100 Reviews: 15
Jul. 9th, 2012 01:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthIn a surprise to no one, I find myself much more interested in an episode with Elijah in it.
TVD: 2x14: Crying Wolf
This may sound kind of weird, but this is just about the perfect episode. It’s not exactly a favorite of mine, though it’s definitely in the top tear, but I feel like it’s just about perfectly written for its position in the story/season, just the right level of revelations and set ups at the same time.
However, before we get to the meat of the story, allow me to point out that the title of this episode could just as easily have been “All the fucks Elijah doesn’t give.” Because he seriously just walks through the episode, completely untouchable and unconcerned. He can own anyone and he knows it and he straight up doesn’t care what these lesser creatures are doing.
As a side note, it seems to me it would have been smarter of him to leave some extra werewolves alive to be used in the sacrifice. 2x13 made it seem like Tyler is at least on the ‘protect if you can’ list if not the ‘protect or the deal’s off’ one so I assume Elijah would prefer not to have to let Klaus use Tyler (on the other hand he doesn’t manage to stop it later). Of course this isn’t the best episode to look to for Elijah really *caring* about his deal with Elena. We’ll discuss that a lot more in 2x15 though, so we’ll move on.
This episode is kind of weird, in that I find I really like Stefan in it, but I’m completely cold on Stefan/Elena. I can dimly appreciate that their functional fun moments are...well functional and fun, but then they turn around and have seriously awkward and uncomfortable moments like out on the dock and that drags the whole thing down from my low level of caring for the ship to begin with.
I think the thing that ultimately bores me the most about them is that they both know it’s never going to work out between them. They both know she doesn’t want to be a vampire. They both know she’s going to grow up and go to college and want a life. But neither of them can say it (admittedly they don’t need to at this stage in their relationship) and so they’re just existing as a couple.
*However* that same fact is why I never wanted Elena to be a vampire. I wanted her to be happy and date Stefan, maybe eventually Damon too, but know that one day she needed more. And I fully realize the irony of a Doctor/Rose shipper who fully believes they could have had forever, who can totally see pseudo-Time Lady or at least immortal (ish) Rose as an option, and believes they in fact would have been happy for forever; also believes that Elena not being human is a crime against nature and that vamp-Elena can never be happy with either of them the way human Elena could have even if human Elena only would have been for a little while.
Have I mentioned how not looking forward to season 4 I am?
Seriously, I’ve seen people complaining about the premier date being later this year and I’m like “um, actually I’m okay if they want to take a year off at this point. I *really* don’t want to see how this all plays out.” Unless they completely shake up the dynamic of the show I’m going to be wishing my favorite character was dead because I don’t want her to live like this. Now if they let Elena ditch the Salvatores, grab Jeremy and get out of MF, and run into Elijah on a semi-regular basis so he can give her ‘totally in love with you but wouldn’t dream of adding to your problems right now’ looks and helpful advice (oh and give Klaus back his own body so we don’t have to deal with TyKlaus, but leave him out of the game for a while) then s4 *might* appeal to me.
This is of course, not really relevant to this episode. But I like season 2 so when I need to rant about how much certain things in s3 (and especially the finale) pissed me off it’s rather off topic to the subject at hand.
So I’m on Stefan’s side during the final scene between them, but not entirely for the right reasons. Because I’m totally cool with letting vampires die before harming one hair on Elena’s human head (honestly, even if the choice is between Elena not having to become a vampire and saving Elijah’s life, I’ll take Elena’s side every time, and I love Elijah A LOT more than I do the Salvatores). I also agree with him that Elena’s martyr complex is tragic more than it is heroic though, because it is tragic; but I tend to mean that more in the sense that it’s tragic a 17 year old girl is in a position where she has to choose between her own life and the lives of everyone she loves kid of way.
But from Elena’s standpoint (as opposed to my ‘screw the vampires and not in the fun way’ stance) she makes a pretty good point. That they don’t listen to her when she tells them not to get themselves killed for her, so what’s so different when she does it? Basically this argument is nicely morally complex and I love it.
And the episode was really all leading up to that revelation. As much as Tyler’s story is nicely structured and paid off (learning from his mistakes in the previous episode where his loyalties lie and what lines he’s not willing to cross), the episode was about others finding out what Elena was up to when she dealt with Elijah. I remember seeing it the first time and it really wasn’t a surprise revelation; I could totally believe Elijah was just saving her to sacrifice her later and that Elena would go along with it because it made the most sense to her, and it fit with her actions the last couple episodes (mostly, some of my issues with 2x12 notwithstanding). And in a strange way I think this was when Elena *finally* started to click with me. Because it’s a completely selfless and selfish thing to do, it made her acceptance of fate still annoying but understandable, it explained why she wasn’t fighting even if I still wanted her to. Basically it made her someone I wanted to shake some sense into, but at least I finally cared enough to want to.
Next time:
Actually I’m not sure what I really want to watch, but TVD is still the most convenient thing to stick to so don’t be surprised if I do.
