Watch out, World! The TRUE Rippers are coming . . . And BOY, are they HUNGRY!
Have we got a treat for you, this week, Fangbangers! For weeks, my fabulous blogger pal, Amy, over at Imaginary Men, and I have been hard at work watching (and rewatching, and rewatching) countless hours of Vampire Diaries’ footage, with the goal of boiling down for you, our patient viewers, those special scenes that embody the TRUE Spirit of Ripper Stefan . . .
Part I of this series, took us all the way back to 1864, where we witnessed the birth of Stefan and Damon as vampires, in the Season 1 episode “Blood Brothers.”
Awww, look at the Baby Vamps! Aren’t they cute?
Back then, Ripper Stefan was just an infant, nudging and crawling his way toward bloodsucking greatness . . .
In Part II of the series, we returned to present day, and the “Miss Mystic Falls” pageant. There, we watched with horror (and just a little bit of glee) as Ripper Stefan tore into the carotid artery of Amber the Beauty Queen with the skill of a surgeon, and the cold, unfeeling, attitude of a sociopathic serial killer . . .
Part III, drove us back into the past, once again, as Stefan calmly detailed for Elena, how he systematically devoured most of her ancestors, AND learned that love truly CAN conquer all, in “The Dinner Party” . . .
But THIS is what you’ve all been waiting for! The Piece de Resistance of the ENTIRE SERIES . . .
Because when you think about it, all of these individual moments, have really been leading us down one single dark road . . . With every drop of human blood Stefan consumed, he was further cementing his fate.
So, when his path inevitably crossed with a certain blonde-haired Original Vampire, there really was no turning back. Stefan’s Destiny had already been decided. The Ripper had RETURNED, in earnest . . . and the Devil they call Klaus had made it so . . .
So, without further adieu, TV Recappers Anonymous and Imaginary Men proudly present to you . . .
The Vampire Diaries’ Ripper Redux Pt. IV: Rebirth of a Ripper
(We sincerely hope it doesn’t suck!)
P.S. For those of you who have enjoyed this web series (and we hope you have), here’s an opportunity to take part in it, going forward!
As you well know, there are two weeks left between now and TVD’s September 15th premiere. That means that Amy and I have two weeks left to give you more TVD-related content. The problem is we’re not sure what we want to write about, yet!
No, I’m serious, Damon! We’re stuck! But that’s where you come in, dear readers!
Drop by the comment section here, or on Amy’s blog, and tell us what TVD-themed topic you’d like to see us cover, in the next two weeks. If we choose your idea, we will give you full credit for it, of course, as well as the opportunity to insert your two cents directly into the post . . .
Sound good?
Great! Then get those wheels turning, and start coming up with ideas!
Thanks in advance! And, hopefully, we’ll see you next week!
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I love this!!
Also in the “love” column – asking readers for help on next topics! And if they don’t and we end up writing a two-part series about Useless Aunt Jenna – well then they’ll only have themselves to blame ;-00
Now that you mention it, a Useless Aunt Jenna Web Series would actually be pretty darn hilarious. I can just picture it now. It could be titled: R.I.P. Useless Aunt Jenna – Who Will Let the Bad Guys into the Gilbert Household, NOW? (For the record, I am totally counting this as your blog topic idea ;))
Hi Julie!
I haven’t had time to read part IV yet, but I was just thinking – if you should be opposed to the aunt Jenna idea 😉 – you could always do something about recurring love triangles in TVD. All good things come in three, right? So there’s Kat/Elijah/Klaus, Kat/Stefan/Damon, Elena/Stefan/Damon, even Caroline/Tyler/Matt, though that one is probably less of a mirror than the other ones seem to be 😀 Threesome, anyone? 😉
Or else you could try to figure out for me whether or not Kat really loves Damon/Stefan, because she’s spinning my head just like that game where you pull the petals from a flower, going ‘she loves me, she loves me not’ … And then there’s its twin, whether Stefan really loves Kat or not (see also cut scene from the tomb). I think we established Damon loved her, but he got over it LOL (though feel free to do a Damon POV as well, seeing as there can never be enough Damon IMO LOL)!
