FREE-FOR-ALL META COMMENT-A-THON
Old news: lj is dead. Everyone is crazy busy, or they have other reasons not to be here. No one has time to read those huge meta posts we used to write once upon a time. But maybe we can all find ten minutes to do this:
FREE-FOR-ALL META COMMENT-A-THON!
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FREE-FOR-ALL META COMMENT-A-THON!
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Comments 994
(Elena does have the upper hand since she was given a writing room that doesn't spontaneously forget her doppleganger status the way that Joss & Co. dropped the Key-plotline post S5.)
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In addition to being 17, Elena is also the eldest sibling, so she's much more used to being a trailblazer, assertive, an agent in the world. She's never had a big brother or sister to help her, to guide her. She's had to figure out a lot of stuff on her own.
Dawn is a younger sister, and she's regularly treated as being young, helpless, not-capable. She's never been seen as, never been allowed to be anything but the "baby sister." It shows. Shows in the dark.
(Okay, there's also the issue of how Dawn is often as smart as a box of hair and self centered, while Elena shows that being smart is the greatest superpower of them all -- think of how she constantly outwits people who seek to trap her -- she's calm under pressure, and is very compassionate ( ... )
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... thought I was going to say Spike/Buffy, didn'tcha?
Nope.**
It occurred to me a few months ago that there's actually a delightful amount of parallels between these two pairs. I specifically have "&" instead of "/" because I'm looking for is a comparison between these two relationships that can (but doesn't necessarily) have to be hetero-romantic. Both sets have powerful friendships/relationships.
** Mostly because the comparison between Damon/Spuffy (and Bangel/Stelena) seems to be pretty established site of inquiry at this point?
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Yeah, but it's also the comparison that only works on a surface level, imo? I remember how once upon a time Alex compared Damon not to Spike, but to Faith. That worked pretty neatly.
Personally, I'm a fan of looking at Damon/Elena vs Spike/Drusilla. Obviously it only works to an extent, but it could be interesting, especially if we draw a cross-gendered parallel (Elena as Spike, Damon as Dru).
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In a shallow way that tries to divide fandom, imo. Basically that "of course Spuffy fans are going to be Delena fans because they are crazed and there's not much we can do about it" way of dismissing / starting shipper wars. Mostly I wanted a disclaimer that said: "I don't care about your shipper preferences." :)
I remember how once upon a time Alex compared Damon not to Spike, but to Faith.
ooh! I could see heaps of beautiful potential in that!
(Elena as Spike, Damon as Dru)
*grabby hands*
I think you have said this before - and I pretty much love it! There's potentially even more fodder for this after S4 - what with all of Damon's "let me hold your hand, baby vampire" and the creep-factor. Especially maybe an in-depth comparison between the Damon/Elena blood-sharing sequence vs. the "let's vamp my mum" scene?
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When I was younger, I super identified with Dawn. Now that I'm older, I see both sides of the Dawn hate. I just hope I never get so old I won't think Spike and Dawn's relationship is adorable. It reveals a side of Spike Buffy alone cannot. The pet names, the adoration and protection he gave Drusilla didn't go to Buffy, who he views as a person, not a thing to be protected (and rightfully so). It went to... Dawn, and later Fred. William after all these years still wants to be somebody's knight, and for a period of time, Dawn let him do that.
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I actually talk to people about this a lot and it really doesn't. I have talked to people who watched in when they were older who can't stand Dawn and people who were younger who also don't like her. Likewise, I know a lot of people who watched when they were older and felt a lot of empathy for Dawn. Also people who watched as teens and hugely identified with Dawn. I personally watched BtVS in full in my early twenties. (To be fair, I saw "Once More with Feeling" and a few other late-season episodes while in HS, but didn't really get serious and watch the entire series until I was a senior in college.)
So... no. I've done polls and stuff to see if this is true. I also thought that maybe it depended upon HOW you view the series - late arriver, mainliner, in-time viewer; but everything about that was inconclusive, also. It really is a deeply personal reaction - much like most of anything, really ( ... )
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In S1, Caroline literally does not know what has happened to her, and is thereby prevented from accessing the support theoretically offered to 'proper' victims. In S2, vampire 'consciousness-raising' gives her access to the reality of her abuse: she overpowers Damon ('I'm angrier!'); he tries and fails to silence (stake!) her; Stefan starts to identify with her (as opposed to using her as Damon-bait). It's interesting that this knowledge coincides with a period of alienation from her friends and boyfriend. It's also interesting that Damon, through his relationship with her mother, still has access to her house - and she is still visibly afraid of him, he is still keen to control ( ... )
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Her whole attitude to Stefan-Elena-Damon and the sire bond is easy to read as an extended projection of her own retrospective feelings about that part of her human life. But just as Elena's transition ( ... )
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