tvd: disturbing behavior
I do love Stefan’s inability to be a cold bastard in the face of Katherine! What she tells him to do is exactly the best course of action he could have taken. Of course he waits until she’s off-screen to be all WHATEVER, BITCH DON’T KNOW ME! and does the opposite of that, which he knew on some level would fuck things up and force him into being in a different place, though he’s less thrilled when he actually gets his wish at the end.
Rebekah is still sulky, cute potential but not much more for me yet. She’s fun for Klaus to play off of, and I actually would like to see things happen with her and Stefan, though S/E still has enough setup for interesting issues that it’s not really necessary. Sorry to see Gloria go (the witches are always my favorites!); she could’ve been an interestingly detached ally for Stefan and Katherine against Klaus.
Meanwhile, in Mystic Falls, Caroline is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. She is the best friend you could possibly ask for. She’s also a wonderfully realistic character, dealing with her situation as much as she can/has to without being able to handle it entirely; her father’s betrayal of her is painful but it doesn’t destroy her love for him. Her relationship with Tyler continues to be delightful - it doesn’t have a syrupy fix-all feel to it, but it’s healthy and supportive, and so far the show is resisting the urge to manipulate us with tension.
Bonnie is getting a bit of setup, that she can’t draw on all the Bennett power anymore, which puts a narratively necessary limit on her power and ensuring that there’s at least some consequences for her previous actions, without disempowering her entirely. THE PLOT CONTINUES TO FAIL TO THICKEN with Jeremy and Anna (and Vicki) but I still like it.
I’m not so wild about the idea of Elena having feelings for Damon, and really, I don’t think she does. She has this Zero-Sum Salvatore thing in her head, where her identity is built around the way she loves the Good Brother and cares about but is disdainful toward the Bad One - but it’s not that simple and it never has been. And so caring about Damon (who won’t let her think of him as the good one, because he does everything he can to avoid expectations) rattles the foundations of everything for her.
Damon continues to have some of the best characterization on television at the moment. Because here’s the thing with personal growth: it’s not fast, it’s not linear; it never takes right away, it usually doesn’t net more than a little, often it doesn’t take at all, and sometimes it makes things worse. Operation Save Stefan was a crutch for Damon in a lot of ways, but he’s had to at least temporarily let Stefan go, and so he’s edgy. I don’t think he’s given up entirely, because he can’t and because there doesn’t seem to be reason to do that, but when the episode opens he doesn’t seem to think there’s anything he can do until Katherine shows up, conveniently, exactly when he’s successfully sabotaged what he’s built. But he does destroy it, because he can’t trust anything, or anyone, especially not himself, to stay in place, and he’s so afraid of what happens when he leans on something. It’s a vulnerability and he knows it.
HRG is an excuse to go off the deep end - he is a threat to Damon, and then I do think Damon is a little protective of Caroline (quite the “nobody’s allowed to mess with you but me” sibling vibe he has with Stefan, however much he’d never admit it) and he leaps right onto it. Damon really forces us to look at the me’n’mine perspective that’s generally presumed, because he (in part because he's not actually entirely invested in it) takes it way out to its logical conclusions.
And yet, “Your technique is a little lazy” - and that’s an interesting observation on where he is. Because if there’s one thing Damon knows how to do, it’s the art of incisively getting at someone. And HRG doesn’t comment on a lack of power. He’s really not throwing his whole heart into being a bad boy anymore, no matter how much effort he goes to in acting like one.
Which, you know, he killed Ric (THEIR LOVE IS SO TRAGIC &c) and I am not defending that or anything, but it’s a really interesting comparison to where he was before. Because he killed Ric out and out back in S1 without knowing anything about the ring; he killed Jeremy during the first season when he at least won’t admit to the ring having consciously registered. This time around, we see him look down at Ric’s hand, know that he could pull the ring off, and then effectively knock the guy out. He wants to live on the edge and prove he’s BAD TO THE BONE, BORN TO BE WILD, DOESN’T GIVE A DAMN ‘BOUT HIS REPUTATION, and so he goes for the most theatrical course of action which is not out of line with his objectives. He’s not in that nihilistic place of taking any excuse in sight to destroy everything permanently. And that’s a net positive change for Damon. Also, I’m going to the special hell, because that Y U MAD, BRUH? scene after Ric wakes up made me giggle with the wrong!cuteness.
I do like what’s happening with Ric this season, though. He’s putting on the Responsible Adult persona, and Damon killing him is the precipitating event that makes him decide he needs to go over the top with it. And he’s not wrong that the Council, through Liz and Carol, have lost some perspective, but he’s also showing that he may not be the best person to actually provide it.
AND THEN DAMON AND KATHERINE WENT ON A ROAD TRIP AND THE WORLD IS MADE OF RAINBOWS AND PUPPIES. Damon doesn’t feel that very present need to have or distance himself from her, like he had his crisis over her and worked it out. Scar tissue is the strongest and all, and I don’t expect to see him go where he was in S2 over her, but he’s not as steady as he wants to think he is. Not least because Katherine likes her toys; she knows exactly how to dole out exactly enough of herself to pull him back in.
edit: where is the Texts from Mystic Falls tumblr? someone is on that shit, right? because I WANTS IT, MY PRECIOUS.
