#mcyt analysis

[qsmpheadcannons]

I want to talk about Wilbur and Philza’s argument in their most recent streams. Philza yells at Wilbur, telling him to leave and find the eggs himself if he’s so upset about it- very much in the way an angry parent scolds a child- causing Wilbur, who was previously just confused and upset, to immediately become defensive, not pissy or angry; defensive.

I’ve mentioned how good Philza is as a supporting character and this is one of the places you really get to see it. Phil is still Wilbur’s father on the qsmp- the last person he should be getting defensive with, which can be taken two ways;

One: Philza is very mature character who is not easily shaken, and even as his son, Wilbur has never seen or is not used to seeing Philza so upset, which in turn is very upsetting to him, (maybe even scary if you want to go further into it). This is the more likely option as they tend to focus on the present in terms of storyline.

Or two: Wilbur is a naturally defensive person who reacts strongly to any sort of implied conflict or threat. For this you also have to consider these types of people typically have some sort of trauma if not other issues like an anxiety disorder or - I don’t know- a poor relationship with parental figures.

Which hits a lot harder when you see how gentle he is with Talulah. He doesn’t even make rules for her; he makes suggestions like ‘maybe we keep armor on outside’, and let me tell you- I am not fully convinced he would’ve done anything about it had she completely ignored him as we have seen other eggs do.

I would also like to point out the fact that Wilbur hates wearing armor, both in qsmp and in previous smps- and what is Phil’s biggest rule? Always wear your armor. The only question left being; does Wilbur hate wearing armor because of issues with Phil growing up, or does Phil have the rule specifically because of Wilbur and some sort of incident that maybe scared him as a parent.

And of course if there ever was an issue between the two in Wilbur’s childhood, it’s very obvious that by the time qsmp began, they had already started to make amends, and are now on good terms even if the effects still linger. And if I were to take a guess at the source of any of these issues, I would probably have to go with clashing personalities and also maybe Kristin’s absence assuming that he being Wilbur’s mum is still apart of the lore on the new server.

[conarcoin]

Thoughts I had in relation to SMPLive and character color motifs...

Schlatt is the passionate, intense red to Connor's calm, reserved blue. I feel like this is the most obvious one and no further elaboration is needed...

Connor's initial yellow and purple color motifs can also be interpreted in an interesting way, I think: yellow is often used as a warning, which is kind of funny given Connor's tendency to attack others out of frustration or just for fun. Purple on the other hand often reflects wealth, something that Connor desperately wants to attain.

Ty is a fun one, as his pink motif reflects his relationship with multiple characters - he shares this motif with his mother Angel, but more subtlely, pink is the lighter form of red, which is the color motif of Ty's father figure, Schlatt. Pink is also often viewed as a calming color, and Ty is one of the calmer server members, at least on the outside.

Altrive's green is pretty clear to me, it reflects his technical pacifism, with green frequently being used to represent health and positivity.

Gold is a character I haven't seen enough of yet to fully put my finger on, but I do want to say that I feel that gold representing balance and yellow representing safety and generally friendly behavior seems to reflect him well from what I've seen so far, especially with his love for animals. The balance thing also works with his split-dye heterochromia design for extra points.

Billy's green is also a very fun one with a lot to it - green often represents nature and new beginnings, and Billy's whole thing about leaving Spawn City to create a new city on a far away island fits nicely with that. However, green is also often used for the strange, unknown, and dangerous, which could play into the cult elements lying beneath the surface of Breadtopia. Fun stuff!

[dappersautismcreature]

some of the Minecraft like mechanic rules/fanon parts I follow in fics/art(sort of a record for me but also maybe some ideas for you!):

(long post)

RESPAWN MECHANICS: 

quick deaths like being killed by a mob in five hits or less/far fall/explosion will make it easier to respawn quickly AKA get back up and walk it off. Those deaths caused the body less prolonged stress/pain and that is why they are easier to recover from.

longer deaths like slowly burning to death/being stabbed like fifty times in order to be killed/getting punched to death/drowning/suffocating/poisoned/withered etc is harder to immediately get back up from and may require some medical care afterwards to be at full health.

kids and animals (if they can respawn as they are generally npcs and have one life) take longer to recover.

if the death comes with physical or mental stress, such as dying alongside a loved one, dying while afraid, dying under torture, dying slowly, or dying repeatedly may cause someone to pass out immediately after respawning due to physical/mental exhaustion. these deaths may also cause scarring, trauma, or long term injuries, it’s a bit of a universal mystery, almost like the chaos in the universe itself decides which deaths cause that, as well as the state of the player themselves.

