Technoblade never dies
Jul. 7th, 2022 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkA few days ago I heard that Technoblade died. I had no idea who he was but when I learned that he was a very popular Minecraft streamer I decided to check out a few of his videos. I started with the Potato Wars: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. I enjoyed them, so I watched a few others and enjoyed those too, and then I started watching his Dream SMP videos.
If you had told me a month ago I would so quickly get invested in a semi-improvised roleplaying series played in Minecraft, I would have – okay I would have believed it because I know I can get interested in the weirdest things but I would have pre-emptively laughed at myself. I was very peripherally aware that it was a big fandom but never even considered watching it before now, among other things because canon is huge and spread out over by this point many hundred videos from more than a dozen different perspectives following multiple storylines. (Also the first I heard about Dream, who owns the server, was the story of how he was caught cheating in a speedrun and then denied it for ages. Which was also when I found out that Minecraft speedrunning is very popular, or that the game even has a win condition.) Where to even begin!
Well now I had an entry point and apparently that was all it took. I started watching Technoblade's streams, and then I started watching some of TommyInnit's highlight videos in-between, and read/watched a little about the plot up til then (I also have a lot of spoilers because at first I thought I'd just watch some highlights and it wouldn't matter. …yeah.)
The last thing I watched was The Fall of Manburg. About half of Techno's streams were just him grinding and talking to himself/chat, nice background watching/listening. About a third were very exciting plot events, and the rest were interactions with individual others. I've been having a great time! I love Techno's sense of humor, I love the dramatic moments and the politics and the betrayals, and I enjoy most of the crack in-between. It is OTT/silly sometimes, I especially roll my eyes at Tommy a lot (though I understand his annoyance at Techno openly focusing on his viewer numbers in the middle of RP sometimes), but there are also so many hilarious moments. Getting to see events from different perspectives makes the plot harder to follow but is also often very cool; I know there's a lot I'm missing from other players' perspectives, I'll probably check them out eventually but I also want to continue with the plot and there's only so many hours in the day.
Dramatic events: The Red Festival! Highlights from Technoblade (entire stream), Highlights from TommyInnit.
Favorite parts: Techno trying to convince the partygoers to talk about state secrets, and the different perspectives of Techno killing Tubbo.
SAD-ist animatic The Fall featuring mostly the build-up but also some scenes from the Red Festival. (Second in a series, the first one being War.) The animatics are absolutely amazing, and only get even better later on (I'm amused when players mention the animatics in the game.)
Things that happened after this:
On Tommy's channel Techno had a great entrance, and later Tommy and Techno acquire themselves a "mandatory volunteer" – that one made me laugh out loud several times
The Fall of Manburg: The Revolution
I loved that Technoblade from the very beginning said that he's an anarchist with the goal to overthrow government, and at the beginning of this stream the others from the rebellion even ask him "what happens once we've successfully overthrown the old government and establish a new government" and he says "let's burn that bridge when we get to it" and then they all just move past it… great foreshadowing.
The secret vault reveal! "I am ready for revolution boys!" (And getting robbed in the process too, heh.) "We've got the Blade!" JSchlatt dying of a heart attack after being cornered was weirdly anticlimactic, but that's because the real climax was still to come. Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo completing their coup while Techno watches and Dream provokes him and offers to form team chaos and to back him, and then Techno, feeling used and betrayed, decides to kill everyone who tries to form a new government. "To set up a new government right in front of an anarchist – I can only say that I almost admire the audacity." (from the highlights/commentary.) I might not agree with his opinion but at least he's very consistent with it ^^ Nice speech to Tommy, too. Then finishing the destruction of L'Manberg that Wilbur (!), who was in working together with Dream (!) started… (Wilbur even pretty much confessed to being the traitor earlier but nobody even seemed to notice *g*)
I wonder who canonically died during this massacre. Tommy is still standing around there afterwards, awkward… (Tommy's PoV of the whole thing.)
And then the silly fight to "overthrow George" the next day *facepalm* and then just hanging out, which actually makes for a nice aftershow and balance ^^
Not rn because I want to continue with the plot, but eventually I really want to see more of Wilbur's PoV of this. He was clearly no longer thinking clearly, but to what extent? He told Techno that he agrees with him about anarchy and knew Techno was in the audience but he still made first Tommy and then Tubbo president, did he not anticipate how this would go?
(Also, now I want the AU where Tommy and Tubbo realize that founding a new government in front of an anarchist is, uh, risky, so they don't – bet Dream would not be happy about a potential peaceful resolution…)
Of course, SAD-ist's animatic is fantastic: Dawn of 16th. And I know there are other great animatics but I try to avoid them for now because of potential spoilers.
