I know everyone always jokes about the Life series members speedrunning their divorce archs with past alliances each season, but Bdubs and Cleo are really out here having the worlds longest slowburn divorce in history.
They start out together in 3rd Life as each others ride or die. No matter who else pokes their head into their team, it’s ultimately always just been the two of them - Bdubs even tells her as much. When Cleo is making alliances with other factions, he looks her right in the eye and tells her that even after all of their other alliances break apart, he will always be loyal to her. They both agree that even if everything falls apart, they will always be each others ride or die.
When Bdubs comes back after missing a session to discover that Cleo has made an alliance with the ONE group he could not stand, he swallows his pride and sucks it up. He isn’t happy about it, but he does it for Cleo.
It’s their partnership together that costs Cleo the one alliance she truly wanted. She wants an alliance with Flower Husbands, but Scott refuses to part ways with his alliance with Desert Duo, and Bdubs has a vendetta against Grian, and so Cleo walks away. Because of Bdubs.
It’s Cleo’s unwavering loyalty to Bdubs that ultimately ends up killing her in the end. When the Red Army attacks them, she wants to hide. She tells Bdubs to hide, but he wants to fight, and so she reluctantly follows after him. She apologizes to the other people she’s with, telling them that she’s sorry but she has to go after him because she promised she would always stick by him. He’s her ride or die, and so she follows after him. And she dies. A death which would have been easily avoided if she would have stayed hidden like she wanted to do from the start. Bdubs makes her a grave in their backyard - one of the few people who ever got a tombstone. He buries her under a spruce tree in their backyard with no less than four bouquets of flowers that he uses to decorate her grave.
Their breakup starts at the beginning of the next season. It was a mutual decision, so nobody is hostile towards each other, they’re all on good terms, they just seem to have drifted apart. Last Life is like the grace period following a mutual breakup where your feelings for each other haven’t necessarily changed at all, they still care about each other, but they’re separate now, so it’s different. The kind of feeling that’s sort of along the same lines of they’ve agreed it’s better that they are broken up, but they don’t really treat each other any differently. They still hang out, they’re still on good terms.
They do get jealous when the other person introduces them their their new partners.
Cleo goes to visit Bdubs during one of the first episodes and they are both absolutely delighted to see each other. One of the first things Bdubs says is that seeing her had felt like coming home, and Cleo agrees.
This is like the early stages of the Ethubs pairing, and so Bdubs isn’t as secure in their relationship, and Cleo is safe and familiar and comforting. In his own words “it’s like home”. Etho makes a joke that he had turned his back for 5 minutes and Bdubs had immediately run straight back to Cleo, and Bdubs laughs, kind of waves him off, but Cleo takes ONE look at Etho and just goes “Oh…” and her face drops because she realizes that he’s with someone else. And like, to the point, so was she, but it’s to the same point of it was a mutual breakup, but they still care about each other, and it still hurts a little seeing them with someone else. A sentiment that Bdubs echos later when he sees Cleo with Lizzie.
Bdubs walks into the Fairy Fort and starts yelling at Lizzie about the Enchanting table, making demands, and then Cleo steps in. He’s not yelling at her, but he is yelling at her teammate, and she just very calmly steps up to him before very quietly going “Bdubs, back down.” I don’t even think she had a weapon in her hand, her voice is soft and quiet, she sounds almost sad in a way, there is altogether nothing threatening about her and yet he stops immediately. He hears the tone of her voice, stops, glances between her and Lizzie, before taking a BIG step backwards and going “I see the dynamic here” as he realizes that she is ALSO with someone else. And he sounds almost betrayed, like she had gone behind his back or something, and this is like the big moment where they both realize that they still care but they’ve both moved on, they’re not each others ride or die anymore.
Cleo teams back up with Bdubs the second she goes Red for the first time. After BigBs betrayal, she angrily leaves the Fairy Fort, and thus everyone else in that alliance. She tries for Scott first, but she goes Red not even 5 minutes after joining him, and so she’s forced to leave him too. And who does she go running to? Bdubs. Because, in her own words “when you’ve been betrayed, you go with the people you trust.” And Bdubs takes her with open arms.
