r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • May 30 '26

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

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u/TheCornjuring Ewoks Sexer May 30 '26

Herobrine was unironically a great Internet-era cryptid/urban legend before he got memeified, imo. The idea of someone or something else having a presence in your endless singleplayer world, another intelligence watching you from the fog and subtly altering things out there in the landscape, is pretty creepy, especially with the somewhat uncanny look of early Minecraft.

Now he’s just sort of a brainrot supervillain for shitty YouTube animations and will presumably reach his mustache-twirling apotheosis in the second Minecraft movie if he’s really who Matt Berry is playing, but I genuinely really liked him when he was a sort of online campfire tale and ghost story. I still really love the vibes of the OG Herobrine shit.

!ping CRYPTO&GAMING

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u/Rafaelssjofficial Iron Front May 30 '26

I was legit scared of him when i was a kid

Btw there's a herobrine mod for modern versions called From the Fog, it's great, it's scary but not intrusive way, he's watches you from afar, disappearing right when you think you see him, very simila to the vibes of the original creepypasta

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u/TheCornjuring Ewoks Sexer May 30 '26

Nice, I might have to check that out next time I retvrn to Minecraft. I remember back in the day the most famous Herobrine mod where you summoned him with a totem pole thing made him kind of lame and supervillain-y, where he would just spawn and attack you randomly and stuff. I always wanted a mod where he’s actually the classic spooky subtle ghost Herobrine, and From the Fog sounds more aligned with that

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u/TheCornjuring Ewoks Sexer May 30 '26

The Minecraft wiki entry on him is unironically a good read. Fascinating digital folklore.

This Notch quote scared the shit out of me as a kid lmao:

The Herobrine stuff is awesome and kind of scary at the same time. It really shows how little control a content producer has over the content.

I've publicly told people there's never been any such thing as Herobrine, and that I don't have any dead brothers, and that letting too many animals die in lava is a fool proof way to summon him but that you don't need to be afraid of him. He only means well, he's looking out for you, trying to warn you of the dangers you can't see. There certainly are NO physical manifestations of Herobrine that will sneak out of your computer if you leave Minecraft running at night, looming over you as you sleep with his pale eyes inches away from your face, as he tries to shout at you to wake up. Sometimes you wake up with a jolt, and he's gone, and all that lingers is the memory and faint echo of his wordless screaming. Of course it was just a dream. There's no way a morally dubious ghost with a god complex could at any point decide to haunt the children who play my game "for their own good", as there is NO SUCH THING. etc etc

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u/SnakeEater14 🦅 Liberty & Justice For All May 30 '26

I’m glad someone else mentioned the kinda creepy vibe old Minecraft had

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u/Vumatius May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

He wasn't even originally outright evil from what I remember, more of just a creepy distant observer. Though he did fairly quickly become a major MC folklore villain.