Bloodpyre (Louis/Owen/Pyro) VS Shadowveil (Alaric/Morcant/Reiah)
Bloodpyre
Alaric/Morcant/Reiah
Remaining time: 1 day 15 hours
Propaganda:
Bloodpyre
Louis and his two stray dogs <33 Yes he CAN fix them thank you very much
"Yo get your dogs" "They don't bite ^w^" "YES THEY DO" <- Pyro and Owen off committing crimes
Shadowveil
Hey what if Abolish’s mom and dad and adoptive dad all kissed. What if Morcant got back from a mission and found out both his partners died while he was gone and some idiot sent their son to an orphanage and now he needs to go pick up his son and raise him alone. What if.
Don't be shy put Abolish's other dad in the mix too. Your honour that thier third.
Idk if anyone has done this yet but rly need Abolish being like "guys I have something to admit...I'm apart of a secret shadow organization of vampire hunters." And it cuts to Legs and maybe Pearl or someone with "gay/trans is ok" shirts. You know the meme format?
Apo's story as a metaphor for wartime. Forced into service by the military, beginning as a desire to protect people, coerced by a powerful man into becoming a being that feeds on blood (requiring violence to sustain itself) out of the belief that it will protect the people who she cared about (while it clearly doesn't). Being a dehumanised other to one side, and a traitor to the other, even as she tries constantly to not give into the violence that grows around her. Breaking down and deliberately killing an innocent as a way to relieve the stress she's faced. Ultimately every effort undertaken to protect people only ends up with them killed and her blamed for it. Even when the soldier gets to return, she comes home forever changed, while the closest entity to a legal body (Abolish) tacitly accepts the perpetrators of the violence that affected her.
Shelby Is Not Naive, Or: Everyone Cares Too Much About Scott Goldsmith
Shelby fully expects the people of Oakhurst to kill her at the first opportunity. Shelby is so invested in the coven and so willing to excuse the flaws of other vampires because she has bought into the idea that the humans can and will hurt her at the first opportunity. There are many reasons for this, but Scott Goldsmith is not one of them.
Scott is her bestie because he stands still and says nice things while everyone else is running around introducing her to new and exciting forms of torment nexus. It is a “luigi wins by doing nothing” ass situation.
Once Shelby is turned, it becomes nearly impossible for her to talk to a human without being threatened. Many social interactions from the very instant she walks back into town after the fishing trip are shadowed by someone openly planning to hurt or kill vampires.
Avid tries to test if she’s repelled by silver and then starts building a jail cell in front of her. Apo isn’t directly threatening, but basically comes to Shelby with the hypothetical “what if there was an evil vampire”. And then they emphasize the importance of keeping a stake at hand.
Shelby asks Ren if they’ll really have to fight each other, and Ren says that it’s just the way of the world. Sausage emphasizes the point by yelling “stab them all until they’re dead!”, which isn’t really a great thing to hear when you are one of the “them” in question.
Eventually, Apo gets turned, and most of the vampires convene at the beacon, where Martyn burns her alive.
Let me repeat that: she burns alive.
The video editing emphasizes this as a big deal. Shelby’s narration in the aftermath concludes that “if i asked for a chance to talk, they would have just killed me without a second thought.” From Shelby’s perspective, they did just kill her without a second thought. It is the climax of their episode 3, and one of the first things Shelby mentions in episode 4. It is a major turning point for the character, with good reason.
As far as Shelby is concerned, the vampire vs human conflict began with her experiencing a horrific death for the grand crime of crouching next to a beacon.
From this point forward, non threatening interactions with humans vanish almost entirely.
The only conversation Shelby has with a human is episode 4 is her face to face with Avid, which has high points and low points. The low points include Avid telling her about staking his partner because she attacked him.
Shelby, does, however, visit the town later, where she finds Avid burning her house down.
And then Legundo reads the cure book in front of the house’s ashes.
Legundo also scolds Avid for burning down the house, but Shelby misses that part. In fact, Shelby missed all of the pro Shelby comments made in the town around that time.
According to the post series creator’s commentary, (which i can’t link because twitch deletes old vods so it probably no longer exists aajfas;llllldg) this isn’t even a matter of clever editing- Shubble was legitimately out of range for all of the parts of the story where people agreed that they wanted to help Shelby.
In episode 5, she is approached by a group of Drift, Cleo, and Pearl. Shelby is surrounded, and asks them to put their swords away. Pearl takes a minute to do so, and when she does she switches to a bottle of holy water. Shelby backs away and Pearl moves forward.
The start of this conversation very much has shades of an interrogation: “why do you look so different? Did you eat truffle?”
Shelby tells them about being burnt alive, and the response she gets from Cleo is “but you got better”. Which sucks, and serves as an ironic mirror for the way that Scott and Owen are dismissive about the trauma involved with turning people. Both factions are expecting Shelby to just walk off the wrongs done to them, but the Oakhurst faction is openly threatening future harm to Shelby.
Of the three of them, Drift is the most supportive. The conversation improves from there, and some nice things are said, but Shelby was still threatened. It was still the preamble to the nice and productive part of the talks.
