#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:

[appleflavoredkitkats]

there's something so meta abt the dsmp's narrative theme of legacy and how, slowly but surely, a lot of the fan content that helped develop the dsmp as a piece of media is disappearing. about how many of the characters in the dsmp do not remember where they came from, at the same time posts of what helped others understand the dsmp are being deleted one by one.

[a-moth-called-mof]

You know the dsmp fandom had its several negatives but it's still one of my favourite fandom experiences of all time. It was so chaotic but it was so earnest. It felt like everything was some big fandom inside joke. It was so silly. It was poetic at times. I don't think I've ever seen a fandom with so much literary and metatextual analysis (though some have gotten close). It honestly is what got me into narrative analysis. I just love how some of us made jokes and we all ran with it. It was a mess at times but God it was so fun. DSMPblr. I will always love you.

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

i forgot bro had sbahj as like the first thing on his terrible content aggregator app like. on one hand that's genuinely very sweet the… everything else about bro being the Worst Parent Known To Man aside but on the other. just like. i want to scream bc like! even at this point bro and dave's whole thing is very obviously abusive even at this point! like it’s not played seriously bc Dave still thinks bro is cool and could never do wrong but like, Dave is also very obviously written as being desperately trying to justify that to himself constantly. it’s pretty clearly not healthy if you think about it. but also even here back before the comic became the nightmare of characterisation it would turn into there’s already depth and nuance here. dave has reasons for thinking bro is cool, because he’s not some caricatured monster. i mean, he got into a lot of his hobbies seemingly bc bro introduced him to them, he does spend time with dave that Isn’t abusive and that dave genuinely enjoys, things are fine until they aren’t and that’s what allows dave to justify being physically abused regularly as just a brotherly thing and the neglect as more an annoyance than everything and bro recording him for his weird puppet kink site as just an ironic joke. because abusers are just evil people deep down, right? and bro isn’t evil, dave knows that. bro cares about him, so really it’s fine. but the thing is- bro can care about dave, and i think that’s pretty undeniable from what we see in the comic, he thinks he’s doing the right thing for his adoptive brother he loves. and that does not make what he’s doing any less abusive or traumatic. like i don’t know how much of this was intentional or not but it’s a surprisingly realistic portrayal of abuse from a mostly lighthearted (at this point) comic and it’s something i really appreciate. dave isn’t a perfect victim, bro isn’t a monster, and that does not make what happened to dave any less horrific.

[natinkart]

chat... I have a confession to make...

I like pvp civilization more than parkour civilization. I FIND IT MORE INTERESTING IM SORRY

parkciv is built like a shonen, pvpvciv is built like a YA distopian novel. I prefer the second one. it's more dark, it's a less mythical story and the characters seem more grounded in reality. so it's a more relatable story.

parkciv has underlying themes of classism, meritocracy and capitalism with a hopeful religious tone. meanwhile in pvpciv, while still having some trait of a classist society that was supposed to be a meritocracy, the trials to level up (or in this case, down) are superable, is a more relatable struggle. the religious theme, instead of being hopeful, is seen more like a curse, so evbo being the literal pvp Jesus is lived like a punishment. we all know what it feels like to be punished by fate, in a way or another, so it's more grounded to earth in some weird way.

so yeah, parkciv is a shonen full of hope, a happy ending story with a beautiful growth and adventures, while pvpciv is a dark distopian coming of age YA novel, with reasonable goals but higher stakes and more of a "all against the protagonist" setting.

thank you for coming to my TED talk

[arbitersart]

Had some thoughts on the structure of recent life series seasons and went into english major mode. Thought it was worth sharing here too!

[can-i-use-wisky-please]

As someone who became absolutely obsessed with parkciv and felt inclined to explore Evbo's other content, I feel like it needs to be properly mentioned just how crazy his storytelling skills are.

