jedi_of_urth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jedi_of_urth) wrote2013-08-23 11:08 pm
jedi_of_urth) wrote2013-08-23 11:08 pm
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100 Reviews: 78
Okay, so if posting epic fic wasn’t enough TVD for the day, how about a review too?
TVD: 1x08: 162 Candles
I’m of two minds on this one. I really like it when I’m just watching it and just thinking about it a little as a viewer; but when I start to think about going into depth with it I find a lot more things that bother me.
But let’s at least talk about Lexi and how different this looks now than it did when this was her only appearance. Most of what Lexi says to Stefan sounds really different with the history we now have for them. While I’m not sure there are too many outright contradictions, it’s really hard to take torture-is-love Lexi and I-love-my-hedonistic-ways Lexi as the same character; and trying to give the unfortunate appearance that Lexi wants Stefan to be fun friend Stefan but only with her and on her terms, which I really don’t get the impression of in this appearance of hers.
If you just take this, she comes off as much like Bonnie does for Elena (in an all-around yay friendship episode), as someone who makes this whole darker world a little more light. It’s Lexi, not Damon or Elena, that makes Stefan just for a little while, act like he can enjoy life (I’m not saying Elena doesn’t get him to enjoy life but it’s a different kind of attitude) because, and this is what’s really been lost, they’re not complicated. They’re easy friends without the baggage of his relationship with Damon or the minefield that’s there with Elena; making her also his sobriety enforcer really took away the major appeal of their friendship.
Also, an early hypocrite Stefan sighting to go along with retroactive hypocrite Lexi. He’s all about letting Elena know she can talk to him even as he’s making sure she doesn’t talk to her friends about what’s bothering her. But as soon as Elena wants to talk to him about what he’s doing he’s like ‘No Elena, I have to do this alone.’ And, really, at the time I didn’t so much object to Stefan still keeping some things like Katherine secret and/or keeping Elena out of some elements of what he was dealing with, but *now* I have a pretty negative reaction to it all. That’s what four season a progressively downgrading Stefan’s character from believably flawed to utter douchebag, especially in the context of his relationship with Elena. It makes it hard to go back to seeing him as relatably flawed rather than the douche he will become when going back to a time before he (completely) became that.
I would like to make a small observation that considering how many vampires have daylight rings these days it’s hard to believe Lexi has never met another vampire with one besides the Salvatores. Also in a hindsight humor vein (pun only somewhat intentional) considering how they live off blood bags these days Damon’s attitude to them here is really awkward, but a little funny (and considering the story I posted today, kind of extra awkward funny to me).
And I guess I’ll take a moment to discuss the Matt/Caroline stuff. As I think is pretty clear I never saw them as a real ship, and certainly not one I invested in. But I know there are a lot of people who get angry about the way he acts towards her; and to me it was just part of the reason I never got into them as a couple. It doesn’t put me off either character, or even make me angry that the show put them together, I am just incredibly indifferent to them as a pair. I don’t find the way he treats her to be all that bad, but it’s a lot more...familiar than works as a couple; when he says she’s not deep it’s not meant to be mean, it’s just that he’s known her their whole lives and she’s not deep at this point. She’s driven and extroverted and involved in everything, and she’s a normal teenage level of not deep; and as not-terribly-close-but-lifelong friends he sees nothing wrong with acknowledging that. As a romantic prospect it’s not a very nice thing to say but like I said, I never truly saw them as a real romantic pairing.
A few quick thoughts:
-I like that what really gets between Matt and Stefan isn’t Elena but Vicky. Not that they were ever friends like their book counterparts, but I approve of this being a bigger roadblock than romantic interests.
-I don’t feel like the show ever went far enough with the ‘Damon took away Jeremy’s suffering’ angle. That sounds like it’s going to go somewhere really creepy but it was really just a chance to rese the character baseline I guess.
-Why oh why do we no longer get scenes like the one between Elena and Bonnie? Oh right, because Elena has to be defined by her love interest alone now.
-But I am curious what Elena’s reaction to the Bonnie is really a witch revelation would have been if she hadn’t already known this sort of stuff existed.
-I probably should have had a full point rather than a quick one about Elena’s development and how much I love it, but I guess not this time, maybe I wore it out last time.
-I am glad at least Lexi could point out that Stefan probably has some issues to be going after Katherine’s look alike. Another sign that this Lexi wasn’t interested in being Stefan’s savior, because it’s hard to think later Lexi would have let that go so quickly.
-I love how unconcerned Stefan is about the Council goings-on. And by love I mean find hysterical. Maybe if he’d shown a little more interest Damon wouldn’t have ended up going after Lexi.
-Though really Lexi, all you had to do was run the other direction. I guess it was to show that in spite of what she told Stefan he should do, she didn’t get the hell out of these when she was in the crosshairs. I’m not sure Damon so much set her up to get killed, she could have taken the fall and still gotten away if she’d run off. Not that he cared that it came to the end it did, but I don’t think it was the only one he would have settled for.
(Got to love my reviews, I spend more time defending Matt than I do giving a damn about Damon even in an episode that was arguably all about Damon’s ability to have diabolical plans.)
