jedi_of_urth: (Default)
jedi_of_urth ([personal profile] jedi_of_urth) wrote2013-10-16 12:15 am

The Originals reaction post

I really love this show. So it’s kind of just my thoughts as I got to the, with no real logical order...mostly.

The Originals 1x03

Okay, so if it pilot ended up being a study in Elijah’s awesomeness and the second was Rebekah’s, this was Klaus’s. It was a masterwork of Xanatos gambits; especially since I’m not convinced he really wanted Elijah back very badly, so if Sofie pulled that part off or not, he didn’t really care, he got the important parts that he wanted. The fact that he told Rebekah that Marcel would return Elijah instead of taking him and hiding him away doesn’t quite support that, but it would be kind of risky to think Marcel might tell Rebekah he had given Elijah back when Klaus hadn’t mentioned it.

So yes, the show has actually done the thing I was convinced it was going to fail at and ruin the show, make Klaus worth watching again. Where has this guy been for the last season and a half or so? This Klaus is interesting, and conniving, and scary, and yet just likable enough as a character that I can...well I can’t quite support him because looked at more widely he’s still pretty much being a bratty child who wants his playhouse back from his kid brother, but at least he’s worth watching in his evil temper tantrum ways.

Cammie got a few steps more interesting with this one. Sure she’s still being used as a pawn but this was the first time it felt like the pawn was a person.

I swear I told someone I was theorizing last spring that Hayley’s baby was Nature’s work around on the doppelganger line being broken, but I’m not sure who, so I can’t prove it. I’m not sure if this adds to that theory or not. Female baby yeah, not speaking Bulgarian tongues not sure. Also, Hayley’s search pattern leaves something to be desired, I don’t think *she* knows why Bulgarian is a smart thing to check; her random searching does allow me to give her some benefit of the doubt that she started with the obvious magical language options like Latin and Sanskrit. Boy or girl, I remain convinced Klaus is naming that kid Nikki.

I remain unsure how this story has much longevity to it, unless the Originals win and we follow them running New Orleans in future seasons (quite possibly with Mikael showing up to mess things up, I stand by this theory being likely). I know the TVD-verse has taken some unexpected roads in the past but I feel like this show’s status quo is not sustainable for all that long. They’ve basically declared war in the third episode (not that they’d been at peace before), how long can it last?

However, I’m enjoying the ride until we get to the point where this could become a problem, because this was an awesome episode, and established some of the near term problems to explore. All the sides of this war are collapsing on themselves and it’s glorious to watch. Long term I just don’t see how this doesn’t end with burning New Orleans to the ground, but it’s going to be a hell of a time getting there.

Rebekah is in about half a dozen different on-again-off-again relationships, and that’s just the ones we know about, and if you don’t count Klaus, so I’m not quite sure who to assume she was talking about with Cammie, if she was meant to be talking about anyone in her manipulation...that she didn’t really need to do since she knows Cammie is compellable.

I think this just about proves that Elijah was the oldest of the family, except maybe Finn since he was daggered by the time that journal entry go made (and dead unnamed child in the old world that...is probably something the show could dredge up at some point for a plot twist).

But...show...and I know this is going to sound weird but...don’t make Elijah too nice. Elijah is every bit as deadly and capable of evil as the rest of them, it’s just tempered with the honor and loyalty and...compassion (because I might as well use the word in a not quite right context if he can) when it suits him; but all of those can be used in the service if not-nice things. It’s easy to make him ‘the good brother’ but I need you to treat him with more complexity. The pilot in pretty much all forms walked the line really well. He’ll rip out hearts with no questions asked; he’ll beat his brother up while bringing up how their father used to so the same, in the name of family unity; he’s repeatedly threatened anyone who hurts his family with no care for why they might do it. These are not “good brother” actions (except maybe by comparison), it’s all him being difficult to classify; good or evil, friend of foe, trustworthy or not, was he going to New Orleans to kill people going after Klaus or help them? With Elijah’s limited exposure in the episodes since then he’s not really a character but an idea, but I don’t even think the idea should be the ‘good brother’ except maybe to Rebekah (and she usually chose Klaus over him in the past anyway); I kind of just feel like the journal this episode was pushing it a little too far in the ‘good brother’ direction; it’s time to get the character back and see if they can write that with the complexity he deserves.

Also, further proof that Elena/Elijah are the perfect OTP, now we can add Elena/Elijah/diaries to the ways I like them (along with doors, windows, negotiations, betrayal, trust exercises, and one day getting more than subtext proof of how perfect they are). Yes I’m upset that this was basically all the Elijah we got this episode, but at least it was something that was relevant to my long term interests.

(Hmm, I wonder if Elijah might happen to be my favorite character when I think I talked about him more than Klaus in Klaus’s best episode in ages if not ever.)


[identity profile] siberia21.livejournal.com 2013-10-16 08:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Loving this!:D This is a review I really want to read (possibly after every episode). Despite feeling Elijah deprived (not to mention Elejah deprived!) I feel content (and almost happy) after reading this. All details and aspects perfectly even (bonus El(e)ijah thoughts included) and all the information I need. Thank you!:)

[identity profile] wheatear.livejournal.com 2013-10-16 09:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Klaus was great in this episode, I agree. If only his plotting and scheming had involved waking Elijah as his top priority. :P
lynnenne: (originals: like bookends)

[personal profile] lynnenne 2013-10-17 12:24 am (UTC)(link)
If only his plotting and scheming had involved waking Elijah as his top priority. :P

See, I got the impression that getting Elijah back was a priority for Klaus. But he knew that if he let the witches kill Marcel, they would get their hands on Davina and use her against all the Originals (Elijah included). So he came up with a better plan, which involved ingratiating himself so deeply with Marcel that he would feel obliged to give Klaus what he had asked for. And it worked perfectly.

(Except for the fact that Marcel can't control Davina at all, which is something that not even Marcel was aware of, until she said no.)
lynnenne: (originals: tragically wounded)

[personal profile] lynnenne 2013-10-17 12:25 am (UTC)(link)
This Klaus is interesting, and conniving, and scary, and yet just likable enough as a character that I can...well I can’t quite support him because looked at more widely he’s still pretty much being a bratty child who wants his playhouse back from his kid brother, but at least he’s worth watching in his evil temper tantrum ways.

I am smitten.