witherrosealliance

[witherrosealliance]

The truth is. I think being in MCYT fandoms has ruined my perception of what is and isn’t acceptable as a name forever

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is this anything

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im done with this after this post but the skizz apology was so funny. never actually outright explained what he was apologizing for. started with the classic bigot "i can't do things that are trans/homophobic bc i'm not trans/homophobic and i never have been ever" sentiment. talked about how he doesn't take people's political beliefs into account when forming judgement on them as people and also he's literally an empath who's never wrong guys those trump supporters are actually great people just being misinterpreted. i don't know that i've ever seen such a poor apology get accepted en masse before this is crazyyyyy

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the thing with the skizz apology is it’s all just words. and maybe i should be more generous to this grown man but if you look beyond the “i’m just a nice guy!” stuff you’ll realise that he might have listened on the transphobia issue specifically but actually took no issue with his former mods’ overt racism, still considers them good people and overall is still ok with MAGA in his community because he thinks happy coexistence with people who want the other part of his community dead is possible (and frankly politically he’s likely more aligned with the MAGA side himself). if that’s enough for you then great but he’s certainly not owed my viewership

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WHY IS EVERYONE SO DEADSET ON IGNORING AND BRUSHING OFF THE SKIZZ THING.

HELLO??? HELLOOOOO??????? CAN YALL STOP SUCKING HIS DICK??????

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Redstoner

Creators: YourPalRoss & Mithzan

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Meta Production: Full voice acting, First person POV

Number of episodes: 33 (split across 3 seasons) Year created: 2012~2013, 2018 reboot (Incomplete 3rd season)

Synopsis: Formerly lost media and a key piece of MCRP history! Redstoner is a horror comedy series based on old redstone tutorial/showcase videos starring YourPalRoss and co-written by Mithzan in which Ross, trapped in a Redstone Ready superflat world preset, slowly descends into insanity due to the influence of the malevolent presence of the Red Sun overhead. Attempts by his friends to break through to him... do not go well.

⚠️Content warnings: Flashing images, instances of 2010's "creep" humor, appearances of JinBop and SkyDoesMinecraft

Submission + Synopsis + Content warnings by @betweenlands

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Best Life Series Base Final Round

Please note all bases came from nominations. The idea of the poll is that builds are ranked on both beauty and function for defense and offense. Iconic-ness, story, and emotion weight are not factors. It’s more fun for everyone if this is actually a poll for best base and not a popularity contest.

Pearl's DL Tower

Propaganda:

"Everyone went there when their lives were in danger, and it worked really well. I’m pretty sure Martyn even said that it was easy to defend by design."

"It was so prettyyy! It was made out of nonflamable materials at the bottom so it wouldn't be a daylight to arson and was topped with a cute little room. It was visually amazing and pretty defendable. Multiple people hunkered up there in a sea of red and lived to tell the tale (of that)."

"Arguably the one of the two most defensible bases in the whole series. People who didn't even like Pearl were trying to hide in it. It was completely non flammable at the bottom and the single ladder meant no one got up there that Pearl didn't want there, making an invasion impossible. Even when the bottom blew up, the top was completely functional. Also, it was good appearance wise because it looked exactly like what Pearl wanted it to, which is a rickety tower swaying in the wind"

"#baby it’s the tower#it’s highly defensible it’s good for offense because there was only one way up that Pearl good use to hit people off (and did)#and it looks great"

The Crastle

Propaganda:

"I love the crastle and its inhabitants so much, it took 30 stacks of stone, dark oak and a ridiculous number of episodes to build. it straight up k i l l e dbdubs! it's such a pretty build (shout out to cleos witchcraft series) and people are right when they say it's functional to an extent. it survived not one but TWO tnt flying machines. oh yes and THE word of the series: crenellations (nevermind the fact that everybody was using the word Wrong)

hmm crenellations..."

"It’s got a pretty but simple design, its spot is easily defendable, and it has CRENELLATIONS!!!"

