#also fuck the Salvatore

[ohmyfairies]

WHY IS MY BRAIN FOCUSING ON THE VAMPIRE DIARIES I HAVE NOT WATCHED THIS SHOW OR INTERACTED WITH THE FANDOM SINCE I WAS A TEENAGER AND YET ALL WEEK MY STUPID BRAIN HAS BEEN GNAWING ON THIS SHITTY CW DRAMA LIKE A GODDAMN PRETZEL

[k8lynjoy]

Pro-Damon arguments have always been pretty stupid imo, but an argument I've been seeing a lot more of recently is people saying that they prefer Damon to Stefan- both as a character and as a love interest for Elena- because "Damon was aware that he was a monster whereas Stefan pretended that he wasn't", and I have got to say, this is such a brain dead take.

Let's start by addressing the first part of the claim, that Damon's self-awareness inherently makes him better. No. Believe it or not, being self-aware does not make you a good person, it's what you do with that awareness that does. What does Damon do with his self-awareness? Absolutely nothing. He whines and cries about how much of a monster he is and how he can't change whenever anyone tries to hold him accountable for anything, or he just puts the blame on Katherine or his mother because "they didn't wuv him 🥺👉🏻👈🏻". So, he recognizes that he's a bad person, but then he proceeds to continue to be a bad person anyway...I'm not seeing how this is a good- or even a respectable- thing. Damon also doesn't care! He enjoys murdering and r*ping people. How does someone knowing they're a bad person, and then doing nothing to be better, make them a better person? It doesn't. The logic of that argument is non-existent. And to then go on and say that this is why Elena should choose him?? Why? How does Elena begging Damon to just stop being horrible, and then him responding with "I'm a monster, I'll never change" scream "I'm someone you should be with"?? There's a reason she told him he was the worst choice she would ever make.

Now, for the second part of the claim, which states that Stefan pretends that he is a good person when really, he's a monster. Once again: no. Tell me you don't have general comprehension skills without telling me because Stefan's desperation to hold onto his humanity and morality are very central parts of his character. He recognizes that he's done horrible things and takes full accountability for them. Whenever Elena asks him a question about his past, he's honest with her. He doesn't hide things from her, downplay them, or push the blame onto someone else (and if someone tries to bring up him not initially telling her he was a vampire, I will scream. Because duh! Why would he just be like, "Hey, I'm Stefan, I'm a vampire, nice to meet you!"? Please be serious) He's said the words "I am/was a monster" multiple times on screen - same as Damon - the difference between the two of them is that Stefan does something about it. Stefan trying to be a better person is not him pretending he's never done bad things. It's him trying to atone for all of the bad things that he has done. So, when he says that he's not Damon, It's true! Because he does everything Damon doesn't do when it comes to facing the consequences of his actions. Which also winds up forcing him to face the consequences of Damon's actions as well!

Only in the TVD fandom will you see people say that the guy who actively does the wrong thing in every scenario and who revels in being the bad guy is better than the guy who hates the part of himself that does horrible things and puts all of his effort into being a better person simply because guy #1 is "self-aware".

I hate it here.

[eternallovers65]

I'm sorry, but if you like Cole, I'll immediately assume you're a cheater and you don't care about all the havoc you cause on people's lives

[highlifeboat]

If y'all wanna know what it's like watching me play RE8, this is it tbh.

[mikimeiko]

Free Guy (Shawn Levy, 2021)

[philtatosbuck]

it’s so gross to me how c*roline stans have been running with this narrative that Elena is a horrible friend to Caroline and attacking her for getting involved with Damon after he r*ped Caroline while giving Stefan a free pass when Damon is literally Elena’s abuser too, and Elena was horrified and outraged by what Damon did to Caroline and did everything she could to protect Caroline when Elena was literally a teenage girl unfamiliar with the supernatural world being preyed on by two 100+ vampires and oh yeah DAMON WAS ELENA’S ABUSER TOO like literally what was elena supposed to do Damon was constantly inserting himself into her life and every time she’d reject him he’d do something like kill her brother like she had literally no power against him. Stefan was the one who could have done something about Damon and constantly chose not to but this gets completely ignored by fandom. also funny how the “elena is the worst” crowd had nothing to say about Caroline sleeping with the guy who killed Tyler’s mom (except for the people attacking TYLER for being upset lmao)

Listen, I'm 80% right there with you. You've hooked me. You're gonna get a whole essay out of me.

There are five (major) issues to tackle here. Let's start with the first one, which should be the most simple to understand.

Damon's Ongoing Assault Issue.

