Who thought it would be a good idea to give the player the option to call slavery and mining fun? Tasteless, to be honest. But yeah, here are the unlucky people who lost Hadrian and Mevia's games, died, and got revived as miners.
| “ | Harper: We used to have competitors from all over travel here to play in the games, at least until the others ruined it. Jesse: What happened? Harper: Hadrian and Mevia let power go to their heads. They started pitting people against each other just for sport. Forcing people to be here. It isn't right. |
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| ~ Basically, Harper outright confirms that Hadrian and Mevia originally created the games to be fun and pleasure for all the partakers, but they let power and sadism consume them and rig the games into agony sessions where the losers always die and respawn on repeat only to be reduced to miners. Sick. |
Yomickayha382: Hey, everyone! It's Yomickayha382 back again with another PP proposal! As these two guys won my latest poll regarding who I should discuss next, I will be giving Hadrian and Mevia from Minecraft: Story Mode a shot at qualifying here. I'm not sure how Hadrian will go, but what I do know is that Mevia is a definite qualifier having rewatched gameplay videos on YouTube! And this is another collaboration with my good friend Star of the Universe who is not only another massive Minecraft: Story Mode fan, but also helped me out on my proposal for Badger from The Walking Dead. Now, let the discussion begin!
Star of the Universe: Hey guys, Star of the Universe here for another Proposal! This time, it’s my second collaboration with my good friend; Yomickayha382, and today we’re discussing two very interesting characters to say the least (the former being very controversial). After Badger’s approval, I couldn’t wait for my third collaboration with Yomickay as well as getting a chance at a few other Telltale villains (especially with Troy and Unnamed Children of Arkham Soldier’s respective approval’s the other week), and with my birthday right around the corner, I also though I’d do this as a celebration of sorts. That’s enough from me, and let’s do this!
What's the Work?[]
Minecraft: Story Mode is an episodic video game series created by Telltale Games. It's about a character named Jesse (whose gender is player-determined) who starts out as a nobody before rising to fame by defeating the Wither Storm and saving the world. Then, he/she goes on a bunch of adventures with his/her friends to save lives and stop heinous villains.
Who are They?[]
Hadrian and Mevia are the final antagonists of Season 1, respectively serving as the main antagonist and secondary antagonist of Episode 8, which is titled "A Journey's End?". They are the oppressive and sadistic leaders of the Old Builders who host the Games for numerous people (who were outright abducted from their homes) to take part in, and the losers are turned into slaves who get abused and forced to work in the Nether as miners. They are two of Jesse's archenemies (only behind Romeo).
Are They Pathetic?[]
Well, duh! Hadrian and Mevia are PE and NPE respectively, so of course they would be deemed pathetic!
Let's start with Hadrian. He is a power-hungry, deal-making, sadistic and tyrannical cheater who put countless competitors in a fate worse than death by having them die and respawn on repeat whenever they lose the torturous games, gave them false hope by creating the non-existent legend of Tim and forced Jesse into a double bind where he/she and his/her friends would be enslaved to work in the mines anyway. He also pettily fired Mevia in the “Zombie sized Chickens” post credits scene first making a chicken wing related joke about their situation (even if Mevia more than deserved it for everything she did)
Now, let's talk about Mevia. She assisted Hadrian in his crimes with sadistic glee by enabling him to rig the games into torturous sports where the losers are killed and brought back to life as miners who are forced to work in the Nether's mines against their will and temporarily killed Jesse during the final battle.
What Makes Them Pinheads?[]
Hadrian[]
- Despite seemingly being successful in what he does, he runs the Games on fear and power automatically given to him for free, not intellect or skill.
- When he learned everything about Jesse's life back in his/her homeworld, he knew that he/she had a friend named Reuben, so he had Mevia kidnap a man named Reuben even though he was actually a pig who died in the quest to stop the Wither Storm, with Jesse even having the choice to call Hadrian an idiot for his mistake. Even Reuben states he already tried to tell Hadrian, but he simply didn’t care to listen to him.
