#seth meta

[midnightlighthowlite]

STEVE doesn't know what a healthy friendship looks like

Finished re-watching S1 and one thing that became very clear after seeing tommy and Carol is that steve does not know what a healthy friendship looks like. Like yeah, the two of them were mean to Nancy.... but they were to STEVE TOO

Like

He was worried bcs Nancy was acting OOC after Barb's disappearance and they were making fun bcs " oh, someone finally dumped Steve?"

I understand the teenage need for the grafitti art, and poor impulse control, but they were actively encouraging Steve to fight Jonathan's, and they didn't seem particularly worried when he started to get his ass kicked.

We know that Steve has no problem cutting them out of his life once they went too far - aka, drove Nancy away ( " you're just jealous cuz she's not as miserable as the rest of you) / put the image of her and Jonathan in his head,

Dustin's behaviour later, makes me think he does not believe that behaviour to be toxic.

And look. I love dustin and Steve as bffs. I NEED more platonic relationships in media. But, with recently having seen S5, as well as whatever i remember from prev seasons, Dustin made fun of Steve's intelligence quite often. And yeah, you could say it doesn't bother him, but at the same time...

Season 2 opens w Steve asking Nancy to check his essay. He was trying to do it well, he was applying to early admission, and his " i can take a gap year and wait for you" felt very much like " if i don't try i can't fail " than him not wanting to.

He WANTED to go to college, and yeah, Nancy's grief stricken self should not have had to encourage him, but it doesn't change the fact that no one ever does.

I've seen someone go " Steve doesn't mind it bcs he has confidence" but literally no one ever like... praises him seriously? At least not abt his intelligence, and his role as the " muscle" of the nerd group is seen less as inpressive and more as default.

Again, i like Dustin and Steve seems to consistently nail platonic relationships, but i doubt he can actually tell when a relationship is unhealthy unless it affects someone else he cares about

TLDR: i see lots of fics make Steve the emotionally stable and aware person and, with all due respect, he has not made all the deconstructions necessary for that

[oplishin]

loved the contrast between seth's sheer chaotic joy at winning the gold in 2015 and the much more sober acceptance of responsibility in 2023

[midnightlighthowlite]

Damon doesn't like vampires without humanity

For all that Damon hams and haws about " turn off your humanity " , whenever that happens, he actually hates the result?

Like, ripper Stefan is fun up until he stops hanging out w Damon. Back in his ripper era from S3, Damon was downright annoyed with Stefan, and didn't fight back to get him turned back on

When it comes to NH elena - whom HE caused to turn - he's barely pleased at all

That's bcs Damon doesn't actually WANT no humanity ppl. He wants to be loved w/o having to sacrifice for it. To love the people he does love ( stefan and Elena ) he would have to actually be a person they LIKE and to follow their morals. And Damon doesn't want to do that. He doesn't want to change his behavior or be accountable, he wants to have fun with them.

So he wants them to turn off humanity so he only gets the fun parts.

The problem is that no humanity also takes away their love and affection for him.

No humanity Stefan and Elena downright don't CARE about damon, which is worse than hating him.

Damon wants love w/o sacrifice. HIS sacrifice at least.

[midnightlighthowlite]

One thing i notice and keep noticing till S4 forward is how lonely Stefan is

He doesn't really have friends. Yes, he IS part of the friend group, but other characters aren't exactly friendly nor enjoying his company

Like, if he was to leave bcs no humanity elena is poking emotional sticks into him, no one would miss him

The scene at the graduation, when he's being pulled into a hug is nice, but it does feel out of place. He's not close to the whole group

And this is the man who went to protests, who drove an ambulance during the war, who weny to HS 17 times. Who DOES THAT?!

S5 has no one miss him, has him freshly traumatised out of the coffin, and we get like... idk, one or two mentions of worry? He gets kidnapped by Tessa and people don't seem all that bothered, outside Elena, who's reaction is chalked up to jealousy

From then, he proceeds to be tortured MULTIPLE TIMES, and only has Caroline to comfort him. Not Damon or Elena, who supposed care about him, and none of the other cast whose lives he saved multiple times. Hell, we he saver Matt directly like 3 times, ( and technically screwed his relationships because of that) and Matt seems to only care when Stefan is in his line of sight. If at all. Both S4 and S5 i was there like " just LEAVE, mate, no one will notice "

S6 is its own brand of fucked up, because people are actively hounding Stefan for trying to move on. Yes, no one got over and handled bonnie and damon dying properly, but thdy were at least dysfunctional together. Stefan was on " hell saving duty" all alone, on the road, and when he dared take a break Caroline and Enzo stormed his house like a home invasion with " How could you abandon our friends?"

