#and the other times martyn outlived grian

[a-sky-of-diamonds]

actually the enderman was grian so it works in double life too.

(what colour are endermen associated with? purple. what part of them is purple? their eyes. what entities are also associated with the colour purple and with eyes? watchers. what is grian at least in the martyn dub? a watcher. grian is that enderman.)

Before I forget I feel that we as a fandom are massively overlooking two facts

Grian has permakilled every partner he has ever had. Every single one. He either directly murdered them or his plan got them killed (I think Martyn is the only exception to this but I have to go back and see)

Jimmy has been one of Grian’s allies every season

3L. Flower husbands team with Desertduo against the renchanting crowd. Jimmy died in the first battle

LL. Jimmy and Grian were both a part of the southlands. Grian directly stabs Jimmy AT THE SOUTHLANDS

DL. Not a permadeath but Jimmy fell when hiding out at the red velvet keep with Grian and Scar.

LimL. Grian’s plan to have him push the minecart off resulted in Jimmy falling

SO WHILE JIMMY IS THE CANARY. IT SEEMS LIKE A CERTAIN SOMEONE IS THE SMOKE IN THE MINES

Just food for thought

[mleemwyvern]

thinking about team ties.

about how tango said not to trust martyn, and in the end thats what took impulse down.

about how everyone said etho was washed up, but in the last session he got kills and made it to 5th place despite being on such low time.

about how impulse made it in the top three, fulfilling skizz's final wish. he didnt win, but skizz hadn't asked for that much. ties in final three was all he wanted. and impulse did it for him.

about how skizz's sacrifice mattered. etho really did need that extra half hour, and without it he wouldn't have outlived grian.

about how they never, ever betrayed each other. loyal until the very end.

[cloverjelly]

life series duos as songs!

2 - mean gills (scott and martyn) - me and the devil by soap & skin

again, song analysis under the cut :)

-(not song related/for clarification) - somewhat hc but i say scott has the widow curse (not grian ik, scott's curse is in the sense that he outlives his allies) which is the black widow spider fucking up the strings and martyns is the swan curse bc he devotes himself to one person and will defend it like hes fucking feral. which explains the feathers bc i really didnt wanna draw a swan!

-and i said hello satan, ah / i believe it's time to go - i like to think that since both of these buddies r super smart and (mostly canonically) aware of the watchers and what goes on beyond the games, they both kinda knew about each others curses when they met and knew one of them would die to the other and only one curse would be broken in the end

-me and the devil walkin' side by side - super similar to the first note- the entire mean gills alliance was doomed and formed more from strategy than actual friendliness (debatable but yk) and both were aware of the other's ability to murder them

-you may bury my body / down by the highway side - i would say this is mostly scotts pov, since i still believe that he knew what was coming for him and knew about martyn's betrayal, this is also shown by him smiling in the art

-see, don't see why / people dog me around / it must be that old evil spirit / so deep down in your ground - kinda tying back to how both parties were somewhat aware of the watchers (the "evil spirit" in the lyrics) and were lamenting about their curses, especially when it came to them both being in the final fight

-(not song related, 2) - i used white hibiscus flowers as a base for scott's crown (its usually js yellow) bc 1. they lived on a fucking beach 2. it symbolizes purity and sympathy which i think makes a lot of sense considering the above circumstances, AND i used the same reddish tone for scott's flowers and martyn's coral crown. i ALSO added a nice beam of light as the lighting this time bc drama and also idk smth smart about being aware/"enlightened" to the watcher's antics

[panda-wearing-pants]

Reasons for and against each remaining Wild Life member winning (who hasn't yet won a season)

Bdubs: Still has a yellow teammate and has been in the final 6 three times, but hasn't killed anyone yet (other than Skizz once in session 7) and has never made it past 11th in an even numbered season

BigB: The winners usually have an alliance with Cleo in the previous season, but we're not on her team (other than Scar), and BigB was one of the last humans in ep 7 of SL, along with Cleo, he also has an alliance with 2/3 past winners, and is good at surviving, he is also one of the few non-hermits, and the winners have alternated between hermits and non-hermits, but BigB tends not to stick with his allies, which could be dangerous

Etho: Still yellow and has many allies, and has been in every finale, but can't trust his main team to keep him safe, and will likely be trusted less by his other allies due to being on so many teams

Gem: Two out of five winners have won in their second season, and Gem, Joel, and Etho are all still yellow, but Gem and Joel will likely be targeted, due to being two of the best at PVP

Impulse: Impulse is still yellow, has good teammates, and is almost always in the top 7, but he isn't good at defending himself, and gets eliminated because of that

Ren: Ren has the greatest average net change in placement, going from 7th to 2nd to 11th, so, following the trend, he should place very high, maybe even 1st, Ren also got the 43rd kill, and the only two other people to get the 43rd kill were Scott in LL and Martyn in LimL, but Ren did just lose his only teammate, which is not helpful

Joel: Joel is still yellow, has two very good teammates (they are two of the only four players to never miss a finale), is good at PVP, and has been waiting for this for years, he has also been consistently at the top of my statistical predictions, unfortunately, Grian's teammates don't typically survive long (Scar placed second, but was red by episode three), and Joel often gets reckless in finales

Tango: Tango has doubled his total kills, and is good at surviving, but his survival skills typically get worse once he turns red, and his final deaths are known for being stupidly avoidable

Cleo: Cleo won Real Life, has good teammates, and hasn't made many enemies, but they have only been in the top 7 once, despite almost always making it to the finale

Other things:

Bamboozlers: I felt like Jimmy and Lizzie had similar reasons, so I put them together. Jimmy and Scar are tied for the most kills out of all living players, Lizzie is good at surviving, and Scar and Lizzie have both had a teammate make the final 2, despite only having a combined total of 8 teammates (not including WL) over a combined total of 7 seasons. The bad news is that the three of them have only ever outlived 1 of their combined 17 teammates (Bdubs in LimL died before Scar), and Lizzie and Jimmy have never been in a finale.

