So I’ve heard A LOT of different interpretations of watcher lore, but one 8’ve never really heard in great detail is the Grian v Watcher power shift between the seasons.
Basically how this theory works is after 3rd life, when Grian snuck into the games, the Watchers realized that giving him some power over the games could actually improve the games overall.
Last life was essentially a test season because of its many new rules. The Watchers were trying to explore new ways to design the games to generate the most fear.
1. They added the randomized lives to add to the chaos Scar caused when he was the only red name,
2. They added the concept of giving lives to see what that could do. The power they gave Grian was both a power but also a chain they used to control him. They made his responsible for casting the boogeyman curse, which gave him power but also forced him to be involved in more death.
This theory also explains why Grian and Jimmy only got two lives, as the Watchers like the concept of having Jimmy out first, and they don’t want Grian winning again. I would go through the rational behind each players amount of lives but at this point in the series the Watchers wouldn’t have had enough information on the players yet to have a good rational behind each life assignment and I also really don’t want to lol.
Double life is my favorite of the series when it comes to this theory. Obviously in real life the soulmates are random pairs, but the Watcher never leave anything up to chance so I like to think they chose half the pairings and let Grian choose a few.
Jimmy & Tango: because they had never been together and had had opposing alliances before so they hoped that would cause a clash leading to their early deaths.
Martyn & Cleo: Because Cleo had proved they could be very violent when on red, and having Martyn (who was the main person they communicated with) have influence on them would be good in case they wanted to point Cleo in a violent direction.
Impulse & Bdubs: because they hoped that (because of a soul connection theory I will post about soon) they would instinctively dislike each other because Bdubs betrayed Impulse twice (which was the opposite of how it ended up)
Grian & Scar: ok I hear your screams saying, “but Grian would have chosen to be with Scar because of third life!” and I hear you, I thought this first too, but I think a much better theory is that Grian felt so much guilt for killing Scar in 3rd life it led to him completely withdrawing from wanting any alliance with Scar, which the Watchers knew. Allying with Scar would mean Grian having to remember how 3rd life ended the entirety of double life, which was the opposite of what he wanted. The Watcher’s chose this as another way to keep Grian under control, by forcing him to be responsible for Scar’s deaths just like the last two seasons.
BigB & Ren: because Ren was much calmer in last life when he was allied with BigB, even commenting he didn’t want to kill anyone when he made it to the final four. Grian wanted to prevent another red winter.
Scott & Pearl: Because Scott was very rebellious during last life, when he was allied with Pearl, and Grian hopes being with Pearl will keep him rebellious in some way.
Etho & Joel: ok I can’t think of a reason for these two because this is the first time they were ever allied but let’s just say Grian put them together because they were the last two left 😭
Limited life gave Grian the same power that he had in last life with the boogeyman command, and the Watcher’s went back to exploring the idea of gaining back life, but this time through killing other players.
This is the part where things go wrong, all because of the skynet.
The Watchers hate the skynet, because it was a very easy way to get kills without any fighting, which was one of the main sources of fear in the games.
And that was how Secret Life came to be.
The Watchers decided that it was their turn to have almost complete control, so they made a series where they personally made tasks that everyone had to complete or they wouldn’t regain health. However, this completely failed because most of the tasks lead to people being confused or amused, so a lot of people were able to ignore their fear if they saw someone with a ridiculous task doing something funny. This was bad enough, but one more terrible thing came for them. Jimmy didn’t die first. Lizzie, while truly bf to complete the task they gave her was knocked into the void by Scott (one more reason he’s their least favorite). This should have been fixed by Etho and Grian’s task, to bring a warden up to the surface and make it fight a wither, which did end up killing Jimmy later in the session. But it was to late because Lizzie was already dead.
This lead to Wild Life, where the completely flipped everything. They gave Grian complete control over everything, which ended up blowing up in their face. Grian convinced the Watchers with the prospects of the wild cards where the players starve to death not because the don’t know what is eatable and having immortal snails chase after them, but the series turned out wildly different. For one, Jimmy made it the longest he ever has, which pissed if the watchers even more. The next was that the wild cards just weren’t effective. A lot of the cards, like the superpowers, failed to make anyone scared. And Mumbo and Skizz’s early deaths were a big loss because having people die that early is a big loss for the generation of fear.
After Wild Life failed the Watchers were very angry, which led to Past Life
Past life was the Watchers returning to their roots, back to the evo server with life series rules. The secret society was their first mode of control, one that flew wildly out of control. They wanted two deaths, just two, and they’d get an entire session of Gem and Etho fearing for their lives. Instead they turned it into a game and killed 8 with no forplay. We also see the Watcher’s hate for Scott displayed when Scott got the boogeyman curse twice in one session, probably as a reminder to stay complacent.
The watchers, now realizing they are running out of options if they can’t even keep control of an evo inspired series, decided to throw caution to the wind and make the most energy using but scary series yet. Nice life
Nice life used a lot of resources for them, indicated by how short it was, but they wanted to see how the trade off could work and weather series like nice life are sustainable. They manipulated everything, bringing back the most effective fear generating methods (which were ironically mostly created by humans) like trivia bot and red winter. This did generate fear but it it took a lot of energy to work, indicated by the current hiatus, the watchers needed a break due to all the strain.
This is the complete series mapped out so far, but I do intend on expanding this after the next series.
