I think the best thing about the Watchers originally being a synonym for the viewers is that, theoretically, WE are the Watchers so any fanon is kinda canon in a way lol
Going along with that, Martyn's thing about the Watchers looking like whatever a person wants or needs to see them as in a given moment pretty much means that all depictions of them are valid. :D
What is the lore? A bunch of disembodied eyes watching a hunger games esque battle roulette occur till the end of time. Simple. (This is a joke if you couldn't tell)
And yet, if we were to take this comment as serious, that is technically pure fanon. After all, Martyn's story is technically an AU, with the main thing differentiating his AU from the others being that he is a player in the series, which I why so many people mistakenly consider it as canon
@@NagKai_G Its not fanon since Martyn is not just any random fan, so its canon to Martyn's lore and since Martyn's lore for the life series does not interfere with any other lore, then I dont see why it is not canon.
I think a notable contributor to both the popularity of watcher lore and the especially negative perception of them is Martyn’s lore. While not strictly Grian’s lore, Martyn used Evo as a springboard and inspiration for his own lord that continues to this day, especially in the Life series. A lot concepts that are basically unavoidable when looking for watcher content were created by him.
@@BOPgamez09 It especially boils down to the fact that whenever a creator makes something, they look to the feedback of the fans to see if they should continue, that feedback being our will. Do we want it to continue? If not, why should the creator keep making it? And we also leave suggestions for content pretty much all the time, maybe not to the creators, but keeping it among ourselves
And Martyn has said in lore streams that ALL of his Lore is NOT canon, and just an AU! You can interpret Watchers and Listeners however you’d like, design them or write them in any way, Martyn has made it clear that he loves seeing the creativity and his lore is not the official canon
i like the idea that the watchers represent the viewers/fans bc like the watchers, viewers can be either kind or awful to the creators while hiding behind a mask/screen and suffering little to no consequences for the awful-parts, or maybe i’m overanalyzing lmao
nah, I think you're right. there was a lot of hall-monitoring during secret life and now that I'm going back to the older life series, there have been other significant viewer overstepping incidents there too, so the watchers representing us the viewers in all our kindness and awfulness makes sense.
I dont think Pearl is a watcher but some fanons do make her one. The closest she has ever gotten to being a watcher is 'Always Watching' from Limited Life. So is BigB also a watcher?
I think most people associate her with watchers because the owl/moth motifs Plenty of people see her with wings or as a sibling to grian,and thus the watcher stuff ends up applying to her too
Martyn describes the Watchers as basically a different species rase if you will, if you follow with the fact that Grian was not always a Watcher, but another being at one point (half bird person or something) Pearl could have been his sister before he became a Watcher (love this idea, they give total sibling energy) then if you want to get into the nitty-gritty that would technically mean Pearl is also part bird or whatever, but idk, I like to think that all of the Hermits/Lifers are a different species (Grian=part Bird, Scar=Elven Wizard, Gem=part Deer, Timmy=something else that I haven't figured yet but still has a little bit of Canary) Desert Duo are cousins, (since Scar was a Clocker and were related to them) but then there's also the Bad Boys who I also like to think are Grians brothers, it's really complicated and not set in stone but that's the fun of Fandoms, everyone has their own perspective on the matter and it creates a bunch of new and unique stories for everyone to share :)
@@LycanMOON Also Pearl was one of the members of Evolution SMP. Martyn also gets Watcher art and was on Evolution SMP and he kinds plays into the "watcher" lore
I would also like to mention Hermitcraft 8: Episode 26. At around 1:23 in that video, Mumbo flies into Grian's base, and, for some reason, Mumbo can't see Grian but Grian can see Mumbo. Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering why this is relevant. Well, you see, it's actually surprisingly simple. The first thing Grian does, one he figures out what's going on (at around 2:13) is pale a sign that says "I see you." Then, he places another one, that says "behind you." Next sign: "Always watching." And the sings keep going. "Mumbo I'm going to get you." Then an end crystal. Grian does not blow it up, but he could have done. Mumbo, now terrified, because, remember, this entire time, Mumbo can't see Grian, starts ringing a bell over and over again, saying "Demons be gone. Demons be gone. Demons be gone." Of course, there's another sign. "Ding dong you will be gone." And it continues to escalate from there. And if some of that doesn't sound like watcher Grian, then I don't know what does. Also, wile we're talking about all this I think it makes sense for me to link ua-cam.com/video/UvF31ne4cr8/v-deo.html this video, which talks about a similar topic in more detail.
The most common Fandom reaction to any Situation and/or Lore: "Wow that was angsty/dramatic/sad... But what if there were even more angst/drama/sadness?"
Ok, so, i wasnt up to date of the watcher lore lol, this is something i needed, also i am the same guy who said you should have made more of these and to whom you responded to saying that something was coming, and you certainly delivered! (I am surely not watching this in the middle of the night lol :))
if you want to know more about watcher stuff, i highly recommend watching martyn's povs of the life series, and his live streams on watcher lore :D there wasn't much here on those other than grian, so here's some bits from the top of my head! i don't read fanfic but i look at a lot of fanart, some other watcher related things ive noticed are - - bigb, martyn, solidarity and pearl were also part of both evo and life series, so are sometimes also depicted as watchers/related to watchers -pearl represents the moon, opposite to grian and so is often seen as a sibling to him and so also sometimes a watcher -canary call/curse refers to solidarity dying first each season (until recently) -fans often depict members of the life series to forget previous seasons. usually grian is shown as the only one who remembers them, but some artists push the narrative that all winners remember previous seasons - martyn made the theory that ldshadowlady subbed in for pearl in limited because pearl was still grieving tilly when she should have forgotten double life. the watchers took her out for a session to correct her and make her forget. -often life members are drawn as dolls to show how they exist for the watchers entertainment -not necessarily watcher related? but all winners are given a title like "the sun" (grian), "the stars" (smajor), "the moon" (pearl obviously lmao), "mars/the ocean" (martyn and which depends on who you ask), "the earth" (scar) -grains wings aren't always a watcher reference, hermitcraft fan artists often just draw hermits with various wings to represent their elytra! -tilly is the true winner of dl :P
You can also watch Martin or inthelittlewoods for more watcher lore. He has a bunch of lore about the life series and watchers and himself. Although grian have said that canonically the watcher lore is not cannon from hermitcraft. Life series is a bit more complicated
One aspect I love is the occasional nod you see towards the watcher lore in the videos themselves. Obviously Martyn has his whole lore stuff, but one that stood out to me (and likely to many others) is the symbol on the face of The Secret Keeper being a variation on the Evo logo, where the watcher lore all began
I think fandoms working together and mixing lore is so beautiful, such as DreamXD being a watcher, sending down Dream to stir things up for their own entertainment, or maybe mentioning other fandoms and characters in fanfiction, such as a Dsmp Viallins/Heroes au that mentions Hotguy and Cuteguy.
