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schneefinkI haven't posted anything about Wild Life so far, not because I dislike it – I enjoy it a lot! – but because there is so much, and I don't even manage to watch all the episodes I want to. But I do need to scream about session five so I'll do that, and add some shorter notes about the other episodes that I may or may not expand upon later.
In general I really enjoy the different wild cards every session, the pacing fits, I love the teams, I enjoy all the call-backs to previous seasons, I'm having a great time.
Episode 1: Size Matters
Great choice for a first wildcard that led to a surprising amount of deaths, and I'm delighted by the teams.
Some favorite parts:
- Little Etho and little BigB and little Grian in a one block house (and Grian doing the "if you had told me several years ago…")
- The Sub One Club! Especially Grian and Mumbo. Just. Grian and Mumbo.
- Cleo and Pearl actually teaming up for real yes really Cleo promises :D
- Etho and Bdubs in a ~counseling session over a horse
- Scar finding all the diamonds, especially those team BET missed. And giving Tango advice as a winner – after all, Etho has never won…
- The hobbits throwing Scar out of their base because surely he wants to steal the enchanter. "You big oaf!"
- Gem and Joel Toretto as the family xD
- Poor Lizzie: "I am surrounded by idiots."
Episode 2: Om Nom Nom
- The 4 Gs – Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss, Guy – are the most divorced team xD All that beef from previous seasons… Except Scott now wants them to stay together out of spite, that tracks.
- Though the "Tuff Guys" (Etho please) are stiff competition. Only an alliance of convenience guys!
- BigB's Creaking skin looks cool.
- Cleo inviting BigB to join them! After they were mad at him for his betrayal for so long! Aww.
- Etho joined another family – and was very worried about family dinners, bad memories ^^
- Tango eating Joel's car xD
- Grian joked about banning Tango after Tango killed Skizz - in general he is much more open about doing admin things this season, even outright admitting that admin things distracted him, leading to him not saving Mumbo's life. It's fun. (Cleo said on a stream that Grian is much more concerned than any of them that his advance knowledge doesn't give him too much of an advantage, after all it's his series. Apparently Grian pays for all of it too, so it's not a surprise that almost all of the proceeds from the new merch sale - with the exception of the single snail stickers - go to him.
Episode 3: HOW many deaths?
The deadliest episode of the whole series by far! 34 deaths, most of them by snails, whoo boy. No wonder they stopped after ninety minutes. Grian didn't think they would be as deadly as they were, but…
- Though, Jimmy started by dying to a normal creeper in a cave. *facepalm*
- Scar and Lizzie peacefully mining and then seeing the deaths in chat and then Lizzie's snail breaking through the ceiling had great horror movie vibes.
- The snails were so stressful! They did look great and made funny noises (props to Oli.) With the exception of Gem, who befriended hers, kudos.
- Etho killing Scar's cows and Scar burning down Tango's base is very "of course that happened."
- Scar tried so hard to assist Jimmy, but Jimmy makes it difficult… So does Skizz for his group.
- "Sorry I have friends Mumbo!" "Yeah I don't like that, I don't like that one bit! I'm all the friend that you need." Aölskdfjölsd
- Mumbo keeps suggesting that they need to throw Skizz out of the alliance or even kill him off, Grian keeps saying they need to do something drastic, they're both so exasperated with him. Mumbo giving him those ridiculous compliments xD
- Bdubs telling Etho to tell Grian to stop the session because Grian listens to him, and Grian actually ending it thirty seconds after Etho obliquely asks in chat, was very funny, especially because…
- Grian ended the session to save Scar! Spamming all caps "end of session" in chat after Scar went on red and is being pursued by an invisible snail, that was close. The invisible snail was diabolical.
Episode 4: a little bit slower
After last week this wildcard was a very welcome reprieve, finally people had some time to actually build things and focus on the social game etc. – and also on murder, to get some lives back.
