Lifesteal SMP

Fandom
Name:	Lifesteal SMP
Abbreviation(s):	LSSMP
Creator:	Mapicc with help from Parrotx2
Date(s):	2020 - Present
Medium:	Minecraft Server(s)
Country of Origin:
External Links:	https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLifeStealSMP/
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Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Lifesteal SMP is a series of private Minecraft survival multiplayer (SMP) servers. So far it has had 4 seasons, each one separated by a world reset. It is a smaller minecraft server which often revolves around alliances and doing out-sized, inpressive things on screen, typically treading on the borders of hacking or exploits (while still following the bounds of what's allowed on the server). It also involves a degree of roleplay, including occasionally relationships that border on, or are, romantic. The main idea of the server - the reason behind the name "Lifesteal" is that any player who kills another can take one of their "hearts" - part of their life bar in minecraft, and "hearts" (or life force) can also be sold, bartered, or given. The content creators/streamers involved include Mapicc, Parrotx2 (aka Parrot), Reddons, Ashwag, Clownpierce, Pangi, ItsSubz, Vitalasy, and Branzy - and also has guest appearances including some from TommyInnit and Tubbo_. Most of the content creators/streamers skew young, and to a lesser extent, American, with a few still finishing high school.

Season 4 alliance chart by Aroaceacacia.

Fandom

LSSMP fanworks have a presence on Tumblr and Reddit, as well as AO3 (with ~300 fics as of September 2022, and ~1,450 fics as of December 30, 2023).

General

Common fandom activities include finding ways to imagine the various player's minecraft skins, which tend towards being animal forms, completely abstract, or both - as well as sharing information and speculating on the state of current alliances, exploits, and heists, and often trying to imagine the perspectives on current events from players who haven't shared what their characters think of them yet.

Archiving, Collecting, and "Lost Media"

For Background: Lifesteal SMP related video "canon" can include both the edited Youtuber videos put out by the artists involved, as well as Twitch streams, though generally only the Youtube videos are essential for story and are more likely to be considered the "core" of canon by the artists (and fans for the most part). Youtube videos occasionallly are deleted or corrupted - and of course Twitch streams are deleted automatically after a week or a few weeks. Many MCYT streamers/youtubers have a playlist of streams which they upload off of Twitch and onto Youtube afterwards to circumvent this. - At some point it was realized by many in the fandom that some parts of canon content were no longer publicly available. With the Twitch side being the least available. Many members of Lifesteal are less used to "professionally" using Youtube, and generally younger and do not have Twitch stream saving channels like many members of bigger, more famous SMPs do, and some Youtube videos are no longer viewable in most places. Most of season 1 and some significant parts of the start of season 2 are now considered by some as "Lost Media". Season 1 was devoted to figuring out what they were doing and is much shorter, and so is considered less of a big deal by many fans. But Season 2 is.

And So there also was a push by not all, but many, to make sure a similar thing didn't happen to the well known and fanworked season 3 and 4. There is an "Unofficial Lifesteal SMP Archiving and Collecting" group on Tumblr and Discord, and a bit on reddit, which has a main project and side projects. The main, semi organized project is getting season 3 and 4 streams off of Twitch and archiving them on Youtube, Archive.org, or a combination, and also saving any particularly notable Youtube shorts. And also contacting the artists when friendly and letting them know about Youtube uploads and Twitch's TOS, which allows uploads to other sites. There was some friction with Archive.org at times, with a set of e-mails saying "their primary purpose was not streams" but there is also an official Lifesteal SMP group on Archive.org which has stayed their with their sign-off. Other people may have side projects. Some of them include collecting their own preferred content from "canon" and especially backing up fanworks, but these are unofficial and unorganized.

Lifesteal Modding

Some fans use plugins similar to the Lifesteal plugin on their own personal or private Minecraft servers.

Vids

Especially in late 2022 and 2023, there were an increase in Videos, including animatics. Popular ones include If Lifesteal smp had a trailer and others by Theprismicguy and a series of short PMVs, more than half being 30-40 seconds long, by Thecallofavoid, which are generally considered to use song choice and lyrics well and use both his own art and art from other well known Lifestal SMP artists.

