Dream (YouTube RPF)

Name:	Clay
Also Known As:	Dream, DreamWasTaken
Occupation:	Twitch Streamer, YouTuber, speedrunner
Medium:	Video
Works:	Dream SMP, Minecraft Manhunt
Official Website(s):
Fan Website(s):	Dream Team Wiki page
On Fanlore:	Related pages

Clay, known by his username DreamWasTaken or Dream for short, is a popular American Minecraft YouTuber and Twitch streamer well known for his Minecraft content, particularly the Dream SMP, his Minecraft Manhunt series, and his speedrunning. Dream also makes music on his Dream Music channel. He began gaining notoriety online between 2019-2020, though he'd been on YouTube since 2014. He was "one of the fastest-growing YouTube channels of 2020 and the number two overall creator of the year," according to an Insider article. As of Aug 2021, Dream has 24 million subscribers, with the only one coming close to him being TommyInnit, who hit 10 million in Jul 2021. GeorgeNotFound is a close third, with 9 million.

He is the first person in the titular "Dream Team," a MCYT trio consisting of Dream, GeorgeNotFound, and Sapnap (and unofficially BadBoyHalo).

Relationship with Fandom

Dream has been very supportive of his fans, and his support has caused some controversy with other popular YouTubers. The YouTuber Jawsh called "stan culture" "unhealthy, monsters, garbage, immoral," and called stans "unwell mentally." Jawsh referenced stans of Dream specifically. In response, Dream replied to Jawsh that he was an idiot. He went on to show support of his stans by saying that they were "a group of people trying to meet other people with similar interests while expressing this interest through shared morals, love, and creativity." Hugbox re-tweeted Dream's definition calling him a pussy for the statement, and Dream responded "here I noticed you now go outside."

Overall, Dream has been willing to publicly defend his fans, and stans in general, from the ire of other content creators. While this may not garner any favor from creators against stan culture, defending and encouraging his fans/stans has likely helped his fan base grow.

Shipping

The most popular ship in the Minecraft YouTube fandom as of May 2021 is Dream/GeorgeNotFound, and Dream has commented on both his personal comfort level with shipping in general and his comfort level with being shipped with George.

Dream is not uncomfortable with his fans shipping him with his friends, and is even okay with NSFW content. A Tumblr post with over 16,000 notes as of May 2021 claimed that Dream said he was okay with NSFW shipping involving his friends who were minors as young as 15, however Dream has never actually said this. This assumption may be based on him not clarifying who he meant by "friends" when he had originally given fans permission to ship him and make NSFW of him.

On Nov 30, 2020, he stated on his Twitter that he did not care if his fans shipped him with his friends, and that he supported his LGBTQ+ fans, as well as the LGBTQ+ members of the SMP. Dream also stated in a video that the Dream Team was fine with NSFW content as well.

if someone wants to ship us because for one reason or another them picturing us dating makes them happier, then why do you care, and why should I care? who cares. I’m glad that the LGBTQ+ community can feel safe enjoying mine and my friends content, that’s it!

@dreamwastaken, Nov 30, 2020

A major MCYT Dream/GeorgeNotFound fanfic, Heat Waves, took the lead for the most popular fanwork on AO3 as of March 2021, despite having been posted in September 2020. Dream sent the creator of the fanfiction a private message on Twitter praising her writing, though the wording implied he had not read the fanfic directly himself.

Controversies

It's been said by smaller content creators that Twitter tries to "cancel" Dream every month with something different. This is likely because Dream has become so suddenly popular between 2019-2020 and has had so few legitimately true accusations against him. These smaller YouTubers may also encourage, or at least keep alive, such controversies, as creators continually post YouTube videos covering even small opinionated "call outs" for Dream.

For example, searching "Dream Mask Cancelled" on YouTube (May 24th, 2021) brings up about eight very similar videos, with similar thumbnails, and similar titles with buzzwords, some of them made by the same small YouTube creators re-posting their own videos. In these videos Dream's song "Mask" was cancelled because an un-named Twitter user claimed Dream was bad because the song was "offensive to people who wore masks." These small content creators might be covering such material due to the algorithm and audiences favoring videos about Dream. In a similar way, the creator TommyInnit admits to putting Technoblade in his video thumbnails to double his viewers.

