#and more and more are losing lives and permadying | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

goldstargloww · 2 years ago

Text

curses, coincidences, and deity influences

so um. i kinda wrote an essay of some sorts

version that might be easier to read is at https://goldstargloww.neocities.org/goldsaysstuff/

the canary curse

canary call, the first to fall / forever caged in different walls. everyone knows this one - canaries were used in coal mines in the 1900s as a warning to miners that there where toxic gases such carbon dioxide or other asphyxiant gases in the air, which would effect small warm blooded animals faster than larger ones due to their quicker respiratory exchange. canaries were found to be more sensitive and effective than mice as they showed more visible signs of distress. canaries were brought into mines in carriers and cages to save the miners, often at the expense of their own lives (though sometimes they had little oxygen bottles to revive the birds)

this is jimmy. jimmy is always out first, without fail, in every season. he's the first one to be struck with lightning and separated from everyone else.

3rd life; died in a war with his husband despite being in a bunker.

last life; died because he got a bit too greedy as a red life and tried to push his brother-figure into a trap, and then faced the consequences.

double life; got caught and strangled by an enderman, leaving his cursed by proxy soulmate to die alone.

limited life; once again got too greedy as a red life and fell off the bridge along with the tnt minecraft he tried to push off of it. in fact, this wasn't even supposed to ever happen. he was supposed to die earlier, when etho got his boogey kill, but he got the incorrect amount of time subtracted from his total. he wasn't supposed to be alive - he was dead before he hit the ground.

two deaths from trying to keep himself safe, two from fall damage, two from greed. ironic how a bird dies twice from falling to his death, huh?

the canary in the coal mine analogy is actually vaguely referenced in the very first parts of 3rd life session one. martyn's digging down and asks bigb to sing for him so when martyn can't hear him anymore he knows he's dug too deep and it's time to leave

miners attempted to revive their canaries because of how much they relied on them. jimmy, however? no potential for revival there.

attempts to break the curse have been made. they've never succeeded.

jimmy's never seen anyone permadie. he's never seen a dead body. the day he does, if ever, is surely gonna hurt. "that should've been me".

the watcher curse

this one isn't really official, it's more of a pattern, and one harder to 'prove'. those who are watcher aligned (ex. grian) tend to cause themselves and their allies to lose or die early.

grian

grian caused scar's death in 3rd life.

all the southlanders died in last life, hell jimmy and mumbo were to his own hands, the two he was closest to.

he killed bigb in double life despite them being secret soulmates.

all the bad boys and clockers died in limited life, many because of him, notably scar.

the listener blessing

pretty much the opposite to the watcher curse, where everyone who's listener aligned (ex. scott, martyn, pearl) tend to cause themselvs and their allies to win or live longer.

scott

grian won third life with scar as second place - scott was allies with both of them

scott himself won last life with pearl, his closest ally, in the top four

pearl (and technically scott, in a sense) won double life with the other half of the divorce quartet as second or third/fourth place. tilly death do us part!

martyn won limited life by betraying his own mean gill, "and i wouldn't have had it any other way."

scott has been allied with every single person who has won one of these death games up to limited life.

martyn

dogwarts, despite not winning in the end, certaintly got very close to it. and martyn was the last of the king and his hand to die.

he made it to the top four in last life and in double life

he won limited life, maybe not the most honorably, but it's been coming all the way since red winter and his plan for red spring. and the watchers were notably involved in this win, too. "THIS IS A DEATH MATCH FOR A REASON."

the phoenix curse (etho)

every odd numbered season, etho loses his last life to fire/burning. in even numbered seasons, nothing fire/burning related even really happens

unnamed (joel)

joel always tends to end up alone and desperate for kills

the watcher's self fulfilling prophecy

the idea that because us, the watchers, the viewers, believe in these curses and stuff, makes them true

the canary curse

the idea that the watchers pushed jimmy off skynet in limited life to continue the canary curse

the widow curse

sort of ties into the watcher curse and listener blessing. the thought that with grian, he causes his allies to die and him to be left standing. with the listener aligned players, they're the only ones left standing until the end.

referenced by scott and cleo in third life, when their husbands die they'd make the widow's alliance

grian never being boogeyman

grian is a watcher who's inserted himself into the games. if he wasn't ever meant to play, if he was only ever meant to watch, why should he be a valid entry?

could be tied to the amount of lives he got in last life, as well. he wasn't meant to be there in the first place. why let him play longer?

the AFK session (grian)

canonically (to eyesandears), grian was pulled away from his body during the AFK session. "pause, unpause, we paralyze / a vacant stare for wandering eyes."

the watchers are pissed that grian keeps getting to play. they're trying their best to rip him out of the games and return to their grasp.

the border

"here's the thing about being beyond the veil - we're already dead."

being beyond the border doesn't protect you. it only hurts you. grian knows this because he's a watcher

bigb's invisibility

bigb was briefly invisible to scott during a fight in limited life due to a glitch in the game. what if this is just because the watchers hate scott with a passion and wanted to make his life harder? we already know they hate him

the fact that it was bigb, a former evo member, is interesting too…

playing by the rules - compliance and refusal

martyn either tries his hardest and fails, or obliges against his will.

his attempted boogey kill on scott failed and the shadow was very upset with him for this. they gave him one job and he failed.

he was very clearly influenced by the watchers to break the notion that red lives should all of a sudden be honorable at the final few again.

scott's outright denial

scott tried the whole boogeyman thing once in last life, but the next time he straight up refused to play by the rules. he told everyone he was the boogeyman and laid out his plan of playing as normal unless a situation arises where he could steal a kill.

he denied his soulmate in double life and went and got a new one

rushed boogey kill in limited life instead of building up the suspense the watchers wanted

has technically won 2/4 games.

bdubs being unwatched

bdubs didn't record his limited life perspective. he could only have been watched through others's perspectives, or heard about.

