Here is the repeated image of the lover destroyed - a Damon/Elena meta
This is yet another spontanous TVD meta. Because I have feelings about the last episode, and I have FEELINGS about what I currently see all around the internet. So, you know, it's either writing a meta, or spontanously growing a set of fangs and eating random people. This meta is a pitchfork in the hand of an angry God!
Let's talk about this Damon/Elena thing in 3x10. This post can be treated as an appendix to my Big Damn Damon/Elena Meta, because I feel disappointed that after 3x10 it is a bit out of date :(. I mean, my interpretations stay more or less the same, but if I was writing that meta today, there would be a lot of talking about 3x10!
Warnings: This is a Damon/Elena positive meta, which means that I actually like both Damon and Elena. I have a tendency to overinterpret teen vampire shows. I think that moral judgement should happen in real life, but when it comes to fiction, interpretation and reading are much more suitable terms. Have I mention pitchfork?
Let me have my Elena-centric tantrum moment first.
I get all emotional when I see Elena bashing. I doesn't mean that I think that everything she does is morally flawless. But guess what? She isn't an actual person. She is a fictional character, and when she does something morally questionable or wrong, it's not because it's a moment for the viewers to have a self-righteous moment of moral superiority. It's for the viewers to look into the mirror, recognize something that happens in the real world, and have a thought about it. I mean, that's the pleasure coming from fiction, right? It provokes thinking. And I get that the notion of being morally superior to a fictional character might be pleasurable for someone, but then... Why Elena? There are so many characters that can give much more pleasure in this departament!
Now, that Damon/Elena thing. And no, I'm not talking about the kiss. Ok, I am, but not just about the kiss. Those people are much more complicated than lips (or, God forbid, tongues) touching.
As ever-neutral noticed, in s2 Elena is making a point of staying away from Damon (emotionally), and this is because she feels she is getting too close to him. It's not that she has this irresistable urge to jump his bones; Elena's sexual attraction to Damon is not a problem. It's a background noise: it's there, but it can be easily ignored, because Elena is not a lust-driven maniac who can't make conscious, smart choices. When it comes to Damon/Elena, sex is not, never has been, and probably never will be a decisive factor. Sexual attraction is never a cause of anything; it's a result. It's like speculating about the future Damon/Elena: I will never believe that having a sexual relationship with Damon will lead Elena to isolating herself from her friends and family. In fact, a reasonable Damon/Elena scenario can only go another way round: Elena won't have sex with Damon, UNLESS she's already feeling so detached from her friends and family she has nothing to lose. So when we're talking about things that are happening now, I think it is important to stress that for both Damon and Elena various sex-related factors (like being sexually attracted to each other, sexual provocations, innuendos, kissing) do not cause a thing; they are simply symptoms, signs and results of what's going on on the emotional level.
Elena is getting too close to Damon, which means that she overidentifies with him. Damon represents Elena's dark side, and ever since Stefan left, this side is harder and harder to surpress. So that scary thing that is happening to Elena? It's not that she is becoming Katherine because has feelings for the two brothers. It's that she is becoming Damon.
