#DID BIGB BETRAY CLEO AGAIN????

[raindropren]

I have a love hate relationship with spoilers for Wild Life

on one hand, it is my own fault, I am now home, I can watch the silly minecraft survival smp episode.

on the other hand, why the fuck would you say that, i have no context. did they actually do that. can they not???!?!?!!?

[theminecraftbee]

Cleo sits next to Scott, her head in her hands, and says—

—“I really thought it’d be different this time.” BigB sighs. He kicks his foot. Ren is, at least, a sympathetic ear. He understands these things, or at least he understands that it’s hard to be alone. “I mean, I know you don’t trust those guys…”

“I don’t,” agrees Ren.

“But they reached out, man. And I thought, well,”—

—“I could always bury the hatchet, you know?” Cleo says. “It’s been what, how many games? How many years? And I can recognize when I’m as much of the problem as someone else.”

“You had a reason to be a problem. I love that you’re a problem,” Scott says supportively. Pearl snorts in the corner.

“I’m good at being a problem!” Cleo says

“I know, you are,” Scott agrees.

“But it’s like—I don’t know. Maybe I was ready to be done being angry! Maybe I…”—

—“…just wanted a change.”

BigB is quiet. He lets the thought sit in the air. Ren, normally a man determined to fill silences, at least understands the value of a dramatic pause; he doesn’t say anything yet.

Martyn, however, has grown a bit more impatient over the sessions. "What kind of change? You two have been weird about each other for years."

BigB is quiet a moment more. "Did you know that—Ren, did you know that you were the first and last person to show me trust?"

"Uh, thank you, dude," Ren says.

"But like, the thing is, people, they stabbed us then, man. And it's just..."—

—"...he didn't have to! That's what gets me! He could have like... said anything to me? I don't ask much! I offered him my hand! I said, sure man. I'm gonna forgive you, just this once. We can try again. And he just—he tried to kill you! Why?"

"I mean, Scott is one of the people with the most lives," Impulse says reasonably. "And he didn't betray you."

"That's not how teams work, Impulse," Cleo says. "You can't just get rid of the teammate you don't like. The team is only as strong..."—

—"...as weak as it's component parts."

Ren and Martyn stare.

"Jesus, BigB," Martyn says.

BigB looks away. "Yeah, um, well. I don't think that's that stupid. It's not about you two, really. And this is a death game, right? I didn't attack her. It's just... I wasn't going to, really. I wasn't..."—

—"...he was going to, that's the thing. He's always going to do... this!"

"Maybe that's what you get for reaching out to a traitor," Scott says lightly.

Impulse looks away. Pearl snorts again. Cleo sighs.

"Look, I have a long memory, but if I let that decide everything I do forever it would eat me. And people have their reasons. Impulse, look Scott in the eyes, he's not even the reason you have that reputation. Pearl, you're a part of the team. That's the thing. People can change. People..."—

—"...can't change, really." BigB shrugs. "She should know better by now."

"Uh, dude, should we know better?" Ren asks.

"Nah. I mean, Martyn's worse than I am," BigB says cheerfully.

"Martyn," Ren says, sounding vaguely disappointed. Martyn crosses his arms.

"What? You're the one who said I had evil in me. If you take in a snake, you can't be mad if it bites you. If you take in a scorpion..."—

—"...you can hope it learns not to sting you. I don't know. Maybe it's just in his nature."

Pearl makes a strange noise. "And what's in my nature?"

Cleo sighs. She steps over and throws an arm around Pearl's shoulder.

"As long as you don't bite me? I'm willing to learn." Pearl leans into Cleo's arm slightly. Cleo can't help but wonder, some days, how much of the way she flinches back again is her fault. BigB isn't the only one that Cleo hopes can change his nature. Otherwise...

"I'm not actually a traitor, despite what everyone claims," Impulse says, apropos of nothing.

"You know, you should pick better friends," Scott says.

"Nah," Cleo says. She doesn't elaborate. She just—

—breathes. BigB just breathes.

"It was never going to work, anyway," he says.

"Sometimes I wonder if everyone broke while I wasn't looking," Ren says quietly, sadly. BigB has no answer for that.

[ominous-duck-epistle]

It’s killing me that Lizzie has been the only source of forgiveness for Pearl so far. In all the seasons.

In Last Life, she never really antagonized anyone (except for a brief moment where she stole Scar’s cactus).

In Double Life, obviously, no one ever forgave her. Scott and Cleo didn’t forgive her for episode one. Martyn held his grudge for her imaginary transgressions against him (she didn’t really do anything to him). Ren and BigB didn’t really forgive her; Ren did make amends when he was in the Broke Hearts Club with her, but that was more of an apology than forgiveness. She killed BDubs and Impulse on their last life, so they weren’t alive to hold a grudge.

In Limited Life, Jimmy didn’t forgive her for killing Judge Judy and Executioner, Scott didn’t forgive her (that I can remember) for stealing the enchanter. Cleo and the rest of the Clockers didn’t forgive her for allying with Team TIES.

But in Secret Life, Lizzie held a grudge against everyone for not going to her party. But she didn’t against Pearl (and Joel ig). Pearl asks her if they are still good and Lizzie says that they are. That season, Lizzie had no allies, and she wasn’t really amicable with anyone, but with Pearl it was different, she was okay with Pearl and didn’t hold it against her that she didn’t go to her party like with everyone else.

And again in Wild Life, (skipping Real Life because Pearl didn’t do anything to anyone in RL) Pearl tries to kill Lizzie like 5 times in a row. But when she gets a question wrong, Lizzie still says, “We have to save Pearl!”, and when Pearl tells her the answer to her question, Lizzie says that she forgives her. Something that no one else had done for her. In this same season, Gem is having beef with Pearl for something that happened the PREVIOUS season. And, I guess, Scott and Cleo have forgiven her for Double Life, but THREE SEASONS LATER (four if you count Real Life).

No one else has given Pearl this grace except for Lizzie. Pearl herself didn’t even give Lizzie this grace. In Last Life, when Lizzie boogey-kills her, afterwards Pearl says that she is still scared of her and doesn’t want to be near her. And Lizzie doesn’t blame her, because, in the Life Series, forgiveness isn’t common. Holding grudges keeps you alive. If you forgive someone, it gives them a chance to betray you again.

Lizzie forgives her, time and again, in a game so devoid of forgiveness.

[ivys-garden]

Hey let me be negative for a moment

It's starting to annoy me how much the “Pearl is a traitor” idea is popping up in life series posts/stories

Pearl hasn't betrayed her allies once.

Last Life - Pearl never turns on Scott or Cleo. Not once. (Well she and Scott did kill Cleo but that was to get them back as an allie)

Double Life - Pearl has no allies. Scott abandoned her and therefor she can't be a Traitor to him and Cleo since she's not allied with them until the very end. Even then she doesn't attack them, she only goes after Impulse and Bdubs, she only kills Cleo and Martyn when they turn on Scott. (And no its not her fault Scott abandoned her, she couldn't have known that would happen and she was actually searching for her soulmate before going into the nether)

Limited Life - She was literally going to sacrifice herself for Bigb. And she doesn't attack Grian at all when he joins her team. The neighbours did have an alliance with the clockers but the clickers ended it when the neighbours allied with TIES, which again Pearl and Bigb did not know that TIES and clockers were enemies so again that's not their fault and isn't treachery. The closest Pearl comes to betraying someone is when she attacks Etho but at that time TIES and the neighbours had cut ties and Pearl didn't know Etho was allied with Grian (and she stopped attacking when they told her)

Secret Life - Pearl never turns on the mounders, she even fights back against Mumbo wanting to abandon Joel. She never attacks Gem and The Scots until they are literally the final teams left and even then she never actively goes after Gem, only Scott. (And before someone says it, yes I know Cleo told Gem that Pearl was treacherous, 1. They were enemies at the time, 2. Pearl has never gone after Cleo when they were allies and 3. Cleos nickname is gaslight so yeah obviously that was a lie ffs, they were trying to sow distrust. )

Real Life - I don't think Pearl even got one hit on any of the 4Gs soooooo

Am I taking this too seriously? Yeah, But..

