History Characters / DreamSMPDream

->'''In-game name:''' LetsPlay/{{Dream}}\\

** In the Manburg-Pogtopia war, he eliminates both a political threat in Jschlatt and a physical threat in a good 80% of L'Manburg's territory. In fact, he's pretty much the only major player in the L'Manburg Civil War to end the war in a better position than he started.[[note]]On Pogtopia's end, L'Manburg has been devastated and Wilbur has died after committing assisted suicide. On Jschlatt's end he's been KilledOffForReal with his regime dismantled. On Dream's end, his nation's biggest threat has been dealt a crippling blow and his biggest political rivals are dead. And neither the Dream SMP nor Dream himself suffered any major losses during the war save for Dream's crossbow "DEFINITELY NOT PENIS", which ended up in Tubbo's posession.[[/note]]

* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: In Season 1, Dream opposed Schlatt's pointless sadism at least on a pragmatic level and his worst actions were brutally logical more than anything else. In the following seasons, Dream rapidly [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumps off the slippery slope]] and by the end of Season 2 he's engaging in torture and murder at the drop of a hat, and in many cases does so for ''fun''.

** Dream then later claimed that Wilbur blew up a country (Manburg) and cited that as evidence that Wilbur was no better than himself... while completely discounting two facts: 1) Dream was the one that ''gave'' Wilbur the TNT to blow up Manburg in the first place, and 2) Wilbur was trying to off himself with the TNT at the same time.

* ColorMotif: {{Green|AndMean}}, the main colour of his skin and the [[{{Foil}} complimentary colour]] to red, Tommy's ColourMotif.

** Exile is perhaps the earliest example of this. At the start of exile, Dream describes Tommy as an annoying bug in his room, and that by exiling him, he's just putting him outside. Over the course of exile, Dream subjects Tommy to all sorts of horrible, painful and humiliating abuse, like forcing him to destroy his armor every time he visits, [[WouldHurtAChild beating him with an axe when he doesn't comply]], encouraging visitors to join him in bullying Tommy, and seeming entirely unconcerned with Tommy's rapidly deteriorating mental state. He actively reinforces Tommy's false belief that his friends have abandoned him, brushes Tommy off when he tells him he's suicidal and says he needs Tommy "alive and well", and on the final day, outright admits he was just there to watch Tommy, which ultimately makes Tommy realize that Dream never saw him as a friend and prompts him to run away.

'''Tommy''' ''(high-pitched, horrified)'' You killed me just to ''prove a point?!'' Dre- Dream! You put me through that-\\

* FatalFlaw: Dream's [[ItsAllAboutMe ego]] and [[ControlFreak controlling nature]] both propel him further into villainy and are his biggest handicaps. Had he respected the truce of L'Manburg, he could have kept full control of most of the server, yet his inability to let anyone live outside his rule and his arrogant belief that the server ''needs'' his ironclad rule means that he increasingly escalates the situation, leading to much death and misery that ultimately leads to his imprisonment. Even after he's imprisoned, he's unable to comprehend that he can't get away with his usual behavior and trying to pull another one of his mind games on Tommy results in him being subjected to torture for days on end by Quackity.

** Dream can be incredibly kind and civil when situations are calm, even going as far as to acknowledge or even offer peaceful alternatives to his supposed enemies. There are times where he genuinely feels like [[AffablyEvil a nice guy who just has to put his foot down when his server gets too rowdy]]. However, his perceived kindness is part of the reason ''why'' his [[TheChessmaster manipulation tactics]] work so well. This is most evident during Tommy's exile, where Dream is so charming and nice that Tommy starts to consider him his best friend, despite the fact that Dream destroys his belongings every day, [[{{Gaslighting}} gaslights]] him into believing nobody cares about him, and sabotages his connections to his friends behind his back.

** To Jschlatt. Dream would have been considered a dictator, but when the war ended he gave L'Manburg independence despite having no reason to (as he'd ''won'') and respected the terms of the peace treaty, with the only conflict with him afterwards being provoked by others (namely Tommy). Jschlatt, however, blatantly ignored this treaty and actively generated conflict wherever he went (a ZeroPercentApprovalRating ''will'' do that). Dream's dictatorship was more subdued and quiet, but he's a lot smarter and more rational, being a fairly significant direct threat but being ''even more'' dangerous in the long run. Jschlatt favored a much more bold approach and while he was definitely the bigger ''immediate'' threat, he was also an idiot and borderline insane. Jschlatt shines brighter but burns out faster, and come the end of the civil war, he was drinking himself to death in the Camarvan. Dream shines less but lasts far longer, and come the end of the civil war, ''he's'' sitting comfortably from Dream SMP territory, having gotten exactly what he wanted with next-to-no personal losses.

-->'''Dream:''' Tommy, your life is literally in my hands. Does that piss you off? Does that make you mad? Does that make you so mad that I-- that you can't kill me? I MIGHT AS WELL BE A ''GOD'', TOMMY! YOU CAN'T KILL ME! AND I CAN KILL YOU!

* HopeCrusher: Dream utilizes this very often to squash dissent against him. This is most prevalent in how he treated Tommy during exile. Dream isolated him from his friends, and then systematically abused and [[{{Gaslighting}} gaslit]] him into believing nobody cared about him anymore, except for Dream himself.

** Later in Sam's ''second'' imprisonment stream, Dream sums up Sam's "list of crimes" through a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech which ends with him claiming that even he had standards, and insinuating that (and later outright stating that) Sam was as bad as, if not worse than him. Other than said "speech" involving him lying about him not having tortured anyone (through the ResurrectionDeathLoop he put Vikk and Lazar through, if not Exile), Dream also blatantly omits several of his more overt crimes--planning, carrying out and leading the massacre of a pacifist nation, later nuking that same nation to bedrock because he thought it was "just too much fun", abusing and gaslighting a teenager to the point he almost ended his own life, previously encouraging the spiral and subsequent suicide of another person, plotting to blackmail the entire server with their attachments so that [[ControlFreak he could control the server again]], etc.

** Dream actively participated in the destruction of L'Manberg after the Manburg-Pogtopia War, aiding Wilbur in his efforts to destroy L'Manburg. However, due to the members being otherwise occupied (Techno's FaceHeelTurn, Wilbur being KilledOffForReal, and rebuilding L'Manburg), he gets away with everything. Somewhat subverted later, when the Butcher Army plots to have Dream executed at a festival because of his actions, [[DoubleSubverted but]] he also gets away with it when he reveals that the Community House is destroyed, distracting them from actually carrying out the deed.
** This happens again during the Doomsday War after Dream carpet-bombed L'Manberg to the point of bedrock. However, this is {{invoked|Trope}}; by that point most of the server are starting realize how dangerous he is, and Tommy and Tubbo are mobilizing to take him down, so he leaves the Greater Dream SMP to avoid immediate retribution.

