The Vampire Diaries & The Originals

[Brady Brown]

Halijah > Delena all day everyday.

[Jack Malone]

Jan 30, 2014 11:25:09 GMT -6 Brady Brown said:

Halijah > Delena all day everyday.

Anything is better than "Delena." It still weirds me out that two brothers have had the same girlfriend, and then openly talk about it. That 100th episode where Stefan was all supportive of Damon getting Elena back because he's a "better person" with her in his life was just gross. I'm sorry, it was. Its weird and gross. *disapproving jack is disapproving* And if Elena goes back from Damon to Stefan again, I may actually vomit. 

[Carey]

In half a season, The Originals have done what five seasons of The Vampire Diaries could not: make Witches a credible threat.

[Alex Matthews]

jeez, it seems that The Originals is taking quite a few pages from the Joss Whedon/Jack Malone playbook! Carey, you are definitely on the ball there, one of the reasons I became sick of Bonnie was that she went from novice to grand master of magick so bloody quickly, but she never really DID anything with it. She became the go-to-witch for everything, but never really accomplished ANYTHING. I have yet to 'watch' the Originals, I've only been reading up on it, but it seems that these witches actually KNOW what they're doing!

[Carey]

Grand master? Bonnie is nothing but an amateur compared to most of the New Orleans witches. The last few episodes have proven that. The Travelers have some potential in TVD if they'd stop that really cheesy chanting they do.
And you absolutely need to watch The Originals.
Also, who's idea was it to replace

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Elena with Katherine?

I want to congratulate them on the best idea of a pretty weak season of TVD.

[Alex Matthews]

sorry, I meant "grand master" sarcastically, in the sense that suddenly, out of nowhere, she suddenly seems to know anything and everything she NEEDS to know, aka daylight rings, the right spell for the right occasion, and that her grimoires have JUST the right thing when necessary. She needed more of a learning curve, then say the two or three episodes that seemed to pass, especially given the fact that her Gram died, and she lost the ONE person who could have taught her anything.

[Carey]

Oh right, my bad.

Bonnie has mostly been a plot device throughout the show. She's lost any personality she ever had and has just hung around to be annoying and pull Deus Ex Machina's out of her ass whenever the show is too lazy to come up with something better.

The Originals is much more consistent when it comes to spells and power-levels. The daylight ring spell isn't something well known, weak witches don't try to do powerful spells without something serious to channel power and too much power does do harm to the witch carrying it, unlike Bonnie who seems to be able to have as much power as she wants with no side-effects.

[Brian Melanson]

Well my friends, it's that time of year again and both The Vampire Diaries and the Originals are coming to an end! SO NOW! THEORY TIME!

SPOILER ALERT
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

SPOILER: Click to show

With the Vampire Diaries, the Other Side is currently breaking down and our favorite characters a being SUCKED into this hell dimension! And now it's effecting the Originals now as Mikael is now forcing Davina to help him come back to life. Now in Mystic Falls, The Travelers are looking to undo magic and need Doppelganger blood to do it! So Stefan and Elena are in complete danger as their blood can do a witches magic and turn a Vampire human, but can revert them back to what they were before they became a vampire, dead. So this faces danger for everyone. Poor Bonnie is now facing death once again so she is on the kill list for the season finale. But now the ultimate finale theory...ONE OF THE MAIN THREE COULD DIE! Spoilers are saying there are three deaths in the finale! And my theory is changing from it being Elena to Damon. He could be stuck on the Other Side with Bonnie and fan will finally get Bamon lol! But all in all, the finale is gonna be heartwrenching. THEORY! The Other Side is Destroyed, Mystic Falls is taken over by the Travelers and The Mystic Falls Gang (everyone follow my tumblr mysticfallsgang btw) is forced from their home and are now on the run, there is more depth to what lies beyond the Other Side and we follow a character who died as they explore what lies beyond.

Now Originals. Basically, S**t is gonna hit the fan! I think the person who is gonna take over the Quarter will be Davina and Mikael. He'll be resurrected and take over. Marcel will die (his story is done). The baby will be born a very powerful witch and it lands into a HUGE HUGE HUGE battle. The Original Witches show up, The Original Werewolves show up, and this secret weapon can destroy all Supernatural beings.

