my problem is I think I'm clever

Note: this is not the most usual way to write phil cause I'm not very into the dadza thing so YOUR MILAGE MAY VARY but anyways:

Loner. As on other servers, c!phil really wants to fuck off into the woods at the first opportunity. However, people still want to talk to him (because friends, because he was the only person online, etc), so he was fairly frequently in company, but he very seldom sought it out. Those are people showing up his house, not the other way around.

He's cautiously friendly to people, including the minors of the server who show up phil phil phil phil phil, but he's not particularly dad about it. If you've ever worked with someone 15 years older or been the person working with someone who it's their first job and you're the old guy— it's like that. A certain amount of patience of expecting them to be chaotic teenagers, but he treats them as peers as much as possible. He's dad to one character, and that character is an adult, and he treats that character as an adult as well. This is also part of his (occasional) exasperation with dealing with Ghostbur, I think, because Ghostbur not only hauled directly on the grieving part of the lore, but Ghostbur also resisted being treated like an independent peer. This is also part of his delight in dealing with Techno, because Techno treated HIM like a peer instead of an old guy/dad. Phil will deal with it, if people are treating him like a dad, but it's always something he's on high alert about if it's happening, he does not fall entirely easily into that role.

Canonically grieving if you're writing canon, but boy is he Emotionally Repressed about it. Like a year after November 16th I remember emduo blogs celebrating because Techno had said something that indicated that Phil talked to him about his son's loss, and the thing is that was very much in question up until that point. He Does Not Talk about his trauma or grief unless forced to. But if he gets forced to— yeah. There's a weight there that he is constantly carrying.

Loves to laugh. If you get him around Techno they're constantly doing bits at each other, he's losing it at things Tubbo says, he laughs easily and often. This does not mean that he's not grieving (I do this too), just that— you know the school of thought that says that grieving is personal? He's pushing that shit down, that's not to bring up and include in an ordinary conversation, that would be rude to inflict on others

To return to the emotionally repressed point, not emotionally demonstrative. Techno says "for you the world, phil," and phil goes "aw m8". This does not mean he does not care, but he's not gonna say it. Kinda guy to show up and ask where we're basing together, not say "I missed you".

Always got a project, always doing something, even if he's just digging gravel or searching for copper. He's got a decent amount of reserves of supplies built up but he doesn't live or build particularly lavish. The house is spawn proofed, there's trident pools to the nether portal, he's got a training room in the basement— but the spawn proofing is snow and the training room is floored in dirt. The walls are cement and sea lanterns (which you can get by standing in the guardian farm for a couple hours). Contrast this with Foolish's incredible desert temple builds, and Phil ends up looking a lot like a reclusive hermit. He's gonna make his house look nice, but he's also living as though someone might come along and torch it at any moment.

Values any objects because of the connection to the people they represent, not because of the object. His ender chest is full of things like a character's first pickaxe and the friendship emeralds, not valuables (contrast this with his ender chest in hardcore).

PRACTICAL. Knows a lot about the game and how things work, and is making calls based on that plus the path that puts him least in danger. Will be out and about in full enchanted netherite to check on the cows.

Always knows where his exits are. The Philza Minecraft objective is to never be surprised about anything ever.

Ride or die loyal to his people, but his people is NOT a long list. And you can get removed from the list (see also, Fundy). He might become friendly to people he's lost faith in in the future, but it's always at a cautious arm's length. If you've done something to make him lose his faith once, he is always expecting that from you again (part of knowing where his exits are). If, however, he trusts you, (technoblade) he will obviously follow you into hell. Not even a question.

Chaotic, if he's not having to constantly keep an eye on a teenager. A soon as he is off the leash he's off killing animals that chat wants him to adopt or burning villages. You see this more in his time with Techno because Techno, rare among the people on the server, didn't require anything from him other than friendship. So of course Phil threw in with him with everything he had.

Swears. He swears a fuckton. Kinda guy to be in a call with someone family friendly, say damn, and then say fuck, sorry I forgot about that shit.

