#vincent and bo basically wouldnt know what to do without the other

[hersweetrevenge]

Annabel!!! ~

I'm here to drop that ask. Go ham about Bo and Vinny's relationship pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase?🥺🙏

(and some Lester if you think of anything!!!!!)

oh erika you do indulge me !! 💖 this is going to get long and rambling and there's no way its going to be as articulate as it sound in my head, but i will never pass up an opportunity to talk about bo and vincent and their terrible sibling relationship.

this will be part timeline development, part headcanons, part something something "they need each other to survive"

i have less detailed thoughts about lester, and by my own admission i unfairly leave him out of a lot of what i write (over on @writing-good-vibes) just because i find it harder to figure out what his dynamic would be within the household.

(also i just want to add a small content warning. trudy and victor were not good parents and it was the 1970s, a lot of the in-universe attitudes towards bo and vincent that i'm going to mention aren't super nice. also, i am not an expert, so although i'm going to be talking about what likely was said about them in the 70s vs what we as audience can infer about them, none of this is conclusive and some of it isn't my place to start labelling or assuming, so i'll add link to a few other posts made by people that know way more than i do)

first things first, i've said it once and i'll say it again: bo needs vincent more than vincent needs bo !!

childhood

ever since they were kids, its been "bo and vincent". or "the twins". as much as i think trudy and victor instilled a heavy sense of competition between them (the whole "why can't you be more like your brother?" thing), i think on a day to day basis, it would be way easier to just lump them together and treat them as a joint package. people ask "How are the twins?" or "are the twins coming to so-and-so's birthday?" or "where have the twins got to?"

their "twin identity" is definitely effected by their looks. bo looks how vincent was "meant to", while vincent looks how bo feels. i can't imagine how it would be for vincent seeing bo all the time and thinking that is what he could have looked like, if he was the "main" twin. there's probably a lot of jealousy there that was fostered very early on, and their parents probably (definitely) didn't help with that.

being conjoined and self-soothing

their co-dependency began very early. in the womb, you might even say. they were probably separated because it was a low-risk surgery (this post explains in much better detail about how/why they would have been separated) although they obviously don't remember anything about their time being conjoined, i think it effected their ability to self-soothe. even after being separated it isn't that uncommon, especially in the 70s, to keep twins together in a crib and given that they we used to sleeping next to each other, i don't see why that wouldn't have continued. they're used to having the other twin close by. anyway, where was i going with this? oh yeah, i really think bo and vincent are terrible at self-soothing. they never needed too, as babies they had each other, so if one cried, the other one was there before anyone else. this is why, as they get older, neither has the ability to self-soothe, they aren't able to ground themselves properly. ironically they are very good at comforting others, but on the flip side they need someone (usually the other twin as their is literally no one else around) to be able to regulate their emotions.

my second ever sinclair twins fic was about how when bo is, essentially, disassociating, he needs time with vincent to soothe him. needs familiarity and comfort more than anything. this isn't a super frequent thing, maybe once a month one of them will have a bad spell and they'll sleep in the same bed. it's more difficult now they're adults, but they've been doing it since they were children (not going to think about them falling asleep together after one of bo's meltdowns and his wrists are still rubbed raw from the restraints) and they're not going to give it up any time soon. they usually don't talk about it because although deep down they both know how much they need the other, they don't really ever vocalise it. it's part of their bond, they don't actually talk, they just know.

unless, of course, they get into an argument and bo is quick to be as hurtful as possible, with vincent being just as cutting. honestly vince can hurt bo way more, because bo is nothing if not insecure.

neurodivergence

their early development definitely contributed to how they were both pegged against one another whilst also both being kind of written off as "defective" (an awful word but in the early 70s, a middle-class family having two, very young "problem children"? trudy and victor were probably thinking they'd got the short straw)

i think bo was the first to show signs of possible "behavioural problems. his "tantrums" were in all likelihood probably emotional meltdowns, which already singled him out as the "bad" twin, while vincent was considered the "good" twin.

i've talked before about how i think bo started speaking very late (me and @imbleedin-out have talked about him being being selectively mute). vincent is obviously also nonverbal, and i think a lot of the twins early binding was solidified in their communication. their twin talk (scientifically known as cryptophasia, apparently) lasted throughout their childhood and they still do it as adults. a mix of vocalisations and made up signs, as well as just certain looks, and they can understand each other as much as if they were speaking english.

despite being the favourite, i don't think vincent was treated perfectly either. both he and bo are neurodivergent and with vincent's physical limitations on top of that, he was probably under pressure to perform "better" (behaviourally and artistically(?)) to "make up" for his appearance.

(@aggravatetheaxe made an excellent post about this which i cannot find rn but will link as soon as i do) bo is the king of masking. he takes on the demeanour and attitude of whoever he is speaking to in order to appear more approachable or "normal". the only person he doesn't do this with is vincent. vincent sees his really personality because, well, he knows him better than anyone else anyway.

