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watchingwhileblack · 6 years

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TVD RECAPS - S01E01 - PILOT

PREVIEW:

RANDOM STRETCH OF HIGHWAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT: MEET THE RED-SHIRTS!

FUN FACT SHACK: 1) The song is “Sort Of” by Silversun Pickups. 2) The guy is Steve Belford, Ellie's gross college boyfriend, Jesse, on Degrassi.

VILLA SALVATORE: MEET STEFAN!

THE HOUSE THAT GILBERT BUILT: MEET ELENA & JEREMY!

FUN FACT SHACK: NETFLIX SAYS, "Here We Go" by Mat Kearney is playing here.

WELCOME TO MYSTIC FALLS, WITCH!: MEET BONNIE!

ASIDE BAR: Real talk, if my best friend was telling me she had full-on magic powers I'd be like: 'That is dope as fuck! What spells do you know? Is close-up magic real? Let's rent The Craft like right now this second! Lemme see your Hogwarts letter! Try turning this quarter into a five dollar bill! How do you feel about the generally maligning portrayal of your people in media? Do we need to start a Change.Org account? 'Cause I really wanna be a responsible and politically-active ally.' Just saying...

MYSTIC FALLS HIGH SCHOOL: MEET THE SQUAD!

ASIDE BAR : I feel like this is as good a time as any to mention that Caroline's been my fav for all time since the word 'go'. I always, always, always adore the "mean girl with a heart of gold." It's probably a side effect from my Buffy days. Cordelia Chase, FTW!

FUN FACT SHACK: The song is “Consoler Of The Lonely” by The Raconteurs.

EXPOSITION CLASS: A SCENE SANS COMMENT...

ASIDE BAR : First, “Hawt-E”? Really, Bon-Bon? Secondly, is this a good time to mention that I am SO angry that Bonnie and Matt never dated in the show that I legit can’t talk about it out loud without ranting? And, in lieu of said rant, I coined the phrase: “I do not speak of Batt!” to remind myself not to throw a wall of words at whatever hapless individual I happened to be speaking to? All that to say, I’d elaborate on this subject, but I DO NOT SPEAK OF BATT!

MYSTIC FALLS, EXTERIOR:

FUN FACT SHACK: “Say (All I Need)” by One Republic is the song.

VILLA SALVATORE:

THE MYSTIC GRILL:

FUN FACT SHACK: 1) The song is "Take Me To The Riot" by Stars.

ASIDE BAR : Not trying to sidebar every scene here, but... Does the way everyone treats Jeremy really match up with the actual timeline, here? Because, Vicki is Matt's younger sister, and Jeremy is Elena's younger brother. Assuming that Matt and Elena are the same age, Jeremy (seeing as he attends the high school as well) couldn't be more than a year younger than Vicki. Jeremy = Freshman, Vicki = Sophomore, Elena & Co. = Juniors. I understand that freshman are the lowest in the high school hierarchy and everything, but damn, she's treating him like he has jam hands when it's entirely possible that there are a few months out of the year when they are the exact same age. Just saying.

THE HOUSE THAT GILBERT BUILT:

THE MYSTIC GRILL:

FUN FACT SHACK: 1) The first song is Katy Perry's "Thinking of You". 2) The second is “Kids” by MGMT.

VILLA SALVATORE: MEET “UNCLE” ZACH!

FUN FACT SHACK: NETFLIX SAYS, "Running Up That Hill" by Placebo is playing.

MYSTIC FALLS HIGH SCHOOL:

DARK-ASS, CREEPY-ASS, MURDER-ASS WOODS: PARTY TIME!

ASIDE BAR : Yo, no joke, Stefan flat out slays her very soul with a, "You and me, we're not going to happen." It's brutal af, dude. I mean, mild spoiler alert, but there are straight up beheadings on this show, and THIS is the moment where I'm like: 'That's going a bit far, guys. Maybe, go a little easier.'

FUN FACT SHACK: 1) "Death" by White Lies is the first song. Netflix gets the lyrics wrong, by the way. TRUST NO SUBS!, 2) “Better Off That Way” by Quickie plays next., and 3) “Back To Me” by The All-American Rejects is the last.

VILLA SALVATORE: MEET DAMON!

DARK-ASS, CREEPY-ASS, MURDER-ASS WOODS:

VILLA SALVATORE:

DARK-ASS, CREEPY-ASS, MURDER-ASS WOODS:

THE MYSTIC GRILL:

FUN FACT SHACK: "Siren Song" by Bat For Lashes is the song.

