Fic Commentary: Resolved
turtle_goose requested commentary on Resolved another bit of TVD fic I wrote a while back.
I am aware that resolved isn’t a great fic title but I had no idea what to call it, and that was as close as I could get to a running theme in the story.
I am also aware how very jossed this story is, I was pretty aware at the time that it was going to be instantly jossed but I wanted to think about how Elena would deal with having to repeatedly lie to make the plan work.
Even though it had been a while since my summer dose of drabbling I still felt like that format would work the best for a brief look at what her feelings on each of the Originals was.
Kol doesn’t like her, that’s obvious. She’s not even sure he wants to settle down here. She thinks he’d rather be somewhere else, running wild away from everything that’s going on in Mystic Falls. Kol has no patience for his mother’s rules, and it clearly angers him to play by them. Sometimes he watches her like a hungry animal (which, Elena reminds herself, he is in a way), and under the surface he’s itching to do something with that hunger.
Sometimes it’s really easy to write about Kol, he’s such a little shit stirrer. And really most of what I wrote about him was more about Kol rather than Elena’s thoughts on him, because her thoughts are equally simple on that front.
He follows the rules but he’s loyal to no one.
She doesn’t trust Kol, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Nobody should really trust Kol, Kol’s number one priority is Kol.
***
I really wasn’t sure what order I should put the drabbles in, I knew I wanted to end with Elijah for obvious reasons, but the rest I had to think about. Ultimately I decided I needed to alternate vampires I knew stuff about with those that were new, so they ended up in this order, I’m still not positive it was completely the right choice.
Rebekah wants to kill her. It’s no surprise really. Elena knew that would happen the moment she stabbed the vampire in the back before the Homecoming dance. The tentative bond they had formed when Rebekah had shared her family history had broken instantly. Elena hadn’t truly regretted that choice and she still doesn’t. It had to be done. Rebekah was a loose cannon then and she’s still one now
Again I don’t think Elena would have a real problem with Rebekah’s death, but she would have to do a bit of self-rationalization to maintain that if she had to deal with Rebekah for any length of time.
but that’s not the only reason Elena doesn’t try and set things right between them.
She needs Rebekah to hate her, it makes what she’s about to do that much easier.
This is something I find myself doing with Elena more than most characters I write. I think it comes from the show so rarely allowing her to be properly pissed at people that I’ve internalized the idea that she can’t stay mad at people for very long unless they’re mad too, she’s too quick to forgive if someone wants to be forgiven.
***
Finn is a mystery.
You said it me of a few months ago, Finn is a mystery that we will never really solve now that they killed him off.
He’s never a threat to her, but he’s unreadable. How much of that is because of Esther’s rules and how much is his own nature is impossible to tell, but either way he remains aloof, even from his family it seems.
I was kind of fond of my original wording of this which as something along the lines of “he remains distant and aloof which seems strange when compared with the rest of his family.” I think it got edited out and then the word count wouldn’t let me work that aspect back in.
He’s distant and withdrawn, and he seems sad. Usually Elena would try to draw such a person out, but not with Finn, not now. She doesn’t want to know him. This way after there will be nothing to regret on his behalf. He’s just collateral damage.
I went with the idea that Elena wouldn’t know Finn was in on the plan for this, which looking back on it would be kind of weird if she continued to be involved in making it happen but no one told her Finn was in on it.
She’s grateful Finn has decided to keep his distance.
***
Klaus watches her closely, of course. Until he’s sure of his family, she is the key to his future. And he makes her future a little clearer now that she’s fighting back against him.
That line seemed less awkward at the time.
When she looks at him, her decisions and actions all make perfect sense and her doubts vanish instantly. So much death and destruction; so much fear and anger and hate all because of him. He’ll be the first to suspect she’s conspiring against him, because he knows how much she despises him, how much she wishes him gone.
I’m not sure I got the idea of all this across very well, I’ll blame to word count restriction, because obviously Elijah and Rebekah would have their own reasons to suspect her, but I think I was trying to say Klaus would be the one able to know just HOW MUCH she hated him, and what she’d be willing to do to be rid of him.
She hates Klaus, but she can handle him.
***
Elijah...the sad and awful truth is that Elijah loves her.
I do think that given much time or opportunity Elena ought to be able to figure out that Elijah has feelings for her, she just never gets the chance on the show.
She’s not sure when she figured that out and she has no idea how it happened, but she knows it’s true. Behind that carefully controlled exterior and those ancient eyes she senses it.
It’s not like he’s doing much to hide it once you start to realize it everything falls into place.
It’s hard to say if it’s love born of trust or vice versa, and Elena doesn’t want to know. Either way she’s betraying his trust. She certainly never asked for his love.
Whatever she might feel for Elijah doesn’t matter, and never will. She’s going to destroy him before she allows herself the chance to find out.
And really, he’s the only one she was ever going to have any issue with betraying. He’s also the only one she’d be “betraying” as no one else trusted her enough to allow it to be betrayal. He’s the only one that could weaken her resolve, and if she realized just how complicated his trust/love was she’d really have to work to keep going.
Honestly y’all should see the first draft of this (or at least the first round of edits), it was quite different but hopefully we found a happy medium with it. If I had it to do again I probably would have done double or triple drabbles instead of 100 words each, because I didn’t really give any of them the depth they deserve, certainly not to tell any kind of actual story with it.
