#c:/sgos/saved

[goldstargloww]

in case anyone didn't see, here's how the end of martyn's session 6 went unedited :>

transcript / partial video description under cut

uppercase = stream

lowercase = video

MARTYN: okay, yeah, look, th-this is what actually happened, versus how it came in the edit, um

MARTYN: if i just drop their voices down just a bit..

bdubs: we did ittt!

cleo: we did it, hoorayy!!

[various people "woo"]

impulse: great job, every-

MARTYN: this is probably in someone's episode

impulse: -body!

martyn: (starts leaving)

martyn: you are all going to pay for taking my fellow reds.

[various people laugh, notably cleo]

martyn: just, having you know that.

etho: you lost- you lost three of em!

pearl: we had no hand in it! (dismissively)

martyn: you are all, DEAD, next time.

grian: you've got some work to do, martyn (very faintly audible)

MARTYN: oh, that was it, you can hear grian going, "you've got some work to do, martyn" [laughs a bit]

martyn: -for taking my fellow reds.

[various people laugh, notably cleo]

martyn: just, having you know that.

etho: you lost- you lost three of em!

pearl: we had no hand in it! (dismissively)

martyn: you are all, DEAD, next time.

grian: you've got some work to do, martyn (very faintly audible)

MARTYN: there ya go

MARTYN: um, and i think i just do a little talky bit as i was walking away…

martyn: (walking back to baxter)

martyn: i can't believe it. i can't believe…

martyn: that i've lost all of my fellow reds…!

martyn: two of them that came into the session with me, one of them that came into existence during the session, i just-…

martyn: -don't know what to say..!

martyn: … i'm the last dog.

martyn: will the other people even want to become dogs?

martyn: baxter…

martyn: …what we gonna do..?

MARTYN: so that was one of them

MARTYN: and then- i swear there was another clip that i did, after that…

MARTYN: i swear there was a clip, where, like… oh no i think i do, i think i..- just do it- you can see like, a little sigh, just here

martyn: (walks into baxter and closes the door)

martyn: (stands on the bed for a second, then gets off and turns around to look at the chests)

martyn: (stares at mumbo's for about five seconds before opening it - there's one bone in the center)

martyn: (waits a second, closes it, and opens timmy's - two bones in the center)

martyn: (waits a second, closes it, faces the center of the three chests again)

martyn: (looks at the chests for about three seconds before looking down and sighing)

MARTYN: i think i maybe even… oh no that was just when i ended the recording

MARTYN: so there you go. lonely dog ending. that's- that's- that's how the recording went for it

[goldstargloww]

@gillipopwastaken

Good evening I’m fucking losing my mind over Jellie’s coat color and genetics what do you fucking mean she has red patches I’ve never noticed that have been diluted to cream and that means she’s a tortoiseshell

Look!!! Look at that!!!!! That is red and if you look closer you can see it behind her legs and dispersed throughout her coat. TRICKY LITTLE GIRL!!!!

I’ve been thinking this whole time she’s a black silver classic tabby but NO she’s a black tortoiseshell silver classic tabby with white.

girl your genes need to CALM DOWN

Anyways I think that Scar has all the rights to make an entire theme park based off of her or something because she’s so pretty and cool.

And the reason I did all this research is because I’m making a fic where she has kittens that are called the Jamlets and I just need you guys to know how much work I’m putting into it and also that her kittens are adorable. Thank you that’s all.

[certtree-blog]

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[goldstargloww]

i really need to talk about my watcher/listener alignment headcanon system don't i? well here we go

so, within eyesandears, we all know grian's a watcher, yeah? and canonically, none of the other players in the life series are watchers or listeners—grian's a special case here.

but there's also pretty popular headcanons, where people like martyn and jimmy are listeners, pearl and bigb are watchers, stuff like that. different people headcanon different things for different characters—those're just the most common ones i've seen

now, i like this idea,, kinda. i like my headcanons to be compatible with canon (and here i'm treating eyesandears as canon). it throws me off when the headcanons contradict canon, so i don't like my headcanons to do that

so, i've come up with a system that's a compromise between those headcanons and canon, which is that players can be watcher/listener aligned, and there's subcategories within those as well :>

first thing i want to note is that just because grian is a watcher doesn't mean he has to be watcher aligned or that he can't be listener aligned. the divide between watchers and listeners is more of a behavior/identity thing afaik, and grian isn't all that watchery socially.

so, i think that, generally speaking, players can be watcher/listener aligned, and then within those, compliant/noncompliant. compliant watcher aligned, noncompliant watcher aligned, compliant listener aligned, noncompliant listener aligned.

watcher aligned

i don't have as much notes on watcher aligned players as i do listener aligned ones and i don't really know why lol, i guess they're just a bit simpler than listener aligned players?

