In Defence of Caroline Forbes (3x04): youcallitwinter

youcallitwinter

In Defence of Caroline Forbes (3x04)

Oct 08, 2011 17:56

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I’m actually genuinely surprised by the reactions to Caroline this episode. All through the episode, I was constantly thinking, MY GIRL IS SUCH A BAMF, and I actually came online expecting to see odes in her praises and instead so many people disliked her for the way she talked about Damon this episode and it just made me go DDDDD: Maybe it's because I stan Caroline as hard as most people stan Damon that I seem to see it quite a different way, lol.

1. Caroline seemed fine with him in the season premiere.

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This is true. I’m pretty sure I spent half my life squeeing over the fact that she threw a party at his house and they even came in the same frame for about three seconds (because, on top of all the issues, I actually even ship them a lot).

But I think it's because I've been thinking the exact opposite all this while; that Ric and Caroline seemed okay with Damon too fast Caroline's 'you suck' was epic but did it cover everything that had happened to her? According to me, it didn't, at all. Neither did the show ever address everything that Damon ever did to Alaric before commencing on their epic bromance.

In my opinion it's so realistic that they'd still hold onto some of the resentment; which wouldn't come out in their daily interactions but exists nonetheless. They don’t overreact with respect to themselves because they're almost okay with him, but this underlying bitterness WOULD come out when they're trying to protect someone they love; Elena.

Caroline knows better than anybody what Damon’s capable of. And she knows he’s changed, he’s ‘different’, but she still wants Elena to be aware of what she’s getting into. Because if anyone knows what it means to build this fantasy around someone’s head that they’re never going to live up to, it’s Caroline. She can see that Elena’s attracted to Damon and that she’s trying to justify that attraction by making Damon into Stefan, or using him as a Stefan-replacement or trying to project that he’s completely overcome his vampire nature. And as her friend, it’s her duty to do this. And it’s not like it’s a huge step, that her opinion will completely change Elena’s or anything, it’s just something she feels the need to say so she says it.

2. “Probably off somewhere doing bad things to good people.”

I actually laughed at this because bitchy!Caroline is my absolute favorite. :D

I can see why it would seem like she’s completely negating any character development he might have had, but that’s not how I read it AT ALL. It’s just something she said when she wasn’t in a very good mood with him, nothing more nothing less. It’s like someone saying “Stefan is off torturing all the cute, fluffy bunnies in the neighborhood.” It’s not like she’s going to qualify her statement when she’s already mad at the turn of events and Elena’s feelings; that would be ridiculous. It’s like, ‘I’m mad at you, and therefore you suck, even if you’re helping curb global warming.’ SHE’S A TEENAGE GIRL, SHE HAS MOOD-SWINGS. I don’t remember anyone going crazy when Damon said “Vampire Barbie asked if she could handle it and I said why not? I figure if she screwed up he'd bite her and then I’ll be rid of two of my problems.” It’s just something you say, it doesn’t HAVE to mean anything deeper.

And it’s Caroline. She constantly has her foot in her mouth; she says all the wrong things with the best of intentions. If we were just skimming the surface, nobody would’ve ever got past “Oh, it's just ‘cause her parents died, yeah, I mean she's just totally going through a blah phase, she used to be way more fun... And, I say that with complete sensitivity.”

3. Damon’s saved her life many times.

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And here, I think the timeline becomes important; because as far as I know, they haven't even completed a year since the Salvatores came to Mystic Falls (Stefan's birthday to Elena's birthday). So, obviously everything that's happened to Caroline via Damon (however far in the viewer's memory) is recent for her. This was the same bit of wonderful continuity that the show played around with when Matt found out about Caroline’s vampirism. His first thought was about Vicki, because for him it’s only been (I don’t even know) some months? While, after all that had happened in the show, nobody particularly cared about that arc anymore. So, to say that Caroline should forget about all the times Damon abused her and belittled her and terrified her because he’s saved her life is rather unfair. Also, considering that he’s actively tried to kill her twice as well. BOTH things have happened within the span of a few months. And she’s not constantly trying to murder him for what he did to her, so obviously she’s grateful. But she doesn’t have to like him or think well of him for that.

