By the nature of the series, all spoilers except those relating to the series' backstory in the "Eyes and Ears" continuity are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Double Life was the 3rd season of the Life SMP.Much like the first season, each member of the group is once again granted 3 lives, but this time, they have to share their life counter and their health bar with their soulmate, another player. If their soulmate takes damage, they will as well, and if their soulmate dies, so will they.
Grian uncertainly teased Double Life as the third season at the end of his final episode of Last Life, later confirmed Season 3 in his 12th episode of Hermitcraft Season 9, and Double Life started airing on June 17th, 2022 and ended on July 22nd.
Note: Unless otherwise specified, all tropes pertain to the characters, not the content creators that play them.
The Double Life SMP provides examples of:
- Achievements in Ignorance: Martyn and Joel end up accidentally killing the "Ranchers' Revenge" Warden with fall damage on Day 4 while playing around with fishing rods. In their defense, it had already lost most of its health in the previous episode from drowning when Tango brought it up to the surface, making their job much easier that it would otherwise have been.
- Arrows on Fire: On Day 6, while Scott and Pearl are sieged on top of Pearl's tower base, Martyn and Cleo briefly shoot arrows through fire at the Red Lives in an attempt to set them alight.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Throughout Day 5, the Red Names have absolutely zero qualms threatening or killing Scar's Jellie Pandas or burning down the Sanctuary Scar built for them to try to cow Scar into submission, and later shoot Scar's pet Allay while using it for target practice. In the finale, Joel and Scar also casually blow up Pearl's dogs for no reason other than the fact they can, solidifying her stance against the Red Names.
- Big "NO!": Grian's reaction when he realizes he's linked to Scar.
- Blow That Horn:
- On Day 1, Grian collects several goat horns in a mountainous corner of the world to test out their sounds, and gives away the "bad" ones (e.g. the Seek variant, which makes a noise identical to the sound that plays during Pillager raids) to other players. These players later unofficially form a group called the Horn Club/Gang, where they would respond by blowing their own Goat Horns when a member blows theirs, mainly out of amusement.
- On Day 5, the horns turn into the Horns of Destruction type when the Reds use it as a rallying cry when hunting down Grian and Scar.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Scar's description for his Day 3 episode goes as follows:Welcome to Last Life season 3 renamed Double Life SMP – episode 3! We start Double Life Ep3 by opening the Jellie / Panda reserve and couples retreat. The first visitor is Mart[y]n and Cleo and I try to bring them back together. We became the worst paper salesman and play Grian's snow bucket challenge with Bdubs. Who will win, Bdubs or me? You will have to find out. Also, Tango lets a Warden out onto the map...
- Call-Back: A group of players find an amethyst geode on Day 1, and Martyn wastes no time in making a spyglass and an "aha" pun. The others tell him to not bring that back.
- Can't Live Without You: By the synchronized nature of soulbound pairs, when one player dies, their soulmate dies as well immediately afterward.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- On Day 4, Ren and BigB rig a trap using a zombie spawner, and use their generated zombie "army" to crash Bdubs and Impulse's pool party at the end of the episode, killing them in the chaos that ensued. This returns as a Chekhov's Boomerang on Day 5, when Scar digs into the zombie pit and loses his and Grian's first life trying to escape.
- The modded mechanism where Sculk Sensors can be triggered by the sound of someone's voice. At first, it's just an obstacle for anyone venturing into the Ancient City to get enchantments in order to avoid spawning the Warden in, but on Day 5, Joel and Etho rig a TNT trap using one, killing Scar (and thus Grian) while he was trying to invite everyone to a funeral for Jimmy and Tango (who had been Killed Off for Real earlier the same episode).
- At the start of Day 5, Grian attempts to prank Scar using a falling dripstone stalactite, which almost kills the both of them. At the end of the episode, he skewers Ren with a falling stalactite and causes him and Big B to be Killed Off for Real with the same trick.
- At the end of Day 5, Grian makes a grave in the mountains for Big B after accidentally killing him by proxy. Scott stumbles across it on Day 6 and he later steals the sand from the grave-site to make TNT, which is later used to either distract the two Wardens the Red Lives ferried up to the surface... or to die from suicide at the end of the series.
- Downer Ending: As usual, everyone dies. Once the Red Lives hunt down the remaining Yellow Lives, two of the five remaining soulbound pairs at the time end up dying as a result of their own or their partners' stupidity (in oddly ironic/symbolic ways to boot). After Pearl kills the remaining two enemy soulbound pairs in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge for her late Canine Companion (and Living Emotional Crutch), Tilly, she meets up with her own soulmate, Scott. She gets a few moments to relax with her remaining dogs… before Scott blows himself up to give her the win, instantly killing them both due the Can't Live Without You nature of soulbound pairs.
