OC Kiss Scene Tag Game

Thank you so much for the tag, @darthnell!

From the draft of a future chapter of my TVD fanfic From the Sidelines:

The doorbell ringing at that hour couldn’t be a good sign. She was crossing the foyer when it rang again. Unable to shake the feeling of anxiety, Claire opened the door and came face to face with Damon. He seemed fine. He definitely didn’t have the expression of someone bearing bad news. Irritation followed her relief. Then a closer look made her aware of his red-rimmed eyes, the slightly glassy gaze, the fingers tapping against the doorframe. Claire closed her mouth, her annoyance gone. “Come in.” She followed him to the living room, where he plopped down on the couch. “What happened?” She sat down next to him. Damon turned to look at her. “She said she never loved me, said it was always Stefan. And now Elena is saying the same.” He blinked slowly, but his gaze was still not quite focused. “Love sucks.” Claire caught herself nodding. “Huh. Most guys I’ve ever liked were either already taken or gay. Pales in comparison to your situation, but yeah, unrequited love sucks.” She realized Damon was peering at her. “I like you; you don’t judge,” he said finally. Claire huffed. “It’s not my place to judge. And it’s easier to be objective when you’re on the sidelines.” Damon was quiet, still staring. Then he leaned toward her, and Claire felt his lips on hers, tasted the bourbon. She put her hands on his chest and pulled back. “This won’t help.” “It’s a good distraction.” Claire shook her head, her pulse back to normal. “Sleep the buzz off. I’ll take you home — you’re not getting in a car in this state.” Damon looked up at her as she rose. “Already did.” A shaky smirk curled his mouth. “You’re not doing it a second time.” Damon crossed his arms, his lips pressing into a line. “And how am I gonna explain my car being here when no-one knows we’re . . . whatever it is we are, hmm?” He got up. “I’m going.” Claire blocked his way. “You’re not driving, and if you don’t want me to take you home” — she reached to grab a cushion and thrust it into his chest — “you’re sleeping on the couch.”

Tagging: @darknightfrombeyond @arrthurpendragon @asirensrage @anqelwiithhxrns @carmens-garden @themaradwrites @bluebell-winter @thecharmedburrowspn-files @cecexwrites @kbeebaybe @bisexualterror @foxesandmagic @come-along-pond @theblueelfling @moustache-bonnet @mabonetsamhain, and anyone else who wants to join (I know I'm forgetting people!)

Bonnie bennett as a headmistress in a supernatural school makes so much more sense then alaric understandably kat wasn't interested in returning as bonnie so that wasn't possible which is why legacies itself makes no sense they had nobody important wanting to return

Here are some beautiful pics of Kat that I think gives headmistress!Bonnie.

I don’t blame Kat for not being interested in returning as Bonnie. TVD had eight long years to do right by her. She gave ideas and was continuously sidelined for being black. There is no excuse for their behavior but to call racism what it is. There is a reason Candice was open to returning during season 3(from what I was told) and her later guest appearance. Legacies, didn’t even do right by their black/or non-white characters. How do you make a musical episode with a joke that Bonnie wasn’t important? Huh.

Bonnie didn’t have a ton of help being a witch. She was self-taught it would make perfect sense for her to want to create a space for witches/supernatural beings without guidance. It is very telling that TVDU started to introduce child witches/other beings but never connect them to Bonnie. I can’t talk about Legacies without mentioning Hope and Bonnie. If you aren’t aware Hope is physically book description Bonnie without the big curly red hair.

I do not know much about Legacies-lore wise. I am aware that Alaric used and manipulated Hope into protecting the school/his daughters by proxy. I know that Hope continuously felt that she HAD to protect the school and everyone else. From discussions with my mutuals Hope and Alaric relationship to me feels very predatory. Why does a student and a teacher have private meeting to the point where his own children calls it out? That responsibility to save everyone shouldn’t have been on any student’s hands.

Legacies was all about the supernatural school. It feels very different than TVD’s supernatural beings existing in the real world. Where are the activities that young teenagers would do? Dances? Partying? Gossiping? As headmistress and Hope's step-mom, Bonnie would be the positive parental influence that she desperately needs! Bonnie would never run a school where Hope would have to feel like she is everyone’s savior.

I feel guilty: In some ways, I feel Hayley and the Mikaelsons set up Hope to fail. Now, with canon included, I think Hope did find her way - but ironically feel like her story should have been "Klaus, Hayley, and Elijah are what the remaining family tied to Hope but with the three dead - Hope is on her own, and having to navigate a world where she loves her dad but everyone is just as entitled to hate him and come into conflict with that". (Sorry, that's a long one). Basically because of how morally dubious the TVD gang (+ Dorian) could be - it makes sense that they know to separate Klaus's actions from Hope - but what about those who did not have that luxury and only remember a monster that was Klaus? I would use Tyler's story, but in a vague gesture: Hope needs to earn someone's trust after her father (or other relatives) brutalized them and has no way to defend or justify it. Essentially getting someone's trust for her as "Only Hope" and not the surname she's connected to. Or the more common arc, Hope realizing just because she loves her family doesn't mean she can overwrite the centuries of cruel history they left behind.

I'm not saying the Mikaelsons didn't love Hope, but Hope is unique (not just as a tribrid but the only living blood relative who hasn't been alive for a millennia) and had pressure on her that shouldn't be there. Hayley loved her, but should have warned her that living in a town that still had - living - people her dad fought with and hurt should have taken precedence over keeping a torch lit for their relationship. Klaus had his chance to be someone in this world, now Hope has to live in it and make something of herself - in his name or by herself.

