#but he’s also better than stefan because despite being more of a side character they let him do more

[kiss-my-freckle]

The hate Elena gets from Bonnie stans, especially the ones who ship Bamon, as well as Caroline stans makes me so mad. Bonnie stans say Elena is a bad friend for even becoming friends with Damon even though Bonnie was Damon's best friend and they wanted her to date him. They don't hate her for that. Bonnie knew as much as Elena did about the way Damon treated Caroline since Caroline told Bonnie that Damon bit her and she didn't understand why she'd let him do that, with Bonnie also finding the situation strange, but she didn't threaten Damon over his treatment of Caroline like Elena did immediately. Bonnie stans say Elena is a bad friend for saying while laughing "Why, so you can give it to Damon?" to Caroline when she asked Bonnie for the crystal even though whenever Caroline asked Bonnie for the crystal she acted annoyed and didn't show concern for Caroline at those times and she never threatened Damon in season 1 over Caroline or outwardly showed the same level of concern as Elena did. I think it was unnecessary for Elena to laugh while asking Caroline that question, but I don't think she meant to aim disrespect at Caroline, but found the situation ridiculous. Regardless she shouldn't have done that. Elena also didn't know at the time Damon could compel Caroline to get the necklace for him since vampirism was new to her and when Stefan discussed vampirism with her 2/3 episodes before he said Damon compelled Caroline's memories. She didn't know compulsion had the power to do more than influence memories because Stefan never told her nor did she ever witness it and vampirism was new to her. Stefan never said Damon compelled her to be okay with being fed on or to do anything else. Elena never saw Caroline being compelled either while Stefan did, so keeping all this in mind she had no reason to think that Caroline was mind controlled into getting the crystal. Elena did want Caroline to be happy after she was mistreated by Damon so she and Bonnie were happy seeing Caroline with Matt in the next episode even though he was Elena's ex. I felt bad for Caroline and how she felt like the odd one out after the trauma she faced, but I think it would've been easier for them to communicate with each other if Caroline didn't have issues in how she spoke to them before vampires came into their life. They were all young and new to the whole thing in season 1. I think Caroline exhibited good development in building closer friendships, becoming better at communicating, and becoming stronger overall. But I don't like how much Caroline and Bonnie stans misunderstand and are hypocritical against Elena.

I consider Elena the best out of all three. That's despite the fact that I love Bonnie more. Elena is their golden character. She's capable of building a friendship with Damon because of her character traits. It took Bonnie and Caroline into season 6 to see Damon the way Elena saw Damon in season 1. She's not as self-righteous and judgy as Bonnie and Caroline are, but more understanding and accepting. I consider Caroline more of an elitiist, so I consider her worse than Bonnie. I view Bonnie as Elena's unbiased opinion. Like Matt, the friend she should listen to. Caroline is just as self-righteous and judgy as Stefan despite moments when her insecurity shines through. Like Stefan, she is the kind of person that would consider herself better than Damon. It's because she's no better than Damon that I laugh when she becomes a vampire. She tells him that he sucks for what he did to her, then literally sucks the life out of an innocent. Girl needed to welcome her monstrous side because all vampires are monsters.

Half of what Elena knows about vampirism, she actually learned through Damon. That's why half of her discovery scene at the end of 1x5 was Damon-specific. He was the one that wanted her to know their truth while outwardly stating, "Stefan finally fessed up." In fact, Damon is the reason she was smart enough to tell Jenna to stay away from Logan because he was begging for a home invite. I think fans fail to realize which characters know what and when. Anyone who truly saw Damon would know that he is the way he is because he loved who he loved. It reminds me of a Blacklist quote. "Once you cross over, there are things in the darkness that can keep your heart from ever feeling the light again." No one spends 145 years in darkness without being deeply affected by it. It actually becomes part of their personality.

Damon's comment about Elena never abandoning him is one of my favorites in the series because that's the kind of person she is, and there's no competing with that. It's what makes her better than Stefan. Better than Lexi. Better than Caroline and Bonnie. I view her as more god-like, in the knowing that good doesn't exist without bad. She saw Damon beneath his facade, climbed over every wall he built and made herself at home. Everything Caroline is to Stefan, Elena is to Damon. That's why it's best to listen to Stefan's speeches to Caroline. Like 6x22... and his wedding vows. That's what Elena has been for Damon since the beginning. I started liking Caroline in late season 5. I always liked Bonnie because I saw her potential.

[dreamsandscenes]

My Top 5 Male TVDU Characters

It took me a while, but since I did my top 5 female TVDU characters a little while ago, here’s my top 5 boys. *While number 1 & 2 are pretty locked in, the other characters do shift around in my ranking some times*

NUMBER 5 - MARCEL GERARD

Marcel is one of the most well adjusted vampires in the whole TVD universe (TVD, TO & Legacies). It’s like he was born to become a vampire. While he’s definitely done bad things (as all vampires have), he has a good heart. Despite being a vampire, he still has some morals and rules he abides to, such as his rule to not hurt kids. He can be kind and charming, while also being harsh enough to take down people who threaten him. And unlike a lot of other vamps, his kindness can actually be genuine. Personally, I would’ve liked to see the writers use him more and give him better storylines in the later seasons of The Originals, but that’s just one of my many issues with the writers/showrunners 👀

NUMBER 4 - STEFAN SALVATORE

I loved watching Stefan’s whole ripper arc; seeing him struggle with that dark side of himself, and all the while, just wanting to be good. Ngl, he had a tough time throughout the show. The writers loved throwing trauma at him. From being manipulated by Katherine, being kidnapped and used by Klaus, losing Elena to his own brother, finding out that he lost a child with Valerie when he was human, and then dying on his own wedding day; this man did not catch a break. That being said, he was a caring, (mostly) selfless person, and he deserved better. Paul Wesley killed this role.

NUMBER 3 - DAMON SALVATORE

I know some people won’t like that Damon is higher in my ranking than Stefan, but it’s only by a small margin. The Salvatore brothers were kind of neck and neck for me in my ranking for a while, but what made Damon just get ahead? His humour. That was one of his redeeming features. I always enjoyed his one liners and jokes. He didn’t always take everything seriously. Did he do terrible things to other characters? Yeah, I don’t deny that. I feel like Damon is one of the few vampires, especially in season 1, to show the lack of morality and humanity that vampires have, which I think is important because let’s be honest, vampires are not supposed to be cuddly, sweet angels. For the most part, Damon is not a nice person, but when he cares about someone (Elena & later Bonnie for example), he tries to be better. He doesn’t always succeed. He fails a lot in fact, but he keeps trying.

NUMBER 2 - ELIJAH MIKAELSON

His entrance into TVD is one of my highlights from the entire show. He had me on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what he did next in season 2 of TVD. I loved watching the juxtaposition between him being the honourable gentleman, and the vampire within that contained the horrors behind the red door. Watching him put down his enemies with his sassy, yet classy comebacks was always funny. All of his romances were great (Daniel gillies could have chemistry with a tree). A lot of his scenes with Klaus in The Originals were particularly good; not just because of the wonderful acting, but also because watching their complex relationship, full of love and resentment, play out on screen was entertaining. My eyes were glued to the screen whenever he appeared in TVD.

NUMBER 1 - KLAUS MIKAELSON

My all time favourite character in the whole TVDU. Klaus was one of the few characters who was well written, had consistent characterisation (his personality/hopes didn’t randomly change between TVD & TO like certain others 👀), and went through some decent development over the seasons. I adored his scenes. If there’s one thing I love, it’s complicated villain characters and Klaus fit the bill. I think a big reason why I love this character so much is because he was played so wonderfully by Joseph Morgan. And while he is my fav, I don’t deny that Klaus did awful things constantly, some times for no reason other than he was bored or being petty. He WAS a villain. That being said, even when he was doing bad things, I couldn’t help being interested in his character and enjoying the drama of it all.

[blairwaldcrf]

Caroline, Lexi, Rebekah

Caroline:

1: sexuality headcanon

somewhere on the queer spectrum, but less so than some of the other characters imo. also very demiromantic.

2: otp

stefan. i mean day one pilot episode it was him, and she got her june wedding just like she wanted which is Queen shit. (i do also have a soft spot for other ships with her though as i think she's one of the most shippable characters created. ie forwood, baroline, katholine, carenzo, klefaroline)

3: brotp

I think Bonnie, but like. as with every other character in the show she could have treated Bonnie so much better and the wedding invite was some bs. That being said, they were still both so much better to each other than the other half of the barolena friendship

4: notp

Other than the extremely obvious daroline? this used to be klaroline back when the show was airing, but since i don't hate them anymore, I'd say matt/caroline. he was just always pointing out her flaws in a "I'm so great for accepting you despite you" nice-guy way, while not bothering to hide that he was still in love with her best friend??, that was gross.

5: first headcanon that pops into my head

she doesn't let stefan sacrifice himself and after whatever finale fix alternative they run the school with klaus lol (idk if i like klaus as a school board figure or as a history teacher ala the hilarious bodyswapped!alaric scene but that's a different post)

6: favorite line from this character

not a line so much as an exclamation, but I adore her "Seriously?" every time. favorite quirk.

other badly paraphrased highlights off the top of my head while high: "lesbian friend necklace because we're freakly like that?" "if someone says I can't, I prove them wrong" "no one's more dangerous than who you're inviting into your bed" "come to me. whenever you need. i won't let you lose control" "I'm a good vampire. i don't go around killing people!"

7: one way in which I relate to this character

lol only one??? I'm the type A control freak, her favorite blood is B+ and that's indeed my blood type (caroline suck on me please), i was the insecure highschooler who got with an abuser, my mom died of cancer after i got close to her in adulthood...

8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

this quote specifically makes me cringe every single time: "girl likes boy, boy likes girl. sex."

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

I'm probably the problematic one for thinking this considering her body count if nothing else, but cinnamon roll

Lexi

1: sexuality headcanon

bi/pan

2: otp

I don't really have one? I think she and Sheila would be adorable after reading the comic but Sheila knows better than to mess with vampires lol

3: brotp

Stefan!! ❤

4: notp

her & damon obvs

5: first headcanon that pops into my head

when stefan goes to the other side in the finale she berates him for at least a year non stop for sacrificing himself on his wedding day for damon.

6: favorite line from this character

"She was, and she will always be an epic love. Contrary to popular belief, there are actually multiple ones, especially for a vampire."

7: one way in which I relate to this character

i too ship steroline and think Stefan needs to stay off his bullshit

8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

she liked damon for a second :/

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

cinnamon roll

Rebekah

1: sexuality headcanon

probably bi but I doubt she cares about labels after millenia

2: otp

her and Marcel. granted I didn't watch more than maybe a season of the originals, but still

3: brotp

Hayley

4: notp

Damon, per usual

5: first headcanon that pops into my head

at some point she finds the letters klaus sent elijah while pretending to be her while she was staked and she teases klaus relentlessly for his flowery descriptions of stefan (once the anger subsided)

6: favorite line from this character

I'm not sure I have an exact line but I did enjoy the breakfast club esque episode where she said plenty of on point, petty, hilarious things

7: one way in which I relate to this character

like she does for nohumanity!elena, i too support women's wrongs

8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

weirdly, her thing for stefan? i'm not sure I could even pinpoint why tbh

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

sinnamon roll

[kylermalloy]

Your last answer got me curious, what’s your opinion on Marcel? His relationship with Klaus?

Pretty much the same as all the other Mikaelson dynamics and characters—Marcel is a complex, well-rounded individual. He’s a terrible person. He does good things. He cares deeply for his family and would do anything for them.

His relationship with Klaus is fraught, tense, Freudian in the best of ways, and sooo interesting.

I remember when we first met Marcel, I was dubious of the way they were presenting him. Like I said in my response to Christina’s ask, I was afraid the pilot was setting Marcel up to be The Monster Klaus Created Who Is Worse Than Him. But they weren’t, so my fears were unfounded!

I was also wary of his backstory—were they trying to tell me that of all the atrocities Klaus witnessed (and committed) throughout the ages, slavery was where he drew a line? And in a universe where mind compulsion exists? But again, this show proved me wrong! (Yay, Klaus…isn’t against slavery? Well, he’s Problematique. Get over it.)

Although our first impressions of Marcel are of a loud, showy, charismatic version of Klaus with way more friends—that’s not who he is. The tyrant we meet who tortures witches and murders them in public is merely punishing them for the wrongs they committed against their own children. That’s not who he is, fundamentally—although he can draw on that side of his personality easily, having grown up with Klaus.

Speaking of Klaus! Marcel has grown up to be a slightly more mentally healthy adult than Klaus, despite them both having horrifically abusive childhoods. I don’t want to give Klaus too much credit, because he created as many problems as he remedied, but Marcel did have an adult in his life who cared for him—more than one, if we can count Rebekah and Elijah (😔). While Marcel clearly has Issues with his surrogate family, he takes lessons he learned from them and uses them to build his own community, his own kingdom. Some lessons he borrows from the Mikaelsons, and some he does the exact opposite. He trusts people. He makes alliances. He kills (mostly) as a last resort. But he’s still ruthless toward his enemies. He punishes those who step out of line. He’s conniving and manipulative and he can do it all with a big smile on his face.

I do think there’s a fair amount of projection going on with Klaus when he takes Marcel in. He wants to give this kid (also an abused bastard child) something he never believed he had—someone to look out for him, someone to care for him and protect him. But as he sees himself in Marcel, it’s hard to give him the unconditional love Klaus can never believe he’s worthy of. (It’s complicated.)

