Vampires SMP and specifically its fandom are somehow one of the greatest examples of how an audience can fall for manipulation I’ve ever seen. And that’s kind of scary. And insane.
I made a post a few days ago about how a lot of people in this fandom flat out ignore the blatant abuse in the vampires coven in order to sanitize their dynamic into one of classic found family instead. The notes on that post were, as expected, a lot of people clamouring to defend or absolve themselves of something I never accused them of.
But seeing all the replies about people “purposely falling for the facade” has made me realize something absolutely fascinating; Vampires SMP, however unintentionally, is weaponizing its tropes against its audience in order to immerse them in the minds of its characters.
Because abusive relationships are more often than not, incredibly appealing at first glance.
When you watch Shelby’s pov and hear the words “community” or “they’re like my family” you’re kind of pavlov-ed into having a positive reaction to those words. And when you see Pyro having generally romantic undertones with Scott, or you see Owen congratulating Pyro and Shelby, or Scott sarcastically defending themselves from townspeople, we get it in our minds that these people are supposed to care about each other. Even Vampires themselves have a metaphorical queer undertone that a lot of fans choose to see, even when it obviously doesn’t fit.
And, when the audience has to face the fact that Scott would leave them for dead, or that Pyro doesn’t actually want to be here and is being coerced into staying via death threats and guilt-tripping, or that Shelby is being forcibly isolated from her former friends, we ignore it. Because we don’t want it to be true.
which is LITERALLY EXACTLY WHAT THE CHARACTERS ARE ALSO THINKING. Shelby wants to believe the coven really loves her because she’s never felt accepted before. Pyro wants to believe he’s fine with his own turning and that as long as he listens to Scott he’ll be safe because the alternative leaves him dead. These characters, to some degree, know they’re wrong, but they choose to ignore that because otherwise they have to face the fact that it really isn’t true.
Because it is incredible how much we can consciously ignore if it means we get to live in a world where we feel loved and accepted, even if it hurts.
(A few disclaimers because I know what you guys are like: No I’m not calling you naive for wanting the vampires to be a family. No I’m not saying you’re not allowed to do that or that it’s morally wrong, I don’t know why you think I have that power anyway. This is all about the vampires characters, not the ccs. Please don’t take this as a personal insult.)
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