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nickjunesource · 3 years ago

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Max Minghella is sitting in his backyard in the LA sunshine, his t-shirt an homage to the French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve, his adopted shepherd mix, Rhye, excited by the approach of a package courier.

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asks — the dog, not me — tenderly.

Minghella, who at 35 has dozens of screen credits to his name, is best known as The Handmaid’s Tale’s cunning chauffeur Nick Blaine, a character who it’s difficult to imagine saying sweetheart. In airless Gilead, of course, a cautious hand graze with Elisabeth Moss’ June can pass for a big romantic gesture. In a Season 1 episode featuring child separation and hospital infant abduction, Nick’s major contribution is to trade stolen glances with a sex slave while “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” pumps discordantly along. I ask Minghella about playing the series’ closest approximation to a dreamy male lead against the show’s dark narrative of female subjugation.

“I know this is not the answer you want to hear,” Minghella says with none of Nick’s hesitation. “But I like that stuff, right? In the pilot, I think Nick only had a handful of lines. It wasn't clear that this is what the character would turn into. And it's quite fortunate for me personally, because I'm not a massively sort of intellectual person in my real life. I love Fifty Shades of Grey. That's like my Star Wars. It suits me to play a character like him.”

Minghella surmises that this enduring romanticism is an outcome of nurture. His father, the late British director Anthony Minghella, made grand romantic dramas like Cold Mountain and The English Patient. And there was the young, cinema-mad Max sitting on the living room sofa, absorbing everything. “It’s taken me a long time to understand this,” he says of his prolonged childhood exposure to love stories. “My dad made The English Patient when I was 10. So it was two years of watching the dailies to that movie and then watching 50 cuts of it. And then [The Talented Mr.] Ripley he made when I was 13, and it was the same thing.” These were an adolescent Max Minghella’s alternative to reruns. “I think they did shape my perspective on the world in a lot of ways, specifically The English Patient. That was a complicated love story, and I wonder sometimes how much it's affected my psychology.”

Some sons rebel; others resemble. Minghella’s co-star O-T Fagbenle, who plays June’s other lover from before the time of Gilead, got his first job acting in Anthony Minghella’s romantic crime film Breaking and Entering. “Anthony is one the kindest, most beautiful men that I've ever had the privilege of working with before,” Fagbenle says. “And Max has his gorgeous, sensitive, open-minded soul.”

Though Minghella spent his childhood on the set of The Talented Mr. Ripley, playing an uncredited Confederate soldier role in Cold Mountain, and tooling around with a Super-8 camera Matt Damon gave him, he insists his upbringing was normal. He grew up in South Hill Park overlooking Hampstead Heath in London with his father and mother, the choreographer Carolyn Choa. (Minghella also has a half-sister, Hannah Minghella, who is now a film executive.) Yes, technically, it was London, but that’s not how it seemed. “I feel like I grew up in a very small town. Every school I went to was in Hampstead. I was born in Hampstead,” Minghella says of the small map dot of his life before university. “When I went to New York, I felt I was going to the big city.”

Despite his illustrious surname, movie-watching was far from restricted to the classics. “Beverly Hills Cop is definitely the movie I remember having an unhealthy obsession with. I think I saw it when I was 5 for the first time, and I'd watch it just two or three times a day for years. I'm just obsessed with it.”

Plenty of actors can trace their love of movies back to a love of stories, but for Minghella the relationship seems to flow in reverse. When he left for Columbia University, Minghella opted to study history for its connection, through storytelling, to film. It was during the summers between his years of college that he started taking acting more seriously. Before his graduation, he’d already appeared in Syriana, starring Damon and George Clooney. Soon, he’d make a splash as Divya Narendra in The Social Network in 2010 and be cast in Clooney’s Ides of March. As all young actors eventually must, Minghella moved to Los Angeles.

It’s been over a decade since he last lived on the Heath, but, perhaps unusually for a person who’s chosen his profession, Minghella is adamantly not a “shapeshifter,” in his words. Home for Christmas this year, he started sifting through old journals stored at his mother’s house, “just like scraps of writing from when I was extremely young up through my teenage years,” before coming to America. “It was hilarious to me,” Minghella says of staring at his childhood reflection. “My review of a movie at 7 years old is pretty much what my review of a movie at 35 will be. My taste hasn't changed much. And when I sort of love something, I do tend to continue to love it.”

Which brings us back to his enduring love of romance, born of his bloodline, which is all over Minghella’s own 2018 directorial debut. Teen Spirit is a hazily lit film about a teenage girl from the Isle of Wight — the remote British island where Max’s father Anthony was born — who enters a local X-Factor-style singing competition. (It stars Minghella’s rumored girlfriend of several years, Elle Fanning.) The story is small, but its crescendos are epic.

Minghella calls the movie — an ode to the power of the pop anthem — “embarrassingly Max.” Max loves a good music-driven movie trailer — he’s watched the one for Top Gun: Maverick “many” times. And Max loves the rhythmic beats of sports movies like Friday Night Lights. Max loves movies with excesses of female energy, like Spring Breakers. He likens Teen Spirit to an experiment, his answer to the question, “Can I take all these things that I love and find a structure that can hold them?” The result is a touching “hodgepodge” of Minghella’s fascinations, inspired by the songs from another thing he loves: Robyn’s 2010 album Body Talk (itself a dance-pop meditation on love).

Minghella hasn’t directed any films since, but he sees now how making movies fits his personality — organized, impatient — more organically than starring in them does. Directing also helped him to appreciate that acting is “much harder than I was giving it credit for,” which, in turn, has made him like it more. Besides The Handmaid’s Tale currently airing on Hulu, Minghella appears in Spiral, the ninth installment in the Saw horror franchise and, from where I’m sitting, at least, a departure.

“I do like horror movies, but the thing that was really kind of magical is that I was feeling so nostalgic, right? We talked about Beverly Hills Cop earlier. I was just missing a certain kind of movie,” Minghella explains of his new role as Chris Rock’s detective partner. He was yearning for simple story-telling, like in the buddy cop movies of his youth, especially 48 Hours. It almost goes without saying that a buddy cop movie is another kind of love story. “And then I read the script and it was very much in that vein.” He clarifies: “I mean, it's also extremely Saw. It's very much a horror movie.”

His renewed excitement for acting translated onto The Handmaid’s Tale set, too. Veteran Hollywood producer Warren Littlefield describes casting Minghella in the role of Nick as an effortless choice: “Sometimes you agonize over things. [Casting Minghella] was instantly clear to me, and everyone agreed.” Now in its fourth season, the tone of the Hulu hit is graver than ever. Gilead is more desperate to maintain its rule, and so more audacious in its violence. Perhaps it’s fitting that the show’s romantic gestures finally match that scale.

In one particularly soaring moment, Elisabeth Moss’ June and Minghella’s Nick meet at the center of a bridge and crush into a long kiss. It’s been two seasons since they held their newborn daughter together, and it’s hard to see how this isn’t their last goodbye. Littlefield, like Minghella, is here for the romance among the rubble. “It's spectacular when they come together. In the middle of all of the trauma is this epic love story,” he says. “Max is just magnificent in the role.”

For Minghella, the satisfaction is more personal. He works with good people, he likes his scenes, and he thinks Nick is a complex character. Minghella read The Handmaid’s Tale for the first time in college in 2005. Like all the things Minghella has ever liked, he still likes it. He’s as proud of this most recent season as he is the show’s first. And he watched Nick and June race recklessly back to each other across the expanse of the screen exactly how you might expect. “I watched it like a fan girl.”

#max minghella #the handmaids tale #the handmaid's tale #nick blaine #nick x june #june x nick #osblaine #*

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stonedgilbert · 4 years ago

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do you have a meta post about why jeremy has no relationship with elena and what lead to having no contact? if not, would you like to share now? i'm very interested in what you have to say! (especially considering i wholeheartedly believe jeremy has every right to hate her)

why THANK YOU FOR ASKING NONNIE! i don’t know if i’ve ever formally written out something fully, but i’ve definitely done mini-metas here and there that sort of point out SOME of the reasons he has no relationship with her - but, in reality, it’s a combination of a lot of reasons, both canon from the show and things i’ve come up with on my own. so... here we go.

ONE : the lack of pictures of jeremy in the gilbert household. this is something i’ve expanded on in a few ways, but really - it’s canon. if you actually pay attention, in the show, you see pictures of miranda and grayson, of elena, but... the ONLY picture you ever see of jeremy is a picture that elena has on her bedroom mirror. point blank, you never see anything else of him/his childhood in the household. now, i’ve sort of created this headcanon that, as miranda would have fallen pregnant with jeremy when elena was only a few months old (as i believe? that she is supposed to be sixteen at the beginning of season one, and jeremy is 14 in the first few episodes, and has turned 15 by the time 1x05 comes around - the closest i can get to an estimate, considering his birthday is october 13th, and 1x05 is the halloween episode, which mind you, i will never NOT be mad about the fact that even though he Has a canon birthday, his birthday is never actually celebrated on the show), they had sort of taken this effort, given their children were so close in age, and elena was adopted, that they made this... effort to make sure that elena would never feel second best, like less than because she was adopted, but within that effort (and because miranda most definitely had a closer relationship with elena, with that mother/daughter relationship), jeremy sort of... fell through the cracks. combined with my own headcanon that jeremy has a few learning disabilities that makes/made school incredibly hard for him, and the MAJORITY of his “quality time” with his parents was them helping him with him homework (which he hated, because he hated school), inevitably getting frustrated in that very “smart white wealthy suburban family doesn’t understand learning disabilities when it’s in their own child, even if they’re supportive of it in other kids” way, and then simply giving him the answers because it’s late and they’re tired and there’s just not enough time in the day to hold his hand through all of that work, thank you very much. (i also headcanon that miranda had been looking into getting him formally diagnosed before the gilbert parents died, but unfortunately it never happened, and he doesn’t actually discover he has a legitimate disability until denver) and then, he is never actually shown as having ANY friends before the accident. we are thrust into him being in with the stoner crowd, but that he only became involved with them because of his parents’ death, so... where are the friends? it’s my own particular headcanon that he was simply so bad at school, that doing his homework took so much time out of his day, that there just WASN’T enough time in the day to form legitimate friendships with anyone, so when they died, he sort of just... stopped doing homework. withdrew, and then had nobody, which is how he ended up with the stoners. but, all of those things combined, jeremy felt incredibly INFERIOR when it came to elena. the rest of the town heard “gilbert child” and IMMEDIATELY thought of elena. jeremy wasn’t much else other than the “other gilbert”. second fiddle. an afterthought. so in a lot of ways, he resents her because of that. it’s not HATRED... it doesn’t turn into hatred until you combine it with everything else, which brings me to...

TWO : jeremy was fourteen when the gilbert parents died. it is, arguably, old enough to be left home alone for an hour or so while they go pick up elena from a party she’s not supposed to be at. but that doesn’t change the fact that the both of them didn’t NEED to go. but they chose to, because (in jeremy’s mind) their first thought was always elena, and he was an afterthought. because they are not alive to say otherwise, there is a part of his mind that firmly believes that when they got the call from her, they didn’t even stop to think that he was (probably) in bed/asleep, and they would be leaving him alone. so he wholeheartedly blames her for their parents dying - both for going to the party in the first place, and for being so much of the ‘golden child’ that both miranda and grayson left without a second thought, when really, only one of them needed to go. to this day, jeremy has a certain degree of PTSD from that night, where if someone knocks on the door without him knowing that they’re going to be knocking (so, he needs someone to text him like ‘almost there’ so he can prepare), he is IMMEDIATELY thrown into a flashback of that night, of being woken up by the police knocking on the door and telling him that there’d been an accident, that he needed to go to the hospital, where he had to sit and wait for jenna to show up, which, since she was away at college, i also envision took at least a couple of hours. a couple of hours of him being completely alone, all because of elena (at least, that’s what he sees).

