Why I Hate the Dream and Ink Fight (UTMV Video Essay)



Kj Burbank: https://x.com/KJBurbankVA

KJ meme: https://x.com/CelestialCherri
Bad Sanses meme: https://the-bad-sanses.tumblr.com/
Kappasta: https://www.instagram.com/k4ppasta?igsh=MXc4bmgwN25yMTllaA==
Art of Drink bday drawing: JokuBlogs
Jael owns all Underverse clips

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38 thoughts on “Why I Hate the Dream and Ink Fight (UTMV Video Essay)”

  1. I haven't watched the entire video yet, but the funniest (/sarcasm) thing to me about the Dream and Ink fight is that it happened because Joku was mad Comyet didn't want to make drink canon to their(?) version of Ink
    That was it
    Them fighting was Joku's retaliation ;w;

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  2. Okay! So I've been getting into listening these, and as an Ink hater, this'd open up a different perspective. It was a perspective I always knew existed, and trowd to understand, but couldn't really. I'm thinking of how to add this information for my own AU and for the dynamic of my own Multiverse where I switch up a few things ^^ Not as much as your own AU, but just adding myself in to try and help the brothers, y'know? Anyway, I wanna try and get Ink's…‘feeling’ to perspective and I really do find him interesting but I just never really liked him, especially since the XEvent happened..

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  3. I personally always interpreted the Ink & Dream’s dynamic as them being friends, but Ink being a bit blunt / lacking social cues, with this combined with Dream’s constant stress of having to travel through AUs all the time to avoid & fight Nightmare while wanting to save as many people as possible, leading up to the fight after witnessing Ink not helping a scripted gen0cide AU.

    But in my interpretation, Dream remembers Ink’s vials & the risk of how interrupting scripts could cause enough damage to them to possibly cause those AUs to collapse (just like in Underverse) so Dream apologizes to Ink.

    The way I would actually solve their fight though is to have them talk & still work together. But Dream realizes that (as much as he wants to) he just simply can’t save everyone in every timeline or AU, even from Nightmare.

    Dream still keeps saving others, but remembers that he can’t save everyone, while Ink (& Swap) works with Dream occasionally & reminds him when to take breaks to take care of himself.

    As for Jael’s interpretation, I think Ink’s smile is actually Cross’s POV of imagining what Ink probably acted like. From Cross’s POV in 0.6 at the time, Ink used him from the beginning & is fine siding with XGaster (before finding out that wasn’t the case in 0.7).

    ALSO YAY A DREAMTALE VIDEO!!

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  4. Dream and inks fight is honestly dumb. I see dream and inks dynamic as normal besties. If u have yk friendship has up and down. I FRICKIN hate when people make him a evil villain. In my eye hes morally grey. Hes burnt out. And his autistic and ik how they act. And dream in my new tries hes best to help ink. Yes, they can get into fights but its your typical family friend. He knows about ink vials and he know he can't blane him tor he's promblem. Dream has hes own flaws and doesn't realize that he's not getting better. He tries his best to help everyone without caring about himself much. He's full of guilt after the apple incident . But he's sometimes acts a bit too controling. Honestly yes, dream can be a jerk sometimes. Hes also grey in my opinion.
    In my own multiverse, yes they had a fight but they made up. It took time. Dream understood hes flaws and inks promblem abt the vials and creator. And ink tries hes best to help him. So they dont have a perfect friendship but they try. The fight shouldn't have been a argument than a fight. They both needed this argument to understand eachother. They had a honest conversation. Dream is ink only friend that understands him and ink is the ink yhe only one who understands who he is. So kinda they needed a wake up call. The fight just makes me so sad.There friendship is my favorite and seeing a lot contact abt them being rival or yk hurts me.Making them fall out is kinda out of character. Honestly its complicated. The fandom just doesnt understand certain characters.
    Thank you so much for making yhis video rosa. I loved it and i am to know that you also dont like the whole fight.

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  5. Finally sat down and watched this and OH MY DAYS, I absolutely LOVE your perspective on Dream's character and how that affects his friendship with Ink overall!! Dream being a hypocrite isn't something that's ever crossed my mind before, so it was super interesting to hear you talk about it. overall tysm so much for making this video!! <3

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  6. Real tho. For me they had this fight and it broke them apart for a bit but then they found things were hard to do or say without eachother so they tried to fix it.
    Right now dream is trying to be less narcissist and is just trying to heal trauma with inks help. Dream is not only narcissistic but is a perfectionist in my au. That doesnt mean dream is a bad guy in my au, dream can be a loving sweetheart.
    Ink is just coming to mind about other people even though at the same time he knows if someone close left forever he'd still have to do his job, hes trying to hold those he can close. Ink has and issue with expression for me as he can choose what he feels total each day with his vials so he'll drink less blue and more yellow to hide what he feels.
    Also amazing vid ❤ (sorry about the rant)

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  7. Absolutely love this! I am so happy there is somebody who understands those things, becuse i was always so torn by how black and white characters in the Underverse fandom are seen, even though most of them are actully well written.

