Best pig in the universe right here
I've been hard slacking, but at last, it's finished.
HEAR ME OUT! It may seem like this character has a some issues, but they don't hold up. This is probably the most ambitious (and biggest) proposal I will ever do, but I think we can pull it off. This proposal is made in collaboration with ZorLink21 and Kodikos, so massive thanks to them. Permission for this reproposal was granted by Emeraldblade95 on Discord.
Link to the original removal (I couldn't find the original proposal): User blog:Chandlerbing5/Pure Good Removal Proposal: Reuben (Minecraft: Story Mode)
What's the Work?
NOTE: This is taken from Radar's removal, which I wrote.
Minecraft: Story Mode is a spin-off of Minecraft, developed by Mojang Studios and Telltale Games in 2015. It is an episodic point-and-click adventure game, where the player controls the main protagonist, Jesse, on an epic quest to save the world from the Wither Storm. After the defeat of the monster, he/she would go on adventures in the Portal Network, entering other worlds to meet new people and defeat dangerous villains.
The game would receive another season in 2017. Jesse's world is threatened by the legendary Admin named Romeo, prompting him/her to go on their most dangerous journey yet, encountering new allies and dangerous enemies. However, this season isn't relevant to Reuben.
Who is He/What has He Done?
Reuben (not to be confused with the usher) is the deuteragonist in the Season Pass and the pet pig of Jesse, also his best friend of sorts. As you could expect he’s a normal pig but that’s not to say he’s without personality as he is a very loyal and kind companion who aids Jesse throughout much of his quest to save the world from the Wither Storm.
In first episode "The Order of the Stone", he is hanging out with Jesse in his treehouse then gets into his silly little Ender Dragon costume. They collect materials and train for the upcoming Endercon building contest. While Axel, Olivia and Jesse finished their build, Aiden set their art on fire, leading to Reuben running away while caught on fire. Jesse found Reuben at night and reunited with Petra, who saves them from hostile mobs. Ivor scams Petra in a deal, allowing Reuben to wander the street and end up with a butcher named Otis, who he fortunately escapes. After the Wither Storm is awakened, he flees the chaos with Jesse and his group, ending up in the Nether. They travelled out of the dimension, built a shelter, and found the Order's Temple. The group decides to reuniting that Order is the next plan of action.
In episode 2 "Assembly Required", Reuben, Jesse and Axel/Olivia travel to either Boomtown or Redstonia. There, Reuben would help his friends navigate the city to recruit either Magnus or Ellegaard. Regardless of which city they go to, both Order members end up in the temple thanks to Axel or Olivia recruiting them. The next day, the entire group travelled to Soren's Fortress in order to recruit the last member and find the Super TNT. After the group split up, Reuben went with Jesse and Petra/Gabriel, eventually finding Ivor. However, Ivor escaped using a potion of slowness.
In Episode 3 "The Last Place You Look", the group remains trapped in the library as Ivor gets away. They then enter a mob grinder by digging downwards and fighting off monsters, allowing them to reach the End and recruit Soren the Architect, who grants them the ingredients to make a Formidi-Bomb to destroy the Wither Storm. During the Wither Storm battle, it was successfully bombed, but at the cost of either Magnus or Ellegaard's life. Unfortunately, the command block inside the monster in completely unscathed, allowing it to reawaken in three separate forms.
In Episide 4 "A Block and a Hard Place", the gang barely escapes the resurrected Wither Storm, seeking refuge inside a cave. They run into Ivor, who leads them to his personal base, where he gives Jesse an enchanted weapon to beat the Wither Storm for good. They leave the base and confront the monster. The gang builds a contraption to transport Jesse into the Wither Storm, but Reuben ends up joining him/her at the last second. Jesse and Reuben work together and finally kill the monster for good. Tragically, Reuben fell from a fatal height during the fight. When the gang finds him, Reuben gives one last look to his friends before dying, turning into a pork chop (admittedly a bit funny unintentionally but more sad.) After this, Reuben has a massive funeral with even a build to honour his sacrifice to saved the world.
Admirable Standard
| “ | I could have never done this without him. He gave me advice... picked me up when I'm down... and in the end, he saved every one of us. | „ |
| ~ Jesse's speech honoring Reuben. |
To list off the competition:
- Jesse sets the admirable standard given he saved the world from the Wither Storm, stopped Aiden from destroying the Sky City Island and it’s hundreds of inhabitants, exposing the White Pumpkin serial killer, saving Crown Mesa from PAMA's brainwashing and stopping PAMA from doing worse (PAMA's brainwashing is explicitly described to be painful at one point), freeing prisoners from Hadrian's twisted games, stopping the Admin’s colossal giant form in his city, rescuing Xara from The Warden's prison and saving the world from being bedrocked by Romeo and can even optionally save Romeo.
