there's a new life series out today! get subscribed if you're excited, because i'll probably be making a video about it! also fun fact, i scripted and made this video WEEKS before the series was even announced, posting it today was a massive coincidence LOL
GG on the timing. 😊👍 Also, as a long time Hermitcraft viewer, i wanted to ask if you knew about the Demise competition towards the end of season 6? Imo this is where he tried this concept for the first time. The server ended up being deadly full of traps, and JoeHills died with piles of someone else's diamond blocks on him. It concluded with Grian and Impulse making a Rube Goldberg machine to kill Iskall with.
That's actually the entire point of the series: To make something easy to upload. Grian mentions this early in the first season how hermitcraft episodes take like 3 days of recording, and a full day or two of editing, just to get a single video out. The life series is 3 hours of recording, and never more, by rules of the server, meaning the video is *far* easier to make. This, combined with the small map size, means that all the content comes from interactions with other players, not base building or shop stocking. The video tries to make it seem as if the goal was to be the next big thing, but really the goal was really to just help people who take lots of time making videos to keep their channel afloat with the RUclips algorithm while they put their focus on the more high-effort videos. The success was accidental, even if astounding.
10:00 one thing I really appreciate however if that you don't *have* to watch everybody's pov. I usually prioritize 1 or 2 people as it comes out and slowly look through other ones-- heck, I literally finished Etho's Double Life POV for the first time YESTERDAY.
I also appreciate that! Coming from someone who typically only watches 1 or 2 people when it comes to smps (empire smp, that one other smp lizzie and laurenzside were in i forgot the name of, the uh witchsmp i think, dsmp, etc etc)
I think one of the things that also really adds to it, is the specific players. All of them are experienced enough content creators that they know what is good content. Some of the most memorable moments for me is stuff like Dogwarts in 3rd life, the Southlands in Last Life and the divorced quartet in DL. If the goal is just to win, dark oak saplings doesn't matter. If the goal is just to win, scar would have died so many times in 3rd life, but they let him live for good moments. It always never felt that a creator had to be 'popular' to be there, which it felt like in certain servers. People like Martyn and Ren might not get as many views as Mumbo or Grian, but their antics always spices up stuff. It's one of the reasons I am genuinly sad that Ren is not in Limited life
@Kylie Nielsen Ren and Martyn together has what I like to call... unhinged theater kid energy when together. Their third life POV are some of my favourites in the whole series. I am so sad that he won't be in this one :(
I think it's important to emphasize that the life series is NOT scripted, as a rule. That's why it's so good, and crazy unpredictable things happen, like someone building a trap for someone else, but it completely fails... and two episodes later a random other player happens to trigger it and die. The randomness is real randomness. I also think not enough people are aware of it sadly, and I'm very happy about this video because it can help! For example, Just the other day, Tubbo (a former main character on the dream smp) didn't know what the life series was, when Scott (one of the players) casually mentioned it in conversation. And I don't think Tubbo took it as something that he should go check out either. Sometimes that is the assumption when hearing that some of the players come from Hermicraft, which I think a lot of viewers dismiss since they look for "lighter content"... Had the life series happened during the pandemic lockdown, it would have had a much bigger boost, like the dream smp. This series is truly high quality, with a brilliant set-up as you describe. I suggest also watching animations made by fans which could be used as scripts for movies. I particularly suggest Everen on youtube, who just released an amazing video of the last season.
its like LSSMP but with people who have never pvpd in their life, and it makes it hilarious unscripted, loads of traps and combat, but nobody knows whats happening
@@KwikBR nah joel is actually pretty good. he gets top ten a bunch in MCC, averages around top 15, and pvp is his strongest suit. The rest of them are either average or straight up not PVPers. Of course, MCC is not that sweaty of an event, but he definitely knows how to do it and is above average. When it comes to the Life Series, because most people doesn't know how to properly PVP, the gap between him and the others is actually quite large.
Grian is such a great chaos entity for the mc community imho. He can breathe life into things because hes playful, creative, and not afraid to annoy people. Hes like an anti stagnation machine. He plays off other players VERY well (Grian and Scar, and Grian and Mumbo being some of my absolute favorite teamups). Hes a natural trickster, always stirring the pot, but not to the point where hes unlikable and people GENUINELY seem excited to work with him. One of those creators that can pull up the entire community. I started watching HC with him and have followed so many other amazing creators as a result. Mega excited for this new series. Every time I think hes probably exhausted what the series has to offer he introduces a completely new and interesting mechanic.
I would argue that he has been brewing on this idea for years and years. At the end of season 6 of Hermitcraft he arranged a competition about not dying for as long as possible, called Demise. Everyone started alive, and when they died, they changed their skin to greytone, and tried to set traps and murder everyone else. The server quickly decended into one massive deathtrap, culminating in JoeHills dying to a trap with a massive pile of someone else's diamond blocks, and Grian and Impulse putting Iskall through a massive Rube Goldberg machine only to kill him in the most hilarious way possible. It is easily worth a rewatch if you enjoyed the life series. 😊👍
@@sintyva Pov: You spend a detrimental amt of time watching 10 second tiktoks with your goldfish length of an attention span. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if this comment alone was too much for you to handle
“It all felt real, genuine, and necessary” *flashes back to Scar in Double Life, focusing on his Jellies commune instead of a base or finding his soulmate* Necessary… yes… 😂
Last Life had the mechanics to spin drama, but the story that emerged in 3rd Life was so good. It may be because I watched all of Grian's POV first where it looked like Ren was 100% the villain and that Scar was just an adorably oblivious scamp in need of constant protection, so when I watched Ren's POV and saw that Scar was actually a monster that drove Ren to madness it was like a Keyser Soze moment. So good!
Honestly third life will always be my favorite because of how simple it is and how real the final conflict was. The story wasn’t reds vs yellows, it was between actual factions and groups and that final grian scar duel by pizzas Grave was just awesome. Love the other life series but I don’t think they’ll ever be able to top that one
my best friend sent me this to explain the series and i didnt exactly understood how it worked before, but now that i have an idea this is ENTICING, this is really really cool
@@tibetanpoplarswatch grians pov first he got the most kills in 2 seasons and overall then watch joel's because he got the most kills in 2 seasons and got 2nd most kills overall and died the most times
also to add to the reason why the boogeyman feature is so good. it encourages the audience to watch other povs to see how the death played out or how the boogeyman planned a trap
@@CollourCrow yesterday a bunch of the life members all tweeted that something was coming and 24 hours (either in 24 hours or that there was some countdown twist)
It was announced on Pearlescentmoon’s stream about 3 or 4 hours ago, she told us that the episodes would drop in about a couple hours from now - it’s unlikely but if she’s still streaming over on twitch you can ask her chat about it
I'm not sure if anyone else in the comments has brought this up but when talking about the creation of the life series, I usually like to remember Demise. It was a game Grian set up in Season 6 of Hermitcraft where you only had one life, and once you died you had to set up traps for the remaining alive players. It's like a prototype of third life, and people really liked that so I think that contributed to the creation of the life series.
another thing with the life series is all the content that the community has created AROUND it both during a season and between seasons. there is so many talented artists and writers that have taken inspiration from their fav povs and build off of dynamics and what ifs for certain events happening differently. there's even some cool songs that have been made that are inspired by the life series and then there are all the people that love talking about the parells between seasons. having such a dedicated and inspired community has definitely helped it to be as successful as it is
I completely agree! Also, the fact that it's a short series focused on shenanigans must be very refreshing for all the creators. They know the recording time is limited and won't get out of hand, they can decide how much editing time, and most importantly, they know the viewers mostly expect shenanigans and not huge projects. This makes the series fun and sustainable for them as well, avoiding the trap of having to make increasingly bigger projects/bases, etc.
