It’s so funny going from, say, Grian’s POV as he is watching everyone freak out and dying around him to then go to Gem or Joel’s POV and they are. just chilling. Gem made friends with her snail. They haven’t died once.

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A screenshot of tags from tumblr user @saints-blade​ that read as follows:

“How did she permanently make doc afraid of her. I need to know this story”

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hee hoo so this goes back to season 6′s civil war and season 7s tag game, but stress is QUITE the formidable opponent when given time to prepare! anybody whose watched her, doc’s, or ren’s perspective should be aware of this iconic deathtrap of hers:

https://youtu.be/-1Xq1x4BQtE?t=774 (Season 6, Episode 34. 12:54 timestamp)

and should also recall that doc was there with ren during the jangler investigation! where she shot ren dead instantly while they were leaving.  (accidentally, technically, you can tell she was intentionally trying to miss because the arrow was going above his head and he jumped into it) https://youtu.be/3GLQu7qlhsU?t=388 (Season 6, Episode 40, 6:28 timestamp)

well in season 7, doc says something VERY interesting when he says hes going after Stressmonster for the tag game! https://youtu.be/HVqtLGJpL1c?t=652 (Season 7, Episode 11, 11:03 timestamp) He says, and this is a direct quote: “I definitely have to be careful with her… Yeah, y’know. Civil war?” and then a cut over to Season 6′s civil war where he gets stuck in the invisible pigman trap. He then says “Yeaaahhh… Nuh uh. Not gonna fall for that again.”

When he goes to try and capture Stress for her tag: https://youtu.be/HVqtLGJpL1c?t=1485 (Season 7, Episode 11, 24:45 timestamp) THIS is the gear he feels the need to bring with him. A full set of god armour, MULTIPLE weapons, strength potions, fire resistance potions, and TWO SHIELDS. He already KNOWS that she’s deadly when given time to prepare, and he comes with what he thinks is enough preparation to counter that.

he quite literally says “That should make it safe to go over to Stress.” in fact if you keep watching past the timestamp, it goes on to the actual confrontation with her where he claims he’s been hiding in her base for well over half an hour. Now I don’t watch Doc so i don’t know how truthful that is, but the fact he’s so intent on making sure it is absolutely safe to strike before going after her means he’s scared SHITLESS of Stress.

during the final confrontation (27:14 timestamp), not only did she entirely evade him despite him having the jump on her, he gets trapped in a chute where hes poisoned and unable to escape, and is forced to beg for her to let him go. you could argue being forced to beg for mercy is worse than just being killed, but i digress. he literally exclaims “are you kidding me now?! not again! not again!” while she stands on the other side of the trap taunting him.

you could make the argument that doc allowed her to win by not breaking the glass she used, but you could also argue she just would have pressed the button faster before he had a chance to do so, and breaking blocks while bobbing in a bubble elevator is extremely difficult.