40 notes · View notes

wolfclaire · 2 years ago

Note

Reading through the asks.. I can't believe that dragon Gem is an even worse sibling than the wizard that would kill her own twin (amd others) just for insulting her hat-

And she's trying to do good unlike miss very morally questionable over there

Hi, thank you for your ask!

I mean, the Wizard lived in a world where respawning was infinite, so she did not have to worry about killing anyone and having real consequences for it

If this Afterlife also had infinite respawns, you could bet there would be more death than what Wizard Gem did (and there also would not be Zombie Gem, cause remember, she permadied and was brought back)

Killing anyone does get less important the more lives you can lose/take form others. In a world with infinite lives, Death just become...meaningless, without any worth, almost a nuinsance when you wale up and needs to gather all your stuff back and the exp...

So comparing these two Gems using "death" as a measure of "goodness", where one can die how many times she wants and the other only can die only once (or twice, if you soemhow come back as a Zombie) is not that good...

#alone together #alone together ask #anon ask #geminitay #wizard gem #dragon gem

2 notes · View notes

suffarustuffaru · 1 year ago

Text

heyyyy so id like to add on some Additions...

yeah so heres some more alternatives instead of otto permadying ig.

take one of his eyes. because "eye for an eye"........... and thats a subaru injury that happened too for extra parallels. or you could injure both his eyes theres that too

leg injury part 2. except make it Lasting this time. like if he loses a leg or something then he has to like. reevaluate Everything he places his worth on now that hes physically disabled.

burn half his body. now he is literally two-faced.

poison <3 if its a "toxin" thats gonna destroy otto then might as well make it literal too..........................

in general just. physically maim otto actually you can do basically anything.

gluttony him. take his name. bam he has nothing now. granted this is a risky option given the amount of people who've been gluttonyed by now but it is an option. he has a lot to lose

he finds out about rbd through the tome and now he is more depressed, stressed, and having a crisis👍

otto and subaru literally fight to stop each other from killing themselves 👍and this continues for a Large Period of Time until they both decide to stop being stubborn. they are very uncomfortable by the parallels.

or in general otto gets caught in the middle of one of his dumb sacrificial plans again and now he cant go through with it. oops

otto is tortured for information given he is one of the easiest to target in the emilia camp and the most key member there other than subaru

truth serum his ass or reveal all his secrets in general. now he actually wants to die but he is not allowed to bc everyone is watching his ass

or he just drives himself crazy in general, isolates himself, and has a mental breakdown. gothic protag style.

subaru decides to parallel greed if otto and leave ottos ass for his own sake bc otto keeps trying to take matters into his own hands

make him unable to physically talk for any reason. now he cannot mansplain manipulate malewife his way out of everything

his alcoholism gets worse to cope with everything

he temporarily wins at a few of his plans (such as killing louis/spica) and thus we get to see a bad end timeline for a bit

could also make otto watch subaru be terribly injured or close to dying in the main timeline

he gets publicly called out by someone and curb stomped for being an asshole. very arc 3 subaru-esque here.

he uses his animal dp in creepy / disturbing ways 👍 or torture him with it bc you can drive him crazy just by putting him near mabeasts probably.

once all the drama and conflict dies down he is still like. Alive. and he was not planning for that or expecting that so now he basically kinda falls apart more than he did in the middle of conflict bc what the hell is he supposed to do now. keep on living???? how????

subaru keeps a careful eye on otto bc 1. chisha dying reminded subaru of otto so now subarus nervous otto would die like chisha did and 2. rbd and 3. otto is clearly going a little cray cray and everyone can see it, ergo subaru is in perfect position to stop otto

mix and match any of the above 👍

also many more that i have not thought of probably!!!!

permadying is. in my opinion. the easy way out, writing wise. there are many other fun options out there imo that doesnt go against Rezero Thematic Storytelling ok. 👍letting otto permadie would kinda be like letting beatrice in arc 4 permadie imo aljsdflsjdf. he would die because of his mental health issues!!!!! why would you let him get what he wants in that way!!! it sucks!!! T^TT

my feelings on certain otto [redacted] flags in arc 8 👍

heyyy so this is gonna have major spoilers so ill put it under the cut 👍👍 again, this is all my opinion so youre perfectly welcome to disagree <3

ok so. i dont know if this is controversial to say or not but i dont think otto should actually permadie. instead, i think that he should have a fakeout death (also you know, deaths that get reversed by rbd if you want to go that route too). but not a PERMANENT one.

and ok i know anyone whos looked at my blog content lately would probably be like “oh you dont want him to die for real because hes one of your favorite characters ever???” and like no yeah, but its not that im opposed to punishing my favorites. im opposed to otto permadying because i feel like him permadying would be spitting on the purpose of both his character and certain themes in rezero.

otto is a very sacrificial person. hes a lot like subaru—he is willing to die for his loved ones. he would sacrifice anything, including himself. all of ottos deaths in rezero so far are reflected in that. he dies in arc 3 because he goes back to save subaru after pushing him out of the wagon in the white whale loop but he dies on the way back. he dies in arc 4 because he pushes subaru out of the way and gets killed by garfiel. otto writes a suicide note in arc 4 before confronting garfiel because hes perfectly willing to die for subaru. ottos been going on a darker path now, because now we know his absolute sacrificial loyalty extends to letting entire countries die, letting people subaru cares about die (louis/spica), and opposing subaru to the point where otto deems it his “reason for being”—aka his reason to be in vollachia, his reason to be in the emilia camp, and his reason to exist and live. otto is set up for a collision course with subaru, and this wont be ending well for him.

