#candleflickers

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Scott: I—I worry about our likelihoods of getting out of this, Shelby

Shelby: Mm. Me too.

Scott: I mean, you’re fine. You can turn into a human now. Pyro’s gone.

Shelby: Oh. I didn’t even—I really actually didn’t even think about that. But what about you?

Scott: I don’t think—Well, I mean I don’t think me turning into a human end well*. I’m not sure what happens to a body that 1400+ years old when it’s mortal

Shelby: Mm.

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He’s positioning them as a unit, a team. “Our likelihoods.” He recognizes that Shelby could probably turn back into a human and get out of the situation completely free. But he’s incredibly worried about himself, (although he’ll never admit it) so he ties his well-being to hers in order to make her more likely to stay and help him. Fun culty manipulator shit** lmao. but also:

I think Scott’s extreme paranoia is something that goes very understated when discussing his character. His manipulation is a core part of how he interacts with others, he’s downright abusive at times, etc. But it’s especially interesting when you look at where exactly this manipulation stems from. In a meta sense, it’s extremely apparent when looking at actual CC Scott’s reaction to people calling his vsmp character an abuser. (Like here) He needs to control the narrative at all times in order to present himself as Literally Nice*** because he is afraid of people seeing him as evil. Kind of embarrassing actually (not committing to the bit is loser behavior btw). This realllyyy bleeds through into his character—he’s Doing All That (manipulator shit) because he’s legitimately scared that people are going to kill him! Still, he needs to act like he’s cool and unbothered™ forever and ever.

The moral of the story is Scott Goldsmith is an absolute loser who needs everyone around him to think that he’s Good because he KNOWS that otherwise he might have to deal with the repercussions of being Evil. And he’s terrified of that. We should all point and laugh. Actually maybe we should scream and be tortured for the rest of eternity because he fucking got away with it.

Whatever. im sure this has all been said before. Level 1 Scott analysis.

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* - mochi lorefulgood if you’re reading this is this the weird Scott grammar thing that he does. I feel like you’ve talked about this a lot.

** - Little does Scott know, he doesn’t need to do this at ALL. He could be like “yeah ive been manipulating you this entire time” and Shelby would say “but is it realllyyyy manipulating if I wanted to be your best friend slash daughter. We’re best friends right.” And he’d be like “actually no you’re right. We are best friends. Let’s frolick off into the sunset together ❤️”