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 itās not v succinct itās just a lot of thoughts haha
FASCINATING to me. Like, I donāt think heās a bad leader. I think heās charismatic and confident and he always has the groupās 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 didnāt really have a leader (if you say they did it would be Grian) he didnāt 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 donāt 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 itās less integral to the teamās survival.
Thereās also specifics on the reasons why he couldnāt 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 couldnāt lead them anymore and there wasnāt 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 doesnāt compute for someone as loyal as him. I donāt 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 couldāve died from a gust of wind. BigB was better off but he wasnāt much of a fighter either. I think Skizz, as the leader, saw he needed to protect his boys and keep them together. He couldnāt be reckless otherwise theyād die too. He just needed to help them survive.
Limited life is a very interesting season in this because Iād argue Skizz puts himself into a leader role more here than anywhere else and itās also the season in which he has the most struggle with killing and he knows it.
His team are competent and theyāre trying to eliminate their opposition and he wasnāt able to help much at all. It could be that BECAUSE his team is doing so well heās focusing just on leading them but it really canāt be because heās very obviously upset heās not helping. If it is that itād be more subconscious and would play into his vulnerability and inferiority complex Iād argue he has in liml, but thatās a different post lmao. So a very simplified version of it - heās 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 thatās the only thing going well for him kinda continues and becomes realer.
In liml itās less like his role as leader invites his poor combat performance and decreased penchant for violence like SL (and to an extent LL - I donāt think heād be much better off if he were a follower - the āreds must leaveā 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.
