#watching etho s7 and having fun :)

[luckyofthelawnvariety]

I've finished Etho's s7 hermitcraft so guess who's back with a slightly updated/slightly consolidated list of things about ethoslab I have noticed! or just enjoy!

(the previous list)

I have no idea when he learned to noteblock. I don't know if he knows. he knows how to noteblock tho. he's really good at it.

on that note, did you know that there is not a single piece of non-noteblock music in etho's s7 after the first episode? there might not even be any in the first episode. every single timelapse or montage is set to noteblock music

(he sang along to parts of his paper planes noteblock cover too. he was going shopping. I was entirely too delighted)

(also, there is some like...sitcom music theme that I don't know what show it's from. it's bothering me that I don't know. what you need to know is that throughout his s7 etho uses said sitcom theme as the transition before Shenanigans With Fellow Hermits clips play. his life is a sitcom. yes it is the noteblock version.)

I think that etho desperately needs minigames for enrichment. if he's not playing one he's working on one. he needs them and he will let them completely consume his life

the etho decked out 1 runs are hilarious, partially because it's funny to see him play it and realize how absolutely insane decked out 2 is, and how much of a madlad tango is. etho is still the same menace with great luck and skills. I had forgotten about the hole to the void in the middle out decked out 1 tho, that was a fun reminder

etho could make a career out of translating classic type games into minecraft. he kind of has, but it's a pattern.

he also keeps coming up with new games that are minecraft only and is good at figuring out how to balance them well.

again, king of minigames. he will in fact analyze them as much as possible. he caught on to the pattern of impulse's whack a mole game in like...2 rounds? maybe 3? he's good at pattern recognition and will put it to good use no matter the minigame

etho, I cannot stress this enough, is a little shit and enjoys being such. free glass is obviously an iconic moment, but I had forgotten about him scamming scar out of diamonds for "information" about the resistance, or about sneak-e-e's business model (you can't tax what you can't find!), or about how he kept being extremely ridiculous with beef in regards to record shop payments...the list goes on

etho is also very competitive. I mentioned this in the last list, but man...he joins like every single competition he can. he wants to win. he's not like, a sore loser, but he likes to win, and he'll get a little upset if he doesn't.

etho and beef have clearly known each other a long time and ngl I miss their interactions a bit. let them bother each other a bit more please. I want to see them trying to kill each other in ridiculous ways again please. or doing minigames together. they're so silly.

kind of similar, but etho loves getting a rise out of people and it is the best thing ever actually. it's fun watching him use dirty tricks to beat bdubs to sleeping for a prize. it's perfect actually.

that being said, I still really like when etho is just on his own working on stuff too. s7 has a lot of moments where etho will go "I'm gonna use this block palette!" and I will think "bro that's ugly" and then he will make an extremely cohesive build that I want to live in out of it. I think a good way to describe it is that for example bdubs is really good at detailed builds with texture and not much color, and a very realistic twist to them. etho is not afraid to use color at all, and embraces how the colors can work together or contrast. it's fascinating to watch and I love it.

he is also a redstone genius. I feel I am starting to understand how some things with redstone work. could I design something myself? absolutely not but I could work from a tutorial and not feel completely lost on why I have to use a dispenser and not a dropper now.

I think s7 etho is really experimenting a lot with style and how he wants to do things. he does a few more elaborate intros, for example, that are very planned out, but he also does a lot of the classic "hello everybody this is etho and welcome back to hermitcraft!" it's fun and it works, but I honestly feel he might be more confident in some ways now in s10, which is nice to see.

(side note—I think etho has some trouble with tone sometimes, where he really wants to make sure everyone's having a good time, but also he really wants to tease people. this works well with like Beef, who he's known a while, but especially in people he's known less he's quick to catch on if they take what he's saying too seriously, and clarify that he is teasing. it's nice to see tbh, just the clarity even with his audience)

speaking of llamas, I had not realized how recent some really big updates were. bamboo and pandas were new at the start of s7. the nether update came like halfway through?? I was more in the casual build side of mcyt at the time but man...I didn't realize how crazy that is to think about.

just...the way that etho visualizes builds is great. not just like, leaving space for farms, but filling in the spaces with a lot of details that make sense but also work with the space to cover anything it needs to AND to connect with the rest of the base. the sightlines thing is something I see a lot of other builders using but etho really uses them a lot in the Monstrosity in order to keep it from being Too Much as you walk through.

really just...he wants to have fun, and he wants to learn, and he wants to experiment and figure things out. if he can mess with some friends when he does it, that's a great bonus, yknow?

man. what a guy.

[angelonasher]

@hermitadaymay: 17 EthoSlab

[click image for better quality]

Etho! I've watched a few of his Secret Life videos, hc s10 videos, and that one s7 video where he was admiring False's I mean his face. Despite this I cannot figure out what his personality is, but he seems fun! <- (has said that three times so far)

Although I technically have drawn him not-chibi before back in 2023 I think, I was inspired by my Welsknight drawing. My usual design is the one regular Etho has, I just made tiny-Etho's jacket green and zipped to stand out better.

[megabuild]

i've seen some people (mainly techno/quackity fans from the alliances) interested in getting into etho content after the polls, but it can be a little daunting when the guy's been making videos semi-consistently for over a decade, so here's your ✨ not definitive ✨ guide to Watching Ethoslab!

for starters: etho's videos can get a bit technical! he's a redstoner and is known for making lots of crazy stuff, like the original hopper clock design, a working tamagotchi, and a massive storage system that uses hexadecimal to sort and pull items.

if you're familiar with the life series, that's arguably where you'll get the most "character"/"lore" content from etho! he's been in all three seasons, starting with 3rd life. this is also where he shows off his pvp, and though it isn't as obvious in his own pov, you get to see everyone else being really intimidated and hyping up his mysterious guy persona... while he's busy crying over his stuff getting burnt.

however, if you want to start with some regular single player content, his lp series has been going for over a decade! if you're a big fan of older, nostalgic vids and can deal with him being a bit awkward, his season 1 is just over 100 episodes and imo is still very fun to watch today. if you're less into that, it can be intimidating to try and pick up a series with nearly 600 episodes, so you might want to start with his most recent world tour! it's a long one, but it summarises all the work he's done so far, and there's only 25 episodes after that which is a lot more manageable! (and then you can go back and watch the rest ^_^)

his current hermitcraft series is only 9 episodes long so it's pretty accessible, though he does start halfway through the season (and purposefully exiles himself across the world with no tools or help until he can beat a raid single-handed. because. jeez.) if you're looking for a more rounded experience though, his season 7 is where i personally started with etho content and is still one of his best series yet! he gets plenty involved with the overarching "story" of S7 too, so it's a great jump-off point if you're just interested in HC in general.

other iconic etho videos and series include

- king of the ladder, a fan favourite from his time on mindcrack (the series which, dare i say, made him the og mcytblr sexyman- seriously, look into nebtho and you'll see what i mean)

- team canada escape the nether, for a quick look into his dynamic with pause and beef, two other mindcrackers he collabs with a lot

- (and if you like that and want more, team canada's sky factory)

- lp episode 404. please watch lp episode 404.

overall, etho is a very chill guy to watch.. most of the time.. and i would highly recommend him to basically anyone who likes mcyt. he's your fave's fave, a pillar of the community, but also a guy just Doing His Thing, and even after a decade he's still finding new ways to improve and change his content... so even if i haven't convinced you to give him a try, hopefully i'll still have convinced you to give him a vote since he's about ~30 votes behind at the time of posting this ;)

thanks for reading, and happy watching! and of course, any other ethogirls are welcome to add their own recommendations in the notes!

[bookworm-2692]

Yeah that one was great!! One of the first things I noticed upon my return to mcyt last year after a 5+ year gap was the change in prank culture. Like it was far less formal (no one followed the “always leave a sign” rule anymore) and it was far less large and defined… more of just silly goofs the creators seemed to just think of rather than a large dedicated prank!

Just saw your post about wanting people to ask about Mindcrack back in the day so… favourite Zisteau prank?

Zistesu was pretty wild when it did come to his pranks, I recall lol. The one that always stuck in my head was the candy land prank on beef's castle- I really loved the excessive base covering pranks, no one does that anymore lol (I guess understandably so bc it's a hassle to deal with especially these days with mega builds).

[alienssstufff]

hiii !! i thought id ask you but if it's too much feel free to ignore...

i really want to get into the... life series i think it's called? or hermitcraft? (tumblr confused me a lot on the names) your art makes it seem very interesting and i've heard so many cool things and seen so many cool fanarts, but im not sure where to start since it seems to be a long series!

it usually helps me a lot when i get some sort of description of the characters in the series to know which ones i should look into to know where to start... so i was wondering if you could ramble a bit about any characters you want from the series!!! i have a big curiosity on grian, they seem very cool !

aaaaaaa

-Life Series has 4 (soon to be 5) seasons: 3rd Life [3L], Last Life [LL], Double Life [DL], Limited Life [LimL]. TLDR goal is to outlive everyone else and be the last person standing.

