Day one of befriending crows I left some cat food on my window, there's like three or four crows outside my window in the trees, none of them have taken any yet.
Almost every cast of characters can be immediately improved with a shit-talking edgy teenager that’s allowed to curse and only exists to instigate small things into huge fights
Being minorly nearsighted and hating the way I look in glasses in fine until my only friend in class only want so sit in the back and the teacher writes too small and I don’t have my glasses because I don’t ever wear them
NOT SHORT, FREAKISHLY TALL!! Lanky!! Like, most characters come to about his shoulders when he isn't slouching
On that last point, GOD AWFUL POSTURE so he seems like a relatively normal height until he straightens his back
Functionally illiterate, he never had schooling as a kid I think… at least one doctor was kind enough to teach him how to read what he needed but past that my boy can't read
Okay so we all interpret the vamps with pointed ears, most of them point like up or out, Owen’s point down
Okay so this one is kinda confirmed in ep6 but Legundo reminds him of Louis
He may or may not have tried to throw himself in the fire with Louis but it didn't work so he just buried himself
I feel like he picks at his nails or something, not in like an anxious way, but like, just something he does absent mindedly
On the impulsive counting thing, I think he is counting a lot but especially if it's something that reminds him of when he was human, how many swings of his axe it takes to cut down a tree, how many blocks he placing as he’s rebuilding the castle, how many steps it takes to get from one side of the room to another
I also think he’s weirdly good at addition because of this, no other kind of math, just addition, he's okay at subtraction, and he might understand the concept of multiplication but that's about it
Really big fan of the idea of him using a mix of old English and modern (for the time of the main events, I want to say post WW1) English, or if he's especially pissed or experiencing more intense emotions he immediately switches back to old English
I only really like the last one because it makes a lot of his lines like 10x more dramatic I will be honest
He never actually learned to cut his hair so either he’s walking around with a chopped ass haircut, or Louis did his hair for him before he turned Owen
GSBSBSHSBDV OKAT okay, that's all (for now) feel free to add your own, this list is ongoing!!
Btw the fact that V! Owen wasn't asleep the whole 200 years means that he was starving himself <3 (this fact has destroyed me(?) made me more evil(?) because Owen is my blorbo)
*Sounds of a breaking glass* Okey I saw one too many people on this webbed site being wrong about my cubito on main, so here is I, Yoshi Yoshiintheweb, nerding out about Vampires SMP, the history of persecution and social outcasts, and overall narratives and shit like this.
(Some of) You are wrong about V!Owen's backstory and I'm Crashin' Out about this: An Essey.
My Credentials: archeology student, history nerd, specific interest in folklore, accusations of vampirism and witchcraft, and high media literacy stat (I put all my points in it I have nothing eles).
This post is specifically about the claims that Owen is either lying about his backstory OR misremembering part of it because, and I quote, "It doesn't make sense that residents of Oakhurst would kill a beloved mayor over the disappearance of a hated outcast, so he must be lying". It makes sense! And here's how! This is an analysis! I have citations for academic research!
The actual rant is under the cut because it's going to be LONG.
So first off all, I must speak about what inspired this rant in the first place, and that's the claim I've seen a bunch of people make that the story Owen told at the beginning must be false (or partially false) due to the fact that Owen was a hated outcast; no one cared about him, and therefore killing Louis - a mayor that was supposed to be well-loved and trusted - doesn't make sense. Owen must be deliberately lying or misremembering how Louis actually was. This is factually wrong on multiple levels. And I want to point out that this is about THEORIES, not HEADCANONS. Headcanon whatever you want forever; I don't care, but if you are making a THEORY, you must consider what we ALREADY KNOW.
So, one may ask, Well, Yoshi, but HOW is it wrong? You've been talking quite a lot but not explained shit. Well, random tumblr user, here is why!
Owen never claimed to be HATED by the townsfolk. All we know about Owen's relation to the other villagers is that he was OUTCASTED for his illness that was thought to be contagious, and Louis was the first person to treat him like he was a human. This doesn't mean he was hated by the people. And there is much evidence that he wasn't. Historically speaking, when a person was afflicted with a disease that was thought to easily spread, they would be fully outcasted from the community, usually banished from the city or town.
Especially if it was in fact leprosy, as he multiple times claimed to be. People with leprosy were segregated from healthy people, to the point they had their own communities and institutions (such as churches or hospitals). Leprosy is literally the first disease that had a dedicated hospital just for it. THEY WERE FORCED OUT OF CITIES AND TOWNS (in England due to the edict of Edward the Third). They would need to beg or relocate to a leprosarium. They had to wear BELLS to signal to other people they were sick; the stigma and social ostracism were THAT BAD they would lose jobs and fall into poverty. That's also the reason why many people wouldn't seek treatment at all!The idea that people with leprosy were tainted, unclean, and untouchable is so deeply rooted in Western culture that it's even in the fuckin Bible - those concepts are THAT old. (You can read up on it in this artical by Herbert C. Covey posted in The Social Science Journal.)
- Note that the timeline doesn't really fit since Vampires is set vaguely in the 1800s, putting Owen's human life more or less in the 1600s. By that time leprosy had died out in Europe a lot, but I'm choosing to ignore this fact because the timeline of the SMP is a mess.
