Martyn and Grian as Narrative Foils
(aka: there’s only room for one blond(ish) british guy in this death game)
Sorry for 3rd and Last Life posting on Double Life release day. This was supposed to be out before Double Life. They changed the release schedule. That is not on me!!!!!!!!
Anyway, I’m not going to lie, I started writing this because of a shitpost, but I’ve been meaning to do it for months now anyway. I think about them so much. I love them so dearly. I do not know how long this is going to get as I am writing this entirely on the fly but regardless I sure am going to take advantage of Tumblr now auto-collapsing long posts and not use a read more for once! Nature is truly healing.
To briefly explain what narrative foils are: they’re two characters who contrast with each other; they might have some similarities, but are polar opposites in other ways, which makes their differences stand out even more. Usually in literature, this is done to make the good qualities of a protagonist stand out more than they would otherwise (interesting etymology lore: the term comes from when people used to back their gemstones with foil to make them shine even more). We’re not dealing with conventional media in this case, so it’s not like we really have a protagonist, but I find that this is a really good lens through which to understand both Grian and Martyn’s characters. What’s most amazing to me is that they manage to achieve this in both seasons - sort of on purpose by cc!Martyn in LL, I think, but otherwise accidentally. As is generally the case with anything meta about this series.
Starting with 3rd Life, Martyn and Grian begin the series very similarly. By this, I mean “very chaotically”. They both begin alone, determined to cause mischief in a new server. Specifically with creepers, and specifically resulting in Scar losing his first life. They’re both complicit in that death happening, with Martyn’s soundboard being the reason everyone becomes desensitised enough to creeper sounds that they let their guard down, and they’re instantly branded as the dangerous and unpredictable ones on the server. Before any of that, though… they’re allies. The server’s first alliance, formed over diamond swords and golden apples, is between Grian, Martyn and BigB. The Blue Sword Boys. I always joke that you can see how mentally ill someone is about 3rd Life by seeing what their reaction to the Blue Sword Boys is, and. Well. I’m writing this. So you can kind of see where I lie on the normalcy scale. Anyway, they share their diamonds, and declare themselves allies. Funny how things work out.
Post-alliance, they return to the surface, and both of them find themselves indebted. Grian’s life debt sends him off to the desert on the back of a llama, and Martyn finds himself setting up shop in the snow after stealing a bit of enchanting. These are absolutely opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the severity of their crimes, but have near identical consequences for the rest of the series, which is really funny to me. Scar’s life is worth about the same as Protection I iron leggings, or something. The conditions of their newfound alliances are different by name (effectively a servant, vs a willing employee), but they’re overall very similar: both enter these roles willingly, to make amends, and end up doing whatever their “boss” asks of them. As for the Blue Sword Boys? Grian never mentions them again.
Throughout the next couple of sessions, we see Grian and Martyn’s respective loyalties grow ever deeper. Grian complains through it all, vowing that he’s out the second he turns yellow, whereas Martyn is content to do as Ren says; he advertises for Renchanting, defending Ren in the process (though not without worry about Ren’s ability to keep a secret). The divide between Monopoly Mountain and Renchanting also widens with every session: particularly in session 3, in which Ren refuses Scar’s trade offer - partially for Martyn’s sake - and Scar famously vows “when I turn red, Ren, you’re on my list” and turns red not long after. It’s here that their position as foils begins to become clear; they started the series in the same way, and now their paths are beginning to diverge.
To talk more generally about their alliances, both are, of course, famously loyal to one (1) person. Martyn is the Hand of the King, and Grian is Scar’s subordinate, even if they’re both definitely more competent than their respective leaders. Both have other allies, but only truly care for Ren/Scar - even though they both had intended to betray those same people. Grian insisted he was leaving Scar the minute he turned yellow. He didn’t. He couldn’t.
I’m technically free of Scar’s bonds, but I feel like I’ve got this moral obligation now. I don’t understand— I can’t let him die. I just— I don’t want to see him go, he’s like the most interesting character on the server, and I just can’t let him go.
Martyn is the same. He planned to betray Ren at the last minute. But… he doesn’t. He can’t. He defends Ren until his dying breath, following his King into the afterlife without hesitation. Unlike Grian who finds himself on equal footing with Scar, though, he never becomes Ren’s equal - nor does he want to. Martyn shows his loyalty by digging in his heels and being the best Hand that he can, be it advising his King or in wartime. Grian shows it by choosing to stay at all. The only betrayal that happens regarding either of them is Scar killing Grian: Grian is the one who’s betrayed, the one who screams “TRAITOR!” and “BETRAYER!” at the one he’d meant to leave behind weeks ago. But he’s also the one who forgives Scar within moments, who agrees that it’s a mutual win for both of them, who kills Scar but it’s not a betrayal, it’s simply all that was left for them in the world.
As I said, Grian never mentions the Blue Sword Boys again. His focus is entirely on Scar. But Martyn wants to save Grian from Scar - he never forgets their initial alliance, and he truly does care for Grian. It’s mentioned in multiple sessions, but the session I want to talk about in depth for this is session 4. This is, of course, the session where Grian traps Dogwarts. That trap killing Ren is certainly the breaking point for friendly relations between Monopoly Mountain and Dogwarts as a whole, but even after all of that, Martyn still suggests to BigB that they try to save Grian. It’s BigB who suggests that Grian “likes” being with Scar, to which Martyn quietly - regretfully - asks, “Have we lost him?”.