-Hermitcraft has 9 seasons. You do NOT need to watch every season in chronological order, they all exist as their separate thing.

Hermitcraft doesn't have ' set lore ' either hermits go on there for different reasons do different stuff and stories sprout off of that just *happen* momentarily.

I think watching the Life Series first BEFORE Hermitcraft is a good starting point bc there's less people to keep track of and improv plot happens, making it easier to pick out the faves you like and wish to continue watching on HC. Majority of the ppl in Life Series are on Hermitcraft while others are in Empires. Similar vibe of smp more lore and rules with governing different empires if you like that stuff :] there was also a crossover arc between Empires s2 and Hermitcraft S9 last year which was awesome.

As for Hermitcraft itself bwaaaa, pick any season (personal favourite is Season 7) - ppl rly like Seasons 7 8 and 9 but that's probably cuz they're newer. Current POVs in season 9 I watch: Bdubs, Etho, Scar, Grian, Tango, Beef - occasionally Impulse, Pearl, Zedaph

I did a similar ask on recommended Life Series POVs for each season HERE. Just know that the LAST LIFE ETHO/BDUBS POV compulsory event you MUST watch that at least once.

random Life Series thoughts:

Grian isn't as serious and calculative as he's popularly depicted as in fanon, he has lots of fun always he silly :]! And I think the reason just comes from his competitive approach to each season and his relationships. He treats it as it is: a game and trying to place him in an rp/lore setting makes him come off as such. In reality he's easily tunnel visioned by The Bit (things like gimmick kills, one-off plans) and trying to win and that's completely fine.

That being said I do not believe desertduo (Grian/Scar) are opposites of eachother, they have much in common and just because they are doesn't make their chemistry any less valuable. If you want to talk about opposites SCAB (Scar/Etho) is the way to go. Very apparent in 3L and especially LL: Magic vs Science, Fire vs Ice, wildcards. Scar the lover who tries to be a survivor, Etho the survivor who tries to be a lover. Their tension bleeds into Hermitcraft (see S7) as well and I wish people realised how awesome scab just is guys scab is so awesome u_u

From the architecture down to their fates, Bdubs' builds are the embodiment of his love for the people he aligns himself to each season, there's a reason why he'd rather risk his entire being to protecting places so sacred and I think about that loads. whwhwh I'd talk about it/analyse each build individually because he is my favouriteee but I am shy u///u....

[cactusringed]

IM WATCHING BDUBS SEASON 7 FOR THE FIRST TIME RIGHT

NOT EVEN 2 MINUTES IN HE SEES REN IN THE DISTANCE AND SAYS

"There he is! Hey Ren! Hey Renny boy! You sweet angel, doing some fishing! You gorgeous! Having some fun? Good!"

IM LOSING MY MIND OVER BDUBS SO MUCH OMGHDBD 4JC4

I JUST FOUDN OUT BDUBS EYES ARE BIG BECAUSE ETHO. SEASON 7. WISHED BDUBS HAD BIGGER EYES PRESUMABLY AS LIKE A JOKE. THE MOST ICONIC PART OF BDUBS' SKIN WAS BECAUSE OF ETHO. IM LOSING MY MIND. IM LOSING MY WGHOKE MIND OVER THEM.

(guessing both asks were sent by the same person since these are both bits from s7 LOL)

Anon u are in for a treat bdubs s7 is delicious. Just you wait for the docdubs and scardubs brother. It's a good season

[sobbingdistantnoises]

🐶🐧🌕

he do know what this means but buttons!

and i like “hearing” you talk

!!!! AAAAAA, thank you thank you thank you KK for the ask!! <33 Very very glad my rambling entertains you :))

Now prepare for. QUITE A LOT of said rambling as apparently I've written more for this ask than I have in 3 weeks of school, ahaha. I am not obsessed at all with Hermitcraft, no. Definitely not

🐶 - What hermits do you watch?

A bit of question clarification first, just in case: the "hermits" are the YouTubers who play on the Minecraft server named Hermitcraft. There's around 25ish? of them, so it's practically impossible to watch every single video every single one of them puts out (whether just the Hermitcraft related ones or not). Their videos all also typically feature completely different content since even with collabs, they have their own projects to work on within the server, hence this question's existence

At the current moment, I'm watching everything/near everything by Grian, EthosLab (Etho), Xisumavoid (Xisuma or X), and DocM77 (Doc), Hermitcraft related or not

I've been watching Grian since like 2018, which is before he even joined Hermitcraft, and I can pretty safely say I've watched like 99% of his videos sans his MCC ones and his streams. Looking back, I think I stole like half my personality from him because of how young I was when I started watching him, which. I'm okay with </3 He's fairly chaotic in general with pranks and wars (Every season. EVERY SEASON, he somehow instigates a war. S6 Civil War. S6 Hippies VS Area 77. S7 Mycelium Resistance. S9 Buttercups. Evolution SMP (server he was on before Hermitcraft) Grian Empire VS Taurtis Republic) and stuff which I find very fun in general. I actually have started a few wars myself within friend groups inspired by him, which is kinda fun to look back on and see the influence, sldfjskdj. I also BUILT A (knockoff version of) HIS EVO BASE ON MY MINECRAFT WORLD WHEN I WAS YOUNGER. (I coerced my sister into helping empty some of the water against her will when I got tired but it was mostly me, SHHH.) That whole Minecraft world itself is honestly a knockoff of Evo that's mixed with Hermitcraft + my own inability to play minecraft, sldfjskld. I just honestly cannot emphasize how much of an impact he made on me, like WOAH. Magic :)

Etho, it feels sometimes that I started watching him relatively recently in comparison to Grian, but at the same time, it has been. 3 YEARS. I started watching him in S7 of Hermitcraft because of Resource Gathering, which is a remix song someone named Elybeatmaker did of his voice in his first S7 episode that I once again absolutely adore after re-getting into Hermitcraft, although I definitely knew OF him a lot earlier. It was again through Elybeatmaker songs, which I am just now realizing. Basically, I found Elybeatmaker around the endish of S5 of Hermitcraft (about 2018, from memory?), and I basically listened to all of his songs, which included a few that were Etho remixes (Hopper Dropper my beloved <3). There was also a few months later the diss track made by Team Star in S6 for the civil war plot that was going on, which had a line saying "I'm a legend of the NHO, with Etho, Beef, and Double O". That line is a reference to Doc, Etho, VintageBeef, and BdoubleO's POVs of S5 when they lived in a jungle and did jungle stuff that had some sort of plot? It's still on my to-watch list, so I can't say exactly what happened, but from what I've gathered over time, there was a cult or something, and the jungle wanted to eat them (????). But my story with him is essentially that his voice and existence were in some of my favorite songs for 2 whole years before I ever watched one of his episodes. Which is. weirdly fitting to me? Etho in general does a lot of stuff chill-ly in a chaotic way. Like, his voice is very calm, but you then pause the video randomly and notice that his shovel is named "Cooked Dirt Smells Good", and he never acknowledges it. I had a lot of "why didn't I watch his stuff earlier" at the start of S7, lskjdflsk

Okay wow, this is getting very long already. Oooooops. May attempt to shorten other hermits, sldkfjsdl, we shall see if that's even possible for me

Xisuma!! I started watching him in probably S5? I genuinely can't remember how I discovered him, but but some of the first videos that I watched from him were a bunch of these bonus Hermitcraft episodes featuring the character "Evil X". I absolutely adored them, and I actually rewatched them all a few days ago and still consider really fun, dsljflskdj. They're kinda corny, but they're silly and well made and make me happy, so :) Evil X my BELOVED. (He may or may not be afraid of flowers.) The only season I actually watched all of Xisuma's POV of is S3 a few years ago because Evil X first appeared in S3, but I've sporadically watched his newer Hermitcraft episodes as well as pretty much all his weekly snapshot update videos (informational videos covering new things added to Minecraft), so I count that, slkdfjlsk. Also also!! I realized a while ago now that the first Metallica song I listened to wasn't Seek and Destroy like I thought but Xisuma's cover of Ride the Lightning!! Which I find very cool in retrospect, haha. I found a lot of songs in general from him when I was 11/12, mostly from a video he put out that was a compilation of his time lapses, and those were some of the very first songs I actually listened to as songs to enjoy, so him and music mix very well in my brain <3. (I feel like thta video might be where I found his stuff with Evil X actually?? My memories are not in order whatsoever </3) And he also HAS AN ALBUM OUT!! WHICH WAS RECENT!! AND VERY COOL!! It has such floaty vibes, and aaaa <33

And DOC. He has vaguely been in the background for me since S6 when he was kind of the "leader" of Team Star against Grian and the G-Team during the civil war plotline, but I started actually watching him a few weeks ago because of the sheer INSANITY he displayed in current storyline that's going on with Doc VS the Buttercups. He's like, breaking the whole game so calmly, he SCARES ME and I am INTRIGUED. In my first episode of his that I watched, he was talking about block updates and other things that were flying over my head, and suddenly there was a single nether portal block sitting there which isn't supposed to be REAL, and I had to pause the video and whisper-scream "what" over and over again for a few minutes, slkdjlsdj