- Dramatic Irony: On Day 5, while discussing how Scar stole the Enchanting Table the previous day and how they'd have to find a way to get it from him, Martyn remarks, "There's no way he's not buried it in the Panda Sanctuary, by the way, it's just gonna be underneath a couple of, like, dirt blocks or something for sure." As it turns out, according to Scar's episode for Day 4, that's exactly what he did, and that's what the Reds find when they start griefing the Panda Sanctuary.note
- Due to the Dead: Zig-Zagging Trope.
- While members of the server hold or attend unofficial funerals and make small memorials for those who are Killed Off for Real, even if they themselves were the killers, most have no issue stealing from the dead's bases like they would have done anyway if they were alive.
- Robbing the dead's inventory-items if they're not on their final life is more grey territory than anything; putting the dead's items in a double-chest is usually considered basic courtesy, especially if the people in question just turned Red and can freely murder item-thieves as revenge.
- Escort Distraction: On Day 2, Cleo sends Jimmy and Tango on a wild goose chase to see whatever Scar's doing, allowing Scott to steal their goats while they're gone.
- Exact Eavesdropping: At the start of Day 5, Scott and Cleo learn about Team Rancher's plan to kill Grian and Scar, the last Greens left at the time, by eavesdropping on the Reds' meeting the Ranchers called. Martyn also happens to eavesdrop on them at the same time, and the three gather to seek out Pearl, believing Working with the Ex to be the best option for them.
- Fatal Fireworks: In the finale, Joel decides to utilize the same plan to kill Scott for burning the Relation-Ship in the previous episode, only with stronger rockets. He credits Lizzie for the idea from the last season.
- Foil: Scar and Scott, on a small scale. While both of them build an animal-related structure claiming it can help to bring soulmates closer together (the Jellie Panda Reserve/Petting Zoo and the Relationship Ranch, respectively), Scar seems genuine in his attempts, while Scott does so with the explicit intention of gaslighting soulbound pairs into falling apart. This ultimately doesn't last due to Cerebus Syndrome.
- Foreshadowing: Likely unintentionally. On Day 5, Joel swears that if the Relation-Ship burns, everything burns. In the episode after, him and his soulmate lose their last life by burning in lava in Martyn and Pearl's trapped Nether portal after their portals linked up.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: On Day 3, Tango attempts to get revenge on Grian and Scar burning down their ranch by ferrying a Warden up into their base, which just results in the Warden roaming the server and terrifying everyone. The resulting chaos indirectly causes the death of soulmate pair Ren and BigB near the end of the session, making the first Red Lives.
- Got Volunteered: Tango and Jimmy get roped into defending Grian and Scar from the wrath of the rest of the server on Day 4 because they happened to come up to their safety platform so Tango could enchant his boots just before everyone else shows up to lay siege on them.Grian: (in the chat) tango and jimmy are going to defend us to the end
Jimmy: Grian, I don't think we agreed on that. - History Repeats: On Day 5, Jimmy becomes the first to permanently die on the server. For the third time.note This is lampshaded by everyone, including his content creator counterpart.
- Hostage Situation: Played for Laughs on Day 5 when the so-called "Divorce Quartet", the only Yellow Names at the time, take Jimmy hostage and trap him in a cobbled deepslate and dirt box in his own Ranch just to mess with him.
- Irony: After Bdubs betrayed Impulse and took his last life at the end of 3rd Life, and Impulse helped summon the Wither that brought Bdubs down to Red and directly resulted in him losing his last life in Last Life, the two are now partners in Double Life and must keep each other alive.
- Joke and Receive: When off adventuring in caves with Pearl, Martyn jokes about the possibility that both of their soul-linked partners have also teamed up. Later, it turns out they have, and their partners quickly tire of waiting for Martyn and Pearl and abandon them.Martyn: I think whoever we're soulbound with, I think they're also hanging out together. I would love that parallel, seeing what we're doing and what they're doing at the same time.
Pearl: I know. Imagine if both the people we're partnered with, yeah, if they're linked. You'd see two POVs of both of us wondering who they're partnered with. - Kick the Dog: Just about everyone bullies Jimmy and Tango. On Day 2 alone, Scott leads an effort to stop them getting goat horns and then gets everyone to stop responding to their horn calls after they get horns, then gets Cleo to do an Escort Distraction so he can steal their goats, which directly results in Scar burning down their base since they stole his horse while they were falling for Cleo's trick.
