đź“– Fraught Army Era
GENs 2-3/1st FraughtMovie Administration
Starting on December 8th, 2013, with the return of Minecraft-based content to the FraughtMovie Channel, the Fraught Army Era was defined by the closeness between the YouTube channel, the Minecraft minigames, and the growing community, who had become heavily inspired by them. The community had a more defined identity and became something resembling a gaming clan rather than a loose group of people with similar interests.
Nieve: The Capital of the Fraughtians
Minecraft Xbox 360 players often created survival worlds that were open for anyone to join. FraughtMovie and friends had made several of these worlds but eventually stopped playing them for various reasons. However, on January 1st, 2014, an unassuming Minecraft survival map was created. FraughtMovie built a house there, and soon others followed suit. Drawing inspiration from other maps, this settlement grew into Nieve, the largest city ever constructed by anyone in the community. The survival map was open to anyone, and many players joined with the intent to either damage or destroy Nieve. Residents, some of whom were veterans from in-game conflicts in Country Map, staunchly defended it.
These survival PvP players formed the “Fraught Army”, a group of Minecraft 360 Edition PvPers who were either subscribed to FraughtMovie or highly identified with his minigames. Under FraughtMovie’s leadership, the army went on to establish more cities following Nieve’s design in the survival world and, eventually, in other players’ survival worlds. These outposts, reminiscent of in-game “colonies” from Country Map, became iconic of the Fraught Army, which emerged as the dominant PvP group among other well-known gaming communities.
This era marked the creation of the idea of a centralized community under FraughtMovie’s leadership, extending beyond his Minecraft worlds. The Fraught Army played a pivotal role in relations and conflicts with other groups. However, it remained unclear who were the “real” members, Fraught Army members or Fraught Squad (non-PvP) members.
YouTube Revival and Super Smash Bros.
The shift in content in the FraughtMovie Channel meant Fraught Squad members had more of a reason to watch videos. This lead to the channel producing community-oriented content. First among these, a Christmas survival special, followed by map reviews and videos just socializing with friends. These videos garnered more attention than the survival series, and promoted more unity in the community.
On February 5th, 2014, development began on the Super Smash Bros. minigame. Inspired by The Super Smash Bros. series by Nintendo and other map creators with similar games, this minigame became another success. It effectively engaged friends of friends, drawing them into the community. The game featured recognizable characters from popular culture, other FraughtMovie minigames, and Minecraft itself.
Notably, it was the first map to include a spawn area with leaderboards and a prompt for newcomers to become “Gold Members” by subscribing to the YouTube channel. Gold members received special perks within the minigame, and this concept was later extended to other minigames. There’s speculation that this idea was retrofitted into the Fraught Squad map in the form of gold-block pillars displaying the names of subscribers, although it was never fully realized.
The channel would then feature many play sessions of the Smash Bros. minigame. These episodes bolstered the minigame's popularity and the channels, as players would watch these videos to see themselves. Many notable members would join the community through this minigame.
CuteTitanPanda: The First Lady
In mid-2014, FraughtMovie met CuteTitanPanda. They grew close and eventually entered into a relationship. CuteTitanPanda appeared in two YouTube videos in July, although it remains unclear whether they were together at that time. Unlike FraughtMovie, she was not solely focused on PvP (Player vs. Player) activities and actively engaged with non-army members in the community. As a result, the Fraught Army and the broader community operated as parallel entities, yet remained united under a common banner.