Can we talk about Wisp!Slushly?
I've noticed that he's always had a very black and white view on people. It's very simple. People who did good things were good people and deserved to be saved. People who did bad things were bad people and should be stopped. Galaxy saved innocent people, he is a good person. Recall tormented people for no reason, he is a bad person. Wyll took advantage of poor people to do his bidding, he is a bad person. Slushly is a hero and always put others before him, he is a good person.
We can see how this affects how he does things a lot. How he's quick to see the good in people who haven't actively done bad, how he's okay with killing some people and not others. In short, he's set himself up with a bunch of moral rules to guide how he acts. Except for the fact that his rules are so concrete and opaque that he fails to take into account the nuances of people and how they are very complex and can't fall into the boxes of "good" and "bad". Yes, people can be more and less morally white and black, however it's good to see it as more of a scale. whereas Slushly sees it as boxes.
I like how this worldview of his has been really challenged lately as of recent episodes. We've seen a lot of him questioning his morals, questions his view on other people, etc.
The first episode we really see this is in "Searching the World For My Best Friend". We see that his actions are very much guided by his morals of being a good person. He puts everyone else in front of him, just like he always has. This is, until it's about people he cares about. In reality, the most selfless choice would be to pick the other people over Aspen, because you're saving more innocent people while not putting your personal bias over it. Obviously, though, I'd say that most people in real life would agree that they would save someone they know better over multiple strangers. Despite the fact that the strangers would have the same amount of people caring about them, same amount of life lived, etc. Just the personal bias would bring people to make a "selfish" decision to pick the person they care more about.
This doesn't stop Slushly from questioning his own morals though. He thinks that the most morally just thing would be to save more people. And he is a good person, so he should be doing that. But, his emotions think differently and want to save Aspen. At the end of the day, he saves Aspen over the others. This causes him to question himself, and if he truly is a good person if he does a bad thing. Obviously, we know that you can still be a good person and do bad things, it's part of being a normal human being. But it's not as easy for Slushly. He describes what he's done as "when push comes to shove", or "pushing a good person to the limit". He automatically assumes is that he's being a bad person because he's doing something more "selfish", and justifies it as being that he only turns into a bad person when he's forced to be.
The second most notable moment where his worldview is challenged is in the most recent episode, "How I Survived The HUNGER GAMES In Hardcore Minecraft" (These titles are really funny written out). In short terms, Wyll. In additional short terms, Aspen! Jokes aside though, this episode is actually so good for poking (more like stabbing repeatedly) at Slushly's morals.
First of all, a very small example is when Slushly questions when it's okay to kill someone in the Hunger Games or not. Wyll's perspective is that it's just the point of the game and you're only goal is to survive. Slushly's perspective is that killing innocent people is immoral. But at what point does an innocent person become justified murder? That's the question Slushly asks himself, and he's not quite sure either. But he justifies killing some people when they're actively causing harm to others or himself.
Next is his perspective of Wyll and Bry. Obviously, it seems that he wants to make Wyll a better person and "redeem" him. I'm not quite sure why this is, maybe he feels morally justified because he's forced to team with him, that he wants to team with someone with the same morals as him. Maybe he's been with Wyll long enough to want to see him change for the better. Whatever the reason is, it's clearly contradicted by the fact that he sees Wyll as a bad person. He thinks that exposing Wyll to caring about someone would prove beneficial, but he's failing to realize that Wyll doesn't understand why Slushly thinks this way in the first place! Wyll doesn't see innocent or evil people, he simply sees blank slates until he gets to know them better. And since his goal is simply to survive, he doesn't assume anything about anyone. Plus, I'm gonna be honest I don't really think he cares that much, but that's besides the point.
Wyll is right: Slushly doesn't know anything about him. Of course, he knows some of what he's done, he's kidnapped under-geared players, forced them to work for him, killed and threatened others, etc. And it's not to say it isn't okay to assume Wyll is a bad person, because he's only proven himself as one for a few weeks. But he's right that Slushly doesn't know everything about him, and therefore shouldn't assume that he's just a purely bad person based on everything. In the scene, Wyll tries to prove how stupid Slushly is with how he's thinking, because all he sees at that moment is "bad guy good guy". Although to be honest the scene was also half filled with grief and apathy and "idc we're going to die", I still think it was good to show to Slushly how his perspective of Wyll (and, in turn, everyone) is just so one-dimensional. Slushly says "Sorry for what I'm about to do," and Wyll goes "No, you're not," because Slushly is the good guy defeating the bad guy and saving everyone and there's nothing to feel bad about because he's doing something good and it's all justified and there's nothing more to it.
And then yay! Slushly recognizes his errors! He realizes that he's seen everything through the lens of good and evil, of righteousness, and of moral justification. He recognizes that yeah, people have done bad things. Wyll has done bad things. And Slushly shouldn't immediately put "Evil" above his head just because that's what he sees, because people are mor complex and they do things for reasons and they can do good and bad things without falling into either box, or either side of the scale. People are people who do things. Wyll is a person. Slushly is a person.
Anyways yeah that's all, I like Slushly, he's a little bit naive but he fixed his moral compass a little bit and it points towards a better perspective on people. Rip Bry you're the goat. Aspen please make Slushly have another moral dilemma. Yippee yay whimsy :DDD