An observant player has uncovered a little secret about the Creeper. Now the community is puzzling over what exactly is behind it.
Creepers are fundamentally unappealing. Especially when they surprise you and leave a huge crater in the landscape – or in your painstakingly built home. But maybe creepers are just misunderstood creatures? That’s what Minecraft fans are debating right now after one observant player spotted a detail about the walking bombs.
Are Creepers really walking plants?
Creepers used to have leafy skin: Reddit user dead_5775 has discovered that the original surface texture of Creeper was simply Minecraft foliage with a face. He put a Creeper head over the leaf texture to prove it:
Under his post, Minecraft fans are now throwing around wild theories about whether there might be more to it and how it might fit into the official lore. We present two of the most interesting ideas.
Creeper hiding under leaves: The comment with the most upvotes wonders if the monsters are simply wrapped in a leafy garment and actually look quite different – someone suggests that there might just be walking TNT under the cover. Other players believe in a more morbid explanation: underneath the camouflage suit, they suspect undead people stuffed with explosives.
Creepers are plants: Other fans believe that they are walking plants. Their readiness to explode would also make sense: Maybe that’s how they spread their spores? And if they blow up a living being in the process, fertiliser would be directly available for the new Creeper plants. Another argument in favour of the plant theory is that Minecraft creator Notch once posted that creepers feel like dry leaves. And let’s not forget, “creeper” can also mean “vine plant”.
As many will be aware by now, creepers were created by a minor programming accident. An input error distorted the model of a pig, which in turn pleased Minecraft creator Notch so much that he immortalised it as a creepy enemy.
For an exciting video on a possible origin of the Creeper in the desert, check out The Game Theorists channel (available in English only):
By the way: In the meantime, Creeper have long since been given a different texture that no longer uses foliage as a base. Minecraft is still being developed further, soon the big update Caves & Cliffs is supposed to change the caves, for example. In addition, a bug was recently fixed that had been in the game for 8 years.