Hey Valerie! Thanks so much for your awesome post idea! You are absolutely right. Threesomes are awesome . . . in more ways than one (or three, for that matter) ;).
And I agree! A parallel between Kat/ Elijah/ Klaus and Elena/Stefan/ Damon would be extremely interesting to explore! I love the way history always repeats itself on TVD. It makes every scene seem loaded with extra meaning, and deja vu potential. definitely suspect that we will learn a bit more about Kat / Elijah / Klaus, as well as the ORIGINAL Petrova doppelganger’s relationship with the Original Bad Boy Vampire Brothers, in Season 3.
As you’ve probably noticed from my other writings ;), I too have an extreme fascination with Katherine. And I would absolutely love to, one day, do a post about her, her background, and what, in general, makes her tick. I suspect we have yet to scratch the surface of her true feelings for the Salvatore Brothers. But we do get treated to fun little inklings, like that deleted scene you referenced, and Katherine’s decision to save Damon, as well as her “It’s OK to love them both” comment to Elena in the series finale.
Of course, if I do end up writing any sort of threesome-themed post, or Katherine-themed post, you can be sure I will be bugging the heck out of your for suggestions and insights 😉 , all credited, of course. Thanks again for playing, and for sharing your excellent ideas with us! 🙂
Hello ladies! You’ve found a new follower in me when I discovered your oh-so-captivating series through twitter this week! I love your style and was looking for somewhere to delve into the depths of TVD.
I’ve been trying to see into the heads of the costume director for the series to determine how color helps create Elena and Katherine’s characters stand apart from one another. If you’ll notice Katherine is often in green and Elena in purple. When they are presented in a scene that is meant to make note of their similarities…the Miss Mystic Falls float, when Elena is in a Victorian gown, she is in green or in Damon’s hallucination of Elena as Katherine in As I Lay Dying, she’s in a purple gown. How do you think this affects us as viewers in our perception of who we are seeing?
I’m especially interested in this because I am planning to be Katherine (1864) for Halloween and I’m trying to decide on the details.
There may not be as much to discuss but I believe it is still an interesting topic.
Hey Natalie! Thanks so much for stopping by and submitting your great blog post idea! I’m so glad you enjoyed the series. And I definitely look forward to talking TVD with you this season.
Ooh! I love the idea of dressing as Vampire Kat for Halloween. I genuinelyadmire Kat’s present-day style, partly because I don’t think I would ever have the guts (or the long legs) to pull it off. The skinny jeans, the high heels, the curly hair, the fitted jackets, the colorful halter tops, Katherine definitely has a distinct look, that I suspect many TVD fans will be trying to emulate this season. And yet, as you mentioned, even her 1864 style shows hints of her trademark boldness, and sexuality.
You know, I never noticed, the purple / green distinction, before you mentioned it, but I think you definitely have a point about that. Elena, in present day, often dresses in blues, and other cool colors, whereas, Katherine’s signature color in present day, definitely seems to be purple. And I do recall Katherine’s green dress, in the 1864 flashbacks.
Perhaps, the writers choose green and purple for 1864 Katherine’s clothing, to embellish her dreamlike quality. After all, much of Stefan’s and Damon’s adoration of Katherine, I suspect, stemmed from the vivid fantasies she evoked in them, as both a supernatural being, and a sexually adventurous woman, during a time when most women were significantly more buttoned up and less open about their sexuality. I imagine that the brothers also envisioned a sort of vulnerability and purity in her, that wasn’t necessarily there . . . at least not in the way they thought it was. These dreamlike fantastical colors would seem to support the brothers’ skewed view of the kind of person she was. If you notice, the soft, hazy, way in which Katherine is lit, during these flashback scenes, would also seem to bolster this notion of Katherine as the ultimate Salvatore Brother Fantasy.