Next time:
I seem to be falling into a TVD zone, but who knows what’ll be next.
Always open to suggestions
TVD: 1x08: 162 Candles
I’m of two minds on this one. I really like it when I’m just watching it and just thinking about it a little as a viewer; but when I start to think about going into depth with it I find a lot more things that bother me.
But let’s at least talk about Lexi and how different this looks now than it did when this was her only appearance. Most of what Lexi says to Stefan sounds really different with the history we now have for them. While I’m not sure there are too many outright contradictions, it’s really hard to take torture-is-love Lexi and I-love-my-hedonistic-ways Lexi as the same character; and trying to give the unfortunate appearance that Lexi wants Stefan to be fun friend Stefan but only with her and on her terms, which I really don’t get the impression of in this appearance of hers.
If you just take this, she comes off as much like Bonnie does for Elena (in an all-around yay friendship episode), as someone who makes this whole darker world a little more light. It’s Lexi, not Damon or Elena, that makes Stefan just for a little while, act like he can enjoy life (I’m not saying Elena doesn’t get him to enjoy life but it’s a different kind of attitude) because, and this is what’s really been lost, they’re not complicated. They’re easy friends without the baggage of his relationship with Damon or the minefield that’s there with Elena; making her also his sobriety enforcer really took away the major appeal of their friendship.
Also, an early hypocrite Stefan sighting to go along with retroactive hypocrite Lexi. He’s all about letting Elena know she can talk to him even as he’s making sure she doesn’t talk to her friends about what’s bothering her. But as soon as Elena wants to talk to him about what he’s doing he’s like ‘No Elena, I have to do this alone.’ And, really, at the time I didn’t so much object to Stefan still keeping some things like Katherine secret and/or keeping Elena out of some elements of what he was dealing with, but *now* I have a pretty negative reaction to it all. That’s what four season a progressively downgrading Stefan’s character from believably flawed to utter douchebag, especially in the context of his relationship with Elena. It makes it hard to go back to seeing him as relatably flawed rather than the douche he will become when going back to a time before he (completely) became that.
I would like to make a small observation that considering how many vampires have daylight rings these days it’s hard to believe Lexi has never met another vampire with one besides the Salvatores. Also in a hindsight humor vein (pun only somewhat intentional) considering how they live off blood bags these days Damon’s attitude to them here is really awkward, but a little funny (and considering the story I posted today, kind of extra awkward funny to me).
And I guess I’ll take a moment to discuss the Matt/Caroline stuff. As I think is pretty clear I never saw them as a real ship, and certainly not one I invested in. But I know there are a lot of people who get angry about the way he acts towards her; and to me it was just part of the reason I never got into them as a couple. It doesn’t put me off either character, or even make me angry that the show put them together, I am just incredibly indifferent to them as a pair. I don’t find the way he treats her to be all that bad, but it’s a lot more...familiar than works as a couple; when he says she’s not deep it’s not meant to be mean, it’s just that he’s known her their whole lives and she’s not deep at this point. She’s driven and extroverted and involved in everything, and she’s a normal teenage level of not deep; and as not-terribly-close-but-lifelong friends he sees nothing wrong with acknowledging that. As a romantic prospect it’s not a very nice thing to say but like I said, I never truly saw them as a real romantic pairing.
A few quick thoughts:
-I like that what really gets between Matt and Stefan isn’t Elena but Vicky. Not that they were ever friends like their book counterparts, but I approve of this being a bigger roadblock than romantic interests.
-I don’t feel like the show ever went far enough with the ‘Damon took away Jeremy’s suffering’ angle. That sounds like it’s going to go somewhere really creepy but it was really just a chance to rese the character baseline I guess.
-Why oh why do we no longer get scenes like the one between Elena and Bonnie? Oh right, because Elena has to be defined by her love interest alone now.
-But I am curious what Elena’s reaction to the Bonnie is really a witch revelation would have been if she hadn’t already known this sort of stuff existed.
-I probably should have had a full point rather than a quick one about Elena’s development and how much I love it, but I guess not this time, maybe I wore it out last time.
-I am glad at least Lexi could point out that Stefan probably has some issues to be going after Katherine’s look alike. Another sign that this Lexi wasn’t interested in being Stefan’s savior, because it’s hard to think later Lexi would have let that go so quickly.
-I love how unconcerned Stefan is about the Council goings-on. And by love I mean find hysterical. Maybe if he’d shown a little more interest Damon wouldn’t have ended up going after Lexi.
-Though really Lexi, all you had to do was run the other direction. I guess it was to show that in spite of what she told Stefan he should do, she didn’t get the hell out of these when she was in the crosshairs. I’m not sure Damon so much set her up to get killed, she could have taken the fall and still gotten away if she’d run off. Not that he cared that it came to the end it did, but I don’t think it was the only one he would have settled for.
(Got to love my reviews, I spend more time defending Matt than I do giving a damn about Damon even in an episode that was arguably all about Damon’s ability to have diabolical plans.)
Next time:
I seem to be falling into a TVD zone, but who knows what’ll be next.
Always open to suggestions