A Monument to Me
Part 20 ~ 22 August 2025
Played: 6 April 2025
Today we commemorate my victory over the Ender Dragon by... constructing a 32 metre tall statue of my likeness! Yes, dear reader, these past few days of resource gathering have been leading up to the most stereotypical of Minecraft projects – building my skin! From the hilltop in the island's centre, my image will loom over the denizens of Elaville as a totally-not-despotic symbol of my greatness!
Seeing as I wanted to depict a scene from the End, I started with a floor of end stone... and immediately ran out. Okay, guess we're going on a trip to the stronghold before we finish this project! A couple of false starts on the legs as I played with the scale of the build, and construction began proper. I dug into my abundant supplies of coloured wool, plus the recently acquired white terracotta to match my skin tone, and layer by layer assembled my Ela effigy!
I decided to build this by the book for the most part, going one block for one pixel and leaving a flat surface. I made an exception for the hoodie strings though. I may go back later and add more details for depth... I also took a little creative liberty with the face, opting for the "anime eyebrows" that show over the hair. Also, I want you to know that the whole interior is filled with blocks, mostly white terracotta – no expense spared for my grand project! Though I did question my life choices as I made multiple trips back to the mesa for more blocks...
I let my long purple hair flow out behind my back, rather than attaching to the back of my hoodie (you have NO IDEA how much that's been bugging me!), then popped on the arms – left arm forward, right arm down to the side. For the sword, I used coloured terracotta to replicate the look of my dragon-slaying netherite blade. On the outstretched left arm, I placed a copy of my ultimate prize, the dragon egg, made of... wool. Best I can do, lol. Why is the egg resting on my arm and not in my hand? Why is the sword sticking out of my other arm and not in my hand?? Well, they do that on my regular-sized skin too. It's authentic :D
We're not done yet. It's time for the pièce de resistance – the amethyst wings! These will be fully outstretched, both for maximum visibility and to give Big Ela that fetching "winged deity" look. So I grabbed a close-up screenshot for reference, scaffolded up, and started counting pixels. The wings went through a few iterations of colour palettes, but I settled on a simplified three-colour scheme to keep it clean and shiny. And with that – plus a bare minimum of torches to stop creepers from spawning – the statue is done! Behold – ELA, THE DRAGONSLAYER!
One quick visit to the End to collect end stone... and obsidian and ender pearls, sure, why not!
And here's the finished build! I'm SUPER happy with how this turned out. It's the perfect centrepiece for this area, and it's a bright, beautiful landmark that's visible for miles around!