I have never heard of the dreamxd being a watcher ever and I’ve watched and been in the dream smp fandom since it began so this is news to me can you tell me where to find this?
Technically he’s designated it as his own au because he still wants to let the fanbase do their own thing and not see his as canon because hes in the series
@@Bengt2509plus his watcher lore Is connected to one of his other projects called into the datastream Said project that affects the pirates smp and the rats smp but only in martyns pov (also maybe it affects empires and newlife but im not sure)
I got introduced to Hermitcraft recently, the same year that... Technoblade died. The dream SMP is dead for me. But my soul found peace in Hermitcraft and its fanbase. You make cool projects, it inspired me to do some drawings and study the lore of Hermitcraft. Thank you.
As someone who loved technoblades content and was also into the dream smp I went through the exact same thing. Glad to have found hermitcraft its much more pleasant over here.
@@jessicac8090 Yeah I watched some of season 6 when it aired, followed some of the early Dream SMP but it was just way too hard to follow, and it felt like everyone was just trying to be the main character in the story and not really being nearly as prominent in anyone else's stories, so it just felt like a loose collection of slightly related stories of people that tolerated each other sometimes, not "friends play Minecraft together and tell a silly story" like it originally was. I started watching HC again at the start of series 10 and it was really interesting seeing new people, and a lot of the newer people (Gem, Pearl, Joel) have been my favorites!
I'M SO EXCITED TO WATCH THIS VIDEO!! I'm actually an author of Hermitcraft fanficion, "Forgotten or Forbidden" and I'm a big fan of your videos. They are so helpful and fun and I love how this community comes to get other to make so lore!!😄 Watcher lore is the best!! I can't watch it now, but I will be back to watch this video like a recorded lecture, I'll be taking notes! LOL!
@@kaileymorgan I would love to give you one!! Though can't get the links to stay in my comment, probably a spam monitor preventing it. Anyway, if you look up "Forgotten or Forbidden" by Lila Jean in Google, it should pop up. It's both in Wattpad and Archive of Our Own, whatever one you like better. If you end up checking the story out, I reallt hope you enjoy!!
thanks for this ezzriin! i’ve watched grian since like 2018 but have been a more casual viewer until just recently when ive gotten a little more interested in the fandom. so the watcher stuff was kind of confusing to me, i had an understanding that it originated from Evo but couldn’t really remember anything as it’s been over 4/5 years since i’ve watched it 😅 (also so obsessed with the hey runner animatic btw)
i always thought that Grian was depicted with wings because it fit his character (like being a free bird or something like that idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). i didn't know about this lore, so thank you
@@samdyer-payne4719 as this above commenter mentioned (thanks for adding more stuff btw!) it is a combination of several things! a big thing is the "Watcher Lore", shown in such a cool video here, but also, as samdyer payne mentioned, grian's elytra skills and also some "bits" on hermitcraft - but especially a long thing during most of hermitcraft season 7 where he did or had a theme relating to chickens and parrots, and calling things and himself "pesky bird" a lot. or as it's also known as - "the pesky bird thing" or "the pesky bird arc" this also contributes to some of the art you might see around with grian with red or very rarely green parrot wings you might see around! and anyway, hermitcraft season 7 F T W! anyway, that is some additional info, thanks for reading through the longer paragraph in this comment, to the extent you did! and hope you all are having a nice day!
OHHH SO THATS WHAT WATCHERS ARE, I NEVER WATCHED EVO BUT I READ THE FANFICS AND WAS ALWAYS CONFUSED ASF ABT WHEN PPL TALKED ABOUT GRIAN’S PAST AS A WATCHER
Aw this video was incredible! It seems to speak to exactly the fandom headspace I’m in right now, references so much art and videos I’ve watched in these past few months as I’ve dived headfirst back into Hermitcraft and the Life Series fandom. Sharing this with all my friends!
Thank you for making this, when I entered the hermitcraft/Grian of the community I was a bit confused on the lore stuff but found some clues in to why, and this video helped put all the pieces together to fully understand, thank u :D
One of my favourite MC-fanlore are this one. :D And as I am ear-deep already reading riddiculous fanfics ,but not with the watchers or any kind of minecraft related yet , I am sure to read about how that universe shifts XD
this helps a lot, actually. I started watching grian/life crew at the start of secret life and lemme tell ya as a new fan it was intimidating as HELL seeing all the references to watcher lore and not knowing what's going on, or even where to look to learn.
I can't believe that this is one of the most informative videos on Watcher Lore I've seen on UA-cam, this is so great! ..I also can't believe that EVO started 8 years ago and we're still holding on from fanwork and Martyn's stuff.. gosh.
