he was (a) not romanticized, but not so demonized that his hold over his family was ignored, (b) called out by the BAMF nerd Ric, and best of all, (c) actually KILLED WITH FIRE by one of the show's decent fathers.
Oh hell yes. Richard Lockwood was the kind of mundane, human evil normally glossed over or worse, given priority by most typical dramas - but this show dealt with him the way he deserved to be dealt with. It's one of the things that earned my respect early on.
...that to turn abuse into power, the way we always tell people to, they have to escalate and become what they abhor. And it turns them into something dangerous; something that chips away at their humanity... We romanticize this sometimes, but it really is a curse, isn’t it?
Wonderful insight. It's one of the reasons I sympathize with Tyler so much - he takes his curse and does what he can to mitigate it. He rejects the escalation as much as it's within his power to do so. He can't keep himself from being a monster, but at least he can try not to hurt anyone else when the curse takes him.
I don’t want to be like this! Because he doesn’t want to use his power to hurt, but he only understands this violent, vertical type of status. And he’s like that until his father dies. He couldn’t live under his father’s influence. But now he’s got to live with the fact that he needed his father’s death to let him be a better person, and that’s painful, too.
Oh, wow, YES. The iron control his father exerted over Tyler made him tight as a bowstring - when that control snaps he's left flailing a bit. Richard's death sets him free, but it also unmoors him - it's easy to cling to a lifetime of abuse as an anchor, and Tyler has to find something else to ground him after his father is gone. He makes some bad calls, and errantly runs off with Jules and the wolf pack, looking for reason. To his credit, he turns back, and chooses Caroline's healing influence as the thing to give him weight.
because he and Tyler both know they’ve gone through the same thing, he doesn’t have to hide it. It’s crucial for Tyler because a part of the whole abuse phenomenon s gaslighting, conditioning and poisoning someone’s understanding of reality so they don’t have the mental perspective to challenge the assault on themselves. The fact that he and Mason can talk about “it” lets Tyler deal with the fact that “it” actually happened, which is necessary to dealing.
I have wondered a lot about what Mason and Richard's lives were like as kids; what sort of relationship they had with their own father. Mason's immediate ability to connect with Tyler (their griping with each other notwithstanding) and really get into "it" tells me the cycle has been going on for a long long time. Which makes it even more tragic that Mason was taken from Tyler so soon after they connected and shared with each other. Mason's death ensures that Tyler's going to go a little bit gooney over his new 'status.'
He feels grateful to Klaus, rather than angry, because becoming a vampire was just so easy in comparison to the terrible experience of finding out about and becoming a werewolf.
This makes a whole heap-ton of sense, and helps me be less side-eye of the whole "siring" situation. It was rather liberating for Tyler to become a hybrid. I'm with you - I sincerely hope Tyler learns how to accept what came before, understand what has happened to him, take responsibility for who he is now, and choose to be something different moving forward. I think he can do it. I know I'm rooting for him all the way.
Gosh, it's REALLY GOOD to talk about Tyler. He doesn't get enough attention.
MY PUPPY. I agree about the sad lack of Tyler talk!
He makes some bad calls, and errantly runs off with Jules and the wolf pack, looking for reason. To his credit, he turns back, and chooses Caroline's healing influence as the thing to give him weight.
Yeah, I don't even know that that was...so bad? I think he was making the only reasonable call he could make for his own and everyone else's safety. Given that he'd just found out Caroline was helping to cover up Mason's death - I don't blame her for lashing out after what she'd been through, but Team Salvatore does not have a leg between them to stand on with the *loyalty* argument as far as Tyler was concerned. And then I do think he got some answers and skills from Jules that he couldn't have gotten from the vampires. It really is okay for him to need someone who understands, and Caroline might have some idea about the existential issues there, but she has no idea about a lot of it.
I have wondered a lot about what Mason and Richard's lives were like as kids; what sort of relationship they had with their own father. Mason's immediate ability to connect with Tyler (their griping with each other notwithstanding) and really get into "it" tells me the cycle has been going on for a long long time.
YES. Which is why I love the genetic component of it so much. It's perfect. It's something their family experiences - cycle of abuse, goes around and around - but only some of them will get thrown into a situation where they "trigger the curse" and escalate.
Mason's death ensures that Tyler's going to go a little bit gooney over his new 'status.'
Ooooh, yeah, that is key, I hadn't thought about it in that light exactly, but you're right, Klaus is filling a paternal role there, and Tyler has very low expectations for paternal figures. Of course he'd be susceptible to siring. Which makes me even more excited about his role in Ghost World, to help break Klaus' hold over Tyler (the good father figure killing the bad one, again).
Oh hell yes. Richard Lockwood was the kind of mundane, human evil normally glossed over or worse, given priority by most typical dramas - but this show dealt with him the way he deserved to be dealt with. It's one of the things that earned my respect early on.
...that to turn abuse into power, the way we always tell people to, they have to escalate and become what they abhor. And it turns them into something dangerous; something that chips away at their humanity... We romanticize this sometimes, but it really is a curse, isn’t it?
Wonderful insight. It's one of the reasons I sympathize with Tyler so much - he takes his curse and does what he can to mitigate it. He rejects the escalation as much as it's within his power to do so. He can't keep himself from being a monster, but at least he can try not to hurt anyone else when the curse takes him.
I don’t want to be like this! Because he doesn’t want to use his power to hurt, but he only understands this violent, vertical type of status. And he’s like that until his father dies. He couldn’t live under his father’s influence. But now he’s got to live with the fact that he needed his father’s death to let him be a better person, and that’s painful, too.
Oh, wow, YES. The iron control his father exerted over Tyler made him tight as a bowstring - when that control snaps he's left flailing a bit. Richard's death sets him free, but it also unmoors him - it's easy to cling to a lifetime of abuse as an anchor, and Tyler has to find something else to ground him after his father is gone. He makes some bad calls, and errantly runs off with Jules and the wolf pack, looking for reason. To his credit, he turns back, and chooses Caroline's healing influence as the thing to give him weight.
because he and Tyler both know they’ve gone through the same thing, he doesn’t have to hide it. It’s crucial for Tyler because a part of the whole abuse phenomenon s gaslighting, conditioning and poisoning someone’s understanding of reality so they don’t have the mental perspective to challenge the assault on themselves. The fact that he and Mason can talk about “it” lets Tyler deal with the fact that “it” actually happened, which is necessary to dealing.
I have wondered a lot about what Mason and Richard's lives were like as kids; what sort of relationship they had with their own father. Mason's immediate ability to connect with Tyler (their griping with each other notwithstanding) and really get into "it" tells me the cycle has been going on for a long long time. Which makes it even more tragic that Mason was taken from Tyler so soon after they connected and shared with each other. Mason's death ensures that Tyler's going to go a little bit gooney over his new 'status.'
He feels grateful to Klaus, rather than angry, because becoming a vampire was just so easy in comparison to the terrible experience of finding out about and becoming a werewolf.
This makes a whole heap-ton of sense, and helps me be less side-eye of the whole "siring" situation. It was rather liberating for Tyler to become a hybrid. I'm with you - I sincerely hope Tyler learns how to accept what came before, understand what has happened to him, take responsibility for who he is now, and choose to be something different moving forward. I think he can do it. I know I'm rooting for him all the way.
Gosh, it's REALLY GOOD to talk about Tyler. He doesn't get enough attention.
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He makes some bad calls, and errantly runs off with Jules and the wolf pack, looking for reason. To his credit, he turns back, and chooses Caroline's healing influence as the thing to give him weight.
Yeah, I don't even know that that was...so bad? I think he was making the only reasonable call he could make for his own and everyone else's safety. Given that he'd just found out Caroline was helping to cover up Mason's death - I don't blame her for lashing out after what she'd been through, but Team Salvatore does not have a leg between them to stand on with the *loyalty* argument as far as Tyler was concerned. And then I do think he got some answers and skills from Jules that he couldn't have gotten from the vampires. It really is okay for him to need someone who understands, and Caroline might have some idea about the existential issues there, but she has no idea about a lot of it.
I have wondered a lot about what Mason and Richard's lives were like as kids; what sort of relationship they had with their own father. Mason's immediate ability to connect with Tyler (their griping with each other notwithstanding) and really get into "it" tells me the cycle has been going on for a long long time.
YES. Which is why I love the genetic component of it so much. It's perfect. It's something their family experiences - cycle of abuse, goes around and around - but only some of them will get thrown into a situation where they "trigger the curse" and escalate.
Mason's death ensures that Tyler's going to go a little bit gooney over his new 'status.'
Ooooh, yeah, that is key, I hadn't thought about it in that light exactly, but you're right, Klaus is filling a paternal role there, and Tyler has very low expectations for paternal figures. Of course he'd be susceptible to siring. Which makes me even more excited about his role in Ghost World, to help break Klaus' hold over Tyler (the good father figure killing the bad one, again).
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