until it rains blood
I am, however, okay with how often other characters tell Elena that it is not all just about her, because she clearly needs that shit spelled out for her. I do respect her courage, but she’s not using it toward any good end. She’s just feeding her martyr complex by flinging herself as far into it all as possible. Elena is pretty much a textbook case of a female character with MAN PAIN. I have more patience for it from her than I generally would, because it’s still a bit of a subversion to do that, but I’m still emotionally Man Pain indifferent so it doesn’t endear her the way it’s probably supposed to.
I mean, I objectively have a lot of sympathy for the utter tragedy of her character. Because in a very real way it is all about her - she is the doppelganger, these terrible forces are coming after her, and the people she loves have been attacked because of it. She’s actually Katherine’s voodoo doll at one point, totally powerless even to experience the blows that tear her apart. And so I can’t blame her for trying to seize some agency by getting involved, though I do fault her for being so reckless. But it’s not like she can actually do anything in the way that Bonnie can, or the vampires, or even really Alaric with his brawn and years of practice. She can and will manipulate other humans, as we see with Alice, but that’s unlikely to be helpful often. She has to prioritize her own feelings by way of futile self-sacrifice, because otherwise she comes up against just how powerless she is in the whole situation, and that’s brutal.
But it’s inherently self-centered to do that, especially as she is a traumatized teenager and therefore definitively a person with absolutely zero perspective, which leads to things like her being shocked and appalled when people shut her out and make decisions for her! Which she has just spent a year doing for the rest of them. I should have been a lot more appalled when Damon tells her she doesn’t get to make decisions anymore, but I was more relieved someone finally decided to intervene. (What, was she going to pout the tomb open to let him out?) When Damon is the level-headed adult in the situation, things are not looking great for anybody.
Because Damon? Is not, in any way, stable. He’s fairly good at maintaining a constant level of energy toward flinging everyone away from him, so they don’t know when it’s out of immediate desperation or base-level hurt. The scene where he tortures and kills Mason is shocking and powerful not because it changes anything, but because it doesn’t. He’s acting exactly like his bad self there. Not much with the subtlety, either. “I look at you and I see myself.” And then rips Mason’s heart out. His claim that it “had to be done” is dubious at best (though again, evil and crazy, it doesn’t have to be true for me to appreciate the character), though he’s not wrong that Mason was a danger to them; it’s interesting that he feels some urge to justify his actions. (Ugh, his FACE when Elena deliberately includes him in the people she cares about.)
I love Jeremy swearing revenge on Katherine. He’s so out of his league. But, it’s ambitious. Katherine is his purpose now, too. I do not hold his failed plan to get the stone against him, because it really was at least plausible. He had a goal in mind, he took steps toward being able to achieve it, he took a risk that happened not to pay off. That, I can get behind. His fascination with death/Damon is potentially very interesting. Jeremy’s parents died, his girlfriend died twice, then his other girlfriend died, and his uncle and his aunt almost died, and, not shockingly given everything he’s been through, he tried to kill himself. Then Damon showed up and brought death almost immediately, and Jeremy…decided to live, but in a way where death is always with him.
I think I’m not big on Bonnie/Jeremy, which is odd because I like both characters. It just feels like, pairing off all the specials/non-specials, which I’d appreciate if it were really about power differentials, but dude, Bonnie can drop a vampire without moving, she is the most powerful person on the show.
They are all pretty funny when Bonnie zaps them. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! NOOOOOOOOOOO! HAIR GRAB! KNEEEEEEEEEEEL! Also, I am still on her side with the reality checks. They’re like, YEAH, VAMPIRES KILL PEOPLE AND ALL, BUT GOD, YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE SUCH A BITCH ABOUT IT. And Bonnie is like, ACTUALLY I KIND OF DO. And I love her interactions with the Salvatores, because she is the only one other than Katherine and to some extent Caroline who’s on equal footing with them. And she somewhat gets along with them, but she is at least bright enough to be like EVEN IF I AGREE WITH YOUR GOALS, THIS IS ONE OF YOUR PLANS AND WILL PROBABLY GO TERRIBLY WRONG. And she doesn’t want to be a part of it, but she needs to be a part of it and help.
I love how Katherine straightens her hair to look like Elena, and then rolls in with Lucy, like, WHAT, I ALWAYS HAVE GIANT LESBIAN TENSION WITH CHICKS I’VE NEVER MET. Also, I appreciate that if she had to be buried alive, she at least did so while looking fabulous. Elena would get buried alive in a tight jersey top and high-waist jeans. She's handled well here. She’s too good of an antagonist to believe they could resist her for long, but she’s too rich a character to actually kill her off so soon. Loved her Hanniballing them all from her cell. I’M NOT LOCKED IN HERE WITH YOU, STEFAN! YOU’RE LOCKED IN HERE WITH ME!
And Stefan is as much of a self-righteous jackass as Elena, OOOOH, IMMA GO DIE FOR HER. WHICH WILL DEFINITELY NOT GET HER EATEN. Not really a whole lot else going on with him here. I like Rose, and Elijah has a lot of promise. I like Luca and his father but the racefail continues with them - magic is still coded as black, and is morally ambiguous at best. I feel like I have nothing substantial to add to the race-WTFery of the show, but still.