ottos faced consequences for his actions in the past—when him bringing the tome into priestella caused the siege, he was severely injured and left bedridden. this was a personal consequence for his actions there. but he hasnt faced any lasting consequences yet, especially when hes fully convinced that he himself knows whats best and is doing the “right” thing, and so hes perfectly set up to have lasting consequences at some point in the future. hes the perfect candidate for a permadeath, even—the arc 7 side stories brought him closure to the plot point of him being exiled from his hometown, and hes someone whos death will create ripple effects from his family and marone (who’ve featured in various side stories as well), the emilia camp (both as a friend and internal affairs minister), and subaru most of all (who, well, has rbd and is determined to save everyone, as we know, and subaru is aware of the possibility of otto ending up like chisha).

but i still have problems with otto dying permanently.

otto permadying punishes everyone around him more than it punishes HIM, the latter of which has been the buildup for his entire arc. otto permadying would only really have that as a narrative purpose—punishing the people otto cares about, particularly subaru. thats ALL that would be accomplished out of an otto permadeath when a fakeout death would not only still get the emotional impact across but also be a better writing choice in general.

as ive said, otto is prone to sacrifice. otto is prone to self-sacrifice on top of that. he always has been since his debut in arc 3. the way hes most likely to die is and always has been through self-sacrifice, especially for subaru, and especially since ottos death flags are a parallel to chisha (who died to save vincent). otto also parallels subaru a lot. more specifically, his current arc follows similar beats to arc 4 subaru or even greed if subaru - otto is, frankly, a control freak who thinks he knows best, refuses help from anyone else, and is self-destructive. but subaru gets called out by the narrative in arc 4 for going down this path, and greed if shows the complete consquences of this (aka - greedbaru ends up dehumanizing everyone, including himself, and tramples over other people's free will). so why is subaru allowed to learn the value of his life and continue trying to grapple with that lesson over the next couple arcs while ottos arc goes down the same path as subaru's but has the potential to end up with him ultimately dying?

then again - yeah, subarus the main character. and yeah, otto permadying wraps up his arc and character in a nice little bow. it's had a lot of buildup and would be a very perfect tragic character arc for him. however it is 1. i personally find this to be the more boring choice in a series where characters can die and come back to life, especially for a crucial side character to subaru like otto and 2. this is the more straightforward predictable choice given the Numerous Obvious Hints that something bad will happen to otto, namely permadeath, and 3. i think that the amount of characters being fridged for subarus character development should be kept to a minimum. we've already seen this with rem being gluttonyed. and being fridged for subaru's character development is something that otto would be very fine and happy with, so again, this is punishing everyone around him more than its punishing otto. ottos character arc buildup does suggest that he'll have to face consequences eventually. him permadying is not the most interesting narrative consequence that could happen imo, and given his parallels to subaru, i feel that this would not serve as a reflection of how otto is a dark parallel to subaru. otto permadying would be less a reflection and a warning to subaru and more so just otto winning over subaru in a story that supports subaru choosing companionship and trying to save everyone.

"what do you mean 'otto winning over subaru'?" otto is, again, a dark mirror to subaru. otto values his loved ones over everyone else, and he is willing to pay any price to save his loved ones. he is willing to destroy everyone else for their sake, and in arc 8, he has always tried to choose the more ruthlessly logical and practical choice over the morally right one that subaru embodies. otto goes nope, lets leave vollachia for dead but only take the people subaru cares about while subaru insists on saving everyone, as he always has tried to do since ARC 1. ottos even warned subaru in arc 8 - what happens if someone very close to subaru, like anyone in the emilia camp, gets hurt or dies all because they decided to stay in vollachia? otto permadying, especially as a result of the vollachia conflict, proves him right all along. that they shouldve chosen the more practical option over the morally right one. which i feel that would kind of miss the whole point of the STORY ITSELF supporting subaru trying to save everyone while holding onto hope and stayed determined since, again, ARC 1.

"but subaru needs to learn that he cant save everyone, and otto permadying would be a good way to show this." yeah. thats true. subaru needs to learn that he cant forgive and redeem everyone, subaru needs to learn that some things are just unavoidable, and that some things cant be forgiven. otto is very against subarus ideology to the point where hes decided his whole reason for being is to be against subaru. otto dying is very fitting, and if he does permadie, he'd represent the friend and loved one that you cant save - the friend that you try to help, refuses your help, and then ends up destroying themselves. its a very realistic, human thing. but 1. again, i think characters being fridged for subaru should be kept to a minimum bc the whole point of rezero is that they are ALL people with their own lives and 2. again, ottos parallels to subaru make this a little. odd, for lack of a better term. 3. subaru has other chances to learn that he cant save everyone, because ultimately the otto subaru conflict needs a middle ground.

so 1. about fridging characters for subarus development. again, its not as if you cant kill or hurt characters for another character. you can still do this. but i think this should be kept to a minimum - or at least have more than just "subaru will learn a lesson from this" as the narrative purpose behind it. subaru over the course of the entire main route learns that the people around him are just that - PEOPLE. not npcs or anything like that. and now once we get to arc 8, he has a lot of empathy for others. hes quick to forgive, especially because hes seen so many people at both their worst and best, and many of the worst times happened in timelines that no longer exist ergo those people are no longer those people. this is especially poignant in a series with so many damn side stories and side characters each with their own complicated lore; these are people. they still have lives outside of subaru. fridging characters for subarus development, i think, kind of undermines this if thats the ONLY reason youre gonna kill or hurt them.

especially when it comes to permadeath. it isnt a writing choice you can make lightly - especially in a series where, again, characters die and come back. so 2. given how much otto parallels subaru and his perpetual struggle with valuing life and valuing himself, neither of which otto values unless its his loved ones (and even then otto is willing to emotionally devastate them if it means theyre safe), i think an otto permadeath would kind of. undermine subarus struggle in that sense, imo - because otto is struggling with almost the EXACT SAME THING.