Then she has the meeting with Avid where he asks to be turned, which goes fairly well but ends with Avid being decidedly non human. Also Owen replaced one of Avid’s messages to Shelby with a death threat, so Shelby was still threatened over it.
Episode 6 has the Oakhurst invasion where all of the vampires visit Oakhurst and Pearl gets chased around. Shelby doesn’t really talk to anyone here, but she sure does get to hear Pearl make a generalized threat. Because Shelby can never catch a break.
We also see another instance of Shelby assuming that the townies are after her: her narration says “i thought Pearl was chasing me”
Then there’s a conversation with Sausage. Sausage pulls out a stake because of course he does.
Then Drift pulls Shelby aside, and they have a lovely chat where there are no threats of bodily harm. However, Drift is a vampire, so it doesn’t count. Rip.
When Avid starts talking about the cure, Shelby’s immediate assumption is that if Avid asks to be cured, the humans will stake her without a second thought. She also is the one to suggest sabotaging the cure for the sake of protecting herself and the other vampires.
Episode 7 sees Shelby dealing with humans twice, and both of them are decidedly hostile interactions
The first bit of human contact comes when the vampires burn down the walls of Oakhurst. This is, naturally, open combat. Shelby makes a point of targeting Martyn.
Her second human interaction in episode 7 is running into Abolish, who promptly introduces her to the Veylocke murder box. In other words, Shelby is stunned, rendered immobile and helpless, and executed in cold blood. It is not an easy death.
Abolish even acknowledges that she didn’t do anything, and then kills her anyway.
episode 8 is the finale, where she fights some humans, hides from humans, eventually has a truce with humans for the first time ever, and then wanders off into the sunset with Drift and Scott.
That’s basically all of Shelby’s major human interactions post episode 3. There is never an instance where speaking to a human is not linked with being threatened by a human after that point.
For the most part, this is entirely the result of the people of Oakhurst’s own priorities and character choices, but there is one vampire that tries to make sure that Shelby can’t talk to the humans. Someone that tries to isolate her, someone that uses threats, someone that is willing to lie to keep Shelby in the castle and away from town.
That person is Owen.
Owen interferes with Shelby speaking to townsfolk three times, to mixed results: he joins the conversation with Apo and successfully diverts them from trying to convince Shelby she’s wanted in town; he replaces Avid’s letter with a threatening message, but Avid manages to set up a meeting with Shelby and clear the air with her anyway; and he appears in the Pearl-Drift-Cleo meeting with Shelby in episode 5, which arguably improves the situation because he took the conversation in a useful direction and Shelby had already felt threatened anyway.
…actually, all three of these things happen in episode 5. Owen has a very brief window of being invested in the coven in this particular way. He does some pretty nasty lying in that window, though.
While this could be an interesting plot thread, Owen’s contributions are something of a cigarette in a burning warehouse. Shelby got killed twice as collateral damage, and both deaths were exceptionally traumatic. No amount of intercession on Owen’s part is going to speak louder than the wrongs done to Shelby by the humans themselves. No amount of lying on Oakhurst’s behalf is more damning then Oakhurst’s own failure to address the damage they’ve done in any way. He’s burying a relationship so far underground it is already in hell.
Even seemingly minor things like Pearl’s tendency to casually arm herself do more to damage Oakhurst’s reputation then Owen is really capable of- there is a direct line of cause and effect between Pearl saying she has a stake and Shelby assuming that Pearl is chasing her down. Shelby is rightfully skeptical of the claims Owen makes about other people, but when someone else is making those kinds of statements, she tends to believe them.
And then there’s Shelby’s backstory.
Shelby’s backstory, where she is isolated from her entire community growing up. Where people she considered friends and neighbors didn’t care about her in turn. Where nobody had even done something as basic as telling her that she’s fun to be around.
Of course Shelby thinks that Oakhurst is willing to write her off at the drop of a hat. That’s what her hometown did.
In conclusion
1: the town is not blameless in the Oakhurst vs Castle conflict. They have done real harm to the Coven, and most of it has fallen on their friendliest and least aggressive member.
2: Shelby is indeed afraid and isolated, but the bulk of that fear and isolation is generated and maintained by the people of Oakhurst themselves. The one time Scott had an opportunity to sabotage one of Shelby’s outside relationships, he chooses not to.
3: Scott is Shelby’s first friend, ever, and the feeling is mutual. This is a key component of why Shelby is Like That.
4: The answer to most gripes regarding vsmp’s story arc and ending is Shelby. Why did Scott live and Pyro die? Shelby. Why did Scott suddenly pivot to pacifism? Shelby. Why can’t the humans just wipe out the coven and call it a day? Shelby. Why was the coven a legitimate social structure in the first place? That’s also Shelby. It’s Shelby all the way down.
In Shelby’s story, Scott is the prize she wins for her kindness and Pyro becomes the avatar of all of the senseless violence she has suffered.