** Very heavily {{played with}}. Outside the walls of L'Manburg, he placed a sign on a grass block which read, "If you break this sign, you don't love Patches", referencing Dream's cat in real life (the sign was destroyed on Schlatt's orders). However, as the series goes on, Dream is revealed to be the BigBad and cuts off his attachments because [[VirtueIsWeakness he sees them as a weakness]], which leaves it extremely ambiguous to whether his incarnation in the series still loves Patches, or Patches's current whereabouts in-universe.
** Ultimately, this is turned against him in Pandora's Vault while Tommy is imprisoned with Dream. Through a mechanic glitch, Tommy's cat teleports into the cell, and Dream gets very attached to the cat, actively blocking it with his own body to prevent Tommy from hurting it or leading it into the lava. After Tommy forces Dream to admit he loves the cat, Tommy kills the cat in front of Dream, though it should be noted as well that Tommy's mental health was rather compromised at the time due to being [[AloneWithThePsycho stuck with Dream]] in jail for the past week or so.

** Dream is a ruler of the server and a massive ControlFreak, who abandoned all attachments with his friends, destroyed peoples' homes, isolated and abused a teenager, and planned to steal many peoples' possessions in order to maintain power over them. By the end of Season 2, he's left alone, in a maximum-security cell that he intended to put said teen in, with his only regular company being his jailer, who, on top of isolating him for months, [[ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine is feeding him uncooked potatoes]] (on [[HoistByHisOwnPetard his own orders]] to feed any prisoners raw potatoes) and cutting down his rations for any perceived step out of line. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Also, Puffy blew up his house during the tail end of Season 2.]] His only 'friends' now are simply people who either owe a favor to him or are just that devoted to him.

--->'''dreamwastaken:''' ''(on Twitter, replying to a fan)'' c!Dream [[ControlFreak liked the feeling of power and control]] that c!Tommy’s friend exiling him gave him. He wanted c!Tommy to feel so isolated that he eventually viewed c!Dream as his only friend, and would help c!Dream’s goals\\

Would have worked if it wasn’t for c!Techno living nearby
** [[https://nevadaz.tumblr.com/post/656985840749363200/dream-played-new-peoples-ignorance-like-a-fiddle Less well-known examples]] include him convincing Eret to betray L'Manburg for [[PuppetKing a position of power that was ultimately powerless]], [[ImpliedTrope possibly]] taking advantage of Quackity's naïvety and ignorance at the time to work with Schlatt in order to further his plans of taking down L'Manburg for once and for all while breaking down two idealistic politicians who could potentially have the power to oppose him, and [[IGaveMyWord holding up his promise]] of taking down the [[WallsOfTyranny obsidian walls]] he built around L'Manburg and acknowledging the country's independence to Tubbo in exchange for him Exiling Tommy, and further [[BitchInSheepsClothing playacting nice to him to try and gain his trust]].

* MoralMyopia: Dream has no problem with ruining lives and killing people all for the sake of furthering his own pursuit of power, but the second anyone hurts or even simply inconveniences him it's suddenly a heinous crime. The most notable instance is how he repeatedly condemns Sam and Quackity for having tortured him and at one point has the gall to claim that even he would never stoop to that, while conveniently ignoring both his psychological torture of Tommy out of petty spite during the Exile Arc and how he tortured Lazar and Vikk to death simply to test an experiment.
* MortonsFork: During the Final Disc War, Dream took Tubbo hostage and gave Tommy a choice: either give Dream 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,]] if Punz and [[BigDamnHeroes the others]] hadn't stepped in.

* ObliviouslyEvil: [[PlayedForHorror A downright horrific example.]] Dream is so arrogant and narcissistic that he's deluded himself into believing that he's the good guy, even as he engages in torture, murder, and the destruction of nations out of little more than petty spite. Any attempt to call him out on his actions leads to him insisting that he was totally justified and that [[BlamingTheVictim his victims were the ones]] ''[[BlamingTheVictim really]]'' [[BlamingTheVictim at fault]].

* PickOnSomeoneYourOwnSize: Dream (starting at age 21) is absolutely obsessed with Tommy (starting at age 16), and while his conflict is mostly with L'Manburg in Season 1, in Season 2 he starts viewing Tommy as the key to obtaining total control of the SMP, and goes out of his way to make his life a living hell to try to beat him into submission.

* PreMortemOneLiner: A villainous example. When Tommy screams that Jschlatt is dead and that there is no way to bring him back, Dream says "[[WhamLine Why don't you go see him then?]]" and proceeds to [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beat Tommy to death]].

--->"Well, uh, thank you for giving me the disc. I just wanna say that you're an idiot. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis You. Are. An. Absolute.]] ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Idiot.]]'' You have ''no'' power and you are the ''worst'' President that has ever been elected- you're no President ''at all''! You're not even President! ''Quackity'' is more President than you. ''I'm'' more President of L'Manburg than you! You listen to -- you get pushed around by ''everybody'' on the server! Because YOU. ARE. AN IDIOT. You are a ''buffoon''! You are a fool! You fall for ''everything''! '''''You just gave me the ONE thing I needed to DESTROY L'Manburg!''''' I don't ''CARE'' about the L'Manburg, I don't care about ''anything''! I've ''said'' this before! The only reason I did not ''destroy'' L'Manburg is because you had the disc! ... ''Ranboo'' is a traitor! One of your most trusted advisors is a traitor! You can't even run your ''own'' nation right, Tubbo! L'Manburg is weaker than it's ever been, and it's ''because of you''!"

--->"Okay, so... you've murdered for the greater good, you've kidnapped for the greater good, you've tortured for the greater good, you've taken hostage for the greater good, you have mutilated for the greater good... um, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and you've stolen for the greater good]]. That's like [[AndThatsTerrible the holy trinity of horrible]]. I- ''I've''- To be fair, ''I'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards haven't even gone quite that far]]. I have not tortured... or mutilated. Maybe, like, mental torture, potentially[[labelnote:*]][[{{Hypocrite}} This is a lie]] -- remember the ResurrectionDeathLoop he put Vikk and Lazar through? That arguably classifies as physical as well as mental torture[[/labelnote]], but mutilation? Come on. I've murdered, sure, I've stolen... I mean, I don't know! You're gonna say I'm a bad guy, I deserved to be locked up in here, then... maybe ''you'' should be here. I mean, we can be roomies."