compliant

compliant watcher aligned players tend to play the games most closely to intended. they give the watchers what they want, however unknowingly, and they enjoy it. they enjoy the chaos, they enjoy the destruction, and it's not surprising if they're the catalyst.

noncompliant

noncompliant watcher aligned players more or less play by the rules, but they'll bend them a bit for fun. they'll make illegal kills for the chaos and entertainment, and often go further than they intend to, but they do so anyway because the fun outweighs the guilt.

listener aligned

i like to think that the compliant versus noncompliant categories resemble the listeners' journey as a separate entity from the watchers.

the listeners used to be watchers themselves, and later split off of them, working against them. compliant listener aligned players are most like the listeners at the start of that journey, and noncompliant listener aligned players are more like the listeners today.

compliant

compliant listener aligned players tend to function almost like a tool for the watchers—they listen, they do as they're told, they obey, they comply. they have a hard time disobeying the rules, disobeying the watchers, even if they want to, and this also tends to be out of fear of consequence.

martyn would be a compliant listener aligned player, for example—he's told by the watchers to kill, to betray, to set up things with the intention of destruction. and he follows through, or tries to, because he's scared (at least definitely scared in last life) of the consequences if he doesn't. even when he wasn't consciously aware of the watchers in any capacity interacting with him in limited life, he still did as they wanted.

these players tend to be more of a threat to the server, as they tend to be fairly destructive. so as a result, they're also threatened more themselves as other players know they're a threat and do what they can to protect themselves, so compliant listener aligned players often end up being targeted or considered dangerous.

noncompliant

noncompliant listener aligned players function more like the listeners themselves do in relation to the watchers, i'd say. they only loosely play within the rules, but play along enough to stay alive and enough so that they aren't harshly punished (some comply with them more than others tho)

some play the games out of spite, some play for fun. either way, they don't give the watchers what they want without tainting it in some way is my thought

these players tend to not kill without sufficient reason, and many don't kill much at all. when they kill, it's usually out of necessity, survival, or it's justified—they don't kill for the thrill, they don't kill for the fun of it. they aren't as affected by bloodlust as others either

they have a tendency to not take the games seriously, instead focusing on fun and enjoyment, creating things they enjoy and the like - scott and jimmy, for example, in third life, built cute houses in a flower valley, whereas everyone else built and lived in castles and fortresses lol. scott in particular's priorities always include his base looking nice

the watchers tend to dislike these players, especially the more defiant they are. scott, for example, the watchers hate scott and have since last life

if anyone has anything to add or say please do so i'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this stuff :D

[goldstargloww]

hi :D i'm gold, just a random blob you encountered on the internet :>

this blog used to be @starglowwos (our collective blog), but seeing as this is my account's main blog and mainly i use it, i've decided to move @starglowwos to a sideblog. also, here's all my links!

i use they/vae/void/ender/it pronouns, among others, but if you need to, just they/it is fine! i enjoy variation but no need to go out of your way to do so :>

i'm neurodivergent, queer, plural, and alterhuman, and a lot more (and if you don't know what some of those mean, don't worry about it! feel free to ask tho)

this is a blog for whatever i feel like talking about, really, which as of now tends to be mcyt and isat! my current special interest is the life series/traffic lives im pretty sure lmao, and i'm hyperfixated on in stars and time. as for mcyt, i very much enjoy the life series, hermitcraft, rats smp, pirates smp, and probably some other stuff.

speaking of fandom things, i do in fact do fanart! if any creators see my stuff, (thinking mcyt specifically) feel free to name drop or show my stuff on stream :D (keep in mind this blog isn't necessarily pg)

i do a lot of art in general! here's my ao3 and artfight if you're curious. also, reminder that nothing i make is ever okay to use to train generative AI models, prompt generative AI models, create NFTs with, or anything similar.

other than that, i enjoy liomogai stuff and i'm tangentially in the warrior cats fandom, and i very much enjoy omori! i'll try to remember to tag that stuff seeing as its a horror game

i make emojis over at @emojistargloww, all my art gets reblogged to @artstargloww, and i do liomogai things at @liomstargloww. i also run @isat-emoji-archive and help run @mcyt-emoji-archive!

i'd also like to say go check out my mallowfriends they're very cool :> @rainestormy-nights @milo-handsoftime

more detail in things under the cut :D

interacting with me

here's some notes on interacting with me, if you find that helpful!

dms are always fine! just explain why you're dming me instead of just saying "hi" or something

feel free to @ me pretty much anywhere!