"The single most defensible base in the whole life series. People tried and failed to invade it. And it looks good!"

"#it looks amazing and IT WAS FUNCTIONAL#IT WAS ACTUALLY A GOOD DEFENSE AND EVEN AFTER THEIR DEATH PEOPLE USED IT"

#actually not biased obviously crastle cmon#it was one of the last kinda intact builds standing the apocalypse phase"

"#the crastle is i believe one of the only bases in the entire series that was still standing by the end of it#no yeah i just thought about it i think it straight up definitely is unless im missing something"

"#The Crastle was pretty damn well defended and a decent build for what it was. cute too"

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I honestly don't think this many people actually think all Palestinian fundraisers are scams, they just use that as an excuse to stop caring and advocating for Palestine & dissolve any personal guilt & responsibility in not helping the hundreds of people begging for help. If it becomes obvious that these werent actually scams, and later in life when theyre asked why they didn't do anything to help when this is one of the most basic ways to help, they'll just brush it off with "Oh well I thought they were scams!" And leave it at that.

Any time actual Scam Busters have asked these randos to provide actual concrete proof that they know which Palestinian fundraisers are "scams" outside of just because they feel like it, or that can't easily be debunked with something that makes sense if you think about it for more than 2 seconds (like accusing Palestinians of being liars because they speak Palestinian Arabic, which is the main language spoken in.... Palestine?), they're like "no i don't think i will"

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in case people weren't aware, BDS has called for a boycott of microsoft gaming products:

Cancel your Xbox Game Pass subscription.

Boycott Candy Crush, Minecraft and Call of Duty – flagship videogame franchises owned by Microsoft.

Boycott all Microsoft Gaming products, including Xbox-branded consoles, headsets, accessories and all games published by Microsoft-owned publishing labels (such as Xbox Game Studios, Activision, Bethesda and Blizzard).

more info on the boycott and microsoft's collaboration with israel from bds' own website. microsoft is directly partnered with the israeli military, providing cloud services and ai technologies that actively contribute to the genocide of palestinians.

bethesda and blizzard are specifically named, but other companies under xbox game studios include mojang and obsidian entertainment - i'm highlighting obsidian here because (afaik) i haven't seen anyone bring them up specifically. i don't mean this in a condemnatory way, i'm an enjoyer of obsidian games myself, i just want to make sure people are aware.

For those who already own the games or the console, the organizers said, the ideal move would be to stop playing, but the primary ask from organizers is to help deprive Microsoft of revenue. Therefore, players can be compliant with the boycott by avoiding future purchases of games or consoles and by avoiding transactions inside the games.

a cultural boycott has not been called for, but there's no avoiding the fact that fandom is effectively free word-of-mouth advertising. i am not here to tell you what to do or act as your moral arbiter, all i can do is give you information and ask you to be conscientious. please refrain from making any new purchases or from encouraging other people to buy games/products that provide revenue to microsoft - consider donating to a gazan mutual aid fund, such as a campaign run by the sameer project instead

[witherrosealliance]

in case people weren't aware, BDS has called for a boycott of microsoft gaming products:

Cancel your Xbox Game Pass subscription.

Boycott Candy Crush, Minecraft and Call of Duty – flagship videogame franchises owned by Microsoft.

Boycott all Microsoft Gaming products, including Xbox-branded consoles, headsets, accessories and all games published by Microsoft-owned publishing labels (such as Xbox Game Studios, Activision, Bethesda and Blizzard).

more info on the boycott and microsoft's collaboration with israel from bds' own website. microsoft is directly partnered with the israeli military, providing cloud services and ai technologies that actively contribute to the genocide of palestinians.

bethesda and blizzard are specifically named, but other companies under xbox game studios include mojang and obsidian entertainment - i'm highlighting obsidian here because (afaik) i haven't seen anyone bring them up specifically. i don't mean this in a condemnatory way, i'm an enjoyer of obsidian games myself, i just want to make sure people are aware.