We all saw what Damon did. We all agree that him compelling Caroline removed her ability to consent to it. We are all aware of that. Here's the thing. In character, no one ever addresses more than the feeding and manipulation. Not even Caroline herself. We, as the audience, know the issue. But the issue presented in character is never as clear cut as "Damon raped Caroline, and she rightfully hates him for it." They never go there, and we know why. This also unfortunately means that Caroline never once says that's the reason she hates Damon so much. We're given the "he manipulated me, he fed off of me without my consent" which is still bad, but it's nothing he didn't do to anyone else. He killed Alaric multiple times. He killed Jeremy. He threatened and attacked Bonnie. He's killed Vicki and Mason and everyone else, and this is after what he did to Caroline. If he gets away with all of that, why wouldn't they forgive or tolerate him for something as 'natural' as feeding? By not acknowledging that his compulsion removed Caroline's consent, they never have to acknowledge that what he did was rape. And that means they never have to say Damon did anything worse to Caroline than he did to anyone else. Specifically, we also never see anyone call out the fact Damon compels Andie to be okay with what he is and to let him feed off of her while in a relationship with her as well. Alaric in particular never calls this out despite the fact he's an adult who should know better than the teenagers how wrong it is, because by that point, they've all reached a place where they're damn near complacent in what Damon does. But anyway, without them outright saying what he did and calling it what he is, Caroline seems very... obnoxious with her dislike for him, while everyone else has gotten over it. It kind of leads us into the next one.

The Stefan Issue.

You're completely correct. Stefan should have been the one getting Damon away. Both Elena and Stefan knew what Damon was doing to Caroline, and Elena demanded he deal with it. And he did. To do that, he used Caroline as a way to subdue Damon. While people often talk about how Stefan took Caroline under his wing, it wasn't before he repeatedly used her. Even after that, he uses her when it comes to Klaus and to Tyler. But focusing on the Damon subject, Caroline never once acknowledges that Stefan knew (which she knows) what Damon was doing to some extent or holds him responsible for it, or snarks at him about Damon as much as she does Elena. She all but outright absolves him of any wrongdoing as soon as he becomes her mentor. You see it in the way she personally roots for Stefan whenever it comes to the damned triangle, her own desire to prop him up overriding any and everything. Even after Stefan hurt Elena herself, she was still very aggressively team Stefan. This is partially because she's basically Julie Plec's self insert, and partially because she sees Stefan as the good brother, despite the fact he above all is the one who primarily excused and defended him during that time. People will not admit that Stefan is complacent in Damon's actions because they're obsessed with a 'good brother, bad brother' dynamic. On the flip side, people who do acknowledge Stefan's part of it claim Damon is better because he "owns up to what he is". The truth of the matter is that they're both assholes.

The Elena Of It All.

Like you said, Elena was rightfully disgusted and terrified of what Damon did to Caroline, and fucking immediately told Stefan to deal with that shit. For a bit after that, she (and Bonnie) were doing their best to keep Damon away from Caroline. Here's where the issue lies. Like I said before, we, the audience, know everything, right? Did we ever see a scene where Caroline tells her exactly what happened with Damon? This is part of the issue I mentioned with 'Caroline never outright says it'. All Elena has to go on is bruises and bitemarks. And she is mad about that, mad about the fact Damon fed on her without her consent, but that's all she thinks happened. She does not know Damon is her rapist. And yes, that is enough reason for Elena to hate him and be mad at him, but look at all the things I mentioned above. What did he do to Caroline that he hasn't done to others who, frankly, mean more to Elena? As bad as it is to say it, as far as Elena knows, there's nothing special about what Damon did to Caroline.

Part two of the Elena issue is that while you're right, while Damon was her abuser too, it gets wonky because of the sire bond and because of her eventual feelings for him. At some point in season one, Caroline is asking for the necklace back, and Elena goes "why? so you can give it back to Damon?" which is half a joke, half not. So already, Elena is joking about the situation. Which, Caroline doesn't remember everything. Elena knows that. Look, you can essentially take it one of two ways. One, Elena's trying to make shit seem normal because they haven't told Caroline about the supernatural, while feeling out why she wants it back. Two, she's being cruel. It honestly depends on how you view her character this early on. I'm not gonna debate about that, whatever.

Anyway, later on, in season whatever the hell, Damon jokes "have fun with blondie, I know I did" and Elena laughs. That? Was bad. Even without knowing the full extent of what he did, it was a fucked up thing to laugh at. I love Elena, and it was fucked up. You'll never see me denying that shit. Damon even fucking teaches her to hunt in the same way he picked Caroline out and it isn't called out, in canon.

