Feeling conflicted about the cyberpunk thingy impulse is going for because like yeah it’s a great theme and I like the aesthetics a lot but what I really like most about cyberpunk is the themes of corporate alienation and/or transhumanism etc etc which I know will not be addressed at all and in fact it’s kind of stupid of me to expect that at all from a minecraft series. Does anyone else get that or just me

how are people getting upset over tntduo game "implied hooking up" be so serious

The rulesbrain of main and it’s consequences.

I try to have space for people who are offput by sexuality online because lord knows the online space hasn’t historically been great at keeping sexual content away from people who don’t want to see it, so I do think of younger generations going around with at minimum negative early experiences around that. That really doesn’t set people up for unconflicted horomonal success down the road. Having said that, there is a kind of hyper-sensitization that grows in the fan spaces that have gone puritan that genuinely seems to be doing more harm than good.

From what I could tell, the end slate with the nightstand is tame. Simple and to the point: they bang. The fight is if that concept alone is a violation of The Rules. If I were to mind-read Wilbur and Q for a moment, I don’t think that this would be taken as a massive offence in their eyes, I actually think that they would be kind of hype that somebody made a game and have that be the end of it. The issue is that it’s less about them or their will and more The Rules that take on a life of their own to people.

Something that I’ve learned by watching main fight with itself is that all sins are apparently equal when you’re thinking in black and white. If people follow the rules, they get to be One Of The Good stans and outrun shame and blame and stigma and Ccs won’t hate them immediately. If they’ve been bad, they’re gross and everyone hates them and they deserve the contempt of the entire internet. This isn’t really true because people will treat mcyt stans like trash regardless of how well they’ve behaved (this is not fair) but it’s easier to cope when you think you have a degree of control. I think a lot of Main neurosis comes from trying to claw their way up from the bottom of the barrel without fully knowing that that’s what they’re doing, which is why it gets so much worse when they have the chance of being seen by the ccs.

To be honest I think tntduo fans are locked into a shipwar with a certain other Wilbur pair that people can’t admit would be threatened by him being romantic with someone else. As long as one team gets to play it pure and ‘platonic’ they get moral leverage for why they’re superior and are more correct in what they do. We can bring it back around to each subtwt having its own interests, and advancing those interests by using the morality of Boundary Culture as well as social justice language. A lot of people are trying to get what they want by being More Correct, morally and factually and whatever else they can get their hands on.

From a wider lens the opportunity to get rid of anyone, be better than anyone or call out anyone is hard to pass up on main. It’s baked into the system to push people out to try and control noise, chaos and crowd size, there’s no real room for 'redemption' on there. That, plus the massive anxiety around sexuality made this one an easy target.

Where I’ve Been

Hi!

Uh it’s been a hot minute and I’d love to give an update on things.

Firstly, I have unfortunately fallen out of contact with HayleyB, and likely will not be voicing Bede in the audio adaptation of “Shattered” due to my lost account info for Casting Call Club. We went our separate ways rather abruptly but I am very glad she gave me the opportunity to have some semblance of contact and happiness.

Due to this, there will be no update to Lizzy’s story as she’s undergoing some heavy redesigning and story reworking to make her less of a Mary Sue. She’ll still be that funky little gremlin who annoys Leon, but her story will not take place in the same universe as Hayley’s works. Instead I’m working her into her own story and her own universe along side some other Pokemon OCs of mine, and hopefully I will be able to make some form of a story with them.

Secondly, while my hyperfixation for Pokemon has calmed, I do still have one, and that’s MCYT! I will sometimes post and ramble about things from that community and hopefully none of them see this (I’m looking at you Eret and Cleo). I don’t see myself as becoming this big creator here on Tumblr, so anything I post will (likely) go unseen. I dont expect my shit to go viral and suddenly get tons of attention; and I’m actually really ok with that (personally I’m hoping for it too).

Third, while it is widely known between my friend group(s) that I have mental struggles, I’ve come to realise that I have a mental disorder. For personal reasons I would like to keep to myself, and kindly request you respect and refrain from asking about it because frankly its not your business. While yes I am willing to talk about mental health, its also important that I have privacy to my own issues and life. The anonymity on this platform (and social media in general) can only go so far before you cross the line of no longer being unknown.

Fourth, I’m planning a massive rebranding for my blog, and will likely be moving my stuff to a private page. I appreciate every like my stuff has gotten, but I think it’s important to move on with life in a positive direction and not dwell on what my blog was. I’m settling on a new look and am very excited to show off how much I’ve grown not only as a writer, but as an artist as well.

Finally, any following I’ve had will likely be cut. This is due to not only the reboot of my own page, but also I’m following too many people. For the sake of my own mental health I want to keep low on the Tumblr Police radar (and out of the eyes of people who know me outside of the internet) so I’m going to try to rely on a posting schedule. I’ll have content some days and wont others.

With all that being over with, I think it’s time to re-introduce myself!

Hello! My name is Sky (or Mellohi) / Hyacinth Among The Stars! I’m 21 and I use He/They/It/Gore/Sun/Storm/Lunar/Light pronouns! I’m a trans man and MLM/Gay! I write, I draw, and sometimes I (attempt to) stream games! Its so nice to meet you!

Misconceptions Regarding MCC14

Recently there have been a load of misconceptions regarding many of the controversies that happened this MCC, especially on Twitter and Tiktok, so I thought I would make a giant post detailing these and why they are wrong so I can scroll through my dash in peace.

1. Hbomb purposely abused a glitch in HITW that got Illumina and Mefs banned from MCC on the practice server. 

This one can easily be broken down into three components: 1. Misinformation about the glitch itself 2. Misinformation about the Mefs and Illumina incident 3. When does abusing a glitch count as cheating?

