This page contains unmarked spoilers. However, spoiler tags are used throughout to hide potentially triggering content. Discretion is advised.
Note: The events of the Dream SMP are extended roleplay. These people are still friends IRL, so do not treat the people playing them like you would the characters they play.
Many people have gotten quite confused as to why Dream continues to interact and hang out with Tommy, despite the fact that Tommy is now exiled and out of his way. Initially, it seemed like Dream's goals were simple as that, get Tommy out of the way so he could exert more and more control over L'Manburg. However, I believe it's much more complex than that.
Tommy: Well, it's very awkward considering you– you exiled me and uh... Have– have banished me from being around all of my friends. And now are trying to side with me, it's kinda...
Dream: (laughing) Tommy, what do you mean, from all your friends?! I'm your friend!
Tommy: Yeah... Yeah, you are...
For this analysis, I'm going to use the theory of Attachment Styles — a way of explaining how human beings engage with one another in both healthy and unhealthy ways. Quotes about Attachment Styles will be directly taken from this video
, which explains the theory in the context of cults and hate movements.
The theory describes four types of attachments — Secure, Avoidant, Anxious and Disorganized. In a nutshell, the theory describes how people — children especially — balance pain (which does not have to mean physical pain, but can also mean fear, anger, or any other kind of negative experience) and comfort (most commonly from a parent or caregiver).
Secure attachment is what psychologists consider healthy. The child knows how to handle pain, can take risks, but can also retreat to a place of comfort when needed.
Anxious attachment often occurs when the child does not receive enough comfort — either because their caregiver is neglectful or because they're just particularly needy — and thus cling to every bit of comfort they can get, never daring to leave their safe space.
Avoidant attachment occurs under the same circumstances, but manifests itself in complete opposite way, where the child completely gives up on receiving any kind of comfort and shuts themselves off from others.
However, the attachment style I'm going to talk about is unique, in that it can manifest well into adulthood, can occur in group settings like hate groups or cults, but also in private settings like abusive relationships.
Disorganized attachment, where pain and comfort come from the same source.
Dream: Just– you can keep your diamond pick. Drop your diamond sword. [...] Come on. You know the drill.
Tommy: ...You're right.
(Tommy throws his sword into the hole with his armor. Dream drops TNT into the hole, blowing up all of Tommy's items)
Tommy: I worked so hard to get that...
Dream: There you go. Thank you! So... What have you been up to?
Dream is very obviously trying to do several things at once, all leading to the same goal.
First, he's trying to isolate Tommy. His exile being the most obvious play, physically removing him from his community and placing him in a remote location is about as isolating as it gets. However, he also disrupts the mail connection between Tommy and Ranboo (Dream moved the Nether Portal Ranboo was using to send mail, and Ranboo's second letter confirms that Tommy's first letter never arrived), encourages Tommy's allies to turn against him (he encouraged Sapnap, Lazar and Techno to bully Tommy), and tries to imply that Tommy's friends have not only left him, they did it because they don't like him (Dream told Tommy that Tubbo visited Logstedshire when Tommy was offline, not-so-subtly implying that Tubbo didn't want to see him).
Tommy: ...but I liked where that one was.
Dream: Well, it's just far! You said the reason people won't come is 'cause how far it is, so this'll just make it even closer, so there's no excuse if they don't come visit you.
Tommy: Y'know what, Dream? I reckon you're right.
Second, he's trying to get Tommy attached to and dependent on him. Destroying his armor and weapons is not just a move to screw with Tommy, it depletes his resources and leaves him in a constant struggle for materials. Not only that, it also leaves Tommy completely defenseless against mobs, requiring Dream to come with him on trips to the mines and the Nether in order to protect him.
Third, he's trying to make Tommy suffer. This one is perhaps the most obvious, from constant death threats, to rubbing the fact that he can't go home in his face, to encouraging others to bully him, to destroying his belongings for seemingly no reason, to beating him with an axe if he doesn't comply. Dream is very obviously abusive towards Tommy, but not constantly — in short bursts, interspersed with friendly conversation and companionship. There's also large heaping of Gaslighting going on here, with Dream insisting that Tommy doesn't hate him, that they're friends, and that he hasn't done anything destructive, despite Tommy having watched him blow up his possessions twice at that point.
This is a textbook example of Disorganized Attachment.
While Dream is obviously not trying to become a cult leader, he is taking on the same role in his and Tommy's dynamic. Dream is trying to turn himself into Tommy's focal point, by isolating him from everyone else and providing him with comfort and companionship, as well as pain. Dream also rapidly shifts between cruel and kind, one moment he's bantering with Tommy while he mines for resources, the next he's threatening to kill him if he goes to see the Christmas tree.