Primarily, people's issue with Elena, is that it seems like she co-signs all of Damon's bullshit from even before they were together because she gets with him. For them, it's like Elena is immediately acknowledging and approving of everything Damon did because they're in a relationship. Some people acknowledge Stefan and Alaric do this as well. Some don't. Oh well.

I don't ship delena, or stelena. I think Elena and Damon's dynamic was terrible. I think her character changed when she got with him, for the worse. I openly admit all that, and you can take it as I'm biased if you want to. I personally don't think two people getting together means they cosign each other's bullshit, but whatever.

But the main issue lies in season one. They believe Elena should have done something to stop Damon from what he did to Caroline. What, exactly? I don't know. Damon was trying to compel Elena to fucking kiss him in season one and she smacked him immediately. She wanted him dead for what he did to Caroline. She said as much. I couldn't tell you what else people wanted her to do. By the time she had some kind of power against him, he had done bigger and worse things and yet he was one of their only allies with knowledge of the supernatural so they needed him. So, bluntly, Caroline's thing got pushed to the way side. One thing I see people mention is that Elena stopped Bonnie from personally killing Damon when they found out Caroline got turned and you can make your own opinions about that but Damon did not do that. Katherine did. He did deserve to die, but Elena didn't want Bonnie to be the one to do it. Opinions and reasons vary, but she also didn't let Damon kill Caroline (by directly putting herself in harm's way to protect her), so... whatever you want to think about that, think it, do it, bop it, I don't care.

My opinion on Elena being a horrible friend to Caroline is that she's not. At the end of the day, Elena is probably one of the people who treated Caroline best, if you step back and look at the whole thing from an objective point of view. People just do not do that.

I do think there's a certain point where "Elena couldn't do anything" stops being entirely true, but it's long after what happened to Caroline. And it's nothing that Caroline herself couldn't do after she became a vampire (much sooner than Elena did).

The Caroline-Klaus Issue.

Preaching to the choir, dude. People will go on all day saying how dating your friend's abuser is wrong (fair) and then say Caroline is better because she Just fucked Klaus (despite the fact they WANTED them to be in a long term relationship anyway). I, personally, don't see how the fuck that's better. I also don't see a point in "morality" arguments for this fandom, but let's just write it out. Fucking the guy who murdered your boyfriend's mom and his friends is better than dating a guy who manipulated your friend into doing his bidding and feeding on her (which as is as much as Elena knows)? Debatable.

People will often excuse this as "Tyler chose revenge over her" as if Klaus did not murder his mother and the fellow hybrids. If the roles were reversed and Liz had been murdered, there'd be a different talk. But hey.

Finally,

The Caroline Issue.

Caroline not only serves as Julie's self insert, but she's the self insert for a lot of this damn fandom. You see it in fics, where they either change her personality so she's more like Elena or Bonnie, and Elena/Bonnie is the friend who can't keep their mouth shut or is always commenting on their friends' lives or spilling secrets.

The Tyler thing? Caroline's a girlboss for telling Tyler to get over it! after she slept with his mother's murderer. But Elena's a terrible friend and "trying to make it all about her" when she tries to sympathize with Caroline over Liz's death and turning her humanity off. Caroline's a queen when she slutshames Katherine and Rebekah and literally any female character she doesn't like who she speaks about for more than two seconds, but when Elena throws it back in her face that Caroline INTENDED to sleep with Damon before finding out he was a vampire (which she did. It's why he got invited into her house), she's just so awful. This, in addition to the fact that Elena was under a sirebond, and Caroline is just regularly fucking like that.

You see my point. Anyway, make no mistake, what Damon did is an issue, but it's only as big of an issue in fandom because Caroline is the golden girl to them. They completely ignore the fact Elena has no full knowledge about what went down. They ignore that Stefan or Alaric should have been taking charge against Damon. They ignore that Caroline never so much as utters a peep about exactly why she hates Damon besides him being a "manwhore". Anything they can use to villainize anyone, but especially Elena, where Caroline is concerned? They will. Facts be damned.

