#... does this mean that if Joel and Jimmy do a duo series together it cancels out | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

memryse · 2 years

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hello trafficblr! today i want to talk about red lives between 3rd life and last life - specifically through the lens of friendships and alliances. last life session 6 spoilers ahead!

the difference between the two series is fairly clear - from the very start of last life, it was made clear that all ties with red lives were to be cut, all alliances with them were cancelled. but let's look at this in a bit more detail.

3rd life saw its red lives remain in their preexisting alliances. from scar throwing flowers at grian and asking if they can still be friends, to bdubs intentionally going red to become cleo's weapon. ren turning red and proving his own loyalty to martyn, to dogwarts. jimmy becoming scott's completely nonthreatening bodyguard. skizz remaining dogwarts' most loyal knight. the list goes on, we all know about our red/green duos. in 3rd life, friendship was something that the red lives believed they had to earn with their green friends. they had to prove that they wouldn't hurt them, that they'd be useful to them, and the two of them worked together as equals. none of these reds even contemplated betraying their friends. sticking with a green was the best chance that they had at survival - and honestly? none of them particularly wanted to jump straight into murder. for out-of-universe reasons, yes, but we can interpret this as the bloodlust wasn't quite as strong in 3rd life. they could resist killing their allies.

in last life, however? whilst friendships are intended to be entirely cancelled, what's really happened is that the entire concept of friendship has been weaponised. in comparison to 3rd life, very little war between factions has occurred: it's essentially become the reds versus everyone else. the greens and yellows are simply fighting to survive, and they'll tolerate anyone who helps them with that. it's simple.

not so much for the reds.

as it turns out, turning red doesn't simply eliminate all of a person's feelings towards their former allies. but especially in conjunction with their allies having to exile them, what it does do is twist those feelings of friendships. red lives no longer feel like they have to earn their friendships, they don't feel like winning anyone's trust not to kill them. and they are desperately, desperately lonely. and the bloodlust relishes in it. tells them how easy it would be - just a tap and they could have their friend back! it'd be great! being red doesn't mean you have to be alone, why can't they see that? they can still be friends!

multiple red lives on the server have threatened to kill somebody to make a new friend. and friendships between red lives are not as easily formed as one might expect.

firstly, joel:

"oops. shot an arrow. now i have a friend!" - in chat, after killing grian. "grian, do you wanna be friends?" - the first thing he says to grian when they meet again.

grian:

"we can still be friends, mumbo!" - i... don't need to elaborate on this one, do i? it speaks for itself. but also that whole creepy bit where he runs around spawn singing "friendship is here, where are you? :)"

cleo.

"you could be my friend! you could have a friend, if you wanted to be red! and red's so much fun! [...] you should join me!" - to jimmy. at first she's not going to kill him, she thinks it'd be kind of pathetic, but then she realises the potential. they can be friends! have fun together! of course, cleo doesn't miss her past allies. they betrayed her. but that doesn't mean she wants to be alone.

bdubs.

"you're gonna join me as a red life. [...] today you join me! yes! you will. we can do this right now, where you could jump off the wall tw- very simple! [...] die twice, be red, we're together! [...] if you don't do that, i will take the two lives!" - trying to convince etho to go red so that they can still be friends. "all you have to do is just stumble off a cliff, right off the side, and boom! we're back, baby! and it's way funner on this side, trust me." - trying to do the same to skizz.

mumbo.

"you wouldn't hurt me. i'm just a fellow southerner, i've got my spyglass..." - as he's tormenting the southerners after trying to kill them. "that's the second time! he's just got it out for me!" - grian, during that same conversation. mumbo spends practically the entire episode - especially the part when he's alone as a red life - trying to kill the southlanders, especially grian, who's dangerously close to going red again.

jimmy and lizzie both find one another relatively quickly, and team up for the rest of the session. neither of them have much of an opportunity to be lonely - however, both of them do express how much they miss their former alliances (with jimmy even begging martyn for a life). interestingly, with these two, their desperation for friendship is used against them: grian's psychological warfare against the reds plays into it. he tells both factions of reds that the other doesn't want to ally with them and is planning to kill them. for reds who have no one (and have nothing too in jimmy's case), this is unbearable.

the only exception is scar. who never had any friends to win back in the first place. who very possibly went red deliberately (the first time at least. but threatened to go red beforehand both times) and immediately turns fully malicious against practically the whole server. he is also the only one to immediately go after an enemy with nothing but killing intent in mind - even grian had the ulterior motive of getting a life from scar.

and even scar joins in with mumbo chanting "friend! friend!" when they meet again as reds. he's lonely. he wants friends. but unlike the others he just doesn't have anyone in mind to lament losing.

#last life #last life spoilers #last life smp #3rd life smp #smallishbeans #grian #zombiecleo #bdoubleo100 #mumbo jumbo #solidaritygaming #ldshadowlady #goodtimeswithscar #mae analyses #mem goes insane over scar? again? yes absolutely #sorry if some of this doesn't make sense. i am ill and it is also 12:30am #but i wanted to write it!

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