pearl: the other two villies, they don't like you. right?
etho: really?
pearl: they've also kinda been—yeah, you know, just in case you weren't aware, you know, they don't like you. mkay?
etho: [scoffs]
pearl: but i don't have anything properly against you?
etho: right?
pearl: and they've kinda been treating me some ways this entire season...
etho: i've noticed that!
when the lie you're telling has such an uncomfortable level of truth to it that the guy you're trying to kill genuinely feels bad for you even after you kill him
Etho yearned for Pearl when he would follow her as a ghost to shield her from impostors in among us, because he believed she could avenge him more than anyone.
Etho yearned for Pearl when they started teaming up as the last yellows in Last Life. She might have trapped them for a boogey kill, and she might have suggested burning down his tree, and she might have pulled him down to his red life, but it didn’t matter. In the end it was he who would apologize, even telling her he trusted her the most after everything.
Etho yearned for Pearl when he accidentally knocked her off a great height in Limited Life, leading to their 1v1 and him losing. “Nice!” he exclaimed, right after dying. He lost time but she gained some, and that mattered more.
Etho yearned for Pearl when everyone was teasing him to sell his tissue box. “Couldn’t I sell art instead, like Pearl?”
Etho yearned for Pearl everytime she started taking up redstone projects. He would play Pearldle all the time, carefully logging all of his attempts for her to read after. He got so excited to be invited in the ballroom she built for them to fight on. Etho yearned to see her grow, experiment, and succeed in things she put her mind into.
Maybe thats why he also yearned for Pearl when he played minigames.
He yearned for Pearl whenever he played TCG. After all, she was the best card—his favorite card—in a vacuum.
He yearned for Pearl in decked out, taking mental notes on her play style. When Lizzie, under Pearl’s supervision, got to level 4, Etho whispered, “It’s Pearl, man…” among the applause for Lizzie.
He loved being her second hand in Hungry Hermits. When Impulse suggested having more cooperative games in the server, he turned to look at Pearl, a whole 180 from Impulse, for a moment after. In a world where he might have the courage he might have asked her to play more games with him.
And the boldest he has ever shown this buildup of continuous yearning was when he tasted a glimpse of an opportunity during Past Life—a sense of familiarity in Pearl’s invitation to team together against everyone, a familiarity he only learned because of rehearsed daydreams and well-explored what-ifs.
He would be a fool to let go of it… if only she felt how real it was for him.
Etho, who gets called a genius on the daily, clinging unto a false narrative he was informed to be untruthful from the start. It couldn’t be further from a rational decision.
In the end, he tried his hardest to get that string tied and locked in place, in a manner so unconventional and out-of-the-box, that only he could ever think of a scheme like that.
When watching Etho’s final episode of Past Life, try to think of Pearl watching before you. Listening to every conversation he’s partaking in. Even—especially—the muted ones, where he is seemingly just talking to himself.
And in the faintest of thoughts, try to realize that we are only shown a fraction of Etho’s attempt to act on years of excruciating longing for this sort of secrecy between just him and Pearl. Just the two of them for once, with only his unspoken thoughts hanging in the air. Maybe she will finally hear them if he screams them loud enough in his mind. Maybe.
Everyone has always told Pearl that she can only be bonded to one person, loving someone who's not your soulmate is a crime, and you must love your soulmate. Well, oh my. She broke all three rules, jokes on them.
Scott is her soulmate. Supposed to be, anyway. They could never be more than just friends before, and Scott left her anyway, so that was that. There was no love left there for either of them.
Tango is her soulmate. Somehow she got two, and so did he. (Jimmy and Tango are only qpr, so that's never been a problem) Pearl loves him anyway. (Jokes on the universe, and everyone who ever said she couldn't have two soulmates)
Etho is not her soulmate, in fact, he doesn't even have a soulmate (Somehow. Joel was supposed to be his, but their connection broke somehow.) And despite all that, she and Tango love him anyway.
-Robin
It takes a long time for her and Scott to repair their relationship, but it becomes so obvious they're supposed to be friends once they do. Scott is a great guy! They just were never meant to be romantic, and trying to force that made them both miserable.
Plus, she needs the partner in crime to handle her boyfriends. Tango and Etho are magnets for trouble and she... Sometimes makes it worse. Somebody's gotta listen to all her stories about her stupid, brilliant boys, alright? And it isn't going to be Jimmy, he hears it all from Tango already!
