30 Days of TVD - Day Seven + general fannishness
I was looking for something to do instead of studying, and I remembered that I still have the meme!
Day 7 - Your favorite Damon scene
When I was choosing the scene for today, I realized that all my favorite Damon moments are about his relationships with other characters. So I do have a favorite Damon & Stefan Moment, a favorite Damon & Elena Moment (probably more than one...), favorite Damon & Alaric Moment and a favorite Damon & Katherine moment, but nothing that would be about Damon himself. Oh, but wait. I DO have a favorite scene that is about Damon himself; it's just weird to choose something like that for a favorite scene of a favorite character in the show. Well, I never claimed I liked him because he was such a nice person.
You want to shut out the pain? It's the easiest thing in the world. The part of you that cares? It just goes away. All you have to do is flip the switch and snap.
This was an extremely stupid thing to do, cruel, and brainless, and impulsive. In other words: congratulations, show, you've got my attention. Placing this scene so late, in the beginning of s2, after the whole you thought that I was worth saving build up in s1 was the most brilliant writing choice this show has ever made. If Damon wants to redeem himself, he has to do better than just fall in love with a nice girl and hope that this will save him, because, well, it won't.
It's also amazing that we can see his entire motivation. For the whole episode we see step by step how he is on an emotional roller-coaster, and that it's all not his fault. I mean, of course it was wrong to kiss Elena, but he was ready to face the consequences of this action, and it's not what makes him unstable. What really shakes him is that it turns out that in fact it wasn't Elena, and everything that happens to him after that is not his fault; it's something done to him because he made an honest mistake. So I feel for him, I have this huge emotional background and I understand Damon's actions... and still I can't justify what he did to Jeremy. What Damon did can be explained, but it cannot be excused, and I'm deeply in love with this kind of storytelling. I guess it was ever-neutral who said that there will be no Other-ing of abuse in this show? And there shouldn't be. Abusers have feelings, they have reasons, and sometimes they even can be someone else's victims. Does it justify what they do? No way. And it also goes the other way round. Even if we understand someone's motivations, it doesn't mean we automatically excuse their actions. Love or compassion have nothing to do with it; people we love sometimes do horrible things, and there is no contradiction in this statement.
Here, have an Angel quote:
Spike: She's...one of us now. She's a monster.
Angel: She's an innocent victim.
Spike: So were we... once upon a time.
Last but not least, I loved how brutally honest this scene was when it came to describing love. Because Damon really does love Elena, and it doesn't stop him from killing her brother. Damon/Elena is incomprehensible without this scene; what they have is real (no matter if it's friendship, or attraction, or love, or God knows what else), but it's still dangerous, and nothing can be done about it. They may be extremely important to each other, and still they will damage each other. There never was a question whether or not this understanding they have is good for them. The question is whether or not it's worth it.
Now, about other fannish activities:
The Vampire Diaries Free-For-All Comment Ficathon is still happening, and I feel that I'm behaving like this crazy shipper person I never suspected I was. Seriously, I looked at my "to write" list, and there were only Damon/Elena prompts left there. And it's not like I've decided that ok, I'm going to have a Shipper Glee Week and write nothing but D/E; I just made a list of prompts that really got my attention, and almost all of them turned out to be D/E.
I don't know how it works, but somehow writing in a forgein language helped me to suspend the perfectionist attitude; I'm well aware that I've probably written some pretty ridiculous things (like, I must've created some incredible expression the English language has never seen before XD), so I just don't care if what I'm writing is any good, I'm simply enjoying myself. It feels amazing. I don't know how much more am I going to write, because I need to get started on all the December fics, but if everything goes as I've planned, there will be at least one more story. This year was horrible for me when it comes to writing, and it didn't happen very often that I was actually enjoying doing it, so now I'm really grateful to softly-me, and all the prompters, writers and readers, because I'm really having a great time :D.
And, finally, yet another meme. Snatched from penny-lane-42. Please, tell me:
1.) Which fictional character I remind you of.
2.) What fictional character you ship me with.
Long post is long. I guess now I have no excuse not do do schoolwork, but I'll try to do it quickly, so that I can at least start writing a fic before I go to bed.