Okay so you don't have to do this part but *I* am in philza minecraft streams weekly still (I like routine) and the CC is now saying yeah probably I'm autistic and has referenced probably having anxiety and adhd in the past as well. He's not officially diagnosed or doing anything other than making jokes about it and he certainly wasn't doing that during DSMP but for those among us who are 30 year old late diagnosed autistics the signs were always there okay. You don't have that much routine and that much digging gravel without some mental quirks.

He will self-identify as not a good student to the point of considering himself stupid. While doing complicated redstone. In the real world this is because a bunch of teachers have literally called the cc stupid (shoutout to the teacher who called him a busy idiot which he has never forgotten, as one teacher to another I hope your coffee order is wrong forever) but like it is very easy to infer that he has not fit well into traditional schooling or ways of doing things in whatever backstory he has. He is very patient with other people (especially kids) being uh how shall we say. Non-neurotypical about it (he and tubbo were vibing a lot of the time) and would resist anyone calling themselves stupid and is openly positive about people's special interests and hyperfixations but oh HE is stupid if you ask him. He also considers himself not good at the game because he's comparing himself to hermits building and technoblade pvp and couriaway speedrunning. He thinks he's okay at stuff like good enough to stay alive mostly just cause he takes things slow. This is also why "phil can't read" jokes kind of suck, because he visibly has had teachers who accuse him of that.

Working class way of approaching interpersonal relations. I can't really sum this one up but like. Yeah. He acts like the guy you're doing shift work with. POSSIBLY the IT guy if you work in an office. Fairly relatable way of processing grief through humour, relation to peers, emotional repression, and understanding of family, if you are also from that kind of background.

you don't understand: they didn't talk to each other. sure, they did for Big Planned Things, but the vast, vast majority of episodes would only contain One Hermit, that being the guy making the episode. they might see another hermit on-camera but pre-prox chat that didn't mean they could like, talk without joining a skype call, and they often didn't (and even post-prox chat it actually takes a few months in for them to realize they could just... leave prox on and have random drive-by interactions as they may). it was really common in videos and streams to be like "damn. didn't know that was there? i guess someone's been busy? wild." or, just as often, "oh no i didn't know that was there, what if i'm not supposed to show the viewers, i should avoid accidentally learning more!"

and to be clear this was in part because the youtube "meta" was different then, right. like hermitcraft started as basically being a solo letsplay other people happened to build on and has marched steadily closer to being a place coworkers and maybe eventually friends hang from there. but i think in this season 11 world, where basically every hermitcraft video has a second hermit show up at some point, it's just... wild. they like. hang out with each other on purpose. server-wide storylines are not only now the norm but like, mostly don't have half the server ignoring them anymore. they hang out with each other on purpose.

no this actually explains it so well: "do you want me to do A Collab Episode" used to be a production. it was a rare event. A Collab was like, a specifically planned thing that a hermit would do rarely, and A Collab was also normally the only time they had someone with them.

A certified Cooking with Etho recipe!

Survivalism: this is stuff like knowing how to find and get resources, how to craft items, what all the mobs are and how to fight them, etc. Just a good working knowledge of the core mechanics of survival minecraft, including basic resource farms. The extreme of this is hardcore players like Philza.

Building: if you can design and build a beautiful base without following a step-by-step tutorial, this one is for you. This is also where most major endurance projects go, like draining a monument, terraforming a mountain, etc. This is Grian, along with many other hermits.

Redstone: basically binary coding, scaled up to however high your expertise can take you. Minecraft is turing complete, which makes redstoning a complete skill in itself. IMO most automated farms go here as well even if they use minimal redstone, along with structures like world eaters and lag machines because they rely so heavily on technical mechanics. Think MumboJumbo.

PvP: the ability to fight and win against other players, rather than just against mobs. Includes physical skills like good aim and high click speed. Also includes understanding the fine details of specialized battle mechanics like armor, shields, potions, healing items, and end crystals. Technoblade is a good example of this.

