frelling_tralk | (no subject)

I really need to start using my LJ more, I've always been very against letting this site die through inactivity, but I'm getting so lazy with updating this year. I just never seem to have the energy for long entries lately :(

Mostly I was very happy with the finale, but I do hope that they put the actual extended cut on the DVD/Blu-Ray, and not just seperate deleted scenes. I read that the original episode cut was 59 minutes, and I think the ending would have really benefited from a montage of Delena's lifes together, instead it was pretty rushed and confusing how it just jumped right to Elena and Damon in the afterlife (and looking exactly the same!), so you really don't get much of a sense of time passing, or that they did live long lives together. Those final ten minutes were certainly very affective though, especially Stefan's reunion with Lexi, and Elena seeing her parents and Jenna again

Both Elena and Katherine's appearances ended up feeling surprisingly anti-climatic to me in the end. I was really looking forward to Katherine turning up as the big villain to shake everything up, instead her scenes mostly consisted of snarking at Damon. I did like the mention that she was running Hell though, and had everyone wrapped around her finger as soon as she got there <3 But Idk, it didn't feel like she did a whole lot in this episode to make an impact, although her attempt to trick Damon as Elena one last time was cute heh.

And while it was good to see Elena again of course, a lot of her scenes ended up feeling pretty rushed too, particularly her 30 second reunion with Damon. After 622 hit me with all the feels when it came to Elena's relationships with the other characters, I guess I was expecting a little more when she does return and sees everyone again, instead some of those moments felt a bit like afterthoughts to me? (And she doesn't even get any kind of scene with Jeremy?) It felt like the finale was ultimately far more interested in the brothers relationship than it was in Elena. I can't say that I hated that mind you, that final Damon/Stefan hug definitely had me sobbing, and really all of their scenes together were very emotional and well-done.

Bonnie saying that she had somehow just figured out how to undo the spell was a pretty lame resolution to years of Elena being in a coma, I was expecting more of an explanation than that lol

And it's weird how little everyone on the show cares about Tyler, I've read interviews with Julie discussing how Stefan could never be redeemed after he killed Enzo, umm what about the scene with Damon killing someone who had been a childhood friend of most of the characters? It would have made more sense to me if the show had ended with Damon being the one to sacrifice himself, really bringing everything full-circle after he originally came to Mystic Falls to destroy it and made Stefan's life a misery, but I can see why they decided against that when so many viewers were invested in Delena getting a happy ending

Also Kevin Williamson was talking about how he wanted a Stelena ending, and they only couldn't do it because there wasn't enough time to build to it without having Nina for more episodes, but I don't see how they could have ever ended with Stelena anyway after the switch in seasons 4-7? Even when Elena lost her good memories of Damon back in season 6, there were still no hints that anything had changed regarding her feelings for Stefan, so it would have felt so random if the 8th season had started building towards Stelena again, the triangle was pretty much wrapped up after the first four seasons

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Aside from a few select moments, I didn't care for the finale. But then again, I really didn't care for the final season, in general. It just felt like...what was the point? They introduced hell but never actually showed us hell. They introduced the devil only to have him be the same type of petty villain the show always has. They killed Enzo just to hurt Bonnie one last time because his death served absolutely no other purpose. They brought Katherine back to essentially just troll the brothers one last time and then...die? Or get stuck in hell forever? I didn't care by that point :)

ITA about the Damon-Tyler thing. I was deeply annoyed with how easily everyone forgave Damon for that but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised since they've forgiven him for everything else at this point. Damon's death would've made a lot more sense and given him the actual redemption the show's been trying and failing to give him for years. Alas, it was never going to happen...

I actually disagree with you about the Stelena ending. Maybe it's just because I loved that relationship but I think they easily could've turned it back toward them and I was annoyed that they used Nina's lack of availability as the reason they didn't. They knew Nina was leaving before they even really started season 6 so if they were really interested in going back to Stefan/Elena, they had a whole season to do it in or at least a whole season to move away from Damon/Elena. Instead, they continued with Damon/Elena even after Nina left the show. They kept Damon so closely tied to Elena even when she was in a "coma" that, yeah, it was impossible to move away from that in the finale but that's because they never TRIED to move away from it.

