Vampires SMP and specifically its fandom are somehow one of the greatest examples of how an audience can fall for manipulation Iâve ever seen. And thatâs 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 âpurposely falling for the facadeâ 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 Shelbyâs pov and hear the words âcommunityâ or âtheyâre like my familyâ youâre 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 doesnât fit.
And, when the audience has to face the fact that Scott would leave them for dead, or that Pyro doesnât 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 donât 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 sheâs never felt accepted before. Pyro wants to believe heâs fine with his own turning and that as long as he listens to Scott heâll be safe because the alternative leaves him dead. These characters, to some degree, know theyâre wrong, but they choose to ignore that because otherwise they have to face the fact that it really isnât 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 Iâm not calling you naive for wanting the vampires to be a family. No Iâm not saying youâre not allowed to do that or that itâs morally wrong, I donât know why you think I have that power anyway. This is all about the vampires characters, not the ccs. Please donât take this as a personal insult.)