Oooo Mcyt

Call me Mari, She/It/Shi/He pronouns! I'm okay with any terminology but tend to lean more fem! <3 (typically my posts are always /rp unless i specify i'm talking about the actual cc's) (pfp drawn by @antwuzhere, go to his blog, he's so immensely talented)

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Finally got around to drawing myself a sona. Literally just how I look and dress irl (other than the ears and tail obviously) 🤭

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This is how some fans talk about Scott, I fear /lh

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As for my take on which TMA Fears I'd assign The Lifers, it kind of depends on whether we're picking which fears I think would torment them or which fears I think they'd be avatars of, but if we're going for avatars:

Theoretically, I know Grian should be an avatar of The Eye, because he's literally A Watcher, and the whole decision to ascend at the end of evo could easily be read as the moment he made the choice to become an avatar of The Eye. But also..I just think Grian's like the least watcher aligned evo player in the life series, I think he's actively un-aligned with the watchers, and..I really like Grian as an avatar of The Corruption. Grian has shown a fondness for mycelium, skulk, creepy crawlies (see: snails), all manners of creeping infecting rotting things. Jane Prentiss and Benoît Maçon come to mind, there's an especially common theme, with The Corruption, of preying on people's desire for connection by giving them a love that'll never leave them, even if they have to rot for it, and I think it's easy to slot Grian into that role, considering how poorly he handles being alone, how clingy and (self described as) "needy" he can be, and his way of showing coddling affection for the unsettling things he keeps. I did also briefly consider Grian as an avatar of The Stranger or The Spiral, which I do still think is fitting, but I'm fond of Corruption for him.

Scott, I think, is an avatar of The Web. Now, everyone knows I don't love when Scott is portrayed as manipulative in a way that makes him out to be uniquely malicious or ingenuine in his relationships, and honestly, Scott isn't generally a liar. However. The ability of The Web to think, plan, and strategize, as well as its broad self awareness, are all traits I think are extremely fitting of Scott, and I think the way Scott gets so far in his series is by weaving scenarios with preferable outcomes for himself, and while he rarely lies outright to people, Scott has this way of presenting himself that misleads people and makes them act in ways that are better for him. I mean, the main way Scott gets out of confrontations with Red Names- sometimes mobs of them- that should, by all means, kill him, is through mind games. Acting confident and unphased, like he has no reason to be afraid, laughing and pretending there's no danger to him, bluff charging when he's at low health so people think he's higher than he is. Scott relies on the idea that how much raw skill he has matters much less than how much of a threat he can convince other people he is, meanwhile his real power comes from weaving alliance webs thick enough to catch him no matter what goes wrong. Which is very Web coded, to me.

Scar is also an avatar of The Web. He's a liar, a scammer, a conman. A lot of people view him as unintelligent or unobservant, but I'd argue that, in of itself, is a part of his tactics. Scar plays up his perceived naivety on purpose to get out of doing things he doesn't want to do and to get away with committing slights against people that may otherwise be taken much more harshly. Secret Life comes to mind, where Scar played the poor beaten down dog with no allies, meanwhile he was planting seeds in every alliance and eventually just had his pick of allies on the server. That's how Scar won his season, by slipping under the radar, silently weaving webs, and then tugging on the threads he'd created so everything came falling into place. The fact that he was also trying to pull off smaller scams and bargains throughout the rest of the season (as always) give more fuel to the association between Scar and The Web, but I think it's the more subtle larger plotting Scar's always silently doing in the background (and will deny if you ask, because, why, he's just a sillyguy!) is the more damning bit of evidence for Scar as an avatar of The Web.

Martyn I have to give to The Eye. Not just because of his connection to The Watchers, either I also just think it's awfully fitting of who Martyn is. He's this kind of paranoid and hypervigilant that makes him keep an eye on people, he always wants a clear view of what people are thinking and planning. Martyn is always watching over his shoulder, always aware of what's around him, always trying to get more information because information is power. I also considered other fears for him, considered the web for his deception, and the slaughter for his brutality. But I think his connection to The Watchers, combined with the sense of hypervigilance that plagues Martyn's povs, I think The Eye is the best choice for him.

