The Tragic Story of the Witch | Minecraft Deep Dive 

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The interesting thing is that the witch doesn't get attacked by zombies witch means she has learned to make peace with them or has made a potion that makes them not attack her.

"witch is alone" "sad black cat noises"

"She doesn't hold a grudge against the villagers, she just wants to be accepted" *cry intensifies*

This further deepens my want for Witches to be reworked into neutral mobs that only attacks when provoked(ei attacked first) and can be traded with similar to villagers.

I adopted the cat from a hut that was right next to my house after killing the witch. I would later realize the idiocy of adopting a witch's familiar as it leapt down a desert temple's shaft and set off the booby trap. With me in there.

I actually never knew that using a furnace in an igloo would melt the ice and wash away for carpet to reveal the trapdoor. What a genius and subtle design decision

"she continued her work deep underground" villager: *stares at wall*

I'd like to think that lightning essentially makes a regular villager a genius, with deep understanding of potion brewing and the world around them, much like a few lightning strike cases irl where regular people suddenly become smarter.

She could be trading with the wandering trader for ingredients.

am i the only one that felt bad when he said that the emerald on her hat was to remind her of the past ? 😭😭

I know the title says “Tragic”, but I was not expecting to feel bad for the witch… Edit: Why did this comment get so many likes? (Thanks btw)

The way they implemented this lore is absolutely astounding and I love this story telling

Cleric: "Hey folks, I have founded the cure for zombification!" Villager's: *holding pitchfork and torches* "We don't like your funny word, magic man."

The witches probably buy their ingredients from the wandering traders.

14:15 I personality think there should be a WitchCraft update, where Witches have a more sozial life through creating a community of their own where they help eachother out. A Witch market of sorts where the Winchester occasionally Show up. As well as naturally occuring nether Portals that can only function at a certain time [maybe at full moons] which the witches will use to obtain the ingredients necessary for the potions.

This video is perfect for Minecrafters kids and adults, top builder ideas, guide book, graphic novels!

When you finally find a cure for zombification but everyone in your home outcasts you: Why are you booing me? I'm right!

still thinking how being outcast can change the voice from "hunh" to "hehehe"

Damn this would make a good Minecrafting story for kids and adults

15:30 perhaps lightning shakes them out of their "villager" mentality and enlightens them, so to speak, into being the more free thinking witch who is less constrained by the social nature of the village group, and allows the villager to become more in tune with their true purpose.

The witches also help out the illigers in higher levels of raids by throwing healing/regeneration potions, but they never try to directly harm villagers. They do cheer if the raid wins though.

Far Far Away? Swamp? Sounds like a movie I know

I used an igloo as a home once, and the village next to me ended up being overrun and zombified. I learned of the secret shaft later, but didn't know how to cure them till even later. This makes me respect that structure more, it was my favorite world

Since suspicious stew gives potion effects, maybe the witch has found a way to better utilize the properties of overworld plants to replicate potions that use nether ingredients? Or at least to brew awkward potions, since they don't seem to have access to nether wart

Not me crying over a block game witch in the middle of my geometry class

I like this theory. I actually had no idea that Witches don't hurt Villagers, or fight back against Golems. One question I have is...why do witches attack players? I think the simplest answer would be that players are unfamiliar, and they are afraid of them. Or maybe a witch's hut was raided by a player, and she doesn't trust them. Or maybe she sees their resemblance to zombies, and fears the potential power that a living zombie may hold. idk, just food for thought.

It's pretty dark, but it's reflective of how simple folk can be. If a magic using person explains they can cure zombies, and demonstrates they have a person and a zombie caged, it's extremely easy to become frightened. Kudos on revealing the lab dungeon that provides that clue to fixing zombies. That place seems creepy itself.

Keep in mind that wandering traders can be found in the Nether and might have traded with villagers and possibly witches so they can get those resources. Maybe wandering traders are the only villagers that don't discriminate against witches

"Same nose" The wtich's nose wart: *am i a joke to you?*

I would say as far as categories go "Natural" "Undead" And "intelligent" where Endermen and Witches lay

“All Undead Mobs” Phantom : *Loud Crying sounds*

This video is certainly Perfect for Minecrafters Kids and Adults, Top Builder Ideas, Guide Book, Graphic Novels!

Why am I genuinely upset over the exclusion of a fictional blocky witch character 😭😭

what if the clerics hold religious power (they work in churches), and when they found out that some villagers were experimenting with brewing/magic, and felt threatened, so they levied their religious power against them, claiming the witches wished to harm the rest of the village, and thus the witches were exiled.

