236
Collaborators
Elightin_elytraHey, guys, today, we're doing an interview with Elightin_elytra, an incredible member of the Battle for the Enchanted Netherite Trophy (BENT, henseforth) community and the only member to make a successful spin-off!
Golden: Hello, Elightin. Today, we're going to do a little interview on BENT. To start things off, what got you into BENT originally?
Elightin: I mean, a lot of stuff did! Rob333 really introduced me to the series, and I just went on from there! As I read more and more, I finally decided that this is the series for me! There was no series on Planet Minecraft that gave human personifications, emotions, and expressions to regular Minecraft mobs. It was as well interesting that beforehand, I already thought about making a new BENT series before the series was cancelled. It came as a shock to me however when it was cancelled. But it was also the perfect opportunity for me to implement this new BENT series. With permission, the first chapter was made, and the rest is still in the works, with Chapter 6 released and Chapter 7 in the works!
Golden: That’s cool! For me, I was inspired by object shows, and thought it would be cool if I did one with Minecraft mobs. I think that the sheer novelty and unique formula of BENT is part of what led to its popularity.
--
Golden: Out of the OG cast, who is your favorite character and why?
Elightin: From the OG cast, I'm taking Peter. The reason I chose Peter is because of his character and personality! I just think he's a chill guy!
Golden: that's a good pick! Evelyn, Alex, and Peter, our three friendly illagers, were originally created for a lost series of mine, which followed the crazy adventures of three young children of the same names. As a homage to it, the original Evelyn and Peter are the ancestors of BENT's Evelyn.
When I was writing for Peter, I wanted him to be a bro, which clearly worked!
--
Golden: which cha do you relate to the most in my series?
Elightin: Like before, Peter. At times he can be caring and wants to help others out, while other times, he can defend his friends when they need him the most. Overall, he can be the most chill guy and yet one of the toughest guys you'll ever meet, aside from Piglin Brute.
Golden: Figured.
I'd say that I am most like Evelyn. I wrote Evelyn to be similar to myself, which made her easy to write. By this, I'm referring to her political views and blinding passion for social issues. Paige, the Piglin, is a bit feisty and materialistic, and true to her pig-like nature, is disorganization. Aliea, the young Allay, is calm and compassionate, sort of serving as a foil for Paige. Relating to my similarities, she represents my creativity.
When we compare fiery passion, a sparkling love of luxury, and the creative mind of an artist, Evelyn, Paige, and Aliea represent Marianne's personality, and by extension, my own. This relates to the three being among Marianne's favorite contestants.
--
Golden: What were your inspirations for your spin-off?
Elightin: A lot of things. The original series was one of them, but a key player was the Legend of Zelda. Its lore and how it was executed was well done and I want to replicate that feeling in my stories. It gave an interesting story with an even more interesting back-story. The next inspirations were Tamil films that emphasized on the ideas of mystery, yet action!
Golden: Makes sense. I drew lots of inspiration from Washington DC, Baltimore Maryland, and Champaign Illinois for the campus itself, while taking aspects from Breath of the Wild to use in other parts. Even later, I started seeing parallels between the roleplay lore and Tears of the Kingdom, with the sculk dimension basically being the Depths in TotK, and the Timeline Crystal being the secret stones held by the sages (in terms of its function.)
It becomes more evident when I include the Divine Beasts in the later chapters, and at this point, I'm not even trying to hide it.
As a final note on this, BENT's Hollows are inspired by the Hollows from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.
--
Golden: what are your thoughts on the 'dark' hidden lore of my BENT, such as the Hollows and the blackmail?
Elightin: The Hollows have been one of my least concerns, while the blackmail was one of my most. The one responsible for the blackmail was as well one of my least favorite people on the site, but it was as well sad to see them feel worthless. Again, as a Christian, I feel like I struggle on showing love towards others and relate to the people. Looking back on it, I should've tried my best to reach out to them.
Golden: Yeah... it's unfortunate that they chose to do what they did. What's more unfortunate, at least in my eyes, is how we chose to react behind the scenes. It was defently an overreaction to the actions of someone who I'm now 90% sure was a middle-school aged kid who was being bullied or had a hard home life. The thing with people like that is that we don't really know what's going in in their lives that motivates behavior like that.
As such, I did find a way to smoothly integrate it into the mainstream lore, although I really could've done better, as someone who is probably older than the user in question, than painting them out to be a delinquent who derived pleasure from defamation.
I do not know their motivations, nor will I get more information. It seemed that whatever was going on with them, there were clearly some sort of problems in their personal life that drove them to take it out on a stranger on the internet.
Despite what they did, I do hope that they found the appropriate outlets, and got help to mature as an individual.
--
Golden: Which contestant in your BENT is your favorite?
