Hi, I just read the ask about your favorite seasons of some TVDU characters and I was wondering if you have a favorite scene of your favorite characters.
It's so hard to pick favorite scenes because there are so many, but I will try to not just list entire seasons.
Fair warning, as I was putting this together, I realized a lot of my favorite scenes are character growth scenes based on character trauma. Yes, I could just pick all of their iconic scenes, but I prefer the more emotional ones that make me relate/love the characters.
Of course we will start with
I had to think long and hard on this one since I love most of his scenes, but I think my favorite scene is the "I let her in. I don't let people in" at the end of Season 1 of TO. Yes, partially because I love haylijah, but mainly because it is the first time we really get to see the duality of Elijah. I'll admit, watching TVD and TO back to back can feel like whiplash with some of the characters, Elijah included. He goes from this cold, calculated assassin who is trying to kill his brother and then just vanishes when it doesn't work out, to a doting uncle/brother who is just trying to keep their family together, with an unhealthy dependence on his brother.
This scene, to me, ties these two versions of both characters, that I love, together. For the first time, we are seeing true emotion out of Elijah. Even when Klaus "died" in TVD, we saw more of Rebekah's emotions than Elijah. But this time, we see Elijah break down. We see the centuries of pain pour out of him to the point that he actually holds Klaus accountable for his actions. Not that it lasts long. We see him show his deep feelings for someone outside of his family.
We see in one image, all sides of Elijah. He is in a bloody suit, from his blood as well as others. He is freely crying and looks disheveled. Like I said, it's the duality of Elijah all on the surface. The put together persona he wants the world to see, but the broken man/monster he hides away breaks free.
Essentially it establishes where Elijah's character is going in TO. We see him battle through pain and heartbreak over and over, but never again is he so raw and open. Even when Hayley does die in Season 5, he has his breakdown but his pain quickly turns inward. I think this seen sets up the Red Door storyline well, creating a more complex version of Elijah than we would have gotten with just TVD.
My angel, all of her scenes are perfect.
But I think I'm also going to choose an end of Season 1 TO scene. I love right after Hayley was turned and she finds Klaus and Elijah in the cemetery and they are worried about her. She basically ignores them and goes to find her daughter. Again, perfectly setting up the real Hayley that we get to see grow throughout TO.
I love Hayley, but like all characters, she has her moments that test my patience. But through it all, she is a mother and always puts Hope first. I love this scene because she was so nervous about being a mother and then just takes to it beautifully, despite also having to turn into a vampire at the same time.
I also love it because it's a glimpse of who she will become. Hayley struggles a lot through the show trying to find her place in the family, in her pack, within herself. But at her roots, she already knew who she was and that scene shows it. She is a person who would face a coven of witches while in transition to save her child, not even stopping to let the 1,000 year old vampires lead the way.
This is another hard one because I'm trying not to just pick her iconic scenes, but my favorite scene for the character. I want to say it's when Damon arranges for Kai to apologize and she just refuses to accept it. So much of Bonnie's character is based on self-sacrifice. I feel like her time in the prison world and the abuse she suffered from Kai really changed her. She wasn't willing to play nice with Kai simply because her friend asked. I wish they didn't have to torture her to "strengthen her" but that is very on brand for TVD with the women.
I do like that the writers, for once, actually showed the trauma that a character feels. So much of the abuse against women gets ignored right after it happens, but this scene, Bonnie is reliving that pain and she stands strong in the face of it. I remember cheering the first time I watched it because I thought it would be another moment where her pain gets erased to move the plot forward.
This scene is the start of a more self-assured Bonnie. I also feel like it was necessary to set her on a path of valuing her own life. Especially after Kai ties her life with Elena. High school Bonnie would have been the first to offer up her life for Elena. But this Bonnie understands that her life matters just as much as everyone else, and more than others. This Bonnie gives me hope that she truly did leave Mystic Falls behind and start her life away from vampires.
I know it's kind of a small scene, but it always stuck out to me. Yes, it was meant to partially be comedic because that's Kai's character, but it also showed her strength and her respect for herself.
Enzo was not my favorite when he was introduced because he felt like a Damon knock-off, but I love his character development and his backstory. So I'm going to say my favorite scene of his is the second episode of Season 6 TVD when he is at Stefan's home for dinner. I do love his humor, but I mostly love his dedication to bringing his friend back. This to me felt like the difference between Damon and Enzo, so I decided to give Enzo and chance. He then goes and kills Stefan's girlfriend and got put back on my "not favorite character list," but it was the point where he started to grow on me.
Despite everything the Salvatores had done to him, he was still going to find a way to bring Damon back. He was still going to find a way to make Caroline feel better, even if I didn't agree with the methods. It's the first time I really gave the character a chance and realized he was going to be a main character and not just have a short arc on the show.
