whatever it takes
“Don’t mistake the fact that we didn’t set you on fire in your sleep for trust.” Never attribute to warm fuzzy feewings that which can be chalked up to self-interest. Because The Vampire Diaries understands political strategy and alliance-building better than Battlestar Galactica. Against all of Elena’s best efforts to die they’ve built a team around protecting her; against all Damon’s best efforts to be a shit, he’s a keystone in something constructive and functional. They all want Klaus dead.
Poor Caroline is even more stuck in the middle of her awful circumstances. She doesn’t even seem to consider compelling Matt to forget it all until he brings it up. Matt is possibly at his most interesting and sympathetic here, as awful as the whole thing is going to be for Caroline - it’s totally believable that his grief for his sister and fear of the power Caroline has been hiding from him would motivate him to turn on her, even if she doesn’t deserve it, just like what happened with Tyler a few episodes ago.
JESUS CHRIST. What a waste of an awesome character with Isobel’s death. Can this show go for two hours of screen time without killing off a female character for no reason? So was Isobel compelled to commit suicide? Or she was disappointed in herself and, as with Damon and Rose, just a little more human than she wanted to be? Isobel, ultimately, is the pawn Elena is so afraid she herself is, and such a good one because she is assumed to be a pawn by everyone around her.
AlariKlaus felt a little off to me at first, as if they didn’t know how to bring Alaric into the action, but I ended up really enjoying him and his arrogant, theatrically villainous self. (It doesn’t hurt that once Davis found his feet with it, he was clearly having a blast.) I hope he doesn’t die, though the prognosis on Insane Medieval Werevamp Cancer is probably not good. I do wonder why Isobel picked him for Klaus to possess. Did she want to destroy him as thoroughly as herself?
OH MY GOD I was afraid my lady was going to DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE. In my defense, I was unaware that BONNIE BENNETT IS A GODDESS, BITCHES. Yeah, it’s kind of a cheap shot to make us buy it and then have her have CAST A SPELL. But it’s effective. It puts us where Elena is, and it’s to the show’s credit that yeah, I totally thought it would go there killing off a regular. And it tells us some serious shit about Bonnie. She is just as willing to die as Elena, though she has just as much to live for. But where Elena tries to end that constant dilemma by flinging herself into emotions, Bonnie gets that discretion is the better part of valor. When plan A doesn’t work out, she has a plan B. And that’s what gives Elena time to come up with the Plan C of Elijah.
Elena is pissed at Damon for letting Bonnie die - ie, exactly the way she wants Damon to treat her. Because there are special rules for Elena Gilbert. She deserves to make her own decisions no matter how bad she is at it. Everyone else is a raging moron who cannot be trusted. Her pain at the idea of losing them is the end of the world; the idea that they might have any care for her or each other, or any power nearing hers to affect the situation, is not worth a second thought to her. Man Pain at its finest. I fully cop to my own double standard in that it’s not making me actively dislike her in the way it would with a male character, because it’s necessarily an inversion in a lot of ways. But it doesn’t actively make me like her, either, nearly as much as it does make me generally more critical of her reliance on protagonist privilege, even in her moments of resourceful, clear-eyed awesomeness.
I think that’s the thing that stops me from connecting with her the way I do with most of the other characters, is the massive protagonist privilege, the pretext for which is that she is the super-socially-privileged girl who’s the special-est of all the other super-socially-privileged girls because all the boys love her the most. The vast majority of the time, her skill set on display is performance of femininity. (This is true for Katherine as well, but Katherine is much more conscious of it, and it’s a tool she actively uses for her own survival, which does play with the femininity paradigm in a way Elena’s heavily familial, emotional self-sacrifice doesn’t.) None of which is in any way bad, or erases her good qualities, or even makes me dislike her, it’s just not particularly engaging to me, which is tough for the center of the story. SELL ME, everyone.
Jeremy continues to be great. He offers to give up the ring - a brave sacrifice, one that’s both emotionally and tactically difficult - but doesn’t force the issue to make a big point of it. That plan seems to really have been changed at the last minute, meaning that he went from wondering if she’s going to die to being the one responsible for making sure she’s resurrected. And he’s not only totally calm about it, but totally pragmatic. Safe place, and internet. They’re at the second safest place they could be - that old house’s ghosts really aren’t going to care for Klaus. I’ve changed my mind. Unless we get Bonnie/Damon - which is the only reasonably power-balanced relationship he could possibly have - I am officially on board with Jeremy/Bonnie. I like this dynamic. Caring, respectful, honest, considerate of each other and others.