(Sorry if this comes off anti. While I have anti thoughts and do like Hope, I think she could have stood to have a better characterized arc.)

I'll start by prefacing this and say that I haven't seen much of Legacies, I only know a lot of the show from edits.

But I agree that the show did a pretty terrible job with really diving into the cycle of trauma and pressures that were put on Hope since before she was even born. They were so focused on making Klaus redeemable and centering Hope around Klaus that they didn't allow for her character to have the development she needed.

I really like what I know about Hope's character and I even look past the wild hoops the writers had to jump through to make her existence possible. But for a show that centered around a magical, miracle baby, they sidelined her character a lot. The writers were so focused on setting up Legacies that they forgot to give the characters the development that was necessary for it to get there.

People love to say that Klaus broke the cycle of abuse with Hope, but he didn't. It just manifested in a different way. He never physically harmed her, but he neglected, abandoned, and emotionally harmed her repeatedly. This trauma is something that Hope doesn't even get to work through.

Hope at 7 years old seems more or less well adjusted. I think Hayley did a good job protecting her from everything. She missed her family in an abstract way because she didn't truly understand what she was missing. She had Hayley and Mary. Klaus allowing himself to be captured and held prisoner was the best thing he ever did for Hope. She was able to live for seven years safe and loved. I may get hate for it, but Hope was better off living as a Marshall away from the Mikaelsons.

I don't necessarily think Hayley was wrong for letting Hope grow up believing the best in her family. At that point, Hope was very isolated. She deserved to have a childhood without it being taken away by the Mikaelsons. But I do think Hayley should have had more conversations with her as she got older, especially if she was going to a school where it was likely to come up.

As soon as she is back with the Mikaelsons, her life once again revolved around what she can do for Klaus. I'm not saying they all didn't love Hope, but she was never allowed to just exist. The fact that she used to keep points when she was "good" or "bad" shows just how much she felt it. She had to be perfect because if she wasn't, she wouldn't be worth their sacrifice or Klaus might slip back into a terrible person.

I've talked about it before, but sending Hope to the Salvatore School made no sense to me. She was safer in New Orleans. She had her mother's pack, he vampires would protect her for Josh and Marcel, Vincent wouldn't let anything happen to her, and she had her mother. Hayley sending her daughter away to boarding school for most of the year made zero sense. I watched the first few episodes of Legacies before TO and I genuinely thought they all died when she was a child because of how she acted with Alaric and the twins. She desperately wanted a family, something Hayley had done a great job providing in the past, but sending her away to school made Hope feel neglected. She was already being neglected by Klaus, she didn't need to feel abandoned by both parents.

And, as you said, she is sent to a school that is run by a man who hates her father, in a town full of people who hate her whole family. She had to listen to people talking about how awful they were, and it was all warranted, which makes it worse for her. She didn't get to attempt to process that on her own. She had to do it while constantly being compared to her family. Alaric was always using it as a way to punish her. The adults clearly were not mature enough to separate Hope from what her family did and they had no business being in charge of her.

The entire terrible legacy of the Mikaelsons was put on Hope's shoulder and the show just ignored that trauma because if they didn't, they would have to admit that Klaus wasn't redeemed, everyone just moved on. So then the people who didn't just move on look like the bad guys. Alaric had every right to hate Klaus, Tyler would have every right to hate both of Hayley and Klaus. They don't owe the Mikaelsons anything, but it is also not fair that Hope has to take the brunt of their anger because Klaus died and got away with literal murder. Hope was a child and shouldn't have had to work to prove herself. She deserved love and support and understanding, like every other child. She deserved to have the space and support to sort out her feelings toward her family, the good and the bad. She deserved to yell at Klaus for abandoning her, to be angry at Elijah for putting that pressure on her, to be angry at her aunts and uncles for abandoning her after her parents died. She deserved to figure out who she was outside of the legacy of pain and torment her family left behind, but as far as I can tell, she is never given that time. All of this would have given her character more depth. Coming to the realization that her family were terrible people but she still loved them is a hard pill to swallow, but it was something she needed to come to terms with. Glorifying Klaus and erasing Hayley, did very little for her development except to play on Klaus' popularity for views.

I love the Mikaelsons but each and every one of them were terrible at being family and terrible people. Hope suffered because of this.

Thanks for the ask! Sorry if I just went on a tangent and didn't fully answer your question.

I’m in a petty mood so :P

if Bonnie wasn’t the most disrespected character of tvd then maybe…idk there wouldn’t be videos, books, articles online that has to thoroughly explain this topic repeatedly with detailed evidence. Then you fans that claim Bonnie didn’t suffer the way other characters did or it wasn’t as bad only have that argument because you let your hatred for Bonnie cloud anything else. Pull up a video that explains how badly Caroline and Elena was treated that lines up with Bonnie’s. Like I said before NOBODY has ever said Elena and Caroline didn’t struggle that would be false but their struggles will never align with how the MAIN black woman was treated for 8 years.

Yall be upset over characters like Katherine, Vicki, Caroline, Elena etc etc. when Julie never went on Twitter tangents about her disdain for that character or actress , never bashed or nitpicked at those fanbases. Caroline Dries never intentionally talked over Candice, or Nina in interviews because they had ideas. Candice was so loudly loved that not only was her character placed with nearly every male, but they written in her pregnancy for Caroline connecting her to 2 more shows. Nina got to do more scenes as Katherine.

