#delena mention

[blairwaldcrf]

[tvd 4x17 | every klefan(+caroline) scene ?/?]

[piperslovebot]

S1 Delena is my fave version of them. They just give in-law/family vibes, which I love.

[userlaylivia]

23 by jimmy eat world gives me so many feelings omg!! it LITERALLY fits so many of my otps it's actually ridiculous!! after fix you by coldplay it's my favorite song of all time!! watching a delena video to it right now and god the feelings!!

[book-tease]

no teen tv show has ever promoted the use of alcohol quite like the vampire diaries

euphoria has got nothing on stefan and damon’s bourbon collection

[userlaylivia]

@nikkiruncks, @makeyouminemp3, @maya-matlin, @poguelandia, @landonmikaelson

The Stelena Diaries By the Light of the Moon

[babygirlbites]

Their Reaction to the Vampire Dairies

Wolf Pack Headcannons

Can’t explain why this is so important to me, it just is….

Sam

Sam is definitely not the type to sit down and watch vampire dairies off his own accord.

That being said; Sam IS the type to want to spend every waking moment with his imprint.

The compromise being that he must deal with your favourite show being re ran every single time you face even a minor strain in your every day routine.

Sam will sit there silently, respectful enough to not grumble at your choice of viewing material but not particularly taken in by the idea of vampires being sex symbols.

He’s not a fan, but he knows you love it and he loves you, so it’s a bareable consequence.

Although I don’t think he’s particularly watching, he is definitely a team Stefan - this being the only topic he speaks up on, both surprising and assuming you when he does

It’s the Delena kiss scene at the end of season one (Damon and Kathrine, but Sam doesn’t understand the doublegagger plot yet, give him time)

“This is all wrong” he says, between mouth fulls of salty popcorn

You turn to look at him, a questioning look on your face,

“She should stick with the other one” he mutters under his breath, eyes returning to his bowl of snacks

Paul

Unlike Sam, Paul can’t HELP but get involved.

Yer okay, he gives you shit for watching a teen romance about vampires,hybrids and the like, but he literally can’t keep his mouth shut when it’s on.

He’s FAR to involved; it’s got him gasping, laughing, often shouting at the screen.

I believe Paul to be a team Damon, he’s also a klaus fan.

Special mention to his HATRED for Tyler Lockwood; which has you a little confused until you realise it’s just Paul looking in a mirror.

Maybe an emotionally agressive, reactive werewolf is a little too close to home for Paul to enjoy.

When the pack bring it up, seeing the two of you cuddled up in front of another TVD marathon, he tries to deny his enjoyment of it but is also very defensive of the fact that it’s NOT for teens

“It’s pretty spooky actually, I only watch it to keep (you) from getting scared”

It’s a lie, and they all know it.

Jacob

Jacob is similar to Paul but HEAVY on the team Damon.

Thinks he’s a Damon, he’s actually a Matt, not that you’d be the one to tell him.

He’s the kind of guy to say he’s not watching and then ask you questions through the whole thing

“So what’s his deal again?”

“Is he trying to bang her?”

“What happened to her parents”

Ect.

He’s so busy sending you tiktoks about the show he accidentally sends one to the pack group chat and it’s all either of you hear about at every meet up or bonfire for the next 6 months.

He definitely has a big crush on Elena, not as big as his crush on you of course, but a close second

Embry & Jared

Rolling these two into one because they are both unapologetic vampire dairies fans

Jared has actually already seen the whole show, and recapped it twice by now, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t willing to watch it again with you - from start to finish.

He’s also seen the originals and legacies - Jared isn’t messing around guys, he’s a super fan.

I don’t believe Embry has seen anything TVD before you, but you suddenly realise you’ve unlocked something in him that you never expected to see.

Embry lives and BREATHES the show.

Unlike Jacob , he sends the tiktoks to the pack on purpose, hoping to get them into it too so he can talk about it when he’s on patrol.

Jared is team Stefan, Embry is team Damon - they fight (physically) about this often.

Seth and Quil

Simp simp simp

These men are both rocking team t shirts in public

Quil gives team Stefan to me but I feel he eventually will change sides with elena - by the time we get the hotel scene/kiss he’s a full fledged team Damon.

Seth is team whoever, he just loves love. He’s happy to see any of them with anyone as long as they are happy - but he does really like the Stefan redemption arc of season 3.

I feel like both the lads would be caught watching the show without you, which would lead to apologies and promises to never do it again.

Leah

Leah is a reluctant fan; like many of the others she’s not a fan of a vampire centric plot - but you’ll win her over with quality time, in bed cuddles and the Damon/Elena pipeline eventually.

Not so much a fan, but she watches it for you.

She knows you like to talk about it so she watches closely to be able to give you her educated opinion .

I feel she’s more team Damon but I KNOW she’s a Katherine apologist!

Elena tends to remind her of Bella, so she has a bit of a prejudice against the main character. Leah, as a general rule of thumb, has an issue with Mary sue type characters.

Katherine, being the anti Elena, steals Leah’s heart immediately.

There is three people in this relationship now, you will just have to accept that.

Also a fan of Rebekah!

[alwaysmysticperfection]

So i just seen a tiktok about Elena's necklace and of course the comments were filled with people arguing over it being a delena/stelena thing. And it just flared up this visceral rage I have for the amount of Retconning the show did when it comes to Stelena/Delena.

Like oh Stefan met her first, no wait Damond did. Oh 3x01 had an epic Stelena scene were see how strong their love is? Syke, this is where she fell in love with Damon. Not to mention all the constant "oh please look at what poor Damon went through, he just needs to be loved" crap.

And the whole doppleganger prophecy thing when it came to Stefan and Elena was really them trying to say "but look stelena wasn't real".

And i get Damons back story, i really do but it was obviously just shoe horned in at the last minute to make him look like a less shitty brother and not like stefan was doing all the heavy lifting in that relationship, which he obviously had been.

Even if I shipped DE them I would still be mad. Like why not give them their own symbol instead of a necklace Stefan gave to her? And what difference did her meeting him first make, like at all? She didnt even know him then.

Anyway it all just comes across as very lazy writing to me. Like they actually didn't actually know how to build up Delena so they just focused on tearing down Stelena.

[andreal831]

i have heard a lot of people deny that Marbekah isn't a problematic ship, and if anyone ever discusses the issues it's usually about Marcel choosing NOLA over Rebekah. But never the fact that Rebekah knew him a child.

And usually the defence is that Rebekah (like Elijah) wasn't an active parent after Klaus' jealous tantrum. I admit that Rebekah didn't fraternize with child!Marcel with the sole purpose of dating him, so traditional 'grooming' definition is hard to apply.

But Rebekah never set any kind of proper boundaries between them. When he initially had a crush on her, she should have explained that they're 'family' now and that's not how it works, thus stopping his crush from going further but not drive him away. She was the adult at that time.

On top of it, Marcel grew up watching Klaus-Rebekah's messed up dynamic. He was a traumatized child who watched these stuff being normalized by two of his white guardians. And the show has never been subtle about Marcel being raised in Klaus' image, or how much Klaus & Rebekah date people that look or act like eachother.

Oh and the casual disregard for adopted kids.

Why do you think Marbekah goes under the radar for this, when Caroline+Alaric, Stelena , Delena and Klaroline are often ripped apart for this exact reason?

Does it have anything to do with Marcel being poc or is it the infantilisation of Rebekah's character?

I used to really love Marbekah. They were top 3 TVDU ships for me. But the more I think about it, the more I have to rewrite to keep loving them. And I do want to love them just because it is one of the two ships I loved that actually got an endgame. But in typical TVDU fashion, the ships that got endgames were so problematic.

