Web Animation / Dreamscape

Dream On

Dreamscape is a 2014 web series hosted on YouTube by Vex created in Anime Studio/Moho.

Its about a group of 5 friends living their lives in a dangerous and bizarre world filled with things like parallel universes, reality-controlling zombies, and noble demon swordsmen. Its primarily an action/adventure series with an overarching plot, but delves into other genres like comedy, drama, and even horror.

It can be watched here, along with DSBT InsaniT.

Not to be confused with the film of the same name.

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Dreamscape contains examples of...

• Aerith and Bob: Names range from Vladmare, Keela, and Izane to Ethan, Dylan, and Melissa.
• After-Action Healing Drama: After Vampire Lord goes overboard in his match with Keela in episode 3, and with Melissa and her Healing Hands nowhere in sight at the time, Keela is sent to the hospital. Vampire Lord and his friends pay a visit to her in episode 5.
• Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: The Eye of Reality, as seen in the flashback in "Over and Under", which lets the wielder warp reality on a small and undetectable scale.
• Another Dimension: Several. So far, there's the Possessor Ghosts realm, the Unworld, the Underworld, the Sky Dimension, Melinda's dimension, and even a Mirror Universe!
• Art Evolution: Starting from Episode 6, the art style for the characters gets a complete overhaul by being designed in Adobe Illustrator.
  • Starting from Episode 7, the art makes the biggest jump yet with the character models being created in Anime Studio, allowing for much better movement and expressions.
• Barrier-Busting Blow: Actually its more of a Finger Poke of Doom. In the battle with Melinda in episode 7, Keedran puts up a barrier to block her fireball rain. However, Melinda destroys the barrier by casually slapping it.
  Melinda: Did you think seals were the only thing I could shatter with ease?
• Batman Gambit: In "Over and Under", the Overlord of Evil wanted Drake and Keedran to attack him until he was annialted, this temporarily unbound him from his Power Nullifier Sealed Evil in a Can, which was just enough time to brainwash Melissa into freeing him.
• Beam-O-War: Happens with Kai and Melinda in episode 7. Kai ends up overpowering her beam by "kicking" an Energy Ball into his own beam to power it up.
• Big Damn Heroes: Melissa shows up to save Dylan from Ethan in the first episode.
  • In a flashback in "The Mystery of Melinda" the entire population of the Mirror Universe shows up to fight Melinda before she can spread her curses on the world.
  • In "A Curse or a Blessing", when the heroes are struggling in the battle against Ghost Melinda, Keedran (who Ghost Melinda had seemingly taken down) shoots her snake arm out at Ghost Melinda, grabs her by the neck, and seals her in the pocket dimension contained within her body.
• Big "WHAT?!": Well, big for Keela at least, when Kaila tells her she is from the Unworld too at the end of the second episode.
  • The Overlord of Evil has one when he sees his Mooks destroying his base in the flashback in "Over and Under".
• Blank White Void: The Possessor Ghosts Dimension. It also serves as a Void Between the Worlds to get to the Mirror Universe.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: The flashback in episode 7 reveals that when Dylan beat Melinda for the first time and got her sealed away, she placed a curse on him that wouldn't activate until long after their fight. It would take the form of a creature that would try and kill him, and if it was killed, it would come back stronger the next day based on how he's feeling before he falls asleep. He was only able to beat it by giving the curse a form with enough sapience to make its own choices.
• Bullying a Dragon: In episode 6, Melissa chastises Keedran for always acting so sarcastic and silly, in comparison to her fellow guardians Kai, Eleenin, and Drake. The thing is, Keedran is an actual deity who is a Knight in Sour Armor about protecting humanity, and when Melissa's lashing ends up pressing her Berserk Button, Keedran reminds her exactly who she is dealing with in a "The Reason You Suck" Speech. (see below)
• Cassandra Truth: In episode 7, Vampire Lord, Anjren, and Ahjeen try to explain to Seleenara and Boru that there is no hidden treasure in Vampire Lord's Secret Room. Of course the pirates don't believe them and start a fight.
• Cooldown Hug: Ahjeen does this to Keela to snap her out of her Superpowered Evil Side near the end of episode 2.
• Comically Missing the Point: In "Tale of the Unworld", when Vampire Genesis turns into mist, causing Anjren's energy ball to blow a hole in the wall behind him, Dylan and Ahjeen react with shock while Keela just makes a remark on how sturdy the colosseum is.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Happens pretty often.
  • Episode 1: Keela in her and Ahjeen's fight with the Possessor Ghost
  • Episode 2: Anjren in her fight with Dylan, and Jasmine in her fight with Ahjeen.
