Mojang is NOT villainizing piglins.
I'm just gonna rant about this here since I keep seeing this take. I feel like a lot of you guys are taking too much of this piglin stuff at face value. Like, if you think Mojang is actively "demonizing" piglins or something, I straight up don't think you've been paying attention or looking at this with a critical eye. Piglins live in a cruel world. A harsh landscape which would obviously shape their societies to value strength and anything of the sort which would keep them alive. The Nether lacks certain resources, some of which is actually the fault of their ancestors.
Like, this is something we've known since the Nether Update came out.
I say this because there's actually reason for piglin society to be the way it is. It makes sense. Even so, piglins aren't inherently evil, even in the various games. Vanilla Minecraft is obvious. You can barter with them and hang around them if you wear gold. The piglin merchant from Minecraft Dungeons makes this point even more evident with the fact that they journeyed to the Overworld simply to set up shop.
They're completely passive to the player. They're not here to invade and they don't care if you wear gold or not.
In Minecraft Legends, it's a legend. A story passed down from generations. It doesn't necessarily reflect a full truth.
Even so, a lot of the piglins don't even seem to care about invading the Overworld too much. Two out of the three main piglin generals don't even actively participate in the invasion.
The boss known as the "Devourer," leader of the Horde of the Spore, doesn't do much besides send out additional forces to help with the invasion. They mainly just want to keep eating mushrooms.
The boss known as the "Beast," leader of the Horde of the Hunt, especially doesn't care for invading the Overworld. Throughout the cutscenes they appear in, they just want to hunt hoglins.
It straight up takes another piglin leader to step in before they actually do anything to help with the invasion.
Hell, these piglins get abused by their bosses for not complying or failing to accomplish what they must.
Even the bosses get abused by their bosses!
To think that they are all a truly malicious force is a gross generalization for you to take from all this. The truth is that it's complicated. The ones in power dictate what happens and that doesn't necessarily reflect the average piglin and what they want.
Ultimately, they comply out of fear. For their own security. And that's just what happens in a lot of empires with powerful leaders. Perhaps they don't even know better. The Nether is a tough place to live in. So, what's one more fight to them if they might have a chance to one day survive somewhere in a place without lava and ghasts everywhere. Especially if succeeding will also keep their bosses off their backs.
The piglins have a complicated past and that's fine and actually very realistic. If anything, I feel that Mojang has given the piglins the best kind of treatment, in this way. The most world building out of any Minecraft civilization. It just sucks to see when people don't realize that.
And with the movie, I feel it's largely the same as in Legends. Can you really tell me that piglins here are inherently an evil people? Look at this little guy.
Once again, it's the fault of their leadership and their cruel mentalities that have spawned and evolved long ago from living in a cruel world.
Yes, that piglin did just stab that child, btw.
Anyway, my point is that there's just so much more nuance to this than just taking away "piglins bad" from Minecraft media.