And of course, the people Klaus cares for become possessions in his eyes. He expects everyone he considers family all to revolve around him. This is why he resents Elijah for showing Marcel too much kindness—they shouldn’t be allowed to have a bond separate from him! This is why he daggers Rebekah for winning Marcel’s affections; in his eyes, they cannot love each other and him.

This is something Marcel carries with him throughout his life, I think—he tries to treat his own friends as their own people, allowing them much more agency and freedom. (see: him allowing Thierry to date a witch, even though Klaus exploits this connection—it’s a worthy price, if that’s what they want. In the same vein, he allows Davina out on the town when the witches are hunting her.) Though he does not always succeed—he still uses Davina for her powers, lying to her about the danger the witches pose. He is still part Mikaelson.

1x20 is still my favorite klarcel episode, because So Much happens. So much is said, and unsaid.

“How did I fail?”

“Maybe the scars just ran too deep.”

(Is he talking about his own scars, or Klaus’s? You decide.)

But then:

“You didn’t fail me. You taught me everything I know. You taught me I can’t be weak, not when my enemies are stronger. […] And I will fight until I’m dead.”

Because underneath the war they’re waging against each other, they genuinely care about each other. They consider it unfortunate now, but Klaus poured himself into his little Marcellus, for better or worse. Marcel grew up with Klaus. He knew what kind of person Klaus was. He knew firsthand, and he chose to become a vampire like Klaus anyway. Because just like Klaus, immortality can be terrible and awful but it can also be beautiful.

Gonna go cry.

Let me skip ahead to season 3, where their dynamic changes fundamentally again. Some of the narrative choices made in this season were iffy, so I am still on the fence about Marcel’s turn. Part of me thinks it was justified, part of me thinks it should have happened differently, and part of me thinks it was a big misstep.

Marcel turning on Klaus and demanding he answer for his crimes would make sense in a different narrative than the one we were in. The events that turned Marcel against the Mikaelsons this time were committed not by Klaus, but by Freya and Elijah. Having Klaus be the target of his vengeance would’ve made sense…a season ago. Not now. Not with the moral code we’ve been going with.

But I digress.

I think this is a perfectly natural turn for the klarcel relationship to take—Marcel positions himself as a moral arbiter, above Klaus in every way, although…well, he’s not. Marcel has aided and abetted, he’s slaughtered indiscriminately before. There’s some truth to how he condemns Klaus, but there’s also some self-righteousness—as any conflict on TO should have. (These are all still, fundamentally, terrible people.)

Unfortunately, though, this conflict is much more about Klaus than it is Marcel, and their interactions during the trial are rather underwhelming. It’s not about Klaus relating to Marcel as the boy he raised, it’s about Klaus using his wits and his awfulness to stay alive.

I do think there is a certain poetry to Marcel *leveling up* and becoming more powerful than Klaus, and immediately becoming judge, jury, and executioner. Only he is powerful enough to punish the Mikaelsons for their crimes, and he will do so. Oh, he will do so. There’s a certain Mikaelson-esque arrogance in that. The god-king of New Orleans.

I shan’t go into how in season 4, Marcel has apparently ruled the city peacefully for five years now that the Mikaelsons are gone (what happened to the gang wars? Factions committing terrorism on each other?) and by then the show has strayed a lot from its original atmosphere. And its characterization.

I’ll say I like Klaus admitting in season 4 that he was not a good father to Marcel, but like. Come on. We knew that. He knew that. It seems more like a step in the writers’ plan to dismiss all Mikaelsons forever as Evil And Bad Because We Can’t Promote Bad Messages For The Kids On This Show About Murderous Immortal Bloodsuckers. Like, pick a lane, guys!

…okay, this ask has rather gone off the rails. Suffice to say I adore the angst, the ambiguity, the love/hate of klarcel. Wish there had been more nuance in the later seasons.

[the-portrait-of-seraph]

March’s Review

The Age of Reason: Sartre, Jean-Paul

9.5/10

Exploring the true meaning of freedom through having to pay for your mistress' abortion is seriously one hell of a plotline.

The least I can say is that it is an interesting book. I really enjoyed the Mathieu and Daniel interaction, they make everything so much better! "How have you been?" "I thought you were dead."

Sartre is known for his works on freedom and choice. "The Age of Reason" does an amazing at expressing his thoughts and philosophy using the mundanity of life juxtaposed with an almost desperate? thick? air that I have a hard time describing. I really liked "Nausea" for this exact same reason and it was also my first Sartre work, I fell in love! It was also really well written, I admire his style.

A Posthumous Confession: Emants, Marcellus

10/10

This book? Oh my god??? It is so fine–

Wilhem Termeer, you cynical, self-loathing asshole, I love (and hate) you.

Man's literally got beef with his wife and newborn baby, and then decided to off them? Wow, um, shocker.

Shout-out to my 언니( @madameoftears ) for recommending me this amazing book! I've been digging the confessional novel/I-novel genre lately, and A Posthumous Confession is absolutely wonderful. I was waiting for so long for this book to come in the mail.

I'm going to be honest, APC is like NLH, but with more substance? And a character I find a little more tolerable than Yozō- Would it be wrong to call Termeer my little meow meow? Because I pity him, but also relate to him a little too much. (self projection/pity cough cough)

What is the self and how do we avoid its own self-loathing and darkness? This is the question that Emants interprets and answers through APC. No Longer Human's Yozō and A Posthumous Confession's Termeer are both contemptible and unreliable narrators; but at the same time, you can't help but pity them, because they live inside us, even if we don't want to admit it. The two feel ostracized from society and people, and as a resuly, hate themselves. Termeer married Anna because he loved her, but after their marriage, he felt nothing but bitterness and hatred towards her. Just like Yozo and the women he's been with.

I'd also like to add Dostoevsky's Underground Man to the list of unreliable, human bastards-

The Setting Sun: Dazai, Osamu

10/10

There is way too much for me to unpack here-

Literally, how is everyone in this story so goddamn miserable?

As much as I love Naoji, he was my favorite character the first time I read the book, but now I think I love Kazuko. She's just like me. We're hopeless in love and end up pitying the whole of humanity-

Her one sided love with Uehara reminds me too much of myself, especially when she wrote that last letter.

Naoji is contemptible and lovable in his own special way, that's for sure. I feel like his brash personality and worker-centric ideals stood out to me. Especially in his suicide note.

"Victims. Victms of a transitional period of morality. That is what we both certainly are."

Dazai's writing style is so pretty to me? I am absolutely in love with his works; he's a wonderful I-novelist and proletarian author and The Setting Sun is one of those novels that will rip your heart out and set it on fire.

Chess Story: Zweig, Stefan

9.5/10

A very interesting book about the inhumane in the human through a game of chess.

As a dabbler in the game, I found it stimulating!

You have Dr. B, a lawyer who gained his own chess skills in Nazi confinement, through the loss of his own sanity and thought. Then you have Czentovic, the chess savant with a terrifying genius.

Dr. B plays against Czentovic the first time and wins; but in the second game, Czentovic picks up on B's habits and patterns, then proceeds to use them against him. Of course, Czentovic wins and Dr. B implies that he will never touch another chess board again.

On writing style, I really enjoyed Zweig, despite it being my first time reading him! It was simple and clean; like an actual, realistic conversation, you sort of forget it's a story. Zweig actually seems like quite the interesting person himself; I would like to read more of his work!

Overall, Chess Story is an amazing read, and it's also quite short, you could finish it in one sitting (if you tried).

The Divine Comedy: Alighieri, Dante

Overall 9/10

As much as I don't like poetry, I liked the Divine Comedy! I don't know how enjoyable traveling throught the Catholic afterlife with Virgil and your girlfriend would be, but Dante certainly makes it look fun. Although I can't shake off the fact that the Divine Comedy is basically self-insert fansongs about Dante and Beatrice.

In terms of historical references, we have lots and lots of historical references. I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Euclid and some other mathematicians were in limbo? As they should honestly.

Also when Dante goes to Paradise and sees that Beatrice has become more beautiful than ever? Ugh, my poor heart. I thought it was super romantic, I'm Dante, but want to be Beatrice-

Despite there being three volumes in the divine comedy, I don't really have much to say? It was gratifying to read and a new experience for me.

사슴 (Deer): Baek, Seok

8.5/10

My beloved poet. I spent this month trying to appreciate poetry more. Baek Seok is a Korean poet known for his preservation of archaic speaking patterns in the country and during Japanese colonization.

This specific copy is a replica of the original 1936 publication, so it has Hanja and is written from right to left, up to down, which truly is a unique reading experience. The company that published this edition is actaully known for replicating the first publications of a lot of classical literature from around the world.

I think my favorite from this collection is either 힌밤 (About Night) or 비(Rain)! They were short and simple, but also surprisingly profound? I translated my favorite part from the former, which is, "A night that hangs itself, a night like that also exists."

The Brothers Karamazov: Dostoevsky, Fyodor

Separate post is here!

The Gate: Natsume, Soseki

8/10

First off, this book hurt me in every way possible.

Sosuke and Oyone… I really wanted them to be happy. I felt so sorry for Oyone; she went on to believe that her reason that she kept having miscarriages was because she ran away and married Sosuke.

Sosuke is just a government clerk, barely scraping up a living for himself and his wife, but is now to take care of his younger brother's tuituion. Hands to him for actually taking him in caring for Koroku, I could never haha.

I feel like a lot of Japanese literature captures the act of nothing. When I mean nothing, I mean daily life. There's no gun fight between a woman's suitors or murder of an old pawnbroker with an axe, and I feel like that's what sets Japanese literature aside from the rest of the world. In the case of "The Gate", Soseki layers the mundanity of life with the guilt of one man, causing him to retreat to the mountains in order to find peace of mind.

Sorry for stalling March’s review, I was super busy this month. Literally everybody and their moms are catching COVID, so I was pretty stressed out. I plan to interact with more people starting this month, so stay safe and whatever :)

[limeadelizard]

Plec putting Bonnie with Enzo is a funny case because it’s exactly what she said she didn’t want for Bonnie while also being exactly what she wanted for Bonnie.

If people were asking for BE back in season five or six, I’m confident that he would be another murderous vampire that Bonnie would have too much integrity to get with. At first, he had more of a relationship with Caroline. But she was wrapped up in another ship Plec cared more about, and as the show went on it became clear the writers were struggling with his storyline.

By all logic, Bonnie should have no reason to be interested in Enzo. He had hurt her and her friends, and now he’s siding with the people Bonnie wanted to protect herself from and pining after the woman she holds responsible for never being able to see Elena again. On top of that, Bonnie had just came out of a traumatic arc with another antagonist that lead to her wanting to put herself first. You would think he’d be the last guy she’d give a damn about.

But as loyal and good and moral as she may be, Bonnie’s true purpose in the show is to be the helper, to fix other people’s problems. And Enzo needed help.

Enzo wasn’t worse than other antagonists on the show and had moments of both evil and sympathy. He also had little backstory and relevance, which made him easy to basically rewrite after his epic make Stefan miserable plot failed, and our resident plot device just happened to be in need of a love interest after the departure of Jeremy and the rise of Bamon and Bonkai shippers. Given all this, it’s not hard to see why a pairing between these two characters would be convenient despite making little sense.

And BE could’ve been written decently, even if it was conceived to pair the spares. Enzo didn’t care about the MF gang, which could’ve been an interesting aspect to explore. Hell, Bonnie’s mistreatment by her friends is basically a key component in almost every Bonnie x villain ship story. But pairing her with him didn’t free her from them in the long run. It only kept her isolated, because Enzo was also isolated. Despite telling her she deserved better, he wasn’t able to help Bonnie truly grow as a character. Being with him didn’t give Bonnie a career, any hobbies (interestingly enough, we see her participate in his hobby but not the other way around), any more friends or connections, and she didn’t even have any magic (interestingly enough again, thanks to him). She still got stuck with the same “I’m dying but it’s okay I’m just happy to be with my bf” story.

Bonnie and Enzo aren’t the first enemies-to-lovers, redemptive romance on the show. However, compared to ships like DE and KC and even SE, there is a darkness, for lack of a better word, that I don’t see with BE. Now whether those ships were handled well or are really dark at all is debatable, but that side is there. Fans had long been waiting to see Bonnie date a vampire, and Enzo is a vampire. But despite the fact that witches and vampires are supposed to be enemies, the only times his vampirism is brought up is when she turns into the huntress and wants to kill vampires, which is something she has no control over, and when he suggests she turn so they can be together forever. In both cases it’s portrayed as something not significant, just like any other normal difference any couple would have to work out. In other ships, the male character’s wickedness does strain his relationship with his love interest, who he’s allowed to obsess over while still being murderous. But in Enzo’s case he’s just portrayed as a lonely misguided woobie who needs to be loved, and when he gets that from Bonnie his character development ends.

Then there’s the development of the relationship. Not only is Enzo in love with another woman first, but the writers have Bonnie giving him advice and telling him he deserves better and trying to understand him. They have had no substantial relationship, so she doesn’t even really know him much less have a reason to care, but she does it anyway. She’s the one who has to reach out first, and only after he is left with no one else and realizes how loyal she is to Damon (who abandoned both of them) does he reciprocate.