Thanks bro I knew none of this and watched Evo ages ago but after going on Grians fandom page saw he was referred to as the third watcher and got confused
i always love hearing other people’s perspectives on watcher lore and some of the things they headcanon or like that the fanon has produced. its super fun getting to discuss topics like this with my friends and seeing all the amazing art the fandom creates, whether its drawings/paintings, animations, stories, etc. its such a beautiful thing that we as humans get to experience with each other. also love the mentions of doctorsiren and atus, those definitely threw me into the hermitcraft space and surrounding fandoms so much more
im so glad u made this video. i literally searched up "what is watcher grian" the other day and couldnt find a straight answer so this is exactly what i needed
no one i saw clarified that it was fanon so i kept seeing things about it and thought it was actual canon stuff that i was missing. thank you for clearing that up
as someone who has been a long time fan of the watcher lore (4 years now babyyyy) i love this video. so much. you manage to cram so much information into 6 minutes and give a very good explanation on how the concept came to be, how it changed through the fandom, and how it applies now + common interpretations!!! i really like your explanation on fan culture and how it leads into the fan lore as well, it was really well done & i actually had no idea how to explain it until now. great video :D
Its just sooo amazing that so many people know ATUS. It was my first work of fanfiction i have ever read, and i still hold it (and the ATUS Karma animatic) close to my heart. (Edit: Spelling)
Brought me back to last life when you mentioned ATUS… that was one of my very first fics i ever read!! I found it through multiple video links and im so glad the curiosity took over, cause fanfic has honestly made my life better :)
I really liked the Evo series, and I'm glad you covered this. Also, Grian has the Watchers, Pesky Birds, Chicken Man, and generally being a skilled flier. No wonder he's drawn with wings all over
I'm so grateful for this video! It has been hard to piece it all together by myself as a newer person in the fandom, now I know what I did and did not miss, thank you!!
That video was so great ! You credited every artist, you gave definitions of words people might not know and the overall explanations were very well written ! Good job 👏 👏
SUCH A GOOD VIDEO!!! also when all of the example art popped up i audibly made happy noises because i recognized all of the artists bahahhah, thanks for this ezzriin!! (love your animatics, btw!)
Please make more videos like these! I’m somewhat new to the hermit craft fandom itself, and I find a lot of this stuff confusing! This video was really helpful and I’d love to see more! :)
Ty! this was very clear and easy to follow, which is hard to write in script, so amazing job. Also love ur art and amazing job again. (ty for providing names of the artists art used in ur video) this was wonerful!
This is so well edited though! It's really impressive and very enjoyable to watch. Also great summary and commentary on this whole ordeal, although I was hoping you'd mention the Life Series part of it all because of Martyn's lore
This clears up a lot for me! I never got into the EVO smp or any of that really, but I watch a lot of Hermitcraft and what not. Never really knew what the Watcher stuff was all about and now I have a pretty alright understanding of the basics. Thanks for the informative vid!
I keep coming back to this because my friends want to know why I have 37 animatics of the life series saved on my phone and what it’s about, so i give them this video and then spend another hour clarifying their questions and show them examples as well as send them playlists and martyns live streams. Obsessed with the series? Maybe… but it’s an amazing fandom and i’m proud to be part of it! Great explanation! i’ve been looking for a good one that doesn’t involve me stuttering and being confused for 30 extra minutes
Thank you so much for making this! As a fairly new Grian/HC/Life Series enjoyer, I was very confused by all the fanart of Grian being purple and watcher-themed. Time to make some fanart now :)
Oh, this explains so much, ty! I was very confused since I am new to the hermitcraft Fandom, and I see references to watchers listeners and other servers and rps confusing me on what's true and what's not. Sadly, I do not have time to watch every episode of all these series and seasons to figure out, so thank you for clarifying some of my confusion on the matter!
This really helps with my fic I'm writing! It's about if Grian and C!Tommy swapped bodies, and I wanted to add watcher lore, but I didn't have the best understanding! Thank you for the help!
This video actually got me so hyped abt working further again on my watcher fanfiction ive been working on for so many months, can't wait to bring it out!! Thanks so much for the interesting video !
thank you! i wasn’t watching during evo and i’m not a hermitcraft watcher, but i’ve been watching the life series and martyn’s lore videos but not known the full context until now
welp i probably needed this video 6 months ago when i was obsessed with watcher lore yet SO confused how it worked- this is still such a great video tho and everything is explained so well ^^
Watched this a couple of weeks or so after it came out but I forgot to comment. I just wanted to say that this is an amazing video that really helped me get a good idea on what my headcanons could be for my Watcher Lore. So, thank you.
I haven't watched Evo, but I have recently been keeping up with the Life series, which gets tangled with the Watcher lore as well, and this video is very helpful! I find the different interpretations of Watchers as malevolent or benevolent very interesting, because if we the viewers are the Watchers, then it's all of the above. The one thing they(we) all have in common is that wanting the games to continue.
Tfw I was looking for something about this topic last night! I kept wondering about the Watcher lore mention from different comment section of the animatics- thank you!
I think stuff like this is just SO COOL, cuz how would we have come up with all this cool lore, canon OR fanon, without it being in this specific situation: people playing Minecraft and making it a video series for people to watch? I just love all the creativity that has come out of stuff like Evo, the Life series, Hermitcraft, the Dream SMP, and a bunch of others! It's just so cool how it boosts creativity on all sides
i started wathcing hermitcraft this year, and have only watched a bit of evo, but based of what i know so far, i like to think of watchers as ethereal beings that simply watch over servers, and only harm when needed, sometimes pulling a few pranks for fun, and that grian was that one kid who wanted to explore more, so he escaped. i dont think that the watchers would pose a threat to grian or anyone around him, but they just want him to conform back to the norm of their society, so they make frequent appearances in his new life on hermitcraft to remind him of what he left behind
ATUS was the first fanfiction I ever read (and the animatic was also a first for me). And now I've written a fic with over 40k words that started a sort of community?? it's absolutely insane that that one amazing fanfic was my very first taste of something that would become such a big part of my life! And I am still, ofc, obsessed with watcher lore
Oh great- I spent *ages* tryig to figure out what was going on since I started with hermitcraft. This definitely gives me a better understanding. Thanks!
