#it’s so interesting hearing from people how they got into mcyt!

[babygirlbdubs]

Hello Technoblade voters!

So, your guy lost to the GoodTimes. Maybe you don’t know who to vote for now. I mean, if Technoblade isn’t immune to the good times… who is?

I propose to you: Ethoslab.

Now, if you don’t know who Etho is, lemme give you a rundown.

he’s one of THE og minecraft letsplayers. your favorite minecraft youtuber? yeah, etho is probably one of the reasons they got into mcyt. etho is your favorite mcyt’s favorite mcyt

he’s faceless, and has been for his entire 12+ year youtube career

he has only changed his skin once or twice in those 12 years, and the most recent one was to remove the extra face on his torso because he didn’t know how previously

that skin is literally just kakashi naruto

etho is a god at redstone. he basically invented half the redstone that’s used today. hopper clock? that’s etho’s. i mean… he’s invented a storage system that lets you search for a specific item. it’s called the googler because it’s basically a search engine.

he is an absolute NERD (/aff) and insanely smart

he is genuinely kind to his friends, and has a very sweet yet mischievous demeanor. though, even his friends will call him mysterious

he’s canadian so like… arctic/antarctic solidarity… right?

he has spent many many MANY years perfecting a PVP arena game called Battle Bane. look it up. it’s insane.

actually, all the minigames he’s made are pretty insane. and most of them involve death. i mean. he had one called Hurtin’ Hermits where the whole goal was to kill the other hermits as much as possible and enact chaos

I could go on and on about Etho and what he’s like. HOWEVER. I think it’s more interesting to tell you how he’s portrayed by the fandom.

etho tends to be portrayed as a quiet, broody, mysterious guy despite actually being a bit of a goofball

he’s drawn not as kakashi naruto, but more often, a hot twink that can range from sad puppy to sexy dude covered in blood in the span of a single post

some people headcanon him to be as old as the universe, and tied to the void

he has multiple popular animal traits, from catboy to bunny to most commonly arctic fox

there’s etho titty tuesday. there’s. i mean. there’s etho titty tuesday.

i mean really, just… go into the ethoslab tag and you can see all the ways he’s portrayed.

And if that’s not convincing enough, here are some things he’s done in canon to hopefully sway you.

in season 7 of hermitcraft, he had a shop called Shade-E-E’s, where people could sign other people up to basically get harassed (/lh) by Etho’s shenanigans. “Free Glass” meant panes of light grey glass hidden in all your chests so you couldn’t put things into the chest. “Gardening” meant beehives hidden throughout your base so you would hear buzzing at random. “Pest Relocation” meant spawning endermites in your home.

also in season 7, he had the shop Sneak-E-E’s, which was a secret popup shop where he undercut prices or sold rare item overstock. you could only buy while it existed, and only when you could find it. the first time it was built was up in the sky, all out of shulker boxes so it wouldn’t render in until you got close. the second time was in the unused floor of Mayor GoodTimesWithScar’s shop. scar had no idea for. a while.

in last life, he scammed scar out of a life to give to bdubs, and then promptly killed scar and stole the enchanter. oh yeah, he did it with a fishing rod, too.

in season 9, he moved into bdubs’ basement without telling bdubs

in season 9, he also started late. so, in order to catch up, he exiled himself to a place untouched by the other hermits and wouldn’t let himself come back until he was able to defeat a full raid on his own. it didn’t take him long.

in double life, he and joel were paired, and were the most chaotic duo on the server. they hunted people for sport (notably, grian and scar) and burned things down for fun. “the ship burns everything burns” chanted as they set the entire map on fire

in last life, he went around trying to intimidate people into giving him gifts and he would spare their life. pretty much everyone was instantly afraid of him.

actually, most of the hermits are pretty intimidated by etho. including goodtimeswithscar.

also, most of the hermits are ethogirls.

etho and scar end up on opposing sides in pretty much everything, especially the life series (which is a funky lil hardcore battle royale). they are traditionally enemies. they pick fights with each other for fun.

If you want vengeance for Technoblade— blood for the blood god— vote Ethoslab.

Sincerely, Ethogirls

[nach0]

MCYT Yuri Week; Day One - Dance/ Break

"Are you taking notes on our date?"

Wordcount: 1504

AO3 Link

It’s not often Pearl and Gem get the chance to relax and take some time away from things. It should have been nice, and by all accounts would’ve been, if only Gem could stop stressing for five minutes.

(Featuring art at the end!)

Gemini Tay, Grand Wizard of the Crystal Cliffs, was proud to say she was good at social interaction. It’d be disappointing if she wasn’t, after all the time she’d put into studying the cultures of each and every important person she’d ever have a chance of interacting with.

It was like a test. A constant, neverending test that she had to pass or else she’d start a war.

But she definitely wasn’t on edge at all! Large formal events totally didn’t make her nervous in any way! In fact, one on one interactions should probably be a breeze in comparison.

Courting wasn’t something she’d ever bothered to study. The Crystal Cliffs historically hadn’t held any close alliances for more than trade, the previous Grand Wizards emotionally detached by design. She’d thought herself the same, even after the Wither Rose Alliance was formed. It was the most involved the Cliffs had been in hundreds of years. Still, romance was something she hadn’t considered. It involved too much trust, too much vulnerability, for her to ever picture herself wanting.

That lack of foresight left her cramming every book on romance she could get her hands on five minutes before her very first real date with Pearl.

Apparently they’d been on ‘dates’ before, quiet moments stolen away in the midst of the chaos that was their lives. Pearl had mentioned a stargazing date fondly, leaving Gem thoroughly confused. It had been entirely spontaneous, she hadn’t even dressed up or planned anything, and it didn’t line up with anything she’d learned about how dating worked.

Not for the first time she wished there were more books on Helianthian culture. Maybe it would help her understand the distinction between ‘date’, ‘hanging out’, and just ‘chilling.’ She still wasn’t sure if they were all separate things yet. Maybe she could ask? But then it would reveal how little of her girlfriend’s kingdom she knew, then Pearl would get offended and break up with her, then leave the alliance, then the Cliffs, Mythland, and the Grimlands would all be without food and everyone would starve.

She was spiralling again. It was thoroughly unproductive.

None of her books were helping anyway. They were all about formal courtships, something Pearl had laughed about with her before-

“Now I get the intent,” she’d said, giggling slightly as she put the sunflowers into a vase. “But he would have had to buy these from my empire to gift them back to me.”

“Traditionally, it’s considered a sign of respect to give things of the courtee’s empire. It shows an interest in the culture they come from, and a willingness to compromise and combine their own culture in the process.”

Pearl rolled her eyes with a smile and Gem quickly closed her mouth, a long honed instinct from accidentally finding herself on the edges of people’s patience, but she got the odd impression that Pearl wasn’t annoyed at her.

“All this courting stuff has its place, but it’s not for me. If I find someone I want to go out with, it’d be nicer if it was natural. And if I don’t… no big deal. I’m happy with what I have. Besides, I know my type.”

Gem’s heart quickly found its place in her throat, thumping so loud she was surprised Pearl couldn’t hear it. “Can I ask what that type is?”

“I can say for sure it’s not-” Pearl squinted at the note, “-Brad from Mythland. Sorry buddy, better luck next time.”

They both laughed, and the matter was dropped.

-or wild, whirlwind romantic fantasies that moved so fast she had to put them down before uncomfortable bile rose in her throat. The thought of jumping into anything without preparation, but especially something as deep and personal as romance, made her nervous. She could handle spontaneity, liked it at times!  But there needed to be trust there first, a baseline to deviate from. Would Pearl try to move too fast for her? Would she say anything against it even if she did? There was no script for her to work from here, no guide to where normal boundaries lay. She was going in blind for the first time in a very long while.

Then a knock at the door signalled her preparation time was up.

“Gem?” Pearl called through the wood, amusement already creeping through her tone. “Did you lose track of time again?”

“No, I’m ready!”

She ran a hand down her shirt to clear all but a few methodical wrinkles, enough to seem casual without looking sloppy, and nodded once in satisfaction. The heavy wooden door opened for her with ease (and she definitely didn’t use magic to make herself seem more impressive.)

“Wow, you look… really nice.” Was Gem imagining the blush on Pearl’s cheeks? She had to be, especially as her voice quickly picked back up into fond teasing. “I didn’t know you even owned any casual outfits.”

