#i watched every pov and i think this episode grian's is my favourite (even if he cut out most of my fav scene overall)

[klbzplb]

honestly still the biggest personal tragedy of session 5 is that when grian joined gem in the tower building. in gems episode, there were almost a solid 10 minutes of just that. them hanging out, calm, peaceful, no danger, away from people that could hurt them . and guess what ? grian left LESS THAN 3 MINUTES OF THAT IN HIS EPISODE dbjksffejw

[memryse]

Mem! Do you have any thoughts on 3rd life compared to last life?

ooh very interesting question, there's definitely i have a lot to say on this subject

i will say, i enjoyed both of them a lot. like a Lot. stares at my blog. but i am definitely more critical of last life - while i appreciate wanting to change things up and make them more exciting, which worked for the most part, i do think that in making some of those changes, you lose some of the magic of the simplicity of 3rd life.

3rd life is, essentially, a vanilla series with a limit of 3 lives and a world border. the rules are easy to grasp, and so... unobtrusive? that the series ended up being extremely story driven. the rules don't really impact anything other than the length of the series and the point at which people are allowed to kill each other. the reason for them killing each other was entirely their own choice. last life, on the other hand, had mechanics actively designed to force kills every episode: the boogeyman and the red lives alliance rule. this forces getting kills into the spotlight, often (though definitely not always) at the cost of natural story progression. in particular, the final couple of sessions felt very stilted to me, because all alliances had effectively been broken long ago; there was no real investment left in any faction other than grian and joel staying together until the end. it was just a battle royale. as much as i liked the whole "zombie apocalypse" vibes of sessions 7 and 8 in particular, session 9 fell a little flat for me. it was just fighting for the sake of fighting. and while i thought scott's victory was very poetic, the buildup to it? not so much.

however. last life was still a fantastic series. its main charm point to me was how these new mechanics gave focus to everyone. i still have not seen every 3rd life pov, or even half of them. and though i definitely do intend to watch them all, a lot of them are quite far down my priority list compared to other series rn, because i think you can safely say that 3rd life objectively does have main characters: namely, its four sets of duos. the others are great, but you do not need to watch very many povs at all to understand the main conflict. last life, on the other hand, doesn't have a main conflict. which made watching every pov every week so much more entertaining. there was a new thing in every video, a new reason to care about all seventeen videos each week. it was a lot, but it was SO worth it. every faction had equal importance in last life, and it was so much fun to watch them all and put together a true picture of what was going on in all corners of the server. which, again, all 3rd life povs are certainly good, but it ended in two distinct sides. last life was messy. in a good way.

i think some of the mechanics changes in last life may have detracted from what i initially liked about 3rd life, but they still made for an excellent series. the boogeyman mechanic? complex and forced kills for no reason, sure, but it also provided an excuse to put lesser known members in the spotlight. even if a player wasn't involved in a boogey kill, they'd often include their reaction to seeing the death in chat, which then incentivises people to go check out the players involved in it. and, again, it added to each faction's storyline to make them all equally important. the "red lives must break alliances" rule made alliances feel more fruitless sometimes especially at the end, but largely made for some really well-done goodbyes (or lack thereof, in bdubs' case). like, i have written essays before on session four of last life being my favourite episode of any mcyt series ever, and i fully stand by this. THAT is how you execute this sort of rule.

the life exchange feature made for some great moments: scar taking advantage of it to do Soul Capitalism, tango the life dispenser, etc. but the life exchange feature could never have worked so effectively without adding the extra lives, it'd effectively be one time use if you only had three lives maximum. extra lives also offset the change in pace that so many boogey kills would have caused. so even though i felt it went against the whole concept of 3rd life, and i wasn't too keen on seeing some players start on two lives, i do appreciate what these mechanics brought to the series and why they were all necessary to balance each other out.

so to conclude!!! i love both series! maybe i'm just a grumpy mentally-old lady who doesn't like change, but i don't think criticism of a thing you love is bad. it might not be what i originally fell in love with the series for, but i suppose as the name change suggests, last life is not 3rd life. it wasn't supposed to be, and maybe that's a good thing, because even before last life started i said i was apprehensive about trying to recreate 3rd life. it was magical in a very unique way. so i think ultimately i'm glad they went in a new direction for last life - it's not its predecessor, it doesn't pretend to be, and it very firmly cements itself as a fantastic but entirely different series. even if it's not perfect.