- The contrast between Cleo and Scott immediately offering Pearl a life for if she goes red, between Mumbo asking Grian how committed he is to the alliance and pretending to shove him off and Grian saying he would rather not xD (When that came up on their stream Cleo said that there are some players that giving a life to would be a waste – harsh but understandable… Either this episode or the previous one Cleo also had a version of "Skizz I love you but you are not good at the game" ^^ )
- Nooo BigB betrayed Cleo again :( (Loved the dramatic music Cleo used.) Yes fine he might not have actually been planning to do it but he knew their history and he really messed up defending himself. Though, Pearl taking Cleo at their word that BigB is a traitor and shooting at him, while Pearl did the exact same thing BigB only planned to do and let Skizz and Mumbo plan a trap under their base for Scott or Cleo is very funny.
- Also very funny: Pearl and Impulse making a separate pact that they will be the final two, to their group pact that they will be the final four and Scott and Cleo and Pearl all agreed that Impulse should win.
- Scar's kill on Etho throwing him down a hole, "long live the king," so good xD
- Etho saying to Grian and Gem that he's like a lost puppy without an owner and Gem then calling him a tuff puppy xD
- Both of Grian's death were perfect, first Scar (after Grian already pretty much offered to let Scar try to kill him and Scar failed several times with a fishing rod and Grian then still got so mad at being shot off), and then Jimmy getting both him and Mumbo with the TNT minecart Grian set up himself and that Grian and Mumbo had gone to test the landing zone of *facepalm* And both times Grian respawned in the Bamboozlers' base! And vowed revenge
- Grian blowing up the reputation point and saying it was meaningless because he was in good standing, and Scar correcting him that he was on zero with sad face (after he'd tried to manipulate his own standing before and even added a heart!)
- "Is the moon fast?" ^^
- Mumbo setting himself on fire while attempting to use lava on Joel and then running to Grian and dying in front of him!
Episode 5: Do you still remember…
This episode. There was. So Much. And I've only watched a few PoVs so far.
- Trivia time! :D Trivia bot was so cute (and Grian's clear delight was especially cute.) Grian asked Cherri Cherrifire, who's done some of Martyn's and his thumbnails in the past, to assemble a group of superfans to make the trivia questions (and then asked them to have mercy and not make them too hard after the unexpected high snail death toll. He also asked them to include a "two nickels" for Jimmy because he hates that meme xD)
- The questions were great. There is a quiz one can take here, I only got ten wrong of the questions that were included in the series, not bad.
- Many were surprised how many of the players struggled to remember things but these series were years ago for them and they almost certainly watched fewer videos than many fans do. Some misses were very funny though. And some questions led to very funny circumstances, like Impulse being there to answer the question of where Scar got the clock from that he bribed Bdubs with to betray Impulse, or Ren hearing the question of who got married in Third Life and asking Martyn if it was them, or Scar getting the question about Grian's secret soulmate and later answering the one about the flowers he gave Grian in Third Life, etc. etc.
- Scott saying he's on board with enabling Pearl – Cleo is delighted, they were on board from the beginning – and then asking for no betrayal, and no letting others build traps, Pearl. ^^ They all agreed then that BigB could stay if he wanted, but later confirmed that he lost their trust. BigB told Cleo forgiveness looks good on them and Cleo telling him to back off ^^ (It does not help that when Scott started naming their alliance as "Four Gs," BigB immediately declared he would join Ren and Martyn.)
- Pearl asking Gem why Gem hates her, and Gem saying she doesn't have a reason, it's just because she thought the series was better with some drama… chewing. On that.
- Mumbo's mace kill on Cleo was great! Cleo's second death, to a trap set by Scar thanks to Gem luring her there, was also cool, as was Cleo's immediate "Now we kill Gem. […] And now she dies." Saying they don't care if they live or die at this point, and going to burn down Gem's barn and the tower in the family's base. Though Cleo then declares themself satisfied with that, so Gem might have gotten away easy? Probably not.
- Scott sees how much better Cleo feels after that so after Martyn killed him he goes to burn down Martyn and Ren's base xD and says it does make him feel better.