would it be interesting if subaru has to see otto end up permanently dying for similar reasons that subaru often dies for? would it be interesting if subaru has to see otto destroying himself in ways that hit a little too close to home? yeah. it would. and it WOULD continue that ongoing motif of otto mirroring subaru in the darkest ways. subaru has to look at otto and see not just himself, but see that he could end up like otto. but i think that this is ALREADY happening. subaru seeing the parallels with him and otto will happen, if it hasnt already, and it sure can happen without killing otto permanently. if otto tries to sacrifice himself and fails to do so, subaru can still see this and be impacted by it. if a fake otto death happens, subaru will still be destroyed by it. and of course, eventually subarus bound to figure out ottos thoughts and plans regarding louis/spica, along with everything else going on in ottos brain right now. theres no need to kill otto for good when all of the emotional weight behind it is still possible in many other ways without undermining subarus character development - because otto is going through very similar character development. and again, otto would be HAPPY to die for subarus sake. calling out subaru while letting otto do the same thing as subaru would feel a bit. odd. to me.

and 3. yeah. subaru has other chances to learn that he cant save everyone. he has multiple chances, in fact, and this already started with rem being gluttonyed at the end of arc 3/start of arc 4 (along with injuries that occurred in the white whale fight + crusch being gluttonyed). subaru learned that sometimes terrible things can happen and rbd wont be able to reverse it because his save point updated to AFTER it happened, and rem was a good example of this because she was the person he was closest to at the time. this continues on later, too - the injuries that happen in priestella, for one (such as the juukuliuses being gluttonyed, the dragon blood, numerous citizens, etc), along with subaru having to face this in vollachia when he tries to pull off his bloodless sieges and avoid as many citizen casualties as possible. or when he thinks about if todd can be redeemed only for todd to continue proving him wrong again and again. and this is on top of all the other people subaru befriends in vollachia, of course.

"but subaru needs a PERMANENT consequence." well, theres also the fact that subarus trying to save 50 million people, aka the entire population of vollachia right now, which is very much a herculean task. if he manages to save almost everyone but some citizens die, this would still get the point across. and if you need a bigger, more personal consequence to subaru than that - louis/spica is RIGHT THERE.

the current conflict over spica is already sowing the seeds for this, because this is a lasting, permanent conflict. people like julius and otto want spica dead and acknowledge that, given the amount of people she's hurt, that is the most likely scenario for her. people like the rest of the emilia camp acknowledge that spica is guilty, but that its difficult to punish her given her mental state right now and the fact that subaru and rem care about her. meanwhile subaru and rem themselves care for spica like a daughter and dont want her to be hurt or punished in any way. that being said, the louis/spica conflict - again, needs some kind of solution, and i dont think letting louis/spica scot-free is the right solution here from a writing perspective.

we already get robbed of an arc from louis in the sense that after she fucked around and found out (ie: experienced rbd for herself after messing with subaru), by start of arc 7 she just. became mostly a blank slate. of course its understandable that shes traumatized after experiencing rbd, but it is also kind of. a bummer. that we dont get an arc where she actually grows and changes gradually she just goes from Point A (pre-arc 7) to Point B (now having the mind of a toddler in arc 7+), but there is a slight intrigue to her now being a blank slate. how do you reconcile her past actions and past self with who she is now? is she still capable of doing those things she did before - is the person she was still in there? because you know, since she cant really communicate properly its hard to understand her straightforwardly too. but i dont think that louis should get off the hook - unlike many other people subaru has forgiven, she didnt grow. her past self basically got erased. and its not like all those people whove done things in other timelines that they wouldnt do now - things that ultimately only subaru was affected by because hes the one who knows and hes forgiven them of course. but louis? subaru and rem arent the only ones whove been hurt by her, theres SO MANY others whove been affected by louis and gluttony in general. every one of them has a say in what happens to louis, and her getting no consequences kind of misses the point.

that and. well, subaru can learn that he cant save everyone because 1. he is forgetting that he is not the only gluttony victim here ergo he is not the only one who has a say in what happens to louis and 2. if he sides with louis/spica over everyone else, this is going to have disastrous consequences for him. not just in the sense that you know, this is causing friction with his friends - and not even only in the sense that thisll cause a TON of uproar if this gets out publicly because again, a lot of people have been affected by gluttony - but also because theres the question of if that past louis is still there. or what happens if louis gluttonies someone on accident? or on purpose? can subaru still really side with her then? can he really save her when theres a LOT that shes done? and if someone like otto manages to kill louis and subaru is prevented from rbding - hes still going to be absolutely destroyed emotionally. spica is not freed from consequences just because subarus claimed her as his. and subaru is not freed from consequences after deciding to choose spica over many of his friends (julius is a BIG one, because subaru of all people knows how much julius - and joshua - were fucked over by gluttony). subaru cant save everyone. he has to learn that eventually, and spica is somewhere to start.

that being said, again, i dont want otto to win either when it comes to the vollachia arc in general. his habit of keeping secrets and doing things behind other people's backs and fading into the background whenever it suits him has gone on for a while, and he NEEDS to be called out for it. subaru and otto's moral dilemma conflict just needs to have a middle ground of some kind, and i really dont want ottos ruthless pragmatism to be the end all be all. but i also dont think subaru should win at EVERYTHING either, because his idealism needs to be reeled back a tiny bit. as it is in vollachia rn, its not sustainable and its not realistic. rezero is not a children's story about how no one dies and everyone's friends in the end, but it damn sure tries to be with its main route in the sense that the point is that you TRY to do that to the best of your ability. but if you cant - if youve exhausted all other possibilities and theres no other choice - then you just cant. the point isnt that you give up and abandon people to suffer and die. the point isnt that you hurt people on purpose either. the point isnt that you try to save EVERYONE even to everyones detriment. the point isnt that you try to be perfect and completely flawless at all times too, because thats not possible.

the point is that you do your best, try to save as many as you can, and thats enough.