That's the hermits I currently watch, BUT. I'm really tempted to talk more about the others who I used to watch a lot but have since slowed on watching. I think I will do it :)

Mumbo Jumbo (MUMBO)! I think he was the first hermit whose Hermitcraft episodes I watched, starting in S5. I'm pretty sure I started watching Grian a bit earlier (think days-weeks), but he wasn't in Hermitcraft back then, SO. One of the earliest episodes I remember watching of his was S5 episode 119 because he used the Elybeatmaker remix "Stupid" in it which I got promptly obsessed with <3 I think I overall watch more of his one off redstone (which is like wires and electricity but in Minecraft) videos than his Hermitcraft stuff (I've also apparently learned nothing from watching them, redstone is hard :( ), but I've still watched stuff from him for a scary amount of time so he is here to be mentioned :)

Scar Scar Scar, Good Times With Scar, another hermit who I watched a lot of in S5 then kinda dropped off of watching as much (though his Life Series POVs are some of the POVs I'm in the process of watching) but who I still see a lot of in collabs. He had a bunch of S5 episodes in which he collaborated with another hermit, Cubfan135 (Cub), to make the ConVex, and they pranked basically everyone on the server at some point. I need to rewatch those actually, sldkfjallj (UPDATE, STARTED WATCHING WHILE TYPING, OHHHH, THE LITTLE JINGLE THING FEELS SO NOSTALGIC,,, <3). Scar is also just. really inspirational in general. And also his cat Jellie was actually added into the game :)

TangoTek (Tango)!! I haven't watched his Hermitcraft videos very much, but his bases are always so cool to me (S5 base my beloved, it's like the classic Tango base to me <3 It's this giant ring of hell with evil dark red towers), I used to wait very eagerly for videos about the Minecraft Mod about villagers he was coding (which was happening before Minecraft added the update where they overhauled villages), and in seasons 7 and 9 (current), he's been making a minigame called Decked Out within the game. Which is. SO COOL. Like, he literally made this giant dungeon crawler game inside of Minecraft for S7. And then in S9, he decided to make it BIGGER??? It's still a WIP but I'm so excited for it to be done :)) Decked Out 1 was already so cool, and I at some point even tried to make a list of statistics about various Hermits' runs (failed and gave up due to project scale but shh), slkdjflas. I really want to watch his S9 stuff to find out how it works (and then fail because redstone hard but again shhh), just haven't yet like all the other stuff I haven't watched because of time </3 [UPDATE IN THE TWO DAYS SINCE I WROTE THAT: I have watched 6 of his most recent episodes and am in love with them :] ]

This one question is getting alarmingly long, so just one final hermit unless I've forgotten someone fundamental, but!! Pearl! Or Pearlescentmoon :) She is another hermit who I've kind of been meaning to watch more of, but she is very fun from what I've seen from her POVs of another Minecraft series known as the Life Series. She's also kind of interesting to me because technically I've again known OF her for a very long time, probably longer than most of the Hermits, I'm guessing? She did a few episodes on the Evolution SMP which I loved very very much (her builds were genuinely so cool even back then, like WHAT), and I've kind of always known her as the person who is really really good at building organic things and creatures. She appears on Grian's older videos quite a bit, either helping him with building stuff or sometimes as a judge for Build Swap (game Grian used to play within minecraft a bunch) in which she was always building small cute things to the side which I found really eeee <3, so it's really cool to me that she's in Hermitcraft now after being added in S8 :) SLDfjksskdj, I want to set aside more time to watch her stuff so badly </3

🐧 - What is your favorite season?

Oh, this is MEAN, I've never actually thought about this before? Usually I just go along with the passage of time, so my current favorite thing tends to be whatever is going on now + some individual stand out events from seasons past, BUT. That being said, I thought about this question more than I usually do before answering, and I landed at season 6.

I think that's a pretty common season to have as a favorite; it's the first season Grian was a part of (who a lot of people were introduced to Hermitcraft by) and where the more "modern" Hermitcraft took off with the bigger focus on unscripted storylines that span a few episodes

However, for me, I think I'm picking S6 because this season is the only season where I've been in a kind of defined Hermitcraft fan community? There were a whole bunch of us on Wattpad that evolved into a whole Hermitpad with a discord and stuff, and while I didn't write or draw stuff that I shared, I actually COMMENTED on stuff. Which was weirdly rare for me for a long time because Wattpad had (past tense now) a newsfeed feature that you could basically use to stalk what who you followed were reading and I was oddly paranoid of that, lsdfjklsl. And I had INTERACTIONS there on Hermitpad!! Which was very cool!! And I think I've only been in 3ish fandoms where I did that, if I'm counting right? Which makes it all even more special to me :)

I'm honestly just kinda sad that I can't really look back at it since I'm pretty sure either (1) Wattpad deleted a lot of the accounts involved with it due to the passage of time without activity or (2) accounts and stories got buried under other stories because of dumb algorithm choices due to he passage of time once again. But there were a lot of good memories there :)

Hermitpad itself felt a lot more creative than the other fandoms I saw stuff for, like. We had minigames (I ran one of these!! I'm pretty sure the account got deleted, but it was based on a minigame from Hermitcraft called Demise and I loved it <3), we had accounts that acted as characters from Hermitcraft like Poultry Man (not an actual Hermit, but he has Hermitcraft related "lore" (appearances) and is definitely not just Grian) and whoever else, we had a Hermitpad Recap modeled after the Hermitcraft Recap YouTube account which basically recapped new fics, updated fics, milestones, etc people in the community got

It was overall just a really nice community which made my experience watching S6 just so much more connected, so go season 6 as my favorite apparently :) Carried by something completely outside of the control of what was happening on the actual SMP, OOPS

🌕 - What is your favorite Hermitcraft build?

OH, THIS IS SO MEAN ONCE AGAIN. It is a good thing I actually took time to think before writing these, slkdjfslkj. I've probably forgotten something really important, but one of the first things that came to my mind was Etho's S7 base, aka the Monstrosity, so I'm going with that!

Etho has a really unique way of building that he really expanded on with this build, like. He builds what he wants to build at the current moment, so the base is like, interior and exterior at the same time, and it has no real outside walls and is all inside but is also sometimes outside? And it was also completely unplanned, it was done one section at a time. That's like, the best way to explain it, sldkfjlksj, I think it turned out really cool though :)

But I think another part of why I like it is the way it was built throughout his episodes? It might be the smaller scale of the build or how he used less big timelapses like I'm used to with Grian and instead cut between snippets of him building in first person with noteblock music in the background, but it always felt kinda personal if that makes sense, sldkjflsj. I was always really attached to it and liked seeing stuff added to it :)

Screenshots!! + a video of me walking around it on the world download because the transitions between the areas are some of the coolest that have been made on Hermitcraft

[not-so-anonymous-scotch]

The Killing Type - Chapter 4 "Dive Bomb"

1.7k words, ethubs, mature (for entire story), violence

still a shorter chapter, i just had this idea sitting around forever and wanted to write it once i watched all of s7!! reminder this story has little linearity so we are jumping to the past.

note: i usually like to stay very vanilla and keep elytra like how they are but this chapter is flight focused (and sorry not very gory) so i thought it be more fun aesthetically to make them have unique 'skins' for their elytra. etho is a bat, bdubs is a golden eagle. i have thoughts on Why but i wont bore you w that here lol

Read under cut! Or on AO3

Etho's heart wasn't racing- he wasn't afraid by any means. This was just... inconvenient. Between all his antics with Bdubs, they surprisingly hadn't had much direct contact this season. Which was probably good considering how much he kept pissing Bdubs off with his irritating pranks. Slipping in and out of Bdubs' base without a problem was part of it- but now hiding behind a building after hearing his friend logging on for the day- Etho wasn't sure he'd get out this one quick enough.

Maybe his footsteps would blend with the muffled buzzing of bees, or he'd be too distracted by something else to care... But as Etho looked out from his spot, he could see he had little chance to get through the portal from here. Rockets would be a dead give away, even if it got him off the ground. Better than nothing, though?

He could hear Bdubs walking around not far off, opening shulkers and seemingly distracted by whatever plans he'd already made today. Slowly, Etho started to move from his hiding spot, glancing from Bdubs and over to the bridge not far off. As long as he could get there and use it as a launching point, he'd be able to speed on out of there without trouble. Bdubs wouldn't have enough time to react.

Off on one foot, Etho stepped into the open with his wings unfurled. But only a few paces out, Bdubs must've heard the scuff of his shoes against the cobblestone road. For a moment he was like a deer in the headlights, freezing mid-pace as Bdubs stared at him from his building supplies not far off.

“Etho?” Bdubs stared at him, then a look of suspicion crossed his face. “What're you..”

He didn't give Bdubs a chance to finish, as he darted off for his escape.