As for saving her life; he did it for Elena both the times. It’s not something he did out of the pure goodness of his heart or anything; he only did it because he was trying to get on Elena’s good side. Not that I think he wouldn’t have done it if it hadn’t been for her (at least the second time) but I don’t think of him as a particularly heroic figure because of what he did. The first time was an accident (he was just giving her blood to heal her faster and he did it only for Elena, the second time he was trying to make up for force-feeding Elena blood). I thought it was wonderful that he saved Tyler although then got bit (obvious plot device is obvious). He did what every single person on this show, including Caroline would have done for him, even if they don’t like him very much. Elena, Stefan, Caroline, maybe Bonnie, they would’ve all done the same. In fact, Caroline herself has saved his life by outing herself to her mother even though she absolutely didn't have to. This is what they kind of do, Damon just gets the most appreciation for it from fandom if not the actual show.

4. Caroline’s not grateful enough that Damon almost died because of her.

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Caroline's non-reaction in As I Lay Dying bothered me a lot because I thought it was horribly OOC for her to not be concerned or blame herself (I even wrote fic about that to make myself feel better). If there’s one thing we know about Caroline Forbes, it’s that she cares way too much for her own good. However, I do understand this strange characterization as something that the show did. TVD has a tendency to stick to its triangles; it can only be Elena or Stefan at Damon's deathbed, only Matt and Tyler will be involved in a Caroline story-arc. I’ve mentioned this before and how much I want it to change because I’d love to see a wider range of interactions.

However, the later apathy I can understand. She doesn't have to be forever grateful that he almost died saving her by the same logic that Elena didn't hate Damon in just a couple of episodes for 'killing' Jeremy; because they both lived. (And again, both events happened maybe within a month or two of each other). Jeremy was dead for about half an hour or so, and Damon was 'dying' one evening and was probably not dying by the very same evening, it just lessened the impact of the anger or gratefulness.

And Damon threatened her dad. Regardless of how justified he might have been in a neutral context with the threat to 'out' him and the vervained water (and Bill did say he would never out Damon because he wouldn't out his own daughter.) It's obvious that Caroline loves her 'daddy' madly even thought he's a torturing psychopath. AND IF ANYONE SHOULD GET DOING ANYTHING FOR FAMILY, IT SHOULD BE DAMON. Damon would never really be mad at Caroline because they're similar in a lot of respects; always underestimated, always told to 'try harder' and rarely, if ever, appreciated, both rejected by their parents and they'd both do anything for people they want to keep safe. There is never going to be any real animosity between them because they get each other, despite "your annoying, control-freak of a daughter" and "all his bad brother glory."

5. Caroline doesn’t accept her vampiric nature.

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NO, SHE DOESN’T, because she’s still a seventeen year old girl.

Stefan and Damon (who misses being human more than anything else in the world), STILL haven’t adjusted after a hundred and fifty odd years, so to expect Caroline to be all self-aware and at peace with herself is just highly improbable.

Also, what was really important about the Caroline/Bill scenes in The End of the Affair is Caroline’s reaction to the whole thing. At the end, she didn’t say ‘My dad tortured me for no particular reason’; she said ‘my daddy hates me.’ Caroline has internalized being a monster; she constantly feels the need to justify her existence. Everyone around her keeps making it out to be her fault; she needs to be ‘cured’: ‘if you kill one more person…’ ‘I was so mad at you…’ ‘I felt like throttling you’ ‘she’s not my daughter, not anymore’ ‘you’re a vampire, you’ll never be okay’. And these are all people who’re supposed to be her support system, to love her unconditionally. Is it any wonder then that she hides who she can be? Because a) she doesn’t want to be a vampire, she’ll stay in denial as long as she can. b) She’ll be rejected by EVERYONE she knows. If Caroline did half the things Damon does, she’d be out on the street with absolutely no one on her sides. As for Stefan, his existential crisis occurred before Mystic Falls, there’s nothing that he changed to ‘fit in’, he was already like this when he arrived. Damon is going through all his crises here, amongst people who don’t accept this side of his nature, which is why all the backlash is on him.