When TVD started, it was based on four roles, the core characters that were established and defined in season one: Damon, Stefan, Elena and Katherine. Stefan was not Damon, Damon was not Stefan. Elena was not Katherine, Katherine was not Elena. Stefan was in love with Elena, Damon was in love with Katherine. Very strict divisions, stressed almost up to the point of annoyance. And then shifts started happening. Damon fell in love in Elena, Stefan had the bloodlust arc, Katherine declared her love for Stefan, Damon started playing for the good guys, Elena found a way to convince Katherine to talk, Katherine had incidents of playing for the good guys, Elena had an understanding with Damon, Stefan gave himself over to Klaus and so on and so forth... It looked like Damon and Stefan are breaking the good brother - bad brother juxtaposition, while Elena and Katherine are slowly starting to mess with the notion of good doppelganger - bad doppelganger. I liked this theory up to some point, but now I'm not buying it. This show is not about two pairs of characters collapsing; it's about four characters collapsing as a group. So in 3x09 Katherine is not only becoming Elena-like when she talks to Stefan about her humanity. She is also becoming Stefan-like when she chooses to save Damon even though it jeopardizes, like, everything she's been plotting for half a millenium. And in 3x10 Stefan is deliberately placed in a very Damon situation - he refuses to help Jeremy (= Damon kills Jeremy in 2x01) and Elena slaps him for that (= Elena slaps Damon every now and then), but Elena is not placed in a Katherine situation; she is placed in a Damon situation as well! Come on, compulsion? As in, violating someone's free will “for their own good”? How is it not Damon force-feeding Elena his blood in 2x20? And Damon generally compelling people to do things? He is the key violator of free will in this show, and Elena is teaming up with him to send Jeremy away. And she knows it's wrong on the every possible level. Elena is pretty smart and self-reflective. She knows she's done a terrible thing, and you know what's worst? Damon understands. He is such a terrible person himself he can actually understand Elena at her lowest. And I think Elena knows what does it say about her (she seems to be asking this question awfully often, doesn't she? “What does it say about me?”).
Now, when Damon kisses Elena in 3x10, he has several reasons. I am not going to explain those reasons, because eowyn-315 did it already, and her explanation is flawless. Let me quote a few sentences for you (but I totally recommend reading the whole post):
His ability to make her uncomfortable was really all he had to counterbalance her ability to manipulate him into doing whatever she wants. So if overtly sexualized interaction no longer makes her uncomfortable, what would? Perhaps... reminding her that it's not just sexual? She's come to terms with the idea of finding Damon sexually attractive as long as she doesn't act on it, but in doing so, she also has to pretend that he's not in love with her. She's just been going on about how important Damon is to her - entirely as a friend, as her support in a difficult time, as someone she can count on - and his response is basically, "Oh, by the way, I'm still in love with you, remember?"
Damon is being impulsive. Damon is being pathetic and stupid. Damon is having this big, dramatic gesture, because he already knows that thing between him and Elena will never really happen, and least not in the epic way his silly, silly brain is fantasizing about. Basically, this kiss makes the Top Ten Damon Drama Queen Moments list.
And for the first time Elena doesn't reject him.
It's not because she feels somehow betrayed by Stefan and uses Damon as a rebound boy. It's not because she is OMG overwhelmed by passion and cannot resist Damon's predatory charm. It's because this moment on the porch is her most vulnerable moment. She's just done something horrible, and she knows exactly how horrible it is, because she had had the same thing done to her in the past. She knows she is spiralling. And she knows Damon sees it. She is so exposed she can't even get her defences up in time. She can't reject Damon, because at the moment she let him come so close she can't deny that she is overidentifying with him. Rejecting Damon would be literally rejecting herself. She could separate those notions if she had a few minutes to compose herself, but Damon just storms in and kisses her unexpectedly. She has what, ten seconds to react? No way she can do it. In every other situation she might've managed, but not now. She's just BEEN Damon. She's just compelled Jeremy. How on Earth is she going to sort out such a mess in ten seconds?
The kiss itself? Even if Elena had a moment of weakness and actually kissed Damon? Come on, it's not Gone with the Wind. Last I checked, it was 21st century, and single (remember how Stefan repeteadly told Elena to go away?) grown-ups could kiss on a whim without declarations of eternal love. Or is Elena supposed to play the Confederate widow and remain faithul to the memory of Stefan for the rest of her life? Come on. It isn't morally wrong for a single, troubled girl to seek solace in kissing a guy she finds attractive. The only thing that IS wrong about this kiss is that there aren't just any random people. It's Elena and Damon, a complete mess and overidentification issues and generally no good, very bad idea. There is nothing wrong in the fact that Elena didn't reject Damon if she didn't feel like rejecting him, but the fact that she didn't reject him means that there is some serious mess in her head, and it's getting worse. The kiss is a sign, never a cause. The kiss itself will have no consequences, but the emotional issues that led to it will have nothing but negative consequences. It's dangerous, the understanding Damon and Elena have.
