The Vampire Diaries 1x21: Isobel
May. 24th, 2023 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsWell, I still want to finish TVD s1 before I start going with something different for a bit, but we're nearly there (not sure if I'll do the season overview at the end of the season of before I start s2).
The Vampire Diaries 1x21: Isobel
Sigh. There is actually is a lot here that I have thoughts on and think I’d like to talk about, but the whole thing is sort of soured by the full immergence of the Triangle of Doom.
For a show that leans on the love triangle trope so hard (and not just with the main triangle), I feel like they ought to have a better handle on how to manage a love triangle. Because the key to a good love triangle is the person in the center of it, and what the choice between the options means to them. But the reason I’m calling this the full immergence of the Triangle is that it moves Elena completely to the background and has the awful bros competing over who can find the right combination of cheat codes that will get Elena to pick them.
It’s framed around how each of them are affected by finding themselves in a love triangle and who they want to be in order to win the game. But all the pair of them represent to Elena at the moment is ‘the guy she’s with’ and ‘the guy she’s not with but probably wants to be with her.’ Partly because the last few episodes have been muddying the water so there’s less distinction between the two bros. But also because Elena isn’t put at a crossroads of her character development, especially romantically speaking. Matt would still represent a choice as to the kind of life she wants and sort of partner she’s looking for, one that could represent a deeper desire on her part to return to a simpler ground state of her life vs the strange and dangerous other world that the Salvatores represent. She can’t actually choose to leave that world at this point (it’s touched too much of her life…plus doppelganger…also narratively) but the brothers both represent the same thing in it.
I also just don’t like the show using Isobel as such an obvious mouth piece to ring in the Triangle. But I think I feel that way because it’s a symptom of the bigger problem. If we had seen Elena falling into a Triangle over the last few episodes, then Isobel giving voice to what we know is already on Elena’s mind would be a better framing. It would come off more as making her confront those feelings rather almost trying to create them and make a mess of the weird balancing act the Triangle had going on.
Another reason this is really the Triangle as I hate it, is because there are a dozen more interesting elements to Elena’s character journey just in this episode. And all of them get largely glossed over so that we can have eight scenes of spelling out the existence of a love triangle that isn’t part of her character at this point.
Also…this show is weird. Because it has a whole scene so Alaric can spell out that Damon isn’t completely awful, but also have Damon make a casual, off-hand, uncommented on ‘joke’ about his abuse and rape of Caroline. His comments on being okay with a murder spree are…well, they are a reminder that he and Elena should never work, but as a viewer are almost easier to handle because we kind of know that if anyone’s going to go on a murder spree in this town it’s going to be him, and he’ll kill anyone else who tries to upstage him. But I don’t know how to take the comment about Caroline; because what it says to me is that he’s still the same villain that he always was, he’s just sneaking past some people’s defenses; but I don’t think that’s what the show is actually saying. And that bothers me.
…Well that’s a preview of how these reviews are going to get as the Triangle gets going in earnest.
Anyway, I do have other things to comment on. As a smallish note (connected to the above ranting), I wish the episode had focused more on Elena and Isobel’s relationship and interplay rather than always having to bring up the Triangle nonsense. I don’t have a lot to say on Elena final comment on Isobel, because that hasn’t been much of an arc and that as resolution is obvious fairly early. Part of that is an overarching issue with this plotline though, because I wish it had been set up with more thought to how it affects her character. If, all along, Elena had been more bothered by being adopted, if it had her asking questions about her relationship to her parents and how she felt about being lied to her whole life. Then it means something when she looks at Isobel and says that you know, it doesn’t matter how her parents became her parents, they were her parents. Or if she hadn’t learned certain things about Isobel so early on, and there had been more build up of her search for her birth mother, especially in light of losing the people she thinks of as her parents; then the loss of that faint hope that she isn’t alone has a harder plummet down. But the writers didn’t do those things, so this conclusion is just kind of there, and here we’re focused on other plots rather than being the conclusion of a developed arc.
There also seems like there should be some thematic connection between Elena’s arc with Jeremy, and her needing to convince Damon to trust her plan. Unless the thematic connection is that Elena’s plans often have a shaky foundation as her efforts with Jeremy have ended in disaster while she’s (supposedly) making a mistake by trusting Bonnie with this plan. Suddenly I’m doubting the foundation of my actual ship on this show, as maybe Elijah shouldn’t even be making plans with her.
