zynnth

[zynnth]

since everyone else has done this ive decided to do my own version of teams and i only have one wish

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE IM BEGGING I WOULD GIVE MY LIFE FOR THIS TEAM TO HAPPEN PLEASE

[zynnth]

It's something about Joel's decision to finally embrace family which directly led him to winning Wild Life.

It's something about Joel being a rogue agent in 3rd life, with no strong alliance to anybody but himself, the lone nomad in the woods with nobody but his army of dogs. The man that swore allegiance to the Red King through gritted teeth for no reason other than the protection he offered. The man that died surrounded by people, yes, but not friends, the King that swore his protection taking his last breath on the desert sand.

It's something about Joel in Last Life somehow distancing himself even further, his allyship with Scar at Magical Mountain strenuous at best even before his early fall into a red life. The man that hungered for the same chaos and bloodshed that befell him onto others, yet spent most of his days alone. The man that was hunted by everyone he wronged, the wolf turned prey making his last stand in a cold dark forest, his brief friendship with Grian a fleeting comfort as they both died alone as a result of their own carnage.

It's something about Joel in Double Life, linked to Etho as his soulmate though still oddly alone. The man who battled tirelessly to give himself and his teammate a peaceful life, the Relation-Ship which stood as a symbol of their devotion to eachother being burned to a crisp in a moment of pathetic irony, reminding him that no relationship to another player would ever truly last. The man who lost the final lives of both himself and his soulmate by the hands of the man he dared call a friend a mere season ago.

It's something about Joel in Limited Life, seemingly freed from his shackles of loneliness and becoming a part of one of the most powerful alliances on the server. A Bad Boy with his two fellow Bad Boy's always by his side ready to aid, not just an alliance but a friendship, a strong connection to fellow man for the first time in so long. It's about the cracks beginning to form in Joel's outlook on the games, taking it as his duty to assist Jimmy in protecting Grian as he was AFK for the 3rd session, a decision that was expected as a part of the alliance, sure, but not entirely necessary to guarantee his own survival. It's about Joel learning to care so deeply about his fellow Bad Boys, setting up the whole Bread Bridge, Skynet and Skynet 2.0 for surprise attacks not just for himself but for the rest of the Bad Boy's as well. It's about Joel dropping everything he was planning to do in an instant when Jimmy's time had begun to run out, quickly trying to plan out ways for his friend to get kills and keep him in the game all the while his own time was fleeting by the second. It's about Jimmy dying in front of him. His teammate, his friend gone in an instant, his last moments spent fumbling over a minecart Joel set up to earn him back whatever time they could manage, oblivious that it would be the last attempt he would ever make. It's about Joel breaking down over Jimmy's death, falling back into his rash nature as his mind was set on bringing destruction to the land once again, not for power this time, but vengeance. It's about Joel refusing to kill Grian a second time even as he begged him to do so, the guilt of taking even more time from a fellow Bad Boy too much for him to handle as his constant attacks against the Clockers and Scott grew fruitless and his fate was already sealed. It's about Joel's final words being a plea of help to his remaining Bad Boy, a moment of vulnerability he had never been allowed before being cut short as an arrow from Scott set his clock to zero.

It's something about Joel in Secret Life yearning for that same connection he felt with the Bad Boys, joining the Mounders early on however playing a more disconnected role in the group. It's about Joel deciding to base a bit behind the designated area of the Mounders on his own small hill surrounded by trees, the secluded life calling to him like an old friend. Maybe it was the safety the forest provided, or perhaps his own paranoia when betrayal was so common between the members of this series, relationships like these were not meant to last afterall. It's about Joel working mostly by his lonesome for the season, interacting with the Mounders when it was necessary, assisting them in building and plotting and doing enough to earn his keep, but at the same time keeping mostly to himself and his Fairground. It's about Joel showing up to Lizzie's party when nobody else did, the fear of a trap or ambush subdued by his responsibility to be there, to be present and join a loved one in a moment that meant something to them. It's about Joel and Lizzie sharing that quiet moment in Lizzie's hut, the barbaric nature of the server they were a part of outweighed by the fact that sometimes you simply had to put your faith in another person, even with the possibility of it hurting you. It's about Joel fighting with the Mounders until the end, accidentally contributing to Bdubs's death by setting him on fire with his bow before getting wiped out by Gem & The Scotts, Bdubs's death a final dose of salt in the wound that no matter how hard he tries, he can never keep all those he cares about alive.