when it comes to tone tags, i essentially mirror your usage. if they help you, go ahead and use em! if you want me to use em, go ahead and ask! if i'm not sure, i'll usually use the common ones like /j /srs /gen /lh, but otherwise i'll just clarify what i mean :>

squicks, warnings, and censoring

i don't really have many common triggers, so don't worry about triggering me - i do prefer warnings though in some situations!

note that this list does not contain anything that seriously would trigger me. it's dangerous to give that information out and i am aware. don't worry about accidentally triggering me, and don't purposefully try to do so.

warning that i will be talking about common triggers and squicks here!

common things like bugs and other small animals like snails don't bother me

flashes and eyestrain don't need censoring for the most part, but if it's a flashy thing (especially if it autoplays), warnings would be nice

i do need volume warnings though, please warn me for volume ^^

horror generally doesn't need any warning with me, except for maybe jumpscares and realistic horror, if you'd like.

things like suicide and self harm generally don't need censoring, but i don't mind a warning

if you're talking to a headmate of mine who you know may be triggered by something, it's usually a good idea to at least warn for that, just in case

swearing and the like is completely fine by me ^^

images, videos, and other media

for videos, a video description would be really helpful for me! there's a lot of times that i can't watch videos in posts (clips, for an example—longer youtube videos i can make time for) and video descriptions are really helpful for me! to anyone who does this, thank you :>

image descriptions are also helpful, especially for text in an image. i can see the image fine under normal circumstances, but especially for things that might be hard to visually understand or to get without context, they can help a lot

audio descriptions of audio files could also be helpful (like, if talking, a transcript would be helpful for me as a form of captions—but if it's just music or something, there's no need)

oh, and for me, there's no need to make them entirely screenreader compatible as i don't use a screenreader, but it is good practice to regardless for those who do and for general accessibility :>

i try to do all of these things, but things like image ids are hard for me sometimes. i do video transcripts (with small descriptions of what's happening if needed for context) and audio transcripts fine though, for the most part! if you want to help me with accessibility on any of my posts, feel free to do so, i'd appreciate it ^^ if you do i'll probably add it to the original post :>

tagging system

my tagging system is a bit of a mess lmao, but here's the system ill try to be using

c:/sgos - any post by me or the brain beings

c:/sgos/user/[name] - a post by [name] (one of the brain beings—most things will be from me, gold), or intended for them if it's a reblog

c:/sgos/groups/[name] - anything for or by a group of brain beings

c:/sgos/talking - probably me just ranting honestly. probably about traffic lives

c:/sgos/creations/art - any art by me

c:/sgos/creations/animatic - animatics i've made

c:/sgos/creations/apmv - AMVs/PMVs i've made

c:/sgos/creations/writing - if i happen to post any writing, it'll be tagged as this

c:/sgos/creations/commissions - anything i was commissioned to make (i have commissions btw! dm me for info!)

c:/sgos/creations/skins - minecraft skins i've made

c:/sgos/creations/coding - code i've made

c:/sgos/creations/emote - emotes over at @emojistargloww

c:/sgos/creations/term - terms over at @liomstargloww

c:/sgos/creations/flag - flags over at @liomstargloww

c:/sgos/creations/other - any other creations i dont have a tag for

c:/sgos/projects/[name] - a project, such as an animatic/amv/pmv, that i'm working on

c:/sgos/quotes - i collect silly/weird quotes. they go here

c:/sgos/clips - stuff i've clipped

c:/sgos/asks - asks i've answered

c:/sgos/my asks - me reblogging things i've asked/requested

c:/sgos/saved - things i've saved for myself

c:/sgos/saved/btgbr - things saved for characterization reasoning, usually :>

more serious stuff - (deprecated) stuff that's more serious that you might want to filter out in case you don't wanna see it right now

heavier stuff - (deprecated) same as last one but for stuff that's more emotionally heavy

here's how i do warnings

cw [x] - warning for [x] (ex: cw eyestrain) (i don't use tw)

[x] spoilers - warning for spoilers for [x] (ex: limited life spoilers)

[x] slur - warning for [x] slur (ex: f slur)

[x] word - warning for [x] word (ex: n word)

[x]phobia warning - warning for [x]phobia (ex: trypophobia warning)

eyestrain - eyestrain warning

flash warning - warning for flashing or fast moving visuals

paranoia trigger - warning for something that might trigger paranoia

[goldstargloww]

okay i like this. this is the kinda stuff i like doing and i wanna share my thoughts here

first, a few corrections? maybe this is stuff you missed, maybe you consciously ignored it, maybe i missed something, but:

the watchers have tried to get grian out of the games. the button glitch, for example. they'd been trying all the way back in last life, presumably third life as well, because they task martyn with killing and exiling grian and just getting him out early so he doesn't have the chance to do anything significant. the watchers don't want grian in the games, so i wouldn't say he's made a deal with the watchers or that he's been willingly given any sort of administrative power by them. the watchers have tried to get rid of him, and they've failed, and this has happened many times and likely continues to. (this has been confirmed, likely in martyn's last life lore stream iirc)

