tVD 4.7 And then Kelsey fanwanks everything
I don't actually know how to feel about this episode - but I'm not as upset as the rest of fandom seems to be. So here goes an Unpopular Opinion Post.
[Life after LOST is messy]
+ The parallels they are setting up between April/Jeremy/Matt and Elena/Stefan/Damon are intentionally and actually - I like it? It's not as much "these are the same people!" as Glee took this season (which I've given up on) - so maybe after that ~trauma and mishandling of parallel storylines, this feels less forced?
- - - Though, the presumption that Jeremy is to Stefan as Matt is to Damon irks me on a very personal level, I have always paired Matt & Stefan's judgement of the people in their lives on very similar character constructions? So... idk - maybe that slight reversal is what I find endearing of this new ot3? Also - now that Matt has moved into the Gilbert house, the potential for an ot3 is much stronger than it was before? (I'm still sad that the show never gave me the option of a Jeremy/Tyler-centric ot3. BROS!) The bro-ness of Matt/Jeremy combined with the cuteness of April can only bring up happiness. Or pain. But either way, I've been all in since she showed up.
- - - Seriously though, am I the only one who loves this? Because I also love the constant trolling that the bros do when April ask where Rebekah is. "Guys? Have you seen my BFF Rebekah?" Bros: "D'aw - you are so cute and we hate her. No. We haven't seen her. But YOU'RE adorable." ... Matt is a patronizing ass and Jeremy is just "tralala my bro keeps trolling you" ... and I SHOULDN'T LOVE IT BUT I DO AND I DON'T APOLOGIZE FOR IT.
- - - Also, I don't apologize for never understaning Jeremy/Bonnie. It never worked for me. Because Jeremy never got that:: "I think you might be the most precious thing to ever enter my life and is it possible that my entire world has changed now that I know that you exist"-face. And he has that face when he talks to Anna... I mean April... I mean... WHAT? THEY ARE THE SAME PERSON.
+ Caroline and Klaus are perfect.
- - - Yes, Klaus is awful. But so is Caroline. I love bossy!bitchy!in-charge Caroline. She was only ever in-charge in the service-of Tyler. She would never have talked to him the way she does Klaus. And I love that she's able to do that with Klaus and he loves it, too? But she still lets her guard down and they are stupid awkward!teens with too many emotes and then they share and Klaus is a troll and it's just... I like it. Because it's not even - because Klaus likes the way she steamrolls over him (and there are ugly implications that he is "allowing" her to act this way... but NOT IN KELSEY LAND WHERE EVERYTHING IS HAPPY AND SUN-SHINY!). And when she called him "perfect" my shipper heart exploded.
+ Tyler. I have absolutely nothing to say. I don't like him nor care about his plotline. Ever. #unashamed
+ Elena
- - - Is brilliant as ever. She cares most about Jeremy. Of all the things. And her face - HER FACE - when she realizes that Stefan has been ~using Jeremy KILLED ME DEAD.
- - - If getting my humanity back means Jeremy will lose his, I don't want the cure. Is really essential - but I'm also wondering (esp when Caroline was asking Klaus) has anyone actually ASKED Elena if she wants the "cure"? I'm glad she's taking a stance about it.
- - - Thing is, with Caroline and Stefan constantly telling her that she's different - she's always, always going to feel as though there are two separate people: Human!Elena and Vampire!Elena ... But I think that if anything, we learned last week when she talked to her own brain - she's still the same person.
>>>> A pause. To say that EVERY TIME Stefan says "You're emotions are ...heightened right now." I WANT TO CUT A BITCH. Because THIS is how my ex treated me (I'm no longer hiding this: I hate Stefan because he IS my ex.) and he would call me crazy to my face. If I felt emotion about ~anything: I was crazy, I was overreacting, I was wrong. SO NO. Okay? It is NOT OKAY for Stefan to keep saying this to Elena. Just imagine every time you respond emotionally to something, or share a passion for something, the person you are with tells you that reaction is meaningless. He hurts my heart. His existence in Elena pains me on a personal level. I get it if it doesn't seem as traumatic to other viewers/fans. Because it's hard to know this without living it.
