Love triangles--when they work, when they don't
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| Title: | Love triangles--when they work, when they don't |
| Creator: | eleai |
| Date(s): | Aug. 14th, 2012 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | The Vampire Diaries |
| Topic: | the show's main love triangle |
| External Links: | Love triangles at LJ |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Love triangles--when they work, when they don't is an essay by eleai with a detailed analysis of the love triangle between Stefan Salvatore, Elena Gilbert and Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries; in comparison to author's OT3 from Battlestar Galactica: Sam Anders, Kara Thrace and Lee Adama.
Excerpts
In the TVD love triangle, not everyone is created equal. I would submit that Stefan has the least power, then Elena, then Damon. See, Stefan has no power mostly because he cedes so much of it. He has intense guilt concerning Damon and Elena, especially in season three, so he’s basically prepared to give everything up to make them happy. For all that he asked Damon to stay out of it at the end of season one, I think the fact that Damon feels something is so important to Stefan that he is willing to put up with it all. In fact, I think if he thought it was really what they both wanted, he wouldn’t stop them. He pretty says as much at the end of season 3—he’ll back off, stay out of the way, let them be happy. I don’t even think he would fight for Elena. He spends so much time and effort wanting everyone else to be happy around him, I think his own happiness doesn’t even matter. The need to please rules his life, and that combined with the guilt and an almost obsessive need to grant agency (which I think probably results from Katherine’s compulsion) makes him powerless in this relationship.
Elena has middling power. Certainly she is the central component of the love triangle, and the ability to dispense her love gives her an advantage. But the truth is, Elena is caught. She is forced to chose, always, and nothing is made easy. She also has guilt, and her almost overwhelming ability to forgive and to understand puts her in an awkward place. Because she will never tell the Salvatores to fuck off. The fact that Damon could kill Jeremy in front of her and she could forgive him proves this. Just look at her interactions with them—she usually starts out justifiably pissed off, like with Damon in 3x14 or Stefan in 3x11, but then all her conviction quickly melts and she feels bad. They make her feel guilty because they are sad and pathetic and damaged, and so she does. Thus, eventually, all her power fades.
Damon has the most power. Because for all he would seem like the saddest—no friends, no girlfriend and etc, the fact that Elena and Stefan both want desperately for Damon to feel, and the fact that they both feel sorry for him/feel guilty means they will never hold him accountable for his actions, and they will always cede power to him. Because neither one of them want to lose him, he can essentially hold that over their head. I honestly don’t know if they can ever be pushed too far—so he will always be in control. (Do they both get pissed at him? Yes. Do they stay pissed/make him accountable for his actions? No.)
My main issue with the TVD love triangle is that it wasn’t. In seasons one and two, it was not a love triangle. It wasn’t about one person torn between/in love with two people. Elena was very clearly in love with Stefan, and just as clearly not in love with Damon. Did she love him? Yes, as a friend and a brother. Did she have sexual tension with him? Yes, although it wasn’t overt. But then season three rolls around, and boom, suddenly they are talking about Elena being consumed by Damon and possibly loving him and making choices and it’s like, the fuck? Since when was Damon an option? Since when was this a love triangle?
Elena, especially in the last four episodes or so, is forced into this whole “chose and act” thing. Everyone, and I do mean everyone at some point, asks her to explain what is going on, to justify her feelings, to create pro/con lists, and to decide which boy needs her love more, so then she can make a choice. This results in some of the weirdest introspective conversations I have ever heard, some truly bizarre confessions, and one of the dumbest plotlines ever. (“Let me take large amounts of time whilst fighting for my life to decide which Salvatore gets exclusive rights to my vagina.”) It’s weird and paternalistic and creepy and frankly unnecessary. Why can she not take some time to figure her shit out? Why can we not just acknowledge that sometimes, stuff is a lot more complicated than “Which Salvatore would I like today?” Elena’s choice being front and center is a huge issue with this triangle.
See, the thing that doesn’t work the most about the TVD love triangle, is that in order for it to work…they have to change. And I’m not talking character growth, where they grow together and things change naturally, like in BSG. I’m talking, big fucking changes have to occur to even make this thing plausible.
Look, I get that P. Dubs apparently wanted some Ripper time. Whatever. But the writers clearly saw this as a way to develop Delena romantically, since this logically would never have happened with Stefan still around being perfect. Like, I’m pretty sure that, as far as was being set up in the show, Delena wouldn’t have occurred because Elena and Stefan would never have broken up, and there would have really been no way to make it happen without someone looking bad. So the fact that they needed to send Stefan off to be the Ripper, force him to “lose” his emotions, and then make him threaten to drive Elena off a bridge in order to make Elena and Damon a possibility, is, well, shitty writing. And the fact that the two times Elena kissed Damon this season happened right after he revealed a side of him that made him similar to Stefan (when he helped her with the Jeremy situation in 3x10 and then she found out about Rose in 3x19) makes it fairly clear that the love triangle can’t happen unless huge changes in personality occur. Which, if I haven’t mentioned, is called shitty writing.
So, what does this mean?
It means that the TVD love triangle will never work for me. It won’t work because it’s forced. Its forced and awkward, and its mostly bad writing and poor storyline choices and not enough consistency. TVD’s main problem is that they go too far. They take things all the way out there—but they aren’t prepared to deal with the consequences. You can’t spend two seasons building a functional, healthy relationship and showing no possibility of anything else, and then gut characters in order to force another relationship. You can’t have characters commit unforgiveable acts (and I’m sorry, but Damon killing Jeremy, force-feeding Elena, and raping Caroline count as unforgiveable acts) and then have everything forgotten because “oops. We forgot we can’t completely sabotage this relationship.” You can’t build a foundation for relationships based on “he consumes me.” You can’t have a relationship that you have broken due to some major issues (like going on killing sprees all over the east coast) be put together like it’s no problem, because “oops. We forgot that we can’t completely sabotage this relationship.” And most importantly, you cannot destroy/irreparably change characters and/or story lines so that you can force a love triangle.
TVD has a lot of wonderful things going for it. Fantastic characters, brilliantly suspenseful plot lines, and difficult topics. The first two seasons were, with some minor exceptions, mesmerizing. It far exceeded my expectations for a teen vampire drama. It was amazing.
But this love triangle is killing it. Because it is not done well, at all. And it could be. It could be all that BSG is. I could ship Stefan/Elena/Damon. I could not look away in disgust when Elena and Damon kiss. I could understand Elena’s confusion, her connection to both boys. I could see their need for each other.
But I don’t know that Plec and the rest of the team has what it takes to write this story. I think they set up a foundation for it—I know many fans see what it should be, what it could be. It’s the reason there is so much OT3 fiction. We get what they were trying for, and we can postulate on our own. (I should note, that I don’t think it was originally intended as a love triangle. At least, not according to all the quotes and stuff I have seen from Kevin Williamson. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe TVD just needs a man back in charge, which makes me cringe and hide because women should be capable of great writing (and they are), but all my favorite shows were written by a man. And the moment TVD went mostly to Plec, I sort of stopped getting it. I’m convinced it has to do with the whole YA thing.)