I’ve been discussing this with badboy_fangirl and ever_neutral but EVERY HUMAN ON THIS SHOW IS JUDGEMENTAL TOWARDS VAMPIRES ACTING LIKE VAMPIRES. It’s not something special reserved for Damon.

“I think if Damon would like to stay the way he is then I WOULD LOVE HIM FOREVER FOR IT. But then I don't understand why he thinks people will accept him for who he is. Like, the 'he just wants someone to love him, to accept him without conditions' passes over my head. Nobody's accepted Stefan for who he is (if you consider that point about Stefan not being a 'vampire' around Elena and giving her false expectations, repressing his true nature), nobody's accepted Caroline for who she is (girl's been hurt badly by both parents, Bonnie is friends with her ONLY as long as she doesn't kill, as presumably is Elena), so I don't see why any of them would accept Damon because he refuses to hide who he is. The point is that none of the vampires have been accepted AS vampires, they've been accepted because they're as 'human' as they can be. The prejudice is uniform for all characters; it's only that Damon arouses it more because of his lifestyle choices.”

So it’s completely possible, at a meta level, to appreciate Damon as a character for refusing to be false to who he is, but expecting the other characters in the show to do so doesn’t seem very reasonable. And bringing in other vampires we’ve seen in the show to talk about how much worse Damon could be is a moot point because none of those vampires are portrayed as the ‘good guys’. Every vampire who chooses to live AS A VAMPIRE is the BAD GUY. They’re the ‘them’ in the ‘us against them’.

6. She didn’t exhibit a similar reaction towards Stefan, even though he’s a vampire as well.

Okay, here I won’t go into the whole:

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(even though it’s totally relevant). What I’d like to point out is:

“You have to admit that you’re kinda just letting your life pass you by.
And isn’t Stefan the one who wanted to make sure that you lived it?”

ELENA GILBERT IS ALWAYS, ALWAYS CAROLINE FORBES’ MAIN PRIORITY.

Over Damon, over Stefan, over everyone.

You would think Caroline would be one of the people to keep on the chase, but she gets it. She wants Elena to live all those moments which she’ll never get to experience herself. Even though she loves Stefan as one of her best friends (do you even remember that, show D:) she isn’t going to watch Elena let her life pass her by. She organizes the birthday, gets her to cut the cake, gets mad at Damon when he’s not there, handles Elena’s confusion over the Salvatores, tries to get her out of her denial, reassures her when Elena feels like she’ll be ‘less’ somehow, if she admits to liking Damon a little, accepts that; CAROLINE FORBES IS THE BEST FREAKIN’ FRIEND EVER.

And it’ll always be Elena and Bonnie over every guy for her. She’s shown it multiple times in many ways. Even the time when Stefan went all bitchy on her “if you’re my friend, like you’ve been pretending to be all day, you’ll tell me”, you could see she was torn up about it, because Stefan was fast becoming an anchor for her and he would dislike her for that, but she still kept Elena’s secret because, girlfriend code. She’s free for ‘girlfriend emergency’ even during sexytimes with Tyler. Obvious stan is obvious

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Basically, I thought she was kickass this episode, and Damon obviously enjoyed their fight (“bummer, I love a good girl fight”) and anytime Caroline gets to beat up guys (pretty frequently) is A+ in my books.

I think I’m also cool with it because I thought Damon was AWESOME this episode. I’m so glad the show isn’t sacrificing who he’s always been to keep his friendships intact or making relationships static.He acted as he always does; he lashed out. The boy is self-destructive like whoa. DAMON HAS A LONG WAY TO GO, AND I'M GOING TO ENJOY EVERY SINGLE REGRESSIVE STEP.

Also, it got us Katherine/Damon road-trip, WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE?