Curate, connect, and discover
I want Gem to win Secret Life soooo bad
Not just because She Slays, although that’s absolutely part of the reason. My girl wants blood, and the Secret Keeper happily obliged, she deserves to be covered in it as she roars a victory cry at the skies above.
But ALSO
Just listen
Gem didn’t just come into this game with murder in mind, she didn’t just show up and start killing people right and left
No, no, she came in with a strategy
Every single step Gem has taken in this game, every decision she has made - even the most seemingly unhinged and mindless and bloodthirsty - has been calculated and deliberate and made with the long game in mind.
Right away, she teamed up with two VERY strong players. Scott, a previous winner known for being very skilled and surviving a ling time, and Impulse who has consistently improved over the course of these games and has the motivation to win, but is also capable of staying calm in tight spots and thinking things through and is generally not known to throw away his alliances or waste any advantages he gets. Together, the three of them make for a strong team unlikely to fall apart even as the rest of the server collapses. They make each other stronger not weaker. Gem could not have picked two better teammates to run with.
And NOT ONLY THAT
Gem has been networking. She’s been nice and friendly to start with, doing her tasks and flying under the radar, making deals and getting other people to do the really dangerous work like fighting the dragon. Even when she started to get her hands dirty, she did it with a smile and coaxed more players to join her in the chaos and generally avoided making herself look like the obvious villain. If Gem had gotten the task to “be the bad guy of the server” she probably would have found a way to spin it in her favor and make her actions endearing rather than aggravating. That’s not an accident. That’s a ploy. She has fully weaponized her nice and cheerful nature, and it’s working, and it’s a beautiful thing to behold.
Gem knows how to play this game. She’s going into the finale from a very strong position with nearly (or over?) fifty hearts, a defensible base, enchanted gear, two loyal teammates, and a whole server full of people who have either been killed by her or seen their allies killed/recruited by her. She is undoubtedly one of the strongest players, but she is not the most reviled, so it’s unlikely that the server will team up against her, which might be the only way to take her down at this point. She’s too smart to fall for traps (we hope) and too skilled to fall to straight PVP (unless it’s accidental Scar). At this point, Gem has very little to fear. Things do tend to get chaotic in the finale, people and circumstances can turn on a dime, but if she keeps with her current strategy, Gem stands a very real chance of being the last player standing. There are a tiny handful of other players that I think could stand against her, but again, it all depends on the circumstances and the heat-of-the-moment decisions made by the players.
Listen, even if Gem doesn’t win, no one can deny that she has played the game well. But I want Gem to win. She earned this win.
We’ve had the Sun, the Stars, the Moon, and whatever the hell Martyn was (Mars, I think?)
Now it’s Gem’s time to shine. It’s her time to rise.
Let her bring the Dawn.