(And Jimmy's helping her try and set Scott up with Joel, Tango and Etho can't keep secrets to save their lives!)
falseren, pearltho, gemdoc, and clesuma canon you heard it here second! how would the jokery jacks factor in do you think. also someone in a server i sent this to said this is his home/stuck shipping wall and i love the thought of doc putting gem as his moirail. blackrom clesuma and redrom falseren real tho
if you watched gem or pearl's past life session 6, you've seen the complicated success/failure of the plot to kill etho. gem had the initial idea, organized it with jimmy through skizz, sent pearl to complete the mission, and then martyn ended up killing etho completely independently of their plans. gem decides she's satisfied with this outcome anyway, etho declares them even, all is well.
if only it were anywhere near that simple.
from pearl's perspective, you get to see a lot more details that gem left out or wasn't present for: namely, that gem specifically tells pearl to act as if she's going behind her and grian's backs. pearl manages to convince etho of this so well that he asks to continue their secret conversation, and she has to explain to him that it was fake. etho seems so convinced that gem questions pearl about it afterwards, and pearl says she was just following gem's directions.
(interestingly enough, from grian's perspective, the existence of this plot is entirely missing. but that'll be its own post.)
in etho's video, you get a very different story from any of the villies' povs. he kills grian, the whole team rebukes him, and then pearl approaches him to ask for a secret team-up. etho, who's gotten an exclusive look into the villies' internal drama, believes pearl wholeheartedly—and then martyn kills him.
i've spent hours combing through the scenes that follow etho's death, and there's a glaring omission from both grian and gem. the scene where gem explains her plot to grian only exists in etho's perspective, and it's pretty clear why they cut it:
this makes the villies look like a fucking mess. grian had no idea any of this was going on, gem is unrepentant, and etho is livid: he goes off on them after hearing this. they both completely ignore him. grian attempts to change the subject, and when etho doesn't let him move on, he and gem focus on etho trying to pretend he's on the team, refusing to acknowledge his accusations about pearl.
there's a cut in etho's video before gem says "well, i sent her in the nether" that's clearly missing some context. we can safely assume gem was starting to explain her plot to grian, and etho cut out the exposition. this is conjecture on my part, but i suspect that etho cut out something that made the purpose of pearl's mission clear. he effectively shifted the focus away from the fact that pearl was attempting to kill etho, and emphasized the fact that gem was intentionally endangering pearl's life.
if you need proof of how deliberate etho's editing choices are, here's another cut from earlier in this scene:
he's being uncharacteristically precise with his cuts in order to construct a specific narrative. (and don't think i've forgotten about grian, this screenshot will make a reappearance in another post!)
after they're done arguing, the three of them leave the tower and meet up with scott and pearl right outside the base. despite there being five potential perspectives to pull from, there's a lot missing from this scene. gem's pov contains nothing but a short bit of context to provide a conclusion to the murder plot, grian and pearl cut out huge chunks of the conversation with little overlap between them, and scott and etho both choose to scrap the entire thing.
pearl's the only one to include the scene where she tells etho that her offer was a ruse from the start:
scott cuts this because he wasn't here for any of the rest of this shit, gem probably cuts this because she realizes that saying "pearl knows her role here" is fucking insane, and grian cuts this because he's determined to erase any trace of this saga from his video. but why would etho cut this out? this is vital context that explains the entire mess that just happened to him.
the problem with this clip is that it entirely undermines the narrative etho has constructed in his mind and his video up to this point: that pearl is being mistreated by her teammates and is seeking help elsewhere. if you were to watch only etho's video, you'd be under the impression that pearl's cry for help is genuine. by asking her to continue their conversation, etho is hoping for more evidence that pearl wants out, and when she tells him the exact opposite, he rejects this explanation and hides it from his viewers.
whether or not he ends up doing more with this, etho has set up his character to be extremely aware of and sympathetic to pearl's plight with the villies. by cutting out explanations and obfuscating the full scope of the plot to kill him, he's choosing to believe that pearl is in serious trouble with her team and wants his help to escape them. i can't wait to see what comes of all this next session.
—
p.s.: if you want to see the full perspective-comparison spreadsheet i made, shoot me a dm and i'll be happy to show it to you! it's a very helpful visual aid for understanding the full scope of the aftermath.
etho: you used pearl?
gem: well, yeah.
grian: gem, we can't finish this session until the rim of the hat is done.
gem: it's almost done, grian.
etho: i don't know if i want to be a part of this alliance, you guys are—
gem: we don't want you here!
grian: you're not part of this alliance, etho!
etho: you guys are terrible people!
gem: literally nobody wants you here, etho!
etho: what do you mean you used pearl?
the way they're not even listening to what he's saying about pearl is what gets me about this one. like. wow