“Hey!”

Bdubs' shout was already faint as Etho stepped onto the rail of the bridge, wings stretched wide and ready. With one flap of his webbed wings, the rocket in his hand allowed him to take off with ease.

Bdubs followed after him, watching Etho take off into the air. “Ohh, you're not getting away.”

With that, Bdubs' launched himself after Etho- heavy brown feathers flapping quickly to get off the ground. A quick rocket boost got him closer and closer. With his arms outstretched, Bdubs grabbed Etho from behind, latching his grip around Etho's waist.

“Bdubs-” Etho looked back at him in surprise. There was a slight drop in his altitude with the added weight, as Etho tried to regain his speed.

“What do you think you're doing, snooping around my base?” Bdubs said with a huff, trying to keep them both steady in the air.

“Uh, just paying a visit,” Etho said quickly, “Now let go of me-”

“No, no- I know what you've been doing around here.” Bdubs said with a laugh, “You aren't just getting' away easy!”

Etho continued to struggle against Bdubs, using his strength to try and pry him off. Their altitude was faltering, no matter how furiously Etho flapped his wings.

“Bdubs you're gonna get us killed-”

“Who said I wasn't trying to kill you?”

There was grunt, and a gasp, as Etho finally pried the other off him. Bdubs fell gracefully, prepared to make a solid landing upon one of the rooftops of his builds. His large wings helped him stay balanced, recovering easily.

Etho found himself gliding downwards, stamina low after the whole situation. He'd lost enough speed anyways, that he was already close hitting the ground anyways. Many houses down the village, Etho landed upon a roof as well, looking back at where Bdubs was.

“I'm gonna leave now, Bdubs.” Etho only raising his voice slightly in the quiet village.

“Leave? No you're not, I'm gonna get you.” Bdubs sounded confident.

Etho looked amused and chuckled, “No you're not. You're not gonna kill me, either... you're being over dramatic.”

“I'm not over dramatic!” Bdubs shouted back.

“Fine, come and get me then!” Etho replied, readying himself. “You're not gonna catch me, though!”

Etho could have a little fun, especially if it meant showing Bdubs his confidence wasn't enough to beat him at something. With a hiss, his rockets went off and gave him a boost into the air. It found it amusing that Bdubs sounded so annoyed at him, even to the point of threats... By no means was he convinced Bdubs would get to that point. He'd hardly touched him all season anyways.

He flew up with great speed, but that apparently wasn't fast enough to stop a very determined Bdubs. Etho glanced down to see him on his tail, and started to lean out of his direction. But soon enough the two found themselves in a mid-air tangle, Etho trying to avoid him and Bdubs doing nothing but following right behind. Each dive Bdubs took to get closer, Etho dodged out of the way. They twirled and twisted around each other in the sky and the more Bdubs' attempts to catch him failed, the more frustrated he became. He wanted height, he wanted to get above Etho. If he could get the right speed, maybe he could knock him out of the air himself.

Etho watched in slight confusion as Bdubs turned away, and boosted himself higher. The sunlight rimmed his massive wingspan, and if wasn't Etho watching him, there was a chance you'd be intimidated by it. Soon enough though, Etho got the idea, as he saw Bdubs hang in the air, taking a moment to study him. Diving lower, Etho wanted to take some tight turns in hopes of throwing Bdubs off, potentially crashing or clipping his wings on a tree.

The wind whipped violently beside them as they built up speed, and Bdubs' plan was working well so far- diving from much higher above, he was gaining on Etho with ease. He wasn't the best flier when it came to the conditions that Etho was putting him in, but he had his sights focused and he was determined to catch him.

With a glance over his shoulder, Etho saw Bdubs right on him with his arms outstretched. His eyes widened slightly when he felt Bdubs' arms around him yet again- but this time their positions had his wings pinned down.

“Ha!” Bdubs exclaimed, continuing to carry on with his building velocity. “I told you-”

He found himself cut off as he watched Etho pull out the sword from his waist. “What're you gonna do now? Are you gonna drop me? Cause if you don't..”

“No- I- I'll..” Bdubs hesitated, and his flight faltered. They were dipping closer to the ground, fast.

“You're-” Etho glanced downward, and prodded the sword at Bdubs as a means to threaten him. “You're not gonna kill me so, just let me go so I can glide down.”

“Oh you-” Bdubs huffed, “I will. I will right now!”

“No,” Etho said as he held his sword out for a swing, you won't.”

He swung down, right for Bdubs' wings. It was clumsy in their awkward flight but it sliced right near the coverts, close enough to make a small cut on the flesh.

“Hey-” Bdubs' griped loosened for a moment as he felt the burn of the cut.

Again, Etho swung and hit the tips of a few primaries this time.

Poor decisions are always made when Bdubs is overcome with frustration and stubbornness. There was no way he'd gain height after adding Etho's weight to him or with the sting of his damaged wing, so he decided to use that. Gripping Etho tight, Bdubs let himself fall closer and closer to the ground until he could push him right into it. The cobble and dirt road was not a welcoming cushion as Etho quickly met with it. Back against the ground, Bdubs' crashed him straight into the hard surface. Dust and gravel flew into the air at their impact, Bdubs carrying him through the whole ride so they couldn't loose speed on each and every bump.

Both of their wings naturally folded once they came to a halt together. The crash was surprisingly exhilarating, Bdubs out of breath as he kept his weight on Etho. However, Etho wasn't dead as much as Bdubs threatened moments before.

“...Okay, that hurt.” There was a breathless chuckle as Etho looked up at Bdubs, trying not to groan as he shifted underneath him.

Etho weakly put his hands against Bdubs and pushed him to the side. When he pushed himself off the ground he couldn't help but groan. His head ached and his back felt like it was on fire with the gravel that worked its way through the material of his clothes. Bdubs sat there, a bit dazed but grinning at nothing.

Etho looked up at him. “I was right though. You weren't gonna kill me.”

That seemed to take Bdubs out of his thoughts. “Uh, I tried.”

“No you didn't,” Etho teased, “You weren't even close. Come on, you could right now- I'm vulnerable!”

“I-” Bdubs hesitated, glancing away. “Okay fine, just get goin' then.”

“Gladly.”

As soon as Etho finished dusting himself off, He walked off towards the Nether portal beneath the bridge. He was not in the mood to stretch his muscles with flying again- even if Bdubs didn't kill him, boy was he sure in pain. It almost wouldn't been better to respawn uninjured than to walk around while those scrapes healed up.

Bdubs sighed as he stared at where Etho left him. Shifting uncomfortably at the thoughts left on his mind. He thought he tried. That he tried to kill Etho- but he didn't try. Maybe it was the awkwardness of catching Etho in the middle of his shenanigans after months of waiting and waiting and never seeing him. They'd been quietly, silently, messing with each other all the way through and he'd gotten used to it. Low stakes, and all. Awkwardly stumbling his way into a physical altercation was not in his plans... he was rusty. But the rush of adrenaline left a spark in him that he'd really forgotten.

[bellshazes]

🐸 + 🐧 !

🐸 What year did you start watching hermitcraft?

2018-19? My only interaction with MC or MC content at that point was Mumbo's redstone videos, and at some point I binged his HCs6 before s7 started.

🐧 What is your favourite season?

Season 7. I watched a solid majority of the hermits' entire seasons during lockdown (Mumbo, Grian, Scar, Bdubs, Etho, Joe, Cleo, False, Xisuma, Keralis, Beef, Doc, Impulse, Iskall, Stress, xB, and Tango, plus misc episodes from a couple others) and it was my very first season watching live. It was a super gradual build up but I love Iskall's idea for the shopping district and how distinct and central it is, I love so so so many of the builds I can't name them all, I love all the hermit interactions, it's how I got introduced to many of my current favorites, all the specific events like the Head Games or Decked Out and stat poker or the games district and the base swap/secret bases, more than I can name. A perfect storm of things that just makes it really special to me, and while I still very very much enjoy HC I don't think I'll ever have the time or desire to watch a season so comprehensively again.

Funny enough though, I actually can't stand the Mycelium Resistance stuff - not because it sucks, but I felt the exact same during the s6 civil war, I do NOT enjoy serverwide versus things at all. The mayor stuff was fun but pushing it at times as well LMAO.

