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verushka70I am totally lame for not posting -- hardly ever -- in, like, the last 2 years? argh. In my defense (to myself), I was in school up until last May, then over the summer dealing with a new job (that doesn't suck! except getting up at 4:30-5am kinda sucks) plus one of my old jobs... and a vacant apartment I had to fix up to get it rented for my mom's estate (which still hasn't settled, sigh, which makes me still executrix, sigh, and no I'm not using the common parlance of 'executor' because it was originally 'executor' for males and 'executrix' for females, and I see no reason why this should change... ahem. I mean, 'aviatrix' vs. 'aviator' for a woman... really no contest there, 'aviatrix' ftw. thusly, executrix ftw!).
But I *have* been writing fanfic, yay! In fits and starts with nothing complete, boo. :-\ My WIPs are mostly Vampire Diaries (some slashy o'course, but I got a few multi S/D/E WIPs, too, because that S/E/K triangle: such potential for angsty hotness or hot angst!). Plus my ever-unfinished DS/FTWHTWD xover (probably a RIP rather than WIP, now, sigh) and a couple of DS slash stories (F/K), too.
Anyway, starting to write again is why I have to vent right now about last night's Vampire Diaries ep 4x4 "The Five".
Julie Plec, PLEASE: YOU MUST STOP MAKING PREDICTABLE EP AFTER PREDICTABLE EP. Srsly, woman. Here's why:
After Vampire Diaries 4x2 two weeks ago, I was inspired to start a new VD Stefan/Elena/Damon fanfic. Triangles/threesomes are like vortices of potential angst, so I am there. (And I always want a happy ending, though I'd like to see, just once, a happy ending that consisted of "both boys got the girl" or "everyone wins". But network TV is way too chickenshit to ever do that. Please, tell me I'm wrong with specific examples -- I would welcome it. HBO/Showtime don't count; it's not network TV.)
So I was inspired by Elena's new vampirism in 4x1 "Growing Pains" and 4x2 "Memorial" to start a S/E/D triangle/threesome story (which must have Stefan/Katherine/Damon backstory, of course).
But a funny thing happened while I was watching VD 4x3 "The Rager" eight days ago: a couple of my new story's plot points came true in VD 4x3.
I thought it was a fluke. I worked on my little fic some more between 4x3 and 4x4. And then last night I watched 4x4 "The Five."
Lo and behold, HUGE similarities between what I wrote and some dialog and a plot point in 4x4 last night -- including almost exact dialog.
(I could prove this with file timestamps and datestamps and excerpts, but I'm not going to bother, because, why would I lie about something so trivial, not to mention in a way that would appear to make me a really lousy, cliche-ish writer, since the show was doing exactly what I was writing myself? It's not because I'm psychic or a genius with her hand on the pulse of the TVD writers, trust me.)
So, I'm going: wth? That's weird, really weird. I'm not a great writer. I'm okay, I can be pretty good when I want to be; but I am by no means up there with the best of the best (for one thing, I'm not nearly prolific enough, obviously). I'm neither the best nor the worst fanfic author; I'd call myself a "B" author -- above average but not tops.
But since I am not all that amazing or original, THERE IS SOMETHING MAJORLY WRONG WHEN I CAN PREDICT PLOT POINTS AND EVEN DIALOG (!) FROM ONE WEEK TO THE NEXT on The Vampire Diaries.
Also, way to backpedal totally artificially on the Delena. Again, wth? I understand the whole "we can't always do what the fans want" thing. Truly, I do. I am not suggesting that Plec et al give the fans what they want -- the Delena fans or the Stelena fans.
What I am suggesting is (1) that the writing has been uneven, not to mention inconsistent; (2) some characters are not acting like their established characters (and I don't mean vampire!Elena, though that's part of it); (3) some characters have been reduced to cliches, stereotypes, and/or walking plot devices; and (4) in the best of all worlds, when you write, you discover that sometimes the characters take on a life of their own, in a weird, organic process: their stories take off and follow a trajectory that, in hindsight, seems so obvious, but it takes a while to sink in (which you, the author, may spend trying to force them not to take, until you, wisely, let the characters lead where the story should go instead of vice versa).
Point #4 is what SHOULD be happening on Vampire Diaries, but. It. Is. NOT. Instead, we get points 1-3 week after week. This is by no means unique to S4; it started last season. It's just getting really obvious and egregious in my short experience of S4 so far. I have a bad feeling about the rest of S4.
