#also ty for all the love on the saga piece i have some more art of her in mind and hopefully get a hang of drawing her lovely face too | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vyeoh · 3 years

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this is your chance: wax poetic about an Empires or DSMP character of your choice to a fan who is new to both. Explain why I should love them. I need guidance in this new and meme-populated land.

okok this is a lot of pressure haha. Spoilers for EmpiresSMP and DreamSMP below, obviously. I wrote a lot so prepare yourself, anon

I watch a lot of empires POVs but the ones I most anticipate every week are Scott and Sausage.

c!Scott (I'll call him Smajor for the sake of simplicity) starts off the series chilling, not really getting involved with the rest of the server, and staying aggressively neutral. After all, he's an elf. He has lived far longer than most of the other rulers already, and will most likely outlive them for many years. So, the best thing is to stick to his mountains and not get invested in the dealings of mortal affairs, maybe sometimes causing problems on purpose and dipping because what's life without a little spice right.

But then, this demon comes to the server, Xornoth. He's going around causing havoc and wants to send the world into an eternal winter, but he doesn't bother the kingdom of Rivendell much so Smajor stays tentatively cautious but ultimately unbothered. But then, the puzzle pieces start falling together. The first thing that the audience noticed was was Xornoth sounded like Smajor, but we mostly thought that this was just due to cc!Scott voicing both of them and there was nothing more to it. However, then, the people the demon starts possessing start chanting in elvish. The demon hates mortals, and the elves are conveniently one of the two confirmed not fully mortal races in Empires.

This culminates when Smajor stumbles across a cave that contains the backstory of the patron god of Rivendell, Aeor. Basically, there's two opposing forces, Aeor and Exor, and both have a champion. In a previous life, those champions were two brothers, where Aeor eventually prevailed and banished Exor. In this life though, the champions are - you guessed it - Smajor, and the demon Xornoth.

So now Smajor is like. Well fuck. It's my literal god-given destiny to be responsible for defeating this demon who is technically my brother, and if I fail the server gets plunged into an eternal winter. And I have no fucking clue what is happening because I've just been here on this mountain actively trying to stay out of the issues outside my kingdom. We watch him panic and teeter on the verge of spiraling for an entire episode, and when the followers of Xornoth go to the End to kill the dragon, releasing Xornoth's full powers, he fails to stop him. Smajor is a character who was used to being the smart one, the prepared one, the one who has the least deaths on the server. But he's also a character who runs away from his problems and ignores them. Before and during the dragon fight, we hear the desperation in his voice, as he's thrown into a situation he is wholly unprepared for, and it's bigger than him going to the Cod Empire to kill their king, or assisting in other people's plans to kill the codfather. He can't run from this. cc!Scott plays this scene so well as well, as I've said before, one of the best parts of Scott's acting is how he's never super dramatic, but he's so effective in the little things like inflection to make you feel, viscerally, the panic and dread.

So after the dragon fight, Smajor realizes, I can't do this on my own. I've tried and failed. So he gets allies. We watch him, someone who has so strongly been an isolationist, learn the benefits of allies and watch him learn to trust others and watch him learn how to get that trust in return.

My favorite thing about Smajor's characterization is that he's an incompetent protagonist, but not in the way of the "plucky young adventurer". He's capable skill-wise, and fairly jaded and very pessimistic. However, his issue is that up until recently, he did not care about the rest of the server at all, and by the time he learned to, it was way too late.

Also, in 3rd Life, cc!Scott and cc!Jimmy were canonically married and they reference it sometimes in Empires. Like, Scott goes over to the Cod Empire every so often both in and out of character to kill and/or flirt with Jimmy, the ruler of the Cod Empire, which may develop as a secondary plot into the future who knows. So ty Scott for giving the gays what they want o7

Now onto Sausage: his is a story of Icarus, his hubris and ambition being his downfall. He's one of the two followers of Xornoth, who promised him endless power in exchange for his servitude. He started the series being eccentric, but not outright unhinged, but slowly gets more and more extreme as the series progresses, as he gets brought more and more to Xornoth's side.

