#i can't wait to analyze the CRAP out of this series in a few weeks

[redwinterroses]

Just watched Martyn's pov of last life as well as the teaser clip on twt, realized I had completely misunderstood his character before hand. Man's not a follower as I previously assumed based on watching rens pov of 3rd life, Martyn's a full on evil little schemer, planning on turning traitor on the rest of the southlanders cause most of them are yellow and a risk, and he's planning on teaming up with Ren, but he might end up turning on him too, if you consider the twt clip fucking "turn friend into foe" oh yeah keep saying that you evil little man, Sus imposter, fucking planning on breaking my little heart after breaking off all of your allegiances

Martyn is—

Martyn is. Just. *grabs Martyn Inthelittlewood and shakes him by the shoulders*

THIS GUY.

He's clever. He thinks 8 steps ahead. If you watch him in MCC, or when he plays any other games, you'll quickly realize: this guy is a genius with learning how the system works. How the game operates. And then he uses that knowledge to his advantage.

The difference is that in 3rd/Last Life, part of the game mechanics are the other players. (And, to an extent: the audience. Because these are content creators. They are playing a game for their own enjoyment, yes, but they're also deliberately shaping their game to make content for their audiences. So they'll make decisions based at least on some level on what their viewers are going to find engaging.)

Martyn and Scott are actually very similar in this, only with Scott it's more that he understands people and how they operate. You can literally see him doing it with Pearl. It's not that he's being disingenuous or anything, but he consciously says and does things that will cause Pearl to see him as a valuable ally—Pearl specifically. Which means it's different than how he interacted with, say, Jimmy or Grian or Cleo in 3rd Life. The dynamics change, and Scott is a master at changing with them in a way that (in theory) gives him an upper hand.

Even in 3rd Life, Martyn wasn't a follower so much as he was an enabler. He saw Ren as a genuine candidate for winning the game, and saw that the story Ren was telling was a valid way of possibly getting there. So he fell in line with Ren's story and threw himself into that system to make it work as flawlessly as possible. (Again: this isn't like... faking or manipulating or anything. Ren and Martyn's friendship is genuine and incredibly heartwarming. I care they. But just because it grew into a genuine friendship doesn't mean it didn't start as a "hey, I think this could be a path to victory and I'm going to do everything I can to enable that method.")

So yeah. I look at Martyn this time around and I see a guy who is entirely on his own, possibly even more than Ren is. Because yeah, he's hanging out with the Ahalliance, and yeah, he's the only one who didn't pretend to run off with the trust life in that little display of whatever it was, but I have no doubt in my mind that the minute the Ahalliance ceases to be useful to him? Martyn's out. He will step on every single one of their bodies in order to climb to the top.

Now as far as Ren is concerned... I dunno. I think those two have a story they're leaking out to us in bits and drabbles, and I don't know what it is, and I don't trust them as far as I can throw either one of them. (And they're grown men so. that's not far.) I can't predict them at all.

If they partner up at any stage, then yeah: I definitely see Martyn betraying Ren before Ren betrays him, but they both have their teeth bared this season. And... they each know what the other is capable of. Possibly better than anyone else on the server.

They're being friendly, but at the same time I kinda get this vibe of two wolves sniffing and circling each other, and it'll just be interesting to see if they survive long enough for whatever sly things they've got up their sleeves to be revealed.

#...you activated my meta brain hi #i can't wait to analyze the CRAP out of this series in a few weeks #redwinteranswers #last life #rendog #inthelittlewood #long post