Its-a-game-i-lost

Crash Course: The History of Dream SMP Season One

So…

You want to get into the Dream SMP, but oh no! There’s eight months of extensive and event-filled history to catch up on, and dozens of highlight videos to watch that don’t always include everything, and pages upon pages of detailed Wiki articles…where do you start!?

Well, I’ve created this to summarize the events of Dream SMP Season One into a single post as a sort of “narrative timeline.”

I’ve also included the dates of the events to the best of my ability, so that everything is in (mostly) chronological order.

I’d highly recommend also checking out the Wiki for more detailed descriptions of the big events if you’re interested.

Happy one-month anniversary of the Grand Finale!

Enjoy!

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Note: Some dates, but not all, are taken from VOD upload dates, and Tommy’s VODs are usually uploaded a day later than initial broadcast, so they may be slightly inaccurate. Dates marked with * are the dates the VOD was uploaded, in cases where I am unsure of the original broadcast date.

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The Early Days

April 25th:

The SMP started out as an ordinary survival server, and was often referred to as “the survival world” on early Dream Team streams. The first eight members to join the SMP were: Dream, George, Sapnap, Badboyhalo, Ponk, Alyssa, Callahan and Sam, though Sam took a hiatus until the events of the Election Arc. The Community House was the first thing to be built in the center of a lake.

It was in this period that Beckerson and Mars were named from donos (the various named knicknacks in the Community House are also from donos), Dream tamed a white horse named Spirit, and Sam tamed Fran. There were also several other various pets like dogs and foxes that were tamed by the members.

Some notable events from this period include: the construction of the Court House (and subsequently Sapnap and George’s murder trials there), Dream building the wooden path, George texting Dream’s mother, Sapnap’s Famous Storytime Stream (in which Spirit died due to mobs), and the burning of Ponk’s first Lemon Tree due to a conflict with George.

There was also a running joke that Callahan and Alyssa were dating (they aren’t)

Tommy’s Arrival

Tommy joins July 4th. Tubbo arrives shortly after, with Fundy a day after Tubbo.

The day of Tommy’s arrival:

Tommy joins the SMP. His first day, George and Dream get him to stand on a crafting table and he subsequently murders George and takes from the Community House chests. Dream and George put Tommy on trial in the Court House. After a brief manhunt, Tommy is banished 2,500 blocks away (the first of three exiles) in the snow and is ordered to stay there. He fails to comply and is briefly banned before Dream lets him back on. He chooses to settle on a hill next to Ponk’s Lemon Tree.

The Disc War: Start of the Disc Saga

Taking place from July 9th* - July 11th*, though there were various events/conflicts relating to the discs that happened before and after this time.

After listening to two discs, Cat and Mellohi, with Tubbo on a bench while watching the sunset (VOD: July 8th*), Tommy considers the two discs to be his most prized possessions.

This event is considered the first major war of the server, and the Disc Saga would continue to have developments throughout the rest of Season One.

The events of the first Disc War began due to another conflict between Sapnap, Ponk and Alyssa. Punz and Tubbo were also involved. Tommy ended up siding with Sapnap, and much vandalism and fighting happened before Dream logged on with the intention to stop it.

Tommy and Sapnap murder Dream, and Dream steals Tommy’s discs in return, threatening to burn them unless Tommy returns his gear. Tommy, Tubbo and Sapnap end up combining forces to murder Dream and take back the discs, which Tommy hides under his base. Dream spends time off stream digging up the entirety of Tommy’s land in search of them.

The rest of the Disc War proceeds with Tommy and Tubbo working repeatedly to take back the discs from Dream. It only ends when Tommy crafts an Ender Chest to put the discs in.

This was also around the time that Fundy’s Socializing Club was built, which later led to a brief conflict taking place there.

(It was also during this time in the middle of the Disc War that Wilbur joined a call with Tommy and asked Dream out on a date to Pizza Hut, with Tommy speaking in game chat as Wilbur’s wingman. Dream says yes, George gets jealous on Twitter, and the infamous Vlog plot starts. It would go on from July to October.)

Schlatt and Wilbur

July 12th: During a short conflict between Tommy and Tubbo over the death of Tubbo’s pet bee, Tommy burns down Tubbo’s house. Wilbur logs onto the server to act as Tommy’s lawyer.