It's something about Joel turning a new leaf in Wild Life, leaving behind his untrusting and lonely ways and finally embracing the role of Family in his life. It's about Joel partnering with Gem, quickly forming a close bond and considering eachother family, looking out for eachother as much as they would themselves. It's about Joel refusing to continue the pattern of senseless violence, traps and murders and instead focusing on keeping his family, his home, and himself safe, channelling that urge for battle into Defence rather than Offence. It's about Joel taking the safety of his family so seriously to the point of having to be held back by Gem at any insinuation of harm being done to them. It's about Joel and Gem supporting eachother on whatever endeavors they each chose to follow, because they trusted eachother to keep themselves safe and had faith in their ability to do so. It's about Joel agreeing to let Grian join their family after Mumbo and Skizz died. Perhaps a lingering fondness from the Bad Boys days, or more likely the fact that Joel knew what it was like to be alone, to have no one to support you, and he wouldn't wish that upon anyone now that he knew the strength of family. It's about Joel being the last green life and one of the last yellows, refusing to feed into senseless conflict until it was necessary to do so. It's about Joel fighting not just for himself, but for his family, standing strong even after his closest family had fallen for the sake of keeping her spirit alive and battling side by side with his newest family on Bam Mountain at the final showdown. It's about Joel and Grian being the final two, the man who's every action was for the sake of family against the one who had been his closest ally, often times his only ally so many times before. However blood always ran thicker than water...

It's something about Joel learning to trust others, to put their needs before his own, to be selfless in the love he gave and accepting the love he received back without fear. In the end it was not just his own abilities that contributed to his victory...

It was Family.

[zynnth]

WELL WELL WELL IF IT ISNT ANOTHER MARTIN LORE STREAM TO MAKE ME GO CRAZY

(My AU of the Eyes and Ears AU)

Alright so this stream from today confirmed a couple of things I was wordering about previously and that got my gears turning again. There were quite a lot of lore drops but for now I'm once again mainly going to focus on the Watchers and how they feed on the emotions of the players.

This got mentioned a fair amount throughout the stream but the moment that stood out to me the most was towards the end, where someone briefly asked whether the Watchers could starve if they don't have any emotions to absorb. Turns out that the answer was a very straightforward "yes". This intrigues me especially, since this is an idea that I have been turning around in my head quite a bit previously, especially when writing this and this post.

I've already talked about how both Joel's victory in Wild Life and Scott's finale in Last Life went against what the Watchers wanted in terms of producing these intense negative feelings, but I haven't yet put into words what exactly that meant for these beings. This was mainly due to the fact that the necessity of feeding on emotions was still dubious as far as I was concerned, but now that has been cleared up. They do need it, and failing to do so will apparenly have severe concequences for them.

Now my interpretation of the lore is slightly different from Martin's, mainly in regards to the fact that in my version, all of the players are at least somewhat aware of the existence of the Watchers, and maybe even the Listeners, and their involvement in the games. The reason why they don't seem to fight back apart from a couple of instances, is the same reason why they usually don't carry over emotions from one game to another. The Watchers take away that resentment too, but as we've seen, it keeps coming back in some form.