Damon, meanwhile, continues to up his game on both the Magnificent Bastard and Psychotic Jackass fronts. (His priceless response to Elijah asking for an apology goes under both headers. I can’t even.) Obviously I love his ruthless strategizing. HE HAD TO BELIEVE IT. Pretty freaking harsh to put Elena through that but yeah, she and Stefan weren’t going to be able to fake it. Damon would be totally into The Method. And damn, I loved his come to Jesus moment with Stefan at the end there. Stefan really wants the ability to pretend he and Elena are in a normal relationship, which is what they should be able to have and I don’t think less of them for wanting the escape. But to do that, they do need to depend on Damon to step back and make the brutal calls, and I am all about him pointing that out as bluntly as possible rather than being a dumb martyr about it.
That said, his abuse of Andie goes to an even uglier place. Does the compulsion work based on what the vampire tells the victim to do, or what the vampire wants the victim to do? That’s the only way I can make sense of Andie’s trying to stick around with Damon, without it being a victim-blaming mess. I can see a read where she’s torn because he’s forcing her to feel afraid of and drawn to him, which would underscore as bluntly as possibly the selfish brutality of the way he puts his issues on her without condemning her in any way. I mean, it is pretty powerfully framed as an indictment of his behavior - he goes from unstable and dangerous but incisive, honest, and vulnerable with Stefan to ugly, controlling, and completely unsympathetic with Andie in a way that underscores how close to the edge he always is, without eliminating the reality that he’s just too magnetic and powerful for his instability to affect him alone.
I want to go into the parallels over the brothers Salvatore and the Originals, but I am too busy being squicked at Klaus the Master Race-er vs Elijah. I do love that Elijah and Klaus are totally living up to and beyond the Crazy Fabulous standard set by the main fellas, though. I keep expecting Elijah to go all Lord John Marbury on Damon.
I like how the show doesn’t concern itself with the fake-outs being likely, while still managing to keep some consistency. The sun & moon curse being a fake actually makes more sense out of what came before. It’s that great tongue-in-cheek meta the show does so well - the whole thing felt hollow and MacGuffiny as a plot device, which means I like it so much better when it turns out to be one in-universe as well.
Onto the last arc! THIS BETTER BE AS EPIC AS I KEEP HEARING. RLY THO.
Poor Caroline is even more stuck in the middle of her awful circumstances. She doesn’t even seem to consider compelling Matt to forget it all until he brings it up. Matt is possibly at his most interesting and sympathetic here, as awful as the whole thing is going to be for Caroline - it’s totally believable that his grief for his sister and fear of the power Caroline has been hiding from him would motivate him to turn on her, even if she doesn’t deserve it, just like what happened with Tyler a few episodes ago.
JESUS CHRIST. What a waste of an awesome character with Isobel’s death. Can this show go for two hours of screen time without killing off a female character for no reason? So was Isobel compelled to commit suicide? Or she was disappointed in herself and, as with Damon and Rose, just a little more human than she wanted to be? Isobel, ultimately, is the pawn Elena is so afraid she herself is, and such a good one because she is assumed to be a pawn by everyone around her.
AlariKlaus felt a little off to me at first, as if they didn’t know how to bring Alaric into the action, but I ended up really enjoying him and his arrogant, theatrically villainous self. (It doesn’t hurt that once Davis found his feet with it, he was clearly having a blast.) I hope he doesn’t die, though the prognosis on Insane Medieval Werevamp Cancer is probably not good. I do wonder why Isobel picked him for Klaus to possess. Did she want to destroy him as thoroughly as herself?
OH MY GOD I was afraid my lady was going to DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE. In my defense, I was unaware that BONNIE BENNETT IS A GODDESS, BITCHES. Yeah, it’s kind of a cheap shot to make us buy it and then have her have CAST A SPELL. But it’s effective. It puts us where Elena is, and it’s to the show’s credit that yeah, I totally thought it would go there killing off a regular. And it tells us some serious shit about Bonnie. She is just as willing to die as Elena, though she has just as much to live for. But where Elena tries to end that constant dilemma by flinging herself into emotions, Bonnie gets that discretion is the better part of valor. When plan A doesn’t work out, she has a plan B. And that’s what gives Elena time to come up with the Plan C of Elijah.
