anybody else think about how pearl kept binkie in her hotbar in the final 4v4 in last life. how she used a precious hotbar space she could've used for weaponry or more potions just to make sure binkie was always in her sight during the last fight.
is anybody else crazy about how binkie wasn't even pearl's axolotl. wasn't even scott's axolotl. binkie was cleo's axolotl. pearl picked it up from cleo's body after they were killed by joel. to bring cleo with her, in at least some way, to the final fight.
ever think about how pearl was the one whose inventory binkie was in. but, in the end, it was in scott's inventory. scott had to go back to pearl's body and pick up binkie from her inventory after ren killed her.
the fact binkie wasn't even scott's, the fact binkie was cleo's, and yet was also one of pearl's only remaining possessions left on the server that hadn't been burnt in the lava when she died. it was all he had left of her. of them. of both of them.
"just me... and binkie."
"we finally did it."
it makes the finale hit that much harder, doesn't it?
There is a particular aspect of Tango which is a cross between his more comedic quality of unparalleled observational skills and his snark and pessimism, which is that thw poor man is frequently absolutely paranoid and suspicious of everyone and their motives. He can't spot when people are doing something visually so he reads into their voices and words constantly. And, unforunately, with friends like these, he's usually right.
Basically Tango has a lot of social intelligence which he almost exclusively puts to use susing out his friends pulling pranks. But you would probably be paranoid too if you were constantly jumpscared by everything.
Something I’ve picked up on (specifically in Past Life) is that when describing their relation to eachother, both Scott and Cleo default to “Widow’s Alliance” when talking about themselves. Which could just be a chronological thing, but in general they talk about Third Life (where Cleo died before they even could ally) and never the season where they were eachother’s day one ally, based together, and called eachother soulmates, which you’d think holds more water and would server as a better example of their relationship.
But (from a character perspective), that’s on purpose: Scott and Cleo don’t want to acknowledge what they were in Double Life because it hurts to remember. Scott believed Cleo betrayed him and said so moments before he Actually Fucking Killed Himself, and Cleo seemed enraged at the implication that Scott even believed she would betray. And they never talk about this and clear up what actually happened: it’s been sitting and festering for four seasons.
It’s easier to tell others their relationship is an ‘alliance’, a practical choice with doesn’t center on intimacy and closeness, than ‘soulmates’ or partners because it’s easier for them both to pretend that’s all they were and ever will be.
I’m gonna start by saying if you’re a die hard Scott fan you probably won’t like this, I’m not the biggest fan of his. Please go look at my other posts or just ignore this.
I’m starting a new thing where I just don’t want to ruin something for someone but I am a little hater.
I’m also so incredibly biased and not in his favor.
Also just about characters!!
So with that out of the way……
Scott!!
Honestly I think people mischaracterize him a lot. Which who cares do whatever you want forever but for the sake of this you’re wrong <3
Let’s start with 3rd life!
I don’t like how he treats Jimmy. I’m so sorry flower husband fans I totally get the appeal!! It’s like yeah Jimmy is a goof and he’s bad at stuff but like Scott doesn’t think Jimmy can do anything right. He berates him and makes fun of him to other people. He’s nice to him only for the benefit of himself, so he won’t drag down their team.
He expects his death.
Isn’t that tragic? He makes a widow’s alliance like he can’t wait for him to die. Like it’s expected. Jimmy’s not cursed yet. It’s not likely he’s going to win or anything but you can’t believe in him at all? You have zero faith he can live past you?
It’s so demeaning. It comes across as him thinking he’s better than Jimmy and I think he does believe that.
Of course in the end Scott seems pretty heart broken but the reason he doesn’t go through with his new alliance is because Cleo died.
Then we have the home scene at the end which is sweet but doesn’t make Scott any less annoying to me.
Scott never gets overcome with bloodlust which is interesting because of how many kills he has. That’s all him, no revenge, very little red/boogy bloodlust, he kills because he can.
What is the bloodlust just not strong enough for you? Too good for that too?
Okay he teams up with Pearl in last life because he hopes she will give him a life. Just for teaming up with him? And she does of course.
At least Ren had something to offer undying loyalty and willingness to die for Lizzie.
Like that’s a deal worth taking.
Pearl at least is like you gotta prove your worth somehow?
Then again he’s trying to team up with Cleo like real shit I guess, I would too. it just feels shity to me. If I was teamed with Scott I’d question whether or not he really cared about me at all.
He just comes off as selfish in any situation he can. I should probably give him a little credit, he is in a death game.