But I’m always open to suggestions
TVD: 2x14: Crying Wolf
This may sound kind of weird, but this is just about the perfect episode. It’s not exactly a favorite of mine, though it’s definitely in the top tear, but I feel like it’s just about perfectly written for its position in the story/season, just the right level of revelations and set ups at the same time.
However, before we get to the meat of the story, allow me to point out that the title of this episode could just as easily have been “All the fucks Elijah doesn’t give.” Because he seriously just walks through the episode, completely untouchable and unconcerned. He can own anyone and he knows it and he straight up doesn’t care what these lesser creatures are doing.
As a side note, it seems to me it would have been smarter of him to leave some extra werewolves alive to be used in the sacrifice. 2x13 made it seem like Tyler is at least on the ‘protect if you can’ list if not the ‘protect or the deal’s off’ one so I assume Elijah would prefer not to have to let Klaus use Tyler (on the other hand he doesn’t manage to stop it later). Of course this isn’t the best episode to look to for Elijah really *caring* about his deal with Elena. We’ll discuss that a lot more in 2x15 though, so we’ll move on.
This episode is kind of weird, in that I find I really like Stefan in it, but I’m completely cold on Stefan/Elena. I can dimly appreciate that their functional fun moments are...well functional and fun, but then they turn around and have seriously awkward and uncomfortable moments like out on the dock and that drags the whole thing down from my low level of caring for the ship to begin with.
I think the thing that ultimately bores me the most about them is that they both know it’s never going to work out between them. They both know she doesn’t want to be a vampire. They both know she’s going to grow up and go to college and want a life. But neither of them can say it (admittedly they don’t need to at this stage in their relationship) and so they’re just existing as a couple.
*However* that same fact is why I never wanted Elena to be a vampire. I wanted her to be happy and date Stefan, maybe eventually Damon too, but know that one day she needed more. And I fully realize the irony of a Doctor/Rose shipper who fully believes they could have had forever, who can totally see pseudo-Time Lady or at least immortal (ish) Rose as an option, and believes they in fact would have been happy for forever; also believes that Elena not being human is a crime against nature and that vamp-Elena can never be happy with either of them the way human Elena could have even if human Elena only would have been for a little while.
Have I mentioned how not looking forward to season 4 I am?
Seriously, I’ve seen people complaining about the premier date being later this year and I’m like “um, actually I’m okay if they want to take a year off at this point. I *really* don’t want to see how this all plays out.” Unless they completely shake up the dynamic of the show I’m going to be wishing my favorite character was dead because I don’t want her to live like this. Now if they let Elena ditch the Salvatores, grab Jeremy and get out of MF, and run into Elijah on a semi-regular basis so he can give her ‘totally in love with you but wouldn’t dream of adding to your problems right now’ looks and helpful advice (oh and give Klaus back his own body so we don’t have to deal with TyKlaus, but leave him out of the game for a while) then s4 *might* appeal to me.
This is of course, not really relevant to this episode. But I like season 2 so when I need to rant about how much certain things in s3 (and especially the finale) pissed me off it’s rather off topic to the subject at hand.
So I’m on Stefan’s side during the final scene between them, but not entirely for the right reasons. Because I’m totally cool with letting vampires die before harming one hair on Elena’s human head (honestly, even if the choice is between Elena not having to become a vampire and saving Elijah’s life, I’ll take Elena’s side every time, and I love Elijah A LOT more than I do the Salvatores). I also agree with him that Elena’s martyr complex is tragic more than it is heroic though, because it is tragic; but I tend to mean that more in the sense that it’s tragic a 17 year old girl is in a position where she has to choose between her own life and the lives of everyone she loves kid of way.
But from Elena’s standpoint (as opposed to my ‘screw the vampires and not in the fun way’ stance) she makes a pretty good point. That they don’t listen to her when she tells them not to get themselves killed for her, so what’s so different when she does it? Basically this argument is nicely morally complex and I love it.
And the episode was really all leading up to that revelation. As much as Tyler’s story is nicely structured and paid off (learning from his mistakes in the previous episode where his loyalties lie and what lines he’s not willing to cross), the episode was about others finding out what Elena was up to when she dealt with Elijah. I remember seeing it the first time and it really wasn’t a surprise revelation; I could totally believe Elijah was just saving her to sacrifice her later and that Elena would go along with it because it made the most sense to her, and it fit with her actions the last couple episodes (mostly, some of my issues with 2x12 notwithstanding). And in a strange way I think this was when Elena *finally* started to click with me. Because it’s a completely selfless and selfish thing to do, it made her acceptance of fate still annoying but understandable, it explained why she wasn’t fighting even if I still wanted her to. Basically it made her someone I wanted to shake some sense into, but at least I finally cared enough to want to.
Next time:
Actually I’m not sure what I really want to watch, but TVD is still the most convenient thing to stick to so don’t be surprised if I do.
But I’m always open to suggestions