One of the best parts of Sausage's character, in my opinion, is how his gradual corruption affects the people around him. Initially, he got into a conflict with the Cod Empire and was allied with two other people in the Witherrose alliance. They were allies, but also close friends. The fandom liked to joke that the three had sibling energy, and I'm pretty sure the ccs played to that even more lol.

It was painful to watch the other two members, Gem and fWhip, watch Sausage get corrupted right in front of them, and see them desperately clinging on to this old idea of Sausage in their head because if they faced the truth, it would mean that their friend was gone. Eventually, they do finally cut him out of the alliance, leading him to fully commit to the side of the demon. Sausage felt very clearly betrayed by this, and declared the remaining two Witherrose alliance members to be enemies.

He gets more and more possessed, and we even see the other Empires, his enemies even, slowly realize that something is very wrong with the ruler of Mythland. He starts doing more and more evil things, like killing people more, making sacrifices to the demon, and eventually helping to kill the dragon to free Xornoth. So things are good for Sausage, for a bit. He won, and is more powerful than ever. Then he finds out: he's going to die. Xornoth's possession is slowly killing his soul, and eventually, his body going to be fully taken over and he himself is going to be trapped in the spirit realm. So how do you react to this? Over the next few episodes, we watch Sausage struggle between "the demon is literally killing me" and "the demon has given me so much, and I love it", all while Xornoth takes over more and more of him. We hear him exclaim that "don't worry!! I'm still about 15% there!" while trying to downplay every time Xornoth completely takes over his body. We watch him willingly oppose anyone who is trying to end the thing that is killing him.

My favorite thing about Sausage is that he is undoubtedly evil and proud of it, but he's also undoubtedly human. If you like to watch evil characters go absolutely feral, he's the guy for you. He makes the deal with Xornoth in the beginning, knowing and fully embracing the evilness of the demon, but at the same time he knows what he's doing is detrimental to both himself and everyone around him, but he's gotten in way too deep at this point, and to be fair the demon has held up its end fo the bargain, right?

Also, I would be damned if I don't talk about cc!Sausage's editing. Every one of his videos is like a movie. The way he does camera angles and uses music is so skillful- every lore scene feels like something out of a high fantasy action saga (think: LotR). Every big lore event I always wait in anticipation for Sausage's ep because his editing truly takes lore to another level.

I'm just generally very excited to see where this series goes. Empires is such a good mix of talented builders and good lore. Part of the reason why the series is so immersive for me, beyond any other lore smp, is that they have the settings to back it up. There is a certain charm to the DreamSMP's objectively terrible builds (with a few exceptions) but in Empires, the settings help sell the plot so much.

Another part of why I love EmpiresSMP is how much the ccs are involved with the fan community. I'm sure you've seen the memes about Scott being on tumblr, and Sausage regularly goes through the EmpiresSMP fanart tag on Twitter and likes art, even ones not related to Mythland. Most of the ccs, in fact, have brought up tumblr content on stream at some point or another. Like, several ccs have said that they read tumblr lore theories and hcs and stuff and sometimes take inspiration from them. Fun fact: Rivendell's church was inspired by my pinned drawing; confirmed by Scott Smajor himself. It's just such a good cycle of ccs and fans being excited about each other.

As for DreamSMP, I'm gonna be honest here, the only person I really am invested in in Technoblade. I started watching when he joined the server, and he's the only person whose lore I keep up to date with.

Techno's fun to watch because he's like the Deadpool of DreamSMP. Virtually unkillable, very skilled and scary, but consistently cracks jokes and breaks the 4th wall during plot. His POV is just fun. Like, he does wild plans and gives speeches and some of the stuff that happens to him should be called deus ex machine if it wasn't for the fact that Technoblade is the one who's doing it, and all the stuff is grounded in the fact that cc!Techno is just that good at the game.

However, the fact that he rarely takes anything seriously makes the few times Techno is 100% serious so much more impactful. His whole character has a basis in being perceived as inhuman and being treated as such, and therefore in return trying to hide his humanity. So, when he shows that humanity, whether that's fear, anger, or genuine love for his friends, it really makes you go "oh shit."