[ethtyn]

I GET TO INTRODUCE SOMEONE TO THE WONDERS OF ETHO CONTENT SO HERE'S A POST.

i'm going to preface this by saying i adore Etho. i love him with my whole heart and soul actually. but i have also been watching his content for Literally A Decade so i have probably forgotten some of his classics. if i did, PLEASE CHIME IN!

with that disclaimer out of the way, onward! to the New Ethowatcher Primer Post™!

i think Etho is arguably best known for his Minecraft singleplayer let's play, but at the time i'm writing this post, he's uploaded 571 episodes. that's intimidating! so in my opinion, a good primer for this series is his episode 550 world tour. it's 2 years old at this point, but catching up on 21 episodes afterwards is nothing compared to almost 600, and gives you a great reference point for everything that's been accomplished in the world so far - and if you like the world tour enough, you can go back and watch from the beginning!

he was also a member of the Mindcrack SMP. Mindcrack was to people then as Hermitcraft is today; everybody wanted to be a member. a good place to start with his Mindcrack series is season 4. that being said, if you only want to watch a single episode, try episode 10 king of the ladder (the origin of "Ladders" as a nickname for Etho) or season 3 the trial ("why's he got chocolate on his knees?") for wacky hijinks, season 3 final tour for the builds he did that season, or season 4 end of season 4 for the same reason.

he is currently a member of Hermitcraft; due to personal reasons he had to stop uploading in the middle of season 8 and has uploaded only sporadically during season 9. therefore most people usually recommend his hermitcraft season 7 as the best place to start, and for good reason. he builds extremely weird shit (The Monstrosity my beloved), experiments with doing noteblock covers of popular songs, plays ridiculous amounts of Decked Out (trust me. his runs are so fun to watch), participates in a resistance even though he has no idea what's going on (him being a Lorephobe™ means i had no idea Hermitcraft did Lore™ until season 9), makes a business purely to scam people...it's a classic for a reason. oooooo you watch to watch Etho's Hermitcraft S7 so badddddd

he also does modded series occasionally! his project ozone 2 series is a CLASSIC and i highly recommend watching, specifically for Taxes (you'll find out), but also because it is SO enjoyable watching a man be incredibly technical about a modpack even though you have no idea what he's saying most of the time. (i fully zone out during full episodes of this series sometimes. but still rewatch it every couple of years or so. it's chill.)

his original terrafirmacraft series is also one i remember fondly. this modpack is essentially Minecraft, But Hard Mode; more realistic physics and crafting make things much more difficult for the player and it's super interesting, in my opinion. he was also doing a series in an updated/forked version of the pack, called terrafirmapunk, but iirc his world for that series was corrupted and he was unable to restore it, so he had to discontinue it. RIP Chester ):

his current modded series is a modpack he collated himself. unfortunately due to the personal issues mentioned above he's only uploaded a few episodes here and there, but he seems to be really enjoying it and hopefully once things stabilize a little more we'll get more episodes!

he's also building a PVP map in Minecraft! just...slowly. introducing battle bane! we get an episode approximately every year or two or four. he recently built a simplified version on the Hermitcraft server for their recent charity stream and they played a round at the end!

of course, you're always welcome to just...watch his stuff from the beginning if you're a weirdo completionist like me (/derog /j). however, be warned that he is (affectionately) known as Your Favourite Minecraft YouTuber's Favourite Minecraft YouTuber for a reason, and has been on the platform for almost a decade and a half at this point. his early content is therefore much different than his current content and sometimes hard for new watchers to enjoy. i really feel like he's hit his stride in terms of talking to viewers in the last five years and it's much easier to jump in on his newer content, BUT that's just my opinion. ymmv!

i'll add episodes or clips to this post as i think of them or as they're mentioned, so again please don't be afraid to chime in with your opinions on things you think i should have added!

and above all else: ethogirls unite 😌

--

EDIT: HOW COULD I FORGET TEAM CANADA AND BDUBS. thank you @butterflycrafting for the reminder & the recommendations! further edits are going under the cut so as not to completely overtake your dashes with this post :')

Team Canada is comprised of Etho, PauseUnpause, & VintageBeef. they're all, as you might be able to guess, Canadian! they all played together on Mindcrack as well as doing series together. some faves:

pranking OCD Zisteau is an oldie but a goodie. Zisteau logs in while they're pranking him.

their sky factory 2.5 series is great. it's been awhile since i've personally watched it but their banter is always fantastic so i'm recommending it anyway.

watch them escape the Nether, but watch pause's video because it's unedited and you get the full experience that way.

i personally LOVED their capture the monument series back in the day. it's been long enough since i've watched them that i don't remember which one was my personal favourite, but here's the first episode of diversity 3 to see if it's up your alley anyway.

edit: MORE TEAM CANADA GOODNESS courtesy of @catmaidetho - [Etho voice] labyrinth of puzzles! it has, again, been a Hot Minute since i've watched this series but also i Know it's a solid rec so it goes on the list.

edit: @catmaidetho & @fartherlands suggest team canada r.a.d.! either i never watched this one or i watched it long enough ago that it has been erased from my memory, but i trust my mutuals. do the thing.

Bdubs (BdoubleO100) and Etho ALSO met on Mindcrack and now play on Hermitcraft together. i don't have any specific videos to share (feel free to suggest some!) but in my opinion Etho is the black cat friend to Bdubs' golden retriever friend. (that made more sense in my head, probably.) Etho is responsible for Bdubs' big eyes skin.

---

a nonnie wants me to tell y'all that Etho's hearthstone videos are worth a watch! there are five videos: just a random video, slow druid arena, consistent inconsistency, the arena dream, and beggku hunter. if you watch them, let me know - this is a series of videos i never did end up watching because hearthstone was a game that didn't interest me at the time.

funnily enough, anon suggesting non-minecraft videos reminded me that he'd done terraria is EZ with Zisteau, another Mindcracker. i remember them having a lot of fun in that series so definitely give it a try!

[beacon-lamp]

with hermitcraft season 7 slowly coming to an end, i figured it was time to consolidate all of the Informative Posts about hermitcraft that i and some of the other members of hermitblr have made over the last several months.

if you enjoy:

minecraft youtube content, but want to see more traditional vanilla minecraft gameplay like building and redstone

fun, lighthearted interactions between genuine friends including Elaborate pranks, collaborating on massive projects, light roleplay, proximity voice chat mod

weekly 20 - 40 minute long youtube videos and consistent upload schedules

chill grind stream weekends where CCs interact with chat and each other

an entire youtube channel dedicated to weekly 20-minute recap videos on what all the hermits have been up to so you don’t have to piece it together from the posts on your dash/timeline

insanely talented people who have been doing mcyt for nearly, if not more than, a decade and essentially built minecraft youtube from the ground up

give hermitcraft a try!  

you will find all of the information you will Ever Need below the cut.  it’s Very Long so view it on desktop.

and if you ever have any more questions, just shoot me an ask :)

what is hermitcraft?

the Basics: what, who, where, how

more details on the Basics

bonus: the historical impact many hermitcraft members have had on mcyt

where do i even start watching?

start with grian.

good mix of Incredible builds and fun server shenanigans.  instigator of many server-wide events.  interacts with many other hermits.  generally entertaining to watch.  but zero redstone knowledge.

check out hermitcraft recap.

great way to be introduced to other hermits and learn what everyone’s up to.  if you find what a hermit’s been working on interesting, go watch their video and maybe give them a like and subscribe.

official hermitcraft website with links to every member’s channel

more information on every hermit’s attributes and general vibes

do hermits every stream?

short answer: yes, most do!  but these streams are mostly chill grinding or buildling streams.  and you don’t have to watch the streams to be caught up on content.  check the official hermitcraft website for each member’s twitch links.

long answer that covers most of the hermits

what do they do on hermitcraft?

let’s start with some examples of their incredible builds.

hermit cribs: some of the megabases in s7

goodtimeswithscar’s s7 magical village with shaders

stressmonster’s bakery and ren’s star wars world

Capitalism

they have a shopping district where hermits can set up shops and sell items and resources that other hermits can buy with diamonds.  here’s season 7 shopping district set on a mooshroom island:

some of the most advanced redstone you’ve ever seen

if you’re more into the technical side of minecraft, you can be rest assured that hermitcraft has some of the Biggest Brains in redstone.

tangotek: a fucking madlad.  Singled-handedly created the minigame Decked Out.  im Begging you to watch his tutorial video on how to play.  currently finishing up his Among Us but in minecraft minigame. all of this was built Entirely in survival vanilla minecraft.  get this man to 1M subscribers.

mumbo jumbo: the man himself.  built a 128 x 128 block industrial district in both season 6 and 7 packed to the Brim with mechanical farms.  half the brain behind the masterpiece of engineering that was Sahara in season 6.  currently working on Pacific, the sequel to Sahara, in season 7.

iskall85: the other half of the brain behind Sahara and working on Pacific with mumbo in season 7.  also has an industrial district like mumbo’s in season 7.

xisuma: built an automatic potion brewer in the second half of season 7.  this thing churns out potions by the Shulker Box.  can also turn a shulker box full of potions into splash potions and extend duration all with a press of a button.

impulseSV: incredible example of form + function.  farms are scattered throughout his base.  he has a farm for nearly every farmable resource in vanilla minecraft.

etho: the pioneer of some of the most widely used redstone mechanisms to date.  content isn’t super redstone-focused.  mostly does compact modules that serve a specific function.

zedaph: makes strange contraptions.  he’s basically if grian knew how to redstone.  impeccable vibes and fairly underrated.

bdoubleo100: he occassionally does this segment called “redstone with bdubs” and it’s the only redstone i understand so that’s why he’s here.

what about roleplay?  and lore?  

yeah they have Plenty of that too.  

it generally comes in the form of self-contained storylines that involve most members on the server and take place over the course of several weeks in multiple videos.  it’s fairly light roleplay, if that’s not your thing.  but the plotlines also have a Massive Potential to be angsty and whatnot if you really look into it, which a lot of people also do.

here’s a more in-depth look into the Major Plotlines over the last 2 seasons (season 6 and 7).  huge spoiler warning though.

um also there’s this post that highlights how truly cursed hermitcraft can be if you dig deep enough hahaha.

so do the hermits only make hermitcraft content?

nope!!  many of them are involved in other mcyt content as well and are friends with other prominent members of the mcyt community!!  

