#and I just immediately thought of caroline and seline

[so-long-soldier28]

if you could omit a storyline from the tvd show. which one would it be and why???

okay to complete this ask, i had to recall the main storylines from each season. this is what i produced. i will stick that below along with my decisions and thought processes.

also, i say it in the notes, but if this form of answering asks is too chaotic, i can switch back to the neat paragraph format i used in the avengers x kai post. i can cut out my gibberish and actually capitalize my sentences again 😅 just let me know which you prefer!

no tw except for spoilers all the way to season 8

the seasons & their storylines

1 - damon + kath / tomb

2 - stefan being a dick (+ wolves)

3 - mikaelsons

4 - shane + cure

5 - silas + travelers

6 - kai + geminis

7 - heretics + rayna cruz

8 - fucking sirens + stupid donovan family reunion

now... to judge them all and remove one...

alright… tbh, it took me way too long to remember the second villian of s7, because post-lily, my mind went blank

then it went, ah, yes, that stupid hunter storyline

and then i immediately selected that one bc i hated watching bonnie get abused again

this storyline was so stupid; the seven year time jump was so confusing

we were also given NO CONTEXT and MINOR HISTORY into bonnie and enzo's THREE YEAR RELATIONSHIP

like i love both these characters, but them together came out of nowhere

also… damon caring so little for enzo and vice versa in seasons 7 & 8 after all the history they had together PISSED ME OFF SO BAD, like they don't care for each other at all?? not even romantically, just platonic care / trauma bond, NOTHING?

anyway that's aside the point

i loved early season 7

nora, val, and mary louise were funny; matt being angry all the time was funny; bonnie and damon coming back from europe and immediately killing a heretic was funny

bonnie had so much sass in this season

but then plec had to drive her underground again with the magic pills & nearly killing her & all that shit

and i liked rayna, to some extent; she was pretty cool

but there was no reason to drag bonnie in the mix and make her kill her friends just because she took some stupid pills, just because some relative of enzo wanted her to open a vault

that st. john stuff was insanity; i still don't understand it

i don't think the characters did either; probably not the actors, either

i also don't like that the rayna storyline killed off nora and ML, like, let the lesbian heretics live, fuck off julie plec

and bonnie and nora should've had a fling but that's a different story

so yeah… the 7 years into the future storyline + hunters is the storyline i would erase

also… i don't know why caroline kept showing up with blood on her face and ranting about stefan, like, i was genuinely confused

it kept reminding me of season 2 when damon dated that newscaster but then stefan killed her.. or whatever happened...

anyway, let's take a look at a close contender… season 8 - donovans

why… the fuck… did the donovans have to have a family reunion?

i do not care about his dad, i do not care about his mom, i do not care about vicki, i don't care about matt, and i certainly don't care to see them all in one place

matt only survived bc zach and julie plec were hooking up i stg

this man and his whole family are weak links

the sirens didn't bother me all that much, compared to the donovans fucking existence

i actually liked seline, ish

[unless i just liked the actress bc she's in that containment series so i associate her with chris 💀]

but i liked that she was playing games with alaric

i think she and kai would get along well… fucking with alaric, nearly killing twins… plus his comment about wanting to fuck hot cannibals…

this post isn't about kai moving on

the sirens were hella annoying at first and i hated them, but as soon as they released damon & enzo, i started to like them

then they died

speaking of death, stefan's death was so stupid

i have a lot to say about that but that's for a different time

kelly ruining steroline wedding was so stupid

gtfo woman

another contender… the stupid travelers of season 5

what tf was happening bc i genuinely don't know

i have no idea what happened when tyler was possessed

i don't even know what to say bc i was so lost the entire time

but i wouldn't omit the storyline bc the spell that eradicated them is what kai sucked up later

and then he became all hot & dangerous

but where did they go after the spell kept them out??

where did they come from, where did they go??

i liked liv & luke, they were both grumpy & slightly dickish

the travelers shit introduced them so that's cool... bc they had to stop the dopplegangers or something, i have no idea

liv has a vendetta against life for no reason. she's just so angry

she doesn't even remember the Great Sibling Slaughter of 1994, she was 4. why are you so bitter, liv?