Techno's often said not to have character development, but I'd argue that while he remains steadfast in his moral code, he develops leaps and bounds as a person. Like, at the beginning, he's brought onto the server to help Wilbur and Tommy overthrow a government; them knowing he's 1) an anarchist and 2) very very powerful. His character was more of a plot device at that point and was treated as such in the canon. Wilbur and Tommy straight-up lie to him about their plans to establish another government after they overthrow the current one, while he was led on to believe that they were abolishing all governments in the area. But he isn't a plot device. He's a person, as much as he only shows the terrifying, blood god side of himself.

After the establishment of New Lmanburg (the new government its a long story), his friend Phil joins. And for the first time, we see him be fully human with someone and we see someone treat him like a human. Like, we saw glimpses before, with Wilbur and Tommy in Pogtopia, but Phil is the first person we noticeably see he trusts 100%. Then Doomsday happens, and Techno essentially retires to the tundra. During this time, we see Techno learn to be more human, first with Ranboo, then Niki when he establishes the Syndicate. In fact, the two of them, along with Phil, canonically throw him a birthday party, which is a far cry from his treatment in Pogtopia.

Techno's development is one of a god learning to be human, and I just think he <3

#vio.ask #empiressmp #empires smp #dreamsmp #scott smajor #smajor #smajor1995 #mythicalsausage #mythical sausage #technoblade #to be clear i am not an apologist for any character #i fully realize that they are doing wrong and I like to watch it happen #minecraft roleplay got be in full character analysis mode #long post

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monolid-monologues · 5 years

Text

Eye of the storm - Part III.

#14. (this TITLE l m a o - i know i know - but i’m dramatic, you know this.)

IT’S HAPPA- HAPPAAA- HAPPENINGGGGGGGG.

I knew this in December. i knew this every day for months. Conversations would go on = “what’re you up to these days” “i’m working on a show” “oh wow, when is it” “ *best guess* Spring!”

RING RING IT IS NOW SPRING

* * *

Ok, I fully expected to be a dark freaking mess in this last, final week of my 3-Part SAGA. 2 weeks ago I saw this mountain looming overhead - the shadowy giant head of my First Fucking Show here. Also 2 weeks ago: simply unsure.

I’m calling this post the Eye of the Storm because i find myself RIGHT AT THE CENTER of that really scary haze i could see only as a little dot from the perspective of weeks ago. Atm my to-do list is UNRELENTING at its FINEST but my head is clear and my heart is calm. In the center, i am feeling centered.

i got FED. real. well.

I slit my heart and read the blood for a beautiful room at Teatro Luna last Thursday. What i had to say that night focused on my depravities, but I left the theatre that night feeling incredibly heard, and supported, and healed.

Then i had my workshop performance a few days later.

I am now officially in the last week before my show hits the general public. My last week of “Safety” - is how it feels LOL. My last week of....yes... hiding. and shying.

* * *

The workshop performance that happened last sunday was HOT. I couldn’t have imagined three people as different as they are in a room together watching my play. And their feedback was evERyThiNg.

I knew we’d be running late. Lol. Heather calls me about being 30 min behind and i can’t/don’t say shit because SO AM I.

Sarah, though, is early ;) she’s the first to arrive. Sarah and I know each other through journalism (The Bull’s Eye) and Mock Trial in high school. Bbgirl graduated from U Penn and is now a filmmaker living/working in LA - HER SHORT FILM PREMIERS THIS MAY. She’s brilliant!

Then Robin, my big brother, tumbling in crusty af LOL he’s talking so fast about wearing the same clothes from last night, needing a shower, does heather have any cigarettes, because he crashed at a friend’s. he shows me the GIANT BRUISE on his arm from playing “nostalgic games” with his hyungs. It’s his lucky afternoon; there’s plenty of time for him to KTFO in the back of the warehouse. We hear him snoring as Heather & I work cue-to-cue - kekekekekekeke.

Steve was gonna be late but when he gets here, Heather & I are still quiteee behinddddd, so #safe LOL. Steve is Heather’s boyfriend. and he’s lowkey ON. MY. SIDE :’’’’’) and h-e-l-l-a supportive. Heather’s helping me with the show so he be coming, curious what his girlfriend is up to.

