#lifesteal spoilers

[heartcircus]

???? does one of the letters in prisms symbolize Spoke?????? What the fuck

[coffeegnomee]

The Phenomenon of Mapicc

At some point we all look back at our early teen years and realize that just because we can scam a fellow kid online because the game developers didn’t specifically write it out of the code or write safety procedures to protect their user base doesn’t mean we should scam other kids online. At some point we all realize, almost out the blue, that the other people online are real people and not just slightly more interesting npc’s walking around the world. (Though the tendency to do so anyway is always present)

Mapicc as a character on the lifesteal smp has long eluded definition for me. There are ways in which he simultaneously 1) a blurred line between character and streamer, 2) a clear cut motivated character with clearly defined goals and personality, and 3) simply and completely a guy playing a video game. 

He is all three at the same time. A blurring of real emotions into the Minecraft world, a player curated for a video, and the man who is who he is while he plays video games. I don’t think you can take one out and get a serious understanding of the character of Mapicc.

The battle between all three is constant, and the person who Mapicc plays as the persona of the Mapicc channel is only one part of the lifesteal character that the audience can encounter. The persona of Mapicc, the video Mapicc, is brutal and bloodthirsty, uncaring of past connections, and dedicated to a cause. At least, specifically when you watch that unfold on streams. He’ll be randomly extra brutal for seemingly no reason until you realize he’s got a specific video idea he’s doing. Like killing Pangi and Zam day 1 was bc he was running out of the 24 hours to get to 20 hearts, which is a video idea and also seemingly not caring that (at least Zam) is a close friend. Tbh it’s been a while since I thought about the actual persona of a Mapicc video as told through edited content, honestly, if anything I would say the Mapicc that Mapicc presents to the world on his channel is much closer to himself than how that plays out while watching it as a stream viewer on the server.

Now, you might already be thinking, gnome, this is too much like c! And cc! And I’m tired of all those indicators why can’t it just be blurred and that’s it and it’s all just fun analysis about a small facet of a person that we see only when they want us to and is bound within the four infinite walls of a Minecraft server. 

To which I would say, yes, yes my brain hurts too. 

But there is something about Mapicc that can only ever be understood through the lens of the media that he exists within and from. I might even argue PrinceZam is not in this category despite being notorious for being a blurred line character. This isn’t simply about the nature of blurred lines in mcrp.

Mapicc is not simply a blurred line. Those two facets of strictly a character and strictly the kid who plays Minecraft on top of the blurred line are vastly important.

A blurred line character is a character that smoothly and subconsciously transfers between the real emotions and psychology of a singular real human, and the projected, improved character that they are playing. They might start as a clearly defined experiment such as “what if I played as a pacifist” and divert into something completely complex. They’re almost like a thought experiments. What if I changed this about myself; how would that look?

Every streamer will be a blurred line at some point. We’re watching real people be entertainment; at some point there is a boundary between who they are and how they present themselves. Some will either create a persona to project to the world as themselves, dropping the act only at certain times, while other streamers might pick up a persona/character at times to fulfill a fun facet of the story but then drop it easily to play the game while talking to chat. I would argue that both sides are valid at the same time for interpreting their characters, an easy example being tommyinnit and Philza respectively. Any server they’ve been on has been marked by their respective styles and you can interpret their characters within by looking at both aspects together, and the elements of the character as a whole will be discovered differently in different situations.

Mapicc, once again is not quite that. 

As a streamer who is actually pretty consistent in his upload schedule, he is motivated by the story he tells, the plots he wants to pull off, and the villains he fights against. I find it imminently fascinating that the castle arc was actually supposed to be a video but was scrapped bc Mapicc lost the fight, rather than what was told, sometime earlier, that he just never made it a video and regretted it bc the fans loved the story. 

But he is also a player who plays lifesteal consistently. His breaks while editing are markedly shorter than most other players who upload, and his time on the server while not having a clear video idea are much longer than nearly 2/3 of the player base. Most members of lifesteal only appear when they have a video idea.  

So therefore he plays Minecraft while on his or other’s streams. 

We are all aware to some degree who we are when we play video games. It’s not the same as who we are as people. Whether it’s being more violent, or being a completionist, or farming, or building, or ranking up; everyone has their own preference for why they like playing a video game in the first place. 