I don't think anyone can say Marbekah isn't problematic. It's one thing to love them, but they are deeply problematic for several reasons. One of them will always be Marcel constantly choosing either Klaus or New Orleans over her.

But the bigger reason is Rebekah grooming him. Because there isn't another way to say it. Rebekah knew Marcel as a child, helped raise him, and then quickly got into a relationship with him. We don't really know how old he was but he was at least in his early twenties when they first got together.

For the most part, as you said, I just headcannon that Rebekah wasn't an active parent in Marcel's life. But the show actively tries to fight against that narrative. The scene where Marcel is a literal child saying he wants to marry Rebekah was meant to be cute, but it's gross considering they then have a romantic relationship. You do mention that it doesn't fit the traditional definition of grooming, but I think it does because of that scene. Marcel makes a comment about being attracted to Rebekah in a way that he wants to marry her as a child and instead of seeing Rebekah rebuke this, she is flattered and essentially gives him a goal, saying she wouldn't marry someone who couldn't beat her in a duel. Not that she couldn't marry a child or someone her brother was raising as a son. This is then paired with a flashback of them dueling when he is an adult and they begin to kiss. The fact that they are still dueling all those years later make it seem as if she had an active role in his life. Rebekah's failure to set boundaries and encouraging the crush is a form of grooming. As you said, she should have set him down and explained family. But also as you point out, Rebekah doesn't really understand healthy family.

Marcel being raised by the Mikaelsons turned him into a Mikaelson. In some good ways and some bad. Marcel definitely has a lot of similar traits to Klaus. I definitely think there is an aspect of Rebekah choosing Marcel because of that, but also simply because the Mikaelsons had to keep it in the family or Klaus would lose his mind. Even though he also lost his mind here. But at least Rebekah wasn't worried about Klaus killing Marcel like he had killed every other lover she had in the past.

Klaus stans will say he "punished" Rebekah because of the grooming, but that's really ignoring his entire character and the entire show. Rebekah took something that belonged to him, because he viewed Marcel as property more than a child. This is another reason people overlook the grooming, because people don't view Marcel as a Mikaelson or as a child of Klaus. I've always been curious of where the last name "Gerard" came from. Why wouldn't he go by Mikaelson if he was raised by them? Klaus gave him a first name but not their last name? Potentially Marcel dropped it to distance himself, but even in the flashbacks, we don't see him truly being regarded as a Mikaelson. The show did this because they understood they were walking a creepy line of predatory/incest.

I think Marbekah tends to get less judgment than the other ships because people think Marcel and Rebekah are morally superior than the other characters. This is not true for everyone, just something I've seen with both of their stans. I love Rebekah, but I get attacked if I ever criticize her for how she treated the teenagers in TVD. Or the fact that Rebekah dated teenage Matt and used money and the ability to travel to persuade him to be with her. Or when I compare Marcel to Klaus, because they do have a lot of similarities. I've noticed with a lot of characters who may have less terrible deeds under their belt get away with murder, literally. If you criticize them, people will respond with "You like x, and they've done worse," instead of holding their character accountable. Or like with Klaus, their abuse is used to excuse all of their misdeeds.

People will argue that Rebekah was turned as a a 16 year old teenager so she was a teenager and it was fine for her to date teenagers, but then Marcel being with her at 25 years old is problematic as he's an adult sleeping with a 16 year old. Or Even Damon who was turned at 24 years old. So that argument is still problematic.

I do think Marcel being a POC does play a role. POC children and teens tend to face "adultification" in media, so people are less concerned about them being groomed or taken advantage of by adults. I do also agree that Rebekah is often infantilized. I blame a lot of her behavior in TVD for that. She behaved like a child. But in TO, they matured her so much, even in the flashbacks. If TVD Rebekah was with Marcel, I think that would have felt creepy on his part.

Like I said, I do still enjoy Marbekah, but I can't think about it too much or it grosses me out. I do prefer my ships to be age appropriate and contain the least amount of toxicity we can expect from a series like TVDU.

Thanks for the ask!

[minalblood]

Absolutely great story!

Chapters: 7/7 Fandom: The Vampire Diaries (TV), The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Elena Gilbert/Damon Salvatore Characters: Damon Salvatore, Elena Gilbert Additional Tags: Romance, Vampires, Compulsion, Falling In Love, Minor Elena Gilbert/Stefan Salvatore, Studio Ghibli References, Fluff and Angst, Fluff, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Memory Magic, Past Human Elena Gilbert, Sassy Damon Salvatore, Sassy Elena Gilbert, The Vampire Diaries (TV) Season 4, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Survivor Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Damon Salvatore Needs a Hug, Elena Gilbert needs a hug, Flirting, Hidden Depths, Mutual Pining, Protective Damon Salvatore, Road Trips, Adventure & Romance, Soulmates, Recovered Memories, Love, Love Confessions, Idiots in Love, Eventual Happy Ending, Humor, Eventual Romance, Sexual Tension, Happy Ending, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Damon Salvatore being Damon Salvatore, Dungeons & Dragons References, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net Series: Part 1 of Hero-Verse Summary:

What if Damon compelled Elena more than twice prior to her transition? Damon doesn’t like anyone to see the good in him, and it’s so easy to erase memories of its existence. On the day she becomes a vampire, Elena remembers. Takes place in early S4 with a subtle flavor of canon-divergence for maximum D/E goodness.

Has a sequel called With Great Power, but each story can stand on its own, too.

“Character is what you are in the dark.” – Dwight Lyman Moody

A veritable monsoon was brewing in Elena’s heart. The last few days had been so eventful, so tumultuous, that she felt like her entire inner world was a snow globe vigorously shaken, and she could see nothing but fluffy, opaque flakes.

She drowned. She transitioned. She became a vampire.

Now that she finally took some time alone to decompress – to process all that had happened – she felt the tumult of emotion finally begin to overtake her.

Both Damon and Stefan had warned her – everything would be magnified. Caroline attested that her emotional state would initially be erratic. But nothing could have prepared her for this.

She felt hollow, empty, devoid of substance.

She felt overwhelmed, overfull, teeming with life.

She felt like she was bursting at the seams, because she was at once devastatingly heartbroken and blissfully in love. Her subconscious pulled at her teasingly, suggesting that there was more to this revelation than the terrified human she had been was willing to admit.

Returning to a trusted source to make sense of the hurricane inside, she grabbed her diary, and prepared to write. Her laughing subconscious, however, had other ideas, as images began to take shape.

~*~* Memory Begins*~*~

Elena found herself on a forest road, close to the bonfire party on what she knew to be the most traumatic night of her life. This was before, however, when life was still peaceful – when she was happy, and carefree, and felt like she deserved to be alive.

When her selfish decision to sneak out to a teenage party, for which she spent every remaining moment tormenting herself, had cost her not only her parents, but Jeremy’s emotional well-being, and her right to happiness.

This was the before. This was the night she relived a million times since then, each time praying she had made a different choice and just stayed home, or caught a ride with her friends, or done anything but ask her parents to pick her up.

This had been another life.

Suddenly, she saw herself approach, filled with life and wonder, despite the vaguely troubled look on her face. She felt a strange, faraway pull, as though her present emotions observing were mingling with those of the young woman walking down a path in the dark woods.

The Elena of yesteryear.

“I know, Bonnie. You’re right. You and my mom both are. I just can’t bring myself to tell him – at least not tonight. I’ll call you later.”