"ok so if otto isnt permadying then how is he gonna get punished by his hubris???" easy. do EVERYTHING to hurt him shy of actually killing him permanently. that and like - if he decides to pull some shit similar to chisha and make a whole plan to sacrifice himself for subaru, but then he still lives afterwards... what do you do now? how do you live on now? thatd be more mortifying to him - living on and being emotionally vulnerable with everyone around him after planning to die - than ACTUALLY DYING. living and knowing all his loved ones see him as who he is in all his entirety - the good and bad and the really ugly - would, again, be a worse consequence for him than DYING. make him get close to death and then yank him back and youd get more interesting results than just straightforwardly killing him. because hes been planning for this since that time he wrote a suicide note in arc 4. if subaru doesnt get off the hook for this behavior, then otto narratively shouldnt.

therefore a fakeout death for otto would still get all the emotional weight and narrative punishment that a real death would, complete with being able to see the effect this has on subaru + ottos other loved ones. a fakeout death would be the perfect middle ground between a permadeath + letting otto live. and when otto comes back, he’ll still have to face consequences for his actions, including having to learn how to live for his loved ones, not die and sacrifice for them.

#rezero #otto suwen #arc 8 spoilers #maybe im revealing im a little insane with this addition but lajsdlfjsldf THERE ARE OTHER INTERESTING OPTIONS OK.

37 notes · View notes

aquelondungeonmaster · 2 years ago

Text

thinking about how for one glorious, horrible session of third life, skizzleman was basically the grim freakin reaper.

thinking about how in session 7, he got eight whole seconds into his episode before declaring that he had to kill somebody today, that today someone would die.

and he did kill somebody. two somebodies. two red lives.

y’know skizz is the only life series member to have ONLY gotten permakills? everyone else has gotten at least one kill on someone other than a red life.

thing about it is, skizz was very, very bloodthirsty that episode, but despite that bloodlust, he actually arguably spared as many as he slew. after jimmy’s death, scar was still relatively cornered in that same box, and while the rest of the red army did tell him that it was the banner or death, skizz was the one to rephrase that to “give up the banner and you get to live”, which was an opportunity that scar took to change the situation from Combat (a fight he would lose) to Negotiation (a fight he can, and did, win). after cleo’s death, he even more explicitly spares bdubs, allows him to go because, unlike cleo, bdubs didn’t attack ren.

it’s not just the murders that make me describe him as the grim freakin reaper, it’s the long-term effects. obviously the permakills stay permadead for the rest of third life. but the folks he spared came second and third in duration of being alive, and the guy who won the season was the guy who ultimately killed him. for one glorious, horrible session, skizz determined who lives and dies, not entirely to his own benefit.

and THEN. so obviously the permakills stay permadead for the rest of the season. and cleo’s already technically undead, so uh. bottom text.

but then there’s jimmy. the guy whose failed bomb defusal set both himself and skizz to red life, the guy who skizz was hanging out with during scar’s death, the first permadeath of third life and of all other life serieses since. i could make a pretty convincing argument that jimmy is still feeling the consequences of the arrow skizz put through his him, seeing as uh, he’s still permadying first in life series to this day. grim freakin reaper. long-term consequences.

and this is a kind of ridiculous tangent to go off on about someone who is generally just a silly goofy guy who is unflinchingly loyal to his friends, but like, it’s also true.

it’s like. skizz caused the first two permadeaths of third life and then became the third. we’re all just normal about that?

#skizzleman #third life #3rd life #SKIZZ i think about him #there's just so much here to think about #in last life being boogeyman is incompatible with only getting permakills and he never got boogeyman #i just. funny little guy who can kill.#grim freakin reaper of a guy #silly goofy loves his friends of a guy #talk about him more okay?#feel free to talk at me about him all you want #mcyt #analysises #long post #a-post-lon

459 notes · View notes

blockgamepirate · 3 years ago

Text

What I really appreciate about Ranboo and what he just did with his Dream SMP character is that he actually kinda made the three lives system work better?

Sure it was a bit awkward in the moment because nobody really realised that he permadied, but it's better in the long run:

I've been saying for literally over a year now that the three lives system needs to have a level of uncertainty! THE VIEWER SHOULD NOT KNOW HOW MANY LIVES EACH CHARACTER IS ON. Not for certain at least! Not unless they've seen them die twice! And honestly neither should the other characters.

I think that's important, to keep it from becoming JUST a counting game. Every time someone dies (canonically), the viewer and the other characters should be thinking "oh god! are they gonna respawn? did they have lives left?" Rather than going "well that's one life down, two to go!"

(Relatedly, I like also that there's a certain level of ambiguity about Techno's lives because he's technically said that he has three before, but he does not seem secure in the knowledge whatsoever, and kinda acts more like the people who are known to be on one life. It could be just that he knows he can't afford to lose his reputation as unkillable, or just that you know, dying sucks even if you do respawn. But you can't help but wonder if that's the case, and that's good! Even if it turns out that he actually has 10 million lives, the fact that the audience is questioning if he even has more than one is good.)

#ranboo #dream smp #technoblade #dsmp

2K notes · View notes

bdoubleowo · 3 years ago

Text

Listen

Ethubs is in it's flower husbands arc.

we have:

A duo that share a base. They have a big wall around it.

One loses two lives in session 4 and goes red. He permadies in session 7.

The other doesn't drop below 3 lives.

They are referred to as married in canon.

Frequently called platonic husbands by fans.

The beginning of session 7 is full of domestic fluffy shenanigans that lure you into a false sense of security.

Both have a declaration of love ("I'm confessing my love"/"he loves me")

probably more I just can't remember everything

#og post #last life spoilers #last life smp spoilers #last life smp #ethubs #flower husbands #not gonna tag the individual people 'm lazy

994 notes · View notes

ofdarkestdesires · 2 years ago

Text

Okay. So.