With Other Content Creators

In Dec 2020, Dream was accused of cheating in his speedruns by a speedrun moderator and YouTuber known by Geosquare. He was accused of using a modified base game to increase the drop rate of ender pearls and blaze rods. AntVenom, another Minecraft player, made a video about the accusations too. Dream initially denied the accusation, but later admitted to using a mod though he maintained that it wasn't intentional.

In Feb 2021, content creator John Swan purposefully spread slanderous information about Dream by pretending to be him on Reddit. Though Swan denied being the perpetrator of the accusations, he later admitted it and apologized. Swan then deactivated his account.

In Mar 2021, Dream was accused of saying the n-word in 2017, with video proof. However, it came out that the accusations were made without any prior research, as Dream did not buy the username until 2019. The creator who had made the accusations, Geosquare, apologized for not researching the issue before posting about it.

With Fans

There was a controversy involving the use of the r-slur in March 2020, however most of the information regarding this appears to have been deleted. A Reddit thread discusses it, but the Tweets linked to the issue are gone. According to the Reddit, a6d had used the r-slur and Dream had defended him. A Tumblr post with over 16,000 notes as of May 2021 also references this controversy, saying: "this is about him calling autistic people babies when they were (rightfully) upset that he used the r slur," though according to the Reddit thread a6d was the one to use the word and not Dream. However, screenshots from January 2020 show that Dream had defended the use of the word as he believed people being upset over the word was a way for them to ignore other issues. In the screenshot he said "You guys don't care about the actual difficulties people with disability face." This may be Dream insinuating that being upset over the r-word by harassing him (someone with ADHD, which is considered a mental disability) was performative morality.

Another Feb 2021 controversy came from a Navajo Twitter user accusing Dream of racism against Native Americans. The accusation was due to Dream screeching in one of his videos, and the Twitter user stated that it was anti-Native American for a non-native to make the sound. Dream responded by saying that "Native Americans don't 'own' screaming while flicking your tongue around," and that he had "Native American blood." He also stated that the sound he made was directly from SpongeBob, where SpongeBob has yelled "victory screech" and made that sound. The user who had original accused him responded by saying Dream was invalidating, silencing, and talking over native voices. Dream reported he began getting messages on Twitter telling him to kill himself over the controversy, and that he was sorry, but again stated he had been referring SpongeBob.

Dream had also used a Native American song in one of his manhunt videos, which he got called out for by a half-navajo on twitter. Dream thanked the user for informing him that using the music was inappropriate and said he would not do so again. The original poster responded to Dream saying that Dream "ratioed" them. To "ratio" means that a retweet becomes more popular than the original tweet, and in this scenario, the original poster may have been accusing Dream of purposefully taking attention away from them by re-tweeting.

#goodbye_dream and #DREAM_OUT

On June 9 2021 the hashtag "goodbye_dream" and #DREAM_OUT began trending on Twitter. The tags were mainly for posts that were anti-Dream, and was spurred by a Twitter user criticizing his "usage of African American Vernacular English and “demonizing rap music” by a person of color." Dream responded by saying that he didn't believe his fanbase had any antiblack people in it, and said "I don't support anyone who is at all." Twitter users, particularly many black users and people of color, responded by saying that Dream was ignoring the voices of black people and ignoring racism within his fanbase. In further response, Dream made Twitter posts directing attention to black content creators for Juneteenth, asked people to never use any of his tweets to perpetuate racist ideologies as he didn't agree with them, and that he didn't mean to speak over anyone.

The controversy also seemed to include a fake doxxing of Dream, where someone posted an image of someone who wasn't actually Dream and claimed it was Dream. It resulted in several anti-Dream Twitter users making negative remarks about the body type of the person in the photo.

Some comments from the goodbye_dream and DREAM_OUT tags are below, some by fans of Dream and some by those who dislike him.

