diff --git a/.idea/mercury.iml b/.idea/mercury.iml
index 6deb029..24643cc 100644
--- a/.idea/mercury.iml
+++ b/.idea/mercury.iml
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
       <excludeFolder url="file://$MODULE_DIR$/.tmp" />
       <excludeFolder url="file://$MODULE_DIR$/temp" />
       <excludeFolder url="file://$MODULE_DIR$/tmp" />
-      <excludeFolder url="file://$MODULE_DIR$/.astro" />
     </content>
     <orderEntry type="inheritedJdk" />
     <orderEntry type="sourceFolder" forTests="false" />
diff --git a/src/content/config.ts b/src/content/config.ts
index 2de2aa4..b250015 100644
--- a/src/content/config.ts
+++ b/src/content/config.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import {posts} from './posts/_schemas';
 import {pages} from "./pages/_schemas";
 import {file} from 'astro/loaders';
 import { z } from 'astro:content';
-import {authors} from '../data/authors._schema.ts';
+import {siteConfig} from "../config.ts";
 
 const blogCollection = defineCollection({
     type: 'content',
@@ -24,7 +24,15 @@ const blogRollData = defineCollection({
 
 const authorsData = defineCollection({
     loader: file("src/data/authors.yaml"),
-    schema: authors,
+    schema: z.object({
+        name: z.string().default(siteConfig.defaultAuthor.name),
+        email: z.string().email().default(siteConfig.defaultAuthor.email),
+        mcplayerid: z.string().optional(),
+        social: z.object({
+            twitter: z.string().optional(),
+            fediverse: z.string().optional(),
+        }).optional(),
+    })
 });
 
 export const collections = {
diff --git a/src/data/authors._schema.ts b/src/data/authors._schema.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 3630bd8..0000000
--- a/src/data/authors._schema.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-import {z} from "astro:content";
-import {siteConfig} from "../config.ts";
-
-export const authors = ({ image }) => z.object({
-    name: z.string().default(siteConfig.defaultAuthor.name),
-    email: z.string().email().default(siteConfig.defaultAuthor.email),
-    avatar: image().optional(),
-    mcplayerid: z.string().optional(),
-    social: z.object({
-        twitter: z.string().optional(),
-        fediverse: z.string().optional(),
-    }).optional(),
-});
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/data/authors.yaml b/src/data/authors.yaml
index 81590b3..5cf773a 100644
--- a/src/data/authors.yaml
+++ b/src/data/authors.yaml
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 Wheatley: # the key name (id) of the author, which is used in the front matter
   name: "Wheatley" # the display name of the author
   email: "hello@example.org" # the email address of the author
-  avatar: "https://minotar.net/helm/Wheatley/64.png" # the URL of the author's avatar image (takes precedence over the minecraft player avatar, a square image with no more than 64*64 is recommended)
-  mcplayerid: "Wheatley" # the Minecraft player ID of the author, if applicable (used for generating player avatars)
+  mcplayerid: "Wheatley" # the Minecraft player ID of the author, if applicable
   social: # the social media accounts of the author, if any (there is no reference for this yet except for the twitter handle)
     twitter: "@wheatley"
     fediverse: "@"
diff --git a/src/pages/images/avatars/[author].png.js b/src/pages/images/avatars/[author].png.js
index 7ffe78f..57360b4 100644
--- a/src/pages/images/avatars/[author].png.js
+++ b/src/pages/images/avatars/[author].png.js
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 import { getCollection } from 'astro:content';
-import { getImage } from "astro:assets";
 
 export async function getStaticPaths() {
     const authorsData = await getCollection('authors');
@@ -12,35 +11,6 @@ export async function getStaticPaths() {
 export async function GET({ props }) {
     const { author } = props;
 
-    if (author.data.avatar) {
-        try {
-            const optimizedImage = await getImage({
-                src: author.data.avatar,
-                width: 64,
-                height: 64,
-                format: 'png'
-            });
-
-            // Fetch the optimized image
-            const imageResponse = await fetch(optimizedImage.src);
-            if (!imageResponse.ok) {
-                throw new Error('Failed to fetch optimized image');
-            }
-
-            const imageBuffer = await imageResponse.arrayBuffer();
-
-            return new Response(imageBuffer, {
-                headers: {
-                    'Content-Type': 'image/png',
-                    'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=86400' // Cache for 24 hours
-                }
-            });
-        } catch (error) {
-            console.error('Error processing avatar image:', error);
-            // Fall through to the mcplayerid check if avatar processing fails
-        }
-    }
-
     if (!author.data.mcplayerid) {
         return new Response(null, { status: 404 });
     }