Game Theory: The Tragic Story of Minecraft's Zombie Pigmen (Piglins) 

"The pigmen are related to pigs" Hmm, the floor here is made out of floor

Remember: The soil that grows nether warts is made by dead human souls so I think that explains the evolution of growing human-like.

My theory: Piglins and the ancient civilization were once allies, they went in the nether and met each other. At first they weren't aggressive, so they made a truce, piglins provide protection, and they build the bastions for them, but one critical mistake was made. The builders brought a zombie virus with them into the nether and they zombified the piglins, making them incredibly angry at them for obvious reasons, so they became hostile and hate the wither skeletons for obvious reasons. Nowadays piglins are desperate for gold because they think it may stop the virus, think about it, gold is obviously magical it cures villagers and makes golden food, so the piglins saw how the civilization used this and they use it in the hopes it will cure their race, with the ruined bastions being all they have left they use them to protect their sacred gold.

Does anyone else feel like MatPat would be a great lawyer?

Matpat: "This is the main lore of Pigmen and Endermen" Meanwhile Mojang just going with the flow: write that down, write that down.

Mojang: should we pay this guy? He is writing our lore for us.

“Has no non-zombified versions of itself left anywhere on the planet” 1.16: im about to end this man’s whole career

Or, the “nether pigs” first became Piglin Brutes, and some sort of monster zobiefieded them, so, the zombifieded pigmen are not hostile to Steve because they don’t remember.

Matpat: “netherwart is the only crop that can survive such a hostile landscape.” Mushroom: “am i a joke to you?”

So you telling me that there gold swords last centuries but mine barely lasts 10 minutes

Theory. Perhaps the soul sand the pigs were buried on held the souls of the ancient builders. That’s why they are bipedal because the souls of the ancient builders went into the pigs, which could also explain how they know how to hold swords

Even if there is no actual lore, it's still fun to believe it's cannon it makes a simple game about building feel so much bigger and cooler.

Matt Patt: “butter sword” Me: *intense flashbacks*

"There are no pigs in the nether" Pig that walked through my portal: Am I a joke to you?

1.6 came out on May 26th, 2011. 1.16, (aka the NETHER UPDATE) came out on June 23rd, 2020. And yes, I did go through the whole video before posting this. Tho with the pigs eating nether warts theory, it would explain why regular nether warts (not counting the blocks at all) can ONLY be found in nether fortresses.

Theory: Since netherwart grows on soul sand, the Pigmen are partly eating souls. Since souls are kinda like ghosts and they used to be human, the tiny bit of conciousness left could be how the Pigmen have telepathy.

6:11 "1.6: The Nether Update" 1.6 Horse Update: *Am I a Joke to You?*

We still need a Theory about why saddles aren’t craftable... Wow me

I feel proud to be a Swede knowing that another one of my Swedish bretheren created this masterpiece of a game

I feel like there is a lot of new theory content in the nether surrounding the piglins and this potentiol war between piglins and ancient builders and the zombie virus. A rework on this video would be amazing

*Hears gold be called "butter"* Me: Why did that hit different?

Fun fact: nether wart grows on soul sand so the pigman kinda eat souls and start 2 think like human, (holding swords and standing on 2 legs)

He's covered wither skeletons, and now zombie piglins (and somewhat native piglins). Hoping for a blaze theory next. I think blazes are like the guardians in that they're robotic sentries, and with how their breathing sounds very dry but humanlike, they could be powered by souls. 😐 I got nothing on ghasts though.

Did the builders bring butter swords to the nether, or did they build them there, from the materials they had available?

6:11 “Minecraft 1.6” *confused piglin noises*

Everyone: notch made them on accident Matpat: L O R E

The only other natural foliage pre1.16 was mushrooms. So th wart shroom comparison is extremely valid.

Idea:the ancient builders brought their pigs into the nether and left them as the explored or built, the nether fortress, then they forgot them and they went home, but the pigs were there, forgotten, and then they evolved into the hoglins, adapting to the nether.