ASIDE BAR : Real talk, Caroline gives this truly heart-breaking speech about her insecurities and massive inferiority complex that I can't do justice to with my silly, silly captions, and that Candice Accola absolutely nails. Just watch it (again), guys! I really cannot believe that everyone didn't love Caroline to pieces from day one. I just want to give her cookies and tell her she's an actual queen!

MYSTIC FALLS HOSPITAL:

THE HOUSE THAT GILBERT BUILT & VILLA SALVATORE:

FUN FACT SHACK: 1) The song is "Never Say Never" by The Fray. 2) BTW, Elena and Stefan are narrating over the rest of these scenes like true legends. I shall present most of them sans comment.

THE HOUSE THAT GILBERT BUILT:

THE MYSTIC GRILL:

THE HOUSE THAT GILBERT BUILT:

END NOTES: So, the "blackground" is a term I coined in my youth to refer to the realm of the non-white characters and extras in all of the television shows I watched that were meant to be seen rather than heard or acknowledged as being real people by the white protagonists. It's the realm of "diversity" wherein the coloring-in of the backdrop behind the white characters was meant to augment my viewing experience as a POC and somehow satisfy my need for representation in the media I consumed. It only served to further instill in me the understanding that whiteness, in the eyes of the general populace, was considered the default status of humanity, and that anything else --anyONE else-- was an "other" that mattered less. Which, in case you missed it, is the precise OPPOSITE of the stated purpose of "diversity" in media.

So, I decided to add some blackground stats to the end of eps to get a numerical breakdown of the race-related writing and casting choices made on the show, because I seem to recall that Mystic Falls was a pretty dangerous place for a person of color, lol. In this rewatch, I really wanted to get a read on the actual percentages involved. I started out thinking I was going to do POC main characters versus POC side characters (i.e. those who weren't series regulars). But, since Bonnie's the only POC main character, she got her own column. Then, I decided to add Caroline as the obvious white counterpoint to Bonnie, because everything is exactly the same about them (gender, series regular status, position in the show hierarchy, both are Elena's BFFs, etc.) except for one thing: their races. Therefore, it logically follows that that one difference is the only reason these two characters might be treated differently in any way. Same for the white secondary characters introduced throughout the show in relation to their POC counterparts. Just a simple compare/contrast for context. NBD.

Also, I'm gonna go ahead and count Vicki and Aunt Jenna (and, later, Enzo) as secondary characters for the purposes of these stats even though both were at this point series regulars. Mild spoiler alert, but they don't stay that way for very long.

*11/28/2019 -- Just noting that I finally got around to replacing the blackground stats here to reflect the addition of the category “Presented In A Subservient Role” that comes into being a little further on in these recaps.*

All the screencaps are from Kiss Them Goodbye & Home of the Nutty. And I'm gonna post these recaps on Thursdays in honor of TVD-Days. It really was my #1 favorite show for quite a long time. In the later years, I was almost hate-watching (so that'll be fun when we get to that!), but, in the haze of nostalgia, I find myself missing it more and more every day. And now seemed like as good a time as any to delve back in. Hope you join me, and thanks for reading what I have so far! Peace.

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freespeechfandom-blog · 7 years

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Cassie, marks and marriage

Since the topic came up, I might as well write a separate post about all the long mark stuff that wouldn’t fit very well into a series of reblogs. Tl;dr version: C didn’t mind the marks, M didn’t intend to mark her, the marks had positive effects for C, and both of them use the marks in ambiguous ways to cherry-pick which interpretations they are going with, and even so vamp marriage probably wouldn’t be about lovey-dovey matrimony anyway. Longer version below, still, see highlights for a condensed summary.

- Let’s start with the way the marks were made. M, spasming on a bed in geis-induced desire, bit C. C didn’t expect it, but also didn’t fight it, and when she did protest, he stopped. Fast forward, she is now marked, something that is immediately visible to all vamps (will come back to this), who just go with it as they only care about ‘outcome, not intent.’ She doesn’t fuss about the marks too much ever again, though she acknowledges that she wasn’t asked, and isn’t too keen on belonging to anybody (will come back to this).

