A Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls - By Red Page 0,40
ill-fated original history teacher so he could keep eye-flirting with Elena. His brief foray into football was just another way to make sure Elena never had breathing space.
Aside from his overwhelming presence, Stefan’s lack of responsibility fosters an incredibly threatening environment for Elena. But no worries—he nobly protects and saves her from the very dangers that he’s responsible for introducing into her life. He’s created a life for her in which she’s completely dependent on him, and as strong as Elena is, she falls for it.
And there’s little question that Elena is strong. She’s survived the death of her parents, struggled to deal with a brother slowly sinking deeper and deeper into depression, and discovered that her family was at least in part a lie. When people she loves are threatened by vampires or the town council, she meets the menace head-on. In fact, she’s consistently more proactive than Stefan, willing to get involved 6882 Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls[FIN].indd 110
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even though she’s at a significant disadvantage. Her association with Stefan brings her down, creating a life in which she has to lie to those she loves the most and put them in danger by their very association with her. (This, I think, is where the tension will come in with Damon in future seasons.
Stefan is breaking Elena down, little by little, cutting her off from everything that defined her. She’s losing her independence, and Damon is right there to take advantage of how vulnerable Stefan makes her.)
Once again, Stefan doesn’t care that his actions are hurting other people and are wrong, even when the person being hurt is the woman he “loves.” Time and time again, he uses his guilt as a tool to justify getting what he wants. He feels guilty, indulges in a little self-flagellation, and then feeds off of Elena’s strength and willingness to overlook his flaws. He lets her convince him that he deserves to be happy.
Happy like the history teacher whose throat Damon ripped out. Or those hikers. Or those other hikers. Or those
other hikers. Or Lexi. Or “Uncle” Zach. Or Grams. All deaths that were perfectly avoidable, had Stefan taken Damon out of the picture.
And what of Vicki? Poor stoner Vicki. After Stefan’s half-hearted attempt at starving Damon to death, Vicki was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and ended up as Damon’s plaything. When Damon turned her, Stefan encouraged her to accept death—exactly the way he didn’t—because maybe if he could get her to go gracefully it would make him feel better about himself and the fact that she was in this situation because of him. He even went so far as to trap her in his 6882 Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls[FIN].indd 111
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house, trying to force the “noble” choice on her. The noble choice that he didn’t make. The noble choice he deliberately kept Damon from making. Who is he to make the choice for her?
She got out and drank human blood—without killing—
and became a vampire. Suddenly Stefan was on high alert.
Oh no! A vampire is in town! That could be dangerous! And what happened when Vicki threatened someone that he loves? She got a stake to the heart, immediately, remorse-lessly. After all, Stefan can’t allow vampires to go around killing innocent people! He’s just awesome like that.
Wait, Damon wants to kill someone? Damon’s using compulsion on Caroline for violent sex? Damon’s threatening Elena’s life to get what he wants? Well, that’s okay. (I’m as enamored of Damon’s piercing blue eyes and wicked one-liners as the next girl, but let’s face it: dude is a killer. Sure, he’s prettier than Vicki, but I’m standing by my assertion that he deserves to die. Although if Stefan is going to insist on letting Damon get away with murder, the least he could do is make Damon quit killing interesting side characters and instead send him after skeezy Tyler and Matt’s mom.
That’s some neck-chomping I could get behind. Yet another way Stefan disappoints.)
Stefan professes a desire to “save” Damon, but what he really wants is to assuage his