very big, very long discussion on why i ship my otp, and why i sometimes hate it.

Apr 18, 2011 20:33

 This has been a long time coming. There's been so much hate and negativity in this fandom over this particular pairing (oh, you can only guess which pairing it is) and a lot of hate and negativity from these shippers in return. If you hadn't already guessed, I'm talking about Damon and Elena.

This is going to be a long post, and it's going to cover ( Read more... )

tv show: the vampire diaries

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youcallitwinter April 18 2011, 09:33:47 UTC
OKAY, SO CAN I JUST SAY- THANK YOU FOR BEING SANE ABOUT THIS. (And my fandom soulmate if this post proves anything). BECAUSE, YES.

I started watching TVD because of Damon/Elena. I was just randomly watching YouTube videos, when I came across one of them to Teenage Dream and I was instantly hooked because, well, because they’re so pretty, I suppose. And I started watching it for the lulz, because I had assumed ‘eh, another Vampire show. But at least they’re hot.’ AND THEN I GOT INVESTED, FOR REAL. And I saw all the episodes in like six days (this was during the winter hiatus) and I watched it indiscriminately, without any analysis or judgment.

But now, that I’ve had time enough- CAN I GET A ‘HELL YEAH’ ON YOUR DAMON DESCRIPTION. Because I have been around fandom a lot, and I have noticed that people immediately spark up if someone says something negative about Damon, but the thing is, he’s not a nice guy mostly. And what’s even more important is- IAN IS NOT DAMON. I love him because he’s a character, so all that confusion and ( ... )

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laniaaa April 18 2011, 11:27:18 UTC
FANDOM SOULMATES? I AM TOTALLY OKAY WITH THAT! :D

it is horrible if you say something negative about damon! like, i love the guy, he's one my favorite characters because of his complexity and confusion, but he's also a bad guy. just like you would tell any other man to go to jail for raping a young girl or demanding a life sentence for someone murdering your sister, damon is one of them, whether he's attractive or not. i think a lot of people forget that and it frustrates me. you can justify for me any reason why it is OKAY for him to KILL someone because HE IS HAVING A CRISIS ( ... )

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cranmers April 19 2011, 16:09:35 UTC
Omg I agree with like, EVERYTHING you just said.
First time with a 'Delena' shipper :D

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youcallitwinter April 19 2011, 18:51:20 UTC
Haha, really? I do ship Delena hard and I love TVD characters but I can't help but be a little wary of some stuff; representations and relationships and tropes they make use of. (Except perhaps Caroline, whom I just can't seem to judge :P)

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arabian April 18 2011, 11:29:23 UTC
The only main thing I take issue with here is the contention that Damon is okay with Elena's friends dying. He's not "okay with it." He will deal with it if that's the only way. Even knowing that Bonnie wasn't dead, he didn't look happy when he saw her faked-death body. And when Elena told him that they would find another way so that Bonnie didn't die, Damon said "I hope so." Meaning, he did not want Bonnie to have to die. It was just that if it came down to it, yes, he would choose Elena over Bonnie (and anyone else). Which is the exact same thing that Bonnie essentially told Elena, in that she would die before she would let Elena die. Damon cares about Elena more than the others, so of course he will choose her. Everyone has that one person they will choose over anybody else to live or die. Damon just had the balls to flat-out say it. It doesn't mean he's okay with the death of everyone else, just that if it comes down to it ... he's going to choose Elena.

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laniaaa April 19 2011, 07:31:03 UTC
i do understand what you're saying, and i am more than willing to concede that what you're saying is correct. i hadn't quite stopped to think about his initial reaction to bonnie's 'death.' however, (and this is mainly just me) i still find it somewhat disconcerting at the ease in which damon would be willing to let someone die if it meant choosing elena. the show doesn't delve too much into how damon feels about this, so i couldn't say 'damon feels this for sure!' it's just, that to me, it's how it feels. but no, you are right, he wasn't completely okay with bonnie dying, i agree.

