Symbiosis
genuinely convinced that there is no higher tier of storytelling than multiple POVs in a minecraft smp series.
like. that is the most hilariously unserious thing to say but I am dead serious about it -- you get the same story overall, but depending on who you watch you get an entirely different tale. Editing, scoring, choices in which lines to cut or include, the simple matter of whether or not someone is present for an event or conversation... Everyone is telling their own story as the protagonist. You functionally have as many "main characters" as you have POVs.
I'm remembering Third Life, and how the Red Army seemed so villainous and powerful from the perspective of the Desert or the Flower Kingdom. But then if you watch Ren and Martyn they're the beleaguered outpost of civility, being assailed by threats without and betrayal within. From Scar's POV he's derping around and having a blast being the maniac snake oil salesman who wants your pants. From Martyn's POV Scar is a dangerous lunatic with a barbarian glint in his eye.
And both stories are true.
I'm not usually a huge fan of unreliable narrators in fiction, because it always feels a bit... gimmicky? when it comes from an author who DOES know the truth of the situation, but for one reason or another doesn't want the narrator and/or the audience to cotton on to what's happening.
But with mcyt stories, every player is an unreliable narrator -- even if it's just to the extent of them not knowing for sure why people do or say what they do and say. Things can be misunderstood or misinterpreted. Context can be missed.
Then add in someone who wants to tell a story with a specifically tinted lens and deliberately plays their character and edits their videos to fit that narrative... and it's even better. Because whatever they do still has to fit, somehow, into the context of how other people understand them. Like one of those optical illusions where it's a rabbit from one angle and a duck from another.
You literally can't do this with (almost) any other kind of media, or at least it's not usually worth the effort. I remember a YA series of (awful) books I read decades ago that had the same story but each book was from a different person's perspective. You CAN do that. TV shows do that sometimes, show the same events from different characters' POVs. But generally speaking, it's so much effort for not enough payout and no one really bothers with it. Also, when you have the same person/team doing all the different perspectives, it's still gonna be a bit samey.
mcyt storytelling with multiple POVs is an incredibly flexible and unique medium, and this may be my favorite aspect of it.