Minecraft as the particular sandbox that it is has four entire categories of gameplay that coexist at nearly all times: pvp, optimization (speedrunning/redstone), building, and socializing. 

Throw anyone into a Minecraft world and they’re going to gravitate to some more than others. And each category has subsets: pvp can be split into competitive and hunting people down; optimization can be grinding, or game mechanics, or red stone machining; building can be artistic/creative mode, or just for fun, or secret bases, or tunnel cults, or anything your mind can think of that manipulates the blocks in the game; socializing can be as a shared activity, or trolling other players, or just running around wasting golden carrots together.[1] etc etc etc.

And Mapicc has maxed out the pvp category, at least to the best of his ability. He leans far more towards hunting people down rather than pure competitive gameplay, preferring to “change the world”[2] by killing someone rather than practice mechanics in a practice server. He wants to get on the ground and actually affect the world around him just as much as any builder.

In other words, the bloodlust isn’t just something he does because his character likes blood and he wants to do a villain arc. Mapicc would want to kill on any world he joins, and would be rather bored if that wasn’t an option for him. 

He is also incredibly social, preferring to play with someone else around him rather than taking on solo missions by himself. He’s not a grinder by nature in the slightest, but has learned the skills to be one. 

He’s also honorable, in a world commonly upheld has having no honor, holding to a moral code of killing and being attacked as honorable while running in circles and bow spam and not showing up to fight and avoiding battle are categorically dishonorable acts that he disdains. The rule is the rule of battle. Fight and kill and be killed. Let the cycles commence. 

And as soon as we start thinking about Mapicc in relation to others, we start to see his character give form. 

And this is where we finally loop back around to the point I alluded to in the first paragraph: the phenomenon of growing up. 

Mapicc by the end of s4 and through s5, I would say, was his most consistent era. All the memes and love about dogged devotion, unending bloodlust and run-you-down-to-the-ends-of-the-earth-forever-and-ever were thriving. His patience was surprising, willing to wait for the opportune moment to get revenge, never forgetting what had been done against him. [3]

But something shifted in s6, and not just the responsibility of being the owner of the server. Mapicc is simply maturing. No longer 14 years old like in s1, we’re in the post high-school-graduation era. 

In the past I would’ve called Mapicc a cheater (/aff), an exploiter, willing, so very willing, to do anything to turn the tide of a battle to his advantage. 

But now? I’m not so sure. 

Will he be immune to temptation when it arises? No, not at all. While we are already seeing his willingness to never dupe again, his easy laughing off suggestions to admin abuse, we are also seeing his frustration lead him to launching nukes at spawn with Spoke.

He will still always call in backup when he promises a fair fight. But hey, it’s lifesteal. Lying is part of it. And honor is found in showing up to the fight, not in a fair 1v1. This is war after all. 

But, and I mean this specifically for the entire character that is the story of Mapicc, Mapicc has been changed. This season is so devastatingly different. Duping and being on the wormhole side in s4 changed him, getting beaten by a traitor in the Abyss changed him. 

But s6 has been a slow cooker roasting him into something new. 

Everything points to him wanting to mature, to be different from the past, not so impulsive, more caring of his own time and others, willing to drop the past. 

Bitterness in loosing teammates and friends, loneliness in a world once populated by an awesome team, and the cold cruel hand of suddenly being favored by the Sever, have only brought sorrow and destruction upon him. 

And he’s left purposeless, held together only by what he has left to him, his honor, his pride.

And so, on a much more practical and real world level, Mapicc just does’t have a video idea for s6 anymore and he wants to upload more frequently. Back in s4 he was so much quicker to anger and long-drawn-out to seeing it through. He’s unwilling to drop four months into one video that he doesn’t even upload. This isn’t high school anymore.

And that real world problem of YouTuber-doesn’t-have-video-idea, is part of every character on lifesteal. That ebb and flow of inspiration curates each and every one of them. Wemmbu being done with ls ideas for the season will lead him to ban himself to be rid of the temptation to log on, leading others to be affected by how callously he leaves this world without thought of what they think, thereby curating the character into a complex emotional mess who doesn’t believe people actually care about him or would want him around and who pushes people away and is villainous because he’s never understood what love is. All because he doesn’t have an ls video and has a uu script to write. 