the emotional resets definitely aren't truly wiping to a clean slate. the watchers definitely aren't being as thorough as they could be. take one instance that's been talked about as an example - pearl, at the start of limited life, still wasn't over double life, hence her going to martyn and asking about tilly. this is also what prompted the listeners to swap her out with lizzie, to give pearl time and a chance to heal. (this was talked about in the limited life lore stream)

now, onto my headcanons and stuff

regarding emotional resets, i agree that it's kinda. not really how it works, to just take emotions but leave memories, like that. the way i think about it, though, is that the emotional connections are reset (or there's an attempt made for them to be), but the memories remain — this doesn't mean, though, that the players don't feel anything about those memories anymore. they just form new emotional connections, as their other ones have been cut. they know how they felt at the time, they know how it relates to the present, how it can inform them, all of that. maybe some people try to take purely the logical things out of it, the information that would benefit them. maybe some people want as much of the emotional experience as they can get, and sort of force those feelings into reality. it's sort of like when you have a nightmare and wake up distressed, but realize later on it was actually pretty funny. your connection to the emotions you experienced in the memory has been cut, but you can remember that memory, and form new connections based on what you remember

i dont agree with the cc counterparts thing (and that's fine, this is headcanon lol), but i do agree with the "i've known you for years (and let's just ignore the fact that neither of us remember why that is and why we know that)" thing. i like that. i personally think that those feelings come from either other servers or are just.. undefined. if we're never going to go further into them, they don't really need to be defined. it would probably be a mess, and it's easy enough to work around like this

anyway. yes. thank you for your thoughts i enjoyed them a lot :D this is the kinda stuff i think about a lot and i saw this post on my dash and immediately opened it in a new tab to read later lol

Life Series SMP/Eyes and Ears AU Thematic Discussion + Theorycrafting (pt. 1)

WARNING: Extremely long post

Kachow what’s poppin fellas, I’m back at it again talking about boomer block Youtubers and their surprisingly in-depth improv series. Now that the Life Series’ 5th season has finally concluded, I’m back on the lore train and poor Scar is left to suffer the consequences, and Martyn’s concluded yet another lore stream, I decided to compile a long master post of lore notes and theories about what we have so far.

Obviously all the ‘lore’ of the Life Series is purely unofficial; Grian has not approved any of it as being actually official/set in stone for what he intended the series to be. Most of it has been us in the crazy fandom extrapolating their really good storytelling, and also “semi-canonized” by Martyn in what he calls the Eyes and Ears AU (and this post assumes you are familiar with it). As someone who’s been a fan since the beginning way back in 3rd Life, I’ve pretty much hopped on the lore train since the beginning as well (if casually) and enjoying all the different extrapolations/analysis/angst written around the players. Rather than just theorizing lore details in a vacuum, however, I’ve always liked imagining the lore based around the reoccurring themes, symbolism and arcs we’ve seen across the series. I’d been bouncing my various thoughts and theories around these themes for a while, and finally I decided to compile my notes together.

This post is basically my imagining what the Life Series/Eyes and Ears AU story is “about,” as if it were a fleshed-out, long-running and story-driven tv show. Initially this post started as simply a gigantic “Eyes and Ears Theory,” me trying to sus out my own theories/ideas of what the Life Series’ mysteries were based on Martyn’s lore. However, considering that Martyn is ALSO writing the lore on the fly, and I have some details I would interpret differently or change, this ended up less a ‘theory’ and more ‘me writing an entire AU/interpretation of the Life Series as a whole.’ My intention is NOT to ‘correct’ Martyn’s lore, nor to claim my theory as the ‘right’ interpretation; rather, this is my personal interpretation of what the Life Series story is about, based on information shown in the original SMP and in Martyn’s AU.

One last disclaimer: I am ONLY drawing on lore details from the Life Series, Martyn’s lore streams, and Minecraft EVO, and also references to the iRL creators. I am not drawing on any story from other SMPs such as Pirates or Empires; there may be some Hermitcraft references here and there.

This is going to be very long, and a multi-parter, because I can’t summarize to save my life. And I promise I’ll come up with a proper name for my series of posts another time. If you’ve stuck around to read, I thank you.

Part 1: The Overall Plot + Understanding the Watchers

Recap of official lore details

Although Martyn hasn’t given specific details on the Watcher + Listener species (he hasn’t come up with a name yet), we know the following details for sure (from EVO, lore streams etc.)