He may not have always had the best execution of his plans, but this scene showed me that he had a depth to him and a compassion to his friends that made me want to root for him.
This one was hard because so many of her scenes are spent on other people and I can't have my favorite Cami scene be her helping someone else (although I do love her and Elijah in the safehouse). Unpopular opinion, but I love vampire Cami. My favorite scene of hers is when she and Hayley went to the penthouse to rescue Klaus. While, yes this is in service to someone else, it was also something she needed to do. She needed to confront Aurora after what Aurora did to her.
People like to say Vamp Cami is out of character, but forget about what she confided to Aurora when she was kidnapped. She thinks it comes from a place of darkness, but it comes from a place of justice. Which is why she would be so perfect at running the human faction.
Justice was denied from her over and over again. She didn't get the justice she wanted for her brother, for her uncle, and then herself. But this scene, she is able to stand up to the woman who harmed her and win. Yes, she was scared because she knew she couldn't win a fight with Aurora, but that's not where her strength lies. Cami was an academic, not a fighter. She came up with a plan to subdue Aurora and save Klaus. At the end of the day, Cami isn't a murderer. She was angry at Klaus for killing her brother's murderer, so I don't think she would have felt great about killing Aurora, even if she could have. This allowed her to have her victory while staying true to herself. It allowed her to begin feeling safe again and begin healing after she was violated and killed.
While I'm often critical of Klaus, there are a lot of Klaus scenes I like. My favorite Klaus scene is from season 1 of TO, which is surprising because I find him most annoying in season 1. But I love the scene where he comforts Marcel after Davina "dies."
There relationship was so fraught throughout the show and developed very poorly, but this scene gives us a glimpse of what it could have been. It is one of the few scenes where we see Klaus act as a father figure to Marcel. Marcel is in so much pain and Klaus comforts him without a thought. He knew the pain of losing a child and, despite where they were at the time, he never wished Marcel to feel that pain.
I wish the show would have allowed more father/son moments between the two.
I love every time Davina says "no" to the Mikaelsons. It was about time someone did. But my favorite Davina scene has to be when she tries to save Hayley despite knowing that it would prevent her from brining Kol back.
I love Davina most of the time, but her relationship with Kol was one of my least favorites. I hated how wrapped up in him that she became, although I can understand it given her age and everyone she had lost. It got to a point that I felt like they didn't know what to do with her character if it didn't revolve around a Mikaelson whether as a romance or enemy. Her character just felt so lost for a couple seasons, even to the point that she prioritized brining Kol back over the safety of the coven and herself.
This scene reminded me of the Davina that I love. She realized the way to bring Kol back would cost Hayley her life and she tried to keep it a secret. At the end of the day, Davina was just a child/young woman who was being used and manipulated by everyone around her. Yet, she still had a good heart and truly wanted to protect the innocence.
It's hard to even pick which show to start in. While TVD Rebekah could be annoying at times, she was iconic. But I do think I need to settle on TO Rebekah, which is difficult because she was gone for so much of it. I think I'm going to settle on the scene with Klaus before she leaves New Orleans and points out to Klaus how broken they all are because of Mikael.
I love how raw and honest they both get to be. In TVD we see such a abusive relationship between the two, to the point that I was so confused why she stayed with him for so long. But TO gave us more of the backstory of why they all stick together the way they do. They know it's toxic but they have suffered so much that it almost feels weird to not be surrounded by the toxicity.
But in this moment, even though Klaus is sending her away, they still manage to have an understanding. She gets to point out to Klaus that he is not the only broken sibling. I think for the first time he truly realized how much he had hurt his siblings and Rebekah needed that moment so badly. She needed her big brother, who she had always looked up to, to realize how much he had hurt her. I also love the conversation she has with Elijah afterwards. Plus her driving out of New Orleans. I was so proud of her. I hated that she wasn't in the show anymore, but I loved the idea that Rebekah was finally getting away.
It's got to be Marcel winning the fight at the Strix Gala. We are told so many times how amazing of a king Marcel was before the Mikaelsons show up, but then the Mikaelsons wreck havoc on all of that so quickly it almost made me question his wisdom. Like when he thought a handful of vamps could take down Klaus? I expected more.
But Season 3 Marcel was not playing around and this last throughout the show. He not only outsmarted some of the oldest vampires in existence, but he was holding his own in the fight. This scene truly showed why he should be respected and followed. He showed more loyalty to a vampire trying to kill him than the Strix did. He was cunning and quick. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
This is the Marcel I love. The one who leads but is also generous and kind. He truly wants what's best for New Orleans and that's why he was always the rightful king.
This was such a fun ask to come back to and use as a jumping start to all of my asks! It was hard to figure out what "favorite" means to me. I think I went with the scenes that had the most impact on how I viewed the characters. This is also not a complete list of my favs!