There’s plenty of other things but Kat could give yall losers a PowerPoint presentation detailing about how she was sidelined from Bonnie’s sexuality, repeatedly making remarks about how often Bonnie’s sacrificed and gets nothing, the relationships, and even her wardrobe. On top of continuously mentioning how she felt like they didn’t want her there. She’s even said directly she thinks there wouldn’t have been problems had she been white. I mean look at the white witches… The series will never let us forget how beautiful they found the other women yet NEVER gave Bonnie those compliments and moments to just be beautiful in a gown. Mystic Falls had a dance every damn moment yet how many of those was Bonnie enjoying herself? She couldn’t even win prom queen without that being taken from her. “She’s always had good friends…” what? The friends that didn’t notice she was dead for months and only wanted her back because they needed her magic? The friends that don’t check up on her at all period until they want her magic? “Her family loves her” oh you mean the Grams they referred to as an alcoholic in s1? The father who worked soo much but clearly never wanted to stay. You mean Abby the woman that loved Elena and herself more than she loved Bonnie? Wait, no no you mean Lucy the woman who said she’d see Bonnie again and dies offscreen? Or all of the lovely WOC we never get to see…

Yall really be talking out your ass. The fans that claim “people make it so hard to love all three!” because of these metas ONLY have these issues when Bonnie fans want to speak and cater towards Bonnie first. Dont follow Bonnie fans if you’re going to get mad everytime they speak about Bonnie. I don’t fucking get that at all. WHY go out your way to follow someone and you know you don’t want to read anything they have to say. Not smart but whatever.

Many Caroline fans are always calling Elena a "bitch" for falling in love with Damon even though (according to them) Elena was aware of the sexual abuse Caroline suffered when she was under Damon's compulsion. However, I see virtually no Caroline fans complaining about how fucking selfish and cruel Caroline was to have sex with Klaus, even though he was responsible for making Elena's life a living hell. Not only did he kill Jenna in front of Elena, but he also tried to kill Jeremy, KILLED ELENA in the ritual, forced Isobel to kill herself in front of Elena for the sheer cruelty of doing so, and also made Tyler his slave and then killed Carol.

And in fact, Elena is ALSO another r@pe victim of Damon. I have nothing against Caroline, but her fans are extremely sexist and even misogynistic when it comes to Elena or even Bonnie.

Trigger Warning : Discussions of non-con, abuse.

Okay, first of all, hello, I got this ask such a long time back, and I'm really sorry about how long it has taken me answer it.

So, I wanna break this down before I answer this. All three of them - Bonnie, Caroline and Elena are victims of the vampires on the show. And pretty much everyone on the show has been wronged by someone or the other, even Klaus. All I'm trying to say is that the show itself pits a lot of victims, especially female victims, against each other. Mostly in order to prop up men, which is why I think that TVD is rooted in misogyny.

So I'm not going to blame either Caroline or Elena, but the message you sent is very compelling, and I want to dissect it a bit.

The 'Delena' of it

Let's get to the root of it - is Elena selfish for loving Damon? I recently saw a similar question on Reddit (two minutes of silence for the time I waste lurking on that site), and I honestly could not even read it, because of some of the takes I saw. But the root of it is this - Elena is traumatised teenager trying to hold on to every last person she has left.

I saw a meta about Elena having prolonged grief, and I agree, it feels as if her grief and her survivors guilt, is almost pathological. Within the show, she seeks one particular thing from her parter - immortality. Her entire family, with the exception of Jeremy, is dead. Of these she has seen her parents, Isobel and Jenna die in front of her. It is not only grief that she feels over these losses, it's also helpless, desperation, and a lot of trauma. In these situations, she essentially a person watching a train crash - on the sidelines, desperate to help them and save them, but helpless to do so.

Because of this trauma, she seeks to include people in her life that are immortal, and hard to kill. Be it Stefan, Damon, Caroline and Bonnie who's a powerful witch, as opposed to sending away Jeremy - someone who's mortal and can be hurt. She actively keeps an inner circle of supernatural beings around her because it's hard to lose them, and tries to distance the mortal ones - like Matt and April.

So it makes sense, that when she feels that she can't be with Stefan any longer, she is drawn towards Damon. Damon who takes the notion of death lightly, and plays with it, and has survived a lot. (A lot of this has to do with the sire bond, but we'll get into that some other day). But as it is, Elena feels safe with Damon because he is tough to kill, and it isn't selfish for anyone, let alone her, to seek security within a relationship. And to her, security is to not go through that grief or pain again.

Damon and his abuse of Caroline

Having said what I just did about Elena feeling secure with Damon, that's mainly according to her priorities and her specific trauma. Because yes, watching someone die, or being a spectator to trauma is also traumatic.

But, Damon isn't really safe, for anyone. Not even Elena. But he was particularly unsafe for Caroline. When we first see Damon meet Caroline, we see him charming her (because a seventeen year old girl is easy to charm), we see him flirting with her and going back to sleep with her. The scene then cuts to Damon biting Caroline and feeding on her - in the middle of sex. And she is traumatised, at which point he compels her and presumably this goes on. In the morning, she tries to run, he compels her again and then they go back out, behaving like a couple.

Now, the show runners themselves have never, ever acknowledged this as rape but it is rape. And we can see that, but Caroline never calls it rape - because she can't, and every time, Damon's abuse of Caroline is brought up, it is called abuse. It's said that Caroline is Damon's 'blood bag', she herself says that and calls herself his errand boy, but nobody ever calls it rape.

When Elena asks Stefan what Damon is doing to Caroline, he says that Damon is compelling her to feed on her. And we never see Elena and Caroline talking about it. So, in terms of the material that we have been presented with, we can conclude that Elena doesn't realise that Damon raped Caroline, because here's the thing, nobody on the show ever calls it rape. Not just in regards to Damon and Caroline, but in regards to Damon and Andy as well. Or Katherine and Stefan.