On both shows, it's gonna get crazy. So what're your theories, leave them and we can be prepared for this and just sob together. Brian, OUT!

[Carey]

Now that both Vampire Diaries and The Originals are done for the season, here's my quick thoughts on them.

The Vampire Diaries season 5

SPOILER: Click to show

This has easily been TVD's worst season yet. Most of the characters didn't have a coercive arc, particularly Tyler who I cannot figure out why he is still on the show. He does nothing for a few episodes, disappears for long stretches then reappears and does absolutely nothing. He is a complete waste of time, somehow even worse than Matt who has never had anything to do EVER.

I was hoping Bonnie wouldn't appear this season, but she did. I then hoped her arc would be her accepting death and moving on. Instead they spent a whole lot of time on bringing her back in the first half of the season and as soon as they did she stopped appearing regularly only to put her in pretty much the same position as last season.

Then there's the main plot which was a mess, to say the least. We started off with Silas and Tessa who both were extremely underwhelming. Then they quickly died and the show focused on the Augustine arc which included making Damon thirst for vampire blood which was an arc I actually liked. Of course there was a magical cure and soon enough that whole plotline was dropped. And I don't even know what was up with the Travelers. I mean, why did they pick Mystic Falls of all places to make a home in? The place is more dangerous than a warzone. And Markos had to be the most bland villain so far.

And of course the love triangle slogs on even though the producers stated that it was going to end LAST season. It got particularly painful with Elena and Damon and their endless "We're together - no we're toxic for each other - let's sleep together - we're not together - we're together" stuff got real old real quick. The only positive note I can say about that is Stefan didn't really show all that much interest in Elena in the final few episodes.

Which leads me onto the positive things in this season, particularly Caroline and Stefan's relationship with her. She's been one of my favorites ever since she got turned into a vampire and has been one of the few sources of good in a cast made up of mostly sociopaths, serial killers and genocidal maniacs. And her friendship with Stefan has been one of the good and mature relationships in the series. Where their relationship goes in the future has me interested, and that's one of the few things left that I am actually interested in.

Of course, Katherine is a positive. Nina Dobrev can play a manipulative bitch like no other. Her storyline was all over the place like everybody's but she was always fun to watch. I was genuinely surprised by her scenes with Caroline. Those two made a pretty damn good team. And as for her watching her daughter die, one of the most powerful scenes in the series, that even got to me and I'm an emotionless bastard. About Katherine's demise though...fuck you writers.

Bringing back Alaric could be a good idea considering majority of the cast is pretty bad at this point but it cheapens his death scene. I guess we'll see in season 6. Not bringing back Lexi though? Come on, isn't she the one character everyone wants back? While we're on the subject of other characters, am I the only one who thought that new blonde witch was really awesome? I really hope to see her next season. She was a breath of fresh air in a cast that is quickly become stale.

There were probably other positives but I just can't remember. It's been a really forgettable season which is a shame considering how addictive it was just two seasons ago. It was really hurt by the loss of Klaus and Rebekah (Elijah not so much considering how infrequent his appearances were). It doesn't help that the writers were obviously focused on the Originals. It had its ups (Caroline and Katherine) but it also had a lot of downs which was a real shame and it really brought the season. I just hope next season is an improvement with a much more cohesive storyline, though I don't expect season 3 quality any time soon.

The Originals season 1

SPOILER: Click to show

Unlike the Vampire Diaries, this has been a great first season of the Originals. What makes it stand out is the strong main trio are more interesting than the TVD trio. I mean, Klaus, Rebekah and Elijah practically stole season 3 of TVD so its no wonder they were great here.

It did have a bit of a rocky start. The lack of Elijah, a little too much exposition and flimsy excuses as to why Klaus wasn't killing everybody. It was moving very slow and I wasn't sure what the story was meant to be. A few of the characters weren't fleshed out like Davina and Sophie and Camille. The latter surprised me, she became a pretty decent character in later episodes especially around her uncle. Davina never really became much and Sophie remained boring till her death.

