Wilbur Soot

Name:	William Patrick Spencer Gold
Also Known As:	Will, Wilbur, Wilbur Soot
Occupation:	Twitch Streamer, YouTuber, Musician
Medium:	Video, Music
Works:	SMPLive, SMPEarth, Dream SMP, Origins SMP, QSMP, Lovejoy (band), Editor Wilbur ARG
Official Website(s):	Wilbur Soot at YouTube
Fan Website(s):
On Fanlore:	Related pages

Wilbur Soot is a British musician, Twitch streamer and YouTuber. He began posting YouTube videos with a friend in 2011 at the age of 14, but only rose to popularity in 2019 with his solo channel and new Twitch presence. He was part of the now-defunct meme-oriented Youtube channel SootHouse, the Sleepy Bois Inc. (together with Ph1LzA, Technoblade, and TommyInnit), as well as a string of popular Minecraft SMPs (survival multiplayer servers), including SMPLive, SMPEarth (which he helped start), the Dream SMP (where he was one of the lead writers), Origins SMP and the QSMP. He is sometimes credited with popularising the "Minecraft, but..." genre of Minecraft Youtube videos through his collaborations with fellow streamer Jschlatt. He has been releasing his original music since 2019, which is a mixture of serious acoustic music and satirical comedy songs. He is currently part of the indie rock band Lovejoy as their lead vocalist, songwriter and rhythm guitarist.

On February 27th, 2024 he posted a tweet in which he admitted to having abused his ex-girlfriend, fellow minecraft streamer and youtuber Shelby Shubble.

Fandom

The majority of content related to Wilbur Soot discusses his various characters in the SMPs he has been a part of, as well as a variety of one-off characters from his streams, videos and comedy music videos. These one-off characters are often called Bursonas by the fandom, a portmanteau of "Wilbur" and "personas". When discussing his SMP characters, a ! is often used to indicate which character is being referred to, such as c!Wilbur for his Dream SMP character or q!Wilbur for his QSMP character. Bursonas, on the other hand, are usually portmanteaus with his name. For example, his character from his Alternate Reality Game is usually referred to as ARGbur, and his character from his trilogy of songs satirising online incel culture, the Incel Trilogy, is usually referred to as Incelbur. Bursonas are also used when referring to specific time periods in Wilbur Soot's Dream SMP character's story, such as Presidentbur, referring to c!Wilbur's original presidency over L'Manburg, and Revivebur, referring to c!Wilbur after being brought back from the dead. Ghostbur, referring to an alternative version of c!Wilbur who replaced him while he was dead, was used by Wilbur Soot and the rest of the Dream SMP cast to refer to that character.

In fanworks, Wilbur Soot is usually portrayed as wearing a yellow jumper, an item of clothing that he wore a lot at the beginning of his career and which is featured on many of his Minecraft skins. As he has been releasing his own music for the entirety of his online career, he is strongly associated with his acoustic guitar, which he calls Simone. Apart from regularly appearing in fanart, it also features in fanfiction. For example, in SMPRonpa, Wilbur uses it to kill Slimecicle, a plot point that is regularly referenced by fans and creators alike.

In December 2019, popular SMPLive and Lunch Club twitter fan insideotears, known for their elaborate pranks spreading fake information in the MCYT twitter fandom sphere, tweeted pretending that Wilbur Soot's full name was "William Arthur Gold", then retweeted any tweet referencing it. This spread among the fanbase and worked to the extent that, according to Wilbur Soot, his father contacted him to ask if he had legally changed his middle name.

Works

On the 26th of January 2022, Wilbur released a semi-canonical story for the Dream SMP on the Archive of Our Own called The Wilbur Van. It describes an alternative version of events immediately preceding the death of Ranboo's Dream SMP character. The Wilbur Van is the only part of the Dream SMP's plot to be released via the Archive of Our Own.