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rheasilviaLengthy and intensely spoilery commentary, mostly on Mikaelson family dynamics and shifting roles.
First of all: the race fail in this ep, argh. I do not understand how this can just keep happening, both on TVD and now on TOs. How is it possible the writers still haven't caught a clue at this late date?
But while I felt the Papa Tunde voodoo plot was entirely dispensable, I did really love one thing about this ep: the glimpse of backstory revealing that both Marcel and Rebekah plotted against Klaus far earlier than previously suspected, and that these two were the reason why Klaus was driven out of New Orleans in the first place.
Marcel
For Marcel's character, it's another interesting building block in the complex love-hate relationship between him and Klaus. Incidentally, I liked that Tunde repeatedly referred to Klaus as Marcel's father, and that Marcel accepted the term as accurate. It was already obvious, but even so I liked seeing Marcel acknowledge it when it was put so clearly into words.
Marcel did and does still love Klaus, I think, but the relationship between them has never been an equal one, and the problem with Klaus is that he hammers this home brutally at every opportunity. Klaus takes a stranglehold on people he loves and tends to choke all the life out of them; it's no wonder Marcel's anger and resentment prompt him to take extreme measures in order to fight free. No wonder, but still a betrayal.
Rebekah
Even more interesting was that Rebekah, when she learned of Marcel's plans, not only condoned them, but went one step further and used her inside knowledge of the one thing that she knew would terrify Klaus, and (though she didn't mention this) that posed a very real danger to his life, too. Mikael was the ultimate Klaus-destroying weapon, and she knew very well she was doing far more than chasing Klaus off. She was knowingly risking his life, perhaps even hoping he would be killed.
For me, this little bit of backstory throws many things that before appeared to be established fact on its ear, and has the potential to completely redefine the Mikaelson relationship dynamics.
Because the thing is: After this clandestine and very vicious action against Klaus, Rebekah continued to act the role of the steadfast, loyal and loving, yet eternally betrayed sister who is repeatedly disregarded and abused by Klaus. She repeatedly (first in TVD, then in TO) paints herself as the martyr-like innocent victim of Klaus' erratic violence, insisting that she herself has always been unwavering in her love and support for him despite everything. It is only now - she claims - that she has finally had enough; before, this has never happened.
But Rebekah is not being truthful. She has not been a loyal and steadfast martyr for almost a century. Instead, Rebekah has moved viciously against Klaus and made a formidable attempt on his life, although nobody in the family seems to have realized it. The "loving martyr" role is just that – a role she likes to play.*
* It's a good role to make herself seem harmless, to divert suspicion and attention from herself, and also to cause guilt and obligation in her brothers… plus, it makes for good drama, and like Klaus, Rebekah is an attention-craving drama queen. Personally, I also think she herself believes in the pretence most of the time. Thinking of herself as the poor, steadfastly loving, innocent victim who is entirely justified in whatever she chooses to do is certainly much nicer than acknowledging to herself that she is not all that different from Klaus.
The Fictional Martyr
There's no question that Rebekah already had plenty of legitimate cause to hate Klaus and plot against him when she used Mikael to drive him out of New Orleans. But now that it's clear she's been misrepresenting herself, who's to say she hasn't always hit back just as hard against Klaus, and it has just never come out because she's subtler than he is? Who's to say the loving martyr isn't a complete fiction from start to finish?
For example: Rebekah might well have maneuvered Klaus into the position of killing the Five in the hopes of driving him to find a way of killing himself. She was, after all, Alexander's lover, and so in an excellent position to learn what killing one of them would do to a vampire, as well as to send the hunters after her brothers at a time of her choosing. And while this plot did not succeed in killing Klaus, it did bestow over 52 years of horrible psychological torture on him.
After this week's episode, I could see Rebekah orchestrating any number of plots through the centuries, hitting Klaus brutally right where it hurts in a way nobody else ever managed… without ever even being suspected as the perpetrator.
I really love this twist because it puts the entire Mikaelson family dynamics into a new light. So far, Klaus has been given the sole blame for all that has gone wrong with this family, at least after the initial vampire spell; now, it's beginning to seem like there might be a good reason for his insecurity, paranoia and distrust. Not only Klaus' totally messed-up psyche, but the entire dysfunctional mess of a family makes so much more sense this way.