I was genuinely surprise was the lack of Rebekah in later episodes. Because I didn't watch the entire second half of the season until it had fully aired, I wasn't aware that Claire Holt had left the series. So I kept waiting for her to re-appear and had just assumed she'd pulled a Tyler and would be back in later episodes. The one silver lining to it was it gave the series an out so they wouldn't have to have a baby around.
Thankfully, most of the other storylines more than made up for the lack of Rebekah. The civil war between all the different factions, the amount of bloodshed, it was a pretty great second half.

I never thought witches in this universe could be so powerful, but this season surprised me. Witches were a joke on TVD but here they do not disappoint at all. While talking about this, the power-levels seem a lot more consistent than they were in TVD. Klaus and Elijah can take down dozens of vampires with ease, the witches seem to be able to take down anyone and the werewolves remain the weakest in the series. And the series doesn't deviate from this (unlike TVD where Damon can take down pretty much anyone)

I could praise this show all day but I'd rather keep it short. I'll just say that it's a hell of a first season, on par with season 3 of Vampire Diaries, maybe even a little better. The majority of the cast is likeable and well written, the storyline was a bit wonky but it worked in the end. I'm excited to see more of Mikael, not sure about Esther just yet. (And was that Finn with her?). Also Klaus and Elijah are probably the best brother-due on TV.

[Matthew James]

So I guess I thought I would leave my opinion of The Vampire Diaries season five.

SPOILER: Click to show

I'm aware this is the unpopular theory but I actually liked Season five over season four, it felt a lot more consistent, but it did have it's weaker moments though, like I mentioned earlier, and like Carey just mentioned, it was frustrating watching Bonnie be at the "center" of the first run of episodes, than they finally bring her back and she vanishes for weeks on ends, does an episode, than does a cameo, than goes missing, wash rinse repeat. How can someone be so "important" yet never actually around.

For those who say the triangle between Stefan/Elena/Damon is still on going, I disagree, I think it's more used as a way to make Damon be concerned for his relationship with Elena, for him to doubt there love. I was slightly upset with the whole "I changed the curse" overplay with the Doppleganger story line which drastically echoed the Sun and Moon curse. Stefan spent much of the later half and end of the first half being pushed closer to Caroline. By the end almost every seen he shares with Elena he mentions her.

The whole build up in "Home" was pretty funny looking back, almost ironically the only two people who aren't put in danger besides Caroline are Matt and Jeremy, how many times have we watched both die over and over again. Now they have the perfect opportunity to kill them and bring them back and they don't.

I did enjoy the episode and did feel it was the highlight of the season, Damon and Elena willing to sacrifice themselves to bring back Stefan, I knew his death wouldn't stick the moment he "died" I was like ah well I guess they'll bring him back at the end of the episode. I'm personally glad to see the other side gone, it had become to much of a pointless plot device, that at first was a light fun way for us to see old characters who were dead, now every week almost someone dies and comes back. So for it to "combust" was pretty good. Now hopefully "death" means something on TVD, when Matt get's his neck snapped we can actually be like oh no, he's dead.

People are saying that Tyler is back as just a werewolf I think he's back as human since he died as one. Maybe now in order to become a Wolf again, he'll need to kill a human, again. I am excited to see Alaric and Enzo both back and part as the main cast. I did love the whole Lostesque ending, with the Fade out to white. I'm excited for next season, I have a feeling Bonn is gone, but I think they will find away to bring back Damon though.

I only watched up until the first Tyler Lockwood episode of the Originals and haven't really had a chance to finish the season, but want to during the summer.

[Carey]

I only watched up until the first Tyler Lockwood episode of the Originals and haven't really had a chance to finish the season, but want to during the summer.

You're really gonna enjoy what's to come. It gets so much better than those early few episodes.

[Matthew James]

After a seven hour Originals marathon this evening, the show has grown on me. I didn't even notice how long I'd spent watching it until I looked over at the clock and saw it was four in the morning.