Day 7 - Your favorite Damon scene
When I was choosing the scene for today, I realized that all my favorite Damon moments are about his relationships with other characters. So I do have a favorite Damon & Stefan Moment, a favorite Damon & Elena Moment (probably more than one...), favorite Damon & Alaric Moment and a favorite Damon & Katherine moment, but nothing that would be about Damon himself. Oh, but wait. I DO have a favorite scene that is about Damon himself; it's just weird to choose something like that for a favorite scene of a favorite character in the show. Well, I never claimed I liked him because he was such a nice person.
You want to shut out the pain? It's the easiest thing in the world. The part of you that cares? It just goes away. All you have to do is flip the switch and snap.
This was an extremely stupid thing to do, cruel, and brainless, and impulsive. In other words: congratulations, show, you've got my attention. Placing this scene so late, in the beginning of s2, after the whole you thought that I was worth saving build up in s1 was the most brilliant writing choice this show has ever made. If Damon wants to redeem himself, he has to do better than just fall in love with a nice girl and hope that this will save him, because, well, it won't.
It's also amazing that we can see his entire motivation. For the whole episode we see step by step how he is on an emotional roller-coaster, and that it's all not his fault. I mean, of course it was wrong to kiss Elena, but he was ready to face the consequences of this action, and it's not what makes him unstable. What really shakes him is that it turns out that in fact it wasn't Elena, and everything that happens to him after that is not his fault; it's something done to him because he made an honest mistake. So I feel for him, I have this huge emotional background and I understand Damon's actions... and still I can't justify what he did to Jeremy. What Damon did can be explained, but it cannot be excused, and I'm deeply in love with this kind of storytelling. I guess it was ever-neutral who said that there will be no Other-ing of abuse in this show? And there shouldn't be. Abusers have feelings, they have reasons, and sometimes they even can be someone else's victims. Does it justify what they do? No way. And it also goes the other way round. Even if we understand someone's motivations, it doesn't mean we automatically excuse their actions. Love or compassion have nothing to do with it; people we love sometimes do horrible things, and there is no contradiction in this statement.
Here, have an Angel quote:
Spike: She's...one of us now. She's a monster.
Angel: She's an innocent victim.
Spike: So were we... once upon a time.
Last but not least, I loved how brutally honest this scene was when it came to describing love. Because Damon really does love Elena, and it doesn't stop him from killing her brother. Damon/Elena is incomprehensible without this scene; what they have is real (no matter if it's friendship, or attraction, or love, or God knows what else), but it's still dangerous, and nothing can be done about it. They may be extremely important to each other, and still they will damage each other. There never was a question whether or not this understanding they have is good for them. The question is whether or not it's worth it.
Now, about other fannish activities:
The Vampire Diaries Free-For-All Comment Ficathon is still happening, and I feel that I'm behaving like this crazy shipper person I never suspected I was. Seriously, I looked at my "to write" list, and there were only Damon/Elena prompts left there. And it's not like I've decided that ok, I'm going to have a Shipper Glee Week and write nothing but D/E; I just made a list of prompts that really got my attention, and almost all of them turned out to be D/E.
I don't know how it works, but somehow writing in a forgein language helped me to suspend the perfectionist attitude; I'm well aware that I've probably written some pretty ridiculous things (like, I must've created some incredible expression the English language has never seen before XD), so I just don't care if what I'm writing is any good, I'm simply enjoying myself. It feels amazing. I don't know how much more am I going to write, because I need to get started on all the December fics, but if everything goes as I've planned, there will be at least one more story. This year was horrible for me when it comes to writing, and it didn't happen very often that I was actually enjoying doing it, so now I'm really grateful to softly-me, and all the prompters, writers and readers, because I'm really having a great time :D.
And, finally, yet another meme. Snatched from penny-lane-42. Please, tell me:
1.) Which fictional character I remind you of.
2.) What fictional character you ship me with.
Long post is long. I guess now I have no excuse not do do schoolwork, but I'll try to do it quickly, so that I can at least start writing a fic before I go to bed.