On July 17th, Schlatt gets whitelisted on the server without Dream’s knowledge and Tommy spends a day with his idol. The SMPLive Cuck Shed is recreated in Dream SMP, and Tommy listens to the disc Blocks with Schlatt. People trend #kickschlatt on Twitter. Both Wilbur and Schlatt log off the server “permanently,” Wilbur by choice and Schlatt by banning (as Dream didn’t know who he was). Tommy gains ownership of Wilbur’s ball house.

Also worth mentioning is Eret joining July 19th.

The L’manburg War for Independence (aka “Revolution”)

This was a relatively short but very consequential arc, taking place from July 24th to August 2nd, a little over a week in total. It is the second major war of the server, and the first to be faction-based.

July 24th: Wilbur joins the server again.

He decides to start an empire with Tommy. He builds the Camarvan (aka “hto dog van”) in a remote part of the woods and recruits Tommy to help create artificial scarcity in the server’s drug market by stealing everyone’s blaze rods. This isn’t taken too kindly by other members, especially Sapnap. One thing leads to another and they decide to mark out a tiny square in the woods to declare as an independent country. Tubbo joins them, and he and Tommy sing “Hallelujah” to a tilled patch of dirt (this melody would later become the L’manburg National Anthem). They also recruit Eret to help build. They decide on a name: L’manburg, and also don revolutionary skins.

Dream comes over, displeased by this, and declares war. His side consists of Dream, George, Sapnap and Punz, though the L’manburgians attempted to convince George to their side due to his Britishness.

Eret builds the walls, Fundy joins the revolution after logging in within the walls and being very confused, Wilbur claims Fundy as his son. Tommy constructs a fight club beneath his house and, after poorly speaking Dutch to Fundy, goes down the path placing signs in various languages saying “the green bastard shall die!” as propaganda to Dream’s viewers of various nationalities.

July 31st:

Dream and Sapnap log on during one of Dream’s streams, inspect the area, and go through a multi-step plan to demoralize the L’manburgians: they burn down all the trees around their land, lavacast a huge cobblestone wall just outside, construct obsidian TNT cannons around the walls, and fire several TNT blasts into the country, destroying part of the hotdog van’s roof. George joins the call, gets filled in on what’s been happening, and assists in the chaos. Eret, the only L’manburgian online, is helpless and can only meekly protest in game chat. As a final message, Dream and Sapnap set fire to Tubbo’s house (the second time) and Dream gives his famous “white flags” ultimatum.

August 1st:

The ultimatum’s war date was pushed back a day due to Twitter drama. The final evening before war, Dream, after doing his serious stream, logs onto the server and blows up Tommy’s land with TNT, exploding part of the beloved Cuck Shed. Wilbur, in VC, tells Tommy to return the favor to Dream, but instead, Tommy chooses not to fight fire with fire. Impressed, Wilbur makes Tommy his right hand man. Eret joins Dream’s side around this time.

August 2nd:

The day of war comes. Dream’s side goes to Tubbo’s jungle base to kill Tubbo repeatedly. There’s a brief conflict at the Power Tower. Wilbur logs on - the L’manburg side is grossly underprepared. They meet at the Embassy and exchange fire with the Dream SMP members. After Dream seems to retreat, Eret suggests they return to L’manburg, saying he has a “secret weapon:” Eret has been grinding for items.

He leads them down a long tunnel into a blackstone “Final Control Room.” The chests are empty, and Tommy pushes a button in the middle of the room, wondering what its function is. The redstone doors slide open and Dream’s men ambush and kill all of them, leaving them with nothing.

After speaking with Wilbur, who refuses surrender, Dream returns to L’manburg and lights a piece of TNT at the entrance, triggering tons of TNT that had been laid beneath the ground beforehand to ignite. Tommy leads everyone into a final bunker. As one last chance at independence, Tommy challenges Dream to a bow duel for Mellohi. George and Wilbur have a short exchange in which they reflect on their Pizza Hut Date, wondering how they could end up like this, with their men fighting each other on opposite sides. Wilbur tells George he should have been on their side as a British person. Eret too.

Tommy and Dream take ten paces and fire at each other on the Prime Path.

Tommy loses the duel.

Instead of giving up just Mellohi, though, Tommy asks Dream if he could give up Cat as well in return for “technical independence.” Dream agrees. Wilbur declares independence again, putting himself as President, Tommy as Vice President, and Tubbo as Secretary of State. Eret, meanwhile, is declared king of the Dream SMP.