It’s the way people portray him as this guy who’s very morally superior and doesn’t play dirty.
But he’s ALWAYS playing dirty.
He’s constantly manipulating everyone around him.
He’s such an asshole to me idk
He’s telling Scar that they’re friends and allies but he never does anything for Scar or spend any time with him. Ditching him when Cleo tries to stay aligned with him after they get a life from him.
He very easily lies to whoever he wants to and gets away with it. His actions never catch up to him. He’s never held accountable and he’s constantly being rewarded for lying and manipulating the people around him.
Anyway the start of my hated journey is double life because he’s the worst in this.
I don’t understand why Cleo and Scott are so butt hurt about not finding their soulmates, it was funny though so I’m not upset about that.
When Pearl comes and finds him, he expects her to grovel like Martyn does. They didn’t really do anything wrong though? They were both properly geared up and it’s not like they were the only people trying to get recourses?
It’s nonsensical after listening to their explanation to still be upset, but they don’t listen or hear them out they just want to be begged for forgiveness.
Pearl of course was not going to do that and she of course is not innocent and antagonized him after that.
He’s not forgiven by me for what he did to Pearl for letting her win. She should have killed him.
That is not Scott’s only sin, what kinda douche builds a ranch specifically so you can make one better than your friends? The ranch by the way was also created to break up other peoples relationships while gaslighting them about that very fact.
Cleo and Scott spend all of double life trying to manipulate the different soul bounds because they are unhappy in their own.
Scott’s defining characteristic is being petty.
Limited life we have all the sacrifices he does, overdone at this point.
He’s so cocky. I feel like people miss that. He antagonizes and tries to get people to want to kill him. Which is how Scott has killed Joel so many times.
Scott is annoying so Joel will want to kill him but he keeps getting him.
In limited life specifically it’s so jabansksjsjsj
Because Joel is just trying to stay in the game longer he’s getting desperate and a little deranged and Scott just keeps killing him. I don’t how many kills but it was over kill.
Ugh and how he acts around Jimmy, like respect his boundaries. MAYBE theirs a good reason he doesn’t want to be around you, FREAK.
Keep the stupid pufferfish to yourself he’s over you!!
I get the ick or whatever
Ahem
Then he lets Martyn kill him for time and then the win and like where’s the drama???
Scott frfr would had another basic bitch ending like thank you Martyn for being the one interesting guy here.
Secret life
All of his actions became unforgivable when he didn’t let western duo team up, genuinely wanted to strangle him.
God again with the thinking you have some authority with what Jimmy does and thinking you know better than these grown people.
MAYBE some people are here for a good time, a loyal time, a fun time! Not a long time, but YOU wouldn’t know anything about that.
I appreciate the growth this time the final self sacrifice kill did have drama, but it was mostly Gem sounding genuinely devastated about killing him. (Idk know why that’s devastating I’m still upset about Jimmy and Scar not teaming)
I honestly don’t remember anything about real life really don’t count any of that as canon besides Cleo being a winner and Joel getting motion sickness really easy.
My hatred might actually be mostly the Jimmy and Scar thing and the fandoms interpretation.
I feel like he’s either worse than you think or just as bad but in a different way???
Okay continuation of my last post which I would link to if I was on desktop. You don’t need to read it I guess but it’ll give you a better understanding of how I see Scott and Joel’s rivalry maybe.
That was more of an objective analysis, this is where I get into more fanon headcanon territory with my analysis hehe.
Remember when I mentioned I was insane about these two specifically in 3rd Life? Yeagjh. We’re talking about 3L again. Because in my little brain, I like to imagine it really shaped Scott’s character.
SO HERE IT IS, A SCOTT ANALYSIS CENTERED AROUND JOEL.
We all know in 3rd Life Scott placed 10th, significantly lower than his other placements which have all been top 4. A lot of people in the fandom point to Jimmy as the cause, as he has some sort of curse that causes his allies to place significantly lower. As mean as that is I don’t hate that idea, but I don’t think Scott sees it like that (in my headcanons ok I’ll stop disclaimering that now).
I think it’s more Joel’s fault.
Scott wouldn’t blame Jimmy for himself dying so early, Jimmy had already been dead and Scott wasn’t exactly relying on him.
But Jimmy was still his closest ally, and his backup ally had also died. His only alliance left was Scar and Grian, but you can’t just insert yourself into there, they’re a solid duo and you know you’d be first pickings when it’s time to turn on each other.
But then there was Joel. Also allied with Scar and Grian, also completely alone. They agreed to stick together, put aside their differences and fight alongside each other.
