It’s fair to hate on Pyro and Owen for killing Avid (characters). BUT I have been seeing a LOT of people hating them for things that just… aren’t exactly true. I don’t think they’re JUSTIFIED in killing Avid, not at all, but their reasons are deeper than fans are making them out to be.
First, the “liability” thing. Owen admits that it’s just an excuse, but for Pyro it’s ALSO an excuse. NEITHER of them care about Avid being a weak link. It’s just a little thing to try to justify their actions. Not an actual part of their motivations. You can tell because they literally ONLY use this reasoning when trying to convince OTHERS of why they did it. When it’s just the two of them, or just the two of them with Avid just before killing him, they don’t even mention it (except when Owen was trying to convince Pyro of the murder plan and threw out a bunch of different reasons not realizing Pyro was already easily on board). When talking to others, aside from Owen admitting he just didn’t like the guy, they ONLY use the liability reason. It’s JUST an excuse.
Now, Owen. He just didn’t like the guy. A lot of people take this to mean “he didn’t like how annoying he was!” which is just not really super accurate. It’s watering his motives down to pure pettiness when it’s actually STILL PETTY but also more sensible.
Avid came into town as a vampire hunter, avid (heh) on killing all vampires. He was always trying to rally the town against people he perceived as “different” (vampires), causing pure chaos, and labeling vampires as heartless monsters. DO YOU ALL SEE HOW MUCH THIS HURTS FOR OWEN. This is like exactly his LEAST FAVORITE type of person, aka the type of person who would’ve burned Louis and claimed to be a hero. Avid’s a lot more complicated than just a vampire hating hunter, but this is about why OWEN did it, so we have to focus on Owen’s perception of Avid.
I’m not entirely sure why Owen doesn’t believe people can change anymore, but I guess that’s a thing he does now, so it didn’t matter to him that Avid was trying so hard to make up for everything. Too many people went behind his back, I suppose, and now he doesn’t think ANYONE can be trusted. Literally I think Owen wants to kill actually EVERYONE I think he’s said this lol. So basically no matter what Avid did, to Owen he was still the same type of person that took his life away from him. He couldn’t forgive that (because it’s Owen who has literally never coped with anything in his life ever).
Brief reminder before moving onto the next murderer: I never said these guys were JUSTIFIED. Just that I’m tired of them being treated like they killed Avid for being annoying as if he wasn’t specifically annoying in the exact wrong ways to evoke their deepest traumas.
And now Pyro. Again, liability is an excuse, don’t be fooled just cuz Owen admitted it and Pyro didn’t. Pyro also lacks self awareness because by pushing the idea that they need to cull liabilities he’s putting HIMSELF at risk cuz brother the ENTIRE TIME you have been THE BIGGEST LIABILITY IN THE TEAM. Like I think you were justified in those up until the murder thing but still, a liability.
So why did Pyro kill Avid? Because they hate him and think he’s annoying? Well let me tell you what Pyro’s been up to since the last episode! They’ve been talking nonstop about murdering all their old bullies and showing them what a REAL beast looks like! People understand it and think that makes sense, but fail to realize how Avid fits directly into that.
A long while back, I thought of making a compilation of times the humans (specifically the times where there was no real justification) treated Pyro as some feral unsalvageable beast, usually in the same breath they said Shelby was good. My main problem with making the compilation? I thought it would be a disservice to the humans, because it WASN’T really all of them. It was almost all entirely just AVID. Many of the times that WEREN’T Avid were times he had convinced the others that Pyro was pure evil just by saying it really confidently and egging the humans on. Avid was the primary reason behind Pyro’s ostracizing from the town and humans. Avid was the one always attacking him when he just wanted to talk. Always taunting him when he had the chance.
Even when Avid started warming up to vampires, he CONSISTENTLY (admittedly a bit hesitantly at times) pointed to Pyro as an exception to “vampires aren’t all feral beasts.” POOR AVID HAD NO IDEA. NO IDEA THE ISSUES PYRO HAS WITH BEING CALLED A BEAST. NO MATTER WHAT THEY DID. Buddy that is the recipe for “Pyro kills you because you’ll see them as a beast either way”.
Just like how to Owen, Avid was no different from the ones who killed Louis; to Pyro, Avid was no different from his classmates and family. His bullies.
Pyro is seen as weak, pathetic, and feral by most of the coven. And then Avid, the reason Pyro has nowhere else to go, the reason everyone sees them as nothing but a beast, is taken into the coven and is beloved. Avid is allowed to walk all over them. All their life they had been walked on, and I’m not surprised this was a time they snapped. (And yes not everything in this is entirely accurate but it’s, again, meant to be how Pyro sees it)
Pyro’s been pushed past the breaking point already, so as sad as it is, it makes sense he wouldn’t give Avid (again, basically another Czeslaw to him) a second chance. He’s focused entirely on using power to finally have “agency”, by not letting anyone step on him in the slightest. I don’t think he felt he could bend one more time to give Avid the chance after all the bending he’d already done.
TLDR: Poor Avid unknowingly pushed Owen and Pyro’s deepest trauma buttons, and those two were already beyond repair. It wasn’t as simple and petty as “Avid was annoying” or “a liability”. Not justified and feel free to hate on them, but do it without completely misunderstanding their characters