Elena Gilbert: Women Love Fest (Bonus Post 2)

[upupa_epops]

Corrected by idrilka. At least this time it was fun for her, because I'm braindead and I made some typos that are gonna be remembered for the next ten years.

Again, I wasn't supposed to be writing about Elena. I was supposed to focus on Donna Noble (Doctor Who) and do it in Polish, but than I started reading all those TVD meta posts and discussions on womenlovefest

Comments

ramble ramble

[ever_neutral]

That's exactly how he was with Katherine, so there is something like this in him! You are a genius, did you know that? Could you please elaborate?

Haha, I totally thought this was a common idea! Damon is pretty much the Bella Swan of the TVD universe--he was entirely willing to give up his life and humanity, and leave his family behind, for his abusive vampire girlfriend. Then he spends the next 145 years romanticising that abuse. It's really fascinating gender subversion.

Anyway, with Elena--one of the most interesting things about their relationship to me, especially in S2, is how Elena subtly develops a habit of manipulating Damon, to get him to do what she wants, by using her emotional power over him. (Damon calls her out on this in 2x13.) And on Damon's side, what's great is that he shows absolutely no desire to actually take that power back. Sure, he complains about it a lot behind her back, but it doesn't make her love her less? That sort of parallels his feelings for Katherine, in that he was totally aware of how selfish and cruel she was, but couldn't help loving her anyway. (Damon is a nasty piece of work, generally, but it can't be denied that he's profoundly loyal, lol.)

Another element of Damon/Elena I'm fascinated by is how Damon is pretty much the only one in Elena's life she really lets herself be angry with. Because, Elena does have pent-up anger, from all the terrible things that have happened to her, but she usually copes by directing that anger towards herself ("everything is because of me"). She can't be angry with her friends/family because she needs to protect them. And she can't be angry with Stefan because he's basically been the one good thing to happen to her since her parents died. But with Damon, however, she doesn't have any restraint. (One of my favourite moments is her telling him "this is your fault" after Vicki dies, because how often do we see Elena directing anger outside of herself?) Damon is the perfect person for that, because he's a masochist, and to him, Elena hating him means she cares. (See: "~I'll even let her hate me for it.~") There's also an implicit level of trust, because Elena knows that no matter how much she hates him, he's never going to leave her.

So, uh, yeah, I ship D/E because it's the only one of Elena's relationships that allows her to be angry? *g* And I'm with totally you about the Buffy similarities. I'd love for Elena to get really dark like Buffy did in the later seasons, and I actually think there's a decent chance of that happening, but I'll cautiously reserve judgment for now...

Re: ramble ramble

[upupa_epops]

Haha, I totally thought this was a common idea!

You know, I've been reading and writing some TVD fanfiction, but until now I haven't been so much into metas or discussions, so it's safe to asume that there are hundreds of common ideas I've never heard about ;). So thank you for explaining.

Hmmm. I'm actually convinced. I never wanted to take Buffy comparison that far, because I didn't see Elena abusing Damon the way Buffy was abusing Spike for most of s6 (I might be forgetting about something, but I think Seeing Red was the first time she was his victim, not the other way round), but this makes sense. I was so focused on Damon trying to make Elena obey him when it came to dealing with Klaus ("Who is gonna save your life when you're out there making decisions?") that I missed her attempts to manipulate him into being a better man. Oh my God, this could lead to such a beautiful tragedy! *excited*