TOTEMS:

when a totem cracks, it infuses the players heart with a mixture of adrenaline and like, secret lifesaving juice(the totem’s blood). totems can be used one after the other but if you use more than 5 within about 20 minutes, your blood can start to get tainted. more than 10 within 20 minutes? you’re getting close to sepsis. 20 in 20 minutes? you are actively dying of sepsis, which is a slow and lasting death. blood poisoning basically. if you get really intense and start just repeatedly popping totems every second, after about 50 you’re insta-dead, and might even die again upon respawning.

CREATIVE MODE/ADMIN PERMS:

players in creative mode are immortal demigods that can only be struck down by admins (/kill commands), admins can be both mortal or immortal gods. Admins can affect the world around them with commands, and can alter the physics and rules of the world around them. Creatives are demigods with immortality and can only become mortal or vice versa with an admin’s help. (example c!Xisuma of Hermitcraft is a mortal admin, while c!Drista of DSMP is an immortal creative, and c!Callahan of DSMP is an immortal admin)

Admin’s can be trained by past admin’s but any player can technically be one, they just might not be a very powerful one, and people might not join their server. Admin’s can only affect their server, so if they entered another they might be more knowledgable on server mechanics, but cannot access them without hacking or that server admin’s permission. 

If a server is very big and popular, their admin is usually very experienced and powerful and old. That admin may even be able to travel through the void unbothered, thought to be because they are connected to Minecraft’s root code.

MINECRAFT CREATORS:

the creators of Minecraft are dimension hopping, reality bending, incomprehensible gods. they are responsible for general spawning conditions, communicator designs(will come up later), the vanilla Minecraft items, and the very source code of this universe. 

SERVERS AND THE VOID AND THE INTERNET:

servers are kind of like planets, each planet floats in the void, has an atmosphere, etc. but they are more like dimensions in that while you could theoretically physically travel between them, it is much much safer to teleport. and also each server operates with its own rules and physics sometimes. So view server/planets as something like dimensions with dark void in between them that warps time and space. don’t view it visually as the same kind of universe as ours, more like each server is the meat in a sandwich where the bread is the void? so below and above each server is the void, and that void is the same as every other void? like wormholes.

its much easier to just use your communicator to teleport between servers, your ability to do so depends on the admin’s imposed rules for the server.

servers like Hypixel or other multiplayer game servers like it are seen as hub servers where players can meet up. MCC is a sporting event server where people can watch the more famous players compete. 

famous players usually become famous through word of mouth, or posting clips or videos of their collaborations or moments or feats. these videos can be viewed on communicators. streaming doesn’t exist as the void could not permit streaming between servers. but there are big systems on big servers for downloading new videos, and famous players upload their videos on bigger servers.

TIME AND YEARS:

minutes, hours, days, months, and years all operate the same as irl. because irl its been about 11 years since Minecraft was created, I say that its been about 1100 years since the universe was created. servers age will start from the moment of their creation. but most servers will hold true to the date on the communicators expressed for example as 1/1/1143, and every 365 days it is a new year. Unless time is said to have been passed I say in a meta way that each stream/day of filming a video is a day. Some servers can be stuck in time, but this is usually either an admin twisting code illegally, or a glitch. 

COMMUNICATORS:

when a player spawns into a new world or server they spawn in with nothing except clothing and the latest edition of the communicator. it is updated with each new mc update so as of writing this players in new worlds get communicator version 1.20. all communicators usually have the time, world chat, coordinates, light level reader, and depending on the mods in the world or the permissions, and the status of the player as player, admin, or creative, it can have things like a world map, access to code, camera features, etc etc. 