THREE : the memory tampering. after he discovers what she had damon do, he gets incredibly angry, and resents her for it. because the pain of vicki never went away (which, i headcanon for different reasons than the show gave, but still valid nonetheless), he really just saw it as a control tactic. she wasn’t helping him, because he still hurt, he still felt empty. and all of these things coming together, given that jeremy is still very young (this all happens in season 1, mind you), and not fully emotionally developed, so all of this pent up rage just builds inside of him, and it gets focused on the only thing he can find to focus it on - her. he doesn’t have a healthy outlet for it, so he attacks her, because it’s the only way he can find relief for what he’s going through. hating elena is easier than anything else, really.

FOUR : also, please note that if you pay attention in the show, there are MULTIPLE TIMES where they end the episode with jeremy angry at elena, and rightfully so, but because the the writers didn’t care about him, in the next episode, they’re back to normal (or whatever is normal for them at the time, at least), without elena ever saying she’s sorry or apologizing in a meaningful way, because 99% of her on-screen apologies to him are “i’m sorry you think that” and not actually owning up to what it is that she does. so, basically, when it comes to my jeremy - HE DOESN’T IGNORE WHAT SHE DOES. it’s why i’m a strong proponent of ‘if i write with an elena and she actually apologizes, jeremy is willing to have a marginally better relationship with her’, because... she just. never actually apologizes.

FIVE : then she drags him into the mess. and he hates her, for all the reasons i listed before this. and he’s just so angry that he firmly just “i do not believe your life is worth the trouble we are all going through for this”. ESPECIALLY when more people die on her account. his mindset at that point is just “just kill her and get it over with” because he is quite literally watching people around them die, time and time again, for her. he dies HIMSELF a few times, despite the fact that he certainly never wanted to, not for elena.

SIX : and then she sends him away. and he doesn’t hate her for that. his life is actually pretty good in denver - but he DOES hate her for bringing him back after sending him away, because they’re inconvenienced and need his ability to see ghosts, and he hates her because she literally takes away possibly the only chance he has at a normal life, a chance for him to actually get real help with his learning disabilities so he can get an education, and he just... doesn’t have a choice in the matter. she and damon show up like “okay time to come back” and he gets no. say. and when he’s back in mystic falls, that support for learning is no longer an option because everything is so hectic there, around them, so he... loses that. he loses his chance at a future, away from mystic falls, to be a normal man.

SEVEN : then they quite literally force him to become a hunter. he starts seeing the tattoo, literally out of nowhere, he can’t explain it, and they go “great so you need to kill more vampires so we can get the cure for your sister”. he never WANTED to be a hunter. there is literally a scene where they essentially force-trigger the hunter in him so he will kill a vampire to further progress his own tattoo, so they can use him as a map. and then there’s the fact that them FORCING him to do this leads to his death. and not even his first death, just one of the literally many deaths he’s gone through. something he NEVER WANTED TO DO, gets him killed. it just further fractures their relationship, and at that point, it’s basically beyond repair for me. BUT I STILL HAVE MORE DON’T WORRY.

EIGHT : then i do write him as having a bit of an affinity for kai, regardless of relationship status. in the end, it doesn’t actually matter if he’s dating kai or not, he just... develops this entrancement, attraction to him that draws him in and makes him pick kai over mystic falls and everyone in it - mostly because of how broken his relationship with elena already is, but i have also written a full meta on why jeremy is so protective of kai, and can see things in him that a lot of people ignore, mostly stemming from the idea of that just what jeremy went through growing up made him hate his sister, but after finding out how kai’s father treated him? there is a large part of jeremy that believes if he’d been put in the same situation, he would have turned out exactly like kai. and then ... kai dies. because of elena, really, but at that point, it really has nothing to do with elena. all jeremy knows is that the one person he truly cared about, the one person he felt that he had (regardless of how kai felt about him in return, and whether or not he was just manipulating him, or whatever) is gone. and he... breaks. he’s an adult at that point, and he crumbles, he’s angry, and i headcanon that the mystic falls gang had to hide elena’s magic-coma body not only from vampires who might want the cure that she has in her veins, but because of the fact that jeremy is actively hunting her, trying to find her so he can kill her, both as revenge on damon for taking away the one person he cared about (very ‘an eye for an eye’), and because he feels he has nothing left to live for, so if he dies in the pursuit, he’s okay with that. there’s even a part of him that believes he might get to see kai again if he dies, even.

NINE : this is the final Big Reason, and it’s sort of subjective. what makes jeremy FINALLY cut off all contact with elena, to the point of not even really telling his daughter that she has an aunt (cali literally thinks that she and jeremy are the only gilberts left in the world), is elena marrying damon. granted, some elena’s don’t take it into account, and it doesn’t even really make a difference overall in the relationship if they don’t get married, because jeremy’s already too lost in his hatred to ever have a real relationship with her again. but the way he sees it, it’s... damon killed him. and yes, later on, they become sort of friends. but because jeremy already hates elena so much, when she gets engaged, he sort of just sees it as a slap in the face. a sort of... “yes, i forgave him, but it was ME who he killed, you have NO RIGHT to forgive him for it. i am the only one who can do that”. and he sees it very much on her part as this idea of “my brother’s life doesn’t matter as long as i get what i want.” whether that’s true or not, it doesn’t matter, because that’s what he truly believes. granted, it’s only been cemented in his mind considering he has died multiple times for “her cause”, even when he specifically did not want to. he genuinely believes that, at that point, elena sees him as a means to an end, and not as a brother. again - WHETHER IT’S ACTUALLY TRUE OR NOT DOES NOT MATTER. what matters is that that is how he perceives it.

so uh. yeah. that’s why jeremy hates her and has no relationship with her. MIND YOU, i probably forgot something bc i didn’t actually sleep last night and i’m tired and this is super long, but AT THE VERY LEAST, these are the important bits.

#Anonymous #❪ 𝙲𝙰𝙽 𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙴𝙻𝚈 𝚂𝙿𝙴𝙻𝙻 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳 𝙲𝙰𝚃. ❞ ‖ headcanon.#❪ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚂𝙷𝙰𝙻𝙻 𝙱𝙴 𝙼𝚈 𝚂𝚀𝚄𝙸𝚂𝙷𝚈. ❞ ‖ save.

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kiss-my-freckle · 3 years ago

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8x10.

This episode is the entire series, but it pushes back to 8x1 in a huge way. They reverse the brothers and their humanity switch to build for the finale. The brother that forced his brother to turn is the brother that should sacrifice himself. Sorry, not sorry. Had they written season 8 with the intent to kill both brothers together, I wouldn’t have cared. But every bit of season 8 speaks of a Delena endgame... 8x1 to 8x9 being the biggest fraction of that.

In Damon’s mind, he died at age 24 during the CIvil War. He died as a human, and he died a hero.... the way he wanted his father to see him. He also timed it so that he never met Katherine. This plays out in his Phoenix stone hell. Bonnie walks in to find him sitting still as stone. This isn’t Sybil’s doing, it’s Damon’s. Stefan claims he’s hiding for the sake of not owning up to his shit, but he’s wrong. If Damon weren’t owning up to his shit, he wouldn’t be punishing himself. The front door is him purposefully doing that. He believes he belongs in hell, but he’s not dead, so he’s putting himself there in his mind. No different than 1994 pancakes, self-medicating while punishing himself. After all these years, Damon is giving it a rest, and resting purposefully to protect those he cares about. Meaning... no one can get in his head and hurt his friends the way Sybil did. She dug so deep, she got him to kill Tyler.

Stefan is in Ripper-mode for the sake of showing just how much he’s like Sybil. They switched shoes with Elena in season 2, but season 8 solidified it in a way that they needed to. Damon selling Stefan’s soul to Cade is no different than Stefan forcing Damon to turn. Damon’s hell through the front door is the memo he refers to when he’s talking to Stefan. That’s why he has it backwards. He didn’t go through the front door, Sybil took him straight through the back. Damon isn’t seeking forgiveness, but choosing to punish himself for what he blames himself for. He has no problem accepting responsibility for his own actions... as a monster.

"Everything on this planet is not your fault. My actions, what I do, it's not your fault. I own them. They belong to me. You are not allowed to feel my guilt."

Stefan plays a different role in creating the monster. To better explain it, just look at their scene cuts and the violence within them. They purposefully cut to Matt with his father. A creator is no different than a parent. A monster creating a monster. No different than The Blacklist being Jon Bokenkamp’s baby because he created the series. You can just as much destroy what you create. A quote from The Blacklist for the sake of it. “Your mother brought you into this world, Colin. Did you really think she couldn't take you out?” If Stefan ever wanted to be rid of Damon, all he had to do was kill him.

Consciously, Damon believes that he is in hell. For some reason, Damon thinks that's where he belongs. Well, how do we change his mind? Well, that's a question only Damon can answer. So I suggest you go in there and ask him yourself.

Understand the whole of his mind. Damon died as a human, so no one in his mind knows him as a vampire. Damon never became a vampire, so he never helped Liz accept her own daughter being a vampire. That’s why she’s torturing Caroline in his mind. And being tortured for the sake of forgiving the vampire that abused her at the beginning of the show. Her forgiveness pushed her out of Damon’s head because in that, she accepted his humanity. The theme of forgiveness, pushing back to her gifting him the vervain necklace in 8x7.

“It means that if you don't want to ring that bell, you have to forgive Damon for killing your sister. And if you can't, then you have to ring that bell 12 times by the top of the hour."

Stefan compels Matt, knowing full-well he won’t forgive Damon, his sister... with nothing but a hickie on her neck in Damon’s head. Because he doesn’t need Matt’s forgiveness.

As his creator and the vampire in his head, Stefan should be the one burning in hell in Damon’s front door. He’s choosing to carry Stefan’s blame, basically burning for him as he’s burning anyway because he no longer wishes Stefan an eternity of misery. Damon and Matt part on a sliver of good terms after he saves him and his father, then apologizes for what he did to Vicki. Even though he felt it, he never said it. And Stefan was the same that way. He forced Damon to turn, and felt that guilt, but didn’t apologize to Damon for it until season 2.

Damon’s letter to Bonnie is one of my favorite of the series. She herself said Damon didn’t have a choice while under Sybil’s control. She knows all about vampire Damon, and just how much Elena changed him. They spoke a lot in 1994 world.

Sybil knows. Stefan makes for a good partner when their agenda is the same, but he’s every bit like her sister. The argument they have at the end of the episode is every bit the reason Damon doesn’t apologize to Stefan. “You’re right. And I'd do it all again. Because you've always been the weak one.” Seline’s response is every bit what Stefan said of Damon. Sweet and earnest to a fault, but never strong. “You're weak. You'll be dead soon. You need this."

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felicia-cat-hardy · 3 years ago

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Max Minghella On 'The Handmaid's Tale,' His Dad, Romance, & 'Spiral'

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asks — the dog, not me — tenderly.

