#like delena obsessed

[phuljari]

hi folks, i'm kinda new to ipkknd fandom and want to know some recommendations for the best arnav and khushi fics anyone might suggest reading

please comment or send a message, whatever is comfortable. its fine if you want to send it anonymously in an ask too

ps. answers welcome whenever you read this post (i.e. not time sensitive)

[blagueofchaos]

I made a new header and icon! There were lots of great ones in the tags but I had a Vision and decided to go for it, and I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Well, admittedly the edit on the header is a liiittle janky, but that was kind of intentional with the half-baked 2000s-y vibe I was going for, really. Feel free to use them on your blog as long as you credit me :)

[queercherrypie]

When someone says Damon can't love anyone but Elena, Olivia Rodrigo's "Deja Vu" edit comes to mind.

[misspermitted]

Random Vampire Diaries discourse but I’ve been thinking about Bonnie and Kai and why they interest me so much. Because usually TVD’s sexually charged “he’s a terrible person but he’s infatuated with you” thing doesn’t interest me. Like I enjoy watching Klaroline and Delena as a guilty pleasure, but it doesn’t interest me. He’s just obsessed with her, and she eventually brings out the good in him, yada yada the messed up toxic guy brings out her dark side yada yada, she realises her power and so on. And I just don’t really care. I just watch it, and then I move on. I don’t linger on it for days and think about the characters.

But this random Bonnie and Kai thing that went on for 10 episodes, for some reason every so often I just think about them for days on end. And I reckon it’s because what the actors were setting up with them was really unique and not that trope. But then, since TVD is really badly written, after the prison arc they tried to turn it into the “guy is infatuated and redeems for her” and Chris Wood (who plays Kai) legitimately refuses to act that (which, like, good on him). So then they dropped the Bonnie/Kai storyline and just made him a villain.

But what were they then? At least originally? Because every time I get obsessed with these characters I go into fanon and it ruins my obsession, because it’s just that whole “evil guy is infatuated” thing all over again and it just doesn’t feel like them.

So let’s go through my reading of the Bonnie/Kai prison arc:

For me, what originally caught my attention about these two was that I thought Bonnie was the actually obsessed one. At least at first.

How Bonnie acts during their first scenes together

Bonnie spends seasons without her magic and this random guy shows up and gets under her skin so much she actually unlocks it? What? And the reason given is that she needed to save Damon but the spirits had straight up taken her magic. Her friends have been in life and death situations for ages and she couldn’t do anything about it to the point where she takes on dark magic. Clearly it is not just a desire to save her friends that unlocks it. And her becoming anchor does not change the fact that it had been confiscated. Forever. Who is this random guy that got her to unlock it by just taunting her?

And then she spends the whole first few conversations legitimately flirting back with this guy. Who just tried to kill her friend. When Bonnie doesn’t flirt with people. Like we have never seen Bonnie (until now, no bonenzo erasure) actually be interested in any villain ever. She typically just glares at them.

And that’s something that gets me about their dynamic. Bonnie acts so different around Kai than she does with anyone else. When Bonnie has dealt with evil sociopaths before. This guy is not new.

Bonnie tries to kill Kai (the first time)

What does Bonnie do when dealing with evil vampires or evil warlocks? Usually shes the one who is the voice of reason. With the plan. Who comes in at the end and saves everyone. Not Kai. She straight up throws an axe at him. On a hunch. When he actually hasn’t done anything that bad.

Bonnie doesn’t kill people a lot before this point. Unless she thinks it’s necessary. And they have to have done something really bad and she actually seems upset afterwards. But not Kai. Literally all he does is threaten them a little, offer to be friends, and kill his family 20 years before. Which is incredibly low stakes given the other stuff people do in TVD. Why does he get under her skin so much?

It’s so weird to me that she’s so against letting him out. I mean Bonnie is stubborn and has a strong sense of justice, but she also does bad stuff for the greater good. It’s far more like her to let him out for the greater good of getting them both out, and then stop him. But she’s not actually being reasonable.

Even Damon calls her on it. How she’s acting more impulsive and negative than he is. Just because Kai exists. It’s a level of caring and irritation that we don’t actually see from Bonnie a lot, who is usually cool and collected and strong.

How Kai acts in most of the prison world arc together

Kai meanwhile acts towards her how he later acts towards Elena. Flirty and off putting. Though he does later seem to realise that Bonnie is legitimately impressive and useful in a way that he decides Elena isn’t (which is just factually true). But Kai (in the first half) is a sociopath who uses people for his own benefit, and that is exactly how he treats Bonnie.

Especially later, after Damon is gone, he tries to play the sympathy card so many times and the “you’re different” tactic, but it’s all a lie and Bonnie is aware of it. And this it the other thing that I love about their dynamic, Bonnie is clearly very diverted and unsettled by this guy, but she is not an idiot. She has watched Caroline and Elena both fall for bad boys saying that they'll "change" for them. And she has spent the whole time saying they're being incredibly stupid. And she doesn’t turn from that awareness.

In my opinion, that’s the first thing that makes Kai act differently around her, the realisation that she is not gonna fall for any of that. He waits four months to manipulate them, and then suddenly is really impatient about when to do the spell? Why? And I think it’s because he realises that he’s not gonna get her to agree for long. She’s too observant. She figured out who he was so goddamn quickly. And she’s only gonna be scared for so long.

Kai takes her to his house

It’s so weird for Kai to take her to his house. He knew how to get out. He could’ve just left her. And it would’ve been less risky, since it’s clear at this point that he treats her as a danger.

Like he could just kill her. It would be safer to kill her. Bur he doesn’t. He brings her to his house. To gloat? He never seems interested in doing that before now. He’s cool for them to view him as irritating or a child or something to be scared of, depends on what’s useful. You don’t even see him gloat to Jo.

And this actually makes sense. Kai doesn’t care. Why would he need to gloat. He has a goal and he just needs to achieve it. Once he achieves it his revenge will be done and he will have won. He doesn’t have to villain monologue. He won. That’s satisfying enough.