Elightin: Sorry, but I can't decide between either Charles (the awesome chicken) or Peter. When rebooting BENT from the VHS tapes, I did my best to recreate the personalities of the contestants and add hints of my imagination into them. This, alongside adding new contestants, created two characters whose personalities are impossible to hate!
--
Golden: How did you decide on the format for your series?
Elightin: I really just used the format I saw in most of the chapter books I read. The Bobbsey Twins and War of the Worlds played a huge role in how I formatted!
--
Golden: What is your favorite part about BENT, and the community in general?
Elightin: About BENT, it's its uniqueness and (chaotic) timelines and varied storylines. The community is so hard to summarize in one word, so I'll try to make it really short: The best and the most understanding community out there for a web-series.
--
Golden: What do you think of the Deepslate Primary School in Phantom Reflections as a setting, as well as its use as somewhat of a bridge into the roleplay lore?
Elightin: I really never paid attention to it. As far BENT was concerned, I really just stuck with the main series!
--
Golden: which game was your favorite?
Elightin: Light Up the Night was my favorite, with it a homage calling back to it in Chapter 6 in the Reboot series.
--
Golden: Strange ask, but do you have any character ships?
Elightin: My sense of love is terrible. Ask me to rizz up a girl and I'll just say, "Um, you're good looking?" (add slap affect) But, if there is a ship that's my personal favorite, it's everyone else's: Evelyn and Peter (Evindicator is what I think it is).
--
Elightin: Why did you decide to actually make the ships official? Most series don't even make the ships official and let the fans draw their own personal views on who likes who.
Golden: In the original series Evelyn and Peter came from, and as a homage to that, I had them dating. Of course, I had planned to mix in a third-party in the scrapped (for now?) BENT: Refresh, but I just liked their dynamics!
--
Golden: What do you think of the arcs between the characters? Which characters had the deepest arcs? Like, the Illusioner/evoker rivalry, or the dynamics between Paige/Aiden or Aliea/Austin?
Elightin: It's quite one of the more interesting things. I never thought that someone would go so in depth into one's character, let alone a Minecraft mob. As I progressed the series, I really took onto the Illusioner vs. Evoker rivalry and saw it as a nice thing on the side! I also have to ask you.
--
Elightin: Why did you decide to go so in-depth into each character when no one else did? This definitely set you apart from other authors on the site, but what as well inspired you to go in-depth? Was there anyone in your life that encouraged this?
Golden: More so as I proceeded through the series, I wanted to dive deeper into these characters and their backgrounds, hinting towards their motivations. For characters like Austin and Aiden, who were eliminated in the first few chapters, it seemed like a lot of missions potential for characterization. At the same time, particularly with characters like Paige, i wanted to make the development feel real, showing that these characters are real people living in this fictitious world, and not just empty actors.
In the early chapters, i didn't use dialouge, which meant there was no characterization, and no life. Once I started giving the contestants voices, they began to feel more alive. By giving them complex backgrounds and story arcs, it opened up possibilities for stronger connections to the audience (and myself.)
I see that in the fact that I favor characters like Evelyn, who have a personality, over ones like the animals, which did nothing the whole game.
I've always loved creative writing, but I never went to this extent in terms of length, quality, and sheer quantity of characters. I'm not entirely sure about the root of this, though.
--
Elightin: Why did you make BENT in the first place? You could've done anything else, yet you decided to make this series.
Golden: I was born in history class. I just thought "Hey, what if I did a game show with Minecraft mobs?" and it kinda took off from there. Originally, I wanted to have the audience play the roles of judges in the competition that would pick a member to leave, but I decided against that, making the audience a third-party in the BENT universe. Years before this, I wanted to make an object show, as I was a fan of the OG object show, Battle for Dream Island (which I don't watch anymore because I thought the newer episodes were cringe,) and I even made up a roster of characters and drew them. I ultimately dropped this idea because of resources.
Most of what I did with BENT was on the fly, and I evolved and adapted alongside the community. At the end of the day, it all comes down to me not wanting to learn about ancient Mesopotanian river valley civilizations or whatever kind of stuff we were doing in class on that particular day.
--
Golden: It's been a pleasure. Before we wrap things up, do you have any final takeaways that you'd like to add?
Elightin: Overall, BENT was the best thing introduced to me on this site. It's helped me tremendously in my writing abilities and is as well a testing ground for a majority of the works I'm still making. The community's feedback always lets me know what they like and what they don't like. I hope that others can be inspired to not just make spin-offs of their own one day, but as well make their own original stories. In my opinion, BENT, if put enough effort, could be the next thing to inspire others to become better authors! I just wish however that I can live up to the expectations the original BENT had! I as well enjoyed this interview! Thanks for having me!
