today we end the horror four years three games 35 theories all leading up to this moment hold on haven't we done this intro before uh that was for FNAF this is Minecraft it's totally different [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hello Internet welcome to Game Theory the show that's been building Minecraft lore one block at a time you know for as much attention as FNAF gets on the channel it's easy to overlook what we've done for other game franchises 46 Mario theories 31 Pokémon theories three hello neighbor theories which doesn't seem like a whole lot but let's be honest with ourselves it's probably too many but of them all I would say that our m Minecraft series is probably the most important 35 episodes in total and it's a pretty impressive collection can you punch a tree to death what's a creeper is the Overworld a sphere or a cube but I think our biggest contribution to this franchise has to be figuring out that there was an actual story hidden inside this seemingly storyless game for as long as Minecraft had been around and for as many videos existed about the topic we were able to crack into something that no one had noticed before that the placement of the blocks the treasures hidden inside the chests the spawn locations the drops all of them told a story and so over the next 4 years we chipped away at that story bit by bit mob by mob the Enderman the drowned the Wither the warden and over the years a story came into focus a story of an ancient civilization's rise and their tragic fall a tale of hubris and excess a tale that serves as a warning to us the player out here in the real world except there is just one problem 35 theories it's a lot to keep track of and just like we often see with FNAF I started seeing a number of comments over in the subreddit begging me to set the record straight to to make one up-to-date definitive resource compiling all of our theories into one coherent location so I put all these theories onto the crafting table and Enchanted them with efficiency 5 to turn those 35 theories into this one easy to digest 25 30 minute-ish video not exactly sure where it's going to land anyway we'd best gulp down that potion of swiftness if we want to get through all of this okay you ready well not quite because before we get to all that I just wanted to quickly tell you that the FNAF Theory wear line is officially back for a limited time so if you missed out on it last time don't let this one pass you by head on over to Theory wear.com now and grab them before they're really gone forever okay now we're ready to build up on that Minecraft lore let's go our Story begins with Minecraft Legends a game that only came out in April of last year but gave us a lot of lore to chew on the overworlds in danger the piglins have come from the Nether and are now invading the Overworld when the game puts the invasion down to Greed I have a suspicion that it's due to something else sure the pig englands are greedy for gold we see that in vanilla Minecraft and there is plenty of gold in Minecraft Legends but the nether isn't exactly low on that stuff they don't use things like diamonds or iron or tools or armor they just hoard all that in chests they don't understand their real value instead I believe they invaded the Overworld because the nether was in trouble you see the nether used to be a cool and icy place that's the only way for the bass salt Deltas to have formed bass salt requires blue ice the coldest ice imaginable to form and for a lava to flow next to it above a layer of Soul soil which means that ice must have been naturally forming in the nether at one point however as we see in Legends the piglins have industrialized they have golden swords and armor items that require gold ingots that can't be found naturally they have to be smelted from nether gold ore or crafted using gold nuggets this process in turn created greenhouse gases causing the intense heating of the atmosphere down in the Nether and because the nether is also 2 and a half times smaller than the Overworld less heat is needed to make all that ice melt and the water to ultimately run dry this leaves the piglins looking for a new world world that is in a fiery Wasteland to call their own and so they look out to the Overworld this is where our first Builder comes in they're busy mining away in a normal Minecraft world but are interrupted by three Godlike beings called hosts the caretakers of the Overworld they ask this mysterious Builder to help save the Overworld from the piglin threat giving you the tools necessary to do the job within this case burn the Flames of creation the Flames will call upon friends to fight by your side this is the banner of Courage raise it high and this world will rise to your with the right Melodies From This loot the LA will gather your resources keep them safe for you and build whatever you need thanks to the El and the hosts this mysterious Builder stops The piglin Invasion and peace is restored to the Overworld All That Remains of the conflict are broken Nether Portals scattered throughout the Overworld but it's still a bittersweet ending the mobs that helped win the battle now have a taste for fighting what's happening how did they learn to fight by watching our hero this is what turns them into the violent mobs that we know in vanilla a Minecraft even the villagers weren't immune to this effect after being given the tools to fight a group of them would continue to have anger within them once the war is over they were dubbed the illagers and their existence proved that