In a nutshell, TVD has a lot of consent issues, and straight up non-con, but it never addresses that, the narrative itself doesn't, and so we cannot hold a single character responsible for not seeing it. And if we can, then where is this energy when it comes to holding Stefan responsible for enabling Damon? Or Alaric - the grown man who hangs out with a rapist?

The 'Klaroline' of it

Klaus is the worst. He's a killer, he enjoys physically and psychologically torturing people, he literally enslaved his hybrids, then killed said hybrids just because they wanted to be free, killed his mother (who admittedly isn't mother of the year either), carted his siblings in boxes, and laughed when Finn expressed his trauma from being daggered for nine hundred years. Klaus is horrible, but he's arguably one of the best characters on the show, and is probably the best villain.

But he showers Caroline with affection. A lot of it, I think at least at the beginning, is love bombing. And while Caroline isn't amused by it, she is a little enamoured by it. She really is attracted to him, and doesn't like it. The thing is, Klaus is a lot like Damon, but he also cares about Caroline, and saves her life. Caroline is also traumatised, and has this belief that she'll never be anyones first priority - and I'll be absolutely clear on this, I'm not saying that Caroline isn't anyone's first priority, I'm saying that Caroline thinks so, and whether it's true or not isn't relevant to this particular conversation.

But Klaus at certain points, prioritises Caroline. And she's enamoured by this. When they fuck in the woods, he is only there for a day, and she wants to fulfil her desires, and maybe, get it out of her system, see what it's like. But, and I'm not sure of this, I haven't seen it discussed anywhere nor do I know Caroline's character enough to know if this is true, but I think sleeping with Klaus is Caroline's way of feeling in control.

Klaus is a lot worse than Damon, and she wants to feel in control with him, the kind of control she never had with Damon, as part of a trauma response. I'm not saying it's only a trauma response, but that part of it is. It's okay if anyone disagrees with this, or anything in this post, but this is my opinion. But, in either case, I'm not going to call it selfish.

There is a larger discussion here about what is selfishness, and it's always bad to be selfish, and whether or not a character being selfish should be a hindrance to liking them, but I digress. That's for another discussion.

Damon and his abuse of Elena

In episode 1x03 or 1x04 of TVD, Damon compels Elena to kiss him, but she's wearing vervain, so she doesn't get compelled. But honestly, Damon was so in love with Katherine, that he could've done anything to Elena simply because they look alike. In s2, he tries to break her hand, and physically abuses her, and throughout her relationship with Stefan and s3, he continually hits on her. In the end, she has no choice but to accept his behaviour.

In s4, he tricks her into blood sharing, and sleeps with her when she's sired to him. It's definitely sexual abuse, dub-con at best, but it isn't discussed because that clusterfuck of a plot point, the sire bond, is fucking weird. Elena is basically enslaved to Damon, like the hybrids are to Klaus, and no consent in this situation can ever be freely given.

So, I agree, Damon abuses Elena but it is never addressed, because the sire bond is presented, according to narrative, as a romantic thing.

In conclusion, a lot of TVD is rooted in misogyny, in fact the entire concept of 'who deserves Elena' is highly misogynistic because it treats Elena as an object to be coveted rather than a person. And so, it makes that quite a few fans are also misogynistic, but there's nothing we can do about it. Like I understand your frustration, and I'm right with you about Elena being hated for the most ridiculous reason, and I wish there was something we could do about it, but there isn't.

Thank you so much for sending this ask, it got me thinking about a lot of things, especially cause I'm neither a Klaroline nor a Delena shipper.

Why don’t you think that Kevin Williamson gets the same criticism for the problematic aspects on the show as Julie Plec and Caroline Dries?

I was on Reddit and I saw a post that said the Kevin deserves the same treatment and he is also to blame for the racism and the Bonnie treatment and for the “Pro-Confederacy” but all the blame is always placed on Julie and Caroline?

I went through your posts and you tag “Anti Julie Plec” and “Anti Caroline Dries” but not “Anti Kevin Williamson.”

Why do you think that Kevin Williamson is not blamed for the problematic and even for the “Damon” of it all?

The person who posted that said it’s because Kevin Williamson can write a story whereas Julie and Caroline cannot.

I don't think it's that people don't hold him accountable, I think it's that JP and Caroline are simply named more. I agree that KW should be called out more by name especially considering what he did on Tell Me A Story

In terms of my tags, I started this blog near the end of season 6, which contextualizes a lot of my posts and frustrations in those posts because JP and Caroline Dries had been running the show for about three and a half seasons by this point and they were the ones who had the quotes and the interviews and the tweets about how they viewed Bonnie and about how Bonnie functioned in TVD or how they viewed Black women in general

DRIES:  We’re going to see Bonnie continue to try to adjust to life in the prison world.  She tried to have Christmas, and it just made things worse for her.  She’s going to have a birthday in the prison world, which is going to be worse.  She’s really going to hit rock bottom before she pulls herself up by the bootstraps and says, “You know what? Let me get out of here!”  She will finally find her way back, and it will come at the perfect time for our friends, who are in need of a friend rejuvenation and beautiful reunion.  So, she comes back and is emotionally scarred from it.

“"Bonnie will continue to be a loyal friend to Damon and a very supportive person for him to lean on as he goes through the drama of the second half of the season,“ she explained. “But their relationship will also face its own obstacles down the road. Bonnie and Stefan are grounding forces in Damon’s life. So for him to put his relationship with Bonnie at stake would have really, really bad consequences for Damon, for sure.”

