Eat, Fuck, Shit, Kill: The Loss of Humanity in "The Vampire Diaries"

[deadbeat_nymph]

For @themissingminkI haven't been lurking much at Television Without Pity, or anywhere else for that matter, but I've still heard some rumbling about what the loss of humanity means for vampires on "The Vampire Diaries". There appears to be controversy over whether a vampire whose humanity has been turned off experiences emotions -- which we're

Comments

[ostaras_journey]

Boo, this is SUCH a fantastic, eloquent, articulate way of describing the phenomenon they are utilising in the fictional world of 'The Vampire Diaries', and so very much better articulated here than the writers are doing on the show. There they are writing into the script the very thing you describe above, but then they mess it up by having their characters use words like "hate," as apparently these vampires don't really understand themselves what switching off their emotions really entails, or how to articulate it, either between themselves or for the audience. I would still love you to post this somewhere appropriate on TWOP, and give everyone the definitive explanation of a topic which has been such a great cause of discussion, but even if you don't, I thank you for posting it here. Great piece. ♥

[deadbeat_nymph]

Aww, thank you! I really appreciate the feedback.

I think they're just throwing words around, the writers, but people do that in real life, too, and vampires never seemed more self-aware than non-vampire people, so... But yeah - as if Damon would have spent six months plotting revenge against Lexi; with his humanity and on his best behaviour he has zero patience and no impulse control. More like he put up with her until he came up with a workable plan. And it's not like she was actually torturing him; they were partying 95% of the time, and then they'd have, what, a slightly uncomfortable conversation? Would he even really be discommoded by Katherine talk when 'turned off'? He probably figured she'd give up and took months to realise that she wasn't going to.

Re. posting: Would it be appropriate just to post a link to this entry at TWoP? I'm not sure if I can still get into my TWoP account...

[ostaras_journey]

I think they're just throwing words around, the writers, but people do that in real life, too, and vampires never seemed more self-aware than non-vampire people, so...

This is fair enough, of course, but I think I'd be more forgiving of the writers if I thought they really had articulated what they're doing in their own minds as you've described it here, but then were letting their vampires talk about it less accurately. But I don't. I think if the writers DID have a clear idea of what they were trying to do, they would have had at least one smart vampire - or one of the people who've studied them (e.g. the much lamented Alaric) - articulate and explain it to the audience in the sort of terms in your post at least once on the show. But they haven't. They don't know what they're doing. Apparently you need to explain it to them.

Re. posting on TWOP, one isn't supposed to post links to one's own blog anyway, so someone else will need to post the link for you.

[maichan]

I don't watch this show. I just wanted to drop in and say hi!

[deadbeat_nymph]

Yays! Hi!

(Okay, I just tried to upload a boys-in-underwear-dance-of-joy gif to Flickr and it won't work, so I will just act it out for you: *hot boys jump on bed and dance crazy*)

[maichan]

[deadbeat_nymph]

Oh my god... I'm dying here... Thank you!