- Scar happens to be there, then on the way back meets Etho and Bdubs and immediately realizes it looks like he burned the place down – it wasn't him!, but he knows it looks bad ^^
- Speaking of Scar. Him and Grian this episode. Aösldkfjasö The first question Scar got was about Grian's secret soulmate! He told Jimmy Grian was cheating on him and leaving at night, and Grian overheard and said BigB treated him right! Scar said he built Grian a panda reserve, so he could pet the pandas! (...which is especially so. Scar Grian explicitly didn't want a panda reserve. You wanted a panda reserve.)
- Then later Grian told Mumbo to hide Scar's trivia bot because he wanted Scar to see the snail that appears when it times out, Scar promptly gets killed by the snail, Grian feels terrible and says he owes him – does that sound familiar?? Just like Third Life! -> said Grian. Grian offers him an alliance! Scar says the most important thing is that they'll be friends! (Only Scar though, not Jimmy too, because Jimmy can't be allowed to get away with blowing Grian up.)
- Scar is so happy he has so many friends now. He's clearly very conflicted about Jimmy going after Gem for a life and says he can't help him, but, well, needs must. And he is so indignant every time he knows the right answer and is not believed! (In a Hermitcraft stream a few days later he complained about that to Tango, without spoilers, and Tango said it's because of his trickery and scams. Scar protested he rarely does that. ...uh-u.)
- Grian had such a fun episode. It started with regretting he did not give a life to his teammates last session. He was so annoyed that he got so many questions wrong when it's his own series ^^ He was turned into a giant and Mumbo could only talk in robot voices, "Big and Bloop," as Martyn called them. Big Grian calls Mumbo very cute and very tiny as they walk off to scheme. Both Mumbo and Skizz finally get kills, at one point there are no red lives on the server, a big relief.
- ...aaand then Mumbo kills himself twice in a row, once by falling off his tower and once by blowing himself up with his own trap, and is first out of the series :( Noo, poor Mumbo, I was afraid that would happen… so sad, he's so much fun in the series.
- Grian was, of course, distraught, and immediately made him a grave. Scar comes to pay respects, Jimmy comes to laugh because he's so happy he's not first out, which of course makes Grian swear vengeance again. Etho shows up to say something, starts with "I didn't really talk to him too much," and Grian ends the session and his video there ^^ In Etho's video he adds that he enjoyed every moment with him that he was around, and asks anyone to throw twelve bamboo on his grave.
- Jimmy survived, though after going from one back to three lives he is now back on one again, with Grian vowing to take him out as soon as he can and Martyn also threatened him saying he will be second, so quite a precarious position.
- (Btw, someone asked Martyn on Tumblr to give Mumbo a spyglass after Mumbo said on Hermitcraft that Martyn and Jimmy always made the spyglasses for him, and Martyn promised to do so in the next recording session… *shakes fist*)
- We're getting peak chaos!Etho this season. He made a power point presentation because the Tuff Guys need leadership, he killed a horse just to spite Bdubs and pretended it was trivia bot/a random accident, and he wanted a trident so bad that he accidentally joined another team even though he didn't really want to xD which he later even admitted to Impulse. But as Cleo accurately said, Etho does try to keep his word… so while I think Cleo is right in that Etho didn't really mean to switch teams, he will try not to betray them. And he's joined the family too! Poor Etho, so often torn between too many loyalties. He said himself that he's a terrible teammate.
- Tango is back on light green, happy for him that he was so much more successful with his traps this session.
- Pearl on red! She did so badly trying to kill someone… To be fair, only because she wanted to make it exciting, because if she'd just taken on Lizzie in PVP I'm sure that would have been a very quick murder, but that's not what the series is about. (Apparently Mumbo had thirty minutes of Strength IV from triviabot, someone on reddit said he could have killed anyone in two punches ^^ )
- Scott agreed to give Pearl a life at the end, both to get her back on yellow and to reduce the target on his back, and said that this would make them even, no more past grudges. Pearl agreed but said that she would like to have a proper PVP fight against him at one point. (I would love that too.) Scott agreed but does point out that these are not good circumstances for that, so hopefully some other time.
- Now the only two people left on dark green, after Scott sacrificed a life to Pearl and both Cleo, BigB, and Joel died several times, are Lizzie and Gem…
- The robot voices were so funny, especially Impulse, Pearl, and Tango all meeting up in robot voice at the same time.