Thing is, Tommy is a deeply social person. To suddenly go from living in a bustling community hub surrounded by friends to living in an open field with only an amnesiac ghost who barely understands what's happening for company has obviously taken a toll on his mental health. He's trying to find literally any connection with the people he knows, but those people are busy and don't always have time for him. Like he said — the reason people don't come to visit Tommy isn't because they don't like him, it's because Logstedshire is so far away and hard to get to. Most interactions on the server happen when people bump into one another, but it's hard to do that when your base is 2000 blocks away. Plus, there are many, many other things that require people's attention right now, from the war in Mexican L'Manburg, to the Crimson, to the ongoing rebuilding of New L'Manburg, nobody has the time to travel out to a distant field to spend a few days hanging out with Tommy.
Nobody — Except for Dream. Dream has always been a very hands-off ruler, only interfering when things go awry, and the only conflict he became involved in (the war for Mexican L'Manburg) took place when Tommy was away in exile. He has all the time in the world to hang out with Tommy, form a bond between them, and draw him in deeper, destroying Tommy's self esteem and making him totally dependent on Dream, and this has already started to take its toll.
Tommy: (after Dream logs on; voice trembling) Ohhh, no, please don't come and visit me, please, please, please... (Beat) Because I'm angry. I'm not scared, I'm angry.
Tommy: How do you know when it's too much?
Tommy: (after Dream stops him from committing suicide) It's never my time to die...
But that leaves one final question — why? Why would Dream go through the trouble of getting Tommy attached to him, only to then abuse him?
Tommy is the only person on the server who flat-out refuses to listen to or obey Dream. Everyone else does, either out of fear or loyalty, but whenever someone does disobey, it's seen as a dramatic twist, while Tommy disobeying or picking on Dream is par for the course. Tommy refuses to even consider the viewpoints of those he doesn't like, he only listens to his friends when he feels like their ideas match up with his closely enough, and even when Wilbur — his big brother and mentor-figure — first went insane, he had no qualms about pointing out just how wrong he thought Wilbur was.
These qualities are all horrible for Dream, as they allow Tommy to undermine his authority without even batting an eye. But fostering a Disorganized relationship between him and Tommy would allow him to stomp out those qualities.
Dream is not just trying to become Tommy's friend, or to bully him For the Evulz, he's trying to get Tommy to obey him. Tommy has consistently been the biggest threat to Dream's authority, because he refuses to take anything Dream tells him seriously. Tommy was the first one to mention that hey, maybe Dream shouldn't have total control over everything on the server, he was the one to suggest overthrowing Dream on the night of his exile, and despite being completely unarmored and unarmed compared to Dream in his full Netherite, Tommy still attacked him multiple times in a fit of rage after Dream insulted him.
Dream knows that by killing Tommy, he'd only be making him a martyr, and immediately make enemies out of not just everyone in L'Manburg, but also Wilbur, Technoblade, Philza, Tubbo, and everyone else who's not okay with the murder of defenseless teenagers. However, by breaking Tommy, he could get rid of his most influential enemy in one of two ways.
One way is if Tommy is Driven to Suicide. People would assume Tommy had Gone Mad From The Isolation and the blame would be split between Dream (who demanded exile), Tubbo (who went through with it against the wishes of his cabinet), and themselves, for not checking up on Tommy sooner. Either way, Dream would remain in power, now without Tommy there to challenge him.
The other way is if Tommy gives in to his Disorganized Attachment and fully latches onto Dream, casting everyone else aside. Tommy is a powerful ally to have, because he's fiercely protective of those he cares about, and he's liked by most people in L'Manburg (or, at least liked enough that people don't want him to die). With Tommy on his side, Dream's hold over L'Manburg would be so strong that he would essentially be the one in charge, not the President.
The effects of the exile have successfully taken a toll on Tommy, but not in a Driven to Suicide way.
- Tommy briefly realises whilst thinking during his suicide tower's construction that Dream only ever came to check on him. Dream blew up Tommy's belongings the former hid from the latter, as it was a sign that Tommy's still rebelling against Dream. Dream made sure Tommy didn't do anything that'll disadvantage Dream. Realising that, Tommy bailed off his suicide by hitting the water, and carried everything he had remaining to a location he knows he hasn't occupied yet, Techno's house. He seems to have bounced back to his former self, but...
- When explaining to Techno why he's freeloading under Techno's house, Tommy stutters a lot and tells Techno that his memory is a bit messy, despite the audience getting a clear picture on how Tommy's exile went.