But like, what does it all mean for Vampires SMP? Well, it means that Owen HAD IT GOOD. I'm not defending the town or anything, but it shows that Owen was given a lot of grace, and it could be much worse. He was an outcast from the town itself, but he was working; he was permitted to see Louis in the first place and wasn't homeless. This means that the villagers INTERACTED WITH HIM; he was ACTIVE in the community (asking for a permit for a mill, though it might have been for his own use), able to provide for himself; a lumberjack cannot do that on his own - he needs to sell the wood to SOMEONE. Owen wasn't hated by the community; he was feared because of his disease, yes, and from his story we know they didn't treat him well or "like a human". But he wasn't HATED. He was feared, shunned, and excluded from the community but not fully hated. If they hated him, he wouldn't be allowed to be in Oakhurst in the first place. What I think happened is that he was constantly pitied and treated like a dying animal that you give scraps to but avoid if you can. He was allowed to stay because he had something to provide to the community but wasn't allowed to be part of it. He was used for the service he provided (lumber) but refused the human connection of having a community. WHICH, TBH, IS WORSE THAN BEING JUST HATED IN MY OPINION.
This is especially true with the fact that he's been sick SINCE HE WAS A BOY; a kid cannot survive on his own, he needed some sort of support! Not being treated with kindness doesn't mean he was left all alone.
Even if they DID hate his guts, it's reasonable that some people would be concerned if he disappeared. If not for the concern of Owen's well-being, then for the lumber he provided. We know that it wasn't a whole town that raised an alarm but a few people. Perhaps those people had business with him or were a bit more sympathetic; that doesn't really matter. What matters is that the disappearance of a person within a community, especially one as small as Oakhurst (2801 people is a SMALL town; people know each other, people NOTICE), is a valid reason to raise an alarm. And Louis, no matter how well loved he might have been, was the first clear lead - as they were meeting EVERY SINGLE DAY. So going to him was reasonable! Hey, Mr. Mayor, do you know what happened with Owen? Yeah, I was supposed to trade eggs for firewood with him, but he never showed up. This isn't that weird at all, that they went to him. OR EVEN SUSPECTED HIM OF DOING SOMETHING. He was a weirdo that didn't attend a lot of community activities. Sure, he's busy with running the town, but he SURE could spend one celebration with us! Paperwork will not run off! Sure, he's kind and nice and runs the town well, but he is a bit of a recluse in this situation.
LOUIS WASN'T PUT ON A PYRE FOR HURTING OWEN; HE WAS PUT ON A PYRE FOR HAVINGÂ OCCULT OBJECTS ON HIS PERSON. It wasn't an execution for murder, it wasn't an execution for vampirism; IT WAS AN EXECUTION FOR WITCHCRAFT.
What happened, according to Owen's own storytelling, was that people were concerned for Owen's disappearance, went to Louis as they often met, found occult shit on him, and put him on a pyre. Helping out Owen was a secondary motive at that point. They didn't try to trial him for murder, they didn't try to stake him like one would a vampire, they burned him at a stake as one would a witch. There is a chance they didn't even know Louis WAS a vampire at all! And the thing about witch hunts is that they DON'T MAKE SENSE. Magic and witchcraft IRL don't exist. Every single case of witch hunts was motivated by irrational fears of people who were different or as justifications to get rid of someone. It doesn't matter how kind and good a person could be; if they were accused of being a witch, their reputation was immediately put into question as an influence of black magic. When Owen reappeared, the townspeople were expecting a thanks because THEY THOUGHT LOUIS PUT A SPELL ON OWEN. They thought they were rescuing a vulnerable, isolated man from the grasp of a witch who FOOLED THEM ALL.
For more information on witch hunts, and most importantly on the myth that grew around it, I send you to Kaz Rowe's wonderful video on the topic.
The main theme in Owen's story is the worst humanity can do when they believe something. It's not only about Owne's own belief that humanity is rotten and deserves only death but also about how humanity can actually act. It's about the dangers of mob mentality and social persecution without any concrete evidence, just things they don't understand and the things they fear. Which is inherently not rooted in any rational responses. Yes, it doesn't make sense that you put your beloved mayor on a pyre for a man you outcasted a long time ago. AND THAT'S THE POINT. There was no rational reason for this to happen. There is no rational motivation to organize a mob against a kind man; the reasoning was irrational. They put him on a pyre for being different - fear of the other, the "occult". And it didn't matter if Louis was a good man or not; it doesn't matter if he was kind or not, human or vampire. It didn't matter because the decision was made with FEAR that drives you to act irrationally. He would end up on that pyre no matter who he was. And this is something that Owen himself reflects - he thinks that he understands what's happening, he thinks that he knows what the other people think of him, and he acts accordingly - like a one-man mob. Because he's now willing to look past his own beliefs and his own fears, just like the mob that killed Louis didn't want to face the possibility that not all occult must be evil. This is what makes him different from Scott too. Scott is a monster because he lacks any humanity, he's been a vampire for so long he doesn't know what it means to be human. Owen is a monster because he knows EXACTLY what it means to be human, his humanity is still there and unfortunetly for everyone involved, it only means pain, bloodsheed and terror.
V! Owen noticing not just that he was free from his illness but also he’s just generally healthier (his hair is thicker, his eyes are clearer, unrelated aches and pains are gone) and having a fleeting thought of telling Louis before he remembers that he's dead
Me and a friend went to McDonalds and they got a burger but there were pickles on the burger and they didn't want pickles and they were too scared to ask for a new burger so I got to go and tell the worker that ‘they asked for no pickles’ (politely Ofc)
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