Reputations: Gem's first ever episode was titled "I have a reputation," which may be the reason she can't win. I think people are going to be too afraid of the Family and the G's to let them live, which leaves basically the Tuff Guys' and Bamboozlers. People in 3L were more afraid of Scar and Ren than Grian, allowing him to get to the final 3 while yellow, Scott wasn't a threat in LL, due to placing 10th in 3L, Pearl and Scar were alone in their seasons, so they managed to survive (I guess this probably doesn't apply to Martyn)

Yellows: Grian and Pearl started on yellow in the finales they won, Scott had just turned red at the end of the penultimate episode, and everyone started on red in the LimL and SL finales, so Gem, Joel, Etho, and Impulse are in good positions.

In my opinion, Gem, Joel and Impulse are likely to win, followed by Cleo and Ren, then Etho and BigB, and Bdubs, Tango, Lizzie, and Jimmy at the bottom

[goldstargloww]

canary curse things. thinking about canary curse things

i'm hesitant to say the canary curse has been broken—what, no, of course it has been, jimmy died second instead of first, and the canary curse is all about dying first— okay hear me out i swear i make sense

my thought is that patterns can change. patterns aren't always static ones. just because something new happened this time around doesn't mean the pattern's been broken, it may have just changed its rules a bit.

joel had a pattern of having no true allies up until double or limited life, where it instead became a pattern of being isolated, for example

now, before we get into the canary curse specifically, let's talk about some other patterns

scott and martyn tend to drag themselves as well as their allies up the leaderboard. they both tend to outlive their allies. grian tends to kill his allies. ...i feel like i should put more here but that's all i can think of right now

now, the way i see it, is scott, martyn, and jimmy in particular all have some sort of weight to them. positive meaning they drag themselves and their allies up the leaderboard, negative meaning the opposite. scott and martyn have a positive weight, whereas jimmy has a negative one.

what i think's happened here is that martyn and jimmy's weights have tugged on each other, and as a result, martyn turned yellow and red first instead of much later on, and jimmy died second instead of first.

jimmy's pull is strong, i think, and so he tends to die first every time. just because he tends to die first every time doesn't make that a rule, though - it just makes it a pattern, one that's been broken. the pattern that hasn't been broken, though, is jimmy being one of the earliest to die, and jimmy dragging his allies down the leaderboard with him.

jimmy died first in 3rd life, and dragged scott down to 10th, and scott finally turned yellow right before jimmy died. jimmy died first in last life, and dragged mumbo down with him, and they were a similar color pretty much the whole time. jimmy died first in double life, and dragged tango down with him. jimmy died first in limited life, and joel died quickly after. jimmy died second in secret life, and dragged martyn's color down with him.

martyn, though, doesn't die yet, because of his positive weight. he's often tugged further up the leaderboard, and so while jimmy may drag his color down and martyn ends up first yellow and red, martyn still manages to stay afloat.

martyn is stubborn is the thing, lmao. he stays alive out of spite and just because he wants to, and so he does, and he makes sure he does. now that the stakes are higher and one wrong move could mean losing everything, he's being a lot more careful than he was earlier on.

and let me just reiterate for a second - he's stubborn. once he's got an idea, he's locked onto that idea until he gets it done or literally can't anymore. martyn will drive himself up the wall before he gives up on something and even then he'll need convincing or more likely a distraction. he didn't give up on ren in third life til he died and couldn't do anything anymore. he didn't give up on trying to kill scott in last life til he died and couldn't do anything anymore. he didn't give up on getting a diamond chestplate in secret life until he got it despite how much it cost him in the end. outside the life series, even, i'm rewatching rats right now- martyn will try to climb a wall over and over and over until he gets it or something gets in the way. he'll be texturing a model and complain to chat about how painful it is and still decide to spend the next hour and a half getting the damn thing done even though he should've logged off for bedtime 2 hours ago. (yes martyn i am calling you out, enjoy)

and so martyn doesn't die! he's yellow first, he's red first, and all other red names die, but martyn doesn't. because yeah, maybe he's impulsive, but he's in this for himself and himself alone and there's no way in hell he's dealing with a wither and a warden that's just killed three people. (he did try and steal the kill though. martyn do you remember what happened last time you tried to steal the kill, you fell into the void and died)

jimmy isn't as stubborn. jimmy's a lot more forgiving, a lot more lenient, and as much as he's being more aggressive this season, he's reckless about it and impulsive and his reputation isn't helping him here.

jimmy lets things happen to him. as upset as he might act about it, he never actually does anything about it, and it gets him killed. he's afraid to break the rules, he's afraid to make people uncomfortable or upset or hurt, he starts genuinely tearing up at the thought of pulling a bait and switch on skizz, and that's the kind of thing martyn does on a daily basis lmao

jimmy is forgiving and passive, martyn and scott don't forget so easily and aren't afraid to make people upset, grian's somewhere in between.