The scene where Wilbur blew up L'Manberg for the first time is a complicated one, it seems out of nowhere to everyone, but remember L'Manberg itself is build on the foundation of freedom without the tyranny of Dream. The Schlatt administration brings out the inevitable tyranny similar to Dream, in his own mind that the L'Manberg he sees already gone by the tyranny they originate to stand against. L'Manberg should be long forgotten and live in a complete free world without the shackles of authority just like the chaotic Anarchist Technoblade do, Wilbur has great power and who lost it all due to his own poor choices and negligence who sees destruction as his ratification, his definetion of freedom is at the cost of people's safety. After Wilbur's death, many people was unaware of the consequence of the current L'Manberg ideology until it was too late when the Doomsday war is upon, several people notice the original ideology of L'Manberg is long gone, similar to Wilbur blowing up the nation and Tubbo's flimy adminstration made the whole people no longer feel the freedom and safety they wanted, they realized the state of L'Manberg that turned people against each other is unfixable thus choose to abandon it.
If you look back how Wilbur decline the position of goverment and "pass" the position to Tubbo, having come to the conclusion that L'Manberg's core ideologies had failed. In his final moments, he expressed excitement at having left nothing but a crater for the people to "lead". Ultimately, Wilbur lost hope in the land he made for freedom, believing it had lost the ability to ever be free again, already drove mentally unstabled Wilbur that he would rather end his his own life along with the nation he wish to be free by blowing up everything he worked for so people can see the pain of loss.
Before Wilbur's dying words, he mention Techno is the traitor without Dream's acknoledgement. Similar to Wilbur, Techno was very vocal against L'Manberg establish another government, Techno deep down does care for people, doing everything in his power — through bloodshed or not — to stop the government; the system that they perceives to corrupt and tear apart at those around him.
"Tales from the SMP: The Haunted Mansion" confirms that the Schlatt and Connor we see in Dream SMP are the same ones as in SMPLive, which gives us a lot to work with in regards to both of them as characters.
In SMPLive, Schlatt is presented as a malicious, yet ultimately ineffectual and harmless, con man, whose main goal is to extract as much profit from the server members as he can. Despite him being a Big Bad Wannabe, he tends to end up usually being more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, having a generally good relationship with his business partner and being a Team Dad of sorts to both their young intern Ty, and Grunk, the youngest member of the server who fails an Assassination Attempt on Schlatt. You can still see some of the ambition that we would later get to see in full in Dream SMP, particularly when he and Carson try to elect Schlatt as an Ultimate Authority Mayor of the server to many other players' vehement disagreement, but it largely does not amount to any long-term harm.
This is in direct contrast to the 0% Approval Rating authority figure with a serious case of alcoholism that we see in Dream SMP, who we rarely get to see sympathetic moments from. Within SMPLive, given what we are later shown of the two in Dream SMP, it seems that Connor is serving as a Morality Chain to Schlatt, as well as keeping both of them from spiraling into mental and physical health crises.
Schlatt first allows Connor to live with him on the server, and later has the idea to try to scam him with his newly created cryptocurrency, Schlattcoin. This ends in a Courtroom Episode after Connor burns all of Schlatt's scammed diamonds and Schlatt takes him to court with Ted Nivison acting as the judge. The two move on from this quickly and enter a business partnership with equal control over the brand-new Schlatt & Co.
Within Schlatt & Co., the two bicker constantly, however never get into major conflict that cause lasting damage like we see with Schlatt and Quackity within Manberg. Schlatt teases Connor in much of the same ways he does Quackity, but with none of the vitriol. "Eat pant Conar" and "Flatty Patty" are almost two sides of the same coin in this regard — the key difference showing in how the target responds. Connor defuses, and Quackity retaliates.
A similar effect can be observed with Connor too — in SMPLive he is a somewhat awkward, yet still charismatic and manipulative right-hand man to Schlatt, while in Dream SMP he is completely isolated from everyone around him, jumping from group to group and struggling to make lasting connections, to the point that when asked to describe his character in one word on the VidCon 2022 Dream SMP panel, his actor described him as "lost".
In the SMPLive Alternate Continuity Spin-Off server, TekkitLive, we start to see the true codependent nature of Schlatt and Connor's partnership. When the two begin to drift apart, we can see that Schlatt begins slipping into paranoia just like we do in Manberg — notably, even hiring Technoblade to take out the competition (sound familiar?). On the other hand, and again, just like in Dream SMP, Connor begins to isolate himself from the rest of the server and focus all his energy into his new WeedEx project.
This begs the question of if Connor's absence in Manberg era Dream SMP was a major factor in Schlatt's downward spiral into addiction and paranoia, just like we see when they drift apart in TekkitLive.
It's also worth noting that even in Dream SMP, we can still see aspects of Schlatt that support this view and suggest that his normal self is still there deep down, particularly with Glatt in "The Haunted Mansion", where he and Connor set up a whole elaborate fake kidnapping scheme with the sole intent to get people to come party with the lonely ghost.