[tubbytarchia]

To all the nosy neighbour enjoyers, thank you for being that. Anyway here's my propaganda!! Just some of my favorite moments tee hee

Sorry if my BigB looks weird (I tried really hard :( ) I'll pretend that that's intentional given my rabbit hybrid BigB thoughts under cut:

I made a little post about this before but basically BigB has such rabbit behavior:

1. Cannot help but keep burying himself underground like it's his natural habitat (seriously he comes back on ground to build a house on a mountain and then immediately makes an elaborate underground hideout again. Or how he built backrooms in SL and kept retreating there. Or how he was literally underground when he ran into Pearl, for Pearl to inform him that it was night time and BigB immediately wanting to retreat back underground. Or how he was underground for almost the entire "red winter is coming" session. Or)

2. Often fidgety around others

3. Constantly cautious but doesn't let nervousness show if there is any

4. More prone to keeping distance and watching rather than engaging

Idk he is extremely prey animal behavior (positive, affectionate) and I can never see him as anything but a rabbit now. I considered giving him rabbit legs too but then I was like nah. Because I think him having weird rabbit posture in a mostly human body contributes some inherent awkwardness and a bit of uncannines (fitting with his gaslighting tendencies). After all he's kind of out of his element above ground (or that's how he acts!) and that's when people are going to be seeing him. But just you wait till he stands tall for a change to tell someone off (like Cleo in SL or Scott in LimL). And with such posture, he inadvertently makes himself look smaller, which certainly would help him weasel his way out of undesired situations like he often does, eg by talking people into pitying him to save himself from dying. I'd also like to imagine him to be smart enough to manipulate his rabbit ears to not betray how he's feeling or to make others think he's feeling a certain way, unless he feels particularly threatened or something. That's maybe half the appeal of animal ears to me, that they can be an added tool for emoting, but a hybrid moving them in deliberate ways is a fun concept!

Oh and he has caving boots!!

I do kind of seethingly hate how he looks with his ears drawn back but I did the best I could. I really hate having human ears in addition to animal ears personally, but if I put his ears any further up where they'd look cuter (Pearl's antennae for comparision) it'll look really weird. Aghh whatever he's supposed to be awkward so whatever please ignore it Im going to cry

Also if you think the old design is cuter, it's almost certainly because of the lesser facial hair lol trust me!! And I changed the curly hair to be a bit less curly in likeness to Lee from Walking Dead because I did not realize that BigB's skin is basically that and I couldn't help myself. I was overall really unhappy with my old BigB design so yay for redesign. I swear its not just animal features that make things interesting for me...... maybe somewhat....

[whereispearlescentmoon]

For those who need a GGG recap on why the three of them seem to be pre-divorced (Warning, this is a Pearl blog. I will try to be as balanced as possible, but I may seem biased towards Pearl):

TLDR; They can’t stop betraying each other but the sticking point is what counted as the first betrayal.

Last Life: Scott and Pearl were teamed up (Scottage Duo/Galaxy Duo), and when Cleo was betrayed by BigB, Scott brought her in to their team, forming GGG. At the very end of the series, it was down to Scott and Pearl vs Ren and Martyn. When Scott killed Ren he said he had to because Ren killed Pearl. This is the healthiest they will ever be.

Double Life: The fault here is dependent on what you see as the first betrayal. If you haven’t seen this season, the gimmick is that they had soulmates who they shared a health bar with. If one took damage, the other did, and vice versa.

On day one, Pearl and Martyn decided to go to the nether together, something Martyn does every season he can, to gather supplies. Scott and Cleo ended up figuring out that those two had to be their soulmates because literally everyone else was teamed up and because they were taking damage constantly, which is typical of a nether trip. To Scott and Cleo, this is the first betrayal. Pearl and Martyn ditched them to go to the nether without caring about how their soulmate would also be taking damage.

When they got back, Pearl and Martyn went to look for their soulmates. Martyn set up a little game show at spawn that Scott and Cleo showed up to. When it was discovered that Scott and Pearl were soulmates, Scott announced that actually Cleo was already his soulmate and they didn’t want Pearl or Martyn, Martyn decided to pin the nether trip on Pearl, which was a lie btw, and he left her alone. To Pearl, this is the first betrayal. Pearl also, notably, has gotten a wolf on the first session that Martyn actually named Tilly, who she declares is her soulmate. It is at this point that Pearl starts to lean into the “Scarlet Pearl”/5AM Pearl persona which from her POV is very much a scorned, sad, lonely woman, but from everyone else’s POV is lowkey terrifying.

Cleo and Scott set up a “relationship ranch” to essentially be a couples counselor to other soulmate pairs. At some point they decide a good way to get back at their soulmates would be to axe crit each other, which does more damage than a sword strike. Cleo and Scott are also constantly talking about how much their soulmates suck all season, and are generally, by their own admission, the “mean girls” of the season.

Pearl at around the same time is approached by Scar, who felt cast aside by his soulmate and ally Grian, and Scar gives her the idea to use powdered snow, an item that does low but constant damage, so they can both annoy their soulmates. Pearl, after the axe crit, decides that two can play at the intentional damage game, and sits in the powdered snow with Scar. On multiple instances, both Pearl and Scott will stand in powdered snow while staring at each other, basically playing chicken with their health bars. Pearl also stands in powdered snow with Cleo at some point.

However, Pearl is 100% more reckless with their health than Scott. She lives a massive tower with only a ladder to get up and down that she constantly takes little bits of damage on, and she actually intentionally brings herself down to half a heart right in front of Scott by taking fall damage while taunting him. She is also responsible for their first death, having decided to try and steal a diamond chest plate from the Boat Boys (Joel and Etho) despite them being on red and thus allowed to kill.

There is also an incident in which Pearl decides to mess with Scott and Cleo by building a small hut on the bridge outside their home. Cleo responds by burning it, including doing damage to Tilly, who again Pearl has declared her soulmate. This seems to make Pearl really angry and upset and what started as playful teasing on both sides becomes actively malicious. It is worth noting that, rewatching DL, Pearl has no alliances that last more than maybe half a session. I haven’t watched Third Life, but as far as I can tell Pearl was the first person to ever have 0 allies all season, unless you count her occasional brushes with Scar where they were friendly enough or the time Ren and Martyn groveled to her out of desperation (After Ren had called her a demon with evil in her heart, but also gave her her second Tilly when the first one died. It’s complicated but not the point of this.)

At the end of the season, the last yellows were, ironically, the Divorce Quartet. Scott actually brings Pearl another wolf so she can breed up an entire dog army. The four of them hang out for part of the session, an event filled with snide comments on all sides, until Pearl goes off on her own again. Eventually Scott gets killed by Joel, bringing them down to red.

Pearl, by my own estimate, wins when she kills Impulse and BDubs and Martyn and Cleo on her own. This also starts the tradition of Pearl killing Cleo when she feels Cleo has betrayed her, as she only starts attacking after Martyn, who Cleo is now firmly allied with, shoots a firework at some of her dogs. The reason I say she won there is because the only person left is Scott. If they were any other soulmate pair, this may have been a double win, but unlike everyone else, these two weren’t allies. Scott blows himself up, killing himself and Pearl, but since he’s the one who actually died, Pearl is declared the victor.

Limited Life: This season actually starts relatively well for Cleo and Pearl, and Cleo and Scott. Cleo and Scott immediately make a side alliance, which is their default, and so do Cleo and Pearl. Scott and Cleo all season maintain their side alliance and generally are pretty friendly and willing to help each other out. Pearl teams up with BigB, who Cleo warns her about due to the fact that BigB has betrayed them before. Pearl both does not head this warning and is never betrayed by BigB.

Pearl and Scott get off to a rocky start immediately when she goes over to the island he has set up with Martyn. She immediately brings up last season, and it’s clear there’s still animosity between them, though it’s more playful this time.

