In Defense of Luis Cabrera
Hello, one and all. I'm IrysGundam005,and it's time for a rant. And that rant is this: Luis Cabrera is one of the most unfairly hated characters in Five Nights at Freddy's. This poor dude has been on hated by the fanbase far more than he deserves. Like, I am serious. This man is hated and dunked on by the fanbase for, IMO, a pretty shit reason. And that reason can boil down to him being a dude who is interested in Vanessa.
But before we delve into that, a brief history of who Luis is, in case you aren't familiar with him. Luis is a character introduced to us by the in-universe emails from Five Nights at Freddy's: Special Delivery. A co-worker of Vanessa at the Funtime Services, the emails paint him as a friendly if socially awkward sorta dude with a love of chocolate coffee. What's more, he is also shown to be quite sweet on Vanessa. Frequently asking her out for coffee in a clear attempt to try and get a date with her.
He is also mentioned in the Retro CDs by Vanessa in Security Breach. With her describing him as being "nice," and saying, "I like it when Luis writes to me. He's funny." Implying that Vanessa actually doesn't have an issue with him, or at the very least, can tolerate him.
Sadly for Luis, however, the dude has been targeted by the fandom for hatred. And it's no doubt due to the fact that he's a straight guy showing interest in a woman. And I'm being dead serious about this. I fully believe that is entirely the reason. That Luis is only hated because he is a male romance option for Vanessa, and fans don't like it one bit. Which is the only reason I can think of because, quite frankly, much like how I view the hatred of characters like Gregory and Andrew (oh, trust me. I'll rant about that nonsense another day), Luis' hatred is quite frankly eye rolling.
Well, first off, I've seen this dude as "suffering from Tighten Nice Guy Syndrome," and having seen the movie Megamind, I can safely say that no, Luis is nowhere NEAR as bad as Tighten. Yes, Luis can come across as a little pushy in terms of his interactions with Vanessa, but nothing ever struck me as him so pushy as to the point of driving her away. Hell. If anything, based on one of the emails, Vanessa doesn't seem to mind talking to him. But more to the point, even if Luis is going a bit overboard in his pursuit of Vanessa, he at least is willing to admit to that. Even saying that he's not good at reading social cues and is probably going too far and stepping on some times.
Which, to me, strikes me less as someone who is Tighten-levels of "nice guy," and more just a socially awkward guy who is attracted to a pretty lady for the first time in his life, and doesn't really know how best to go about it. Hardly the mad-obsessed stalker that the wannabe Super Man was.
But the other reason I've seen people call him a creep and a stalker is because he reads her emails. To which I say to these people: Did you even READ the motherfucking emails? If you did, you'd realize that Luis isn't reading her emails because, "LOL His clearly a stalking creeper," but rather, because it's his JOB at the IT department to look for shit that is listed as "red flags." Which Vanessa had in bulk.
Like, serious. This woman was looking up shit like "How To Induce Compliance In Human Subjects," "How To Induce Self Compliance," "How Far A Body Can Be Split In Half," torture, and about a few dozen other things that would probably get you weird looks if people found out you were researching this shit….ON COMPANY COMPUTERS! Like, no. Seriously. Blondie over there is looking up this dark and messed-up shit on company time. Which is how Luis found out about it, as he mentions having been sent it by the AI system that flags down such things.
And I don't know about you, but between shit like that, the Viking Blood Eagle calendar, the realistic human makes, and the material needed for a costume, the latter two of which were brought right to the company's doorstep no less, would probably make anyone concerned regarding Vanessa. Not just Luis. And probably would be a lot less sympathetic to her, too. Had it been anyone else, I'm pretty sure they might have used this as an excuse to get her fired. But Luis was willing to at least try and understand why she was doing all this crazy shit. Which fuck me, is pretty angelic of him if you ask me.
But nooooo. Apparently, people can't read between the lines, and just dismiss him as a creepy fuck who wants to get into her pants. Look, people. Even if Luis does have a romantic interest in Vanessa and is a bit of a simp about it, it's clear that if you sat the fuck down and actually absorbed the emails you'd realize that the dude is legit concern for someone who seems to be, as far as he is concerned, into some serious shit. As shown when he questioned Vanessa about the message she had on the flowers that were delivered to her that she ordered for herself.
Said message, BTW, was "Flowers for your grave." Between that and the mention of "Brad," and for all Luis knew, Vanessa was being threatened to be an accomplice to some pretty horrible shit. Which let's be blunt here: she was.
So no. Luis was not some creepy weirdo just looking for some tail. If anything, he seems like a legitimately sweet guy who, yeah, he can be a bit of a simp, but ultimately, seems to care about Vanessa's well-being and doesn't want to see her get in trouble for shit that someone else might be forcing her to take part in. But because his a straight guy showing interest in a woman, the fandom feels the need to hate the poor dude. Which is just eye rolling because, even if you are the type of person who headcannons Vanessa as a lesbian and wanna ship her with Tape Girl, there's not real need to demonize poor Luis. Much as I hate Beckory with a venomous fury, if there is one thing I can say about that fandom's favor, is that they don't feel the need to shit on Cassie.
But apparently, that's too much to ask for the Tapenessa fandom. :/
Also. If I may say something that strikes a bit of a personal cord with me, and I am NOT saying this to demonize Vanessa but simply as an observation, I find it funny that people are willing to label Luis as a creepy stalker, yet probably haven't contemplated the blatantly obvious implications that Vanessa might have taken advantage of Luis. And I'm being dead serious here. The emails mentioned that Vanessa had Luis set up an email which she used. Furthermore, we know that Luis was also covering for Vanessa in the emails, and I have no doubt that Vanessa was of this and, under Glitchtrap's influence, was taking advantage of it to cover her tracks.
And yet, not a peep regarding that. Funny how that works, huh? Again, I don't say this to demonize Vanessa. If anything, I think she'd be pretty fucking horrified if she ever realized that. I only bring it up as an observation, and nothing more.
Bottom line: I don't care if you want to ship Vanessa with other characters or headcannon her as being into women. That's totally fine. No one is in a position to tell you who you can or can't ship with her with. But for the love of god, please stop making Luis the worst person in the world. He is not a creep, nor is he a stalker. He is just a nice, if socially awkward dude who happens to be interested in a pretty lady and wants to be friends, if not more, with her, and is showing concern for the woman, clearly going out of her way to look up dark and disturbing shit on company times. You don't need to demonize the dude simply because you HC Vanessa as a lesbian.
And I say that because let me be blunt: If Luis was a woman, I don't think he'd be getting as much hatred as he does. If anything, people would probably be shipping FemLuis with Vanessa and be more forgiving and/or understanding of his actions regarding Vanessa.
Anyway, that's all from me for now. I hope you enjoyed this little rant of mine. Let me know what you think in the comments down below and be sure you leave a like if you can.
This has been IrysGundam005, and remember: I see everything.