AND what the fuck on the lack of gay people? There’s….Caroline’s father, who is even more absent than her mother and has been mentioned once. Other than that, there’s subtext, which is pretty worrisome given that how often it’s Damon or Katherine. Come on show. Be better. By which I mean, gayer.
I mean, I objectively have a lot of sympathy for the utter tragedy of her character. Because in a very real way it is all about her - she is the doppelganger, these terrible forces are coming after her, and the people she loves have been attacked because of it. She’s actually Katherine’s voodoo doll at one point, totally powerless even to experience the blows that tear her apart. And so I can’t blame her for trying to seize some agency by getting involved, though I do fault her for being so reckless. But it’s not like she can actually do anything in the way that Bonnie can, or the vampires, or even really Alaric with his brawn and years of practice. She can and will manipulate other humans, as we see with Alice, but that’s unlikely to be helpful often. She has to prioritize her own feelings by way of futile self-sacrifice, because otherwise she comes up against just how powerless she is in the whole situation, and that’s brutal.
But it’s inherently self-centered to do that, especially as she is a traumatized teenager and therefore definitively a person with absolutely zero perspective, which leads to things like her being shocked and appalled when people shut her out and make decisions for her! Which she has just spent a year doing for the rest of them. I should have been a lot more appalled when Damon tells her she doesn’t get to make decisions anymore, but I was more relieved someone finally decided to intervene. (What, was she going to pout the tomb open to let him out?) When Damon is the level-headed adult in the situation, things are not looking great for anybody.
Because Damon? Is not, in any way, stable. He’s fairly good at maintaining a constant level of energy toward flinging everyone away from him, so they don’t know when it’s out of immediate desperation or base-level hurt. The scene where he tortures and kills Mason is shocking and powerful not because it changes anything, but because it doesn’t. He’s acting exactly like his bad self there. Not much with the subtlety, either. “I look at you and I see myself.” And then rips Mason’s heart out. His claim that it “had to be done” is dubious at best (though again, evil and crazy, it doesn’t have to be true for me to appreciate the character), though he’s not wrong that Mason was a danger to them; it’s interesting that he feels some urge to justify his actions. (Ugh, his FACE when Elena deliberately includes him in the people she cares about.)
I love Jeremy swearing revenge on Katherine. He’s so out of his league. But, it’s ambitious. Katherine is his purpose now, too. I do not hold his failed plan to get the stone against him, because it really was at least plausible. He had a goal in mind, he took steps toward being able to achieve it, he took a risk that happened not to pay off. That, I can get behind. His fascination with death/Damon is potentially very interesting. Jeremy’s parents died, his girlfriend died twice, then his other girlfriend died, and his uncle and his aunt almost died, and, not shockingly given everything he’s been through, he tried to kill himself. Then Damon showed up and brought death almost immediately, and Jeremy…decided to live, but in a way where death is always with him.
I think I’m not big on Bonnie/Jeremy, which is odd because I like both characters. It just feels like, pairing off all the specials/non-specials, which I’d appreciate if it were really about power differentials, but dude, Bonnie can drop a vampire without moving, she is the most powerful person on the show.
They are all pretty funny when Bonnie zaps them. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! NOOOOOOOOOOO! HAIR GRAB! KNEEEEEEEEEEEL! Also, I am still on her side with the reality checks. They’re like, YEAH, VAMPIRES KILL PEOPLE AND ALL, BUT GOD, YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE SUCH A BITCH ABOUT IT. And Bonnie is like, ACTUALLY I KIND OF DO. And I love her interactions with the Salvatores, because she is the only one other than Katherine and to some extent Caroline who’s on equal footing with them. And she somewhat gets along with them, but she is at least bright enough to be like EVEN IF I AGREE WITH YOUR GOALS, THIS IS ONE OF YOUR PLANS AND WILL PROBABLY GO TERRIBLY WRONG. And she doesn’t want to be a part of it, but she needs to be a part of it and help.
I love how Katherine straightens her hair to look like Elena, and then rolls in with Lucy, like, WHAT, I ALWAYS HAVE GIANT LESBIAN TENSION WITH CHICKS I’VE NEVER MET. Also, I appreciate that if she had to be buried alive, she at least did so while looking fabulous. Elena would get buried alive in a tight jersey top and high-waist jeans. She's handled well here. She’s too good of an antagonist to believe they could resist her for long, but she’s too rich a character to actually kill her off so soon. Loved her Hanniballing them all from her cell. I’M NOT LOCKED IN HERE WITH YOU, STEFAN! YOU’RE LOCKED IN HERE WITH ME!
And Stefan is as much of a self-righteous jackass as Elena, OOOOH, IMMA GO DIE FOR HER. WHICH WILL DEFINITELY NOT GET HER EATEN. Not really a whole lot else going on with him here. I like Rose, and Elijah has a lot of promise. I like Luca and his father but the racefail continues with them - magic is still coded as black, and is morally ambiguous at best. I feel like I have nothing substantial to add to the race-WTFery of the show, but still.
AND what the fuck on the lack of gay people? There’s….Caroline’s father, who is even more absent than her mother and has been mentioned once. Other than that, there’s subtext, which is pretty worrisome given that how often it’s Damon or Katherine. Come on show. Be better. By which I mean, gayer.