Watchers + Listeners + The Council are all deity-like beings of the same species, and they all consume human emotions

The Council are the upper ranks/possibly leaders, whereas the Watchers + Listeners are separate factions

The Watchers are at LEAST two high-ranking members of the species (the two dots being outcast from the wider circle, as is their logo)

The Watchers were behind Minecraft EVO, where they gave all the players tasks (much like Secret Life) and eventually ending in them fighting the Ender Dragon separately

While the Watchers may not have been evil in EVO, they certainly became so AFTER, when they began to crave more negative human emotions, viewing them as “tasty” (Martyn’s words), s p i c y

They first kidnapped Grian at the end of EVO season 1, turning him into a Watcher to possibly have him join their ranks, but he’s gone rogue after realizing what their plans for the Life Series were, and plans to rescue his friends from them

The Life Series was the Watchers’ ploy to trap the players in an infinite death game where they betray and cause each other pain, all to harvest their negative emotions. Grian, in defiance to this, takes control as the ‘game master’ to make the whole thing…well, a game, so that his friends can enjoy, have fun and ease their anguish. In Martyn’s words, this is like “pouring ketchup all over the Watchers’ sundae.”

The Listeners (EVO season 2) are an opposing faction to the Watchers who disagree with their methods, although why is unknown. They’ve attempted to contact some players (e.g. Jimmy) before back in EVO in order to oppose the Watchers, but it’s not known how successful they were. They’ve also tried to swap in players in the Life Series before (e.g. subbing Lizzie and Gem for Pearl and Cleo in Lim. Life) in order to sneak them in and try to subvert the game. The Watchers kidnapping Gem for Secret Life is partially in retaliation to the Listeners. The Listeners may not be good and may have nefarious intentions also, it is as yet still unknown.

There’s potentially a third faction, the Speakers, but very little is known about them and Martyn doesn’t want to elaborate on them yet.

Okay, but what are the Watchers even after?

"Accept your fate."

From here on out is my real conjecturing/theorizing. The main question on my mind has been why are the Watchers doing what they’re doing? Obviously Martyn has confirmed that they are malicious deities who find negative human emotions tasty, but this raises further questions. Why exactly do they desire such emotions, or need them to survive (if they do, anyway)? Why do they favour negativity, when the other members of their species consume a wide range of emotions? They were confirmed to be outcast in some way from the other factions for this ploy, so what does that say about them then?

The whole species fundamentally do not understand human emotions (or perhaps do not even possess them)

This seems to me the most logical conclusion. These are powerful deities who can create miniature worlds/dimensions, life, and time to an extent (death loop). They should theoretically be self-sufficient, so I doubt that their consumption of human emotion is for survivability reasons (i.e. I don’t think Watchers will literally die if they don’t consume emotions, the same way humans die without food). What seems more likely is that human emotions bring them some benefit to their intelligence or power that they’d otherwise be quite non-functional without. (Think like the demons in The Promised Neverland, who regress to feral natures/lack of sapience if they don’t eat humans)

The Watchers’ powers and their lab-rat experimentation on the players gives a huge vibe of not being able to understand human emotions in an involved way, but only from a distance. They know methodically things like murder and betrayal cause panic and anguish, so they enforce these experiences through the game, mechanics like the Boogeyman, the Secret Tasks etc. But they don’t really know internally why these emotions come about the way humans do. Being above time, they probably don’t understand why the funny small animals have so much attachment to their transitory experiences and memories (more on this later).

world's angriest pumpkin

The Watchers are Losers, Actually

Going further, don’t you think the Watchers have a very misanthropic mindset all around? “Anguish and panic are s p i c y.” They conversely have a complete disgust for positive emotions, and can’t stand Grian making things fun for everybody. It almost feels like they have the mindset that only things like hatred and fear are exciting, bringing motivation and life to the humans, whereas things like happiness and fun are ‘useless’ because they don’t bring about the same results. Let’s also not forget their name – Watchers – and that Martyn’s confirmed them to be symbolically based off us, the audience. It’s almost like a commentary of the worst of the entertainment industry, of an audience who crave watching anything and everything to satisfy their own desires, even at the expense of the privacy and safety of the entertainer. Given the current state of the internet and social media, I don’t think I need to elaborate how awful things can get.

In other words, I believe the main motivation the Watchers are eating humans emotions is because they WANT to understand and ‘take into themselves’ such emotions. I don’t think they’re totally emotionless – Martyn does portray them with moments of glee and anger. But their understanding of emotions is superficial (self-centered, if you will) at best. As deities with no needs, being above time, they have nothing to be afraid of and nothing to feel sad or anguished over. It’s a boring, dull and empty existence. And that’s precisely why they’ve set up the Life Series game: by kidnapping a few humans and putting them through the artificially constructed wringer of panic and betrayal, they think they can create a human farm of such rich, complex and exciting emotions, all for themselves to enjoy at their own pleasure and fill the void they have.