+ Stefan: IS THE WORST. NO SERIOUSLY AWFUL. I WILL NOT WASTE TIME TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH I WANT TO PUNCH HIS FACE FOR USING AND ABUSING JEREMY AND CAROLINE AND ELENA BECAUSE THE WORLD ISN'T THE WAY HE WANTS IT TO BE.
+ Damon - is adorably Romantic Hero right now. He's watching and waiting all episode. And yes - they jump the gun on the sex, possibly. But I mean, I can't blame him for that. Because in his mind, he's been waiting. And he loves her. Regardless of her vamping. He just DOES.
Ahem....
The sire-bond. (I'm having trouble articulating my thoughts about this because I don't even know what to say)
Okay. So. I actually think that this could have been interesting? As an explanation for the "blood from the vein" anyway. (I'm still waiting for Katherine to show up and tell them all that they're idiots and it's actually a doppleganger ~thing.)
Here's what I find interesting:::
Caroline is having a hard time right now. She's being forced by circumstance (for the "greater good") to pretend to be on the outs with Tyler - which not only includes spending time having mutual trolling sessions with Klaus, but also seeing Tyler with another girl. Which: ick. So she desperately needs Elena's story to be about an Epic! Love! with Stefan! Only ... Stefan is to Elena as Damon was to Caroline. I mean - okay, that's probably harsh. But: abuse is abuse. Damon abused Caroline. No one has ever really had the balls to deal with that. Stefan constantly abuses Elena. No one really sees it. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW EMOTIONAL ABUSE WORKS. It's in the spaces that people don't see. Perfect-boyfriend!Damon and Perfect-boyfriend!Stefan are pretty damn similar. (Only ... I've written about this before. I think the action is being fueled from different places... the way I see it: Damon is trying to pretend to be human, but he knows it's all fake as hell anyway. Stefan believes in the lie - he really does believe that he's the Perfect-boyfriend and that such a thing is possible. It's a subtle shift in thinking, between performing and believing in the performance - but it makes all the difference to my broken heart.) And Caroline wants perfection for Elena (like she believes she has with Tyler - a relationship which is based, in a lot of ways, on Elena/Stefan to begin with) because she needs the story to work for her, as well.
ANYWAY: Caroline falling for Klaus' troll-face makes me lol: "That's what he WANTS us to think!" ... Then maybe you should rethink it?
But. OKAY. Here's what I think is just SO INTERESTING OMG!
So - we keep insinuating that the sire-bond is related to the blood, right? Only we are seeing that working so differently now.
Kelsey's fanwank:::
+ Hayley is obviously working on getting the sire-bond broken to create some sort of legion army or something. It doesn't really matter. We've already seen that this "breaking" the sire-bond really just creates a new dependency, a new debt to a new face. Tyler is completely dedicated to Hayley - and that bond is getting stronger and stronger. What is different is that his loyalty to Hayley isn't compulsory in the same way: he genuinely believes that he is CHOOSING to be loyal to Hayley. Only her plans are not the same as his. Tyler's devotion to Hayley, their continuous bond, is of his free will - but it is still a bond that was created on her side for the direct purpose of manipulation. She's using Tyler just as much as Klaus did. She freed him to be loyal to her and her plans. What has actually been broken? Tyler doesn't have any more or less free will now as he did before. At least then he KNEW that he didn't want to do the things that he was doing. Now he has no clue that things aren't what they seem.