“She’s been empowered by her best friend Elena to kind of follow her… to become this stronger woman that she’s become, but also take on the role of being Damon’s moral compass,” Dries says. “With Elena sidelined, Bonnie’s worried: ‘Is Damon going to go off his rocker? Do I need to keep an eye on him?’ Then there’s Damon, who’s obviously grieving the loss of the love of his life, and the big question is, ‘Is he going to become the monster that we saw in Season 1, the real villain of the show?’”

Like Damon, Bonnie is now doing what she wants. “And so, she’ll kind of get involved in Alaric’s storyline a little bit,” Dries says. “But as she’s working with Alaric and helping him through the grief of losing Jo, Bonnie starts to get herself embroiled in a little bit of a love story. And so, that’s been very fun to watch unfold.”

so they took up most of my ire in relation to Bonnie's treatment (it should also be noted and I've said this before, if I say Julie/JP or Caroline, I mean JP and co. or Caroline Dries and co., which is meant to encapsulate the entire writers room because one person did accuse me of blaming everything on JP or Caroline when they themselves didn't write a specific episode and I had to be like I refer to their names as an encapsulation of the writers/show/EPs in general). If I tagged KW it was usually in relation to a Stelena post and KW was SE's biggest champion, which was why I didn't put anti KW in the tag (I'm not saying I haven't tagged KW in Bonnie posts or posts that talk about the antiblack treatment of the show but I know I specifically tag KW for SE posts) and some of that still carries over.

Plus, Bonnie's treatment was always terrible but in the seasons KW was actively involved, her treatment was better -- not good but better -- which isn't to let him off the hook but I think in relation to what she goes through from season 4 onwards combined with the tweets and the posts and things like Julie explaining that Kat begged her not to kill Bonnie off, JP and Caroline are the names that automatically come to mind for people.

TVD Rebekah gets a bad rep. In TO I know she's a bit more appreciated. Damon would OFC sleep with her. Had nothing to do with Elena. He prefers vampire women (at least after s1) and he was looking to blow off steam, feel desired, and just have fun. He needed it (after Elena hurt him for no reason) and Rebekah needed it too. Why the Damon hate about it??? Stefan sleeping with her is similar. They have history and he was looking to move on. Stefan with her was a bit more calculated, hence why Damon outs him.

Rebekah is a huge parallel for Damon and Stefan. Damon had more intention, and he got exactly what he expected from Elena.

Rebekah tried to kill Elena at the open of 3x14. In 3x6, it was Esther who sent Vicki to kill her, so Esther was behind Delena's first aid scene. Elena nearly died by fire because of Esther, so Damon decided to make a point while making her jealous. He felt that if Elena can meet with Esther after Esther nearly killed her, and do so while expecting him not to care... then he can sleep with Rebekah after Rebekah nearly killed her, and do so while expecting her not to care. What's good for Elena should be good for Damon, period. Despite the fact that sleeping with Rebekah was all about Elena, Damon claimed he did it for himself because of her comment. "Elena. Did you get what you want?" Because she said she got what she wanted, Damon claimed to get what he wanted. That's why he lied to her about his reason for sleeping with Rebekah. Elena pisses off Damon, he's mad and has to get over it. He gets over it when he has sex with Rebekah because angry sex is good sex and quite the release lol. Damon pisses off Elena because she finds out he slept with Reekah. So then it's her turn to be mad, and her need to get over it. She gets over it when Rebekah abducts Damon to torture him because it's one thing to be mad at him, and another to be mad to the point of wanting him dead. It's at this time Stefan realizes she's in love with Damon.

Damon and Elena are so madly in love with each other... they're making each other mad lol

For Stefan, sleeping with Rebekah was solely about losing Elena, and he's quite ashamed of it. He has serious post-sex regret. He knew it would piss off Elena, so he tried to sneak out and keep it a secret. He wasn't trying to move on from Elena, but more or less biding his time because he truly believed the cure for vampirism would pull her back to him. A momentary need for pleasure is what I'd term their sex. He didn't expect Klaus to catch him sneaking out, and he's even more bothered when Klaus tells Damon because he knows he's gonna get outed for it. Stefan doesn't have the dual purpose Damon has, and I feel that has a lot to do with the parallel between them. Rather than making a point like Damon, I feel Stefan's entire parallel to Damon is the point. In 4x12, Klaus and Damon spend time in the cellar. 3x14 was Stefan's revenge against Klaus and his love for Elena. In 4x12, Kol tries to cut off Jeremy's arms. 3x14, he was breaking Matt's fingers.

In 4x12, Elena is helping Jeremy kill Kol. 3x14, Damon was killing Kol after he broke Matt's fingers.

After killing Kol, Elena finds out Stefan slept with Rebekah. 3x15, she found out Damon slept with Rebekah.

In 4x12, Elena's plan with Stefan was to sideline Rebekah. 3x14, Elena's plan with Stefan was to sideline Damon.

I consider it insanely important for fans to question Elena's thought process because I'm quite certain these parallels exist for a reason. I'm still working on my analysis post for 3x14, so I'll stop there.

Did you ladies see the finale of new amsterdam last night? WTH what that? I’m so sick of the showrunners and writers on these shows disrespecting black women. Why is it that a black female lead on a “white” show is always suffering, always alone, always traumatized and never gets to be happy. Helen, Iris, Abby from Sleep Hollow, Kat Graham on TVD. It’s so triggering that black woman can’t even watch tv for comfort because we can’t escape the strong black woman trope. I’m tired.

The NA finale was terrible. The whole season felt off especially once they started sidelining Helen (sound familiar?) but the finale was a special kind of awful.

Fic rec ask game

I was tagged by @illegalcerebral. Details for edition can be found on this post. If you/you’re fic is tagged below, please make your own rec list!

