I'm sorry but I highly doubt anyone in the YT community genuinely likes Dream. He's a spineless coward who tries to get everyone to like him with his whole cutesy twink niche (which is already backfiring), and can't even control his own fanbase. In fact, his fanbase is literally chomping at the bit for him to fuck up or unearth some racist comment that he may have made at some point so that they can go after him. I could not see any Youtuber trying to stand up to Dreams cesspool of a fanbase who he passively tries to further weaponize.
Sure he's got his little roleplay thing going on with his friends and he's making them all millionaires. However, I promise you the second something goes wrong for Dream and the fans turn against him, they're gonna GTFO.
When Dreams demise as a creator happens, as these types of Twitter fans absolutely love destroying careers given the slightest chance, it will be nuclear. Absolutely no Youtuber is gonna stand by him when this happens.
I think Dream is doing this is because he wants people to like him and to have positive exposure. Imagine telling Mizkif and Ludwig "No thanks" at a time like this when good publicity is needed. They don't lose anything by Dream declining but he does. Dream/Clay serves as a hub for other people via the SMP but as an individual doesn't have much to offer and I think he knows this. People don't watch Dream for Dream, they watch for the group stuff.
On Schooled he may as well not have been there, the only memorable things he did were say "PISS" early on and be awkward. He did the bare minimum to meet his obligation and Mizkif benefits by having someone big (also fat) on the show. This is after Dream "overslept" and couldn't make the initial episode he was supposed to be on.
I think this is a potential issue for Clay down the road. If people decide they're fine doing things without him then he suffers more than they do. He's fostered a problematic fanbase that no one wants to deal with already; the only good thing he brings to the table is exposure but now some of that comes with potential controversy.
These two quotes y'all made really show insight on how Dream is just some milquetoast fat white boy from Florida who mnaaged to game (or shall we say speedrun?) the system to establish his own success. From a mechanical and conceptual standpoint, his content is rather interesting, honestly. The Minecraft mod videos he used to do are junk food level content thats fun enough to consume even if you dont know much about Minecraft; the Minecraft Manhunts--even if obviously scripted--still acts as a thrilling reality TV-esque show of skill and drama for people who know a little bit more about the mechanics of Minecraft; and the Dream SMP is "Baby's first LARP" which has engaged not just gamers, but teenage girls who know nothing about Minecraft who tune in for the hottie characters and the basic thrills and story based off of the interactions of the Youtubers involved.
Divorce all of those work from Dream, and you'll see that he doesn't have much personality at all compared to his contemporaries. He's not a showman, his streams feel rambling and not very engaging, and he doesn't blend very well with content creators that he's not in the same circles with--as seen in the Mizkif video. Compare that with folks like Schlatt (or to a lesser extent even Tommyinnit), where you can drop them into any sort of game or situation with other people, and you're going to have an engaging video.
With Dream, Minecraft is all there is, and when that dries up, and/or he makes the anticipated mistake that's gonna snowball his career into turmoil, most of his contemporaries are probably gonna drop him silently and dissociate with him. And that's even before all of the rotten hyenas from Twitter start descending for his ass like bees to nectar.
It's honestly only a matter of time.
That's insightful as hell. "Fans own their creators". And the fans know it. I feel like a whole essay could be written about this phenomenon. I guess you get a bit of resentment too, especially when the creator seems so successful and you feel like a direct part of why he's successful (because you dump cash so he can answer a question and give your name a shout out).
I personally believe that this phenomenon where the fans feel like the creators owe them so much was
greatly exacerbated with the rise of streaming in the early to late 2010's alongside the popularization or even the necessity to use Twitter as a content creator. Yes, you've had unhealthy parasocial relationships before, but just being able to tune into a Youtuber's Let's Plays or once a week videos still afforded you time to disconnect and to step outside and touch grass, hopefully.
But now, time stamps with adjusted time zones are given days in advance for when a streamer will go live, and having your message be read aloud and your name mentioned on stream is such a dopamine rush that it's kinda scary how powerful of a drug being recognized by your favorite idol is. Add to that with streams being unedited and raw broadcasts where anything can happen and unsightly things can't be edited out, and these parasitic parasocial relationships fester and grow even faster in such humid conditions.
At the end of the day, these stalker fans worship idols in a zealous maddening idolatry. This phenomenon has happened before, but I feel it can only get worse and worse as time goes on.
