100 Reviews: 77
Okay, so I’ll try and get back to these, no promises it will last of course.
TVD: 1x07: Haunted
Okay, so I feel a little bad for this, but it turns out I’m not real sure I have much to say on Vicky this time. Memory told me I would so I put off my 1x06 thoughts thinking I could put them here but it really isn’t Vicky I want to talk about (maybe later on though, we’ll see).
Because this is the first real shift in Elena’s character of the series, and so of course that interests me more. The irony of her final discussion with Stefan is if she were to forget she would never have become the character that I love, but because I love her I wish she would be able to go back to being normal and happy and forget all this crap. And spare her all the coming crap she’s going to have to endure, because once this show starts dumping crap on her it never stops. Yeah I know Kat’s and the Originals’ plan would have found her eventually regardless of what the Salvatores did, but I’d like to give my girl somewhat less crap to have to deal with, and removing the trolls would be a start.
Just her last three (ish) scenes are a pretty direct character arc, of when Elena Gilbert began to turn her humanity off long before she had a vampire switch; so let’s talk about those bits.
The scene with Damon:
“People die around you, how could it not matter?” And I think on some level as soon as she says it, she starts blaming herself. Not for anything that’s happened per se (well, her parents’ deaths are a definite factor), but because already as she’s drifted into the vampire world people die and get hurt around her. It still matters to her, but she can’t do anything about it; she doesn’t know people would believe her but even if they did she’d have to hurt someone she cares about. If she does something it hurts people, if she doesn’t do anything people will continue to get hurt around them. So she has to make a choice and live with it, and starts to not listen to part of her that tells her it’s the wrong choice.
The scene with Matt:
The moment Elena looks at the boy she’s loved all her life (whatever the show wants us to believe this week about whether she was ever in love with him, she’s always loved him) and lies to him about his sister is a pretty clear sign that she’s pretty thoroughly shifted her moral center. She knows he doesn’t deserve this, she knows the truth is only slightly more painful than the lie he has to believe, she knows it’s wrong; but she looks his square in the eyes and lies to him. She sees herself as part of this new world as decides she has to keep everyone else from falling into it too; in part to protect those that are already part of it and part to protect anyone else from having to see the world the way she does because, and I can not stress this enough for the next scene, she doesn’t want to be part of this world. She hates it, and she hates herself for it, but she learns not to listen to that feeling.
The Gilbert house tag:
I’m lumping all these scenes together because I really see them as all being the same scene. Although there are a few different things to comment on. For one, the first time she starts to accept Damon is at a point where she hates him and hates herself, and there’s actually a pretty consistent theme there that the more Elena hates herself the more she’s drawn to Damon...now I’m wondering if there’s fanwankable material there that the sire bond wasn’t always there as soon as she turned but as she reached the point where she despised everything about herself especially her current nature as a vampire, she’s utterly drawn to Damon (and of course Damon’s lies about how she’s so awesome and happy as a vampire when we’ve seen nothing of the sort); and then post humanity-off-phase she didn’t need some mental break sire bond, she hates herself enough to not need an excuse to go for Damon at that point (it’s a rough theory at the moment, but I stand by the initial point that Elena likes Damon most when she hates herself).
And with everything she says to Stefan, none of it is about liking the way things have turned out She cares about him, has more or less convinced herself she’s in love with him at this point, and that she likes (more or less), but she’s not happy; and I think there’s an argument to be made that she’s never really happy again in so far four seasons of show Moments when life doesn’t completely suck or at least she can ignore the fact that it completely sucks are the best she manages.
And it’s tied in with her new feeling that she deserve to be pulled into darkness. Like she’s already lost to it and she’ll just have to live with it. She hits on the idea to mess with Jeremy’s memory really quickly but can’t make herself be there while Damon’s doing it. She’s a part of this system now, but she’s not happy at all with that fact. But she convinces herself that feeling loved is the same as feeling okay with it and...that is a huge part of the tragedy that is Elena Gilbert.
Okay so I have a few spare thoughts but then I think I’ll call it.
-Jeremy’s “Because we’re so good at letting things go,” is pretty weighty line.
-I do think it had a lot to do with the writers’ not having figured out Stefan’s backstory yet rather than just Stefan being dodgy but I really think Vicky might have responded more to the truth of Stefan’s history that the cagey answers he gave. But I also think Stefan was being deliberately evasive in part because of Elena’s presence; in the classroom scene with Vicky he’s a little more upfront about what they have to deal with than he is with Elena around, and admittedly it doesn’t help her by that point.
-Hehehe for the obvious not having worked out the backstory yet with Stefan saying he didn’t have anyone help him through things. And since Lexi will be introduced next episode it means they really hadn’t planned that element. Admittedly, again, he could have meant right after his transition but...I’m still putting it in the retcon pile.
-I caught a few subtle book references in the Halloween party scene.
-BTW, how is it Halloween on the show by this point? Being generous it’s been maybe three weeks since school started so unless Mystic Falls starts school in early October (which...*may* be possible) this doesn’t work. By episode 7 it’s already clear this show should steer clear of holidays and dates of any kind unless maybe they’re in flashbacks and then don’t date exactly how long ago that year was.
(-S4 seemed to just throw any semblance of time scale out the window as unless Mystic Falls ends school in early April I’m not sure how it got from Christmas to graduation in a half a season. It’s another thing I worry about with the spin off, how do they keep a handle on when *two* shows worth of material are supposed to happen relative to each other especially with my previously stated opinion that there’s little way to avoid crossovers in this verse.)