Pearl and Cleo, by virtue of being neighbors, interact a lot more. The Clockers (Cleo, Scar, and Bdubs) set up by spawn on day one, mostly to watch the Bad Boys mansion burn after Cleo sets it on fire, and the Nosey Neighbors (Pearl and BigB) set up next to them so they can have a central point to watch everyone from (always watching).

Pearl and Cleo realize that they are going to go yellow at the same time, as they have the same amount of time left (the gimmick of limited life is that the players had 24 hours to live and could gain time by killing and lose time by dying). They decide to stand still and stare at each other while they turn yellow.

At some point, and I’m genuinely forgetting why, Scar decides to burn down some of the decorations on the Nosey Neighbor’s tower. I think it may have been that they promised the Clockers some TNT mine carts that they didn’t deliver on? Either way, Pearl takes this personally. Her and BigB both build a wall and dig a trench between them and the Clockers, showing that their tentative alliance is over.

Pearl, once yellow, decides to switch to her 5AM Pearl skin to mess with people and fails. Scott actually says at some point “Oh she thinks she can just put on a red skin and act crazy,” to mock her attempts at being scary. She does, however, successfully steal him and Martyn’s enchanting table, making them enemies.

The only person who does seem legit put off by her changing her skin is Cleo, who gets startled upon seeing her and says “Oh are we Scarlet Pearling this session?”

When Scott is on yellow and Cleo is on red, Scott lets Cleo kill him to gain more time, again solidifying their alliance. Scott ends up coming over at Pearl’s request in the final session and she tries to trap him to get BigB time. It doesn’t work. Scott ends up expressing that Pearl is a great ally to have, which BigB agrees with.

Cleo is the last of her alliance alive and is defending herself against Grian when Pearl comes in and decides to take the kill, the second time in a row that she has been Cleo’s final killer. Scott ends up killing BigB, Pearl’s ally, which puts him firmly on Pearl’s kill list as well.

Eventually the last people left are Scott and Martyn, who are allies, and Pearl and Impulse. Scott ends up chasing Pearl down and killing her, making this the second time he has been Pearl’s final killer.

Secret Life: On day one, Pearl and Scott end up coming across each other in the woods. Scott makes a joke about how it’s always the two of them. Pearl and Cleo also come across each other and end up splitting some bones that Cleo has so they can both tame a wolf. They make a side alliance called the “Puppo Alliance”, which is deeply millennial and hurt me to type. Cleo and Scott, as always, set up a side alliance.

Scott ends up teaming with Gem and Impulse, Cleo with Etho and eventually Grian, and Pearl with Mumbo, Bdubs, and Joel. The Joel thing is somewhat important because at this point it is evident that Joel’s #1 priority in any Life series is that Scott end up dead, though I don’t think Pearl took that into consideration when allying with him.

The gimmick of Secret Life was that they all had a secret task to do each session, which would give them hearts, a necessity as health did not regen so if you lost health you just lost it. One of Scott’s secret tasks was to say “I love you” to three people and have them say it back. When Scott tries this on Pearl, her only reaction is “Quite different from a certain series in the past, eh?” And she does not say “I love you” back, which Scott points out in the next session.

Pearl ends up apologizing the next session and says “I love you” to him. She is also forced into close proximity with him and helps his team build a zombie farmer, as her task is to be Impulse’s butler that session, who again is Scott’s ally.

At some point, Cleo’s dogs end up dying. To Cleo, this means the Puppo Alliance is over, though they neglect to inform Pearl of this. When Pearl gets hurt and offended at Cleo proceeding to kill some of her wolves, thinking they are still allies, Cleo laughs at her, implying that it’s obvious they can’t still be the Puppo Alliance if Cleo has no wolf. Pearl ends up taking Cleo’s yellow life, citing the wolf killing as her reason. Pearl also kills both of Cleo’s allies, Grian and Etho, this session, making her a firm enemy.

Generally speaking, Scott steers his alliance away from hurting Cleo and her alliance, and she does the same. However, after Cleo and Etho are both killed by Scar, Gem is free to kill Grian, the only remaining Roomie.

In the finale, Scott kills Pearl’s last remaining allies again, BDubs and Joel. She ends up teaming up with Scar, the second/third person to have no allies all season (Lizzie also had no allies this same season, unless you count Joel, her literal husband). The last four people are Pearl and Scar, and Scott and Gem. For the third time Pearl and Scott are in a final four of two alliance pairs, but this time on opposite sides. I’ve seen people talk about this as the two winners and their champions, and it really does feel that way.

Real Life: This was a one session April Fool’s special so you would think there isn’t much to say, but it’s shockingly chock full of GGG. One thing to note is that the players are far less “in character” due to this being an April Fool’s joke. The “gimmick” here was literally just that they were playing in Minecraft VR, which none of them knew how to play.

The first notable thing is that Cleo sets up a double chest and jokes that it will be her coffin for when Pearl inevitably kills her again. Pearl ends up giving her a flower which makes Cleo very happy.

While mining, Scott, Cleo, and Pearl meet up and, to quote,

“Is this the group? Oh, G-d we’ve done it again,”- Cleo

“Wait what?”-Pearl

“It’s Gatekeep, Girlboss, and Gaslight!”-Scott

“Oh Jeez. Alright, bring it in!”- Pearl

They group hug, they do the Macarena, Scott mines some blocks out from under Pearl because falling in VR is a weird experience, it’s all good.

Pearl, somehow, ends up with a dog again that she names Milly as a reference to Tilly. Milly ends up dying because dogs in Minecraft VR are even more janky than regular Minecraft. She, jokingly, lays down on the ground to cry. Since this is VR she genuinely lays down in real life to do this. Gem tries to reassure her by saying that at least she got to name it this time and Cleo says it’s worse when she names it, likely also referring to Pearl going off the deep end when Tilly died.

Before Pearl can fully get up, Cleo kills her. Scott takes this as his cue to start killing and he kills Martyn while Cleo kills Gem, leaving them as the final two. Scott, ironically, dies to an actual zombie, meaning that Cleo wins Real Life.

[krashlite]

C!Pearl’s a character who people usually only analyze from DL onwards, with her Scarlet Pearl arc influencing future seasons. However, I think it’s very important to look at LL when talking about her, since that season formed a lot of her fundamental viewpoints in this game, viewpoints she’s forced to unpack in later seasons.

LL was the most chaotic and violent season BY FAR, even including LimL! The deaths in LimL were very much gamified, while in LL every life counted. The main lesson the three newcomers learned is that the world is cruel and they can never truly trust anyone. Well, except Pearl didn’t learn that second lesson

Mumbo and Lizzie both spent LL in a constant state of either panic or confusion, with there being a few very brief breaks between. This is the case for LL in general, but with the newcomers it’s so much more startling. They don’t know how this goes, and they see Experienced players paranoid alongside them.

Not to mention Mumbo and Lizzie were constantly put in situations where they couldn’t trust the people around them, whether it be because of a boogeyman or any other reason. With them being in a group of 4-5 people, there was a much higher chance of them being betrayed and they never let themselves relax

Pearl definitely experienced the same panic and confusion, but she adapted much quicker than they did. This is mostly due to Scott being her ally- him being pretty consistent and calm as a person. Not to mention, Pearl only had a single person to worry about, when other alliances had 4-5 people to consider. Any one of them could turn and still have a place with the other members, but a group of two didn’t

(Also sidebar, 3L turned into a game of factions, so in LL everyone immediately started with factions, the exceptions being Ren, Lizzie, Pearl, and Scott. Ren was recovering from his Red King arc and ashamed of his former self, while Pearl and Lizzie were new and hadn’t been adopted into a group like Mumbo had. Scott’s reasoning for picking a small group is that he only stayed safe in 3L when him and Jimmy were fairly isolated, so that’s why he will usually opt for a group of two. Anyways)

Since Scott Only had her, he wasn’t about to turn on her and Pearl knew this. When Cleo later joins the group, she isn’t a risk either due to the circumstances of her joining. Cleo was betrayed, they were killed by a boogeyman in their group. BigB’s betrayal hit so hard that Cleo named him her sworn enemy. Why would they turn on Pearl if this affected them so much? Pearl is able to lean on them comfortably, even as the rest of the server begins to target the alliance (for a green name I might add! Pearl was safest for the longest amount of time this season)

Pearl could trust her team, and her team was honestly well provided for. They had nether goods, they had a spawner, Pearl had enough lives to keep them stable for a few deaths. They’d managed to defend themselves against Constant invasions and weren’t backing down anytime soon.