She felt it more than heard it. A sudden shift in the air and a peculiar pull at her heart, something ethereal that she couldn’t quite explain, though found oddly captivating. A decidedly breathtaking man appeared before her suddenly, looking at her with such unabashed longing that she felt her breath hitch in her throat. She suddenly wondered if she had walked into a dream. “Katherine,” he breathed the name with a distinct reverence, as though it had been the answer to every prayer he had ever uttered. Elena was mesmerized.

“No, um,” she looked around to see if he had been talking to someone else, suddenly disappointed that another had already captivated his heart. “I’m Elena.”

“Oh, you just look,” he began, evidently too stunned to form coherent thoughts.

“I’m sorry.” He had the grace to be mildly embarrassed, though a lean confidence quickly overtook him, his demeanor brimming with charm. “You just really remind me of someone. I’m Damon.” He seemed to be studying her, as though she were a puzzle he was trying to solve.

“Not to be rude or anything Damon, but it’s kind of creepy that you’re out here in the middle of nowhere.”

“You’re one to talk. You’re out here all by yourself,” her dashing interlocutor replied, blue eyes shining with delight.

“It’s Mystic Falls. Nothing bad ever happens here.”

Elena noticed the way his smile seemed to suddenly widen, as though laughing at a private joke. She meant to ask him about it, but she suddenly felt nervous that he would mistake her curiosity for prying. Instead, in her desire to keep speaking with this enchanting man, she chose to be the first to volunteer to share.

“I got into a fight with my boyfriend,” she gestured to her phone, a telling grimace on her face.

“About what? May I ask,” Damon raised his arms to indicate his well-intentioned inquisitiveness, at which Elena was secretly relieved that it wasn’t just her who was afraid of prying, but seemed genuinely interested. She suddenly felt closer to him, more connected.

“Life, future – he’s got it all mapped out.” The truth was that Elena had felt trapped for some time. She and Matt had been friends since childhood – practically inseparable – but that bond should have never evolved to romance. Now she feared that if she were to break his heart, she would sever their friendship forever. It was a thought that nearly broke her, and yet, she knew she had to do it. What she felt for him wasn’t the love she dreamed of since she was a little girl.

“And you don’t want it?”

“I don’t know what I want,” Elena shrugged.

“Well, that’s not true. You want what everybody wants.”

“What? Mysterious stranger who has all the answers,” she grinned, aware that her attraction to him must have been evident in her dark eyes, but no longer caring.

Glancing away, he laughed, releasing a tension that wasn’t clear before. “Let’s just say I’ve been around for a long time.” When he turned back face her, Elena suddenly felt like he no longer wished for her to be this “Katherine,” though she couldn’t explain why. He was looking directly at her. “I’ve learned a few things.”

“So, Damon, tell me. What is it that I want?” The Elena watching the interaction felt her heart clench, missing this playful side of her. She had come out so rarely since that May night, and only seemingly around one person. And now she had pushed him away.

The Damon in her memory affected a curiously intense look in his eyes, as though he was speaking half to her, half to himself – an epiphany verbally manifesting in the space of a moment. “You want a love that consumes you. You want passion, and adventure – and even a little danger.”

The air between them crackled in electrified silence, a peaceful lull wrapped in consummate fire. This was her greatest wish verbalized. Surprising herself, Elena didn’t feel an ounce of anxiety in hearing her deepest wish spoken aloud. No matter what happened, she knew, at least a piece of her heart would always belong to the dashing stranger she encountered in the woods.

“So, what do you want?”

The question had evidently surprised him. The inquisitive look from before was back, studying her again, though now there appeared to be a lingering vulnerability as well. She found herself aching for the answer. They had only been acquainted for a few minutes, and yet it was already one of the most powerful connections in her life.

Elena felt as though he could see into her very soul.

Suddenly, a car pulled up into the distance, and Elena found herself disappointed that this interaction would soon come to an end.  Perhaps they could exchange contact information, and then he would finally tell her the answer to the question that seemed to cause him such consternation.

“It’s my parents,” she explained, pointing to the car. She began opening her phone to ask for his number, when she suddenly found him directly in front of her. The pupils in his eyes seemed to shift in a peculiar manner.

“I want you to get everything you’re looking for, but right now, I want you to forget that this happened. Can’t have people knowing I’m in town yet.”

“Goodnight, Elena.” Damon took one last long look at her, affection reflecting in his eyes, before he sped away.

~*~*Memory Ends*~*~

Elena’s open diary suddenly materialized in front of her, the page still blank. She was breathing heavily, her body trembling in a way she found peculiar until she realized that she was crying.

“Maybe if I had met you first.”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

She had met Damon first, after all. They met and formed such a powerful connection that she subconsciously used his words when describing how she felt about him to Matt.

“When I’m with him, it just consumes me.”

 And then he compelled her to forget it.

She remembered her cruel words to him during that phone call – the lies she told him and herself. She laughed bitterly, the chocking sound piercing her own heart.

She was so afraid of her own feelings – the growing current that was pulling her under, drowning her – her emotions raw, powerful, consuming her.

The girl who survived her parents’ car accident – who blamed herself for their deaths, Jeremy’s anguish – the doppelganger who put all her loved ones in danger simply by existing, did not feel like she deserved that kind of love. In hurting, denying herself, she hurt Damon, as well. She didn’t know how to forgive herself for everything that her presence caused. And yet, it felt like there was a part of her that had hitherto pulled at her, preventing her from choosing him – a burden from which she was now released.

Hugging her stuffed bear close, she put her diary away, and laid down under the comforter. Perhaps the world would make more sense after she got some sleep, and she would find it in herself to show the wayward Petrova doppelgänger some kindness.

Elena suddenly awoke sometime around 5 PM, her mind plagued by strange dreams involving carnivorous pastries fending off hordes of riotous bunnies and squirrels.

She felt considerably better than she had before her impromptu nap, though it was now laced with a new, intense sensation – a nigh-insatiable hunger. This must be what bloodlust felt like.

She decided that she would ask Stefan to take her hunting today. Although no one else had been able to maintain his strict and unusual diet, she was determined to try. She had no idea what she would do if her new instincts would cause her to take a life, how she would ever live with herself.

Her subconscious clearly had other ideas, however, because as soon as she picked up her phone, she found herself lost in another incoming memory.

~*~*Memory Begins*~*~

She saw herself asleep in Damon’s car as he drove down a road surrounded by forest, a determined look in his steely eyes – a look that almost seemed to soften when she saw herself stirring into consciousness.

This must be the road trip to Georgia, she realized with narrowed eyes, based on the dried blood on her forehead. That jerk promised me he wouldn’t compel me.

As before, Elena felt a tug, and her sensations merged with her past self.

The first thing Elena noticed when she awoke was that her neck was cramped from the odd position in which she slept, along with a soft, lulling sensation. When she opened her eyes, she realized she was in a moving automobile, verdant vistas speeding past her through the glass separating her from the outside world.

“Morning!” Her vampiric driver cheerfully greeted.

“Damon!?”

“In the irresistible flesh! You would know. I heard you mumble in your sleep,” the grin gracing his face was nothing short of smug. Elena felt the distinct desire to smack it away.

Growing paranoid that she actually did say his name, Elena instead elected to change the topic to a much more pressing one.

“Where are we?”

“South Carolina,” he said, glancing at his GPS.  “Though we should be in Georgia … soon-ish.”

“What? No, we can’t be in South Carolina, Damon!”

“This marvel of modern technology begs to differ.”

