Vampire Diaries: Please let me like Stefan again.

[butterfly]

I couldn't watch Fringe because I hated Walter. Not just dislike. Hate. And even though I liked all the other characters and found the rest of the show interesting, my feelings for Walter were too strong for me to keep watching. Especially since it felt like the show was telling me that I was supposed to feel bad for him and care about him.

Another show where disliking a character made me drift away from watching is White Collar. With Sara, I liked her on first introduction, but her falling in love with Neal just felt so fake to me given the character set-up we got that I just couldn't buy her character as a real person anymore.

And I couldn't believe that Neal had fallen for her when I'd never really seen him get over Kate, which was another paper-thin relationship for Neal, but if she's supposed to mean so much for him, I'd have liked more before he moved on; at first I thought Sara was a fling for him, which made sense, but then S3 made it clear it was supposed to be a real major relationship and I basically just threw my hands up and went "wtf?" and my interest in watching the show just kinda faded from there.

Which makes me nervous about The Vampire Diaries. In the last two episodes, I started actively disliking Stefan. Not loving him but being frustrated with his actions sometimes, like I am with most of the other characters, but straight-up disliking him. And I don't want to dislike him! I'd much prefer to like him. Even in S2, when the S/E relationship started annoying me, I still liked them both as separate characters. But I don't like Stefan even as a separate character right now.

Comments

[fizzyblogic]

Yyyyeah. Me too. I have this horrible sinking feeling that he's going to go back to being s1!Stefan again and Elena will get back together with him and everyone will think this is just fine and no one will care about all the murder he wrought with Klaus. I will have to punch the show if that happens. :/

[butterfly]

Exactly. Show, seriously, remember that Stefan tore people apart and put them together again like jigsaw puzzles, thanks. He and Damon are both monsters in that they have chosen to murder and terrorize people. Stefan's crimes don't go away because he was doing it out of ~love for his brother. I mean, that was also Damon's main reason - love of Katherine - and Damon figured out at the end of S2, finally, that this is actually not a valid reason. Choosing to become a monster out of 'love' is still choosing to become a monster, whether that love is romantic or familial.

[scy]

Yep, if we are sliding back into 'Stefan is PERFECT, and just SLIPS, and OMG, Damon is the WORST' I am going to actively dislike the character and skip his scenes.

[butterfly]

Yep, pretty much. I really hope that the show doesn't think that most people are going to buy that. Does Kevin Williamson not remember Dawson's Creek? People noticed that Dawson was a douchebag, Kevin, and they kept remembering even after the show attempted to recast him as a ~perfect and forgiving saint (he didn't even have the right to forgive Pacey and Joey - he's the one who refused Joey when she wanted a reconciliation! Months before Joey and Pacey ever got together! They weren't dating and hadn't been dating for months! Can you tell that this still pisses me off? lol).

[scy]

Right, I am hoping that Kevin Williamson has made the connection. Because, even people who LIKE Stefan are pissed off at him and tired of this shtick.

And ARGH.

It's not even that I have an investment in the relationship between Damon and Elena - because, whatever, but this trend of Stefan's is a character note that REALLY needs to be addressed.