Do I do what I want to do? Or do I do what I should do?

[upupa_epops]

Ok, so I'm still processing the finale, and I have thoughts. Actually, I have too many thoughts, so I decided to break them into three separate posts. This is the first one, the other two (maybe I'll be able to combine them in one?) will appear some time this week.

Warnings: I overanalyse teen vampire shows. In order to make it more bearable, I

Comments

[upupa_epops]

YAY therapeutic watching :D. Frankly, interacting with people about this show is more fun than the actual show for me :).

Because the idea of choice might be giving them all too much power--maybe there isn't choice, there is just inevitability.

I think there's choice. All the characters make choices, and their choices have consequences. Only there's no punishment and there's no reward, bad things happen to good people for no reason (but there's always a cause!), and nothing can be done about it. You choose -- but you choose blindly. You can never fully predict the consequences of your choices. So, yes, Catch-22. Damn if you do, damned if you don't -- take your bloody pick! Frightfully realistic.

There is the whole "it's not right / it's right, just not right now" because there is simply no other thing that can happen.

Huh, that's a head-scratcher... But then, can we trust Damon on this? Is he a reliable narrator, or is he a lovestruck idiot expressing his wishful thinking? Or maybe he says it not because he thinks it will happen, but because he sees it already happening? They have that settled -- he will never leave her, and she doesn't want him to leave. He wouldn't have said that line in 3x01.

what matters is that everything Elena based her choice on is going to be different now

True, everything will be different -- not only because she turned, but also because of how she turned.

I am waiting for your thoughts! \o/

[badboy_fangirl]

Damon is both a lovestruck idiot and a reliable narrator. Damon so often speaks the truth about the whole show--Sun and Moon Curse not real, Stefan needs to learn to control his bloodlust, not repress it, Elijah isn't trustworthy, Ric would want them to put him down, not let him be a psycho, etc. So, in this case, in this particular theme about the triangle, I choose to believe him.

I was hoping for more time today, but I'm fairly certain I will not get to the other until tomorrow! Too much stuff!

[upupa_epops]

Yes, the show often uses Damon as the truth-teller, but he's the king of unreliable narrators just as often. He's right when he talks about other people, but wrong when he talks about himself. "You're the liar, Elena" in 2x01, when she totally told him the truth. Talking about the vampire switch with Rose right before Rose revealed that it's just a myth. I wouldn't have done that for you to Katherine; nice bravado, boy, but remember how you died for her?

The show uses Damon as The Jester who reveals the truth about the entire narrative, but, at the same time, lets him say some total rubbish about himself. He's both a reliable narrator and a lovestruck idiot... but hardly ever both at the same time. Obviously, D/E will happen (because it would be a dumb marketing decision if it didn't), but it won't happen the way Damon imagined it in 3x10. I mean, how could he have foreseen that Elena would become a vampire?

[badboy_fangirl]

Oh, see, I don't see that You're the liar, Elena as unreliable narrating...I think he was right there, he was just projecting the strength of his feelings on to her; but it's not like she wasn't attracted to him at that point or didn't feel something for him, it's just that she would never act on those feelings. Didn't mean they weren't there.

but it won't happen the way Damon imagined it in 3x10. I mean, how could he have foreseen that Elena would become a vampire?
Just because he couldn't see the circumstances under which it would happen doesn't make it untrue, does it? That's just semantics, at least to me.