Firstly, the glitch Hbomb used is actually very common in HITW and has been around since the game was first introduced. The devs know about it and have not made any complaints about it because the usage of the glitch itself is heavily luck based (depending on the ping of the player) and does not guarantee a win to any player who does get it. Take for example PearlescentMoon who has used the glitch repeatedly throughout many competitions (i.e MCC 11), yet has not gained any significant advantage through it because, again, there is still an element of skill required to use it. This glitch is not only known by the devs, but has been used before in HITW. It is not something new that Hbomb exploited as a means of getting ahead.

Secondly, the Illumina and Mefs situation is not at all comparable to the Hbomb one. Illumina and Mefs were using a completely different glitch which did guarantee a win to the player because it allowed the player to afk on the platform and allow the blocks to pass through them. They were not banned for exploiting this glitch, but rather reprimanded by Scott and the devs for not reporting it to them sooner. Mefs and Illumina are still allowed in MCC and only didn’t compete this time because the teams had already been formed.

Finally, in regards to the idea of cheating itself when using such a glitch, the idea that what Hbomb did counts as cheating is absurd considering past MCCs and the various glitches which have been abused as well. I’ve seen a lot of people mention the infamous Wilbur Glitch and I think its a perfect example. The Wilbur Glitch is from the game Rocket Spleef which was not played this MCC but certainly will be in the future. The glitch involves the player becoming stuck in a block and seemingly floating in the air allowing them to basically secure a win without admin intervention. This glitch is much more OP than the glitch Hbomb used, and we have even seen admins purposefully try to kill players for using it (i.e Philza MCC11). However, even when players have purposefully attempted to get it (Wilbur, Phil, Quackity, etc.), I have never seen the fandom react so negatively as to accuse them of cheating. It is not fair to accuse Hbomb of cheating when he abuses a glitch which has been in the game for ages and not do the same with your favourite creators who do a much more busted glitch as well. Personally, I don’t consider either of these cheating, but that’s my opinion.

2. They removed Parkour Warrior because Dream was too good. That’s not fair.

Okay, this one is very simple as its just not true. This falls under the assumption that Dream was the only player to finish Parkour Warrior which is not true (PeteZahHutt completed the course twice and was the first to ever complete it in MCC 6). While the reason the Parkour Warrior map was destroyed in MCC 11 is said to be that EpicLandlord destroyed it because “he was annoyed at how good Dream was at it”, this is mainly a joke (think of the Ranboo being banned from MCC situation, while Ranboo isn’t in MCC there’s no actual beef and he’s not actually banned.) Secondly, if you weren’t around for Parkour Warrior when it was still in MCC, or have only ever seen Dream or Pete’s POV, you might not know, but Parkour Warrior was a miserable game mode (think Build Mart/Bingo but ten times worse because there was no chance to improve your placement other than just being good at Parkour). The game was 10 minutes of pure rage and frustration from competitors, which while entertaining at times, wasn’t the best for content when only two POVs in the entire competition were deemed watchable. This also wasn’t good for a competition because it meant that only two teams at most were progressing (and by a large amount) due to one player while the rest lagged behind. It gave the teams which had Pete and Dream a huge advantage and made the game unfun and unfair to everyone else, so they revamped the game (to Parkour Tag) to make it an even playing field where everyone had a chance to win (in the spirit of MCC). 

3. Scott had an unfair advantage in the competition and should be removed from the Dev Team or the Participants List.

This one is slightly more nuanced and may not have a definitive answer. Yes, Scott does have a slight advantage due to being a part of the dev team in every MCC. However, this MCC was definitely an outlier in that fact. Scott has been known to share info and tips with his teammates in past MCCs, but it has not truly impacted their performance on a significant level because the players knew a majority of the information anyways (the game rules, maps, etc). This MCC was unfair because Scott had a bigger advantage than originally assumed (it doesn’t mean he did it with malicious intent, it just means there was a severe oversight when designing the maps and explaining the rules to players). Also, the idea that Scott was guaranteed a win because he was part of the Dev Team is ridiculous and untrue. 

Scott has always been treated on the same level as any other player and has not been giving special privileges because he helped work on the tournament. Take for example MCC 8. Scott was teamed with Tommy, Philza, and Wilbur, and they were doing very well! Then came (wait for it), Ace Race. Scott experienced a glitch which allowed him to remain with his Elytra activated for half the course and allowed him to skip over multiple checkpoints and placed him in first. However, by skipping over these checkpoints the game corrected his placement and put him in last. This was seen as not fair at the time and the Red Rabbits did complain, to which Noxite responded that there was nothing they could do and Scott would just have to finish the round as normal. This glitch severely impacted the Red Rabbits standings and possibly led to them not being able to compete in Dodgebolt that MCC. Yet, Scott was never treated differently than any other player throughout the glitch despite being a part of the Dev Team.

For the next MCC, I certainly think that Scott should be allowed to play as normal. I truly believe this MCC was a fluke, and although I too felt a little salty seeing my favourite go from 2nd to 30th, I believe that it is not worth getting up in arms about it because at the end of the day there is a whole season of competitions where any team has a chance to win. 

4. They should have restarted the round and allowed the participants to retry the map.

While I too would have loved to see a rematch for Ace Rae, I would like to say that I, and probably many of the people playing, knew that it wasn’t going to happen. Noxcrew is very strict about the way MCC is run, it’s why I think it works so well. However, this means that they will not budge on these rules even in the face of something such as this competition’s Ace Race debacle. In the entire time of MCC, Noxcrew have only once ever restarted a round. This was in MCC 7 during Battle Box after there were server issues causing extreme lag for everyone (and Wilbur and Magistrex blew up their own teammates). It was unlikely that they were going to restart the round due to the mistake, and honestly, it might’ve caused more trouble than good to reset the points and the entire round of Ace Race. 

