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I decided to rewatch some of the early seasons of The Vampire Diaries yet again (seasons 1-3 so far), and this entry is basically my trying to figure out Elena's character

I've read many comments on Elena using soft power to manipulate her friends and centre herself as the focal point of the group and, while I still don't always completely agree with every suggested instance of that, it did stand out to me in episode 322 that everyone immediately acts like the choice of whether to take up the deal with Elijah or not was Elena's alone, even though they'd all worked together on the plan to get rid of Klaus, and if Elijah had double-crossed them then they would have all been just as affected by that as Elena would be. The writing can sometimes be a bit too on the nose when it comes to Stefan insisting on respecting Elena's free will, and Damon just yelling 'no' over and over again on the speaker phone and saying that he would tie Elena down if he has too, yet there was no one to bring up that actually maybe it's a decision that they should all discuss and agree on as a group. Elena getting to make her own decisions when it comes to her own life is fair enough, but TvD took it to an extreme in moments like that, so that we're expected to accept as a matter of course that Elena gets the final say on everything

What I'm not completely sure of is whether or not we are supposed to read it as Elena subtly setting herself up as carrying the final word in their group, or is it more a case of the writers subconsciously always making Elena's POV the dominant one as their protagonist? In the show it's obviously Stefan and Damon who ensure that Elena gets prioritised over everyone else, but it is noteworthy that Elena chooses to have Damon and Stefan in her life, in spite of knowing that they will make decisions like a coin-toss over who should be the one to kill Bonnie's Mother in order to save Elena. Yes she was vocal at the time over how mad she was at Damon for that (and interestingly didn't say anything to Stefan, even though he was just as much a part of the coin toss as Damon was), buuuut can it be seen as tacit approval if she's still going to continue associating with those vampires? Lashing out at Damon as the most obvious culprit, and telling Bonnie that she's furious with Damon is all very well, but Elena knows that they will always represent a very real threat to her loved ones whenever it comes down to Elena or them, yet by the end of the season Elena is debating over whether to choose Damon or Stefan as her partner. Indeed she will later get angry when Caroline does question what Elena sees in Damon ("probably off doing bad things to good people"), Elena straight-out says that Damon has always been there for me when I needed him

I can't quite see Elena as the calculating player that some do, but I did pick up on it more this time around that she actually does prioritise her own PoV more than you might pick up on at first, it is very easy for her to protest that her loved ones always come before her own life for her, but then a question arises of why she would continue associating with the Salvatore's in that case? (Stefan before season 3 to a lesser extent perhaps, but certainly Damon has stated outright, in late season 2 among other times, that he would sacrifice her best friend Bonnie's life without even blinking if it meant saving Elena).

And okay in season 2, yes Elena was ready to sacrifice herself to Klaus, but it was very quickly brushed aside that a vampire (originally planned to be Caroline) and a werewolf (would unquestionably have to be Tyler) were going to die in that ritual too if it went ahead, but practically all of the discussions were exclusively centred around Elena as the sacrifice and how to prevent Elena's death. Elena does cry in episode 209 about how Tyler and Caroline are going to be sacrificed in the ritual and all because of her, but then the episodes after that noticeably never bring up those other possible victims of Klaus again, season 2 instead becomes all about Elena's sacrifice for her loved ones and finding a way to prevent Elena's sacrifice. It's really only in the last couple of episodes that the characters were reminded that the ritual would involve other members of their group, but even then Damon's motives in rescuing Caroline and Tyler were very much treating them as an afterthought. (A bit O/T, but I've seen arguments that Caroline should forgive Damon feeding off her and enslaving her, because hey he did rescue her from Klaus's ritual after all, but that's ignoring that Damon's sole focus there was unequivocally shown to be about preventing the ritual happening while Elena had vampire blood in her system)

Protagonist privilege is one thing, but TvD makes it clear time and time again that Elena's life is the sole priority to Damon and Stefan, and it's disturbing how rarely the show questions that, even Elena ultimately never gets that angry with them that she's willing to cut them out of her life entirely, no matter how many times her loved ones became collateral damage. Indeed Elena accepted Damon back into her life with a mouthed "thank you" after he helped to rescue her from Rose/Trevor/Elijah in episode 208, but in the show's timeline that was very close to the time that Damon had lost his temper and snapped her little brothers neck, but it seems like viewers dwelt on that far more than Elena ever did. It's the same pattern every time in fact, she gets noticeably angry with Damon when she discovers the bite marks on Caroline and orders him to stay away, she freezes Damon out after he killed Jeremy, she is angry at him for an episode or two after Bonnie's Mother is killed and turned, and yet every time Damon is back within her social circle within a few episodes at the most...