what was meant to be a time of Peace was actually cursed by the knowledge of violence and War thanks to the Builder and their companions bringing peace the hosts decide it's time to leave there are endless worlds out there waiting to be explored letting the builders be in charge of the world so they begin to do what they did when the hosts first called them they mine and they craft they start a new civilization they become the first of the ancient Builders and we see this on some of the pottery shirts from the trails and tales update Pottery shirs in the real world tell us the story of past civilizations and so shirs like howl and sheath depict the earliest parts of the ancient Builder Society where wolves were some of the first animals domesticated and wheat was one of the earliest and easiest crops to grow however this rapid growth is the beginning of the ancient Builder biggest problem overh harvesting and depleting the world of its natural resources they needed food and so they hunted the creatures from Minecraft Legends like the Regal tiger and big beak into Extinction completely destroying their habitats so they could build this new Society the same goes for resources like diamond copper and coal at first these were just lying around on the surface of the Overworld but by modern day we're digging deep into the Earth before finding just one block of diamond or this led to valuable resources becoming scarce and splitting the ancient Builders into tribes based on their location and the natural resources around them we see this in the shs which are scattered across different biomes all depicting different res resources and Technologies they become hoarders of their own specific resource and thus trade begins between the tribes even the villagers who used to just simply give the builders their resources they also got in on the trading action and are still doing it to this very day as time goes on the ancient Builders continue in their worship of the hosts the Godlike beings that brought them there building structures like the desert and jungle temples all with Unique Designs to demonstrate their different resources and culture much like we see out in the real world but the ocean tribe decided to take it a step further this tribe of fishermen that we learn about from the the angler shirt built the massive Ocean Monuments styled like a zigurat a structure that was used to connect the people to their gods this was the ancient Builders trying to reconnect with the hosts hoping that they would maybe return and save them from this world that they created they even built a replica of The Well of Fate at top the structure made it out of the same prismarine and placed an offering of gold at its core The Spoils of their Victory against the piglins all in the hope that it would bring the hosts back what they don't realize though is that the real monster isn't other tribes it's themselves the fishermen continued to destroy the natural environment for resources crafting and smelting tools and ore causing pollution and eventually leading to massive flooding they tried desperately to protect their monuments these temples that the hosts May one day return to and so they fill these monuments with sponges trying to hold back the rising water but it's too much for them to handle the water keeps rising and they can't hold it back from filling The Monuments but they don't give up Pottery shirts found in cold underwater ruins like blade Explorer and plenty revealed that this tribe was more than just fishermen they were pirates they would go from Village to Village trying to to gather resources that they had squandered which led to other tribes like the desert tribe fighting back mine and pry shirts found in the desert temples depict the tribe creating Min shafts now needing to go deep underground to find the precious materials that were once so easy to find so with pirates on the loose looting and pillaging they needed to find a way to protect their resources and they found that protection with a creature that they once called an ally we see their face chiseled into the Sandstone walls of their temples a creature with the ultimate defense system the creeper the desert tribe booby trapped their temples with TNT similar to how real world pyramids use traps to scare away thieves though not quite as explosive if anyone tried to take their valued possessions the TNT would be their last fail safe no one was going to mess with this tribe and get away with it but the Pirates were really only after one thing within the shipwrecks you find across the Overworld there are chests containing treasure maps these Maps can lead you to buried chests containing the heart of the Sea The Heart of the sea when crafted with eight Nautilus shells can create a conduit an item capable of giving anyone in the area water breathing night vision and haste this was the ocean trib's final hope of surviving the constantly Rising water and while the Pirates looked for this treasure the fishermen that stayed back home created the Guardians machine bodyguards for their sacred temples as a last resort of protecting it given the state that we find the Ocean Monuments in in vanilla Minecraft we know that they weren't successful the Pirates didn't find the treasure in time and so the fishermen left behind in The Monuments become trapped in water and transformed into the drown still carrying Nautilus shells as well as Trident ancient tools for fishing they continue to stay by their monuments never having their call for help answered by the hosts all they