Ren, I think, has to be The Slaughter, if only because of Third Life. Ren is the one to technically bring war upon the server, he is the one who called 'red winter' down, the red king with blood blinding his vision. And the violence that followed, while technically 'organized' in the sense of being a war, was senseless in many ways. People who could have been (or previously were) allies- Scott and Jimmy who had been so good to Martyn and who had given Ren no reason to distrust them, Cleo and Bdubs who had been two of Ren's oldest friends and allies until he cut them out and put them in his book of names for very little- became targets for the slaughter, and the ways they killed were particularly brutal as well (scott being killed on yellow and then hunted down through the forest and slaughtered again while trying to recollect his stuff comes to mind). Third Life was an outlier in behavior for Ren, I think, but tit took hold of him in such an extreme way I don't think there's any going back from.

Cleo is The Desolation to me. I mean..they're the person known for Burning Everything To The Ground And Then Salting The Earth Behind Them. The Fairy Fort incident comes to mind as the most famous example, but Cleo does this a lot, targeting the things you love most and setting it alight. If you want to lean more into Cleo's zombie imagery I suppose you could also assign them the end (or would stranger be more fitting? would an undead being fit with the end? or it might play into the uncanny valley aspect of the stranger?), but I think the Desolation implications are too strong to go with anything else.

I'm combining Gem and Pearl's segments here solely because I think they're both avatars of The Hunt and some of their evidence is overlapping. I mean, for Pearl I immediately think of Double Life and her wolf army hunting and tearing apart her enemies. For Gem, the Boogeyman Curse from Secret Life comes to mind right away, leading a hunt against the green and yellow names of the server. Murder Camel, Pearl and Gem working together in Simple Life to hunt other players, and Gem getting excited when Pearl gets Boogeyman in Past Life because they get to find and kill someone together are also points of evidence for them being avatars of The Hunt, to me.

Actually, while we're on the subject of The Hunt, I think Joel can be slotted pretty easily into being an Avatar of The Hunt as well. I mean, he's pretty famous for his bloodlust. I suppose a case could be made that his bloodlust would be equally fitting of The Slaughter, but personally, I think Joel's brand of violence has a more primal aspect to it that I find more fitting of The Hunt. Joel leads a lot of the serverwide hunts against yellow/green players (usually targeting scott tbf but not always), and even when it's not his idea, he gets very carried away in the thrill of chasing and killing (side note but a death game like the life series makes a really good source of sustenance for the hunt. i know the watchers are very eye coded. but the hunt, the slaughter, and maybe the web would probably have a field day here.)

BigB is another obvious one to me. He is so associated with The Spiral for me. Especially in later seasons. I mean, he clearly loves striking confusion in people. I can see an argument for The Stranger because of his unsettling energy, or The Web for his disloyalty, but I think BigB's deception falls much more in line with The Spiral's brand of deception than The Web's. Not manipulation in the form of trapping someone in strings, but deception in the form of making people doubt reality and their perceptions of it. Plus, BigB built The Cobblerooms which was a confusing underground maze, and The Spiral is associated with mazes.

..And that's kind of where I run out of immediately obvious ideas for how to categorize the lifers, honestly. Any ideas for the others, chat?

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I do truly think part of the reason Grian gets blamed for shit that other lifers would not be is a "No good deeds go unpunished" kinda deal. In two ways.

1.) Grian makes things his job/responsibility that others would not.

For example, Mumbo blows himself up and Skizz dangles on a ledge Grian warned him to get off of until someone shoots him off? That's Grian's fault. Somehow. I mean, he built the tower, I guess.

Now, in the past I've argued this point by bringing up how much Grian did to help Mumbo and Skizz, providing them with plans and resources and the literal armor off his back so they could have a higher chance of staying alive.

But I almost think it's because, not in spite of, how much he did for them, that Grian gets blamed for their deaths.

Most lifers would help their red teammates, sure, but many wouldn't make it their job, their responsibility, to make sure they stay alive. Grian did, Grian always does, pretty explicitly, make other people his own responsibility.

So when most red names die, it's bad luck, or the fault of who actually killed them, or their own fault. When Grian's red name teammates die, even if he had nothing to do with it, even if he warned them not to do what they were doing and they did it anyways..it's Grian's fault. Because Grian built the tower, didn't he?