Movement: the ability to get from one place to another quickly, using whatever means possible. Includes parkour, elytra use, water bucket clutches, speedbridging, etc. I would also argue it includes speedrunning techniques like making nether portals with a bucket and triangulating end fortresses. Dream is this.

Anyway, if we're layering the usual minecraft low fantasy/cold war military/dystopian aesthetic over this, these categories could translate to professions and lifestyles such as:

Survivalism -> terrain guides/explorers, artisans, farmers, naturalists, homesteaders. People who contribute to their community's ability to be self sufficient, likely drawn to small settlements or solitary nomadic lifestyles.

Building -> architects, landscapers, infrastructure designers, construction workers. Probably involved in largescale projects with varying degrees of authority, most likely found working in a major city or for a wealthy patron.

Redstone -> research scientists, engineers of various subspecialties, mechanics, industry specialists. Might work alone but more likely on teams within larger operations. May or may not have scruples about how their work gets used.

PvP -> soldiers, mercenaries, gladiators, bodyguards, strategists. Societal role will depend on career path, ranging from captive in a fighting arena to high-ranking general. Relationships with others will vary accordingly.

"oh the classic fight scene finale!"

"Oh? Are we going for the fake play fighting? AWWWW, ARE THEY GONNA RESIST THE CHANTING OF THE DEAD WITH THE POWER OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP?"

"Oh 😳"

"wait"

thank you for this excellent feedback!

Any way you'd like to interpret this is valid, but for anyone who wants to know MY thought process MAKING the comic, basically user @storming-raumo got it the best:

in my head watching this as my first piece of hermit-related medium EVER, completely unknowing of irl grian and scar's friendship, i feel like all i saw was the fight as is; two friends wanting to make an epic finale for their youtube series, but being unable to hold back their goofiness.

translating this into "canon", i feel like their bond has grown so strong by this point that they just. can bear to kill one another. by chance grian manages to pin scar down, and at that moment scar signaled to him:

"I'm sorry, I can't"

as an offering here is one of the first times i painted something emduo related, before i got comfortable with humans <3

Ah! Lamentably I am not getting into Bannerfall exactly, because I am experiencing a fun trick my brain is playing on me where I can't really process videos unless I'm already familiar with the content. So no Bannerfall fics coming from me unless my battleship team REALLY needs it. But I have several mutuals into Bannerfall, so like with hermit and Vampires I reblog cool posts when I see them for the edification of my mutuals!

Also like, have we SEEN the women in Bannerfall. Thank you Bannerfall for the women possibilities you offer.

So in this fandom we love family dynamics, and something I see pretty regularly is characters written as a family even if they didn't have that relationship in canon. When it comes to things like SBI family dynamic or Kristin as SBI's mother, some people might not even realize this isn't canon, because the trope is so strong. And now with a lot of people 3-6 years into the fandom, we're expanding the family to other characters— I see Niki big sister pretty regularly, or Niki mother. Puffy mother, Gem sister, Pearl sister— etc. And I know people are writing this because they love family and familial love— family is one of the strongest bonds many people of experience and people are writing this because they want these characters to be part of this network of love!

However, there's also a pitfall when writing canonically non-family characters into a family in its simplest form, especially to female characters, and I think some people might not realize it— so I thought I'd point it out.

One of the basic ways to write a story is you have your main character or main duo, and everyone else is in a supporting role. If your story is about one character, then often things revolve around them— around tommy, or techno, or ranboo, or grian, or jimmy— and everyone else is there to play support. Often in a family situation, big siblings and parents take specifically nurturing and caring support roles.

And when all your female characters are is their nurturing/caring role as a big sister or a mother, if that's what defines them within the narrative, or if you always write them in that way, there starts to be a problem.

Particularly when you look at canon— these characters were not in nurturing roles originally. Kristin is a powerful goddess presiding over death, Niki is defined by rage— Geminitay is out here bullying her friends and building beautiful things, Pearlescentmoon is working multiple jobs and joining revolutions. Roscumber is inventing new types of yuri daily. The list goes on. These are characters in the original with their own arcs and quirks and hopes and dreams! And every time you change someone from their canon role or characterization, that's sending a signal about how you see the character and your specific victory condition for the character. When you hold up the character to the light, are you holding up good at combat, or powerful, or mischievous, or organized competence— or nurturing care of a male character who is the centre of the real story? Are you doing this over and over again? Is the tag full of this?

