Because Damon is highly intuitive. lol, as Professor Shane himself appreciated.
The tragedy is that sired Elena pursuing him and wanting him is a sick and twisted version of his deepest desire.Yep. And as much as I viscerally hate this clusterfuck of a plot development it's also interesting to note that the narrative is still essentially fucking with everyone's favourite romantic tropes. It's like Thomas Galvin (reviewer dude) recently pointed out -- the sire bond is similar to the "imprinting" business in Twilight (and countless other examples in YA fiction). The difference is that on TVD, romantic love driven by a supernatural influence is portrayed as a negative. It's presented as a genuine moral conflict for the smouldering romantic hero. That fucks with so many expectations it almost makes me giddy. The woman bending over backwards to please the man? Check. The older dude's controlling behaviour being treated as a given? Check. I could go on. The show has actually set up a situation here where anything less than total
( ... )
Even Shady Shane can make valid points sometimes ;).
The show has actually set up a situation here where anything less than total equity is unacceptable.
Yeah, I've been thinking about this. My immediate point of comparison was True Blood where people, after consuming vampire blood, experience elaborate, magically induced sex dreams about the vampire who gave them blood. Sharing blood also produces a bond of loyalty and tons of other shit that I don't want to go into, because I can't remember it that well. Anyway, to the point.
You can see what the sire bond could've been when you look at some fandom reactions / fics. The bond grows out of love, so they can be together no problem. The bond is a no-issue. And yet -- none of that on the show. We find out right away that the bond is formed out of love, and the bond is still a problem. Me likes.
The one thing I'm unsure about now is where Damon/Elena could go once the sire bond is broken/revealed to be fake. Like, we know that Damon's going to have to
( ... )
Wonderful analysis. And I want to say for the record: There's a very old quote that applies here. 'You can please some of the people some of the time. all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time
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My comment actually wasn't directed at any specific person... It was more a general blurt in defense of a show that has been getting way too much flack from every quarter. If it seemed otherwise I must apologize, I only meant to encourage your continuing meta not take sides. Again, sorry if I offended anyone, it was completely unintentional.
LOL have you read this? As soon as I read it, I was like, "Huh, this is what Marta has been saying all along," and then you go and do a whole fancypants meta on it.
But he decided that Elena was ~different. She was his friend, she was special, he never wanted to do this to her. Only, thanks to the sire bond, he did this to her anyway. Because there is no such thing as a special girl when you're in a circle of abuse. A circle won't break itself just because you love this one girl so fucking much. This is not how abuse works.
YESSSSSSSSSS. I LOVE the trope subversion here, although I do worry about Alex's point about how it's still "the bad boy is ~changed by the love of a woman" if D/E are together afterward, because Damon has learned a ~valuable lesson from all of this or w/e.
He never wanted to do this to her, never wanted to turn her into one of his compelled girls, but he did it anyway, joke's on him. And when she touches him, he not only knows that it might not be real - he also knows that he had it coming.LOL, Damon
( ... )
I skimmed through it when you linked to it on your blog :D. Well, if they wrote about it in a paper, then it must be true! *validated*
Yeah, the things Alex is talking about is yet another point on my "I worry about this" list :(. I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get there?
At this point, I can make no Caroline predictions. Obviously it would be cool if Damon's abuse of her was revisited, but I wouldn't put any money on it :(.
I love your interpretation of the sire bond and how it could affect Damon's narrative. Especially since Damon hasn't had a whole lot in the way of genuine character development since the show started. I mean, he's been a dick, and then slightly less of a dick, and then more of a dick. So this storyline has great potential to make him confront his dick-i-tude and maybe even (gasp!) apologize to Caroline for the shitty way he treated her.
The thing that still wigs me, though, is that this storyline isn't just - or even mostly - happening to Damon. It's mostly happening to Elena, and that's the part that gives me the wiggins. As the female protagonist of the show, it still squicks me to see her agency called into question, especially wrt her romantic relationships. I'm having a hard time seeing how the writers could turn this into positive character development for Elena's story. I'm not saying they can't, I'm just nervous about where it might go.