YOOOOOOOOOOOO…you know the rest.

Jack Manifold is whitelisted. It’s a silver-lining ending.

Keep reading

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its-a-game-i-lost

4 years ago

Sometimes I like to think of the Dream SMP and its greater canon as a living fantasy universe, not just a little Minecraft server under Minecraft server assumptions.

I like to think that the world has complex technology in the form of planes, Nokia phones, and little communication devices, but also it’s still a fantasy place with animal hybrid inhabitants, potion-brewing, and enchanted weapons.

I like to think that one day this piglin hybrid and his friend staked a claim on the entire world and immediately everybody panicked, though not a drop of blood had been shed. The next day, there was a highly-anticipated trial, with the stake of the world on the line.

I like to think that the Angel of Death and the Blade rose to notoriety from this incident, becoming names known far and wide for their battle prowess, and sometimes, this brown-haired teenager with a little tagalong blond kid brother, who seemed to live the most mundane life imaginable, would sometimes stop in the middle of playing some depressing song on his guitar and casually drop, “Oh yeah, the Angel of Death? I know him. He’s my dad.” And then people would stare, as he went on nonchalantly playing his depressing music.

I like to think that one day this same fellow with curly brown hair, now a young adult, called a bunch of people into a drug van and started preaching all sorts of abstract ideas of liberty and equality and freedom from tyranny, and a bunch of people who came to buy potions from that little drug business sat down and thought, “Huh, that sounds kind of cool actually,” and deserted Dream’s absolutist rule.

I like to think that there was a massive audience when Wilbur was announcing the results of the presidential election (there were thousands of votes for that election, remember?) That even the people who weren’t in the audience were also hearing it over their communication devices and blasted around L’manberg, listening with bated breath.

And when Schlatt took the stage and his first decree was to exile Wilbur and Tommy, chaos immediately descended in the streets. There were violent riots that night. Someone cried out that the former president had been slayed by one of Dream’s soldiers, Punz, and had lost one of his lives, and panic ensued. Next day, the newspapers wrote all sorts of conspiracies of how Schlatt took power. Some of citizens of L’manberg saw this girl, Niki, who was new in town and urging them to fight. Soon they learned that she was an old friend of Wilbur’s, and she became a figurehead of the internal resistance.

I like to think that Purpled’s real estate business terrorized shop owners throughout the Greater Dream SMP. Purpled became way too rich from his exploitative practices, and everyone was too scared to do anything about it because it was rumored that Purpled was scarily good in a fight.

I like to think that people started calling their dogs, cats, and foxes into their houses once rumor began to spread of this merciless pet killer with a flame on their shirt.

I like to think that Pogtopia was a layered place, where resistance fighters were building a lively small community together. The Blade wasn’t really as intimidating as everyone thought — hell, he was a potato farm aficionado who loved to ramble about that one time he spent months farming potatoes in order to beat this kid. It was a bustling ravine where the constant sounds of laughter, tears, and the chinking away of pickaxes could be heard as everyone tried to relax, mine resources, and prepare for revolution.

I like to think that everyone tuned into the Quackity-Schlatt drama. It was all over the tabloids — Vice-President Quackity kills his President and Lover! Read all about it! Everyone made derisive political cartoons about Schlatt… and then people started to make derisive political cartoons about Tubbo.

I like to think there were pirates on the great seas. One day, one such pirate captain by the name of Puffy landed on the shores by L’manberg and the Greater Dream SMP, intending to just do a little casual robbing, but she decided to take a tour around the place with the king and in the process, she met that figurehead of the resistance and couldn’t help feeling a little smitten. Her pirate crew eventually sailed off without her.

I like to think that after Wilbur died, everyone knew about Ghostbur. His music stand was always popular. Sometimes he lended out books from his library, and people took them and read them, even though they were damp and starting to get just a bit moldy. No one wanted to hurt the ghost’s feelings.

I like to think there was a shocked audience at Tommy’s exile.

I like to think the day before Doomsday, the citizens of L’manberg were busy scrambling to evacuate their valuables, to muster their arms. I like to think that some of them, who never thought Tubbo was that bad anyways, followed Tommy and Tubbo to Snowchestire.

I like to think that people actually enjoyed the games at both the festivals, and that there were very many more of them.

I just like to think of the Dream SMP as being an inhabited place, sometimes.

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