The outfit could be considered casual. If one didn’t know the quite frankly overkill amount of thought Gem had put into it. Muted colours to give off a softer feel, an inversion of her regular layers as a symbol she wasn’t acting as a ruler but instead herself. Amethyst around her neck and hanging from her ears both for power in case of an emergency and a reminder of her empire’s resources. Her gloves were, admittedly, mostly just because she wanted an excuse to wear them. But to anyone that asked she could easily pass it off as a combination of the two of them, the stars and moons pattern conveniently fitting. She liked her regular gloves, the leather preventing any distracting textures, but it was nice to make a change every once in a while. 

“I’m full of surprises.” Gem smiled, looking Pearl up and down. She could analyse what it meant later, when they had a quiet moment, but for now they had places to be. “You look pretty as well.”

“Don’t I always?” She flipped her hair, tied up neatly in a braid that made Gem’s breath skip, turning her nose up for a moment before the act broke down into laughter. “Come on, I know you have a schedule for this. Lead the way.”

~

In Gem’s opinion, the date was going pretty well. She’d hit all her talking points and had genuine discussion, Pearl had laughed at her jokes, and she’d learned much more than she’d expected. They were taking a break while their horses drank from a nearby stream, Pearl leaning against a tree and Gem leaning on Pearl. 

It was nice. It was peaceful. It was very abruptly interrupted by the scratching of Gem’s pencil that was so much louder than she’d anticipated.

Pearl cracked an eye open and glanced down at her. “Gem?”

“Mhm?”

“Darling?”

“Yeah?”

“Person I adore more than anything in the world?”

“...Yes?”

“Are you taking notes on our date?”

Gem blushed, ears pressing against her head in embarrassment. She should have been more subtle, or just tried to remember everything she needed to know, even if it meant she’d have less energy to spend on concentrating on what was actually happening, she should-

Pearl pressed a kiss to her head, carefully avoiding her antlers.

“It’s cute, fawn.”

“I just want to get it right,” she muttered, picking at the fabric of her gloves. “I haven’t done this before, before or after becoming Grand Wizard. It’s all complicated and there’s no rules to fall back on if I get lost.”

Pearl hummed gently and unfurled a wing, wrapping it around Gem at her silent nod.

“We just came out of a war with a demon. No one expects you, or any of us, to readjust instantly. If you wanna put this on pause, catch your bearings a bit, I’ll get it. Just tell me, yeah? Don’t get trapped in that head of yours.”

She moved to tap her forehead but pulled back at the last second, humming gently instead. Her gaze didn’t hold any expectations, just a gentle patience and a warmth like the sun.

And oh, Gem remembered why she fell for Pearl in the first place.

“I don’t want to stop. It’s just… a lot. Sometimes. Not that it’s your fault!” She hurried to add. “Rules are just easier to work with, knowing the limits and expectations.”

There was no judgement. The world didn’t collapse, no one mocked her admission of weakness, and Pearl didn’t immediately rescind all of Helianthia’s resources.

It was… a little disorientating, if Gem was being honest.

“That’s ok. We can figure out what works together. I don’t mind if you write your notes or want to set guidelines, so long as it’s not hurting you. Don’t sacrifice what you want for me or anyone else.”

She pulled her ever slightly closer, and the wing around Gem’s shoulders was more comforting than any weighted blanket she owned.

“For today though, let’s just enjoy this break from the chaos. We’ve earned it.”

For once, Gem couldn’t agree more.

(if my laptop messes the colours of this up i'm going to explode btw ^^)

also i know i had a taglist but it's been like a year since i last used it so idk if anyone still wants to be tagged, i'm down for starting it up again though

@mcyt-yuri-week

[flamedraco]

c!Wilbur Redesign

This is my compromise to the current situation regarding Shubble and the speculation surrounding Wilbur. This is coming from a fanfiction writer who has always, and always will, see the CCs as nothing more than voice actors for their characters. Buckle in, this is going to be a long one. But please read all the way through. If you don't know, recently Shubble came forward with a video about how she was in an abusive relationship. And she dropped some hints because she wants people to speculate about who it is. Wants to make sure that a person with bad intentions can't get away with more bad things. A lot of people are speculating that, due to said hints and previously established crush that he had on her, Wilbur is the person who abused her. Now personally? I do not believe this. It's hard for me to believe that Wilbur would do something like that. I don't like the idea of hopping on the hate train or immediately jumping to cancel someone. So I will be waiting for real facts and confirmation before saying anything regarding the CC. A lot of the speculation doesn't make sense to me logically and I also never got the chance to see the video before it was deleted. This is not me calling Shubble a liar. I 100% believe her and my heart goes out to her completely. She doesn't deserve being treated horribly, nobody does. The situation I'm hearing she went through is a wretched thing and I will not TOLERATE people insulting her or saying that she should just say who it was. That shit is not okay and never will be okay. HOWEVER! I will NOT stop writing Wilbur's character. A little fact about me is that when I came into this fandom, it wasn't because I watched the CCs. It wasn't because I was interested in MCYT. The reason I came here was because a very close friend of mine asked me to cowrite a fic with them. At the time the only fandom we really shared even vaguely was DSMP. I knew very little about it but I knew some things. I let my friend choose the ship. They chose TNT Duo. And it's thanks to that friend that I wrote Arsonist's Waltz. That I started to adore Quackbur and wrote my most well known fic, You Were Never Meant to be a Hero. And thanks to YWNMTBAH I made so many cherished friends. It's all because of these two little characters that still have me in a chokehold even though I've been writing them for quite some time now. And that's why I can't simply let go of Wilbur's character. But regardless of my ability to separate the Cs from the CCs, for some people that distinction is harder. The CCs to me are just glorified voice actors. For other people it's harder. They can separate the characters from the content creators just fine, but this situation hits them close to home. And it hurts. So, this is my proposed solution, brought to my attention by a friend who was heavily affected by this situation, but loved the work she was doing and didn't want to have to let it go. C!Wilbur doesn't have an actual canon design. When you think about it, the only thing we have to go off of is his Minecraft skin. Something that, when you think about it, doesn't tell us much about the character at all. There is no canon design because most of what we see as "canon" is based on the CC, not the character himself. When you look at c!Wilbur, the skin, does he have an eye color? Do we know his height? What about his hair length? His build? What do we actually know about this character outside of the clothing on his back and the personality his actor gave him? And when you make an AU everything changes. From now on? My c!Wilbur design that I'll use as a baseline for most of my fics is a 6ft man with heterochromia. One eye blue, the other teal. He's going to have brown curly hair that dips just below his shoulders and a light scar over one of his eyes. Sometimes he'll have freckles because what the fuck can we tell from a Minecraft skin anyways? He wears black nail polish because why not? Slay.

I already treated him and c!Quackity like glorified OCs already. Why not further OC the glorified OCs? So what if they aren't a faithful adaptation? How can anyone say what is and isn't "faithful" when we're talking about BLOCK MEN. Make them eldritch. Make them supernatural. Make them whatever kind of hybrid you want them to be! I'll die on my Magpie!Wilbur and Shrike!Quackity hill! Give them different eye colors and let them dye their hair sometimes, I'm going to make the white streak PINK because TWINS DUO and CHERRY BLOSSOM TRIPLETS! Give your Phantom!Wilburs green eyes and glowing blood! Give your Shapeshifter!Wilburs more hair and eye colors! Do what you want because the character has no actual canon design. Go wild with your AUs and remember that you're doing this for fun. For your enjoyment. Don't conform to what someone else wants from you just because your adaption, your interpretation, "isn't the real Wilbur". The characters are what we make them. Because the reality of the situation? They are literally just blocks in a cube game. There is no canon design. Don't let the actions of some asshole ruin what you love.