PLAYERS AND HYBRIDS:

players can be born from parents but they can also just kind of, spawn into existence. a lot of player families are found families, but these are treated as close to biological as possible. players can spawn in at any age but most are spawned in as 6-16 year olds. when players spawn in without any player family, they spawn into single-player worlds. but can figure out how to get to other worlds due to being spawned in with a communicator. often the first few years of a player’s life are lonely, so they get very attached to their found families.

the ratio of born/spawned in players is changing every day as more players are having children, but as of around 1100 the ratio is about 40/60, the ratio of non-hybrid to hybrid is about 50/50

hybrids do not have to be vanilla Minecraft mobs, though those were most common in the early years. only in the past couple centuries have demon, angel, and more bizarre hybrids begun to show up, though it is believed most of them are quite old and just remained hidden. the most common hybrids are avian, pet-hybrids like dogs and cats, goat/horse/sheep, and piglin, creeper, or enderman hybrids. hybrids do not necessarily have to be created by procreation, oftentimes they are not, and are simply spawned in. it has been this way since the beginning. 

certain dimension exclusive hybrid players will be born/spawned in their dimensions, but can travel to the Overworld.

THE NETHER AND THE END AND THE OVERWORLD:

the nether has many civilizations that are very very wary of players, however they will usually let hybrids stay with them. if they have a kind community, these players may naturally choose to stay in the nether, but usually their communities outcast them and they are driven to the overworld. to do so they will create a nether portal. the nether is close to the bottom layer of the void.

the end has the endermen civilization, who look after the dragon on each server.  hybrids can usually get by ok in these civilizations, but similarly to the nether they sometimes escape to the overworld. to do so they sneak past the ender dragon and her guards, and spawn in at world spawn. the end is close to the top layer of the void.

WATCHERS:

watchers are the only beings able to traverse the void completely safely. thought to have long ago escaped the outer edges of the end, they now live in the void somewhere. there are no known records of them, just heard about through word of mouth and legends. it is thought they can control chance, luck, and things that not even admins can influence. it is rumored they destroy servers for fun, but those reports have been proven false, it is more likely that they have motives we do not yet know. the legends surrounding them report many pairs of wings, a lot of eyes, and glowing purple magic. 

MAGIC:

like stated previously, depending on the admin’s choices, the very physics of a server can be changed, and so, some servers can be very very technical and some very magic dependent. however magic cannot be brought over onto other servers with some very specific exceptions. if a player is cursed or blessed by a particularly ancient and powerful admin or a creator. if a player is conceived and born from two players on a magical server. and lastly if a player has managed to either hack through to the code of the server, been glitched, or hacked their own player code to allow for it. it is possible for them to be able to use that specific magic even on a server that doesn’t include that possibility in its code. however this can, as you could imagine, cause chaos and/or glitches as the server fails to comprehend what is happening, so admins can add magic-blockers to their server code. 

HACKERS:

hackers are usually ex admins, the most experienced being centuries old. it is important for them to keep their PlayerName hidden as that is one of the easiest way an admin or even creator could track them down, so they usually go by alias’. they frequent anarchy servers mostly, but some occasionally search for easy targets in the hub servers. going after kids is seen as cheap and highly unethical by most hackers. 

THE CANON-ICITY OF PAST LIVES ON OTHER SERVERS:

to clarify this section is referring to situations such as YHS being canon to hc!Grian’s backstory for example, or DSMP being canon to q!Bad’s backstory etc etc. and honestly? whatever the story calls for, but I love me some cross servers backstory, I love me some backstory that includes other servers. 

that being said, sometimes a story on a server will straight up say ‘hey this isn’t a characters backstory actually’ so hell, there are other dimensions where server’s work differently. yeah.

CONCLUSION:

I probably missed a few things as my mcyt experience has been Dantdm, Popularmmos, DSMP, Hermitcraft, Life Series, and now QSMP, and I am only an English speaker. 

feel free to tell me ur Minecraft mechanic head canons in the tags <3

[improvapocalyps]

You have 90 minutes to complete. (original poem: r.a.)

In participation of the MCYT Recursive Exchange 2024 hosted by @mcytrecursive!