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romana73 · 5 years ago

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KLAUS & REBEKAH VS CESARE & LUCREZIA BORGIA. I PART

Post written by ME. The animated gifs listed AREN’T MINE and DON’T BELONG TO ME IN ANY WAY. In recent months I have been watching replies of TV Shows The Vampire Diaries (TVD) and The Originals (TO), TVD’s spin off. I realized one of hidden storylines I miss is incestuous relationship between Klaus and Rebekah, brother and sister, both ancient vampires and vampiric bloodlines progenitors. Many are indications and large subtext in two TV Show lead to realize relationship between brother and sister is incestuous. Unfortunately, Klaus and Rebekah’s relationship is never made concrete in story, there aren’t sex scenes or kisses between them. On the contrary, this storyline is left to die, in favor of normal and conventional ships such as Klaus/Caroline, Klaus/Camille and Rebekah/Marcel, in which there aren’t blood ties. Before continuing, I want to clarify a thing: in REAL life, incest DISGUSTS ME. In narrative fiction, however, if told well, brother and sister or/and cousins incest and ONLY THIS may like me. On this point, we must remember one thing: Klaus and Rebekah AREN’T 100% brothers, but HALF BROTHERS, since they have only their mother Esther as a common parent. In vampiric literature and fiction in general, however, incest between brother and sister is more common than it seems, especially since, as TVD and TO remind us, one of beautiful sides of being a vampire is to free oneself and be disconnected from morality, conventions and rules human. Here are some examples: 1) In Vampire Knight manga and anime, protagonist Yuuki Cross is torn between romantic love for Kaname Kuran, her brother, a pure blood vampire and noble bloodline, to which their parents have promised her and Zero Kyriu, plebeian vampire and vampire hunter, raised with her:

2) In TV show True Blood, vampire Eric Northman makes love with Nora, his vampire sister:

3) Protagonists of horror movies The Hamilton's and The Thompsons are 5 vampire brothers, 4 males and a girl, called Darlene and she’s also Wendell, her twin, lover; 4) In role-playing game Vampire The Masquerade and Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, between of family and vampire clan Giovanni’s habits, there is incest:

5) In Hemlock Grove TV Show, hybrid Roman Godfrey, partly human, partly vampire has a relationship with Letha Godfrey, his half-sister and cousin:

As for incestuous relationships between brother and sister in narrative level is long, but for vampires, I stop here. Nevertheless, none of these couples resembles Klaus and Rebekah. Incestuous brothers pair really resembles two vampires is Cesare and Lucrezia, of The Borgias, 2011 Canadian TV Show:

Big difference is in The Borgias third season, Cesare and Lucrezia physically consume their love, weaving a relationship, Klaus and Rebekah don't even kiss one another. Before moving on to parallels, however, I would like to show moments are indicative, in my opinion, of an incestuous relationship between Klaus and Rebekah: 1) Klaus's blatant jealousy for Rebekah's boyfriends and his habit of killing them or stabbing Rebekah, causing her to fall into torpor (vampire’s deep sleep) to separate her from them:

2) Klaus's habit of always searching, until he finds her, and not leaving without her. A question Klaus asks most often in TVD and TO is: "where is Rebekah?"

3) In 3x03 TVD episode and 1x03 TO episode, first Stefan then Camille mistake Klaus for Rebekah's FIANCE and remain perplexed when he replies he’s her brother:

4) In TVD's 4x02 episode, disappointed by fact Klaus saved Caroline, abandoning her, Rebekah attacks Klaus, shouting, despite everything, she has always loved him and she has always been close to him:

5) In TVD 4x04 episode, Klaus and Rebekah’s battle continues and their argument between contains ambiguous sentences: "You broke my neck”

“You threw away Elena's blood so I can't make anymore hybrids”

“Because you took me for granted!”

“ That's what big brothers do, sweetheart” (Rebekah and Klaus, 4x04, The Vampires Diaries) "[...] I mean, it's pathetic, really isn't it? How she continues to hand her heart to any man who shows her a hint of affection, you think she would learn by now from the endless cycle disappointment of and deception”

“But, I haven't.. instead, I STAY WITH YOU and let you leach every moment of happiness from my life” (Klaus and Rebekah, 4x04, The Vampires Diaries) 6) In TVD 3x08 episode and TO 1x02, first Elena, then Hayley, openly ask Rebekah WHAT'S REALLY BETWEEN HER and KLAUS, both surprised, even when she seems to hate him, she continues to love him:

6) There are other sentences lead us to think about true nature of Klaus and Rebekah’s relationship:

“[...] I'm bored. I want to go”

“Then go without me, I'm not your GIRLFRIEND”

“No, you're my sister, which means...You have to do as I say”

(Klaus and Rebekah, 3x03, The Vampire Diaries)

A sister or cousin doesn’t respond to her brother or cousin: "I’m not your girlfriend", to limit she says "you aren’t my father" ...

let's continue:

“Nik was MY FAMILY. If you were after him, you were after me”

(Rebekah to her father Michael about Klaus, 3x09, The Vampire Diaries)

Oh, WOW!

“Again with the wishes. Let me rephrase, you will come back with me or I will put you back in that coffin in which you rotted for 900 years”

“What happens to one, happens to all. You may not feel the effects of the dagger, but you'd lose YOUR PRECIOUS REBEKAH”

“Wouldn't be the first time”

( Klaus and Finn, 3x18, The Vampire Diaries)

“You could have come after me!”

“YOU WERE WITH KLAUS! I didn't know where, I didn't know if you still wanted to be with me! All you had to do was come home!”

(Rebekah and Marcel, 1x07, The Originals)

No matter how jealous a brother may be, why would a boyfriend be afraid to go and look for girl he loves and, above all, why should he think she might prefer her brother to him?

"You betrayed me. My OWN sister! " (Klaus to Rebekah, 1x08, The Originals)

"She's your sister. How can you hate her?”

“Because she has done what no one else has managed to do to me for 1,000 years... RIP MY HEART OUT” (Camille and Klaus, speaking of Rebekah’s betrayal, 1x15, The Originals)

Oh ... double WOW!

“You have no idea, do you? You have no idea what she was prepared to do for you [...]” (Elijah to Klaus, about what Rebekah was willing to do for Klaus, 1x16, The Originals)

Triple WOW, remember Rebekah, still human, was about to KILL her FATHER Mikael FOR KLAUS!

6) In TO 1x02 episode, Klaus tells he LOVE his sister Rebekah and, while other men come and go, HE’S CONSTANT in her life. In same episode, we learn Rebekah helped Klaus to GROW Marcel, whom he regarded as a SON. In TO 2x22 episode, Klaus asks Rebekah to stay in city and GROW his daughter Hope with him and Freya's help; 7) A perplexing narrative solution is Esther's choice, in TO 2 season, to transfer Rebekah’s soul and spirit into Camilla’s body, woman for whom Klaus and Marcel feel romantic feelings ... this isn’t first time Esther uses Rebekah to deceive Klaus. In TVD 3x20 episode, Esther enters Rebekah's body to trick Klaus and finish her plan with Alaric; 8) We cannot forget, then, Tristan, his sister Aurora and Lucien’s story, who remember Klaus/Rebekah/Marcel triangle, only with a vein of madness. Developed by Elaijah, Rebekah and Klaus, relationship between Tristan and Aurora is morbid and all-encompassing, so much so out of pure jealousy, Tristan almost tortured Lucien to death, on suspicion he was his sister's lover... only Klaus intervention, who created him, saved Lucien...

9) Watching TVD and TO we note when Klaus has to donate his blood to other vampires, he offers his wrist to women (Caroline in TVD 3x11 and 4x13, Elena in TVD 4x03), feeling pleasure when they drink. When Klaus must give his blood to men, he cuts his wrist, making blood flow in a glass, and then he pass it to victim. Only in extreme cases of life and death does Klaus offer his wrist to FAMILY men. For example, to Marcel in TO 1x22, when Marcel SAVES Hope born from witches, although he’s dying from Klaus' bite:

This is because, perhaps, as Damon explains to Elena in TVD 4x02, blood exchange between two VAMPIRES (Blood Sharing) is something PERSONAL (also sensual judging Damon and Klaus reactions when a vampire woman sucks their blood). That's why he left me puzzled to see Klaus urgently and rebelling give his wrist to Rebekah to get her back...

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scorpio-karma · 6 years ago

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Let's Finish Season Fucking Two: 2x18-22

So in 2017 I started to rewatch the show but had to stop at 2x11 because Elena annoyed the crap out of me. I literally needed to take a step back and didn't restart my rewatch until 2018 where I have been basically trudging my way through 2x12-17 because I want to rewatch S3, as it's the season I've forgotten the most about.

So last week with a half of a bottle of wine I made it my mission to finish out the season so 2019 I can rewatch season 3 and maybe remember Kol, but I kinda doubt it. I'll probably come out shipping Klonnie more, if I don't see too many temper tantrums.

2x18:

First of all, this is a terrible episode to start with because it's the episode where Bonnie dies for the first time, so dealing with that is going to be annoying. Second of all why do the recap always explain that Elena and Katherine look alike. Not only is that the least complicated part of the show, but it's also the entire fucking premise of TVD. If you didn't know that by the end of season 2 you're really fucking slow, but I guess they planned according for their audience. Also, lots of people look like Nina, so I don’t know how this is the most “unbelievble part of the show.

Anyway, on to the episode. Matt Davis made a great Klaus. I may hate him, but I'm not ashamed to admit he was attractive to me playing the evil Original, but he equally creeped me out which is why I say he made a great Klaus. The way he kissed Katherine's forehead and basically leered at Elena and other students honestly made me more uncomfortable than watching Penn Badgley in You. Davis should play villains more often, seems to be his niche since Legally Blonde. (Although he didn't do a great job with evil!Alaric in season 3 from what I remember, it was a weak storyline that even I couldn't get into when I mindlessly watched the show, it was how I noticed the drop in quality then) Don't get me wrong I like JoMo's portrayal of him too just really only this season before they woobiefied him.

You know, rewatching all of this I’m noticing more and more that Nina isn't that great of an actress. Like, I was never overwhelmed with her talent before and I definitely am not now especially as I watch her play Katherine scared and there is no difference in the way she plays Elena scared. It's like how Elena with no Humanity is Katherine, well Katherine scared for her life is Elena. There's no nuance when she plays these characters. The only difference is the hair and when season 4 rolls around not even that.

Which brings me to Elena stupidity which I'm not even surprised. First, knowing her life is in danger she goes to school and endangers others lives, under the order of it's my way. Which first of all sweetie, your way has always sucked, until you yield good results maybe hold off on making plans. Second of all, the only reason you know you'll be fine is because Bonnie will save you which is a consistent pattern of hers--risking her life with the confidence that someone will always save her which annoys me because what about everyone else. First it was not staying in the car so she hindered saving Stefan, then it was manipulating Damon, and now it's risking everyone else's lives including Bonnie's because school? Which is where I get confused, no one, especially her, are particularly studious, so why the sudden need to go to school. You could ditch and no one would care because Jenna's out of town.

Which brings me to another thing which I'm sure I went over when Jenna left, but leaving teenagers alone for days at a time because you feel betrayed by your boyfriend and teenage niece you have guardianship over is just...I have no words.