An ongoing multi chapter fic you are excited to get updates for right now

Honestly, every single WIP fic I’m following. However, I cannot express how much I need to know where @hogwartsmeangirls‘ The Untold Years is going. The OC, who is the main character, is so well developed and complex. I range from siding with the characters to being so frustrated with them. Really the writing is fantastic (Harry Potter, Tom Riddle x OFC).

A completed multichapter fic that you can binge read

This one was hard because most of the fics I'm following or have favorited are WIP. So I’ll cheat a little and recommend Witchcraft by a Picture which is a dark and twisty Tom Riddle x OFC. It’s been a literal decade since I read this and I still remember it. 

A oneshot you think everyone should read

I’ve read many but it doesn’t look like I’ve saved them anywhere. :/

A fic you have re-read more than once

Ok, I’ve never read a fic more than once. I don’t know why, I’ve just never gone back and reread one. There are a lot that have stuck with me over the years and I’m going to highlight one of those instead. @valleydean‘s The Sidewalks of New York was such a fun read. It’s a 1920′s Merthur period piece. I love how the characters (and many of them!) were updated to fit the new time and how the forbidden romance was made to work. 

A fic you first read over a year ago that you want to spotlight:

@akabluekat‘s Playing with Fire. Harry Potter was my first fandom and I’ve ready a lot of different fics over the years, but never one featuring a Weasley twin. akabluekat does a lovely job defining her own OCs and flushing out the side characters. The story manages to be a good mix of cute and angsty and I am interested to see if there’s a happy ending or if I’ll be left broken-hearted. (Harry Potter, Fred Weasley x ofc)

A fic that introduced you to a new ship/character/fandom:

@darknightfrombeyond‘s Anthem of the Angels. While I had once been a fan of the show, I had never read a fic for Arrow. This story has the fun twist of being a modern day arranged marriage. You get romance and mystery from the first chapter and I can’t wait to see where it goes (Arrow, Oliver Queen x ofc)

A fic you'd recommend to someone new to your fandom

It’s a WIP but Six Mornings After (@sixmorningsafter) is a great TVD All-human AU, and is worth the read (it’s so well done!). The author has even written collections of flashbacks and flashforwards to accompany this story. (steroline and bamon).

A fic you would recommend to the person who tagged you in this game.

Based off of their recs and fandoms, maybe Rebel Columbia by @starsandstormyseas. I haven't finished it (I am behind on A LOT of fics) but the premise is very interesting .

Optional: one more wildcard choice of fic.

@wordspin-shares‘s From the Sidelines has such a unique take on the TVD-verse (giant hint the title here). It’s definitely a slow burn, but I can tell it’ll be worth it. Plus, our main oc Claire has secrets of her own to contend with (Damon Salvatore x ofc).

054. Does your character want power or authority of any kind?

100 Random Character Development Questions || accepting

the shameful truth? elijah likes having power and authority – although he has an entirely different approach than -let's say- klaus. he doesn't reign with pure violence and fear. don't get me wrong, elijah does engage in violence and he does like people fearing him having respect for him but he often achieves this through deals. he grants others something they desire (usually protection) in exchange for other things (loyalty, knowledge, working for him, etc.).

he did found an entire secret society – which per see isn't bad but he put himself in charge. only vampires from his sideline could join. elijah even created a whole charter for this society that - surprise - invoked a clause that would restore complete dominion to elijah himself.

let's also not forget elijah's magnificent introduction in tvd s2. one couldn't contact elijah directly, one needed to find a contact within elijah's inner circle and he had witches that were only loyal to him.

it’s so annoying how much JP wants to forget that forwood’s relationship ever existed, or that tyler was ever a meaningful character, and completely disregards how much he matters and his impact on the story now that she apparently has no use for him, what with forwood broken up, klaus in nola and no longer an instigator of conflict/antagonist tyler can fight against, and of course any interaction or proximity to matt makes tyler a completely one dimensional character stereotype once again, a regression that kinda spits in the face of all his hard work and development.

and it’s sad. like i have the attention span of a caterpillar and i don’t really watch tvd to take it seriously (more or less i watch because attractive ppl fucking and teen hijinks) but even with my limited capability to pay attention to anything JP writes it still seems like she’s letting all of his potential go to waste, in favor of other characters/relationships. i never understood the matt hate from fandom, tbqh, and i do genuinely like him but he has absolutely no backbone whatsoever in the narrative, and doesn’t really help the plot progress at all?? imo the story kind of just happens to him, and him being the only cop in MF is the only thing that gave him any importance or status as an individual character, but otherwise he never feels particularly active :/ and at the expense of tyler’s screentime as well it really sucks how much characters like matt are paid attention to while tyler is sidelined.

VISIONS — CLAIRE DUVAL in FROM THE SIDELINES | THE VAMPIRE DIARIES | [FFN] | AO3]

“Do they always come true?” “Unless there’s supernatural intervention, yes.”