- Let’s look at the consent of the various parties. Since both were under the effects of the geis at the time, none of them were legally compos mentis - so M didn’t consciously plan it. He does later say he didn’t realize C was really there - and even if we believe that he lied, and that he perhaps coouuld have been lucid enough to plan the marks deliberately as a manipulation (unlikely), if nothing else, the fact that having further entanglements with Cassie reduces the chances of just being able to ask her to save Elena without complications should prove that he didn’t want to mark her any more than he wanted the geis to be changed into a love/desire spell. Moving on to C’s consent, she wasn’t aware beforehand, but she accepted it afterwards explicity. She’s asked if she wishes she had not been marked, and she doesn’t go ‘hell yeah, cause the marks annoy me’; she is also asked if she wishes to break up, and to all of that she says she doesn’t mind, and wants to have a closer relationship instead, and asks for dates.

- Picking up on the marks having alternative potential meanings: belonging can mean as a possession, or belonging together. Same for the bite: on vampires, they signify a marriage of equals who belong together; on humans, they show that a favored magical servant belongs to a vamp family (because mages can’t be added to a vamp family the normal way). So C doesn’t want to be owned by anybody, but she’s cool with belonging together with M, which she wanted to do for years as a crush, in TtD even though she knew they won’t work out, subconsciously in CbS so that the geis responds to her wish to be with M (Pritkin’s assessment not mine btw), and when she reaffirms her post-marks dating wishes in CtD. (((It’s also interesting to note here that all intimacies that M and C are involved in were desired by Cassie, not by Mircea - she had the hots for him first for years while he obv wasn’t interested in a teenager, she wanted to ‘ride him’ while he previously didn’t look at her that way, her Pythian powers controlled the geis to morph into a love/lust loop based on her own emotions, and it’s she who wants to get to know him better and she wants to date. So the Missie relationship wasn’t forced on C, but rather something that predominantly she wanted that was accomodated by coincidences and M just went with it - not saying it was a hardship for him by any means, he seemed to be into her too, just highlighting that neither the geis nor the bite was an ensnarement plan of his making.)))

- So which interpretations is true then? Is C an equal in marriage, or is she a servant with a loyalty badge? Naturally, the vamps are going with the servant interpretation, because a twenty-something slip of a girl is not considered marriage material for an illustrious centuries-old Senator - but she sounds useful, so good job, they’re cool with it. Although ever since the demigoddess-reveal and the Pythia-duels, Cleo is increasingly suspicious that C might be a dedicated ally to M, not just a manipulated mortal, which is ringing her poor paranoid danger-bells. And another thing to note is that the vamps already accepted C as a potential equal - when she was named second, M’s vamps deferred to her, Cleo treated her as an equal, and she gave commands to Jules and Co. on the basis of hey, I’m your master’s second, which all support that the definition of vampire marriage can be applied to a Pythia in a vague enough way to accommodate her in a potential equal function, so it’s not automatically a servant badge. The rest of the magical society either don’t really know about it, or like Jonas interpret it as an unfair favor the Pythia would have towards the vampires, to which C argues that she’s loyal to her vampire family the same way other Pythias are loyal to their families.

- More so than what it means to the magical society however, it’s important to see what it means to them. C makes the valid point that M wants it both ways - a ‘personal’ relationship and a separate ‘professional’ one, which is clearly not working. However, Cassie does the same too, reinterpreting the ‘marriage’ whenever it suits her as well. She tells Mircea that he should tell her things, because they are ‘married’, so she invokes the bond when she’s trying to get access or information, or when she’s trying to boss vampires around. But when it comes to sharing info of her own, or falling in love with her bodyguard or hooking up with him, she conveniently forgets about being ‘married’. So both C and M are trying to juggle this ambiguous term to their own benefit by cherry-picking situations in which it would be beneficial to use the ‘marriage card’ to their advantage and ignore it when inconvenient.

- And as for that, I’ve tried to recall instances in which the marriage card is raised, but there isn’t many of them, especially lately; and from those earlier ones, pretty much all of it was beneficial to Cassie. When EtN-C shifts to TtD-M, it saves her life and provides a reasonable explanation why M would accept her as real. Then in the past, M presumes the mark shows that they are intimate in the future, which C agrees wasn’t against her will, so it gives past-M an excuse to get it on with Cassie, which enables the whole geis-discussion to surface. Then, in CtD, C bosses vampires around and doesn’t get thrown out of restricted med access only due to the marks, and later also has Nicu and the other older vamps treat her more attentively and seriously than they would a random yapping mortal. I genuinely don’t remember any situation in which the marriage is held against her, as in ‘as my wife, you have to make an army’ or ‘as the master’s wife, you need to stay inside when you can’t shift’ as most conflicts reference actual objections and arguments, and the marks aren’t used as an excuse to hinder, command or limit Cassie. Heck, they don’t even prevent her from dating Jonas’ selection of suitors, lol. However, as always, and as I mentioned elsewhere, do please quote the scenes at me if I glance over something of that sort.