have left are the guard Ian who still recognize their creators and don't attack sadly the fishermen weren't the only tribe to be facing hardship after seeing the devastation that the ocean tribe had cause to themselves in spite of their constant prayers the desert tribe gave up on the hosts ever returning and took matters into their own hands the desert temples depict the ank a symbol of life this is what the desert tribe dedicated their time and effort towards rather than waiting for the hosts to return they wanted a way to preserve their lives and resurrect those who had already died but how could they do that well the builders were reminded of the spawners given to them by the hosts the these spawners could create mobs from nothing but Stone and wood but they required an energy source to fuel the Flames of creation and that fuel was lapis lazuli and the only way they knew how to get it was from war killing piglins that's when the desert tribe realized something that ancient cultures in our own world used to believe that lapis contains the souls of Gods and Monsters this is what the ancient Builders needed and to get it they needed to go to the home of the piglins to collect more of this magical stone they needed to go to the nether once the builders arrive in hble hockey sticks they set up a camp knowing that this is going to be a long journey there they build the Nether fortresses to store the resources that they brought with them like Saddles horse armor diamonds and iron what was already a wasteland gets harvested by the builders they destroy the piglin bastions they kill the piglins within to use their souls in the lapis to create life of their own but the plan doesn't quite work the dead piglin Souls don't turn into lapis as they did before why well it's because the souls work differently in the nether rather than forming into magical stones they transfer into the ground into the sand as their comrades fall their souls are sucked from their bodies into the ground to create Soul Sand it's then that a new mob's created the Wither Skeleton suddenly the ancient Builders are left fighting against the bodies of their own Fallen Warriors without Souls but still Clinging On to their purpose defending what they had once built themselves the ancient Builders had not only sucked the land Drive its natural resources but they also accidentally created mobs that made the already deadly landscape even more dangerous they do eventually return to the Overworld and they come bearing riches blaze rods Nether wart Ghast Tear all containing magical properties and so the builders begin to brew potions depicting the achievement in the Brewer shs the ancient Builders were now able to surpass their physical abilities they could be faster they could resist lava they could even regenerate themselves the only thing they hadn't conquered yet was death itself and so equipped with Soul Sand and a bunch of Wither skulls they press on with their experiments they combine the life-giving Soul Sand with the wither skeleton heads of their fallen comrades ad carving its face into the red Sandstone walls and depicting their worship to it on shs they could take care of themselves and now armed with a knowledge to create life itself they thought that they had finally done what the gods could not all those years ago protect the Overworld as they placed the final head there was a flash of light and a roar the Wither was born but despite their success their hubris would ultimately be their downfall the Wither was uncontrollable it destroyed the cities that they' created leaving nothing in its wake not even the other tribes were safe the destroy was like nothing ancient Builders had ever seen before and so they did the only thing that they could do they ran they ran deep underground where the withers's blasts would meet more resistance from the stone and deep slate but their persistence never wavered they would have to find a way to fix this they would be able to return to the Overworld they had to make this right no matter the cost once again the ancient Builders were forced to start over rebuilding a civilization that we now know as the ancient city a wide underground space that contains fragments of to the Builder's past Adventures items like Soul lanterns and soul torches are used to light the city powered by the souls from their time in the nether Enchanted items and potions of regeneration from their successful experiments of Brewing can be found in the chests despite the circumstances the builders found happiness they would dance in the streets with music from dis 5 playing in the background at least they would until fate once again came banging on their door a builder would go off mining some materials one day when they would hear something familiar something that sends a bolt of fear through their bodies the withered found them he ran home to warn the others the city sounds the sirens and soldiers begin to March the ancient Builders are preparing for war once again the explosions grow louder and louder the Wither is slowly blasting its way through their intricate Cave System fortunately they'd planned an Escape Route in the center of the ancient cities a large circular structure the smaller versions of these found within the game files called these small portal statues and if these are in fact small portals then the large one in the city center must be a real portal a big one underneath the portal Redstone Circuits are found these were experiments using different kinds of Power output to try and ignite the portal but up to