Golden: No problem!
Do YOU want to be interviewed next? Drop a comment and let me know!
Golden: Hello, Elightin. Today, we're going to do a little interview on BENT. To start things off, what got you into BENT originally?
Elightin: I mean, a lot of stuff did! Rob333 really introduced me to the series, and I just went on from there! As I read more and more, I finally decided that this is the series for me! There was no series on Planet Minecraft that gave human personifications, emotions, and expressions to regular Minecraft mobs. It was as well interesting that beforehand, I already thought about making a new BENT series before the series was cancelled. It came as a shock to me however when it was cancelled. But it was also the perfect opportunity for me to implement this new BENT series. With permission, the first chapter was made, and the rest is still in the works, with Chapter 6 released and Chapter 7 in the works!
Golden: That’s cool! For me, I was inspired by object shows, and thought it would be cool if I did one with Minecraft mobs. I think that the sheer novelty and unique formula of BENT is part of what led to its popularity.
--
Golden: Out of the OG cast, who is your favorite character and why?
Elightin: From the OG cast, I'm taking Peter. The reason I chose Peter is because of his character and personality! I just think he's a chill guy!
Golden: that's a good pick! Evelyn, Alex, and Peter, our three friendly illagers, were originally created for a lost series of mine, which followed the crazy adventures of three young children of the same names. As a homage to it, the original Evelyn and Peter are the ancestors of BENT's Evelyn.
When I was writing for Peter, I wanted him to be a bro, which clearly worked!
--
Golden: which cha do you relate to the most in my series?
Elightin: Like before, Peter. At times he can be caring and wants to help others out, while other times, he can defend his friends when they need him the most. Overall, he can be the most chill guy and yet one of the toughest guys you'll ever meet, aside from Piglin Brute.
Golden: Figured.
I'd say that I am most like Evelyn. I wrote Evelyn to be similar to myself, which made her easy to write. By this, I'm referring to her political views and blinding passion for social issues. Paige, the Piglin, is a bit feisty and materialistic, and true to her pig-like nature, is disorganization. Aliea, the young Allay, is calm and compassionate, sort of serving as a foil for Paige. Relating to my similarities, she represents my creativity.
When we compare fiery passion, a sparkling love of luxury, and the creative mind of an artist, Evelyn, Paige, and Aliea represent Marianne's personality, and by extension, my own. This relates to the three being among Marianne's favorite contestants.
--
Golden: What were your inspirations for your spin-off?
Elightin: A lot of things. The original series was one of them, but a key player was the Legend of Zelda. Its lore and how it was executed was well done and I want to replicate that feeling in my stories. It gave an interesting story with an even more interesting back-story. The next inspirations were Tamil films that emphasized on the ideas of mystery, yet action!
Golden: Makes sense. I drew lots of inspiration from Washington DC, Baltimore Maryland, and Champaign Illinois for the campus itself, while taking aspects from Breath of the Wild to use in other parts. Even later, I started seeing parallels between the roleplay lore and Tears of the Kingdom, with the sculk dimension basically being the Depths in TotK, and the Timeline Crystal being the secret stones held by the sages (in terms of its function.)
It becomes more evident when I include the Divine Beasts in the later chapters, and at this point, I'm not even trying to hide it.
As a final note on this, BENT's Hollows are inspired by the Hollows from Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.
--
Golden: what are your thoughts on the 'dark' hidden lore of my BENT, such as the Hollows and the blackmail?
Elightin: The Hollows have been one of my least concerns, while the blackmail was one of my most. The one responsible for the blackmail was as well one of my least favorite people on the site, but it was as well sad to see them feel worthless. Again, as a Christian, I feel like I struggle on showing love towards others and relate to the people. Looking back on it, I should've tried my best to reach out to them.
Golden: Yeah... it's unfortunate that they chose to do what they did. What's more unfortunate, at least in my eyes, is how we chose to react behind the scenes. It was defently an overreaction to the actions of someone who I'm now 90% sure was a middle-school aged kid who was being bullied or had a hard home life. The thing with people like that is that we don't really know what's going in in their lives that motivates behavior like that.
As such, I did find a way to smoothly integrate it into the mainstream lore, although I really could've done better, as someone who is probably older than the user in question, than painting them out to be a delinquent who derived pleasure from defamation.
I do not know their motivations, nor will I get more information. It seemed that whatever was going on with them, there were clearly some sort of problems in their personal life that drove them to take it out on a stranger on the internet.
Despite what they did, I do hope that they found the appropriate outlets, and got help to mature as an individual.
--
Golden: Which contestant in your BENT is your favorite?