[trihardent]

Was watching back Scar's Episode, trying to pick a favourite moment and it's all so good like; Top 15 of things I loved below the cut. it's.... a little long. Spoilers for Scar's 3rd episode, obviously

In chronological Order

1. Scar saying Rapscallions. Happens a fair amount during the episode and every time it's fantastic. Bonus points for Grian and Scar Both calling Etho a Rapscallion at different times

2. "Now, you maybe be wondering what these friend certificates are backed up by, diamonds, food? No. Love. And it can't be disputed, love cannot be disputed!"

3. Grian pulling up in a boat and turning around so Scar can easily hop in. Like, theoretically? He could've right clicked in regardless. But the theatre of it all ! Fantastic

4. Bigb slowly backing away in his boat, Scar inching closer each time, "Man the currents here are strong, but our friendship will always bring us together. But we never certified our best friendness... [cue sales pitch]"

5. Etho's testimonial. I think the framing of him on lilypad from SCar's pov adds a lot to the moment

6. At like, 6:45 when he says "but I still really wanna trade up, and get an enchanter today" he sounds so villainous and foreboding iconic, he's an icon, who else brings this level of drama on a regular basis on the server?

7. The entirety of Jimmy coming over for cows; Grian and scar working together to get the diamond chestplate, Jimmy breaking under very minimal pressure, fantastic interaction, 10/10 I cannot wait for Solidarity's POV for that one

8. "Scar I can't give up the business it's not just me, it's- Martyn has kids he's gotta feed-" "When I Turn Red Ren, You're on My List" I appreciate the fact that Scar slowly walked away the entire time Ren was explaining, the cinematography... again, who is more dramatic?

-1. Negative 1, because Grian was very much helping Cleo out during the Pizza talks and it gave me pain, from telling her not to settle for paper, to sort of egging on the "how much is pizza worth to you angle", TELLING cleo about the diamond chestplate? TELLING her he was lying? "Might as well take his pants too" WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON? THE ANSWER SHOULDN'T BE CLEO HERE but it was kinda funny, but also a little sad

7. version 2: We're slightly off time here but Scar sliding into his salesman voice offering Cleo the friendship pack I-

8. Saying he worked hard for the diamond sword he "bargained for" with Joel- I'm wheezing. "That's not just a diamond sword that's a sword with great history behind it."

9. "I can't take off my pants! That's InApPrOpRiAtE!"

10. Turning to Grian the second Cleo was out of sight to say "Oh good I hid the chestplate"

11. The montage of 5 second clips of A) Cookie mountain B) There's some weird stuff going on in there C) Yeah that's a Bdubs Castle. Great 15 seconds 15/15

12. The entirety of both interactions with Joel. I would list the things I loved but it would make this post Even Longer, like Way Too Long and I should probably wrap it up soon. Again, skipping around a bit, but they were both so funny. His house feels like a drive-in, it's fantastic. "Hello hello hello it's uncle scar, coming to visit!"

13. Scar trying to explain why what he's been doing isn't blackmail

14. "Can we still be friends?" *throws flowers* - actually the entire Scar coming back was very funny

-1 for Grian not disagreeing when Scar said he was hideous :( /hj

13. Ren escaping from Etho's, "It's a shame there are others who decided... not to align with me..." zooms in on Ren swimming away. This episode I'm really noticing a lot of the ways in which Scar does a great job of positioning his camera for maximum comedy/effect, and the editting is really good too.

14. The 2nd Ren threatening scene..... "You said you'd kill me first" "Oh no I've come to threaten you first" ......... "I won't kill you or your- partner"........ "He's on the payroll. Disposable, some even may say"......

15. The Second Visit to Joel's

Anyway Stan GoodTimesWithScar I guess!