this point nothing had worked so instead they decided to turn to the most powerful source of energy they knew of souls directly underneath the portal are blocks of Soul Sand that are lit as the Wither gets closer and closer breaking through the final wall into the city the portal finally ignites but instead of Celebration there's nothing but stunned silence something is coming out of the portal a horrifying creature with no eyes that lives off the power of souls storing them in its chest cavity the warden now they're just left with a Godzilla versus King Kong situation two powerful beings duking it out and then the builders hear it a cry that they' never thought they'd hear the death Cry of the Wither the builders are stunned the Wither this thing that caused them to lose everything is now gone and their music disc five happen to record the entire event this is a cause for celebration the builders begin to start the party only for the warden to turn its attention to them it's triggered by sound and so it starts to attack anything that makes a noise with each death a new block form Ms the skull a sensient block that uses the power of souls from Fallen mobs to spread across the other blocks once again the Builder's lives are in danger but after all they've been through they just don't have the energy to run anymore instead they try to live in harmony with the warden they do what they can to deaden the noises by placing carpets or wool blocks all over the city but in the end it's no good each opening of a chest would send the warden into a rampage this is no way to live and so the ancient Builders try to leave their home one final time they continue deeper into the caves somewhere that not even the warden could find them though they needed something strong enough to hold it back if it ever tried to invade and so the builders created strongholds a place fortified so as to protect it against attack the ancient Builders made winding Pathways and hidden doors so they could escape the warden should it ever break in and the builders made one final attempt at Escape one last portal that this time would have to work the end portal the builders bid farewell to the Overworld and jump in not knowing what might be waiting for them on the other side and also unsure if they'd ever be able to return the ancient Builders enter this vast void of open space and begin to set up their new lives building fortresses to house their resources loot chests containing Enchanted armor and weapons diamonds and diamond-plated armor more advanced tools since the days of the nether ready to conquer whatever fearsome foes might come their way enter the Ender Dragons that's dragons plural thanks to the amount of Ender dragon heads mounted on end ships we can tell that this used to be a plentiful species the ancient Builders came to the end and saw these Majestic beasts they had complete control over the skies and they wanted that power for themselves they wanted to conquer the sky which until now had been impossible so they hunted down the dragons and used their wings to create elytra another resource found in the end ships these were the Builder's prized possessions so they continued to hunt these creatures to near Extinction much like they had done with other species in the past it would seem that history continues to repeat but the builders eventually realize that they're making a mistake they see how they're bringing an entire species to Extinction and they want to write their wrongs they use use their technology and knowledge from past Adventures using the regenerative powers of the gas tier to create end Crystals at top tall obsidian pillars this will continually regenerate the last Ender Dragon ensuring that it never dies the ancient Builders can now rest easy knowing that they had saved a species sort of without a mate it would always have a population of one and it seems like their sins eventually caught up to them food was yet again becoming scarce but not all hope was lost defeating an Ender Dragon creates a portal back to the Overworld a few brave souls go through but most others stay in the end although they were running out of supplies there was one crop that was endlessly plentiful chorus fruit but it had some strange side effects this constant diet of a fruit with teleportation properties causes the ancient Builders to slowly evolve into the Enderman now able to teleport across time and space itself but this comes at a cost with this transformation they slowly forget how to build though they never truly forget how to pick up the blocks and this is where the ancient Builders spend the rest of their days a race teleporting through time and space picking up blocks the remnants of a once great civilization brought down by their own Pride meanwhile the explorers who returned to the Overworld reconnected with their old allies the illers it's here that they tell them stories of their Adventures Tales of life-giving lapis and portals Fierce beasts that they overcame the illers Revel at the ancient Builder resources the elytra made from ender dragon wings their portal technology even though they don't quite understand it all they worshiped the ways of the ancient Builders who had tell them stories and protect them from arm and because they wanted to follow in their footsteps they too began to experiment the Overworld was still a dangerous place they needed ways to protect themselves and so they created the ravagers terrifying beasts with even more terrifying Origins the ravager was created from their fellow villagers their