[cavewretch]

I would live to hear more of your roier thoughts, both character and creator wise, but I understand if you're too tired with mcyt and the content format for that. just think that the recent post you wrote was incredibly interesting and would be very curious for more.

like apart from general thoughts on roier both character and streamer, what specifically would you be curious to hear him explain about his character?

helloooo!!! don't worry i'd love to say more i haven't mentally escaped cubitos yet lmfao. i'm glad you thought so, anon!! :3

i'd love to hear roier's thoughts on roleplay in general (how he approaches it or prepares for it) bc he's so subtle and long term with his character. i'm curious how intentional he is with his performance too. like of course it's all mostly improvised so his actions aren't usually planned, but his actions in-character build up beautifully. like him in-character hiding that he's good at pvp and then revealing he's actually one of the strongest fighters on the island - that was a months long character choice that he couldn't even guarantee would pay off! or when after bobby's death he stopped doing dungeons for fun, but would immediately snap into fighter mode when he had to if it meant protecting the others. (off the top of my head i'm thinking of the cellbit and felps rescue mission and the code sword mission).

idek if he thinks about roleplay this deliberately but he's gotta have some sort of qroier brainspace constructed bc of how things have progressed, no? like, at risk of being unbearable, yeah it's minecraft but it's also theater lmfao

(also tangent but roier's playstyle for most games i've seen him play is offense, he quickly evaluates a little and then launches into situations headfirst, so it's interesting to watch that translate into a defensive role)

anyways more specifically bc i feel like i haven't even answered ur question yet fjshdjshf - to roier, about qroier: does he want to know his past? does he get frustrated with how he's perceived by the other islanders? what keeps him from correcting people? how does roier decide when qroier's angry enough to show it? to me, qroier's breaking points are betrayal and the people he loves- what does he believe about himself that keeps his personal safety and pride from that list? ALSO this is less important to story im just curious- melissa started as a disguise to manipulate quackity but has sort of evolved into a drag persona, why does he refuse to tell people he and melissa are the same person? (i imagine its to keep the secret from getting to quackity or keeping it as another secret asset in his back pocket but i wanna hear him talk about it)

and finally to roier - if he could retcon anything in qsmp what would he retcon and why hehehe

i thought purgatory would be a breaking point for qroier, and it was in some ways (i'm no longer a clown, i'm no longer joking, actually fuck all this lets burn all our stuff to force system change) but the consequences are so blurry it seems like qroier had to shrink back a bit into lying in wait (FOR WHAT???) once they returned to the island/he was handed pepito. disclaimer tho i haven't watched any qsmp since the end of purgatory i've just read posts and talked w my sister who still watches it

this got out of hand - i hope i answered your question!!!

[m-pennanti]

I have not been in this active fandom long but I have noticed a weird pattern (or flavor I guess?) in the discourse

A few imaginary examples:

- Everyone was hoping Joel got in s10 and then Joel went “actually I don’t *want* to join hermitcraft” and suddenly people started attacking everyone who previously said they hoped Joel was in s10 because they were “pressuring him”

- Pearl hid a few spider heads in xB’s base for him to find randomly and everyone hounded on her for griefing but when Etho burned down Gem’s house and didn’t help rebuild it it was a-ok

- Something big happened to Cleo and they made a video explaining she was taking a break for a while and people constantly bothered her about coming back sooner to the point they had to leave social media only two weeks into the break

- False made an amazing mini game with only one real flaw and everyone called it “ok at best and lazily made and could’ve done with a few more tweaks” and then Joe made a very flawed low-effort mini game off the top of his head and people started calling it “the best game on the server that so much effort was put into”

- Xizuma retired from Hermitcraft and the Hermits agreed that Cub would now host the server and some people were very upset that they didn’t choose Iskall and others bullied Xizuma about it despite it being a decision made by everybody

- Wels became active again on his own accord and had a lot of interactions with other Hermits and took a slightly different approach to his builds and people started saying they “hoped Wels would stop playing Hermitcraft and leave”

Again, these are not actual things that happened

But you can see it can’t you, you can see these things happening

These aren’t targeted at any ccs I kinda just threw names in randomly, maybe I am a bit biased but the only thing I did intentionally was people getting mad at the female ccs over the male ccs in the second example because I’ve noticed a raging amount of sexism in the mcyt community which obviously sucks

Just thought it was weird how this community has a weird set of themes that bother them and starts conflict while other things get shut down immediately like homophobia and misgendering, at least as far as I’ve seen

I wonder if it’s like that for other fandoms too? This is the only big fandom I’ve taken a deep dive into in my life so I wouldn’t know if certain fandoms having reoccurring discourse themes is a common occurrence. If they do it either isn’t very visible on the surface or it just flew right over my head (which happens a lot with me it seems)

Ofc as well these are all entirely my opinions and observations and this is my first time discussing them so I won’t have considered other sides and perspectives, especially if I’ve missed something and just never came across it due to how fresh into the fandom I am

Thoughts? I realize this type of post is very dangerous to share because it feels like the type people would get upset about. If I’m entirely and completely wrong I’d be genuinely interested in hearing about why

[bonesandthebees]

Bee i don’t enter your anon box very frequently but i am just SO EXCITED about you branching out into writing for house of the dragon, even if you don’t end up continuing, its just super exciting to see!! Especially as someone who has been following your work since the final few chapters of clinic and now is insanely obsessed with got/hotd i am just so so so excited to see where you go from here!!!

I also might be delusional but i’ve noticed that incredibly complex and interesting wlw dynamics tend to be ignored in favor of the far less complex or developed mlm dynamics (especially in fanfiction), so it is just soooo nice seeing an author i really enjoy and respect writing for such interesting characters.

ANYWAYS this is just your reminder that no matter what you end up writing you’ll have readers who support you because your work is really really good <<<33

aaaa thank you!! it makes me so happy to hear this. I loved house of the dragon when the first season aired (and is what directly inspired under the hanging rose) so I've definitely thought about writing for it before, but I just never had an idea that really stuck until the other day when I was like wait a second-

also you're not delusional. wlw ships are almost always the least popular in fandom, with female characters very often being shoved out of the way, ignored, or pigeonholed into stereotypes by fandom at large. it thrills me to see how popular rhaenicent is in the hotd fandom, but even while being relatively popular it's still often overshadowed by ships between male characters who have barely interacted before. and of course I think fandom is a space to have fun and anyone can ship what they want, but sometimes I think people need to sit down and actually reflect on why they feel more drawn to the ship between two male characters who barely had a minute long scene together (*cough cough* all the ship content I've been seeing for that blackwood guy and the bracken guy) compared to a more complex, interesting, and nuanced dynamic between female characters.

I have a lot of strong feelings about misogyny in fandom spaces. but also I'm a lesbian who just loves writing about sapphic romance. and I just adore alicent and rhaenyra's dynamic in the show. there are so many layers to the pining and resentment and guilt and frustration they feel for each other and just. agh. it's so good.

ty for this it means so much that some of you guys wanna stick around to reading my stuff even when it's not mcyt <33

[mcytblr-archive]

Early MCYTblr Interviews: mcyt-quotes

today's interviewee is mcyt-quotes, one of the first MCYT quotes blogs, member of MCYTblr since SMPLive, and winner of the first MCYTblr elections! below is a transcript of their questions and answers.

Q: To begin with, what was your overall MCYTblr experience like? Does anything particularly stick out to you?

A: it was fun, by and large. a good outlet for me to talk with likeminded people, and a good distraction to get me through my senior years of high school. i’ve been a public figure in a few online fandom spaces, now, and i think what stood out the most in the mcytblr space is the fact that some of the larger blogs were almost treated like mini-content creators themselves ? i got fanart a few times, especially through the whole election fiasco, and i remember there being incorrect quote blogs etc that i would pop up on now and then. i’ve never seen it happen on that scale before - it was odd, but fun in its own way. defiantly gave early-mid MCYTblr its own personality

Q: Speaking of the elections, do you remember what it was like to run in them? I remember that you won, but I'm interested to hear what it was like from your point of view.

A: ahahaha that was an experience. i fully signed up as a joke - i wasn’t very active on discord or very close with many of the other blogs, and i didn’t realise that my follower count was on the higher end of the spectrum, so i didn’t think i had a chance. just wanted to muck around and procrastinate studying for my final exams. things sorta spiralled though - i got hooked up with two bloody fantastic vice candidates (@the-royal-bat-snake and @sosigshoney) who did literally everything, and i also underestimated MCYTblr’s tendency to do it for the bit. i remember my campaign being something to the effect of promising a militia of arsonists, kitten genocide, cannibalism generally, and a total removal of free speech and thought ? and then i was elected and i was like ah fuck, i don’t have time for this. and then suddenly i was in the middle of some vast RP conspiracy that i was mostly asleep through, being Aussie, and very lost

Q: You mentioned that in the MCYT fandom, blogs were treated like smaller content creators-- how was that different from your other fandom experiences, out of curiosity?

A: so that sort of environment has popped up in other fandom spaces that i’ve been in - most obvious would be (and i want no judgement) the instagram DC and Marvel comics community, where i spent a few years running a large page. there were definitely elements of it - pages would get memes dedicated to them, etc. but lore ? i’ve never seen that before. i think it might be something about the nature of MCYT - aspects of the fandom, especially post Dream SMP (when this behaviour became most common) was built on mythologising people. not in the sense of worshipping them, but more so in the sense of fitting them into fictional narratives, just like the Dream SMP. and the blog owners themselves were primed to happily accept RP scenarios (something which has historically been seen as ‘cringe’), particularly those which blend absurdism and emotion. so the prison blogs, the election and subsequent RP, the penis SMP, the incorrect quotes blogs dedicated to fandom blogs (literally fandom-ception) came pretty naturally

idk, with more and time and reflection there’s probably something interesting there - Dream SMP was pretty unique in it’s time, and tumblr (especially post 2012) is a unique platform, so it makes sense they combined like that

Q: That makes me wonder, too-- it hasn't come up much before this, but I think it's an important aspect to examine: Do you think that large numbers of people (especially younger ones) being quarantined contributed to the intense/fast-paced fandom?