There’s no reason why their relationship had to be written this way unless it was being written with hatred for Bonnie, as if the writers wanted to say “we’ll give Bonnie what she deserves, but we’ll make her work for it and then we’ll take it away!” If Enzo had to be in love with Lily at all, they could’ve had him choose Bonnie over her, but instead they had to make it clear she didn’t want him and killed her off. They didn’t have to have Enzo make comments like “lovelorn witch” and say she’s never been fought over, unless they knew what they were doing. They have Bonnie be interested in finding a man, but we don’t see her going on any dates or any guys flirting with her or anything. She matches up with Matt on a dating site, and I guess it’s supposed to be funny because lol she’s having so much trouble she gets matched up with her friend (who gets his own new love interest), what a failure, right? Oh, but we know she’s going to get with Enzo so it’s okay, teehee, see what we’re doing here? :) Funny enough, we’ve seen Enzo flirt with and pursue people, and we’ve even seen Bonnie be flirted with, but when it comes to making a relationship between the two happen, he can’t be into her from the start? And if Bonnie had to spend another season helping people as she always does, why couldn’t Enzo be the one exception? Her relationship with him is really no different from her platonic ones.

All Bonnie and Enzo really have in common is being loyal to people who don’t care about them. That’s literally the basis for the ship, and at the end of the series, really all their characters amount to individually. Bonnie’s so beautiful and strong and has so much love to give, but it’s apparently unfathomable that anyone would see that without her having to see her prove herself first.

Say what you want about BD or BK, but at least those ships had some history. They were relationships that were playing out at the time, and fans were interested in how they would develop. There was material for people to speculate on and analyze. Contrast to BE, who only had a few scenes in season five and one at the end of season six. They had no real relationship, so while fans may have been open to it, this wasn’t something people were already passionate about.

Putting them together was a way of trying to curtail that excitement over other pairings that weren’t wanted by Plec and shift it to something that she had control over, and the flash forward was the perfect format for this. Their first moment is meant to make you go “whaaaat?” so you’ll have to keep watching to wait and see what happens. And of course it’s not until almost the end of the season that we see them actually become a couple... and it’s in a flashback.

BE might not make sense for the Bonnie who is too good for evil vampires, but it makes perfect sense for the Bonnie who is undesirable, who has to always put others first, and has to earn the tiniest amount of happiness for herself, and is fine with all of that.

[we-pay-for-everything]

It’s episode 10 and Elena is already declaring her love for Stefan. Their back and forth in the first episodes is quite exhausting. Reminds me of early season 2 Bangel, but worse. 

Also, it’s time for Bloodlines! The first Delena episode! Their chemistry is pretty good. The problem with Stefan and Elena is not that they are unappealing or boring - they have a real connection (shared trauma of losing their parents) and know each other (-ish, truth be told, Elena knows very little about Stefan) - their problem is that the writers added the forbidden love angle way too early into the story, and that stunted the natural development of their relationship - and consequently made Delena more appealing and “realistic” by comparison. 

Delena have chemistry, no cliché forbidden romance shit (at first), and bring out the best and worst in each other. Elena’s more violent, aggressive, protective (of her friends) around Damon, and that’s an interesting contrast to her usual compassionate, understanding self. However, because Elena is so compassionate, and because Elena cares for Stefan and Damon is Stefan’s brother, she also sees the best in Damon and tolerates him to the point where she is even forced to acknowledge his positive attributes. Elena’s beautiful soul really comes through when she deals with Damon. As for Damon, the fact that Elena looks like Katherine means he can’t treat her like a normal human, and that brings out a different side to him - one that is more caring, likeable, patient, relatable. 

I really like the scene where Damon tells Elena to stop trying to be someone she’s not (a cheerleader), and to move on and accept who she is now. That’s advice she takes to heart. In a way, Stefan is too much like Elena. Both are trying to hold on to who they used to be (in Stefan’s case, it’s being human, which includes Katherine, because that’s why he initially approaches Elena), while all Damon wants is to be someone else (while being stuck in the past with Katherine too, ironically). But Elena wants to move on too. Elena is strong and pragmatic, so she always tries to face reality and make the best of it. For example, in season 4, when she becomes a vampire, eventually she wants to move on and accept her fate as a vampire, while Stefan desperately tried to “fix” her, at the cost of her own brother. 

Also, in the same scene, Elena shares her condolences for Damon’s loss, despite knowing Katherine had dated both brothers and probably wasn’t all that, just because Damon still lost someone he loved and she knew that feeling well. I think that was a beautiful thing she did.

Honestly, it’s easy to see why a lot of people were drawn to Delena even though Damon is a jackass. Their relationship, even in the early stages, had a depth Stelena didn’t have, because the writers got ahead of themselves with Stelena and went from the getting to know you stage straight into the “I’ll always love you, but we can’t be together, I’m bad for you, what do we do, I still want you” stage. 

Also, Ian does a better job playing Damon than Paul does playing Stefan, but Stefan might be a more challenging character to play. 

[bakerolivias-archived]

I like the salvatore brothers and you're totally allowed to not like them but can you tell me why? I want to understand why so many people are hate the salvatores..

oh boy, i might put this under a read more because this might get loooong lol.

first of i just want to thank you anon for like... not being an ass. i'm sure that might be a low standard to meet but i've had negative experiences with ppl coming to my inbox attacking me for having an opinion, bc you know. fandom.

second, i understand why ppl like the salvabros because they certainly have their Moments^tm. given that they were originally written in 2008/2009 it makes sense that these two white boys, especially in a series that likes to cite the utter garbage that is Twighlight, might be incredibly problematic - i see that with klaus and elijah and kol who are literally my favorite characters but have extremely violent and borderline abusive tendencies at times. i don’t claim that they’re angelic snowflakes, i love it when they get all murderous and sociopathic and how they can be so contradictory and tender. the thing is IMO damon and stefan have really bland personalities, and are occasionally able to crack a good joke or one liner. they get woobified constantly for unacceptable shit because the audience and writers favor them when more redeemable, multi-faceted and interesting characters like klaus are dragged through the mud constantly, and it's a double standard i extremely dislike.

not to mention d/amon is absolutely rancid, too. like honestly i'm only on s2 so i've heard from the fandom - and the de/enas who drank the de/ena kool aid - of the other horrible shit he's done from s3 and beyond that fandom likes to romanticise or deem as acceptable. first of all, he r/aped and assaulted caroline, a fact that is glossed over for the rest of the series. the writers didn't bother to address caroline's experience as a victim, instead choosing to soften d/amon's general shitty behavior by changing the reactions of other characters. anytime caroline and d/amon interact it grates on my nerves, the way the series likes to so casually disregard d/amon's behavior towards her. for that alone he's irredeemable, because r/ape is never a "morally grey" action, it's undeniably terrible.

and even without that, d/amon still constantly disrespects women and is seldom called out for it. he calls caroline shallow and vapid, undermining her character because she’s..... blond and likes stereotypically feminine things?? other male characters like to do this to her as well, taking her at face value based on society’s sexist standards, and i loathe the writers for this. not to mention: d/amon snapped jeremy’s neck when elena refused him, which is a massive red flag because if he truly cared for her he wouldn’t want her or her loved ones to be in pain - and he was unaware of jeremy’s ring, so he fully intended on making this death permanent. also he’s threatened to break her arm in the name of keeping her safe which ppl like to woobify, claiming “he’s so romantic and sassy [heart eyes emoji]” which is, frankly, deluded on their part. as much as i love klaro/ine i don’t claim him biting her to be romantic or any of that bullshit, i just ship out of spite and because they’re 1000x better than de/ena in every way and a much more entertaining “falling for the antagonist” pairing. and yikes, remember when he broke into her room (bc wow a 200 year old 25 year old man breaking into a 17 year old girl’s bedroom how ~rOmAnTiC~ lol, and then forced himself onto her despite her obviously being uncomfortable and telling him to stop kissing her.

and it probably only gets worse from there LOL. also a side note, i get that elena might find d*mon “appealing” or whatever but the fact that she would want to have a relationship being fully aware of what he did to her best friend caroline is. yikes. and of course caroline gets more criticism for fucking klaus - which yes i’ll admit tyler had a right to be upset about - because she’s not a main character and she and klaus are not “meant to be” like elena the main protagonist and dmon, tvd’s beloved who screws over everyone else.

as for stefan i’ll admit he’s much more likeable than da/mon but. admitting to stalking a teenage girl because “she looks like my ex” is... well. i know he saved elena from the car crash but then to stalk her for months instead of.... idk, having a humane conversation??

and lastly the salvabros are both slave owners, which is pretty much one of the many, many last straws. like stefan has made it known he’s vehemently against the racism of the 1950s, whatever, and maybe he and d/amon didn’t have a choice since they didn’t own the property at the time of slave owning, but they’re still complacent - as were all the white men at the time - and d/amon was still a confederate so i’m not here for this bullshit.

anyway that got really long winded, sorry about that.

[unhealthyfanobsession]

How would you compare the ACOTAR ships to TVD ships? Some people say Feysand is like Delena.

This is SUCH A FUN ASK!! Don’t mind if I do! I’m going to compare the general dynamic of the characters as well as archetype/ story parallels.

This is a crossover post so SPOILERS FOR BOTH ACOTAR AND TVD BELOW.

Stefan-Elena-Damon = Tamlin-Feyre-Rhysand

I don’t mean to do Stefan dirty like this, but the parallels are really undeniable. Stefan and Tamlin both were the kind, caring, magical first introduction to this whole new world for Feyre/Elena. They fell in love with them easily and it was a pure, beautiful love but while they were in it there were darker (Damon and Rhys) forces pulling them in another direction. Both women loved these men SO fiercely and sacrificed for that love. Feyre fought the 3 trials with Amarantha where she ended up being helped by Rhys. Elena went looking for Stefan in his ripper days even though Klaus would kill her if he found her and she was helped by Damon. Both of them fought for this love but then once they had it back... either they or the man or both had changed too much from the trauma and their relationship simply couldn’t work anymore.

I totally agree with the Feysand= Delena point because I think they are both relationships that are very “this person over everyone else no matter what” and that is romantic, but at we see, can also be overbearing/toxic at times. They both do awful things that the heroine has to later learn their motives for and forgive them for. Damon “kills” Jeremy and tries to compel Elena to kiss him early on. He feeds Elena his blood against her will when Klaus might kill her but then he ultimately makes it right through self sacrificing hero acts. Rhys does... everything he did under the mountain and he doesn’t tell Feyre she’s his mate, but then he helps her heal after Tamlin and ultimately saves Prythian. Both characters are also haunted by an abusive relationship- Rhysand a sexually abusive relationship with Amarantha that he endured for 49 years and Damon and emotionally abusive/manipulative relationship with Katherine that defined his life for 150 years.

Damon has a quote in season 4 that I think really describes both couples. He says: “if you’re going to be bad, be bad with a purpose. Otherwise you just aren’t worth forgiving.”

Klaroline = Nessian

This one is more based on character interactions and a bit of my own bias. I struggled to find a TRUE nessian parallel couple but I think Klaroline is the closest for a number of reasons. Largely because Caroline and Nesta are very similar characters. Both start off as shallow, superficial mean girls who we get an early glimpse of their heart (Caroline crying and her I’m never the one monologue and Nesta being on Feyre’s side when she returns in ACOTAR) who then get changed into something they never wanted to be and it helps them grow and OWN THEIR P O W E R. Even Caroline’s stint as emotionless mess after her mom’s death parallels Nesta’s destructive actions after losing her father.

Cassian and Klaus both have the whole “I’m a worthless bastard that no one wants and I killed my father but I am STRONGER THAN EVERYONE so you can’t hurt me even though I’m really just a soft boi who needs love” vibe going on.

And the CHASE. That’s the biggest parallel here. These are both couples where this powerful man walked in and said “that one” re the beautiful woman who hated them and then did not give up. But with both of them it’s a gentle chase. Klaus knows that Caroline is constantly trying to trick him but he doesn’t care because he just wants to spend time with her and whenever she is in danger he is there on the DOUBLE and does things he doesn’t want to do for her (ex- graduation, hiding/ protecting Stefan in season 6). Cassian knows that Nesta is going through a hard time after ACOMAF and he flies up to the House of Wind every damn day to see her even when she pushes him away and he instantly goes into fierce general I will kill mode if anyone threatens Nesta. Also both couples are prone to lashing out at each other (Caroline “terrible people” line; Klaus with his biting. Cassian “everyone hates you”; Nesta with her well... being Nesta LOL)

Bonus points for pet names and relentless teasing when they aren’t trying to kill each other.

Quote for them is when Caroline tells Klaus “anyone capable of love, is capable of being saved” I think that also has big Cassian @ Nesta in ACOSF energy.

(PS I did consider Nessian being Steroline but 1. I fucking hate that ship and 2. Stefan was never there for Caroline during the hard times which is the anti Cassian AND I think the for me it’s always you vibe just fits the intensity of Nessian better)

Kennett = Elriel

I’m not tagging this Elriel so don’t COME FOR ME. In my opinion, these are both ships that had some fun ~tension~ and are kinda sexy/enticing. Kol with his love of witches and their little graduation ghost adventure and Azriel with his attraction to Elain and saving her from Hybern. BUT ultimately I think the most interesting thing about these ships was their convenience. I think fans liked to put Bonnie with Kol in fanfics because it was an easy way to make Bonnie understand Elena and Caroline’s choice for a dark boi and it was just convenient. Likewise I think that Elriel is convenient in writing to simply throw Elain with the other bat brother and tie everything up in a neat little ribbon.

Mabekah= Elucien

In this comparison Rebekah is Lucien and Matt is Elain. This was a couple where one person started off with bad motives (Rebekah wanting to kill Matt at the ball; Lucien plotting with Hybern) but they have genuine feelings for the person once they get to know/are mated to them and you see that person is a much more complicated character than we previously saw. Rebekah and Lucien are both lost, lonely, and struggling to find where they fit in while Matt and Elain are both struggling but ultimately the much beloved “sweet” character who everyone is willing to die to protect. At first the sweet character avoids the villain character like the plague, but eventually things turn around and they see past their previous bad actions.

