The Vampire Diaries: Long and Rambly thoughts
So over the course of winter break, I decided to start watching The Vampire Diaries. There were two main reasons: 1) I really liked Ian Somerhalder in Rules of Attraction and Lost and had considered watching the show when it started and he was on; 2) I wanted to see if it was exactly like Twilight, which I haven't seen, but I read the first 200 pages of the book and absolutely detested it.
*If you don't like TVD or you do like TVD and don't want to know anything, stop reading. I speak freely.
The first two seasons are on Netflix, and if you're crafty, you can watch the first half of the third season (although I wasn't able to see episodes 3.04, 3.05, and 3.06 in their entirety because Hulu didn't have them, and I'm sketchy about watching those "download" links).
In sum, I think it's evolved into a MUCH better show than the first season. Pilots are usually rough, so I try to watch past them to see if the show will get better. It's funny that in the pilot of TVD, there are crows and fog, etc. I do feel, however, that the characters have evolved, although reading internet comments about how Damon is a rapist, controlling psycho is kind of weird to me, when Stefan has done very bad things, himself, but it's veiled under the idea that he was doing it all for Damon or Elena.
Anyway, as I kept watching it, it kept reminding me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's even funny to see Elena start "training" in the third season. She'll never amount to Buffy power, and Damon even called her "Buffy" in one episode.
The connections?
1) Buffy dated a conflicted vampire who was remorseful for being a baddie back in the day. True that sex caused him to go evil, and in TVD, Stefan is compelled to turn off his humanity.
2) Buffy had a vampire admirer who was ruthless at first, but turned good.
I do admit that I am Team Damon. I don't know... I'm actually Team Salvatore. I like both of the brothers. I think their bond is more important than who actually is with Elena. I think if Elena and Damon get together, it will ruin the show...because if Elena goes there with Damon, and it doesn't work out, it will destroy their dynamic. It will destroy Damon. He knows she already loves Stefan, yadda yadda. As far as Damon turning "good", well, not really. He is still really impulsive and does things without thinking when he gets angry (or really drunk), but if he suddenly stopped doing those things, I feel like he'd lose a layer of his character. He'd become too sappy and then I wouldn't like him anymore.
3) The best friend is a witch, and there's another friend who is pretty pointless, but we still love him. Bonnie = Willow (not exactly the same character, but they both deeply care about their besties). Matt could be a Xander, except I love Xander much much more.
4) There are annoying siblings. Jeremy and Dawn. I swear, I'm not the fast-forwarding type (unless I'm watching a rerun that I've already seen), but I could live without Jeremy drama, just as I could live without Dawn drama.
5a) There's a teacher who is wise in the knowledge of vampire history or supernatural lore in general, and is a BAMF with slayer weapons. Alaric is the new, more hip version of Giles. He watches out for Elena. He's got a stash of handmade weapons. Wolfbane and vervain grenades? How is that not badass?
5b) The teacher falls for the relative of female protagonist, who is pretty much clueless to everything. It's true that Buffy's mother Joyce didn't actually have a relationship with Giles, but she did have sex with him in the episode with the candy bars, and he was affected when she died. She also knew about Buffy being the slayer longer than Jenna knew about all the vampire business in Mystic Falls, but we didn't really see much of Joyce after she found out. Jenna didn't really have much time either.
6) There's a werewolf who leaves town and returns. I know Tyler Lockwood's whole plot is supposed to be more tied to Teen Wolf and Twilight, but as soon as he skipped town, I kept thinking of Oz. I like Oz better than Tyler.
So, there you go... very loose connections probably, but those were the ones I thought of on the surface.
I have been reading other blogs about TVD and there were several that were asked to compile their top three moments from Season 3 so far. Yes, it's very clear that I like Damon. I don't think Damon and Elena should be together, like I said before. There's a lot of internet rambling about how Damon is psycho and the worst character, but I think Damon and Stefan both have their issues, and if they were decent people... there wouldn't be a show... So sorry to those who are probably frustrated that four of my five picks involve Damon. I am proud that some of my picks aren't exactly what the reviewers picked.
I have picked my top five moments (because 3 wasn't enough, and nobody is holding me to a number).