A: oh absolutely. it was pretty crazy to watch as a (semi) outsider. i joined the fandom in 2019, when it was Very small on tumblr - there maybe three other blogs i could follow who were MCYT related ? and then Covid hit and it bloody exploded. as i’ve mentioned, i was in my final year of high school, plus my town was only quarantined for a small period of time, so i didn’t really get that classic quarantine experience of having nothing to do. but christ, you could tell that so many people were spending practically their whole lives living through MCYT. and i don’t think that was a bad thing - it was clearly a great experience for a lot of people. but that’s why you had things popping up like the high school au blog dedicated to other MCYTblr blogs (where i think i was actually used as some evil class president or something ?? idk), which you would Not have seen in any other environment, i reckon

and i cannot stress your fast paced comment enough - every time i woke up it felt like heaps of astronomical events had happened in the few hours of USA timezone that had passed

it was fun - i felt like a long suffering older cousin at some points, but i don’t mind. that’s part of why i leaned into the election RP - if i could be as evil as possible, i gave them something to have fun with

Q: Now that you mention it, it's really interesting how that played out almost exactly as it did in the DSMP itself! A less-invested party coming in with a cartoonishly evil plan and winning the election to be played off of in roleplay, it's amazing how it worked out like that.

A: ahaha and it wasn’t lost on people at the time !! i was known for quite a while afterwards as a Schlatt-kinnie, which i was happy to lean into. a lot of the plot after that was lost on me - it was my two vice’s that i mentioned before and the rest of the cabinet which really carried things, and i would just pop in whenever i happened to be awake to endorse kitten genocide or something like that then go back to studying. but i’m pretty sure it did continue to trace the DSMP for a while afterwards - i banned the cult party [silverfish2020], so they were pretty quick to form a rebellion group, while i just continued to make worse and worse decisions. to be honest, though, it eventually spiralled out of control - i was taking it so laissez-faire that i forgot some people were genuinely invested, and while i forget details i definitely genuinely pissed a few people off at some point. i remember pretty vividly at one point someone made a post where they said they were worried i was going to doxx them or something like that (?) and i was like damn, this shits more serious than i thought it was. so i arranged to have my character assassinated and noped out - i couldn’t tell you what happened after that (or, frankly, before it). honestly, if you’re interested in niche fandom history though there’s probably something interesting in what went down - worth looking into if you’re bored

Q: Do you remember any other 'Big MCYTblr events'? It's alright if you don't remember what happened during them-- if you can't recall, I'll use them to ask around for people who participated!

A: i don’t rlly remember any other events…i know they happened, but i really had no interest in getting involved beyond answering whatever asks i would get about them. the election from memory was the first Big one (unless prom was first ? idk they were close together) and after that i was very happy to let Quotes as a character die, and i mostly ignored them

plus, it was about that time i started leaving the fandom - maybe a month or so later. by that point the community was Big, and moving fast, and a lot of drama had begun to leak in. you’ve covered some of the controversial blogs etc, and while i didn’t care about them personally they were indicative that the fandom space was different. combine that with me moving out of home and starting university, and i pretty much shut the blog down

Q: What led you to create the mcyt-quotes blog in the first place?

A: ummm i reckon just to have somewhere to talk about minecraft monday. there wasn’t a very dedicated fan base, and fuck knows i wasn’t gonna be talking about minecraft irl in a public aussie high school (i don’t have a death wish) so it just gave me somewhere to collect my thoughts. nothing interesting 🤷‍♀️

Q: Now that you mention it-- what are some of your most memorable moments from Minecraft Monday, whether from creators or the fandom?

A: ahhhhh there were some good ones. the fandom was deeply toxic during minecraft monday, but in a fun way - it felt sorta like following a sport more than anything. a niche reference here, but it felt the same as being a fan of australia’s soccer leagues - everyone hates each other, the organisers are greedy pricks who have no idea what’s going on, and there’s a new, entirely avoidable catastrophe happening every week. i think top moments include: the /top incident, where the fandom was divided after a scandal where Techno used an exploit to beat Vikkstar in an arena game; the a6d beef, where a6d was banned for not having enough viewers and then snuck back in and got into twitter drama with Keemstar; the week were Carson tried to sabotage Techno, leading to some of the most awkward moments possible and resulting in a lot of hate for the guy when he was otherwise still popular; week 7, where literally everything that could be broken was broken; James Charles getting adopted by the Minecraft community after his first cancelling but before everything that went down afterwards; and week 14, where a hacker griefed the arena, destroyed the event, and then accidentally doxxed himself while streaming it all. a fitting end

the main outlet for MCYT back then was actually reddit - there was a very active MCM subreddit which had a ton of statistics etc. the fandom was very into statistics back then, and actually analysing who would be a threat. that increased even more when serious esports players were added to the mix, like XQC and T1yler. they brought the toxic sweaty gamer energy to the competition, and the MC youtubers generally found them hilarious

it’s actually funny how much the vibe of the fandom changes depending on what’s most popular - MCM felt like sports fans, SMPEarth felt like historians, and DSMP was a giant role play arena

Q: Were you a part of the subreddit? (And, if so-- was it any different from MCYT Tumblr?)

A: yeah, i was crazy active on that subreddit !! i was always rooting for either Techno, Schlatt, or James Charles - Techno because he permanently dominated, Schlatt cause i was a casual SMPLive fan, and JC for the meme - and because at the time he was pretty widely accepted, since people loved that he genuinely seemed to get into the competition. funnily, the only time i’ve seen this competitive energy recreated was in the Techno vs Dream duel (which i also got way too competitive about). MCM was the first serious introduction of old school MC youtubers to the new generation - it was fun seeing all the classics slowly come around to Techno when they realised he wasn’t a sweat he was just good, or seeing them try to navigate conversations with the SMPLive gang when the old guard was still trying to be family friendly. the best week was actually Week 14, when a collection of old MCYTbers and new MCYTbers (and James Charles) decided fuck it and went to play on Hypixel for a few hours. it was great. i was also, later, very active on the SMPEarth wiki (the main hub for the fandom in those days) - that place is a gem to this day, and i’m not just saying that because i wrote far too much of it

Q: As time went on, did you see the culture of the fandom shift? What was it like to watch?

A: it shifted a Lot between different phases. even the demographic changed, at different points. you would be hard pressed to imagine that the fans of SMPLive were the same as DSMP, even though there was overlap in creators. even something more recent, like SMPEarth to DSMP - totally different vibe. you can see aspects that influenced each other, though - for example, the SMPE fandom’s obsession with making flags for different factions and putting factions at war with each other absolutely led into the establishment of L’Manburg. then Eret had his betrayal moment, and it turned from SMPE style war roleplay (which you would have on SMPLive, even, for example with the Stal conflict) to actual personal role play, where there were characters separate from the content creators. that division had never been identified before. that was when u started to see a lot of the mainstay parts of today’s fandom pop up - e.g. the c! vs cc! shorthand, or the constant division of content creators onto duos or other groups, and (of course) the shipping debates started up. they had always been there, especially in the Dream side of the fandom (which evolved spiritually from the Skeppy side, imo, which had similar debates) but they Really blew up with DSMP

that’s sort of when i stepped out - nothing against that style of fandom, it’s just not for me

Q: I've heard a lot of people who were in 2019-2020 MCYTblr say that the fandom was a lot more close-knit during that time-- was that your experience of it, too?

A: very much so. it was inevitable, we were a small bunch. i wouldn’t go so far as to say that everyone knew everyone, but everyone definitely had a mutual friend. i mean, hell, even connections to the creators were common - a lot of people on stuff like love or host were fans themselves. of course, looking back at the way that power was abused by certain creators paints it in a different light, but at the time it was fun

Q: Are there any fandom in-jokes, copypastas, running bits, or anything similar that you can remember from your time in the fandom?