When Bdubs tells Cleo that Etho’s been trying to kick him out because he’s red, she marches all the way over to their house to give Etho a piece of her mind. Etho is the ONE person she didn’t want to cross during 3rd life, but the SECOND she hears Bdubs might be getting mistreated she is OFF, threatening the man in his own house for messing with her buddy.
When Scar gives Bdubs a life, Cleo is furious. Reds aren’t allowed to team with other colours, and so they are no longer allowed to work together and she’s FURIOUS. She literally crosses the entire server just so she can yell at Scar because “you took my friend away!”
The fact that Cleo was with Etho when Bdubs dies. Etho, who is in shock and heartbroken, and Cleo has to console him. The two of them teaming up after his death. Cleo, who had never trusted Etho. Called him a “Wildcard”. In 3rd life she expected Etho to turn on them at any moment. And yet, when faced with an alliance with him, she goes “I’m trusting you because Bdubs trusted you.” Essentially saying that she still didn’t particularly trust him, but she trusted Bdubs, and she was going to choose to continue to trust his judgement. Her saying she felt the need to protect him for some reason, feeling guilty when she doesn’t tell him about Pearl’s trap.
Double Life was almost like the acceptance period. Again, they are still on decent terms, but some of the niceties have gone. They are both still around, but they kind of leave each other be, not having a need to meddle in each others business.
Until Bdubs makes a crack about Scott.
Bdubs and Impulse are going around trying to drive a wedge between other couples, and he comes after Cleo and Scott. The first real argument they get into. Bdubs lies to Cleo, saying Scott was saying bad things about her, and she calls him out on it. She scolds him, telling him he should be ashamed for lying to her of all people after all they’ve been through. She tells him he should feel bad about it and he does. He apologizes, walking away with his tail between his legs and promising to never to it again.
He’s not necessarily hostile towards her after that, but he’s not particularly civil either. He shoots her multiple times once he goes Red, but he’s not really TRYING to kill her. He hits her once and she just LOOKS at him, goes “Bdubs, no.” And he just goes “Ok.” And walks away. He’s still attacking her, but his hearts not in it. He’s not really TRYING to kill her because deep down he knows he doesn’t really want to. It’s more just a formality of being Red, and Cleo doesn’t even fault him for it. She doesn’t ever retaliate either. She tells Impulse that this is just what he gets like when he goes Red, because she knows. She’s seen it before.
Limited Life almost feels like the true start of their divorce. They’re teamed again, but not in the same way. They still care about each other, but Cleo doesn’t fully trust him anymore, as is evident by the amount of times she’s concerned he’s going to leave them for Etho. During the last episode when Cleo asks him what their plan is, he jokingly says he’s going to leave them and team up with Ties, and the FIRST thing Cleo does is pull out a crossbow and aim it at him until he says he’s just kidding. And he has to reassure her that he is in fact kidding. And it’s not really her fault. She’s been betrayed before, and so she’s a bit skeptical of everyone now. But she doesn’t take his word at face value anymore.
She also has good reason to be paranoid. Bdubs has been consistently sneaking over to see Etho, and he has definitely not been subtle. He’s told them right to their face that he’s got an alliance with Etho, and so Cleo already KNOWS about it, and she also knows that their team in particular has issues with everyone else on team Ties, and so there is really no way Bdubs can ever realistically be part of both teams. He needs to choose between them, and Cleo is rightfully concerned Bdubs will pick Etho.
The fact that Bdubs really does pick Etho. During a conversation he has at their tower, he tells Etho he would betray Cleo and Scar in an instant if it came down to it. He says “I feel like it’s still you and me.” He picks Etho, and yet when Cleo falls off of Sky Net, he SCREAMS her name with such a desperation. He’s told Etho he would betray Cleo in an instant, and yet when he calls her name, it is the exact same tone of voice he used when Cleo was slain by the Red Army in 3rd Life. That same tone of panic, of desperation. She falls off of Sky Net and he panics. He’s scared. He tells Etho he would betray Cleo, and yet he doesn’t want her to die.
And like I don’t think he’s lying about Etho. Given the chance I still think he would team up with him, but this season was more about denial. He says he would betray her, but he could never. He says he doesn’t care, but he does.
The fact that after all this time, they both still care. One season after the next they grow a little bit further apart, but they never stop caring.
annaxmalina
turnnoffyourmind
izzy806
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germansingergirl