+ Caroline and Stefan have a similar relationship, that is built on rehabilitation (some day someone should write about the power of rehabilitation in this series - it started with Stefan/Lexi and then there was some Damon/Sage [which was lovely in a twisty way] and Caroline/Tyler are very similar.... but not me, okay?). Stefan "taught" Caroline how to be a good baby vampire and they developed a (let's just call it what it is) really weird bond over the whole experience. And other vamps tried to help, but Stefan and Caroline just had a good chemistry or whatever - they understood each other and it worked for them. They are bonded. Hugely. To the point that now, Caroline is the only person Stefan trusts to help him through his own psychotic breaks. She sees the world the way he wants her to see it. (Possibly the way Lexi in part tried to teach him to see the world - but since he's not a baby vampire anymore and Lexi is long gone, that influence has waned?)
+ Damon and Elena have the same connection. They had a connection as humans - they implicitly understand each other, it makes sense that now Elena is a baby vampire, Damon knows what to say to calm her, to help her. He's also trying to help her find her own way (something that Caroline had to fight against Stefan a little more to get) and I'm not just saying that because I'm a shipper. She fights back, he finds another solution. They've been doing this dance for a while. Elena is going to do things her own way and Damon is willing to find her as many options as possible. (Even if sometimes they both fuck up along the way - he did feed her his blood at the end of S2, I haven't forgotten.)
So ... the sire-bond isn't bullshit. I think it's a baby vampire thing. Or that we're going to discover that these things are related. (And then Elena is going to doubt her feelings for Damon, blah blah - - - tbh, as long as she keeps standing up for herself and keeps moving forward at this pace, I'm letting this go for now. She needs to work through that some more and have doubts - if this is the McGuffin the writers have decided on to allow her space to do that - okay.) Or not.
Wanna know my crazy of all crazy theories???
This is just for ridiculousness sake: please laugh with me about this (because at this point, I feel anything is possible)
They are going to somehow discover that vampires made from doppleganger-vampires can create an implied sire-bond with vampires they are very close to. So the Stefan and Caroline vs. Damon and Elena teams will get drawn and there will be all this angst! and drama! and then Klaus will laugh at them - because it's not a real sire-bond at all. It's some weird doppleganger-spawn fluke.
This makes no sense. But I could see the fic for this and it makes me smile. Because Elijah would so be on DElena's team.
I mean, right?
Anyway. The point of all this is. IF there is something ~weird about Damon and Elena right now. Then there is something ~weird about Stefan and Caroline's connection.
And I have one last thing to posit:::
When I'm not here - in vampire/kpop land with all you lovely people talking about really pretty things, I'm on a podcast talking about LOST (seriously - my fangirl obligations are wide and vast) . . . . . and one of the things that I make my newbs discuss is Point of View - literally we refer to it as "perspective" - and also Narrative Construction POV. In other words: each episode of the series is about a different person, right? Well - I posit that each character has their own Perspective of what is going on. So in a Michael episode, Shannon talks gibberish - but in a Sayid episode, she's brilliant and lovely. In a Locke episode, Jack/Kate/Sawyer is a lovely ot3 of love and happiness ... but in an Eko episode, their relationship is really nasty and manipulative.
Over the backdrop of Elena and Damon colliding into sex - we have the Narrative as Caroline sees it. Which. IDK - maybe I spend too much time with the LOST writers. I really liked it? Because it's so clearly her perspective of events and is not necessarily the truth.
This happened in another episode - I can't remember which - last season and I remember saying: "I think this scene is from Elena's perspective and that's why Jeremy seems so OOC." And I'm willing to go down with this. Because even though it is presented in really messy ways in this series - sometimes the only thing I can do is throw up my hands and go "well, it must be a perspective thing" and move on.
#life after LOST is messy
Television is still trying to #deal with LOST and all the cool narrative things they did. The next few years of tv are going to be a mess.
I refuse to say anything else for now (esp in regards to the dub-con that Care's voice-over presumes on D/Elena's sex ... I'm saying that we need to wait and see how the series handles the next few episodes.)
In other news: Aren't we all so proud of Jeremy for stabbing Stefan? I know I am.
/ugh
I don't even with this post.
Mostly for you, Lexi <33333
[EDIT]:: I love MythGirl but I rarely read her reviews of tVD - just for time's sake - but the one she posted for Brother's Keeper I actually read! I thought I'd share.