Teacher: so does anyone know how glass is made?- Me: *my time has come*

*that moment when you realize the ancient miners planted nether warts on their dead friends*

“Are you just gonna jump into a new dimension?” Me: yes, yes I absolutely would.

This theory makes even more sense when you remember the Ophiocordyceps uniteralis, a real-life fungus species that can infect and control the minds of insects, as how Minecraft's fungus did with the Minecraft cows and pigs as if the fungus in the game is a more powerful version of Ophiocordyceps uniteralis

“They don’t like wither skeleton” 9 year old me in creative mode: it’s battle time

"there's no food in the nether" Sad mushroom noises

Wow. I never could have guessed that zombie pigmen and pigs were connected!

Maybe when the ancient builder’s society collapsed, that’s how we got ruined portals. It also explains like in this theory, the ancient builders brought in golden swords, which is why we only get golden swords in the chests

Everyone “no food in the nether “ Mushrooms” damm okay “

Friend: “Hey what internet do you use?” Zombie Pigmen: “Uh,it’s complicated.”

MatPat "You are what you Eat." Me, whose primary Food source is Chicken "Reject Society, become Chimkem"

2:36 Mojang: Yeah, lets just ruin this theory by adding non zombified pigpen's in, im sure it'll be fiiiiiine

Matpat: this is such a huge part of the lore and can prove my theory Mojang: adds piglins Matpat: *sigh*

How many trees should we plant? Every youtuber: yes

Theory extension: The over world has some sort of zombie virus in the air and that charges up the lightning (which is a form of plasma) reacting with the pigs and transforming them into zombified bipedal versions of themselves. The nether on the other hand has a weak form of plasma floating through the air and when the pigs ate nether wart (the base ingredient for most potions) it with the souls required to grow it trigger a similar reaction creating the piglin.

With the fact that the Nether Fortresses were made by the ancient builders, I wonder where the blazes came from and why they spawn.

MatPat: “Minecraft 1.6” Me: “It is called 1.16.”

Kind of a stretch, but you've _already_ have *some clues* as to why *Pigmen* are *bipedal.* At 11:07 in the *Wither theory,* you said that *soul sand* are possibly made of the *ancient builders' **_life force._* *Pigmen,* who are eating the *nether warts,* which grows on *soul sand,* based on your *speculation,* have some of the *ancient builders'* life energy within them, which may also further explains their neutral nature towards the *player.* Thanks to anyone for reading this.

I think a more likely theory would be: The pig's are struck by lightning in the overworld and turn into pigmen, the humans then force all of them into the Nether in order to keep them out of the overworld and to banish them to a realm, out of sight out of mind.

I have a theory on why they stand up: nether wart is a key ingredient in potion making, so it probably has some magical properties. While it could be evolution, I had the idea that it could have something to do with the making of potions or something, like how you were talking fire resistance and healing.

*Minecraft had no lore* *Game theory makes a theory* Minecraft: Yea we have a lore, yea yea.

MatPat: “If you found a random portal to a new world you wouldn’t just jump in would you?” Me: “Yes I wo-“ MatPat: “-No you wouldn’t” Me: “Yeah you’re totally right.”

Theory Ideas Nether Warts Feeds On Souls? How Is The End Made? What Are Shulkers? What Is A Nether Star?

I think the zombie pigmen are the most interesting mob out of the entire game as far as their origins are concerned. Awesome theory.

Matpat: Finds lore Minecraft: Changes game completely.

*"zombie pigmen are related to pigs"* Every 60 seconds in africa a minute passes

Zombified Piglins aren't hostile to Wither Skeletons... only regular Piglins are.

Rest in Peace Zombie Pigman Alpha v 1.2.0 - 1.16

THEORY: What are Slimes? They're just globs of boogers that appear in swamps. What else appears in swamps? Witches. So, What if witches created slimes?