Honestly, I feel like each series is a natural and well-considered sequel to the others. 3rd life was slow in tension and much too vanilla, so they added the boogeyman and uneven lives. Last life had alliances falling apart on red (which caused annoying amounts of isolation, especially for players who thrive on the social aspects of the game/series like scar) and people with a lucky draw on the lives could get away with things much too easily, so they went back to 3 lives and made duo's. Also the life trade mechanic wasn't used enough to feel worthwhile I feel Double life forced people together without leaving freedom of choice, and bred a bit of frustration with the shared healthbar. It made the 3 lives mechanic feel too strict and limiting, and didn't encourage alliances between non-soulmates. The removal of the boogeyman was both a logical choice and a mistake, it also seemed like being yellow made no difference, kind of. So... Limited life. Reintroduce boogeymen, make that (seemingly) unpredictable, remove the life mechanic for something entirely else (which seems really interesting, actually, and I can't wait to see more!), allow the freedom of choosing your allies without having game mechanics actively impact that, add some spice for those on yellow (can kill greens), and actively REWARD murder! It's interesting, unpredictable, and has a LOT of potential that depends entirely on the players and their choices. And there's a lot of players. I feel like Grian is well on the road to perfecting the life series with this, and stepping away from the game mechanics interfering with alliances was definitely the right choice. I disagree with last life being the best of the series, and I really didn't get much in form of enjoyment from double life compared to the others, but I'd put 3rd life first only because of how it went. Another group of friends could've made that... Awfully uninteresting. Heck, that group could've made it uninteresting and repetitive. Grian is actively working on achieving the kind of idea you get from a weird moment of abstract inspiration, likely choosing to leave parts of that behind to make the player experience more enjoyable, seemingly putting the enjoyment of viewers as a second priority (which is as it should be!) without sacrificing it. The life series is genius, a work in progress, and I feel it's about to get even better. Needless to say I'm excited about Limited Life, even if the L is off-center in the logo and can't mentally handle that, really.
I think the soulmate thing really was best in relation to the stories that build around going against it. The 2 couples that split up the "secret soul mate" that some people tried.
Personally, each series within the life series is its own special story with each having interesting restrictions which help gently push the story forward towards its climatic ending.
The iteration/remix aspect isn't just refining, it's refreshing. 3rd Life was popular enough for most of the creators that it probably could have just had a "season 2" and done well, maybe with a new group of players on a different map... but changing up the rules and mechanics forces players to experiment and adjust and brainstorm every reset. The short, organic time limit means no "saving a good idea for later." That's really engaging to watch, and it's fun (albeit stressful) to play. When it comes to SMPs based on novel mechanics--OriginsSMP for example--what's the best content that comes out, where the players seem to be having the most fun? For me it's definitely the first few days, where everybody is discovering and experimenting and finding their footing and making plans on how best to use the mechanic. OriginsSMP slowly petered out as the novelty wore off for different players, when the late-game started feeling more and more like any other late-game SMP, _despite_ the mechanic. AfterLife (NOT part of Grian's Life series but definitely influenced) used the same Origins mod in a different way, with players given 10 lives and a new Origin each respawn--giving boatloads of novelty and new-mechanic exploration (as each Origin's benefits and limitations push the player to develop a different playstyle). Since every death was almost a restart, it retained that first-moments novelty throughout. Perhaps too much novelty? Some players (mostly the Empires crowd, who are mostly builders and roleplay) struggled to master the new mechanics quickly enough to get anything done before their next re-roll. The Life Series strikes a good balance in introducing novelty and allowing _just enough_ time for the players to adjust to it and explore it...and then cut it off organically before the novelty has faded. Without full mastery, there's no time for a "best way to play" to develop: players are all applying their own skillsets to figure out what works, so you get a variety of play styles. Without a tried-and-true Best Strategy, viewers are free to strategize and imagine, instead of be frustrated that their favorite player isn't doing it "the best way" and thus "won't win". It's a delicate balancing act, and probably scary as hell, to sacrifice enough of A Proven Amazing Thing to make it new again, and to refine and improve without a goal of perfecting. Limited Life isn't a 3-iterations-more-perfect 3rd Life...but that's what makes me so excited for whatever comes next. :)
Great comment, I absolutely agree with most stuff here, the way Grian is actively utilizing Iterative Engineering to make the Life Series both varied every time and helps to advancing and creating something that is not only spectacular, but gets better and better as it goes on, like every good reoccurring series should. Although I think you gravely underestimated how useful the life trading mechanic of Last Life was (In my opinion it single-handedly rigged Scott winning the series from the very start (Not something I like that much, but oh well, the fact is there), and the whole arc with Scar and *the box* was spectacular), and I still consider it a very close second best series, even if slightly behind Limited Life. One issue with Limited Life though, now that it's over, is that it gave players too much freedom to die. If Double Life strictly limited how much you could die thanks to each player PRACTICALLY having one and a half lives, ironically enough, *limited* life completely un-limited the amount of deaths you could take. A death was easily reversible, with each kill giving you half of your death's penalty back, and you had an ungodly massive *TWENTY-FOUR* lives to spare, basically, even if some of that did decay thanks to the whole ticking clock mechanic.
@@NickAndriadze Definitely with you on that! With those criticisms in mind, both of us can do nothing but agree with the life system in Secret Life. Well.... I think it should've been a bit more than 1 heart, since the 1 heart didn't appear to have as much influence as I (ME, PERSONALLY, IN MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION) would have liked. Despite that, I am so very happy with the sort-of-return of life trading. I think it's an incredible mechanic. What I think is even more incredible, however is the secrets themselves. Personally, no notes on secret life, fantastic season
The fact that a bunch of Minecraft RUclipsrs are doing more with the concept of a “reality show” and producing a more entertaining series as a result than any production company I’ve heard of is amazing
I used to only watch certain members of the life series like, Joel, Grian, Jimmy, Scott and Scar but when 3rd life came into the picture, I found myself watching every member. I love seeing all their povs. Honestly the life series is one of the best smps out there.
9:44 This is especially great for the newest life season, secret life. Something weird could happen, someones acting strange in another players video, or e en something you didn't even think twice about turned out to be someone doing something. Example being in Lissy and Grian's first seasons with the whole digging thing. I watched hers first and easily filed it away as hwe composter like she did, not even giving a second thought to someone actually digging undee hee base. But then seeing Grian's I was si surprised that there actually was someone doing that.
I definitely agree. With all the other life series’ I would occasionally watch 2 or three peoples episodes but now I’m encouraged to watch nearly every person’s video
The episode of last life where grian and mumbo were building a ghast farm and grian gets sniped off by someone who just entered the portal is probably my favorite moment from all of these series
Yep, the Ghast Farm misadventures were great, the Grian-Mumbo shenanigans and the way they bounced off of each other was amazing, I love that dynamic, and they really showed some solid teamwork together.
honestly the best part about third life and such (probably discussed in the video) is the short time frame. It never got too stale and never over stayed it’s welcome
The biggest element that makes these series special for me, is that they all play 3 hours a week, ALL AT THE SAME TIME! This makes it 100% player driven, as oppose to stories about builds and crafts (not that they are not there). No one get further than the other, no one grinds more than the other, they all have the same time, constantly interacting with one another.
I wasn't even that into mcyt, but my cousin told me if I watched any SMP series it should be the Life series. Then I watched like 2 animatics (both of which were mostly Double life I think) and I decided maybe I should watch it. It didn't disappoint- it's like a whole TV series with multiple POV's, and for only abt 6 episodes per series, it has SO much excitement. It was the SMP that got me into the minecraft community, and it will always be my favorite.
the life series has honestly been one of the most enjoyable minecraft series i've ever watched, it's such a fun concept and it's executed masterfully. i've loved each one so far, and i'm also really liking the new one, although there's not too much to base it on. can't wait to see where it goes :)
9:49 I would just like to say that secret life works so incredibly well with this concept, because you want to see the other people’s tasks and know what they were up to. Two instances stick in my mind: I was watching Mumbo and grian comes along singing everything he says, so I assume that’s his task. I find out later when I watch his video that it’s to convince a yellow to guess his task, so what he did was actually an act of espionage. The other instance is grian and Mumbo’s pun battle. Again I’m watching Mumbo, and when grian starts throwing out the puns, I thought they had the same task, but then Mumbo says that can’t happen, so I’m wondering why on earth grian’s got the puns, turns out his task was to say unfunny jokes and get no laughs. Mumbo laughed, grian laughed, I laughed. Grian really struck gold here
I really love all the seasons, but I think double life holds a special place in my heart. In previous seasons I only watched Etho’s perspective (and occasionally bdub’s). But double life had Etho paired with someone who I knew nothing about, Joel. Even though both had participated in previous seasons I literally didn’t remember him nor had any clue who he was. That season encouraged me to check out other RUclipsrs and Hermits, and not just in DL.
