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butterflyDamon's characterization didn't bother me in this episode and it seems to have really bothered some people. So, I thought I'd walk through and talk about why he worked for me.
It's about an imminent threat. Damon does not enjoy being threatened. While we've seen him being to deal with his impulsiveness issues and not killing people because he's upset, that doesn't mean that he's going to start tolerating dangerous threats any better.
So, Damon was annoyed and he wanted Alaric out of his way. He honestly didn't think that it was something that would harm their friendship (as judging by how he behaved with Alaric afterwards). Which is... short-sighted of him and shows that he and Alaric had equally large blind spots about the nature of their friendship, I think. Damon wasn't killing Alaric because he was hurt and lashing out - he was getting Alaric out of his way so that he could go after a threat and he was pissed off that he needed to. Of course, to Ric, this was the person that he'd believed was a good friend of his deciding to snap his neck. Which brought it home to Ric how far he'd drifted from the man that he was when he first came to Mystic Falls.
This episode really brought it home to everyone involved that Damon is not operating out of the same sense of morality that they are. Damon's primary drive right now is to protect his people. And he tends to accomplish his goals with as much ruthlessness as he feels that they require. Bill was willing to torture his own daughter. Compulsion didn't work on him. From Damon's point of view, Bill is a huge threat with an easy solution.
I mean, I didn't shed any tears over Stefan eating Giuseppe Salvatore. I get why Caroline doesn't want Damon to kill or hurt her dad, but as an outside viewer... the man tortured his own daughter and planned to keep it up until he convinced her body to starve itself rather than suffer his torture anymore. Sorry, Caroline, but I wasn't shedding any tears over Damon attacking him. You love your dad, but he only loves you if you're the 'right' kind of daughter, so I can't love him for your sake.
So, for me, everything made sense because it all seemed to come primarily from Damon wanting to eliminate a threat. And he was pissed off that his compulsion didn't work on Bill. Plus, the two people that he's trying to tell about the danger that he now feels that he's in (Elena and Alaric) blow him off and tell him that Bill's ideas are good ones - Damon's been surviving by compromising the council since he first got into the town and vervain in the water supply would... not be fun for him. He's trying to tell them, "hey, I feel threatened here" and they're telling him that they're not on his side. It's the scene on the lawn that led to the scene inside the house, where Damon gets so frustrated at Elena (who is, of course, pissed off at him as well).
Now, is what Damon did 'right' from a more objective (or a more human-based subjective) view? No. It's not a nice thing to hurt your friend, even if you know it isn't going to be permanent. But it made perfect sense to me as something that Damon would do. I mean, look how baffled he is at the end when Alaric takes it personal that Damon snapped his neck. He was not trying to break his friendship with Alaric. I think there's a high chance that he wouldn't have temporarily killed Alaric if he'd realized that it could ruin their friendship.
I don't know, everything Damon did in this episode just made sense to me when I was watching it.
It's about an imminent threat. Damon does not enjoy being threatened. While we've seen him being to deal with his impulsiveness issues and not killing people because he's upset, that doesn't mean that he's going to start tolerating dangerous threats any better.
So, Damon was annoyed and he wanted Alaric out of his way. He honestly didn't think that it was something that would harm their friendship (as judging by how he behaved with Alaric afterwards). Which is... short-sighted of him and shows that he and Alaric had equally large blind spots about the nature of their friendship, I think. Damon wasn't killing Alaric because he was hurt and lashing out - he was getting Alaric out of his way so that he could go after a threat and he was pissed off that he needed to. Of course, to Ric, this was the person that he'd believed was a good friend of his deciding to snap his neck. Which brought it home to Ric how far he'd drifted from the man that he was when he first came to Mystic Falls.
This episode really brought it home to everyone involved that Damon is not operating out of the same sense of morality that they are. Damon's primary drive right now is to protect his people. And he tends to accomplish his goals with as much ruthlessness as he feels that they require. Bill was willing to torture his own daughter. Compulsion didn't work on him. From Damon's point of view, Bill is a huge threat with an easy solution.
I mean, I didn't shed any tears over Stefan eating Giuseppe Salvatore. I get why Caroline doesn't want Damon to kill or hurt her dad, but as an outside viewer... the man tortured his own daughter and planned to keep it up until he convinced her body to starve itself rather than suffer his torture anymore. Sorry, Caroline, but I wasn't shedding any tears over Damon attacking him. You love your dad, but he only loves you if you're the 'right' kind of daughter, so I can't love him for your sake.