I doubt it ever occurred to me before, or maybe it’s just been lost in the years since, but I got kind of a vibe from the last Jeremy/Anna scene that him watching her break down about her mom’s death gave him some understanding of why Elena had had him compelled; because if he could take away Anna’s pain he might think about it too.
Is Isobel supposed to have her switch off during this? Because a lot of her actions would suggest it, but her reason for being involved in this story doesn’t point that way; and her scene with Ric is hard to reconcile unless she can do what we never see anyone else do and can turn her humanity on and off literally depending on the moment she’s in. Yes a vampire with their switch off can still have people that matter to them (especially since the switch a) isn’t real and b) seems to affect different vamps differently), but her attitude toward is Elena is really hard to pin down.
It's weird not remembering how I felt watching these episodes in order; because now all I see in Isobel is someone who wants to be Katherine, and is the show’s warmup to Katherine. I’m sure there is a substantial meta to be made out of Isobel telling Ric that he didn’t have to look for her because she wasn’t lost, and how that is also part of the Katherine story; but I’m not sure the show earns it. Especially with the last Isobel and Ric scene.
I’ve always found that scene throws a wrench into any reading I have of Isobel. Like I said, it’s the biggest hiccup in saying Isobel’s emotions/humanity is firmly off during all this. It also misses the best chance it has to tell us what her motivations were for wanting to be a vampire. She’s probably right, that no answer is really going to be good for Ric, but I think the audience needs a few more dots to connect. She can admit now that the reasons were stupid and selfish and short-sighted, but she had them when she went down that road.
I also don’t like that this is functionally the last we see of Isobel (I guess she may come back later, but it’s about the last I recall of her). When she shows up in s2 she’s not really herself and then she dies, so we don’t get an arc about her, whether going full big bad or regaining her humanity and how that affects her. Again, she’s pretty much just warming up a chair for Katherine and then isn’t around to get a chair of her own.
What am I shipping?
I have minor Elena/Bonnie inclinations. And I wish we had more Isobel/Alaric to go on, because there is something there that would have been worth further developing, but we don’t really get it.
Who do I hate the most?
I guess Isobel, she does the most hateful stuff this episode (both in her villainous actions and for forcing the Triangle into the spotlight). But when she’s not forcing Triangle awfulness, I have more interest in her than I do Damon, who does some pretty hateful stuff here too.
The Vampire Diaries 1x21: Isobel
Sigh. There is actually is a lot here that I have thoughts on and think I’d like to talk about, but the whole thing is sort of soured by the full immergence of the Triangle of Doom.
For a show that leans on the love triangle trope so hard (and not just with the main triangle), I feel like they ought to have a better handle on how to manage a love triangle. Because the key to a good love triangle is the person in the center of it, and what the choice between the options means to them. But the reason I’m calling this the full immergence of the Triangle is that it moves Elena completely to the background and has the awful bros competing over who can find the right combination of cheat codes that will get Elena to pick them.
It’s framed around how each of them are affected by finding themselves in a love triangle and who they want to be in order to win the game. But all the pair of them represent to Elena at the moment is ‘the guy she’s with’ and ‘the guy she’s not with but probably wants to be with her.’ Partly because the last few episodes have been muddying the water so there’s less distinction between the two bros. But also because Elena isn’t put at a crossroads of her character development, especially romantically speaking. Matt would still represent a choice as to the kind of life she wants and sort of partner she’s looking for, one that could represent a deeper desire on her part to return to a simpler ground state of her life vs the strange and dangerous other world that the Salvatores represent. She can’t actually choose to leave that world at this point (it’s touched too much of her life…plus doppelganger…also narratively) but the brothers both represent the same thing in it.
I also just don’t like the show using Isobel as such an obvious mouth piece to ring in the Triangle. But I think I feel that way because it’s a symptom of the bigger problem. If we had seen Elena falling into a Triangle over the last few episodes, then Isobel giving voice to what we know is already on Elena’s mind would be a better framing. It would come off more as making her confront those feelings rather almost trying to create them and make a mess of the weird balancing act the Triangle had going on.
Another reason this is really the Triangle as I hate it, is because there are a dozen more interesting elements to Elena’s character journey just in this episode. And all of them get largely glossed over so that we can have eight scenes of spelling out the existence of a love triangle that isn’t part of her character at this point.