I watch life series to watch their improvisation skill, watching them improvising the scene based on the scenario and their skill is so interesting and something I need to learn
So to add to this, now that Secret Life is out: 1. Getting rid of regeneration vastly increases the stakes of every action, and PvP in particular. 2. The secret tasks have amped up the number and intensity of memorable moments per week. This past week I was literally on my feet and jumping around at the end.
tbh I'm noticing a pattern: 3rd Life Grian teams with Scar, then teams with others in the next one Last Life, and then in Double Life he teams with Scar again, and now in the current one Limited Life he's teaming with others. I'm thinking that *if* there's another life series after this then he's gonna end up teaming with Scar again whether he plans to or not.
the desert duo is honestly the most wholesome and tragic alliance in the whole series im gonna cry 😭 in 3rd life they were best buddies, even tho scar betrayed grian on grian's yellow life they were still best buds, and grian killed hiimself after killing scar to win last life in last life grian and scar were kinda-allies kinda-enemies. he tricked one of scar's lives then coerced scar into giving him another life, and scar's storyline in last life was so tragic in double life they were forced to partner up, and then the secret soulmate happened. it was like every time they're forced to pair up something more terrible than before happens and in limited life with them being complete enemies ... scar blowing up bread bridge, grian killing scar so many times, and finally, "it is the ultimate betrayal" 😭😭😭 ik this is unintentional but it's so wholesome and tragic...
If I'm honest, Grian really feels like he's hiding how intelligent he actually is. He just feels like he's a master at pulling strings, and we're LUCKY he just plays minecraft.
Yeah, it was a community event. I remember when Grian posted a video of Last Life and 4 people of my Discord server stopped playing whatever we played to see the episodes that was posted. The life series is definatly one of my most favorite series on RUclips
I remember watching a series like this way before 2020, it was called Friend or Foe. To anyone who might not know, it was a series where 4 players, Ibalistiksquid, Sb737, Tomohawk, and Bigb had 10 lives. There were teams, and betrayals, I remember the epic battle scenes. When someone loses all 10 lives, they are out of the series. That's all I remember tho, so when the 3rd life series b egan, it reminded me of it.
Iirc BigB Is a very close friend of Grian's, and Tom was in evo (a previous series of Grian's) so the life series very well could have been inspired by it in some way.
@@luckyucky9993 Yeah I’m watching the series every time an episode comes out, I was so shocked as well when I found out Clownpierce was apart of it. Been watching his channel since he was at ~16k subs, where he played in Spoke’s 100 player civilization events.
Grian has played a huge role in minecraft/mcyt staying as popular as it has. The life series was his idea, and hermitcraft really took off when he joined, all of the most popular storylines/games since, like Demise, have been him. He was behind the empires/hermitcraft crossover. The list just goes on
omg yes, this is such great cinematorgarphy! everyone's perecptive is a piece of a larger puzzle and you see windows of what's happening in a diff storyline in your current storyline
As a large fan of Grian’s Hermitcraft content, I’m glad that the life series was never set to replace Hermitcraft, and is more of an alternative to watch while the next season or episode of Hermitcraft is on it’s way.
I think the life series makes these creators' content more approachable. It was the first series I watched when I found Scar because I was overwhelmed by the how long his Hermitcraft series was
9:00 I was one of those people. Heard of Last Life and it was being very hyped up at the time, so I watched it without knowing a single thing about Hermitcraft. After Last Life ended, I watched the entirety of 3rd Life and Hermitcraft too (starting from S6). Don't regret a single thing.
The french minecraft scene actually did that sort of stuff about ten years ago it was still very different, it was basically an UHC but with among us style roles, and of course a proximity chat mode, they recorded it in one go and posted twenty minutes episodes every week (you might think "well you can just do that on this public server" but I think they were one of, if not the first to do that)
This is so accurate and such a great breakdown. And a lot of the comments just flesh it out even more. Honestly this is the only reason I watch and follow some of the players and now I watch them in other things they're doing.
I know double life isn't as popular but it's actually my favorite Limited life notwithstanding since it just started. I think it also told very interesting stories with the soul bonding mechanic Even though my favorite story was actually Cleo And Scott Deciding they wanted nothing to do with their soul bound And choosing each other instead Plus pearl losing her fucking mind like that series was absolutely dope
I do watch real pvp series like lifesteal, and I also do a fair bit of pvp myself, but these series still end up to be more exciting because everyone is evenly matched opposed to 1 player being insane at pvp and everyone being scared of them
Yeah, you hit everything I wanted to say but could never express or figure out. Its a genuine, dramatic, fantastical mixup with all the flavours of fanfiction between a cast of diverse, enjoyable people that has as many stories and main characters as there are participants that manages to foster a sense of community AND it does all of this through the players just genuinely having fun instead of forcing anything or trying to clickbait. It's perfect. It is literally naturally-made fanfiction!
it also helps that if you don't have as much time to watch youtube you don't HAVE to watch multiple perspectives, you can just watch 1 and it'll be a fairly quick watch
I absolutely LOVE this series, because even though I wish I could watch hermitcraft, I always feel like I'm missing so much context, and can't catch up, meanwhile these series and almost bite-sized, and packed with fun and genuine emotion. I'm so happy I managed to watch all the series before the current one started.
Loved your analysis! This feels so fitting with a new season having started just a few days ago. Your commentary reminded me of why I love the life series so much, great work!
Talking about unpredictable. We need to mention about Scar (who is always dies by dumb ways and any other weird way when he tries something risky and always dies) that miraculously did the MLG Water Bucket and succeed, and Etho just frozen because he had no words.
I honestly think 3rd life was the best. They’ve all been good, but that one was such a good experience, especially since it was the first time for all the players too. Also, I preferred the slower build up, especially compared to Random Life, which is so chaotic that it feels like the rules aren’t even being considered. I mean, Grian’s been allied with a red life for pretty much the whole series. Still love them all though.
The idea of how when all the members released their episodes at once and you saw different perspectives all adding up to one big picture was multiplied by like 12 in secret life.
For all it is its own thing, I feel like it is worth acknowledging how the Life series it is also building on what came before. Way back when there was the Minecraft Ultra Hardcore series, after all, and a lot of the participants in those were also in the Life series from the get go. Grian's own take on it absolutely added to it --- changing things up from challenges and PVP to something more shenanigans focused is a major change to the format and the evolving design towards facilitating that end is quite impressive --- but at the same time it carries on a lot of the best elements of its predecessors. It wouldn't surprise if I one day learned UHC was on Grian or the other creators' minds, or even explicitly in their discussions, when they first started hashing it out.
everyone always talks about how pearl is crazy in double life but i feel like ren being completely and utterly unhinged and insane in 3rd life really isnt mentioned enough
Personally I think Limited Life was the most interesting one. Considering it had both Boogieman and the incentive for people to steal time from others who were a stage above you.
10:12 This point is now brought to its extreme with Secret Life. Thanks to the secret tasks that each member has but can't tell anyone, EVERYONE is acting suspiciously all the time and you can never quite tell why. You can understand what happened in a session by watching a single POV, but to fully get EVERYTHING that went down and how each member affected the events of the session, you have to watch multiple POVs, if not all of them, since every single member's actions rely on a bit of information only they, and by extension, their POV is privy to
Please cover secret life!!! I think its my absolute favourite, so far its quite different from what the other series are but its so cool and refreshing
what makes it so good is he combined elements from different things that were going on in the Minecraft community such as the community elements of an SMP but some elements of hardcore and UHC series and of course they are short by each time they change a few things up and keep the world small to keep the formula fresh. (this was an issue UHC ran into after a certain amount of season after most winning formulas had been discovered) like in the new one they put in there is a freaking woodland mansion which means that changes the formula a whole lot as that means some people will be walking around with powerful golden idols.
Honestly, the only real complaint I had in Double Life was that it was short. The life sharing meant instead of the 42 lives you had in 3rd life. You were basically cut down to 21. I think if the only complaint you have about a series is that it wasn’t longer. That’s a pretty damned good series. Also there were a few too many deaths to natural causes. But you can’t do anything about that really. It’s not scripted. Accidents happen. But because there were less lives, those accidents were more impactful.