My immediate conclusion was that in order to get rid of them, the players would have to overcome the negativity of the situation and either remain relatively neutral or thrive on the positive feelings instead. Part of this has already been achieved courtesy of Grian, who purposefully brings lightheartedness into these death games, seemingly keeping quite a lot of ugly feelings at bay and therefore opposing the Watchers' will. What's interesting though, is that Grian himself is a Watcher as well, who also feasts on emotions. Contrary to the other Watchers however, who prefer negative feelings over the rest, Grian has a more "balanced diet". In other words, he takes both positive and negative ones, not willing to exploit the suffering of his friends. This implies that regardless of whether the players have a fun time or not, the Watchers will still be able to sustain themselves.

The problem with this though is that my initial thought of starving them out to get rid of them wouldn't quite work. Maybe they will move on to another set of players to use once they realise they've harvested as much as they could from these ones, and although that would solve the issue of them tormenting these people, the existence of the death games would still continue.

I guess it wasn't entirely confirmed whether positive feelings are enough for Watchers to maintain themselves so there is still a possibility that it would at least weaken them in some way, enough to give the players a fighting chance.

With that in mind I still think that the key to fighting back is to not give them what they want. Even if that won't starve them out completely, it might just inconvenience the Watchers enough to give the Listeners, or maybe the players themselves an opening to make a drastic move. It won't be easy and it certainly won't be possible just by themselves, but with allies on their side, it might just be possible if they have a little bit of hope and trust.

And we all know how the Watchers feel about trust.

[zynnth]

THEY CAN STARVE

I REPEAT THEY CAN STARVE

gonna write down my thoughts about this soon in a more coherent way but my mind is in absolute chaos because of the the lore stream today

[zynnth]

a solar system like no other

[zynnth]

(My AU of the Eyes and Ears AU)

Adding on to this post, cause I genuinely can't stop thinking about this, that Joel's victory of Wild Life might be one of the first solid steps towards fighting back against the Watchers.

Winning the game by not giving in to his usual bloodthirst after turning red and keeping a generally cool head throughout Wild Life, as well as refusing to generate and spread too many negative emotions across the server is an act of resistance against the Watchers, who expected to feed on said emotions. It was the thing they were most looking forward to, only to watch Joel laugh in their faces instead.

And this wasn't the first time something like this has happened either. All the way back in Last Life, the game where the Watchers first introduced the Boogieman Curse, an addition which created fear and distrust even in some of the most tightly knit groups, a similar resisting force decided to make itself known. It was Scott, one of the people who got the Boogieman Curse two separate times, and the only one who refused to kill another person when he got it for the second time. He outright defied the Watchers, deliberately going against their interest of watching the bloodshed caused by the curse unfold. Just to add salt to the wound, he then went on to win the game, which most likely wasn't the outcome the Watchers would've wanted to see at that point.

It has been speculated many times before that Scott hates the Watchers, which is supported by him letting the curse consume him instead of killing someone else to get rid of it. I think this hatred not only comes from the fact that the Watchers are forcing them to go through these killing games, but also from the fact that Scott is the kind of person who stays true to his morals and won't do something he doesn't think is right. In his words, he "spent all season being honorable" and he was "not about to stop now". He defied the Watchers, because getting that last Boogie kill would've just caused more despair and wouldn't have served any other purpose than please the Watchers.

When we look back on Joel's victory in Wild Life, we can see a reflection of this. He might not be all about morals and honor, but he's also not the type of person to let others pull his strings. He does what he wants, whenever he wants, the way that he wants to. And he wasn't about to let the Watchers decide how his battles would end, how his victory is earned.

To me it seems like Joel hates the Watchers just as much as Scott does, albeit for different reasons. He's not going to let them push him around anymore, he's going to play on his own terms from now on.

With that in mind, I think it's interesting to think about how these individual acts of resistance will develop in the future. With these first steps taken already, it's not unthinkable that more will follow soon. Will the next winner attempt to defy the Watchers as well? Will they eventually get to a point where they will have an actual fighting chance against them? What about Grian, who's a Watcher himself? What about Martyn who embraced the violence to win or Scar who is still stuck in Secret Life?

It seems only time will tell.