Then again, I could just be talking out of my ass here. *blushes* I actually know very little about fashion, unfortunately. I wish I knew more. It IS a truly great topic to ponder though! Thanks so much for sharing it with us! You rock! 🙂
Loved the Ripper Redux and this blog in general..the gifs and picture captions have me in stitches. What about a series on caroline ? She’s seriously evolved over the two seasons 🙂
Hey Charlie! Thanks so much for your kind words, and your excellent idea. I’m so glad you enjoyed the series!
Oh, I love Caroline! And you are right. She has definitely come a long way from the shallow insecure girl she was in the pilot. I can definitely envision doing a post about her, sometime in the near future. 🙂 That would be a lot of fun to write!
By the way, if you are a Caroline fan, you will simply ADORE my friend Cherie’s blog, as she is a hardcore Forwood-ite (i.e. the Caroline/Tyler ship). If you haven’t read her already, I highly recommend it. She can be found at this site: http://myspideysenseistingling.wordpress.com
Happy reading! And I definitely look forward to talking TVD with you, this season! 🙂
Stefan is a great vampire but he´s like a recovering addict, when he´s on that drug human blood he becomes a different person. He changed for a reason for himself because he didn´t like the person he becomes. So here´s too Stefan, one of the most brutal, nasty, and oh so chilling vampire that even Katherine would be afraid off.
Well said, East Coast Captain! I love the way you’ve summed up the dichotomy of “Good Brother” Stefan and Ripper Stefan. I think you’ve hit the nail right on the head with the recovering (and now off-the-wagon) drug addict analogy. I suspect many recovering drug addicts and alcoholics experience a similar separation of self, when they are drinking, and suppress a similar amount of self-loathing when they are sober to what we’ve seen with Stefan, over the course of these past two seasons. Nicely done!
Hi Amy and Julie! I have been enjoying this series with insane relish!
I love some of the post ideas people have come up with, and my idea really just expands on them. It would be fantastic if you could identity the defining trait of each character (e.g. Tyler Lockwood’s defining trait to me is control, and whether he has it or not) and the defining theme of the love triangles (e.g. I consider truth/lies/betrayal to be the defining theme of Matt/Caroline/Tyler, from Caroline lying about Mason, to Matt pretending to be compelled by Caroline to Tyler’s hesitation), and really delve into these. I’ve had some ideas of my own floating around for a while, so could definitely add my two cents worth 😉
I also think that costuming and how it affects our perception of characters, especially with changes in typical costuming of a character during a transition or evolution in their arc would be an interesting line of thought to follow. I’d love to see you and Amy deconstruct this in terms of the key characters we love, as well as Elena/Katherine 😉
Interesting . . . I love your idea about choosing a particular buzz word or concept to define a specific TVD character and/or his or her respective relationships. For example Tyler’s would be “control,” as you mentioned.
Stefan’s might be “guilt,” since, when you think about it, everything Stefan has done during these past two seasons, good or bad, has been in a direct reaction to his guilt over actions he has committed back during his early vampire days. Elena’s would probably be “choice” or “free will,” since many of Elena’s conflicts with the Salvatore Brothers’ stem from them trying to make choices on her behalf, or from her status as a Petrova Doppelganger, which, of course, is something she never would have chosen, and cannot control. Damon’s would probably be “humanity,” since Damon’s longing to be human, and his inner struggles with that human part of himself that causes him so much pain and heartache, really characterized a large part of his character arc during Season 2.
Ooh, what about characterizing the TVD characters as each of the Seven Deadly Sins? With each character representing one sin in particular? That could be fun . . . Thanks so much for the great ideas, Cherie. You’re brilliant! 🙂
Hi!
Just had an idea, maybe not that useful but it’s worth sharing!
Perhaps you could do a topic about the Salvatore Brothers! Their history, their ‘now’ and their future. About their differences, but certainly also the similarities that they don’t want to confess! The bond between them, is it now rivalry, an unpleasant, unwelcome brothership or hidden care for each other?