It’s part of any lifestealer who doesn’t naturally gravitate towards the “lore” of the server.

And yet recently I’ve been really feeling like Mapicc absolutely plays lifesteal like it’s actually mcrp. He’s become invested in how Mapicc would react to the elements of the server and the things that happen to him. He’s always cared deeply about the livelihood of the server, but it’s more curated into a story than ever before. Mapicc is The Complainer and The Sass Master and that has made him into pvper who is notorious for running around the server dropping lore lines as trash talk, never missing a chance to really lay it in how dumb he thinks Flame is for logout trapping him and always doing what Mane tells him to do. Why? He doesn’t have a video idea for that 2v1 (unless?), none of that trash talk is necessary, he’s shown he doesn’t say that trash talk when on the practice server just days after the event happened. Like, that is so specifically a rp moment taken advantage of. It has no other use than bc on lifesteal Mapicc Hates Flame. (and because on lifesteal is his only outlet for those emotions; he's not going to start hating on his friends in real life for in game stuff)

Sure, in some ways Mapicc keeps lore distinct and at arms length. And this is, for instance, why I think devotions is as devastatingly dramatic as it is; because Mapicc will never admit how much Zam means to him and yet will be character-motivated by his devotion to Zam at all times. But him as a person just keeps that mostly at arms length; it’s not him caring about Zam it’s about the wardens, guys. Spawning wardens for a video. And owning spawn. Obviously.

You see what I’m getting at? It’s not just blurred, it’s two separate thoughts held at the same time. Mapicc and Mapicc combining together to make Mapicc.

So much of Mapicc is a mashing together of anything and everything he thinks of throwing at the screen. And all of that somehow comes out to an actually understandable and crisp final character who always acts in the most Mapicc way possible at all times always, undefinable except by saying “it’s just Mapicc” and that Meaning something. 

----

So when you see me writing about Mapicc, know this is what is going on in my head.

———

[1] im bringing footnotes into a Tumblr essay. Wemmbu, who I talk about later, would naturally play Minecraft as a run around wasting golden carrots type guy. As a person playing Minecraft he does not gravitate towards doing, well, anything. It is only in making a video that he will move himself to be anything. Despite learning pvp and rising, what, two teirs?, he is not someone who will casually look for fights while on a server. It’s not in his blood. 

[2] ~1:00:00 GREYS prinzezam vod, ZAM: ‘why are you always trying to kill someone mapicc?” MAPICC: ‘I dunno.. Maybe I feel….. Underachieving. Without it. Like I didn't get anything done to day unless I get another kill” ZAM: “but you have 20 hearts” MAPICC: “yea but the killing is changing the world” 

[3] The castle arc lasted from November 27 until March 6. From the day Zam left team awesome to the day they finally got their 1v1 without Spoke spawning a warden. 99 days. (That’s fucking crazy given the 97 days we just went through). I suppose in a very valid way, the mace arc was 8 months and we have no idea where s6 will go and how Mapicc will get revenge on flame, for instance. But as of now he’s just done. That’s very different than any other time in his lifesteal life, and the response, as a long time Mapicc viewer, is more empathetically devastating. But those 8 months are not the same as the four months of the castle arc. The mace was no logged in for most of those days. His dogged determination wasn't the same this season as the past.

[marshmarrows]

some screenshots from the end of 4c's stream today

[imissabyssarc]

At this point all I ask is for one final Sunshield convo before he leaves. One last goodbye for the road.

[leafatlaw]

Team atlas/sunkissed duo, On unconditional love, care, and loyalty. (I just wanna be by your side)

L.H.Z, @/lhzthepoet // DEVOTIONS, Princezam stream// Trista Mateer// Unknown// Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib// Gabriela Mistral, from a letter to Doris Dana// Unknown// Nicole Sealey, Object Permanence// Euripides// Dynasties and dystopias, Princezam stream//Dynasties and dystopias, Princezam stream//Dynasties and dystopias, Princezam stream// Eden Robinson// Unknown// Guide Dog, Princezam stream// Dynasties and dystopias, Princezam stream// Looking East, Sara Linda Poly// Ada Limón, In the County of Resurrection// DEVOTIONS, Princezam stream// Ken Elliot

[nitewcat]

Lowkey, at the end of their convo, the day Zam came back, Mapicc ran from him so fast. When Zam said his piece to Mapicc, called him his other half, spilled out so prettily how much he means to him, Mapicc was all like, "that's nice and all but I've said my piece" and then he jumps and practically flys away at lightning speed stopping for the briefest of seconds to punch Zam as if he knows he's running and he's conflicted about it but he still needs to run. Zam had basically left himself vulnerable to Mapicc, and I think it might have scared him, and I think if he'd stayed any longer, Zam probably might have changed his mind. Maybe he was scared he'd change his mind. I don't know.