[Life after LOST is messy]
+ The parallels they are setting up between April/Jeremy/Matt and Elena/Stefan/Damon are intentionally and actually - I like it? It's not as much "these are the same people!" as Glee took this season (which I've given up on) - so maybe after that ~trauma and mishandling of parallel storylines, this feels less forced?
- - - Though, the presumption that Jeremy is to Stefan as Matt is to Damon irks me on a very personal level, I have always paired Matt & Stefan's judgement of the people in their lives on very similar character constructions? So... idk - maybe that slight reversal is what I find endearing of this new ot3? Also - now that Matt has moved into the Gilbert house, the potential for an ot3 is much stronger than it was before? (I'm still sad that the show never gave me the option of a Jeremy/Tyler-centric ot3. BROS!) The bro-ness of Matt/Jeremy combined with the cuteness of April can only bring up happiness. Or pain. But either way, I've been all in since she showed up.
- - - Seriously though, am I the only one who loves this? Because I also love the constant trolling that the bros do when April ask where Rebekah is. "Guys? Have you seen my BFF Rebekah?" Bros: "D'aw - you are so cute and we hate her. No. We haven't seen her. But YOU'RE adorable." ... Matt is a patronizing ass and Jeremy is just "tralala my bro keeps trolling you" ... and I SHOULDN'T LOVE IT BUT I DO AND I DON'T APOLOGIZE FOR IT.
- - - Also, I don't apologize for never understaning Jeremy/Bonnie. It never worked for me. Because Jeremy never got that:: "I think you might be the most precious thing to ever enter my life and is it possible that my entire world has changed now that I know that you exist"-face. And he has that face when he talks to Anna... I mean April... I mean... WHAT? THEY ARE THE SAME PERSON.
+ Caroline and Klaus are perfect.
- - - Yes, Klaus is awful. But so is Caroline. I love bossy!bitchy!in-charge Caroline. She was only ever in-charge in the service-of Tyler. She would never have talked to him the way she does Klaus. And I love that she's able to do that with Klaus and he loves it, too? But she still lets her guard down and they are stupid awkward!teens with too many emotes and then they share and Klaus is a troll and it's just... I like it. Because it's not even - because Klaus likes the way she steamrolls over him (and there are ugly implications that he is "allowing" her to act this way... but NOT IN KELSEY LAND WHERE EVERYTHING IS HAPPY AND SUN-SHINY!). And when she called him "perfect" my shipper heart exploded.
+ Tyler. I have absolutely nothing to say. I don't like him nor care about his plotline. Ever. #unashamed
+ Elena
- - - Is brilliant as ever. She cares most about Jeremy. Of all the things. And her face - HER FACE - when she realizes that Stefan has been ~using Jeremy KILLED ME DEAD.
- - - If getting my humanity back means Jeremy will lose his, I don't want the cure. Is really essential - but I'm also wondering (esp when Caroline was asking Klaus) has anyone actually ASKED Elena if she wants the "cure"? I'm glad she's taking a stance about it.
- - - Thing is, with Caroline and Stefan constantly telling her that she's different - she's always, always going to feel as though there are two separate people: Human!Elena and Vampire!Elena ... But I think that if anything, we learned last week when she talked to her own brain - she's still the same person.
>>>> A pause. To say that EVERY TIME Stefan says "You're emotions are ...heightened right now." I WANT TO CUT A BITCH. Because THIS is how my ex treated me (I'm no longer hiding this: I hate Stefan because he IS my ex.) and he would call me crazy to my face. If I felt emotion about ~anything: I was crazy, I was overreacting, I was wrong. SO NO. Okay? It is NOT OKAY for Stefan to keep saying this to Elena. Just imagine every time you respond emotionally to something, or share a passion for something, the person you are with tells you that reaction is meaningless. He hurts my heart. His existence in Elena pains me on a personal level. I get it if it doesn't seem as traumatic to other viewers/fans. Because it's hard to know this without living it.