Maybe you’re something with those ideas, don’t know. Wooohooooow tonight’s a new episode of True blood!!:)
x
Hey Beau! Thanks so much for sticking with this blog post series, and for sharing your excellent idea! You know how much Amy and I love us some Salvatore Brothers! (Particularly, when they are shirtless, of course!) And you are right. There are definitely more similarities between the two siblings than either is willing to admit. (I mean, we already know, at the very least, that they share the exact same taste in women.) )
As I mentioned in my old True Blood post, my “Episode 10” TB recap, has been delayed a bit, but is absolutely on its way. I definitely plan to have it up and running later tonight. Sorry, about that! 🙂 Hopefully, you’ll still want to read it, when it comes out later . . . Happy Monday!
Hey Kjewls!
Haven’t had a chance to read four yet, but saw mention of a possible future Katherine-related post. I’m immensely curious about one thing in particular.
I think it was .. Damon? Who once told Elena that in order to be related to Katherine, Katherine would have had to have a baby pre-vampire days. I don’t know if anyone remembers, but in re-watching Season 1 (because I needed something to do to waste time during this horrendously long count down) I realized something that had escaped my mind for a while.
Katherine DID have a child in her human days. She gave birth out of wedlock (which is a story she tells to Elena) ;; A baby girl who ultimately had to be given up. — I would love to know more about this baby. Who she grew into, how -she- might be the beginning of the familial link between Katherine and Elena.
I’ve always wondered exactly how Katherine and Elena are linked and with the the insinuation that Kat would have had to give birth pre-vamp to be related to Elena and the fact that she -did- have a child pre-vamp. It makes the mind tick. At least mine.
I would love to see a post exploring these key points and trying to figure out the exact link between the two. Would Katherine be a grandmother of sorts? What ever happened to her baby girl when she was given up? We know that Klaus killed everyone that she loved but her baby had been given up before that. Which makes me wonder if Klaus didn’t know about the baby.
He couldn’t have, right? Elena is living proof of that. So what happened to that baby? Did she eventually become a vampire too? Or did she live a full-human life and die of old age. Katherine’s history has always intrigued me. So that’s just a little food for thought. As a human – Kat loved her baby. She was heart-broken about having that baby taken from her. There’s also something else to wonder . Who was the father?
So much I would -love- to find out.
Here’s hoping you look into her a bit more and pull out a post about her , within the next two weeks ❤
Thanks so much for the suggestion, Brittany Marie! It seems a lot of people are intrigued by Katherine . . . her past, her loves, her dreams, and what makes her tick. To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure that Katherine and Elena WERE related. I just assumed that the two looked alike, as a result of the curse on Klaus, which, every few centuries or so, presented him with a Petrova Doppelganger, and the potential possibility of breaking said curse. Even if Elena has children, and eventually, ancestors, my assumption was that, now that Klaus has broken the curse, there will never be another Petrova Doppelganger.
And yet, your theory makes sense as well. In fact, if Petrova Doppelgangers DO need to be related somehow to Katherine, that makes Klaus’ murder of her family particularly foolish, considering he ran the risk of slashing the bloodline that could contain the next key to breaking his curse. Then again, this action seems fairly consistent with Klaus’ “take no prisoners” attitude toward things.
I know that we will be meeting the Original Petrova Doppelganger this season, as well as a number of members of Klaus and Elijah’s Original Vamp family. Is it possible that we could meet Katherine’s child too? MAYBE! Either way, it would be interesting to see Katherine’s HUMAN lover, and father of her child. Wouldn’t it be funny if he ended up looking like Stefan or Damon? Does Katherine have a “type” of guy she goes for? Considering that her previous boyfriends (Stefan, Damon, Klaus, Elijah, Mason), aside from being all supernatural and hot, don’t seem to have a single characteristic that defines all of them, I’d be incline to say no. Of course, I could be wrong . . . 😉
Definitely some food for thought! Thanks again for piquing my interest in this topic . . .
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