SAD-ist’s New Animatic Has Minecraft Artists Crying

May 26, 2021

“He must have had a life before this. A mother, a father, a home,” opens “Passerine”, the fanfiction SAD-ist’s new animatic is based on. “Passerine” by blujamas is set in a medieval alternate universe where Minecraft creators Technoblade and Ph1LzA are immortals, while their friends Wilbur Soot and TommyInnit are not.

SAD-ist’s animatic, “Sunsprite’s Eulogy”, captures the tragic essence of this story perfectly. It opens with Wilbur Soot, a prince crowned too soon, strumming a guitar in an empty room. Through Technoblade’s entrance and a series of flashbacks, viewers are shown these two characters’ pasts. The animatic ends with an older Wilbur and Techno playing underneath a willow tree, at peace with their loss and conflict.

Commenters praise everything from the animatic’s sparse dialogue to SAD-ist’s choice to portray conflict through song.

Though time is ruthless, it showed us kindness in the end.#passerinefanart #tommyinnitfanart #technofanart #wilburfanart pic.twitter.com/ctx7S2cr2B

— yenii (@moneyoniis) May 22, 2021

Like “Heat Waves”, the viral Archive of Our Own sensation of September 2020, Dream SMP artists flooded social media with “Passerine” fanart. Twitter and Instagram artists alternate between using #passerinefanart and #SADistredraw. Captions range from quotes to crying.

“You were six.”#passerinefanart #SADistredraw pic.twitter.com/HHYZq7B2MU

— fie (@duckiiboys) May 22, 2021

So Technoblade met his old friend’s gaze and said, “Alright. You and me, one more time.”

__#SADistredraw #passerinefanart #technobladefanart pic.twitter.com/WB9lzOTpwW

— syn | working on comms (@insyndiar) May 22, 2021

“Passerine” has seven chapters and was finished on April 4, 2021. As of May 26, 2021, the fanfiction has 865,682+ hits, 41,760 kudos (AO3’s equivalent to likes), and 9,070 bookmarks.

Who is SAD-ist?

SAD-ist is arguably the Minecraft fandom’s biggest artist. Their first two Minecraft animatics, “Who’s Who?” and “[Dream SMP War]” have 23 million and 18 million views, respectively.

This is not the first time Minecraft social media’s blown up in response to SAD-ist. Every Minecraft animatic SAD-ist puts out garners millions of views. Artists flock to Twitter and Instagram to post redraws, animators pump out spin-off videos, and even musicians write songs inspired by SAD-ist.

Sleepy Bois Inc.

Technoblade, Ph1LzA, Wilbur Soot, and TommyInnit are Minecraft YouTubers and streamers with a total of 24.82 million followers. Together, the four creators make up a dynamic fans call “Sleepy Bois Inc.”. The name originated from a Ph1LzA tweet on February 17, 2020.

this post brought to you by sleepy bois inc.

— Ph1LzA (@Ph1LzA) February 17, 2020

“Passerine” is one of many Sleepy Bois Inc. fanfictions. Many more float around the web, waiting to be read. Consider checking out some on Archive of Our Own if you haven’t already!