[ooooo-mcyt]

Thinking about Widows Alliance (scott + cleo) and Widows Curse (grian), or as I like to think of them; Widows Curse, Inverse Widows Curse, and Widows Curse Subverted.

Widows Curse. Grian always outlives at least one of his allies. Scar in Third Life, Jimmy+Mumbo+Impulse in Last Life, Bigb in Double Life, Joel+Jimmy in Limited Life, and Etho+Cleo in Secret Life.

Inverse Widows Curse. Cleo is always outlived by at least one of their allies. Bdubs+Tango+Impulse in Third Life, Scott+Pearl in Last Life, Scott in Double Life, Limited Life is hard because she's the last clocker to die but since Scott teamed with them that session+was a long term ally+widows alliance is always in effect I'm counting him, and Grian in Secret Life.

Widows Curse Subverted. Scott always outlived his allies for most of the first three seasons. Jimmy in Third Life, Pearl+Cleo in Last Life, and Cleo in Double Life. Subversion happens at the end of Double Life and we switch from classic to inverse Widows Curse. Pearl outlives Scott in Double Life, Martyn in Limited Life, and then Gem in Secret Life.

Real Life is difficult, but it feels like an inverse on Grian and Cleo's roles. For the first time Grian dies before his entire team and Cleo outlives her entire team. The inverse makes sense given how different Real Life is from other seasons.

(is this entire post me stretching things to fit a pattern that doesn't actually exist? yes. but i like connecting these three, especially since widows curse and widows alliance feel like they should be more connected concepts. so this is less full analysis and more me fitting a personal headcanoned pattern i like.)

[whereispearlescentmoon]

Ok, so starting with Jimmy, my thoughts are mainly based on the animatic and less of Jimmy as a character. Essentially I view him as the person who tries to die in order to save the ones he cares about, and he does over and over again. (I view him as doing this in order to show the inevitability of death each season to try to get his allies to not be complacent in the games) But the part that I think is interesting that no one seems to talk about, is that he fails every time. In third life, his death caused Scott to die trying to avenge him, in Last Life, Martyn died trying to make a deal with a watcher to save him, Double Life doesn't work as well, but you could say that his death caused Tango to die of grief. Then in limited life, Jimmy dies in the exact way that Grian is going to die, but his warning is completely useless and Grian dies in the exact same ways anyways. (I headcanon that this made him finally realize that his deaths were meaningless and the "curse" ends). My thoughts on Pearl started later and kind of build off these thoughts with Jimmy (also kind of based on the posts bigb enthusiast and mapleejay made on nosy neighbors canary in a coal mine). Pearl in Limited Life and Secret Life is desperately trying to be the "canary", using her death in order to save her allies and let them win. In limited life she does this literally with BigB, repeatedly giving him her time. However, she fails as a canary, she outlives the coal miner. Then in Secret Life she has new allies and makes the same promise to them, that she will do anything to get them to win. But then again they all die before her. But then there's scar. Pearl desperately clings to the idea that Scar can be the one that she saves with her death, she makes him an honorary mounder, and then tries to sacrifice herself to him before the final fight but he refuses. Then they win the fight and are the only two left. (next part is mainly headcanony) So then Pearl is left here in the same position Scott was, able to finally sacrifice herself to let her ally win. But Scar doesn't give her time, he immediately betrays her, because he was never a mounder, that was just Pearl desperately needing someone to save. And so she is killed by Scar unable to save anyone

You and I have completely different interpretations of what a canary is (partially why I don't generally vibe with canary Jimmy), and also who Life!Jimmy is, but this is really cool!

For me, Jimmy isn't a canary because, and I'm not saying this to be mean but it's true, his deaths are kind of meaningless. Or maybe not meaningless, but they don't teach anyone anything other than people are going to start perma-dying. This may be a deep pull, but if you watch RPDR or Survivor, there's always a moment when the first person has gone home and someone says, like, "Well it's gotten real now" because even if you know someone has to go first, it's still a hard thing.

Jimmy isn't dying on purpose, and his deaths are ultimately meaningless once the actual blood bath starts and people start killing each other vs his deaths which are accidents or to mobs. Maybe crow is a better bird for him honestly, or raven. A bad omen. The tragedy of Life!Jimmy is that, well, he just keeps getting screwed over by small mistakes that kill him. Letting go of shift for a second or looking an enderman in the eye or not choosing the right path to avoid a warden. He's the universe's punching bag.

Pearl is very specifically a canary in Wild Life because her deaths are warnings. Don't shift near edges because the hit boxes are wonky and you'll fall, don't try to put a shield up because you'll eat your weapon, the snails can instamine blocks and leap over one block gaps. She's not dying on purpose, but her deaths are meaningful. She will be useful, in life or death. She must be. I don't really see Canary!Pearl for the other life series. Yes, she sacrifices herself to give BigB time, but if that's canary criteria, so are Skizz and Scott.