So, for me, everything made sense because it all seemed to come primarily from Damon wanting to eliminate a threat. And he was pissed off that his compulsion didn't work on Bill. Plus, the two people that he's trying to tell about the danger that he now feels that he's in (Elena and Alaric) blow him off and tell him that Bill's ideas are good ones - Damon's been surviving by compromising the council since he first got into the town and vervain in the water supply would... not be fun for him. He's trying to tell them, "hey, I feel threatened here" and they're telling him that they're not on his side. It's the scene on the lawn that led to the scene inside the house, where Damon gets so frustrated at Elena (who is, of course, pissed off at him as well).
Now, is what Damon did 'right' from a more objective (or a more human-based subjective) view? No. It's not a nice thing to hurt your friend, even if you know it isn't going to be permanent. But it made perfect sense to me as something that Damon would do. I mean, look how baffled he is at the end when Alaric takes it personal that Damon snapped his neck. He was not trying to break his friendship with Alaric. I think there's a high chance that he wouldn't have temporarily killed Alaric if he'd realized that it could ruin their friendship.
I don't know, everything Damon did in this episode just made sense to me when I was watching it.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-07 12:36 pm (UTC)I don't have a problem with his behavior towards Bill, btw. That is totally in character and to be expected. It's the way he acts to Elena and Alaric that seems to come from left field to me.
You know, I buy Damon snapping someone's neck when the woman he loves tells him she could never love him. I buy him killing some random woman in the street because a woman he liked just died. I just don't buy him suddenly losing all freaking sense because...someone made a suggestion he didn't like. Especially not from where he's been in the last three episodes.
I want to rewatch all 4 eps together to see if it makes any more sense to me, but I've gotta go out of town now, so it'll have to wait until next week.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-07 03:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-07 05:17 pm (UTC)Sometimes I am sure that Damon thinks 'if people would just be a little more proactive, I could relax more.'
His job is to protect his pack, that's his THING, he is crazy-loyal, and everyone knows it.
It's not always pretty to their way of thinking, and it's just caused a rift between him and Ric, but it's understandable.
If Elena and Ric had come up with another way to handle Bill - grab him and lock him up again, and SAID so, that might have helped.
But they agreed with the enemy, which made things problematic.
And yes, the guy tortured his own daughter. Because she is not 'who he wants.' WTF.
As somebody who has suffered abuse for that very thing, Damon (as he mentioned to Bill earlier) does not think that Caroline needs fixing, and his sympathies were squarely with Caroline who got fucking tortured.
That is not something that should be tolerated. Not ever.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-07 05:27 pm (UTC)Yeah, Damon was trying to problem-solve with them (I mean, if he'd just wanted to attack Bill for the hell of it, he didn't need to run after Alaric and Elena to catch them up on what was happening) and they were saying that there was no problem that needed to be solved. We're all just... going to be okay with Bill wanting to put vampire acid/poison in the water supply (ugh, imagine if he'd actually done that and then Caroline goes to take a shower).
Sometimes I am sure that Damon thinks 'if people would just be a little more proactive, I could relax more.'
I bet he thinks that ALL THE TIME. 'Why am I the only person trying to save all our asses and protect this family?'
As somebody who has suffered abuse for that very thing, Damon (as he mentioned to Bill earlier) does not think that Caroline needs fixing, and his sympathies were squarely with Caroline who got fucking tortured.
Yeah. And... I'm actually really sad about how submissive/accepting Caroline has been over how Bill has treated her. It's like she regresses to being a kid around him. It happens a lot with kids and their parents, but it makes me sad. He hurts her and she apologizes to him. We had the one moment where she tells him to 'grow up' but then nothing has really changed at the end of the episode except that Bill is leaving because Caroline has more firepower on her side than he can handle. But he still thinks that she's broken and wrong.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-07 07:09 pm (UTC)Damon would be so much happier if he did not have to point out the obvious to people. 'Hi, danger is BAD. As a predator I know this. WAKE UP!.' Some of it is him being himself - that is the way he is *wired* and I think some of it is also he is used to being at war, he was a soldier, so he can function in that mode while other people flip out.
I don't have any tolerance for that sort of behavior - parents doing that to their kids, and yeah, kids often accept it, but it's wrong. I am thinking of a Bollywood movie where the son actually goes AGAINST his father, and everyone is SHOCKED, but it turns out that hey, the kid has weighed the morality and chosen the right path.
Caroline is not the young woman that her father envisioned, but she is a good one, and it's so hypocritical for him to say 'you are not like everyone else, so you're wrong.' She is clearly not attacking people, is living like a girl, has a family, etc.
Even though Damon was a bit cranky, that was her new family standing up and saying 'HI, WE ARE NOT OKAY WITH YOU HURTING OUR GIRL.'
:)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-07 05:12 pm (UTC)It was quicker than arguing with Ric (and Elena) and yes, short sighted, but the touching sold it.
Ric had committed to saying 'no.'