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or is it more a case of the writers subconsciously always making Elena's POV the dominant one as their protagonist?

Honestly, I always thought it was this.

TvD makes it clear time and time again that Elena's life is the sole priority to Damon and Stefan, and it's disturbing how rarely the show questions that

It's always a fine line and a problematic line when dealing with vampires in fiction, because when it comes down to it, most of the time, no sane person should EVER have anything to do with them. But if that were the case, we'd have no show, lol. So we have this weird suspension of disbelief zone where they're accepted back into the group time and time again even though they shouldn't be.

Meh, I'm cynical, though. TVD always had this problem, even in the first few seasons when the writing was good. Later (IMO) it just became more pronounced. But I have a hard time dissecting character motivations when I can "see" the writing that's directing the characters.

Honestly I used to brush a lot of as the writers just making Elena the focus because of protagonist privilege, but I did start to see what other people were saying this time around, just because there did seem to be a noticeable pattern of Elena always being everyone's priority, even over their own well-being. In season 6 for example, when Bonnie is trapped, characters like Alaric have recognisable motivations of well yeah I'd love to get Bonnie back, but I have to think of the risk to my girlfriend as well before going all in to save her. But if it had been Elena trapped over there, then all of the characters would have been dropping everything without even thinking twice y'know? And yeah obviously that's because she's the main character, but then it does come up time and time again in a way that you don't really see with other shows and their lead characters

So we have this weird suspension of disbelief zone where they're accepted back into the group time and time again even though they shouldn't be.

Arguably though they were only accepted because of Elena introducing them to her circle. Caroline, after becoming a vampire, would probably have become involved with them either way, but IMO Matt and Bonnie only became accepting of the Salvatore's because of Elena's approval of them, and that was in spite of the fact that Bonnie loathed vampires and blamed them for her Gram's death, and Matt's sister actually was killed by Stefan and Damon. So Elena must have some subtle power over her social group to convince all of them to accept a vampire as openly sociopathic as Damon. Caroline does start to speak out Damon more often when she sees the Delena relationship start to take off, but even that is mostly out of a place of concern for Elena (at first with her argument that Stefan is your epic love/better for you, and then later on her concern that the sire bond could mean that Damon is taking away Elena's free will

I did also pick up on Elena getting very annoyed with Damon for behaving badly in 303, and telling him not to act like the person that everyone thinks that he is, and that was portrayed as being partly about Elena's concerns of how it reflected on her at a time when she was starting to develop deeper feelings for Damon. Ditto when she and Matt come across Damon and Stefan feeding on a compelled victim later in the season and basically being vampires, and Elena is worrying to Matt about what that says about her that she can still be attracted to them. It seemed like, as time went on, more and more Elena's protests were there on the surface with what she felt that she should be feeling, but she couldn't have felt that strongly about any of it if she was going to continue protecting Damon and Stefan and wanting them to remain in her life.

ETA And she's at her most unapologetic about it in late season 3, after dealing with covering up and suppressing Alaric's darker half, as well as trying to prevent all vampires being wiped out, when she tells Jeremy that she'll be the bad guy if it means not losing any more people that she loves

Edited 2015-01-26 19:06 (UTC)

In this show, morals is replaced with Elena.
Elena is a vampire, so vampires are good (Enzo included *rolls eyes very, very hard*) and vampire hunters are evil. I feel like it's especially bad this season, but from what you say, it was there all along (maybe not as visible and frustrating as right now).

