFound]], [[ChronicPetKiller Sap]][[BruiserWithASoftCenter nap]], [[TheVoiceless Callahan]], [[GadgeteerGenius Awesamdude]], [[MadScientist Ponk]], [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome ItsAlyssa]], [[ProfanityPolice BadBoy]][[BrainwashedAndCrazy Halo]], [[{{Troll}} Skeppy]], [[TeamSwitzerland Purp]][[OnlyInItForTheMoney led]], [[IFightForTheStrongestSide Punz]], [[PhysicalGod Foolish Gamers]], [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tommy]][[TraumaCongaLine Innit]], [[CloudCuckooLander Tub]][[StepfordSmiler bo]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur]] [[FallenHero Soot]], [[WellDoneSonGuy Fundy]], [[TheGoodKing The]][[TheAtoner Eret]], [[BewareTheNiceOnes Niha]][[BreakTheBeliever chu]], [[SmallNameBigEgo Jack]] [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Manifold]], [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Quack]][[LegacySeeker ity]], [[TheGadfly Karl]] [[FieldTripToThePast Jacobs]], [[IJustWantToBeLoved HBomb94]], [[NumberTwo Antfrost]], [[TheCaligula Jsch]][[ZeroPercentApprovalRating latt]], [[TheDreaded Techno]][[BombThrowingAnarchists blade]], [[TeamDad Phil]][[TimeAbyss za]], [[ForgetfulJones Ran]][[ConflictingLoyalty boo]], [[ThePrankster Captain]][[TeamMom Puffy]], [[BusCrash Vikkstar123, Lazarbeam]], [[FlowersOfNature Hannahxxrose]], [[{{Eagleland}} ConnorEatsPants]], [[SlimeGirl Slimecicle]], [[ConspiracyTheorist Michaelmcchill]], [[FriendlyGhost Ghostbur]], [[DistaffCounterpart Mamacita]], [[FunnyForeigner Mexican Dream]], [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Drista]] and [[OurGodsAreDifferent DreamXD]]. Not pictured: [[ChildhoodFriends Eryn]], [[ThePollyanna Tina]], [[MysteriousPast Boomer]], [[DissonantSerenity Boo]], and Seapeekay. [[https://twitter.com/smbdylsss/status/1400230736565727236?s=20 Art by Somie]].[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:I heard there was a special place...[[note]]From top to bottom, left to right: [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Dre]][[BigBad am]], [[CluelessBoss George]][[NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp NotFound]], [[ChronicPetKiller Sap]][[BruiserWithASoftCenter nap]], [[TheVoiceless Callahan]], [[GadgeteerGenius Awesamdude]], [[MadScientist Ponk]], [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome ItsAlyssa]], [[ProfanityPolice BadBoy]][[BrainwashedAndCrazy Halo]], [[{{Troll}} Skeppy]], [[TeamSwitzerland Purp]][[OnlyInItForTheMoney led]], [[IFightForTheStrongestSide Punz]], [[PhysicalGod Foolish Gamers]], [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tommy]][[TraumaCongaLine Innit]], [[CloudCuckooLander Tub]][[StepfordSmiler bo]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur]] [[FallenHero Soot]], [[WellDoneSonGuy Fundy]], [[TheGoodKing The]][[TheAtoner Eret]], [[BewareTheNiceOnes Niha]][[BreakTheBeliever chu]], [[SmallNameBigEgo Jack]] [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Manifold]], [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Quack]][[LegacySeeker ity]], [[TheGadfly Karl]] [[FieldTripToThePast Jacobs]], [[IJustWantToBeLoved HBomb94]], [[NumberTwo Antfrost]], [[TheCaligula Jsch]][[ZeroPercentApprovalRating latt]], [[TheDreaded Techno]][[BombThrowingAnarchists blade]], [[TeamDad Phil]][[TimeAbyss za]], [[ForgetfulJones Ran]][[ConflictingLoyalty boo]], [[ThePrankster Captain]][[TeamMom Puffy]], [[BusCrash Vikkstar123, Lazarbeam]], [[FlowersOfNature Hannahxxrose]], [[{{Eagleland}} ConnorEatsPants]], [[SlimeGirl Slimecicle]], [[ConspiracyTheorist Michaelmcchill]], [[FriendlyGhost Ghostbur]], [[DistaffCounterpart Mamacita]], [[FunnyForeigner Mexican Dream]], [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Drista]] and [[OurGodsAreDifferent DreamXD]]. Not pictured: [[ChildhoodFriends Eryn]], [[ThePollyanna Tina]], [[MysteriousPast Boomer]], and [[DissonantSerenity Boo]]. [[https://twitter.com/smbdylsss/status/1400230736565727236?s=20 Art by Somie]].[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:I heard there was a special place...[[note]]From top to bottom, left to right: [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Dre]][[BigBad am]], [[CluelessBoss George]][[NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp NotFound]], [[ChronicPetKiller Sap]][[BruiserWithASoftCenter nap]], [[TheVoiceless Callahan]], [[GadgeteerGenius Awesamdude]], [[MadScientist Ponk]], [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome ItsAlyssa]], [[GoshDangItToHeck BadBoy]][[BrainwashedAndCrazy Halo]], [[{{Troll}} Skeppy]], [[TeamSwitzerland Purp]][[OnlyInItForTheMoney led]], [[IFightForTheStrongestSide Punz]], [[PhysicalGod Foolish Gamers]], [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tommy]][[TraumaCongaLine Innit]], [[CloudCuckooLander Tub]][[StepfordSmiler bo]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur]] [[FallenHero Soot]], [[WellDoneSonGuy Fundy]], [[TheGoodKing The]][[TheAtoner Eret]], [[BewareTheNiceOnes Niha]][[BreakTheBeliever chu]], [[SmallNameBigEgo Jack]] [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Manifold]], [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Quack]][[LegacySeeker ity]], [[TheGadfly Karl]] [[FieldTripToThePast Jacobs]], [[IJustWantToBeLoved HBomb94]], [[NumberTwo Antfrost]], [[TheCaligula Jsch]][[ZeroPercentApprovalRating latt]], [[TheDreaded Techno]][[BombThrowingAnarchists blade]], [[TeamDad Phil]][[TimeAbyss za]], [[ForgetfulJones Ran]][[ConflictingLoyalty boo]], [[ThePrankster Captain]][[TeamMom Puffy]], [[BusCrash Vikkstar123, Lazarbeam]], [[FlowersOfNature Hannahxxrose]], [[{{Eagleland}} ConnorEatsPants]], [[SlimeGirl Slimecicle]], [[ConspiracyTheorist Michaelmcchill]], [[FriendlyGhost Ghostbur]], [[DistaffCounterpart Mamacita]], [[FunnyForeigner Mexican Dream]], [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Drista]] and [[OurGodsAreDifferent DreamXD]]. Not pictured: [[ChildhoodFriends Eryn]], [[ThePollyanna Tina]], [[MysteriousPast Boomer]], and [[DissonantSerenity Boo]]. [[https://twitter.com/smbdylsss/status/1400230736565727236?s=20 Art by Somie]].[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:I heard there was a special place...[[note]]From top to bottom, left to right: [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Dre]][[BigBad am]], [[CluelessBoss George]][[AbsenteeActor NotFound]], [[ChronicPetKiller Sap]][[BruiserWithASoftCenter nap]], [[TheVoiceless Callahan]], [[GadgeteerGenius Awesamdude]], [[MadScientist Ponk]], [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome ItsAlyssa]], [[GoshDangItToHeck BadBoy]][[BrainwashedAndCrazy Halo]], [[{{Troll}} Skeppy]], [[TeamSwitzerland Purp]][[OnlyInItForTheMoney led]], [[IFightForTheStrongestSide Punz]], [[PhysicalGod Foolish Gamers]], [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tommy]][[TraumaCongaLine Innit]], [[CloudCuckooLander Tub]][[StepfordSmiler bo]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur]] [[FallenHero Soot]], [[WellDoneSonGuy Fundy]], [[TheGoodKing The]][[TheAtoner Eret]], [[BewareTheNiceOnes Niha]][[BreakTheBeliever chu]], [[SmallNameBigEgo Jack]] [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Manifold]], [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Quack]][[LegacySeeker ity]], [[TheGadfly Karl]] [[FieldTripToThePast Jacobs]], [[IJustWantToBeLoved HBomb94]], [[NumberTwo Antfrost]], [[TheCaligula Jsch]][[ZeroPercentApprovalRating latt]], [[TheDreaded Techno]][[BombThrowingAnarchists blade]], [[TeamDad Phil]][[TimeAbyss za]], [[ForgetfulJones Ran]][[ConflictingLoyalty boo]], [[ThePrankster Captain]][[TeamMom Puffy]], [[BusCrash Vikkstar123, Lazarbeam]], [[FlowersOfNature Hannahxxrose]], [[{{Eagleland}} ConnorEatsPants]], [[SlimeGirl Slimecicle]], [[ConspiracyTheorist Michaelmcchill]], [[FriendlyGhost Ghostbur]], [[DistaffCounterpart Mamacita]], [[FunnyForeigner Mexican Dream]], [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Drista]] and [[OurGodsAreDifferent DreamXD]]. Not pictured: [[ChildhoodFriends Eryn]], [[ThePollyanna Tina]], [[MysteriousPast Boomer]], and [[DissonantSerenity Boo]]. [[https://twitter.com/smbdylsss/status/1400230736565727236?s=20 Art by Somie]].[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:I heard there was a special place...[[note]]From top to bottom, left to right: [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Dre]][[BigBad am]], [[CluelessBoss George]][[AbsenteeActor NotFound]], [[ChronicPetKiller Sap]][[BruiserWithASoftCenter nap]], [[TheVoiceless Callahan]], [[GadgeteerGenius Awesamdude]], [[MadScientist Ponk]], [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome ItsAlyssa]], [[GoshDangItToHeck BadBoy]][[BrainwashedAndCrazy Halo]], [[{{Troll}} Skeppy]], [[TeamSwitzerland Purp]][[OnlyInItForTheMoney led]], [[IFightForTheStrongestSide Punz]], [[PhysicalGod Foolish Gamers]], [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tommy]][[TraumaCongaLine Innit]], [[CloudCuckooLander Tub]][[StepfordSmiler bo]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur]] [[FallenHero Soot]], [[WellDoneSonGuy Fundy]], [[TheGoodKing The]][[TheAtoner Eret]], [[BewareTheNiceOnes Niha]][[BreakTheBeliever chu]], [[SmallNameBigEgo Jack]] [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Manifold]], [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Quack]][[LegacySeeker ity]], [[TheGadfly Karl]] [[FieldTripToThePast Jacobs]], [[IJustWantToBeLoved HBomb94]], [[NumberTwo Antfrost]], [[TheCaligula Jsch]][[ZeroPercentApprovalRating latt]], [[TheDreaded Techno]][[BombThrowingAnarchists blade]], [[TeamDad Phil]][[TimeAbyss za]], [[ForgetfulJones Ran]][[ConflictingLoyalty boo]], [[ThePrankster Captain]][[TeamMom Puffy]], [[BusCrash Vikkstar123, Lazarbeam]], [[FlowersOfNature Hannahxxrose]], [[{{Eagleland}} ConnorEatsPants]], [[SlimeGirl Slimecicle]], [[ConspiracyTheorist Michaelmcchill]], [[FriendlyGhost Ghostbur]], [[DistaffCounterpart Mamacita]], [[FunnyForeigner Mexican Dream]], [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Drista]] and [[OurGodsAreDifferent DreamXD]]. Not pictured: [[ChildhoodFriends Eryn]], [[ThePollyanna Tina]], [[MysteriousPast Boomer]], [[DissonantSerenity Boo]], and Manatreed. [[https://twitter.com/smbdylsss/status/1400230736565727236?s=20 Art by Somie]].[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:I heard there was a special place...[[note]]From top to bottom, left to right: [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Dre]][[BigBad am]], [[CluelessBoss George]][[AbsenteeActor NotFound]], [[ChronicPetKiller Sap]][[BruiserWithASoftCenter nap]], [[TheVoiceless Callahan]], [[GadgeteerGenius Awesamdude]], [[MadScientist Ponk]], [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome ItsAlyssa]], [[GoshDangItToHeck BadBoy]][[BrainwashedAndCrazy Halo]], [[{{Troll}} Skeppy]], [[TeamSwitzerland Purp]][[OnlyInItForTheMoney led]], [[IFightForTheStrongestSide Punz]], [[PhysicalGod Foolish Gamers]], [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tommy]][[TraumaCongaLine Innit]], [[CloudCuckooLander Tub]][[StepfordSmiler bo]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur]] [[FallenHero Soot]], [[WellDoneSonGuy Fundy]], [[TheGoodKing The]][[TheAtoner Eret]], [[BewareTheNiceOnes Niha]][[BreakTheBeliever chu]], [[SmallNameBigEgo Jack]] [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Manifold]], [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Quack]][[LegacySeeker ity]], [[TheGadfly Karl]] [[FieldTripToThePast Jacobs]], [[IJustWantToBeLoved HBomb94]], [[NumberTwo Antfrost]], [[TheCaligula Jsch]][[ZeroPercentApprovalRating latt]], [[TheDreaded Techno]][[BombThrowingAnarchists blade]], [[TeamDad Phil]][[TimeAbyss za]], [[ForgetfulJones Ran]][[ConflictingLoyalty boo]], [[ThePrankster Captain]][[TeamMom Puffy]], [[BusCrash Vikkstar123, Lazarbeam]], [[FlowersOfNature Hannahxxrose]], [[{{Eagleland}} ConnorEatsPants]], [[SlimeGirl Slimecicle]], [[ConspiracyTheorist Michaelmcchill]], [[FriendlyGhost Ghostbur]], [[DistaffCounterpart Mamacita]], [[FunnyForeigner Mexican Dream]], [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Drista]] and [[OurGodsAreDifferent DreamXD]]. Not pictured: [[ChildhoodFriends Eryn]], [[ThePollyanna Tina]], [[MysteriousPast Boomer]], and [[DissonantSerenity Boo]]. [[https://twitter.com/smbdylsss/status/1400230736565727236?s=20 Art by Somie]].[[/note]]]]

!!The Dream SMP provides examples of:

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[[folder:# - G]]
* NumberOneDime: Tommy's discs. Practically, they're worthless, but the amount of memories attached to them gives them a lot of sentimental value to Tommy.
* ADayInTheLimelight: The Egg subplot allows for characters who were not intrinsically tied into the main plot regarding Tommy's ongoing war with Dream (or are otherwise big names such as Technoblade and Philza) to be central characters. Case in point, [=BadBoyHalo=] and Antfrost are the central antagonists with the heroes being mostly comprised of Puffy, Sam, Foolish, and the like.
* AbortedArc: Because much of the server's events are improvised, some arcs tend to fall by the wayside.
** The [[ParanormalEpisode Dreamon Hunter]] side story hasn't received any sign of a comeback since Tubbo announced he would provide the group with government funding right after the Manburg-Pogtopia War, possibly due to CerebusSyndrome.
** Fundy's adoption by Eret was still set to go ahead, with Eret and Phil planning to set up a date for Phil to come check out Eret's castle to see if it was fit for Fundy to live in. However, this never happened, and Fundy's adoption is rarely brought up again.
** Quackity planned to revive Schlatt to use him as a political puppet after the latter's funeral, but this was never brought up again ever. This is later [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] during Quackity's March 16 stream, where he meets Schlatt's ghost in the latter's underground gym and makes a deal to revive him if he loses a bet, which is implied to be what happens next.
** In the days leading up to the Manburg-Pogtopia War, Karl and Sapnap discussed to have their wedding after the war. Once the war was over, the two included Quackity into the relationship and settled to marry once they fixed up L'Manburg. However, the arc was seemingly aborted as the server was thrown into a whirlwind of war and politics for the rest of the season... then Quackity revived the arc by planning to marry them in Las Nevadas, only for it to be immediately destroyed when George [[ThoughtTheyKnewAlready broke the news]] that they had moved to Kinoko Kingdom. Oh, and the "Las Nevadas" finale includes Karl and Quackity going through a SecondActBreakup as a result of said miscommunication as well as their respective problems (the former regarding his deteriorating memory, the latter presumably due to relationship trauma). In other words, the marriage is indefinitely postponed because of miscommunication and mental health issues, and fans of the Fiancés just keep taking L's.
** Right before and during the Doomsday War, Fundy reached his DespairEventHorizon. He decided that, if he couldn't make people laugh, he'd make them cry instead, and [[ZeroApprovalGambit vowed to become the villain of the server to finally bring people back together again]]. However, this arc never came to fruition as instead, Fundy took a long break away from all the goings-on of the SMP to process his emotions, and when he returned, he had recovered enough to see that hurting others wouldn't get him anywhere.
** The missing nuke arc was revealed by [[WordOfGod/DreamSMP Word of Tubbo]] that it was supposed to end with Tubbo losing his last canon life, but considering what happens afterward (especially in the Season 3 finale), that arc has been completely left by the wayside as well.
* AbsurdlyYouthfulFather: PlayedForLaughs. According to the SMP crew, Wilbur is Fundy's biological father [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext by a salmon woman]]. Going by their IRL ages, Wilbur would have barely been ''three'' when Fundy was born. This is somewhat [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] later when out of character, Wilbur explained that his character was (allegedly) in his 30s (now 40s) throughout the roleplay, and the fact that Phil (Wilbur's father) is semi-immortal and could have possibly passed on genes related to longevity to Wilbur [[VagueAge doesn't help either]].
* AcronymConfusion: WAP, most infamously known as "Wet Ass Pussy" because of Music/CardiB's song of the same title, is interpreted to stand for "'''W'''orship '''A'''nd '''P'''rayer" by the founders of Church Prime, most commonly Tommy. When Schlatt talks to Tommy through voice chat regarding what WAP most commonly stands for[[note]]This conversation occurred before Schlatt became President of Manburg[[/note]], [[BrainBleach Tommy is disturbed]].
-->'''Tommy:''' Wet Ass-Wet Ass- what?\\
'''Schlatt:''' "Wet Ass Pussy"?\\
'''Tommy:''' No, no no- It stands for "Worship And Prayer" I've been told!\\
'''Schlatt:''' Ah, no no no, you've been lied to.\\
[...]\\
'''Schlatt:''' Go to ''Genius.com'' and search it up.\\
'''Tommy:''' I am, I am. ''(looks it up)''\\
'''Tommy:''' ''(shocked, speechless)''\\
'''Schlatt:''' Uh oh...\\
'''Tommy:''' ''(reads the lyrics of Cardi B's WAP)'' Oh! [[ThinkOfTheCensors I can't read that out loud!]]\\
'''Schlatt:''' No, what does it say?\\
'''Tommy:''' ''(continues to read, increasingly disturbed, speechless)'' \\
'''Schlatt:''' Tommy, I know that was a lot to take into at once, I'm-\\
'''Tommy:''' This don't mean anything to me anymore- they don't mean anything!\\
'''Schlatt:''' Well, you just found diamonds[[note]]Tommy was mining for diamonds[[/note]] in the end-\\
'''Tommy:''' NO NO NO!\\
(...)\\
'''Tommy:''' You've just ruined my day! You know what- my head's just thoroughly shrunk!
* AdultFear: This trope is prevalent in the series to the point that [[AdultFear/DreamSMP it has its own page]].
* AerithAndBob:
** Comes with the territory of using online nicknames. Compare Tommy, Wilbur and George to names like Technoblade, Dream and Tubbo.
** This also applies in ''Tales From the SMP'' episodes occasionally, with characters named James, Oliver, and Billiam co-existing in the episode "The Masquerade". Karl lampshades this during the episode "The Pit", where he visits the Subben Empire in the future.
--->'''Karl to Emperor Porkius VII:''' This is an interesting culture, where there's people named both Jackie and Laggius, that you have here.
* TheAlcatraz: Pandora's Vault, a practically inescapable facility Awesamdude made for Dream to imprison the latter's enemies. A list of the (known) layers of security:
** The prison is composed of explosion-resistant materials such as obsidian and netherite blocks, with water in between to limit the effectiveness of wither explosions.
** Anyone entering the prison must put all of their items in a chest in exchange for a keycard used to retrieve the items after a visit. The guests are also subject to several stages of searching and frisking to ensure they are not hiding any items, and splashed with potions to weaken them in the case of misbehavior.
** The prison is an island in the middle of elder guardian infested waters, which give prisoners mining fatigue. It takes prisoners ''nine hours'' to mine a single block with their fists.
** Any blocks that are broken will immediately alert the prison guards via a text message to their ''real life phones'', which means even the most determined of players cannot escape on their own.
** The main chamber is an obsidian box in the middle of a massive lava pool. Visitors must cross the pool via a redstone flying machine bridge to the other side, after which the entrance is blocked with lava and the bridge is retracted.
** If any guards are killed in battle and respawn far away, they can immediately be brought back with ender pearl stasis chambers and are automatically decked out with full netherite weapons and gear as well as potion buffs, in order to subdue escapees.
** Any prisoners must set their spawn with a bed so they cannot escape via suicide. They can't break the bed either, as they will immediately be pushed into their cell with a piston.
** After Dream's escape, his content creator counterpart has [[AllThereInTheManual posted the prison blueprints on Twitter]] as a reference, and ''how'' meticulous all the mechanisms are [[https://twitter.com/dreamwastaken/status/1465037094661853185 must be seen to be believed]].
* AlienKudzu: [=BadBoyHalo=] finds a red egg-shaped organism inside his statue room that grows red tendrils and vines. Said tendrils/vines are later found growing from several locations, including Hutt's Pizza, Skeppy's Mansion, the Power Tower, and Schlatt's Grave. The organism has shown the capability to [[{{Brainwashed}} affect the minds of some of the players,]] having them praise it and turn against anyone that attempts to destroy it.
* AllForNothing:
** Tommy and Tubbo's push to defend L'Manburg is this ''in spades''. Despite managing to rally the rest of the server against the efforts of Dream and Technoblade for the Doomsday War, even managing to gain Sapnap's allegiance due to Tommy retrieving Mars from the ocean, their efforts were in vain due to various reasons. Not only did the alliance manage to circumvent most of the enemy's resistance due to [[MundaneSolution starting 30 minutes early]], but [[TheMole Punz]] had also relayed any intel the defence force had anyway. If that wasn't enough, Fundy, Nihachu and Ranboo all expressed their disdain for L'Manburg's existence driving their friends apart, and ended up ''contributing to the destruction'', with Fundy sabatoging L'Manburg's armaments, Ranboo remaining neutral and Nihachu burning L'Mantree herself once the rest of the land had been blown up beyond repair.
** After being saved on numerous occassions by Ranboo and Tubbo, Squeeks the Fox winds up dying to a mere creeper explosion when being excavated towards Snowchester.
* AllThereInTheManual: Major events and plot points in the SMP are just roleplaying. The many Theatre/{{Hamilton}} references and parallels were intentional, and most major events were at least partially planned (the ''dialogue'' within them, however, is improvised, leaving the participants with much more room to fill in the blanks). A notable exception is Eret's betrayal, which only the Greater Dream SMP members knew about. To the L'Manberg members, it was completely unscripted and their reactions are genuine.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Since ThereAreNoTherapists, or at least none that are qualified for the job, this tends to crop up a lot among the people on the SMP. Most notably, at least six members of the server show [[ShellShockedVeteran signs of PTSD]] from the trauma they have endured.
* AnAxeToGrind: Most of the players fight with swords, but those who don't tend to use axes.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Dream makes this to each L'Manbergian during the L'Manberg Revolution: [[JoinOrDie join him or die]]. None of them take the offer, except for [[RebelliousRebel Eret]].
* AndIMustScream: Tommy's description of what he went through in the Afterlife is ''horrific''.
-->'''Tommy:''' I felt like I was- like I was shredded to ''dust.'' [...] It felt like I was put through a shredder, but there was no blood, there was no flesh, it was just ''essence''. Like a ''powder,'' and I was put through it, and then I came out, and I was in a... a long- a long- a ''hall'', a- a- t-tunnel of black and void and- not even black, just colorless!\\
'''Dream:''' I tried to give you- I tried to give you time, I wanted to- I wanted to ask you questions-\\
'''Tommy:''' ''(gasping, sobbing)'' YOU GAVE ME ''SO MUCH'' TIME! I was in there- You left me- How long- Where's Tubbo?! How- I was in there for MONTHS!
* AnimalMotifs:
** All characters who are anthromorphic animals in terms of their species obviously have motifs that compare them to their animal forms, e.g. [[FoxFolk Fundy]] to [[CunningLikeAFox foxes]], [[CatFolk Antfrost]] to cats, and [[PigMan Techno]] to [[BrainyPig pigs]].
** Tommy enjoys trolling and stealing from his server-mates in his spare time, which has naturally caused him to be associated with [[RascallyRaccoon raccoons]]. These comparisons mainly took off after he fled Logstedshire, when he dug a hole in Technoblade's basement and started hoarding and stealing from there, causing Techno and even Tommy himself to compare him to a raccoon.
** For Tubbo, it's [[VirtuousBees bees]], which Tubbo also happens to absolutely adore. Bees are hardworking, community oriented animals who do important work (pollinating flowers and food plants) but are often overlooked or seen as pests. They have a strict social hierarchy, and are surprisingly intelligent, able to communicate in sophisticated ways. Tubbo is a determined, loyal friend and TheSmartGuy. However, he also tends to kiss up to authority and act as a yes-man, and his contributions are often overlooked. It probably helps that Tubbo himself is a beekeeper.
** In Phil's case, it's crows, because Phil himself is a WingedHumanoid with large, feathered wings (though he lost them in the L'Manburg explosion), and his [[FromBeyondTheFourthWall chat]] manifests as [[CleverCrows a murder of crows]].
** Boomer is often identified with frogs, most notably seen on their [[NiceHat hat]].
* AnotherDimension: The Nether, as is usual for Minecraft. There's also The Inbetween, a white castle floating in a void that exists outside of time, and its counterpart, the Other Side, which allow time travelers like Karl to rest and recuperate.
* AntagonistTitle: The SMP is named after its owner, Dream, who is also the [[OverarchingVillain main antagonistic figure]] in the roleplay of Seasons 1 and 2.
* AntiClimax:
** This happens during the final Pet War, with Tommy and Sapnap holding a duel eerily reminiscent of the one that occurred during the first Dream SMP Civil War. With a huge crowd anticipating the chance to be featured in an animation of this duel, Tommy and Sapnap don their iron armor... and then Sapnap kills Tommy in a couple of hits. Needless to say, at least a good portion of the players (and the audience) were disappointed.
** {{Subverted|Trope}} and PlayedForDrama with Jschlatt's downfall. He anticlimactically drinks himself to a fatal heart attack after being cornered by Pogtopia, but the sheer HateSink for this man and the tremendous amount of build-up make it a fulfilling yet haunting death for him. That's not getting into the fact that it was foreshadowed from the beginning by Fundy's spy diary, which revealed that Jschlatt had an alcohol addiction that was likely to kill him should it continue.
* ArchEnemy: There are currently two listed pairs of nemeses on the Dream SMP Wiki where they are identified as sworn enemies.
** Dream is this to Tommy. Initially, the Disc War started due to an unrelated conflict gone south, but eventually, Dream started to consider Tommy his greatest threat to having control over the server, and repeatedly tries to torment him in various ways, most notably (and not limited to) abusing and gaslighting him while in exile, which was orchestrated by Dream in the first place. This has ultimately cumulated into, to put it bluntly, an absolute shitfest of trauma and trouble.
** For a more subdued example, Techno and Quackity are this towards [[GreyAndGrayMorality each other]], being each other's antithesis. They each thrive in an environment which would make the other weak[[labelnote:Explanation]]Techno works best in a world where MightMakesRight and believes that violence is the most universal language, but is very socially awkward; whereas Quackity is [[ManipulativeBastard a charismatic talker]] and a businessman through and through, and is a NonActionGuy at heart who preferred to fight with words instead of weapons (but was forced to abandon these beliefs because of the MightMakesRight mentality of the server)[[/labelnote]], and have respectively caused each other tremendous amounts of grief and trauma throughout the series and even before it began (read: Minecraft Mondays). This is why it was such a shocker for them to [[EnemyMine team up against the Eggpire]] during the Red Banquet, a fact that both of them lampshade.
* ArcSymbol: For ''Tales From the SMP'', the Inbetween's messages are all signed with a smiley face, ":]".
* ArcVillain:
** Dream is this for the L'Manburg Arc, being the force that holds Wilbur and Tommy's dreams of independence out of reach. Alternatively, Wilbur is this from Dream's point of view, with Tommy and George acting as Wilbur and Dream's respective [[TheDragon second-in-commands]].
** The Pogtopia Arc has Jschlatt, who made enemies all around the server with his goals of expanding L'Manburg (which he renames Manburg) into Dream SMP territory to the point that Jschlatt alienated just about every ally he may have initially had.
*** However, Jschlatt ends up only being a DiscOneFinalBoss with Jschlatt's downfall and death at the end of the arc. The role of the final villain ultimately splits between Wilbur (whose SanitySlippage led him to destroying Manberg) and Techno (whose anarchistic efforts end up forcing one last EnemyMine between Dream and Pogtopia/L'Manburg).
** The Reconstruction and Exile Arc has Dream threatening L'Manburg into exiling Tommy, isolating and abusing Tommy both physically and psychologically once he was successfully exiled, and sowing the seeds of war across the server.
** The Vengeance Arc has Dream, Techno, and Phil in a BigBadDuumvirate, aiming to wipe L'Manburg off the face of the server.
** The Disunion Arc has Dream ''again'', this time going after Tommy and Tubbo specifically in a final bid for power.
** The Imprisonment Arc has the Egg and the Eggpire as the former slowly spreads across the server and corrupts its inhabitants.
* ArcWords:
** "It was never meant to be." Said by [[SixthRangerTraitor Eret]] after betraying the L'Manbergian Rebellion in the Final Control Room, [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur]] before blowing up L'Manberg, and [[DespairEventHorizon Niki]] after burning [[MonumentalDamage The]] [[BurningTheFlag L']][[SymbolicallyBrokenObject Man]][[MourningAnObject tree]] during the Doomsday War.
** "Are we the bad guys?" Said by Wilbur, being the central question as to whether or not L'Manburg can be saved from Schlatt's tyrannical grip. This is later followed by "ChekhovsGun", referring to Wilbur's plan to blow up Manburg/L'Manburg to kingdom come.
** "Me and you, versus Dream." Said by Tommy to anyone within his alliance, stemming from seeking to defeat Dream to reach his goals.
** For ''Tales From the SMP'', [[GeniusLoci the Inbetween]] tells Karl "Don't stray from the path" and "Fear not. This is [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial not a place to provoke harm]], but a place to feel at ease" until he breaks free of its [[{{Gaslighting}} manipulation]].
*** In Karl's storyline, we also have "Don't forget who you are" and any variations of it, as a reminder to hold on to his memories in spite of his powers' detrimental effect on them.
** Around March/April of 2021, a lot of people's storylines started to revolve around sleep and dreams, with them continually being told to wake up.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: During a conversation between Tommy and Quackity in Las Nevadas, Quackity brings up Wilbur excluding him from L'Manberg in the past to justify Quackity excluding him from Las Nevadas in the present. Tommy disagrees, saying that two wrongs don't make a right, and Quackity asks what Tommy would do if Dream asked to join Tommy's base. Tommy says he wouldn't let him in, because Dream hasn't changed. Quackity then asks him "How has Wilbur changed?" ...and Tommy falls silent.
* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Right before Schlatt dies, he asks if anyone else can smell toast, referencing a certain urban legend that implies he's having a stroke. However, smelling burnt toast is ''not'' a symptom of stroke (as already mentioned, that's just an urban legend), and it's ''certainly'' not a symptom of heart failure, which is what ends up killing him. Possibly {{subverted|Trope}} in that phantosmia ''can'' [[https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322698#causes occur]] in someone having a stroke. It's not a ''symptom'', but it can happen.
* AssassinationAttempt: On the day after the Manburg Festival (in the meta time-frame), Tommy snuck into Manburg to try to assassinate Schlatt with a bow and arrow, as revenge for him ordering [[HeterosexualLifePartners Tubbo's]] execution. He ended up [[ExactEavesdropping witnessing]] Schlatt and Quackity's argument over the destruction of the White House, which ended with Quackity beating Tommy to the punch to shoot Schlatt.
* BackFromTheDead: Three people have lost all three lives only to return to life. The first is Jack Manifold, who was killed by Techno during the Doomsday War but returned with all three lives after a brief trip to Hell. The second is Tommy, having been murdered by Dream in Pandora's Vault before being brought back as a ploy to prove that Dream really does have the power to resurrect people. The third is Wilbur, who was resurrected by Dream when Tommy attempted to break into the prison and murder Dream.
* TheBadGuyWins:
** [[BigBad Dream and his allies]] won handily in the L'Manberg Revolution with the help of [[TheMole Eret]]'s betrayal. The only reason L'Manberg still maintained their independence was because of Tommy giving up both of his discs to Dream.
** Even with Jschlatt defeated and Technoblade repelled due to the efforts of Pogtopia and its allies, [[TheEmperor Dream]] still gets exactly what he wants. The war resulted in the elimination of both a political threat (Jschlatt) and a physical threat (a good 80% of L'Manburg's territory) through Wilbur, whose success in actually destroying L'Manburg counts for this trope as well.
** The Doomsday War ends in L'Manburg's complete defeat as the alliance between Philza, Technoblade, and Dream blow it all up to kingdom come. Unlike the two previous times L'Manburg blew up, this time? It's gone for good.
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] during the Disc War finale. [[NearVillainVictory Dream was]] ''[[NearVillainVictory extremely]]'' [[NearVillainVictory close to winning]], having put Tommy and Tubbo in a tight spot. If it weren't for [[BigDamnHeroes Punz and a good chunk of the server arriving in the nick of time]], Tubbo would've been executed and Tommy imprisoned.
* BallroomBlitz: The Red Banquet eventually turns into one, as the banquet itself was initially a guise to [[LuredIntoATrap lure several vocally anti-Eggpire server members into a trap]] to kill them and feed their life forces to the Egg... then [[BigDamnHeroes Quackity, Technoblade, his hound army, and Purpled]] show up.
* {{Bathos}}: Several highly climatic and emotional scenes on the SMP have taken place near some fairly vulgar structures, including and not limited to a floating sign that said the word "CRY"[[note]]It was first built by Tommy during the Election Arc to read "[=POG2020=]", but it got vandalized by the party's political opponents to first read "[=ASS2020=]" and eventually "CRY". The floating sign has since been blown up by Tommy on his 17th birthday stream[[/note]], another floating sign that said "YOU 💔 LITTLE PENIS"[[note]]It used to say "I ❤️ ANDREA", but it got griefed several times over the months[[/note]], and multiple penis statues.
* BeachEpisode: The premise of the ''Tales From the SMP'' episode, "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Beach Episode]]".
* BerserkButton:
** [=BadBoyHalo=] [[GoshDarnItToHeck hates swearing]] and doesn't hesitate to chastise people who curse in front of him. This is often exploited by [[SirSwearsALot the more cuss-happy characters]] like Quackity and Tommy for the [[TheGadfly sole purpose of riling him up]].
** Notably, people who challenge against Dream enrage him a lot. This is especially demonstrated how wrathful he is towards Tommy, who constantly challenges his power and authority.
** The easiest way to get under Fundy's skin is to call him a furry.
** It's for the best not to mock Quackity's appearance. It's also all but outright stated that at least some part of it is [[TraumaButton fueled by his trauma]].
** Making direct eye contact with [[EyesAlwaysAverted Ranboo]] makes him extremely uncomfortable, due to him being half-Enderman. Other than this, he dislikes people forcing him into uncomfortable experiments due to his unusual biology, and insulting Philza or [[PapaWolf threatening his son, Michael]], also get him uncharacteristically angry.
** Sam is willing to blow up the entire server if anyone hurts his dog, Fran. Moreover, by Season 3, anyone messing with Pandora's Vault, [[SeriousBusiness the prison he guards]], can and likely ''will'' receive a grisly fate... just ask [[ColdBloodedTorture Ponk]] and Tommy.
** Do ''not'' hurt Tommy's pet cow, Henry. He started a whole war against Sapnap over him accidentally killing Henry and eating his remains.[[note]]Before anyone is mistaken, no, this is ''not'' one of the Pet Wars, or at least isn't officially listed as one.[[/note]]
** Despite usually being a benevolent god, [=DreamXD=] gets easily angered if he believes he's being taken advantage of.
** KSI hates being called old.
* BigBadWannabe: Sapnap is this during the L'Manburg Civil War, having formed a ''third'' faction to take control of L'Manburg for himself. However, an early battle between his allies and Pogtopia shows that, cow murder aside, he's not much more than talk. When an ''actual'' third nation forms (the Badlands), Sapnap is noticeably absent from it, implying his crushing defeat at the hands of Dream, Techno, and Tommy has kept him in line for now.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** The Season 2 finale sees Punz entering Dream's secret base through the Nether Portal just as the latter is going to kill Tubbo and lock Tommy in Pandora's Vault... followed by ''almost half of the server's members'', armed to the gills in high-power armor to revolt against Dream and his manipulative actions.
** During the Red Banquet, Quackity brings in [[EnemyMine Technoblade]] and his hound army and [[OnlyInItForTheMoney Purpled]] to save the attendees from being fed to the Egg.
* BigFancyCastle: Eret's castle, also known as the Gay Castle or Pride Palace, is a large stone-brick castle decorated with [[QueerColors rainbow-coloured]] windows, a giant rainbow flag, and a statue of Eret.
* BigFancyHouse: Punz's house features a glass roof and many beehives for beekeeping, while his massive backyard has a tower with floors rented out to various members on the server. The property is so large that it's even bigger than the territory L'Manburg -- a whole ''country'' -- used to occupy.
* BigNo:
** Both Niki and Tommy shout this when Schlatt exiles Tommy and Wilbur from L'Manburg.
** Tommy shouts another after Wilbur pressed the button to detonate L'Manberg.
* BigWhat: Dream has this reaction to seeing just how many wolves Techno has bred in preparation for conflict against L'Manburg.
* BigYes:
** Niki and Tommy shout one when Dream defies Sapnap by referring to L'Manburg by its original name.
** Dream shouts one after L'Manburg is destroyed during the Manburg-Pogtopia War by Wilbur using the Button.
* BittersweetEnding:
** On both Dream's and L'Manburg's ends of the L'Manburg War for Independence. On Dream's end, he won the war, showed the server who truly held the most power, and got Tommy's [[NumberOneDime prized discs]], but L'Manburg got its independence all the same. On L'Manburg's end, it got independence but at the cost of them getting thoroughly trashed in the chaos (with Dream having earlier detonated TNT under its land), Dream showing them that he could easily crush them if they tried anything again, and Tommy ending up having to give away his two prized music discs (which were partially responsible for his feud with Dream to begin with) to secure said independence (though he later gets one back).
** The L'Manburg Civil War ends on one as well. Even with Pogtopia managing to reclaim L'Manburg for themselves and killing off Jschlatt, Wilbur had managed to detonate the TNT under Manburg before committing assisted suicide. Though Tubbo and Tommy vow to rebuild, it's not going to be an easy road, with [[BombThrowingAnarchist Technoblade]] having betrayed them and [[KarmaHoudini Dream]] expected to be returning to his role as BigBad.
* BlackAndGreyMorality: And ''how''. Pretty much everyone is unscrupulous if still well-intentioned, with a few exceptions...
** Techno and Sapnap were unapologetically thrill-seeking {{Blood Knight}}s and [[WildCard self-serving fighters]] with many a murder on their hands and anarchy on their minds, though Sapnap has since experienced CharacterDevelopment in becoming more peaceful, and Technoblade, even after being forced out of his pacifism, still seems to participate in fewer conflicts than before, even if his BombThrowingAnarchist tendencies remained.
** Whether Dream is a WellIntentionedExtremist or [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist not]] is heavily disputed in the fandom, but it is known that he has terrorism and global conquest on his record[[note]]Though, to be fair, he did ''legally'' own all of it for a while, albeit in a DivineRightOfKings sort of way[[/note]] and the ultimate goal of reuniting the server into "one big family" ([[TokenEvilTeammate and he has been known to do good]] [[PragmaticVillainy if it benefits him]]).
** Though he starts as a genuinely good guy ([[NoodleIncident discounting his attempt at flooding the SMP with "drugs"]]), come the L'Manburg Civil War, Wilbur can be seen as a bit of a ManipulativeBastard, having no qualms about getting [[ChildSoldiers Tommy and Tubbo]] involved in an all-out war that causes both of them physical and mental trauma (in his defense, Dream was the one to declare war and Wilbur had no intention to fight outside of self-defense), manipulating elections for his own benefit, as well as being inspired by Dream's terrorism to try and nuke ''an entire country'' just to ensure [[IfICantHaveYou nobody else can have it]] ([[SubvertedTrope or so he claims]]). There's also the question of how much of his MadBomber tendencies are due to SanitySlippage, as opposed to a genuine turn to extremism -- Quackity's April 12th lore stream implies the two factors go hand in hand with each other, and it's confirmed that [[ShellShockedVeteran Wilbur's]] [[CynicismCatalyst trauma]] has a lot to do with it as well--to be more accurate, he originally intended to use it to go out with a bang, [[DrivenToSuicide in the most literal sense possble]].
** The Badlands faction was created by some of the kindest people on the SMP, [=BadBoyHalo=], Antfrost, and Awesamdude, in response to Schlatt's tyranny and Wilbur's mental spiral. On the surface, they seem innocent enough, however, this belies their true nature as opportunistic aspiring conquerors who seek to instill chaos among the SMP to claim the area around the SMP all for themselves. During the war, they initially fought alongside the Pogtopians but they later stood by Dream and Technoblade in an attempt to keep the conflict going.
** Jschlatt is Dream (in Season 1) taken UpToEleven. He's a full-on fascist dictator [[WouldHurtAChild who ordered the execution of a minor]], and a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk to the point of managing to piss off everyone who was just listed above with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
** Not even [[BewareTheNiceOnes Niki]] is immune to dipping into chaos when she feels she deserves it. She stops fighting for L'Manburg just because [[MisplacedRetribution she feels Tommy hasn't learned his lesson]] (which lesson, no one can seem to agree on) and even [[MonumentalDamage burns down the L'Mantree]] while everyone else is busy fighting the withers Technoblade spawned.
* BowAndSwordInAccord: Almost everyone on the server has a sword and either a crossbow or a traditional bow for fighting, which they can switch between incredibly quickly.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: The Crimson can brainwash people into being its devoted and ruthless followers, as well as totally changing their personalities. The biggest victims of this (Bad, Ant, Punz, Ponk, and Hannah) form the Eggpire.
* BreakTheCutie: The Dream SMP, being a CrapsackWorld, has absolutely no shortage of these, to the point that ''if'' there is someone who can arguably be considered TheCutie, they ''will'' be broken down to be an Iron Woobie in a best-case scenario, and a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds in a worst-case scenario... and occurrences of the best-case scenario seem to be, so far, few and far in between.
** Wilbur initially believed in pacifism and fighting with words as opposed to violence. After [[RebelliousRebel Eret's betrayal]], though, his naivety as the leader of the L'Manburgian revolution [[CynicismCatalyst became shattered]], triggering the beginning of his [[SanitySlippage mental spiral and paranoia]], and him to become an outright DeathSeeker who ended up begging his father to end his life by the end of the [[TheExile Pogtopia arc]]. And even then, after spending what felt like [[AndIMustScream thirteen and a half years]] in the Afterlife (taking the form of a train station platform that he couldn't leave), he was brought BackFromTheDead... and although he evidently does ''not'' want to return to the Afterlife, he still retains his [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity delusional worldview about good and evil]].
** Tubbo also used to be one of the more peaceful members of the server, but between being publicly executed, [[AChildShallLeadThem dragged into a leadership position]] that he was woefully unprepared for, being [[SadisticChoice forced to]] sentence his best friend into exile ([[PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure fracturing their relationship in the process]]), having his country blown to bits three times, and ''more'', it's no surprise that he's a StepfordSmiler who ended up developing [[NuclearOption nuclear missiles]] for protection.
** Tommy is a somewhat less traditional example of this, being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold... who has also been through an extensive TraumaCongaLine consisting of being a {{Child Soldier|s}}, watching his BigBrotherMentor go through SanitySlippage and eventually dying and his best friend being publicly executed and almost sacrificing himself, being abused and gaslighted to the brink of suicidality, having his home destroyed three times, being locked in prison with his abuser for a week only to be [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally beat to death]] and then brought BackFromTheDead from a [[AndIMustScream torturous Afterlife]], among many other things. However, despite the sheer magnitude of his trauma, he still manages to keep [[RousseauWasRight his more idealistic beliefs]] after everything, though becoming more somber and [[WiseBeyondTheirYears worldly through his experiences]].
** Ranboo entered the SMP during the Reconstruction Era as a bright aspiring politician who wanted to make L'Manburg a better place, but now, he's a nervous wreck who lives in constant stress after being tossed dead-center into the conflict between Tommy and Dream, all because he tagged alongside Tommy to grief George's house.
** Quackity started as an aspiring, [[WideEyedIdealist idealistic]] politician who believed that RousseauWasRight and preferred words to weapons (much like his former political rival, Wilbur), but ends up jaded to the point of having many of his beliefs turned around entirely after going through a trainwreck of a TraumaCongaLine over the course of seven months, including and not limited to an abusive relationship, several wars, and severe injuries to the point of disability, as well as the resultant psychological effects.
** During the Red Banquet, Captain Puffy is forced to see her son, Foolish, be ritualistically sacrificed to [[BotanicalAbomination the Crimson]], before giving into her instincts and [[MamaBear brutally murdering Antfrost in revenge]]. After this, she turns away from the path of the [[KnightErrant knight]], and embraces the path of distrust.
* BrickJoke: The Cuck Shed (based on the [[CallBack structure of the same name from SMPLive]]) that Jschlatt built back during his first visit, kills Ninja almost two months later.
* BurningTheFlag: To protest against the changes Schlatt made in L'Manburg, Fundy burned down Nihachu's Manburg flag. Later on, Tommy does the same thing to declare war between Pogtopia and Manburg.
* TheBusCameBack: Months after George was DemotedToExtra since his role as TheDragon during the L'Manburg War of Independence, he returned to the story in [[MindScrew a couple of streams on March 30th]] that delved into his parentage and his relationship with [=DreamXD=].
* ButterflyOfDoom: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]]. When Ranboo talks to Sam after Tommy's death, he insists that if he had talked Tommy out of griefing George's house, [[DisasterDominoes things might've turned out differently]] and Tommy not have died. Sam says that might not necessarily be the case, and that Dream might've found another reason to exile him anyways, [[InSpiteOfANail leading to the same result]], and urges Ranboo to not blame himself for Tommy's death. This is not far from the truth; Dream was going around griefing builds with Puffy and [[FrameUp blaming Tommy for it]] weeks before Tommy and Ranboo griefed George's house.
* CarnivoreConfusion: Captain Puffy (initially an anthropomorphic sheep) is fine with consuming meat so long as it's not mutton.
* CastFullOfGay: Almost half of the cast is canonically LGBTQ+, and the only confirmed m/f relationships in the series are PlayedForLaughs and/or did not end well, e.g. Wilbur's past InterspeciesRomance with Sally the ''salmon''. There are also implications that that same-gender relationships are the norm in the Dream SMP universe, judging by Tommy's slip of the mouth (accidentally forgetting m/f relationships existed) while trying to explain marriage fraud to Tubbo.
* CastFullOfRichPeople: "The Masquerade" episode of ''Tales From the SMP'' revolves around several very wealthy individuals being invited to a masquerade party and [[TenLittleMurderVictims the shenanigans that ensued]]. The only characters in the episode who weren't rich was a [[NakedPeopleAreFunny nudist]] named Drew P. Wiener who ended up at the wrong place and the nameless Butler.
* CastHerd: The characters are often sorted and differentiated by their faction/country/group/allegiance, especially in specific moments in time, e.g. the original L'Manburgians are the residents of the nation-alliance that had citizenship in the country before the elections.
* CentralTheme: Though there [[CerebusSyndrome wasn't one in the beginning]], several recurring themes appear to tie most of the story and character arcs together.
** For the Disc War specifically: Having attachments can cause conflicts, but it ''is'' ultimately worth it, and ''not'' having attachment to anything is ''worse''.
** The impact of trauma on a person's mental health and subsequent actions.
** [[MoralityKitchenSink In most cases]], no one is truly good or evil.
** Whether MightMakesRight, especially the difference between hard power and soft power.
** How one's actions may harm others, even if they are unintentional.
** The importance of preserving history.
** [[PoorCommunicationKills The fallout of miscommunication]], and how it can lead to atrocities.
** The contrast of diplomacy and violence, and its relationship with idealism and cynicism.
** For Season 3 in particular: legacy.
%%** The cycle of abuse? The meaning of tyranny? Power?