Shelby’s character arc is one of being the collateral damage of other people’s agendas so frequently that she becomes convinced that she must use violence herself. This culminates in her killing the most direct and personal threat to her physical safety, which is Pyro. Shelby’s other character arc is about seeking peace and companionship despite the bloodshed around her. This culminates in her turning her closest companion from the path of violence, and that companion happens to be Scott. Scott and Pyro’s conclusions are mirrored halves of Shelby’s finale, and reflect Shelby’s greatest triumph and lowest low.
The outcomes they get make sense if you position Shelby as the central character, and her choices were the ones that decided their fates.
#As someone who hasn't yet had the time to sit down and watch all the perspectives this is such an interesting cool thing to see
#Bc it's also once again another instance of that perspective creep of course townie pov mains and even even some vampire mains are inclined
#to see her as sticking by the coven as a result of the coven's actions - most if not all townie povs have her as *the* poster child example #put forward it town for why the vampires shouldn't be dealt with w unidirectional unrestricted violence
#“Shelby is still Shelby” is strewn all over the town fights all throughout episodes 3-6ish in Doc's pov as is the underlying idea of her as #“a forgivable monster” to the rest of the coven's unforgivable both in Owen's pov and at least partially in Avid's
#So it's hard to conceptualize of her as *not knowing that*- but it also speaks to its own kind of negligence
#The town cares about Shelby enough to tell she's not *changed* since becoming a vampire just not enough to seek her out and double check or
#Or even to seek her out and tell her this to her face
#She's well liked enough but she's no one's priority - no one thinks of her *first* and even those that do don't *tell her*
#For all the many ways to be alone in a crowd it's no wonder at all she'd stay where she's safe and actually wanted
I would say that it's one of those situations when two things are True at the same time. Yes Shelby has a legitimate reason to fear the town. You listed it pretty clearly and i have nothing else to add that. This is objective correct.
Scott doesn't do much to keep her on his side that is also true. Mostlycuz he and Owen assume she doesn't need any encouragement to stay. They like being a vampire and the town really hurt her. Avid often talks about her as she was dead after all.. But at the same time she herself does a lot to stay. When they talk about her like she's just food they call it out but ultimately ignore it when voicing her discomfort with that is brushed off. When Pyro brings up that he's scared of Scott SHE brushes it off. When Owen says something off-putting she refused to hear it or finds an excuse for him. And this is what I think most people refer to when they say she's naive. I wouldn't call it that - its more of a wishful thinking than naivety to me, but that's my personal opinion. Shelby isn't "Naive" because she doesn't go back to town, she's "naive" because she stays with the coven. Which isn't the same thing. Every time someone brings Scott's flaw she finds an excuse for it. He wouldn't hurt her, hes thier bestie. He was hungry. You attacked us first. He's just old and needs to be show the proper modern ways. Hes learning. Her turning was SCOTT'S plan, and Only Scott's. He attacked her and drink her blood too. But she only ever blames Pyro cuz it's easier. Cuz he is the one who got the final hit and it's easier to forget Scott was ever there. Cuz she's scared of the town so much that she needs to excuse what coven does because if they are both "bad" she has no other option. And she pretends as such until she can no longer - until Pyro and Owen hurt her fledgling. Not a friend, fledgling. She's not mad at them for killing Avid she's mad at them cuz they excluded her from that decision. And when they do so, they are deemed the worst people on the planet. She no longer excuses Owen as misunderstood or just sad. She claims Pyro to be just far gone. Because it wasn't a Coven Issue it was Owen and Pyro issue.
imagine that after owen finished massacring oakhurst, he peels louis’ body off of the pyre. he digs a grave, only one, and places the charred corpse inside. he crawls in himself, a final embrace, and lets the wind bring the dirt atop them. he fully expected to die with time, in louis’ arms, but he just. didn’t. with time, louis’ body was reclaimed by the earth, and owen was left alone. and buried.
Just watched the VOD of Cleo watching her last 2 vampire episodes. I realised that people had written Pyro off as unsaveable, but I didn't realise the extent. Pearl says 'they couldn't be saved' about him and Owen, and I can sort of see that from Pearls P.o.v and Cleo (who in the stream pointed out V Cleo didn't know Pyro was turned unwillingly), and Apo even (who by the way is the only one to ask where Pyro is). But the sheer Unmitigated Gall of Scott Goldsmith daring to say that 'some people are too far gone'.
Not leastly, grouping the two of them is insane. Owen killed 2799 - many if not most, of whom were completely innocent. Pyro killed 2 people (neither of whom could be described as completly innocent). 2 - and frankly he could get away with a manslaughter charge for Czeslaw. 4 of the 8 survivors killed more than that, Shelby's half way there (and lil miss militia is a soldier so she may have killed we just don't know).
Pyro was not unsaveable - none of you could be bothered to try. More people tried to help Owen - who certainly did not want to be helped- than Pyro, who for the first 5 episodes was trying to ask for it.
'no one's going to fall into the hands of Pyro or Owen anymore?' Oh yes because it was definitely Owens claws that Pyro fell into wasn't it. I like Scott's ending, I do, I think it is an interesting way to end the story. But I'm also screaming with Owen and Pyros ghost to kill that hypocritical POS.