MCC

mcc9 blue bats video essay: the time the hermit team won the whole damn competition.  a wonderfully made video worth Every second of your time.  especially if you don’t typically watch the hermit teams.

falsesymmetry: mcc10 ace and mcc’s First Back-to-Back Winner

lord grian dreamslayer: that time grian Popped Off, killing dream, tubbo, and fundy in mcc9 survival games

Vault Hunters

a modded minecraft server coded entirely by iskall85′s team.  all the content is streamed live on twitch.  

current members are: Iskall85, AntonioAsh, Stressmonster101, HBomb94, CaptainSparklez, Fundy, CaptainPuffy, 5UP and Tubbo

more info on the series 

3rd Life SMP

hardcore minecraft server with a twist that started on 4/20/21.  all content is posted to each member’s respective youtube channels.

every member has 3 lives, as indicated by the color of their name: green for 3 lives left, yellow for 2, red for 1.  if they lose all three lives, they can only spectate the world (like in hardcore mode).  the series ends when all members have lost all three lives.

the twist: once a member is on their 3rd and final life, as indicated by a red name, they are Hostile and their goal is to take the lives of the remaining players.

the members (hermits are italicized): BdoubleO100, bigbst4tz2, Etho, GoodTimesWithScar, Grian, impulseSV, InTheLittleWood, Renthedog, Skizzleman, Smajor1995, Smallishbeans, SolidarityGaming, Tango, ZombieCleo

the tumblr tag for 3rd Life is “#3rdLife”, “#3rdLifeSMP” and “#3LSMP” if you wanna see more content, as it’s Not supposed to be cross-tagged with “#hermitcraft”.

do you have any free serotonin to spare?

here’s a bunch of posts that’ll make you smile

scar’s friendship with a bunch of the hermits

grian, false, cleo, bdubs, iskall: why they deserve so much respect

same post as above but with an addition about ren

small hermit things that give you serotonin

why you should watch tfc

if you’ve made it this far you are Contractually Obligated* to watch one (1) hermitcraft episode and reblog this post.

*for legal reason, this is a joke.  you’re not contractually obligated but consider this: Please. i spent way too much time on this.

shoutout to everyone who’s posts i’ve linked and anyone who has helped answer a question about hermitcraft.  this all started because i was frustrated that people were writing the hermits off as cannon fodder in mcc and im genuinely so glad that many of you have given hermitcraft a shot.

[devilart2199-aibi]

not sure if season 3 is confirmed or not but any thoughts 3L/LL? something you want to see or who should pair up??

Ohohoho >:3c a 3rd season??

I really think there will be a 3rd season, it will just take a little while! Probably around the same time as 3rd life to last life.

Pairs I'd like to see:

I do have my favorite teams from past seasons, but I think they will probably try and pair up with different people each time! So here are some I'd like to see :3

2 teams here have new players! This is more for fun, but since they added more players for LL ya never know! Haha.

Etho and Scott would be a very funny and dangerous team. Etho goes with familiar people or solo, so being with someone a bit new would be cool! Scott giving Etho a hard time would be so funny. The mad strats tho!!

Impulse and Pearl would be GREAT. Pearl's chaotic energy with Impulses 'rise and grind' style would work well. She could push him to be a bit more daring and mischievous too.

Joel and Scott...I mean...I'd be hilarious and nothing would get done...

Tango and either Ren or Mumbo! I think Mumbo would be a very fun and silly team up for Tango, at the same time, Ren is a great ally and loves to roleplay. If he could get Tango into character that would be so fun!

Scar and Bdubs!! THIS HAS TO HAPPEN! They have such a good friendship, Bdubs listens to him and could give him advice on situations. Scar needs a friend man. Tho... I feel they would be super wild and either win the game or die ep 1 NSSJSJ XD

Etho and Beef (if Beef was added to the server) we love Team Canada and Beef has been playing a lot of UHC lately! He'd be a bit overpowered...especially with Etho... but, it would be very fun!

Iskall and Ren (if Iskall was added to the server) Iskall and Ren are great together and he could go bug Mumbo and Grian.

Etho and Bdubs I wanted to draw them sjsjs

More for Bdubs and Scar team:

Scar is a con man that sells shoddy tonics. Claiming that they give you great powers or make you live longer, ect. (He'd rename potions so that all the names would be mixed up. You could want a health potion, but you turn invisible instead. He'd also sell normal ones that work as intended, tho the longer lasting ones would be a random guess)

Since he is a stream punky tycoon in hc s8 i totally thought he was going to do this in LL!

More for Etho and Beef team:

If you watched hc s7 you'll remember Llama Dad. If Beef brought that role over to LL It'd be so funny XD I could see him with his right hand man Etho threatening people with their 'protection'. Then they could get goods and resources as payment! Haha.

Other thoughts:

I really liked the random life mechanic they added in LL as well as the Boogeyman. The Boogeyman role did add A LOT of drama and put strains on teams like crazy, but it was all for fun.

My brother and I were talking and he thought of a "bounty" type mechanic, where a certain person would have a hit put on them and whoever filled the bounty would receive a valuable resource. Or even points to receiving an additional life?

Premade structures could be cool too. Like abandoned places that have some important resources?

ANYWAY that's all! I probably had more ideas but forgot them! XD thank you for listening to my talking hahah who are teams you'd like to see???

[i-do-enjoy-ethoslab]

[long rant about Etho, ~1k words]

I've been seeing "Etho is a war criminal who will hurt you for fun" post on my dash today so many times that I decided to give my two cents on this issue and maybe rant way too long about this. Here's my central thesis: I think Etho tends to not immerse himself in games, "not immerse" meaning there is always a disconnection between himself and the game world.

Let me lay out the basis of my thesis first: Etho has said that he does not like games that are narrative-focused. He values player agency in games very heavily, meaning that he doesn't want to role-play as someone else in a game and watch how their story unfolds. He wants to create his own gadgets, styles, aesthetics, etc. in the game world. (Source: one of Etho's secrete streams)

Knowing that he doesn't like to play as the game's protagonist, but rather as himself, we can reasonably establish that when he's playing a game, he does not see himself as a part of the game's world — he's much more like an intruder, an outsider, a foreigner who just happens to stumble upon a new world. I think this serves as an explanation of his "cheater" reputation, as he does not play by the system (like a resident of the world would do); instead, he meticulously studies the system as an object, finds loopholes within, then exploits it if he sees fit.

I think one example that demonstrates this point really well is, not his redstone inventions, but his building style. Sometimes I wonder why his building style is so weird yet just... works, in an Etho way. After analysing a bit, I found the explanation that works for me: when other builders build, their priority tends to be how to make the build work with its surrounding environment. And yes, sometimes they go out of their way to build mountains and islands (...), but the intention is always to "blend in," to make something that belongs to the world their characters are in. Builders like Scar and BDubs all have amazing skills in utilizing their surroundings to amplify their builds, and their building process usually starts with terraforming. Etho, on the other hand, does the opposite. His monstrosity in HC S7, I don't even have to say anything, do I? A lot of buildings in his LP series also have this quality of "having the weirdest blocks palette in the weirdest biome but it just works." He builds from inside to out, functionality then aesthetic, building itself then the surroundings. That's why his buildings all look so out-of-the-world to me, and somehow when you go in, it just works. (Note: Not that other builders don't to this, it's just that Etho has really taken this to an extreme.)

Just in case you need another example — take a look at Scar, a master of terraforming. Notice how he always creates a story behind his builds first, whereas Etho rarely provides one, Etho only provides *functionality*. I guess a better way to put this is Etho doesn't build narratives, he builds interfaces.

How does this relate to him being a war criminal? Well, I think his "out-of-the-world-ness" gives him a moral code of a child in games. A child doesn't care if an ant has feelings, they just crush them and see what happens next, and if it's funny to them, they'll laugh. Hmm... Is this why so many fic writers write Etho has a god (or at least non-human) figure? Because I just love that kinda jingai-ness to him. Like, he's "cold" not because he is incapable feel emotions, he just doesn't see the in-game creatures as the same as himself. (I mean, he kills bats because their dying noises are cute.) Yeah sure the creeper had a dream to be an astronaut, but so what? Would you care if the baby carrot you chewed this morning had a dream to be... hmm... an adult carrot? Absolutely not! (Or maybe you do, in that case, I'm sorry...)