* CerebusCallback:
** At the beginning of the server's history, Tommy stumbled upon Tubbo, who'd boxed himself in with cobblestone. Tommy jokingly called the box "Tubbox" and started saying things like "Tubbo in a box, what will he do?" The next time the Tubbox got referenced was when Tubbo was trapped in a concrete box at the Festival, about to be executed.
** There's one to Minecraft Monday, of all things. Techno instilling utter fear in the competitors as he dominated the event was seen as both a funny moment (in terms of the competitors' [[OhCrap reactions to his sheer skill]]) and an awesome moment as Techno came out of literally nowhere in a field of much-more-popular influencers and established himself as easily the strongest competitor in the event. As one of Quackity's streams reveals, however, he's got PTSD from Minecraft Monday for this exact reason and was utterly ''[[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes terrified]]'' of Techno (of course, Techno's murder of him during the Manburg Festival Massacre probably didn't help). This also becomes [[ItsPersonal one of his motivations]] for hunting down Techno as the driving force behind the Butcher Army.
* CerebusRetcon:
** Wilbur heavily babied his son Fundy. It's PlayedForLaughs in Season 1 of the SMP, but come Season 2 and it's revealed that Wilbur doing so has driven a massive wedge in his and Fundy's relationship.
** Quackity's relationship with Schlatt during the Manburg era, though having shades of toxicity, had many humorous moments throughout it, even after their "breakup", but come Season 3 and it turns out that Quackity still carries a lot of emotional trauma from the toxic aspects of the relationship.
* CerebusSyndrome: The L'Manburg and Election Arcs, while they had their serious moments, were mostly lighthearted, with characters goofing off constantly. However, things started to take a darker turn during the Pogtopia arc, what with Wilbur's SanitySlippage, and after the Manburg-Pogtopia War, the series became ''much'' darker and more plot-heavy. Plot points that were PlayedForLaughs in earlier arcs were now played horribly straight, and the next few arcs included a realistic portrayal of {{gaslighting}} and psychological abuse, the attempted suicide of a ''minor'', several characters reaching their DespairEventHorizon and lashing out horribly, Ranboo having several long, intense, and realistic panic attacks on-screen, and so much GreyAndGrayMorality that not even the fans can decide who the true heroes are anymore.
* ChekhovsBoomerang: Jschlatt's book on resurrection. In Season 1, it's used to convince Dream to betray Pogtopia. It comes back at the end of Season 2, where Dream leverages his possession of the book to convince Tommy to spare him. And it returns ''thrice'' more in Season 3, where an argument over the book's existence pushes Dream to do the one thing he said he didn't want to do--[[TheHeroDies murder Tommy]]. And then a few days later, Dream proves its existence by [[BackFromTheDead bringing Tommy back to life]]. Eventually, Quackity learns of this and spends the following months trying to torture the contents of the book out of Dream. ''Then'' Dream brings Wilbur back to life, effectively killing Ghostbur, using the book.
* ChekhovsGag:
** When brainstorming names for their new nation, Wilbur and Tommy come up with "Manburg" before deciding that it sounds too American, adding a French "L" to make it "L'Manburg" to sound more European. When Jschlatt takes over, he changes the name to Manburg, stating that his country "doesn't take L's" (L being the first letter for the words loss, loser, and such).
** When Wilbur asks what excuse Tubbo used to leave Schlatt's side, it's revealed that [[BlatantLies he convinced Schlatt]] [[MisterSeahorse he's pregnant]]. It's PlayedForLaughs, with Techno cracking jokes and Wilbur being completely bewildered, and it even gets a repeat when Tubbo tries to convince Schlatt that Tommy -- who was ''not'' supposed to be there -- is his OB-GYN. Then the Festival comes around, and it turns out that Schlatt did not buy Tubbo's excuses ''at all'', and has him executed for treason.
** A few days before the meeting with Schlatt, Fundy covered all of Pogtopia in buttons as a prank. Aside from being the Minecraft-equivalent of a glitter-bomb, this was completely harmless. However, during the meeting, Schlatt reveals that he found the TNT planted under Manburg, and used it to ''rig Pogtopia with TNT''. Cue a frantic scramble to remove the buttons before one of them sets off the TNT, ''and'' to restrain Wilbur, who ''keeps pressing random buttons'', hoping one of them would set the TNT off.
** Jschlatt's [[TheAlcoholic alcohol addiction]], revealed by both Fundy's spy diary and Quackity, with the former also revealing that said addiction is slowly killing Jschlatt. What seems to just be a little gag comes into play in the final battle of the L'Manburg Civil War, where Jschlatt suffers a [[KilledOffForReal fatal]], alcohol-induced heart attack.
* ChekhovsGun:
** Right before the Election, Tubbo showed Tommy and Wilbur a secret bunker he made underneath L'Manburg, just in case things would go south. This bunker ends up coming in very handy when Schlatt revokes Tommy and Wilbur's citizenships, and orders everyone to hunt them down until they're outside of the borders. While Wilbur dies on the way to the bunker, Tommy manages to escape into the bunker and tunnel out into the wilderness.
** Dream's letter to Pogtopia declaring his HeelFaceTurn. One line in the letter reveals that Jschlatt, as a democratically elected leader, can't be overthrown without the usurpers (Dream in this case) being seen as the villains. These words are shown later on to have a clear impact on Wilbur, who uses Dream's exact logic to conclude that he isn't the hero and [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity immediately jumps to the conclusion that he could be "the villain"]], which contributes heavily to his SanitySlippage.
** '''''[[BigRedButton The button.]]''''' It's linked to a monumental amount of TNT surrounding Manburg that will [[StuffBlowingUp explode]] once it's pressed, which Wilbur set up as part of his SanitySlippage. Wilbur even [[DiscussedTrope discusses]] the trope with Tommy and Quackity as he fights to press it. As soon as everyone forgets about it, Wilbur detonates it.
** A ''literal'' ChekhovsGun is provided in the form of [[BloodKnight Technoblade's]] firework-loaded crossbow, "[[PleaseSubscribeToOurChannel Subscribe to Technoblade]]". He uses it before the beginning of the Festival [[https://youtu.be/laNQIp_S2AI?t=260s to shoot off some fireworks into the sky]], calling people over to enjoy the sight. Before the day is done, "Subscribe to Technoblade" would be used to shoot fireworks once more, with much more fatal results for almost everyone in attendance at the Manburg Festival.
** Techno is shown to have enough soul sand and wither skulls to spawn two Withers during his meeting with Quackity and Karl several days before the final battle for L'Manburg. The meeting itself seemed to be a BreatherEpisode, except for those wither skulls, which Techno uses during the battle itself to actually spawn several Withers to destroy what remains of L'Manburg after Wilbur [[StuffBlowingUp destroys the nation]].
** George spent [[AbsenteeActor most of the Manburg-Pogtopia War]] building a mushroom house. This house then proceeds to be griefed by Tommy and Ranboo, which led to an accident that Dream took ''full'' advantage of to have Tommy sent into Exile.
** Subverted with the remains of Spirit, Dream's first horse. Tommy gains the remains early on in hopes that they'll give him leverage over Dream. Tommy finally reveals this fact when Dream threatens to exile him, and all of L'Manburg (sans Tubbo) believes they've got Dream in a bind (as Dream no longer has Tommy's discs and thus has no bargaining chips of his own) only for Dream to reveal that he doesn't actually care about Spirit's remains, putting L'Manburg and especially Tommy into an even worse bind.
** One of the clauses in the waiver for prison visitors is that if a security issue arises, visitors can be locked up in the prison for up to seven days until the issue is resolved. This clause kicks into effect during Tommy's final visit to Dream, when the prison is attacked with TNT and Tommy becomes trapped in the prison cell.
** The book Schlatt gave Dream that ultimately swayed him to Manburg's side before the Manburg-Pogtopia War. Dream never revealed what was in it, only that it was a very important secret. Come the end of Season 2, and we find out it's a book that allows Dream to [[BackFromTheDead resurrect people who have lost their 3 canon lives]], meaning the others can't kill him, because if they do, death will be permanent. The book finally sees use a few weeks later, when Dream takes Tommy's final life, then revives him just to prove that he can. And ''then'' Quackity gets dragged into this mess due to losing a bet with Schlatt's ghost, causing him to visit the prison every day to try to torture the knowledge out of Dream. And eventually Dream revives ''Wilbur'' with the book... yeah, ChekhovsGun probably doesn't even [[ChekhovsBoomerang cover it]] at this point.
** During the Red Banquet, Quackity passes Puffy a netherite axe behind his back while talking down the Eggpire. That, along with the splash potions of strength Puffy was previously shown to have in her inventory, end up being used to kill Ant in revenge for executing Foolish.
* ChekhovsGunman: Jschlatt joins the server for a while before being anticlimactically kicked by Dream. When he rejoins, he proceeds to take over L'Manburg and force Wilbur and Tommy into hiding, acting as the main villain for the rest of the arc.
* ChekhovsSkill: Sapnap's habit as a ChronicPetKiller. At first it's just an annoyance that sparks several minor conflicts, like the Battle of the Lake and the three Pet Wars. In the Doomsday War, however, he puts said pet-killing to good use, personally taking out over ''sixty'' of Techno's [[SavageWolves wolves]] when the anarchist lets them out on L'Manburg.
* ChildSoldiers: If we are going by the ages of the content creators when the wars in the roleplay occurred, at least.
** Tommy fought in the L'Manburg War for Independence, the Manburg-Pogtopia War, and the Doomsday War at age 16, among the larger conflicts on the SMP.
** Tubbo fought in the three wars mentioned above as well, at age 16 for the first two and Doomsday at 17.
** Purpled fought in the Manburg-Pogtopia War at age 17.
* CivilWar: The server has had two so far.
** The Dream Team (plus Punz) comes into conflict with a faction seeking independence from the main server known as L'Manburg consisting of [=WilburSoot=], [=TommyInnit=], Tubbo, Fundy, and [=TheEret=]. The latter eventually defected to the Dream Team, betraying L'Manburg in exchange for being promoted to a king within the Dream Team lands. The war ends with the Dream Team winning the main conflict, but Dream granting L'Manburg independence anyways in exchange for two music discs owned by Tommy (a major source of conflict between him and Dream).
** Jschlatt winning the L'Manburg election and declaring himself a dictator bent on conquest triggers another war, fracturing the country with a conflict between his faction and Wilbur's faction, now named Pogtopia.
* TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: Neither of the known "therapists" on the server are particularly well-suited for their jobs, considering that both of them have their own mental health issues to deal with -- Captain Puffy TookALevelInCynicism after her son's execution, and [[TraumaCongaLine let's not]] [[DespairEventHorizon even get]] ''[[HeWhoFightsMonsters started]]'' on Quackity and his issues.
* CombatPragmatist: Dream, Techno, and Phil give L'Manburg 24 hours to prepare for war. Except they used an ancient technique called lying, and they in truth planned to attack L'Manburg 30 minutes early (which, considering the weapons of mass destruction they have, is a ''significant'' amount of time). By the time L'Manburg is made aware of their foe's deceit, half of L'Manburg is 50 blocks deep and Withers are swarming the area.
* ConfusingMultipleNegatives: Quackity attempts to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this in "The Official Manburg Hotel Building Permit", trying to trick Schlatt into [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext paying child support]] on top of scamming him out of his presidency. Schlatt, being a savvy businessman, [[GenreSavvy notices this]] and [[LampshadeHanging calls him out on it]], claiming that it was a predatory way of writing a contract.
* ContinuityDrift: Because the story of the Dream SMP is very much written with the philosophy of "make it up as you go along", the continuity is ''extremely'' hard to follow. How old characters are, how much time has elapsed between major events and which events are canon are continuously up for debate and/or [[{{Retcon}} retconned from the lore]], and fans are in agreement to just not worry about it too much.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: Jschlatt is this to Dream. Dream was a WellIntentionedExtremist who only wanted to put down a rebellion against his nation, even granting said rebellion independence when he saw how much they were willing to fight for it, and considered the citizens of L'Manburg [[WorthyOpponent worthy of respect]], as a later letter to Tommy reveals. Moreover, Dream seemed to be a good if sometimes strict and pragmatic leader. Jschlatt, however, is a borderline fascist dictator who wants both independence and conquest. While Dream treated his allies with respect and genuine admiration, Jschlatt treated his as nothing more than tools to further his plans. Jschlatt is such a contrast that [[EvenEvilHasStandards Dream is outright disgusted by him compared to Wilbur]], and writes a letter to Tommy [[EnemyMine pledging full support to their war against Jschlatt]].
* CoolMask:
** Dream is often depicted in fanon to wear a WhiteMaskOfDoom with his signature [[SlasherSmile smiley face]] on it, to the point that Dream eventually confirms that his character does wear a mask.
** Dream's DistaffCounterpart, Girl Dream (or Mamacita), is also depicted to wear a white mask with a smiley face on it, though there's plenty of indication she's [[GoodCounterpart more benevolent than]] her male counterpart.
** Ponk wears a mask with red, yellow and black stripes that covers most of his face.
* CourtroomEpisode: Tommy was put on trial for griefing George's house. While Dream insisted he should be exiled from L'Manburg, in the end he only got two weeks of probation.
* CrapsackWorld: The SMP has evolved to become this, with every other character being put through {{Trauma Conga Line}}s with [[WarIsHell wars]], politics, [[DemonicPossession possessions]], and everything in between happening on the server. BreakTheCutie is a common occurrence, GreyAndGrayMorality is the norm, MightMakesRight is the default setting and those who try to prove otherwise (case in point, L'Manburg) have been [[NukeEm inevitably crushed]] for the most part, [[HarmfulToMinors teenagers]] are [[ChildSoldiers brought into warfare]] in most of the server's conflicts, violence is used to solve problems more often than not, and YankTheDogsChain has applied to characters who have tried to make it into AWorldHalfFull more than once. The server is also ''rife'' with crime, with [[GottaHaveItGonnaStealIt petty theft]] being practically a weekly, if not everyday occurrence, and the list is topped with the Geneva Convention being breached on at least a monthly basis. Oh, and to the numerous members [[TraumaButton with PTSD]] from their experiences on the SMP, ThereAreNoTherapists, or at least any qualified ones, and [[TheShrink the only person who has actively tried to act as a therapist]] has had plenty of trauma of her own.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Several of the canon deaths can classify as this. Even though everything takes place in Minecraft, there are [[ImpliedTrope heavy implications]] that the results are similar to what would have happened in real life.
** Tubbo's second death [[AccidentalMurder (and Schlatt's first)]] at the Manburg Festival involved being shot in the face with fireworks. It is later revealed that the death left Tubbo being CoveredInScars and utterly traumatized.
** Karl's first death was from [[StuffBlowingUp an explosion]]... one that was planned by his own side to frame Eret as a warmongerer and help El Rapids seize independence, but it's later implied in his SecondActBreakup with Quackity in the penultimate Season 3 stream that it could have been more painful/traumatic that one would have thought initially.
** Jack Manifold's second death involved swimming in lava for two and a half minutes in real time.
** Quackity's first death is a bizarre combination of EyeScream, TheToothHurts and AttackTheMouth after Technoblade puts a pickaxe through his teeth. It is also the cause of the partial blindness in his left eye and the scar he currently has over the eye.
** Tommy's third death[[note]]before he came BackFromTheDead[[/note]] was a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown by Dream, while stuck in a location which is the embodiment of his [[TraumaButton traumas]] and fears... and then there's the mining fatigue, which dragged the death out even longer.
* CruelMercy: After Dream threatens to kill him if he enters the Nether Portal leading to the main Dream SMP, Tommy, [[DespairEventHorizon completely defeated]], walks to the edge of the walkway and [[DrivenToSuicide stares down into the lava, clearly contemplating whether or not to jump]]. Dream, who sees him doing this, punches him away from the edge.
-->'''Dream:''' It's not your time to die yet, Tommy.\\
'''Tommy:''' ''(quietly)'' ...It's never my time to die.
* CrystalDragonJesus: Church Prime is a major religion on the server based around Twitch Prime, with the Terms of Service being the holy scripture of the religion, and features many Christian elements like the concept of the Holy Trinity.
* CurbStompBattle:
** During the L'Manburg War of Independence, L'Manburg is forced to flee into a bunker prepared by Eret. It turns out they were betrayed by Eret, who designed the bunker as trap to get all of L'Manburg's fighters in one place. Once they were there, Eret retracts the walls, allowing Dream and his allies to raid the bunker. The demoralized L'Manburgians don't even get a single kill as they are soon wiped out by the Dream Team and Punz in one of their most crushing defeats in the war.
** The Anarchists blitzkrieged L'Manburg thirty minutes before when their opponents expected, with Techno bringing an army of [[ZergRush hundreds of wolves]] and Dream having enough TNT to destroy the entire server ten times over. The Anarchists suffer absolutely no losses whatsoever (unless you count a good chunk of Techno's hounds) as L'Manburg was erased off the face of the server.
* CycleOfRevenge: A recurring occurrence on the Dream SMP, as characters resort to [[DisasterDominoes more and more violent methods]] to seek retribution to those that have wronged them, which tends to [[DeconstructedTrope result in wars and disasters]] that drag the entire server into the messes created.
** Early in the history of the server, Ponk pranked Sapnap and messed with his house for unknown reasons. This caused Sapnap to burn down Ponk's lemon tree in retaliation, where the fire spread to the point of almost destroying the entire tree. Enraged, Ponk allied himself with Alyssa and dragged Tommy and Tubbo, who had just joined the server, into the conflict. ''This'' ultimately cultivated into a series of skirmishes that led to Dream stealing Tommy's music discs Cat and Mellohi, kicking off the Disc Saga (which spanned over six months overall) and shaping Dream and Tommy's interactions and [[ArchEnemy relationship with each other]] for the rest of the SMP's history.
** After [[ChronicPetKiller Sapnap]] accidentally kills Niki's fox Fungi, Fundy, who gifted her the fox, encourages her to kill Sapnap's pet fox Skechers in revenge, despite Niki initially accepting Sapnap's apology for the animal murder. Sapnap then retaliated by killing the Enderman that lived in Fundy's house, Leonard, and took and burned the diamond block on Fungi's grave. This eventually escalates into the First Pet War.
** Technoblade setting off two Withers to destroy the ruins of L'Manburg during the Manburg-Pogtopia War encouraged the Butcher Army to go after and execute him (among many other factors). After Techno survives and escapes the execution (with help from Dream), he [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge vows revenge]] and teams up with Dream to ''[[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill nuke L'Manburg to bedrock]]'' in the Doomsday War, causing multiple members of the server to lose their homes and pets, and Jack Manifold to lose his last canon life (though he brings himself back to life eventually).
* DarkReprise: After blowing up L'Manburg in the Doomsday War, Dream sings one of the L'Manburg National Anthem called "Bye L'Manburg", very clearly mocking and celebrating the destruction of the city-state he just nuked to bedrock.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Ongoing war, constant threats of betrayal, the public execution of a minor immediately followed by a mass shooting, terrorism, politics, fascism, anarchy, emotional manipulation, abuse (both physical and psychological), depression, attempted suicide, an ''actual'' [[SuicideByCop assisted suicide]], supernatural horror, torture, and a whole lot of BlackAndGreyMorality thrown into the mix. Compared to the usual comedy commonly associated with these content creators, the plotlines of the server is something you'd expect from a straight-up dystopian film, not a Minecraft roleplay.
* DarkestHour:
** The first half of the L'Manburg Civil War. Though Wilbur and Tommy gain core allies in [[TheDreaded Technoblade]] and [[HeelFaceTurn Dream]], they fail to make any notable progress towards regaining L'Manburg even with Tubbo and Fundy as double agents. They also ''lose'' allies, as George betrays Dream to side with Jschlatt and Sapnap breaks off as a WildCard aiming to defeat everyone else and claim power for himself--not to mention Technoblade's loyalty is currently in question. Of their two supporters within L'Manburg, Niki is repeatedly silenced by Jschlatt for her rebellious nature while Eret fails to earn their trust due to his earlier betrayal. The first half ends with Jschlatt attempting to curry favor within L'Manburg to nullify the one advantage Pogtopia has over him (his ZeroPercentApprovalRating), which leads to Wilbur undergoing a SanitySlippage that culminates in him deciding to nuke L'Manburg. Dream then sides with Wilbur, revealing that his HeelFaceTurn is motivated only by power, leaving Tommy and Tubbo to contemplate who their allies really are, and if Wilbur can be turned back from his path of darkness before he follows through with his plans to leave a massive crater where L'Manburg once was.
** The end of L'Manburg's meeting with Dream. The obsidian box surrounding L'Manburg only gets taller, the one bargaining chip Tommy had against Dream (Spirit's remains) are revealed to be of no value to Dream, and Tubbo begins to seriously consider exiling Tommy as Dream forces L'Manburg's hand.
** After Tommy manages to unite all of the Dream SMP against the Anarchists, [[HopeSpot it seems like they have a fighting chance]]. Then the actual battle happens, and Tommy's plan quickly falls to shambles as Technoblade carries out his promise to turn the nation into an air chunk. And this time, it's clear that there's no recovering.
* DarkSkinnedBlond:
** Underneath his CoolMask, Ponk can be seen to have blond hair.
** {{Downplayed|Trope}} for Purpled, who is seen to have dark blond hair and tanned skin in a similar shade to each other.
* DeathIsCheap: It's ''Minecraft'', of course it is. That said, many times it's treated as if it weren't.
** [[RevengeBeforeReason Tommy's reaction to Tubbo's execution]] is framed as if his death was final (even more noticeable given Tubbo's heavy importance later on).
** Averted with Jschlatt's heart attack and Wilbur's [[SuicideByCop slaying by Philza]], both at the end of the L'Manburg Civil War. The latter came back to life, but only later on in the story.
** Wilbur subverted this trope by adding a death system to the SMP after the Manburg Festival. Each character is given three 'canon' lives, and if the character dies in a major event or according to the script, then that character loses a life. After losing all three lives, that character will be canonically dead and can no longer actively participate in any major plot events.
* DecidedByOneVote: Downplayed. Combining their votes, [=SWAG2020=] (30%) and [=Schlatt2020=] (16%) won the L'Manburg election, beating out [=POG2020=] (45%) by 1% of the votes, which totaled at around 200,000 legitimate votes in the entire election. Although the election was technically decided by about 2000 votes, it was still extremely close in terms of percentages.
* DemonSlaying: Fundy, Tubbo, and Sapnap are members of a group called the Dreamon Hunters, investigators who seek out and destroy [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Dreamons]].
* DemotedToExtra:
** After being TheDragon to Dream in the L'Manburg War of Independence, George is reduced to just another member of Jschlatt's cabinet during the L'Manburg Civil War and he's rarely even ''online'' during the events of the arc.
** Subverted with Dream. At first, it seems like the BigBad of the L'Manburg War of Independence will be reduced to a mere benefactor who supplies Pogtopia with loot. However, this changes as Dream begins to fight directly alongside Tommy and Technoblade, becoming a vital teammate and some much-needed muscle during the L'Manburg Civil War. And even moreso [[WildCard once his true motives are revealed]], as he becomes someone who can secure the war for either side based solely on who can placate his desires for power more.
* DesecratingTheDead:
** During Jschlatt's funeral, people started looting his coffin, with Tommy and Tubbo dual-wielding Schlatt's bones and Quackity taking his heart before straight-up [[BlackComedyCannibalism eating it.]]
** After receiving the news that Tommy was brutally murdered by Dream, Bad, Ant and Punz decide to celebrate by throwing a party in Tommy's house, placing down a cake and swapping out the floor from grass to a garish checkerboard pattern of yellow concrete and quartz. When Puffy finds them, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tears into them]] and kicks them out, they decide to rent a room in Tommy's hotel instead to continue celebrating.
* DespairEventHorizon:
** Tommy crosses it once it hits him that he's exiled for good, and that he'll be doomed to spend the rest of his life alone in the wilderness, never seeing his friends again. He starts showing symptoms of depression (hopelessness, violent outbursts, no will to live), and after a full day of Dream and Sapnap [[YankTheDogsChain rubbing it in his face]] that [[YouCantGoHomeAgain he'll never be able to go home again]], he starts actively [[DrivenToSuicide contemplating suicide]], to the point where Dream has to drag him away from the edge of the walkway before he jumps in the lava lake.
--->'''Tommy:''' Guys, how do you know when it's too much?
** Occurs to ''several'' individual members of L'Manburg such as Fundy, Ranboo and Nihachu, who have made it their own initative to either remain neutral or actively assist the destruction of L'Manburg itself, due to the realization of its fruitless endeavour.
** In the Doomsday War itself, the destruction of the L'Mantree, the sole surviving remnant of the original L'Manburg from the War of Independence, is when virtually all of the L'Manburgians give up trying to save their ruined nation.
* DisasterDominoes:
** According to Quackity, the events leading up the L'Manburg Civil War and [[CerebusSyndrome everything else afterward]] all happened because [[AbsenteeActor George]] [[Funny/DreamSMPSeasonOne slept through the election]], depriving his platform of key votes and thus forcing him to ally with Jschlatt (who wouldn't have won the election otherwise).
*** In retrospect, on a more personal level, Quackity's ensuing relationship with Schlatt on both a political and personal level, most certainly influenced by George's absence, ends up kick-starting his months-long TraumaCongaLine that caused him to be driven to [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds arguably villainy]].
** Ponk pranking Sapnap and messing with his house early in the server's history caused Sapnap to burn down Ponk's lemon tree in retaliation, which then caused a CycleOfRevenge that dragged Tommy and Tubbo, who had just joined the server, into the mess, which ultimately cultivated into a series of skirmishes that led to Dream stealing Tommy's music discs Cat and Mellohi, kicking off the Disc Saga which spanned over six months overall and shaped Dream and Tommy's interactions and [[ArchEnemy relationship with each other]] for the rest of the SMP.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Jschlatt ends up as this for the L'Manburg Civil War's final battle. He's taken out about halfway through the war by a heart attack. The rest of the battle deals with three major plot threads:
** Tubbo's inauguration as the third President of L'Manburg, which completes Tommy's arc about wanting to be President himself, and also secures Pogtopia's final victory against Jschlatt.
** Wilbur's destruction of L'Manburg, which followed Philza logging on for the first time to try and talk him down and is itself followed by Wilbur being KilledOffForReal.
** Techno's [[FaceHeelTurn ultimate effort to achieve anarchy by spawning an army of Withers]], forcing the surviving Pogtopians to try and stop him.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
** Wilbur's tongue-in-cheek claim that he's going to build a wall around L'Manburg and make the Americans pay for it is very obviously mirroring the claims of former U.S. president Trump.
** At one point before the announcement of the Electoral results, Fundy and Quackity compare the lengths of their ties.
** During Mexican Dream's visit to Tommy, the former replaced the floor on a newly-built and unfinished house with yellow concrete and terracotta whilst treating it as if the floor was being pissed on.
** The argument between Wilbur and Quackity over whether Tommy should get involved in Las Nevadas or Wilbur's new country plays out almost exactly like two divorced parents fighting over custody of their child, while the child doesn't really get a say in the matter.
* DoubleEntendre: During George's birthday stream, Dream leads Sapnap and George to a Badlands biome, saying there's something there he needs to show them.
-->'''Dream:''' George, do you know what we're surrounded by?\\
'''George:''' ...Clay?\\
'''Dream:''' Hardened Clay.[[note]]Dream's real name is Clay.[[/note]]
* DownerEnding:
** The L'Manburg election ends in this. Thanks to some last-minute deals, Jschlatt wins the election and goes full fascist dictator, declaring his intent to conquer more land and immediately putting a bounty on Wilbur and Tommy, forcing them to flee. Jschlatt then forces Tubbo into his employ, and while Wilbur and Tommy eventually make him a spy, it's clear that simply being around [[KickTheDog Jschlatt]] is taxing on Tubbo's health.
** The Doomsday War ends in [[TheBadGuyWins Dream, Techno, and Phil's unequivocal victory as L'Manburg is wiped off the face of the server]]. There's not even a caveat or HopeSpot for the heroes--L'Manburg has not only ''lost'', they've lost so badly that there's no chance of recovering even a fraction of their nation. Anarchy reigns supreme over the Dream SMP as Dream, Techno, and Phil bomb what's left of Wilbur's unfinished symphony.
* DramaticIrony:
** After having Technoblade execute Tubbo at the Manberg Festival, Jschlatt tells Quackity and Fundy that he couldn't imagine the two of them betraying him. Unbeknownst to him, Fundy is not on his side either, being an even more secretive [[TheMole mole]] than Tubbo. As for Quackity, [[BadBoss Schlatt's behaviour]] eventually caused Quackity to [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal revolt and defect to Pogtopia]].
** After failing to execute Technoblade and resolving to target Dream instead, Tubbo finally decides to visit Tommy in Logstedshire only to find the place in ruins, no sign of Tommy, and a massive tower. Tubbo is horrified as he pieces everything to together and comes to the conclusion that Tommy [[DrivenToSuicide couldn't handle exile any longer,]] unaware that Tommy backed out at the last second and ran away to Technoblade's house.
** After struggling to remain in contact with the other members of El Rapids, when Quackity hears from George that they had all left to go establish Kinoko Kingdom at Karl's behest, he assumes they had intentionally left him behind since [[PoorCommunicationKills no one had informed him about the move]]... only that Karl was supposed to tell Quackity but failed to do so. This is thanks to his worsening memory loss that only Karl is aware of, due to it being tied to his time travelling capabilities, not to mention his powers being the reason for the move in the first place, as Karl was advised to move his library away from the main SMP by the Inbetween. A chance to clear up the misconceptions arose when Quackity crashed the Red Banquet Sapnap was invited to, only that Sapnap didn't show up for unknown reasons.
* DrawAggro:
** Before the Butcher Army could pull the lever on Technoblade's execution, Punz started throwing snowballs at the L'Manburgians out of nowhere before swooping over to them with his trident, and once there, he started placing TNT to bait them into fighting him. Unbeknownst to the Army, this was all to distract them while [[RightUnderTheirNoses Dream frees Technoblade's horse,]] Carl, giving the warrior a means of escape.
** Techno does this during the Doomsday War. As the Anarchists' best fighter, he draws L'Manburg's attention so that his other compatriots can set up their role in L'Manburg's destruction (Phil by spawning waves of Withers, Dream by setting up a TNT device).
* TheDreaded:
** Techno joining the server was met with a collective OhCrap from everyone who wasn't aware he'd be joining. Even ''Dream'' knows better than to take his chances with Techno. This is especially true from Quackity's perspective, as the mere sight of Technoblade was enough to [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes make him scream]] [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere and run]], though this is {{justified|Trope}} as he had previously [[TraumaButton experienced Techno's brutality firsthand]], and is implied to have grown past it to some degree.
** Dream as well. In a case of WorthyOpponent, even Techno tends to get a little nervous when he gets caught in a potentially hostile situation with Dream (effectively meaning that Dream and Techno both dread ''each other''). It's to the point where it seems like half of the reason they'll team up isn't because of their aligning goals (though that's a bonus), but because neither one wants to end up on the other's bad side.
** The Arctic Anarchists, despite only having ''three'' main fighters (not counting Ranboo), is enough of a threat to unite half of the entire server against them ''just to have a small chance of winning''. They've got the most competent fighters (Techno, Phil, and Dream) on their side, and multiple weapons of mass destruction (namely several Withers and enough TNT to destroy the entire server ten times over).
* DrivenToSuicide: Unfortunately, the Dream SMP is not a healthy environment for people with mental health problems, to the point that two characters have taken their own lives, or at least actively considered doing so.
** By the end of Season 1, Wilbur's mental health spiral culminated in him trying to die in the explosion of Manburg in the Button Room. Even though the plan failed, due to Philza arriving in time to try to talk him down and protect him from the explosion, Wilbur still lost his third canon life after he ''begged'' his father [[SuicideByCop to take it]]. He eventually gets brought back to life in Season 3, and by that point, although he has lost the desire to die after [[AndIMustScream spending over what felt like a decade in a torturous Afterlife]], his mental health is still far from stellar.
** Throughout Tommy's Exile in Season 2, his mental health took a huge hit and he considered ending himself several times, even engaging in highly [[TooUnhappyToBeHungry self-destructive]] [[SelfHarm behaviours]]. The most notable instance of this occurs at the end of the Exile Arc -- after Dream blew up Logstedshire and barred Tommy from going into the Nether or having any visitors, Tommy built a tower hundreds of blocks into the sky, with the clear intention of jumping to his death. He ultimately [[MidSuicideRegret didn't go through with it]] after realizing what [[ManipulativeBastard Dream]] had been doing to him, but came ''very'' close.
** After the Doomsday War, Ghostbur asked Tommy to bring him back to life, which basically causes a DeathOfPersonality in Ghostbur. This is initially subverted, as the first attempted resurrection of Ghostbur failed and he was PutOnABus, and very evidently doesn't want to be revived, but is [[BackForTheDead exactly what happens]] when he returns to the server.
* DysfunctionJunction: Practically ''half the people'' on the server are traumatized in one way or another, whether by wars, betrayal, amnesia (in [[LaserGuidedAmnesia one]] [[ForgetfulJones way]] [[BlessedWithSuck or]] [[LossOfIdentity another]]), abuse, toxic relationships, torture, deaths, etc.
* EarlyBirdCameo:
** Philza was often talked about and even joined a few calls with Wilbur and Tommy before he was officially added to the server.
** Quackity was also on several voice calls with Tommy in the week or two leading up to his debut appearance on the SMP.
** Vikkstar appeared in a video endorsing [=POG2020=] during the L'Manburg Elections, several months before actually joining the server.
** Boomer went from being a two-time proxy visitor to the SMP to becoming a fully-fledged member of it.
* EdibleThemeNaming: Several [=NPCs=] on the server share names with food items, that including Karl's cat [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga Rutabaga]] and fish Lasagna (the latter of which is shared with Sapnap), Punz' bee Kiwi and deceased horse Pumpkin, Niki's foxes Fungi (though pronounced differently) and Mushroom, Puffy's parrots Greenbean and Blueberry (the latter of which is deceased), and [[FurryConfusion Fundy's snow-foxes]] Apples and Yogurt (the former being MIA after Doomsday and the latter now being Fundy's adopted son).
* ElectionDayEpisode: The L'Manburg Election arc, sparked by Wilbur leaking his election plans to other members like Quackity and Fundy. It ends with Schlatt becoming president of L'Manburg, renaming the country and kicking Wilbur and Tommy out of it. [[DisasterDominoes Then everything goes downhill from there.]]
* EmpathicEnvironment:
** Happens twice during the Manburg-Pogtopia War. Just before the first battle between the L'Manburg forces and the combined Pogtopia and Dream SMP, the time abruptly changes from sunset to sunrise. It happens again after Technoblade summons two withers, this time changing from night to midday.
** An instance of this happens when Tommy is exiled from New L'Manberg by Tubbo. As he walks away from L'Manburg, [[GrayRainOfDepression it starts to rain]].
** After the Doomsday War, the weather changes from sunset to a thunderstorm as the former members of L'Manberg grieve over their their loss.
** Quackity logs on after Tommy's death and starts chatting to Jack Manifold. Jack tries to break the news to him gently, but Quackity doesn't understand and just keeps talking over him, excitedly planning what they should do when Tommy gets back from prison. When Jack finally bluntly tells him that Tommy is dead, Quackity completely crumples as it starts to rain.
** A mixture between this and CueTheSun occurs when Wilbur is found BackFromTheDead near the ruins of L'Manburg at dawn, and soon after, he watches the sunrise with Tommy. This becomes {{zigzagged}} because Wilbur is ''ecstatic'' by his revival, but Tommy seems to be conflicted by the situation.
** The night Sapnap reunited with Quackity in Las Nevadas started out clear, but a snowstorm started in the background when Quackity finally confronts him over the "abandonment"; later in Kinoko, the night was initially clear but eventually became rainy, and the SecondActBreakup between Karl and Quackity occurs during [[GrayRainOfDepression a heavy rainstorm]].
*** In the same stream as the above, [[EtTuBrute Purpled's betrayal]] also took place [[GrayRainOfDepression while it was raining]].
* EndOfAnAge: The Doomsday War scores the final destruction and ultimate end of L'Manburg, leaving Wilbur's "unfinished symphony" ''truly'' unfinished.
* EnemyMine:
** Dream becomes this to Pogtopia. While they were on opposite sides during the war, Dream recognizes that, while L'Manburg led by Wilbur was a largely peaceful nation just wanting to exist, Manburg under Schlatt is a ''serious'' threat. Dream does not actively help, as he does not want to be branded as the villain of the conflict again, but will help out Wilbur and Tommy from the sidelines.
** Techno and Quackity teaming up to [[BigDamnHeroes crash the Red Banquet]] because of their shared hatred for the Egg (each for his own reasoning) also counts as this, with both of them lampshading this fact.
* EnsembleCast: {{Justified|Trope}}. Each content creator's perspective understandably depicts themself as the protagonist of their own storyline, and [[SwitchingPOV the viewers can choose which perspective they want to watch]].
* EpicFail:
** In the aftermath of the Manburg Festival, Tommy attacks an AFK Techno to avenge his murder of Tubbo. However, Techno's Thorns-enchanted netherite armor means that Tommy not only kills ''himself'' in the process, but also does so little damage that when Techno returns he's unaware that Tommy even tried to kill him until he sees the loot that Tommy dropped upon his death.
** During the final battle for Manburg, Technoblade originally fails to summon the withers after misplacing a wither head, and has to stall for a moment and fix his mistake during an otherwise intense and terrifying scene.
--->'''Technoblade:''' Why isn't this spawning. Why is this not spawning. This is very awkward.
** Quackity gets one when he goes up against Technoblade in the remains of the Final Control Room. He has full enchanted netherite and enchanted weapons, while Techno has iron armor and a pickaxe. Despite all Quackity's bluster, Technoblade kills him in minutes.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Dream may have been willing to fight a war to keep L'Manburg under his control, but he at least has enough of an open mind to acknowledge the good Wilbur has done as its leader. When Jschlatt takes over and immediately begins dismantling everything L'Manburg stood for in favor of conquest, Dream writes a letter denouncing Jschlatt and all he's done before announcing his full support for Tommy and Wilbur, providing them gear and supplies. All this has to be done in secret, however, as Dream by law cannot go against Jschlatt.
* ExactEavesDropping: After the Manburg Festival, Tommy sneaks into Manburg to assassinate Schlatt as revenge for having [[HeterosexualLifePartners Tubbo]] executed. However, while preparing to carry out the assassination, Schlatt starts destroying the White House to Quackity's protests, which eventually culminated in Quackity inadvertently completing Tommy's revenge-mission ''for'' him. Following the argument, Tommy tracks Quackity down in the forest behind the White House and confronts him in a conversation that ended with Quackity's official HeelFaceTurn to join Pogtopia.
* TheExile: Happened multiple times over the course of the server's history, with the two major ones as of recent history being Tommy being exiled from L'Manburg by Tubbo (followed by the rest of Dream SMP by Dream himself), with Ghostbur joining to keep company, as well as Technoblade and Philza living off in self imposed exile at cottage in snowfall, due to the former wishing to live in peace, and the latter lost with purpose after his son's death.
** Pogtopia technically also counts as exile for Wilbur and Tommy, who had their citizenships revoked and been kicked out of L'Manburg after Schlatt became President, as well as all the former L'Manburgians/Manburgians who choose to join them there.
* FaceHeelTurn:
** Eret does this during the SMP War, selling out L'Manburg to the Greater Dream SMP in exchange for power.
** Jschlatt is initially presented as Tommy and Wilbur's friend, with the former's anticlimactic kicking from the server further angering Tommy against Dream. When Jschlatt comes ''back'', however, he's all but forgotten his old friends and proceeds to dismantle everything Tommy and Wilbur worked for. Furthermore, his goals of expansion also attract Dream's ire, to the point where the leader begins supporting Tommy and Wilbur in secret.
** [[FallenHero Wilbur]] teeters on the edge of one after a SanitySlippage that leads him to believe that not only is he the villain, but that he must embrace it. It's only "teetering on the edge" because there were signs that he can still be convinced to turn back before he actually starts committing the acts he's threatening to, but is ultimately played straight in the end when he goes through with detonating L'Manburg.
* FaceYourFears:
** Attempted by Quackity in Season 1, who tries to get over his fear of Technoblade by proving he's just a person and is therefore killable. After pointing out that Techno did something at Quackity's behest (read: placing a block), thus making him less scary, Technoblade begins to chase him down, talking slowly about how early humans hunted by outlasting their prey and using his trident to get ahead. Quackity is once again reduced to a terrified screaming heap as he is cut down.
** Tommy also attempts this in Season 3, with help from Tubbo and Ranboo. In preparation for trying to kill Dream in Pandora's Vault, he revisits several places that have caused him trauma to try to overcome it. Considering that exposure therapy only really works under a "safe" environment with a psychologist in tow, it's no wonder that it doesn't help much in the end.
* FakeDefector: Tubbo and Fundy are this after Jschlatt takes over L'Manburg. However, while Tubbo's role was coordinated with Wilbur and Tommy, Fundy's is entirely independent and a shock to even Wilbur and Tommy's side.
* FascistButInefficient: This is ultimately how Manburg's political situation can be described as. Schlatt regularly mistreated his subordinates and citizens and had a ZeroPercentApprovalRating not just among his country's citizens, but the entire server as well. [[FlockOfWolves Two out of five]] members of his cabinet were [[TheMole spies]] working against the country, a third [[UngratefulBastard helped him gain power in the first place but]] was abused to the point of becoming TheStarscream, and one [[AbsenteeActor didn't even show up]] most of the time.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing:
** As Dream gives his ultimatum to L'Manburg, he punches George and Sapnap away from the wall, something Tommy notices and calls him out for. The two can also be seen backing up further. Seconds later and it turns out that Dream wasn't trying to hurt them, he was instead trying to get them out of range of the massive explosion of TNT that soon erupts from under L'Manburg's base.
** You can just barely hear the hiss of TNT before L'Manberg is blown up by Wilbur from Quackity's POV.
* FlashForward: The L'Sandberg streams are set in the future after the Post-Banquet Arc streams.
* FlockOfWolves: Schlatt's cabinet in [[FascistButInefficient Manburg]] turned out to be this. Among the four people in the cabinet (excluding Schlatt), Tubbo was a [[LaResistance Pogtopian]] spy, and Fundy was an even more secretive Pogtopian spy. As for the other two people in the cabinet, George was an AbsenteeActor whose presence in the cabinet was ''barely even relevant'' to the plot, and [[VicePresidentWho Quackity]] was a FriendlyEnemy whose allegiance to Schlatt [[TheStarscream fluctuated]] [[YesMan depending]] [[PunchClockVillain on the day]][[note]]To clarify, he sometimes tried to rein [[TheCaligula Schlatt's behaviour]] in to help him make more reasonable decisions (since he genuinely wanted to make the country better, but to no avail every time); at other times, [[TheStarscream plotted to]] remove Schlatt from power so that he could become President instead; and occasionally acted as a devoted YesMan; but ultimately, the situation was complicated by (or can even be ''explained'' by) [[DomesticAbuse Schlatt's mistreatment]] of him regardless of his allegiance at the time[[/note]] but eventually stood up for himself and left to join Pogtopia anyway. By the Manburg-Pogtopia War, out of Schlatt's four main cabinet members, three of them were fighting on Pogtopia's behalf, and George didn't even show up to the battle.
* FloralThemeNaming: Hannah ''[[FlowersOfNature Rose]]'' is the most notable example of this on the SMP, but another, more obscure example would be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga Rutabaga]], Karl's pet cat that he named his former country Rutabagville after.
* FlowerMotifs:
** Ranboo and Tubbo's favorite flower is alliums, which represent unity, good fortune, and strength. In the Dream SMP, they also represent Ranboo and Tommy's first real interaction on the server, which was Ranboo giving Tommy an allium to apologize for accidentally hitting him. This moment is given a CallBack after Tommy's death, with Ranboo leaving an allium flower in front of Tommy's house and waiting until it despawns, only to later revisit the room with the items they stole from George's house and find the same flower he gave Tommy months ago, stored safely away in a hidden chest.
** Regarding ''Tales From the SMP'', the [[LightIsNotGood Inbetween's]] messages are all accompanied by [[MakeThemRot wither roses]], while those from [[DarkIsNotEvil the Other Side]] are accompanied by white tulips. Both flowers do not match the colour schemes of their respective dimensions, implicating the true intentions of both realms.
* ForeignCussWord:
** [[SouthOfTheBorder Mexican Dream]], naturally, is quite prone to swearing in Spanish. During Tommy's Exile, when M.D. overheard Dream telling Tommy that he didn't like M.D, M.D. started going on a [[ClusterFBomb vulgar]] [[ForeignLanguageTirade tirade]] in Spanish while chasing after Dream.
** Near the end of Schlatt and Quackity's fateful argument over the destruction of the White House, Schlatt can be heard loudly calling Quackity a "[[BilingualBonus pendejo]]", to which Quackity responds, "Do not curse me out in-" before Schlatt interrupts him.
* ForcedToWatch:
** At the end of Season 2, Dream tries to do this with Tommy, with a plan to kill Tubbo in front of him before locking him up in [[TheAlcatraz Pandora's Vault]]. This becomes {{defied|Trope}} when [[BigDamnHeroes Punz and half of the server]] show up to save them.
** During the Red Banquet, the Eggpire does this to the attendees and forces them to watch each other get executed and fed to the Egg. It only worked with Foolish, and TheCavalry showed up before they could decide on executing a second person.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Just before the announcment of the results of the Presidential Election, Schlatt tells his fellow candidates (other than those in [=POG2020=]) that he won't be having a speech if he gets inaugurated, and will immediately take action. True to form within the next 15 minutes of the VOD, Schlatt's inauguration speech has him exile his greatest political opponents, [=POG2020=], forcing them to RunOrDie.
** Wilbur warns Tommy early into the L'Manburg Civil War that, in a few weeks, he won't be the same man Jschlatt overthrew. At first, it just seems to be a herald for Wilbur [[LetsGetDangerous giving up his vow of peace to show Jschlatt who really rules L'Manburg]]. However, in hindsight it's so clearly an allusion to Wilbur's SanitySlippage, turning the once-pacifistic leader into someone with the ''image'' of a MadBomber who Tommy must either bring back from the brink of a FaceHeelTurn or wage war against.
** Early into the L'Manburg Civil War, Fundy's spy diary reveals that Jschlatt is TheAlcoholic and that continuing such a habit may be fatal. This has no major ramifications... until the end of the war, that is. When Dream and the Pogtopians corner Jschlatt within the Camaravan, he's completely drunk and is ''still drinking'' even as he's interrogated. It should not come as a surprise that he drops dead minutes later without any action on Pogtopia's end.
** Right after Schlatt dies, Dream mentions how he was lying about a traitor. Wilbur slips up and says "I thought ''I'' was the..." before he quiets himself. He would then blow up L'Manberg.
** Techno's post-FaceHeelTurn speech has him compare Tommy to Theseus, a hero who was scorned and exiled by his people despite saving them from evil, and asks Tommy if it's worth fighting for L'Manburg if they're just going to one day betray him. Not even two weeks later and Tommy is put on trial for griefing George's house by his own people (though he admittedly ''did'' commit the crime)--and Dream is there, trying to goad L'Manburg ''into exiling him''. It might even be an ''invoked'' example, as Dream was there during Techno's speech. Subverted, however, as Tommy gets a much lighter punishment (two weeks of probation) than what Dream wanted... only for [[DoubleSubversion Tubbo to exile him anyway a few days later as Dream increased his pressure on L'Manburg.]]
** In the conversation with Eret on November 16th, Dream says that Eret is only king because he's got people protecting him, and that without that protection from himself, Punz and Sapnap, his position means nothing and he's essentially powerless. Dream seems to have forgotten that by the time the Final Disc War rolls around, because by this time, he'd purposefully pushed his friends away, thinking his attachments were making him weak, leaving him completely defenseless when Punz rallies half the server together to stop him.
* FourthDateMarriage: This is how Karl and Sapnap, and eventually Quackity's relationship end up being like, where they got engaged with a practically nonexistent dating period. {{Deconstructed|Trope}} ''harshly'' in Season 3 when the [[PoorCommunicationKills miscommunication]] between the three--most notably concerning Karl's time-travelling powers and resulting memory loss, as well as Quackity's previous relationship trauma--led to a ''severe'' [[SecondActBreakup fallout]].
* FreezeFrameBonus: When Tommy and Technoblade visit Logstedshire to look for wolves in the nearby forest, a bit of netherite armor can be seen peeking out behind one of the torch pillars. It's Dream, [[StalkerWithoutACrush who's been tailing Tommy since he ran from Logstedshire]].
* FreudianTrio: Tommy, Ranboo and Tubbo are Id, Ego and Superego respectively. Tommy is a highly emotional and impulsive {{Determinator}} who is loyal to a fault, Tubbo is a very logic-driven person who wants to do the right thing even if it hurts those he cares about, and Ranboo is the middle ground between them, swearing allegiance not to countries and organizations, but people, and he's able to appeal both to Tommy's emotional and Tubbo's logic-driven nature.
* FromBeyondTheFourthWall: Several characters have their stream chats canonized in a variety of forms.
* FutureImperfect: The ''Tales From the SMP'' episode "[[https://www.twitch.tv/videos/887075492?sr=a&t=1229s The Lost City of Mizu]]" takes place one hundred years after the events of the Dream SMP. The main characters are a group of fishermen who have stumbled upon the titular city, an underwater city dedicated to preserving the legacies of the characters of the Dream SMP. There are multiple glaring inaccuracies in the records, like [[ForgetfulJones Ranboo]] having supreme memory, [[ChronicPetKiller Sapnap]] loving animals, [[CluelessBoss Geo]][[PuppetKing rge]] being a great king, [[TheGoodKing Er]][[PuppetKing et]] being a tyrant, no one being able to tell if Fundy was a person or a pet, [[GoshDangItToHeck BadBoyHalo]] cursing and being able to shut up opponents with a spell called Lan-gu-age, and so on. It is also implied that the [[HideYourGays polyamorous relationship between Karl, Sapnap and Quackity is erased from history]].
* FunWithAcronyms: WAP stands for "'''W'''orship '''A'''nd '''P'''rayer" by the founders of Church Prime, most commonly Tommy.
* GRatedDrug:
** Potions in Minecraft were treated as if they were drugs by some characters (such as Tommy, Wilbur, and Tubbo). Tommy and Wilbur even intended to create a "drug" empire that sells these potions before the War for L'Manburg. By the time the War for Independence rolled around, though, the "potions as drugs" interpretation was mostly dropped, as the goal of the budding faction shifted from selling "drugs" to providing a safe space from violence and tyranny.
** String is placed on the world in the form of tripwire. and then "inhaled" by breaking it.
*** To become a citizen of El Rapids, one must break string and eat a spider eye (dubbed the "Bite Of Truth").
*** During Mexican Dream's visit to Tommy, the former starts placing down string, and Tommy runs away in disgust.
* GambitPileup: The Red Banquet ends up being this, with both the Eggpire and the pro-Omelette attendees using a multitude of back-up plans to try to out-gambit the other side, which ends up being [[LampshadeHanging memed to hell and back]] by the fandom.
** Puffy, Foolish, Sam, and Hannah had previously snuck a chest of armour and weapons into the venue, and planned to retrieve the equipment under the code phrase "spruce boat", in case the Eggpire wasn't being truthful about turning over a new leaf and [[LuredIntoATrap the Banquet was just a trap]].
** However, the Eggpire had previously recruited Hannah as TheMole and had known about the equipment plan, and donned the armour when Puffy tried to retrieve it from the hidden chest.
** Independent of the previous plan, Sam had rigged about half a stack of TNT to [[StuffBlowingUp detonate the Egg]] in case the other plan didn't work.
** Unfortunately, the Eggpire had foreseen this (after [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Quackity snuck into the Egg Chamber and tried to blow up the Egg with three stacks of TNT]] about a month and a half ago) and reinforced the Egg against explosions, which allowed it to [[HealingFactor regenerate quickly]] after the barrage of explosives hit it.
** When the Eggpire tries to [[MakeAnExampleOfThem make an example of Eret]] for calling them out on their betrayal of trust, Foolish steps in to defend Eret, gives the Eggpire a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, and attempts to call down a BoltOfDivineRetribution to destroy the Egg.
** On the flip side, the Egg turns out to have such a strong PowerNullifier effect that it cancels out Foolish's PhysicalGod powers, so the Eggpire executes Foolish instead.
** After [[NearVillainVictory everything that has happened]], [[SpannerInTheWorks Quackity]] recruiting [[EnemyMine Techno]] and [[OnlyInItForTheMoney Purpled]] to crash the Banquet and [[BigDamnHeroes take on the Eggpire]] ends up being the LastPlanStanding, a plan ''completely'' independent of the attendees' pre-established gambits, and the Eggpire ends up abandoning the Egg and fleeing, with Antfrost losing a canon life in the scuffle courtesy of MamaBear Puffy.
* GogglesDoNothing: In the world of the Dream SMP, about a hundred years from the current events on the server, many people will be wearing goggles. This is seen prominently in the ''Tales'' episodes "The Lost City of Mizu" and "The Pit", where about half of the named characters in the episodes wear goggles, though for reasons not divulged.
* TheGoldenRule: Discussed by Tommy in a conversation with Foolish.
-->'''Tommy:''' [...] You know the phrase "Treat others how you want to be treated", Foolish?\\
'''Foolish:''' Yeah.\\
'''Tommy:''' That's a really important phrase, and people hear it, you know, you hear your teachers say it, you hear it when you're young, people don't ever listen to it: treat others how you want to be treated. [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Wilbur]] disregarded that rule. He decided that he wanted to be treated poorly, so he treated everyone else poorly.
* GottaHaveItGonnaStealIt: Applies to just about everyone on the SMP, if someone needs something, they'll usually just go loot someone's base (the victims usually being Eret or Purpled).
* GracefulLoser: Fundy and Niki took getting 9% of the popular vote in the L'Manberg Elections in their stride and cheered at knowing about 20,000 people voting for them. Just after them, Wilbur also peacefully ceded the podium to Schlatt after announcing that the [=SchWAG2020=] coalition beat out his own party, [=POG2020=], by 1% of the popular vote.
* GreatEscape:
** On 14 September 2021, Techno manages to escape from [[TheAlcatraz Pandora's Vault]] using the Ender Pearl Stasis Chamber in the headquarters of the Syndicate, with some assistance from Philza. It's been indicated that this escape could have taken place much earlier in the plot, but Phil's [[TimeAbyss skewed sense of time]] most likely got in the way.
** On 28 November 2021, Techno fulfills his part of the LeonineContract and uses the blueprints of Pandora's Vault that Dream entrusted him with to help Dream escape, utilizing several chinks in the prison's armour and lots of supplies.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Everyone on the server is both right and wrong to some degree, which is lampshaded in a conversation between Tommy and Foolish.
-->'''Foolish:''' [...] Do you consider yourself to be the good guy or the bad guy?\\
'''Tommy:''' That really depends who you ask, doesn't it? You know? If you ask Dream, he'd say I'm his little- his little play- his little toy that he plays with, you know? It doesn't… ''({{Beat}})'' Foolish, honestly, I used to consider myself the good guy, the fucking second-in-command, going around and going "Yeah! Let's do this". But recently, these past- these past like six months or so, Foolish, everything got so much harder than it was before. Because before it was us fighting the bad guys, and it was all so clear.\\
'''Foolish:''' Yeah. Nothing muddy.\\
'''Tommy:''' It was all so clear. But it's not been clear for so long, alright? It wasn't [[BlackAndWhiteMorality "These are the bad guys, these are the good guys"]]. Now it's "He's doing this, and that makes him a bit worse". It's all so fucking complicated. So, I don't know. It depends who you ask, but…\\
'''Foolish:''' I don't know. It just all seem strange, 'cause just from, you know, hearing from others, and learning a little bit, it seems like you've been a hero, you've been the villain, the conqueror, the savior, and even now, I still have no idea what you exactly are.\\
''({{Beat}})''\\
'''Tommy:''' Well, that's up to you to decide, isn't it?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:H - Q]]
* HairContrastDuo: Heavily {{zigzagged}} regarding Tommy and Tubbo. Typically, Tommy is the younger and more energetic blond to Tubbo's older, more serious, and more cynical brunet.[[note]]Tubbo is almost universally portrayed with brown hair despite his skin having blond hair, further reflecting the two's real life appearances and to show contrast between them.[[/note]] However, who fills what role and how varies over the server's history.
** At the beginning of the Pogtopia arc, Tubbo filled the spot of the "blond" to Tommy's "brunet", being a lot more idealistic and innocent, hopeful to the prospect of L'Manburg's recovery while working as [[TheMole a Pogtopian spy]] in Manburg; whereas Tommy was banished from his country and forced to go into hiding, and also has to deal with [[BrokenPedestal Wilbur]] and his BlackAndWhiteInsanity, and as a result was quickly forced to mature and support the rest of the Pogtopians.
** However, after Tubbo was elected President of New L'Manburg, Tubbo fell into the role of the "brunet", especially after having the harsh reality check of having to [[TheNeedsOfTheMany choose between his country and Tommy]], giving up his [[StepfordSmiler more optimistic]] traits and becoming a lot more serious, having to make difficult decisions and losing his close friends and support because of it. On the other hand, Tommy, despite still being HotBlooded as ever, didn't quite fit the bill of the "blond" of the duo, mainly because he spends most of the season going through a massive TraumaCongaLine.
** After the Lockdown arc, the two both show shades of both sides of the spectrum. Tommy has bounced back to being the loud and energetic "blond" as much as ever, but it's incredibly clear that all his [[TraumaCongaLine past trauma]] has affected him, causing him to become more wisened by experience; while Tubbo has holed up in Snowchester as [[StepfordSmiler a "brunet" who puts up the front of a "blond"]], his experiences as the President of a nation that he failed to save have evidently changed his demeanor a lot over time.
* HarmfulToMinors: So far, there have been five members of the server who have been minors during the narrative -- Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo, Purpled, and Eryn -- and much of the first three's narratives revolve around them [[TraumaCongaLine being exposed to various traumatic events on the server]]. It's telling that Tommy and Tubbo (and lesser so, Ranboo) are sometimes considered the most traumatized people on the SMP due to the events they have witnessed and experienced. However, Purpled and Eryn are let off the hook a little more, the former because he [[TeamSwitzerland rarely participates in conflict]] when he logs on, and the latter for being relatively new, only joining in late Season 3.
* HauntedHeadquarters: L'Manburg was heavily implied to be this in Seasons 2 and 3, as Ghostbur, the ghost of the country's founder, felt that "something [kept] drawing [him] to L'Manberg" even after its annihilation in the Doomsday War, and he had lived there for part of the time before Doomsday as the resident FriendlyGhost.
* HauntedHouse: The "Haunted Mansion" episode of ''Tales From the SMP'' takes place in one.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: '''''Heavily''''' [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] and [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]]. Tommy and Tubbo are very aware of the looming possibility of them falling into Wilbur and Schlatt's footsteps respectively, and try their hardest to avoid it and preserve their friendship. However, [[TheChessmaster Dream]] is their biggest obstacle, as he continually sows the seeds of conflict to break them apart, and even though they're aware of it they don't have a way to stop it from happening.
-->'''Tommy:''' Tubbo, you ''can't'' turn into what you hate. You can't be the next Schlatt. If you exile me, you're following in that man's footsteps.\\
'''Tubbo:''' ... Okay. Well, as long as I can't be the next Schlatt, you can't be the next Wilbur.
* HeelFaceTurn:
** Eret, who had betrayed Wilbur and Tommy during the Dream SMP War, begins to have second thoughts after Jschlatt takes over L'Manburg and ultimately voices full support for the duo despite knowing the dangers of denouncing Jschlatt.
** ''Triple'' subverted with Dream, the arguable BigBad of the Dream SMP War. He winds up providing secret support to Wilbur and Tommy during the L'Manburg Civil War, making it seem like this, but he betrays them near the end because Jschlatt has promised him something special. He then defects back to their side because Jschlatt is an idiot and Dream doesn't want to go down fighting a losing battle... except he later reveals that he made a deal with Wilbur to destroy Manburg. Dream is stated to still be an enemy by Tommy when the war is done, but Dream and Tommy (as well as Tubbo) all manage to enjoy a friendly moment together before they go back to being foes.
* HellholePrison: {{Invoked|Trope}} and {{deconstructed|Trope}} with Pandora's Vault, in particular its main, maximum-security holding cell, where the prisoner is locked inside 24/7, unable to see the light of day, and is forced to eat raw potatoes. A lore stream in mid-September 2021 reveals Sam, the builder and Warden of the prison, initially had a courtyard where prisoners could have some leisure time under the sun, and had plans for a cow farm so they could be served steak. However, Dream shot all of this down and insisted that the conditions inside the jail be as inhumane as possible. This [[HoistByHisOwnPetard backfires on Dream]], however, when he's the one locked up in Pandora's Vault in the end. When he complains to Sam about the horrible conditions, Sam reminds him that ''[[GoneHorriblyRight he's]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight the one responsible for the prison's conditions in the first place]].
* HideYourGays: Implied in the ''Tales From the SMP'' episode "The Lost City of Mizu". In the [[FutureImperfect lost city]], it is claimed that Sapnap had a BedFullOfWomen when his room was shown to have three beds. However, considering that Quackity's room also had three beds, it seems far more logical to conclude that history has been straightwashed and the knowledge of the {{polyamory}} between the two and Karl has been lost to time.
* HijackedByGanon: With Jschlatt being a DiscOneFinalBoss for the L'Manburg Civil War's final battle, the role of BigBad is fought over by many, including [[FallenHero Wilbur]] and [[WildCard Techno]][[BloodKnight blade]]. However, the true BigBad is revealed to be ''Dream'', the previous BigBad of the L'Manburg War of Independence, having played both sides for fools and having manipulated so many of the events in his favor that the only spanners in the works (Jschlatt's drunken stupor and Techno's FaceHeelTurn) end up working out for him anyways (as the former results in the death of his biggest threat and the latter draws the Pogtopians' attention away from him, allowing him to blatantly confess how he manipulated the war and ''still get away with it'').
* HolyGround: The Holy Land, also known as the Suburbs of Prime (or The Subs for short), is a district on the server considered "holy". Killing and the usage of weapons and armor are not allowed within the borders of the district, which are visibly marked out by smooth stone.
** [[ExploitedTrope As a result of]] the no-violence policy of the Holy Land, it is also used as a TruceZone by various server members in conflict with each other, and the independence of El Rapids was also negotiated in the district.
* HonorBeforeReason: PlayedWith. While the Pro-Omelette attendees of the Red Banquet are renowned for being some of the more moral members of the server, Foolish and Puffy [[SubvertedTrope still]] smuggled diamond weapons and armour and shields into the place where the Banquet would be held beforehand, as a back-up plan. Unfortunately for them, [[TheMole Hannah]] was there when they made the plans, and tipped off the Eggpire before the Banquet began, and no one thought to bring ''extra'' weapons and armour in case both Puffy and [[StuffBlowingUp Sam's]] backup plans for the Banquet [[OutGambitted failed]].
* HonorThyAbuser: ''Heavily'' [[DefiedTrope defied]] on two different occasions.
** During the Season 2 finale, after Tommy finally gets the upper hand on Dream, the man who exiled him from his home, trapped him alone on a deserted beach, physically and psychologically abused him for weeks, and [[ForcedToWatch nearly murdered his best friend in front of him]], Dream tells Tommy that he ''knows'' he won't kill him, since they're such good friends. Tommy is having absolutely ''none'' of this, and forces Dream to hand over all of his gear ([[IronicEcho using the same line Dream would use when forcing Tommy to give up his armor and tools every day during exile]]), backs him into a corner, and proceeds to take ''two'' of his three lives, and would have [[KilledOffForReal killed him off for real]] if Dream hadn't told him about his ability to bring people back from the dead.
--->'''Tommy:''' Dream, you have caused me nothing but pain. And now... ''[[PreMortemOneLiner Now it's your turn]].''
** Another example occurs during the first "Las Nevadas" stream, where Schlatt tries rekindling his past relationship with Quackity, who was traumatized by him throughout their relationship, and currently hates him and refuses to engage in anything more then a [[WorkingWithTheEx business relationship]] with him, while establishing clear boundaries on their interaction. It's also heavily implied that Quackity seeking out Schlatt for Las Nevadas is a last resort rather than a first choice, after the revelations in the second "Las Nevadas" stream.
* HopeSpot:
** Wilbur had multiple moments where he appeared to give up on his plan to blow up L'Manburg, to the point where, before the war-stream, he said -- out of character -- that he wasn't going to blow it up because he wanted people to be able to download the world. Even when he was about to press the button, Philza appeared and intervened, and seemed to be getting through to him... but then Wilbur pressed the button anyway.
** Tommy finally gained some leverage over Dream, as he has the leather of Dream's old horse, Spirit, in his possession. Tommy threatens to burn the leather if Dream does not take down the walls around L'Manburg and it appears to work, as Dream seems sullen and angry, and listens to Tommy's demands to take down the obsidian walls around L'Manburg. Tommy and the other L'Manburgians celebrate, laughing and mocking Dream… until Dream goes eerily quiet, and starts to build the walls around L'Manburg even higher. Dream then drops from the wall and states that he ''never really cared about Spirit's leather'', and now plans to completely seal L'Manburg off from the outside world if Tubbo does not exile Tommy.
** After spending an entire week with [[AloneWithThePsycho only Dream for company]] in the prison, Tommy is finally about to get to leave the prison and return to his hotel. That is, until Sam messages him and Dream, telling them that they need to wait even longer before Sam can free Tommy. At the end of both of their respective ropes, Dream and Tommy begin an argument which eventually escalates into Dream [[KilledOffForReal taking Tommy's final canon life]]. While Tommy is eventually brought back, the sheer process of dying has had a clearly negative impact on his psyche.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Tommy is quick to accuse Techno of betraying him and L'Manburg during the Doomsday War. Except throughout both Seasons 1 and 2, Techno has been nothing short of completely honest about his motivations, meaning that any blindsiding is on Tommy for failing to see that Techno's goals clearly don't align with his. The hypocrisy comes in when Techno promptly points out that it's actually ''Tommy'' who turned against ''Techno'', having led him to believe they were allies only to suddenly switch sides on a whim and leave Techno to stand alone against a dozen people that had previously tried to execute him (and who currently seek to finish the job).
** Techno is considered by some to be a contender for the poster {{pig|Man}} for hypocrisy on the server. In the midst of Techno's fury at Tommy's HeelRealization, he claimed during the Doomsday War that Tommy was using him from the start, and had been lying to him about what he was actually planning. This is ''extremely'' rich considering that, a day before the Green Festival, Techno outright ''admitted'' that he was only keeping Tommy around to further his own ends, and had been lying to Tommy for ''weeks'' about his true intentions of destroying L'Manburg (which Tommy had said ''from the start'' that he didn't want to do).
* HypocriticalHumor: Wilbur says this while in the process of taking a chunk of the server for himself.
--> '''Wilbur:''' This is just your formal notice that this is our server, this part.\\
[...]\\
'''Dream:''' What happens if the rest of the server decides to take over your land?\\
'''Wilbur:''' They can't, 'cause it's literally- that's not how servers- Dream, you're supposed to be smart, man, that's not how servers work. You can't just take over another person's server.
* ICallItVera: Several of the players have named weapons that are most noticeable in death messages. Among them:
** Dream's arrow-loaded crossbow [[PhallicWeapon "DEFINITELY NOT PENIS"]], and his enchanted netherite sword, Nightmare.
** Techno's sword, [[CrossesTheLineTwice/DreamSMP "Orphan Obliterator"]], and his firework-loaded crossbow, formerly named [[PleaseSubscribeToOurChannel "Subscribe to Technoblade"]].
* IHaveNoSon:
** Inverted and subverted in the L'Manburg Civil War. Fundy claims that Wilbur is not his father after the latter refuses to support Jschlatt's rule. However, this is just a ploy by Fundy to make Jschlatt think he's really on his side--in actuality, Fundy is a mole siding with Wilbur.
** Played straight in the events surrounding Technoblade's execution. Philza refuses to cooperate and is forced into house arrest by Butcher Army. Fundy, who was also in the Butcher Army, tries to gave Philza a piece of brown dye as what seemed to be a peace offering after the failed execution, which Philza promptly throws away, indicating that he was on rather negative terms with Fundy at the time. Despite this, the two begin to rekindle their relationship after Wilbur is brought back to life.
* ILied: The Anarchists warn L'Manburg that they would attack the next day at 3pm. Turns out they were actually attacking 15 minutes early, catching L'Manburg ''completely'' off guard.
* INeedToGoIronMyDog: Tubbo needed an excuse to leave Schlatt's side to sneak off to Pogtopia. What excuse did he use? [[MisterSeahorse He told Schlatt he's pregnant]].
* IdiotBall:
** Wilbur's plan for the election was to sign himself and Tommy up, then immediately shut the polls so they'd be the only party running. The two of them then proceed to ''immediately'' tell Quackity about this plan, ''before'' shutting the polls. Naturally, Quackity starts his own campaign, and the Election arc is born.
** The reason the Manburg Festival didn't end in a giant explosion was because Wilbur lost the button that would set off the TNT.
* IfICantHaveYou: Wilbur's ''supposed'' reasoning for wanting to blow up Manburg. He knows that even if he kicks out Schlatt and becomes president again, he'd be an illegitimate president, no longer allied with the Dream SMP because there'd no longer be an EnemyMine, and going back to the way things were would be pretty much impossible, as many major landmarks have been destroyed and relations have changed drastically. Wilbur decides that, if he can't have his country back, Schlatt can't have it either.