- While he has a lot of gladiators working for him, this does not help him appear intelligent as they only ally themselves with Hadrian due to benefitting from behaving like violent and sadistic thugs rather than being charmed by Hadrian or even liking him. It doesn’t help, that they easily turn on him regardless of player choice due to Jesse’s actions against him (with said gladiators, Slab in particular having the option to abandon Jesse if he perceived his/her earlier actions against him as “too inconsiderate”).
- He trapped Jesse in an obsidian prison in the final battle while believing that he/she couldn't escape despite knowing he/she had diamond weapons that were strong enough to break out the prison. He also, when cornered by Jesse, chooses to arrogantly stay on the platform (while allowing himself to be riled up by Jesse’s friends cheering him/her on), which results in Hadrian making an arrogant move and being defeated in Spleef style by Jesse.
- He foolishly thought that he could talk the gladiators out of beating him and Mevia up for everything they did.
Mevia[]
- Rather than asking Hadrian who Reuben was, she kidnapped a human with the name Reuben even though he was actually a pig who sacrificed himself to save the world.
- She openly admitted that the games were rigged when multiple people were present, not caring that she could be heard and leading to Otto trying and obviously failing to calm her down.
- She trapped Jesse in an obsidian prison in the final battle while believing that he/she couldn't escape despite knowing he/she had diamond weapons that were strong enough to break out the prison.
- She is responsible for her own downfall/defeat, as she placed numerous obsidian blocks to defend herself from Jesse's attacks even when she had a realistic chance to run away, causing her to be transferred to either a world full of chicken-sized zombies or another dimension with zombie-sized chickens (depending on which one the player chose in Episode 1).
- While the moments themselves are played for comedy, she inappropriately made a joke about her and Hadrian’s current predicament (which results in Hadrian firing her in the “Zombie sized Chickens” post credits scene), while he just rudely kept ignores her in the “Chicken sized Zombies” post credits scene.
Potential Issues[]
Hadrian[]
Now this is where things get tricky for Hadrian counting, as he’s the leader of The Old Builders, so you’d almost automatically think he’s too intelligent (running The Games for two decades at the very least, indirectly confirmed by Harper’s time in Crown Mesa/dealing with PAMA, as well as trying to coerce Jesse into a deal to save his/her friends). All sounds convenient). But here’s the thing, and let’s go over it in bullet points to be very specific:
- He’s too intelligent/ran The Games for too long?: Not the worst argument to disqualify him, but we’ll do our best to debunk it. So as just mentioned, Hadrian has been running The Games for two decades at least, obviously becoming a sadist alongside Mevia. However, his influence (to go into more detail) is nowhere near as impressive as on the surface, as his Gladiator's are violent thugs (Slab has very clear anger issues and enjoys taking his anger out on others, Clutch and Meatface are just sadists who enjoy hurting people so don’t even need to be swayed/manipulated all things considered), and he makes multiple mistakes with his leadership such as blatant cheating, fear mongering etc. Also, while he did invent Tim as a way to give competitors false hope, it wasn’t a particularly smart move as it only further increased the likelihood of someone eventually winning The Games (which is what eventually happened) which is the exact opposite of what Hadrian wants and he clearly didn’t consider than any potential outsiders very clearly wouldn’t buy into Tim (let alone weather he exits or not) at all (which pretty much regardless of Jesse’s choices, he/she figures out the truth within barely 24 hours anyways) and it’s worth noting that the competitor were desperate, and taking advantage of a group of people (by telling a simple myth) isn’t exactly a smart idea and is fairly basic (and PP as I’ve mentioned many times before, can have basic thinking). It also doesn’t help that he has acetal idiotic moments such as the Reuben thing and the circumstances of his downfall. I’d also like to mention, that fear mongering/people feeling scared of you, doesn’t automatically make you too intelligent to count as a PP, as it shows intimidation rather than intelligence (obviously exceptions can be made, but this obviously isn’t one of them).