“We have to go back. Turn arou –”

She was interrupted by a young girl running into the road, flailing her arms in front of the car to get it to stop. The sudden break sent her body forward through inertia. It was only when she felt the seatbelt dig into her skin that Elena remembered that she had just been in a car accident, and should, by all rights, be feeling considerably worse. Before she could properly ruminate on the conundrum, she heard a frantic knocking on her window by the decidedly panicked girl.

“Please, you have to help,” she cried. Studying her, Elena realized that she could not have been older than twelve. Feeling a deep pang of empathy for the girl, she stepped out of the car, earning an irritated look from her driver.

“What are you doing?” Damon hissed, evidently annoyed by her recklessness, yet by her side within seconds regardless. “Did spending time with my tyrant-of-the-forest brother and me teach you nothing about stranger-with-sharp-teeth-danger?”

“She needs our help, Damon!”

Softening, Elena turned to the girl. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s my parents. We went hiking this morning and they fell down a rockslide. I tried calling to them, but they’re not answering.”

Elena took the tiny girl in her arms, running a soothing hand down her curly hair. “It’s okay, We’ve got you. We’ll help them. What’s your name?”

“Angie,” she gasped between tears.

“I’m Elena, and this paranoid man here is Damon.” She leaned in, whispering conspiratorially to Angie, “but don’t be scared. He just likes to look mean. He’s actually soft and mushy on the inside,” Elena added, unable to resist teasing Damon.

Looking absolutely scandalized, Damon turned his back to both his interlocutors. “Just take us to your parents, kid. We’ll see if we can help.”

“You don’t think they could be …dead, do you?” Angie looked positively distraught, her face contorting with despair.

“I don’t know,” Damon replied, affecting a gentle tone to his voice. Elena curiously looked on, surprised at seeing that side of him. “That’ll be a bridge we cross when we get there.”

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Elena soothed, taking Angie’s hand as they walked through the woods.

“This is all my fault! If I hadn’t been a brat and insisted on going hi –,”

“No,” Damon interrupted, clipped. “It’s not. Don’t you dare think like that.”

Elena sharply turned to Damon, surprised, a reply ready on her lips, but instead she got lost in her own thoughts, her mind returning to a particular May evening that changed her life.

It took about twenty minutes for Angie to lead them through the trail, until they finally reached what appeared to be a thirty-foot slide. The ground below was obscured by trees, making it impossible to locate the bodies from above.

“They’re down there.”

“I’ll go look for them, and you stay here with her,” Damon called out, before jumping into the ravine. Vampiric abilities certainly had their advantages.

It took only five minutes for him to return with two limp bodies on either shoulder, finding Elena with her arms around the girl, whispering soothing words in her ear.

“They’re alive,” Damon announced, setting each one down on the ground gently, before biting into his wrist.

“Can you help them?”

“I am,” he responded, stimulating their throats in turn to help them swallow the healing liquid.

Angie looked on in utter confusion as she watched the wounds suddenly heal on her parents’ bodies. Within minutes, both adults began to stir into consciousness. Before any of them could express a word, Damon compelled each of the three to go home and forget that anything out of the ordinary happened that day, unwilling to deal with the fallout of their interaction.

Elena watched them disappear, suddenly feeling exhausted as the adrenaline from their little adventure began to recede. She walked a few feet away from the rockslide to take a seat on some welcoming grass in a gloriously sunny spot in the forest. She needed a few minutes to process everything that just happened.

“Are you okay?” Damon took a seat next to her, extending his long legs over the grass. Elena quietly marveled at how he always managed to look so comfortable.

“What you did for that family – that was really kind of you,” she tilted her head to the side, openly studying him. The behavior she witnessed today seemed incongruent to what he’d shown her previously. A part of her began to wonder who the real Damon was.

Damon waved her off, desperate to change the subject. “I was here, and you would have cried the entire way if I hadn’t. I just didn’t want to spoil my mood.”

“So, you did it for selfish reasons,” she teased.

“Exactly.”

“You could have just compelled me not to notice.” When he didn’t respond, she continued. “You took a risk feeding them your blood. What if they were on vervain? They would have remembered you as a vamp –”

“They weren’t.”

“Did you feed me your blood?” Elena asked quietly, looking at her healed forearm, which she was certain had a large gash on it from when her car flipped over.

“Yes. We’re going to a bar, and I need a drinking buddy. You wouldn’t be any fun if you just kept losing consciousness,” Damon responded, as if it were the most practical solution in the world.

Elena grinned, tickled by Damon’s absolute refusal to acknowledge his less-than-villainous qualities. “Okay, then, Mr. Evil Vampire.”

“Don’t you forget it!”

“I’m glad you saved that girl’s family, regardless of your ‘reasons’ for it,” she punctuated with air quotes, making it obvious that she didn’t fully believe his deflections.

Damon rolled his eyes, and made to get up, before noticing the haunting look settling in hers and sitting back down, concern written into his features.

“She would have spent her whole life blaming herself otherwise, most likely, and that’s a terrible place. She deserves to be happy.”

“What makes you think you don’t deserve to be happy?”

“I – This isn’t about me.” Elena was taken aback, immediately uncomfortable at having been so transparent.

“Yes, it is.”

“You weren’t there that night, Damon! If you had been, you’d understand.”

He was unusually quiet for a few long seconds, a frown lining his handsome features. He looked like he wanted to say something important a few times, but ultimately changed his mind.

Instead, he took one of her hands in his, tracing comforting circles on her palm with his thumb. “So, tell me about it.”

“There was a bonfire party on the lake. It was this big open secret. We thought we were rebelling against some of Mystic Falls’ more uptight traditions by having a Beltane party.”

“Beltane’s on May first,” Damon gently interrupted, teasing a smile from her. “There’s a surprising amount of overlap between the witch community and New Age-y folk.”

“I know, but the weather on the weekend never seemed quite right, so we moved it,” she laughed at their teenage audacity.

She sobered then, her heart once again filling with lead as she recalled the consequences of her decision. “I was grounded at the time. I can’t even remember why anymore. Everything before that night feels like a beautiful, unreachable dream,” her eyes took on an unfocused quality until Damon squeezed her hand in reassurance, urging her to continue.

“I really wanted to go to the party. I love the lake – I always have. Even though it’s just our tiny, local swimming hole, it feels so alive. So, I snuck out. But as soon as I arrived, I got into a fight with Matt about our relationship and the future, and suddenly, I couldn’t be there anymore. I called my parents to pick me up. They were furious that I disobeyed them, but showed up regardless, because they loved me. The car went off the bridge that night. Stefan told me that my dad begged him to pull me out.”

She was silent for a few moments, before she finally managed to speak again, her voice laced with tears. “They loved me, and they paid for it with their lives.”

“Elena –,”

“And now Jeremy is an orphan, because of me. And Jenna had to uproot her whole life and move in with us to take care of two teenagers, all because I’m a selfish idiot who couldn’t miss a party.”

“Hey, hey,” Damon shushed, pulling her into his arms as her body became increasingly wracked with sobs.

“It’s all my fault. I ruined everyone’s lives.”

“None of that now. What happened was an accident. You couldn’t have known.”

“I’m a monster.”

“You’re a teenager. Probably the same thing.” This had the desired effect of earning a giggle through her tears.

Damon continued running a soothing hand down her hair and kissed her forehead, finally pilling back to look at her. “You have to promise me something, okay, Elena?”

“What?”

“That with me, you won’t let your guilt prevent you from having fun. I can tell you that between the two of us, I have a lot more to feel guilty about, so you can let go. Can you do that for me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can you try?”

She nodded mutely, not trusting herself to speak.