(Listeners’ side note: If all that is the philosophy of the Watchers, it’s probably not difficult to see how/why the Listeners oppose them. The Listeners likely disagree that negative emotions are the most optimal state of humans, and unlike the Watchers do not think human suffering is just tasty popcorn one can eat at one’s pleasure. Their name – Listeners – implies they’re a more sympathetic faction, as in they listen to one’s troubles and heart rather than take delight in suffering at a superficial level. But if they are the same species, it’s very likely they have the same lack of instinctive understanding of human emotions that the Watchers do, and this could cause…problems.)

Why turn Grian?

All this is also why I believe the Watchers kidnapped Grian + turned him into a Watcher in the first place. Firstly, if they were going to concoct their plan to trap humans, they needed a collaborator from the humans in the first place. Secondly, and most importantly, this collaborator was going to be their only direct source of how human emotions work/feel like, and therefore what were the most optimal conditions needed to ensure their death game would generate the most pain and anguish. They picked Grian because he’s always the ‘leader’ of the SMP players, the person gathering and organizing everyone, so logically, he is the most ‘representative’ of the humans, and the one with the greatest ability to control them.

Of course, it’s also true that Grian was a little $#@% throughout EVO and actively rebelled against the Watchers’ tasks, so making him their collaborator might seem strange. Ignoring the meta reason that the ending was written to explain Grian’s exit from the series. But I figured in this case, they considered the benefits more than the costs. Grian’s chaotic nature is not unlike the Watchers’, considering how much he loves causing pranks and trouble to others. So, as a huge oversight, they think Grian is just like them: he loves to see people suffer, so they think. Additionally, the Watchers are desperate to understand how Grian gets his fellow humans to follow him and do what he asks with little effort. You’ll notice the Watchers have very direct, authoritative ways of trying to wrest control (e.g. the tasks, “do this or you fail”), and they get very petty and upset when people rebel against them (re: Scott’s refusal to be the Boogeyman, their motto is a very demanding “OUR WILL BE DONE.”) They see Grian’s charisma as yet another aspect of human emotions they fail to understand and thus WANT to possess for themselves.

Pictured above: The Watchers, coping and seething

Of course as we know, the Watchers believing Grian would help them is a major oversight. Becoming a god doesn’t just fundamentally change who Grian is, and he definitely doesn’t want to consign his friends to an infinite death loop of suffering. That being said, I don’t think Grianhas truly gone ‘rogue’ so much as taken as much advantage as possible of his ‘deal’ with the Watchers. We can guess the Watchers promised to him some kind of control/leadership over his friends’ circumstances as long as he worked for them, which led to them giving him the keys to the Life Series. In other words, so long as he fulfils their requirements of things being a death game that will generate ‘food’ for them, and lets them revive everyone each loop, he gets to decide how the games go.

And we know exactly what Grian’s done with this: he created the green-yellow-red lives system, he creates a fun gimmick each season, he inserts himself into the game as a player, all to bring out the best and most creative side of his friends rather than the worst. The Boogeyman probably is the only gimmick the Watchers added on their own initiative (re: Martyn’s POV in Last Life) in order to make things more spicy. Probably Grian’s conversation with the Watchers each time goes, “hey, I got an idea on how to bring out the most creative ways for everyone to cause pain in each other, [comes up with some bullcrap justification for the game’s fun mechanics].” I like to think the Watchers were going to make the death games even more vicious, cruel and competitive, but because of Grian’s wrangling he’s convinced them that a slow burn from joy to horror creates better results, and they tolerate it as long as they see him useful.

Memories and Emotions

There is also one BIG detail of the Watchers’ plan I’d like to mention: Martyn claims that the Watchers do NOT erase the players’ memories. At the end of each season, they consume everyone’s emotions so that there’s no more angst/ill will towards each other, and they start each season afresh. The players remember what’s happened in past seasons, but they don’t continue to hold the pain and negative feelings they had towards each other.

I don’t buy this, for numerous reasons.

For one, Martyn has confirmed the Watchers ARE capable of removing people’s memories. The one memory they have outright altered was the ex-EVO players’ (Martyn, Jimmy, BigB etc.) memory of what happened to Grian: they don’t remember that Grian was taken to be turned into a Watcher, and instead remember it as him either going missing or dying after the Ender Dragon fight. All this presumably to not give away the Watchers’ schemes and to ensure they still listen to Grian as if nothing ever happened.

