Thoughts on handling character screw-ups in TVD and BH

[istne_pieklo]

I'm so tired of stories that keep making excuses for a character just because he's the main character. Yes, The Vampire Diaries, I'm looking at you, mostly because it's the latest example, but pretty much any show does that. The main character is immune because he's the lead. Being Human sort of fell into that when they had Tom and Alex

Comments

[frelling_tralk]

:nods:

As Damon himself puts it, he's been...thinking that she needed to be worse in order to accept his love.

I'm probably biased lol, but I always thought that people were missing that when they emphasised that Stefan doesn't accept who Elena is and Delena is therefore the healthier relationship because he totally accepts her. I would agree that Stefan was a mess with Elena in season 4 definitely, but I don't think that Damon's mindset was therefore necessarily the healthy one? Both brothers seemed to have expectations of how Elena should act around them to be their ~ideal~ partner, Stefan just wanted her to remain the pure human girl, and Damon wanted her to feed with him at frat parties and pick out victims without focusing on them as people. Neither of which was true to Elena's character at that point in time, most of the audience seemed to just focus on Damon accepting Elena as a vampire as if that's all that matters, but Elena herself was horrified when she found herself getting lost in feeding with Damon at the party

[istne_pieklo]

Both brothers seemed to have expectations of how Elena should act around them to be their ~ideal~ partner, Stefan just wanted her to remain the pure human girl, and Damon wanted her to feed with him at frat parties and pick out victims without focusing on them as people. Neither of which was true to Elena's character at that point in time, most of the audience seemed to just focus on Damon accepting Elena as a vampire as if that's all that matters, but Elena herself was horrified when she found herself getting lost in feeding with Damon at the party Oh, THAT, definitely, is a major issue! At this stage I'm starting to think either of them is bad for her and she's bad for either of them. Katherine says something really wise about how Damon sees Elena in this episode (I don't want to spoil, though LOL, this whole post is full of spoilers >_<), but I'd argue that both brothers see her that way. I'm hardly Elena's biggest fan (though I don't hate her; I'm more like indifferent) but she deserves better than being a blank screen, which