Let's talk about this Damon/Elena thing in 3x10. This post can be treated as an appendix to my Big Damn Damon/Elena Meta, because I feel disappointed that after 3x10 it is a bit out of date :(. I mean, my interpretations stay more or less the same, but if I was writing that meta today, there would be a lot of talking about 3x10!
Warnings: This is a Damon/Elena positive meta, which means that I actually like both Damon and Elena. I have a tendency to overinterpret teen vampire shows. I think that moral judgement should happen in real life, but when it comes to fiction, interpretation and reading are much more suitable terms. Have I mention pitchfork?
Let me have my Elena-centric tantrum moment first.
I get all emotional when I see Elena bashing. I doesn't mean that I think that everything she does is morally flawless. But guess what? She isn't an actual person. She is a fictional character, and when she does something morally questionable or wrong, it's not because it's a moment for the viewers to have a self-righteous moment of moral superiority. It's for the viewers to look into the mirror, recognize something that happens in the real world, and have a thought about it. I mean, that's the pleasure coming from fiction, right? It provokes thinking. And I get that the notion of being morally superior to a fictional character might be pleasurable for someone, but then... Why Elena? There are so many characters that can give much more pleasure in this departament!
Now, that Damon/Elena thing. And no, I'm not talking about the kiss. Ok, I am, but not just about the kiss. Those people are much more complicated than lips (or, God forbid, tongues) touching.
As ever-neutral noticed, in s2 Elena is making a point of staying away from Damon (emotionally), and this is because she feels she is getting too close to him. It's not that she has this irresistable urge to jump his bones; Elena's sexual attraction to Damon is not a problem. It's a background noise: it's there, but it can be easily ignored, because Elena is not a lust-driven maniac who can't make conscious, smart choices. When it comes to Damon/Elena, sex is not, never has been, and probably never will be a decisive factor. Sexual attraction is never a cause of anything; it's a result. It's like speculating about the future Damon/Elena: I will never believe that having a sexual relationship with Damon will lead Elena to isolating herself from her friends and family. In fact, a reasonable Damon/Elena scenario can only go another way round: Elena won't have sex with Damon, UNLESS she's already feeling so detached from her friends and family she has nothing to lose. So when we're talking about things that are happening now, I think it is important to stress that for both Damon and Elena various sex-related factors (like being sexually attracted to each other, sexual provocations, innuendos, kissing) do not cause a thing; they are simply symptoms, signs and results of what's going on on the emotional level.
Elena is getting too close to Damon, which means that she overidentifies with him. Damon represents Elena's dark side, and ever since Stefan left, this side is harder and harder to surpress. So that scary thing that is happening to Elena? It's not that she is becoming Katherine because has feelings for the two brothers. It's that she is becoming Damon.
When TVD started, it was based on four roles, the core characters that were established and defined in season one: Damon, Stefan, Elena and Katherine. Stefan was not Damon, Damon was not Stefan. Elena was not Katherine, Katherine was not Elena. Stefan was in love with Elena, Damon was in love with Katherine. Very strict divisions, stressed almost up to the point of annoyance. And then shifts started happening. Damon fell in love in Elena, Stefan had the bloodlust arc, Katherine declared her love for Stefan, Damon started playing for the good guys, Elena found a way to convince Katherine to talk, Katherine had incidents of playing for the good guys, Elena had an understanding with Damon, Stefan gave himself over to Klaus and so on and so forth... It looked like Damon and Stefan are breaking the good brother - bad brother juxtaposition, while Elena and Katherine are slowly starting to mess with the notion of good doppelganger - bad doppelganger. I liked this theory up to some point, but now I'm not buying it. This show is not about two pairs of characters collapsing; it's about four characters collapsing as a group. So in 3x09 Katherine is not only becoming Elena-like when she talks to Stefan about her humanity. She is also becoming Stefan-like when she chooses to save Damon even though it jeopardizes, like, everything she's been plotting for half a millenium. And in 3x10 Stefan is deliberately placed in a very Damon situation - he refuses to help Jeremy (= Damon kills Jeremy in 2x01) and Elena slaps him for that (= Elena slaps Damon every now and then), but Elena is not placed in a Katherine situation; she is placed in a Damon situation as well! Come on, compulsion? As in, violating someone's free will “for their own good”? How is it not Damon force-feeding Elena his blood in 2x20? And Damon generally compelling people to do things? He is the key violator of free will in this show, and Elena is teaming up with him to send Jeremy away. And she knows it's wrong on the every possible level. Elena is pretty smart and self-reflective. She knows she's done a terrible thing, and you know what's worst? Damon understands. He is such a terrible person himself he can actually understand Elena at her lowest. And I think Elena knows what does it say about her (she seems to be asking this question awfully often, doesn't she? “What does it say about me?”).