** This turns out to [[SubvertedTrope all be a front]] for him, as he has also stated in private that his reasoning for doing so is that the beliefs and ideals that he built the nation for no longer existed. These [[UnreliableNarrator polarizing claims]] have, as a result, caused many to develop conflicting views on him, to put it lightly.
* InSpiteOfANail: A minor example occurs during the L'Manburg War for Independence. ''Tommy'' was the one who pushed the button to trigger the Final Control Room's trap, though it was [[WhatDoesThisButtonDo out of genuine curiosity]] and is regarded as an accident. However, it doesn't matter in the long run, as Eret would have betrayed L'Manburg regardless of who actually pressed the button.
* IneffectualDeathThreats: Subverted in the Dream SMP vs L'Manburg War. Dream threatens to detonate a single block of TNT within L'Manburg's walls if they do not concede the war. The L'Manburgians, clearly not worried about a single block of TNT, call his bluff, and Dream lights the block of TNT... which in turn activates the countless ''other'' blocks of TNT underneath L'Manburg the Dream Team had planted before their parlay.
* InternalReveal: During the one year anniversary of L'Manburg's founding, Tubbo tells Wilbur that Technoblade and Philza were the ones who reduced L'Manburg to bedrock and not himself like Wilbur had thought.
* IronicEcho:
** During Tommy's exile, Dream frequently orders him to "put [his] armour in the hole" that he dug to destroy his items. Tommy [[CallBack echoes this]] in the Disc Confrontation after TheCavalry arrives, borrowing Sapnap's pickaxe to dig a hole in the floor of the vault and tell Dream to place all his armour and weapons in it as an act of surrender, showing for once that Tommy has the upper hand over his abuser.
** When Tommy got inadvertently trapped in prison with Dream, he continuously screamed at Sam to let him out, to which Dream semi-tauntingly replied that he could scream as much as he wanted, as Sam wouldn't come. Weeks later, Quackity managed to convince Sam to let him bring weapons into Dream's cell, which he proceeded to use to [[ColdBloodedTorture torture the method to reviving people out of him]]. As soon as Quackity pulled out the weapons, Dream started screaming for Sam to come help him... to which Quackity replied that he could scream for Sam as much as he wanted.
** After surviving and escaping his execution, Techno declared that he would put a pickaxe through Quackity's teeth in their duel, which he proceeded to do. Almost nine months of real time later, when Quackity dropped by Pandora's Vault to visit Dream and Techno, he attempts to kill Techno in revenge for taking his canon life, screaming that he would put a pickaxe through Techno's teeth... [[NegatedMomentOfAwesome only for Techno to be teleported out of the prison by Phil using the Ender Pearl Stasis Chamber right before Quackity could enact his revenge]].
* {{Irony}}:
** Technoblade, the literal PigMan, is pretty much the only player [[WorldOfHam on the SMP]] who isn't a LargeHam.
** Right before Ranboo officially joined the SMP he was starting his political campaign and made a list of things he would outlaw as president, one of those things was [=TommyInnit=] himself. A few days later, the two have become friends, and Ranboo is visibly upset when Tommy is exiled from L'Manburg.
** Jschlatt renames L'Manburg to Manburg under his term, claiming the nation doesn't take L's. In actuality, it takes nothing ''but'' L's, having been on the losing side of ''all three'' major wars it participated in (the War of Independence, the Civil War, and the Doomsday War)--one of which was under Jschlatt's own rule. That's also not saying anything about the fact that it's been horribly destroyed in all three wars, and its only victory (gaining independence in the first war despite losing overall) is offset by the fact that said victory led to nothing but trouble.
* ItAmusedMe: After Doomsday, Tommy tearfully asks Dream why he didn't just burn the discs or otherwise punish Tommy in particular. Dream's response?
-->'''Dream:''' This is much more fun.
* JoinOrDie: Dream has this ultimatum for L'Manburg: Either cease fighting for independence or he'll utterly thrash them. They refuse as expected, Dream does exactly what he promised to.
-->'''Dream:''' I want to see ''white flags''! White flags outside your base, by tomorrow, at dawn, or you are ''dead''!
* KarmaHoudini:
** Dream is this at the end of the L'Manburg Civil War. He betrays both Pogtopia and Manburg and helps a mentally-unstable Wilbur to destroy the latter. Tommy outright calls him an enemy when the war is done, but Dream goes unpunished (even enjoying a quick moment of relaxation with Tommy and Tubbo, his supposed enemies) on both sides, with those on Tommy and Tubbo's side too focused on restoring L'Manburg to its former glory to actually punish Dream and those on Jschlatt's side being dead or non-existent.
** Not a single member of the Arctic Anarchist Commune is punished for their destruction of L'Manburg in the Doomsday War. The few setbacks they ''do'' suffer (Techno losing a vast majority of his hound army, Phil being angrily called out by his son Ghostbur, and Dream being forced to go into hiding for a while) are minor at best.
* KillEmAll: In the ''Tales From the SMP'' episodes "The Village That Went Mad", "The Lost City of Mizu" and "The Masquerade", every character dies other than the culprits -- Jack and Bob in the former (Karl technically lives but he isn't a participant in the murder mystery in the first place), Ranbob in the second, and Sir Billiam and his Butler in the latter.
* KillTheCutie: Season 2 of the Dream SMP introduces Ghostbur, the spectral counterpart of Wilbur Soot, who essentially [[LiteralSplitPersonality embodies many of his pre-spiral traits]]. For the rest of the season, he acts as the resident FriendlyGhost who loves his pet sheep and wishes to [[TheAtoner atone for his living counterpart's past crimes]]. Of course, since the Dream SMP is a CrapsackWorld, Ghostbur gets sent on a [[AfterlifeExpress one-way train trip]] to "Jubilee Hell" when Dream brings Wilbur back to life halfway through Season 3, rendering the poor ghost [[DeathOfPersonality recursively dead]].
* KilledOffForReal: The Dream SMP isn't a hardcore server, so even events like Tubbo's execution [[DeathIsCheap avert this]]. That is, until the final battle of the L'Manburg Civil War, where Jschlatt dies of a heart attack and Wilbur has Philza kill him to complete his destiny... and neither of them come back. Wilbur's final death is even coupled with him ending his stream. This is explained with the addition of the 3 lives system to the SMP canon from the end of the L'Manburg Civil War and onwards.
* KillItWithFire: Awesamdude's current method of disposing of the [[AlienKudzu Blood Vines spreading across the server]] is by breaking them to pieces and throwing them into fire - ''blue'' fire specifically, as regular fire doesn't seem to affect it.
* LandOfOneCity: L'Manburg (and to an extent, Manburg)'s territory primarily consisted of the territory encompassed within the walls of the faction. Even after the annexation of Rutabagville during the Manburg era and of Pogtopia during the Tubbo administration, the lands are rarely accessed and are essentially L'Manburgian territory in name only, to the point that they are completely ignored during the Doomsday War and thus stand to this day.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Jschlatt orders Tubbo's execution after outing him as a traitor, and forces Tubbo's ally Technoblade to carry it out via a firework-loaded crossbow. When Techno finally makes the shot, Jschlatt is immediately killed by splash damage from the firework, becoming the first of many casualties in the Manburg Massacre.
* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: Usually near the end of a story arc, several new players join the SMP.
** The Election Arc sees Technoblade joining the server, after a cry for help by Wilbur and Tommy due to Schlatt's rebranding of L'Manburg and subsequent change.
** The Manberg Rebellion sees [=Ph1LzA=] joining the server right before Wilbur [[NukeEm blows up L'Manburg]], and [=CaptainPuffy=], Ranboo and [=ConnorEatsPants=] join the server after the destruction of L'Manburg and its subsequent reconstruction.
** Towards the end of the Disunion Arc and the beginning of the Imprisonment Arc, [=FoolishG=], Hannahxxrose, and Slimecicle join the server.
* LateArrivalSpoiler: Every season or even livestream practically ''runs'' on this, hence the spoiler warning at the start of the page.
* LikeFatherLikeSon: Philza [[LampshadeHanging references the trope by name]] when acknowledging how both himself and his son Wilbur have blown up L'Manberg. A penchant for using TNT to destroy former homes seems to run the family, as Fundy has also done something similar by blowing up his home on two separate occasions.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There are currently 34 main members of the SMP, each with their own unique POV.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: The diversity of Minecraft skins naturally leads to this, and some characters also have other details not seen on their skins. In addition to bog-standard humans, the world of the SMP is also home to animal people of both the BeastMan and LittleBitBeastly varieties, [[BenevolentMonsters uplifted mobs]], Demons, Ghosts, sentient humanoid Diamond blocks, a semi-immortal WingedHumanoid, a PhysicalGod of undeath, and several characters of ambiguous species[[note]]Dream, Eret, and Karl, to name a few[[/note]]. There are also Dreamons, who can possess people and may or may not be a species in their own right, and Foolish mentions witches and warlocks at one point, though if either qualifies as a WitchSpecies isn't yet known.
* LoveHurts:
** Sam and Ponk were valentines and dated briefly, but saying that their relationship didn't end well is an understatement -- Sam flirting with [[SmallRoleBigImpact Andrea Botez]] during her date with Jack prompted Ponk to join [[ReligionOfEvil the Eggpire]], blaming Sam for breaking his heart; and later in the series, Ponk was caught stealing a key card to Pandora's Vault, which was SeriousBusiness to Sam... who proceeded to canonically kill him in retaliation, [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] him to get the key cards back, and ''[[AnArmAndALeg cut Ponk's arm off]]''. Ouch.
** Quackity had been working on a secret project, Las Nevadas, and hadn't seen his fiancés, Karl and Sapnap, or his friend George in a long while. When he reunites with George outside Pandora's Vault, he is told that George, Sapnap, and Karl, the old citizens of El Rapids, had formed Kinoko Kingdom and left El Rapids and by extension, him, behind.
*** George had also claimed that Karl was tasked to invite Quackity over to the Kingdom, but it is heavily implied that his [[BlessedWithSuck time travelling-induced amnesia]] is finally kicking in, and thus he forgot to do so, making the circumstances utterly beyond his control.
*** It is also during this conversation that Las Nevadas was revealed to have been built with Karl, Sapnap, and George in mind, with customized casinos for each of them, and Quackity implied that he had plans to formally propose to his fiancés, but in a cruel deconstruction of PoorCommunicationKills, their relationship took a huge hit and Quackity is finally is left [[TearJerker/DreamSMP heartbroken]] by the end of the conversation.
*** Quackity in general seems to be the victim of this trope, as many of his past relationships have utterly [[LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces failed to work out]], or ended badly. Most notably, his past [[DomesticAbuse toxic relationship]] with Schlatt still traumatizes him to this day, and when he finally got into a somewhat stable relationship (for once) with Karl and Sapnap, their unintentional abandonment is [[TraumaCongaLine the last straw]] that [[DespairEventHorizon finally pushed him over the edge]] to follow in [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur's]] footsteps.
*** On the Kinoko Kingdom side of the story, Karl's own memory problems presumably start to worsen tenfold to the point of only remembering Quackity as his ''murderer'' and exactly ''none'' of the history (friendship, romance, etc.) that they had shared, to the point of enforcing a restraining order against his own fiancé.
* LoveTriangle: Two have formed in the servers history.
** Karl, Quackity, and Sapnap with Karl at the center of it, though it is arguably a Type 7 in terms of TriangRelations[[note]]since Karl and Quackity definitely had some romantic tension even when Karl was engaged to just Sapnap[[/note]]. Eventually, Sapnap decided to get together with Quackity to get back at Karl, which eventually led to the issue being resolved by the three of them deciding to [[{{Polyamory}} all get engaged with each other]], making it Type 8.
** More recently, Foolish, Sam and Ponk have been involved with one, Ponk showing {{Yandere}}-like tendencies towards Foolish, while Foolish hopes to help mend Sam and Ponk's [[LoveHurts broken relationship]], as well as promising a date with Sam.
* LuredIntoATrap:
** After an encounter gone wrong, the L'Manburgians hide in a bunker prepared by Eret. Except Eret reveals himself to be a traitor and activates a piston door in the wall[[note]]technically, Tommy pushed the button out of curiosity, but the button to trigger the trap [[InSpiteOfANail would have been pressed regardless]], in the context of the situation[[/note]], allowing Dream and his allies to storm the bunker and kill the L'Manburgians in a CurbStompBattle.
** Two seasons later, the [[NastyParty Red Banquet]] serves as an opportunity for the Eggpire to lure multiple members of the server, several of whom are vocally pro-Omelette, into be killed and fed to the Egg.
** In seeking revenge for the destruction of his UFO, Purpled tells Quackity and Slime about a strange chest that he found, which none of the Las Nevadas members placed. As Slime opens the chest in question with its contents undisclosed, Purpled pulls a nearby lever that causes the sand beneath them to drop into a platform suspended over lava. Purpled proceeds to confront Quackity over this and demands the knowledge of the revive-book, and when Quackity tells him that he doesn't have the book and wouldn't give its contents to Purpled even if he had it, Purpled knocks Slime into the lava below. [[TearJerker/DreamSMP This doesn't end well.]]
* MacGuffin: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] with the discs, especially in Season 2. Materially speaking, they're worthless, and indistinguishable from any other copy of Cat or Mellohi on the server. However, Tommy ascribes a lot of sentimental value to them, and both Tommy and Dream give them more and more symbolic value as the struggle between them progresses, becoming representations of the power Dream has over Tommy and L'Manburg. Over the course of the Vengeance Arc, Tommy starts to believe that getting the discs back will remove the power Dream has over him and thereby end all conflict (which is wrong, but not an unreasonable conclusion to come to), and with Techno egging him on, goes to greater and greater lengths to get them back. His HeelRealization at the Green Festival happens when he realizes he'd been wrong to put the discs over his friends and country, and while he doesn't stop chasing them, he keeps his priorities in check from that point onward. However, Dream has no such realization and continues to treat them as all-important to the point of [[LiteralMetaphor putting them on literal pedestals]], and sabotages himself at multiple points to get them, and his taunting Tommy with the discs is what ultimately leads to his downfall. Tommy and Dream both experience the consequences of giving the discs ultimate importance, but while Tommy uses those consequences to learn and grow into a better and wiser person, Dream refuses to confront any realistic flaws, and that's why Tommy wins.
* MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext: For some reason, it always seems to revolve around the [[DysfunctionalFamily family trees]] and relationships of the characters.
** Apparently, Wilbur had an affair with a [[BestialityIsDepraved female salmon]] (later named Sally) that led to him becoming the biological father of [[RandomSpeciesOffspring Fundy]]. When the chat on one of Philza's streams tried to interpret the salmon as a shapeshifter, Wilbur rejected the notion.
** Wilbur explains through a public message in Philza's stream that Wilbur himself is the biological son of Philza... and a Samsung Smart Refrigerator. When the chat tried to make sense of the fridge (interpreting the fridge as if it was an IceQueen) Wilbur rejected the chat's interpretation, cementing the fact that an ''actual refrigerator'' is Wilbur's mother.
** During the negotiation to attempt to scam Schlatt out of his presidency, Quackity [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxL-_fNS2vY&t=3190s claims]] that he was [[HomosexualReproduction pregnant with]] [[MisterSeahorse (possibly) Schlatt's child]]. Later in the series, he also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc0w9uSbqIc&t=108s claims]] to have ''given birth'' to his then-newly formed country, El Rapids; but none of this is ever explained in canon, such as how Mpreg works in the context of the Dream SMP, or how it is possible to give birth to ''a chunk of land''. However, since the livestream where this was initially announced would be considered a "lore stream" in later seasons, it can be inferred that this is ''somehow canonical'', in a similar vein to Wilbur and Quackity's "borderline romantic" relationship as seen during Niki's birthday party (once again, a proto-lore stream).
* TheManTheyCouldntHang: Techno once again proves that he [[NighInvulnerable never dies]] by foiling his own execution with a Totem of Undying.
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: During the fight between Tommy and Tubbo, Techno can be seen in the background, spying on them.
* MeaningfulEcho:
** As he betrays L'Manburg during their war for independence, Eret says, "It was never meant to be." During the L'Manburg Civil War, Wilbur says the same thing in the same context, echoing Eret's words as he destroys Manburg. They were later echoed by Niki as she burned down the L'Mantree.
** After gaining independence from the Greater Dream SMP, Wilbur shouts, "SUCK IT, GREEN BOY!" while signing the L'Manburg "Degree of Independance". During the Disc Confrontation, where Dream is once again defeated and imprisoned, Tommy and Tubbo celebrate their victory by "[making] Wilbur proud" and shouting at Dream to suck it.
* MetaphoricallyTrue: Both in regards to Dream telling Pogtopia that there's a traitor among them. At the time, Dream had made a pact with Jschlatt when he otherwise stated he didn't want to go with ''either'' side to not make easy enemies, making ''him'' the traitor. Later, when Tommy questioned Dream about there being any traitors during their victory over Jschlatt, he claims that he lied and that there wasn't ''a'' traitor. There were actually ''two'': Wilbur and Technoblade.
* MetaTwist: After a long string of major era-ending plot events that happened on the 16th of the month (the L'Manburg Election in September 2020, the Manburg Festival in October 2020, the Manburg-Pogtopia War and Season 1's finale in November 2020, and Technoblade's Execution in December 2020), January 2021 breaks said trend with the Doomsday War in January 6th (the end of the Vengeance Era) and Dream's imprisonment in January 20th (the end of the Disunion Era and Season 2 of the SMP as a whole).
* MickeyMousing: Used during the opening montage of Quackity's April 12th stream as he's torturing Dream over the course of an entire month, ''a la'' ''Film/AClockworkOrange''.
* MightMakesRight: The Dream SMP is a world where this is the norm, and those who try to prove otherwise -- case in point, L'Manburg -- usually get [[NukeEm crushed]], and idealists and peacemakers often end up resorting to violent methods that they previously opposed to survive and achieve their noble goals, to the point that several ex-diplomats have [[TookALevelInCynic had their ideologies turn a 180 altogether]] due to their traumatic lives on the server.
* MistakenForTerrorist: Whenever Technoblade talks about commmitting terrorism, he makes sure to specify that it's in Minecraft, afraid the FBI might think he's being serious.
* TheMole:
** During the Manburg/Pogtopia arc, Tubbo was a spy for Pogtopia while being Schlatt's right-hand man. Unfortunately, Tubbo was quite conspicuous about this, leading Schlatt to quickly find out his true allegiance and eventually have him executed for treason.
** Also in the Manburg/Pogtopia arc, Fundy was an even more secretive spy against Manburg who gathered information about Schlatt and his country to try to restore L'Manburg to its former glory.
** At the Red Banquet, Hannah reveals herself to be this for the Eggpire, having found out about the Pro-Omelette attendees' backup plan to store weapons in the banquet hall and used this knowledge to [[OutGambitted out-gambit]] them.
* MoodWhiplash: This trope is ''extremely'' prevalent in pretty much all the streams of the SMP as the streamers often break character to crack a joke or make a mistake during an otherwise serious moment in the roleplay. The inherent goofiness of Minecraft doesn't help, either.
** The [[ElectionDayEpisode L'Manburg election]] was mostly lighthearted, with the two leading parties being named silly things like [=POG2020=] and [=SWAG2020=], Fundy getting ridiculed publicly for getting caught trying to [[VoteEarlyVoteOften commit election fraud]], and Quackity playing the role of the [[BigBadWannabe ineffectual]] CardCarryingVillain. However, things go south when, due to some last minute deals with Quackity's campaign, [[DarkHorseVictory Jschlatt wins the election]]. In a speech that sounds legitimately ''terrifying'', Schlatt declares himself [[AGodAmI Emperor of the country]], has Tommy and Wilbur chased out of L'Manburg with nothing but the items in their inventories, demands the walls be torn down, and declares his desire to... expand the nation. That's right, an election in a Minecraft server ends with the new president going full fascist dictator and his opponents being exiled from the country that they built.
** The prelude to the Battle of the Lake has Tommy give an epic speech to Sapnap that he ends by claiming he has Techno on his side, which gives him the advantage over Sapnap. As if perfectly timed, Techno himself joins the game a second later in an equally epic move... and then he ''immediately'' begins to complain about losing sleep because Tommy woke him up.
** The day after the Manburg Festival, Tommy, Wilbur, and a recently-[[HeelFaceTurn defected]] Quackity grief Manburg together by building a giant cobblestone cock right in front of the flag. The three of them are cracking jokes and having fun, Wilbur in particular almost seems like he's his old self again... and then he leads Tommy and Quackity to the [[RoomFullOfCrazy button room]]. Tommy's reaction says it all.
--->'''Tommy:''' Holy- HOOOOOOLY SHIT!
** This happens ''again'' during Nihachu's birthday stream. For the most part, it's all fun and laughs and celebration, with Quackity and Wilbur playing the guitar (though Wilbur seems fairly out of it)... until at the very end of the stream, where Wilbur jumps right back to his plot to blow up Manburg, giving Quackity an ultimatum to schedule a meeting with Jschlatt before Friday before it explodes.
** Phil's perspective provided a pretty heartbreaking one. He wanted to listen to Tubbo's speech, so he turned on Wilbur's stream and listened to it live. He spent a little while expressing his pride in Tubbo while laughing at the fact that he doesn't know what a president is supposed to do... But then Wilbur excuses himself and leaves the voice chat.
--->'''Phil:''' Wait, where's Wil going?\\
'''Wilbur:''' ''(sigh)'' ChekhovsGun...\\
'''Phil:''' Is he done? Is he done streaming?\\
'''Wilbur:''' I've... I'll be honest with you, chat. [[WhamLine I've been wondering this whole time if it still works.]]\\
'''Phil:''' ''(smile drops, eyes widen)'' ...[[OhCrap Oh]], ''[[OhCrap no]].''
** During the final battle for Manburg, Technoblade gives a fairly long and terrifying speech to Tommy, comparing him to Theseus and warning Tommy that good things don't happen to heroes. After yelling a terrifying line, he turns to summon two withers and make good on his threat...only to struggle to summon them after misplacing a wither skull.
--->'''Technoblade:''' You want to be a hero, Tommy? Then ''DIE LIKE ONE!'' Okay. Why isn't this spawning. Why is this not spawning. This is very awkward.
** When Ghostbur makes his dramatic entrance to tell Tommy he wants to be brought back to life, Tommy just mumbles "What?" in shock... Then immediately gets ''struck by lightning'', an event so unexpected and out of the blue that ''everyone'' starts {{corpsing}} for several minutes.
** Sapnap deciding to go visit Dream in prison came on the heels of him, Karl, George, [=BadBoyHalo=], (and later, Foolish), messing around and building mushroom based houses for the last few hours. Not to mention how literal minutes before, everyone was joking around about splitting Sapnap's viewercount with Foolish, so the viewers were ''very'' confused and initally thought it was just a bit Sapnap was pulling so he stopped losing viewers.[[labelnote:Explaination]]Dream came into the call and joked about how Sapnap was stealing viewers from Foolish, who was also streaming, so he told Sapnap's viewers to go to Foolish's stream and several Sapnap's viewers actually obliged and several viewers started leaving to make Foolish's viewcount go up.[[/labelnote]]
* MoralityKitchenSink: The nature of the server gradually shapes into this as time goes on, ranging from characters with lighter-grey morality like Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo, close-to if not already morally ''black'' characters like Schlatt and Dream, and everything in between, with several characters toeing the line between 'hero' and 'villain' on a semi-regular basis and thus zig-zagging across the shades of grey depending on the day.
* MoralityPet:
** Technoblade would drop everything on the spot for Philza, his long-time friend. Case in point, when Techno was captured by the Butcher Army, one of his main concerns was Phil being held under house arrest rather than his own impending ''execution''.
** In the Las Nevadas storyline, Slimecicle is a {{downplayed|Trope}} one for Quackity. As usual, there is an element of manipulation to Quackity's kindness, and he did only keep him alive in the first place to use him as an asset, but despite that, Quackity does seem to be warming up to him and does try to look out for him, such as being concerned for him developing a gambling addiction and stopping him from recklessly jumping off a skyscraper. Eventually, it gets to the point that Quackity starts showing protective tendencies to Slime after learning that Tommy 'kidnapped' Slime as a hostage in exchange for Linda, his shovel, causing this trope to gradually be played more and more straight.
*** This played ''fully'' straight by the November 27th "Las Nevadas" stream, where Quackity prepares Slime to inherit Las Nevadas if/when he dies in spite of Slime representing [[IHatePastMe Quackity's repressed old values and demeanor]], and when Slime is knocked into lava by Purpled in his betrayal, Quackity dives in to try to save him with zero hesitation. After that, in the weeks following Slime losing his canon life, Quackity is seen to be hit ''hard'' by the loss.
* MortonsFork:
** During the Disc War Finale, Dream took Tubbo hostage and gave Tommy a choice: either give Dream [[NumberOneDime the Mellohi-disc]], or Dream would kill Tubbo. Tommy ultimately chose to hand over the disc, only for Dream to reveal that the disc was a fake, force them both to drop their armor, and after taking them to the Vault of Attachments, revealing that his ultimate plan was to kill Tubbo and lock Tommy up in prison forever. Even if Tommy had chosen the disc over Tubbo, the outcome would've been the same, with him being ForcedToWatch Tubbo die, before being locked up in Pandora's Vault for the rest of his life. [[TakeAThirdOption That is,]] [[BigDamnHeroes if Punz and the others hadn't stepped in]].
** Tommy encounters another one when he goes to the Egg, deliberating whether or not to break it. If he breaks it, he will have the entire Eggpire after his life (although they, Niki and Jack were already hunting him down [[DramaticIrony without his knowledge]]), and if he ''doesn't'' break it, then he will get blamed once again for not stopping a problem before it gets worse when it's really not fully his responsibility. He decides against destroying the Egg, instead taking a piece of it to the hotel in hopes of finding a way to control it.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: The entire concept of the SMP. Only the [=YouTubers=] involved could turn a multiplayer Minecraft server full of goofy, comedy-based creators into an epic tale revolving around one small nation's efforts to attain independence and the months of war, political alliances, betrayal, and destruction that resulted.
* MundaneSolution:
** During the Manburg Massacre, everyone in attendance either dies to Techno's rampage or runs away before Techno gets a chance to open fire on the crowd... all except for Antfrost, who simply uses his shield to NoSell the damage.
** When Quackity tries to overcome his fear of Techno, he ends up fleeing for his life as Karl barricades the gate to his newfound nation, Rutabagville, to lock Techno out. Techno [[CuttingTheKnot just climbs over the fence]].
** Half of the SMP has gathered in defense of L'Manburg for the Doomsday War, and the Anarchists are outnumbered. So what do they do? They just start their assault a half hour earlier than planned, completely catching L'Manburg off-guard.
* MythologyGag:
** In "Arrival", Phil mentions that the ice reminds him of an empire, and how he helped a friend take over the world. This is a reference to WebOriginal/SMPEarth, specifically when the Antarctic Empire -- led by Phil and Techno -- took over the entire map.
*** Their former faction, the Arctic Anarchist Commune, is even named in honor of the Empire.
** Variations of The Cuck Shed and "Eat Pant Conar" statue return from [=SMPLive=].
** Dream is sometimes jokingly referred to as "Dre", a gag that carried over from WebOriginal/MinecraftChampionship, where, during one tournament, his name got shortened to "Dre" on the tab-list.
** Philza started with one life instead of three in the SMP's canon life system. This is because Phil is primarily known for playing Hardcore Minecraft, where the player character cannot die even once or the world is permanently deleted, and became famous after getting the world record for longest lasting Hardcore-world (just over five years in real life).
*** Techno freaks out every time he sees a baby zombie trying to attack Phil, as Phil lost his five year Hardcore world to a baby zombie, which has become a huge meme on his channel.
** Dream really dislikes iron doors and fears being trapped behind one. This is a reference to when Dream got stuck in an iron door trap for almost the entirety of the Sands of Time minigame during the ninth WebOriginal/MinecraftChampionship tournament.
* NastyParty: Ultimately what the Red Banquet turns out to be, as noted in the LuredIntoATrap entry.
* NationalAnthem: Wilbur wrote one for L'Manburg, which has been sung multiple times throughout the server for [[DarkReprise various reasons]].
* NewNeoCity: Under the Tubbo administration, New L'Manburg was rebuilt on the ruins of Manburg (and before that, L'Manburg) after the nation-state was [[NukeEm destroyed]] in the Manburg-Pogtopia War. Despite this, the nation is still often known as L'Manburg, indicating it was intended to be a continuation of Wilbur's legacy.
* NextSundayAD:
** The L'Sandberg subplot, a mini-arc played out in the middle of Season 3, was confirmed to take place in the future, after the events of the Egg arc. Specifically when, however, is unclear.
** The ''Tales From the SMP'' episode "The Haunted Mansion" similarly takes place after the current events of the SMP.
* NiceHat:
** Philza is usually seen wearing a green-and-white-striped bucket hat, as part of his [[Anime/{{Bleach}} Kisuke Urahara]]-based standard skin. He swaps it out for one with light blue and white stripes while living in the Arctic tundra.
** In many fan designs, Wilbur and Quackity are seen wearing beanies, reflecting the content creator's real life appearance in the latter case.
** Boomer wears a frog hat with mystical powers that was gifted to him by his family, in exchange for his coloration.
* NiceMeanAndInBetween: Between Ranboo, Tommy and Tubbo, Ranboo is the mild-mannered and polite NiceGuy, Tommy is the abrasive and hot-headed JerkWithAHeartOfGold, and Tubbo is the friendly yet chaotic In-Between.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: After Sam informs them that, despite the waiver stating that he can only keep Tommy in Dream's cell for a week, he needs to stay longer after all, tensions boil over between Tommy and Dream and they get into a ''massive'' fight. While they both throw punches, Dream ''keeps punching'' despite Tommy's warning that his health is low, and winds up beating Tommy to death.
* NonActionGuy: Both Wilbur and Quackity are renowned orators who are far more leveled-up in the charisma and persuasion stats than actual combat skills. Considering the oftentimes-MightMakesRight attitude the server seems to have, it's no wonder that both of them [[BreakTheCutie had most of their idealism crushed]] to the point of going through ''[[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds severe]]'' mental health spirals down the line.
* NonHeteronormativeSociety: No one really bats an eye at the canonically LGBTQ+ characters, which comprises of [[CastFullOfGay about half the cast]].
* NonHumanNonBinary:
** Dream's deceased horse, Spirit, is said to be nonbinary and used singular they/them pronouns.
** Shy, a nonbinary enderman, lives in a glass case in Niki's underground city. They are said to be one of the only things that Niki loves.
** Ranboo, the resident [[NonHumanHumanoidHybrid half-enderman]], is revealed to have some trouble understanding human concepts like gender and pronouns, and seems to go by both he/him and they/them pronouns.
** Slimecicle is, as his name indicates, a slime, and is confirmed to use both he/him and it/its pronouns.
** Eret might classify as well. He prefers not to label himself as any particular gender, and uses any pronouns (though most members of the server default to using he/him). They are also not (fully) human, having a connection to Herobrine.
* TheNothingAfterDeath: While [[PersonalizedAfterlife everyone's Afterlife is different]], Tommy's Afterlife manifests as a dark, colorless, soundless void.
* NukeEm: TNT is used ''very'' copiously to cause huge amounts of damage. Most notably, L'Manburg gets subjected to this ''[[RuleOfThree three times]]'':
** In the War for Indepedence, Dream demands unconditional surrender from L'Manburg or else he'll detonate a block of TNT within L'Manburg's walls. Wilbur, unfazed by merely one block of TNT, declares that he'd rather die defending L'Manburg's right to independence. Unfortunately for Wilbur and L'Manburg, however, doesn't just have that one block within the walls -- he also has an entire nuke's worth of TNT hidden right under L'Manburg itself, and detonating the one block above ground causes nearly every block underground to detonate as well, destroying a majority of L'Manburg from the inside out and dealing its defenders a blow they never recover from.
** Wilbur decided to do this during the Manburg Festival due to his SanitySlippage, wanting to destroy Manburg because he believed the beliefs that his country stood for no longer existed, and also so that Schlatt would lose power. He eventually ''does'' carry out this plan during the Manburg-Pogtopia War, detonating ''11 and a half stacks'' of TNT with his BigRedButton, and leaving a massive crater where his country once stood. Technoblade quickly helps "clean up" the mess Wilbur left behind... by spawning two [[WeaponOfMassDestruction withers]] during the battle, generating even ''more'' rampant destruction for Tubbo's administration to deal with.
** The Doomsday War takes all of this UpToEleven. While L'Manburg is fighting Technoblade, Philza takes them by surprise by launching ''fifteen withers'' into the air, completely decimating most of the nation. And just as they are starting to overcome the withers, it turns out that it was just meant to buy time for the real attack -- Dream's obsidian TNT launchers, which rain enough DeathFromAbove to turn what was once a nation into a gaping hole to ''bedrock''.
%%** May literally happen if Tubbo's plan to nuke Dream works out, and again if Jack and Niki's plan to use the nukes on Tommy after taking care of Dream come to fruition.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** Wilbur is the wordsmith of the group, with the ability to write impressive speeches and generally always having a comeback to everything. However, after Jschlatt revokes his and Tommy's citizenship to L'Manburg and has them chased out, Wilbur just stares in shock, and barely says anything for a good long while. He even lampshades this later.
--->'''Wilbur:''' I'm... genuinely, did you not- I went speechless! That is the first time, I was live in front of 30,000 people, completely speechless. That's the first time that's EVER happened.
** Although Dream is a ManipulativeBastard and a liar, one thing that remains sure is that he doesn't want to irreversibly harm Tommy, given it's too fun for him to continue toying with Tommy to outright kill him off--it's to the point that he ends up surrendering in the finale of Season 2 when Tommy tries to make a HeroicSacrifice. So when he goes back on this in Pandora's Vault and outright ''murders'' Tommy over [[DisproportionateRetribution something as trivial as the existence of a book]], it means that Dream has likely snapped during his time in the Vault -- and that, either way, something is ''very'' different about Dream. This is eventually {{subverted|Trope}} by Dream bringing Tommy back to life, and revealing that he did this to prove the revival book's existence.
*** However, this becomes PlayedStraight when Quackity catches wind of this, where he pays Dream a visit in his cell, pulls out a sword and an axe, and tells him in no uncertain terms that, [[ExactWords while he can't kill him]], it won't stop him from [[ColdBloodedTorture making Dream's life a living hell]]. Within seconds, Dream is backed up into a corner of the cell, screaming for Sam to come help him; even though Dream had previously always had this air of triumphant smugness about him, where nothing really seems to phase him, even when he's trapped in a maximum-security cell of a high-security prison.
* OfficialCoupleOrdealSyndrome: Almost all of the canonical romantic couples have had their relationships ruined or put through the wringer for various reasons. For example, Mexican Dream got killed by his girlfriend's SpearCounterpart, and for more notable relationships, refer to the LoveHurts part above... and that's not even going into Philza and Wilbur's [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext unorthrodox choice of partners]] and said partners' fates. Currently, the only (semi-)stable relationships on the server appear to be Puffy and Niki, and possibly Tubbo and Ranboo.