5. The Spirit of MCC

This last one is more of a general statement than a misconception, but I would like to say that I have seen a lot of newer fans confused and upset about this MCC’s outcome. However, I would like to remind everyone that at the end of the day MCC is a for-fun tournament which brings MCYTs of every background to compete and have fun. Yes, there is an element of competitiveness as it is a competition, but it goes against the very spirit of the competitions to be toxic and rude in spite of not winning or placing lower than you expected. At the end of the day, it is a MC tournament that has no monetary prize other than a golden coin. It is immature to slander, spread misinformation, or send death threats and harassment over such a tournament and I wish shame upon anyone who’s first reaction to not winning or their team not winning was to do such a thing. MCC is a brilliant tournament that has changed the game for how MC Competitions have been done, and it is disheartening to see the hard work Noxcrew and Scott have done be disrespected as such. I hope next MCC the fandom can come together and make this the lovely fandom event it once was. 

Idk where the trend of making fun of white guys playing minecraft come from, but it’s stop being sarcastic and endearing and starts to borderline dogwhistling and generalizing a large portion of let’s players to be awful people. I’ve been seeing posts being circulated around tumblr that considers all of these streamers to be racist/misogynistic/homophobic/etc. and implying that people who enjoy there content are blind and stupid to what they say

like i get that there’s many content creators within the community that have said things in poor taste, and there are some that are truly despicable. However labeling an entire group of people like that, even with the best of intentions, is awful, and it makes fans like me feel awful about our interests

I’m not saying that there aren’t bad people in our community, both for creators and fans, because I’ve had my fair share fighting off toxic fans before, and those are always the most vocal out of everyone. But idk, this is getting out of hand. Spreading this sort of negativity by generalizing people is toxic. I don’t know if these are supposed to be jokes or not, because they’re not funny.

Also what’s up with the joke of games being ruined if a white minecraft streamer plays it? What’s wrong with people branching out and having fun and promoting good games to their audience? I don’t really understand. There’s such a huge difference between toxic players and normal players in the community that bridging that gap is almost impossible.

If you want to make a call-out post on the toxicity of gaming communities and also address how social media algorithms promote vocal fan bases like the MCYT can cause harm to both outsiders and the community, feel free to do so. If you wanna talk about the lack of diversity in gaming communities (because minecraft, although popular, is not the only one that has this problem), feel free to do so. If you wanna talk about toxic gamers and how they influence their audiences, feel free to do so. Just don’t. Do this. Do whatever you call this is. Passive aggressive remarks about people you barely know. Making generalizing statements and demeaning jokes. There are better ways to address these issues than this.

or maybe I’m just blowing up over something absolutely trivial bc I haven’t eaten yet and I’ve been a grouchy baby all day

C!Phil as a father or father figure (A.K.A., Why C!Phil Isn’t A Terrible Parent)

NOTE: this post no longer reflects my feelings on this subject. there are a lot of things i said here that remain consistent, but also a lot that i am no longer comfortable with. i will leave this post up because deleting it would do more harm than good, but please do not use this post as a source when discussing things. it no longer reflects my feelings.

Back in mid-January, right after doomsday occurred, I wrote a fairly extensive monologue about C!Phil’s actions, motivations, and behavior in reference to him as a parent. This was fueled by a number of instances of me seeing people regard him as a bad, abusive, or otherwise negative father, and general frustration about that, along with assumptions about who is and isn’t his child.

Now that it has been confirmed that C!Tommy is not C!Phil’s son (as has been implied for most of the SMP’s duration thus far), I feel like it would be appropriate to post this. If you believe C!Phil to be abusive, or otherwise neglectful as a parent or as a person, I encourage you to read this post. I don’t intend to force you to change your mind on things, I just want to offer an objective analysis of his character exclusively through the lens of canon.

As a general overview, most of this comes from irritation with posts detailing C!Phil as neglectful in reference to canon. To make it clear, I do not think projecting onto characters or having AUs or headcanons about characters is bad. I just get irritated when these things are lorded around as if they are canonical, and not the AU they actually are.

To start, the majority of the “C!Phil is a bad father” content can be traced back to one of two sources: projection, or intense metagaming of SMP canon. In the case of projection, I have no qualms with that at its core; I project onto fictional characters a decent amount as well, and don’t mind people doing the same with SMP characters. The problem lies in when these beliefs are stated as fact, and people do not distinguish between their projection-fueled headcanons, and what is actually occurring in the story itself.

The second case, metagaming, is a large problem MCYT fans have even outside of just C!Phil. Metagaming is a term used in role-playing games, which describes a player's use of real-life knowledge concerning the state of the game to determine their character's actions, when said character has no relevant knowledge or awareness under the circumstances. In the context of the SMP, this means using information the audience knows, whether from other people’s streams or external information, to criticize the actions of a character in the story, without considering what information the character themself has access to.

This is a rampant issue. From the stream chats giving the streamers information their character should not know, or otherwise spamming chat with information or commands, like back during Tommy’s exile when both Phil and Ranboo’s chats were bombarded with people demanding they attend his beach party, to people making posts about the morality of characters without taking into account their actual perspectives, this community has a big problem with metagaming the lore. And, since this is a more general problem, I’m not going to go into too much more detail here, since I feel like I’ve covered it sufficiently as it stands.

So, returning to C!Phil, I decided to look at the reasons I’ve seen people cite when calling him a bad father or bad person, and go through them one-by-one to refute them in reference to canon, identifying cases of metagaming and assumptions made by fans.