#DREAM_OUT #goodbye_dream

Its infuriating how twitter ppl think that they are the most accepting

Then why are you posting pics of a young boy and call him insults, bodyshame h im just because you THINK he is Dream? And try to argument it by showing how you tried to doxx him?

xarnified

I don't like drama but wtf is wrong with you? Why do dream stans search for Dream's personal information and do other things with Dream SMP members? Then Dream haters say that Dream stans are bad when they are fat-shaming someone please explain #DREAM_OUT #goodbye_dream

Ultra_Playzz

this whole facade of “holding dream accountable” is in actuality trying to cancel him, trending #dream_out and #goodbye_dream isnt educating him but rather causing more spirals of hate

GazingWaves

I agree: dream and his stans deserve to be called out for their shitty behavior. BUT one thing I don't agree with is literally doxxing him. If that wasn't really him, you've just insulted a random guy who doesn't deserve any of this shit. #DREAM_OUT #goodbye_dream

saltyhalaman

"Dream is an Industry Plant" Theory

A post with over 16,000 notes on Tumblr as of June 2021 theorized that, due to Dream having such quick success in after after 2019, that he was an "industry plant" rather than a real independent creator. Even though the post was made on June 19th, it already had over 16,000 notes one day later. Though the post itself self-described as a conspiracy theory, several replies to the thread show that the theory does have some supporters who do genuinely believe Dream is an industry plant. At least one reply even suggested Dream was an alt-right plant, specifically. Other responses weren't convinced, instead suggesting that his growth in 2019 was actually a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly considering several other Minecraft YouTubers grew in popularity around the same time. The theory later made its way onto Twitter. A similar but less widespread theory from Aug 2021 was that Tubbo_ (at the age of 17) was also an industry plant, specifically that he was "a fucking government experiment designed to gather data on how teens and young adults behave with online creators."

Me explaining my conspiracy theory to my friends that dream is an industry plant and all his content is staged and he's a hired persona of a bigger media company and that's why he emerged onto YouTube with a fuck ton of money and high quality production and immediate connections to bigger YouTubers and was propelled from 1k subs to millions of subs in under a year

Original post by thelustiestargonianmaid, June 19, 2021.

Some reactions to the post are below.

Saw a theory that Dream is an industry plant and I haven't stopped thinking about it. This shit is not organic

toastrebel, image omitted 

Hololive girls have similar timelines and they are openly part of a larger company with money to finance them for context. So it’s definitely possible

drednaw

I mean, he probably is. The conservative party benefits greatly from the racist pipeline of alt right content on youtube, and theyve obviously got tons of money to burn, as evidenced by the right media spewing out lies constantly on a dozen different sites. I imagine a casually racist freak like dream would be an excellent plant to indoctrinate youth with relatable minecraft content, letting them slide down the youtube algorithm rabbit hole into even more altright videos

malchiex

I don't he's a plany. I think he's some rich guys kid who spent his money slowly accruing internet lets player form of social capital before investing it into an actual youtube channel. He's not corporate plant, youtbers just operate like corporations now.

robbothepeasant

Almost like there was a pandemic and bored kids with lazy parents had to find something to do/watch… sadly, all that lightning hit one of the worst people it could have.

overlord-flinx

Fandom

Dream's motifs in fanworks are based on his Minecraft skin; lime-green skin (usually depicted as a hoodie) and his white smiley face mask. Other Dream-related motifs depicted are his Minecraft horse Spirit and his sword. His green Minecraft skin color has caused some fans to affectionally label him "green bastard," and the tag green bastard on Tumblr brings up a fanart of Dream, among other things.

Sometimes Dream is depicted not as a human in a mask, but instead takes the shape of a chess pawn. However, fanworks drawing him in such a way are not actually drawing him as a chess piece, they are likely mimicking the shape of the character on his Minecraft skin, which happens to look slightly like a chess pawn. This is a reference to his minecraft skin, and is often referred to as "blob mode", "blob form" or just "blob". It is usually just used as a stylized mode of drawing, but in some fan circles, writers and artists will use this idea to suggest that, sometimes everyone in the Dream SMP or sometimes just Dream, has a "blob form that acts somewhat as a witch's familiar and / or a voodoo doll, doing their bidding and transmitting vision and touch. Sometimes this is used for very non explicitly focused stories, and sometimes in NSFW focused spaces the "voodoo doll" qualities will be used for NSFW purposes.

Chess imagery may show up briefly with Dream SMP centric imagery with the image of "the chessmaster".

Another place where chess imagery, or chess-like imagery may pop up is with more "RPF", streamer-focused works. This is mainly due to chess being an activity that the Dream Team knows how to do and may have conversations about doing when not playing Minecraft or making Minecraft content. George and Sapnap, more even than Dream are interested in and skilled at chess games. So RPF artwork may have chess themes, but it is often George and / or Sapnap shown or depicted playing, and there's usually much less A sense of threat or menace than with Dream SMP centric works.

