The recent announcement of the qsmp election event and q!philza confirming in canon that he is an anarchist kinda rattled something that's always been sort of spinning around in my brain: the fact that both c!emerald-duo (from DSMP) and q!philza (from QSMP) have had their lore tied in with the lore of the Antarctic Empire on SMPEarth. The thing about c!emduo and q!philza is that they are (as mentioned earlier) full-blown anarchists who vehemently oppose government in all its forms, but ae!emduo were, in fact, the co-leaders of an empire.
Now I don't actually know an awful lot about what went down on SMPE (from what I understand, it just sort of...ended?), but like, bear with me here---imagine SMPE is a world of actual empires: citizens, kings, soldiers, armies. A world capable of full-scale war. ae!Phil and ae!Techno are the leaders of one of the most powerful empires in all the land. Then, flash forward some years (decades? centuries?) later, and they're both anarchists completely disillusioned with government as a whole and actively fight against it when they see fit.
What happened? What happened between the birth of the Antarctic Empire and the beginning of the DSMP/QSMP that made them completely give that up and start to oppose what they once supported?
Was it something they witnessed? One too many peaceful villages burned, one too many mangled bodies found beneath the rubble, one too many of their own men imprisoned, tortured for information, then left for dead?
Was it something that someone did to them? A beloved friend caught in the crossfire of a war; an ally they thought they could trust sticking a knife in their backs in an attempt to seize the Empire for themself; a foe that was simply too strong, too ruthless, too power-hungry to be defeated, much less reasoned with?
Or was it something that they did? Something they did that, for the first time, made their own stomachs turn. Made them question if it was all worth it. Made them realize that it never was. Were they ever at odds? One person begging that they halt their progress immediately while the other doubled down, insisting their actions were justified. Did they fight about it? Threaten the other with arrest for treason? Threaten to leave the other and never, ever look back?
What was the final straw? What makes an emperor become an anarchist?
sooo i recently found these tweets again and really wanted to share them so happy 4 years since the antarctic empire took over the world!!! watching this happen in real-time was insane god i miss them so so SO much i can't believe it has been 4 whole years
"Martyn and Philza are twins/clones," jokes aside. Do you ever just think of how 2 blood related, crowns wearing furries (who created a very iconic axe that was gifted to someone else) bonded with hyper-loyal blond British men and decide to get brainrot about the odds of that happening?
So this whole time I thought the Antarctic Empire flag was meant to be a sun, but upon research (fanfic) I have been told it’s actually a chrysanthemum. A white one. Which in Japan evidently represents death, and in most other cultures represents loyalty. I am Clawing at the walls of my enclosure rn they found a flower that represents DEATH AND LOYALTY-
timestamp: around 6:05:00, on Philza's December 11, 2019 smp earth stream. It's from right after the famous "fuck the orphans" clip from his funny outro, where he nukes "orphans" (reject villagers) while Tehno and Pete stand aside in abject horror.