BonEnzo= Gwynriel

Talk about characters who have some trauma to heal together. Enzo was literally kept in a cage by the Whitmore’s for 50 years and abused much like Azriel in his dungeon. Gwyn has had to make unspeakable decisions in order to protect the greater good and suffer the horrible consequences for it- losing her twin to protect those children much like how Bonnie lost her grams to protect Stefan and Elena. Enzo started off interested in Caroline (like Azriel and Elain) and getting over an obsession with Lilly (Azriel and Mor) but was ultimately drawn to Bonnie for her strength, determination, and good heart despite everything she had been through. These are really all just characters that have been through the RINGER and need to find healing in each other’s arms but would never admit that’s what they are doing so it just happens slowly and one day they realize things don’t hurt as much anymore.

AND FINALLY:

Damon and Caroline= Nesta and Tomas

You know why. Damon doesn’t get off that easy just because he “changed”. He abused Caroline and I won’t be pretending in 2021 that he didn’t.

[percyjacksonfan3]

For the salty asks: numbers one, five, six, and twenty through twenty-three please 😇

I live for the chaos so pls just... go off my dude

Ah Tay, reason #187893467 that I love you is that you indulge me in my rants <3

Salty asks are from this post!

K this got LONG so here's a read more!

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

Honestly even though I don't multi-ship often I DO usually get the appeal behind ships so this is a really short list. This will probably get me some hate but I still to this day can't get behind c/ex@ from the show that will not be named. But then again I do get the appeal of two super attractive women with chemistry and the whole ruler/ girl who makes the ruler change their ways thing. So I guess I get it even if I don't like it?

Also, and this is not to hate on Hinny, but Harry and Ginny from HP are not my cup of tea. I like what fandom has done for them but the actual content we get for them in the books (and movies, but I prefer the books) isn't enough for me to love them. Same with Mal and Alina from S & B/ Grishaverse, they're so bland to me in the books but the show is doing far better with them and actually making Mal ya know. Likeable. Again, I don't ship it, but best friends to lovers is top tier so I get it.

Oh! I also don't really get Dwalin/Ori from The Hobbit, but that is probably in large part because I'm a Dwalin/Nori shipper. Again though, all of the secondary characters' relationships in The Hobbit rely on fans to extrapolate HARD and wear extreme shipper goggles, and ik there's that scene where Dwalin helps Ori out of the river so like.. maybe that's where it's from? I don't hate it or anything but it's always something that's made me go ??? cause I have no idea where the heck it came from.

Apart from that... I can't think of any rn? I feel like I understand where all the PJO ships come from, even if I don't ship them. There are a couple that I don't understand how they can be someone's OTP, just because I find them super boring (no offense to those who ship C@leo or J@siper but I just don't love how Rick handled those relationships). In TSC I think fandom mainly vibes with the same pairings and that's true for most of my book fandoms. With the shows I watch I don't think fans majorly ship anything too out there for me. Maybe I don't interact enough with fandoms to tell. So this is all I got.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

Oh my god, oh my god, this is a can of worms, my lord. A pairing I'm not so sure about, but characters? Abso-fucking-lutely. I took a break from PJO fandom for exactly that reason and the list of characters is endless honestly, for multiple fandoms.

I won't say fandom ruined Bell@rke for me cause I still ship it, but I definitely lost enthusiasm with how toxic the shows fandom was and then that was made even worse when the show completely destroyed itself with the worst writing and plots ever in the latter seasons.

Also I have a feeling that G@me of Thrones/ @soiaf ruined one for me but I can't remember this very second. Maybe not, and again that's probably cause I don't interact with fandoms en masse, usually just through fic and following a few people I vibe with in each.

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

Yes, quite a few! I used to dislike Drarry (for obvious reasons I feel) and Romione (as a kid I wanted Hermione to be with Harry and even when I grew out of that I really didn't like she was with Ron) but fandom changed that for sure. And same with Darklina now, I was upset cause I felt like the books really underutilized their relationship and fell short of what could have been a super awesome pairing if better explored, but the show fandom is taking it in so many different ways that I'm starting to really love them despite the reasons I shouldn't.

And I won't say I hated Hayffie in THG, but definitely the only reason I ship them is from reading @ellanainthetardis's fic Have a Drink Sweetheart and then all the others written for them. That portrayal of Hayffie and the characters have become my own headcanons now because I've been reading them for so long and they're so good.

Fandom made me ship Leon and Morgana from Merlin too, though that's very lowkey. I never hated them, I just never thought of them as a pairing until reading fic.

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?

Percabeth. I don't care which fandom, it's Percabeth. Growing up together, going from enemies to friends to best friends to lovers? The establishment of them being best friends and the way Rick wrote that friendship was so pure, and they are a couple with no internal problems, all external, and you just know they're gonna be together through everything, fighting at each other's side, cause that's the way they are. There's a reason they're my OTP and it's cause they are the most well-established, ride or die couple I can think of. They're just so solid.

21. What are your thoughts on crack ships?

Love em for fandom but personally I very rarely get behind crackships just because I usually need a lot of build up, scenes, good dialogue and chemistry, etc. to ship something, so most of my ships aren't crack ships. The only one I can really think of that I actively root for and ship and would read fic for is Billy/ Owen from 911 Lonestar which is just... something.

Like idk if Barduil from The Hobbit is crack because ik it's quite popular... what makes a ship a crack ship anyway? Lack of canon reference? Is it cause they two characters would be so random together because they barely ever interact? Or because it's SO unrealistic you know for sure it will never happen but want it to anyway? Or is it lack of popularity in fandom? I need someone to define this so I have a better answer :D if it's the second option then I have MANY

I love seeing fandom stuff for crack ships though, cause seriously, it's fiction, ship who you want. If you ship two characters just cause you think they're pretty side by side then that's enough for me. Make all of the fan art and fic you like.

22. Popular character you hate?

Oof. Jason from HOO. And Leo in everything after The Lost Hero. I hated Piper in The Lost Hero and Mark of Athena but like her after those. I don't like any of the book characters from S & B except Nikolai, but I like everyone in the show (except David? Why did they make him so weird? Like he's not even awkward, he's straight up rude imo, but anyway). In @soiaf I don't like Jon Snow, I think he's boring. And I despise Jorah Mormont cause I think he's creepy for having a crush on Dany.

Didn't love Stefan in TVD, too much of a goody-two-shoes. I liked dark Stefan but it felt like a totally different character. Honestly most of the characters I don't like cause they're boring or too by-the-book.

OH! A big one in M@rvel is Captain America. Can't stand him honestly, I like him as a character to have in the story, but I like never agree with him on anything. I like a couple of his one-liners but that's it really. I also don't like Gale in THG, idk if that's controversial. Or Lex@ from the show that will not be named because I think she's manipulative and not good for any of the characters i DO love.

Is Ron popular? I think so. I like fandom Ron but not canon Ron and idk why. I think I'm growing out of it but I read those books when I was like 7 initially so I thought it was awful of Ron to stop being friends with Harry because he was jealous and I never really got over that.

There are so many but I'm gonna stop now.

23. Unpopular character you love?

Again, tons. I love anyone whose got kind of a tortured backstory because it makes them more interesting to me.

I love Movieverse Hawkeye! I think Clint is great and while I wish his deafness was canon in Marvel and I don't love J Remmer, I do love Hawkeye a lot. He was honestly one of the only Marvel characters that felt consistent and in-character throughout the movies.

I like President Snow from THG just cause I think he was a fantastic villain. And Effie and Haymitch aren't unpopular, but they're probably my favourites, again because of the fics mentioned above.

Leon from Merlin!! I don't actually think he's unpopular, but he's like... my fourth favourite character in the show which I know IS considered high for most people.

Sandor Clegane from ASOIAF. Not the show, just the books. His book character is phenomenal and I am so excited for GrrM to finish the goddamn series so I know what happens to him.

The Stolls and Katie Gardner from PJO cause fandom created Tratie and sucked me in at a young age.

Bellatrix Lestrange? Is she unpopular? I don't think so but she's another one I think is a fantastic villain. I'm almost more interested in her than Voldemort tbh.

That's probably it!

Thanks so much for the ask Tay, this was tons of fun! Anyone else who's interested can feel free to fill my inbox!

[zalrb]

hmm maybe you could just rank them according to your personal preference?? i think it would be a little different from the other one right

Sure! I’m sticking to canon ships.

1. Stelena

I have an entire masterlist dedicated to why Stelena is number 1.

2. Forwood

Oh, Forwood:

Caroline and Tyler were fundamentally altered because of their supernatural conditions and that shift was the basis of their relationship. Becoming a vampire empowered Caroline, she had a sense of strength that she never had, she was confident and centred, she became everything she wasn’t in season 1,

which allowed her to be emotional support for Tyler

who, because of the werewolf curse, became everything he wasn’t in season 1 too: humble and vulnerable and grateful for assistance

and that allowed him to actually take the emotional support from Caroline

so they actually grew together through this time, complementing each other and seeing different sides of their personalities, surprising each other even though they’d known each other since childhood.

And also no one gives Tyler credit for being a loving, whipped boyfriend

and like

and just look at them

I don’t care what anyone says, this is such a cute exchange

3. Stebekah/Steferine

I put them together because which one I prefer more depends on the day. I like Stebekah because they’re dark and there was a lot of potential there:

I think that Katherine unfairly gets credit for the second half of a Dark Stefan ship. Every time Stefan has been rebellious or dark and has had a woman at his side, it’s been Rebekah such as in the 20s:

And such as season 4. When Stefan was just tired of all the Delena and   Defan and triangle bullshit and was like fuck it, I’m doing something   for me, I don’t care if it’s a bad decision, he went to Rebekah for some  crazy sex with a crazy ass vampire: 

So I think Rebekah has insight into the depraved, dark, deviant Stefan because she relishes it with him

I like Steferine a) because of Dobsley chemistry b) because I find their dynamic interesting

[Steferine is] the one ship that the show portrays the baggage and the hurt and the sort of inescapability of certain connection quite well although it’s not emphasized so I wonder if they actually portrayed it well on purpose? But anyway.

The reason why I think it’s done well is  because I think the relationship contradicts the idea that loving someone is always good, Katherine’s “love”/obsession with Stefan in fact  continuously destroys him and hurts him […] She  is more in love with the idea of Stefan loving her than she actually is  with Stefan. That’s why she hijacks Elena’s body in season 5 and  attempts to seduce him because  let’s think about that. Katherine hijacked the body of a woman she  hates and tries to seduce Stefan as that woman, a woman whose break up with him was a trigger for his PTSD, a woman who was in a relationship  with his brother and she doesn’t think or care about how seducing him as this woman would fuck with his head:

It’s also why in season 2 she threatens to kill Elena while Stefan watches because it doesn’t matter if he’s scarred or hurt, what matters is owning him:

And Stefan knows that about Katherine and yet Katherine knows Stefan’s psychology, she knows how his mind works, she knows which ways to get through to him:

and that creates a lot of tension for Stefan and you see it because it’s like, “you legit ruined my life though, like you completely fucked with my head, fucked with my life, I hate you, like I legit hate you”

and yet, AND YET, I can’t help but be of comfort when you’re in need

and as much as I hate you, when you’re around there’s just, there’s this thing (because Stefan always looks like he’s a half-step away from having hate sex with her)

At the same time, Stefan is never able to let Katherine in completely

And  he also experiences catharsis by being able to torture her in season 2  then kill her in season 5 and despite dying with her, killing her again  in season 8, he gets to continuously avenge himself which other victims  on TVD don’t get to do

4. Beremy

Here is the thing about Beremy and my opinion on them is definitely framed by the fact that I now know that the only other relationship Bonnie is really in is with Enzo and I think Bonenzo is bullshit, but the thing about Beremy is that Jeremy goes hard for her (especially in season 2) and I don’t think that’s quite acknowledged.

I definitely think that Kat deserved a better screen partner because Steve didn’t really have much of a presence onscreen

but I do think his lack of presence is also why a lot of good and cute Beremy scenes go unnoticed.

and I don’t think their chemistry was bad, like it’s not Grahamwood chemistry, it’s not Somergraham chemistry but it’s not like Steroline flat or Delena cringey, it’s decent:

like their first kiss is a good first kiss

and I’ve also said that they’re at their best when they do angst, that’s where they live. It’s not Stelena angst or Forwood angst but it’s pretty good angst

The way Enzo is supposed to love Bonnie, I think we actually see with Bonnie and Jeremy

Jeremy is this puny pre-hunter human but he goes into the tomb for the moonstone so Bonnie won’t have to use her magic.

In 2x18 when it was all don’t tell Elena that Bonnie will die trying to take down Klaus, Jeremy essentially chose Bonnie by telling Stefan what was going to happen.

Like look at the way he smiles here:

but the writers really fucked this over: And here’s the thing about that. I can understand the fact that Jeremy never really got closure from Anna and that seeing your girlfriend get dragged out, screaming, by cops and knowing that your uncle killed her would be traumatic. But it’s like JP wanted to humiliate Bonnie with this triangle because first of all, Bonnie is the only character who’s been cheated on and not only are the overall stakes of the show super low for the consequence of Bonnie using her magic to be Jeremy being able to see his ex-girlfriends, it’s a petty way to punish Bonnie. Moreover, it’s not just that Jeremy kissed Anna, it’s not even just that he’d been talking to her and essentially having an emotional affair with her, it’s that he degrades his relationship to Bonnie for Anna and when Bonnie finds out, Jeremy legit couldn’t give a fuck and he does nothing to get her back and he’s just never apologetic about it, not toward Bonnie anyway and then it just gets to the fact that Jeremy has a tendency to only care about the women he dates when they’re about to die and it’s just, I understand why the whole Anna situation keeps people from shipping them or giving Beremy the time of day.