  • Episode 3: Vampire Lord in his fight with Keela.
  • Episode 6: Most of the characters in their fights against the Mooks Melissa summons.
  • Episode 7: Keela and Mechelly in their fight against Kaila.
• Cut and Paste Environments: Just like DSBT InsaniT, a lot of the backgrounds are reused between episodes, or just have small alterations made to them.
• Cute Machines: The little Black Bead Eyes mech critter that appears in a flashback in "The Mystery of Melinda".
• The Dark Arts: Its one of the main things that drew Melissa to become Melinda's apprentice. She now swears off using it due to that association.
• Dark World: The Unworld. Its a dreary world of no escape that people are dragged into by Shadow Hands sent out by the resident Evil Overlord. "A Curse or a Blessing" casually reveals it's the root of all evil too.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Keela instantly kills the Master of the Dammed by simply shattering his scythe in the flashback in "Tale of the Unworld".
• The Empire: The vampires of the Underworld are an empire of their own, which includes Vampire Lord. In his flashback in "Confronting the Dark", Vampire Lord reveals they gave him the title of 'Lord' (from Vampire Knight) after he saved them from a Fog of Doom.
• Explosive Overclocking: Betty does this to her cybernetic legs in "Confronting the Dark" as a last-ditch move to defeat the dragon she is fighting.
• Eye Cam: At the start of episode 7, Keela wakes up in the hospital like this...and sees Kaila looming over her.
• Frying Pan of Doom: In the flashback in episode 7, Dylan tries to fight a dog demon curse with one of these, but upon attacking it, he becomes frozen and drops the pan.
• Fog of Doom: A flashback in episode 6 reveals that a black mist appeared in the vampire empire of the Underworld. It spread throughout the Underworld, then the surface world and cursed anyone it came in contact with. Vampire Lord, back then known as Vampire Knight, destroyed the fog and doing so is how he rose to the rank of 'Lord'.
• Four-Fingered Hands
• From Bad to Worse: In "An Unofficial Tournament", Kaila shows up and everything starts going downhill, but then Keela taps into the power of the Master of the Dammed as a desperate maneuver...
  • In the flashback in "Over and Under", the Overlord of Evil intends to use a laser to destroy the World Tower and bringing about The End of the World as We Know It by opening a dimensional rift. Dylan stops him by blowing up the control panel, but this triggers the laser to fire anyway. He manages to move the laser in the nick of time, but the laser hits an invisible point where the actual rift will open up in. Now the Overlord of Evil doesn't even need to blow up the World Tower, he can just shoot at the rift's location once more to open it up!
  • In the flashback in "A Curse or a Blessing", a deep-seated curse Melinda placed on Dylan manifests as a purple spider, which he easily kills. This curse will come back as a stronger form the next day based on how he feels before he falls asleep. Its second form is a serpentine dog demon that paralyzes its attacker when hit, so he tricks it into falling off a cliff. Its third form is a Blob Monster that would've suffocated him had an Angel Guard not shown up and killed it. He realizes the curse is something that can't be stopped, and whatever form its going to take next is definitely going to kill him.
• Get Out!: Melissa orders Kaila to get the hell out of her group's sight after she explains her vendetta against Keela. She obliges, but not without some parting words...
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Happens twice in episode 7. First is when Melinda turns into Ghost Melinda and slashes Keedran's serpentine body into pieces with her Sinister Scythe. This also doubles as Tongue Trauma, since she slices CHEN's tongue into pieces too. The second time is when she horizontally bisects Betty, but since she has a cybernetic lower-half, she feels no pain.
• Halloweentown: The vampire empire in the Underworld. Not just because of its populace, but also all of the buildings look like haunted houses and its got a red sky.
• Human Cannonball: Done in a rather spectacular fashion with Jamie by everyone working together and combining their powers in the flashback in "Over and Under" to seal the Overlord of Evil away.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Dylan pulls this off on Melissa when she gets brainwashed by the Overlord of Evil in "The Mystery of Melinda".
• Insistent Terminology: Vampire Lord does not SUCK blood, he laps!
• Interrupted Suicide: Melissa's very first heroic action, as seen in the flashback in "The Mystery of Melinda", is stopping someone from committing suicide by performing a Heroic Sacrifice. Thanks to her Resurrective Immortality, she can afford to be Taking the Bullet.
• Just Between You and Me: In the flashback in "Over and Under", the Overlord of Evil explains his Evil Plan in clear earshot of all the heroes. Dylan even notes this.