As for others, Pearl only ever saw them if they wanted to rob her or kill her, having very few interactions outside of that. This establishes that theft and threats are one and the same, with robberies threatening their resources and their survival and threats being, well, threats

The main lesson Pearl learns here is that her team are the only people she can trust, and she trusts them wholeheartedly. They will always have her back, they will always steer her in the right direction. The world is hostile, but they’ll face it together. What Pearl doesn’t learn is impulse control. Her impulse control came in the form of Scott and Cleo, with them being much more cautious than she is

Because of them, Pearl made it to the final four in her FIRST SEASON. This is incredibly impressive, Especially considering how, again, LL was the most violent and chaotic season. She might’ve fallen in the final melee, but she rested easy knowing her teammate won. She had gotten him there, and counts it as a personal victory

When DL rolls around, Pearl employs the same tactics as the last season. LL had a very quick race for resources at the start, specifically for sugar cane and goods from the nether. So Pearl assumes it’s the same thing. She’s preparing for the same chaotic environment as LL and is reassured by the soulmate feature

In her mind, her soulmate is her one designated ally. She trusts them wholeheartedly and assumes they feel the same. No matter what they face, she knows they’ll face it together

Except that isn’t what happens

As it turns out, Scott was her soulmate. But she overlooked one key detail about him- Scott plays it safe. He doesn’t endanger himself unless absolutely necessary. She’d previously assumed it was a matter of practicality, but really it’s a means of defending his own peace above all else, even at the expense of others

So her little trip to the nether with Martyn didn’t just endanger them, it endangered their soulmates. It endangered Cleo and it endangered Scott

Their response is to abandon their soulmates because they felt abandoned. They don’t feel that they can trust their soulmates because of the fact that said soulmates were prioritizing a dangerous mission over them. Except Pearl doesn’t understand this. All she sees is that they abandoned her after she went on a dangerous mission For Them, a mission she would have been previously praised for

Pearl is dropped by the very people she trusted with her life last season, and she doesn’t know Why. To say this crushes her is an understatement

It wasn’t just a rejection from her former friends, it’s a betrayal of a fundamental worldview she developed last season. How could a group that was basically family abandon her just like that? If her designated ally wanted nothing to do with her, then whats the point in trusting anyone?

That last question is pushed to the side, with her insisting on Tilly being her true soulmate. Tilly would never abandon her, she can trust Tilly wholeheartedly. Except Tilly dies almost immediately afterwards, starting her Scarlet Pearl arc

(And I do want to say, I consider Tilly to be fully Dead. The second wolf was a different wolf entirely, but Pearl was in a state of delirium and wanted so badly to have someone to rely on. If it couldn’t be another player, then it would be her dog. Funnily enough, this actually comes up later but that’s an asterisk*)

This arc was basically a constant downwards spiral for Pearl. Any foundation she had was immediately uprooted, any alliance she formed immediately fell apart. This stressed her out to the point she wasn’t sleeping and frequently acted out against the people in her surroundings. Pearl was not maintaining herself in the slightest, her mental state affecting those around her. The main examples I can think of is her stealing horses and sitting in powdered snow to punish Scott, both of which do have explanations

Again, Pearl is basing her actions off of LL, even if she doesn’t realize it. Her alliance was robbed over and over again, usually for things like sugar cane and nether goods. These are things that are high value because they help a team survive. When it comes to pets and livestock, they really weren’t considered unless they were being held ransom. In LL, being stolen from was a threat to someone’s survival

Except this isn’t LL and Pearl is just starting to realize that, with every alliance being stable from an outside perspective. She’s using these thefts to test the waters. If something happens, she’s right to be paranoid and right to lash out. If nothing happens, she can relax, which she does! After stealing Scar’s horse she does briefly stop tormenting the server, instead going back to watching the others.

(^^ I might have the timeline wrong here btw it’s been a second)

As for Scott, her sitting in powdered snow has different connotations than it does for other alliances. She isn’t the only person to hurt her soulmate in this way, Scar actually being the one to suggest this. For Scar it was a harmless but irritating way to get back at Grian for kicking out the Jellie Pandas. It hurt, but it wasn’t meant to actually endanger the other (still abuse btw, just a different kind). For Pearl, her sitting in powdered snow was a tactic intended to make Scott feel unsafe. If he valued his precious security so much that he kicked her to the wolves, then she won’t let him have a moment’s peace.

But going back to the horses- stealing Ren and BigB’s horse was the moment things changed for her. This theft resulted in both of them dying, confirming the idea that thefts threaten someone’s survival. Except Pearl never meant to endanger them, as shown with her defending their items when none other than Scott and Cleo come to scavenge them.

When Ren and BigB return, it’s Pearl who gets blamed for the death, not the circumstances. The blame shifts from the world being cruel, to Pearl herself being cruel. Pearl is unable to cope with this, isolating in response. She sees every other pair finding peace and joy in one another, but she destroys everything she touches. In her mind, she IS the cruelty that exists in the world and nobody is coming to save her.

I think Pearl actually blames herself for Ren and BigB falling apart, which she finds out about when Ren and Martyn “summon” her. This actually affirms the lesson she Just learned, with her accepting the role of Scarlet Pearl. Previously, it was just an act but now it felt more real

She goes on to purposefully endanger others, seeing this as her true role on the server. Pearl had been wearing her red skin before this, but that was only to show her state of mind. Now, she was fully playing into this role, as seen with the fishing rod incident and, again, stealing armor from Boat Boys as a means of threatening their survival

I don’t think Pearl expected to be threatened in return, and her subsequent death did give her a moment of clarity. She was made to understand that her existence in this state was inherently risky, and she needed to be more careful. I think that was the driving force for her seeking out Scott and Cleo to form a tentative alliance. Pearl hasn’t forgiven them at this point, but knew she needed them if she was to last. This forces her to have some level of impulse control, instead of only relying on those around hee

Them being her failsafe put her in a difficult situation when it comes to her Scarlet Pearl role. She was a “Red,” that’s her job, but her team still needed her. But they’re not her team, but she needs them, but she can’t trust them, not after what they did.

But she has to, and that’s what ultimately brings her to side with them; necessity. She doesn’t like them, she doesn’t trust them, a sentiment they return, but she needs them.

The world is cruel, Pearl is cruel, and she needs to defend herself and her own peace- a lesson that, funnily enough, she picked up from Scott

Ultimately Pearl doesn’t learn to care about either of them until the moment she dies. ESPECIALLY Cleo, who ended up siding with Martyn in the end. But it’s Scott’s sacrifice that cuts through the callous she’d developed over the course of the season. He gave his life for her. Scott sacrificed himself FOR HER. The action doubles as changing her perception of him as a person and changing her perception of the world. Scott wasn’t the selfish man she made him out to be, and the world wasn’t filled with senseless cruelty.

Pearl hasn’t learned to trust again, but she’s able to begin the process in LimL

Enter: BigB

BigB’s someone who has had shaky alliances over the ENTIRE series. This started in 3L when the other two Blue Sword Boys ended up on opposing sides of a war, him trapped between them. He learned that season that ultimately he was the only person he could trust. In LL, his initial decision to stay with Cleo then the fairy fort was one made out of necessity, NOT trust. BigB was a sitting duck on his own, and he wasn’t about to have a repeat of last season he got targeted over and over again for being isolated.

