TVD 3x14: Dangerous Liaisons, Or the Episode Recap That Turned into a Giant D/E Meta Thing
I made the huge mistake of getting caught up in all the spoiler hubbub before this ep aired, all of which was touting what a shipper clusterfuck it would be, and how anyone with, ahem, D/E sympathies were gonna experience what amounted to an emotional neck-snapping. I sat at my desk, reading article after article and working myself into a tizzy of
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Poor Damon. He's so crazycakes, and yet I get all irrationally sad and indignant on his behalf when I think of him as the eternal backup. I feel the need to make him blue ribbons for "participation." Or Runner-Up Vampire Boyfriend.
My greatest hope is that by establishing that the S/E/D has reached the same spot as the S/K/D triangle early on, the show will now figure out a way to shake things up and make it different. I do feel like Elena cares more about Damon than Katherine ever did, despite all she's said about loving them both.
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Okay. Comment time.
Longterm Pining + Emotional Angst + Inappropriate Boundaries + The Shattered Fantasies of Seriously Unstable Men - Things General Society Finds Romantic = Me Shipping It
Amen.
DAMON SALVATORE (the character) WAS FLAWLESS THIS EPISODE AND ANYONE WHO THINKS OTHERWISE CAN GO JUMP OFF A BALCONY TBH. (I've been saying this everywhere, jsyk.)
One of the final nails in my fandom obsession with TVD was my discovery of all the seriously genius meta that abounded on LJ
oh, be quiet.
Because Damon and Elena? Two of the stubbornest, most obstinate Fixers you will ever find on the planet. In short: When they care, they fix things for you. And they don't really give a crap what you think about it.
*tear* UGHHHHH YES. TWO FIXERS WHO CANNOT FIX EACH OTHER. BEAUTIFUL MONSTROSITY LBH.
Say what you will about the morality of stripping Jeremy of his choice, but you won't ( ... )
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One of the fascinating things to think about is the divide between how cute people find Damon's protectiveness over Stefan and ALaric, and yet how, except for the fangirliest fringes of D/E fandom, how creepy it becomes when he applies his same strategies to Elena… there's the fact that no one puts up a fight more than the show's only other Big Fixer: Elena.
HOW ARE YOU REAL. HOW ARE YOU SAYING EVERYTHING I HAVE NEVER KNOWN HOW TO ARTICULATE. And you know what? I'd say that Elena's putting up such a fight is it. The show is actually highlighting the issue. It really is. Like. One of my persistent frustrations with some parts of this fandom is how it bafflingly characterises D/E as a failure of feminism. I literally don't comprehend this. D/E is not a feminist relationship; it's a story that examines gender roles. You can easily wax poetic about how Stefan ~letting Elena make her own decisions is "progressive", but the writers actually go a step further with D/E - they P R O B L E M A T I S E the problematic (lol, no duh) ( ... )
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Can we talk about the glorious dysfunction of a pairing where one half orchestrates the breaking of another's neck and then
when the other wakes up, he remembers to PICK UP HIS RELUCTANT LADYFRIEND'S SHAWL before attempting to force her from the party?
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YESSSSSSS. Although I don't feel like it was entirely conscious or deliberate manipulation on his part, and so it makes me feel sad that the first time he's genuinely said that to someone, in the present tense, in HOW MANY YEARS MUST IT HAVE BEEN? and he gets the absolute worst response. . . I need a bag to cry into now. No one look at me.
Seriously, I saw some people arguing that Damon wasn't really being that self-destructive at the end there, and I can agree in a technical sense, but on a ~psychological level? He is, absolutely. Like, he chose Rebekah at least in part because it's a betrayal of Elena.Oh yeah, no one will convince me that he didn't choose Rebekah because it was the most symbolic tearing apart of their little unnamed relationship that he could find. Have been reading all the post-episode Plec interviews where she says that they wanted his reaction to be in character but also a moment of growth, because he ( ... )
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Damon this episode was like EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED FOR CHRISTMAS!
Thank you for your kind words, but don't let All The Meta mislead you: I'm definitely still in the stage of baby dragon obsession (btw, I love the expression ;) ).
Because Damon and Elena? Two of the stubbornest, most obstinate Fixers you will ever find on the planet. In short: When they care, they fix things for you. And they don't really give a crap what you think about it.THIS. I love Elena like it's my job, but, lol, this girl HAS issues with free will. Namely: she doesn't always respect it in other people. This girl decided to feed her boyfriend her own blood in s2 to help him fight his blood addiction, and she didn't even ask him if he was comfortable with it. She just cut her own hand - because she wanted to be the part of the process. If Elena was a vampire, she ( ... )
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Plus, actually being in a relationship with Stefan felt awesome. Elena was really happy. Right now, she is anything but happy. No wonder she wants it back. This girl is emotionally exhausted.
This is the only point where I'm left side-eyeing the show a bit, because while I can totally see us on the track to Stefan/Elena reconciliation, I honestly can't tell if it knows how broken it will be.
I honestly hope it will all be a mistake. I want it to happen and BE A HUGE MISTAKE.
Can we talk about the glorious dysfunction of a pairing where one half orchestrates the breaking of another's neck and then when the other wakes up, he remembers to PICK UP HIS RELUCTANT LADYFRIEND'S SHAWL before attempting to force her from the party? Because I can't. I CAN'T. At this point the ( ... )
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You are so right. I think it's funny how I always seem to miss this angle. As much as I've come to like him, I think it's the presence of "Stefan" and "awesome" in the same sentence. WHAT, NO PERVERSE ANGST IN THIS RELATIONSHIP? WHERE IS THE AWESOME? *brain does not compute*
Self-destruction, in his mindset, is more dignified than destruction: it's your choice, your own doing, you're not letting something external tear you down. That's part of why Damon is so self-destructive, why he seems to always bring HIMSELF to his lowest - if he chooses it, there is some dignity in it. If he humiliates himself, he has control over it.
AHHHHHHHHHHHH I love you. That is all there is to say.
Carry on, show, humanize Klaus some more. Possibly with horses. I am looking forward to the episode where Klaus tries to build a stable behind his mansion and ( ... )
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Ha, I love that this is your comment on a drained brain! I wanted to take little post-it notes and stick them on my computer screen for pretty much everything you said.
This girl decided to feed her boyfriend her own blood in s2 to help him fight his blood addiction, and she didn't even ask him if he was comfortable with it.
OOO, I had forgotten about this one, but YOU ARE SO RIGHT. Elena is particularly dangerous, I think, because she's a fixer who thinks she's a helper . . . but she doesn't mind forcing her help when she thinks it's good for you.
I could play devil's advocate with Stefan, because Stefan actively agreed to cooperate with Damon in Klaus-related matters, which can make the whole thing a Stefan-and-Damon case, not a Stefan case. I see your point; Stefan is on board with the taking down of Klaus in theory, but Damon just ( ... )
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He's not content to leave things be, he has to tear them all down, because leaving this scaffold up is just a reminder of how much he failed.
--which, holy shit, I had to read that like five times over because YOU KNOCKED THAT ONE RIGHT OUT OF THE PARK. (That's a baseball reference, right?)
Also, never give up that hobby you mentioned. I love that hobby. I benefit from that hobby!
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