Martyn Is Not Loyal But He Tried. And Its Not Going Well. - Tumblr Posts

HEY HEY HI I CANT JUST SIT IN SILENCE ANYMORE I have my own version of c!Martyn’s path (in this post I will call it nc! cus everything I am doing with characters is automatically nix crypta AU) so after reading this post I just want to share it. Sorry and thank you.

In 3d Life it takes a long time for Martyn to become somehow loyal to Ren. Even if he thought that in the end he is going to betray him, he never did — he died before his time has come, died as a soldier he is for his King, and. Well. Ren was important so Martyn. So important that he will never forget him through games. So important that his fragment from this game is on his cheek, where was a tear drop from killing Ren (if I remember it correctly sorry if I am not)

And all that love and loyalty he tried to keep? That backfired. He died, Ren died, and he will never be with him again. Even if he tries.

Then, Last Life, Southlands. Martyn is not trying to be loyal, more like he tried to just keep this alliance together (Jimmy moment) until he couldn’t. And he made a deal with Watcher, that if he will do everything they say, then they will “bring them back” and everything will be alright. So, at least he cared about them, tried to do something for them (- Grian, cus he is a target of the Watcher). And you know what? THAT BACKFIRED EVEN HARDER.

Shadow alliance is another thing, cus it is not really Martyn’s doing. The thing is, the Watcher in Last Life is referred as The Shadow, and everyone in this alliance have some symbolism. . . Okay, not really. Not BigB — he is here for a ride literally just cus he was near, and not Ren, he is here cus of Red Winter. Ren is here because it is Ren.

So, Martyn tries to save someone by himself and fails miserably.

Double Life. Martyn is left alone, he is a pathetic wet dog, he is shit to Pearl, and he is annoying Cleo and Scott, and. . . Yeah. He is what he is. He cant literally do anything about it, so there is no space to be loyal. Yes, he tries to do something with Cleo, but because he really doesn’t have a choice, they are literally bounded. And then final episode with just shit show going down into hell.

Martyn himself is not really loyal, or trusting, or anything else, but when he tries to it just becomes worse. Do you see my vision.

And the, Limited Life. He and Scott were close all this time anyway, so they team up, and- well for goodness sake Martyn is down again. Cus Scott is Scott, y’know, he is a good alliance and a good friend. But Martyn is tired of this shit, he is tired of losing in one step before finale, and Watcher is still here, and time is delicious. Martyn needs to win, and there is no one else except for him. And Scott would die for him anyways, right? There is nothing about killing him then!

Martyn is on his own side. Funny moment: his own side is Dogwarts flag on his waist.

But in Secret Life, he understands something. There is really nothing in the win. Absolutely nothing. He is still there, and Watcher is not gone, and Ren isn’t even here, and now- what? What he tries to do? There are books with secrets, and Martyn is well with them, because he always kept secrets from everyone else. He tries to come back to easier times: Timmy, Property Police, you know! But then Jimmy dies. And Mumbo dies. Fucking everyone Martyn tries to alliance with dies, and he is alone, the first red, on his endless killing spree until he is falling from the tower. And then it is all over.

I think, Martyn doesn’t need alliances, because he likes to be free, and he can’t just be in one place for all time. But he needs friends, because without them he is going insane. He doesn’t want to be alone. Cus when he is, there is only him and Watcher. Only him and his own thoughts about what he was trying to achieve all this time. Only him and his sorrow.

So, Martyn is in fact a dog. Fucking Hachiko even.