Enzo kills his gf, Alaric blamed him for giving up and Caroline is pissed he's holding a grudge.

Yes, he was an asshole to fake the apology, but i feel like it was a a justified bit of dick behavior.

For all his brooding, he is not antisocial. He does very well in social settings, he charmed bonnie and her grandma back before everything started

The only close tie he has is Caroline, which is great, but also, not enough

And like.... his drowning comfort hallucinations are only of Damon and Elena. Not caroline - who jas objectively been a better friend

Even when Caroline is mad at him and not inviting him ti thanksgiving, she has Elena and Stefan has Damon and Alaric make fun of him and insisting he get together w Caroline to stop the in group drama, not because he cares. Damon gets an " she makes you a better person" and Stefan gets the " caroline is annoying, can you just date her and make her less annoying?"

Which is honestly disrespect to both

[midnightlighthowlite]

I usually dislike the " girl's arc is abt getting with the guy" but i think the reason it works w Katherine is bcs she's not actually interested in Stefan as a person.

She's interested in him as emotional/ physical support/ Boyfriend Cut Out on Her Arm

At no point does she actually consider what would be good for him. She wants to let Jeremy die bcs " stefan will be so nice to me if I'm grieving". She wants to kill damon to get him out of the way, and doesn't even care about the amount of mental damage it would do to Stefan. Heck, she had an out of " it will be good for him to stop having a brother to sacrifice for", but she never used it as a reasoning/ motivation. Because she doesn't truly care about Stefan as a person.

And that's honestly so great! Katherine is such a selfish character. MOST of her choices can be reasoned away with " she was running from Klaus, she had no other way " but her wanting Stefan was so UNNECESSARY, so purely selfish, delightfully consistent

[midnightlighthowlite]

If you think about it, so much of Stefans vampire life is tied to people taking his agency away

Like, he BECOMES a vampire against both his will and his knowledge, with Katherine turning him for no reason he can actually understand at the time.

Kills father in self defence - after finding out their father killed them - and becomes a vampire

Then his impulses kick in and he turns Damon too - gaining his ire and animosity for the next century

Then his body starts fighting his morals due to the blood addiction- a substance he NEEDS to survive

After he managed to get it in check, Damon forces him to feed on human blood, triggering it again

He spends the twenties w Klaus and Rebekah - which he enjoyed, but then Klaus took away his memories of it

He asks lexi to help Damon, she almost dies because of it. And then, for the INSULT of delegating ( for his own mentalit health) , Damon kills Gail after Stefan had managed to become part of their family

Then, upon return to Mystic Falls, Damon:

Seeks to ruin his relationships, kills ppl out of spite and blames Stefan for it

Stalks Elena, tries to trigger Stefan addiction AGAIN

Stefan gets kidnapped, tortured, his addiction starts again

Klaus comes, takes his freedomx forces him to become a ripperx forcefully turns off his humanity

He gets locked up by Silas, memory erased by Tessa, trauma affecting him ( for however little time), traveller torture, Enzo killing his gf and his niece for ** checks notes** " not living up to the expectations he had beforr they even met" and like....

People complain that he's broody and not fun, but at this point WHAT CAN YOU EVEN DO?

[midnightlighthowlite]

Stefan comfort drowning make belief really was

Damon " you did the right thing, this situation is horrible, be nice to yourself for once, you deserve to have nice things and less pain"

Elena " you're strong, you're good, you did the right thing, you can do it, we'll come to get you, just hold on a little longer"

" i wanted it to he both of you" forreal

[midnightlighthowlite]

Outside of chronic loneliness and amazing chemistry, i think one of the genuine reasons Klaus likes Stefan is that.... he's competent?

The whole Episode Klaus bitched about how Rebekah put them all in danger, he hates when people fail him, yet Stefan, with, what, 5 BETRAYALS up to date, can casually break into his house and demand information?

Like, up until the whole Hunter debacle, Klaus hadn't been agressive to Stefan, yet the second he failed, he had him in a choke hold, threatening. Klaus also doesn't accept failure from his hybrids.

For him, betrayal is more forgivable than failure