- Petra has essentially assisted Jesse throughout the entire series. She saved him/her countless times as well as playing a big role in helping defeat almost every major villain.
- Lukas is a similar case to Petra, in which he helped Jesse through many sticky situations. He also freed multiple townspeople from the Admin’s imprisonment and saved Jesse from being killed by the Prismarine Colossus.
- Harper built PAMA with the intentions of improving the lives of her people, prevented herself from being Chipped by PAMA for multiple years, knowing it would allow PAMA to take over other worlds and helped Jesse and his gang escape her world.
- Ivor gave Jesse the enchantment to destroy the Wither Storm and later assists in defeating many villains. He later became a ninja and tracked down Jesse to tell him/her the truth about the Admin.
- Xara was a crucial in getting Jesse's gang out of the Underneath and Sunshine Institude.
- Jack helped Jesse through basically the entirety of Season 2, from navigating the Ocean Monument to defeating the Admin.
- Radar stayed behind and fought the Giant Enderman so the rest of the gang and multiple civilians could escape. Depending on later choices, his actions are the only way to say a redeemed Romeo and banish the Enderman away forever.
Jesse in an extremely vulnerable position without his enchanted weapon.
As high as the AS is, Reuben easily clears it anyways thanks to his sacrifice, which is a crucial part in defeating the Wither Storm. Moments before Jesse could get the final hit on the Command Block with his/her enchanted weapon, he/she is snatched by a tentacle and drops the weapon. Fortunately, Reuben grabbed the weapon and leaped onto a tentacle to return it to Jesse, allowing him/her to land the final blow on the Wither Storm. Unfortunately, Reuben was caught by a Wither head, causing him to fall to his demise. If it wasn't for Reuben, Jesse never would've gotten the weapon back, resulting in his/her death and allowing the Wither Storm to continue laying waste on the rest of world.
Another important note is his serious lack of resources. He is a pig, meaning he has himself and that's literally it; no weapons, inventory, blocks, completely nothing. Despite this, he managed to preform THE most impactful sacrifice in the series. Although Magnus/Ellegaard might have done it first, Reuben's sacrifice easily outshined theirs and all the others that came later, including Slab, Radar, and Romeo.
In the original removal, it states "he is slightly more heroic than your basic Minecraft wolf." Ah yes, saving the entire world from a kaiju-sized demon is "slightly more heroic" than an ordinary pet wolf. Obviously, this is the literal definition of an understatement.
Mitigating Factors
Reuben's reaction to finding out Soren's fraud.
Probably the biggest elephant in the room is his moral agency. After all, he is just an ordinary pig, so he shouldn't be capable of human-like thinking. However, he is more than enough evidence to suggest he can feel complex emotions and distinguish from what is right and wrong. As shown in literally every one of his appearances, he perfectly understands humans and can even respond to them. One of the many examples, Jesse commanded him to trip an Enderman for it to get sucked into the Wither Storm's tractor beam, which he immediately does. The biggest piece of evidence is when Soren admits that the Order of the Stone are frauds, and Reuben displays a very pissed off expression. This proves he can tell what is right or wrong and showing that he understands this concept that any ordinary animal would have no clue on.
Secondly, his temper. Though he is generally well-behaved and polite, he occasionally gets mad. However, these moments of anger can be justified as heating-up periods, since they only happen when Jesse endangers him (i.e. letting zombies attack him or failing to make a deal with Otis.) Though he might get pissed off if he disagrees with Jesse's choices, his anger never gets out of control and it quickly cools off. Another time is when he attacked Magnus during the Death Bowl, but this was justified since he was too competitive and nearly killed Jesse multiple times, so stopping him was necessary. He always remains loyal to Jesse and never holds grudges against anyone, even Magnus. He can also attack the shop butcher if Jesse doesn’t save him but it’s perfectly justified as self-defense.
Lastly, his recklessness. Before Jesse got transported inside the Wither Storm, Reuben decides to join him at the last second, endangering himself. However, his intentions were completely good, only wanting to help Jesse destroy the Wither Storm. It is normal for heroes to put their lives on the line for the greater good, so this does not count as a corrupting factor.
And before anyone asks the Netflix series isn’t canon and even if it was, Reuben's character is the exact same.
Final Verdict
Eaaaaaaaaaaasy yes for the best pig in the world, but it's up to ya'll.