Yes Yes Yes! I am always in for watcher content and I thank you because I know it can be hard to follow at first. So I'm sure this is very helpful to many!
Honestly, if you spend enough time in this community you just learn Watcher Lore through Osmosis. I even have written a fanfic in which the Watchers play a little role. It’s not overly focused on them, it’s an AU where Martyn betrayed Scott earlier in Limited Life, causing Impulse to win (I’m a big Impulse fan. Sue me.). It’s called Pluto on AO3 if you’d like to read. I am not a writer at all. I barely passed my English GCSE’s and genuinely hadn’t written more than D&D backstories since school ended until I got that spark of an idea for that fanfic. If this series and the fanon that has come from it could persuade someone like me to pick up a pen and start writing an actual story. I think that shows the power of this particular series.
@ Where am I now in what respect? In terms of fanfics I am currently writing a series on AO3 where the Hermits end up in the Life Series. 10 chapters are out and I’m currently working on chapter 11. It’s called Hermit Life if you wanna read.
I'm more in the DSMP part of YT fandom than in the hermitcraft part of yt fandom (notice the word fandom here, I still watch a lot of hc) but it's interesting to me how Grian being a watcher is kinda the same as how a lot of dsmp depicts Dream (or DreamXD or both) and Philza as Admins. They also have wings and are also either involved (positve or negative) or not with their own worlds. You can almost say that in hc/Grian fandom Dream and Philza are fellow watchers while in dsmp fandom Grain would be a fellow admin! (Xisuma is also often a fellow admin btw, does that make him a fellow watcher?)
Well, I would say that the Watcher lore is more applicapble to the Life Series, while Hermitcraft is independant of it and has it's own lore, so I don't think Xisuma would be a watcher unless watcher lore was suddenly made canon to hermitcraft one day
Honestly both Grian and Martyn’s watcher lore still work really well with the actual and fictional events. Even though to Martyn they are no longer just “the viewers” but then he adds that they feed off chaos and love watching betrayal and that’s one of the main appeals of the Life series. Grian also actively causes as much chaos as he can lol.
I think the best thing about the Watchers originally being a synonym for the viewers is that, theoretically, WE are the Watchers so any fanon is kinda canon in a way lol
Going along with that, Martyn's thing about the Watchers looking like whatever a person wants or needs to see them as in a given moment pretty much means that all depictions of them are valid. :D
@@ruemistressofyeetsoh. oh holy. I’m keeping that in mind. EHEEHEHEHEEH THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING
LOOPHOLE
We are the *First,* Taurtis is the *Second* and Grian is the *Third*
Omg you’re right!!
“Fans feed of of fans”
*Fannibalism*
I love that
My new favorite word lol
Ouroboros
@@catdust Supernatural reference? 😮
@@l0ca1ity-313 no
What is the lore? A bunch of disembodied eyes watching a hunger games esque battle roulette occur till the end of time. Simple. (This is a joke if you couldn't tell)
And yet, if we were to take this comment as serious, that is technically pure fanon. After all, Martyn's story is technically an AU, with the main thing differentiating his AU from the others being that he is a player in the series, which I why so many people mistakenly consider it as canon
@@NagKai_Gno no its canon, to martyn’s channel (because its connected to his other lore on his channel so its canon to his channel as a whole)
May be a joke, but sums it up perfectly
Nah, this is legit the life series
@@NagKai_G Its not fanon since Martyn is not just any random fan, so its canon to Martyn's lore and since Martyn's lore for the life series does not interfere with any other lore, then I dont see why it is not canon.
i love grain he’s my favorite character in hermitshaft and last hive
grain
“Who’s this Grain character?” I love grain
He’s the man, the myth, and the legend.
He’s mostly the myth lol
What
@@stephaniegiacco7524 I think he's in hermit*shaft*
I think a notable contributor to both the popularity of watcher lore and the especially negative perception of them is Martyn’s lore. While not strictly Grian’s lore, Martyn used Evo as a springboard and inspiration for his own lord that continues to this day, especially in the Life series. A lot concepts that are basically unavoidable when looking for watcher content were created by him.
Exactly!!! Especially “Our will be done.” In my interpretations it’s meant to mean that whatever our will is will be done.
@@BOPgamez09 It especially boils down to the fact that whenever a creator makes something, they look to the feedback of the fans to see if they should continue, that feedback being our will. Do we want it to continue? If not, why should the creator keep making it? And we also leave suggestions for content pretty much all the time, maybe not to the creators, but keeping it among ourselves
@@reighn_forrestomg you’re right!!
And Martyn has said in lore streams that ALL of his Lore is NOT canon, and just an AU! You can interpret Watchers and Listeners however you’d like, design them or write them in any way, Martyn has made it clear that he loves seeing the creativity and his lore is not the official canon
i like the idea that the watchers represent the viewers/fans bc like the watchers, viewers can be either kind or awful to the creators while hiding behind a mask/screen and suffering little to no consequences for the awful-parts, or maybe i’m overanalyzing lmao
nah, I think you're right. there was a lot of hall-monitoring during secret life and now that I'm going back to the older life series, there have been other significant viewer overstepping incidents there too, so the watchers representing us the viewers in all our kindness and awfulness makes sense.
1:13 OMG I LOVE THE “I didn’t….die?” ANIMATIC JANDHQOIWJDJSNAKKSJSHKJSB
The one where scar talks at the end?