we'll never know ig

idk tho living with joshua parker post-1994 doesn't seem fun. doesn't seem fun pre-1994, but i feel he'd be even 10x angrier after, so maybe it's just the childhood trauma. sorry, liv

also i might've shipped her with bonnie just a little bit… just a smidge… thought bon would be real cute with another witch

aside the point

stefan's dopplegangers were great… i like both of them more than i like stefan

but the kill the dopplegangers thing was confusing and if not for early s5 with silas & quetsiyah + blonde twins in later parts, i would hate s5

other seasons' notes

season 4... i hated shane bc he was creepy, but i found it funny that bonnie was so into him. damon was so perturbed at this

oH! not a storyline, but omit them killing kol bc fuck elena. that's my other man

but i know why they did it

and i adored davina bringing him back

so ig not omit, but fuck them for killing him, especially for their own personal gain

kol died so that jeremy could dramatically yell while ripping off his shirt

season 2... so i just remembered that s2 was more than just a precursor to klaus / middle part elijah; it also had wolves

i forgot about them initially, bc i don't care about most the wolves

tyler, i have so many mixed emotions; hayley, hated in tvd, liked in s1-2 of the orginals, didn't care for her later on; mason, nice to look at, don't care about him; jewel, or jade, idk, blonde girl that was looking for mason and found tyler, hated her; the random apperance of stephen amell… gtfo off my screen

wouldn't omit the wolves bc they had a point (ish) and grew the show, but i just don't care

not to say i don't like werewolves bc i fucking love the werewolves (cough twilight cough) but i don't care for the tvd wolves - the originals included, fuck off jackson

that was mean… he was a good man, good husband… i just don't care, i'm sorry

oliver was way worse, let's focus on him instead. he can fuck off; jackson can stay

so yeah, the hunter curse thing in s7 needs to go

unless you're kai and there's sexual tension involved & you're mutually causing each other pain, don't hurt bonnie

the magic pills were confusing, don't hurt my lesbian heretics, either

st. john stuff made no sense; probably just an introduction to the armory so alaric could feel important again

one final note

i hate that the beautiful salvatore mansion was turned into a school for weasel-y children to destroy

children are messy, that thing's an antique

i hate alaric

oh, i know i also made a post about wishing kai didn't kill jo so that alaric wouldn't have feelings for caroline, but i don't know if i fully stand by that post

as much as i wanted kai to have a redemption arc, him being a heretic was fun (while it lasted)

if they were dedicated towards keeping kai alive (therefore omiting his death storyline), he'd be a great time

i can see him and damon becoming buddies & being absolute menaces together

damon fights it sooo hard at first, but can't help wanting to dive into kai's bad influence

he makes vampirism feel like vampirism again… raising hell and not being afraid to be the bad guy

while simultaneously getting bad looks from all his friends and promising he's trying to be kai's good influence, but we all know he's not trying that hard

jo would survive and raise her twins with her creepy husband

she'd live in fear of kai coming after her kids any given day, but would try to ignore the thought

maybe they move away & free us from ric for good

but while this sounds really fun, i don't know where the story would go from there

kai would definitely get stuck under lily's control with the rest of the heretics & he'd have a big fucking fit about it

if enzo got with bonnie with kai still alive, that would be ugly

he would totally fuck a siren… and then help them kill the twins

but…

him killing jo & raising absolute hell was very fun & i loved it

his sudden return in s8, effectively pissing off damon & ric was hilarious

loved that he got back & immediately killed a grill employee

just like old times

i really wished they didn't kill him off, but i did like his pop-up later on

so… the storyline I would omit:

hunters. as explained.

back-up omissions:

kai death

stupid legacies

[doyelikehaggis]

Rowing the Rarepair Rowboat: Caroline Forbes x Seline (The Vampire Diaries)

"I feel like I shouldn't even have to say this," Bonnie sets down her coffee and stares at Caroline; a stern, slightly disbelieving and exasperated stare, "but don't sleep with the babysitter."

She says it with such conviction, too, as if it's a genuine concern. Like she's going to just waltz up to the new girl and suggest it! 

Caroline rolls her eyes, laughing, and replies, maybe a bit too testily, "I'm not going to sleep with her! I just..." She takes a deep breath and tries again -- without the sheepish smile this time. "She's... I just think that..."

"She's hot and you want to have sex with her."

"That's--!" Her words actually register, alongside an image of Seline, the new babysitter, as of this morning and Caroline slumps with a defeated sigh, "--totally true."

Bonnie picks her cup back up to take a drink and totally not to disguise the smile that Caroline can see on her face, plain as day. Groaning, she drops her head onto her arms with a thump. 