Now, when Damon kisses Elena in 3x10, he has several reasons. I am not going to explain those reasons, because eowyn-315 did it already, and her explanation is flawless. Let me quote a few sentences for you (but I totally recommend reading the whole post):
His ability to make her uncomfortable was really all he had to counterbalance her ability to manipulate him into doing whatever she wants. So if overtly sexualized interaction no longer makes her uncomfortable, what would? Perhaps... reminding her that it's not just sexual? She's come to terms with the idea of finding Damon sexually attractive as long as she doesn't act on it, but in doing so, she also has to pretend that he's not in love with her. She's just been going on about how important Damon is to her - entirely as a friend, as her support in a difficult time, as someone she can count on - and his response is basically, "Oh, by the way, I'm still in love with you, remember?"
Damon is being impulsive. Damon is being pathetic and stupid. Damon is having this big, dramatic gesture, because he already knows that thing between him and Elena will never really happen, and least not in the epic way his silly, silly brain is fantasizing about. Basically, this kiss makes the Top Ten Damon Drama Queen Moments list.
And for the first time Elena doesn't reject him.
It's not because she feels somehow betrayed by Stefan and uses Damon as a rebound boy. It's not because she is OMG overwhelmed by passion and cannot resist Damon's predatory charm. It's because this moment on the porch is her most vulnerable moment. She's just done something horrible, and she knows exactly how horrible it is, because she had had the same thing done to her in the past. She knows she is spiralling. And she knows Damon sees it. She is so exposed she can't even get her defences up in time. She can't reject Damon, because at the moment she let him come so close she can't deny that she is overidentifying with him. Rejecting Damon would be literally rejecting herself. She could separate those notions if she had a few minutes to compose herself, but Damon just storms in and kisses her unexpectedly. She has what, ten seconds to react? No way she can do it. In every other situation she might've managed, but not now. She's just BEEN Damon. She's just compelled Jeremy. How on Earth is she going to sort out such a mess in ten seconds?
The kiss itself? Even if Elena had a moment of weakness and actually kissed Damon? Come on, it's not Gone with the Wind. Last I checked, it was 21st century, and single (remember how Stefan repeteadly told Elena to go away?) grown-ups could kiss on a whim without declarations of eternal love. Or is Elena supposed to play the Confederate widow and remain faithul to the memory of Stefan for the rest of her life? Come on. It isn't morally wrong for a single, troubled girl to seek solace in kissing a guy she finds attractive. The only thing that IS wrong about this kiss is that there aren't just any random people. It's Elena and Damon, a complete mess and overidentification issues and generally no good, very bad idea. There is nothing wrong in the fact that Elena didn't reject Damon if she didn't feel like rejecting him, but the fact that she didn't reject him means that there is some serious mess in her head, and it's getting worse. The kiss is a sign, never a cause. The kiss itself will have no consequences, but the emotional issues that led to it will have nothing but negative consequences. It's dangerous, the understanding Damon and Elena have.