Reason #1: Phil is an absent father

This is one I have seen a ton, and it makes me really disappointed. People constantly talking about how Phil is never there for anyone, how he just leaves to go do his own thing. The most common argument for this that I’ve seen is the fact that Phil didn't visit Tommy in exile, didn't attend the beach party he threw, and doesn't magically know about the abuse Tommy went through at the hands of C!Dream. This is a criticism I've seen of a lot of the characters, actually, with Techno more recently being another example. Many people have said things to the effect of "how can they side with C!Dream, he’s C!Tommy's abuser!!"

This fails to take into account that basically none of the characters know that.

As far as C!Techno knows, C!Dream is just the person who had Tommy exiled, and that Tommy has some confusing feelings about him that could possibly be gaslighting related, but also might be a misunderstanding. C!Phil knows even less! He just knows that Tommy was exiled for some ambiguous reason, and that Dream as a person is kind of rude, shifty, and mean, and was the opposition in the first L’Manberg war. That's all he knows.

No other character knows what Tommy went through in exile. Tommy says that as a heart wrenching thing in arguments, because to him it is, but from everyone else's perspective, namely Phil's, Tommy didn't want anyone else there. Just look at the exile as a whole from Phil's perspective.

First off, we don't know for sure that Tommy is Phil's actual son in canon, and it’s very likely that he isn’t. (EDIT: now we do know, we know that he's not. Throughout this post, I look at things as if the entire SBI family dynamic is canon, even though I did not believe it to be even at the time, simply for the sake of argument. The arguments for Phil being a bad parent or person are even less valid when acknowledging that his only child is Wilbur.) But, we do know that Phil has a propensity for becoming a role model figure to younger people he befriends, as seen with Ranboo, so we'll look at it from that angle, for the sake of argument.

From C!Phil's point of view, Tommy is this loud, boisterous, strong willed kid who was close with Wilbur. That’s... really about all that he knows. They haven't really interacted much on the server, and Tommy never once asked Phil to visit him in exile. Phil isn't psychic; how would he know what Tommy wanted without being told? From what little he could gather, Tommy was doing fine, if a little bit upset. And Phil wouldn't want to hover over Tommy constantly, because that would be annoying and overbearing.

So, Phil wasn't there simply because he had no idea he needed to be.

And, even barring that, why did Phil have to be there for Tommy? Tommy isn’t his son, and his only relation to him is through Wilbur, who is dead. It’s painful, what Tommy had to go through, but Phil isn’t someone who was somehow required to be there for him. Tommy is just some random kid, to Phil.

C!Phil has no obligation to unofficially adopt or otherwise babysit every single minor he ever interacts with, and it is unreasonable for the fandom to expect this of him.

The second argument for Philza being an absent father that I've seen is that he didn't join the server until November 16th, which was far too late to fix things. And this argument is especially frustrating because, even in the context of lore, characters cannot control when they are allowed onto the SMP. The only way to get onto the server is to either A. "hack" your way in like Phil and Ranboo did, which is demonstrably difficult, or B. get invited.

I would like to emphasize how Phil was never invited onto the server.

Techno got onto the server via invitation from Tommy and Wilbur. They did not invite Phil. Phil did not know all that much about what was happening on the server and, even if he somehow knew absolutely everything, there’s basically nothing he could have done about it. The 16th was the earliest he could possibly get there and, while it was late, there isn’t anything he could have done to expedite the process.

Reason #2: Phil killed Wilbur

This argument makes... practically no sense to me. I just don’t understand it. It is true that Phil did kill Wilbur, but in canon we get a full arc showing us exactly why that happened and that Phil greatly regrets it.

We are given a multitude of reasons as to why the scene in the button room unfolded as it did, and I’m only going to name a few of them.

Wilbur was intentionally rushing and pressuring Phil in the room, giving him no time to think or process. Phil's killing him is fast and brought on by this, because Wilbur intentionally didn't give Phil time to breathe or think in hopes of forcing him to go through with it.

Wilbur, in truth, made a half-decent argument that killing him was the best option, that he would just continue hurting people, and that he somehow deserved it. The scene and argument was manic and terrifying, but especially when he started pointing out the people he'd hurt that were right there for Phil to see the evidence of, it becomes more understandable, to a small degree.

Wilbur was the first permadeath on the server. Technically the second, but Phil didn’t know about Schlatt or his death. As a result, Phil likely didn't know the death would be permanent, since all he knew is that this wasn't hardcore. Also, there's no telling whether or not Phil knew about the "three canon lives" system at that point and, if he did, he had no way of knowing how many lives Wilbur was on.

Phil protested it a ton at first, and ultimately turned out to regret it intensely, to the point where the revival arc has turned out to be a product of what C!Philza has been doing his entire time on the server.

Phil has alluded to his character having “voices” like Techno does, referring to his chat, multiple times. Wilbur repeatedly said “Killza” when begging Phil to kill him, which could possibly be seen as him appealing to these “voices.”

Wilbur fully and desperately begged Phil to kill him, taking at least some of the blame off in some respect, and yet Phil continues to harbor full and total guilt for the action.

Reason #3: Phil displays favoritism towards Technoblade

As I stated before, I’m going to be generous here for the sake of argument. We will pretend that Wilbur being Phil’s only child isn't a factor in this at all.

(I will mention that in actual canon, it isn’t unreasonable to expect that the man would spend more time with his own friends, rather than his fiercely independent and also dead child, or the gremlin his son seemed to have some affection for, especially while still grieving his son’s death.)

But, for argument’s sake, we will pretend that Tommy, Wilbur, and Technoblade are all Phil’s “children.” In this context, we need to look at how the three of them behave, and how they are different from each other. Because it would be remiss of a parent to treat all of their children exactly the same, seeing as they are all their own unique person with their own needs and desires.

I’m going to look at Tommy’s behavior first, because I've seen a lot of posts saying something along the lines of “Tommy is the least favorite child,” and that irks me for a number of reasons.

If you want to project issues with being neglected by a parent onto a canon, non-AU portrayal of an SMP character, C!Fundy is right there.