I don't believe for a second that they truly wanted to go back to Stefan/Elena or that they ever really considered killing anyone but Stefan in the finale.

Oh I actually agree with you on Stelena, I remember being surprised at the time that they did nothing to bring back Elena's feelings for Stefan when she loses her good memories of Damon, or when she becomes human again. I think they did have opportunity then to make Stelena a part of the story again. I meant that the show was so one track when to came to Delena in season 6 (and then the focus on Damon's obsession with waiting for Elena to wake up in season 7), that I don't really see how they could have ever gone back on that by the time of the finale, even if they did have Nina for a few more episodes at the end. Season 6 was what convinced me that they had lost all interest in the ship that was once meant to be the heart of the show. I agree that I don't believe it could ever have seriously been considered to bring Stelena back for the end, maybe Kevin Williamson was sincere in hoping for it, but then he left after season 2. I think that Julie was most likely humouring him when pointing out that they didn't have enough time for that without Nina, when the truth was that the triangle had been more or less completely dropped back in the season 4 finale, and by then she always planned on ending it on Damon 'getting the girl'

Season 8 was a let-down for me as well, I had high hopes originally that they were going to put together a really great and fast-faced arc with just 16 episodes, but the Sirens were simply awful as villains. I don't understand why the cast were hyping them up quite as much as they were, well I know it's their job lol, but they were absolutely nothing special, and then Cade never ended up amounting to much either. And agreed, Tyler's death feels even more pointless to me now that we know how little it ended up mattering compared to the focus that Enzo's passing got. It feels like a really shoddy way to treat someone who had been a regular on the show from the beginning, even his appearance in the finale was blink and you'll miss it

Edited 2017-03-16 11:09 (UTC)

Yeah, Kevin may've wanted Stelena but it unfortunately wasn't up to him. Though that makes me even more annoyed that he tried to push the blame off on Nina for not coming back earlier when even if she had, it likely wouldn't have changed anything. And JP said something similar about wanting to bring it back to Stefan/Elena but claimed she couldn't because Nina left and I'm like...girl, who do you think you're fooling? You had numerous opportunities to end Damon/Elena and you never did. And, tbh, I don't think she ever cared about them as a couple, I think she just wanted Damon to, as you said, "get the girl."

As far as the sirens go, I suspect the cast was talking them up based on the information the writers gave them. Like, I remember last year at Comic Con Kat Graham seemed really excited about Bonnie's storyline this season and then season 8 aired and it was like...why? The writers must've told her about their plans to revisit Bonnie's psychic powers as a way to connect back to her magic and that got Kat all excited for Bonnie's arc but then when they actually sat down to write the season, they left it all until episode 11 and only barely touched on it, at that. So I think the writers probably hyped up the sirens so much that the cast just went with it.

Poor Michael Trevino. It's so obvious they stopped caring about Tyler after the hybrid storyline in season 3. They were just waiting for Trevino's contract to run out so they could be done with him and then use him for cannon fodder.

True, also the cast probably got excited about having a great season because Kevin Williamson was back (Ian especially was always getting nostalgic over those early days with both Kevin and Julie), but then in the end that really didn't seem to make a lot of difference. And exactly, I can believe that KW was sincere in wanting an arc for the final season with Stefan and Elena, but it's completely disingenuous of Julie to blame that not happening on Nina, when I'm sure Julie would have just straight out told Kevin that it wouldn't work with where the story had been heading if Nina *had* agreed to come back for a longer arc. The triangle wasn't a part of the show at all by then, if they weren't going to even revisit Elena's feelings for Stefan when she became human again at the end of season 6, then it was really too late to switch back for the final season

And yeah I don't get it, because really Tyler would seem to have a ton more story possibilities than say Matt or Jeremy, but he just wasn't a favourite of the writers for whatever reason. It was already ridiculous how much they cut his episodes back for season 5, I remember viewers wondering if he was even supposed to still count as a regular or not then, he only appeared about 3 or 4 times in the first 12 episodes from that year

Edited 2017-03-18 12:56 (UTC)