In my opinion this is where Kai stops acting normal towards Bonnie. Like she’s just something to use for his goal. Or, rather, his goal changes.

Kai says he brings Bonnie to his house because he’s never had someone to share it with before. I feel like he might actually be telling the truth here, because it’s the only thing that makes sense.

Kai tries to manipulate Bonnie the day before wearing all his possible masks. An abomination making her scared and powerless. A misunderstood monster playing on sympathy, flattering her and saying he wants to be like her. And he believes it works. But it doesn’t. Bonnie not only outsmarts him, she outsmarts him and mocks the masks he wore. She take his manipulative bear that is supposed to be his attempts at fake kindness, and literally sends it away. He spends the whole first half of the day repeatedly trying to scare her and make her feel powerless, and her counter plan is all about how she is not powerless at all. He’s not in control. He needs her magic. And that’s hers. She controls it. And now it’s not here anymore. You’re welcome 😇

And while this is incredibly iconic of Bonnie, and irritating for him, it also means Bonnie sees past all those masks. For a guy who’s clearly used to pretending. For a guy who was always seen as an abomination even when he wasn’t. It clearly interests him that she actually just doesn’t see him as a monster, at least in any superficial way that he can use. Bonnie Bennet knew him well enough to know that he was lying.

So Kai brings Bonnie to the place where all of his memories are. Where he grew up. Where he killed his family and the blood is still there. And it’s clearly not to gain her trust through being misunderstood (the blood is still there, and he shows absolutely no attempt at remorse). And he is legitimately cordial and doesn’t restrain her, so he’s not purposefully trying to make her powerless or scared. So what’s his angle?

This is the thing, where Kai acts different as well. He shows resentment about his upbringing when he mentions it, not sadness or any pity based emotions. He babbles and cooks because he (as we learn) likes cooking. Bonnie later interprets it as him trying to gain her trust just to betray her out of sadism, but 1. Kai isn’t actually a sadist. Kai likes control, and can get angry and violent. He doesn’t care if he’s stabbing someone or not. We see it as he gets out, violence and manipulation is a means to an end. Always. And there is no end aside from revenge for him to try to betray Bonnie. Especially because Bonnie has been very clear that she will not trust him.

Then there’s the fact that he is not, as we’ve addressed, actually doing anything that would lead to trust. None of the previous masks. He’s actually being very open and generally having dinner with a psycho in the house covered in blood stains from when he killed children is not a trust building exercise. (Honestly, kind of weird that she thinks it was supposed to be. What, were you actually warming up to him during that dinner? A little suspicious Bonnie.)

But if, instead, Kai is doing all this to share himself with Bonnie. To be seen. He’s so irritated when she doesn’t understand: “Can’t you see I’m trying to apologise?” And then she very clearly states that she is not interested in spending any time with him, seeing anything, sharing anything, aside from the last dinner.

And we wonder why he puts it off, if his entire plan is just to stab her, leave, and gloat with a pager. Why does he drag the dinner longer than necessary? He’s about to leave, he’s been impatient to leave this entire time, but he actually puts it off. There is no reason to. He’s about to be around so many people to communicate with, but he wants to spend as much time with Bonnie as possible. Why??

And if the ascendant can only be used in the Mystic Falls tunnels, and he flies all the way to Portland, and it’s getting dark when he grabs the knife in the tree stump, then he puts off his return for an entire day. Just to eat spaghetti. Really slowly.

It only makes sense if he’s there specifically because his goal is to hang out with her. He wants to share. She pretty much acknowledges this and says she will never, ever care or like him. Stop trying to share with her. Leave her alone. Which, if he’s this excited about being seen, would be infuriating for him.

How Bonnie acts after he leaves

What really got me about the whole arc, though, is how Bonnie talks about what happens. Because that really shows how weird these two are.

Bonnie is furious with Kai and when she’s explaining what she went through to Damon, and doesn’t emphasise the stabbing or the manipulation as the worst part, but that Kai left her. All alone. He abandoned her.

Which is crazy, because that is so intimate for a complaint. But that is what she holds on to. Damon didn’t abandon her, even though he did. Her friends didn’t abandon her, even though they did. This random sociopathic guy abandoned her. Bonnie has the opposite of an abandonment complex, she is constantly overlooked and left and never gets mad about it, except this one time. With Kai. Who there shouldn’t have even been expectations about.

But it’s clear they were both aware there was. Despite Kai promising to leave her alone after a last dinner, his message isn’t “have fun” or something like that, it’s “I lied.” But he didn’t lie? He left her alone?

It’s like they were both aware that he was sharing and there was an expectation there. Where she would say she wanted to be left alone but he wouldn’t do it anyway, and she would keep paying attention anyway. That they were gonna play the “follow you around” intimacy game. Except Kai is like, woops jokes on you I can get out and I’m not taking you with me. Even though it was a given that I was gonna try to win you over, for fun. I know the hell I just condemned you to, enjoy.

Post Kai getting emotions (sort of)

And this reading gives an entirely new light to their first interactions post Kai getting emotions and how furious she is that he is trying to get her attention. Because fuck off, I gave you my attention and you left me. We’re not doing that again. You get nothing from me.

And also why he can’t stop thinking about her. Let’s be honest, the “I want to be forgiven” is bullshit. It’s far more, “I’m a new me and I want to be seen.” And Bonnie just refuses to. Not this time. I will not understand Kai as more than a monster. He doesn’t deserve that from me.

Kai asks her to spend the afternoon with her and she says no. Fuck you. You don’t get me to willingly walk into your house again. Fuck off.

It’s just so weird and personal especially to Bonnie. Like this is where I think they were getting Bonkai wrong. Kai is always shown as so unbelievably obsessed with her, but he doesn’t really think about her until she gets back. And it’s with the same weird determination that Kai gets about all goals.

It’s Bonnie who is so out of character. Despite all the stuff she’s been through and abuse she’s suffered, it’s Kai somehow that changes her. And makes her more emotional. Bonnie is the one that is weirdly touchy about it all and structures her life around (not) seeing him. Bonnie is the one that’s unreasonable about her reactions to him.