And I do think that he cared about the Fairy Fort, they gave him a sense of genuine security that he hasn’t had before. So him being the cause of the Fairy Fort’s collapse gave him a Crisis

The last person he was able to trust that season was Ren, and Ren ended up being his soulmate in DL. Except due to the cheater’s arc BigB blames himself their demise in DL as well (Again, there was shared blame across all parties I made an entire long post about this already).

So BigB is going into LimL with the same lesson Pearl has just begun unpacking; They are the cruelty/danger that exists in the world and can never truly rely on anyone

(Also second sidebar, this is something I love about LimL. Everyone coincidentally got an alliance with matching wounds, but moving on)

The first thing Pearl actually does this season is try to retrieve Tilly, her dog she thinks is still alive. (And here’s that asterisk*) what actually happens is Martyn jokes that he cremated her dog, and Pearl’s unintentionally forced to understand that her dog is dead, she’s Been dead since the start of DL. Breaking apart that delusion was actually Very important to her breaking apart her worldview. If that information was false, what else was she wrong about?

And this is explored through her alliance with BigB. See, the Nosey Neighbors were a fresh start for both of them. They both were re-learning how to trust themselves and others, relearning how to care for others and be cared for in turn. Them watching the server was a lighthearted way to vent their paranoia- again, both unpacking how they view the world and how they view themselves

LimL as a season did a lot to defang the games, for lack of a better term. The deaths were very much gamified, they weren’t nearly as serious as they previously were. Pearl and BigB used this environment to reflect on themselves. The world was chaotic, yes, but it wasn’t as cruel as they thought it was. THEY aren’t as cruel as they thought they were

Pearl makes the decision to be his protector, treating this as a test to show she doesn’t destroy everything she touches. Except, she hasn’t unpacked how she sees herself as cruel, only points that “cruelty” away from those she cares about, and that’s why acting as Protector comes so naturally to her

This is reinforced over the course of the season, but it’s only ever confronted towards the end after Grian’s plan resulted in the three of them being shot. BigB was left with under a minute left, causing Pearl to panic. Pearl immediately insisted he kill her for more time, with BigB panicking in turn because he “didn’t know how.” He was scared of breaking the bond they’d developed over the season and Pearl cut through that fear without hesitation

And here’s where her role as protector is solidified. The world is cruel and unjust, and everyone deserves to have someone to rely on. Pearl would be the foundation for others since nobody else was going to be.

Pearl had already made a promise to herself and to BigB to get him to the end. He would win that season if she had anything to say about it. Except Pearl isn’t able to keep her promise to BigB. He dies just out of eyeshot, and she is helpless to save him

Pearl doesn’t give up on being a protector, this decision influencing a lot of her actions in SL. She wants to be a solid foundation for the Mounders because she knows the importance of having that foundation- she knows the pain a lack of foundation can cause.

Also, the Mounders being a larger group acts as proof that she’s able to trust others again, even if that doesn’t register to her. Remember, LL created the precedent that larger groups are more dangerous, with smaller alliances being much safer. Pearl being able to function comfortably in a group of 4 just goes to show how much she’s grown as a character

SL goes on to challenge her new worldview in several ways. First it was Mumbo turning Red, him becoming excessively violent like he’d been in LL. This actually acts as a mirror to Pearl’s former self, since Mumbo’s pulling from the same logic she was pulling from in DL. Remember, Mumbo hasn’t been in other seasons, his only experience with the games was the confusion and paranoia of LL (I think the lighthearted confusion of the tasks actually triggered his and Lizzie’s paranoia, but that’s another essay). He hasn’t had a chance to unpack that like Pearl has, and she sees this as a failure on her part, doubling down on her Protector role for Joel and Bdubs

Second, Joel and Bdubs, losing their lives. Pearl was forced to reckon with the fact that she cannot keep them safe in the same way she couldn’t keep BigB safe last season. It brings back her fears of destroying everything she touches, even though she worked so hard to unpack that last season. She sees them dying as her failing to be their protector, and her clinging to Scar is a response to that. Pearl needed to prove to herself that she can save Someone, that she doesn’t destroy everything she’s a part of.

Pearl also sees Scar as an echo of who she was in DL, same as Mumbo. She refuses to let him spiral in his isolation. Except, circumstances make it clear to her that she cannot save him by being his protector, she cannot save him at all.

And so she attempts to sacrifice herself for him, just like Scott had done for her. Pearl thinks she will ultimately cause his demise and the only thing she can do is give her life for him

But Scar immediately shoots that idea down.

This is because Scar was unpacking the exact same idea- the idea that he is inherently cruel and destroys everything he touches. Scar recognized that Pearl was self destructing and Did Not Let Her. Pearl wasn’t allowed to be his protector, she’s allowed to be his ally, his equal

Pearl in turn is allowed to see herself not as a force to be controlled, but a person. I don’t think she even realized how she’d been dehumanizing herself until this moment

And I think she has conflicting feelings on Scar’s victory. On the one hand, she achieved her goal in having an ally make it to the end. On the other, Scar’s victory challenged what it even meant to win the games. Pearl doesn’t know if the victory was worth the path it took to get there, and she’s left in that headspace until the next season

[megabuild]

as a bdubs fan, what are your thoughts on his team kill in last life/how that affected his relationships going into later seasons? 🎤

i think the reason a lot of people struggle with this is that many of us (myself included!) are still deeply into the idea of the characters being wholly separate from their creators, but you can't really talk about bdubs' killing of tango without acknowledging bdubs the man's love of doing whatever will tell the best story. it's why he doesn't kill etho as the boogeyman, and it's why he kills tango and lizzie when he does- those decisions are conscious choices as a narrator that he knows will make more drama and incentivize people to react in more interesting ways. this carries onto other controversial decisions of his, like "betraying" impulse at the end of 3rd life, and his behaviour in double life.

a lot of smarter people than me have made commentaries on how this sort of decision-making would relate to c!bdubs and i'm not going to attempt to try and get on their level but it's something that i feel the need to mention, because otherwise bdubs' decisions (particularly in last life) are often confusing and unstrategic to those who don't watch him. because yes, obviously, looking at him as purely a character with no awareness of what's going on outwith the story of a closed death game is going to make him look callous and uncaring. if you strip away all of the overarching narratives that lead to his decisions- for example, impulse being disloyal and betraying others all throughout 3rd life only to get his comeuppance at the end, or much of tango's story throughout the whole series being tied to him being dehumanised, objectified, and treated unfairly- then they do appear cruel and unwarranted. but at the same time, looking at bdubs' character purely as a narrative force with the omniscient ability to further other storylines doesn't lend to a lot of interpretations (even if this was done very literally in limited life by not having individual episodes and spending much of his time doing "boring" tasks to assist his team).

something particularly interesting about bdubs is how his behaviours aren't really called out except by those who perceived him as having wronged them (impulse and tango), as opposed to say, bigb and pearl, who despite only having "wronged" a select few people have worse reputations across the server. i don't know enough about bigb or pearl to hazard a guess at why this is but it could be due to the people they've crossed having more respect or influence- i can't speak for impulse but tango in particular is not taken very seriously, so the last life kill within the series is almost a joke, not a genuine threat. couple this with, for example, pearl having won and placed highly in dl/sl respectively, while bdubs' pvp is often not fantastic (though again this could be a choice on his part- see the liml skizz fight) and it can be easier to see why she could be perceived as a threat while bdubs is not.

so how does it affect his teams going forward? well, from last life onwards, one could say that the only people bdubs has teamed with are those who either a) have good reason to trust him regardless due to prior experience (cleo, etho) or b) those who have little other choice due to being perceived similarly as untrustworthy (scar, pearl). one could also say that it hasn't actually affected his teamups that much because bdubs was already dismissed as a liability from the get go (see: widow's alliance in 3rd life) and so, coupled with tango's habit of making bad decisions and being dehumanised, his kill in last life was seen less as his fault and more tango's fault for making the foolish decision of continuing to stay in the alliance. so bdubs' reputation remains as poor as it was initially and doesn't take the hit that bigb or pearl's did! it's a similar situation to scar or jimmy, but with the difference that bdubs is seen as just that bit more capable, along with the fact that rather than being an inevitable danger to himself (though he is fully capable of that) he's an inevitable danger to others, whether he wants to be or not.

this is all a bit of a nothingburger ramble not least because most of his alliances repeat (the only standout one being the mounders in secret life which has been wiped from my memory entirely) but i hope it at least makes sense.