The life series reminds me a lot of the amazing "Kill The Patrick - KTP " wich is a series created back in 2013 by the French Minecraft RUclips game team - The Patricks ! The concept is simple : Being the last team or last man standing ! (Original concept by the American server: Mindcrack) Short series, few episodes a week, fast paste, many points of view... The concept became so popular in France that many servers implemented it in their own as mini-games ! Later followed by the creation of "Fallen Kingdoms" and "The cities" Series.. the old french Minecraft game was up there man, everyone know about them and has big nostalgia talking about them
I love the way you put this! Amazing! You should get into the best povs for each series! I think you’d do a great job of it! In my opinion the best povs for all of them pretty much are Tango, Grian, and Smajor. They are all almost always in different alliances in each series and they tend to last more towards the end of the series -tango (soz dude) but he still give inside info for the allies he has each season! I don’t remember 3rd life, TIES, BEST, and the Heart Foundation. Double life you just have to watch at least one pov of each couple - Smajor, Cleo, Martyn, and pearl who were not together (Smajor and pearl, Cleo and Martyn) you have to watch all their povs or they won’t make much sense. IMO I’d watch Grian, Tango, BigB, Impulse, Joel (smallishbeans), and then the other 4. Each POV in each series is usually pretty different and it really is interesting to watch. Like even if you watch Tangos pov in last life you’d never expect what Bdubs did… (I still get upset 😢😢) but yeah AMAZING VIDEO!!! Edit: oh gosh didn’t realize how long this became….
Personally I fell in love with the Thirdlife series because it reminded me so much of peak Game of Thrones in a weird way. Everyone has their reasons for doing what they are doing and something as simple as accidentally killing Scar in episode 1 created a butterfly effect which changed the outcome of the series’s. Can’t wait to see how the different seasons evolve over time.
Fun fact I actually came up with double life as a concept called link life if you check the comments on grians hermitcraft videos for about 2-3 months before double life cam out you’ll see my suggestions.
I'm sorry but everyone should give credit to the one who mended the two groups together. It's Scott (Dangthatsalongname or Smajor) from MCC. He was the reason why they even know each other now and how the multiple crossovers started. Scott deserves to be credited.
Grian was already friends with many of them irl, like BigB, Timmy, Joel, and Martyn, so Empires and Hermitcraft were already blended before Empires even existed. Scott is magical when it comes to networking, though! He’s built countless bridges between friend groups/servers!
The life series is just so damn good and one that I can watch 1 session from so many different perspectives and still absolutely enjoy it and see players who usually don't hang out together team up and so many fantastic moments.
This is such a great description of the genius of this series and the exact reason that a lot of RUclipsrs, including myself, made our own version of this series on our channels. Great video!
While some seasons are better than other, i really like how with each one they try to spice it up a little bit, make sure that it’s never quite the same. And so it allows for different stories to be forged. and i think that’s the best part, that it’s mostly improv and built on circumstance but as the seasons and history continue to grow it makes everything all the more dynamic, and that’s before the watcher shenanigans
The naming of Life Series is really brilliant! Because the art and theme is similar, but it’s still a whole new launch every time a season starts. The names don’t blend together or get stale, as opposed to Season 9 of the same exact title. These videos stand out from every other SMP and from each other.
Man, Grian is such an awesome creator. I'll be honest, I don't remember how I found his content & got into it. But he was originally the Only minecraft youtuber I watched. I'd stopped watching Minecraft content for many years & decided to take a chance on him because I loved his energy. But the thing I adore about Grian the most is that he doesn't just make content to increase his own viewership, but *everyone else's* too. I've been watching RUclips since the dancing stormtrooper days & no content creator I've ever watched has motivated me to watch other creators as much as he does. He creates so much chaos & entertaining drama that you cannot help but say "I want to see this from the other person's perspective." He's boosting the entire minecraft youtube hemisphere & he's dragging dozens of other creators up with him. He *knows* how to make people want to check out someone else's channel. It started with Grian alone & now I watch Mumbo, Impulse, and Scar regularly. I also am subbed to & occasionally watch BDubs, Pearl, Tango, Keralis, Zedaph, Pix, Timmy, and Iskall. I am overwhelmed by the number of creators I have begun to follow, but now the fandom & content are slowly dragging me towards Skiz, Beef, & JoeHills. I would not have gotten here if it wasn't for Grian. Most of these weren't chain reactions. They were all people who I started following due to their direct interactions with Grian. He is a powerful driving force in the Minecraft community.
u can't forget about the povs in this series, cus they're the best thing ever. when grian slaughtered ren with falling stalactite, i rushed and i mean i IMMEDIATELY went to the ren's channel just to see his point of view, that's was awesome. somehow, u don't get bored by watching the same scene over and over again, just from the other's pov, it is that interesting
the different povs per episode factor REALLY shines in secret life, many people (myself included) ended up watching a lot more povs than usual because EVERYONE’S povs were different because everyone had unique tasks
there's a new life series out today! get subscribed if you're excited, because i'll probably be making a video about it!
also fun fact, i scripted and made this video WEEKS before the series was even announced, posting it today was a massive coincidence LOL
Perfect timing lol
Hahahaha
good timing lol
Yeah! I also found this video by coincidence the day of the new series.
GG on the timing. 😊👍
Also, as a long time Hermitcraft viewer, i wanted to ask if you knew about the Demise competition towards the end of season 6? Imo this is where he tried this concept for the first time. The server ended up being deadly full of traps, and JoeHills died with piles of someone else's diamond blocks on him. It concluded with Grian and Impulse making a Rube Goldberg machine to kill Iskall with.
You didn’t even mention the Life Series’ biggest accomplishment:
It got Etho to upload weekly.
LMAO
Truest comment yet
XD
That's actually the entire point of the series: To make something easy to upload. Grian mentions this early in the first season how hermitcraft episodes take like 3 days of recording, and a full day or two of editing, just to get a single video out. The life series is 3 hours of recording, and never more, by rules of the server, meaning the video is *far* easier to make. This, combined with the small map size, means that all the content comes from interactions with other players, not base building or shop stocking.
The video tries to make it seem as if the goal was to be the next big thing, but really the goal was really to just help people who take lots of time making videos to keep their channel afloat with the RUclips algorithm while they put their focus on the more high-effort videos. The success was accidental, even if astounding.
A gift from the heavens
The fact that a new series started 4 hours after this video dropped is just the icing on the cake
😂 true
And the fact the boogey man is back
There had been a lot of rumors this last week, and a suspicious 24 hr countdown on grians Twitter popped up Thursday.
Yeah
Scar alluded to it on a community post and impulse didn't say why he left the stream early but didn't agree or deny that it's for filming
this is incredible
Ay
the sheriff himself
First reply
nice stream
Tis it is
"Grian's pretty literally writting fanfiction for the viewers"
Now that's something I never expected to ever hear in my life XD
But in reality, he plans and makes the setup, nothing else is scripted. It's only their raw talent and relationships, it's brilliant.
Usually it's the other way around considering all the Watcher Grian stuff.
Lmao, this.
"I love your back, Grian"
-Mumbo on Drugs
@@adalon378 hes giving them fanfiction prompts
@@cinnamorollagainsttheworld “Thos is quite cinematic… wanna kiss?”
The Life series being so unpredictable truly adds to its charm.
Yo ani and ari a duo I didn’t expect but is now one I love.
Yes it has been, also thank you very much for the recaps of it,
That why we love it!
literally 2hrs later there is a new life series
Ariosor!
10:00 one thing I really appreciate however if that you don't *have* to watch everybody's pov. I usually prioritize 1 or 2 people as it comes out and slowly look through other ones-- heck, I literally finished Etho's Double Life POV for the first time YESTERDAY.
You have to start watching the next season now
@@allymo1116 i did!
boat boys
i just finished Pearl's POV Yesterday On Double Life
I also appreciate that! Coming from someone who typically only watches 1 or 2 people when it comes to smps (empire smp, that one other smp lizzie and laurenzside were in i forgot the name of, the uh witchsmp i think, dsmp, etc etc)
I think one of the things that also really adds to it, is the specific players.
All of them are experienced enough content creators that they know what is good content. Some of the most memorable moments for me is stuff like Dogwarts in 3rd life, the Southlands in Last Life and the divorced quartet in DL.
If the goal is just to win, dark oak saplings doesn't matter.
If the goal is just to win, scar would have died so many times in 3rd life, but they let him live for good moments.