- It’s perhaps also interesting to investigate what vampire marriage really means, because it’s clearly not what it means to modern readers, or what it generally represents in romance novels (and this isn’t one anyway). As we see a certain Lucilla being married to Senator Marcellus in Masks, vamp marriage goes back to at least Roman times and thus predates concepts of romanticism, so it can’t be about love and emotional support - it’s far more likely a more traditional marriage of common interests, shared resources and alliances, which would be in line with the pragmatism and collectivism of vampire society that practically requires its members to work on improving their and their family’s position.

So long story short, Cassie may not have been asked about the marks, nor consented to being bitten at the time; but she doesn’t protest or reject them later, and instead opts for an even closer relationship. This is also in line with the other trend in the books, in which intimacy happens due to accidents and circumstances, but generally in accordance with Cassie’s wishes. The marks were also not a malicious manipulative plan by Mircea, because he would not have chosen them consciously as they only complicate things. Furthermore however, they are never even really utilized in a negative way for Cassie, and we see more scenes in which she directly benefits from them being there, enabling her to do things she would not have done otherwise. Ultimately, Mircea doesn’t act like a husband should, and Cassie doesn’t act like a wife should, and I suggest that vamp marriage wouldn’t even be about that due to their mindset and the age of the traditional institution of marriage. So, was the point of the marks just a convenient plot device? So far, pretty much, though KC always insists that she writes everything ‘for the plot’ including the triangle, which so far had no reason to exist either. So perhaps the marks will also play a role in the future...?

#cassie palmer #mircea basarab #marks #marriage #complex topics

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zalrb · 7 years

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TVD 1X09 Review

Hi all! Welcome to the ninth review of TVD season 1. Considering that I haven’t like sat down to watch a full episode of the past seasons of TVD in a few years and my memory might not be the greatest I think I will start with my usual disclaimer: I will write my thoughts in real time so if I make a mistake at the beginning of this post, it will be corrected by the end. There will be anti-Damon and anti-Delena sentiments (I’m only mentioning these two because it’s the beginning of the series), and I feel the need to say that there may be some anti-Jenna sentiments too. I will probably bring up other shows and call attention to misogynoir, racism, anti-blackness etc. Ready? Let’s go.

Omg a class other than history! I’m going to say science? They’re measuring the sun’s shadow or something. Clearly, I didn’t pay attention to anything that wasn't humanities-based in high school.

Bianca Lawson is a vampire, you guys, in real life. That woman never fucking ages.

I also think it’s hilarious that this class other than history is in Bonnie’s dream.

“All right, well I tried. I’m officially out of it.” Elena, you asked Caroline why she was so mad at Bonnie and then just gave up. Like???

Alaric’s first appearance.

He actually looks pretty young.

TOPLESS STEFAN.

The fact that Damon thought he could make a peace offering for killing Lexi with a cup of blood is absolutely ridiculous.

TOPLESS STEFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN.

I would’ve actually liked the show to explore Stefan’s lack of reaction to Damon killing Lexi and add it to the vampire lore because it would’ve layered the show more. There’s this little speech Pam makes in True Blood saying how humans love pain, romanticize it, how humans chain themselves to it but when vampires say they’ll be hurt forever they have to mean it and that’s too much so they HAVE to move on in order to survive, which btw is how they lose their humanity because they stop ACTING human, it’s a lot more complicated and logical than a switch imo.

Oh! Once I asked if we ever see the characters have a lunch break during school. While we don’t see Bonnie and Elena physically eat, I see that paper bag and water so cool.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a literal paper bag lunch. Oh wait, no, I lied, I did in the fifth grade in school, they were called “hot lunches” and some days you got chicken wings and fries and they were the booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomb.

One paper is going to make up for Jeremy’s half-fail, Alaric?

Matt and Caroline’s relationship is actually pretty high school, Caroline freaking out over the ‘heys’ and Matt saying ‘hey’ trying to act like nothing happened is prrrrrrettty sixteen.