(I'm sure I missed several things and there'll be even more once I watch more episodes.)
I very much look forward to the next sessions! :D
In general I really enjoy the different wild cards every session, the pacing fits, I love the teams, I enjoy all the call-backs to previous seasons, I'm having a great time.
Episode 1: Size Matters
Great choice for a first wildcard that led to a surprising amount of deaths, and I'm delighted by the teams.
Some favorite parts:
- Little Etho and little BigB and little Grian in a one block house (and Grian doing the "if you had told me several years ago…")
- The Sub One Club! Especially Grian and Mumbo. Just. Grian and Mumbo.
- Cleo and Pearl actually teaming up for real yes really Cleo promises :D
- Etho and Bdubs in a ~counseling session over a horse
- Scar finding all the diamonds, especially those team BET missed. And giving Tango advice as a winner – after all, Etho has never won…
- The hobbits throwing Scar out of their base because surely he wants to steal the enchanter. "You big oaf!"
- Gem and Joel Toretto as the family xD
- Poor Lizzie: "I am surrounded by idiots."
Episode 2: Om Nom Nom
- The 4 Gs – Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss, Guy – are the most divorced team xD All that beef from previous seasons… Except Scott now wants them to stay together out of spite, that tracks.
- Though the "Tuff Guys" (Etho please) are stiff competition. Only an alliance of convenience guys!
- BigB's Creaking skin looks cool.
- Cleo inviting BigB to join them! After they were mad at him for his betrayal for so long! Aww.
- Etho joined another family – and was very worried about family dinners, bad memories ^^
- Tango eating Joel's car xD
- Grian joked about banning Tango after Tango killed Skizz - in general he is much more open about doing admin things this season, even outright admitting that admin things distracted him, leading to him not saving Mumbo's life. It's fun. (Cleo said on a stream that Grian is much more concerned than any of them that his advance knowledge doesn't give him too much of an advantage, after all it's his series. Apparently Grian pays for all of it too, so it's not a surprise that almost all of the proceeds from the new merch sale - with the exception of the single snail stickers - go to him.
Episode 3: HOW many deaths?
The deadliest episode of the whole series by far! 34 deaths, most of them by snails, whoo boy. No wonder they stopped after ninety minutes. Grian didn't think they would be as deadly as they were, but…
- Though, Jimmy started by dying to a normal creeper in a cave. *facepalm*
- Scar and Lizzie peacefully mining and then seeing the deaths in chat and then Lizzie's snail breaking through the ceiling had great horror movie vibes.
- The snails were so stressful! They did look great and made funny noises (props to Oli.) With the exception of Gem, who befriended hers, kudos.
- Etho killing Scar's cows and Scar burning down Tango's base is very "of course that happened."
- Scar tried so hard to assist Jimmy, but Jimmy makes it difficult… So does Skizz for his group.
- "Sorry I have friends Mumbo!" "Yeah I don't like that, I don't like that one bit! I'm all the friend that you need." Aölskdfjölsd
- Mumbo keeps suggesting that they need to throw Skizz out of the alliance or even kill him off, Grian keeps saying they need to do something drastic, they're both so exasperated with him. Mumbo giving him those ridiculous compliments xD
- Bdubs telling Etho to tell Grian to stop the session because Grian listens to him, and Grian actually ending it thirty seconds after Etho obliquely asks in chat, was very funny, especially because…
- Grian ended the session to save Scar! Spamming all caps "end of session" in chat after Scar went on red and is being pursued by an invisible snail, that was close. The invisible snail was diabolical.
Episode 4: a little bit slower
After last week this wildcard was a very welcome reprieve, finally people had some time to actually build things and focus on the social game etc. – and also on murder, to get some lives back.