It always never felt that a creator had to be 'popular' to be there, which it felt like in certain servers. People like Martyn and Ren might not get as many views as Mumbo or Grian, but their antics always spices up stuff. It's one of the reasons I am genuinly sad that Ren is not in Limited life
I KNEW THERE WAS A MISSING MEMBER WHEN I WATCHED LIMITED LIFE!!! HOW COULD I FORGET REN
I HAVENT WATCHED HIS POVS YET BUT MY GOD REN’S INTERACTIONS IN THE LIFE SERIES ARE SO FUN AND DRAMATIC I CANT BELIEVE HES NOT IN LIMITED LIFE😭
@@sapphicvampire8504 Rens third life is a must watch
NOOOOOOOOOO I KNEW SOMEONE WAS MISSING IT WAS REN urgh i'm so sad now ealkjeafjef
@Kylie Nielsen Ren and Martyn together has what I like to call... unhinged theater kid energy when together.
Their third life POV are some of my favourites in the whole series. I am so sad that he won't be in this one :(
I think it's important to emphasize that the life series is NOT scripted, as a rule. That's why it's so good, and crazy unpredictable things happen, like someone building a trap for someone else, but it completely fails... and two episodes later a random other player happens to trigger it and die. The randomness is real randomness.
I also think not enough people are aware of it sadly, and I'm very happy about this video because it can help! For example, Just the other day, Tubbo (a former main character on the dream smp) didn't know what the life series was, when Scott (one of the players) casually mentioned it in conversation. And I don't think Tubbo took it as something that he should go check out either. Sometimes that is the assumption when hearing that some of the players come from Hermicraft, which I think a lot of viewers dismiss since they look for "lighter content"... Had the life series happened during the pandemic lockdown, it would have had a much bigger boost, like the dream smp.
This series is truly high quality, with a brilliant set-up as you describe. I suggest also watching animations made by fans which could be used as scripts for movies. I particularly suggest Everen on youtube, who just released an amazing video of the last season.
its like LSSMP but with people who have never pvpd in their life, and it makes it hilarious
unscripted, loads of traps and combat, but nobody knows whats happening
@@KwikBR actually, a lot of the players in last life are participants in MCC (Minecraft Championships), so most of them have PvPed.
@@cookiemoon7441 i don't mean literally, but i mean none of them are actually good at it, they haven't ever actually tried to learn how
@@KwikBR Yeah fair.
@@KwikBR nah joel is actually pretty good. he gets top ten a bunch in MCC, averages around top 15, and pvp is his strongest suit. The rest of them are either average or straight up not PVPers. Of course, MCC is not that sweaty of an event, but he definitely knows how to do it and is above average. When it comes to the Life Series, because most people doesn't know how to properly PVP, the gap between him and the others is actually quite large.
Grian is such a great chaos entity for the mc community imho. He can breathe life into things because hes playful, creative, and not afraid to annoy people. Hes like an anti stagnation machine. He plays off other players VERY well (Grian and Scar, and Grian and Mumbo being some of my absolute favorite teamups). Hes a natural trickster, always stirring the pot, but not to the point where hes unlikable and people GENUINELY seem excited to work with him. One of those creators that can pull up the entire community. I started watching HC with him and have followed so many other amazing creators as a result. Mega excited for this new series. Every time I think hes probably exhausted what the series has to offer he introduces a completely new and interesting mechanic.
Etho, BDubs, DocM, Vintage Beef.
@@draugnaustaunikunhymnphoo6978 Those were Mindcrack members too.
I would argue that he has been brewing on this idea for years and years.
At the end of season 6 of Hermitcraft he arranged a competition about not dying for as long as possible, called Demise. Everyone started alive, and when they died, they changed their skin to greytone, and tried to set traps and murder everyone else. The server quickly decended into one massive deathtrap, culminating in JoeHills dying to a trap with a massive pile of someone else's diamond blocks, and Grian and Impulse putting Iskall through a massive Rube Goldberg machine only to kill him in the most hilarious way possible. It is easily worth a rewatch if you enjoyed the life series. 😊👍
demise was a really fun game, and i agree when you say that grian was probably inspired by it. the iskall rude goldberg machine was such a cool idea
@@sintyva then don't. 😉
@@sintyva then ytf u replying
@@sintyvait is 5 sentences
@@sintyva Pov: You spend a detrimental amt of time watching 10 second tiktoks with your goldfish length of an attention span. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if this comment alone was too much for you to handle
The last life series was awesome
Pearl was soo insane
5 am pearl 💕.... Ahhh the memories 😍😂
the fourth season is coming!!! today!!!
@@iloveowls90 no way you are joking man😶
@@yukiii9893 It's here. 4th season of 3rd life is here!!! As of now, Pearl, Impulse, Jimmy and Scar just uploaded episode 1.
@@shanesunil yoo da timing
I'm really hoping 5am pearl would make a cameo
“It all felt real, genuine, and necessary”
*flashes back to Scar in Double Life, focusing on his Jellies commune instead of a base or finding his soulmate*
Necessary… yes… 😂
Necessary? No.
Real? Definitely. That's the real scar right there ahahah
Last Life had the mechanics to spin drama, but the story that emerged in 3rd Life was so good. It may be because I watched all of Grian's POV first where it looked like Ren was 100% the villain and that Scar was just an adorably oblivious scamp in need of constant protection, so when I watched Ren's POV and saw that Scar was actually a monster that drove Ren to madness it was like a Keyser Soze moment. So good!
Honestly third life will always be my favorite because of how simple it is and how real the final conflict was. The story wasn’t reds vs yellows, it was between actual factions and groups and that final grian scar duel by pizzas Grave was just awesome. Love the other life series but I don’t think they’ll ever be able to top that one
my best friend sent me this to explain the series and i didnt exactly understood how it worked before, but now that i have an idea this is ENTICING, this is really really cool
Watch it!!
Did you watch it yet?
@@_.scout._ no 💀😭
@@tibetanpoplarswatch grians pov first he got the most kills in 2 seasons and overall
then watch joel's because he got the most kills in 2 seasons and got 2nd most kills overall and died the most times
also to add to the reason why the boogeyman feature is so good. it encourages the audience to watch other povs to see how the death played out or how the boogeyman planned a trap
Funny thing is that the fourth season is already announced and will probably begin somewhere during the weekend
It’s starting in most likely the next half an hour
Wait its announced WHEN AND WHERE????
@@CollourCrow yesterday a bunch of the life members all tweeted that something was coming and 24 hours (either in 24 hours or that there was some countdown twist)
It was announced on Pearlescentmoon’s stream about 3 or 4 hours ago, she told us that the episodes would drop in about a couple hours from now - it’s unlikely but if she’s still streaming over on twitch you can ask her chat about it
this timing makes me somewhat suspicious
welp, guess i know what to watch next!
Mysti!
Wow, how original.
I wonder, could I build a series like the life series?
did you watch secret life? :3
I'm not sure if anyone else in the comments has brought this up but when talking about the creation of the life series, I usually like to remember Demise. It was a game Grian set up in Season 6 of Hermitcraft where you only had one life, and once you died you had to set up traps for the remaining alive players. It's like a prototype of third life, and people really liked that so I think that contributed to the creation of the life series.
hell yea i remember it. Definitely felt the similarities when i first saw the life series
another thing with the life series is all the content that the community has created AROUND it both during a season and between seasons. there is so many talented artists and writers that have taken inspiration from their fav povs and build off of dynamics and what ifs for certain events happening differently. there's even some cool songs that have been made that are inspired by the life series and then there are all the people that love talking about the parells between seasons. having such a dedicated and inspired community has definitely helped it to be as successful as it is
9:30
Around here, the Secret life series takes it to the next level. Everyone Has a secret now, and every episode has a completely different context
I completely agree! Also, the fact that it's a short series focused on shenanigans must be very refreshing for all the creators. They know the recording time is limited and won't get out of hand, they can decide how much editing time, and most importantly, they know the viewers mostly expect shenanigans and not huge projects. This makes the series fun and sustainable for them as well, avoiding the trap of having to make increasingly bigger projects/bases, etc.
I don't know how long you have been working on this video but it is amazing that it came out about an hour before the next season starts.
Honestly, I feel like each series is a natural and well-considered sequel to the others.
3rd life was slow in tension and much too vanilla, so they added the boogeyman and uneven lives.
