TVD - 1912
I'm surprisingly light on thoughts but I did really enjoy it!
Lots of people being strangely but amusingly introspective. Oh man, I could've jumped into the screen to hug Elena when she opened up to Matt about how, bizarre as it was, Stefan felt safe because he was already dead. And if she's acknowledging that, then that means she's getting past that even before she catches him in flagrante. The Elena/Matt seems to be happening, which I am okay with now that Caroline has two super-hot hybrids after her and is therefore likely to be over it.
I'm really excited to see more of Sage. Intriguing that Rebekah knew her all those years ago, and she was into Finn, of all the vampires one could be after. (ARRRRGH, MATEYS.)
So I don't want to apologize for Sage's gross philosophy, or Damon's willingness to accept it and pass it on to Stefan, but at the same time, I don't think the show is apologizing for it? I think it's fairly clear that VAMPIRES ARE RAPEY AND HORRIBLE - and that people become that way not through some innate drive, but through some degree of conditioning and choice, and it doesn't matter where they learn it because it's always wrong. And no, I don't think the narrative was endorsing Damon's sexist comments; I don't even think Damon was endorsing Damon's sexist comments, I think he was going out of his way to be a dick and that the script purposely has him seize on that in order to underline the metaphor sortaphor. That this is still and will always be a show about cycles of abuse, how people learn bad behavior and pass it on, sometimes even thinking they really are doing something good along with the bad.
Because ah. He's being vile and horrible when he decides to use the girl in Stefan's recovery/his own gleeful leap into the dark, but he's still Damon, and so his justifications are openly-articulated, and correct. Cold turkey doesn't work for Stefan, and maybe not for vampires ever. He can still be a real boy, but he's got to learn that the blood isn't the same thing as the violence. (Damon could stand to learn that too, obviously, but, baby steps.)
Rebekah is still the motherfucking princess of my heart. I love how got back up in Damon's face and still wants to party with them because they're the game in town and she doesn't want to be alone, and she's still kind of got the hots for Damon. Once your mama tries to kill you, a little Salvatore sniping is a fucking joke. She's the one getting shit done about the tree while all her dumb brothers are off like wah wah, I'm having an existential crisis, blah blah look at me being bad.
I'm super-excited for this ring story! I like that it's going to have ramifications for Ric (wait, did Isobel really take out protective orders against him?), and especially that we're getting to meet Samantha Gilbert. I especially support how that busts up the primogeniture deal with the ring before. GIRLS CAN WEAR JEWELRY TOO OKAY. And Meredith Fell remains awesome, setting herself above the law because SHE knows best, thus being terrifying but not evil.
(If someone has a less god-awful explanation for this I'd like to hear it, but I don't think there is: "Dad knocked up the 'maid' during the Civil War"? WOW, show. Foul ball.)
Watching while it's actually on means getting to flip back and forth with Jersey Shore during commercials and reaffirm my conviction that haters can take a long walk off the shortest pier on the left, because Snooki is the greatest performance artist of our generation. I really feel it is only a matter of time before she gets her own talk show, and, I devoutly hope, creates the TRASHIEST CLOTHING LINE EVER. It will be gaudy. It will be tacky. It will be everywhere. IT WILL BE MINE.
Lots of people being strangely but amusingly introspective. Oh man, I could've jumped into the screen to hug Elena when she opened up to Matt about how, bizarre as it was, Stefan felt safe because he was already dead. And if she's acknowledging that, then that means she's getting past that even before she catches him in flagrante. The Elena/Matt seems to be happening, which I am okay with now that Caroline has two super-hot hybrids after her and is therefore likely to be over it.
I'm really excited to see more of Sage. Intriguing that Rebekah knew her all those years ago, and she was into Finn, of all the vampires one could be after. (ARRRRGH, MATEYS.)
So I don't want to apologize for Sage's gross philosophy, or Damon's willingness to accept it and pass it on to Stefan, but at the same time, I don't think the show is apologizing for it? I think it's fairly clear that VAMPIRES ARE RAPEY AND HORRIBLE - and that people become that way not through some innate drive, but through some degree of conditioning and choice, and it doesn't matter where they learn it because it's always wrong. And no, I don't think the narrative was endorsing Damon's sexist comments; I don't even think Damon was endorsing Damon's sexist comments, I think he was going out of his way to be a dick and that the script purposely has him seize on that in order to underline the metaphor sortaphor. That this is still and will always be a show about cycles of abuse, how people learn bad behavior and pass it on, sometimes even thinking they really are doing something good along with the bad.
Because ah. He's being vile and horrible when he decides to use the girl in Stefan's recovery/his own gleeful leap into the dark, but he's still Damon, and so his justifications are openly-articulated, and correct. Cold turkey doesn't work for Stefan, and maybe not for vampires ever. He can still be a real boy, but he's got to learn that the blood isn't the same thing as the violence. (Damon could stand to learn that too, obviously, but, baby steps.)
Rebekah is still the motherfucking princess of my heart. I love how got back up in Damon's face and still wants to party with them because they're the game in town and she doesn't want to be alone, and she's still kind of got the hots for Damon. Once your mama tries to kill you, a little Salvatore sniping is a fucking joke. She's the one getting shit done about the tree while all her dumb brothers are off like wah wah, I'm having an existential crisis, blah blah look at me being bad.
I'm super-excited for this ring story! I like that it's going to have ramifications for Ric (wait, did Isobel really take out protective orders against him?), and especially that we're getting to meet Samantha Gilbert. I especially support how that busts up the primogeniture deal with the ring before. GIRLS CAN WEAR JEWELRY TOO OKAY. And Meredith Fell remains awesome, setting herself above the law because SHE knows best, thus being terrifying but not evil.
(If someone has a less god-awful explanation for this I'd like to hear it, but I don't think there is: "Dad knocked up the 'maid' during the Civil War"? WOW, show. Foul ball.)
Watching while it's actually on means getting to flip back and forth with Jersey Shore during commercials and reaffirm my conviction that haters can take a long walk off the shortest pier on the left, because Snooki is the greatest performance artist of our generation. I really feel it is only a matter of time before she gets her own talk show, and, I devoutly hope, creates the TRASHIEST CLOTHING LINE EVER. It will be gaudy. It will be tacky. It will be everywhere. IT WILL BE MINE.