A: too many to name. most of them id get in my inbox and just be confused, tbh, like the Kroger anon or some of the kinnies. i’ll try to go through some pre-DSMP era ones from the top of my head. the Hey Wilbur copypasta was cursed, as was SMPRompa (which i actually read the first couple chapters of, out of morbid curiosity. it was an experience). Stal, of course, was iconic in its time, as was the cuck shed. there was Keemstar being referred to as a gnome, his beef with the Skeppy gang, the ‘I could kiss you’ incident, ‘Hey Technoblade’. Jschlatt’s love or host bit where he was a closeted, deeply christian man made the rounds. Technoplane, of course. the Carson crying meme, and Gumball killing James Charles. Petezahutt dropping MCM to spite Keemstar, and Keemstar lying about it. ‘Preston is rusty’ was a classic MCM era meme, after the two fucking dominated. the sheer amount of times MCM got hacked was a bit of an in-joke, as was who actually won week 7 (to this day we didn’t know)

Q: Alright, and last one! Is there anything else you can remember/want archived, or any comments about MCYTblr as a whole?

A: ummmm i don’t think so ! i’ve said pretty much everything that immediately comes to mind. definitely an interesting fandom - one of the most unique i’ve seen. i appreciate your account a lot ! it’s funny to see old posts pop up again

[the-final-sif]

The thing you rb-ed about hc made me think a bit, i'm not in either fandom (dsmp or hc), but I know of it because of you (here from ao3 o7). During the polls, I came across so many posts in my fandom's tags asking people to vote, and posting something unrelated to a tag is spam and is directly against TOS, all the post I've seen were from hermitblr. It was really annoying. It's a bit funny, from an outsider pov, that this part of the fandom acts so high and mighty, for the longest time I thought of the mcyt fandom as "some losers that enjoy cubes" (no offense). It's truly fascinating how the mcyt fandom is so subdivided, I don't think you get that in any other fandom, there are groups sure, but not in the way you guys have it, you have groups within groups within groups. It's really interesting

For people outside of mcyt, it might help to consider the mcyt space more like the kpop fandom or like the "anime" fandom. It's actually very common, particularly when you consider that "mcyt" is just a catch-all for hundreds of creators in tons of separate groups. Most people aren't fans of mcyt as a whole, they're usually fans of specific creators or servers.

If you're an outsider, you likely consider the group all one unified body. But anyone whose been into anime knows that there's no singular anime fandom, and there's no singular kpop fandom. There's a lot of different bands and a lot of infighting and a lot of people who are very convinced that what they enjoy is Good and Morally Pure and everyone else is evil for not enjoying it or for enjoying something else. Obviously not everyone who enjoys hermitblr is like that, but because it tends to be more family friendly than the DSMP, there also tends to be a higher percentage of the white knight sorts.

You've always got to be careful about people who really care about making sure you know they only like "morally pure" content creators/content. It's a huge red flag for people who don't know how to engage with something critically, and also people whose idea of morality begins and ends at consumption.

Sorry to hear about hermitblr spamming the tags though. If you see that shit, always report it as spam to tumblr. People won't learn otherwise.

[zodarii-dae]

Just finished watching 3rd Life!!!! I was a bit busy so I couldn't do it as quickly as I wanted to but I made it.

I watched Grian's pov as you suggested and holy fuck was that a ride. I have Thoughts.

Grian and Scar. Scar and Grian. Those two shared a braincell and Grian had it for most of the series.

Grian I think had the most kills out of anyone by the end of it??? Guy really thought he could use Scar as an excuse to satiate his bloodlust without losing any lives. He was 100% correct.

Scar had a lot of kills too, didn't he? Especially in the Dogwarts war. Even if he is the goofy boss to Grian's competent right-hand man, it was nice to see him get down to business as well.

"Your Honor, he pleads /j."

I'm focusing a lot on Scar and Grian here, but I would also like to give a shoutout to Jimmy for being the first person out. From what I hear it's pretty on-brand for him and it makes me think Scott was his Grian. For a second I thought it was Cleo tho.

The Battle of the Red Desert was painful to watch lmfao.... Scar pulled the lever, Grian. Wrong time tho.

Can't be good at building without being good at demolition. Grian really likes TNT, doesn't he. Just pray he never improves at redstone, I think it's best his traps stay broken.

I learned from a comment section that Impulse was killed for a clock that belonged to him in the first place. Rough going, buddy.

Scar's second death had me wheezing.... that's how you know he had some sort of plot armor on, no matter what Grian might say, cuz no way in hell did that guy become the first red name and stay alive for 2nd place.

That was the most Canadian fistfight I ever did see. Scar's muscles did not help.

Grian I see is associated with a bird sometimes? I don't know the reason for that but I find it interesting considering he killed himself by jumping off a cliff.

All in all....... yeah I really liked it!!! I have only watched Grian's pov tho, so if you recommend checking out any other POVs, I could do so. Not sure if I'll be able to watch any of the other Life seasons soon, as I might start dipping into, y'know, Hermitcraft/Empires (thanks to you, really!), but we'll see.

This was long. Yeah. Uhhhh Wings of Fire: A Guide To The Dragon World is coming out October I think I read the excerpt I'm excited ok bye-

nice! glad to see you again :D.

desert duo my beloved. absolutely they are two halves of a whole idiot. grian is the designated braincell holder.

grian kills and maims and we love him for it. i love his maniacal laugh whenever he gets a good kill. like a cartoon villain.

scar is goofy and silly and also bloodthirsty. he's so much fun. he can go from himbo to terrifying red life so fast.

yup, very on brand. poor jimmy. scott is kind of his grian? he's definitely the green to his red, and smart to his stupid, but their vibes are pretty different from grian and scar. they're husbands rather than boss and right hand.

i cannot physically express how disappointed i was when the explosion didn't kill anyone.

the real best duo, grian and tnt.

impulse's death... oh i feel so bad for him. you could hear him starting to say bdubs' name as he died. i had to stare at the wall for like five minutes after that scene.

the only reason scar lasted so long was because of grian. if they hadn't teamed up, he would have died much quicker lmao.

oh the fist fight. oh the cactus ring. oh god.

grian is usually depicted as a parrot hybrid. i'm not sure why, i think it started as a hermitcraft fandom thing that bled into his other stuff. people often fannonized as birds falling to death is one of my favorite things. i can't get enough of it.

if you want to watch more povs, i would recommend martyn or scott. martyn's is good if you want to understand the dogwarts side of things, and scott's is just one of my favorites.

i haven't watched any hermitcraft myself, but i plan to one of these days. empires is one of my favorite smps, and really what got me back into mcyt. if you ever do get around to watching the other life series, i think you'd enjoy them!

i'm also very excited for the guidebook! i haven't read the excerpt though.

[automaticdata]

HGCZ live reaction part 4

Synergy through Deer Hunting Season

First story for this part is a fic, which is going to be harder for me to go back and forth between Nook and here, I think. Easier to lose my place on the page if I do that, if that makes sense? So my live reaction may not be as live as the rest. This goes for other fics in the zine as well.

Synergy:

Doc being a recurring villain works really well. It kinda makes me wonder if there'd be a rogues gallery of villains eventually, like Batman has, but yeah. Doc definitely works well in the villain roll, and them using the M for Monster was pretty clever for making a villain name. (I know this isn't just synergy but the words are making me think more so there ya go)

I think this is the first point where we hear about HotGuy's leg bracers. I'd kind of assumed his mobility wasn't as big a thing in this AU, but I'm not upset to see it pop up as a factor. It does make me wonder if he uses them as Scar, too, or is it like DDVAU where they're a HotGuy only thing?

Prickly Cute Guy is best Cute Guy. No I don't like tsunderes --- okay I can't even lie about that jokingly, tsunderes are my jam and Cute Guy makes a very very good tsundere. XD

They have a base! Awesome sauce. I think I've gotten too used to superhero stories/AUs where the heroes don't have a base? Like, it's been awhile since I've read "proper" superhero stuff like Batman, so lately it's been, like ... Miraculous, UnOrdinary, and MCYT AUs. None of those really do the secret hideout, though UnOrdinary has started to hint at/dance around one. But yeah, with HotGuy and Cute Guy being adults who don't know each other's identities, it makes sense they'd get a base they would rent so they'd have a place to store, like. First aid and spare weapons and stuff, as well as meetup. Kinda makes me wonder how they're paying for it, or if it's semi-abandoned or something, though? Probably will find out later, or else my eyes skipped over the explanation. aaaand yep, abandoned. :thumbsup:

One of the interesting things about how people portray Cute Guy is that Cute Guy doesn't really have a canonical weapon the way HotGuy does (partially because in canon, Cute Guy isn't nearly as developed as HotGuy, admittedly.) So it's interesting to see what weapon/fighting style people give Cute Guy. DDVAU gave Cute Guy a gun, but HGCZ is giving him knives, and I kind of like how that works in a team dynamic better? Like, in video game terms, both guns and bows are long-distance weapons, but this way you have one of them as a close-range fighter and one as a long-range fighter. It's neat.