- The contrast between Cleo and Scott immediately offering Pearl a life for if she goes red, between Mumbo asking Grian how committed he is to the alliance and pretending to shove him off and Grian saying he would rather not xD (When that came up on their stream Cleo said that there are some players that giving a life to would be a waste – harsh but understandable… Either this episode or the previous one Cleo also had a version of "Skizz I love you but you are not good at the game" ^^ )
- Nooo BigB betrayed Cleo again :( (Loved the dramatic music Cleo used.) Yes fine he might not have actually been planning to do it but he knew their history and he really messed up defending himself. Though, Pearl taking Cleo at their word that BigB is a traitor and shooting at him, while Pearl did the exact same thing BigB only planned to do and let Skizz and Mumbo plan a trap under their base for Scott or Cleo is very funny.
- Also very funny: Pearl and Impulse making a separate pact that they will be the final two, to their group pact that they will be the final four and Scott and Cleo and Pearl all agreed that Impulse should win.
- Scar's kill on Etho throwing him down a hole, "long live the king," so good xD
- Etho saying to Grian and Gem that he's like a lost puppy without an owner and Gem then calling him a tuff puppy xD
- Both of Grian's death were perfect, first Scar (after Grian already pretty much offered to let Scar try to kill him and Scar failed several times with a fishing rod and Grian then still got so mad at being shot off), and then Jimmy getting both him and Mumbo with the TNT minecart Grian set up himself and that Grian and Mumbo had gone to test the landing zone of *facepalm* And both times Grian respawned in the Bamboozlers' base! And vowed revenge
- Grian blowing up the reputation point and saying it was meaningless because he was in good standing, and Scar correcting him that he was on zero with sad face (after he'd tried to manipulate his own standing before and even added a heart!)
- "Is the moon fast?" ^^
- Mumbo setting himself on fire while attempting to use lava on Joel and then running to Grian and dying in front of him!
Episode 5: Do you still remember…
This episode. There was. So Much. And I've only watched a few PoVs so far.
- Trivia time! :D Trivia bot was so cute (and Grian's clear delight was especially cute.) Grian asked Cherri Cherrifire, who's done some of Martyn's and his thumbnails in the past, to assemble a group of superfans to make the trivia questions (and then asked them to have mercy and not make them too hard after the unexpected high snail death toll. He also asked them to include a "two nickels" for Jimmy because he hates that meme xD)
- The questions were great. There is a quiz one can take here, I only got ten wrong of the questions that were included in the series, not bad.
- Many were surprised how many of the players struggled to remember things but these series were years ago for them and they almost certainly watched fewer videos than many fans do. Some misses were very funny though. And some questions led to very funny circumstances, like Impulse being there to answer the question of where Scar got the clock from that he bribed Bdubs with to betray Impulse, or Ren hearing the question of who got married in Third Life and asking Martyn if it was them, or Scar getting the question about Grian's secret soulmate and later answering the one about the flowers he gave Grian in Third Life, etc. etc.
- Scott saying he's on board with enabling Pearl – Cleo is delighted, they were on board from the beginning – and then asking for no betrayal, and no letting others build traps, Pearl. ^^ They all agreed then that BigB could stay if he wanted, but later confirmed that he lost their trust. BigB told Cleo forgiveness looks good on them and Cleo telling him to back off ^^ (It does not help that when Scott started naming their alliance as "Four Gs," BigB immediately declared he would join Ren and Martyn.)
- Pearl asking Gem why Gem hates her, and Gem saying she doesn't have a reason, it's just because she thought the series was better with some drama… chewing. On that.
- Mumbo's mace kill on Cleo was great! Cleo's second death, to a trap set by Scar thanks to Gem luring her there, was also cool, as was Cleo's immediate "Now we kill Gem. […] And now she dies." Saying they don't care if they live or die at this point, and going to burn down Gem's barn and the tower in the family's base. Though Cleo then declares themself satisfied with that, so Gem might have gotten away easy? Probably not.
- Scott sees how much better Cleo feels after that so after Martyn killed him he goes to burn down Martyn and Ren's base xD and says it does make him feel better.
- Scar happens to be there, then on the way back meets Etho and Bdubs and immediately realizes it looks like he burned the place down – it wasn't him!, but he knows it looks bad ^^
- Speaking of Scar. Him and Grian this episode. Aösldkfjasö The first question Scar got was about Grian's secret soulmate! He told Jimmy Grian was cheating on him and leaving at night, and Grian overheard and said BigB treated him right! Scar said he built Grian a panda reserve, so he could pet the pandas! (...which is especially so. Scar Grian explicitly didn't want a panda reserve. You wanted a panda reserve.)
