Thoughts on handling character screw-ups in TVD and BH

[istne_pieklo]

I'm so tired of stories that keep making excuses for a character just because he's the main character. Yes, The Vampire Diaries, I'm looking at you, mostly because it's the latest example, but pretty much any show does that. The main character is immune because he's the lead. Being Human sort of fell into that when they had Tom and Alex

Comments

[frelling_tralk]

:nods:

As Damon himself puts it, he's been...thinking that she needed to be worse in order to accept his love.

I'm probably biased lol, but I always thought that people were missing that when they emphasised that Stefan doesn't accept who Elena is and Delena is therefore the healthier relationship because he totally accepts her. I would agree that Stefan was a mess with Elena in season 4 definitely, but I don't think that Damon's mindset was therefore necessarily the healthy one? Both brothers seemed to have expectations of how Elena should act around them to be their ~ideal~ partner, Stefan just wanted her to remain the pure human girl, and Damon wanted her to feed with him at frat parties and pick out victims without focusing on them as people. Neither of which was true to Elena's character at that point in time, most of the audience seemed to just focus on Damon accepting Elena as a vampire as if that's all that matters, but Elena herself was horrified when she found herself getting lost in feeding with Damon at the party

I haven't seen the latest episode yet, still d/l, but I'm sure there will be something with Damon that annoys me yet again :P It just seems so unrealistic when they make a big deal about holding stuff against the villainous characters like Klaus and Katherine, yet Damon gets off scot-free and still treated as a member of the team everytime, even after he killed Matt's sister and killed Bonnie's mother. God forbid a character hold a grudge over something like that, no wonder Tyler comes off as excessive to hold a grudge against Klaus over the death of his mother when everyone else is just hand-waving Damon's actions away

[istne_pieklo]

Both brothers seemed to have expectations of how Elena should act around them to be their ~ideal~ partner, Stefan just wanted her to remain the pure human girl, and Damon wanted her to feed with him at frat parties and pick out victims without focusing on them as people. Neither of which was true to Elena's character at that point in time, most of the audience seemed to just focus on Damon accepting Elena as a vampire as if that's all that matters, but Elena herself was horrified when she found herself getting lost in feeding with Damon at the party Oh, THAT, definitely, is a major issue! At this stage I'm starting to think either of them is bad for her and she's bad for either of them. Katherine says something really wise about how Damon sees Elena in this episode (I don't want to spoil, though LOL, this whole post is full of spoilers >_<), but I'd argue that both brothers see her that way. I'm hardly Elena's biggest fan (though I don't hate her; I'm more like indifferent) but she deserves better than being a blank screen, which everyone projects their image of an ideal girlfriend on. :(
It just seems so unrealistic when they make a big deal about holding stuff against the villainous characters like Klaus and Katherine, yet Damon gets off scot-free and still treated as a member of the team everytime, even after he killed Matt's sister and killed Bonnie's mother. And he killed Stefan's best friend and would have killed Jeremy if Jeremy hadn't conveniently been wearing the ring, and a bucketload of other characters. Which I would be totally fine with but this attitude of his - what would Elena say? - annoys me too much. As well as the distinction between him and the proper villains: they can be blamed but he can't.