- Too pragmatic?: I’m gonna keep this one way more brief, but still worth mentioning, it’s optionally mentioned by Slab, that Hadrian apparently lets him hang around in his nice looking office for as long as he wants as a “thanks” for his services to him and helping in his activities, which may indicate pragmatism and even a bit of manipulation (considering Hadrian at the end of the day couldn’t give a damn about Slab and his wellbeing). However there are two problems with this, one is that we don’t even see this onscreen and that this is coming from Slab of all people (a showboat) so he isn’t even telling the truth for all we know and secondly, Hadrian himself never once brings up this topic further putting doubts into the truth that he actually lets Slab hang around in his office (sure it’s an optional throw away line and has zero plot relevance, it’s still be a tiny bit mitigating if Hadrian himself actually confirmed he did this with Slab). Overall, don’t see an issue here.
- His deal with Em and Jesse was too intelligent?: Once again not the worst argument but arguably not mitigating, purely and simply because of how simple it is when you boil it down. For Em, it’s simply “Eliminate Jesse and I’ll send you back to your home dimension as a reward for helping me”, but obviously he was never going to honour his deal with Em and just leave her be afterwards (weather Jesse was eliminated or not, which he/she wasn’t), so it was simply a bunch of basic words and false promises to a desperate woman to do something basic (eliminate someone in a non-lethal game). As for Jesse, it’s basically “Make yourself lose tomorrow and I’ll both have The Redstone Heart and maybe let your friends go back to your home”, but once again, it’s a bunch of simple words to someone who is obviously going to rebel against him, and telling someone (whom he perceived as desperate) what they wanted to hear (which in this case isn’t intelligent). Overall, his deals may sound smart, but they are basic purely because they were just going to end the same way every time (Hadrian verbally screws over the person he made a deal with and laughs his ass off about it for the next few minutes), and it far from helps that Jesse literally uses Hadrian’s own rules against him, Hadrian has Otto (someone very strict with rules) on his side who would (and did) hugely screw Hadrian and his deal over the second he wanted to “play fair” (or Otto’s equivalent of quote on quote “fairness”).
Overall, I’d say we’ve explained the best we can and overall, Hadrian is nowhere near as smart as he thinks, as his deals are just hollow threats in fake sophistication. Nuff said.
Mevia[]
The far easier of the two, but still worth mentioning. Yeah, she and Hadrian ruled The Games and Old Builders for at least two decades, as mentioned earlier it was run on fear more than leadership (combined with Hadrian being the “leader”, and as shown multiple times, calling the shots in comparison to Mevia who is forced to go along with whatever he decides). Secondly, she mentions being scared of Cassie Rose and how “she still gives me nightmares”, which may hint at some moral standards against Cassie’s actions as a serial killer, however alongside the fact that outside a single line or dialogue this ain’t expanded upon at all, it also makes her a hypocrite more than anything rather than a case of “Evil has Standards”, as Mevia is far worse than Cassie (who despite being serial killer, only has three murders to her credit, one of which wasn’t even directly and was through Dan) which is pretty pale when compared to Mevia who has people mass murdered on repeat and bought back to life immediately after as a sick game (as well as going down to the mines personally to torment and throw TNT at everyone as implied by Sebastian in an optional piece of dialogue) and actually murdering Jesse which Cassie failed to do. All in all, it doesn’t make Mevia sympathetic, but rather a cowardly hypocrite.
Overall, Mevia is a loud mouthed idiot, who allowed her childish sadism and stupid behaviour contribute to her own and Hadrian’s karmic and well deserved downfall.
Final Verdict[]
Yomickayha382: Having laid everything out, I'll give Hadrian a weak yes and Mevia an easy yes, but y'all can decide. Thanks for reading and have an awesome day.
Star of the Universe: Well, this is certainly going to be a dogfight in Hadrian’s case, but honestly I’m still a tad unsure on Hadrian, so I’ll give him an Abstain leaning towards an incredibly weak Yes, as for Mevia, I’m a fairly firm Yes to her qualifying here. Overall, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Hadrian gets rejected, but I’m still willing to give him a shot alongside Yomickay. Thanks for reading and have a great day! Once again, thanks for the collab Yomickay and can’t wait for our next one!