14:08 It could also be that since the witch has experience with spells and potions, she might know some other potion ingredients that the player does not know about since he/she is not specialized as the witch is. The player has to do things in a very ingredient based way and perhaps, thinking outside the box here, the witch has her own form of "achievements" in potion making where she discovers new ways of cutting corners or using other materials to make the same potions, like master chefs would learn new ways to cooking that novice cooks would not be accustomed to and not be able to do very well.

“Many people don’t know what I’m about to tell you” * a Reese’s ad plays *

This sounds like just a joke, but they could have been chucked out for heresy. If the clerics inhabit churches, and we assume they serve as the de facto priests of the village, if the witches attempted to copy them/imitate them/improve on them, then the Clerics could just chuck them out for the sake of maintaining their primacy over the village. It’s fair to assume the clerics are quite powerful as well, due to the fact they have impressive stone structures which they inhabit, so this would make sense as well.

That’s why there are no swamp villages! OMG!

One of my theories: The witches were in the village and noticed one of the villagers was infected or sick. Then, the infected villagers had spread whatever infection they had. The witches knew that the village would be completely wiped out if they didn’t do something about it. The witches wanted to be known as hero’s to the village, and also didn’t want anyone else to take credit for their work. So they decided that they were going to keep their mission a secret. They made igloos with little underground rooms so no one would find their work and again, take credit for it. Then each night they would take the infected villagers, and put leave them in the room. They kept all of them in the underground area so they couldn’t infect anymore villagers, in the time it took to experiment with different things to know how to cure them. Within two days of experimenting with potions and food, they finally found out how to cure them. They tested it out and it worked. Then they would secretly bring the cured villagers back to the village. Every villager was finally cured, and there was no threat of the village being wiped out. One day they noticed one of the villagers had suddenly been infected. They knew what they had to do, so that night, they snuck off with the infected villager. This time, they made a bit of a hassle trying to get the villager out of the village, and that caused a villager to wake up. They were shocked to see the witch taking the infected villager away from the village. They decided to follow the witch and was shocked at what they saw. They had witnessed them heal a villager. They went back to the village and reported it to the rest of the town. The next morning the witch was kicked out the village for taking villagers, and using some kind of magic to make the villagers healthy again. After the witches cured the villagers they told them to no matter what, to not tell the villagers about any of this. So the villagers who had been cured knew that this wasn’t true and that it was a misunderstanding. But they couldn’t say anything because they promised not to. So the villagers sent the wandering traveler with the witch to bring them to s hut where they would live alone and would only have the memories and thoughts on how they just wanted to help the village and be a hero to the village. This took a long time to type :/ it’s pretty similar to the theory he has :)

6:37 whilst you do need to brew a weakness potion first, you can get more use out of your fermented spider eyes by putting 3 potions of weakness in a cauldron and making a stack of tipped arrows of weakness, this allows you can apply the weakness effect 64 times instead of just 3. The golden apples are still a problem though.

I want to know more about blazes there is no theory’s about them and they have human heads

wlw culture is building a house next to the witches hut and living in the swamp as girlfriends

This video is my "favorite book"

This channel is GOLD. I’ve literally been binge watching you videos today and I’m glad I’ve discovered your channel.

3:50 witches would attack iron golems if they are attacked first, but the witch’s behavior requires it to heal first, and then attack. Usually the golem kills it first

In Bedrock Edition, witches are immediately hostile towards iron golems, just a fun fact. Edit: LMAO y’all are getting so salty over an Edition-exclusive difference, chill it’s such a small thing, just imagine different Editions as different universes of Minecraft.

The book was so good they even made a video!

I definitely think this is a wonderful theory, and none of my thoughts are with the intention to disprove that, but I do have some input: Why does the witch attack the player on sight? She is innately hostile to the player, which is even stranger given that: Why are zombies passive towards the witch / why does the witch not cure zombie villagers she encounters? If her goal is to cure zombification, then she doesn't seem to be actively pursuing it. Additionally, if she really is the same basic "species" as villagers, shouldn't zombies attack her? How does the Lightning Strike mechanic work? When villagers are struck by lightning, they seem to become the incredibly intelligent witches. This could actually be a species change or mutation, similar to what we see involving pigs -> piglins and red -> brown mooshrooms. That would explain why golems immediately turn on converted villagers, and zombies do not attack them. Lightning strikes seem to fundamentally change the alignment or status of witches. Mojang obviously has the intent for some deeper lore for the game (at least within the last few years), which is especially obvious with the upcoming Wild Update and its Deep Dark cities. I think that your theory must be close to the truth, but- given that a lot of witch-lore related features and mechanics have been added with apparent intent to tell a story, there must be more than what we've already figured out. Edit: I'm also going to add on that obviously some of these features could be exclusively for the purposes of gameplay, but (in my own personal opinion) it doesn't feel that way. They were added to nighttime spawns along the undead, given a method by which lightning created them, and also given exclusive interactions regarding Illagers, all within the timeframe that minecraft lore was DEFINITELY being defined. Hope you see this. Love your videos. Have a good week!

bruh that's sad, she only wanted to help, and yet just by assumption she was banished. It's even sadder that she helps in raids since while she likes to see the villagers suffer she still deep down feels bad about it since she was one once.

