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An angsty pandoras vault idea I’ve had for a while... warning for death and general suffering
Fun fact about lava and volcanic eruptions in general, the most dangerous part is usually the gases released! Volcanoes are actually huge pollutants due to how much carbon dioxide is released. A number of websites warn about being in low lying areas around lava, due to that CO2 and other gases gathering, and leading to suffocation. (Link)
Many peoples version of c!sam depicts him wearing a gas mask, right? Would creeper hybrids even need the same air as humans/whatever c!dream is? The same goes for c!Bad and c!sapnap, often shown as a demon and blaze hybrid respectively. The headcanon doesn’t work quite as well with c!quackity. But what if c!sam doesn’t lend him just his pick axe, but his gas mask as well?
A pandoras vault that never lets c!dream take a full breath of air. The moment he respawns, he begins suffocating once again. His cell is a death trap.
Maybe c!sam learns the total allotment of air available, and times his visitors so that no one will notice the punishment that c!dream endures.
C!techno is often shown as a piglin or piglin hybrid. He grew up next to the lava lakes of the nether. His body is designed for these conditions. The torture he endures is in watching c!dream suffocate in front of him, over and over, with no way to help.
Many people are of the opinion that some of the abuses that C!Dream faces are in some way justified or excusable. Which, no! Abuse is never okay! But lets put that aside for one moment. Lets pretend that yes, c!dream being subject to solitary confinement is defensable due to the moral boundaries that he’d crossed. That he posed such a threat to other people, that he was bad enough of a person, that his rights are now null and void.
Where do we draw the line? I’m genuinely curious, at what point in the storyline did people no longer think he deserved adequate living conditions? What action did he take that then made it perfectly okay for him to be cut off from any form of support network? What moment meant that his canonical self harm could then be dismissed as attention seeking?
And if we’ve now established that there is some point when abuse is justified, surely that logic must be applied universally? What action would c!tommy have to take where exile was okay? Where is that line in the sand?
The logic behind excusing the conditions of pandoras vault is the same behind justifying the exile arc.
A study on over 200,000 prison inmates showed that whilst making up just 7% of the prison population, those in solitary confinement made up 53% of all recorded acts of self harm.
There is a possibility that these statistics show correlation, and not causation. That those placed in solitary confinement were already those more likely to reoffend, and with pre-existing mental health problems. However this argument is refuted when looking at other observable effects on the brain.
A 2018 study showed that after just one month of isolation, in the sensory and motor parts of mice's’ brains, their neurons shrunk by 20 percent after one month of isolation, and by 25 percent after three months. Further research is needed to determine if this loss is permanent, as well as looking for other areas of change.
The reason I bring this up is because when c!sapnap visited c!dream in prison, c!dream wrote that he’d get out eventually, and c!sapnap responded with-
‘No, dude. You can’t. Look, I love you, man, but you- you gotta stay here. This is where… this is where you belong for now. Maybe… Maybe one day if everyone’s cool with it.’
Does c!dream truly believe that anyone's’ opinions will ever change? In that same visit, c!sapnap then promises he’d kill him himself if he escaped. His best friend could vow to kill him, why would anyone else show him ‘mercy’?
C!dream knew that imprisonment hadn’t been implemented with any plans to release him. He would have had his final life taken if it weren’t for his last piece of leverage, the revive book.
C!dream has to hold out hope for escape for his own sanity. The alternative is spending the rest of his life in torturous conditions.
Was c!dream told about this chance of release for good behaviour that c!sapnap mentioned?
If c!dreams imprisonment and subsequent torture wasn’t done in the name of authority, would people have a bigger issue with it?
By that I mean, if c!sam had held c!dream captive in his basement, and never used any terms such as ‘warden’.
Institutionalised abuse is so normalised as a foundation of the prison system, and I think many viewers haven’t done any critical thinking on where their thoughts on pandoras vault truly come from.
thinking about c!dreams clock once again
Constantly throwing it away makes so much sense, beyond just as a way to see c!sam.
The constant ticking only serves to let him feel every second of his time imprisoned. To know exactly how many days he’s been locked away, that’s a torture all on it’s own. But so would ignorance. To be unsure of how much time has passed between each delivery of food rations. Are they coming further apart now? C!sam comes to give him a new clock and says its been only a day, but he’d been so sure a week had passed.
an effect of solitary confinement is paranoia. C!dream begins to suspect his clock has been tampered with. It speeds up, slows down. Surely it hasn’t been that long yet? And yet, surely its been longer?
he cares too much about this inanimate object. Anytime he realises that he couldn’t bare to have it taken from him, he destroys it himself.
Some people- the exile arc was harmful, it nearly drove c!tommy to suicide’
Me- ‘okay we can agree on that! And that the prison arc is also harmful because c!dream has been driven to suicide. Right?’
Some people- ‘no c!dream is a psychopath/ is incapable of feeling bad/ is only copying how c!tommy reacted/ is manipulating everyone/ deserves it.’
What. The. Fuck.
A c!dream who, after prison, is fine.
He’s not really. Deep down he is so so hurt- but he doesn’t act like it. Because showing that he’s hurt, not just physically but emotionally, means that c!sam and c!quackity won. It means that other people will see his weakness, know that he’s an easy target. Now that he’s out, that he can see the sun, go a day without torture, he’s gotten himself under control. No more pathetic displays. (And maybe, c!dream doesn’t think he’s allowed to feel bad- are monsters entitled to emotions?)
Some people don’t believe that anything happened to c!dream at all. Prison was a mercy, one they’d been forced into granting him, and how dare anyone suggest he was hurt. Because who could remain that unaffected after torture?
Others think it’s true, see the evidence in c!dreams injuries, or a confession from c!sam or c!quackity. But it doesn’t matter. C!dream isn’t traumatised, so who cares? He was an un caring monster, a psychopath incapable of emotion. No one could hurt him, so it didn’t matter if they tried.
I’ve seen some people say that pandoras vault was fine until c!quackity started torturing c!dream.
Daily reminder that solitary confinement is a form of torture.