When I was 15 my mom had to go out of town for a convention in San Francisco I couldn't come with her due to school. She was gone for 3 days and I had to stay with my Great Aunt and Uncle because even at 15 you don't just leave your kids alone for days at a time (and also my mom was over protective and paranoid but that's beside the point). At least leave an adult in charge, maybe John, he's probably got to be salty that Jenna was God parent and not him, he is in fact Elena's actual father. There were so many nuances with John the could have had, but I'll get to that in later episodes.

See I understand Jeremy being salty at John for killing his girlfriend, who by the way managed to get over it, but I don't understand Elena's disdain for him. It was there before she found out he was her father, before he enabled the device, she just didn't like him and it's never explained. Like honestly when I think about the reason Elena annoys me the most it isn’t that she whines (which has never really been my big complaint with her), it’s the reasons she’s whining and in this case I have extra annoyance because there are actual reason for her to be this salty towards John and none of them are the reasons she uses.

I noted that Klaus had no plans of killing Bonnie until she became a legitimate threat. The only thing that’s honestly annoying me about this is the direction I know they take Bonnie and her magic in season three. She’s powerful and a legit threat against the original hybrid and yet she’s damn near powerless in later seasons it just irks me.

Also noted, I’m not making any arguments for Bamon, it’s just there is a stark difference in chemistry when Damon dances with Bonnie opposed to Elena. For one, when he’s with Elena he legitimately looks like he can’t dance, all his lines are stiff, as are Elena’s. I can at least forgive Nina since she’s supposed to be frosty towards him, but Ian, this is during a time he was dating her meaning he wasn’t pulling petty shit from the finale--he just legitimately doesn’t have chemistry with Elena.

When he’s Bonnie all of that changes, suddenly he does have dance skills, his lines flow naturally, even his acting improves tenfold and he can play nuances that aren’t eyebrow movement. There’s a reason why he’s only bearable when he’s in scenes with Kat unfortunately those scenes are far and few between and always about Elena.

In a weird twist of events Bonnie has the better costume than Elena--she doesn’t even look like a caricature of the 60s other than the go-go boots. Also Caroline dressed as Jackie O. has an amount of irony I don’t even thing she’s aware of.

Bonnie bossing Jeremy around was hot which is new for me as I don’t care anything about Beremy. That paired with Damon’s “not caring” it was an overall good episode for Bonnie...until she’s stuffed in the trunk of Damon’s Camero.

Bonnie’s line “If the situation was reversed would you do it for me?” just has me rolling my eyes because we all know the answer to that--no, Elena wouldn’t do the same for you Bonnie and she continually doesn’t do the same for you so cut your losses. In fact that’s my advice for the entire series, cut your losses, let Elena die, so many more people will get to live when she does.

So when we do finally get to Bonnie’s death I actually agreed with Damon’s sentiment of “it had to look real” Elena is a terrible actress (Elena not Nina though she has a lot of questionable acting), it’s so bad they trusted Jeremy more and he’s not so great either. Also why are they spending so much time on Elena’ pain at Bonnie’s death and not the character who actually died--it’s the Abby situation pre-Abby, like we should have seen that shit a mile away if this is any indicator.

Although, in an unexpected twist, the episode ends on a a decision of Elena’s I agreed with. Granted it came with me screaming at Elena for apologizing to Damon like??? even if I understood the reasoning she literally owed him nothing, but count on Plec with misogyny for the win, and Williamson lest we forget he’s also responsible for this mess. Anyway after Damon’s words, Elena undaggering Elijah was the best decision she made and this is before the betrayal, so I at least understand trusting him.

2x19:

We start with Nina’s god awful English accent. When she ran lines someone should have made her keep the Bulgarian on from the first Katherine flashbacks because Nina can’t fake an accent to save her life. Also much like the flashback in S7 the Katherine flashbacks with Elijah and Klaus are not only unnecessary, but explain very little. How exactly did Katherine escape? Why didn’t they compel her? Did she have access to vervain? Like little is explained about her duality then and why exactly Elijah had issues Katherine. All that was explained is that they were almost lovers. Honestly all we learned about Katherine is that she really likes for people to chase after her.

Damon is just as bad at plans as Elena. Like I hate them both, but sometime DE are a match made in heaven with how awful they are at things. Like I understand trusting Elena’s lead is actually pretty rational given her past decisions, but you way of thinking isn’t any better. Leave the thinking to those who can actually do it.

This is JoMo’s first episode and you know what? I really miss this Klaus. Also when they do the “Niklaus” reveal I thought it was absolutely ridiculous when I first watched it. I still find it ridiculous, but I realize that much like Mikael, Kol, and Rebekah, it was the “fancy” way of spelling Nicolas, and I’m even more pissed off. No wonder I equate the introduction of each Original to introducing another Kardashian--they really love their K’s.

Elijah trying to use OMG as a cultural reference was just cringe. “Our whole family was human” I wonder at what point they decided to retcon this? Probably around the time they realized they could do anything creative with vampires. Also this line “my mother bore seven children” I thought no one knew Freya existed. Finn, Elijah, Klaus, Rebekah, Kol, Henrik, and then Freya--how is she their long lost sister if they already knew about her?

You know I spent so much time away that I literally forgot about Andie, and now I’m very creeped out. They follow the classic domestic abuse formula where she keeps coming back when she has the option to leave. You know, when rape becomes Stolkholm Syndrome and in Plec and Williamson form they try to convince you that this is a normal vampire thing even having the victim saying “I’m perfectly fine with this”. There were so many Nos.

I remember that the whole Sun and the Moon curse was fake, what I did not remember is that Klaus and Elijah started it. I thought Esther started it to dupe Klaus and that the whole sacrifice was for no reason. I have yet to see S3 so that thought might still be correct. Also, white supremacy essentially causing the war between vampires and werewolves--not surprising, but still disappointing.

Jenna’s reaction to finding out about vampires is appropriate granted her cluelessness up until this point is a whole other level. And Stefan’s serious face towards Klaus seems to to just look at him cross-eyed which I never noticed. And of course we end the episode on on of the lamest vampire fights of all time--they really ran out of ideas around here.

2x20:

So Tyler’s back! Unfortunately it’s because Klaus threw his mom down a flight of stairs. Man, he’s been hurting his mom for quite some time. That sire bond really did a number on him to forget this shit. At least he has that excuse, all Elena ever had was “love” and “hope” like bitch,Damon’s been terrorizing your friends and family, he’s had more than enough chances to prove himself. Also Tyler came back for important things. Sorry, Caroline stans, but Caroline missing him isn’t important when his freedom is on the line.

“Damon s the problem, not Caroline,” listen to Matt, Liz.

I’ll give Matt Davis this, he was a pretty good actor here. The distinct differences between Alaric and Klaus were a lot better than the cliches Nina was using. But then again because he only put against her acting that’s probably why it seemed good. I’m sure there is a lot better (I’ve never seen Orphan Black but I don’t doubt she did a better job at playing her clones than Nina did with any of her doppelgangers).

It must be easy to brutalize Elena after brutalizing Katherine so much--he never missed an opportunity to hit her. Although him shoving vamp blood down Elena’s throat wasn’t as anger inducing as it should have been since it reminded me of a time when Damon being the wild card actually made sense. Not just so much that given how early it is in the show him doing random things makes sense, but that his random actions make sense, less man pain, and was actually strategic.

Also why didn’t Katherine drink vamp blood and then go through with the sacrifice--they had the same results except one less angry hybrid. Is this ever explained as to why vamp blood can’t be in your system for the ritual?

Which now that Elena is essentially taken care of, I suggest using the elixir on Bonnie so she can take down Klaus without dying and then we can avoid the whole thing.

Tyler really should have listened to Jules, but then again, I know she’s the one who dies in the end so maybe she should have followed her own advice.

Also I remembering why SE was never my jam--it was a lot of babysitting Elena and her “I don’t knows”. THEN STOP MAKING MAJOR LIFE DECISIONS UNTIL YOU DO KNOW. “I’m 17 years old, how am I supposed to know any of this?” you aren’t sweetie and that’s exactly the point however I don’t understand how being a vampire is worse to her than the possibility of being dead. From what she lists off as what she wants to do, they all can still happen as a vampire, not so much when you’re dead. And even if she does turn she doesn’t have to fully transition so I don’t get the mourning period she’s having especially since THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO FOCUS ON. Priorities, bitch.

I get Matt wanting to save Caroline--he clearly still loves her, but saving Damon? He said it himself--he’s the problem, he’s the reason your sister is dead, God! protagonist based morality really gets to me these seasons.

“You turned your back on me when I needed you” but did he, Caroline? If I recall, he saved you in the nick of time so...Also, you asked him to leave, what’s with playing victim all of a sudden (while equally forgetting the time you were a victim). Also, Caroline, you really need to listen to Tyler when he tells you to go, granted the other time she does this is in S5, but he’s literally in a position where he’s not in control of his actions and you are what he hunts. Go, when he says go! These women really need to stop with this “He’ll never hurt me” mentality when their monster is coming out because, bitch, how is that working out for ya?

Also the final scene with Klaus, Stefan, and Elena, I swear most of the dramaticism is in the music the scene isn’t heartbreaking enough for this music. And in a town filled with vampires Klaus needed to make a vampire? I remember not liking Jenna’s death and I like it even less here because it really was for no reason other than the writers don’t know how to write parental figures.

Which brings me to Greta. Her complete and utter indifference to her family being dead is really on par with TVD’s views on family. Even worse, it continues this black character forsakes all family for a white character mammy trope they always have with black witches. Although she does fit the Jezabel trope more, but I’m really tired of “loyal” black characters being loyal to everyone but themselves.

2x21:

This honestly should have been the season/series finale--it actually had a great natural ending. The only thing I’d tweak is Elijah following through, and then it would have been the perfect conclusion to this shit show. Instead we go on for another six seasons where they accomplished nothing other than more of a shit show.

So of course we start with Katherine “caring” for which honestly makes no canonical sense. Damon has literally always been a game for her so why either doppelganger bothers with him just honestly baffles me.

Also we start out with some classic Elena “pleading to their humanity” which was almost as laughable with Greta as it was with Kai. Like Bitch, did you not just see how she brushed off the deaths of her family, why is she going to give a flying fuck about you of all people?

Also Greta, sweetie, what are you doing? I get not wanting to serve nature, but Klaus? WHAT IS THIS NEW ORDER AND WHAT DOES SHE GET OUT OF IT? Because from where I’m standing, she’s in the exact same position as servant just now with an added side of “happy slave” because it wouldn’t be an episode of TVD without that trope. Despite TVD using black bodies as food, I will give Jenna props for going after Greta--someone finally using strategy and knowing Klaus has nothing without his witch.

Which brings me to how the MFG plans to defeat Klaus--they don’t and I’m not surprised since it focused completely on Elena. Elena is one out of three sacrifices and the only irreplaceable item--why not focus on the full picture and maybe accomplish something in the end. I’ll give it to Bonnie and her bad ass magic, but it’s honestly not enough. The entire plan hinged on Elijah who betrays them and Elena for some reason trusts again getting Abby killed and turned, but that’s salt for another review.

