Powerlessness, Control, And Community On The QSMP

Powerlessness, Control, and Community on the QSMP

Been in a sort of literary analysis mood lately, so here's a mess of some of my thoughts on the themes of the QSMP main story (and why, regardless of how frustrating we can find some events, i think they ultimately make sense in regards to the story currently being told)

Since the very beginning of the server, the central ideas of the story have been present. First of all, these people are TRAPPED here, by an organization that they know nearly nothing about and that seems to have near-godlike power over their lives and the island. The central conceit of the story of this server is that these people LACK CONTROL over their environment, over where they go, over what they do. ANOTHER ENTITY controls the very fabric of their environment. People are killed, punished, kidnapped, teleported around against their will. They're experimented on. Tortured. Drugged. Their day-to-day lives are their own- but they CAN'T LEAVE. Many of them didn't even choose to be here.

Quesadilla Island is a place of peace at first glance. But look deeper and it's a battlefield, and the participants of this battle are metaphorical giants. They're powerful to a reality-shaping degree. Their motives are obscure, lofty, mysterious. Their plans play with lives like pieces on a chessboard.

The Federation. The Resistance. The Codes. The Watcher and his Workers. Evil Cucurucho. All main-plot powers, with terrifying powers, mysterious origins, obscure plans, warped morality. Even in individual characters' lore, we have entities like this: Madagio, Rose, the Ender King, Bad's "old friends," et c.

Our characters and their children are ants on a battlefield of gods.

There is so much that is out of their control. They're pawns and playthings, there's powers far beyond them, things that they cannot understand. Of course they try and try and fail anyway. If you really want to kill an ant, there's little it can do about it.

But like ants, their greatest strength is community. It's each other. They make each other strong. They stand up to these massive threats as a community. When they gain another small victory, they share the joy. When, inevitably, they suffer another loss, they bear that loss TOGETHER. They all do what they can. They infiltrate, prepare, scheme. They do everything small people can against massive threats. They cannot win with brute strength, they HAVE to use other tactics.

Yes, the victories are small. They're few and far between. But against the insurmountable odds they face? They're miraculous. They're hard fought and won with blood and tears and LOVE.

The losses are massive. People die. They're traumatized. People are irreversibly changed. Of course it is this way. With these odds, in this situation, it's inevitable. But the losses are handled. The burdens are borne with blood and tears and love.

In the end, I think the QSMP is a story of people in a world of impossible odds, trapped and played with by entities that use them like pieces in a game. They're outmatched in every way. The only thing they have is community. They have each other. I think this is meant to be a slow, painful clawing forward for them. Pushing themselves as hard as they can to gain any inch of traction, any crumb of power. Fighting tooth and nail for knowledge, for peace for themselves and their children.

And in the end, I think they'll win. It think they'll make it. Because in the end, it's all about love. And the greatest power our islanders have is love. It'll be a long and bloody fight. There will be loss. But I think they'll make it.

guys maybe this is how they got cracks.

;(

How is it. That every fucking time I try to give Missa the benefit of the doubt like "Oh he's really not that much of a wet cat, he's just inexperienced."

He proves me wrong every fucking time by having a fucking 8 year old save him from near-death

Missa has no armor he's gonna die so many times

he's gonna be chewed on like a dog toy

💯🙏💛🟨👍

Phil is in the vents-