wisp smp slushly please get out of this hole youre digging yourself OHH MY GOD THIS EPISODE
guys you dont get it im going crazy over slushly's character and im sick of bottling it all up so IS THIS AN UNSTABLE UNIVERSE BLOG? YES! WILL I BE TALKING ABOUT WISP SMP ANYWAY? ALSO YES!!
Slushly. Stupid freaking Slushly oh my God i have So Many Thoughts and for Months i have kept it to myself because im not really in any wisp smp fandom spaces! but i'm At My Limit bro i NEED NEED NEED to talk about it somewhere so.
[ AUTHOR'S NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: this is PART 1 of my long as hell slushly ramble because i've been typing for like 3 hours and im not even done with this one section. if you like this analysis, feel free to stick around for part 2 where i ramble incoherently about the parallels between nufuli and slushly and how Not Normal i am about it ]
Slushly, Polarized Thinking, and Heroism
slushly. oh my god slushly.
he wants to be good so badly. SO BADLY!! he joined the server and was inspired to be Good by someone who saved his life. he wants to be a Hero. he wants to be the Good Guy with the Good Morals who does Good Things and saves all of the Good People who are wronged by the Evil Bad People. he wants to be The Martyr, The Savior.
he wants to be The Hero. it's all he ever strives for, always trying to do the morally good thing no matter what. anytime he doesn't it's a very painful break from his extremely polarized mindset that he Must Be Good All The Time in order to be a hero. he wants to trust people, he wants to help people, he wants to be good so unfathomably badly and it's tearing him apart.
slushly thinks in such black and white its INSANE. everyone is either Good or Bad in his eyes, and while he's capable of seeing Bad people redeem themselves to Good, it still doesn't mean he's seeing any of the shades of grey. people aren't morally grey. they're Bad People who became Good People. this most recent episode shows it all so clearly with his confrontation with Train.
Slushly: Wait, okay. I'm sorry, I need a little help understanding here. Are you evil or not? 'Cause you were raiding and pillaging bases, but now you're here and you're not. So, what does that mean?
Train: I can't tell you what I am. That's up to you to figure out. I mean, you know what I used to be. I used to be in it for the money.
Slushly [irritated]: Would you call- okay, stop being cryptic! Would you call yourself evil or not?
He's INCAPABLE of seeing train as someone with grey morals. he's SO CONFUSED that someone who is [was?] a Bad Person [the whole thing with pootoot, along with raiding bases] can just turn around and become a Good Person [rejecting the pillaging team and living life peacefully in a village he was sent to raid] when in reality it just straight up isnt like that! train is morally grey! he did bad things for the money, but came to the realization that he preferred not doing that. he didn't have some insane moral epiphany or anything, he just works based on what he feels is right TO HIM. he doesn't have this holy moral compass engrained into his brain that tells him This is Evil and That is Good like slushly does. it's as simple as that. he has his reasons for doing what he did and it's not centered on this idea that he wanted to be evil but then decided to be pure good or something. slushly's so confused by this perceived 180 switch in train's character but he fails to understand that people are just complicated like that.
Train might be the most recent example, but of course he's not the only one. let's talk about AllAspen for a moment.
the moment aspen betrayed slushly, she became Evil to him. a Bad Guy. the MOMENT she was revealed to be on stormz's side, all of the time he spent with her were thrown out immediately. he didn't even CONSIDER the possibility that she might have been forced. from that point on, aspen betrayed him, and clearly that must mean that everything they went through meant nothing to her and she was Evil the entire time. he didn't notice how hesitant she was to reveal herself. the way she never ever seemed proud of what she had done, or what she was doing. his motivation for finding her was never to save her, or to try to get her back. he moved on so quickly. all he wanted to know was the why, not in a "you must have been manipulated to do this", but in a "i trusted you, and you betrayed me, i don't understand why you would be so Good and then choose to be Evil. why would you betray me? why would anyone choose to be Evil like you did?"
it took hunting her down in the City of Life and finally confronting her and forcing the truth out of her for him to finally realize that she didn't choose to be evil. that stormz blackmailed her into betraying slushly. he had not ONCE considered this possibility before aspen was forced to spill all of her emotions and grief and anxiety and guilt over everything on full display. it has to be spelled out so obviously for slushly to finally get it.