2 theories I wanna see: *Villager & Pillager* *Steve’s Inventory*

I’m interested to see a theory about the nether reactor from og bedrock. Perhaps a snapshot of an alternate universe where the original builders had far fewer skills and could only summon a piece of the nether in the overworld and were incapable of reaching the end dimension. Perhaps they were all lost to zombification.

Thinking about it today, minecraft update have been all about adding more things to the lore of minecraft, and it makes those update look like prequels to the oldest version's of mine craft, as in the older versions of mine craft you play, the more it seems like in minecraft the stuff that creates the lore of minecraft disappears like how the dinosaurs disappeared without any explanation as to how and why they're gone.

MatPat: Nether Warts Are The Only Food Source On The Nether... Mushroom: Am I A Joke To You.

I’m so used to him saying “Scott” instead of “Notch”

17: 39 Piglins and Creepers watching that: awkward expressions and silence.

Common puffball fungus contains a compound called lycoperdic acid, which is a type of amino acid. Based on the structural similarity with glutamic acid, lycoperdic acid is expected to have antagonistic or agonistic activity for the glutamate receptor in the mammalian central nervous system. My theory is that nether wart is very similar to common puffball, and that it might enhance the effect of the ingredients that are used along with it on the nervous system, which would explain the powers that the potions give you.

Steve: *punches zombie pigmen* *_"now all of China knows you're here"_*

"Hey, Steve just attacked me. mind hopping on the server to help?" "Yeah okay" "Thanks"

How about striders? I wanna see a theory about that!

Is nobody going to talk about the fact that the internet connection of fungus is called, 'Mycelium' the name of ground that the mushroom islands are built on?

9:02 *"Are you just gonna hop through?"* _Me already halfway through the portal:_ Wha-

"Time travel is impossible" MatPat:..... MatPat: "In the new Minecraft Update 1.6..."

Maybe the ancient builders found out that pigs turn into pigmen and started using them as a source of labor to gather supplies for their fortresses and the pigmen became enslaved over time. Whenever the ancient builders disappeared they freed and armed themselves. Not ever wanting to harm someone for no reason like they were but promised to protect each other to prevent them from being enslaved again.

The only question I have with this is why don't piglins and zombie piglins express an aggressive behaviour towards endermen but produce it towards the wither skeleton (and Steve/Alex).

MatPat: “Hey, why are there no non-zombie pigmen? I should make a theory!” Mojang, working on the Nether update: “Yeah...about that...”

Mojang: I just made some random stuff and I'm surprised you can connect this so flawlessly.

I think that the reason Mooshrooms came to existence isn't because of cows eating mushrooms for generations until mushrooms became a part of their anatomy but rather because of a symbiotic relationship, I have reason to believe the cows that became Mooshrooms ended up as such because of often being covered with the spores of mushrooms which ended up adapting to live in symbiosis with the cow in which the cow is mostly brain dead while the mushroom keeps it alive and does all the surviving. Here are the reasons why: Reason 1: When you look at a Mooshroom's eyes all you see are two black squares, perhaps its because the eyes aren't needed because the mushroom has no need for it when they are controlling a cow in an area without predators. Reason 2: The way mushrooms work is that the mushroom is connected to an underground hive mind known as Hyphae which is likely found in mushrooms in Minecraft as shown in Mycelium, it may be that there is a similar network inside of the cows body. Reason 3: In this symbiotic relationship there is not much need for the cow to really be in a state that can be considered alive since the mushrooms are doing all the work. This is possible due to the fact that evolution is less of keeping the organism alive and more of preserving the DNA as noted in the Endosymbiosis theory, which claims that the mitochondria and chloroplasts started out as their own organism with chloroplasts specifically starting out as a kind of cyanobacteria but both ended up as endosymbionts which allowed the host to gain more energy and become more complex while the endosymbionts go from being considered alive to being another organelle with only their DNA being the last remnants of their days as actual living organisms, this is exactly the same except it's the host that loses their ability to be considered alive while the endosymbiont takes up the role formerly taken up by the cow itself and that both organisms are already multicellular eukaryotes rather than unicellular prokaryotes.