Getting into Parkciv you'd think its just the most cliche Youtube bait trash for like Gen Alpha but then you watch a clip of it and it's really addicting but not in a brain-rotting way, instead it's more of like a getting-into-a-series way. So what I mean about this is that the story is all cohesive and perfectly simple while the execution is perfectly adapted to the media used which is Minecraft RP cut into shorts.

Staring with Parkciv's story specifically, I think that the premise is so perfectly simple and authetic to the style of a Minecraft Youtuber. I mean when you think about the 3 things players can get good at in Minecraft its obviously gonna be: pvp, parkour, or builds. Anything else I feel is just like a subset of those 3. Conceptualizing a series based on parkour and a what-if style of plot is such a clean formula for a hit MC series. Now for autheticity, I have to get into what I realized about Evbo as a content creator. Bcause as I was like getting into his channel, I noticed that he kind of just sticks to what he's more familiar with about Minecraft, and Youtube, and all that. It's very pure. His style of content reminds me of the golden days of Minecraft and personally, very refreshing. Now because of this, he can turn like ridiculous premises into incredible stories that just unfold so naturally while having enough passion to back up these stories and provide layers to them.

Now that I mentioned the natural progression of his stories I have to say that his execution definitley help these ridiculous plots to not become so over saturated. Just for context, I watched a video analysis on Techno's style of content and how he became so viral from it and one of the reasons is due to his like chill tone and demeanor and I think Evbo has like this perfect balance of chillness and Youtuber-content-creator attitude. I mean he's narrating the entirety of Parkciv, he can't be irritating to the audience so he puts on this content creator "accent" but excludes the over the top scream and jokes and has this straight forward, natural script with naturally timed, genuinley funny jokes. All his decisions to the story of Parkciv is so intentional and made with the utmost respect to the story. What I mean by this is his decisions are for the sake of the story, nothing is done to like farm clout, or audiences, or anything else like that.

TLDR; just a long way of saying Evbo is a great story teller and I hope he keeps up this passion for making genuine MC stories and does not become problematic.

P.s. idk why PVPciv is getting so much hate bcs its so enjoyable and I kind of like how it's the antithesis to Parkciv.

[crystaljellie]

Scott and Pearl analysis moment

Because I’m sick and tired of people mischaracterising C!Scott he is not evil!! Pearl does not hate him!! She’s bitter sure but she doesn’t hate him.

Starting with them in last life Pearl and Scott always sticking by each other always being there for each other, I’ve seen so many “Scott was using Pearl” because he wanted a life from her. Like he’s trying to live?? It’s different from Grian stealing a life from Scar and then tormenting him and giving him nothing in return. Scott does his absolute best to protect Pearl protect their house and spend time with her.

He’s a good friend. And he’s absolutely heartbroken when she dies, because Scott knew she was going to but he didn’t want her to go before him. And he definitely keeps his cool because Scott isn’t the kind of guy to go if the rail easily, the way you can tell Scott is angry is by how reckless or determined he gets. In third life he’s distraught by Jimmy’s death and then rushes in and dies quickly because he doesn’t want to be alone. And in last life he kills Ren because he killed Pearl. He’s doing it to avenge her.

He’s glad when he wins but he’s not upset when he dies either. He’s annoyed that he didn’t get to choose his own death but. He celebrates winning because he doesn’t have to lose anybody else.

And so jump to double life and all of a sudden the person he loves so much and has gone out of his way to protect doesn’t even take the time to go looking for him, so you can see why he’s upset. And it’s the biggest miscommunication moment ever because Pearl is expecting to go back and have Scott waiting with open arms for her, and she can’t explain to him and doesn’t understand what she did wrong, which tbh is nothing but that doesn’t make the way Scott feels invalid either.

And then it kind of all goes to shit, Scott’s more snappy and on edge this season because he won the last one and ya know winners trauma. And he honestly doesn’t want to win again so when Cleo suggests tormenting Pearl (I think that’s how it happens I don’t remember it might have been scar with the snow buckets first) he’s all for it!! Because he’s hurting!!

