The King - Animation vs. Minecraft Shorts Ep 30

Director's Commentary! https://youtu.be/PfzE4Bw25OQ

A son chasing after a father that never cared and a father who chased after a son he cared for so much... Absolutely poetic, Alan. I'm crying.

My brother and I are nearly 30 and found ourselves enjoying the creativity and whimsy of the series, thinking it was just "good content targeted at a younger demographic"... but then we hit this one and we cried for nearly two hours at King's backstory... holy crap man, that was incredible! Several days later and I'm still choking up just thinking about it; I can't remember the last time a story hit me that hard... thank you for your awesome work.

22:40 a man who has eyes of revenge for the lost of his son, he doesn’t realize he has become the thing he truly hated. He took away alot of people, he realized. He has become his worst enemy. The moment he realized he tried to save purple just like he tried to with his son, he realized he made some memories with purple. Even without emotions or eyes or faces nor speech you can see how dedicated king orange is to save purple, Amazing details Alan. Real amazing, made me tear a bit.

16:07 i lost my mind when i saw herobrine, and the fight that came after was genuinely the hardest thing ive seen in years 😭

I love that this episode marks the end of an era. Finally, after 6 years, that hole in the taskbar has been restored. It's just beautiful.

Better than most multi-million dollar movies; what a crazy satisfying finale!! Not a single word of dialogue and yet I am sat here in complete emotional awe. The level of care put into this series... How on earth you were able to link back to so many old videos is beyond me. Incredible job by everyone involved!!!

Here's my favorite little details that are the reason I rewatch this every night instead of sleeping: 14:52 - Purple doesn't attack or push away King Orange, just holds the staff barely out of his reach. He's probably a little shocked at what he has done, I know I would be. 15:22 - Something I have noticed demonstrated multiple times before and after this episode is that Yellow is easily distracted and puts his guard down when surprised. He jumps/falls backwards when scared and has difficulty multitasking, seemingly only being able to put his full focus on one thing at a time. 15:54 - Just Green pulling Purple back in this moment. Thats all. 16:33 - Red leans slightly closer in this moment. He is probably partially traumatized after being possessed (I'll talk more about that later), but still wants to see whats gonna happen. 16:47 - Herobrine has a certain care for his students which is shown here as just the simple act of getting them out of there instead of attacking in that moment. 17:54 - It really just looks like Red is being pulled around like a puppet. Also, is there any reason that of all the sticks, Herobrine always goes for Red? It could have been cuz he was the closest, but there could also be a deeper reason, and if so I must know. 18:05 - Can this music get any better? This is literally a work of art. 18:41 - As an animator myself, I would just like to say HOO BOY IS THAT SMOOTH MY GOD this entire sequence of regenerating the body parts of this... stick tron thing, it just blows my little animator brain away. 18:56 - Purple swooping in to catch Red here shows that he really is just on their side now and just wants to make sure everyones ok. 19:22 - Being possessed, despite obviously wearing on his body, is probably not why Red was knocked out. I mean, did you see how King Orange just beat up Red? Also Purple is just there making sure that Reds ok. 19:24 - Im pretty sure Purple has mostly just caught people this scene. Also, the way that Orange looks at Purple like he's honestly surprised Purple saved him is very interesting and shows how its a bit harder for Orange to trust people, especially with previous evidence stating otherwise. 20:08 - Red regains consciousness and only takes a second to be helped up (by Orange and Purple, although Yellow reaches over to try and help.) before he is on his feet ready to fight again. He looks at everyone else like: "well what are you waiting for come on guys!" Red is a fighter. He perseveres. 20:24 - Red may be on his feet but despite usually being one of the fastest runners of the group, he visibly lags behind here, he's definitely worn out after that possession. 20:48 - Yellow notices how glitched Orange is, as he was hit the hardest with that blast. I like how when he's worried for someone, Yellow reaches out a hand as if he is unsure what to do but wants to help. 20:53 - Red is just not gonna give up. He can get knocked down over and over again but as soon as he's able to move, he's gonna put his all into fighting agin. 21:32 - King Orange does what I can only assume is the fastest double take in human history, as he glances back at where Purple just was. Also, he stops for just a second when pushing away Yellow. Maybe cuz he looks like King Oranges son? 21:40 - Green and Purple, despite just being glitched away, are quick to get back up into a more fighting-like position. They are the only ones that do this. Green, however, fails and is only able to fall forward. 21:44 - After taking a quick look at Red, Purple does the most Red thing I have seen. He gets back up, just like Red did, and walks right back into the danger. I wonder if he admires this about Red, and is trying to be more brave himself. 21:52 - CLARINET AND VIOLIN HAVE A CONVERSATION!!! THIS IS LITERALLY THE INSTRUMENTS THEY HAVE AS THEIR NOTE BLOCK VOICES TALKING AND RESPONDING. Green looks at Purple with a very weak clarinet, as if to say, "No, please don't do this. You're just gonna die." While Purple responds with a confident violin, saying, "Im gonna die anyway. Might as well die fighting." 22:01 - This is the melody that Purple used in his song about his dad. It plays as he walks up to King Orange. 22:50 - I had been wondering for a while whether this world was 2D or 3D to them, this confirmed my theory. 23:16 - I think in this moment we see King Orange put more effort into any of the fighting he was doing previously. Even when he was fighting for his life, he never seemed as hell bent on anything as he was on saving Gold. Now, he's working just as hard to save Purple. 23:51 - While everyone seems like they want to do something to stop this, Orange actually is still acting like it's possible. He runs up while everyone else has this air or "Its hopeless" around them, and until he gets his last ditch effort idea, everyone else is only half trying. 24:02 - Orange, ever the protective oldest bro, is putting his arm in front of the others to make sure the disintegrating light doesn't hurt them. 24:10 - Blue was gonna try next, but Orange GRABBED IT OUT OF THE POOR WEED ADDICTED CHILDS HANDS. How could he? 24:53 - They caught him. 24:56 - RAINBOW ORDER :D 25:12 - Blue is too pure for this world he's trying to save all the piglings that are getting pulled in, and every time Yellow has to remind him that he probably shouldn't die. 25:23 - Blue did the thing again. 25:41 - Yellow is trying to pull Orange back and save him. Im not sure exactly why, but Yellow has seemed very conscious of Oranges safety in this episode. 27:25 - He finally broke the glass. 27:47 - King Orange literally died to give Purple a well deserved hug. He just needed a hug. I hope King Orange adopts Purple. 28:37 - Camera angle of the century. 28:54 - At even the slightest idea that maybe Purple is on King Oranges side and they are both evil again, Orange runs in front of his brothers to protect them. 29:25 - Yellow and Blue use their collective twin power to shame King Orange for all his wrongdoing. (Also, it really seems like Purple, Green, and Red have become a bit closer and are maybe friends now?) 30:02 - Not only do they all hug Purple, just like Green sung about, but his instrument Is played in the background, as is Purples. 31:31 - Ruben, (the pigs name,) is still wearing the crown. Thank you for reading through this. I love info dumping about my hyperfixations. (Edit: Holy hell this blew up my god thanks for all those likes)

