stuck on bread bridge

A lot of PTSD brothers here huh

*explodes*

Majorbeans!

Crumbability; 7/10, they're so mean to each other but they're so consistently mean to each other ALL the TIME

Compatability; 6.5/10, not compatible, they despise each other...but i think that might be part of the appeal

Cuteness; 7/10, it's uncommon but when they're nice to each other they're cute as

Dynamic; 8/10, enemies to lovers but actually they're both

Un-ickyness; 7/10, they may hate each other too much idk

(full comic under cut? I think thats what’s it called)

Jimmy’s elimination of Pearl shocked pretty much everybody, but I can’t stop thinking about what that implies about these characters.

Pearl, for example, is best known in the Life Series for her performance in Double Life. Her performance of “evil bloodthirsty wicked witch from the woods” to be exact. She’s gained a reputation for being bloodthirsty and incredibly powerful, a force to be reckoned with.

Jimmy, on the other hand, is best known in the Life Series for the canary curse. He’s had improvement in the games prior, but still remains solidly in the bottom half of players. He’s seen as weak and an easy target—especially by Grian. That will come into play later.

Back to Pearl: When she joins a team with Gem and Grian, Grian explicitly tells her he’s making a team of the “strongest players”, and that he’d been planning this for a while. Evidently, Pearl’s reputation is what makes him seek her out. Of course, being a part of a team based on usefulness as opposed to connection isn’t necessarily the best idea when you want to keep that team loyal. (See: Grian betraying Gem in the finale). This motivation is obvious throughout the series. Etho points out a couple times that Grian and Gem were “using” Pearl. 

Timeskip: In Pearl’s finale, she loses three lives in incredibly quick succession. Now being red, she’s expected to play the part of “Scarlet Pearl”, and Grian decides to send her out to kill Jimmy and eliminate him. Obviously this goes wrong.

During her final death, Pearl is alone. Jimmy is not, being up on the skynet with Joel. However, Pearl does have the advantage. She’s invisible, and although without armor, she is on the ground with no way for the pair to get to her for short-range pvp. It’s nighttime as well, making it difficult for them to see her invisibility particles. Meanwhile, Jimmy is on skynet, a precarious bridge in the sky, without the ability to water bucket clutch(?) due to the old game version. The odds are ultimately in Pearl’s favor.

She shoots at Jimmy and misses, gaining their attention. After a bit of searching, Jimmy begins shooting back, his first shot dealing three and a half hearts, his second shot taking five hearts, and his third taking Pearl’s remaining heart and a half. Pearl is dead, a shock to everyone, including Jimmy himself. 

Now for the proper analysis. Jimmy, as mentioned before, is repeatedly seen as weak—especially by Grian, who sent Pearl to take Jimmy out in the first place. But the reality is, he’s not. He’s shown to be competent in many different survival aspects, a good example of this being MCC. It’s his tendency to run into battles he cannot win that typically gets him killed. I can’t really elaborate on this now, as that’s a whole different analysis.

Pearl is seen as strong, and that is true. She tends to place in the top five in these series for a reason. However, she had been killed three times already that day, and was left alone by her teammates, Gem and Grian. She was sent to kill someone who was the cause of her most recent death. She is seen as unbeatable, despite being beat down several times that session, and had paid the price for it.

This discrepancy between how they are viewed and how they actually are is what made Pearl’s elimination have such a large effect. It went against all expectations—THE Scarlet Pearl being killed by THE Canary?! Unbelieveable! 

Except that’s not who they actually are. Pearl and Jimmy both have their own strengths and weaknesses, and can’t be reduced to their respective symbols. Pearl is not just Scarlet Pearl, and Jimmy is not just the canary.

DONT TELL ME THIS SONG ISNT BAD BOYS INCARNATE

lets do stupid things and get sprained ankles and grazed knees together because what's the point in self preservation when stupid entropy's going to take it anyway. lets make something and destroy it because there's joy in destruction as well as creation. companionship at the end of everything because WHY NOT