5. Damon destroys Stefan's room after Stefan kills his semi-compelled girlfriend. (3.01: The Birthday)
In the first episode of season 3, Damon has tracked Stefan all across the Eastern Seaboard from Florida to Tennessee on a killing rampage with Klaus. Stefan, trying to prove to Damon that he's gone for good, compels Andie to fall from a platform. This was a really low blow on Stefan's part. Now, in the past, Damon hasn't dealt well with loss. When he found out that Katherine never actually loved him, he killed Jeremy. When Rose died, he had a nervous breakdown and killed Jessica. He acts very impulsively. So, I fully expected him to lash out and channel that side of himself. What did he do? He trashed Stefan's room. It shows me as a character he is growing.
Also, this is at the same part that Stefan calls Elena... and that seems to be the magic moment for a lot of Stelena fans, but I much more appreciated this little nugget.
4. Alaric joins the Founders Council (3.04: Disturbing Behavior)
Alaric has really caught on to me this season. First of all, their gadgets and gizmos are thanks to him. I was slightly confused why he all of a sudden had a bromance with Damon, and now I have seen that Alaric isn't really blinded by Damon love. The 45 seconds it took him to serve the two dolts left on the Founders Council a big slice of humble pie was enough for me to respect him for the rest of the season.
I think blogger Thomas C. Gavin put it perfectly:
God, the Mystic Falls Watcher’s Council. Has a more incompetent group of people ever been assembled? Except Congress?
Let’s recount some of their greatest hits. The Mayor - who apparently inherited the position from her dead husband? - has a werepire for a son. The Sheriff has a vampire daughter, and shot Jeremy Gilbert point-blank in the chest. The high school’s mortality rate is second only to its truancy, and the go-to guy for all of these problems? Damon, who’s a freaking vampire.
These are not the brightest bulbs in the hardware store.
And then there’s Alaric. Let’s be honest: Alaric is kind of a mess. He’s lost two lovers to vampires, he’s a (usually) functional alcoholic, he spent a good chunk of Season 2 as Klaus’ meat suit, and his best buddy is the guy who ate his wife.
But the man gets things done. Thousand-year-old vampire sitting at the dinner table all menacing-like? Magic dagger to the heart. Find a bunch of cave-art drawn by a Viking with a Hebrew name in pre-Columbian America? Dude took an online course in Viking runes just last month. Guy from 7th Heaven come down with a case of unfortunate facial hair and werepire rabies? Anti-werewolf grenade.
Let that phrase sink in. Alaric built an anti-werewolf grenade. And the anti-vampire equivalent. And a pneumatic stake launcher. And a vampire trench knife. And a set of wrist-mounted, Wolverine-style stake-claws. And he’s a good enough teacher to get Elena, who wouldn’t show up for school if she was kidnapped, compelled, and dragged there, through an AP History class.
This is the guy you want in your corner. And I’m absolutely thrilled that the self-admitted chaperone teacher from hell just went ahead and elected himself to the council.
And that he knows when the next super-secret meeting is.
3. Elena and Damon in bed (3.08: Ordinary People)
What I love about this whole scene is what didn't happen. It was a Damon/Elena scene that didn't involve him professing his love or promising to protect her forever. It was a conversation about the plan. It also foreshadowed a very important point (at least for me), which is that the key to finding Stefan's humanity will be Damon. Let's hope a girl doesn't come between them again.
Also, it was nice to see the bond between Elena and Damon grow. I hope they don't ruin it, but they probably will.
I don't like that Elena manipulates him under the guise of "Do it for me, Damon" but I like that she's grown more trusting of him and he hasn't really ruined that so much this season.
2. Stefan stops Mikael from killing Damon (3.08: Ordinary People)
First, Stefan's humanity has been forced off by Klaus, yet, Mikael says to him that his link can't possibly be so strong as to let his brother die. This scene clues us to a turning point where Stefan gets on board to kill Klaus, and although he says in a later scene that he was only doing it for his freedom, I would like to think he was just bluffing. He wouldn't have hesitated so much.
1. Stefan foils the whole plan (3.09: Homecoming)
Look whose humanity got in the way...