It's also good they're helping each other learn each others' skills, because that will definitely make them less vulnerable in a fight. Less weaknesses to exploit and all that.

and of course Cute Guy has explosives lining his pockets. Why wouldn't he have explosives lining his pockets.

Pretty sure the first F-Bomb, if not the first swear in the zine, goes to Doc. And omg I can hear him say it. XD

-----

.... outfit swap??

----

(switching from the Nook app to a different app because either my eyes are getting tired or the Nook app is getting more annoying and making the text in the comic harder to read. I like the nook app on my phone, but I can see why they have discontinued the Windows version, why is there no freaking zoom function what is this).

----

A Cub in the Quiver:

Got my answer about Scar's mobility immediately, wow. XD

Beta testing the arrows and everything goes wrong. Not Scar safe indeed. XD

Wait did they just. Leave the dummy burning until they got to the flame retardant????? lol

"What's this one do?" *as arrow is loosed* "Wait Cub why are you behind a protective panel --" XD XD XD

----

angry Cute Guy tangled up and hanging <3

----

Bas les Masques pour un Soir

Pretty cover is pretty. <3 Also while we saw various Grians in G-Team and Cute Guy wearing civilian clothes in the Sidekick, I think this may be the first time we see plainclothes everyday Grian?

Film studio, huh? I think I see where this is going ...

"“Oh, hello there! Good—morning? Is it morning?” Grian begins to offer him a decisive no, and how dare he be so cheerful about it," why is Grian me in this moment. XD

I saw the thing about the Crafting Dead before and went "oh hey cool they're including references to Scar's older content" but VEX AND THE CITY? oh my god whoever came up with that needs to get an award. XD

Grian recognizing HotGuy and not realizing he's recognizing HotGuy XD

(oh no the XDs are taking over again ...)

"I know first aid because of some, um, well, uh -- wild fishing trips!" "I got this wound from -- err --- a volleyball net!" Both of you are terrible liars lol.

He's totally talking about Cute Guy with the volleyball teammates isn't he XD

"What if you had a doctorate in being the light of my life?" omg Scar do you even realize you're flirting

that dufflebag is 100% full of Scar's HotGuy gear and Grian doesn't realize how close he is to an identity reveal

omg Scar rolled over and texted Grian back while Grian was in the room with him whut

This fic was super cute <3

----

..... wait WHAT. SCAR. I am Grian in this panel lol XD

----

Deer Hunting Season:

the text fading out behind Cute Guys' "I am so done" face lol

The blue shirt is making me think it's Jimmy for some reason?? He's not really associated with deers though ...

Is that BigB???

IT IS JIMMY

lol both Scar and Grian going "omg Jimmy you should have asked for more money"

WAIT NO NO DO NOT FUCKING CANARY CURSE JIMMY IN THIS ZINE WHEN THIS IS HIS FIRST APPEARANCE NO DON'T BE MONSTERS

IS THAT GEM?????????????

fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

IS JIMMY OKAY I AM FAIRLY SURE THEY WON'T KILL OFF GRIAN BUT JIMMY LITERALLY GOT SHOT IN THE HEAD I HAVE CONCERNS THIS IS EVIL (also super dramatic and awesome EVEN THOUGH I AM VERY UPSET ABOUT JIMMY)

I want to read more but it's also starting to get late and as weird as it sounds live reacting takes more attention than just reading something straight? Like I know half of my reactions are just XD faces even when I'm full awake but yeah.

I think it would be cool if, as I suspect, Doctor Monster is kind of a showboaty but ultimately not very harmful villain while Gemini Slay is The Big Bad. It honestly works. It could also end up being hard to find her secret identity, because as herself she's all sunshine and butterflies but like. Despite the cutesy cottagecore vibes she is still Gemini Slay.

Don't know when I'll be able to continue, might be tomorrow, might be Thurs, idk. Depends on how sleep and work cooperate (or don't cooperate) with each other.

[thecranewivesrpf]

vent it's 1am

sometimes I see posts about people's parents being supportive of their interests, and I wonder what I could've had about that.

instead I'll sit in my room, smiling, laughing at a funny video, chatting with my friend, having fun and enjoying myself in my little safe space and I'll hear my dad laugh from downstairs and I'll wonder if it's at me.

why do I like the things I do? isn't it pathetic you're so invested in fucking minecraft roleplay? these creators will never know your name, but you still hold the time jimmy briefly said your name out loud on stream dear to your heart despite the fact you didn't even clip it, it just plays in your head sometimes. hi chewby, he said along with a long list of other names. he doesn't think about it and yet it felt like you existed for a moment.

it's unreasonable and incredibly paranoid, but sometimes I get scared and look through my phone for keyloggers that might've been installed, try and dig around my room for cameras and get scared new people I meet are my dad trying to fool me into trusting someone to tear it away and laugh. Point at the heartfelt messages I said to them and say isn't that pathetic? you trusted someone that much so quickly, this thing you said was so stupid. why did you say that? what's wrong with you? you're a fucking freak.

my mom says she tries not to let him have an effect on her life, don't be mad, stay apathetic. I would if I could. I'm terrified.

my only safe space had been torn away before, and it was one of the worse periods of my life. I was so disassociated I can't really tell you what happened in that time. I remember seeing a wildflower growing between the fence on my way home from school and crying. that flower got me through that day. I'm so scared of that happening again.

I pretend to nod along, I agree with every horrible thing he says, I have an entire horrible transphobic and bigoted story written out for how I use each social media I do use, and it's all to make sure he's happy and okay with me. I don't genuinely give a shit what he thinks, but I consider his opinion on everything I do to make sure I have a decent cover up story or way to hide it. I've done a lot, even as a kid to keep up that innocent perfect kid persona, even if then I didn't have a real reason to. I have zero respect for that man and yet I bow to him because I'm terrified. sometimes I wish I could've smiled and told him about the lmanburg flag I was sewing 2 years ago, and he would've smiled and listened to me talk. I think that conversation was ammunition. I hate talking about myself already, and I have extra internalized fear about my interests now. I assume everyone thinks I'm pathetic outside of my bubble, and it surprises me every time I see someone outside of the mcyt community not clowning on us or putting dni in their bio, thinking we're just weirdos. we're wonderful weirdos, I love what we've made here, but it's been ingrained into me to hate myself for what makes me happy.

I wish I didn't have to filter my thoughts. have cover up interests, pretend I'm so invested in a video game I haven't played in months. I've picked up my sister is masking and sucking up to him too. I feel bad for her.

im tired. I escape here and it's so wonderful, I can talk to people that make me happy and understand and won't lecture me and make me feel pathetic over the tiniest slip of my words. people will cheer with me, make me feel not alone, I love you all so much. you'll listen to me be happy, think about things that make me happy and interest me. even if I'm incoherent, even if you don't know what I'm talking about, even if it's too late and I'm making too many typos, I love you. I love you I love you I love you.

[prismartist]

What would you think Biggri would be like in a TMA au?

i've thought about this more times than you might think, ani!!

first of all i have stumbled upon a biggri fic in a tma setting and it's absolutely delightful, it's called MAG 11 - Moonpie (do not mind the warning it doesn't have anything lol). it's really funny and quite interesting.

but aside from that, i did assign patrons to mcyt characers shortly after finishing tma, but kept them in their servers instead of the actual archive setting.

while i imagine that most people change patrons from season to season, to me grian and bigB are both always Lonely. mainly because they both have pretty bad luck with allies. B tends to have one close ally at most for long periods––he was even alone for most of 3rd Life––and grian, you know, kills them. but while bigB's pretty much come to terms with it––a go with the flow kinda guy as you might know––grian hates being chosen by the Lonely. he would prefer desolation, slaughter, etc, and really he'd be a better fit. but the Lonely has its grip on him and will not let go.

i think that's the important thing to emphasize; while bigB gets along with others enough, and he definitely is a follower, he does thrive alone, and doesn't mind it. hell, he made top four in 3rd life because of this! he does not often seek out allies; he goes off and sets up alone, and lets people come to him naturally. again, he goes with the flow. so i imagine he's more accepting of the Lonely, and more experienced.

grian, however, is a social animal. you'll often find him hanging out with a group at the start of each series. and while he doesn't always stick with his day one crew, he does stick close to whoever he's got after. he values his allies a lot, even if he says otherwise. i've made a whole-ass post on this––if you stick with him, he'll stick with you. he is not one to betray unless betrayed.