    Great video like always❤

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  8. What really made me stop enjoying Underverse is the simple fact Ink was written as a Sociopath. In my story called UnderBeyond one I've been writing for 7yrs I've written ink as an Autistic who began without a soul but overtime as the Blank canvas he literally was. He grew to obtain a Soul and his desire to protect other worlds, with some hint of autism in there cause let's face it. He was alone for God knows how long so he had to develop emotions and a Philosophy entirely by himself without understanding pretty much anything off rip and that "Empty void" in himself. While also coming across evil people like Error which might I add despite being the DESTROYER of worlds literally does nothing in UnderVerse. In UnderBeyond every single time we see Error someone will absolutely die no question and if someone doesn't their will be wide spread destruction on a scale like no other that spans over several worlds just trying to stop them. Ink is the guardian of creation, the literal closest thing to a stand in for the creators themselves yet you wanna make them a sociopathic villain interested in only making things interesting for the sake of it? Can we just leave Ink and Dream alone and let them be themselves? The only thing I did with Dream was give them an actual fear one that makes sense with their character that being His fear in killing someone. So because of this fear until it's conquered he quite literally can't conjure an attack that is capable of dealing fatal dmg and his main weapon are Gauntlets, for the added bonus joke that Dream will knock your ass right to sleep and make you see stars. I also made it so Ink doesn't actually use a MASSIVE PAINTBRUSH like I get it but it's so fricking big. So I gave him a Pen instead and because he's a sorta stand in for the creator aka me and you I wanted to represent a "Writers" aspect through Ink something like. The Pen is mighter then the sword it has no limitations, but not only that Ink will absolutely just whip out random bs. You will absolutely See Ink whip out a comically large spoon from out of absolutely no where just to wack the ever loving shit out of Error. Why? Funni:3
    Nightmare- Nightmare is just straight up terrifying, their is a lot of Horror in UnderBeyond and it's because UnderTale itself has alot of Horror/Body horror and psychological horror elements all throughout it and I just went balls to the walls with it using Nightmare. In conclusion I took what made each and every character great and simply expanded upon them while keeping true to their original design while also tweaking a few bits, UnderBeyond does have a Plot yes but it's entirely character driven and I will not deviate from that fact. I also just give them actual dialogue because whenever I see Sans talk of any variety it's so unimaginably strange and I'm like. Can they just? Talk like normal people?

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  9. Could someone help me understand something? I’ve been getting into the Undertale fandom again and I’m interested.

    Is this video about Underverse, the series by Jael? I suppose not. If not, who’s writing this canon? Is there even a canon since multiple people are writing it? Unless I’m missing something? Basically, where does canon for UTMV come from?

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  10. THANK YOU. I guess I am fortunate in that I… have not seen much content of Ink being treated like an absolute villain and people ignoring how big of a hypocrite that Dream was in their fight? It is either I just surround myself with content I actually like and just hit the back button on the stuff I don't, or I live under a rock lmao. B u t. Maaaan, I could go on and on about how much I dislike people completely villainizing Ink for being soulless, but I'm trying to keep this comment to a reasonable length, so I'll refrain.

    But the argument, I agree so much, man. I am also a prime believer that Ink and Dream best friend duo = actual peak fiction. So, I don't agree with people that their friendship would just… end forever after the fight? Especially because neither of them was in the complete wrong. I just don't see Dream not being able to see the hypocrisy in his side of the argument, so him not forgiving Ink is at best, out of character, and actively cruel and vindictive at worst.

    This gets worse if we consider when it happened. If they had the fight before Dream was aware of why Ink protects the AUs and his point of view, then it makes more sense. But because I see both of them as caring and kind people, I think that eventually, they would have a talk, come to understand each other's views, and patch their friendship up.

    If it happens after Dream is aware of Ink's side and how he's essentially forced into being the protector of the AUs, whether he wants to or not depending on the story, and after Dream had seen Ink break down and everything, then it just makes Dream seem c r u e l. At best, it's just out of character. At worst, it implies Dream does not care that Ink is essentially forced into something he never chose and is hating him for something he, quite literally, cannot help. Add on the hating him for being soulless/having to use vials, it just… gives Dream the vibe of being a horrible, unfeeling, borderline ableist hypocrite and I just don't see him that way.