Elijah
As for Elijah, he's far from being the upright, virtuous moral counterbalance to Klaus that he is often seen as by other characters. In fact, several scenes in previous eps gave me the impression Elijah himself is vaguely amused by being mistaken as Mr. Ethics. In this ep, Elijah taking the lead in the Mikalesons' criminal dealings seemed like an attempt to underscore this.
Also, more and more I'm getting the feeling that Elijah is embarking on the "Redeeming Klaus Project" not out of love for Klaus, but because he needs to prove to himself that Klaus is not lost, that Elijah has not failed his family and that his family does still exist. I'm not entirely clear on his exact motivations yet, but to me it seems like what Elijah is really pursuing is his own redemption, dressed up as a quest to seek redemption for his brother.
In short:
The three remaining Mikaelsons all have their established roles; the erratic evil one, the loving put-upon one, and the mature ethical one. But none of these roles accurately reflect the people in question, and facades are starting to crumble.
I still really hope TPTB don't mess this up. My trust is shaky at best.
First of all: the race fail in this ep, argh. I do not understand how this can just keep happening, both on TVD and now on TOs. How is it possible the writers still haven't caught a clue at this late date?
But while I felt the Papa Tunde voodoo plot was entirely dispensable, I did really love one thing about this ep: the glimpse of backstory revealing that both Marcel and Rebekah plotted against Klaus far earlier than previously suspected, and that these two were the reason why Klaus was driven out of New Orleans in the first place.
Marcel
For Marcel's character, it's another interesting building block in the complex love-hate relationship between him and Klaus. Incidentally, I liked that Tunde repeatedly referred to Klaus as Marcel's father, and that Marcel accepted the term as accurate. It was already obvious, but even so I liked seeing Marcel acknowledge it when it was put so clearly into words.
Marcel did and does still love Klaus, I think, but the relationship between them has never been an equal one, and the problem with Klaus is that he hammers this home brutally at every opportunity. Klaus takes a stranglehold on people he loves and tends to choke all the life out of them; it's no wonder Marcel's anger and resentment prompt him to take extreme measures in order to fight free. No wonder, but still a betrayal.
Rebekah
Even more interesting was that Rebekah, when she learned of Marcel's plans, not only condoned them, but went one step further and used her inside knowledge of the one thing that she knew would terrify Klaus, and (though she didn't mention this) that posed a very real danger to his life, too. Mikael was the ultimate Klaus-destroying weapon, and she knew very well she was doing far more than chasing Klaus off. She was knowingly risking his life, perhaps even hoping he would be killed.
For me, this little bit of backstory throws many things that before appeared to be established fact on its ear, and has the potential to completely redefine the Mikaelson relationship dynamics.
Because the thing is: After this clandestine and very vicious action against Klaus, Rebekah continued to act the role of the steadfast, loyal and loving, yet eternally betrayed sister who is repeatedly disregarded and abused by Klaus. She repeatedly (first in TVD, then in TO) paints herself as the martyr-like innocent victim of Klaus' erratic violence, insisting that she herself has always been unwavering in her love and support for him despite everything. It is only now - she claims - that she has finally had enough; before, this has never happened.
But Rebekah is not being truthful. She has not been a loyal and steadfast martyr for almost a century. Instead, Rebekah has moved viciously against Klaus and made a formidable attempt on his life, although nobody in the family seems to have realized it. The "loving martyr" role is just that – a role she likes to play.*
* It's a good role to make herself seem harmless, to divert suspicion and attention from herself, and also to cause guilt and obligation in her brothers… plus, it makes for good drama, and like Klaus, Rebekah is an attention-craving drama queen. Personally, I also think she herself believes in the pretence most of the time. Thinking of herself as the poor, steadfastly loving, innocent victim who is entirely justified in whatever she chooses to do is certainly much nicer than acknowledging to herself that she is not all that different from Klaus.
The Fictional Martyr
There's no question that Rebekah already had plenty of legitimate cause to hate Klaus and plot against him when she used Mikael to drive him out of New Orleans. But now that it's clear she's been misrepresenting herself, who's to say she hasn't always hit back just as hard against Klaus, and it has just never come out because she's subtler than he is? Who's to say the loving martyr isn't a complete fiction from start to finish?
