It's recently come to my attention how little the average human understands about mental health. Especially looking at the fandom understanding of Vox—I was originally also gonna mention Jax, but that's a seperate entity of a different nature that would need its own post—which I may never actually do to be fully honest.
I don't mean this in an everyone-is-terrible way (while some most certainly are), I just mean a lot of people genuinely are very unknowledgeable on these topics.
This first became apparent to me when a large portion of the fandom seemed to genuinely believe that Vox's priorities throughout the second half of season 2 are the same as what they are on a regular basis. For example, the idea that Vox doesn't care about the other vees; also, the idea that Vox is always completely selfish and has never held any regard for anyone but himself in his entire existence.
While I can entirely see where both came from—they both could've been true for the moment; though, only partially.
Vox very much cares about the vees to the very end of the season. He's just very clearly spiralling and having what looks like an episode—from, like, episode 2 to be honest. Probably from the minute he found out Alastor was even alive.
Now, one thing that needs to be understood is that Vox did not seem to plan to literally get rid of the other vees. We get this idea from Vox changing the lighting of the Vee tower from all three of their colours to just his; when after Charlie called him the strongest sinner, he shouted “not Alastor, NOT THE VEES, ME!”; and lastly "no more playing house/once they're devout/I won't need a squad"— Which is what I wanna talk about now.
That last line is unreliable for two reasons. One: Vox was saying that in front of Alastor. That alone destroys a good 90% of his credibility. An extra 10% of credibility is also lost because of how suspiciously similar it sounded to something Alastor has been making sure to tell Vox every few hours and any chances he gets between.
Anyways, even without reason one, the lyric doesn't really have to imply getting rid of the vees?Vox had been trying to prove he didn't need them. That didn't mean he had to get rid of them. Valentino and Velvette, having apparently heard the bullshit Vox had just spewed, were not at all threatened by him.
Val says "he's being rude" and Velvette is mad that he "thinks that he can cut [them] out."If Vox was implying murder or literally throwing out his partners, I'm sure VALENTINO (co-dependent and lovestruck as he is) would probably use words slightly harsher than "rude" (though, should be noted he’s probably minimising the situation.) If Vox was truly threatening to kick them out, I'm sure they wouldn't still be expecting to "rule all creation" with him.They are not remotely threatened by Vox. In the finale, Vox looks shocked and mayhaps a bit hurt when he finally notices Velvette and Valentino had left the party. He seems to have believed Val and Vel had abandoned him for a good portion of the finale honestly.However, I’m not saying that it’s impossible for Vox to have wanted to get rid of them entirely. He was genuinely off the rails at that time. I just see so many people genuinely believe he meant he wanted to kill them— or that it is not at all possible for Vox to have not really meant it.If Vox did want to get rid of them, it definitely would not be by murder and it would absolutely be self-harm on Vox’s part—and I mean it when I say it’s just textbook self-destructive behaviour.
ANYWAYS—topic was general lack of knowledge about mental health and how that really shows with the fandom views of Vox.
People who genuinely believe Vox does not care about the vees don't understand avoidant attachment, splitting, RSD, how favourite people can absolutely fuck with your mind or the plethora of common reasons why someone may act distant or straight up try to cut out people close to them. Usually the main reason is because they care about them "too much."
A concerning amount of people believe NPD is just being selfish. Every extremely selfish character ever, I’ve seen get labelled as a narcissist by the fandom immediately... and that is not what narcissism is.However, many do label Vox with NPD with at least a vague understanding of NPD, treating it like the mental disorder it is; not treating it like an inherit condemnation—which is great! However if you believe Vox has to have NPD and can't possibly not have it, you may not entirely understand disorders either. Of course it is entirely and fully possible for Vox to have NPD but be aware there are also other disorders that can explain Vox's behaviour just as well. He could just have BPD, he could have HPD; he could have both or all three.
Oh, and people who headcanon BPD!Vox. If the BPD's only relevance is his attachment issues with either Val or Alastor... you may need to do a bit more research into BPD. BPD is way more than just abandonment issues.
Last of all, seeing how many of y'all talk about Vox's breakdown in the finale... you... you are aware of what that is? Right? You know what an episode is... don't you?You are aware that those literally mess with a person's perception of reality, correct?You have to at least be aware that how people act then are not reflective of how they normally act and that Vox throughout a big portion of season 2 was an entirely different man from who he usually is... right?
Like, from how Val and Vel were reacting to Vox, it just has to be obvious this isn't his usual self. Haha, but we all were aware about that… right?