and would you believe it? would you believe me if i said that this changes NOTHING about his black-and-white mindset? because no, aspen doesn't become a morally grey character to him from this. there are no shades of grey. instead, she is a Good Person who was forced by Evil Bad Guy to be a Bad Person. and her past? her history of being a raider and hurting innocent people that she was so scared of telling slushly about? the past that she regrets and wanted to keep hidden from slushly out of fear of him seeing her differently for it? of course slushly would forgive her for that! because she became a Good Person. she started saving people, being a Hero, the ultimate form of Good there can be, so of course aspen must be good. because only heros would become heros. even considers her stronger for having to like, fight agaisnt this Evil in and around her in order to become Good. because it must have been so hard to be Evil and make the leap of faith into the side of Good, right? because that's totally what it is. a leap, from one side to the next. there's no journey, no ups and downs, no hills to climb. no shades of grey.
[and, god, can we really blame aspen for being so afraid of slushly finding out? with how easily he switches up like this, it's SO believable that slushly would find out about this evil past of hers and see it as her manipulating him. to see her as someone evil and terrible who tricked him into thinking she was good. we know now that he wouldn't have thought that way, but 1, how reliable is slushly? does slushly truly know what he would have done, if he found out sooner? and 2, aspen didn't know this, obviously. she only was able to work off of what little she knew about him. this conclusion is not totally unreasonable, imo]
he just can't see her as a shade of grey. he can't see ANYONE as morally complex. while i did explain how i understand aspen's assumption that slushly would hate her for her past, i can't deny that this was probably all avoidable. after all, if she was so afraid of him hating her, didnt that exact thing happen when she betrayed him? how is him seeing her as Evil and Horrible for betraying him any different from a potential outburst about her being Evil in the past? she was not 100% super pure perfect angel who was forced to do these evil things, this is someone with complex motives and a flawed thought process. but of course slushly doesnt know any better. aspen is Good. because he can't help but polarize everything anyone says or does, regardless of motive.
someone else that i obviously can't forget to talk about is Wyll.
slushly's whole arc with wyll in the hunger games + tutorial world episodes is about him getting over his polarized perception of wyll's character. he thought wyll was Pure Evil for what he did [kidnapping players to turn them into his little goons, including slushly and aspen] but throughout this arc of them being forced to work together, slushly is also forced to realize that wyll isn't some heartless pure evil monster after bry's death hits him so hard. honestly the interaction is a lot on it's own, so i'll quote a ton of it here
Slushly: …they went up the hill.
Wyll [solemnly]: Yeah. No, I saw that.
Slushly: What's- are you all somber?
Wyll: What's your problem?
Slushly: My… what?
Wyll: What's your deal?
Slushly: My deal?
Wyll [mockingly]: Oh, you're all somberr, look look, the human being has feeelings…
Wyll [bitterly]: Douche.
Slushly: Okay. If human beings had feelings, I was quite sure you weren't exactly the human being type, but if you have feelings all of the sudden then good for you I guess.
Wyll: Yeah well it's not like you ever took a second to give a sh*t, huh?
Slushly: Th- Me?
Wyll: Yeah. You.
[ … ]
Wyll: How do you not get it yet?
Slushly: Get what? What, you make a friend for the first time and now you're sad that they died?
Wyll: You see what happens to good people in this world.
Slushly [exasperated]: Oh my gosh…
Wyll: You just saw what happens to good people in this world.
Slushly: Yeah, you should know what happens to good people in this world 'cus you're the perpetrator. That like- do you not get it? What, are you sad?
Wyll: Do you not get it?
Slushly: I get it. 'Cus I've watched it happen. I've watched people that I care about die. The pain and sorrow, you lost your reels buddy. Oh no! This is the pain you've been putting other people through for… how long? I've been trying to get you to see that
Wyll: No, you need to see that this is why you can't afford being a hero walking around with your little moral compass trying to save the world.
[ … ]
Slushly: You know what? What matters more is being able to look back on the life that I lived and realize that I actually helped people.
slushly thinks that not only is wyll evil, but he's Pure Evil. that there's practically no redeeming qualities to him, because someone who could experience empathy and emotions such as grief or sadness surely would have never chosen to be Evil right? wyll cant have these qualities, because it would break slushly's polarized perspective on morality and the apparent lack of any moral ambiguity or complexity. accepting that wyll is capable of feeling remorse and grief would be admitting that he's not the pure evil that slushly has spent so long portraying wyll to be. that there's more complex reasonings behind wyll's actions that aren't just "he's evil because he can't feel emotion". and that's not something slushly can seem to comprehend.
in the tutorial world episode, slushly finally gets to hear wyll's backstory, when slushly has become bitter about his stance as being the hero, concluding that there's no point in helping people if they're going to just hurt him. and it's wyll who helps talk him out of this. but slushly doesn't think wyll is even capable of being able to help him with this.