And pearl on the other hand is left alone and has no idea what to do with herself, because sure she can handle being alone but she can’t handle being alone like this, where’s she’s forced into isolation, she’s going crazy because she feels like everyone she loves has left her, she’s mad at Scott and she’s more mad at Cleo because she feels like Cleo has stolen him from her. And so she lashes out because it’s all she knows how to do here, and in a death game what’s a better form of communication than violence?

But she doesn’t want Scott to die not because she wants to live but because she still cares even if she doesn’t want to care. She wants Scott to hurt because she’s hurting, but like Scott in last life she can’t bare to see him die before her.

She’s winning this to prove herself to be someone who doesn’t need Scott. But she still cares so much and she hates it, that’s why she spends the first couple sessions trying to win him back.

And Scott is with Cleo but he feels alone too, because Cleo’s relationship with Martyn isn’t as strained as his is with Pearl. And he knows it’s his fault, he does. That’s why he starts trying to sabotage other relationships, so he doesn’t have to feel as bad.

That’s why he’s careful to stay alive, so he can make it up to Pearl in some way.

He avoids everything he can that might make him face that guilt. But he’s hurt and is stuck with all the blame placed on him. Everyone KNOWS it’s Scott’s fault Pearl is the way she is. But no one but Cleo acknowledges this which makes Scott more bitter, and honestly he’s a little bit scared of Pearl not that he’ll admit that to anyone ever.

But him feeling this guilt is why he kills himself at the end that and because he’s scared of winning again. But he knows he doesn’t deserve getting to where he’s gotten to, and with his self sacrificial nature he’s trying to make it up to her. If she watches him hurt and hurt and die, maybe she’ll feel better.

AND SHE DOES FORGIVE HIM!!! NOT BECAUSE SHE LIKES SEEING HIM HURT!! SHE HATES THAT PART!! SHE FORGIVES HIM BECAUSE SHE CAN SEE HOW MUCH HE CARES! And obviously she’s still a little bit bitter because like who wouldn’t be. But she forgives him and she can see he’s trying that he feels awful about it, so awful that actually kills himself.

And you can see how double life effects both of them moving forward, mainly Scott, he’s scared of hurting anyone the way he hurt pearl, so he goes out of his way to let his friend and allies kill him over and over so he can be of use to them, because he’s realised that his life, lives can be used as currency as friendship as a way to get people not to hate him. He’s putting himself on sale.

He does it in secret life too giving up his lives his hearts his safety, just to be of use. He can’t even bring himself to really care when people betray him, because hey he betrayed Pearl worse right?

Pearl is so much more unhinged after double life too so much more reckless. Because why try and stay hinged when you’re going to loose everything anyways?

And coincidentally all of pearls allies start dying before her, and Everytime it happens she’s just reminded of double life, of that tower, of everything bad that ever happened. And because of that she can’t bring herself to forgive Scott yet. Because she doesn’t feel loved yet.

And then wild life comes, and they team together again, and yes it starts with some bickering and fighting but they needed to get that out they needed to bring it up so they can let it go.

Pearl has her own issues with Gem that season sure, but she gets something close to closure with Scott. Not proper closure, because they’re in a death game, they don’t have enough time they never will. But she gets a real end, and gets a chance at a real friendship with Scott again. She even gives him her hoodie when he turns red. They stick together they’re friends again.

Pearl doesn’t hate him!! He doesn’t belittle her!! I keep seeing “oh Scott didn’t trust Pearl oh he’s treating her badly because he’s keeping her on a leash and not enabling her chaos!!” HES WORRIED ABOUT HER??? HE WANTS HER TO BE SAFE AND KEEP THE TEAM SAFE AND THE ONLY WAY IN SCOTTS BRAIN IS TO CONTROL??? HE DOESNT NOT BELIEVE SHE CAN DO IT HES JUST WORRIED FOR HER FUCK OFF MAN

Anyways, and then Scott dies before Pearl and she doesn’t have the time for a reaction.

It’s not over for them, it’s not close to being over, but it’s getting better. And they’re BOTH getting a chance to heal, not just Pearl, because Pearl wasn’t the only fucking person that got hurt.

