hi its cc ramble time yayayyy! anyway the differences and parallels (haha) between the two duels in parallel life are honestly so interesting to me (pickle vs. scott in ep 3 and withersun in ep 4)
mind you im mainly gonna talk about pickle's pov in this so go watch that
so they both have that level of intensity to them - a red name showing interest in wanting to kill a green/yellow, and then both parties settling on a fair fight. and again in both scenarios, it's a red risking their season just for that kill to satiate their bloodlust, without their soulmate's say in it at all - in fact, emerald even points out the fact that pickle didn't give him any say in that
now i will say a minor difference with pickle and scott's fight is that it wasn't downright "oh lets fight just axes and diamond gear" - which it probably couldve been if scott hadn't initiated combat first, since pickle's idea was like "oh i'll walk you home and then we fight!" but instead scott starts the fight in the middle of the forest during night
but i think the biggest difference between these two fights and their impacts is because of how the red in both situations were seen at the moment. ghostfoam was seen as an almost server-wide enemy, especially at the time of the duel because it's when even tibby and ghost are pretending to hate each other. meanwhile pickle is more of a server-wide friend. him and emerald wanted to be seen as the friendly reds so that they could backstab later and even before the fight he's talking to scott being like "well i'm not quite allies but im basically allies with the whisps... and charlie... and the polycule" BASICALLY naming off nearly the whole server to scott, explaining how scott can't really "help him get a kill on someone else" because he's friends with too many people.
the funny thing about this is besides having different impacts and stuff, it still follows the same basic building blocks or storyline - a red says they wanna kill a non-red (specifically in front of other people. in pickle's case, one yellows and two reds - luca, haunting, & emerald. in ghost's case, one yellow and one red - tibby & crow), the non-red agrees as long as it's an actual 1v1 battle. the red is victorious in both scenarios, and after the battle the other person comes back and the two talk about helping each other. now this is where it differs again, as scott begins asking pickle for help since all of the polycule wants ghost dead (i think scott uses specifically ezra and middy as examples?), whereas after the withersun fight it's less of requesting help and moreso ghost telling e that they have to stick to the deal that was made. (queerbait yaoi hooray!)
honestly this ramble was a little smaller than i wanted it to be, mainly because i took a nap in the middle of writing it and completely lost my train of thought... 😭 (i also didnt read over this after writing it so some might be a but messily explained sorryyyy)
and i know i could totally just be reaching with some of this comparing stuff but parallel life has taken over my brain i cant help it
i might add to this depending on what pickle's ep 4 looks like when it gets posted since it's not out, but for now this is what i have for you!! big fumbs bup 👍 (blame robin for that being put in my vocabulary)