(and if you want to take martyn's lore into consideration, he cares enough about his allies to free them from the game as soon as possible. he cares enough about them to be separated.)

so grian is one to actively fight against the Lonely. he hates being reminded that at the end of the day, it will be only him left, dying alone. in 3rd life he won, standing in an empty desert. in last life he killed two allies, was betrayed by one, and lost another in battle, ultimately dying beside someone who only became his ally because they were both abandoned. in double life he died in a tunnel, his soulmate far up above, no one else in proximity except the warden that killed him.

grian is Lonely, and he hates being reminded of that.

so i think their dynamic with this in mind would be super interesting! i really like the idea of two lonely people in a relationship, just the idea of people who are at their core so independent and alone finding solace in each other. how that is inherently contradictory to their patron while not changing much about their situation. i also am enamored with the idea of someone who embraces and is experienced with their patron helping a fellow avatar who actively hates it. i even explored that with a roseblings fic where they're both desolation.

just imagine bigb, trying to tell grian that it's not so bad to be Lonely, exploring their powers together, consoling each other when their allies inevitably drop like flies with the weight of their patron on their shoulders. maybe making plans to shake it off.

i also like to think that they use the fog to cover up their secret meetings in double life (though it doesn't work. people will notice the huge cloud of fog fkjfksj)

"prism," i hear some people say, "ani asked about a tma au. why did you make a whole-ass analysis."

because for me that is what makes tma aus truly interesting! it's about exploring the psyche and motivations of the characters by recontextualizing their experiences through the concept of Fear. what are they scared of, and what are they willing to serve for it? stuff like that. it's real fun!

anyways thanks for coming to my TedTalk on why biggri are Lonely4Lonely. i am actually writing a fic on this so i hope to post that eventually ^^

[absolutelyinlove]

let's talk: canon events! how'd you get into the dream team? what brought you to dtblr?

oh god ok my like. origin story of how i started watching dteam is insanely convoluted so i’m going to put it under the cut and like. to preface i just need u to know i’ve never been normal about anything in my life like i am so completely incapable of having passive interests. that is really crucial to understand

ok. So. basically i’ve always been super into mcyt content, i was a Massive cube smp + cube uhc stan back when that was a thing, i was like. 12-14 at the time but i was on stan twitter, wrote rpf on wattpad, experienced the severe trauma of ccs i wrote about Finding my fic and talking about it very publicly. The whole experience. and then when cube smp started to die my overall mcyt interest heavily faded, i’ve still always been incredibly fixated on minecraft itself i used to be super into uhc and other competitive gamemodes but in terms of actually watching content creators that was like. something that kinda faded in and out i’d go through long phases of watching nothing at all sometimes for entire years then randomly get slapped by nostalgia and fall back into it and rewatch old series’, etc.

but anyway. i had other interests, i had a different main fandom, i was still on stan twitter (kpop twitter to be specific) when dream rly started blowing up and. All i ever heard abt him was negative. because i was. on kpop twitter where like everyone was just excited there was a New Most Hated Fandom on the internet so he was an extremely common punching bag and i just Solely knew of him in a negative light and i’d never actually watched him to form my own opinions because (and this sounds so absurd) i also had this very irrational Jealousy toward the like. “new wave” of mcyt stans in 2019-2020 because suddenly it was a COMMON mainstream fandom and it ABSOLUTELY WASNT back when /i/ was a teenager and at my peak obsession so therefore all i felt was very misplaced dislike because How come this massive fanbase wasn’t around when this was My interest ? anyway.

Then like. sometime still in 2020 ? my irl friend sent me a manhunt and was like u NEED to watch this (because all my irls know i am. Very abnormal about competitive minecraft content) and i was like. Huh is it time for me to finally watch this dream guy. and i watched it and well it was very inevitable i got hooked because manhunt is soooo comedically perfect in terms of how me-catered it is, it is Literally everything i could ever ask for in terms of youtube content so it was absolutely over for me and i binged the entire series over the course of like. a week. and at first i really did think i would just be a passive youtube fan, because again. all i’d ever heard about dream was that he was a Bad Person and therefore i really did Try not to get invested beyond just thinking the videos were good but ofc as soon as i finished watching every manhunt that was out at the time i moved onto other dteam videos and i just fell reallyyyyy really in love with their dynamic and it was like. MAN! i had to accept i was growing attached and i Wanted to know more abt them at this point. i watched every single video on dream’s channel by the time i accepted Okay im in too deep now i want to know more.

this is the part that is going to make me sound incredibly fuckin g crazy so i need u to just hear me out. so i started googling dream and looking at the dsmp wiki (because as a youtube-only viewer i knew Nothing about dsmp other than people on my side of twitter hating it) and i was so surprised to realize hbomb was a member i’m crying because i knew him from CUBE SMP!!!!!!! i was like whta the fuck. now i feel Obligated to care like this is my Past combining with the present… it’s like fate… so then. naturally. i Looked up like. Reasons Dream Is Problematic threads on twitter. because i was like if im going to do this i need to know what exactly i am going into here i want to know why this dude is so hated and i unironically went through every single thread and callout post i could find, looking at Every reason someone gave for hating him then looking up the original clip with full context and watching it for myself so i could make my own judgement of it and also looking into how he responded and that was how i realized Oh like 87% of this is exaggerated and the stuff that’s true is either kind of nothing or he seems to be trying to do better. And that was how i decided. He is just some guy who seems very well-meaning and is making efforts to Grow and Now i can allow myself to . watch his stream vods? i know ho w crazy this sounds im crying but u need to understand i genuinely waited to watch any vods and grow attached to his content in a non-casual way until after i was SURE no secret horrible misdeeds were going to catch me off guard and i’d realize i didn’t actually want to support him i’m fucking crying

and then naturally ijust got incredibly fixated on mcc when i discovered That and that was what led me to watching a ton of other streamers, i was never super into dsmp but i Did get very into watching non-lore dsmp vods and just. tons of vods in general. i got severely fixated on mcsr around this time too which was awesome until it Wasn’t and i made a lurker account on twitter like literally a priv with 0 followers where i only followed ccs because i didn’t want to follow them from my acct with all my kpoptwt mutuals and get Called a freak for supporting dream. i also kept up very closely with any drama/situations involving dream even before being on dttwt in any capacity because again. i just like to have full context for everything so this was like. when i was unfortunately a very active dwt2 user because that was mostly how i stayed in the loop with things and tbf at the time it was actually a pretty good place for nuanced discussion this was before it got terribly unbearable but. Yeah. i started reading heat waves “ironically” while it was ongoing like i was reading it bookclub-style with my dranti friends and pretending i knew nothing abt dream or george outside the context of the fic (I AM TERRIBLE) but i ended up getting curious about what other fics were out there and that was how i started reading dnf earnestly.

i didn’t start writing until wayyyyy later after i came out of the dream stan closet to my friend reyna (still the only one of my kpoptwt-era friends who knows i am. the way that i am) in like. mid 2021? and i got them invested in dteam too and then in december 2021 we made our ao3s + new twitter accts together and both started writing fics

as for dtblr in specific i am relatively new here i guess ! i have been a long time lurker as i’ve always preferred tumblr for fandom discussion compared to twitter but i was always too shy to actually make my own account andddd because i started on twitter and had exclusively used twitter in my previous fandom it just like. Came more naturally to me and it’s so good for fic promo i just. Accepted it. but then after october several of my friends and like at least half of my mutuals at the time all became antis and once i was back to feeling. normal about consuming fandom content in like late october early november i desperately wanted to have a place where i wasn’t being made to feel GUILTY constantly so i finally made an acct over here so i’d have at least one space where i could Talk Freely about fandom things without expecting 10 people to tell me to kms for it. (don’t worry i eventually did finally make a new priv and i’m no longer held hostage by ex-stan mutuals on twitter but it was ROUGH at the time like so many of my friends have told me they assumed i’d just lost most of my interest and was only still in the fandom for the sake of writing because i never talked abt anything anymore for so long IT WAS BAD I JUST FELT SILENCED but im free now i promise) so yeah.

but don’t worry now i am here less out of “i have nowhere else to go” necessity and actually just because i Do enjoy it and i prefer it immensely to maintwt i am so content now with basically solely talking abt fandom things here and on my privtwt and just using main for fic talk life is beautiful !

sorry this is really fucking absurdly long i am so normal

[moved-19871997]

ngl i think george was onto smth when he gives us so little lore, he could literally be like ‘i had cheerios today :]’ and we’d be like. ‘yes thank u king’

[angel-anoetic]

Some mcyts with a reader who is very smart and passionate but people keep telling her to stop overreacting or to shut up? It's been a tough week.

hello! im sorry your week hasnt been great, but i hope it got/gets better :) you are doing great and im proud of you.

Don't forget to like to save, reblog to share!