More importantly, however, memories are vital to humanity’s emotional experience and mental health. I am not an expert by any means, but there are studies showing how people with amnesia, PTSD or other conditions affecting memories have flashbacks/emotional reactions to trauma they don’t remember consciously. The Watchers have (supposedly) done something far more simplistic yet fantastic by just eating up everybody’s emotions. All this, even though they see humans as emotion factories, constantly able to generate emotions just by existing, by their ability to draw and create meaning through emotional experiences, and by creating memories – the clearest embodiment of a mortal’s attachment to time (which if you remember, I believe the Watchers have no concept of).

You cannot just tell a human to stop feelingcompletely (under normal circumstances anyway), but especially not if they remember something very very traumatic.

Besides, there ARE clear instances when some of the players remember the events of past seasons and are STILL not over them! Impulse and Tango still being bitter/distrustful after Bdubs betrayed each of them separately, Cleo distrusting BigB for the same reason, Scott referencing Flower Husbands a lot, Pearl feeling betrayed by Cleo/Scott when they supposedly broke up the Gaslight/Gatekeep/Girlboss trio at the start of DL, Bdubs’ “I wanna be your favorite son” in Secret Life, the list goes on. Note that I’ve only listed negative/bittersweet instances; there are plenty more cases of the players remembering past seasons and alliances positively which the Watchers may have ignored. The point is, if the Watchers truly consumed everyone’s emotions to the point of a clean slate, they haven’t exactly been thorough. Nor do I think it’s very conducive for them either – don’t they want players to have enduring, unending, unresolved pain, the sweetest of all (to them)?

No, I think the Watchers HAVE been erasing/suppressing the players’ memories – they’ve just been very selective which ones. Martyn’s said that the Watchers do not care what families or connections they separate so long as they get the people they want and the plans they want. I’m going to assume the players in my theory/the Eyes and Ears AU are exactly the same as their CC counterparts. In other words: they’ve stolen Grian away from his wife. They stole Martyn away from his and his daughter. Ditto with Skizz, Impulse, Tango etc. They stole Scar away from his family. Joel and Lizzie are the only couple they didn’t separate, perhaps because they needed both for their plans, and also so they can inflict the most torture on them by ripping them away from each other, over and over again. And in order to ensure the complete submissiveness of the players to the game, the Watchers have taken away their memories of their past lives, their families, basically anyone who isn’t a fellow player in the game. The Watchers don’t erase the memories of bonds between seasons, because it’s a pain to have to teach the humans how to play all over again, but they erase any memories they find disadvantageous to keeping the game running.

They might even go one step further: while they haven’t erased the players’ memories of who each other are (so as to not cause confusion), they do try to suppress important memories. Things like how they met, the times they confided in each other after a bad day, cried on each other’s shoulder, laughed in each other’s successes, the times they hung out with each other’s families. Imagine the different alliances constantly gravitating to each other, but never being able to remember why they care about each other so much. Imagine Bdubs’ “Come on, you know you and I go way back!” when trying to justify taking Cleo’s stuff, and Cleo laughs back, even though she can’t quite remember what exactly Bdubs has done to warrant that. Imagine Joel or Lizzie trying to remember why they loved each other so much.

They fight and kill some of their friends, and protect others, because…because why again? It’s for survival value, surely, so the Watchers whisper. It’s because the strong must congregate with the strong and leave the weak to die, surely. It’s because Martyn’s always been a loner, and always will be, and should remain so. So they tell him. So they whisper, this is a deathmatch for a reason.

Grian’s Fundamental Rebellion

I think all this is the real reason Grian is rebelling against the Watchers. The most immediate reason is obvious: he wants to free his friends from this death loop. But the deeper reason as to why he’s rebelled is that the Watchers are torturing and robbing his friends of their humanity. They’re taking a tight-knit group of friends who love and would do anything for each other, and turning them against each other in a cruel and unescapable death game. On TOP of this, the Watchers have constantly messed with their heads in order to make them obedient and submissive to their schemes and the worst of their human nature, trapping them in fear, pettiness and paranoia. Of course Grian is upset. Of course he wants to save them from this fate. It’s an insult to who he knows these people to be.

This all leaves Grian in a pretty precarious position. While outwardly the Watchers want to make him a lackey as the “game master”, both he and they know he really wants to save his friends (they probably see it as their ‘cattle’ showing a bit of resistance, which once again they need to suppress). And while on one hand he’s making the games fun to ease his friends’ pain and bring the best out of them, this is just a hotfix rather than a real solution. In order to really rescue the players, Grian’s got to get them to rebel against the Watchers as well. Refuse to play by the rules, by the expectation that they must murder and kill without mercy, without any attachment to their alliances or past friendships. Make everyone like Scott refusing to be the Boogeyman, or Skizz constantly trying to be wholesome (until the bloodlust gets the better of him anyway).