-->'''Tommy:''' He contradicts his own rules! He says "no stealing", then he goes and steals from me! He says "no griefing", then he ruins the entire- look at that! ''(points at a massive crater in the ground)'' That is Dream! That is Dream! ''({{Beat}})'' So here's what we're doing today. We were sick of it, you see, chat. We were sick, so we moved to a new home. L'Manburg, alright? [...] L'Manburg, oh, how it was superior, and Dream didn't like that. ''[[ControlFreak The power left his grasp!]]''- one might say. So now he's gone- he's gone insane.

* SmugSnake: A high-functioning example. Dream always has a smug sense of superiority no matter what, and he can back it up through both physical strength and cunning. However, he finally overplays his hand in Season 3 when he kills Tommy, believing he can manipulate his way out of it as usual, and quickly finds out that while his knowledge of resurrection makes him too valuable to kill, it doesn't mean [[ColdBloodedTorture he can't be punished in other ways…]]
* TheSociopath: For lack of a better trope name, Dream pretty much fits this to a T--he wants to reunite the server [[ControlFreak under his rule]] ("justified" by a sketchy DivineRightOfKings excuse that can only really apply on a meta level), and is willing to do ''anything'' to do this, including plotting the massacre of a pacifist nation, manipulating every other person around him, nuking an entire city-state to bedrock, and abusing and gaslighting a teenager to the point said teen almost killed himself. Practically everything he does is [[ItsAllAboutMe self-serving]] or [[ItAmusedMe for his own amusement]], and as of Season 3, [[AGodAmI he has a god complex to boot]] and {{dehumaniz|ation}}es everyone involved in his plans to serve his own goals, including to his former best friends, who both eventually stood up to him and turned against him from how toxic he was.

** Dream's recounting of the Disc War has him claim that [[BlatantLies he won the war "fair and square"]], and that they were ''his'' discs from that point onward, and ''Tommy'' had been the one trying to steal them. Literally anyone who rewatched the old [=VODs=] would be able to tell you that Tommy and Tubbo won the initial Disc War, and that Tommy gave up his discs to Dream in exchange for L'Manburg's independence--how would the discs suddenly be Dream's? And even then, if Dream "won" the discs through the War of L'Manburgian Independence, was plotting and carrying out a massacre of a nation of pacifists a "fair and square" victory? Tommy didn't even try to get his discs back for pretty much the rest of the season, and only tried again in Season 2 in the face of Dream's manipulation and later abuse.
** Dream [[BlamingTheVictim laid the blame on Tommy for Exile]] by saying he had nothing to do with it, that it was rehab from Tommy going around blowing up and destroying things, and that he was only there to keep an eye on him... while completely discounting that Dream himself ''did'' set up Exile (see FrameUp for more details) and by "keep[ing] an eye on [Tommy]", he meant being there to "watch" him (as Tommy recalled Dream saying himself) and induce Stockholm Syndrome. Oh, and the child abuse, don't forget about how he completely glossed over the child abuse 'feature' of Exile.
** Dream later claimed that Wilbur blew up a country (Manburg) and cited that as evidence that Wilbur was no better than himself... while completely discounting two facts: 1) Dream was the one that ''gave'' Wilbur the TNT to blow up Manburg in the first place, and 2) [[BlamingTheVictim Wilbur was trying to off himself]].
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Stated in- and out-of-universe to be Dream's motivation and way of thinking. In a conversation with Punz, he claimed that he has always wanted the server to be "one giant family" and during the Disc Finale, he makes it clear he believed the server was better before Tommy joined or L'Manberg existed and is willing to do absolutely anything[[note]]including but not limited to [[WouldHurtAChild killing Tubbo and imprisoning Tommy]], destroying L'Manberg with TNT [[NukeEm down to bedrock]], and commissioning the construction of a [[TheAlcatraz inescapable prison]] to contain anyone he sees as a threat to "the peace"[[/note]] to return the server to its previous 'factionless' state [[ControlFreak with himself as the supreme authority]]. Writer Dream has also [[https://findingjoynweirdstuff.tumblr.com/post/655463753814523904/transcript-january-10-2021-lore-resources confirmed in a conversation with a fan]] that this is character Dream's canonical motivation and he has a "means justify the ends" type of mindset.

* VillainProtagonist: The Dream SMP short ''The Revival Book....'' is from Dream's perspective, where he tests his revival book on the poor residents of [[Characters/DreamSMPBoomerville Boomerville]] by killing them in painful ways and reviving them again before permanently killing them when the Revival Book's effectiveness is confirmed.

-->'''Dream:''' Maybe I'll send you back and, y'know, get some knowledge- I wanna figure it out, I wanna know... I wanna know how it works, I wanna know about death, y'know! We can study it! We can study it together! We can become ''immortal'', together!.

* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: After finding Tommy's secret stash of items (which Dream never explicitly said he couldn't have)[[note]]Although Tommy originally made the secret stash at the beginning of his Exile as a way to retain items that might help him to possibly fight Dream, by the time Dream discovers it, the manipulation he has put Tommy through meant that Tommy believed Dream was his friend, and no longer wished to fight him. At this time, the secret stash consisted of mostly valuable or sentimental items (diamonds, paintings of his friend and L’Manberg)[[/note]], Dream blows up the entirety of Logstedshire, bars Tommy from the Nether and forbids him from having any visitors. He then scolds Tommy for betraying him, saying things like "I thought you were my friend", with Tommy frantically apologizing the entire time.

* WouldHarmASenior: His first Season 4 lore video reveals that he abducted the (relatively) elderly members of [[Characters/DreamSMPBoomerville Boomerville]] and subjected them to various [[CruelAndUnusualDeath cruel and unusual deaths]] to test his revive book. He at first thinks of using Phil as the guinea pig, before Punz [[PragmaticVillainy points out]] that his friends and [[Characters/DreamSMPWilburSoot son]] ''will'' look for him if he suddenly goes missing.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Dream seems to genuinely believe he's the BigGood bringing the server back together, even as he's committing horrific crimes and even murdering the people he claims to care so much about. The only times he actually cops to being a bad person is when he's actively trying to psychologically torment Sam, and even then he accuses Sam of being the eviler of the two while ignoring the fact that Dream has tortured and murdered people with the barest of provocations.