And it was so fun seeing a female character, especially the “saviour” female character, be so concerningly “enemies to lovers” obsessive over a guy, and the guy being so oblivious to it. Like it’s funny seeing all of Bonnie’s friends go “maybe you should chill out about Kai” and her just go “NO.” Meanwhile Kai’s just over here like “so Bonnie can see through everyone including me, so if I can convince her there’s a new me, that’s confirmation that I’ve changed 😊 Ah she’s so pretty I wish she’d stop trying to kill me. But Bonnie’s just like that I guess.” But she’s not. She’s not like that at all!!

I wish they’d explored it more but at the same time, if Julie Plec was gonna fuck it up then I’m okay with them going the villain route.

[andreal831]

Did you ever ship Stefan and Bonnie?

I'm actually so shocked I've never discussed this here because I was obsessed with Stefonnie for the longest time and this post is making me fall back into it.

Stefan and Bonnie had such a beautiful friendship in the early seasons. It was very similar to Caroline and Stefan. I was actually rooting for Bonnie over Caroline initially when it was clear Delena was going to be endgame. I love Steroline, but Stefonnie would have been such an organic friends-to-lovers ship (we know I love a good friend-to-lovers over enemies-to-lovers). Especially, since this was the time Forewood was still going strong and I loved them too. It would have been such a great time in TVD with these ships.

But of course, the writers refused to let Bonnie have everything and eventually shifted Stefan's attention from being split between his two friendships with Caroline and Bonnie to only Caroline. They only ever really get it back in the final season and it was essentially just to rub it in for Bonnie that Stefan, her once friend, murdered her love. This whole storyline was clearly just designed to isolate Bonnie completely from the group. Stefan was supposed to spend the rest of his life making it up to her and then died so we didn't even get to see them repairing their relationship. If they were going to get together, it would have to be before this.

Stefan is the first vampire that Bonnie starts to feel comfortable with after her, very reasonable, hatred of vampires. Because he put in the effort. Even Caroline just wanted Bonnie to get over her fear/hatred without putting in too much effort. But Stefan spent time making her feel comfortable. And the fact that he had Grams approval goes a long way with Bonnie. Stefan on multiple occasions attempts to stop Bonnie from doing dangerous spells that he does want to happen, but he prioritizes her safety. He had so much respect and love for her from the beginning.

Him asking so gently if he can come in and her little nod. This right here shows that their friendship at the bare minimum should have been prioritized. How do you not see romantic potential in this??

Even when he was a ripper, he never harms Bonnie. Or when Stefan and Damon had to kill her mom but Damon does it so *Elena* won't hold it against Stefan. Let's be honest, if Elena can forgive Damon for murdering her brother, she would have quickly moved on from Abby's death. But, to me, it was so important for it not to be Stefan because *Bonnie* never would have forgiven him.

I would have much rathered Stefan getting stuck on the otherside/prison world with Bonnie and repairing their friendship and developing a romantic relationship. Stefan was so protective of Bonnie that it would have given Bonnie a lot more support than she initially got from Damon. I know I am just biased and hate Damon, but I felt like their development was forced. Literally. They never would have interacted like that in other circumstances. I do think Damon needed that friendship, since the only time we see him have any character development is with Bonnie, but that wasn't Bonnie's job. Forcing her to befriend a man she hated, a man who murdered her mom, for his development was just never a favorite story of mine. But Stefan with her would have given her some comfort. I think she also would have had more faith in Stefan coming back for her and saving her if he was forced to leave her behind.

They fit so well together. They both have similar morals and a strong sense of righteousness. They both will sacrifice themselves for those they love and will bend their morals for their loved ones, but at the end of the day they are the heart of the friend group. They also were always trying to stop the other one from sacrificing themselves, understanding that the people the other was harming themselves for wasn't necessarily worth it.

Bonnie deserved to be loved like that. After losing her entire family and everyone she cared about, she deserved to have someone love her the way Stefan loves. And Stefan wanted to be human again. He would have taken the cure and they could have left Mystic Falls behind, coming back for holidays, but getting away from the toxic relationships they had with their family and friends.

As for storytelling purposes, this just shows that the show prioritized ships they viewed would be the most popular (which was based in racism) over the actual storytelling. Bonnie and Stefan has so many similar stories that they could have bonded over, like their summer that no one knew they were missing and their parental issues. But also their history. Elena and Stefan were not the only two reflected in the story with Silas and Amara. There was also Qetsiyah. The full circle story that could have been if they had Silas' shadow-self (Stefan) fall for Qetsiyah's descendant (Bonnie), leaving Amara's shadow-self (Elena). Instead the show spent time forcing parallels by retconning itself with flashbacks.

I loved Bonenzo and Steroline, but if they had done Stefonnie right, it would have been my top ship. They had so much potential to show the development and to actually allow the characters to experience their emotions and work through their trauma. They would have helped each other as friends and fallen in love as they did. They are two of my favorite characters from TVD so it is no wonder I would love them together.

Now excuse me while I go find some fics to read!

Thanks for the ask!

[hyperactivewhore]

I never thought about it before, but now that the idea is in front of me, I think Klena would have been absolutely WILD had it happened, and it would have made a lot sense for Klaus's character. He's been waiting for a thousand years to break this curse, and suddenly Elena comes, and easily gives him everything he's wanted, she doesn’t die like Tatia, she doesn’t run like Katherine, and she's also the key to making his hybrids. I also think Elena could have been a compelling character had the writers treated her as one. She is smart, she has daggersd two Originals after all, I think she could have empowered Klaus in ways that others maybe couldn't, because he can't kill her since he needs her, and while she's physically not strong, she can be pretty manipulative sometimes. It would have been INSANE if they had a thing, they would have been absolutely toxic but a great dynamic for a show like the vampire diaries.

I like toxic ships, I won't lie, but only if they're well executed, have a solid reason as to why the people dating even got interested in each other (this is why I like klaurora and enjoy the dynamic delena has, but don't like klaroline or bonkai) and I do feel Elena and Klaus would fall into this category. They had potential for a relationship, just not a healthy one.

