#and consequently kicked from the southlands

[katalyist]

Grian and his trust, contracts and betrayals

Alternative title: Wild life ended so it's time for my anual Grian analysis rant

Starting from the start, Grian is a very logical person when acting in a life series, his survival instincts make him rather kinda conservative with which methods he chooses to kill people, tnt minecarts, traps, etc., that is basically his way to operate around the chaos and since limited life it has been taken away more and more from him, mostly for how his alliances have different methods from him. He is also not the type to look for conflict himself but help his allies to kill in their own personal conflicts.

Touching briefly Third Life, because we all have thought a lot about third life, he seems very comfortable with combat and traps there, probably because of how experimental all was and how it could be treat like a war with two clear sides, something he has done before in hermitcraft (Prank War, the mother spore thing...) just that this one was more deadly. Everyone knows its "you may slay me and take the enchanter" and the big consequences it brought in Grian's trust to his allies, because Scar killed him first, something he was prepared for, but didn't expect.

And the reason why the first thing Grian does getting to Last Life is put a line between him and Scar that they are not bonded anymore, that he doesn't owe anything to him and they aren't allies anymore, which is funny because the Southlands aren't big allies with eachother either, most of the time they are doing their own thing and they don't doubt in kicking Grian when he gets to red, what forces him to ally with Joel, the person that killed him in the first place, and have a contract with Scar, and that is a very curious part because Grian does follow said contract, once he is back to the Southlands he makes them know he is 'bonded' to Scar to do things he needs, he even gets his things back to him when he dies and doesn't attack him in the final battle.

By almost the end of Last Life he's reminded by Jimmy, Mumbo and Martyn that people he trusts will eventually betray him, but contrary to the desert, he didn't think twice before attacking back, probably because if he would have he may have not killed Mumbo. I think the important part here is that he fights back, he doesn't accept an apology, he fights and kills both Jimmy and Mumbo in cold blood, and the only reason he doesn't do the same for Martyn is because he was faster and Impulse arrived and brought him back to his senses that they should focus in other teams, like team BEAST being the biggest team.

Double Life is a little more... messy. Because Grian feels like he is back at square one, back to being bond to work with Scar while feeling as Scar will not put any in his side and that he will betray him at any moment, so he goes and makes a 'just in case' alliance with BigB before Scar has the opportunity to hurt him first. Notable thing? He gets so bloodlusted and angry this season he accidentally kills BigB by making a stalactite fall on Ren and he doesn't realise until minutes later.

Personally I think of Limited Life as the breaking point between tradition (a simple system of lives, simple traps, simple boogeyman even) where he could do most of the job trough traps to have to start to do more pvp combined already with his trust issues that third life and last life leave him are not a good combination. It is when he starts adapting his old habits to the new inpredictable worlds

The Bad Boys were the perfect alliance for Grian for how much balance they brought to eachother, Joel and Jimmy made Grian take more risks and he made sure they didn't die a lot with his surviving instincts. When Jimmy dies every balance they had is thrown trough the window, Joel gives up to his bloodlust and Grian goes back to his coping mechanism to not look for direct conflict. Then Joel dies and it's a breaking point for Grian from there, you can see he is clearly lost without his teammates and even when it has been proven skynet isn't the way to go, he keeps going back to it.

He is actually very protective over skynet, calling it his domain, saying how no one would dare to come here, calling people out about 'trying to beat me at my own game' and killing Tango while saying "Joel, this is for you", he is at one fall from ending it all and quoting him "I feel safe up here. I feel strangely at ease". Skynet was their place, the place where now is just him.

Going back to his alliances, after both of his bad boys died he allies with the nosy neighbours because they haven't wrong him, it doesnt matter they had a conflict with Jimmy, he goes to them because they are the only team he can truly trust in this situation where The Clockers betrayed him and went for Joel, TIES blew up bread bridge and Scott killing Joel. His alliance after being the last one of his team isn't based in what is the stronger team, but what is the team that hasn't lost his trust.