Elightin: Sorry, but I can't decide between either Charles (the awesome chicken) or Peter. When rebooting BENT from the VHS tapes, I did my best to recreate the personalities of the contestants and add hints of my imagination into them. This, alongside adding new contestants, created two characters whose personalities are impossible to hate!
--
Golden: How did you decide on the format for your series?
Elightin: I really just used the format I saw in most of the chapter books I read. The Bobbsey Twins and War of the Worlds played a huge role in how I formatted!
--
Golden: What is your favorite part about BENT, and the community in general?
Elightin: About BENT, it's its uniqueness and (chaotic) timelines and varied storylines. The community is so hard to summarize in one word, so I'll try to make it really short: The best and the most understanding community out there for a web-series.
--
Golden: What do you think of the Deepslate Primary School in Phantom Reflections as a setting, as well as its use as somewhat of a bridge into the roleplay lore?
Elightin: I really never paid attention to it. As far BENT was concerned, I really just stuck with the main series!
--
Golden: which game was your favorite?
Elightin: Light Up the Night was my favorite, with it a homage calling back to it in Chapter 6 in the Reboot series.
--
Golden: Strange ask, but do you have any character ships?
Elightin: My sense of love is terrible. Ask me to rizz up a girl and I'll just say, "Um, you're good looking?" (add slap affect) But, if there is a ship that's my personal favorite, it's everyone else's: Evelyn and Peter (Evindicator is what I think it is).
--
Elightin: Why did you decide to actually make the ships official? Most series don't even make the ships official and let the fans draw their own personal views on who likes who.
Golden: In the original series Evelyn and Peter came from, and as a homage to that, I had them dating. Of course, I had planned to mix in a third-party in the scrapped (for now?) BENT: Refresh, but I just liked their dynamics!
--
Golden: What do you think of the arcs between the characters? Which characters had the deepest arcs? Like, the Illusioner/evoker rivalry, or the dynamics between Paige/Aiden or Aliea/Austin?
Elightin: It's quite one of the more interesting things. I never thought that someone would go so in depth into one's character, let alone a Minecraft mob. As I progressed the series, I really took onto the Illusioner vs. Evoker rivalry and saw it as a nice thing on the side! I also have to ask you.
--
Elightin: Why did you decide to go so in-depth into each character when no one else did? This definitely set you apart from other authors on the site, but what as well inspired you to go in-depth? Was there anyone in your life that encouraged this?
Golden: More so as I proceeded through the series, I wanted to dive deeper into these characters and their backgrounds, hinting towards their motivations. For characters like Austin and Aiden, who were eliminated in the first few chapters, it seemed like a lot of missions potential for characterization. At the same time, particularly with characters like Paige, i wanted to make the development feel real, showing that these characters are real people living in this fictitious world, and not just empty actors.
In the early chapters, i didn't use dialouge, which meant there was no characterization, and no life. Once I started giving the contestants voices, they began to feel more alive. By giving them complex backgrounds and story arcs, it opened up possibilities for stronger connections to the audience (and myself.)
I see that in the fact that I favor characters like Evelyn, who have a personality, over ones like the animals, which did nothing the whole game.
I've always loved creative writing, but I never went to this extent in terms of length, quality, and sheer quantity of characters. I'm not entirely sure about the root of this, though.
--
Elightin: Why did you make BENT in the first place? You could've done anything else, yet you decided to make this series.
Golden: I was born in history class. I just thought "Hey, what if I did a game show with Minecraft mobs?" and it kinda took off from there. Originally, I wanted to have the audience play the roles of judges in the competition that would pick a member to leave, but I decided against that, making the audience a third-party in the BENT universe. Years before this, I wanted to make an object show, as I was a fan of the OG object show, Battle for Dream Island (which I don't watch anymore because I thought the newer episodes were cringe,) and I even made up a roster of characters and drew them. I ultimately dropped this idea because of resources.
Most of what I did with BENT was on the fly, and I evolved and adapted alongside the community. At the end of the day, it all comes down to me not wanting to learn about ancient Mesopotanian river valley civilizations or whatever kind of stuff we were doing in class on that particular day.
--
Golden: It's been a pleasure. Before we wrap things up, do you have any final takeaways that you'd like to add?
Elightin: Overall, BENT was the best thing introduced to me on this site. It's helped me tremendously in my writing abilities and is as well a testing ground for a majority of the works I'm still making. The community's feedback always lets me know what they like and what they don't like. I hope that others can be inspired to not just make spin-offs of their own one day, but as well make their own original stories. In my opinion, BENT, if put enough effort, could be the next thing to inspire others to become better authors! I just wish however that I can live up to the expectations the original BENT had! I as well enjoyed this interview! Thanks for having me!
Golden: No problem!
Do YOU want to be interviewed next? Drop a comment and let me know!
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