Last life had alliances falling apart on red (which caused annoying amounts of isolation, especially for players who thrive on the social aspects of the game/series like scar) and people with a lucky draw on the lives could get away with things much too easily, so they went back to 3 lives and made duo's. Also the life trade mechanic wasn't used enough to feel worthwhile I feel
Double life forced people together without leaving freedom of choice, and bred a bit of frustration with the shared healthbar. It made the 3 lives mechanic feel too strict and limiting, and didn't encourage alliances between non-soulmates. The removal of the boogeyman was both a logical choice and a mistake, it also seemed like being yellow made no difference, kind of. So... Limited life.
Reintroduce boogeymen, make that (seemingly) unpredictable, remove the life mechanic for something entirely else (which seems really interesting, actually, and I can't wait to see more!), allow the freedom of choosing your allies without having game mechanics actively impact that, add some spice for those on yellow (can kill greens), and actively REWARD murder! It's interesting, unpredictable, and has a LOT of potential that depends entirely on the players and their choices. And there's a lot of players.
I feel like Grian is well on the road to perfecting the life series with this, and stepping away from the game mechanics interfering with alliances was definitely the right choice. I disagree with last life being the best of the series, and I really didn't get much in form of enjoyment from double life compared to the others, but I'd put 3rd life first only because of how it went. Another group of friends could've made that... Awfully uninteresting. Heck, that group could've made it uninteresting and repetitive.
Grian is actively working on achieving the kind of idea you get from a weird moment of abstract inspiration, likely choosing to leave parts of that behind to make the player experience more enjoyable, seemingly putting the enjoyment of viewers as a second priority (which is as it should be!) without sacrificing it. The life series is genius, a work in progress, and I feel it's about to get even better.
Needless to say I'm excited about Limited Life, even if the L is off-center in the logo and can't mentally handle that, really.
I think the soulmate thing really was best in relation to the stories that build around going against it. The 2 couples that split up the "secret soul mate" that some people tried.
Personally, each series within the life series is its own special story with each having interesting restrictions which help gently push the story forward towards its climatic ending.
The iteration/remix aspect isn't just refining, it's refreshing. 3rd Life was popular enough for most of the creators that it probably could have just had a "season 2" and done well, maybe with a new group of players on a different map... but changing up the rules and mechanics forces players to experiment and adjust and brainstorm every reset. The short, organic time limit means no "saving a good idea for later." That's really engaging to watch, and it's fun (albeit stressful) to play.
When it comes to SMPs based on novel mechanics--OriginsSMP for example--what's the best content that comes out, where the players seem to be having the most fun? For me it's definitely the first few days, where everybody is discovering and experimenting and finding their footing and making plans on how best to use the mechanic. OriginsSMP slowly petered out as the novelty wore off for different players, when the late-game started feeling more and more like any other late-game SMP, _despite_ the mechanic. AfterLife (NOT part of Grian's Life series but definitely influenced) used the same Origins mod in a different way, with players given 10 lives and a new Origin each respawn--giving boatloads of novelty and new-mechanic exploration (as each Origin's benefits and limitations push the player to develop a different playstyle). Since every death was almost a restart, it retained that first-moments novelty throughout. Perhaps too much novelty? Some players (mostly the Empires crowd, who are mostly builders and roleplay) struggled to master the new mechanics quickly enough to get anything done before their next re-roll. The Life Series strikes a good balance in introducing novelty and allowing _just enough_ time for the players to adjust to it and explore it...and then cut it off organically before the novelty has faded. Without full mastery, there's no time for a "best way to play" to develop: players are all applying their own skillsets to figure out what works, so you get a variety of play styles. Without a tried-and-true Best Strategy, viewers are free to strategize and imagine, instead of be frustrated that their favorite player isn't doing it "the best way" and thus "won't win".
It's a delicate balancing act, and probably scary as hell, to sacrifice enough of A Proven Amazing Thing to make it new again, and to refine and improve without a goal of perfecting. Limited Life isn't a 3-iterations-more-perfect 3rd Life...but that's what makes me so excited for whatever comes next. :)
Great comment, I absolutely agree with most stuff here, the way Grian is actively utilizing Iterative Engineering to make the Life Series both varied every time and helps to advancing and creating something that is not only spectacular, but gets better and better as it goes on, like every good reoccurring series should. Although I think you gravely underestimated how useful the life trading mechanic of Last Life was (In my opinion it single-handedly rigged Scott winning the series from the very start (Not something I like that much, but oh well, the fact is there), and the whole arc with Scar and *the box* was spectacular), and I still consider it a very close second best series, even if slightly behind Limited Life. One issue with Limited Life though, now that it's over, is that it gave players too much freedom to die. If Double Life strictly limited how much you could die thanks to each player PRACTICALLY having one and a half lives, ironically enough, *limited* life completely un-limited the amount of deaths you could take. A death was easily reversible, with each kill giving you half of your death's penalty back, and you had an ungodly massive *TWENTY-FOUR* lives to spare, basically, even if some of that did decay thanks to the whole ticking clock mechanic.
@@NickAndriadze Definitely with you on that! With those criticisms in mind, both of us can do nothing but agree with the life system in Secret Life. Well.... I think it should've been a bit more than 1 heart, since the 1 heart didn't appear to have as much influence as I (ME, PERSONALLY, IN MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION) would have liked. Despite that, I am so very happy with the sort-of-return of life trading. I think it's an incredible mechanic. What I think is even more incredible, however is the secrets themselves. Personally, no notes on secret life, fantastic season
The fact that this video was uploaded only like 4 hours before limited life was dropped is amazing
The fact that a bunch of Minecraft RUclipsrs are doing more with the concept of a “reality show” and producing a more entertaining series as a result than any production company I’ve heard of is amazing
It's mainly since they do improv instead of staged scripts like reality shows do
I used to only watch certain members of the life series like, Joel, Grian, Jimmy, Scott and Scar but when 3rd life came into the picture, I found myself watching every member. I love seeing all their povs.
Honestly the life series is one of the best smps out there.
9:44
This is especially great for the newest life season, secret life. Something weird could happen, someones acting strange in another players video, or e en something you didn't even think twice about turned out to be someone doing something. Example being in Lissy and Grian's first seasons with the whole digging thing. I watched hers first and easily filed it away as hwe composter like she did, not even giving a second thought to someone actually digging undee hee base. But then seeing Grian's I was si surprised that there actually was someone doing that.
I definitely agree. With all the other life series’ I would occasionally watch 2 or three peoples episodes but now I’m encouraged to watch nearly every person’s video
@@harrishealy8340 yea!!! It's amusing to see what was a task, and what was just a person being weird lol
That launching (around 6:45) of the tension in the music (Vivaldi winter) was brilliantly timed!
The episode of last life where grian and mumbo were building a ghast farm and grian gets sniped off by someone who just entered the portal is probably my favorite moment from all of these series
Yeah, and then the following moment where Grian tried to get Mumbo to join him... When I saw this scene in the video I almost gasped.
Can't forget when Grian NAILED a falling dripstone kill in double life
Yep, the Ghast Farm misadventures were great, the Grian-Mumbo shenanigans and the way they bounced off of each other was amazing, I love that dynamic, and they really showed some solid teamwork together.
honestly the best part about third life and such (probably discussed in the video) is the short time frame. It never got too stale and never over stayed it’s welcome
ALSO also the greatest part of the life series, for me at least, is guaranteed weekly ethoslab uploads
The biggest element that makes these series special for me, is that they all play 3 hours a week, ALL AT THE SAME TIME! This makes it 100% player driven, as oppose to stories about builds and crafts (not that they are not there). No one get further than the other, no one grinds more than the other, they all have the same time, constantly interacting with one another.