[lxrd-ren]

Dude DUDE

The parallels to Last Life are insane

- Final Girls + BigB are the only 5 person teamup / allyship (if only for a bit) we've had since Last Life's Southerners

- Tuff Guys building multiple towers, one for each person also mimics the Southerners towers

- 1st season since Last Life to have the dark green name available

- Tuff guys is team B.E.S.T minus Skizz

- 1st season since last life to have every member be present (Skizz missing from Double Life, Ren+Lizzie+Mumbo missing from Limited Life, Ren missing from Secret Life) (Gem not being in seasons before Secret Life does not count her as missing from them as she wasn't added to the Life Series yet)

- Bases being references with The Avengers Tower in Last Life and Joel's car in Wild Life

- Even the name of the seasons have the first word containing 4 letters

- The next episodes are literally going to air on the 3rd anniversary of the Last Life finale (knew this curtsey of @desolationcleo)

- Ren letting someone else kill him / gain a life from him in exchange for allyship, Lizzie in Last Life and Jimmy in Wild Life

- BigB betrays his alliance and Cleo shuns him, yknow what happened in Last Life? Oh yeah

SAME SESSION, SIMILAR TITLE AND EVERYTHING

EVEN GOES TO THE SAME PEOPLE AFTER THE BETRAYALS

Not to mention the set up for the other factors??

Like nearly every season, Jimmy dies first in Last Life

In Wild Life, Grian vows to make Jimmy's curse stay true by killing him first

Y'know who killed Jimmy in Last Life? GRIAN. I WOULDN'T BE SUPRISED IF HE DOES PERMA KILL JIMMY AGAIN

Scott won Last Life. His teammate was Pearl, and also Cleo later on when she left her alliance

So, judging by popular opinion..

Joel wins Wild Life. His teammate is Gem, and also (possibly) Etho / Lizzie later on when they leave their alliance ?

Scott won by being honourable, but he can hardly do that this season with all his teammates making enemies quicker than he can make allies

And Joel this season has decided to be more controlled and seek out allies this time around

And don't get me started on the red names

- Mumbo and Skizz both being on red early on and working together to get kills

- Joel was the main red of Last Life; desperate and failing miserably. During this last session I'm sure you can see that same desperation through the red names in Wild Life

However, in particular I believe Tango is going to be the Joel equivalent this season. (Thanks to @tiredfoxtf for pointing this out) Mainly because:

- Tango was one of the first to turn red, which if I remember correctly, has not happened before

- Joel had a very tedious alliance with Scar, and Tango has a very tedious alliance with Etho + Bdubs

- Whilst Joel and Tango both have made many enemies, they both have a particular person that is their main one: Joel had Scott and Tango has Skizz (Or perhaps Joel in the future if it's more fitting for the main red name to rival the (maybe) winner)

- Unlike Mumbo, Tangos traps have failed again and again; just like how Joel's traps at the start also failed again and again. Since Joel did eventually start getting kills, perhaps Tango might also

- Plus, the reason their red and desperate in the first place is due to their respective seasons mechanic; Joel was the Boogeyman twice, both times made him go down to red and Tango got screwed over by the Wild cards snails

- Thinking of lives, they both started out their doomed session on 5 lives and got down to 1 by the end of it

[bigb-enthusiast]

Hi! I don't watch much Bigb because I don't have time to watch more than one or two life series povs usually, but I feel bad about making him an afterthought in my content cause he has such good vibes. As the local Bigb enthusiast. I wanna watch a few of his videos at least, if there are any you can recommend that are particularly useful for getting a better idea of who he is generally, or if there's any advice you can give on how you think he should be portrayed that fanon tends to get wrong?

Hii! I can help uhh the best way i Can help you with portraying him is like? Watching every episode? But yk. Its a lot of episodes. But heres some i can help with

3rd Life episodes 12 + 13 (his finals)

Last Life episodes 4(pt 1 + 2), 5, 7, & 8

Double Life episodes 3, 4, & 5

Limited Life episodes 6, 7, & 8

Secret Life episodes 1, 2, 5, 7, 9

Sorry i just gave you (and whoever else follows this) like 18 videos 🧍 he just used to split his videos into parts and then also he showed more of his character further as the season(s) went again id really recommend watching Every video of his cause theres just so many details you can find but i picked what couldve been seen as more important within his character

Fanon wise he is normally not going to betray people on purpose, its usually by force of the game and hes actually rather caring. He tends of isolate but also stay quiet when theres more than at least 2-3 people in an area unless hes Really close with them, despite isolating a lot hes very easy to force or drag into an alliance and also when he does he tends to become super clingy to at least one person such as ren and then cleo who despite betraying he tried to get back with her whether its on good terms or an alliance for at least around the 3-4 seasons that happened after she declared he was dead to her, ive seen people characterize him as innocent which no his first interaction with joel EVER in 3L was a big dick joke /t /lh, and also he is also portrayed as ruthless or mean specifically during the soulmate scandal. He wouldnt have really did it if he knew it hurt scar THAT bad (which in canon it DIDNT. Sorry scar did NOT care)

[piglinmyfeet]

Secret Life players ranked on how much I want them to win

Joel - Please please please please please please please please please let him kill everyone and win I've been waiting four seasons for him to win please

BigB - He's already had a strong start with his incredible first episode, and it'd bring the season full circle with him gaslighting everyone in episode 1 to him killing everyone in episode whatever

Mumbo - Comeback of the century especially after his swift swift death in last life

Lizzie - Idk man I just think it'd be neat, also it'd be a feminism win

Cleo - Once again, feminism win, but I think Cleo deserves it after four seasons, dying second in 3rd life, being betrayed by BigB in last life, divorcing Martyn in double life, being a single mother of two with a deadbeat husband in limited life, she deserves the win

Gem - Geminislay with the steel chair, new player already has a reputation, it'd be fun if that lasts to the end and she fucks everyone up

Bdubs - Gotta love Bdubs, he's already suffering with his sideways house in episode 1, let him not suffer, let him win

Impulse - He's gotten so close before, he can get even closer this time and win, I believe in him

Skizz - He had a TERRIBLE time last season being boogey killed twice in episode 1 and being second out overall, he deserves something better this time around. I have faith in him

Scar - I love Scar and it'd be so fun if he won but I'm not getting my hopes up, I know he can survive if he wants, we've seen 3rd life, but I don't have big faith in him again (disclaimer, I don't know where he placed in limited life, I did not watch the last episode)

Etho - Idfk man, everyone's been ranked already and he was left and I don't really know where I'd rank Etho on "where I want him to win" so I put him between the people I have an opinion on

Jimmy - Sorry to Jimmy winner truthers but he just can't break the curse, he has to die first and unless the next season is "first out wins" I don't see him winning

Grian - Won 3rd life but that was the longest ago so he could have another go

Scott - Also won already in last life, but that was longer ago than Pearl and Martyn so he's above them

Pearl - Unfortunate feminism loss, but she's already won in double life, she doesn't need another win so soon

Martyn - Yet again, already won, but that was last season, definitely doesn't need to win again so soon

[i-mister-robinson-blr]

In a world full of selfless people, the selfish came on top.