Sometimes I wonder if people watch the series with their eyes closed and volume off because how could you ever believe that Pearl truly hates Scott?

[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.

[cabinetduo]

fuck man you just had to be there because this THISSSSSS

this iconic line from the disc saga finale that is followed by the whole 'what am I without you?' it's GYAHHHH because this happened during the height of the chess craze on twitch when everyone and their mama was playing chess during the botez sisters tournament and cctubbo got REALLY into it, he wasn't even the only one they fucking coded a texture pack into the server so that people could play chess together. AND THE KICKER IS THAT IT PLAYED A HUGE ROLE THEMATICALLY BECAUSE cdream and ctubbo played chess every day during political negotiations but also for funsies right before cdream would head to fucking torture Tommy in exile < which cdream throes right back in tubbos face during the community house fight >>> and all the chess metaphors the manburg sorry nlm cabinet would make during meetings

so so so when ctubbo, says "he describes me as a pawn, this is checkmate, I suggest you resign" RESIGNING AS IN THE CHESS MOVE AS IN fuck man the fucking layers you just had to be there

[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.

[nomsfaultau]

I wonder what Techno's response would be if Tommy won in the pit. Because he's a pretty 'might makes right' dude so I'm trying to figure out if he'd just shrug and be like 'ok I was in the wrong and Tommy got his revenge so it's all fair and square' (while being secretly frazzeled and quadruple down about training harder and stockpiling max everything because Tommy??? Tommy beat him???).

Unless he doesn't see his life for Tubbo's as a fair trade, and thinks along the lines of Tommy's life taken in retribution. Because Techno is super pro revenge, and it could be a 'hey! I didn't have a choice killing Tubbo! That's not fair!' reaction. Techno pretty consistently wants the last word on violence, cataclysmically so, but at the very least will leave it there as is instead of extracting payment over and over and over. So I think there's a real possibility of him scheming up revenge, stockpiling like crazy, and waiting for the proper moment so it doesn't look like he's going back on his word.

Cause like. Techno does say 'win or lose, it stays in the pit'. But he's also fully going in intending to win. He's skewing the odds in his favor with strategic saturation boosts and is very confident in his abilities. When he offers Tommy an out, it's because he wants this to be a choice to fight and then drop it no hard feelings, not because Techno thinks he'll lose.

But if he did. If he did, and was humiliated in front of everyone. If his combat abilities were called into question because he lost to Tommy. If Technoblade 'never dies' lost a life. Well. I think he'd be put in a tailspin. He'd be analyzing every single second in that pit, over and over, to figure out what went wrong. Playing in his head on repeat as his strategist's mind turns against him.

Because as much as Techno tries to twist W--'s egging and goading and escalating into a de-ecalatory measure, Tommy is definitely still holding hard feelings after the pit. And I think Techno would, too, as much as he tries to insist it stays in the pit.

[appleflavoredkitkats]

i know we can all argue that any l'manbergian embodies the essence of l'manberg itself but there's a specific sense of poetry that comes to fundy's own toxic connection to l'manberg. i've mentioned before that he literally is meant to represent the ideologies wilbur had when founding l'manberg— peace, no violence, camaraderie— but if it were cranked up to a toxic level.

like. as violence becomes more prevalent and practically status quo in the dsmp, the more fundy fades into the background. quackity literally compares him to the structures in l'manberg fading away. and! and! he's the only one referred to as "from l'manberg" by charlie. not even wilbur or tommy gets referred to as l'manbergians!

and more! the last we see of fundy in general is 1.) when he kills himself by jumping into the l'manberg crater, and 2.) when he pops up in eret's stream donating schlatt's sword to the museum. after, he disappears. we don't know what happens to him!

like you guys. this man has been doomed by wilbur's promise of giving l'manberg to fundy. he will never be severed from it as long as he harbors that blind need for nationwide camaraderie that can never be achieved because no one but him believes in such anymore. fundy's l'manberg! he's always been l'manberg!