Bringing up the interview was a bad idea. Coffee with Bonnie had just seemed like a good opportunity to whine a bit about how infuriatingly perfect Seline was throughout the entire interview, because she can't say anything to Ric without him going all gooey-eyed and gushing even more about how great she seems. And he wouldn't even listen to her when she tried to point out that it was so obviously all just a ploy to try and seduce him, and get under his skin!

For what reason... she actually isn't sure. But it worked! Because now she's under Caroline's skin as well like the slightering little snake she is, if snakes were slender, and had impossibly smooth skin, and were able to work their venom into your veins without even touching you!

Another groan escapes Caroline but it comes out as more of a pathetic whimper if she's honest. She props her chin on her arms and pouts. 

"Why couldn't she be really horrible so that we were forced to hire the old lady nanny?" she asks miserably. "Couldn't she be like every other stranger in our lives and turn out to be some bloodthirsty monster, or an ancient, evil witch with a murderous vendetta? Why did she have to be perfect and... sparkly?"

Bonnie's eyebrows raise, and she laughs, sets down her cup, and shakes her head at her like she's the saddest sight she's seen. And that's saying a lot; she dated Jeremy, for gods sake. 

"All right, you need to pull yourself together," Bonnie tells her, leaning in across the table with a smile that's getting far too much entertainment out of this for the words coming out of her mouth. "Or else you're going to end up getting sparkly with this girl. I repeat: Do. Not. Sleep with. The nanny."

"Fine," Caroline says but she isn't convinced by her own agreement. She sits up straight, finally shaking herself out of this ridiculousness, and repeats, more clearly and calmly, "I'm not going to do anything with the nanny that would count as even slightly unprofessional. All conversations will be about the girls, or Ric, since she is clearly already trying to get her perfectly manicured claws into--"

She catches Bonnie's stare. Closing her mouth, she nods, getting the message. 

"Yeah, I'll work on it."

Bonnie nods back. "You do that. But, uh... I'd suggest doing it fast, because based on your descriptions of this gorgeous demon of a babysitter, I'd say that she has just walked in and is -- oh, yep, she's coming over here. And she's smiling. And waving. And I'm still talking -- I'm gonna go!"

Caroline's eyes widen as Bonnie is already grabbing her stuff and getting out of her seat -- the only other seat at the table. She shakes her head frantically and tries to grab for her, not able to speak as Seline reaches them far too fast with those annoyingly gorgeous long legs. 

"Hi!" Seline greets, and the moment for escape has passed. 

"Hey!" Caroline says, with way too much enthusiasm and a smile that probably looks a bit crazy. Judging by the look both she and Bonnie give her, she's guessing it does. 

"You must be the new nanny," Bonnie says to Seline. "I'm Bonnie."

Seline sticks out a hand and shakes Bonnie's with a bright smile. "It's nice to meet you! Are you leaving already...?" she asks, gesturing to Bonnie's stuck gathered rather hastily into her arms and her seat now left unoccupied. 

"I have to get to Whitmore College. My class starts in a half hour, and they're not going to learn much if their professor isn't there," she explains with a laugh that Seline joins in on, to Caroline's great dismay, because as it turns out, even that sounds perfect. Soft and silky and like a god damn siren. As an afterthought, Bonnie adds, "Well, professor in training, I guess."

"Oh, did you intern with Alaric?" Seline asks.

Bonnie and Caroline share a subtly amused look at that, and Bonnie falters for a second, trying not to let her smile show too much.

"Uh, yeah -- in a way. I'm actually teaching Occult studies, so, having him around has certainly been... a big help. What with the... history side of things and all." Recognizing her own fumbling, she quickly says, "Anyway! I have to go. I'll see you later, Care. It was nice meeting you, Seline. You two have fun!"

Caroline shoots her a disbelieving glare, eyes wide as Bonnie just smirks and makes her escape out of the cafe. Fantastic. Now it's just her and--

She turns to find Seline already taking the seat across from her and asking, "Is it okay if I sit with you for a little while? If you're not busy, of course! I'd love to get to know you better, seeing as how you're trusting me with your kids."

"And their father," Caroline says tightly, then regrets it when it comes off as a jealous ex. Even the thought of someone assuming that makes her shudder. She was more just meaning because of his bad luck in the dating department, any new women in his life seems like a bad idea, especially now that Lizzie and Josie are in the picture. 

Seline actually looks surprised by the comment. She blinks and sits up straighter. Then her expression shifts, and she's clearly trying to suppress a smile -- though, not very hard, as it twitches and tugs at the corners of her mouth as she momentarily ducks her head, nodding. 