In other news:

Scott has once again outlived Cleo, who died at the hands of Pearl for a second time in a row

Grian for a third time has ended scar’s series

Tango died in a meaningless way thrice in a row

Pearl got to be in the last four for a third time, only to get killed by Scott a second time

Impulse got betrayed at the last second once again, but he also got to kill Bdubs as a form of revenge for third life and maybe double life

Bigb didn’t betray his ally’s trust like he did with Cleo in last life (killing her as a boogey) and Ren in double life (becoming Grian’s secret soulmate)

If everyone’s got a curse, the Scott has a blessing, if you are allied with him you’ll probably win

Funny how the sun and the star won because of their selfless actions, while the moon and the eclipse/mars (jury is still out) won due to their “selfishness”

good show everyone.

[enpr-ss]

FINALE!!!

“I could hurt you all right now but I won’t” - Joel

“Bdubs you’re taller than Joel” - etho. Joel immediately shoots fireworks at him.

Of course they got him with the buttons. Of course. The wardens! The nest! How did etho fail to mlg. RIP. That ladder shot of Martyn was BEAUTIFUL!! Has Cleo not gone into the nether before this entire series? Bro. THE NETHER PORTAL TRAP WORKED!!!! gem digging him out was such a jumpscare holy shit. He lasted a lot longer in the 3v1 than I expected. Very good.

Of course bigb died when he accidentally muted and couldn’t talk his way out of it.

Martyn funniest death. LOL.

Gem’s pov is so good holy. She hunted down etho and with her girly voice cheerfully proclaiming murder its fantastic!!! Grian really did a lot of damage to them holy shit. Scott’s sacrifice… at the secret keeper too 😭😭😭🫡🫡🫡 Pearl teaming up with scar was NOT what I expected.

Joel really killing himself with all the traps LOL. HE HIT ETHO OFF THATS SO COOL.

Pearl is so used to decked out that she laughs at the wardens and snacks on berries. Rip murder camel. The camel is dead, long live the camel! THE FINAL TWO!!!! Scar might actually win this with a punch II bow and thorns. SHE DIED TO FALL DAMAGE!!! well played. The camel lives!!!!

He got betrayed by tango and then he just spleefed tango like that. He was such a good hunter of Skizz; especially that underwater bow shot. Giving skizz worse than death. Trader Scar’s one last trade. Ugly stepson LOL. Bigb’s back rooms really creeping people out as intended. That pearl and kill on etho was beautiful. HE KILLED ETHO YET AGAIN LOL. IS THAT ALL 3 TIMES??? INCREDIBLE. I can’t believe scar is still able to talk his way into alliances and boding over common enemies. How does he always do this. WHAT A SAVAGE ONE LINER ON CLEO. HE HAS OVER 40 HEARTS!! Him getting impulse was CLEVER!!! Scar is so on fire this series and this episode. That pvp with gem was pretty good! They traded roughly equally but he has better hearts and armor and Pearl lol. HE DIDNT KNOW HE WON BECAUSE HE DIDNT GET THE HEARTS OR THE KILL MESSAGE AGAHAHA. CLASSIC. and he hit the succeed button!! What an ending.

Scar showing Pearl and Gem + Scotts that sacrifice isn’t the best way.

Rewatching and I realized that as opposed to grian winning 3rd life on a cliff during the day, Scar won in a ravine at night.

[enderwoah]

there is something so horribly poetic about divorce quartet getting first and second place pair-wise in double life. like think about it it's just so. in a series where the entire premise was to be bonded to someone the four people that effectively betrayed that bond were the people that won.

i mean sure the very obvious lovey-dovey couple got third but they both literally came to pieces once pearl actually set out to kill (on her own, mind you).

jimmy and tango loved each other but jimmy died alone in the woods in the middle of the night with no-one around, not even his soulmate, and tango died in the same instant in the same way except in the plains.

grian ended up killing his 'secret' soulmate AND his 'actual' soulmate, both by accidents varying in tragedy.

ren and bigb ran into battle together, bigb just behind him, and died due to something that neither of them even saw.

like that bond and that love literally meant Nothing for the entire series, no matter how much weight people put into it.

AND THE CRAZIEST THING TO ME?? martyn and cleo despite being ""divorced"" were actually. getting closer again? around the end of the series?

maybe it wasn't love, but it was something to start. a gifted sword acted as a messy knot tying their soulmate strings back together. in their final moments, they were allies. they were on a team together. and then pearl tore though that string with her axe and killed cleo without even blinking.

she and scott had tried that reconciliation thing in the same episode. really, it was just scott holding out an olive branch, and pearl took it, then left them behind. scott tried to bring them back together, scott was willing to reconcile, and he came second. hell, you could even argue that the bond really did kill him- some semblance of respect between soulmates drove him to give pearl the win, do you see what i mean do you see what i mean i HATE minecraft smps i HATE how they're so accidentally poetic

[ivys-garden]

Life Series Session Recap and Alliance Analysis

Pearl opens her episode clarifying she and Impulse did nothing wrong. Finally I don't have to write “get over double life, tumblr” every week.

Yes, another Saturday means another instalment of the Life Series. This session was far more chill and slow paced than last weeks, ironic considering that this week's Wild Card was a perpetual speed increase! Going from a complete time freeze to full hyperspeed. Naturally, this led to about a 7.5 on the madness scale, so let's see what those teams were up to.

The Final Girls - (Scott, Cleo, Pearl, Impulse & Bigb (not anymore ;3 ))

On the topic of Pearl and Impulse, Cleo decides that they will fully enable all of they're future actions. Yes, she might sigh when they talk about all the evil stuff they're going to do, but she's fully on board.

Right about now Scott is probably regretting being team mum for three chaos gremlins as he's already had to instruct them not to give Gem any more reasons to kill them & had to break up the fight that was issued once they all went Matrix mode.

Speaking of Gem & Joel, a new development in the great drama sees Impulse explain himself and apologise to Gem. She doesn't buy it but it's the thought that counts. During this apology Pearl, the attack dog, is ordered by Gem and Impulse to slaughter grian. So while Cleo and Scott go off to make friends, Impulse and Pearl pop over to Rens for some very serious murder discussion, with an eventual “let's murder Grian” party forming consisting of Pearl, Impulse, Ren, Martyn, Bigb, Scar & Jimmy. If even a fraction of these people stick to this next session Grian is pretty firmly doomed.

In other news Scott manages to make allies with the Bamboozelers through several means, including staring at Jimmy's ass. Cleo & Impulse have a little caving adventure and Impy manages to make a working Creeper farm that they may or may not be sharing with Renwood. This leaves Pearl once again building the tower, which is good since she has arguably to much experience in that

While building the tower we get more Drama! Grian and Mumbo managed to get a quick kill on Scott early on the session by digging a big pit under the tower and spleefing him in. Mumbo and Skizz later come back to this trap only to be discovered by Pearl. The Suits try to get her to lure Scott over, but Pearl is far to loyal for that…. But not loyal enough to kick them out, reasoning that it would be really funny if it happened twice. On top of this she negotiated the ability to kill grian without them stepping in, very useful given her current plans & the second spleefing doesn't work anyways, so no harm no foul.

No one would actually agree to luring their team to their Death intentionally… right Bigb?

I'd say I'm surprised, but I'm not. He's worked again every team he's been in except Nosey Neighbours. I guess the “B” must stand for “Betrayal”

Bigb pulls the same thing Pearl did only not under the pretence of a joke, when Grian is around to actually make sure his team gets the kill, actually agreeing to lure Scott and doing it INFRONT OF CLEO. This being the second time this has helped to them, Cleo immediately goes off to find Scott to warn him about the traitor…Scott still falls into the trap anyway but that was a skill issue on his part. Bigb actually tries later to gaslight Scott into thinking that he didn't mean to betray the team, which almost worked until he started saying Cleo was the traitor, which obviously Scott would never buy. Oh he also did this in earshot of Cleo so she set her attack dog (Pearl) on him.

Bigb also later betrays the “Let's Kill Grian Gang” and warns Grian about the plan to murderficate him. I guess someone hasn't gotten over Double Life after all.