- Love Letter: Grian, unsatisfied with his own soulmate, secretly has eyes on BigB. At the end of Day 2, he breaks into Box and builds a not-so-secret heart. He attaches a sign saying "Get yourself a soulmate who doesn't die to endermen <3". He also gifts a chest full of bread with a sign reading "I baked you this bread, it's made of GRAIN", a hint for BigB since "grain" is a misspelling of 'Grian'.
- Mega Neko: The Jellie Pandas, to some degree. While they are functionally Panda mobs, exclusively from Scar's perspective, they're retextured to look like his cat Jellie, resulting in huge "cats" the size of giant pandas.
- Mickey Mousing: Discussed. During the memorial held for the Relation-Ship, the attendees play the music disc "otherside" while watching the structure burn, and make a joke about the Relation-Ship exploding the moment the beat drops in the tune.
- No Blood for Phlebotinum: Given that the world is only 700 by 700 blocks big, there's bound to be conflicts over resources. For Double Life in particular, the sugarcane shortage from Last Life (used in the server-specific TNT recipe) continues when Grian starts to hoard the server's supply, and when that fails by Day 3, there's a shortage of sand because there isn't a desert on the server and Grian ends up hoarding most of the server supply of that too.
- No, You: When Pearl and Martyn try to make a trade with Impulse and Bdubs, Pearl suggests to Martyn that they could find better deals elsewhere, saying that they're "scraping the bottom of the barrel". Bdubs angrily tells Pearl that it is her, not them, at the bottom of the barrel.
- Papa Wolf: On Day 4, the sight of Joel and Etho threatening his Jellie pandas was enough to motivate Scar into jumping down from a tall platform. And surviving with the water bucket trick. Joel and Etho actually left Scar alone for the rest of the siege in shock that Scar was able to pull a move like that off.
- Portmanteau Couple Name: In-universe. While Joel refers to him and Etho as "Boat Boys" or "Boat Gang", on Day 1, Grian calls them "SmallEtho".Grian: Well, you can't be "EthoBeans"!
- Professional Killer:
- On Day 4, several soulbound-pairs of the server consider the idea of hiring the resident Red Lives to kill their enemies for them. For example, Scott and Cleo hire Joel and Etho, who had just turned Red earlier that episode, to kill Team Rancher in an established feud. Joel and Etho contemplate this, but accept the offer upon learning Tango has access to the enchanting table that Scar stole at the start of the episode.note
- On Day 5, one idea bounced around in the Red Lives' meeting is to get Cleo (a Yellow Life at the time) to attack Scar and Grian for them.
- Red String of Fate: The main gimmick of the season is that two soulbound players share a health bar, and realize someone is their soulmate when the other takes damage (or in the case of Jimmy with Tango, when the other dies). As a result, there's a tendency on Day 1 for players to hit each other to see if the other is their soulmate. This is eventually Played for Drama on Scott and Cleo's side as they decide to Screw Destiny, leading to some one- or two-sided Abandonment-Induced Animosity, among many other twists and turns related to this. The season's logo even evokes this symbolism with two half-hearts connected with a red string.
- Relationship Sabotage: Many players try to do this in order to weaken other partnerships and alliances.
- Bdubs and Impulse try to get people alone to give them vague warnings about their soulmates trash talking about them behind their backs, although it doesn't always work due to some people knowing that their soulmate couldn't possibly have had time to gossip, and some people already being on bad terms with their soulmate, making Bdubs' and Impulse's efforts unnecessary.
- Grian tries to get Big B to break up with Ren by making himself out as a secret admirer to Big B. It somewhat works since Big B was willing to secretly ally with Grian, and the "affair" has put some strain on Big B and Ren's relationship.
- Scott creates the "Relationship Ranch" on Day 3, which he markets as a couples' retreat meant to strengthen relationships with trust exercises. Its true purpose, however, is for Scott to gaslight the couples by Accentuating the Negative in supervising the activities and inciting concern between the couples.
- Rod And Reel Repurposed: Much of Day 4 is dedicated to every other person on the server playing around with fishing rods by flinging entities far into the air with them. While it is indeed fun, it carries a strong risk to it in that the entity in question can be killed if they don't land in Soft Water or have enough health to survive the fall — first demonstrated by the "Ranchers' Revenge" Warden at the start of the episode, then Etho and Joel in the middle of it, causing the two to become Red Names.
- Screw Destiny: Due to their soulmates having gone adventuring to the Deep Dark and the Nether on Day 1, Scott and Cleo decide to choose to become pseudo-soulmates purely because their own soulmates refuse to show up to player gatherings, and they call their soulmates out for this at the end of the episode. Unfortunately, Pearl doesn't take this well, due to not exactly volunteering to go adventuring in the first place, and perceives it as abandonment in turn.Scott: I like Cleo. I don't need a soulmate. I pick my own destiny, Big B!