- Then later Grian told Mumbo to hide Scar's trivia bot because he wanted Scar to see the snail that appears when it times out, Scar promptly gets killed by the snail, Grian feels terrible and says he owes him – does that sound familiar?? Just like Third Life! -> said Grian. Grian offers him an alliance! Scar says the most important thing is that they'll be friends! (Only Scar though, not Jimmy too, because Jimmy can't be allowed to get away with blowing Grian up.)
- Scar is so happy he has so many friends now. He's clearly very conflicted about Jimmy going after Gem for a life and says he can't help him, but, well, needs must. And he is so indignant every time he knows the right answer and is not believed! (In a Hermitcraft stream a few days later he complained about that to Tango, without spoilers, and Tango said it's because of his trickery and scams. Scar protested he rarely does that. ...uh-u.)
- Grian had such a fun episode. It started with regretting he did not give a life to his teammates last session. He was so annoyed that he got so many questions wrong when it's his own series ^^ He was turned into a giant and Mumbo could only talk in robot voices, "Big and Bloop," as Martyn called them. Big Grian calls Mumbo very cute and very tiny as they walk off to scheme. Both Mumbo and Skizz finally get kills, at one point there are no red lives on the server, a big relief.
- ...aaand then Mumbo kills himself twice in a row, once by falling off his tower and once by blowing himself up with his own trap, and is first out of the series :( Noo, poor Mumbo, I was afraid that would happen… so sad, he's so much fun in the series.
- Grian was, of course, distraught, and immediately made him a grave. Scar comes to pay respects, Jimmy comes to laugh because he's so happy he's not first out, which of course makes Grian swear vengeance again. Etho shows up to say something, starts with "I didn't really talk to him too much," and Grian ends the session and his video there ^^ In Etho's video he adds that he enjoyed every moment with him that he was around, and asks anyone to throw twelve bamboo on his grave.
- Jimmy survived, though after going from one back to three lives he is now back on one again, with Grian vowing to take him out as soon as he can and Martyn also threatened him saying he will be second, so quite a precarious position.
- (Btw, someone asked Martyn on Tumblr to give Mumbo a spyglass after Mumbo said on Hermitcraft that Martyn and Jimmy always made the spyglasses for him, and Martyn promised to do so in the next recording session… *shakes fist*)
- We're getting peak chaos!Etho this season. He made a power point presentation because the Tuff Guys need leadership, he killed a horse just to spite Bdubs and pretended it was trivia bot/a random accident, and he wanted a trident so bad that he accidentally joined another team even though he didn't really want to xD which he later even admitted to Impulse. But as Cleo accurately said, Etho does try to keep his word… so while I think Cleo is right in that Etho didn't really mean to switch teams, he will try not to betray them. And he's joined the family too! Poor Etho, so often torn between too many loyalties. He said himself that he's a terrible teammate.
- Tango is back on light green, happy for him that he was so much more successful with his traps this session.
- Pearl on red! She did so badly trying to kill someone… To be fair, only because she wanted to make it exciting, because if she'd just taken on Lizzie in PVP I'm sure that would have been a very quick murder, but that's not what the series is about. (Apparently Mumbo had thirty minutes of Strength IV from triviabot, someone on reddit said he could have killed anyone in two punches ^^ )
- Scott agreed to give Pearl a life at the end, both to get her back on yellow and to reduce the target on his back, and said that this would make them even, no more past grudges. Pearl agreed but said that she would like to have a proper PVP fight against him at one point. (I would love that too.) Scott agreed but does point out that these are not good circumstances for that, so hopefully some other time.
- Now the only two people left on dark green, after Scott sacrificed a life to Pearl and both Cleo, BigB, and Joel died several times, are Lizzie and Gem…
- The robot voices were so funny, especially Impulse, Pearl, and Tango all meeting up in robot voice at the same time.
(I'm sure I missed several things and there'll be even more once I watch more episodes.)
I very much look forward to the next sessions! :D