Inspired by know that all my love will be your breath (i will save you when your lights go out)

[text under cut]

1. Have you ever been in love? (Please circle your answer.) a. It's me and him b. Our hearts beat in sync c. Our lives intertwined

2. Do you understand what you’ve done? (Please circle your answer.) a. I couldn't do anything b. I lost my balance c. I doomed us both

3. It's been god knows how long since you felt phantom hands on your neck and there is no one in sight. If you were soul-bound to him and both of you died at the same time then why are you still waiting in the void? Please answer clearly, in full sentences. (Not a correct answer：I just wanted to see him one more time).

4. Define two (2)： Fate | The feeling of his forehead against yours Curse | The moment you realise he isn't linked to you anymore

5. True or False： i. It was your fault. ii. You wish you had met him under different circumstances. iii. You can’t regret a single moment that you had him. iv. You would do it all over again if you could. v. It ended long before either of you said anything.

thumbnails:

sketch cover thing for imgur link:

[moon1ee]

can we talk about how crazily devoted to his team joel "is eternally lonely in every life series" smallishbeans is to the bad boys?

screeching YOU CAN'T TAKE OUR GRIAN!!! and panicking the second anything happens to him? shoving people off bridges and threatening them after they try and attack jimmy? that incredibly smooth disarming of a tnt minecart and his absolute rabid kill on martyn after he stole grian? plus the way he was visibly restraining himself from killing people after getting turned back green was so funny.

he's absolutely batshit insane and devoted to a goal and it's so interesting to see that single-minded focus turned on protecting a group of people.

[bloodpen-to-paper]

Seeing how Bolas team is playing out by Day 4 is fascinating because even though it seems obvious, Day 1 really solidified much of how the format of the event is going

Bolas Rojas went through the absolute worst of this event on the first day, making them resilient to the difficulties that came after (its the "no where to go but up" mentality), as well as bonding them in a way that made them very well-coordinated (which allowed for them popping off on Day 2). Them being kicked down so much means they can roll with the punches of being kicked down again, and them being so team-oriented makes them capable of actually holding their own in this competition, mainly by lifting each other up when one is sinking.

Meanwhile the other teams had adjustment periods that more eased them into the event, but as a result they haven't faced the worst, so they feel especially demoralized when they face difficulties. They also didn't have the experience of team-bonding to Red's level, so they're less coordinated and need more time to really settle. When they sink, its more of a personal problem.

You've also got the fact that Bolas is very distrustful towards non-Bolas members. They were kicked down severely by Bad and Tubbo Day 1 and as a result they stick to each other like glue and don't give an ounce of benefit of doubt to others, especially Bad. Of course some members are more social/trusting with the other teams, but Philza's cold shoulder towards Tubbo's negotiations, and the entire Bolas vs Etoiles accidental conflict shows how jumpy Day 1 made them. To this day Cellbit talks of Bad, one of the closest people to him pre-Purgatory, like an enemy because of him killing Charlie on that first day.

Jaiden will happily manipulate Pierre into thinking she's teaming with Blue, Charlie and Cellbit will take any chance to kill Bad, Philza will trust no one, Baghera is always a moment away from deteriorating into her "Day 1 mode", Foolish spends more time in team-only calls than proximity chat, Carre hasn't forgotten about Roier being the first to kill him

Its Bolas Rojas against the world.

[nerdyenby]

Thinking about how Third Life was about suspense. Something is coming, we don’t know what or when, but it is on the horizon. You build a kingdom on shifting sand, knowing the ground is unstable but praying it will stay. It never does. The world was always going to crumble, we knew that from the start. The end was written before the beginning, we’re just here to watch how it happens.

Last Life was about dread. After seeing everything you built destroyed — with the image of your home on fire fresh in your mind — the world is darker from the start. You make bonds knowing they will break. You build kingdoms knowing they will fall. You create knowing destruction awaits. There is no peace, only the ever-building burden of the knowledge that this time won’t end any differently.

Double life was about fate. The illusion of choice is gone: you are bound to another human being, you have no control whether you live or die. You can try to protect them in order to protect yourself, or you can push them away - after all, what real duty do you have to each other anyway? Still you know that when it ends, it ends together. You cannot escape them, but somehow you still end up dying alone.