Having sat down and rested long enough to think this through, I am now more sure than ever that last night’s game was wildly and horribly unbalanced and unfair to the players.

Which is weird, because even at it’s most dire, Critical Role has never felt unbalanced. Molly’s death was caused by them not having a healer, but otherwise the encounter with the Iron Shepherds felt like it could’ve gone either way. Losing Yasha to the Laughing Hand and Obann was tragic, but at the same time it felt like the combat could go any way.

Last night, though? It was made very clear very quickly that Matt was using a character that had all the power to kill the entire group, and no reservation to hold back. It felt entirely too much like the sort of encounter a vindictive DM would throw at his players for the sole point of getting them killed and nothing else—the sort of DM that Matt isn’t, which is why this feels so weird.

So where does that leave us? Because from what we saw of Otohan last night, she doesn’t seem like the type to let the dead be revived, believing only the strong are allowed to live. And if those who permadied last night stay dead, it will feel unfair, undeserved.

Which is why I think last night was a nightmare.

I think that the whole combat last night happened in Imogen’s head, as a ploy by Otohan to make her bend the knee. She was forced to watch as her friends died around her, until she finally reached her limit and let the storm take over her. Numerous times throughout that conflict, Matt pointed out the burning sensation in Imogen’s gut as a sensation she had during her dreams—it wouldn’t be a far stretch to then take that to mean that the whole conflict last night had just been a dream.

Of course, just because it was a dream doesn’t mean it wasn’t real. We’ve seen how Imogen is so viscerally affected by her dreams, so I can imagine that whatever fall out from this conflict she’s experiencing in her Dark Phoenix mode is going to carry over into her true self. In addition, it’s entirely plausible everyone was locked in this dream, and when they wake they’ll feel how they died, how they lost.

It’ll be visceral, it’ll be terrible, and it will make the Bells Hells all the more aware of the fact of just how in deep and out of their range they currently are. Or, conversely, perhaps this is just a worst possible scenario running through Imogen’s mind, and all of the terrifyingly OP legendary actions Otohan was using only exist in the dreamscape.

All of this is to say I am hopeful that the Bells aren’t permadead from this unfair encounter, and of all the options, a terrible nightmare honestly makes a lot of sense.

#critical role spoilers #cr spoilers #critical role

26 notes · View notes

ultravhasart · 3 years ago

Note

Ohh angsty minecraft story line? yes please

Second anon I also love you omggg I’m glad you’re interested

So this is set in the same universe as the previous post, and Alex, Herobrine, and Steve are some of the first players to be in the universe. Steve is The First, actually.

They’re friends, everythings good, but it has to end at some point, and they all permadie eventually. Pretty standard stuff, in this universe.

Herobrine is the last to go. Except, Herobrine doesn’t die like everyone else. He restarts in another world, far away, of course, but he still has his memories. And because he has his memories, he still has all the knowledge, and therefore abilities, he had in his last life.

He’s confused, and at first doesn’t realise that everyone else forgets after they permadie. He tries to find Steve and Alex again, wondering why they never tried to find him. He can’t find them. He dies again, and keeps searching, and he can’t find them.

He doesn’t have any super powerful abilities at the start, of course, since he hasn’t lived long enough, but he never loses his memories when he dies, so he slowly becomes more and more powerful.

He finally finds Steve and Alex, but they don’t remember him, and it crushes him. he has no idea why they don't remember him.

There’s a lot of rumours going around about him, he’s a mystery, a fable. The more time passes, the stranger he seems in terms of his skill. At some point he starts to hide it.

He does a lot of shit, gets a little too drunk on power at one point, and he’s killed, again and again. But there’s no clean slate waiting for him, and he can’t forget his mistakes like everyone else around him.

He realised a long while ago that he must have glitched out, fucked up, whatever. He approaches Alex again, this time without mentioning their past, and its good for a while. Until she dies, again.

He keeps doing it, finding either Alex or Steve, befriending them, watching them die. Alex and Steve find each other a lot, weirdly. They always end up by each other's sides. He’s the only person in the whole universe who’s stupid enough to find his friends after a permadeath, but he’s also the only person who has enough power and time to do so.

Alex and Steve notice he’s keeping secrets, a lot of the time.

Finally, he decides that this time, he’ll tell them everything.

He sits them down, and explains it, and they’re not as scared as he thought they’d be, thankfully. He promises that he’s not looking for them to be like his old friends, just that they can be friends.

They die, eventually, of course. But he knows that next time he finds them, he’ll ask again.

—

That mightve been a little too prose-y for an ask sorry I’m just going crazy thinking about this everyday. I tried to add this as well and couldn’t fit it, but they have an alliteration thing going, where Steve is the First, Alex is the Friend, and Herobrine is the Fable.

Also, there's a universe-wide joke where you jokingly pretend that the other person is herobrine, because really, youd never know! And I think this’d be hilarious for herobrine to encounter.

#herobrine #herobrine minecraft #steve minecraft #alex minecraft #minecraft #mineblr #worldbuilding #minecraft mechanics #minecraft headcanon #legit im so interested in this story #i wanna do something for it to be posted on ao3 but im really busy atm so maybe in a few months lol #just the idea of herobrine in constant search of his friends? obsessed #theres just something about someone in the universe deeply caring for you without you knowing it #minecraft worldbuilding

54 notes · View notes

riacte · 4 years ago

Text

Dogwarts / 3rd Life Cheat Sheet for MCC 15 Purple Pandas

Ren and Martyn were buddies in Season 1 of the 3rd Life SMP and they are an alliance known as the Renchanting duo/ Kingdom of Dogwarts. Now they’re finally teamed up, and the 3rd Life SMP members have a habit of referring to 3rd Life in MCC. The Ren-Martyn fandom also talks about Dogwarts a lot. If you have no idea what is a Dogwarts and why people love them, no fear! This post will try to explain it in simple terms.

