The Vampire Diaries: Metanarratives and the Effects of Framing in the Process of Interpretation

[youcallitwinter]

This arose from a discussion that wheatear, cranmers, and ishi_chan had on the previous 3x20 (non) reaction post, and also many other discussions on the same topic, that I just found fascinating and wanted to contribute to, and then it just turned into this horrifying thing and I cannot even with my life anymore. /fml (But then again, I’m doing a paper on text and the

Comments

[pocochina]

OOOOH, thank you for this. It's really helpful to help me pick through my feelings. Because this:

especially in the medium of television, we tend to study various techniques of presentation within the show, of which narrative framing is an important part, as it's an externally exloyed device, and therefore functions more as a comment on the text, rather than as a part of it.

is a tough concept for me. I love narratives about fucked-up things, and sometimes bad shit happens and everyone lets it fly. And then I do totally project my judgment onto the text - like, I assumed Damon's victimization of Andie was supposed to be horrible? So I don't...know, quite, where I need there to be some textual commentary and when I don't. But particularly this season, subtlety is not a big priority for TVD, so it's a lot clearer-cut for me to expect.

The scenes could have been kept in their entirety, and gained a whole new dimension if someone had voiced their concern.

Oh, click, this.

Because what the narrative essentially does through her dialogue is that it trivializes her own experiences of abuse. The show never bothered to expand upon that angle; so here it's just nicely making use of her experiences to further its ~shipping agenda.

Yeah, I think that's why it bothers me even more than the Rose thing. I think I'm most disturbed by this particular narrative of abuse? That it's only abuse if it's a Bad Guy doing it. If he's really trying, and it was totes the drugs and the rotten friends, and he's such a good guy, and everyone just looks at them and sees the perfect couple - then this is exactly what happens, this whole silencing thing. It's so insidious and needs underlining.

[ever_neutral]

I think I'm most disturbed by this particular narrative of abuse? That it's only abuse if it's a Bad Guy doing it.

This. "Insidious" is my favourite word of the week. The text is endorsing the (objectively false) good!brother/bad!brother dichotomy through its framing of the characters. Hence, it's endorsing the idea that the trauma of victims isn't valid if the perpetrator of abuse is a Nice Guy (see: Stefan and Elena).

Kill this narrative with fire.

[upupa_epops]

I think I'm most disturbed by this particular narrative of abuse? That it's only abuse if it's a Bad Guy doing it. If he's really trying, and it was totes the drugs and the rotten friends, and he's such a good guy, and everyone just looks at them and sees the perfect couple - then this is exactly what happens, this whole silencing thing. It's so insidious and needs underlining.

THIS. Because this is what really bothers me in s3? Stefan's wrong actions seem to consciously mirror Damon's wrong actions from s1&2. Murdering random, innocent people - check. Killing Jeremy / actively choosing not to save Jeremy - check. Force-feeding - check. Victimization of women with sexual undertones and just for fun - check. Verbal abuse - check. The only thing Stefan hasn't done is raping people on screen - but then, he starts the season from murdering Damon's victim to make a point, so I am not that eager to congratulate Stefan on not being a rapist at the moment... So the deeds are IDENTICAL. It took the whole season to make sure that Stefan and Damon are equally terrible... and yet we ended up framing S/E as romantic? Damon's abuse is addressed, Stefan's is glossed over?

It's so absurd I don't even know how to START reading this. It doesn't match any trope or narrative technique I'm aware of. Why do we still have good brother and bad brother when we've spent a season making sure they're both awful?

[pocochina]

So the deeds are IDENTICAL. It took the whole season to make sure that Stefan and Damon are equally terrible... and yet we ended up framing S/E as romantic? Damon's abuse is addressed, Stefan's is glossed over?

I honestly really liked Stefan's story this season up until this episode, because I thought (still do think, but obviously the ball was dropped somewhere along the line) that was really purposeful that we were watching the Bad Brother take shape before our eyes. I'd argue that's an intentional theme of the season - it's also we saw with Damon when Sage showed up, and really the whole story with the Originals. The vampire myth is always on some level about corruption, about beings that are not born evil. So this kind of assertion of some innate nature just feels so out of left field.