TVD 4x05: This is as good a place to fall as any

[bookishy]

Vampire Diaries and I have been starcrossed this season, which is why I haven't been posting much. The first episode premiered when I was on a honeymoon cruise in the Caribbean, and try as I might, there turned out to be no way to watch it on that torture prison of my own design boat. Internet access was charged by the minute and the television

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[bookishy]

(I'm all for the following test: Does your boyfriend kill people? Do you like that? No: Maybe you should dump him! Yes: Maybe you're kind of evil too! Embrace it. Huzzah!)

Heee. But I think as far as Stefan and Elena goes, there was always her (completely naive) assumption that it was never *Stefan* who was commiting these atrocities, it was *The Ripper* who was a bloodoholic, or it was the Stefan who was compelled by Klaus. One of the biggest things that pissed me off about the two of them getting back together was that it seemed to subtly endorse that it's okay to accept your boyfriend's abuse of you and others if it was committed ~under the influence of something. Which is just gross.

Apart from keeping him as a point in the triangle--which I realize is a big free pass right there--the show is much less lenient with Damon, as the reason Elena has always refused to boyfriend him is all of the horrible stuff he has done unabashedly claiming it as his own.

I'm still kind of curious why it had to take making her a vampire for her to fully begin to realize that, but hey.

I'm hoping that they are leading up to Elena's realization that she's not losing herself, she's just being forced to recognize parts of herself that she always chose to ignore. Thus it was never the big evil vampirism parts of her boyfriends that made them do this, it was just them, as people, magnified. Kind of a bleak view of humanity, but you know, BRING IT ON, ELENA. Then have sex with Damon. *is pathetic*

Anyway, I am sorry. I will talk about this all day, obvs.

[syriinx]

Oooh, right. I had forgotten the faulty logic applied to Stefan. Even though I do find it fascinating (if sort of predictable, sure) that Stefan was the born bloodoholic, forced Damon's hand, and we wound up with an on-the-wagon Stefan (although I don't really accept that, obviously, since he makes some questionable decisions when he isn't compelled to kill people thanks to addiction or Klaus) and a completely deranged Damon. And I'm not too thrilled with getting Elena back with Stefan either, for that exact point. It's just gross.

Of course, I too want Elena to just have sex with Damon already. So I don't know what that says about me. Elena seems to ever so slightly shift toward Damon lately anyway, despite all the things he happily claims to have done. Which...moral gray area! It's going to take them forever to navigate that...or probably until Elena finally gives up being *good* or realizes she was never that good to begin with. Either way.

Clearly I can talk about this forever, too. I have so many *feelings*!

[bookishy]

Oh good. This is so much better than what I should be doing, which is writing a report on a 600 page historical novel, half of which I skimmed, JSYK.

Elena seems to ever so slightly shift toward Damon lately anyway, despite all the things he happily claims to have done.

God, this is has been making me so happy, almost moreso than the prospect of them gettting sexy anytime soon. I was worried that the show would take S/E back to being the happy, sweet, stick-their-heads-in-the-sand couple that they were for 2 seasons and all of S3 is forgotten. But this episode underscored the point that they didn't come back stronger than ever--if anything, Elena instinctively trusts Damon more than she trusts Stefan, even with dubious results.

It's going to take them forever to navigate that...or probably until Elena finally gives up being *good* or realizes she was never that good to begin with.

This show has been deliciously slow with D/E, and as frustrating as that is, I am also thankful for it. Despite what some reviewers claim, I *do* think that they are going to go there, and go there sincerely and for a while (if not, I will stab someone. Am like 3/4 serious). But they want to make sure that when they go there, they go there right. And a large part of getting Elena's character there is making her sympathize with a lot of what Damon's done in retrospect. What I love about her killing Connor is that she didn't *have* to do it.

Like, okay, I mean, pragmatically I am still in the camp that he needed to be killed, because he wasn't going to stop. But Elena didn't have to do it, as her brother was out of immediate danger, and I think old, human Elena would have left it to Damon. But she did it because he needled her emotions by calling her a monster that even her brother would eventually see, and she snapped. Which honestly, all of the truly heinous things Damon has done have all had that emotional core (killing Jeremy because of Elena's echoing of katherine's rejection; trying to turn Elena so he wouldn't lose her; even killing Mason Lockwood because he overidentified with him as a dupe who was in love with Katherine). I think that emotion-fueled Elena is going to be able to understand these moments of weakness in Damon a lot better, and actually really forgive him for them. Because of those three examples above, I think he sincerely regrets 2 of the 3. And of course, none of this makes any of those things RIGHT and not skating abuse, but whatever, if they are both abusive and it's equalled the playing field, then I don't care and can be gleefully cheering for them to do it without (much) shame.

Okay, some shame.

[syriinx]

Yay! This is definitely better than researching reference counters. ;)

if they are both abusive and it's equalled the playing field, then I don't care and can be gleefully cheering for them to do it without (much) shame.

This, right here, is exactly why I perked up when Elena was turned into a vampire. I can stop feeling like she's just under the power of everyone around her, because "supernatural doppelganger" (whatever that is...seriously?) and handy necklace aside, I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable before when Elena was merely human. Even if she is incredibly proactive on her own, human Elena got jerked around and saved a lot. As a vampire, I'm mostly interested in seeing her hold her own. And my suspicion is that this new Elena will be infinitely more intriguing to Damon than it will be to Stefan. Which, I think, will greatly help the slow build to D/E. I also believe that the show is going to go there...it would have to, just to keep you and I from stabbing someone. I cannot take all of this repressed frustration from those two and not have it go anywhere real!

So, yes, in that way I do think that Elena is headed down a path that may damage her past the point of Stefan's acceptance. Because, yes, I don't think they'll ever be able to be together and blissfully ignorant of each other again now. Plus, that would be tremendously boring and backward progress now. Stefan's attempt to "right" things with a cure that I am 100% positive he wouldn't take after curing her, and Elena's own accidental destruction of that is pretty telling. Although I don't know that the cure isn't going to pop back up again, given how fast and loose this show is with it's own rules. The cure is totally going to come back to bite Stefan on the ass once Elena is fully functional in her new role. I am sure of it.