I also don't necessarily see what Scar did as a betrayal. There's two of them left, only one can win. Pearl expressed repeatedly that she didn't want to win, she wanted one of the other Mounders to win. By making Scar a last minute honorary Mounder, she has a duty to lose to him. Yes, she technically didn't sacrifice herself, but I don't think she was fighting to win. Someone who's fighting to win doesn't tell their opponent about the zombie behind them. They don't ignore the golden apple in their hot bar. Hell, she only even got one hit in on Gem because she wanted to step away and let Scar beat Gem himself.

[rainyinautumn]

Martyn "Hand of the King" InTheLittleWood just won Limited Life by turning on his ally.

Martyn "Hallucinated His Dead Friends" InTheLittleWood just won Limited Life by turning on his ally.

Martyn "Desperate to Work Things Out With His Soulmate" InTheLittleWood just won Limited Life by turning on his ally.

THIS IS A BIG DEAL.

Martyn is the first winner to abruptly change strategies at the very end. The other three won by doing what they'd done the whole season. There was no last second change in Grian or Scott or Pearl's games. Martyn, on the other hand, did a full 180 on everything he'd stood for in every game in order to win.

And that's not out of character! It's character development. Martyn consistently outlives the allies he's so loyal to. Ren. The Southlanders. Cleo. They all died before him. Loyalty has never gotten him to the finish line.

Martyn has always reached the last episode of the season. This was the first time, though, that he'd gone to a finale with his sworn ally still standing in his way of the win.

Cleo was no obstacle to him in Double Life. He couldn't have won without her. But Scott? Previous winner Scott? Has been a threat the entire season Scott? For the first time ever, Martyn found himself facing an ally that could easily outlive him and, subsequently, win.

Martyn had never had to choose between loyalty and winning before. It's fascinating that he chose to win.

Honestly, it makes sense. He had no guarantees that Scott wouldn't go for him once the battle royale started. It was kill or be killed, and Martyn decided he'd rather be able to guarantee his win than risk being taken out by the person he'd ensured the survival of. Can you imagine if Scott had taken Martyn out fair and square? What a devastating way to lose. And, sure, it's possible that Impulse could've taken Martyn out instead. Scott could've won without ever hurting him. But Martyn decided that he wanted to win. He got tired of the niceties. He got tired of loyalty. He got tired of losing.

For the first time, Martyn listened to himself instead of someone else. And he won.

[desolationcleo]

compiling as many last life/secret life parallels as i can think of off the top of my head (ik there's more but my brain's too scrambled and full of static and screaming all the time to be able to recall them all)

-artificially made starting circle in the ground with something (enchanter/campfire) in the center

-at least 1 newcomer

-lizzie and mumbo are there

-trading lives/gifting hearts

-you have been given a mission that you have to do by the end of the episode, also many boogeymen in last life hid it even from their allies meanwhile the tasks are secrets

-whatever is going on with "and you all obliged, bar one"/jimmy and joel both going for boogeyman kills despite already being red and pearl doing the same despite knowing she'd be dead before the end of the week either way, none of them needed to do that, and the fact that failing a non-hard task has literally no consequences you don't lose anything but so many people did tasks that they didn't want to anyways

-scar is alone and lonely with his attempts at making allies failing, wears hood and purple

-watcher lore is more prominent than in other seasons (LL had more scenes with the Voice than every other season combined and the shadow alliance is lowkey a watcher cult, meanwhile SL's got the secret keeper statue and end access and overall lowkey evo vibes with the rewards for task success and whatnot)

-mumbo goes red and immediately goes feral

-jimmy kills lizzie, making her red

-grian unleashes a wither

-mumbo dies moments after jimmy and to the same thing

-the apocalypse vibes in last life episode 7 with a ton of people going red and the few remaining non-reds, many of whom are from different alliances, being forced to band together to survive, and the same thing happening in the gempocalypse

-speaking of the gempocalypse, the weaponization of friendship in last life with many reds trying to kill people so they don't have to be separated/can be friends as red lives, and the infected telling the survivors to join them and trying to kill them to be together

-martyn outlives his whole team which includes jimmy and mumbo, and his pov of the episode after their deaths opens with a heartbreaking scene that makes it evident he is not taking it well

-cleo and etho's alliance at the end of last life (which gives me shrimp emotions) and their teamup throughout secret life

[fogwitchoftheevermore]

ok i did this last season and did! poorly! but that’s ok let’s see if i can predict the placings for everybody this season, since it looks like next session might be the last. in the event we get session 9, i’ll be changing the list to reflect that. (bolded are the correct ones, i’ll be reblogging this when all is said and done with the ones i got right bolded, if any)

17. Lizzie

16. Jimmy

15. Mumbo

14. Tango

i’m sorry king i just think something is going to happen again and you’re already not doing great on the heart front

13. Skizz

if i’m right this will not only be the best skizz has ever done but also the first time he’s outlived any of his allies. so can i please be right.

12. Scar

i KNOW scar is still yellow but he’s only got like a row of hearts left AND half the server wants to kill him AND he has no friends. frankly it’ll be a miracle if he makes it to 12th. i’m honestly banking on skizz getting killed in a fight with him.

11. Martyn

i hope martyn gets another kill in before he goes (though if he does that might give him a better shot than i think he has) but it’s really his complete lack of allies that’s going to screw him, i think. like, yes, half the server is red like him now, but how many of them are going to be his friend after he’s spent like four sessions harassing and trying to kill them? not many!