Elena is pissed at Damon for letting Bonnie die - ie, exactly the way she wants Damon to treat her. Because there are special rules for Elena Gilbert. She deserves to make her own decisions no matter how bad she is at it. Everyone else is a raging moron who cannot be trusted. Her pain at the idea of losing them is the end of the world; the idea that they might have any care for her or each other, or any power nearing hers to affect the situation, is not worth a second thought to her. Man Pain at its finest. I fully cop to my own double standard in that it’s not making me actively dislike her in the way it would with a male character, because it’s necessarily an inversion in a lot of ways. But it doesn’t actively make me like her, either, nearly as much as it does make me generally more critical of her reliance on protagonist privilege, even in her moments of resourceful, clear-eyed awesomeness.
I think that’s the thing that stops me from connecting with her the way I do with most of the other characters, is the massive protagonist privilege, the pretext for which is that she is the super-socially-privileged girl who’s the special-est of all the other super-socially-privileged girls because all the boys love her the most. The vast majority of the time, her skill set on display is performance of femininity. (This is true for Katherine as well, but Katherine is much more conscious of it, and it’s a tool she actively uses for her own survival, which does play with the femininity paradigm in a way Elena’s heavily familial, emotional self-sacrifice doesn’t.) None of which is in any way bad, or erases her good qualities, or even makes me dislike her, it’s just not particularly engaging to me, which is tough for the center of the story. SELL ME, everyone.
Jeremy continues to be great. He offers to give up the ring - a brave sacrifice, one that’s both emotionally and tactically difficult - but doesn’t force the issue to make a big point of it. That plan seems to really have been changed at the last minute, meaning that he went from wondering if she’s going to die to being the one responsible for making sure she’s resurrected. And he’s not only totally calm about it, but totally pragmatic. Safe place, and internet. They’re at the second safest place they could be - that old house’s ghosts really aren’t going to care for Klaus. I’ve changed my mind. Unless we get Bonnie/Damon - which is the only reasonably power-balanced relationship he could possibly have - I am officially on board with Jeremy/Bonnie. I like this dynamic. Caring, respectful, honest, considerate of each other and others.
Damon, meanwhile, continues to up his game on both the Magnificent Bastard and Psychotic Jackass fronts. (His priceless response to Elijah asking for an apology goes under both headers. I can’t even.) Obviously I love his ruthless strategizing. HE HAD TO BELIEVE IT. Pretty freaking harsh to put Elena through that but yeah, she and Stefan weren’t going to be able to fake it. Damon would be totally into The Method. And damn, I loved his come to Jesus moment with Stefan at the end there. Stefan really wants the ability to pretend he and Elena are in a normal relationship, which is what they should be able to have and I don’t think less of them for wanting the escape. But to do that, they do need to depend on Damon to step back and make the brutal calls, and I am all about him pointing that out as bluntly as possible rather than being a dumb martyr about it.
That said, his abuse of Andie goes to an even uglier place. Does the compulsion work based on what the vampire tells the victim to do, or what the vampire wants the victim to do? That’s the only way I can make sense of Andie’s trying to stick around with Damon, without it being a victim-blaming mess. I can see a read where she’s torn because he’s forcing her to feel afraid of and drawn to him, which would underscore as bluntly as possibly the selfish brutality of the way he puts his issues on her without condemning her in any way. I mean, it is pretty powerfully framed as an indictment of his behavior - he goes from unstable and dangerous but incisive, honest, and vulnerable with Stefan to ugly, controlling, and completely unsympathetic with Andie in a way that underscores how close to the edge he always is, without eliminating the reality that he’s just too magnetic and powerful for his instability to affect him alone.
I want to go into the parallels over the brothers Salvatore and the Originals, but I am too busy being squicked at Klaus the Master Race-er vs Elijah. I do love that Elijah and Klaus are totally living up to and beyond the Crazy Fabulous standard set by the main fellas, though. I keep expecting Elijah to go all Lord John Marbury on Damon.
I like how the show doesn’t concern itself with the fake-outs being likely, while still managing to keep some consistency. The sun & moon curse being a fake actually makes more sense out of what came before. It’s that great tongue-in-cheek meta the show does so well - the whole thing felt hollow and MacGuffiny as a plot device, which means I like it so much better when it turns out to be one in-universe as well.
Onto the last arc! THIS BETTER BE AS EPIC AS I KEEP HEARING. RLY THO.