C!Tommy is fiercely independent, sometimes to his own detriment. He doesn't like being pitied, and the exile showed us that he views any help he doesn't explicitly ask for (which he doesn’t often do) as pity. In the context of a family, C!Tommy strikes me as the kind of kid that will brush off any guiding hand from a guardian or older relative, and continuously insist on doing absolutely everything on their own. Taking that into account, it makes sense that a hypothetical C!Phil who is C!Tommy’s father would devote less time into making sure Tommy was alright. C!Tommy is loud and exceedingly vocal, and he almost always outwardly complains if he has a serious problem, excluding the cases of being gaslit and manipulated. Why is it unreasonable for C!Phil to expect the same to be true during exile, given that he had no idea what C!Dream was doing?

And what if Phil did spend all his time hanging around Tommy? Tommy would almost certainly get annoyed at that, were he not being abused at the time. Tommy wouldn't want his father hanging over his shoulder at all times, constantly monitoring or hanging around him. He’d want to run independent in the woods with Tubbo and do whatever he wants with no one telling him no. So, in the hypothetical of Tommy being his son, Phil would only really check in on Tommy occasionally, just to make sure he's not too hurt, but he would leave Tommy to his own devices for the most part. He would trust that Tommy would come to him if something were truly wrong, as he would have in the past.

Next, let’s look at Wilbur, the only canonical son of the three. Wilbur is and always has been a free spirit. In lore, Wilbur has a history of running off without Phil, only to show up years later with some big announcement, like the birth of his son, Fundy. Wilbur doesn't wanna stay tied down; he wants Phil to be there for him as a steady constant he can freely return to if he needs. Wilbur wants to be able to go where he wants and do what he wants on his own, knowing that Phil is waiting for him if he needs him. And that's how Phil treated him in regards to the server; he waited for Wilbur to express that he needed him.

The instances of Wilbur saying things along the lines of “I wonder if Phil would be proud of me” cannot reasonably be taken as evidence of Philza somehow neglecting Wilbur as a child. More likely, it’s evidence of Wilbur subconsciously recognizing he's gone too far off the deep end, but not being able to reel himself in.

This leaves Technoblade. For the sake of argument, we're pretending he's also Phil's son for now. Technoblade tends to be similar to a house cat in behavior. He pretends he's all strong and independent, and when it comes to fending for himself he is, but in the emotional or social sense, he's shy and nervous and tends to sticks close to something or someone safe.

Techno isn't the “favorite child” in this hypothetical, he's the child that needed Phil the most.

Both Tommy and Wilbur can not only adeptly handle themselves in social or public situations, but they both generally prefer to, and wouldn't want Phil stepping in or hovering around them. Techno, on the other hand, almost needs that reassurance of a familiar face he trusts, so of course Phil would focus on him more. It isn’t favoritism, it's simply that Techno needed him more.

And in the case of the SMP? Early on, Phil spent almost all of his time with Fundy and Ghostbur, but people rarely talk about that. He invested his time into trying to help repair his dead son's relationship with his own son, and worked tirelessly to try to revive him. He only eventually moved to spend more time with Techno when A. Techno actually reached out and asked him to help him move, and B. when staying in L’Manberg became nonviable and Ghostbur started roaming more on his own.

It's not favoritism, it's logical, reasonable behavior for a human being.

Reason #4: Anarchism

This segment also annoys me, because this is also addressed in canon. Phil was very clear about why he helped techno on doomsday. It was to send a message that the government was ruining things. If you think about it from Phil's point of view, it makes much more sense.

Phil joined New L’Manberg at first, helped rebuild it, and wanted to help make it better. In return, L’Manberg assaulted him, placed him under house arrest, and tried to kill Techno, who was off living peacefully. Phil watched L’Manberg change people in front of his eyes. He had hoped that what had happened to Wilbur wouldn't happen again, and he tried to prevent it, but he wound up watching it happen all over again. So, he sent this message. Get rid of the government. It's part of the main problem.

It's what killed his actual son.

Phil doesn't know about the things Dream has done. He doesn't know about the abuse during exile. He doesn't know about the manipulation in detail. He only knows the man isn’t very nice, is pompous and mean, but he has TNT. Dream was a means to an end and Phil's already done with him. And, if someone told Phil that Dream was the bigger problem, he would probably be inclined to agree.

Now, Phil should've been kinder to Ghostbur, I don’t deny that. But that scene between them on doomsday is supposed to hurt. Phil blew up L’Manberg knowing how much it meant to Wilbur, both alive and dead, but he genuinely believes, or at least hopes, that he did the right thing. L’Manberg destroyed Wilbur. It killed him. Ghostbur doesn't remember that part of it.

And, yes, Friend was in L’Manberg. Everyone's items were in L’Manberg. But nobody considers how much people were warned. They were given an entire day to get their valuables out of the country, and the only one who did was Ranboo, who moved his pets. They didn't get their things, Ghostbur didn't move Friend, and that's on them.

Phil wasn't exactly right, but he wasn't completely wrong, either.

Conclusion

In conclusion, C!Phil is not a bad father, nor is he neglectful. He isn’t the literal best father ever, but he’s not horrible, and it’s unreasonable for people to metagame the plot into making him seem like an irredeemable villain. And it’s frustrating how many people are so quick to demonize him unfairly. It’s not reasonable for people to hate C!Philza for supposed bad parenting. He has committed war crimes and other questionable acts, and he's not the best parent, but he’s not horrible. It’s perfectly fine for you to personally dislike C!Phil, and you can create AUs of whatever you like so long as you tag it properly, but it’s very hard to have a cohesive, effective storyline if people continue to intensely metagame the plot.

Something I've wanted to adress to Tumblr for a while about the way they've handled MCYT, sometimes very poorly and misinformed.