[[folder:# - H]]

[[folder:I - Z]]

'''The Greater Dream SMP''' ([[Characters/DreamSMPDream Dream]]) | [[Characters/DreamSMPTheBadlands The Badlands]] | [[Characters/DreamSMPBoomerville Boomerville]] | [[Characters/DreamSMPSnowchester Snowchester]] | [[Characters/DreamSMPTheEggpire The Eggpire]] | [[Characters/DreamSMPKinokoKingdom Kinoko Kingdom]] | [[Characters/DreamSMPTheSyndicate The Syndicate]] ([[Characters/DreamSMPTechnoblade Technoblade]]) | [[Characters/DreamSMPLasNevadas Las Nevadas]] ([[Characters/DreamSMPQuackity Quackity]]) | [[Characters/DreamSMPNeutrals Unaffiliated]] ([[Characters/DreamSMPJschlatt Jschlatt]], [[Characters/DreamSMPTommyInnit TommyInnit]], [[Characters/DreamSMPWilburSoot Wilbur Soot]]) | Characters/TalesFromTheSMP]]]]

[[Characters/DreamSMPGreaterDreamSMP The Greater Dream SMP]] ('''Dream''') | [[Characters/DreamSMPTheBadlands The Badlands]] | [[Characters/DreamSMPBoomerville Boomerville]] | [[Characters/DreamSMPSnowchester Snowchester]] | [[Characters/DreamSMPTheEggpire The Eggpire]] | [[Characters/DreamSMPKinokoKingdom Kinoko Kingdom]] | [[Characters/DreamSMPTheSyndicate The Syndicate]] ([[Characters/DreamSMPTechnoblade Technoblade]]) | [[Characters/DreamSMPLasNevadas Las Nevadas]] ([[Characters/DreamSMPQuackity Quackity]]) | [[Characters/DreamSMPParadise Paradise]] ([[Characters/DreamSMPWilburSoot Wilbur Soot]]) | [[Characters/DreamSMPNeutrals Neutral (Unaffiliated)]] ([[Characters/DreamSMPTommyInnit TommyInnit]]) | [[Characters/DreamSMPDeceased Deceased]] ([[Characters/DreamSMPJschlatt Jschlatt]]) | Characters/TalesFromTheSMP]]]]

[[WMG:[[center: '''[[Characters/DreamSMP Main Characters Index]]'''\\

* NumberOneDime: Subverted. Dream appeared to care a lot about the leather dropped by his dead horse, Spirit. However, when Tommy tried to use it as leverage, Dream revealed he doesn't care about it at all, and that Tommy had banked all his hopes on a useless piece of leather.
* AdaptationSpeciesChange: According to a Reddit AMA by Wilbur, Dream is a humanoid but not a human. However, most fan depictions of Dream depict him as a human wearing a [[WhiteMaskOfDoom mask]] and green hoodie. To add further confusion, Dream's DistaffCounterpart, Mamacita, ''does'' wear the iconic mask and hoodie for her skin, and even ''Dream himself'' has confirmed that he wears a mask canonically.

* TheBadGuyWins: Dream was able to benefit from all the wars he's been involved in. In the first two wars, though L'Manburg technically won both times, Dream got exactly what he wanted as well.

** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], but [[DoNotCallMePaul being referred to by his real name]], Clay, seems to irk him. He responds to the first of ''many'' times Tommy calls him Clay by briefly unloading a bucket of lava onto Tommy.

* BigGood: Subverted. Dream loves to style himself as a benevolent peacekeeper who keeps everyone in order, but even before the founding of L'Manburg, Dream was a ControlFreak who constantly enforced the rules he had made while [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem breaking them whenever he saw fit]], and he quickly enters morally dark territory the second a challenge to his rule (L'Manburg and Wilbur) emerged--and Wilbur and Tommy are only inspired to actually rebel ''because of'' how overbearing Dream's rule is. Even as his quest to gain total control over the server results in him falling increasingly into villainy, Dream will still try to spin himself as just trying to make things peaceful again when it's plainly clear he's just doing it to satisfy his power-hungry nature.

* CardCarryingVillain: More of a Card-Carrying WildCard, but he flat-out says he's on the side of chaos.

* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: Despite boasting about his ability to raise the dead, he's genuinely surprised when it actually works on Tommy. However, this was later revealed to be a lie--Dream ''did'' know the revive-book worked, through [[TestedOnHumans means that are just as sinister]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Despite all of his villainous actions, ''even he'' recognizes the Egg and its Blood Vines are an abnormality. Another example shows up during the L'Manberg Revolution, where after the events of the Final Control Room, Dream and his team store the L'Manbergians items in chests for them to reclaim. When Wilbur expresses his surprise, Dream responds with, "We aren't savages."
* EvilFormerFriend: To George and Sapnap.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Dream can be incredibly kind and civil when situations are calm, even going as far as to acknowledge or even offer peaceful alternatives to his supposed enemies. There are times where he genuinely feels like [[AffablyEvil a nice guy who just has to put his foot down when his server gets too rowdy]]. However, his perceived kindness is part of the reason ''why'' his [[TheChessmaster manipulation tactics]] work so well. This is most evident during Tommy's exile, where Dream is so charming and nice that Tommy starts to consider him his best friend, despite the fact that Dream destroys his belongings every day, [[{{Gaslighting}} gaslights]] him into believing nobody cares about him, and sabotages his connections to his friends behind his back.

%%** To Wilbur. Both are competent rulers, but ''how'' they rule is quite different. Wilbur ruled through kindness and pacifism, while Dream rules through pragmatism and necessary evils. They notably remained foils during the L'Manburg Civil War. While both Wilbur and Dream sought the destruction of L'Manburg and the end of Jschlatt's reign, ''how'' they do so differs. Dream formed alliances, negotiates, and overall took a much more calm and collected approach. Wilbur, however, closed himself off from outside help out of sheer paranoia, with his approach being unhinged and unpredictable. They also serve as foils in terms of success. While both succeeded in getting what they want, Wilbur died a broken man while Dream not only survives, but also completely evades culpability.

** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] during the Exile Conflict. After the Manburg-Pogtopia War, Dream roped Puffy into griefing several people's builds, and placed signs to make it look like Tommy did it, likely as an excuse to force L'Manburg to exile him. But, while some people were ''very'' angry (BBH threatened to burn the disc Skeppy still had in retaliation), none of them chose to pursue legal action. However, about a week later, Tommy set George's house on fire, which Dream used as an excuse to force him into exile. In doing so however, he '''''heavily''''' exaggerated events to make it seem like Tommy burned George's house down to the ground in an act of petty vandalism, while in reality, Tommy and Ranboo pranked George's house by building flaming netherrack dicks on his lawn, '''''immediately''''' stopped and put out the fire once they noticed it had accidentally spread to the roof, and in the end, only burned about five blocks.