+ Stefan: IS THE WORST. NO SERIOUSLY AWFUL. I WILL NOT WASTE TIME TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH I WANT TO PUNCH HIS FACE FOR USING AND ABUSING JEREMY AND CAROLINE AND ELENA BECAUSE THE WORLD ISN'T THE WAY HE WANTS IT TO BE.
+ Damon - is adorably Romantic Hero right now. He's watching and waiting all episode. And yes - they jump the gun on the sex, possibly. But I mean, I can't blame him for that. Because in his mind, he's been waiting. And he loves her. Regardless of her vamping. He just DOES.
Ahem....
The sire-bond. (I'm having trouble articulating my thoughts about this because I don't even know what to say)
Okay. So. I actually think that this could have been interesting? As an explanation for the "blood from the vein" anyway. (I'm still waiting for Katherine to show up and tell them all that they're idiots and it's actually a doppleganger ~thing.)
Here's what I find interesting:::
Caroline is having a hard time right now. She's being forced by circumstance (for the "greater good") to pretend to be on the outs with Tyler - which not only includes spending time having mutual trolling sessions with Klaus, but also seeing Tyler with another girl. Which: ick. So she desperately needs Elena's story to be about an Epic! Love! with Stefan! Only ... Stefan is to Elena as Damon was to Caroline. I mean - okay, that's probably harsh. But: abuse is abuse. Damon abused Caroline. No one has ever really had the balls to deal with that. Stefan constantly abuses Elena. No one really sees it. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW EMOTIONAL ABUSE WORKS. It's in the spaces that people don't see. Perfect-boyfriend!Damon and Perfect-boyfriend!Stefan are pretty damn similar. (Only ... I've written about this before. I think the action is being fueled from different places... the way I see it: Damon is trying to pretend to be human, but he knows it's all fake as hell anyway. Stefan believes in the lie - he really does believe that he's the Perfect-boyfriend and that such a thing is possible. It's a subtle shift in thinking, between performing and believing in the performance - but it makes all the difference to my broken heart.) And Caroline wants perfection for Elena (like she believes she has with Tyler - a relationship which is based, in a lot of ways, on Elena/Stefan to begin with) because she needs the story to work for her, as well.
ANYWAY: Caroline falling for Klaus' troll-face makes me lol: "That's what he WANTS us to think!" ... Then maybe you should rethink it?
But. OKAY. Here's what I think is just SO INTERESTING OMG!
So - we keep insinuating that the sire-bond is related to the blood, right? Only we are seeing that working so differently now.
Kelsey's fanwank:::
+ Hayley is obviously working on getting the sire-bond broken to create some sort of legion army or something. It doesn't really matter. We've already seen that this "breaking" the sire-bond really just creates a new dependency, a new debt to a new face. Tyler is completely dedicated to Hayley - and that bond is getting stronger and stronger. What is different is that his loyalty to Hayley isn't compulsory in the same way: he genuinely believes that he is CHOOSING to be loyal to Hayley. Only her plans are not the same as his. Tyler's devotion to Hayley, their continuous bond, is of his free will - but it is still a bond that was created on her side for the direct purpose of manipulation. She's using Tyler just as much as Klaus did. She freed him to be loyal to her and her plans. What has actually been broken? Tyler doesn't have any more or less free will now as he did before. At least then he KNEW that he didn't want to do the things that he was doing. Now he has no clue that things aren't what they seem.
+ Caroline and Stefan have a similar relationship, that is built on rehabilitation (some day someone should write about the power of rehabilitation in this series - it started with Stefan/Lexi and then there was some Damon/Sage [which was lovely in a twisty way] and Caroline/Tyler are very similar.... but not me, okay?). Stefan "taught" Caroline how to be a good baby vampire and they developed a (let's just call it what it is) really weird bond over the whole experience. And other vamps tried to help, but Stefan and Caroline just had a good chemistry or whatever - they understood each other and it worked for them. They are bonded. Hugely. To the point that now, Caroline is the only person Stefan trusts to help him through his own psychotic breaks. She sees the world the way he wants her to see it. (Possibly the way Lexi in part tried to teach him to see the world - but since he's not a baby vampire anymore and Lexi is long gone, that influence has waned?)