  Dylan: This guy is planning to warp ALL OF EXISTENCE?! And why the hell is he boasting about all of this right in front of us?!
  Kai: Because he knows there isn't a damn thing we can do to stop him.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After putting Keela in the hospital from going overboard during their fight in the tournament, Vampire Lord is subject to a mauling by Anjren's pet polar bear as payback.
• Leaking Can of Evil: In episode 4, this exact trope is the reason why the heroes have to do something about the two Sealed Evils in a Can (Melinda and the Overlord Of Evil) because eventually those seals are going to break!
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Drake, Keedran, Dylan, and CHEN do this in episode 4 in order to avoid the Overlord of Evil's Sinister Surveillance.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Right after the Overlord of Evil is sealed away in the flashback in "Over and Under", a pillar of light shoots up from the seal and destroys his base.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: In the flashback in "The Mystery of Melinda", Betty never knew the titular witch was her sister. She was intentionally kept in the dark about her sister, because if she found out, that would break Melinda's seal.
• Mad Doctor: One of Melinda's Mooks in "The Mystery of Melinda" was one of these, and he was a key factor in Betty finding out about Melinda and breaking her seal.
• Major Injury Underreaction: In "A Curse or a Blessing", Betty ends up getting horizontally bisected, but due to having a mechanical lower-half, she doesn't feel a thing.
  Dylan: BETTY!
  Betty: Oh relax, like I haven't had my legs and body seperated before.
• Merlin and Nimue: Melinda's and Melissa's relationship was like this. Melissa was Melinda's apprentice because she wanted knowledge of The Dark Arts, but since Melinda was still a Sealed Evil in a Can in her dimension, Melissa eventually left her. She continued to carry out Melinda's evil bidding, until Alice and Dylan helped her through a Heel–Face Turn.
• Mirror Universe: Its where Melinda, Ethan, and Betty are from, among others.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Keela goes through this after she represses her Superpowered Evil Side...until Vampire Lord gives her one hell of a wake-up call.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In Dylan's attempt to foil the Overlord of Evil's plan in the flashback in "Over and Under", he just makes things worse. See From Bad to Worse above.
  • In the third flashback in "The Mystery of Melinda", Dylan accidently spills the beans to Betty about her sister Melinda, which was the key to breaking her seal.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In "A Curse or a Blessing", Kaila pummels Mechelly with her many arms, but since Mechelly is a robot, this does nothing.
• No, I Am Behind You: In episode 7, in the battle against Melinda, she shatters Keedran's barrier and brags about how she can break any seal. Drake suddenly appears behind Melinda and fires a beam at her.
• Noodle Incident: Death-T. Although Dylan said he will go over his experience some other time. He also had fought demonic shoes at one point.
  • In episode 7, Keedran casually reveals that she and Drake fought, but Drake says that is a tale for another time.
• Off with His Head!: In "A Curse or a Blessing", Vampire Lord kills an insect monster by slashing its head off. Later on, Seleenara slashes Boru's head off after he gets it stuck in a hole in the wall. He quickly regenerates from it.
• Oh, Crap!: Several examples.
  • In episode 1, Dylan when he runs into Ethan, and Anjren when Vampire Lord is taken over by the Possessor Ghost.
  • In episode 2, Keela has a silent Oh, Crap! moment when Kaila reveals her true form.
  • In episode 3, the group has this reaction when Keela goes into her Superpowered Evil Side.
  • In episode 6, Dylan has a moment when Melissa uses The Dark Arts to prepare him and the others to fight Melinda.
  • In episode 7, Dylan and Betty react like this when Melinda vaporizes Pita. Those two and Pita also react like this when Melinda becomes Ghost Melinda. It happens with Keela when Kaila reveals she is going to acquire a Mechelly of her own.
• Ominous Floating Castle: Melinda used to own one before she was sealed away. Vampire Lord lives there now.
  • The Overlord of Evil also had a floating evil base, although it was more of a glorified turret than a full-on castle. He was intending to tear a hole in reality using it's laser beam.
• Only Six Faces: Like ''DSBTInsaniT'', the only facial features that change between the characters are their eye colors. Clothing style and accessories are used to give Distinctive Appearances.
• Our Mages Are Different: Magical powers are usually just inherited, but you can also just straight-up learn how to use magic like Melissa did, as she reveals in a flashback in "Confronting the Dark".
• Pirate Booty: Zig-zagged with the pirates Seleenara and Boru. While they are primarily after treasure, they'll also steal anything they find remotely interesting, such as books.
• Place of Protection: The Well of Power. Its a secret location which provides the planet with natural energy, and where Kai and Eleenin monitor the state of the planet.