The salt for now is that Jeremy and Bonnie have been together in an abandoned house for days on end with really nothing to do, and they tried to convince me that season 5 was the first time her and Jeremy had sex, let alone that was her first time. I was suddenly reminded why I thought it was so weird to me that everyone thought that was when Bonnie lost her virginity--like I’d read it in fanfics and be just confused. Granted she hadn’t had a sex scene up until that point, but given the shows attitude toward sex I just assumed lack of virginity was everyone’s default. And then you had this shit, Beremy was never my favorite ship, but I wasn’t so in hatred of them that I would discredit them having a sex life because why wouldn’t they? Everyone else does, and given the shows attitude toward sex, if she was in fact a virgin that would have been known. Of course, my naive 16 year-old ass didn’t realize how asexual they were making her, but now at 25 and looking back at this I’m just pissed.

So when I looked back on season 2 I remember John being more of a villain, not surprising since the narrative treats him as such, but I literally remember him being turned into a vampire against his will and continuing the process. I’m realizing now I may have had him confused with Logan, but I was really surprised when throughout this entire rewatch John is human and then getting to this episode, knowing he dies at the end and the realizing he never was. I thought he was one before Jenna and that was just all kinda of wrong. I guess it’s because the episode had him apologize for all his wrong doings (none of which were his actual transgressions) and I guess my mind tried to rationalize.

Given my complete indifference towards Elena, it is kinda surprising that John’s letter to her still makes me cry, but I’ve always had the sentiment that John is the only person who made any sense sacrificing his life for Elena. TVD may not value familial relationships but I do. However his “prejudices” line gets to me because he was right--vampires are dangerous, and it irks me that Elena wasted the life he gave her. She doesn’t even manage to stay human for a fucking year, and not by her choice which he gave his blessing for. She just Elena’d it.

Overall this probably would have actually been a good episode if Klaus had actually died and it was the last episode. John dies for Elena, Elijah gets his revenge against Klaus, Damon is left for dead, and the series ends on the note that they’re no longer in danger--the end, finito, better than the acid trip series finale.

2x22:

If this episode needed to happen it should have been Damon’s farewell episode. Actually follow through on something with his character and have him make amends and having a heartfelt goodbye. End series and have every live happily ever after because Klaus and Damon are gone, and Katherine who had no relevance after this season leaves as she had no reason to stick around. Like this is where the series should have ended--it had a nice sense of finality missing from the actually series finale.

Anyway, on to the mess of a fucking episode it was first with Stefan, ever so loyal, ruining what could have been a great Damon death. Now this isn’t really because I dislike his character, it’s more that him dying especially here would have been at a time where that would be an actual loss, this anti hero role Plec kept insisting he was might have been able to have been accomplished with his death in this one episode. And best of all, I wouldn’t have had to deal with one more temper tantrum from him or Klaus.

Watching Alaric’s man pain is marginally easier to deal with because it’s not destructive, but then again he’s human so what would he have done. I’m sure original vampire Alaric would have went on some massacres because they can’t resist man pain destruction.

Caroline once again shoehorned, in today’s episode, a brother sister bonding moment between Jeremy and Elena that would, once again, suit Bonnie more, if even her at all because this is a scene that doesn’t require Caroline, but you gotta giver her that unnecessary screen time some how.

Stefan going to Emily literally makes no sense. As does Stefan’s entrance to the witch house. What do these women owe Stefan Nothing. What do these women owe Damon? Nothing. So the insistence that they help him makes no sense. But of course a black witch not serving a white vampire is useless to Plec so here we are.

The urgency of this episode was lost on me because it was getting in the way of a good plot--Damon’s death. Also after reanalyzing Jeremy’s death scene I’ve come to a few conclusions. First: in a crazy twist of events it is not in fact Damon’s fault. He was literally hallucinating out of his mind so I doubt he was thinking about anything logical. Second: Caroline snapping his neck before he officially died could have saved him. Bonnie even said it outloud--he needed to die a supernatural death to come back. In fact, it probably would have made more sense characterization wise given how she became a vampire. And lastly: even if Bonnie needed to bring him back the “spirits” shouldn’t have been so hard on her especially since they weren’t that hard on Stefan earlier. Like he shouldn’t have had to step one foot in that house--he’s still a murderous vampire, I don’t care how much of a “kind soul” he was as human that certainty didn’t translate into vampire form.

Overall this episode was abysmal but so is this series. My overall thoughts on season 2 is that it’s easily a stronger season, but still is god awful and has not aged well. Also the series would have really benefited if it was a two season vampire series from the late 2000s unfortunately that time period wouldn’t allow that. At the hype of vampires they were determined to milk that for everything they could and the still are with the train wreck that is Legacies. They need to let it die.

#tvd rewatch #tvd review #s2e18-22 #live watch #anti tvd #anti plec #anti williamson

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zalrb · 7 years ago

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TVD 1x17 Review

1. I legitimately don’t understand Pearl and the others’ desire to stay in MF and that’s what happens when the flashbacks are mostly about Katherine, Stefan and Damon. These vampires should’ve been pillars of the community and then turned on or something to that effect because then the desire to stay in the town would be reasonable. If they just want to kill people then they could go out and kill people.

2. “I’m sorry he just makes me so cranky.” That’s all, Elena? The rapist and attempted murderer of your best friend just makes you cranky? Cool. But the way she folds into Stefan and closes her eyes as she leans against his chest, that level of solace and comfort and relief is so great to see.

3. “Which means nothing if you’re not safe too!” I love how Stefan brushed her hair and then she moves her hands from his chest to his wrists. Little details, man, little physical details.

4. Their fireplace hug is still one of my favourites. They’re just wrapped around each other.

5. Jeremy, cut your hair.

6. Also manipulating Anna like that is mean. Then again, she manipulated you too. So, fair, I guess.

7. I love how Matt gently teases Caroline about staying off her cell phone. They were mad cute.

8. I forget. Was it established that tomb vampire dude knows Stefan’s routine, that he would know that Stefan would hunt for animal in the woods?

9. I like how this rain scene had all the DErs like OMG DE RAIN, TENSION, LOVE and Elena is literally trying to fight Damon to get into a house full of vampires to get Stefan back.

10. Even the way Damon holds Elena’s head is like he’s talking to his sister-in-law.

11. This is a terrible situation for Stefan but I am seeing topless Paul so I mean, plus.

12. Alaric is also hella chill about the fact that Damon killed Ms. Gibbins.

13. “Who is that?” “It’s not my mother.” I don’t know, Michael’s delivery was done well here.

14. Anna, Jeremy, you two aren’t even being subtle about secret texting. Like Jeremy is deadass standing up and LOOKING at you AS he texts.

15. LMAO I am LAUGHING because Elena runs out of the car and when she gets to the house, she realizes there’s a separate entrance leading to the basement and that’s where she goes to get Stefan. If Damon had actually done some recon on the house and did that too then he would’ve only had to kill the vampire standing guard of Stefan and then they could’ve gone out the same way Elena got in. Much simpler plan.

16. “What about you?” Elena, there’s no reason why you should care if Damon lives or dies.

17. I just realized that when Elena falls down and scrapes her hand, Stefan stares at it, hungry obviously, and then asks “Are you OK?” My guy was legit tortured and he’s asking about Elena, which is like in 2x21 when he keeps saying “I’m so sorry” even though Damon pulled a bitch ass move and stabbed him. And people want to talk about how he never loved Elena enough?

18. Fredrick! That’s tomb dude’s name.

19. I also find it hilarious that in season 4 they make this entire narrative about Elena being this lost little girl who was too scared to do anything when she literally went into a house full of vampires to save Stefan in this episode and then stabbed one with a vervain dart. She was more active as a human.

20. Elena feeding Stefan her blood is still such a beautifully tragic scene. Paul’s look of anguish gets me every time, he is in so much pain but what shines through the most is this profound fear for Elena and it’s heartbreaking but Elena’s insistence of staying by his side and trusting him with her vein, so a powerful scene for their relationship.

21. And the way she smiles when he responds to her blood. I have this post about how agitated Elena gets when Stefan is hurt and how relieved she is, like physically and mentally and emotionally relieved when he gets better.

22. Also Stefan immediately retracting his vampire face when he shoves Elena and that absolute look of embarrassment and shame and guilt is WONDERFUL, Paul is such an underrated actor.

23. An anon asked me about underrated SE scenes and I haven’t gotten around to answering it, but one of them is the scene I’m watching where Elena is clearly distraught at seeing Human Blood Stefan and says he was like this whole other person and she’s nervous and anxious and then Stefan touches her face and she closes her eyes and she has this look of almost serenity on her face as he continues to stroke it and it’s like, he’s always that person, no matter what, he is that person for her.

24. I think we could’ve lingered on Elena sort of just sinking onto the stairs after coming home from Matt’s when he finds out Vicki is dead and Jeremy is going upstairs and have her just sort of bunch her hair in her fists or something, I don’t need her to cry but like something to show conflict.

25. And Stefan shame-drinking blood is pretty fucking sad.

Thanks for reading! I will try to do another review tonight but I have a thing I need to go to in like 5 minutes so it depends on how long it’ll be and how buzzed I’m going to get, which means either a drunk review or no review tonight.

#stelena #stefan salvatore #elena gilbert #tvd 1x17 #the vampire diaries #let the right one in #tvd let the right one in #the vampire diaries 1x17 #paul wesley #nina dobrev #dobsley #tvd review #tvd meta #meta #review #anti-tvd #anti julie plec #anti caroline dries #kevin williamson

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nathjonesey-75 · 6 years ago

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A Day In A Life

They say retrospect is a wonderful thing. To be able to review; objectively and honestly – moments, times or even periods of time. Critically or loosely. Positively or negatively. Sometimes that essential clarity of thought cannot be granted until enough time has passed, as the mind (it has been known) to play tricks on us. In this particularly unique instance it has taken me this long – twenty-two years, in fact – to be openly able to absolutely look everything in the eye and be brutally frank. To the point where it’s almost completely written in the third-person, about another individual.

I suppose it could be as much the self-therapy I’ve wanted to gift myself, as it is hopefully a document of mental health learning for others. Tomorrow I will turn the grand, fuddy-duddy, middle-aged, wrinkle-washed age of forty-four. Double the age of probably the most pivotal and instrumental birthday anniversary of my life. Those who have known me forever will know why – but as I try not to assume that I know everything about everyone – this is a story from a very jittery life journey. Having lost people; friends and acquaintances from my generation to mental health struggles and coping mechanisms which didn’t work – “every little helps”, as Tesco says.

On Wednesday, May 7th, 1997, I travelled back to Nottingham; to my university life, having visited my mother after a write-off, nasty car accident had broken both her legs. She used to tell me up to that point “I’ve been driving twenty-five years and had no accidents, so don’t tell me how to drive!” When the time had clearly come to blemish the self-prognosed perfect driver’s record – it was done in destructive style. Anyway, having left my pin-legged mother in Llanelli, I returned to pre-arranged birthday drinks in Nottingham. A month or so away from completing my BA (Hons) Communication Studies course, this was to be probably the last big celebration before a month of coursework was to be completed. Life was good (apart from the aforementioned Mrs Damon Hill-Jones’s road exploits).

After a few hours of not paying for any drinks, I felt on the brink of being annihilated - should I drink any more. So, after running into my work colleague from my part-time job at the Beatroot nightclub, the two of us diverted from Sam Fay’s late bar – to his nearby flat, near Nottingham castle, so I could chill out for an hour. The plan was to return and see the night out until 2am. Whether the walk and fresh air had helped or not, I had a semi-second wind. We got to his flat and my ideals of birthday grandeur got the better of me. I wanted a bottle of bubbles. At that time of night, the only place I could get one would be a nightclub, so we ordered a taxi to take us to…sigh….The Black Orchid. A cheesy, yet huge club in the enterprise park which had Wednesday student night on. Did I need the bottle? No, yet the cab was booked.