+ Damon and Elena have the same connection. They had a connection as humans - they implicitly understand each other, it makes sense that now Elena is a baby vampire, Damon knows what to say to calm her, to help her. He's also trying to help her find her own way (something that Caroline had to fight against Stefan a little more to get) and I'm not just saying that because I'm a shipper. She fights back, he finds another solution. They've been doing this dance for a while. Elena is going to do things her own way and Damon is willing to find her as many options as possible. (Even if sometimes they both fuck up along the way - he did feed her his blood at the end of S2, I haven't forgotten.)
So ... the sire-bond isn't bullshit. I think it's a baby vampire thing. Or that we're going to discover that these things are related. (And then Elena is going to doubt her feelings for Damon, blah blah - - - tbh, as long as she keeps standing up for herself and keeps moving forward at this pace, I'm letting this go for now. She needs to work through that some more and have doubts - if this is the McGuffin the writers have decided on to allow her space to do that - okay.) Or not.
Wanna know my crazy of all crazy theories???
This is just for ridiculousness sake: please laugh with me about this (because at this point, I feel anything is possible)
They are going to somehow discover that vampires made from doppleganger-vampires can create an implied sire-bond with vampires they are very close to. So the Stefan and Caroline vs. Damon and Elena teams will get drawn and there will be all this angst! and drama! and then Klaus will laugh at them - because it's not a real sire-bond at all. It's some weird doppleganger-spawn fluke.
This makes no sense. But I could see the fic for this and it makes me smile. Because Elijah would so be on DElena's team.
I mean, right?
Anyway. The point of all this is. IF there is something ~weird about Damon and Elena right now. Then there is something ~weird about Stefan and Caroline's connection.
And I have one last thing to posit:::
When I'm not here - in vampire/kpop land with all you lovely people talking about really pretty things, I'm on a podcast talking about LOST (seriously - my fangirl obligations are wide and vast) . . . . . and one of the things that I make my newbs discuss is Point of View - literally we refer to it as "perspective" - and also Narrative Construction POV. In other words: each episode of the series is about a different person, right? Well - I posit that each character has their own Perspective of what is going on. So in a Michael episode, Shannon talks gibberish - but in a Sayid episode, she's brilliant and lovely. In a Locke episode, Jack/Kate/Sawyer is a lovely ot3 of love and happiness ... but in an Eko episode, their relationship is really nasty and manipulative.
Over the backdrop of Elena and Damon colliding into sex - we have the Narrative as Caroline sees it. Which. IDK - maybe I spend too much time with the LOST writers. I really liked it? Because it's so clearly her perspective of events and is not necessarily the truth.
This happened in another episode - I can't remember which - last season and I remember saying: "I think this scene is from Elena's perspective and that's why Jeremy seems so OOC." And I'm willing to go down with this. Because even though it is presented in really messy ways in this series - sometimes the only thing I can do is throw up my hands and go "well, it must be a perspective thing" and move on.
#life after LOST is messy
Television is still trying to #deal with LOST and all the cool narrative things they did. The next few years of tv are going to be a mess.
I refuse to say anything else for now (esp in regards to the dub-con that Care's voice-over presumes on D/Elena's sex ... I'm saying that we need to wait and see how the series handles the next few episodes.)
In other news: Aren't we all so proud of Jeremy for stabbing Stefan? I know I am.
/ugh
I don't even with this post.
Mostly for you, Lexi <33333
[EDIT]:: I love MythGirl but I rarely read her reviews of tVD - just for time's sake - but the one she posted for Brother's Keeper I actually read! I thought I'd share.