Rebekah is still sulky, cute potential but not much more for me yet. She’s fun for Klaus to play off of, and I actually would like to see things happen with her and Stefan, though S/E still has enough setup for interesting issues that it’s not really necessary. Sorry to see Gloria go (the witches are always my favorites!); she could’ve been an interestingly detached ally for Stefan and Katherine against Klaus.
Meanwhile, in Mystic Falls, Caroline is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. She is the best friend you could possibly ask for. She’s also a wonderfully realistic character, dealing with her situation as much as she can/has to without being able to handle it entirely; her father’s betrayal of her is painful but it doesn’t destroy her love for him. Her relationship with Tyler continues to be delightful - it doesn’t have a syrupy fix-all feel to it, but it’s healthy and supportive, and so far the show is resisting the urge to manipulate us with tension.
Bonnie is getting a bit of setup, that she can’t draw on all the Bennett power anymore, which puts a narratively necessary limit on her power and ensuring that there’s at least some consequences for her previous actions, without disempowering her entirely. THE PLOT CONTINUES TO FAIL TO THICKEN with Jeremy and Anna (and Vicki) but I still like it.
I’m not so wild about the idea of Elena having feelings for Damon, and really, I don’t think she does. She has this Zero-Sum Salvatore thing in her head, where her identity is built around the way she loves the Good Brother and cares about but is disdainful toward the Bad One - but it’s not that simple and it never has been. And so caring about Damon (who won’t let her think of him as the good one, because he does everything he can to avoid expectations) rattles the foundations of everything for her.
Damon continues to have some of the best characterization on television at the moment. Because here’s the thing with personal growth: it’s not fast, it’s not linear; it never takes right away, it usually doesn’t net more than a little, often it doesn’t take at all, and sometimes it makes things worse. Operation Save Stefan was a crutch for Damon in a lot of ways, but he’s had to at least temporarily let Stefan go, and so he’s edgy. I don’t think he’s given up entirely, because he can’t and because there doesn’t seem to be reason to do that, but when the episode opens he doesn’t seem to think there’s anything he can do until Katherine shows up, conveniently, exactly when he’s successfully sabotaged what he’s built. But he does destroy it, because he can’t trust anything, or anyone, especially not himself, to stay in place, and he’s so afraid of what happens when he leans on something. It’s a vulnerability and he knows it.
HRG is an excuse to go off the deep end - he is a threat to Damon, and then I do think Damon is a little protective of Caroline (quite the “nobody’s allowed to mess with you but me” sibling vibe he has with Stefan, however much he’d never admit it) and he leaps right onto it. Damon really forces us to look at the me’n’mine perspective that’s generally presumed, because he (in part because he's not actually entirely invested in it) takes it way out to its logical conclusions.
And yet, “Your technique is a little lazy” - and that’s an interesting observation on where he is. Because if there’s one thing Damon knows how to do, it’s the art of incisively getting at someone. And HRG doesn’t comment on a lack of power. He’s really not throwing his whole heart into being a bad boy anymore, no matter how much effort he goes to in acting like one.
Which, you know, he killed Ric (THEIR LOVE IS SO TRAGIC &c) and I am not defending that or anything, but it’s a really interesting comparison to where he was before. Because he killed Ric out and out back in S1 without knowing anything about the ring; he killed Jeremy during the first season when he at least won’t admit to the ring having consciously registered. This time around, we see him look down at Ric’s hand, know that he could pull the ring off, and then effectively knock the guy out. He wants to live on the edge and prove he’s BAD TO THE BONE, BORN TO BE WILD, DOESN’T GIVE A DAMN ‘BOUT HIS REPUTATION, and so he goes for the most theatrical course of action which is not out of line with his objectives. He’s not in that nihilistic place of taking any excuse in sight to destroy everything permanently. And that’s a net positive change for Damon. Also, I’m going to the special hell, because that Y U MAD, BRUH? scene after Ric wakes up made me giggle with the wrong!cuteness.
I do like what’s happening with Ric this season, though. He’s putting on the Responsible Adult persona, and Damon killing him is the precipitating event that makes him decide he needs to go over the top with it. And he’s not wrong that the Council, through Liz and Carol, have lost some perspective, but he’s also showing that he may not be the best person to actually provide it.
AND THEN DAMON AND KATHERINE WENT ON A ROAD TRIP AND THE WORLD IS MADE OF RAINBOWS AND PUPPIES. Damon doesn’t feel that very present need to have or distance himself from her, like he had his crisis over her and worked it out. Scar tissue is the strongest and all, and I don’t expect to see him go where he was in S2 over her, but he’s not as steady as he wants to think he is. Not least because Katherine likes her toys; she knows exactly how to dole out exactly enough of herself to pull him back in.
edit: where is the Texts from Mystic Falls tumblr? someone is on that shit, right? because I WANTS IT, MY PRECIOUS.