Ironically in order to achieve this, Grian’s best bet is to try to jog everyone’s lost memories of each other and the things they lost, both good and bad. But ultimately, this is going to make them (in the short term) suffer more. This is where you can insert all your Desert Duo/Flower Husband/whatever alliance you like most angst. But more practically, I like to imagine when “the cameras” are not watching, when Grian knows no one will notice or catch him, he sneaks around to the different alliances, even the ones he’s not part of, to ask them how they’re doing, if they remember anything from the past etc. (in a meta sense, the players edit and cut stuff from their videos all the time; who’s to say he isn’t trying to catch a quick chat while everyone’s mining?!) It also reflects in why Grian is constantly trying to make alliances with different people instead of just gravitate to one person, he needs to check on everyone and capitalize on every single opportunity. (besides the meta reason, being that cc!Grian wants to be creative, and sticking to the same person all the time isn’t very entertaining from a content creator perspective)

One last detail about the winners: I don’t have much to say about the fragments yet, because Martyn (sneaky boi) hasn’t yet revealed the significance of the fragments nor of their healing, although he has hinted Bad Things™ will happen if a player gets too fragmented. But I do think the winners are important: with the game finished, they give Grian a very short window of time to talk to one person directly, without Watcher interference. They’re always the last to be killed/swept away/revived by the Watchers, and I can imagine there’s a brief period of time when their souls are being transferred to The Void w/e where Grian can step in and interfere. In my theory, Grian passes on some sort of clue/push to the winners, as like a subtle message about what they can do to stand up to the Watchers. I’ll detail on what I think these individual messages were in part 2. Needless to say, 3rd Life was a traumatic experience for Grian for many reasons, but the nail in the coffin was the fact that he won, and therefore there was no way for him to pass a message onto anyone.

Conclusion

Hooooooo jeepers that was long @A@; Thank you so much for your patience reading this if you made it to the end, I really appreciate it. As I said, I’ve had these lore ideas bouncing in my head for a LONG time, and with the end of Secret Life I couldn’t get out of my head the different trends/symbolism that was popping out of an improv series. It honestly speaks a lot to how genius our favorite block dudes are at improv, that they can turn their improv nonsense into a coherent narrative. I really wanted to try my hand at fleshing out such a narrative, and with Martyn constantly drip-feeding lore to the fans, I had more than enough material to not just put out guesses but construct something a full XYZ. As I mentioned, I enjoy workshopping themes and characters a LOT more than just worldbuilding or “what if this or that” details in a vacuum, hence why I’ve written all that I have, so this was a fun exercise for me all around!

Next time in part 2 I talk about Character Development™, or character specific notes and details I’ve noticed and extrapolated from what we’ve seen of each individual player, as well as what their different arcs across the seasons mean for them within the lore. Stay tuned for another wordbarf!

Bonus list of works I was inspired by for this loredump:

Log Horizon

The Promised Neverland

Danganronpa (ironic as I’m not really a fan of this franchise, but the first game has an otherwise solid premise which I found really similar to the Life Series)

The Fate franchise (when Martyn asked “what’s Fate?” on the latest lore stream, let me tell you I couldn’t stop laughing; NO MARTYN DON’T GO INTO THE WEEB RABBIT HOLE)

Various amazing animatics from the Traffic fandom: Earth, Bang!, most of Melloz Heist’s works, and of course all the amazing fanart

Way too many conversations with my friends about fantasy species

[goldstargloww]

guys look at what my friend gillipop did

its a little me its a little me being a silly little void blob!!!

im gonna eat it. get eaten. nom

[goldstargloww]

You're corvidcoded because of the "art to collect" tag. Just so you know. Shiny objectcore.

i enjoy this

[goldstargloww]

personally i don't like the only winners remember headcanon, but i can see how it has that going for it

i find it more interesting to think about why people keep trying to win. they know how it's gone down in the past,—they've been there and extrapolated, they've watched as ghosts, they've heard about it. but do they know how it feels? have they guessed? why haven't they? why do they keep trying?

Hey do you ever think about how winning the life series can pretty much be canonically interpreted as a Bad Thing? Like when in Double Life, Scott tells Pearl “You deserve this more” and then blew himself up when he had won the previous games, or when Pearl tells Scar “I can’t win again” in Secret Life?

[goldstargloww]

You are doing awesome and I hope you have a wonderful day

huh. thanks :D

[goldstargloww]

IT IS IT ISSS yesyes :D

i googled kijetesantakalu at school once and my gif popped up and i was like :o

i only ever posted that on discord which makes it better

(also i am pointing out these tags i love this)

Treats.

Sorry I'm too lazy for the other option.

Don't worry I was gonna be to lazy to do a trick.

Have a spinning Kijetesantakalu just for you.