The act of trying to hard to save them makes it seem, to many, that it's his fault when he doesn't, whereas if he hadn't tried at all, he could have wiped his hands clean of it, made it their own faults, nothing to do with him, like what usually happens when a red goes off and gets themselves killed while trying to get up on lives.

2.) Grian will accept blame to an extent others often would not.

We've all seen how your typical lifer will react to doing something 'wrong'. They'll justify their actions, argue on why they were right to do what they did, or they'll brush it off, because this is just how they are, so you should have seen it coming.

The thing that inspired this whole post, actually, was a tag someone left on another post I made comparing Martyn and Grian's track records for outliving teammates. And this person points out, "When Grian kills someone on accident he blames himself, when Martyn kills someone on accident everyone goes 'never trust a Martyn'. Its blame shifting Grians kills you is Grian's fault. If Martyn kills you is your fault", and I massively agree with that assessment.

This isn't to say Grian never weasels his way out of taking blame, but he's a lot more likely not to. Insisting he has to do something (even when told by others he doesn't) to make it up to Scar in Third Life and then swearing his life to him. "I'm such a traitor" in Double Life when he accidentally kills BigB. Blaming himself when Scar loses one of their lives because he "should have been watching him" and then blaming himself when he loses one of their lives too.

Grian, more frequently than most Lifers, will hold himself accountable, when he does something bad, and hell, even when he doesn't do anything wrong (again blaming himself for scar dying because he "wasn't watching him" pops into mind).

Somehow, being willing to apologize more often makes Grian look worse than people who do equally as much wrong but don't take it as seriously or accept blame for it.

And these are really interesting phenomenon to me. That someone will be paradoxically viewed more harshly than their peers for taking on more responsibility for other people and accepting blame for their actions more frequently than their peers.

But it makes sense. Grian acts as judge, jury, and executioner. He decides he's guilty. Of every accidental kill, of every time he went 'too far', of every time he didn't save someone he thinks he should have, of not being loyal enough, of moving on too fast. And it's easy to take someone at face value, especially when there are often grains of truth there (maybe he should have been more careful, maybe he should have done more, maybe he should have, maybe he should have, maybe..)

Especially with how self loathing he gets about it. Grian doesn't just say "I should have thought my actions through more, that was my bad" when he kills BigB without thinking. He says "I am such a traitor", he doesn't just take note of where he went wrong, he ascribes a negative value label to himself. Traitor.

And I'll always argue it's unfair. It's unfair, that Grian is so hard on himself, and that people take that and run with it instead of recognizing that noone else is held to the standards they let Grian hold himself to. But it's also self inflicted, in a lot of ways.

I don't know, I just have a lot of thoughts about Grian's guilt complex, tendency to subtly slide into self loathing behavior, how no good deed is unpunished with Grian in large part because he refuses to stop punishing himself, and because other people keep taking at face value that he is every bad thing he claims to be, even when he's not.

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It's interesting how much Grian gets the reputation for killing his teammates when Martyn outlives his teams just as often.

Like. Really look at each of their records for outliving teammates.

Third Life Grian outlived Scar and Martyn didn't outlive all of Dogwarts but he did die after Ren who was his 'main' ally.

Last Life Martyn outlived the entire Southlands meanwhile Grian decidedly did not outlive Martyn (or joel, for that matter, who i'd argue was as much a teammate to grian in that season as the southlanders were).

In Double Life Martyn outlived his soulmate (albeit only by a few seconds), meanwhile, while Grian did outlive BigB, he decidedly died first between himself and Scar.

Limited Life Martyn outlived everyone who could be construed as on his team, meanwhile Grian outlived Joel and Jim but there's grey area in that he joined another team after and didn't outlive all his new teammates.

Secret Life Martyn and Grian both outlived their respective teammates (cleo + etho in grian's case and jimmy in martyn's case).

Wild Life is the first time Martyn didn't outlive any teammates, dying before Ren. Grian once again outlived his initial team, although his backup teammate, Joel, did outlive Grian.

Past Life both Martyn and Grian outlived their teams again (cleo in martyn's case and gem + pearl in grian's case).

Like, I'd argue they're roughly equal. Hell, I'd argue Martyn outliving his teams is more of an undeniable fact than Grian outliving his.