For example: Rebekah might well have maneuvered Klaus into the position of killing the Five in the hopes of driving him to find a way of killing himself. She was, after all, Alexander's lover, and so in an excellent position to learn what killing one of them would do to a vampire, as well as to send the hunters after her brothers at a time of her choosing. And while this plot did not succeed in killing Klaus, it did bestow over 52 years of horrible psychological torture on him.
After this week's episode, I could see Rebekah orchestrating any number of plots through the centuries, hitting Klaus brutally right where it hurts in a way nobody else ever managed… without ever even being suspected as the perpetrator.
I really love this twist because it puts the entire Mikaelson family dynamics into a new light. So far, Klaus has been given the sole blame for all that has gone wrong with this family, at least after the initial vampire spell; now, it's beginning to seem like there might be a good reason for his insecurity, paranoia and distrust. Not only Klaus' totally messed-up psyche, but the entire dysfunctional mess of a family makes so much more sense this way.
Elijah
As for Elijah, he's far from being the upright, virtuous moral counterbalance to Klaus that he is often seen as by other characters. In fact, several scenes in previous eps gave me the impression Elijah himself is vaguely amused by being mistaken as Mr. Ethics. In this ep, Elijah taking the lead in the Mikalesons' criminal dealings seemed like an attempt to underscore this.
Also, more and more I'm getting the feeling that Elijah is embarking on the "Redeeming Klaus Project" not out of love for Klaus, but because he needs to prove to himself that Klaus is not lost, that Elijah has not failed his family and that his family does still exist. I'm not entirely clear on his exact motivations yet, but to me it seems like what Elijah is really pursuing is his own redemption, dressed up as a quest to seek redemption for his brother.
In short:
The three remaining Mikaelsons all have their established roles; the erratic evil one, the loving put-upon one, and the mature ethical one. But none of these roles accurately reflect the people in question, and facades are starting to crumble.
I still really hope TPTB don't mess this up. My trust is shaky at best.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-01 12:45 am (UTC)And similarly with Marcel. It's great that we get everyone's point of view on how badly their love for Klaus gets abused. Klaus is incapable of feeling love because it will never be enough. They're doing a good job of showing how everyone is being forced to take action.
However, the race fail in TVD/TO regarding witches has always been fantastically uncomfortable, and the weird gangster tangent was also embarrassing. This show does some things well--like showing the root conflict between Klaus and the world, but there are plenty of things it misses out on.
Like the relationship between Marcel and Klaus. While I'm glad to have outsiders explicitly comment on it, I feel like it's all tell and no show so far. I don't feel it between them, and I'm currently putting that down to the actor who plays Marcel (because the one who plays Klaus pretty much has chemistry with wallpaper.) and, to a greater extent, the writers, who until this ep hasn't given him any opportunity to show his sense of being betrayed or disappointed in Klaus. Or how Klaus repeats and reinforces the lessons Marcel had learned about parents and authority figures in his mortal life. There is a huge potential for Marcel to be a beautifully damaged, tragic figure. I just hope they figure that out soon and take action on it.
I'm anxious to see the witches array against Klaus, as they're the only ones who even pose a decent threat to the originals. It's too bad it took 12 eps to get to this point. I would be more invested if there had been more at stake in the first half of the season.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-01 01:40 pm (UTC)They did! To be honest, I wasn't even looking for it, but - hey, from time to time TPTB can surprise you in a positive way. :-) And yes, Rebekah does have to spend some more time on refining her scheming abilities - after all, while she did succeed in getting Klaus out of New Orleans, she herself was not left behind as planned to be with Marcel.
On the other hand, Rebekah has evidently never been suspected of having a hand in anything that has gone wrong for Klaus. That is definitely a huge credit to her.
Klaus is incapable of feeling love because it will never be enough.
Hm, I do think that Klaus is capable of feeling love - I think he honestly does love Rebekah and Elijah, and Marcel as well. However, he's not mature enough in emotional terms to love like an adult, *and* he is extremely insecure and so never truly believes that anyone can love him back. Which (in my view of the character) results in him holding on way too tight, wanting to manage every aspect of the lives of the people he loves, demanding their sole attention, and always feeling that they're just one second away from leaving and/or betraying him. This results in Klaus testing, suspecting, accusing and pushing his loved ones until he finally proves himself right by forcing them to push back somehow. And once this happens, Klaus will dagger them and drag them around in coffins to prevent them from leaving; he will kill everyone they love so at least Klaus will not be superceded in their hearts by anyone else; he will make them hate him so at least they always think of him.