10. Joel

bdubs and joel are truly interchangeable on this list, i REALLY can’t decide which of them will go first. they’re both red, they’re both bloodthirsty, they’ve both got the same allies, and they’ve both got a TON of hearts left. ultimately i think joel will go first because he’s always going to be more reckless in his attempts for revenge but it’s really a toss up.

9. Bdubs

i hope bdubs kills etho before he dies i think it would be great. that’s not related but i think the joel blurb explains my thoughts.

8. Grian

grian wants to win So Bad and it is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. he WILL die doing something stupid and i WILL get to mark off a square on my bingo card.

7. Bigb

i’ll be so honest i WANT bigb to be higher, and i think he and gem COULD swap spots. the real problem is how hesitant bigb usually is to kill people. he’s definitely gotten less hesitant as the seasons have gone on, but he is definitely not on gem’s level yet, and that’s what you need to play this game. i really hope i’m wrong about this placement though.

6. Gem

when gem went yellow so early i really thought she was screwing herself but session 7 proved to me that while she might not win this season, by god she’s going to take everyone down with her. and i think that’s beautiful.

5. Scott

this is the one i really really hope i’m wrong about. please i can’t keep seeing scott smajor in the top five. joel please destroy him.

4. Pearl

pearl doesn’t want to win again, we know this, but she is simply VERY GOOD AT THIS GAME! ultimately i think once the rest of the mounders (particularly bdubs) are gone she’s gonna go off the rails even more than she already has and i think that’s beautiful.

and just like last time, i’m doing a cop out answer for top three, which i think will be Impulse, Cleo, and Etho. i think Cleo or Etho is more likely of the three to win, particularly if this is our top three (just like liml, Impulse is stuck with two other people who everyone knows, including himself, will kill Impulse long before they kill each other) but i, as always, have a terrible blind hope for Impulse. please god.

[lxrd-ren]

!Spoilers For Session 7 of Limited Life!

My god, he cannot escape his fate nor his curse (Jimmy)

Speaking of which, I've noticed posts talk about certain curses people have within the Life Series, so here's what I've gathered:

Jimmy: (The most well-known curse, The Canary Curse.) He just basically perma-dies first every single time. Like a canary in a coal mine, he's the omen of death.

Grian: Always ends up killing his ally/allies (Idea: The Creator Curse. He created these games, it's only fitting that anyone that gets too close to him will ultimately die to the literal creator of the Death Games. Speaking of which, BigB and Pearl better watch out. Why? Well, they just accepted a certain ally that still is yet to fulfill his curse..)

Scott: Outlives his ally/allies (Idea: The Watcher Curse. We all know the watchers despise Scott, especially when the boogeyman rolls around. So, why not make him like them, why not make him watch his allies die every single time?)

Martyn: Outlives/never fulfills his purpose (Idea: The Listener Curse. Much like how Grian was only ever meant to watch, he was only ever meant to listen. He can only listen to whatever his purpose is, but he can never fulfill it..)

Tango: His perma-death never has any purpose/is overlooked (Idea: The Insignificant Curse. His death is never anything special. In life he tries to stay out of situations, to avoid conflict and drama unless he is forced to (Ranchers Revenge, etc etc). In other words, he tries to make it so his actions in life doesn't have much of an effect, to be insignificant almost. But of course, trying to be one with the background has the setback of his death being the only thing that is insignificant.)

And so, as always,

History doesn't repeat,

But it sure does rhyme.

[quaranmine]

HELLO I WISH TO SCREAM AT YOU ABOUT LIMITED LIFE

so what are your thoughts on everyone's curses? jimmy's fulfilled his, but the main one i keep thinking about is martyn's and scott's. Both of them always outlive their allies, and this time they are allies. the only way they both fulfill their curse is betrayal and they get new allies, which is unlikely, or they run out of time together, which is more likely. thoughts?

HIIIII! i have to say i honestly don't have many thoughts on other people's curses? i sort of do not pay attention to them since in some cases i feel like they are a little bit...contrived to fit into the theme compared to jimmy's very obvious one. (i.e. jimmy's curse was first so everyone starting trying to figure out new/less obvious ones to assign people) however that feels a little rude to say? because i do not have an issue with them at all or with discussing them i just simply forget what everybody's curses are supposed to be since i dont keep track of that outside of "has jimmy died first" and "has grian killed one of his allies" lol. so i'm happy you included what martyn and scott's curses are in this ask so that i can discuss it

i agree that i do not think that martyn and scott will betray each other. i would be very shocked. they are both very loyal characters. martyn obviously to an extreme, but scott as well--especially when he declined to take part in the boogeyman curse in last life because it would mean killing one of his then-allies.

running out of time together....realistically, their timers will not be on the same time so this would not happen. HOWEVER. they could be killed in a double trap and die at the same time, like how you can get multiple people with a tnt minecart trap. that would honestly be really poetic and kill half the fandom. imagine dying at the same time as your ally, and you aren't even soulbonded like last time? great stuff

far more likely is that....one of them does break the curse and outlive the other. personally i am hoping for martyn to win, idk how likely it is. scott is in an easy position to win but i sort of think that OOC he is aware that it might be bad to win a third season? (or second--although he and pearl did die simultaneously in double life it did feel more like a Pearl Win overall). like he is just too good at the game because he plays a lot more safely and is not very reckless with his time, but i also think he might subtly try to lose some of that time and let someone else win. or else he'll be targeted hard because people on the server know he has/had a lot of time.

martyn is....it would be fun if he outlived scott, i think. scott and martyn are not the same as ren and martyn, but the loyalty is still such a strong martyn trait. what's a hand without anyone to be loyal to?