Re: modern nether access: it's possible the wandering traders have that, given they trade some nether resources, and also they'd likely be willing to trade with any villager, outcast or not

You’re such a good storyteller I feel so invested in the life story of this witch

This is definitely my favorite deep dive. It just hits different. The story is compelling and I can see multiple MAP/PMV opritunities.

i'm too deep into villager lore and now i can't stop watching these 😭

Wow. This actually makes me feel bad about all the witches I've killed.

(perfect for minecrafters kids and adults top building ideas grapchic novel)

This is EXACTLY why whenever I see a witch a build a crude dirt hut around myself *CLUTCHING* milk in my inventory Yh… I got a lot of cows

_In my conviction. The witch is not as innocent as she may seem. She has indeed grown frustrated and despondent from the villagers converting into zombies and seeing how it is a threat. She left the village in order to find a zombie villager and to put him in a solitary confinement to experiment upon him - spending day and night trying to develop a cure, drove her into insanity. Her voice seems odd and terrifying, the voices of the pillagers and other anti-villager mob's voice sounds normal though aggressive._

Mojang devs have actually said witches brew their potions in the cauldron.

hey this could be a pretty cool book ..

Perfect for Minecrafters Kids and Adults, Top Builder Ideas, Guide Book, Graphic Novels

Something that I liked about this video was that it made me think of a theory: in your previous video of the Illagers, regarding how they raid the towns, well the point is that if they succeed they will be left with an empty village, and in that case the Illagers with their knowledge and what they learned from the witches can repopulate the villages, how? Easily with the wandering zombie villagers out there, capturing them and using the antidote to cure their infection (I'm talking about the process of curing a zombie villager) to repopulate new villages with them and continue their rounds, that makes me think of the sinister rooms of the mansions, like the prison cells and the "fighting cage" or "arena", I see it more as a point where they have the zombie villagers and unclog them in the cells while in the "cage" they study the behavior and the process in which the villagers heal perhaps That would explain why they are involved with it, for that healing process that even the summoners cannot perform due to lack of knowledge in chemistry they decide to ask the witches for help Really a very good video, I love this "Minecraft Deep Dive" series so much, I hope you can continue

so the witch exists literally because of cancel culture

For a massive time I didn't realise the zombie villagers need to have the weakness effect to be cured, the wording of the official books always made it seem like a step only used so the zombie villager doesn't harm anyone and not actually required

Very interesting take Retro, a couple things i'd like to point out: While i think the igloo's nature is tied to the villagers as you point out, i believe this to be tied specifically to clerics, rather than witches. I think the mere secretism of the igloo's underground lab simply implies the mere act of "villager healing" from zombification to be taboo for the villagers, and something which must be hidden, whether because of their belief system, or fear from it going array, as dealing with the fine line between life and death seems to be a key topic on the illagers ostracism too. As such i'd say it's more feasible that witches are clerics/villagers who have been exiled due to their open taboo experimentation as you point out, however, igloo's very likely server as ongoing experimentation huts from current clerics/villagers who have yet to be found out by their communities.

I’m new to Minecraft so when I first saw the witch I was so happy they made a woman villager! I approached her and she killed me in 4 shots. 😅

Villager when we trade them: hmmhmm Wandering trader when we trade them: huh huh! Witch when he throw a poison to us: *hEhEhE*

"the cleric continued her work" *proceeds to stand on furniture*

Ah yes, audio book!

Villagers turn into witches when they are struck by lightning. ( u can do this with the channeling trident)

My friend: lmao Minecraft has no lore This guy: actually......

Having seen some of the other videos on magic, I find it delightful how these theory stories link together, whatever issues or leaps of faith that they may require. 😊

5:23 Mojang has confirmed Villagers are a race of pacifists, keeping Iron Golems around simply for defense. Perhaps brewing harmful potions is seen as too violent or their tastes, then again they have no problem with the Player using weapons to defend them.