* OnePersonBirthdayParty: During the Exile-arc, Tommy held a beach party in Logstedshire, and invited practically everyone on the server. However, only Dream showed up, and when he did, it was twenty minutes late. Not even Ghostbur, the one in charge of delivering the invitations, showed up. Later, this turns out to be {{invoked|Trope}}; [[StalkerWithoutACrush Dre]][[ManipulativeBastard am]] took the invitations from Ghostbur, sent him off to go for a walk in the snow ([[KillTheCutie Ghostbur melts]] [[KillItWithWater when he touches water]], though he thankfully survived that ordeal), and [[{{Gaslighting}} played dumb]] when Tommy asked if anything happened to the invitations.
-->'''Dream:''' I made sure nobody would show up to your party, so that you'd have [[StockholmSyndrome no friends except me]].
* OneSteveLimit: Averted.
** There are currently 3 separate characters named Jack: Jack the potato farmer from "The Village that Went Mad", Jack Kanoff the bandit from "The Wild West", and Jack Manifold, though the first two are one-shot characters in a spin-off series.
** There are also 2 separate characters named John: John John the SaloonOwner from "The Wild West", and John the gladiator from "The Pit". This trope is eventually invoked as as John the gladiator is renamed by royal decree to Ugly, and then to Grievous.
** There are two places commonly referred to as "Dream SMP", both the faction bordering L'Manburg and the server in its entirety. [[FanNickname/DreamSMP To avoid confusion, fans most commonly refer to the faction as the "Greater Dream SMP".]]
** There are also two "Carls": Carl with a C, Techno's beloved horse, and Karl with a K, the self-insert character played by Karl Jacobs (who does not accept deviations from the spelling).
** There are three characters named Michael, Michael from "The Wild West" (formally and better known as [[RepetitiveName Ron Ronson]]), Tubbo and Ranboo's adopted son Michael the zombie piglin, and Michaelmcchill. This last one has led to some slight confusion in the in-game chat once.
--->'''<[=FoolishG=]>:''' [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall !c Foolish neg]] KILLED MICHAEL THAT FUCKER\\
'''<Michaelmcchill>:''' ??????\\
'''<Michaelmcchill>:''' oh the zombie
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Both Punz and Purpled are HiredGuns who would fight on the side that pays them better, even if it means [[HeelFaceTurn switching]] [[FaceHeelTurn sides]].
* OpenMouthInsertFoot: During his first campaign speech, Wilbur passionately begins a speech about keeping the "filthy Americans" out of L'Manburg, before cutting himself off, stammering something generic about upholding the nation and leaving the stage.
-->'''Tommy:''' Wilbur, a large majority of our viewers are American.\\
'''Wilbur:''' I realized that half-way through the word "Americans"...
* OrWasItADream: When Ranboo visits the prison the first time around, he finds Dream acting... peculiar, treating him like an old friend. Then Ranboo finds out that his chest is full of copies Ranboo's memory book, before Dream tells him he's not real and the prison collapses around him, implying that it wasn't real. Ranboo dismisses it all as [[AllJustADream just a nightmare.]] But in a later stream, when Ranboo visits the prison for real, Awesamdude tells him he had already visited...
* OrphansOrdeal:
** This trope applies to Fundy after the end of Season 1. His father was dead and his mother is missing (apparently misplaced or eaten by Wilbur), and although Fundy's relationship with Wilbur wasn't the best, Fundy still missed his father. This is {{subverted|Trope}} in Season 3 once Wilbur was brought back to life.
** In the ''Tales From the SMP'' episode "The Village That Went Mad", Robin lost both of his parents in the Red-Eyes Villager Wars, then his surrogate father figure was executed by the townsfolk under suspicion for being a murderer, before finally [[DeathOfAChild being executed himself]] by the town, being [[DeathSeeker too despondent]] to fight against their accusations.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent:
** [=BadBoyHalo=] is a Demon, whose Demonic blood grants him [[NighInvulnerability semi-immortality]], as his life force is tied to Skeppy (who serves as his SoulJar) and he only loses a canon life when Skeppy does. He is also incredibly tall, standing at 9 feet and 6 inches (289.56cm) — not that you'd be able to tell by looking at his character in-game.
** Tina is also allegedly a Demon, and has white horns that can be covered up by wool to look like cat ears. However, whether she displays similar traits to Bad is still yet to be determined.
** It has also been confirmed that Eryn is [[HalfHumanHybrid half-Demon and half-human]], and thus has [[RedEyesTakeWarning one red eye]] and a violent and chaotic (or as cc!Eryn says, "evil") streak.
** Dreamons are a completely different type of entity than Demons. They can [[DemonicPossession take on Hosts]] to do their bidding, but have [[WeaksauceWeakness a variety of weaknesses]], which the Dreamon Hunters use for exorcisms and preventing detection by them. Transmuted Dreamons are a rare variation where the Host and the Dreamon constantly and rapidly shift between each other.
* OutGambitted: After Tommy gets possession of Spirit, the remains of Dream's first horse, Dream spends ''months'' letting Tommy believe that Spirit is of sentimental value to him. As Dream no longer has Tommy's discs, Tommy believes that he has leverage over Dream but not vice-versa, eventually causing Tommy to bank his freedom on Spirit when Dream attempts to exile him. However, when Tommy finally reveals his hand, Dream promptly reveals that ''Spirit has'' '''''no''''' ''sentimental value to him at all'', and that Tommy's placed all his hope on a worthless piece of leather.
* OutsideContextProblem: The Blood Vines and Crimson Egg that [=BadBoyHalo=] found shows up while most of the SMP plot at the time had been focused on the political intrigue. Whilst paranormal elements (like Ghostbur and the Dreamon slaying) have existed before, they were small scale and ultimately don't have much of a threat to the server's status quo. In comparison, the egg is a [[BotanicalAbomination flowering]] red horror that is brainwashing everyone it can and could pose a large-scale threat to the entire server if not stopped soon.
* OverlyLongName:
** Fundy and Niki's defunct faction Dry Waters had a ''very'' long official name, Smokey-Corn-on-The-Cob-Waterville-Dry-Hands-Desert-Land.
** Fundy's own full name is revealed to be "Fun Jonatahan micahel vincent georgina james sus Dy" when he signs the Las Nevadas contract.
** During the ''Tales From the SMP'' episode "The Masquerade", one of the attendees' names, coincidentally also played by Fundy (the content creator), is Oliver Arechtenshire Smitselist Cumbucket.
* PaperThinDisguise: Technoblade stands in front of a wanted poster in L'Manburg. It's even thinner as the clothing skin Techno's wearing is distinctly different than the one on the poster.
* ParanormalEpisode: As of the Imprisonment Era, at least two prominent stories have shown up.
** The [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Dreamon]] [[ParanormalInvestigation Slayer]] episodes, where Tubbo, Fundy, and Sapnap go [[DemonSlaying slaying]] what are apparently demons based off of Dream's species.
** The appearance of the [[BotanicalAbomination Blood Vines and the Crimson Egg]] during the Exile arc, which involve other characters that are not involved in Tommy's exile getting into a conflict involving said botanical horror, with some being brainwashed to spread it, others trying to stop its spread, and one sacrificing themselves to the egg in an attempt to save the others lives. This becomes a crucial plot point in Season 3, where much of the conflict revolves around the Crimson, which serves as a BigBadEnsemble with Dream throughout the season.
* PersonalizedAfterlife: It turns out that whenever any character loses all of their canon lives, the Afterlife they're faced with is unique... in the worst possible way, making it more of a personalized hell. For Tommy, it was a colorless, soundless void of sensory deprivation, and for Wilbur, it was a train station platform, where he was stranded for thirteen and a half years.
* PhallicWeapon: A name-based example (combined with SuspiciouslySpecificDenial) with Dream's crossbow, named "DEFINITELY NOT PENIS". Another name-based example occurs with Sapnap's enchanted netherite sword, "Sapnap's Schlong".
* PhysicalScarsPsychologicalScars: Several characters have scars from their canon deaths, which are indicated to be heavily traumatic events, with [[FatalFireworks Tubbo]] and [[EyeScream Quackity's]] deaths at Techno's hand being the most prominent.
* PleaseSubscribeToOurChannel: This is a RunningGag of Techno's, to the point where he apparently has a ''timer'' set to go off every half-hour for the sole purpose of reminding him to plug his channel. Even better, the timer is a ''limit'' rather than a reminder - he decided to start setting it so that he didn't plug it even more often. For a brief period of time, his ''crossbow'' was named "Subscribe to Technoblade". He also plugs his channel at inopportune moments, such as during the Manburg-Pogtopia War, where he pulls an epic FaceHeelTurn and summons two Withers... ''[[RefugeInAudacity then turns back around to name one of them "Subscribe to Technoblade" before siccing them on L'Manburg's ruins]]''.
* {{Polyamory}}: Karl, Sapnap and Quackity are currently all engaged to each other, though the relationship itself is currently ''[[SecondActBreakup very]]'' strained due to a variety of complications.
* PoorCommunicationKills: {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. This is a common problem throughout the server, which causes many, ''many'' conflicts and a lot of friction between the characters.
* PrecisionFStrike: While many members of the server swear, some -- including Dream -- choose not to. When Dream drops an F-bomb on Tommy, it signifies that this time, Dream is ''genuinely angry''.
-->'''Dream:''' Tommy... okay, listen, you ''fucked'' up this time.\\
'''Tommy:''' What the fu- okay, Dream, don't swear, please.\\
'''Dream:''' [[RapidFireNo No no no no no no no no]]... ''I don't give a'' '''''fuck''''' ''about Spirit''.
* PublicExecution: A surprisingly large number of them have occurred on the Dream SMP.
** At the Manburg Festival, Tubbo is revealed to the public to be TheMole for Pogtopia and Schlatt orders him to be publicly executed at the Festival he decorated for, to the horror and objection of practically everyone else present. Unfortunately for Tubbo, Technoblade doesn't do well under what he claims to be peer pressure, and [[FatalFireworks shoots the firework rockets in his face]] anyway.
** Techno himself becomes on the receiving end of this trope after the Butcher Army arrests him for destroying the remains of L'Manburg with Withers during the Manburg-Pogtopia War, in addition to their personal grievances against him for traumatizing them for life. However, Techno manages to survive and escape the execution with help from Dream, and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge vows revenge]] for what he believes to be an act of injustice against him.
** The Green Festival on January 5th, 2021 was initially planned as a public execution for Dream, but this became {{subverted|Trope}} when all of the Butcher Army's plans get thrown out the window, as Dream reveals the destruction of the Community House and [[WhamEpisode the shit hits the fan]] for everyone in attendance.
** During the Red Banquet, Foolish is ritually sacrificed to the Egg in front of the attendees of the Banquet, because he tried to protect Eret from being made an example of by the Eggpire.
* PuppetKing: George is this as "king" of the Dream SMP. His title is official, but he's got no interest in politics or even ruling. It's blatantly obvious that even after formally giving up his crown, Dream's the true leader of the Dream SMP (being the one to actually deal with the politics, warfare, and ruling that a leader must handle and being quite good at it in the process). George is just a figurehead leader at ''best''. Eret also plays the same role when he's chosen as king, or at least until Dream got locked up in prison.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:R - Z]]
* RaceAgainstTheClock:
** Quackity was responsible for setting a meeting between him, Jschlatt, and Wilbur before November 6th, or Wilbur would finally press the [[BigRedButton button]], [[StuffBlowingUp blowing Manburg to kingdom come.]] It ultimately ends with a formal declaration of war, plus TheReveal that Jschlatt had found and removed the TNT under Manburg, rendering the button useless.
** The Doomsday War starts with one, with L'Manburg having 24 hours to prepare before the Anarchists (Dream, Techno, and Phil) come and attack with the intent to [[NukeEm destroy L'Manburg]]. Considering the Anarchists consist of people like [[TheDreaded Dream and Techno]], said 24 hours are completely necessary. Unfortunately for L'Manburg, however, the Anarchists has no intent on actually attacking when planned--they attack fifteen minutes ahead of schedule and catch L'Manburg so off-guard that much of the nation is a giant crater by the time all of the war's participants arrive.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** Wilbur delivers a particularly ''brutal'' one to Tommy, lining out that Tommy can never be president because of his [[HotBlooded emotions]] [[TheMcCoy ruling over]] [[RevengeBeforeReason his better judgement]], in comparison to Tubbo who is more thoughtful. And the worst part is ''he isn't entirely wrong''.
** [[CallingTheOldManOut Fundy gives Wilbur one right back]] posthumously, yelling at Ghostbur for running away from his problems and avoiding any negative discussion because he can't handle the consequences of his actions, as well as treating Fundy like a child and never respecting his autonomy.
** Tubbo [[BewareTheNiceOnes out of all people]] gives one off to Tommy right after deciding to go along with Dream's request to exile him, after tiring of being bound to Tommy's obsession of his discs, pulling L'Manburg into greater and greater dangers. [[CycleOfRevenge He does so mainly in refusal of yet another plan of establishing another conflict with Dream.]]
** After Dream tricks Tubbo into giving him the disc, he gives one to Tubbo about how terrible a president he has been and how weak L'Manburg was under him.
* RebelliousRebel: Eret becomes this during the L'Manburg War for Independence, betraying L'Manburg after Dream makes him [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse an offer he can't refuse]].
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver:
** {{Zigzagged}} for [=BadBoyHalo=]'s character design, as despite having a mainly red and black colour motif, he's very polite and friendly, yet whether he's good or bad really depends on who you ask. On the flip side, when he's unambiguously antagonistic as the ''de facto'' leader of the Eggpire, he has a GreyscaleOfEvil instead.
** Played straight with in the Manburg-Pogtopia War, where the Manburg war flag is a black banner with a red saltire (diagonal cross), which decorates the shields of those who fight for Manburg. The Pogtopians use this to help [[DressCodedForYourConvenience distinguish between friend and foe]].
** Also played straight regarding Foolish's colour palette, as in a flashback, he was seen burning down a village while appearing as a black totem with [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]]. At present, he has [[HeelFaceTurn become a better person]] and is a gold totem with green eyes, like a conventional totem of undying instead.
* RedOniBlueOni:
** Tommy (red) is loud, impulsive, passionate and determined, while Tubbo (blue), is soft-spoken, friendly, and a bit of a ditz. Tommy tends to also think very emotionally, while Tubbo sees the rational side of things.
** After getting exiled by Tubbo and subsequently drifting apart from each other initially it seemed like Ranboo was replacing Tubbo as the blue to Tommy's red. However, as Ranboo started to hang out with Tubbo more and Tommy less, the dynamic ended up shifting with Tubbo as the red to Ranboo's blue.
* RefugeInAudacity:
** Techno has a habit of pulling outrageous stunts to taunt enemies he doesn't need to take seriously (read: ''everyone'' except maybe Dream). ''And he always wins''. Justified, as Techno's armor is kitted out with Thorns (causes recoil damage to any attackers), which combined with Netherite armor's natural protection makes him NighInvulnerable (as enemies will hurt themselves more than Techno) and allows Techno much more leeway to toy with foes (as he already knows he's going to win).
*** At one point, Techno is attacked by a [[BossInMooksClothing Ravager]]. His response? ''Go AFK to read donations as the Ravager dies from recoil damage caused by Techno's armor''.
*** Techno doesn't even need to be in combat to do this. At the Manburg Festival, Fundy trapped Techno in a dive tank to drown him. Unfortunately for Fundy, Techno had a Respiration III helmet, which meant it'd take a minute for Techno's air to even run out -- and when he finally started taking damage, it took so long that Techno was able to easily regenerate more health than he lost. Techno then ''proceeded to promote his channel while drowning, even stepping away from his computer in real life for a moment to drink a glass of water''. Yes, Techno took a break from drowning ''[[MindScrew to drink water]]''. He even played up a MinorInjuryOverreaction for all its worth, joking that he desperately needed to eat to regenerate once he's at seven hearts (which takes even longer). Needless to say, Fundy was not happy.
*** During the second half of the Manburg-Pogtopia War, Techno's FaceHeelTurn and dramatic speech is followed by a PreAsskickingOneLiner and him proceeding to summon two Withers... and then he goes on to ''name one of them [[RunningGag "Subscribe to Technoblade"]]''. Even moreso, ''he calls the name [[SkewedPriorities the most important part]]''.
*** Techno has also infiltrated New L'Manberg by standing in front of his own wanted posters to blend in... while wearing a different skin to the one on the poster. Tubbo is too confused to question it and just leaves him be.
---->'''Tubbo:''' Uh, right, moving on, he's just a poster apparently.
** [[BrassBalls Quackity]] also gets in on the action occasionally. A week before the Red Banquet, he fills up Purpled's UFO with TNT to try to get his attention, but gets caught by Purpled before he can [[StuffBlowingUp set off the explosives]]. He then quickly convinces Purpled to help him crash the Banquet after [[OnlyInItForTheMoney promising him payment]] from Las Nevadas. After the Banquet, Purpled collects his money... only for Quackity to blow up his UFO anyway... ''and then try to convince him to join Las Nevadas'', promising him that his legacy would be preserved now that his UFO is gone... ''because of him''. Not only does he live to tell the tale (considering that Purpled is ''very'' good in a fight and would easily annihilate him, a NonActionGuy), but it ''[[GambitRoulette works out]]''.
*** Eventually {{deconstructed|Trope}} as Purpled decides that revenge is a dish BestServedCold.
* ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: Members of the Syndicate take on codenames based on Myth/ClassicalMythology which allude to their personal characteristics.
* {{Retcon}}:
** When Phil first joined the server, the consensus among the content creators (and ''especially'' the fandom) was that he was the biological father of Techno, Tommy and Wilbur (in line with the "Sleepy Bois Inc" dynamic), with Tubbo being adopted later on. A little while later, Techno and Phil clarified that Techno ''wasn't'' Phil's son, just a friend, and after the Doomsday War, Tommy being Phil's biological child was retconned as well. As of today, Wilbur is Phil's only biological child, Tommy and Tubbo see him as a father figure, and Techno sees him as an old friend.
** Related to this, Wilbur at one point claimed that he and Techno were twins, with Techno being two minutes older. With Techno deciding he wasn't a part of the family dynamic anymore, this plot point also got thrown out.
** When Jack returns to life after being killed by Techno in the Doomsday War, he states that he went to Hell[[note]]Jack doesn't go into much (if any) detail about how Hell ''looks'', but given he identifies it as Hell with such certainty he probably means the traditional FireAndBrimstoneHell[[/note]]. When Tommy returns to life after being killed by Dream in Pandora's Vault, ''he'' describes the Afterlife as an EldritchLocation that he and Dream later determine to have YearInsideHourOutside properties. Unless either Jack or Tommy was wrong/lying about their description, it seems that Jack's account of the Afterlife was retconned.
*** However, since [=DreamXD=] sent Niki to "Hell" during one of George's dreams as a DeadlyPrank, it can [[TakeAThirdOption instead be suggested]] that "Hell" is a euphemism for the Afterlife on the SMP, and the two locations are the same.
*** This can be further supported by Wilbur claiming that his Afterlife took the form of [[AfterlifeExpress a train station]], implying that the Afterlife is personalized for each person which enters it, meaning that Jack's Afterlife being a FireAndBrimstoneHell is entirely possible.
** As demonstrated by the consecutive revivals of both Tommy and Wilbur in Season 3, Wilbur's previous claim that it was impossible to bring people BackFromTheDead has clearly been retconned.
* RevengeBeforeReason:
** Tommy dives into this when Sapnap "accidentally" kills his pet cow, Henry. Tommy defaces and burns the wooden Eiffel Tower and attempts to use Sapnap's pet fish as leverage to get away with it. It takes Technoblade [[LampshadeHanging pointing out the ridiculousness of the situation]] for him to even offer the fish in return for the music discs that Bad has, but by that point the tense negotiations have broken down and a battle breaks out. The only reason this works out for Tommy is because he has [[TheDreaded both Dream and Techno]] to support him.
--->'''Technoblade:''' Wait, [[SillyReasonForWar this is over a fish]]? Tommy, just give him the fish! God, I didn't even bring a shield.
** During the Manburg Festival, Tommy was wracked with grief when Tubbo was publicly executed on the spot by Technoblade under Schlatt's orders. He pearled onto the podium to attack Techno in front of everyone, completely breaking cover.
* RewatchBonus: Several things about Ranboo's January 30th stream will stand out once you realize none of it was real.
** The signs in front of the Big Innit Hotel, as well as Bad and Skeppy's house, are completely black. Discounting the possibility that this was just an error from using custom maps on a different server, it could also be because Ranboo didn't remember what they looked like.
** Sam doesn't behave like a stoic warden like he did with Tommy and Bad. Instead, he acts much friendlier and more eager to make casual conversation. On initial viewings, you could interpret this as Sam trying to accommodate for Ranboo's more anxious nature, but upon rewatching, it's clear that Sam acts this way because Ranboo has no frame of reference for how Sam usually acts when inside the prison.
** Similarly, Sam lets Ranboo take his memory book inside Dream's cell, when he should know full well that Ranboo has to die to be let out, and thus will be forced to leave the memory book behind with Dream.
** Dream also behaves pretty out of character before he drops the act. He greets Ranboo very enthusiastically, when he was withdrawn and stoic during Tommy and Bad's visits. He also says he doesn't like the clock, when he told Bad earlier that day that he loved watching the clock so much that he gave it a name.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The Butcher Army tries and fails to execute Technoblade, causing him to leave his TenMinuteRetirement and ''blow L'Manburg into a crater''. If not for a freak resurrection, this also would have resulted in Jack Manifold's death.
* RoomFullOfCrazy: The room housing the detonator for the TNT Wilbur planted all over Manburg has the L'Manburg anthem written all over the walls.
* RougeAnglesOfSatin: The caravan at the heart of L'Manburg got this treatment twice. The first time, it was labelled "Camarvan", then when someone built a giant hot dog on top to make it look like a food truck, it was renamed to the "Hto Dog Van".
* RuleOfThree: Three times has L'Manburg been in the center of climax of various wars within the server, with mass destruction in each, but the third, performed by a three way alliance between Dream, Technoblade and Philza, was what finally ended the nation for good.
** Additionally, each of these times someone said "[[ArcWords It was never meant to be]]" at that climax while betraying the nation.
* RunningGag:
** In Season 1, when [[ChronicPetKiller Sapnap]] is around, expect one or more pet to die. It's to the point where, of all the dead pets on the server, ''only one of them'' at the time (specifically L'Dog) has not been killed by Sapnap.
** George constantly being missing during huge lore events on the server.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Started when George slept through the most key part of the Election Arc (the actual elections), then continued when he subsequently missed out on most of the ensuing ''war'' because he was off building a house. He's also generally not online while a lot of the major lore events occur.[[/labelnote]]
** There's a good chance that when Techno's around, "[[PleaseSubscribeToOurChannel Subscribe to Technoblade]]" will be used at some point or another. Even when it's hilariously out of place, like ''when Techno is summoning Withers to burn L'Manburg's remains to the ground''.
** People poking fun at Phil for being old, while Phil insists he's not ''that'' old.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Phil is the oldest member of the server, being aged 32 when he joined the SMP.[[/labelnote]]
** Tommy speaking to various people's family members on stream. So far he's spoken with Dream's mother and sister, Tubbo's sister, and Phil's wife.
** The Funny Mic.[[labelnote:Explanation]] Occasionally, someone (as of Season 1, it's Dream, Quackity, and Tommy) will unplug their usual microphone and instead use a really cheap one with the volume cranked up to max, making them sound ''incredibly'' distorted. It's called the Funny Mic because it tends to add [[{{Bathos}} comedy to an intense situation]]. This bit is a carry-over RunningGag from Schlatt, who used to do back when he used to stream.[[/labelnote]]
** Canon deaths.[[labelnote:Explanation]]After the introduction of the three-lives system, the members of the SMP often jokingly label any unscripted, accidental death canon. Anything from Dream accidentally blowing himself up to Punz missing a [[SoftWater water bucket trick]] and dying of fall damage will be commented on in the in-game chat with "CANON DEATH" or the like.[[/labelnote]]
** No one being able to spell 'independence' correctly.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Wilbur wrote both versions of the L'Manburg Declaration of Independence with the "word" 'independance', while Tubbo titled the Snowchester Declaration of Independence 'Independents'.[[/labelnote]]
** One related to ''Tales From the SMP'' specifically -- whenever Technoblade appears as a cast member, he plays a PigMan and not a human character (or one that is AmbiguouslyHuman at the very least).
* RunOrDie: When Schlatt exiles them from L'Manburg, Tommy and Wilbur are suddenly faced with an armed crowd hellbent on killing them, while they're both unarmed and without gear. They immediately use their invisibility potions and bail through Tubbo's bunker. Unfortunately for Wilbur, he was shot in the back by Punz while making his escape, taking his second canon life out of three in the process.
-->'''Wilbur:''' Tommy, run! Tommy- TOMMY, RUN!\\
'''Tommy:''' WHAT THE FUCK?! TO TUBBO'S! WILBUR, GO, WE GOTTA GO, WE GOTTA GO!
* SanitySlippage:
** Wilbur's spiraling mental health and fall into paranoia began as early as the L'Manburg War for Independence, after [[CynicismCatalyst Eret's betrayal]] caused him to abandon his ideal of "words over weapons". Once he's exiled to Pogtopia, however, his mental health takes an even ''[[UpToEleven huger]]'' hit, to the point that he ends up taking himself out via SuicideByCop at the end of the season.
** This is ''heavily'' implied to be what happened to Quackity between Episodes 1 and 3 of "Las Nevadas", as he quickly spirals into [[HeWhoFightsMonsters committing atrocities that his old self would probably have fervently opposed]]. Considering that his character arc is ''meant'' to mirror Wilbur's, this isn't all that surprising.
** Arguably, Dream has been on a steady decline in mental health throughout the course of the SMP, although it became most noticeable during the Disc War finale. Since he began serving time in Pandora's Vault, however, the inhumane conditions and torture have undoubtedly caused his worst qualities, such as his [[ControlFreak control issues]] and [[AGodAmI god complex]], to amplify and worsen by a thousand-fold.
** Fundy was already teetering on the edge of this, but his constant [[DreamingOfThingsToCome nightmares of things to come]] have started to push him over the edge enough to start doubting his own memories and drove him to blow up his own home with TNT.
** Before the ''Tales'' episode "The Village That Went Mad", Jack's journals imply that Foolish somehow caused him and Bob to go "mad" and murder the people living in their town. This is only revealed after the episode.
* ScrewYourUltimatum:
** Faced with Dream's demands of surrender, Wilbur defies Dream to his face, declaring he'd rather die than have L'Manburg rejoin Dream's half of the SMP server. Dream happily helps him and his allies with that "die" part, having planted TNT underneath L'Manburg and using the moment to detonate it and destroy a good 80% of the land.
** Dream gets one himself when Tommy tries to blackmail him into taking down the obsidian walls around L'Manburg, using the remains of his horse, Spirit, as leverage. Dream instead starts building the walls higher, announces he doesn't care about Spirit's remains, and instead turns this around, demanding that Tommy be exiled before he completely shuts L'Manburg off from the outside world.
* SeriesFauxnale: The end of the Disunion Era saw Dream stripped of his power, turned on by just about everyone on the server (except [[AbsenteeActor George]] and the Anarchists), and imprisoned in Pandora's Vault. The server celebrated the end of a tyrant, and everyone believed it was the end of the conflict (Tommy's stream was even titled the finale of the SMP). However, there are still several unresolved issues (the Anarchists and the Crimson Egg among others), several unanswered questions (such as [=DreamXD=] and the End Portal), and that's not mentioning that Dream might not be down for good (as Wilbur's spirit warns Tommy that Dream is too dangerous to be left alive, not to mention that Dream still has his favor from Technoblade). It's fitting for what seems to be the Season 2 finale, but there's clearly still more to come.
* ShellShockedVeteran: By Season 3, multiple people on the SMP have experienced trauma to the point of developing PTSD, many of which originated from the wars that have occurred.
** Wilbur's mental health was on the decline even back during the L'Manburg War for Independence, which had [[CynicismCatalyst left him traumatized]]. Wilbur, a man who is (in his own words) "[[NonActionGuy a writer, not a fighter]]", found himself in the role of a general and experienced the infamous betrayal from one of his comrades, Eret, the deaths of himself and his friends, and only won thanks to Tommy giving up his discs. [[StepfordSmiler He hid how badly it affected him in front of others during his presidency.]] His mask slowly chipped away during the election, momentarily dropping it in front of Quackity during their heart-to-heart several days before Election Day, and permanently dropped it a few days into exile as he spiralled to the point of [[DeathSeeker suici]][[SuicideByCop dality]].
** Tommy's experience from the betrayal in the Final Control Room left him heavily traumatized as well, as when he and Techno stumbled across the room during an undercover trip to L'Manburg, it caused him to have a full-on panic attack, hyperventilating and scrambling for an exit. His time spent in exile (both in Pogtopia and [[TraumaCongaLine Logstedshire]]) and his death and revival in Pandora's Vault did him no favours either.
** Heavily {{implied|Trope}} with Fundy, who had spent most of his life around war, and his reaction to finding out he and the other attendees were trapped during the Red Banquet was terrified screaming and trying to escape... a situation eerily similar to the Final Control Room, where he and his war comrades were similarly LuredIntoATrap to be slaughtered mercilessly. And this isn't even going into him being haunted by [[DreamingOfThingsToCome nightmares of things to come]]...
** Quackity's an interesting case, as he was apparently diagnosed with PTSD (because he was able to name the disorder outright) from being on the receiving end of Techno's [[CurbStompBattle rampages]] during Minecraft Mondays before he even joined the server. It's implied that he was handling it fairly well in his early days on the SMP... until the [[DomesticAbuse Schlatt adminstration]], combined with [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Techno]] joining the server, which caused even more trauma for him... and then [[TraumaCongaLine everything just went downhill from there]].
* ShoutOut:
** Many people on the server use skins that reference other pieces of media.
*** Callahan's inner layer is ComicBook/CaptainAmerica from ''Franchise/{{Marvel|Universe}}''.
*** Fundy's standard outfit is Jotaro Kujo from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''.
*** Lazarbeam's standard skin is Gingerbread Man from ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}''.
*** Tubbo's standard skin is Tweek Tweak from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''.
*** Philza's standard skin is Kisuke Urahara from ''Anime/{{Bleach}}''.
*** Connor wears a ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''-onesie.
*** The entire Sam Nook bit is pretty much taken from ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing''.
** The entire War for L'Manburg Independence is ''rife'' with ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' references, going as far as to quote lines from the musical several times throughout the war. Wilbur also makes a parody of ''The Adams Administration'', "The Jschlatt Administration", during the Pogtopia arc.
** There are quite a lot of references to ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'': Ranboo often uses songs from the soundtrack during his streams, most notably "Waterfall" in tense moments such as his confrontation with the Egg and a slowed version of "Fallen Down (Reprise)" at the end of lore-heavy streams, and Dream taunting Tommy to call for help when he's locked in the prison is ''eerily'' similar to Flowey taunting the protagonist to call for help during the Photoshop Flowey battle.
** The MickeyMousing during the opening montage of Quackity's April 12th stream while torturing Dream over the course of an entire month was stated in a behind-the-scenes stream to be inspired by ''Film/AClockworkOrange'', where all the most violent scenes were set to classical music.
** The Red Banquet hosted by the Eggpire is possibly named after [[Series/GameOfThrones the Red Wedding]].
** Wilbur's Afterlife being an AfterlifeExpress is likely an idea derived from fanworks, which are in turn influenced by [[CompanyCrossReferences Wilbur's own album]] "[[Music/WilburSoot Your City Gave Me Asthma]]".
** The Las Nevadas bunker, built by Foolish, is styled after the Skeld map from ''VideoGame/AmongUs''.
** Boomer's connection to the swamp biome [[https://twitter.com/BoomrNAlt/status/1455907651330744327 was a reference to]] an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''.
%%** The Inbetween from ''Tales From the SMP'' bears a strong resemblance to the White Room from the Old Mansion in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', which in itself is a reference to Castle Oblivion from ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories''.
* ShowdownAtHighNoon: {{Discussed|Trope}} in the ''Tales From the SMP'' episode "The Wild West" while the town was talking strategy for facing down the "Democrat Haters", though ultimately, it's a "[[TenPacesAndTurn ten-step standoff]]" that occurs.
* SickeninglySweethearts: In Season 2, [[{{Polyamory}} Karl, Sapnap, and Quackity]] occasionally crashed other people's livestreams through the in-game chat with very affectionate and lovey-dovey messages towards each other. Of course, this ended after the polycule started to drift apart due to the [[PoorCommunicationKills miscommunication]] between the three.
-->'''Sapnap:''' but listen\\
'''Sapnap:''' I wanted to tell you something...\\
''([[MoodWhiplash Quackity fell from a high place]])''\\
'''Quackity:''' yes....\\
'''Sapnap:''' I just think\\
'''Sapnap:''' that\\
''([[RunningGag Quackity fell from a high place]])''\\
''([[RuleOfThree Quackity fell from a high place]])''\\
'''Sapnap:''' I JUST THINK ME AND YOU ARE JUST SO IN LOVE AND KARL IS LIKE MAYBE 3rD WHEELING A LITTLE\\
'''Sapnap:''' BUT LIKE WE STILL LOVE HIM YOU KNOW\\
'''Sapnap:''' but like our love is just on another level thats all\\
''([[OverlyLongGag Quackity fell from a high place]])''\\
'''Quackity:''' WE STILL LOVE HIM A LOT BUT HES LIKE NOT LOVING AS MUCH AS WE LOVE EACH OTHER LIKES HES NOT AS A GREAT OF A LOVER AS YOU AND I ARE LOVERS KINDA SOMETHING LIKE THAT IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN BUT WE STILL LOVE HIM AND STUFF
* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: In a flashback sequence to the L'Manberg election arc, it is revealed that Wilbur was the one who advised Quackity, then an idealistic NaiveNewcomer, that ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption, and is the key to power and security on the server. Many months later, Quackity embraces this ideal and is seen telling the same to Foolish while recruiting him for Las Nevadas... a conversation that is ''heavily'' laced with IHatePastMe PsychologicalProjection.
