watched the recent among us streams and man why haven’t i realised until now that skizz and grian are actually a dynamic duo
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watched the recent among us streams and man why haven’t i realised until now that skizz and grian are actually a dynamic duo
very interesting to me that the seasons in which skizz was the most violent and the most successful as a killer were the two seasons in which he was a follower, not a leader
SHIT i was writing a lot about this in the tags but I had too many so ill write it here. disclaimer it’s not v succinct it’s just a lot of thoughts haha
FASCINATING to me. Like, I don’t think he’s a bad leader. I think he’s charismatic and confident and he always has the group’s best interests in heart and mind so he can (usually. see last life) support his friends and work with them as a unit. But as a leader he has to watch himself and not make any reckless decisions. Everyone is depending on him.
But in 3rd life where he follows Ren as a leader and in wild life where they didn’t really have a leader (if you say they did it would be Grian) he didn’t have that pressure on him. His job was to stay alive and follow orders, serving his team however he can. He still supports them, but in these situations where they don’t rely on him he has more freedom to show his devotion, and in a death game? The best way to help your team is through killing for them. He also worries about his life less because it’s less integral to the team’s survival.
There’s also specifics on the reasons why he couldn’t kill in the seasons where he was a leader:
The thing with last life is that when he turned red he (as all reds did) had to leave. He was forcibly separated from his team. He couldn’t lead them anymore and there wasn’t really any way he could support them, especially with the mental disconnect of very suddenly being alone or with someone who was an enemy just yesterday. It doesn’t compute for someone as loyal as him. I don’t think there was a way in which he could just get over that and kill, especially since his priority still lay with protecting them and he continued wanting to lead them (see the BEST hair AUGHHHH).
Skipping to secret life - his team was vulnerable when they turned red. They were well aware they were one of the weakest teams combat-wise and Tango could’ve died from a gust of wind. BigB was better off but he wasn’t much of a fighter either. I think Skizz, as the leader, saw he needed to protect his boys and keep them together. He couldn’t be reckless otherwise they’d die too. He just needed to help them survive.
Limited life is a very interesting season in this because I’d argue Skizz puts himself into a leader role more here than anywhere else and it’s also the season in which he has the most struggle with killing and he knows it.
His team are competent and they’re trying to eliminate their opposition and he wasn’t able to help much at all. It could be that BECAUSE his team is doing so well he’s focusing just on leading them but it really can’t be because he’s very obviously upset he’s not helping. If it is that it’d be more subconscious and would play into his vulnerability and inferiority complex I’d argue he has in liml, but that’s a different post lmao. So a very simplified version of it - he’s has an overall very bad time in liml and the only thing he gets right are his leadership and charisma (+ his duel with Bdubs iirc haha) so that psychological effect that that’s the only thing going well for him kinda continues and becomes realer.
In liml it’s less like his role as leader invites his poor combat performance and decreased penchant for violence like SL (and to an extent LL - I don’t think he’d be much better off if he were a follower - the ‘reds must leave’ situation was just overall bad for him haha), but the other way round - his misfortune and everything going wrong for him encourages him to take up the leader role.
anyways fns/hermit among us rounds (from a skizz (incidentally impulse) pov watcher) im thinking about forever:
that pearl and skizz lovers win where skizz was an impostor along with fwhip while being lovers with pearl. just after the first meeting skizz, pearl, and tango went up in the lab’s direction and skizz killed tango right in front of pearl before venting, only letting her gasp. after tango’s meeting skizz whispers to fwhip not to kill pearl. after the next meeting, pearl and both impostors, along with two others, go to o2 and a they perform a double kill, again in front of pearl, before walking up to security/electrical in a silent line, even passing impulse which baffles him when he reports the body. they’re able to eject a crewmate but the game doesn’t end, even when both impostors and only four people total are alive. they’re able call a meeting. someone jumps on fwhip and the lovers do so too. it’s all too easy.
the round where impulse and skizz were sticking together the ENTIRE round and joked about doing a double kill but in the third set of murders (w six people left) two were dead in a relatively short time so they knew they were both good but also no one had been ejected so far so everyone knew both impostors were still alive and could end the game in a double kill. joker (an actual impostor) passed them before reporting and pinned it on them very easily. impulse was sent to his death, telling them all it was joker, and skizz knew it wasn’t impulse the entire time. the next meeting is skipped, though he tries valiantly to get joker out. his efforts are in vain as mrs tango kills him and the game ends.
that one round where it was just gem, pearl, and impulse at the end where gem was the impostor and impulse knew it, while she accused him. gem and impulse debate for pearl’s vote and i haven’t watched it in a while but MANNNNN its emotional. they harken back to soup group a couple times which is heartbreaking.. ultimately gem is able to persuade her and pearl votes for impulse and im thinking about it forever….
that executioner game from pearl where etho killed in front of the only two other people left (pearl and i think fwhip iirc?) but pearl immediately went after Possibly fwhip, baffling everyone. he went after her in turn and etho obviously followed her in voting for him. as Possibly fwhip is ejected all of the ghosts are bemoaning etho’s win, only for pearl’s victory screen to show up instead.
okay sighhhhh I’ve been convinced im starting to watch vsmp
impulseeeee……. impulseeeeeeeee!!!!!!! beaming this into your mind: you HAVE to be evil and conniving this upcoming season trust me impulse
impulse you have to believe me it’s the only way to win impulse!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you have to scheme. you have to lie. you can betray if you want to!!!! aren’t you tired of being nice!!! don’t you wanna go apeshit!!
sighhhhhhhh couldnt help myself and made a life series western au. obsessed with it already after barely just creating it
maybe this is a hot take i dunno but i don’t really like that concept that only winners remember the previous seasons
i just feel like so many non-winners seasons’ are affected by things that have happened to them or that they’ve seen in their previous seasons. it feels kind of .. weak or lousy just to say ‘oh they did that because they don’t have memories of that, but they do have the lingering feelings :)’
like, no, i feel like it’s much more compelling for it to be conscious. maybe im just too focused on impulse’s seasons but for example i feel like it’s a much better story if he is knowingly going after his revenge or being prevented from it rather than just going after a feeling and that bdubs’ ignorance in limited life (‘what have i ever done to sweet impulse?’ iirc) is completely avoidable, he forgot because he wasn’t thinking about it all, or whatever your interpretation — it’s much more compelling then him being completely helpless to forgetting
i just feel like it’s much more interesting if non-winners are afforded the multi-season character development, changing relationships, and changing goals that winners are