Neither of them had any personal stakes in the war, but they also had nothing left to protect. The only thing driving them was their alliance with the desert. But they had fun. They hunted down enemies together and fought a war they didn’t care about, together.
Then Joel charged headfirst into a battle, with Scott following behind. They thought they had Impulse with them, but they never saw him again. (Joel actually believed Scott had abandoned him too, he didn’t realize he was so ahead of the group and I don’t think he heard Scott shout that he was here with him before he died.)
Scott died shortly after Joel, but he was yellow so he came back as a red life. He went back to the desert to pick up his stuff, and at Joel’s mine craft corpse he promised him that his death wouldn’t be in vain.
A little bit later, he died. It was all in vain.
Scott had two lives left after Jimmy died. Yet after following Joel into a single battle, he had died earlier than anyone would have expected. And Joel hadn’t gotten a single kill.
I like to think that this made Scott believe that Joel’s way of playing the game leads to crashing and burning. Scott watches Joel frantically try to get his boogey kill and wind up on red. This only starts to solidify the idea in Scott’s head. Then the second time Scott becomes boogey, he refuses to do it, knowing that he will drive himself to death if he tries. And he ends up winning the season. I think winning after renouncing Joel’s way of playing really solidified for good in Scott’s mind that what Joel’s doing is wrong, it’s not how you’re meant to play the game, it leads to nothing but destruction.
When Scott killed Joel in Secret Life, his final words to Joel were explaining that he’s still alive because he got the extra hearts from killing Bdubs. He said it in a rather taunting way. I think it was Scott’s first attempt at explaining to Joel how wrong his way of playing is. Just like in 3rd Life, he and his ally had charged into battle together and died pointlessly. Scott’s taunting Joel for his mistake now that he’s at the other end of it, seeing just how foolish it was.
I also feel like you could somehow connect this whole “3rd Life death to Last Life win” thing to his tendency to sacrifice himself. He knows that trying to go out in a blaze of glory doesn’t work out, and it’s safest to let your life down gently so that it may help others. In SL Scott may think Joel and Bdubs would’ve been better off if one had sacrificed themselves to the other for more health, and Joel’s being too bloodthirsty to see that. On the flipside, Joel’s one attempt at sacrificing himself ended in tragedy as he was too late, he was trying other methods of helping his ally first when the safest was sacrifice.
Joel values living more than Scott does. When he wants to help his allies, he doesn’t sacrifice himself immediately like Scott does. He tries to help them while he’s alive, so they may both thrive. Scott doesn’t care about that, whether it’s because he already won, or because he’s already experienced life after losing allies and didn’t like it, who knows.
Do you think Scott’s decision to eliminate Joel in Limited Life was fueled by the fact that Joel had just lost Jimmy at all? He knows from Double Life that when Joel loses something, he burns everything around him. He knows from 3rd Life that when you lose Jimmy, you lose the one thing you had, and end up just killing without any purpose.
I think he thought that Joel no longer had a purpose, except to kill. And that’s why he needed to die.
I think of Scott and Joel as… some sort of opposites, I guess. It all started in 3rd Life, when they joined together, and after that failure they both improved, going against each other. Scott may have won Last Life after renouncing Joel’s way of playing, but Joel got 5th, and the most kills. His way of playing had finally started to bear fruits, until Scott gathered a team to take him down.
Now, Joel’s placement never really got better after that, technically neither did Scott’s but at least he stayed top 5, but Joel was finally getting kills every season. Lots of them, too. In 3rd Life he had none. It’s a big improvement.
Anyways, back to Scott. I think he sees Joel as some sort of embodiment of senseless murder. That’s why he’s constantly assembling teams to get rid of him. He’s a problem. It doesn’t matter that this is a death game, Scott knows that endless violence isn’t how you win because he won. Joel couldn’t possibly convince him otherwise, not when he hasn’t won, or even gotten closer than 5th. He’s going to look past the fact that he never lets Joel live. That Joel’s downfall is almost always Scott deciding he’s lived too long.