[OC HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE 2023 | Day 9: The Harbinger]

___ All OCs Taglist: @arrthurpendragon, @raith-way, @foxesandmagic, @airwolf92, @kbeebaybe, @bi-ologistofthehills, @thecharmedburrowspn-files FtS Taglist: @mariedemedicis, @darknightfrombeyond, @bisexualterror (let me know if you want to be added or removed!)

sorry if i say the wrong words im white!!! until this account+Bonnie fans i was never into klonnie or thought of her without Enzo. i LUV Klaus for her now!!! more than Enzo but i am a big TO fan, i remember DG sticking up for LT/PT, u can find footage of that, u can never find anything of the TVD cast defending Kat?! on Reddit tvd fans have said nina saved Kat’s job though love ur blog keep posting content

Welcome to Klonnie! I'm glad to open you up to Bonnie outside of her being the magical negro trope. On to your question, you can't find footage of what doesn't exist. There have been rumors for years that Ian, Nina or Paul saved Kat's job. The answer is none of them did. According to Julie Plague, it was Kat who convinced her to keep Bonnie. The only reason these rumors persist is because are searching for a reason to make them white saviors. We're supposed to believe Paul, Ian and Nina stood up for Kat when her biggest opposition was Julie, their boss. They and Candice continue to have a relationship with Julie. Candice on-going and continuously positive relationship with Julie plays A LOT into Caroline’s treatment and favoritism in the fandom. Here Candice’s jokes about how easy it was for Julie to accommodate her during her pregnancy. Where was this accommodation for Kat in various situations.

It is unfortunate that anyone could receive death threats for a role they’re playing. Respect to Daniel Gillies for defending his costars from continuous hatred which to my knowledge feel free to correct me came from toxic KC stans. In Kat’s case it isn’t the same, no one defended her from the fans who’ve disliked her since day one because she wasn’t white. The hatred that Bonnie/Kat faces wasn’t just from the fans. The writers fed into it. Julie was often the leader fed of it too. Bamon fans were labeled rabid, Bonnie/her fans is insulted by Julie herself. Matt Davis even mocked Kat online. Julie claims she’s never liked Klaroline shippers yet continued to service them since 2010.

The cast of tvd are not heroes. Michael Malarkey even denied that Kat was being mistreated. Who is he to speak on a black woman's experience? If they actually believed Kat was wronged, why do they continue to engage with and work with Julie Plec? We all know Julie is a gross racist. She even made Megan Thee Stallion's shooting about herself. She hasn't learned because we see the same racist tropes she used against Bonnie in Vampire Academy. She's a terrible person and Kat was essentially on her own dealing with it, since her co-stars were too busy cozying up to their racist showrunner to get ahead.

In conclusion Kat saved herself. The end. She survived even after she was constantly sidelined and still for 6 years paid the lowest of them all. Kat did it by herself.

Hi! Got here from Tik tok and you really like Elijah.

Just some conversation I wanted to share was how scary I think they made Elijah in the originals. Note that I don’t actually have any attachments to the characters so I might be stating things blantely. Another theory to why I believe the originals is “darker” than TVD.

This is because of Elijah. In TVD- Elijah helped all of his siblings. In the originals his character got a bit retconned.

In the originals, the entire plot-line of Elijah serving klaus was probably a perverted survival of the fittest ideology. Which he then subconsciously re-animate the trauma of not helping Niklaus , because deep down Elijah knows his reason was absolutely terrifying(self preservation).

I say re-animate trauma because Elijah says he too was “beaten without mercy.” So it’s not like he could’ve helped. But he had to convince himself he should’ve even though it wasn’t possible.

If it were possible than I would completely buy into it. But the writers explicitly say it wasn’t possible.

And because of that* he needed to devote himself to Klaus. Which makes sense because it is shown that Elijah is self loathing.( I can bring up examples if you want) And self loathing because he knows his facade is based on self interest and not nobility. They already say he isn’t noble and already pretends to be. And nobility is doing good for others without self interest.

And -I don’t know why but it seems like he pretends to love his siblings. Apparently he got rid of Finn because he wanted to be the oldest and the most respected in that manner. (The writers put this somewhere) . And he did so because … survival of the fittest.

And even Elijah’s actor admitted Elijah’s pretend love for his siblings.

In all honestly I don’t know why Elijah couldn’t love his siblings. The writers kinda just wrote it as such in the originals. -They hinted Elijah didn’t care about Rebecca’s happiness.

In TVD he wanted all his siblings out of the box . In the originals we see Elijah help Klaus out them there.

*saved Klaus from Mikael

BTW

(The entire klaus asking Elijah to run away with him when they were human -I don’t fully understand that,yet took the time to think about it)

Hi love, thanks for following!

Honestly, my biggest response to most of this is: poor writing. I could write a whole novel on this.

The CW is known for prioritizing ratings over the quality of the show and TVDU is no exception.

The Originals was definitely meant to be a darker show. They aged up all of the characters and focused more on the fight for survival rather than the teen romance we see in TVD.

So when I say the writing wasn't good at times, it's because the show let the audience drive it. Klaus was a favorite so they made a whole show around him and his redemption, often sacrificing the characters/development in order to push the narrative they believed would be most popular. So we see things like Kol and Finn's characters getting completely sidelined and Elijah being absolutely obsessed with Klaus when that wasn't the case for all of TVD.

I also like to think the writers intentionally made the Mikaelsons very biased in their storytelling, but it likely was just more inconsistent writing. But to me, it is more important to watch how they behave rather than what they say. Elijah and Klaus have a tendency to tell stories from the perspective of Klaus, discrediting even Elijah's own struggles/trauma.

I also think too much was put on Elijah at a young age. I see a lot of the fandom angry at Elijah for not protecting his brother when it is clear all of the siblings are just as terrified of Mikael as Klaus is. And I also would find it surprising if they all didn't receive some form of physical/emotional abuse from Mikael as children (remember Klaus was initially Mikael's favorite). But, as you said, Elijah and Klaus have convinced themselves that Elijah failed him as a way to shift blame from Klaus onto Elijah. Elijah is very much viewed as the parent of the family despite their parents' existence and even the failures of their parents are somehow blamed on Elijah.

