Would love to see a 3rd Life AU where Scar is genuinely evil.
Obviously just an AU since Scar is canonically a silly little guy, but imagine this.
Under the veneer and facade of the goofy, clumsy, charismatic trader, Scar is a manipulative monster. No one knows this but Grian, of course, as how these things go. An abuser often does not show signs.
Scar orchestrated his own death at Grian's hand so he could have Grian as a slave.
Grian’s attempts to warn others away from Scar's charm is a desperate attempt to get Scar to snap, to reveal what lies underneath the mask so he can be saved. He wants the Scar he loved from Hermitcraft back, and if he can't have that, he at least longs to be rescued from what Scar has become.
But Scar doesn't take the bait.
He ignores Grian, or sends him off, something to make sure Grian doesn't interfere. And when he's succeeded? When they're gone?
He beats Grian for the disobedience.
He drugged Grian and manipulated him, when his mind, already mushy from being so high, was vulnerable. He convinced Grian to do horrendous acts, like the triple kill, to try and make himself and Grian hated, isolated, because a victim isolated from their support system is easier to use.
Martyn's been catching on but often unable to check on Grian without Scar around, especially since their teams are opposed.
Scott's been catching on too, which is why he and Jimmy teamed with Scar and Grian. He'd been trying to get closer to Grian, but Scar realized this, and during the war with Dogwarts, Scar was the one to shove Jimmy away from the ladder on "accident," resulting in Jimmy's death, because Scar knew that if Scott was grieving his husband he would be too busy to bother with Grian.
Grian fighting Scar at the end was an attempt at escape, but after success, Grian doubted himself and returned to Scar's dying body, where Scar, with his final breaths, convinced Grian that what he had thought was wrong, and that he had just slain his savior.
Grian, distraught, threw himself off the edge of the cliff and died.
(Possible plot twist: this wasn't Scar, rather a fake version of him made by the Watchers. For the next few seasons, until around Limited Life/Secret Life, Grian doesn't know this, so he avoids Scar(ergo, why he was so distant even when they were soulbound), and Scar doesn't know why(this being the real Scar). This was really a multi layered manipulation tactic from the Watchers to isolate Grian from the man he loved so dearly. Even after this, even after knowing it wasn't real, Grian struggles with a lot of PTSD and still cannot separate the real Scar from the one that hurt him so much, so he struggles to be around Scar at all. Scar's compassionate about this, hurt but understanding)
OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS ONYX
(literally CLINGING to that last paragraph because the ONLY thing worse than “it was a watcher construct” is that it was actually Scar)
onyx please my heart can’t take much more of this