Don't bring up that it would be ooc for Elena to fall in love with Klaus after he murdered Jenna: she's married to Damon, who raped her best friend and who literally killed her brother, so let's skip this unneeded discussion, because tvdu writers are always retconning their characters for ships/the narrative. I've talked and recommended her fanfic a thousand times, but Fairytale Ending by @livlepretre really, really touches what I think would be canon klena. They're toxic, screwed up and yet they love each other in their own fucked up way. It's so good written too, and it makes Klaus look even more fucked up than in canon which I just love.

Despite how tvd made her look, Elena is clever and resourceful and she also looks like Tatia, who was Klaus’s first heartbreak, and knowing how obsessive and screwed up he is with the women he loves romantically it's strange he didn't try to do anything physical or romantic with her. Just imagine Klaus and Elijah repeating history with Elena by falling in love with her, just because she shares the face of the two women they both wanted at one point. It would be so twisted yet such an interesting dynamic to watch, at least for me.

It obviously wouldn't be healthy, but it would be so ironic to have Klaus falling for the girl he's supposed to kill. If they had met in different circumstances, then maybe they wouldn't be as toxic, but I do get the appeal of klena and why people ship them.

And personally, ships where the other person stresses the fuck out of Klaus will always be my favorite.

[lizzie-queenofmeigas]

Caroline basically almost had every storyline at some point giving to her so I don't see how people can think she was more mistreated then bonnie

Yeah, they put Caroline everywhere even though her presence made no sense. Let me tell you a story, dear anon.

I started watching The Originals season 3 without having seen any of the previous seasons or TVD (I did know a little about Delena because of YouTube videos) and instantly Klaus became my favourite character. I was like 8/9, at the time.

And well, I stumbled with fanfiction and when I went to search Klamille fanfiction. There was nothing, specially given that at the time I could only read in spanish (and some Portuguese, but that's another story) so I clicked in one that had Klaus in it. It was a Klaroline fanfiction and when the character of Caroline appeared I had no idea who that was. Still, I kept reading because Klaus was/is my hyperfixation. I went like a year reading without knowing who the hell that was so I just sort of used Caroline as YN. I finally watched TVD when I was 11 thanks to the magic of the internet and my own obsession over Klaus. I had seen videos of Klaroline before in YouTube, but they didn't really illustrated Caroline as a character. So you can imagine my surprise when I find out who this character is and turns out she is the most annoying girl in the show. I was so confused as to why there was so many fics between them and none of Klamille. So, for a couple of years I read fics were Klaus was paired with anyone except Caroline (Klaulena/Klonnie/Klayley/Klefan and Klebekah were my saviours) until I ran out of them and had to read Klaroline fics. I kept doing the "Caroline as YN" thing because I hated the character but I needed content and some fics were very interesting. Then I learnt how to read in English and I was saved. Delena fics saved me from the never ending mountain of Klaroline fics.

In most of those fics every single character of TVD was somehow the villain in Caroline's story, in many it was Bonnie. In others Bonnie was Caroline's ride or die and hated Elena and was okay with Klaroline and was mad at Tyler for hurting Caroline, which is wildly out of character for Bonnie.

Anyway, now you know my issue with Klaroline and Caroline.

[athenamikaelson]

So I have started re-watching seasons 1-3, because I loved the first seasons and am sure I missed things.

I am really sad how the writer’s changed Elena’s character so much. I always loved how she had a moral back bone, how caring she was, but mostly how Stefan always respected her decisions and didn’t try and control her, and she did just that, made her own choices. I am very much like that, so I loved that about her character. This is one of the reasons the Mikaelson Ball is one of my favorite episodes. I love when she said to Stefan about Damon, he’s just looking out for me, and Stefan says, I think it’s about time he realizes you can look out for yourself. I am like yes! I also loved all the times in season 2 Stefan told Damon to back off about trying to control Elena’s decisions. Stefan was helping her be strong and independent, and I loved that.

I was really disappointed once Delena happened how the writers made them so co-dependent. I hate how they made her almost obsessed with Damon and have her say she has to bend her morals all the time to be with him. I wish they kept Elena with her own voice and continued building on that from the first seasons. I miss that aspect of Elena’s character post season 3. And yes I understand the sire bond. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking post sire bond. I felt like they regressed her character. I also felt like it would have been good for Delena’s relationship and show growth for them.

**added: I also did not like when Damon went to the prison world they had Elena taking drugs and then just erasing him from her memory. It took away the progress she made in season 3, after alarics death when Stefan told her it’s ok to feel and grieve, learning how to cope with loss and be strong. I would have loved to see Elena be strong, for her and for Stefan, and get through it.

i just hope that you keep Elena as she is and not follow the series

I totally agree!! I think they really took away Elena’s independence and made her be this character that needed a man to survive. I’m going to try to not make her this way

[wildm00re]

tapping back into my rina obsession for 5 minutes just to say that irl drama played no role in your ship not being endgame because 1). the first eps of s2 (when rini evidently were abt to die a slow, painful death) were filmed at the beginning of 2020 literally a whole year before driver’s license drama

and 2). if the writers *really* wanted to, they could’ve easily delena-ed them and made them endgame regardless of the actors’ irl relationship + they could’ve easily written nini off (like they wrote elena off when nina wanted to leave) and still have had her and ricky do long distance for real this time or whatever—

but they didn’t because as explicitly stated by the writer, he completely changed the direction of the show once he was moved by rina’s chemistry in 1x05/6

also if this scene, filmed in s1, wasn’t the biggest foreshadowing ever that a lot of y’all obtusely ignored, then idk what else to say

[initiumseries]

If you had to pick between spuffy and cangel, which one do you find more interesting? And why?