[erstwhilesparrow]

A LIST OF IMMEDIATE POST-FINALE THOUGHTS:

i think because i'd heard the name "widow's alliance" floating around i assumed that cleo outlives bdubs? she really doesn't. -- (not my idea but) zombie trap flavoured as her revenge? very interesting!

did not anticipate caring about martyn + grian narrative foils as much as i did!! but here i am and i care about this so much!!

obsessed with how nearly every instance of [grian showing up in martyn's pov] is him talking to / about scar. that + martyn's editing choices re: desertduo makes grian SO. guy who exists to stand ominously nearby and mutter nervously and cackle from the top of the hill when his trap goes off!! guy who only really seems to exist in the desert and guy who has maybe been trapped in the desert but also guy who is turning away from your outstretched hand and leaning in the bars of his cage!!

shoutout to martyn's editing choices just in general honestly. very fond of them. many of them are goofy but he is so good at adding alarming music at the right moments

again. nothing. but rotating "leash / liege" because the autocaptions refused to believe that martyn was saying "liege". one of the people in this relationship is the dog and somehow it's not ren!! (okay. it is ren. but ALSO.)

a second piece of nothing: bigb and martyn fighting off some mobs together and martyn making a point of switching to fighting with his axe and not his sword -- says out loud it's to avoid hitting his ally in battle. We Should Do Symbolism About This.

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME ETHO AND BIGB WERE BOTH THERE TO THE END. WHAT THE HELL.

thinking about that one episode that starts with renchanting being all excited because they got a mending villager. (AND in one of the episodes after that, ren complaining that they've had no time to dedicate to infrastructure lately.) looking at limited life. THEY HAD NO IDEA HOW LITTLE TIME THEY HAD..... ;-;

related to the above: martyn is SO on edge for the whole season but it STILL manages to feel like he Doesn't Quite Get It until way later in the season. like. from almost the first moment he's on screen he's talking about tactics for the endgame but it's. also really obvious he doesn't know what the endgame looks like? so he's running around worrying about this and that and it still hits the "oh my god you have NO IDEA ;-;"

second related to the above: martyn is SO hypervigilant. constantly looking around when visitors arrive so he can keep as many people in his field of view at a time as possible. scrambling to be on the walls / roof of dogwarts. shuffling stuff around so he has water and cobwebs in his hotbar all the time. catches a single flash of a nametag and is immediately barrelling up the stairs to see who's there.

continuing from / connecting to that thought: very funny how FAST martyn throws his lot in with ren. like. i think it is the second episode MAYBE and martyn's already like "they hurt ren's feelings by enchanting without permission. they are all immediately on the shit list." and after that he continues to run off as if his life hasn't become irrevocably intertwined with this guy's. cf my other post about (among other things) martyn should be forced to confront that there is less forcing him to stay here than he is pretending there is!!

etho's giant walls of lava are so funny. his ender stasis chamber that he uses once and never again is so funny. his failed tnt cannon is so funny. etho is just the goofiest guy in a very [person who has one (1) Major Strength and is trying so hard to use it in a game that is mostly running around and yelling] way. audio warfare where he just put down a note block and a clock and left it outside the crastle to annoy them.

i can't read the post i'm referring to here because i haven't seen last life but shoutout to that post that's like "why don't we talk more about pre-limlife mean gills" because YEAH WHY DON'T WE TALK MORE ABOUT PRE-LIMLIFE MEAN GILLS. SCOTT AND MARTYN JUST KEEP. HAVING INTERACTIONS??? OH RED WINTER FLASHBACK THIS OH UNGUIDED HAND THAT MARTYN AND SCOTT HAVE A WHOLE NETHER ADVENTURE TOGETHER THIS ISN'T NOTHING!! --OH AND THE FUCKING PUFFERISH OF PEACE. CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE PUFFERISH OF PEACE?????? [guy covered in red string meme]

didn't realize joel's wolves happened in this season! assumed it was a last life thing.

this is more about the ccs than anything but i'm so fond of ren calling scott "major" and this becoming a thing etho also calls him at least once. i think i have a personal weakness for people referring to each other by last names affectionately. granted they are not friends in the game but like. makes me feel sort of melty anyway. This Is Actually Nothing.

HEY WHAT'S UP DID WE KNOW THAT THIRD LIFE IS SO SO SO SO GOOD.

[enderwalking]

Third Life, but scored like MCC

So I saw a post forever ago assigning point values to how players placed in the Life Series in an attempt to determine who is the "best" player, and I was like, okay, but what if we more solidly quantified this? Gave points for kills, gave weight to how long players keep their lives, etc etc. And well, because I love nothing more than making useless spreadsheets, I decided to do this.

Thus, here are the Official (as determined by literally only me) rankings for Third Life.

I based the points loosely on how Survival Games are scored in MCC. Details below the cut.