Shipping

Clownpierce/Branzy

Clownpierce/Branzy, or Branzypierce or Clownzy, is one of the most popular ships an one of the first to be added in fanworks. Fans see it as having a basis in roleplayed flirtations between the two characters in canon. And it really quickly became popular in mid February, 2022 after their release of their videos showing their first major cooperation in building their Circus and the associated rigged game, and the associated few minutes of flirtation/romance which worked as starting ideas for a few fanworks. Common themes include their mutual interests, how Branzy deals with being in a relationship with someone more dangerous and scheming than himself, and their partnership in mutual heists and scams. Hurt/comfort, comfort, or whump also feature in stories, as is common in many, many Lifesteal SMP shipping stories.

Reddoons/Ashwag

This is another of the three or four oldest ships. It can go many places, but fanworks often include business, espionage, of hurt/comfort.

Vitalasy/ItzSubz

Vitalasy/ItzSubz, also known as VitalaSubz or often Purple Duo, is another of the earlier ships. Their willingness to partner with eachother, and on-and-off isolation in the server as well as their occasional extremely helpful or possibly heroic streak caught some fans eyes, and some fanworks revolve around hurt/comfort or their extreme faithfulness and loyalty or codependence, depending on the viewpoint, or both. The name "Purple Duo" comes from their Minecraft Skins which feature similar shades of purple and which they have modified to be more similar. There are also many fics and artworks showing them in AUs which require working closely together, like Pacific Rim AUs or especially The Locked Tomb AUs, which started with some sketches and art, and then story No fixing what's been shattered... by Arospecitzsubz. Many fanworks explre their relationship by casting them in the roles of necromancer and cavalier from The Locked Tomb books.

Parrot

There is some occasional though very rare, shipping content of Parrot with Spoke or Mapicc, with whom he has collaborated.

The Three Heart Trio

Baconwaffles/Planertlord/YeahJaron or Baconwaffles&Planetlord&YeahJaron, or The 3 Heart Trio, is a relatively common ship, and a quite common grouping. They worked together and at one point have all been fairly "weak", having only three hearts each, which is where the name comes from, and at one time went to prison together. There are many fanworks covering their time in prison or their relationships.

Vitalasy/ItzSubz/PrinceZam

In season 4 PrinceZam teamed up with Vitalasy and ItzSubz. Vitalasy/ItzSubz/PrinceZam or Vitalasy&ItzSubz&PrinceZam is also known as Eclipse, the Eclipse Federation, or the Eclipse Group after the in canon name of their partnership, which is in turn based off of PrinceZam's solar symbols and Subz and Vitalasy's night based ones. Fanworks involving them often focus on politics or hurt/comfort. It is now low to medium in popularity but solid and well-known.

Fanworks

Visual

• Lifesteal Cast Designs
• RoshamboGames Design
• Branzy Design
• Casino Dancing - Clownzy art
• More Likely Than You Think - Clownzy art
• Clownzy art
• Catboy ClownPierce
• Ashwag

• 

  Catboy Clownpierce by favoure

Video

• Dreamer Lifesteal SMP Animatic
• Wither Finale Lifesteal SMP Animatic
• ClownPierce and Branzy Animatic
• Clownzy AMV

Fanfiction

• Smoke and mirrors to set the world aflame by Anonymous
• I've Got Four More Hours by Scared_Rodent
• Typhiod by Cherri-y
• My Immortal Steal "My Immortal" parody by Chachanteng and Selcouthagender
• Not What I See by Beaningeneraldenial
• Bethroned NSFW fic by Anonymouscrab
• Because you look so fine NSFW fic by AnonymousAnimals

Meta

• Parrot, Pang, the NPPP, and Protest Humor, an Intro Meta by Deliciousobservationbird
• A fandom intro/promo post in a holiday exchange

Resources

• https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLifeStealSMP/
• Lifesteal Season 2 all perspectives playlist
• Lifesteal Season 2 all perspectives playlist