Joel time, I think he might believe Scott. He desperately tries to convince Scott otherwise, that he should live, but he knows he kills. He’s always been viewed as somewhat of a villain, struggling to gain allies, while Scott is often viewed as a perfect guy with loads of friends. If Joel truly didn’t deserve it, how was Scott able to convince the rest of the server to help? Why was Grian preparing to leave him, warning him that he’s going too far when all he’s trying to do is live? The simple answer is that he truly is the villain of the server. It’s a role Joel isn’t afraid to have, but he never really tries to, so it’s always a surprise when everyone wants him dead. Well, a surprise until they bring up some way he’s wronged someone, then he gets it. But am I crazy or do other people do stuff like that and not get witch hunted lmao
Back to Scott, I believe there was a slight shift in Secret Life, with Scott becoming more conscious of this ongoing rivalry. I think with the realization that Scott has someone obsessed with taking him down, he started to view Joel as more of a person than an oppressive force. Before, he viewed Joel as a wildfire that destroys everything in sight, but now he’s realized that with him, it’s personal. It’s constant. He can rely on Joel to always be hating him. He ignores the times Joel is nice with him to emphasize that he’s got a rival who hates him, while still trying to keep up that he doesn’t care about it. He doesn’t have anything against Joel. He’s only killing him because he needed to die, it wasn’t personal. Scott doesn’t seem to pick up on the fact that if he’s nice to Joel (which he’s doing to keep up the “one-sided rivalry” thing), Joel is fine with dropping his hatred. It creates a somewhat weird dynamic where Scott is like “oh Joel HATES me he’s gonna KILL me on SIGHT” and Joel’s just like 😐. Secret Life is kind of spared from that happening too badly cuz of the whole assassin fail thing making Joel want to kill Scott but like IT STILL HAPPENS. Anyways that’s how we flip the one-sided rivalry to be on the other side lmao.
Anyways, why does it seem like Scott likes having a rival? Well, he certainly loves drama, so that’s one thing. Another thing, despite always having great allies, he’s always saying things about how lonely he is, how he believes no one likes him, abandonment issues, etc. You could read those as ooc jokes but they’re so constant I like to see it as part of his character. So I think he enjoys the idea that Joel has been thinking about him this whole time, even if negatively. Scott even has a line in Limited Life about him being the last green/yellow (I don’t remember when this was) about how everyone’s going to wanna kill him, and it will be “the first time in [his] life people have wanted [him]”. So we know he’s desperate enough for people to “want” him that even wanting him dead is exciting to him.
On the other hand, despite not feeling like people like him, I’m sure he knows it. You can’t have loyal allies and not realize you’re not alone. So he’s got a husband (even if said husband won’t talk about it), he’s got friends, a rival is a perfect next relationship to acquire. It also gives him something to drive him, to push him forward.
Also, he’s not scared of Joel. He’s put an end to him every time. If the rivalry gets out of hand, then, well, it won’t. He’ll stop him like he always does. So it’s perfectly safe and inconsequential to accept Joel as his rival. In fact, it’s kind of better. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right?
But aside from strategy I do think he mostly just thinks having a rival is cool and is excited to have one, he just needs to be the cool one that isn’t hateful, lol. The one sided rivalry idea is too funny for him to throw. Being loving is his brand, he’s gotta keep it chill.
So basically my dream scenario is Scott starts being nice to Joel to play into this one-sided rivalry, expecting Joel to hate him unconditionally, not realizing that his hatred is somewhat conditional, and watches as Joel starts being like “wow maybe Scott isn’t so bad” and Scott’s like “wait no, why isn’t he hating me” and they accidentally form some sort of terrible and confusing alliance where neither of them really know what the other is thinking. I don’t think it would happen but man. It would be funny.
Anyways thanks for reading my post I don’t fully like how it came out 😭 I’ll probably talk about Scott and Joel forever and ever so feel free to talk to me and we’ll see if I explain things in a way that I like more haha
One thing that underlines the ranchers' dynamic thats hard to describe but is all from the same root, is Jimmy being amenable/open and Tango being personal/closed. It manifests in a lot of ways:
Jimmy always teaming up with new people and Tango teaming up with the same people.
Jimmy joining a bunch of servers for short periods while Tango stays mostly on his home servers.
Tango is very skilled at his favourite things and bumbles through everything else to the point of coming to dislike them, while Jimmy is always a bit bumbling but he picks up on the basics enough to try anything new and doesn't mind failing.
Jimmy has to manually force himself to lock in when he's doing stuff while Tango's brain does it automatically and against his will. Tango can typically do things at a much bigger scale whileJimmy has a larger scope because of it.
Jimmy ends up an extroverted social butterfly and Tango is an introvert who takes a while to warm up to people.
Both of them have a long list of dislikes but for Tango it's because he lacks interest while for Jimmy it's because he tried it. In this vein, if it's a dislike that can be overcome like a fear, Jimmy is more likely to do so.
Jimmy tends to end up liking things that are popular and trending while Tango is a bit of a hipster in his attitude.