It was at this point that my mental hard drive crashed. My next memory was waking up in a hospital bed, the following afternoon, with not only my friends around the bed, but my father as well. I opened my eyes and asked; “What happened?”, as if I was in a scene of a film where the character had woken up in heaven – only to be sent back to earth with a completely abstract life narrative to the one which was being played up to the Wednesday. Turns out I had probably had another drink at my friend’s, at some point of the night consumed a small amount of amphetamines, then passed out on the first-floor landing, but falling sharply down the twenty feet of stairs on my head, all the way.

Now, with music playing loudly, my workmate and his flatmate heard nothing. It was their neighbour who heard a large ‘thud’, who rang the doorbell in concern which alerted them, along with the taxi which had arrived outside. There was blood everywhere. I had fractured my skull, torn nerves while breaking my nose and had a slight haemorrhage on the side of my head. Five days were spent in Nottingham’s QMC Hospital, mostly sleeping. On the Saturday, I remember getting out of bed in a complete fuzzy daydream, wearing only one of those crappy bed gowns; walking to the toilet with the nurse calling after me “Nathan! Where are you going?” “Home!” was the abrupt, muddled answer. I urinated, went back to bed and proceeded to enter hibernation once again.

Doctors said I was lucky to be alive. There was a dent at the front of my cranium, around an inch long. Had that been an inch higher in position on my skull – I was told I would have died. Those nerves I severed were my smell and taste nerves, so I’ve had very diminished senses in those departments, since. Most pivotal – was my doctor, back in Llanelli; once I returned and spent another five days in Prince Phillip Hospital, he said “You will experience some depression and levels of fatigue.” Immediately, in my head I decided – no I won’t. Not the depression, anyway. I’ll find a way of keeping lively and feeling good. The fact Being ruled out of playing rugby or football for at least nine months became a huge problem. My penultimate match played before the incident was for Wales Students Rugby League team against Scotland. The previous summer I had trained pre-season with my beloved Llanelli RFC, with the likes of Stephen Jones and Ieuan Evans; taking my fitness to a new level. I was twenty-two with the world at my feet. There was no way I was stopping. Unsurprisingly, it took a very short space of sleepy, anxious time to realise I’d have to succumb to the doctor’s prognoses.

Panic attacks began, embarrassingly in public while visiting a friend for their birthday in August 1997, having seen out three months of ‘no alcohol’ from my doctor’s orders. I had no energy. Not even enough to complete my coursework, so Nottingham Trent University gave me an extension of three months – to the end of August, to submit my work. However, I was living away from the university and my beloved friends. What the hell was happening? No energy; forced to live with my mother and brother while my father and sister both lived in Cardiff; both studying for their new careers. Here beginneth the hardest years of my life.

By the end of 1997, I had managed to graduate successfully, but I was by then suffering heavy depression and anxiety, fuelled by the loneliness of having no friends around; not knowing why I was on earth and wanting to die. I had lost all tracking of whom I was, what I was doing and where any of it was going. Plus, glandular fever had bitten me hard, taking a month out of my glorious, progressive freezer job at Asda.

In January 1998, I was charged with drink-driving, having driven home on Christmas week with no care for repercussions; caught on camera making a U-turn in a forbidden area. While living at home with my mother caused all sorts of tension, arguments and vitriol, the only thing which kept me partially sane was my first set of turntables. With very few points of company around in a reversal of vibrant, university life – it was me; and the decks. Over time, it became a slow, fearful return to “normal” life. I have never been a naturally confident person – easily intimidated in the past by louder, overconfident characters, but this new anger in me – for what I didn’t know – became something, someone – I had to allow to be played out. Not a villain, but an even more insecure little boy to that one on the morning of May 7th, 1997. Unapologetically cavalier, which only cost me at times – and those who suffer depression will know how past mistakes can eat the soul of those who made the mistakes.

For many years I refused to accept depression and anxiety were a part of me. My mother has since told me she believed it began with my grandfather’s death when I was seventeen, but I know from looking deeply inside myself, from exploring instincts I’ve always had, but with which I’ve had to become accustomed – questions I’ve asked in early teenage years, that my fears and those scared instincts – must be tied into my neurological wiring. Throughout my early twenties, from that point I lived out wild teenage years – years locked away inside the vault of a strict upbringing. Partying. Having to surrender, also – any instinctive passion or talent I had for playing rugby, from being oversensitive to knockbacks and increasing lack of confidence.

Seventeen thousand career changes later, I find myself at almost full-circle completion point. Only now, a bit of maturity (which I appreciate) makes the Peter Pan in me; hopefully a more reasoned character and person. I went into teaching (having told myself at eighteen I would never become a teacher) to try forging a predictable, 9-to-5 life for myself in a past relationship. To try proving to myself I was a virtuous individual (ironically omitting the thought that there are vile and immoral teachers out there too – luckily not many, but there are!) among the clouds of twentysomething decisions – without realising I didn’t have to almost burn myself out a second time, by becoming something I was not aligned with - to prove I could be virtuous and good. Back, now; working in hospitality and trying to revitalise my DJ career (as that’s what I always wanted to do), playing music I love and believe in – rather than what I fooled myself into thinking others wanted, in those hazy days.

Personally, visiting a psychologist in 2013 (my own choice) to try fathoming whether I had ADHD – which could explain these seventeen-thousand career changes, as well as lack of interest in my later school days – may have given me the road signs I needed. Being told it wasn’t attention deficit, but depression – being medicated has been like having a carbon monoxide fan for the air I breathe. It can always seep back into the oxygen channels, but I have now the ability to blow it away. The ridiculousness of life is something I have to laugh at – I don’t believe in staying miserable (despite being the younger Victor Meldrew). I appreciate the chances I have now and my family life. The point being – the imbalanced brain wires may have always been there but became violently exacerbated by this accident. I cannot stress enough how important it is to consult a mental health professional. Drop the pride, the façade and ideals of grandeur – everyone has some kind of something going on. Some are better are dealing with it than others. Some can’t hold on in the battle.

In one of those seventeen thousand careers – twenty years ago, in fact – I worked at what was, pretty much – an abuse line, call-centre; at British Gas in Cardiff. One reason I didn’t last there was because I am not a salesman. Plus, I’m an impatient non-salesman. In this job, the department had to deal with calls from people who had been mis-sold contracts by field agents, selling gas and electricity. On one memorable occasion an English man called, calling me a “f***ing c***” for asking him to explain – a little slower – what exactly happened and how he was conned. When I told him I’d hang up if he didn’t change his abusive tone, he replied “Sorry, I haven’t had my medication today, have I love?” To which his wife, shouting in the background answered, “No, he hasn’t.”

I still laugh at that, knowing that’s the bar of communication I’d prefer to stay beneath.

#depression #anxiety #mental health #suicide #accidents #life #growing up #careers #medication #therapy #birthday

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yelenaxxbelova · 8 years ago

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i’m writing this for myself. i have so many feelings, i have to let them out.

tvd is the second show i started watching and got really obssesed with. i started watching it in july 2011, i was 16 then, now i’m 22. tvd was a 6 year old journey for me. so it’s huge part of my life. i know it’s “just a tv show”, i know, trust me. but still it’s really hard for me to say goodbye. this show gave me so many emotions through this 8 seasons, so many. i even had a big break, stopped watching for 2 years. i don’t regret that. the show become shitty, weird and i couldn’t stand it any more so i just stopped. i knew watching last episode would hurt, i just knew it. but didn’t know it would hurt me this much. i started crying like a baby more less in the middle of the episode and had bigger and bigger breakdown with time.

when i realize stefan died, my heart broke in to the little pieces. i hated him lately, i used to love him in first seasons, but now he was pissing me off so much. but i’m super not okay with him being dead. not because i wanted him to be with elena or caroline, i just wanted for him and damon happy ending, that’s it. the relationship between siblings are my greatest weekness and that was the first sibling bond i fell in love with. and not having them their happy ending physically hurts me.

i admit i shipped stelena at first and i was always annoyed by delena shippers (including my sister who used to like pissing me off about that). but i remember how anti delena shippers was saying that damon didn’t deserve elena, i was thinking otherwise. i always believed that elena didn’t deserve damon. now i don’t care that much. i love that delena is endgame, i love that damon could be happy after losing his little brother.

I love damon, okay, i just love him. damon was vilian at first, but come on, he was good, caring, sometimes a murder, but come on, he was a vampire. i love his jokes and his awesome sense of humor. he made me laugh so many times i won’t be able to count. and i love how he used to call caroline “blondie” and bonnie “bon bon”, his a little messed-up friendship with alaric. and his awesome and EPIC friendship with bonnie. i live for that friendship.

most of the time my fav character was caroline. i even have her picture printed and hung on in my room. i used to love the chemistry between her and klaus. i kind of shipped them but never wanted them together (however weird it sounds). i am not exactly happy about this “klaroline endgame” thing. i kind of prefer her with stefan. again, everybody died or will die and caroline? caroline will be left alone because she is the only who stayed being vampire. i wanted for her happy ending as well.

however for the last 2 seasons bonnie became my fav character. i get annoyed every time i think how much writers were shitting on her, come on. i love her with enzo. they were my relationship goal, i thought i had relationship goal before, but no, i didn’t. they are my 100% goal. can’t stand the way it ended. i wanted them to be endgame. but that would be too perfect. but not everything is lost, he’s ALWAYS with her and waiting for her. that’s what cheers me up a little bit.

this show broke me few times. first time (the pain i will remember forever) was when jenna died. every time i hear “birdy-skinny love” i want to cry, it has been 6 years since i watched that episode and this song still breaks me, incredible. the second time was when caroline’s mom died. this parent dying thing (and grandparent) always hurts me the most. i cried my eyes out and then i stopped watching because i got pissed by caroline switching her humanity off, i just thought back then, that it was not what caroline’s mother would want to see, and i just stopped watching.

when i heard nina was going to leave the show i was laughing so much. a tv show without main character??? come on, this is some bullshit, especially previous episode were big jokes. but the first season elenaless was really good, i liked mama salvatore and heretics plot.

this show always had awesome quotes. when i used to play with photography i was using tvd quotes so many times, it kind of inspired me, which sounds funny to me now.

this finale episode was good, really, really good. it was bitter, it was sweet. and it broke me. i really like how writers didn’t put everyone in their happy moments, that would be bad, that’s not how life looks like. everyone can’t be happy, it sounds really bad, but admit it, it’s the truth. also seeing all this character returning crushed me, lexi, vicky, tyler, liz, elena’s parents, john, FREAKING JENNA (I USED TO LOVE HER SO MUCH), i never thought i would see them again. i love the last scene, it was INCREDIBLE. both elena and damon reunited with their families. EPIC.

watching this episode hurt me emotionally. i cried so much and so loud, i couldn’t calm down. i don’t think i will be fine for a longer time. i know “just a tv show”. but it meant so much too me. i was 16 when i started watching it, i was more less the same age as elena, bonnie, caroline etc in season 1. I GREW UP with them, i graduated high school, went to college, just like them. like i said before, this tv show is a huge part of my life, HUGE, that’s why i just can’t deal with it being ended. i know one day i will wake up and it won’t hurt anymore, but now it hurt like hell. i kind of feel like i had to say goodbye to really good friend, a friend who i had both nice and terrible experience. it’s always hard to say goodbye, ALWAYS, but endings are important, endings means changes and changes are good and needed in our lives.