Slushly [to Wyll]: Like, do you not understand? Clearly you don't. I don't think you even could understand the situation that I've been through in the last 24 hours.
to slushly, there's no way wyll could possibly understand the pain he's went through. because, again, slushly is struggling to accept the idea that wyll could be more than some heartless monster. and so wyll proves him wrong. tells slushly about his past, about how he knows exactly how slushly feels because he went through the same thing. a friend betrayed him, and wyll never got to know why. just like how aspen betrayed slushly, and slushly just wants to know why.
honestly, wyll is THE CLOSEST slushly probably ever gets to comprehending grey morality. the idea that someone can be as apparently Pure Evil as wyll while still having emotions and empathy and a backstory slushly can actually relate to? comprehending that someone like wyll might actually have reasons for becoming who he is that isn't just being some emotionless monster?
again, just like aspen [though this happens beforehand], wyll has to spell it out to slushly for him to even consider the possibility that there could be some deeper motive behind wyll's actions. we saw from the interactions above that slushly has essnetially dehumanized wyll in his mind to be some shallow villain with no emotion. even when wyll tries to show or convince slushly of the way wyll sees the world, it isn't until wyll spells out his entire backstory to him does slushly finally start to realize that wyll is his own person with his own experiences that shaped who he is. experiences that mirror slushly's own. slushly started falling down the same path wyll did, one of bitterness and giving up on his whole ideal of being a hero. wyll takes the time to prove to slushly that he understands how slushly feels, and then pushes him back up on his feet, reminding slushly of how much he cares about being a hero and how giving up won't get him the answers he wants.
and.. honestly. as much as i wish slushly truly did learn to see the shades of grey from this conversation, the future interactions i explained above prove that he doesn't. "so why is that?", you might ask. why does slushly meet someone so clearly morally grey and still not realize that there might be a fatal flaw in the way he perceives the world?
well… wyll became Good. just like aspen.
"but slushly still doesn't think wyll cares all that much about him", you might counter. he has vaguely referred to wyll later down the line as someone slushly isn't sure even cares about him.
but they don't have to care about slushly to be Good. they don't need to be a hero to be Good. it's not like, to slushly, everyone is either a perfect hero or plain evil. slushly is capable of accepting that Good People have flaws, hell, slushly knows he himself has flaws! [even if he wants to be a perfect hero]. sure, wyll doesn't become all buddy buddy with slushly after everything, but just think about it. wyll's way of comforting slushly was by reinforcing his heroism way of thinking. by pushing slushly back into the mindset of a hero. telling him that there's time to right his wrongs. he ends up teaching slushly more about the concept of redemption then about moral greyness
Wyll: The Slushly I know would not be talking all this depressive behavior right now.
[ … ]
Slushly: Do you think that… I mean, even you, you've done some bad things and I guess so have I. Are we capable of still being heroes?|
Wyll: I think being a hero is subjective.
Slushly: Are we capable of beating I guess the reputations that we've set for ourselves? Are we capable of being good people?
Wyll: You have a life right? […] As long as there's one heart next to your nametag, as long as there's a heart in your health bar, then it's not too late. As long as you have a life, it's worth giving a shot, right?
this is the point of the conversation that likely sticks the most with slushly, and it's wyll convincing slushly that there's still time to be a good person. that there's always a chance. and honestly, this kind of conversation feels a lot like something slushly would take away as wyll telling slushly to be a hero.