I'm gonna preface this with, I don't think either of them are particularly interesting. That's a large part of why I don't like these ships lol. My dislike of these ships has less to do with personal taste, and more to do with the obliteration of their characters and the overarching story integrity to make them happen. An example of this is, when I saw TVD was moving toward delena, I hated the idea of breaking Elena and Stefan up, especially when it felt like they'd barely been together and I gad serious problems with how damon consistently and without repercussions, violated obvious boundaries of everyone around him but especially Stefan and Elena. That was a personal issue for me, but I was also curious to see how they'd handle the story. I'd said this to Zal at the time, but I was prepared to be on board a delena ship if it meant the show taking an interesting character/story turn. If we actually got to see that darker turn in Elena, the fallout of her choices, and how being with damon messed with her morality, perceptions, isolated her from her friends etc, I would've liked to see that story progression and character arc, even if it meant the (temporary) end of a ship I liked. When that didn't happen, and the story rapidly deteriorated, I resented the ship because it essentially ruined the show (among other issues) to keep it working.

So to the point of the ask, I don't think that either were particularly interesting, but I will say that Spuffy, for a time, had better execution. I had tired of Spike whining about Buffy, dreaming about Buffy, becoming a pathetic shadow of what made him interesting as a character for Buffy. It sucked. So to see the return of his vigor as a character in this dysfunctional, abusive and hypersexual relationship with Buffy was refreshing. It was also uncomfortable, which its meant to be. Buffy is the white knight. But she died, and was finally at peace and her friends traumatized her by bringing her back, then traumatized her again by abandoning her to dig herself out of her own grave. She was angry, depressed, isolated and she had no one to work her issues out with, and here was Spike, allowing her to revel in the worst parts of herself. Something she never allowed herself before she died. That was interesting. It was moreso, because it was so obvious this wasn't about actual affection. It was clear at the time, Spike didn't love Buffy, he was obsessed with her, and Buffy didn't even like Spike, he was a site for her to work out her pain. That was more interesting to me than anything else, because, again, Buffy's relationships up until then had been about mutual affection, partnership and love, and now she's slumming it and hiding it from all her friends because she's embarrassed. That's good story stuff. Where I jumped off and immediately lost interest is when both Buffy and Spike became OOC-ish just to bring them back together in some weird, pointless amicable companionship thing. Spike assaulted Buffy and then got a soul to punish her for her rejection. Forcing her to not only accept him, but defend him and protect him against her loved ones, then alienate her AGAIN, to bring them back together is cruel, and a betrayal of Buffy as the titular strong female character she was always meant to be. Buffy in any previous season would never have forgiven her attempted rapist, much less stopped GILES from killing him when he was a KNOWN liability and danger to her work. She killed Angel - the love of her life - to save the world, but defends Spike? Makes 0 narrative sense. Spike becomes a sad little bitch because of the soul no one wanted or asked him to get, then just sort of...returns to himself, and shows no remorse, no repentance for what he put Buffy through, and how that affected the group. And suddenly we're all supposed to believe this is...what, love? How? We've SEEN what Spike looks like when he's in love, and this isn't it. So, that's where it becomes uninteresting to me, because in order to make this ship work this way, they have to betray the characters, insult the viewers, and compromise the story. Those are bad narrative choices.

[klausysworld]

Guys I’ve had too much time with my own thoughts and I’m starting to like Stefan again

Like UGH him the 1920s??

Him in 1864???

Him in a suit??

His hair!?

His eyes!

His personality???

Him as a ripper like good lord

Him!??

You know what

I miss the first time I watched The Vampire Diaries when everything was simple and I wanted Delena and that was my main priority in life.

It’s been too long with this obsession and yet also not long enough and I never want it to end.

I don’t know what I want

A lot of fictional men…and their actors��

Thank you for listening.

[chloesreality]

Yeah and do you know what the person said why stelena is „toxic“? 😂😂

He answered with the reason Stefan „lied“ 😂😂 it’s „not“ a good start for a relationship 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

I mean sorry but Stefan and Elena are „in-the-getting-to-know-phase“ he can’t say „hey Elena I am a vampire“ 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️ Stefan already said it in S6 that he told her bc he fell in love with her.

Another stupid sentences:

Damon never!! slutshamed Elena —> he did it twice Season 2 and 4 („you and Katherine have a lot more in common than just your looks“; „she is a stone cold bitch“)

Delena wasn’t abusive 😂😂🤦🏽‍♀️

Damon never!!! laid hands on Elena 😂🤦🏽‍♀️

Stefan „only loves“ Elena bc she looks like Katherine 😂🤦🏽‍♀️

oh nah the first one nearly made me spit out my drink 😭

1: “I mean sorry but Stefan and Elena are “in-the-getting-to-know-phase" he can't say “hey Elena I am a vampire" I mean you are completely right! “Stefan already said it in S6 that he told her bc he fell in love with her” yep.

this doesn’t mean that Stefan wanted to lie to Elena. the significance of that secret was heavy and so was this one:

this is a huge thing, I mean how do you even begin to tell a person that?

2: “delena wasnt abusive” they weren’t physically abusive to eachother except maybe:

but Damon constantly terrorised and harassed her friends. he had no respect for them whatsoever

(except Bonnie maybe at the end) but DE, they were emotional abusive, they were wildly co-dependent and Damon’s so obsessed with Elena it almost suffocates her I the relationship which brought her character down and stopped her from being her own person and they don’t really grow from this either. stuck in the same cycle if you will. Damon rarely let Elena make her own decisions.

3: “Damon never laid hands on Elena”

what? Scroll back up to no.2 and tell me he didn’t lay hands on her. EHM….ANYWAYS

4: “Stefan only loves elena because she looks like Katherine”

ugh can DE shippers get more creative and original with your argument points pls? This one doesn’t even make sense, yes. The resemblance drew him in but that’s it. HE LITERALLY ADMITS THAT TO LEXI IN SEASON 1. He tells Lexi that Elena is the complete opposite of Katherine and tells ELENA that’s she’s everything Katherine wasn’t. and he describes how he sees and feels about elena. “Elenas warm” “She selfless” “she’s caring” “and it’s REAL” “and honestly when I’m around her I completely forget what I am” and then he confesses to Lexi that he’s in love with her with a big old grin on his face :)

then this is Stefan when Katherine comes back to mystic falls:

I can literally see that Stefan is sooooooooo in love with Katherine here I mean look at that massive grin on his face when she says “feel better?” you can see his excitement 😃😃😃😃😃

whoever was saying those silly things to you anon is a silly thing 🩷🤗

[kiss-my-freckle]

This is what Julie said about 3x22 a day after it aired:

At what point did you come up with the idea that Damon met Elena first and erased her memory of that moment?

The details of that scene happened as we were talking about the end of the season. But the question that we’ve always had since the beginning of the series in the writers room is, “Where was Damon while Stefan was entering school and meeting Elena?” Damon came into the pilot armed with a lot of knowledge, which, in my opinion, implies that he’s been there for a little while. So we’ve always wanted to ask and answer that question. It felt like the right answer there was [that] he was having his own experience with Elena.

Fans still call this flashback a retcon though. What do you think of this argument?:

Why couldn’t Stefan save both of them? Why couldn’t Elena just swim herself? Getting out of the car was the problem but Stefan tore out the freaking door. Drowning is not a quick death and you can even be resuscitated. The Damon scene doesn’t make sense narratively. Season 1 Damon especially in the first few episodes was a psychopath who would not have a nice chat with a pretty girl on the road that she looks like his lover who he has been obsessed with.

I felt the same way about the pilot episode. Damon implied that he already knew about Elena just as Stefan did. "I could ask you the same question. However, I'm fairly certain your answer can be summed up all into one little word. Elena." He then implied that he not only knew about Elena, he met her just as Stefan did. "She took my breath away. Elena. She's a dead ringer for Katherine." He also implied that he knew of her parents' drowning just as Stefan did. The point of him slamming his crow into Bonnie's windshield in the first place. "Really, I can't be freaked out by cars for the rest of my life." So he knew about Elena, met her, and even knew about their accident. The writers wrote their flashback scene around Damon's comment in the pilot, it's just in reverse.

"She took my breath away." "Oh, you - you just look..."

"Elena." "No - um - I - I'm Elena."

"She's a dead ringer for Katherine." "Katherine."

They pull the other side of his flashbacks when they do Sybil's arc.

"Any reason your dad would just drive off the road like he was trying to avoid something without braking?" "What was that?! Oh, my god! Elena, are you okay? It was like a bird or something. It came out of nowhere."

When I first watched the show, it never made sense to me why Damon acted the way he did towards Elena until I hit 3x22. It's not a retcon, and Damon most certainly would have a scene with Elena exactly as he does in their 3x22 flashback. As psychotic as fans believe he was, he was also being protective of Elena. And to be protective of Elena, he needed to act human for it to make sense. Only a person that cared about Elena would try to protect her as Damon did. In the pilot episode, he was straight-up trying to stop her and Stefan from so much as meeting. Fans believe Stefan was protecting Elena from Damon, but Damon was protecting Elena from Stefan. That's why he's pushing Elena to learn their truth. I've done several posts about Damon's actions in the first five episodes.

Stelena is written in death and Delena is written in life. They're "dead" characters because they're vampires, and Damon wanted Elena to have the "life" she deserves. That's why he slammed a crow into Bonnie's windshield. He wanted Elena to miss her first day of school because he knew Stefan would be there. Same with the cemetery. He knew Stefan would be there, so he kicked her out. If Damon wanted Elena to have a vampire in her life, he would've entered her life instead of using his crow. That's why their flashback scene in 3x22 makes sense. This vampire is using his crow because he doesn't want to be in her life, and he makes it clear that he doesn't want his brother to be in her life either. That's why Cade straight-up blames Stefan and Stefan only. Damon was the one truly protecting her. Oooh... how psychotic of him lol

[queercherrypie]

I'm starting to think Ian Somerhalder thinks about Bamon and the wasted potential of a love triangle plot on season 6 as much as I do.

People out there saying it's because he and Nina had broken up and he held a grudge, but the chemistry had died and the plot potential was there. He tried to move forward, give something more interesting, and make Damon's character grow from the pointless obsession he had with Elena. He wasn't wrong, and a lot of people have a hard time accepting that.

I'm trying to understand why...maybe because I didn't grow up with this show I don't understand the obsession with this sinking ship that has seen better days, but...sorry, not sorry? It would actually be more interesting if Damon had actually gotten over his obsession with Katherine/Elena. It's bizarre, they look alike and they keep mistaking the two, probably because Katherine in the good times looked like Elena, sweet and innocent vibe. Stelena and Delena have given me "yucky" vibes since the start.

Here's the thing, Stelena and Delena had potential as a drama plot, not to be an endgame ship and I'm going to die on this hill, this fandom is all weird as fuck.

[cancerian-woman]

oooh so i feel like i can guess the answer, BUT how would you rank all of bonnie’s ships *solely* from what we got in canon vs how would you rank them based on fanon/general potential!

Oooh okay, I’ll start with canon ones then go to fanon.

Beremy: It was cute, puppy love at first but in the end Bonnie was doing all the work & his unassigned but assigned babysitter. 3/10

Bonenzo: in theory he did make Bonnie happy she deserved that. Enzo is very much “one size fits all” type of character if yk. They did get together under Stockholm Syndrome purposes and it was just done lazily? I think they would’ve been more well perceived if they started building them up in s5 or something. Killing him last minute to “trigger” Bonnie’s psychic powers or magic again was just another way to aid in her suffering. 5/10

Bamon: chemistry is great. Damon abandoning Bonnie after she needed him after bonding in the prison world’s was a good moment for Bonnie’s feelings to be shown. Knowing she has issues with abandonment. But, Bamon falls into the same category as Delena. Woman is complicit to all of Damon’s bs and a lot of that happened with Bamon. The writers said ok Elena is gone Bonnie can now agree or side with him the most. There’s Anti-Bamons, then there’s people who genuinely like Bamon and then people who ship Bamon just to free Elena of that burden of Damon lol. I do think they work best if Elena isn’t around. 7.5/10