I see you on every single pinterest comment section and now you're here too xD
@@AK_804that part made it so unsettling. It was accidental but it genuinely is off-putting
yeah@@_aWiseMan
Grian being a Watcher is technically canon. Not sure about Pearl though.
I dont think Pearl is a watcher but some fanons do make her one. The closest she has ever gotten to being a watcher is 'Always Watching' from Limited Life. So is BigB also a watcher?
I think most people associate her with watchers because the owl/moth motifs
Plenty of people see her with wings or as a sibling to grian,and thus the watcher stuff ends up applying to her too
Martyn describes the Watchers as basically a different species rase if you will, if you follow with the fact that Grian was not always a Watcher, but another being at one point (half bird person or something) Pearl could have been his sister before he became a Watcher (love this idea, they give total sibling energy) then if you want to get into the nitty-gritty that would technically mean Pearl is also part bird or whatever, but idk, I like to think that all of the Hermits/Lifers are a different species (Grian=part Bird, Scar=Elven Wizard, Gem=part Deer, Timmy=something else that I haven't figured yet but still has a little bit of Canary) Desert Duo are cousins, (since Scar was a Clocker and were related to them) but then there's also the Bad Boys who I also like to think are Grians brothers, it's really complicated and not set in stone but that's the fun of Fandoms, everyone has their own perspective on the matter and it creates a bunch of new and unique stories for everyone to share :)
@@LycanMOON Also Pearl was one of the members of Evolution SMP. Martyn also gets Watcher art and was on Evolution SMP and he kinds plays into the "watcher" lore
@@UltraAryan10 BigB could become one, he was also part of Evolution SMP and is in the Life series
As someone who has seen a few watcher animatics but had no idea what was really going on, I appreciate this
Same
I would also like to mention Hermitcraft 8: Episode 26.
At around 1:23 in that video, Mumbo flies into Grian's base, and, for some reason, Mumbo can't see Grian but Grian can see Mumbo.
Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering why this is relevant.
Well, you see, it's actually surprisingly simple. The first thing Grian does, one he figures out what's going on (at around 2:13) is pale a sign that says "I see you." Then, he places another one, that says "behind you." Next sign: "Always watching." And the sings keep going. "Mumbo I'm going to get you." Then an end crystal. Grian does not blow it up, but he could have done. Mumbo, now terrified, because, remember, this entire time, Mumbo can't see Grian, starts ringing a bell over and over again, saying "Demons be gone. Demons be gone. Demons be gone." Of course, there's another sign. "Ding dong you will be gone." And it continues to escalate from there.
And if some of that doesn't sound like watcher Grian, then I don't know what does. Also, wile we're talking about all this I think it makes sense for me to link ua-cam.com/video/UvF31ne4cr8/v-deo.html this video, which talks about a similar topic in more detail.
The most common Fandom reaction to any Situation and/or Lore: "Wow that was angsty/dramatic/sad... But what if there were even more angst/drama/sadness?"
Omg you’re right!!!
Ok, so, i wasnt up to date of the watcher lore lol, this is something i needed, also i am the same guy who said you should have made more of these and to whom you responded to saying that something was coming, and you certainly delivered! (I am surely not watching this in the middle of the night lol :))
it's funny, cause i was ready to post the video today and i saw your comment and just posted it earlier haha
@@ezzriin LMAO, such a coincidence, i loved it. I wish you a great timezone!
@@craz2580Btw, the video didnt mention this, but a lot of fans go by martyn(inthelittlewood)'s version of watcher lore, which is still ongoing
2:00 i love how you got into this topic of fan lore and I instantly thought of “Grian’s parrot wings” as an example… AND YOU SHOWED THAT INSTANTLY
if you want to know more about watcher stuff, i highly recommend watching martyn's povs of the life series, and his live streams on watcher lore :D
there wasn't much here on those other than grian, so here's some bits from the top of my head! i don't read fanfic but i look at a lot of fanart, some other watcher related things ive noticed are -
- bigb, martyn, solidarity and pearl were also part of both evo and life series, so are sometimes also depicted as watchers/related to watchers
-pearl represents the moon, opposite to grian and so is often seen as a sibling to him and so also sometimes a watcher
-canary call/curse refers to solidarity dying first each season (until recently)
-fans often depict members of the life series to forget previous seasons. usually grian is shown as the only one who remembers them, but some artists push the narrative that all winners remember previous seasons
- martyn made the theory that ldshadowlady subbed in for pearl in limited because pearl was still grieving tilly when she should have forgotten double life. the watchers took her out for a session to correct her and make her forget.
-often life members are drawn as dolls to show how they exist for the watchers entertainment
-not necessarily watcher related? but all winners are given a title like "the sun" (grian), "the stars" (smajor), "the moon" (pearl obviously lmao), "mars/the ocean" (martyn and which depends on who you ask), "the earth" (scar)
-grains wings aren't always a watcher reference, hermitcraft fan artists often just draw hermits with various wings to represent their elytra!
-tilly is the true winner of dl :P
You can also watch Martin or inthelittlewoods for more watcher lore. He has a bunch of lore about the life series and watchers and himself. Although grian have said that canonically the watcher lore is not cannon from hermitcraft. Life series is a bit more complicated
One aspect I love is the occasional nod you see towards the watcher lore in the videos themselves. Obviously Martyn has his whole lore stuff, but one that stood out to me (and likely to many others) is the symbol on the face of The Secret Keeper being a variation on the Evo logo, where the watcher lore all began
I think fandoms working together and mixing lore is so beautiful, such as DreamXD being a watcher, sending down Dream to stir things up for their own entertainment, or maybe mentioning other fandoms and characters in fanfiction, such as a Dsmp Viallins/Heroes au that mentions Hotguy and Cuteguy.