    That's why if/when I write it, I either just imply it or not address it at all. Because to me, their fight was such a nonissue in the long run. S u r e, they could have fought, but I see their friendship being so strong, that they would have eventually reconciled and be the best of friends again. 😀 I honestly don't see any way for their friendship to be broken forever, not how I personally envision them and thus write them. Usually, when I write stuff, the fight had already happened and they made up a looong time ago, or the fight never happened at all because it seems… really out of character for Dream to have the fight after knowing Ink's side of the story and seeing him breakdown.

    SORRY FOR THE LONG COMMENT. I just had a lot to say lmao. Mostly because I like. I don't know, man. When I see people basically acting like Ink was solely in the wrong in that fight, my face falls into such a flat annoyance and I hit the back button so quickly. As much as I love Underverse, that was one of the aspects I would criticize about it lol. I just don't see Ink being that unfeeling and callous to Dream, especially if they were friends. (I am aware that I'm biased since Ink is like. My freaking muse and my ideas of how he would act can easily influence whether I fall in love with a piece of media or give it a pretty big side-eye lol)

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  11. As a writer myself, I think the whole villainizing one person thing. Comes from Wanting one person to be the right one, and the other to be the wrong one. Even if you like the villainized characters a lot. I found myself getting in this trap, Many times in the past. Where I favorited one character in an argument and just villainize the other. Instead of thinking about what Both characters perspectives. Which I do
    A lot more now.

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  12. I have actually scene multiple underverse aus/alts with the Dream and Ink fight that I used to think that it was actually canon until I actually looked more into them and found even more stuff out and with you I didn’t even know some of the things until I found out some facts from you so thank you and have a great day/night. :3❤

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  13. In my opinion, I think the fight was "necessary". Because, for me, while Ink doesn't have to change his way of doing his work, it is also important that Dream does affirm he cares about everyone out in the Multiverse. (this is the only "good thing" but I agree on the fact Dream would be a hypocrite if he doesn't realise that he is doing the same thing as the villagers did to Nightmare, to Ink).
    For me, Ink should have the mindset of "I don't stop good things of the script from happening, so I should not stop the bad things either", which is a certain form of fairness in my opinion when it comes to his job. (the same as how he doesn't give favor treatment to his love ones about the script).
    For me, the fight should happen when Dream isn't fully mature. It would be part of the growth of Dream and be something, that even Ink agrees, is necessary for Dream to see things this way, as the guardian of postivity and embodiment of everyone's feelings. You could even add to this another layer of : Dream learning, due to the fight, that he has some influence in the Multiverse, because people of the Multiverse would, for most of them, likely side with Dream, isolating Ink, despite this never being Dream's intentions.
    This can be reenforced due to other things, from Ink's canon. Like his family and what we know about the relationship in it.
    For my case, I am targetting Undertop Sans and Gaster (let's call Gaster "Top" and Sans "Tam", since he is a tamer). We are told Top and Tam have a tense relationship because of the code manipulation of Top and other things. This very rocky father-son relationship is made even more estranged by Ink's arrival in the family, as Tam thinks Ink is the "perfect son" that Top wants Tam to be, which isn't true, but it is likely that Tam doesn't listen. He may be avoiding Ink, and whenever his adoptive brother tries to explain and fix things, Tam may actually snap and scream at him and all. And, Undertop's creator kinda implied that Top and Tam need to talk, before Ink to be accepted in the family, especially by Tam.
    And those fights may results in Ink, maybe even having picked up very bad habits for arguments with people that are supposed to be close. For example, not actually trying to correct people about him, especially when they don't appear to be in a state where they can listen to him (which may even be a way older bad habit of Ink that he either doesn't care to rectify people misunderstanding of him or concider it a waste of time), maybe avoiding people like this when he sees/thinks the issue cannot be fixed in the first place (so for my example, he may avoid his adoptive brother because he doesn't want to be glared at or worse and after the argument, avoid Dream, rather than coming back when he is calmer, to explain himself). Dream can be fully unaware of some of those bad habits too, having maybe never really noticed Ink doing it in the first place and needing someone else to say it to him (making him realise this is kinda like with Nightmare, all over again).
    Because, if Ink doesn't try to clear up misunerstanding or explain himself, is bad at apologising and all those things, then create a problem the fight "fester" hence leading to the falling out with Blue likely seeing all of it with, hopefully for all, a clear view of the situation and having to act as a mediator between his friends to make them understand (well, especially Dream, I think) that they don't do the same job and as a result, they need to find a compromise between each other.

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