* GenreSavvy: During the Green Festival, Techno tries to exhaust Dream's favor when his withers are asked about. Dream ''immediately'' shuts that down, and points out that Techno was going to destroy L'Manburg even if Dream hadn't invoked the favor.

* HatedByAll: Downplayed. While there are some on the server who sympathize with Dream, especially those who joined the SMP after Dream's imprisonment and thus are mostly oblivious to Dream's atrocities, the rest of the server ''loathes'' him. Even Techno, the guy who broke him out of prison, starts to hate him when he shows his complete apathy at Ranboo's death.
* HeelFaceTurn: Subverted. At first, it seemed that Dream genuinely wanted to restore L'Manburg. However, during Wilbur's SanitySlippage, it is revealed that Dream simply wanted whatever will let him keep his power, and is even willing to help Wilbur destroy L'Manburg if that's what it takes.
** HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Dream later revealed himself to be on Schlatt's side due to Schlatt having a book that could revive people. However, Dream claimed that he was on the side of "chaos" and only doing whatever helps himself in the end. This is proven to be true when he ultimately turned on Jschlatt, seemingly aiding Pogtopia, only to then reveal that he's orchestrated Manburg's destruction from the beginning.
* HeroKiller: He's directly responsible for the loss of ''all three'' of Tommy's lives and the last two of Mexican Dream's lives. Exaggerated when it turns out that he killed Lazarbeam and Vikkstar ''numerous times'' to test his revive book.

** In a more abstract sense, Dream's plan to cut his own attachments to prevent himself from being controlled while taking the things people care about in order to gain control backfired ''immensely''. The fact that he cut his friends out of his life means the only ally he had left was Punz, a mercenary who was OnlyInItForTheMoney. Plus, his plan to steal people's most treasured belongings and kidnap their pets, meant that about half the server--including people like Jack and Niki, who hated Tommy so much at this point that they were planning to ''nuke him''--came to Tommy's rescue, if only to make sure that Dream would not be able to hurt anyone again (or at least, that was the impression they were under).

*** Later in the same livestream, Dream sums up Sam's "list of crimes" through a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech which ends with him claiming that even he had standards, and insinuating that (and later outright stating that) Sam was as bad as, if not worse than him. Other than said "speech" involving him lying about him not having tortured anyone (through the ResurrectionDeathLoop he put Vikk and Lazar through, if not Exile), Dream also blatantly omits several of his more overt crimes--planning, carrying out and leading the massacre of a pacifist nation, later nuking that same nation to bedrock because he thought it was "just too much fun", abusing and gaslighting a teenager to the point he almost ended his own life, previously encouraging the spiral and subsequent suicide of another person, plotting to blackmail the entire server with their attachments so that [[ControlFreak he could control the server again]], etc.

* InsaneTrollLogic: In Sam's 3 February 2022 imprisonment stream, Dream claims that Techno breaking him out of prison was good because even though Sam explicitly recalls that it was by general consensus to lock Dream up, Dream cites that ''Techno'' didn't take part in the decision, which somehow automatically means it was an unfair decision and the Jailbreak was a good thing. This completely discounts that a unanimous decision is often ''extremely'' difficult to achieve, especially in a cast as diverse as the members of the Dream SMP, and over half of the living members of the SMP at the time (14 out of 25) were there to 'agree' to lock Dream up[[labelnote:*]]Sapnap, Sam, Ponk, Bad, Tommy, Tubbo, Punz (in the 'staged' act), Eret, Jack, Niki, Quackity, Antfrost, Puffy, and Ranboo[[/labelnote]]... and most of the ones who ''didn't'' agree other than Dream himself (in the 'staged' act) were either inactive in the lore (George, Callahan, Purpled, Skeppy, [=HBomb=], and Connor), new to the server (Foolish and Hannah), or barely cared about people outside of their own social circle (Phil and ''Techno'').

* KindheartedCatLover: Very heavily {{played with}}. Outside the walls of L'Manburg, he placed a sign on a grass block which read, "If you break this sign, you don't love Patches", referencing Dream's cat in real life (the sign was destroyed on Schlatt's orders). However, as the series goes on, Dream is revealed to be the BigBad and cuts off his attachments because [[VirtueIsWeakness he sees them as a weakness]], which leaves it extremely ambiguous to whether his incarnation in the series still loves Patches, or Patches' current whereabouts in-universe.

* NotMeThisTime: ZigZaggingTrope. There's no denying that Dream ''absolutely'' killed Tommy and sent him to the afterlife, but the fact that Tommy had to endure ''two months'' there was not planned--the Afterlife has YearInsideHourOutside properties that Dream was genuinely unaware of and was actually surprised to learn about. That said, he's still responsible for sending Tommy there in the first place.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Even at his lowest point, Dream has always had this air of triumphant smugness about him. Nothing really seems to phase him, and even when he's trapped in a maximum-security cell, he still constantly acts like he's won. That is, until [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Quackity]] enters the cell, pulls out a sword, 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.
* PetTheDog: Subverted. When Wilbur starts his mental spiral and begins believing himself to be the bad guy, Dream starts reassuring him that he isn't and that deposing an incompetent tyrant like Schlatt would actually be a good thing for everyone on the server. However, once he realizes he can exploit Wilbur's mental state to get him to destroy Manberg, Dream quickly shifts to encouraging it and egging him on.[[note]]Another suspected "bonus" for Dream for egging him on at all is that he can more easily torment Tommy once Wilbur, his older brother-figure, is out of the way.[[/note]]

* PutOnAPrisonBus: At the end of Season 2, Dream gets locked in Pandora's Vault, temporarily preventing him from interacting with the story. {{Subverted|Trope}} by the fact that it is later shown that Dream still holds incredible power over the server even when locked away, not just because of his knowledge on reviving people from the dead, but also due to the other members' fear and trauma induced by him and his actions.
** Later on, Dream ''does'' break out of prison in the Season 3 finale and will presumably act as the ReturningBigBad in Season 4 (and onward).