Which one
@@FlyingEarthFruit-e7rgood question
I have never heard of the dreamxd being a watcher ever and I’ve watched and been in the dream smp fandom since it began so this is news to me can you tell me where to find this?
@@chasethemaster3440 Its been a while since i read it im afraid, but it was a hermit!Tommy fic
I think it’s funny because grian hasn’t done watcher lore since evo. The one who added on to the watcher lore was Martin.
Yes!! And the Martyn’s life series lore is also supports the Watcher lore👁️
Edit: HOLY!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I NEVED HAD THIS MUCH LIKES! ❤️
Technically he’s designated it as his own au because he still wants to let the fanbase do their own thing and not see his as canon because hes in the series
Yees Eyes and Ears
@@Bengt2509plus his watcher lore
Is connected to one of his other projects called into the datastream
Said project that affects the pirates smp and the rats smp but only in martyns pov (also maybe it affects empires and newlife but im not sure)
@@Bengt2509what does au mean
@@AK_804 alternate universe
I got introduced to Hermitcraft recently, the same year that... Technoblade died.
The dream SMP is dead for me.
But my soul found peace in Hermitcraft and its fanbase.
You make cool projects, it inspired me to do some drawings and study the lore of Hermitcraft.
Thank you.
Yeah, Hermitcraft is a genuinely funny SMP xD. The amount of meme potential.
@@rufavulpes Hehe, yes. And you don't have to do a lot of drama to do that. XD
As someone who loved technoblades content and was also into the dream smp I went through the exact same thing. Glad to have found hermitcraft its much more pleasant over here.
@@jessicac8090 Yeah I watched some of season 6 when it aired, followed some of the early Dream SMP but it was just way too hard to follow, and it felt like everyone was just trying to be the main character in the story and not really being nearly as prominent in anyone else's stories, so it just felt like a loose collection of slightly related stories of people that tolerated each other sometimes, not "friends play Minecraft together and tell a silly story" like it originally was. I started watching HC again at the start of series 10 and it was really interesting seeing new people, and a lot of the newer people (Gem, Pearl, Joel) have been my favorites!
I'M SO EXCITED TO WATCH THIS VIDEO!! I'm actually an author of Hermitcraft fanficion, "Forgotten or Forbidden" and I'm a big fan of your videos. They are so helpful and fun and I love how this community comes to get other to make so lore!!😄
Watcher lore is the best!!
I can't watch it now, but I will be back to watch this video like a recorded lecture, I'll be taking notes! LOL!
Can I get a link for the fanfic it sounds interesting 😄
@@kaileymorgan I would love to give you one!! Though can't get the links to stay in my comment, probably a spam monitor preventing it.
Anyway, if you look up "Forgotten or Forbidden" by Lila Jean in Google, it should pop up.
It's both in Wattpad and Archive of Our Own, whatever one you like better. If you end up checking the story out, I reallt hope you enjoy!!
My silly little Rät Animatic being featured on a video was not on my bingo list, holy-
(Thank you, I'm honored)
thanks for this ezzriin! i’ve watched grian since like 2018 but have been a more casual viewer until just recently when ive gotten a little more interested in the fandom. so the watcher stuff was kind of confusing to me, i had an understanding that it originated from Evo but couldn’t really remember anything as it’s been over 4/5 years since i’ve watched it 😅 (also so obsessed with the hey runner animatic btw)
i always thought that Grian was depicted with wings because it fit his character (like being a free bird or something like that idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). i didn't know about this lore, so thank you
I thought it was because of his mad elytra skillz. 😂
@@samdyer-payne4719 as this above commenter mentioned (thanks for adding more stuff btw!) it is a combination of several things!
a big thing is the "Watcher Lore", shown in such a cool video here, but also, as samdyer payne mentioned, grian's elytra skills and also some "bits" on hermitcraft - but especially a long thing during most of hermitcraft season 7 where he did or had a theme relating to chickens and parrots, and calling things and himself "pesky bird" a lot. or as it's also known as - "the pesky bird thing" or "the pesky bird arc" this also contributes to some of the art you might see around with grian with red or very rarely green parrot wings you might see around! and anyway, hermitcraft season 7 F T W!
anyway, that is some additional info, thanks for reading through the longer paragraph in this comment, to the extent you did! and hope you all are having a nice day!
I feel its a mix of fanon watcher lore, S7 pesky bird stuff, and Poultry Man in S6
OHHH SO THATS WHAT WATCHERS ARE, I NEVER WATCHED EVO BUT I READ THE FANFICS AND WAS ALWAYS CONFUSED ASF ABT WHEN PPL TALKED ABOUT GRIAN’S PAST AS A WATCHER
FINALLY!
Someone who explained the watcher lore from a mostly fan based perspective in a way I could understand.
Bam!
New sub.
Aw this video was incredible! It seems to speak to exactly the fandom headspace I’m in right now, references so much art and videos I’ve watched in these past few months as I’ve dived headfirst back into Hermitcraft and the Life Series fandom. Sharing this with all my friends!
Thank you for making this, when I entered the hermitcraft/Grian of the community I was a bit confused on the lore stuff but found some clues in to why, and this video helped put all the pieces together to fully understand, thank u :D
One of my favourite MC-fanlore are this one. :D And as I am ear-deep already reading riddiculous fanfics ,but not with the watchers or any kind of minecraft related yet , I am sure to read about how that universe shifts XD
The REAL watcher lore is the friends we made along the way.
I heard the aussie accent and immediately subbed ngl i just- theres a lack of us i feel
this helps a lot, actually. I started watching grian/life crew at the start of secret life and lemme tell ya as a new fan it was intimidating as HELL seeing all the references to watcher lore and not knowing what's going on, or even where to look to learn.