• Power Nullifier: The Overlord of Evil's seal stops him from using his powers...as long as he is alive, that is.
• The Power of Friendship: The friendships between the characters is given a big focus in this.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In the flashback in "Tale of the Unworld", Keela shouts "Sending! You! To! Oblivion!" before she shatters the Master of the Dammed's scythe.
  • Betty shouts "Shut. The fuck. UP!" at the start of her "The Reason You Suck" Speech in episode 6.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In 'Confronting the Dark', Betty gives a very foul-mouthed one to Melissa to snap her out of her Freak Out about fighting Melinda being all in vain.
  Betty: Shut. The fuck. UP! Geez, you are SOOOOO fucking annoying! You think there is no way to stop her, you think this is hopeless, you think we are a bunch of dumbasses who are on a white knight mission to our deaths! We ask you for an idea and your cocky-ass goes on some cocky-ass rant on how we're cocky-asses against a cocky-ass witch with a cocky-ass plan that won't cocky-ass WORK! Hey guys, how about we just stand here with our thumbs up our cocky-asses?! At least THEN we won't piss off your highness right here!
  • She gets another one later on in that episode, this time from Keedran after Melissa presses her Berserk Button.
  Keedran: "Massive abomination" am I?! Just who the hell do you think you are talking to?! I could erase your puny judgmental smug self off the face of existince if I so desired! I've been seen as a ruthless monster by humanity for thousands of lifetimes just because I'm not some soft-spoken serene babe or some gruff and tough asskicker! I have to take some gaudy 'true form' JUST so humanity won't piss themselves and form a mob by the mere SIGHT of me! Yet despite all of that, I continue to protect the lives of everyone in this world! I look past their judgmental hearts, swallow my petty and bitter feelings of them, and I vanquish threats like the Overlord of Evil or soon-to-be Melinda! Why? Because as a guardian deity, it isn't my duty to make sure humanity likes me, its my duty to make sure they are safe from the TRUE massive abominations that exist in this world!
• Rousing Speech: Given by Keela of all people to pull Dylan out of his Despair Event Horizon in a flashback in "Over and Under".
  Keela: The Overlord of Evil just may be more powerful than the Master of the Dammed, but when has that stopped you? You inspired me to escape from the Unworld when I gave up. Please don't let me down. Don't let the WORLD down.
• Say My Name: In "A Curse or a Blessing", Dylan and Betty scream Pita's name when he gets vaporized by Melinda. Later on, Dylan screams Betty's name when she gets bisected. In both cases, the named individual quickly gets better.
• Secret Room: Vampire Lord discovers one behind the bookshelf of his castle. It contains a mysterious portal blocked by magical chains that he believes leads to Another Dimension. When he sends a bat into it, the bat is shot back out and frozen in time. When he, Anjren, and Ahjeen get closer to it, a humanoid insect creature rises out of it and tries to attack them.
• Ship Tease: A slight one with Keela towards Dylan in "Tale of the Unworld" after Kaila tells her story. It happens again in "A Curse or a Blessing" when Mechelly notes how close her and Dylan's relationship is.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Drake and Keedran freeze the Overlord of Evil in the middle of his Evil Gloating a couple times in "The Mystery of Melinda".
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Izane and Vampire Lord get into one in the first episode.
• Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond: Jenna is the one person who doesn't like Ahjeen. Not liking him isn't what bothers Ahjeen though, what bothers him is she never gave him a chance. With that being said, he still treats her with kindness and gives her information that anyone whose Dylan's friend would want to know.
• Someone Else's Problem: Vampire Lord's flashback in "Confronting the Dark" reveals his empire felt this way about a Fog of Doom affecting the Underworld...until it started affecting the vampires directly, but it was too late to do anything about it by that point.
• Stating the Simple Solution: In episode 7, when Kaila expresses interest in obtaining a Mechelly, which is a Robot Buddy protector that will follow your orders even if you are evil, Keela points out that she and Kaila know next to nothing about Mechellies, so there is no way Kaila could acquire one. Kaila's response? Just ask someone.
  Kaila: Its a little something called ASKING AROUND! Thats how I found out about you, remember? Just because you are a social hermit doesn't mean I am!
• Suplex Finisher: Kaila attempts this on Mechelly in "A Curse or a Blessing", but since Mechelly is a robot, this does nothing.