Next time:
We’ll see what happens and when.
Suggestion box
TVD: 1x07: Haunted
Okay, so I feel a little bad for this, but it turns out I’m not real sure I have much to say on Vicky this time. Memory told me I would so I put off my 1x06 thoughts thinking I could put them here but it really isn’t Vicky I want to talk about (maybe later on though, we’ll see).
Because this is the first real shift in Elena’s character of the series, and so of course that interests me more. The irony of her final discussion with Stefan is if she were to forget she would never have become the character that I love, but because I love her I wish she would be able to go back to being normal and happy and forget all this crap. And spare her all the coming crap she’s going to have to endure, because once this show starts dumping crap on her it never stops. Yeah I know Kat’s and the Originals’ plan would have found her eventually regardless of what the Salvatores did, but I’d like to give my girl somewhat less crap to have to deal with, and removing the trolls would be a start.
Just her last three (ish) scenes are a pretty direct character arc, of when Elena Gilbert began to turn her humanity off long before she had a vampire switch; so let’s talk about those bits.
The scene with Damon:
“People die around you, how could it not matter?” And I think on some level as soon as she says it, she starts blaming herself. Not for anything that’s happened per se (well, her parents’ deaths are a definite factor), but because already as she’s drifted into the vampire world people die and get hurt around her. It still matters to her, but she can’t do anything about it; she doesn’t know people would believe her but even if they did she’d have to hurt someone she cares about. If she does something it hurts people, if she doesn’t do anything people will continue to get hurt around them. So she has to make a choice and live with it, and starts to not listen to part of her that tells her it’s the wrong choice.
The scene with Matt:
The moment Elena looks at the boy she’s loved all her life (whatever the show wants us to believe this week about whether she was ever in love with him, she’s always loved him) and lies to him about his sister is a pretty clear sign that she’s pretty thoroughly shifted her moral center. She knows he doesn’t deserve this, she knows the truth is only slightly more painful than the lie he has to believe, she knows it’s wrong; but she looks his square in the eyes and lies to him. She sees herself as part of this new world as decides she has to keep everyone else from falling into it too; in part to protect those that are already part of it and part to protect anyone else from having to see the world the way she does because, and I can not stress this enough for the next scene, she doesn’t want to be part of this world. She hates it, and she hates herself for it, but she learns not to listen to that feeling.
The Gilbert house tag:
I’m lumping all these scenes together because I really see them as all being the same scene. Although there are a few different things to comment on. For one, the first time she starts to accept Damon is at a point where she hates him and hates herself, and there’s actually a pretty consistent theme there that the more Elena hates herself the more she’s drawn to Damon...now I’m wondering if there’s fanwankable material there that the sire bond wasn’t always there as soon as she turned but as she reached the point where she despised everything about herself especially her current nature as a vampire, she’s utterly drawn to Damon (and of course Damon’s lies about how she’s so awesome and happy as a vampire when we’ve seen nothing of the sort); and then post humanity-off-phase she didn’t need some mental break sire bond, she hates herself enough to not need an excuse to go for Damon at that point (it’s a rough theory at the moment, but I stand by the initial point that Elena likes Damon most when she hates herself).
And with everything she says to Stefan, none of it is about liking the way things have turned out She cares about him, has more or less convinced herself she’s in love with him at this point, and that she likes (more or less), but she’s not happy; and I think there’s an argument to be made that she’s never really happy again in so far four seasons of show Moments when life doesn’t completely suck or at least she can ignore the fact that it completely sucks are the best she manages.
And it’s tied in with her new feeling that she deserve to be pulled into darkness. Like she’s already lost to it and she’ll just have to live with it. She hits on the idea to mess with Jeremy’s memory really quickly but can’t make herself be there while Damon’s doing it. She’s a part of this system now, but she’s not happy at all with that fact. But she convinces herself that feeling loved is the same as feeling okay with it and...that is a huge part of the tragedy that is Elena Gilbert.
Okay so I have a few spare thoughts but then I think I’ll call it.
-Jeremy’s “Because we’re so good at letting things go,” is pretty weighty line.
-I do think it had a lot to do with the writers’ not having figured out Stefan’s backstory yet rather than just Stefan being dodgy but I really think Vicky might have responded more to the truth of Stefan’s history that the cagey answers he gave. But I also think Stefan was being deliberately evasive in part because of Elena’s presence; in the classroom scene with Vicky he’s a little more upfront about what they have to deal with than he is with Elena around, and admittedly it doesn’t help her by that point.
-Hehehe for the obvious not having worked out the backstory yet with Stefan saying he didn’t have anyone help him through things. And since Lexi will be introduced next episode it means they really hadn’t planned that element. Admittedly, again, he could have meant right after his transition but...I’m still putting it in the retcon pile.
-I caught a few subtle book references in the Halloween party scene.
-BTW, how is it Halloween on the show by this point? Being generous it’s been maybe three weeks since school started so unless Mystic Falls starts school in early October (which...*may* be possible) this doesn’t work. By episode 7 it’s already clear this show should steer clear of holidays and dates of any kind unless maybe they’re in flashbacks and then don’t date exactly how long ago that year was.
(-S4 seemed to just throw any semblance of time scale out the window as unless Mystic Falls ends school in early April I’m not sure how it got from Christmas to graduation in a half a season. It’s another thing I worry about with the spin off, how do they keep a handle on when *two* shows worth of material are supposed to happen relative to each other especially with my previously stated opinion that there’s little way to avoid crossovers in this verse.)
Next time:
We’ll see what happens and when.
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