Ben Madilynn
Minecraft Live 2024 has come and gone already, and unfortunately, it wasn’t as exciting as previous years. The livestream was short and sweet, leaving out the mob vote and any big announcement of an upcoming major update, but there was a silver lining—a new biome and, with that, a new mob.
The Pale Garden is an eerie new forest biome with moss-hanging trees (which provide a lovely new white wood type), low visibility, and no animals at all—the only mob present here is a new enemy type, the Creaking. This mob will chase you throughout the forest, hunting you down every time you let it out of your sight, and what’s worse, you can’t actually kill it. Instead, players should try searching for the block it’s tethered to—only after you destroy this will the Creaking die.
As soon as I found out about the Creaking, I was horrified. It seems like Mojang is slowly but surely turning the once peaceful, creative survival game into some eldritch nightmare. First the Warden and now this, I may never know rest again. But it seems like I may be the only one who isn’t happy to learn of the Creaking’s existence. As is usually the case, the internet has taken this new creature and run with it in an oddly sweet yet typically cursed direction.
Looking around, I was greeted by pages and pages of fan art of the Creaking next to Minecraft’s other cursed mob, the Warden, because apparently, they’re in love (or if they aren’t, then they should be.)
There are tons of incredible artwork floating around, most of which stemmed from a single tweet asking the brave question: “Do you think they’ve explored each other’s bodies?” One response claimed that the pairing “is Yaoi,” something I don’t have the strength or permission to explain here. I’ve also seen art titled “creak for me” alongside other fantastic drawings. It’s hard not to be impressed and get a kick out of all of these paintings and pictures. Although, some fans have pointed out that it could be a pretty violent relationship: “One hates sounds, and the other constantly creaks. So yes, they have in the most violent ways possible—they are tearing each other apart like pulled pork.”
Minecraft players are so obsessed with this pairing because they seem to be a match made in heaven. The Creaking can’t be looked upon—otherwise, it’s frozen still, but it does make some slight noises, and the Warden has no eyes and goes off sound to find its way around, meaning the Creaking can help direct it. In practice, I’m not sure it would be quite as romantic as the fanart would have you believe, as mobs tend to fight each other if provoked, but in theory, they could live in harmony.
I shouldn’t be surprised at this point. At this point, it’s almost certain that when a slightly quirky videogame character is released, there’ll be a slew of fan art to follow. We saw it with Ivy from Deadlock, we’ve seen it here with the Creaking and the Warden, and we’ll undoubtedly see it again with some new and strange creature.