“Promise?”

“Promise,” she smiled, genuinely, for what felt like the first time in ages. The Sun suddenly seemed much brighter, and when did the trees get so green?

Were Damon’s eyes always so breathtakingly blue?

Her heart fluttered in an allegro rhythm as she pulled out of his embrace, suddenly overwhelmed by their closeness. Feeling herself blush, she opted to change the subject to take some of the attention off herself. “Why do you try to hide the good inside you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I may have started out urging you to save that family, but I saw how determined you became. It was important to you. Anyone with eyes could see it.”

“I just didn’t want you to annoy me about it for the rest of the trip,” he deflected, growing visibly uncomfortable with the praise. “Don’t make it into something it isn’t.”

“Isn’t what? Downright heroic?” A teasing grin graced her lovely face.

“I’m not a hero, Elena. It’s not in me,” Damon replied, his eyes suddenly downcast, hiding from her.

Knowing that he wasn’t ready to accept this part of himself, Elena smiled indulgently at him, though her opinion of Damon was irrevocably changed. Before she could stop herself, she leaned forward, and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.

“You were my hero today.”

When she pulled back, the expression in his cerulean eyes startled her. There was confusion, and that was to be expected, but something softer, as well – maybe longing, hope, perhaps something more that she couldn’t quite place. She didn’t have much time to decipher his internal state, however, as all previous expression seemed to be quickly replaced by fear, and a deep, penetrating sadness.

Within moments, all emotion seemed to dissipate from his face completely, and his pupils began to shift.

Concerned, Elena, placed a calming hand on his cheek. “What’s wro –?”

“You will get back in my car and go to sleep for the next two hours. The last thing you will remember upon waking up is me pulling you out of yours after it crashed.”

~*~*Memory Ends*~*~

The memory receded and Elena once again found herself in her room, phone in her hand. She smiled, recognizing the day as the beginning of her affection for Damon. She couldn’t quite figure it out before – why she suddenly saw him in such a different light – but she supposed that her subconscious must have remembered what he compelled her to forget.

She did have fun with him in Georgia, she recalled with an impish smile. It almost felt like she was her old self again – joyfully twirling by a pool table when she made a lucky shot, teasing playfully, laughing.

At times, when they were together, it was as though the albatross she dutifully wore as a result of surviving that car accident suddenly fell away, and she was allowed to be a cheerful young woman again.

Still annoyed that he took such a beautiful moment away from her, she was at least comforted by the notion that he didn’t actually break his promise, which he only apparently made the second time she woke up on that trip.

And at least her stunning alcohol tolerance in Georgia now made sense. Vampire blood sure is potent.

The thought had her staring at her wrist in quiet concentration. Vampire blood, with all its powerful healing properties, was now coursing through her veins. The very same kind of blood that enabled Damon to save two humans that day and prevent a little girl from struggling with a lifetime of survivor’s guilt.

Perhaps she was saddled with bloodlust now, but with the drawback, came a boon.

Elena leaned back on her bed, smiling, imagination suddenly alive with all the lives she could conceivably save.

Keep reading on AO3.

Keep reading

[blairwaldcrf]

"You know, probably best to keep Elena in the 'do not discuss pile' "

[tvd 3x13 | every klefan scene ?/?]

[lizzie-queenofmeigas]

My Opinions Of TVDU In 2024

(They really haven't changed all that much but I feel like sharing)

–I loveeee Delena. Yep, I love this ship with all my heart and I'm not afraid to say it.

–I loveee Damon, probably another problematic opinion but I don't care.

–I don't like Caroline. There, I said it. She is just the kind of person that would irritate the shit out of me. Honestly, until season 8 I couldn't handle her scenes.

–Bonenzo is the best. Loveee it. They deserved better and I personally want to stab Julie Plec for how they ended.

–Bonnie deserved better. This is an universal truth.

–I hate Tyler, but I recognise that he was right to hate Klaus and right to be mad at Caroline for sleeping with him. Revenge on Klaus was kind of dumb, but understandable. He was right to want him dead.

–Klaus is my beloved, always going to be and I'm not even sorry.

–Marcel is a Mikaelson!!! Marcel is Klaus's son and his treatment is another reason for me to feel murderous to the writers of the shows.

–I don't like Kol. Yeah, he was right in many things, but he came across as somehow self-righteous and believed himself better than his family. Like bro, you aren't.

–Finn deserved better. I honestly still wonder if Finn knew about Klaus's real father, 'cause if he did Klaus would have a valid reason to hate him. I am saying this because in The Originals season 2 episode 3 we have flashbacks of young Klaus and the necklace Esther gave him. If I remember correctly Finn was always in the background and even retrieved the necklace when Klaus lost it. Given that Finn remembered Freya and what happened to her, it wouldn't be far fetched to think he knew who Klaus's real father was and hid it as well. That being said, he is a victim of his parents as well and deserved better.

–I hate Elijah. He just gives me the wrong vibes.

–Marcel and Rebekah made sense and I ship it. The Mikaelson family is insane with their romantic relationships, so they just sort of clicked.

–Kol should have taken the cure instead of Rebekah. Bekah could just adopt, but what is going to happen with Kol when Davina dies? Nothing good. Plus, he loved being a witch.

–Hayley and Klaus and Klaus and Cami made way more sense than Haylijah and Klaroline. Honestly and throuple with Klaus and the two women who call him out on his shit the most would have been chef kiss. Hope deserved two moms.

–Every Klaus ship made more sense than Caroline. Bonnie? Bennett witch and he likes witches. Aurora? First female vampire (other than Bex) and met him when he wasn't as he is now. Elena? Has Tatia's face, and I think if Klaus just tried to befriend her and explain why he needed to break his curse she would've helped. Camille? Her mind, she clocked him the moment they met, not to mention the O'Connell legacy. Genevieve? Powerful Witch. Hayley? Baby mama, werewolf princess and hybrid, not to mention they are similar. Stefan? The ripper days gave off fruity vibes. Damon? I love their scenes together, they have a similar vibe to them. Rebekah? He is literally killing her boyfriends left and right. Elijah? The codependency is strong here, Elijah's girlfriends have a higher mortality rate than Rebekah's boyfriends. Katherine? Tatia's face, also they are similar. Greta? Their few interactions in season 2 pointed to a thing going on.

–Elena is overhated. Baby has the biggest survivor's guilt in the universe and still she soldiers on. I hate when people said she was less compassionate as a vampire, I honestly thought she was the same. Like, she controls her hunger to become a doctor. She is too good for this world.

–Enzo should have been introduced sooner, Bonnie and him should have gotten together sooner.

–They should have explored Damon's trauma with Augustine more, and the fact that he always disregards his emotions.

–Klaus wolf side should have been explored!!!

–Unpopular opinion, but not everything Katherine did was necessary for her to survive. She could have easily contented herself with one Salvatore brother, but she had to go after both.

–Davina and Klaus needed more scenes together. I mean, that's her adoptive grandpa!

–Lily was awful, Damon was in his rights to not forgive her.

–I liked Valerie, and I liked her with Stefan.

–They should have explained more about Klaus ability to have children, 'cause that was weird. I loved it, but weird.

–Alaric should have died and the twins should have been raised by someone else.

–Matt lived too long.

–Jeremy and Damon were kind of funny.

–Bamon was really great.

–They should have addressed the fact that growing up Damon was the only one there for Stefan. We saw that in the flashbacks but they should have said it more.

–Damon purpose in life was to live for those he loved. My take on him.