"Well, the Widows curse is sometimes interpreted to be about Grian KILLING his teammates, not just outliving them" I've talked before about how calling Grian a 'team killer' is a stretch at best and I'd like to point out to the class that Martyn has intentionally betrayed allies in a way Grian has not (and martyn has planned to betray the allies who happened to die before he got the chance to, which grian also has not done)

Now..this doesn't mean I don't like the Widows Curse, per say, or that I think we should take the Widows Curse away from Grian and give it to Martyn, or something.

But the way I enjoy the Widows Curse is very specifically as a manifestation of Grian's own guilt and self perception. I've always thought the observation that Grian always outlives his teammates was tenuous at best, and that calling him a team killer was downright untrue, but I do think Grian believes he is responsible for the deaths of his teammates.

And that's how I like Life Series Curses. It's the same as how I always viewed the Canary Curse, not as something real, but as a cage that only existed in Jimmy's mind and that he always had the power to break out of.

The Widows Curse is not a curse from The Watchers, it is not a series of bad luck, or Grian being a 'bad teammate', it is the manifestation of the disproportionate guilt and responsibility Grian carries around when bad things inevitably happen in this death game.

And that's also why Martyn, despite outliving his teammates as much if not more and being more of a traitor than Grian ever is, doesn't have the same 'curse'.

Because this is not something that weighs on Martyn's shoulders. He doesn't dig graves like Grian does, apologize like Grian does, insult himself like Grian does, grieve like Grian does, tear himself apart for not doing more, like Grian does.

A difference in mindset, in how they regard themselves is why Grian is The Widow who blights his teams, and Martyn is just a good player who gets far in these games.

Sometimes it seems like the accountability a player faces in these games is limited to the shame they put on themselves.

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Been watching Jumperwho's videos and why is Mapicc specifically just always her opp? It's so funny. Is he antagonistic to everyone or are these two in specific just destined to be enemies?

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"It's okay. It's okay. It's all okay."

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In the Toy Clock Au, Jimmy hates Scott and Martyn soo much he's always trying to get one over on them because they accidentally offended him when he was like, six years old. And they don't even remember what they did, because it's been eleven years and they were like nineteen, but Jim is out to prove something to his neighbors brother and his boyfriend.

Of course, if you think Scott and Martyn are being mature about this pathetic seventeen year old kids grudge on them, you would be wrong.

Jim finally executes the perfect plan to prove he's cool and they're not and Scott and Martyn pretend not to even remember who he is they're like "Who is this sassy twelve year old?" and Jim's like "I'm seventeen!!!" and they're like "Don't look it, bud.." just absolutely petty with it.

That combined with Jimmy inexplicably having beef with BigB and Pearl too, who are currently like five years old, there is just a generational chain within this neighborhood of people beefing with children.

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Do you guys ever think about the fact that the first ever really pvp kill in the Life Series- as in, the first time a death message in chat attributed one players death to another player killing them- was Martyn killing Ren on the alter? Because I think about that A Lot. Symbolically extremely relevant.

[harvestmoth]

this was still really crazy btw

[antwuzhere]

I NEED to catch up on their POVs desperately. And by catch up I mean start-

In theory I’m so invested in practice I don’t know WHAT is happening and I haven’t seen any of their streams

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Ant taking your hands literally same.

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GIGGS DND WAS YESTERDAY? I THOUGHT IT WAS TODAY. RUNNING TO THE VOD.

[hermit-corp]

I've been wanting to say something about the Cherrifire situation (or whatever you would call it) for a while now. (Specifically, her being more 'in' the fandom than other ccs, and also shipping)

Long rant:

There is LITERALLY no problem with this.

If there is a problem, it is the fandoms' fault. If there are things you do not want ccs to see, that isn't their fault. You're gross for breaking boundaries.

Cherrifire has EVERY. SINGLE. RIGHT. to interact with a fandom, she is PHYSICALLY in! It doesn't matter if she knows the people from the fandom!

IT IS A FANDOM? FANDOM. THEY ARE A FAN OF IT.

I see so many people throw a hissy fit over Cherrifire literally just apparently being in the fandom. Guys, anyone can join the fandom, it was kind of obvious that she was in the fandom before becoming thumbnail artists for Martyn and Grian. Guys.

That part aside,,,

This

Okay so who gave you the permission to decide who the mcyt streamer friend circle can have in their group?? why is this up to you to decide?? I get not liking a creator but it's also not up to you.

