TVD 4x8

[pocochina]

SO DISCLAIMER. This episode had a lot of disturbing content, and this is a show that is not notoriously self-aware with the implications it casts around sometimes. We all have different sets and amounts of things we can and can’t tolerate in watching/discussing. If you don’t or can’t set that aside, I get it. I do. No hard feelings. I’m not

Comments

[upupa_epops]

Awww, reading this was like a breath of fresh air.

4x08 confused me like fuck, because this whole "sire bond" thing just doesn't hold up (they created a separate flashback sequence to introduce a sired vampire... and they make her behave nothing like Elena. How am I supposed to read it?), so I started rewatching s4 from the top (I've only seen every episode once, and I have a bad habit of watching at crazy hours, so you can imagine how much escapes me). And I agree, the Council must be what Bonnie is drawing power from. Shane as Silas is also very likely. Huh, I might be getting excited about the plot O_O.

I'm not sure what to think about Damon, but I hope 4x09 will clear things up for me. 4x08 was strongly playing with the idea of right vs wrong and selfless vs selfish, and I really liked the conclusion that the "right" and "selfless" thing is also the cruel thing, the damaging thing. Lexi The Vampire Rehab Sponsor gets more creepy every time she appears on screen, and Stefan mirrors her actions in present day, but in the end Damon crumbles and fails to release Elena, because leaving her goes against his every instinct. Interesting.

Frankly, the minute I saw Tyler become the alpha, my first thought was: "Whoa, you're a dead man walking". He's so going to pay for this.

This is a comment of little coherency, but I might have more to say when I've rewatched all the episodes so far. I have a weird impression that s4 works a lot better when you marathon it than when you watch it one episode at a time.

[pocochina]

yay! I'm glad it was enjoyable. I really, really understand approaching the narrative with a lot of side-eyeing toward the publicity-baiting and problematic tropes that don't always get appropriately problematized. But, idk, I just tune those suckers out, and there's enough in the story that I think it's capturing some very real and compelling stories. AND THESE GIRLS, I just want to scoop them up for big hugs. <333

re: the sire bond, yeah, I think Charlotte was so Not Elena because...Elena isn't sired, if such a thing even really exists for vampires. Since the only source we have for that is Damon, and we now know he got that information from someone who was using him. Like how the Sun and Moon curse didn't exist, at least, not in a form that was meaningful to anyone except Klaus and potential hybrids. It was the way Elijah and Klaus controlled their knowledge about the natural world in such a way as to manipulate people into doing what they wanted.

Whereas Stefan is majorly sired in every meaningful sense even though he hasn't had that kind of relationship with Lexi. And I think that's really true to life? Where people are so convinced that one kind of relationship is "safe" and so the patterns they learn there are healthy. SO not the case.

TYLER NOOOOOO! TAKE THAT BACK! LALALALA.

Anyway, yeah, I think your marathon-watch idea is a wise one. I'm looking forward to watching a few episodes back-to-back, too. I think there's a lot here.

[upupa_epops]

I do understand the side-eyeing, but on the other hand, it's so tiresome... I can do evaluative criticism for an hour at a time, then I get bored. I want to discuss tropes, themes and narratives, not failures.

THE GIRLS! Precious, all three of them.

As I'm rewatching, I'm picking up more and more clues that the sire bond is not. Even the blood bag test fails, because the line Stefan keeps referring to (about Elena needing human blood, from the vein) was spoken to Stefan, not to Elena, who didn't even hear it. Sun and the Moon curse is probably a very good analogy.

The psychological codependency between Stefan and Lexi is fascinating. In a morbid way. She's so cold and cruel. How am I supposed to believe she's one of the Good Guys after the way she treated Damon?

I DO NOT WANT TYLER TO DIE! But I have a bad feeling :(.

[pocochina]

it's so tiresome

Agreeeeeed. I'm not trying to be too cool and jaded for it, I really do admire people who can pick stuff apart so relentlessly, but I tend not to put the mental resources in except when I'm really pissed about something.

How am I supposed to believe she's one of the Good Guys after the way she treated Damon?

It's so awesome that SHE JUST WASN'T. BOOM. And that's even though her outcomes were likely overall pretty good for the world, since getting Ripper Stefan back on the straight and narrow saved a lot of lives in the short term. And that's what makes me worry about Tyler and Bonnie.

[upupa_epops]

Why does it make you worry about Tyler and Bonnie?

[pocochina]

I really do think she thought she was doing the right thing? And I think she did care deeply about Stefan. And I think she did some good things. But it's also just so ugly, now that we have the whole picture. And both Tyler and Bonnie, I think, are teetering on the edge of that precipice.