unibrow their green eyes the noses even their voices remain after the transformation that wasn't the only thing that they did to these innocent captured villagers either in the Woodland Mansions large Woolen heads of illers are found and in the center of the head is a block of lapis lazuli the illers knew that the ancient Builder saw lapis as a magical resource so they took it and injected it directly into the brains of villagers in the hopes of gaining its incredible power and you know what it worked the vindicators were born with Incredible speed power and eyes that changed from emerald green to lapis blue this was the last straw for the villagers according to the Mob beastiary these are the Unspeakable acts that get the illers cast out from regular Society from here they would form their own civilization wandering Into the Dark Forest and taking over the Woodland Mansions continuing their pursuit to bring back the ancient Builders whatever the cost they become what's known as a cargo cult where a group of isolated indigenous people begin to imitate the practices and Technology from more advanced societies despite not understanding how the technology works the illers would make structures like beds Maps even end portals but none of them work because they're only made out of wool the illers don't understand the true nature of these items but while those don't work they are able to figure out the secret to New Life and they harness that power power in the form of totems of undying they use this power to create the Vex the Phantoms and they even try to create a new human a new race of ancient Builder they try to create Steve throughout the Woodland Mansions there are stacks on stacks of blue cyan and light blue wool these are the same colors that Steve and his ancient Builder ancestors wore this was going to be their final experiment using these Woolen blocks and their powers over life and death to become Gods to create their own race of ancient Builders little do they know that the ancient Builders did this exact same thing all those years ago and sadly history would repeat itself after the dust settles what stands in place of the wool isn't a new race of Builders but instead zombies the Overworld now has yet another dangerous mob to worry about and thus ends the story of the ancient Builders and their influence on the Overworld a land that Now lies in ruin a shell of its former self and yet despite everything hope isn't lost with the ancient Builders gone the Overworld has had a chance to heal there there's no one left to over Harvest resources and so nature begins to return with the structures built by this ancient race descending into the Earth reclaimed by Nature biomes becoming more diverse that is until you show up the Builder desire for over harvesting resources and creating life continue through their descendants you now we spend our time deforesting so we can have a nicer new house gutting the ground of whatever resources are left and killing whatever we see whether it's hostile or not it's a story of Destruction and selfish gain of greed and ignorance and hubris repeating itself over and over again and what's more this wasn't just a poetic story told to make the game more interesting the story is a warning to us the players think back to the ending credits of Minecraft quote sometimes I wish to tell them this world you take for truth is merely and I wish to tell them that they are in the they see so little of reality in their long dream these two beings these Gods these hosts they're talking about us the dream is Minecraft and while we play it we fail to see the moral that's being told by these two Gods the truth about reality and how this game reflects our own history in the 8th Century for instance Vikings used a lot of Timber for ship building construction and fuel which led to them deforesting most of Scandinavia as they started to run out of resources and land they began to invade the coastal areas of Europe like England France and Ireland only to do the exact same thing again cutting down the trees until those places began to lose their Forest areas too sound like the fishermen and pirates from Minecraft Europe's colonization of the Americas was for similar reasons to access and exploit the Abundant natural resources there even today we're seeing the same thing with deforestation burning fossil fuels fighting one another for more power and control just like we see with the piglins and the builders and the illagers in the nether the end and the Overworld it's a cycle of repeated abuse and neglect quote again from the ending but it would be so easy to tell them I will tell the player a story but not the truth no a story that contains the truth safely in a cage of words not the naked truth that can burn over any distance we are playing the story and the naked truth that they're talking about is that our world will die if we let it constantly be ravaged of its natural resources so maybe the next time you log on to Minecraft you'll see it a little differently maybe instead of a flat blocky world you'll see a reflection of your own and remember it can be beautiful so long as we just like Steve learn from the mistakes of the past it's been a long Trope of Game Theory to prove to you that the hero of the game is actually the villain in the game of Minecraft and in the real world that distinction ultimately falls on us to decide but hey that's just a theory a Game Theory thanks for [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] 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