5. Maroline

OK Maroline gets a lot of flack and it’s not that I don’t understand why and it’s not like they didn’t have issues but 1) their coming together was organic and on a show like TVD, having two people come together organically is actually pretty rare, it’s basically Stelena, Forwood and Maroline. I enjoyed the fact that despite being opposites, they found emotional common ground, they bonded over the fact that they were both lonely and they both felt isolated and they were both desperately seeking someone to love them

and their respective stories support this interaction

it’s not just something that’s said to be said, we see Matt’s life, we see him have no parents, we see him to the best of his ability try and keep tabs on Vicki, who is dead but he thinks she bailed, we see Elena fall in love with someone else right in front of him, we see Caroline’s abusive relationship with Damon, we see her insecurities from Day One in the pilot but their bond didn’t just stay at them wanting company, they actually had fun spending time together, they actually liked each other

and I liked that it was no pretense, I liked that it was Family Guy and junk food. You know, Klaroline ha the champagne and the ball gowns, Forwood would just “be” a lot, you know, they were the enjoying each other’s silence kind of ship, Steroline as a couple .... but Matt and Caroline, like, hung out and I liked that.

2) They were super realistic for a teenage relationship and I respect that. Like this is so high school

I remember being 16 and doing things to “test” my boyfriend or the guy that I liked, I remember my guy friends being reluctant to express liking a girl because of what their friends would say, I remember being a teenager and just doing teenage things, which is what Maroline did,

I don’t fault them for that, and yes, in season 1, Matt would be like, we’re not going to last etc.

and I don’t blame people for being put off by that, I wasn’t because it’s pretty 16/17-year old boy but you also see how that doesn’t seem to be what he actually thinks

and we see that expand in season 2

which is why the infamous Mattlena hug scene in 1x17 had me, like, the writing is just contradicting itself now because in 1x16, we have this out where Matt  explain being over Elena and seeing her as a friend and at peace with the fact that she loves Stefan because he’s into Caroline so having Caroline look in on them again was like, we’ve already covered this especially since it’s not consistent after 1x17 either.

Like the whole thing is that she can be exasperating --- and people forget that Caroline actually can be exasperating, she made an offhand classist remark about Bonnie liking the bus boy, which Matt overheard, she was dealing with vampirism and Tyler’s transformation but Matt didn’t know anything about that so she just came across to him as hot and cold, he didn’t have context --- but he loved her anyway

With regards to when he finds out she’s a vampire, I like how people are more pressed about Matt being involved in trying to take her down when he has no frame of reference for vampires other than the fact that one killed his sister and they’re not like, wow Liz, that’s your daughter, but I also like how as they ‘grow up’ and become entrenched in the Supernatural, despite the fact that Matt consistently says he wants nothing to do with it, both of them look out for each other

6. Klaroline

I’m pretty indifferent to Klaroline, I don’t have strong feelings about them but I have maintained that they are better than Delena

Even Klaroline does a better job with that dynamic and those kinds of arguments than Delena because you see Caroline be like “I can’t do this, why the fuck am I even here?” every time they’re together  

the dynamic DE was supposed to have better, the “fiery” “passionate” thing works for them because they know how to argue and because they play up the conflict

I’ve also maintained they have good chemistry: and yet their chemistry begins winning me over in the scene and I think what really sells it is that Candice reacts to the phone call in a way I’ve only seen Caroline react to Klaus and it’s this sort of… she catches her breath/is stunned

I have a vid that’s basically just of their gazes because they’re always charged, they have a very seductive chemistry and it suits their dynamic because the more Caroline interacts with Klaus, the more she’s drawn to him and that shows with the kind of chemistry they have where, as someone who is quite indifferent to their dynamic, the more they interact onscreen the more I want them to remain onscreen, I start off unimpressed (much like Caroline) and move toward being engaged (again like Caroline) and like I said, they do their dynamic well too, Caroline’s annoyed-but-charmed and Klaus’ arrogant-but-charming

(although their physical chemistry is not great) I just don’t think they have any real narrative.

7. Simara

This is purely about Dobsley chemistry: I have spoken about Silas and Amara quite a bit actually, but honestly, mostly in relation to the chemistry between Paul and Nina because I think that the SIlas and Amara storyline is textually weak and it felt rushed, there isn’t much nuance so I don’t find their story particularly tragic because we didn’t spend enough time on it but I still find them tragic because of how Paul and Nina played the tragedy.

Like it was a storyline that just let Paul and Nina do their magic onscreen,

they didn’t have to try to undercut it with dialogue or anything so I appreciate Simara because I love seeing Nina and Paul working together but in terms of the content, I’m like I don’t really care.

Last: Delena/Bonenzo/Steroline

You can look at the masterlists!

[livlepretre]

Ooh, let’s talk character interpretation! I have two questions, but they are both long, so I am going to do them in separate asks.

1.) I’m of the opinion that The Originals portrayed Klaus as a father in a way that doesn’t line up with how he actually is. I think that had more to do with the fact that it was a CW show, and they wanted a redemption arc for the character. Obviously they weren’t going to go for anything that could be misconstrued as actual child abuse- I.e verbal, emotional, or physical abuse. How do you think that Klaus with a child would actually be? Elena would protect her children at all costs, so I know she would take care of any problem she saw arising with Klaus’s parenting skills, but let’s for arguments sake say that Elena and her survival skills don’t factor into this. Klaus grew up dealing with every type of child abuse in the book. Her was demeaned, belittled, and physically beaten, and we know this is what started his psychological issues. I totally agree with your FE interpretation of the Mikaelson incest problem and the fact that it all stems from Klaus and his power issues. He wants to control Rebekah because he wants her to stay and love him above all and manupulation through sex factors into that. Sadly, this dynamic is a problem in the real world, and is extremely unhealthy, vile, and illegal—especially because Rebekah is around a decade his junior and permanently stuck in the mindset of a teenage girl (side note: I remember in FE, Rebekah says she gave her virginity to him. I’d love to hear your take on how that line was crossed and how many years after they had become vampires that this happened. It is certainly a moral line that is hard to cross, although they were born in the 10th century.) Klaus also won’t hestitate to hurt his family emotionally and physically when they upset him whether this is killing their loved ones or daggering them. I guess I just want to know if you think Klaus-who remembers being an abused child- would ever continue this pattern of behavior with a child of his own and if so, would there be lines he would refuse to cross? I feel like he wouldn’t intentionally start out doing abusive things (like how he didn’t immediately start abusiving his sibilings), but once he loses his temper and does something once, the lines of what he is willing to do get blurry. He’s definitely not a stable individual and is a creature of habit- especially when he starts to feel as though he isn’t being respected or when he gets ignored from those he wants to love him. Finally, do you think there would be a huge difference between Klaus raising a boy or girl? We saw how Marcel turned out (also, the dynamic between Rebekah and Marcel when she started out as an Aunt figure and turned into a romantic partner is something that I feel like was strange and very Klebekah in the 1920s weird where it was clearly there but no one ever chose to expand on it or even mention it in the narrative? But I digress!), and Klaus is clearly threatened by the fact that Marcel grew up and was able to take over Nola despite the fact that Marcel was just doing what Klaus taught him. He sees Marcel as a threat, but if he had a daughter, I feel like he would end up treating her sort of in a Rebekah like manner where she isn’t ever really viewed as a threat, just a girl throwing a trantrum. Idk, there is just so much to think about here and immortality definitely screws with your perception of what’s okay and what isn’t. I’m very curious to see how you think all this would play out long term.

You’re spoiling me with these questions and I pretty much agree with your thoughts on Klaus’s general fucked-uppery. 

I’ve put a great deal of thought into “Klaus as a parent,” both because of the show, and because of ficcish things. I think he’s acutely aware of all of the ways that his own father failed him, and so he would be actively really determined to have the kind of relationship with his own child that he never had with his father. His intentions there would be good, and probably better than his intentions with his siblings, since a child is a more direct extension of himself, but the question would be whether he is actually capable of being a good parent. It’s true that victims of childhood abuse often end up tragically rehashing the same patterns with their own children, but it’s equally true that many are able to break the cycle. I tend to think that Klaus would actually be exceptionally good with his children while they were still children. He shows in canon that he was very good with talking to Marcel and making him feel valued when he was a little boy still-- Klaus empathizes very well with children, and I think while he has tremendous difficulty understanding the emotions of others, at least when they are not mirrors of how he would feel, his own experiences of feeling neglect and belittlement and fear as a child would guide him in how to make a child feel loved, heard, special, etc. And of course, a child is able to give a parent the sort of unconditional, center-of-the-universe love that Klaus craves. The problem would come about in the transition from childhood to adolescence. His problems with Marcel, for example, stem from Marcel becoming a young man with ambitions and interests of his own-- no longer idolizing Klaus, no longer his shadow and perfect companion, but instead someone testing boundaries and breaking away. 

How Klaus handles a teenage and later an adult child is a more complicated question. Yes, I think he would ultimately have an easier time with a female child, because Klaus is a misogynist and could therefore slip into a familiar dynamic of treating that child as a pet-- he could shower her with gifts and affection and never take her too seriously, much like Rebekah. A boy would inevitably grow into a rival, I think... or, almost inevitably. Whether or not the son even construes himself as a rival would be irrelevant if Klaus decides he’s a rival. It’s that same problem as with Marcel all over again-- if he stays by Klaus’s side, it’s not an issue, but if he pursues his own life... The son thing is also hard, because that son would inevitably be, to Klaus, a direct reflection of himself, and I’m convinced that Klaus would desire nothing more than to create the kind of father/son relationship he badly desired... and so the expectations and pressures would be tremendous for a boy. 

There’s a big question to address along the lines of: would Klaus treat his adolescent/adult children the way he treats his siblings? It seems to me like the essential difference between sibling vs child relationships would be that Klaus, an actual narcissist, would inevitably see his children as extensions of himself, whereas his siblings each represent the greatest threats to his ego, his power, and his image of himself. He therefore exerts control over them, especially Rebekah, who is the easiest for him to control (as both the youngest and the only female, and also, since she is the most insecure and I would argue traumatized of all of them). He’s high-handed to the extreme, daggering them whenever he so chooses, therefore controlling whether they even get to actually live, deciding on which lovers are acceptable for Rebekah (and sometimes his brothers), dragging them all over the planet, lying to them all for centuries on end... the list goes on. There’s a lot of interpersonal violence there, but I would say that the one line he never crosses is that he never kills them-- because in his head he’s justified it as “I’m daggering this sibling for their own good” etc etc. (It’s interesting also to note that his siblings would be just as fast to dagger him should the opportunity arise.) Would he have the same need to exert his dominance over his children? Because, as father, his power over them is the natural order of things (especially in his medieval head). Whereas, amongst his siblings, yes, he’s the most special, but he’s also the third son and suffers from middle child syndrome, so it’s more about wresting power from the rest of them. Never underestimate how deeply medieval the thinking of each of the Originals is-- things like birth order definitely matter, and that’s definitely part of Klaus’s familial chaos. 

The strongest point of tension I could predict between Klaus and his children would be at the point when they are old enough to wish to exert their independence from him as individuals. I question whether Klaus would ever see that though, or be able to let them go. I think there could be an inevitable slide into methods of control-- lying “for their own good,” killing a daughter’s suitors to keep her from leaving the nest... no matter what, he would probably prefer for his child to find interests that kept them close to him. 

In terms of physical violence, I’m up in the air about that. It’s possible he could lose his temper and strike out at a child-- although, the more I think about it, the more I think that’s not how he lashes out so I don’t think that would be the issue. He daggers his siblings a lot but we don’t see him torturing them physically (I don’t think? I could just be blanking). There are times when they come to blows, but we see that with Damon and Stefan all the time... and that might just be a vampire thing in general. Most of what he does to them is really psychological torture/abuse and when he does have a violent fit, he tends to take it out on  those around the object of his furor, like every single one of Rebekah’s lovers whom he murders, or Katerina’s family. What would be the equivalent of daggering that he could do to his child? Lock him up in a dungeon? (lol if it’s Elena’s child, GOOD LUCK.) Maybe some other threat to hold over their heads? This would be totally situational though. I think he would be deeply regretful of ever striking his child (doesn’t entirely mean he wouldn’t, in the heat of the moment), but could justify other methods like imprisonment pretty easily. 

I think that just leaves the last awful stone to turn over: the incest. I don’t even know what to say about the Mikaelsons other than that there is definitely an incest issue in that whole family--  but especially with Klaus and Rebekah-- and honestly at this point Rebekah’s incest vibe with Marcel just sells their relationships to me even more. Of course she’s transposed that fucked-uppery onto Marcel. Like you mentioned above, and like I’ve developed in Fairytale Ending, Klaus’s incest with Rebekah is definitely a power thing with him-- he’s not in love with Rebekah, but she is his special favorite-- and part of that is that she’s the sibling he can control, through sexual dominance and appealing to her abandonment issues and insecurities (in a wild feedback loop with his own abandonment issues and insecurities). It’s awfully telling that the only lover he actually lets her have is Stefan... because Stefan is so clearly also his lover. (And that when faced with Rebekah x Marcel, he chose to dagger her and shelve the issue of oh no! I can’t kill my son! until it was no longer an issue) 

Personally, I don’t think there would be any parent/child incest issues with Klaus-- his incest problems don’t stem directly from his parent/child trauma, and we never get a hint of incest between him and Marcel, so, at least we can breathe a sigh of relief in this one facet of Klaus-as-father--  but I do think if he were to have multiple children he would be very suspicious of them and very hunted by the idea of their incest. 