3rd Life SMP is a SMP started by Grian. Season 1 has 14 members (roughly half are hermits, other half are friends of the hermits. You can find the full list in the description of Ren’s 3rd Life videos.) Everyone on the server has three lives— the first life symbolised by green names, second by yellow names, third by red names. If you lose all three lives, you permadie. Green names and yellow names are not allowed to be hostile unless they were attacked first, but the goal of red names is to kill everyone on the server. The three lives are also symbolised by three hearts, like this:

(Fun fact: Because of the green-yellow-red colours, the subtwt for 3rd Life is called traffictwt after traffic lights. The 3rd Life tumblr fandom is occasionally referred to as trafficblr.)

3rd Lifers record every week for three hours at the same time with proximity chat. The server has a small border to encourage interaction. They are eight sessions in total, and they’re all cut into YouTube episodes (no streams!), so it’s fairly bingeable.

So what’s the deal with Martyn and Ren?

Ren decided to set up an enchanting shop during the first session. Martyn was wandering around and having fun scaring people with creeper noises until he came to Ren’s enchanting shop. Martyn then used Ren’s enchanting service without paying (essentially a robbery), but Ren let Martyn go on the condition Martyn would act as a walking free advertisement. Martyn agreed, and they became business partners. Martyn actually coined the name Renchanting and its motto “Don’t be a Dog, be a God”. Ren named Martyn as his “marketing manager” (which sounds a little like Martynmanager).

True to his word, Martyn went around and spread the good news of Renchanting to everyone. Martyn brought business to Renchanting, and when Ren was being threatened by customers (who harassed Ren into lower his prices/ giving out enchantments for free), Martyn acted defensive of Ren and even said Ren was being “bullied”. Ren was being taken advantage of because he was too nice. (Martyn did do some stuff not related to Ren, but since this is a Dogwarts cheat sheet I won’t be mentioning that.)

Then came GoodTimesWithScar. The main “villain” to Renchanting, if you will.

Basically, Scar was playing the role of a cartoon villain. He scammed people out of their armour and possessions, and eventually found his way to Renchanting. At that point, Martyn and Ren were loyal to each other. Scar asked for Ren’s enchanting table. In return, when Scar turned red, he would not kill Ren and Martyn. Ren appeared to be torn, but due to Martyn depending on him and the business, he refused Scar’s offer (“you can’t take the enchanting out of Renchanting!”). Scar also acted condescending to Martyn (Martyn was seen as Ren’s “minion”). So Ren and Martyn were officially on Scar’s kill list, but Ren did not regret it.

At some point, Ren got tired of people walking into his store and stepping all over him, so he built high walls around the Renchanting building. Everyone (including Renchanting themselves) broke through the walls, and this was a running gag. Ren declared himself king by wearing the crown he got from MCC9 Blue Bats.

Note: Ren was kind, and it was the cruel world that forced Ren to be defensive. Other POVs paint them as the villain but Dogwarts enthusiasts will say that is not the case AT ALL.

Time passed. Scar turned red. He and his buddy Grian set up traps at Renchanting, and one blew up Ren and a bunch of other people. Ren, now a yellow name, was furious, but could not get his revenge because yellow names were not allowed to hurt other players. So naturally, Ren decided to become a red.

Ren renamed an axe to “RED WINTER IS COMING” and gave it to Martyn to chop his head off. (There’s some dramatic roleplay here, highly recommend a watch.) Martyn painfully did, and the message “Red Winter is Coming” was shown in the chat, which told everyone that Ren meant business. To test Martyn’s loyalty, Ren told Martyn he could kill him if he wanted to. Ren, freshly respawned and without armour, punched Martyn. Martyn, as a green name, could attack Ren due to Ren attacking first. However, Martyn did not kill Ren, and dramatically declared Ren was the one who showed him life, and thus he would return the favour.

So Ren was known as the Red King (with grey skin, bloodied MCC crown, and a Scottish/pirate accent). Martyn became known as the King’s Hand, and called Ren “my lord” “my liege”. Later, Martyn acquired an outfit with a cloak and a red hand on the back of the cloak, which is now used to symbolise Martyn.

They established the Kingdom of Dogwarts (after Hogwarts and the enchanting/magic gimmick) to find more allies (notable ones include Ethoslab and Skizzleman). Allies could stick a Red Banner in their base to show loyalty, members were called Red Knights / Red Army.

A Red Banner (the design is supposed to be blood dripping down):

Without spoiling too much, Ren and Martyn remained loyal to each other till the very end. They were very dramatic (even jokingly called homoerotic by some lmao) and had many hardcore quotes, and are highly beloved. They are the most dramatic and RP intensive group on the server. So people want Dogwarts, the king and his hand, together again.

A small sample of quotes that might be referenced:

I think going red next week is in my fate. It’s in my cards. There will be blood, for this. A king cannot be king without war. (Ren)

I won’t do it! You took me in when I was a lowly traveller, goin’ across the lands, searchin’ the four corners of this world. I learned that there was nothing in this world for me. Nothing but walls, corners, edges. And you know what? You showed me life. As much as I’ve taken it from you, you gave it back to me in bucket fulls. and I just- I’m with you. This is us now. This is us. (Martyn)

If we're going to survive the Red Winter, we gotta do it together, laddies. Hand in hand. Rotten hand in hand of the living. To the end! (Ren)

It’s just the world versus us. (Martyn)

(Note: Dogwarts refers to the group of people allied with Ren and Martyn, including Etho and Skizzleman. Renchanting duo refers to Ren and Martyn ONLY)

Other references:

Joel notably screamed “THE RED KING DIES TONIGHT, FELLAS!” with a crowd of wolves following him

Dogwarts killed Grian and Scar’s llama Pizza because Scar stole a Red Banner

Jimmy and Scott were flower husbands. Jimmy thought Renchanting was going to sacrifice Scott.