And you can see he trusts Pearl a lot to let her judge him directly for abandoning Joel, to let her decide what she wants to do when BigB tells them he is seconds from dying and he trusts her enough to go against Cleo and Scott after killing Scar and go "Pear do something about this! Pearl do something!" And he cares to certain degree, not enough to be with them most of the episode but enough to try to calm Pearl down when he allies with Etho so they don't kill the other and focus on the mean gills, even when that doesn't work.

His aligment with Etho is at the opposite side of his alliance with the nosy neighbours, because it is not based in trust, it is based in a contract that they did at the very start of the season and one they still find value and true on it. From Grian's point of view it doesn't matter if he trusts Etho, they are bonded by a contract, by a diamond sword Grian gave to him in episode one. Mind you, they were trying to kill each other, Etho even killed him early in that episode but then he said "Do you wanna enact the sword?" and Grian didn't even thought it could be a trap and immediatly accepted because if there is something he values even more than trust it is a contract.

At the end he managed quiet well to get togheter everyone to go against Martyn and Scott but then he fell of skynet and died so... To the next season!

The first three episodes of Secret Life are very... odd, because he keeps making a constant effort to not ally to people in episode one and two even when he had the chance to keep himself around Mumbo or Scar. Then by episode three his survival instincts kick in to make him panic for his lack of alliances with people and how he may be a easy target later in the season, he desesperatly looks around and then by episode four finds a team with Cleo and Etho.

He wasn't very close to them, and neither were they with him but that was probably what Grian needed, someone that still was looking and keep a firm alliance with Joel trough most of the entire series, and trying to recreate what he had with skynet. He was trying to feel safe and as if everything is under control but nothing is under his control and it is proven first when he has to make a Wither and Warden fight with Etho, which is actually what makes him get closer and closer to his team because this is people he can trust and that are capable on their own.

He doesn't lose his teammates before the finally in Secret Life, which makes him keep his calm, long game oriented self to take down the most strong alliance in the server: The cherry blossom team. And it's a very strong contrast with Limited Life where he was just getting the kills he could, taking risks, no fancy traps, just old pvp while trying to stay alive... Here he tries to take his time and fails miserably. He passes half of the final waiting in a trap he prepared for Gem, he then decides he needs to protect his teammates and because he has terrible coping mechanism wants them to go to the "Skynet 2.0", which we know how it ended.

And then they have to escape and he is in this survival and bloodlust mode he also had in Last Life, he managed to put a trap on the cherry bloossom portal in seconds, because he knew that would be their last chance to get them down, that would be the only moment they wouldn't be chase and had the surprise factor and oh if he delivers in that pvp battle once he has make some damage.

So, we know how Grian acts when he has things mostly under control but he gets betray by the closest people he has (Third Life and Last Life) when he doesn't have them under control and has to find something to put himself at ease and cope with the current situation (Double Life and Limited Life) and when his final goal is to get someone when he knows everything has been already lost(Secret Life). So, what happened exactly in Wild Life?

Well, his team was not... the best in questions of balance and he knew it from the start that he team up with them. He passed most of his time with Mumbo and Skizz after the first episode trying to keep them alive and get them some kills and failling miserably.

And he tries ALL the ways he knows to save them except the simpliest one: give them his life, probably because he knew that would be a lost cause. My favourite thing is how he tries to go back to his Limited Life was to get them kills, he builds a tower, he makes tnt minecarts and tries to get them to learn how it works to get some kills. I don't think it is talk a lot how he tried to save them in the only trap sucessful method he knew, the one he used to do with his bad boys two seasons ago and saved him from death many many times. But this wasn't limited life, was it? And both of them died in that towerd that he later named "the spider nest" (not beating the widow curse there, Grian). People know he is lossing his mind after Mumbo died, people saw him from the distance, no one even heard him but all of them were sure he screamed and was mourning Mumbo and when Skizz death came around he couldn't have the luxury of doing the same because everyone knew, because Martyn was looking, he had to play it cool just like he did in Limited Life.

He is rightfully terrified of being alone, because it is happening again, he will be a single spanner, just like he was a single bad boy. Story is repeating itself and he does everything in his power to stop it. He goes to Joel and Gem asking for an alliance because they are the only ones he isn't in bad terms from an stand point and passes the next episodes wandering between them, working with Scar and working alone.