I just want to say thank you, tvd cast, writers, fans. i’m not stupid or naive and i know no one will read this, but i just felt need to thank you all for creating this and sharing this awesome journey with ups and downs.

i feel so empty and emotional at the same. it’s really hard, i never thought it would be that hard. GOODBYE TVD, MY BELOVED FRIEND. you will forever stay in my heart.

It’s Been a Hell of a Ride,

#personal #the vampire diaries

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sydneyandthescene · 8 years ago

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gather round children, it’s time for my finale recap so sit down, get a bottle of whatever-the-Fuck-u-guys-want and let’s get this show on the road.

First up we are opened to human Matt, getting these slideshows in his head about a bell and just overall death which he tells to his buddy Alaric. Dorian then butts in, telling him that they aren’t dreams but memories ;)))

Next up, we got Stefan staggering around because of his new human body. Driving with bloody knuckles, getting arrested, his memories of shedding blood relays in his head blah blah bby Caroline saves him but is like :((( bc bonnie won’t talk to her

Caroline (in order to help) called Bonnie’s mom (Abby) into the scene. Before opening the door for her mother, as she was boiling water - she heard Enzo’s voice but was then interrupted with knocking on the door. Abby then helps her baby girl to grieve which Bonnie says otherwise. Our lil witch explains to her momma that she’s used to grieving, she’s done it before and that this time it was different.

Damon on the other hand made another deal with Cade, our lil devil wants the Maxwell diary in exchange of Stefan’s life because before the deal they made - Cade initiated that Stefan’s life is in his hands bc LMAO Stefan has been bad lately so he’s a perf candidate for my hometown - hell.

But Cade proposed that in exchange for Stefan’s life - he wanted the diary that Matt now had taken interest in.

Around this time of the episode, Caroline gor Stefan out of a murder (of 32 victims) and they sought out momma realtor bc her daughter filed a missing’s person report.

So they go to the woods and find her, she stabs Stefan and Caroline saves her - tries to save Stefan - fails - remembers he has the cure - and just waits there until the ambulance comes. (Also I forgot to mention that Stefan’s attitude towards Caroline sores high by assuming that all Caroline cares about is her wedding so we got that going for Steroline but dw he apologises but the ending of their talk is a little rough so we’ll get to that later)

Damon shows up at the armoury asking for the book, Alaric like a dad - refused but later on vervains Damon and keeps him locked up. Meanwhile, Matt is hooked up to plugs from what seems to be a seismometer (IDK I failed science) and he’s being put under hypnosis by Alaric.

So let’s go back to our amazing bbys - the bennetts. Abby laid Enzo out on a table and sprinkled him with flowers and bonnie stands and watches, she then implies that she heard Enzo’s voice and that he was calling onto her. So they stand at either end of the table he was currently laid out on like a turkey and hold hands above him. Abby asks if Enzo is near, let them know. A gust of wind comes out of nowhere and Abby is met with an image of Bonnie crying over Enzo’s death.

She freaks and blows out the candles, telling Bonnie that she is not willing to do what bonnie asks. She tells her that Bonnie opened something as she was crying over Enzo, gates to somewhere that’s filled with suffering and pain. Bonnie had an idea and was like, “hell?” but Abby was like idk bitch but that’s some hefty stuff.

Then something happens wildly????

Abby leaves the room, bonnie hears Enzo’s voice then collapses.

Let’s take a break from them and move to Matt. So he goes through his memories and he sees himself but as someone else - Ethan with a bennett witch named Bea. Ethan was building a bell for driving away murderers. Sybil and Seline intervene and mind controlling him (also corrupting the bell) by telling him to strike the bell 12 times to open the fiery gates of hell and to release Cade.

Bea tries to stop it along with her witchy friends so they sacrifice themselves for their town.

IRL matt has a heart attack and damon offers his blood. This action causes Dorian and Alaric to be distracted bc Matt is back to himself telling them more of his memories. He says that Bea trapped Seline and Sybil so they ordered Ethan to kill Bea. Bea locks Ethan in the vault where Dorian found is body (irl). He tells her that he knows how to kill Cade but “I CANNOT TELL”.

Matt wakes up saying that the way to kill him is in the book only to find out that Damon took it.

Damon takes it to Cade and Stefan’s life is off the table unless Stefan becomes reckless. Cade burns the book and walks away leaving the brothers free. Damon then asks if they can make their way out of hell, Cade then says that he shouldn’t get his hopes up.

Back to my witches/vampires: Abby finds her unconscious baby on the floor, to wake her up she burns Enzo’s body to Bonnie disapproval. She pulls Bonnie out of that place, Bonnie says that Enzo was reaching out to her but Abby shakes her out of it.

She says that he is not but someone else was. She tells her that Enzo wouldn’t want bonnie near a place of suffering and that he loved her too much for that. She then says that she was never a good mum then and she’ll be damned if she let anything bad happened to bonnie - or something maternal like that. They then have a hug fest.

Caroline and Stefan partake on this eye opening conversation in her car. Optimistically, Caroline says that they can work through this but Stefan says otherwise. He’s unsure of today, or tomorrow or the days to come. This brings like worry to Steroline.

Bonnie comes home to find Matt at his doorstep and he mentions how the Maxwells and the Bennetts go way back. He tells her how strong and bad ass her family line was. He kisses her forehead and genuinely apologises for what she had to go through.

Stefan comes home to a mid bourbon party from Damon, but declines a he would change clothes and run back out to apologise to bonnie.

sTEFAN THEN ASKS INNOCENTLY TO HIS BIG BROTHER IF THEY CAN STILL HAVE REDEMPTION AFTER IT ALL AND DAMON SMILES SAYING OFC BUDDY IM CRYING

Stefan walks up to bonnie’s house only to be tazed by Kermit the frog in a hoodie.

Back at the armoury, Alaric and Damon bicker about Damon’s recklessness just to save his brother but Damon tells him that he already knows how the book ends for Sybil told him before. They go into the vault and find an item that could supposedly kill Cade.

then comes in

motherfucking

MALACHAI FUCKING PARKER

telling them he has a way to kill Cade.

How he got back idk but on the promo for the next episode, he proposes his deal but Alaric refuses to listen (I mean, Kai killed his sister Jo who was Alaric’s wife and mother to his children) but then proposes the idea of bringing Elena back which (surprise, surprise) Damon agrees for his help.

So Stefan got kidnapped. Bonnie opened the gates to hell. Kai is back.

Also in a synopsis for the next episode, Cade takes an interest for Bonnie and rummages thru her mind so watch out for that.

Lmao I’d love it if Julie pulls out some fucking excuse as to how Kai is back but it’s finna be golden and stupid don’t @ me on this like I love Kai but this is ridiculous

There you have it folks, Season 8 Episode 12. Get ready for shit storms as we are closing in on our last 4 episodes. It’s nice to have your favourite characters to be shit on :))))

#tvd #vampire diaries #malachai parker #bonnie bennett #Caroline Forbes #Salvatore #elena Gilbert #lmao it me dom #bamon #delena #bonkai #bonenzo #steroline #Damon Salvatore #Stefan salvatore #stelena

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hoynovoy · 3 years ago

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Max Minghella On 'The Handmaid's Tale,' His Dad, Romance, & 'Spiral'

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asks — the dog, not me — tenderly.

Get More Dating Advice Here

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years ago

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How a Cliffhanger Finale Proves that NBC Needs to Renew Timeless

In a 2012 piece in The New Yorker, Emily Nussbaum called the cliffhanger, that mainstay of serialized storytelling, “a climax cracked in half.” It’s an excellent description. A good one hits with a thrill that’s equal parts frustration and gleeful anticipation, leaving its audience giddy from the dopamine rush and, in some cases, a bit pissed off. Both reactions are understandable, sometimes unavoidable. A cliffhanger hinges on telling some, but not all; withholding is part of the equation.

That’s what makes the second season finale of NBC’s “Timeless” such a delicious example of the form. It’s a cliffhanger that doesn’t withhold. There’s still suspense, still plenty left unknown, but the thrill isn’t in an unanswered question, but in sheer possibility. It’s still a climax cracked in half, but the break has moved. On one side, a reveal that changes everything. On the other, nothing but potential. “Timeless” isn’t the first show to pull off this kind of magic trick, but it’s magical all the same. If it doesn’t get renewed, people are going to lose their minds.

Created by Shawn Ryan (“The Shield”) and Eric Kripke (“Supernatural”), “Timeless” is, in many ways, a pretty familiar time-travel story. A bad guy steals a time machine. A team comes together—engineer Rufus (Malcolm Barrett), elite soldier Wyatt (Matt Lanter), and historian Lucy (Abigail Spencer)—to stop him with a machine of their own. Before pilot’s end, aforementioned villain Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic) shows off a diary that Lucy writes in her future, which is apparently his past; after departing the scene of the Hindenburg disaster for their present (naturally), they discover that Lucy’s cancer-stricken mother is now hale and hearty, and her sister has ceased to exist. Not a bad cliffhanger there, either.

The first season was pretty good, but it almost didn’t get a second. The brush with death seems to have reinvigorated “Timeless.” The second season is leaner, smarter, and funnier, its stories more focused on people and moments than scale and scope. The humor is particularly striking—the jokes are still sometimes goofy or gleefully nerdy, but more often than not, they’re tinged with something more weary and wry. That frankness is echoed elsewhere throughout the season, but nowhere more than in that final cliffhanger.

If you haven’t seen the season two finale of “Timeless” and would like to do so, now’s your chance to turn back.

In “Chinatown,” the excellent second half of a two-part finale, someone dies. The impending murder of Barrett’s Rufus looms over much of the second season, glimpsed in scattered visions of the future by his girlfriend, Jiya (Claudia Doumit). The prophesied moment of doom arrives, but the pair come through the unscathed, only to have a bullet tear through Rufus minutes later. It’s an effective death scene, not least because that matter-of-factness crops up again. All seems well, then there’s a bang. No final words, just some fear and pain and confusion. Then he’s dead.

Rufus is arguably the show’s most lovable character, the kind of figure you just don’t kill, not in season two, not even in a time-travel show. As the team grieves in our present, having left the body of a friend in the past, there’s a commotion. A time-machine pops out of nowhere, right next to a slightly younger version of itself, and out of it emerge a bearded Wyatt and a battle-hardened Lucy, staring down frankly at themselves. “Timeless” has, like almost all time-travel shows, some rules it doesn’t break. Not crossing into your own life is the biggest of them; another, not changing past events, got tossed out the window more and more often as the characters grew impatient with injustices they couldn’t right. So when future Wyatt and Lucy show up, it’s a cannonball through the center of the series, a complete rejiggering of the rules, landscape, and intent of the whole shebang.

On one side of the break, a dead friend, a losing team, and a bunch of rules. On the other, nothing but potential.