I think that sums up my thoughts on Klaus as a parent/the possible ways he would fuck it up? 

I do think there’s a possibility it could go well-- obviously I daydream most about what a Klaus x Elena parent team would look like, which might actually work. As you said, Elena would cut any nonsense out right away. But also, I think that Elena is a true equal for Klaus, and one of the things about finding a real equal is that it lends itself to partnership-- which is what Klaus would need in a co-parent. Someone who could balance him and strengthen the parts of him that could be good at being a parent. His siblings definitively did not do that-- Elijah wasn’t interested enough, and Rebekah is ultimately too immature-- but Elena has a shot. So, despite all the ways it could go to non-proverbial hell in a handbasket, I think with the right circumstances-- a partner who would voluntarily choose to stay at his side, for example, thus eliminating so much of his neediness and extenuating control issues-- he could deal with that shift from child to adolescent to adult much better, and that foundation of a very strong parent/child relationship during the first decade or so could really help Klaus and his child’s relationship withstand any later turbulence. (Also, with Elena around as a co-parent, I kind of think instead of grooming a child to be some sort of feudal lord who could become a threat to Klaus’s sphere of power, she would encourage her kid to be... like... a veterinarian or something normal. And having that strong female role model would also go a long way toward forcing Klaus to give up his “over-bearing father to my precious jewel of a daughter” schtick....) So maybe my actual stance is “Klaus would be a terrible single-father, but he might be okay if he’s not the only parent in the picture/he has an adult meeting and grappling with his issues in a long-term committed relationship” 

(I think the final you asked about were my thoughts on Rebekah/Klaus in the FE timeline, which is basically just my headcanon in general... so, to start off, I don’t think the incest would have ever happened had they remained human. I think it’s a direct result of the trauma and psychosis they all experience from their transformations into vampires, which reifies all the problems they had as humans and exponentially makes it worse. And also, like you said, immortality seriously fucks with concepts of right vs wrong. Like, part of what’s wild is that nowhere in the canon does it say that vampires have to be monsters... it’s just that needing human blood to survive quickly turns into hunting humans, which turns into a psychological barrier between the vampire and humans... which eventually transforms them into monsters, callous, cold, playing with their food, hunting humans for sport, arbitrarily pulling them apart because they’re bored. So, becoming a vampire doesn’t instantly make one into a monster, but it does seem to inevitably precipitate becoming one down the line, and it’s just a matter of how fast the vampire arrives at that destination. To get back to the incest question, my thought was that the Originals would be already well down that road-- years past the death of their mother and fleeing their father, living as savages enslaved to their appetites and their flights of fancy, when that shift would occur between Klaus and Rebekah. Because by that point, what can possibly still be taboo? They’d already divorced themselves from their humanity, their inherent sense of “right” vs “wrong,” certainly any cultural understanding of it, so thoroughly that the barrier between sibling and lover must have felt thin and insubstantial as a bit of mist. I’m sure they were gradually heading that way for a while-- Klaus probably clung to Rebekah hardest of all, and Rebekah was so traumatized that telling the difference between different kinds of love would have been truly difficult. When I think about how long this might have taken, I imagine probably only about a decade-- long enough that it wasn’t immediate (they were still young, and time would have still passed at a human rate for them), but not long that Rebekah would have a chance to really start looking at all the men who might be potential lovers for her. It’s possible in fact that her interest in a human man could have precipitated Klaus changing things up with her. (And it’s very much explicitly about Klaus wanting to be #1 with Rebekah-- I think he slept with Tatia Petrova as a human, and I think he was sleeping around a good deal-- probably in a lot of gruesome ways, actually-- in that time before Rebekah became his lover.) What’s interesting to me here is that none of the other siblings-- especially Elijah, because Kol is shifty as fuck-- ever seemed to object. They just... accepted it? Rolled with it? That, to me, really demonstrates how deeply screwed up they all are.) 

[devourer--of--books]

Some time ago (and by “some time” I mean a long ass time, oops) Kate (@pumpkinpaperweight) posted an analysis of gold rush by Taylor Swift tracing parallels to Agatha, which this post is clearly inspired by. 

(Go check that one out after you finish reading this post, it’s really good.)

Ever since, I’ve had an entire tagatha x taylor playlist/unfinished post that I don’t think will ever see the light because I’m too lazy to actually finish it. But now I have some spare time and I noticed that,,,, invisible string wasn’t on it.

And that's cause, well, despite the obvious gold fingerglow motif which is very tagatha … you already read the title of the post. It’s more like my own version of of what I would have had happen post-otk (will my epilogue version ever see the light, I wonder) than anything else, but this is my account, in which I am correct all the time and accept no criticism so,,,,

Green was the color of the grass where I used to read at Centennial Park

I used to think I would meet somebody there

Basically, these first two lines are about how Sophie’s egocentrism isolated her and kept her from making genuine connections with people from very early on, until she becomes friends with Agatha and even after that.

Okay, so have you guys ever seen those tiktoks that are like ‘13-year-old me, in black jeans and sneakers, at the beach, reading a book mYstERioUsLy so that when Harry Styles showed up he’d know I’m dIfFeRenT'?

This is the energy I get here. 

Like, Sophie in the start of book one doing all those ‘good deeds’ so set herself apart in the eyes of the school master hoping that he’d bring her to the school where she would meet *drumroll* The One. 

Most of us have, at some point (I hope, otherwise it was just me and that would be so embarassing), tried and failed to channel that main-character-energy to manifest ourselves into a story much more interesting than whatever is going on in your life at the moment. I feel like at the very core, that’s sort of what Sophie was trying to do? It’s a very juvenile feeling and shows just how little Sophie knew about love overall. Love as it is in fairytale books, as opposed to as it actually is.

She thought herself as above everyone else and thought she was entitled to true, unconditional love, which ended up holding her back and isolating her from everyone in the town, save for Agatha, give or take. 

This mindset is what really keeps her from seeing Tedros (and Agatha, and everyone else) as people, rather than characters in her story, and actually connecting with them on a non-superficial level. 

Teal was the color of your shirt when you were 16 at the yogurt shop

You used to work at to make a little money

I don’t think this part needs much explaining? 

On surface level, Nicola canonically started working at her father’s pub at a very young age to help with family expenses.

If you think about it a little more and contrast it with the previous line, though, it highlights the differences between Sophie and Nicola:

Nic works to help her family, learning responsibility and duty, while Sophie barely ever did anything for her father, both out of vanity (and a superiority complex) and out of spite (which is honestly undeserved all the way up to book 3, when Stefan let Callis die and fucking tried to blame Agatha for returning without Sophie and then guilt-tripped her into going to save her, after which he was dead to me lol). Sophie grew with a princess-like mindset, despite being just slightly better off than Nic, given all the villagers save from Callis and Agatha (due to them being outcasts) seem to have a similar income (with the exception of the beggar which I don’t understand and am probably overthinking about, but honestly, it’s a impossible to leave town and people die on the mill all the time, there's no college or whatever, did none of these assholes offer the beggar a job- I’m getting carried away), while Nicola has to shoulder most of the responsibilities due to her dad being sick.

Also, given the *misogyny* I’d be surprised if Nic didn’t have to do all the housework, as the only girl in her house.  

I doubt that the uniform of the pub was teal and given the book timeline she wouldn’t have been 16 in any instances in which Sophie and her met in Gavaldon, but I digress.

Time

Curious time

Gave me no compasses

Gave me no signs

Were there clues I didn't see?

Also kinda self-explanatory in a way?

On one interpretation, it takes Sophie an awful long time to mature and grow into an okay person. She lashed out after Tedros’ rejection because her desire was, when you get down to it, to be loved, even though she didn't understand what love was or how to go about it. She was already loved both by Agatha and by her father but she couldn't see it because the idea of love (romantic, loud, grand-gesture) was so embedded into her, but the clues to it were there all along.

On another, you could argue that Nicola also did not see this coming at all, specially if you consider canon!Nicola rather than fanon!Nicola (why would you, but okay, ignore my Hunter post, go on, stomp on my feelings). Nicola, whose purpose in TCY was to be the new hort-love-interest no one asked for, ending up with her *gag* love-rival? Unexpected, iconic, never done before (never actually done in canon), amazing, mind-blowin-

Bad was the blood of the song in the cab on your first trip to LA

You ate at my favorite spot for dinner

Bad Blood was a smash hit on Taylor’s career, playing on the radio  non-stop during the 1989 era, arguably her peak in terms of mainstream pop and radio plays.

The Tale of Sophie and Agatha was the equivalent in this context, as it was all the rage in Gavaldon after book 3; Sophie’s persona as the Dean Of Evil is solidified and everyone in The Woods knows who she is and read her tale, including Nicola (who already knew who she was, but now had a another version of her to compare to the version she already knew, which hm, did not favour Sophie either way).

I think it’s kind of fascinating how parasocial relationships work in the context of SGE because like, the storian is there as an omniscient narrator, but it doesn’t write everything. Like, does it just expose what the people in the tale feel and think only if it suits the plot or do the tales look just like the SGE books, in some sort of fourth wall break or is it like an actual children’s fairytale, where you just get told actions and have to sort of assume motivations? How does that affect public opinion? I don’t think most people would be too keen on stanning Sophie after reading The Tale Of Sophie and Agatha (cause damn, Sophie does a lot of questionable shit there) but canonically, they do, despite her being the villain, which is something I have opinions on (do I ever not have opinions on things?).

Like, sure there would be Nevers stanning her, but honestly, if they read the tale, wouldn't they be more likely to stan Hester or even Agatha? Cause Sophie almost got both Evers and Nevers killed, doomed everyone in The Woods for a guy, and was overall a horrible person with no regard for actual Good or Evil as balanced things? Isn’t this why The Coven sided with Agatha, like, I don’t get it- Is it stanning out of fear? Cause that’s the only sort of explanation I have, specially for people in Gavaldon, but that’s something I’ll go deeper into in another time.

Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nic’s first class at SGE was about The Tale Of Sophie and Agatha, given she was originally placed in Evil, due to Dovey and Sophie’s bet, and Evil’s school curriculum was under Sophie’s control, so if you think those classes were anything other than the Sophie-Show, you are wrong.

Now, on to headcanon territory, wouldn’t it be poetic if during her first lunch Nic sat at that tree in the middle of the clearing where Agatha and Sophie used to sit? Not only for ship reasons, but the tree is right in the center, which could relate to how Nic was supposed to be half/half?

Bold was the waitress on our three-year trip getting lunch down by the Lakes

She said I looked like an American singer

It’s a real shame that I don’t remember most of TCY. (But is it really?)

This is kinda of my own personal interpretation of what the OTK epilogue should have been like (and so, it's kind of a spoiler for my ever unfinished rewrite sksnsksn).

Imagine if, instead of that horrid school wedding (kill me now, please), they actually held the respective funerals for all the people lost in the Camelot power-struggle (I’ll take a school funeral, but don’t come at me with school weddings or I’ll lose my shit).

Tedros and Agatha, poor traumatized children, are on their way back to Camelot to try and get stuff back under control and do royal things. Sophie is pretty much on her own, with the remaining faculty of the school, as well as the new kids (yeah, Hort’s staying dead, boo hoo, I’m not sorry sbfhbsdb). Nicola will be returning home to Gavaldon soon, since the school schedule is already messed up beyond repair and everyone is taking some time off anyway. She was only staying there until christmas originally, so might as well.

Public opinion on the main trio is kinda weird at the moment:

Tagatha suffered a coup, then a while laterTedros killed the brother of his usurper, whom had been more popular than him, and well, they do tell people that Japeth killed Rhian, but it’s not like they have receipts? Like, there’s no way to fact check that. They could very well have killed Rhian, we, as bystanders, wouldn’t know? You can bet rumors like these don’t just go away.

And Sophie?

Well, I think public opinion on Sophie was already fear-based rather than coming from a place of admiration for her acts. People aren’t sure of her alliances anymore, and don’t really know how to behave around her so they mainly avoid her. Now that Dovey and Hort are dead and everyone else is resuming their quests, she’ll be pretty much on her own to deal with the aftermatch, which is not only sad, but also probably not healthy. She considers staying with Agatha, but she doesn’t want to add more scandal to the Camelot situation.

So she decides to go back to Gavaldon. Not permanently tho. Just to visit her father and take some time off to decide who could balance her well enough to be appointed as Dean Of Good. 

She'd choose Agatha, but you know, Agatha is kinda busy. Plus, it'd be good to see her father. Watching most of your parental figures drop like flies really puts things into perspective and maybe (just maybe) there's still something to salvage there.

Not many people know she's at Gavaldon, and that's on purpose. For once, Sophie just wants to be left the fuck alone, so she just tries to lay low and not bring unnecessary attention to heself. It's so unlike her to do so that when she walks in to have lunch at Nicola's pub, no one but Nicola even recognizes her.

And if Nicola keeps her company and accompany her on walks, well, it’s no one’s business. Bonding time? Bonding time.

Time

Mystical time

Cutting me open, then healing me fine

Were there clues I didn't see?

You know what these kids need after this Camelot shitstorm? Therapy, that’s what.

There’s no therapy in The Woods, so friendship will simply have to do. Please sir, let these kids heal.