[zynnth]

I fucking love the whole watchers protecting joel and creating wild life for him theory (forgot who originally made this but once I find the post again I'll update this with credits to them:]) Because do you know how pissed they must have been to get not a single bit of bloodthirst, anguish or anger, or any any reaction they were able to feed on? He was content and calm and laughing around with the ghosts when his trap didn't work. The watchers wasted their energy on the mad dog, the wolf. Without realising that he had domesticated himself.

[zynnth]

I think everyone sharing their opinions about Joel's celestial symbol really manages to capture what I love about this series and fandom so much. It's about how there will never be one correct answer to the question, which allows for so many diffenert interpretations from everyone.

And the thing is, everyone makes such good points that I alone might have never even thought of. Even if it's about something as silly as Joel having The Car symbol or something more lore relevant like whether the Canary Curse is still active or not.

Obviously there will be opinions that I don't agree with but most posts I've read had pretty convincing arguments.

I love how the Life Series allows for so many interpretations, I love how it opens up so many debates and I love how the fandom engages and comes up with all these different theories, even when it's about the most obscure little things. I can't think of another piece of media which had me this excited and engaged.

Man I love the Life Series so fucking much

[zynnth]

at least no one will be able to blow up his Blumming Car in space

[zynnth]

didn't even break a sweat

[zynnth]

so this is how it went right?

[zynnth]

The Wild Life finale is making me so insane I can't NOT talk about it

(My AU of the Eyes and Ears AU)

I kept thinking about how an ending like Joel's could be tied to the whole Watcher Lore cause of how happy he was at the end and how that's exactly the opposite of what the Watchers would want, since they feed off of the emotions of the players, especially negative ones. But like. That's EXACTLY IT

Wild Life is, well, WILD. It's almost like the Watchers made this game SPECIFICALLY for Joel, someone who thrives in the chaos and is as unpredictable, as WILD as him.

And unsurprisingly, this works very well. Despite the previous games having their own twists and turns, Wild Life turned that up to a hundred. The Watchers wanted to see the chaos, with Joel in the middle of it. They wanted him to once again reach the level of insanity he displayed in several of the previous games, to spread the panic across the server which would generate all the emotions they could feed on.

But it didn't quite work as they intended. And that's because they underestimated him.

At this point to me it's undeniable that Joel had one of the most prominent arcs throughout the series.

It started in Third Life, where he was quite literally a lone wolf, only having a loose alliance with Scar and Grian at the end which was more for convenience rather than his own will. Then in Last Life, he was once again alone most of the time other than some quick team ups with other red names. Later on in Double Life, he had to team up with Etho because he was soulbound to him. Despite being somewhat reluctant at first, they managed to make it work. Then in Limited Life, he had his first taste of a genuine alliance with the Bad Boys, going as far as to want to sacrifice himself just so Jimmy wouldn't go out first. Then in Secret Life he had the Mounders, so far his biggest team in the games. Throughout the entire series he found more and more people he could rely on, an arc which finally had its climax in Wild Life with his (extended) family. He had their backs and they had his.

It was this support that not only protected him from other teams, but helped him outplay the Wildcards thrown at them. In the middle of all the chaos and death, Joel, the one who was known for being reckless, dying to his own mistakes and just being generally chaotic, was the one who remained rational and not only managed to COMPLETELY avoid dying to these lethal Wildcards, he used them to his advantage.

His finale was no tragedy like all the others were. It was a genuine victory, one he savored until his final moments. The Watchers didn't get the insane Joel from the previous games. Instead they got an ecstatic champion who wasn't going to give them any negative emotions to feed on. This victory was HIS and he's proud of it. In this world of chaos, it wasn't the unpredictable Wildcards that defeated him. HE was the Wildcard that the Watchers could never expect. HE was the one who defied all expectations and won the game with his family cheering him on. HE was the one who wasn't going to give in to what the Watchers wanted.

And it was HIM who managed to win with a big smile on his face at the end of it all.