Maybe he'd spent a while thinking about the conversation like Zam did. Maybe that's why he logged on. Maybe that's why he did what he felt like he should and jumped in the fight.

Saw someone saying that Mapicc did not jump in the fight for Zam. That's just not true because if he really wanted revenge on flamefrags, he'd call up minute or jepexx or bacon or even just fight him himself whenever because Mapiccs not a coward lmao? He saw his teammate, who had just professed so much to him the day before, getting jumped by someone who was 100% going to kill him. Zam had thrown himself at death countless times, he'd done it in season 4 and season 5 and previously in season 6, and so Mapicc did what he had always done whenever this has happened and jumped into the fight with him.

And then he disappeared again because of course he looses a stack of egaps genuinely could have been the start of Mapicc coming back to lifesteal all sweet and dramatically but of course something horrible just had to happen and Zams not streaming ls currently and atlas has no goal because subz stopped his arc and now all that's left is flame and now atlas without subz as a goal might end up helping zam with flame and in that case mapiccs not going to feel needed anymore even if zam would love to call on him and I know they'd just love to fight together and kill flame together it would be so lovely but if zam has atlas doing it all now, we'll Mapiccs purposeless again and we're back at square one but even worse because now zam can't throw himself into unwinnable fights to get mapicc back on if he has an active team willing to help him.

Ways I can think of that could fix this - Atlas doesn't log on. Pangi might not because of the realm, Pooafa might occasionally but zam may not feel safe bringing him into a fight, then derap just goes inactive for fun. Then two, Zam starts another project with Mapicc that they can work on together on the server, and that can get them active. Then three, eventually the servers going to end, and I know mane and flame might want that title for themselves this season, it's why they asked subz previously to join his team, either the server remains inactive till season 7 or flame and mane or whoever feels like it start up another arc. Issue with this, though, is that derap wants a peaceful ending, so he'd be willing to fight with zam, and Mapicc won't feel incentived to log on unless Zam is fighting mane, flame, clown or an unwinnable battle alone.

Also an inactive Zam because he's playing on the realm probably won't get Mapicc back on unless he convinces Mapicc to fight organised fights on session so there's that too, and for that to happen Mapicc may need to feel impassioned to play the server again and even then theres still the issue of Zam having other teamates now... he's not as at risk of dying, and if he's just dying on session, it kind of means less than fighting every day against flame and dying. idk.

Maybe Mapicc will get bored and come back for fun because there is another reason he could come back, and it's simply that he cares about the server. He cares about server activity, about the members, about the plot lines and stories, just as much as Zam, maybe even more because he was one of the creators of it all. Seeing the dead inactive lifesteal may bring him back, or even just nostalgia might bring him back. Maybe habbit. Who knows.

To be honest even if bacon decided to stream ls if feel like mapicc might hop on, if it's just to hang out even I feel like he would if no one else does.

[mcytegg]

holy shit if the ISM in PRISMS stands for itzsubz, spokeishere, and manepear then this means surge equinox was real all along

[mapicccc]

this would be a banger way to end the server tbh. they joke but they should

[sharffffff]

Ah yes, the Empire: Zam, Minute, Mapicc and Spoke. Who even are Chief and Jepexx, I only know PrinceZam (accurate tbh)

[heartcircus]

bro who’s gonna be the new villain of the week now that subz is leaving this sucks

[coffeegnomee]

I’ll admit I scrolled Tumblr for like 5 minutes and found out Derap vod watched Zam and I didn’t actually watch the stream or know the full context and while, wow, that is Disappointing to say the least, it actually got me thinking about possible scenarios and how this is an interesting development over something frustrating.

