TVD 3x07

[redbrunja]

Oh my god, Elena is the most HYPOCRITICAL CHARACTER IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. For serious.

Also, with regards to Damon, the writers need to learn how to do a redemption arc. They clearly have no clue what it's about. Do you know why I don't think (at this point) I'll ever believe and/or care about Damon's arc? Because he has never lost anything because of his behavior. Not really. Not for long. If the writers want to redeem him, they need to break him down, take everything away from him, as a clear result of his own actions, and make him pick himself up from that. (Just ask Faith, Spike, Zuko, Cara, or Boyd Crowder.) Instead, Damon is a smarmy dick. The fact that he couldn't even apologize just shows that Damon is absolutely not on the (rocky) path of redemption.

But it was nice to see my girls Lexie, Pearl, and Anna again. Also, I love that Jeremy is all 'you won't be alone! You'll have me!' and Anna is like, 'I stolen the necklace to see my mother again!' More motivations like that, please.

Comments

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'd call Elena a hypocrite... she's definitely aware she's in a similar situation as Jeremy and she's trying to fight it. While this is the third season, it's only been a year for Elena, so I can understand why she's having trouble letting go (and why she doesn't want to see her brother in her shoes).

Damon is not on a redemption arc. And I don't really want him to be? I'm just not sure what they're trying to do with him right now. But I too was very happy to see Anna and Pearl reunited. Feelings! In my eyes!

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

She seems to be aware at the end of the episode... but her behavior in this episode was ridiculously hypocritical, imho.

Damon is not on a redemption arc. And I don't really want him to be? I'm just not sure what they're trying to do with him right now.

See, I feel like the writers THINK they are headed that direction but actually aren't, or aren't selling that story. Do you feel that Damon is not on a redemption arc because he doesn't seem to be becoming a better person or do you feel like the writers are doing something else entirely with him?

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

Do you feel that Damon is not on a redemption arc because he doesn't seem to be becoming a better person or do you feel like the writers are doing something else entirely with him?

I have no idea at all. I feel kind of lost right now since I feel like Stefan and Damon should be interacting mostly with each other right now (Stefan maybe turning the switch on because of Damon, thus completing the circle, and/or Damon having something to do with Stefan because of the whole, ya know, saving his life in the finale thing). And so whatever they're trying to do with plotty Vikings (a facepalm if ever there was one) and Stefan's bloodlust cravings getting fastforwarded through just confuses me.

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

I think it was pretty clear that Elena was looking at the situation anew from the perspective of someone who cares about the person making dumb choices, seeing the reality of it and trying to learn from it.

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

(And yeah, I think that the writers think stuff like blaming Andie for his brutally savaging her (~but not killing her~) is redemption, and that telling Elena 'goddamnit stop wanting me to not be a violent misogynist, it's so meeeen!' is totally justified. And that's why their so-called redemption arc isn't working - because really, they don't seem to have enough problems with the actions he needs redeeming for in the first place.)

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And honestly, I feel like Elena not having enough problems with the actual BAD THINGS both of her vampire boyfriends are doing is a large part of what is making me frustrated with her character. Because if the writers want to write her that way, fine, but they don't get to then act like Elena is the nicest person in the entire universe, you know?

(Although I am behind a couple of episodes, so. Maybe something different was happening in those eps.)

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have much respect for the viewpoint that a shattered teenage girl who's systematically watched nearly all her loved ones die in front of her and now can't bear to lose more is somehow being shocking or unkind in turning a blind eye - her actions may not be morally spotless, but to criticize the text for portraying her as nice after this viewpoint, which implies a moral judgment should be made on her motivations, is something I have a problem with. And being flawed and human is not being unkind. She is not the one doing the crimes, and she agrees that they need to be stopped - but the people who are emotionally important and, in regrettable but human ways, more real to her have an emotional priority at this point in her life, when she has almost no emotional support and has gone through the experience of losing someone - to death or otherwise - too many times to count in the last year.

But maybe I've just done too much rolling my eyes in general lately at fandom disconnecting from and violently turning on Elena in a hot second when they've spent two or three seasons cheerily fangirling the characters and worse characters themselves. It's the old disproportionate double standard response, and even in more thoughtful renditions it tends to put my back up at this point. And 'the victims aren't real' doesn't really work, because the victims are real to the perpetrators, and it's the perpetrators as people who would do these things, to real or fictional women, that we're judging.

Or rather, not judging, just as long as they have a penis.

both of her vampire boyfriends

Also, I'd like to politely ask that you don't support the show's casual usage of rape-culture laden terminology around me. Elena has repeatedly made it clear that she doesn't want to be in a relationship with Damon and wants him to stop his flirting and asks him to get out of her bed and stop pawing through her underwear drawer, etc, etc and to implicitly support his repeated nonconsensual 'claims' over her and the intrinsic sexual threats towards her in such unequivocal statements as "we'll have a vampire girlfriend" and "I'm gonna steal your girl" knowing she's said no already - is pretty upsetting and borderline triggery. It's just an emotional thing for me.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have much respect for the viewpoint that a shattered teenage girl who's systematically watched nearly all her loved ones die in front of her and now can't bear to lose more is somehow being shocking or unkind in turning a blind eye - her actions may not be morally spotless, but to criticize the text for portraying her as nice after this viewpoint, which implies a moral judgment should be made on her motivations, is something I have a problem with.

I see where you're coming from. And while I don't have a problem with Elena being unwilling to lose anyone else in her life, regardless of what they do to other people, I just feel like the show really have a tone-deafness with regards to Elena, Stefan, and Damon, where the way the show presents them, and the way other characters react to them, doesn't sync up with what they have done and/or how they have treated people.

But maybe I've just done too much rolling my eyes in general lately at fandom disconnecting from and violently turning on Elena in a hot second when they've spent two or three seasons cheerily fangirling the characters and worse characters themselves. It's the old disproportionate double standard response, and even in more thoughtful renditions it tends to put my back up at this point

I completely understand that.

And 'the victims aren't real' doesn't really work, because the victims are real to the perpetrators, and it's the perpetrators as people who would do these things, to real or fictional women, that we're judging.

Seriously? People try to use that argument? Wow.


Also, I'd like to politely ask that you don't support the show's casual usage of rape-culture laden terminology around me.

Noted.

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

Not to mention, uh, fandom likes to ignore the fact that Elena has systematically and brutally lost almost everyone she loves, cares for or is related to, some of them in gruesome ways right in front of her. And explicitly blames herself for many of those deaths, some of them because she believes she didn't do enough or did something wrong. Oh my, I wonder what could ~possibly~ motivate a PTSD-ridden teenager who's suffered that to cling desperately to the loved ones she has left...?

In order to castigate and deride her more than they do Damon, who actually actively hurts other people.