Oh, I think Damon got quite a lot character development, only not the kind of development you'd expect. He's being constantly challenged, because at first his understanding of love is sick and harmful both to himself and to others, and then it's gradually changing into something that actually lets him function. Damon is learning a lot, only he isn't learning to be better, he's learning to be healthier.
Agreed on everything re: Elena. The premise of this post is that I suspended my feminist goggles for a while, just to play with Damon's narrative. Now I'm back to my everyday "worried about Elena's agency" routine :(.
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lol, as Professor Shane himself appreciated.
The tragedy is that sired Elena pursuing him and wanting him is a sick and twisted version of his deepest desire.Yep. And as much as I viscerally hate this clusterfuck of a plot development it's also interesting to note that the narrative is still essentially fucking with everyone's favourite romantic tropes. It's like Thomas Galvin (reviewer dude) recently pointed out -- the sire bond is similar to the "imprinting" business in Twilight (and countless other examples in YA fiction). The difference is that on TVD, romantic love driven by a supernatural influence is portrayed as a negative. It's presented as a genuine moral conflict for the smouldering romantic hero. That fucks with so many expectations it almost makes me giddy. The woman bending over backwards to please the man? Check. The older dude's controlling behaviour being treated as a given? Check. I could go on. The show has actually set up a situation here where anything less than total ( ... )
Reply
Even Shady Shane can make valid points sometimes ;).
The show has actually set up a situation here where anything less than total equity is unacceptable.
Yeah, I've been thinking about this. My immediate point of comparison was True Blood where people, after consuming vampire blood, experience elaborate, magically induced sex dreams about the vampire who gave them blood. Sharing blood also produces a bond of loyalty and tons of other shit that I don't want to go into, because I can't remember it that well. Anyway, to the point.
You can see what the sire bond could've been when you look at some fandom reactions / fics. The bond grows out of love, so they can be together no problem. The bond is a no-issue. And yet -- none of that on the show. We find out right away that the bond is formed out of love, and the bond is still a problem. Me likes.
The one thing I'm unsure about now is where Damon/Elena could go once the sire bond is broken/revealed to be fake. Like, we know that Damon's going to have to ( ... )
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But he decided that Elena was ~different. She was his friend, she was special, he never wanted to do this to her. Only, thanks to the sire bond, he did this to her anyway. Because there is no such thing as a special girl when you're in a circle of abuse. A circle won't break itself just because you love this one girl so fucking much. This is not how abuse works.
YESSSSSSSSSS. I LOVE the trope subversion here, although I do worry about Alex's point about how it's still "the bad boy is ~changed by the love of a woman" if D/E are together afterward, because Damon has learned a ~valuable lesson from all of this or w/e.
He never wanted to do this to her, never wanted to turn her into one of his compelled girls, but he did it anyway, joke's on him. And when she touches him, he not only knows that it might not be real - he also knows that he had it coming.LOL, Damon ( ... )
Reply
Yeah, the things Alex is talking about is yet another point on my "I worry about this" list :(. I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get there?
At this point, I can make no Caroline predictions. Obviously it would be cool if Damon's abuse of her was revisited, but I wouldn't put any money on it :(.
Reply
The thing that still wigs me, though, is that this storyline isn't just - or even mostly - happening to Damon. It's mostly happening to Elena, and that's the part that gives me the wiggins. As the female protagonist of the show, it still squicks me to see her agency called into question, especially wrt her romantic relationships. I'm having a hard time seeing how the writers could turn this into positive character development for Elena's story. I'm not saying they can't, I'm just nervous about where it might go.
Reply
Agreed on everything re: Elena. The premise of this post is that I suspended my feminist goggles for a while, just to play with Damon's narrative. Now I'm back to my everyday "worried about Elena's agency" routine :(.
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