Stefonnie: you can’t pry Stefan’s protectiveness and kindness to Bonnie in 1-2 out of my hands. He actually tried to make friends with Baroline unlike Damon. Stefan’s history with Bennett’s was another good push there too. And it’s sooo underrated that Stefan was the first vampire Bonnie ever trusted. Plus she had a lil crush on him before Elena got him. I do think they could’ve been something really good in those later seasons. Both tend to play a “hero” role to someone else. Stefan promised he would’ve fixed what he did to Bonnie and idk we needed to see that. It would’ve been nice if we could’ve gotten Damon/Stefan discussing that Bonnie’s forgiveness isn’t so easy to earn. 8/10

Bonora: good chemistry but extremely underrated. They remind me a bit of the wlw Bonkai. Would’ve been a perfect time to introduce bi!Bonnie. I liked that Bonnie encouraged Nora to do something outside of Mary. We never really got those “Bonnie’s beautiful!” By other characters but the way Nora said it continously and wanted to engage with Bonnie. It was so good. Long term and fanon-wise I think they both could’ve learned to grow out of those toxic ties to people with each other. We didn’t get Bonnie with other witches a lot and it was nice to see her with one. 8/10

Bonkai: Chris was Kat’s best on-screen partner imo. Kai brings out a darker side to Bonnie that she tries ignore often. While I think Bonnie brings out emotions Kai hasn’t felt in ages. He’s so fascinated with her in an obsessive but good for tvdu type of way. She’s the only way he sees. Bonnie isn’t a pushover either with Kai. She fights him back, she calls him out and tbh she’s even goofier with him. He pushed her more into her agency than Damon ever did. Bonkai would’ve been great for seasons 6-8. Idk if i would “redeem” him per se bc redemptions aren’t real in tvd but being good to Bonnie and Bonnie only is enough for me. Canon-fanon-9/10.

Bonlena & Baroline: I’ll just do these together. Bonlena had the stronger chemisty 1-2 era of them perfect. You can feel how close they are and need each other. Despite the negative tones with Petrova & Bennett lines repeating you can say they could be drawn to each other naturally. But, Elena does end up ignoring Bonnie so…7/10. Baroline is all about fun but they do support each other and can be protective. Caroline does try to get Bonnie out of doing magic all the time. 7/10

Bonlijah: interesting because Elijah like Stefan and Damon have harmed or betrayed Bonnie. Elijah’s done it twice. We don’t get a lot of them. Bonnie would’ve made him work for her forgiveness. Elijah likes acting on his own needs first but needs to be forced to see his wrongings in a situation and Bonnie certainly wouldn’t let up and make him focus on their errors before continuing. He did have to thing positively of her to face his brother alone. 7/10

Klonnie: based on canon I’d say season 3-4 are would be their best moments. Klaus does like witches. Bonnie had more onscreen time with Tyler!Klaus than his actual body. But Tyler!Klaus did sort of hint he admired she defied the spirits. There’s the power dynamics that comes into play here. Bonnie isn’t afraid of Klaus no matter how much power he wants to enforce over her. I can see them fanon wise strategizing together and Bonnie agreeing to help him if it means her friends are good. Canon wise though if nothing comes between them from 2-4 then they’d have to remeet afterwards. Same applies for all the Mikaelson’s. 9/10

Kennett: they could’ve bonded over magic and they do have more scenes than most BennettxMikaelson ships. Kol called out Bonnie’s death too. He saw potential in her and wanted to work with her….that being said they caused that lady to go crazy on Twitter over a 10 second scene LMAO so despite how i feel about that 10 10 10 across the board. Fanon wise i do think other fandoms taking over Kennett has deterred my liking for them. Dollar general Kennett has nothing on them. But Bonnie unlike Davina would want to see Kol for who he is. No rose tinted glasses.

Monnie/Tonnie: we don’t have a lot of Tonnie but they’re always watching each other / protective gazes when they are allowed to share a scene. This is a ship I can see working through college or when they both left Mystic Falls. For the both of them that isn’t their home longterm. 8/10. Now, onto Matt absolutely not. 5/10. Not just because Matt’s useless, but he doesn’t like the supernatural world for himself. He’s accepting of his friends and for others but it’s not something he’s really into. Bonnie already had to deal with this from Rudy. No need in dating a human or anything longterm who doesn’t like that side of her.

Honorable mention: Batherine could’ve played a frenemies with benefits role. Idk if it was the intention to “fix” Elena’s relationships but placing Katherine in these random moments but it was interesting when it did happen.

This was long and it took me a minute but i hope i answered it the way you thought of!! Thank you for the ask!

[andreal831]

Glad you’re back!

What is your most unpopular opinion on both TVD and TO?

I love when y'all try to get me canceled.

Just joking. I'm all about honesty here, even if it is unpopular. I've talked about a lot of unpopular opinions so I'll try for ones I don't think I discuss that much. But remember, y'all asked for my most unpopular opinions, they are going to be unpopular.

I will make my normal disclaimer. This is simply a personal blog about a show that ended ten years ago. Yes, we have serious discussions, but at the end of the day, it is my opinion of my interpretation. Me not liking your favorite character/ship is not a reflection on you or your opinions. We can have civil conversations even if we disagree over opinions.

So without further ado.

My most unpopular opinion on TVD is that Delena is a bad ship and wouldn't work out in the long run. (Don't get angry, I'm tagging this appropriately. If you want to read this and have a genuine discussion, great. If not, please just scroll).

Damon was brought on the show as the main villain in season 1 and did unspeakable things to Elena and her friends. Yes, there are times we can move past this. I once said that Enzo is what they wanted Damon to be. I feel like in the later seasons they learned their mistakes and attempted to rewrite a lot of the history, but unfortunately, the history was already there. With Enzo, he did really messed up things, but his back story was directly linked to his terrible actions. Whereas Damon just did bad things because it was fun and then had a bit of a sad backstory.

Damon's issue is that he loves too deeply/obsessively. He was so obsessed with Katherine that he was willing to leave Stefan behind to become a vampire with her. He wanted to become a vampire for Katherine. He only changed his mind when he thought she was dead and then didn't want to turn with Stefan. Once he found out Katherine might be alive, he spent every second attempting to get her back. Even using Elena. He was not at all interested in Elena in Season 1, except to antagonize Stefan. He only really turns his interest on her when he loses hope of Katherine, essentially transferring his obsession.