There is (or should be) a sort of internal logic, if you will, to each character, a history of behavior and events and certain motivations and known preferences which we the audience have all seen, whether or not the other characters have. That must dictate where the story will go.
A writer's preferred storyline can not dictate changes in the character, unless those changes fall within the realm the audience would find plausible based on all of that character's previous actions, experiences, and statements. If a story arc is not within the realm of plausibility based on a character's previous actions/experiences/statements, it feels inconsistent, forced, unnatural. Unbelievable.
A caveat: Of course, the more inconsistently and poorly written the character has been, the more believable a character's unbelievable and inconsistent behavior is.
If a character does something against what the audience knows to be within the realm of possibility for the character, and if you do it via deus ex machina, you're cheating. But if it's not because of a deus ex machina, then it's just lousy writing. Such lousy writing throws the viewer or reader (dutifully following along at home) RIGHT OUT of the story and the reality you've created.
When this happens in fanfic , I think, "Wth? bad fic. must stop reading now." When it happens on a weekly TV series, I start to check out. The "must see" show becomes a "I don't care if I miss it, because I'm not missing much; I'll dl it from the torrents" show. At least for me.
I wouldn't say I have the best bullshit detector, but it's not half bad. S4 is lighting up my BS detector like crazy, I'm starting to get really vexed by it, and I'm only 4 eps in.
Julie Plec, it is a MAJOR PROBLEM when the fanfic is better than the show. I want to like your show -- I used to love it -- but this whiny, distressed Elena is a total regression from the spunky Elena she was becoming to deal with compelled!Stefan/"human blood bag"-protector in S3. Her "the horror, the horror, of drinking only blood from the vein!" issue is inconsistent with the feisty "Buffy wannabe" she became to protect herself from compelled!Stefan last season.
We know she can suck it up and deal; we've already seen it. This Elena is a major inconsistency with the S3 Elena. So she's either badly written or a total plot device for larger story arc (which still makes her badly written).
Simultaneously, we get virtually no development of other characters. The New Big Bad story arc of hunters and The Five has begun. Props for bringing Elijah back in a fb... all, what, 12 seconds of him? I mean, what's going on with Matt? Why is Rebekah staked and then unstaked and then staked yet again, like a walking plot device? What about Caroline? A shitload happened with multiple characters in the last half of S3, and you have done nothing with it.
If we're to believe all that we've been shown about Stefan's past in the S3 flashbacks and discovery of his Chicago crash pad, he's been a far worse killer than Damon ever was. So broody, guilty, bunny-lifeforce-suckin' Stefan is broody/guilty about his past Ripper days in S1 and S2. Then, as Ripper!Stefan in S3, he proceeds to rip and kill humans up and down the Eastern seaboard (arguably killing more people in S3 than Damon has in the entire series so far, and at a rate Elena assumes is Klaus' killing rate, until Damon corrects her), not to mention nearly drive Elena off a bridge (extra hurtfully, the same bridge she and her parents plunged off of, resulting in their deaths and her and Jeremy being orphaned). Then he's de-Ripper-fied, and... what? Elena's all happy to be his gf again? Bygones, etc.? And he's all non-broody because Elena is happy to be his gf again?
That's it? That's all the angsty Stefan we get? Now his angst is all about, "But if Elena kills someone, it'll devastate her!" What about the slew of dead bodies you left behind all over the southeast and east coast, Ripper!Stefan? Why isn't he all tormented about the things he did? He's all concerned for Elena, but he went mucho off the rails, and, what, he just accepted it and moved on? because he has such a great history of doing that in the series... Seriously, he's just over it? Like that? Moved on, back to S1 Stefan: broody, boring, concerned for Elena?
Yeah, I'm not buying it. It's just bad writing. Part of what tells me that my bullshit detector is right about these S4 episodes is the flatness and lack of chemistry between Stefan and Elena.
For that matter, yeah, I get that Elena is a main character. I do. But what about the ensemble? I mean, the show that started out kinda lame in S1 got much better as ancillary characters were given more writing time and screen time and space. Tyler started dealing with his wolf side, Caroline became a vampire and struggled, Bonnie started delving into darker stuff, Jeremy had his issues with losing his parents/Vicki/Anna, aunt Jenna (and the ill-fated Bonnie thing; not to mention dying and Bonnie bringing him back). And I've missed the Tomb Vampires, but the dysfunction of the Original family has helped make up for them.
