lots of chit-chat!

[pocochina]

So both of my shows are coming back soon and I think it's time for next season wish lists/concerns!

• While I absolutely want Bonnie to embrace her power and her thirst to understand it, I don't want this to be conflated with "going dark." There's nothing wrong with her having or using her powers. The most interesting stories aren't about people being scary and evil, they're about people being scary and right. Bonnie, of all the TVD characters, is the one who can best carry such an interesting story.
• I definitely do not want Elena to get un-vamped. I think it works so well.
• If she does decide to capitalize on the fact that she can violate people's minds all by her big-girl self now, I don't want it to be justified or handwaved. I'm leaning 60/40 toward saying she won't, at least for a little while, because IMO that was a lot more about powerlessness and fear than it was about "caring too much" about anyone. She has nothing left to be afraid of; she's really not powerless anymore.
• I know Damon/Elena can never be entirely over, tragically, but I want it way the hell on the backburner to make room for Damon/Rebekah. Or Damon/Meredith. Or Damon/Bonnie. Or Damon/Katherine.
• KAAAAAAAAAAAAATHERINE.
• As happy as I was with Damon's characterization last season, I acknowledge that it wasn't much of an arc compared to what had happened with him before. I'm hoping the writers didn't peak too soon on that. Two seasons of that kind of brilliance are still more than you get with most characters, but still, I want some development for him this season, preferably with some ax-crazy thrown in there.
• I REQUIRE KLEFAN.
• Tyler. TYLER. I don't even care how but TYLERRRRRRRR.
• So I think this is probably an amalgation of spoilers and things I have thought, but I'm really hoping there are older vampires than the Originals. Vampires have always seemed to me to be much more ancient creatures than a mere thousand years. It would expand the worldbuilding in an interesting way, and would also go a long way toward making the Originals work with Team Salvatore, and the supers to work with the humans, without forcing resolutions.
• I doubt the Council can sustain Big Bad status for a whole season, but I do hope we get a few episodes of hostility.
• I think it'd be fabulous to see the non-Council citizens be cured of their Sunnydale Syndrome and get their Jacobin on. That would be a hell of a resolution to the Council issue.

• LOTS of flashbacks to the year apart. I think they probably made the right choice to structure the season this way - there's not a lot of suspense to be gained by doing it in chronological order - but I hope we get tons of episodes that develop them both individually.
• I don't want Cas to get out right away, but I do want him to make it back to earth in some characteristically badass way. BABY I MISS YOU.
• I'm really rooting against them closing the gate to Hell. I don't think that should happen. I honestly would not find it credible that they could accomplish that. Because some things should be eternal; because not all demons are irredeemable and even if they weren't it would still be so final and fucked-up to trap them in there forever. I'd be okay with making it a one-way street, though.
• How badly do I want my girl Lilith to get out of Purgatory? I WOULD DIE. WOULD YOU DIE? I WOULD DIE. I'd also be good with another showdown with Yellow-Eyes.
• Jody needs to come back and love Sam.
  
  
  
  Look at his widdle FACE. AWWWWWWW.
• I don't even know what else I want for Sam this season?! That feels so weird to say! But I think his angst has been fascinating and I've loved it; I also think the process of him really trying to learn to be a person and find some peace would also be fascinating.
• I resent Benny already. I can't believe Carver and his casting team sat down and said "lol you know what's wrong with this show? IT'S NOT ENOUGH OF A BANANAFEST." It'd be cool if he could give me a reason to be interested in him, but my hopes are not high.

I can't write a wish list for Nikita, because I'm not finished with even the first season yet, but IT IS SO GOOD and I am so excited to catch up with it. OH MY GOD THIS SHOW IS SO GOOD. IF YOU'RE MISSING OUT, ASK ME WHY YOU SHOULDN'T BE.

Also, this is a thing I have caught myself typing out and then erasing for the tl;dr about a dozen times in the last couple of weeks, so I'm going to write it out for easy linking.

I find myself irrationally irritated when I see a mismatch between a character's stated or presumed feelings and their actions either ignored in favor of the more-flattering stated justifications, or simply dismissed as bad writing. Real people rationalize a hell of a lot; fictional characters should do so as well. Whether someone is reasoning or rationalizing, IMO, can be fairly reliably ascertained by looking at whether their stated motivations are highly inconsistent with their actions, given the information they had at the time they took those actions. Assuming all narrators are unreliable, including about their own thoughts and feelings, within a reasonable margin for human error, is as key to understanding fictional characters as it is to real people. When someone says they think or want one thing, and does a set of actions which imply they want the opposite, I go with what their actions tell me. Or, in short: everybody lies. (Well. Almost everybody.)