Funny thing is King is taller than the rest of the crew since he's an adult. IN theory, the crew (Red, blue, green, yellow, and TSC) are just kids or teens, purple included. So in hindsight King was hurting childern.

I love how the King's origin story makes the audience initially think that his schemes are an attempt to bring his son back to life, but the scene in the Void makes it clear that it was about getting revenge on the thing that he blames for his son's death. 10/10 writing.

Honestly, I'll never forget how far this series has come from its original roots, and how much time, effort, and skill was poured into each and every single creation, but also the series as a whole. Hope that 2023 has more success and happiness for you, and for everyone also reading this.

Man, that scene where King Orange hugs Purple makes me cry. Every. Single. Time. There's just so much symbolism from the violin playing, to the fact that King Orange finally broke through the glass, and to break through the glass he had to break through the angry rage-and-revenge-fueled version of himself, and it was Purple on the other side of it instead of his son, and King's glass shards look like Purple's flower petals... I could go on. It's just so good. Oh yeah, and the fact that the melody from Purple's song in the previous episode plays when he's running towards King- just emphasizing how it mirrors the desperate struggle Purple's made to get to that father figure all his life- it makes my little musician brain explode with happiness. When I first watched that part, I recognized the melody instantly, and I pretty nearly screamed from excitement.

I saw this one loving detail at 30:00, Purple put the crown on the pig which was a Technoblade detail. It broke my heart when I saw it.

All of this started with a single stick figure which was but a victim in Alan's eyes. To take such a simple idea and do something so grand with it is truly remarkable. It is a testament to your creativity and dedication that today, millions of people are witnessing this masterpiece unfold on their screens. Thank you to you and your team for giving us an epic tale to experience.

I'm gonna miss this series so much.. almost 7 years since it all started when Orange stick figure picked up the Minecraft block, and so many brainstorming ideas came around. Not even Mojang can think of it! Thank you, Alan Becker. Edit: Jesus guys, I get that it may not be ending for good, but you never know when all good things come to an end eventually. Not all things last forever you know. Edit 2: Goddamn so many likes.. dunno if I'll bypass this current one anytime soon.. and can y'all calm down now?

I really loved that in the wall drawing sequence, it shows him blinded by pure rage and takes his frustration out on the game. Hurting anyone and everyone in it, he didnt realize that he was hurting his son too. I hope that The King gets a happy ending where he gets his original son back somehow and have a happy ending.

18:02 the obsidian stick man just gave me a type of nostalgia I have never felt

These characters have absolutely no facial features and yet the perfect choreography makes it SO easy to tell what way they're looking or what they're trying to express. Absolutely masterful.

It goes to show that you don’t need realistic animation to make a masterpiece. You just need a stick figure and some imagination. This is amazing. A real treat to watch

10:09 OH MY GOSH. I JUST REALIZED THE ROCKET LOGO FROM AVA IS ON THE TV. this could mean so many things like: Rocket is a popular tech company that’s secretly evil King orange and purple live where the most recent AVAs take place and could be in it as a plot twist, help out or even bring Minecraft friends with them. And so much more… If y’all have theories reply to this because a theory could be right