1. MCYT is a GIANT category

MCYT literally stands for Minecraft YouTube. This applies to LITERALLY ANYONE WHO HAS EVER POSTED A MINECRAFT VIDEO! Hermitcraft? Mcyt. Dream smp? Mcyt. Any lets player or game focused channel who's played Minecraft in a single video or series? Mcyt. Old channels who stopped posting Minecraft years ago like yogscast and skydoesminecraft? Mcyt. Random 13 year old posting a video on their phone? MCYT. Are there bad apples in that group? Yes, but don't let that take away from the thriving communities and wonderful creators also on the platform, many of which content creation is their job and source of income.

2. MCC (Minecraft champions)

Mcc is a completely non profit event designed solely for entertainment with preassigned teams. If you don't like a player being grouped with another, or hate a single player in the event, don't try to drag the whole event down with it. This is, in all honesty, an awe inspiring event. One tournament can have more viewers than the OLYMPICS, and have had tournaments where all procedes from streamers go to charity. Dismissing or hating the event for one individual goes against the good and the wonder such an event has created.

3. Dream smp, and the lack of information and respect it is given.

A lot of people complain "it's just a bunch of chist white men" which is both 1. Disrespect and 2. Objectively wrong. This actively disregards any female (ninachu, captain puffy, etc), LGBTQ (eret, antfrost, ninachu, etc), and minority (skeppy, ponk, quackity, etc) content creators. Additionally, a vast majority of the content creators heavily support their communities, especially their lgbtq fans, like philza, tommyinnit, and technoblade. These people have made a community where channels have grown exponentially (some even appearing on the news!), communities have flourished (theres a reason it is usually the one that glitches into 1st place on trending, hell, full songs and multi millions view animatics exist on YouTube), and friends have been made both in the server and the community, all of this without even mentioning the hard work put into the server's story and events.

4. Dream, and his impact on mcyt...

I'll preface this by saying: i don't personally like dream as a person. I disagree with his political opinions and he has done and said messed up things. If we are talking about his impact on mcyt though? He's an (unfortunately) vital player. His large subscriber and viewer count helped not only revive minecraft for the general public, but actively helped and continues to help grow the channels of the people he plays with (the dream team, all dream smp members, any mcc team mates, etc). His precense in videos also MASSIVELY increases success by nearly every recordable statistic for anyone who joins his server (ranboo, philza, ponk, quackity, technoblade, etc etc etc), many of which had a significantly lower subscriber and viewer count before the smp. The same can be said for events he's in, such as mcc. Finally, his role in the dream smp. He's by no means a main character, hell, he's not only the main villain, but has been locked in the servers prison for months now with maybe an appearance in a stream once every month or 2. Additionally, he never streams specifically to avoid taking away the spotlight from other creators in the server. Do I agree with a lot of the things he's said or done? No. Do I think his wrongdoings should drag down a large group of extraordinary talented players and content creators, all of which part of one connected story they all put together with love and care, with a massive wonderful community full of loving and talented individuals? Absolutely not.

Basically, all the "dream smp fans don't interact" should be "dream stans and apologists don't interact" or something along those lines, dont drag down a whole community due to one bad apple, especially when half of them dont even know about or like said bad apple.

(Also side note i didn't know where to put. The fact it occasionally glitches out BLM and SAH is bullshit, but don't pretend that it's a MCYT exclusive thing. Shows and movies, video games, sports, and irl events have all taken it's place due to the glitchy unoptimized way tumblr pins those topics. In my opinion those 2 should have a whole separate page or area so they can't ever be unpinned via any large event like they currently do every day or 2. Tumblr thrives of of fandoms and the interactions in said fandoms (why supernatural, undertale, the lorax, etc. Became associated with tumblr to a degree), causing them to lose traction and feel out of place in a "trending tab" format, also fixing the "it glitching out of trending" issue.)

(Also you don't have to but please share this so more people know this and learn, lot of missinformatuon and straight up lies are spread about mcyt as a whole, commonly on blw and sah for some reason? Not blaming them at all, just a trend I've noticed)

Back in my Zeta appreciation hours lol. You'll probably be one of the only dsmp (analysis) blogs I'll follow because of how positive you try to be, and I have so much respect for you. I sometimes have the urge to post negative or discourse rambles, but I stop when I realize how shitty it just makes me feel afterwards. So props to you for remaining so positive even when the fandom is on fire hah.

Anyways, I love when Tommy turns off his persona (though don't get me wrong I love streamer mode too) and just talks. For all the screeching he does, he has a nice and calming voice. Podcast type beat shit. I was surprised when he was open about his anxiety and getting therapy. He's generally not a too open or "honest" person about this kind of stuff, at least as far as I can tell (somewhat also why I'm not his real name is Tom or Thomas but I digress).

Also, in general, I think it's nice thing to see content creators being open about their mental struggles and how they deal with that. I think so far, Wilbur, Techno to an extent, Dream, and now Tommy have been open about their mental health (I'm not aware of the rest but if they have, props to them too). I couldn't imagine openly telling hundreds of thousands of people on live that I have some mental issues that I'm dealing with, so I love when they're open about it, especially as a person with really bad anxiety and ADHD and depression and probably some other stuff. (Though it sucks when the fandom also latches on to this and either babies them or uses it as hate fuel. This fandom has a weird track record with mental health and 'holy shit what the fuck' takes to certain plots, cough cough exile arc why is there so much victim blaming and abuse apologism??)

So in the midst of all this, weirdly enough maybe, just coming on and sending asks to you is somewhat calming for me. I could just post this but I think this "one-sided" conversation is fun. This past week has been a shit storm for this fandom and yet we're still here. Gotta find the light in the dark I guess. (Side-note: you're never obligated to post these, as is the general consensus with asks, I just like rambling and speaking positively of you lmao.) Hope you stay well!