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ydtiwws April 18 2011, 12:57:16 UTC
Finally a realist ( ... )

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laniaaa April 19 2011, 06:39:41 UTC
i won't lie, i used to be very much 'they are so perfect together, omfg!' but as i came to be more invested in the show and its characters, the reality hit me more of damon's character and the relationship he was coming to have with elena.

I personally think that Damon Salvatore is the most well written character that I've come across. i agree, full on. i think he's so fantastically layered and complex - he's a character that people can learn to love or hate, who they can get invested in or cast aside, bit either way he's a complex character with a storyline that can be built upon time and time again.

i felt like i was going against me ship while i wrote this, so i kind of know what you mean! i too, would like to see damon respond to someone who loves him without compulsion or any kind of second agenda - who wasn't killed off in three episodes. it feels to me like sometimes he's defined more by his relationships with katherine and elena than by his own hand.

i don't think the show would work now. that's not to say that in two ( ... )

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PART I cranmers April 18 2011, 15:34:49 UTC
Hate and negativity over this particularly pairing? Really? :/

Hope you don’t mean me. I really like them as a platonic pairing but I literally feel like the one person who ships Damon with someone else and therefore...yeah...I might be a little over-zealous on this point sometimes! Although in my defence there are WAAAAAAY more over-zealous shippers IMO, not least the ‘Delena’ lot...

You shipped them from Day One

Just want to pick up on that point and say that I only started shipping ‘Stelena’ with any semblance of commitment since 1x10, you know the whole ‘I know what I want’ scene. Before that, I was pretty flexible about shipping. I was pretty flexible even after that, although IMO ‘Stelena’ did go from strength to strength after that scene. It was only Damon’s powerful attachment to Katherine that kept me from getting on board early ‘Delena’. But enough about me, back to your thoughts...

However, amongst all of that, I think it hurt Damon to see Stefan living the relationship with Elena that Damon wanted with Katherine...I ( ... )

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PART II cranmers April 18 2011, 15:35:52 UTC
1x11 - loved this episode because it summed up the Damon/Elena that I like. Damon LIKES Elena, she knows how to laugh, they have a good time together and they care about eachother. For me, that’s it ( ... )

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Re: PART II laniaaa April 19 2011, 07:27:21 UTC
OMFG. OMFG. I JUST SPENT TWENTY MINUTES WRITING OUT THIS MASSIVE COMMENT IN REPLY AND THEN I WENT TO CLICK POST COMMENT AND SERVICE BECAME UNAVAILABLE AND I LOST EVERYTHING. I AM SO ANGRY AND UPSET RIGHT NOW.

:___________;

so i'm going to try this again, and i will probably forget half of what i said and that will make me feel worse :L when am i going to learn to ctrl + c before i do anything just in case? -.-'

so, by hate and negativity i absolutely did not mean you! this post came about after i saw a lot of hate going around on tumblr, where delena fans were saying some obnoxious stuff, and in return were receiving a lot of insulting and cruel comebacks. this was in no way reflected on you! :L

when i say i shipped them from day one, it wasn't a very intense ship. it was a basic kind of ship and came to grow from there.

i totally agree with this: Damon believed that being the cause of Katherine’s salvation would make everything perfect between them. the way he said it, was perfect. (in my previous post there was more to this but ( ... )

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Re: PART II cranmers April 19 2011, 16:01:06 UTC
I still disagree on small points haha:

Damon/Katherine: One of the things about Damon/Katherine is that I get the feeling that she was in a unique position in terms of the fact that she managed to stir such emotion in him. I do think that early season one Damon was remarkably wise about the whole thing...but that's just my opinion, I guess.

Stefan/Elena: I understand what you mean better now. We haven't seen the snarky, fesity Elena in a while though because Damon is being so nice ;) Howevs you do see her being fierce with Stefan as well, like when she's saving him from the vervain well or when he gets stuck in the tomb.

And OMG haha Elena is ridiculously sexual! At least Katherine is overt about it...

I've always thought it was the lack of Damon/Kat screen time that was the reason I attributed for their percieved lack of chemistry because the S01E01 scene was v. well recieved. IDK. I think they have chemistry!

And yahh. Fandom is baffling/attracts crazy people...but I love it!

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