Dysfunctional Shipping Awareness Month, Day 17-18
STEFAN/ELENA, so much so. Because this isn't me doing it wrong! It's really not. The whole point of Stefan/Elena was about how fucked-up and wrong it was. The show starts out as a deconstruction of Twilight and all its archetypal predecessors. And all the stuff that pinged me as messed-up way back at the beginning got drawn out as being so horribly, excruciatingly wrong.
A huge part of the reason it isn't a fairy tale is Day 18, the transference issues. By and large, it's Katherine, of course, especially since under the metaphysical rules of the 'verse, Elena is Katherine in every way that matters to the forces of nature. I understand and in some ways almost sympathize with the way Stefan was transfering his Katherine issues onto Elena, and trying to take ownership and fix that whole horrible part of his past, but in doing so, that necessarily means he was objectifying her even though he really did care about her. She's the doppenganger, she's Katherine, he's working out those issues on her and that's terrifying.
But there's also a lot of transference re: Damon going on here. A lot of the talk about Damon and Elena as mirroring each other comes from D/E fandom, not least because Damon fans, we do love our narrative resonance. But there's a pretty intense thing going on for Stefan here, where his feelings for Elena are at least in part about her Damonosity. Stefan really, really doesn't want his feelings about his brother to be as complicated as they are. If he lets himself need Damon, or be pissed at Damon, or acknowledges the weird hold he and Damon have over each other...Stefan isn't big on acknowledging his right to these more complicated feelings, let alone actually dealing with those feelings. Elena is Damon-like enough that he can give those feelings some cover and some release, but she's not actually Damon, so his love for her can be a lot more straightforward and easier to process.
In most ways, that's pretty disturbing, obviously, but I do think having that opportunity to process a little bit with the training wheels on is what lets him get to the relationship he and Damon have now, which is certainly more solid than it's been since they were human, maybe even ever. The creepiest thing about the S/E transference is that as fucked up as it is, I can't bring myself to say it's all bad.
YOU'RE WELCOME, SALVACEST SHIPPERS, THAT'S AS FAR AS I'LL BUDGE.
[whole meme below]
Day 1: The ship you don't want to be endgame.
Day 2: The ship you love because it really never will happen.
Day 3: "They are the worst possible thing to happen to each other" ship.
Day 4: The ship that would ruin/assassinate the characters if it happened.
Day 5: The ship where your favourite scene is the most dysfunctional one.
Day 6: The ship where the rest of its fandom is DOING IT WRONG.Day 7: The ship where the writers are DOING IT WRONG.
Day 8: The ship you want to break up so you can stan the hell out of them.
Day 9: The ship you want to see being a trainwreck tragedy because they're too alike.
Day 10: The ship you want to see being a trainwreck tragedy because they're too different.
Day 11: The ship you love for its creepiness.
Day 12: The ship you love for the power difference.
Day 13: The ship you love for the way they hurt each other.
Day 14: The ship you love for the angst, banishing all joy and sunlight.
Day 15: The couple that are at their moral worst when around each other.
Day 16: Most creatively homicidal ship.
Day 17: The ship that looked like a fairytale but isn't or never was.
Day 18: The ship with the most transference issues.
Day 19: The starcrossed ship where the obvious reason they're starcrossed is the least interesting aspect to you.
Day 20: The couple you only ship in an "in another lifetime" sort of way.
Day 21: A couple you ship for the wrong reasons that fits none of these criteria.
Day 22: A couple you ship for the wrong reasons that fits too many of these criteria.
Day 23: A ship you wanted to include but couldn't find the space for.
Day 24: Anything you want.
Day 25: Fanfic and meta that say what you want, but so much more eloquently.
Day 26: Fanvids and fanmixes that say what you want, but so much more eloquently.
Day 27: Picspams, GIFS, and other fandom things that say what you want, so eloquently you feel redundant.
Day 28: The "exception that proves the rule of the rest of the meme" ship.