- Shout-Out:
- After Bdubs, Martyn and Scar rescue some Allays from a Pillager outpost on Day 1, Bdubs compares them to Navi.
- Scar's In-Series Nickname for the Ranchers is "the Jolly Ranchers", as in the candy brand.
- When Tango chews out Cleo for her Escort Distraction that cost him and Jimmy their goats on Day 2, he says, "I blast my horn in your general direction!"
- In the finale, Grian gathers the other Red Names (and honorary Red Name Pearl) on the server to form "the Fellowship of the Red" to knock the Yellow Names down to Red.
- Sticky Fingers: This applies to just about everyone when it comes to everything; everyone's base is pretty much free game when it comes to robbing valuables.
- Stylistic Suck: Ren and Big B's Box was designed to be as unappealing as possible so people would be deterred from visiting/attacking. As its name implies, it's a giant cobblestone box with facial features being added as the series progresses.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music:
- During the pool party at the end of Day 4, Impulse (the "DJ") puts on the music disc "13", a creepy ambient track, when armed zombies begin rising from the pool thanks to Ren and BigB's trap. The music plays as night falls and Bdubs is chased by the pair until he is killed.
- Averted at the memorial held for the burning Relation-Ship, since the only music disc the attendees had was "otherside", a light and upbeat march.
- Synchronization: The premise of this season. Each player's health-bar is linked to another, if one takes damage so will the other, and if one dies, the other does as well. The official series description refers to these duos as "soulmates". Since the game doesn't directly tell people who their soulmate is, most of the first day was spent with everyone running around punching each other to find their partner. (And in Jimmy and Tango's case, they didn't find out until the latter lost his first life.)
- Tempting Fate: In Scott's Day 2 episode, while discussing the goat horns and the goats living near them, he and Cleo both decide to hide the goats from Jimmy so he can't get a horn. The very next scene starts with Scott spotting Jimmy leading a couple of goats away.
- This Is Gonna Suck: After Tango and Jimmy end up getting stuck up on a wooden platform with Grian and Scar while the entire server is out for the latter two's blood, Tango ends up asking a very important question.note Tango: Is the pillar up to this made out of wood?
(Grian silently looks at Scar)
Tango: Your awkward silence speaks everything. - Two Girls to a Team: Cleo and Pearl are the only two feminine-leaning members of the server during the season.
- Underground City: The only Enchanting Table allowed on the server begins squirreled away in the Ancient City. Scar steals it on Day 4, causing him to become Hated by All on the server. The location becomes vital on Day 6 as one of the sites of confrontation between the factions at the time.
- Undignified Death: After being targeted by the Red Names for over half the episode, pulling off the S-tier MLG Water Bucket the previous session, on top of surviving several days in the series without dying, Scar ends up falling into Ren's zombie spawner pit and dying in it on Day 5.Martyn: (in the in-game chat) yikes, the reds can't do it so the world did
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: On Day 2, Pearl goes to Ren and BigB's Box where she jokingly steals their horse. When Ren tries to retrieve it, he accidentally looks at an Enderman and is killed, taking the first life of him and his soulmate, BigB. This leads to Pearl being banned from Box and Ren branding her as a harbinger of evil and "demoness".
- Visual Pun: Joel and Etho, being soulbound to each other, have built a large ship as their base called the Relation-ship. Scott burns half of it to ashes on Day 5; combined with Joel's resultant Madness Mantra of "If the ship burns, everything burns", it ends up as unintentional foreshadowing to Joel and Etho's final death in the finale by burning in lava.
- Wham Episode: Day 4, when things really start to hit the fan. By the end of the session, there are four pairs of Red Lives, and everyone else is Yellow except Grian and Scar, whose base was sieged by literally everyone else for the stolen enchanting table save Jimmy and Tango, who became one of the Red Life pairs during their defense against the siege.
- Working with the Ex:
- Discussed on Day 5. At the start of the episode, when Team Rancher calls the other Red Names to a meeting, Cleo and Scott snoop on them and discuss that if they're forming a Red Alliance, they'd have to team up with their separated assigned-soulmates to stand a chance against them, as by that point, the Red Names consisted of over half the server population.
- It's later played straight when the Ranchers' call turns out to be one to kill Grian and Scar, the last Green Lives left, and the two believe they'd be the Reds' next target as the only Yellow Lives left. As a result, the "Divorce Quartet" do, in fact, team up with their estranged soulmates for Days 5 and 6. However, they stick to primarily working alongside their non-soulbound partners as it made them less vulnerable, forcing enemies to go through two health-bars instead of one.