* SkewedPriorities: Techno names one of his Withers in the final battle "Subscribe to Technoblade". What qualifies it for this trope is when he calls the name the most important part, ''[[RefugeInAudacity as if he pulled a]] FaceHeelTurn [[RefugeInAudacity just to plug his channel one last time]]''.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The series is fairly cynical, not with half of the characters going through their own horrific TraumaCongaLine and all. Wars and conflicts often had to be solved with violence instead of diplomacy, and the [[WideEyedIdealist idealistic]] diplomats and peacemakers are often broken down to don JadeColoredGlasses eventually, and resort to violence they initially opposed using to survive. Though there are still a few idealists on the server, they tend to be in the minority of the server, and characters who undergo the transformation from being idealistic to cynical on-screen are often regarded to be tragic. However, it also has an idealistic lining in that characters who value diplomacy, peace and recovery are often regarded to be more "heroic" and morally light than those who involve themselves in war and destruction.
* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: This vastly depends on the time period and the perspective you're watching.
** In terms of time periods, Season 1 is mostly more silly with a serious undercurrent, whereas in Season 2, it leans towards the serious end due to CerebusSyndrome, albeit [[{{Bathos}} with the occasional silly moment interspersed in between]]--one of the most serious arcs, Tommy's Exile arc, takes place in Season 2 and contains some of [[StockholmSyndrome the]] [[WouldHurtAChild heaviest]] [[DrivenToSuicide lore]] in the entire history of the roleplay. As lore slows down in Season 3, it becomes more light-hearted, but there remain dedicated lore streams which are definitely on the serious side, most prominently Quackity's "Las Nevadas" series.
** In terms of perspectives, even during Season 2 and onward, Techno's perspective as a reputation for being more silly, even during events like [[NukeEm the Dooms]][[MoodWhiplash day War]]. On the other hand, the perspectives from people like Tommy tend to be more serious, while Quackity's perspective made a drastic switch to halfway-inbetween near the end of Season 2 to mostly dead-serious in the "Las Nevadas" series.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: Fundy and Niki's campaign in the L'Manburg Election, [=Coconut2020=]. Overall, the two got a pitiful 9% of the votes (last place by far and away) and their only direct contribution to the arc as a whole was a brief moment of comedy that came from Fundy getting caught in the act of election fraud. That said, however, they managed to win over many votes that could have otherwise been for Wilbur and Tommy, allowing Jschlatt and Quackity's combined votes to edge out the win by a margin of 1%, securing Jschlatt's inauguration as the next leader of L'Manburg and thus leading to the L'Manburg Civil War.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple:
** On the main SMP, the only members of the server who are women are Niki, Puffy, Hannah, and Tina. Alyssa used to be among their ranks, but she's no longer whitelisted on the SMP and isn't planning on making a comeback anytime soon. It's also unlikely for Girl Dream (aka Mamacita) to return to the server, because not only is her boyfriend dead, but her actor's avatar is currently stuck in jail in-universe.
** In the ''Tales'' episode "The Village That Went Mad", Helga was the only female resident of "Not A Very Good Town" Town.
** In "The Masquerade", Lyaria was the only attendee of the titular event that was a woman.
** In "The Pit", Genevieve was the only female gladiator, which is something that [[LampshadeHanging she points out]].
--->'''Genevieve:''' I have to say that I've been training my whole life for this, and I think there's far too many men around here, and I think a woman has to come up on top.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: There are about four accepted ways of spelling L'Manburg [=/=] L'Manberg [=/=] L'manburg [=/=] L'manberg, and nobody has settled on one.
* SpinOff: ''Tales From the SMP'' are mainly one-off adventures and, for the most part, focus on [[HeroOfAnotherStory Karl]] and his time-travelling adventures and everything that they entail.
* StepfordSmiler: Since ThereAreNoTherapists, this is a disturbingly common occurrence on the Dream SMP.
** As the President of L'Manburg, Wilbur hid his mental health issues and trauma from everyone else. He drops the act during the Pogtopia arc.
*** Despite appearing to be very cheerful and calm, Ghostbur, Wilbur's spectral counterpart, had said that his existence was pain, and he tries to hide his melancholic side as much as possible, repressing his sadness. It's also implied that his dissociative amnesia (selective memory loss) is [[TraumaInducedAmnesia due to the trauma]] he had suffered throughout his life.
** During the Vengeance arc, Tommy's [[{{Keet}} bright personality]] had returned quickly after moving in with Technoblade, but a closer look makes it quite obvious that it was a front, and that Tommy was actively repressing his trauma instead of dealing with it in a healthy way. As of Season 3, he's starting to open up more about his issues.
** Tubbo often bottles up his emotions and puts up the front of ThePollyanna until he reaches his RageBreakingPoint.
** Fundy puts up a cheerful front to hide his loneliness, insecurities, and trauma.
** While touring Las Nevadas with Fundy, Quackity claims that it's the happiest he's ever been even though the faction had only existed for about three months... which is extremely rich, coming from the guy that psychologically projects his trauma and insecurities on others to get them to join Las Nevadas in the first place.
* StoryArc: Each Dream SMP Season is typically divided by according to various character arcs and faction-related storylines, while each Arc is usually separated by {{Wham Episode}}s.
** Season 1:
*** Arc 1: The pre-L'Manburg era. Things are considerably more lighthearted in nature, and the roleplay hasn't come in full force. At one point in time Tommy joins the server, which sows the first major conflicts incorporated into roleplay.
*** Arc 2: The [[WarArc L'Manburg War of Independence]] (also called the first Dream SMP War). The roleplay begins in full force, and the SMP's true nature begins to unfold.
*** Arc 3: Post-War. The players handle the fallout of their war, and L'Manburg becomes a fully-fledged nation as it accepts new citizens.
*** Arc 4: The L'Manburg Election. This arc initially seems like light-hearted filler, but it soon becomes clear that it was building into:
*** Arc 5: The [[WarArc L'Manburg Civil War]] (also called the Manburg-Pogtopia War, the Manburg Rebellion, or the second Dream SMP War). Every previous plot thread comes to a thrilling conclusion as characters' true colors are revealed, heroes become villains (and vice-versa), and the status quo is forever changed.
** Season 2:
*** Arc 1: The Reconstruction Era. L'Manburg recovers and heals under the guidance of Tubbo and his cabinet. The rest of the Dream SMP recovers and gathers resources as well. The story at this point has split into several different plotlines as the server has grown to include over 30 different [=YouTubers=]/streamers in total, and each one is doing something different on the server.
*** Arc 2: The Post-Banishment Era. Tommy is exiled from L'Manburg, which kickstarts the roleplay in full force as the plotlines slowly begin winding back together again. It ends after Tommy moves to Techno's house, and Techno's foiled execution.
*** Arc 3: The Vengeance Era. Techno, Philza, and Tommy form the Arctic Anarchist Commune and plot their next move to reclaim Tommy's discs and/or destroy New L'Manburg, Dream hands over leadership of the Dream SMP to Punz, the gigantic prison Dream commissioned Sam to build is finished, and the Butcher Army change their target from Techno to Dream after they believed that Dream had a hand in foiling Techno's execution. A festival is staged to canonically kill Dream, foiled by the destruction of the long-lasting Community House. Tommy defects from Techno and rejoins L'Manburg (making amends with Tubbo). Dream reveals his plan to destroy L'Manburg after gaining the only items that could be used to make him back off (both of Tommy's discs, one of which he conned Tubbo into providing). Seeing that Techno also wants L'Manburg's destruction, Dream offers an alliance that Techno accepts. The arc ends in the Doomsday War, during which L'Manburg is completely and irreversibly destroyed by Dream, Techno, and Phil.
*** Arc 4: The Disunion Era. After the final, permanent destruction of L'Manburg, the server enters a fragile peace, New factions form from the ex-L'Manburgians, and Dream goes into hiding to avoid retaliation for the destruction at his hands (with Punz becoming interim leader of the Greater Dream SMP in his absence). It ends with Dream getting imprisoned in Pandora's Vault after his evils had been made known in his secret base.
** Season 3:
*** Arc 1: The Imprisonment Era. With Dream in prison, the storyline focuses on the Eggpire, their conquest for world domination, and the fight against it and the [[BotanicalAbomination Crimson]]. Jack and Niki plot to canonically take Tommy's last life as a means of revenge over the latter's wrongdoings towards the two.
*** Arc 2: The Lockdown Era. Tommy is sealed inside Pandora's Vault alongside Dream, and the two are left alone for a week as the prison goes on... well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin lockdown]].
*** Arc 3: The Mourning Era. At the end of the previous arc, Tommy was brutally KilledOffForReal at the hands of Dream. As Tommy's closest friends cope with the news of his death, the Eggpire celebrates the fall of their biggest threat while simultaneously contending with Captain Puffy, who has become a vigilante trying to bring them down by any means necessary. Meanwhile, Dream throws a wrench into the Eggpire's celebrations when he [[BackFromTheDead successfully resurrects Tommy]], undoing his brutal demise but proving that even imprisoned, Dream is one of the strongest people on the server.
*** Arc 4: The Post-Lockdown Era. After Tommy is found to have been revived and is released from prison, the server reacts to his return to the SMP, and he learns to gradually recover from his trauma. Meanwhile, the Eggpire continues to spread its influence throughout the server, and various characters' moralities begin to shift.
*** Arc 5: The Banquet Aftermath Era. Following the events of the Red Banquet, the Eggpire is sent away to regroup and plan their next move whilst those who oppose the Egg plan on locking it away in a vault for good. At the same time, Ranboo continues to learn more about his Enderwalk state, and Tubbo, Foolish, and Jack plan to find the nuke missing from Snowchester as soon as possible to prevent mass destruction. Dream also brings Wilbur back to life when Tommy attempts to assassinate him, opening a whole other can of worms for the server to deal with.
*** Arc 6: The Las Nevadas Era. In Quackity's May 22nd lore stream, he begins to recruit various members of the server for his country. As Las Nevadas begins to spread its influence throughout the SMP, multiple characters begin to have moral dilemmas on joining it, or begin to investigate the country. At the same time, Wilbur starts to plan a visit to Dream in Pandora's Vault, and Technoblade gets locked up in the aforementioned prison for an indeterminate amount of time.
*** Arc 7: The Breakout Era. On 14 September, Techno breaks out of Pandora's Vault with help from Philza using the Ender Pearl Stasis Chamber. While the two plot the destruction of the prison, Quackity starts going on a paranoid trip as he and the rest of Las Nevadas prepare for war, fearing retaliation from Dream (who he believes to have escaped) and Techno (who actually escaped, but was the only one to do so thus far). At the same time, the three new additions to the SMP begin to navigate the socio-political landscape of the server.
** Season 4:
*** Arc 1: The Freefall Era. In the [[WhamEpisode last two days of the Breakout Era]] (27-28 November), Dream is broken out of prison by the Syndicate, Purpled betrays Las Nevadas, and Ranboo and Slimecicle respectively lose canon lives and are rendered perma-dead or catatonic. Following these events, Techno and Tubbo [[EnemyMine team up]] to save MICHAEL and/or avenge Ranboo, Tommy prepares for an onslaught against Dream, Sapnap presumably tries to cope with Karl's memory decline and his EvilFormerFriend's escape from prison, and Quackity is left in mourning to honour Slime/Charlie's legacy. [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Oh, and on a meta level]], the server gets crossed-over to a Minecraft 1.18 world about two days into the season, allowing the Dream SMP to span across two servers with access to items added in the Caves and Cliffs updates.
* StrikeMeDownWithAllOfYourHatred: A variant. After Sapnap kills several of Tommy's pets, he allows Tommy into his bunker and goads him into killing Sapnap's pets in return. Tommy, however, [[DefiedTrope refuses]].
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: There have been so many instances that they [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome/DreamSMP have their own page]].
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: One of the lyrics of the L'Manburg NationalAnthem is "A very big and not-blown up L'Manburg." Not only has Dream already blown it up once before this point, but it later gets blown up ''again'' by Wilbur, and gets ''permanently'' blown up after the Doomsday War.
* SwitchingPOV: Usually more than one streamer streams particular plot points or events, which allows viewers to switch whose stream they're watching to see that particular streamer's perspective.
* SymbolicBlood: During his visit to Tommy in his Exile, Mexican Dream places down redstone dust to simulate vomiting blood.
* TakeOverTheWorld: Whereas Techno's M.O. is anarchy and Wilbur's is peaceful rule over L'Manburg, Jschlatt and Dream have this as their motive. ''Somewhat'' justified in Dream's case, considering that he ''did'' in fact [[DivineRightOfKings own all of the server before L'Manburg's independence]]--it's not so much him trying to conquer the world as it is him trying to reclaim the parts of it he once owned, though it's InNameOnly and the L'Manburgians were the first actual settlers of the land that would become the country.
* TakeThatAudience: Wilbur, after choosing to not press the button, calls out his chat for not caring about what happens to anyone in the story or their problems as long as they get to see destruction.
* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Techno [[InvokedTrope invokes]] it by name to exchange some ominous words with Tommy at the end of the Green Festival on January 5th, 2021.
* TheTeam: [[TheLeader Wilbur]], [[TheLancer Tommy]], [[TheBigGuy Eret]], [[TheHeart Fundy]], and [[TheSmartGuy Tubbo]] formed one of these during the L'Manberg Revolution. It was broken up by [[FaceHeelTurn Eret's betrayal]], and the characters involved continued to drift from their archetypes as the story goes on.
* TemptingFate:
** Jschlatt does this seconds before Quackity's MistreatmentInducedBetrayal and subsequent HeelFaceTurn. Mocking Quackity's indecisiveness and hesitation, Jschlatt claims that Quackity [[YouWouldntShootMe wouldn't even shoot him with the bow he's holding]] even though it'd one-shot him. Quackity ''immediately'' shoots Jschlatt with the bow, and it does indeed one-shot him.
** A tragic example comes at the end of the Lockdown Era. During his stay in Pandora's Vault, Tommy continues to insist that Dream can't harm him and that he'll be leaving prison just fine. At the end of the era, Dream brutally beats Tommy to death.
%%* TenLittleMurderVictims: Types C and H occur during "The Masquerade" episode of ''Tales From the SMP''.
* TenPacesAndTurn:
** Dream and Tommy have a clearly ''Hamilton''-inspired one of these over a bridge for L'Manburg's independence. The primary difference was that they used bows and arrows, not actual guns, since they don't exist in Minecraft.
** How the problem of the bandits were dealt with in the ''Tales From the SMP'' episode "The Wild West", as all three were killed in "ten-step standoffs" at high noon. The only fight that didn't occur honorably was the one between Crops and Jack Kanoff, where the former shot at 6, not 10.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Sadly enough, this is the case for the Dream SMP, where almost every member has experienced some form of trauma and has to cope with it through their own means, healthy or not. Even Puffy, the one person who has decided to take up the role of therapist, [[TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes has her own problems]] that effectively take her out of the role for the time being. This is ultimately {{deconstructed|Trope}} and PlayedForDrama, considering that the characters who are currently classified under the WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds tab most likely would not have turned out this way if they actually received therapy for the [[ShellShockedVeteran trauma]] that they had experienced.
* TheseusShipParadox: As L'Manburg gets trashed time and time again and exchanges one president for another, more and more of it gets replaced until it's borderline unrecognizable. For the time being, it seemed to avert fully being replaced thanks to the L'Mantree, a remnant of L'Manburg from Wilbur's presidency that survived even when everything else was blown up or torn down. However, when the L'Mantree is burned down by Niki in the Doomsday War, the L'Manburgians realize that nothing is left of their original nation and that it's no longer worth salvaging its ruins.
* ThirdLineSomeWaiting:
** The Blood Vines first emerged during the Exile arc, but since the main narrative of Season 2 mainly focused on Tommy's TraumaCongaLine at Dream's hands, along with the second rise and fall of L'Manburg, it was heavily overshadowed until Season 3, where they come into prominence as one of the {{Big Bad}}s and affect more and more characters' storylines.
** Quackity's character arc goes as far back as Season 1, but most overlooked his experiences in favour of "major players" of the time like Wilbur and Tommy. This was until his trauma and mental health eventually [[DespairEventHorizon boiled over]] and caused him to spiral into the Las Nevadas arc, dragging many others into the fold as well.
* ThisIsMyNameOnForeign: Upon initiation into El Rapids, characters are often called by their names translated into Spanish to signify their membership in the faction. Those with names that don't directly translate across (mainly because of the use of {{Screen Name}}s) usually have the title "Señor" tacked in front of their names. Mexican Dream also tended to address characters with their names in Spanish, even if they weren't part of El Rapids.
* TrashTheSet: On multiple occasions.
** The nation of L'Manburg has seen a ''lot'' of damage.
*** During the L'Manburg Revolution, Dream planted TNT under both the area in front of Tommy's base and L'Manburg itself, blowing both to smithereens. Both of those [[RebuiltSet were eventually rebuilt]], but the Camarvan stayed in ruins for a long time, and Tommy only patched up the crater by his house by putting a single layer of dirt over it. Tubbo's house was also burnt down as a show of force, but was not rebuilt until more than half a year later.
*** At the end of the Manburg-Pogtopia War, Wilbur pushed the button and blew L'Manburg to smithereens again, helped by Dream -- who placed even more TNT -- and Techno -- who unleashed two Withers onto his former allies. The crater remained, and New L'Manburg was built on top of it, with the crater itself eventually being turned into a lake.
*** The Doomsday War was a massive event in which L'Manburg was destroyed ''[[RuleOfThree again]]'', this time by ''twenty Withers'' from Technoblade and Philza, and many TNT-droppers from Dream. By the end of it, L'Manburg and the surrounding area more closely resemble the surface of the moon than an active city. Its inhabitants solemnly agree that there is no rebuilding this, and the nation of L'Manburg is disbanded entirely.
** During Tommy's exile, he and Ghostbur built an encampment which they named Logstedshire. When Dream found out Tommy had been hiding items from him, he blew Logstedshire up as punishment, prompting Tommy to run away and ally himself with Technoblade.
* TraumaCongaLine: Most notably, Season 2 is one to Tommy, with the sheer amount of abuse (both physical and psychological) heaped onto him during his Exile and everything else that happened; but arguably, the events on the entire SMP overall puts most of the cast through the wringer in one way or another, which Ranboo [[Funny/DreamSMPSeasonThree lampshades]] in a moment of BlackComedy.
-->'''<Ranboo>:''' lmao this is [[CrapsackWorld the dreamsmp]]\\
'''<Ranboo>:''' there is no compensation for trauma\\
'''<Ranboo>:''' just more trauma
* TreasureHuntEpisode: The ''Tales From the SMP'' episode "The Beach Episode" is this, where several members of the server participate in "Captain Blockbeard's Treasure Hunt".
* {{Troll}}: Unlike some other Minecraft servers with a little more etiquette (e.g. the LetsPlay/HermitcraftServer), people on the Dream SMP have no qualms stealing from, pranking, and annoying their server-mates in any way possible, making them anywhere from TheGadfly to this trope, with several people being more infamous for being trolls than others. For example, when Hannah (who was [[NaiveNewcomer fairly new to the server]] at the time) decorated the area surrounding her house with cakes in preparation for her birthday, Foolish pointed out in the chat that it was practically an invitation for everyone else on the server to eat them, as Quackity had done multiple times already.
-->'''<[=FoolishG=]>:''' These cakes will have soooooo many bites taken into them by the end of the week
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Schlatt becomes this after winning the election.
* UrbanRuins: A variant. All that remains of L'Manburg are a few scattered walls of houses and chunks of pathways, floating above a series of craters that run down to bedrock, with the obsidian grid used to [[DeathFromAbove drop TNT on it]] hovering over it. It's still clear that it was a city once, but it's been broken beyond repair.
* UnreliableExpositor: PlayedForDrama and {{deconstructed|Trope}} with Wilbur's letters to his dad, Philza. Wilbur lied to Phil in the letters he sent him about the Pogtopia situation because he didn't want to admit that he was suffering to his father, and didn't want him to worry. Instead of telling his father the truth, Wilbur said he won the election but gave the position of president to a trusted friend and left to make a new nation. Phil then believed, as a result of the [[BlatantLies misinformation]] from the letters, that Tubbo was the one committing atrocities as the head of government (rather than Schlatt) and thus devoted himself to destroying L'Manburg as an anarchist in the Doomsday War, thinking that government has corrupted good people like Tubbo.[[note]]Refer to the [[Fridge/DreamSMP Fridge Brilliance]] portion for more details.[[/note]]
* UnreliableNarrator:
** Ranboo has really [[ForgetfulJones bad short-term memory]], so he tries to write down what he does in his memory books, but he also has moments where he "blacks out" or possibly sleepwalks and does not remember what he does during those moments at all. If it isn't written down in his memory books, there is a good chance he will legitimately forget about it later on. This leads to things like Ranboo logging onto the server and suddenly having ''several'' unexplained stacks on netherrack and [[InterfaceSpoiler a nearly broken flint and steel]] in his chest the same day that Tommy finds out his house got griefed with a bunch of netherrack, (which he presumes to be Dream's fault.) After Dream was put into prison, Ranboo can also be sometimes seen in the background of other people's streams, wandering around the server while presumably sleepwalking because he has no recollection of the interactions he has with people later on.
** It's less obvious to the audience, but to a lesser extent, ''everyone else'' on the server can qualify because as characters, [[InnocentInaccurate they may not always have all of the possible information available to them]] that the audience does or have their perception of how certain events went down be clouded by their personal bias.
* VagueAge: This applies to just about every character on the server. The ambiguous timeline makes it hard to judge when and how characters are aging, and the multiple contradictory statements by the content creators don't help. Generally, it's assumed everyone is about the same age as the streamer who plays them, except for characters like Phil, Foolish and Slime/Charlie, who are ReallySevenHundredYearsOld, and Wilbur, who's been confirmed to be somewhere between 32 and 45 years old over the course of the SMP (due to the YearInsideHourOutside properties of the Afterlife).
* VideoGameLives: Clarified at the start of Season 2 (but retroactively applied to Season 1), everyone on the SMP has [[RuleOfThree three lives]] and once all are gone, [[KilledOffForReal you die for good]]. However, only important plot-related deaths actually count as losing a life (like the deaths during the Final Control Room Massacre in L'Manburg's War for Independence) -- any other deaths outside of the plot (fall damage, lava, accidental explosion damage, etc.) fall under DeathIsCheap. The only exceptions to this are Philza (who only ever had one life to begin with), [=BadBoyHalo=] (who has an infinite amount of canon lives as long as [[SoulJar Skeppy]] remains alive), Jack Manifold (who lost all three of his canon lives before [[BackFromTheDead dragging himself out of Hell]] and regaining his lives), and Tommy and Wilbur (who were successfully revived by Dream after losing all three of their lives).
* VillainHasAPoint:
** Techno really ''did'' want to live in peace after the L'Manburg Revolution as he claimed, and he's not at all wrong when he points out that it was ''L'Manburg'' who sought out conflict with ''him'' rather than the other way around. His final attack on L'Manburg certainly wasn't unprovoked, that's for sure.
** From the Doomsday War, Techno's accusation that Tommy only saw him as a tool for war also isn't unfounded. It doesn't help that the entire reason he was enlisted to join the SMP in the first place was because Wilbur and Tommy wanted his fighting skill to gain an edge against Jschlatt, not because Wilbur and Tommy wanted to have a genuine friend join the server. Tommy isn't able to provide a single piece of evidence to the contrary.
** As cruel as Dream's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Tubbo is, he's not far off when he says that Tubbo had no agency as L'Manburg's president, allowing everyone (from his own citizens to Dream himself) to dictate his every action (not to mention that the one act Tubbo did on his own, exiling Tommy, was perhaps the most disastrous move he could have done).
* VitriolicBestBuds:
** Tommy and Tubbo. While they rib on each other a ''lot'', they consider themselves best friends.
** Tommy also qualifies to have this relationship with Eryn. The two banter a lot but are still very close.
** Sapnap and George similarly argue and hunt each other a lot, but at the end of the day, they care about each other -- after all, they aren't considered members of the "Dream Team" for nothing, even if Dream turned out to be an EvilFormerFriend to them on the server.
* WallsOfTyranny:
** Zig-zagged in the case of L'Manburg's original walls. The nation had blackstone walls meant for protection, but [[PresidentEvil Schlatt]] interpreted them to be a symbol of restraint, and one of his first presidential decrees is to have them be torn down, expressing his [[TakeOverTheWorld expansionist]] views. Quackity also held distaste for the walls, but for different reasons -- they represented the country excluding citizenship for non-Europeans like himself, but he didn't hate them enough to want them to be torn down like Schlatt did.
** Played straight during the Exile Conflict in Season 2, Dream started to construct obsidian walls around L'Manburg and threatened to complete the walls if Tommy didn't receive a severe enough punishment for griefing George's house. However, when Tommy attempts to use the remains of Spirit against Dream, he takes down the obsidian walls and ''rebuilds'' them at an even greater height than before, threatening to wall in L'Manburg and cut them off from the rest of the world if the country didn't comply to his wish to have Tommy exiled.
* WarForFunAndProfit: The Badlands' role in the second Dream SMP war is shaping up to be this. As they don't support either side, their current plan is to pick whichever side is inciting the most chaos at the moment, and then [[DivideAndConquer rush in and seize the power after both sides have been weakened]].
* WastefulWishing: After Techno and Dream accidentally summon [[OurGodsAreDifferent DreamXD]] while trapped in prison, [=DreamXD=] agrees to grant them one wish. While Dream is still parsing the fact that he can finally get out of prison by wishing for an exit, Techno uses up the wish by wishing for a ''bell''.
* WellIntentionedExtremist:
** Techno genuinely believes that nothing good will come with authority and any form of government, and sees L'Manburg as nothing but a tyrant-run state (which he's not completely wrong about) that will only tear people apart, seeing how fighting for control over it drives Wilbur insane. Thus, he devotes himself to the ideology of freedom from government entirely. Phil later adopts this same mindset after the death of his son, Wilbur, and Techno's failed execution, though this is led on by Wilbur's [[UnreliableNarrator misinformation about the situation on the server]] before he died.
** Even with his SanitySlippage, Wilbur's primary goal was still to remove Jschlatt from power in Manburg. That said, his method of doing so revolves around blowing up the nation itself simply to [[IfICantHaveYou keep Jschlatt from having it]]. He also speaks of this trope when advising Quackity during the elections, in that one must be willing and able to use violence of any means, including extreme ones, to gain power to help others and truly do good on the server. Quackity also eventually [[DespairEventHorizon gives in]] and embraces Wilbur's mentality after his months-long TraumaCongaLine, but swears to not make the same mistakes Wilbur did.
* WhamEpisode: So many have occurred throughout the series that [[WhamEpisode/DreamSMP they have their own page]].
* WhamLine: Similarly to WhamEpisode above, there are many shocking lines throughout the story arcs that they require [[WhamLine/DreamSMP their own page]].
* WhamShot:
** During the L'Manburg War for Independence, Wilbur defies Dream's ultimatum and declares that he'd rather die than betray his own cause, being unfazed by a block of TNT that Dream has threatened to explode. As Dream detonates the block of TNT, the L'Manburgians then see [[StuffBlowingUp hundreds of blocks of TNT under the cracked surface of L'Manburg]], a few of them primed from the initial blast, realizing too late that Dream wasn't ''just'' detonating one block as explosions erupt from the ground.
** Wilbur finally presses the button with a bright grin on his face... which immediately drops once nothing happens.
** From the Manburg-Pogtopia War:
*** Wilbur turning around in the button room to see Phil standing in the doorway.
*** Wilbur pressing the button, followed soon after by an ''enormous'' explosion that completely decimates L'Manburg.
*** Techno standing across a crevice left by Wilbur's TNT, with several half-built Withers behind him.
*** Notably, the ''absence'' of something major serves as one. When Jschlatt dies of a heart attack and Wilbur has Philza kill him after L'Manburg's destruction, the one common thread is this: [[KilledOffForReal they don't come back]]. For even more wham, Wilbur ends his stream soon after he dies.
** With the reveal that Tommy has the remains of Dream's first horse (a prized item of Dream's), it seems like L'Manburg has suddenly received leverage over Dream. Dream even begins taking down the obsidian box surrounding L'Manburg... and then he proceeds to not only rebuild the walls, but increase their height.
** Technoblade is being confronted by Quackity as the latter is shouting how he'll [[CallBack put a pickaxe through his teeth]]. During Quackity's rant, from Technoblade's point of view, the screen suddenly glitches before he finds himself back at the Syndicate HQ, with Philza coming up to him and asking if he's okay.
* WhosOnFirst:
** When Tommy asks Ninja if he knows who Schlatt (then President of Manburg) is, Ninja assumes that it's some sort of slang.
** [[NonHumanNonBinary Ranboo]] doesn't quite understand how pronouns in English work, so when Phil mentioned a "her" after finding an enchanted forest in the tundra, Ranboo assumed he was talking about someone ''named'' "Her".
* WildCard:
** Technoblade makes it immediately clear that he's this. He only joined the SMP because he thought Wilbur and Tommy were outmatched against Jschlatt--however, with [[DefiantStoneThrow Niki and Eret]]; [[FakeDefector Tubbo and Fundy]]; [[TheStarscream a conflicted Quackity]], and even [[EnemyMine Dream]] supporting them, he now sees that it's ''Jschlatt'' that's outnumbered--and has outright considered supporting him simply to make things interesting. He ultimately ends up supporting nobody, helping to kill Jschlatt but immediately turning on Pogtopia when he's gone.
** Dream has confessed that he's only out for himself. Though he sided with Pogtopia upon realizing the threat Jschlatt posed to Dream's own power, he soon defected to join Wilbur in the plot to destroy Manburg rather than reclaim it. And once Wilbur comes to his senses and relents, Dream decides to join Jschlatt instead, having been offered a deal favorable to his own rule[[note]]what exactly the deal was is unknown, but Wilbur theorizes that Jschlatt offered Dream leadership within Manburg[[/note]]. Except he then leaves Jschlatt for the wolves, siding with Pogtopia again. Except he's not on their side either, he's actually helped lead to Manburg's direct destruction and is only siding with Pogtopia to avoid being on the losing side when the war ends. In short, trying to track which side Dream is on is pretty much futile.
** Sapnap also counted in Season 1. Officially he's aligned with the Dream SMP, having followed Dream during the L'Manburg War of Independence. However, he's also [[BloodKnight bloodthirsty]] and power-hungry enough to strike out on his own when he wants to. Notably, he and his former boss clash during the Battle of the Lake, during which he makes a failed attempt at forming another faction to rival the Greater Dream SMP, Manburg, ''and'' Pogtopia. He eventually [[CharacterDevelopment calms down]] a lot more at the end of the season, preferring to be more peaceful and diplomatic in solving problems.
** Wilbur also becomes this after he is brought BackFromTheDead, as he has given little to no indication of just what he plans to do after being revived.
* TheWildWest: The ''Tales From the SMP'' episode "The Wild West" takes place in this setting.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: After winning the L'Manburg election, Schlatt goes absolutely mad with power. During his inauguration speech he declares himself Emperor, revokes the citizenship of Tommy and Wilbur and has them chased off, renames L'Manburg to Manburg, and orders the walls to be torn down so they can expand their borders.
* WithUsOrAgainstUs: The Eggpire's entire principle. While they do try and convince people who don't like the Egg to like it, they especially detest people who are neutral towards it, as it implies that the Egg cannot influence them.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds:
** Wilbur Soot, especially during the Pogtopia arc, where he undergoes some major SanitySlippage and plans to blow Manburg sky-high during the Manburg Festival, destroying everything and killing everyone inside, and eventually succeeds at destroying the country he created during the Manburg-Pogtopia War. At the same time, he also had his idealistic worldview shattered by [[CynicismCatalyst Eret's betrayal]] during the War for Independence, causing him to abandon his mostly-pacifist beliefs, and L'Manburg ends up becoming a casualty in his donning of JadeColoredGlasses as he believes that the values and beliefs he built the country on no longer exists. Oh, and it should probably be noted that the detonation of Manburg was meant to be a suicide attempt.
** By the Las Nevadas arc, Quackity has become a ruthless ManipulativeBastard, but is also known to be a former WideEyedIdealist who was driven off the deep end after a long TraumaCongaLine of being constantly made to feel unworthy and excluded, to the point that he reached his DespairEventHorizon and unofficially decided that if he was going down, so was everyone else. It's really telling in that ''this'' is how he chooses to follow in Wilbur's footsteps as well as being a WellIntentionedExtremist.
%%* WorldOfHam: Every major player is very dramatic and passionate, with the only exception to this ironically being Technoblade, the literal PigMan.
* XanatosGambit: Dream's final ploy during the L'Manburg Civil War ends up as this, even if it wasn't intended to be. If Manburg manages to defeat Pogtopia? Dream is victorious and he doesn't even need to personally assassinate Jschlatt (who would die of a heart attack soon regardless of which side wins), eliminating two major threats to his rule. If Pogtopia wins instead? No worries, Dream can just feign surrender to [[KarmaHoudini avoid punishment]], sit back as Jschlatt dies anyways, and wait for a mentally-unstable Wilbur into pressing the button to destroy Manburg, accomplishing exactly what he wants anyways. The latter result is what ends up happening, and it works like a charm--the only thing that Dream ''doesn't'' account for is Techno's betrayal of Pogtopia, which arguably works out for Dream ''anyways'' (as it preoccupies L'Manburg with another enemy and [[KarmaHoudini ensures Dream goes untouched through the war's conclusion]]). As a result, Dream is just about the only major player of the war to end it in a better position than he started, with L'Manburg destroyed, two major political threats in Jschlatt and Wilbur KilledOffForReal, and Pogtopia preoccupied with rebuilding L'Manburg.
* YouMonster:
** Tommy calls out on Eret after he reveals his defection to the Dream Team.
--->'''Tommy:''' You BASTARD, Eret! You- we trusted you!
** Eret does one himself when Fundy burns down the flag of L'Manburg during the Schlatt administration, and another during the [[NastyParty Red Banquet]] when the Eggpire betrays the attendees' trust by luring them into a trap to kill them.
** Tommy also calls Tubbo a monster after finding out about Technoblade's execution at Tubbo's hand (as while Quackity pulled the lever to the anvil, Tubbo ordered him to do so).
* ZergRush: Technoblade's Hound Army functions in this fashion. While not very powerful individually, the hounds can overwhelm any opponent when working as a unit.
[[/folder]]