--->"Okay, so... you've murdered for the greater good, you've kidnapped for the greater good, you've tortured for the greater good, you've taken hostage for the greater good, you have mutilated for the greater good... um, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and you've stolen for the greater good]]. That's like [[AndThatsTerrible the holy trinity of horrible]]. I- ''I've''- To be fair, ''I'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards haven't even gone quite that far]]. I have not tortured... or mutilated. Maybe, like, mental torture, potentially[[labelnote:*]][[{{Hypocrite}} This is a lie]]--remember the ResurrectionDeathLoop he put Vikk and Lazar through? That arguably classifies as physical as well as mental torture[[/labelnote]], but mutilation? Come on. I've murdered, sure, I've stolen... I mean, I don't know! You're gonna say I'm a bad guy, I deserved to be locked up in here, then... maybe ''you'' should be here. I mean, we can be roomies."

** The Doomsday War, where they both realize that they share a common interest--L'Manburg's complete and utter annihilation. With their combined powers, they turn the nation into a ''crater''.

* {{Sadist}}: He gleefully admits that he loves tormenting Tommy because he finds his suffering fun.

* SerialKiller: Can be [[https://tobi-smp.tumblr.com/post/673347203210903552/tobi-smp-tobi-smp-in-light-of-current argued]] to be one, as Dream had killed four people (Vikkstar and Lazarbeam, Tommy, and Ghostbur) in relation to using the revive-book on each of them, over the course of at least several months. What makes this worse is that he committed the last two of those murders ''while in prison'' while the two were each visiting him (for various reasons).

* StalkerWithoutACrush: Dream has always been weirdly fixated on Tommy, to the point where, in the era before L'Manburg, he would hide in his walls to spy on him, and built tunnels under his house to steal his beloved music discs. This only got worse in Season 2, when Dream became convinced that Tommy was the source of all attachment on the server, and that [[InsaneTrollLogic controlling him would allow him to control everyone else]]. He constantly keep tabs on Tommy, from having him exiled, trapping him on a remote beach and trying to abuse him into compliance, to conducting searches of Techno's house after Tommy ran away even after he knew for a fact that Tommy was hiding there, to trying to capture him and lock him up in prison, while claiming the only issue with exile was that Tommy could physically leave. Even after being jailed, Dream's obsession with Tommy didn't waver in the slightest, to the point where he excitedly ''offered Tommy immortality'' if he helped him study the revival book by letting Dream kill him over and over. Sam even cites this obsession as the reason why he felt somewhat safe leaving Tommy locked up with Dream.

** The first place that Dream goes after escaping prison is ''Logstedshire'', and when Tommy goes there to retrieve the Axe of Peace (and fails, since Dream got to it first), Dream welcomed him ''home'' in ''[[TraumaCongaLine Exile]]''.
* TestedOnHumans: According to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPl6CRihDdg his January 2022 lore video]], Dream first tested the revive-book on Vikkstar and Lazarbeam, before killing them both off permanently after succeeding to keep the book a secret.

* VillainProtagonist: The Dream SMP short ''The Revival Book....'' is from Dream's perspective, where he tests his revival book on the poor residents of Boomerville by killing them in painful ways and reviving them again before permanently killing them when the Revival Book's effectiveness is confirmed.

* VirtueIsWeakness: He sees having attachments (e.g. pets and prized weapons) as a weakness and starts cutting them off, so that he could not be controlled through them, as they have arguably been by other members of the server (e.g. the Pet Wars started over Sapnap being a ChronicPetKiller, which pissed off the owners of the pets, among other things). Unfortunately for him, this doesn't work out when half the server teams up to confront him during the Season 2 finale, discovering that he was trying to control the SMP through everyone else's attachments, which [[FatalFlaw leads to his arrest and imprisonment]] (see HoistByHisOwnPetard above).

* WouldHarmASenior: His first Season 4 lore video reveals that he abducted the (relatively) elderly members of Boomerville and subjected them to various [[CruelAndUnusualDeath cruel and unusual deaths]] to test his revive book. He at first thinks of using Phil as the guinea pig, before Punz [[PragmaticVillainy points out]] that his friends and [[Characters/DreamSMPWilburSoot son]] ''will'' look for him if he suddenly goes missing.

** A more subtle one happens after that, in that Dream said that if Quackity got his hands on the revive-book, he'd keep the book to himself (as opposed to sharing it with Sam and/or others, as Sam himself speculates) and use it to revive Schlatt. While the "reviving Schlatt" part was likely based in some degree of truth, it was possibly the result of Quackity losing the bet to Glatt in the first place, and Quackity personally ''didn't'' want to revive him at all... and the kicker is that Quackity himself was an abuse survivor courtesy of Schlatt when he was alive, making Dream's speculation uncomfortably close to victim-blaming someone for having StockholmSyndrome.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Dream can be incredibly kind and civil when situations are calm, even going as far as to acknowledge or even offer peaceful alternatives to his supposed enemies. There are times where he genuinely feels like [[AffablyEvil a nice guy who just has to put his foot down when his server gets too rowdy]]. However, his perceived kindness is part of the reason ''why'' his [[TheChessmaster manipulation tactics]] work so well. This is most evident during Tommy's exile, where Dream is so charming and nice that [[StockholmSyndrome Tommy starts to consider him his best friend]], despite the fact that Dream destroys his belongings every day, [[{{Gaslighting}} gaslights]] him into believing nobody cares about him, and sabotages his connections to his friends behind his back.

** The most noticeable example is during the Exile Arc, where Dream psychologically abuses and manipulates Tommy into [[StockholmSyndrome believing that Dream is his friend]] and the only one who actually cares for Tommy, in an attempt to gain control over Tommy.

** The first place that Dream goes after escaping prison is ''Logstedshire'', and when Tommy goes there to retrieve the Axe of Peace (and fails, since Dream got to it first), Dream welcomed him ''[[StockholmSyndrome home]]'' in ''[[TraumaCongaLine Exile]]''.

** Dream [[BlamingTheVictim laid the blame on Tommy for Exile]] by saying he had nothing to do with it, that it was rehab from Tommy going around blowing up and destroying things, and that he was only there to keep an eye on him... while completely discounting that Dream himself ''did'' set up Exile (see FrameUp for more details) and by "keep[ing] an eye on [Tommy]", he meant being there to "watch" him (as Tommy recalled Dream saying himself) and induce StockholmSyndrome. Oh, and the child abuse, don't forget about how he completely glossed over the child abuse 'feature' of Exile.

* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: After finding Tommy's secret stash of items (which Dream never explicitly said he couldn't have)[[note]]Although Tommy originally made the secret stash at the beginning of his Exile as a way to retain items that might help him to possibly fight Dream, by the time Dream discovers it, the manipulation he has put Tommy through meant that Tommy [[StockholmSyndrome believed Dream was his friend]], and no longer wished to fight him. At this time, the secret stash consisted of mostly valuable or sentimental items (diamonds, paintings of his friend and L’Manberg)[[/note]], Dream blows up the entirety of Logstedshire, bars Tommy from the Nether and forbids him from having any visitors. He then scolds Tommy for betraying him, saying things like "I thought you were my friend", with Tommy frantically apologizing the entire time.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Dream is one of the best fighters on the server and also happens to be the [[TheManBehindTheMan true leader]] of his faction. {{Justified|Trope}} as the SMP is a CrapsackWorld where MightMakesRight, so those with the most resources and battle strength tend to have the ability to intimidate others into submission, which, when combined with Dream's ManipulativeBastard tendencies towards everyone around him, makes him one of the most powerful figures on the entire server.

[[/folder]]

Dream is deceased in the current iteration of the Dream SMP world. He lost his first two lives to Tommy in his own vault and his third life to Tubbo in Pandora's Vault. However, he was brought BackFromTheDead by Punz soon after the third death with a single life. He lost that life in the detonation of Project Early Dawn.\\
\\
At some point during the revival book experiments, Punz killed and revived him an unknown number of times.\\

Eventually, Dream was broken out of Pandora's Vault by the Syndicate because [[LeonineContract Techno still owed Dream a favour]], which allowed him the opportunity to torment Tommy again. Currently, he has taken control of Pandora's Vault, the fortified prison that was used to contain him, and uses it as his base of operations.\\

Dream was briefly deceased, but has since been revived. He lost his first two lives to Tommy in his own vault and his third life to Tubbo in Pandora's Vault. However, he was brought BackFromTheDead by Punz soon after his third death with an unknown number of lives.

Dream has one life remaining. He lost both of his previous lives to Tommy in his own vault.

* WouldHurtAChild: Dream puts Tommy (16 years old at the time) through absolute ''hell'' in Exile, abusing him both physically and psychologically. He does so ''again'' when [[AloneWithThePsycho Tommy gets trapped in the prison with him during the lockdown]], by murdering him brutally and bringing him back to life.

** After killing and reviving Tommy just to prove he could, Dream thought he could get away with it since he was already imprisoned in the maximum security cell of [[TheAlcatraz Pandora's]] [[HellholePrison Vault]]. Despite this, karma still manages to catch up with him in weeks as Quackity, fueled by [[KnightTemplarBigBrother vengeance]] and [[ItMakesSenseInContext a lost bet with his dead abusive ex]], and with a little inside help from [[RevengeBeforeReason Sam]], visits Dream to [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] the knowledge of resurrection out of him. And he's planning to do this ''[[TheUnfettered every single day]]'', which he is shown to ''go through with''.

* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Dream can, at least initially, be seen as a WellIntentionedExtremist who believes he's doing the right thing. However, over the course of the SMP his methods become more and more extreme, with Season 2 being the jumping off point as he abuses Tommy, destroys L'Manberg permanently, and plans to kill Tubbo and imprison Tommy.

** This happens again during the Doomsday War after Dream carpet-bombed L'Manberg to the point of bedrock. However, this is [[InvokedTrope enforced]]; by that point most of the server are starting realize how dangerous he is, and Tommy and Tubbo are mobilizing to take him down, so he leaves the Greater Dream SMP to avoid immediate retribution.

** In the L'Manberg-Dream SMP war, Dream wins handily and proves his rule superior. The only reason that L'Manberg was able to keep its independence was because of Tommy striking a deal and giving up his two prized discs.

** A more subtle one happens after that, in that Dream said that if Quackity got his hands on the revive-book, he'd keep the book to himself (as opposed to sharing it with Sam and/or others, as Sam himself speculates) and use it to revive Schlatt. While the "reviving Schlatt" part was likely based in some degree of truth, it was most likely the result of Quackity losing the bet to Glatt in the first place, and Quackity personally ''didn't'' want to revive him at all... and the kicker is that Quackity himself was an abuse survivor courtesy of Schlatt when he was alive, making Dream's speculation uncomfortably close to victim-blaming someone for having StockholmSyndrome.

* ClassicVillain: With his main vices being {{Pride}} (most prominently seen in [[AGodAmI the god complex he develops]] in Seasons 2 and 3) and his VirtueIsWeakness attitude. A masked man [[GreenAndMean associated with the colour green]] who manipulates and hurts other members of the server ([[WouldHurtAChild and especially Tommy]]) in order to maintain the status quo of the server -- [[ControlFreak himself being the ultimate power on it]], with no major factions or rebels to threaten his rule. He almost succeeds in this with the annihilation of L'Manburg in the Doomsday War and eventually the Disc War Finale in his vault in the shattered savanna. However, this is where his VirtueIsWeakness attitude became his downfall, as he cut off all of his friends and potential allies due to said attitude, who [[BigDamnHeroes turned against him]] alongside Punz, who was a mercenary willing to betray Dream as soon as Tommy (who also happens to be characterized by his attachments, which Dream shuns) paid him more. This ultimately ended with Dream being [[HoistByHisOwnPetard carted off to the prison he built for potential 'dissenters']], with two of his canon lives lost to the teenager he abused.

* ColorMotif: Green, the main colour of his skin and the [[{{Foil}} complimentary colour]] to red, Tommy's ColourMotif.

* ControlFreak: Dream considers the entire server to be his property, in a sense[[note]]though this is somewhat justified by the fact that it was ''his'' server to begin with, albeit in a DivineRightOfKings sort of way[[/note]]. He declared war on the L'Manburgians after they attempted to declare independence and ban all non-Europeans from the country (though the latter decree is never actively enforced). Later on, this aspect of Dream gets considerably worse, from siding with Schlatt in the Manburg-Pogtopia War to obtain a book that could bring people back to life, to having Tommy exiled because he's the only person who never listens to him, eventually culminating in his plan to take control of every attachment (usually pets and precious items) on the SMP as blackmail, so that everyone will be forced to listen to him and he can return the server to how it was before L'Manberg existed.

** After being tortured continuously by Quackity in prison, once Dream escapes, he makes plans to do the same to Quackity... and also to kill him (most likely canonically), lock him up in Pandora's Vault, destroy everything he cares about ''from existence'', and also kill everyone he cares about. Admittedly, torture is a ''horrendous'' crime, but even ''that's'' overkill.

* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: Despite boasting about his ability to raise the dead, he's genuinely surprised when it actually works on Tommy.
** However, this was later revealed to be a lie--Dream ''did'' know the revive-book worked, through [[TestedOnHumans means that are just as sinister]].

** {{Zigzagged}} during the Exile Conflict. After the Manburg-Pogtopia war, Dream roped Puffy into griefing several people's builds, and placed signs to make it look like Tommy did it, likely as an excuse to force L'Manburg to exile him. But, while some people were ''very'' angry (BBH threatened to burn the disc Skeppy still had in retaliation), none of them chose to pursue legal action. However, about a week later, Tommy set George's house on fire, which Dream used as an excuse to force him into exile. In doing so however, he '''''heavily''''' exaggerated events to make it seem like Tommy burned George's house down to the ground in an act of petty vandalism, while in reality, Tommy and Ranboo pranked George's house by building flaming netherrack dicks on his lawn, '''''immediately''''' stopped and put out the fire once they noticed it had accidentally spread to the roof, and in the end, only burned about five blocks.

* FriendlyEnemy: In Season 1, Dream could be rather civil and polite with his enemies. He was often affable to Wilbur to the point of refusing to steal his and his subordinates's items after slaughtering them in the Final Control Room, and was willing to temporarily call a truce with Tommy after the events of the first season finale and simply chat with him like an old friend. This vanishes in later seasons as Dream becomes increasingly cruel and depraved; by the end of Season 2, any overtures of friendliness Dream presents are clearly a manipulation tactic and entirely feigned.

*** It's also later revealed that all the aspects of the prison that make it so inhumane were put in place because ''Dream'' wanted them. Sam 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, with the result being that he had spent the entire duration of his stay eating raw potatoes, unable to ever leave his cell or see the light of day.

** In a more abstract sense, Dream's plan to cut his own attachments to prevent himself from being controlled while taking the things people care about in order to gain control backfired ''immensely''. The fact that he cut his friends out of his life means the only ally he had left was Punz, a mercenary who was OnlyInItForTheMoney, and betrayed him as soon as Tommy paid him more than Dream did. Plus, his plan to steal people's most treasured belongings and kidnap their pets, meant that about half the server (including people like Jack and Niki, who hated Tommy so much at this point that they were planning to ''nuke him'') came to Tommy's rescue, if only to make sure that Dream would not be able to hurt anyone again.

* InSeriesNickname: He has been referred to as "Green Boy" on multiple occasions, most notably when Wilbur was signing L'Manburg's "Decree of Independance", and Tommy and Tubbo [[MeaningfulEcho shouting the same]] when Dream was defeated at the end of the Disc Confrontation during the Season 2 finale.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: It runs out the moment he tried to kill Tubbo and imprison Tommy, with him being outnumbered by a horde of SMP players and Tommy taking two of his lives.

* KickTheDog: His psychological and physical abuse of Tommy in the Exile Arc. It's horrifying, cruel, and Dream treats it all with a trivial levity, as if it was for fun. Later statements also show that he looks back on exile fondly, and imply that he did genuinely enjoy abusing Tommy.

* KnightOfCerebus: While earlier plotlines had touched on darker elements such as Wilbur's SanitySlippage and Tubbo's execution, nothing came even remotely close to the actions committed by Dream's character to Tommy's during the Exile arc, and the tone of the series has never been the same since then.

* ManipulativeBastard: Dream's entire reputation across the SMP, largely due to his ability to manipulate seemingly any situation to his advantage and [[KarmaHoudini rarely face consequences]]. The most noticeable example is during the Exile Arc, where Dream psychologically abuses and manipulates Tommy into [[StockholmSyndrome believing that Dream is his friend]] and the only one who actually cares for Tommy, in an attempt to gain control over Tommy. [[https://sootcraft.tumblr.com/post/656985840749363200/dream-played-new-peoples-ignorance-like-a-fiddle Less well-known examples]] include him convincing Eret to betray L'Manburg for [[PuppetKing a position of power that was ultimately powerless]], [[ImpliedTrope possibly]] taking advantage of Quackity's naïvety and ignorance at the time to work with Schlatt in order to further his plans of taking down L'Manburg for once and for all while breaking down two idealistic politicians who could potentially have the power to oppose him, and [[IGaveMyWord holding up his promise]] of taking down the [[WallsOfTyranny obsidian walls]] he built around L'Manburg and acknowledging the country's independence to Tubbo in exchange for him Exiling Tommy, and further [[BitchInSheepsClothing playacting nice to him to try and gain his trust]].

* MortonsFork: During the Final Disc War, Dream took Tubbo hostage and gave Tommy a choice: either give Dream 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]].

* ObliviouslyEvil: A downright horrific example. Dream is so arrogant and narcissistic that he's deluded himself into believing that he's the good guy, even as he engages in torture, murder, and the destruction of nations out of little more than petty spite. Any attempt to call him out on his actions leads to him insisting that he was totally justified and that [[BlamingTheVictim his victims were the ones]] ''[[BlamingTheVictim really]]'' [[BlamingTheVictim at fault]].

-->'''Dream:''' Maybe I'll send you back and, y'know, get some knowledge- I wanna figure it out, I wanna know... I wanna know how it works, I wanna know about death, y'know! We can study it! We can study it together! We can become ''immortal'', together!

* WeaponOfChoice: An enchanted Netherite sword, as well as a crossbow named "[[PhallicWeapon DEFINITELY NOT PENIS]]." Dream loans the latter to Tommy and Wilbur during the L'Manburg Civil War.

* XanatosGambit: Dream's final ploy during the war. If Jschlatt wins the battle? Dream's on his side (even if only for his own gain), so he wins too. If Pogtopia wins the battle? No worries, he'll just feign surrender and negotiate to get a favorable outcome without Pogtopia realizing. A Pogtopian victory ''also'' eliminates Jschlatt, by far the biggest threat Dream has to his own rule, thus negating the need to have him and Jschlatt negotiate further. The latter is exactly what happens as Dream makes a deal with Wilbur to destroy L'Manburg, getting one last laugh over his enemies, and securing the Dream SMP proper as an unopposed empire with Jschlatt's death.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Played seriously. While not confirmed in canon, Dream has shown several symptoms of ADHD, such as hyperfixation, emotional impulsivity, struggling to articulate words, and fidgeting. This is further supported by [[DisabledCharacterDisabledActor content creator Dream having a diagnosed case of ADHD]] which impacts the way he plays his character.