–Damon was pretty humanity-full vampire until after Augustine when he turned off his humanity. But, five years of torture in the hands of humans would do that to a guy.

–The witches opinion on vampires were ridiculous. This species has been around for over a millennium, they are pretty assimilated in the magic ecosystem. I think their extinction would actually do more damage than their existence.

–Mikael and Esther deserved more pain.

–I think Dahlia only tried to negotiate with Klaus not only because he was Hope's father but because he was the only one who wasn't Mikael's son.

–Vampire/Supernatural politics are actually so interesting.

–Lexi was too hyped. And I don't get what she had against Damon in the forties.

–Legacies doesn't exist.

That's all. For now.

[jewels20]

I love this post and the way you break down the way KW brings up writing stelena in the finale. I could see (and have seen) how at a glance people see KW comparing stelena and dawsey in the same breath as him paralleling them (the whole dawsey/stelena & jacey/delena discourse—don’t even get me started) both ending up as platonic soulmates despite being his ship preferences, or something along those lines. But to me it only emphasises the way he felt stelena should be honoured and meant as much as dawsey, while also wishing they could have explored stelena reuniting as romantic soulmates like he was able to with jacey.

I’m a jacey(and pandie lol) shipper, but the significance of dawsey from the pilot and conception of the show is indisputable. And as KW explains it, that never goes away it just evolves as it’s own kind of significant soulmate bond, while what felt right to him for the integrity of the characters and the narrative was for joey and pacey to end up together romantically…

… and it feels to me like he essentially says he was unable to do the same for stelena, despite wanting to.

With the DC finale he speaks about how he wanted it to be dawsey but when he wrote it that way it felt wrong. With tvd what he wanted and what felt right for the ending was stelena, and he tried to make that work because it felt right, but he didn’t feel they could without a season… so he found a way to emphasise stelena and their ending in a different way. It’s not like DC where he talks about the different types of soulmates and both relationships getting soulmate endings…he only focuses on the way he portrays stefan and elena being soulmates despite not ending up together. It’s funny because the way I see it KW brings up stefan and elena with regards to the significance of dawson and joey, while also speaking about how much he wanted to explore circling back to stelena in the way he was able to rewrite the DC finale to end with joey and pacey being romantic soulmates because it felt right. The soulmates and the true love story were always, in every way, stefan and elena.

OK. So.

Considering the hype around KW’s newest interview about Dawson’s Creek and to some extent The Vampire Diaries, I am breaking down the parts that pertain to Stefan and Elena.

As an anon said, Kevin worded things very carefully in this interview but I think you just have to look at the nuances and subtleties of what he’s saying.

And Dawson and Joey are soul mates, while Joey and Pacey are the romantic version of that connection.

Soul mates are not always your romantic love. The way that I see it, Dawson and Joey ended up together. They’re soul mates forever. And they have that deep bond of friendship that will never, ever go away. But her romantic love for Pacey was who she wanted to be with and share her life with. And in a weird way they’re all soul mates. Dawson and Pacey were always going to be best friends.

So I find this telling:

The way that I see it, Dawson and Joey ended up together. They’re soul mates forever. And they have that deep bond of friendship that will never, ever go away. But her romantic love for Pacey was who she wanted to be with and share her life with.

Essentially, Joey and Dawson are simply soulmates and that’s a fact. They don’t get a choice in their connection because their connection just exists, they just are soulmates, they can never be apart, they can never outgrow this bond, Joey and Dawson can be with hundreds of other romantic partners but they’ll always be together, it can’t be helped, changed, stopped or sanded down. And that doesn’t mean that they’re soulmates against their will, it means they have a spiritual connection that no one can touch and they don’t choose to have this connection, they just met each other and were bonded for life. They are soulmates.

But her romantic love for Pacey was who she wanted to be with and share her life with.

But with romantic love, she does get a choice in what partner she wants, she doesn’t just have this transcendent, never-changing connection with her romantic partner, she can choose that and she chose Pacey.

And in a weird way they’re all soul mates. Dawson and Pacey were always going to be best friends.

Earlier in the interview Kevin says this:

This story was always a coming-of-age story in which I tried to break the mold and do a different version of 90210 and to do things differently. So why can’t we redefine or at least show another side of what soul mates are? That’s what I wanted to do.

So basically to Kevin and within the Dawson’s Creek universe, there are multiple kinds of love and soulmates and so Dawson and Joey are soulmates in a way Dawson could never be with Pacey but because they’ll always be best friends, they’re a different kind of soulmate. And Kevin doesn’t say that Pacey and Dawson ended up together and that their bond will never, ever go away, he says that they’ll always be best friends in the way that you have a really close friend from childhood and they’ll always be your friend. It’s idealistic but there isn’t the same romanticism there.

I watched this show when it originally aired and have always been in the minority who wanted to see Dawson end up with Joey romantically.

Me too. It’s hard for me to express that but I am Team Dawson. Even though I wrote it the other way, 100 percent, if you asked me, I’m Team Dawson.

As in Joey should have wound up with Dawson romantically?

It ended the way it was supposed to end — but I am Team Dawson. It’s always Dawson and Joey forever. And in the same way — and I hate to say this and no one gets it — but in my heart of hearts it’s Stefan and Elena forever [on The Vampire Diaries]. What Stefan did for Elena was the ultimate act of love. How can it not be Stefan and Elena?! It’s tragic love, but it’s love. Life and afterlife is not easy! [Laughs.]

So this:

I watched this show when it originally aired and have always been in the minority who wanted to see Dawson end up with Joey romantically.

Me too. It’s hard for me to express that but I am Team Dawson. Even though I wrote it the other way, 100 percent, if you asked me, I’m Team Dawson.

Is like that Joss Whedon quote he has about Spuffy vs Bangel where Joss says for him, he liked the idea of Spike and Buffy but for the show, it was always Buffy and Angel, Spike and Buffy are for “him” but Buffy and Angel are for the ages, that’s basically what Kevin is saying here, for him, Joey and Dawson end up together romantically and spiritually but for the show, he thought it was best for them to end up together non-romantically, which he sort of states beforehand:

You said at the ATX TV Festival’s writer’s room reunion a couple years ago that you always envisioned Joey ending up with Dawson. How much did you struggle writing how things ultimately would end with them?

It was agonizing! And painful! I actually wrote the ending with them together and then something was troubling me about it.

Now this:

As in Joey should have wound up with Dawson romantically?

It ended the way it was supposed to end — but I am Team Dawson. It’s always Dawson and Joey forever. And in the same way — and I hate to say this and no one gets it — but in my heart of hearts it’s Stefan and Elena forever [on The Vampire Diaries]. What Stefan did for Elena was the ultimate act of love. How can it not be Stefan and Elena?! It’s tragic love, but it’s love. Life and afterlife is not easy! [Laughs.]

I find this very interesting because Stefan and Elena didn’t need to be brought up here. Like when he mentions The Vampires Diaries beforehand, I understand that because he’s talking about the writing process and how you want to honour the beginning but also want to show that people have changed from the beginning and he references The Vampire Diaries as another example of what he’s talking about but here, we could’ve just left it at Dawson and Joey, Kevin, there was no need to go into Stefan and Elena.

And I don’t think Kevin is comparing the non-romantic aspect of Dawson and Joey’s relationship to Stefan and Elena’s and it’s because in his other interviews when he talks about the TVD finale, he doesn’t speak about Stefan and Elena not ending up together the way he talks about Dawson and Joey not ending up together because this is what he says:

“We were torn between Damon and Stefan,” Williamson says, before confessing, “I’m a Stelena [fan]. I’ve gone on record as a Stelena [fan]. It’s Stefan and Elena for me. That’s who, in another universe, that’s how I would have ended the show. However, we lost Elena in the sixth season.”