Players are awarded points each time someone dies and they survive: 5 points if they survive on green, 4 for yellow, and 3 for red. Staying green for longer thus awards more points than staying red for the same amount of time. In cases where players did not participate in a session (i.e. BDubs in session 6, BigB and Joel in session 7), they don't get the survival points for deaths that occurred during that session, since they technically weren't around to outlive people during that time.

Each kill is also awarded 30 points. For my purposes, unintentional deaths that could be directly attributed to a player (i.e. Grian's creeper prank, as well as deaths to Tango's minigame) still counted towards that player's kill points.

Lastly, you get bonus points based on your final placement: survival bonuses from 1st to 14th go 200 points, 180, 165, 150, 135 120, 105, 95, 85, 75, 65, 55, 45, and 35. Placing first obviously gives you the greatest edge, and placing in the top 50% also gives you a greater bonus.

Some notes:

Scar's placement was the most clearly impacted by the weighted survival points; before factoring in kills and the final placement bonus, he would have come in 8th.

BigB missed out on a potential 45 points if he had survived through session 7, which would have let him pull ahead of Tango. While BDubs only missed out on a potential 6 points from session 6, it also would have been enough to give him the edge over Impulse. Joel did miss out on a potential 27 points from session 7 as well, but it would not have affected his placement.

I debated the most on how much to value kills; I didn't want to award them too many points, since I wanted survival to be given the most weight, but I felt they should definitely count for something. I settled on 30 because anything below that would put Scar above Martyn. While Mr. Goodtimes is my special little guy, Martyn did stay green much longer and got one more kill than Scar did, and I wanted the score balancing to reflect that.

Will I do this for the other seasons? Well, yeah, probably. That said, while I can probably apply the same point system to Double Life with some minor tweaks, I would probably have to come up with an entirely different method for scoring Last Life, considering the /givelife mechanic and the different number of starting lives. If anyone has any questions or suggestions please feel free to hit up my inbox about it!

And here's a link to the actual spreadsheet if anyone cares to see it.

[bellshazes]

grian and/or martyn for the ask game -_o

Grian - Which game rules/mechanics would you like to keep, and which ones would you like to change/take away?

It really feels like they were testing out no chat notifications during 100hr since it's the same server and all and I think that would absolutely rule in some way. More lying, more misinformation, more stupid decisions based on incomplete info please and thank you <3 You could still see if someone'd died by tabbing but I love the potential to lie about cause of death and more.

I do think the no red friendships rule needs tweaking. If that's kept in some way, it needs to be balanced because the potential dynamics of red-green alliances and backdoor dealings are too good to ban entirely. Even if it's like... no public red-green alliances. But you can have secret ones! Or you get a government assigned partner and you're stuck with them. Randomly assigned teams isn't likely but I think that could be really fun too, since a lot of what I (& likely y'all) find compelling is the tension between self-preservation and the need to rely on someone else to survive, someone who now or later may use your alliance to ruin you. Putting random teams out into the universe as my s4 prediction, just for fun.

Martyn InTheLittleWood - Share a headcanon you have about the world of Last Life that somehow includes Season 3 (eg. something that’s relevant throughout all the seasons, something that ties previous seasons into season three, etc.)

I'm not sure I have any headcanons that would qualify, esp better than you yourself put it LOL. I love the recurring themes as well, but something I'm think about often is how Bdubs has played to two wildly different poles of playstyle, because at the center is the fact that he is unwavering loyal to exactly one person, his chosen partner, and fuck all else. He does this in 3L on both ends of the recklessness spectrum with Cleo, which is part of what's so good about the Crastle - they each take turns being reckless and a bit bloodthirsty, and then trying to keep the other one safe and sane. But she's the generally more bloodthirsty, so he builds a perfect tower with impenetrable defenses to keep them both as safe as he knows how, and it alone stands tall at the end, outliving them both.

With Etho, he knows Etho likes to take risks but calculated ones; he can't offer better skills and he had designed them a base that could never be burned down, not like Etho's woollen disaster in 3L, but bad luck meant they couldn't even get that. He doesn't have the relative skill to be a sword for Etho - or perhaps, not the patience, as he dies for the last time trying - so he leans into the recklessness because the one thing between them they have in spades is trust.

This, I think, is what makes "I trusted you because Bdubs trusted you" so sweet and heartwrenching. Cleo, whose arrival in the snow fort made Bdubs say finally, now it feels like home, quietly breaks a rule in solidarity with Etho to say, I remember last time. I know what it's like to have Bdubs' trust, and there's an air of weight to that. Tango calls Etho a survivalist when Bdubs insists Etho loves him, and when Etho's talking to Cleo after Bdubs dies, that's what they are. Lonely, but not quite alone.

So if there's a head canon in here, it's maybe that... Bdubs remembers. And his partners do, too, a little - I don't know how much detail or consciously, but people want to break the rules a little bit for him, the way he tugs at whatever threads need tugged. The slate might get cleaned, but Bdubs' partnerships are indelible, and by some strange grace or skill, he gets away with that. I can't wait to see what new fucked-up things he does out of loyalty in season 3.