Even with real players — it's still the same. Normally when one's player-controlled character dies in game, one would say "aw I died!" Or "Damn you killed me!" The usage of subject pronouns reflects how oneself is immersed in the game, treating their character as their avatar in another world. Whereas Etho, who albeit uses the same language, probably is not as immersed as other players. (He doesn't bear the guilt if his avatar kills fictional block bats.) If he laughs at BDubs for jumping off of a 28-block column and die after sleeping the night away, he's not laughing at BDubs' pain of dying, he genuinely thinks that bug is funny. It's not a so-called psycho laugh, it is the opposite of that. (That might be the reason why I have a very "boyish" impression of Etho even though he's very much an adult. It's his attitude when gaming, I feel like I'm immersed to his perspective where real life doesn't matter, it's just the in-game world with redstone Kakashi man...)

And that's my take on Etho being a war criminal. (Sounds funny if you write it that way lol.)

[my rant starts below:]

I think the reason why I'm so interested in his way of playing the game is precisely because of the fact that Etho doesn't give a narrative. He simply shows how things work, which makes a type of content that is very very apolitical and can potentially appeal to audiences of different demographics. Whenever a person makes a story, the story will inevitably touch some groups and not to others depending on how the author's world views/values match up with the readers, which is the reason why sometimes people abandon CCs as they grow up; as their mindset and surroundings change, their values and taste change along with them. But I've seen so many returning audience under Etho's comment section, and audience who stuck for a very long time (almost a decade, even!). You can grow out of a story, but you can't grow out of that kind of... childish curiosity, the desire to put your hand on fire and see what happens, the itch to destroy ants with the cruelest way you can imagine, the need to explore what's the absolute boundary of your reality. Etho gives you that in a virtual world. He's like his own invention, the Etho hopper clock — it doesn't provide a specific context for you to use, it's just there whenever you need a decently long timer. You can use it in a farm, or you can use it to reset your note block tune.

Hmmm is that why some peeps really enjoy 3rd life Etho? Because he very much plays as a part of narrative in that series. Like he does involve himself in stories and narratives but he's quite passive in those. Idk. What am I even ranting about. Erm, why do you even read till this point I'm honestly just braindead. I'm not even gonna tag this as anything haha.

[acerace]

...you have opened my eyes to a vast universe of VintageBeef lore that I was unaware of. I knew about the New Hermit Order, of course, and the UHC invention, and I've watched a few of his CTM things but -- I will take all the info and lore you feel like giving out because Beef is amazing and my knowledge is so small.

Vintagebeef my beloved <3

So the thing is, right, until about 2016 I only watched two (2) youtubers- Vintagebeef for Minecraft and aDrive for Pokemon (and funnily enough both of them are named Dan irl). So I've watched most of Beef's videos over the years and have a general knowledge of most of his stuff, except because it's been like a decade I don't remember where most of the lore comes from XD

The thing with him is that he doesn't do Lore tm the way other mcyters often do lore- he doesn't have an extensive RP series to draw from like Grian, doesn't have a solo world with steadily increasing amounts of lore like Etho or Zisteau, and while he's played on SMPs and been involved in storylines before it's not really the focus of his episodes unlike with Evo or Legacy or Empires

So where does that leave us?

IRL, Beef always has multiple series running at the same time. Often he's playing on an smp while doing a singleplayer, often modded, series as well as a CTM or modpack with a group of friends. For example, right now he's playing on Hermitcraft, doing weekly Pixelmon and Building a Zoo episodes, and a CTM map with Slip. And to me, this translates to one thing: Beef is an adventurer. He travels frequently- he explores a world and when he decides he's done, he leaves for the next one. That's the basis of my personal interpretation of his series and his character for my writing.

Ok so reading this back, this got extremely long and didn't explain much in the way of lore, somehow? If anyone has any additions to add please do so, I am very definitely leaving out a lot and would love to see what other lore people remember and are using for Beef! I didn’t include the Hermitcraft stuff since my memory of season 4 is blurry (his base was themed after the Martian, that much I know, and he and Iskall were buddies :D) and most of the s5 NHO lore is best watched from Bdub’s perspective from what I remember, and the only s6 stuff is a single line in Hermitgang and then the Area 77 arc with its possibility of an NHO reunion which we did not get rip. And s7 of course had the cloning machine and also the Podzol Party as the main lore. So all the original rambling is still below the cut though it is very long, and I'm gonna bullet point the main stuff here instead:

Actual canonical things:

Invented UHC and was the only survivor of the first ever uhc (Mindcrack UHC s1)

Married to an ender dragon (one of the UHCs I think), later father to a different dragon (Mindcrack season 3? I think?)

Might not have legs if you choose to take that joke as canon (Mindcrack s2)

Was a wizard (RAD)

is a zookeeper (Building a Zoo) 

Had a wife and kids (Sims in Minecraft)

Part of the Trial of the B Team court case (Mindcrack)

NHO founder, founder of the Podzol Party (Hermitcraft)

Created a cloning machine that sort of works (Hermitcraft)

Played the Forest which is I believe the first time he and Keralis played together (look up the trigger warnings for this one, it's a horror game)

Was the creator/owner of Sourceblock SMP (featuring some familiar faces if you know Legacy, Empires, or MCC) and there is literal magic from a mysterious sourceblock of water that teleports people and summons mobs and probably more stuff that I haven't seen yet since I'm still watching it myself

Things you can infer:

Good with animals (Life in the Woods, Pixelmon, Ark)

Is a car nerd (irl and all of the car games he's played)

Is a highly experienced adventurer who has traveled through dozens of worlds both vanilla and modded, across multiple dimensions (Twilight Forest, the Aether, the Betweenlands, Limbo), completed dozens of monuments, fought in blood sports, survived apocalypse after apocalypse, tamed dinosaurs, and played a lot of prop hunt and golf with your friends

If you're looking for what to watch for lore purposes, I'd say the Mindcrack UHCs and Team Canada's RAD series are pretty good, definitely Sourceblock and HC s5, plus the Diversity CTM maps and Ruins of the Mindcrackers maybe? And Mindcrack Prank Wars for the chaos and the origin of Team Canada. And if you can handle horror than the Forest is fun and if you don't do horror you can watch the Pojkband play golf or prop hunt they're hilarious I love them sm I want a Pojkband reunion So Bad 

Beef's first series was a singleplayer series in beta 1.4_01 though he had played the game extensively before that, and was a big fan of Guude, having watched his own Minecraft videos. The series was functionally a hardcore one where if he died Beef would delete the world and start again! I haven't actually Watched this series so idk if he died or how often lmao. When Guude made Mindcrack, which was btw one of the very first Minecraft SMPs, he also hosted a competition for people to join, and Beef submitted a video (which is still viewable on his channel I believe!) and won, and was added to Mindcrack in season 2 :D (fun fact, Guude said that even if Beef hadn’t won he would have added him anyway) 

Two running jokes emerged from Mindcrack- pulling a Vintagebeef and Beef doesn't have legs. The first is a reference to Beef dying of fall damage (I believe the exact instance was him trying to jump into his swimming pool and failing spectacularly) and after the incident, every time someone died of fall damage they were pulling a Vintagebeef. The second joke comes from Guude, who joked that the reason Beef wasn't going to a convention was because he didn't have legs, and then he pranked Beef's base by building a giant pair of legs at the entrance to his castle so you had to walk between them to get into the base. This joke has long since died and both Beef and Guude feel pretty bad about it iirc because there were people who genuinely thought Beef was disabled and were emailing him supportive messages and stuff oops. So if you go looking on the Salad or find old Mindcrack fics, you might see references to Beef having prosthetic legs!

Mindcrack also brought about the creation of several Player groups- Team Nancy Drew, Team Canada, and GOB to name a few relevant to Beef. Team Nancy Drew consists of Beef, Pauseunpause, Guude, and Baj, who formed to investigate a prank on one of the members but I forget who. They're named Nancy Drew after the detective! Team Canada also formed in retaliation to pranks, with it consisting of Beef, Etho, and Pause, the three Canadian members on the server (not including Adlington who moved to Canada but never joined the group). There was also a Team America who pranked them with American flags everywhere. GOB is Guude, OMGChad, and Beef, who played stuff like the Ragecraft, Pantheon, and Monstrosity ctms together but that's way down the line lol

Team Nancy Drew is also notable for inventing UHC. It was Beef's brainchild but it was the four of them who first played it! The first UHC had the four of them working to kill the dragon with no natural regen, with everyone dying but Beef, who "won" the UHC. The second uhc was still dragon focused and iirc is where Beef married the dragon? Memories are hazy but they do kill the dragon in this one I think. UHC was then revamped as a pvp event and became a regular Mindcrack game every few months, featuring most of the Mindcrackers and several special guests, including Dinnerbone, who as we know Thanos-snapped Doc's arm out of existence as a result of Doc killing him in one of them

In one of the seasons of Mindcrack, Beef invited swedish Mindcracker and good friend Anderzel to go caving with him and invented ABBA Rules caving, where the winner takes it all. ABBA Rules is a game where each ore (and also dungeon loot like nametags) is assigned a point value and the person with the most points at the end wins and gets to keep all the stuff collected from the game.