Hey, feel free to chat in my askbox anytime. I enjoy the interactions as well! Thanks!

Discourse can seem fun at the time. When drama's happening, people become intensely curious and want to know what's going on even if it doesn't involve them. Then once they've caught up on it, they want to give their own input and perspective on things. It's natural!

But it's ultimately draining. Each individual comment on the situation is small, reasonable. The intentions are good. But sheer quantity is overwhelming. There are misunderstandings and miscommunications and genuine negativity mixed in even if they're not the vast majority at all.

You're handing a glass of water to a man who's beginning to drown. You're reaching out a hand to give but only push them further down.

(Sorry that's based on a song lyric xD, and I couldn't not share it.)

Anyway, the fandom is fun and I do love it! I've read so many great posts, seen so much cool art, read some fun fanfiction, shared some thoughts and received nice interactions. The people trending negativity one day are the same people who trend positivity another day. It's all the same community and we should appreciate that, flaws and all. We're not perfect. We're not better and its pride to think otherwise. And its always been this way - people talk about last year Mcyt like it was better but honestly the drama was always there, it was just smaller, but we only remember the good bits.

Heh all that aside yeah, Tommy's a really cool person. I admire him trying to be open and genuine. He wouldn't talk about it and feel so stressed out if he didn't care. He seems to care a lot about being a responsible person and nurturing a good community while feeling like he's not ready to be a good role model as he's still learning and making mistakes and he's struggling to deal with that pressure. It's very cool that he shared all those concerns. I really enjoyed that stream!

Plus the fact that he's got an awareness of his own limits. He admitted that he's had therapy almost casually, recommending it as a good, useful thing to do which is honestly great. Therapy is rather stigmatised and it's not necessarily something you'd expect from someone who seems so confident. I remember there was some worry about if they'd show Tommy's character going to therapy in the Dream SMP whether he'd actually depict it well and do it justice. But now we know he's had firsthand experience and recommends it. (Obviously that doesn't mean they'd definitely portray it well but is so encouraging to know that Tommy at least takes it very seriously.)

Aah this turned into quite the ramble. xD Cheers again for the ask!

can i ask why you dislike dream? im not being passive agressive or something lol i am genuinely curious

S’all good, kinda figured you weren’t being, and a lot of people have asked me this lol. There are so many reasons, and I’ve said this so many times already, but I’ll try to go over some of the main things I can remember:

1) Arrogance: kinda put me off how he’s always responded to criticism. Always kinda had an air of superiority about shit, and it never really bothered me on its own because I think lots of CCs are arrogant & I’m arrogant myself, but combined with all of the following, it became a reason for me to dislike him lol

2) Manipulation of his audience: look, I kinda always knew that CCs with huge fanbases, especially CCs who grow this quickly, have some kind of grasp of how to treat and foster their audience to their greatest advantage. I’ve always been wary of CCs that put on soft or nice personalities, especially since the whole Shane Dawson debacle. But with Dream, it’s been a whole other thing ever since his cheating response video, and I’ve never been able to see him in a good light in regard to how he responds to his fans, ever since. I went into it in a lot more detail back when I first watched the video, the day it dropped, but I’m too exhausted to scrounge that post up, so I’ll summarize: that video had a very specific strategy that he used to victimize himself and appeal to his fans’ compassion for him, and after rewatching the video for the third time that day, it felt gross and calculated to me. The way that he focuses very little on the actual mathematical part of his argument. The way he frames the issue of the mods having favoritism or bias. It was already proven on Reddit and throughout Twitter that the numbers the mods looked at were for good reason, and not because they just wanted to pick the numbers that made Dream look the worst, but that’s how he framed the argument. When I logged onto Twitter and Tumblr that day, there were thousands of fans who had latched onto what he said in the latter half of that video and coming to Dream’s defense, and that’s kinda when it hit me: this guy fucking knows what he’s doing, and he’s doing it well, and I really really dislike it. There’s about a hundred other ways he manipulates his audience, including not coming to people’s defenses when huge chunks of his audience attack them (even though the people had respectful and correct criticisms of him), defending stans so adamantly in the face of antis, and posting periodic alt tweets that help garner the illusion that he super cares about his fans; but, that cheating response video was the major red flag, for me.

3) Cheating & lying: as is likely no surprise to y’all, I think Dream cheated lmao. At first, I was ecstatic that he had actually made a detailed response video and put out a report with the help of an actual professional, but as I read up on his supposed statistical argument and dissected the parts of his argument that felt off to me, I realized maybe he had cheated. Talking to some STEM major friends of mine, who weren’t into MCYT but had obviously heard about the whole debacle because they like Twitter and Minecraft, kinda put the nail in the coffin for me. I’m not nearly smart enough or have a good enough memory to detail exactly why I think he cheated on this blog, right now, in April, but essentially: his main argument relied upon claiming mod bias, instead of a sound mathematical or statistical argument; there’s no way of proving that the world files he provided to the mods and in the open source weren’t altered; the statistical problems he points out (i.e., stopping effect) don’t actually skew the original mods’ model nearly as much as his supposed PhD guy would say; and the odds he comes up with might not be nearly as impossible as 1 in 7 trillion, but they still come up to around 1 in 100 million, which is still fucking ridiculous, considering that there are only, like, 120 million people in the world who play Minecraft.  Not impossible, but laughable that he expects people to believe that. But... I guess they did, lmao. The thing that peeved me the most about the whole thing was the adamant lying lmao. When you look at the situation from the perspective of “dream cheated,” you realize just how fucked up all his Twitter responses, his adamance in streams and that video, and the general mood among his friends is... idk man, it’s just highly fucked.