I can't believe that this is one of the most informative videos on Watcher Lore I've seen on UA-cam, this is so great!
..I also can't believe that EVO started 8 years ago and we're still holding on from fanwork and Martyn's stuff.. gosh.
Bruh ive been watching him for that long??? I feel old. (Been here since his build tutorial days)
Thanks bro I knew none of this and watched Evo ages ago but after going on Grians fandom page saw he was referred to as the third watcher and got confused
i always love hearing other people’s perspectives on watcher lore and some of the things they headcanon or like that the fanon has produced. its super fun getting to discuss topics like this with my friends and seeing all the amazing art the fandom creates, whether its drawings/paintings, animations, stories, etc. its such a beautiful thing that we as humans get to experience with each other.
also love the mentions of doctorsiren and atus, those definitely threw me into the hermitcraft space and surrounding fandoms so much more
im so glad u made this video. i literally searched up "what is watcher grian" the other day and couldnt find a straight answer so this is exactly what i needed
no one i saw clarified that it was fanon so i kept seeing things about it and thought it was actual canon stuff that i was missing. thank you for clearing that up
as someone who has been a long time fan of the watcher lore (4 years now babyyyy) i love this video. so much. you manage to cram so much information into 6 minutes and give a very good explanation on how the concept came to be, how it changed through the fandom, and how it applies now + common interpretations!!! i really like your explanation on fan culture and how it leads into the fan lore as well, it was really well done & i actually had no idea how to explain it until now. great video :D
Thanks, that was a very simple and easy to understand explanation. I also love your video style
Its just sooo amazing that so many people know ATUS. It was my first work of fanfiction i have ever read, and i still hold it (and the ATUS Karma animatic) close to my heart. (Edit: Spelling)
Thanks! I needed this so much!!
This is amazing! im loving the sort of 'content shift' from all the mcyt animators :)
we needed a video about it so bad !!! thanks ahah
2:17 2017!!??? I swear it was older than that omg!!
thank you for introducing me to as the universe shifts. I literally can't think of anything else and it consumes my whole life :D
I go feral for watcher stuff, i found out about Evo and decided to binge it so i could learn about watchers :]
Brought me back to last life when you mentioned ATUS… that was one of my very first fics i ever read!! I found it through multiple video links and im so glad the curiosity took over, cause fanfic has honestly made my life better :)
I really liked the Evo series, and I'm glad you covered this.
Also, Grian has the Watchers, Pesky Birds, Chicken Man, and generally being a skilled flier. No wonder he's drawn with wings all over
In a 6 minute video you spend half of it explaining something that if you're on the internet you probably already know
I'm so grateful for this video! It has been hard to piece it all together by myself as a newer person in the fandom, now I know what I did and did not miss, thank you!!
That video was so great ! You credited every artist, you gave definitions of words people might not know and the overall explanations were very well written !
Good job 👏 👏
SUCH A GOOD VIDEO!!! also when all of the example art popped up i audibly made happy noises because i recognized all of the artists bahahhah, thanks for this ezzriin!! (love your animatics, btw!)
Please make more videos like these! I’m somewhat new to the hermit craft fandom itself, and I find a lot of this stuff confusing! This video was really helpful and I’d love to see more! :)
“They know how to pull a good prank” ok yup grian is a watcher.
Thanks for making this! Regardless what becomes fanon or canon, it’s nice to see where the origin of the watchers started.
Ty! this was very clear and easy to follow, which is hard to write in script, so amazing job. Also love ur art and amazing job again. (ty for providing names of the artists art used in ur video) this was wonerful!
This is so well edited though! It's really impressive and very enjoyable to watch. Also great summary and commentary on this whole ordeal, although I was hoping you'd mention the Life Series part of it all because of Martyn's lore
This clears up a lot for me! I never got into the EVO smp or any of that really, but I watch a lot of Hermitcraft and what not. Never really knew what the Watcher stuff was all about and now I have a pretty alright understanding of the basics. Thanks for the informative vid!
I read some fanfiction where grian is a watcher, but he hides it saying he's an avian
Thank you for this video! As someone who is new to all the hermit related content it definitely shines some light on the topic! ❤❤❤
I keep coming back to this because my friends want to know why I have 37 animatics of the life series saved on my phone and what it’s about, so i give them this video and then spend another hour clarifying their questions and show them examples as well as send them playlists and martyns live streams. Obsessed with the series? Maybe… but it’s an amazing fandom and i’m proud to be part of it!
Great explanation! i’ve been looking for a good one that doesn’t involve me stuttering and being confused for 30 extra minutes
Thank you so much for making this! As a fairly new Grian/HC/Life Series enjoyer, I was very confused by all the fanart of Grian being purple and watcher-themed.
Time to make some fanart now :)
FINALLY!!! I've been looking for a good, short video just like this one for soooo long! thank you so much for making it!!
Thank you very, very much for explaining this and being so thorough about it!
It helped me a lot. ❤
This is a brilliant summation of both fandom in general and the watcher lore in specific. Well done!
Oh, this explains so much, ty! I was very confused since I am new to the hermitcraft Fandom, and I see references to watchers listeners and other servers and rps confusing me on what's true and what's not. Sadly, I do not have time to watch every episode of all these series and seasons to figure out, so thank you for clarifying some of my confusion on the matter!
This really helps with my fic I'm writing! It's about if Grian and C!Tommy swapped bodies, and I wanted to add watcher lore, but I didn't have the best understanding! Thank you for the help!
I love the fandom soo much. it is crazy how fans could do alot of things! Thank you for this video!
This video actually got me so hyped abt working further again on my watcher fanfiction ive been working on for so many months, can't wait to bring it out!! Thanks so much for the interesting video !