“There was a conversation of getting her back for an entire season,” he says. “If we’d had her back for all of the eighth season, we could have worked our way back there [to Stefan and Elena]. And I would have loved to explore that. But we didn’t. Her movie schedule didn’t permit it. We only had one episode. That was tough. So there was some choice to be made.”

When it came to choosing who Elena would end up with, “it had to be Damon,” Williamson says. “Where we left our storyline, she was with Damon when she left. And so there was no other way to circle back around to Stefan.”

He pauses, then continues, “If there was any other conversations, we ended on this one. This show was always about Stefan being the hero, and if Stefan could not have Elena, Stefan could do this very nice thing of giving his brother the chance to live with Elena.”

Damon and Elena have to end up together for Kevin because of where the show left off in season six not because it “felt’ right, not because he thought it was the right choice, not because Elena chose a romantic love with Damon, it’s because they didn’t have time to go back to Stefan. I have read quite a few interviews of Kevin talking about why he scrapped Dawson and Joey as romantic love and soulmates and it’s because he thought it did a disservice to his characters not because the timing of it was wrong, he put his personal feelings about being Team Dawson aside and did what he thought was right for the characters:

“Dawson seemed like the obvious answer and once I got into writing the first hour. … This isn’t what the show set up to be. Maybe that’s where it started but it evolved and it ended up as something else. I wanted it to be a twist on the teen genre but also wanted it to be surprising, honest and real and say something about soul mates and what soul mates can be. That’s why we did it that way,”

With Stefan and Elena, he gives into the timeline of the show and puts Elena with Damon but not before Stefan can show her a true act of love:

And in the same way — and I hate to say this and no one gets it — but in my heart of hearts it’s Stefan and Elena forever [on The Vampire Diaries]. What Stefan did for Elena was the ultimate act of love. How can it not be Stefan and Elena?! It’s tragic love, but it’s love. Life and afterlife is not easy! [Laughs.]

And he has Elena repay that love by having her at the graveyard, they are emphasized because they are the true love story of the show and Damon comes in later as the third point. Damon and Elena don’t even speak, we don’t even see their lives together, they kiss and hug and hold hands and die, they do perfunctory things, a checklist of things, but the emotional story and the emotional weight and the romance and the 99% of the dialogue is about Stefan and Stefan and Elena and Damon and Stefan.

So this really just seems like him saying that TVD ended the way it did because it had to (and not because it was right for the characters but because of timing) but that doesn’t take away from the true love story of the show which is Stefan and Elena.

Just my thoughts.

[kiss-my-freckle]

I used to read this recapper's pro DE/anti SE thoughts during TVD and while the site doesn't exist anymore there are archive links to their posts. I think you'll enjoy reading this on 4x6 and Elena's subconscious with Katherine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130528231733/http://www.rophydoes.com/other-recaps/the-vampire-diaries/406-we-all-go-a-little-mad-sometimes/

This post is a treasure, and I thank you so much for sharing it with me. Believe everything you read because I agree with all of it. I'm actually bookmarking the blog because I love it that much, so I hope it never gets deleted. I haven't read the whole thing yet because it is quite long, but this link is everything I feel about 4x6. The blogger is more thorough than I am, and they word things better than I do. But the way I blog isn't so much for a wide audience because honestly, my ADHD is unmedicated as I choose to be. This writing is perfect for a large audience, so it's easy reading. Everyone that has read this blogger's post now knows what I've been saying. I knew Stelena was over in this very episode. You can literally feel the beginning and the end. Something I often talk about when Pastor Young flicks his lighter and blows up his farm house. He blows the kitchen because Elena is gonna be cooking without Stefan. And Pastor Young does this as soon as Stefan puts the daylight ring on her finger.

Elena's subconscious during the hunter's curse is a lot like the Legacies prism. That's why it's appearing as three different people rather than Elena herself. Elena is warring against herself, and she's getting buried in it. The curse wants her to give up, so it's hitting her pretty damn hard. It won't give her a moment to breathe, to relax. It's coming at her in a way that's a lot like Damon and Sybil in the cellar, only for Elena, it's everything she needs to move forward in her new life. She just needs them to pull her out of it like they pull Damon out of his head. Because yes, that's where she is in this episode - Her head.

I feel the same of Elena's feelings for Damon in 3x22. I will add to that. It's my continued belief that Elena wanted to break up with Stefan in her bedroom, and right before he kissed her. However, Elena had to wait for that breakup because of who she is. She can't break up with Stefan, then have him leave her house to face Alaric. That's not something to fight with. So she told Stefan that they could talk later. I'm not saying that she would've picked Damon, only that she was ready to break up with Stefan. I specifically love the portion about the doppelgangers and how Elena views herself regarding that aspect of herself. Beautiful work on that.

I love how this blogger mentions Elena being reborn because that's exactly what it felt like for me. More to the fact that water is used for them, so her drowning was perfect for it. They did the same thing with the daylight ring that they did with the vervain necklace, only they used fire for that. They pull this insane flashback montage as Elena is marching her way to the bridge because they're basically rewinding to 3x22 and throwing her back into the water. It's what you'd imagine. She's washing off the pains of the day and prepared to live true to herself. So when Elena wakes in her room, they're in her room because they've literally rewound it to the beginning of 4x1. That's why you'll see Damon sitting at her window like he was before. And yes, it was supposed to be Damon sitting on her bed with her, not Stefan. She let go of the normal girl she was, and is now ready to embrace this new girl that she is. She's emerging from the lake with her truth, and her desire to live in that truth.

So what I see in the Delena scene is their beginning. Elena wanted them to continue sitting on her bed, holding each others hand and... nope, Damon takes the high road. She didn't want him to take the high road at this point, she wanted to enjoy the moment with him. This is what drives Elena in her scene with Stefan. Since the moment she watched him walk away in 4x1, she's been forced to let him go over and over again, and she's just done with it. The section on the Delena bedroom scene… you'll understand what I mean when I say they're organic. The writers have them falling so naturally that I'm like… damn. They're everything that Stefan and Elena are not, and I love them for it. They built this, all of this, and in a natural way.

The Stelena scene is their end. I agree with Elena being the one who broke up with Stefan. I've felt that way since my first watch. But it's not without explanation. At the open of the episode, she refused to let Stefan make it about Damon. Here, she's purposefully making it about Damon because she's pushing Stefan to break up with her. I mean, she just survived an insane war against herself and all of these feelings she's been soaking up since time began. So after dealing with the curse, she wants this breakup to be easy. She's pushing Stefan to say the words. Just as much, she wants the breakup to be his. All I can think about is that movie, How To Lose a Guy In 10 Days.

I love it when people give me posts like this to chew on. I'll be enjoying it for a while.

[anxiousnerdwritings]

lmao no Robert guaranteed knew the reader was fucking his wife and just didn’t care. but the funny thing is that no one knows until Ned pulls up with that letter after he dies and reveals that Robert named the reader his heir and the letter not might outright say that he knew but the tone is there for the Baratheon brothers to pick up on. absolutely no one is willing to argue with Ned or the letter. if anything Cersei backs Ned up alongside Renly and Stannis even if pisses Tywin off but Tywin begrudgingly accepts it because the reader has claimed Robert’s eldest child as his heir ontop of promising to marry Cersei to maintain the Baratheon/Lannister alliance and goes as far to offer to release Jaime from the Kingsguard but that’s just cause he doesn’t want any golden children coming out.