Anyone else notice that this video was uploaded exactly 9 years after Notch approved the idea of adding bipedal pigs into Minecraft?

When a game doesn't have lore MatPat: Fine I'll do it myself.

"Pigmen may have been pigs that were sent through the nether as a test" So when pee poo pushes felix into the end he was geting revenge?!! BUT THATS JUST A THEORY

I just realized something: When you kill an evoker, they don't pop the totem, but when you kill it it drops it, so maybe the reason the illagers do raids is for souls that in turn are used for totems that would give them immortality. like this so matpat can see

I have 2 theory first is that pig kept reproducting in the nether. evolving to survive the temperature and get used to it. (that would explain why they turn zombified when in the overworld). Second they would always eat netherwart, making some nether stay in their body. And when they would die, that netherwart would take over like some types of fungus does to ants, possesing the bodies of millions of pigmen.

Mat pat: golden BUTTER swords me: now that's a name I haven't heard for years....

I am 100% still referring to the “zombified piglins” as zombie pigmen

Past: zombie pigmen Future: zombified piglin Man I'm old

MATPAT! Here's a crazy theory for ya on the origins of skeletons. Your zombie disease video makes sense, but doesn't explain the skeletons. No disease is going to keep a pile of bones floating around. You'd need magic to do that. Here's a quote from the Mobestiary, " Some have proposed that skeletons are ancient adventurers raised from death by an evil sorcerer." In the game Minecraft Dungeons there is a group of ancient necromancers who live in a desert temple. They have blue glowing eyes (the color of souls) and when they summon skeletons, you can see small blue souls float away from the summoning area. They even shoot soul fire blasts! But why are they themselves undead? Maybe because when they (or some other humans) summoned the wither, they noticed that it doesn't attack undead things, and they turned themselves undead to protect themselves. I hope you read this!

Pigman: *You took everything away from me* Steve: *I don’t even know who you are..*

‘The pigmen are somehow connected to the pigs’ ~MatPat 2019

Matpat: Pig man theory Nether update: im about to end this man’s whole career

I was thinking actually since on rare occasion the pigs can turn in the overworld maybe they abandoned the pigs and shoved them thru the portal out of fear and that’s why they resent them

MatPat: "it was the changes coming in Minecraft 1.6[...]" Me: "..... teen?" MatPat: "The Nether Update" Me: "Dang it. So close."

“There is no no non zombie version” 1.16: yeah about that...

Also since nether wart is related to fungi,and fungi often thrive off of dead things that could also be an atribute pigs got from the nether wart,hence why they are often zombified. (I know this theory is a stretch just something to think about)

The way you tell these videos, also the music in them, AND me being a wimpy 11 year old scared of fnaf, these videos give me nightmares. ITS FREAKING GREAT

Minecraft's true final boss should be one of the Ancient Builders....

Jeb: watches Game Theory Also Jeb: hmm yes, I like it

Fix to the holes the update caused: the zombie pigmen, piglins, and hoglins(piglin beasts) all evolved from original pigs but in different ways

What if the builder brought saplings to the nether and tried to grow trees but the saplings ended up becoming warped saplings and things like that

6:10 MatPat: "...the changes coming in Minecraft 1.6..." Me: "Umm... No."

Matpat: "Donate to MrBeast to plant millions of trees!" A Random Billionaire: "I am going to make this mans day"

F in the chat for zombie pigmen, us OGs will never forget

I know that I'm really late and that's the donation process for the trees it's over, but what if I donated 50 cents? Like, would it just be a half of a tree? Or would it be something else... BUT HEY, THAT'S JUST A THEORY. A plant THEORY! thanks for watching.