Wyll knows about slushly's way of thinking. earlier he even directly calls out his moral compass and how he's always acting like a hero. so i find it easy to believe that wyll knows that this is honestly the best and maybe only way to truly convince slushly. however, as mentioned, this is a reinforcement of slushly's way of thinking. wyll told slushly that it's not too late to be a good person, to be a hero.
how does this relate to wyll being "Good"? well, would a villain give the hero a pep talk and push them back on their feet, encourage their heroism, help them escape a dimensional prison, and leave behind their previously evil ways? the real answer is that it depends, but slushly's answer is no. a villain wouldn't do this. these are the actions of someone who has redeemed himself from his Evil and become Good. because wyll told slushly that as long as he's alive, there's a chance of being a Good Person. and wyll is alive and has chosen to be a Good Person.
there's also the fact that I think their similarities might also play into why slushly struggles to have this sort of understanding towards other peoples' backstories in the future. Wyll has an incredibly incredibly similar history to slushly, a path that slushly almost started falling down first-hand. there's a sense of understanding that comes with being in near-identical shoes, one that slushly doesn't have for people who are a little too different than him. honestly, it could be argued that slushly actually struggles with empathy. he can't put himself in other peoples' shoes unless they're a near perfect fit. so even though he was able to empathize with wyll [or, possibly more accurately, wyll was able to empathize with slushly], it doesn't translate to any future ability to empathize with other people.
there's one person who is singlehandedly impacted most by this mindset, and it's slushly himself. his black-and-white thinking can be basically directly tied to his defining characteristic being his heroism. slushly has a very complicated relationship with his status as a hero. ever since galaxy saved him back when he was a newspawn, he's been inspired to be a hero. to help people from evil, to save innocent lives from the Bad People who want to hurt or exploit them. slushly wants to be a Good Person, a Hero, and the strength of his value for such a goal is what fuels his polarized point of view, and slushly himself is no exempt from this. every time he is forced to make some kind of Not-Morally-Perfect decision, he questions his heroism and whether he can still be good despite these bad things he's done. just see his interaction with wyll i quoted prior.
in a way, he does seem more lenient with himself, as he doesn't immediately assume himself to be evil the moment he make a mistake or does something bad. but that's because slushly lives in his own head. he can rationalize his decisions and convince himself that he's still a Hero, or, if he's not a Hero, he can still convince himself that he's still fighting for Good. he really good at framing his motives and intentions to show that he means well, that he wants to do what's best for the server, but he struggles at utilizing empathy to apply this way of thinking to other people. it's why he thinks in such extremes with other people, but he's still able to cling onto the idea of doing Good despite how far he's straying from his heroism.
in this most recent episode, slushly gives up on being a hero. he becomes a bounty hunter, tracking people down for the purpose of revenge. of cleansing the server of all of these evil people who wronged him in the past so that they can't hurt anyone else. see? did you just see that there? slushly might not be a hero anymore, but look at that! he's STILL framing things as being for the betterment of the server! he's STILL trying to help people! it's just that, instead of seeking out people to be helped, he focusing more on stopping the evil before it has a chance to hurt people. even though he's tossed aside his heroism, it still permeates his character and the way he sees things and the way he thinks. it's the thing that molded his very perception of the world and everyone in it, so he can't just cut himself off from the idea of being a hero. heroism will always be the lens he views the world, whether he realizes it or not. the reason why he killed everyone from the purple trimmed team is because he thought that they were Evil and never thought to question that conclusion, assuming that all attempts to correct him were just manipulative attempts from Evil People to save their own skin. the reason why he was so confused by Train is because he still thinks in black and white, and wants specifically to kill Evil People. he might not call himself a hero, but it's so clear that he still so so badly wants to be one. he wants to help people. he wants to be a Hero.
TLDR;
slushly has a very extreme case of thinking in black-and-white. while he's capable of recognizing flaws and accepting the idea of redemption, ultimately, he can't seem to fathom allowing someone to exist in a sate of both good and bad. this polarized way of thinking permeates every thought and decision he makes, hand in hand with his absolute fixation on the idea of being a hero.
he cares so so so SO much about being a Hero, being someone who can save people and help them... and it's tearing him apart.
now I WOULD start up my next section talking about his relationship with nufuli and the parallels of their character arcs [you might be able to notice that i saved mentioning him in this previous section in favor of making a whole one for nufuli alone] but this has taken me. so So long to type. i'm tired. if people want it badly enough [and/or i feel motivated to write it] i will make a slushly-nufuli duo centric part 2. but hopefully you can enjoy this probably incoherent ramble about slushly because i just had too many thoughts to let simmer in my head for eternity. thank you for reading!
if i had a nickel for every character in a scripted minecraft smp that was killed by an arrow canon in front of their best friend after having a hopeful little exchange that promised a better future for them i'd have two nickels. which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