In Mindcrack season 3?, Beef punched the ender dragon in an... awkward area, so when the dragon died and left the egg behind, Guude said Beef was the father of the egg XD I don't remember if I watched s3 so I have no idea if anything Happened with this concept but *history of the world voice* you could make lore out of this!

So Team Canada has played a Lot of CTM maps (which fun fact were pretty much invented by another Mindcrack member, Vechs, with his Super Hostile series! Super Hostile has a bunch of things called "Zistonian", which are references to another Mindcrack member Zisteau, who has a very wild singleplayer series with even wilder lore but I digress). In Ruins of the Mindcrackers, they had a running joke that Beef was Etho and Pause's mom, which is a joke we can leave in the past actually /lh. They also played all the Diversity maps, Sky Factory, Terra Restore, Uncharted Territory uhhh and a couple more ctms and adventure maps! Each map kinda has its own story so in Diversity 3 for example they were trapped in a simulation? I think? Team Canada also recently played the Roguelike Adventures and Dungeons modpack, aka RAD, in which Beef was a wizard with a magic staff that could do anything from summon lightning to control hostile mobs.

Sourceblock SMP is a vanilla survival 1.14 series that ran for one season and the series starts with each of the Players being drawn to a strange sparkling water source that, once they touch it, brings them to the Sourceblock world. It also summons a giant zombie at one point. There's probably more lore for this series but like I said I haven't watched it all the way through yet 

He has a Patreon server called VintageCraft and has done a series or two on there as well, and played a few UHCs with them, so lore that how you will! 

Beef also played a few popular mods, notably Pixelmon, Life in the Woods, and Feed the Beast, with LitW being singleplayer and the other multiplayer. He's also recently played the Zoo and Wild Animals mod a lot. He did a short series with the Minecraft Comes Alive mod where he married one of the villagers and had two children, so that's canon now :D he’s played a Lot of Pixelmon starting when the mod first came out iirc (he chose Turtwig in his first series and built a Grass gym, then made a Normal gym in another series in uhh 2016) and he still plays to this day. Quite a few Hermits played on his Pixelmon servers with him, like Wels, Etho, Iskall, Stress, Slip, Zueljin, and also Guude and Phedran (a Mindcrack adjacent player and creator of the LitW modpack) and a few Mindcrackers on the older servers 

Mindcrack and friends played a lot of other games too- 7 Days to Die, Ark Survival Evolved, Unturned, to name a few, so you can pull a lot of lore out of these as well. Speaking of friends and non-Minecraft games, Beef teamed up with Pause, Keralis, and Slip (a former Hermit) to play the horror game the Forest, which saw them stuck on an island trying to survive against terrifying mutated human... things. They played it a few times as the game updated but as afaik it's the first time Beef played with Keralis and possibly Slip and since the game starts with the Player's airplane crashing, that could totally be how Beef first met them in-universe 

I... think? that’s everything I mentioned in the tags? There is probably way more stuff I’ve forgotten that stems from inside jokes and things that happen within each series, but I hope that was a) helpful and b) at least somewhat comprehensible lmao 

[cassberry]

hey, I realise this is a. very broad question, but what's hermitcraft actually like? what are the vibes? bc I used to watch mindcrack uhc and I know a few of them ended up doing hermitcraft stuff (beef, for example) but part of the reason I never tried watching dsmp is because it was wayyy too fucking dramatic and emotional for me. so is hermitcraft a little more lighthearted? if so, where should I start? (btw, I know I personally love a good opportunity to ramble abt my current interest, but if this is too much info I'm asking for dw abt it!)

Please don't apologise for giving me an excuse to ramble about hermitcraft! I wish more people would let me loose to infodump so thank you for this! I am so sorry this has become as long as it has and that I took so long to answer lol

The best way I can describe hermitcraft is a chill, fun vanilla server in which the hermits collab together on and build just the most ridiculous things. Just so many big builds. It's super light-hearted and honestly, if you like just pure minecraft gameplay with great creators this is really the best place for it.

Now for a place to start, I would highly recommend the latest season, season 9. Whenever the hermits start a new seed/world they call it a new season, and a new season is to both give the hermits a break from the minecraft grind and allow them to start up again with fresh ideas. There can be callbacks and references to previous seasons as you move forward, but each season tends to be its own self-contained thing so you don't need to watch 1000's of hours of content to "catch up" if you don't want to.

Starting with s9 is great because it’s only been going for a bit over a month so there isn't a tonne of backlog if you want to see if you like the vibe. It has been packed with collaborative events such as the spawn village, secret fools and currently an easter egg hunt is running. S9 has been fantastic so far as all the hermits are at the top of their game and the builds done already are jaw dropping. I made a post with pictures of a few of their "starter bases". Starter bases!

(This is Scar’s starter base...)

In regards to lore like in DSMP, individual hermits may have storylines or themes their season follows and there will be occasionally a server wide event such as the s6 civil war, the s7 mayoral race and uhhh,,, "moon big" in s8. But most of the time hermits will be either working on their major project for the season, whether it be their mega base or somehow breaking minecraft to get 1 billion item drops in their farms.

(Season 8 is an exception here as it was a highly experimental but condensed season which had lore relating to "moon big". It is an incredible season, with many of the hermits sharing bases and all jammed together on a small island, but if you just want plain minecraft gameplay it can be a little jarring. I adored it but I can see how it might not be everyone's cup of tea.) 

If you do end up wanting to watch previous seasons (which I do highly recommend), I would personally start with s7. There is a post on it that expands on this way more than I do, but s7 and s8 are fantastic and can give you some more insight into each hermit, as well as some great content.

Which hermits to watch is a little trickier because there are currently 26 hermits and they all tend to have their own style and vibe. I was writing out all the hermits I'm watch but I'm actually embarrassed how many of them there are lmao

But for the sake of honesty my favourites that I'm watching this season are Gem, Grian, Scar, Zedaph and Beef. (I would also be watching Etho and Mumbo but alas they're on a break right now ;-; they are very missed)

For hermits I would recommend if you were used to the old mindcrackers maybe start with Beef, Bdubs or DocM. If not, Grian or Scar are always fun, as well as maybe Keralis, Tango or False. Check out hermitcraft.com for a full list of all the hermits or let me know what kind of things you like to watch and I can give you specific recs :)

You did mention UHC so if you wanted something a little more self-contained and death game-y then please watch 3rd Life and Last Life. They are short series run by Grian and are full of a bunch of hermits and non-hermits. 3rd Life is around eight episodes and although it is very, very different to hermitcraft, it’s a great way to see a bunch of hermits interacting.  I could write up a whole seperate post on why everyone needs to watch 3rd Life and Last Life but I'll save you from that haha

If you have any other specific questions, please don't hesitate to ask! I can info dump about hermitcraft all day, every day!

[megablade]

if soneone was wanting to get into ethos content where would u suggest to start ! im not into hermitcraft or that side of mcyts at all besides following you but ive started wanting to watch etho at the least so I was just wondering if you have any video recs or a good place to start watching his content !!

ABSOLUTELY <33 first off. last life !!! the bare-bones premise is that it's a crossover of a hardcore survival x pvp smp where everyone is assigned a random number of lives from 2-7, and the goal is to outlive everyone else. etho really thrives in this series (you've probably seen me reblogging a lot of tragic art - a lot of etho & bdubs art came out of this series) and i Really recommend you watch it! it's 9 episodes and it's veryyy easy to get into etho this way

and when it comes to etho recs i always recommend his hermitcraft s7 every single time for multiple reasons:

if you got into him because of last life, you see him interact with quite a few of the same people on hc7 as well !!!

it's relatively short compared to other hermits' seasons (37 episodes, all are around 20-30 minutes, 50-ish minutes max)

it's completed !!!!! and it's a pretty recent season so you can see his latest style of editing

if you're worried about too much lore... etho is your guy. he pretty much stays out of it BUT he causes a lot of psychological warfare on his own so you are Not free from the shenanigans ^__^

but outside of hc7!! if you'd prefer to see him do more solo content, i'd suggest his let's play (pick a recent worldtour like maybe ep500? and go from there... Do Not start the lp from the first episode alkdjhg), or series like project ozone 2 !! i haven't gotten the chance to watch it myself but i also heard his terrafirmacraft is delightful as well <33

if you want to see him in an environment where he's interacting with other people, check out his mindcrack videos!! a LOT of fun stuff came out of that server (including the beloved team canada). speaking of team canada if you want to see them do dumb stuff together, i suggest his ruins of mindcrackers series aslgjhdfg But they do a lot of other stuff together too so no content shortage !!

that's kind of my basic intro to etho !!! i kind of fell into his content hard and fast so i honestly find myself watching anything made by him but i also think that's kind of the ethoslab effect alskgjhas anywayyy i'm always here if you want more recs ahaha >:)