There seems to be no real morality at all definitely, it's all about keeping your loved ones in your life at any cost, even when the cost is usually paid by other people. It was really bad this season when we were supposed to frown on Stefan's betrayal and root for our main characters to free Enzo, even though the fake Sarah Salvatore (among many other future victims I'm sure!) had her neck snapped as a direct result of that, and Enzo is certainly looking to cause more harm as part of his vendetta against Stefan

Edited 2015-01-26 19:19 (UTC)

I haven't gone back in watching previous seasons of TVD yet as I was too busy actually catching up to the seasons but I do see your points.

I'm still not caught up but what's left is eps of the current season and I'm needing to catch up from just before Christmas and now.

What stuck out to me was when Damon snapped Jeremy's neck. Elena was mad and sad of course and wanted nothing to do with Damon right there but it seemed, to me anyway, that Jeremy having the ring on put a damper on her feelings of Damon and it was easy to forgive him...

Stefan and Damon putting Elena before everyone is understandable as they both love her but the fact they basically don't want her to decide for herself (that's a vibe I had then, too) was kinda weird to me. Elena wanting to show hos strong she is at all times is pretty weird, too but... idek...

Yeah I think that the ring made a huge difference to Elena's feelings in the end definitely, but Damon didn't know that Jeremy was wearing the ring at the time, so IMO she should have given a lot more thought to the risk to her loved ones if Damon did decide to lash out again. Indeed Damon almost kills Jeremy a second time in season 5 when he handles their break-up badly, again because of Katherine riling him up

And putting Elena first is one thing, but it gets into super fucked-up territory when they are preparing to sacrifice others to keep Elena safe, yet the show rarely questions that Elena kept hanging out with them, in spite of the fact that they had a coin toss for example over which of them would kill Bonnie's Mother

Edited 2015-01-30 20:21 (UTC)

Oh yea, I completely left that out. Elena over everybody else no matter if they are actually friends with them and it would kill Elena to not have them around anymore. It's like they pay no mind over her friends as long as she stays safe...

My issue with Elena and Damon and with EVERYTHING Damon did, she still fell in love with him... Because he's there for her... hadn't it been for the ring, Jeremy wouldn't be around at all anymore and a lot of things would have been much different too. I think they're cute and sweet and he seems actually good for her but still...

I do need to start the series over... after I'm caught up with the current season of course, so I can look at the show with another eye instead of the newbie-take everything in-don't form an opinion yet *laughs*

Yeah, watching the series again, I just don't get why Elena would want to let someone into her life that is going to endanger her friends in order to keep her safe, but the show never seems to want the audience to question that :shrugs:

Tbh I'm not really a fan of romantic Delena. I used to like them more back in seasons 1-3 when they were building up to them, but I've never been a big fan of how the show has handled them as a couple idk

And it was really all about them, too. And the way she was completely broken, distraught, wasn't herself when he didn't come back from the other world and she didn't know how to be anymore. And she had to have Alaric take her memories of him away to finally get back a sense of normality. I felt like her love of Stefan never existed even though he was the center of her world for the first 3 years.

IDK, I might be missing some things about that though. They aren't a favorite of mine. I liked the build-up of it but I won't ever say they're an OTP.

And I somehow believe that if it hadn't been for Katherine to begin with, none of the brothers would have fallen for her. IDK.

True, I'm surprised that the show has never really examined that more closely, the writers seem to think that it's a good thing for Elena that Damon has completely written off Katherine and is willing to kill her, or that Stefan likes Elena because she is 'the exact opposite' of Katherine, but doesn't that still suggest that a lot of their feelings for Elena are tied up in her being the ~better version~ of Katherine?