“I’m going to back off and keep my distance” he says in person after waiting for Elena to get out of class instead of just calling her. SE, you dorks.

I find the way Damon threatens Bonnie in this scene (regarding the necklace) interesting because it’s aggressively sexual, he presses her against the car and strokes her face with his hand as he scares her, Damon legit uses sexuality as a weapon. It’s pretty much in everything he does.

“She was Katherine’s handmaiden.” Yeah, way to sugarcoat TVD.

Stefan’s imitation of Damon is still hilarious because it’s sooooooooooo true. All eyebrows, man.

Bonnie, I’m sorry, Caroline is a bit much but you can’t expect her to believe you’re a witch just because you say you are, you actually proved to Elena that you were a witch with the feathers, you didn’t provide Caroline with the same proof, her sceptism makes sense.

Also does Elena ever have an opinion? She only ever seems to like say anything real when she’s around Stefan.

Lol, Jenna really annoys me.

Every time I see a séance scene I think of Now and Then. Are my followers too young to know what Now and Then is? I mean I was a kid but still.

You know, I get it, the necklace is a big deal but I’m just thinking about all this fuss over a necklace that gets destroyed in the episode anyway and it’s such a small thing? Like season 1 True Blood, there was a serial killer in Bon Temps killing all the women Sookie’s brother Jason was sleeping with and the serial killer was after Sookie and there were vampires and there was religious fervour. In Buffy, the Vampire King was going to rise and slaughter everyone plus there were vampires who actually were killing everyone and episodes where students were actually possessed by hyena spirits and literally ate the principal. Like so much big shit. And this is about a necklace. Still better that it’s about a plot point unlike the later seasons.

The first time I watched TVD I thought when Damon and Stefan play football and laugh and then Damon sits up and looks at him and says, “What do you want, Stefan?” with that resigned tone was a touching moment because Damon couldn’t let himself believe the fun they were having because he knew they were only having fun so Stefan could get something out of him. But now I’m like, you MURDERED his best friend like a DAY AGO, you ASS.

I still love how Stefan was like, “I was the last one to see her, Damon” and that nod like yeah we were fucking. And then Damon being Damon is all like but like, I mean, why didn’t she tell you about the crystal if you saw her last so then Stefan has to spell it out and he essentially just repeats WE WERE FUCKING.

“I could rip your heart out and not think twice about it.” “Yeah. I heard that before.” I actually always wanted to see the scene where that was uttered.

See if Damon had actually sold his soul to Emily to keep Katherine alive and Katherine was like lol sorry then I would get his pain more but all Emily asked was for Damon to look out for her descendants which he BARELY does.

Also shadows love Paul’s face.

Seriously, “they killed 27 people and they called it a war battle, they deserve whatever they get” THIS is the Damon storyline we should’ve followed. Like if Damon had been a pillar of his community when he was human and had a deep love for MF and they turned against him and he carried that with him and wanted to return home because it’s his home and then wanted to purge the founding families and enact vengeance I’d be with it. But no, we get a little piece of dialogue about vengeance and then it’s all about Katherine then Elena.

Aw, Stefan touching Bonnie’s face after healing her 😄

I actually really like Mattoline. “It’s just … I don’t like you but we cuddled and it was nice.”

“Katherine never compelled me, I knew everything every step of the way. It’s real for me.” Damon, I don’t care.

I’m sorry but Nina becomes a considerably better actress working across Paul. All episode she was hella mediocre and she got so much better in these few moments. Those shining eyes.

Logan looks like such a sleaze in that picture with Jenna.

When Stefan throws the diary on his bed and cries, man, Paul is so expressive. Also I find this scene telling much like the scene in 1x06 when Elena tries and fails to write in her diary because both times major things have happened to both of them and they can’t write in their journal anymore, not after experiencing the completeness of having each other to talk to, a journal just doesn’t cut it.

It still pisses me off that Bonnie legit had her throat torn and she’s comforting Elena.

I do think that the show ending with Logan being like, “Aren’t you going to invite me in?” was a good choice.

Until next time!

#stelena #tvd 1x09 #the vampire diaries #tvd review #stefan salvatore #elena gilbert #tvd history repeating #tvd meta #paul wesley #nina dobrev #dobsley #the vampire diaries 1x09 #tvd #anti-tvd #anti julie plec #anti caroline dries #meta #review

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