Tango approaches fun and entertainment in a very technical manner while Jimmy approaches it in a very participatory way. (designer vs host)
This also manifests in what games they play with their friends, Tango building games on his own for other to enjoy while Jimmy likes immediate and involved social games and roleplay.
Similar vein, Tango tends to preplan things and fumble if they go off course, so when he yes ands it's more in a panic and they end more catastrophic for him. Jimmy is very bad at preplanning and wings things but usually not leading them. Both of them end up at the mercy of other people's whims.
Tango knows what he's looking for and gets tunnel vision on things, and he gets easily distracted by something that catches his eye while other things are basically invisible, making him easy to startle. Jimmy often has trouble focusing and he'll miss details but see the general goings on. He gets very excited when he catches a detail.
Tango has very specific aesthetics he sticks with, Jimmy changes things up a lot and his consistent aesthetic is more to do with his skill than his likes.
Tango's self doubt manifests as negative critique and Jimmy's manifests as second guessing himself.
Similarly, Tango winds up rejecting opinion contrary to his and is assertive of his pov ("you can have your wrong opinion" and being bad at taking compliments) while Jimmy tends to be appeasing ("You think so?" And his apologetic hemming and hawing when he doesn't agree) and get excited to be agreed with or complimented. (His flustered "stop, stop!")
Both wind up frequently quiet but for Tango it's out of simple disinterest while Jimmy is usually either giving other people a turn or paying too much attention and often confused in the process.
Jimmy is good at creating a mood or turning it around. Tango can kill a mood and has a hard time resetting once he does.
When angry, Jimmy tends to immediately act on impulse and Tango tends to plot revenge. (Yes, on the surface this is in contrast to their most notable rage moment together. However, Tango was already plotting bigger schemes than his immediate reaction and Jimmy was experiencing more empathy and fear than anger, in part due to Tango's rage and their neighbours using them as entertainment.)
Jimmy tends to be the one to reach out and almost always gives an open maybe on an offer if he has no objective reason not to (if he doesn't do something it's usually because he "can't"). Tango usually needs to be reached out to, and he's usually got a pretty clear cut answer of yes or no based on his personal desires.
This is in part ironically due to Jimmy having a pretty rigid schedule for things like bed time and dinner and start times, so his excuses are framed as absolute and thus much more amenable in social etiquette. Tango is a bit more lax and works on a much larger scale schedule where things just have happen within a certain window with only other promises being more rigid, so his excuses come off more personal and mood based, and by extention has the perception of rudeness by comparison. (This is probably the main source of the vibes for autistic jimmy and adhd tango headcanons. It's also why the ranchers have a hard time hanging out, because Jimmy has to bend his schedule to make it work and Tango isn't very pushy.)
Tango finds it a lot easier to befriend people when they show interest in something he likes while Jimmy will try things other people like to bond with them.
Tango is much quicker to be suspicious of people when they pop up and expects betrayal, and reacts more exssperated and annoyed because of it. Jimmy tends towards the assumption (sometimes in an egotistic sort of way) that everyone is on his side and takes betrayal and suspicious activity much more harshly.
If Tango doesn't like something, he'll tell you. If Jimmy doesn't like something, he'll apologize.
Jimmy likes to help and is more appreciative of help in the form of moral support or manpower while Tango prefers knowledge and advice. (Team player vs mentoring)
A bit outside the scope of purely the characters but this also manifests in Jimmy engaging with other people's kids vs Tango raising his own kids, and how this m in part also ties into their age difference putting them at different stages of life. (More youthful/social/exploratory, more old/closed/settled)
In conclusion this is generally one of the the dynamics I tend to focus on when asigning new traits and creating scenarios, because it is one of the more crucial differences between them that can be applied to analyze most of their behaviour.
Jimmy is very much the sort that would end up someone's lackey. Like he has dreams of grandeur with how often he puts himself in authority positions in his roleplay choices, but the man's a bit of a survival sheep who is quick to jump on board with the opinions of more authoritive and naturally aggresive people that would normally bully him like Grian or Joel.
If something else is the subject of their ire he is quick to agree and enforce it, and when he really can't agree he is hesitant and makes his voice high and weak and is quick to placate if he gets pushback. He has that non-committal "yeah..." he does in particular. Guy who generally avoids going against the grain of the loudest person in the room. Need someone on his side and if someone isn't he'll bend to fit himself onto their's.
Anyways I think it's a quality more fics could incorperate, especially in the form of the small soft betrayals it would create with other people like Tango and Pearl. He is very much the bad boys' little brother who subconciously understands its dangerous to step out of line and power trips if put in charge despite his usual personality.
