jedi_of_urth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jedi_of_urth) wrote2012-07-11 11:12 pm
jedi_of_urth) wrote2012-07-11 11:12 pm
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100 Reviews: 18
Tonight we return to TVD, for when I believe lead into my first hiatus cliffhanger experience with this show. It’s also earlier than usual tonight because I’m stalled on writing for the moment (some stuff being betaed, some stuff blocked on), so I got to this earlier.
TVD: 2x16: The House Guest
This episode is pretty good but it has one thing that hindsight really drags down: Jonas and Luka died for nothing. Elena’s going to undagger Elijah in a couple episodes anyway; Elena’s still going to end up sacrificed to Klaus, and Team Elena had already worked out the way to kill Klaus from other clues rather than the info Jonas left Bonnie with. The fact that their deaths are useless wouldn’t be quite so grating if it was *acknowledged* that they died for nothing, treat it as a tragedy of pride for not wanting to make alliances even (though they *were* willing to work with Elijah so it’s more a case of not thinking the Salvatores were great teammates, which I can’t argue with); but as is it really feels like the writers just got tired of them.
Yes, if they had succeeded we would have been denied the Elena/Elijah interaction when she brings him back and that would have been a real loss, but the writers didn’t have to kill the Martins in order to keep Elijah down for a couple more eps. And yes, I think they felt Bonnie needed to face Klaus alone so they needed to rid her of any possible backup, but that doesn’t mean the Martins’ deaths should have been so meaningless. Like I said, it feels like the writers didn’t think of them as actual characters, just pieces to be moved around within the story.
That is ultimately the worst part of this episode, and that’s only super awkward in hindsight; so yeah, at the time this episode was great and it’s still pretty good.
The best thing about it is the show finally calling into focus how much lying these people are doing to people they supposedly love. And as someone who loves Matt and Jenna (and Liz, and to a lesser extent Carol) this was too long coming for me even when I raced through the first season and a half. And it doesn’t end well in either story, which I approve of, we never really saw Elena and Jeremy resolve things after he found out everything she’d kept from him, so we needed to see it blow up this time. In one case just because of all the lies, in one case because of what the lies were.
While it wouldn’t really kick in until s3, I think this was the episode that started to give me Elena/Alaric vibes. Pretty much for the basis reasons that I ship E/E and E/A (and even E/M but since they don’t have a relationship where the power dynamic should run completely differently than it does, I don’t bring it into discussing them as much), Alaric treats Elena as an adult capable of dealing with what’s happening (something they both struggle to do with Jenna) and making the big choices. He’ll offer an opinion but he won’t step on her territory. Basically he knows it’s Team ELENA, where Elena is the head of the family (in whatever sense I mean it at any given time).
...You know thinking about it, I could say a lot about shipping this episode. I guess that makes sense, a lot of this episode is about relationships or one kind or another. And killing characters the writers were tired of...
Because this was also one of the first episodes where I remember finding Damon/Katherine really dynamic. I’ve never exactly shipped them, but I like watching Damon trying (and failing) to reclaim his identity from her after spending 140+ years obsessed with her. It’s not quite as funny as when he’ll try and convince her that he never cared about her the way he does Elena, but it makes their relationship a lot more interesting than I find it when he’s in full Katherine-obsessed mode. And Katherine kind of enjoys playing her new role as Damon’s tormenter rather than his idol, but knowing that he really wouldn’t hurt her...until he does and she starts trying to figure out a new strategy for getting/keeping him on her side.
The weird thing with Jenna/Alaric is that I really...sideline shipped them first time through the show. I would never have written fic for them or anything, but I respected that they were together and I was cool with that. But I think a lot of that was because it worked in s1; then in s2 both were such background characters most of the time that I didn’t give a lot of thought to their relationship. But for the last few episodes I’ve discussed, they’ve been writing their relationship as a thing, and the cracks are really obvious once you shine a light on it. So after first watch, and it’s even more standout this time since I didn’t start with s1, it’s a lot harder to care about it, or believe that they’re particularly functional which was really their biggest appeal.
(sigh) Caroline/Matt. This ship has never worked for me. Well, it sort of worked in s1, when it felt more honest about the ‘we feel something for watch other but we’re not sure what so let’s just wait and see where it goes’ aspect of their relationship. In s2 it just felt really forced. To me it was always about Caroline trying to convince herself that she wanted what was good for her, or at least she believed was good for her. And Matt trying to convince himself that he loved her even half as much as he loved Elena; he knew he had to move on and Elena wasn’t going to come back to him and he felt *something* for Caroline and didn’t want to lose her, but it wasn’t love. It wasn’t love for either of them, it was enough desire and wanting to have something more to manage and fool themselves sometimes, but it wasn’t love. And as such Matt flipping out over finding out she was a vampire was the best thing to ever happen in this plotline, until he goes and tells Liz, which I was all in favor of because Liz needs to know things.
I...don’t really have much to say about Jeremy/Bonnie. I enjoy the ship. I thought the way Elena gave her blessing to it was well written. As someone who’s had a couple friends get involved and it basically end up ending my relationship with both of them I have mixed feeling on whether I think Elena knows what she just agreed to. Not that it was up to her who either of them dated, and I don’t doubt she would have said go ahead and be happy even if she thought about how it might put her in an awkward position eventually, because if there are two people she wants to see happy it’s Bonnie and Jeremy. Okay, maybe I had a couple things to say, but it was mostly about Elena for me.
The best part of the ep for me are the girls interacting, that’s been pretty much missing in s3. But how great would it have been if they could have invited Kat along? I may or may not have at one point been writing fic about the girls and Kat and Rebekah playing truth or dare. Of course it was just as excuse to get Elena to go make out with Elijah...if I’m admitting to trying to write it.