I wasn't even that into mcyt, but my cousin told me if I watched any SMP series it should be the Life series. Then I watched like 2 animatics (both of which were mostly Double life I think) and I decided maybe I should watch it. It didn't disappoint- it's like a whole TV series with multiple POV's, and for only abt 6 episodes per series, it has SO much excitement. It was the SMP that got me into the minecraft community, and it will always be my favorite.
the life series has honestly been one of the most enjoyable minecraft series i've ever watched, it's such a fun concept and it's executed masterfully. i've loved each one so far, and i'm also really liking the new one, although there's not too much to base it on. can't wait to see where it goes :)
9:49 I would just like to say that secret life works so incredibly well with this concept, because you want to see the other people’s tasks and know what they were up to. Two instances stick in my mind: I was watching Mumbo and grian comes along singing everything he says, so I assume that’s his task. I find out later when I watch his video that it’s to convince a yellow to guess his task, so what he did was actually an act of espionage. The other instance is grian and Mumbo’s pun battle. Again I’m watching Mumbo, and when grian starts throwing out the puns, I thought they had the same task, but then Mumbo says that can’t happen, so I’m wondering why on earth grian’s got the puns, turns out his task was to say unfunny jokes and get no laughs. Mumbo laughed, grian laughed, I laughed. Grian really struck gold here
My favorite part of the life series is that the alliances are always so different. You always get different interactions
I really love all the seasons, but I think double life holds a special place in my heart. In previous seasons I only watched Etho’s perspective (and occasionally bdub’s). But double life had Etho paired with someone who I knew nothing about, Joel. Even though both had participated in previous seasons I literally didn’t remember him nor had any clue who he was. That season encouraged me to check out other RUclipsrs and Hermits, and not just in DL.
I watch life series to watch their improvisation skill, watching them improvising the scene based on the scenario and their skill is so interesting and something I need to learn
So to add to this, now that Secret Life is out:
1. Getting rid of regeneration vastly increases the stakes of every action, and PvP in particular.
2. The secret tasks have amped up the number and intensity of memorable moments per week. This past week I was literally on my feet and jumping around at the end.
tbh I'm noticing a pattern: 3rd Life Grian teams with Scar, then teams with others in the next one Last Life, and then in Double Life he teams with Scar again, and now in the current one Limited Life he's teaming with others. I'm thinking that *if* there's another life series after this then he's gonna end up teaming with Scar again whether he plans to or not.
and each time hes been teamed with scar it wasn't by choice
Wonder how Grian’ll team with Scar again (if he does lol)
the desert duo is honestly the most wholesome and tragic alliance in the whole series im gonna cry 😭
in 3rd life they were best buddies, even tho scar betrayed grian on grian's yellow life they were still best buds, and grian killed hiimself after killing scar to win last life
in last life grian and scar were kinda-allies kinda-enemies. he tricked one of scar's lives then coerced scar into giving him another life, and scar's storyline in last life was so tragic
in double life they were forced to partner up, and then the secret soulmate happened. it was like every time they're forced to pair up something more terrible than before happens
and in limited life with them being complete enemies ... scar blowing up bread bridge, grian killing scar so many times, and finally, "it is the ultimate betrayal" 😭😭😭
ik this is unintentional but it's so wholesome and tragic...
scar became switzerland-neutral in season 5
If I'm honest, Grian really feels like he's hiding how intelligent he actually is. He just feels like he's a master at pulling strings, and we're LUCKY he just plays minecraft.
Yeah, it was a community event. I remember when Grian posted a video of Last Life and 4 people of my Discord server stopped playing whatever we played to see the episodes that was posted. The life series is definatly one of my most favorite series on RUclips
“Adding pearl and mumbo” Lizzie sitting down in the corner
I remember watching a series like this way before 2020, it was called Friend or Foe. To anyone who might not know, it was a series where 4 players, Ibalistiksquid, Sb737, Tomohawk, and Bigb had 10 lives. There were teams, and betrayals, I remember the epic battle scenes. When someone loses all 10 lives, they are out of the series. That's all I remember tho, so when the 3rd life series b egan, it reminded me of it.
That was me with X-Life
Iirc BigB Is a very close friend of Grian's, and Tom was in evo (a previous series of Grian's) so the life series very well could have been inspired by it in some way.
i've been looking for this comment for so long! Sb's pov in this was my childhood:D
There is an another season now with sb, mini, quiff and clownpierce, so far clownpierce is dominating it
@@luckyucky9993 Yeah I’m watching the series every time an episode comes out, I was so shocked as well when I found out Clownpierce was apart of it. Been watching his channel since he was at ~16k subs, where he played in Spoke’s 100 player civilization events.
Grian has played a huge role in minecraft/mcyt staying as popular as it has. The life series was his idea, and hermitcraft really took off when he joined, all of the most popular storylines/games since, like Demise, have been him. He was behind the empires/hermitcraft crossover. The list just goes on
omg yes, this is such great cinematorgarphy! everyone's perecptive is a piece of a larger puzzle and you see windows of what's happening in a diff storyline in your current storyline
As a large fan of Grian’s Hermitcraft content, I’m glad that the life series was never set to replace Hermitcraft, and is more of an alternative to watch while the next season or episode of Hermitcraft is on it’s way.
I think the life series makes these creators' content more approachable. It was the first series I watched when I found Scar because I was overwhelmed by the how long his Hermitcraft series was
You forgot to mention LDShadowLady's addition to Last Life. I loved the Fairy Fort dynamic tbh
9:00 I was one of those people. Heard of Last Life and it was being very hyped up at the time, so I watched it without knowing a single thing about Hermitcraft. After Last Life ended, I watched the entirety of 3rd Life and Hermitcraft too (starting from S6). Don't regret a single thing.
Same! Except I started from season 7
@@sparky2387 S7 was the best hermitcarft season for me. loved it.
@@prolly_ It is also my favorite this far
I started from season 4
The french minecraft scene actually did that sort of stuff about ten years ago
it was still very different, it was basically an UHC but with among us style roles, and of course a proximity chat mode, they recorded it in one go and posted twenty minutes episodes every week
(you might think "well you can just do that on this public server" but I think they were one of, if not the first to do that)
Etho’s Last Life Episode 1 is a perfect episode of RUclips. The twist that occurred was top notch. If you know you know
This is so accurate and such a great breakdown. And a lot of the comments just flesh it out even more. Honestly this is the only reason I watch and follow some of the players and now I watch them in other things they're doing.
I know double life isn't as popular but it's actually my favorite Limited life notwithstanding since it just started. I think it also told very interesting stories with the soul bonding mechanic Even though my favorite story was actually Cleo And Scott Deciding they wanted nothing to do with their soul bound And choosing each other instead Plus pearl losing her fucking mind like that series was absolutely dope
To be honest my order is
3rd
Double
Last
Secret
Limited
Real (one off)
I do watch real pvp series like lifesteal, and I also do a fair bit of pvp myself, but these series still end up to be more exciting because everyone is evenly matched opposed to 1 player being insane at pvp and everyone being scared of them
Yeah, you hit everything I wanted to say but could never express or figure out. Its a genuine, dramatic, fantastical mixup with all the flavours of fanfiction between a cast of diverse, enjoyable people that has as many stories and main characters as there are participants that manages to foster a sense of community AND it does all of this through the players just genuinely having fun instead of forcing anything or trying to clickbait. It's perfect. It is literally naturally-made fanfiction!
it also helps that if you don't have as much time to watch youtube you don't HAVE to watch multiple perspectives, you can just watch 1 and it'll be a fairly quick watch
What i love about the life series is that it brings out the psychopath side of the members *especially the psyco laugh*
every time when i think grian's laugh can't be more psychotic, I am WRONG (especially in limlife)
I absolutely LOVE this series, because even though I wish I could watch hermitcraft, I always feel like I'm missing so much context, and can't catch up, meanwhile these series and almost bite-sized, and packed with fun and genuine emotion. I'm so happy I managed to watch all the series before the current one started.
Loved your analysis! This feels so fitting with a new season having started just a few days ago. Your commentary reminded me of why I love the life series so much, great work!
Glad you enjoyed!
Talking about unpredictable. We need to mention about Scar (who is always dies by dumb ways and any other weird way when he tries something risky and always dies) that miraculously did the MLG Water Bucket and succeed, and Etho just frozen because he had no words.
and secr3et life is even more insane with twists on every single member's pov
I honestly think 3rd life was the best. They’ve all been good, but that one was such a good experience, especially since it was the first time for all the players too. Also, I preferred the slower build up, especially compared to Random Life, which is so chaotic that it feels like the rules aren’t even being considered. I mean, Grian’s been allied with a red life for pretty much the whole series. Still love them all though.
The life series give me Hunger Games vibes and I love it, it’s a nice break from mega series like hermitcraft
Yeah exactly, it's amazing!