The Fast And The Furious - (Joel & Gem)

Actually, the fast and the paranoid might be more accurate as while Joel is just off having a grand old time prattling speed bridging, Gem is terrified that everyone is out to get her and doesn't seem to understand that putting your base on the main path means more people will come visit.

Aside from sending everyone they can to kill Grian and disregarding Impulses genuine apology, the team due doesn't really do much themselves

Gem was officially the last person to lose a life though, with no less than 4 people, including 2 greens, having to help kill her.

Also Joel added racing stripes to the car and… it actually made it a lot less hideous, well done Joel.

The Bamboozelers - (Jimmy, Scar & Lizzie)

Jimmy has regained the title as most confident member of this team…scarily confident in fact, just this session he was able to steal a potential kill from Skizz & kill his teammates, get another good kill on Joel using Lizzie as bait, managing to turn his relationship with Joel around to become allies and reaffirming his alliance with Renwood. Honesty 100 IQ plays from Tim all around.

He did die once this session, but that wasn't his fault and was also incredibly funny to watch Martyn bimbo his way through traps made for Bigb and accidentally kill Timmy. Great job everyone.

Speaking of failed traps… oh Scar… he started of strong, absolutely annihilating Etho in slow motion and living up to the villain he shares a name with by tossing him off a cliff, but after that every single attempt to trap someone fails miserably and he's forced into a cheap kill on Grian that results in him calling for vengeance… wouldn't be to worried about that tho considering Skizz and Mumbo's track record.

The Spanners - (Mumbo, Skizz & Grian)

How are these idiots not dead yet.

They get one (1) successful kill this session, spleefin’ Scott. A trap Mumbo tries his luck with several times after this despite knowing the Final Girls already knew about it.

Skizz gets no kills despite Grians efforts. An attempt to build a super TNT minecart launcher is made… on Scars mountain… and Grian spends several.minutes explaining to his worst enemies how the trap works… and then he and Mumbo stand directly under where they know the TNT will land. Yeah obviously Jimmy sneaks in and pulls the lever to kill them.

A second attempt to launch TNT is made, but this launcher is pathetic and ends up being turned into a party game. oh, and then Grian gets hotguyed by Scar. Grian immediately screams vengeance and blows up the reputation board, ranting about how little it meant since he was in good favour… which only proved he never read the damn thing but it's the thought that counts.

In their last hoorah for this session the team goes on a proper hunt The Bamboozelers as they hide in Joel's car. Mumbo sneaks up to pure lava on them… and burns himself to death. He then tries to hypersonic pvp Gem and you can guess how that went. He then joins in trapping Gwm in a big hole and burning her, only for the kill to go to Ren anyway.

These guys are Doomed. Especially because Final Girls & The Family are allied with Scar & The fact that Renwood actively wants to murder them.

Predictions: Grian goes Yellow next session, Mumbo goes out-out and Skizz is somehow still Red.

Renwood - (Ren & Martyn)

We actually covered everything these guys did already, The Grian Murder Crew, Martyn being a trap bimbo, Ren allying with Impulse to make up for beheading him, really the only thing we haven't discussed is Martyns strange choice to make the first 5 minutes of his episode unlistenable

The Tuff Guys - (Etho, Tango & Bdubs

Etho finally admits they're the comic relief. Like any good comic relief, these three stooges spend the entire session failing at everything. Tango fails on the same trap 3 times. Bdubs almost kills himself in said trap. There's more fights and bickerings than you could count on 15 hands and a toe

Oh also Tango also perma-died to Pearl after going invis and being pumped full of arrows.

Honestly it's not a question of if someone dies next session, it's a question of who.

[jae-birde]

doth thou have any OCs? and if you do I request that you rant about them. if you have a lot then rant about a few of your favorites.

If thee do not have OCs, I request of thee that thou rant about thous? favorite characters. tell me what fandom they're from and why thou liketh them

Okay, so I don't actually have any proper OCs (unless you count D&D characters, which I don't)

However for favourite characters? I have many. It comes from having many fandoms, but alas, 'tis the curse of being ADHD and autistic.

Currently, (as many of my reblogs may suggest), I am VERY into the Life Series, and Pearl from Double Life in particular, has VERY much gotten my brain going in ALL the best ways. And so, prepare for the rant under the cut (which is basically an analysis on Pearl throughout the season) that got a little too long

In the first episode, we see that Pearl genuinely never meant any ill intent to Scott. Before she even knew who her partner was, she went out of her way to protect them before she knew who it'd be. She defends her partner multiple times throughout the entire episode, both from damage and from when Martyn took a crack at her future soulmate, and she just goes, “No! You leave them alone!” Even when she starts taking a lot of damage because she was getting attacked, she starts apologizing profusely to her partner the whole time, even though she has no idea who they are. And then when they finally do find each other, she was so happy when she discovered it was Scott.

And then she saw the messy breakup that Cleo and Martyn had, but she thought that surely, surely she and Scott would team up, and Cleo could join them, and it'd be Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss again. And sure, it’s a different and new season, and there are new rules, but it’s still something so familiar that it’s almost like coming home because this is her team. The Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss trio was her ONLY TEAM. Pearl had only been a part of Last Life beforehand; she's genuinely never teamed with anyone else at this point. And the three of them are reunited for all of 10 seconds and she is just so happy to be there because she doesn’t realize that Scott was also leaving her.

The quiet realization, followed by Scott and Cleo both leaving her, just breaks my heart (and I know from an irl standpoint it was played up, but from a character standpoint, it's heartbreaking). The only thing she did "wrong" was go to the Nether with Martyn, which took a lot of pestering from him for her to even go. The whole time they were there, she was worried about their partners, trying to keep herself and Martyn safe, whilst Martyn was insisting that they go find a bastion, that they go to the fortress, that they do all of these things to put them in danger.

And then Martyn leaves her too. Even though he was the one at fault for their partners leaving them, and yet he also leaves her.

And then Pearl is left alone. She has no one else, but at least she has Tilly, right? Except Tilly dies within the first few minutes of episode 2.

And from there it just gets worse.

She has a brief alliance with BigB and Ren, but then she inadvertently causes their deaths, and they shun her. The Ranchers are nice to her, but they don't trust her after the way she stood in the powdered snow to "tickle" Scott. Any chance of an alliance with the Boat Boys is dashed by their deaths and her stealing Joel's chestplate. She doesn't have too much actual interaction with the Homewreckers from what I remember other than the fishing rod chain in front of their house and the pool party. Scar was basically her only "ally", and that was only for specific circumstances.

Pearl is basically alone for the entirety of the season, until the rest of the Divorce Quartet come to her as the only other yellows left.

And then the only people left are the four of them.

Martyn and Cleo go after Pearl, betraying her and attempting to kill her, but she manages to win the fight, killing Cleo while Martyn dies from his trapped base.

And Tilly is dead again.

And it's just Pearl and Scott left.

And Scott, the one who left her in the beginning, saw all that Pearl had gone through to make it to this point, and sacrifices himself so that she could win.

And Pearl herself says that she didn't believe they could do it, and with the way she acted and played, you can see why. Pearl builds her base to be defendable and to have what she needs. She's alone, with little to no allies at any point, and her only friend is Tilly, throughout the whole time. Looking at the series objectively, Pearl is clearly the underdog and one of the least likely to win.

And yet she does.

She makes it to the end, and thanks to Scott's sacrifice, she wins, ending up getting first place.

I love her character arc throughout the series, as well as her slow descent into insanity. She is a character who is driven to survive by spite. Spite against Scott and Cleo for leaving her, to prove that she can make it on her own. Spite against Martyn for ditching her after he was the one who convinced her to go to the Nether. Spite against every other player for turning their backs on her and leaving her on her own. And that spite drives her to win.

Sorry for how long this is, but I am extremely hyperfixated on the Life Series, and, as I've mentioned, I'm going to be writing a Double Life fic focused on Pearl eventually, so I have a lot of thoughts about her.

So... here's a thoughtdump about her! (If this wasn't what you asked for, then I apologize)

Thanks for sending in the ask!