I don't MEAN to tie this into misogyny or sexism, but guys, even if as a 'joke' Sausage has written fanfic about Treebark. And talks about it WAYYYY more than she has from what I've seen.

Why is Sausage writing fanfiction perfectly okay, but when Cherri, who was most likely already in the Life Series before becoming a thumbnail artist, does so much as shipping them, it's so evil and disgusting?

Also, for the record, if you actually watch Cherrifire on POW, she completely doesn't even talk about Treebark. I don't watch typically watch her other than POW (might start), so if she talks about Treebark more outside of POW then I wouldn't know.

But even then, if she talks about Treebark completely outside of POW then what's the problem?? It's her free time, and a fandom SHE'S IN. It's a SHIP. She ships the CHARACTERS. If this was such a problem to Martyn, then he wouldn't be friends with Cherri. Same with Ren.

It's literally not like she ships the actual people. People act like this is such a big thing and then excuse it with Sausage. It's weird. I don't mean to say everything is mysogynistic/sexist against Cherri, but the fact Cherri's a woman and Sausage is a man says a lot about what people excuse.

Sausage ships them MORE than her in fact, why is he excused?? Because it's a joke?? Why are people desensitized to Sausage shipping them as a joke, and then throw a fit when Cherri ships them?

I understand Cherri actually ships them and Sausage "doesn't" but even then, Cherri seems to keep her shipping way out of her work with them.

There is no reason Cherri shouldn't be allowed to ship Treebark and Sausage is allowed to. Sausage talks about Treebark any time Ren and Martyn interact; Cherri just acts like a normal person. It's a ship, they can act normal.

Just see it as actors from a show shipping the characters they act as or shipping the other actors' characters. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT IT IS. I cannot stress enough that Cherri is their FRIEND and that she wouldn't ship the ccs???? She's not a weirdo??? They're friends and they respect Martyn and Ren's boundaries???

I don't have much else to say about this. I'm not really sorry if it seems like I was mad while writing this, because I was. ALSO!!! DO NOT send hate to MythicalSausage, Cherrifire, or anyone mentioned in this. Nobody mentioned deserves hate! I was simply using Sausage as an example!! DO NOT HATE ON SAUSAGE!!!

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Op is so correct.

Martyn KNOWS Cherri is a Treebark shipper, Martyn knew this when he hired them, he knew this while they were becoming friends, he knows this now. I'd be surprised if the other cc's she works with don't also know this. She certainly isn't trying to hide her blog.

Treating their friendship like some kind of creepy parasocial plot from Cherri is 1.) Ludicrous, 2.) Ironically, extremely parasocial, and 3.) Borderline misogynistic, as Op points out.

Stop (wrongly) assuming what cc's you don't even know may or may not be comfortable with just so you can bash every marginalized person in the mcyt fandom space.

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I'm being so real when I say Lifesteal Jumper and Life Series Scott should be best friends, like. They're both extremely observant, they're both deeply cunning players who can pull off massive deceptions when they want to, but they're extremely loyal to and willing to die for their teams, they both go to great lengths hold onto their integrity (jumper constantly insisting she'd uphold her morals no matter what + scott talking about doing the honorable thing in last life), and they're both optimistic people who make the most out of the worst situations. I'm just saying if you plopped Lifesteal Jumper in the Life Series or plopped Life Series Scott in Lifesteal...

(i have only watched jumpers season five videos so far dont tell me if she has a massive character shift or something)

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who decided to give grian the most infectious laugh. ever.

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"There was noone in a more powerful position than I was right now..the most valuable thing is knowledge, and I was the only person able to see both sides of the story."

continuing to watch jumperwhos lifesteal videos and jesus, can she stop giving me chills, what-

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Scott and Grian both strike me as the type of guys who'd cover their partners in cartoonish bright red lipstick marks and I think that's beautiful.

[antwuzhere]

Peskypoppy this now. /threat

/silly

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lipbite emoji..yeah okay i see the vision o7

[ooooo-mcyt]

To combine my usual hyperfixation (life series) with my new growing hyperfixation (lifesteal) for a second. I think Scott and Jumper would like each other a lot. Very cunning players who might be slightly manipulative but are fiercely loyal, willing to die for their teammates, and always try to preserve their own personal sense of honor or morals no matter what happens.