Delena fans often say that Damon loved Elena for herself while Stefan only loved her as a human, but I disagree. Elena was most as herself as human, but once she got caught up in Damon, she began to become like Katherine. He essentially turned her into Katherine when he couldn't have Katherine.

We see repeatedly that Elena chose Stefan over Damon when she had the choice. Damon and Elena have some nice moments, but it was clearly platonic/boyfriend's brother vibes. She cared for him because Stefan did. They only get closer when Stefan is forced to leave town and Damon does everything in his power to turn Elena away from Stefan. But even after that, she was still choosing Stefan.

The sirebond was the nail in the coffin for Delena in my opinion. I may have been able to get past some things if they hadn't done that. Elena never wanted to be a vampire. She says this so many times and even talks about wanting to die rather than being a vampire. Stefan shows Elena the positives of vampirism, but somehow Damon gets credit for it because of the Whitmore House scene. I think people forget the scene immediately after she runs off the dance floor, when she disgusted by what she's done. Between the thrill of the moment and the sirebond, she acts in a way that she never wanted to and regrets it instantly. Damon showed her the parts of vampirism she feared, but because the scene is sexy people love it.

And this isn't the first time we see Damon not having respect for Elena's decisions. When he forced blood down her throat before the ceremony. Or when he yells over the phone that they shouldn't listen to her about Elijah. When he kills Aaron because 'she' broke up with him. This never gets better. The only character development we really see in Damon is when he becomes friends with Bonnie. No, I don't think it is a girlfriend's job to 'fix' their boyfriend, but they should at least bring out a good side of them. Delena brought out the worst sides in each other.

I'm honestly not even advocating for Stelena. If anything, I think Matt and Elena could have had a nice life together. Or just be a normal girl and go meet someone in college or later in life. Damon didn't want the normal human life and Elena didn't want the violent vampire life. They have so little in common, not even their morals or principals. I just found them to be a really unbelievable couple. The flirtation was more interesting to me than anything that happened after they got together.

************

My TO opinion: Kol is kind of a one-dimensional character and benefits very heavily from pretty-privilege. (Again, no need to read if this will just upset you)

I am talking about Nate, but I refuse to put his face on my page. But I will try and put my hate of him aside to talk about Kol.

Kol could have been a really interesting character if he was given more time and more backstory, but the show just didn't go there and left so much up to the audience to fill in the blanks.

We first meet Kol in TVD and he essentially is the Mikaelson psychotic "enforcer." He is wild and unruly, doing whatever he wants. Like targeting Matt for no reason at the Mikaelson ball when even Klaus was on his best behavior. I really feel like they made Kol the way they did to make Klaus look like the sane, practical one since Klaus was quickly becoming a fan favorite.

The storyline with the Cure was interesting, but we don't really get a lot of the backstory of how Kol knew what he knew. I would have loved some flashbacks with Kol and the witches that he supposedly learned this from. But as interesting as this storyline was, it did little to flesh out Kol as a character. He spent most of his time just trying to kill everyone to prevent Silas from being released. It would have been more impactful if they had given Kol a bigger motivation. Explained his backstory with Silas more. I left TVD not really caring if Kol came back. We got one little sad story right before he died about Klaus unfairly daggering him, but really after seeing how unhinged he was in TVD, I kind of didn't care that he was daggered. I felt worse for Finn who seemed relatively harmless.

I didn't mind Kol as a witch too much, but again, felt his character was little more than a charming rake. We knew he was only flirting with Davina initially for his mother, and I even buy his quick infatuation with her since we know he likes powerful witches, but his betrayal of Rebekah just felt impulsive and dumb. It took away from the genius witch they were trying to create. Sure he learned a lot of tricks with the dark objects from witches, but then he imprisoned his sister in an instable witch he did zero research on while his family was still in danger. It felt like he was less of a developed character and more of a plot device.

Similar to Damon, I just didn't feel like his backstory was enough to make me sympathetic. I know we are told he was daggered a lot, but we are also told that he was off on his own a lot. In the 11th century we know Kol had gone off on his own and then for much of the middle centuries he is exploring and meeting witches. The few times we see him in flashbacks, he is covered in blood, smiling at the death he created. I know people say he went off the deep end because of his loss of magic, but the show should have done a better job fleshing that story out. Really go into his spiral, because it happened very quickly. Kol was the only one reveling in killing in 1001, a year after they became vampires. This is also our first encounter with Kol as we don't see him during their human flashbacks. The only daggering we really see that felt unjust was in the 1900s when he was attempting to turn the witches against Klaus and create a weapon. But that also felt out of place in how Rebekah betrayed him but then wanted to do the same a mere year later.

The back and forth with his family also annoyed me. One moment he was building a weapon to put Klaus down and the next he was hugging him, just wanting to be a part of 'always and forever.' I understand why Davina was so annoyed by it. They attempted to garner sympathy for Kol based on how he was not part of 'always and forever' but he never really seemed to want to be. Every chance he had to leave them, he did. I don't blame him, but he can't be mad for not being included when he was always leaving. Even in 1001, Kol was the first one to suggest they split up. He and Finn left immediately after being turned and leaving Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah to clean up the mess their family made. This tracked through their 1000 years. He even parties with Klaus multiple times after being undaggered, holding it against Rebekah more than anyone. He never seemed to care for any of his siblings outside of Klaus and yet Klaus was the one harming him the most.

Like most of the characters honestly, if Kol had been played by a less attractive or charismatic person, he would have been despicable and annoying at times. I will own that he has moments of character growth in the later seasons of TO, but they all felt like they came out of nowhere since they appeared to happen off camera. Even his relationship with Hope felt strange in Season 5 when he hardly even acknowledged his niece in the previous seasons except to use her to save Davina. His character, to me, felt like it was constantly changing to fit whatever role they needed him to play so he became less of a character and more of a plot device making it hard for me to connect with him or truly understand his underlying character.

******

Again, don't hate me if you disagree. These are just some unpopular opinions I don't think I've talked about on here.