Limited Life is about inevitability. No matter what happens, no matter what you do right or wrong, you have an expiration date. No one is making it out alive. We’re here, watching the timer tick down, knowing this only ends one way. We’ve done this song and dance before, it’s only a question of what happens before the timer hits zero.

[fountainpenguin]

Etho and Scar's interactions in LimLife are golden to me... that painful inhale Etho does before whispering "I'm about to go out of roleplay" when Scar flipped his ender porter and Etho wanted to strangle him... The way that Etho attempts to improv by pulling the "Has your mom told you you're adopted?" card and Scar just says "Oh I know that's not true because we've got something in common: failed traps <3" and a longsuffering and exhausted Etho just sighs and leaves... Love that for them.

+ The dichotomy of Cleo ''You are definitely Etho's child'' @ Scar vs ''Please please don't be my kid'' Etho SDLKFJSDKFL

[redstonedust]

u know as someone who made fun of mcyt fans before i got into it i think the wildest part is when you realise that this is literally how the creators want us to interact with their content. like from an outside perspective you heard someone is drawing art and writing fics about minecraft players and u think 'oh god that must be SO cringe for the people its about' and then you actually get into it and realise they're constantly retweeting art and reacting to theories and whatever gay content people are writing into their fics is chump change compared to the stuff mythicalsasuage will proudly say live on youtube.

[420technoblazeit]

tommy's making a fair point about the mechanics of minecraft in relation to the lore actually. it's true that in the dsmp's current stage everyone kinda has the same power level. they all have netherite armor and the best enchanted weapons and all that because the traditional way of playing minecraft includes getting geared up to protect yourself from threats. but this has the unintended consequence of making the combat much less interesting during big story moments

when eret betrayed l'manburg in the war it was more impactful because l'manburg was set up as the underdogs by virtue of having less resources and protection than the dream team. there was a clear power difference visible in the way that fundy, tubbo, tommy, and wilbur had cobbled together pieces of armor and the dream team was decked out in full enchanted netherite. in the earlier days of the smp the lack of armor contributed to the weight of the conflict

the l'manburg era was pretty good at controlling this sort of thing because the no armour rule worked both within the context of the lore and on a meta level

it feels like every method of fighting has been explored a especially with the usage of things like end crystals, withers, tnt, and wolves. and these days even those aren't enough to really damage someone unless you have a way of stripping them of their armor

ranboo's death was a great demonstration of this problem, where in order to actually kill him they had to write a reason for him to take off his armor. i'm not saying that stream was disappointing but ranboo's death specifically felt a little anticlimactic to me and it's not really anyone's fault either. that's just how it works sometimes when youre using a game for something other than its initial purpose

on the other end of this i literally can't count the amount of times schlatt had to ask tommy to kill a skeleton or a creeper for him because he failed to account for his complete lack of armor outside of a character perspective

idk. it's interesting how the mechanics of a game like minecraft have to be put into consideration for when you're crafting a narrative in that form. many things to think about in smp roleplay

[10piecechickenmcnugget]

Okay i NEEEED to rant about Pogtopia because I know it was a ravine and shit but I need people to consider: lava caves

(all photos taken by me cause I explored one the other day and that’s where I got this idea)

Lava caves or lava tubes are HUGE super long caves that were carved out by literal lava flows and now just sit there and they’re cool as fuck

they’re cold as shit and the roof can vary from being dozens of feet above your head to being so low you have to crouch

there’s piles of rocks and ice formations and sand gardens and they are PITCH BLACK if you don’t have any lights and they paths can be crazy wide or super narrow and the ground is full of drop offs

ones that are made for people to explore have railings and stairs in certain places too and some even have built in lights or like the one I explored let you rent a flashlight

also a fun sidenote the ground is super hard packed sand full of holes from water dripping and it’s so hard packed that you don’t leave footprints (this would not help with Wilbur’s derealization)

anyways I think this would all work SUPER well for pogtopia cause cold/dark/shifting atmosphere/adding railings and pathways is already a thing in pogtopia

some more images that I yanked from google:

anyways PLEASEEEE consider spreading my vision Pogtopia lava cave/tubes for the win I’ve never been more right about anything in my life

[qsmpheadcannons]

I will never get over how much more mature Philza is in his lore than everyone else. He doesn’t have to be, he can choose his own lore, but he chooses instead for his character to always be the bigger person.