Sorry and thank you again if you’ve read all of this, I just. Damn. I thought about it for SO. LONG.

one thing i think people get wrong about Martyn in the life series is he really isn’t loyal

like yeah, we all know him as the Hand, following the Red King as far as their shared grave, but that is… truly the outlier and not the norm with him

i mean, let’s take a brief look at other seasons. i can’t speak to Secret Life, as it came out when i was incredibly busy and i haven’t yet had time to watch it, but what about the others?

he won Limited Life because he’s a chronic traitor! he betrayed Scott, his ally for the whole season, so that he could win, and said he’d been planning it / wanting to do it the whole session. spent a whole season protecting and helping Scott, and laughed in his face to betray as soon as he saw a shot to do so

Double Life was a whole mess of Martyn and weird loyalties. just one example: he spent all of the first session hanging out with Pearl in favor of even looking for either of their soulmates, with no regard for how he’d been putting his soulmate in danger. when their soulmates dumped them due to being ignored all session and stormed off, he dumped Pearl just because. one session in and he’s betrayed both his soulmate and his day one alliance!

Last Life he teamed with the Southlanders and then made the Shadow Alliance in secret, so he was on two teams and never truly committed to either. he tried to kill Grian basically immediately when he got boogeyman, for example, and in the final fight he tried to lure Ren to himself by offering to team and then tried to blow Ren up

of course, i’m simplifying and ignoring a lot. he doesn’t earn the loyal reputation for nothing. he does a lot of things to help his teammates, like giving a life to Ren in Last Life, trying all season to win Cleo over for all of Double Life, or working to protect Scott for all of Limited Life. it’s not like Martyn doesn’t play the part of a loyal friend well, but, well.

the thing about Martyn is that he’s selfish. he’s basically always going to prioritize his own survival over anything else. he’s never going to roll over and die, especially not for another person. he’s good at looking loyal, because having allies will help you survive, and he knows making outright enemies is a bad idea. he knows he can’t make it obvious he’s a traitor, because then he’ll certainly be killed. but, when it comes down to the wire, he will generally bail at the last minute to save his own skin rather than protecting the people around him. when his loyalty is tested, nine times out of ten, he will not only fail, but do so completely without remorse

it doesnt take a lot to become Martyn’s ally, and once you’ve got a foot in the door, he will take his allegiances seriously (at least, to a point). but it takes effort to really earn Martyn’s trust. and, even when it looks like you have, there’s no guarantee he won’t yank the rug out from under you if he decides having you alive is more detrimental to his survival than seeing you dead

and yes, you can especially see all of this in Third Life. Martyn was absolutely not instantly ride or die for Ren—for a lot of the earlier episodes, he won’t say he’s on Ren’s team or that he lives at Ren’s base, and often tells other players he’s simply Ren’s employee rather than teammate and that he’s wandering or homeless. he trusts Ren so little due to Ren’s inability to keep a secret or stand up for himself that even Ren acknowledges in the third session that Martyn is probably going to leave him and find someone else. Martyn’s loyalty had to be earned, and it very nearly wasn’t. if Ren had taken a session more to grow a spine, Martyn probably would have left

but Ren became an ally that Martyn could rely on, who could stand up for himself and keep secrets. it became more beneficial to Martyn’s survival to have Ren around, so he stayed with Ren for the rest of the season, and committed hard to their kingdom. Ren earns Martyn’s trust by becoming a more dependable ally, and because of that, Ren earns Martyn’s loyalty…. probably

(half related, bc i want it in the post and i don’t know where to put it: after the execution, two sessions after Ren officially earns Martyn’s loyalty, Ren admits to being genuinely convinced Martyn was going to take him out of the series as soon as Ren gave him the chance!)

because yes, even here, even after Ren earns his trust and Ren trusts Martyn to execute him and they become King and Hand, Martyn was okay with killing Ren to save himself. Martyn has said he was going to betray Ren in the final session of Third Life. his entire plan was that when he and Ren hit the final 5, he was going to kill Ren. end Red Winter, usher in Red Spring. even the most loyal version of Martyn was a traitor!

now, you can decide for yourself if you believe he could have actually gone through with this—he and Ren were 6th and 7th out of the game, after all. maybe he wouldn’t have been able to steel himself. maybe his loyalty would have, for once, been too strong to kill Ren.

but it’s very possible that even the most loyal version of Martyn—the version of Martyn who has created this “loyal” image of Martyn in fanon—was only loyal because he died too soon to show his true colors