For those who already own the games or the console, the organizers said, the ideal move would be to stop playing, but the primary ask from organizers is to help deprive Microsoft of revenue. Therefore, players can be compliant with the boycott by avoiding future purchases of games or consoles and by avoiding transactions inside the games.

a cultural boycott has not been called for, but there's no avoiding the fact that fandom is effectively free word-of-mouth advertising. i am not here to tell you what to do or act as your moral arbiter, all i can do is give you information and ask you to be conscientious. please refrain from making any new purchases or from encouraging other people to buy games/products that provide revenue to microsoft - consider donating to a gazan mutual aid fund, such as a campaign run by the sameer project instead

[witherrosealliance]

It's fascinating to me which lifers some fans consider "manipulative" and which ones they don't and how that often really doesn't align with how I read them.

I know I've gone on enough Scott defense rants to last a lifetime and you guys are probably tired of it at this point (/lh) but he's a great example to me. Now, I would absolutely say Scott is "manipulative" to a degree, in the sense that he's good at playing the social game, good at being likable, good at forming alliances, and has great control over his own reactions to things in a way that favors him (the amount of times i've watched this man get out of a fight with his life solely because he was so calm he psyched the others out into backing off when they would have won is astounding). Scott is good at manipulating situations and perceptions to a point, I will absolutely concede that. But so often I see this extrapolated to malicious personal manipulation in a way that I don't think I've ever seen Scott do. I've seen people claim he 'manipulated' Jimmy into doing whatever he wanted during Third Life even though Jimmy won most of their major arguments because Scott, while he's good at controlling broad impersonal situations, actually has a habit of deferring to his partners when they want something. I've seen people claim Scott 'manipulated' the social climate of Double Life to make everyone hate Pearl even though he was less popular than she was with most factions and had very little to do with the reason the people who did dislike Pearl actually disliked her. I've seen people claim he somehow manipulated Martyn in Limited Life and honestly I don't even understand how that take happened.

Grian is another one I'm sure I've talked to death, but it's a relevant one. Grian can be too independent and struggle with communication. Sometimes- whether he wants to or not- he ends up acting like a solo player even within teams. This isn't good, and has in some cases caused distrust and resentment within his teams. But I feel like it's a communication issue as well as an unfortunate consequence of Grian's tendency to take on too much personal responsibility and leave other people out because he thinks everything is his job. Which isn't good, but it's also not manipulative. But often I do see that spin on things. The idea that Grian hides things from his allies, that any distance he shows from them is a result of disloyalty, that he manipulates and uses people and then casts them away. The fact that Grian keeps "killing" his allies is shown as further proof of this (even though grian has literally never actually betrayed a major ally). I've seen people say Grian 'used' BigB in Double Life, which I've never liked, because Grian genuinely liked BigB and wanted him from the start. And the amount of times I've seen people say Grian lies to and drags Scar along and 'uses' him too, painting this narrative where Grian hurts Scar over and over and Scar stays out of love, as if Scar isn't just as bad as Grian?

Gem is an interesting one for me. I do actually think she has some manipulative tendencies. She was very overt in Wild Life about the way she'd twist narratives and pit people against each other. But I also think this is overblown by a lot of people. Gem is cunning, she is good at the social game, and she's certainly not above, by her own admission, using deceptive social tactics. Sure. But sometimes I see this narrative that Gem just uses people, that she doesn't care about her allies, that she sees people as assets or weapons or chips in a game. Which I don't think is true. Gem didn't see Scott and Impulse as chess pieces in Secret Life, they were her friends. She stuck with them until the end, even when she was offered space in a bigger team, and she was distraught when circumstances forced her to kill one of them. Gem doesn't see Pearl as a weapon to be used. I'll admit Gem hasn't been fair to Pearl in many cases, but I've always felt like the breakdown comes from Gem projecting onto and failing to understand Pearl, not Gem trying to use Pearl. Gem certainly wasn't using Joel in Wild Life, never once did she indicate that she saw her one and only true ally as a tool of any sort.

