The Garden

"Not every vampire is bad, not every vampire is good. They have their reasoning(s), so..." "He was one of the good ones." "Honestly, you could have been too...you were just dealt a bad hand."

There's a level of irony, no, that Abolish is the one to bring that sort of sentiment to Owen and his life story. This young man who had lost his parents when he was just a boy - having seen them slaughtered at the hands of an evil vampire - too young do anything to save their lives but not young enough to be safe from the crushing weight of despair and grief. Then raised by an orphanage and then adopted by a friend of the family and raised to carry on their legacy of fighting - evil - vampires. It'd be reasonable to say that Abolish would have justified reasoning to hate most if not all vampires for what happened to his parents; and yet, and yet. He chooses mercy, justice, temperance, he works alongside vampires and acknowledges the vile nature of human and vampire alike, but also their glory, their kindness, their hope in each. Like a virtue name, abolishes his grief.

In contrast to Abolish but still in parallel to him - Owen, like Abolish suffered a loss beyond belief. A lifetime of being ostracized only to be given the comfort of tenderness for the first time in his life, and forced to watch it burn away. Having to watch Louis die at the hands of greedy and cruel humans, he chose to slaughter them all and bury himself metaphorically and literally in a grief deeper than any grave. Owen came to hate all humans - or so he claims. And if he simply just hated humans rather than slaughter them, people would say his reasoning would be justified as he had spent his life treated as subhuman and the only one to ever offer him kindness was not his fellow man but what they called a beast. He chooses anger, revenge, he chooses to eradicate humans and their vile and selfish ways though what is a vampire but simply man with more power?

I think it's why Shatter Duo is so fascinating to me, because they are quite literally the reflection of one another and who they both could have turned out to be if the cards just fell slightly different, if one or two things were off kilter. 'What would have happened if Morcant hadn't taught Abolish restraint, if he hadn't had the support system of the manor family, if he was allowed to succumb to his grief - would it have turned to anger as Owen's did? What would have happened if Owen had been offered kindness in his time he needed it most, if humans saw his emotional brokenness and chose to desire to fix that rather than his 'parting gift?' Owen and Abolish see one another, reflections of who they could have been "a me if I was kind, a me if I was angry," two people who could have easily become one another if only by the change of a card. A man who could have hated all vampires, desired to hunt them to extinction, who saw monsters in the faces of creatures who looked so alike to him. A man who could have been so kind and a trusted companion, who sought to better humanity like his lover did. There's a world where Abolish never could carry his grief any longer like Owen did, a world where Owen had chosen to live in Louis's legacy as Abolish did.

The significance of Abolish building Owen a grave. The fact that Abolish made 2 graves - 3 if you want to be particular about it - while in Oakhurst. For his parents, and for Owen.

I think it's profound that he wrote kind words on Owen's memorial. That vampires killed his parents and yet he chose to be so kind to Owen despite the depravity he caused anyways. That Owen spoke to Abolish and Abolish to Owen about loss, that the two understood each other in ways not even Legundo could or was able to in his own twisted grief. In the end, Owen made good on his promise to Abolish. That he would help him get a way out in the end, and it was through vampirism, just not in the way they both had originally believed.

Abolish dug a grave for Owen first before he dug one for his parents. I think it's good symbolism by the way. Abolish may have come to Oakhurst to honor his parents memories, but Owen has been a corpse that hadn't been laid to rest in centuries. His grave came first because Owen had died first, as a human, as a vampire, as a soul. And Abolish laid him to rest before he even laid his parents to rest.

First and foremost, V!Owen got the ending that he narratively deserved and earned. He got his cheap death, running away from his problems only to learn that his sins follow him no matter where he goes. And Louis was there, so he Had a chance at redemption, he didn't Have to be the monster he made himself. He made his grave though and he must lie in it.

And please note that these are my initial thoughts having only watched Owen and Abolish's final episodes. These are also rushed thoughts because I have a volunteer gig I have to go to soon.

Narratively V!Owen got what he deserved. As a fan I would have loved to see him redeem himself and travel the world and work with Abolish rest assured I will be eating up EVERY au fic that comes out.

We had Abolish and Owen as a duo for like 20 minutes, and I'm already obsessed. I think the only reason Owen was more willing to talk to Abolish than he was Legs is because he had no previous relationship with Abolish. Like Legs and Owen had some weird shit going on, and yeah it's probably doomed Yaoi mostly but to ignore how important the other was to their Oakhurst narrative is dismissive. Because Owen was supposed to be Legs' salvation, Owen was a pity project that Legs wanted to use to atone for the sins he had committed. On the other had Legs was supposed to be Owen's community, the one person he could turn to for comfort and and shoulder to lean on. They built each other up into pedestals, idealizing what could be and never lingering on what was -- the reality and truth of the situation, that they're both awful people who didn't want to be awful anymore. I think in a perfect world, they would have realized that that's what drew them to each other. But it's not a perfect world, it's a really messy world.