And that's another problem. Since last season, I've started to find the Originals' stories almost as compelling, interesting, unexpected and twisted as the main characters'. Sometimes (often?) more. What's wrong with this picture?
I mean, don't get me wrong: I love the Originals (Elijah! a seriously honorable and classy vampire; Rebekah, you just want to hug her, then knock her out and run for your life; Klaus, making all kinds of googly eyes at Stefan -- oops, I mean, Caroline; Kol, setting Jeremy-walking-plot-device up in Colorado; and too bad Esther and Finn are dead, but maybe we'll get more flashbacks with them). They're great, all of them (and far more "epic" in their scope as a massively dysfunctional dynasty of vampires than Stefan and Elena's paltry "epic" romance can ever be, sorry). I'm all for more Original Vampire stuff.
But it's not a good sign that more removed characters have become more fascinating than the main ensemble and the central relationships. In fact, there could be four eps in a row this season only about Rebekah, Elijah, Klaus and Esther, with flashbacks including Mikael -- and I'd keep watching. I could possibly become more excited and interested in The Vampire Diaries if that happened. One of the things also irritating me is how Klaus -- like many others -- has now come to be yet another mere plot device. wtf, Julie Plec? So not good.
I've heard some people say, Damon/Elena is the endgame; she has to go through this Stefan angst/Damon rejection thing first, before she gets to Delena. Gotta say, I'm not buying that either. I'm not one of these cracked out teenage fanatics who thinks Stelena should be stabbed with a fork and left to die in favor of Delena; and I don't consider Elena's repudiation of Damon in 4x4 to be "a slap in the face to all Delena fans" as some of the more rabid Delena fans have characterized it. Yet her rejection of Damon's help at the end of 4x4 last night was patently unbelievable based on how Elena was all last season (as was her quick forgiveness of Stefan's Ripper days).
What, Stefan saves Matt before Elena, "respecting her choice," and suddenly he's her hero again, and all those headless girls up and down the Eastern seaboard are easily forgiven "mistakes"? But Damon's (or anyone's!) ability to feed on humans without ripping them apart or draining/killing them -- while reveling in it and making it fun -- is somehow inherently more morally and ethically repugnant to Elena than drinking humans to death so violently you rip them apart and decapitate them? You even have Stefan say to Elena in 4x3 The Rager, "How about we just leave the murdering to Damon" ? wth? Inconsistent. Hypocritical, actually.
One good thing about S3 was Paul as bad!Ripper!Stefan, then Klaus-minion-compelled!Stefan. Paul can totally play a bad guy, a devil-may-care, say-the-most-inappropriate-thing bad boy -- like Damon, but Paul-flavored -- and he rocks it when he does. One of my favorite Stefan scenes in S3 was in 3x07 Ghost World, when he crashes the "family summit" between Alaric, Jeremy and Elena at the Mystic Grill and says, "Besides, there's going to be people everywhere tonight. So there's going to be lots to eat." Got, his evil little smile kilz me ded every time I re-watch it!
But this one-step-up-three-steps-back Elena/Damon thing, which triggers the jealous!Stefan thing, is just the writers/Plec milking us for all they can, like we're the suckers we apparently are. It smells.
(btw, writers, you never explained what was the big deal about the vampire blood sharing in 4x2, other than Damon calling it "kind of personal," Stefan punching Damon for doing so with Elena, and saying in 4x4 "I'm always going to be mad" about it. Just how personal is "kind of personal" when it comes to blood sharing between vampires? Is it, I just kissed you with tongues for twenty minutes "kind of personal," or is it I just came in your mouth "kind of personal"? I mean, way to leave us hanging. Unless that's going to turn up as yet another plot device later this season... Actually it probably will. Newsflash: by writing to only one segment of your demographic (admittedly, a large one), you artificially hold back the characters' development, maturation, and unique story arc development. It feels forced and unnatural -- as we're getting used to...
TVD is too cowardly to ever take the truly unconventional but logical path, and have Elena be involved with both Stefan and Damon simultaneously rather than serially. (Not to mention I could only hope to see the truly revolutionary, polyamorous happy ending -- where Stefan and Elena and Damon wind up together as a threesome -- if The Vampire Diaries were on HBO.
(Come to think of it, though, even HBO had the chance for a Bill/Sookie/Eric True Blood threesome polyamory thing... and all they did with it was make it a dream sequence of Sookie's. Lame, man. God forbid a lead het female character should have unbridled, passionate sex with two men in one bed, simultaneously or taking turns, and be supremely pleasured and fulfilled sexually -- because only male characters get to do that on American TV and in American movies. Srsly, go Netflix "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" right now, if you have never seen it; you'll see what I mean. But, hell -- at least HBO tried.)