4) Relationship with stans: look, there are significant numbers of  his fans that take part in Twitter cancelling vendettas, who spread around information about other CCs and their fellow fans that is false and meant to villify them, etc., and he never fucking says anything. It really, really bothers me. There are too many instances to enumerate, but a few that have caught my eye were when Dream stans would attack Techno, prior to their battle and when a Native American woman politely explained why he shouldn’t use Native music, he responded and said he wouldn’t, but tons of stans continued to attack her in her replies for “being so harsh/mean.” Like, he knows that just one word from him will make his fandom follow his beck and call. All it would’ve taken was one fucking word. There are so many fucking people that have been harrassed off of social media platforms because of the hivemind that is dttwt, for christ’s sake.

5) Reddit posts: All of the above were reasons for me to mildly dislike the guy prior to the Reddit posts, but they weren’t really enough to make me stop posting about c!Dream or reblogging fanart or reading DNF fics or watching Manhunts. I kinda just clowned on the guy, answered the occasional ask about the cheating thing or something related, and left it at that. The Reddit posts not only pissed me off for their content, but for the lying, as well. Do you think I fucking cared about him cheating at speedrunning Minecraft, of all games? Fuck no. What I cared about was the adamant lying that went into the whole debacle. Kinda the same with the Reddit posts. I’m one to usually forgive creators who acknowledge past errors, obviously. It is creators who try to brush stuff off, or even worse, create an elaborate lie to cover up allegations, that put me off a fuck ton. This is the reason I could never be comfortable with watching Pewdipie after I realized all the shit he had brushed off, and it’s now the reason I can’t go back to watching Dream. There is so much evidence that points to guilt, including but not limited to: his first move when the slideshow dropped (before posting to Twitter) being deleting as many old Discord messages as he could, the contradiction between him at first denying the account was his at all then changing the story to say he shared it with a friend, the wording and phrasing in the political posts being almost identical to the non-political posts that were clearly him (i.e., the one that explains his demographics perfectly), and the timing of the political posts (some of them being posted mere minutes after posts that were verifiably him, like the picture of Patches to the cats subreddit). People can claim that he’s likely changed, and what this it matter, as long as politics don’t affect his work now, but I can’t believe this fundamental misunderstanding of why bigotry in entertainment matters. I’ve always had a problem with the adoration this fandom has for cishet white men, and the constant criticism of non-cishet, non-white, non-men, but this really feels like the final slap in the fucking face. It’s like everyone truly believes that it doesn’t matter, that his beliefs couldn’t have possibly affected the way he’s treated fellow CCs in his circles or any of the number of people that depend upon Dream, directly and indirectly, for employment/CC clout. It’s like everyone truly believes that political ideology has no effect on the way we perceive, treat, and behave around other people in literally any field, not just politics. I, just... Christ. I don’t really wanna unpack my emotions about this whole thing right now, so I won’t. I’ll just say: I dislike Trump supporters and ex-Trump supporters alike, I dislike conservatives who claim they’re centrists (every fucking guy my age does this, it’s infuriating and makes me want to bash my head into the nearest wall), I dislike people who levy their fans against criticism - even when it’s righteous - and I dislike people who lie about their past actions; Dream fits all those categories, so I dislike him.

thank you for speaking on callout culture! i hope you're doing okay :)

I’ve been around on the internet for a long time, I’ve seen the internet cancel people who didn’t deserve it when the ability to hold content creators accountable should be used appropriately. I’ve seen it done properly too, where people who don’t deserve a platform because they’ve hurt people or abused that power, have had that power taken from them rightfully. And I’ve seen people who made mistakes learn that they were wrong and course correct. 

Holding people accountable is good, but the modern era of the internet and the easy accessibility we have to content creators through social media is a double edged sword that’s being absolutely misused. And unfortunately there’s been a large push in the younger generation taking over the internet, towards an almost puritanical view of people’s actions. Satire is taken completely seriously at face, people’s words are taken out of context, and there’s an expectation that everyone needs to act completely unproblematically or your entire internet career is at stake. And the slightest mistake or an action viewed as “wrong” by this large majority makes these people think they have the right to witch hunt others off the face of the internet.

Callout culture and cancel culture no longer serve the purpose they were created for. When thousands of people online can doxx, harass, and tell content creators to end their lives because they have either unknowingly or unintentionally done something that breaks these expectations people have for them, there is a huge problem.

In a lot of cases, there’s nothing that content creators who’ve been deemed as “problematic” or “cancelled” can do or say that will satisfy people. There’s no right answer to give, because even an apology and a vow to change their actions will be taken as insincere. We’ve seen this happen before. 

Regardless of someone’s other actions online, or what they’ve said. There can be surmounting evidence of someone being a good well rounded person. As soon as people find one flaw regardless of the age of that flaw, or taken one thing said out of the satirical context it’s being used in, no one bothers to take the time to weigh those pros and cons of their actions. Given critical thought and genuine analysis to situations like these and a lot of them can be solved long before they get this out of hand. 

A lot of that issue stems from younger people online putting SO much weight and importance on these content creators and their value to these kids mental health, that as soon as one of them deviates from the image or expectation they have in their head, it feels world shattering and emotions rise and spiral. 

But there are a lot of other factors that play into the way that callout culture and cancel culture have become completely abhorrent in modern times too. Too much for me to fit into this already very long response. 

It’s just really disheartening and sad to watch this kind of mob mentality bare down on more people.

I’m doing great, still trucking along in my homework. I’m far more worried for how this kind of behavior is effecting the people involved in the techno/sleepytwt/mcyt situation. Namely techno himself. This is a man with severe social anxiety, current having thousands of people openly demanding his death and putting his family at risk through doxxing. He must be going through a lot right now. And I just hope that he knows that there are people out there who don’t hate his guts and still want to see him do well for himself.