And this just goes to show how good of a storyteller he is; he knows the story requires his character to fill a supporting role and he does it without erasing his character’s complexity.

It’s not like his character is never immature, but when he is immature or lashes out, it doesn’t just affect the atmosphere, it completely changes it.

He yells at Wilbur, telling him to leave and find the eggs himself if he’s so upset about it- very much in the way an angry parent scolds a child- and for a brief moment you can feel how scared his character is, and Wilbur who was previously just confused and upset immediately becomes defensive (which benefits Wilbur’s story).

But more importantly Phil apologizes immediately after he’s calmed down, something which we don’t really see from other characters that are described as calm, cool and mature the same way he is. (being more mature isn’t a source of pride for him) It speaks volumes about who his character is, and just how long he’s been around compared to everyone else.

It shows that his character is also choosing to be the bigger person. It shows that he knows better than to wait to apologize to someone he cares about; which taken in the context of his lore can imply that he may have experience with loosing friends or allies in that way.

There’s more I could say abt this, especially with what this can imply about Wilbur and Phil’s father/son relationship, but I think that deserves its own post.

[leemontoast]

Thinking ab how Fit expresses his love for people in different ways(both romantically and platonically).

His love for his friends like Phil is loud, full of loud jokes and a trust formed long ago,

His love for Ramon is loud and quiet, of loud exclamations about his 'beautiful baby boy' but also quiet discussions about his emotions, a vulnerability he barely exposes in front of anyone.

But his love with Pac is quiet, full of new beginnings and blossoming trust. But every 'baby step' it becomes louder.

[heartkade]

I have attempted to make sense of it.

Green = positive

Red = negative

Blue = unknown

edit: They decided not to use the name “Darki” (due to that being too similar to a slur towards the black community- Leo didn’t know it translated so badly from the Spanish term “Oscurito”!) so instead, just call the entity “Oscuro” for now ^^

[zeb-z]

no ok because forevers solo mission into the nether and all the vague ‘if I don’t return’ and ‘I’m sorry’ messages he’s left behind is made all the more heart wrenching because he wasn’t meant to be the martyr.

bad has been setting himself up for tragedy. it’s in the self destructive choices he makes, his hyper paranoia, his self isolation, the way he’s literally turning blue and can’t seem to notice it himself. and from a meta perspective, it’s obvious - he talks about lasting consequences, he makes very clear framing and music decisions, the story arc has been setting up for something big. he’s got a book that says it’s for forever’s eyes only and hinted at him needing his help. he’s said to tina that he’s 100% sure of one person ending up dead at the end of all this. he’s made it clear he’d do anything he thinks would get the kids back - self sacrifice included.

it’s been an anxious build up as bad gets worse and worse. as his friends pick up clues and notice. bagi says she knows that bad lies and can cause havoc, but she’s not going to leave his side because he is too sad to be left alone. foolish takes note of his color blindness before anyone else. forever demands his time and reassures bad daily that he is there for him. gives him a flower every day. makes an entire party just showing how much bad is cared for and loved. keeps talking and visiting even when he’s ripping out his hair with annoyance because bad just won’t quit being a nuisance, or argumentative, or a probable kidnapper.

it feels like love and doomed endings. it feels like a build up to something tragic. it feels like trying to save a drowning man who won’t let anyone pull him up. because bad is ready to work for the feds, torture people, burn down anything in his way, sacrifice himself in his desperation and grief.

but now its forever who’s gone and decided any danger to himself is worth it for his son. who’s left behind vague goodbyes and see you soons, unsure if he’ll survive but set on the kids surviving at the very least. he’s already decided his death is worth it.

and while it’s not a surprise, it’s enough of a script flip to punch us all in the gut. because we expected tragedy, we expected uneasy goodbyes and self destructive choices and that effect felt across the island - but we didn’t expect it to be forever.

and neither did bad - who relied on that flower every day

[mcytanti]

Venus planet of love - Cleo victory portrait