So, yeah, being loved by Klaus is a pretty horrible thing most of the time, but I do think Klaus can love, and I hope that he has the potential for change and growth. There have been some hints that he does, IMO, and I very much hope the series is going to go in that direction.
However, the race fail in TVD/TO regarding witches has always been fantastically uncomfortable, and the weird gangster tangent was also embarrassing. This show does some things well--like showing the root conflict between Klaus and the world, but there are plenty of things it misses out on.
Agreed. I can't believe how the race fail just never stops with this show. Surely somebody must have alerted the writers to the problem at some point? How can they continue to not see it to this degree?
the one who plays Klaus pretty much has chemistry with wallpaper
LOL! Nicely put. :-) And very true; I think this is a main pillar of what makes Klaus work as a a character. (Raw charisma to burn, but no idea what to do with it. If he ever does learn to channel it, Klaus could command frightening levels of loyalty entirely without the need for compulsion and sire bonds.)
There is a huge potential for Marcel to be a beautifully damaged, tragic figure. I just hope they figure that out soon and take action on it.
Yes! Right now I like Marcel more for the potential of the character than what he actually is on-screen. I hadn't thought about it in those terms before, but you're absolutely right that it's all tell and no show. It's very difficult to know what Marcel feels at any given moment, with his feelings for Davina being the only exception. We can suspect and infer from circumstances and his actions, but it's impossible to really feel it.
For example: Did he ever really love Rebekah, or was he just using her against Klaus? I have no idea. Does he still feel something for her now, or is he just using her again? Ditto. What does he feel for Klaus - is there any of his old love and admiration left? Is he conflicted at all? I have no idea.
I wouldn't actually mind this uncertainty if I thought it was intentional, but... yeah.
I'm anxious to see the witches array against Klaus, as they're the only ones who even pose a decent threat to the originals.
This is a very good point. So far, I've been rather dreading the advance of the witch plot because most of the witch plots on TVD made me faceplant repeatedly (and also, the race fail never ends). But you're completely right, if anyone can pose a threat directly against Klaus at this point, it's the witches. And it would be good for the series as a whole if Klaus could be threatened... because so far, the only thing that's at stake for him is his emotional state, his relationships and whether or not he will be redeemed.
So, yay, thanks! You've reconciled me with a major upcoming plot. :-)
no subject
Date: 2014-02-02 05:47 pm (UTC)and Oh! Yes, I should have been more clear wrt Klaus and love: he loves, but he can't feel it being given to him. So yes to everything you said, basically. He loves too much, in a toxic way, and it's so much that he can't feel it being returned. I'm afraid of what it would look like if he *could* feel it. What would make him finally happy? A mindless zombie that only lived to serve and please him? That would be scary lol.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-02 07:25 pm (UTC)In Klaus feeling love: Ah, I see! Yes, we are in complete agreement. :-)
I'm afraid of what it would look like if he *could* feel it. What would make him finally happy? A mindless zombie that only lived to serve and please him?
Except that Klaus wouldn't love somebody like that - judging by Marcel, Caroline and Cami, Klaus gravitates towards people who have spirit and courage, as well as plenty of backbone, ideals and opinions, who are willing to fight for what they believe in, and who aren't afraid to stand up to Klaus and/or tell him to his face that he's a wanker. *g* Shooting himself in his own foot, basically. Klaus is so good at that. :-)
It's a very interesting question - what form would love have to take to allow Klaus to feel it? Maybe someone as obsessive and single-minded as Klaus, who would stalk him mercilessly and occasionally chain him up in a basement and stare at him possessively for hours every day...?
I'd actually love it if someone grew obsessed with Klaus even a little bit like that. Imagine Klaus trying to process it and simultaneously being weirded out, pleased, flattered, puzzled and suspicious. *g*
no subject
Date: 2014-02-02 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-02 08:18 pm (UTC)Though so far I can think of no canon character who would qualify as the obsessively in love stalker.