The idea of how when all the members released their episodes at once and you saw different perspectives all adding up to one big picture was multiplied by like 12 in secret life.
The video was good, but it hurt physically when you didn't mention Lizzie when talking about last life
For all it is its own thing, I feel like it is worth acknowledging how the Life series it is also building on what came before.
Way back when there was the Minecraft Ultra Hardcore series, after all, and a lot of the participants in those were also in the Life series from the get go. Grian's own take on it absolutely added to it --- changing things up from challenges and PVP to something more shenanigans focused is a major change to the format and the evolving design towards facilitating that end is quite impressive --- but at the same time it carries on a lot of the best elements of its predecessors.
It wouldn't surprise if I one day learned UHC was on Grian or the other creators' minds, or even explicitly in their discussions, when they first started hashing it out.
everyone always talks about how pearl is crazy in double life but i feel like ren being completely and utterly unhinged and insane in 3rd life really isnt mentioned enough
Personally I think Limited Life was the most interesting one. Considering it had both Boogieman and the incentive for people to steal time from others who were a stage above you.
Episode 6 of secret life is the best episode so far of the life series.
10:12 This point is now brought to its extreme with Secret Life. Thanks to the secret tasks that each member has but can't tell anyone, EVERYONE is acting suspiciously all the time and you can never quite tell why. You can understand what happened in a session by watching a single POV, but to fully get EVERYTHING that went down and how each member affected the events of the session, you have to watch multiple POVs, if not all of them, since every single member's actions rely on a bit of information only they, and by extension, their POV is privy to
Please cover secret life!!! I think its my absolute favourite, so far its quite different from what the other series are but its so cool and refreshing
what makes it so good is he combined elements from different things that were going on in the Minecraft community such as the community elements of an SMP but some elements of hardcore and UHC series and of course they are short by each time they change a few things up and keep the world small to keep the formula fresh. (this was an issue UHC ran into after a certain amount of season after most winning formulas had been discovered) like in the new one they put in there is a freaking woodland mansion which means that changes the formula a whole lot as that means some people will be walking around with powerful golden idols.
Honestly, the only real complaint I had in Double Life was that it was short. The life sharing meant instead of the 42 lives you had in 3rd life. You were basically cut down to 21.
I think if the only complaint you have about a series is that it wasn’t longer. That’s a pretty damned good series.
Also there were a few too many deaths to natural causes. But you can’t do anything about that really. It’s not scripted. Accidents happen. But because there were less lives, those accidents were more impactful.
The life series reminds me a lot of the amazing "Kill The Patrick - KTP " wich is a series created back in 2013 by the French Minecraft RUclips game team - The Patricks !
The concept is simple : Being the last team or last man standing ! (Original concept by the American server: Mindcrack)
Short series, few episodes a week, fast paste, many points of view... The concept became so popular in France that many servers implemented it in their own as mini-games !
Later followed by the creation of "Fallen Kingdoms" and "The cities" Series.. the old french Minecraft game was up there man, everyone know about them and has big nostalgia talking about them
Lizzie's storytelling prowess really shines in this series
yeah it’s a bit of a shame the creator of this video completely forgot about her
I love the way you put this! Amazing! You should get into the best povs for each series! I think you’d do a great job of it! In my opinion the best povs for all of them pretty much are Tango, Grian, and Smajor. They are all almost always in different alliances in each series and they tend to last more towards the end of the series -tango (soz dude) but he still give inside info for the allies he has each season! I don’t remember 3rd life, TIES, BEST, and the Heart Foundation. Double life you just have to watch at least one pov of each couple - Smajor, Cleo, Martyn, and pearl who were not together (Smajor and pearl, Cleo and Martyn) you have to watch all their povs or they won’t make much sense. IMO I’d watch Grian, Tango, BigB, Impulse, Joel (smallishbeans), and then the other 4. Each POV in each series is usually pretty different and it really is interesting to watch. Like even if you watch Tangos pov in last life you’d never expect what Bdubs did… (I still get upset 😢😢) but yeah AMAZING VIDEO!!!
Edit: oh gosh didn’t realize how long this became….
the best thing about the life series is the consistent etho content we get for a few weeks
There’s also the element of “what crazy gimmick is Grian going to come up with next” that keeps you coming back for each series.
as a lifesteal fan, my friend pretty much forced me to watch it and honestly i dont blame them
Personally I fell in love with the Thirdlife series because it reminded me so much of peak Game of Thrones in a weird way. Everyone has their reasons for doing what they are doing and something as simple as accidentally killing Scar in episode 1 created a butterfly effect which changed the outcome of the series’s. Can’t wait to see how the different seasons evolve over time.
2:00 this piano made my heart rate spike-
Fun fact I actually came up with double life as a concept called link life if you check the comments on grians hermitcraft videos for about 2-3 months before double life cam out you’ll see my suggestions.
I'm sorry but everyone should give credit to the one who mended the two groups together. It's Scott (Dangthatsalongname or Smajor) from MCC. He was the reason why they even know each other now and how the multiple crossovers started. Scott deserves to be credited.
Grian was already friends with many of them irl, like BigB, Timmy, Joel, and Martyn, so Empires and Hermitcraft were already blended before Empires even existed. Scott is magical when it comes to networking, though! He’s built countless bridges between friend groups/servers!
Grian knows a lot of them from evo???
The life series is just so damn good and one that I can watch 1 session from so many different perspectives and still absolutely enjoy it and see players who usually don't hang out together team up and so many fantastic moments.
This is such a great description of the genius of this series and the exact reason that a lot of RUclipsrs, including myself, made our own version of this series on our channels. Great video!
While some seasons are better than other, i really like how with each one they try to spice it up a little bit, make sure that it’s never quite the same. And so it allows for different stories to be forged. and i think that’s the best part, that it’s mostly improv and built on circumstance but as the seasons and history continue to grow it makes everything all the more dynamic, and that’s before the watcher shenanigans
2:05 "most talked-about"? you mean most chobblesome right?
It's the best minecraft server/series because it looks like fun and it most certainly is way more fun to watch compared to every other SMP.
i watched everyone in double life and its just so much better than only watching 1 or few povs
And now secret life!! It just keeps getting different and equally, if not more, interesting
The naming of Life Series is really brilliant! Because the art and theme is similar, but it’s still a whole new launch every time a season starts. The names don’t blend together or get stale, as opposed to Season 9 of the same exact title. These videos stand out from every other SMP and from each other.
my favorite part of this whole video was that pearl and mumbo were mentioned, but lizzie wasn’t though she joined at the same time as them lmao
0:16 WHO'S THIS GRAIN CHARACTER??
Man, Grian is such an awesome creator. I'll be honest, I don't remember how I found his content & got into it. But he was originally the Only minecraft youtuber I watched. I'd stopped watching Minecraft content for many years & decided to take a chance on him because I loved his energy.
But the thing I adore about Grian the most is that he doesn't just make content to increase his own viewership, but *everyone else's* too.
I've been watching RUclips since the dancing stormtrooper days & no content creator I've ever watched has motivated me to watch other creators as much as he does.
He creates so much chaos & entertaining drama that you cannot help but say "I want to see this from the other person's perspective."
He's boosting the entire minecraft youtube hemisphere & he's dragging dozens of other creators up with him. He *knows* how to make people want to check out someone else's channel. It started with Grian alone & now I watch Mumbo, Impulse, and Scar regularly. I also am subbed to & occasionally watch BDubs, Pearl, Tango, Keralis, Zedaph, Pix, Timmy, and Iskall. I am overwhelmed by the number of creators I have begun to follow, but now the fandom & content are slowly dragging me towards Skiz, Beef, & JoeHills.
I would not have gotten here if it wasn't for Grian. Most of these weren't chain reactions. They were all people who I started following due to their direct interactions with Grian. He is a powerful driving force in the Minecraft community.
the timing on this! a new life series just began!
u can't forget about the povs in this series, cus they're the best thing ever.
when grian slaughtered ren with falling stalactite, i rushed and i mean i IMMEDIATELY went to the ren's channel just to see his point of view, that's was awesome.
somehow, u don't get bored by watching the same scene over and over again, just from the other's pov, it is that interesting
He makes this a few hours before limited life comes out😂
the different povs per episode factor REALLY shines in secret life, many people (myself included) ended up watching a lot more povs than usual because EVERYONE’S povs were different because everyone had unique tasks