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#Idk man i can't make it though third life w/o crying
dayables · 2 years
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It was never about the prank
Or the 3rd life Grian and Scar are in love essay.
Grian and Scar’s alliance, friendship, love affair, early in the game is based upon Grian owing Scar his first life as an apology for the prank that killed Scar. Grian sets the deal as, “I am in your service until I lose my first life. I’m your teammate. I’ll do whatever you want to do.” Grian is also, a terrible teammate in many respects. He tries to ruin all of Scar’s deals, he kills three people when Scar just wants to steal BigB’s cookie. Grian is, a truly terrible at “being in Scar’s service.” and “doing whatever he wants to do.” Grian is staying around Scar because he likes Scar. If Grian did not enjoy the deal, Grian would find ways around the deal.
Before the prank, Scar only proposed taking over the sand biome to Grian. Grian doesn’t say no either. He only proposes they monopolise dark oak saplings instead. Desert Duo’s alliance was never about the prank. It’s about loyalty and passion and just like all romances, it ends in either marriage or death.
If there’s one thing about desert duo, it’s that their loyal to a fault. There are so many quotes I could pull to prove this point. One example, in episode three following Scar’s death. He offers poppies and lilacs and asks: “Can we still be friends?” There’s uncertainty in the question. This would make sense considering the fact Scar’s the first red life on the server. By the rules of the game, the answer is no. The one time Grian cannot justify breaking the rules of his own game, is accepting his place by Scar’s side as a friend not as a debtee. Also to mention the flowers again, lilacs mean: Do you still love me?, grief and optimism. Poppies mean: eternal love, sacrifice and remembrance. The flowers say many things Scar does not say: I still love you, I hope you love me still but I think you don’t.
In the finale, Grian asks Scar at the battle of Dogwarts, “Is this it? Is there where we show our true allegiance too each other and that’s it? We turn on everyone?” Every alliance before this fight was temporary. Scar and Grian only ever cared for each other and pizza. While they knew Scott, Jimmy and Joel were on their side there was never a care in their alliance. Just the knowledge they had a common enemy before they turned on one another. All of their allies were brought together by war. Scar is Grian’s “True allegiance.” Scar is the only one Grian cares about and vice versa. They were recluses who others had to seek out. Desert Duo never had the opportunities for friends because they had each other they never left that desert.
So let’s talk about the desert. The sand land, the fallen kingdom was a desolate and expansive. There was no desert village, there was no pyramid. The sand land was nothing more than Monopoly Mountain, Pizza, Scar, Grian and cacti. There wasn’t a single sign of life besides the prickly cacti, not even a singular dead bush. It slots right in with their isolation. There was no reason for anyone to come to the sand land unless to see Grian and Scar and as I said before, Grian and Scar only left it to gather resources. Everything was always about the sand lands and Grian and Scar and Pizza were the sand lands.
Finally, you have the betrayal. When Scar threw everything he and Grian had over the pieces of paper Grian has been calling useless the entire series.  In this moment both Grian and Scar’s worlds tilt on their axis. Grian has been betrayed by the man he pledged himself even when he no longer had too. Scar stops basing his actions over the pieces of paper. Bdubs had the ‘no kill pass.’ But Scar “didn’t know what to do” after Grian. Scar had a plan to kill Bdubs when Grian returned. Scar didn’t want to take Grian’s final life and when Scar didn’t fight? Neither could Grian. Scar asks if they can, “fix our sand castle.” And Grian asks, “Can we win together?” It’s in the very fabric of their characters: Grian doesn’t want to kill Scar and Scar doesn’t want to kill Grian. They just… have to kill each other… to figure that one out…
Then it ends. It ends exactly how it began. Grian killing Scar. It ends with just the two of the. It ends in the desert because they could never wash off the sand. It ends beside Pizza’s grave. It ends in a fight with fists and a fight on their own terms because they never cared about the rules which dictate they should be fuelled by bloodlust.
It doesn’t end with a prank because the prank was nothing more than a prank. The tragedy, the end and the beginning lie in the fact its Scar’s blood on Grian’s hands and he never wanted it there. Except the second time round, there’s a weight heavier than guilt on Grian’s hands. There’s loss as well.
In conclusion, they loved each other. By my fucking god, Grian and Scar loved each other. It’s weaved into their story so deep it’s impossible to uproot it all. They were fated to die by each other’s sides, that there would only ever be one victor and they chose to love anyways. They chose each other, were loyal to each other, never doubted each other in the face of a death game and yeah.
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