I really, really hope TVD gets better as the season progresses. Until it does, I'll be seeking the real show online, in fanfic. Apparently only fanfic authors care enough about the characters to do them justice.
But I *have* been writing fanfic, yay! In fits and starts with nothing complete, boo. :-\ My WIPs are mostly Vampire Diaries (some slashy o'course, but I got a few multi S/D/E WIPs, too, because that S/E/K triangle: such potential for angsty hotness or hot angst!). Plus my ever-unfinished DS/FTWHTWD xover (probably a RIP rather than WIP, now, sigh) and a couple of DS slash stories (F/K), too.
Anyway, starting to write again is why I have to vent right now about last night's Vampire Diaries ep 4x4 "The Five".
Julie Plec, PLEASE: YOU MUST STOP MAKING PREDICTABLE EP AFTER PREDICTABLE EP. Srsly, woman. Here's why:
After Vampire Diaries 4x2 two weeks ago, I was inspired to start a new VD Stefan/Elena/Damon fanfic. Triangles/threesomes are like vortices of potential angst, so I am there. (And I always want a happy ending, though I'd like to see, just once, a happy ending that consisted of "both boys got the girl" or "everyone wins". But network TV is way too chickenshit to ever do that. Please, tell me I'm wrong with specific examples -- I would welcome it. HBO/Showtime don't count; it's not network TV.)
So I was inspired by Elena's new vampirism in 4x1 "Growing Pains" and 4x2 "Memorial" to start a S/E/D triangle/threesome story (which must have Stefan/Katherine/Damon backstory, of course).
But a funny thing happened while I was watching VD 4x3 "The Rager" eight days ago: a couple of my new story's plot points came true in VD 4x3.
I thought it was a fluke. I worked on my little fic some more between 4x3 and 4x4. And then last night I watched 4x4 "The Five."
Lo and behold, HUGE similarities between what I wrote and some dialog and a plot point in 4x4 last night -- including almost exact dialog.
(I could prove this with file timestamps and datestamps and excerpts, but I'm not going to bother, because, why would I lie about something so trivial, not to mention in a way that would appear to make me a really lousy, cliche-ish writer, since the show was doing exactly what I was writing myself? It's not because I'm psychic or a genius with her hand on the pulse of the TVD writers, trust me.)
So, I'm going: wth? That's weird, really weird. I'm not a great writer. I'm okay, I can be pretty good when I want to be; but I am by no means up there with the best of the best (for one thing, I'm not nearly prolific enough, obviously). I'm neither the best nor the worst fanfic author; I'd call myself a "B" author -- above average but not tops.
But since I am not all that amazing or original, THERE IS SOMETHING MAJORLY WRONG WHEN I CAN PREDICT PLOT POINTS AND EVEN DIALOG (!) FROM ONE WEEK TO THE NEXT on The Vampire Diaries.
Also, way to backpedal totally artificially on the Delena. Again, wth? I understand the whole "we can't always do what the fans want" thing. Truly, I do. I am not suggesting that Plec et al give the fans what they want -- the Delena fans or the Stelena fans.
What I am suggesting is (1) that the writing has been uneven, not to mention inconsistent; (2) some characters are not acting like their established characters (and I don't mean vampire!Elena, though that's part of it); (3) some characters have been reduced to cliches, stereotypes, and/or walking plot devices; and (4) in the best of all worlds, when you write, you discover that sometimes the characters take on a life of their own, in a weird, organic process: their stories take off and follow a trajectory that, in hindsight, seems so obvious, but it takes a while to sink in (which you, the author, may spend trying to force them not to take, until you, wisely, let the characters lead where the story should go instead of vice versa).
Point #4 is what SHOULD be happening on Vampire Diaries, but. It. Is. NOT. Instead, we get points 1-3 week after week. This is by no means unique to S4; it started last season. It's just getting really obvious and egregious in my short experience of S4 so far. I have a bad feeling about the rest of S4.
There is (or should be) a sort of internal logic, if you will, to each character, a history of behavior and events and certain motivations and known preferences which we the audience have all seen, whether or not the other characters have. That must dictate where the story will go.
A writer's preferred storyline can not dictate changes in the character, unless those changes fall within the realm the audience would find plausible based on all of that character's previous actions, experiences, and statements. If a story arc is not within the realm of plausibility based on a character's previous actions/experiences/statements, it feels inconsistent, forced, unnatural. Unbelievable.