[realbeefman]

some people watched vampire diaries because they wanted to fuck the salvatore brothers i watched because i wanted the salvatore brothers to fuck. we are not the same

[tophsazulas]

People comparing the “Erase it all. Erase every memory.” and “I wouldn’t erase any memory of you.” as if both Salvatores weren’t shitty in those scenes 🙄

[adanseydivorce]

it’s honestly soo funny to me how everything Katherine does during this arc to place herself with Stefan as Elena ends up indirectly pushing Steroline closer together 😭

[villafordefeatedvillains]

good morning internet i have drank a cotton candy bang energy and now i am seeing capcom's true original plan for resident evil village and that plan is just "yeah make a weird lumpy fish man who turns into an even bigger and lumpier fish man. now make him FUCK." i know that the one nine inch nails song about fucking like an animal came out before resident evil village however they travelled forward in time and saw re village and went "i need to write a song about moreau from resident evil village." just like the original doctor moreau (known for his island), everybody want him. tumblr slept on him in favor of heisenberg and lady dimitrescu and even donna whateverthefuckherlastnameis. but the REAL residetn evil sexyman is SALVOATR MOREAU. he gets SO MUCH BITCHES it is UNRRAL. yes i have been awake since 230 morning my time. and yes i did just chug a bang energy. and yes i may be losing my mind but the truth COME OUT. SALVATORE MOREAU *DOES* IS GET BITCHES. not me. i dont want him carnally or in any other way he is my least favorite character not just in resident evil village but in the series asa whole. he's so narsty and slimy. however i think in universe he gets so much bitches. and i think that should extend to out of universe. everyone wanted to fuck the duke when resident evil village came out. or maybe there was like one very vocal person that i s

post cancelled the person who wanted to fuck the duke also had the hots for moreau iirc. ok cool post cancelled i can rest in peace knowing SOMEONE sees my vision of moreau getting mad bitches. i dont even know if tehy still have a tumblr but i remember seeing selfship moreau art on my dash and i didnt know who he was but fuck yeah you go you fucking funky litele fish fucker. i guess.

[sewerfight]

Salvatore Esposito on Noah Hawley

[troublewithvampires]

//screams cries and throws up

have not heard back from tumblr support yet :(

[laufire]

I understand seeing this and then having him regress (again and again) for a season and a half to his ultimate end would be frustrating for someone that loves Stefan and wants him free of Damon and happy... but this was often accompanied by (questionably sincere?) instance that it MADE NO SENSE for Stefan to regress at all.

putting aside my personal preference for cynicism, for tragedy, for ~~reverse growth~~, for inescapable cycles, etc. etc... when have you guys ever known Stefan to learn his lessons lol.

[highlifeboat]

Miranda: Well, you know what they say: "Can't get a wife, without breaking her sanity" *Chuckles*

Moreau: Oh... OH! That was horrible! Your wish is horrible. *Points at Miranda* YOU'RE HORRIBLE! You're an irredimable monster!

Miranda: Oh, what took you so long, IDIOT!

Pffff, canon tbh (like even out of context to the AU, just replace the phrase with "Can't get your dead child back without committing some genocide and kidnapping")

But also I like the idea of Moreau initially trying to lowkey help Miranda just.... be a better partner. But she never listens to him (Mia kind of appreciates the attempts, though). And when he's finally like "You are the worst person in this entire Village" Miranda just kind of shrugs at him like "Took you long enough, moron."

And I feel like that's kind of when Moreau realizes Miranda really, at the very least, doesn't give a shit about him (or Mia, it seems, if she's so willing to beat this woman into the ground)

[sighmurderbot]

Stefan is "I can change her" Klaus is "I can make her worse" and Damon is "I can accept her as she is"

[breitzbachbea]

I am having the raddest comic idea, and my hands are tied by the fact that I can't draw. Anyways, thanks to @kitaychan for a revelation that made me go >:o!!!!

CW Child Abuse

Marco and Lorenzo are sitting in their beds, Marco with his arms crossed, Lorenzo is leaning on one hand to gesture with the other. They're barely 13.

Marco: There's no such thing as child-eating monsters!

Lorenzo: Yeah! That's just an old hat to keep little kids in line!

Michele is sittin in an armchair or on a stool. He's got a slightly worried, but mostly haunted look on his face. Behind him, there's the transparent and hazy image of his father Salvatore. He is grinning.

Michele: ... Yes, they are very old stories.

Salvatore: Look at those brats, Michele. They don't even know how good they have it. They think they're safe from monsters behind closed doors.

Michele, around age 9, seen from a bird's perspective. He's got bruises on his upper arm, one red cheek and blood dripping from tiny scratches on the back of his hand. He's got tears in the corners of his eyes, but isn't crying. His teeth are gritted in pain.

Salvatore: Tell me, Michele -

Close Up on Michele's hands in the present. They have the same tiny scratches, from some of which drops of blood flow.

Salvatore: Do old stories still bleed?