Cauldrons was meant for potion brewing instead of the potion stand As in minecraft bedrock a player can still mix and add potions to cauldrons The witch hunts kept inundated as Crafting table and cauldron are an iconic icon of it :D

"They just want to get accepted" **not me crying in the middle of online class**

Such a good vid and an amazing edit too!

This is perfect for Minecrafters kids and adults, top build ideas, guide books, graphic novels!

Witch: "Hey, everyone! I found a cure for zombies!" *Shows secret lab* Villagers: "You're making the zombies!" Witch: "WTF?? I literally just said-" Villagers: "EVIL ONE!" Witch: *to villager volunteer in cage* "Hey, explain to them what we're doing!" Villager: *shrugs* That's the problem I have with that theory, why didn't the villager in the cage just corroborate her story?

just imagine the lighting that turns villagers into witches is a curse she set on them for revenge so that they feel her pain and loneliness lmaoooo

Perfect for Minecrafters, kids & adults, top builder ideas, guide book, graphic novels

I'm so sorry but this video made me love you 100%. WOW. Incredible analyzation and story telling.

It’s strange that witches don’t hold grudges against villages, seeing that they join raids.

The wandering trader sells nether stuff, so it's possible he sells things to the witch.

Whoa.... this needs to be canon. If we can someday do magic and/or factions, it'd be cool if we could befriend witches.

8:40 baby wants a hug from papa Papa:🏃🏃🏃

Maybe the witch was also exiled because of her ability to craft potions without a brewing stand? That would explain the lack of brewing stands in the swamp hut.

“I’ve talked to many people who don’t know what I’m about to say” “You smell like you could be a sexy pirate”

Brilliant video mate keep up good work

This is the side of Minecraft that needs to be more explored and experienced well done 👍

There is one thing you didn't address in all this: Why does the witch attack the player? The witch must see the player as a MASSIVE threat. But why?

My unnecessarily long theory: There was a time villagers and “humans” (like Steve and Alex) lived together, with the humans being superior due to their intelligence. Some of the villagers learnt how to brew, which the humans saw as a threat to their power over everyone. The humans used their power to turn the other villagers against the more intelligent ones, and ran the, now witches, out of the village due to the fear installed into them by the humans. The witches were obviously angry, and since they knew it was the humans fault that everyone turned against them, they sparked a mini war between them, the witches creating potions to defeat the humans and the humans fighting back any which way. This war created zombies and skeletons, which could explain why zombies don’t actually have and visible wounds, because they were simply poisoned. In the end, no one really won since humans and witches are both very rare now. The villagers still see humans as superior, which is why they only partake in mild brewing and trade with humans and don’t see them as a threat. The witches, however, are seen as outcasts which is why the iron golem attacks them, whereas the witches don’t see their differences. The witches were forced to live in the swamp biomes since it’s one of the only places where villagers won’t be. They learnt to accept that they won’t be seen as anything but a witch again, but still attack humans since it’s mainly their fault they were cast away.

Bro why is these theories of yours makes so much sense and seems so real even tho they possibly aren't like bro did you make minecraft or smth xD

Thanks so much for this story, this made me learn a lot!

My theory is that villagers believe that if someone is struck by lightning, he's cursed by god and should be banished or great harm will befall them otherwise.

Mojang wanting to turn this into a series Write that down Write that down

This theory is friggin insanely agreeable and Witches are my fav mob so thx for the theory luv it!

I see a bit of a problem with the theory of the origin of witches, if they were the creators of the igloos then that would probably mean that every witch once lived in or near a tundra (because you cant really build a structure made of snow in a desert, i mean you technically can but it makes no sense), and that this specific situation has happened many times for every witch that exists. Although there is the fact that lightning turns villagers into witches. I saw another comment that said that maybe lightning turns witches to villagers because villagers believe that if someone is struck by lightning then they are “cursed by the gods”, and because of that they are exiled. Maybe most of the time this happens the now defenseless villager is zombified on the first night. If the villager exiled happens to know about potions, then they become a witch for self defense. Maybe the reason why witches allow themselves to be killed by iron golems is because they feel shame for being “cursed by the gods” as the villagers believe. Also about how witches brew potions without a brewing stand, I know the description says that this video is about Java Edition only, but I will mention this anyway. In Bedrock Edition you can put potions inside cauldrons, you can also put water inside the cauldron and then dye the water with dyes. So maybe witches have figured out how to create potions without the need for an advanced brewing stand, and they only need a cauldron. This is kinda confirmed by the fact that cauldrons in Bedrock Edition witch huts can spawn with potions inside.

Oh, and the Advancement for curing a zombie villager is called “Witch Doctor”.

I am never killing a witch ever again

3:20 also The flower pod wich is also fond in desert villages Good video