Abolish was nobody. Like for 6 episodes he wasn't 'important' and I say that as a VAbolish fan. He was the shadows, always lurking. He made no friends, he made no enemies. There was nothing for Owen to project onto him. He was not cruel. He was not kind. So when Abolish spoke, Owen couldn't twist his words. Owen couldn't see something that wasn't there, because there was nothing else there. When Abolish mirrored the words that Legs had said, Owen couldn't take it for anything other than Abolish's truth.

And I do want to briefly add that I don't think that the conversations with Abolish and Owen would have went down the same if Ren had not killed Owen. If Owen had been a level 3 vampire, the finale would have been very different for him. I don't doubt that Owen would have still died and been dragged down to pay for the horrors he enacted, but I don't think it wouldn't have been as peaceful of an end. He wouldn't have gotten the choice that he so desperately needed (V!Owen so totally has PDA autism btw, different long post for a different time)

If Abolish and Owen had been closer in the first place, I genuinely think that Owen could have been redeemed and he would have let himself be cured. because here's the thing. Owen was so hell bent on his own misery, he could not truly see the people reaching out to him. he held onto grudges, and projected feelings onto others that they were not experiencing to validate his own suffering. But like I said earlier, there's nothing about Abolish that you can twist. There's nothing that you can distort. Cleo went "You cobwebbed shelby. You stuck down a silver block. you killed her." And you know what Abolish said? "Yes. yes. yes. I did do that. Sorry habit." And like, how can you twist that to be malicious? How can you say that's anything more than a soldiers instincts.

Abolish is the person who could have helped Owen. No one else. There's not a single soul on that server, who had the right personality to properly shut down all of Owen's incessant victim complex bitching. Abolish didn't feed into it. He didn't stoke the flames, but he also didn't smother the embers. He understood Owen was hurting. He understood what it was like to have everything taken from you. He understood what it was like to be given a single chance, a boon. Abolish gave Owen a choice. He made sure that Owen left knowing that there was good out there.

because lets be clear, if you dont look away from his murder spree, then this was extremely predictable behavior from owen. he was very clear from his little speech in episode 3 that he saw avid as the epitome of all the people who mistreated him as a human, and mentally he was putting him right at the top of his hit list. i dont care if you all were drawing parallels and thinking that he would ease off just because he and avid were both sick and both turned by choice. some people just cant let go off past wrongs, and v!owen is Very Clearly the sort of person to never let go of a grudge, and we all know how he handles people he thinks wronged him (see above: 2,799 people dead).

plus, i know some of you are relating to him so hard in the mental health aspect, but like. look guys. it's perfectly valid to dislike someone who's mean to you. ok? avid was still young, he had all sorts of issues, and he definitely received a lot of shit himself. but also he was pretty mean to owen, both indirectly by fearmongering about vampires, and very directly by calling him creepy and unlikeable to his face. owen was under no obligation to forgive him just because he opened up about his trauma.

Whatever you do, do not think about v!Legundo force turning v!Owen human and v!Owen immediately committing suicide in front of him.

Just don’t think about it. Don’t think about how that’s worse than just killing v!Owen with a stake because at least he dies with some part of Louis. Forcing him to be human is one of the cruelest things anyone can do.

Do not think about the one person who knows what being a vampire means to v!Owen stripping him of his vampirism. Do not think about how v!Legundo would watch v!Owen end it all immediately. Do not think about how he probably thought maybe they’d have a chance now, but that chance vanishes faster than the thought of it.

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.

On one hand he is a rat, for the entirety of episode 6 and 7 he is a traitorous snake that like Apo said "Was super against vampires one moment but as soon as he's one he all for massacring the town that he swore for days (weeks?) he was just trying to protect" and its so frustrating! I feel like the main offences of this (other than the straight up "Lets murder all of town! I don't care anymore!" is how he treats Legs. Day starts on episode 6 and Avid's in his little vampire cage, and Legs and the others find him where he reveals that he is in fact a vampire, and instead of being mad that he lied or throwing him out entirely they are all so understanding and welcoming, sure Legs is skeptical and thinks Avid might be lying but once Avid confirms again that he in fact is a vampire Legs shows Avid so much trust, for one he tells Avid that he lied about being a vampire to the town to protect the others, trusting Avid wouldn't blab about it, and two and very importantly Legs shows Avid his secret lab where he keeps his large stash of holy water, Avid is now one of like three people who know about this place not including the doctor, annnddd what does good ol buddy chum Avid boy do with this trust and care from the town and Legs? He chats for like five seconds with evil terrible vampires he KNOWS just want blood and death and WILL manipulate him and nearly instantly turns side! Funny hilarious thing with this as well Legs goes back for Avid, sees him chatting up with the vampires, openly speaking of thinking its not that bad, and tries to save him, sure Avid chases them as they hunt Legs down saying "Don't hurt him please!" and what not, but then CONTINUES to have a casual friendly conversation with them AFTER THEY JUST MURDERED LEGS, and then proceeds to say that the town hates him! DUDE. Bit of talking with his vampire friends later and he is trying to STEAL THE FLIPPING CURE TO VAMPIRISM BOOKS, but he doesn't find them phew what a relief... only that he goes over to Leg's lab and steals all of his holy water stash to prove himself.