When Dream is depicted as a villain it is usually in reference to the Dream SMP, where he played the bad guy. In the Dream SMP Dream often fought with TommyInnit over music discs, and this is a popular thing to make fanart for. He was also the opposing leader of a war between the Greater Dream SMP and a faction called L'Manburg headed by Wilbur Soot. As such, fanart including Dream in the L'Manburg war is common as well. As mentioned above, occasional images of Dream as the Dream SMP villain (or antagonist) will use chess and chessmaster imagery to hint or allude to the way c!Dream's most preferred mode of exerting influence, and most chilling - despite being acceptable at pvp / combat - is through his words and actions of threat, mental and verbal abuse, and control.

Adding onto that theme, another symbol used with DSMP villain Dream is that of puppet strings, usually green, hinting at his nickname of "puppetmaster", and pointing at his preferred means, whether you believe his ends justified or not. These strings are often also depicted as glowing or otherwise supernatural or ghostly, to show they are not literal strings but symbolic of other things. They almost likely did not originate the thing, but some of the most iconic versions of the strings motifs are found in the videos of two YouTube animators - and they certainly helped cement it! Dropster with, for example, "The Voice of Dream" and "Stockholm Syndrome", And Roseartemis with her "Voices of Dream" video and even more with her "Dramaturgy" - which tells (or tries to tell) the story from C!Dream's point of view, showing how she imagines (though with some extrapolation from canon which she carefully explains) Dream's slide/march into villainy occurs, partly fueled by his awareness of himself as a leader or storyteller, and his hard ideas of what that means and the ends-vs-means calculations his mind wrestles with wearing him down.

Another source for Dream's popularity in general and for the RPF and shipping sides of his depiction and fandom was his Minecraft Manhunt series. Besides speedrun practice and other generic Minecraft content, he creates a series of videos where he (or this can be done with a speedrunner in general) attempts to speedrun finish the game, while his friends, up to 4-6 people at most, try to stop him, also known as hunting him down. This concept actually did not originate with him, but instead with Wilbur Soot. This can be engaging and was found to be so by a lot of people. One person on Tumblr described watching as "impressive" and "Like an action movie hero crossed with something else". This also feeds into and harmonizes well (in some circles) with shipping.

On another subject, at the very beginning of October, 2022, Dream did his much-awaited face reveal. This was thought out ahead of it so that he could do a quick and simple vid of meeting up and streaming with some friends later with less complication. He expressed that it's complicated for him, but he feels comfortable, but he hopes that people will still hold onto "[the] idea that anyone can be a streamer". There has been very little time for fan reactions but the responses have ranged from support, alot of neutrality, to some calling him ugly either genuinely or as a flame. He also (most likely) recieved at least one, however credible or serious, death threat as reported by the fbi.

Arguably, Dream is one of the most popular MCYT personas, if not the most popular. As of May 31, 2021 on Archive of Our Own, the Minecraft tag's most popular character is Dream. Of 48378 words, 23625 include Dream, which makes up 48% of Minecraft fanfics. Then, of the Video Blogging RPF category, there are 128844 works and Dream is still the most popular character to write for, with 25188 works. This means Dream makes up just 19% of the Video Blogging RPF category on AO3. Though lower than the Minecraft tag, this still means Dream has nearly taken up 20% of the Video Blogging RPF fanfiction on AO3 despite only becoming popular in 2019, and only majorly growing in 2020. Of Dream's category on AO3 there are 29946 works, and the most popular ship under this category is DreamNotFound (Dream/GeorgeNotFound) with 10828 works, or 36%.

Gallery

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  by Ups1gbt3f7op3dr

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  by janart274

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  by volcanicmode

Video

• Dream Animation ♪ "Modded Griefers" - A Minecraft Animated Music Video
• Dream : Draw My Life
• MY OH MY // Minecraft Manhunt AMV
• the entire history of dream stans, i guess

Fanfiction

• Heat Waves (2020)
• lovesick (the beat inside my head) (2020)
• Protected, Merlin AU (2020)
• The Multiplayers, Band AU, Dream as minor character (2021)

Meta/Further Reading

• RPF History: DNP vs DNF by Ruby (March 2022)
• A Small Dreblr (c!Dream fandom) Survey, Archived Version