And again, sometimes you don't have time to get into the background and characterization of all your side characters, that's just a narrative focus thing. But if every time you're using this character nowadays, you're swapping their canon character out for a nurturing role, that starts to message about how you see the character, and further, how you see female characters in general.

When you write a male character away from canon characterization into a nurturing support role that's one thing— the fans of that character are probably not gonna be hype but that's not like, a societal trend. But unfortunately the pushing of female characters and female-perceived people into a nurturing support role is something that hollywood has been doing since we invented film, that people have been doing since we invented stories, that society does every day. It starts to grate. It reduces women down from complex beings into the care they can provide men, and again, I don't think anyone is doing this on purpose, but when you meet it again and again in fiction, boy. I start pacing my room and muttering. It is one of the classic sexist tropes for how to write women, unfortunately. Every terrible guy in your creative writing class who got told to add more female characters does this, and boy, we don't want to be like terrible guy in your creative writing class.

So! You have to make sure your character comes alive as more than just nurturing support. If your heart is set on family, spend a little more time rotating that character. What are her hopes and dreams, and quirks and foibles? Can she contribute to the plot in a way that isn't just support of the main character? Can she provide a narrative role that isn't nurturing? Does she get to be the centre of attention and have other characterization? Can you make her really funny and scene-stealing for a scene, or show that she has a life outside of her family? Consider writing a story or an arc where she's the main focus!

Or even, I'd strongly suggest considering writing women in as not family at all. Expand that circle of influence away from the home. Does your main character have peers or adversaries or friends? Coworkers? Brothers in arms?

I think sometimes people go to family because it's a fast way to show how important a character is to a person, because so many of us think "sister" and feel that tug of affection and importance. And because people love family, which makes sense. Family is important to a lot of us! But if you can show that importance in a different way, through the narrative, you've celebrated a character you like, and you've sidestepped the pit trap hollywood is digging for us. Because boy is hollywood lining up to make this a pit trap. Movie after movie after tv show with female characters who are only there because they're family. It's as bad as the woman who's only there to be sexy, because it starts to message that the only way a woman can be important in someone's life is if they're related to them. Which is not an improvement on women are only there there for sex.

And I don't think anyone is doing this on purpose, and no one fic or au is necessarily "oh this one is sexist", but it's about the trend. When there's one fic that does this, you go "aw this person loves family". When it's every second fic that does this, you start to go— wait a minute, what's the signal being sent here. And we are unfortunately there, as a fandom. We've been there for a bit. And it doesn't mean that every female character in a family dynamic is bad characterization— women also exist in families. I am in one, in fact. Family is cool. But this trope does map so precisely to sexist writing tropes and carries so much potential narrative weight that you've got to do some quick maneuvering to avoid all that, if you're doing family.

So please, I'm begging you, when you're bringing women into the story, make sure family roles is not all your women are, or consider the joy of making them not family at all! Most people your character meets will be not related to them, perhaps your selected character is one of them.

Only now that I recognize usernames and voices better than before and I go back and watch old MCC/Minecraft Monday stuff I know that's not true.

There was definitely overlap between Technoblade and the hermits.

The overlap was almost always his sword in their squishy bits.

And my opinion on that remains the same as ever, that Technoblade- in rising so fast, in being so brilliant, in loving the game so much and in dying young- has entered a mythical place in the lore and history of Minecraft Youtube.

There's the best player of the moment, and then there's Technoblade. The two simply aren't comparable.

There will always be a better player, a quicker hand, someone who adapts to new mechanics better. There will only ever be one Technoblade.

birds!!!

[118] What a nerve-wracking stream

“I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from slim to zero, and until your face is fogged by distant memory, and your memory faced by distant fog, and your fog memorized by a distant face, and your distance distanced by the memorized memory of a foggy fog.”