Also…this show is weird. Because it has a whole scene so Alaric can spell out that Damon isn’t completely awful, but also have Damon make a casual, off-hand, uncommented on ‘joke’ about his abuse and rape of Caroline. His comments on being okay with a murder spree are…well, they are a reminder that he and Elena should never work, but as a viewer are almost easier to handle because we kind of know that if anyone’s going to go on a murder spree in this town it’s going to be him, and he’ll kill anyone else who tries to upstage him. But I don’t know how to take the comment about Caroline; because what it says to me is that he’s still the same villain that he always was, he’s just sneaking past some people’s defenses; but I don’t think that’s what the show is actually saying. And that bothers me.
…Well that’s a preview of how these reviews are going to get as the Triangle gets going in earnest.
Anyway, I do have other things to comment on. As a smallish note (connected to the above ranting), I wish the episode had focused more on Elena and Isobel’s relationship and interplay rather than always having to bring up the Triangle nonsense. I don’t have a lot to say on Elena final comment on Isobel, because that hasn’t been much of an arc and that as resolution is obvious fairly early. Part of that is an overarching issue with this plotline though, because I wish it had been set up with more thought to how it affects her character. If, all along, Elena had been more bothered by being adopted, if it had her asking questions about her relationship to her parents and how she felt about being lied to her whole life. Then it means something when she looks at Isobel and says that you know, it doesn’t matter how her parents became her parents, they were her parents. Or if she hadn’t learned certain things about Isobel so early on, and there had been more build up of her search for her birth mother, especially in light of losing the people she thinks of as her parents; then the loss of that faint hope that she isn’t alone has a harder plummet down. But the writers didn’t do those things, so this conclusion is just kind of there, and here we’re focused on other plots rather than being the conclusion of a developed arc.
There also seems like there should be some thematic connection between Elena’s arc with Jeremy, and her needing to convince Damon to trust her plan. Unless the thematic connection is that Elena’s plans often have a shaky foundation as her efforts with Jeremy have ended in disaster while she’s (supposedly) making a mistake by trusting Bonnie with this plan. Suddenly I’m doubting the foundation of my actual ship on this show, as maybe Elijah shouldn’t even be making plans with her.
I doubt it ever occurred to me before, or maybe it’s just been lost in the years since, but I got kind of a vibe from the last Jeremy/Anna scene that him watching her break down about her mom’s death gave him some understanding of why Elena had had him compelled; because if he could take away Anna’s pain he might think about it too.
Is Isobel supposed to have her switch off during this? Because a lot of her actions would suggest it, but her reason for being involved in this story doesn’t point that way; and her scene with Ric is hard to reconcile unless she can do what we never see anyone else do and can turn her humanity on and off literally depending on the moment she’s in. Yes a vampire with their switch off can still have people that matter to them (especially since the switch a) isn’t real and b) seems to affect different vamps differently), but her attitude toward is Elena is really hard to pin down.
It's weird not remembering how I felt watching these episodes in order; because now all I see in Isobel is someone who wants to be Katherine, and is the show’s warmup to Katherine. I’m sure there is a substantial meta to be made out of Isobel telling Ric that he didn’t have to look for her because she wasn’t lost, and how that is also part of the Katherine story; but I’m not sure the show earns it. Especially with the last Isobel and Ric scene.
I’ve always found that scene throws a wrench into any reading I have of Isobel. Like I said, it’s the biggest hiccup in saying Isobel’s emotions/humanity is firmly off during all this. It also misses the best chance it has to tell us what her motivations were for wanting to be a vampire. She’s probably right, that no answer is really going to be good for Ric, but I think the audience needs a few more dots to connect. She can admit now that the reasons were stupid and selfish and short-sighted, but she had them when she went down that road.
I also don’t like that this is functionally the last we see of Isobel (I guess she may come back later, but it’s about the last I recall of her). When she shows up in s2 she’s not really herself and then she dies, so we don’t get an arc about her, whether going full big bad or regaining her humanity and how that affects her. Again, she’s pretty much just warming up a chair for Katherine and then isn’t around to get a chair of her own.
What am I shipping?
I have minor Elena/Bonnie inclinations. And I wish we had more Isobel/Alaric to go on, because there is something there that would have been worth further developing, but we don’t really get it.
Who do I hate the most?
I guess Isobel, she does the most hateful stuff this episode (both in her villainous actions and for forcing the Triangle into the spotlight). But when she’s not forcing Triangle awfulness, I have more interest in her than I do Damon, who does some pretty hateful stuff here too.