Nicola was dragged to SGE while her father was sick and knew no one there personally, then got dragged again, now into a power struggle where she almost died multiple times, dated a guy, broke up with a guy and I can’t even remember what else but that sounds like a stressful time considering how close together the events from TCY are compared to TSY. What does she want to do now? Will she become a knight? Will she remain in Gavaldon? Does she have to finish school? How have Hunter and her dad been? Whatever went down with her brothers? Why was she important in the first place? Lots to reflect and self-search.

And Sophie. Oh Sophie.

Sophie fell once again for a ‘get-love-’quick’ scheme, not once, but twice! That is not something easy to look in the face and forgive yourself for.

With Rhian, it backfired by hurting everyone she loved, and after the shit Rafal pulled on her, she should have known better. But can you blame her? It’s not like the Rafal thing left her unscratched: you try being in an abusive relationship with a predator, see if you don’t get some trauma. And instead of doing the hard thing and keeping up the work she had been doing on herself she threw her progress out the window the moment Rhian said what she wanted to hear!

After that went belly-up, she at least managed to help her friends, but then later that backfired and she got brain-washed (are we gonna talk about this? disturbing much?). Then, she got fragile enough for her to attempt to find purpose in her life within Hort’s feelings for her, even if she didn’t actually reciprocate those feelings, simply because she was sure of them and they were familiar.

And later, even Hort was taken away from her. 

(Probably for the best, given their attachment had been… precarious, to say the least.)

Therapy, I’m telling you.

A string that pulled me

Out of all the wrong arms right into that dive bar

Something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire

Chains around my demons

Wool to brave the seasons

One single thread of gold tied me to you

These two would be so good for one another.

I think that being alone when you’re going through something is literally the worst you can do, but when you have someone who just…. gets it, you know? They were there too. They understand. It forms a connection.

After OTK, both of them (Sophie mostly) have enough on their plates for them to go down a dark path to a horrible place. But they don’t. Cause they are here for each other and have their support system to help them.

Does that translate into late nights drinking together after the pub shuts down? Maybe.  Keeping tabs on each other to make sure they’re sleeping and eating right? Yes. Keeping secrets and confessions? You got it.

And then my friends, begins the pining.

Cause, you know, they’re just gals being pals, gals being gay- wait what.

Nicola probably comes to terms with it first, but thinks Sophie is not interested in her like that (she also suspects that Sophie only sees her as Agatha’s stand-in and will drop her eventually once Agatha is no longer in such high demand.) Sophie is, in classic Sophie-fashion, neck-deep in denial, she’s not a lesbian right? she’s boy crazy, she’s not a lesbian-

Except she never felt like this with any of those boys. The only comparison she has is what she feels for Agatha, this feeling of being heard and seen and understood, but-

But Sophie doesn’t want to kiss Agatha.

And in retrospect, she never wanted to kiss anyone like this either.  Tedros who, Rafal who, Rhian who, Hort who, these bitches could never.

Eventually they attend the official tagatha wedding, HELD AT THE CASTLE, as each other’s plus-ones, and well, maybe consider checking my eventual OTK-epilogue for more on this, once it eventually comes out.

Cold was the steel of my axe to grind for the boys who broke my heart

Now I send their babies presents

Very self-explanatory, Tedros may be Sophie’s favorite ex, but he’s still an ex and they will be killing each other if left unchecked for two long unsupervised.

Nicphie as the tagatha baby godparents. Please, YES.

I’m not gonna go into detail because children make me uncomfortable,  I wish this was a joke, haha, but yes, Sophie and Nic pic the presents together and they attend the baby shower together. Are they dating, are they just married but don’t know it yet? I wonder. They're just together and no one really knows what's going on.

Gold was the color of the leaves when I showed you around Centennial Park

Hell was the journey but it brought me heaven

You know what’s funny? I didn’t tell you anything between the wedding and the baby shower. Remember how there was an opening for Dean of Good?

Yeah, too late to send in your resumes, position is already filled.

Sophie shows Nic the ropes of being Dean, or at least that’s how she’ll present it, but they’re still sort of figuring it out together. And that's okay.

They spend summers traveling around, christmas in Gavaldon, new years in Camelot and all is well. Their fingerglow colors now match. But it’s, unfortunately not gold.

Time

Wondrous time

Gave me the blues and then purple pink skies

And it's cool

Baby, with me

Yeah, it’s fucking purple.

I can’t remember if Nic has a canon fingerglow color, but I don’t really care much for canon, do I? I just really like the imagery of it, so it’s blue and pink mixed together. Because, you know I’m a symbolic bitch.

And isn't it just so pretty to think

All along there was some

Invisible string

Tying you to me?

Anyway, I am correct, this is the post.

[hellsbellschime]

Hi, love your meta’s. I read earlier that you haven’t done a meta comparing Klaus and Damon, but do you think you could do one? Just explaining why they are different and which one is in your opinion better (as far as complexity, characterization, development, and whatever else you could think of goes) and just which one you prefer.

It’s actually kind of bizarre to realize that I haven’t done a meta about this before, since TVD positioned both Klaus and Damon in the obvious position of the “crazy, impulsive vampire, in love with his brother’s girl”. And I think on the surface that Damon and Klaus were meant to be pretty similar, but I think that below the surface, either by accident or by design, they have some pretty stark differences that at least explain to me why I like Klaus so much and don’t like Damon very much at all. 

In terms of the TVD world they’re both fairly developed and complex characters, and I think the most obvious similarity between them is that they’re the type of people to act now and think later. They’re also both the type who pretend to be absolutely fine with being the bad guy, but their behavior over time would indicate otherwise. But, at least in my mind, that is where the meaningful similarities between Damon and Klaus end. 

Now that I’ve actually rewatched some TVD for the first time in literal years (and since I could do that with some of the lingering meta requests I have in my inbox in mind) I think what struck me about Damon’s behavior in contrast to Klaus’ is that while they both act out on their emotions without really thinking it through, Damon almost always tries to fix things afterwards whereas Klaus really does not. 

It’s hard to say whether or not that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I mean theoretically it should be good that Damon at least tries to rectify the awful things that he’s done, but on the flip side of that, it feels like Damon often times excuses his own bad behavior because, in his own mind, he’ll just find a way to fix it later. And while he never actually fixes anything, he does find a way to reconnect with the people that he cares about, which is really the only thing that matters to him anyway. 

But where I think Damon’s character development loses out when it comes to this pattern is in the fact that he can continually go through these bouts of absolutely insane, awful behavior, and then “fix it” without ever experiencing any self-reflection or introspection. Damon has found a system that works for him, which allows him to be the “bad guy” without actually having to believe that he’s the bad guy, and without actually forcing him to think about anything that he’s done in any meaningful or self-critical way. 

And in a sense, that lack of self-criticism is something that is reflected in Damon’s relationships with other people. He almost always tries to hide or mitigate his behavior in the eyes of the people who matter to him, and while he wants them to love him, he’s also willing to lie in order to get them to care. Meaning, he is satisfied with people loving the false image of himself that he presents to them, and if the option is between being loved for being someone he’s not and not being loved for who he is, he’ll choose the former.

                                                 ---------------------

In contrast to that, it seems like when Klaus screws up he almost never actually tries to “fix it”. He is also someone who (rightly) perceives himself to be the bad guy, even though, like Damon, a huge proportion of the bad things he does are done on impulse more than they’re done out of malice. He has a lot of complex feelings about being an objectively bad person, but again just as Damon does, he also uses his “bad guy” image as a shield. He psychologically allows himself to do many things he probably wouldn’t normally because he puts himself in the villain box. 

So, while Damon messes up and then tries to make up for it later, Klaus almost never does that. He does manage to reconcile with the people who love him more often than not, but he’s very rarely apologetic and he very rarely tries to sincerely justify what he’s done to them either. Ironically, while Damon sort of pushes the situation on to the people around him and asks them to be the ones to think it through and deal with it, Klaus seems to cope with things and think them through almost entirely by himself. 

Klaus is a completely self-loathing person, despite the fact that he pretends to be the opposite, and it seems safe to assume that that’s because he does horrible things on instinct or impulse but he really processes them internally afterwards. So of course, how could any remotely intelligent person see themselves as anything other than monstrous after doing the things that Klaus has done? 

That is a huge way in which Klaus differs from Damon, and that difference expresses itself in one of the starkest ways, comparatively speaking. Damon doesn’t self-reflect, so he is satisfied with “fixing his mistakes” in an incredibly superficial way. If Elena and Stefan still care about him and engage with him after he does something terrible, then in his mind it’s no longer an issue, and it’s not something that he thinks about in relation to himself anymore. 

But Klaus is not that way. He often times doesn’t try to fix it because he understands that there is no way to fix it, at least not sincerely. Klaus knows he doesn’t deserve forgiveness for the things that he’s done, so for the most part he doesn’t even ask for it. Unlike Damon, Klaus would rather be hated for who he really is than loved for someone that he’s not. I think that choice is something that is partially driven by insecurity and fear, but I also think that it’s just a result of Klaus spending a lot of time and energy analyzing himself and his own behavior, and how other people should and do relate to that. 

Klaus desires love more than nearly anything else, however he has a very hard time believing that anyone would ever love him. But because this is something that is simultaneously an all-consuming desire and something that he really never gets, he’s desperate for whatever love he gets to be “real”. He wants to be seen for who he really is, even if that reality is terrible, and he’d rather be loathed for being himself than be loved for being someone else. 

                                                ---------------------

And although Damon and Klaus had a lot of interactions throughout the show, I think most people rightfully point out the “what is it you say to her” as their most meaningful interaction. And of course, I agree with that assessment, and I think that the difference between the two in this scenario really speaks to their differences as characters. 

The idea of Klaus asking Damon for interpersonal relationship advice and Damon offering it is actually one of the funniest moments in the series, because you could not find two assholes who are worse at creating, maintaining, or developing relationships with other people. It’s actually priceless that Klaus even asked, because anyone with a lick of common sense would realize that it’s a horrible idea. 

However, Klaus does have common sense, so the fact that he actually did ask speaks to his ability to self-reflect even more, in my mind. Damon is the last person anyone should seek out for relationship advice, but I think what Klaus picked up on here is the fact that he and Damon both do equally terrible impulsive things, and Damon does manage to maintain relationships with other people in spite of it. So he’s not asking because Damon can give good advice, he’s asking because Damon can potentially give advice that is relevant to him. 

Damon’s assessment of the situation and difference between them is unsurprisingly incorrect. Damon’s excuse is that he does what he does with purpose, whereas Klaus just does them to be a dick. That is untrue of their behavior on both ends, because Klaus does do a lot of things with a specific purpose behind them and Damon does tons of stuff just to be a dick. However, that is a perfect example of how Damon rationalizes his own behavior and only looks at it in an incredibly superficial way. 

Damon telling himself that he only does these things because he needs to allows him to do whatever he wants for whatever reason he deems necessary while still telling himself that the real him is better than that. The bad guy mantle is just a hat he puts on when it’s needed and it’s something he can take off when he wants. Klaus on the other hand might rationalize things in that way to the people around him, but he doesn’t make those rationalizations to himself. 

To me what is most interesting in this interaction is that Klaus asks for Damon’s advice but he doesn’t take it. Klaus actually asking for anyone’s advice, ever, is enormous, so it’s clear that he wouldn’t have done that if he hadn’t actually wanted to rectify things with Caroline somehow. Klaus showing any form of vulnerability is rare, so why would he show that vulnerable side to Damon of all people? Well, because it actually meant something. 

So the fact that Klaus doesn’t take Damon’s advice is very telling. He doesn’t take it because he doesn’t choose to rationalize what he’s done, to himself or to Caroline. Klaus is extremely adept at manipulating and tricking people, so the fact that he refuses to do it in some instances goes to show how little that ability means to him in a true emotional level. If he wanted to fool everyone into believing that he was someone he wasn’t, he could very easily do that. So the fact that he chooses not to, and that he would rather have Caroline (or Rebekah, or Elijah, or Stefan) hate him for the real him than love him for the fake him is huge. And for me, that is the biggest difference between Klaus and Damon.

[hauntedbasementqueen]

TVD: Delena vs. Stelena

So yes, I am a Delena shipper. And yes, this topic is a little old. But so far I have not found anything online that defends Delena for the reasons I ship them, so I am going to write this anyways.

This is three pages long, so be prepared.

Spoiler warning ahead.

I am not going to be defending against accusations, nor am I going to be using factors such as chemistry or attractiveness, although in my opinion both are in favor of Delena. This is only talking about the characters and how Damon, Stefan, and Elena all benefited from Delena being endgame, as well as why I think it was the best choice for the show.

From a screenwriting perspective, Stelena was a good starting relationship for the show. It had intrigue, and some passion, and, most importantly, it was steady enough to give the watchers time to get to know the characters. Stefan was unambiguously the good guy, despite being a vampire, and in the first few seasons the show had not built up enough loyalty to the characters to risk putting the main character with someone as morally grey as Damon.

In terms of the characters themselves, Stelena was also a good starting point for Elena after her parents’ deaths. She was hopeless, and what she needed was a constant, kind presence in her life who had just enough danger and mystery to draw her interest. Stefan gave that to her. For the first few years after her parents death, Elena couldn’t deal with the demands of a relationship with Damon (who, incidentally, had a lot of growing up to do as well). She needed Stefan, who could carry a lot of their relationship himself, rather than her having to take care of or monitor him, giving Elena time to heal and navigate this new supernatural world. And their relationship was… charming. The love there was real (although in my opinion, it was more platonic than romantic-- more on that later), and there was certainly enough drama to keep us engaged. For the beginning of the show, Stelena was good.