A caveat: Of course, the more inconsistently and poorly written the character has been, the more believable a character's unbelievable and inconsistent behavior is.
If a character does something against what the audience knows to be within the realm of possibility for the character, and if you do it via deus ex machina, you're cheating. But if it's not because of a deus ex machina, then it's just lousy writing. Such lousy writing throws the viewer or reader (dutifully following along at home) RIGHT OUT of the story and the reality you've created.
When this happens in fanfic , I think, "Wth? bad fic. must stop reading now." When it happens on a weekly TV series, I start to check out. The "must see" show becomes a "I don't care if I miss it, because I'm not missing much; I'll dl it from the torrents" show. At least for me.
I wouldn't say I have the best bullshit detector, but it's not half bad. S4 is lighting up my BS detector like crazy, I'm starting to get really vexed by it, and I'm only 4 eps in.
Julie Plec, it is a MAJOR PROBLEM when the fanfic is better than the show. I want to like your show -- I used to love it -- but this whiny, distressed Elena is a total regression from the spunky Elena she was becoming to deal with compelled!Stefan/"human blood bag"-protector in S3. Her "the horror, the horror, of drinking only blood from the vein!" issue is inconsistent with the feisty "Buffy wannabe" she became to protect herself from compelled!Stefan last season.
We know she can suck it up and deal; we've already seen it. This Elena is a major inconsistency with the S3 Elena. So she's either badly written or a total plot device for larger story arc (which still makes her badly written).
Simultaneously, we get virtually no development of other characters. The New Big Bad story arc of hunters and The Five has begun. Props for bringing Elijah back in a fb... all, what, 12 seconds of him? I mean, what's going on with Matt? Why is Rebekah staked and then unstaked and then staked yet again, like a walking plot device? What about Caroline? A shitload happened with multiple characters in the last half of S3, and you have done nothing with it.
If we're to believe all that we've been shown about Stefan's past in the S3 flashbacks and discovery of his Chicago crash pad, he's been a far worse killer than Damon ever was. So broody, guilty, bunny-lifeforce-suckin' Stefan is broody/guilty about his past Ripper days in S1 and S2. Then, as Ripper!Stefan in S3, he proceeds to rip and kill humans up and down the Eastern seaboard (arguably killing more people in S3 than Damon has in the entire series so far, and at a rate Elena assumes is Klaus' killing rate, until Damon corrects her), not to mention nearly drive Elena off a bridge (extra hurtfully, the same bridge she and her parents plunged off of, resulting in their deaths and her and Jeremy being orphaned). Then he's de-Ripper-fied, and... what? Elena's all happy to be his gf again? Bygones, etc.? And he's all non-broody because Elena is happy to be his gf again?
That's it? That's all the angsty Stefan we get? Now his angst is all about, "But if Elena kills someone, it'll devastate her!" What about the slew of dead bodies you left behind all over the southeast and east coast, Ripper!Stefan? Why isn't he all tormented about the things he did? He's all concerned for Elena, but he went mucho off the rails, and, what, he just accepted it and moved on? because he has such a great history of doing that in the series... Seriously, he's just over it? Like that? Moved on, back to S1 Stefan: broody, boring, concerned for Elena?
Yeah, I'm not buying it. It's just bad writing. Part of what tells me that my bullshit detector is right about these S4 episodes is the flatness and lack of chemistry between Stefan and Elena.
For that matter, yeah, I get that Elena is a main character. I do. But what about the ensemble? I mean, the show that started out kinda lame in S1 got much better as ancillary characters were given more writing time and screen time and space. Tyler started dealing with his wolf side, Caroline became a vampire and struggled, Bonnie started delving into darker stuff, Jeremy had his issues with losing his parents/Vicki/Anna, aunt Jenna (and the ill-fated Bonnie thing; not to mention dying and Bonnie bringing him back). And I've missed the Tomb Vampires, but the dysfunction of the Original family has helped make up for them.
And that's another problem. Since last season, I've started to find the Originals' stories almost as compelling, interesting, unexpected and twisted as the main characters'. Sometimes (often?) more. What's wrong with this picture?