I think the character's developed nicely after episode eight, I mean Joseph, Claire, and Daniel had like three years so it was easy for them to be there characters, but the rest of the cast felt a little weak at the beginning, I guess they had to become more comfortable with there roles and for the most part they did. After watching so much of the series, I can also see why the Supernatural spin off got turned down, I mean the two would essentially be the same thing.

My only real concern is that for the most part I find all the characters to be very self serving, even as far as episode fifteen I don't really see much of team or group dynamic, they all just ally themselves with the person or people who have the most similar goals. The only real friendships that form that aren't based around lies or deals are the trio of Cami, Davina, and Josh, and perhaps the solidification of the dynamic between Davina and Marcel.

My favorite character is probably Rebekah, I think she's the most "heroic" of the bunch, often putting her own life on the line for that of others. She pretends and act's like this cold and cruel Vampire but usually comes down on the right side of the line, often protecting people who are weaker than she is. When we met her in season three of The Vampire Diaries, she was a lot less than noble and was almost as bad as Klaus was, it's nice to see Matt Donovan's influence still affecting her.

My only real problem is they way they handled Tyler's storyline. It basically just drops out of existence, and if you don't watch The Vampire Diaries you don't know that Klause released him and sent him back to mystic falls. You would assume he was killed in the garden by Tunde, along with anyone else who had the misfortune of being down there.

[Jamison]

The Vampire Diaries season six is starting off strong, if only for the pairing of Bonnie/Damon. I'm sorry, it's the saving grace of the show for me. As for The Originals, I'm really enjoying it. Looks like it'll be a pretty solid season, like the last.

[Matthew James]

So while Marathoning season two of TVD I found a possibly HUGE continuity error. So in season two Elijah compels Katherine to stay in the tomb, after allowing Stephan to leave. Later on in the season after Alaric kills Elijah breaking his compulsion over her and allowing her to leave. the

In season six, Elena has Alaric (now an Original) compel her to forget she loved Damon, when he dies however nothing happens and everyone immediately assumes that because of what happened Elena's memories are lost forever... which they end up being. But history would of showed them that her memories should return not the other way around.

[Darrin McCann]

Nina Dobrev has confirmed she'll be leaving The Vampire Diaries after this current season. Here's the link to the article.

[Brady Brown]

It's going to be interesting to see how the show will continue when she leaves. I was never a huge fan of Elena, but I dislike the love triangle more than I dislike her character, so that's a plus on my end; however, I am a tad sad to see her go. Nina Dobrev had some awesome acting moments, but I wish her luck.

[Alex Matthews]

So, Nina Dobrev is leaving, and in the same article I read, it confirmed that Michael Trevino is also departing at the end of the season.
The show will definately survive without Tyler, his long absences have shown that, and Caroline and he havent been an item in forever so that's no loss. But continuing without it's lead actress? Hmm, many a show has done the same, but my question is who that means the NEW lead female will be? Caroline? She'd be my top choice, since she is my favourite character, and although I'm behind 2 seasons, I have been reading up on what's happening - I'm loving the Staroline relationship, although the whole "humanity off" thing seems to be retreading the same ground Elena went through in S4. Caroline has always been so in touch with her humanity, to see her essentially 'soulless', I'm scared but also intrigued.
However, given the way the credits 'roll' on the show, part of me thinks they simply just remove Nina's name, and continue in their regular order, to avoid having to choose a lead female out of Caroline and Bonnie. I do hope though they bring in some more female blood (maybe promote Liv and Jo to main cast?) the show is incredibly man-heavy (although I wont complain about the view!) so it could use some more girl-power!

[Antwan Eley]

I have to admit that i feel that losing Nina could help the show more then hurt it giving a little more freshness to the whole thing. And it could actually be fun to see Damon without Elena up his ass for a while...or on his lips.. or strapped to his arm or hanging from his neck. It could be interesting for Bonnie to be the lead female but i think that her and Caroline should share it but Bonnie need to actually become a character. I kinda like where she is going haha.

And omg ORIGINALS was killer this week! so much drama and omg i almost cried with the death of one of my favorite peoples but oh well...it was kinda expected. No one rides off into the sunset and live happily every after!