When “The Good Place” debuted in 2016, it demonstrated its affinity for cliffhangers right away. Creator Michael Schur famously talked to Damon Lindelof as he was developing his philosophical afterlife sitcom, and it shows—cliffhangers and complications are as much a part of the DNA of “The Good Place” as they were of “LOST.” In hindsight, each of those cliffhangers—flying shrimp, Jason Mendoza, Eleanor’s confession, the Medium Place, and so on—was laying the groundwork for the big one. “Michael’s Gambit” is one of the great season finales of the century, both because it’s a terrific episode and because its cliffhanger, like the “Timeless” season two cliffhanger, offers not questions and withheld answers, but endless possibility. It’s an episode that sent many (this writer included) back to the pilot to see how many clues we’d missed—the same is true, to a lesser extent, of “Timeless”—but “Michael’s Gambit” also spurred endless speculation about what was coming next.

And here’s the important distinction between finales like those discussed above and many others: The speculation isn’t guesswork, it’s imagination. Sure, it’s still possible to make a prediction about what finally convinces the Time Team to make such a trip, or about how Eleanor would figure out the secret of where she really was. But even those questions have big, fat, messy answers, or more accurately, lots of small ideas that may or may not add up to anything resembling the truth.

Nussbaum wrote that the cliffhanger “makes visible the storyteller’s connection to his audience—like a bridge made out of lightning.” Some of those bridges are gorgeous straight lines, like the identity of J.R.’s killer, or when Riker fires on the Borg in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” But for my money, the best show you where the bridge begins, but when you look up, there are dozens of walkways, like the branches of a vast tree stretching over the chasm of hiatus. Such things aren’t easily accomplished. “Alias” pulled it off at the end of its second season, in which all hell broke loose before Sydney found herself alone and two years in the future; “Breaking Bad” got there when Hank sat down on that toilet. “The Good Place” nailed it, and now, “Timeless” has, too.

The cancellation of any promising show is a shame, especially when, as is the case with Kripke and Ryan’s gem, its heart is in the best possible place. But to axe a show right when it reaches such heights would be an incredible waste. That Kripke, Ryan, and their writers have been planning this since the beginning makes it all the more impressive—Spencer told Entertainment Tonight that “future Lucy” was part of what sold her on the series—but it would be a hell of a feat, regardless of circumstance.

I don’t need to know if “Timeless” will save Rufus. Of course they will. But I want to peer down all those bridges, crossing that chasm with my own imagination, until “Timeless” finally shows me what new world exists on the opposite shore. NBC, please, let them get there.

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zalrb · 8 years ago

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This episode was SO jokes {TVD 8x15 Review}

Hi all! You know the deal. I write my thoughts in real time so anything I saw at the beginning that might be a mistake may be corrected by the end. This review will have anti-Damon, anti-Delena, anti-Steroline, anti-Bamon, anti-Bonenzo sentiments and will most likely have references to other shows and to the misogynoir, anti-blackness and racism in the narrative. If you do not like it, you do not have to read this. Are you ready? OK! Let's go. 1. So I'm stopping a very promising Kdrama to watch this. The Kdrama is called Mirror of the Witch, I'm on the first episode and already there are more consequences in this drama than all eight seasons of TVD. So far it looks exceptionally dark and mean-spirited, I think it might actually disturb me. Anyway. It's still entirely ridiculous that Cade's last words are “Go to hell.” Like why? Also why would Stefan say, “You first”? Wasn't Cade already in hell? Like didn't he sort of create it? And now he's just ... dead? What was that dialogue? 2. I like how opening the door to Cade's world will only destroy everything for “miles”, like that's such a small scale, shouldn't it be the end of the world if the devil is walking among us? Or is he not the devil, is Katherine the devil? I'm confused about the Hell hierarchy, you see. 3. Also I should mention I have a cold and I took cough syrup and it SAYS non-drowsy but last night I was knocked the fuck out so if I get a little loopy near the end, it could be that. Or it could be that watching TVD has finally addled my brain. Who knows. 4. They really do hype Katherine way too much. 5. Sorry, pausing because my cat is being extremely affectionate and I would rather play with her for a little than watch what trash this episode is going to be. 6. But now she's on my keyboard. It's like she's trying to spare me. 7. The lighting in this episode seems to be darker than normal, I can barely see anything. 8. I think it's funny that Caroline keeps waking up expecting to see Stefan and he's not there. 9. Matt's hair is SO stupid though. LIKE WHY. 10. I have it paused because the video is loading still but like seriously, he looks thoroughly unattractive like this and out of character I think Zach is pretty cute, so like ugh, why am I subjected to this. 11. Why do we care about Matt's dad again? 12. Or his mother for that matter. 13. Like remember when she came to town and then made out with Damon and then they discovered Vicki was dead and she made out with Tyler? Or was Tyler first and then Damon? Either way, she's messy af. The only interesting dynamic was her and Caroline and Elena. She's pointless. 14. “That was a lifetime ago, things have changed since then” that should just replace the title of TVD. “Didn't Damon kill your sister?” “That was a long time ago.” “Didn't Damon kill your brother” “That was a long time ago.” And now apparently abandoning your family because of man pain and cowardice and immaturity is “a lifetime ago” too but oh no, Stefan was a ripper a literal century ago and we need to harp on it forever. 15. Real talk, I already feel kinda woozy but it's fine it's like being buzzed and it's probably the only way I will get through this episode. 16. Why would Dorian agreeing to help them on how to get rid of the “Queen of Hell” be misconstrued as him being “cool” with Stefan though? Isn't getting rid of someone who is supposed to be the devil Plus be in everyone's best interest? Like whatever, it was just another chance to take a shot at Stefan. Transparent as fuck. 17. That red looks nice on Kat. 18. I like how Katherine is in this world, everything is supposed to be going to shit and Matt isn't like “Mom, Dad, I hate you but you need to leave town because you could possibly die” he's just like yeah fam, I'm rescheduling our awkward dinner date. Like lol. It would be more interesting if he didn't give a shit if they died but this is just the writers being the writers. In Buffy, when the Mayor is supposed to devour all of Sunnydale, Buffy forces her mother to leave town and tells her if she doesn't her presence will get her [Buffy] killed. 19. I love Stefan's face when Damon says “she's obsessed with Stefan” like BITCH WHO TOLD YOU TO TALK? 20. Why does it have to be a wedding though? It could just as easily be an engagement party or a rehearsal dinner, like sooooooooooo forced. 21. I mean, I don't blame Bonnie for hating Stefan but Damon was responsible for killing Jeremy and kidnapping Jeremy, Enzo was responsible for suffocating Jeremy and she's cool with both of them, hell she fell in love with one of them so I'm just like girl, I guess. The writers are ridiculous because it just feels like they don't know the web they've created with these characters and understand that they've turned pretty much everyone into a hyprocrite. 22. And as a non-Beremy shipper, I still think Bonnie loved Jeremy more than Enzo and Beremy was a problematic af ship but at least some things were halfway earned, Bonenzo is pure dialogue, fam. 23. Oh and looks. 24. I don't even know why Damon needs to tell Stefan that what happened to Enzo will haunt him like Stefan isn't new to guilt. Why are they making it seem like this is Stefan's first rodeo? 25. My video keeps fucking buffering. I might switch sites because I love myself too much to drag this out longer than I have to. Because I am only eight minutes in, that's not gonna fly. 26. OK so everything is just buffering. I was supposed to have my data back, what is this. 27. Right now I have it paused on Damon. I really don't get what anons mean when they tell me his arms are huge. Like I don't see it. 28. WHO CARES ABOUT MATT'S MOM? What's her name again? Kelly? 29. Is she dying? 30. She's dying. 31. Oh she's dead. Ish. 32. “Oh please don't be mad at me, Caroline” that actually sounded like Stefan was talking to his mother. 33. Yeah this BE scene is giving me nothing. 34. Liz did a TERRIBLE job protecting MF, who are we kidding? And toasting with your rape victim about how her mother became your best friend and now her daughter will be your family is disgusting. 35. Lol yes use the SE necklace that Damon kept taking to give it to Caroline on her wedding day for Stefan because we're ignoring how important that necklace was to SE, sure. 36. Seriously, Caroline looks at Alaric with more love than she does Stefan. Like just marry him, y'all are more compatible and have more chemistry than you and Stefan anyway. Like omg. 37. “I hope I get to see this one day with you and Elena” lol the FLATTEST delivery ever. Like do you even mean it? Do you REALLY? Think hard, Stefan. 38. “I want to be a part of your happiness” I mean I guess. I don't like Bonnie being arbitrary in her blame for Stefan but like can the girl be selfish and feel what she feels when she feels it for once? And indulge? Like?? 39. I also find it interesting that Stefan and Caroline don't have a private moment before the wedding, like I know this isn't how we wanted to do this blah blah blah. They're so segregated even when they're together. 40. Do the writers not know of any alcohol other than bourbon? 41. The slow mo doesn't change the deadened expression on Paul's face, guys. Sorry. 42. Also Alaric's speech is stupid, who becomes “family” with the people who have continuously terrorized your life and are responsible for the people you've lost? Like that's when you see a psychiatrist because you have serious emotional issues. 43. “You saw light in me when all I saw was darkness.” WHEN WAS THIS? NO LEGIT WHEN? I REALLY WANT TO KNOW. Madly in love, you don't even look madly in love, you look SO chill. OMG. 44. LOL bout you've been ready since you saw him at school. You were on his jock for one episode, then you onto Damon and were unfortunate enough to be his victim, then it was Matt, then it was Tyler, then it was Klaus, then it was Tyler then it was Jesse then it was Klaus then it was Stefan. Girl bye. 45. That SC dance looks SO AWKWARD. LOL SLOW MO DOESN'T MAKE SHIT BETTER UNLESS IT'S ALREADY GOOD 46. Of course Matt's dad isn't dead. I mean he got stabbed when it was light out and now it's dark but he's still gurgling. Jesus. We met him THIS season, Julie, you can kill the irrelevant fucker off. 47. I don't know why Caroline is STILL wearing the necklace. 48. HER NAME IS KELLY. I WAS RIGHT. 49. Why isn't Caroline vamp speeding into the house? 50. Really? That's your reaction to your kids potentially dying? 51. So like the smoke is having no effect on Bonnie? 52. And them siphoning her doesn't hurt? 53. Caroline is legit calm when she thought her kids were dead for a minute. 54. LMFAO SO WHO ISN'T IN HELL? Vicki was in hell, Kelly was in hell, so like ERRBODY GOES TO HELL THEN? WHAT CRITERIA IS THERE? Like if I run a stop light do I go to hell because it's against the law? What if I jaywalk or accidentally step on an ant or something? BECAUSE SERIOUSLY. 55. STEFAN WHY DON'T YOU EVER CHECK ANYONE'S PULSE? Final thoughts: This episode didn't enrage me like I thought it would, it's just thoroughly ridiculous because it attempts to haphazardly rewrite history and Paul was such a lacklustre groom, like faaaam, those vows were horrible. And Caroline and Stefan are just so isolated from each other, like they don't feel like a couple or a pair, they don't feel like one, it's so very cold. Kelly coming back with her daughter to destroy MF is like, I mean I guess, Katherine's plan isn't even original, Stefan was going to burn MF to the ground first anyway, like we're seriously recycling plots in the same season too? This was actually laughably bad.

#the vampire diaries #stefan salvatore #tvd #TVD 8x15 #TVD review #TVD we're planning a June wedding #anti-tvd #anti julie plec #anti caroline dries #we're planning a june wedding #TVD meta #TVD spoliers #meta #review

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