Request commentary
I am aware that resolved isn’t a great fic title but I had no idea what to call it, and that was as close as I could get to a running theme in the story.
I am also aware how very jossed this story is, I was pretty aware at the time that it was going to be instantly jossed but I wanted to think about how Elena would deal with having to repeatedly lie to make the plan work.
Even though it had been a while since my summer dose of drabbling I still felt like that format would work the best for a brief look at what her feelings on each of the Originals was.
Kol doesn’t like her, that’s obvious. She’s not even sure he wants to settle down here. She thinks he’d rather be somewhere else, running wild away from everything that’s going on in Mystic Falls. Kol has no patience for his mother’s rules, and it clearly angers him to play by them. Sometimes he watches her like a hungry animal (which, Elena reminds herself, he is in a way), and under the surface he’s itching to do something with that hunger.
Sometimes it’s really easy to write about Kol, he’s such a little shit stirrer. And really most of what I wrote about him was more about Kol rather than Elena’s thoughts on him, because her thoughts are equally simple on that front.
He follows the rules but he’s loyal to no one.
She doesn’t trust Kol, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Nobody should really trust Kol, Kol’s number one priority is Kol.
***
I really wasn’t sure what order I should put the drabbles in, I knew I wanted to end with Elijah for obvious reasons, but the rest I had to think about. Ultimately I decided I needed to alternate vampires I knew stuff about with those that were new, so they ended up in this order, I’m still not positive it was completely the right choice.
Rebekah wants to kill her. It’s no surprise really. Elena knew that would happen the moment she stabbed the vampire in the back before the Homecoming dance. The tentative bond they had formed when Rebekah had shared her family history had broken instantly. Elena hadn’t truly regretted that choice and she still doesn’t. It had to be done. Rebekah was a loose cannon then and she’s still one now
Again I don’t think Elena would have a real problem with Rebekah’s death, but she would have to do a bit of self-rationalization to maintain that if she had to deal with Rebekah for any length of time.
but that’s not the only reason Elena doesn’t try and set things right between them.
She needs Rebekah to hate her, it makes what she’s about to do that much easier.
This is something I find myself doing with Elena more than most characters I write. I think it comes from the show so rarely allowing her to be properly pissed at people that I’ve internalized the idea that she can’t stay mad at people for very long unless they’re mad too, she’s too quick to forgive if someone wants to be forgiven.
***
Finn is a mystery.
You said it me of a few months ago, Finn is a mystery that we will never really solve now that they killed him off.
He’s never a threat to her, but he’s unreadable. How much of that is because of Esther’s rules and how much is his own nature is impossible to tell, but either way he remains aloof, even from his family it seems.
I was kind of fond of my original wording of this which as something along the lines of “he remains distant and aloof which seems strange when compared with the rest of his family.” I think it got edited out and then the word count wouldn’t let me work that aspect back in.
He’s distant and withdrawn, and he seems sad. Usually Elena would try to draw such a person out, but not with Finn, not now. She doesn’t want to know him. This way after there will be nothing to regret on his behalf. He’s just collateral damage.
I went with the idea that Elena wouldn’t know Finn was in on the plan for this, which looking back on it would be kind of weird if she continued to be involved in making it happen but no one told her Finn was in on it.
She’s grateful Finn has decided to keep his distance.
***
Klaus watches her closely, of course. Until he’s sure of his family, she is the key to his future. And he makes her future a little clearer now that she’s fighting back against him.
That line seemed less awkward at the time.
When she looks at him, her decisions and actions all make perfect sense and her doubts vanish instantly. So much death and destruction; so much fear and anger and hate all because of him. He’ll be the first to suspect she’s conspiring against him, because he knows how much she despises him, how much she wishes him gone.
I’m not sure I got the idea of all this across very well, I’ll blame to word count restriction, because obviously Elijah and Rebekah would have their own reasons to suspect her, but I think I was trying to say Klaus would be the one able to know just HOW MUCH she hated him, and what she’d be willing to do to be rid of him.
She hates Klaus, but she can handle him.
***
Elijah...the sad and awful truth is that Elijah loves her.
I do think that given much time or opportunity Elena ought to be able to figure out that Elijah has feelings for her, she just never gets the chance on the show.
She’s not sure when she figured that out and she has no idea how it happened, but she knows it’s true. Behind that carefully controlled exterior and those ancient eyes she senses it.
It’s not like he’s doing much to hide it once you start to realize it everything falls into place.
It’s hard to say if it’s love born of trust or vice versa, and Elena doesn’t want to know. Either way she’s betraying his trust. She certainly never asked for his love.
Whatever she might feel for Elijah doesn’t matter, and never will. She’s going to destroy him before she allows herself the chance to find out.
And really, he’s the only one she was ever going to have any issue with betraying. He’s also the only one she’d be “betraying” as no one else trusted her enough to allow it to be betrayal. He’s the only one that could weaken her resolve, and if she realized just how complicated his trust/love was she’d really have to work to keep going.
Honestly y’all should see the first draft of this (or at least the first round of edits), it was quite different but hopefully we found a happy medium with it. If I had it to do again I probably would have done double or triple drabbles instead of 100 words each, because I didn’t really give any of them the depth they deserve, certainly not to tell any kind of actual story with it.
Request commentary