Obviously the historical event of Subz, Vi, and Zam in the Eclipse Federaction arc not watching each other’s vods or streams was something emblematic of that arc and would have made that arc unrecognizable had they known what each other was thinking. And the way that that story unfolded as a viewer who was able to watch every pov and hear the thoughts of each character separately as the tried to understand each other was something completely unique and satisfying and something desirable to encounter.

But, if anything, this new threat of a teammate who gives no room to their teammate for a private life IS an eclipse federation level arc. 

While Eclipse could be summed up as Zam finding out and Hating that his team was exploiting, something he upholds as a core value of what should not happen on lifesteal, sunkissed very well might be summed up as Zam finding out and Hating that his team is stream sniping, another thing he fundamentally believes should not happen on lifesteal. 

The visible telling of the story will be different because one side has information they didn’t get in-game by themselves, but the core of each story as a plot that goes against something that Zam specifically holds Important might bear fruit to something of a similar scale. 

Because, also, Derap doesn’t use knowledge he got while stream sniping in game; he has shown at minimum once during the Zaun arc that he wants Zam to tell him what happened himself so that Derap the character can plausibly know what’s going on. And then of course he pushes his personal belief on Zam based upon his thoughts that he decided while stream watching, but that makes Derap into someone who comes to conclusions quickly, decisively, and unchangeably (until Zam pushes back in the slightest way and then he says he doesn't care and will go with what Zam chooses), which has it’s own interesting fallouts as a character: things that make him sound Incredibly Suspicious and manipulative. Both interesting things to encounter as a character who doesn’t know anything but what is directly in front of him. 

In Eclipse, Zam had to wade through Vi lying to him about the extent of the exploit and make a decision based upon what he believed to be right. 

And this time Zam might have to wade through Derap constantly Knowing Too Much and being suspicious in how he asks questions, how he manipulates the conversation to get the info he wants and to get Zam to say and do what he thinks is right. 

Zam won’t be able to hide anywhere. And that’s Heavy. 

It’s a fundamentally different story, one that breaks the viewer out of the world of the play as it plods forward, one that makes Derap not have really character motivations, only things that has to constantly reframe in order to appease a larger narrative that he is crafting in his head. 

But is that not similar to what happened with Vi who had a narrative for himself as a character who had access to the wormhole but was going to be a protector of his team and who manipulated the narrative so that it sounded like he didn’t know as much when he certainly knew everything? He chose to say it was a bedrock farm when he knew it was the wormhole. He knew more than Zam and had a narrative to play, one he tried desperately to control, one that the harder he tried to control the more it slipped out from between his fingers. Until it exploded. 

Because Zam resists the thought of being manipulated even when it is just someone who is trying to unfold a narrative. Especially when someone is trying to unfold a narrative.

Because as much as I think Derap sounds like he has an evil manipulative plan by how he presents information to Zam, I more deeply believe that he has a narrative for how the season will play out: Zam is by his side until the end. And he must do anything and everything to make sure that happens. He’s not trying to make Zam evil or make Zam kill or anything else that would be overtly detrimental to the PrinceZam mental fortitude and cause him to go joker again, but he is trying to control the narrative.

And that is interesting. 

Idk just my two cents, if you hate the arc anyway that’s chill. I’m also a little 50/50 on if I think I like what Derap is doing from a viewer perspective but I don’t really watch his pov unless I have a reason to check his thoughts. 

[sweetie-peaches]

Live footage of me staring at the wall wondering if with new PRISMS stuff Spokeishere is actually going to be active on lifesteal

[aipurjopa]

PRISMS is a team that was shown in 4cvits' latest stream (like 2 hours ago), and we dont know any members or what they stand for, so we are just guessing, lol , i think they are the world enders this season. my guesses for the team members are

P= princezam

R= roshambo

I= itzsubz

S= spoke

M=mrcube

S= squiddo

ohhhhhhh WAIT THIS IS A FIRE THEORY I'M SO DOWN.... THIS TEAM SOUNDS SO FIRE

[vanivanvanilla]

squiddo and jumper got canonically married!!! YURI WIN!!!!!!!!!

[derww]

realm: how could you kill every bee and drink all of the honey wtf

lifesteal: Another Day Another 50 Wardens

[azure-bluet]

a bittersweet good bye