[impulstor]

explanations behind my song choice for my 3lsmp playlist under the read more! keep in mind, some of these songs don't really have a reason beyond just... vibes. and that some ideas have changed over time. anyway!

playlist here

anti-hero — originally added as an etho song, and still applies. with him being prepared to fight & kill for ren + the rest of the red army. also, he tends to be a bit unpredictable and has a very different moral standing from someone like, say, martyn.

kill the sun — fits with the series as a whole, with shifting alliances and friendships, and with people killing and being killed by one another.

special — this ones for all the mfs who didn't pick a side until really late, or were bouncing between factions for a while 💪. especially for tango, as an example, making friends with someone who he can also consider his enemy, and being completely unsure where he stands in any group, though he wants to have their faith.

villain — this song is just really good for making a mental amv for lmao. it's good for demonstrating differing alliances n sides, n of course that applies here.

oh, death — not a lot of specific thoughts for this, just. yknow, death, vibes, dying for someone, watching your friend die, etc.

6up 5oh cop-out — first of all, I'm just a slut for will wood sometimes. second, a lot of the lyrics on their own could 100% be applied to events in the series (I mean I did use some from it for my etho n tango drawing for funsies) so. it's a strange song but the vibes fit well, in my opinion :]

kill of the night — a bit self explanatory, I think. in a series about trying to outlive, and to eventually kill your friends? no doubt you're going to end up hunting certain people down, hmmm? revenge, n all that. works well for multiple characters, really.

you're gonna go far, kid — impulse. just like. tango, or maybe etho, at impulse. "with a thousand lies and a good disguise, hit em right between the eyes" I meaaan 🤔 how is it NOT impulse lmao

kill the lights — once again, killing, death, murder, yknow. good vibes. also people lying and betraying one another, and watching as their friends and enemies die in front of them, people being changed by the events that transpire.. also technically they ARE actors sooo. kill the actor, yknow

mad IQs — mostly this song just slaps (thank you eexer 🙏) but also the lyrics fit well with the events! death, murder, killing your friends, burning. there is a lot of fire.

go get your gun — works very well for the whole war goin on. one side vs another, fighting and losing allies, fighting to win for their fallen allies, cheating fate if they DO win. also the line "when this is over, we'll raise a glass straight up to the sun" could be seen as like. everyone coming together to be friends once it's all over bc they are!

c'est la vie — it fits well. bad things happen, you lose people, you hurt, karma kicks your ass, but that's just life, and that's the game. c'est la vie.

i'm gonna win — fits for how they're all fighting to be the last one standing. and also with having to work through literally dying and to not give up, if you want to win.

mr capgras... — once again, I just like will wood. also fits well with people fighting each other, mostly with the chorus. "you'll never take me alive" / "you better pray that I die" likjkeeeee 👀 you could make art fitting those lyrics tbh

curses — red & green duos (at least. when they were intact :/) sticking together, taking care of one another when everything is going to hell, people are dying, and it's getting intense. they trust each other, at least.

under the pressure — don't really have something specific, it just fits well, with the lyrics. honestly this one fits well as a skizz song, now that I'm thinking about it. he went from trying to be friends with a lotta people to taking two out for good and went out in a blaze of glory. yea. that's what I got lol

everybody wants to rule the world — I dont think I really need an explanation for this one. it just fits well with everyone trying to win the whole game, and with everything slowly ramping up in intensity

rebels — for scar and grian being crime bros for the first while :] everything IS burning, good for them!

outrunning karma — impulse once again. playing everyone, playing to everyones good sides as much as he could, until the act didnt matter anymore. but karma might really kick him in the ass, if he ends up as one of the last survivors, and others turn on him for betraying everyone earlier on.

you're nobody til somebody wants you dead — shrug emoji. just fits well mostly. friends fighting eachother, betrayal, yadda yadda.

thanks i hate it — mmm,, tango? idk, im just a tango enjoyer, and he has spent quite a bit of effort trying to please certain groups to like. no avail. especially team crastle. like tbh he was solidly on board with em for a while, and mightve gone back to them on his own. but cleo blackmailed him anyway. rip tango.

the riddle — ALL OF IT. the whole series. it fits

crazy = genius — i dont rly like brendan urie like at all. so i might remove it from the playlist at some point. but it does fit with scar and grian being villains.

icarus — mmm fits well with grian. with the wing imagery, and with the fact that he made SO many enemies by working with scar. and he never reaallllyyyyy apologized, did he? he's walking a dangerous line, with few allies,

cradles — idk lmao. vibes only.

wolf in sheeps clothing — impulse again mostly lol. sung by skizz or etho probably. betrayal <3

how villains are made — again, for those neutral parties that had to choose a side. its about being torn between two sides & having to choose. honestly, I could see it fitting bigb, if he does some funky villain stuff next session. he deserves it I think <3

killing butterflies — trauma, ouchie, angst, murder your friends. everything hurts.

king — ren!! that's it.

little lion man — bruh if ren dies and leaves martyn alone.... ghost ren to martyn.... ouch.

gives you hell — red army @ sand people. specifically etho and ren get to be petty at scar i think

wine red — [gestures vaguely] all of it

i bet my life — red and green duos again. though it could be after some of them permadie.

miss missing you — (thanks again eexer this one also slaps <3) ouch impulse and tango angst. or impulse and etho angst. OR etho and tango angst. THEM. :(

youth — all of it but like. after it's over. just like going back and looking at how it all went down.

a gorey demise — i just think it would be fun to animate everyone's different deaths to this song tbh

another one bites the dust — they are once again Dying. but it's not angsty and dramatic this time.

god rest ye merry gentlemen — 😔 the whole thing again. pain