I mean, don't get me wrong: I love the Originals (Elijah! a seriously honorable and classy vampire; Rebekah, you just want to hug her, then knock her out and run for your life; Klaus, making all kinds of googly eyes at Stefan -- oops, I mean, Caroline; Kol, setting Jeremy-walking-plot-device up in Colorado; and too bad Esther and Finn are dead, but maybe we'll get more flashbacks with them). They're great, all of them (and far more "epic" in their scope as a massively dysfunctional dynasty of vampires than Stefan and Elena's paltry "epic" romance can ever be, sorry). I'm all for more Original Vampire stuff.
But it's not a good sign that more removed characters have become more fascinating than the main ensemble and the central relationships. In fact, there could be four eps in a row this season only about Rebekah, Elijah, Klaus and Esther, with flashbacks including Mikael -- and I'd keep watching. I could possibly become more excited and interested in The Vampire Diaries if that happened. One of the things also irritating me is how Klaus -- like many others -- has now come to be yet another mere plot device. wtf, Julie Plec? So not good.
I've heard some people say, Damon/Elena is the endgame; she has to go through this Stefan angst/Damon rejection thing first, before she gets to Delena. Gotta say, I'm not buying that either. I'm not one of these cracked out teenage fanatics who thinks Stelena should be stabbed with a fork and left to die in favor of Delena; and I don't consider Elena's repudiation of Damon in 4x4 to be "a slap in the face to all Delena fans" as some of the more rabid Delena fans have characterized it. Yet her rejection of Damon's help at the end of 4x4 last night was patently unbelievable based on how Elena was all last season (as was her quick forgiveness of Stefan's Ripper days).
What, Stefan saves Matt before Elena, "respecting her choice," and suddenly he's her hero again, and all those headless girls up and down the Eastern seaboard are easily forgiven "mistakes"? But Damon's (or anyone's!) ability to feed on humans without ripping them apart or draining/killing them -- while reveling in it and making it fun -- is somehow inherently more morally and ethically repugnant to Elena than drinking humans to death so violently you rip them apart and decapitate them? You even have Stefan say to Elena in 4x3 The Rager, "How about we just leave the murdering to Damon" ? wth? Inconsistent. Hypocritical, actually.
One good thing about S3 was Paul as bad!Ripper!Stefan, then Klaus-minion-compelled!Stefan. Paul can totally play a bad guy, a devil-may-care, say-the-most-inappropriate-thing bad boy -- like Damon, but Paul-flavored -- and he rocks it when he does. One of my favorite Stefan scenes in S3 was in 3x07 Ghost World, when he crashes the "family summit" between Alaric, Jeremy and Elena at the Mystic Grill and says, "Besides, there's going to be people everywhere tonight. So there's going to be lots to eat." Got, his evil little smile kilz me ded every time I re-watch it!
But this one-step-up-three-steps-back Elena/Damon thing, which triggers the jealous!Stefan thing, is just the writers/Plec milking us for all they can, like we're the suckers we apparently are. It smells.
(btw, writers, you never explained what was the big deal about the vampire blood sharing in 4x2, other than Damon calling it "kind of personal," Stefan punching Damon for doing so with Elena, and saying in 4x4 "I'm always going to be mad" about it. Just how personal is "kind of personal" when it comes to blood sharing between vampires? Is it, I just kissed you with tongues for twenty minutes "kind of personal," or is it I just came in your mouth "kind of personal"? I mean, way to leave us hanging. Unless that's going to turn up as yet another plot device later this season... Actually it probably will. Newsflash: by writing to only one segment of your demographic (admittedly, a large one), you artificially hold back the characters' development, maturation, and unique story arc development. It feels forced and unnatural -- as we're getting used to...
TVD is too cowardly to ever take the truly unconventional but logical path, and have Elena be involved with both Stefan and Damon simultaneously rather than serially. (Not to mention I could only hope to see the truly revolutionary, polyamorous happy ending -- where Stefan and Elena and Damon wind up together as a threesome -- if The Vampire Diaries were on HBO.
(Come to think of it, though, even HBO had the chance for a Bill/Sookie/Eric True Blood threesome polyamory thing... and all they did with it was make it a dream sequence of Sookie's. Lame, man. God forbid a lead het female character should have unbridled, passionate sex with two men in one bed, simultaneously or taking turns, and be supremely pleasured and fulfilled sexually -- because only male characters get to do that on American TV and in American movies. Srsly, go Netflix "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" right now, if you have never seen it; you'll see what I mean. But, hell -- at least HBO tried.)
I really, really hope TVD gets better as the season progresses. Until it does, I'll be seeking the real show online, in fanfic. Apparently only fanfic authors care enough about the characters to do them justice.