Minecraft Trio

Minecraft Trio is the friendship of Steve, Herobrine and Alex from the Minecraft fandom.

Canon
Though Herobrine is not a character in the game, he has a number of similarities with the player characters. For one, all three of them use similar character models (Alex's arms are slightly thinner). All three of them are capable of shaping their world in any way they want. All three of them are varying levels of sentient, with Steve and Alex being controlled by the players while Herobrine is often said to act on his own. All three of them are also the closest things the Minecraft world has to humans, it is unknown whether Villagers, Illagers and Witches are meant to be human or some sort of subspecies/counterpart to humans.

Fanon
On AO3, Minecraft Trio is the third most popular ship for "vanilla" Minecraft, the third most popular ship for Steve and the second most popular ship for both Herobrine and Alex.

Several unofficial novels starring the three of them have been written, but they often cast Herobrine as the villain.

The ship most likely came to be after the introduction of Alex gave new variables to the interactions between Steve and Herobrine. Most stories do not explain how the three of them became friends, they simply start with Herobrine already being friends with them. Fanart often has them doing regular slice-of-life things, generally hanging out together. Some attempt writing stories treating the Minecraft world as a High Fantasy setting, with Steve and Alex as renouned heroes and Herobrine as a demon lurking in their kingdom. Others have Steve researching Herobrine, only for Alex to inadvertantly summon him, tying them to him and forcing him to tag along with the two of them. Steve almost always has a history with Herobrine, based on the general headcanons between them, often leading to Minecraft Trio stories doubling as HeroSteve stories. Alex is often the third wheel, polyships between the three of them do exist, but they're rare.

The idea that Herobrine has to be restrained by his genuine care for Steve and Alex is popular in comedies. Often, Herobrine would join Alex at snarking at Steve, based on Alex often giving Steve the side-eye in promotional material. Often, Steve and Alex would address Herobrine as just "Hero" (pronounced "Heh-ro", not "hero"), while people who are scared of him call him "Brine" or "The Herobrine". Some also like the idea of depicting all three of them as siblings, Steve and Herobrine are twins more often than not. It's also popular to think that Herobrine was a close friend of Steve and Alex who tragically died, with them using arcane magic to bring him back, explaining his blank eyes. Some fanart shows Notch as the fourth member of the group, often showing him as related to Steve and sometimes Herobrine. In turn, some people like to think that Alex is Jeb's child and that Alex and the other two are childhood friends.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

FAN ART

Variations

 * Alexbrine refers to the ship between Alex and Herobrine
 * HeroSteve refers to the ship between Herobrine and Steve
 * Stelex refers to the ship between Steve and Alex