Next time:
Probably TVD or DW, maybe when I finish a season of one them I’ll fold something else in
In the meantime feel free to suggest what it might be
TVD: 2x16: The House Guest
This episode is pretty good but it has one thing that hindsight really drags down: Jonas and Luka died for nothing. Elena’s going to undagger Elijah in a couple episodes anyway; Elena’s still going to end up sacrificed to Klaus, and Team Elena had already worked out the way to kill Klaus from other clues rather than the info Jonas left Bonnie with. The fact that their deaths are useless wouldn’t be quite so grating if it was *acknowledged* that they died for nothing, treat it as a tragedy of pride for not wanting to make alliances even (though they *were* willing to work with Elijah so it’s more a case of not thinking the Salvatores were great teammates, which I can’t argue with); but as is it really feels like the writers just got tired of them.
Yes, if they had succeeded we would have been denied the Elena/Elijah interaction when she brings him back and that would have been a real loss, but the writers didn’t have to kill the Martins in order to keep Elijah down for a couple more eps. And yes, I think they felt Bonnie needed to face Klaus alone so they needed to rid her of any possible backup, but that doesn’t mean the Martins’ deaths should have been so meaningless. Like I said, it feels like the writers didn’t think of them as actual characters, just pieces to be moved around within the story.
That is ultimately the worst part of this episode, and that’s only super awkward in hindsight; so yeah, at the time this episode was great and it’s still pretty good.
The best thing about it is the show finally calling into focus how much lying these people are doing to people they supposedly love. And as someone who loves Matt and Jenna (and Liz, and to a lesser extent Carol) this was too long coming for me even when I raced through the first season and a half. And it doesn’t end well in either story, which I approve of, we never really saw Elena and Jeremy resolve things after he found out everything she’d kept from him, so we needed to see it blow up this time. In one case just because of all the lies, in one case because of what the lies were.
While it wouldn’t really kick in until s3, I think this was the episode that started to give me Elena/Alaric vibes. Pretty much for the basis reasons that I ship E/E and E/A (and even E/M but since they don’t have a relationship where the power dynamic should run completely differently than it does, I don’t bring it into discussing them as much), Alaric treats Elena as an adult capable of dealing with what’s happening (something they both struggle to do with Jenna) and making the big choices. He’ll offer an opinion but he won’t step on her territory. Basically he knows it’s Team ELENA, where Elena is the head of the family (in whatever sense I mean it at any given time).
...You know thinking about it, I could say a lot about shipping this episode. I guess that makes sense, a lot of this episode is about relationships or one kind or another. And killing characters the writers were tired of...
Because this was also one of the first episodes where I remember finding Damon/Katherine really dynamic. I’ve never exactly shipped them, but I like watching Damon trying (and failing) to reclaim his identity from her after spending 140+ years obsessed with her. It’s not quite as funny as when he’ll try and convince her that he never cared about her the way he does Elena, but it makes their relationship a lot more interesting than I find it when he’s in full Katherine-obsessed mode. And Katherine kind of enjoys playing her new role as Damon’s tormenter rather than his idol, but knowing that he really wouldn’t hurt her...until he does and she starts trying to figure out a new strategy for getting/keeping him on her side.
The weird thing with Jenna/Alaric is that I really...sideline shipped them first time through the show. I would never have written fic for them or anything, but I respected that they were together and I was cool with that. But I think a lot of that was because it worked in s1; then in s2 both were such background characters most of the time that I didn’t give a lot of thought to their relationship. But for the last few episodes I’ve discussed, they’ve been writing their relationship as a thing, and the cracks are really obvious once you shine a light on it. So after first watch, and it’s even more standout this time since I didn’t start with s1, it’s a lot harder to care about it, or believe that they’re particularly functional which was really their biggest appeal.
(sigh) Caroline/Matt. This ship has never worked for me. Well, it sort of worked in s1, when it felt more honest about the ‘we feel something for watch other but we’re not sure what so let’s just wait and see where it goes’ aspect of their relationship. In s2 it just felt really forced. To me it was always about Caroline trying to convince herself that she wanted what was good for her, or at least she believed was good for her. And Matt trying to convince himself that he loved her even half as much as he loved Elena; he knew he had to move on and Elena wasn’t going to come back to him and he felt *something* for Caroline and didn’t want to lose her, but it wasn’t love. It wasn’t love for either of them, it was enough desire and wanting to have something more to manage and fool themselves sometimes, but it wasn’t love. And as such Matt flipping out over finding out she was a vampire was the best thing to ever happen in this plotline, until he goes and tells Liz, which I was all in favor of because Liz needs to know things.
I...don’t really have much to say about Jeremy/Bonnie. I enjoy the ship. I thought the way Elena gave her blessing to it was well written. As someone who’s had a couple friends get involved and it basically end up ending my relationship with both of them I have mixed feeling on whether I think Elena knows what she just agreed to. Not that it was up to her who either of them dated, and I don’t doubt she would have said go ahead and be happy even if she thought about how it might put her in an awkward position eventually, because if there are two people she wants to see happy it’s Bonnie and Jeremy. Okay, maybe I had a couple things to say, but it was mostly about Elena for me.
The best part of the ep for me are the girls interacting, that’s been pretty much missing in s3. But how great would it have been if they could have invited Kat along? I may or may not have at one point been writing fic about the girls and Kat and Rebekah playing truth or dare. Of course it was just as excuse to get Elena to go make out with Elijah...if I’m admitting to trying to write it.
Next time:
Probably TVD or DW, maybe when I finish a season of one them I’ll fold something else in
In the meantime feel free to suggest what it might be