"Ah," she says, like everything makes perfect sense now. That's worrying. Caroline is really hoping she didn't go down the wrong route with this. "I get it now. I couldn't figure out why you seemed so... off with me during the interview. I was actually worried that I had done something wrong, or my resume wasn't enough."

"No." Caroline sinks in her seat with a sigh, guilt popping her with one sharp poke. "No, Seline, that's not--"

"It's okay!" Seline assures her. "I totally get it. I've watched the movies. Girl interviews for a job as a nanny, and nine times out of ten, they end up sleeping with the father. I absolutely get why you might've thought that's what I was trying to do."

Caroline shakes her head. "No, really, it's fine. It's my fault, I shouldn't have jumped to assumptions like that. You are... lovely. And perfect. For the job! For the kids -- Lizzie and Josie will adore you, I just know it. It was extremely rude of me to assume that you had any other intentions towards the job, or towards Ric."

"Well... thank you for saying that." Seline smiles at her, mouth stretching so far across her cheeks that it's kind of impossible for Caroline not to smile back. Then Seline is saying, "But I just want you to know that, I promise, I am not trying to go after Alaric, just so that you're totally reassured and don't have any concerns about that. I'm actually gay, so."

The bluntness throws Caroline. Bonnie returns in the form of a stern voice in the back of her head, giving her a good thwack for good measure as she repeats: Do not sleep with the babysitter. There is a line and it should not be crossed. But with this new information, as well as the smile that she is currently directing right at Caroline like a very obvious beam of sunshine, it's harder to see that line. 

"Oh!" Caroline says then immediately kicks herself and scrambles to correct. "I mean -- that's great! For you. Obviously, it has no impact on me. Not that I'm not -- oh god, that came off incredibly wrong. I... am so sorry."

Seline's laughing that silky laugh again. Like music, floating into Caroline's skull and filling it with clouds, soaking up all of the worries and bad things. A sort of peaceful content is washing over like a gentle shower of rain. 

"Don't be," Seline tells her. "It's fine. And cute."

Heat rises to the surface of Caroline's skin, and she flushes. She tries to laugh it off. "Uh... thank you. I try my best."

The joke has Seline laughing even more. Caroline can't help laughing, too, letting the embarrasment be washed away.

Then Seline says, "I was actually trying to impress you, not Alaric."

Maybe it's just the slight giddiness of it all lingering for a moment afterwards, but Seline gives her a lingering look before finally switching the subject, and she swears that it meant something. If that something is a toe over the line then... she'll just pretend she can't see it. Lines are easily moved. 

[sueboohscorner]

The Vampire Diaries 812 Recap “What Are You?” #TVD

Poor Matty Blue is having Maxwell legacy visions that are causing him to sleepwalk, and his somnambulist urges have delivered him to the Armory, where–yay!–Alaric is back! If anyone can fix the troubling sitch in Mystic Falls, it’s our favorite badass professor since Indiana Jones.

Matt confers with Alaric and Dorian about his nighttime troubles, and they realize he’s tapping into the memories of his ancestors, from which they hope to gain invaluable intel. They get him strapped in for a sleep study.

But that comes later, and of course, I’m stalling. Bonnie is in shock, crumpled on the floor of her house, Enzo’s lifeless body just outside her open front door. She takes a call from Damon and tearfully fills him in. Damon passes the news on to Caroline, who pretends to be confused about Bonnie’s stonewalling her in the aftermath of Caroline’s boyfriend murdering Bonnie’s boyfriend…Damon doesn’t let her get away with that self-delusion. 

But Caroline has her own fire to put out, so she calls Bonnie’s mom to help. Caroline’s fire? Well, Stefan’s been leaving his fingerprints all over murder scenes for the last couple of months, and he’s been arrested. With his newly restored humanity hitting him hard, he knows he deserves this and worse, but he still leaves with Caroline when she compels the cops to believe this was all a case of mistaken identity.

Damon is back in Mystic Falls, chewing on his own guilt and sorrow over Enzo’s death, when Cade arrives with news of the good and bad varieties. The good news is, their deal was for two immortal souls, so Stefan’s new mortality has nullified that arrangement; Damon no longer needs to kill for Cade. However, both their souls remain damned for oh-so-many reasons, and now that Stefan is mortal, Cade intends to collect his soul immediately…unless Damon will trade something Cade wants for Stefan to live out his mortal life, however long that may be. The thing Cade wants? The Maxwell journal featured in Matt’s visions and currently being studied at the Armory.