This is super useful, been looking everywhere for something like this :D Thank you
I absolutely love watcher lore, and even though I already knew most of it this video is a very good summary!
thank you! i wasn’t watching during evo and i’m not a hermitcraft watcher, but i’ve been watching the life series and martyn’s lore videos but not known the full context until now
welp i probably needed this video 6 months ago when i was obsessed with watcher lore yet SO confused how it worked- this is still such a great video tho and everything is explained so well ^^
This is awesome! I love that there is so much content made by fans that connects so many other fans! Great explanation!
This cleared up so much! Thank you for making this, I feel like I can finally say I understand all of this.
this is awesome! great vid. By far one of your best for now. I am sure there is more to come
As someone who is currently writing a fic with watchers in it having to make up the lore as I go this is gonna be very helpful
As someone who didn't watch during evo and was stuck in limbo about what exactly was canon, thank you! This was really helpful
Thank you so much! I have been trying to find a breakdown of the lore but could only ever find absurdly long videos on it!
Watched this a couple of weeks or so after it came out but I forgot to comment.
I just wanted to say that this is an amazing video that really helped me get a good idea on what my headcanons could be for my Watcher Lore.
So, thank you.
I haven't watched Evo, but I have recently been keeping up with the Life series, which gets tangled with the Watcher lore as well, and this video is very helpful! I find the different interpretations of Watchers as malevolent or benevolent very interesting, because if we the viewers are the Watchers, then it's all of the above. The one thing they(we) all have in common is that wanting the games to continue.
Tfw I was looking for something about this topic last night! I kept wondering about the Watcher lore mention from different comment section of the animatics- thank you!
I think stuff like this is just SO COOL, cuz how would we have come up with all this cool lore, canon OR fanon, without it being in this specific situation: people playing Minecraft and making it a video series for people to watch? I just love all the creativity that has come out of stuff like Evo, the Life series, Hermitcraft, the Dream SMP, and a bunch of others! It's just so cool how it boosts creativity on all sides
i started wathcing hermitcraft this year, and have only watched a bit of evo, but based of what i know so far, i like to think of watchers as ethereal beings that simply watch over servers, and only harm when needed, sometimes pulling a few pranks for fun, and that grian was that one kid who wanted to explore more, so he escaped. i dont think that the watchers would pose a threat to grian or anyone
around him, but they just want him to conform back to the norm of their society, so they make frequent appearances in his new life on hermitcraft to remind him of what he left behind
ATUS was the first fanfiction I ever read (and the animatic was also a first for me). And now I've written a fic with over 40k words that started a sort of community?? it's absolutely insane that that one amazing fanfic was my very first taste of something that would become such a big part of my life! And I am still, ofc, obsessed with watcher lore
THANK YOU FOR THIS! ive been looking a video like this ofr so long!
It's interesting to know that Minecraft Evolution *DID* in fact continue after Grian left for Hermitcraft..
*It just fully ended in late 2019...*
Oh great- I spent *ages* tryig to figure out what was going on since I started with hermitcraft. This definitely gives me a better understanding. Thanks!
Where was this video two months ago before i binged the entire evo smp?😭😭😭
I cannot tell you how much now makes sense to me bcs of this video LMAO tysm
Yes Yes Yes! I am always in for watcher content and I thank you because I know it can be hard to follow at first. So I'm sure this is very helpful to many!
This is sooo good! Ty for making this, it helped me to really understand it and it was SO encouraging!!
FANTASTIC ELI5 breakdown of fandom, canon, and fanon. you did a wonderful job here.
Honestly, if you spend enough time in this community you just learn Watcher Lore through Osmosis. I even have written a fanfic in which the Watchers play a little role. It’s not overly focused on them, it’s an AU where Martyn betrayed Scott earlier in Limited Life, causing Impulse to win (I’m a big Impulse fan. Sue me.). It’s called Pluto on AO3 if you’d like to read.
I am not a writer at all. I barely passed my English GCSE’s and genuinely hadn’t written more than D&D backstories since school ended until I got that spark of an idea for that fanfic.
If this series and the fanon that has come from it could persuade someone like me to pick up a pen and start writing an actual story. I think that shows the power of this particular series.
well, how did you do? everybody works at their own pace, and i don't know yours, but where are you now?
@ Where am I now in what respect?
In terms of fanfics I am currently writing a series on AO3 where the Hermits end up in the Life Series. 10 chapters are out and I’m currently working on chapter 11. It’s called Hermit Life if you wanna read.
@ nice!!!
I'm more in the DSMP part of YT fandom than in the hermitcraft part of yt fandom (notice the word fandom here, I still watch a lot of hc) but it's interesting to me how Grian being a watcher is kinda the same as how a lot of dsmp depicts Dream (or DreamXD or both) and Philza as Admins. They also have wings and are also either involved (positve or negative) or not with their own worlds. You can almost say that in hc/Grian fandom Dream and Philza are fellow watchers while in dsmp fandom Grain would be a fellow admin! (Xisuma is also often a fellow admin btw, does that make him a fellow watcher?)
Well, I would say that the Watcher lore is more applicapble to the Life Series, while Hermitcraft is independant of it and has it's own lore, so I don't think Xisuma would be a watcher unless watcher lore was suddenly made canon to hermitcraft one day
Life and evo are connected, hermitcraft is not that part of that canon as far as I’m aware
Honestly both Grian and Martyn’s watcher lore still work really well with the actual and fictional events. Even though to Martyn they are no longer just “the viewers” but then he adds that they feed off chaos and love watching betrayal and that’s one of the main appeals of the Life series. Grian also actively causes as much chaos as he can lol.
This was actually a very good explanation!! Thank you :D
Thank you for this I had been wondering about this. Can you make a video about how the watcher lore is in the life series
very helpful!! rlly wished i had when i first joined :>
This is very helpful, I’ve never actually understood what the whole watcher thing is, so this was a big help