And strange how it's Katherine who sets his actions in motion. By this point I had stopped reading spoilers. All I knew was that I had a feeling something would go wrong because something always goes wrong. I just didn't expect it to be Stefan, the one so cocky at the beginning of the episode to turn it all upside down.
I'm completely at a loss as to what they are going to do now.
*If you don't like TVD or you do like TVD and don't want to know anything, stop reading. I speak freely.
The first two seasons are on Netflix, and if you're crafty, you can watch the first half of the third season (although I wasn't able to see episodes 3.04, 3.05, and 3.06 in their entirety because Hulu didn't have them, and I'm sketchy about watching those "download" links).
In sum, I think it's evolved into a MUCH better show than the first season. Pilots are usually rough, so I try to watch past them to see if the show will get better. It's funny that in the pilot of TVD, there are crows and fog, etc. I do feel, however, that the characters have evolved, although reading internet comments about how Damon is a rapist, controlling psycho is kind of weird to me, when Stefan has done very bad things, himself, but it's veiled under the idea that he was doing it all for Damon or Elena.
Anyway, as I kept watching it, it kept reminding me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's even funny to see Elena start "training" in the third season. She'll never amount to Buffy power, and Damon even called her "Buffy" in one episode.
The connections?
1) Buffy dated a conflicted vampire who was remorseful for being a baddie back in the day. True that sex caused him to go evil, and in TVD, Stefan is compelled to turn off his humanity.
2) Buffy had a vampire admirer who was ruthless at first, but turned good.
I do admit that I am Team Damon. I don't know... I'm actually Team Salvatore. I like both of the brothers. I think their bond is more important than who actually is with Elena. I think if Elena and Damon get together, it will ruin the show...because if Elena goes there with Damon, and it doesn't work out, it will destroy their dynamic. It will destroy Damon. He knows she already loves Stefan, yadda yadda. As far as Damon turning "good", well, not really. He is still really impulsive and does things without thinking when he gets angry (or really drunk), but if he suddenly stopped doing those things, I feel like he'd lose a layer of his character. He'd become too sappy and then I wouldn't like him anymore.
3) The best friend is a witch, and there's another friend who is pretty pointless, but we still love him. Bonnie = Willow (not exactly the same character, but they both deeply care about their besties). Matt could be a Xander, except I love Xander much much more.
4) There are annoying siblings. Jeremy and Dawn. I swear, I'm not the fast-forwarding type (unless I'm watching a rerun that I've already seen), but I could live without Jeremy drama, just as I could live without Dawn drama.
5a) There's a teacher who is wise in the knowledge of vampire history or supernatural lore in general, and is a BAMF with slayer weapons. Alaric is the new, more hip version of Giles. He watches out for Elena. He's got a stash of handmade weapons. Wolfbane and vervain grenades? How is that not badass?
5b) The teacher falls for the relative of female protagonist, who is pretty much clueless to everything. It's true that Buffy's mother Joyce didn't actually have a relationship with Giles, but she did have sex with him in the episode with the candy bars, and he was affected when she died. She also knew about Buffy being the slayer longer than Jenna knew about all the vampire business in Mystic Falls, but we didn't really see much of Joyce after she found out. Jenna didn't really have much time either.
6) There's a werewolf who leaves town and returns. I know Tyler Lockwood's whole plot is supposed to be more tied to Teen Wolf and Twilight, but as soon as he skipped town, I kept thinking of Oz. I like Oz better than Tyler.
So, there you go... very loose connections probably, but those were the ones I thought of on the surface.
I have been reading other blogs about TVD and there were several that were asked to compile their top three moments from Season 3 so far. Yes, it's very clear that I like Damon. I don't think Damon and Elena should be together, like I said before. There's a lot of internet rambling about how Damon is psycho and the worst character, but I think Damon and Stefan both have their issues, and if they were decent people... there wouldn't be a show... So sorry to those who are probably frustrated that four of my five picks involve Damon. I am proud that some of my picks aren't exactly what the reviewers picked.
I have picked my top five moments (because 3 wasn't enough, and nobody is holding me to a number).