The writing of Elena with Damon did damage her character for me, mostly because I was put off with how much she kept justifying when it came to Damon, but I suppose you can argue that it's been there all along, she was still counting Damon as a friend when he did heinous things to other people in the first three seasons too. And yeah, I never understood how becoming a vampire heightened her feelings for Damon, yet completely switched off her romantic feelings for Stefan? It just felt to me like it was more about Delena being the fan favourite couple, so the writers decided to drop the increasingly unpopular love triangle and go all in with that pairing, but in the show it doesn't make a lot of sense to me when you look at how intensely human Elena felt about Stefan

Edited 2015-02-01 16:41 (UTC)

And I think they tried to explain the whole Elena/Damon thing with that bond whatever thing. I think it fell flat, actually. That came out of nowhere for me. Everything is intensified when you become a vampire, I get it but the bond thing... I don't know... If it's all linked with the vampire who made you, Stefan and Damon would have that bond with Katherine. Well, I don't understand much of that. They spent... 2 eps not even just saying that's what's happening and nothing else. No actual explanation.

And yes, Elena constantly justifying Damon irked me. Stefan would have done the same and it would have been inexcusable. Other people do less and it's already not excusable...

Elena/Stefan... there's not even a slim hint that she had feelings for him anymore while it was so so so so so strong for almost a whole 4 years. The 4rth being mixed with her feelings getting stronger for Damon, of course.

I need to read on the lore I guess, too?!

Edit: Okay, so Stefan wouldn't have had the bond with Katherine if he didn't have feelings for her, as he claims he never did, but with all the flashbacks, he must have felt strongly for her anyway. As for Damon, he should have had the bond with her. I mean, he certainly had strong feelings for her. There was no mention of the sire bond then.

But then, it should been been similar with Tyler via Klaus even though it's a whole other species and Tyler wasn't in love in any way with Klaus.

Seems there's a lot of holes in this. You gotta feel for the person siring you in order to be bonded.

Edited 2015-02-01 17:32 (UTC)

Oh yeah, I wasn't a fan of the sire bond either! It just felt really random to introduce that after Damon's blood had already turned Caroline and Vicky, yet of course with Elena she would become "sired to him". Damon's blood turning Caroline was never even brought up as in any way relevant, there was never any importance attached to him being her "Sire", so it just seemed a little too convenient to want to introduce that lore as late as the fourth season. Yeah there was the claim that it was very rare, but that still didn't really justify it IMO when it was against everything we had been shown of the siring process being unimportant before.

And I did wonder if Elena's feelings for Stefan would come back after Alaric changed her feelings for Damon, the fact that it never even came up is what makes me think that Delena and Stelena is being dictated more by fan popularity, because surely it would make sense for Elena's feelings for Stefan to be an issue if everything about her memories of Damon had been changed?

I think what helped with the whole Caroline thing is that she did everything Katherine told her to.

I wonder about that, too. Everything Damon did for Elena was changed by Alaric so that Stefan, I'd think was there. I was thinking what if Elena starts loving Stefan again. You can't just stop loving someone just by a snap of a finger... except when everything's erased like Damon was but you know what I mean. I would have liked to see that, I think. Damon coming back not understanding what was happening with Elena but not only that, her getting back her feelings for Stefan in the mix.

I think what helped with the whole Caroline thing is that she did everything Katherine told her to.

Damon's blood sired Caroline though (he suggested using it to heal her after the car accident, then Katherine smoothed her after learning from Bonnie that Caroline had Damon's blood in her system), yet it is easy to forget who actually sired Caroline because the show never once treated it as an issue that it was Damon's blood that turned her. That just makes it even more random to me that Elena having Damon's blood in her system became such a big plot point

And yeah, I think that it could have been interesting to spend some more time exploring how Elena was changed as a result of not falling for Damon, and if any other relationships in her life would have changed as a result, but it seemed that it was only ultimately there to provide Delena with a bit of angst?

That's basically what I mean with Caroline and Katherine. Even though it was Damon's blood that did the deal, the fact Katherine had her do things put a downer on the whole Damon being at fault.

We understand Elena wanted everything to do with Damon erased but things happened because of that. Friendship stronger and other events. It would have been fun to see Elena deal with all these changes. And everyone around, too, really.

Guess this will never happen though.

Yeah, I think that the writers never envisioned it as more than a temporary roadblock for Delena in terms of how important a plot it would be, but it is a shame because there's a lot of interesting things that they could have done with rewritten memories

Oh yes, kind of an AU but I guess they thought they shouldn't go that way as people have the seen the actual true events or something.

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