Around season three, however, is where it started to sour (and no, I am not talking about the Ripper or any of the other plot devices, only characterization). In the first two seasons, most of the Stelena drama was about them developing their relationship. Elena was figuring out who Stefan was and discovering his secrets. After season three, however, the showriters started to run out of ideas. Stefan’s past had been revealed. There was more to reveal about Stefan, of course, but all of the major things that would impact his relationship with Elena had been used. The ripper storyline had been done. Pretty much any other drama would seem artificial and out of character. Why? Because Stefan and Elena were both such stubbornly loyal people that any sort of betrayal on either of their parts would only seem in character if it relied on miscommunication, which is a subpar plot point at best. In addition, Stefan and Elena had a steady, quiet sort of love rather than the explosive type that viewers tend to want. To put it simply, Stefan and Elena’s relationship was becoming boring. Changing it up was in the best interest for the show.

In terms of characterization, Stelena also needed to end around season three. Elena was mostly healed from her parents’ deaths. She was headstrong, always running into danger, and would do anything to save the people she loved. More than anything, she was self-sacrificing, to the point where that was perhaps her biggest flaw. Stefan was the exact same as her. And that’s why in the beginning, when the stakes were lower, their relationship worked-- they understood each other. But as the stakes got higher each season and every decision was life or death, Elena could not be with someone who was just as self-sacrificing as her, for her own physical health. Stefan loved Elena. And yet he was the kind of person who would be a martyr and give her up, if that’s what she wanted (and he does when she becomes a vampire, saving Matt instead of her). This seems good on paper- until you consider that Elena is so self-sacrificing that oftentimes she tries to turn herself in before she considers all other options. And Stefan is so selfless and so respecting that he doesn’t stop her. 

Take the part about Elena becoming a vampire, for example. Yes, in the end it turned out fine and Matt and Elena were both saved. But Stefan didn’t know that Elena had vampire blood in her system. If she hadn’t, she would be dead. The choice was clearly between Elena and Matt- one of them was going to die. Elena wanted Stefan to choose Matt, so he did (after wasting several idiotic seconds arguing about it, but I digress). If it weren’t for luck, Elena would be dead, and honestly it would have been Stefan’s fault more than anything else. He knows Elena is incredibly, stubbornly self-sacrificing. He should have saved the life of the girl he loves first and then gone back to save her friend, no question. Instead he let Elena die because he was too much of a martyr. Yes, he did regret it later, but I believe that he would probably do it again in a similar situation-- their characters are just too selfless.

Enter Damon. If Damon is anything, it’s selfish. As the seasons go on, he becomes a better person, but when it comes to Elena, it is always, always, whatever is best for Elena first. And that is exactly what Elena needs. She’s grieved for her parents. She can stand on her own now. She doesn’t need someone to be kind, and to prop her up like Stefan did. What she needs is someone who can match her step for step and who can and will stop her when she goes on one of her self-sacrificing rampages (yes, I like Elena too, but you have to admit this is one of her flaws). Damon does that. He gives her the love, and the compassion, but he also gives her the strength of will and the selfishness that counterbalances her own selflessness. Not to mention as Elena grows on the show and becomes more confident, her character grows into more of an adventurous, witty character rather than the damsel in distress type she was in season one. The new Elena fits better with Damon’s adventurous and witty streak than with Stefan’s more steady, dry nature. 

Damon and Elena is also, in my opinion, far more interesting to watch than Stelena, and I think most people would agree. They are more passionate, both in love and in anger, and I personally like their banter far better. They have far more opportunities for angst and plot points, being more different than each other and both of them having grown to be similarly volatile (Damon becoming less volatile, Elena becoming more so). Thus, Delena made the show more interesting without having to force outstandingly interesting plot points or side relationships.

Looking at the show as a whole, I see Stelena as a better platonic relationship, and Delena as a better romantic relationship. Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev have incredible chemistry, no doubt about that (and Pual and Nina have very little-- fight me on that), but in terms of the characters themselves it also makes more sense for Stelena to be platonic. Even when they were together, it reminded me more of a best friend relationship, especially in season two. They loved each other, and they were compassionate, but they were not passionate. There was no real spark between them, because they were too similar. Ideally, partners should have many of the same interests, but they should also complement each other. Best friends, meanwhile, are usually very similar. They don’t complement each other-- they are each other. The way that Damon complements Elena makes him a better romantic partner, while Stefan is an excellent friend to Elena due to their similarities. 

Now that I have covered how Damon and Elena are better off together, I’m going to briefly go over the Caroline aspect of Stefan’s character arc.

From the show’s perspective, putting Stefan with Caroline made the show a million times better. They complement each other, just as Damon and Elena do. Both of them are kind and optimistic, but Caroline is single-minded and driven, while Stefan is more calm. Caroline gives Stefan’s life excitement, and Stefan gives Caroline’s life steadiness. Not to mention from a showrunning perspective, they have excellent banter. I was starting to grow bored with Stefan until he got with Caroline. Caroline’s over the top, wordy dialogue matches really well with Stefan’s more dry, monosyllabic tendencies. 

So to conclude, while Stelena was good at the beginning of the show, in the end Delena was better for all of the characters. And Stefan is not the cheated victim, watching the love of his life with his brother. He found his own epic love. Those who support Stelena, in my opinion, are just pining for the past. Move on.

[arcadianambivalence]

World on Fire, Episode 4, or How We React to “Normal” in a Crisis

Spring 1940

Months have passed since the last episode, and characters have had time to steady their nerves.  Kasia’s previous reservations about killing Germans is largely gone, Lois has decided to have the baby and not involve Harry in her life, Webster and Albert have resolved to stay together, and Nancy has repeatedly tried to sneak her discoveries into her broadcasts (or to smuggle her research out of Germany) despite blackmail.  

Other characters have started to lose their determination.  Claudia and Uwe’s marriage is falling apart over their differing ideas about how to protect Hilde, Harry is struggling with his responsibilities in combat, and Grzegorz is grappling with his empathy and endurance.

(More under the cut)

The Winter of 1939 – 1940 has ended, and with it, the illusion of peace for Western Europe.  Stationed in Belgium, Harry’s group retreats closer and closer to the French border as the German army arrives with far more resources.  

Meanwhile, the American hospital in Paris receives wounded soldiers from the front.  Refugees fleeing the war need attention too, like a Jewish emigree couple attacked by Anti-Semites, much like Albert was attacked by fascists in the first episode.  Henriette, a nurse and Webster’s friend, confides in him that she is Jewish and had hidden that fact when she applied for work at the hospital.  

Albert and Webster count their days left together.  Webster is happy just to be with him, but Alfred is afraid of being seen.  They’ve been together for half a year, and the closest Alfred can get to public displays of affection is a brief kiss after a furtive look around.  The reasons for this become all too clear when they return to his apartment to find a swastika on the door and a severed pig’s head on the doorstep.  

“I’ll never be safe anywhere in this world,” he tells Webster.  “People have got plenty choice of what they might hate me for.”

(I would like to take a moment and appreciate this show for pointing out the fascist movements and rising acts of intolerance all over Europe in the late 1930s and 1940.  This is especially visible in the Paris subplot, drawing attention to the wide swath of cultures in the city without entirely romanticizing it as a place of absolute refuge from prejudice.  It makes me think the show is laying the foundation for exploring Occupied France and Vichy France next season...)

The German gains in the invasion bring new worry to the Rosslers.  “The better the war goes, the worse for Hilde,” Claudia says.  Uwe is not happy that Nancy and Claudia continue to meet.  Claudia discovers Uwe has registered as a Nazi to cover the family after his conversation with the workers last episode.  She is horrified, and the two have a big argument with Nancy uncomfortably caught in the middle.  “The Nazis are going to win,” Uwe says.  They must appear to be on their side.

Claudia refuses to take the same course of action.  She brings Hilde to Nancy to say goodbye, perhaps permanently.  Mother and daughter will be staying in a little cabin far away from the city and its watchful denouncers.  

Uwe will not be joining them.

Nancy gifts Claudia a bottle of spirits and Hilde American candy, then asks them to listen to her radio show and toast to a better future.

The way Nancy makes sure to place her hand firmly over Claudia’s hurts.

Douglas has concern for his own children’s safety.  Tom returns home on leave and confesses that he is thinking about deserting and becoming an official conscientious objector.  His father has reservations.  Tom could be executed for desertion, and then there are the political ramifications of a pacifist letting his own son into the movement.  Hurt and betrayed, Tom leaves home as if he does not plan on returning.

Things fare little better between Douglas and Lois.  Although Lois adamantly states that she does not want Harry or his mother involved in her life anymore, Douglas tells Robina that Lois is pregnant in the hopes that Robina’s sense of social (and financial) duty to her grandson will override any qualms about class. 

(The cautious back-and-forth between Douglas and Robina is great, as always, and if Harry and Lois don’t get back together, can their parents have something?)

In the middle of these life-changing historical events, characters continue to talk about relationships and their social lives.  Lois can’t bring herself to sing one night because she’s heartsick over the realization that her feelings for Harry was a love for a person that never truly existed.  Robina and Douglas still have small talk while the latter spoons cubes of sugar into his tea.  Stan teases Harry for his two girls back home.  Thomasz and Kasia��s interactions are sweet when they get to act like two young adults who aren’t in an occupied country with their lives at risk every minute...then they casually discuss killing a soldier like it’s a fact of life.  

Moments like this feel like a kick in the teeth.  

On one hand, you could argue that the characters are too blasé about the killings and the risks involved.  At one point, Thomasz arrives late to a rendezvous and gives “There was a round-up” as his explanation, almost as if it’s a regular occurrence.  On the other hand, wouldn’t it have been?  Poland had been occupied for half a year by this point, and maybe Robina was right last episode (to a degree), you do get used to it...or at least, you continue to live alongside it.

All characters undergo a great change in this series, but it’s still startling to see how they react to their circumstances, especially when their reactions are so different from who they were before or how we expected them to be.  

Kasia, Harry, and Grzegorz are all placed in perilous situations that ultimately lead to the decision of whether or not to take someone’s life.  

Kasia lures an SS officer to a secluded part of town with the expectation that Thomasz will kill him, but when Thomasz has not arrived and the officer starts to go too far, Kasia draws a gun from her purse and kills him.  In retaliation for the death of an officer, a new raid is carried out, leading Kasia to come face-to-face with the family of an innocent woman executed for what she did.  

The moral quandary in her storyline returns: if killing the enemy results in the death of innocents, do you kill the enemy?

When Harry kills the German sniper, he does it to save his own life, but he also does it to save the lives of the men in his troop.  It is one of the few sequences in this show that has the kind of heroics expected of war depictions.  But what could in other hands be cathartic violence against non-character antagonists in battle is undercut by Harry’s emotional reaction after the skirmish and the way he freezes at the beginning of the conflict.  

He’s not calm-under-fire war hero of fiction, but he’s not exactly a romantic hero, either.  Yes, he is the romantic lead of the show, but unlike last episode, he spends his few moments of quiet dealing with his deep-seated familial issues brought out by his powerlessness.

On the run from a death squad, Grzegorz holds a German soldier at gunpoint. The soldier, barely an adult and crying in fear, lowers his jammed weapon.  But instead of killing the soldier like Kasia and Harry do, Grzegorz offers his hand.  Despite all of the atrocities he has witnessed in the past year: his father’s death, people burned alive in Danzig, narrowly escaping execution, the massacre on the farm, the starvation and sleeping in the woods...and there is still a kind little boy thrown into something much bigger and meaner than he is underneath the exhaustion and self-preservation.  

It’s Konrad who kills the soldier, to Grzegorz’s horror.

“I killed one German, just like a German killed your dad.” “Not that German.”

The landscape of the woods around them changes.  Snow dusted ground gives way to moss and mud.  A spring fog cloaks their journey.  And just as the natural landscape subtly changes, so does their luck.

The two stumble across a troop of British soldiers (wait, where are they?) and quickly join the men.  Their relief is short-lived, though, and they are soon back in combat.  Konrad is shot through the head.  

In order to air with a certain rating, World on Fire has to clean up some of the images of violence.  You don’t see blood spurt out of people when they’re shot.  The scenes of death are not drawn out. 

But the image of Konrad, dead before he hits the ground, blood covering face, with a stunned Grzegorz kneeling over him shocked me.

When Grzegorz grieves, the loss of his family comes out, too, for his father Stefan and father figure Konrad.

In Grzegorz’s final scene, he stumbles through a forest, the British soldiers long gone.  Spring is here and beautiful, the snow has melted away, the birds are chirping, and green has returned to the Earth.  Grzegorz seems unaware of the world around him, only the journey ahead in the middle of anywhere and nowhere.

Spoiler

The next episode’s promo places him on a beach.  Is he transported out of Poland by a ship on the Baltic sea?  Or are we supposed to believe Grzegorz and Konrad have spent all winter and spring walking through Poland, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and finally into France?

Notes

Konrad calls Grzegorz son...

After a disastrous cup of tea with Douglas, Robina makes sure to pay for the both of their orders before leaving

Tom brings the canary home, a visual connector between Jan and his bird in the pilot and Tom now

When Kasia breaks the news to the Polish family of the executed woman, Thomasz notices a German officer kissing a Polish woman next door, which indicates that not all Poles consider Germans the same way they do (and raises the threat of someone recognizing them later)

Robina casually mentions the newly-appointed Churchill to see Douglas’s reaction