qsmp has accidentally stumbled into a psychology experiment that would make the stanford prison experiment sob in fear. theyāve gotten a bunch of ccās, and tens of thousands of viewers, to be deeply emotionally connected to pixel eggs. in doing so theyāve presented a problem:
how the fuck do you get outta this
the eggs were obviously never intended to be permanent (logging on every day to do tasks isnāt feasible to upkeep forever) and they were even given a vague limit of When Mama Dragon Comes Back (and then, of course, the ā6 days til they dieā thing). now youāve made it so quackity (and his team) have a big ol dilemma, where two things are true: 1) they canāt keep the eggs forever since itās not sustainable 2) you canāt take away the eggs without, oopsies, emotionally damaging your friends that you invited to have fun on your server.
turns out, when you give a group of humans all their own fully-realized individual who presents as a (weak, vulnerable) child that is in need of care from them, whatever instinct has kept us alive for generations goes ā!!!!!ā which is both really cool and compassionate, but also kinda concerning!
because, well: not sustainable! and if the eggs arenāt sustainable, whatās the alternative? killing them?? no! just look at jaidenās reaction to bobby ālosingā a life, even when it wasnāt his last one. or badās genuinely heart wrenching reaction to dapper losing a life. or how quiet and angry phil got after chayanne and tallulah had a ānightmare,ā before it was resolved. thatās not acting. thatās real. what the hell will they do if the eggs actually die? from what i see, the ccās are taking the ā6 days til deathā thing as something thatās avoidable. a threat that can be overcome. and for their sake, i hope it is.
ever played a dnd game where you actually feel insulted bc of smth someoneās pc did? yeah. that x20 because thereās SO much overlap between āstreamer personaā and āliterally just who they areā. and this level of roleplay character bleeding is cool, but i hope the eggs are handled carefully, or all those involved might end up actually hurt.
thereās also the whole added element of fans, many of whom only tune into the streams for egg content. the plot is very egg-centric. the roleplaying and characterization that the ccās are doing is all centered around the eggs in one way or another. itās been going on for a month, but it does not feel at all resolved, and plot-wise it would completely mess up so many plot threads happening if the eggs were all to go (charlieās unresolved deal with lil j, quackityās goal to bond with tallulah, the trial, etc etc) so if you take away the eggs, you risk messing up the whole vibe theyāve got going on, and facing backlash from fans who are also emotionally compromised by pixel eggs
we inherently want to protect the cute and vulnerable, and by god are these eggs cute and so very fragile. (then, thereās another layer of peopleās own issues that they project onto the eggs. be it desire for paternity, some kind of maternal instinct, or, even in the matter of chayanne, using chayanne as a sort of way to cope with loss by making connections between chayanne and technoblade. which is beautiful and very sweet but would give chayanne dying some additional emotionally charged elements which i think should be avoided at all costs). thereās a reason that movies and other media generally do not kill named children charactersāaudiences really hate it. itās taboo for good reason.
schrodingerās egg: until sunday, they r both alive and dead. and this is both good and bad. god help us all