moon

a little disclaimer before i get my ramble on :

this is operating on the assumption that fred can invoke bright

i wasn’t really very in the fandom when the videos were taken off, so this is very much a lot of what i’ve learnt from the fanbase on tumblr

i am not villainising frederick and/or sam

i am aware that this side of the fanbase at least has quite affectionate feelings towards bright!! this is just me screaming into the void <3

okay here we go - keep your arms and legs within the carriage at all times, please, unless you want to give vincent a run for his money

let’s start with a little roleplay. i know. so you’re a college freshman, who has decided to do something stupid, as college freshmen are historically wont to do. you’ve decided to explore the abandoned theme park that has a very spooky reputation in town, and you’ve dragged your long-suffering friend along with you. you wake up the next evening with fangs and silver eyes, looking like you’re in a bad reboot of twilight. roleplay ends.

first things first - their treatment of frederick. it clearly isn’t fred’s fault that quinn attacked bright & fred, but he did turn them, without consent (whether or not they were able to consent is another matter). now fred is their maker. this gives him power over them - they know it and he knows it, too. he can presumably invoke them, because he’s their maker, so that’s even more of a power imbalance. we haven’t seen a single healthy relationship where invoking is even possible; i honestly don’t know if one could exist. fred can literally get bright to do whatever he wants, and they can’t do a single thing about it, except maybe kill him. which they don’t want to do. because he’s their friend. so, yeah, i’d probably be a little snappy too.

✨trauma✨ : bright literally got murdered. they were brutally attacked & savaged to the point of death, and yet they haven’t sought therapy for it. it’s nobody else’s responsibility to make them go to therapy but i really think someone should have suggested it. here is this fairly young person (i think they’re 18 but that’s up to interpretation) who just went through a very awful experience & they’re arguing with the one person who can understand & empathise… someone please send them to fucking therapy. but until then, they’re presumably attempting to cope on their own terms with their own methods, which works for some people, but very much doesn’t for others.

they straight up got made a vampire : we know one (1) individual who handled becoming a vampire well, and that is Lovely ‘Improvise, Adapt, Overcome’ Solaire. vincent threw a tantrum about it. sam developed self-loathing. alexis was a ‘hellion’ (i have no idea if that means she was a bit of a pain or if she straight up massacred people). adam ate his maker. so many methods to cope… variety truly is the spice of life. but they weren’t empowered beforehand, they have no foreknowledge, and they’ve suddenly been thrown into this secret world they had no idea existed without an introduction that didn’t involve their death. it’s an entirely new mode of existence & they’ve had so many things taken from them - the sun, for one, and also, oh yeah, the ability to age. maybe they wanted a life. maybe they wanted kids. we don’t know, but they don’t get it! so, again, being a dick? understandable!

samuel ‘cowboy’ collins : i love and appreciate sammy. How. Ever. it makes complete sense for his relationship to be strained with bright eyes & for bright eyes not to like him very much. He! Was! Going! To Let Them Die! yes i know he literally could not turn them without killing himself. and bright would know that too, but think about looking at someone you’re meant to trust to guide you and knowing that he… would have just let you die. no matter how good his reasoning was, that would still hardly foster trust. and i know sam isn’t perfect and won’t have infinite patience, but bright is already on the defensive. they’re pushing things as far as they can to see what will snap back and hit them.

in summary :

bright is prickly & flawed & needs to realise when people want the best for them… but they’re also very important to my wellbeing!!

therapy ✨

do something about fred’s ability to invoke bright so they can be on truly equal footing