The Complex Puzzle of the Wither | Deep Dive

Withers are a bizarre mob that are seemingly tough to understand. In this video we see if we can determine what the Wither is and where it came from.

Music by RetroGamingNow:
"Illager Overture"

[ulooketmeh]

when you walk on soul sand without the enchantment (Soul Speed), the trapped souls grab you, make you slower and plead for freedom from this prison that is hell. When you have Soul Speed, you free them. The better Soul Speed, the faster they are freed.

[mf]

Imagine being trapped in soul sand for so long then some guy wearing boots he got from trading with piglins walks over it and you are suddenly free

[PolishJohnWick]

My soul is fading away to be used as energy for the hellspawn that wants to kill everything, nothing a bucket of milk can't fix

[matthewofcolumbus]

I always figured Piglins stayed away from soul fire and such because they have a heightened sense of hearing compared to the player, and can hear the damned's screams of agony coming from the cyan flames.

Minecraft is *dark.*

[kajnake]

Builders: My soul has been trapped in this hellscape for what feels like eternity
Steve: Haha bubble elevator go brrrr

[roaringthunder]

Notice how the Wither glows Blue at the beginning of the fight? That could be soul energy.

[conquestanddeath]

The most terrifying part is that the player character knows about the wither since they carve it into carved red sandstone.

[superslimanoniem]

If you run across soul sand with soul speed boots and subtitles on, you'll see that the sound is officially called soul escapes.

[jfitz]

POV: You found the Enderman video in your recommended and now you're down a rabbit whole watching the whole series

[malry]

ok but i feel like i’m watching a real documentary when i watch your videos man, keep up the great work :]

[g.s.]

Something I notice about the souls released from the Soul Speed; they smile. They begin in despair and are freed, thus the enchantment may actually be some kind of liberating enchantment and the souls give you speed to return the favor as opposed to slowing you down.

[soulphur.c.g]

I don't exactly know how the "soul energy" works, but the new minecraft warden may help answer a lot of these questions. I say this because within it's large, open chest cavity it appears to have blue faces in it, similar to the souls released from soul sand. So maybe the warden is actually related to the Nether and not the End, or it's related to both dimensions, but my point is that this new mysterious mob could finally debunk certain questions behind Minecraft's lure.

[kingmunro]

You don’t know how much the little diagrams, passionate narrator and overall amazing theories do to make it seem like a real documentary

[raxanimations]

Another great puzzle

*_"How Mojang recorded the panda death sound"_*

[Adaedon]

RetroGamingNow: Tonight we'll take a look at one of the TWO bosses.
*Sad Elder Guardian noises

[neexy]

Man I sure didn’t ask youtube to recommend masterpieces like this to me but I sure do apreciate it

[ianeons]

When you have 10 Million Subscribers, I will call myself an OG.

[drakebloodknight]

It’s interesting that the chiseled Nether brick has a skull pattern. Details like that always throw a wrench in the works when you’re building timelines. Then there’s the aggression between Piglins and Wither skeletons. Love that bastions are made from blackstone (basalt deltas) whereas fortresses are made from Netherbrick (smelted netherrack). Both mobs have their own banner patterns. Pigstep for Piglins, maybe Disc 11 for the Wither Skeletons? Do they wield stone swords for the higher damage/durability as compared to gold? Why are only WS heads a natural drop? If they’re the same race as us, why are they taller? Why do they, when equipped with a bow via commands, always shoot flaming arrows? Was there a Nether war in the not so distant past? How absolutely epic would it be for a Wither Skeleton to cinematically walk down a hallway towards a character, slowly emerging into the light, dragging a stone blade behind it as it rasped through its empty jaws, “must...defend...fortress”?

[Galimeer]

15:10 We know there's some kind of zombification virus in the Overworld that the player is immune to (as well as the villagers but to a lesser extent).
Maybe the construction of the first wither also created the virus. It's not hard to imagine that the effects of the virus would be similar to the actual withering effect after all, just a bit weaker. But that would also explain where the virus came from, why nether stars were never mass-produced (because suddenly everyone who worked with them started becoming zombies), and why no cataclysmic effect happens after summoning a wither: the virus is already out there and the player is immune to it. Adding more virus to the atmosphere doesn't mean anything to the people who are immune to it.

[whereskentuckybruce]

The wither producing wither roses reminds me of golems giving flowers, except in a twisted way. The wither rose could be more symbolic, like showing death or corruption manifested into a flower, like a flower on a grave.

That made me think of a cool concept. Imagine a wither rose field? That would imply that a wither has killed hundreds of beings, now leaving only flowers as their remains. There are poppy fields which grow over war zones due to the soil being churned by explosives, like a subtle reminder of a disaster. That would be a cool build