The subject comes up again in session 6. Skizz brings up the idea of Stockholm syndrome - Martyn responds by firmly stating “Grian’s got that BAD. Grian’s got that bad.” It’s no longer a question of whether Grian can be saved; it’s not BigB trying to convince Martyn to give up on Grian; it’s that Martyn has given up. They’re both so deep into their respective alliances that the other is now merely The Enemy. And yet… Martyn still hasn’t forgotten the Blue Sword Boys. Session 7, he’s being hunted down by Grian, Scar and Scott. As he fights back, he takes out his diamond sword, the diamonds given to him by Grian all those weeks ago. He yells, “You gave me this, Grian, and I’m gonna use it!”. And yet neither can kill the other - Martyn dies to a skeleton after escaping them.
I don’t think that I need to go into detail about the war, we know how that goes. So let’s skip to the end: Martyn follows Ren into death without even a moment’s hesitation. The culmination of all his loyalty, all his devotion to Ren, is to die to Scar side by side with his king. Grian and Scar, of course, proceed to the final fight: an armourless fistfight to the death. The idea for that fight was suggested by the ghosts - specifically, Ren and Martyn’s ghosts. And this was not the first time that they’d had this idea - far from it. Ren and Martyn had planned to have that fight for themselves should they make it to the final, all the way back in a much earlier session (I don’t have specifics for this one for once though because I am a sleepy bitch and I did look for a bit but couldn’t find it. But it did happen!). It’s just… incredibly ironic, is it not? That fight was what Dogwarts wanted for themselves. Their victory. And yet it was fought by their mortal enemies. Grian carrying out Martyn’s final wish. Both of them follow their allies to their deaths, unable - unwilling - to live without them.
Of course, things are immediately quite a bit different between Martyn and Grian. They’re allies, in total contrast to 3rd Life. Namely, they are both in the largest alliance on the server. Brought together by Grian, who surrounds himself with people in the Southlands, but never quite making a true connection to any of them - not like last time. Even when he joins up with Joel, their alliance is one of mutual convenience at best. They’re both similarly unhinged: that does not translate to true loyalty, not like his bond with Scar. Martyn, on the other hand, intends to go about his series selfishly. He joins the Southlands, but doesn’t expect it to last, between the Watcher voice and his inability to leave Ren (more on that later). He actively intends to betray them, joining the Shadows in secret. And yet it’s Martyn who becomes attached to the Southlands, with his marriage to Mumbo and his closeness to Jimmy and Impulse (especially Jimmy, with their shared Evo history).
Martyn decidedly does not trust Grian, however, and even works directly against him despite their alliance. He recognises the threat that a red Grian would propose, like returning Scott and Pearl’s Wither skull as soon as he finds out Grian already has one skull hidden away. I think this is where you can see how their paths have truly, irreversibly diverged: Martyn, whilst still as chaotic as ever, will never be the guy who ran around a village with a creeper soundboard and Bad Omen. He’s more serious, more devoted. Conversely… 3rd Life did quite the opposite to Grian, especially because he never got to properly be red. By the time of Last Life, everyone is well aware of how he’ll inevitably become even more unpredictable and bloodthirsty.
As mentioned, both of them reunite with their former allies multiple times - both of whom live alone, unlike their newly Southern ex-partners. Grian and Martyn both try to act as if they don’t care. They’re not attached to Scar and Ren anymore. But neither of them are very good at hiding how much of a lie that is. They’re not able to resist worrying about Scar and Ren, or helping them when they need it most. Grian outright says he’d leave the Southlands for Scar if he could get a life as well. Martyn takes it a step further and does betray the Southlands for Ren, joining the Shadow Alliance and gaining a life in the process.
The next point of interest is, of course, Grian killing Mumbo and Jimmy. This firmly cements Grian and Martyn as enemies once again: in yet another Pure Chance In The Traffic Light SMP moment, Martyn is chosen as the boogeyman - and he chooses revenge. He hallucinates their pumpkin ghosts in the next session, unable to deal with losing them, and the voice preys on this. It fills his head with promises about bringing them back, and Martyn, in his desperation, believes it. All of this, and yet he was never supposed to get attached to begin with. Grian, on the other hand? The one who formed the alliance? He justifies their deaths to himself and to others as much as he can. They weren’t his friends anymore. They were hurting him. He had every right to fight back. He warned them.
However much Grian truly believes these justifications is up to you. But, at the end of the day, he’s the one to destroy the Southlands, to put the final nail in its coffin. And it’s Martyn who suffers most from it.
Lastly, I of course have to mention the end of Martyn’s series, and the Watcher lore as a whole. By definition, Watcher Grian and Listener Martyn contrast each other. But it goes deeper than just “Grian watches, and Martyn listens”. By now, we’ve already established that Martyn upholds his purpose, whatever that purpose is: be it loyalty to his King, or obeying the Watchers. Grian, though? The Watchers say it best: “he was only ever meant to watch”. They want Grian dead, and they want Martyn to do it - as seen with his attempted boogey kill on Grian. Grian disobeys his purpose, and Martyn enacts the Watchers’ punishment for it, blindly following without truly understanding who was commanding him. They use his loyalties against him - the same ones that Grian forcibly severs. And yet… despite that disobedience, Grian’s still playing the game as intended, isn’t he? He never refuses to cooperate like Scott does - he dances exactly as the Watchers want him to. Upholds their rules, even at the cost of his friends’ lives. He plays the part perfectly, just… not the part he was supposed to play.
Even their colour schemes are contrasts. Martyn, the follower, clad in the lime of a green life. Grian, the wild card, self proclaimed “always red” with his jumper the colour of blood.