I do think a lot of Elijah's attachment to Klaus was because he felt guilty for not protecting him better as a child. Childhood trauma has a way of sticking with you and can create a lot of negative trauma responses. But, in my head at least, it is also because that is his closest sibling. We see Elijah is born at a time of upheaval and depression in his family and is often neglected by his parents. To me, Klaus was likely the first person Elijah ever felt a bond with, ever felt love for/from.

I also think you are spot on with the self-loathing. People love to say Elijah pretended to be noble. But he never did. Others said that about him and he didn't necessarily correct them. Yet when we hear him talk about himself, he very much views himself as a monster (hence the red door). He is very aware that his entire motivation in life is protecting his family and he will cross any line to do so. He is also aware of how messed up that is. But this is exactly why you often see him as the one to volunteer to do the worst of the worst deeds. He is still attempting to preserve his siblings' redemption and, since he views himself as a lost cause, he continuously sacrifices his chance at redemption to save his family.

Now, where I think the show failed was how Elijah treated the rest of his siblings, especially Rebekah. I don't think he got rid of Finn to be the oldest (he never had an issue with Freya). But I do think he didn't move to save Finn because he resented him. Finn never protected Elijah, rather he often made things more difficult for his siblings. Elijah had to step up because his older brother refused to.

But I still don't buy that Elijah wasn't trying to protect his siblings for a thousand years. We only see about 1% of their life. But from what we can gather, Kol was locked up around 30-40% of the time and Rebekah was daggered for decades at a time. We don't know anything really about Elijah's experience with the dagger, but we know it has been used on him in the past. But like you said, Klaus asked Elijah to run with them when they were kids, but Elijah wouldn't leave the rest of his siblings behind. He prioritized all of his siblings, not just Klaus. So there was this shift in TO where Elijah was all of a sudden prioritizing Klaus over everyone else. They even apply it back to flashbacks, but it really makes no sense for the character we saw in TVD.

I think an aspect of him not protecting his siblings could be fear of Klaus or fear of isolating Klaus. He didn't act until Klaus had pushed him too far. But at the end of the day, it likely is just bad writing in order to prop Klaus up. The writers always wanted Klaus to have his redemption and didn't really care about the other characters. If no one believed in Klaus' redemption or fought for him, it would be harder to get the audience to fight for him. Klaus had to end up being the good sibling that they all loved so they had to sacrifice the one who actually made the most sense for the part.

Basically, in my opinion, Elijah loved his siblings more than anything and would have made any sacrifice for them. We see it through his actions (even if he's not always great at showing it) more so than the words/storytelling. He sacrificed himself countless times for them and would have died for them, not just Klaus. Unfortunately, the show was hell-bent on being centered around Klaus so we lost a lot of good character development.

** Side note, I don't tend to trust anything Daniel (the actor) says about Elijah. He did an amazing job with the acting but he very much did not pay attention to themes or overall storylines

The TVD universe shows always start so good and by the end they all just turn to crap. What do you expect from a CW show lol.

i still havent watched legacies but i can only imagine the quality of it

when vampire diaries came out i was OBSESSED. invested. in it to win it. and then klaus was introduced and they started sidelining tyler and i said bitch! fuck you! but also it genuinely was all downhill from there you can argue against that but youd be wrong cuz its a fact

Something I have noticed with TVD/TO fans is how there seems to be a lot of misplaced hate and criticism towards Caroline, mainly from Bonnie fans. Saying things like how she was useless and irrelevant, took away screentime from other people (namely Bonnie), was in scenes she didn't need to be in. Also blaming her for the issues with Forwood, Klaroline, Tyler and his character development and why he was disliked by the fandom. 

And even going so far as to say that Tyler was just used as a prop to give her popularity and make her a fan favorite, that Tyler is the only reason people liked her. When she was already liked and a fan favorite before Forwood even became a thing. But the one take that rubbed me the wrong way the most was someone saying that Caroline remained jealous of Elena, ebem after turning and that she wished Tyler was with her the way Stefan and Damon were with Elena. There is literally nothing that supports that notion. 

I won't ever argue or deny that TVD and TO definitely had issues with racism. We all know Bonnie was treated horribly and deserved better. And I will always point the finger at the writers for that, never a character. A character doesn't write itself or the show. Another thing I don't understand about Bonnie fans is how they call Delena and Klaroline out for being toxic and abusive and hate Elena and Caroline for having been with those guys, but yet still shipped Bamon and Klonnie.

Okay, so it's only toxic and abusive when the white girls get with these guys, but not for the only WOC, who already gets treated so horribly as it is, and in the most racist and disgusting way possible? They honestly just come off as pick mes and so judgmental with internalized misogyny. If we were really being honest with ourselves, we'd all realize that these girls deserved much better and shouldn't have ever been paired with the likes of Damon or Klaus. 

Anyone with enough common sense knows that the real reason characters like Bonnie, Tyler, Matt, Jeremy, and even Caroline herself were sidelined and didn't get as much as screentime was because of that drawn out and pointless love triangle that should've never even been the main premise of the show to begin with. It's easier if people would just say "I don't like Caroline" or "She wasn't my favorite", rather than blame her for things that were out of her hands. 

In the end, I'm glad Bonnie didn't end up with Damon or Klaus, but especially Damon. Because it showed she's a hell of much a better friend and has way more class than Elena, who not only flaunted her relationship with an abuser in front of everyone, but also completely disregarded Caroline's feelings on the matter, slut shamed and victim blamed her for the abuse she endured, and expected Caroline to get over it and accept it as is. 

Luckily I did not encounter any Caroline haters who were Bonnie stans, but while all of the girls were victims of Thirstday misogyny, Bonnie was clearly hammered way harder by misogynoir, I feel bad for her fans for getting so shafted tbh.