*as i talk about their relationship into adulthood, i am following my timeline headcanon, which y'all can read here if it is of interest to you)*

early adulthood

i think vincent went to college, and i think bo was really, really cut up about it. of course, they don't spend every waking moment together anyway, bo went to elementary/middle school without vince and they fall out often enough and like everyone else they just want to do their own thing sometimes, but they've never been really apart before. vincent is moving out of ambrose and bo doesn't know what to do.

he feels bad that he isn't totally happy for vincent to go off and live his own life, but he feels abandoned. vincent is the one person he can always rely on. no. matter. what.

after their parents died and taking over the town

i think after their parents died (in whatever way you want to interpret this happening) they had a period of relief. they no longer had these, ultimately, abusive people in their lives. they enjoyed a sense of freedom of like, "oh, it really is just us now!"

when either of them are angry they'll will bring up the competitiveness of their childhood (bo calling vince a "freak" and vince acknowledging that their parents "loved him more"), but on the whole they work much better as a unit. two brains are better than one and all that.

and, long story short, i think the town was more or less abandoned due to it being essentially a "company town" and once the mill shut down, everyone moved out.

with everyone else jumping ship and the twins having no where else to go as they still tried to maintain the museum, they would have become more reclusive than ever. lester had long since moved out and with just the two of them, they become more attached than ever. they don't want to talk to other people, because it's too much effort. bo has a breakdown at some point after their parents die and vincent picks up the pieces. this is when they start the *murdering*, almost as a coping mechanism like "we can't trust other people", which then turns into, "you know how we were both kind of failures our entire lives, lets try and pull off this bat-shit plan and then we'll know that we could do it all along".

lester

lester was born as an attempt to re-do the whole "having kids" thing, but ultimately trudy and victor just, weren't good parents?

lester is at least 5 years younger than the twins, and it shows. bo and vincent had their twin bond long before lester came along and although they love lester, he just doesn't... understand them, not like they do each other.

it used to annoy him, knowing that bo and vincent had each other and "left him out" (especially considering their parents didn't pay that much attention to him) but over time he came to accept it begrudgingly. now he has his own life away from ambrose it's a lot easier. one thing that does still annoy him though is their godgoddamn twin talk. they tend to forget that he's their, or that he doesn't understand because they can and will have intense conversation s and then just walk away, leaving lester very much hanging.

lester is willing to help the twins out, he does a lot of luring of course, but he doesn't live in town. honestly part of it is that he's always been more independent and partly because when the twins are in a bad mood (either independently or because of each other) he just can't handle the atmosphere in town. it's safer to stay out of their ways when they're "out of sorts".

on the whole i think, lester gets on better with bo and vincent when he's with just one of them at a time. they're easier to talk to when they're alone because they don't get side tracked by something the other one is doing. bo tries to get them all to eat dinner together on a somewhat regular basis but it's a nightmare to organise and lester gets bored watching the twins discuss/bicker about something he isn't involved in (will literally be something about meaningless like vincent accidently taping over an specific episode of star trek that bo is attached to, or bo borrowed vincent's shoes and has not yet cleaned the mud off of them). either way, lester find it way easier to talk to them when it is 1-on-1.

general co-dependency

returning to my first point. bo needs vincent more than vincent needs bo.

bo is unstable and scared of leaving town. controversial opinion, i know. of course he leaves town (to get supplies, to go to a local bar, etc.) but leaving permanently? no, he could never. he relies on vincent -- his twin, the one person who will always stay with him when everyone else leaves -- to ground him. relies on him to give him the affection he needs.

that's not to say vincent doesn't need bo. he does, but not as much as bo needs him. vincent needs bo to make himself feel better. bo gives him purpose, and not in the way you might think. vincent knows bo is hopeless without him, he knows he needs to be there or bo is going to fall apart.

in the film we see bo get angry at vincent for leaving town without him. yeah, he is angry, but i think most of all he's upset. he's scared. he's just been shot with a crossbow and he comes home and while he's trying to fix himself up, vincent comes home and bo realises that while he was getting shot, vincent was out there on his own. he could have been hurt and then what would bo do?

one of bo's biggest fears is being on his own, and he's angry with vincent for leaving him. not for leaving town, for leaving him. bo doesn't feel he's good enough for anyone (that's why his parents abused him, or why he can't keep a significant other) but selfishly he thinks vincent doesn't have a choice. they were born together, they're stuck together (literally and metaphorically).

vincent, much like bo, has major self esteem issues. the love he got from his parents, although it's more than they gave bo, was conditional. so long as he was "good" (or, the opposite of bo) they would love him. if he kept doing well with the wax working, they would love him. if he covered his face, maybe other people would love him too. none of that happened.

he's selfish too. bo is the only one who's never put a condition on his love. the only one who has ever needed vincent for who he was and not for who he was pretending to be. he hates when bo makes comments about his face, but he can put up with it from him because bo needs him.

he puts up with it because he knows that bo sees them as more or less the same. sure, bo knows he "got the looks" while vincent "got the talent", but he seems them as one and the same. they were the same for a few months and when they were separated, there was a split in them. looks and talent and personality were distributed between them to the point where he thinks that together they might even make a whole person.

ultimately, they need each other to survive. through their early circumstances (and later by their own choices) they've been backed into a corner where they can't survive outside of the ghost town they call home. they both provide something the other so desperately needs that they won't be parted, even if it would be for the best and even when they know they're dragging each other down. they're in it together, forever.

#bo sinclair #vincent sinclair #lester sinclair #house of wax 2005 #ask #i still don't have a personal tag #i am writing this instead of the 5000 word uni essay about house of wax that i am meant to be doing #i have totally missed like a million things in this but it is something #and i had a v good time being able to gush about them !! #thank you erika my love #long story short when you were literally born joined to someone else and then you're left alone in a murder town for 10 years ?? #yeah it might fuck you up a bit.. make you a lil weird.. #i wish i talked about lester more but the twins have me in a choke hold #vincent and bo basically wouldnt know what to do without the other #bo needs vincent to look after him and without bo vincent doesnt have anyone to protect #they both know this #but on the outside to save bo becomes defensive and possessive.. to protect the one thing he will always have - his twin #they both see their better seves to some degree in the other #they both have what the other wants #but they also see how deeply flawed the other person is and knows that they have similar flaws #wow this was a lot