Iirc Tango being the coal mine just originally came from him often being fire/blaze coded in fanon. Because coal = fire. Plus the phrase with the symbolism of canary (that's the first time I really remember Jimmy being called the canary of the series too? But I wasn't super into it before DL so if it came before I just hadn't heard it)
Aww fuck I erased that crucial element from my mind haha (about the canaries often indeed being cared for). That does change things quite a bit if you view it from that angle... In that case I can see the "Tango is the coal miner" labelling, although he'd certainly be an unwilling one but do what he can to preserve the canary's life and not just wait for it to die? But even then, the canary would have failed its function if it straight up dies in time with the miner instead of showing signs of suffering earlier, and in my opinion Tango is still complicit in the Jimmy ecosystem since he believes in and doesn't combat Jimmy's fate, so I feel like it'd be uncharacteristic for him to believe that the canary could be saved even if he cared for it (think of his quick acceptance that he and Jimmy were just going to die first in DL)
Maybe for some players, it's not so much about them deciding that the canary has to die, but rather the lack of knowledge in that it doesn't have to die, which is where I feel Tango would fit. But with that train of thought, the decision to take the canary down into the coal mine at all is one they still made with the expectation that it would die and help them live
Still lost on Mumbo though. It's not a dynamic that's very prevalent and in fact the most content that there is about them is just about the happenstance of them often dying one after the other, so I can't imagine Mumbo would really care, because I don't think he does. Even in Mounders he was often distrustful and even tried to kill them so I can't imagine he has any care for Jimmy of all people. I guess it is a "Mumbo took Jimmy into the mine without particular care for him, he died and Mumbo was unable to escape in time" type of thought? Which would mean that, again, the canary failed its function, which contradicts the whole canary curse idea, assuming the other players are not also miners
Agh it gets kind of convoluted to think about it too much haha, but the whole "coal miner" spiel does go around a lot so naturally I'm gonna think about it. The miners caring for their canaries historically I guess indeed isn't that relevant for Jimmy but thanks for pointing it out anyway! Because I certainly don't want to spread the false belief that they didn't and actually, the more I think about it, the more frustrating it is that most people in the fandom seem to think this, since the canary curse label came from the explicit belief that the canary always dies
Oh as for the blaze thing. Yeah I guess that does make sense, never considered it to be that simple but I honestly prefer it that way lol