Robert pulling the ultimate plot twist after his death. The Reader and Cersei had thought they were keeping it on the real down low meanwhile Robert was the very first to know and it didn’t bother him much, if at all. Hey, he’s got his own bastards so it’s expected that his brother would have bastards too, even if those bastards were with Robert’s own wife. Honestly, Robert was probably grateful that the Reader would keep Cersei occupied so he could whore around more and be left to his own devices without her nagging and berating.

I could even see Robert finding it amusing that his younger brother was able to swindle his own wife away from him. Dare I say he has a sense of pride towards the Reader for it. Kind of like how Robert deflowered and bed Delena Florent on Stannis’ wedding night and even did it in the newlyweds bed, but the Reader ended up one upping him by bedding Robert’s own wife in his own bed and fathered Robert’s ‘children’.

As absurd as it is, I like to think that Robert leaves behind a letter strictly for the Reader basically all in good fun, telling them that he’s not mad at the Reader and doesn’t really hold anything against them and that they basically won Robert at his own game of whoring around and having bastards.

I definitely see Robert choosing the Reader as his heir over Renly and Stannis because he thinks Renly is too immature and undeserving of it and just plainly to spite Stannis. Not to mention I stand by Robert having more of a relationship with the Reader than any of his other brothers which adds to it. Not to mention the Reader already had Cersei and the kids so why not also give him the throne. If anyone should get it it should be the Reader. Also, Ned would be there too to help out and continue being Hand unless the Reader stated otherwise.

Also with the Reader in the picture the Starks wouldn’t die out and the war between them and the Lannisters wouldn’t happen. They’d get a much better happy ending. Besides, the Reader would probably be a much better father to Joffrey so he wouldn’t turn into a little bratty psychotic weirdo and Sansa mad he might end up in a much more normal and healthy courtship. But if Joffrey is far from saving and still ends up the way he is then the Reader wouldn’t allow Sansa to be forced into being with him. Not to mention he’s not going to do Ned and his family dirty like that either.

I really love the idea of Stannis and Renly being on pretty good terms with the Reader and being loyal them. Like, sure they would have betrayed Robert and usurp him if they had the chance but they know the Reader will do good enough by them. Not to mention they like the Reader better, especially Stannis. Imagine the Reader being the only one to get Stannis to laugh or let up a bit at the very least? Renly doesn’t know how he does it but he finds it fascinating. Also, the Reader totally knows about Renly’s taste in men and is fine with it. He keeps it under lock and key and has even been a wingman for his little brother on occasion. The Reader would also be pretty protective of Renly if anyone were to bring it up to tarnish his image.

Overall, Baratheon!Reader is a pretty likable person who can make friends and allies easy but will not hesitate to fuck anyone’s shit up. Not to mention he’s much more capable as a king then Robert ever was. Cersei certainly couldn’t be happier with the life she has now, thank the gods she took Robert’s life when she did. Hell, she should have done it sooner if things were going to be this good.

Imagine if Robert actually thought that Cersei was unworthy of being with the Redaer though? Like, not even as a consort. Hell, he doesn’t even think she’s deserving of birthing his brother’s bastards either. He totally thinks that his brother could do so much better than Cersei and may have even been trying to form betrothals behind the Reader and Cersei’s backs to get his brother to be with someone more worthwhile. Just yet another thing to add to the list of reasons why Cersei wanted him dead.

[bennett-mikealson]

I saw one of your mentions about Bonnie, realized I really dislike the majority of tvd fandom & why I don't bother exploring the tags outside of Bonnie centered stuff for the sole reason that she is never even discussed in detail among the majority. She's largely overlooked in these anti Delena, anti Klaroline mentions & they somehow turn it around into the same old "xyz is the real victim here". Literally saw a post were they discussed all these third tier characters like Lexi, Vicki, Rose & some other irrelevant stuff in comparison to Caroline/Elena that basically falls in line with how their plots were ignored or done terribly (even though they WEREN'T & literally had more screentime/agency than Bonnie - a main witch character who served more purpose plot wise). Its really annoying that they complain about things that are fine & don't need fixing.

They will do anything to avoid talking about anything Bonnie related other than the tired slogan "Bonnie deserved better", which always sounds like a lazy fake attempt at pretending to care. & Worse, when actual Bonnie fans discuss how to write her plots better, those said stans try to cut down any theories outside of canon & say how it's unrealistic or some other tired excuse they never give to any other characters except hers.

See that’s why I can’t stand when Stan’s say Bonnie’s a fan favorite or say she’s the most loved character bc she just started to get her hype and even then she still gets an equal amount of hate. THB looking at how ppl talk about Bonnie outside of her Stan’s to me its like looking at another version of the writers. They see her as a plot device just as much as the writers and they don’t care about her struggles nor care to understand them.

For example when Bonnie ignored Elena after her grams died everyone was all like “omg Bonnie’s such a bad friend” or would think that Bonnie was blaming Elena for Grams dying when she never said that. In the show she even told Elena that she didn’t blame her for grams death. She just wanted space from her and considering how Elena was buddy buddy with the Salvatore her distancing herself from Elena was valid. But They don’t care about how Bonnie felt seeing her friend all lovey-dovey with people who caused her pain. They say “well maybe if Bonnie didn’t beg grams to open the tomb then she wouldn’t of died” (which is not true) but if Bonnie didn’t open the tomb then the Salvatore would’ve been stuck and y’all still would’ve been hating on Bonnie.

Same thing happened when Bonnie didn’t like Damon at first. Ppl called her annoying for being rude to the Salvatore’s when Damon almost killed her and he did nothing but cause problems. But ppl wonder why Bonnie didn’t like him. Then suddenly they love her in season six when her and Damon became best friends. Then it was “oh I love this new side to Bonnie”. 🙄

Even when Bonnie didn’t deactivate the Gilbert device and Caroline became a vampire; Bonnie was distant to her and Stans acted like Bonnie’s actions were unjustified and villainized her. Even though they knew Bonnie has had nothing but negative encounters with vampires before and had suffered bc of the presence of vampires so it would make sense why she’d be guarded with Caroline. Caroline‘s mother and father reacted the same way and so did Matt when they found out she was a vampire. They say Bonnie had no right to treat Caroline rudely when she is the reason Caroline a vampire even tho Katherine is the one who killed Caroline. Yet she gets praised all the time for making Caroline a better person. They even try to use the fact that Bonnie asked Damon to give Caroline blood against her and villainize Bonnie more when her intentions in asking Damon to save Caroline were pure and Damon didn’t have to listen to her. The thing is even if Bonnie did deactivate the Gilbert device in the situation ppl still would’ve gotten hurt bc the tomb vampires were ready to attack founding family members so Bonnie still would of been hated on for not “doing her job”.

There was really no winning for Bonnie at all. They just want her to do what needed to be done to protect their faves then go in the shadows.

It even shows when some Stan’s write fanfictions. Them time travel stories of Bonnie messing up a spell and it pushes Elena or Caroline or both back in time with the Salvatore or the Mikealsons; She still a plot device to Stan’s.

These be the same Stan’s that claim Bonnie Stan’s be trying to make her the main character or that we’re trying to steal Elena and Caroline’s shine when we make suggestions on how the writers could have written Bonnie’s character better. And like you said they always make it seem like anything outside canon is unrealistic or “outside of Bonnie’s character” when in reality they’re just can’t stand the thought of Bonnie being with their favorite white men. Just like the writers. 🙄

Also, sorry for the late response. I just recently got into tumblr more than before. 😁