This is a terrible idea, but as we know, the Salvatore brothers’ greatest weakness has always been each other. There is no chance Damon will refuse this deal. 

He heads straight for the Armory, where Alaric disables him, then locks him up. Alaric knows Damon will not listen to reason. Damon watches from an Armory cell while Matt is going all Nightmare on Elm Street. Lucid dreaming in his hypnotic state allows Matt to narrate his visions. He’s seeing the life of Ethan Maxwell, the original metalworker who made the bell in partnership with the Bennett witches, one of whom was his girlfriend, Beatrice. While Ethan and Beatrice are engaged in some bell-adjacent flirting, Sibyl walks right up and says she needs the services of a gifted metalworker…dun dun dun!

Sibyl and Seline are living in the cave from which Sibyl will eventually be regrettably freed to ruin everyone’s lives. They have a plan to corrupt the bell’s purpose, and they Siren poor Ethan into doing their bidding. He can’t warn anyone about what he’s been forced to do, and for some reason, it takes him until the exact moment the plan is being enacted to get a sneaky message to Beatrice via their code key. He’s miserably ringing the bell and hoping to be stopped, and the gathered witches pour their energy into trapping the hellfire with a forcefield. They succeed, saving the town and keeping hell closed, but the coven is simply gone, possibly sucked into hell, certainly dead. Ethan leads Beatrice to the cave, where she seals the Sirens in, but she can’t prevent their song from influencing Ethan through the barrier; under their control, he attacks Beatrice, and she mournfully seals him in  the room where his bones, and his journal, will eventually be discovered. As she flees in sorrow, he shouts after her that he knows how to kill the devil but “cannot say,” which means he’s written it in his journal, in code. 

Unfortunately, Matt’s dreamscape is killing him, and in the heat of the moment, Alaric frees Damon to help. Of course, as soon as Matt’s medical situation is resolved, Damon grabs the book and superspeeds out of there to deliver it to Cade.

What Damon doesn’t know is that he’s currently bargaining for what might be a very short life indeed, as Stefan has been stabbed in the gut, and the Cure in his system prevents vamp-cures. His gut wound is the result of being hoisted on his own petard, so I’m not feeling bad for him: Realtor lady from last week is barely alive after he dumped her in the trunk of her own car with a gaping neck wound. He wouldn’t have given her a moment’s thought, apparently, but her daughter just happened to be at the police station filing a missing person’s report when Caroline was getting him out. The little girl says there’s no one else who can take care of her, “it’s just me and my mom,” and at that moment, even Caroline looks sickened. Stefan might have gone too far in Caroline’s eyes…unless they go find that woman before it’s too late. They do, and she stabs the guy who nearly killed her yesterday, which is her right as far as I’m concerned. You go, Karen.

Of course, Stefan survives the episode, and Karen is reunited with her daughter, so we’re meant to think this is something like a step toward redemption. I’m not buying it, and neither is Damon anymore…he asks Cade whether there’s any hope of earning freedom from damnation in time to avoid going to hell when they finally die. Cade smiles and says, “I wouldn’t want to give you false hope.”

Damon gives Stefan that false hope, though, when Stefan asks him a similar question. Damon, once again, is trying to bear a burden for his brother. 

Again, I’ve been stalling on the Enzo subplot. I wish I could say Bonnie and her mom witchy-wooed him back to life, but the current explanation for Bonnie’s psychic detonation last week is that her grief punched a door open between our world and hell. Her mom realizes this and burns Enzo’s body in the hope that will reseal the door. Bonnie heads for home and has a nice talk with Matt, who knows about loss and had come to genuinely respect Enzo.

Finally, Damon waltzes back into the Armory, and Alaric is on the verge of throwing down, but Damon smooth-talks him with the idea that he knows how to kill Cade, even without the journal. It’s a piece of Cade’s own cremains, forged into a weapon by the fires of hell. As they talk about killing the devil, in walks Kai!

Kai’s arrival with a “better plan” gives me real hope. What if he has a way to destroy hell without destroying those trapped there, essentially transforming hell into the Other Side–or better yet, returning them to the world, as Kai has returned? 

I’m so excited about having Kai around for more than a flashback or fantasy, this episode is a winner in my book. What about you? Share your theories about Kai’s “better plan” and what you hope to see in the last four episodes!

Episode grade: 9