• Take a Third Option: The flashback in "A Curse or a Blessing" reveals that Pita was actually a curse Melinda placed on Dylan in the past that would take on the form of a creature to try and kill him. Even if it is killed, it comes back as a stronger form the next day based on how Dylan feels before he falls asleep. After some close-calls with more of the curse's forms, Dylan decides if he can't beat the curse, then reasoning with it is the next best thing. Thus he thinks about it taking a form with enough sapience that he can convince it to pull a Heel–Face Turn, and it works. Present-day Melinda even notes that she never figured someone would discover that loophole.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Usually this is played straight, but it ends up being subverted at one point in episode 7. In the middle of the battle with Melinda, Dylan tells the group how he and Pita (who was one of Melinda's minions) met. It later turns out the other heroes of the group used this time to come up with a plan to restrain Melinda while she was listening to Dylan's story.
  Eleenin: We mean no disrespect to you, but it was a strategy we came up with while you were telling us about Pita.
  Dylan: Oh, yeah, thats real nice.
  Melissa: Deal with it. It distracted Melinda for awhile, and you have no idea how much of a golden opportunity that was.
  Betty: Hey, I listened to ya.
• Team Shot: The logo, as seen above. Although it also includes some villains and side-characters.
• Tennis Boss: In "Confronting the Dark", Keedran defeats a dragon Melissa summoned by grabbing its skull projectile, making it bigger (and golden), and throwing it right back at it.
• The Thunderdome: The Savage Colosseum, which is notably where Soya and Vladmare fought in the first episode.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: Vampire Lord discovers one called 'Worlds of Darkness', written by Melinda, in his bookshelf. This is what clues him in that his "humble" home is actually Melinda's castle, which had somehow been transported to the Underworld.
• The Bus Came Back: After having a (rather minor) role in episode 1, Soya and Vladmare finally return at the end of episode 7 to fight Ethan and Curien.
• This Cannot Be!: The Overlord of Evil exclaims "No! I will not be stopped!" right before he is sealed away in the flashback in "Over and Under".
  • Melinda exclaims "What is going on here?! Your world should be destroyed and you all should be dead!" when she is suddenly transported into her own dimension to fight all of the residents of her Mirror Universe in a flashback in "The Mystery of Melinda".
• The Underworld: Notably, its where the Overlord of Evil is sealed.
• Tranquil Fury: Near the end of epiosde 7, when Kai has had enough of Betty's rudeness, he says "I think its time for you to leave." through gritted teeth in a stern voice.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Dylan convinces the Overlord of Evil's Mooks to fight back against him, since he'll have no need for minions once he seizes control of reality.
• Unexplained Recovery: How Dylan was brought back after his soul was shredded during Death-T, which Keela mentions off-handedly in the flashback in "Tale of the Unworld".
• We Will Meet Again: Before Kaila leaves the group, she warns Keela that she wont always have her friends around to protect her. She makes good on that promise, because at the start of episode 7, she finds Keela all alone.
  • Ghost Melinda, right before being sealed inside Keedran, tells the heroes they haven't seen the last of her.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The others really call out Vampire Lord on his actions in his fight against Keela during the fighting tournament.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Episode 5, "The Mystery of Melinda", consists almost entirely of flashbacks.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Kaila could easily kill Keela, who is in the hospital, at the start of episode 7. However, Keela points out that killing her in a weakened state is not how Kaila would want her to die.
• World in the Sky: The Sky Dimension. It was similar to a Fluffy Cloud Heaven, complete with angel guards wielding flaming swords. However, thanks to Curien and Ethan's meddling, a dark rift formed there. The angel guards couldn't stop it, so they had to seal the Sky Dimension away. This worked for awhile, but Ethan and Curien went at it again, and released the Overlord of Evil from its confines.
• World Tree: The World Tower, actually. It keeps reality together, and if its destroyed, it will be The End of the World as We Know It. The Overlord of Evil intended to do this so he could seize control of reality by going through the space-time vortex that destroying the World Tower would create.
• You Can See Me?: In "Over and Under", Jenna's Skull Snake spots CHEN and Dylan's invisibility cloak due to its thermal vision. Dylan and CHEN try to fake it by standing still, but the jig is up when Jenna grabs Dylan and gets thrown backwards by CHEN.
• You Didn't Ask: In "A Curse or a Blessing", it is casually revealed that The Unworld is the root of all evil, something that seems to be common knowledge in-universe to everyone but Dylan.
  Dylan: How am I just NOW knowing about this?! One of my best friends is FROM the Unworld!...Kinda.
  Melissa: You never bothered to ask. I could tell you all you need to know about the Unworld.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: When Melinda fiends out Pita went through a Heel–Face Turn, she vaporizes him with a beam. He ends up regenerating though.
  Melinda: Since you have given up on your lifes purpose, you are of no use to me!

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