This theory is born of half- lucid streams of thought conceived while I was working yesterday. Like my brain processes yesterday, this theory might be a big leap (but that's kinda the point!) When you spawn into a Minecraft world you have nothing, no food no tools no shelter, just a map and your various bodily appendages. You can mine blocks and place them down to make a tower you can see the world from but running out of blocks is inevitable and the process is a waste anyway because you can't get down without mining the blocks you place. Every biome you encounter, you are blocked or diverged by height related obstacles. Perhaps a mountain in your path or a ravine you must dodge. A detail I want to quickly point out is that your character has an innate sense of height. A clue perhaps into the true nature of your world? The character, Steve and Alex are looking for the way to obtain flight, long lost to the ages and forgotten by all remaining denizens of this apocalyptic planet. But why? Because flight is the culmination of safety. The mobs spawn underground, the oceans are filled with drowned dead, and light (while helpful) is merely a preventative measure. Something better must be found. No mobs can touch you in the air. No pits or lava flows or dangerous creatures, just you and the open sky. What do the following mobs have in common? Bees, Bats, Vex, Ghasts, Blazes, and Phantoms. They all fly but they have another thing in common. All of these creatures are false trails in the quest for flight. None of these creatures get you any closer to being able to fly. You search in the dark caves of the world and find bats that mock you with their uselessness. You venture deeper into Hell itself and end the sorrows and strives of Ghasts and Blazes only to find that evil can never give a good gift, only take. You fight Vex whose lives are illusions born of a mad wizard. You encounter Bees which punish you for trying to take their gifts. And Phantoms the most frustrating mob of all, have the power to slow your fall but lack the ability to grant true flight! Dead ends left and right. If you aren't getting attacked by flyers, you are being ridiculed by the others for even trying. These mobs all together spell out the hidden message of the game: "The power of flight is hidden forever in darkness. Your desire is as ephemeral as any dream, and any effort to discover flight will only end in grief and rage." The Ender Dragon however is different. Her domain is set in a spot of land dangling precariously over an endless void. The Ender Dragon is not important because of what she drops (an egg) but what happens after, the spawning of an Ender Gateway. This gateway leads to the End Islands, A near endless chain of giant islands thousands and thousands of blocks away from the mainland. The final challenge is this, ascending an End City tower and building your way up to the End Ship where your journey ends. The Elytra is your destiny. Elytra is a callback to Elysium or paradise, and if you recall, the end poem seems to be a discussion between two Gods, coincidence? The Ender Dragon is the symbolic representation of finality. "You haven't been able to fly now, so why should you ever?" No change no hope, just end. The death of the dragon opens up the portal (or the way) to paradise (flight). The death of this creature while not the main character's goal, is the penultimate act necessary to liberate the world from the lack of flight thus metaphorically returning fire to the earth. THE END