On the other side of things, there's Scar. My Roman Empire of manipulative characters. It almost astounds me how often he's perceived as a sweet silly harmless dumb puppy dog. This man is incredible at spinning webs. It's honestly impressive, the way even when you know his tricks, he can still turn a story that will have you enraptured in whatever he's trying to sell. The second you start listening to him, you've already signed away whatever price he's asking for. And, well..he's also very good at weaponizing the way he's perceived. Scar is friendly and fun and not all that clever, you can trust him! Silly Scar, didn't realize what he was doing. Of course, Scar does genuinely need things verbalized and explained for him more than others might sometimes, and he can be genuinely forgetful as well. But I find it funny how often people will watch Scar actively twist a request someone makes of him into whatever possible interpretation would be best for him, and then assume it was surely just an accident. I just feel like some people don't give this man nearly enough credit because he's so charismatic and clever and is incredible at getting what he wants out of any situation and then weaponizing his perceived 'innocence' to slip out of being blamed. I love Scar so much he's so good at the game and it's insane to me when people boil him down to this stupid harmless innocent persona (often going hand in hand with the "grian is manipulative and using poor baby scar angle, but not always)

Rapid firing a few takes here because these are all pov's I either haven't finished at all or have finished but haven't gotten the chance to rewatch in a while so I have less to say on each of them: I think the fandom is pretty good these days at acknowledging that Martyn is very skilled in manipulation and very willing to manipulate people. But back in the day I saw so many people who leaned so deeply into the "Loyal Hand" persona from Third Life that they somehow thought of Martyn as this extremely loyal and honest character with good intentions. Which is an almost laughable concept I think. BigB is an interesting one too, because people acknowledge to a degree his capacity for manipulation, but he's so silly about it that it's often not taken seriously. Which I get, but this man's ability to sometimes get away with shifting loyalties and even outright betrayals through pure confusion tactics is impressive, right? He's similar to Scar in a sense, able to spin webs and utilize a persona to get away with things, but BigB has this layer of pure confusion that's unique to him and it works. I literally never see anyone talk about this but I also think Ren is actually really good at twisting narratives too. I'm not entirely sure if this counts as manipulation, because I think in many cases he's lying to himself moreso than intentionally trying to manipulate other people. But I still needed to mention this because it's such an underdiscussed character trait of his and it fascinates me. Ren refuses to acknowledge his own capacity for wrongdoing, and he will actively twist narratives to the point of even lying about facts sometimes so he's always the 'good guy'. I will literally never forget the time in Wild Life when Ren went to Grian, Mumbo, and Skizz and proposed they attack the G's (ren literally suggested it first without prompting), just for Ren to organize a man hunt against Grian the next episode with the patently false claim that Grian actually tricked and manipulated him into killing Impulse because Ren never would have done something so dishonorable without someone making him.

I just feel like my perception of characters and their capacity/willingness for manipulation is very different from a lot of other peoples, and I wanted to offer my two cents.

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anyway over the last week i have caught up on 3 povs of hermitcraft after not watching any episodes in apparently about 8 months, and barely watching any other minecraft content in that time either

and like. even after being out of the loop for literally 2/3rds of a year i'm still very much on the side of this being probably the best hermitcraft season ever. i think the attitude of focusing less on megabuilds and analytics, more on just dumb interactions and having fun has continued even when we're now over a year into the season. i've been watching hermitcraft for 4 years now and the difference between back then and now feels like night and day - you can tell how much closer they've all become as friends in that exact time frame thanks to not just the life series but proximity chat as a whole and the additions of gem, pearl, joel and skizz. who are all such vibrant parts of the server that i completely understand mumbo forgetting gem only joined in s8 lol. and the launch of more irl hermit events like the charity streams. s10 has been such a breath of fresh air and you can see it in every single member's videos

