Rendog/InTheLittleWood

Pairing
Pairing:	Rendog/InTheLittleWood
Alternative name(s):	Ren/Martyn, Treebark
Gender category:	Slash, M/M
Fandom:	Life SMP Series, MCYT
Canonical?:	No
Prevalence:	Common
Archives:
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Rendog/InTheLittleWood, popularly known as Treebark, is the M/M pairing of Rendog (Ren) and InTheLittleWood (Martyn Littlewood) from the Life SMP Series. The pairing is usually depicted as the relationship between their Minecraft characters as opposed to being RPF, but it can refer to both.

Canon

At the start of the series, Ren and Martyn were acquaintances. They quickly became good friends during the course of 3rd Life, where Ren played the role of the Red King and Martyn played as the Hand of the King. As the Hand, Martyn was very protective of Ren and the two of them worked well together as a team. They both permadied together while trying to take back the kingdom of Dogwarts, with Ren falling first and Martyn following soon after.

Throughout other seasons, Ren and Martyn have consistently allied with each other and often allude back to their time in 3rd Life. In Limited Life, Ren was not apart of the series due to his IRL situation at the time, but Martyn continued to tie Ren into his lore by including several references to 3rd Life, including calling himself an “unguided hand” and having the banner of Dogwarts on his red life skin.

Word of God

Martyn admitted post-3rd Life that his initial plan for c!Martyn’s arc as the Hand was to betray Ren and take Dogwarts for himself while under the influence of the Watchers, an event that he would have called “Red Spring”. He never got the chance to enact this plotline, however, and instead died appearing "super honorable" by staying loyal to his king.

During his post-Limited Life lore stream, Martyn stated that Ren’s absence was a “shift in comfort” for c!Martyn, and that the Dogwarts banner on his red-life skin was “recognition of Ren not being there, but still always being close to c!Martyn”. He also said that the fragment scar on c!Martyn's face was “a tear shed when Ren fell, because that was… the moment that broke c!Martyn and made him more selfish moving forwards”.

Fandom

Fans of Treebark note the plentiful homoerotic moments between Ren and Martyn throughout the Life SMP Series. Most of the focus centers around their time together in 3rd Life, as that was when their relationship initially developed and is the season of the Life SMP Series that has the most isolated moments between them.

Martyn has shown support for the fictional aspect of fanworks when asked about his opinion on the subject, and has acknowledged the ship on several occasions. Paired with his effort to continue including Ren in his lore, the fandom has been encouraged to ship the two together.

The ship name Treebark is wordplay based on their in-game names, with tree referring to InTheLittleWood and bark referring to Rendog. It was coined by strifesolution on Tumblr. The platonic duo name for the pair is Renchanting, which is the name Martyn gave the enchanting shop Ren initially planned for 3rd Life. It is sometimes stylized as Renchantyn by fans to represent both characters in the name equally.

Popular Tropes

Angst - The source material is set inside of a battle royale-styled death game, making angst a common genre of fanwork.

Hurt/Comfort - It's popular to have one character hurt in battle and the other tend to their wounds.

Mutual Pining - With the dynamics of authoritative figure and subordinate, they are sometimes portrayed as nervous to pursue each other romantically.

Canon Divergence - Common in AUs where Ren and Martyn win the battle at Dogwarts and end up as the final two.

Werewolf - Given his canonical canine traits, is it popular fanon to make Ren a werewolf.

Loyalty - The nature of Ren and Martyn's relationship is based in near-devoted levels of loyalty, especially in 3rd Life as King and Hand.

Royalty AU - Typically set in a more fantasy-forward universe, where Ren is the king of a real, populated kingdom and Martyn is his second-in-command.

Fanworks

Fanart

A sleepy off-duty King and his sleepy off-duty Hand by lunarcrown

blows a kiss for the treebark enjoyers by wizardcorn3r

bona fide ren greeting by hwasang

fireside chat by slimebit

Head bump! by komorebi1533 (deactivated)

I apologize to you, my Darling by fukoronoko

“Luck be with ye…. Hand.” by Sabira Langevin

No grave can hold my body down I'll crawl home to her<3 by creatureesque (via sometimesrendog)

'We did everything we could / to keep this house from falling..' by bebagerie

Animations and Animatics

pale white horse/where is your rider (full) | 3rd life animatic by genesis frog

The Red means I love you // Tragedy of 3rd life Animation by Melloz Heist

hey btw it’s been over a year since martyn last said ren’s name in canon by bo-nks

Fanfiction

Armor; best used: gathering dust by SpiralOfShame (Mature)

Beneath a Cursed Exterior Lies the Same Heartbeatby harpydora (Teen+)

how to deal with your supernatural lust for blood (and other things) in a completely normal and god-honoring fashionby Anonymous (Explicit)

Long, Long Time by Kummerspecke (Teen+)

Sgt. Pepper's Broken Hearts Club Band by harpydora (Teen+)

wild things can't get comfortable by donnerstag (Mature)

You May Not Sleep Now by enemyofrome (Mature)

you've always been my north star by genesis_frog (Teen+)

Fanzines

HOLD ME, HAND by lovesby

Fanwork Events

Treebark Week - a shipping fanweek dedicated to Rendog/InTheLittleWood fanworks

Treebark Title Swap - a fandom challenge dedicated to Rendog/InTheLittleWood and Rendog & InTheLittleWood fanworks

Collections

Rendog/InTheLittleWood fanworks on Archive of Our Own

Rendog/InTheLittleWood fanworks and discussion on Tumblr