I very much enjoyed the micro worlds-collide moment. AND THEY ALL gave me useful, thoughtful and imaginative feedback.

I’m really excited for them to catch the revisions come show time.

* * *

2 days later, i’m on the phone with Robin. He’s called to check in how are the changes coming? We talk for an hour, i love it, he has more thoughts to share on what he saw, i love it, and i share the parts i’m still messing with. I’m deeply moved by the richness of robin’s experience. I’m having so much fun listening and taking in his perspective, and his imagination.

Of a moment when i start tearing pieces off of one my boxes -- he says

god that was so...unseemly.... i did not like seeing that.

Sarah messages me after the workshop continuing her response to the show (here’s the first 2):

Hey didn’t want to take up too much time so I didn’t say everything I like about your piece but I wanted to message you it so u can use it as motivation for the final push.

I think the irony of someone whose job it is to hear other people’s dreams being disillusioned about dreams in general and not knowing how to make her own come true is brilliant.

* * *

The thing is some ppl will be into it and some ppl won’t. Some ppl will think about coming, some ppl won’t. I’m not pressed. Yes i am fearful of all the regular ass things but it’s so fucking normal to be scared when you bout to do something real real new in new new waters. but we still STEP, STEP, STEPPIN’.

Maybe i expected me to freak out, and angst, and bemoan how hard everything has been/still is, because...To be happy.... to enjoy myself... To have fun right now, could mean, that, the next week could snatch that from me. Which is freaky. My fears compromise my sense of scope - tunnel vision - my own dreams could snatch happiness from me because “i wasn’t good enough” to succeed.

This Is Not True.

The pursuit of your heart’s food, your soul food, your spirit’s purpose and passion and drive, this journey is full of wellness if you seek it, and blessings. It catches up to you. It’s not something to “have”. We line our paths with it and we shine as we move.

So many things are out of my control, right? And i’m giving this project all i can give, right? What can stop me if i don’t stop me??????????

Truly, maybe, the emotional, spiritual, deep work that goes into healing from failure is the scariest mountain. When we’re feeling low, the demonssss mthfknnnn come OUT. to sink you LOWER. And low is not as low as lower. You feel me? Bob back up bitch. BOB UP, down then UP down UP down UP.

* * *

I’ve found sanctuary. I’ve built some kind of sanctuary. It’s my Me time, it’s my slowly but intentionally growing discipline, it’s my family, it’s my friends, it’s my art, it’s my interest in the world, my interest in you, and in me.

Build your sanctuary. Collect for it, gather for it, create it.

Sanctuary means there are restful coves and energizing detours that speckle my days, weeks, months, and years. I visualize them as perforated holes i’ve etched with experience. My self-knowledge, self-love, and my support system come 2GETHER LIKE A GIIIAAANT WOMANNNN (STEVEN UNIVERSE THAT PART) and they punch the hole, and puncture my day-to-day glob of errands/chores/distractions with deliberate windows of surprise, joy, and nourishment. I refuse and resist a linear life.

I’m learning Sanctuary as vital to the integrity of my time and my space. The Sanc-ti-ty of what makes my life beautiful. Sanctuary builds ME up when i build IT. I think sanctuary is knowing what takes care of you, without abuse. I think it’s the pockets of slower lanes and faster lanes we can drop into, for dynamic - present - energetic life.

* * *

I love writing.

The visibility of vulnerability is important to me.

“Special” is overrated.

Being “special” does not exempt anyone from the universe from sorting our most human ass shit. All the shit in our heads and our hearts. The weight of things. Whatever we carry but refuse to wear on our faces. won’t show, can’t show, or struggle to show.

I want to thank my heart for being a beast.

I want to thank you for seeing my pain and my joy.

I’m honoring my process and thinking about yours....

EXACTLY SEVEN DAYS BEFORE MY SHOW. Tickets available now!

* * *

i’ve committed to being vulnerable in writing every week.

previous letter: #13.) Critical Mass - Part II.

drop me a line

http://monolid-monologues.tumblr.com/ask

#tinyletter #rose kim #1800perfection #vulnerable

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