I have no idea how long I'll stay interested, maybe I will have forgotten all about it next week, but for now I really look forward to watching more of Technoblade's videos. His death (at only 23) is a tragedy, fuck cancer. He would have made so many jokes about how many views and subscribers he got after his death.
If you had told me a month ago I would so quickly get invested in a semi-improvised roleplaying series played in Minecraft, I would have – okay I would have believed it because I know I can get interested in the weirdest things but I would have pre-emptively laughed at myself. I was very peripherally aware that it was a big fandom but never even considered watching it before now, among other things because canon is huge and spread out over by this point many hundred videos from more than a dozen different perspectives following multiple storylines. (Also the first I heard about Dream, who owns the server, was the story of how he was caught cheating in a speedrun and then denied it for ages. Which was also when I found out that Minecraft speedrunning is very popular, or that the game even has a win condition.) Where to even begin!
Well now I had an entry point and apparently that was all it took. I started watching Technoblade's streams, and then I started watching some of TommyInnit's highlight videos in-between, and read/watched a little about the plot up til then (I also have a lot of spoilers because at first I thought I'd just watch some highlights and it wouldn't matter. …yeah.)
The last thing I watched was The Fall of Manburg. About half of Techno's streams were just him grinding and talking to himself/chat, nice background watching/listening. About a third were very exciting plot events, and the rest were interactions with individual others. I've been having a great time! I love Techno's sense of humor, I love the dramatic moments and the politics and the betrayals, and I enjoy most of the crack in-between. It is OTT/silly sometimes, I especially roll my eyes at Tommy a lot (though I understand his annoyance at Techno openly focusing on his viewer numbers in the middle of RP sometimes), but there are also so many hilarious moments. Getting to see events from different perspectives makes the plot harder to follow but is also often very cool; I know there's a lot I'm missing from other players' perspectives, I'll probably check them out eventually but I also want to continue with the plot and there's only so many hours in the day.
Dramatic events: The Red Festival! Highlights from Technoblade (entire stream), Highlights from TommyInnit.
Favorite parts: Techno trying to convince the partygoers to talk about state secrets, and the different perspectives of Techno killing Tubbo.
SAD-ist animatic The Fall featuring mostly the build-up but also some scenes from the Red Festival. (Second in a series, the first one being War.) The animatics are absolutely amazing, and only get even better later on (I'm amused when players mention the animatics in the game.)
Things that happened after this:
On Tommy's channel Techno had a great entrance, and later Tommy and Techno acquire themselves a "mandatory volunteer" – that one made me laugh out loud several times
The Fall of Manburg: The Revolution
I loved that Technoblade from the very beginning said that he's an anarchist with the goal to overthrow government, and at the beginning of this stream the others from the rebellion even ask him "what happens once we've successfully overthrown the old government and establish a new government" and he says "let's burn that bridge when we get to it" and then they all just move past it… great foreshadowing.
The secret vault reveal! "I am ready for revolution boys!" (And getting robbed in the process too, heh.) "We've got the Blade!" JSchlatt dying of a heart attack after being cornered was weirdly anticlimactic, but that's because the real climax was still to come. Wilbur, Tommy, and Tubbo completing their coup while Techno watches and Dream provokes him and offers to form team chaos and to back him, and then Techno, feeling used and betrayed, decides to kill everyone who tries to form a new government. "To set up a new government right in front of an anarchist – I can only say that I almost admire the audacity." (from the highlights/commentary.) I might not agree with his opinion but at least he's very consistent with it ^^ Nice speech to Tommy, too. Then finishing the destruction of L'Manberg that Wilbur (!), who was in working together with Dream (!) started… (Wilbur even pretty much confessed to being the traitor earlier but nobody even seemed to notice *g*)
I wonder who canonically died during this massacre. Tommy is still standing around there afterwards, awkward… (Tommy's PoV of the whole thing.)
And then the silly fight to "overthrow George" the next day *facepalm* and then just hanging out, which actually makes for a nice aftershow and balance ^^
Not rn because I want to continue with the plot, but eventually I really want to see more of Wilbur's PoV of this. He was clearly no longer thinking clearly, but to what extent? He told Techno that he agrees with him about anarchy and knew Techno was in the audience but he still made first Tommy and then Tubbo president, did he not anticipate how this would go?
(Also, now I want the AU where Tommy and Tubbo realize that founding a new government in front of an anarchist is, uh, risky, so they don't – bet Dream would not be happy about a potential peaceful resolution…)
Of course, SAD-ist's animatic is fantastic: Dawn of 16th. And I know there are other great animatics but I try to avoid them for now because of potential spoilers.
I have no idea how long I'll stay interested, maybe I will have forgotten all about it next week, but for now I really look forward to watching more of Technoblade's videos. His death (at only 23) is a tragedy, fuck cancer. He would have made so many jokes about how many views and subscribers he got after his death.