5. Damon destroys Stefan's room after Stefan kills his semi-compelled girlfriend. (3.01: The Birthday)
In the first episode of season 3, Damon has tracked Stefan all across the Eastern Seaboard from Florida to Tennessee on a killing rampage with Klaus. Stefan, trying to prove to Damon that he's gone for good, compels Andie to fall from a platform. This was a really low blow on Stefan's part. Now, in the past, Damon hasn't dealt well with loss. When he found out that Katherine never actually loved him, he killed Jeremy. When Rose died, he had a nervous breakdown and killed Jessica. He acts very impulsively. So, I fully expected him to lash out and channel that side of himself. What did he do? He trashed Stefan's room. It shows me as a character he is growing.
Also, this is at the same part that Stefan calls Elena... and that seems to be the magic moment for a lot of Stelena fans, but I much more appreciated this little nugget.
4. Alaric joins the Founders Council (3.04: Disturbing Behavior)
Alaric has really caught on to me this season. First of all, their gadgets and gizmos are thanks to him. I was slightly confused why he all of a sudden had a bromance with Damon, and now I have seen that Alaric isn't really blinded by Damon love. The 45 seconds it took him to serve the two dolts left on the Founders Council a big slice of humble pie was enough for me to respect him for the rest of the season.
I think blogger Thomas C. Gavin put it perfectly:
God, the Mystic Falls Watcher’s Council. Has a more incompetent group of people ever been assembled? Except Congress?
Let’s recount some of their greatest hits. The Mayor - who apparently inherited the position from her dead husband? - has a werepire for a son. The Sheriff has a vampire daughter, and shot Jeremy Gilbert point-blank in the chest. The high school’s mortality rate is second only to its truancy, and the go-to guy for all of these problems? Damon, who’s a freaking vampire.
These are not the brightest bulbs in the hardware store.
And then there’s Alaric. Let’s be honest: Alaric is kind of a mess. He’s lost two lovers to vampires, he’s a (usually) functional alcoholic, he spent a good chunk of Season 2 as Klaus’ meat suit, and his best buddy is the guy who ate his wife.
But the man gets things done. Thousand-year-old vampire sitting at the dinner table all menacing-like? Magic dagger to the heart. Find a bunch of cave-art drawn by a Viking with a Hebrew name in pre-Columbian America? Dude took an online course in Viking runes just last month. Guy from 7th Heaven come down with a case of unfortunate facial hair and werepire rabies? Anti-werewolf grenade.
Let that phrase sink in. Alaric built an anti-werewolf grenade. And the anti-vampire equivalent. And a pneumatic stake launcher. And a vampire trench knife. And a set of wrist-mounted, Wolverine-style stake-claws. And he’s a good enough teacher to get Elena, who wouldn’t show up for school if she was kidnapped, compelled, and dragged there, through an AP History class.
This is the guy you want in your corner. And I’m absolutely thrilled that the self-admitted chaperone teacher from hell just went ahead and elected himself to the council.
And that he knows when the next super-secret meeting is.
3. Elena and Damon in bed (3.08: Ordinary People)
What I love about this whole scene is what didn't happen. It was a Damon/Elena scene that didn't involve him professing his love or promising to protect her forever. It was a conversation about the plan. It also foreshadowed a very important point (at least for me), which is that the key to finding Stefan's humanity will be Damon. Let's hope a girl doesn't come between them again.
Also, it was nice to see the bond between Elena and Damon grow. I hope they don't ruin it, but they probably will.
I don't like that Elena manipulates him under the guise of "Do it for me, Damon" but I like that she's grown more trusting of him and he hasn't really ruined that so much this season.
2. Stefan stops Mikael from killing Damon (3.08: Ordinary People)
First, Stefan's humanity has been forced off by Klaus, yet, Mikael says to him that his link can't possibly be so strong as to let his brother die. This scene clues us to a turning point where Stefan gets on board to kill Klaus, and although he says in a later scene that he was only doing it for his freedom, I would like to think he was just bluffing. He wouldn't have hesitated so much.
1. Stefan foils the whole plan (3.09: Homecoming)
Look whose humanity got in the way...
And strange how it's Katherine who sets his actions in motion. By this point I had stopped reading spoilers. All I knew was that I had a feeling something would go wrong because something always goes wrong. I just didn't expect it to be Stefan, the one so cocky at the beginning of the episode to turn it all upside down.
I'm completely at a loss as to what they are going to do now.