I Told You To Be Balanced, And I Told You To Be Fine (a TVD 4x15 meta)

[upupa_epops]

This is a longish meta-shaped review. Of a chaotic emo variety. I just need to get all those thoughts out because I haven't really been up to any fandom discussions lately. Somehow fandom discussions aren't as much fun as they used to be. Possibly because I'm a headcase

Comments

[vergoldung]

Your words bring me such happiness you don't even know.

I have no idea when I will be ready to catch up, but even out of context your thoughts are delightful to me.

/end of useless comment

[upupa_epops]

<3333333333333333333333333333

[archangel_blood]

Bullshit. It won't. No one is right. No one can be right. No one will be validated. In the end, we'll be left knowing that those people love one another madly, and that it's not enough. We'll be left with burned sketches, journals and converse sneakers because we're idiots like that, and even after everything we still find room in our heads to be sad because we just saw shoelaces burn.

*sobs* I hate you.

Also, I love your brain.

They're all screwed, and we are screwed for hoping otherwise.

This episode blew my mind. For the first time in a while I have no problem with Elena's agency either. Still not buying the sire bond, btw. And for some reason, I'm heartbroken now. (It's the damn shoelaces.)

[upupa_epops]

This episode was absolutely mindblowing, and it took me some time to figure out why exactly I have no problem with Elena's agency.

THE SHOELACES THOUGH. It was perfection. And I loved that Stefan asked her about the possibility of back to the house later, but Damon didn't say a word. This is what being a vampire means, you lose the things you owned, the material world keeps changing around you. Stefan is forever trying to fight it, to keep things despite time, but Damon doesn't hold on to a single thing he had as a human. From Damon's perspective, Elena might as well get rid of all the objects already, because if she lives long enough, they'll turn to dust anyway.

[peoplenotplaces]

These words you just made. I CAN'T BREATHE. OUCH.

[upupa_epops]

*hugs*

[swirlsofblue]

AVBDUKHSUKHDKUVBDH. I absolutely love this analysis, you make so many awesome points.

I know that “make it stop” and “let me help you” are just some of those things people say, but those aren't people, those are characters, and they use words for a reason. The episode is trying to do the impossible and frame Elena as having agency despite the sire bond.
I so agree with the whole trying to have Elena make the decision. Though my thoughts on it were a little different. All through the episode I was annoyed that Stefan kept mentioning using the sire bond as an attempt to not be helpless and no one calling him on it, and I was so glad when Damon actually told her to turn it off, instead of using the sire bond to tell her she was okay because that would've had her experiencing fake emotions, whereas with the switch off any emotions in play are still genuine. But of course that's assuming that the sire bond is in any way effective in such a massive situation

[wheatear]

Maybe I'm in some cosmic denial, but I don't see Elena's agency as being compromised in any way.

Well, I guess someone has to be the first to disagree, so... yeah. I can't see how her agency wasn't compromised. Damon invoked the sire bond, thus effectively making Elena's decision for her. She didn't make the choice to turn it off. Damon did. That's what happened.

(EDIT: Unless the sire bond is fake, of course. It still looks to me like it's meant to be real, but you never know.)

The episode didn't tell us whether or not the sire bond is real, but it told us that it's completely redundant. It's been long established that it doesn't affect Elena's emotions, now we're shown that it doesn't affect her actions either.The fact that she still chose to burn the house down indicates that turning off her emotions didn't change her actions, at least in this instance. That in itself doesn't say anything about the sire bond

[angearia]

Awww I get a tag :D :D :D

The writers wanted to take Elena (and Bonnie, for that matter: hypnosis is clearly the “sire bond” of Bonnie's arc) to interesting places, wanted to do darker stuff with her narrative, but censorship (inner censorship? network censorship? I'd pay good money to know that tbh) put a halt on that. Let's be real, many of the things Elena did this season wouldn't be palatable for certain (big!) groups of viewers if the blow wasn't softened by the sire bond. Same goes for Bonnie and hypnosis. I think the writers were right to fear that casual viewers would stop watching the show if the heroines went dark out of their own volition. I wish the writers had had more courage about it, I wish they had had taken the risk. I think it's valid to criticize them for it, but I think it's also important to talk about why the fuck this kind of storytelling is still a risk.And consider this in light of Don Draper, Walter White, and other male characters who can still be the protagonists and have utterly dark narratives and yet

[novin_ha]

Of course women can't be dark, even if they have good reason.

I agree with your point, but I don't think there are no morally-ambiguous female protagonists. Women obviously can be ambiguous or evil when it's not their story, but there are examples of women being deeply flawed and having less-than-stellar-morality storylines on television, right now (and that's even disregarding soaps, which have a long history of that). It's true we don't have a female Dexter, but we do have a female House (albeit more likable one, i.e. Nurse Jackie) and Scandal is one example of a female protagonist who does evil things while being likable and (only) intermittently good - and of the audience rushing to excuse her. Admittedly, they rush to excuse the male character much more eagerly, but still, the direction is there