And you know, I get it, sure him saying that he'd be totally fine wiping all of Oakhurst was a bit much but when he said "All my friends are here, in the castle, all I care about are the people here" I understood, his ties were at the castle and there was nothing to be done about it.

But then episode 7 came out and I've never hated a fictional man so much in my life. So we start with more of Avid's whole "Yeah lets massacre all of the town as soon as possible" doing too much but again he chose a side and he has to play the role (though the seething begins as "You know the people alive right now, they were never really nice to me so what do i owe to them to play nice?" AVID). But then we get to the awfulness that is how Avid treats Legs now, "Hey if I get a chance to kill somebody, can I please kill the doc?" "Yeah so if its between you and me and if he's cornered going 'oH iM sO sCaRrEd, dO nO hArM!' can I just go in and bwoom! and you know, like take him out?", EXCUSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEE ME????? WHAT CAUSED THIS??? WHAT DID LEGS DO TO DESERVE THIS DISRESPECT?? And he is so excited for it to! After pulling the scummiest betrayal in history and scampering his little deceased rat self in the large claws of beasts beyond his comprehension he just suddenly hates the doctor for no bluming reason! And this not the last time he does this either! He continues this unwarranted distain for Legs throughout the episode even though HE'S the one that betrayed Legs! HE'S the one who went behind Legundo's back while the good doctor held out hope that maybe Avid was savable! I kept track of all his nonsense targeted Doc's direction by the way, "Oh that's so cute, bet he tried to punch out so much of the fire~" (baby voicing), running around burning Oakhurst screaming for Legs to try and kill him, "Oh I'm not one with Doc, no I'm not done with Doc", and very last because he dies five seconds after this is his absolutely terrible suggestion of "I think death is too good for him, I think if we let him live with eternal suffering of everything he's done I think that's a very fitting end" and like, why? I really just don't understand the why, and there simply isn't one, in my eyes this truly makes Avid just a monster, Legs has done nothing to Avid but try and help and care and for Avid to just take it crumble it into a mashed ball of nothingness and to chuck it out into limbo like it isn't jack squat, he is a big hypocrite and a naive fool that really just locks himself in the "irredeemable no one can excuse this" cell but of course there is an excuse, or at least there's something that cushions the 70 ton bricks smashing my skull in every night.

Avid's death is... sad, a sequence of things he couldn't of and could of prevented all in one. His brash decisions in his human live catching up to him and making two vampires for the entirety of episode 7 plan his demise while not giving even a small indicator that it was happening besides some off comments, if he had just not been so cocky as to race of to a beacon alone, if he had just not egged the doctor and Apo on previously causing them to not hesitate in killing him, if he had just realized how odd it was that after Scott told him to stay put and safe that the two vampires he himself states are the most likely to try and kill him push him to leave and go off alone with them to redig a hole that the whole town already knows to beware of, if he had just noticed their odd comments directed at him during the walk, if he hadn't egged Owen on a bit more with his relationship with the doctor, if he had been just a bit more paranoid about going into a deep hole with only one (two if Owen is telling the truth) ways out, if he had just looked up and realized that they were blocking that one exit off, if he had realized Owen was monologuing, if he reacted just that little bit faster, if he had just fought back...

But he didn't,

And now he's dead.

And even though I just made that big spiel on how awful Avid has become and has always been,

he didn't deserve that.

Avid is a lot of things,

scared, alone, desperate, naive...

or as Owen put it himself

a kid.

We know he reacted in extremes pretty much the entire smp. He burned down houses when he felt betrayal. He threw vampires off of cliffs while he was in a group trying to talk to them. He burned them repeatedly with holy water. He made a place where the original intention was to stake out the townsfolk to root out vampires. He insisted there was a good vampire among them, but only that one based off of like. Two days worth of interactions.

Owen being a lumberjack and thus connected to the forest is SO underrated and represented imo. The forest was his home for decades, protecting and providing when civilization did nothing to aid him. He likely found solace in the forest, company even with the wolves that passed him by. At least he understood their fears. A good forester knows how to tend to his grove so it provides the best lumber and he doesn't overharvest.

How much a solace the forest must have been for Owen these weeks, to step away and wander through the very trees he planted, now strong and full. They grew, while he stayed the same. Unchanging, unfeeling.

shelby says avid changed after he became a vampire but as far as owen is concerned, avid's true nature was simply enabled by him becoming a vampire. he represents everything owen hates about humanity: bloodthirsty once they have the claws to act, corrupt, deluded, prone to changing beliefs on a dime.

I'm remembering when people were saying owen was watching avid during the sunrise and realizing they were similar. that he saw avid enjoying his powers and was wondering if that could've been him. but he wasn’t feeling empathy. if owen saw himself, it just made him want to kill avid even more. I've become 80% more insane about that art piece by applescandraw where owen is seeing avid and apo as his reflection. he wants them dead.

also: when avid said "I killed her" when he mentioned elle. I was thinking this whole time that if owen ever found out that avid, as an outcast, killed the only person who ever cared about him… he would not be happy. he wouldn't care why. it was just more fuel for the fire.