MCYT & female!reader - Safe & Sound

[Punz, Ant, Sapnap, Ranboo]

genre: /plat, headcanon, multi

warnings: reader sadge

masterlist <3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Punz

Knows how passionate you are about your hobbies

Does his best listen and ask questions about the things you tell him

Knows that not everyone is readily available for you to talk to so he tries to call you every night just so you can rant about the day.

One day he notices how upset you are from getting ignored by friends and asks you to give him every detail of your day.

Always gives the most genuine laughs.

Ant

"How was your day?" "Alright I guess" "Yeah, sure, what happened?"

Gets mad for you and him

Lends an ear, will never talk unless you ask his opinion

Tries his best to make you see both sides, but also will defend you till his last breath

Sapnap

He's just such a nice guy bro-

"What happened?" You tell him and he just wants to make sure you're okay.

"You're not loud or dramatic! It's not your fault that people suck."

"I still think I talk too much."

"Nope! don't want to hear it. In fact, all I want to hear about is [insert your current obsession here]. That's it. And no interruptions until you can't talk about it anymore for the night."

"Thank you Sap."

Ranboo

"Hey!"

"Hi! How was your day?"

"Ranboo, it was amazing. I found out today that..." The words your parent(s) told you hit you like a brick.

"Nevermind. How was your day?"

"Uhm, mine was good. But I'd really like to hear about yours? What happened?"

You go onto explain how crappy the people of the day have treated you.

"Dude, please don't let them get to you. You're literally one of the best people I know and your interests should make you so happy that you get loud because you're proud! Who cares what a few idiots have to say about it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[quicksandblock]

MCYT Demographic Survey Part 2 RESULTS

IT’S TIME!!!

Once again, thank you so much to everyone who participated! 1,654 people total responded to this - about four and a half times as many respondents as the first survey. It’s honestly incredible. I’m so happy the rest of you are as interested as I am in this stuff :D

The increased turnout is also why these results are being posted two days later than I’d intended. I want to give a HUGE thank you to my friend @quincepastey​ and my sibling @orestes-swimming​ for helping me out, and by helping I do mean they did basically all of the technical stuff for me, because my knowledge of spreadsheets was not up to the task. So thank you to Cupid for organizing all the data from questions 3 and 4 into something comprehensible for me, and thank you to Kal for making the charts! They are absolutely the MVPs and everyone reading this should go check them out. Thank you guys so much <3

Reblogs of this post are very appreciated. It would be awesome if the info about the results could reach everyone who submitted a response, so if you reblogged my first post about this survey, please consider reblogging this one as well!

For your convenience, here’s a link to the results of the first survey I did six months ago. Now - on to the results!

Question 1: What is your age range?

Compared to the results of the first survey, we can see that things have changed a bit! Specifically, the fandom has shifted just a little bit older. The solid majority of the fandom is still in the 15-17 year old range, but it’s gone down from almost half to closer to 40%. Almost a third of the fandom are ages 18-20, up from close to a fifth six months ago. 21-25 year olds have increased from about 10% to about 14%. And the youngest segment, 13-14 year olds, have gone from almost 20% of the fandom down to 12% - the sharpest change of all.

Finally, nearest and dearest to my own heart, there are now 26 whole people in the fandom aged 26-30 and 9 people aged 30+. Old Squad is growing, folks. We are... the 2% 😎 Special shoutout to the person who said their 15 year old kid got them into the fandom. I hope you know just how cool you are.

These results are interesting, but it’s also impossible to say how accurate the data is. This survey and the previous one were only posted on my blog, and they only reached a wider audience through the reblogs of my followers. So do these changes reflect actual changes in the demographics of the fandom as a whole, or is it just that my followers (and the people who follow them) have shifted older? To try to avoid this bias in the future, I may reach out to some well-known younger bloggers and ask them to reblog the next survey I do so that I can reach a more even audience.

Question 2: What is your gender?

Apologies for the small text, but there were so many unique write-in answers that I wanted to include them all. You may want to open the image in a separate tab for better quality.

In contrast to the age question, the gender spread of the fandom has remained pretty much the same. About half the fandom is still female, the nonbinary crowd has increased from 20% to 25%, 7% of us are male, almost 7% are genderfluid, and about 5% are agender. Just like last time, most of the write-in responses fell into the vague categories of either genderqueer or questioning.

No surprises on this one! The fandom continues to be overwhelmingly female and queer. Next time I think I’ll include genderqueer and questioning as options to try to catch some of those people into a formal category. All y’all are so valid, especially the person who wrote in their gender as “soup” <3

The results for questions 3 and 4 will be under a cut, because I don’t want to completely destroy people’s dashes.

Before I get into the last two questions, a couple notes. First, I want to explain how I came up with the list of creators, since a lot of people were either excited or disappointed by the fact that a few different people were on there.

On the last survey, this question was a write-in, and I had to transcribe and collate all the answers by hand to come up with the actual number of people who followed each creator. For this survey, I simply took the list that came out of the previous one and pasted it in! I also added a few people who no one wrote in six months ago but who are much more prominent now (Ranboo being the biggest example). So if you were excited to see your favorite small creator listed as an option, they were there because someone wrote them in last time! And if you wrote in your favorite small creator here, they’ll be an option on the next survey. The list is entirely crowdsourced and it will expand with each survey.

That said, the same also applies for more controversial creators. Specifically, I’m talking about CallMeCarson. Several people questioned my decision to keep him on the list - and to be honest, I considered taking him out. But in the end I decided to leave him in as an option for the sake of completeness and consistency with the previous survey. I want to emphasize that this is not me condoning his actions. But for the sake of the data, I felt that it was best to leave him in.

That said, let’s move on to questions 3 and 4!

Question 3: What creator(s) do you primarily follow?

So, it’s harder to compare with the previous survey on this one, and that’s purely because on the previous survey I didn’t have the help I did here. The chart I was able to make for the results back in October was frankly trash. Also, the fact that I split “followed creators” into two questions - primarily and casually followed - definitely throws things off. However, we can still do a certain amount of comparison!

The most obvious change is Ranboo. He straight up was not on the previous survey at all - I think he’d been streaming for less than a month at the time. Now, about 55% of respondents listed him as someone they primarily follow. The Dream SMP itself has also jumped dramatically. Previously, about 5% of people wrote in Dream SMP. That has increased to over half. Quackity has gone from less than 2% to about 30%. Karl has gone from 4% to 30%. Phil has gone from about 8% to a little under 50%. The SBI have jumped from 11% to over 40%.

Techno has gone from about 50% to over 60%. Tommy has gone from 45% to over 55%. Wilbur has jumped from 43% to 55%. Tubbo has remained steady at about 38%.

Dream has apparently dropped some of his following percentage-wise, falling from 50% to about 35%. However, George, Sapnap, and the Dream Team itself have all jumped from 10-12% to almost 30%.

I’m not going to go over the rest of the list, because that would just get way too long. However, I will drop a link to the spreadsheets of data for this survey and the previous one, so anyone who wants to can do some comparison of their own!

Question 4: What creators do you casually follow?

I won’t do as detailed of a comparison on this question, because there’s nothing to compare it to - this question wasn’t on the previous survey. However, it’s interesting to see how many more people follow Fundy, Nihachu, BadBoyHalo, Captain Puffy, Eret, Awesamdude, and Jack Manifold casually rather than as a primary favorite. Out of the top twelve, Karl, Quackity, Phil, and Tubbo are the only ones who don’t have a major discrepancy between the amount of people who follow them casually versus primarily.

I would be curious to hear people’s thoughts on why that’s the case! Personally, I would guess it’s a combination of each of their approaches to lore on the Dream SMP, the frequency and times of day that they stream, and the people they tend to make content with and be associated with by the fandom. I may go into that more later, but this post is already very long, so I’ll hold off for now. Here’s a link to this question’s spreadsheet for anyone who wants to take a closer look!

...And that’s a wrap! Good grief, this got long. Kudos to anyone who actually read the whole thing because I know my attention span would be challenged. I’m already thinking about the next survey - a couple people suggested that I add in questions about orientation and nationality, and while I want to keep the survey pretty tight in its scope, I am considering it. It would be even more data to process but it would be interesting to know!

I would love to hear people’s thoughts on these results! I’m only one person, so I know there’s interesting stuff I must have missed. Please, please feel free to reblog with your thoughts and observations! A lot of work went into this (both from me and from Cupid and Kal! Thank you guys again!), so I’m really hoping to hear what people think about it :D

I plan to reblog this and reply to some of the things people wrote in at the end, so stay tuned for that. And once again: thank you all for your interest in this project of mine <3 See you with another one in six months!