Everyone else in MCC (Grian, Scott, Jimmy, Joel) were enemies with Dogwarts

The 3rd Lifers reference 3rd Life a lot despite it being over. Martyn even fought for Dogwarts in MCC14 and MCCP but failed. Haha.

The fandom commonly refers to Purple15 as King (Ren), Queen (False), Ace (Illumina), and Joker/Hand (Martyn) after playing cards.

This is it, I am tired, this is probably too long but I feel I skipped a lot of details. If anyone has anything to add or correct, feel free to do so. Also, I’m pretty certain this won’t appear in the tags, so please reblog! Thank you, and Red Winter is Coming.

(I might add a reblog detailing False’s very much fanon involvement in Dogwarts, and why everyone was so hyped for Renchanting + False.)

#3rd life smp #3rdlifesmp #mcyt #mcc #purple pandas #falsesymmetry #rendog #illuminahd #inthelittlewood #ria.txt #dogwarts #renchanting #long post #pls rb im sure this isnt in the tags lol

176 notes · View notes

sydneydoesstuff · 4 years ago

Text

Dear DSMP fans (specifically my worriers),

c!Tommy’s not going to die, nor is cc!Tommy quitting the SMP.

The absolute uproar I’ve seen because cc!Tommy was acting sus in today’s stream is absolutely insane.

I understand the worry over his character dying, or that he’s going to quit the SMP, but it’s unlikely that either will happen.

Take a breath, it’s going to be okay. I promise.

—

First, about cc!Tommy.

“Tommy’s more focused on YouTube, and this could be him attempting to exit the SMP and quit streaming.”

Yes, Tommy’s been more focused on YouTube, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to quit streaming. He’s testing out new content on YouTube to see if his fan base will enjoy non-SMP related videos. This is a common procedure YouTubers do to see what content works and what doesn’t. Right now, streaming is where he gets a good portion of his YouTube videos, and he won’t just stop streaming without any notice. He says he’s really enjoying YouTube at the minute, and while he is streaming less, he still likes to stream!

As for quitting the SMP, if you pay attention to other cc’s perspectives, you’ll know that they have plans that involve Tommy’s character. Jack Manifold has been working on a scheme to kill Tommy with Niki’s help, and there are way too many loose ends to tie up before that happens.

Hypothetically, if he did quit playing on the SMP—which he’s not, take a breath—he’s going to be in DSMP S2, so it wouldn’t be long until we see him playing with everyone again.

My next point is that, career wise, it wouldn’t make sense for him to completely quit playing on the SMP. The SMP allows him to collaborate with a multitude of creators, and as such, the SMP is the primary reason for his huge influx in success. While he may take a step back, I don’t think he’ll fully leave.

Lastly, Tommy has said many times that he really enjoys playing on the server and hopes it never ends. He’s been playing on the server nearly everyday offline—he said so himself.

He’s not losing interest in the server, he just wants to explore new things.

—

Now, for c!Tommy.

I have the utmost faith that Tommy’s character is not going to die tomorrow.

Narratively, it doesn’t make any sense for several reasons:

Dream.

Dream has made clear that his story with Tommy is not over and won’t be for a very long time.

“I don’t think our story will ever be over, Tommy. I think that, you’re just too fun.”

Dream plans on keeping Tommy alive, for a very long time, to torment. As he says, Tommy is just too fun to leave be. He’s his primary source of entertainment, and I don’t think Dream will ever willingly leave Tommy in peace—and that includes allowing him to die.

“It’s not your time to die yet, Tommy.”

“It’s never my time to die.”

“That’s true.”

Dream has way too many plans for Tommy to simply kill him off. What’s the point of the discs if the person who cares about them is dead?

Niki and Jack Manifold.

If Tommy were to die, it would—from a meta perspective—throw off Jack and Niki’s plans.

Jack’s plan is riding on Tommy making it past tomorrow. In two weeks time, Jack and Niki plan on luring Tommy to a nuclear test sight to “accidentally” kill him. There’s no way to do that unless Tommy makes it out alive tomorrow.

Their revenge arc would feel pointless if Tommy were to die tomorrow, and it would leave their characters in limbo. Niki and Jack’s characters currently ride on Tommy’s existence, and they have no further motivation past him.

Wilbur.

Wilbur is currently experiencing a resurrection arc. If Tommy were to die and become a ghost, it would completely overshadow Wilbur’s arc.

Wilbur’s arc is moving pretty slow at the moment, and if Tommy were to interrupt it by dying, it would quickly overtake Wilbur’s story.

Technoblade.

Tommy, while briefly reunited with Technoblade, has not resolved his conflict with said man.

It would feel out of place for Tommy to die without fully resolving that tension. Their dispute would take the back-burner, and it would cheapen their issues.

Overall.

It would be messy. Tommy’s death would make the entire story feel never-ending, with loss after loss after loss. It’s not good storytelling, and it would ruin too many threads throughout the narrative.

The heroes need to have losses and victories, and a permadeath is much too heavy of a loss after just losing L’Manburg. That’s why it’s more likely that Tommy’s ends up in prison than canonically permadying.

The prison, while said to be the equivalent of losing all three canon lives to whoever’s put there, inspires action.

It’s not a coincidence that Tubbo has nuclear weapons, and we have no way of knowing how those nuclear weapons stack up against the prison. There will eventually be a need to test that power.

While it’s possible Tommy and Tubbo may win their fight tomorrow, it’s not very likely, as Tommy would dub it “the end” of his story.

“Once I get back the discs, it’ll be finished, the melody will be over.”

And we all know Dream’s not going to let that happen any time soon.

Tommy’s story is not over, and it won’t be for a very long time.

135 notes · View notes