if i had to put it into words s6 and s7 were the peak of "old" hermitcraft, huge megabases and no prox chat, still fun and silly but feeling a little dated in some ways nowadays. s8 (which is my personal favourite, but still) had a lot of hermits trying new things during the peak of mcyt, which resulted in a lot of algorithm chasing (bad!) but also everyone growing much closer as friends thanks to the permanent use of prox chat and everyone's bases being closer together. s9 saw a return to a more conventional style for the hermits rather than the experimental s8, but applied what they learned during that time with things like the empires crossover. great season overall with a bunch of absolute standout builds like scarland and decked out 2, but here is when burnout started to become visible in a few creators imo. mumbo was not the only one. and i think that's completely natural after how much they all pushed themselves in 2021-22. s10 is like the completion of this collective character arc where it's the truest return to form for the hermits since 2020, but with *so* much visible growth in both the quality of their content as youtubers and the quality of their art itself

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"the birth of the red king", 2021 colorized

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I'd actually say the use of the soulmate trope in Double Life makes a great case for all the worst parts of the soulmate trope, being used to enforce a social structure around shame, heavy restriction, punishment, and isolation.

Look Scar, Grian, BigB, and Ren. At the start of the season Scar was treated like an idiot for not looking for his soulmate, like it was a personal failing that he would take more interest in animals and call them his soulmates rather than look for the person he was bound to. Meanwhile a lot of the tension between BigB and Ren came from this idea that Ren's connection with Martyn- which had existed for seasons prior- was bad because Ren was supposed to, by dictate of the universe, be with BigB.

And then Grian and BigB form a connection outside their soulmates (which, for the record, they wanted to be together in episode one from before they even found out who their soulmates were, but felt like they weren't 'allowed' to be because they weren't soulmate) and are regarded as 'cheaters' with their soulmates being pitied for it.

Scott and Cleo were also scrutinized heavily within the server, regarded with pity, confusion, or even judgment by a number of people Multiple people acted awkward around them, or tried to 'console' them with the assumption that they were miserable, or in a very extreme case you had Jimmy calling their relationship "fake" multiple times and, during an argument, taunting them with "You ain't even real soulmates- when you go to bed at night, and you fall asleep, just remember, the last thought in your heads is 'oh, we're not really soulmates'."

And honestly I heavily suspect a large part of the reason Pearl was so isolated during Double Life is because of the isolation of soulmate pairs. Because soulmates were seen as this special connection superseding and outweighing any other, forming real connections outside of the soulmate pair was heavily discouraged. This meant that while plenty of people pitied Pearl (which also reinforced the idea that she should be miserable), she was always treated as part of an out-group by soulmate pairs, making it impossible for her to find real friends after being rejected by her soulmate.

There were many times as well where, generally, soulmate pairs who weren't happy together or who were having massive issues were pressured into trying to force things to work because they felt like they had to be with their soulmate and knew there was nowhere else for them to really go outside of that one connection, even if they weren't happy with it.

Not to mention the way the soulbound itself was, in multiple cases, abused and made into a tool of punishment in of itself. This is seen most apparently in the divorce quartet in which they all hurt themselves to "punish" the other. Scott came up with the idea of axe crits to "scare" their soulmates which Cleo was happy to join in with, and Pearl used methods such as powdered snow to "torture" Scott as well as specifically growing fond of holding the idea that she could kill them both over Scott's head. But even beyond it's use in the divorce quartet, Scar also very notably participated in this. In fact, he was the one who came up with the idea to use powdered snow to "torture" your soulmate because Scar wanted a way to punish Grian for asking him to help with chores.

Like I genuinely just cannot stress enough how much Double Life was a proof of concept for the soulmate trope being a complete nightmare. Literal horror trope.

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I think Robocleo is!!! Neat!!!

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merman bigb would be very fun and cool i believe

day 6- i believe you're right!!

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i think you should draw katherine empires in a pretty dress

lady katherine of house blossom!