(...)\\

* HarmfulToMinors: So far, there have been five members of the server who have been minors during the narrative -- Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo, Purpled, and Eryn -- and much of their narratives revolve around them [[TraumaCongaLine being exposed to various traumatic events on the server]]. It's telling that the teenagers on the server[[note]]excluding Purpled (who [[TeamSwitzerland rarely participates in conflict]] when he logs on) and Eryn (who is relatively new, only joining in late Season 3)[[/note]] are sometimes considered the most traumatized people on the SMP due to the events they have witnessed and experienced.

[[caption-width-right:350:I heard there was a special place...[[note]]From top to bottom, left to right: [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Dre]][[BigBad am]], [[CluelessBoss George]][[AbsenteeActor NotFound]], [[ChronicPetKiller Sap]][[BruiserWithASoftCenter nap]], [[TheVoiceless Callahan]], [[GadgeteerGenius Awesamdude]], [[MadScientist Ponk]], [[TheGenericGirl ItsAlyssa]], [[GoshDangItToHeck BadBoy]][[BrainwashedAndCrazy Halo]], [[{{Troll}} Skeppy]], [[TeamSwitzerland Purp]][[OnlyInItForTheMoney led]], [[IFightForTheStrongestSide Punz]], [[PhysicalGod Foolish Gamers]], [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tommy]][[TraumaCongaLine Innit]], [[CloudCuckooLander Tub]][[StepfordSmiler bo]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur]] [[FallenHero Soot]], [[WellDoneSonGuy Fundy]], [[TheGoodKing The]][[TheAtoner Eret]], [[BewareTheNiceOnes Niha]][[BreakTheBeliever chu]], [[SmallNameBigEgo Jack]] [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Manifold]], [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Quack]][[LegacySeeker ity]], [[TheGadfly Karl]] [[FieldTripToThePast Jacobs]], [[IJustWantToBeLoved HBomb94]], [[NumberTwo AntFrost]], [[TheCaligula Jsch]][[ZeroPercentApprovalRating latt]], [[TheDreaded Techno]][[BombThrowingAnarchist blade]], [[TeamDad Phil]][[TimeAbyss za]], [[ForgetfulJones Ran]][[ConflictingLoyalty boo]], [[ThePrankster Captain]][[TeamMom Puffy]], [[CoolOldGuy Vikkstar123]], [[AwesomeAussie Lazarbeam]], [[FlowersOfNature Hannahxxrose]], [[{{Eagleland}} ConnorEatsPants]], [[SlimeGirl Slimecicle]], [[LoveMartyr Michaelmcchill]], [[FriendlyGhost Ghostbur]], [[DistaffCounterpart Mamacita]], [[FunnyForeigner Mexican Dream]], [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Drista]] and [[OurGodsAreDifferent DreamXD]]. Not pictured: [[ChildhoodFriends Eryn]], [[ThePollyanna Tina]] and [[MysteriousPast Boomer]]. [[https://twitter.com/smbdylsss/status/1400230736565727236?s=20 Art by Somie]].[[/note]]]]

** For Season 3 in particular: Power and legacy.

** Though he starts as a genuinely good guy ([[NoodleIncident discounting his attempt at flooding the SMP with "drugs"]]), come the L'Manburg Civil War, Wilbur can be seen as a bit of a ManipulativeBastard, having no qualms about getting [[ChildSoldiers Tommy and Tubbo]] involved in an all-out war that causes both of them physical and mental trauma (in his defense, Dream was the one to declare war and Wilbur had no intention to fight outside of self-defense), manipulating elections for his own benefit, as well as being inspired by Dream's terrorism to try and nuke ''an entire country'' just to ensure [[IfICantHaveYou nobody else can have it]] ([[SubvertedTrope or so he claims]]). There's also the question of how much of his MadBomber tendencies are due to SanitySlippage, as opposed to a genuine turn to extremism -- Quackity's April 12th lore stream implies the two factors go hand in hand with each other, and it's confirmed that [[ShellShockedVeteran Wilbur's]] [[CynicismCatalyst trauma]] has a lot to do with it as well.

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: ''Theoretically'', the Dream SMP would rank a 3 because it takes place in Minecraft. However, considering that the acts of violence that occur in-universe include and are not limited to ColdBloodedTorture and {{Cruel and Unusual Death}}s featuring FamilyUnfriendlyViolence[[note]]at least two of the more extreme onscreen acts of violence resulted in disability[[/note]], the maximum rating can go as far up as an 8 or more.

** In the days leading up to the Manburg-Pogtopia War, Karl and Sapnap discussed to have their wedding after the war. Once the war was over, the two included Quackity into the relationship and settled to marry once they fixed up L'Manburg. However, the arc was seemingly aborted as the server was thrown into a whirlwind of war and politics for the rest of the season... then Quackity revived the arc by planning to marry them in Las Nevadas, only for it to be immediately destroyed when George [[ThoughtTheyKnewAlready broke the news]] that they had moved to Kinoko Kingdom. In other words, the marriage is indefinitely postponed because of miscommunication and mental health issues, and fans of the Fiancés just keep taking L's.

* VagueAge: This applies to just about every character on the server. The ambiguous timeline makes it hard to judge when and how characters are aging, and the multiple contradictory statements by the content creators don't help. Generally, it's assumed everyone is about the same age as the streamer who plays them, except for characters like Phil and Foolish, who are ReallySevenHundredYearsOld, and Wilbur, who's been confirmed to be somewhere between 32 and 45 years old over the course of the SMP (due to the YearInsideHourOutside properties of the Afterlife).

[[caption-width-right:350:I heard there was a special place...[[note]]From top to bottom, left to right: [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Dre]][[BigBad am]], [[CluelessBoss George]][[AbsenteeActor NotFound]], [[ChronicPetKiller Sap]][[BruiserWithASoftCenter nap]], [[TheVoiceless Callahan]], [[GadgeteerGenius Awesamdude]], [[MadScientist Ponk]], [[TheGenericGirl ItsAlyssa]], [[GoshDangItToHeck BadBoy]][[BrainwashedAndCrazy Halo]], [[{{Troll}} Skeppy]], [[TeamSwitzerland Purp]][[OnlyInItForTheMoney led]], [[IFightForTheStrongestSide Punz]], [[PhysicalGod Foolish Gamers]], [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tommy]][[TraumaCongaLine Innit]], [[CloudCuckooLander Tub]][[StepfordSmiler bo]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur]] [[FallenHero Soot]], [[WellDoneSonGuy Fundy]], [[TheGoodKing The]][[TheAtoner Eret]], [[BewareTheNiceOnes Niha]][[BreakTheBeliever chu]], [[SmallNameBigEgo Jack]] [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Manifold]], [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Quack]][[NakedPeopleAreFunny ity]], [[TheGadfly Karl]] [[FieldTripToThePast Jacobs]], [[IJustWantToBeLoved HBomb94]], [[NumberTwo AntFrost]], [[TheCaligula Jsch]][[ZeroPercentApprovalRating latt]], [[TheDreaded Techno]][[BombThrowingAnarchist blade]], [[TeamDad Phil]][[TimeAbyss za]], [[ForgetfulJones Ran]][[ConflictingLoyalty boo]], [[ThePrankster Captain]][[TeamMom Puffy]], [[CoolOldGuy Vikkstar123]], [[AwesomeAussie Lazarbeam]], [[FlowersOfNature Hannahxxrose]], [[{{Eagleland}} ConnorEatsPants]], [[SlimeGirl Slimecicle]], [[LoveMartyr Michaelmcchill]], [[FriendlyGhost Ghostbur]], [[DistaffCounterpart Mamacita]], [[FunnyForeigner Mexican Dream]], [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Drista]] and [[OurGodsAreDifferent DreamXD]]. Not pictured: [[ChildhoodFriends Eryn]], [[ThePollyanna Tina]] and [[MysteriousPast Boomer]]. [[https://twitter.com/smbdylsss/status/1400230736565727236?s=20 Art by Somie]].[[/note]]]]

** Wilbur warns Tommy early into the L'Manburg Civil War that, in a few weeks, he won't be the same man Jschlatt overthrew. At first, it just seems to be a herald for Wilbur [[LetsGetDangerous giving up his vow of peace to show Jschlatt who really rules L'Manburg]]. However, in hindsight it's so clearly an allusion to Wilbur's SanitySlippage, turning the once-pacifistic leader into a MadBomber who Tommy must either bring back from the brink of a FaceHeelTurn or wage war against.

* FourthDateMarriage: This is how Karl and Sapnap, and eventually Quackity's relationship end up being like, where they got engaged with a practically nonexistent dating period. {{Deconstructed|Trope}} ''harshly'' in Season 3 when the [[PoorCommunicationKills miscommunication]] between the three--most notably concerning Karl's time-travelling powers and resulting memory loss, as well as Quackity's previous relationship trauma--led to a ''severe'' fallout.

** Techno is shown to have enough soul sand and wither skulls to spawn two Withers during his meeting with Quackity and Karl several days before the final battle for L'Manburg. The meeting itself seemed to be a BreatherEpisode, except for those wither skulls, which Techno uses during the battle itself to actually spawn several Withers to destroy what remains of L'Manburg after Wilbur [[StuffBlowingUp destroys the nation.]]

** At the Manburg Festival, Tubbo is revealed to the public to be TheMole for Pogtopia and Schlatt orders him to be publicly executed at the Festival he decorated for, to the horror and objection of practically everyone else present. Unfortunately for Tubbo, Technoblade doesn't do well under [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment what he claims to be]] peer pressure, and [[FatalFireworks shoots the firework rockets in his face]] anyway.

** Happens twice during the Manburg-Pogtopia War. Just before the first battle between the L'Manburg forces and the combined Pogtopia and Dream SMP, the time abruptly changes from sunset to sunrise. It happens again after Technoblade summons two withers, this time changing from night to midday.
** After the Doomsday War. The weather changes from sunset to a thunderstorm as the former members of L'Manberg grieve over their their loss.

* EdibleThemeNaming: Several [=NPCs=] on the server share names with food items, that including Karl's cat [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga Rutabaga]] and fish Lasagna (the latter of which is shared with Sapnap), Punz' bee Kiwi and deceased horse Pumpkin, Niki's foxes Fungi (though [[ItsPronouncedTroPAY pronounced differently]]) and Mushroom, Puffy's parrots Greenbean and Blueberry (the latter of which is deceased), and [[FurryConfusion Fundy's snow-foxes]] Apples and Yogurt (the former being MIA after Doomsday and the latter now being Fundy's adopted son).