Delena Beautiful Disaster 8: Never Let You Go - Page 102

A MUST READ ARTICLE
*srsly u guys gotta read this one..It's so amazing that it turned a SE shipper into a DE'er* 😎

So, this is rambly and on the fly thinking, but I was mulling over the significance of Katherine and Rebekah and their past relationships with Damon and Stefan (well, Rebekah's past relationship with Stefan; her relationship with Damon speaks for itself) and why they were just dropped, when it occurred to me that maybe I am looking at them wrong. I was looking for the show to give me insight into those relationships and that being the reason for introducing them in the first place, but maybe that's not it at all. What if the purpose of introducing Katherine and Rebekah was to highlight the differences in the ways that Damon and Stefan love and get over love?

I mean, what have we learned from Katherine's character to date? Nothing really about Stefan. There's subtext there that I do hope the show will eventually explore (although I fear for Kat's longevity since Elena has turned), but so far, Katherine's presence has been all about Damon's character and his arc and had relatively little to do with Stefan. Through Katherine, we first saw how deeply and unconditionally Damon loves. Through Katherine, we also saw the negative side of that kind of love: Damon was blinded by his love for her and it nearly destroyed him. And, through Katherine, we saw that Damon, despite how deeply he loves, can overcome that love before it destroys him, but, even after he no longer loves, he still cares. Damon's not in love with Katherine anymore, and I don't think he ever will be again, but he cared when he thought Klaus was going to kill her and he cares about her on a friendly/someone I used to love level now. Damon cannot just cut people he cared about out of his life. (Stefan has been a big beneficiary of his inability to do so.) That's not to say he wouldn't kill Katherine if she again became a threat (like he did Bree), but as long as she's not going after him or his, he's happy to let her alone and genuinely wish her well.

Contrast that with Stefan and Rebekah. I was very puzzled as to why they would introduce this pairing as this great - and from what we saw very genuine - love in the 1920s, only to have Stefan cut her down, refuse to give her the time of day and not care if she dies. I kept wondering what was the point if that's all they were doing, then I thought - what if that was the point. Stefan has no problem walking away from those he loves when that person no longer fills the role he wanted them for, and he retains no lingering care, concern or thoughts about them. Stefan's lack of feelings for Rebekah was pretty evident, even before she went after Elena or anyone else. He was just cold, uncaring and unfeeling to her in 3x04. It's like what they had in the past never existed for him because she in the present wasn't what he wanted.

So, what does that mean for Elena now? There have been a lot of hints over the past seasons that Elena isn't really the person she appears to be now. She's depressed and guilt-ridden and overwhelmed and anxious and all of those things effect how she behaves, but they aren't her real personality. And, there's been a lot of suggestion that Katherine and Elena aren't so far apart in personality; it's their circumstances that have shaped them into the people they are. So, I'd expect Vampire Elena to be a combination of pre-accident Elena and to have a greater tendency toward those Katherine-esque behaviors that Damon likes to point out from time to time. While Damon knows Elena isn't some pure flower that needs to be coddled and loves her regardless, I think Stefan will react very adversely to the realization that Elena isn't the anti-Katherine he thought she was, but she is in fact more like Katherine than he ever wanted to admit.

I honestly think that Stefan will do what we saw he can do with Rebekah (and Katherine, actually, although he had more reason) and just … stop … loving Elena in a sense because she is no longer the person that he loved. Stefan loved Elena because he felt human around her and he could forget he was a vampire; now, she's a daily reminder of what he really is. He loved her because she wasn't Katherine; but now, I think when Stefan looks at vampire Elena, he's going to see Katherine. I think that as soon as Elena stops playing human vampire, Stefan will start rejecting her.

And, that actually makes me really, really sad for Elena. —MJ