And we have to talk about whatever was happening between him and Scar this season, maybe I do a separate post about it, idk, because they passed from hating eachother, Scar killing Grian and Grian swearing on his life of being the cause of his dead to... be friends? and the most stable and long alliance Grian had? They have story, no one will deny that, not even themselves. Grian has very strong opinions about how and when is he allowed to kill people, he doesn't mind most of the time if other people bend the rules a little, but not with himself, so when he accidentally, in a little act of vengance, makes the trivia snail kill Scar, he feels really bad for it and he doesn't want that in his conscious.

When he decides what to do about it, he plans it like a contract, not a proper alliance, he tells the idea to Scar as if it's a deal, "I give you a maze and then we are even" because he doesn't want story repeating itself, he doesn't want to be bond to life to him as he was in Third Life and Double Life, but Scar, that has been alone in Secret Life and what he yearns most are friends, doesn't let him get away with it easily "And we're best friends, right?" And Grian can't take it anymore, he knows he will lose Skizz and Mumbo at some point, he knows he doesn't have anyone at his side, and most importantly he exactly knows what to expect from Scar, and so he answers "Just like third life" and they agree to be best friends, just like third life.

Altough the other two bamboozlers doesn't receive the same extended alliance treatment that it brings, Grian is still determined that he will kill Jimmy when he has the chance to do so.

Actually Grian is a lot more vengeful this season than in any other, he tries all episode seven to kill Tango for killing Skizz instead of focusing on the G's that is the strongest team at that moment and once Mumbo betrays him he kills him what? seven? ten times? he even brings them back for the zombies to cause destruction and chaos except for Mumbo, that he kills with the "End of the session for you". And he waited until the finale to kill Jimmy, he played the long game and trapped the bambunker to kill him and taking Lizzie out at the same time, he could have used his time in a more productive way than that trying to kill a more stable team, but no, that was his opportunity for revenge and he took it.

He confesses how he was tempted to trap Scar in cobwebs and how "the only fail about the trap [in the bunker] was that i was gonna kill Scar" which makes me think that if Scar hadn't died and the three of them went to the bunker, he would have done it either way even if he regreted it later, he sounds rather full with joy at the idea of 'Scar died before so I don't have to confront the consequences of my actions for killing his teammates', that was a contract, he had a contract with Scar and his death claimed the end of it for Jimmy and Lizzie to be fair game.

He is playing to win the season, that is something I don't think he has done in a long time, he wanted to win and he was doing everything he could to assure his victory, even if it meant leaving Joel alone to deal with the G's + Ren trying to kill him and Gem. He was surviving. He doesn't want to die and the "IM NOT GOING OUT. NOT LIKE THIS. NOT IN THAT TOWER. NOT LIKE MUMBO. NOT LIKE SKIZZ" proves how much he fears story repating itself, because he already died in bread bridge where his bad boys died, he doesn't want to go like that ever again.

And for that his trust in people by this point in the life series means almost nothing and he knows it, what means are acts and when it comes to the final five he makes sure his acts count, even when he wants to win he focuses first in warning Joel about the rest coming out and in stopping them from getting to him, he kills Pearl and does damage to Ren before Joel kills Cleo and finishes Ren. He doesn't run because just like in Secret Life there is no where else to run, this is it.

And when it comes to just the two of them he is so caught up in the moment to think how is he gonna win against Joel and then he falls. The end until the next season.

Honestly I'm really really excited of how the next life series will be and how would he act. I hope he keeps playing to win because it is so exciting and I hope he keeps bringing chaos and murder to everyone and that his widow curse continues because it needs to be study how he always loses all his allies before dying. Thank you for reading to the end btw pretty cool of you.

[faerygardens]

Idk who needs to hear this but Skizz dying a couple times this session doesn’t mean the canary curse is broken, Jimmy always dies for the first time after session four (and if you wanna point to double life, it was technically Tango’s death in session one, with Jimmy being the one to die session four), the canary curse would only be broken if someone other than Jimmy is the first to die permanently